Vietnamese Restaurants – Page 51

Green Papaya Vietnamese Pho & Grill

August 5, 2007 mmm-yoso Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

*** Green Papaya is closed and has been renamed.

A couple of weeks ago FOY(Friend of Yoso) and Uber Food Blogger Captain Jack, told me about a new Vietnamese Restaurant in Pacific Beach. He mentioned the name of the place was Green Papaya. So that week, I drove down to PB to check out the restaurant.

The interior of the restaurant was very nice, clean, well lit, and tastefully appointed. The restaurant was totally empty when I entered, and after waiting a few minutes, I walked into the kitchen, and surprised a pleasant young man who led me to a seat and dropped off a menu.

With a name like Green Papaya, I had hopes that the menu would contain a few different and interesting dishes. But even though the "namesake" Papaya Salad (Goi Du Du) was on the menu, most of the dishes were standard Pho, Bun, Mi, etc. In addition the prices reflected the "Pacific Beach premium".

After looking over the menu, I just went with the usual. I started with Cha Gio(Egg Rolls – $5.50). The Cha Gio arrived within a minute! On the positive side, at least the "appetizer sin" where appetizers arrive after the main course wouldn't happen here.

On the bad side, when these arrived in a minute, the first thought that went through my head was, "these gotta be reheated". And eating these did nothing to dissuade me. As you can see, one of the Cha Gio is burnt and two of them were soft and greasy.

The Nuoc Mam Cham is described as "a light fish sauce." And they sure weren't kidding, it was a bit under flavored and more on the sweet side. So if you're not into fish sauce, this might be for you.

I also went for the Pho Dac Biet Extra Large (Special Combination – $6.75):

The garnishes were the usual suspects, and were very fresh. I had expected this Pho to be very mild, and generic….boy was I wrong. Though the broth was very low in oil content and light, the strong flavors of anise and clove came through. The noodles were the usual clump on the bottom of the bowl, okay in texture, though the portion size was a bit skimpy for an "xlg" bowl.

The 5 slices of rare steak were very dry and tough and there was but a scant strip of tripe.

In keeping with the clientele there was only one piece of brisket, and a small piece of tendon. It's too bad, because the brisket had excellent flavor, and the tendon was a buttery soft. If I were to ever eat here again, I'd go with something with mostly tendon and brisket.

Overall, the service was very nice, as is the decor, but I prefer the Pho and Cha Gio at Pho Sao Bien up the street. I did ask what the specialty of the house was, and the young man answered with the question, "you don't like our Pho?" He recommended the Bun (Vermicelli dishes), but the thought of the watered down Nuoc Cham…….

Green Papaya Vietnamese Pho & Grill
1820 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

Hours: Mon-Sun 10am-9pm
858-273-1664

Midweek Meanderings

August 1, 2007 mmm-yoso Cooking, Markets & Grocers, Vietnamese Restaurants, yoso-silly

Just a few midweek odds and ends, and other stuff….

Just An Observation

I was having lunch at Pho Hoa Hiep recently, when I gave my Com Tam dish (Com Tam Bi Cha Suon Nuong – $5.80) a "break" and came up for air.

As I gazed across the restaurant, I noticed something. Two-thirds of the customers were non-Vietnamese! During a meal a few days later, I noticed the same thing. I recall that when I first started eating here, almost all the customers were Vietnamese. I couldn’t help but smile…… You see, sometimes when I read that the "Best Chinese Restaurant" in San Diego is PF Chang’s(Pick up Stix is #4!), the "Best Japanese" is Benihana (Todai is #6!), sheesh…. This mild change in demographics tells me that San Diego’s tastes are changing, albeit slowly, and people are trying new things.

I think it’s a wonderful thing….

BTW, the Com Tam was pretty good, the pork chop was moist and tender, if a bit shy in flavor, shredded pork is tricky, this version was soft and moist, not the dry and tough stringy stuff. Not bad at all.

Rice Is Nice!

I don’t know what it is….perhaps withdrawals from doing Plate Lunch Week. But I’ve been craving rice. My rice intake had been seriously cut down since moving to San Diego, but recently…I dunno. I’ve been making stuff like Kimchee Fried Rice.

No recipe, I just use whatever’s on hand. The required ingredients are Kimchee(of course!), onions, Gochujang, and another one of those magical "four letter word" ingredients,(others being stuff like L-a-r-d and P-o-r-k) Spam®! I also like garlic in my Kimchee Fried Rice.

It could have been worse, remember my Spam® Katsu Curry?

Which led me to make stuff like this…..

Just an omelet…..

A fried rice omelet. Some left over Portuguese Sausage Fried Rice as filler……

Marukai Coming to San Diego

Check out this building on the corner of Balboa and Mercury.

No big deal, huh? Maybe a closer look….

There it is….Marukai. This looks like a 99-cent store operation, but all the buildings in the complex are being worked on. Daiso is a large Japan based "100-yen" store operation.

I’d been waiting for Marukai to open up since we moved to San Diego. I sent Marukai Corporation an email, and here’s the response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.
We are planning to open San Diego store.
Hopefully non-food section will be open in August 2007 and food section will be in late this year.
We will put our upcoming store information at www.marukai.com.
Again, thank you for contacting us.
We hope see you at our new store soon."

Regards,
Marukai Corporation
Tel: 310-660-6300
Fax: 310-660-6301

So there it is…..

Some other posts on Marukai can be found here, here, and here.

Passionate Eater….

Like I’ve said before, I truly feel blessed to have gotten to know some of the wonderful fellow bloggers and readers of our little blog. It seems like mmm-yoso just started a short time ago, so I was a bit startled when Jay, the Proprietor of the Linkery graciously called me "The dean of San Diego food bloggers", kinda makes me feel really old……. But come to think about it, my San Diego Food Blogs typelist has really been growing, with excellent new blogs starting up all the time. I hope you give them a try.

I haven’t been able to meet one of my favorite fellow bloggers, Passionate Eater, but ‘PE’ as we call her, has always filled her wonderful posts with humor, and Her comments have always been so kind and positive. So when PE broke the news that she was leaving San Francisco, I knew that I needed to do something a bit special. This is not bad news per se, PE will be taking on exciting new challenges in New Orleans(another great food city!). Since PE was the one who requested, nay demanded that Sammy and Frankie have their own photo album, I thought this appropriate:

Good Luck PE!!!

"oh-oh, did I do that?"

The Revised Rotation

July 25, 2007 mmm-yoso Bakery, Bun Bo Hue, Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, Lao Restaurants, Plate Lunch, Salvadoran Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

I’ve been blessed by blogging. Through our humble little food blog, I’ve gotten to know so many wonderful, kind, and generous people. It’s also great to know that I’m not the only (slightly…) food obsessed person out there. I’m very happy to call Howie, who does the Foodieview, a friend.

Case in point, over the last year (yes, year…) I’ve received a few emails and comment, asking me when I’m going to update "My Rotation". Those would be the restaurants the Missus and I think about when we make plans to eat, whether it’s the two of us, or dinner with friends, or something similar in nature. I had thought that a post was in order, but didn’t quite know how to approach the whole thing. Suddenly it came to me(though it could have been gas….but we’ll never know), I remembered Howie’s post on embedding restaurant maps in posts. I thought it was pretty neat, and Howie was nice enough to demo what mmm-yoso’s map would look like…..it did look like 300 map links stacked on one another….it seemed like I’ve been eating in the same place like a couple of hundred times! Now, I know Howie’s a really busy guy, but I mentioned updating my rotation to Him, and sent him a list of places on our revised rotation, and to my surprise a short itme later I received a response. And there was a map! You can see a more detailed map with info here. So without further ado, here’s Howie’s work:

Pretty cool, huh?

The Bun Bo Hue Dossier – My Favorites

July 11, 2007 mmm-yoso Bun Bo Hue, Vietnamese Restaurants

I thought I'd do a quick "top-two" post of restaurants that serve my favorite versions of Bun Bo Hue in San Diego. Bun Bo Hue has sort of become one of my "new comfort dishes", I enjoy the spicy and deceptively "rustic" broth. I say deceptively rustic, because at first glance Bun Bo Hue broth appears quite mundane. But when sipping the broth of a good bowl of Bun Bo Hue, you'll realize how finely nuanced this soup really is……the upfront spiciness, the aromatic, bright, and faux citrus tones of lemongrass, the earthy saltiness of fish sauce, and sometimes a touch of fermented shrimp paste. Okay, back to planet Earth…..here are my two favorite versions of Bun Bo Hue in San Diego.

Mien Trung:

Since we've been eating at Mien Trung about once a week, I'll need to add it to my "rotation" whenever I get around to updating it.

Recently, Mien Trung was closed for almost a month. I remember parking in the lot, walking over, reading the note announcing closure, and pressing my face against the window, a junkie in need of his Bun Bo Hue fix! Luckily, Mien Trung reopened on the 27th of June. Why were they closed? Per the really nice young man who always seems to serve us: "Mom was on vacation. No Mom, no soup!" LOL!

For a more detailed post please read either this post, or this post. To get to the point, the most balanced, flavorful, broth, noodles that are always served a perfect al dente, and we always get a piping hot bowl. It seems that all the little things are thought of. The only items that I really have any issue with, is the sometimes dry beef, the think and hard beef tendon, and a pork hock that is tough and sometimes without meat. I've been told that the food at Mien Trung is what "very good home cooking should be like".

I received a email that warmed my heart, and brought a smile to my face a while back. It was from one of my favorite FOYs(that would be Friend of Yoso). Here's what Trang had to say about Mien Trung:

"My sisters and I only get together about once a year and usually it is during the Thanksgiving week. This past month, I forwarded your post about Mien-Trung restaurant to my sisters with a short message "we will go here when you come".

Last Sunday, the three of us excitedly got to Mien-Trung. You should have heard the way we ooohed and aaahed at each item while looking at the restaurant menu (You probably would have thought we had not eaten real food in years). We ordered a feast of bun bo Hue (special large bowl of course), bun rieu, banh nam, banh bot loc, and banh beo.

What a tasty lunch we had. The bun-bo at Mien Trung tasted exactly like it is supposed to taste. The banh beo tasted like the afternoon snacks I used to eat at food stands in central Vietnam over thirty years ago. But the star of the meal was the banh bot loc, we absolutely loved the generous portion of the filling, its slightly chewy dough, and how they used meat broth rather than plain water to flavor the dough.

After the meal, I got up to pay but what I really wanted was to hear the cashier’s accent so I could locate his origin. Unfortunately, the cashier was a high school age young man who spoke to me in 100% California accented English. As we leave, my sister pointed to the TV and asked the older gentleman behind the cashier about the DVD that was playing in the background. He answered back in his perfect Hue accent. All three of us sisters agreed that there had to be a Hue woman cooking in the kitchen."

I really don't have anything to add, except to thank Trang, for such a wonderful story!

Mien Trung
7530 Mesa College Drive
San Diego, CA 92111

Open Tues-Sun 9am-8pm

Hoai Hue Deli/Food To Go:

Located in a slightly dicey location on El Cajon Boulevard, right below an Alcoholics Anonymous and a Tattoo Parlor, Hoai Hue Deli makes my second favorite version of Bun Bo Hue.

Ed from Yuma takes over from here:

"The bun bo hue ($5) was quite good. The sliced beef was as tender and flavorful as any I ever remember having in bbh. The 1” slice of meaty pork hock replaced the usual meatless pig foot. Instead of slices of tendon, the soup had two huge knots of chewy tendon that I liked a lot. The spicy broth had bits of red chili floating in it and presented a nice balance between chili heat, meaty flavors, citrus tang, and fermented shrimp paste funk. When I thought that Kirk would probably like it more funky, I looked over at the condiment tray and spied a whole small tub of fermented shrimp paste. While not packed with noodles, the amount was certainly adequate for a $5 lunch."

My post can be found here. If not for Mien Trung, this would be my favorite.

Hoai Hue Deli/Food To Go
4776 El Cajon Blvd Ste 106
San Diego, CA 92115

There are times when I'm feeling quite tired, burnt out, just out of places and ideas. It doesn't happen very often, but I'm human, so it does occur. But it seems that every time I feel that way, I get an email that inspires me…usually with a combination of infectious enthusiasm, wonder, recommendations, or the like. Back in January, I received this email from JonO, and I couldn't help but smile:

"Had my first bowl of bun bo hue last night"

"And was it ever the good stuff… I don't need to tell you how good, it'd be preaching the choir, but it was good… really good. One of those ahhhhhhhhhhhhyeah! food moments…"

A few months later:

"Mein Trung

Finally! Got the bun bo hue and a lemonade. I see what you mean about the broth… lots of subtleties in there. Lots of nasty bits – gristle, well done flank, and a yummy knuckle to gnaw of. Great atmosphere on a Saturday late-morning, bright light and lots of families showing up to grub. I'll be back here for sure, wanna try that Bun Rieu."

Jon has kept me up to date with a running commentary on his "noodling around" , and it keeps me inspired.

So, I'd just like to thank everyone, Pheth, Carol, Jon, Trang, and all those who send me those wonderful, funny, enthusiastic, heartfelt, (oh, I could go on and on) emails! This post is for all of you!

Vinh Long Food to Go

July 8, 2007 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Restaurants

Early one weekend morning, while taking one of my now all too rare excursions checking for new restaurants, I noticed a little shop in an alleyway, on El Cajon Boulevard, between Chamoune avenue and 46th street.

Now how the heck did I miss this place? So I made a mental note to remember the name, and reinforced that by constantly repeating the mantra, "Vinh Long Food to Go, Vinh Long Food to Go….." Can you imagine if I got into an accident and had to be questioned? I’d be lying on the ground, being questioned:

"What’s your name?"
"Vinh Long Food to Go…."
"Where do you live?"
"Vinh Long Food to Go…."
"Do you know where you are?"
"Vinh Long Food to Go…."

Am I a food dork, or what? Of course, I subsequently went home and forgot all about Vinh Long. For some reason, two of my surviving brain cells managed to rub against each other in my deteriorating gray matter….and what did I remember? "Vinh Long Food to Go…." of course! I managed to snag a parking slot(of the 6 available) in front of the tiny 2 table shop. The customers waiting to be served were a combination of older Vietnamese Men and Hispanic Young Men. The steam table was doing bang-up business.

But since the weather recently has been on the warm side, I decided to get some Banh Mi. The prices were pretty much in line, at $2.50.

So here we go. The Banh Mi Thit Nguoi(combination meat):

Here, the combination meat consisted of thinly sliced "Char Siu" like pork, which was freshly sliced for my sandwich, and Gio Lua(lean pork sausage – sometimes called Vietnamese Bologna). Not much meat, but lots of pickled radish and carrot, which really didn’t have much taste. Enjoyed the cross slice of cucumber, but some caution should be exercised with those hidden Jalapenos! The bread was slightly toasted but still too doughy for my tastes. The length of these sandwiches were the usual Banh Mi length of about 6-8 inches.

The BBQ Pork Banh Mi.

This was by far my favorite Banh Mi. Thinly sliced marinated and grilled pork(think sweet-salty) along with the usual suspects from above. Oh yes, and those who know me understand that I’m not a big fan of tough stringy cilantro stems…..short stems with leaves are fine, but I don’t eat Banh Mi with the intent purpose of flossing my teeth.

The Banh Mi Cha Lua (Lean Pork Sausage)

Though I thought this sandwich was a bit short on the meat side, what made this sandwich really tasty was the nice "smear" of pate. Again the bread was a bit too doughy for my tastes, and not crusty enough. There was a bit of the jalapeno roulette going on with this sandwich as well. But, that pate was very good!

The service I received was friendly, and prompt. This is not fast food, and it takes a while to toast the baguette. The steam table food goes for $4.50 for 3 and a starch, and seemed to be quite popular.

Vinh Long Food to Go
4575 El Cajon Blvd Ste B
San Diego, CA 92115

Oh yes, parking is limited, and the alleyway is pretty much a single lane job. Which led to an interesting confrontation as I was waiting to back out of my parking stall. An older Vietnamese woman driving a early 90’s Toyota Corolla turns into the alley. A huge dual axel pick-up is coming down the alley. And yes ladies and gentleman, we have a stand-off! Guy in the pick-up pops his horn and waves for the little old lady to back-up…….."Ba Noi"(Grandma) does nothing. Guy, sticks his head out the window and screams something I can’t write here to Ba Noi, nothing happens. About ten seconds later, Ba Noi, apparently fed up with the situation, sticks a closed fist out the window and starts driving toward the pick-up. White Guy in pick-up’s eyes almost pops out of his head, he quickly shifts his truck into reverse and quickly backs down the alley! He-he-he, you don’t mess with Grandma!!!!

Hinh Ky Mi Gia

June 13, 2007 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Hinh Ky Mi Gia is no longer

Want to meet the Missus’s favorite “duck” of the moment? Well, “hang”(like a roast duck) in there……

Hinh Ky Mi Gia is located in the same strip mall as Pho Ca Dao, right next to World Foods Supermarket on El Cajon Boulevard. In fact it’s kinda tucked away in a corner and pretty easy to miss.

As you can tell by the sign, this used to be an outpost of Tan Ky Mi Gia. Apparently an ownership change occurred back in October….I’m sure there’s an interesting story behind this! This is a bare bones Mom and Pop operation, as you can see it’s now June, and the Tan Ky Mi Gia sign still hasn’t been replaced. The interior of the restaurant is bright and pretty clean, and though we’ve never seen the place packed, there always seem to be at least a few tables occupied, and a stream of take-out orders.

We first visited Hinh Ky a few weeks back, when it was still unseasonably cool for May. I was in the mood for some Egg Noodle Soup, and as you can tell by the name (Mi = Egg Noodle), this is one of those Chinese Vietnamese Soup joints. Which usually means decent portions at low prices…..

As we grabbed a seat, the Missus noticed that several older gentlemen were all having the same thing. With typical aplomb, the Missus asked the Owner, a really nice guy, “what are they eating?” He pointed out the dish on the menu….and this is what She got, the Egg Noodle Soup with Roasted Duck ($5.50):

Well that’s the soup portion, nice medium broth, not overly salty, with a mild hint of seafood (i.e. slight almost shrimp like flavor). The noodles were serviceable, nice and crunchy, but will get slightly softer as time passes…so the Missus’s solution? “You have to eat faster if you want crunchy…o-KAY!!!”

Want to meet the Missus’s latest duck obsession? This is the duck that came with the noodles:

Not the most beautiful roast duck, the skin perhaps not as crisp as I would like. But, man this duck had some flavor! It was also doused with a good amount of “drippings” making it extra moist. The flavors of five spice were very “upfront”, and the fat to meat ratio was good. I don’t know if they make this inhouse, but whomever makes it sure knows what they’re doing. This was a very pleasant surprise, especially for less than 6 bucks.

I decided to order the Beef Sate Egg Noodle Soup($5):

When this bowl hit the table, I thought this was going to be really good. It wasn’t bad, but very weak in flavor, and not the least bit spicy. The beef was nice and soft, and had a decent flavor, but this was overshadowed by the duck.

I’ve detailed the Missus’s “obsessions” in an earlier post, so in typical fashion we were back a few days later.

This time I tried the Dumpling and Won Ton Egg Noodle Soup($4.75):

The broth was the same as the Duck Noodle soup on the previous visit, the Char Siu had good flavor and was pretty tender. The dumpling and won tons were not as good, I’m used to dense dumplings in Mi Gia restaurants, but these were extra hard, and lacked flavor. Still, I find it very difficult to complain about a good sized bowl of noodle soup for under 5 bucks…..

This time the Missus ordered one of the “most expensive” items on the menu. The Roast Duck on Rice ($6).

Along with the nice plate of duck on fragrant jasmine rice, and little bowl of “broth”(same as the noodle soup) arrived. And a few seconds later, a bowl of duck drippings with lily buds. The Missus enjoyed this, to the last bite…to the very last bite, I’m talking about every bite. In other words, I never had a shot at it. She did tell me it was good…….let’s see, “good”, “wife”, “duck”, all very nice four letter words, but believe me I could add a few four letter words of my own!

So on to our next (yet another!) visit. The Missus had Her Duck on rice, which She said was not quite as good as on previous visits(so I actually got to have some), but also asked the Gentleman if we could just have a side order of the Five Flavor Duck. By this time he was used to seeing us, so he smiled and said, “yes, yes, anything you like, we make for you……..”

This was just ok, basically a soy sauce duck, nothing really special. Lacks the rich flavor of the Roast Duck.

I ordered the Beef Stew Rice ($5.75), which was a nice bowl of Beef Stew.

As Beef Stew goes this was just okay, I thought the flavor of the stew was very mild and lacked “richness”, though the beef was soft. The generous amount of tendon was just a tad too hard. It was still a good amount of food.

So on our most recent visit(still with me out there???), the Missus had Her Roast Duck Egg Noodle Soup, but I had to try something new, and decided on the Pork Rib Egg Noodle Soup($5):

I really enjoyed the broth, flavored with tomato, beef stew seasoning, and colored by annatto oil. The broth also had a mild touch of spice. The pork ribs looked kind of strange, very pale, and I expected the ribs to be tough, but they were pretty soft. The ribs did not have a great deal of flavor though. The shrimp, were well, shrimp in soup…….

In case you were wondering what the Missus’s strategy is: “In these types of Asian restaurants, I look to see what the older men are eating” Why, you may ask? She will look directly at me and say, “most times, older men are losing their sense of taste, and will order stuff with lot’s of flavor……just like you, heee-heeee-heee……”

So our suggestion? Try out the roast Duck here, I don’t think it’s for everybody, because the flavor can be on the strong side, and it’s the fatty drippings that really contribute much of the flavor, but the Missus loves it. This is a real Mom and Pop shop, run by a very nice couple, there are times when a Young Lady who I assume is their daughter very, very, reluctantly helps out. It cracks us up. The Ladies in the kitchen are also very nice. Once one of them came out to tell us they were out of something and apologized! What can I say about the prices…………

Hinh Ky Mi Gia(The business card I have says Hing Ky Mi Gia)
5237 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Open Daily – 8am-8pm

This story always “quacks” me up:

The Missus actually used to believed that ducks naturally had the roast duck five-spice flavor. Really! Because that was the only way She had ever had duck, Chinese Roast Duck or Peking Duck, so She thought that all ducks tasted that way! After having duck in a “European” restaurant, She still believed that most ducks tasted like roast duck. So what was the difference? She told me “must be because it’s free range!!!” he-he-he

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Pho Pasteur Anh Hong-That Vietnamese place in the same mall as K Sandwiches

June 11, 2007 Cathy Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Hello again, mmm-yoso readers. Cathy here, blogging because I want to and Kirk doesn't.

Good morning, or afternoon, or evening, whenever you are reading this. Cathy here, with a confession and interesting observation. I somehow always assumed Kirk had posted on this place, and he hadn't. I have referred to it as 'you know, the place in the mall with K Sandwiches, the one with pink tablecloths' and assumed everyone knew what I was talking about. Silly me.

Well, here is one meal The Mister and I had, but trust me, we have have gone here pretty much regularly, because of one item on the menu…it is 123D, on this paper "To Go" menu…in fact, if you can read this menu (there are 197 items on this two sided paper), it isn't all of what you can possibly order once you get inside. There are a few 'variations' and sides and paper words taped over the menu.

So, anyhow, on this visit we got the #55 appetizer- Squid stuffed with ground pork and mushrooms.($4.99)

Not fried, not crispy. More baked… and flavorful with a warm sweet-salty sauce o the bottom (which went went with the lettuce, tomato and onions).

The Mister decided to go for more of a Chinese dish this time, # 141-Pan fried rice noodle with shrimp and vegetable ($7.49)

Most of the thick rice noodles were pan fried and had a nice crispiness crust on them and the shrimp had a good, sweet, full flavor. The vegetables (broccoli, carrots, bok choy)were not overcooked and the sauce was more salty and had a heat we had not experienced before…not Szechuan, but definitely a red chile…it was good and different.

Then, I got my "usual" Bun Tau Hu Ky ($6.29) #123D, if I haven't said it enough.

Salad on the bottom (made with mint and cucumber shreds), cold rice noodles and the usual toppings of mint, peanuts, shredded carrot and daikon and then the topping- bean curd skin wrapped around ground shrimp..and fried. See that cross section? Oh how I crave this stuff. I look for it at every Vietnamese place I go and have only found it at three so far: Here, Convoy Noodle House and Pho Saigon Star. I have had it as an appetizer at all the places, even though it is not listed on the menu that way. Here, at Anh Hong, they charged us $4.99 or four large pieces. Worth it.

So, if you are in the Mesa College area, and don't want to go to one of the many other places in the parking lot, try this one; it is good.

Anh Hong Pho Pasteur 7612 Linda Vista Road San Diego 92111 (858)569-7515

Website

Afterwards, walk on over to K Sandwiches (in the same parking lot)

Go to the back, to your left, and pick up a couple of pastries…then do what we did-drive to a Starbucks (there are at least three within 3 miles), get some coffee in "for here" cups , sit down, and enjoy your dessert. (That is a chocolate cream cheese croissant and a raisin custard swirled pastry. Each one costs $1 and is fresh made at K Sandwiches).

Pho Saigon Star-Pho to go, Pho to eat in, and other good stuff!

May 28, 2007 Cathy Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. mmm-yoso is the name of the blog. Today, Cathy is blogging, Kirk is doing something else, most likely eating and photographing the food; it’s what we do.

Hi. Cathy is back… so, one day a few weeks ago when it was raining, The Mister called me and was going to be leaving work earlier than I had expected and I hadn’t even thought about dinner yet. "Bring something home" I told him…figuring, since it was a Tuesday, he’d get one (or three) of the $1.99 Tuesday only specials from KFC. {There is a poster, on one window only of your local KFC- look for it.} {It is an exceptionally good deal-2 pieces with one side and a biscuit}{which is why we usually get three meals} {sorry, digressing} Instead, he brought home pho!

Now, you must understand,we never had actually done pho as a take out item before. We have seen many people walking in and picking up at just about every place we were, noting how much toppings we could see were given in the bags (a lot of bean sprouts)…but still, we always just ate in.

In late March we saw a coupon online at Get 1 free dot com and we were going to meet there for dinner, but Pho Saigon Star wasn’t open yet. However, that night when The Mister went, it was open- and joy of joys-they had fried shrimp tofu as a side order on the menu.

Pretty much the only places that have fried shrimp tofu are Convoy Noodle House and Pho Pasteur Anh Hong (the place with tablecloths in the mall with K Sandwiches). I got it once with Bun and was hooked. It is just a shrimp paste inside of tofu skin that is fried. Crunchy/crispy and the shrimp paste tastes like shrimp mixed with some sugar and fish sauce… it is just something I crave.

Oh, and as a side (or "appetizer" as I like to call it) it’s only $3.

Oh, here is the menu, along with a photo of Tip Top’s paw as she waited for a precise moment to walk over it. For some reason, the website does not have prices. OH-THE NEATEST PART…look closely (click onto any photo and it will enlarge) or, go to the website- The menu is written in Vietnamese, English AND Spanish. I have never seen it this way, but it is neat. Therefore the fried shrimp tofu is, in Vietnamese: them chao tom hoac tau hu ky and in Spanish: adicional tofu de camarones.

So, anyhow, The Mister brought home Pho Tai (raw steak)(filete raro). (Small $ $5.50). Thinly sliced raw steak that cooks in the pho broth. The broth was rich, slightly oily, and not too overly anise-y/5 Spice-y. It was still very hot, to the point that when the meat was dropped in, a nice boiling effect came up from the soup. We live about 7 miles from this place, with quite a few lights between here and there. As you can see, the accompaniments of basil, jalapeños, one lime wedge and sprouts was plenty. The noodles were under the raw meat in the take out box. This was a *lot* of food. The large bowl is only 50¢ more and easily could feed two people.

We got an order of the fried spring rolls (cha ngo)(taquitos fritos de puerco) ($5.50) which also came with a fair amount of accompaniments-there could have been more mint- There was enough sauce though. Some chili is in the sauce, so there is a kick to it. The filling is quite a meaty ground pork as well as having daikon and carrot in it. The ‘to go’ packaging was perfect- they cut off a corner of the Styrofoam box, so that the thin egg roll skins stayed crispy.

Then, my meal- Bun. How I so crave Bun sometimes. Inside a restaurant, it is served in a large bowl with the lettuce/cabbage/basil/mint ‘salad’ on the bottom, noodles over it, then the toppings, shredded carrots, cucumbers, peanuts and whatever topping (I have had it with the fried shrimp tofu, at Ahn…#123D I think) this time, BBQ pork (thit nuong)(fideos de arroz con puerco de la barbacoa),

($5.99). It came in this Styrofoam take out box, and I had to dump it into a mixing bowl (as we had to do with the pho also) so as to get all the flavors mixed in…the noodles are under all of that BBQ’d pork which was *excellent* in flavor and cooking. The salad as nice and crisp and flavorful with the herbs in it.

So, the other day, we were hungry. It seems to happen a lot. I thought we should try Pho Saigon Star again and eat in. We were the *only* White people. This is always a good sign. This restaurant is located where Friars Road turns into Mission Gorge, near Kaiser Hospital, in the curved strip mall with the Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Petco, Coco’s, Rubio’s, Einsteins, Carl’s Jr. You know where. You’ve seen it.

Very nice, clean interior. Very friendly young men waiting on the tables. Very much family owned and run. everyone seemed to know everyone. … and there I was, White Girl with Camera. Oh well, they never asked me what the heck I was doing. It seemed that whenever they came around to fill up water, each person did ask us if we had any questions and were willing to give us information.

We decided to try the papaya salad with shrimp and pork ($5.99) It came with the sauce on the side. Unusual, but we saw the table next to us get it that way also. The sauce had a good amount of chilis in it, and we put the sauce over the portion we had placed onto our plates and it tasted great. I saw a lady at the table next to us adding sugar to the sauce. I thought it was fine. I tasted the papaya, shrimp and pork without any sauce and each ingredient had a good, fresh flavor on its own.

When The Mister was picking up that one day, he saw someone having curry and he had wanted to try it. He got rice with chicken curry (com cari ga)(arroz con curry de pollo) ($5.99). You could get it with noodles or French bread also, same price. The curry was sweet, with coconut milk and not very hot (spicy hot I mean). It had an excellent flavor, the chicken pieces were dark meat; flavorful. There were potatoes and hot onions and cilantro served with it. The sauce was not overly thick. it was good, tasty, but not like a Japanese curry sauce, which is thicker. You needed to put the rice into the curry to eat it.

I decided to try Sir Fry crispy noodles, with everything ($7.50) (mi xao gio thap cam) (never mind Spanish). You can get crispy egg noodles, soft egg noodles, pan fried noodles or rice… with beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, broccoli, celery, bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, onions, cilantro…and a nice brown sauce. Great flavors- and a *lot* of food.

But, we got dessert anyhow: the three colored one: pudding/sweet bean/green agar with coconut milk and ice ($3)

Nice and fresh. We were asked if we wanted it with our meal or as dessert. We asked to wait and the nice Young Man brought it out when he saw we were finishing up everything else. The pudding (yellow part) was wonderfully flavored, the beans were not mushy and had good flavor, the green agar strips were..chewy…and the coconut milk was *so* nice. It was a perfect ending.

Oh- the tea. It is $1.50 per pot. It is Jasmine. It is loose tea with a tea ball inside the pot. It is great.

..and, the weird thing. The ‘muzak’ was in Asian style- those echoing stringed instruments. But there were only 3 songs that kept repeating and one of them was *definitely* "Numb" by Linkin Park. Every subtle note of it. I kind of found that strange….just an observation.

Pho Saigon Star 10450 Friars Road , Suite E San Diego 92120 (619)640-2985 Open 7 days 9 a.m.- 9 pm. website

“Dude, Like Where’s All the Asian Food….”

May 15, 2007 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum, Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants, yoso-silly

So sayeth an email I received yesterday. You gotta love those emails…… Funny thing is, the writer of the email is correct; just by coincidence it does seem that Cathy and I have done a little role-reversal! I've been doing burgers and tacos, and Cathy has been doing Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino food! How odd……

I'd just like to say, that the Missus and I are still eating up a storm, and I've got the photographic evidence to prove it. These are all revisits, so I won't bore you…I'll keep the writing to a minimum. So let's get started, shall we.

Dim Sum at China Max:

I've done posts on the Dim Sum at China Max before, just like to say, that on this visit the Dim Sum was not quite as good. As noted before, Dim Sum here is served "menu style".

The filling for the Sharkfin Dumplings was on the tough side, and the sides of the wrappers were soft and mushy, probably due to improper steaming.

The Pan Fried Shrimp and Chive Dumplings were probably the best items we had.

The contrast between the crunchy fried portion and the chewy pull of the remainder of the wrapper was excellent.

The filling of Shrimp Dumplings were fine, but the wrapper was tough and dry.

The Dried Shrimp Cheong Fun tasted a bit "off", and overly fishy, like the dried shrimp wasn't prepared properly.

We ended with simple Soy Sauce Noodles, one of my childhood favorites.

No complaints about this…so simple, but so good…..

My previous posts on China Max can be found here, here, and here. I'm pretty sure that this is just a little blip on the radar screen.

I'd also like to dedicate this post to Captain Jack, for only reasons he knows…..

China Max
4698 Convoy Street
San Diego, CA 92111

Palabok from Tita's Kitchenette:

This Missus had a craving for some Pancit Palabok, those wonderful seafood flavored noodles. Tita's Kitchenette makes Her favorite version, so I picked some up on a recent morning.

I'm not quite sure what happened, but these tasted really "flat", lacking any flavor. I dunno, any ideas?

Tita's Kitchenette
2720 East Plaza Boulevard
National City, CA 91950

Pho Dac Biet and Hu Tieu from Lucky Pho:

Every once in a while I need to recheck and verify…so when we were in the Mira Mesa area recently, I decided to grab a bowl of Pho from Lucky Pho. And I was again reminded of why I really enjoy the Pho here.

It's mostly about the broth, which is to my taste with hints of different herbs and seasonings. The Missus, not a big fan of Pho even had a taste, and said it was pretty good.

She ordered the Seafood Hu Tieu(Rice Noodles)

Nothing to write home about, really……..

My previous post on Lucky Pho can be found here. Along with a Pho retrospective.

Lucky Pho' in Lucky Seafood Supermarket
9326 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

A Quick Meal at Luong Hai Ky:

**** This location of LHK has closed

On this visit, I had the Missus in tow. I wanted Her to try the Won Ton and Dumpling Soup.

She enjoyed the broth, and agreed with me, that there was a hint of seafood flavor in it, though it's always been denied when I ask.

I tried out the Beef Sate Noodle Soup, and really didn't think much of it.

Nice bit of spice, but very weak in flavor overall. I rather have the version at Tan Ky Mi Gia. Still, as with most of these Vietnamese-Chinese Noodle Soup restaurants, the prices are very reasonable.

Here's my previous post on Luong Hai Ky.

Luong Hai Ky Restaurant
4633 Convoy St Ste 107
San Diego, CA 92111

You Gotta Love Filipino Parties!

A few months back we attended a party at a friend's house. It was a combination Birthday(two of us) and House Warming, Karaoke party. You can imagine the fun.

Here are some photos I took.

We brought a combination tray from Da' Kitchen half Teriyaki Chicken, half Korean Chicken.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings are required at these types of parties. Though this one was not from Royal Mandarin, Golden Chopsticks, or Mandarin Canton. Of course any Salt and Pepper chicken wing aficionado could tell you this by just looking at those wings.

Where is it from….stay tuned!!!

Of course you need Lumpia:

The Missus's favorite, Filipino style Empanadas. She enjoys these the best. She ate at least 5 of them….

And you must have Pancit Bihon.

There was much more food, but about that time it was my turn to sing my really, really, bad version of Love Potion Number 9. And after that, I totally forgot to take any more photos…..but you get the picture, right?

Last, but not least:

Here's something that will warm the coldest pork lover's heart:

What is it? It's a dish called Golden City Roast Pork($10.95), and it's made with Pork Belly. How can you resist?

I think I already have too many posts on Golden City, so I'll stop here.

So to answer your question Eric; "Dude, all that Asian food is like in my stomach!" LOL!

One final item(I promise). We'll be off on vacation for a few days, trying to complete our aborted vacation, I hope we make it this time. I may pop in, for a bit, but otherwise mmm-yoso is in the fine hands of our favorite "Chee-Fee" eater, Cathy. See you in a week or so!

Mi Ngoc So 1

March 27, 2007 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

*** Update; Mi Ngoc So 1 is gone and has been replaced by Thai by Tara

While stopped at the traffic light at the intersection of Linda Vista Road and Ulric Street a few months back, I noticed that a new business had sprung up in the little strip mall on the corner. The place was called Mi Ngoc So 1, and replaced Linda Vista Food To Go as small Vietnamese take-out joint that made what I thought was so-so Banh Mi, but pretty good spring rolls. I made a mental note, and is the norm for me, just up and forgot about the place for a few months. Finally, with the onset of some pretty chilly weather, one of those poor little brain cells of mine managed to rub up against another…and I remembered Mi Ngoc So 1.

One of the first things you’ll notice when you enter this tiny restaurant is how small it is…which will lead you to wonder how the heck they managed to actually fit 6 tables into this small space.

The menu is typical of these Vietnamese-Chinese Noodle Shops, Egg and Rice Noodle soups, Fried Rice, and Fried Noodles. As is also typical of these type of shops, the prices are very reasonable. There are three middle aged women working at Mi Ngoc So, kind of makes me feel nurtured in a way….

On this day, I decided to try the Beef Sate Egg Noodle Soup($4.75):

I find Vietnamese Sate Noodle soup interesting, no two versions are the same, and some are vastly different. The usual ingredients that I notice in most of the "sates" are chilies and garlic, it is also usually a on the salty side. In fact, once when the Missus had a bad cold, with the terrible side effect of not being to taste much, I took Her to Tan Ky Mi Gia for the Beef Sate soup, which is a bit pungent, spicy, rich, and salty. This version was not quite as salty as I’m used to, and the spice was muted as well, though the garlic flavor came through. The egg noodles were the usual thin crunchy egg noodles, just how I like ’em. The few slices of beef were too thick, and had the metallic flavor of old beef, and was not very good. Still, not a bad bowl of noodle soup, and the hot tea was free, altogether after tax was just a shade over 5 bucks.

Today, was a heck of a windy, blustery, and cold San Diego day, and since I was in the area, I thought I’d drop by again and try out something else from the menu. This time I had the Won Ton and Dumpling Egg Noodle soup ($4.50):

Okay, just so you know, the Won Tons are the round dumplings…and the dumplings are the long "dumplings". As is pretty much the status quo for this type of won ton, the filling was a dense pork meatball, and the dumpling filling was an elongated dense meatball with a piece of shrimp attached. The Won Tons had a decent pork flavor, but the dumplings were kind of flavorless. All told 4 won tons, 4 dumplings, and other than 2 pieces of Char Siu and green onions there wasn’t much else, unlike the super loaded version at Minh Ky. The scalding hot broth was on the lighter side, with a decent but not overly salty flavor, kind of in between Minh Ky and Luong Hai Ky. The egg noodles had not been cooked long enough and were still super hard, I had to leave them in the broth for a few minutes before eating.

Still, with a pot of tea(free) lunch came out to under 5 bucks, and I was out of there in less than 30 minutes and on my way, my belly full of hot soup. On some days, that’s more than enough!

Mi Ngoc So 1
2405 Ulric Street
San Diego, CA 92111

Open – Tues-Sun 8am-8pm