mmm-yoso – Page 68

Six for Saturday Silliness

July 22, 2023 mmm-yoso Bakery, Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Markets & Grocers

Recently, when I was having coffee with our good friend "Alle" and went over my typical Saturday morning errands she was incredulous and couldn't quite believe I could make 5-6 stops and finish in 3 hours and change. So today, I decided to pay a bit more attention to things and decided to do this silly Saturday post.

My Saturday usually starts with a cold brew from Bay Park Coffee. I usually get there around 720 – 730, get my cold brew and head on down to the Little Italy Mercato. As I mentioned in an earlier post I park on Ivy, I'm usually there around 745 or so and take a nice stroll to the market. I always enjoy the art and slices of life I see along the way.

Six For Little Italy 01

Though there have been adjustments and different vendors I'll check out; the first place I stop is across Columbia Street at the Indian Summer stand, which I also mentioned in that earlier post.

Six For Little Italy 03

The proprietor, Andrew knows all his regular customers and is a really friendly guy. Andrew has 20 dozen eggs for sale each Saturday. It's kept behind the counter. It's the Missus's favorite eggs at this time, so I usually get 1 or 2 dozen each week. I'll also get various produce items as well.

I'll then cross Columbia and hit up the produce stands there.

Six For Little Italy 04

Being careful not to disturb the "Shiba gang".

Six For Little Italy 05

The Missus is currently on a blueberry kick ("it's brain food!"); so I'll pick up a three pack from here.

Six For Little Italy 06

I then cross over India to do more shopping. Right now, the Missus's favorite avocados come from this stand.

Six For Little Italy 07

The folks here are so nice. I'll tell them I need three avocados, one for tomorrow, then another two days after, and then another for one to two days after that. They'll pick out a set of fruit to match my requirements. Such great service!

Little Italy Mercato
Saturday 8am – 2pm

I'll then head back to the car either taking India Street…..

Six For Little Italy 08

Or Kettner. Anyone want to title the photo below????

Six For Little Italy 09

This morning it was 820 when I headed off to my next stop. There's not much traffic or crowds at this time of the morning on Saturday.

My next stop is just 10 minutes away as I head up India Street, then take a right up Washington to…..

Six For Lazy 01

For certain produce items (they often have decent white asparagus when in season) and specialty grocery like the stuff below that the Missus is currently obsessed with.

Six For Lazy 02

Lazy Acres
422 W Washington St.
San Diego, CA 92103

Well, remember those avocados? The Missus is still wanting avocado toast a couple of times during the week, so I have to make a stop at Con Pane for some sourdough. This morning, my drive down Washington to Pacific Highway, then Barnett took a mere 12 minutes. Yes, Con Pane is super busy on weekend mornings, but since I'm not getting sandwiches, etc, I can take the "Bread line".

Sox For Con Pane 01

Sox For Con Pane 02

Even if there are one or two people in front of me, I usually get out and to my car (I usually just park by Slater's 50/50) in 20 minutes.

Con Pane Rustic Breads & Café
2750 Dewey Rd.
San Diego, CA 92106

My next drive is the longest. I usually drop by Nijiya every Saturday morning. There's usually something we need from there; whether it's tofu or sencha for the Missus, or like right now, She is requesting Katsu Don or Kelaguen on a weekly basis and prefers the chicken from Nijiya. I make Nijiya my fourth stop since it opens at 9am. This morning, the drive took 17 minutes and I arrived at 910 avoiding the initial mass of humanity at the doors waiting for the market to open.

Six For Nijiya

Nijiya wasn't very busy on this morning, so I got out of the place in 15 minutes!

Nijiya Market
3860 Convoy St Ste 109
San Diego, CA 92111

Now on occasion I'll stop by the 99 Ranch Market on Balboa…which would make it a "seven for Saturday". But there was no need on this day so it was off to my next stop; down Balboa and onto Morena.

Six For FS

This morning it took 14 minutes to get to the Fruit Stand. I can't believe I last posted on the place 17 years ago! Anyway, more produce, especially when I'm grilling veggies for the Missus.

The Fruit Stand
4330 Morena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

The last stop, for odds and ends, is only a few blocks from home; Sprout's. Even with the hell that is the road and pipe work happening on Clairemont Drive (we avoid like the plague during weekdays) it was but a 10 minute drive.

Six For Sprouts

On this day, it was scallions, sweet onions, alkaline water (for the Missus), and some various snacks. I take advantage of the self check-out here which is usually much faster than waiting for the cashier.

Sprout's
3015 Clairemont Dr
San Diego, CA 92117

I walked into the house with our bags of groceries at 1020! Just in time to start working on lunch! Sigh……

Thanks for indulging me and I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Toulouse – A Day Trip to Albi and Lunch at Ebisu Ramen Bar

July 21, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, France, Japanese Restaurants, Ramen, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

We were really enjoying Toulouse. It had a totally different vibe than Paris, more grounded, mellow, down to earth. We wanted to do a bit more exploring, so I had booked train tickets to Albi, a town with quite a history. As a plus, Elyse of Toulouse Guided Walks informed me that Saturday was Market Day in Albi which was well worth checking out. Our location right at Place du Capitole made it a snap getting to Toulouse Matabiau via the metro. We took an early train (725am) to Albi-Ville, arriving just past 840 on this crisp Saturday morning. From the train station, it was a short 15 minute walk to the main square and the immense Sainte-Cécile Cathedral (Albi Cathedral) a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also said to be the largest brick cathedral in the world.

The red brick buildings really catch your eye.

The Market stalls were being set-up. We walked on over to the Marche Covert passing stands with some humongous produce. Check out this frisee.

Or these Cepes.

We were both shocked at the size of the veggies!

We stopped for a coffee at one of the local shops.

Before heading into the covered market.

There wasn't much going on as most shops hadn't opened yet. The bean vendor was open and I saw actual Tarbais Beans being sold. I was quite excited as I use the wonderful beans we get from Rancho Gordo and wanted to compare. Then I saw the price; it was 35€ a kilo! Yikes, that's like $20 a pound! For beans? Still, I went ahead and bought a half kilo.

From here we decided to cross over the Tarn a check out the view from there. So we headed down the atmospheric streets….

Down the Quai Choiseul.

And down to the river before crossing over on Pont Vieux which dates back to the 11th century.

Things were even more quiet on this side of the river. And the views were wonderful.

Things got more lively as we headed toward the other, larger bridge to cross on back. And a market was going on here as well. This one was more bustling.

We eyes the produce before crossing back over the Pont Neuf.

It was now getting close to 10am, when the Cathedral is opened for visitors, so we headed on over.

As much as the church really looks like a fortress, the interior was quite stunning. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the enormous mural of the Last Judgement which dates back to 1474.

It is the largest Last Judgement mural from the Middle Ages.

After wandering about for a while, the Missus was ready to head on back to Toulouse. So we strolled on over the Albi-Ville and caught the 1126am train.

Arriving back at Place du Capitole, we decided to look for a place to get some lunch. Walking toward our hotel, we passed this Ramen shop.

It was pretty cold, so some ramen sounded pretty good. Of course we wouldn't be having our ramen outside either. The drill was interesting. Ordering was done on a machine, memories of Japan, but payment was not. You basically got a number from the machine and placed it on your table. Once your order is ready it is delivered.

As we would often do at these places, we got a rice bowl, in this case the Sukiyaki Don.

We had ordered an extra tamago with this, which was a shade on the over cooked side and not marinated well. The egg yolk in the bowl was also too hard and over cooked. The rice was on the mushy side, but the beef was fairly tender, with a decent soy-sweet balance. What was interesting was that a good amount of togarashi was used giving this a bit of a kick.

As for the ramen. We got the Shoyu Ramen.

As you can see, the Missus was all about the tamago on this day. This bowl had a lot of "stuffs"; scallion, spinach, bean sprouts, cabbage. The best item in the entire bowl was the menma which had a wonderful texture and the earthy-soy sauce tones were on point. The two slices of "chashu", I use the quotation marks because the two thin slices were not pork belly, it was lean and tough.

The broth was really "flat", lacking in richness, hardly any shoyu flavor, and was the color of muddy water. And this was one of the rare occasions where I think the soup needed salt!

The noodles were overcooked and mushy.

You can't win 'em all……

Ebisu Toulouse
3 Rue Lafayette
31000 Toulouse, France

At least we were just steps from our accommodation. It was time for a nap!

Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai

July 19, 2023 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Ramen

Back in August, I noticed that several businesses were opening in the strip mall off of Convoy that houses Target and Costco Business (which BTW, has closed their "food court"). One of the places opening was Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai part of a huge chain which tracks its history to Kitakata in Fukushima and has several very popular shops in Orange County. The style of Kitakata Ramen is quite distinct; lighter, flat – curly noodles in a soy sauce based broth. Most "Rameniacs" that I know tend to use the word "lighter" when describing this style of ramen. I was quite interested to check them out and visited on the Monday after the restaurant's soft opening arriving right at the 5pm opening time.

Ban Nai 01

Based on how busy I'd heard the Irvine and Costa Mesa locations are, I was surprised to see the place only half full. And the counter, where I was seated was totally empty.

Ban Nai 02

Ban Nai 03

Looking over the menu I decided to just try the "Kitakata Ramen" (regular – $14.75). Note, tamago here is extra, a $1.90 upcharge. I also ordered the Chicken Karaage – noted as "Juicy Fried Chicken" ($9.25) on the menu.

There was a bit of a wait for my food, which I'll write off as part of the soft opening process.

Ban Nai 05 Ban Nai 07 Ramen was the first to arrive. The broth is indeed lighter, though there were some nice globules of fat in it. I thought it was on the overly salty side and pretty one-dimensional in flavor, though that might be written off to the sodium overload. The chashu; which had a nice "fat cap", was thinly sliced, with a wonderful soy-porkiness to it and very tender. The tamago was also nicely cooked and marinated but was ice cold, a pet peeve of mine.

As for the noodles, they were indeed curly and quite "light" and bouncy, though these were over-cooked for my taste and were on the mushy side.

Ban Nai 06

My karaage arrived after I had finished my ramen….I figure it's soft opening timing and hopefully will be resolved in the future.

Ban Nai 08

I was not a fan of what I believe is the sesame-based sauce provided. The karaage was unevenly coated and quite mild in flavor. There were three crisp pieces and two very dry and tough pieces. When I turned those pieces over, I figured out why.

Ban Nai 09

The pieces had been cut several times to check for doneness! Another pet peeve of mine.

So, this was almost twenty-six bucks for ramen and karaage: sheesh! The place was nicely staffed and the folks working were very nice. The place had filled up by the time I left.

I decided to return a few days later right at 11am for lunch. Like my previous visit, the place was very mellow when I arrived and seated at the counter. This time, I decided to try the Shio ramen.

Ban Nai 10

I got the Mixed Vegetable Shio Ramen ($16.75) with an egg (again – $1.90). This time it seemed like my wait was even longer, but my bowl finally arrived.

Ban Nai 11 Ban Nai 12 This version came with a small "pile" of veggies – mostly bean sprouts, some carrots and spinach, etc…..for what seems to be a two dollar upcharge that's not really worth the price. The shio broth seemed even lighter than the shoyu version, less rich, but not as salty. For some reason, there was a pungency like that of white pepper that resonated with me. I preferred this broth to the shoyu version.

As before the chashu was tender, flavorful, and quite good.

Ban Nai 13

Ban Nai 14

The light, almost airy, noodles were cooked nicely this time. It seemed like the noodles were wider and even more curly on this visit.

And then I came across a "blob" at the bottom of the bowl.

Ban Nai 15 Ban Nai 17 Apparently some noodles were stuck together during the cooking process and melded into a hard, inedible ball of gluten madness. Oh man, what a bummer. I showed this to the young man working who was speechless and told me "sorry" and then walked away. Soon someone else brought me my check! So, perhaps I was in an alternate universe at that moment having lunch at Kita-"katai" Ramen?

In spite of some shortcomings, some of what I had was quite good. And I believe that Ban Nai is way ahead of what I call the "typical level B" ramen shops in San Diego, providing a good change of pace from all the Tonkotsu and Hakata style ramen in the area. And heck, my first visit to Santouka when they opened in San Diego was not very impressive either. Hopefully, they will keep getting better. We'll see in a couple of months.

Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai
7951 Othello Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 10pm
Saturday 11am – 10pm
Sunday 11am – 9pm

Supannee House of Thai Revisited

July 18, 2023 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Recently, the Missus and I decided to take a drive out to Point Loma to check out the new Jiaozi shop, Meet Dumpling. Unfortunately, the tiny shop with just 4 tables was full and folks were waiting in line. So, we needed to come up with a plan B. Luckily, Supannee House of Thai is in the same strip mall. It had been almost two years since we'd last visited, doing takeout during Covid and five-and-a-half since we last dined in at Supannee. It was prime weather for our Thai food fix. Plus, if I remember correctly, Supannee had also changed ownership since our last visit. So, we walked on in.

The place was nice and quiet.

Supannee Rev 01

We ended up ordering four dishes from the really mellow and sweet young man working.

Back in 2021, "FOY" Si recommended the Nam Khao Tod from Supannee, which ended up being a winner. We had to order it for dining in ($14.99).

Supannee Rev 02

And it's still a favorite of ours here. The nice chunks of sour sausage. The crispy rice was also in crunchy chunks. The generous amount of ginger was tempered by the lime and the peanuts. I enjoyed eating this with the provided cabbage.

I'm not sure what got into the Missus, but She insisted on ordering the Satay Chicken ($11.99).

Supannee Rev 03

Supannee uses chicken tenders for this and man, this is so dry. We also tried just the chicken alone which was very bland. It really needed the peanut sauce which was also quite mild in flavor and overly sweet for our taste. I don't think we'll be ordering this in the future.

Another of favorite of ours here is the Nam Tok ($14.99).

Supannee Rev 04

While I still think that the dish could use more of the nutty roasted rice powder and the beef tends to be on the toothsome side; the meat is flavorful and the bright acidity from lime really highlights the dish. We also love the marinade.

We got the Grapow Pork Belly ($18.99) which we ordered spicy.

Supannee Rev 05

The Missus quickly poached the fried egg which was nice and runny in the center. This wasn't very spicy to us and we kind of figure that the heat level is adjusted for the customer base. We enjoyed the crisp green beans; the pork belly was fairly tender. We wish there was more Thai Basil in this dish as it could have used a bit more "umph" and was perhaps a bit too sweet for our tastes as well.

We didn't get our usual favorite on this visit, the Thai Sausage. We'll save that for next time. As of right now, Supannee stands as a solid #2 on our list of Thai Restaurants in San Diego. We need to get back out there to check out more places.

Supannee House of Thai
2907 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 1130am – 3pm, 430pm – 9pm
Sat – Sun 1130am – 9pm

And while we didn't get to check out the dumpling shop, Supannee did just fine by us on a rather hot day.

Monday Meanderings – Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodles Opens, Pho Duyen Mai Under New Ownership (?), and What the Heck Happened to Nijiya’s Chicken Karaage

July 17, 2023 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, Vietnamese Restaurants

A couple of things for a warm Monday.

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodles Opens:

I was driving on Engineer Road when I came across new signage over the shop that used to house Harmony Pot Sticker which closed during Covid and became some kind take out place named Burger Box that served chicken sandwiches, but kept the Harmony sign.

I drove on into the parking lot to take this photo.

Seems like they just opened a couple of weeks ago. It's been a while since we've had a Yunnan Restaurant in the area, so will be interesting to check out.

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle
7905 Engineer Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Duyen Mai Under New Ownership?:

My good friend Candice mentioned that the folks from Cross Street Chicken have taken over Pho Duyen Mai! Talk about catching me by surprise! Even though I'd already had lunch, I decided to drive on by…..and things look the same to me.

Duyen Mai Rev 01

I'll drop by for some pho soon.

Pho Duyen Mai
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

What the Heck Happened to Nijiya's Chicken Karaage?:

I shop at Nijiya a couple of times a week and will grab a bento or some chicken karaage to have for dinner with some curry/onigiri/etc. The karaage, while not particularly crisp, had decent flavor, and was fine when heated in the toaster oven/air fryer.

So, I was intrigued when I saw this sign.

So, I decided to grab some to try. I thought the color was really pale.

It lacked flavor was not juicy in the least bit and super chewy/hard. I tried it again on another visit and the darn thing wouldn't brown at all, the coating was quite gummy.

Sigh, another bites the dust. I'll have to stick with the shio koji fried chicken I guess. I spoke to an acquaintance who works at Nijiya part time and she agreed with me saying the karaage was so tough she could barely swallow it.

Sad.

Nijiya Market
3860 Convoy St Ste 109
San Diego, CA 92111

Tadian Café and Paris Sandwiches Revisited

July 13, 2023 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Restaurants

Man, did some one flip the "summer switch" or what? I was actually planning on doing my post on Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai last night but it was just too hot to even think about ramen. So, I thought perhaps I'd do it today….but after stewing in my juices (literally) I decided to just put off that post until next week. I think folks would enjoy a post on ramen more when (if?) the weather is a bit cooler or at least when we're at the point where we've grown a bit more used to the heat.

Of course the rather warm weather has changed my eating habits a bit……..so here's what I've had for lunch this week.

Tadian Café:

It had been a while since I've had a sandwich from Tadian. The fact that they open at 9am is convenient as is the fact that an online order can be placed with no service fee. So, I can order online and head on over and pick up my sandwich in no time at all. As always, my sandwich was waiting on the counter when I arrived. The young lady who works here is always smiling and friendly.

As before, I got the Thai Roast Beef ($10.75), on which I requested jalapenos and extra toasted (no charge), and avocado ($1.25).

I removed my fairly hefty sandwich from the package and quickly noticed the, ahem, "skid marks".

Tadian Rev 01

And yes, the bread at the bottom of the sandwich, even though I ordered it extra toasted was saturated. The sandwich is quite "bready", so the addition of jalapenos really adds some umph. I enjoyed the interplay of the creamy avocado and the pickled, banh mi-ish veggies. Also enjoy the cucumber, though I wish there was more cilantro on this. I can barely make out the "peanut sauce" used on the sandwich.

Tadian Rev 03

Like I noted previously, this is almost like a bready, pseudo banh mi. I think I'll pass on the mayo next time.

Tadian Cafe
5955 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92121

Paris Sandwiches:

I know, I just posted on Paris Sandwiches two months ago. I actually drove to the area thinking that I'd do some takeout from Ngon Ngon. But when I got out of my vehicle it felt so darn hot that I turned right instead of left and headed on over to Paris Sandwiches.

Paris Rev 01

For some reason, some nem nuong sounded good to me so I ordered the Nem Nuong Banh Mi ($6.75).

Paris Rev 02 Paris Rev 03 I enjoyed that the bread was airy, crusty, and slightly yeasty. The bright and acidic pickled veggies pared well with the good amount of cilantro which was mostly leaves…having a banh mi full of cilantro stems is a pet peeve of mine. There were two slices of sinus clearing jalapenos in the sandwich. I enjoyed the savory, slightly sour, nem nuong, which also had a nice slightly chewy-meaty texture.

Paris Rev 04

I'm appreciating the consistency of the banh mi at Paris. Heck, I may have just found my new favorite banh mi shop in San Diego!

Paris Sandwiches
10606 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

I hope everyone is keeping cool and staying hydrated!

Side Piece Bar Opens in Bay Park – A Quick Look

July 11, 2023 mmm-yoso Pubs and Pub Grub

A couple months back, Adam from Bay Hill Tavern told me that the folks from BHT had taken over the spot that used to be a check cashing shop next door and it was going to be a bar called Side Piece….of course, I didn't quite hear things clearly and said "what, you're calling the place cod piece?" Regardless, I still think a name like "Side Piece" is, well, a bit "interesting". Anyway, Cod Piece Side Piece quietly opened last week and I wanted to check the place out. The Missus was busy, so I recruited our good friend "Alle" for a quick visit. Right now, from the street, you really can't tell that Side Piece is open.

Side Piece 01

In fact, I was told that the door signs just went up.

Side Piece 02

I was told that Side Piece was to be a 21 and up bar that features "sports" whatever that means along with an abbreviated drink and food menu. To me, it sounded like a more hipster version of Champs?

Still the place is spacious and there's a pool table those who want to partake.

Side Piece 03

There are eight pulls for beer and two pulls for "wine".

Side Piece 04

And a list of house cocktails. It's definitely a smaller selection than BHT. I was told that the "selling point" was that this was a place for "grown ups only".

Side Piece 05

I decided on a La Buchona…..

Side Piece 06

Our recent trip to Tequila has given me an appreciation for Tequila Blanco and this worked fine.

There's a very tight menu of food available, with total "bar food" items like potato skins that aren't on the menu at BHT.

Side Piece 07

And the "pretzels" here are pretzel balls ($12). Which I got with some Habanero sauce.

Side Piece 08

After all, one does need something in their belly when consuming "la buchona".

Overall, it was an interesting visit. I'm hoping that Side Piece will eventually accommodate a good amount of folks making seats/tables more available at BHT. Right now, there's an interesting "speakeasy" feel to the place….which "Alle" and I thought would have been an interesting concept here.

Side Piece 09

Side Piece
3010 Clairemont Drive
San Diego, CA 92117
Current Hours
Daily 5pm – Midnight

Sovereign Modern Thai Cuisine Revisited

July 10, 2023 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

The recent warm weather has the Missus craving Thai food again. It seems that our options with regards to Thai Restaurants, whether to change in ownership or a not so great recent visit has been whittled down a bit. After a bit of probing, I found that what the Missus has really been missing is the food from Sovereign Thai, which presents its own set of issues. First off, the location is "interesting" and also presents issues with parking and also trying to get there before Padres games on off days. Over the last 3-4 months, the Missus and I have been using the trolley more; to get to places in Old Town and Little Italy for our date nights. So why not stretch it a bit and take the Blue Line to Park and Market, then walk the two blocks or so to Sovereign, right?

As we were walking to the restaurant, after having to resist a couple of "folks with issues", we walked into Sovereign which was empty.

Sovereign Rev 01

I also realized that the Missus had never dined in at Sovereign! I wanted to say "hi" to Jumi, whom I've known since the days of Thai Papaya but she wasn't in.

We placed our order, three of our "standards" and one new dish to try.

The first item out was the Spicy Stir Fried Pork Belly ($19) an item from the "Specials" list.

Sovereign Rev 02

The skin of the pork belly was still crisp when this was served; the flesh buttery and tender. Not very spicy though and really salty, the Thai Basil was incinerated and had lost a lot of the anise flavor.

Rice ($5) was then provided.

Sovereign Rev 04

The rice was not fragrant and hard, like it had been sitting for a while.

The Missus and I looked at each other and wondered if coming here was a mistake.

But things were soon back on track with one the Missus's favorites, the Eggplant with Basil ($13).

Sovereign Rev 03

While this was also slightly high on the sodium scale for us, ginger helped to cut things back. The eggplant had been cooked perfectly, first at first touch, then uber-creamy! The cilantro and Thai basil add a nice, one-two punch of sweet anise and citrusy-peppery-pungent tones to the dish.

Of course I had to get the Northern Thai Spicy Sausage ($12) which is made inhouse.

Sovereign Rev 05

With the wonderful herbaceous tones, the "snap" of the sausage, the light filling with sneaky spice, this is my favorite version of Issan Sausage.

The Missus's favorite dish from Sovereign is the Hat Yai Fried Chicken ($23).

Sovereign Rev 06

While it holds up quite well doing takeout and is even pretty good the next day; having it fresh to the table really highlites the wonderful moistness of the meat and the crispness of the exterior of the bird. As always, we love the fried shallots, the hint of sweetness with wonderful savory tones.

Overall, this was a nice meal. Strangely, we were the only customers in the place during our whole meal.

As for using the trolley to return….well, I think going past America Plaza might be an issue for the Missus.

I guess I'll have to drive down for takeout again in the future. Too bad, because this is by far our favorite Thai restaurant in San Diego.

Sovereign Modern Thai Cuisine
1460 J Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Current Hours:
Mon – Tues 5pm – 9pm
Wed – Thurs 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm
Fri – Sat 12pm – 930pm
Sunday 12pm – 9pm

Taichung – Yizhong Night Market, Revisiting Miyahara (Twice), and Doing Some Shopping

July 7, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Taiwan, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, Travel, Xiao Long Bao

This is a pretty long post, so I'm going to try to keep the verbiage to a minimum.

After our late lunch at Taichung Rou Yuan we took the short walk back to our hotel and took a break. For dinner, we decided to visit another night market. We didn't feel like getting a cab to Fengxia Night Market, which is said to be the largest in Taiwan. Instead, we decided to take the 20-30 minute walk to the Yizhong Street Night Market instead.

Along the way we strolled thru Taichung Park, which has a large man-made lake.

Folks in Taiwan really know how to relax and seem to be very social.

As we crossed Jingwu Road onto Yizhong Street, things didn't look too busy.

But one block further down….well, man it was super packed.

It was just overwhelming to say the least.

Some of the lines were crazy. We walked from one end of the road to the other end. Not only were the stands busy, but the shops that line the street with everything from food, to cosmetics, gifts, clothes, and knickknacks were as well. As we hit the far end of the street, things calmed down a bit, the crowd seemed a bit older and there was even some seating…..

From here we took a quick loop around the stands again and found our places.

This booth made Rou Jia Mo, which looked good. It wasn't the typical Shaanxi style rou jia mo like we had in Xi'an, but featured and light and almost flaky bread, not like the typical "baijimo" (flatbread). This was very tasty.

This booth was selling XLB like dumplings.

Which were being made on the spot.

You placed your order, was given a number. When your order was ready it was called out.

These were pretty darn good…so porky!

Because we'd had a huge breakfast and a late lunch; this was enough for us. Plus, even though this was a bit of fun; the crowds were getting to us.

We took a quieter, roundabout way back to where our hotel was located.

On the way back, we decided to drop by Miyahara again.

As I mentioned in that earlier post; Miyahara is owned by Dawncake whose main store we visited earlier. This place has all kinds of "stuffs" that you never knew you needed.

While this fanciful, "Harry Potterish" shop used to be an ophthalmology clinic, it's now known for all their stuffs and the ice cream served here is super popular. We loved this "punny" sign.

After all the walking we'd done, we slept quite soundly.

The next morning we woke refreshed.

And availed ourselves of the nice and huge buffet breakfast.

The variety was impressive.

Our train to Chiayi was not leaving until 120pm, so we packed and stored our luggage at the front desk and headed out to do some additional Pineapple Cake shopping for my MIL. On Ziyou Road we found several shops selling pineapple cake, after having tastes, two of them past muster and we bought some.

I thought that the Pineapple Cake from this shop was the best I tasted during our entire trip.

Of course, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and I've had my fill of Pineapple Cake so don't even ask me to taste any……

We saw a location of Ten Ren Tea and having visited the SF location many times were curious. We walked in and were greeted by the sweetest woman.

The Missus loved one of the Oolong Tea's and was told it's a limited crop and is only sold in this area and is not exported so the Missus got it.

While chatting with the woman, the Missus was constantly cracking up. Later She told me that the woman was dissing other tea producers, but doing it in the most "sweetest" way that She couldn't help but crack up!

We did a bit more exploring.

And took our required tea break.

And even headed back to Miyahara…..

Before heading back to the hotel, picking up our bags and making the short Taichung Station. We weren't catching the HSR, so we could leave from the station in the city.

The original Taichung Station has become a historical park and the structure along with the very modern station next to it makes quite the juxtaposition of buildings.

The old rails have been converted to sitting and dining areas….

And of course, there was yet another craft market going on!

Of course we had a train to catch and did not have much time to dally, so my wallet was left unscathed!

And soon enough we were off to our next stop! Chiayi!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rebuilding the Rotation – The Market at HFS, Sue’s Korean Kitchen, Bay Park Coffee, and Zgara Greek Grill

July 6, 2023 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Greek Food, Korean Restaurants, Poke

I'm not sure you've noticed, but we've gone on quite few trips since December, one of which was a month long! I know, we here all about "revenge travel" these days. Well, I'm not sure that's what it is for us. We're all getting older and for…at least me, I'm thinking better revenge travel now than to have wait longer and let it become "Depends" travel if you know what I mean. With all of those trips; it's been pretty difficult getting "back in the rhythm" of things like developing that rotation.

But it looks like things are straightening out and I'm ever slowly falling back into a routine. So here are a couple of places, most should be quite familiar to regular readers, I'll just leave it as a C(learing) O(ut the) M(emory) C(ard) post with a minimum of verbiage.

The Market at HFS:

**** HFS has moved their retail location and is now HFS at Centerpark Labs

It seems that the warmer the weather gets, the more I visit.

There had been a gap of over five months since I've restarted my visits and I no longer know the folks working here. The selection is smaller these days; at least on my two recent visits, though those didn't take place during what I recall were the peak days.

I basically stick with the ahi poke here and it still hits the spot. As things heat up and the Missus starts wanting poke, I'm sure I'll be visiting even more often.

Sue's Korean Kitchen:

The folks in the office really like Sue's, so it's been a fairly regular stop for me. Plus, they open at 10am which helps me to beat lunch time crowds.

It's the Kimchi Fried Rice that has us coming back.

Sue’s Korean Kitchen
6755 Mira Mesa Blvd.
Suite 109
San Diego, CA 92121

In my neck of the woods; well, there's not much. But here're two places that I hit up regularly.

Bay Park Coffee:

I usually meet our good friend "Alle" who was Frankie's favorite Auntie for coffee and to catch up on things once a week or so.

BPC COMC 01

And though they've had some staffing turnover over the last year or so, the folks working are quite nice. We usually catch up on things over a cold brew and veggie bagels.

BPC COMC 02

Bay Park Coffee
4130 Napier St
San Diego, CA 92110

Zgara Greek Grill:

After my last revisit to GyroGrill, I headed straight back to Zgara. I hadn't been in a while and business there seems to have really picked up.

Zgara R 01

And take a look at the photos from my last visit to GyroGrill and compare the gyro there to this version.

Zgara R 03

So, of course I'm now back in the habit of visiting as often as I can and it's still the pork gyros here for me. It's always great to chat with Eric, who remembers me from the days when Zgara was in PB.

Zgara Greek Grill
1229 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110

So, hopefully I'm back in the rhythm now and will be adding places back to the rotation. As always, I'm so thankful for your visits and comments!

What's been on your rotation recently?