yoso-silly – Page 35

Breakfast and furniture shopping under one roof- Ikea!

April 22, 2007 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Chains, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is back with documentation of meals she ate and Kirk is taking a breather.

Hi. I seem to have been Missing In Action for a good part of this year, but now am back to blogging.

So, one morning I was in desperate need of ice cube trays, for a small project I was doing, and recalled that Ikea had a nice selection of interestingly shaped ones. Yeah, that’s why we went to Ikea, hahaha!

For those of you who are not familiar with Ikea, it’s a Swedish based company that makes knock down furniture and has a cafeteria that serves Swedish/Scandanavian style food in the middle of every store.

While walking from the parking lot to the main entrance, this sandwich board sign was…yelling out to me…

Well, it includes coffee; that makes it worth it right there. Lets go try it out.

This Ikea store, in San Diego is a Franchised, not company owned, store, so some of the items on sale are different than the corporate sales and the Cafeteria can have its own way of doing things, but,I have been to both types of stores, and am on the email lists for both the local and the corporate stores, and pretty much the selection is similar, and the next closest store to us is in Carson, which is like, a 2 hour drive…which isn’t good if you have miscalculated and have to drive home with an arm holding something on the roof of your car (oh, I could do an entire week of posts of photos showing people who miscalculated the size of their door or trunk opening versus what they were buying both at Ikea and Costco, especially around Christmas…so many cardboard boxes opened and strewn in the parking lot…).

So, anyhow, breakfast. I got the ‘standard’ $2.99 deal:

Scrambled eggs, 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 pancakes, lingonberry sauce and coffee.

The bacon is very thin, but has much smoky flavor. The sausages have a nice flavor and light amount of pepper in them. The pancakes are the traditional Scandinavian ones and are thin, crepe-like and the lingonberry sauce is a nice compliment. This is well worth the $2.99 price tag.

The Mister asked what other options there were, and instead of the pancakes, you can get French Toast sticks or hash browned potatoes. He got both. The potatoes cost an extra $1 and were made of the previous day’s red skinned potatoes from dinner, were so nice, fresh and crispy and wonderful!

The "French Toast" was fried and I really liked those sticks. Not like any kind of French Toast I have had, but oh so good.

We did go back and got a slice of the Apple Cake ($1.99) to go with our all-you-can-drink coffee that you self serve in those tiny cups. I liked the coffee in particular, because you can also get all you can add real half and half for it.

The apple cake is pretty much all apples with some cinnamon (non-sticky, just the spice, no added sugar) joining the apples together in a graham cracker crust and topped with a vanilla cream sauce. I like the non-sugary pastry choices here.

Ikea San Diego 2149 Fenton Parkway, San Diego 92108 ( in the mall with Costco and Lowe’s, just off of Friars Road, about 1/2 mile west of Qualcomm Stadium) open for breakfast 8:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. 7 days

Saturday “Stuffs”

April 14, 2007 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

On a recent road trip to The O.C., after surviving the food court in the Mitsuwa Marketplace, we were staggering back to our car……shell shocked by the massive crowds. But on the way out, the Missus smiled with glee when She saw, the one we can only call…The Yam-Man!

I know that these are actually sweet potatoes, but Yam-Man does have a ring to it, doesn’t it?

The Missus, faced with one of Her childhood favorites, roasted sweet potatoes could not help but purchase a few. There were some communication problems…but these were overcome by simply pointing and choosing. The gentleman was also very kind and patient…..

When the perfectly roasted tubers were revealed to the world, you couldn’t resist the fragrance of the cedar wood and sweet potatoes. These were not cheap by any means….1 large, and 1 small cost us $5. But it was worth it….

The Missus said it was the best She’s had in years! It sure brightened up Her day.

Made me think about those times when all the planets are aligned, and whether it’s a matter of timing, the environment, the company, or whatever……makes you sit back and go, "man, life is good".

I guess those moments could be caused by anything. Perhaps it’s the right "brew" at the right moment:

It could happen while having a guilty pleasure, in one of those chain restaurants.

Or perhaps having a big messy burger…..

Or something a bit more simple…..

Let’s all just sit back and go…"man, life is good!" I hope you have many of those moments this weekend!

Giving it up for the Guilty Carnivore.

Or ‘GC’ as we call him…..always cracks me up. But one of the things I enjoy are when he posts on interesting "finds", there’s one item in particular….

A few months back we purchased some after reading his post, and though I enjoy a hot dog with a more natural casing, man, these were really good! The way to go for us with these are to cook via steaming.

So naturally when I saw this post, I knew I had to give those Spicy Thai Kettle Chips a try.

The Missus and I both loved the texture, but She really didn’t care for the flavor. I enjoyed them. To me, the taste was like a cross between Ginger Senbei and a potato chip.

Great work again GC!

What Cathy Eats at home.

April 8, 2007 Cathy What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy apparently has nothing to do but take photos of food and post them for your perusal.

Hi. I take photos of everything I eat. Here is a box of citrus I got from a Dear Friend this year. All grown in her yard. Oranges, tangelos, blood oranges, lemons, mandarin oranges. Thanks, Mrs. B.!

Then, I cook at home. In college I had a roommate from Jakarta and, of course, we did not eat cow. But I learned to crave, and still do, chicken livers sauteed in butter and broccoli, with sesame seeds.

One weekend a few weeks ago, we had hamburger, but only hot dog buns, so I improvised.

Ah, then there are simple things- sandwiches. Sometimes, I just *have* to have Braunschweiger on white bread with mustard and raw onions.

Or, some rare roasted beef with slices of homegrown tomatoes on fresh rye (from Panera) with a mix of horseradish and Kewpie .

Always, with a good sandwich, I have to have a good cup of coffee, whether its made with a French Press or just a couple of espresso shots with milk foam.

OK, the photo was taken at Starbucks, but I make fancy art on the top of my coffee foam at home.

Well, I try to make each meal somewhat special, anyhow…

Then, the other day, The Mister made a pork loin roast, rolled with garlic and prunes. Homecooking_001 ..or plums, as they are now called, or sometimes he uses

dried cherries, raisins or whatever dried fruit we have at home at the time.

BUT, at this time of year, my most favorite snack is,

Oh, yes, Peeps!

Of course, you must properly eat the little fine sugar coated marshmallow treats. First, of course by delicately separating and individualizing each Peep, who was conjoined with his/her siblings in the package, and then the next step is, of course, eating the eyes.

Heh heh heh..

Next, you impale a single, eyeless Peep onto a bamboo skewer.

Hold over an open flame, roast the Peep and then it is prepared, ready for eating.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. Remember, Peeps are on sale now!

Fast Friday Post

April 6, 2007 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

About 2 weeks ago, the one and only Cathy asked me in an email if I was going to do "anything"? Anything…about what? Well Cathy, then the Missus pointed out that mmm-yoso would soon have 500,000 hits per Sitemeter. Now I’m not really good at this stuff. Case in point, I’d tried to plan something for post #500…but the opportunity came and went(we’re now on something like #535), and I really don’t know what the Sitemeter count really means anyway!

To get to the point, Cathy, Vicky, and I would just like to thank everyone for taking the time out to visit, and even on occasion, comment. I still remember once being told that the most precious gifts are time and attention, once given, it cannot be taken back, so I am most grateful.

So here’s a big "Kanpai" to everyone! I’ll make sure to have an "extra one" for you…after all it’s the last bottle I have for now……

I still don’t quite understand…..but thank you for dropping by!

And in case you think I haven’t been eating enough……here’re a few teasers:

Have a nice Easter weekend!

Observing Lent-Part 2, A plethora of fast food seafood

March 15, 2007 Cathy Chains, Sandwiches, Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is continuing blogging and Kirk is merely eating out somewhere and not telling you about it.

Hi once more. This is part of my little blogging about Lent, the Christian sacrifice of the 40 days before Easter, usually having to do with food (although, again, some Christians sacrifice with stuff I think might be even more difficult for some of us, like giving up television for those 40 days, or even the Internet…) one common sacrifice is ‘not eating meat’ for those 40 days, or at least ‘not eating meat on Friday…and now there is a new definition as to "meat". I was raised Catholic and, apparently fish, shrimp and various sea foods do not ‘count’ as meat. You may have noticed this lately…places that normally do not sell fish have some kind of fish sandwich on their menu.

Jack in the Box comes to mind. $1.29 for the fish sandwich.

Quite nice. Two pieces of fish, lightly battered and served with lettuce and tartar sauce on a sesame seed bun.

Del Taco has a fish taco for $1.39.

It is served with two corn tortillas and is one large piece of fried with cornmeal batter fish, on top of a bed of shredded cabbage, a white sauce and some salsa, as well as a wedge of lime to squeeze over it all.

Del Taco also has a crispy shrimp taco for $1.79.

This is served on a single flour tortilla. the shrimp are tasty and juicy and with a nice crust. Its also served with the cabbage/white sauce/salsa concoction, as well as the wedge of lime. I liked it a lot.

As an aside, one of my favorite sandwiches is the tuna salad from K Sandwiches. $3.49. Its made fresh daily and served on a fresh baked croissant.

But, overall, my most favorite, and decadent indulgence is the infamous Filet-o-Fish from McDonald’s -and it is only $1.29 on Friday at most participating McDonald’s. (It used to be 99¢, but with the advent of the raised minimum wage, it all trickles down to us, you know). I used to know the calorie count, but I try to ignore it, and merely enjoy…It’s on the airy white bread bun, served with a lot of tartar sauce and a slice of …mmmmm…American processed cheese food. Its the only time I eat that orange goopy stuff , and I love it.

The most expensive, but by far a meal in itself (you don’t need to buy more than one) is the Fish Sandwich from Carl’s, Jr. ($3.19)

Two large pieces of beer battered fish on a large (made for the $6 burger) sesame seed bun, with lettuce and tomato and tartar sauce. It does taste great and you don’t need to buy two.

And, last, for now, but not least, is the infamous 99¢ Fish Stacker from KFC.

KFC uses their own (patented by them) style of cooking the chicken and also this fish. Its very close to Broaster™ method in that its pressure fried. The fish does not taste like the chicken, it is cooked in its own area of the store. Its a good size piece of fish and served on a sesame seeded roll. It was very good. If you are familiar with the KFC Snackers size, it can be or might not be a meal, depending on your eating habits.

So that’s it for now. I did not bother to show you Rubio’s 99¢ (on Tuesdays only) fish taco, nor their shrimp taco. Its always good there.

Hope everyone is having a good Lent season. As we talked about in the comments section of "Observing Lent, Part One", sometimes the ‘sacrifice’ of having to eat fish on Friday is actually a treat for a lot of us, so it kind of isn’t a sacrifice. Easter is just around the corner, though.

Maguro Un-confidential…and other stuff – Catalina Offshore

March 12, 2007 mmm-yoso Seafood, Sushi and Sashimi, yoso-silly

I guess I must ask too many questions…… After a recent conversation on a slow evening at Sammy's, I gathered that Sam was tired of answering all my questions. Now Sam is a really nice guy, but I'm sure everyone has their limits. So I think Sam thought that he could change the subject and end this stream of seemingly unending questions, by giving me sort of a ultimatum. "Kirk-san, you know, I've got nothing to hide, and I always tell you everybody gets most of their Maguro from the same place. So if you ever want to come with me when I pick up Maguro please let me know…" You know what my response to that question was, right? "Just let me know where and when, and I'll be there."

Which is why, I ended up in a parking lot, waiting for Sam. When Sam arrived, he greeted me with a "Hello, Kirk-san how are you!" A short time later we passed through this blue door:

Into a bustling cold warehouse. Sam checked in at the office, and conducted some business, and few minutes later, after donning head covers we were in one of the many large chillers, and looking at tuna. The large chiller was lined with bins overflowing with ice and palettes with iced fish carcasses. While checking out fish Sam mentioned that he sees all of the well known Itamae here one time or another……

During the time I was checking things out, Sam was in conversation with the Young Man in charge of the chiller. The young man pulled out a fish that already had a quarter cut and sold….and the conversation went on a bit longer. Sam was after whole Maguro in the 70 plus pound range. Unfortunately, there was no whole Bluefin on this day, so Sam went into bargaining mode, mentally calculating how much maguro he'd need to hold over until tomorrow when he'll come again. Each fish had a orange tag with basic weight and other info on it. After the conversation Sam decided on purchasing a quarter of the partially cut fish, and a part of one of the pieces stored on ice.

Later on Sam told me that in order to get the optimum amount of Toro and fish, he needed a fish larger than 70 pounds. The 40 pound fish wouldn't provide enough toro to justify buying what was left of the fish.

One thing you quickly notice is how handling of the fish is second nature. All the maguro is handled on the "skin side" as much as possible to avoid contact with the meat.

Sam apologized for not having anything to "wow" me, but I thought this was an interesting little excursion. While waiting for the fish to be cut, a little dolly with 3 Styrofoam coolers were wheeled by with the word 'Ota' written on each….hmmm, we know where this one is going…..

As everything was being packed, Sam took me on a little tour and the conversation drifted to maguro, and various grades, prices, and the such. Eventually, we were chatting about what people tend to call "frozen fish", which confuses a bunch of people, after all aren't Bluefin flash frozen when they are caught? Well, let's just say not all maguro is created equal. Also, the word "freshness" can be a bit confusing as well, since unless Maguro is consumed immediately after being caught, the flesh of the fish will actually taste better after rigor mortis sets in and the muscle tissue starts to break down, creating a natural tenderization process. Think of it as it's own style of "dry-aging".

I remember seeing maguro being sold in a few stores(though not recently) and some sushi bars that were really abnormally cherry red, maguro is not naturally a bright cherry red. So of course I wanted to see, the infamous "frozen fish", having consumed enough of very low grade maguro, a bit off tasting, with a weird texture and color….. Sam led me to a freezer, and opened it, and picked out a pack of really artificially red looking precut fish.

This is what they call "Saku-Maguro", short for Sakudori, which is the word to describe the traditional way of cutting Maguro. So basically "cut-tuna". In this next photo you can compare the color of this precut maguro, with frozen maguro in the case.

Why is the color so different? It's because these filets have been treated with a process called "artificial smoking". You see, tuna flesh contains a pigmented protein that starts to change the color of the flesh when exposed to oxygen. If not treated the flesh will start to discolor very quickly. So it is usually treated with Carbon Monoxide to preserve the color of the flesh. What is not preserved is the quality of the tuna. To quote an anonymous source in a article from the New York Times:

"But "you could put it in the trunk of your car for a year, and it wouldn't turn brown," said one sales representative at Anova Foods, a distributor in Atlanta, who spoke on condition of anonymity."

You can read the article here. There's another really good article from the Washington Post, that you can read here.

So putting 2 and 2 together….this tuna is very inexpensive, do you think that it's the really top notch fish being processed in this manner? Sam did mention that he and most of the good sushi bars in San Diego won't serve the stuff. "Kirk-san, even if you were blind, you would be able to tell from the very first bite." Sam also told me that if you buy frozen, unsmoked raw maguro, that you should eat it within 12 hours of defrosting, otherwise it will start oxidizing very quickly.

I'm not much of a soapbox type of Guy, and think you should eat whatever you want. But I thought this was quite interesting.

Some other photos.

They call this the Lobster Room:

I think this is why:

But maybe they should call it the Abalone Room – look how clean the water is!

I felt like it was clean enough for me to drink, but I fear I may run into one of these fellows:

Some world class Uni comes out of this room:

Kanpachi anyone?

Have a great week!

Mid-Week Munchies

March 7, 2007 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

I guess I must be so very open to "suggestion"…….. Recently, one of my favorite bloggers, Passionate Eater, featured a series on Everyday Pleasures. One of those everyday pleasures really hit home. It was the post on Dry Roasted Pea Snacks that sent me over the edge, and in search of a remedy for the sudden cravings…….

Each one of my acquaintances, no matter what race, has an interesting "snack" that runs the spectrum from Hurricane Popcorn to Kimchi and Peanut Butter Sandwiches(don’t ask). What I’ve noticed about these unconventional snacks is the inclusion of sweet and salty flavors, along with the hints of both the conventional, and sometimes what could be considered a bit strange.

Take for instance, this:

Looks kinda conventional…it’s really only "trail mix", but I’ve added a few things…first off, for every pound of unsalted trail mix(there’s a reason it’s unsalted), I add about 1/4 to 1/3 pound of dry wasabi peas. But the key component are these:

Woooo, if you’re not familiar with these, you should be. It’s basically Garlic Flavored Corn Nuts…but in this case, the corn nuts are a bit smaller in size. I add half a 3.54oz package for each pound of trail mix. What happens to the remainder…I dunno, it must evaporate!

What I did think was interesting, was even though the brand and packaging looks the the same, when we get these snacks from friends who return from the Philippines, both the texture and the taste is a bit different.

These taste more salty, and are harder and drier. After comparing the two, we came up with what was perhaps a startling observation; could it be that the version we get from the Philippines is stale by the time we eat it?

In the end, we rejected that theory……..once we checked the receipt we realized that the version we bought in San Diego were "farlic" flavored…….that would make all the difference! LOL!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Observing Lent, Part One-Paczki Day

February 28, 2007 Cathy Desserts, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. Cathy is blogging about some silly stuff. Kirk is not .

Hello Again. This post is late, as my Friends in Detroit are keenly aware. I was kind of busy and didn’t get a chance to even start the post until it was too late.

This isn’t a religious post, per se. It is an introduction to an explanation of why you are seeing $1 Filet o’ Fish sandwichs at McDonald’s, $1 fish tacos at Rubio’s, a fish sandwich at Arby’s, as well as at KFC and full page ads for seafood at Ralphs. I have had a few friends remark to me about McDonald’s having its Fillet-o Fish Fridays and how that ‘seems to happen every so often’.

Lent is a Christian Observance. It starts on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter. That was on February 20 this year. As you know, if you have been reading the blog, I was born and raised in Detroit and was also raised Catholic. I am not a Practicing Catholic now, but I do observe some of our rituals for a "just in case" scenario. Christians perform some type of sacrifice for the 40 days of Lent. Usually the sacrifice involves giving up a favorite food, but I also have some friends who will give up watching television, or the Internet…something that involves a sacrifice. The idea is that Christ died for our sins and He sacrificed and we should too. Christians Believe that on Easter, Christ rose from the dead and basically the sacrificing stops then and we all go back to whatever we did without for the previous 40 days.

ANYHOW, you all know about Mardi Gras…debauchery and partying in the Big Easy and all of that. That’s a giant party ends on the day before Lent. Its a major deal party in New Orleans…so, similarly…if you skew the definition of ‘similar’… mostly in the South East/Detroit area of Michigan, there is Paczki Day (its pronounced poonch-key, sort of, there is a thingy under the letter "c"; oh, never mind). One Paczek is a jelly donut Lent , the plural is Paczki. Fried donuts filled with jelly or jam and either glazed or covered in powdered sugar. I buy jelly donuts at Mary’s Donuts, in Santee.

Detroiters, and others who are not as wild and crazy as revelers in New Orleans at Mardi Gras go all out and eat up as many Paczki as they can (whoo hoo!), because once Lent happens, there are no jelly donuts to be had in any bakeries, only lowly Hot Cross Buns.

Which are not bad, but are definitely not fried (they are baked), or filled with jelly (they do have some dried fruit or raisins in them) and are part of that "sacrificing" Christians (and Detroiters) do for the 40 days.

So, that’s it. You go crazy eating jelly donuts, or partying, and then Lent begins and you begin sacrificing with lowly baked instead of fried sweets.

As a side note, this year was the first year that all the Starbucks in the Greater Detroit area had Paczek available in their stores. Everyone really gets into Paczki just before Lent. The day when the most are sold is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, though. Dozens and dozens are bought and consumed at work, grocery stores give them out…its an interesting phenomenon.

Future Lent posts will explain, via short blogging, about ‘not eating meat’ as defined by Catholics (hint- fish/seafood does not count as ‘meat’).

Mary’s Donuts 9031 Mission Gorge Road Santee 92071 (SE corner of Mission Gorge and 125) Open 24/7

Vacation Interruptus, Sushi, and some other updates

January 28, 2007 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, Travel, yoso-silly

“ok Kirk give it up.. you’re not going to Washington” – from Andy The ABC.

I had to chuckle when I read that comment on my impending vacation post. Little did I know how close to the truth Andy was…so he can either see into the future, or he put some double voodoo hex on us.

To give just a summary of events:

First off our cab was 40 minutes late, I had to call the cab company twice. Maybe we should have just pulled the plug right then.

We manage to get to the airport, check in, and get to the gate just as our 820 Flight to Seattle is set to board. Great timing, or so we thought!

We board, and our flight never leaves….all power to the aircraft is turned off. Soon comes the announcement that there is a problem with the aircraft’s hydraulic system. First thought in my mind is, “I’m glad they caught it now”. So we sit for 45 minutes in an aircraft with no A/C, lights, etc, while technicians checked out the problem. Several minutes later we are asked to exit the aircraft, and the plane is whisked away…never to be seen again. We are asked to wait in the boarding area.

We wait……at about 10 am there is an announcement that the plane is being checked on further. At 1030, we are told that there will be an additional update at about noon, so please return to the gate then. At 1130, we are told that a part is being flown in, and it may just be a case of replacing that part….BUT, just in case, a top notch repair crew from LA is driving in!??!! We are given $6 meal vouchers…funny, but at sandwich costs $7.99, but hey the gate crew is very nice and apologetic.We check and all afternoon and early evening flights are “overbooked”, and I mean overbooked….and of course the standby list is growing. Poor folks who have connecting flights…. At 1230, we are told the part has arrived, a big cheer goes off in the boarding area. Lady next to us is calling around on her cellphone trying to find some other airline that has available seats…to no avail. I hear someone talking about driving to LAX to attempt to make the 5pm flight. It is getting surreal. At a little after 2pm, we are told the flight has been canceled, that we need to return to the ticket counter, to rebook….the mad stampede starts. In line at the ticket counter, one of the agents tells us to first go to baggage claim to pick up our luggage. The Missus and I both go “no way”…we’ll get ticketed first, if possible, than claim our luggage, which I’m pretty sure hasn’t been delivered to baggage claim yet, and return to check in. At a bit after 3pm we finally get to the counter, and the very apologetic agent tells us that the only flight available will be the 845pm flight, it will arrive in Seattle at 1130pm. I do a quick calculation…we’ll be cooped up at the Airport for another 5 hours. Get into Seattle, claim our luggage, by the time we catch the shuttle it’s be at least 1230am, get to the hotel and check in, by then it’ll be at least 130am….which means we’ll be dead tired and settled at maybe 3am…..no thanks. We’d have lost almost half of our vacation, be dead tired, and not enjoy ourselves. So we canceled. I went and waited for our luggage, which at this point still had not been delivered to baggage claim. The Missus started making phone calls, first She called Sammy and Frankie’s trainer, with whom we board Da’ Boyz. She then called the airline’s “Customer Care”, who gave Her a claim number, and basically told us, because we used an online service to book our vacation, we need to contact them. I know who’s going to get an interesting letter about things like contingency, planning, and a word called proactive…..I mean everyone is nice and apologetic, but how many times can you hear “I’m so sorry”, it starts to ring hollow after a while. We catch a cab back home, during which we make calls and manage to get refunds on the airfare and hotel. I also call the restaurants and cancel our reservations. Still, we lost out on cab fare, boarding costs, and other miscellaneous items. Not including the 8 hours of vacation I’ll never get back, at the end of the day we paid about a $100 or so for the pleasure of sitting in, and milling around Lindbergh Field for over 8 hours. Not quite the vacation I though of.

I’m just glad we didn’t need to be in Seattle. If this were a business trip, I would have just sucked it up, and soldiered along. I have done consulting work that required extensive travel in the past and have had my share of delays(it once took me 36 hours to get home), but I have never really written down a blow by blow account like this.

We picked up Da Boyz, and had to decide on dinner(this is a food blog after all, so you know I have to do something about food). After milling about with the mass of humanity, we really didn’t want to go to anywhere very crowded. The Missus wanted sushi…so we decided on Restaurant Yakata down in National City. In my previous posts on Yakata, I noted how the Itamae, Makoto told me that Friday and Saturday evenings are His slowest. So we arrived, and indeed, there was only one patron at the sushi bar, and one table occupied.

As usual, it was Omakase all the way here. We started with a nice combination sushi:

Just a quick rundown. As before the Hotategai(scallop) was fabulous, in fact the Missus requested another order. The real winner was the Albacore Belly.

So soft and rich, I thought it was Hamachi Toro. The Hamachi was good, I thought the Maguro to be on the dry and tough side.

I thought the Uni was good, but the Missus thought it was excellent, “sweet and creamy”.

The Missus and I shared a tempura appetizer(not pictured), and along with the second order of Hotategai(Makoto gave us the last of the Albacore Belly), Makoto made us this interesting gunkanmaki.

Uni and Tobiko(Flying fish roe) were put into a bowl, and mixed to a creamy consistency. Ika (squid) was sliced and combined with the Uni/Tobiko mixture. Whoa, good stuff, great combination of texture(crunchy tobiko, slightly chewy ika) and taste(sweet from the Uni, a slight briny flavor from the tobiko, some mild heat from the restrained use of wasabi).

Makoto than brought out a spring roll wrapper, moistened it, and created this:

Toro was then scraped and instead of mixing with Negi(green onion), it was combined with minced Jalapeno. Cucumber and Lettuce were added for texture, and to help “cool things down”. The sauce was a combination of Ponzu and Sriracha…a “Spicy Ponzu”. It was good, perhaps a bit too much going on, the flavor and texture of toro was kinda lost. Lot’s of flavor though. I asked Makoto what the name of this was…and he just shrugged…so we called it the “Makoto Burrito”…..

The last item was this:

In the middle of all of this was a shrimp tempura. The Missus didn’t like the combination of cool fish, with the still hot tempura. I thought the textures were interesting, but the flavor of the fish was a bit lost.

Overall, a very nice, relaxing meal. All told, which is what you see, plus the extra Hotategai, Tempura appetizer, and 2 large Sapporos was about $65.

**** Yakata has closed

Restaurant Yakata
2424 Hoover Ave
National City, CA 91950

A few updates:

Da’ Kine’s

I’d been told that Da’ Kines in Pacific Beach had closed, so I dropped by to check it out myself. And yes, they have closed:

And yes, they are closed. As I was walking away, I ran into a nice young man wearing a Da’ Kines sweater, and we struck up a short conversation. According to Daniel(I’m hoping I remembered His name correctly), Da’ Kines in National City and Mira Mesa are still open, and a new location at Liberty Station in Point Loma will be opening in the near future.

Chef Tony

“StR” left a comment on my post on Chef Tony, here’s the info:

“I just spoke with the owner on the phone. They have been closed for ~3 months (the building is going to be torn down), but they are planning to reopen at a new place (to be decided) within 1-2 months.”

I drove by ealier this afternoon, and yes, the entire mall is empty, including Chef Tony.

I’m hoping they have a successful reopening soon!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A short weekend getaway, and an update

January 25, 2007 mmm-yoso Travel, yoso-silly

The Missus and I are getting away for a short weekend trip. It’s to one of our favorite cities that we used to visit yearly. But for some reason we have’nt been back since Thanksgiving of 2003.

Where is it? Here are some very easy clues….photos from our last trip there:

So I’ll leave you in the most capable hands of Cathy for a few days!

An update….

Just the latest on our fine furry friend that we found and turned into the Carson/Gardena Animal Shelter about 12 days ago.

I called on Tuesday for an update, and though no one has come to claim her, there is a waiting list of perspective "families" waiting for her. So it looks like everything will work out fine. We hope she is placed in a loving home with a great family. Good luck, girl!

One last thing….

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. It seems that "possibly" the Owner of a restaurant that I didn’t care for called Bambu Bistro (see now it’s free publicity), has basically called me "gutless", over some "harsh" criticism, and says I’m "bashing" their restaurant. I really don’t think that person actually read the post, I mentioned what I enjoyed(nice attentive service) along with what I didn’t(I didn’t care for the food). Check out the comments….tell me what do you think? I call it honesty……some call it gutless. Of course, some like Jay of the Linkery have a better handle on it. Please read the comments on his post here.

"I think the food blogs are a great source of serious food writing in town, between the fact that the writers are unpaid and that they have no space limitations, as a reader I get great insights into the bloggers’ experience."

"Let me add this thought: the best possible event that could increase restaurant quality in this town would be the emergence of twenty or so popular, critical, honest, prolific food bloggers, each with unique tastes, persepectives, and budgets, blogging about all their restuarant visits. In an environment like that, all restaurants would be heavily incented to provide great quality and value at least to a certain segment of the eating-out community."

Amen, brother! Personally, I think people are smart enough to know what the difference is between a food blog and a full blown restaurant review is. And so I share my meal with you, warts and all……

Difference between blog and website here.

She also calls this "underground"…..whatever that is. I don’t know, I’m here for everyone to see.

So do you only want to see positive posts? There are blogs out there that do only positive posts. I don’t think that will be very likely, at least with me, since I don’t think I can live with myself, with fake, rose-colored cyber-glasses on.

Oh, one more thing, Bambu Bistro, if this is really you….I guess that anyone who didn’t care for your food should not say anything…but if they do they suddenly have no guts? I guess by the same token, if someone disagrees with you….they are the enemy??? It’s this way of striking out, before looking within that bothers me….sigh.