What Cathy Eats! – Page 109

Tacos Mi Pueblo-That Mexican Place by the Home Depot in Santee

May 7, 2007 Cathy Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!

Sadly, Tacos Mi Pueblo has closed. It is a now a taco shop, without abodaba or al pastor…

mmm-yoso is the name of the blog. Today it's Cathy a-blogging, tomorrow it will most likely be Kirk a- blogging.

Hello again. Cathy here. Yes, blogging about another taco shop- one that has been in the Santee Town Center since it opened. One that makes Al Pastor and Adobada tacos as well as some large breakfast burritos and in house chile relleños an has a fresh salsa bar and daily specials.

It's in the parking lot that has the Home Depot and Hometown Buffet in the 'heart' of Santee (our City Hall is a bunch of permanent trailers and is located in the North East corner of the City, so I suppose it isn't right to call it 'downtown', this area of town is called "Town Center"). Tacos Mi Pueblo opened when the Home Depot opened, about 9 years ago now, and it is still in the same location. That is a good thing.

The menu is pretty simple and on the wall behind the cash register and above the stove. This paper menu doesn't show breakfast, but they have it.

So, the other day the "Get1Free" book arrived in the mail and there as a coupon for the rolled tacos, and I was hungry, so off went The Mister and I…we had to go to Home Depot also, but in my mind, having something to blog about was primary; the heck with playing with copper tubing and MAPP torches; we've waited this long…

A total of 10 shredded beef rolled tacos, topped with fresh guacamole, lettuce, cheese and salsa. $2.75 total. Thick corn tortilla rolled around shredded beef. Excellent flavors.

I also tried one of the specials on the wall- a chile relleño, cheese enchilada, rice and beans plate ($5.75). Excellent chile, made in store (not the pre-made ones you can get from Smart N Final) with a sauce unique from the cheese enchilada sauce. Everything was excellent, fresh and tasty.

However, the name of the place IS "Tacos Mi Pueblo"..so I had to go back , when hungry, to try the …um…oh, yeah, the tacos. I tried three. (It's kind of funny that I am writing this as if I had never been here before…). Each costs $2.25.

The Al Pastor, cooked on a spit, was very flavorful.

They overloaded all three tacos with guacamole and salsa, which I put onto the second tortilla given for each taco and sort of had my own 'nacho feast' later.

Oddly, the carne asada meat seemed to have

the least amount of flavor, but still was very good. Perhaps because it had been cut into small chunks and cooked a second time to be sure it was heated properly.

Again, extra guacamole and salsa. But it went to good use later.

The Adobada was excellent!

Tender, juicy with just enough heat in the marinade.

All in all, great food. They have a special of 4 mini tacos for the price of three (all have to be the same meat, though) for $3.75. Its good food, and close to Home Depot. Better than the Hot Dog cart in front of HD, definitely! They have a punch card and it gets validated every time you spend more than $10. Five punches and you get either a free bean and cheese burrito or 3 rolled tacos.

Tacos Mi Pueblo, 235-H Town Center Parkway, Santee 92071 (619)449-7019 Open 7 days 9 am-8 pm

Happy’s Sushi- Good Japanese food, loud music, pretty darn good rolls

May 3, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is blogging, Kirk is busy with some other project.

Hello again. I met Mr. C for lunch a couple of months ago, and He suggested we try Happy's Sushi. It's on Mira Mesa Boulevard in the mall with Silver Ark, Hollywood Video and Seafood City. It used to be a Pho place. The front looked like this-with the large yellow sign "Buy 2 get 1 free sushi roll every day from 11-2 and 5-6". So, we had to.

This is our selection of three rolls: The Happy Roll: fried shrimp, krab and cucumber inside, with spicy tuna and avocado on the outside ($8.95). Yes, I know, krab…but it tasted very good; the shrimp were sweet and fried so lightly.

We also got the soft shell crab roll ($8.50). Fried soft shell crab, krab, avocado, gobo, sprouts and cucumber. It was wonderful- those are the crab claws sticking out in the photo- they were nicely battered and fried, so tasty and crispy.

The third roll, at the top of the photo there was the Fantasy Roll ($9.50). The inside had spicy krab and cucumber and the outside had seared albacore, seaweed , ponzu and was garnished with sprouts. Here is an upside down photo so you can see a cross section of the other rolls.

I particularly liked the albacore. The cucumber was unusually fresh, crispy and tasty also. A nice, clean, complimentary taste.

The rolls were very good and fresh and quite large. It was a very filling meal. Thanks for a nice lunch, Mr. C!

So, The Mister and I decided to go back the other day( so I could finish this post). The sign from the front facade was missing, but there there was a notice at the front door, indicating that if you bought the buy two get one free roll, the free roll was the one of lesser or equal value. Apparently there were problems.

We decided to try stuff from the regular menu- The large Ahi Poki salad ($8.50), which is served on top of a seaweed salad.

The tuna was very fresh but not very spicy. I kind of wanted more spice. Slightly disappointed. There was quite a bit of tuna.

The seaweed salad was very nice and fresh, seemed to be made with 3 different types of seaweed. It was excellent.

I decided I wanted the vegetable tempura, and so had it as a plate, with salad and rice. I really liked the dressing on the salad, ginger and a little garlic and creamy. The rice is excellent. The vegetables were very nicely fried. The batter was light and airy and crispy. The slice of carrot was only slightly disappointing; the carrot was kind of soft, not crispy, although too many times I have had way too firm a tempura'd carrot. I guess I don't know what I like. There were two pieces of tempura'd asparagus which were unexpected and really nice. The onion slice was particularly nice. The dipping sauce seemed watered down.

The Mister decided to try the shrimp yakisoba ($8.75) and boy was it good!. The stir fried noodles were nicely al dente and flavorful, the veggies (onion, cabbage and carrot) were all nicely crisp-fresh and the shrimp (6) were large, grilled and sweet.

All in all, I liked Happy's. Many people seem to; the sushi bar was full both when I was there for lunch and for dinner on a Friday night.

Both times I seemed overwhelmed by the loud music. The radio station it is tuned to is most likely XM 21, 22, 25, 26, 29 or 30- newer, younger songs and the volume was way high both times. I saw a waitress sit down next to a young Caucasian couple so she could explain some menu items to them; they could not hear her otherwise.

Thanks, Mr. C for telling me and taking me to this restaurant!!! It made me happy!

Happy's Sushi 8973 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858) 536-3178

Mon-Thurs 11-9, Fri-sat 11-10, Sun 12-9 Closed every day from 3-5 website

Natural Style Chicken-Low fat, healthy and delicious chicken and Korean beef at fast food prices

May 1, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy has finally gotten around to pulling stuff out of her camera and putting it into the computer. Kirk is probably at home reading this.

Hi. If you go to the San Diego Sports Arena via I-8 all the way to the Sports Arena Boulevard exit, taking a left under the freeway and then before getting to that intersection where it is Sports Arena Boulevard to your left and Point Loma Boulevard to your right, you probably have seen this teensy sign on the building on the northern most end of that mall on the west side of the street . Most likely, you are stuck, waiting for that light, as I almost always am.

Well, The Mister and I have gone here for a number of years, because his office used to be in the Sports Arena area and he could walk here and we could meet for lunch. It is simple, healthy, plentiful food, cooked in a heart-healthy way with a sort of Japanese and Korean touch (and sauces). When you go in the front door, there is a menu and photographs, with the neon wording of "teriyaki chicken and beef". The photos under those neon letters show some Korean items; bulgogi and kalbi.

Of course, the pink menu that is photographed here (click onto the photo and it will enlarge) does not show bulgogi or kalbi on it, but both are served here, and are not much pricier than the chicken. (For those who don’t know, bulgogi is thinly sliced beef sirloin, marinated in a sauce made of soy, fruit puree (usually pear puree), sesame oil, garlic, onion, black pepper and wine vinegar then grilled. Kalbi, or Galbi is thinly sliced beef short ribs marinated in a slightly sweeter sauce using a rice wine vinegar and pear juice.)

The chicken is prepared on a rotisserie over a wood fire in the brick oven that is right inside the door when you walk in; you can see about 8 of them through the window in this photo.

Again, this place is not fancy; You order, pay and the nice lady from behind the counter will bring out the food to you on a plastic tray, with plastic plates and plastic cutlery.

Anyhow, the Mister and I got our "usual"- the teriyaki chicken plate ($4.49)

This is a *lot* of chicken, moist, already cut up, with no skin (hence the "healthy" description and AHA recommendation) and a sweet teriyaki sauce and served with good rice and an iceberg lettuce salad with a choice of standard dressings. If there is a glob of teriyaki I drop it onto the rice so there isn’t so much on the chicken, but it isn’t a bad teriyaki sauce, just a little sweet for my taste.

We also usually get the beef bulgogi ($5.39)- the plentiful amount of meat was grilled with some cabbage, onions and carrots.

It tasted wonderful, not sweet; more garlic-y was a lot of food and did not cost much at all.

The Mister (who despises onions)wanted onion rings, and since they were only $1.45, he got them, but we should not have…

They were the standard minced onion centers from a bag in the freezer ones…but, they were fried, and I mixed some Sriracha with soy sauce and that made them edible.

If you are in the area, stop in. Its been there forever. There is a reason. They seem to do a lot of phone in/pick up business.

While we were there on a Saturday some SDPD officers on a lunch break came in to eat. This meets my test of being good food.

Natural Style Chicken 3944 W. Point Loma Boulevard San Diego 92106

(Corner of Sports Arena Boulevard and West Point Loma Boulevard, in the Longs and Souplantation parking lot, all the way east and north in that parking lot)

Open 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. seven days (619)223-9887.

Do-Over: Rosa’s Pizza

April 28, 2007 Cathy Pizza, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Kirk is somewhere around town and Cathy is doing her first re-blog of a place she didn't like the first time around.

Hi. On January 23 of this year, I blogged about Rosa's Pizza. I did not like it. At all.

First of all, Rosa's is a Pizzeria. It's ON Convoy Street,( across from Home Depot Expo), the Mecca of All Asian foods…what is an Italian based food source even *doing* down there?

I got a few comments telling me how wrong I was. In particular, Dave wrote to tell me how the pizza he had in front of him *did* have spices in the sauce, he was crunching on garlic bits and that it wasn't as bad as I spoke of it being. I remember the sauce that was on the pizza I ate tasted just like canned tomatoes, the crust was nice and crispy but flavorless and I did like the wings. Michelle had written in also, telling me how much she loved Rosa's and did not understand my comments.

In any other case (like, if I was not blogging as one of my various little hobbies in life), I would not even bother going back. But feel I must be fair, and see what it is that Michelle and Dave are talking about. Also, The Mister was reading their comments and told me I should. (I think he just was hungry for carbs).

So, off we went. A nice, chilly, after the rains of Friday -now a Saturday- jaunt to Convoy Street. The new construction of the old Olehausen Billiards place was going on: the carpenters couldn't work in the Friday rain, so they were going to get as much done on Saturday as possible.

This time we ordered a sausage pizza ($6.99)and also tried the 16 piece breadsticks ($3.99) with cheese ($1).

When we parked, a car pulled up behind me and an older gentleman ran into Rosa's to pick up two pizzas…we ordered, were told it would be about 15 minutes, so walked over to Nijiya to get some beverages. {I like getting the hot green tea in a can from the small refrigerator looking contraption on the counter in the bakery section.}

We walked back to Rosa's, to see three other people parking and running in to pick up pizzas. There was a brisk business and that was a good sign.

We sat down and the nice young man who took our order brought out the boxes of pizza, breadsticks and sauce. He asked us if we were eating outside and when we said we were, he went back in and brought us plastic cutlery and paper plates and napkins. That was very nice.

The pizza, looked, good, like the last one did. The crust was nice and layered and crispy, but, again, had no olive oil flavor. It was a nice and crisp bread. I was glad we had ordered sausage- look at the oil. I figured that'd give it some flavor. I was right. It's an excellent sausage. The cheese was plentiful, stringy and, again,had not much flavor. However the oil from the sausage helped tremendously- as did the sauce- it was a nice, spiced, herbed sauce. There was garlic in it and the melding of flavors helped the flavorless, but nicely crispy, crust.

Then there were the breadsticks, with cheese and sauce. Lots of cheese, and eating it this way is why I said the cheese had not much flavor, although it was plentiful and stringy. I think the lack of flavor may have to do with the fact that they leave the items in just long enough for the cheese to melt, but not to brown. If it were left in a little longer, the slightly burnt cheese would probably have more flavor. It isn't like it is fake cheese or anything like that.

Then I dipped one of the cheesy breadsticks into the sauce we were given- AHA! THIS was the sauce that was on the pizza we got last time. Pretty much a plain marinara. Tomato sauce, limited herbs. Plain. Needed salt. Or something.

So that was it. Last time we had gotten a switched sauce. That, in combination with no oily meat topping, the plain, non-olive oiled bread- which, again-is a great crust but flavorless. If I ate it plain, as a bread, it would need a salty butter on it…the consistency is wonderful but it is just missing something.

I grew up in Detroit, the Homeland of "pizza" (Dominoes and Little Cesar's started there). I have been to Italy and know what 'real' pizza is and I know what I like. Rosa's is not as bad as I originally blogged about, but it isn't earth shattering pizza either. It doesn't send me. I will go back again, but maybe not for pizza, I'd like to try an eggplant Parmesan sandwich. The bread will be great.

Rosa's Pizza 3860 Convoy Street, San Diego. Between the mall that has Nijiya/Curry House/Sunrise Buffet and the mall that has Wings and Things/Original Pancake House/Izakaya Sakura

Leocynn’s Lumpia- another hole in the wall

April 26, 2007 Cathy Filipino Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is never on vacation. Someone is always blogging, because one of us has most likely had something to eat. This time, its Cathy. Kirk is too busy with something else today.

Hi again. I was driving about aimlessly one day, sort of near the Spring Valley Swap Meet, just off of the 54, on the edge of San Diego and Spring Valley and saw Leocynn’s, where I remembered having a nice meal quite a long time ago. It’s still there, and the sign on the front is thanking people for patronizing for the last four years. Well, it’s lasted this long, so still must be good.

There is a steam tray and two tables inside, a menu on the wall and some handwritten ‘specials’, all of which consist of the items in the steam tray and all of which cost$5.75. The generic (ground pork/ground beef/veggie) lumpia can be purchased individually from the steam tray for 54¢ each, or certain ones can be made special for $1 each, or you can order in bulk. All are made on site. Nothing frozen here.

I opted for 2 of the freshly made ground meat/veggie ones and the pork adobo/rice/pancit meal. The total cost was $6.83.

Excellent adobo- a nice twang of vinegar. The pancit wasn’t watery and really fresh tasting, the veggies were crispy and there were plenty of pork pieces interspersed and the rice was absolutely perfect and plentiful! When I ordered, the nice lady went in back and told me I would have to wait for the rice. (Less than 3 minutes).

A cross section of the other lumpia.

You can see there is plenty of meat and a small amount of carrot. The crust was definitely fresh and crispy. It came with a home made sauce, more sour than sweet, which complimented the meat well. I would rather have sour than sweet any day. Leocynn’s has withstood the test of time and is great.

Leocynn’s Lumpia 8360 Worthington (at Paradise Valley Road- Take the Jamacha Exit from 54) San Diego 92114 (619) 267-8210.

M-F 11:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m./ Sat 11:00 am-7:00 p.m./ Sunday 11:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Arely French Bakery Cafe- Excellent food!

April 23, 2007 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, European Restaurants, Sandwiches, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is just letting you see some of her meals, versus Kirk showing you what He ate.

Hi again. The Mister and I were on a quest for some weird items the other day (among them, helium quality balloons and an Old Maid card game), and ended up at the 99 Cent Only store in Clairemont Mesa mall. When we were leaving, of course I was hungry and I looked over at Woody’s Hot Dogs, where I have enjoyed a few good meals. (I still can’t figure out how to put up a link to the post that Kirk did on Woody’s. Look it up under the "hot dogs" section of the blog on the left column here; and, really, we have heard all the Woody jokes already). I noticed on the corner right on the other side of the parking lot, the old Liquor store was gone and a pick Up Stix was in its place. Then I looked for the Viking Bakery and it, too, was gone and in its place was this signage.

Now for some reason, I have been seeing and going to a number of French Bistro places around the county lately and had intended to go back and blog them, but hadn’t had the time Fortunately, I had my camera with me, so here it goes.

This one, Arely, is the smallest of all I have gone to, but also the least expensive. There isn’t much atmosphere,but the food was *excellent*, and I mainly talk about the food in this blogging forum, so that is what I will concentrate on.

There are 3 tables inside, two tables out in front and the menu is on the wall (in all the other French Bistros I have gone to, there is a menu you can sit down and read, then you go up and order and sit back down again). This way, at Arely, is fine though.

We decided to try some "basics" to see how well it was done.

The Parisien sandwich-ham with Brie, lettuce and tomato on a baguette ($4.50). The bread is fresh made in the store. The ham was black forest, and excellent, and, I dare say, too much ham was in the sandwich…the Brie was not warm, but cut into chunks with the rind and I could taste it, and it was good. I would have been happy with just the Brie and bread, actually…and the lettuce was crispy and tomato slice had flavor (unusual these days).

We got a wedge of the spinach and cheese quiche- only $2.95. A quarter of the made in store quiche, filled with fresh spinach, a nutty flavored swiss cheese, creamy eggy custard, nutmeg and a delightful, light crust. They offer 3 flavors a day the spinach and cheese, ham and cheese and vegetable) and you can buy a whole quiche for $12…of course, I would just buy 4 individual slices…(this is when Basic Math comes into play in real life).

We also wanted to try the French Onion soup ($3.50), since it is a French Cafe… DO NOT be put off by the styrofoam cup. The ambiance is the *only* thing lacking here. You are not paying for it, you are paying for good food, and that is what you get.

The soup was superb; filled with a fresh herb-y, beefy broth topped with slice of fresh bread and more of that wonderful swiss cheese (it tasted close to Jarlsberg, so nutty in flavor).

The bakery items are made in store and are beautiful. I saw one person eating an omelet and it was quite large. I will go back for breakfast.

This place has excellent food. If you are going to the movie theater just on the other side of the mall, this is a place to go to either before or after. They have just extended their hours (used to be open only until 3 p.m.). Give it a try, you will not be disappointed.

Arley French Bakery Cafe 4961-a Clairemont Mesa ( in the Clairemont Mall at Clairemont and Clairemont Mesa; Two places down from Woody’s Hot Dogs) Open 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Mon-Sat, 7:30 – 6:00 p.m. Sunday

Breakfast and furniture shopping under one roof- Ikea!

April 22, 2007 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Chains, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is back with documentation of meals she ate and Kirk is taking a breather.

Hi. I seem to have been Missing In Action for a good part of this year, but now am back to blogging.

So, one morning I was in desperate need of ice cube trays, for a small project I was doing, and recalled that Ikea had a nice selection of interestingly shaped ones. Yeah, that’s why we went to Ikea, hahaha!

For those of you who are not familiar with Ikea, it’s a Swedish based company that makes knock down furniture and has a cafeteria that serves Swedish/Scandanavian style food in the middle of every store.

While walking from the parking lot to the main entrance, this sandwich board sign was…yelling out to me…

Well, it includes coffee; that makes it worth it right there. Lets go try it out.

This Ikea store, in San Diego is a Franchised, not company owned, store, so some of the items on sale are different than the corporate sales and the Cafeteria can have its own way of doing things, but,I have been to both types of stores, and am on the email lists for both the local and the corporate stores, and pretty much the selection is similar, and the next closest store to us is in Carson, which is like, a 2 hour drive…which isn’t good if you have miscalculated and have to drive home with an arm holding something on the roof of your car (oh, I could do an entire week of posts of photos showing people who miscalculated the size of their door or trunk opening versus what they were buying both at Ikea and Costco, especially around Christmas…so many cardboard boxes opened and strewn in the parking lot…).

So, anyhow, breakfast. I got the ‘standard’ $2.99 deal:

Scrambled eggs, 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 pancakes, lingonberry sauce and coffee.

The bacon is very thin, but has much smoky flavor. The sausages have a nice flavor and light amount of pepper in them. The pancakes are the traditional Scandinavian ones and are thin, crepe-like and the lingonberry sauce is a nice compliment. This is well worth the $2.99 price tag.

The Mister asked what other options there were, and instead of the pancakes, you can get French Toast sticks or hash browned potatoes. He got both. The potatoes cost an extra $1 and were made of the previous day’s red skinned potatoes from dinner, were so nice, fresh and crispy and wonderful!

The "French Toast" was fried and I really liked those sticks. Not like any kind of French Toast I have had, but oh so good.

We did go back and got a slice of the Apple Cake ($1.99) to go with our all-you-can-drink coffee that you self serve in those tiny cups. I liked the coffee in particular, because you can also get all you can add real half and half for it.

The apple cake is pretty much all apples with some cinnamon (non-sticky, just the spice, no added sugar) joining the apples together in a graham cracker crust and topped with a vanilla cream sauce. I like the non-sugary pastry choices here.

Ikea San Diego 2149 Fenton Parkway, San Diego 92108 ( in the mall with Costco and Lowe’s, just off of Friars Road, about 1/2 mile west of Qualcomm Stadium) open for breakfast 8:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. 7 days

What Cathy Eats at home.

April 8, 2007 Cathy What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy apparently has nothing to do but take photos of food and post them for your perusal.

Hi. I take photos of everything I eat. Here is a box of citrus I got from a Dear Friend this year. All grown in her yard. Oranges, tangelos, blood oranges, lemons, mandarin oranges. Thanks, Mrs. B.!

Then, I cook at home. In college I had a roommate from Jakarta and, of course, we did not eat cow. But I learned to crave, and still do, chicken livers sauteed in butter and broccoli, with sesame seeds.

One weekend a few weeks ago, we had hamburger, but only hot dog buns, so I improvised.

Ah, then there are simple things- sandwiches. Sometimes, I just *have* to have Braunschweiger on white bread with mustard and raw onions.

Or, some rare roasted beef with slices of homegrown tomatoes on fresh rye (from Panera) with a mix of horseradish and Kewpie .

Always, with a good sandwich, I have to have a good cup of coffee, whether its made with a French Press or just a couple of espresso shots with milk foam.

OK, the photo was taken at Starbucks, but I make fancy art on the top of my coffee foam at home.

Well, I try to make each meal somewhat special, anyhow…

Then, the other day, The Mister made a pork loin roast, rolled with garlic and prunes. Homecooking_001 ..or plums, as they are now called, or sometimes he uses

dried cherries, raisins or whatever dried fruit we have at home at the time.

BUT, at this time of year, my most favorite snack is,

Oh, yes, Peeps!

Of course, you must properly eat the little fine sugar coated marshmallow treats. First, of course by delicately separating and individualizing each Peep, who was conjoined with his/her siblings in the package, and then the next step is, of course, eating the eyes.

Heh heh heh..

Next, you impale a single, eyeless Peep onto a bamboo skewer.

Hold over an open flame, roast the Peep and then it is prepared, ready for eating.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. Remember, Peeps are on sale now!

Anthony’s Fish Grotto-La Mesa; Dinner with my Brother

April 4, 2007 Cathy Seafood, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy has something to talk about today, Kirk doesn’t.

Hi. Not long ago, my brother had to fly out to Pomona on a business trip for his Company, which located near Detroit (yes, the work he does is related to the Automotive Industry). He left Detroit when it was 0° out (yes, ZERO degrees…if you don’t know the real definition of "bitter cold", you are very lucky). He decided to fly into San Diego and rent a car to drive to Pomona. I picked him up at the airport, we went to the In-N-Out on Sports Arena Boulevard and then he got his rental car and went to work in Pomona. A few days later, he drove back down and stayed one extra day before flying out, which he, understandably, did not want to do. Our Mom knew he would be out here and gave him some money so we could go out to dinner….Let’s just say that Mom gave him enough money so that my first remark was "well. we can all get a beverage and not have to get water to drink with our meal"…and so, off to Anthony’s Fish Grotto in La Mesa we went. Anthony’s has been around since 1946 and is family owned, locally operated and has the freshest tasting fish, cooked in such a way that you taste the fish and not all the sauces or batters. All of those compliment the seafood flavor.

The Mister and My Brother each got a beer and I got iced tea (I was driving you know) and then…*two* appetizers: The infamous fried calamari ($8.50)…light, delicate, crispy, flavorful, served with a fresh, tomato based marinara sauce, still warm from being fresh cooked.

We also got the Smoked spread and seafood platter ($9.50) which easily, *easily* could have been a full meal (for me at least). Smoked salmon, halibut and tuna, fresh seafood spreads, home made tartar sauce, fresh baked and sliced white bread…the smoked fish was excellent.

For his main course, The Mister could not decide and got Mama’s Platter – a little bit of everything ($18.50) hand battered fish, calamari, shrimp, oysters, scallops, clam strips and lobsterettes. he chose sides of Mama’s famous cole slaw and a baked potato.

The fried fish here is so darn wonderful..a light batter, so crispy and with just enough flavor to compliment the seafood. You can taste the sweetness of the shrimp and scallops and the freshness of the fish.

My Brother, apparently on some sort of health kick, chose the char grilled halibut with an orange basil sauce (it was one of the seasonal catches of the day) for $15.60 and got baked potato and salad (with the house dressing) as his sides. This tasted wonderful. Again, you could taste the fish, it was not overpowered by the sauce.

Since, I know Mom is going to read this, I also was trying to eat a tad more healthily and got the Crab and Shrimp Louie Salad ($14.50).

The crab meat and the shrimp were so fresh, sweet and flavorful- so much better than anywhere, really. The Louie dressing is also made fresh in house and is excellent, just a touch of twangy heat. It all goes so well together.

A very nice, fancy, tasty dinner for us. Thanks, Mom!

Anthony’s Fish Grotto North of I-8 at Severin (next to the Holiday Inn Express) (619)463-0368

Pinnacle Peak-Meat!

April 2, 2007 Cathy Steakhouse, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Kirk apparently did not eat today and Cathy did.

Hi again. I’m out in East County. Hungry. No frills. Craving for some steak. The Mister wants ribs. Sure, we have a grill. Sure, we can cook. Heck, Pinnacle Peak is right down the road. That big ole’ cow on the roof. The dark wood siding…the huge parking lot in front.

The simple menu, printed on the

take home Bone Bag.

Although I fully appreciate the Trail Boss (22.99), a 30 ounce Porterhouse, mainly because I cannot decide between the flavor of the New York Strip combined with the tenderness of the Filet which are both present on either side of the bone of the Porterhouse…30 ounces is a *lot* of meat, no matter what the size of the bone ,so I usually say ‘Why play games?’ and get the Cowboy($18.99), a 22 ounce T-Bone (as opposed to the sissy-ish Cowgirl($14.99), a 15 ounce T-Bone. But, there is something new on the menu- the Kansas City(16.99), a 16 ounce bone-in New York Steak…labeled as New York Steak, not T-Bone…must try.

The sides that come with everything are a salad, Buttons (baked beans) and Bows (sliced of white bread and butter). Baked potato , corn on the cob, sauteed mushrooms or onions are an additional $1.99 each. Nope, not today.

NOTHING IS FANCY HERE. The plates are plastic, as are the tablecloths…the utensils, except for the steak knives, are not very high quality. If you come in wearing a necktie, it *will* be ceremoniously cut off, to the ringing of a cowbell, and then stapled to the wall or ceiling, as part of the decor.

I had my steak cooked medium rare on the open grill- it was perfect. They put a nice dry rub/seasoning on it and its just right (did not need the A-1 sauce). It is mesquite wood that is used.

The Mister ordered the full Rack-O-Ribs ($17.99). It is brought out on two plates.

…and so we ate our food.

and that ‘bone in’ part of the description of my steak was true…but, not really anything to write home about.

The Mister had far more bones left over than I did!

Website here Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse 7927 Mission Gorge Road Santee 92071 (619) 448-8882

Mon-Thurs 5-9 p.m., Fri-Sat 5-10 p.m., Sun 4-9 p.m.