Japanese Restaurants – Page 56

The Revised Rotation

July 25, 2007 mmm-yoso Bakery, Bun Bo Hue, Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, Lao Restaurants, Plate Lunch, Salvadoran Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

I’ve been blessed by blogging. Through our humble little food blog, I’ve gotten to know so many wonderful, kind, and generous people. It’s also great to know that I’m not the only (slightly…) food obsessed person out there. I’m very happy to call Howie, who does the Foodieview, a friend.

Case in point, over the last year (yes, year…) I’ve received a few emails and comment, asking me when I’m going to update "My Rotation". Those would be the restaurants the Missus and I think about when we make plans to eat, whether it’s the two of us, or dinner with friends, or something similar in nature. I had thought that a post was in order, but didn’t quite know how to approach the whole thing. Suddenly it came to me(though it could have been gas….but we’ll never know), I remembered Howie’s post on embedding restaurant maps in posts. I thought it was pretty neat, and Howie was nice enough to demo what mmm-yoso’s map would look like…..it did look like 300 map links stacked on one another….it seemed like I’ve been eating in the same place like a couple of hundred times! Now, I know Howie’s a really busy guy, but I mentioned updating my rotation to Him, and sent him a list of places on our revised rotation, and to my surprise a short itme later I received a response. And there was a map! You can see a more detailed map with info here. So without further ado, here’s Howie’s work:

Pretty cool, huh?

Do you ever go back to restaurants? Latin Chef, Tsuruhashi, Asia Cafe, and Izakaya Sakura

June 23, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Lao Restaurants, Latin American Cuisine, Peruvian Restaurants

A question posed in a recent email (thanks CVChow!), and of course the answer is a resounding yes! It’s just that I’m perhaps a little slower on “the trigger” with places I’ve already posted on. But once in a while I still take photos. But questions like this made me realize that I need to update my “rotation”, and I will do so in the upcoming weeks.

So here are some revisits, mostly photos…kind of what Uber OC Food Blogger Elmomonster would call a “photo super shoot”…in my case, it’s just a bunch of photos….

Even More Latin Chef:

**** Latin Chef has changed ownership and moved to Liberty Station

One of 3 restaurants I need to add to our rotation list. The Cebiche Pescado is a current obsession of the Missus:

She craves this once or twice a week, always finishing by sipping the Leche De Tigre (Tiger’s Milk) with a spoon.

Here’s a photo of the Tiradito:

Tiradito is, from what I’ve been told a Japanese influenced Peruvian raw fish dish. This version was made using the Aji Amarillo. The fish had been sliced into strips and slightly flattened with the blade of a knife. Hmmm, sounds really similar to some of the dishes a fairly well known Chef and Restaurant Owner named “Nobu” does. Nice, though not a refreshing as the Cebiche. BTW, did you know that the Sushi Bar in Lima that Nobu co-founded is still in business? It’s called Matsuei, and on our list of possible restaurants to visit for our trip to Peru later this year.

You can find previous posts on Latin Chef here and here.

Tsuruhashi, Again:

We’ve been eating there every other week or so. In fact, I need to revise my statement about the manager. From our second visit on, he’s been so very nice, and always comes by to chat or to say hello. In fact, as I left the other day, he stopped me, shook my hand, and in the very formal Japanese way, handed me his business card.

So here’s some other stuff!

The Prime Beef Tongue:

Pork Belly:

A current favorite of the Missus, the Prime Tongue w/Onion.

You only cook this baby on one side…

One of my favorite “cuts” is the Prime Skirt, it is also one of the most inexpensive at $5.25.

Though a tad more chewy than other cuts, it is still quite tender. The payoff is the nice beefy flavor.

Another one for our rotation, the original post can be found here.

Even more Asia Cafe:

**** Asia Cafe has closed

That doesn’t mean we still don’t visit some of our favorites. Here’s a few photos from Asia Cafe during a recent really fun meal with Ed from Yuma.

The Yum Asia:

Nem Khao:

With the full complement of Greens and Herbs.

The See Nam Tok:

As good as I remembered. Previous posts on Asia Cafe can be found here and here.

The $12 Lunch Bento from Izakaya Sakura:

So many posts on this place. Here’s a photo I had lingering around, Clayfu has a nice post.

You can read the Chowhound post here. It is a lot of food, almost too much for a workday lunch, if you know what I mean. I’ve heard complaints about the lunch not being very hot….methinks that person does not know what a “bento” lunch is all about. It’s a box lunch, whose history goes back to the 11th or 12th century. While digging around, I found a nice little post here. Other posts on Sakura can be found here, here, and here.

Finally, a bit of Saturday silliness:

Earlier this week, I was standing in line at the grocery check-out, and you know how some couples talk really loud, and sometimes you learn or hear a bit more than you really wanted. This young couple was in the midst of a conversation….

Young Lady: “I heard a joke that I really don’t understand….I think it’s really stupid, and not funny.”
Young Man: “What what is….”
YL: “Some of the guys were joking around, and said – Milk a bull, and make a friend for life…”
YM chokes and spits his gum out involuntarily: “Gasp…..”
YL: “What’s so funny…you can’t milk a bull!”
By now everyone in line is cracking up, the cashier is turning a nice red color.
YM: “Think about it, if you tried to milk a bull…..”
YL: “Hey, I’m not stupid, I know Bulls are male and you can’t milk them!”
YM: “Say, you tried to milk a bull?”
YL: “But you can’t milk a bull….”
YM, by now somewhat composed: “But if you really tried to, ahem, milk a bull…….”
YL: “That’s just dumb….”
YM, looking around at all the laughing people: “Must be a lot of dumb people in this line….”

Have a nice weekend…….

Sushi Time

June 10, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

**** Sushi Time has closed

A few months back, I was having some sushi, and since eating at the sushi bar is very much a "social" activity, the nice gentleman to my left struck up a conversation. As with many of my conversations, the subject ended up being steered toward food (If anything, I'm consistent), and in particular, sushi. Toward the end of the conversation, he leaned toward me, and in the most conspiratorial tone, started whispering the name of "his" favorite sushi bar. Was it Ota? Maybe Shirahama? Or Sakura? The conversation went something like this:

"Sushi…..in Lemon Grove, huh?"
"Yeah, it's my go-to place in East County for sushi…."
"What's the name of the place?"
"It's called Sushi Time, I know, I know, don't let the name fool you"
"Really? Sushi Time, in Lemon Grove…."

And so, a few months later, here I was on the corner of Federal Boulevard and College Avenue. I guess it was sushi time…

I had seen this place before when visiting a nearby taco shop, but never, ever, thought I'd be eating here. I entered the dark restaurant which was pretty busy, and quickly noticed 2 things; first, I was the only Asian customer in the entire restaurant, and number two, there was the ubiquitous sheets of colored paper with names of various "rolls" taped across the back of the sushi bar……

I found a seat before two of the Itamae working, and started up a conversation with the young man. I was given a check-off sheet for sushi, SOP in most of these type of places, but decided to ask and see what was "good" this evening.

Me: "So what's good today?"
Young Itamae: Looks at me, and after taking a brief pause, "What do you eat?"
Me: "I eat anything…."
Young Itamae: Shrugs his shoulders, and gives me a small grin, "Well, we have most everything on the menu…"
Me: "Toro?"
Young Itamae: "Oh sorry, no toro…."

Somewhat nonplussed and realizing I was going nowhere, I did strategy two, and bought the Itamae some beer. Which made things quite friendly all around. I never did find out what "was good", but I did find out that the two really nice "kids"(Joe from the Valley, and Sho-go from Okinawa) were both students at San Diego State. The older gentleman was the Owner, but during my visits I never had the chance to sit in front of Him, though we had a nice conversation. It seems that he's also from Okinawa, and knew both Jou(former Owner of Sushi Ishikawa) and Kuni (former Owner of Katzra).

So I placed an order "to start" and after watching about two dozen rolls go by, the first part of my order was handed to me. And I was in shock…

It's hard to discern from the photo, but these were the largest nigiri I've ever had, in both the amount of fish, and rice…..

The Hamachi "Toro"($5.95) was quite good, creamy, with nice fat.

A far cry from the amazing Buri Toro I once had, but I was quite pleased. Much better than expected.

The Albacore "Toro"($5.95) was not quite as good, a bit on the stringy-tough side.

I'm not a big fan of Sriracha on nigiri, and made a mental note to ask to have it left off next time.

I'd asked for Hirame (Flounder) but they were out. By this time, the Young Itamae making my sushi suggested something called "white tuna"($4.95) on the menu. Now, I'm in the habit of calling Albacore "Shiro Maguro"(White Tuna), but they already had Albacore on the menu. This is what arrived:

After a bit of questioning, Joe explained that this was Escolar. Now I've had Escolar cooked, but never raw. Also, Escolar is banned in Japan, why, you may ask? Well, you can read about it here. Looks a lot like Chilean Sea Bass, but it didn't have much flavor, and I could tell that this was "saku" (cut and refrozen) fish. It had that mushy-watery texture of "saku" fish. If you're wondering, I had no side effects, even though Sam later told me, "Kirk-san do not eat that fish, people die from eating it!"(I think a bit over dramatic on his part) It seems that after consuming Escolar a percentage of people suffer from Keriorrhoea, nuff said, you can read about it yourself, after all this is a food blog, so let's get back to the food.

By this time, I was pretty full from the jumbo nigiri, but still had one more item coming. The Amaebi:

This was fine, not overly sweet, but okay. The Atama(deep fried shrimp heads) were a bit too hard and chewy.

By his time, I had hit the wall, I was totally stuffed. I was still a bit surprised at the size of the Nigiri. Thinking that perhaps I got preferential treatment because of the "beer", I asked him if the size of the nigiri (I was the only person who I saw eating Nigiri that whole evening) was the norm. He replied that this was the "normal" sized nigiri sushi. The sushi was fine for neighborhood sushi. As you can tell, the cutting of the fish was not done with an immense amount of skill, but the rice was uniform in size.

When I returned home and downloaded my photos, realized that it was hard to determine the size of the nigiri. That when I decided to make another visit to Sushi Time…more research, you could say! This time it was on a Friday night, and the place was fairly busy, I could see various rolls practically flying out to hungry patrons sitting in the dining area. I managed to grab a seat in the exact same spot as my previous visit.

So this time, I ordered with some caution. And started with some Chu-Toro, the piece of fatty tuna toward the end of the belly. It's not quite as fatty or rich as O-Toro, but usually good nonetheless.

This was not bad, I've had better, and I've had worse. It pretty low in the fat department, but I was satisfied. I also got the last of it. I can see how that happened, thought these were not as large as the nigiri on my last visit, it was still quite large, and you can't get too many nigiri from one piece.

I tried to figure out a way to communicate the size…I think a comparison to my index finger came out the best:

Or maybe my cellphone(this was the smaller of the two pieces)

This time they had Hirame($4.50), but I forgot to tell them to not put on the Sriracha:

The fish was fresh, firm without being too tough and chewy.

Albacore($4.50):

Just so-so.

As before the Hamachi "Toro" was the best item of the night.

When you think about it, Sushi Time does a pretty good job for a place that does everything from Donburi to Teriyaki to Sushi. The clientle is as diverse as the menu. The service I received was very nice, even though the poor Itamae were slammed…I've never seen so many sushi rolls in my life. Personally, I'm not a big fan of super-sized sushi, preferring the perfect bite, and quality over quantity, but Sushi Time does a pretty good job, and the fish varied from decent to good. Plus, Sho-go and Joe were both really nice guys.

Sushi Time
6950 Federal Blvd
Lemon Grove, California 91945

Shizuoka Japanese Restaurant -It’s been in La Mesa for all those years for a reason

June 4, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome to mmm-yoso the blog. Today, it’s Cathy’s turn because Kirk just doesn’t want to blog.

Hello again, friends. As you know I live in East County and sort of know the area. If you are familiar, then…over there on Fletcher Parkway, where the Souplantation and Michael’s are – in that strip mall- is, and has been, Shizuoka. There are 12 or 13 tables inside, depending how you divide up those in the center, they have never expanded or extended their lunch hours or dinner hours, and the menu has stayed pretty much the same over all these years. (The dinners are 50¢ more than lunch and beef is $1 more than chicken). 17 or 18 years, in fact. Sure, prices have gone up in general, but for the most part, that is it. You still walk in and the nice ladies all say ‘hello’ (and they all say ‘goodbye’ when you leave). The tables are always set with paper napkins and chopsticks. The hot tea has always been free. Sure, its served in a plastic teapot, with plastic teacups , but it is always fresh and tasty.

Pretty much everything comes with miso soup, which always has seaweed and tofu in it and it is always hot. It isn’t the instant miso but made from the paste.

Rich broth. Soft, silky tofu. Re-hydrated seaweed, with flavor.

We got the Chicken Karage as an appetizer ($3.20). Quite a lot of dark meat chicken, lightly breaded with a slightly spicy batter and served with a Ponzu sauce.

Light, crispy, flavorful without the sauce and…well…only $3.20. It was a great start.

We each just wanted teriyaki Bentos this evening and I got the chicken with gyoza as my other choice. ($6.20)

All the Bento Boxes are served with a green salad with a nice ginger sesame dressing , a delightful cold noodle salad that is consistently al dente and has a wonderful mayonnaise based sauce and, the square of tofu in the middle.

The Mister got the beef teriyaki with his additional choice being sashimi- tuna, sliced thinly, in three pieces… but it had flavor.

Oh, the teriyaki sauce is a deeper flavor than I have had at other places and is not sickly sweet. My gyoza were filled with a well seasoned ground pork filling with water chestnuts and a small amount of scallion, adding just the right flavor as well as texture. The gyoza skins are not too thick nor thin and the gyoza are fried to a nice crispness.

This place does a brisk take out business and is always busy. There is a wait, it is a teensy waiting area and you will be seated in the order you walk in and stand there. It is best to get there when they first open (they are closed between lunch and dinner) so you can be assured of a seat. It is a wonderful, small, not fancy place with great fresh food.

Shizuoka Japanese Restaurant 9118 Fletcher Parkway La Mesa 91942 (619)461-1151 (in the mall with the Souplantation and Michael’s)

Tues-Fri 11:30-1:45, 4:30-8:45 Sat and Sun 4:30-8:45

Tokyo Sushi Loha on El Cajon Boulevard- which is not the same place as Tokyo in El Cajon

May 29, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome to the blog called mmm-yoso. Despite the fact that it is an Asian restaurant, Kirk is not blogging about it; Cathy is. It’s OK. She knows if food is good or bad.

Hi again. A few people told me about this sushi place near SDSU, and that I should try it. I didn’t think about the name of it. The Mister and I went there for lunch the other day…I saw the name was Tokyo Sushi Loha…sounded…well…heck, I had blogged about Tokyo in El Cajon, and remember one comment, from Mike, who said he went to Tokyo all the time and their sushi had the best prices in town…and well, if you read that post, you can see it was part of my string of bad meals (and actually, generally bad days) I was having back in February. It came full circle when I was eating in this lovely restaurant.

I really think Mike was talking about this place, which is on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego and not in El Cajon. This place is good. The sushi bar is very large and always busy.

As you can see from the menu (click on any photo and it enlarges) they have lunch specials, a variety of items for dinner and sushi and rolls.

There are only 13 tables inside, 12 seats at the sushi bar. It was almost full at 1 p.m.. The menu covers are made of bamboo, and so are the paper wrapped chopsticks. When they bring you the menu, they also give you the sushi and roll menu and a pen, so you can order that way if you wish. We decided to not go with the specials and ordered some crazy things, oddly, no rice was involved in any of our dishes. {Actually there was a reason for my eating no carbs, and you’ll find that out in a future post}

We read the sushi and roll menu and decided on the very last one listed- "Monkey Brains"- ($6.95)

Hush.

Deep fried spicy tuna with mushroom. Well, the idea of a deep fried mushroom sounded like County Fair Food and we both enjoy that as one of our treats when we do go to the Fair, as well as we wanted to try some spicy tuna…so we chose it. There were those four half tennis ball sized pieces as the serving- and then the cross section- spicy tuna, a layer of real crab and then a flavorful portobella mushroom cap on the bottom, deep fried. The description did not say it had crab, but I did notice that ‘crab’ was spelled correctly all over the menu, so I was happy. The melding of the flavors was perfect. The tuna was a nice spicy hot, the crab and mushroom both flavorful, the crunchies, fish eggs and green onions left over helped with our other plates and the sauce on the plate had a nice blend of sweet and heat. The fried crust was nice, light,not oily. Sure, nothing traditional, but we have established that I am the Caucasian person from East County blogging here…It tasted good and was fresh.

We decided to try the sesame chicken appetizer ($5.95) as opposed to the sesame chicken lunch special, which would have been $1 more and had less chicken, but would have had rice, a piece of tempura’d onion, salad, and 4 pieces of California roll. This was all chicken in a not too sweet teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds, served with daikon (and a piece of broccoli) This was a good 3/4 pound, easily, of dark meat chicken and was cooked well- the meat was juicy and flavorful. I did end up dipping it in the hot sauce from the ‘Monkey Brains’, just to get rid of some of the sweetness after eating a good portion of it.

We decided to try the Seared Albacore Salad ($7.95). This was a good choice. The albacore was cut in chunks and not thinly sliced, as it would be for sashimi, but it was only lightly seared, still raw in the center of each cube and served on a bed of mixed greens with a nice spicy dressing, daikon, radish sprouts and, as you can see, surrounded by a border of thinly sliced tomato. It was just a beautiful, as well as flavorful, presentation. There was a lot of albacore on this salad, as well as the token piece of burdock, which seems to be included on every salad in every Japanese restaurant we go to.

There were many Caucasian people eating lunch here. All the workers were Japanese. I heard the owner is Korean. Everyone was helpful and friendly and willing to answer questions. It is a small place. MY ONLY COMPLAINT WAS THE MUSIC WAS TURNED UP FULL VOLUME THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE THERE. Five television sets, two set to basketball and three set to Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera ‘live’ concerts.

Tokyo Sushi Loha Japanese Bistro 6784 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite D San Diego 92115 (619)644-8600 fax (619) 697-1937

Lunch Mon-Sat 11:30-3:00 Dinner Mon-Sat 5:00-9:30 (10:00 on Fri-Sat) Dinner only Sunday 4:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Suzuya Japanese BBQ – A Revisit

May 8, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

*** Suzuya has closed

The Missus has been on a roll lately, on a Yakiniku/Korean BBQ roll to be precise. So after a very nice meal at Tsuruhashi, the Missus decided that She was ready for Suzuya….just for comparisons sake, of course! This was great for me, since I'd enjoyed my previous lunches at Suzuya, I was looking forward to trying out the dinner menu. We arrived at about 7pm on a recent Tuesday to find Suzuya completely empty.

I liked the way Suzuya is designed, with nice spacing between tables, and a understated but classy set- up for an Asian BBQ joint. Now there is one specific item that sets Suzuya apart from Tsuruhashi, and that would be that Suzuya serves Shabu-Shabu(Japanese style Hot Pot). Now the Missus was pretty excited at the prospect of having some Shabu-Shabu, it's one of Her favorite styles of eating, and frankly, it had been a while. The bummer was that on the placard it says "Two order minimum", which it would seem would blow the possibility of having a combo Yakiniku/Shabu Shabu dinner out of the water. And this requirement kinda made sense since the table had only one brazier on it. So we mentioned this to the nice young man waiting on us, who said, "just one minute", and walked to the kitchen area. He came back in a minute and said that since the restaurant was empty, they'd make an exception, and charge us slightly more. We had no problem with that, in fact we were really pleased with the service.

Soon enough the dipping sauces for the Shabu-Shabu arrived.

The condiments were the standard "Gomatare"(sesame dipping sauce) which in this case was a combination miso and sesame dipping sauce and lemon based Ponzu. also provided was a rustic type of Momiji Oroshi(usually grated daikon and chili), which in this case was grated daikon and togarashi, and thinly sliced green onions.

Soon enough a pot of water with some Kombu(kelp) arrived and placed on the burner.

Notice a problem with the photo? Well, Kombu should NEVER be boiled, as it will add a bitter flavor to the liquid. I just had to remove it.

Soon enough all of the "stuff" started arriving…..remember, this is for one order of Shabu Shabu. First the thinly sliced Rib Eye.

Well marbled meant a very moist and tender meat when briefly submerged in the liquid.

A nice generous helping of Napa Cabbage, Shingiku(Garland Chrysanthemum), Shiitake Mushroom, Tofu, Gyoza(dumplings), Onion, Carrot, and Udon. The shingiku was very fresh and had a nice flavor. The Missus enjoyed the Udon the most, as it had a nice, mildly chewy, pull to it.

This was a nice start to the meal….in fact it almost felt like enough food for the whole meal! As soon as we were done, everything was whisked away and the cooking surface placed on top of the flame, and we were ready for the Yakiniku portion of the meal.

The sauces provided for the Yakiniku was a Aka(red) miso based sauce, that had a nice sweet-miso flavor, and the standard ponzu sauce.

We started with Beef Tongue, which has become the Missus's favorite.

This however, was not the best version of tongue we've had. It was very tough, and was a bit off in terms of flavor.

The Mixed Vegetables.

Everything was as good as veggies should be. Being the carb lover, I enjoyed the boiled potatoes after they'd been grilled for a while. The Shiitakes also were excellent, but overall, I felt that I could make this at home.

The "Prime" Rib Eye:

Unfortunately, in this case the picture doesn't lie…you can draw your own conclusions……

The Mixed Seafood.

Not very impressive, especially after having the Mixed Seafood at Tsuruhashi. Everything was fine, and the scallops were good, though not sashimi grade. The shrimp looked and tasted like regular black tiger shrimp.

In the end, we were left scratching our head. I mean the service was so nice and accommodating, and we enjoyed the very relaxed atmosphere….maybe due to the fact that we were the only people in the restaurant. The Shabu-Shabu was good, but the Yakiniku fell a bit short.

We so wanted this meal to be great, since we really like this restaurant….

So how about price? In keeping with the Tsuruhashi post, I decided to wait till the end to summarize everything.

Shabu Shabu – $18.00
Seafood Mix – $9.50
Tongue(Jo-Tan) – $7.50
Mixed Vegetable – $5.50
Prime Rib Eye(Jo-Rosu) – $7.50
Rice – $2.00

Total $50.50 w/o Tax

And to make me feel even worse about doing this post, they didn't charge us extra for ordering only one order of Shabu Shabu! But then again, how is it that all of the Yakiniku is more expensive than Tsuruhashi? Sigh……..

We will return to Suzuya, though we may just stick with the Shabu Shabu. I'm hoping that someone will comment and tell me this was just a very off night for the Yakiniku.

Suzuya Japanese BBQ
5447 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
(858) 505-0611

Lunch – Mon-Fri 1130am – 230pm
Dinner – Daily 5pm to 11pm

Happy’s Sushi- Good Japanese food, loud music, pretty darn good rolls

May 3, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is blogging, Kirk is busy with some other project.

Hello again. I met Mr. C for lunch a couple of months ago, and He suggested we try Happy's Sushi. It's on Mira Mesa Boulevard in the mall with Silver Ark, Hollywood Video and Seafood City. It used to be a Pho place. The front looked like this-with the large yellow sign "Buy 2 get 1 free sushi roll every day from 11-2 and 5-6". So, we had to.

This is our selection of three rolls: The Happy Roll: fried shrimp, krab and cucumber inside, with spicy tuna and avocado on the outside ($8.95). Yes, I know, krab…but it tasted very good; the shrimp were sweet and fried so lightly.

We also got the soft shell crab roll ($8.50). Fried soft shell crab, krab, avocado, gobo, sprouts and cucumber. It was wonderful- those are the crab claws sticking out in the photo- they were nicely battered and fried, so tasty and crispy.

The third roll, at the top of the photo there was the Fantasy Roll ($9.50). The inside had spicy krab and cucumber and the outside had seared albacore, seaweed , ponzu and was garnished with sprouts. Here is an upside down photo so you can see a cross section of the other rolls.

I particularly liked the albacore. The cucumber was unusually fresh, crispy and tasty also. A nice, clean, complimentary taste.

The rolls were very good and fresh and quite large. It was a very filling meal. Thanks for a nice lunch, Mr. C!

So, The Mister and I decided to go back the other day( so I could finish this post). The sign from the front facade was missing, but there there was a notice at the front door, indicating that if you bought the buy two get one free roll, the free roll was the one of lesser or equal value. Apparently there were problems.

We decided to try stuff from the regular menu- The large Ahi Poki salad ($8.50), which is served on top of a seaweed salad.

The tuna was very fresh but not very spicy. I kind of wanted more spice. Slightly disappointed. There was quite a bit of tuna.

The seaweed salad was very nice and fresh, seemed to be made with 3 different types of seaweed. It was excellent.

I decided I wanted the vegetable tempura, and so had it as a plate, with salad and rice. I really liked the dressing on the salad, ginger and a little garlic and creamy. The rice is excellent. The vegetables were very nicely fried. The batter was light and airy and crispy. The slice of carrot was only slightly disappointing; the carrot was kind of soft, not crispy, although too many times I have had way too firm a tempura'd carrot. I guess I don't know what I like. There were two pieces of tempura'd asparagus which were unexpected and really nice. The onion slice was particularly nice. The dipping sauce seemed watered down.

The Mister decided to try the shrimp yakisoba ($8.75) and boy was it good!. The stir fried noodles were nicely al dente and flavorful, the veggies (onion, cabbage and carrot) were all nicely crisp-fresh and the shrimp (6) were large, grilled and sweet.

All in all, I liked Happy's. Many people seem to; the sushi bar was full both when I was there for lunch and for dinner on a Friday night.

Both times I seemed overwhelmed by the loud music. The radio station it is tuned to is most likely XM 21, 22, 25, 26, 29 or 30- newer, younger songs and the volume was way high both times. I saw a waitress sit down next to a young Caucasian couple so she could explain some menu items to them; they could not hear her otherwise.

Thanks, Mr. C for telling me and taking me to this restaurant!!! It made me happy!

Happy's Sushi 8973 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858) 536-3178

Mon-Thurs 11-9, Fri-sat 11-10, Sun 12-9 Closed every day from 3-5 website

Natural Style Chicken-Low fat, healthy and delicious chicken and Korean beef at fast food prices

May 1, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy has finally gotten around to pulling stuff out of her camera and putting it into the computer. Kirk is probably at home reading this.

Hi. If you go to the San Diego Sports Arena via I-8 all the way to the Sports Arena Boulevard exit, taking a left under the freeway and then before getting to that intersection where it is Sports Arena Boulevard to your left and Point Loma Boulevard to your right, you probably have seen this teensy sign on the building on the northern most end of that mall on the west side of the street . Most likely, you are stuck, waiting for that light, as I almost always am.

Well, The Mister and I have gone here for a number of years, because his office used to be in the Sports Arena area and he could walk here and we could meet for lunch. It is simple, healthy, plentiful food, cooked in a heart-healthy way with a sort of Japanese and Korean touch (and sauces). When you go in the front door, there is a menu and photographs, with the neon wording of "teriyaki chicken and beef". The photos under those neon letters show some Korean items; bulgogi and kalbi.

Of course, the pink menu that is photographed here (click onto the photo and it will enlarge) does not show bulgogi or kalbi on it, but both are served here, and are not much pricier than the chicken. (For those who don’t know, bulgogi is thinly sliced beef sirloin, marinated in a sauce made of soy, fruit puree (usually pear puree), sesame oil, garlic, onion, black pepper and wine vinegar then grilled. Kalbi, or Galbi is thinly sliced beef short ribs marinated in a slightly sweeter sauce using a rice wine vinegar and pear juice.)

The chicken is prepared on a rotisserie over a wood fire in the brick oven that is right inside the door when you walk in; you can see about 8 of them through the window in this photo.

Again, this place is not fancy; You order, pay and the nice lady from behind the counter will bring out the food to you on a plastic tray, with plastic plates and plastic cutlery.

Anyhow, the Mister and I got our "usual"- the teriyaki chicken plate ($4.49)

This is a *lot* of chicken, moist, already cut up, with no skin (hence the "healthy" description and AHA recommendation) and a sweet teriyaki sauce and served with good rice and an iceberg lettuce salad with a choice of standard dressings. If there is a glob of teriyaki I drop it onto the rice so there isn’t so much on the chicken, but it isn’t a bad teriyaki sauce, just a little sweet for my taste.

We also usually get the beef bulgogi ($5.39)- the plentiful amount of meat was grilled with some cabbage, onions and carrots.

It tasted wonderful, not sweet; more garlic-y was a lot of food and did not cost much at all.

The Mister (who despises onions)wanted onion rings, and since they were only $1.45, he got them, but we should not have…

They were the standard minced onion centers from a bag in the freezer ones…but, they were fried, and I mixed some Sriracha with soy sauce and that made them edible.

If you are in the area, stop in. Its been there forever. There is a reason. They seem to do a lot of phone in/pick up business.

While we were there on a Saturday some SDPD officers on a lunch break came in to eat. This meets my test of being good food.

Natural Style Chicken 3944 W. Point Loma Boulevard San Diego 92106

(Corner of Sports Arena Boulevard and West Point Loma Boulevard, in the Longs and Souplantation parking lot, all the way east and north in that parking lot)

Open 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. seven days (619)223-9887.

Tsuruhashi Japanese BBQ

April 29, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

I was overjoyed a few months ago when I learned that we now have not one (Suzuya Japanese BBQ), but now 2 Yakiniku restaurants in San Diego. That would be a 200% change since this time last year. I was especially excited about the opening of Tsuruhashi. Why, you may ask? Well, if this Tsuruhashi is in any way affiliated with Tsuruhashi in Fountain Valley, I was in for a taste of pretty good Yakiniku. Yakiniku for the uninitiated, is translated to "Grilled Meat", and is basically the Japanese version of Korean BBQ. Yakiniku back home in Hawaii can mean many things, it could mean a regular Korean BBQ, or a version of a more traditional Japanese style BBQ. Tsuruhashi itself is a district of Osaka well known for the large Zainichi (ethnic Korean residents of Japan) Korean population. Tsuruhashi is also well known for….what else, Yakiniku.

I had been trying to get someone to check out Tsuruhashi with me for a few months, but to no avail. It seemed that everyone familiar with Korean BBQ, like Ed from Yuma balked at the fact that most Yakiniku meals came without the "free" Panchan. In most traditional Yakiniku restaurants, panchan is ordered off the menu, and you are charged for it. Problem number two…..a few people mentioned how "expensive" this place was….so what I’ll do, is not detail how much we paid, until the very end.

I also did a bit of "research". I knew someone whose roommate worked at Tsuruhashi, and he provided some advice, which in one case turned out to be pretty handy, and in another case might have been useful, but was not.

We arrived a bit before the usual 5pm opening time. Piece of advice #1, either get there at opening or be prepared to wait. Tsuruhashi is a fairly small restaurant.

There are only 11 tables in the restaurant, and in one section, 3 of the tables are "movable" for large groups. Since Yakiniku is a leisurely experience, and Tsuruhashi does not accept reservations, the wait for a table can be pretty long if your timing is not right.

The Manager who runs the place is a really stoic, serious Gentleman, who can come across as downright stuffy….unless you speak Japanese, or are a regular customer. This was the only time I saw him smile the entire evening, so I had to take a photo.

In some ways I don’t blame him, I’m sure he gets a variety of questions and queries from people who have no clue. There were two older women who sat across us, who obviously didn’t have a clue, asked a ton of questions, made demands, and only ordered two plates, one of which were vegetables, before hurrying out.

A quick word about the "grill". Because the two ladies hurried out post haste, we got to see the hard working Servers replace the "grate", and low and behold…the gas burners are supplemented with charcoal. I’m not quite sure if it was Binchotan, but it was without a doubt lump charcoal and not briquettes.

Piece of advice #2…get there early(sound familiar?), Tsuruhashi will often run out of what they call "top tier" meat. When you peruse the menu, the cuts of meat are divided into sections, and items like Short Ribs have several "grades", each priced differently. This piece of advice was not of any use to us on this evening, as the restaurant was out of the top two tiers of "Kobe" Short Ribs, and "Kobe" Cap Rib Eye. So we had to "settle" for USDA Prime Grade Meat (insert sarcastic "poor thing" here).

One more thing before I (finally)get on to the meat. With this style of Yakiniku, some of the best quality meats are served unmarinated(though there are many exceptions), and unsalted, unless specified. In the case of Tsuruhashi, you are provided 2 "sauces" initially, and additional dish-specific sauces are provided as necessary.

I had a notion of dividing up this post into two, since it is very long….but the Missus told me to "stop being a tease, and show them the food…o-Kay!" So here we go.

We started with some Kimchi….well since, I just had to have some.

And though I think this was fine, you can get better in most any Korean Restaurant…or even out of a bottle in some cases.

Pork Cheek.

Looks a lot like Toro(fatty tuna belly) doesn’t it? This was served with spicy bean sauce and lettuce for wrapping. The meat itself was served with only a light sprinkling of black pepper. In retrospect, we should have gotten the Pork Belly, as this was on the tough side, but still if grilled to a crisp state, it was decent. It was also the cheapest meat we had all night, so I’m not complaining much.

Prime Cap Ribeye.

This almost qualifies as food porn…. In case you’re wondering, the "cap" is the small bit of meat right at the top portion of the Rib Eye. This came unseasoned, and was very tender. It would be an absolute crime to over cook this piece of meat. Just think, this is what is considered "second tier" on the menu.

Salted Prime Tongue w/Shiso:

Four wonderful rolls of thinly cut and well marbled prime beef tongue wrapped around Shiso. This was so soft I almost thought it was thinly sliced prime rib eye! This was served with a little bowl of Ponzu sauce. The Missus would have wished that this tasted a bit more "wild"…but it’s hard to complain about beef that melts in your mouth.

Seafood Combination.

Where to start? Everything was ultra fresh. I enjoyed the Tako (Octopus), when grilled it reminded me of days at the beach, spearing Tako, turning it inside out to kill, pounding it against the lava rock to tenderize, and simply grilling over charcoal! The Ika could almost be considered entertainment, as it would "puff up" when placed on the grill. The very fresh salmon was problematic as it stuck to the grill, and tended to break apart. The shrimp were very good, fresh and sweet, we devoured it shell and all.

But the best item were the scallops.

These were sashimi grade, you could just have eaten them raw. We just barely grilled them. I did cook one a bit more to see if they shrank, a good sign that they had been injected with brine. These kept their size and shape. Good stuff!

Beef Tongue Marinated in Miso:

The Missus’s favorite of the evening. A thicker slice of beef tongue marinated in a Aka(red) Miso marinade. Nice flavors, and more of a chewy texture.

Prime Short Ribs:

To think, this is the lowest grade of Boneless Beef Rib Meat on the menu. To be honest, it was a bit tougher than I anticipated, so I’m still looking forward to the first or second tier choice.

Beef Tail(Oxtail) Soup:

To be honest the Missus was disappointed in this. She thought the broth way too salty, and the Oxtails way too tough. We had kind of ordered this as an after thought, and should have left it that way. It was a bit cheaper than similar versions at various Korean Restaurants though.

Quite a bit of food, huh? Before I reveal the bill, why don’t you take a wild guess……

Kimchi – $2.50
Pork Cheek – $5.50
Prime Short Ribs – $6.25
Prime Cap Rib Eye – $8.25
Salted Prime Tongue w/Shiso – $7.95
Beef Tongue Marinated in Miso – $5.95
Assorted Seafood – $8.95
Beef Tail(Oxtail) Soup – $7.25
Rice – $3.00 !!!
Hot Tea – Free

With tax about $60. It might seem really pricey….but come to think of it, our recent dinner at Seoul BBQ was just about $4 cheaper! That doesn’t mean that everything is very cheap…the tier 1 Kobe Short Ribs are $14.95, and the Kobe Cap Rib Eye is $16.95, and I’m assuming that the portion sizes are the same. The seafood combination is a bargain in our eyes, as are the pork offerings, most are priced at $5.50. Beef heart, tripe, liver, and intestine, are priced under $5. Chicken Leg meat, either salted or miso marinated is $4.25, and there was a large group of young men who ordered maybe 10 orders of the stuff with beer.

The service was very good, efficient(our tea and water refilled) and friendly(except for the Boss), and rather unobtrusive. This location of Tsuruhashi is affiliated with Tsuruhashi in Fountain Valley. I’d advise going early, as we left there was quite a long waiting list.

Tsuruhashi Japanese BBQ
3904 Convoy St (In the same strip mall as Sakura)
San Diego, CA 92111

Hours: Thurs-Tues 5pm-Midnight

Closed Wed.

I’m thinking we’ll be back very soon……

Thanks for hanging in there, I know this post was really quite long!

Road Trip: Miyabi Tei – Costa Mesa(OC)

April 3, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Orange County, Road Trip

On the way back to San Diego on a recent shopping trip in Orange County, we decided to drop by Mitsuwa Marketplace for a late lunch. Winding away through the cramped and snaking parking lot with very small stalls, we thought that we’d be okay since it was nearly 2 pm, and figured that most people would be shopping and not eating. Boy were we wrong, the food court was a madhouse, and every seat was taken, with people in the aisles waiting to pounce on any open table!

The picture above was taken as we were leaving……

We had thought about doing an "about face" and marching directly back to the car, and fight our way out of the parking lot, but we gave in to hunger. Especially after checking out what everyone else was eating…..and all of the plastic food.

We first thought of Santouka, but the lines were outrageous. So we settled on the place that had the best looking plastic food in the house; Miyabi Tei, which had a line of it’s own.

I know there’s something witty to say about the girl with the snow cone red hair and plastic food….but I’m really not able to think of anything right now.

While I waited for our food, the Missus started circling looking for an open table. She was still circling when I picked up our food. I felt very uncomfortable circling around and standing between tables, our tray of food in hand. Hovering over a couple having lunch provokes a strong feeling of guilt. I couldn’t help but feel like a vulture….circling for my prey. And a very unlucky vulture at that. I noticed three basic ways that people reacted when they see someone waiting for a table they are occupying. The first, "the wolfers" always makes me really feel guilty, they start wolfing their food down like there’s no tomorrow, and I feel really bad about disrupting their lunch. Another set, the "zen masters" are able to block everything out, and act if you are not there…such concentration! The third set, which I have a name for, but am not able to write about without a massive use of profanity, will purposely s-l-o-w down, and look up at you, and move as if eating underwater, and perhaps start a conversation among themselves about Einstein’s theory of relativity….

After all of that, we finally found some room at one of the large communal counters. By this time we were ravenous. The Missus had ordered the Zaru Soba and Una Don(Eel Rice Bowl) combination($6.75):

She managed to suck this down in an instant. Between bites, she gave me Her critique. Good Unagi(fresh water eel), no muddy flavor, the sauce was good, not overly salty, and rice….you can’t go wrong with rice. The Zaru Soba was not so good, the noodles overcooked and the sauce tasted watered down. In Her mind this was worth $6.75!

The sample of the special of the day, the Chicken Katsu Curry($5.75) totally sucked me in.

This was a very generous amount of food for the price. I liked the curry, it wasn’t overly sweet, and had a very nice flavor, if a bit on the "thin" side. Great on rice! The chicken katsu had not been cooked properly, the breading was on the oily side, and the (dark meat) chicken really tough.

Don’t ask me about that boiled egg, it belonged to the Missus. I’ll definitely be back for the Curry!

We managed to finish everything in less than 15 minutes. In fact, it took us longer to find seats than to eat! I still wonder what the people sharing the counter with us thought; the two of us eating like Longshoremen, describing the taste of the food between bites…..we must’ve appeared quite odd.

The prices at Miyabi Tei are very reasonable, and we thought we got our money’s worth. Though I think we’ll try to eat at either a very early, or very late time in the future. On our way back to the freeway we passed a McDonalds, and the Missus said, "you know, a lunch at McDonalds equivalent in size to what we had would cost about the same…"(leave it to the mathematician) Which would you rather have?

Miyabi Tei(in the Mitsuwa Marketplace Food Court)
665 Paularino Ave
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Engrish Lesson for the Day….

"What kind of name is that for a place is that?"

"Huh?"

"Roach-chi Bo-Bo’s"

I almost drove off the road!!!!