mmm-yoso – Page 309

The Amazing Graze 2011 Part 2

October 7, 2011 mmm-yoso Exploring San Diego, Jamaican Restaurants, yoso-silly

In part 1, I went over some background info and the rules for "The Graze". Things started heating up pretty quickly. Team 'Q' and Ange went straight for the Blue line along with team XiangJiao and Trang. John decided to go along with XJ and T while I waited with YY and Peter for the Orange line. By this time Peter and Kim had made out their first stop, item # 3 Spam Musubi. The hint for this one was, "who is the father of Geometry?" Well, it's Euclid. And there happens to be an L&L right on Euclid. I was surprised to see XJ and T jump on the trolley after two stops….it turned out that they didn't read the instructions completely and went to Pho Xpress downtown for the Pho. Unfortunately the rules stated that "all of the places listed have to be on either the Orange line East of 25 & Commercial or South of the Barrio Logan stop on the Blue line." so they had wasted a bit of time. As everyone got off at Euclid, I stayed on….well….because I was getting hungry. The clue for item #5 –Braised Oxtails, Beef Pattie, Jerk was a song by the Nguyen Le Trio called "Encanto". Guess what the next stop was?

While I was waiting for my Oxtails from Caribbean Taste, I decided to send a clue out and took this photo and sent it……

About that time, I received a text from Q and Ange, attached was a photo of them eating a fish taco from place #4. The hint for that stop was the song by the GooGoo Dolls…..titled "Iris". It was a hint for the Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos truck. Which happens to be located right across…ready now, the Iris avenue trolley stop.

Meanwhile I notice two individuals running up the parking lot…it's Peter and XiangJiao! They are actually racing to Caribbean Taste. They come running in to take a look at the menu and take a photo, without noticing that I'm sitting at one of the tables! Finally XJ sees me and starts laughing and since Peter is blocking her access to the menus she takes a photo of me as "evidence". Crazy, huh?

It seemed like the teams had a good handle on the location based on the various hints…except for #1, the Pho. The clue I sent out was a sample of Hungry Heart and I was getting worried when I started hearing "Spring Street" and "Spring Valley" mentioned. The objective was a fun and stimulating time and I didn't want to be sending out search parties. Most folks knew that #2 – the Sesos, Buche, Suadero Tacos was Tacos el Gordo, even though my hint, a sample of the 1978 hit "Bluer than Blue" (yes, I actually have that song on my iPod…laugh away my friends, I even have Don't Give up on Us Baby, ok!!!) by Michael Johnson was pretty weak.

So I jumped on the trolley, with take-out orders of food from Caribbean taste (I knew folks would be pretty hungry when they finished) and headed down to the Imperial Transit Center to get on the Blue Line. I was a couple of minutes too late for one of the funniest moments of the graze, when all three teams ran into each other at that very stop!

I headed down to Iris avenue then got back on the Blue line North to where the Pho shop I had in mind was located……..

The song Hungry Heart is by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band! and the place I had in mind was this…..

I'm thinking the grazers were pretty thankful they didn't have to eat here!

I then headed back up the line and went to Crab Hut to get us a table. It was 1325, I had estimated a 4 hour "graze". At 1341 I saw Peter run into the door of Crab Hut….I never knew Pete was so competetive! So the team of Peter/YY/Tammy C took the title, and 90 bucks! At 1357 Xianjiang walked into the restaurant……their downfall was hunger. By the time they hit Tacos el Gordo team XJ and T were so hungry they decided to stop and eat! Right at 1401 Q and Ange came strolling in…..and they had skipped two stops, a penalty of two hours. The reason? Well, they decided it would be fun to eat at each stop and after three stops was too full! They paid for the the mega-beer on the right. It's called a "shipwreck" and at Crab Hut you can request any draft beer to be part of your "wreck", so we had 96 ounces of Ballast Point Yellowtail ale. Man were we good or what? All the teams finished right around the estimated time of 1400, great job!

What I found interesting was that every team went for the extra points at the Lemon Grove stop. Though the photos were kinda interesting, like this one of Peter….that little thing that looks like a peanut in back of his giant cabeza is indeed the Lemon Grove lemon! It was a nice little study in human nature….and I think we got to know each other a little better!

In the end it was a fun time for all…with more stories than there is time, to tell. Now the question is….what's next?

I'm not quite sure, but I'm getting a bit of inspiration from this rendition (of a part of) one of my favorite Jeff Beck songs done by Lee Ritenour and Mike Stern:

Did you guess right? Thanks for coming along!

The Amazing Graze 2011 Part 1

October 6, 2011 mmm-yoso Exploring San Diego, yoso-silly

I've got a great bunch of friends, every once in a while we'd plan some outing or fun event…..always with food in mind. Earlier in the year, PeterL and I started talking about doing something with the trolley. Some in our group had never ridden the trolley and we thought it would be great fun and folks would get to parts of San Diego they usually wouldn't. Still, I couldn't quite figure out how to tie in the food thing. One one weekend, JohnL and I spent a good part of our Saturday riding the trolley and an idea started to form. Why not do something along the lines of a scavenger hunt? Instead of gathering items, folks could gather food? And so the Amazing Graze 2011 was conceptualized and the call went out:

Still, how would we involve food in this? Then it came to me, there are places we've been to, and a few I know of close to trolley stops. We decided that about 2 blocks would be tha max for places. I took John to a few locations, dealt with the "how the heck did you know about this place?" And came up with five sets of food items.

1. Pho

2. Sesos, Buche, Suadero Tacos

3. Spam Musubi

4. Fish & Camaron Tacos

5. Braised Oxtails, Beef Pattie, Jerk

We decided to remove the known and determined that as part of the rules all stops were to be found on either the Orange line East of 25 & Commercial or South of the Barrio Logan stop on the Blue line. Aaah, we had a plan! A week later, I spent an afternoon on the torlley determining a timeframe. We didn't want anyone to die of exhaustion, this had to be fun. And then I came across this as well.

Lemon is food, right? I really wanted to integrate this in the whole thing and our bonus round was born!

We started sending out clues; I sent out 4 music samples, of course no one knew what we had planned so the "grazers" just had to know the songs. Each had something to do with a stop, location, or line. But none of them knew that at the time. I had to think of a location to start and one to end…..I thought America Plaza would be great since it is one of the areas where the Orange and Blue lines cross.

A few folks in the group just aren't human without their Starbucks and there's one of those at that stop.

On the day of the "graze" everyone (minus one, more on that later) met at Starbucks and JohnL handed out his masterpiece:

Boy was I impressed at his work. Within this pamphlet was all the rules and clues of the Amazing Graze. John had integrated the MTS trolley map as well.

The buy in was $10, with the winner getting everything. Loser bought the first round of beer at our final destination. John and I would referee. Using a deck of cards, teams of two were selected. Because there was an odd number, the person who drew the joker could pick which team they wanted to be on. YY picked the joker and selected her team. TammyC was stuck in traffic, there was a terrible accident on the I-15 on that day so she was assigned the last card and ended up with PeterL. YY decided to join PeterL and the absent Tammy's team.

All else can be read…….

We'd even found out how to put the "lemon into play".

Take a photo in front of the lemon and you'd get an hour taken off your total time.

The divisions were interesting, sister against sister, husband against wives, cat-lovers against dog-lovers, peanut butter versus chocolate…… We were good friends all, but as soon as the clock got ticking it was every team for themselves as you can see by the spacing at the trolley stop!

The first problem was buying trolley tickets since a few of these folks had never ridden the trolley before! And then there was TammyC who eventually caught up with her team on the Orange line….once she had gotten off the trolley at a stop, only to see YY and Peter get on the trolley and leave! Actually, I had my money on the team of XiangJiao and Trang……

So using the list of food items above, can you figure out what the places were?

Remember:

All of the places listed can be found on either the Orange line East of 25 & Commercial or South of the Barrio Logan stop on the Blue line.

The list is not in any specific order.

All the places indicated are within 0.2 miles of a MTS trolley stop.

No Rubio's allowed

More to come………

Update: You can read part 2 here.

Xi’an: Our last evening

October 4, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel, Xi'an

It hit me as I was finishing up my Rou Jia Mo. This was our last evening in Xi'an. Our three days here had been packed with activity and it's easy to get into that "ok, what's next, let's get going" mode, but everything must come to an end and we were ready to move on…almost.

The Missus really wanted another (our third) shot at the Guan Tang Baozi from Jia San and knowing we'd probably not be back this way again, who was I to deny Her the pleasure of those wonderful, steaming, soup filled, baozi?

As we headed back to our hotel it started raining pretty hard, like cats and dogs hard. We looked for a place to take a break and noticed this little shop.

So we paused and had a snack….a really cheap snack….a well, not so great version Rou Jia Mo, which was only 1.5 RMB, think 20 cents.

And it tasted every bit like a 20 cent sandwich……..

We managed to make it back to the hotel, dodging raindrops, had a nice shower followed by a short nap. It was still raining pretty hard when we awoke, so we decided to head across the street to this restaurant for a light dinner.

This was a typical hotel restaurant, huge, with few customers. The sign said this place served Hunan food, but we really couldn't find anything that looked promising. The couple of folks in the place were all drinking, so we decided that perhaps a couple of beers would make for a nice getaway night treat. So we ordered some peanuts…..out came a humongous bowl of peanuts, enough to feed five or six people!

Since we needed some beer to go with our peanuts we tried the Hans Red Wolf lager…..I found out it's made by Tsingtao. Just your usual Chinese lager, no big deal.

To go with our mega peanuts we ordered a couple of vegetable dishes, starting with Baihe (lily bulb) and Black Fungus.

This was probably the worst Baihe dish we had on the entire trip, there were a lot of brown spots on the lily bulb and the flavor was a bit off.

The Missus also ordered a mushroom dish…which was also unremarkable…..

So we didn't quite go out with a bang…..

That's ok. There are memories of Xi'an that remain firmly embedded in our minds from the vibrant Muslim Quarter…..

To the amazing Army of Terracotta Warriors.

Which is good for any number of lifetimes in my book…..

Thanks for reading!

Meals by Friends….Gia Cay, Pho Xao Don, Xoi Ga, Thit Bo Ham Kieu Hanoi, and Bun Rieu

October 3, 2011 mmm-yoso Blog

Yes, I know, it's usually "eating with friends" or something close to that. But man, I've had some great meals, fun times, and have gotten to know some really great people. A couple of months back, i had the opportunity to be a guest at another of those amazing meals, and guess what? Lucky me, my friend's mom invited me over again! The Missus had to work, and Peter's brother John couldn't make it….but I sure as heck wasn't going to miss a chance like this one! This time it was more intimate, Peter and his lovely wife Angela, Van, and the wonderful cook that is their mom!

She had mentioning having me sample a few special dishes from her upbringing in Northern Vietnam and I was honored to have been able to…well eat more than my fair share of these wonderful dishes.

The first dish featured pig's feet one of my favorite's and you can follow along as it was put together before my eyes:

Man, don't you just want to jump in? Well, not so soon……

You have to wait for the shredded banana blossom….ok, ready now? Nope, they'll be no jumping the gun on this one.

I've had Gia Cay (Fake Dogmeat Stew) before, but it was never quite as rich and delicious…..the term "stick to your ribs" was made for this dish.

Next up was the flavorful Pho Xao Don or Pan Fried Pho, the rice noodles are combination of crisp and yet chewy…..that wonderful textural contrast that I love. Never had this one before.

The Xoi Ga was wonderful, Sweet-Sticky rice with chicken!

I loved the Thit Bo Ham Kieu Hanoi – Spicy Beef Stew-Hanoi style…..though Peter did catch a bit of heat for purchasing the wrong kind of baguette for dipping, I wasn't complaining.

And while we were working on the two growlers of beer from Ballast Point, even more food started coming out. She even recalled how I enjoyed the silkworms so she made sure to have some on hand….you know, I have the feeling that if it wasn't a weeknight, I'd still be there now! Peter later told me that he didn't ever recall having those dishes before. All I can say is that it was a fantastic and memorable meal and the company made it unforgettable.

Thanks again for an amazing meal!

I know this is rather late, but I also need to mention that our very good FOY (friend of yoso) "Chef" Yummy Yummy invited us over for Bun Rieu night back in July. Unfortunately, while all the other "Grazers" (more on this later) could make it, the Missus and I couldn't. The ever so thoughtful "YY" sent me a text telling me she had saved some Bun rieu for us and the next day I picked up a very neatly packed package with two containers of Bun Rieu and all the fixins'.

She had packed everything down to the limes! It ended up being two meals for us!

The Missus loved it…..which says a lot! And life is so much better with friends who love to eat as much as you do. Right?

Sorry I took so long to post this YY…..thanks again for being so thoughtful!

Sunday Sandwiches: Bao’s Awesome Burgers and Sandwiches

October 2, 2011 mmm-yoso Sandwiches

**** Bao's has closed

The reach of food and travel television is quite long…..shows that glorify eating the equivalent of an aircraft carrier or where the host eats a live Scarabaeus viettei, then sneeringly tells you, "you know, I've eaten bugs all over the world, but this one…..". Though, I have eaten my share of interesting things so I guess I'm just as guilty! Both Primanti Brothers style sandwiches and the burger known as the Jucy Lucy are two of what would be cult/local favorites that have been plastered all over the airwaves. Well, if you want a facsimile of either of these you can just head up to Convoy and The B-Spot, ummm, well it used to be the "B" but now it's Bao's Awesome Burger's and Sandwiches…aka BABS.

Anyway, the first time I dropped by, it was the B-Spot, the next time it was Bao's (more on that at the end).

Food Network was going strong on the television, so it's pretty clear where this shop is getting its inspiration. The young man manning the front counter was very nice and friendly. I'm assuming he's one of the owners. There's a Dietz and Watson placard on the counter and the salesman happened to be there as well, so I'm assuming that's the brand of meat they are carrying. The young man suggested the sandwich they call "The Beast" ($7.99). It was indeed a pretty hefty looking sandwich:

And it is packed with a good amount of mixed meat, but since I usually cut my sandwiches in half I press it down slightly and there was quite a bit of "give" to this one. I did wish that they got better quality plastic cutlery as the first plastic knife bent and snapped in half as I tried to cut the sandwich. The meats were decent quality, they look to have been heated on a flat-top to add charred edges and such. I like the seasoning on the fries, there seems to almost be a mild five-spice flavor to them. The coleslaw was basically flavorless and much too watery.

Still, the amount of food is fairly generous and that young man was very friendly. So while the sandwiches really didn't warrant another visit I thought I'd drop by again.

This time there was a young woman working the front….who, well, was not quite as friendly, nor helpful. I asked her about the chicken wings, she looked at me and said, "it's chicken wings…..you know, chicken wings…." I thought about some snappy response like, "no, I haven't met them….could we be introduced." But I could tell she just wasn't in the mood for dealing with people. Which is unfortunate, because, well….I don't even need to explain that to you. Anyway, I ordered "The Rachel". Which is basically the same sandwich as the Beast, but with pastrami.

This experience was not quite as pleasant as the previous one. And wouldn't you know it, I broke that darned plastic knife while cutting my sandwich in half again. The pastrami was very tough and full of gristle. Several pieces had been burned as well. For some reason the tomatoes tasted a bit weird, but other than being severely under-ripe I couldn't detect anything wrong with them. The bread also seemed a bit stale and I had thoughts about asking the young woman at the counter….but based on the previous attitude and her stare as I walked to the counter to pick up my second flimsy plastic knife I decided to just suck it up and leave the premises ASAP.

Oh, and as you can tell, the sandwich is pretty darn greasy……

I'm not quite sure what's with the Jekyl and Hyde service, but perhaps it was just a bad day.

A few weeks back, I asked an acquaintance from "The Burgh" about BABS Primanti style sandwiches…..he refused to discuss it at length, but did refer me to this post. He also mentioned that the coleslaw at BABS doesn't have enough vinegar in it among other things…..and as a parting shot told me to check out this website as the reason for the sudden name change. I've never had a chance to visit Pittsburgh, so I've not had a Primanti's Brothers sandwich so I can only speak to my own personal preference. Overall, a bit too greasy for my tastes….

Bao's Awesome Burgers and Sandwiches
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

And for those folks who really think this is a huge sandwich….you can travel a bit further East on the 8 and get something that looks like this….

It's not that great either….but it makes what BABS serve look like Lean Cuisine.

Xi’an: The City Walls, Rou Jia Mo, and some other stuff

September 27, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel, Xi'an

Each city that we visited in China had its own personality of sorts, and Xi'an was no different. For instance, being dog lovers, we can't help but notice dogs during our travels. I've even included photos of the various dogs we see in various posts, and China was no different. The Missus had already noticed how many people had dogs for pets in Her hometown of QingDao, a sign of growing wealth and prosperity. Most of the pooches we ran into were small, poodles, schnauzers, terriers, and mixes of all of the above. In Xi'an however, folks seemed to enjoy larger dogs, we even walked past a couple of rottweilers during our stay.

One thing Xi'an had in common with all the other cities we visited in China was that folks didn't pick up after their dogs. Thus, the Missus's Fifth Uncle's advice of usually needing "to look six ways, and listen eight….. but nowadays, you need to look seven! Make sure to look straight down to make sure you don't step in dog poop!" Though i'll say that it's easier to spot poop from a German Shepherd than a Chihuahua!

The Missus decided that the morning would be a great time to visit the Xi'an City Walls. Xi'an is one of the few cities in China where the entire city wall still stands and you can circle the inner portion of Xi'an in a good four hours or so. Four hours! We'd be needing some sustenance. But of course this is China so during the "breakfast rush" doorways and windows that are shuttered are oen for business.

And a doorway becomes another business opportunity……

This guy was frying up Xiar Bing….stuffed flatbread.

Which seemed like just the the thing…….

These were huge, but very greasy and not very pleasant to eat. They were cheap though, if I recall 2 or 3 RMB.

We'd had an early start and the gates to the city wall weren't open yet, so walked over to the park area outside the wall where we'd enjoyed walking the previous evening. The place was buzzing with folks getting there morning exercise, be it jogging, dance, or Tai Chi:

Then it happened….we came across all the exercise equipment…and the Missus just couldn't help it.

Some of it seemed odd, like this thingamajig….I'm guessing it loosens your shoulder?

I was a little slow on the trigger on this one…right before I took a photo of the Missus running on these stumps a line of middle aged women ran over the stumps like a little centipede…giggling like school girls.

The city walls of Xi'an cover a perimeter of 14 kilometers and is 12 meters (about 39 feet or so) high. If you think that's impressive, the original city walls of Chang'an which was what Xi'an was named before the Ming Dynasty covered 83 square kilometers, basically seven times the amount of this wall which was built in 1370. Instead of going into too much detail, I'll just post this photo which you can click on and enlarge.

The morning was overcast and the pollution was bothering me a bit, but walking on the nearly empty city wall in crowded Xi'an (population 8.5 million) seemed very strange…..

The missus still had the adrenaline going and suddenly told me "I'm going for a run!" And took off…..

Since my foot was still screwed up I just waddled along.

In some ways, the views from the gate was more interesting than the gate itself…..

Eventually the Missus had turned around and headed back toward me. As She stopped I could heard a huge amount of noise and chatter coming from below us. I peered over the wall and noticed a large market! I snapped the photo to my right which for some reason is one of my favorites of the trip.

As we hit the halfway point we had gotten hungry, at which all attempts at walking the entire wall were aborted…with no complaints by either of us.

We took a stroll through the Muslim Quarter and headed back to the area around the Bell Tower. The Missus was looking for one of the places recommended to us….I was really looking forward to another Rou Jia Mo and Fan Ji La Zhi Rou Jia Mo (樊记腊汁肉店) came highly recommended. Rou Jia Mo is often called "Chinese Hamburger" in signs around Xi'an. It is a Shaanxi speciality that is often credited to Muslims, but I've read that this style of eating, in a "Mo" (basically a flat bread like a pita) was started by the Han Chinese with pork as the main meat. All the versions I've had so far had lamb and though I adore lamb, some fatty pork sounded quite good.

We found the shop on one of the side streets and though the place really didn't look busy from the outside, there was quite a line inside.

While the Missus waited in line, I managed to snag us a table.

There are several grades of pork used in the sandwich and the Missus selected two, the cheaper version came in at 4 RMB (about 60 cents), the superior version at 5 RMB (70 cents or so). With such prices the customers ranged from guys in suits to students to working stiffs……

The bread wasn't as dense as I expected and was a bit crackly on the exterior. The cheaper one was quite greasy with a good amount of gristle. I was amazed how much grease those simple looking brown paper wraps can absorb! Still it had a very nice pork flavor. The more expensive version was very good….I can only describe the flavor and texture as being between pulled pork and pork confit. It was like the essence of oink cooked in its own fat. But also quite rich and one of these was more than enough to keep me until dinner. Which reminds me, I gotta make pork confit again one of these days when the Missus allows it…..

We really enjoyed our time in Xi'an, but were itching to move on…….

Thanks for reading!

Boys night in: Pan Seared Pork Chops stuffed with Chevre, Olives, and Sun Dried Tomatoes

September 26, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

The Missus has a "girl's night out" tonight and I decided just to stay home with Da' Boyz. I thought it would be a nice evening for some pork chops so I dropped by Seisel's on my way home. Unfortunately, they didn't have any of the Kurobuta Pork Chops I enjoy, so I decided to just get a thick cut pork chop…..the "other white meat" version. I knew this was going to need some help (no time to brine), so I decided to stuff it with what I had on hand. I had some fantastic pork chops stuffed with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes in Crete….it was soooo good. I decided to just go for it.

I won't win any awards for food styling, but this was pretty tasty……

It turned out pretty well…I did the usual sear and finish in the oven, but perhaps a minute or ttwo too long. Still it was tasty. Unlike the really over-stuffed ones (mostly breadcrumbs) you see in the market, these weren't super-stuffed.

About an ounce of Chevre, two-three kalamata olives, one re-hydrated sun dried tomato. As you see in the photo above, it will still ooze. I used a wooden skewer cut at each length to keep things together. Don't forget to remove them after cooking. Cut a pocket into the pork chop (at least 1 inch or more thick) and stuff.

I'm used to searing off beef, so I think I'll go with a lower temp next time, though the crust was very tasty (just sea salt, pepper, and a touch of oregano).

I made the basic mushroom ragout, but used dried thyme and marjoram, making for a more intense flavor (along with more minced onion, garlic, black pepper, and salt) that I needed for a pasta sauce. Instead of butter, I used creme fraiche to thicken the sauce. You can't beat the flavor of porcini mushrooms and an aged parmesan. You know, I just realized how much stuff I have in fridge…..though I used up all the creme fraiche, olives, and my stash of dried porcini to make this.

Not bad for a last minute Monday dinner…….sometimes it's nice eating in…..

Revisiting Villa Manila

September 24, 2011 mmm-yoso Filipino Restaurants

I'm getting this done rather quickly because FOY (friend of yoso) "TammyC" was wondering what we ate.

It had been at least three years since I last visited Villa Manila, and really hadn't posted on the place since October of 2005, so I figured why not. Come to think of it, I hadn't had Filipino food in quite a while. I pretty much knew the dishes I wanted, but there was no way I'd be able to eat all of that wonderful fried food and come out in one piece, so JohnL, PeterL, and Ange were nice enough to accompany me.

The place looks essentially the same as it did a three years ago, though the menu has a couple of new dishes, lunch specials, and so forth. So why don't we get right down to the food and the one item that arrived first and thus nary a remnant of it saw a doggie bag…the Chicharron Bulaklak, deep fried intestines, delicious……

Crisp, with a slight "stickiness" to it, these went down quite easy when dipped into vinegar and garlic.

I've always enjoyed the Nilagang Baka – Beef shank soup. At $17.75 it ain't cheap, but the broth is pretty rich.

There was a good amount of meat under what seemed like half a head of cabbage. What I didn't know is that you get free refills of broth….they refilled this twice and John left with what seemed like an entire container of Nilagang for later on.

One of my favorite dhishes at VM has always been the Bicol Express and was a bit dismayed when I couldn't find it on the menu. But when I asked the gentleman informed me that they still make it. For those uninformed critics of Filipino cuisine (you know who you are) this would be a surprising dish, with origins in Bicolandia, the dish utlizes coconut milk, bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp paste made from krill), and surprisingly for many, chili peppers.

The pork was very tender and the sauce tasted great on rice….of which we had ordered the bagoong rice and garlic rice along with the steamed version (Are you reading this AZ?).

For me, I thought the fried chicken wasn't particularly good.

It was pretty dry and though nicely seasoned, there was no crispness to it. It seemed severely over-cooked.

For me, the meal (the world and my heart literally) stopped at the Crispy Pata.

Man, I love the crisp skin, a couple of bites of the fat and gelatin kind of makes me light-headed. But hey, a pata every couple of years…….that's not bad at all! I was pretty much wiped out after this. I'm not used to eating so much rice anymore either……

Peter and John kept on trucking with the Daing Bangus – fried (yet again)whole boneless milkfish.

And Angela also ordered the eggplant salad…………

The prices at Villa Manila are not cheap, but we ended up payingabout $24 a head, which I don't think was too bad. After all, it was fun ordering a huge spread of food (tons of leaftovers), eating and "talking story"…good friends, good food……good times, always.

Villa Manila
500 East 8th Street
National City, CA 91950

Xi’an: A visit to the Big Goose Pagoda, Hunan food from Friend Restaurant, and a typical evening……

September 22, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Xi'an

After our visit to the Army of Terracotta Warriors and the requisite nap, we awoke refreshed and ready to go again. Well, the Missus was ready to go….my foot was still not in great shape, but I was easily "coaxed" into getting out and about. Also, just as quickly as the rain had arrived, it has melted away during the afternoon and it looked like it had never rained at all! The Missus decided that since we were right at the South gate, we should catch the bus to the Big Goose Pagoda area. It wasn't a very long bus ride……..

The area North of the Pagoda and Da Ci'en temple is very popular, with a huge pool (someone told me 20,000 square meters). I believe this is where the musical fountain show takes place at night….sorry, it's not really our kind of thing. There were a good amount of people milling about, but the square and surrounding gardens is so large it really doesn't seem that bad.

We ended up just walking around the gardens and shopping area. If you take a look at this photo you'll notice a couple of things. First, there's a walkway across the pool. If you're on the North end, it looks like folks are walking through or on the water.

Of course we just had to this, right????? Which we ended up doing with about ten thousand other tourists. Second, if you look at the photo above, you'll notice the air pollution that was creeping in. The somewhat uncomfortable smog made its way back pretty quickly in spite of the rain earlier that day.

During our travels, we'd often come across statues or locations that the Missus instantly knew. Such was the case with this statue. I had no clue, but the Missus instantly told me, "it's Lu Yu….the Sage of Tea." The sage of tea? Yep, that's what She said…… Lu Yu is famous for authoring the first writing solely dedicated to tea, called "The Classic of Tea". He is considered the grand master of the tea ceremony.

My favorite statue was this one…..

It is called "Gongsun Flying sword", and for some reason I was fascinated by it. During the Tang there was a sword dancer in Emporer Xuanzong's court who was the greatest of them all named Gongsun Da Niang. Not much is known about Gongsun Da Niang, other than a mention in a poem by Du Fu of a sword dance by a pupil of Gongsun's, which hinted at her greatness. You gotta love stories like these……

By this time dusk was starting to settle in and we decided to grab something to eat and walk back to our hotel. This was an interesting walk back….the sights, smells, and sounds came at you from everywhere.

We had thoughts of heading back to Jia Shan for even more Guan Tang Baozi (which we did later anyway), but we decided on something a bit different. And how decided was a bit odd…..in what was a somewhat alarming site, we saw a girl of about ten or eleven drop her drawers with the help of her mother and urinate right on the sidewalk….right on the main street in public. Actually it was right in front of this restaurant.

The Missus and I walked along for a bit….but we really felt bad for that restaurant(that really didn't deserve someone walking by and just urinating in front of it) and the Missus said it was a Hunan restaurant…..which grabbed my attention. I mean really, there are very few restaurants that serve "real" Hunan food…and a couple of them are among my favorites. I recall feeling quite proud back in the late '90's taking my Father In Law(who is from Hunan) to Henry's Hunan in San Francisco, only to have the Missus tell me…"this isn't real Hunan food." Boy have I learned a bit since then.

This little Mom and Pop joint that seemed to sell a good amount of beer to wash the spicy food down had all the Hunan standards on the menu.

The stir fried pickled green beans, one of our favorites, stir fried with chilies was quite good.

The green beans were quite good, briney and sour……though this wasn't very spicy at all.

We also ordered the La Rou (waxy meat) Chao, the smoked pork that is a staple in Hunan cuisine in a stir fry.

We both thought the pork was good, smokey, with the right sort of decadent waxiness we enjoy. The dish had the right amount of saltiness, but was again a bit short in heat. We both came to the conclusion that even though the ingredients were right, the spiciness was probably toned down for the Shaanxi palate.

The last dish was something the Missus wanted, a simple soup with greens.

The Missus enjoys the somewhat chlorophyll – medicinal flavors in these type of soups. I've just never developed a taste for them. She finished the whole bowl! Not in the photo was the rice we had with this meal…….we hadn't had rice in about a week.

We rolled on out of the restaurant and headed back to the hotel. As we arrived at the South gate we could hear music playing, with the chatter of voices rising above the music. There was giggling coming from a portion right outside the gate that was cordoned off and covered in tarps. A series of parks line the perimeter right outside the city walls of Xi'an….and there was a whole lotta' socializing going on. In the part that was covered for "privacy" there were folks dancing, some ballroom style, others…well, I'd best call it pseudo-free form I guess.

The Missus really enjoyed this……it's part of the normal routine for folks to go for a walk, socialize, and other activities during the evening. And we were seeing part of the social fabric that holds China together. Though we did notice that it was the young, as in children under twelve and folks before the tail end of Generation X taking part in these activities.

I really enjoyed strolling along….there seemed to be a vibrancy and sense of community that I really didn't feel during the day going on here. Plus, I thought the city walls looked quite pretty during the evening.

Thanks for reading!

Que Huong revisted yet again…….

September 20, 2011 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Que Huong has closed

It had actually been a while since we've been here…… a couple of weeks ago I met PeterL and his lovely wife Ange for dinner at Que Huong. Strangely, Peter nor his brother John had ever heard of this place. We had a fine meal and there was something I noticed that evening at Que Huong. I've been coming here since 2005, when the current owners had just taken over the place. (Geeez….I've been doing this blog for waaay too long!) Because I'll usually visit in flurries, with long gaps between visits, I've started noticing something about Que Huong….a good thing. The place has slowly evolved from mainly a hot pot, drinking place, with karaoke and all that stuff, to a place where folks still come to drink a bit later on in the evening, but with more of a dinner crowd. I've seen birthdays and other events; one of the owners, a burly young man named Jay, told me he's even done a couple of weddings! Good for them. It's nice to see a place hitting its stride…there's no more "specials" haphazardly written on the mirrors.

You just have to take a dish like the Ốc len xào dừa, the snails braised in coconut milk. The presentation of the dish is not much…well, prettier.

It's now a totally different dish. less sweet, a bit more spicy, you're not overwhelmed with too much "coconut water". Because they serve mainly Vietnamese, the cook is not afraid to provide a nice amount of Rau Ram.

Jay told me that they went through several cooks before finding good matches who could make the dishes of the Central Vietnamese Coast the way he and his sister wanted.

On this evening we had both the Jackfruit salad…..

And the version with Wild Boar……

And a dish I used enjoy, but with some hesitation…the Catfish Clay Pot. You see, I love Nuoc Mau, Vietnamese Caramel sauce, one of "mother sauces" of Vietnamese cuisine. It is sweet-salty-savory-pungent….you name it. I also love the slices of pork belly used to line the clay pot and how it basically bubbles with joy as it arrives at your table.

What I didn't enjoy was the muddy flavor of the fish…….but on my last two visits there was nary a hint of muddy flavor. Yes, it's not a huge dish, quite small honestly, but there's a lot of stuff going on here, most of it good.

And of course there are those Fish Sauce Chicken Wings, as I've mentioned before, flavorwise, these are my favorite wings in San Diego hands down.

It doesn't matter who I bring here one taste of the wings and they're sold (right Dennis, Peter, Candice, Josh, etc, etc, etc……). I'm glad these haven't changed.

I guess because the place is tucked away behind Burger King on University, it just kinda slips my mind….it really shouldn't. My bad……..

Que Huong Restaurant
4134 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Postscript: A couple of weeks later, Peter took his brother John, to dinner. I received a text message that evening "Wow, fish sauce chicken wings….delicious!!!" He didn't even need to tell me where he was….