yoso-silly – Page 26

Saturday Stuffs: Honey Pig is now Old Village and Silver Ark is gone(or has been for quite a while), and would you hold it against me if I ordered a Ma-ka-ka Burrito?

February 5, 2011 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Taco Shops, yoso-silly

Man that was quick. I first heard about it from "YY", and saw that a new business had quickly moved in. It's now a place called Old Village… and the sign says "Korea's best Chef in twenty years!"

It makes me wonder what the saturation point is for Korean Tofu Houses…. well, I guess it's much higher than the saturation point for Korean BBQ's, huh?

Silver Ark has been gone for a while:

A couple of days ago, the Missus asked if we needed to do a revisit of Silver Ark after our last not so good visit. I told Her that Silver Ark has been gone for a while, and is now a Thai Restaurant. I then displayed photographic evidence. Which made Her ask me why I hadn't mentioned anything…..

She had a good point…… so here's a mention several months after I actually took a photo of what was Silver Ark and is now Siam Nara. I've heard that they are associated with Amarin. Anybody been there yet?

And finally…….

I've been waiting months trying to figure out when to do this post. And have come to the conclusion that there really wouldn't be a perfect time. It involves Vallarta Express on Genesee, a place Cathy has posted on. I really don't eat too much taco shop fare anymore, perhaps I'm still suffering from post tramatic shock from Howie's "Battle of the 'berto's", but I just have kinda stopped eating Carne Asada and California Burritos. But to paraphrase a much more interesting man then me, "I rarely eat Carne Asada Burritos, but when I do, I prefer Vallarta Express." Well kinda…… for some reason, when the carne asada is on it's quite good, I think they use soy sauce……but I've had my share of clunkers as well. The last time I stopped in at Vallarta Express was back in October. I was tired, on my way back home from a long day at work, and a trip to Henry's, and I just decided to grab a California Burrito….. I hadn't had one in a while. I even took a photo of Vallarta Express….which I think came out pretty peachy-keen and neato-rooney….

It almost says….. "aaaah Vallarta Express at sunset", huh? But on this day, the food was really secondary…and knowing me, what I eat rarely takes a back seat. I was in the drive thru, behind a Lexus SUV. The woman sticks her head out and orders a "Cho-rye-zo burrito". The disembodied voice blares from the speaker "so that will be a chorizo burrito?" The woman, using her best "outside voice" says "ummmm yes, and one more thing, can I get a ma-ka-ka burrito?" I'm laughing so hard I almost take my foot of the brake. The Lexus doesn't move, mainly because not an utterance comes out of the little speaker box. Perhaps they're searching for some "ka-ka"? Having worked in restaurants and fast-food, I can only imagine what is currently going on in that little shack…… Yes, one could only imagine……

The woman finally moved forward, puzzled look on her face and eventually made her way out of the drive-thru….. I hope she got her "ma-ka-ka", or reasonable facsimle.

In comparison, my CAB…. that's a California Burrito, not you CAB was totally anti-climatic.

OK, so I "set-up" the burrito by taking my photo of it leaning up against a container of brown rice…. perhaps it's a Jungian duality statement….. but maybe I just needed to lean my burrito against something.

This wasn't the best burrito I've had from Vallarta….too much sour cream in this one.

But just having that moment was, at least to me, worth $5.25………

Have you ever had one of those moments?

Vallarta Express
4277 Genessee Ave.
San Diego, CA 92117

Open for "Ma-ka-ka and Cho-rye-zo" 24 hours a day.

Monday Meanderings

January 24, 2011 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, yoso-silly

Yes, I've been hacked:

My email that is. Sorry to say that I think everyone on my contact list was sent high volume spam from my email address. I've hopefully corrected that. On the good side; it was really nice hearing from folks I hadn't heard from in a while. I just wish it was under better (and legit) circumstances. My apologies.

Meet my latest "toy":

For some reason I actually opened up and looked over the monthly adds for Marukai. I noticed that various Shichirin were on sale for the whole month. I decided that we needed a bit of an upgrade from our little Hida Konro. The one selling for forty bucks was a bit too large….

So I went with the one on sale for just under twenty bucks.

Marukai also has Binchotan on sale this month…. just be aware that the label says it's made in Myanmar. I know some folks are sensitive to that. I also thought that there were US trade sanctions against imports from Myanmar…. but maybe I'm wrong?

And just because I needed to include some food photos:

I'm including photos of our New Years Eve dinner(s). You know where, right?

Unusual food items found around town. (COMC)

January 2, 2011 Cathy Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog. Just an online diary. Today Cathy is tying up loose ends. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are being constructive. Elsewhere.

Hi. I was Cleaning Out my Memory Card (COMC) as one of my Resolutions and decided to put together a post of things I thought I would someday mention. That day is here.

One day, The Mister and I decided to go to Food 4 Less, (a bag-it-yourself grocery store, same company as Ralphs and Krogers). Within the cold cuts/hot dog section of the store (I am always looking for skin-on wieners) was this:
A one pound package of bacon wrapped hot dogs, as seen served from many taco trucks. The package was marked down to $1.98, and had an expiration date in ten days. I took this photo in the store and sent it to Kirk. Immediately. He said it was a post waiting to happen.

Five of those hot dogs were a pound. Most of the 'better' hot dogs are packaged seven to a pound. We needed large bread to hold these dogs. Costco. Less than $2.50 for 12 gourmet buns. (We used the extra ones for sandwiches and turned some into garlic bread). I just cooked the hot dogs in a large teflon coated pan on the stove top, turning until the bacon was crisp.

These are giant dogs (five filled that 12 inch pan) and needed that larger than normal Costco roll.
Topped with mustard and pickles, one was filling and two were too much to eat. Our good dogs (and cats) got some treats that day.

I could not figure how to make a whole post about this machine.
We saw it at Parkway Plaza, on the edge of the Food Court, near the Sbarro. I do sometimes crave spun sugar…
You put in $2 in coins, a stick slides over, then down…
The machine spins the candy floss around the stick.

Viola! A fresh made cotton candy treat!
This machine disperses heated almonds and peanuts. It was located in the Paddock Bar at the Del Mar Race Track. I saw it when we were taking a lunch break at the Del Mar Fair. Really brings out the flavor. Now I heat up nuts in the fry pan before we eat them at home.
This past summer, San Diego was a "Test Market" for two Starbucks iced beverages. Each was made with green coffee- raw- beans. Caffeine was in each beverage, which was juice based, but no taste of coffee (and no tea flavor). The one on the left was made with lime juice and had fresh mint in it, the one on the right had fresh blackberries and was made with pomegranate juice. They were refreshing and different and really good on hot days. I hope the testing went well and we can see these beverages as a regular item in the stores in the future.

Here is a photo of our Christmas Dessert plate…International this year. From 6:00: The apple strudel (German) was an experiment which turned out well. The espresso (Italian) was just perfect that day and the pink item is called Vatkattu Marjapuuro. It is Finnish. I call it cranberry whip. Made with fresh cranberries and farina. It could be a dessert or breakfast. It ended up being both. Again, it just wasn't enough to do a whole post.

The Costco on Morena Avenue. Only. Gelato.

Made daily. $1.50 for three scoops- mixed berry, pistachio and stracciatella (torn apart/ less chunky chocolate chips in plain (not vanilla flavored) ice cream). Gelato is more dense than ice cream, is lower in sugar and lower in butterfat. It is made at this Costco location daily and a quart for $5 is a wonderful deal. I like the pistachio the best…fresh crispy nuts.
The Vons at Liberty Station (not the standard footprint Vons)(when you walk in the center/cart area, go to the building on your left) has a 'make your own nut butter' bar. Between $5 and $7 a pound, these bins were just about to be refilled with fresh nuts. You turn the crank and fill the containers provided. Right next to it were fill your own honey containers, two types of honey.

So there. I got another thing off of my "To Do" list! I hope everyone is taking some time to tie loose ends.

Saturday Stuffs

November 13, 2010 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, Sushi and Sashimi, yoso-silly

I now realize I haven't been paying much attention…..

To the strip mall where Spicy City is located. There appears to be a couple of new restaurants open, or opening up. The first one, called "Gorilla" has replaced Korean Hometown Restaurant, no more Bondegi soup for me I guess.

They're calling it a "Korean Fusion Restaurant"…… the menu looks like a combination of bar food, a la Min Sok Chon, crossed with modernized/westernized Korean Dishes…..Boo Dai Chigae…. along with Tonkatsu (served with French Fries!) and ramen, and cream corn even…..

I'm not quite sure what to make of it……. anybody check this place out yet?

I also noticed this restaurant in the place of Seafood Island. I'm not quite sure if they've opened yet.

All in the strip mall at 4690 Convoy.

You never know what you'll find at 99 Ranch Market:

I was picking up some lamb to make Cumin Lamb, when something grabbed my attention….. I literally did a double take.

Was it what I thought it was?

You bet…. plus it was on sale!

In case you have a problem finding this…… it located right next to the, ahem, Beef Pizzle.

One of the two things I was craving when I got back from Madison/Chicago:

Strangely, or perhaps not, I wanted a salad when I got home from Chicago and Madison. The other thing I craved was taken care of last night at Sushi Yaro.

Something that I found ironic is that Zo-san is now working at Sushi Yaro. Folks might remember that he used to own Sushi Ishikawa which was on this very spot before Sammy Sushi and Convoy Sushi.

Now if I can only talk Zo-san into making some of the Okinawan dishes they used to serve at Ishikawa!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Triple Atomic Wings at Quaker Steak and Lube – Middleton (Madison)

November 6, 2010 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Madison, Wisconsin, yoso-silly

*** This location of Quaker Steak and Lube has closed

I'm not quite sure what to make of the "eating for sport" kinda thing…… I used to be able to put it away when I was younger (on a wager, I once finished Beth's Cafe challenge). But it's been decades since I've even given though to doing anything close to what I did during my youth. Now it seems a bit silly, something that was great during my college days, but a recent spate of shows like "Man vs Food" have made such gastronomic excess/stress popular. For instance, when an acquaintance of mine found out I was going to Madison, he quickly told me, "hey, there's a Quaker Steak and Lube in Madison." To which I replied, "what…. a gas station?" He quickly explained that it was Quaker S-T-E-A-K, a chain which featured his favorite wings back in Ohio. So far, Quaker Steak hasn't made it West of Colorado, so there were no shops on the West Coast. Knowing how I enjoy chicken wings he soon got my undivided attention. As a kicker he threw in something called the "Atomic Wing Challenge"…… I explained that while I enjoy spicy food, I enjoyed varied nuances with regards to heat, not just the sensation of having skin burnt off my body. I recently sampled a ghost pepper, and decided that it was like a bad neighbor, any contact is painful and is something you'd like to avoid as much as possible. Even worse was some Naked Shrimp from the Original Sab E Lee with MrC and friends. MrC is Lao, and ordered it "Lao spicy"…… man that was tough. By the end of the meal, I had a ring of first degree burns around my mouth. Luckily for me, even though sweat pours down my face, I've never had problems with my stomach.

So I declined…. which led to a bit of heckling, during which I was called something that rhymes with "fussy". Even though giving in to my inner-machismo has often had terrible results, I decided to go with the Atomic Wing Challenge, after all….. it really seems like the dude on "Man vs Food" is doing a bit of (very bad) over-acting at times. 150,000 Scoville Units? That's just a mild Habanero……

Instead of the Madison location, I went to the Middleton location, just outside of Madison, and closer to where I was staying.

As you can figure by the name, the restaurant is Gas-station themed…. with a sportsbar-meets-corporate chain restaurant type of atmosphere (think Jiffylube crossed with TGI Friday's). The folks here were indicative of the service I received in Madison, friendly, laid-back, but efficient.

Having a seat and perusing the menu, I found what I was looking for.

So there it was…… until I read the top of the menu….

Now I had read up a bit on the Quaker State Atomic sauce….. rumor had it, that the restaurant Atomic Sauce sauce was made by the folks who make Endorphin Rush Hot Sauce, and the bottled Quaker State Brand Atomic Sauce was basically cayenne and tabasco. But here was something supposedly clocking in at 500,000 Scoville Units, which is about a 100 times hotter than a Jalapeno. So why not???

When I ordered the wings, the nice young lady asked me if I wanted a blindfold and a cigarette…. just kidding…. I was asked if I wanted to do "the triple atomic wing challenge". When I asked her what I got by doing the challenge, I was told I'd get my photo on the wall and a bumper sticker….. nah, not for me. I'd just settle for my six triple atomic wings without the fanfare. And I really could have done without the flashing police light they put on my table….

And of course a "waiver" confirming that I'm a total knucklehead is all part of the show…..

I'm sure that when my Server went to place my order of wings, someone pointed out that I look like a classic sufferer of Hyperhidrosis, and was given a good amount of extra napkins……

Since the wings at Quaker Steak come six to an order, I decided to try something else just to see how the wings are. The young lady told me that the Arizona Ranch Wings were her favorite.

These wings are not battered, but were decently fried, the skin was fairly crisp. The sauce was fairly mild, not too spicy (supposedly, 2,050 Scoville Units), and did have a mild buttermilk-ranch flavor that edged on onion soup base. Nothing really that special though…..

Of course I know that you really don't care about those wings, you really want to see what Triple Atomic Wings look like, right? Well here it is, in all of it's anti-climatic glory…..

These were hot…. or maybe I should type Hot…. but were definitely not HOT, if you know what I mean. The capsicum smell was pretty strong, and the heat was in your face, and sweat was dripping down my face, but no hallucinations, not even the usual tingling scalp that occurs when I eat something super-spicy. The heat was tempered with a bit of sweetness, and the oil content, which usually just plain kills you by keeping the heat applied to your tongue, lips, and everything else that it comes in contact with, was relatively low. I recently had a couple of drops of Mad Dog's Revenge Habanero Extract, which clocked in at 1,000,000 Scoville Units, and actually made two of my FOYs (Friends of Yoso) MrQ and PeterL jump out of their seat and run out to the parking lot. This was nowhere near that. As a wing, it was hot, totally in your face, and not something I'd order again.

The wings at Quaker Steak are decent, better then most chains, and I'd probably drop by and have them again if one was in the area. It's nothing I'm going to crave though. I did text TammyC and told her that MrC would eat this stuff like it was candy……

One of the manager's came and spoke with me after I ate my wings…. she was very friendly, and funny. She told me that the Triple Atomic Wing sauce was made with Ghost Peppers….. funny it didn't seem as hot as the Ghost Peppers I've had.

Quaker Steak and Lube
2259 Deming Way
Middleton, WI 53562

Some really nice folks I met once told me that Adam Richmond is a basically an actor, earning a Master's Degree in drama from Yale. And though I've never seen the episode, I can't believe he had any problem with the Quaker Steak Atomic Wing Challenge. If he was, he must have been making good use of his drama degree.

Maybe he'll try this out next time…..

Where I’ve Been

October 31, 2010 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

If you've been wondering why I seemed to have fallen off the side of the Earth….. I had a short business trip, and have just returned. As always, I need to thank Cathy for taking the reigns while I was away. And though this was a business trip, I was able to squeeze a few meals in…. and you know I like to tease you all, so here are a couple of photos with what's coming up….. I'm sure that you'll be able to figure things out by the photos.

And since there was a strong craft brewing scene in one of the cities, I sent out a quick email to FOY Josh Sibelman, who provided me with some recommendations. And it just so happens that the store I went to for bottled water sold beer by the bottle, so each night I was able to purchase a bottle (or two) of local beers…..

On my last evening, I dropped by to buy some water, and decided to get one bottle for the road. This time, I asked the gentleman working there what he'd recommend….. he picked out Lake Louie Brewing Company's Tommy's Porter for me. A customer concurred telling me that an ex-girlfriend of his loved Lake Louie's brew so much that, and I quote, "got the Lake Louie emblem tattooed on her…" (fill in the blanks).

Speaking of Beer:

Well, we were speaking of beer, right? Man, time sure does fly…… it seems that San Diego Beer Week is upon us again. Josh, Andy, and Candice, organized a wonderful dinner at Ba Ren last year. This year, we selected Sab E Lee in Santee as the sight for the spicy Beer Week dinner.

Last I heard there were a few tickets still available. You can get more info, and purchase tickets here.

You can see the menu, and the beer paired with the food at that link. So don't be an ogre….or whatever it was that I took a photo of!

Thanks to Kat, I won’t ever have to say, “I’ve never won anything in my life.”

October 17, 2010 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

Back at the end of September, one of my favorite blogs, Our Adventures in Japan turned five. I tend to think that being able to last five years in the ever changing and fickle world of blogs is quite an accomplishment. Like many of her readers, I made sure to add a congratulatory comment to that post. What I really didn't pay attention to was the contest Kat was holding as part of their "blogga-versary" celebration. A couple of days later, I received an email from Kat telling me that Satoshi had pulled my name as the winner of the contest! Wow…… truthfully, I've never won a thing in my life…. and I really didn't know how to react. Anyway, I forwarded our address to Kat…. and last week, after returning from a pretty tough day at work, the Missus told me that a box was waiting for me. The Missus hadn't opened it, instead She wanted me to fully enjoy the moment.

The box was stuffed….literally overflowing….

On many items, Kat had written a very neat and tidy description of the item and attached it to the back of the packages. Like these two "Deco-Furikake".

The Missus loved the tea, and has been enjoying it daily.

Even though I don't have a sweet tooth, I really loved the Dark Chocolate Kit Kat's. You can read more about it in Kat's post. I also enjoyed the Lemon Cream cookies.

The Missus, who does have a sweet tooth also loved those Kit Kats, and really took to the cream soda candy.

I also really enjoyed the curry flavored fried okara…… the texture and taste was right down my alley….

The Missus loved the food containers and the utensil set.

And it was all topped off with a really cute t-shirt!

Reading blogs like Kat's, has allowed me to live vicariously through the eyes of another. So thanks so much for the wonderful box of goodies…. but most of all, thanks for sharing your "Adventures in Japan" with us!

Road Trip: Fukagawa Soba & Udon – Gardena (Los Angeles), A breakfast from memory lane….

October 11, 2010 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, yoso-silly

With a tip of the hat to Jimmy Buffet:

"I took off for a weekend last month
Just to try and recall the whole year.
All of the faces and all of the places,
wonderin' where they all disappeared……."

Changes in Latitude, Changes in Atittude (1977).

The Missus told me that I needed a short respite, and if anyone would know, She would. This past weekend, the Missus had events planned with Her friends, so I thought I'd take a drive up to LA, and eat a bit, meet a good friend of mine, then meet even more friends of mine, and just basically wander around aimlessly….. I thought I'd start driving early and hit the Torrance Farmers Market, which I've written about several times before. But this time around, I left San Diego extra early, like 530 am early. I decided to grab breakfast…. a kind of special breakfast, at a restaurant called Fukagawa.

Fukagawa is located in the same plaza as Marukai Pacific Market, but is kind of hidden away in a corner. You'll first have to see the Fukagawa sign.

Then look down the hallway to find Fukagawa……

You may ask why a Soba & Udon (& Shabu Shabu) restaurant would be opening at 7am from Mondays to Saturdays?

I mean, the place doesn't look much different from a hundred, or even a thousand other Japanese restaurants…..

What makes Fukagawa rather unique in my mind is that they serve a "Japanese Breakfast". A simple, yet soulful combination of dishes and flavors that may seem a bit strange to many Westerners, but is very familiar to me, as something similar was my Mom's special breakfast that she made on occasion for us.

Something resembling "Combo B" was what we ate for those meals…. so of course it's what I ordered.

Just the smells brought back memories…….

The miso soup presented me with a bit of nostalgia as it had sliced onions in it. My grandparents and mother used to put onions in their miso soup….. but I don't recall having miso soup this way outside of home.

That's Natto (fermented soybeans) on the left, and Hiyakko Tofu (cold tofu) on the right.

Of course growing up, we didn't make things quite as fancy….no katsuobushi(shaved dried bonito) for our tofu, and no quail egg or even mustard (I don't think Mom would have enjoyed that) adorning the natto.

As for the natto….. my grandparents were from Fukushima-ken, and as long as I remember, whenever someone asked where my family was from in Japan and I answered "Fukushima", among the first things mentioned was, "oh, so you must eat a lot of natto, huh?" Actually, I really don't love natto, in fact, the Missus enjoys it much more than I do. But over time, I have eaten my share……

And is it just me, or does today's natto not smell quite as bad?

But for me, the most important item was this:

Lest you wonder why the heck I think a boiled egg is so important to me….. well, it's not a boiled egg.

And in spite of the recent Salmonella Egg recall and warnings, the dish would not be the same without this.

You add a little shoyu…..

Mix…..

Pour over hot rice (in all honesty, the rice should have been hotter) steal some green onions from my tofu, and mix…….

Creating a dish known as "tamago-meshi". One of the earliest (and few) memories I have of my grandparents, is my "Ji-chan" (grandfather) waking before dawn. Even though the plantation days were behind them; the plantation ways were still strong. Neither Grandparent spoke much English, and always had problems with my name. Ironically, they ended up calling me "Keiki" (which means "child" in Hawaiian). To this day I'm not sure if they actually knew what keiki meant, or of they just chose that word because it kinda sounded like my name, and was something they'd heard before. Anyway, my job was to climb the ricketty ladder up to papaya tree and pick two of the ripes papaya. My reward? My Grandmother would have a steaming bowl of rice, mix the raw egg with shoyu, pour the egg over the rice, top with green onions and mix……. tamago meshi. This in turn was topped with natto. I was also given half a papaya (to help me digest), and a cup of coffee (!!! I was maybe 7-8 years old) with tons of cream and sugar. A perfect breakfast for getting out there and working the fields…….

I really haven't had this in years, perhaps a decade (or two!), but it just seemed like the perfect thing to get this road trip started.

My friend, Akira, who I had dinner with later that evening, cracked up when I told him about my breakfast. Even though he lives in Torrance, he'd never heard of Fukagawa. And no, coming from Osaka, he's not much of a natto, or tamago-meshi fan. Still, he appreciated the fact that there was at least one place serving this in LA.

I do realize that this is something I can do at home. It may be a bit much for a weekday. But this just seemed like the right thing to start my short road trip.

I don't think younger people eat this much anymore. In fact, much like the next morning's breakfast (an upcoming post of course), everyone here was at least a decade older then me. And no one got the egg raw…….they all requested the egg over-easy……

The Japanese breakfast is available for lunch and dinner, though there's an upcharge of $1 for lunch, and $2 for dinner.

Fukagawa Soba & Udon
1630 W Redondo Beach Blvd.
Gardena, CA 90247

A milestone for mmm-yoso……

September 15, 2010 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

I was reminded of something when we returned from China at the end of May…… the day we returned to San Diego, mmm-yoso made five years. I'd usually do one of my Spam Musubi posts to celebrate, but this year it just didn't feel right. So I decided to wait, with another milestone in sight. So here it is, post 1,500……..

I'd like to refrain from a Ted Baxter "It all started at a 5000-watt radio station…." moment, but would like to thank you for visiting and reading!

It's been our pleasure to share our meals with you over the last couple of years; from the fancy….

To stuff we eat….. well on this past weekend for example…..

Or sometimes, things considered perhaps a bit unconventional by Western standards….

We've had the pleasure of sharing our travels with you….. whether domestically….

Or somewhere beyond our borders…..

Cathy, Ed from Yuma, Vicky, the Missus and I sincerely thank you for reading!

I hope we're able to provide at least a few more interesting food posts….

With some travel thrown in for good measure!

Eating with Friends: Eating the SGV, Crab Hut 2, and here’s to new friends

September 4, 2010 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Memorable Meals, Road Trip, Seafood, Xiao Long Bao, yoso-silly

One of the wonderful things that has happened in the five plus years I've been doing this blog, is that I've made some wonderful friends. I'm not quite sure how it's happened, but I feel blessed to know such wonderful folks (Note to JohnL…. like I said, "don't let it go to your head", he-he-he). I've often done short posts on meals I've had with friends, so I hope you don't mind another.

Doing the SGV thing:

A bunch of us got together a couple of weeks back, and did a San Gabriel Valley food crawl. Two of them, TammyC and JohnL had done stuff like this with me before. I knew MrC would go with the flow…. but PeterL, well, he was the rookie, and we'd have to keep an eye on him. We sort of just headed out, and I asked questions about what the folks wanted to eat…….. and after ruminating a bit, I decided that our first stop would be Dean Sin World. And of course, Shengjian Bao.

It turns out that none of this group, other than me had ever had Niu Rou Chuan (Beef Roll):

Not the most stellar version, but man did PeterL enjoy this, perhaps a bit too much. John and Tammy know a couple of my "rules" when it comes to an eating crawl. You live in the moment, that is, you don't start counting how many tacos you've had, this will just screw you up mentally. You resist the temptation to have that second or third, or fourth serving of the same item. It will still be here next time…. there's more up the road. Unfortunately, Peter just wanted those two extra pieces of Niu Rou Chuan, and as we walked the few yards to Giang Nan, I could tell the NRC was starting to settle in Peter's belly……

Of course at Giang Nan, we had two orders of each type of Xiao Long Bao.

As well as some of the cold dishes…..

After this I offered up QingDao Bread Food, which is right across a street. The Missus & I will often do Dean Sin World followed by Giang Nan and QingDao Bread Food when we;re in the area. I even offered up Mama's Lu and other places, but these folks were Bao'd and Dumpling'd out. And Peter really needed a break, so we drove to Focus Plaza to stretch our legs, grab some drinks, and do some shopping.

Then it was time for lunch….. enough with the snacks, it was time for a real meal. I offered up Tianjin Bistro or Hunan Chilli King. Since we had MrC, and his asbestos mouth, everyone went with Hunan Chilli King. I even called the Missus on my cell phone and had Her give the Server our order. We had stuff that I've posted on before, except for these two dishes.

A Hunan (not so) Stinky Tofu, and a Hot and Sour Soup.

All told we did pretty good with the five dishes we ordered.

By this time, most everyone had hit the wall, so we went on over to Papa Walk for some shaved ice, then ended the road trip buying some items at Domies Bakery.

Overall, it was good time…. but JohnL sent me a text message later that evening telling me he was hungry again…… such is the life of a growing boy!

A week later we all met at the new Crab Hut in the Gaslamp. As always we had a blast. I ended up taking onle three photos, so you won't be seeing the four dozen oysters, the crawfish, the clams, etc, etc, etc…….

But at least I took a photo of the Sausage Plate.

And one of the two orders of Calamari and Fries…..

After the Seafood Creole……

We were just having too darn much fun that I stowed the camera…..

I left feeling like this…..

Ummm…without the flowers behind my ears of course.

Crab Hut Downtown
1007 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101

And here's to making new friends:

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Kayoko of Umamimart. And let me just say I had a blast. We had a bite at The Original Sab E Lee. I had a great time, and hope Kayoko was ok with my "food dorkiness", she sure did put me at ease, and was fun to talk to. Over the years, I've found that fellow food bloggers are some of the nicest people. So please check out Kayoko's post on our lunch, it just seemed to end too soon. Thanks again for the wonderful conversation and a great time Kayoko!