mmm-yoso – Page 437

Ba Ren

June 6, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

*** Ba Ren has closed

*** Updated and additional posts on Ba Ren – Post#201, an update 06/06/2006, the Huo Guo post, the seasonal menu on 01/02/2008, and other silliness. Sheesh, do you think we eat here enough????

"Forgive me Kitchen God for I have sinned; it's been 3 weeks since I've been to Ba Ren….."

When we first moved to San Diego, we used to make periodic pilgrimages to Chung King in Monterey Park for Szechwan. We lamented the lack of a good Szechwan restaurant in San Diego. We tried a few, but they were utter disappointments, so we would end up behind a steering wheel driving to LA for our Fuqi Feipian fix.

Than in 2003, we turned down Diane Ave, and saw this sign:

It seemed interesting and several days later we visited Ba Ren and haven't stopped since. Some weeks it seemed like we'd be there 2-3 times during the week mostly for take-out. In a few months we had pretty much worked our way down the menu as well as the all important placard:

The last two dishes on this placard, are probably some of the best Ba Ren has to offer; the second to the last dish is Dry Fried Beef Slivers(Gan Bian Niu Rou Si? -12.99) and the last is the Twice Cooked Fish(9.99) that everyone on Chowhound.com raves about. We also got to know Wendy, one of the owners very well, and she would guide us toward new and interesting items. In August, I went ahead and with Wendy and Bill's(one of the other Partners) help set up a Chowhound get together for a 17 course Szechwan "feast" that turned out really well. San Diego Chowhounds at Ba Ren.

We had been busy over the last three weeks or so, and hadn't had time to visit Ba Ren. So having an open evening we dropped by. Being a Monday at 5pm it was really quiet. I also noticed that the infamous Chinese placard now had a second side and even more dishes. So in the end we decided to order two new dishes and two of our favorites – Rice Crust with Sliced Chicken (9.99) and Hot Pepper Prawns (12.99).

Squares of crisp rice is brought out, than the toppings, in this case sliced chicken, cloud ears, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, sauce, and other veggies is poured on the rice crust creating a sizzling sound. We enjoy the chicken version of this dish the best because the sauce has a nice condensed chicken taste. I think Ed from Yuma describes what makes this dish so good when he says "as the sauce and the rice crisps interact, the rice becomes softer, so the dish's textures change as it's eaten". Yes, every bite of this dish is different!

The next dish was from the placard. Fish with soft jelly noodles(9.99). This was fantastic, not quite a soup, not quite a casserole; perfectly marinated and prepared fish with Konnyaku-like Noodles, red peppers, ginger, lily buds, and pickled vegetables. The taste was hot and sour, imagine the most prefect Hot and Sour soup, peppery, with good sour overtones! Delici-yoso!

The Hot Pepper Prawns were next. This is the prawn version of the Chung King Style Chili with Chicken. Battered and fried prawns covered with fried dried red chili's, you'd think that this would literally blow your head off, but the subtle sweet and salty taste made this highly addictive.

The last dish was Dry-Cooked Lamb (12.99), that is lamb slices cooked without broth or water. This dish was a good example of layers of heat, the chili pepper hit the front of your tongue, the chili oil the middle, and the black pepper the back. This dish can be a bit overwhelming, but the herbaceous taste keeps you eating more! This dish also features Chinese celery, shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced garlic, and what was my favorite part of the dish – the mung bean sprouts. The meal was finished off with a bowl of Eight Treasure Black Rice Porridge to cleanse and clear your palate and stomach.

On the placard the Fish dish is the sixth one down. The Lamb is the second. If you want the dish with chicken it's the first one, if it's beef you want prepared in this manner it's the third; frog is the fourth. All in all another successful visit to our favorite restaurant!

Some notes on Ba Ren – Mandarin is the main language spoken, but don't let that dissuade you. I don't speak any Mandarin and am able to do fine! The staff is very helpful and friendly! The chef from Ba Ren originally was a Chef at a Four Star hotel in Chongqing and was one of the original Chefs at Chung King in Monterey Park (wow, the original chef from our favorite LA restaurant, what a coincidence!!!) and has over 30 years of cooking experience with this type of cuisine.

Ba Ren
4957 Diane Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

BTSD Japan Cultural Bazaar

June 5, 2005 mmm-yoso Festivals & Events

I was searching on the Internet, to see if there were any Obon Festivals here in San Diego. To my surprise, The Buddhist Temple of San Diego has an Obon Festival scheduled for July 30th. I also noticed that something called a Japan Cultural Bazaar was being held today, so not having anything scheduled today (except for cleaning – and that can always be procrastinated away…), I grabbed my wallet and camera and headed down to 30th and Market St. I found parking on the street and could immediately smell teriyaki in the air, one of my favorite smells. I noticed elderly Couples and Ladies carrying boxes of cookies and pastries and followed them into the parking lot of the Temple.

From May through September, there are many Festivals and Bazaars in San Diego. They range from large, like next weekends Greek Festival at St. Spryridon’s to smaller ones like this. There were several food booths, and the classrooms of the Temple had been set-up with Bonsai displays, a bake sale, crafts, children’s games, and a silent auction area. The line you see is for something called "Angie’s Tacos" seemed to be very popular. But the line was too long for me to maneuver.

Instead I opted for the Teriyaki Chicken plate ($6.00). This was half a teriyaki chicken, two musubi(onigiri), and something called cabbage salad, which was a cross between cole slaw and tsukemono. Half of the enjoyment of these little festivals is being able to sit and enjoy the atmosphere, and food is secondary. The chicken was fine, the dark meat portions actually tasted pretty good, the teri sauce had a touch of smokiness. As is common with chickens in the U.S., the breasts were overly large and thus dry. Like I said food is secondary. As I was about to leave I saw a sign that caught my eye:

So what did I do? I followed the signs into the building, and saw a dining area where people where eating(slurping?) up noodles. So I ponied up the 5 bucks and bought a container to go. This ended up being fried yakisoba with some bamboo shoot and shiitake mushrooms. I added some green onions, spam, and shoyu and had a little snack. All in all a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Buddhist Temple of San Diego
2929 Market Street
San Diego, California 92102
Buddhist Temple of San Diego

The Thai Grill

June 4, 2005 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

*** The Thai Grill has closed

In the mood for Thai food we decided to forgo a visit to one of our favorite Thai restaurants, and instead went to a new restaurant we saw a few days ago. The Thai Grill, located in Hillcrest, is very, very small, with only 4 tables in the restaurant, and 2 outside, one of which holds up the menu. Our waitress said that they’ve only been open 7 months.

Not being very hungry we ordered two dishes:

The first was, the top item on the Chef’s specials part of the menu. Crab Fried Rice ($10.95). The dish arrived steaming hot with flakes of real crab, peas, carrots, and bean sprouts. The good; rice was cooked perfectly, there was real crab in this, and the plate looked reasonably appealing. The bad; this dish tasted only of fish sauce, not that there was too much, it’s just that the combination of fish sauce and crab, with no other real flavor to balance the fishiness, made this dish very boring. Other Thai fried rice dishes that I’ve had have always had some flavoring other than fish sauce to add some depth of flavor to the dish, be it garlic, tamarind, sugar, etc…. This was a singularly uninteresting dish. I didn’t even finish this, which for anyone who knows me is an amazing thing, I usually easily finish anything I order.

The second dish was Rice Noodles with Hot Basil and chicken. The good; again this dish was cooked perfectly, the texture of the noodles was perfect, just enough chewiness. The chicken was also cooked very well. The flavoring of this dish was Superior to the fried rice, with nice heat and a nice tomato-ey taste. The bad; as you can see, only about 5 Thai Basil leaves, that means only 5 really “good bites” in the whole dish. I may have a big mouth, but there’s no way I can eat this dish in 5 bites. The heat was easily identified, Thai chili paste, and which adds nice heat, but is usually combined with other flavors to create a better taste profile. Again the dish lacked real depth, very one dimensional, and not enough to really keep you interested.

It could be that we didn’t order the dishes that Thai Grill does well. But I would think that the #1 item under Chef’s Specials would probably be the best the kitchen produces. In my opinion$10.95 is really steep for mediocre fried rice. Try it out and let me know if I’m wrong, or what I may have missed……

The Thai Grill
420 Robinson Ave. Suite E
San Diego, CA 92103
619-683-7725

Indulgence – A Sugar Free Bakery.

June 3, 2005 mmm-yoso Bakery, Desserts

*** Update: Indulgence has since closed.

Hard to miss this place – the bright purple sign beckons on Park Avenue.

They advertise themselves as a sugar free bakery. So we stopped by just to see what this was like. The interior is cafe-like and ecletic, with artwork lining the walls. And there is a large case filled with cakes, cream puffs, and other pastries.

That's a strawberry chiffon cake calling to you…. Though these treats are sugar-free, they're not low calorie! A slice of that chiffon cake is 477 calories. We chose two lemon bars – only a 100 or so calories a piece. The bars had a good texture, but as amazing as this may seem, tasted overly sweet! I enjoyed the slight tang and good aftertaste, but a little too sweet for me.

The staff is very friendly and helpful, so much so, that when I asked if it was ok to take a picture of the cakes, the Gentleman behind the counter, answered brightly, "of course", than proceeded to open up the case for a better picture! Breakfast is served from 9-5! With various egg or egg substitute options, quiche, and other items. Lunch is served from 11am to 5pm, with extensive menu of everything from Boca Burgers to Reduced Carb Pizza to Pot Roast. Indulgence A Sugar Free Bakery. So if sugar- free, low-carb, and organic is your thing, give it a try.

Indulgence Bakery
4207 Park Blvd
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 299-3404

Tuesday to Saturday:
9 am – 9 pm
Sunday:
9 am-5 pm
Closed Mondays

The Noble Chef

June 2, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

*** Update, Noble Chef is under new ownership. The folks that used to run Noble Chef have decided to retire. A brief update can be found here.

Sometimes you just gotta go with your instincts….about 3 years ago we were at a store in one of those indistinct strip malls along Balboa Avenue, as we left there was the wonderful smell of garlic and soy sauce, and even better, of something being fried in the air! And we did what that old commercial said, and "followed our nose, it always knows…" up to the humble storefront of The Noble Chef.

As we had already had dinner I added this to our list of places to check-out and moved on. A few months later I decided to try it out. I saw the menu of standard Chinese Fast Food fare out front, but knew for sure that it wasn't beef broccoli or teriyaki chicken that I smelled that night. But I went ahead and started ordering Orange Chicken and such, but a photograph of Chiu Chow Fried Rice caught my eye, and I ordered that along with the other dishes. Well, to make a long story short, the American Chinese dishes were not very good – but that fried rice was perfect, exactly to my taste and texture. I like my fried rice on the "dry" side, and this did the trick! Funny how things like this happen. Had I eaten only the standard Chinese Fast Food, I would've never returned, but for some reason I'd ordered that fried rice.

So for the next couple of months it was Chiu Chow fried rice at least once or twice a week. It got to the point where I'd walk in the door and the ladies working there would know exactly what I'd want – Chiu Chow fried rice. Now I don't know if this is authentic – from what my (very limited) knowledge of Chiu Chow, otherwise known as Chaozhou, is that this type of cooking has alot in common with that of the ethnic Chinese from Vietnam who managed to flee when Saigon fell in 1975. (Anyone with more accurate info-please let me know). So there are alot of Southeast Asian overtones in the cooking. For those in Los Angeles, think Newport Seafood. What I do know is that there's a very generous amount of chopped Gailan, Char Siu, and 5-6 large shrimp in this dish. It's one of the most expensive items on the menu ($6.55), but it's two meals for me. The first day all of the shrimp and about two-thirds of the rice is eaten. The next day I fry two eggs and finish everything.

But the Chiu Chow fried rice is not the best dish. One day we ordered the Shrimp with XO sauce fried rice(also $6.55), and lo' and behold, this is what I smelled that first night months ago. With chili pepper, shrimp, tons of garlic, and XO Sauce (what is actually XO sauce???) this is a a garlic-chilihead dream! You can request the dish to be more or less spicy as desired. Once I brought this to our office and our Administrative Assistant loved this dish. A friend of mine who for a time lived a few blocks away told me that the Chinese food here was unpalatable. So one day I brought him the Shrimp with XO Sauce fried rice, which he loved, and he couldn't believe it came from The Noble Chef. Amazing what a serendipitous event can lead too!

The Noble Chef is a real Mom-and-Pop operation. Your order is taken, than is cooked on the wok stove by "the Noble Chef" in full view, flames leaping in the air! Sometimes he's juggling three woks at once. Sorry 'bout the blurry picture, but the Noble Chef moves really quickly……..The Shrimp Tomato rice is also pretty good. Service is friendly, and really nice once they get to know you. There are alot of people having noodle soup – but I haven't progressed to that step yet.

Sometimes doing one thing real well (thus the One Trick-Pony monniker) is worth it!

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)278-8688

Clams in Garlic and Wine Sauce

May 30, 2005 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes, Seafood

If you read the previous post you may be wondering what happened to the clams I bought? I made a really simple Clam in Garlic and Wine sauce:

1 1/2 – 2 1/2 Lbs Manila Clams rinsed and scrubbed
8 cloves of garlic minced
1 Medium Onion chopped fine
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 Tb Butter
1 Tb Canola or Vegetable Oil
2 Tb Olive Oil
Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes to taste

Place wok over stove and heat to smoking. When wok is smoking season wok with 1 Tb Oil and drain. Add 1Tb Oil and 1 Tb Olive Oil to wok. Immediately add Clams and stir until clams are coated. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and onions stir to combine. Once clams start giving up their liquid, add white wine, stir and bring to a boil, lower heat and cover, checking every few minutes until all clams are open stir in butter and serve. Do not overcook clams! Serve with crusty bread, rice, pasta or just eat them all!

This is a good base recipe. I add more butter, oregano, parsley, and other herbs to use as a pasta sauce. Cilantro also goes well with this dish.

Siesel’s Meat and Bay Park Fish Company – Surf next to Turf.

May 30, 2005 mmm-yoso Cooking, Markets & Grocers, Seafood

Actually started the morning at 99 Ranch Market, and was surprised to find parking right up front at 10am. Looked like people were getting a late start on this Memorial Day.

Ran in and checked out the Manila Clams, though many of the tanks were empty, there was still a good supply of clams. The placard noted that the clams were from Canada, and when I scooped a few out they "spit" water out at me, so I knew they were still alive. I ended up purchasing 2 1/2 lbs, and was on my way…….

On a whim I decided to grab a steak from Siesel's Meat off of Morena Blvd. I'd usually drive all the way to Iowa Meat Farms, but decided to stop by Siesel's. Over the past 6 months I've noticed alot of improvement in both the quality and variety of Siesels's offerings since the Cohn Group (who also run Iowa Meat) took over.

First off I noticed an abundance of USDA Prime cuts, and ended up getting a prime porterhouse, my favorite cut for pan frying (I'd decided to give my grill a rest). Though the cut was a bit thinner than I like at about an inch, this meant that I wouldn't need to finish in the oven as I would with a thicker cut. Well marbled and glistening this was one nice piece of meat. The steak came out to about 1.3 lbs – at $19.99/lb for prime porterhouse, not a bad deal.

On a whim I decided to check out the new Bay Park Fish Company, that has opened up next to Siesel's. I noticed that there was a fish case at the front of this little establishment of about 8 tables. Surprisingly, the fish looked really fresh, though very limited in variety. The Ahi from Hawaii looked very good, and brought back alot of memories for me, but I decided on a piece of Atlantic Salmon that looked very moist and fresh. We've been having a hard time finding really good fish here in San Diego, and often have to drive to LA to get what we want, ironic in that San Diego is surrounded by ocean! I've shopped at almost all the recommended places – Point Loma Seafood, The Fishery, etc…and have always been disappointed. So finding this little gem so close to home was very satisfying.

I was handed a menu flyer and will be trying out the restaurant soon. Looks like most of the items, except for the catch of the day is under $10, the smoked fish sandwich looks interesting.

So what did I do with this bounty?

The steak I simply seasoned with Ala'ea (Hawaiian Red Sea Salt), fresh ground pepper, granulated garlic, oregano, and XVOO. First seared on high heat, than cooked medium, this was wonderful! Very "beefy in flavor, almost like grass fed beef, the filet portion was fork tender – a great piece of meat. The Salmon was also seared over high heat and cooked to medium well. I seasoned the fish with a home made blackening rub. Delici-yoso!!!

Oh, and my "boyz' also enjoyed their share of this bounty.

Siesel's Meats
4131 Ashton Street
San Diego, CA 92109
Tel: (619) 275-1234

Bay Park Fish Co.
4121 Ashton St.
San Diego, CA 92110

L & L Hawaiian Barbeque – College Area

May 29, 2005 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Plate Lunch

**** This location of L&L has closed

We were living in the Rowland Heights area of Los Angeles when the first L&L opened up down the street in Puente Hills Mall. Needless to say, I was thrilled, being somewhat plate lunch-deprived(we used to drive miles to try out plate lunch places in LA). And the food was as expected decent, but not great. L&L is not my favorite plate lunch place by far, but fills a need for me.

When we moved to San Diego, I found that an L&L was opening in National City – about 15 miles away. So the week they opened I drove down to National City in great anticipation…and was greatly disappointed. I never check my order at L&L because they seem to have a system of checking each plate before placing in a bag – so why check? Well I got home – and no gravy on my LocoMoco!!!??!! Second time, ordered my BBQ Chicken all rice, and got all Macaroni salad – three scoops mac salad? Third time, it seems that the BBQ chicken had not been marinated, it was almost white in color. Well 3 strikes and you're out! By this time plate lunch places had starting popping up everywhere in SoCal, so there are alot more choices, including two close to where we live.

Today I did some extra driving and went to the L&L in the College area – near San Diego St University – I've found this one to be the most consistent, and the service is always efficient.

Instead of ordering my usual LocoMoco, I ordered a Mini Chicken Cutlet ($4.29) and a Mini BBQ Chicken($4.29).

As usual service was fast and efficient, and the food decent. Actually the BBQ chicken was well flavored. The chicken cutlet was still crisp under the gravy – and of course I poured a ton of Tabasco on this anyway…..

L&L's Hawaiian BBQ
Campus Plaza 6083 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite 5B-1
San Diego, CA 92115
Phone: (619) 229-6888

Postscript – I don't know if alot of Ex-Pat Kama'aina's encounter this, but alot of people seem to think that a plate lunch is somehow some kind of Haute' cuisine??? For six bucks???? I've also gotten alot of comments about how the food is not worth the price, so I ask them, how much is a sandwich from Togo's or Subway? A large sandwich approaches 7 bucks. I'll take a $6.29 plate lunch over that stuff or Denny's any day of the week.

Sandwich Emporium

May 28, 2005 mmm-yoso Caffeine Fix, Sandwiches

*** Updated post can be found here.

What a name! When we first moved to the Bay Park area I tried this Sandwich/Coffee shop in a little Strip Mall on Clairemont Drive – it was terrible! Since then twins Peter & John have taken over the business and upgraded(modernized) the menu and the food.

Notice the Traffic School sign…..kind of a strange mall. But back to the food. Some of the sandwiches are Country Ranch Chicken, two types of Reubens, something called a BLAT (Hickory Smoked Bacon, lettuce, Avocado, tomato), and also great coffee, locally roasted from the San Diego Coffee Company.

My current favorite is the Italian with Mortadella, Salami, and Ham – I get mine with no Mayo, Mustard, and Italian Dressing on the side. $5.75, for a filling sandwich. Sure beats the Subway across the street. Hopefully the Twins will keep on upgrading the menu, and keep on making a good cup of coffee!

And yes, it’s not always Peking Duck and Sushi for us!!!!

Sandwich Emporium
3054 1/2 Clairemont Drive
San Diego,CA
619-275-1351

Road Trip – Sushi Komasa and Little Tokyo

May 27, 2005 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Sushi and Sashimi

*** An updated post on Komasa from 05/30/2006, can be found here.

Having the day off, we decided on a road trip to Little Tokyo, and our favorite little Japanese Restaurant/Sushi Bar there Sushi Komasa. We attempted to time our arrival to opening time for Komasa which is 530pm, at ended up in the Japanese Village Plaza Parking lot at about 520.

Sushi Komasa is a little operation with about 5 tables and a bar and serves only dinner. Though it’s not the most well known of establishments, it’s our favorite for good reasonably priced sushi and was a regular stop for us when we lived in LA.

We were happy to see the familiar Komasa lantern next to the door, but surprised to see 5 couples already waiting ahead of us. It seems that the word is out and Komasa is getting busier. We were able to snag the last corner table, ordered our tea (no sake for us, we had a 115 mile trip back to San Diego), and quickly marked our order off of the sushi order form; 5 orders Albacore, 2 orders Maguro, 3 orders Hamachi, 2 orders Hirame, 2 orders Tai, 1 Negi-Hama, 1 soft-shell crab roll, oh yeah, and one order ankimo.

This was met with the usual “Are you sure you want all this, this is alot of sushi?”, to which we gave the “Oh, yes, we’re REALLY hungry, the sushi here is so good” response. Plus we’ve driven over a hundred miles to be here, so we’re getting our money’s worth!

The Ankimo(steamed monkfish liver) was the first to arrive, smooth and silken, served with thinly sliced cucumber and green onions, in Komasa’s sour, yet tangy ponzu, this is always wonderful. I’ve been told that good Ankimo tastes like fresh crab eggs. I don’t know, but the Ankimo at Komasa is consistently good.

Next to arrive was half of our sushi order:

No need for explanation. The Albacore was topped with grated ginger and finely sliced green onion, tonight the Maguro was not as good as previous visits, but the Hamachi was heavenly, buttery, melt in your mouth delicious!

The second half of our order arrived just as we were finishing up the first – you’ll notice a few pieces missing, I’m new at this “photographing my food thing” and actually started eating the Tai (snapper) and Hirame (flounder) before realizing I hadn’t taken a picture of this dish! Oh well, needless to say, “delici-yoso”……

Our bill came out to a reasonable (for the amount of sushi we ate) $63. Komasa also makes an excellent Chirashi and good Tempura. Most Nigiri are about $3.80. Good solid old fashioned sushi!

Sushi Komasa is open from 530pm Tuesdays thru Sundays – closed on Mondays.

Sushi Komasa
352 E 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA
213-680-1792

We usually “hit” Fu-getsu-do before Komasa, and buy some mochi and other goodies to have for dessert. This Japanese confectionery shop was founded in 1903 and is still run by the same family today. It’s located on a portion of first street declared a National Historic Landmark.

But today we stayed around the Japanese Village Plaza and ended up having some Gelato from Mikawaya, another sweet shop located in the plaza. Cool and refreshing, a nice after dinner dessert.

We then walked down Second Street, crossed San Pedro and onto Ellison Onizuka Street and Weller Court.

I did some quick shopping a Marukai – bought some Okuhara Kamabuko, and other snacks. Also of note, a membership card is not needed at this location.

Some notes on Little Tokyo, there are 3 markets located in Little Tokyo, Enbun in Little Tokyo Plaza, Marukai in Weller Court, and Mitsuwa (used to be Yaohan) which has it’s own Shopping Mall on Third Street. Restaurants and shops abound. Little Tokyo is a quaint, safe, and fun little community that is anchored by the Japanese American National Museum, and is one of the places in Downtown Los Angeles that feels safe walking at night. Every year the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center hosts the LA Tofu Festival which is a fun time. This year it’s scheduled for August 13th and 14th. Though slowed by shifts in population and economy, we were amazed to see a frenzy of building currently going on in the Little Tokyo area, which hopefully ensures a prosperous future for the area.