Prime Grill (Cathy’s revisit)

Thanks for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!! today.  Cathy is writing while Kirk is 'researching'.

The first time I went to Prime Grill was in 2016 and it was with Kirk and Ed (from Yuma) who had this perspective of the visit.FB6A675D-8ACD-4EFB-AD23-C5C082AD2FBA The Mister and I returned the other day and were going to order from the regular menu, but the All Day Special  Menu, which was All You Can Eat for $27 per person would cost about the same.  We decided it would be fun to cook our own and eat all we could. 
3E9A325B-C0BE-46D9-B41D-5A0624D17D30
FA5795D5-69C2-453A-9559-E2A600FDC5F2  49CB5F68-9A1F-427C-A30D-504752B1AE90 The complimentary banchan (pickled 'sides)were brought out along with the sauces (and salad and rice we ordered from the menu).  Everything is replenished when you ask.
02AA4C46-BC21-4962-BC74-4B818E199078 First up-thin brisket, beef bulgogi and chicken BBQ.

099B1CA3-DAD8-4C19-9824-C01C5DE2A6EC204DAC04-6DA1-49B7-9A29-E69A30B6D648204DAC04-6DA1-49B7-9A29-E69A30B6D648 You are given tongs and scissors to help cook and cut your meats.  The bulgogi and BBQ sauces carmelized on the grill and gave some flavor to the brisket.
 C84C5488-334A-49B6-8B3F-975B038D5C54
Steamed egg is always a nice side dish from any Korean restaurant.  We could have ordered two, but managed to restrain ourselves. 
7AE29A23-CFB7-4B83-BFD4-C2186F092CF6 The 'corn cheese' is an excellent side to share. 
A8904EE8-BE79-44D3-9547-9F1F2A5D6CF2 For our second round, we chose thin beef belly and thin pork belly…so we could compare.  
18606158-0718-4FBA-96CC-0B2D36BB365D A clean grill had been brought out, so there was no flavor imparted from the bulgogi and BBQ sauces and we instead ate the meat with the pickled sides (the kim chee is excellent) and rice on top of salad: a completely different second meal.

Tasty and fun and good time spent together.

Prime Grill 4620 Convoy Street San Diego 92111 (858) 277-0800 Open daily 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Website
F139ACB2-FCEC-4D8B-A6FB-FD64B61F0209

A Revisit to Sue’s Korean Kitchen

Recently, my coworker "Richard" actually came into the office! I hadn't seen him in ages it seems and so I thought it would be nice to pick up some lunch. I gave him a couple of choices and he picked Sue's Korean Kitchen since he'd never had the food from there. I like getting to Sue's early; they open at 10 to avoid waits and crowds. He left it to me to do the ordering.

Sues Rev 01

I arrived right after the place opened. The woman working waved at me and said "I haven't seen you in a long time, maybe almost a year!" Checking back, I hadn't visited Sue's in almost a year, she was right! Wow, what a memory!

Sues Rev 02

Richard left it up to me to choose. I always get the Kimchi Fried Rice here, so I went and placed two orders. Richard is younger and is still a "growing boy" whereas my growth is more directed toward girth these days. So I knew he'd need more than Kimchi Fried Rice. So, I also ordered the bulgogi ($15). I did notice that the Kimchi Fried Rice has gone up a dollar to $10.99 since my last visit almost a year ago, which considering how other prices have risen didn't seem to bad to me.

Sues Rev 03

My favorite here is still the Kimchi Fried Rice.

Sues Rev 04

I get mine with Spam (of course) which adds a nice salty component to this fairly spicy version of KFR. The house made kimchi has a nice slightly fermented flavor and it seemed more intensely flavored then I recall. Richard loved this.

As for the Bulgogi. Well, I do like the panchan made inhouse….I've seen older Korean folks coming in to buy it in bulk from the fridge here.

Sues Rev 05  Sues Rev 06  The Bulgogi was quite tender, perhaps a shade sweeter than I prefer, but not bad at all. Richard enjoyed this as well, telling me that this was better than what had recently had at a Korean place on Convoy! Go figure.

Since we had KFR, I took the white rice home along with some of the panchan, which the Missus gobbled up. Looks like I need to drop by and get some one of these days.

Sues Rev 07

It was great having Richard in the office. Say what you will about the joys of remote work and perhaps I'm just an old fuddy-duddy, but I miss the social and collaborative spirit of working together in the same area. Sues Rev 08

Sue's really reminds me of the Korean BBQ places "back home" like Gina's, there's something soulful about these places. And just think, Sue's opened in spring of 2021, in the middle of the pandemic and they've survived! Maybe one day we'll learn their story.

For now….well, I think I'll need another kimchi fried rice fix soon!

Sue’s Korean Kitchen
6755 Mira Mesa Blvd.
Suite 109
San Diego, CA 92121
Hours:
Mon – Sat 10am – 9pm

Woomiok Weather

I don't know if it's me getting older or what; but this winter seems much colder than previous years. Even the temperature adjustment after returning from France, where we visited Strasbourg didn't last long. I started feeling really cold after days! And then of course all of that rain from the Atmospheric River, well we needed something warm and comforting to eat. It was time for us to get our fix form Woomiok. So, I did the usual thing, dropped by Woomiok right when they opened and placed my order for the Emperor's Soup and an extra side order of Bone Soup to go. I then headed to Nijiya to do some shopping.

Woomiok Wea 01

The young man who took my order was a joy. My order was ready for pick-up when I returned.

Upon getting home I unpacked and laid everything out.

Woomiok Wea 02 Woomiok Wea 03  I didn't realize it, but it had been over a year since I last visited. I did notice a couple of changes, other than prices which has gone up about $2 since the last time. There was a lot less rice and noodles as before; but to be perfectly honest, we don't order this for the noodles or rice. And there seemed to be a bit less meat as well.

Once the Missus got home, I set up the large dolsot with our Iwatani Butane Stove and we were off.

Woomiok Wea 04    The bone soup still has that nice tongue coating richness and once you add the salt and scallions to the mix it's quite comforting. Like I said, its really about the soup for us.

The baechu kimchi, jangahjji (pickled peppers and radish), and kkakdugi  (radhish kimchi) were all quite good this time around.

Woomiok Wea 05

Here's a little hack we do and one of the main reasons we like getting this for takeout. While at Nijiya I'll get some soft tofu, which I drain and dry, then add to the dolsot. It really adds to the dish. Add the side order of soup and the tofu and this ends up being two meals for us.

Woomiok Wea 06

It's really warm and comforting. And one of the first things we get when the cold starts getting to us.

Woomiok
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Woomiok Wea 07

Hope everyone is keeping warm. And tell me, what have you been eating to warm your belly?

Chicken Wing Thang – Katzya Revisited (H Mart Food Court)

**** Katzya has closed

One of the things about being on a trip for over a month; the fridge and pantry gets pretty bare. I spent last week and weekend catching up, restocking, and believe it or not; the Missus has been missing my cooking! Go figure. One of the stops was H Mart. It was just a tad after 11 and I was getting a bit hungry. I had enjoyed the Chicken Wings from Katzya on previous visits and the wings did well on my takeout visit, plus I'd last had wings from the recently opened Pelicana Chicken, so I decided to go for it.

Katzya Rev 01

Katzya Rev 02

I recalled that the Soy Garlic Wings were pretty good, so I went with that. When I last visited, the price of $14.99 for 7 wings seemed really high, and while still pricey, it feels less so these days with all the inflation.

I got the wings home and opened up the container and oh my…..

Katzya Rev 03 Katzya Rev 06  These wings were just drenched in sauce. There was a huge pool of sauce at the bottom of the box. The two or three pieces on the top, while over sauced held up fine, but the pieces on the bottom were a soggy mess.

The texture of the meat was fine, moist, tender, lacking in any discolored spots, but it was just swimming in too much sauce, making this overly sweet.

Katzya Rev 05

For you reference, here's what I got back in 2019.

Katzya 04  Katzya Rev 04  Doesn't even look like it's from the same place, does it?

Another thing that was different was the the Mul Kimchi. But this change was an improvement, at least to me. The radish was not as sweet as on previous visits, making this somewhat refreshing. Though nothing could overcome the sticky sweet sauce overload.

Katzya Rev 07

Bummer, because I think the quality and size to batter ratio of the wings here are to my liking. I guess I'm back to just the fried wings here.

Katzya
(In the H Mart Food Court)
7725 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

Tofu House Mira Mesa (again)

mmm-yoso!!! is back again on this chilly day.  Kirk is busy with His Missus on another continent and Cathy is writing another post.  

My last post about Tofu House was in 2020 when we had to eat outside, because, you know, Covid-19. 23BC8BC5-F22F-4F42-8BDD-B60FE0747351  B7A83FE1-B264-480B-8E07-B619DDE18F34 The menu is on the wall, or you can scan a QR code and read the menu on your phone. 

A6AE1AD1-6C02-4842-BA6D-B59DCADC67DD68ACF122-3F3E-4F7E-989C-E79136C8ABDD The Mister wanted Boiled Tofu, and it was furiously boiling when brought to the table!  He had ordered the 'Chef's Special' ($13) which included shrimp, pollack roe, clam, oyster, mushroom and kimchi.  (white rice is included, but the multigrain rice option is an extra $2; get it).  Great, fresh seafood and smooth, satisfying tofu.
A6AE1AD1-6C02-4842-BA6D-B59DCADC67DD I've been craving something from a hot stone pot (because crispy rice).  Ordering the "Chef's Special Hot Stone" ($20) was just the flavor filled melange I wanted.  Marinated beef rib eye as well as beef short ribs over the sizzling rice, topped with plump shrimp and small but flavorful scallops really hit the spot. 

A flavor filled, warming and satisfying lunch.  This location has a better parking situation than the Convoy Street location.

Tofu House 9089 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858) 860-5296 Open daily 11-8 website
5B80A4B5-AE28-4EE7-B9CE-2016C9120236 Your condiments are brought to the table after ordering. 

Pelicana Chicken (Balboa Avenue)

I noticed that Pelicana Chicken was opening in a post last month, the latest in the "KFC invasion" of the Kearny Mesa area. In fact, I think there are more places serving KFC than pho in the area these days! Then just a few weeks later, while running some errands, I noticed that Pelicana was in soft opening mode. So, the next time I had some late errands to run (Pelicana currently opens at noon), I decided to stop by and do a takeout order.

Pelicana 01

I parked and walked into the shop and was greeted in a very cheerful and smiling manner. I was told that the place had only been open for less than a week at this time. So even though the place opened at noon, it was empty.

Pelicana 02

I know prices like this are pretty much the norm these days, but the amounts on the menu still gave me pause.

Pelicana 03

I placed my order and was told 30 minutes. So I made a quick Nijiya run and returned. I waited another 5 minutes and my order was good to go. At least it wasn't sitting around, right. 

I was wondering how the wings would hold up on the drive home, so I ordered the 9 piece Original Fried Wings ($15) and got the Original Sauce on the side which added another $1.50. It's free if you order it on the chicken. 

Pelicana 04  Pelicana 04b The chicken held up quite well after the drive home. This batter is more of the "laquer" type and it was still quite crunchy. Not much seasoning though, so it really needs a sauce. The sauce came in a presealed container and was like a sweet (emphasis on "sweet") chili sauce that was kind of weak overall.

The Mul Kimchi was also provided in a presealed container.

Pelicana 05   

This was not as crisp as I enjoy and much too sweet. Man, read that ingredient label. You know, sometimes I'd rather not know. It has sodium saccharin and aspartame, i.e. Equal®, and sugar (glucose) no wonder it's so sweet. Oh, and in case you didn't get your daily allowance of aspartame and want an extra one of these….well, that'll be $1.50.

Pelicana 06

I also considered getting the Sea Snail Salad, but really didn't want to pay another $24, so I just went with an order of fries ($6). As well as the wings held up on the drive home, the fries were a total fail.

Pelicana 07

You can tell by the color, these weren't fried enough. It was dry and they barely seasoned it at all.

Well, at least the chicken wings held up quite well.

A week later, I decided to give Pelicana another go. This time I decided to have the wings sauced and I figure I'd cover myself by ordering the "Crispy" Chicken Wings ($16) and went with the Soy Based Sauce. The young man working was awesome and efficient and I did the same Nijiya run. Timing was great as my order was approaching the counter as I walked into the restaurant. 

These wings are more heavily battered.

Pelicana 08 Pelicana 09  The wings were somewhat unevenly battered, the pieces on the top were quite crunchy, but for some strange reason, even though I liked the fact this wasn't swimming in sauce, the bottom pieces had gone mushy. For some reason, the meat of the wings were drier as well. This soy based sauce was also too sweet for my taste.

Personally, I prefer the "original" prep to the "crispy", which is actually more "crunchy".

I'll chalk these visits up to the "soft opening" for now. Though the presentation, menu, and food has a definite corporate "feel", the folks working were very pleasant. We'll see what things are like in a couple of months.

Pelicana 10

Please read Soo's post here.

Pelicana Chicken
7767 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Sun – Thurs 12pm – Midnight
Fri – Sat 12pm – 1am

Midweek Meanderings – Red Moon Noodle House and Manna Rice Bakery Closes. Uncle Tetsu Japanese Cheesecake Coming to Convoy, and the Time Helen Keller Flew a Plane

I recently went and did a takeout revisit from Eastern Dynasty. Instead of sitting around and waiting for my order while the restaurant filled up, I went for a stroll. I do drive along Convoy quite a bit and will often see places closing and opening, but when walking you really do notice things. Another thing I noticed….perhaps it's always been this way, was how fast folks drive on Convoy. I swear, there were cars zooming by at over 50 mph! Taking turns with squealing tires! Yikes!

Anyway, I noticed a couple of things during my walk……

Manna Rice Bakery is Closed:

MM 10192022 02 MM 10192022 03  Right in the same strip mall as Eastern Dynasty I saw that Manna Bakery was closed. Man, this is an oldie. I've never posted on this place. I think my last visit was in pre-blogging days, but I know they had a very loyal clientele. 

4688 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Red Moon Noodle House is Gone:

Walking to the strip mall with what I think is the worst parking lot on Convoy, I quickly noticed that all signage for Red Moon Noodle House was gone.

MM 10192022 01

This closure kinda flew under my radar.

4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Uncle Tetsu Japanese Cheesecake Coming to Convoy:

I walked down Convoy and managed to safely cross the street at Dagget and noticed some activity in the "other" infamous parking lot off Convoy where Jasmine, Dumpling Inn, and El Viejon are located. The sign is up for Uncle Tetsu Japanese Cheesecake right next to Mochinuts.

MM 10192022 04

So, it looks like a location of this chain from Hakata, Japan is making its way down to San Diego. I know there are a couple of locations is the LA/OC area already, including one in our old stomping grounds of Hacienda Heights.

So, now with YikoYiko, Sunmerry, and Uncle Tetsu it seems we're going the way of Hot Pot and KFC in the area. When it rains, it pours, right?

4609 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

And  from the Cesspool of Useless Information Files: The time Helen Keller Flew a Plane

While walking I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts and the episode with the story of when Helen Keller flew a plane

As stated in Britannica:

"In June 1946 an airplane traveled from Rome to Paris, crossing over the Mediterranean Sea. There was nothing unusual about this flight except one thing: for 20 minutes of the plane’s journey, one of its passengers became its pilot. The passenger was Dr. Helen Keller…."

And it's been verified by Snopes.

Amazing! And somewhat inspiring……

Monday Meanderings – It’s Honeyjam Chicken Not JJ’s and Olleh Sushi Replaces Old House Hot Pot

Just a quick post for a busy Monday.

It's Honeyjam Chicken not JJ's:

So, first off a big "THANK YOU" to "FOYs" Patty and Rena who gave me heads-up regarding what was going on with the spot that was initially indicated to be JJ Chicken. Patty was nice enough to comment on my it appears that JJ is not coming to Renaissance Center and on the very same day Rena sent me an email with a photo (Thanks so much Rena!) mentioning the same thing! So, of course I needed to do an update and a couple of days later I headed on down (up??) to Renaissance Towne Center and yes indeed it looks like Honeyjam Chicken and Beer is now taking the spot that was planned for "JJ".

HoneyJam MM 01

And since there's a sign up, it looks like this one will actually happen!

8895 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122

Thanks so much Patty and Rena, I appreciate the time and effort you both expended. You know, I don't think our little blog would exist without wonderful folks like you!

Olleh Sushi Replaces Old House Hot Pot:

I noticed this when I was driving to Daiso. Looks like Old House Hot Pot is gone. Sorry to say I never had a chance to check them out.

Olleh Sushi 01

Looks like the Olleh Kingdom is expanding. They already have a AYCE Korean BBQ in the Old Seoul – then Roadem BBQ spot on Convoy. This one is a AYCE Sushi….I guess they specialize in what my  good friend calls "All You Cannot Eat"…..

8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

And finally……

My apologies for the blog being down almost a whole day over the weekend. Apparently there was an issue with Typepad's servers. It had been happening intermittently over the last month or so and this time; things went down for all their customers.

IMG_2272

Now Typepad has notified me that there will be another downtime this month. But haven't been clear on specifics yet.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Sunday Stuffs – Pelicana Chicken Replacing Urban Eats and Flama Llama Replacing Chef Chin’s

Amazing the changes one can see during a quick trip to Nijiya! Here are two…..

Pelicana Chicken Replacing Urban Eats:

Well, if you're keeping score (and I may be missing a couple of places here), Urban Eats replaced Hi Street, which replaced Char House

IMG_1311

Established in Daejeon, South Korea in 1982, this chain serves up…….well, you guessed it, Korean Fried Chicken! I'm wondering if Kearny Mesa is in the competition for most Korean Fried Chicken places per square mile in the US? I mean, at HMart you have Katzya, right around the corner and ahem right across the street you have Cross Street, which is nearly across the street from BB.Q Chicken, right in the next parking lot in the Hive is Knockout Chicken, north of Balboa you have Bonchon, and in Zion you have Gala Chicken! And there I was complaining about all the Hot Chicken places opening in San Diego!

7767 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Chef Chin's Being Replaced by a Flama Llama?:

I saw construction going on at the former location of Chef Chin on Convoy, so I took a left into the parking lot.

IMG_1346

Looks like a place named Flama Llama? So, I did a quick search and found this which states that the owner of Steamy Piggy and Formoosa is opening a restaurant that "will bring a new take on Latin American cuisine." I dunno, how about just having some good Latin American cuisine period?

4433 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

HMart and eating in the store (Mira Mesa location)

mmm-yoso!!! continues to be written by Cathy while Kirk and His Missus catch up from another wonderful vacation.

The Mister and I first discovered a Super HMart in 2012, actually on the same day that the first HMart opened in San Diego.  In 2013, I wrote a post about a meal enjoyed there, then in 2019 I wrote another post about more selections we've enjoyed before shopping in the store.  Post Covid-19, things have returned to 'normal' and today's post about the Mira Mesa location and its tiny food court area is to keep you updated. 
72A80D16-4D54-4F75-9E0D-8999F14781E5 If you walk in the entrance on the right, you'll be at the proper area. 
72A80D16-4D54-4F75-9E0D-8999F14781E5 If you had walked in the entrance to the left and counter-clockwise through the store, you'll see this overhead signage.
72A80D16-4D54-4F75-9E0D-8999F14781E5 Grab a container and choose from the hot/steam trays
6F9D82A5-FA98-4059-961A-4EEFA45322436F9D82A5-FA98-4059-961A-4EEFA4532243
6F9D82A5-FA98-4059-961A-4EEFA4532243 as well as from the chilled trays.  At the end of the line are canned and bottled beverages and the cash register and seating area.  Everything is $10.99/lb. {there is also a water fountain with cups in the seating area}

9DA7E377-55DD-41AB-9B51-F5137451A4999DA7E377-55DD-41AB-9B51-F5137451A499 The fried items seem to be fresh when we are here; lightly crisp and not greasy.  The squid and whole shrimp are a favorite (as you can see from these separate visits).  The chilled trays always hold something wonderful.  Each of these packed full trays weighed a little less than one pound.DE85A05F-7B90-40EE-938D-C3E891F0D454 You can also order something from the kitchen- the menu board is right above the trays.634634AD-D628-48FE-8E44-E17DA64403AB The Bibimbap (mixed rice with meat and vegetables) has been a special taped to the bottom of the menu board for a while now ($9.99).  Steamed rice topped with a variety of vegetables and marinated tender, thin sliced beef (you can also get the beef in the per-pound steam tray) topped with an egg.  It's served with pickled radish, Kimchi and the mildly spicy, slightly sweet gochujang sauce.  A spoon is necessary for mixing the ingredients together.  You can have all of this served in a stone pot (dolsot bibimbap) so the rice is sizzling and brown/burned (in a good way) for $2 more (#10 on the photo menu).
634634AD-D628-48FE-8E44-E17DA64403AB#20 on the menu is 'pork cutlet' ($11.99).  Topped with teriyaki sauce and served with rice and salad, this is quite a large meal.  We were sad that on this visit, the pork was fried just about 30 seconds too long, leaving it a bit dryer and more chewy than usual.  

Once we finish our meal, we shop.

HMart 9440 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858)577-0060 Open 8 a.m.-10 p.m. daily Website42249FC4-B023-4109-9297-267A5C32BD02