**** Poppy Boba has closed
I was driving home from Nijiya the “back way”, via Stalmer, then Beagle Street when a shop caught my eye.
This is on the Beagle Street side of the mall that houses The Pad Thai Stand and Carnival Market. This seemed like a new shop as I didn’t recall seeing it before. Since I’m not much of a “boba” kinda guy I wouldn’t have given the place much attention; but I noticed the bottom of the sign said “banh mi”. Hmmmm……… I went ahead and added the place to my “list” to check out when the weather got warmer; which was just about a week later. So, I decided to drop by. Checking the hours I noticed that unlike many shops that do banh mi; Poppy opens at 11.
I walked on over and entered the elongated shop which was a counter and all kitchen.
A very nice young woman was working. I had a quick glance at the liquid refreshment based menu.
Basically baos and various snacks, alongside banh mi and rice bowls. Sadly, only three different “fillings” are available; Grilled Pork, Grilled Chicken, or Lemongrass Tofu. Obviously “Poppy” is more of a westernized “Asian” snack shop. As I looked over the menu, a woman walked in with two large bags of banh mi….so, I figured what the heck, at least my bread will be fresh, right?
I went and ordered the Grilled Pork Banh Mi ($10.50). It was fairly sizeable.
The bread was very crusty…it was indeed quite fresh, though it didn’t hold up real well because there was a bit too much mayo. The menu said the banh mi has pate in it; but I could not find, nor taste any. There was a good amount of pork, in chunks, fairly chewy, but decently savory-sweet-salty.
It was kind of unevenly put together as the “chunk” of cucumber only covered half of the width of the sandwich. Not enough pickled carrots and daikon, nor cilantro. I’ve always stated when confronted by over-stuffed banh mi that I appreciate proportion when it comes to these type of sandwiches. The jalapeno was sliced fairly thick and it was fun playing “jalapeno roulette”.
It was an ok “Americanized” banh mi.
During my visit, I had seen something on the menu that caught my attention. There was something called “Japanese Egg Sandwich” on the menu. So, I decided to drop in on my way home from Nijiya a few days later. Same nice young lady working. Based on the price; $5.75, I didn’t expect this to be too large and it wasn’t. Which was a good thing since I wasn’t very hungry.
Here’s what it looked like scaled against a quarter.
I had noticed that it was toasted, which was a clue that the folks here weren’t using Shokupan, the classic Japanese Milk Bread; a must for a egg salad sando, which this was definitely not. I missed the light, fluffy texture and the slight sweetness that the proper bread brings to the sando.
Just making egg salad with Kewpie Mayonnaise does not make it a proper Japanese egg salad sandwich.
The dill added some refreshing anise tones, but was unevenly distributed. There was a nice layer of egg salad.
Not a terrible sandwich; but definitely not a Egg Salad Sando! 
Overall, the young lady working was very nice. The sandwiches ok, but not worth going out of your way for…it’s Americanized – Asian to me. Still, it’s interesting to see these businesses slowly making their way into the area. I’m interested to see what’s coming next as there seems to be some vacancies in this strip mall.
Poppy Boba Kitchen
3538 Ashford St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Tues – Sun 11am – 8pm
Closed on Mondays
The bread looked like a rolled French Baguette. It was quite crusty, though a bit more dense then what I'd call a typical banh mi. The jalapenos were really mild. There was a thin sliver of cucumber….though I must say that cucumbers are MIA in many banh mi's these days. There was a good ration of pickled veggies to mayo to pork.
Well, this is about the same as Phuong Nga. The bread is very crusty which I like, though a bit more chewy than I prefer. These days, many banh mi shops don't even include cucumber in their sandwiches; but it's present here. The jalapeno was pretty mellow on this sandwich. Of course, one of my pet peeves; the cilantro was mostly stems….I already floss daily; I don't need to have my sandwich doing it as well. The proteins are sliced on the thicker side and there are less pickled veggies than before. What I really liked about this sandwich was the amount of pate. Upon biting, the pate basically oozed out…a funky, earthy, creamy, savory "puss" of the most delicious sort.
And yes, it was quite full of Cha Lua, Thit Nguoi…… What I think banh mi purists' will appreciate, I'm looking at you "Billy" is that Phoung Nga still includes cucumbers in their banh mi, a rarity these days. The bread, as usual is a bit heavily baked (onsite), making it more hard and crusty than having a nice balance of light, crusty-flaky. But these days, this is almost a blessing, as much of what I've had is soft and doughy. There's a good amount of pickled veggies, the jalapenos were present, but not overly spicy on this visit. This was a nice lunch for me.
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.
First off, the bread was as I recalled from the "old school" location, crusty and fairly dense, with some yeastiness.
I did find the ratio of Bi (pork skin) to be kind of small compared to the amount of pickled veggies and even cilantro. And of course, I think that it's all about ratios when it comes to these sandwiches. Strangely, I found that the Bi had an almost sweet-sour flavor? Though those jalapenos did a good job of clearing my sinuses.
Much like the Dac Biet, this version had quite a bit more meat than what I've had from Paris Bakery. In terms of consistency, Paris scored well as the bread was crusty and yeasty, those jalapenos nice and spicy, and the pickled veggies nice and refreshing.
So, I peeled back the bread to reveal watery, runny, flavorless eggs, and though the Spam slices were fairly thick they lacked color. I recall trying to order a 
As I walked toward the shop I noticed several gentleman sitting facing the front of the store and then noticed that they have a television facing the parking lot, so folks can watch from outside of the place! Funny thing. Though I'm quite used to the Vietnamese Men "doing coffee" thing…..I don't ever recall seeing them watching Paw Patrol before, which is what was streaming at the time I entered the shop.
The bread seemed to be at that overly dry, almost stale stage as it was quite crumbly and hard. Check out all the cilantro, that wedge of cucumber, and all those pickled veggies! I guess they wanted to make I was getting my daily allowance here! Of course that threw the balance of the banh mi off a bit. The jalapenos weren't overly spicy, the pate nice and funky, the Cha Lua sliced super thin, and the Thịt Nguoi standard issue. 
their hours were now only from 8am to 3pm Mondays to Fridays. I did pass by on a Saturday and I noticed activity in the place. And then it dawned on me…..all that bread you see 
The banh mi here have always been on the "hefty" side in my opinion and this was no different. First off, the bread was really crusty, I felt perhaps a bit too heavily baked? One bite resulted in crusty "shrapnel" flying in all directions. Still, this was much better than what I've 
