Taiwanese Food and Restaurants – Page 5

Popcorn Chicken

October 22, 2018 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

**** Popcorn Chicken has closed

Interesting how things go. One day I noticed this place had opened in the same strip mall as Lolita's and Katsu Café.

The sign said "Taste of Taiwan", so I was somewhat intrigued. I did a brief search online and figured out that this is a Taiwanese "snack/street" food chain with two other locations; one in LA and the other in the OC. So, I decided to walk in and check them out.

They seemed to be doing some decent business; also looked like sort of a Taiwanese Fast-Casual place in the same vein as any number of Tea/Boba shops that are scattered around San Diego. It seemed even more strange that Tea Station was just a few doors over.

The menu consisted of various Taiwanese snack type dishes; chicken wings, sausages, a whole slew of fried stuffs, and basically many of the same dishes with rice and veggies, called "bento boxes".

The prices of the bento boxes seemed quite inexpensive, like six bucks, so I ordered the namesake Popcorn Chicken Medium Spicy Bento Box along with the Chicken Wings Spicy ($5). This is what I picked up when my number was called.

That little bag held the popcorn chicken, fried a bit too hard, more crunchy than crisp, unevenly breaded and seasoned. I actually enjoyed the fried basil the best, the crisp, with anise tones. The seasoning was quite simple and the spice level was decent. Very straightforward.

In that plastic "box" was a very generous portion of rice, with a drizzle of a soy sauce – pork – mildly sweet sauce. And a few small pieces of meat.

The boiled egg was on the over-cooked side for my taste, the yolk was d-r-y, but it was mildly seasoned and not terrible. The veggies were simple steamed zucchini, corn, and a green bean and carrot mixture….the corn and the carrots seemed fairly straight from the frozen food isle.

I was looking forward to trying the chicken wings which was decently fried, but on the dry side.

I really didn't care for the powdery, bitter, seasoning….it was fairly one-dimensional, just adding spice to the chicken and not much else.

Still, I thought this was well worth the price; six bucks for the popcorn chicken and five for the wings (well, maybe not the wings).

I happened to mention this to a few of my coworkers…..they love fried food, donuts, Chik-fil-a, you get it. So, they wanted to check the place out and I said ok.

By this time the Bento Boxes had gone up by $2 and was now eight bucks. I got the fried pork chop.

I noticed that the zucchini and corn had been replaced by sautéed cabbage. The boiled egg was much better this time around and there seemed to be even more rice.

That breading on the pork chop would have been fine if most of it hadn't peeled off the meat when placed in the bag. The seasoning on this was decent, enough salt and pepper, and probably a good amount of MSG. The pork chop was a bit on the chewy side but not bad.

The folks from work, especially "Pam" really enjoyed the place. We returned a few weeks later.

I tried the Popcorn Chicken Bento again.

The chicken was even drier than before though I preferred this to the spicy versions as you could actually taste the chicken. The breading was more crisp and lighter than before, though there was less fried basil than before. Notice that it's just a drizzle of pork based broth on the rice now; no hint of meat or anything else. The rice was moist and there was a lot of it. The egg, while decent on the previous visit, was back to being over-cooked.

Still, my coworkers……

I figured I'd had enough, but with things cooling down a bit here in San Diego, I was in the area at around 1130 on a recent weekend, so I decided to try the Niu Rou Mian….which they didn't have on this day. So, I went with the Braised Beef with Rice ($9). Man, did they give me a lot of meat.

Which was barely lukewarm, bland, and on the drier side. At least it wasn't tough, but could have really been braised in a more flavorful liquid. The egg was really nice this time around, while hard boiled, it wasn't dry and didn't have that ugly purple ring. The rice was moist, fluffy, and the best I've had here. And guess what? Zucchini was back in style; at least for today.

The most surprising item was the broth….well stew or more appropriate "gravy" as it was quite thick and almost gluey; not the most pleasurable texture, but it had a nice peppery tanginess; with a hint of spice, and was hot. It edged on being too salty (with a mild sweetness – MSG?), but that actually helped all the beef which I plopped into the stew. The carrots were a bit undercooked, but not terrible.

After this visit; I think I'm done with Popcorn Chicken for a while. I'm sure Kirbie is laughing about these visits as I'm probably the wrong demographic. I will say this; yes, it's basically fast/snack food and in spite of the uneven cooking, seasoning, serving, and the ever changing portions, if you're more about quantity over quality, this place might do it for you. And to be perfectly honest; I'd take this over food from one of the corporate mega-chains any day of the week…..just not for a while……

Popcorn Chicken
7309 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Open Daily 1130am – 930pm

Din Tai Fung (UTC) – Soft Opening

October 2, 2018 mmm-yoso Chains, Chinese Restaurants, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

I believe it was summer of last year; when I heard the first official announcement that the XLB mega-chain Din Tai Fung was going to open at UTC. I know folks who have been waiting with bated breath, patiently awaiting the opening…for those that I know it seemed like the place would never open. And then last week; Eater announced when DTF would be opening their doors, October 1. It would be reservations only for the soft opening period; which I thought was a prudent move…..get your systems in place, fine tune the product, and then open up the floodgates.

One of the young ladies in the office; "K" from the Beijing area will often stop and chat with me about Chinese food. Late last week; she mentioned hearing that Din Tai Fung was finally opening and if I was going. I told her "probably not, since things would probably fairly chaotic, the crowds would be insane, and I don't think the product would be up to par." She smiled and said, "maybe not….din Tai Fung has so many outlets, they have opened many shops, I think they may have systems in place for a grand opening." Hmmmm……the seed was planted; though I hadn't really planned on making reservations. Until my dear friend Candice asked me if I'd like to join them for lunch….on the first day of business. As a plus; I'd see my good friends, who I just don't see enough of these days, so I was in.

UTC is fairly close to the office; so it was snap getting there. There wasn't much of a line, a product of the soft-opening reservations only policy. Several parties were turned away for not having reservations, some of whom, especially one rather persistent Chinese gentleman were rather unhappy.

The set-up was fairly typical of DTF; at least the shops we've been to. Front desk, window display of folks making the XLB, and dumplings.

The dining room was lengthy and could hold up to 200 I was told.

We received a menu while our table was being readied; the four of us; Candice, Xiāngjiāo, TFD, and I had all been to DTF, both here in the states and abroad before, so we all had items we wanted to order. In the end it seemed like a lot; but we finished almost everything! TFD's little boy did a great job helping us as well!

So, enough verbiage; lets get to the food shall we?

First to arrive was the Truffle and Kurobuta Pork XLB ($23.75). Yep, twenty four bucks for 5 XLB.

The tops of the wrappers seemed a bit on the dry and hard side, there wasn't very much "soup" in the dumplings. You got the truffle flavor upon first bite, then it dissipated rather quickly. Not sure if I'd have these again.

Next up; the comfort dish, Taiwanese Cabbage with Garlic ($10.25). This was nicely done, enough salt, the cabbage was tender, nice garlic tones.

Though this is something I can easily make at home with Big Kahuna. We did enjoy the dish and needed some veggies, right?

Next up; the Kurobuta Pork XLB ($11.50). Maybe it's the Kurobuta Pork, which DTF is now using in all its dumplings, but the filling was on the drier side and there was a lack of soup.

The wrapper was rather dry and brittle. The filling had a mild pork flavor, but was more chewy than I prefer. As I mentioned above; there was a lack of soup in both orders of this. I'm so used to biting the ends of the wrapper to let out the steam before dipping into black vinegar and eating the dumpling; but that really wasn't necessary as well.

Next up; some nice and crisp, slightly spicy "Cucumber Salad" ($5.25) and rather bland, under seasoned Soy Noodle (Bean curd noodle) Salad ($5.25).

Shrimp and Kurobuta Pork Shao Mai ($8.75).

The tops of these were on the hard side; the shrimp had very nice flavor, but were overcooked. This just didn't do it for any of us.

The guotie – potstickers were another non-starter. They looked really nice, the bottoms of the wrappers were nice and crunchy; but the fillings fell out of the tops.

Kimchi and Kurobuta Pork Mandu Dumplings ($10.75)…..were really like mild kimchi mandu. These were not spicy in the least; even though we were told they were.

The wrappers were fine; if a bit stiff; the filling was too mild, not enough fermented-sour-savory-spicy kimchi flavor, which would have been fine if there was a decent porkiness to these; but there was none.

I was looking forward to the Crab and Pork XLB ($14.50).

Though there wasn't much soup in these, there was a nice sweet-crab and pork flavor. The filling was a bit on the dry side however as were the wrappers; which were again on the dry and brittle side.

I had been craving Chao Nian Gao($11) and couldn't help but order it; the version with pork.

This was perhaps the most unsatisfying dish of the meal. The nian gao, rice cakes, had been over-cooked, as you can easily see, and were very mushy. The pork was tough; too much soy sauce….just not good eats. We each had a taste and left the rest on the table.

TFD recalled a nice version of Sichuan Liang Mian at the Taipei location of DTF; so we ordered it ($9).

Hardly any spice; the noodles were too soft, the sauce lacked any depth of flavor (i.e. suan-tian-ku-la-xian)…I mean I was looking for something; Sichuan Peppercorn, black vinegar, sesame paste, garlic…..something……

Our savory dishes ended on a high note though, as our second round of the crab and pork XLB arrived. This was much better; though the wrappers were still a bit too stiff, they were moist and had a touch of pull. The crab and pork was juicy if still without enough soup. This was quite nice….perhaps this is what we have to look forward to?

Though I'm still looking for this in the XLB – from a DTF in Asia. I'm wondering if the flour is making some difference?

We ordered the XLB with Red Bean for dessert. Think of it as a sorta, kinda, red bean manju…..

A bit too sweet for my tastes.

Overall, we really enjoyed the service, it was with a few hiccups….which was to be expected, very nice….really nice folks working here. The consensus was also pretty much unanimous; we'd had better at other DTF locations, though that was also to be expected.

Regardless; we still thought that this is the best XLB in San Diego without a doubt.

It's going to be interesting to see how things evolve here. I'm hoping the service and really nice staff remains the same and am expecting the XLB to get better over time; a bit more moist and tender wrappers with a decent "pull". Of course, I'm picky like that. And, I'm going to have to wait a while before bringing the Missus or my Shanghainese coworker "YZ" here.

And, it's always great to see my good friends "hanai family"…..

So, let me know how you're enjoying DTF now that they've arrived in San Diego!

Din Tai Fung
4301 La Jolla Village Dr (UTC)
San Diego, CA 92122

Facing East

May 3, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

Man, has Facing East been open almost 6 months now? They created a bit of a buzz when they first opened with Mary, Jinxi (BTW, hope all works out for you Jinxi!), Faye, and Kirbie making their way to the site that used to be Dede's for over a decade. I actually made 3 visits in the first 4 months and each time left shaking my head…..not quite sure what was going on here. Granted, these were lunch visits, but each was uniquely odd….and each was made with friends; the first two with "C" and "YZ" who both have Shanghai connections, both were really interested in the somewhat faddish version and conventional versions Xiao Long Bao, the last with "W and A", whom I ran into in the parking lot….we ended up sharing a not so good lunch together.

Each took over an hour for lunch. The first time we went we got there at 1145, the open sign was on, but he place was completely dark. We waited a bit and walked in….turns out the front of house staff hadn't shown up yet and we were shown to a table, where we cooled our heels sitting in the dark, until staff showed up at noon.

By my second visit, word had gotten out and the place filled up really quickly. Lunch took about an hour and a half and of course the staff could feel the pressure. We saw several of our dishes head to wrong tables before making its way to us and we had one dish delivered that we hadn't ordered. The saddest thing was this dude who I could see was getting agitated waiting for his XLB. But this….well, let's be polite…guy….well two of his servers were guys and he held his tongue. Then the young lady went over to bring him his XLB and he totally unloaded on her, screaming and swearing. Of course, he wouldn't do that to any of the guys; he waited until the tiny young lady came along.

The third visit….lunch took two hours and I realized that I was done with the place for a while. In current state this means the difference between a ten hour day and a possible twelve hour day. Still, for some reason I decided not to do a post. I held my tongue until a few weeks ago; a fourth visit, which will be at the end of the post.

Facing East has an interesting "fusiony" and somewhat ambitious menu with everything from Tacos Al Pastor (on our first visit, we found that the family has a Chinese Restaurant in Ensenada), which I think is now off the menu, to Chicken Karaage, to a somewhat "Bo Luc Lac-ish" Filet Mignon with Rice, and Kimchi (and cheese!) Fried Rice.

Anyway, I'm sure you're most interested in the food. Here's a summary of what I had during my first three visits, first to worse.

Interestingly, the best dish I had…even "YZ" enjoyed it was a version of Mei Cai Kou Rou.

The pork belly was just tender enough, the soy-sugar ratio was good in the sauce; the preserved vegetable was tender and not too salty. The rice was a bit on the dry side but this wasn't bad at all.

The Chicken Karaage was interesting. As the batter was more of a lacquer – crunchy, "toriten" style and the chicken was served in a sweet-vinegar style sauce which went well with the fried chicken.

The chicken was moist, the flavors, while teetering on salty, was balanced out by that dressing.

The best XLB I've had here…..I've had it twice, is the (almost) Foie Gras, basically a goose liver version of the bao. Another thing of note; I've had 6 orders of the XLB here……in each order there was at least one XLB that had leaked.

Also of note; several times, the top knot of the XLB was hard. Also, and I find the XLB here lacking in soup and the pork versions are rather tough. I think the foie gras adds enough of that slightly livery-rich flavor to offset some of the shortcomings.

The chicken wings could have been a winner; it was crunchy and moist.

But on both occasions I've had this; they were way too salty. You basically couldn't taste anything else in spite of the five spice sprinkled on the wings.

Taking a totally different road from the fried chicken; the Cured Meat Rice Kettle was really bland, the gailan under cooked, there was not enough sauce, and the rice at the bottom of the kettle was rock hard.

There is of course, the Squid Ink – Black Truffle XLB.

Which does make quite an impression visually. The skins on these had a bit of a strange texture to both "C" and I. There was also not enough "soup" in these. Yes, truffle oil flavor, but not much else…oh, and I tried eating these in the traditional style with ginger and black vinegar…man, that was a mistake. 2 of the 10 XLB had also leaked out.

Of the two more conventional XLB…..the Pork and Crab is better.

The straight pork filling is on the tough side….and this'll be strange coming from me if you know me…the broth wasn't sweet enough and was in short supply. The wrappers, while not terrible, doesn't allow for what I call the "XLB Hang".

When visiting with "W and A" we ordered two rice plates; the first (both W and A are ethnically Vietnamese, so I knew they'd go for this) was the Filet Mignon Rice.

Slightly toothsome, but weak in flavor, with a tinge of that rather unpleasant metallic flavor.

The Oxtail Rice had a decent sauce that edged on being too salty.

The oxtail were really tough, which made eating this messy and rather unpleasant.

So yep, that was it……I realized that I just wasn't hip or perhaps not sequacious enough to enjoy and appreciate the food. Or perhaps, it's my lack of a sweet tooth that has me not order any of the desserts. I will say this though….none of my eating partners ever went back to Facing East.

Still, I decided to wait things out a bit and returned a few weeks ago. Strangely, the place was empty for the entire hour I was there, not a single other customer.

Could it be that lunch is just not the time to eat here? Or perhaps folks have learned that lunch might just too long…..

Deciding not to push my luck with ordering the XLB or anything that might extend my lunch; I went with the Niu Rou Mian; Beef Noodle Soup. After all, I was told they make their own noodles and this, at heart is a Taiwanese Restaurant, right?

The soup was very hot; I enjoyed the preserved vegetable, which really helped the flavor of the broth which seemed to have a whole bunch of white pepper in it, but wasn't overly salty. The beef – soy sauce – anise tones were really in the background; though there was a bit of spice to things. Just two small pieces of tasteless beef in this. The noodles were decent, a bit overcooked, but had a nice doughy-pull to them…except for that giant clump of noodles in the center of the bowl.

Still, an hour for a bowl of noodle soup? With my schedule at work these days, I just can't do that. I mentioned having to wait over 40 minutes for some noodle soup to the young man working. His response? A shrug of the shoulders….it's not his fault things took so long, but perhaps he could have said something like, "I'll mention this to the kitchen….." Or something like that.

So perhaps….if…a BIG IF….I return it'll be for dinner. The service is quite hit and miss…..the folks are as a whole nice; but I saw a lot of mistakes/mix ups….though hopefully things are better now.

Facing East
4647 Convoy St Suite 101C
San Diego, CA 92111
Open Daily:
1130am – 1030pm

Tapioca Express, again

April 2, 2017 Cathy Caffeine Fix, Chains, Desserts, Stuff, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is this food blog. Kirk is, right now, taking a well-deserved break. Ed (from Yuma) is having some connectivity problems. Cathy is awake and writing about another of her adventures with food.

I first discovered the concept of tea houses and boba in 2007 and subsequently wrote about some of the food choices enjoyed from Tapioca Express, as well as other places. Yes, they seem to be beverage oriented, and I get beverage overwhelmed.

This is the menu board at Tapioca Express. The first FIVE columns are beverage choices, the last two columns are food choices, where I zone in. (My beverage choice is always the 'Coffee Milk Tea' ($2.98), either hot or cold, no boba, no added sweetener). Our shared meal this day consisted of a boiled pork dumpling plate ($4.98) which comes with steamed broccoli and a vinegar-soy dipping sauce. Fried shrimp rolls ($3.98) with a mild level of spice. These are pleasant, with a good crunch.The calamari (always rings)($4.28) are quite meaty, a good choice with an added bonus of fried basil, which i really like. When I thought we were finished eating, The Mister walked back into line and ordered the Chinese donuts ($4.28) which came out piping hot. These are a fried bread dough, not a typical donut batter, and served with both whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk. A delightful end to another light meal.

Tapioca Express 4646 Convoy San Diego 92111 (858) 636-7889 Open Sun-Thurs 11:00-midnight, Fri-Sat 11:00-1 a.m. Website There are three stand alone San Diego locations as well as a few food court locations.

Tasty Pot – Convoy

March 7, 2017 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

**** Tasty Pot is now Sizzling House & Noodle

Our good friend “Xiāng Jiāo” first noticed Tasty Pot was coming to Plaza del Sol on Convoy. And a few weeks later, I noticed a Tasty Pot location was opening on Mira Mesa Boulevard. I did some quick research and found that Tasty Pot was a chain based in NorCal. After a rather long wait, I noticed back in January that TP was ready to open. Since this is Taiwanese style hot pot, I wasn’t surprised that Kirbie made it a point to visit right away.

I waited a couple of weeks…..but if there was any month that was just perfect for hot pot, it was this past February. On a rather chilly day, I headed over to Tasty Pot. And was surprised to see one of the “guys” from Village North! We saw each other and cracked up….apparently, he is a good friend of VN’s owner and will help out when necessary. The young lady serving me on this day was really very nice as well.

And they also had one of my favorite hot pot condiments….fermented bean curd.

The menu boasts “combos” for lunch and dinner. Numbers 1-8 is $11.99 for lunch and $12.99 for dinner. Number 9 – 12 is $14.99 for lunch and $15.99 for dinner. And comes with rice or glass noodles and iced tea (unfortunately only sweetened) for lunch.

I went with the Taiwanese Supreme Spicy ($14.99) at medium spicy. These hot pots come loaded with stuff.

As you would imagine, this is more about quantity, but you can’t say you’re not getting variety. Which ranged from “meh”, the clams were hard as rock and kind of messy, surimi, cuttlefish rings like rubber, to decent, the fried tofu puffs, the pork, which was sliced nicely thin, but had no flavor. I enjoyed the bean curd, the blood cake, and the tendon the most.

And I must say, even at medium, this was a lot more spicy than I thought it would be. But not much numbing tones or the thicker, richer hot pot broth that is more to our taste.

Overall, you couldn’t complain about the portion size, there was no way I could finish all of this. I ended up taking leftovers home, but not until the really nice young woman partially refilled my broth! How nice. I do think the overall flavor while decent, didn’t have a good a “ma-la” as what I had at Boiling Passion….though it’s hard to argue with the portion size and variety at Tasty Pot.

On one rather rainy day, Calvin and I headed back to Tasty Pot.

Calvin decided to get the Stinky Tofu version ($11.99). Man, that intestine was delicious.

And I got some broth, which was pretty weak and a slice (one of only two) of chou doufu (stinky tofu), and while I didn’t expect it to be anything like what we had in China (to my relief), but it was pretty bland, not even close to say, what you’d get at random places in our old neighborhood. The preserved vegetables were also appreciated.

I got the Lamb Hot Pot ($11.99).

This was scaldingly hot, though not too spicy, and mild in flavor….until I dumped a good amount of fermented bean curd into it. The very thinly sliced lamb was very tender, but didn’t have the gameyness associated with good lamb that I enjoy. As with most hot pots, it’s those bean curd products I enjoy, along with mushroom and this was no exception.

Again, really generous portions….it’s nice and warming on a cold day, the service was very nice. Like Boiling Passion, I’m not sure if I’ll be a regular customer, but this wasn’t bad at all.

Tasty Pot
4698 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Caffé Bene

October 24, 2016 Cathy Caffeine Fix, Desserts, Sandwiches, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is the name of the blog you are reading. Kirk has an even busier day than usual and Ed (from Yuma) is out and about (in Yuma) doing his things, so Cathy is writing today's post.

Caffe Bene has over 1600 locations in a dozen countries around the world. One of those locations is in San Diego, on Convoy Street (it shares the same parking lot with Prime Grill). Opening over a year ago, cc and Kirbie posted about it.Spacious with a simple decor, the 'Global Coffee House' offers a fairly quiet meeting space with free wifi…

coffees, teas, beverages as well as a variety of snack foods, treats and small sandwiches. The Signature drink here, 'multigrain power drink', Misugaru, can be served cold or hot and I like each version and have purchased one or the other on each visit here. It's tasty, not too sweet and quite filling. I think it may also be good for you.

There is a small selection of sandwiches on the menu. The above is a Spicy Chicken Sandwich ($8.95). Served hot on a fresh roll, the chicken breast, fresh spinach and melted cheese were quite fresh and tasty. The 'spicy' sauce was nicely hot, (not Sriracha sweet, just a good punch of heat). The side of potato salad was just enough to compliment the other flavors.

The ham and egg sandwich ($7.95) was not served hot, but was just as pleasant in flavor pairings. Hard boiled eggs, a good amount of ham, spinach, red onion and a mustard based sauce were all complimentary and made a nice little shared meal.

Caffe Bene is known for its Liege waffles and honey bread and we tried a simple order of a waffle with gelato ($5.50). Liege waffles are small, rich, stretchy/chewy and a bit crunchy from embedded pearl sugar in the batter; another variety of waffle. The gelato? Strawberry- a very densely flavored gelato, which would be good on its own but also went very well with pieces of the waffle.

Yes, it is a chain, but this is the only location around and it is quite nice.

Caffè Bene Website 4620 Convoy St San Diego, CA 92111 (858) 278-2204 Open daily 9 a.m.-midnight Website

Tea Station (again)

October 18, 2016 Cathy Desserts, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thank you for stopping to read this blog, mmm-yoso!!! Kirk is still working long days. Ed (from Yuma) is also really busy with appointments and things retired folks do. Cathy only has classes to take, so there is free time for her to write about some meals.

I've been posting about Tea Station in one form or another on this blog since 2007. This Taiwanese chain now has three locations in the County.

There are two main eat-in areas ( as well as a nice outdoor space). The menu is filled with photos.

We usually try a different hot tea each visit. So far, our favorite has also been the osmanthus, a light colored, fragrant, deep flavored tea ($6.99 for this pot) I want to say the flavor is a fruity black…not that there is fruit added, just the leaves have that background flavor of peaches. The shredded pork plate ($10.25) comes with the large portion of tea flavored pork, rice and the (daily changing) three sides: one hot and two cold this time. The cabbage and green beans had a light pickled flavor and the corn had more of a tea/tannin/brisk taste. All were complimentary to the meat.

The deli plate with pork house noodle (or rice noodle) soup ($9.99) is a good choice which we can share. The soup is quite nice and not salty; good flavors from the ingredients. The 'deli plate' is quite interesting, with tea flavored bites of hard boiled egg, seaweed knot, smoky tofu and a dried preserved vegetable. Tea flavored dumplings ($8.99) are almost always a fallback choice. The tea flavoring the meat is subtle, but there. The presentation is always pretty. You can see the skins were not thin. The taiwanese tea sausage ($5.99) is also an automatic choice. It's served with slices of raw garlic, which are just so perfect with the flavorings in the sausage. The spicy fried chicken appetizer ($5.99) (light/medium spice level) is always perfectly lightly breaded and crispy fried; not greasy.

On a recent visit, we tried a pot of the chrysanthemum/Pu-ehr tea ($5.50) This photo of the filter shows you the mix of chrysanthemum flowers and tea. We really liked the more subtle fermented flavor of this tea. You can see it was darker, and Pu-Ehr is fermented; quite earthy in flavor on its own, but by being 'cut' with the chrysanthemum flowers, it was a flavorful accompaniment to our meal this time. There are three menu pages devoted to 'dessert', which is shaved ice, which you can create or order. We have asked for the menu, stared at it, then always agree we want this same item: grass jelly with sour plum ice ($5.75). I have eight photos of this dessert. No condensed milk or any other toppings. Just a light, pleasant way to end a meal, with some tea, of course.

I hope you are having a good week so far!

Tea Station 7315 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 (858) 268-8198 website

Boiling Passion

March 29, 2016 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

**** Boiling Passsion has closed

Less than a week ago, I mentioned a new hot pot place…..Boiling Passion. It just so happened that one of our coworkers; "Lily" was transferring departments, so we wanted to take her to lunch. And BP seemed just the place.

I like what they've done to the interior; brick and wood paneling…nice job considering how quickly the place got turned around from Pho Paradise's closing.

A quick look at the menu revealed that yes, this is indeed what Eater describes as a "take off" on the very popular Boiling Point. Hot pot for lunch? $12.99, for dinner, $13.99. You can add extras for an additional charge, but I found the portion size to be quite generous.

We each got a different version of hot pot; "PL" got the "House Special Hot Pot", basically stinky tofu.

While the amount of protein in the hot pot isn't substantial; the overall portion size is. In addition, we were asked several times if we wanted our broth topped off. In spite of this being "stinky tofu", this wasn't very pungent, the flavor quite mild overall. But at least it wasn't too salty.

Three sauces are provided, the bean curd based sauce is the best overall.

"YZ" got the Korean Style Hot Pot.

One interesting thing to note…..the heating gel used is pretty potent and very hard to control. "YZ" broth kept bubbling up and she had to hold up a napkin to avoid getting splashed.

I got the Lamb Hot Pot, which, according to Lily should have had suan cai. The stuff in my hot pot tasted like plain napa cabbage, lacking in any fermented flavor and not even close to the suan cai we make at home.

The lamb was very tasty and gamey, the mung bean noodle, which I chose instead of rice wet quite well in this along with the enoki mushrooms and tofu. I'm not a fan of blood cake, but I really like the version served here, nice texture, ever so slightly sweet without a strong metallic flavor. I do wish the broth had a bit more flavor though. Along with one fill up of broth; this was more than I could finish.

So what about Lily? Well, the point of this lunch was to chat and enjoy so I took only one shot of every hot pot. As you can tell, it came out much too blurry. Lily ordered the winner of the bunch the Ma-la Hot Pot, which had a nice spice; not super spicy, but quite flavorful. She gave me a nice taste in one of the bowls provided.

Kind of a bummer that the photo of the best item of the day didn't turn out.

Luckily, John and Candice had some time to grab dinner and with the weather unseasonably cold, hot pot sounded like just the thing.

We started with "Golden Dumplings" – fried bread. I really haven't had a good version of this since we last ate at Kingswood in Rowland Heights nearly a decade ago. This was served with condensed milk.

This was very light and lacking in the nice mild sweetness I enjoy.

Candice ordered the Curry Hot Pot which was decent and John the Sate….which must have been good, because he basically destroyed it. I was having such a great time chatting that I forgot to take a photo of the Ma-la Hop Pot, 'doh, lightning strikes twice. So you'll have to settle for this photo and basically take my word or it that this is pretty much the way to go here.

As an extra bonus, I noticed that this came with some intestine….something I really enjoy. Heck, even the fish balls tasted pretty good here. Wish they had a bit more bean curd skin though.

Well, I'm just going to have to drop by again…probably soon if the weather holds its course. As of this writing, I probably enjoy the hot pot, well at least the hot and spicy version (the rest are on the bland side) here more than QT Pot, though I need to revisit them soon. The folks here are nice and since it's grand opening trying real hard. Candice recognized one of the owners as previously working at Noble Chef. I hope they do well….check them out and let me know what you think!

Boiling Passion
3904 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Liang’s Kitchen Revisited

January 25, 2016 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

** Liang's has closed

For some reason the beef noodle soup at Green China Grill had me thinking about Liang's. Not sure why, very different creatures, but, in spite of the very bad taste of bleach permeating my NRM the last time, I decided it had been a while, so why not?

I was a bit taken a back when I visited. It was 1130 and not a soul in the place. And it also looks like Liang's has not aged well; several of the light fixtures had no bulbs, perhaps to reduce costs, but the wires were hanging out. What I really noticed was the chipped paint everywhere.

The chairs I recalled had been replaced with very cheap banquet chairs. Kind of sad to see the state of the place in about five years of life.

Service was pretty much indifferent, so that part is consistent. I went with the Tendon and Beef Noodle Soup with the LaPian noodles. The bowl arrived hot and steaming.

First off, there were some decent things about this bowl….first and foremost no bleach flavor. Second, the broth was super hot. Third, that piece of tendon was excellent, holding shape but tender bordering on buttery. The broth had decent richness and the flavor of the preserved vegetable came through, but was pretty one dimensional in terms of overall flavor, low anise, lacking in beefiness, and way too much MSG. The beef was cold in the center and tasted a bit like it had been held in the fridge too long. I should have learned my lesson about the noodles and gone with the regular version. The Lapian noodles were hard and pretty much just tore to pieces when grabbing them with chopsticks.

I'm on the fence about this one. It's mediocre, not terrible, though I couldn't finish the broth because of all the MSG. Nothing really incites me to return….so maybe it'll be another 2 or 3 years, or maybe more….I do hope they spruce up the place a bit.

Liang’s Kitchen
4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

T-Pop – Desserts and More! (Mira Mesa)

October 6, 2015 Cathy Desserts, Ramen, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Once again, mmm-yoso!!! is here with another post. Kirk is having more technical difficulties today than he had yesterday; Ed (from Yuma) is enjoying being retired and isn't glued to his computer; Cathy is in front of her computer sharing a meal she enjoyed in the recent past.

A few weeks ago The Mister and I were in Mira Mesa, planning on going to that location of Seafood City and planning to eat before shopping, as we usually do, similar to the food court of the South Bay Seafood City location. But the parking lot was pretty full and we pulled up on the far West end and noticed this storefront. You know we had to stop and check it out. I vaguely recalled posts by cc, Kirbie and Mary from earlier this year…thinking this was a 'dessert only' place. But there are menus on the door and on the wall as you walk to the back to order. The Mister noticed a 'Ramen' page and I noticed 'Appetizers'. We walked in.The eclectic decor is interesting in that there are so many choices of 'eating areas' and levels of comfort. I'm glad I could take these photos, because almost all the tables filled up within about 15 minutes.Duck ramen with tonkatsu broth ($9.99) with the basic toppings (soft boiled egg, seaweed, scallions, sesame seeds and bean sprouts). This was very good in flavor and size (enough to share). The broth was rich, porky and not very salty. The noodles had a 'bite' and were not mushy. The duck leg was standard. The vegetarian pot stickers ($3.99) were also standard. Fresh fried and crispy with a good amount of filling. Quite large for pot stickers.

The Kani-Cheese Croquette ($2.99) is basically potatoes mashed with cream cheese, formed into a patty and rolled in bread crumbs then deep fried. Topping is kewpie and teriyaki. Again, freshly made but pretty standard. Nice sides to munch on while waiting for my turn with the ramen bowl.

Looking at the menu, I remembered the desserts I had seen online.Shubuya honey toast…presented with a theme. We decided on "London".Based on the photos from other bloggers and the menu, there was a small disaster during the assembly, but all the ingredients are there. The (very) large piece of honey toast was hollowed out and cubed, the cubes toasted and most placed back inside the outer large cube of (also) toasted bread. Ice cream, bananas, caramel sauce, toffee and a side of custard sauce. A really nice, and fun dessert.

T-Pop Desserts and More 8945 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858) 566-6494 Website open Sun-Th 11-10, Fir-Sat 11-11