Road Trip – Page 24

Mariscos Playa Hermosa in Phoenix

June 24, 2014 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Phoenix/Scottsdale/Chandler/Central AZ, Road Trip, Seafood, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk and Cathy are busy today, but Ed (from Yuma) has had some free time lately, so here's his post from a recent road trip.

A friend of Tina's from grad school was retiring at the end of May, 2014, so we were in Phoenix for the weekend. On a previous trip, Tina had already located a Mexican seafood restaurant that she was sure I would enjoy – Playa Hermosa:

We arrived fairly early before the restaurant had begun to fill up, and I was immediately impressed by the brightly colorful decor:

The chairs were almost too beautiful to sit in:

Even the tabletops were decorative works of art:

The chips and salsa showed, however, that there was more to Playa Hermosa than met the eye:

The fresh chips were accompanied by a fiery red salsa full of chile seeds and an avocado/cilantro green salsa that was mild and smooth.

We also ordered margaritas ($5.99) that were very attractive, flavorful, and effective:

The menu featured a wide range of seafood choices and preparations. Tina chose the camarones culichi (shrimp in green sauce – $13.99), and I decided on the fish and shrimp combination with the poblano sauce ($15.99).

Both meals began with a ceviche de pulpo tostada:

Very tasty. The octopus was perfectly tender and the citrus flavor of the juice was not overpowering.

Tina's shrimp came in a little boat of a complex and tangy salsa verde – it was creamy and elegant, highlighted by green chili and citrus notes. We understood why one of Tina's friends had recommended this dish:

It came accompanied by tortillas, excellent vegetable rice, chopped lettuce and tomato, fresh red onion rings, and slightly refried pinto beans that Tina especially appreciated:

I also loved my dinner:

Next to the same side dishes, my lightly crusted, perfectly grilled fish was topped with numerous shrimp and a truly outstanding ranchero sauce dominated by grilled fresh poblano peppers:

The tender flaky fish was perfectly prepared, and the only real shortcoming of my entrée was that the shrimp were a little overcooked and chewy – as were Tina's.

While we were eating a small mariachi band came in and began playing people's favorites. At first they stood between our table and most of the rest of the restaurant. At that point they sounded better than they looked:

They soon moved throughout the restaurant and we enjoyed their performance.

In fact, we enjoyed our entire meal. Our server was really superb, explaining dishes from the menu, always noticing when we needed something, and being professional and friendly throughout. While the decor and entertainment might make this place seem like a tourist restaurant, virtually everyone in the restaurant – except of course for Tina and me – seemed like a local. We would happily return.

Mariscos Playa Hermosa, 1605 E. Garfield, Phoenix AZ 85006, (602) 462-1563

Antojitos Como en Casa: El Centro CA

June 10, 2014 ed fromyuma El Centro, Imperial Valley, Mexican Restaurants, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Welcome to mmm-yoso. Most often Kirk blogs here about meals and food from San Diego and from multitudinous places around the country and the world. Cathy, based in eastern fringes of the San Diego area, also wanders widely and eats all kinds of things in all sorts of places and blogs about them here. Today, however, you can read Ed (from Yuma) posting about a place in exotic El Centro.

Last December Tina and I were beginning a road trip up to LA to eat interesting food and visit interesting museums. We figured to get going in the morning and then stop for lunch in El Centro, where Tina had found an interesting Mexican restaurant for us to try. Located on a small side street off of Fourth, the place was a little difficult to find, but iPads and electronic maps make just about anything findable these days:

Although the outside was pretty standard, the interior was bright, clean, and interesting:

I was immediately intrigued by the large jars of aguasfrescas on the counter:

We were quickly served chips with two different salsas: one based on roasted fresh green chilies and one with a good dried red chile flavor:

And the aguasfrescas were outstanding. I had a lemonade, but Tina's cucumber beverage was truly amazing ($1.75 or $3.00):

It tasted more like cucumber than a real cucumber does.

I ordered the daily soup special, which was a chicken tortilla soup that – if memory serves – also contained chickpeas. It was very tasty and looked good too ($6.50, I think):

Again Tina's choice was even better, the green pozole that is only prepared on Thursdays ($10.50):

The side dishes with the green pozole included a roasted chili, pork rinds, and a potato taco along with the standard chopped onions, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, oregano, and chili flakes:

Since that meal, we have talked about driving over to El Centro just for the Mexican food at this restaurant – which seems kind of peculiar, considering that we live surrounded by Mexican food establishments.

However, El Centro also has the closest Costco to Yuma, so as soon as I had some free time, armed with two reasons for the drive, we headed off on a short road trip.

Again we were impressed by the service and the decor of the restaurant:

Tina had the cucumber aguasfrescas again – just as good as before – and I had a wonderful cantaloupe water:

The aguasfrescas are not overloaded with sugar here; the emphasis is squarely on the featured fruit (or vegetable).

As an appetizer, we ordered a potato tlacoyo, a thick grilled corn patty stuffed with mashed potato, drizzled with crema, covered with a tangy green cilantro/tomatillo sauce and dusted with cotija cheese($2.50):

Slightly reminiscent of a pupusa.

This time, Tina had the regular pozole, which was very good but not unusual ($10.50):

Topped with condiments, it looked like this:

I had an order of the chicken enfrijoladas, sort of like enchiladas except that the sauce covering the corn tortilla wrapped chicken is a bean sauce, not a dried chili flavored sauce ($8.99):

I was intrigued by this entrée because I still have fond memories of the enchiladas verdolagas that the late Danny Mendoza used to prepare with a similar frijole sauce at Viejo Loco in Yuma.

These were good, and I was impressed by the tasty rice and especially by the large chunks of chicken:

Anyway, Tina and I expect to be back for more meals – and more trips to Costco. On the weekends, Antojitos features lamb mixiote, specially marinated lamb wrapped in maguey leaf, and we really want to try that.

So if you are on I-8 in the Imperial Valley area and you need a great place for an interesting, unusual, and well prepared Mexican meal, check out Antojitos. We’re glad we did.

Antijitos Como en Casa, 425 Desert Gardens Dr, El Centro, CA 92243, (760) 482-5621, open 8 am – 8 pm every day, except Mondays. website

2015 Rose Parade Rose Parade float road test #1-and a food road trip

June 8, 2014 Cathy Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, Markets & Grocers, Orange County, Road Trip, Stuff, Thai Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog with posts centering around food, sometimes sharing the process which the acqusition of said food occurred. Kirk is busy, Ed(from Yuma) is busy and Cathy is writing.

More than a month ago, friend and fellow food blogger, cc, asked (another friend and food blogger) CAB and I to accompany her on a celebratory (beginning of vacation) food crawl 'Up North'. CAB unfortunately had a change in plans and couldn't make it. I discovered on Wednesday before our scheduled crawl that the first Rose Parade float road testing was also going to be held that Saturday morning. Checking out the road testing is something The Mister and I do and share here on the blog ( I also share decorating and other 'behind the scenes' posts about float consruction). I felt guilty, A) Because The Mister wouldn't be able to come with us and 2. For asking for a slight change in 'plans'. Except our plans included and lot of 'maybe here and maybe there' places to visit and eat..so I added one in. Of course it had to be the first thing we did that day, because testing begins at 7 a.m.. In Pasadena.

At the end of this epic day (I was at cc's home at 5 a.m. on the dot and got back to my home at 6:35 p.m.), I was exhausted, had driven 314 miles and had 327 photos on my camera (many were the same subject from different angles) and so this post is mostly photos. Details in future posts.

First the 2015 Rose Parade. The floats tested this day were all sponsored by service (volunteer) organizations. The theme of the Tournament of Roses parade is "Inspiring Stories". The Grand Marshal will be Louis Zamperini, WWII POW, Olympian and the subject of soon to be released movie, Unbroken. Each float is the interpretation of the theme by each participating organization.

Rotary International (the color coded float, depicting a wishing well and candles). Lions Club International (in it's rebar and partial coccoon stage)(can you see a wave of water and surfboards?).

Odd Fellows and Rebakahs, their float is depicting the Unknown Soldier Tomb.
Kiwanis International (being parked back into the Phoenix Decorating Company barn)(the doorway is the maximum height and width a float can be, or collapse down to, to be able to pass under street and signal lights along the parade route).
Lutheran Hour Ministries. This float is titled "The Bible, God's Story".

This will be the Donate Life float. It's in the basic stage of construction and testing. Those detailed butterflies are just so beautiful. You can see the float driver in this photo.

Now, to the food portion of this post. In order: what we ate and did. One photo from each place.

Yep. We did a LOT in a few hours. It was fun, educational, tasty and only slightly exhausting. The details will be revealed in future posts. Feel free to guess or ask questions. Hope you are having a good week!

Where we ate: First photo (Cream Pan) 2nd photo (Jones Coffee) third photo (Euro Pane) 4th photo (Galco's) 5th photo (Mae Ting's) Next photo (LAX-C) Next few photos: Velveteria, Chinatown, Queen's Bakery, Brodard, 85C, The Snowflake Factory, and finally The above photo, a Jesuit.

Roadtrip COMC: Lunch at Shunji in photos

April 30, 2014 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Sushi and Sashimi

Man, it's so hot today…….I started doing this post and decided that the pictures speak for themselves. During my extended roadtrip to LA in February, I decided to get the $40 lunch from Shunji…..let me just say, it's worth every penny.

Last time I was in the area, this location was Mr Cecil's California Ribs….let me just say, this is beyond a major upgrade.

Enough chatter…….

Like I said….worth every penny…..

Update: So now that's it's getting cooler here's the listing:

1 – Madai

2 – Megina (Opal Eye)

3 – Wild Hamachi

4 – Miso Soup with Crab

5 - Blue Nose Snapper

6 – Marinated Salmon

7 – Maguro

8 – Inada

9 – Hirame

10 – Kanpachi

11 – Kinmedai (One of the best things I've eaten so far this year)

12 – Ikura

13 – Uni (Santa Barbara)

14 – Blue Crab Handroll

Shunji Japanese Cuisine
12244 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Hope you're keeping cool!

Roadtripping mmm-yoso style – revisits to some of our favorites: Song Long (Westminster), Tasty Noodle House and Hunan Chilli King (San Gabriel) and take out from Shufeng Garden (Rowland Heights)

April 27, 2014 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

I've taken folks on various roadtrips before and have even explained my strategy to folks….you need to have a basic plan of eating….what needs to be consumed right away and what you can take home, something that might even taste better later. You have to approach things with a rather balanced approach….you can't be like PeterL, who tasted a beef roll for the first time and just went after it,even when I told him we'd be getting another; possibly an even better version later…..which of course, he was too full to eat, along with the Xiao Long Bao, Shenjian Bao, etc, etc…. Just because he got greedy.

A recent, really fun roadtrip is a good example of the fun we have. We did a good deal of shopping in between meals and the Missus and I had a blast….and lots of left-overs to boot. I won't delve too much into the food since these are places I've posted on at least twice before.

Song Long – Cha Ca Thang Long for breakfast:

So this is enough for the two of us………

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this place has become a favorite of the Missus. They open early; we hit them up at just after 9am and the place was empty. For some reason the Missus really likes the Banh Trand Me here and will eat it up before the Cha Ca arrives.

We like this version of cha ca thang long…..but it really won't keep so we had this for breakfast.

The one thing being that the mam nem is the gift that keeps on giving….as in every time you burp, you'll be reminded of what you had for breakfast….until lunch of course.

Song Long Restaurant
9361 Bolsa Ave Suite 108
Westminster, CA 92683

Tasty Noodle House – for my favorite Tianjin Baozi:

So, in my mind jiaozi, xiao long bao, and to a certain extent shenjian bao will not keep. Baozi is kinda iffy; it won't be quite as good, but can be passable. For me; the version at Tasty Noodle House is my current favorite. After going about taking care of shopping and stuff we made it to this part of San Gabriel….even with all the detours and road closures by 11am. It's a tiny restaurant, so it can get filled quite quickly.

For me, the item here is the Tianjin Baozi….but the Missus felt guilty about just ordering one item for the both of us, so we started with some Fried Intestine….hey, who doesn't love fried intestine?

Somewhere between 2006 and 2009, I really developed a taste for deep fried pork rectum…to the point that the Missus says when I die, I'll be headed to the "giant chitlin in the sky". These were crisp and easy to eat; though I'm not a big fan of dipping it into hoisin sauce.

There's something wonderfully yeasty about these that just takes me back to China. The bun is light and not too sweet; there's just a bit more than a smear of meat but it is also very light…..there's a nice ginger flavor that comes through which really refreshes the palate.

Tasty Noodle House
827 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

When we start thinking in terms of "what's next", it's items that can either: keep real well, or have really assertive flavors. On this trip it meant…..

Hunan Chilli King – almost five years later:

It's been a while since we'd been here…….this is where I first understood what the term "big spicy" really meant. I also remember getting "maced" by the leftovers that I heated in the microwave. I'd been craving spicy food recently; the Sichuan in San Diego is quite timid and doesn't cut it, so it was time to return.

We started with the basic "three steamed meats"…..

See the chili seeds? This was kind of spicy and was what we called a two out of three…the smoked pork (la rou) was excellent; the chicken (how lamented that they don't seem to serve duck anymore) was good, but the fish was really hard and chewy…..it was actually better then next day.

The one dish we were wondering about is a favorite of the Missus. It was a dish simply called "steamed eggplant" on the menu, but was so good that I've made this a couple of times. It has not quite reached the heights of the dish as made at Hunan Chill King though. However, it had been quite a while since we had it and wondered if it had withstood the test of time.

Well, it has….though it wasn't quite as salty as we recalled. It was also really spicy when we had the leftovers the next day…..still a great dish though.

As a bonus; we got our fun "San Gabriel sign" fix here as well.

Hunan Chilli King
524 East Valley Boulevard
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Shufeng Garden – my take-out go to joint:

**** Shufeng Garden has closed

We had to stop by Rowland Heights on the way back to San Diego….so it made sense to stop by a take-out favorite of mine; Shufeng Garden. For some reason, it was really quite on this day.

There are basically two dishes I get from here….and perhaps some Liang Cai (cold dishes), we really need to stop by for a sit down meal again someday, but it's always the situation of "so many places to try….so little time".

Anyway, for us it's the Tea Smoked Duck:

And the Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce.

This makes for some really good take-out….though I think Sammy may disagree…….

I guess he doesn't have quite the same taste in spicy foods as we do!

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Thanks for reading!

Road Trip: Mi Quang from Huong Giang (Westminster)

April 25, 2014 mmm-yoso Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

Things have been a bit crazy for me since October and when my birthday rolled around in February, I was….well, not really in the mood for a party or anything, I just had a nice low keyed evening with friends. Later in the month, I took holiday time…I had worked through a couple, and decided to just get out of town…the Missus totally agreed….so I went up to LA for an evening. I was meeting friends for dinner; a very special meal of sorts and I had lunch planned out, so I decided on trying a place someone had told me about several years back……

Huong Giang occupies space in, what else, a strip mall off of Brookhurst in the complex that houses Stater Brothers and Pho 86. Having been in this strip mall before, I had no problem finding the place.

As you can tell by the sign, the restaurant specializes in Central Vietnamese style dishes….banh beo, bun bo hue, and the like. Half of the restaurant looks like a catering business, folks coming in to pick up catering and take-out orders. There was a pretty steady flow of customers picking stuff up.

The other half of the place looks like just about any other Vietnamese joint in the area. At this time of the morning it was just me and a couple of old-timers having their morning coffee and gossip.

Speaking of coffee….being somewhat inspired by the setting, I decided on a cafe den da, black coffee. I really don't drink much coffee nowadays (though I've started up again recently) and this was really strong! It really got me going…….like Dr Hook said, this thing wanted to "make my pants wanna get up and dance"…..

Now, knowing the heritage of the place you'd automatically think Bun Bo Hue right? Well, not quite….you see, I can't remember who recommended this place to me, but I was told to try the Mi Quang – Quang style noodles. I hadn't had a good version since we left LA.

In total, this was pretty good, the tumeric colored noodles had a good stretch, the proteins passable, the pork cake dry though well flavored, the shrimp over-cooked. The broth was nice and fragrant, the flavor very nice, though it had a greasy tongue-feel to it.

Still, this was a load of food and better than anything calling itself Mi Quang in San Diego.

It was a nice, filling start to the morning…..with enough carbs and caffiene to keep me going.

Huong Giang Restaurant
14564 Brookhurst St
Westminster, CA 92683

And for those who wonder were the heck that Dr Hook line came from….here's the song. And yes, I have a special place in my heart for a good hook (no pun intended) and cheesy lyrics. Have a great weekend!

Roadtrip: Yai Restaurant (Los Angeles) 7 years later

April 7, 2014 mmm-yoso Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Thai Restaurants

We left San Bruno at a bit after 5am the night after having a wonderful meal at Wakuriya. We decided on grabbing lunch in LA, then doing a couple of errands, then heading straight home.

We stopped at "fragrant" Harris Ranch for gas and bought some stuff for Da' Boyz. What was really funny was that the Missus had never been back to LA this way…..so when I turned off at Gilroy, She asked me "why the hell are we taking side streets!!!"

Now if you recall, this was during the first weekend of December, which was the coldest of the year. The Missus told me to take a break and She'd drive until we reached Castaic. I dozed off, but awoke when the Missus told me, "hey, check this out!" We were on the Grapevine at the Tejon Pass and my god, it was snowing……..like sideways snow. Now you have to remember, I'm a kid from Hawaii, the Missus didn't learn how to drive until She moved to the US……in LA. We don't drive in snow…..

I looked ahead……I told the Missus, "you see those vehicles in front of us? Those are snowplows!" Yep, at the Northern tip of LA County……snowplows….

This was something very different for us…..and yes, the Missus was actually fascinated by the experience.

We were very lucky, they had closed the Tejon Pass about 15 minutes later. A few minutes more and we'd had been caught in a traffic jam. Here's what it looked like in Castaic…..

We made it to our lunch destination right on time; a shade after 11am. We'd been wanting to return to Yai Restaurant for a while. Alot of water had passed under the bridge since that visit in 2006; we'd been to Thailand, Laos, had our favorites in San Diego, and were wondering if our impression of Yai would be the same.

Yai resides on the outskirts of "Thai Town". It's a no frills, no pretense, simply furnished joint. I kind of believe that what Yai does best is are Chinese influenced Thai dishes.

We ordered the two dishes that really made an impression years ago and went with one I was interested in trying.

One of the dishes that we really enjoyed was the BBQ Duck with Chili and Garlic ($10.95).

This was definitely not visually appealing. It did have that wonderful sweet-garlic flavor, though it was a bit on the greasy side. The duck was also on the chewy side, but had a really nice flavor.

The Black Egg Pow ($8.95)

So good, just the way we recalled. I don't ever recall seeing this dish anywhere else. Preserved duck egg is deep fried, then combined with a wonderfully sweet and savory sauce that captures classic Thai flavors.

The fried basil leaves add a crunchiness and a mildly sweet-herbaceous flavor to the dish. The preserved eggs have a wonderful texture, the exterior crunch, yields to the firm egg, then gives way to a creamy center. There's a slight sulphuric – musty finish that I find pleasant in a strange sort of way. This is one of my "desert island dishes".

This is simply called Roast Pork with Chinese Broccoli ($8.95) on the menu and is actually crisp roast pork with gailan. But this dish is more than just a description. I'm not sure where they get that roast pork, but it is simply wonderful. It almost melts in your mouth.

This was a nice way to end our roadtrip….it's always gratifying to visit places you really enjoyed years ago and find they're still putting out good grub.

Yai Restaurant
5757 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Roadtrip: Dinner at Wakuriya (San Mateo)

March 27, 2014 mmm-yoso Fine Dining, Japanese Restaurants, Memorable Meals, Road Trip, San Francisco and Silicon Valley

Yeah, I know, perhaps I should mention something about the Michelin star in my title. But I figure there will be folks who know of Wakuriya and perhaps people "skimming" would spend enough time to read the first sentence of the post. I'm not totally sold on the Michelin Guide, it is after all a tourist guide. The one thing I've found with all the Michelin Starred Restaurants I've been to, the last one being The French Laundry, when I was young and thought it was all about expense and prestige, is that service in these named establishments have always been excellent…..sometimes a bit too much, but still excellent at its core. To be honest, it's not what the Michelin Guide said that drew me to Wakuriya, but the pedigree of the husband and wife team that runs the place. Katsuhiro & Mayumi Yamasaki both worked at the legendary Kaiseki restaurant Kitcho in Kyoto. The place has been on my list for quite a while. The restaurant takes only about 15 customers per evening, it's a small intimate experience. You call for reservations starting at midnight 30 days before. Knowing we were finally headed back up to the Bay Area, though only as North as Daly City, the Missus was all for a nice dinner…… So I called when I woke on a weekday morning 445 am, called an left a message for a reservation. And receiving a call back later in the day telling me, in the most polite Japanese way, "nice try, but you better try a bit harder if you really want to eat here…." I went home and told the Missus. Now usually, She'd be a bit irritated and decide the effort was not worth it….but for some reason, She was quite interested. So interested that She woke up just before midnight and called for reservations right when the clocked flashed 12:00…….and got a busy signal! She hung up and called back and left a message and later that day we found out that we'd gotten two seats at Wakuriya.

The tiny restaurant is situated in the most discreet and low-keyed locale….in a strip mall (of course – my kind of place) that contains a Safeway. It was the week after Thanksgiving; which turned out to be the coldest weekend of the winter. It was drizzling and pretty darn cold. As we walked to the door; we got the earliest reservations possible, 630, and had arrived a bit early….the door opened and Mayumi Yamasaki opened the door, saw us, and when we told her we had reservations, she asked us to come in because it was just to cold.

The interior is spartan; a couple of tables and a long wood bar. I don't know if it was by plan or just our timing, but we were seated at the bar, which only had two seats. We loved where we were, isolated from all the customers who would come in later, and able to watch the operations of putting together dinner take place.

I enjoy getting in early at restaurants…..though at time the kitchen hasn't hit its rhythm, I find the service and pacing to be much better, as was the case here; we got nice explanations of our dishes and even had time to chat a bit. Mayumi does the front of house…..this is basically a two person operation which means all of the front of house, Katsuhiro does all the cooking and most of the food prep. He works in silence. We heard him speak twice during our entire time in the restaurant…as we left; a "thank you" and "goodnight".

As you might guess the meal is in the style of Kaiseki, seasonal, much of it local, juggling taste and appearance, and was served in a fairly traditional order. I guess I'd call this "Modern California Kaiseki". Things started off with an apéritif, a wonderful infused nigori sake.

There are sake, wine, and other drinks available. We went with two of the tasting flights.

The Missus went with the "Fruity Flight"…the name still makes me laugh, with Yuzu Omoi – bascially yuzu infused sake, Kome Kome Shu – a light and tart "Riesling" like sake, and the Missus' favorite the Ume Shu.

I went with the premium sake flight; mainly because it had my favorite, Kubota Manju……

It is typical for a Kaiseki meal to start off with a Sakizuke, basically a small appetizer, almost like an amuse-bouche. In this case it was a fairly size-able oven baked "goma-tofu" topped with uni.

Goma tofu is not tofu in the classic sense; it is made with sesame paste and a thickening agent. Loved the rich flavor of sesame with the rich though refreshing flavor of the uni. This was actually a pretty good size appetizer.

The Zensai – the true appetizers featured three items; the lobster with egg yolk dressing and avocado.

The Missus is not the biggest fan of lobster, but this was tender and sweet, the ikura (salmon roe) added a perfect briney balance.

Fried Fresno Satoimo with miso two ways…..

This was served "dengaku" (topped with miso) style. The milder, sweeter, and less salty Saikyo miso version was a winner.

The grated apple on the Madai (Red Snapper) nigiri was a revelation….I would never for the life of me think of this combination.

The Onmono, which I thought of as "Futamono" was a nice, clean, dashi based broth with wonderful rich and velvety, kamo dango of sorts…duck meatballs.

So comforting on such a cold night.

Next up, the Sashimi Tsukuri. This was done in the form of a salad with a citrus dressing….

Nice, crisp, refreshing….the Missus said the Hokkaido Scallop hidden under everything might have been one of the best bites She's had in a while.

The Mushimono – steamed dish was a steamed black cod with sesame sauce.

Nice fish prep, the Missus isn't the biggest fan of sesame paste, so other than the brussel sprouts, this wasn't a favorite.

Some gelato to refresh….Satsuma Granite with sweet ginger syrup

By this time, 730 had arrived and all the other tables were full. Still, we had a bird's eye view of the proceedings. Things were never rushed, questions were always answered, and things moved like a well choreographed dance……no words between husband and wife, the magic of spousal instincts with regards to movement and order.

The next dish, the heaviest and most substantial was actually our least favorite of the evening; the wagyu no miso sukiyaki.

The meat was very tender, but had a strong metallic tinge to it; the miso sauce wasa bit too salty for my taste.

The end of the meal (except for dessert) was a typical Gohanmono – the rice dish. There was a choice of two offered, so of course we got one each.

The ebi no tempura donburi – fried shrimp over rice was nice, the shrimp tender, though the Missus enjoys a lighter, more crisp batter…..I loved the tsuyu which had a perfect balance for my taste.

The "Tai Chazuke" featured snapper with sesame paste and dashi over rice.

To me, this is comfort food elevated…….for the Missus, it had more sesame paste than She enjoys.

As for dessert, matcha and and white bean mousse with petit “tai-yaki”……

Well it must have been good since the Missus ate both of them!

We both really enjoyed our meals. The service was excellent, not only was our hostess efficient and knowledgeable, but also quite gracious….and those little things were apparent. When my first dish arrived, the settings were on my right….but after I ate it with my left hand, all my settings were placed on my left. The matcha to end the meal was as perfect as I've ever had…..we watched Mayumi preparing the tea; she added some hot water, then took a pause to check the temperature by feel, it was apparently too hot so she waited and then added water waiting to serve us until she thought it was the correct temp……..which we got to see since we were seated at the bar.

While not quite in the league of Urasawa, I'd say this meal is well worth the $95 price tag (minus drinks). With 15 settings a night, you know this isn't a money grab……

I'm positive we'll try to return during another season….if the Missus can get through on the phone line!

Wakuriya
115 De Anza Blvd
San Mateo, CA 94402

Roadtrip: Koi Palace (Daly City) 17 years later

March 19, 2014 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum, Road Trip, San Francisco and Silicon Valley

In 1996 I had a meal that changed my view of dim sum. I had grown up eating the typical, run of the mill stuff back home in Honolulu, siu mai, char siu bao, blah, blah, blah…..I was in San Francisco, had a car, and decided to visit this new (at that time) Chinese Restaurant that was supposed to be "possibly" the best in the country. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But I'll say this much, that visit to Koi Palace changed the way I looked at dim sum, in terms of quality, flavor, and how things were put together. I'd longed to return. In fact, I once mentioned Koi Palace to a supposed "foodie", who looked at me, laughed, and said, you're "the only person I know who wants to go to Daly City and eat"….such was the depth and breath of much of San Diego when I arrived here in 2001. Gladly, much has changed since then…..and so have I. So when we made plans for this little road trip, I really wanted to see Koi Palace circa 2013. I also wanted to share that experience with the Missus.

We arrived just before opening. Folks were already milling around just inside the door. When they started seating, all the "Popo's" pushed to the front of the crowd….it was chaos; though controlled chaos, as the host had kept track of who was in line and ignored the folks who cut in front of the line.

17, almost 18 years, is a lot of water under the bridge, and I have to say the place really shows its age; dark, somewhat dank, scuffed tables…well, I felt right at home. The Missus on the other hand, "the best dim sum in the states, huh?"

We started things off with the Steamed Shrimp Dumpling with XO Sauce:

In many ways this was just perfect; the shrimp plump, full of flavor, steamed to perfection, the XO sauce added that wonderful, deep savory flavor….the much over-used "umami". My biggest problem with this were the wrappers, too thick, too sticky, and falling to pieces when you picked it up with chopsticks….the juices leaked onto the table….of course, this is Koi Palace, so they just placed the next dish right on the oil slick.

I have a rule, "never order Xiao Long Bao at a Cantonese Dim Sum chop", but I broke that rule after seeing Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao on the menu. And I'm glad I did.

This was very good. The dough was just chewy enough, the filling had a wonderful balance of sweetness, which wasn'y cloying, along with pork tones. There was enough "soup" to keep me happy. And yes, you definitely could taste the crab in this. I'm glad we ordered it.

We also ordered the Seafood Pan Fried Noodles, which was good, but not great.

The cooking technique of the seafood was excellent….down to the the oft mishandled squid which was very tender. The sauce/gravy was really bland and there was too little of it and some parts of the noodles were hard instead of crisp.

The Turnip Cakes were average.

The texture was too gummy, like too much flour was used. Not much flavor; I think we make better at home, though that XO sauce that came with it was killer……

The other dish that was "killer", though not in a good way was the Cheong Fun with Fried Fish Filet. It sounded like a good idea, but was a mistake in retrospect.

I've noticed this fad recently, especially at Sichuan Restaurants where fish filets are being coated with a sweet flour, that reminds me of artificially sweet cake mix. It's not a pleasant flavor to us and this was no exception. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed that. The sauce(balanced salty and sweet) and the rice flour roll(thin and of perfect texture) were excellent, but that fish and the batter was just not our thing.

Things ended on a high note though, as you can see.

This wonderful example of porky beauty is the Koi Palace Suckling Pig. It ain't cheap at $18, but I'd pay that much just for the skin, which was just spot on, perfect in texture….light, crisp, swiney deliciousness. The meat itself was on the chewy side, but the pork flavor was just so good. I hadn't eaten swine so good since we got back from Pork-u-all, ummm Portugal. This is the real deal…..

I think the place needs to be freshened up a bit, that carpet looks like it hasn't been cleaned since 1996. Perhaps more effort goes into their other location(s).The service was pretty good, efficient, non-intrusive……

As to what the Missus thought about Koi Palace, "I expected more, I think Sea Harbour in Rosemead is better…." I read some time ago that Jonathan Gold was of the opinion that Koi Palace was the best "Hong Kong style restaurant in the US"…..or something like that. Personally, I'm not so sure…..but that suckling pig was really good….

But in response to the person who made that remark about Daly City all those years ago, "yes, Daly City is a great spot to find good eats; just ask the hundreds of thousands who've been to Koi Palace."

Koi Palace
365 Gellert Blvd
Daly City, CA 94015

Roadtrip: Shopping Edition – Crystal Springs Produce and The Gourmet Corner – San Mateo

March 13, 2014 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, San Francisco and Silicon Valley

One thing I really enjoyed about our post Thanksgiving Roadtrip was the theme….it really wasn't planned, but much of it revolved around food in one way or another……we ended up in San Bruno for two nights. San Mateo is close enough and we ended up going market-hopping. There are places where I didn't really take the time out to take photos; Nijiya and Whole Paycheck in San Mateo, but here's a couple of other places we stopped at while just checking things out:

Crystal Springs Produce:

I had read about tis place and thought it might be a nice stop. I didn't quite know where it was and the irony of the location and where we were was to evident in our selection for dinner, which was basically right across the street, though we didn't know it at the time.

The shop is not very big and you can't really do all your shopping here, but this is one of those places that every neighborhood should have; a nice selection of local, organic, with a nice selection of European products.

The Missus was especially interested in the Sardines and tinned Seafood, having been to Portugal earlier in the year.

The Missus was obsessed with apples at this time; She hoarded them, Jazz Apples, Crimson Gold, Blakc Arkansas……we added to the collection here…..

Remember those" I went to xxxx and all I got to show for it was this t-shirt", well, I went to NorCal and all I got to show for it was a bunch of apples…..

This was a nice shop, every neighborhood should have one of this quality; though I gotta say, the young man manning the counter treated me like he was doing me a favor by ringing me up……

Crystal Springs Produce
770 Polhemus Rd
San Mateo, CA 94402

The Gourmet Corner:

I'd actually heard about this shop a while back.

When we entered, it looked like what I'd call a "box wine shop"…..

With a nice selection of canard products. I mean, I really wish I had room for a six pack of duck confit!

Things really didn't click for us until one of the guys working here said, "we've got lots of other stuff in the back" and opened the door……

While there wasn't anything amazing…..think of this as the "Smart and Final" of French ingredients.

I was tempted to ask "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?"

Some of it was quite good……

Some of it was meh……

Still, I'd really love a shop like this in San Diego….though I'm not sure we could support it. The gentleman at the front counter told me that a good majority of the duck products went to Canada and I later saw some of it a Surfas. I was also told that I "should have come here before the foie gras ban"

I really enjoyed this stop.

The Gourmet Corner
873 N San Mateo Dr
San Mateo, CA 94401