As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.
Here's another one of those C(learing) O(ut) the M(emory) C(ard) posts. Just the same old places that I've posted on a zillions times.
You can figure out where is where, right? Just photos for this warm Saturday night.
Geeez….all the same places. Sometimes it's a wonder that I'm able to post on new places.
Haven't done one of these for a while, so I thought the time was right.
Moby Dick is now "70 Bobcha – Taste of Korea?:
Whatever that is…..
From the day I first saw the sign to actually eating there, I just had a feeling this incarnation was doomed. The owner seemed to have a thing about creating and opening places. The menu was all over the place, the quality of the seafood was decent during my visits….it should be, the guy who owned the place also owns Ocean Harvest, a seafood wholesaler. The spot was humongous and rather difficult to maintain, even with Kazumi manning a sushi bar in the back.
I have no idea what's up with this place now….I'll have to find out soon.
As for Kazumi. He was last sighted at the Snooty Asian, per Eater San Diego.
4805 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
What's up with Viet Bakery and Pho?:
It's actually kind of spooky. I first mentioned noticing this place in the same post as Moby Dick.And just like Moby Dick, this place just didn't do it for me. The dishes were uneven, as was the service, by the time I actually had a chance to try the pho the entire menu had changed. Everything that made the place seem special was gone.
The place isn't "officially closed" though, as you can see by the sign. I know for a fact that at least one offer was made to take over the spot, but it seems that the owners want to try again. They are currently using the kitchen for catering and such. As for the "we'll be opening soon", I wish them the best, but we know that this is often the kiss of death.
3904 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Paris Bakery and Thanh Son Tofu does the shuffle:
So I'm having a really lousy bowl of Bun Mang Vit and notice that Kien Giang has been replaced by Thanh Son Tofu?
5296 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
Which got me wondering…..what's going on with the (former) Thanh Son Tofu spot. So I actually drive all the way down there to see. And to my surprise……
I see the Paris Bakery coming soon sign. So either Paris Bakery is moving here, or this will be a second location. There's a good deal of space in this place, so I'm sure they'll be cranking out banh mi and baguettes like crazy. The parking kind of sucks though……
4616 El Cajon Blvd Ste 15
San Diego, CA 92115
I haven’t done one of these in a while. Here’s a trifecta of places I’ve posted on many, many, times. So I thought you’d like something with mostly just photos.
Golden City:
**** Golden City has closed
I actually hadn’t been back to Golden City in a while. But recently, I actually had lunch there twice in two weeks! The first time with my good buddy “YZ” and the second with my long time FOY (Friend of Yoso) The Zompus……aka MrZ.
Anyway, here are the food photos:
I know, it’s the same old thing….so once in a while, I’ll order something different, like the Jellyfish Head with XO Sauce.
Which could have used a bit more XO Sauce. The Jellyfish texture was very nice though.
I guess this is where I bid Aloha to MrZ, his lovely wfie, Paparratt (aka MrsZ), and their little “Woolet” (Little Z of course). MrZ has gotten a big promotion and is off to Seattle. Congrats and best wishes, I’ll miss you guys!
Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Buga:
It’s been pretty warm here for the last couple of weeks……so ramen is out of the question with the Missus. She was craving Yukkwe Bi Bim Bop, so the first place that came to mind was Buga.
Of course I got the Bi Bim Naengmyun.
Of course, being open for dinner at 4 in the afternoon also works in their favor. From the placard in the window, it seems that the place is undergoing a change of ownership….so we’ll see how that plays out.
Buga Korean BBQ Restaurant
5580 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
The Original Sab E Lee (Linda Vista):
**** This location of TOSEL has closed
For some reason I crave TOSEL whenever it gets warmer. We visited twice in the last two weeks.
Over the last two visits we’ve found that the quality of beef used in the Koy Nua seems to have been upgraded. It’s much more tender now.
Funny story, the first time the Missus had this, She noticed the spots on the plate, thinking it was blood and was kind of grossed out. Still, we enjoyed the beef. On our second visit, I noticed that the orange spots were actually decorations on the plate!
For some reason, the Missus has taken to the Tod Mun Pla – the fried fishcake. I think it’s the sauce.
The Original Sab E Lee
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111
So there you go, three places I’ve posted on many times….at least there are a couple of new dishes, right?
I hope everyone has had a great Easter weekend!
Goodbye Lucky Star….hello Jasmine 2????
I hadn't really kept up on Lucky Star since an absolutely horrible visit back in 2005. And though things do take time, I'm really not sad to see the place go. I was recently in the area and noticed that all the signage is gone.
I won't go into the reason why Lucky Star was first shut down, then totally closed. But what I will mention is that I've heard from two different sources that the folks from Jasmine have picked up the lease on the place we called the "Big Red Barn".
Interesting, huh?
The address is:
3893 54th St
San Diego, CA 92105
Just because we need yet another AYCE Korean BBQ on Convoy:
I noticed this a couple of weeks back, but didn't have enough to put together a post. It looks like a pretty humongous AYCE joint is being constructed next to the new site of Zion Market.
Just because we needed another one of these, right?
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
Didn't you used to be NYPD Pizza?
Now it's something called Oliva Ristorante……
Next to Mr Peabody's on Friar's Road. When I asked someone who works in this little strip mall about the place, they told me, new owners, but same menu. The sign says "Italian & Green Cuisine"…. Green cuisine? Hmmm……
Oliva Ristorante
6110 Friars Rd
San Diego, CA 92108
I hope everyone is having a great weekend…..nice weather like this means it's time to start making stuff like this.
I know…..same title as the last time I posted on the place. Honestly, nothing else came to mind. A couple weeks ago I had yet another birthday. Instead of doing a party, I just wanted to enjoy an evening with the Missus. Not sure where to go, we decided on Halmouny….Grandma's.
Instead of the usual combination bossam with pork belly and pig's feet, we went with the Modeum Bossam, which also includes soondae, blood sausage. I've written about the bossam a couple of times already, so I'll just let you enjoy the photos.
I will say that the Missus is still not fond of the blood sausage. I think it's a texture thing as it's pretty mild in flavor, but kind of sticky in texture.
We also ordered the Kimchi Soondubu, which wasn't anything special as it lacked a nice deep flavor and could have used more spice.
We ended up having a ton of leftovers…..in fact, I ended up making sandwiches with the leftover pork belly and pig's feet, which were delicious.
Soon after this visit, we noticed that the place was closed and some renovating was going on. The "term" under renovation always worries us as it often means a place is closing down or management is changing. Lucky for us, this was not the case here.
Upon our return, we noticed that the booths had been replaced, tables had been changed out, they now had built in burners which were still not in service as of our visit. The place was still full of dark woods, but the television was not as annoying, and the whole place had a nicer, lighter appearance.
When you've been to a place many times, it easy to fall into the same ol', same ol'….ordering the "usual". After all, the menu here has some pitfalls. On this night, instead of ordering the Seolleongtang for the Missus, and the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap, we decided on ordering one of our favorite dishes, but one we had doubts that "Grandma" could pull off. The Heokyumso Jeongol, Black Goat Stew. Soon enough, a butane stove arrived (since the built-ins aren't ready yet), topped with a pretty hefty sized pot. Our panchan arrived, the usual suspects, and two good sized bowls of dolsot bop…….we could hear the rice sizzling.
In all honesty, I was surprised at how good this was….maybe not the best I've ever had, but this was a notch above decent. There was a good amount, of fairly tender chopped goat, along with tendon on the bottom of the bowl. The goat was assertively gamey, which we appreciated. The flavor of the broth was good, not too salty, but could have used a bit more savory and acid tones. Still, this was hearty, and quite satisfying…..
Along with the wonderful rice crust….loosened by adding just a touch of water to the dolsot…..wonderful flavors and textures here.
Even though the menu says this is a portion for two ($29.99), this was way more food than we could eat. We ended up taking home almost half of it.
Just goes to show, we need to stretch out once in a while, beyond the horizon of our favorites.
I guess it'll be Budae Jeongol next time….after all, who doesn't love a stew of Spam, sausage, and, ramen noodles, right? Heck, it'll be just like college again!
Grandma's Tofu & BBQ (Halmouny)
4425 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
*** Update: BH Chung has closed and is now a location of Yu's Garden
I usually get into work at around 6 in the morning…..this means that I'm actually able to spend more time with the Missus and Da Boyz during the evenings and I get a ton of work done before other folks get into work. One drawback of going to work so early is that I can get pretty hungry by the time 1030 rolls around. So I'm always looking for places that open by 1030 or 11. A couple of years back, Cathy posted on BH Chung, I also know of a few people who enjoy the Katsu Curry here as well. An added bonus is that even though BH Chung is housed in the Convoy strip mall with the parking lot from hell, they, along with Tofu House open pretty early.
Frankly, I'm not a big fan of most of those Korean-Japanese "Hwe" type places, though it's really hard to screw up katsu too badly.
The older Korean woman who works here is very nice; always offering me seconds of panchan. The service is very mom-and-pop, though I've only eaten here before 11am.
On my first visit I ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry….not cheap at $9.99. Though you do get some standard panchan with your meal. And as I mentioned before, the nice woman working here has always asked me if I wanted more.
The curry itself was not exactly photogenic, brown gloppiness poured over some form of fried protein.
The chicken itself was on the dry side, though I noticed that the cooking and prep was done correctly since the breading wasn't peeling off the chicken. I prefer my katsu on the crisp and lighter side, this one was very hard and in my opinion a bit over-fried. The curry wasn't anything to write home about, though I've had worse….it was kind of lumpy though.
Still it was quite a bit of food. I later mentioned this meal to an acquaintance…who told me to try the Tonkatsu Curry instead. So a couple of weeks later….famished at 10am, I marched on over to BH Chung and had the pork version.
You gotta hand it to these folks, they seem to be pretty consistent. This was pretty much a replay of my previous meal, except the curry was a little bit less gloppy and had a more pronounced flavor.
With a sprig of parsley and slice of orange as garnish, there's something unabashedly "diner-like" in the presentation. So I thought, "well that's that….." and moved on. But a couple of days later, I had gone into work at around 530, by 1000 I was starving. I jumped in the car and headed to Convoy. I intended on grabbing a bite from Tofu House, but for some reason, I just ended up walking into BH Chung. On my previous visit, I noticed a young lady having the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap. It looked decent, so I decided to get that….. I guess you get five panchan with the Bi Bim Bap.
It looked pretty good overall, but after further investigation, this really didn't pass muster. Bi Bim Bap is a humble dish, so I don't expect a huge amount of meat, though the amount here was good. It was however, very bland bulgogi. So I quickly banished any thought of having that. For some reason, no matter how long I waited, the rice in this stone bowl just never really crusted up. The cho-gochujang tasted kind of weak and watered down as well. This just didn't do it for me.
Well, after three meals here, I think I'll give the place a rest. I'll resist temptation and just head over to Tofu House like I intended. Unless someone has a great recommendation????
BH Chung
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Just C(learing)O(ut the)M(emory)C(ard) time again. Here are a bunch of dishes that never quite made the cut for one reason or another.
Along with not making the cut for a post, these were rather "undelicious" if there is such a word.
Anyway, here goes……
This Banh Xeo looked plastic……
And pretty much tasted it……
Since folks already know I'm not a fan….I don't feel like rubbing it in.
Even one of our favorite Korean Restaurants is not immune. This Kimchi Pajun was greasy, soggy, and tasted off.
So is our favorite Thai place…. This Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice was indeed spicy; more like 10 then the 5 I ordered.
It was like the rice had just been passed quickly through oil….though the shrimp were very nice.
They called these "Italian Ribs".
They were as tough as they looked……
This Combination Egg Noodle Soup cost eight bucks………and was quite bad.
Even beyond looking like stuff was just thrown into the soup, the broth was lukewarm and the noodles strangely mushy.
Meet a $7 TJ Hot Dog.
So much stuff!
This Bo Luc Lac, was Beef no luck….tough and really salty.
Well…..that's it…..not much, I know.
I hope everyone had a great week!
I think it's time for a "guilty pleasure" run.
Well here you are, back at mmm-yoso!!!, the blog o' food. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are busy today, finding places to blog about. Cathy is writing because she found a place.
Now that San Diego finally has H Mart, the Mira Mesa Boulevard location has probably been visited by a lot of you. There are only two other businesses located within the store, Paris Baguette and the "Food Court"- to the right when you enter the store.
It's really only one business with a limited menu, fairly large seating area and food that hits the spot, especially on cold days. Walk up, order, pay, grab chopsticks, water, some kimchi find a seat and wait for your number to be called.
It opens at 11:00 and gets crowded fast. Everyone always has large bowls of good looking food.
Even though we were here on a Friday before noon, we got the last two seats available. Just a note to whomever designed the counter- two people can't sit at the inside corner seats at the same time; one of those will always be empty.
When our number was called, The Mister brought the tray of bowls to our barstool seating area and the smells emanating were wonderful! This is #14- the soybean paste vegetable stew hot pot ($6.99). It was still bubbling in the heavy cast bowl. The mild saltiness of the soybean paste complimented all the vegetables in the bowl-a variety of squash, a lot of tofu, some onion and carrot, one piece of potato as well as the sliced jalapeño with the rice all combined into a deep rich flavored wonderful, satisfying meal.
The #5-Noodle soup with seafood ($7.99) was served in a very large bowl. Shrimp, squid, mussels, clams and a random piece of white, firm fleshed fish was served in a wonderful broth with noodles and vegetables.
Here's a better photo after a lot of the broth had been consumed while waiting for everything to cool down.
These were both refreshing and filling and so very fresh. Since the menu only has 11 items, everything will be tried in due time. I'm looking forward to it. If you are here and see a seat, grab it and order something.
Food Court at H Mart 9440 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858)577-0060 Open 11:00-8:30 daily
Just a couple of things for a lazy Sunday.
Welcome to Eater San Diego:
I've had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know quite a few great folks during my time doing our humble little blog. One of the nicest by far is Candice Woo. Who I'm happy to note is now the Editor-Writer-Jack of all trades for the newly launched Eater San Diego. It's nice to see the Eater expand to San Diego, I often read and even link to Eater LA. So take a look when you have a chance.
Two new restaurant/lounge/bars coming to the Morena area.
This morning I was driving back from my weekly tank filling ritual at Costco, when I noticed that the taco shop on Avanti Drive right off of Morena was now something called, Oasis Restaurant and Lounge. It's in the same strip mall as Boll Weevil.
I took a peek inside and I'm pretty sure this ain't a taco shop. Interesting location.
4033 Avanti Drive – Right off Morena Blvd.
Further down the street construction is going on at this place.
Dan Diegos? It's good to see new places popping up…….soon this will become Morena's restaurant row. So far, I haven't been too impressed with a couple of the places that have popped up. Hopefully, this will be a winner…..
2415 Morena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110
And now to give Zion Market sort of equal time:
I drove by and saw the Zion Market sign is finally up….and on the week of H Mart's grand opening. Must just be a coincidence, right?
I heard they are opening early next year.
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
I'd gotten quite a few emails from folks since the post about H Mart opening in San Diego. It seems to have created a bit of a buzz……..which was enough to actually get my crowd-o-phobic rear end down to H Mart today….opening day. Predictably, the place was packed, so I'm going to do mainly photos with this post. It'll be easier to see what this location of H Mart has to offer once the masses are gone.
We managed to pick up some prepared food which was pretty bland….especially the Japchae. The kimchi station wasn't ready yet upon this visit, probably by design.
They use all the marketing tricks in the book, from misting…….
To open prep stations……
To my disappointment, there's only a tiny little food court with looks like a single booth in the market.
The Missus was really impressed with the availability of organic and vegetarian products….. She's really into tempeh now and told me the selection and of course the prices were much better than Whole Paycheck. I wouldn't know…..
Decent seafood department…..
There was a nice selection of meat, with American Wagyu chuck roll and ribs available. I'm going to have to spend a bit more time here when things normalize.
We didn't even bother with Paris Baguette as the line was crazy long…….
In spite of the masses, every cashier station was open, so it was really fast once you got past the logjams at produce, the food court, meat, and seafood. I'm sure folks are happy to have another option in San Diego. Though not everyone looked thrilled……
As could be predicted, parking was an absolute nightmare….we parked on the street and walked into the mall. I'll do a folllow-up post in a couple of weeks when things slow down a bit.
H Mart
9440 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126
