mmm-yoso – Page 324

Sunday Stuffs: Yakyudori in Hillcrest is now Raku, Mrs Rice is now Thai, and other stuff

July 24, 2011 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

Yakyudori in Hillcrest Closed:

FOY (Friend of Yoso) "Yummy Yummy" sent me a text almost two weeks ago telling me that Yakyudori in Hillcrest had closed. About a week later I read the same on SD Urban. Since I was in the area earlier this week….and hey, I must've won the lottery because I scored a parking space right in front of the former Yakyudori. Signage is up for a place called Raku Japanese Tapas:

And no, I don't think this place has anything to do with Aburiya Raku.

3739 6th Ave
San Diego, CA 92103

Mrs Rice is now Dusit Thai Cuisine:

Now when did that happen? I ate at Golden City one week and it's Mrs Rice….I come back the next and it's just what we need in this area…..another Thai Restaurant…of course we can always use a good Thai Restaurant, so we'll see….

5375 Kearney Villa Rd
San Diego, CA 92123

What does this have to do with San Diego (well, kinda)?

I try to catch Ken Kramer's About San Diego on PBS when I remember and have some time. Certain shows have fascinating tidbits….. and at then end of one of his segments he started mentioning famous folks from…..Valley Center. And one of the names he mentioned (nope it wasn't Bill Murray) was Betty Crocker….. well kinda Betty Crocker as the name is a brand name. Agnes White Tizard, a Home Economist who created and tested recipes for the Crosby Washburn Company, and was the voice of Betty Crocker on radio shows starting in 1924. Though we now know Valley Center for Valley View Casino and on this blog, places that Cathy posts about…. I thought it was fascinating to to know that Betty Crocker (kinda-sorta) lived in Valley Center!

And finally…

Do you think Sammy really likes Frosty Paws Bites???

You know….I've been tempted to eat this way on more than one occasion……

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Breakfast at Bay Park Fish Company

July 23, 2011 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch

*** As noted in the comments below Bay Park Fish is no longer serving breakfast.

Recently, when dropping by to pick up some ham hocks at Seisel's I happened to notice a sign in front of Bay Park Fish Company that mentioned breakfast was now being served from 7am to 11 on weekends. A couple of weeks later; the Missus actually got up early enough for us to drive down the hill to have breakfast there. The menu has the standard breakfast fare…the two eggs, meat, potatoes, and toast, but this is Bay Park Fish, right?

The Missus decided to go all out and ordered the Lobster Omelet, at $16, it was the most expensive item on the menu. Seeing that they put cheddar in it….the Missus believes in a light hand when cheesing up shellfish, She ordered it easy on the cheese.

It comes with toast….the Missus ordered wheat, but they gave Her white, and some breakfast potatoes that were on the dry side…. good thing the Missus likes them that way.

There was a decent, but not large amount of what looked like lobster claw meat in the omelet.

The flavor was fine, though what little cheddar they put in there still overpowered the mild lobster flavor. The eggs were nice and fluffy. Personally, not worth $16 in my book.

On the other hand, I thought my smoked fish bagel was worth the six bucks…….

The Missus enjoys the smoked fish from Bay Park, so I shorted myself and saved a couple of slices of the fish for Her. The capers and onions go together well adding some acid, cutting the smokiness of the fish. I wish they'd use better bagels, which were too "bready" for me…….. still, if they'd added some thinly sliced tomatoes (and since I'm making requests perhaps some cucumber?), this would have been a (very) poor man's version of a wonderful smoked sturgeon bagel I had in Boston.

I'm sure if we go to Bay Park Fish for breakfast again; this is what the Missus will order…… And it's good to know that there are some breakfast options in our neck of the woods.

Bay Park Fish Company
4121 Ashton St
San Diego, CA 92110

Breakfast served from 7-11am Saturdays and Sundays only.

Xi’an: Tong Sheng Xiang (同盛祥)

July 20, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel, Xi'an

Our next stop after Nanjing was the city of Xi'an… and boy was I excited! With over 3,000 years of recorded history, along with being the beginning of the Silk Road headed west and of course the Terracotta Army, Xi'an is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. And by coincidence we visited three (along with Nanjing and Beijing) of the four on this trip. Also by coincidence, our visit to Xi'an last year was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road….. this year we visited Istanbul (Constantinople) the western end of the Silk Road! What didn't make me so excited was watching this guy smoking a cigarette on the runway in Xi'an….. guys do love smoking in China.

We caught the bus from the airport to a hotel downtown, then a cab to our hotel, the Ibis Hotel near the South Gate of the city walls. Lucky for us, the Missus's Mother had a classmate who had moved to Xi'an right after college. She provided us with great info and recommendations, and one of them was Ibis Hotel, which was one of the nicer hotels we stayed at all trip….it looked new….

And once past the plumes of cigarette smoke in the lobby, the rooms looked sparkling clean……though it reminded us of a Ikea showroom. The best thing? The price at about $17 a night!

There was even a "portable" police station right outside the hotel!

After dropping off our bags we took off for our lunch destination. Xi'an is known for it's Muslim Quarter and the abundance of lamb and mutton dishes. The first thing I wanted to try was Yang Rou Pao Mo….. and we were given a recommendation of Tong Sheng Xiang. Lao Sun Jia is probably more well known, but we went with the local's recommendation.

The restaurant is easy to find…… we walked (it seemed much longer than we thought) to the mall right across from the Bell Tower, which is strangely trapped on what looks like a traffic island.

What made most of our trips much longer were the underground passages across intersections….. you go down the stairs and end up in "Grand Central" with six or sometimes eight different ways to go! We'd always choose the wrong way and end up directly across the street from our destination. After a couple of tries we managed to end up on the correct side of the street. Like many other places we dined at on our trip, Tong Sheng Xiang was a multi-level restaurant.

You enter on the south end of the building, go up a flight of stairs lined with photos of folks I assume are VIPs until you enter the dining area. It looked pretty fancy for a place selling mutton in broth with unleavened pancakes…..

We ordered a couple of other dishes with the Yang Rou Pao Mo. I really enjoyed the Jellied Mutton:

Like a good head cheese, cut with the Black Vinegar and soy sauce.

The Missus didn't care for the Mung Bean Noodles.

Too much sesame paste for Her.

On this trip, if we saw Baihe (lily bulb) on the menu, we'd order it for sure.

Baihe with Gingko is one of our standard dishes nowadays……

As for the Yang Rou Pao Mo…. if you've never had it before it's quite an interesting dish. First a plate of pretty hefty discs of unleavened bread is placed on the table…..

Along with a large bowl……

Your job is to break the bread up into bite sized pieces….. it was pretty tough going at first since the bread is very dense. How much bread? Well, I guess that depends on your appetite…..I saw a young man break up almost the whole plate! Considering how heavy this stuff was, I could only imagine how that would weigh you down after eating….

Bowls of chili paste, cilantro, and some really yummy pickled garlic is placed on the table….

And my bowl was whisked away…..leaving me wondering what evil deeds were being performed on my pieces of crumbled bread.

The bowl returned….. the bread had been covered with a thick broth, almost like gravy, the scent of mutton so thick I could cut through it. Some fatty slices of mutton, toothsome, but oh so deliciously gamey had been placed on the top.

Can you tell that I really enjoyed this?

Hearty and substantial, this would keep you going for a while after a hard day's ride on the Silk Road. Of course I hadn't travelled to Xi'an on camel, but I could imagine, right?

The Missus got a kick out of what came back after we paid our check. We were given change in what She said was "old style money". Pretty neat, huh? Old currency after eating a rustic meal in a historic city at the end of an ancient trade route……

Sichuan Liang Mian (Sichuan Cold Noodles)

July 19, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Well, I finally went and did it….. I made Sichuan Cold Noodles at home. I'm not quite sure why I never made this at home…..perhaps it's because I love the version at Ba Ren so much, or maybe I could never find noodles that I thought were worthy… or maybe I was just too darned lazy???

I had really never intended to make Sichuan Cold Noodles….. but like all extreme actions, there was a triggering event. In this case it was Santouka's limited time Hiyashi Tan Tan Mian offering back in June. I had read Dennis's wonderful post on it…. the boiled egg looked so lovely that I left my mind open to trying it out. But when I arrived at the Mitsuwa food court and looked at the folks eating the stuff, I changed my mind. I'm not a big fan of Hiyashi Tan Tan Mian, heck, I've rarely found Dan Dan Mian (担担面) that I consider edible. At that instant, I changed my mind and decided to have the Hiyashi Chuka instead…. until I reached the counter and the very perky young lady told me that I should have the Tan Tan Mian…it was only for a few more days…and they "only make 20 bowls a day!" So I relented and ordered it………

And was severely underwhelmed….. as always, I enjoyed the noodles (this was a pretty small serving), but this was pretty bland and had hardly any spice. The egg looked like one-third of an boiled egg, and I actually placed the yolk back in the white since it was on other side of the bowl. And for some reason, paying over nine bucks for this tiny bowl got to me……. The Missus took a bite and told me, "come on…. really? You paid nine bucks for this? Lettuce and a tablespoon of some kinda meat, with some shredded daikon and carrots? You are a sucker….." I guess the ridicule kinda got me wound up as well…… I guess Japanese Tan Tan Mian is just not my thing.

At that moment I decided that I'd go home and make Sichuan Liang Mian. I had a package of Sun Noodle Cold Udon in the fridge…. I like the noodles… I usually through away the other stuff that comes with it. So long you don't over cook it, the noodles have a nice al dente stretch and pull to them.

Sichuan Cold Noodle Sauce:

1 Tb sesame paste (use a pure sesame paste – like the brand I use for my Purple Cabbage slaw)
1 Tb dark soy sauce
1 Tb light soy sauce
2-3 Tb Chinkiang vinegar
1 Tb white sugar
5-6 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp ground Sichuan Peppercorn
1 Tb sesame oil
Multiple heat sources…… I used what I had around the house:

Some red chilies, ground red chilies, sambal olek, and home made chili oil.

Mix it up, and adjust to your taste…..I ended up adding more vinegar and the Missus thought it could use even more. I dumped the sauce on the noodle, added some sliced cucumber, cilantro, and scallions…….

Actually, if you got some ground pork and preserved vegetable, mixed with some chilies, dumped it into a hot wok with peanut oil, then added a couple of splashes of light soy sauce to this you'd probably have a close approximation of Dan Dan Mian.

Anyway, this stuff is easy to make…. I've made it a couple times since. Once we had a nice meal….. I made the Missus some Karei Karaage and had some smoked duck legs I had in the fridge…..

The Missus told me that sometimes it's "fun getting you all riled up….." Well, I guess this time it was pretty tasty as well.

Selcuk: Lunch from the Saturday Market

July 17, 2011 mmm-yoso Selcuk, Travel, Turkey

We returned from Ephesus hot and tired. A quick shower revived us and we decided to grab some lunch. We'd heard that there's a large market held behind the bus station…. and this being Selcuk, nothing is very far away. We decided to do some "self-catering" and check out the market. We were both quite surprised at the size of the market…. starting from the household goods sold on the streets approaching the market…..

To what seemed like acres of cheese, olive, and fruit stands………

We'd noticed children dressed up in all sorts of costumes…. after asking around we were told it was Children's Day.

You not only had piles of fruit and vegetables to keep your attention…….

But had to heed what was above you as well……..

The somewhat elaborate make-up of various booths made me think about the amount of work it took to set-up, then take apart these booths every Saturday.

We'd covered maybe a third of the place before stopping and deciding to start getting stuff for lunch, otherwise we'd be walking around all day. Of course, this was when all the sampling started. Every olive and cheese stand we stopped at gave us samples….we could have filled up just by mooching! We ended up getting three types of cheese, including a really tasty Cecil/Tel Peyniri, basically string cheese.

Most of the places would try to sell us a kilo and we'd have to tell them that we just wanted a "little bit". So they'd give us the smallest amount that would work for them. In the case of olives….. well, we'd be eating the olives for a couple of days. One of the cheese stands told us "no pay, this is my gift to you!" Which was very nice and typical of the folks in Turkey. I ended up insisting on giving him a couple of Lira…..

We purchased a loaf of bread from this little shop……

Man that was a pretty big loaf; we'd also be eating that for a couple of days as well!

We'd decided to head across the street to the park and have our lunch. Along the way we noticed that outside one of the shops there were a group of women working hard making lavas and selling various items. The Missus immediately headed to the shop watching and wandering around, to the amusement of the women.

This seemed to possibly be the equivalent of a bake sale perhaps? Of course, you'd never get anything like this at your typical bake sale here in the US.

And the kicker was that the park had tea service! A young man walked from a nearby kiosk taking orders for tea. A few minutes later you'd have a nice cup of tea for .5 TRY, about 30 cents.

We enjoyed the sunshine and had a little picnic of sorts…. it was a wonderful end to a great day. And of course there was a nap afterwards to top things off.

Nanjing: Another Dinner and what our T-Shirts said

July 16, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Nanjing, Travel

I figure I'd better get going with more China posts before my memory really fades…….

After our visit to the Sun Yat -Sen Mausoleum, we caught the bus back into the city. My foot was feeling pretty good, so we decided to walk up to the major shopping district of Nanjing….which was packed to the gills with people. Out of curiosity we even walked through……

Which was quite interesting…..

We soon tired of the crowds and decided to walk back to our hotel and grab some dinner on the way back. We had passed this restaurant earlier, another multi-leveled place…..fast food on the bottom, casual restaurant second floor, restaurant third floor, and banquet area on top….

The Missus and I decided to stop here and have dinner. The place wasn't very busy, and the service here was pretty good. The menu was fairly vast with some interesting looking dishes on it. Like this one……

Because I'd already had sprinkles on a dish during one of our banquets in Beijing it didn't have quite the same effect on me…. but I still found it a bit odd. I'm waiting for the day I'll open a menu somewhere in the SGV and see a savory dish with sprinkles on it! If you can read Chinese you might find the story of the dish on the menu interesting.

We ended up ordering a whopping five dishes of the menu, which varied in quality and taste.

The worst was the grilled lamb rib which was really dry and tough….and had almost no flavor….

I didn't think much of the classic Nanjing dish, the bean curd soup.

If I recall, the true classic version of this is supposed to have vermicelli in it…this one had bean sprouts. The Missus thought it was tasty though.

The Baihe (Lily Bulb) with Celery was passable. Not as good as other versions, but pleasantly gooey….

Of course after seeing the "Scrolls with Treasures" on the menu, we just had to try it!

This was actually better than it looked. The sprinkles were really just a garnish…. call it parsley on the plate if you will, and really didn't interfere with the flavors of this dish. The sweet soy and peanut oil mixture was very tasty. This was very much like the "seaweed roll" you'd see served in dim sum places.

The best dish of the night by far was the minced duck served with cups made of wheat flour……which looked like wo-wo-tou.

First off the duck had a wonderful flavor, and the sauce, a mild fruity-sweet, along with a nice salty-soy flavor went well with the minced duck. The vegetables added some nice crunch and helped to cleanse the palate a bit. The "cup" were wonderful, mildly grainy, nutty, with a restrained sweetness that just brought everything together for us. This was one of the most memorable dishes of our trip.

After dinner we walked back to our room….pass the now brightly lit "Disco Palace"….

To get some rest…… my foot needed some elevation, and the next day we were headed out to Xi'an, a city that I was really excited about visiting…..

What our t-shirts said:

On my last post on our visit to Nanjing I had a photo of sort of matching t-shirts the Missus and I bought. I was surprised that folks wanted to know what the shirts said:

Mine on the left said, "I don't eat, but I do the dishes". The Missus on the right says, "I eat all the food, but I don't do the dishes."

Oh, and the one we bought for my Mother In Law, who is very frugal (and proud of it…she sent us a photo after we mentioned the shirt in our post) says, "I make money, but never spend it!"

A Lomo Saltado Comparison: Latin Chef, Nazca Grill, and Tropical Star

July 14, 2011 mmm-yoso Latin American Cuisine, Peruvian Restaurants

The classic and for many ubiquitous Peruvian dish Lomo Saltado has a special place in my heart. It was the first “Peruvian” (the reason for the parenthesis later) dish that really drew my attention at El Rocoto Restaurant in Gardena. It made enough of an impression, that I headed off to the library (the internet really wasn’t such a large part of our lives in ’97) to try to find out what Peruvian cuisine was all about. There were many aspects of the dish that really resonated with me; the familiar flavors like soy sauce, cooking style, at heart the dish is a stir fry (saltado = to leap) , and yes, the carbs. Coming from Hawaii, many of my friends still say, “it ain’t lunch unless it has at least two carbs!” So I found the combination of rice and papas fritas (french fries) enchanting…… Over the years I’d come to appreciate the history of the dish, a fusion of the cooking of the Chinese that settled in great numbers in Peru (Lima has the largest Chinatown in South America) Spanish (onions, garlic) and ethnic Peruvian (potatoes). Though most every version nowadays has french fries in it, I’ve read that the dish originally used boiled potatoes…. I’ve got to say that I’d probably prefer fried to boiled.

Anyway, a post comparing the lomo saltado available in San Diego has been a long time coming, so here it is:

Latin Chef ($11):

**** Latin Chef has closed

After a rather lengthy respite, I’ve been going back to Latin Chef quite a bit recently. So of course I was bound to have the lomo saltado again…..

Latin Chef used to have a prominent spot on our rotation, but for some reason we just kinda stopped going.

On my recent visits, it seems like the food had slipped a bit (I’ll go into detail in the future post). The lomo saltado here is still my favorite in San Diego. The meat is the most tender, you can make out the soy, there’s a slight tangy flavor, and the rice had always been cooked well. They seem to be depending a bit much on salt and the mild anise-mint flavor of Huacatay is missing. The papas fritas still have crunch which is a plus, as is the amount of sauce. There just seems to be something missing from this dish recently.

Latin Chef
1142 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

Nazca Grill ($10.95):

**** Nazca Grill has closed

As the food at Latin Chef seems to be slipping, Nazca Grill seems to be slowly getting better:

The beef here is tougher than Latin Chef’s and the main herb for flavoring seems to be cilantro. Not enough salt and lacking any tangy flavor this version still falls short for me.

Nazca Grill
4310 Genesee Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

Tropical Star ($8.50):

Over the years I’ve come to think of Tropical Star as sort of a Latin American mom-and-pop equivalent of those diners that try to make everything. The menu is vast and not everything is really worth a try. Still, in spite of all my visits to Tropical Star, I’ve always stopped short of ordering the lomo saltado…. there was an inner voice that told me not to “go there”. But you know that I couldn’t go all these years without trying it out. So recently, I finally ordered the lomo saltado, which was the cheapest of the three….. and holy-moley, it was also the largest portion…. of grayish looking meat…..

Really tough meat, full gristle, perhaps chuck…. it gives new meaning to “2 buck chuck (steak)”. My feet also started swelling up pretty quickly as I ate this. I stared at the shelves looking for some kind of packaged lomo saltado mix, since there was a powderiness to the dish as well. Funny, as I walked out, I noticed several jars of Aji-no-moto (MSG) right next to the Aji Panca on one of the shelves….. There are several items that Troplical Star does reasonably welland the prices are just as reasonable. I’d pass on the lomo saltado though…..

Tropical Star
6163 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

Typing out this post makes me think we’ll need to be heading back to Peru one of these days……

Weeknight Grilling: Grilled Chicken with Ginger – Scallion Pesto – actually Cold Ginger Chicken Sauce (aka Kwai Fei Chicken Sauce)

July 11, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Here's a quick recipe for grilling on a week night. Hawaii has its own style of Chinese food, dishes like "Cake Noodle", "oyster sauce chicken", and a big favorite "Cold Ginger Chicken", were a big part of my youth. We didn't have much money, so Chinese food was something special. As I grew older, and my income larger, I enjoyed meals from now defunct places like McCully Chop Suey (the first air conditioned Chinese restaurant in Honolulu!), Hee Hing, King Tsin, and our neighborhood Chinese restaurant Kwok's. And for special occasions like weddings, there were places like Oceania, a floating Chinese restaurant…. the first place I ever had duck, there's a really funny story, perhaps someday I'll do a post. Lau Yee Chai is still around…. though we considered it very "high maka maka" (snobby) in those days, I wonder what its like now?

Anyway, waaay back when we first moved to San Diego, I was feeling, well, kinda homesick, in a food related way. Having dinner with a friend, "Howard" who has long moved back to Oahu, he mentioned the Kwai Fei Chicken at a place called Golden City, which was then located on Convoy. I couldn't wait to try it out. Over the years, Golden City has moved, the Kwai Fei Chicken has been decent on most days, and I've even gotten the chance to introduce some of my favorite food bloggers to the dish; which may be off putting to some since it's a cold chicken dish where the chicken is an off white in color….looking very pale, and to some even perhaps close to raw?

At this point, I've pretty much taken more time typing this post than it took to get my hardwood charcoal going in the chimney, so I'll stop with the digression. The point of all this is….

Now the cold ginger chicken I make from a recipe on an old index card is chicken that is blanched in hot water with star anise until barely done, carry-over cooking will finish the job, It is then brushed with sesame oil, cooled and refrigerated overnight… and has been hit and miss for me as well. I'm pretty sure that the Kwai Fei Chicken at Golden City is rubbed with five spice and salt and steamed.

Well, it's a weeknight… and even when it's not, I really don't want to be doing the blanch chicken thing….I believe I'll try the steamed soon. So……. I bought some boneless chicken legs from Marukai. Even though the meat takes a bit of work, removing excess skin, trimming off sinew and fat, etc, etc….. the skin to meat ratio is great. If you're not on a diet. All of this can be done while the charcoal is getting lit….as can making the ginger-scallion mixture, all of which I did by hand. By the time the coals were ready, so was the chicken, which had been rubbed with sea salt, white pepper, and five-spice. Oh, and this was also done:

I didn't even use the food processor. I grated the garlic and ginger, mixed in the scallion and cilantro, added the hot (not smoking) peanut oil. By that time the coals were hot, I poured the coals out, arranged them in the typical two level grilling thingy, placed the grate on the grill to heat. Came back in….by this time the oil had cooled enough to taste…I then added sea salt and white pepper to taste…..with the understanding that the flavors will become stronger over time. I put the entire thing in the the fridge to cool (actually in the freezer for a couple of minutes, then the fridge). You could do the whole sauce thing the day before…..

When the chicken was nearly done, I brushed on a coating of sesame oil……

Not quite a work of art…….but it looked, and tasted quite good.

Cold Ginger Chicken Sauce – makes about a cup plus change
2 cloves garlic finely minced
3-4 Tb ginger finely minced
1/4 cup green onion finely minced
3 Tb cilantro finely minced
1 tsp sesame oil
salt and white pepper to taste
1/2 cup peanut oil

One item on my recipe card that I did not use was MSG. I don't keep any in the house. But just in case your sauce is missing a bit of umami……

Combine first five ingredients
Heat oil until hot, but not smoking
Remove oil from heat source and let sit for 30 seconds
Pour over the ginger mixture
When the mixture is cool enough add salt and pepper to taste
Refrigerate completely before using

Now I know all you folks are really observant…….and will notice that I'm not using a whole "cup plus" of this stuff…especially since the Missus still doesn't eat chicken. Remember that I threatened to use the sauce for Char Siu Lamb Chops on chicken? Well, I bought one of those jumbo packs of chicken and actually marinated some chicken that night.

And made Char Siu Chicken Sandwiches (on yet another weeknight – you gotta love the long days!)….which actually tasted pretty good!

So what does this have to do with the cold ginger chicken sauce? Well, the Missus loves the sauce on rice…. but geeez, rice and a sandwich? Maybe for FOY (friend of yoso) "AZ", but I can't do it. So I grilled some potato slices…..real easy…microwave first, slice, brush with canola oil, salt, and grill. The potatoes are already cooked, and pretty darn hot (be careful handling), so grilling will create a nice crust. And dipped into some of this sauce………. 'nuff said. It had the Missus seal of approval.

Don't let my over-long post scare you….. this is real easy stuff….even on a week night!

COMC: Little Sheep in photos

July 10, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, yoso-silly

A couple of months back, the Missus requested Little Sheep for Her B-Day dinner. I took some photos as always, but never posted them. A couple of days ago, I got an email from one of my favorite FOYs (friends of yoso) who kiddingly dared me to do a hot pot post….. even though I enjoy spicy food on hot days, Sichuan Liang Mian, a good Koi Soi… man, hot pot would be pretty tough, for me. What about you?

Of course I'm expecting a comment from Ed from Yuma telling what he'd go for huo guo anytime, even after walking over cactus and tangling with gila monsters in the 120 degree Arizona heat running backwards uphill both ways….. (just joking Ed!)

Me on the other hand, I'm not so sure….. even though I know folks looove hot pot in Sichuan and other areas of China during summer.

Anyway, here's to hot pot, but maybe not on a week like we just had. I hope you enjoy the photos!

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot & Grill
4718 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

The Missus just peeked over my shoulder and told me, "why are you doing a post on Little Sheep, are you nuts???" He-he-he…maybe a bit crazy from the heat?

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Saturday Stuffs: Luong Hai Ky returns to Convoy and La Playita tries to bring me back from the dead.

July 9, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Mexican Restaurants, Seafood

**** Both of these restaurants are no longer in business

Luong Hai Ky returns to Convoy:

Friend of yoso "Yummy Yummy" told me about this one. Luong Hai Ky has returned to Convoy street in their original location. I guess business just wasn't "phat" enough for Phat Restaurant. It never a good sign when a place goes from menu to buffet…..

Though I don't think the food at LHK ever reached the same heights after the original owner passed away, it still served a decent bowl of egg noodles soup. I had thoughts of dropping by, but it was just too darned hot this past week.

Luong Hai Ky Restaurant
4633 Convoy St Ste 107
San Diego, CA 92111

La Playita tries to bring me back from the dead:

Figuratively of course….. that's the Vuelve a la Vida ("Back to Life" – $13). Man did this hit the spot… and actually brought me back to life, if only for a short while. The version at La Playita is tangy and a bit sweet….I suspect from ketchup, but I'm not complaining, as there's a generous portion of seafood. It could be a bit more "picante", but I usually add a bit of hot sauce to fix that.

You can find Cathy's posts on La Playita here and here.

La Playita Seafood
5185 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

So how'd you deal with this past weeks heat?

Frankie has his own way off letting me know he's hot….. he lies flat on his side on the floor, usually in the middle of the living room with his tongue sticking out…. quite subtle, don't you think?