Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego – Page 6

NaniMoku Hawaiian BBQ

February 20, 2009 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

*** Nani Moku has closed

I realize that over the last couple of years, I've kinda gotten away from all da' plate lunches, and stuff like that……. Still, once in a while, I just need a plate lunch. And in spite of the many Hawaiian BBQ joints in San Diego, a good plate lunch is hard to come by. As I mentioned before, for me, all Hawaiian BBQ is a subset of plate lunch. And most Hawaiian BBQ places do not offer the variety, nor quality of food that an old school plate lunch joint would.

I wondered, what exactly would Nani Moku be….just another Hawaiian BBQ rehash, or perhaps a good solid plate lunch.

I had made a trip to Nani Moku's back in September of last year, thinking I'd be visiting Da' Kine's. I was shocked to find Da' Kine's gone, and Nani Moku in its place. But after looking at the menu, it looked just like Da' Kine's with a new name. Even the staff looked the same, as did the "daily specials….. Except for a little placard that had "Loco Moco" specials….. did you say Loco Moco specials? I was so there, tucked in the pocket of my personal, gravy laden, comfort zone. I ordered the Chicken Katsu Loco ($6.95). Which to me was basically what we call a "Chicken Cutlet" back home. In Hawaii, the term Chicken Cutlet is synonymouswith Chicken Katsu with Gravy. Which this was, except for the easy over egg…….

And I enjoyed the very runny easy over eggs. Many places nowadays are starting to hard cook their eggs, but this was wonderfully runny, if unseasoned. I'm sure the eggs could have been a bit more crisp around the edges, but that may have been asking a bit much. The cutlet was full on Da' Kine's, thin, with lots of breading. It was moist, which was nice, and the gravy was dark and seasoned. The macaroni salad was chilled, though still lacking in salt, but better than it usually is.

Can you tell that I enjoyed it? I told myself to hang in there, save the photos, and return later on. Soon enough, it was a new year, and I still hadn't returned to Nani Moku. One day, I was going through and deleting photos, when I came across the Chicken Katsu Loco….. and I knew where I'd be headed for lunch……

I returned to Nani Moku, walked up to the counter……

And no moa' Special Loco's…. and what the heck is a "Kaluha Plate?"

You may say; "you know what they mean……" To which I'd reply, "oh, like ordering some Dung Pao Chicken?" At this point, the menu was Da' Kine's recycled, which, if done well is not a bad thing.

So I ordered a Three Item Mix ($8.75) to get a taste of several menu items, which was a good amount of food:

The Chicken Katsu was a safe bet, and was fine as always, along with the ketchup based Katsu sauce:

You can tell by the photo the problem with the Kalua (not Kahula) Pork and Cabbage:

Once upon a time, this might have been half decent, with a good pork to cabbage ratio, but what I got served was the stuff scrapped from the bottom of the chafing dish…hard and dry.

The Teriyaki BBQ Chicken was moist, but lacked a nice marinated flavor.

The Mac Salad was again, nicely chilled, with a perfect amount of mayo, but lacking in salt, or a good savory flavor.

Overall, pretty much typical inconsistent Da' Kine's…except for one thing….the rice. Da' Kine's had a bad habit of serving mushy rice. On both visits to Nani Moku, the rice was good….at least that was consistent. As to whether I'd be back…. I dunno…..

Nani Moku
1635 Sweetwater Road
National City, CA 91950

Sun – Thurs: 11am – 8pm
Fri – Sat: 11am – 9pm

Island Style Cafe

September 10, 2008 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

I must admit I was in a bit of a rut for a while. I was getting stale; and a bit bored with the places I had sampling. I have a pretty good collection of meals to post about, but could not muster the energy to post about them. But just like that; things would turn around. Starting first with Sab-E-Lee, followed by Wa Dining Okan, I’ve regained my enthusiasm. Fast forward to about a week ago….. I received an email from FOY "Shawn", who mentioned a new Hawaii kine grindz place that had opened up in Tierrasanta. Having read about my obsession with Loco Mocos, Shawn had taken the time out to send me an email about Island Style Cafe. With nice folks like TanyaS and Shawn keeping an eye out for me, it’s almost as if I have my own Loco Moco Patrol out there! And I appreciate the effort. Shawn had even done my research for me: "The restaurant is owned by a husband and wife. The husband cooks while the wife takes care of the tables. The husband worked as a chef at the Four Seasons prior to moving here. The wife worked for Aloha airlines until they went out of business. They had initially planned on helping their brother/brother-in-law start a restaurant and commuting back and forth from Hawaii. Well, once Aloha went out of business they said what the heck and moved here to make a go of the restaurant business." After reading that story, I made it a point to check the place out.

The interior of the restaurant is spartan, but very clean. The menu is interesting to say the least; all the regulars are represented; Teri-Beef, Hamburger Steak, Korean Chicken, and Chicken Katsu, are on the menu. What really stands out on the menu are the presence of crepes! Crepes? There are 4 "sweet crepes", and 4 "breakfast crepes" on the menu. This place is really into breakfast, as breakfast items comprise almost half the menu.

The other thing that stands out is Teri, who handles the front of house. She exudes warmth, and has the most sincere, wonderful smile. Once She found out that I’m from Hawaii(they are from Kona), the pidgin starts leaking out…from the both of us.

The Loco Moco-ish item on the menu is called the "Kaloko Moco". Unfortunately, the menu says it’s served until 11am, and it’s a bit past that when I entered the restaurant. But with Teri; all things are possible, and getting my Kaloko Moco($8.75) is not a problem. This is one pretty original Loco, I’ll say that much!

It is very pretty, at least to me. If there is ever anything that I’d want a plastic version of, a la Japanese Plastic Food, it would be this.

This Loco came with the standard equipment, 2 eggs easy over (nice and runny), a hand formed hamburger patty (grilled with great flavor, but dry and tough), and gravy (Ono-licious, tasted like it was made from scratch). In addition, it was upgraded with Fried Rice, which I’ve had with a Loco Moco before. The fried rice had a generous amount of chopped Spam and Ham, and if a bit on the mushy side, had really good flavor, without being too salty. The item that was really different was the crepe! Yes, all of this cholesterol goodness was placed on top of a savory crepe. I wasn’t sure if this would work; but the crepe was studded with chopped Spam and Ham, and even though there was a very mild sweetness, it didn’t detract from the overall flavor. In fact, I thought it was a nice combination. And in a nice touch, Teri recognized I was a Kama’aina, and brought the required condiment to my table, a bottle of Tabasco, without a single utterance from yours truly. And though I’ve really cut down on my Loco Moco consumption, I’ll have this again, without doubt.

On another visit, I decided to try out some of the items on the Plate Lunch menu. I went with a "mix plate" of 2 items ($9.75). I chose the Chicken Katsu – Korean Chicken combination.

A bit on the high side price wise, but this was pretty good. The Katsu was chicken breast, and very moist. The cutlet was fried to perfection, the panko crust crisp and light. The Katsu sauce was very "local style", ketchup based and tangy. The Korean Chicken was nicely marinated, and had obviously not been laying in a pan, and reheated. It was moist and tender, I enjoyed the marinade, which had a nice flavor, if a bit on the sweet side. The macaroni salad was spot on with regards to the amount of mayo used. It was also nice and cold, which is exactly the way I like my mac salad. I’m not a big fan of tuna in my mac salad, which is a personal preference, so this version is not my favorite.

As I’m writing this post, I’ve come to the realization that these folks get it, with regards to the food they serve. It is well made, the little things matter (the temperature of the mac salad), they care about what they serve, and it comes across as not just being "a business". At least that’s what I think so far. It helps that Teri is warm and welcoming. The menu has several salads, and I overheard that some of the dressings(Mango Vinaigrette, Papaya Seed) are made in house. Burger are also featured prominently, and I think Dennis will be happy to know that there’s Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich on the menu, though I gotta talk to them about the pineapple ring!

Even though the menu lists the hours being 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, I don’t think they’re open for dinner yet.

You know, 2 out of the 3 of the restaurants that I’ve enjoyed lately have happened because of recommendations. What would I do without you all!

Island Style Cafe
5950 Santo Road
San Diego, CA 92124

Thanks for the recommendation Shawn, this place is a winna!

Saturday Stuffs: No Moa Da’ Kine’s National City, What’s this about Drive-thru Banh Mi, A Surprise at Sammy’s, and other “stuffs”

August 23, 2008 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Plate Lunch, Sushi and Sashimi, Vietnamese Restaurants

Just some Miscellanea for the weekend:

No Moa Da Kine’s National City, La Dat:

I’ve been thinking about doing another plate lunch week, and it seems that I always do at least one post on Da’ Kine’s. After all, they’ve been around over a decade. So, back in July I had a plate lunch at Da’ Kine’s, and decided to drop by one more time a few weeks ago. And to my surprise, this facade:

Was replaced with this:

Wow, so this is the third Da Kine’s to close. Only the new Liberty Station location is still open. Oh, I did have lunch here, but you’ll have to wait for that post. This is what I had at Da’ Kine’s in July:

I’m still contemplating plate lunch week….but all the Teriyaki – Hawaiian BBQ, blah, blah, blah, gets to be the same after a while. Maybe I should just intermingle them…..what do you think?

Nani Moku Hawaiian BBQ
1635 Sweetwater Road
National City, CA 91950

What’s this about drive-thru Banh Mi?:

A few weeks ago, "22cards" (thanks for letting me know), reported that Cali Baguette Express’s long awaited Banh Mi Drive-thru was open. And not only that, but they were now open 24 hours a day! So that very Friday, the Missus and I headed out to Cali Baguette Express, at about 930pm, and found the place completely dark, totally closed, not a creature was stirring. We were so disappointed, we headed straight to Golden City and had Peking Duck…talk about depressed.

Determined to get to the bottom of the "drive-thru" mystery, I took a serious detour, and hit up CBE at 630 am a recent morning. and indeed all the "signs" were in full display. It does say Open 24 Hours, looks like the Drive-thru is from 9pm to 6am, which would have been right in the ballpark. So I ordered a Banh Mi Trung ($2.59), and asked the young lady about the drive-thru. I had a bit of a problem understanding, but I believe the gist of it was, the store closes at 9pm, with only drive-thru service from 9-midnight Sunday-Thursday, and 9pm thru 6am Fridays and Saturdays…..I think. Maybe someone else will have more info.

As for the Banh Mi, the bread was better on this occasion than my previous visits. Warm, decently crusty, with some chew. The egg wasn’t dredged in Maggi, which is what I’ve gotten at a few places. It was not bad….of course it could have just been that I love Banh Mi Trung…especially when I’m starving.

Sure beats one of those egg mc-something’s any day of the week.

Cali Baguette Express
5215 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego CA 92115

A Sammy Surprise:

I haven’t been to Sammy’s in a while, but on my last visit, not being too hungry, I just had a few pieces of Nigiri.

No big deal, right? Except for one thing; knowing that I don’t really use the usual rehydrated-dry-wasabi-powder-that-is-Coleman’s-mustard-in-disguise, Sam told me to try what he placed on my plate. It was real wasabi…..actually wasabi paste, probably from Pacific Farms. It’s still not as good as fresh ground wasabi…but it’s much better than the "other stuff". I’m not sure if Sam was just trying it out, or if he’s going to carry it from now on…….so it’ll be interesting to see.

Sieu Sieu BBQ Reopens:

I dropped by Barbecue’s Galore, and noticed that Sieu Sieu BBQ had opened in the former Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ location on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. I’m not quite sure if this is something to be very happy about. When we first moved to San Diego, we visited Sieu Sieu at it’s old location on Linda Vista Road a few times…..and had some of the worst Chinese BBQ I’ve ever experienced.

Dry roast pork and Char Siu, and some of the most bland Roast Duck I’ve ever had. But as I was walking past the place, I noticed how busy they were…..full of Chinese! It could be that they were all just checking things out. But maybe we should be too!

Sieu Sieu BBQ
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

I hope everyone’s having a great weekend!

L & L Hawaiian Barbecue – Hillcrest

May 11, 2008 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

**** This location of L&L has closed

It used to be that I'd eat plate lunches at least 3-4 times a week. You could say it was the backbone of my diet back then. But having lived on the mainland for over a decade now(has it really been that long?), my diet has changed in some pretty significant ways. That would mean no more 3 squares a day featuring that carbo-licious staple, rice. It seems that a plate of protein with at least 2-3 carbs(or in the case of Chili Spaghetti-Rice with Macaroni Potato salad, 4 carbs) has kinda fallen by the wayside for me. And to make matters worse, when I had my latest Loco Moco craving, I realized that I hadn't had a plate lunch since January; over 4 months! My how things have changed.

I don't know why, but I always thought that Hillcrest was an interesting location for an L&L. And even though I work in walking distance of this location of L&L, I had never made an effort to eat there. But, suffering from severe Loco Moco withdrawals, I decided to check them out.

In addition to the standard issue L&L menu, this location also offers "Healthier" options. After all, this is Hillcrest.

One thing I did notice was that my Loco Moco was going to cost $8.29! But, since I made the effort to walk over……..

So how did this measure up? Using the "Modified Rubio Scale for Loco Mocos", originally developed by James Rubio, who does the food blog Big Island Grinds, here's how the scoring(on a scale of 1 thru 5) went.

BURGER: Standard burger was well seasoned, moist(!), and mildly beefy. Pretty good for a Hawaiian BBQ joint. – 3.0

EGGS: Could be more crisp around the edges, and not seasoned. Yolk was nice and runny. – 3.0

RICE: Kinda hard. – 2.0

GRAVY: On the light side, but nice and salty. Pretty decent. – 3.5

STUFFS: Too much mayo on the macaroni salad, which could have used a shake of salt. – 2.0

Total: 13.5 – Not bad for one of these Hawaiian BBQ joints.

This location of L&L was bit better than some of the other locations, so I may just have another meal here one day. The service was fine, the young lady manning the register was very nice, but a bit spacey…..she forgot to charge me for my drink, I had to remind her.

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
3803 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103

You can find my "collection" of Loco Mocos here.

Marukai San Diego now open

January 27, 2008 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Markets & Grocers

**** Updates for Marukai San Diego can be found here.

Well, as reported by FOYs (Fred and Carol) in comments to this post, Marukai has gone forward with a "soft opening" to shake out bugs and get people trained. The signs out front still say "Opening February 1st", but as the Missus noted this past Friday in a hurried cell phone call, "the lights are on, and people look like they're shopping."

I drove by later that evening and saw people pushing shopping carts filled with grocery bags in the parking lot. This meant one of 2 things; either Marukai had gone the soft opening route(as the West Covina did years ago), or this was one heck of a training drill!

Having a full plate most of the weekend, I managed to drag my wind-burned and rain soaked self to Marukai this morning. I arrived at about 930am, to find the place empty. I grabbed a shopping basket, and started walking……

On my first lap, I just did a quick check of "what wasn't there"….fish department and prepared foods. I've always had good luck with the fish I've purchased at Marukai, and was a regular at West Covina, where I could ask the Fishmongers to cut my maguro, or hold ogo for me when we lived in LA. The meat department didn't look fully stocked either.

After looking through the Japanese offerings – 3 brands of Shiokara, anyone? Which was adequate…and the prices which are as a whole cheaper than the other 2 large Japanese markets in San Diego. I started going through my mental lists of "Local Kine Stuffs"…….

Purity and Redondo's Portuguese Sausage – check.

S & S Saimin – but no Okuhara's – but Sun's Okinawa Soba – maybe three-quarters of a check???

Frozen Zippy's stuff – check.

Frozen Okuhara Kamabuko(it doesn't taste quite the same…but it's still ok) – check.

2 Brands of Lau Lau(both of which I hate….but if it floats your boat) – check.

Coral Tuna – but only water packed, not oil packed – one-fourth of a check.

Pa'akai and another brand of Hawaiian salt – but Auwe! No moa' Alaea! (red sea salt) – kinda, sorta a check!

Aloha shoyu and other sauces – check!

Hawaiian Sun Jam and Jellies – check!

Malolo Syrup – but all lemon lime, and one lonely strawberry – a reluctant check.

Diamond Head Bakery Soda and Saloon Pilot Cracker – check.

Enough Chocolate covered Macadamian Nuts, cookies, and sweets, to keep all of San Diego's Dentists in business till the next century.

No moa Maebo's One Ton Chips which I was looking for.

No Halm's or Park's brand stuff either……

By this time the handles to the shopping basket were digging into my hands, and I got tired of shooting my photos one-handed, so I decided to call it a day.

Tonight I'm taking a trip back into time, and having something I haven't had in years:

Something simple…..it is just frozen stuff, and some pretty bland Char Siu, but for a somewhat homesick Ex-Pat Kama'aina…a little slice of heaven.

Marukai Market
8151 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

A couple of notes: Marukai is a membership market, though you can pay $1 for a one-day membership. The manager on duty said that I didn't need a membership to shop on this morning, because I wanted to renew my card. But after speaking to Cathy today, I found that they had her purchase a membership – which is $10/year(and in my mind more than worth it) so I dunno. This parking lot is going to be a horror……it is not nearly big enough for Daiso, Marukai Living, and Marukai Market…… The Manager also told me, that not everything has come in yet, so there are more items to be stocked.

Da Kine’s – Liberty Station

January 13, 2008 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Plate Lunch

**** This location of Da Kine's has closed

Recently, whenever I need to make a trip to Trader Joe's, I've headed down to the new store located at Liberty Station, the former Naval Training Center in Point Loma. It never seems too crowded(except on Sundays when Church services next door let out), and there always seems to be abundant parking. So, it's only natural that I'd visit the new location of Da Kine's located in Liberty Station. Liberty Station itself is very large, and I've noticed that there is a severe lack of signs. Due to the barracks-like nature of the place, you may have some problems finding your destination. For instance, if I didn't tell you where I was headed, what would you make of this…….

The actual sign for Da Kine's is pretty small:

So don't blink…you might miss the place.

On the day of my first visit, I wasn't quite ready for a full on plate lunch. And an item on the menu, the Linguica Burger fascinated me. In Hawaii, we call Linguica "Portuguese Sausage", an island staple that is so incorporated in Island Cuisine that McDonald's serves it! In fact, there are several brands of Portuguese Sausage that "compete" for the Hawaii market share. In case you're wondering, The Tasty Island did a Portuguese Sausage Comparison, as did San Diego's own Barefoot Plumies.

Anyway, the Linguica Burger($5.00), comes with fries:

While waiting for my burger, I noticed that everyone else was getting their food before me. One of the women working, came to me and told me, that the Linguica Burger takes a bit longer than other burgers because, "it is made fresh." Perfectly fine with me, I'll take a hand made, cooked to order burger over something preformed any day of the week. The burger arrived steaming hot. I noticed the odd shape of the burger, and the flavor hinted at Portuguese sausage, a much leaner, and not as spicy version of Linguica. To me it headed more in the direction of chorizo…..the meat was moist, and overall was fine for 5 bucks. The fries were 100% processed, and just an after-thought.

The only complaint was that one edge of the burger was charred, and tasted that way.

About a week later, I found myself doing a Trader Joe's run again, and this time I was in the mood for a plate lunch. To try and check out as much as I could, I ordered the "Wop Yo Jaws"(I'm still kinda uncomfortable saying that…) which is the 3 item mixed plate($8.75):

The first thing I noticed was that the portion size, and "look" of the plate lunch was more toward the late Pacific Beach location, than the now also defunct, Mira Mesa location. The Katsu, was the signature Da Kine's Katsu, thin sliced chicken, creating a larger breading to meat ratio. The katsu was cooked to crisp perfection.

I don't know why I ordered Kalua Pork and cabbage….I'm usually disappointed, but in this case, it wasn't too bad. There was a good amount of pork(much of it was under the katsu), it was moist, mild smokiness, perhaps a bit light on "porky sweetness", but not overly salted. I was pleasantly surprised. Also, there wasn't much cabbage in this.

The Macaroni salad was the best that I've had at Da Kine's, the mac salad actually had a decent amount of mayo and flavor for a change. If you look at the photo to the right, you'll notice what I didn't enjoy. The teriyaki chicken was very dry, like it had been sitting for a very long time, and hardly had any marinated flavor. I almost broke my knife trying to cut it. The rice was improperly made, and I encountered several hard, indigestible grains. This lunch had started well, but ended badly…..

To me, if you can't make rice, you have no business serving plate lunches. This had to be a fluke…even though I always thought that Da' Kine's PB location always had rice on the mushy side, this was really bad. So just to be sure, I recently had another plate lunch….

This is "Da Buggah"…..sheesh(Two item mixed plate – $8):

The rice was fine, so the last visit must have been a fluke, but the macaroni salad was gladly, not a fluke. The Teriyaki Beef was the less sweet, more soy in flavor "local style", and in spite of being low grade meat with lots of connective tissue, it was more tender than it looked. The teriyaki chicken was better than the last time, but not much, this time it was more tender and moist. Though it was hotter than the last time, I still think that it is under marinated, and the grilling process does not lend enough flavor to the chicken. Even the extra sauce provided doesn't do much for the chicken.

I like the decor at this location of Da Kine's…..it seems to be a combo of warm woods and sports bar. There's also a simple outdoor eating area which will be pretty nice when the weather gets warmer, it already seems to be a favorite of the "lunchtime kids". One last thing, there's a Woman who works here, who is a bit older than the others, who is very nice, always checking to make sure everyone gets what they need.

After overhearing some conversations, I got the impression that Nelson Ishii doesn't have much to do with this location….and reading this on Da Kine's website, perhaps "semi-retired?" I wouldn't blame Him, Nelson is considered by many as the "Plate Lunch Pioneer" in San Diego.

Da Kine's Plate Lunches
2400 Historic Decatur Rd
San Diego, CA 92106

Check out the Doggie Parking Station at Trader Joe's:

Da Hawaiian Grinds- Plate lunch in Santee (it used to be Shaka)

September 20, 2007 Cathy Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Plate Lunch, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso, the blog, is never on vacation. Cathy is posting while Kirk and Ed are not. Primarily because Kirk is in Peru and Ed is in Yuma…they have interesting lives.

Sadly, Da has closed and now the only Hawaiian food in Santee is L&L, and at my house.

Hi. Cathy here, sort of adding onto “Plate Lunch Week”..with my own ‘White Girl From Santee’ point of view…
Yes, we have a Hawaiian Restaurant in East County…

Well, actually, one day it turned into this place. Wherein they changed the name on the sign on the outside; all of the menu items inside still say “Shaka” and the paper to go menu is the old one with the other Shaka locations crossed out:

You can click onto any photo and it will enlarge. We will soon have another Hawaiian Restaurant!

So, Kirk is from Hawaii…I was born and Raised in Detroit and have never been to Hawaii. But I know what kind of food I like to eat…I paid attention to Kirk’s posts and asked him a few questions. This is because, before this place became “Da”, it was “Shaka”. The Mister and I went to Shaka in November of last year. Admittedly I was in a cast to my shoulder with my little broken wrist (I was not on any pain pills at the time, though; I got a prescription for 100 Vicodin and still have 92 in the bottle; you can check) and, well, the food from Shaka was not good. At all. I just didn’t even want to post about it….and I really did not understand what all this fuss and craving about ‘Plate Lunch’ was all about…

One day, I decided to stop and look at the signage in the window. Hmmm. Kirk was doing his “Plate Lunch Week” and I was a bit curious, so I made The Mister come here after work with me.

We got two basic things-Loco Moco ($7.99).

When we were here in November, this particular item was particularly unflavored- not bad, just…nothing. This time however, the rice was nice and sticky, the gravy rich and flavorful, the egg a nice orange yolked done over easy and the hamburger patty, although preformed, had a nice flavor. The gravy, in particular was rich and flavorful and therefore not a waste of calories.

I wanted to try the Katsu chicken and the Kahlua Pork. ($8.99)

WOW. The katsu coating was light and crispy and the chicken moist. The sauce was tangy and not sweet. It went well with the crispy coating. That Kahlua pork- oh my- such good flavor. Light smoky, deep pork flavor, not greasy. I now have cravings for it. The macaroni salad was tangy and not too sweet. I liked it. I don’t like macaroni salad usually…like never have I ever like macaroni salad…this stuff I ate up.

I went to pick up some ‘To Go’ items the other day. (There are some only listed at the cash register)The chicken curry rice plate($6) was excellent, deep flavored curry gravy and with plenty of chicken. The carrots were fresh and not mushy as were the celery and few potatoes.

The chicken wings ($4 for the plate) were so crispy fried with garlic and a light batter.

I got the Katsu Chicken and Kahlua pork again, because I could not believe the serving size in the restaurant. But there was just as much pork in the “To Go” box as on that platter. It was great.

If you notice on the door, there is a sign about “Happy Hour” , Monday-Friday from 2-6 pm. Hawaiian beer for $3. A PuPu Platter with 2 vegetable lumpia, musubi ( a block of rice wrapped with a choice of meat (Spam, Portuguese sausage, Chicken katsu or BBQ chicken) and edamame for $7 and also the boba drinks are $3 (versus $3.50 regularly).

I went one afternoon and just got two vegetable lumpia and a taro boba drink. My first taro boba ever. Not my last.

Taro is a root vegetable and is that beautiful light lavender color. It is a starch, is sort of nutty in flavor, et also like potato and so wonderfully fulfilling, sweet but not too much, even with the boba.

The lumpia were pretty standard. Fresh made and with a good amount of vegetables.

This sign is in the window also, and it is why I did not put the post up sooner. There is a Ukulele playing guy who used to come to the restaurant on Wednesdays, and when I went, one day, he wasn’t thee and he changed to Fridays and I haven’t been able to make it to get a photo. A lot of people come to hear him and eat some great food.

I don’t know if all this food is authentic, or if Kirk would approve, but I liked it and I think you will too.

Da Hawaiian Grindz 205 Town Center Parkway Santee (Backed up to the Costco Gas Station in same parking lot as Home Depot but next to Big Lots) 10:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m, 7 days

Plate Lunch Week: Mo’s Island Grinds – Formerly Da’ Kitchen

July 20, 2007 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

*** Update – Mo is back at Homestyle Hawaiian.

*** Mo's Island Grinds has closed

I was just about to do this post last night….when I encountered Internet connectivity problems. I was left hanging and I realized that I've become used to doing posts, and now that I was unable to post I felt kinda lost…..like "what the heck am I going to do now……"

This post is a few months late. Back in November of last year, Mo told me that they were going through with an amicable split with the Da' Kitchen franchise. Mo showed me the updated banner you see on the right. In December, Mo told me that the name change and all of the paperwork was going to be a long process. He wasn't kidding, I'd drop by every so often and Mo would smile, shake his head, and say, "I hope this is done soon…I hope."

So around April of this year all the paperwork had been completed, and viola, you have Mo's Island Grinds.

The sign on the street still says Da' Kitchen, which I'm sure will be updated soon. Of course, everything from the food, to the people, to the menu is the same.

There have been a few items added to the menu, I'm also pleased that since my first post back in December of '05, combination plates have been added.

Of course all the favorites are still available, like the Korean Chicken($7.95):

This sweet-soy-crunchy-mildly spicy, marinated, and deep fried chicken, along with the accompanying sauce is a winna'. Don't take my word for it, here's the Best of LA(aka BoLA) post. In a way, this one dish symbolizes the plate lunch as "melting pot" cuisine. It is called Korean Chicken, but the flavor is an amalgamation of traditional flavors. The batter seems to be Mochiko Flour based, and the sweet and soy sauce combination tips its hat toward a combination of Teriyaki-Soy Sauce-Bulgogi flavors. The dipping sauce here is very good, in fact the Missus will often eschew the Mac Salad, and just get extra shredded cabbage, and use the sauce as a dressing of sorts.

We've only had one not so stellar plate at Da' Kitchen/Mo's. On one Sunday, when Mo wasn't in house, I ordered the Korean Chicken.

Though the chicken was nice and crunchy, it was very light, and had not been marinated long enough. It was very bland. But of all my visits, this was the only time the Korean Chicken was not up to par.

Nowadays, I often get various combination plates. I usually can't finish them, but leftovers are a great thing, aren't they? Here's a Teri Chicken – Chicken Katsu combo plate($8.95):

I've come to the conclusion that my photos don't do the size of these plates justice. The "two scoop rice" is placed one on top of the other, and there were 4 pieces of well marinated boneless chicken thighs. The teriyaki is on the sweeter side, but I still enjoyed it. I always enjoy the Chicken Katsu.

In the theme of the world on a plate, here's the Kalua Pork-Chicken Katsu Combo plate:

There's the Chicken Katsu(Japanese), the mildly smoky and moist Kalua Pork(Hawaiian), and don't forget the Macaroni Salad(Caucasian – aka Haole). Of course, rice is very much a necessity….to the extent that some of my friends back home love Chili-Spaghetti….on rice!

On each of my last few visits, the lines at Mo's has been fairly long, a very good sign that Jocelyn's and Mo's hard work has paid off. They've done it without advertising, mostly by word of mouth….just like "back home". I've always had very friendly service at Mo's, the food may take a while sometimes, but it is always worth the wait.

Mo's Island Grinds (Formerly Da' Kitchen)
9823 Carroll Canyon Rd.
San Diego, CA 92131

Postscript – I've had some interesting questions regarding Plate Lunches, but there is one question that keeps popping up; "Is plate lunch Hawaiian Food?"

Unlike describing someone from Oregon as an Oregonian, "Locals" consider a Hawaiian to be someone of Hawaiian blood. The rest of us are "Locals". Likewise, for me Hawaiian food are items that are traditionally Hawaiian in nature, such as Poi, Lau Lau, Kalua Pig, etc…. So you can have Hawaiian food on a plate lunch, but a plate lunch is not Hawaiian food per se.

Here's an example of a local style menu.

So go get one of these……

Plate Lunch Week: Da Kine’s Plate Lunches – Mira Mesa

July 18, 2007 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Plate Lunch

*** As of December 2007, Da Kine’s Mira Mesa has closed

I don’t think it would be fair to do a plate lunch week and not include that San Diego institution Da Kine’s. Nelson Ishii is pretty much the pioneer of plate lunches in San Diego, having started Da Kine’s almost a decade ago. I remember seeing Nelson once at the Da’ Kine’s in PB when I was here for a consulting gig in the late 90’s. I knew it was him because, well, everyone knew him. I said, "hey bruddah, you make a pretty good plate lunch". His response? "Uh…." as he went on his way. After we moved to San Diego in 2001, I noticed that the quality of the food had started to go downhill. And by the time I finally did a post in September of 2005, it seemed that Da Kine’s had hit rock bottom. In fact, about 5 months after that post, I received an email that started with, "Wow, yoso-harsh…..". It was from the manager of the PB Da Kine’s apologizing, and asking me to return. And so I put Da Kine’s back on my "list". But before I had a chance to return, Da’ Kine’s in PB was no more. I felt I needed to keep that promise to return, so I decided on visiting Da Kine’s Mira Mesa location.

It was pretty quiet on the weekend morning in May when I paid Da Kine’s a visit.

In fact the Young Lady behind the counter seemed absolutely bored and going through the motions. So when she asked me what I wanted, I had no problem saying "I like Wop Yo Jaws…." She was not amused…..(BTW, "Wop Yo Jaws" doesn’t meaning anything like what you may think….)

In case you didn’t know, Da Kine’s has named their "mixed plates" somewhat interesting names such as Da’ Bugga, FOB Special, and in this case, the 3 item mixed plate is called "Wop Yo Jaws"($7.95). (You can find the real pidgin meaning here) I guess it’s supposed to be funny and cute, but knowing what these phrases mean, it makes me feel strange uttering them to order a mixed plate.

This is what arrived:

I was pleasantly surprised, take a look at the photos of items I had on my previous visits and compare. It’s like night and day. The Chicken Katsu at Da Kine’s is pounded really thin, creating a greater batter to meat ratio, not something that I really enjoy, but it was fried to perfection. I also like the Ketchup based katsu sauce that Da Kine’s uses. The Grilled Teri Chicken was hot and moist, if a bit under marinated. The Teriyaki Beef was well marinated, and fairly tender. It was a good example of "local-style" Teri Beef which is not overly sweet by nature.

I was impressed with the portion size, having been used to the ever shrinking portions at Da Kine’s in PB, this was a surprise. The Macaroni Salad, as usual was pretty bland, lacking in salt, and in this case too much mayo was used, but it wasn’t too bad.

Overall, this was a satisfying meal….

So still "feeling like one winnah" as I discarded my nearly cleaned plate in the trash, the indifferent young lady, asked me "how was your lunch?" I answered describing my meals at Da Kine’s in PB, and how this compared, and started into a blow by blow description of what I enjoyed about the food, when I noticed the totally blank look on her face….. She really didn’t, or hadn’t wanted an answer to her question, it was the "question asked for which no response is desired", she had probably expected a single yes, or no answer. Yes, I am a food dork. Finally she uttered a single "uh…" As I left I thought, maybe she’s related to Nelson????

Da Kine’s Plate Lunches – Mira Mesa
10606 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 586-0606

Plate Lunch Week: Mahina’s

July 17, 2007 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

*** Mahina’s has closed

The storefront of Mahina’s looks familiar, doesn’t it?

It should if you’ve been reading mmm-yoso long enough. Mahina’s used to be Shaka Hawaiian BBQ, I’m sure you’d recognize the powder blue and bright orange colors.

Same bright(well, now not so bright) orange interior as well.

Something that caught my attention immediately was that this was the exact same menu as Shakas, except that Label Maker Tape with "Mahina’"s on it was placed over "Shakas" on every menu item. If you don’t believe me, here’s a close-up.

So what was a "Shaka Pac" on my last visit was now a "Mahina’s Pac" and so forth. All done with with a strip of label tape….. Because of this, my first impression was that Mahina’s is a bare-bones operation.

This being a bit on the early side of noon, I decided to go with the ~~Shakas~~, ummm Mahina’s Loco($7.99), I placed my order with some difficulty, the Young Lady had a hard time understanding me, and I her. After finally getting through, she relayed my order to the Young Lady in the back in Korean. I had a seat, and in a few minutes my "loco" was ready:

Looked like the typical Loco Moco, the eggs were a decently done easy-over, but the preformed hamburger patty tasted a bit "off", so I set it aside. The gravy was really bland, and had the texture of glue. The macaroni salad lacked salt and had apple in it…..which has no place on a plate lunch, it made the mac salad too sweet, and the salad wasn’t dressed with enough mayo.

What made this loco moco a ~~Shakas~~ Mahina’s Loco was the addition of Spam and Portuguese Sausage. I fished out a piece of Spam, and what I thought was another slice of Spam.

After examining both slices I noticed the color difference. The slice on the left was Spam, in all it’s nitrite glory, some cynical part of me expected Treet(nothing worse than fake Spam!!!) which tastes like really bad luncheon meat, but this was the real deal. I would rather have had my slice of Spam a bit caramelized. The dark slice to the right, is supposed to be Portuguese Sausage(does it look like a slice of sausage?). It had some spice, but no real rich pork flavor, or depth of flavor, the meat had a grainy texture, and there was a distinct lack of fat. It was just plain strange…..

I’m kind of at a loss….I really don’t know what to make of this meal. Could it really be this bad? I really wasn’t impressed with Shakas, but this was worse.

An idea popped into my head as I typed this. Mahina’s can’t possibly be this bad, can it? So, if anyone has any idea of something that Mahina’s does well, please let me know, and I’ll make an effort to try it. So let me know what I’m missing, ok?

Mahina’s Hawaiian Food
1315 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109