Breakfast/Brunch – Page 16

Traditions- Rosca de Reyes (from Su Pan) and Calendars

January 6, 2018 Cathy Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! welcomes you to this first Saturday of 2018 with a post from Cathy. Kirk is feeling a bit under the weather.

Today, January 6, is the 12th Day after Christmas. This evening, the 12th Night, is when The Mister and I take down our decorations (which went up on Christmas Eve). It is traditionally known as the Feast of the Three Kings or Epiphany.

Earlier this week, we dropped by Su Pan Bakery to order the Rosca de Reyes, a traditional pastry symbolizing a King's ring which we will have while working on dismantling the tree and cards and decorations. {If there were people helping us, then whomever gets the piece of Rosca with the hidden tiny plastic 'Baby Jesus' inside would be responsible to host the Candelmas Day meal on February 2, another traditional day to take down decorations}.

I did purchase a small Rosca to mail to family back East, hoping they would receive it today…but the weather is very bad and the Post Office tracking shows it probably won't get there until Monday. At least it will be pretty much frozen and probably still fresh. Samples of Rosca on the counter…

Su Pan is probably our favorite bakery, not only for the sweets, but also the fresh bread and the breakfasts (tortas, burritos and plates), lunch tortas and, on Friday and Saturday evenings, street tacos- grilling out in the parking lot.
A ham and egg and cheese breakfast bollilo ($4.99). The bollilo (bread) baked here, of course, is fresh. A nice, light crispy, perfect crust. The filling is a wonderful, light scramble of egg and cheese and pieces of ham. The combination of bread and filling is just a perfect breakfast bite.
The bacon, egg and cheese burrito )$4.99) is also a perfect meld of flavors (as well as filled with wonderful pieces of bacon).

Su Pan Bakery 5006 El Cajon Blvd San Diego 92115 Website Open 5 a.m.-10:30p.m. daily

Another New Year tradition for us is changing the calendars with new, business giveaway calendars. The Mister and I usually are on the hunt for these beginning in November, but this year, we were busy and only managed to acquire a few on our own, and I was thrilled to have been helped by my friend, cc, who, with another friend, (Astroboi), went around acquiring(mentioned at the bottom of that post) the majority of the calendars this year.
As always, we must have an Orchard Supply Hardware train calendar (since 1931, all of their calendars have featured trains-the artist this year is John Winfield ). We usually picked one up after decorating Rose Parade floats in Pasadena, but now there is an Orchard Supply close to home. Nijiya Market always has a beautiful, botanic themed calendar and the Zion Market calendar is quite large and good for writing appointments.
Both Seafood City and Lucky Seafood Supermarket have the traditional 'bamboo' calendars, with drawings depicting the Year of the Dog. Otay Mandarin Chinese Restaurant gave away a beautiful, desktop/standing calendar.

There were more, including the Beautiful photography of the Hudson River Valley, given away by the Marist College, a refrigerator magnet calendar from a local realtor, the HMart desktop style, the Buffalo Exchange (which has the calendar in Spanish, indicates the Days of the Saints and begins in December) and, when we were in Pasadena for the Rose Parade Showcase of floats (another post), we stopped in at the House of Cookies and Mrs. Arsen gave us one of their Armenian themed calendars (with Armenian text). It's hanging right next to my desk and I'll try to learn from it this year.

I hope everyone is having a great year, filled with tradition.

The DFDS Overnight Cruise – Copenhagen to Oslo

December 30, 2017 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, Breakfast/Brunch, Denmark, Nordic/Scandanvian Food and Restaurants, Norway, Travel

As I mentioned in my previous post; I'd made reservations to take the overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo. I thought this would be interesting for several reasons; first, the Missus had never been on a "cruise" and I thought this would be a nice way to see if this suited Her. Second, the Missus just doesn't care to see the same folks day after day. This was an overnight cruise, so I didn't think we'd be seeing the same folks all the time. Third, in terms of price, $269, think of it as a room and transportation, I thought it reasonable. A quick note on prices, there were fares as low as $88. But, having a read a few posts and I actually know two people who have done this, it became quite clear that a lot of young people take the cruise because booze is so cheap……international, duty free and all. So, since we'd be leaving on a Saturday night, more comfortable accommodations, I believe we had what they called "Commodore De Luxe" class would suite us well.

That's the view from our cabin. Our room was very comfortable.

And there was an attendant who went over our cabin with us….including the mini-bar with complimentary sparkling wine, beer, and water.

There was also a lounge for folks in Commodore Class, which was a really nice touch.

Complimentary beer, wine, drinks, and snacks.

Right out the door was the deck. Even though it was winter, the views were quite nice.

Soon we were underway. We decided to take a look around. Here's our Captain for this cruise.

The Duty Free Shop was a feeding frenzy of folks buying up cheap booze, clothes, and other stuffs. It was kind of crazy so we just headed back to our cabin.

We decided to get an early dinner. I'd spent an extra $40 for the "Christmas Buffet" dinner. So we headed down to that dining room. There weren't very many people eating at 530pm.

It was quite a generous spread; but much of it wasn't to our liking.

We enjoyed the pickled herring and smoked fish the best.

Much of it was either too salty, over-cooked, and just not prepared to our taste.

I was excited to try the game meats, but was also disappointed in preparations. Lacking in flavor other than being really salty.

The Missus and I split up and came back with a sampling of the various dishes.

In the end; we might have been better off just grabbing a sandwich and relaxing. Though the smoked and pickled fish were quite good.

After dinner we just went up to the lounge and relaxed.

Before ending our evening, we took one more walk around. At 9pm there already were folks feeling….well, pretty good. One guy was doing the Tarzan yell down one of the hallways! It was time to call it a night. After a nightcap of course.

The location of our room was very quiet, except for the two guys pounding on some door at 2am in the morning.

As for the Missus; well, She had a hard time sleeping. Not because of the movement or noise, but because of the vibration of the boat. So, I didn't get a ton of sleep either.

We decided to get an early breakfast. The "Commodore's Breakfast" was included in the price of our cabin and was in a different dining room than the regular buffet breakfast.

The selection and quality was decent.

More pickled herring and smoked salmon.

We took the long way back to the cabin. We enjoyed spending time on the deck.

In spite of the cold; it was really neat watching the ship slowly arrive in Oslo.

Soon enough we'd arrived at around 945am. Folks gathered to disembark and it was a bit of a cattle-call.

Though I'm certain it wasn't everyone….especially the folks who drank the night away.

As for us…well, it was a brand new day….and we'd arrived in Oslo!

Copenhagen – Breakfast, The National Museum, Torvehallerne Market, and the Coffee Collective

December 28, 2017 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Caffeine Fix, Denmark, Markets & Grocers, Travel

It kind of goes without saying that Denmark and Norway are not the most inexpensive places to visit.

So having breakfast provided by your hotel really does help. I've spoken to folks who had two meals a day in Copenhagen; they filled up on breakfast and then had dinner.

And based on our experience everyone does take advantage of the breakfasts. The selection was not bad; decent cheeses, the tomatoes tasted really good. The Missus really liked the very rustic, traditional Danish Rye bread; Rugbrød. I took a little longer….at first, the hard seeds and really dry texture made me call it simply "rug". But over time it grew on me. As you can tell from this breakfast, I was still in "rug" mode.

I really did enjoy the Skyr……something I really enjoyed in Iceland. And the breakfast did indeed fill us up as we weren't hungry until dinner.

While we were headed out on this day; our overnight cruise to Oslo wasn't leaving until the afternoon. So we went ahead and checked out, storing our bags for later.

We now had to figure out what to do? The Missus decided on visiting the National Museum of Denmark which ended up being a great idea. It was a nice walk across the Inner City.

It's quite a large museum, but we lucky and managed to somehow get on the museum "highlights tour" in English. The young lady was delightful. Stopping by all the major displays like the Egtved Girl and giving us the lowdown. This Bronze Age girl and national icon isn't Danish. In 2015, scientific analysis of the remains determined that she was not from Jutland, but probably from the Black Forest.

She also went over the importance of Amber to the Danish.

We learned some really fun things. Did you know that Viking men were quite vain and cared about their appearance? They were known to keep combs and grooming "kits". They also bathed once a week, unheard of in those days. And no, there's no evidence they wore those horned helmets!

At the end the young lady went over the concept of Hygge and it's importance to Danish culture.

We usually don't enjoy tours like this one because of the amount of people. But there was only 5 of us in the group, so it was a lot of fun.

The National Museum of Denmark
Prinsens Palais
Copenhagen, Denmark

We then took our time heading back to the hotel. Just a mere two blocks from our hotel was Torvehallerne Market which houses over 60 shops and food stands in two glass buildings.

And while we didn't have time to eat here on either leg of the trip, we'd stop by and just walk around looking at the various stands.

The produce stands between the two buildings had a some really great looking stuff.

We especially loved how the potatoes still had soil on them….like they'd just been pulled out of the ground a few minutes ago.

We decided to kill some time and take a break at the Coffee Collective. A very busy stand in the market.

The Missus had the Coffee Kombucha which was really fizzy. I had a super strong double espresso….jet fuel.

The Coffee Collective Torvehallerne
Vendersgade 6D
Copenhagen, Denmark

Soon enough, it was time head back to the hotel and pick up our bags. We'd have to get the bus to the DFDS terminal. We were taking the overnight cruise to Oslo. We had checked out the rather discreet bus stop before heading to the museum. Pick-up time for us was 215pm, so off we went.

Past Saint Andrew's Church.

Down Gothersgade, left on Øster Voldgade and voila! The bus had arrived just as we did and we got on quickly as I had prepaid transport. We were amazed at how full the bus got. I've read that a lot of folks do day trips, arriving from, say Oslo in the morning. Spending the day shopping and seeing the sights, then heading back in the afternoon for the return overnight trip.

The Missus had never been on a cruise before. She has a problem seeing the same people over and over again, so long cruises and tours are out. This was just an overnight cruise; think of it as your transportation and hotel room combined.

This was going to be interesting……

Swami’s Cafe (La Mesa) (revisit)

December 12, 2017 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog. Kirk usually writes, but He and His Missus are on vacation. Cathy is writing today.

It's been about two years since I first posted about Swami's. There are nine locations of this family owned in San Diego County and La Mesa is closest to our home. Since it opens at 7 a.m. daily, we can get in and out without having to pay the parking meters which surround this location.
There are specials noted on almost every wall, but a 'normal' menu is also available (it has more items). You can read that at your leisure, instead of staring up at the chalkboards. Walk up, order, pay, get a number…
walk back near the front door and grab a cup and a beverage and condiments. Find a table, inside or out in front. Your food will be brought to you.

We were here on a Friday (when I don't eat meat) and the simple Egg Muffin ($5.95) was my order: One egg, mock bacon (or real bacon or real ham), mayo, tomato and mixed cheddar cheese. The mock bacon is smoky and has the right flavor, but isn't crispy. The toasted English muffin was really tasty; the sandwich, with its combination flavors, was *very* good.

The Green Omelette ($9.49)- asparagus, spinach, avocado, green onions, bell peppers, zucchini and feta cheese. This thick, overfilled omelette is really satisfying, flavored with fresh vegetables and the salty Feta, it's just good; you don't need added condiments (or meat). Those potatoes are amazing; no hash browns here.
My order on another Friday was the Veggie Hash($9.95): Sun Dried tomatoes, spinach, red onions, feta, potatoes, with (my choice) over easy eggs on top. This was very, very good. Fresh and so very flavorful; no condiments need to be added.

The pancakes here are craveable (especially the banana walnut) and the bacon is of a better quality-thick and smoky. I have several blurred photos of each.

The week is half gone, I hope yours is going well!

Swami's Cafe 8824 La Mesa Boulevard La Mesa 91942 (619) 668-9030 Open Mon-Sat 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Sun 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Website

Spice House Café (Kearny Mesa)

December 11, 2017 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!!, Food blog. Cathy is writing today; Kirk and His Missus are enjoying themselves away from electronics.

If you've ever driven on Claremont Mesa Boulevard, perhaps looking for the San Diego Superior Court or maybe the old Registrar of Voters building (now a new Kaiser Hospital), you've probably seen this signage and building.

It looks like it may have been a Coco's, Carrows, Bakers Square or maybe even a Big Boy, in its first iteration; some sort of family restaurant. Owned by two brothers, Spice House has been here since 1993. It's only open until 2:30 daily, serving breakfast (all day) and lunch. (Ignore that 'Dinner' portion of the sign.)

Kirk wrote a post about Spice House Café in 2005 and again in 2015.The Mister and I have been here many times, never posted.
We dropped in the other day because we were in the area and had different cravings. The interior had just been decorated for Christmas.
The soup of the day choice was either broccoli cream or vegetable- all the vegetables except broccoli, I think. There was cauliflower, potato, cabbage, green pepper, carrot, onion and celery. The broth had a deep flavor (either beef or chicken based), did not need salt or pepper or anything added. This was a *great* home made soup.
The soup was my side choice for my order of a Chicken Pita ($9.95)- grilled chicken (not gyros spiced or sliced; plainer), tomatoes, onions, fresh (house made) tzatziki in a warm, fresh pita. This was also really good, quite large. The accompanying pickle was a good quality.
The Mister really had a craving for Biscuits and Gravy (large, $3.75). Four from scratch, good quality biscuits topped with a (link) sausage gravy. The gravy itself is slightly sweet; not peppery. Definitely all from scratch and, again, really good.
He also ordered a side order of a beef patty ($3.15). It's the hand formed half pound patty that's in all of the 'Burger Specials', listed on the tabletop card (below). Grill top cooked to just barely medium, this was a quality burger.

Just good food. Another local place that has been around forever.

Spice House Cafe 9035 Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92123 Hours: Mon – Fri 6:00am – 2:30pm Sat – Sun 7:00am – 2:30pm Website

Sam Woo-more breakfasts

December 10, 2017 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! This blog is about food, sometimes with stories surrounding the consumption of the food. Not today. Kirk is still on his vacation and Cathy is writing.

I've written about Sam Woo for breakfast in 2007, 2009, and in 2011. Kirk even mentioned an item from the breakfast menu (at the bottom of this page) in a 2016 post. Not much has changed except the prices; each of the 31 items now cost a whopping $4.50.

{Other Sam Woo posts: Soo, wrote one earlier this year, cc met The Mister and I for breakfast last year and she went back a month later with a friend for his birthday breakfast, Faye was here in 2013 and Jinxie (who has since moved from San Diego, was here in 2012)}.
Hot tea (a pot is usually brought to the table) or hot coffee (served with condensed milk) is 30¢. We usually order one bowl of something to share. Porridge here is always good. I think the fish porridge (#8) is the best. (If you want to add some crunchy fried Chinese donut to your porridge, you have to walk across the hall to the steam tray section of 99 Ranch and purchase a package there).
The roast duck lo mein (#23) is a favorite order. The duck is so good, the lo mein are not mushy, the soup broth on the side is perfectly spiced and there are usually two or three pieces of bok choy, so you can also have your vegetables and a balanced meal. Wonton noodle soup (#9) and Shrimp dumpling noodle soup (#10) are interchangeable. The dumplings are tender and filled with good flavored pork (plus a half of a plump shrimp if you order #10). The broth sometimes is weak (sometimes is rich) but I tend to add the chili paste which is on the table tray of condiments, along with soy sauce and white pepper
about halfway through the meal. We usually order a third item, either #1 (seen another posts) or #2 or #3…this is #2- pan fried rice noodle with bean sprouts, onion and soy sauce. There is a good, smoky flavor/'wok hei' to these wide rice noodles which I sometimes crave.
Alternately, #3, crispy fried noodles with bean sprouts, onions and soy sauce are an indulgence and oh so very good.

An easy, filling breakfast or early lunch choice, right across the hall from 99 Ranch Market.

Sam Woo BBQ Restaurant 7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Ste 103 San Diego, CA 92111 Breakfast Mon-Fri 9-11, Sat-Sun 8:30-11

2018 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade float decorating. Meals from THH, Kolache Factory(Tustin) and Johnny’s Shrimp Boat (West Covina)

December 9, 2017 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for once again stopping to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog which sometimes (like today) shows the events surrounding the acquisition of meals. Kirk (and His Missus) are still on vacation and Cathy is writing.

Less than a month before the Tournament of Roses and float decoration has begun. The Mister and I were awake early last Saturday and got to the Phoenix Decorating Company barn in Irwindale before 8:30. So did a few hundred other people. We were there to do 'dry' decorating (fresh flowers and other fresh products start after Christmas).

I've been showing you road tests of the 2018 floats for the past few months (prior road tests linked at the top of that post), so you know in general what you are going to see. You can see artist renditions of these floats at this link.

If you'd like to read more about the Tournament and all its activities, this link to The Rose Examiner, is an excellent resource.

The Opening Unit, displaying the banner of the Theme of the 2018 parade- "Making A Difference" will be the first float you see.
The statice, in three colors, was ready for cutting. (In the background is the End Unit; last float you'll see in the parade). The statice petals (as well as other materials) are then blended in one of these BlendTec blenders and the powder is glued on parts of the float-makes the product be used efficiently. All visible parts of every float must be covered with natural materials. The scaffolds weren't set up and people were working at the lower levels on the City of Alhambra's float, "Story Time"
This material is 'paper bark'- it is prepared using stainless steel scrubbers, to be smooth- the product in the boxes in back is ready for application on the float.
Even rice is put in those blenders. The powder covers much more on a surface.An excellent example of rice powder- the inner ceiling of this three-part Honda float,which looks like this… The powdered rice is applied to the backs of the 'clouds' on the bottom the float; if it is visible, it has natural materials.

Palm bark is also used for decorating. The useable product is in the small box on top of the table.
The design on the back of the "Armenian Roots" float is similar to the Armenian Orphan rug, woven by Armenian genocide victims as a gift to President Coolidge – the tassels are raffia grass.

If you can enlarge, the black parts of the butterfly are black beans. The edge of the hearts are covered with red straw flower petals, which were not powdered: texture.Enlarging this photo shows the orange parts of this unique butterfly are lentils.
These yellow with orange edged roses are being covered with powdered yellow straw flowers. There will be about 30 of these flowers on the City of Hope Medical Center float, "Transforming Lives with Hope".
Rotary International's float, "Sowing the Seeds of Service" was being decorated from the climbing scaffolding- the hat is covered with Pac-Pac, a braided straw (you can see some Pac-Pac on the top step).
Here is the front of "Armenian Roots", depicting Mother Armenia and pomegranates, a symbolic fruit of Armenia.
Shriners Hospitals, "Caring for Kids Around the World" will be filled with details.
Lions Clubs International, "Preserving Our Environment" has multiple details, like these cattails, partly covered in dried parsnip. The Oddfellows and Rebbekahs float, "Sacrifice to Serve" has pictographs on both sides of the float. Much detail work will be completed over the next few weeks.
Kiwanis, "Racing to Serve Children" is so cute!
These are the red straw flowers, mentioned above.
The Lutheran Layman's League float, "Bringing Christ to the Nations". The Mister and I volunteer with their group, the Petal Pushers and are assigned to assist on whichever float needs assistance; our volunteering helps pay for this float, the only Christian themed float in the parade, now for the 68th year.
Detail for the Western Asset float, "Oceans of Possibility".
The United Sikh Mission float, "Serving Kindness" depicts the Sikh Langar, the worlds largest free kitchen, which serves over 100,000 meals a day and is in line with the theme of this parade "Making a Difference"
This is a 'tag along' to the Trader Joe's float,
which was still undergoing some mechanical corrections last week…the title, "Hats Off"…you'll see.

On to the food portion of this blog.

Tustin, the same parking lot and indecision for breakfast. The Mister went to the business on the left, Kolache Factory and I went to the business on the right, THH Sandwiches. An apricot and a bacon-cheese kolache from The Factory. A chicken and a pork pate chaud from THH. Enough protein to sustain and some nice carbs to enjoy.

Kolache Factory 14091 Newport Avenue Tustin 92780 (714) 730-2253 Website

THH 14081 Newport Ave Tustin, CA (714)731-1366 Open Mon-Sat 5 a.m.-7:30 p.m., Sun 7 am-4 pm website

We brought lunch, enjoyed in the industrial park area surrounding the decorating barn, consisting of sandwiches brought from home…

Worked until about 5 p.m. and started driving South on Vincent, one signal light East. The street name changed at some point to Glendora and we were in West Covina. We had passed here a few times this year, but Johnny's Shrimp Boat doesn't open until 9:30 a.m.. Look at it. We had to stop.
The menu is simple- there are specials for $6.95, $7.95 and $8.95. All have the option of a side consisting of rice with beans, gravy, chili or fries (or just fries) (and pretty much any combination of those items). Menu items consist of shrimp, fish, hamburger steak, pork chop, short ribs and teriyaki (beef, chicken or shrimp).
You order, pay, have a seat. There's no tipping jar. The young man out in front as well as the chef are very nice and know the 'regulars'. Your food is handed to you over the counter.
We tried the two fish, four shrimp combo with rice and beans ($7.95). The beans were plain and needed to have hot sauce added (there were condiments on the counter).

Both the fish and the shrimp were a good size, and perfectly batter fried.

There was a window sign for a $5 shrimp cocktail. It had five large, plump shrimp, was in a nicely spiced sauce with cucumber, onion, tomato and avocado…a great deal.

Good food, nice people, a great find. (Trivia: A scene from Cobra, a Stallone film, was filmed inside the Los Angeles location of Johnny's Shrimp Boat)
Johnny's Shrimp Boat 803 S. Glendora West Covina, 91790 (626) 813-3818 Open daily 9:30-9

Thanks for reading!

Mémo’s Bagel Cafe (Rancho San Diego)

December 6, 2017 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Sandwiches, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog you are reading, is a compilation of varied meal experiences. Today, while Kirk (and His Missus) are vacationing in another part of the world, Cathy is writing about a local place where She and Her Mister had a quick breakfast.

In late 2014, I told cc about a place with an intriguing name. It was a busy time of the year for me, but she went to the small storefront, next to a 7-11 named Pistachios, in Rancho San Diego and posted about it three times. When I had the time, late in the Summer/early Autumn of 2015, Pistachios was a monthly stop. When finally ready to post about it, I went for a final visit (to confirm current prices), it was closed.

I had heard it "was moving just across the street", but when I had the time to look, there never was a 'Pistachios' storefront anywhere. Fast forward to last week when The Mister and I were driving around with no plan except to find breakfast. We stopped here- Memo's Bagel Cafe.
The bagel display looked the same as Pistachios had.
So did the items being sold from the inside refrigerated section(although Pistachios had some of those items, notably the Middle Eastern flat breads, sold fresh and warm). There were pre-packed boxes of baklava next to the cash register- with the Pistachios label! We found it. The storefront is smaller, but one of the main draws for me-housemade bagels-were back.
Egg, cheese, sausage on an everything bagel ($4.75) was great- a good, thick, quality sausage, Swiss cheese, fluffy egg and the fresh, toasty bagel. It was perfect and as I remembered it.
"The Works" ($5.75)- egg, cheese, bacon, turkey and ham on a spinach parmesan bagel. So good, so tasty, so much (quality) meat. You can see the bagel itself has a green tinge from the spinach. By itself, this bagel is tasty.

The similarities between here and my favorite bagel place, PL Bagel are that both are family owned, the bagels are not overly large and the whole bagel is covered-
with the toppings- the bottoms aren't 'plain'.

Mémo's is a lot closer than Point Loma…so there will be further exploration of the menu.

Mémo's Bagel Cafe 2650 Jamacha Road, Suite 163 El Cajon, CA 92019 (619)660-1300 Mon-Sat 6-4, Sun 7-3

Izzy’s Cafe (return visit) (El Cajon)

November 29, 2017 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping by and reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Kirk is just busy right now, so Cathy is writing.

It's been almost five years since my Izzy's Cafe post. This El Cajon restaurant, open daily from 7-2 (now it is open on Sunday, but stopped doing dinner) has been at this corner of Broadway at Crosby for about 20 years.
The interior and table decor has remained the same (if you order coffee($2.50), you get whatever cup design is available) and the breakfast menu (at the bottom of this post) is fairly basic; the same ingredients in different combinations, prepared very well.
The diced ham scramble ($9.75) is made with the in-house mesquite smoked ham (Izzy's has it's own wood pit barbecue), cheese and three eggs, served with a choice of sides (these country potatoes or hash browns or grits)as well as a choice of muffin, biscuit, fresh fruit or toast (rye, of course was my order). {The list of daily muffin choices is on the white board at the front door}. We both asked for a side of the house made salsa, which is wonderful. I always add condiments after about halfway through a meal, making it seem like a different entree.
Also on the white board at the front door are daily specials, The Mister chose this one-two blueberry pancakes (made with fresh blueberries), two eggs and two sausage (or bacon) ($10.50). The pancakes were light with crisp edges and the plump blueberries were warm and burst with flavor- I didn't think the cakes needed syrup. The sausage is local made and large. It's a skinned type, made with mild (not traditional breakfast sausage) spices. The eggs were perfectly over easy.

Another nice meal at a local institution.

Izzy's Cafe 1252 Broadway El Cajon 92021 (619) 447-5067 Open daily 7-2

Franco’s Flapjack Family Restaurant (Poway)

November 27, 2017 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!

Thank you for (once again) stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! This food blog is just that, a blog.Today, Cathy is writing about a haooenstance meal while Kirk is still enjoying a bit of a vacation.

The Mister and I were driving North on the 15, intending to have a quick breakfast at Nutmeg Bakery and Cafe when the traffic in front of us just stopped. I took the Poway Road exit East. We hadn't been here in quite a while (years) and the area hasn't changed much. As we passed this signage, I took a U turn.

I had heard of Franco's in Bonita (from cc's post) but didn't know about a Poway location. After doing some research, it seems this location opened in August. We were greeted immediately (just before the lunch rush) and sat in the cooler back room area (there was a lot of sun in the front part). The Mister chose the chicken fried steak, which comes with three eggs (over easy, perfectly cooked) and home fries as well as a choice of toast or fresh baked muffin (there were about six choices; this was cappuccino and had a really nice coffee flavor-a quality, baked to order muffin). The chicken fried steak had a delightful thin, crisp crust and the steak was just about the perfect thickness. The gravy had sausage bits but not much pepper, which was fine-we added after tasting. I like having an option.

When walking in, the white board had a daily special of a Monte Cristo ($10). A good amount of quality turkey and ham with two slices of cheese on some hearty white bread cooked in a French toast manner. The only thing missing was some sort of jam or syrup and we did open a couple of jam/jelly packets from the tabletop condiment selection. I was asked what side I wanted….french fries were the first option and insteadI asked for a side salad-making this meal a 'brunch'. This was quite a large salad (deceptive photography of the plate) and very satisfying.

A good find. Maybe next time, we'll try the flapjacks.

Franco's Flapjack Family Restaurant 14034 Poway Road Poway 92064 (858) 883-2516 Open daily 7-3