Mediterranean Restaurants – Page 7

Episode16/week3-Charley’s Famous Hamburgers, Shakes, Kabobs…and bacon!

October 16, 2006 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Burgers, Diner, Mediterranean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

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

Its been there since 1973. No advertising. Word of mouth. You probably have seen it… Click onto the picture…you are on Broadway in Lemon Grove, heading east, toward Sweetwater Springs Road. They have *finally* finished all that construction…there…sort of to the left, the red sign…Charley's Famous Hamburgers.

It isn't a sit down restaurant, although there are picnic tables in the back and out front. Most people seem to drive though. They all know to order, drive up and shut off the engine. You have to wait for the food to be cooked.

This is it- you drive through on one side of this small building, or walk up to the front and order. All the cooking goes on inside there.

The menu, as seen via the Drive Through.

You will notice bacon on here, a lot.

I will admit to not bothering to having bacon on most items at restaurants, because I just can't taste it…its usually thin and fairly flavorless. Not here….The bacon is always thick, always not greasy and wonderfully flavored. This, combined with the fact that not much food is frozen, makes Charley's one place I will continue to patronize.

Lets take breakfast, for example. This is the breakfast croissant ($ 3.39) egg, bacon, ham and cheese on a fresh, fluffy croissant. {The extra charge to make a breakfast a combo is worth it if you like OJ-you get a large prepacked container along with a hash brown patty}

There is the famous Kabob-seasoned ground beef patty grilled and in a pita with lettuce, radishes, green pepper, onions and mayo.…and bacon, of course…

This one is the single kabob with bacon ($4.49)

This one is the double kabob with bacon ($5.49). I really like the idea of radishes and green pepper on a hot sandwich. It's a wonderful flavor combination.

Then of course there is the famous hamburger.

This is a the double cheeseburger ($3.29) The hamburger meat is more coarse ground than I have had, more flavorful and definitely not frozen.

There are of course, sides to order.

This is the small Chili Cheese Fries ($2.49) and the onion rings ($1.99)

The chili here is unique and has a nice spice to it. They use those spicy chili beans and not much ground beef. (The cheese melted into the chili before I got a good photograph)..and the onion rings are made of whole real onions, in a cornmeal batter…nice crunch! The plain fries, I am not overly thrilled about, but they have good potato flavor.

OOOH- Look behind the onion rings. That is the plain old, simple BLT ($3.69)…SIX (6) yes, six slices of bacon on that seeded burger bun, with lettuce, tomatoes and mayo…the *absolute* best BLT …EVER.

The part of the menu you may have missed and no photograph could do it justice are the milkshakes…Oh, you *have* to try them. Fresh made to order…my favorite is the banana, made with a real banana, of course… that peanut butter shake…salty and sweet…..absolutely wonderful shakes….the root beer float…just get that as a treat one evening. Its wonderful. The one I haven't tried yet is the apple turnover shake. But, since there are apple turnovers on the menu…well, I can imagine how the shake is made and pretty much what it tastes like…that can be for next time.

So, the next time you are driving, please don't just pass by. Stop. It *will* be the best food you have had in a long time.

Charley's Famous Burgers, Kabobs and Shakes,

8213 Broadway, Lemon Grove 91945 (619)460-2690

Open 7:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m., until 10 p.m. on Friday

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

Chef Tony

May 24, 2006 mmm-yoso Greek Food, Lebanese Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants

*** Update – thanks to StR, who commented below, Chef Tony is currently closed, and will reopen in a months in a different location. A brief update can be found here, at the bottom of the post.

Way back in August of last year I received an email from Christina recommending Chef Tony Mediterranean and Lebanese Cuisine, so I added Chef Tony to my "list". But for one reason or another we just never quite made it to Chef Tony. Then last week "Keith" left a comment also recommending Chef Tony, so this time I really had to make sure to pay the restaurant a visit. An opportunity arose this past Tuesday. We were headed out to Viejas for a concert, and thought a nice detour to the College area, and a visit to Chef Tony was in order.

Chef Tony is located next to an AM/PM, and fronting a mostly unoccupied strip mall on El Cajon Boulevard. It seems that Chef Tony had been perhaps a pizza joint in a previous life. We were greeted by the dignified, though perhaps vertically challenged fellow at the door. Chef Tony, perhaps?

We arrived at about 530pm, and the restaurant was empty except for a family finishing up dinner.

After a brief wait we placed our order.

The Missus ordered the Lamb Kabob Plate($10.95):

Two skewers of Lamb,on a bed of nondescript rice, some nicely flavored hummus, and a fresh Greek salad with the typical vinaigrette dressing. Nothing really outstanding, except the lamb. The lamb was not just fork tender, but "plastic fork" tender:

And though the lamb was just mildly marinated and seasoned, it was grilled to perfection, with just the right amount of charring. We could have done with a bit more "muttony" flavor, but still, the texture and tenderness was right on.

I opted for the Shawarma Combo Plate($9.95):

Strips of marinated and nicely charbroiled beef and chicken, we both thought the beef had more flavor then the chicken. Though I enjoyed the hummus, and everything else that came with the plate, it’s the "white stuff" that made the dish. That "white stuff" is delici-yoso garlic paste, very garlicky, and yet without the bitter bite of garlic. It’s as if the "soul" of garlic had been captured. You do understand that I love garlic, right?

Two large warm pitas were also provided for sandwiching our meats and slathering with garlic paste.

We also ordered a half dozen Falafel($3.75):

These were only garbanzo bean falafel, with no fava beans. You can tell by the color, and flavor. Made fresh and brought sizzling to the table. I thought these falafel were fair, since they were small in size, I thought there was too much "crust", and the interior wasn’t quite as smooth as I enjoy. The falafel were also a bit on the oily side, and when we finished there was a small pool of oil at the bottom of the bowl.

In a nutshell, if you enjoy the gritty crust of the falafel, you’ll enjoy these. Personally, I enjoy the balance the crunchy exterior, along with sufficient amount of slightly creamy "filling". Still not bad for the price, and you know these haven’t been lying around or put into some drawer stored for later.

We enjoyed Chef Tony, and I think we’ll be in whenever we’re in the neighborhood. As we were leaving, the place started to fill up, and the smell of Shawarma(and garlic) filled the air.

Notes on Chef Tony: This is a small Family operation, so one thing it’s not, is "fast food". Think of it as very casual, leisurely dining if you eat in. The menu consists of a good variety from appetizers like Dolma($3.95) and Falafel (1/2 dozen $3.75-1 dozen $6.75), to salads (small greek salad $2.95-large$4.95), reasonable priced sandwiches from $3.75(Lebni) to $4.95 (Beef Shawarma), to various entrees ($6.50 – $10.95). Oh, and you can buy a "large" order of Garlic Paste(Toum) for $3.50.

Thanks for the recommendation Christina and Keith!

Chef Tony
6311 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Here’s where I show my "age". Guess what concert we went to? I’m allowed one "old-fogey" concert a year and this year it was Blondie(good – Debra Harry’s voice sounded really good), and The "New" Cars(bleh, except for Elliot Easton). As great a musician and songwriter Todd Rundgren is, he’s no replacement for Ric Ocasek. And though Kasim Sultan and Prairie Prince sound like a great rhythm section, they sounded a bit out of synch…..I kept waiting for a "train wreck" especially on Shake It Up, where the tempo would constantly speed up, and Elliot Easton would have to "reign it in".

Of course we kept singing "One way, or another, I’m going to get you, I’m going to get you, get you, get you…." All the way home.

Rannoosh

May 11, 2006 mmm-yoso Lebanese Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants

*** Rannoosh has closed

It's seems like the Hillcrest area restaurant scene has gone through quite a flurry of changes recently, with everything from plate lunches(an L&L opened recently) to Vietnamese eateries opening in the area. Even the long standing Jimmy Wong's Golden Dragon is now Golden Dragon Asian Bistro, featuring Asian influenced dishes. Rannoosh is one of those recently opened restaurants featuring Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine.

The interior of Rannoosh has been done up with rich looking fabrics and drapes adorning the plush but dark interior. If you look carefully you can see the Hookah Pipes on the counter.

You get a little bowl of what I was told were pickled beets and olives delivered to your table. As JS clarified in the comments these are actually turnips, with beets added for color. I'd seen these at North Park Produce sold in jars, and the label said they were turnips, but the Young Lady insisted that they were beets. The pickles were on the bitter and sour end of the flavor spectrum:

There are a few olives hidden under those pickles.

On a recent lunchtime visit the Missus ordered the Lamb Kabob Sandwich($8.95):

The sandwich comes with your choice of green or potato salad. Here's a better look at the sandwich.

There were only four small cubes of lamb in the sandwich, along with a mild garlic spread, pickles, lettuce, and tomatoes. The lamb was very mild in flavor, and was completely obscured by everything else. The green salad had a simple vinaigrette, dotted with sumac and other herbs. The pita is unremarkable, seemed to be store-bought.

I ordered the Chicken Shawarma Sandwich($6.95):

There was a large portion of moist and tender dark meat chicken, though somewhat mild in flavor, was still quite good. I swear I tasted fenulgreek, but can't be sure. This was a very nice and satisfying sandwich, though one couldn't help but compare it to the Garlic Chicken sandwich at Mama's. If I were to do a comparison, I'd say the flavors(especially the Garlic Paste) at Mama's are much stronger, but I'd rather have the Chicken at Rannoosh. I wish something along the line of the bread at Mama's(made to order on the Sajj) were used at Rannoosh. If you order a sandwich for lunch I'd say that the creamy and tasty potato salad is the way to go.

Needing to get out of the office on a recent lunch hour I walked over to Rannoosh for lunch. This time around I ordered The Basterma (cured, air dried beef) Sandwich($6.95):

The First time I ordered this, the Young Lady wanted to make sure that I knew that the beef is not cooked, just air dried. The slices of cured beef; think between pastrami and beef jerky, is placed in a pita, with tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumber. I've had the Armenian version of Basterma, which seemed to be cut alot thinner. This version was cut maybe a bit too thick. On each bite you risked pulling the entire slice of beef out of the sandwich.

If you enjoy the salty, more intense flavor of cured meat you may enjoy this, though the meat can be tough. I asked what the beef was cured with and was told, mainly salt and paprika, and a few other seasonings. You can even see the "cure-ring" on the slices of meat:

Last but not least an appetizer portion of Falafel($5.95). Because these are formed and made to order, they always arrive after my sandwich, but let me tell you, they are worth it:

Having had Falafel ranging from teeth cracking hard, to so gritty and dry it felt like you were eating a handful of sand, let me just say these were Delici-yoso!!! The exterior were a perfect crunchy, and the interior of the Falafel were, dare I say, almost creamy with just a touch of "grit". The Falafel had a perfect amount of "zing", though the tahini based dip was very weak. Who cares, I didn't need it anyway. I could eat these often. In fact the Lady working noticed how much I was enjoying these and told me to try the "Stuffed" (with onions and pine nuts) Falafel next time around.

I'll be back to Rannoosh, maybe for dinner, definitely for falafel. Entrees range from $9.95 to 25.95. Rannoosh seems to do more dinner business then lunch, and the turn around for lunch may be on the long side, so plan accordingly.

Rannoosh
3890 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92103

Garden Grill

February 15, 2006 mmm-yoso Greek Food, Lebanese Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants

*** Garden Grill is no more.

On our visit to Saffron we noticed that "Falafel King" was gone and replaced by Garden Grill.

One look at the menu and we knew that we’d have to make an effort to return.

The menu is quite extensive, and I took these photos especially for RONW at Hotel Waikiki, I know he has a "thing" for menus. So here ya’ go, these are for you RONW! So we returned and found some primo street parking on India Street – not an easy thing by any means.

We both "eyed" out what we wanted and went to order. My plans were scuttled when the Missus ordered the Mixed Grill($8.99), which was what I had in mind:

Man it was good! The Chicken Kabob was moist and tender, the flavors of the herbs used to marinate the chicken came through very clearly. So delici-yoso!!! The Kufta Kabob was also tasty, the meat for the kabob was more coarsely chopped than finely ground which gave the meat an excellent texture. The Greek Salad was a bit short on Feta, but the Romain was very fresh and crisp, the simple dressing also followed the light and crisp theme. The Hummus was routine, and short on garlic, but the tabbouleh balanced out the hummus by being very garlicky. The plate also came with a whole pita that was nothing special, but perfect for scooping up the tabbouleh and hummus. We both thought the rice was kind of mushy for basmati, but we’ll be having the Mixed Grill again.

I ordered a simple Lamb Kabob($7.99):

The Lamb Kabob plate came with the same accoutrements as the Mixed Grill. The Lamb was so tender with a lemon and herb flavor, but not quite as gamey as I enjoy.

On a recent visit, we weren’t feeling very hungry, and so stuck with a salad and appetizer. Here’s the Greek Salad($6.45):

The Romain lettuce was so fresh and crisp, the dressing very light! Still not enough feta, though.

I got the Baba Ganouj/Hummus appetizer($4.99):

At first glance it was hard to tell the difference between the Baba Ganouj and the Hummus, other then some visible seeds in the Baba Ganouj. I really enjoyed the Baba Ganouj, which was filled with garlic flavor, and a bit on the chunky side. The Hummus was routine, but very nice with my pita.

The indoor seating is quite cafeteria like, but we rather sit outside. Parking on India Street can be a challenge, the parking meters are also on the expensive side. I always crack up at the "time allowance" of 4.48 minutes per 10 cents!! While we were leaving, an obviously rented mini van parked in an open space. As the Gentleman walked up to the meter His eyes opened up wide, His Wife walked up and simply said "Wow"! He quickly turned to his kids and said "Hurry, we’re going to have to eat fast, I’ve only got fifty cents, that’s 24 minutes!"

Garden Grill is also a favorite of Kady of Gourmetish. Who knows, maybe you might run into one of us there!

Garden Grill Restaurant
3715 India St
San Diego, CA 92103