Man, it's Christmas week already. Little did I know that my meals at Minh Ky and Pho King on March 14th and 15th of this year would be the last time I would eat in a restaurant in San Diego. As I think everyone in San Diego knows, the hammer came down on March 16th, and we've been pounded with it ever since. Last weekend marked nine months since I last ate at those two places and after working during the mornings, I decided to call and do take-out. Of the exact same meals I'd had at the two places. I hadn't been in this part of City Heights since March, so that was going to be interesting as well. I just struck me as I'm typing this out…..I guess it was just fate that my last meal in a restaurant was at a place named "Pho King".
Anyway, here goes.
Beef Sate Egg Noodle from Minh Ky: 
I was surprised to see the parking lot at Minh Ky almost full at 10am. Only the crazy parking spaces with no exit….you know, the ones you have to back all the way out of were available.
At MK, you still enter the restaurant and like before, employees are using the middle table as work space. To fill sauces, etc. There's now blue painters tape on the floor for routing customers and social distancing and the cash register has a plexiglass window.
Things went very quickly as I had my cash ready, didn't need, nor want change, grabbed my bag, returned to the car, proceeded to do the hand sanitizer thing, and headed home.
I got my usual, which felt pretty hefty.
Good lord, this was an entire portion of soup and it seemed the portion of egg noodles and beef was at least a third larger than what I'd previously had. Compare what I got from Tim Ky to this.
I actually had to use the bowl that had held the noodles and beef from the Tim Ky order for the broth and then bust out one of my extra large bowls for the noodles!
This was quite good. The meat fairly tender, the noodles had been nicely coated with the savory sauce, tangy stir fried, but not too broken down tomatoes for some added acidity, onions for a nice slightly pungent-sweet zip, and a touch of mild spice.
There was one interesting thing that was kind of a two-edged sword The noodles were very well coated with the sate, which meant there was minimum clumping, I didn't have to do any work to separate. However, it seems all the time spent in the sauce had made the egg noodles much softer than I prefer.
I found the broth to be less salty than on previous visits, with what seemed to be more of an almost light seafood flavor. I used it sparingly on the noodles….and saved the rest for some frozen won tons I had in the freezer.
Of course I needed a nap after eating this.
Minh Ky Restaurant
4644 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 283-4180
Current Hours
Thurs – Tues 9am – 8pm
Closed on Wednesdays
Hu Tieu Mi Kho from Pho King:
The next morning, I was wrapping things up when I decided that perhaps I should do the second place of the two-fer….the last restaurant I dined at before the March lockdown. I called in my order and headed to Pho King. I called at 10 am and got to the restaurant at 1020, there was no parking available, so I found some street parking several blocks away. I ordered my usual here as well, the Hu Tieu Mi Kho.
The entrance to the restaurant has been blocked off and is used as a pick-up window now. My order was waiting when I arrived and there was no delay. Of course, there's something about folks 
in this parking lot. This time as I was walking by, some dude flicked his cigarette out and it hit me on the arm. Luckily, I didn't get burned or anything…..I turned around and the guy laughed, then ran into the water store……jerk.
I got home and unpacked things….first thing I noticed that unlike the last time I had this dish, there was actually more than two-three strands of Hu Tieu available. Nice.
That's what it looked like plated up. The noodles were in a major clump, so I used the broth and the slightly sweet-porky-salty sauce and worked it with my spoon and chopstick. Too bad the sauce isn't studded with tasty ground pork like it used to be. The broth was on the overly sweet-salty side; I'm thinking it's the MSG at work.
These days the charsiu like pork was nicely flavored but quite dry, the shrimp was surprisingly plump. A decent amount of ground pork as added to the dish….but one of the items that really makes this for me is the Chinese Celery, the briny vegetal flavor really wakes things up as does the earthy-sweet bean sprouts.
Of course, all those textures and the slightly crunchy egg noodles and the stretchy hu tieu really makes the dish when doused with some of that sauce.
As a whole, my drill hasn't changed over the years:
"I do work a bit to get this thing started. First, with my chopstick and spoon, I separate and mix. I then add in the celery and bean sprouts and mix even more. The large protein items get a dunk in either the clear or soy sauce broth. I'll then start dripping the broth onto noodles while I eat. By the end of the production I actually have a small noodle-soup dish with ground pork floating around."
And having a bit of normalcy and consistency, even though the venue is not the same helps.
Pho King Restaurant
4658 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 285-1111
Current Hours:
Fri – Wed 10am – 8pm
Closed on Thursdays
I truly understand the pandemic fatigue; but can't help but feel a bit upset that a public health crisis became politicized. I've already written about this a bit, so I'm not going to keep grinding away at it. I find it a bit frustrating and frankly sad when folks I know talk about the pandemic and deaths in terms of "oh, they all have preexisting conditions"….etc….. I always ask them, so you believe that "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic?" And regardless of if they agree, and frankly quite a few do, or not, I remind them of who this quote is attributed to – Joseph Stalin.
Be safe, be thoughtful, be kind…….
The small, conveniently located market has been in El Cajon for at least ten years. The Mister and I purchase warm tortillas and carne asada as well as other meats from the butcher shop counter, while ordering from the in store taqueria. 
Way back when 'eating in' was allowed (October?November?) The Mister and I woke up talking about craving the birria. The meal is now $8.99 and was brought to one of the properly spaced in-store tables. The birria is either beef or mutton (depending on the day) and is a deep flavored, long simmered (at least three hours) wonderful stew. There are ancho as well as guajillo peppers, garlic, oregano and a wonderful mix of herbs and spices.
We have been ordering birria "To Go" and the packaging is nice. 
The broth is kept separate from the meat and the serving size is the same or larger as the in-store plating.
We usually order one taco ($2.50), so that the other person has something to eat while the other is enjoying the stew. Our favorite here is the adobada (marinated pork).
Although the carnitas is quite nice. 
Family run now in its 43rd year. Just frozen yogurt and a variety of toppings. Five of the flavors change daily (including one non-dairy and one non-sugar), five remain the same (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coconut and peanut butter). The "Baby" size ($3.60) is enough for sharing. 
Flavors shown here are tart peach and pistachio; peanut butter and coffee (not photogenic, but tasty); strawberry and coconut. 
