The 2009 San Diego County Fair, Part Two

mmm-yoso is the blog written by Kirk and ed (from Yuma) and Cathy, who is today's blogger.

Well, we finally made it to the Fair038.

The Theme this year is "Music Mania" and the entrance gate is decorated like an old jukebox.

Don Diego, the Official Greeter is more advertising that the Fairgrounds may be sold to a private owner if the current fiscal situation in our state is not cleared up.

Inside, the Fairgrounds look the same as always.

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All of the traditional County Fair events are happening.

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The beef cattle, which will be up for auction on July 4 along with the dairy goats (although the kid born at the beginning of the Fair will not be sold just yet) and pigs and sheep were available for purchase if you did not want to bother with the auction.

(If you want to know auction details, send an email or comment below)

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 The Preserved foods, as well as the baked goods, which were all judged before the Fair opened, were on display060  with the ribbons  that were awarded.

Interesting tidbit- every morning there is a job of cutting away mold or slime from the baked goods on display. 

When entering items, at least six cookies and whole cakes and loaves of bread are entered for judging.  By the end of the run of the Fair, there are many signs indicating the item was 'too good to last!'…really though, it molded away.

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Now, why you are here (on the blog).  Food.  Go to this building, which houses the "Designs in Wood" entries.

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Yes.

Go on.  It's $4.75

The small 'leftovers' box is pulled from the freezer.  It contains three strips of dark chocolate covered bacon.
 

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This was by far my most favorite item here.  The bacon is thick and salty and cooked well.  The dark chocolate, frozen, compliments the saltiness.  It was the perfect treat.

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The fried cheese curds ($6) were lightly breaded in a garlic powder crust and had a nice crunch. 

The cheese was squeaky and good.

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The char broiled corn is always good.

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The Midway is a maze of gadget selling booths.

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There is a plethora of tempting sights, smells and sounds.

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 But I was here.  And I had to.

Look at the top ad, next to the Frog Legs, which "taste like chicken".  Yes.  A Zucchini Weeni.

$4.75.  019

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Good idea.  Poor execution. 021

I admit I have *never* had a corn dog in my life.  The batter on this was not corn though.  It was donut batter.

The hot dog really had no flavor and all of it needed to be dipped in the ranch dressing to have any flavor. 

I had such hopes for this weeni…

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Instead, go next door for a "Texas Twister"

A deep fried skinned sausage deep fried with a twist of potatoes. ($8)

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Much more flavorful.

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Other things we bought included gelato, inside the Bing Crosby Hall.  excellent. (Small, $4)

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The Indian Fry Bread- strawberry cheesecake.  Fresh fried bread topped with whipped cream cheese, strawberries and whipped cream ($6.50)

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One chocolate and one vanilla cream puff.  ($3 each).  They make the pastry in the booth daily and the filling is real whipped cream.  This is the only "have to" item I get.   I can't get this fresh anywhere else all year.

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Artichokes on a stick satisfy that salty craving I have. ($6)

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As does Pizza on a stick.($4)

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The Footsie Wootsie machines are scattered everywhere and still only 25 cents for a few minutes of unusual pleasure.

Enjoy the Fair.  It closes this Sunday!

Website Opens 11 a.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends. 

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Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings: The Challenge – A comparison of Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings

You can't attend a Filipino party in San Diego without them, those miniature deep fried limbs, full of MSG goodness. Pulling yourself away from the aluminum tray of Salt and Pepper chicken wings sometimes takes a Herculean display of will power. I had long contemplated doing a comparison of Salt and Pepper wings, and after all these years, with the help of Howie, who having done comparisons of everything from Carne Asada Burritos from 'Berto's to New York style Pizza to Fro-yo i n San Diego, is master of organizing such events, I finally managed to do a tasting.

For the tasting, I had an enthusiastic crew, who displayed no fear of the MSG bloat; Howie, CW02 Candice, Sarah, Jenne, Mr & Mrs Zompus, and DennisI had a list of five places, one of which was closed and had to be replaced by a last minute substitute due to sad and unfortunate circumstances.

The rules were simple, each person would try at least one drummette, and one wing. They would than rank each sample from first to fifth. The lowest total amount of points would be number one.

The results are startling, and I'm sure will be quite controversial. At the end, I'll list my picks which seemed to go totally against the trend. So without further ado.

#5 – Royal Mandarin:

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RMCW01Yes, the mecca of Salt and Pepper Chicken wings ended up dead last by a large margin. Some of the comments: "more like American fried chicken…." "rating of meh…." "underwhelming in flavor…." "overcooked…."

This one was a surprise, and I'm sure will raise eyebrows…..

Royal Mandarin Restaurant
1132 E. Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950
(619) 477-4151

#4 – Golden Chopsticks:

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GCCW02 Yep, the other popular Salt and Pepper Chicken wing joint finished second to last! "bland….." "soggy……" "not even spicy in the least…." "don't like the light color…."

Another big surprise!

Golden Chopsticks
1430 Plaza Blvd #E/22A-23A
National City, CA 91950
(619) 336-1888

3 – A & D Hawaiian BBQ – National City:

**** A&D Has closed

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Another surprise. The darkhorse last minute replacement came in a respectable third, and missed second place by one point! Yikes! "most flavorful by far…." "thinner crust but better taste…."nice spice, lots of garlic, but too salty…." "right amount of spice…."

A&D Hawaiian BBQ
Grove Plaza Center
2220 Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

2 – Panda Palace:

**** Panda Palace has closed

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Well what do you know…another surprise. This one was all over the board with three fourth-place votes, and two first place votes. It managed second by one point.

The comments were the most entertaining of all the entries: "tastes like Panda Express smells…." "someone didn't change the oil after frying all that shrimp" "too sweet…" on one hand, "very flavorful…." "like the garlic and spice…" "not greasy…." on the other.

Panda Palace Chinese Restaurant
1105 E Plaza Blvd Ste D
National City, CA 91950
(619) 336-1725

#1 – Mandarin Chinese Restaurant:

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MandCW01The favorite overall by a whopping six points, and voted the best by four! Some of the comments; "lightest and crispy-est…" "good crunch, but meat a little dry…." "definitely the best, the only one I wanted seconds of…." "nice and light batter".

Mandarin Chinese Restaurant
945-A Otay Lakes Rd
Chula Vista, CA 91913
(619) 656-8080

So there you have it folks! Surprised? I sure was……

The gang did a great job going from this:

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To this:

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It's amazing what you can learn while chomping on wings with one another. For instance, Candice makes a mean Cucumber granita and Mango Sorbet which helped to keep our palates fresh, I never knew Librarians can sing so well, and there were moves attributed to the movie Flashdance that I don't recall….or umm…maybe I don't want to recall????

My thanks to everyone who participated!

Oh yes, how did I see things?

#1 – Royal Mandarin

#2 – Mandarin Restaurant

#3 – A & D

#4 - Golden Chopsticks

#5 – Panda Palace

Let the debates begin!!!!

Everything Tastes Better in a Banh Mi, Right? Sunday Edition – Uni (Sea Urchin) and Egg Banh Mi

If you've read my previous post, you'll recall my testing the limits of that phrase. I can't recall who told me that, but it has stuck in my head. This'll be a short post….'cause you know that you should be spending time with Dad on this Father's Day, not checking out some silly "Everything Tastes Better in a Banh Mi" post! 

The Banh Mi itself looks fairly innocuous. 

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I became a big fan of Banh Mi Trung (Egg Banh Mi) during our visit to Vietnam….and I still crave it from time to time. While looking through the recipes in Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook, I came across a recipe for "Scrambled Eggs with Sea Urchin in Lobster Sauce". It really wasn't the recipe that hit me, but the photo. Along the side of the dish, was a baguette! In the sometimes strange way that my mind works, I thought this to be a great idea. I've had a wonderful "Oeufs Brouillés aux Oursins" (scrambled eggs with sea urchin), and even "Oeufs Brouilles Au Caviar D'Oursin" (scrambled eggs with caviar and sea urchin) a couple of times. Uni, egg, and Banh Mi sounded just wonderful. So why not?

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My objective was to not "kill" the wonderful, unique, and delicate flavor of the Uni. I wanted everything to be in harmony, yet not boring. I guess you'd call it "fusion" without "con-fusion".

The bread I picked up from Paris Bakery.

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In homage to the Vietnamese Banh Mi Trung, I added some Maggi to the eggs, because as we all know, "Maggi makes everything taste better"! And some sea salt.

For texture, and to balance out the richness, I used the ubiquitous Vietnamese pickled radish and carrots. In addition, instead of cilantro, I added some Kaiware (daikon sprouts). I think a touch of mayo might have been nice, but pate would have killed the sandwich.

There's not much more except for some photos:

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UniBanhMi07Wow, this was "killer", I was amazed at how good this was. The pickles cut the richness, the sprouts added a bit of "spice" and bite, the Maggi added a nice "umami", and you could still taste the wonderful "soul of the ocean"! Not a cheap Banh Mi, but man was it good!

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So no Kimchi and Peanut Butter Banh Mi this time around. But the saying still runs true; everything tastes better in a Banh Mi! 

Has it been four years already?

For some reason, I always think that May 27th is our Blogga-versary…….and luckily, every year I check, to find that "gasp!!!" it's actually May 26th. So yes, it's Spam Musubi time again:

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D6005252009 001 Yes, another year, with great food, great fun, and wonderful FOYs (friends of yoso)! Hard to believe. In a world where things change so quickly, I think that for better or worse, we've kinda stayed the same. What started as a way for the Missus and I to keep track of, and share what we ate, our little food-diary of sorts has grown a bit, with FOYs like Cathy and Ed from Yuma providing much more food and color. And posts listing places ranging far and wide, not only San Diego, Yuma, and SoCal…but from Detroit and Madison, to Seattle and Portland, to Peru and Laos. But it's still a bunch of folks just eating and writing about it. It has been a great four years. I'm hoping that the next year will be a great one as well. I'd like to keep going until I run out of candle space on the musubi!!!

I'm a bit curious…… if you've been reading regularly; I'm wondering how long have you been an FOY?

A most humble thank you for reading, commenting…. and especially for taking the time out to check us out!

    

Sunday Stuffs

Just a few Sunday Stuffs…….

Thanks Dennis!

I recently had the opportunity of grabbing some lunch with fellow food blogger Dennis, who does the wonderful food blog, A Radiused Corner. Dennis, being the generous soul that he is, brought me a gift:

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SundayStuffs02 It was a fabulous, and apparently well known Raayu (Rayu), chili oil,  from Ishigaki-jima, one of the Islands in Okinawa prefecture. And to even make it more special, this raayu was bought from the actual restaurant that produces it.Geeez, so what can I say, except a humble thanks!

And one more thing Dennis, you've made a life-long fan in the Missus, who loves this stuff on everything, from Banh Mi, to Her bowl of Shio Ramen from Santouka. 

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She loves the sweet-nutty-slightly spicy flavor of this chili oil. As we would say "back home", She believes this would make Her "rubbah zori" taste good!

I have had to request permission to get a few precious, delicious drops of this ambrosia for my personal use.

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It's going to be a sad day in the mmm-yoso household when the raayu runs out……

Just as I've found over the years…..food bloggers are some of the most generous folks! So please read Dennis's food blog when you have a chance. 

Thanks again Dennis!

Sushi Deli returns (again):

SushiDeliOnemoretime01While driving to Mitsuwa, I noticed some construction taking place at the old Rosie & Joe's Grill and Cantina site on Armour Street. And much to my surprise, it looks like Sushi Deli is being resurrected.

I guess they figure that the closer they get to Mitsuwa, the better business will be? This side street doesn't generate much traffic, but at least I guess there will be ample parking? Frankly, I'd eat the pre-packaged sushi from Mitsuwa or Nijiya before I'd eat at Sushi Deli again….but if it floats your boat….

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Adovo Anyone?:

So said the sign at Sizzler, in of all places National City:

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I'm sure that Sizzler is doing this to attract more Filipino customers. But wouldn't it help to spell what many consider to be the Filipino National Dish correctly?

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This leads to so many questions; such as, did they lose all their "B's", and maybe couldn't afford replacements? I'm sure you all can come up with some interesting questions. The biggest question in my mind is, what kind of "adovo"…..vhicken or vork?

What is the correct thing to do when someone's groceries makes a break for it?

We were having dinner at Pho Lucky, when I heard a "swish-swish-swish", and noticed that the plastic shopping bag on the seat across from us was twisting, turning, and bouncing up and down. The lady sitting next to the bag was totally oblivious. Soon enough the bag flopped off the chair, and hit the ground. The lady kept eating her Pho, and just ignored it……

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Talk about distracting! Soon enough, the bag started making its way down the aisle. Finally, one of the Servers picked it up, and returned it to the chair, and the woman didn't even blink an eye! I'm still wondering what was in that bag???? Must be fish, since I didn't see any live frogs for sale at Lucky Seafood. The Missus and I were mesmerized by that plastic shopping bag……..

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend!

An Uni – licious Saturday – Live Uni from San Diego Kelpbed Products, Little Italy Mercato

I readily admit that I don't do a good job on keeping tabs on what is the latest, or greatest "thing" going on. But on occasion, I will read something that will grab my attention. This past Friday, I was "surfing along", when I decided to check out The Readers Food and Drink section, and lo' and behold, Ed Bedford's column was on a stand selling live uni at the Saturday Little Italy Mercato. Way to go Ed….….

So this morning I headed over to Little Italy, found parking with no problem, and walked a block over to the Mercato. Traffic, both the four wheeled and two legged kind was very light, and right at the South end of the Market, I saw the booth for San Diego Kelpbed Products.

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And yes, there it was…….wriggling quills moving with slow, pulsing, almost mechanical smoothness. Heidi explained that these were Red Sea Urchin, and than raised her hands showing me the red pigmentation that the urchin gave off. 

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The booth is manned by Heidi and her daughter Rosemary. Heidi is treasure trove of information on Sea Urchin. Stuff like sea urchins can live a very long life(100 + years), and can keep reproducing until they are very old. As such, harvesting these keeps the population in check, which in turn does our Kelp Beds a favor. And then the magic words were spoken, "would you like a taste?"  Are you kidding me????

Rosemary set to work, and had a much too easy time cracking and cleaning the uni……she cracked with the skill derived from tons of practice.

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These 'nads had a bright almost reddish-orange color, with a nice, mild sweetness, and rich, briney flavor…..call it the kiss of the ocean if you desire. The flesh was creamy without disintegrating, and the fragrance hinted of the sea. And at four bucks a pop, I bought two…….

When I arrived home, I placed my uni in some old pasta bowls I had and put them in the fridge.Uni-licious06 I had been told that the uni would live two to three days in my fridge. You can tell they're alive by touching them……the spines will move. Of course, every half hour or so, I'd open the fridge, and pet my uni……

After completing all of my chores, I finally set out to work on my urchin. I have had more than my share of uni, but I had never cracked a large one myself. Back home in Hawaii, I've eaten smaller seas urchin (called `ina ), but had not really eaten the bigger "wana" (vana). After watching Rosemary, I was sure that I could do at least, a third rate job. Rosemary worked with a small slotted spoon and a pair of Uni-licious07 kitchen shears. Unlike what one of my friends say….you don't need a "special tool" to remove the gonads from the urchins. Though I wish I had a small slotted spoon…..

Actually, cracking it was easy….first you remove it's "beak". I used my pairing knife to cut around the "mouth". Someone once told me that the Old Hawaiians would place salt around, and in the mouth of the "Wana", and let it sit overnight. Cracks would then form around the mouth, making the uni easy to crack. I was much too impatient to even think about trying this.

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Mouth removed, the uni looked like this:

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I turned the uni over and drained the kelp(and other stuff) speckled seawater into the sink. I than Uni-licious10found two of the seams, and cut along them, splitting the uni in half. I than scooped out the orange 'nads, and placed them in a bowl of clean water. I carefully scraped all of the detritus off them. I moved the cleaned uni pieces into another bowl of clean water, just to make sure I got everything off. I dried the uni briefly on paper towels, and ate them up…..plain…..it was excellent. I won't win for style or presentation points, you can pay your extra twenty bucks for that……

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As I was washing the red pigment off my fingers….I wondered why I hadn't done this before. Perhaps it was the $4 a piece price……or maybe just watching the ease with which Rosemary went about cleaning the uni…..or maybe it was just the right time.

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Funny thing was, the other uni, which I had this evening was even better…the flesh was that reddish-orange hue….and it was just sublime. Folks say that San Diego has some of the best Uni in the world…..so why don't you try it out, and form your own opinion.

And while you're at it, enjoy the Little Italy Mercato, on Saturdays between 9am and 130pm, located on Date Street, between Kettner and Union.

I picked out some other stuff as well……

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So Wrong, part one

mmm-yoso!! is a blog about food, written by a few friends.  Today, ed (from Yuma) and Kirk are busy, so Cathy is stepping in with a short post.

Hi.  I haven't posted in a while.  Life has been kind of busy and both The Mister and myself had that fever/cough/crud/spitting thing going on, so, even though we were eating, nothing seemed interesting enough to write about.  But I took some photos anyhow.   I decided to share some oddities.  This is the first episode.

It was Lent.  40 days of some sort of sacrifice before Easter.  Usually people give up some sort of food as their sacrifice.  Sometimes it is just not eating meat.  Every fast food restaurant had some sort of fish sandwich/deal going on.

Wendy's Fish sandwich008, which was really good.

Jack in the Box had a great deal.013

My ever favorite McDonald's Filet O Fish Fridays011

Then, I saw this at Der Weinerschnitzel.

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You know I had to stop and try it.

Because it looked ..so wrong… So very, very wrong.

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Basically a fish stick on a hot dog bun, with lettuce and tartar sauce.  Less than $2. 

It did taste pretty good, quite a heavy/large fish stick which was fried properly and served on a steamed bun with iceberg lettuce and a vinegary tartar sauce.

Conclusion: don't judge by looks.

Secondary conclusion: There may be a Food Stylist job open soon.

It's almost the weekend.  Hope everyone has been having a good week, even though Tax Day was in the middle.

Sunday Stuffs: San Diego Food Blog Search, Who said you can’t get crisp sweet potato fries, and I take direction well.

The San Diego Food Blog Search.

I originally saw a post by Krista, whose blog, londonelicious is required reading for yoso. In that post she mentioned creating a Google Custom Search using various London based food bloggers. In one of those "now why didn't I think of that" moments, I thought it might be a nice idea to create a Google Search Engine of San Diego Food Bloggers. There are so many excellent food bloggers in San Diego, and this might be a nice way to see what they think about a restaurant, or even snag a recipe. You'll find the search in the left sidebar, right below the site search. Let me know how you like it…..

And if you're a San Diego Food Blogger, and I have somehow missed you, please let me know…..I managed to add 48 food blogs, but am pretty sure I've missed a few. I know I should do more with regards to making things more useful….but it seems I'm always busy eating!!!

Who said you can't get crisp sweet potato fries?

I sorta-kinda remember a conversation somewhere……

Well, I recently had some pretty darn good sweet potato fries, that were crisp, and tasty.

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I managed to save some for the Missus, and was even given some specific instructions on how to reheat them. Of course, the Missus disregarded the instructions, but enjoyed them all the same.

So where did I get these?

Well, it was Crab Hut. Very tasty, and kinda reminded me of the sweet potatoes used in Banh Tom. (Here's a recipe from  Wandering Chopsticks)  

Crab Hut

4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
858-565-1678

Open Daily from 12noon – 10pm

Previous posts on Crab Hut can be found here and here.

I've always taken instruction well:

**** Surati Farsan Mart has closed

Leave it to the Missus, after my post on Surati Farsan, and my mentioning how Indian Cuisine was something She needed to be in the mood to have….she was suddenly….in the mood. So we headed off for Surati Farsan. 

It seemed like an overwhelming favorite here is the Chole Samosa:

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04112009 013 The Chole which could be described in the most simplest terms as a chickpea curry, was nice with some savory-spicy overtones. It was perhaps a bit too sweet for my taste, but when I made sure to include the onions in every bite, it became an excellent dish. The samosa was fried to perfection, and filled with vegetables, added more of a nice textural counter-point.

Even though this was pretty filling, I ordered something else I had been wanting to try. I had read an article on Vada Pav, actually it was on a chain called Jumbo King, a chain inspired by McDonald's, which took the Vada Pav, a popular street food in Mumbai, and made it a national phenomenon. You can also read another article here. So without further ado, let me introduce Surati Farsan's Pav Vada:

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Yes indeed it is the one and only…..potato potato patty "burger". They come two to an order at Surati Farsan.

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Nice potato flavor, mildly spiced, and crisp around the edges.The bun was quite a simple burger bun-ish, but there was a nice smear of a garlic chutney. You can also get you Pav Vada with cheese! The Missus loved the potato croquettish patty, I loved the chutney, and got many happy returns from it the entire afternoon (too much info, I know). Not quite sure if I'd get this again…..but it was amausing to say the least.

So what did the always adventurous Missus get?

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Sigh….. A Masala Dosa. Oh well, at least one of us broadened our horizons a bit…….

Surati Farsan Mart
9494 Black Mountain Road
San Diego, CA 92126

My previous post on Surati Farsan can be found here.

Saturday Stuffs: United Oriental Food Market closed, what’s going on in the Osaka Kitchen location, and I salute our FOYs.

United Oriental Food Market is closed:

This one was from FOY, Saya, who mentioned in passing that United Oriental had closed. I always drive past this location, but I guess I wasn't paying much attention. 

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The sign doesn't say much. Too bad…….

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More about the old Osaka Kitchen location:

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the folks who own Okan are taking over this spot. I recently had the pleasure of grabbing a bite with Ed from Yuma and Cathy at Okan. At the end of the meal, I had a chance to speak to Nanase, the young lady who does a fantastic job of managing Okan. I mentioned the Osaka Kitchen spot, and was told that this location will specialize in Nabe  and grilled items. And was most surprised to learn that they intent to open this month! No wonder the place is being worked on during weekends as well.

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From the it's right under my nose files:

This place has opened in Diane Village shopping center.

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And being the bozo that I am….I didn't even notice until recently. Well, that's to be rectified soon…a post is coming right up.

A salute to all our FOYs:

I had notice something interesting a while back………. the mention of oatmeal in the wonderful comments. At first I thought it was just "Judy", but after reading through some older posts, I noticed that Oatmeal seemed to be the FOY's (friends of yoso) breakfast item of choice. It all came to a head in the comments of this post.  So let's hear it….. am I correct?

Anyway, to all our oatmeal eating FOYs, I salute you:

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I hope everyone is having a great weekend!