As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.
Every couple years it seems, I’m wanting that fried bao from T.P. Banh Bao 3. And since I’ve held off my cravings for what the folks in the office used to call “dem balls” for over two years, it was time for me to get my fix.
So I made the drive up to Camino Ruiz in the Mira Mesa area. And headed into “TP”.
They open at 730am on weekends, so there wasn’t anyone in when I arrived.
I decided on the Pork, Salted Duck Egg, and Sausage, now priced at $2.75. And of course I wanted the baos fried, which has a 50 cent upcharge. There’s also a minimum order….I decided to order six and share the joy of “dem balls”……
These days, just one of these fills me up; so I decided to share the wealth with some of JJ’s favorite aunties.
Once at home, it was time to have at it.
I think the bao are now a bit smaller, but were still crisp when I sliced into them. The filling was nice and moist with a pleasant toothsomeness.
Very rich and porky; nice, pleasantly salty umami from the salted duck egg yolk with mild funkiness. Like I’ve always noted….more than one of these and I’d probably need to be hosed down….or immediately made an appointment with a Cardiologist…..”be still my heart”…literally. These are so rich that I can only put away one these days.
I was quite happy to get my “fix”.
See you a couple of years T.P. Banh Bao 3!
T.P. Banh Bao 3 11271 Camino Ruiz San Diego, CA 92126 Current Hours: Mon – Fri 8am – 7pm Sat – Sun 730am – 6pm
I saw this sign a few weeks back in the former location of Fujiyame:
A few days later; Tanje of the always informative guide Explore Clairemont mentioned the place in a post on IG. Unfortunately, I’m not able to find that post. Anyway, to sum up what I read; it’s the owners of PB’s Shawarma Shack that is behind this upcoming business.
4310 Genesee Avenue Suite 108A San Diego, CA 92117
Consumed by the Heat:
Right? Been hot and humid enough for you all lately? At least it seems to be cooling off for the moment. Anyway, I’ve noticed that a lot of what we’ve been eating looks like this:
Yep, tofu with okra and mizuna from the yard, with pidan. And of course, the Missus just “needed” to have some ohitashi…..this one I made with kale from the yard.
I picked one of my chilies which gave it a good kick!
I deviated from the published recipe a bit; but it turned out good. Quite refreshing.
And since yesterday was “Meat Day” at Nijiya and the weather had cooled down a bit; the Missus wanted some Soboro Don. So, I complied.
Of course, we just “needed” some fukusai…..so I made two side dishes.
The Missus enjoyed the meal and was satisfied…..for now….
What have you been eating during this recent heat wave?
And Finally……
I was sad to hear of Dolly Parton‘s passing last month. I’ve read that She really loved the islands and even had a short lived restaurant there.
I even saw her having dinner one night in Kapahulu. Yes, that’s right. Back in the late 80’s, I was having one of my “date night” dinners at one of my favorite restaurants at that time; Keo’s which was located at the corner of Kapahulu and Mo’oheau Avenue at the time. My date and I recognized the tiny woman with the big hair seated at one of the discreet tables in the place…it was Dolly Parton! Of course we couldn’t help but stare. Instead of giving us the “stink eye”, she gave us the warmest smile, which immediately made me feel guilty for staring. So, we tried not to keep staring over our “Evil Jungle Prince”. As she and her entourage left she turned to us and said “enjoy your dinner darlings!” You gotta love it!
That photo above is from Vaquero Bar in Solvang. I remember seeing the photo the first time I visited during Covid. I recall telling the bartender that story about running into Dolly back in my old neighborhood of Kapahulu. And of all the interesting coincidences; the other bartender told me that Dolly Parton had a house in Solvang! You can see more on that here! Funny thing; I also remember seeing Steve Perry and Journey having dinner at Keo’s as well.
Anyway, thanks for letting me share this! Hope you’re having a great week!
Ok, ready for some interesting “stuffs” on this Monday?
Taste of Hong Kong is Now Grill N Malatang, or is it?:
Well, I knew that Taste of Hong Kong had closed and become yet another Hot Pot (of course) place. But this gets more interesting. Back in May, Taste of Hong Kong started a pseudo “all-you-can-eat” program. Of course the cynic in me thought this was the start of desperate measures by the business. I remember telling the Missus, “when they start doing hot pot, I know they are really desperate.” Well, guess what? A few months later I heard they were doing hot pot! Yikes! But like that sales pitch goes “but wait, there’s more!” After an interesting comment on one of my posts, I decided to head on over to check things out.
And yes, the signage clearly states “No Longer Taste of Hong Kong”……strangely, it does say to go the side door…I think it’s for unit 320 to enter whatever restaurant it is. Also, note the notice of application for ownership change!
So, what about the hot pot? Well, I found this on IG:
OK, so it’s now Grill N Malatang, right? But strangely, I saw this follow-up post.
It seems like Grill N Malatang is closed for a couple of weeks?
“A single mother named Kayo Iwasaki moved to Hokkaido in 1903 with her daughter, Kimi Sano, but their life there turned out to be so hard that she could no longer raise the girl on her own. Eventually, she decided that she had to leave Kimi in the care of American missionary Charles W. Huett and his wife, who promised to take her back to the United States and raise her there.
However, what awaited the girl was a tragedy. Before the Huetts could sail for America, Kimi caught tuberculosis and had to be taken in at an orphanage in Azabu, where she died shortly after at the age of nine. Kayo never found out about her daughter’s death, believing for life that Kimi grew up to be a fine lady and had a good life abroad.”
And if you go to Shelter Island, there’s a red pagoda housing the Yokohama Friendship Bell.
And, if you look to the left of the Pagoda….well, guess what?
It the Girl in Red Shoes by Japanese artist Munehiro Komeno.
In the comments of her post, I promised Kat that I’d take some photos and post, so on my most recent visit to Tunaville, I stopped by to take these photos. So there you go Kat!
We stopped by on the way back from the Farmer’s Market and took a nice stroll and quick look.
Looks like fun and there are several stands and the of course Poseidon, BPC, and other places are open.
Nutmeg Cafe which will be opening on this very street has a table as well. It was the busiest table so I didn’t get a chance to check them out or even take a photo. However, Pit Stop Pizza which has a shop on Clairemont Drive has a trailer there as well.
This is taking place on the 4000 block of Napier Street from 9am to 1pm. More info here and here.
Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Fourth of July! Happy 250th!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day long weekend! I just looked at the calendar and realized that another year has gone by, We’re now 21!
And trying to a do a bit of math, we’ve got 5785 posts over 7670 days (252 months)! Go figure!
And so….now that the blog is of legal drinking age!
Here’s a toast to all of you who have read, commented, and emailed me over the years! Even though I look at our posts as being a food and travel diary, I don’t think we’d still be doing posts if not for all of you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart (and glass)!
Well, here we go….time to prep for the weekend, right? Anyway, just a couple of quick things…..
Fish With You is Now Yonny Hot Pot:
So, remember my last post on Fish With You? Where we noticed that all the hot pot equipment was going in? Well, back on Tuesday, as I was driving to Nijiya I noticed that the sign for Fish With You had changed to something like “Yonny Hot Pot”. Sigh…. Anyway, that same day “FOY” Xiāng Jiāo texted me saying that Fish With You had closed! And then “FOY” An commented on that last Fish With You post, mentioning that the name of the place had changed, but the logo and the blow up fish was still the same. Sooooo…….on my latest trip to Nijiya, I stopped by to take a look:
And yes, it’s now Yonny Mini Hot Pot. I went and parked the car and walked over to take a peek…..the posted menu on the door looks the same, as did the menu at the counter. I couldn’t take a photo of that with all the reflections and such.
“YONNY is a flagship brand under Beijing Fish With You Brand Management Co., Ltd. Founded in 2017, YONNY pioneered the fast-casual suancai fish market, quickly sweeping across China and leading the suancai fish industry to become a well-known Chinese fast-casual chain brand.”
And even though I might be an online dinosaur….on occasion, even I can do AI…..
So, there you go. It seems like the place has expanded the offerings and concepts. So, at least for now, I can “Fish With Me” at Yonny. For now…..
Fish With You 3904 Convoy St. #101 San Diego, CA 92111
Thanks so much for thinking of us An and XJ!
Is Spicy House For Sale?
While at Nijiya the other day, I saw a guy on a ladder putting up some finishing touches to the sign at Spicy House. When I finished shopping and walked back to the car the new sign was up.
I don’t know why I took a photo…I think it was just for the Missus to see if the Chinese name of the place had changed. But no, it had not. Ok, time to delete the photo, right? Luckily, I didn’t do that too quickly as my good “FOY” YummyYummy sent me this screenshot!
Screenshot
Looks like Spicy House is for sale? So weird that I just decided to take that photo, huh?
Times are really hard on restaurants right now…..
Anyway, if you’ve got an extra 280k lying around and want to own a Sichuan Restaurant…perhaps now’s your chance?
3860 Convoy Street #105 San Diego, CA 92111
Thanks for letting me know about this “YY”!
And lastly……
Not a big deal and I’m not too excited about this as I’d prefer more local based eateries in my ‘hood. But the former dentists office in Clairemont Village is becoming…..well, Jersey Mike’s…..
Ah yes….I guess this one is all about signs (or lack thereof)….and chains……
Wooltari Premium K-Food Closes:
The Missus needed a refill of LactoFit, which She gets from Wooltari on Clairemont Mesa, so we headed over to Crossroads Center Plaza. To find that the place has closed!
Man, did they even last a year?
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92111
MOTW Coffee Coming to Kearny Mesa:
Noticed a coming soon sign in the Balboa Office Building and Executive Suites…the building across from H Mart. It’s where the Subway used to be.
Something called MOTW Coffee was replacing the Subway. They seem to be building a outdoor patio as well.
Doing that Google thing, I learned that MOTW is an Arabic Coffee and Pastry Franchise headquartered in Indiana. They’ve got a bunch of locations, mostly on in the Midwest and East Coast. I didn’t see any locations on the West Coast, so this might be the first.
7710 Balboa Ave. San Diego, CA 92111
The Sign for Ono Hawaiian BBQ on Clairemont is up:
I knew about this for a while. I’d heard it was replacing Native Foods. So, just a couple of days ago, I saw that the sign was finally up.
Just in case you’re wondering….this is a chain, headquartered in Diamond Bar. In fact, the CEO of Ono, Joshua Liang, is a graduate of UCSD. Not quite sure what the “Hawaii connection” is…or even if there is one? Ono is said to have over 100 locations in California and AZ. So, we’ll see.
It opening next to the location that’s soon to be Nick the Greek…..yet another chain.
5604 Balboa Ave #107 San Diego, CA 92111
I am wishing for more locally owned or mom-and-pop places, but I guess with costs these days……
Here’s some stuffs I noticed in the Clairemont Mesa/Kearny Mesa area recently.
Sizzling House Has Closed:
Noticed this during our most recent visit to Eastern Dynasty.
Whoa, Sizzling House didn’t even last a year. So, much for the sizzling plate/pepper lunch fad, huh? Looks like this is going to be an outlet of Las Vegas based Urban Matcha…so one feeds another?
Also during that visit we noticed a new banner covering the Juewei sign.
Funny thing, I just mentioned how dissatisfied we’d been with our most recent visits to Juewei in my post on Spicy Duck Wang La Ya. Juewei seemed to be constantly changing concepts, last I saw they were trying to do Hot Pot, before that they had initiated doing skewers. They had an inconsistent inventory of items we enjoyed and we just decided to stop and not waste our time there.
So, I’m not sure if it’s still the same owners with a new concept….I do know there’s a LA Hot Duck in Rowland Heights. What’s up with all these places from the SGV opening here? They do not appear to be open yet; so we’ll see!
4690 Convoy St. #103 San Diego, CA 92111
And finally….
Isaki Japanese Restaurant and Nothing Bundt Cakes Taking the Former 85°C Spot:
I noticed some signage on the doors of what used to be 85°C off Balboa so I walked on over. Looks like they’ve split the spot into two businesses.
One of the signs said Isaki Japanese Restaurant.
And the other looks to be another franchise of Nothing Bundt Cakes.
After my last visit to HiroNori, I decided to revisit two other of my favorite ramen spots in San Diego. And both of these places have interesting “histories” with your truly.
Ramen Nagi:
I hadn’t been to Ramen Nagi in a while! And that visit was to try out the Veggie King Ramen! I was tempted to visit right after HiroNori, but heck, I ain’t going to UTC during the holiday season! I just waited until the calendar flipped to 2026 and headed on over. And guess what? No line!
I walked over and was shown to a seat at the counter.
It was quite mellow! I also have my preferences for my ramen here. Folks can choose and “customize” their bowl to their tastes, something I wish other places would do as well.
And while I waited, the older gentleman who was in charge came on over to say hello. And we had a really nice chat. I mentioned that my first bowl of ramen in Japan was at Nagi Ramen in the Golden Gai. And he cracked up! Apparently, he worked for Nagi’s parent company in Tokyo before coming to SD! Of course I had to ask him about Niboshi Ramen….and he laughed again. Apparently they did try it as a “special” for a short period, but the only folks who would try the stuff were the Japanese nationals and hardcore “ramen heads”. It was such a nice little chat!
As for my Original King Ramen ($16.95), well, I liked that the mildly porky broth wasn’t too salty…and check out all that richness! It just coats your tongue and tummy. That’s why I order it “heavy richness”. Normal garlic is enough to add some pungency without overwhelming the soup.
And those katame…..firm noodles do a great job picking up that broth and are so springy.
The egg was decently marinated and flavored. And perhaps because it was opening time, it was still warm.
To me, the pork shoulder chashu might be the weak link here as it is on the more chewy side.
But was decently marinated with good porkiness.
I think we have my favorite tonkotsu ramen in San Diego here! And of course, that memory of wandering thru Kabukichō to find that 24 hour location of Nagi Ramen on our first evening in Tokyo! Such great memories.
Ramen Nagi UTC 4301 La Jolla Village Dr. Suite 2033 San Diego, CA 92122
Santouka Ramen:
And of course, after Nagi, I had to get back to Santouka. Hard to believe it’s been over a year since my last visit. And like Nagi, I have some history with Santouka. To this day, I believe that the opening of Sanotuka in San Diego back in April of 2008 really changed the ramen world in San Diego. And after trying things for a bit, we had found our favorite here; the Shio Toroniku.
This was a solo lunch; so I just went with the small sized Shio Toroniku ($15.95).
I had never ordered the small size, so when my buzzer went off and I went to pick up my bowl….well, I cracked up at the size of the ramen bowl. Though I was happy to note that the portion size off the toroniku and garnishes were of the same size as far as I could tell.
To put things into perspective….check out the size of the porky, super tender pork cheek versus the size of the bowl of ramen.
Still, this was nice and warming….that thick bowl keeps the broth super hot for a long time. And no; I wasn’t in the mood for the usual horrible egg here.
The noodles were adequately firm. I already wrote about that tender-porky toroniku.
The broth creamy, not overly salty, nice savory tones.
And of course, I’ll never forget hunting down the original Santouka in Asahikawa...a tiny little shop! And of course we cracked up when the tamago there was just as bad! Points for consistency I guess! Such fun memories! And a good bowl of ramen as well!
