yoso-silly – Page 35

Road Trip-A long drive to eat all I could- Sunset Station Las Vegas- and visit the Pinball Hall of Fame.

May 23, 2007 Cathy Buffets, Las Vegas, Nevada, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is the blog. The bloggers are Kirk and friends. Kirk is on vacation. Cathy took a short vacation also and here is her accounting of a day in her life.

Before I start this post, I would like to take this opportunity to thank whomever thought up/invented the money losing proposition called Satellite Radio.

So, my brother (hereafter referred to as "Mr. Bally", because he asked me to) was going to be in Las Vegas for some sort of business trip two weeks ago. He told me like three days ahead of time. This has happened before.

I asked what day he would be free from business so that we could have lunch together and Tuesday was the day. I left Santee at 9 a.m. , just after traffic had cleared.

I drove. Yes. Here is the usual view when almost out of Escondido and into Temecula, just past Lawrence Welk Land.

I drove, stopped at a Starbucks someplace for coffee and then just drove.

I was alone and so I didn’t want to stop and eat. Besides, we were going to have a late lunch. Mr. Bally was staying at a company paid hotel (read: Holiday Inn Express) and I met him there.

We drove to Sunset station. It is one of the Station Casinos that are popular with the locals in Las Vegas. I do prefer the luxurious Green Valley Ranch casino out of all of the ones Station has to offer when I travel to Las Vegas and stay overnight. Then again, I don’t have an expense account and usually do not bother to stay overnight. (It was a 4 1/2 hour drive one way).

So, anyhow, we ate. Here are photos:

The buffet was $12.95 each (it was dinner time by the time we got there) and there is an option of an additional $6 for your choice of a steak, pound of crab legs or pound of chilled shrimp. We opted for the shrimp:

You will notice there are no dessert plates. I was tired, we were full and I had a long drive ahead of me.

But, there was one place we *had* to go to- Pinball Hall of Fame– It is run by one of the brothers who ran the most popular Pinball Arcades (Pinball Pete’s) in Ann Arbor and East Lansing starting back in 1970. It was very nostalgic for Mr. Bally and I. There are about 200 pinball machines in the building in a sort of run down mall just off Pecos, out of his 1200 machine collection. Photos:

There is a great article in the May 21 2007 edition of Forbes Magazine, describing the operation and its costs and that the Hall of Fame is a 501(c)3 organization (a non-profit) that donates all of the money made from the machines to The Salvation Army.

It was just a fun place to go, re-live some great memories and I got to spend time with my brother and then drive home.

There it is. Another day in my life. If some of you are taking Friday off, I hope you have a nice Memorial Day Holiday and weekend. For the rest of us, I’ll still be posting about something.

Sunset Station Casino website

Pinball Hall of Fame Museum 3330 East Tropicana at Pecos website

Tea Houses- Boba- Snacks? Why has this been kept secret?

May 22, 2007 Cathy Caffeine Fix, Dim Sum, Sandwiches, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. That is the name of the blog, silly. Cathy is a-blogging and Kirk is taking a much needed rest, and really is on vacation.

Oh, I am sooo the White Girl on this blog…I had no idea exactly how Caucasian I was. Sure, I had the whole "chee fee" incident, and I didn’t know sago were the same as boba and…well, I didn’t know much about boba…and, I had seen "tea houses" and "tapioca drinks" and figured ‘eh, Asian Starbucks wanna-be’s’. Really. I figured those ‘tea’ places served hot tea and those silly boba drinks. Lots of young Asian kids hang out there; I saw some drinks coming out in plastic cups and also figured well…you do know the signs say "Starbucks Coffee", right? So it must be the same- tea and those boba drinks and Starbucks makes coffee and all those frou frou drinks. No big deal.

ANYHOW…Years ago, from the place inside 99 Ranch, I got a tea and milk and ‘pearl’ drink and it was good tasting, although I thought chewing on the giant boba (tapioca pearls) was kind of like chewing on snot, albeit flavorless snot, but the boba part held not much fascination to me…I love tapioca pudding, but the actual boba in a beverage…eh. Well, I liked the tea part, then the milk and there was a lot a lot of liquid sugar…and I don’t like sweet.

Then there was an epiphany. I was having lunch with Mr. C, at Bolsa on Mira Mesa.

and we had our ‘standard’ Pho stuff:

and we started talking about boba drinks. In my mind I was thinking, ‘oh yeah, sweet stuff with snot chewies on the bottom’. However Mr. C has never steered me wrong, and he started telling me that the place in the same mall as Bolsa, Tapioca Heaven, had the *best* milk tea boba of anywhere. So, I was polite. I had the milk tea at Tapioca Heaven and it was *wonderful*. It tasted like …tea…with milk…and there was a choice of boba to put in it- regular brown, small brown, green and strawberry. You could ask for no sweetener. Who knew?

The most fascinating thing I noticed at first inside of Tapioca Heaven was that they had free wi-fi. Hello!

Then I noticed something else, much more important- they have snacks. Fried snacks. Inexpensive fried snacks. But Mr. C and I had just finished a nice lunch at Bolsa and I didn’t want to eat any more, even a snack.

and so, I wrote Kirk a note. "Why haven’t I heard of these places that sell boba drinks with snacks?" I asked. "They are wonderful- so much more fun than a Starbucks, which does fascinating high calorie coffee based beverages and sells some ‘meh’ tasting sweets and sandwiches, but by no means sell fried goodies".

The reply, from The Missus, was "Oh boba, that is so last century".

Ahem.

So anyhow, I was on a quest. Since Mr. C had told me that the boba milk tea at Tapioca Heaven was the best, I decided to make that my standard…to see if any tasted better anywhere else. Of course, I needed to try snacks also.

So The Mister and I went to Tapioca Express. See, it used to be next to Bolsaa-on Convoy. Bolsaa isn’t there any more, so you won’t be confused. It is going to become some Cajun-y place in the summer.

When you walk into Tapioca Express, the wall is lined with the menu of beverage choices. At the register, where you order and pay, were two typewritten pieces of paper with a menu. The Mister and I had to try a bit of everything.

Chicken nuggets, chicken wings, fried squid, all with a choice of no spice, medium or hot. (we tried all three,the no spice was great and the medium was good too, the hot was just a little too much in the sense that you couldn’t taste the chicken as well as with the medium spice). Steamed pork dumplings and also fried donut holes with both whipped cream and also a vanilla cream dipping sauce. Each of these snacks were less than $4 each. This is wonderful snacking- or a meal. I saw one guy with something that looked like loco moco and I will go back to try that.

Next we went to K Sandwiches, got a boba milk tea, hot milk coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Also, since we were at K…I got a pate chaud; its only $1 and so flaky and fresh and filled with a wonderful pork pate mixture. A friend, who was born in France and is working out here, said it is very authentic and good.

We also got a BBQ pork Bahn Mi ( think it is Number 9 on the menu) for $3.69. Here is a cross section view of both.

Snacks, free wi fi and boba drinks. Fascination.

So, the other day The Mister and I went to the Tea Station on Clairmont Mesa. Its in the same mall as Lolita’s and Teri Cafe and that Pho place everyone says they go to.

They have sit down service inside, and a menu .

We sat down and were waited on! At the other places you would walk up and pay and wait for your drink, kind of like Starbucks.

We tried the tea flavored dumplings ($6.50)

The flavors were different between the green ones and white ones both the dumpling and the filling, but you can see in the second photo (click- all the photos enlarge) a cross section and that the dumplings were quite meaty and full, very fresh and I believe one was chicken and the other pork. They were delici-yoso!

We also had to try the fried spicy chicken ($4.50)

Lightly crispy, nice spice (you can tell them the level of spice you want). Fresh. Great. Gosh, it’s adult chicken nuggets!

Tea flavored spiced pork slices ($6.50), served with 3 side dishes, it says…either they figured we could not count because we were White, or rice is one of the sides. Whatever. Plenty of food.

Oh, and we got beverages…

Boba_011

So, anyhow, the secret is out. Tea, milk tea, boba, not Starbucks…all with free wi fi and snacks…fried snacks.

We have now gone to many of the tea places around town, not always with a camera…and we try the fried chicken at least. Nothing has been bad or disappointing.

Some of the beverages are unusual- sesame, lavender, rose, yogurt..just about everything Starbucks doesn’t have. { Snow ice, or snow bubbles are merely finely *fine* shaved ice with flavoring-kind of a Slushee®, for the White folks out there.}

Tapioca Heaven definitely had the most tea-tasting milk tea, but getting any of the beverages without sweetener helps.

Oh, and now I kind of enjoy chewing on those tapioca snot-like things….it’s part of the whole "boba experience"

Tapioca Heaven Cafe 9225 Mira Mesa Boulevard Suite 115 San Diego 92126

Tapioca Express 4646 Convoy, #106B San Diego 92111 (858) 363-9889 website

Tea Station 7315 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 (858)268-8198website

“Dude, Like Where’s All the Asian Food….”

May 15, 2007 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum, Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants, yoso-silly

So sayeth an email I received yesterday. You gotta love those emails…… Funny thing is, the writer of the email is correct; just by coincidence it does seem that Cathy and I have done a little role-reversal! I've been doing burgers and tacos, and Cathy has been doing Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino food! How odd……

I'd just like to say, that the Missus and I are still eating up a storm, and I've got the photographic evidence to prove it. These are all revisits, so I won't bore you…I'll keep the writing to a minimum. So let's get started, shall we.

Dim Sum at China Max:

I've done posts on the Dim Sum at China Max before, just like to say, that on this visit the Dim Sum was not quite as good. As noted before, Dim Sum here is served "menu style".

The filling for the Sharkfin Dumplings was on the tough side, and the sides of the wrappers were soft and mushy, probably due to improper steaming.

The Pan Fried Shrimp and Chive Dumplings were probably the best items we had.

The contrast between the crunchy fried portion and the chewy pull of the remainder of the wrapper was excellent.

The filling of Shrimp Dumplings were fine, but the wrapper was tough and dry.

The Dried Shrimp Cheong Fun tasted a bit "off", and overly fishy, like the dried shrimp wasn't prepared properly.

We ended with simple Soy Sauce Noodles, one of my childhood favorites.

No complaints about this…so simple, but so good…..

My previous posts on China Max can be found here, here, and here. I'm pretty sure that this is just a little blip on the radar screen.

I'd also like to dedicate this post to Captain Jack, for only reasons he knows…..

China Max
4698 Convoy Street
San Diego, CA 92111

Palabok from Tita's Kitchenette:

This Missus had a craving for some Pancit Palabok, those wonderful seafood flavored noodles. Tita's Kitchenette makes Her favorite version, so I picked some up on a recent morning.

I'm not quite sure what happened, but these tasted really "flat", lacking any flavor. I dunno, any ideas?

Tita's Kitchenette
2720 East Plaza Boulevard
National City, CA 91950

Pho Dac Biet and Hu Tieu from Lucky Pho:

Every once in a while I need to recheck and verify…so when we were in the Mira Mesa area recently, I decided to grab a bowl of Pho from Lucky Pho. And I was again reminded of why I really enjoy the Pho here.

It's mostly about the broth, which is to my taste with hints of different herbs and seasonings. The Missus, not a big fan of Pho even had a taste, and said it was pretty good.

She ordered the Seafood Hu Tieu(Rice Noodles)

Nothing to write home about, really……..

My previous post on Lucky Pho can be found here. Along with a Pho retrospective.

Lucky Pho' in Lucky Seafood Supermarket
9326 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

A Quick Meal at Luong Hai Ky:

**** This location of LHK has closed

On this visit, I had the Missus in tow. I wanted Her to try the Won Ton and Dumpling Soup.

She enjoyed the broth, and agreed with me, that there was a hint of seafood flavor in it, though it's always been denied when I ask.

I tried out the Beef Sate Noodle Soup, and really didn't think much of it.

Nice bit of spice, but very weak in flavor overall. I rather have the version at Tan Ky Mi Gia. Still, as with most of these Vietnamese-Chinese Noodle Soup restaurants, the prices are very reasonable.

Here's my previous post on Luong Hai Ky.

Luong Hai Ky Restaurant
4633 Convoy St Ste 107
San Diego, CA 92111

You Gotta Love Filipino Parties!

A few months back we attended a party at a friend's house. It was a combination Birthday(two of us) and House Warming, Karaoke party. You can imagine the fun.

Here are some photos I took.

We brought a combination tray from Da' Kitchen half Teriyaki Chicken, half Korean Chicken.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings are required at these types of parties. Though this one was not from Royal Mandarin, Golden Chopsticks, or Mandarin Canton. Of course any Salt and Pepper chicken wing aficionado could tell you this by just looking at those wings.

Where is it from….stay tuned!!!

Of course you need Lumpia:

The Missus's favorite, Filipino style Empanadas. She enjoys these the best. She ate at least 5 of them….

And you must have Pancit Bihon.

There was much more food, but about that time it was my turn to sing my really, really, bad version of Love Potion Number 9. And after that, I totally forgot to take any more photos…..but you get the picture, right?

Last, but not least:

Here's something that will warm the coldest pork lover's heart:

What is it? It's a dish called Golden City Roast Pork($10.95), and it's made with Pork Belly. How can you resist?

I think I already have too many posts on Golden City, so I'll stop here.

So to answer your question Eric; "Dude, all that Asian food is like in my stomach!" LOL!

One final item(I promise). We'll be off on vacation for a few days, trying to complete our aborted vacation, I hope we make it this time. I may pop in, for a bit, but otherwise mmm-yoso is in the fine hands of our favorite "Chee-Fee" eater, Cathy. See you in a week or so!

Mandarin China- The first place I ever had “chee fee”

May 13, 2007 Cathy Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is the name of the blog. Kirk and Cathy and other friends write about food they ate. That's all it is. Today, it's Cathy's turn.

Me again. Thanks for stopping by. The Mister and I were once again driving around wasting fuel and being hungry while running some errands and fondly remembered an incident many, many years ago. It was our first Dim Sum experience. Suddenly, there we were on West Point Loma Boulevard, looking at the place. It has been there since 1980 and still doing a brisk business, including a *lot* of take out.

It was a Sunday and they were only doing to order Dim Sum- no carts rolling around, and we looked at the menu

and decided to re-live our early-early dating days back in Ann Arbor and try some favorites.

Well, there it was-Shrimp Toast, 3 pieces ($4.95). There is just something about a layer of chopped shrimp on top of a piece of crustless white bread, thickly coated with sesame seeds and deep fried that brings back so many memories. The plum sauce served with was extremely good with pieces of plum and just a hint of heat. Hot mustard in jars were on the table and that added to the flavors.

Of course, more of the memory was helped along by using forks and not chopsticks to eat our food…

We decided to try stuff we knew we should like, again sticking with the original dating experience. Ma Pu tofu (7.95)

This was the most home made Pa Pu (or Mabo, as most of us know it) we have ever had- twice cooked pork slices (not ground pork , as we usually get) sauteed with mushrooms, water chestnuts, onions and scallions in a great sauce that has a good kick of heat to it. The tofu was soft and flavorful also. We were very pleased with this choice.

I decided to try the pan fried home style noodles with BBQ pork ($7.95). The pork was not outstanding (could have had more fat marbled in it) but it was sliced into nice, thick chunks and the seasoning on it was good. It was served with a good variety of vegetables-more fresh mushrooms, carrots, water chestnuts onions and green onion tops. The accompanying sauce was great; totally different than that on the Ma Pu. Those noodles were outstanding! Nicely firm and then sauteed to a gentle crispness. Extremely satisfying.

At the end we got our bill and fortune cookies that were not wrapped a la Smart N Final. The cookies were nice and fresh, there was no charge for the very tasty Chinese Restaurant Tea flavored tea and our fortunes merely told us things we already knew:

You set your sights high and enjoy striving for the best things in life.

Age is a matter of feelings and not years.

Mandarin China 4110 West Point Loma Boulevard San Diego 92110 (619)222-6688 Sun-Th 11 am-10 p.m. Fri and Sat 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Ah, the rest of the story. The Mister was getting ready to leave on a lengthy (more than 6 month duration ) cruise with the Navy and we met another couple here for dinner- the husband would end up being a roommate with mine and His wife was pregnant with their first child. We all were adventurous and wanted to try this 'new' phenomenon called Dim Sum. (This was a *long* time ago).We were happily ordering just about everything that came by from the nice ladies who had strong accents. One lady showed us something and I said "oh yes!" She said it was "chee fee". It had a red sauce on it. "Chee fee", she repeated and I said, yes. She pointed at something else on the cart that had no sauce and I said "no, I want that". She repeated "chee fee" a few more times and I was starting to get irritated. I insisted. There were four pieces, so each of us took one. I kept looking at it on the small plate in front of me, turning it over and trying to figure out what it was. It wasn't in a bun or steamed in a wrapper. It was something. As I put it in my mouth, I quickly spit it out, screaming " chicken feet! she was telling us it's chicken feet"… we kind of all simultaneously spit out the bony stuff back onto our plates, began laughing hysterically, and then went back and ate them. It was terribly tedious and not that tasty. The sauce wasn't even hot or spicy.

Sunday “Stuffs”

May 6, 2007 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

This past week the Missus and I were invited to dinner, along with Chubby Panda, Cat, and Elmomonster(who unfortunately couldn't make it), by the one and only Beach. We'd been looking forward to dinner with the larger than life, irrepressible Beach, ever since Chubby Panda and the other OC Foodbloggers dubbed Him the "Don of Little Saigon".

The Missus and I had an indication of how unique this evening was going to be when we ran into this caravan, a few blocks from Beach's home.

It was quite a stunning scene, watching tanks roll down the side streets of this upscale All-American residential neighborhood. The soldier was having a blast waving at all of the people staring in stunned silence as they drove down the street.

We arrived at Beach's beautiful home, and was greeted with warm smiles as we drifted into conversation, like we'd known him forever. When we had first arrived we weren't sure that we had arrived at the right place, but once we caught a whiff of the wonderful fragrances in the air, we knew we must be a the right place.

Soon the Kubota Manju started flowing, Chubby Panda and Cat arrived, and we started in on a fabulous meal. Anything I could right would pale in comparison to Cp's post, so please read it here!

I'll just share a few photos, and a few words. Just let me say that the Bun Cha Hanoi that Mr and Missus Beach made was fabulous….it has set the bar for comparisons at a very high level, which I don't think will be surpassed. Pictures speak louder than words….

See what I mean?

I'd been told many times that the best Bun Rieu can't be found in a restaurant, but in the home of a skilled cook. I now understand what was meant by that. Mrs Beach, made an awesome rendition of Bun Rieu….which also happens to be the Missus's favorite. She was in Bun Rieu nirvana.

I think I lost count after the 25th time the Missus said, "this is sooo good!" The one big revelation to me, was how soft, tender, and full of flavor the "Oc" (snail) was. We've stopped ordering Bun Rieu Oc in restaurants because of how rubbery, tough, and flavorless, the Oc usually is. This was delici-yoso!!! In fact, I mentioned that I could just eat the Oc on rice and be perfectly happy!

I found Beach to be a man of "Big"…big smile, big laugh, big portions, big voice, but most of all…big heart! Mr and Mrs Beach, we really appreciated your graciousness and generosity, and of course the food was great.

Oh wait, I think Beach and CP learned that the Missus had something "big" of Her own…. "Big Appetite"!

Thanks for everything Beach!

It was great to see you again CP, and we finally got to meet Cat. Don't forget to read CP's detailed post here.

Some updates.

What was once Osaka Kitchen, is now another outpost of Sushi Deli.

And in the strip mall on Convoy that seems to be undergoing eternal renovation, Bolsaa Vietnamese is gone, and will be replaced by Louisiana Crawfish restaurant.

Made me wonder if this will be one of those Vietnamese Cajun Shrimp/Crawfish places that have sprung up all over Little Saigon. One can always hope!

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.