Markets & Grocers – Page 32

Major Market- your “other than Asian” grocery store

June 12, 2007 Cathy Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!

Editor’s Note: Major Market is no longer affiliated with the Independent Grocer’s Alliance and is a freestanding market, with some supplies (mostly dry goods and some refrigerated products) still being purchased from the IGA.

Kirk eats, Cathy eats. Each of us blogs about what we eat, where we eat and where we get supplies for eating when we do eat at home. Enjoy this episode of mmm-yoso!!!.

Hi there. Cathy here, just adding some variety in your day.

About 3 years ago, my Friend, Mr. G., told me about this *really cool* supermarket in Escondido. I had seen it, actually, and ignored it, and had gone to the Trader Joe’s in the same parking lot. Big mistake. Huge.

See, it’s an IGA. There used to be an IGA in Santee…the building it was in turned into a church; it wasn’t a fun place to shop, had a lot of store brand (Springfield) stuff and the prices were not competitive and really, it was not interesting.

Now, I know that there are five IGA’s called "Food Land" out there and they have great Panderias (bakeries) and Tortillerias and even Taquerias inside…but those are in El Cajon and National City and South San Diego. This is in Escondido- Centre City Parkway(the next exit after North County Fair)- and, well, I wasn’t thinking there would be anything interesting…WRONG. Oh, so wrong.

Kobe hamburger? Here is the meat counter…and then the sign over the meat counter.

USDA Prime.

3 lobster tanks, sold by size.

Oh, this isn’t all. I could not take photos of everything…

Here- the fresh baked stuff.

I like the fresh baguettes and scones. The pastries are wonderful and there is a whole coffee bar area next to the bakery area, with tables (the ham and cheese croissant is wonderful, BTW). Next to this area is the meat/salad/deli area, where they will make sandwiches for you. Dietz and Watson meats. (I did not take a photo- I promised the two managers on duty there would be no people in any pictures) . There is a small (made in store-fresh) Sushi area, a hot foods/steam tray area. This, rotisserie chickens and carnitas area…BBQ and side dishes.

None of these photos are of the complete areas. Keep that in mind.

For example, in the aisles…this photo is not quite the complete selection of canned fish.

There are many unique items throughout the store, as well as everyday items.

An example of something unusual is this- Isboks- boxed water from Iceland, $10 for 5 liters…I dunno. But it is there, if you want to try. Of course, the most interesting things are on end units-Food from other countries, arranged by Country. Frozen foods from Great Britain (see the flag above the display?)

Italy, Scandinavian countries…there are whole end units of German and French products also, along with more unrefrigerated stuff from Great Britain.

Oh, and this is about half of all the marinated by the pound stuff- although mostly olives sold, the rest of the marinated veggies are in this photograph…

This is just a fun place to go for your general groceries, fruits and veggies, as well as maybe some special stuff.

Here are photos from our latest shopping trip.

Thanks, Mr. G, for telling me to stop in here. It’s the most fun Supermarket around!

Major Market Escondido 1855 S. Centre City Parkway (760)741-7827

Major Market Fallbrook 845 S. Main Avenue (760) 723-0857

website

Return to Vien Dong III Part 1 – The Email

May 31, 2007 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers

*** Vien Dong Market is now Thuan Phat Supermarket. You can find post here.

Part 2 Can be found here.

A few weeks ago, I received the most surprising and (for me) amazing email. It was very professional, and cordial, but most of all, it gave me hope. Why hope? It seems that trying to get things done, like a simple refund, takes an executive order. Remember our canceled vacation, and the promise of a refund? Well it took almost 4 months, countless emails and phone calls to what seemed like an outsourced customer service representatives(I'm putting that in lower case on purpose) who all have "no last name", I eventually got fed up with the glad-handing and after doing some research found a "real" person through a professional associations website, and finally got this online travel service to refund our money….4 months later! Everyone was nice, but you could tell what the state of customer service was like…..you knew they were just "trying to get rid of you" and hoping you'd give up, and they wouldn't have to refund your money, which I believe had already been refunded by the Airlines and Hotel we were to stay at. You see, I'm becoming a cynic already!

Sorry for the long diversion, back to the story. In January of last year I did a little post on Vien Dong III Supermarket, made a few observations, and went on my merry way. I was a bit sad that the hot food was gone, and did make mention of the "pungency factor", as did someone in the comments. There were some other interesting comments as well.

So a few weeks ago, I get this email, that starts with, "Dear Sir or Madam"…and my mind goes "oh-oh, somebody's really ticked off…." But as I read the letter, a smile broke out over my face, and I felt really good….I don't know why, but I did. So I got permission to print the letter in it's entirety(I'm inserting a few photos):

Dear Sir or Madam (mmm-yoso),

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dan and my family owns/operates Vien Dong III International Supermarket. I'm also a reader of your site for about a year now. I had been meaning to write you for some time regarding your review of our store. I thought it was very good and wanted to thank you for your interest. It was very refreshing to see people put stuff up on the web about us and we truly appreciate it. We also wanted to let you know that since your review we have done a lot of renovating and would be really honored if you would come by for another visit and see for yourself.

-The pungency factor is no longer a factor
-Resurrected the food to go + deli and bakery area
-Raised our ceiling added skylights and brighter energy efficient lighting
-Renovated the seafood department with newer more accessible tanks and freezers.
-Upgraded checkout system for quicker processing and visability
-Expanded produce department to include wider variety and volume of produce
-Increased small business/restaurant customer servicing

Regarding the comments on live seafood, our core customers have always preferred to select their own product; picking the biggest and the freshest seafood currently available. Many other Asian supermarkets do not allow customers to select their own seafood and as a result people are always concerned about getting mis-serviced with damaged or dead product or overcharged by water/ice weight packed by the market. So it has always been or policy to welcome customers to pick and pack for themselves and letting product go out on a first come first self serve basis and letting customers pick exactly what they want. Of course our employees are always more than willing to assist anyone who need help.
Regarding the comments on the checkout lanes, we have configured them that way in order to foster a more social service environment. My dad came up with the idea when we first switched to the PC-based checkout system with large screen computer monitors. By pairing up the checkout stands, the cashiers can communicate and assist each other better by working in pairs and at the same time be more physically accessible to the customers. The large screen monitors would also be more accessible to the customers to view and physically point at particular line items. The additional benefit of pairing the checkout stands was that the grocery bagger (my old job) would be more accessible to more customers as well.
If you have any other questions or comments on how we can improve the store your input would mean a lot to us. We'd also really appreciate it you could give us your input on new individual products. I look forward to hearing back from you.

—
Best Regards,
Daniel M. Tran

Vien Dong III International Supermarket
6935 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego CA 92111 tel: 858 292 8110

Wow, maybe one little post from our humble little blog, with everyone's input(comments!!!) can make a difference? I dunno…….. There are very few points that I'd have issues with. The only item, was that I (we) do reviews. You'll find that I never, ever say, I do restaurant, or food reviews….I leave that to the Naomi Wise's, and the other"food writers" and experts, I'm just a "food eater", and share my experiences on this blog. I think it's a much more intimate, and a more personal experience, and heck, I'm not much of a writer anyway.

I need to thank Daniel, for allowing his email to be part of a post(and making sure the hot food was back), but you know I'll be following up…which is what part 2 will be!

And more importantly….what do you think?

The Steam Table at 99Ranch- dinner!

May 24, 2007 Cathy Chains, Chinese Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is the name of the blog. Welcome. Cathy is talking about food while Kirk is on vacation. I think he’ll be back tomorrow, though.

Hi. Me again. Kirk is still away. I imagine since this is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, most of you are away and not reading this post until you are back at work. Hope it was nice for you.

It appears, through the magic of blogging, that The Mister and I pretty much wander about town with a camera and eat out a lot at sit down waiter/waitress type places. Actually, The Mister and I cook at home a lot, and Kirk and His Missus cook at home also…look at the recipe index at the bottom of the left column of this page.

Then there are the lazy days. Pick it up and bring it home…or pick it up and eat it there. 99Ranch has that steam table area of the store. We were there tonight.

Two bags of steam tray food. It is three meals for the two of us, easily.

The whole fried or soy sauce chicken is on sale this week for $3.99. They will chop it up for you. This is the fried one. The skin wasn’t as crispy as I would like, but the chicken meat is moist and flavorful and…it is only $3.99. It comes with a sauce that has 5 spice in it.

We got a two item combo($4.25) 99ranch_002 with steamed rice

The spicy salted fish and the soy sauce pork with soy sauce hard boiled eggs. The spicy salt and pepper crust is wonderful, light and crispy, as is the (mostly boneless) flaky fresh fish. The pork had a nice layer of fat on it , was soft and tender and flavorful and was not overly soy-sauce salty. The egg was nicely hard boiled and fresh and not salty either. A good, deep, rich soy flavor. I just got an email from Bill and he said it may be brown sugar sauce with fish sauce, which, upon opening the fridge and tasting it cold (at 4:40 in the morning) tastes very slightly sweet and again not salty. So it couldbe brown sugar and fish sauce. Let’s just say it is good pork and hard boiled egg in a thin brown colored sauce. The meat is tasty as is the egg and we liked it.

The combos come with soup (they gave us two- it was almost closing time). Today it was egg drop, with for some reason, one piece of corn in each bowl, and the requisite spork to use for both the soup and meal, although chopsticks are available.

We also wanted to try the chicken roll ($3)

Ground chicken and rice with light spices wrapped in fried tofu skin. Very nice here. It comes with a spicy sweet and sour sauce.

We also got the 4 piece ‘summer roll’ from the bakery area ($3.99) . Rice paper wrapped around chilled rice noodles, shrimp, lettuce and mint with a peanutty dipping sauce- always refreshing.

That’s it. Not too exciting a post, eh? Well,you know, sometimes I just like to eat some fresh food without having to cook. Not everything in my life is overly interesting, although I do share with you when it is.

There are Monday-Friday specials for $2.29 at lunch. Oh and breakfast specials also. Always fresh. There is a large eating area adjacent to the steam tray line. Across from the steam trays they sell beverages and soups. All of the 99 Ranch markets have a steam tray food area. Try it. It’s good.

Again, have a good Memorial Day weekend.

99 Ranch Market 7380 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 website

Thanh Son Tofu – San Diego

March 1, 2007 mmm-yoso Desserts, Markets & Grocers, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Thanh Son Tofu moved, then closed

We'd been trying to get to Thanh Son Tofu on El Cajon Boulevard for a while. First off, they are located a bit off the street with one of those psycho-free-for-all parking lots where people seem to define their own parking stalls and rules. In addition Thanh Son seems to close rather early, so I've missed the boat a few times, before we finally made it at about 1pm on a recent weekend afternoon.

We entered the large almost empty shop, and no one was around, and not much food either. There were many, many signs though!

Wow, so Thanh Son does Banh Mi? But I really didn't understand much else.

In the meantime, the Missus had struck up a conversation with a nice young man, who told us that they were out of tofu. In fact, they usually run out of fresh tofu before noon. Bummer. Meanwhile the Missus's short attention span had gotten ahold of Her and She had moved on, and was checking this stuff out.

A large variety of Che, otherwise known as "sweet soup", those very refreshing dessert drinks of which there must be hundreds of variations. These were $2.50 a piece which I thought was on the high side until I noticed a sign over the cash register.

Basically buy 2 get one free! Baaargain city….. So, the Missus hit the jackpot and selected Her Che. I'm not a dessert person, but the one She enjoyed the most had taro and slices of ginger in coconut milk, which I thought was pretty good. Unfortunately, there's no photo since it never made it home. Here are photos of the other two cups of Che the Missus had.

Come to think of it, these were 12oz cups…and were pretty large.

We also got some of the fried tofu we saw(10 pieces for $1.25):

After the Missus talked the young man into giving Her some samples(She is very useful sometimes…) we got the version on the left, it had onion, bean thread, and black fungus in it. Crunchy exterior, nice flavor, with just a touch of salt. The version on the right was a lemongrass tofu which we didn't think had as much flavor, nor the great texture. We were still a bit disappointed that we missed out on the tofu….

At this point, getting some tofu from Thanh Son had become a mission. My mantra became, "I'm going to get me some tofu…or die trying!" I got up at 630am on a recent Sunday, and made my way to Thanh Son. If there is one benefit to arriving at 7am, it's that I had my choice of parking spaces without having to worry about being blocked in. I walked into the shop and noticed three people hard at work making spring rolls and other items. Luckily the same young man who served us the other day was there; the other two people only spoke Vietnamese. I ordered two block of tofu($1.25/ea), and also an order of the noodles that looked really good.

The large container of the noodles cost $3.50, and was okay, just a bit under flavored for us.

Oh yes, and finally the tofu! Now due to communication problems, I'm not sure if Thanh Son sells a variety of Tofu. I was given two large blocks of firm tofu.

The tofu was quite dense, but short on the strong "soy bean" flavor I was expecting. The tofu is well suited for deep frying or various stir fries. I'll probably be back to see if other tofu products are sold. Till then, if you're in the mood for some fresh tofu, you know where you can get it.

Thanh Son Tofu
4616 El Cajon Blvd Ste 15
San Diego, CA 92115

Topping out for Good Eats ~ Tip Top Meats!

February 21, 2007 Vicky (SF Bay Area) American/New American Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, What Vicky Eats

"Hi! This is Vicky posting about her latest meal. She is extremely honored to be invited by Kirk to blog on mmm-Yoso!"

So apparently I get super excited about my food, and totally forget about taking the pictures until after I'm done… Oh well, I'll have to wait until my next trip before taking pictures of the great munchies I had for……..

So we celebrated Asian New Years and I did my best to feed the poor college student that was crashing with me for the weekend. He unfortunately didn't bring anything fancier than a t shirt so my steak loving cousin couldn't take advantage of my generosity since we couldn't go to Donavan's. And besides, where else can I feed a starving college student amazingly good quality steak at less than 10 bucks a plate?! I can't even say that about TGIFridays where you get a mediocre steak for around 20! So on my way up to dropping him off in Orange County, we swung by a North County secret. It's where I drop in when I want a good hunk of steak (before Kirk posted about Siesel's), and it's where I managed to feed my mini army of guy friends who helped me move… I have a ton of stuff, so I had to bribe them with a "steak dinner." *drumroll!* Tip Top Meats!! It's a meat market/restaurant/european specialty deli or market all rolled into one. Here's a picture of the outside, where they write all their specials for their restaurants on the whiteboard:

Wowsers! They even have their daily availability of wild game and goodies to satisfy the pickiest inner carnivore. If you look on the bottom right of the corner to see their "Big John" breakfast, its the craziest entree on their breakfast meal. Their menu describes it as: "Three eggs any style, home fried potatoes, toast, and ALL* of our own delicious smokehouse bacon, pork link sausage, or polish sausage, bratwurst, or ham you can eat." *~Sorry, ALL not valid on TOGO orders (two choices of meats). All that for $5.98! S got that one time when we went shopping at the outlets down the street. They weren't kidding about the all you can eat! It seriously was all you can eat meats!

Tip Top apparently is a wholesale meat market that some of the high end local restaurants use. They have their deli on the end of the market and apparently their mentality is to cut out the middleman/distributor so their meals stay unbelievably reasonable! AND they give you an amazing portion! AND it's amazingly tasty!

But before we get to the prime rib part, more pictures of the place:
A freezer full of random things… (yes if you look at the enlargement, they have "maui ribs…" I haven't quite figured out what Maui Ribs are though… )The scary part of the store is that they have everything fresh in the meat cases AND frozen so it will keep when it travels! How convenient!

Here's a look at the crazy meat case full of meat. They had nearly every imaginable cut and part of meat. The best part was that the prices were kept very reasonable. At the same time, the staff was very knowledgeable. They had everything from veal cutlets to bacon wrapped filets. The sausages are made in house and the bacon is also smoked in house! Unfortunately when we got there around 7, they had already started covering up and cleaning up so that was the only section of the meat case that wasn't covered up or stored away. In addition to being the ultimate meat market, Tip Top also makes a plethora of European pastries…. including…. STRUDEL! Here's a picture of their gargantuan strudel: avaliable in 4 flavors, which they bake in house. They also make a wide variety of German cakes and goodies.

Each strudel was about 7 inches wide and nearly 2 feet long!!! They also carry the strudel cut into manageable serving sizes in the eatery portion. Each strudel will set you back nearly 6 dollars. Goodness… Here are a couple more shots of the marketplace.

When you have German sausages, you gotta have the German lagers and beers!

This picture is for Frankie and Sammy… At first, I just took a picture of the bones in the case but realized how there was no way to really see the size of these suckers so I shall present you my very unflattering wrist and thumb! (And yes, there is probably a herd's worth of cow femurs.) Wow… that is ONE huge bone. I'm sure it would make some amazing stock though… Although I don't know anyone who would have a stock pot big enough to cook it in.

Also available here at Tip Top is a well dressed and re ady to cook Bugs Bunny along with goat. (I recall seeing some comments a co uple days ago from a reader asking about goat availability in San Diego. I'm kinda tempted to ask Tip Top what they DON'T carry.

Along with fresh meats and frozen game, the grocery/deli/market had an amazing selection of goodies.

Here's their "condiment" section, full of every single imagineable imported ketchups/horseradish/and mustards… to go with every single imagineable sausage/wurst/link they make! I was amazed at how much stuff they carried! They even had a caviar section of imported caviars from around the world. So after much perusing and browsing and "stealth" picture taking, I joined up with the guys who were patiently standing in line by the eatery. So the eatery pretty much works like this: you stand in line, you tell her what dish you want, choose your sides – one or two sides depending on the dish, salad or soup, and generally it comes with a roll. So the reason for this visit in the first place is that from 4:30 to 8pm every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, they have prime rib. It's not the meager tough prime rib they serve at the neighborhood buffet place or even the cheap Nevada buffets. I'm talking about the GOOOOOD stuff. I actually prefer the texture of their prime rib over Donavan's! Granted they don't have the white linen tableclothes and it is pretty much a "they call your number" and you get your food and go chow type of place. So we ordered two prime rib plates, which came with 2 sides, soup or salad and a dinner roll. The choices for sides are: mashed potatoes and gravy, baked potato, french fries, sauerkraut, red cabbage, or steamed veggies. I had sauerkraut and mashed potatoes where Cousin H had the veggies and mashed potatoes. We each got a different soup; tonight they had beef barley and lentil. I don't think I enjoyed the soup that much. I'm still trying to get used to thick heavy soups, being that I was brought up on miso shiro and tofu vegetable soup. So we got our soups, and sat down. (H and I were sharing a prime rib plate… hence the two orders. I can never finish an entire plate and I hate dealing with leftovers.) So after a short while, our number was called and we picked up the immense amount of food.

So maybe presentation wasn't their forte…. And apologies for the empty soup dish. Also, I had cut a good hunk out of the top piece of prime rib before H reminded me to take pictures. Yes… it was TWO slices of prime rib on each plate! MMMMMMMmmmm! The prime rib was tender and tasty, perfectly medium, swimming in a pool of au jus served with fresh horseradish. (I'm not a fan of horseradish… maybe that's why I forgot to take a picture of it.) It was straight up European home style cooking, the gravy on the mashed potatoes was divine, same with the sauerkraut. It really helped cut whatever fat/grease was in the meal. All that food for 10 dollars and change!

Most of the entrees are under 10 dollars. The prime rib roast is probably one of my favorites to get there, they also carry a lot of German style foods including sauerbraten, rouladen, holsteiner schnitzel. They also offer veal cordon bleu for under 8! If none of the entrees tickle your fancy, you can go over to the meat counter, pick out your steak and for an extra 2.98 in addition to the market price of the raw steak, they will cook it to your liking and add in sides for a complete steak dinner.

According to their pamphlet, they will order any specialty meat and will cook anything for you provided you give them a three day notice for whole pigs and steamboat rounds.

Tip Top Meats
6118 Paseo Del Norte
Carlsbad, CA
(760) 438-2620

Open Daily from 6am to 8pm

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2007 mmm-yoso Cooking, Markets & Grocers, yoso-silly

Happy New Year!

There’s usually a pretty large amount of shopping that needs to be done around New Years eve. The Missus and I usually celebrate both the Gregorian and Lunar New Year. Japan officially accepted the Gregorian New Year in 1873, and have been celebrating New Year based on the Gregorian calendar since then.

So that would mean a few stops. First Nijiya:

Armed with my list(which turned out to be incomplete), I completed my shopping rather quickly, which gave me a nice opportunity to check out all the Osechi-ryori(Traditional Japanese New Years dishes) on display.

To me it seemed that there was a smaller variety of Osechi "Sets" this year, but that could just be me….

The industrious guy on the top in the photo below, almost made his escape after I took this photo:

The Obachan in front of me purchased $250 worth of food for New Years!

The next stop, Mitsuwa:

I noticed a smaller variety of Osechi here as well.

I found alot of "boxed" Osechi…sort of your generic, preboxed, impersonal, Costco-ized, Osechi:

Is this the future of Osechi? I hope not, it takes all of the fun out of Osechi Shopping.

So having purchased everything for our New Years meals, with only a few item omitted…well, I always forget a thing or two, it just wouldn’t be New Years without me rushing out to market. If anything, I’m consistent.

I only took a few photos, since I was busy cooking(and eating):

Of course Soba:

This year I added Wasabi Tobiko(wasabi flavored flying fish eggs), which added a nice "crunch" to the dish.

My own Osechi:

Karei Karaage(Deep fried flounder):

Lightly dusted with Katakuriko(potato starch), and lightly seasoned with sea salt and Shichimi Togarashi(Seven-spice chili pepper), and eaten with just a the lightest squeeze of lemon, and a tiny bit of Yuzu Kosho, a salty-citrusy-spicy condiment made with the rind of Yuzu, chili pepper, salt, and in this case a tiny bit of bean paste. By far the Missus’s favorite dish.

The Shishito Tempura was a close second:

I made some Matcha-Shio(Green tea powder mixed with salt) for dipping.

And some shrimp tempura:

And various Tempura(Kabocha, Satsuma-imo, Tamanegi, etc…):

Some Tofu, the Yuzu Koshu came in handy here as well.

And I haven’t been able to "retire" from making my Nishime yet, but maybe next year.

I guess we ate enough this New Year…better renew that Gym membership.

Of course, it’s always nice to settle in to watch the television after a nice meal:

Happy New Year!

Poke on Maui: A Tale of Two Safeways…yes, Safeway

October 25, 2006 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers, Maui, Poke

I'll readily admit that I was sniffing around for Poke from the moment our plane touched down. There are many creative and tasty version of this classic Hawaiian dish on the Mainland, but many times I just want simple down home Poke, made with fresh ingredients, and with the classic flavoring that I grew up eating. The Missus has also been caught in my "Poke madness", on a vacation with Her girlfriend on the Big Island last year, She ate Poke at least once a day(even 3 times on an occasion). They basically lived out of KTA Superstores….. I've been known to haunt Tamashiro's, Tanioka's, Foodlands, Als Moana Farmers Market, and on and on……

Which lead to our first stop for Poke….Safeway(yes, Safeway) Kahului.

We marched into Safeway, and searched for a Fish Counter. The Market has to have a fish counter. Sorry, but prepackaged Poke won't cut it with me.

When we arrived at the Fish Counter I noticed something interesting….

There was Poke made with fish with a "previously frozen" tag as well as Poke made with "fresh" fish. Of course we went with the fish labeled fresh…..

The Ahi Poke(Yellowfin or Big Eye Tuna).

Dry and a bit off tasting.

Aku Poke(Skipjack):

Aku is known to be a "fattier" Tuna, and thus will have a stronger flavor. This poke had alot of the white tough and inedible connective tissue. It was also on the "dry" side. Not very good at all. Makes me think I maybe shoulda tried the Poke made with the previously frozen fish?

One of the Missus's new obsessions; Tako Wasabi. Raw Tako marinated in a slightly sweet-wasabi marinade, this was as good as any I've had.

Even though the Poke was lousy, we did a return visit so the Missus could get Her Tako Wasabi fix. The service was rather disinterested, and this really did show up in the flavor and quality of the Poke….Auwe!

Safeway
170 E Kamehameha Ave
Kahului, HI 96732

So having been truly disappointed, we started asking around….and got alot of "this place makes good sashimi", and that sort…. Finally, a few locals recommended Safeway, but "not da' one stay in Wailuku…but right hea' in dis mall". Which happened to be the Lahaina Cannery Mall.

By this time we were a bit doubtful, until we marched up to the fish counter, and started ordering.

At which time this Gentleman put the brakes on the ordering.

He froze me with His steely gaze, and said "how do you know what you like, if you nevah' tasted?" And held up samples of the different versions on toothpicks. He went on to explain on how he made each version, how fresh everything was; "we get da' fish at 430am, clean 'em and……." Now this was a Guy who was proud of the fruits of His labor!

So the Ahi Limu:

Very clean and refreshing, with flavors of the ocean. The fish was fresh, and the texture(crunch of the Limu, meatiness of fish) pretty good, though the Missus thought it was under salted.

The Ahi Shoyu was by far the Missus's favorite, to the tune of going back for this four times.

Great balanced flavor, not too salty, with a touch of sweetness provided by the uber-fresh medium quality fish.

The Tako Poke.

The Missus didn't care for the large pieces of Tako, but I enjoyed the sweet onion.

The Ahi Poke was my personal favorite. This Ahi Poke was updated with the flavor of wasabi, so it had a slight kick. Delici-yoso!!!

The Kimchee Tako Poke was pretty good, though maybe a tad too sour. But it still disappeared….

Well how's that? Two Safeways, two different Fish Counters, big difference!

Safeway
1221 Honoapiilani Hwy
Lahaina, HI 96761

For more info on Poke; Alan, who does the Food Blog Ma'ona has written what I think is probably one of my favorite posts ever on Poke. And just for the heck of it, here's my humble Poke Recipe.

One morning the Missus, My MIL & FIL decided to take a walk down at the end of Office Road. We walked along the edge of the Golf Course which featured a nice view of Fleming's Beach.

After skirting along the edge of the Golf Course we came to the lava formation called Dragon's Teeth. Created during one of the last lava flows on Maui, the forces of the wind and sea created this novel lava formation.

This pleasant little walk provided glimpses of nature's, and man's creations. As viewed by this maze we found.

At the end of the walk is Makalua-puna Point, capping off a walk with the glorious view of the ocean's power.

If taking this walk please respect the Honokahua Preservation Site, where ancient Hawaiian burial sites were discovered when ground was broken for the construction of the Ritz Carlton. In it's time the discovery created quite a stir.

Maui: Honolua Store

October 23, 2006 mmm-yoso Loco Mocos, Markets & Grocers, Maui, Plate Lunch

Located right next to the Kapalua Villas Reception Center, is the Honolua Store. As I walked to check in, something clicked, and I turned and took another look. And yes, it was the Honolua Store that I remembered, though when I last saw it, it was on a dirt road, and green washed. Now it’s right up the street from the Ritz Carlton! Times sure have changed.

In fact, I remember the reception center as well, it used to be the Post Office. You see, my Mother was born and raised in Honolua Town. The last time I was in the area was circa 1969, by the early seventies my Grandparents had moved out of the area, but I have some really fond distinct memories of the area. How much of it is based on a child’s view of the world, I’m not quite sure, but they are some really nice memories.

For this trip, the Honolua Store is probably the only place to get reasonably priced "grindz".

Yes, you can get breakfast for under five bucks…on Maui!!!! The service at breakfast can be rather surly, much of it due to "tourist burnout". But most items are located precooked hot table items, and your eggs, and other items are cooked up fresh to complete the breakfast.

The are also "quick" items, ala’ convenience store, that are available.

As you can see, there are items for both the locals, as well as guests of the Ritz. Manapua and English Muffin Sandwich, anyone?

As to what I ordered……of course it had to be….

A Loco Moco($4.75) of course. It was pretty good, the eggs(2) were done a nice easy over, the gravy had nice flavor, though the hamburger patties were bland and "mushy".

In reality, this could have tasted like garbage and I still might have enjoyed it. There’s nothing like sitting on an empty beach, and having some good grindz…..

This is Oneloa Beach(aka Ironwood), at 730 in the morning. Not a place to swim(the Missus still tried…sigh), but a pretty nice to have a peaceful quiet breakfast. Which is what I did while the Missus was collecting strawberries on Her knees(I warned Her…). It was the second beach of the day.

Every morning, still caught in the web of Pacific Standard Time, we’d be up at 5 or 530 am, and end up hitting Kapalua Beach by 6am, where the Missus would get Her morning swim in the calm protected bay, and I’d do some light running or go snorkeling.

Kapalua Beach is alot smaller than it seems in the photos, and the small parking lot can be rather hard to find. You need to look for the large Napili Lani sign, and the parking lot is right before the sign, right past a fire hydrant. Usually we’d just be leaving as a few people would start arriving.

Honolua Store
502 Office Road
Lahaina, HI 96761

Tomorrow, I’ll be back in San Diego, before a "return" to Maui……

Episode five:week One-Vine Ripe Market and Cuisine

October 5, 2006 Cathy Markets & Grocers, Mediterranean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Vine Ripe Market was closed in 2008 and re-opened January 1, 2010…updates soon. (Hint-fresh hot flatbread at the bakery when you walk in, hot foods, Boars Head meats and more…and the restaurant is great too!)

mmm-yoso is on vacation. The part usually played by Kirk will be played by Cathy in the interim.

OK. Another day and I continue to blog. I like variety in my life and try not to repeat certain things, like the nationality of food I eat daily…burrito for breakfast, then veggies and cheese for lunch and then probably something best eaten with chopsticks for dinner…. you know… I do like fresh fruits and vegetables, and have a small garden for that, but I find myself stopping at whatever fresh produce place I can find, daily, looking for munchies when the garden is winding down. One of my regular stops is Vine Ripe, in La Mesa.

The "official" name I see on the flyers I get in the mail is "Vine Ripe International Market and Cuisine" and its website is very well put together. It shows the weekly specials, the daily specials AND allows you to sign up for a text message of the daily specials, as well as having the menu for the adjacent, wonderful restaurant which serves Halal meats and everything else fresh from the market it shares space with in the building.

I took a few photos inside the market. (You can click onto any of them and they enlarge).

This is part of the produce section. Lots of selection, good prices, daily specials AND always a shopping cart of marked down packaged veggies and fruits that are right on the edge of ripeness and will only last a day more.

Bulk feta cheeses (this is about half of what is available) and bulk olives (there are 12 tubs like this- these are Moroccan oil cured @ $2.69/lb)

Refrigerated cheeses-3 different brands of Halloumi…and an aisle of sauces, mustards, purees, pickled vegetables. The products sold here are from all over the world- Germany, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece. There are canned and jarred varieties of just about anything you can think of.

Then, in this aisle of mixes, there is this "Cheesecake Aid" stuff. I am unsure what kind of aid a cheesecake might require, but next time I make one and think I need aid, well, I know right where to look.

Apparently, there is a need for it.

These are the selection of frozen filo doughs.

Those are the frozen lamb heads, $1.29/lb.

The selection of Halal meats is all inclusive. People were milling about in the Meat Department and I didn't get a photo.

Now remember the name, its a Mediterranean market, not "Greek"…

The vegetarian plate- Spinach pie, falafel, hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanouj and a feta cheese salad with pita bread. ($8.95) Excellent, fresh made everything and quite enough food. Its spinach pie, not spanakopita. The dough is more of a piroshki type and the filling is mostly fresh spinach and mild spices, no feta.

The gyros sandwich ($4.95)..not your typical. Its stuffed lavosh bread, gyros meat, a "graecian" sauce and greens- meaning lettuce and pickle..(you read that right-pickle).. Then the bread is grilled and the sandwich served with a salad. It is not huge, but it is quite enough food to make a meal, filling and wonderfully flavorful.

Oh, here is the menu, but you can also view it on the website.www.vineripemarket.com

Ah, Mediterranean food…dessert…

They make them all in the in-store bakery.

The menu includes lamb kafta, beef or chicken shawerma kabobs (shawerma is *sort* of more slouvlaki than gyros, as far as spices go), chicken and beef gyros, salmon, tilapia, trout, catfish and shrimp dishes.

Nothing is bad here. Really.

Vine Ripe Market 8191 Fletcher Parkway (at Jackson-same parking lot as Chili's and one parking lot north of the LM Costco) La Mesa 91942 (619) 462-9900

Mid Week Mystery Market – It’s 97 Supermarket!

July 19, 2006 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers, yoso-silly

*** 97 Supermarket has closed

Over the last 14 months or so, I've collected quite a few photos. Most of them end up in the recycle bin, since I do "goof-up" alot. I try to be organized, but sometimes I find a collection of photos that leave me scratching my head. As in where the heck was this???? This is such a collection. I did find out which market it was; I had put the "street shot" in another folder, and it was left languishing.

So, I guess it's better late then never. But here's the deal; first 5 Emails I receive that guess the correct Market, I'll send you a cup of Peet's on me. The reason I chose Peet's, is because I can Email Peet's certificates.

Let's start the clues…..

1 – This is a Southeast Asian Supermarket, you know right away, since they stock everything from Betel Leaves:

To Boba:

2 – This San Diego Supermarket, has quite an interesting collection, some looking quite old:

And items that are quite new…at least to me.

3 – As with this type of market, there is the requisite Meat and Fish department. Though it is quite small.

4 – If you've ever been in this market, the produce department is a dead giveaway:

I think I've provided enough clues. But here are a few more photos…..

There is some interesting stuff here.

The Missus always tells me, that after a while, all of these markets look the same.

But I'm willing to bet that there at least 5 of you, who can figure this market out in no time flat.

And you will be much smarter than I, since it took me about 15 minutes to remember where the heck this was.

And though this market, was a bit worse for wear. It was still fun for me! And I'll drink to that, though probably not with Palm Juice.

Once I have enough guesses, I'll reveal the Market. One correct guess per IP address, please have a valid Email address.

Hope you enjoyed this little Mid Week quiz!

Thursday morning update – I probably made this too hard. Though I think if you ever set foot in this market you'd recognize the produce department. So here's some clues, that I've included in the response to comments:

– It's not any of the Viet Dong Markets, nor World Foods.

– It is not on El Cajon Boulevard.

Again, comment away – though I'd rather have email guesses – but since you all like to share….

Thursday noon update – Sheesh…… More clues. Let's see…..

– It is not on Mira Mesa Boulevard.

– It is not in the South Bay area.

– I haven't done a post on this market

– And this should clinch it. If you look real carefully at the photo of the seafood bin – you'll notice part of the market logo….just a small part, but if you've ever walked or driven pass this market you should know it. And possibly made fun of the name…..

My apologies…I must totally suck at giving out clues. Nobody figured it out! I'm totally devistated. The answer is:

97 Super Market
4679 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

I know, I'm terrible at giving out clues…..but tell me, would you want me to do this again? If I made it easier????