mmm-yoso – Page 403

Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ

February 11, 2007 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

*** Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ is now Sieu Sieu BBQ. You can find an updated post here.

A few months back I noticed that the little Japanese Restaurant in one of the many strip malls on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard was gone. And a few weeks later, a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant called Maui Maui had taken it’s place.

Yikes, another Hawaiian BBQ? Seems like they’re everywhere nowadays, but this is the first one in this area. So on a recent weekend, I decided to check it out.

I like the interior, very bright and clean. The menu is typical Hawaiian BBQ in nature….BBQ Chicken, BBQ Short Ribs, blah, blah, blah…… a typical L&L knockoff menu, I wish I could get some other plate lunch fare….like Beef Stew, and other stuff, but it looks like these Hawaiian BBQ places all want to serve the exact same food.

Maui Maui does offer Combination Plates, mixing items like Lau Lau, Kalua Pork, and Seafood, with BBQ Beef, Chicken, Short Ribs, or Chicken Katsu.

So I decided to try the Lau Lau and BBQ Chicken combination($7.95):

The plate came with the typical 2 scoops rice, 1 scoop macaroni salad, 1 small piece BBQ chicken thigh, and a Lau Lau. The mac salad was not bad…good ratio of mayo to macaroni, perhaps just a bit short on salt.

The chicken was well marinated in a sauce with a higher soy sauce to sugar ratio, almost like what my Mom made, and thus was more on the salty side. The thigh had good flavor, but was on the dry side.

The Lau Lau was interesting, it was served super piping hot, which was a good start, but the luau leaf wrapping was very mild, and didn’t have the nice smoky-rich-green flavor I enjoy. As I tore the Lau Lau open I made one observation that I expected, and one that I did not….

First off, having had my share of Lau Lau on the mainland, I pretty much knew that there wasn’t going to be any salted fish in the Lau Lau, and expected that. But I quickly noticed that there wasn’t even a piece of fatty pork in the Lau Lau, this really made the Lau Lau fall short in flavor, and made it kind of dry. It was probably the healthiest Lau Lau I’ve ever had, in relative terms of course….. But still, even though I thought this was a bit over-priced, it was not bad.

So you know what that means right? Another visit! One this visit, I decided just to grab a "Mini" Chicken Katsu($4.75), all rice(that means another scoop of rice, to replace the mac salad). I got home and opened the styrofoam container up:

Where’s the Katsu sauce? Oh well, I had a bottle in the frig, and it’s usually much better than the really bad, runny, sweet-sour stuff that most of these Hawaiian BBQ places serve. The Katsu was barely okay, dry, and the breading on the soggy side……

Since my first lunch was decent, not really good, but okay, I thought I’d give Maui Maui one more visit, and get…..what else? A Loco Moco, one of my favorites. I suddenly realized that the last Loco Moco I had was on Maui…….. I ordered a "Mini" Loco Moco($4.95). So check out this "loco" and tell me what’s wrong with it?

Yep, it’s pretty obvious…WHERE’S MY GRAVY? Talk about a gravy malfunction…….sigh! After the Katsu Sauce malfunction on my previous visit, I shoulda known to check my food before I left…. Bummer! The mac salad was also pretty bad on this visit…really runny, and the macaroni was mushy. The patty as I expected was preformed, though the egg was okay….I ate 2 bites, and gave the rest to Da’ Boyz.

Man talk about disappointing. Just in case Maui Maui served some kinda really weird Loco Moco(it would still be heresy!), I checked out the take out menu:

It does say "brown gravy" right? And notice the "salted butterfish" under Lau Lau(it’s "Ti" leaves, not "Tea" leaves, BTW)? Hmmmmm….. I thought about taking it back, but I wasn’t going to drive all the way back to Maui Maui, I tried calling but no one picked up…..

Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

San Diego Tet Festival 2007

February 9, 2007 mmm-yoso Festivals & Events, Vietnamese Restaurants

Yes, it’s that time again…time for the San Diego Festival. Just as last year, it’s being held at Qualcomm Stadium. I usually feel really bad after doing festival posts, since most of them have come and gone by the time I do my post, and I always receive email and comments from people who wanted to attend….. So this year, I made sure to drop by on my way home from work, on the first day of the festival, which is today!

I arrived at a bit after 3pm, and found that admission had gone up to $5 this year. One thing that admission brings is a more efficient and clean festival, plus parking is not a problem.

Many of the booths, and displays were still being set-up, and the crowds had not yet arrived when I entered.

As with last year, the "heart" of the festival is the "Cultural Village":

And all of the community information, vendors, and rides:

So there you go…..

Oh wait, what about the food you ask? Well, just as last year, food booths line one entire end of the festival grounds:

I do think that there’s better variety of food this year…more than just the Fried(Cha Gio – Eggrolls) and skewered meat that was everywhere last year.

Like this:

As I passed this booth, I saw a pretty nice looking bowl of soup, so I walked on over. One really great thing about arriving early, before the crowds is that you can always strike up a conversation. So, this is a "famous" pork soup from a specific town called Trang Bang. Nice pork belly, there was some meat on the pork hock, the noodles were not very good, chopped into small pieces and mushy…but who really cares. It’s good festival food. The broth was decent, with lot’s of herbs and green onions, and I was glad to have the little container fish sauce and lime. It cost me $5.

After polishing off my soup I walked over to this booth and was looking over the food and menu.

A lady standing in front of the booth started talking to me about the food. So I asked Her if she was working here, her answer, "no, but I enjoyed the food from here…." So I decided to order the Beef Papaya Salad.

Topped off with Sriracha, this was pretty good. Nice and refreshing.

The thinly grated crunchy papaya was topped with lemongrass flavored fried meat and thinly sliced beef liver, not my favorite thing in the world, but it tasted fine in this salad.

Of course you need the ubiquitous fried item, in this case some Cha Gio(Egg Rolls – $2), which I got from this booth.

These were pretty large, and filled me up.

Completely stuffed, I made my second pass, and bought some food for the Missus.

From this booth I picked up a Papaya Salad($4).

The Missus enjoyed this.

And from this booth:

Some Spring Rolls.

And Egg Rolls:

There are just too many food booths, you can’t possibly try everything.

And in case you’re not in the mood for Asian food, there is the ubiquitous Funnel Cakes and….other stuff. Overall, it is festival food, I think the food is better than last year, though it could be because I arrived before the crowds. Still, I enjoyed myself, and the very friendly people manning the booths.

The San Diego Tet Festival is presented by the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance of San Diego. And in case you can’t make it this evening, the festival runs through Sunday.

San Diego Tet Festival at Qualcomm Stadium.

Friday, February 9th : 2:00pm to 10:00pm
Saturday, February 10th : 9:00am to 10:00pm
Sunday, February 11th: 9:00am to 8:00pm

There are a variety of programs and other entertainment, the schedule can be found here.

Road Trip: Santouka Ramen – Torrance(LA)

February 7, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Ramen, Road Trip

One of my favorite stops when I’m in the South Bay area, is the Mitsuwa Marketplace Food Court. And of course Santouka, for ramen:

This isn’t the new and sexy Centinela location, covered in this minimalist masterpiece of a post by Daily Gluttony, and in Grand Opening detail by Miss Oishii eats. But the tried and true Torrance location. All food is served in real plates, bowls, and the like; this is probably why I wasn’t too blown away when Kayaba opened in the San Diego Mitsuwa Marketplace….I just consider this serving method the norm.

Most menu items revolve around the 3 basic types of broth at Santouka; Shio(salt), Shoyu(Soy Sauce), or Miso. I’m not a big fan of the Miso broth at Santouka, there’s so much going on, that the broth really just loses all of it’s personality, though I’ve heard the Spicy Miso Ramen is pretty good. My pick for this evening Shoyu Ramen with extra Chashu($8.49):

And as much as I enjoy the nice milky-smooth "porky" tonkotsu style broth(in contrast to the rich, high oil – in a good way broth at Daikokuya), and the decent Chashu. For me, I really enjoy the noodles at Santouka. The noodles have a nice chew, and a bit of "springy-ness", for lack of a better term. The Missus, having forgotten how good a decent bowl of ramen is, sipped at my soup, and went, "mmmmm!" I don’t think I need to add anything more…..

Some notes; Santouka gets quite busy, and does not do take-out. The are a number of combinations, and side orders available, such as having a plate of Chashu on the side. Another favorite is the Ikura-Gohan(Salmon Roe on Rice).

Santouka Torrance
21515 Western Ave.(In the Mitsuwa Marketplace Food Court)
Torrance,CA 90501

Open Daily 11:00am-7:30pm

Is it too much to ask for a Santouka location in San Diego???

Arirang House

February 5, 2007 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

*** Arirang House has been replaced by Honey Pig, you read a post here.

I had eaten at Arirang twice several years ago, and really didn't think much of the food, it seemed fairly mediocre, though the service was always nice and friendly. So what brought me back to Arirang House all these years later? Well, a few things, first off there were a few comments on another post asking about Arirang, by Jenne and clayfu, another was that a friend of mine mentioned that Arirang was under new ownership, and the final straw was when Sam's(as in Sammy's Sushi) roommate mentioned that they serve some decent Heuk Yum So(or is it Hook Yum So? Maybe Hukyumsoo? I've seen it spelled a bunch of different ways). Black Goat? We are so there!

And yep, there it was, the "Grand Opening Sign"…funny thing is, we've been coming to Jamillah Garden and Tajima next door, and never really noticed the sign! Shows you how observant I am….

On the first evening we visited, over half the tables were occupied, and the place seemed fairly busy. Checking out the tables we saw some type of BBQ and at least one "bowl" of Kimchee Chigae(Spicy Kimchi soup) on each one.

The Servers, two very friendly and helpful ladies showed us to our table and answered any questions we had about the menu…which were many! After a while we managed to determine what we wanted, and placed our order. At which time I noticed the chopsticks on the table:

I don't know if this means anything…I just thought it was kind of interesting. Soon enough, the panchan arrived, you can check out all of the panchan on this post. But in case you need just one more photo of the panchan……

The panchan wasn't outstanding, but the portion size was generous, and everything had a good amount of flavor.

The Missus started with the Dolsot Bibimbap($9.95):

A large stone bowl(Dolsot) full of rice various vegetables, some well flavor Bulgogi, and topped with the ubiquitous fried egg. This was quite good, and tasted even better as the rice crust formed along the sides of the bowl. The Missus ended up eating most of this with a minimum of Gochujang, She really enjoyed it, saying that this was the best flavored Dolsot Bibimbap She's had in a while.

I ordered something I've never had before Chunchaon Dak Galbi($13.95). I'm guessing this is Dak Galbi (Chicken) prepared in the manner of Chuncheon?

This resembled and tasted like a mildly marinated, slightly spicy, homestyle stir fried dark meat chicken and vegetables dish. The chicken was on the dry side, and the flavor lacked depth. Edible, but not great.

Of course we got the Hukyumsoo Jungol(Goat Stew – $15.95), when the Missus ordered this, the Lady smiled and said "ooh, that is so very healthy":

A large stone bowl arrived with a generous amount of tasty goat meat, green vegetables, onions, and other goodies. Along with the garnishes, this was very delici-yoso!!! It is now our favorite version of this in San Diego. This is also much more inexpensive than other restaurants. We managed to take a good amount of food home.

As the Server helped us pack our food, She turned to the Missus and said, "oooh, this is so healthy, it will make you strong, it is good for women!" I think we got the point. It is not only very tasty, but it will "make you strong……."

As we were leaving we noticed 2 Korean business men in suits working on a large hotpot, with plates of various meats…they were really going at it. We asked and were told it was "Budae Chigae", that spicy hotpot with Spam, Hotdogs, and other meats. Ah yes, the infamous Budae Chigae, otherwise known as "Army Base Stew". We were told that it's one of the "specials" that is not on the menu.

A few days later we returned, and again had the large variety of panchan(always 8), and ordered a few things……

We started with the Haemul Pajun(Seafood Pancake – $10.95):

Other than squid, there wasn't much seafood on this pancake, though we enjoyed the way it was cooked; nice and crisp around the edges. Again, very much a homestyle type of dish…..

I had a case of major vapor lock and again ordered a chicken dish, the Dak Bukum ($11.95):

I dunno, but this tasted almost the same as the previous chicken dish I ordered…except the vegetables were different…kind of low on the flavor scale, chicken kind of dry….but to be perfectly honest, it tasted really good the next day.

The Missus wanted something hearty so she ordered the Sullung Tang(Suhllun Tang – $8.95), the milky "bone soup":

The Missus loves the smooth, rich, and velvety bone soup, and enjoyed this version. The only complaint was that only regular table salt was available, and not sea salt.

The addition of Yam Noodles was a bonus that the Missus enjoyed as well.

For some reason we found ourselves at Arirang House during a recent evening…and we were greeted with "hello, nice to see you again….." I guess we've been coming here waaay too often!

On this visit, the Missus gave me the directive, "no chicken, Ohhh-kay?" So following the directive I decided to order the Bulgogi($15.95):

This was the largest portion of Bulgogi that I can remember having in San Diego…we couldn't finish it, and were full before getting to the other dishes we ordered. Flavor-wise it was good, a nice balanced salty-sweet. The meat wasn't of the highest quality, and there were some tough and rubbery bits, but man that was alot of meat, and much cheaper than most other Korean BBQ places.

I finally got around to ordering the Kimchi Chigae($8.95) that I saw on every table:

Now I've had spicy, but this version of Kimchi Chigae was pretty darn spicy, and the next day it was even hotter! I thought that the heat overwhelmed everything, and couldn't even get a hint of the savory flavor from using "older" kimchi that sometimes accompanies the dish, nor any faint sweetness, that is sometimes found. It was fine, but lacked depth.

The Altang($12.95), in this case it was code roe and "seafood" soup:

In this dish, I've finally met my match…the broth was very spicy, and had some nice "oceany" flavor. But the cod-roe was seriously dry and rubbery, and had a strong "liver" flavor that I didn't enjoy.

The little baby octopus was very tough, as was the one mussel in the soup. I think I'll cross this dish off my list of "to try" items.

On all of our visits the service was very nice, in a nurturing, motherly sort of way. It seemed like extra care and attention was taken with us since we aren't Korean. I don't know if I'll try the Lunch Buffet ($7.95), but these folks are very nice, and the prices are very reasonable. We'll be coming back for the Goat Stew, the Missus likes the Dolsot Bibimbap here, as well as the Bone Soup…and who knows, maybe I can convince the Missus to try the Budae Chigae, and the food seems to be a good homestyle in nature. As for BBQ, Arirang House is on that second tier of Korean BBQ's, but the portion sizes are quite generous.

Arirang House Restaurant
4681 Convoy St Ste B
San Diego, CA 92111

(858) 277-8625

Guess the Restaurant from the Panchan – It’s Arirang House!

February 1, 2007 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

*** Arirang House has closed and been replaced by Honey Pig.

Update: OK – I guess this was harder than I thought! The restaurant is Arirang House:

Has this ever happened to you? You walk into a restaurant, and several people greet you, and say hello, and suddenly you realize…"man, I've coming here waaaay too much over the last several weeks". For someone who has terminal "food-photo-itis" the evidence is quite obvious, it's all in the photos…..all 30 of them!

While getting ready to do a post on a Korean Restaurant, I suddenly realized that I've got like 30 photos. There's no way I'm going to do a post with 30 photos…… So what to do with all these photos? I could do a multi-part post…nah! I haven't done a contest in a while, so let's do a really easy one.

Since I have soooo many photos of just panchan from this one restaurant, let's see if you can guess which Korean Restaurant this is, just from panchan photos. I think it's really easy. As with previous guess the "blank" contests I've had, the rules are simple. So here we go, I'll post a few photos. Email me the name of the restaurant, and I'll Email the first 7 correct answers get a free cup of Peet's. With our recent cold and wet weather, doesn't a cup of Peet's sound good? Remember Email me your guess. 1 correct guess per IP address. Make sure it's a valid Email address.

So let's get started.

First off there's a good variety of panchan, and the portion sizes are quite generous.

And though none of it is particularly mind-blowing, some of it is well made.

The variety may not be particularly inspiring…but did I mention the portion sizes?

The service has always been nice and friendly as well.

Just how much panchan can one couple eat?

Waay too much, I guess……

Here's a last hint…for some it may give it away, for others it may be a "red herring"…..

These were the chopsticks on the table…so I don't know if it was because they bought it cheap, or if there is an affiliation. Here's the other side of the chopsticks:

Oh and no one guessed right….because I feel so bad, I'll send everyone who played a Peet's cup…even you Clayfu!

I'll do a post on the food (other than the panchan) on Sunday so stay tuned!

Road Trip: Viendong Restaurant – Garden Grove(OC)

January 30, 2007 mmm-yoso Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Vien Dong has closed

The day after our aborted vacation, we decided to take a drive up to Garden Grove and check out a restaurant that was included on a list that the ever knowledgeable Wandering Chopsticks so very kindly provided for us. The name of the restaurant is Viendong, and is located on busy Brookhurst street.

The restaurant was fairly large, very bright, clean and roomy. With many large parties having a late lunch.

The menu was full of various dishes that I longed to try, from the Goi Mit(Jack fruit salad) to the Bun Bung.

We ordered some hot tea while we tried to decided what to order…now this is what I call a teapot!

We started with the Banh Tom($5.50):

We ordered this mainly because it was on almost every table…plus it looked really good. Some quick research showed that Banh Tom is "Deep Fried Sweet Potato and Shrimp Patties". Strips of sweet potato(think sweet potato fries) and shrimp are deep fried in a lacquer like batter, and served up with Nuoc Mam Cham and a generous amount of Lettuce, Mint, and Cilantro. We noticed that there were two different "schools" of eating; one set placed everything in a bowl, and ate the Banh Tom out of the bowl, another group did the "wrap" thing…so we tried a little of each. We found that the sweet potato had a very nice and delicate sweet flavor, so delicate, that it was lost when mixed or wrapped with herbs and dipped into the Nuoc Mam…though the textures were interesting. So we kinda just ate them like fries…..

The shrimp had a good crunch and flavor, though there really weren't many of them in the dish. the portion size was quite substantial…and the leftovers were still pretty good!

The Missus went according to character and ordered the Bun Rieu($4.95):

This was a nice looking bowl of Bun Rieu. The first thing we noticed was that the instead of a Crab/Shrimp "cake", the crab and shrimp were scattered about the soup. The Missus prefers the condensed flavor of a cake. The broth was very balanced, though quite mild in flavor, and needed the addition of lime and shrimp paste to bring it up. Not a bad bowl, but lacking in the depth of flavor that the Missus desired.

I ordered something I don't ever remember seeing before, Bun Gia Cay (Northern style Pig's Feet Stew – $5.50):

You can tell can't you? Man this was delici-yoso!!! Thick and rich, full of flavor, such a hearty stew. There was a generous amount of Pork Hock, and a plate of "Bun" (Vermicelli) was provided, along with a bowl on the side.

There was a mild curry flavor, and well…..it was just plain good stuff! I'll leave to someone else to describe. Let me just say, it made my day!

The service at Viendong was very good, friendly and helpful. I'm hoping to try some other items on the menu soon.

Thanks for the recommendation WC!

Viendong Restaurant
14271 Brookhurst St
Garden Grove, CA 92843

(714) 531-8253

Vacation Interruptus, Sushi, and some other updates

January 28, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, Travel, yoso-silly

“ok Kirk give it up.. you’re not going to Washington” – from Andy The ABC.

I had to chuckle when I read that comment on my impending vacation post. Little did I know how close to the truth Andy was…so he can either see into the future, or he put some double voodoo hex on us.

To give just a summary of events:

First off our cab was 40 minutes late, I had to call the cab company twice. Maybe we should have just pulled the plug right then.

We manage to get to the airport, check in, and get to the gate just as our 820 Flight to Seattle is set to board. Great timing, or so we thought!

We board, and our flight never leaves….all power to the aircraft is turned off. Soon comes the announcement that there is a problem with the aircraft’s hydraulic system. First thought in my mind is, “I’m glad they caught it now”. So we sit for 45 minutes in an aircraft with no A/C, lights, etc, while technicians checked out the problem. Several minutes later we are asked to exit the aircraft, and the plane is whisked away…never to be seen again. We are asked to wait in the boarding area.

We wait……at about 10 am there is an announcement that the plane is being checked on further. At 1030, we are told that there will be an additional update at about noon, so please return to the gate then. At 1130, we are told that a part is being flown in, and it may just be a case of replacing that part….BUT, just in case, a top notch repair crew from LA is driving in!??!! We are given $6 meal vouchers…funny, but at sandwich costs $7.99, but hey the gate crew is very nice and apologetic.We check and all afternoon and early evening flights are “overbooked”, and I mean overbooked….and of course the standby list is growing. Poor folks who have connecting flights…. At 1230, we are told the part has arrived, a big cheer goes off in the boarding area. Lady next to us is calling around on her cellphone trying to find some other airline that has available seats…to no avail. I hear someone talking about driving to LAX to attempt to make the 5pm flight. It is getting surreal. At a little after 2pm, we are told the flight has been canceled, that we need to return to the ticket counter, to rebook….the mad stampede starts. In line at the ticket counter, one of the agents tells us to first go to baggage claim to pick up our luggage. The Missus and I both go “no way”…we’ll get ticketed first, if possible, than claim our luggage, which I’m pretty sure hasn’t been delivered to baggage claim yet, and return to check in. At a bit after 3pm we finally get to the counter, and the very apologetic agent tells us that the only flight available will be the 845pm flight, it will arrive in Seattle at 1130pm. I do a quick calculation…we’ll be cooped up at the Airport for another 5 hours. Get into Seattle, claim our luggage, by the time we catch the shuttle it’s be at least 1230am, get to the hotel and check in, by then it’ll be at least 130am….which means we’ll be dead tired and settled at maybe 3am…..no thanks. We’d have lost almost half of our vacation, be dead tired, and not enjoy ourselves. So we canceled. I went and waited for our luggage, which at this point still had not been delivered to baggage claim. The Missus started making phone calls, first She called Sammy and Frankie’s trainer, with whom we board Da’ Boyz. She then called the airline’s “Customer Care”, who gave Her a claim number, and basically told us, because we used an online service to book our vacation, we need to contact them. I know who’s going to get an interesting letter about things like contingency, planning, and a word called proactive…..I mean everyone is nice and apologetic, but how many times can you hear “I’m so sorry”, it starts to ring hollow after a while. We catch a cab back home, during which we make calls and manage to get refunds on the airfare and hotel. I also call the restaurants and cancel our reservations. Still, we lost out on cab fare, boarding costs, and other miscellaneous items. Not including the 8 hours of vacation I’ll never get back, at the end of the day we paid about a $100 or so for the pleasure of sitting in, and milling around Lindbergh Field for over 8 hours. Not quite the vacation I though of.

I’m just glad we didn’t need to be in Seattle. If this were a business trip, I would have just sucked it up, and soldiered along. I have done consulting work that required extensive travel in the past and have had my share of delays(it once took me 36 hours to get home), but I have never really written down a blow by blow account like this.

We picked up Da Boyz, and had to decide on dinner(this is a food blog after all, so you know I have to do something about food). After milling about with the mass of humanity, we really didn’t want to go to anywhere very crowded. The Missus wanted sushi…so we decided on Restaurant Yakata down in National City. In my previous posts on Yakata, I noted how the Itamae, Makoto told me that Friday and Saturday evenings are His slowest. So we arrived, and indeed, there was only one patron at the sushi bar, and one table occupied.

As usual, it was Omakase all the way here. We started with a nice combination sushi:

Just a quick rundown. As before the Hotategai(scallop) was fabulous, in fact the Missus requested another order. The real winner was the Albacore Belly.

So soft and rich, I thought it was Hamachi Toro. The Hamachi was good, I thought the Maguro to be on the dry and tough side.

I thought the Uni was good, but the Missus thought it was excellent, “sweet and creamy”.

The Missus and I shared a tempura appetizer(not pictured), and along with the second order of Hotategai(Makoto gave us the last of the Albacore Belly), Makoto made us this interesting gunkanmaki.

Uni and Tobiko(Flying fish roe) were put into a bowl, and mixed to a creamy consistency. Ika (squid) was sliced and combined with the Uni/Tobiko mixture. Whoa, good stuff, great combination of texture(crunchy tobiko, slightly chewy ika) and taste(sweet from the Uni, a slight briny flavor from the tobiko, some mild heat from the restrained use of wasabi).

Makoto than brought out a spring roll wrapper, moistened it, and created this:

Toro was then scraped and instead of mixing with Negi(green onion), it was combined with minced Jalapeno. Cucumber and Lettuce were added for texture, and to help “cool things down”. The sauce was a combination of Ponzu and Sriracha…a “Spicy Ponzu”. It was good, perhaps a bit too much going on, the flavor and texture of toro was kinda lost. Lot’s of flavor though. I asked Makoto what the name of this was…and he just shrugged…so we called it the “Makoto Burrito”…..

The last item was this:

In the middle of all of this was a shrimp tempura. The Missus didn’t like the combination of cool fish, with the still hot tempura. I thought the textures were interesting, but the flavor of the fish was a bit lost.

Overall, a very nice, relaxing meal. All told, which is what you see, plus the extra Hotategai, Tempura appetizer, and 2 large Sapporos was about $65.

**** Yakata has closed

Restaurant Yakata
2424 Hoover Ave
National City, CA 91950

A few updates:

Da’ Kine’s

I’d been told that Da’ Kines in Pacific Beach had closed, so I dropped by to check it out myself. And yes, they have closed:

And yes, they are closed. As I was walking away, I ran into a nice young man wearing a Da’ Kines sweater, and we struck up a short conversation. According to Daniel(I’m hoping I remembered His name correctly), Da’ Kines in National City and Mira Mesa are still open, and a new location at Liberty Station in Point Loma will be opening in the near future.

Chef Tony

“StR” left a comment on my post on Chef Tony, here’s the info:

“I just spoke with the owner on the phone. They have been closed for ~3 months (the building is going to be torn down), but they are planning to reopen at a new place (to be decided) within 1-2 months.”

I drove by ealier this afternoon, and yes, the entire mall is empty, including Chef Tony.

I’m hoping they have a successful reopening soon!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A short weekend getaway, and an update

January 25, 2007 mmm-yoso Travel, yoso-silly

The Missus and I are getting away for a short weekend trip. It’s to one of our favorite cities that we used to visit yearly. But for some reason we have’nt been back since Thanksgiving of 2003.

Where is it? Here are some very easy clues….photos from our last trip there:

So I’ll leave you in the most capable hands of Cathy for a few days!

An update….

Just the latest on our fine furry friend that we found and turned into the Carson/Gardena Animal Shelter about 12 days ago.

I called on Tuesday for an update, and though no one has come to claim her, there is a waiting list of perspective "families" waiting for her. So it looks like everything will work out fine. We hope she is placed in a loving home with a great family. Good luck, girl!

One last thing….

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. It seems that "possibly" the Owner of a restaurant that I didn’t care for called Bambu Bistro (see now it’s free publicity), has basically called me "gutless", over some "harsh" criticism, and says I’m "bashing" their restaurant. I really don’t think that person actually read the post, I mentioned what I enjoyed(nice attentive service) along with what I didn’t(I didn’t care for the food). Check out the comments….tell me what do you think? I call it honesty……some call it gutless. Of course, some like Jay of the Linkery have a better handle on it. Please read the comments on his post here.

"I think the food blogs are a great source of serious food writing in town, between the fact that the writers are unpaid and that they have no space limitations, as a reader I get great insights into the bloggers’ experience."

"Let me add this thought: the best possible event that could increase restaurant quality in this town would be the emergence of twenty or so popular, critical, honest, prolific food bloggers, each with unique tastes, persepectives, and budgets, blogging about all their restuarant visits. In an environment like that, all restaurants would be heavily incented to provide great quality and value at least to a certain segment of the eating-out community."

Amen, brother! Personally, I think people are smart enough to know what the difference is between a food blog and a full blown restaurant review is. And so I share my meal with you, warts and all……

Difference between blog and website here.

She also calls this "underground"…..whatever that is. I don’t know, I’m here for everyone to see.

So do you only want to see positive posts? There are blogs out there that do only positive posts. I don’t think that will be very likely, at least with me, since I don’t think I can live with myself, with fake, rose-colored cyber-glasses on.

Oh, one more thing, Bambu Bistro, if this is really you….I guess that anyone who didn’t care for your food should not say anything…but if they do they suddenly have no guts? I guess by the same token, if someone disagrees with you….they are the enemy??? It’s this way of striking out, before looking within that bothers me….sigh.

Road Trip: J & J Restaurant – San Gabriel(LA), and the San Gabriel Foot Fetish…….

January 24, 2007 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Xiao Long Bao

**** J & J Restaurant has closed

Right before the New Year, on one of our road trips to LA, we were in the mood for some Xiao Long Bao(soup dumplings), but instead of Mei Long Village we decided to check out J & J Restaurant. We've always found it somewhat interesting that both J & J and Meilong Village occupy the same strip mall, and co-exist just a few doors down from each other.

On this day the tiny, simply furnished restaurant was hopping……

The Missus and I always appreciate servers who work with no wasted motion, and the two women working today were working with efficient precision. Containers for leftovers were brought to the table with the check, and tea was dropped off on one table as the server walked to the table directly next to it to take an order.

We looked over the menu even though we knew what we were going to order.

We started with the Xue Cai Rou Si Chao Nian Gao($5.25):

We didn't care for this much, the Chao Nian Gao(stir fried rice cake) had been over cooked and was mushy, the Xue Cai(mustard greens) had no flavor, and the dish had a sort of "fishy" aftertaste.

Of course we were here for Xiao Long Bao, and in case you think I needed any help in selected which XLB's to get…something like this will usually seal the deal. Crab being prepared for the XLB.

So of course we started with the Pork and Crab XLB's($5.95):

The 8 good sized XLB arrived perfectly steamed. I found the wrapper to be a tad thicker than the wrapper at Mei Long Village, the very tender filling had a mild flavor, that leaned a bit toward the sweeter end. I thought these were good except for one thing; the soup to meat ratio was way off…we both thought that the XLB had too little soup in them.

Not satisfied with one order of XLB, we also got the Pork XLB($4.95):

These come 10 to an order, and were steamed and served in perfect condition. The Pork XLB had a bit of a stronger flavor, that went well with the soy-vinegar-ginger dipping sauce. But the meat-soup ratio on these seemed to be a bit off as well. In the end, I guess we enjoy a bit more soup in our Xiao Long Baos.

Still, because of the close proximity of the two restaurants, and the very reasonable prices, you can probably do a XLB "crawl" and make up your own mind as to which XLB you prefer.

HC of LA and OC Foodventures has a nice post on J & J Restaurant.

J & J Restaurant
301 W. Valley Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91776

An interesting observation…..

I don't know if anyone has noticed this….in fact I'm surprised that the ever observant Andy hasn't mentioned this on his blog, The ABC. After our meal at J & J we walked over to the snack shop in the strip mall next door, so the Missus could get Her shaved ice. While walking we simultaneously looked at each other and went…"what is the deal, with all of the Foot Massage places?"

So what is the deal? I decided to take photos of the Reflexology/Foot Massage shops we found just from walking from one strip mall to the next….less than a block. And here's what we found:

There's even a little price war going on in this strip mall……on one side of the mall, it's $20/hr:

Directly on the other side, it's $15/hr:

I know that with all the restaurants, and other businesses, that workers in the SGV are probably on their feet alot….but man, that's alot of tired feet.

Or maybe San Gabriel has a foot fetish??? We call it the San Gabriel Foot Fetish.

There must be over 30 Reflexology/Foot Massage studios on Valley Boulevard….for some reason we found that to be rather odd…….

Suzuya Japanese BBQ

January 22, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

*** Suzuya has closed.

Suzuya Japanese BBQ opened quietly a few months back, with barely a whisper. Suzuya specializes in Yakiniku, a style of cooking very similar to Korean BBQ. In fact, it is thought that Yakiniku evolved from Korean BBQ.

You can tell it's a Yakiniku restaurant by the heavy duty ventilation systems.

Right before Christmas our very own Cathy and I met for lunch. We even found parking in the much too small lot on Kearny Villa Road that Suzuya shares with Osaka Kitchen, and several other restaurants. I found the interior of the restaurant is adorned in a very simple tasteful manner.

The lunch menu consists of about 15 items, and we selected the lunch size portion of the Beef Yakiniku ($7.95), and the Pork Bulgogi ($7.50). All lunch items came with a very generic salad, an adequate serving of rice, and the usual weak miso soup.

The Beef Yakiniku was marinated in a slightly sweet sauce, and tasted pretty much like Bulgogi, Korean BBQ'd beef.

The meat was very moist and tender, and the meat was pretty well marbled. The portion size was a fairly good value for the price.

The Pork Bulgogi, was a version of Daeji Bulgogi. I thought the spice level to be fairly mild, and though the pork had a nice flavor, it was a bit on the dry side.

The ventilation system for the gas grills was excellent, I left without smelling like I'd been grilled. For what it's worth, there were only 3 other grills going at the time, so I don't know how bad it would get if the restaurant was going full tilt.

Unlike Korean BBQ, there is no panchan served, though you can purchase side orders of Kimchi for $2.50. Still the lunch menu seemed overwhelmingly Korean, with items like Dolsot Bibimbap.

So here's the juicy inside info, I don't know if it's 100% true….so for what it's worth, I've been told that one of the Owners is Ichiro…as in Ichiro's Restaurant. Apparently, he and his wife divorced, and she got Ichiro's. He on the other hand met and married a Korean lady….the very nice woman who runs the front of house during lunch, and viola! Suzuya Japanese BBQ.

I recently returned again for lunch, and because I was badly in need of carbs, decided to check out the Kimchi Fried Rice($6.50):

Don't be fooled, it's more food than you think! In this case a decent sized portion of rice was stir fried with Baechu(Napa Cabbage) Kimchi and the Pork Bulgogi, and topped off with a nice runny, easy over egg. The dish was milder, and hence a lot less salty and spicy(lack of spam would lower the sodium level alot). What pork there was in the dish was very soft and tender. Overall, an okay dish….though give me Spam and Kimchi fried rice any day!

I did manage a peek at the dinner menu, and noticed that there were many more conventional Yakiniku type offerings….various cuts of meat, unmarinated, and served with different Yakiniku Tare (dipping sauces). I noticed that some of the prices were pretty inexpensive and was told that most portions are about 4 ounces, so you can get a good variety. Shabu Shabu is also served, and costs $18.95 per person. We'll probably drop by one night for dinner…and I'll make sure to post further information.

As mentioned, the parking lot can be crazy during lunch hours. The service has always been very nice and accommodating.

Suzuya Japanese BBQ
5447 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
(858) 505-0611

Lunch – Mon-Fri 1130am – 230pm
Dinner – Daily 5pm to 11pm

From the when it rains it pours department:

So I'm driving this past weekend when I see a sign that catches my attention. I pull into the strip mall that houses Izakaya Sakura, and wouldn't you know it. We suddenly go from no Yakiniku restaurants in the area…to two, in 8 months!

They are not yet open, but I'm wondering if it's an expansion of Tsuruhashi restaurant in OC? BTW, Tsuruhashi District in Osaka is well known for their Yakiniku, so things are getting more interesting………