yoso-silly – Page 34

Road Trip-Day Five: Detroit/Ann Arbor, MI to St Louis-ish, MO

November 27, 2007 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Detroit, Michigan, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog, written in some creative ways. This time it is Cathy, writing about food across America and back. We are now heading back … towards San Diego.

Hello again. We are all back in the car and heading west…albeit slowly. First, breakfast…

Cracker Barrel is along our entire driving route- except, not in California-the closest one to us is 3 hours away, in Yuma. It is good in the sense that all are laid out the same way and I know exactly where the restrooms are-just past the "General Store" lobby (filled with souvenirs and knick knacks and candies)…and they serve breakfast all day. There is a small game on every simply set table. Coffee is $1.39-but I am spoiled by the consistency of Starbucks- cross country(as a side note- we used 6 tanks of fuel and 7 stops at Starbucks on this drive East) I can get a fresh cup of coffee whenever we stop; I can tell you stories of the strangest tasting brown colored hot water I have consumed on prior road trips. This year the signage for Starbucks is better( "Exit 159, Turn Left" with a Starbucks symbol, nothing else) and there are more locations right off the freeway.

So, back to Cracker Barrel, The Mister got the "Holiday Sampler" breakfast plate ($7.19) A choice of country or sugar ham, a slice of wonderful country bacon (it is not crispy, but a cured smoked ham thin sliced and pan fried -different than what most of you grew up with), a wonderful sausage patty, two eggs, hash browns, spiced apples, grits, a regular biscuit, an apple biscuit and country gravy-not too spicy(needed to add pepper), not at all lumpy.Plenty of food. I got the two biscuits with ham and side of spiced apples- they are cooked with the skins on….still crispy in a thick, non-cinnamon, non-sweet sauce.

One thing I like about Cracker Barrel is that you can get a book on tape (or CD) at one location and then drive while listening to it and return it at any other location whenever. It ends up costing you less than $5 and is a good way to pass time if you don't have satellite radio. Regular AM/FM stations end up fading so fast while driving (at best one station will last 2 hours) that having something to hold your concentration, besides conversation, helps tremendously.

Wonderful… said our goodbyes and and we were off in the car again. First stop, the University of Michigan. North Campus. Food.

Yes, you are reading correct- Bagel Fragel. A fragel is …yep, a fried bagel.

Raisin packed bagel dough, fried to a golden brown (instead of boiled). Coated in cinnamon sugar. More sugar than cinnamon-perfect. (I don't crave cinnamon) (89¢) An Ann Arbor tradition for 30 years. {The original Bagel Fragel place used to be located on South University, but now is North of North Campus, on Plymouth Road.} I would get one every Saturday morning. Had to get one now. Had to. While I could. It is bread-y inside and the crust is lightly crispy…not hard…still chewy but a little crunch. Healthier than a donut…not as healthy as bagel…like I care.

A salt bagel, toasted, with butter. (72¢) It is quite difficult to find salt bagels around San Diego. These are good, fresh, inexpensive….and salty! The shop also sells muffins, danishes, sandwiches and breakfast bagels.

Then the traditional Ann Arbor stop at The Cube, a beautiful installation art piece that spins on its axis, either with the help of a push, or just the wind. Made in 1966-67, by Tony Rosenthal, it is located near the Michigan Union, {just off of State Street, on Maynard} and has a "twin"of itself in New York City. As a size reference, the corners parallel to the ground are worn out. Those corners are arm level – where you push.

Then, our primary traditional food indulgence. Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger. This small restaurant (Capacity of 50) seems to be patronized by a lot of people after graduation. The people working the grill were commenting about how many "old" people were in there when we were. Eh, after Thanksgiving, the town seemed filled with alumnae. The Mister and I both lived in South Quad, a dorm located only a block away from Blimpy's and frequented this simple restaurant regularly when undergrads.

You walk in, between tables, and queue up. The menu is on the wall behind the tray line (click to enlarge and read).

You grab a tray and tell the cook your order. Then you watch it being made. The beef is ground daily, set up as a ball of meat in single, double, triple and quad packs, and slapped down on the grill to cook and seasoned with a salt/pepper mix. If you are getting fried items, you order from the fry cook…finished sandwich items are

topped to your wishes (ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles, raw onions, relish, yellow peppers) and wrapped at the end of the line … you pay and find a seat.

Mine. Double. Provolone. Fried egg. Mayo. Tomato. Onion. Pickle. ($2.85 plus 55 cents for the egg)

His. Triple. Blue cheese. Everything but onion. ($3.95)

Small mixed fried veggies. ($3.45) We sat at 2 of the 5 barstools looking out the front window, onto South Division, as we had many years ago. Enjoyed every last bite.

Oh, the burgers are juicy, flavorful and absolutely the best you will ever have. It has been said you can feel your arteries hardening with each bite. The mixed fries are plentiful, lightly crispy, not too greasy..a mix of onions, zucchini, cauliflower, mushrooms-no potatoes…perfect. We cleaned our tray and left…already awaiting the next visit. It is cheaper than food…and so good.

We ate more today, but I will just add it to tomorrow's post…

Cracker Barrel website. Numerous locations.

MD Bagel Fragel (734)332-1020 North Campus (Plymouth Road)

Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger 551 S. Division, Ann Arbor 48104 (734)663-4590

***Krazy Jim's closed on August 15, 2013 after 60 years. It should be re-opening and the date and location will be announced on its Web Page

Road Trip-Happy Thanksgiving from Detroit

November 22, 2007 Cathy Cooking, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog -a diary of food eaten- written by a bunch of friends independently of each other. This is Cathy, who is in Detroit with her family.

Good wishes to you and your family from all of us.

in the midwestern United States. Ham, with an orange marmalade/mustard glaze, cheesy potato hot dish Kielbasa, roast beef Turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole..other stuff too. and three pies…mince (apples and raisin filling), black forest pie (made by my nephew) and pumpkin pie (made by my niece). Including Staples the traveling poodle (in the wind)… and Gizmo, the much traveled cat, with snow flurries on his back… I hope all of you are having a good meal with family and friends and that we all have something to be thankful for. It is a good time to reflect.

Road Trip-Day Three: Joplin, MO-Detroit, MI

November 21, 2007 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Chains, Detroit, Michigan, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is the food blog. Cathy is blogging about food and some other stuff this Thanksgiving week.

Hi. Yes the third day in the car with The Mister, one small dog and one cat. We do this. Annually. You get to peek in and see what it is like, sort of. I would like to take this time to let everyone know that XM stereo radio is the most wonderful invention, ever.

One small note. yesterday (or the day before-it is all a blur), we had passed under the World’s Largest McDonald’s, which crosses over the Will Rogers Turnpike in Oklahoma. Usually we stop- as there is fuel sold on either side- but we did not need to this time. I’ll post more on the way back. I know someone may have noticed… In the morning, we stopped at the Russell Stover/Whitman’s Chocolates "Superstore"…the adversting has changed; it used to be an "outlet" and does sell some candies in a "scratch and dent/basic box style, as we,, as items in the fancy wrapped boxes for less than list price. My brother happens to crave the butter toffee almond sticks…and I had a few of the samples offered. They also sell Blue Bunny ice cream cream in the store- not that I wanted any; it was very windy and about 50 outside..ooohhh…cold (for us from California)…. We ended up stopping at a Panera in Rolla, MO so I could post yesterday, and then driving on. Then, the outskirts of St. Louis and a Local Chain- Lion’s Choice. A simple menu and simple decor. You can have the beef on your sandwich cooked to your liking if it is available (you know, they do run out of rare at some point in the day) although you would have to wait for ‘well done’, since most of the beef is rare to medium rare… and the meat on the sandwich is topped with a seasoning salt- but it is not too salty; in this case, we asked for it to be cooked as rare as possible…and the bread is toasted and buttered….in the photo, the top is the large, bottom is a small…there is au jus available (it is not at all salty) as well as horseradish sauce….it isthe most wonderful roast beef sandwich, ever. If you see a Lion’s Choice, you should stop and partake.Oh, the small was $2.79 and large was $3.29 and that is a small fries.

Then, seemingly soon, we were in Illinois…and this sign, which we always see off the side of the road…Foot High Pies. You can see the building used to be a Stuckey’s. Most of the height is the merengue, of course. We got a slice of chocolate and one of banana- also available are coconut and lemon. $4 each slice and $14 for the whole pie… it is wonderful and so fresh. The restaurant makes great food…menu on wall in back…We will have to eat there next time….

Not much scenery for you, for now…It was a driving day… Gotta go shopping. Now. Bye!

Road Trip-Day Two: Albuquerque, NM-Joplin, MO

November 20, 2007 Cathy Albuquerque, American/New American Restaurants, Chains, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!! s a food blog, with diversions. It is a Holiday week. Cathy is silly and blogging it. Enjoy.

Hi. It is me again, with another day of my life, with food. Online. Really. The Mister and I are driving, taking photos, downloading and sharing another day on the road, driving across America. We stopped for fuel at a Loves Truck Stop, where we have seen (forever) "Chester's Fried Chicken" being sold and decided, for the sake of the blog, to try a three piece combination (three breast strips, three potato wedges and a roll for $3.59)…wow=excellent light breading with a nice heat spice kick. We also ordered a medium fried chicken livers($3.29) Very juicy, fresh and the breading was spiced nicely. Justg a bit of heat and salty. Really. We figured this would not be good and were glad how wrong we were.

It turns out that only 30 Loves fuel stations also offer Chester's, and I think we saw them all. The closest one to San Diego is on I-10 just after you get onto it when driving from Gila Bend to Phoenix. It is *really* good fried chicken. When The Mister and I drive through Amarillo every year, w stop at a Classic American Art Installation project,Cadillac Ranch. It changes daily, by the participation of the viewers of the art. Here is a photo when we visited two years ago…

You can see there are ten older Cadillac cars buried inthe ground, and spray painted randomly. Last night, it was after sunset. There was a half moon out. The cars are a good 1/2 mile from the road. The Mister and I walked. We left, and you know we had been there…

This morning- Waffle House! A staple restaurant in Mid America. Each stand alone building has 9 booths and 5 barstools at the counter. The menus are the same. Basic breakfast served 24 hours a day, served up by efficient grill cooks and pleasant waitresses who all call you "Dear" no matter your age.

The Mister ordered a bit of everything, with a waffle, eggs over easy, hash browns with cheese and sasuage. I got the cheese scrambled eggs with grits and bacon …and, of course, raisin toast, which is served with apple jam.

And so, we are still driving….seeing the beauty of Mid America, and the changing seasons and weather… and the tourist traps from the freeway…

So, from somewhere in Missouri-this is Cathy-driving away….

Road Trip-Day One: San Diego, CA- Albuquerque, NM

November 19, 2007 Cathy Albuquerque, American/New American Restaurants, Chains, Road Trip, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is a food blog-a diary of what a bunch of friends eat. Occasionally we explain why we happen to be eating whatever, wherever. Cathy is merely blogging what she usually does at this time of the year.

Hi. Yes, you read the title correctly. This is a blogging of what The Mister and I do for Thanksgiving every year -except for last year-

because I tripped, fell, was in a cast TO MY SHOULDER for about 7 weeks, and so driving a manual transmissioned car for days at a time was out of the question.

Yes, days at a time. Because of the ability to transmit from my iBook directly to the internet, when there is a connection, you-all of you reading this- get to share in a drive almost all the way across the Continental United States, and back. With food and sights.

So, really late Sunday afternoon, The Mister and I left the house, grabbing one cat (he is diabetic and needs insulin twice a day), one dog (her 'sister' died a few weeks ago and so I am trying to pay a little bit more attention to her), my auto reload Starbucks card ( a wonderful thing; once the balance gets below $15, my AmEx credit card automatically reloads this one with another $20), a small suitcase and jumped in the car and started driving…we left 7 cats, 3 dogs and three large birdcages of parakeets, finches and canaries for my Dear Neighbor, Ms. N, to play with for a few days…and we started driving.

We didn't do much in the way of eating, except for In-N-Out in Yuma (sorry, ed) I apologize for the post looking kind of odd; I haven't ever posted using a Mac; only the PC… So, when we stopped for fuel, we saw this, leaving a gas pump: Absolutely the *coolest* dune buggy.. The scenery leaving Campo, with the electric generating windmills was beautiful. We spent the night in Camp Verde, AZ at a Quality Inn and had a simple-do it yourself breakfast I had a hard boiled egg, a toasted bagel with butter and grape jelly, an orange and some oatmeal, as well as orange juice and hot tea (Only buying coffee at Starbucks and have taken photos of each cup we bought…at four different Starbucks as of this posting. When we got to Winslow, AZ, we saw Sonic! and we had to… We each got a Brakfast sandwich- on Texas Toast. Egg, cheese and bacon for me, sausage for The Mister. Also some tots and -oh yes- the fried macaroni and cheese nuggets… Sonic is a Drive in, much like was common in the 1950's. You cannot walk inside and have to order from the menu board voice system next to where you park. Then a live person comes out with your order and takes your money and gives you change. They make great burgers, hot dogs and shakes. You'll see soon enough. Other sites we have seen today includ the Worlds Largest Kokopelli: and just beautiful scenery of the American West. Erosion is really neat. Yes, I am posting this from a Starbucks in Albuquerque. It is Monday, about 12:45 p.m. in San Diego time. We have to get to Amarillo before dark. Hope all of you are having a good short week.

Silly Saturday- Kirk is away and Cathy will play-More Little Secrets.

September 22, 2007 mmm-yoso Sandwiches, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is the blog about food. Enjoy reading and vicariously sharing in Cathy’s meals today.

Yes, Kirk is still in Peru. Ed is busy grading papers in Yuma. It is my blog for now and a dreary, rainy day in San Diego. I am not at the Red Bull Air Races, not at Street Scene or a Padre Game. I am at home with the camera and have a bunch of small notes I want to share with you. I know you are reading the blog no matter what. All of these notes have a bit to do with food. Don’t tell me you don’t understand the places I am talking about. Most of you know this McDonald’s . It is the one on Clairmont Mesa across from the San Diego Superior Court-Traffic Court,, if you are *really* familiar.

They modernized it -Big Time-I am talking the outdoor area has a waterfall. It is a work of

art, built into that wall. The permanent tables and chairs on the tile floors are sturdier and nicer than before.

Then inside- yes- you see one of the TWO flat screen televisions, each set to a different channel and with closed captioning on, in case it is noisy. There are several bar-height tables, also. Now- look- yes in the back by the rest rooms. A small library/sitting area. The books are on the Honor System. You can take them. They ask that you please bring them back. Cool. This is McDonald’s. Very nice. Menu is the same. This location also is one of the few that has $1.29 Fillet O Fish Fridays all year, not just during Lent. That is my dirty secret of what I eat at McDonald’s.

Not to be outdone, the Jack in the Box in Santee also had a complete re-doing of its interior this month. No television, but three bar stool height tables as well as a counter with permanent bar stools and new tables and chairs.

My dirty secret from Jack in the Box- those darn 2 for 99¢ tacos. I don’t know what the recipe is. The meat is mushy, finely ground, sort of like baby food, but has this addictive flavor along with lettuce, cheese, salsa and the corn tortilla is fried flat and …gosh I love those tacos.

A biggie secret, which many people have told me is this one. Yes, Hometown Buffet.

They think because I am so into eating, that I would not consider this place.

Ha. The only thing I do

not consider are ‘rules’ . There are no rules. [Remember this in all aspects of life, if nothing else. ]

I get the fried chicken here, always the fried chicken. I can’t make this at home. I also just fill a soup bowl with mashed potatoes and gravy. Salty, sticky brown flavored gravy.

I put some of the already dressed Cesar salad on the bottom of the salad plate, then spinach on top of it, then mushrooms, cucumbers, onions and beets, beets, beets and some sunflower seeds. My salad.

Then it is time for dessert. Again, no rules. Get a glass. Fill it halfway with vanilla soft serve. Get another glass. Fill that one halfway with root beer. Combine. Root beer float.

Yay! I do also like the Waldorf Salad here. Red and green apples, raisins and walnuts in a mayonnaise sauce. That is also part of my dessert.

OK. my one real sweet craving. These- and only these- cookies. Biscos Sugar Wafers. They are either on a top shelf or a bottom shelf and absolutely never on sale. There are three packages wrapped within the big package, so I can make these last a long time. They are soooo good. Delicate and not artificial tasting.

Last secret- today is the middle day between The Mister’s birthday and my birthday. We went to Anthony’s for lunch, got everything we wanted and our very nice waitress, Kathy, brought us a slice of this ice cream pie. The ice cream had almonds in it and hot fudge on top and real whipped cream and the crust was Oreo cookies with butter. Salty tasting. I ate the crust. Yum. Happy Birthday, Sweetie.

Hope you are having a nice weekend.

Midweek Munchies

August 29, 2007 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

Just a few "hump day" items……

From the Unfortunate Names File:

I don’t know which marketing genius decided on the names for this duo of snacks, but after seeing them at Nijiya(thanks for the reminder Clea!), I just had to buy them for the Missus(plus they were on sale, and really cheap).

Nothing like a snack of Cream ~~Colon~~ Collon:

Followed up with some ~~Puka~~ Pucca Chocolate!

Yes, now I can honestly say I had a snack of Cream Colon, with some Chocolate Pucca! How’s that for a conversation starter?

Actually the Cream Collon are thin, crisp, biscuit tubes filled with a light but very sweet cream filling…what else would you expect from a Collon? The Pucca, are fish shaped pretzels with a chocolate filling.

In this photo, it’s Collon’s to the left, and Pucca’s to the right:

A Day at the Races:

Well, since the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club race season is almost over, I thought I’d better do this post. I recently got an invite to a day at the races, and though the Missus wasn’t interested, I thought I’d check it out, for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve never been to Horse Races, and never to the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Second, the invitation was for one of the Celebrity Suites, I think it was the Bing Crosby Suite("where the surf meets the turf in old Del Mar…"). Third, and most importantly, it was a lunch buffet. You know there’s a food angle, right? Because the invitation was for 2, I invited Captain Jack uber-blogger who does San Diego Restaurant Reviews. The suite thing was kinda interesting, this suite was on the Fifth Level, so you get a bird’s-eye view of the proceedings.

On this beautiful San Diego day, the track is quite a lovely sight.

The Celebrity Suites share their own betting windows(don’t ask how I did..please….), and more importantly, the bar:

What about the food?

I really didn’t expect much…..and it lived up to expectations.

This was called the "Little Italy Buffet" and consisted of Antipasto, Tortellini, and the like…..

The Sweet and Hot Italian Sausages with onions and peppers was probably the best thing…

Captain Jack said that the desserts were pretty good….though I did not partake.

Good looking stuff, and a nice selection.

Overall nothing to write home about, but this day was mostly for socializing and having a good time.

Sure seems like Akira and Reiko are having a good time with the desserts!

A few more photos…..

The Paddock area where the horses are saddled and paraded before each race:

All the bettors can check out the horses. We also noticed that some of the horse’s tongues looked like they were sticking out. One of the serious gamblers told us that the tongues of some horses are tied so that they aren’t swallowed during the race.

Kind of freaked me out a bit…..

We also checked out a race from the lower level.

Really hot and crowded, but pretty exciting.

And than there’s this. Any guesses?

No, its not some mind altering substance. This strange whitish substance is called Polytrack, the new racing surface that was put in to promote safety of both the Horses and the Jockeys. It is made up of recycled rubber, sand, and "other" stuff covered in wax-like coating.

Interesting stuff….

All in all, a nice time, mainly because I was able to chat and socialize with folks I hadn’t seen in a while, like the great folks from Metro Gourmet, I must’ve chatted with Cheryl for over an hour. It was a nice time, as you can tell by the expression on Scott’s face.

It was nice meeting some nice people like Dave as well!

Am I a Schmoozer?

I dunno, but I guess the "Steamy One", aka Jaden of Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen awarded me the "Blogging Community Involvement Award".

Hmmm, "the power of schmooze"? I’ve never considered Myself a schmoozer…..but at least I’m not alone. Jaden also awarded the "Blue Badge of Schmooze" to Luna Pier Cook, Big Boys Oven, 80 Breakfasts, Vanilla Garlic, and FOY(Friend of Yoso) Wandering Chopsticks(bummer, now I can’t award WC!). All great blogs, written by wonderful bloggers.

So who do I think are first class blogging Schmoozers?

Chubbypanda – Talk about a world class schmoozer!

Elmo of Monster Munching – The Schmooze Monster Himself!

Kathy of A Passion For Food – Always finds time to Schmooze.

Captain Jack – Since I needed to include someone from San Diego…plus He’s a lot bigger than me!

And a special hibernating Schmoozer award to Reid of Ono Kine Grindz who I hope will be back in schmoozing form soon.

Have great week!

Saturday Stuffs……

August 25, 2007 mmm-yoso Cooking, Mexican Restaurants, yoso-silly

More aimless weekend wandering………

Juanita’s Tamales:

The Missus sent me on a mission early on a recent weekend, She had been craving Barbacoa from La Nortenita. Unfortunately, suffering from some "vapor-lock" I arrived and parked on Imperial Avenue at 8am…..the restaurant opens at 830! So with some time on my hands, I went for a very hot and sweaty stroll. And on my way back, I decided to grab some tamales from the Tamale cart that always occupies the corner of 25th and Imperial.

I ended up buying 2 pork and 2 chicken($1.25/ea) from the funny Lady who laughed at my pronunciation of "Pollo"……

The Missus is the Tamale eater in the family, and She had a Chicken to start:

Her verdict? Nice flavor, decent amount of chicken, but way too dry……

Coming soon to San Diego:

We were driving down Clairemont Mesa Boulevard when a "coming soon" sign caught my eye. I immediately turned into the parking lot of the strip mall that Thai Cafe is located in, and this is what I saw:

It seems that the Hot Pot fad that had hit the San Gabriel Valley is making its way to San Diego. I know it is much too hot to think about Hot Pot right now, but I’m looking forward to this restaurant. From the sign, it looks to be an outlet of Little (Fat) Sheep, a Hot Pot chain. Hot Pot is kinda going out of style in LA, the Hacienda Heights location of Little Sheep closed down a few months ago. You can read about Little Sheep on Professor Salt’s blog here. So let’s see it took 4 years(after moving from LA) for us to get good Sichuan, 6 years for Marukai, maybe by 2010 we’ll see some Hunan food?

From the "making it’s way to San Diego" department……

Some fads hit quicker than others. Remember the post on the San Gabriel "foot fetish"? Well guess what I saw today?

I guess some fads don’t take very long to get here…..might come in handy if you do a lot of Barefoot Running!

From the "What been cooking" department:

This past weekend the Missus wanted me to grill some Hot Dogs, and joy of joys, She even let me know a day beforehand! Since we’d be grilling, I went and picked up a few "goodies" for me. I went to Zion Market and picked up some thick cut Short Ribs for Kalbi:

I decided to do something I hadn’t done in years…many, many years. That would be to butterfly my short ribs. Back home in Hawaii, my friends and I used to call this "Korean-style" Kalbi, mainly because in most of the good Korean Restaurants didn’t serve cross-cut ribs, but butterflied thick cut ribs.

You separate the ribs into sections…"riblets" if you will.

Making sure that one end has a decent thickness of meat on it, you position the rib bone side down and cut across right above the bone, making sure to NOT cut all the way through. You fold that portion over and continue making 2-3 "flaps".

One thing I quickly noticed, I haven’t done this in a verrrrry long time, and am severely out of practice. So basically my cuts sucked….

Still with my usual Kalbi marinade, it tasted pretty good.

Making the most of my grilling opportunity, I went looking for some chicken…but for some reason, I couldn’t find anything satisfactory, so I modified my "half-cup" chicken marinade, and bought a Tri-tip from Seisel’s. Usually, it’s a half cup of Creamy Peanut Butter, Soy sauce, Sugar, Beer, and Miso, with some garlic and ginger. This time a doubled the sugar and miso, and added this:

And some Red Pepper Flakes for zip. The Sichuan Peppercorns I added having tasted Professor Salt’s fantastic Tri-tip.

Turned out much better than I thought it would……..though next time I’m adding even more Sichuan Peppercorns!

Photo of the week:

If this pooch could talk….

He/She’d be saying, "are we there yet???"

Midweek Meanderings

August 1, 2007 mmm-yoso Cooking, Markets & Grocers, Vietnamese Restaurants, yoso-silly

Just a few midweek odds and ends, and other stuff….

Just An Observation

I was having lunch at Pho Hoa Hiep recently, when I gave my Com Tam dish (Com Tam Bi Cha Suon Nuong – $5.80) a "break" and came up for air.

As I gazed across the restaurant, I noticed something. Two-thirds of the customers were non-Vietnamese! During a meal a few days later, I noticed the same thing. I recall that when I first started eating here, almost all the customers were Vietnamese. I couldn’t help but smile…… You see, sometimes when I read that the "Best Chinese Restaurant" in San Diego is PF Chang’s(Pick up Stix is #4!), the "Best Japanese" is Benihana (Todai is #6!), sheesh…. This mild change in demographics tells me that San Diego’s tastes are changing, albeit slowly, and people are trying new things.

I think it’s a wonderful thing….

BTW, the Com Tam was pretty good, the pork chop was moist and tender, if a bit shy in flavor, shredded pork is tricky, this version was soft and moist, not the dry and tough stringy stuff. Not bad at all.

Rice Is Nice!

I don’t know what it is….perhaps withdrawals from doing Plate Lunch Week. But I’ve been craving rice. My rice intake had been seriously cut down since moving to San Diego, but recently…I dunno. I’ve been making stuff like Kimchee Fried Rice.

No recipe, I just use whatever’s on hand. The required ingredients are Kimchee(of course!), onions, Gochujang, and another one of those magical "four letter word" ingredients,(others being stuff like L-a-r-d and P-o-r-k) Spam®! I also like garlic in my Kimchee Fried Rice.

It could have been worse, remember my Spam® Katsu Curry?

Which led me to make stuff like this…..

Just an omelet…..

A fried rice omelet. Some left over Portuguese Sausage Fried Rice as filler……

Marukai Coming to San Diego

Check out this building on the corner of Balboa and Mercury.

No big deal, huh? Maybe a closer look….

There it is….Marukai. This looks like a 99-cent store operation, but all the buildings in the complex are being worked on. Daiso is a large Japan based "100-yen" store operation.

I’d been waiting for Marukai to open up since we moved to San Diego. I sent Marukai Corporation an email, and here’s the response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.
We are planning to open San Diego store.
Hopefully non-food section will be open in August 2007 and food section will be in late this year.
We will put our upcoming store information at www.marukai.com.
Again, thank you for contacting us.
We hope see you at our new store soon."

Regards,
Marukai Corporation
Tel: 310-660-6300
Fax: 310-660-6301

So there it is…..

Some other posts on Marukai can be found here, here, and here.

Passionate Eater….

Like I’ve said before, I truly feel blessed to have gotten to know some of the wonderful fellow bloggers and readers of our little blog. It seems like mmm-yoso just started a short time ago, so I was a bit startled when Jay, the Proprietor of the Linkery graciously called me "The dean of San Diego food bloggers", kinda makes me feel really old……. But come to think about it, my San Diego Food Blogs typelist has really been growing, with excellent new blogs starting up all the time. I hope you give them a try.

I haven’t been able to meet one of my favorite fellow bloggers, Passionate Eater, but ‘PE’ as we call her, has always filled her wonderful posts with humor, and Her comments have always been so kind and positive. So when PE broke the news that she was leaving San Francisco, I knew that I needed to do something a bit special. This is not bad news per se, PE will be taking on exciting new challenges in New Orleans(another great food city!). Since PE was the one who requested, nay demanded that Sammy and Frankie have their own photo album, I thought this appropriate: