Category: yoso-silly

Saturday Stuffs – The Big List Returns, Welcome to a New San Diego Blogger, and Do You Really Want Me to Try “Tonkatsu Ramen”?

Japanese Restaurants, Ramen, yoso-silly

Just a couple of items for this Saturday.

The Big List Returns:

More than a few years back, I created a page which I titled "The Big List", that listed every San Diego restaurant post. I listed everything and even included photos. Well, the Big List got "too big" and I eventually deleted the page.  But over the years I've had a few requests to create a listing of places in San Diego. And back in March of 2023, "CY" asked about having a listing by location, to help him decide on where to try. I really wasn't up to doing this again, but in May, I started on the Big List by Neighborhood. Man, having to go thru over 5100+ posts took a while, but I've finally completed it.

Big List 1

There were some benefits. Since I had to review all local posts, I managed to update the old posts and indicate and hopefully link to updates. I created links which indicated the month/year of the post along with short notations on items like if the post was done by Cathy/Ed from Yuma/Vicki, if the post was on a old location/previous owners, etc….

Big List 3

Big List 2

I tried to divide places up by Zip Code, but there are a few "kinks" regarding my listing. I also learned stuff like Mien Trung is not really located in Linda Vista, but Clairemont. I also did split some zip codes like 92111 and 92110 – I really do think of Bay Park/Morena/Old Town being separated from Midway, which I included with Point Loma/Shelter Island. I'm sure folks will have some feedback on that!

I also have a listing noted as "In Limbo", for places that are currently changing locations, having to find a new location, etc……

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I will try to update periodically or when I find out there have been changes.

The one good thing is that there a bunch of places I have to revisit; places I haven't been back to in years…….

So please take a look and let me know what you think:

The Big List by Neighborhood

And, if folks like it; maybe I can do a page on LA/OC and perhaps even places we travel to often.

I also need to thank each and every one of you for being greats "FOYs" all of these years!

**** 01/22/2024 A short update. By request I opened up the comments on the page as well.

Welcome a New San Diego Blogger:

So, I found out via an Instagram Post, that "FOY" Denver, an occasional commenter on our humble little blog has created a blog of his own which covers food and travel. It's called My Phone Eats First.

My Phone Eats First

So, go check it out. I also created a link in the sidebar! 

Welcome to the blogging world Denver!

Do You Really Want Me to Try "Tonkatsu Ramen"?

And lastly, I'll end with a bit of silliness. I got an email from a "FOY":

"So, over the years I notice that you have an issue with folks calling Tonkotsu Ramen "Tonkatsu Ramen". You even called out Andrew Zimmern on it. So, I was at Zion Market and noticed that PokeU in the food court actually has Tonkatsu Ramen! Check it out and I double dog dare you to try it"

Ok, so on my last shopping thingy at Zion; I usually go at 9am so don't even bother with the food stands there, I walked over and good lord…..

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There it was.

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I know this place made everything from Teriyaki to Rolls, but this cracked me up. Still, based on trying their poke back in 2017 I'm not so sure.

I will however, suck it up and actually try a bowl of "Tonkatsu Ramen" if folks want me too. Or maybe you can try it and let me know what you think?

Poke U (In the Zion Market Food Court)
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

Markets & Grocers, yoso-silly

After forgoing the  usual thing last year, this year, well it was back to heading out to get Osechi for New Year's day, much like I'd done for most years since way back when. Even excluding the "Covid years", I had noticed quite a decline in offerings over the years. So, this year, I had noticed the adjusted 8am opening time for Nijiya and got there right at 8. There was no queue of folks and I was pleasantly surprised at what seemed like more of a selection.

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I quickly got a couple of things and then headed on out.

Surprisingly, Marukai had almost nothing! Regardless, we're ready for tomorrow!

And so, we're closing the books on yet another year here at mmm-yoso! I'd like to propose a toast!

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Ooops….sorry for the "dad joke"!

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I'd like to raise my glass and propose a toast:

"To all of you, who read our little blog. Here's wishing you all a wonderful 2024"!

Cheers – Happy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

yoso-silly

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Safe Thanksgiving!

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The Missus has to work over the next couple of days; so we're keeping it simple. I'm just making some Niku Dofu by request.

The folks here at mmm-yoso would like to express how thankful we are for the visits, wonderful comments, and emails. We wouldn't still be around 6,755 days later (yes, I counted on my fingers and toes) if not for all of you!

Thanks as always!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Something to be Thankful For – Lucky’s Breakfast

Breakfast/Brunch, Diner, yoso-silly

**** Sadly Lucky Wong passed away at the end of 2024

I'd recently heard that a place near and dear to my heart was up for sale and would be closing its doors; Lucky's Breakfast. From the first time I set foot thru those doors back in 2008, Lucky's has been a sentimental favorite of mine. Beyond the old-school breakfast, it was the owner, jack of all trades, who took your order, bussed the tables, served the food, and cooked everything, Lucky that was the reason I visited. Even though I used to drop by every so often, I'd do a post about every five years it seems. But, I hadn't visited since before Covid, and when I did drop by, usually on weekends, the place would be pretty busy, so I'd just wait. It seems that various social media outlets had made Lucky quite popular. Though, having been a customer for over 15 years, I know Lucky would never change.

Having a weekday off and having heard the news, I headed on over…..

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And the place wasn't busy, so I had a seat.

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Looking at my old photos, I guess I always sit in the same spot here? I always take a few minutes to appreciate the kitschy beauty of the place….it reminds of diners from my "small kid time". As I've said and repeated on all my posts on Lucky's "I'm sure thousands of stories have echoed off the walls" here.

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Of course, there are changes. Of course, breakfasts are no longer $4-$6, but the prices are quite inexpensive for the area.

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And of course, that calendar keeps moving. Lucky does look older now, he moves a bit slower, and maybe should take a "second" retirement (his "first" retirement was when the place went from a Chinese restaurant to only serving breakfast).

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But there are those things that hold steady; Lucky's always trying to refill your coffee, he hates waste (one of the hipsters left a piece of toast and Lucky wrapped it for him to take with him), and while things move a bit slower these days there's the ever present wit.

I heard the classic "Lucky line", which I've heard many times during my visit to here. When a "mature" woman would order coffee, Lucky would tell them the classic line I heard on my very first visit; "you too young for coffee, it will stunt your growth!"

As for my breakfast…..

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It did the trick. And at $9 bucks, this is bargain these days!

As for Lucky selling? Well, I'd heard that the listing was pulled. I thought of asking, but really didn't want to be nosy and the place was filling up. I just wanted to enjoy my visit and take in the "atmosphere".

And of course, Lucky makes sure you get some fortune cookies…..

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And in this case; I'll let Lucky's Fortune Cookie have the last word!

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Lucky’s Breakfast
3804 Grim Ave
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 715am – Noon

We’re Back!

France, Italy, London, Milan, Paris, France, Travel, yoso-silly

Yes, we're back! And yes, I'm waaaay behind on my travel posts….the ending of our two weeks in Paris, our Taiwan trip, our Prescott – Albuquerque – Santa Fe – Taos, The Big Island and Oahu in February, and even a recent road trip to Buellton/Los Alamos! And here I go again on another trip! I know most folks come here looking for San Diego – SoCal food posts, so I save my travel stuff for weekends. Hopefully, I'll catch up soon now that we're back in town.

We were actually in Italy for Halloween, which was kinda interesting.

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And even had one of the best meals of our trip! Yes, it was Chinese cuisine…in Italy!

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We really enjoyed our time here and can't wait to go back!

Speaking of "going back". Of course we had to spend at least a couple of days in our favorite city.

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Mainly to shop…..

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And of course visit our old favorites…..

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And do our favorite activities here. One of which is just "people, and pooch watch".

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The more we visit; the harder it is for us to squeeze meals at our favorites in a couple of days. Though this time we found a new favorite, which was in plain sight. It seemed to be and is a kinda touristy restaurant, but we found the traditional dishes there to be quite good! Heck, we'd pass this place sometimes 4 or five times a day during our stays and never even though of eating there!

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That mistake has been rectified!

One thing that we'd never done in this city is a tour. One this trip, we booked a private tour of our favorite neighborhood, from one of my favorite podcasts. And man was it fun and informative.

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There was so much hidden in plain sight….stuff we had walked by so many times and never noticed! The tour was well worth the time and cost!

And of course, you'll always see something new when you visit….like this rainbow!

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And then we ended up where we started. We had just one full day; but I got to see an item on my "bucket list".

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And to do a bit more exploring.

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Things ended on a high note as our last two meals were quite good. A Sichuan restaurant whose menu was developed in consultation with on of my favorite authors.

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And a wonderful meal at the favorite restaurant in this city, of a late chef, author, and travel personality.

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I know I need  to catch up with all my travel posts. I'm hoping to do so soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween

London, Travel, yoso-silly

Yes, we're still travelling. And really enjoying things. Another update soon.

One interesting thing we noticed in London were all the places decorated for Halloween!

The most entertaining for us were all the "ghosts" walking around the grounds of the Tower of London.

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They were really amazing and stayed in "character" in spite of the roaming public, really adding to the atmosphere!

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Pretty cool eh?

Anyway, we here at mmm-yoso would like to wish you a fun, healthy, and safe Halloween!

And don't work too hard, like this person obviously did!

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Happy Halloween!

Hoping that everyone is safe and well……

yoso-silly

Man, I never thought I'd be doing one of these posts 2 weeks in a row.

How is everyone in San Diego doing? We're hoping that everyone made it thru Hilary unscathed with property intact.

Things really hit home when I did my Saturday shopping…places did seem a bit more busy, but then I dropped by Marukai for a couple of things and one guy had an entire shopping cart full of Gallon spring water bottles; like 20 of them! And the cashier rang him up (they are 99 cents at Marukai) without blinking an eye. I know, I should have taken a photo, but I was totally in shock. As usual my last stop was at Sprouts, I noticed there was a long line at the registers. And then when I passed the water section, oh my!

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Shades of "shopping in the times of Covid"! Though it obviously wasn't as bad, my friend told me that Trader Joe's had been cleaned out.

Since I was running late, I managed to visit Gusto Market and purchase something we "just needed".

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Which ended up being part of our "brunch" yesterday.

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By early afternoon, Hilary had gone from a Category 4 Hurricane, to a Category 2 (here's the measurements) to a Tropical Storm.

We've been in Kyoto when Typhoon Vongfong hit and I remember Iniki as well. But this is SoCal and the last time a Tropical Storm had hit California was in 1939! I don't think we are quite as prepared for events like that!

At 345pm I opened my phone and stuff just kept on coming….

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Man, with the fires in Canada and Washington state, the fire in Lahaina, now the hurricane/tropical storm. 

We hope that you all made it thru Hilary unscathed! We hope all is well!

Catching up with the “Fishmonger” at TunaVille Market and Grocery

Markets & Grocers, Seafood, yoso-silly

The one and only Tommy Gomes along with Mitch Conniff of Mitch’s Seafood opened up TunaVille Market and Groceries over a year ago! I have known Tommy for over a decade now and have some great memories of when he was at Catalina Offshore. I basically stopped going to Catalina after he left in 2019. And then of course Covid hit. And then Tommy Gomes got his own television show; the Fishmonger. Look him up now and he's listed as a "Television personality"…..well, at least they got the personality part right!

Anyway, a couple of months back Candice asked me if I'd like to meet her at TunaVille and I jumped at the chance! It would be great to see Tommy and interesting to see if time and "fame" had change him at all. Well, it hadn't, to me he's still the same old Tommy. I had a great time and have returned to TunaVille several more times, even when Tommy's out being a "personality"!

I'm just going to breeze thru this post since I'd like you to just drop by the place for yourself.

The shop is located on Driscoll's Wharf in Point Loma. Though getting there the first time using Google Maps was weird as I put in the address and it tried to take me into the gated Government facility there!

My best advice; if you have problems when on North Harbor Drive, just look for the vintage Driscoll's Wharf sign.

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Park in the lot, you can get 1 hour of free parking from the machine in the lot. I park in Lot 'F'.

From there you head toward the water and Regatta Walk.

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I like walking along the waterfront….a real "working" wharf. On Saturdays boats are selling their tuna along the wharf.

Unlike the owner, TunaVille is fairly discrete. Sometimes there's a sign outside, otherwise just look for this storefront.

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On one of the days I visited, Tommy saw me coming and opened the door for me, waving me in:

Tommy: "See a television star is opening a door for you….."

Me: "Wait, I thought PeeWee Herman was dead……"

You get the picture! It's still Tommy!

The shop is spacious, clean, and wonderful…..

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With lovely fresh seafood….I've gotten the wild shrimp from here a couple of times. And as always, Tommy is devoted to the local fishing community.

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And prepared items as well.

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But visit a couple of times and you'll see that there's a special place where Tommy likes to hold court.

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It's at the table right across the dry aging cabinet.

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Where Tommy will entice and ply you with wonderful samples of dry aged seafood.

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And ever the showman, Tommy will extol you with the virtues of what you are tasting.

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You can tell Tommye is in his element here. 

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And Tommy is really a proponent of what he call "seacuterie", basically charcuterie of the sea.

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And strangely enough, the Missus has been into this stuff over the last couple of months too. Here's my last haul from TunaVille. BTW, the Missus loved those percebes that Tommy recommended. It brought back fun memories of Portugal.

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And while perhaps his celebrity and success has changed him a bit over the years, he's still Tommy. Recently, I dropped by to get some Salt Farm Ghost Pepper Salt, but they were out. When I asked Tommy about when he was getting more in; he asked me to hang on a minute….and proceeded to call the company and order some for me! His heart is as big as his personality.

So, I'm now a regular customer, whether it's seafood, some stuff for the Missus's "seacuterie" dinner, or just to say hello (which can last up to an hour!).

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It was good to see that Mister Grumpy Tommy was doing well!

TunaVille Market and Grocery
4904 N Harbor Drive Suite 102
San Diego, CA 92106
Current Hours:
Wed – Sun 10am – 5pm
Closed on Monday and Tuesday

Saturday Stuffs – Ban Lao Becoming So Saap, Boiling Passion is Now Kanpai BBQ & Shabu, Boston Market (Balboa) Becoming California Fish Grill, and Other “Stuffs”

Chains, Cooking, Japanese Restaurants, Lao Restaurants, yoso-silly

Just some odds and ends for a quiet Saturday.

Ban Lao Becoming So Saap:

In my post on doing takeout from Mekong Cuisine "FOY" An mentioned if I'd heard that So Saap was taking over the Ban Lao spot in City Heights? Whoa, no I hadn't heard about that. Last I saw,  Ban Lao had taken over the Que Huong space. And that was just a couple of years back! So, after doing my usual Saturday errands, I decided to head on over. And wouldn't you know it.

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I hadn't even had the chance to visit them at the "new" location! Damn you Covid! Folks that I know who've been to So Saap's Market Street location haven't been overly impressed! Ban Lao was one of the few places where they'd actually make what I consider to be Lao Style Beef Larb. That would be raw beef with beef bile.

4134 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Thanks for letting me know about this An! I really appreciate it. I don't think our little blog would still be around all these years without thoughtful folks like you!

Boiling Passion is Now Kanpai BBQ & Shabu:

Speaking of my visit to Mekong and few years back, Boiling Passion occupied that space. They then moved to a smaller space in the strip mall. When I took a glance at the shop I noticed that it was now Kanpai BBQ & Shabu.

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First thing I wondered was if this was an offshoot of Kanpai in Chula Vista? Second thing I noticed was that they were on soft opening mode with only Shabu Shabu…."BBQ Coming Soon"? I guess this is really a very "soft….." opening?

3904 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Boston Market (Balboa) Becoming California Fish Grill:

On my way back from Nijiya and 99 Ranch Market, I decided to stop in at the Walgreens near the corner of Genesee and Balboa. When I parked, I noticed that Boston Market was gone.

SS 08052023 02 SS 08052023 02b   Man, this location of Boston Market had been here forever! I decided to walk on over to see what was up….hoping that perhaps an interesting eating establishment was coming to this location. I should have known better. It's a chain swap out. At least it's California Fish Grill which claims serve only "Responsibly Sourced Seafood". You can read about Cathy's visit to one of their locations here.

5502 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Other "Stuffs":

We have a ton of leftovers from various meals, especially our last short Road Trip (posts coming soon). For some reason, I've really been enjoying the leftovers.

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This past Tuesday, I was walking out of Clairemont Coffee with my cold brew when something stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a pretty rare sight in San Diego….a rainbow!

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For some reason I was so touched by this sight. It reminded me of "home", you know:

"Where I live, there are rainbows
With life in the laughter of morning and starry nights

Where I live, there are rainbows
And flowers full of colors and birds filled with song"

It just brought a smile to my face….and it just brightened my entire day!

So, here's hoping you all have a wonderful and bright weekend!