mmm-yoso – Page 202 – As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.

Midweek Meanderings – Da Nang Food to Go Becoming Mi Quang Mien Trung and Liang’s Kitchen is Now Another Location of Private Kitchens

January 17, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

Just a quick post on a busy week for me.

Da Nang Food to Go Becoming Mi Quang Mien Trung:

I was recently driving on El Cajon Boulevard when I noticed that Da Nang Food to Go and all the other businesses next to the 7-11 had closed down. I took a quick look at the sign and was surprised. Mi Quang Mien Trung? I'll have to ask then next time I visit Mien Trung. On a side note; I've never been a fan of the Mi Quang at Mien Trung, so we'll see.

4745 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Liang's Kitchen is Now Another Location of Private Kitchen:

Here's another surprise as I really didn't notice the change in signage. But rather something looked different so I did a quick turn into the strip mall.

Then I looked up and saw that Liang's Kitchen had become another location of Private Kitchens (aka Sister Ma’s Kitchen).

Based on my last visit to Liang's I'm not surprised. But strangely, didn't even notice the change until this past weekend.

4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Finally, on New Years Day; the Missus got called into work. So I decided to take a drive around the neighborhood. It's strange what catches your eye…….I saw this guy sitting at the outdoor table at Seisel's. All the businesses were closed. For some reason I find it sad and kind of haunting.

Kanazawa – Kuroyuri

January 15, 2018 mmm-yoso Japan, Japanese Restaurants, Kanazawa and Ishikawa Prefecture, Travel

We had really enjoyed our first afternoon in Kanazawa; checking out Omi-cho Market and having a nice lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing before heading off to dinner. Which was really close by. I'd had a friend make reservations at Kuroyuri; a Oden restaurant. Kuroyuri is located in the Hyakubangai Shopping Center which is attached to Kanazawa Station. And was rather easy to find.

Man, this place was busy. There's a packed u-shaped bar area on one side of the restaurant and packed tables on the other. And we did have a table waiting for us when we arrived.

I had heard that one of the iconic dishes of Kanazawa is Oden and Kuroyuri has been around for more than a half-century specializing in Oden. The menu has oden; here you order by item and a whole bunch of really good looking izakaya type dishes along with another iconic dish of the Kaga Domain, Jibuni.

So, of course we ordered it all. Along with a nice bottle of sake.

The oden here is very light and clean; not too salty, but with an mild ocean-savory flavor. As a whole, we enjoyed this, but not as much as other items we ordered. Our favorite item by far was the egg wrapped in fish cake. What a symphony of textures!

Our favorite item by far, was the amazingly savory and sweet Kasuzuke (fermented in sake lees) Fugu…yep, blowfish.

We were surprised at how relatively tender (it is after all dried and marinated) the fish was; without being too salty. We actually had a second order.

The Nukazuke (fermented in rice bran) seemed a bit saltier without the complexity of the previous version.

The strong fragrance and oiliness of the Nukazuke Saba(Mackerel pickled in rice bran) was a bit much for the Missus.

It was on the fishy side and quite salty, but I thought it to be really good bar food.

The Jibuni; a classic Kanazawa duck stew arrived in a pretty lacquer bowl.

Man, this was quite rich and hearty. the salty-sweet flavors shone through, along with the gamey duck. Loved the mushrooms in this along with the seitan. Very nice overall.

We ended with a cleansing mushroom – egg drop soup.

And some yaki-onigiri to keep any future hunger at bay.

We really enjoyed our meal at Kuroyuri. The Missus loves izakaya style dishes. The service was excellent as they usually are in most restaurants in Japan.

We'd gladly return….especially for that fugu and more sake of course.

Kuroyuri
1-1 Kinoshinbomachi
Kanazawa, Japan

We walked through Kanazawa Station on the way back to the Nikko Hotel. The gate at the front of the station is called the 'Tsuzumi-mon' (Drum Gate) The two pillars are shaped like traditional hand drums.

The area behind the gate is covered by a large glass dome; known as the 'Motenashi' (Welcome) Dome. This was all built as part of the project that eventually brought the Shinkansen to Kanazawa. If you'd like to read a bit more about the history of Kanazawa Station, click on this link.

It was an easy walk back to our room. I found that the beer I had bought in Hida-Takayama was now nicely chilled.

I had bought this one….well, because it had Sarubobo on it. For some reason, we really took to Sarubobo during our visit to Takayama.

I spent the rest of the evening just watching Kanazawa from the window.

There was something about Kanazawa, and this trip as a whole that really touched us……

Thanks for reading!

Sunday Sandwiches – Revisits to SuperNatural and Crossroads Deli

January 14, 2018 mmm-yoso Sandwiches, Seafood

There are quite a few sandwich places fairly close to our offices. Here are revisits to a couple of them.

Supernatural Sandwiches:

**** SuperNatural Sandwiches has closed

I'm kind of bummed that they don't do the early hours and breakfasts anymore. I actually went once thinking they'd be open at 10 and it's back to normal hours for now.

I returned a couple of days later right at eleven and there was no line. They've usually got something going on; some new twist, but I didn't detect anything on this visit.

I got my usual, the Siren. Taking it to go.

It's still a favorite of mine. The plump shrimp, the buttery-slightly sweet brioche like lobster roll. A hint of garlicness….. There's a bit of spice as well. Kind of on the messy-rich side; but a nice guilty pleasure for me during a tough week.

SuperNatural Sandwiches
7094 Miramar Rd. #122
San Diego, CA 92121

Crossroads Deli:

On one of my first days at our new offices I took a wrong left turn…..then made things worse with a wrong right turn. Which sent me under La Jolla Village Drive. Where things looked a bit familiar. It sent me right up to the condo complex where Crossroads Deli is located.

I was supposed to meet a couple of guys for lunch….but just decided to stop here instead.

I hadn't planned on having a sandwich for lunch. I went ahead and ordered the "Italian Torpedo". Which was quite a hefty sandwich.

Ham, Mortadella, Salami, Provolone, shredded lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard, and a rather vinegary type sauce.

No real complaints about the portion size here. Except there was just too much bread in that roll. I could have done without the ham as well. But that's just me. I'm glad this wasn't "over-dressed"…..but it was "over-carbed".

Crossroads Deli
9085 Judicial Dr, Ste 100 (Inside the La Jolla Crossroads Apartment Complex)
San Diego, CA 92122

Roadtrip – Revisits to Qing Dao Bread Food (Monterey Park), Kang Lac Bakery, Lien Hoa, and Song Long (Westminster)

January 13, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

Whew; I need to catch up on all my posts! Since I've posted on these places a multitude of times; I'll keep it shirt and sweet.

This one is from back in August of last year. Basically, I had an all day meeting in Irvine. The Missus had the following day and night off; so we decided to stay in the area. We started things off well by having dinner at Sushi Noguchi in Yorba Linda (sorry no post on that one….next time). The next day after my meetings we headed off to dinner and was kind of unimpressed with Sichuan Impression in Alhambra. In fact we basically ate maybe half of what we ordered. Our hotel had a fridge, so I'd end up taking stuff back and then home.

Being somewhat disappointed in driving all this way, we decided to make a short stop. The Missus was really missing good jiaozi, so we decided to make a stop at….

Qing Dao Bread Food:

Man, it's been a good long time since we've been here.

The place is starting to look even more run down and the folks working a bit older. Though it's fun to get a smile out of the Missus when She hears the "Qingdao Hua"; the accent of Her hometown.

Two orders for us. The lamb versin; which doesn't have as much "soup" as before; but is still very gamey. And the vegetarian, which on this occasion was really good. The wrappers were nice; with that pillowy-pull to them.

The Missus had really been missing jiaozi it seems as She put these down in no time.

There was one rather sad moment during our meal. It was when the traditional garlic condiment came out. I've called this the Missus's "little dish of memories". Her job when She was a child in Qingdao was to pound the garlic for jiaozi in a mortar and pestle. Something She used to hate, but now loves…..in fact She did it with such relish the last time we were in Qingdao. Looks like they now put the garlic in a blender….very sad; because you really get the most flavor out of the garlic when you pound it; you release all the oils…..this really didn't have the "umph" we were used to. Perhaps the folks here have gotten old and tired of pounding garlic.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 North Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754

The next morning, we got up rather early. Instead of just hanging out at the hotel until check-out and heading off to Sea Harbour, we decided to check out early and just do the usual two-fer of Lien Hoa and Song Long. We hit a snag as when we arrived at Lien Hoa; the place wasn't open yet. I had an idea. You see, years ago, "Beach" took me to the place right over in the next parking lot for a snack…..

Kang Lac Bakery:

The Missus had never had the Bot Chien here and it was right next door to Lien Hoa. So why not?

Radish and Taro cakes coated in crisp egg.

Man, that sauce is still good!

Tea for the Missus, some Vietnamese Coffee for me. The cost was like ten bucks. A very nice start to our morning.

Kang Lac Bakery
9301 Bolsa Avenue
Westminster, CA 92683

By now…..

Lien Hoa:

Was open.

And I got our roast duck; which I've posted on a number of times.

Lien Hoa BBQ
9311 Bolsa Ave
Westminster, CA 92683

And then it was time for "our real breakfast"……

Song Long:

Ever since "Kha" recommended this place to us years ago; it's become a real favorite of ours.

And I have to say; it's still a big favorite. Hmm……maybe we have some time next weekend?

Song Long Restaurant
9361 Bolsa Ave Suite 108
Westminster, CA 92683

Thanks for stopping by!

Musashiya Revisited

January 11, 2018 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

Before we moved offices; I did sort of a lunch farewell tour of various places; some of which I hadn't been to in a while. Musashiya surely falls into that category. While I'd had some fairly decent meals when this stand was Kayaba; my meals at Musashiya had really been lacking. But since we'd be changing locations in a few months I decided to see if the Tonkatsu there had improved.

And while the tonkatsu looked a bit better than what I'd had here previously…..

I'd say no. As you can tell by the color, this had been fried too long. The breading was super hard; not crisp, hard. The pork was dry and the breading had separated from the pork cutlet.

Other than that; the rice was hard, the potato salad way too salty.

The best items was the tamago; which, while on the too sweet side for me was decent.

I just couldn't bring myself to finish the tonkatsu…..

I hate wasting food; but I couldn't bring myself to finish this. The woman who buses the tables gave me the oddest look as I handed her my tray with two of the largest….and by the look of it; the driest slices of pork still on it.

Really sad. If you'd like to see a comparison of items between Kayaba and Musashiya you can check out this post. Though my last visit to Kayaba wasn;t that great either.

Bummer.

Musashiya
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd Ste 119 – In the Mitsuwa Marketplace
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Be Thui at Pho Saigon Alley

January 9, 2018 mmm-yoso Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Pho Saigon Alley has closed

Back at the end of October; I was making one of my now quite rare trips to City Heights when I noticed a "Grand Re-Opening Banner on the former location of Asmara Restaurant. Grand Re-Opening? When was the original opening When did Asmara close? Hmmm……I guess I'm getting a bit out of touch in my old age.

Anyway, I made a mental note of the place and like I tend to do so often these days promptly forgot about the place. In December, when we got back from our latest trip, something triggered a recollection. And I decided to stop by Pho Saigon Alley.

I went and parked in the rear of the building and this banner caught my attention.

Pho be thui? That's a new one for me. Man, I haven't had Be Thui on over ten years!

The rear entrance and back of the restaurant; the outdoor area, looks somewhat worn and unkept, not the most welcoming entrance. The interior looks fairly bright, but the floors seem scuffed and there's a bit of haphazardness to the place. Bar type seating, a stage….seems like they were doing karaoke here for a while?

The place was also totally empty when I arrived. But I pushed ahead and ordered the Pho Be Thui; noted as "Smoked Veal" on the menu.

I ordered a small ($9.25). I totally expected to get a plate with be thui along with a plain-Jane bowl of pho. So I was surprised when a good sized bowl of pho arrived with brisket, tripe, tendon, and flank.

The be thui here was thinly sliced like tai; there was no rice powder dusted on the slices of meat like proper be thui; the sauce was super salty nothing like the traditional fermented bean sauce (tuong cu da) or the really clean, refreshing, ginger based sauces I've had with be thui. It was of course, quite lean, pretty darn chewy, and since the broth for this bowl of pho wasn't very hot; it never got beyond basically raw. The broth was very mild, defatted, with just a hint of beefiness and a touch of anise flavors. At least it wasn't too salty.

The noodles were nicely done and were actually hotter than the broth!

The tendon and tripe were very well prepared; just a hint of chew for the tendon and no "off flavors" for the crunchy tripe. The flank was a bit too fatty and tough, but the brisket had a nice beefy flavor. As you can see by the top photo; the basil was starting to discolor.

So, while this was not very good in terms of be thui (also, there wasn't any "smoke" flavor – I'm thinking they mean torched), it wasn't terrible by any means. There are bowls worse than this to be found. I needed to get something for the Missus at Northgate Market a few days later; so I decided to drop by again.

On this visit, there were three other tables occupied. By an older crowd. This time I noticed a grease board on a music stand occupying the "stage" area. It had a bunch of dishes listed. I was tempted to go for the bun bo hue. But after my recent not-so-good bowl of BBH, I decided to just go ahead and ordered the Bo Luc Lac.

This was fairly mediocre; not bad, just nothing special. Like versions of bo luc lac I've had recently; this was on the salty side and lacking in any sweet-sour or deeply savory tones. The meat was a bit overcooked, but still reasonably tender. The veggies were under cooked, though the rice was nice and fragrant. the portion size was fairly small; but reasonable for $8.25. Not much more to say.

The service is typical old-school pho shop……which I thought kinda nice since we now have all these modern, slick, sort of hipsterish Vietnamese places I've been to recently. The clientele on my visits were all older folks.

I may drop by Pho Saigon Alley again in the future…maybe take my chances with the Bun Bo Hue. Or maybe not……..

Pho Saigon Alley
4155 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Open Daily 10am – 9pm

Georgia’s Greek Cuisine (Loma Portal)

January 8, 2018 Cathy Greek Food, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! and thanks for reading this food blog. You know how there are news stories about a lot people having the flu or pneumonia? Well, lets just say that one of the writers here has recovered from one of those diagnoses and the other is in the process of recovering. Cathy is writing a short post.

You may have noticed the signage on the side of the building while driving North on Rosecrans Street. It's the first storefront in that parking lot behind the painted sign. Georgia's has been here since 1977, it's family owned and run.
There's an outdoor 'patio' as well as indoor seating. The menu has lunch specials (see the bottom of this post). I can't believe we've never stopped here.
Neat, clean, efficient and very friendly, we saw many 'regulars' chatting with some of the people working as well as other diners.
One of the Lunch Entrees was a Combo ($12.95). Choose two from the following: Beef Kebab, Dolmades, Gyros, Moussaka. Pastitsio, Spanakopita. The plate comes with rice pilaf, Greek salad and warm pita bread. The Mister chose the Gyros and Moussaka, (which he hasn't had since 2011, but is always looking for on menus). This was wonderful. The Gyros was standard (see seventh photo on that link), had a nice crispiness and went well with the house made Tzatziki sauce. The Moussaka with the bottom potato layer, seasoned ground lamb, eggplant and puffy baked layer of creamy béchamel sauce was delicate and flavorful and oh so good.
Not being able to decide, I chose the Mezedakia- combination appetizer plate ($13.95) Cheese pies, Spinach pies, Hummus, Feta cheese, Kalmata Olives, tomatoes, Dolmades, pepperocini and cucumbers. A perfect combination of snacks that made a meal. The cheese and spinach pies were both wrapped in layers of delicate Filo dough; crispy, quite filled and a perfect blend of herbs which were complimentary in flavor. The dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with a blend of herbs and rice and covered in a rich Greek Olive Oil) were wonderful- not like the canned ones I buy for snack-meals at home; fresh and with much more flavor nuances. The piece of Feta was different than the fluffy chunks of Feta on the Greek salad…more solid and subtle/not as salty. The Feta had a different herb blend sprinkled on top and tasting small pieces with a bit of pita was satisfying. All of the sliced vegetables were fresh and herb covered

All in all, a great meal, great place to stop.

Georgia's Greek Cuisine 3550 Rosecrans Street Suite A San Diego, Ca 92110 (619) 523-1007 Website

2018 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade: Post Parade Showcase of floats, Snacks and a meal: Cream Pan (Tustin), Arsen House of Cookies (Pasadena), T Burgers (Monrovia)

January 7, 2018 Cathy Bakery, Burgers, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Sandwiches, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is primarily a food blog, but there are many events surrounding meals. Both Kirk and Cathy like to write about that aspect of the eventual meals. Today, Cathy is writing.

The 2018 Tournament of Roses, with the theme "Making A Difference", is over. There were numerous events and activities between Christmas and December 31-the Bands and Equestrian Units had presentations, you could visit float decorating places and a two day event, "Live on Green". The parade and football game were on January 1. Following the parade, the floats lined up on Sierra Madre (at the end of the 5.5 mile parade route) and were on display (the Post Parade Showcase of Floats) from 1 p.m. on January 1 and again from 9 a.m. on January 2.

There was a little advertised way to get into all of the Official Tournament events for one very small price- The Event Pass Pin was sold for the first time this year at the Tournament House, the Pasadena Museum of History, Vromans Bookstore and online for $10! (The fee just to view the floats at the Showcase was $15 per person this year).

There were road tests of the floats in July, August, September, October and November. The Mister and I helped to decorate floats in early December. There are more details and excellent reporting of all Tournament events at this link to The Rose Examiner.

I could not decide how to show you the floats: there were 44 in the Parade. Six were not judged, six were self constructed and the others were constructed by four professional float companies. 24 were recognized with awards. All of the floats were beautiful, detailed, magnificent and decorated by volunteers, especially the week following Christmas when the live flowers were delivered. Each float deserved to be recognized.

So, I had to pick and choose through my photos (so you wouldn't be bored). There were surreal floats.

There were little details on every float…

(These guys were on the 'off camera' side of their float, you never saw them if you were watching the parade on television.)
One of the record breaking floats held 100 people- two farmers from every state in the Union.
There were cute floats (but all of them were cute, weren't they?)

I could mention the mishaps which happened at the end of the parade route…

(it seems the float operators forgot (or weren't warned as to when) to collapse the float at the end of the route, resulting in some damage).

It was a great theme, a great parade and I have at least two photos of every float. If there is one in particular you would like to see, I can add it at the end of this post. THIS is a link to the entire parade from KTLA TV

Soo went to see the 2018 floats, too! Maggie also has a great point of view of the post parade.

But now, we return to the Food portion of the blog…

We got to Cream Pan around 7 a.m., ordering the same items (ham and cheese croissant and a cheese cracker) we had on our last visit along with a loaf of sesame bread. The cheese based items were a light breakfast. Cream Pan 602 El Camino Real Tustin, CA 92780 Website

We had parked off of Washington Street and walked to the Blue entrance to the Post Parade Showcase of floats. On the way back to the car, we passed Arsen's House of Cookies, where we have stopped several times previously. Mrs. Arsen recognizes us and we catch up, about once a year.

We purchased some sweets for cc and for ourselves.

As well as four of the (still warm, freshly made) cheese/herb pastries on the counter. Total cost? $9. The bonus was I received an Arsen's Bakery calendar (last photo, bottom right) which will be used a lot this year.

We headed East, didn't want to take the freeway and ended up on Foothill in Monrovia. This looked like an interesting place to stop for lunch. We hadn't noticed it before, but Yelp has posts going back to 2007…
The menu has breakfasts, Greek, Mexican and American (salads, burgers and sandwich) choices.
The half pound burger ($6.39) was char-grilled and had that flavor I crave. It was cooked to order (medium rare), served on a fresh toasted bun with 'everything' (lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and mayonnaise). As with every establishment that serves Greek/gyros, the onion rings ($3.79) were handmade, whole onions, sweet, properly fried with a cornmeal based breading. (The ranch sauce was an extra 50¢ and wasn't even necessary.)
Since we were in this part of the State which serves pastrami at almost every fast food joint (I need to do a post of all the taco shops up here which have pastrami on the signage), The Mister ordered a Pastrami sandwich ($8.99). When asked what he wanted on it, he only asked for mustard and pickles…and that's what was received. The bread to meat ratio is so wonderfully in favor of the meat…which was smoky, peppery and lean. A wonderful sandwich.

T Burgers 226 W. Foothill Drive Monrovia, CA 91016 (626)357-4844

This was the start to 2018. Almost 12,000 steps of walking and wonderful food. So far, resolutions kept!

The theme of the 2019 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade:

Traditions- Rosca de Reyes (from Su Pan) and Calendars

January 6, 2018 Cathy Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! welcomes you to this first Saturday of 2018 with a post from Cathy. Kirk is feeling a bit under the weather.

Today, January 6, is the 12th Day after Christmas. This evening, the 12th Night, is when The Mister and I take down our decorations (which went up on Christmas Eve). It is traditionally known as the Feast of the Three Kings or Epiphany.

Earlier this week, we dropped by Su Pan Bakery to order the Rosca de Reyes, a traditional pastry symbolizing a King's ring which we will have while working on dismantling the tree and cards and decorations. {If there were people helping us, then whomever gets the piece of Rosca with the hidden tiny plastic 'Baby Jesus' inside would be responsible to host the Candelmas Day meal on February 2, another traditional day to take down decorations}.

I did purchase a small Rosca to mail to family back East, hoping they would receive it today…but the weather is very bad and the Post Office tracking shows it probably won't get there until Monday. At least it will be pretty much frozen and probably still fresh. Samples of Rosca on the counter…

Su Pan is probably our favorite bakery, not only for the sweets, but also the fresh bread and the breakfasts (tortas, burritos and plates), lunch tortas and, on Friday and Saturday evenings, street tacos- grilling out in the parking lot.
A ham and egg and cheese breakfast bollilo ($4.99). The bollilo (bread) baked here, of course, is fresh. A nice, light crispy, perfect crust. The filling is a wonderful, light scramble of egg and cheese and pieces of ham. The combination of bread and filling is just a perfect breakfast bite.
The bacon, egg and cheese burrito )$4.99) is also a perfect meld of flavors (as well as filled with wonderful pieces of bacon).

Su Pan Bakery 5006 El Cajon Blvd San Diego 92115 Website Open 5 a.m.-10:30p.m. daily

Another New Year tradition for us is changing the calendars with new, business giveaway calendars. The Mister and I usually are on the hunt for these beginning in November, but this year, we were busy and only managed to acquire a few on our own, and I was thrilled to have been helped by my friend, cc, who, with another friend, (Astroboi), went around acquiring(mentioned at the bottom of that post) the majority of the calendars this year.
As always, we must have an Orchard Supply Hardware train calendar (since 1931, all of their calendars have featured trains-the artist this year is John Winfield ). We usually picked one up after decorating Rose Parade floats in Pasadena, but now there is an Orchard Supply close to home. Nijiya Market always has a beautiful, botanic themed calendar and the Zion Market calendar is quite large and good for writing appointments.
Both Seafood City and Lucky Seafood Supermarket have the traditional 'bamboo' calendars, with drawings depicting the Year of the Dog. Otay Mandarin Chinese Restaurant gave away a beautiful, desktop/standing calendar.

There were more, including the Beautiful photography of the Hudson River Valley, given away by the Marist College, a refrigerator magnet calendar from a local realtor, the HMart desktop style, the Buffalo Exchange (which has the calendar in Spanish, indicates the Days of the Saints and begins in December) and, when we were in Pasadena for the Rose Parade Showcase of floats (another post), we stopped in at the House of Cookies and Mrs. Arsen gave us one of their Armenian themed calendars (with Armenian text). It's hanging right next to my desk and I'll try to learn from it this year.

I hope everyone is having a great year, filled with tradition.

Circling Back to The Mariscos el Pescador Truck

January 4, 2018 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Seafood, Taco Shops

I needed to get my New Year Wagashi from Hogetsu Bakery. So I headed down to Chula Vista. As I went past the H Street offramp on the I-5, I had a sudden craving for tacos from the Mariscos el Pescador truck. I got off at L street and headed on over. Man, had it really been a year-and-a-half since I last visited?

It was just a few ticks after 10am so there were no crowds. I noticed two semi's parked in the lot. Both drivers were eating in their rigs.

Since I hadn't been back in a while; I decided to see how my old standbys here were. I ordered a Tacos Gobernador and Marlyn. It actually looked even better than what I had on my last visit. Though I was offered no consommé…..I guess I could have asked, but I figured what I ordered would be enough.

The Gobernador was better than what I had here on my last visit. Nice balance of peppers to onions and the shrimp was moist, tasty, and plump. The one detail that I noticed was that there wasn't much cheese melted on the tortilla. The melted cheese, along with adding milky goodness to the taco acts like a "barrier", allowing the tortilla to stay whole during the eating process. The taco fell apart after two bites. I also noticed the tortillas aren't as good as they were as well. Don't get me wrong. This is still good; but not great.

The smoked fish taco was really nice; smoky, the essence of the sea, and more moist than I recalled. Lime really helps to cut the oiliness of the fish. This was very good.

I really need to return more often.

Mariscos El Pescador (In the parking lot of Toys R Us)
1008 Industrial Blvd
Chula Vista, CA 91911