mmm-yoso – Page 347

Revisits: Pho Sao Bien and Pho Hiep and Grill Linda Vista

September 2, 2009 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

I'm not quite sure what's going on this year. It used to be that we'd have a couple of stray days a year where we wished we had A/C. But this year, it seems like we're having a couple of decades worth of stray days run up together. Not necessarily hot, but kinda sticky too. When I think about it, Hawaii's much worse, but I guess my years on the mainland has made me a wuss…….whatever, I'm just hanging on, stewing in my juices, waiting for the weather to break. Here's a couple of revisits for hump day:

Pho Sao Bien:

I've always enjoyed Pho Sao Bien, for a quick bite. But on my last couple of visits, the food seemed to have slipped a bit. So on a recent visit, I decided to remove that camera from my pocket and document. On my last visit, a couple months back, when the weather was still nice a cool, I ordered some Pho, which was way too salty, with over-cooked noodles. No Pho for us on this visit thanks to the humidity. (I believe that this is where Ed from Yuma comes in telling me how hot it is there….something like "110 degrees in the shade"……)

We started with an old favorite, the Cha Gio($6.25).

The egg rolls at Pho Sao Bin has always been on the pricey side, but were usually very tasty, huge, and made with the right type of wrapper. I dunno what happened, but instead of crisp, these were hard, really hard, and not very pleasant to eat. The filling tasted a bit bland, and the Nuoc Mam Cham tasted watered down.

The Missus wanted something cool and light and ordered the Bun Tom Nuong (Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Shrimp – $6.95):

The Bun was mushy, and like the Cha Gio the Nuoc Mam Cham tasted watered down and weak. There were no herbs, just a chopped lettuce. The shrimp were on the greasy side, gummy, and low on the flavor scale.

I ordered the Com Bi Cha Thit Nuong ($6.95):

This is the combination rice plate with the steamed egg (Cha), shredded pork (Bi), and charbroiled pork (Thit Nuong). And since Pho Sao Bien is of the Pho Hoa Huong family tree, the pork is colored bright red,sort of like tocino. Unfortunately, it was as tough, and hard as tocino. The flavor was very mild as well. The steamed egg was somewhat mushy and tasteless. The Bi was dry, but had a decent flavor, and was the best thing on the plate….other than the rice, which was satisfactorily fragrant.

Overall, a fairly disappointing meal. I hope it was just an off day, but the quality of the ingredients seem to have taken a turn…..

Pho Sao Bien Vietnamese Restaurant
1958 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

Pho Hiep & Grill – Linda Vista:

For some reason, I keep calling this place Pho Hoa Hiep. Old habits die hard I guess. Even though Cathy has done an updated post, I still think when someone mentions Pho Hiep and Grill, they are referring to the Chula Vista location. My bad………

Every so often, I enjoy eating at Pho Hiep just to check out the demographics. Because of the location, tucked away from Linda Vista Road, you would probably have to know it's there….. So over the years it's been interesting to see an almost all Vietnamese clientle, slowly evolve into a nice melting pot. Two years ago I noted a shift in demographics, and on this visit it looks to still be going strong. "Butt crack guys" (you know, plumbers, contruction workers, etc) sitting on one table, a group of Hispanic dudes on another, a Caucasian Family here, a Filipino Family there. It's really nice to see….

Oh, and my combination Com Tam wasn't bad either!

The only weak point was the steamed egg (Cha) which was nice and moist, but very bland. Also, even though the menu said "Com Tam" this was jasmine rice. But like I always said, whenever you get Com Tam Dac Biet, with the variety of items, it's almost impossible to have everything done to perfection. Strangely, I enjoyed the charbroiled chicken the best, though the Missus poached all the shrimp, so I'm guessing it was pretty good as well. This dish is called the Com Tam Hiep, and is fairly pricey at $9.95, but it sure did fill me up.

Pho Hiep & Grill
6947 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

The other evening, the Missus & I had the pleasure of having a wonderful, gut-busting meal with some of my favorite folks. There were lots of laughs and enough food to feed the entire neighborhood….several times over! As if to crown off the evening, here's the sunset from YY & MrQ's backyard:

I'm sure the fires up North have something to do with this, but it sure was beautiful………

Phat Restaurant – Chicken Delight a first look

August 31, 2009 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Phat Restaurant has closed

One evening I was in prowling Convoy looking for a place to eat, when I noticed a new business in the former Luong Hai Ky location, something called Phat Restaurant…… Phat Restaurant? Along with the written Chinese "Fat", it was kinda quaint.

I wasn't sure if I was in the mood for something new this evening, but was sold when I saw the little "Chicken Delight" sign. Now, I was pretty sure that whatever came out of the kitchen here would not resemble Chicken Delight in any way. But I just couldn't get the "don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight" ditty out of my head. Back when Chicken Delight had shops opened in Honolulu, it was considered very expensive for us, so I only had it maybe twice in my entire life. The taste memory has long faded, but that catchy slogan had been retained in my cabeza forever! BTW, did you know that KFC's Extra Crispy was created to combat Chicken Delight? But I digress……

I entered the restaurant, and the interior looks basically the same, and I'm sure folks like Cathy will be glad to know that the fish tank is still in place, and the denizens of the tanks haven't suffered a flush faith possibly worse than death.

The menu was interesting, as all dishes featured chicken, from the variations of chicken soup, appetizers, and rice dishes. There was the now ubiquitous "Mission Statement" spiel of the restaurants disappointment in processed food, and declaring a dedication to organic, free-range, chicken with no Hormones, he-mones, and she-mones, or whatever. One nice thing is the ability to select the type of noodle you'd like for your soup from the six offered. I also noticed that all the dishes were over six bucks, fairly pricey for this type of soup and noodle joints.

I ordered the Chicken soup with dumplings and egg noodles ($6.50). Well, actually I ordered Hu Tieu as my noodle, but I guess something got lost in the translation or perhaps the very nice Server decided to over-rule my decision.

First thing I noticed was the portion size wasn't very "phat", in fact it was quite small. The chicken made to look like Char Siu was very mild, but serviceable. The egg noodles were super hard, and I needed to let them steep in the soup a bit. The soup however, was "fairly phat"(?), full of flavor, with a nice, mild, almost cinnamon/onion, along with a good amount of white pepper taste. The broth had just the tiniest sheen of oil. It was also full of umami, so savory as to be almost sweet, a flavor that almost never occurs naturally. But because I didn't suffer from thirst, nor edema in my fingers or feet, I'll give the broth benefit of the doubt, and just say "man that was (kinda) phat!"

Replacing pork with ground chicken is very difficult, but this was a decent job. The minced water chestnuts added a nice crunch, but the shredded carrots didn't do it for me. The filling was moist and tender, instead of the normal rock hard meatball. Four dumplings total. At $6.50 a bit over-priced in my opinion.

A few nights later, I returned. I had seen something that interested me on the menu; Salt and Pepper Chicken wings ($6.25). Being a certified Salt and Pepper Chicken Wing fanatic, I was curious to see what these would be like.

When the plate hit the table, I cracked up. On one side of the plate were two regular sized wings, on the other side of the plate were 5 little drummettes and wings that looked like they belonged on a phat fat quail perhaps? The wings had been fried without batter, than stir fried with garlic and chilies, in fact these should be called garlic-chili wings. The wings were pretty greasy(so much about the whole healthy mission statement), and the garlic burnt to literally the "bitter end".

Not settling for just appetizers, I asked for a recommendation, and was told to order the Lemongrass Chicken, with a warning that it was "very spicy".

This was pretty much a ho-hum dish, the chicken was undoubtedly free-range as it had a chew to it, something that I don't find unpleasant. It wasn't very spicy, and the flavoring nothing special. The rice, which was "Com Tam" (broken rice) wasn't fragrant at all, and there were a couple of hard bits.

The saving grace of the mediocre meal was the fairly sizeable (for a freebie side dish) bowl of broth, which was again very tasty, of not a bit salty.

I guess the question to be answered would be "chicken phat?" I'm not quite convinced though I'd say to stick with the soups here. The menu is fairly small, and I'm kinda interested in the "curry broth". I'm pretty sure I'll return when things cool down a bit.

Phat Restaurant
4633 Convoy St Ste 107
San Diego, CA 92111

It’s Fry-day: Imperial Fish Market

August 28, 2009 mmm-yoso Cajun, Southern, and Soul Food, Seafood

**** Imperial Fish Market is no longer

Imperial Fish Market is a favorite of a FOY (Friend of Yoso), he swears by the Fried Snapper here. I arrived at the shop located on Euclid just at opening time.

When they say, “you buy – we fry” they’re not kidding! A good variety of fish and other seafood is displayed in a large case.

I placed my order with the older gentleman at the register…. he hollers out the order, one of the young men grabs the fish I ordered and passes to another young man, who asks me “plain or spicy” (need I really say how I ordered it?), dredges the fish in what looks like a cornmeal based breading.

And I go and check out the hot sauce collection…..

And for me to file away that they carry Crystal Hot Sauce and Camellia Beans for future reference. My order was ready with a pretty quick turnaround. As I grabbed my package, the gentleman pointed to the dispensers and told me to, “make sure you get some sauce and ketchup.”

Staring at the package sitting next to me on the drive home, I wondered how our lunch would stand up after the twenty minute or so drive home. Taking the package to the dining table, I opened up the paper bag, and opened up the paper covering our lunch…. and was met with two slices of wheat bread!

Wheat bread? What was this, health food????

Nah…. after pushing aside the bread I saw my Two Piece Fried Red Snapper Basket ($8.99):

The fries were straight from SYSCO-land, not that I expected otherwise. The cornmeal breading held up well from the trip home. It was on the thick side, quite gritty, but still crisp. Even though I ordered the breading spicy, it was quite mild, and needed a good dose of hot sauce. The filet itself was dry, and tasted on the fishy side, not a good sign for a usually mild flavored fish.

I also ordered a two piece basket choosing Sand Dabs as the fish:

I haven’t seen Sand Dabs much in San Diego. The Sand Dabs were much better than the snapper, moist and mildly sweet. Of course we had to contend with bones and such, but this wasn’t bad.

I also got an order of Deep Fried Okra ($3.99):

Like the other items, the breading was very thick and gritty, not necessarily a bad thing, but the okra was underseasoned and the flavor of stale oil was prominent. Not good eats.

Next time I visit Imperial Fish Market, I’ll take a good look at the fish in the case rather than just looking up at the menu and ordering. Lesson learned…..

Imperial Fish Market
494 South Euclid Ave
San Diego, CA 92114

Mariscos Los Koras

August 27, 2009 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Seafood

**** Mariscos Los Koras is now Mariscos Altata

While on one of my "drives" I was headed for the I-805 North onramp on Market Street, when this fairly large shop caught my eye.

Instead of getting directly on the freeway, a drove a bit further and made a u-turn. The place looked promising for a few reasons; first there were five vehicles in the parking lot, which means, in addition to any "prop" cars (the cars of the employees parked out front to make the place look busy), there were at least a few customers. Significant because this was 9am on a Sunday morning. And the Coat of Arms of Nayarit, one of the Coastal States of Mexico that borders the Pacific that is well known for their seafood.

A few days later, the Missus famished, and the heat getting to me (it really doesn't take much for us San Diegans), we made our way down to 43rd and Market.

The interior is packed with tables and chairs, and is very…..green, to reflect the ocean theme I guess. The young man who greeted us at the door with a big smile, wasted no time in getting us some chips.

And a nice, slightly picante, smokey, salsa.

And the inevitable standard of most Mariscos operations, a basket of saltines…….

The chips were a good thing, because it took us quite a while to navigate the menu.

I decided to start with the Aguachile Tostada, which arrived in a few minutes.

This was nice and refreshing, with a good bit of heat to it. The shrimp still retained a nice toothsome, meaty texture, without the gumminess of "over-cooked" (by citrus) camarones. I was surprised at the amount of spice that came off this. The Missus also enjoyed this as well.

The Missus "started" with the Vuelve a la Vida, the mixed seafood coctele:

When the chalice arrived, the first thing we noticed was the lack of any tomato in the cocktail. This was a first for us, as I've always had tomato water/ juice/ clamato in versions of this previously. Maybe uber Food Blogger Masa Assassin can clarify that for us. The liquid was pleasantly citrus-y, with the flavor of seafood in the background. The fruits of the sea residing in this goblet were very fresh. The Missus and I both thought the scallops and shrimp stood out. And I enjoyed the huge freshly shucked oyster. Still, the Missus missed the presence of tomato, which leads me to our next question. The young man brought out a bottle of ketchup with our plates….were we supposed to put that in the coctele? At first I thought they were just using the ketchup bottle for their own sauce, but I squeezed out a bit onto my spoon and tasted it…. it was ketchup.

I also ordered a Marlin Taco:

The taco had been deep fried, a la pescadillos, and reached the table sizzling. The taco had reached a level of sinful greasiness, that would qualify this as a guilty pleasure. The smoked marlin had a nice, not too over-powering flavor. And though this was not on the scale of Mariscos German, it was still good.

In case your thinking that the Missus was done….well She wasn't. She also ordered the Filete Los Koras:

The fish was cooked to perfection, moist without being overcooked. I loved the sauce, a green concoction with a nutty, garlicky flavor. Also of note were the beans, which had a strong smoked flavor that I enjoyed. This was our favorite of the day. The Missus wiped almost everything out, and I finished up the sauce and the beans. We had cleaned everything up, to the amazement of the young man serving us.

As we walked out, we saw three guys destroying a whole grilled fish and fixins' (Sarandeado?)…. I don't think too many folks leave here hungry…..

Mariscos Los Koras
4297 Market St
San Diego, CA 92102

View Larger Map

Cooling off by turning up the heat? More from Sab E Lee

August 24, 2009 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

**** This location of Sab-E-Lee has closed

I've been wondering why I crave spicy foods when the mercury rises…… it's a strange thing. Eating spicy food can make you sweat, which I do more than my share of, inducing the body's cooling mechanisms. Or perhaps it's the endorphins released by capsaicin, creating that "chili -high"…. who knows. I do know that I crave certain spicy dishes when it heats up; Sichuan Hot Pot need not apply, but by all means bring on the Larb! Since Sab E Lee made our rotation, I've pretty much stopped taking photos. Really, how many Sab E Lee posts can one deal with.

However, on some recent visits, I managed to whip out the camera, so here goes. My brow is damp already…

I'm pretty sure regulars readers are just waiting to see a photos of Koi Soi/Koi Nua, the spicy raw beef salad that is probably my favorite dish at Sab E Lee. But I've decided to leave that out of this post….mainly because everyone knows Ilove the stuff, it's become kinda, well, predictable. So predictable that when some FOYs dropped by for some drinks and eats, they brought along… youguessed it Koi Soi from Sab E Lee. And not just one order, but two!

Speaking of predictable, I've long noticed that most of my photos, like this one of the excellent Catfish Larb ($6.95), all look the same. It's the eye from above look….

So here's a better shot, of the savory, salty, citrus-y, Catfish Larb. The flavors are pushed along by the roasted rice powder. There have been times when the catfish was less than stellar, but when it's on, the combination of textures is wonderful.

And of course, I just can't get away from that up from above shot, like in the case of the Bamboo Shoot Salad($6.95):

The savory fish sauce, when combined with the bright citrus flavor and crisp bamboo makes this a refreshing dish. The woodsy and mildly smoky flavor of the bamboo, I believe from the chemical para-cresol adds depth to the dish. When JohnL, a FOY (Friend of Yoso) had dinner with me one evening, he enjoyed this dish so much, went back for more the next day. Unfortunately, it was Monday, and Sab E Lee was closed. He had to wait an entire day for his fix.

I've covered our little dilemma of which beef salad to order before, but we still have the same problem. On some days, it's the Nahm Tok ($6.95):

Yes, yet another "bird's eye view". The Nahm Tok is a nice, savory, mildly sweet beef salad, the heat is slow burning, provided by dried chilies and chili paste. With nutty accents provided by the roasted rice powder. It is more suave and subtle (perhaps not the right term) than the Yum Nua, the Beef Salad ($6.95):

Fresh chilies, onions, and raw garlic give this dish some teeth! As you see, on occasion, the addition of Thai Eggplant adds a mild astringency, though it is nowhere near as bitter as Lao versions of this dish. It is upfront, in your face, and plain delicious.

And of course, you'll need an "eye in the sky" shot, right?

In the end, though my photos may be, as the Missus calls it, "boring and predictable" (I call it consistent), what Sab E Lee puts out on a daily basis is definitely not boring……

Here's a few other photos, just because:

The Salted Fish Fried rice….sooo good, but politically incorrect, don't take it back to the office with you.

Chicken with Spicy Mint Leaves:

Hope everyone had a great Monday….. I gotta go practice some new camera angles!

Sab-E-Lee Restaurant
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

Road Trip: J.Z. Restaurant – San Gabriel (Los Angeles)

August 23, 2009 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Xiao Long Bao

**** JZ Restaurant has closed

On a recent drive up to the San Gabriel Valley, we arrived earlier than expected, and found that our choices for that day weren't open yet. The Missus suggested checking out JZ Restaurant, a place that has seemed to be here forever. The Missus is always pointing out this place, and I guess it's has a bit of an odd attraction for Her.

We had wanted to try this place out on previous visit, but the parking lot very small for a stripmall containing a couple of restaurants, including a Popeyes. On this morning there were a couple of open spaces, though folks were still double parking in front of the bakery.

The interior of the restaurant is clean and screams "I'm a Chinese restaurant"……

The menu was a study in Shanghainese standards. Since this was "breakfast" for us, we ordered two cold dishes, and some Xiao Long Bao.

We started with one of the Missus's favorite dishes, the Smoked Fish ($4.95):

We both thought the flavor was "spot on", the deep sweet-soy flavor was excellent. The texture was not so great as the fish was terribly hard and almost stringy. Good flavor, unpleasant texture.

I ordered the Salt Cured Duck ($4.95):

The Missus couldn't eat this….I think the grey pallor of the salt preserved duck really killed Her appetite. As for the flavor, it tasted a bit "off", with almost a stale refrigerator flavor. It wasn't very salty, and didn't have that wonderful cured flavor that the version at Wok and Noodle had. Come to think of it, the Missus couldn't bring Herself to eat that either……

And of course, to top off our breakfast, we had to try some Xiao Long Bao ($4.95):

The wrappers on these were okay, not too thick, and not too thin, but on the brittle side. There wasn't enough "soup" in the bao, and the overall flavor was less sweet than what I'm used to. Just medciocre overall, but another XLB to add to my collection. BTW, one of these days I'll return to Din Tai Fung to do a post….. I was just a bit underwhelmed by the XLB there.

The women working here were very nice, and came to check on us a couple of times. The place is very clean, and as you can tell, the prices are quite inexpensive! That parking lot can be a horror though.

J.Z. Restaurant
727 E Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Turo Turo Thursday: Manila Fast Food and Desserts redux

August 20, 2009 mmm-yoso Filipino Restaurants, Sisig

Back in 2008, "Maribelle" left a comment on my April 2006 post on Manila Fast Food informing me that this very popular "turo-turo" shop had come under new ownership. I made a note in my black book, and kinda just forgot about the place for a while, Until reading Kirbie Cravings post a couple of months ago. So a few weeks back, finding myself in the area, I found myself back at the strip mall which houses Seafood City.

And I gotta say, the place is as busy as ever. And it seemed that for every Filipino in the place, there was someone of another ethnicity in line.

The tocino and lechon kawale looked good, so I purchased a two item combo with those two pork items.

The Lechon Kawale, the wonderful simmered than fried pork belly dish looked great.

As with Lechon Kawale, whether at Pinoy Fiesta, Tita's, or Point Point Joint timing is important, so I nowadays, I never set my heart on Lechon Kawale when going somewhere. I wait until I arrive, and if the Lechon looks nice and fresh, I'll get it. This looked good, but the skin was too hard and chewy, and the fat was waxy and greasy, instead of silken and gelatinous. The Lechon sauce was fine, but a bit too sweet for my tastes.

The tocino was hard (even for tocino), and pretty bland. Not the best I've had. All in all, not quite as good as I've previously. So of course, I wasn't about to leave it at that, and returned a few weeks later. This time, there was a full complement of dishes available, and I ordered what looked good.

One of the dishes I quickly pointed to was the Kaldereta (basically a spicy stewed goat dish), one of my favorites. As the young lady started scooping up the Kaldereta, the young lady behind her yelled out, "hey, wait…" and looking straight at me said, "that is goat you know." I found the young lady's reluctance to serve me the Kaldereta strange since I made it a point to wear my "Kaldereta gear":

After pointing to my t-shirt, and telling her that I love goat, she added, "hey, you know it's spicy…." I can sort of understand her reluctance, especially since it seems that the customer base is much more diverse now, I'm wondering how many folks have bought the Kaldereta, and once getting a whiff of the branch chain fatty acids produced by the rumen of sheep and lamb, combined with the thymol stored in the fat might have freaked out a bit.

This was very good, the meat was tender and moist, very gamy, mild spice, and well flavored. It was perhaps over stewed as the potatoes had melted away, but that didn't bother me at all.

I always thought the Sisig on my previous visits had a decent sour and spicy flavor, but was always a bit too wet. And indeed it did look a bit wet on the steam table, but I decided to have it anyway.

Wow, this was waaaay to soupy. I did think the flavor was good though, a nice amount of sour and decent spiciness. In my opinion, if you combined the flavor of the Sisig at Manila Fast Food with the texture from Betchays, you'd have some pretty good Sisig on your hands.

And of course, there's still Crispy Pata ($11.99)….. well, maybe next time!

Manila Fast Food and Desserts
8979 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Hao Vi Chinese Restaurant

August 18, 2009 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Hao Vi has closed

If you're like me this is probably the closest you've ever gotten to Hao Vi……

You just kinda zip on by while driving on University, and say to yourself, "one of these days…." Whenever we'd pass by, the Missus would always mumble, "good taste". Which is what "Hao Vi" means. Over the years, there was only one individual I knew who actually ate there. My ears perked up when he mentioned Hao Vi, and when I quizzed him about the place, I was told, "it must be a front…..they had the absolute worst Pho I've ever eaten!" Scratching my head, I said, "isn't the place one of those Chinese-Vietnamese Noodle Shops, that serve Mi?" His reply, "what's mee….hey, there's Pho on the menu, so it must be a Pho shop." Dude needs to stick to writing those "reviews" on the board who we need not name……

And so the place remained on the "one of these days…" list. Until during a conversation with two of my favorite folks, MrQ and his lovely missus YY. MrQ mentioned HaoVi in passing. Which instantly got my attention, I pushed Q and YY for more info, and they filled me in a bit on the place. Which is why I ended up opening that door and entering Hao Vi on a recent weekend morning.

To be perfectly honest, the interior of this place has seen better days, but it looks like they make an effort to keep the place as clean as possible.

The menu is tri-lingual, English, Chinese, and Vietnamese, and Hu Tieu (tapioca or rice noodles) and Mi (egg noodles) appear prominently on the menu.

Without further ado, I'll get to my favorite part of the meal at Hao Vi. Much like Cam Ky, you're served a pork broth as a starter.

Much better then the version at Cam Ky, more "porky" in flavor. You know that there's no way in the world this tastes as good without a little "help" if you know what I mean. But after a sip or two, you really don't care.

On both of my visits the pieces of pork in the soup was soft without being mushy, and hadn't had the flavor cooked out of it.

And this is the free part of the meal.

Like a few other similar restaurants, only bean sprouts and lime garnish the noodle soup dishes.

The weather was unseasonably mild on my first visit, so I decided on the Beef Sate Rice Noodle Soup (Hu Tieu Sate Bo – $5.25):

The portion size was on the smaller side. The sate broth was more like gravy, as it was thick and vicious. In fact, it was just kind of resting on top of the Hu Tieu. When I moved the noodles with my chopsticks it drained to the bottom of the bowl. The flavor was quite strong. When I order Sate Noodle Soup, I'm used to a broth with a couple of tablespoons of sate sauce in it. This tasted like it hadn't been diluted much! It was pretty spicy, and there was the presence of a powerful cinnamon like flavor. It was also quite salty. The beef was tough and forgettable, but the noodles were perfect, chewy, with a nice pull.

It wasn't bad, but the pork broth brought me back a couple of days later. This time I had the Dumpling Egg Noodle Soup ($5.25). Because it was quite hot, I ordered my soup "dry", so a sweet-soy-oyster sauce with bits of ground pork was poured over the noodles.

I gotta say, this dish really didn't do it for me. The hard dumplings had only thin slivers of cardboard like filling, which tasted exactly what it looked like. It was also one bland dish…. except for one thing, MrQ had told me that the Mi always comes out perfect at Hao Vi, and he was right. This was about as good as egg noodles could be prepared, crunchy, but not hard….. just perfect. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about the rest of it.

Actually, this wasn't the way I wanted to leave this post. I fully intended on returning and trying the classic Hu Tieu Nam Vang – Phnom Penh Noodle Soup, but I'm just not feeling up to it right now. Maybe one day soon, so this'll have to do until then.

A few details; street parking only, and cash only, the folks here are quiet, and on the serious side, but nice. The restaurant is not as gritty looking on the inside as it would appear from the exterior.

Hao Vi Chinese Restaurant
4451 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Copan Ruinas, Honduras: Restaurante Las Tejitas

August 17, 2009 mmm-yoso Honduran Food, Honduras, Travel

After lunch at Churrasqueria Mom's on the day of arrival in Copan Ruinas, the Missus decided that She just HAD to see Los Sapos ("The Toads"),an ancient site of rock carvings where women gave birth. Toads were a fertility symbol, and there are supposedly carvings of toads. I say supposedly, because after walking 8 kilometers in the hot mid-day sun, with the locals staring at the crazy tourists who were actually walking the hot, dusty trail of their own free will, uphill to Hacienda San Lucas,and paying admission, when we walked the trail to Los Sapos, the packs of dogs lying around the ruins spooked the Missus. Here's the photo of Los Sapos, you can see a few of the dogs in the right hand side of the photo:

Which meant we turned around and headed back the way we came. Boy did I need a nap in the air conditioned comfort for our room. After a short nap, and about ten liters of water, I awoke feeling much better. Before dinner we headed off to the Museo Regional de Arqueología Maya, located at the West end of Parque Central.

The museum is small, but in our opinion well worth visiting, as it laid a nice foundation for us before our visit to the Ruins.

There are a few very interesting pieces in the museum, of special interest are some of the original altars from the Ruins.

Of particular interest are the beautifully carved " eccentric flints". We were told that the flints were used for ceremonial bloodletting. I readily admit there's a hidden fourteen year old inside of me whose undivided attention can be bought with the simple mention of blood letting and human sacrifice…….

If I recall, admission is $2/US.

Of course all of the bloodletting and altars got me pretty hungry. One thing good about the town of Copan Ruinas is that it is small and easy to get from place to placer. We started walking around looking for something to eat. Places like Comedor Mary are pretty well known in the guidebooks, but we were uninspired by the menu of Hamburguesa and pupusas, and places like Jim's Pizza just would not do. Finally, on the same street as the very popular Carnitas Nia Lola, we saw this doorway.

Among the usual suspects were some interesting dishes that we hadn't seen on any of the other menus in Copan Ruinas. None of the dishes exceeded 100 Lempiras (at the time of our visit it was 18.5 Lempiras to a dollar US).

We walked down the green hallway…..

And stepped into the dining room we surprising a family….. two young woman, a boyfriend, and the girl's mother, watching a soap opera on television. Take my word for it, I can recognize a soap opera in any language instantly. Other than that the dining room was totally empty……

Smiles all around, we were led to our table. And though the bargain basement Christmas garland, and the carved wooden lobsters and crabs (Copan Ruinas is nowhere near the ocean) gave me a slight pause, we both felt that we had made a good choice. We ended up placing our order, to the glee of the older woman, who marched into the kitchen. Suddenly, we could hear the clang of pots and pans, chopping, and a noise of a blender, as if an army of cooks were at work! It was an amazing din! All for us, two customers…..

Being used to how things went by now, we knew that this would take a while, and not in a bad way. To the contrary, we were somewhat comforted that there was a decision, at least in our case, to do it right. If the dish would take an hour to prepare correctly, by God they'd take an hour! All the better to have a beer….

Or two…..

And maybe take the time out to read the label on the various sauces provided.

Luckily, I recalled one of the few words I had learned… "encurtido". And this time, the young lady could understand my mumblings. And soon a huge container of pickled veggies made its way to our table.

Man was this good! This was the best encurtido we had on this trip. The veggies were crisp, with a nice balance of salty, sweet, and sour. Secondly, there was a good variety of peppers, onions, carrots, and even pacaya in the encurtido.

Eventually, our dishes made their way to the table. I had ordered the Carne Mechada.

Along with the routine green salad and the three headed carb attack (papas fritas, tortillas, and rice), the beef was a pretty hefty sized slice of what appeared to be flank steak sauteed in a tangy tomato and oregano based sauce. The beef was on the chewy side, but not unpleasantly so, and this was not short on flavor.

The Missus ordered what turned out to be possibly the best dish of our trip; Pollo en Semilla de Ayote:

It was the sauce that made this a really good dish, a complex combination of nutty, tangy, and herbaceous flavors. It was a simply fricasseed chicken thigh wrapped in a wonderful sauce. I believe that this was what all the commotion in the kitchen was about.

The Missus also wanted to order the Pacaya Capeada, since Pacaya was in season. Pacaya is the male inflorescense of the Chamaedorea tepejilote a species of palm.

Egg battered, and smothered in a tomato based sauce, we've had a similar dish before. This was very much like that dishr. The only difference was that the Pacaya was less bitter, and much more tender. I'm thinking that the version I had in San Diego was made with bottled pacaya.

With homey service, and food well worth the wait, and whether it was the privacy, or whatever, this was the meal we remember the most most on our trip. And there was one more thing we'll remember. You have to understand that in many places in Honduras, the plumbing system is not up to Western standards. That would mean that you don't flush the toilet paper, you discard it in the trash can next to the commode. Unfortunately, the water closet, and it was, a closet that had no ventilation….I don't think I need to say anything more. Plus the, toilet didn't work, so you had to grab a bucket from the sink outside the closet and use gravity. After returning to our table, the Missus said She needed to go to the commode. I tried to convince Her otherwise, but failed. The Missus walked up to the restroom, opened the door, and recoiled as if someone smacked Her. I warned Her……..

Water closet notwithstanding, that Pollo en Semilla de Ayote was a heck of dish!

For those who read this to the end, I thank you for hanging in there!

Road Trip: Hong Kong Fishball House – “Fried Pork Rectum” redux – Rowland Heights

August 15, 2009 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, yoso-silly

I'm always wondering how my tastes have changed over time. And what better way to check than to try something that I've found… ummm….. "undelicious" (is there such a word?). So on one of our trips back to the "old neighborhood" I decided to try a dish I found somewhat "undelicious" back in 2006.

Yes, it was time to return to Hong Kong Fishball House and retaste a dish that I thought was appropriately named; the Fried Pork Rectum. Yes, I know it really is just Deep Fried Pork Intestine which it seems that I've been consuming quite often recently.

Hong Kong Fishball House looks just about the same, same greasy patio furniture, the potted palm looks much taller, and of course prices have gone up. The Fried Pork Rectum has gone up 50 cents to $2.75. I also noticed that the Fried Pork Rectum sign has developed a thicker layer of grease over it.

The Missus placed the order, and while I waited for my rectum (ok, this one is too easy, so I won't add anything to it), She took a stroll.

After a few minutes, my rectum was ready. As before, it was placed in a styrofoam container. While waiting for the Missus, I opened the container and took a whiff!

First off, it didn't smell quite as dank as I recalled. When picking up a piece, I noticed that this was pretty greasy. I popped the sliced piece of intestine into my mouth. I quickly noticed how bland it tasted. The fried slices of intestine needed more salt. The initial mild sweetness was still present, but this was lacking the earthy tones that I've become used to. On the good side, the unpleasant film that often coats your mouth after eating fried intestine was missing. No nasty sour aftertaste as well.

In the end, this was pretty anti-climatic. But it was a nice little study in how my tastes and preferences are constantly changing.

Hong Kong Fishball House
18414 Colima Rd
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

So tell me, how have your tastes changed over the last two years?

Postscript: The redone HK2 Food District has opened. A post is forthcoming……