What Cathy Eats! – Page 110

VGood, Sort of a Ch-Ch-Chain, Pretty good, too!

April 1, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!

The Santee location of VGood has closed.

mmm-yoso is not on vacation, but Cathy is blogging now, while Kirk rests for a few days.

Hi. It's been a while. People who know what my line of work is know what has been going on with that as well as some other crises in life. The rest of you may not have even noticed I hadn't blogged. It isn't like I haven't been eating, though.

So, you all know I am the Token White Girl who lives in East County. Santee, to be exact. We are not out of the loop out here, let me tell you. The Green Trolley Line does end here, though..or maybe, it *starts* here.

There it is, right next to one of three Starbucks we have out here (OK, two are stand alone stores and there is one inside the Vons…). Across from the Starbucks is VGood, Japanese Grill and Sushi.

Kind of innocuous, but an interesting menu, and a few Law Enforcement types seem to frequent this place. (The Sheriff Substation is less than a 1/2 mile away, as is Los Colinas, the Women's Detention facility made famous on a Episode of The Real World-San Diego) (sorry, digressing…).

Anyhow, last Sunday and this Sunday, The Mister and I were once again hungry, but not wanting to cook at home, nor drive very far for food. So this is where we decided to eat.

A kind of small menu, mostly with rolls, which most people were buying, but the idea of cream cheese with rice is not appealing to me, and the menu spells crab with a 'k' instead of a 'c', so I just wasn't in the mood to waste some calories on that food. There is no sushi bar, but sushi and rolls on the menu… you just walk up and order, pay, get your own beverage and utensils and wait for your number to be called.

The interior is clean, painted a happy Home Depot Orange, along with one yellow accent wall (learned that terminology on HGTV..whoo hoo) and has 5 low tables and 6 bar height tables, plus you can walk out into the courtyard where there are tables, and the water display and eat outdoors if you want to.

Editor's note: I have been informed that the color is officially "CalTrans orange" and *not* "Home Depot orange". Sorry for any confusion.

So, we ordered. We tried the two item VGood Value Combo Plate with teriyaki beef and katsu chicken ($6.99- usually $5.99, but $1 more for the beef) which comes with a choice of miso soup or salad of the day.

The salad this Sunday (and last Sunday for that matter) was made with iceberg, jicama, chopped cucumber, chopped red pepper, parsley, mango and a nice, spicy dressing. The heat of the dressing hit when we got to the bottom. It was quite refreshing. The katsu was nice and light-crispy, came with a sweet dipping sauce that tasted different than the teriyaki sauce on the very tender, medium rare cooked beef. A good portion of rice was served with the plate. There were two layers of both the beef and the chicken. Last week we got the fried fish and teriyaki chicken and the fish was exceptionally nicely fried. However, thinking the same thing would happen this week, I ordered the fried squid.($3.99)

You can see by looking at it that it was overcooked. However, the breading was still light and though slightly crispier than I think it should have been, had some nice spices in it. It was OK but all of the other fried items I have had here have been lighter fried.

I wanted to try some soup today and the Fried Dumpling Udon Noodle Soup ($4.99) sounded good. I had wanted to try the fried dumplings anyhow and they served them on the side with the soup-perfect!

The soup broth was oily, rich tasting in one way and too salty in another way. The noodles were good and chewy. There could have been some more vegetables, but the cabbage and carrots were good. I did not finish the broth, and usually I do. The dumplings had a nice, thin skin and were fried correctly. Enough filling, but not over-filled. Very good.

However, my most favorite stumbled-upon food here is the innocuously listed on the back page under "Side Orders":'Lettuce Wrap(4 pieces) $3.99 '

That is four large pieces of iceberg lettuce rolled up in plastic wrap, a good 1/3 pound (probably more) of cooked filling and a lot of nice, light crunchy rice noodles. It is served with a spicy Teriyaki sauce on the side.

The filling is a combination of chopped chicken, sausage, leeks and mushrooms, topped with some green onions.

Both times we ordered this, the meat lasted more than the lettuce did. Here is a service I made for myself with 1/4 piece of lettuce. The flavors are excellent.

I call this 'sort of a a chain' because there are two locations. It is locally owned and They don't even have a website.

VGood Japanese Grill and Sushi

9862D Mission Gorge Road Santee 92071 (Across from the Starbucks at the Trolley Stop) (619) 258-8288

16625 Dove Canyon Road Suite 108 San Diego 92127 (858)385-1628

Both Locations Open 7 days 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Observing Lent-Part 2, A plethora of fast food seafood

March 15, 2007 Cathy Chains, Sandwiches, Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is continuing blogging and Kirk is merely eating out somewhere and not telling you about it.

Hi once more. This is part of my little blogging about Lent, the Christian sacrifice of the 40 days before Easter, usually having to do with food (although, again, some Christians sacrifice with stuff I think might be even more difficult for some of us, like giving up television for those 40 days, or even the Internet…) one common sacrifice is ‘not eating meat’ for those 40 days, or at least ‘not eating meat on Friday…and now there is a new definition as to "meat". I was raised Catholic and, apparently fish, shrimp and various sea foods do not ‘count’ as meat. You may have noticed this lately…places that normally do not sell fish have some kind of fish sandwich on their menu.

Jack in the Box comes to mind. $1.29 for the fish sandwich.

Quite nice. Two pieces of fish, lightly battered and served with lettuce and tartar sauce on a sesame seed bun.

Del Taco has a fish taco for $1.39.

It is served with two corn tortillas and is one large piece of fried with cornmeal batter fish, on top of a bed of shredded cabbage, a white sauce and some salsa, as well as a wedge of lime to squeeze over it all.

Del Taco also has a crispy shrimp taco for $1.79.

This is served on a single flour tortilla. the shrimp are tasty and juicy and with a nice crust. Its also served with the cabbage/white sauce/salsa concoction, as well as the wedge of lime. I liked it a lot.

As an aside, one of my favorite sandwiches is the tuna salad from K Sandwiches. $3.49. Its made fresh daily and served on a fresh baked croissant.

But, overall, my most favorite, and decadent indulgence is the infamous Filet-o-Fish from McDonald’s -and it is only $1.29 on Friday at most participating McDonald’s. (It used to be 99¢, but with the advent of the raised minimum wage, it all trickles down to us, you know). I used to know the calorie count, but I try to ignore it, and merely enjoy…It’s on the airy white bread bun, served with a lot of tartar sauce and a slice of …mmmmm…American processed cheese food. Its the only time I eat that orange goopy stuff , and I love it.

The most expensive, but by far a meal in itself (you don’t need to buy more than one) is the Fish Sandwich from Carl’s, Jr. ($3.19)

Two large pieces of beer battered fish on a large (made for the $6 burger) sesame seed bun, with lettuce and tomato and tartar sauce. It does taste great and you don’t need to buy two.

And, last, for now, but not least, is the infamous 99¢ Fish Stacker from KFC.

KFC uses their own (patented by them) style of cooking the chicken and also this fish. Its very close to Broaster™ method in that its pressure fried. The fish does not taste like the chicken, it is cooked in its own area of the store. Its a good size piece of fish and served on a sesame seeded roll. It was very good. If you are familiar with the KFC Snackers size, it can be or might not be a meal, depending on your eating habits.

So that’s it for now. I did not bother to show you Rubio’s 99¢ (on Tuesdays only) fish taco, nor their shrimp taco. Its always good there.

Hope everyone is having a good Lent season. As we talked about in the comments section of "Observing Lent, Part One", sometimes the ‘sacrifice’ of having to eat fish on Friday is actually a treat for a lot of us, so it kind of isn’t a sacrifice. Easter is just around the corner, though.

Observing Lent, Part One-Paczki Day

February 28, 2007 Cathy Desserts, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is blogging about some silly stuff. Kirk is not .

Hello Again. This post is late, as my Friends in Detroit are keenly aware. I was kind of busy and didn’t get a chance to even start the post until it was too late.

This isn’t a religious post, per se. It is an introduction to an explanation of why you are seeing $1 Filet o’ Fish sandwichs at McDonald’s, $1 fish tacos at Rubio’s, a fish sandwich at Arby’s, as well as at KFC and full page ads for seafood at Ralphs. I have had a few friends remark to me about McDonald’s having its Fillet-o Fish Fridays and how that ‘seems to happen every so often’.

Lent is a Christian Observance. It starts on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter. That was on February 20 this year. As you know, if you have been reading the blog, I was born and raised in Detroit and was also raised Catholic. I am not a Practicing Catholic now, but I do observe some of our rituals for a "just in case" scenario. Christians perform some type of sacrifice for the 40 days of Lent. Usually the sacrifice involves giving up a favorite food, but I also have some friends who will give up watching television, or the Internet…something that involves a sacrifice. The idea is that Christ died for our sins and He sacrificed and we should too. Christians Believe that on Easter, Christ rose from the dead and basically the sacrificing stops then and we all go back to whatever we did without for the previous 40 days.

ANYHOW, you all know about Mardi Gras…debauchery and partying in the Big Easy and all of that. That’s a giant party ends on the day before Lent. Its a major deal party in New Orleans…so, similarly…if you skew the definition of ‘similar’… mostly in the South East/Detroit area of Michigan, there is Paczki Day (its pronounced poonch-key, sort of, there is a thingy under the letter "c"; oh, never mind). One Paczek is a jelly donut Lent , the plural is Paczki. Fried donuts filled with jelly or jam and either glazed or covered in powdered sugar. I buy jelly donuts at Mary’s Donuts, in Santee.

Detroiters, and others who are not as wild and crazy as revelers in New Orleans at Mardi Gras go all out and eat up as many Paczki as they can (whoo hoo!), because once Lent happens, there are no jelly donuts to be had in any bakeries, only lowly Hot Cross Buns.

Which are not bad, but are definitely not fried (they are baked), or filled with jelly (they do have some dried fruit or raisins in them) and are part of that "sacrificing" Christians (and Detroiters) do for the 40 days.

So, that’s it. You go crazy eating jelly donuts, or partying, and then Lent begins and you begin sacrificing with lowly baked instead of fried sweets.

As a side note, this year was the first year that all the Starbucks in the Greater Detroit area had Paczek available in their stores. Everyone really gets into Paczki just before Lent. The day when the most are sold is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, though. Dozens and dozens are bought and consumed at work, grocery stores give them out…its an interesting phenomenon.

Future Lent posts will explain, via short blogging, about ‘not eating meat’ as defined by Catholics (hint- fish/seafood does not count as ‘meat’).

Mary’s Donuts 9031 Mission Gorge Road Santee 92071 (SE corner of Mission Gorge and 125) Open 24/7

Another not great meal-Japanese in East County-Tokyo

February 26, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is blogging while Kirk is resting…or digesting…whatever.

Fortunately, Tokyo has closed.

Hi, I am back yet again, blogging about the good, the bad and the ugly. ..and yes, again, The Mister and I have had a lousy meal. But, lets be positive and start with the good. The hot tea is free. They have chopsticks on the table and don't ask you if you want a fork, even if you are Caucasian. Oh, and they have specials poster on the wall when you walk in, so you save $1 on some of the food.

There, that's over with. We used to come here a lot. Its in the same parking lot as the ATM of my Credit Union, and for being in San Diego's East County, well, its kind of 'exotic'. Its Japanese…sort of. Maybe we could call it 'working man's Japanese', if we were being polite.

I have apparently become a Japanese food snob…and I swear I used to really *like* this place.

Here are photos of the menu, if you think you might want to venture in .

We decided to try the Vegetable tempura appetizer ($3.95). Seemed like a good,safe choice, and not expensive. Wrong. Look. You can click and enlarge the photo. I just stopped using flash…I somehow knew this would be yet another not great meal. More of a pancake batter, not too light…but a good variety of vegetables: sweet potato, mushrooms, carrot, broccoli. Not great, not overly greasy…the batter was kind of heavy tasting/thick. It was cooked all the way through.

Then The Mister said we should try the Sushi Trio- a set of 18 rolls -9 for each of us ($7.95) three each of spicy tuna (no tuna flavor), cucumber (generic) and California rolls (made with the fake krab stuff). Pretty much a waste of calories. I am glad they gave us a big ole pile of freshly re-hydrated wasabi, anyhow…and, the rice was good.

We got one of each of the specials listed on the front board.
The Teriyaki chicken box with a piece of fried fish and the hibachi chicken bento box with egg roll. ($6.25 each, usually $7.25)…um…well, the chicken was…dark meat, boneless…that was good. The teriyaki was not sweet, not salty. It was…um… dark in color. The sides of rice, salad, pickled veggies were OK. The fried fish was mackerel, which I liked primarily because it was fried and crispy. The fish itself was ..um…not a great grade of mackerel and would not have been good as sushi in any way, shape or form. I ate the fried tail. I eat fried shrimp tails, too.

The hibachi grilled chicken was in a sort of maybe ginger garlic sauce…and, you know, just not good. The egg rolls however were more lumpia-ish and *quite* good, filled with chopped pork and crispy cabbage and veggies.

Oh, the food was not at all what I would call great…I do remember we got a curry here and liked it, last year or maybe the year before…and the soups and noodles used to be good. But basic chicken and rolls…they don't seem to be able to do very well. I don't know why they are still open. If you are in this area, just hop on the freeway and go up 125 and it'll turn into 52 to get to Convoy Street.

Tokyo Japanese 755 Arnele Avenue El Cajon 92021 M-F 11 a.m.-8p.m., Sat/Sun 4:30-8:00

Burgers, continued-Islands, a ch-ch-chain, and it was good!

February 23, 2007 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Burgers, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy decided to write something today, and Kirk didn’t want to. Stay, read, enjoy!

So, I am always carrying the camera around with me and pretty much eat something every day, and sometimes it tastes good (that last part was not sarcasm, based on my last few posts). The Mister and I sometimes go to Islands, usually with a gift certificate. So, here we are. Islands.

Burgers. Lots of choices. I got the Big Wave, the basic one ($6.39). 1/2 lb of beef, cooked medium rare (I asked; the menu says medium only..be polite and they may take the burger off the grill before it hits medium in heat). Comes with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and mustard… on a white or wheat bun. Juicy, flavorful, excellent. The bun was lightly toasted and fresh.

A side of fries? Sure.

Wow. Enough to be able to take home and fry for breakfast the next morning…fresh potatoes, medium cut, with skin, very fresh, crispy, nice. ($2.95)

The Mister got a Kaanapali Kobb salad ($9.39)(that whole New Years Resolution thing ).

Lots of lettuce, some cabbage, some chopped scallions, grilled chicken breast, chopped tomatoes, chopped bacon, chopped hard cooked egg, avocado, blue cheese chunks and tossed in a blue cheese dressing. Quite a lot also.

Good portion sizes. Fresh made for you.

As we were leaving, The Mister went to grab "Take Out and Fax menu" and there were a few interesting items on it…the primary one category that caught my eye was the "High Protein Platters"..this was not on the menu in our booth. 2 hamburger patties with American cheese and bacon, served with sliced avocado, tomatoes and wedge salad with blue cheese dressing… for $10.25; also 2 chicken breasts with melted swiss and sauteed mushrooms and the same salad with avocados and tomatoes and the same with a 1/2 rotisserie chicken…all are $10.25. Interesting. Must pay more attention.

Surprisingly good food here. I am now sort of happy to eat again, yet cautiously optimistic. Website. Islands, numerous locations in California, Arizona and one each in Colorado and Nevada.

Eat at Joe’s-if you dare!

February 19, 2007 Cathy Pizza, What Cathy Eats!

For very good reasons, Joe's has closed.

Hi. I seem to have just been having some awful days lately, along with some really bad meals. Here is a post about another one…

The Mister had a coupon thrust upon him at work for this place called Joe's Pizza. and the wording on the coupon is "Because life is too short to eat lousy pizza"…well that sounds like well, maybe they know they have some *really* good pizza…or they are arrogant.

Its the latter.
The coupon was for a meal of a large, one topping pizza, a rosemary chicken, a large salad and a 2 liter soda for $20. OK. Let's begin.

Well, you can't particularly mess up a salad. It was good, plentiful had chopped mushrooms in it, tomato and shredded mozzarella. It came with a good Thousand Island dressing.

The chicken. Small (that is a salad plate, not a dinner plate-see the box of salad next to the chicken?). COLD (as in, it was refrigerated cold). Tasty with rosemary, and with the salad made a nice SUMMERTIME meal. Too bad it was another night of quite cold temperatures, and was not hot with crispy skin I could munch on.

Then there was the pizza.

Looks OK, eh? Wrong. The one topping The Mister chose was sausage. It did not taste like sausage; it had no flavor, but it did have texture AND it was sliced sausage pieces, not crumbled like you usually get. The cheese was *sparse* and had no flavor. Oh and the crust…what can I say? Um…well, the texture was …chewy,cardboardy, thin, in a bad way, like the pre-made crusts you get from pizza in airports…AND it had no flavor…the sauce was without herbs and spices…not salty, not tomato-y…more empty calories…

This, combined with the COLD chicken (The Mister said he heard one worker tell another worker to make sure the chicken was hot when he was getting ready to take it for delivery) which was not supposed to be cold…oh this was so not worth it. You can try it, if you'd like, but I am pretty sure we won't go back.

Joe's Pizza 5583 Clairmont Mesa Blvd 92117 (858)268-0093
website

Ch Ch Chain/Franchise-Red Brick Pizza. Healthy and good.

February 15, 2007 Cathy Italian Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Red Brick Pizza has closed.

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is back to blogging about what she eats.

Hi. You do know, I am merely researching everything in sight, for your sake. Sometimes The Mister and I go to Starbucks and get some beverage and sit and read for a while. There is a Red Brick Pizza in the same mall as one of numerous Starbucks on Clairmont Mesa Boulevard. This one is near the Registrar of Voters Office (one block east of it). I will admit we have been curious. There were coupons online, so…that clinched it for us. (click here for lots of coupons)

So, the concept is the old brick oven to cook pizza dough…and the Red Brick people have superheated the oven ( I would bet with ceramics) so that it will cook the dough at 1000° in 3 minutes… hmmmm…fascinating. I love the concept of superconductivity. We decided to try a medium Chopped Italian salad ($6.49), which included artichoke hearts as well as salami, mozzarella, olives, tomatoes, pepperocinis, Parmesan and croutons. The lettuce was mostly Romaine and stayed crispy. There was a lot of cheese and meat on the salad. Easily it is for two people and could be a meal in itself. The dressing was a very good Italian.

The Mister decided to try a Fhazani™…a creation of the Red Brick Pizza people. Its a Fire roasted gourmet Italian sandwich basically the fire roasted pizza dough, cooked with toppings and then stuffed with fresh lettuce, tomatoes and served with salad dressings (Italian and a Ranch) on the side…so you can top or dip. ($6.50)
As you can see, its cut in half and seems quite large. The Mister got just the basic cheese Fhazani™, so we could see how it was.
From this view of the open dough, you can see it was stuffed quite well. It was very different, the hot and cold and fresh dough. It was quite good. Unique and tasty.

The best part about Red Brick Pizza is…the Italian ode to dessert- Gelato. They have a selection of about 50 gelato flavors and make 12 different ones fresh a day. This is a one serving cup ($2.60) but with two flavors in it- coconut and green apple.
Both flavors were *so wonderfully* concentrated and rich. I know I will stop in here in the summer just got a cup, if nothing else.

They sell "Party Paccos ™- party packs: A Sides Pacco™ is $9 and has 28 bite size appetizers (Breadsticks, mozzarella breadsticks, and Fire Roast Toast™); The Pizza Pacco™ is five nine inch pizzas with any one topping cut into 20 slices and costs $30; The Salad Pacco™ is a choice of any two chopped medium size salads for $12; The Fhazani Pacco™ is a choice of five Fhazani™'s cut into 20 pieces and the Gelato Pacco™- $12 for fresh packed gelato. All of these Paccos™ serve 6 to 8 people

The "Italian party!" which includes the Sides Pacco, the Salad Pacco, your choice of Fhazani™ or Pizza Pacco and the Gelato Pacco for $60 seems like a great bargain (especially with the gelato)

Red Brick Pizza,website, numerous locations.

Scootz Eatz-New-and good-BBQ/Broasted Chicken/Pizza-in Santee

February 6, 2007 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Unfortunately, Scootz has closed. It will be missed. The only place to get boasted chicken in Santee is Jimmy's.

Hi. mmm-yoso is not on vacation, its just Cathy writing about what she and The Mister ate the other day. Kirk just doesn't feel like writing…I'm sure he has eaten, though…

The Old Boll Weevil is gone from Santee, and I will miss it. They *would* cook the burgers medium rare and the prices were cheaper than at, what is apparently the only Boll Weevil left in the county… I immediately called The Mister when I saw the sign for the new place go up, and told him to check out the website. Scootz Eatz. Funny spelling. Sign says BBQ, Chicken, Salads, Pizza. It opened in December, we found a coupon on get one free dot com, so we went.

They are re-doing the facade of the whole mall, so there is not much lighting, just the plastic banner. Its right across the street from the Santee Post Office, if you don't know the area.

Ah, scooters. Suspended from the walls…the decor is kind of old fashioned Service Station, with metal moldings and stainless lamps and the concrete floor is a kind of swirly stained brown, like maybe oil was spilled on it. Clean. A lot cleaner than the old Boll Weevil.

So we walk in and there is a counter, where you order, pay, get a number and then your beverages, condiments and utensils. The food is brought to the table. While you are ordering, someone from the kitchen brings you a piece of freshly made bread, coated in a butter with chunks of garlic topping. Oh yes, good, not too yeasty, a nice crust. Turns out you get some with your meal. With refills, if you ask. (The people working there were way attentive, asking how the food was, being very helpful).

The coupon was for a free 1/4 chicken, your choice of white or dark meat (reg $7.25) with purchase of another meal…a BROASTED chicken. Oh, the best place we have had broasted chicken is at Jimmy's the next block over. You have to use a special broaster contraption to call it broasted chicken….oh yes. Crispy thin browned crust, juicy meat. (There is an addendum at the bottom of this post explaining what broasted means.)

It came with the aforementioned bread and a choice of one of two salads. This one is the "San Diego", which has a variety of lettuces, feta, grape tomatoes, cucumber, olives, onion slices, and a slice of green and red pepper in a "zesty"balsamic dressing. There is a *lot* of salad in that bowl. The flavors worked very well together.

For our other meal, we chose the 1/4 rack of ribs ($8.75) with the Caesar salad. To be honest, I did not expect much.

Wrong. 4 baby back ribs, meaty, a good smoky meat flavor, light BBQ sauce coating that was not overpowering. Excellent. We asked the Owner and he said he smokes it in the oven. He also asked us if it was too smoky or not, a nice touch. The Caesar salad was all romaine, fresco cheese and topped with tortilla strips and had a very nice creamy lime Caesar dressing. Again, a lot of salad in that bowl.

We were curious about the honey baked beans ($4.25) as a side dish and ordered it.

It was in a large bowl, same size as the salads came in, and so there was a lot, but the price was steep. We did fill out the comment card and that was our only complaint-the price was too high. The flavor was excellent, the beans not mushy, I could taste the honey.

Also on the menu, for only 95¢ were in store made potato chips. Oh, yes. I am from Detroit, where the largest amount of potato chips are consumed per capita. I would eat a bag of chips with chocolate milk for lunch on days when I did not bring a lunch to school. Still, to this day, both my brother and I give out small vendor size bags of chips to the Trick or Treaters on Halloween because we remember how good it was to not get all candy.

These chips- not hot, but oh yes, freshly made that day, crispy and not thin..nicely burned. Salted, but not too much. Excellent. So much that we took the extra home.

This was a nice surprise and right on Mission Gorge Road. They also smoke a tri-tip, which I will get next time…oh and they have pizza, burgers, wraps, gourmet sandwiches …that also next time, and the next time. There is a menu on the website and they are available for catering. It was surprisingly excellent!

Scootz Eatz 9535 Mission Gorge Road Santee 92071 (619) 562-4200 website

After I wrote/published this post I got a few questions about what "broasted" means. It is a combination of pressure and deep frying in a machine made by the Broaster Company of Beloit, Wisconsin. Both the equipment and ingredients are available only to the Food Service and Institutional Industry Customers, not the general public. The result of broasting is a rapidly cooked crispy skinned chicken with a moist interior and it is less greasy than traditional fried chicken.

Giovanni’s- Good Italian food

February 3, 2007 Cathy Italian Restaurants, Pizza, What Cathy Eats!

The part usually played by Kirk is once again being played by Cathy.

Hi. You have probably seen Giovanni’s, either on Clairmont Mesa or on Balboa and hopefully you have gone in. The Mister and I used to go to one or the other location on Football Saturdays to watch Our Team play college football, but alas, both places got to be too crowded with alumni, who all seem to have moved to Southern California after having spent one too many winter/snow seasons in the Great Lake State and so now out alumni now meet here on Saturdays between September and November and, ideally on January 1st.

So, anyhow… We used to meet here. This is the Giovanni’s on Clairmont Mesa, right next to the Registrar of Voters office. The menu is fairly extensive, with pizzas, sandwiches, salads, appetizers, pastas. They also serve breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday also, which was good when a football game started at noon on the east coast….although there were many times we had pizza or a sandwich for breakfast…along with whatever beer was on special…ah, when we were young, and didn’t sometimes have to work on a weekend…

So, on this day, The Mister and I wanted just a little bit to eat. We got the calamari appetizer ($5.75)

Light and crispy, lightly seasoned breading. The calamari rings were tender and not all rubbery. We also got the small antipasti salad ($6.75). That is a low bowl it’s served in, so there is a *lot* of lettuce, (romaine and iceberg) as well as olives, tomatoes, three meats and a really good provolone. Alas, they were out of anchovies that day, but, I lived. The dressing is a standard Italian and good.

We decided to share a cheese calzone. ..Its only $4.50…kind of looks small on the plate….but… it’s got a *very* thin, delicate crust…with good, sweet and olive oil flavors…and it’s FILLED with ricotta, provolone and Parmesan, as well as a small (just right) amount of the home made (i.e. chunky with tomatoes, onions, bay leaf and olive oil) marinara.

All in all, Giovanni’s has very good to excellent food, is large enough to accommodate large parties (and does, regularly…lots of after-soccer groups of teens and pre-teens meet here; there are video games in the back room) and is informal enough for a quick ‘date’ with someone for lunch…or breakfast on the weekend.

Giovanni’s 9353 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 (858) 279-6700 and 6133 Balboa Avenue (858) 278-9191

Island Town…inside First Korean Market

January 31, 2007 Cathy Korean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy feels like blogging and Kirk doesn't. Thanks for reading my meal adventures.

Hi. Cold again…. If you lived in San Diego forever ago, you remember Woo Chee Chong. It was the first Asian market I ever went to. There were three locations and all of them had a small deli/hot food area where you could buy Peking Duck on Fridays and hot food to go, usually sold by the pound all week long. I remember we would buy the 5 spice BBQ pork for $3.99 a pound…

So, anyhow, they all closed in 1993 and the one on Convoy Street remained a market. Its in the same parking lot as Dumpling Inn and technically the same one as Jasmine Seafood. First Korean Market. I have no idea what the "Orient Bowl" sign is about. It is not as large as Zion, but it has a good variety of foods, fresh meats, fish and vegetables.

On the far Northernmost wall there is a large refrigerator section filled only with Kim Chee.

…and the area where the deli counter used to be is just inside to the right of the front door. There is a menu above it, with photos and also this take home one The Mister brought home for me to look at.

So, you know, I had to go.

There are six (6) CHAIRS total in front of two tabletops configured at a 90° angle from each other at that front door area.

The people working there are all family. They take great pride in making each meal, with mom bringing it around the corner and placing it in front of you, even though they could hand it to you over the counter.

So, I me The Mister here after work one evening and I had to try # 19, the shrimp tempura udon ($6.99)

Three tempura'd shrimp, nice and crispy, topped with the dried seaweed powder. A nice, rich broth and very chewy udon that remained chewy through the whole bowl. The Mister tried the #4, Galbi combo ($8.99).

A nice portion of galbi marinated beef ribs, rice, miso, 4 California rolls and 3 pieces of sashimi. The beef was excellent, and so was the rice. The miso was OK, not too watery and the California roll was with real (not fake) crab. The tuna sashimi was sliced thin and good and the shrimp was not bad. There was a lot of food. We also got hot tea from the hot pot next to the cash register.

On another day, I asked The Mister to bring home something for dinner…and, of course he did. I had a craving for # 24, the spicy tuna and vegetable bowl (Chirashi) ($7.99).

The Veggies(and there were a lot; its heavy and I imagine would be served in a large bowl, as Chirashi is at Happy Meal and Nozomi) are mostly cabbages with some sliced green onions and then it is topped with fish roe and also some tempura crunchies. Rice is sent separately in the "to go" box and there were two servings of what is probably Sriracha, although I did not see any Sriracha at the restaurant. The tuna was fresh, tasty and plentiful, and all at the bottom of the cabbage. I uncovered a bit so you could see, but there was a lot. Like pretty much the whole bottom of the box a lot…which was also part of the weight of it all.

The Mister wanted to try 9, the Shrimp Tempura Roll ($5.50) .

There were two tempura'd shrimp in here, real crab meat and lots of crunchies on the outside . It was refreshing and not as expensive at other places.

The Mister also wanted to try the Cutlet Combo (#13) ($8.99) and it came in two packages. They knew it was a 'to go' and clipped the corners on the Styrofoam box transporting the fish, shrimp and pork cutlet that were fried, so they arrived home still crispy. (If you recall, both Kirk and I complained about the soggy tempura on the "To Go" meals from Chopstix Too….this is the solution). The fried fish was excellent, as was the shrimp and the pork cutlet was juicy and had a good flavor. The combo box also came with four pieces of California Roll (real crab; not bad), shredded cabbage, rice and plenty of the various sauces necessary for a good meal.

Island Town does a lot of catering/makes trays to go. We saw some people picking up a tray of 110 California Rolls ($30) on a Friday night . (I counted: 14 by 7, plus 12 on top: I have no idea how they cut the original rolls).

As I said, its family run, and its inside the grocery store, so they kind of have access to the foods that may be either on sale or close to being thrown away anyhow. There are no lobster dishes on the menu, but they were being cooked on the grill when we walked in…

Island Town, inside First Korean Market 4625 Convoy Street, San Diego 92111 (858)571-7183

Closed Sundays. No credit cards, no checks!