Chinese Restaurants – Page 17

Hong Kong BBQ and Dim Sum (again) (inside Vinh-Hung Supermarket)

January 19, 2023 Cathy Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping to read this food blog named mmm-yoso!!! Kirk (and His Missus) are gallivanting elsewhere while Cathy is writing.

My most recent post about Hong Kong BBQ and Dim Sum was in 2019, before Covid. Here's an update.

B5331B6F-64F8-4ECB-B031-0EEE9F1D9A3F The former movie theater, now a Vietnamese Market, with the Cantonese restaurant in the former lobby has survived Covid-19.
You can see where the snack bar had been located in the last photo of this post.
38D856F6-1C29-4BAC-8DDE-3E2C91F9B9B2 AD33582B-FEA4-400B-9D13-1834ED374097 From the small Dim Sum menu, we ordered XLB-soup dumplings ($6.38). A nice bite and, as you can see, not quite perfect, but no soup was actually lost because of the creative steaming system.
01DF5B99-453B-4245-8AF6-1AA3F5E821F5 From the 'appetizer' portion of the menu, we ordered the 'Double Delicacy' ($19.95) because we couldn't decide on roasted pork or roasted duck and this was a way to get both (there were leftovers) (both of these meats are really good; tender meat, crisp skin, not too salty.).
E2898B46-2B50-424F-81D4-BD4885287E0F Lately, Chow Fun fulfills the craving I've been having for noodles. The wide, flat, rice noodles, stir fried to get that smoky 'wok hei' flavor always seems perfect. (This order was shredded pork with preserved vegetable chow fun ($14.95). I enjoy the briny 'pickle-ness' of preserved vegetables in any dish and combined with the smoked noodles, each bite was delightful).

Always a nice stop before grocery shopping.

Hong Kong BBQ Kitchen 10550 Camino Ruiz San Diego 92126 (858) 408-4888 Website Open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
1FC487FB-D9AE-4E3A-8555-4D2FBBBD551D Hot tea is always free. We did have to ask for chopsticks.

Taste of Hong Kong – A Quick Look

January 16, 2023 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

Man, it's been tough trying to eat out since we've returned from our trip. Usually, the Missus would be craving Chinese food after getting back home. But this time, we had some pretty good Chinese and Japanese food in Paris, so the Missus has not been wanting to dine in nor do even takeout much!

While running errands when we returned, I noticed that Kangxi is Coming was now Taste of Hong Kong.

Taste of HK 01

I somehow managed to talk the Missus into getting an early dinner (they open for dinner at 4) and we headed on over.

Taste of HK 02

We were seated upon arrival and the menus were distributed….sadly, most of it was the "usual suspects". I walked on over to the Chinese BBQ and we really weren't impressed by the looks of things.

There was one item I was interested in and we ordered that and two more dishes to try.

First to arrive was the Pork Intestine with Preserved Vegetable ($16.95).

Taste of HK 03

While the intestine was very thinly sliced it was nicely cooked, slightly crisp on the outside, the preserved vegetable was way too sweet throwing nullifying the sour-fermented flavor.

We ordered a favorite of the Missus, the Salted Fish, Chicken, and Eggplant ($16.95).

Taste of HK 04

Like the previous dish, the eggplant was nicely cooked, very creamy. There just wasn't enough salted fish in this dish…if any at all. The chicken was dry and tasteless. And this dish was quite bland as a whole.

The one item I was interested in, was an appetizer, the Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings ($11.95). Which came out last, though I'm not complaining as it was super hot when it arrived.

Taste of HK 05 Taste of HK 06 Man, this was really good! Crisp, moist wings, perfectly fried and seasoned. Glazed with an umami-sweet salted egg yolk sauce. This as just heavenly to eat. It's also a great diversion from all of those "KFC" places that have opened up in the area.

Of course I've been trying to get the Missus to return. I don't think the wings will do good as takeout. But so far, to no avail, so I thought I'd go ahead and do one of my "quick look" posts, so that maybe you can try out those wings. Oh, and if you find some other good dishes, by all means let me know!

Taste of HK 07

Taste of Hong Kong
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Wed – Mon 11am – 3pm, 4pm – 9pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Takeout from Yummy House (Revisit)

January 10, 2023 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

The cooler weather has meant that I've been "doing the rounds". I decided to drop by Yummy House for some takeout.

Yummy H Rev 01

Just like on my previous visit over a year ago, the place was totally empty. How do they stay in business? Anyway, they didn't have the wintermelon soup again this time, so I just went with the same 'ol, same 'ol. I went for a walk after placing my order.

Yummy H Rev 02

Upon returning, my order was ready and I headed home.

Like before, I got the Beef Tendon Pot and the Lamb with Suan Cai.

Yummy H Rev 03

The Beef Tendon Pot was disappointing; first, the portion size was half that of my previous visit.

Yummy H Rev 04

You can tell by the light color that this didn't have enough tomato flavor, thus it lacked a nice tanginess. Also, there was very little tendon as well; it was mostly tough slices of beef. The soup was quite thick and had a greasy tongue feel to it. Man, to think I really used to like this dish.

The other "usual" dish was a bit better.

Yummy H Rev 05

The lamb was nice and gamy; and there was a good amount of suan cai as well, though we always have add in some of our home made stuff to bolster the fermented flavor. We also add in a good amount of white pepper. Once done it had a bracing sourness that the Missus enjoys. Maybe I should just think about making this at home.

Yummy H Rev 06

Overall, I'm probably not going to return for a while. And I'm thinking, I'll need to try some other dishes as those that were our favorites are not available or have been disappointing over recent visits. Kind of a bummer.

Yummy H Rev 07

Yummy House
4633 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Which leads me to ask; how have old favorites of yours been faring recently?

Takeout from Eastern Dynasty (Revisit)

January 3, 2023 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants

A few months back "FOY" KennethB sent me a couple of emails regarding recent experiences at Eastern Dynasty so I was intrigued. But of course based on our previous visits, it was going to be a challenge talking the Missus into going there. In the end, we decided to do another takeout visit.

I got there just after opening and there was only one table occupied.

E Dynasty Rev 01

I placed my order and went for a walk. Upon returning, my order was ready and the place was starting to fill up.

I ordered what I considered to be the best item I had on previous visits and the Missus was craving Her "salted fish" dishes.

First off, we got the Eggplant with Salted Fish and Pork. The eggplant was wonderfully cooked, so creamy. But overall, the dish was worse than on the last visit; it lacked salted fish and hardly had any pork.

E Dynasty Rev 03

It also looked totally different from what we'd had before.

During my previous visits, I was specifically told not to order the Salted Fish and Chicken with Eggplant, and favorite of the Missus's at Noble Chef. This dish was the complete opposite of the Eggplant with Salted Fish. It had way too much salted fish…it was very salty.

E Dynasty Rev 04

It was so funky and fishy, the Missus could barely finish a bite. Add to that the saltiness and well….. It was left up to me to try and finish this up. It took a couple of days. I recall making double sure that I sealed the storage container tightly because I didn't want any of the noxious fumes permeating in the fridge. Heating this up in the microwave was also an interesting endeavor.

I had thought that even though we hadn't enjoyed the flavoring; or lack thereof of the Pork Maw with Preserved Vegetable, the Pork Maw was stir fried nicely. So, I decided to order the Pork Maw and Green Peas with XO Sauce.

E Dynasty Rev 05

Like the previous dishes; the stir fry/cooking technique was decent. The green peas had a good snap to them; though no wok hay. The pork maw had a pleasant chewiness with a good, mild, intestine-ish flavor. However, the savory-salty-aromatic-mild spice of XO sauce was missing. In fact, this dish could have used more saltiness. I guess you could say the XO was MIA?

We also got some Roast Duck and Kwai Fei Chicken.

E Dynasty Rev 06 E Dynasty Rev 07 I gotta say, that Kwai Fei Chicken was the best I've had in a while. Moist, tender meat, decently seasoned. The sauce, while still high in the oil to ginger, was much better than last time. Really good. Alas, the Missus is not a big fan of Kwai Fei Ji.

E Dynasty Rev 08

As for the Roast Duck?

E Dynasty Rev 09

Man, this really lacked any anise flavor and was quite bland. The skin was hard, not crisp, though the fat was rendered out, but the flesh was dry and really tough. I tried my toaster oven "hack", to no avail.

Kind of a bummer. I'm thinking I'll have to dine in to enjoy a meal at Eastern Dynasty. I'll probably try to talk Calvin or someone else to join me.

Eastern Dynasty
4690 Convoy St. #109
San Diego, CA 92111

Thanks for the heads-up Kenneth!

We’re Back! Dinner on BA and our First Meal Back from Sizzling Pot King

December 15, 2022 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, Chinese Restaurants, Travel

Whoa…well, after spending a month in France I’m having a bit of a time of it getting adjusted to San Diego time again. And that journey home; we stayed at CDG overnight with a 7am flight to LHR, which helps as we don’t have to get up early. But then there’s the 5 1/2 layover at Heathrow and then the 11 hour flight home. Which is why we fly business class. Though we didn’t account for the fussy baby in the seat behind us, these things happen….so even with the lie flat seats…well, I got maybe an hours sleep?

On the positive side; I’d say that the meals on BA have returned to pre-Covid quality. And it’s always been much better flying back to San Diego, than flying from SD to LHR. This was pretty good.

One of the things with leaving for a month is…well, the fridge and pantry were cleaned out before we left. We arrived home at around 6pm; it was already dark. In need of something convenient with a little zip, I did a takeout order from Sizzling Pot King. Funny thing; it was in the high 20’s when we left Paris, so weather here in the 40’s didn’t bother me much, it was basically short sleeve weather, so I got some looks when I waltzed into Sizzling Pot King; seeing all those folks bundled up looking at me like I’m some nut wearing a t-shirt. Even the young man who knows my order looked at me strangely.

Anyway, we had the usual for dinner.

It was nice and decently spicy; with a mild “numbing” from the Sichuan Peppercorns…but I’m not sure if it was all the Sichuan we had in Paris; but this seemed to be missing something. Oh well, at the least it did the job.

*** Sizzling Pot King is now Zhang Liang Malatang

Sizzling Pot King
8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

And I quickly reverted back to my wimpy “San Diego weather” self……though for some strange reason, I feel somewhat out of sorts with regards to manners, pacing, and such.

I’m working on getting my act together and will have posts done.

Meanwhile…..even after a month….this is still on my mind!

Thanks for stopping by!

China Fun (Escondido)

December 10, 2022 Cathy Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thank you for stopping by mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog usually written by Kirk (but He is on vacation and Cathy is writing this post).

Earlier this year, some clients told me about a restaurant near their home (I asked, I always ask people where they like to go in their neighborhood; it's how I find places if not randomly driving and stopping). I had seen the signage, since this is kind of across the street from the Escondido location of Vallarta Market/J & M's Family Restaurant/Farmer Boys.

AB550DD7-38B0-40D4-964D-AEAB4A8A4C21
B2552ED9-47C2-474E-A2A8-6A969CD8B745 I don't know what it had been before, but it's a pretty large space.
853185B2-6799-4A76-B9E5-3B9563658A81 The menu is quite extensive. Since this was a first visit…

1520A1BC-A81C-4890-B6A8-6B8FF33A210B The Mister ordered the Ma Pu Tofu ($12.99). Quite large, a nice heat/spice level, plenty of pork.
My 'usual' first time eating at a Chinese restaurant, Egg Foo Young ($12.99) This choice was BBQ pork (getting to try another favorite in this order).
13BAD42A-B8AC-4C52-8DE2-EC75A31FE11E The BBQ Pork was inside (rather than on top of) the eggy vegetable filled pancake. Another unique version and quite tasty.

We will be back to try more of the menu.

China Fun 1450 E. Valley Boulevard Escondido 92027 (760)740-8888 website Open daily 11 a.m., closes at 9:30 Sunday-Thursday, 10 p.m. Friday-Sat

2E5906CB-A561-4793-9C94-03CD5C204E6B
A pot of tea is $1.99 and is quite tasty as well as being served in this pretty (matching) serve ware.

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot & Grill (lunch again)

November 22, 2022 Cathy Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! on this Thanksgiving week. Cathy is writing while Kirk and His Missus are vacationing.

My most recent post about the regular menu at Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, a chain with worldwide locations, was in 2020. My most recent post regarding the lunch menu was in 2021. A year later, not much has changed. 162E16B0-EEAE-4F90-9CBE-F150872EDA23
867E59F4-F0C3-4116-8300-383FACCE76E9
A30C9060-86CD-416A-80FB-EB86425888D7 Menu prices have slightly increased. The choices are pretty much the same.
3CB7D30C-8A60-476D-A656-49A72E0C07CC We ordered the House Original and the House Spicy broths/"Yin Yang" ($4.25 per person). You can also order a mushroom broth as well as low sodium.
The Supreme Angus Beef Lunch ($10.70) is accompanied by assorted seasonal vegetables ( thick slices of potato, daikon, a variety of mushrooms and greens) as well as fresh noodles, 'krab" sticks, frozen tofu and assorted meatballs (pork, beef and fish). The Angus beef pieces were nicely marbled and very flavorful; quickly cooked to a pleasant tenderness in the boiling broth.
3CB7D30C-8A60-476D-A656-49A72E0C07CC Once again, I chose the fish filet lunch ($10.70) which has the same sides and includes an entire filet. This was plenty of food.
However the menu has "Add Ons" at the bottom and we decided to order the mini veggie platter ($3.95) just to try the 'lunch version'. This was really worth it: tomato, squash, corn, bok choy, cabbage, spinach, mushrooms and chrysanthemum greens (tangho).

All in all, an excellent tasty meal.

Little Sheep Mongolian HotPot 4718 Clairmont Mesa Blvd San Diego, 92117 (858) 274-2040 Website Open Mon-Th 11:30-9, Fri-Sat 11:30-10. Sun 11:30-9:30
3CB7D30C-8A60-476D-A656-49A72E0C07CC Hot tea is still no charge.

Tim Ky Noodle (Mira Mesa)

November 20, 2022 Cathy Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is being written by Cathy today; Kirk and His Missus are enjoying the start of a lengthy vacation in another country.

The Mister and I had planned to try out the recently re-opened Pho Lucky, but decided against it and instead walked to the other end of the strip mall to Tim Ky Noodle, which Kirk had written an indoor eating post in 2019 and a "to go" post in 2020. {The Mister and I have been here previously but I never posted.}

32B71474-E70B-4A3C-BB8C-DF1C4F8F4EC5
275CC856-7F4C-4E63-9030-ECA9A6989D66 The two sided, laminated/ easily sanitized menu is a bit pared down from pre-Covid-19 days. The majority of choices are Vietnamese with some Chinese choices also.
BA31D81F-DA8A-41B9-A7ED-00CE54B05FA6 Still, hot tea is brought out when you are seated; some things are back to normal.
45808A70-DFF8-4EAC-82A6-B415788938D3 The seafood chow mein (crispy noodles) ($15.99) was quite large, filled with shrimp, fish and scallops as well as very fresh vegetables. Excellent.
The salt and pepper fish filet with rice ($16.99) was also a very large portion. Light and crisp fry (proper) and onion were all that was needed for this meal. We did have leftovers of both.

Another survivor of the Covid-19 shutdowns.

Tim Ky Noodle 9330 Mira Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92126 Daily 9am – 830pm

A7F7E972-C632-4199-8F9D-D064F7A03001

Paris (2022) – Raviolis Chinois Nord-Est, Motors Coffee (again), and Chez Taeko

November 10, 2022 mmm-yoso Caffeine Fix, Chinese Restaurants, France, Japanese Restaurants, Paris, France, Travel

We arrived in Paris from Edinburgh just before 8pm. We had some decent food in the Air France Lounge in Edinburgh and also on the flight.

We arrived at CDG close to 8pm, then caught the RER to Les Halles. We made good time and since we'd be staying for five nights, I managed to get us a VRBO I'd been wanting to stay at that had a 5 night minimum. Granted, Les Halles may not be the most glamorous of areas, but our flat was on the 6th floor (since this is Europe, it's the 7th floor by US standards), but it had a lift. And while you may not think this view of Les Halles is anything to write home about.

Just raise your eyes a bit.

Yep, that's the Eiffel Tower to the left and Saint Eustache to the right. We would never tire of this view.

The Missus and I weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we headed over to our favorite street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil. Man, it was super busy, even on a Monday night.

Like I mentioned in one of my posts on the first leg of this trip, it was super busy, like Covid never happened. Well, at least this was outdoors.

We made our "rounds" then headed back down St Denis when we decided to grab a "small bite" to eat. The place we chose? Ravioli Chinois Nord-Est. To translate, "ravioli Chinois" = Jiaozi! We had enjoyed out time in Scotland, don't get me wrong, but the Missus was missing Asian food and some late evening Jiaozi sounded like fun.

The place was fairly busy, though there were a couple of empty tables. The customers were mostly Parisians with a few Chinese sprinkled in. I started to appreciate the varied tastes of Parisians on this trip as it seems they were quite open to trying and enjoying various cuisines. The Missus got to use Her Mandarin and we got the house beer….the namesake of Her hometown. Having come from Scotland where the weather was fairly cool, it just seemed so hot in Paris. So this helped pave the way to getting us adjusted.

We started with some Liang Cai – cold dishes, the stir fried potato strings and five spiced beef.

The beef had a nice five spice flavor, but was really dry and tough. The potato strings were fine, nothing special, but the vinegar helped cool us off.

As for the Jiaozi…..

We got the Pork and Cabbage dumplings….they used napa cabbage in this (whew). The wrapper was too brittle and lacked a decent "pull", the fillings though were quite tasty, well seasoned and moist and tender. This is pretty much on scale with the higher level jiaozi in San Diego.

While the food didn't blow us away, this was a fun stop, and the Missus and I had a nice time reminiscing about a trip that seems oh so long ago now. And man, the place seemed to be a popular late evening stop.

Raviolis Chinois Nord Est
115 Rue Saint-Denis
75001 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment and enjoyed our view for a few minutes before heading off into dreamland.

The next morning we woke and just lounged around for a while. I had a baguette making class scheduled in the afternoon so we decided to do some shopping.

But first we headed over to Motors Coffee and this time we had a seat outside on the sidewalk.

The Missus thought Her Geisha "drip", what they call a pour over here was decent. I had an Americano which was quite good. We'd end up visiting one more time during our stay.

Motors Coffee
7 Rue des Halles
75001 Paris, France

From here we headed over to the Marais and just did our lèche-vitrine (window shopping) thing. We stopped into a location of Signorini Tartufi, we had first come across this shop in Avignon….yes, never got those posts done because Covid just kinda waylaid my travel posts. Perhaps I'll do a summary one day because we had a fabulous time. Anyway Signorini Tartufi is a favorite for gifts and stuff for ourselves as well.

Signorini Tartufi Paris Bretagne (Locations all over France)
3 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

We also "finally" (we'd walked past this shop several times in the past) took some time to check out Comptoirs Richard, a tea & coffee shop on Rue Bretagne.

The Missus spent a good amount of time here and even sampled some of the teas available. She ended up buying several bags as gifts and for Herself.

Comptoirs Richard
45 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

She also bought some treats from La Maison du Chocolate as well.

La Maison du Chocolat Bretagne
14 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

By now it was time for lunch. There was a place in Marché des Enfants-Rouges that I wanted to check out. Marché des Enfants-Rouges is the oldest food market in Paris, established in 1615! These days, as much as folks are shopping for groceries, the market is known for their food stalls. There was one in particular I was interested in.

This food stall is called Chez Taeko and serves up bentos, combinations, donburi, and the like. If you're eating at one of the counters or tables, you have a seat and they'll take your order. I got the Chicken Karaage and the Missus a Chirashi. Even though there's some hustle and bustle, this is Paris, so folks aren't talking loudly, so we enjoyed the vibe.

We ate at the counter.

I enjoyed my chicken karaage, the batter was more on the crunchy side, but it was good. The sauce had a nice sweet-soy flavor and the chicken was moist. The tempura broccoli was nice, light and crisp as were the tsukemono. The rice however was terrible, hard and chewy.

That rice situation made the Missus's Chirashi not as enjoyable as my bento.

The salmon was quite good, nice and fresh, the maguro was just passable, not the highest quality; the ebi was fine as well. That rice however….man, a whole bowl of it!

We did enjoy the service, which in spite of all the customers was really efficient and the staff, all Japanese were so pleasant. So, when I walked up to pay our bill, the woman spoke to me in Japanese, I understood some of it. But when I submitted my credit card she switched to English. This was when it hit me….they knew I was American as soon as the chip on my card didn't work by tapping it on the device! I started noticing this at other businesses as well. Interesting, huh?

Chez Taeko
Marché des Enfants-Rouges
37 Rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment to drop off our packages.

Before we headed back out.

I would be taking a baguette class for the rest of the afternoon and the Missus would be exploring Paris solo. This was going to be interesting.

Takeout from Village Kitchen

November 2, 2022 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** You can find an updated takeout post here.

The Missus has been craving some spicy Chinese food. Sadly, the state of Hunan and Sichuan cuisine in San Diego seems to have gone down over the last few years. Taste of Hunan came to mind, but in the end we decided on Village Kitchen for takeout. I've learned my lesson with ordering from Village Kitchen; online is never ready on time and there's an extra charge. When I tried to call in my order they answered in Mandarin and as soon as I spoke English, they hung up on me. So, I decided to drive on over. Hard to believe it's been a year-and-a-half since I last visited!

Village K Rev 01

The menu these days is on QR code, which I'm very comfortable with; though some of the dishes were only written in Chinese. Luckily, the one person at VK I like, the former Server from Kangxi is Coming was working. She's wonderful! Sadly, the one dish the Missus wanted, the La Rou with Cucumber Skin is no longer on the menu. And after not enjoying the Eggplant and Green Chili with Preserved Egg the last two times we tried it…..well, the Missus didn't want that either.

I did find two dishes that I thought the Missus would enjoy, both with La Rou (cured smoked pork) and both featured crunchy, preserved veggies which is what the Missus was craving.

So I got the preserved dried long beans with La Rou and the preserved radish skin with La Rou.

Village K Rev 02

The Missus preferred the version with the dried long bean as it had a nice salty "crunch" to it and while the pork was a bit overly chewy and hard, the smoky flavor came thru nicely. This was also much more spicy than the radish version, and the nice and pungent whole cloves of garlic went well in this dish.

Village K Rev 03

We didn't enjoy the radish skin version as much.

Village K Rev 04

This wasn't quite as spicy and the radish skin, while crisp, didn't have as much bright briny-savory-saltiness as the long beans.

Still, the Missus had been craving some spicy-smoky Chinese, so that's what we got. Man, I haven't been eating as much spicy food since the pandemic started, so I got those sweat glands going! Luckily the weather has been on the cooler side and the Missus got Her "fix" in!

Village Kitchen
4720 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117