yoso-silly – Page 22

King Clip? Yes, King Clip, two ways…….

July 7, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes, Seafood, yoso-silly

When not travelling, I'm totally a creature of habit….or as the Missus puts it, "boring". Of course She's the one who doesn't like to go shopping in places where She doesn't know the lay-out. Anyway, on most Saturdays you'll find me at Catalina Offshore. I'm there buying shrimp to keep us stocked, some fish to smoke for the Missus' lunch during the week, and maybe a thing or two for the weekend. Over time I've had the pleasure of chatting with Tommy Gomes whose title is Director of Public Relations and Marketing, but is much, much, more than that……those who know him can attest to the fact that he's quite a character, he also has quite a story, and a fisherman's sense of humor.

On days like this past Saturday, when he's done giving me a hard time, he asked me a simple question; "are you cooking this weekend?" And pointed me to this….. King Clip? I believe that I've eaten a good deal of seafood in my life, but this was a new one. He explained, "really fresh, firm, good fat, large flake…. Don't screw around with it." As I mentioned before, when Tommy makes a recommendation I'm all in. So I got about 1.75 pounds of it.

Catalina Offshore Products
5202 Lovelock St
San Diego, CA 92110

Still, I went home wondering what the heck is King Clip? So after looking it up, I discovered that it's a type of Cusk Eel and is called Kingklip in South Africa.

Whenever I get some type of fish I haven't tried before, I do something rather simple. We've had an abundance of basil growing in our makeshift garden this year, so the Missus made a almond and pumpkin seed, oven dried tomato pesto. I seasoned the fish with simply sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and just a tiny bit of crushed oregano.

We had it with a simple arugula salad. Man this was some moist and tender fish. There's a bit of sweetness to it as well. The flakes are large and the flavor mild….oh, and the Missus loved it.

I had a bit left and decided to try something more "Asian" for dinner. I did the typical Shaoxing – ginger juice – white pepper Chinese style marinade. Seasoned with sea salt and five spice from QingDao and dusted one side with potato starch. Served up with my basic dressing for Purple Cabbage Slaw, this was very nice.

This fish would probably be very nice steamed. The firmness of the fish would allow for use in stews and even some braising, but I think you might lose the benefit of the fresh and sweet flavor.

Heck, if you see this at Catalina, just don't bother buying it……..I'll take care of that, ok?

Oh, and I need to send thanks out to "YY", I made the Bo Luc Lac her dad prepared. It came out nice! Thanks so much!

I was going to make this on the Big Kahuna, but we ran out of propane, so did it on the stovetop.

Hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend!

The Missus Yakyudori obsession

July 1, 2013 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Cooking, Japanese Restaurants, yoso-silly

One of the side benefits about doing this blog for so long is that I get to document things, how our eating has changed over time, ditto with my cooking, our travels, and so forth. One of the really fun and interesting items I've been to post about over the years are the Missus's food feet-ishes umm, obsessions, some of which are narrowly focus on a single item, sometimes from a single place, or perhaps a dish with a common "mechanical" function, many of have been documented here in detail.

And just as many times, the Missus has "sworn off" things after finding out what the ingredients are, or perhaps how something is made. The longest running "item that shall not pass my lips" was chicken and turkey. Folks have asked for the cause of this. All I have for you is a video of this commercial:

Which somehow traumatized the Missus so much that She refused to eat chicken or turkey (except on vacation). The Missus was very good at keeping Her word as I've noted several times. This, other than the Asian Pear overload (a story for a different day) has been the longest running "I shall not eat"……starting in November of 2009, as I mention here. It only ended a bit over a week ago, though with strict conditions….I do believe turkey is still not welcomed, though.

So, what ended the historic and epic chicken prohibition? It was victory by Binchotan as duly noted in this recent post. It seems that those bincho-tainted wings won Her over….so in essence we've grilled in that manner 5 times over the last two weeks. Always with something interesting; in this case "Kamo", duck breast.

And with chicken wings of course. During one of our sessions, the Missus mentioned how good the wings were, probably among the best She could recall. Instead of showing restraint, I made the mistake of saying that our grilled wings were not as good as Yakyudori's. Thus began the interrogation. All that was missing was the bright light blasting into my face, the water dripping into my eye, and maybe a dentist drill. "Just what makes Yakyudori's wings better!", "Well, it's decent quality wings, second joint only, heavily seasoned with good quality salt, but the main thing is how the wings were skewered." "Well……." Showing no will-power I instantly spilled the beans: "The wings are skewered in such a way to stretch the skin, maximizing surface area. The bones are separated making it easy to pull out without burning your fingers." Yes, such is life in the mmm-yoso household, an entire conversation about stretching chicken wing skin…….what happened to us?

Suddenly, Yakyudori went from a shop the Missus wasn't interested in, to one we just had to go to…..as in the next evening. And of course we had those wings…….

And of course I was right………..it was better than what we made at home.

My gloating was short lived however, as the Missus directed me to Marukai on the way home. You guessed it. To pick up chicken wings.

The next evening, as the Missus prepped Herself for wing surgery, I got the other stuff ready. Lit the binchotan and prepared the shishito peppers, shiitake mushrooms, okra, and some pork "toro"…..

25 minutes had passed and the charcoal was white and hot when the Missus finally finished Her 6 wings. I gotta say, She did a great job.

She basked in the glory of Her wings…..

With a side order of gloating thrown in, "Ha, after 15 years, I finally got a cooking point over you! Fifteen years!"

I gotta admit, these were pretty darn good, and I told Her so. Immediately, the Chinese daughter came out, "hmmm, the bones don't break away as easy as Yakyudori…maybe the skin can be stretched a bit more…."

Remember our drooling "friend" from our previous post? He was back again.

The Missus said he reminds Her of this character from the old series Home Improvement.

As dinner was finishing up, I told the Missus what a good, albeit rather long job She had done. She absently told me, "I don't really remember how I did that……."

She had already moved on, mentioning how much She enjoyed the Tsukune at Yakyudori.

Oh-oh, another obsession coming up?

Stay tuned…….

Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori
4898 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

COMC: Beating the Heat Edition – Places you know (if you’ve been reading long enough…)

June 28, 2013 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, Thai Restaurants, yoso-silly

**** Sadly, all of these places have closed

Man it's been a hot one. And I read that's it's going to be even hotter this weekend. Here's some "Clearing Out the Memory Card" stuff. If you've read long enough, you'll know where these places are…..

Have a great Friday!

The Original Sab E Lee
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

Sushi Yaro
7905 Engineer Road
San Diego, CA 92111

And I guess I'm having "pork withdrawals" after consuming all that swine in Portugal…..

Kayaba
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd Ste 119 – In the Mitsuwa Marketplace
San Diego, CA 92111

Keep cool everyone!

Comfort Food: Teri Beef Sandwiches

June 27, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes, yoso-silly

A few weekends ago I got what I thought was an interesting request from the Missus. She wanted Teri-Beef…….. Man, what a blast from the past for me! I love teri-beef sandwiches. So while She went with the strange low carb teri-beef in lettuce cups…I just did mine the way I like it.

I've gotten pretty good at actually grilling the soft #2 thin cut rib eye on my Weber. Man was this a blast from the past……it made me long for the Teri Beef King at Jolly Roger Drive-In. The one we used to go to was next to the graveyard near Kahala Mall, it's now a Zippy's. We used talk about how Waialae Drive-In was haunted because it was next to the graveyard and we were told that part of the parking lot was built over half the cemetery….supposedly the movie would go upside down at midnight and there was a faceless woman ghost that haunted the women's restroom……I heard that the ghost moved on to the Kahala Theatre's after the drive-in closed??!??

Anyway, this is basically my "Fourth Grade Teri-Beef" with some grown-up touches. So easy……

Teri-Beef:

1 cup Aloha/Yamasa Shoyu
3/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/3 cup mirin
2-3 Tb grated/minced garlic
2 tsp ginger juice
3-4 bunches green onion, white part only chopped

– Mix all ingredients until sugar is totally dissolved.
– Taste and adjust
– You should be able to get 1 1/2 – 2 pounds of meat with this
– I separate all the meat slices and mix well with the sauce before putting into a ziploc
– Marinate for at least 6 hours and no more than 14-16…it will get real salty
– Grill or panfry

Man……..this makes me miss "home"……

Tell me, where is/was your favorite teri-beef sandwich?

And here's a total blast form the past…..anybody remember Hana Chicken?

My goodness……I'm getting majorly old…..before you know it, I'm going to blabbing about Yum Yum Tree!

Thanks for letting me reminisce!

Grill Break!

June 19, 2013 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Cooking, yoso-silly

The weather's been so nice here the last couple of days. I hope you don't mind if I break up the week and take a grill break. We busted out the konro grill and the binchotan and like we do every so often decided to grill up some stuff. It takes some time and we take our time and savor the process and the flavor.

Last night it was Pork Toro, basically pork collar…..

Chicken wings, shishamo…….with a nice salad.

The Missus enjoyed it so much, that She wanted to do it again this evening….so we did.

More chicken wings, Berkshire pork belly, shrimp, shishito peppers……

There's something almost cathartic about the process…it makes us slow down, appreciate. It's simple, bincho imparts such great flavor that all you need is some good quality salt, pepper, and maybe some Shichimi Togarashi.

The smell is intoxicating…..as you can tell by our "neighbor" spying on us.

Looking for a possible "sample"…..

Of course Frankie was waiting for his share……

So pardon me while I take a mid-week charred animal flesh break.

We'll be back tomorrow!

Thanks for dropping by!

Recently Consumed and it’s that Time Again!

May 16, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, yoso-silly

So here's some stuffs that I made recently……..

A cumin and five spice crusted halibut…with that Purple Cabbage Slaw.

A Garlic Shrimp Po' Boy.

This one went to the reject pile. It was totally "ma-la" – numbing hot. But the Missus rejected it because it wasn't "red" enough. So it's back to the drawing board with the Chili Oil Won Tons.

Still, it was really spicy….

I still get embarrassed when the Missus requests "spicy tuna". So I sheepishly submit this Spicy Ahi Salad.

If you decide to make this, don't forget the tobiko and the avocado. I served this on mizuna, which added a nice mildly bitter counter-point to the dish.

And finally……..

Tommy from Catalina Offshore recommended some fresh sardines, which had just come in that morning. The timing of which is excellent. It's that time again. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the Missus and I will be on our way to our next destination(s). So where are we going? Well, the photo leaves a clue.

I'll try to post once in a while while we're gone, but until then, everything is in the fine hands of Cathy!

Thanks for reading!

Saturday Stuffs: Moby Dick gets harpooned, what’s up with Viet Bakery and Pho, and Paris Bakery and Thanh Son Tofu do the shuffle

April 27, 2013 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants, yoso-silly

Haven't done one of these for a while, so I thought the time was right.

Moby Dick is now "70 Bobcha – Taste of Korea?:

Whatever that is…..

From the day I first saw the sign to actually eating there, I just had a feeling this incarnation was doomed. The owner seemed to have a thing about creating and opening places. The menu was all over the place, the quality of the seafood was decent during my visits….it should be, the guy who owned the place also owns Ocean Harvest, a seafood wholesaler. The spot was humongous and rather difficult to maintain, even with Kazumi manning a sushi bar in the back.

I have no idea what's up with this place now….I'll have to find out soon.

As for Kazumi. He was last sighted at the Snooty Asian, per Eater San Diego.

4805 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

What's up with Viet Bakery and Pho?:

It's actually kind of spooky. I first mentioned noticing this place in the same post as Moby Dick.And just like Moby Dick, this place just didn't do it for me. The dishes were uneven, as was the service, by the time I actually had a chance to try the pho the entire menu had changed. Everything that made the place seem special was gone.

The place isn't "officially closed" though, as you can see by the sign. I know for a fact that at least one offer was made to take over the spot, but it seems that the owners want to try again. They are currently using the kitchen for catering and such. As for the "we'll be opening soon", I wish them the best, but we know that this is often the kiss of death.

3904 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Paris Bakery and Thanh Son Tofu does the shuffle:

So I'm having a really lousy bowl of Bun Mang Vit and notice that Kien Giang has been replaced by Thanh Son Tofu?

5296 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Which got me wondering…..what's going on with the (former) Thanh Son Tofu spot. So I actually drive all the way down there to see. And to my surprise……

I see the Paris Bakery coming soon sign. So either Paris Bakery is moving here, or this will be a second location. There's a good deal of space in this place, so I'm sure they'll be cranking out banh mi and baguettes like crazy. The parking kind of sucks though……

4616 El Cajon Blvd Ste 15
San Diego, CA 92115

Surf and Turf Thursday…….

March 14, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, yoso-silly

I think I've mentioned that the one really big change in the last year was that the Missus really enjoys shopping for food now….She has no problem heading over to Catalina Offshore during the week, or Bristol Farm, or Whole Paycheck. It makes life kind of interesting. Especially when I'm given a bunch of ingredients to fold into a meal. Tonight is a good example……….

So here's a bunch of stuff to make a week (work) night dinner.

So what do we have? From top to bottom, horseradish, duck fat, sunchokes, and a piece of Wagyu New York steak.

So what to make? I took the easy way out……I roasted off root vegetables, including the sunchokes, along with purple potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and whole cloves of garlic, in a combo duck fat-grapeseed oil, and made a duck fat vinaigrette to top it off. Sort of like the Roasted Parsnips and Kabocha with Caper Dressing.

Cook time I estimated about 40-45 minutes, so first thing I did was clean some shrimp. We always have shrimp on hand, it can make for a nice meal just about anytime.

I then made a horseradish sauce, which I thought could be used for both the shrimp and the steak.

Mince shallots, grate garlic, add shrimp, salt, pepper, Smoked Spanish Paprika, Thyme, Oregano, and a touch of Grapeseed oil and marinate the shrimp for a bit.

Season the steak, sear off…….let rest……

Vegetables finished roasting, turn off the heat, add vinaigrette, mix, and leave in warm oven…..

Saute shrimp using the Big Kahuna, which takes literally two minutes. Total time, just north of an hour.

Plate up and eat. It's surf and turf Thursday….

And I've survived to cook another day……..

I hope everyone is having a great week!

COMC: The you sure eat a lot of guts edition…..

February 28, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, yoso-silly

I recently got an interesting email from "JB"…….who basically said, "you sure eat a lot of guts"….. Really? I didn't think so, until I looedk in my COMC (Clearing out the memory card) folder and it became all too clear…….

Sigh….I guess I do. Think I'll go get a cold one….and maybe some guts now…..

I hope you're having a great week!

COMC Calorie Bomb Edition: Carmen’s Mexican Food, Harry D’z BBQ, a Caliente Burger, and one repeat

January 24, 2013 mmm-yoso American/New American Restaurants, BBQ, Burgers, Mexican Restaurants, Plate Lunch, yoso-silly

I know that my timing tends to suck……I have a tendency to do these posts right after the New Year. It’s really not on purpose…really. What happens is that I try to close out the previous year and always seem to have some of these “one-off” type photos, so I basically have stuff for a “COMC” (Clearing Out the Memory Card) type of post. So anyway, here’s some “stuffs” from the last quarter, of last year.

Carmen’s Mexican Food:

A couple of folks have mentioned Carmen’s to me and I tell them that I had eaten at Carmen’s back when they were located in Linda Vista, across from what is now K Sandwich. I really wasn’t impressed with the food, which seemed more Am-Mex, then Mexican. Eventually that whole area was razed and Carmen’s was gone. I did feel a twinge of sadness, because even if I didn’t care for the place, a lot of folks did. Then a couple of years ago, Babylon Cafe closed down, and Carmen’s reopened in that location.

I was still not really motivated to eat there, but more than one person mentioned how good their Carne Asada Fries were. After my post on Yesenia’s, I actually received two recommendations for Carmen’s. So after a short CAF recovery period, I decided to drop by for lunch.

The crew here was friendly and all the customers seemed to be regulars, talking about kids, vacations to Disney, Disney cruises, relatives, not seeing “so and so” for a while….you know, that kind of stuff. I actually kind of felt like an outsider, but this gave me an understanding of how the place has cultivated a customer base over the years.

Everything was cooked to order so it took a couple of minutes before my Carne Asada Fries were ready.

This really wasn’t my cup of tea. First, thought I love my dinner fries, I’m not fond of them in my CAF. Since there’s always some guac-crema-salsa action going on, I prefer a higher ration of crispness. Second the guacamole was kind of pasty with no flavor. Third, the carne asada was a lot more tender then it appeared, but was rather tasteless. I’m sure they make their own salsa here, but for some reason it reminded me of Pace Picante. Nothing against Pace, but several decades ago I had a coworker whose second favorite hobby was….how shall I say it…partaking of the “cash crop”. We’d go over for beers and would instantly know when he was enjoying himself….he’d be having this concoction of melted Philadelphia Cream Cheese mixed with Pace Picante and chips. Ick……

The rather substantial pool of oil at the bottom of the plate could either be an added treat or not…depending on your point of view.

Still, like I’ve said many times…there’s a big difference between “favorite” and “best” and I understand that. There are many reasons why folks hold a place close to their hearts and the food may not be the main reason(hey, I’m just as guilty). Based on the rapport between the two guys working on this day and the regulars, I’m thinking this is one of those places.

Carmen’s Mexican Food
4937 Diane Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

Harry D’z BBQ:

During one of the early days of the Morena’s Farmer’s Market…..having not been back in a while, I’m wondering if it still running? I passed a couple of weeks ago and na-da?? Anyway, it was getting close to evening and I hadn’t had lunch and this little stand looked interesting.

Actually, there should be some kind of law against sticking pork in front of a starving man’s face…..

So I decided on the pulled pork sandwich, which was a reasonable $6.50.

The pork was quite moist, but I had a hard time believing it was really smoked based on the mild flavor. The sauce was too sticky sweet and what seemed molasses heavy for me……

The Caliente Burger at Tommy’s:

**** This location of Tommy’s has closed

I’m not sure what it is about San Diego’s Tommy’s, but it just doesn’t seem to be the same as the Tommy’s back in LA…even the one in our old neighborhood. But there I was, standing in line at Sprouts and the two customers in front of me were going on and on about this “new” burger at Tommy’s that was “oh so good, but so spicy”. Now what kind of bonehead would actually go visit Tommy’s after overhearing two women talking about something “oh so good”??? Hello, I’m bonehead, nice to meet you……

The young lady at the counter was really friendly and told me that they top the chili burger with pickled cascabel chilies and chipotle cheddar. She was very nice and even gave me a little tray with some extra chilies in them. Funny, these reminded me of the bottled Del Monte Chilies I used to eat when I was a kid.

The burger was actually better then I had during my last visit, maybe five or so years ago now. The chilies weren’t really that hot. I’ve kind of noticed that the chili at this location is heading into two divergent directions….as it becomes more and more like refried bean glue in texture, the flavor becomes more watered down. Right now it just seems like heartburn fuel…..though I’ve only had heartburn once in my life(a funny story) and it wasn’t from Tommy’s

Serves me right to eavesdropping on folks in the grocery line……

Original Tommy’s
7415 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

So there you go….man, that’s more then enough calories and saturated fat…sheesh.

I think I’ll go and quietly have my plate lunch in the corner now.