mmm-yoso – Page 321 – 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.

Lent 2014-observing an observance.

May 7, 2014 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Chains, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog and usually Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) or Cathy write posts about food. Today, Kirk has been busy, Ed (from Yuma) has also been busy, so Cathy is writing a post to keep you interested in stopping by to read the blog.

This is an untimely post, since Lent (a solemn religious observance) is over and we are officially in the 'Easter Season', observed by Christians. However, I'd like to share my 2014 Lent observance, either as a prep for next year, or possibly inspiration for a snack you may choose sometime this year, since a part of the religious observance has to do with fasting/self denial/giving up certain luxuries. It's not like a New Year Resolution where you change habits forever, but merely have some discipline for 4o days, from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday.

Lent officially begins the day after Fat Tuesday, which, you may recall is a day of overindulgence. When I grew up (in Detroit), the local bakeries used this day to overstock (and use up) sugar, fat and jelly…it's called Pączki Day…

Paczki are basically jelly donuts. You can find them everywhere on Fat Tuesday.

Above is a photo taken on Fat Tuesday in the break room at the office where my brother works (in a suburb of Detroit). Every one of those boxes contains paczki.

To assist you in avoiding some of your indulgences, when Lent begins, most bakeries begin selling Hot Cross Buns, which are sweet, but not covered in glaze and instead topped with a bit of icing in a cross shape,

and filled with bits of dried fruit. The buns are baked, not fried.

Anyhow, as part of my bit of self denial, I gave up my newest craving, Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups, (which are incredibly wonderful, and the first new candy by Nestle in four years).

In addition, another way that Catholics in particular observe Lent is "no meat on Friday", which does NOT mean eating vegetarian…it means you can eat seafood but not beef, pork or chicken. {You may have noticed, during your entire lifetime, that everywhere the soup of the day on Friday seems to be clam chowder. That's part of most restaurateurs acknowledgement of observant Catholics}.

You may have noticed many fast food restaurants offering fish sandwiches as an option beginning in March this year.

The Jack in the Box fish filet sandwiches (which were sold for $1.50 on Fridays only and regularly $3.20 the rest of the week) are quite large, trapezoidal in shape, served on a toasted bun with lettuce and tartar sauce. It's a great, moist fish piece with a crispy exterior.

Arby's (the Roast beef place) offered their Big Reel fish sandwich at two for $5 every day and it was served on a toasted sesame seeded bun. The shape-an elongated trapezoid (quite large as you can see) and the fish is particularly flaky and moist. This was also topped with lettuce and tartar sauce.

Beef n Bun always has fried fish on their menu (a 'tub of fish' (12 pieces)is $22). The sandwich ($3.59), served on that wonderful soft toasted bun with lettuce and tartar sauce. The fish here has a light and very crispy beer batter, similar to the batter used on the zucchini.

Of course, there are other 'no meat' meals I enjoyed. The fried tofu from Tapioca Express ($3.25), comes with a choice of dipping sauce as well as heat level of spicy powder. It's an easy and satisfying snack.

At many Vietnamese restaurants, you can order Bun Dau Hu Chien with Cha Gio Chay-cold noodles on top of salad topped with fried tofu and tofu egg rolls. Above is one of my favorite versions, from Pho Ca Do

Another favorite Vietnamese Bun item (also from Pho Ca Do) is Bun Tau Hu Ky- cold noodle salad topped with crispy fried tofu sheets stuffed with shrimp paste. It's a favorite all year, not just during Lent.

One day during Lent, my brother was here on a business trip and we met at Sam Woo, choosing the salt and pepper fried squid (in the back) and the shrimp with glazed walnuts in the center (the wontons-front right- had pork and shrimp as the filling).

I would be remiss to not include my favorite fast food fish filet sandwich, the decades old offering from McDonalds:Filet-O-Fish, which were offered for $1.50 on Fridays throughout Lent (and are about $4 every other day of the week all year) and still offered at that price on Fridays all year at some locations(look for signage). A soft steamed bun topped with a crispy fried square shaped fish patty, slice of cheese and tartar sauce.

A few other fast food restaurants also offered fish sandwiches which I enjoyed, notably Wendys and Carl's Jr. (not breaded/fried, both offer grilled fish sandwiches). I'll find those photos someday.

I hope everyone is having a good week; it's half over!

Chef Zhu

May 6, 2014 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Chef Zhu is now a location of Chin's

*** A short revisit post can be found here.

So one night when the Missus was busy at work, I asked Candice if she'd like to check out Chef Zhu. She had only been there once since they opened, so she was curious as well.

Yes, the English sign still says "Double Happiness"(the former ABCDE – American Born Chinese Dining Establishment name of the place), but it's easy enough to tell you've arrived at the right place.

There's an interesting mix of customers, forks adorn the tables and are removed when Chinese customers (or at least Chinese by marriage customers) are seated. Remember when Shanghai City had the ABCDE $5.99 lunch buffet? We were lucky enough to get a few tips from Candice's Dad on ordering from the menu.

Candice loves Ma Lan Tou and having had the wonderful vegetable in Suzhou and Hangzhou, I thought it made a nice start to the meal.

This was a decent version of the dish….you really can't get fresh ma lan tou here. I've seen it frozen at T&L and figure it's pretty much the same product everyone uses, but at least they didn't kill whatever flavor was left. In case you're wondering Ma Lan Tou is commonly known as Indian Aster and the vegetable is a staple of "Su Cai" – Jiangsu Cuisine, one of the Eight Great Traditional Cuisines of China.

We also got the Chao Nian Gao.

You have to be careful when ordering this; the standard version is drenched in soy sauce, which kind of detracts from the nice flavor of this dish. Shanghai City had a habit of overcooking the rice cakes and adding too much sesame oil. This was spot on. Loved the chew, the slight bitter from the vegetables……

Candice's Dad recommended the Yin Doo Xin, a very Shanghai style soup made from pork and chicken stock, and flavored with preserved pork (think ham), lovely bean curd knots, and crunchy winter bamboo shoots.

I believe it's called something like "Shanghai Soup Pot" on the menu. This had good flavor and that "aaah" factor that I find comforting, simple, yet hints of smokiness and saltiness from the pork added to the flavor. I took the leftovers home and it tasted even better the next day! I've been back to order this twice for take-out, eating a day after.

The Pork Pump looked pretty impressive……. A quick note, if you've got a bunch of customers ordering "orange chicken" around you and want to make a splash order this……you'll get folks asking you what this is, but in terms of this dish…..

But I've had much better, this was on the tough side and that sauce is too thick, almost like glue which was a rather unpleasant texture for me. It also tasted amazingly under flavored for a dish like this.

I thought the Xiao Long Bao at Shanghai City was passable, so why not, right?

This reminded me of the rather terrible XLB from The Dragon's Den, too thick wrappers, not enough soup. Chef Zhu was a partner in that business with the owner of Dumpling Inn for a while….I think the XLB rubbed off and not in a good way.

Most of the dinner was decent, that soup really hit the spot, and the company, as always was superb! So I decided to return and try some other things on the menu.

Starting with the "Shanghai Duck" ($6.95).

I'm a big fan of Su Cai cold dishes…..I'm not particularly fond of this rendition. That glaze is much too thick….the texture of caramel is great on ice cream, it ain't so great here. It was also slightly unpleasantly bitter. Lots of duck with not much flavor. I took the leftovers home and the Missus had one bite…..

I always thought that Shanghai City made a decent Niu Rou Mian….I mean, it wasn't Dai Ho, but it did hit the spot, so you know I had to try it here.

As a whole, I didn't enjoy this. I preferred the thicker, more doughy Shanghai Noodle that Shanghai City used to use. The noodles were also overcooked. The meat was on the tough side, thought the flavor was okay. At Shanghai City, the broth tended to be on the anise-heavy side, but there was just enough beefiness in it to balance the scales. Here it wasn't so, too much anise, not enough beed flavor, not rich enough either.

And yet, not to be denied, I returned on a very hot day, going Paleo all the way…..hey TFD, aren't you proud?

I started with a favorite of mine, the Jellied Pork – I believe it's something like "Salted Pork" ($6.95) on the menu.

And while I prefer a bit more aspic, on the dish usually called "jellied pork", I loved the fat to meat ratio. The texture was excellent, think of that wonderful piece of cold ham, except nice and meaty. The sodium level was on the high side, which I also enjoyed.

I didn't enjoy the Jellyfish Salad ($6.95) quite as much.

This wasn't terrible by any means, but it basically fulfilled the bare minimum, like a student just trying to get a passing grade. The jellyfish had a nice crunch, was cold, and didn't have that telltale sign of poor preparation; the acetone flavor. It was however, very bland, the (supposed) sauce just watered down, like this was rinsed and not drained well, sauced, and thrown on a plate….it was very bland.

By this time, I'd come here, what, five times (twice for take-out soup), so why not a sixth. And why not go for the gusto and order the Steamed Pork with Preserved Vegetable?

This was a decent dish; the pork a bit more crumbly, than the rather nice waxiness I prefer, but it wasn't too sweet, the sauce didn't kill the flavor of the pork, and yet it was salty enough to for me to eat way more rice than I'm used too (take that TFD!). I actually only ate three slices of the pork and some preserved vegetable; I was pretty much done after that. Still, a decent dish, one I'd have again.

So what to say? For someone who eats on Convoy, perhaps Chef Chin's makes some dishes better….but if I lived in, say, University City, I could make this a rather regular stop….at least for the Yin Doo Xin. Plus, I get a kick out of some of the Server's here. One of them is a hoot……she doesn't understand how someone of Japanese ancestry can be happily married to a mainland Chinese, so I explained it to her. "Everyday is a battle, but the peace treaties make it all worthwhile"!

Please read Kirbie's and Faye's posts on Chef Zhu.

Chef Zhu
1011 Camino Del Mar
Del Mar, CA 92014

Krua Thai Cuisine – Sab E Lee’s legacy spreads to the South Bay

May 5, 2014 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

A couple weeks back, "Rik" sent me an email telling me that a new Thai Restaurant had opened in Chula Vista and was serving up Issan style dishes. Which sounded great to me. I finally found time in my schedule to head down to Broadway and check out Krua Thai.

The place is a tiny hole-in-the-wall that you'll miss if you blink while driving past Halsey Street.

The tiny place, a couple of tables and a counter, with no A/C reminded me of Sab E Lee, circa 2008. And to my extreme surprise, when the cook came out front….we both stared at each other and laughed; it was one of the cooks from the later version of the Original Sab E Lee!

Sadly, looking over the menu, I noticed few Issan dishes; I was told that there's no customer base in the South Bay for Duck Larb, Koi Soi, Nam Tok and such. Still I ordered items that I thought would give a good indication of flavor, spice, and technique.

Starting with the Yum Nuea, the beef salad.

I ordered this at a heat level "7" and it did bring it on. The base flavors were there; mild sweetness, pungent fish sauce and garlic. Protein was pretty scarce and I didn't take to the iceberg lettuce, no cabbage and really tough beef makes this lean more on the "no bueno" side.

Issan Sausage (of course).

This was very dark and the casing a bit over-fried. Flavor the same as TOSEL, after all, it's the same sausage. No cabbage, ginger, chilies, and cucumber makes this kind of fall short. The wilted cilantro made the dish look sad….but the sausage was fine in spite of how dark the casing looked.

My usual test of the cooks wok skills, Pad See Ew (with shrimp).

This lacked the color and "wok hey" that I look for in Pad See Ew. I did appreciate that the noodles weren't over-cooked. The shrimp were also done right. The flavor was good, if a bit too sweet. This one just missed the mark.

The service was very friendly and mellow. I was told they'd make me anything from Sab E Lee's menu if I ordered ahead, so you might try and do that if you visit. This place has potential, the dishes are so close, just barely missing the mark. I'm sure I'll have a better meal next time. Nice folks here, I hope they do well.

Krua Thai Cuisine
686 Broadway
Chula Vista, CA 91910

So this meal got me thinking. I hadn't been to TOSEL in a while…..as much as I've written about the place, it seems that they've kind of "jumped the shark" over the last year or so. Many of the dishes I've gotten have been uneven and some of the young folks there seem to be somewhat blase' these days. Perhaps that's what success brings…..but I really do miss Koby and the tight ship he ran.

So I decided to drop by and order the Issan Sausage and the Yum Nuea.

You can see the difference, though the Beef Salad flavors were pretty close, the meat was more tender and there was just more of it. I will say, this is not the same as the version I enjoyed back in 2008. It seems like the flavors of some of the dishes here have been somewhat diluted, probably just as the talent pool of cooks is. Sad to say, TOSEL is just not on my rotation anymore……

The Original Sab E Lee
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

Though I haven't been to Sab E Lee Santee in ages…….

Noodling Around: Revisits to Ramen Yamadaya and Hinotez

May 4, 2014 mmm-yoso Bun Bo Hue, Japanese Restaurants, Ramen, Vietnamese Restaurants

We had a nice period of cooler weather before things turned really hot. It has been a pretty warm year, so we never had any period of real "noodle weather", so when things cooled down, I tried to make the most of it.

Ramen Yamadaya:

**** Ramen Yamadaya has closed

The first place I hit up was Ramen Yamadaya. We left less than satisfied on our last visit back in November. I ordered my usual, the Kotteri Tonkotsu, noodles extra firm, with garlic on the side. Things were better this time around, the broth nice and hot, the rich soup coating my tongue….and belly. Noodles were decently firm, and overall, this was a nice bowl. I guess our last visit was a fluke….I hope.

Ramen Yamadaya
4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

On another note, the sign for the downtown location on Broadway is finally up. Still not much sign of activity and it's been over a year….but at least it's progress.

Hinotez:

I actually had been thinking of going to Yakyudori, but my meetings had run long…..try and get into Yakyudori, or any number of ramen shops on "the Mesa" at noon. I really didn't have the time, nor the internal fortitude to wait in line….so where to go? Well, I've never encountered a wait at Yakyudori's sister restaurant, Hinotez. I will say that in my experience, the ramen at Hinotez never really stood up to the Yakuyudori name, but since my choices were limited……

Like my experience at Yamadaya, the Shio Ramen ($7) here was better than on previous visits.

I actually hedged my bets by also ordering some Chicken Karaage, which were nice and lightly battered, but was on the tough and chewy side.

The ramen was pretty good, the nice mild sweetness of the salt was there, the noodles were wonderfully chewy. Not a fan of a chashu, which was dry, but at least it wasn't cold like on my last visit. The broth had a nice layer of fat floating on the top….this was a vast improvement since my last visit.

Hinotez
7947 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

Two for two….nice!

I think we've got some cooler weather coming up this week, what are planning to eat?

Porto: Clérigos Church and Tower and Restaurante Antunes

May 3, 2014 mmm-yoso Porto, Portugal, Portuguese Food, Travel

After dropping off our provisions at the apartment, we headed up to Clérigos Church and Tower.

The tower, which you can see from almost every vantage point in Porto and the church took over 30 years to build and has become one of the enduring symbols of the city. The tower stands at 250 feet tall and since it stands on a hill, the views are outstanding.

The entire structure is built in the baroque style, designed by Italian architect Nicolai Nasoni. The facade of the church is quite imposing as it stands against the clear blue sky of Porto.

The tower stand behind the church and is the main site along with the famous Lello and Irmoa Bookstore (which we didn't visit) are the two main sights in the area.

Instead of heading right in, we took a walk around the tower. We saw folks having their morning coffee, the produce stand, which also conveniently sold postcards and other knickknacks was doing a nice business. I always wonder what it's like living in the shadows of a fairly busy monument….all those tourists like us wandering around….

There are 225 stairs to the top of the tower, which start fairly innocently, but soon things start getting kind of cramped. There's room only for one at certain points….you'll have to stop and let other pass you. One woman seemed to be having a bit of a claustrophobic attack.

Looking down from above provides a view that's almost Hitchcockian, or depending on your point of view, perhaps MeL Brooksian. Either way, I'm not a big fan of heights……..

There are portals….hey Porto portals, has a nice ring to it….along the way, which you can use to see the views and how high you're going. These too get smaller as you get higher.

One more thing, when you reach the top; you see that bell? Well, it does ring on the hour….it went off, quite loudly, and I almost jumped out of my shoes. It's very, very loud.

The payoff is a wonderful view of the red rooftops of Porto. Very nice on one seemed a typical, clear day in Porto.

And even if you're not a big fan of red rooftops, the others views aren't too shabby either.

The interior of the church is small, but very ornate. You'll find the tomb of Nocolai Nasoni in the church as well, as he asked to be buried here.

We wandered around a bit, then decided on grabbing lunch.

Along the way, we passed Ingreja do Carmo…Carmo Church which had some beautiful tile work (Azulejos) which depicts the founding of the Carmelite Order.

I had a place picked out for lunch, but the Missus really made me work for it……we headed up Rua Martires Liberadade, down another, and yet another street, until we hit Rua do Bonjardim and eventually Restaurante Antunes.

Noon is early for lunch on a weekend, so the rather small, but elongated restaurant belonged totally to us.

About 15 or so minutes later, the place started filling up, mostly with older, very properly dressed locals…for a nice weekend lunch I assume.

This restaurant is well known for their pernil…..pork leg, which, of course we got. It was a bargain at 15 Euros…..

This of course, was a load of food as it came with a ton of roasted potatoes and spinach which was much like esparregado. In terms of "pork pump", it was a decent dish, but a bit on the tougher side and it could have used more flavor.

The one dish that blew both of us away was the classic Porto dish Tripas à moda do Porto (8 Euros). This was so good…..

The smoked pork and chicken were basically garnishes; this was a hearty stew, thick and rich, with amazing flavor, the beans, cilantro, oh my….. The tendon was nice and tender, the tripe perfectly prepared. The Missus declared this one of Her "desert island dishes" and wants to go back to Porto just to find the best version. It is, without a doubt one of the best things we ate on this trip.

What was really funny is; our Server spoke no English, but it's obvious they push the pernil (pork leg) here. When we ordered this, he immediately protested, "no….no!" But we persisted; heck we had a kitchen, leftovers were welcome! Truly, they should be pushing this instead of the pork leg….but I guess folks are afraid of tripe, tendon, and a gooey stew. The supposed history of this dish is also quite interesting. According to legend, during the Conquest of Ceuta in 1415, Henry the Navigator commandeered all of the best provisions of Porto; which included all the best cuts of beef. All that was left was offal to feed the residents of Porto. The rest as they say, is history.

We left….fat and happy….

Antunes
Rua Bonjardim 525
Porto, Portugal

Knowing that we didn't have to eat all the food (we wiped out the tripas), made things so easy for us as we headed back to the apartment to drop things off.

The downtown area of Porto, away from all the shops was very quiet except for the occasional student excursion group.

The Missus decided that it was time to cross the river and have a taste of Port wine!

Stay tuned!

Revisits: RakiRaki and Curry Rice Hinotez

May 1, 2014 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Ramen

Well, if the heat doesn't get you; I guess the wind will……

I feel for the folks who owned the two vehicles that were hit by the falling tree.

Even though it was hotter than the surface of the sun out, I wanted some noodles, so I decided to head to kodai-kōkoku ummm, RakiRaki.

I may joke about all the self promotion and internally generated hype that adorns almost all the surfaces of this place, at the least it makes an almost halfway decent tsukemen. I've kinda struck out with Sichuan Liang Mian, so I decided to change things up a bit. Also, I figured, quite correctly that RakiRaki would be pretty quite.

Of course, things started out with a welcomed bottle of Pure Alkalized Water, which is now labelled, just in case you didn't know….because what could that colorless liquid that tastes like water possibly be?

As for my Original Tsukemen ($8.95)….as opposed to the Spicy Tsukemen….or the Rikimaru Miso Tsukemen…or the Rikimaru Spicy Tonkotsu Miso Tsukemen, or….well, you get it.

I really like the firmness of the noodles here and this was right on the money. I did notice a couple of things…the slice of lime was dried out like it had been sliced quite a while ago and left sitting and while this was the most "chashu" I've ever had here….the place has been notoriously chintzy with protein, it was basically tiny pieces, like all the leftover stuff at the bottom of the pot. The broth seems to have changed a bit; it was less salty than I remembered, not a bad thing, and had an almost citrus like finish to it, like someone had added ponzu to it. I still think it's over priced, but it suited my needs on this hot afternoon.

RakiRaki Ramen and Tsukemen
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

**** Curry Rice Hinotez is now Yakitori Taisho

One thing about working in an office with no windows is that your wrapped in that "bubble" with no idea of what is going on outside. So I walk outside and it's like a zillion degrees….well at least a 100 or so. The world was still rather dark when I entered the office and I had the idea that I should go back to Curry Rice Hinotez to see what was going on. Even though it was rather hot, I decided to follow thru……to find out that it doesn't look like anything is going on here; same one item….same version of curry (pork)….which tasted the same when I ate it at my desk.

Man, I'm wondering how long they can go one like this? They were prepping a bunch of stuff behind bamboo curtain, but I guess none of it is for this location.

It would be nice if they switched things around a bit……..still, this wasn't bad at all.

Curry Rice Hinotez
5185 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Roadtrip COMC: Lunch at Shunji in photos

April 30, 2014 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Sushi and Sashimi

Man, it's so hot today…….I started doing this post and decided that the pictures speak for themselves. During my extended roadtrip to LA in February, I decided to get the $40 lunch from Shunji…..let me just say, it's worth every penny.

Last time I was in the area, this location was Mr Cecil's California Ribs….let me just say, this is beyond a major upgrade.

Enough chatter…….

Like I said….worth every penny…..

Update: So now that's it's getting cooler here's the listing:

1 – Madai

2 – Megina (Opal Eye)

3 – Wild Hamachi

4 – Miso Soup with Crab

5 - Blue Nose Snapper

6 – Marinated Salmon

7 – Maguro

8 – Inada

9 – Hirame

10 – Kanpachi

11 – Kinmedai (One of the best things I've eaten so far this year)

12 – Ikura

13 – Uni (Santa Barbara)

14 – Blue Crab Handroll

Shunji Japanese Cuisine
12244 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Hope you're keeping cool!

Spicy House revisited

April 29, 2014 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

So Spicy House is now under…what; it's third set of owners since 2010? I had some friends in town recently and they wanted to eat at Spicy House…mainly because our good friend Samuelo says it's the best Sichuan in town. Now, I take that with a grain of salt since "S" has all kinds of self imposed restrictions…he eats pork, but no intestines, pork ears….no tendon, no lamb, no poultry of any kind…..no fun! He also is not super fond of Sichuan peppercorns and is mostly interested in straight up spicy and salty….he should really eat Hunan. Our friends who were visiting….well one of them can't really deal with seriously spicy food and our other friends, a wonderful couple really just want vegetables! Though MsA eats here often, I found out that it's mostly the Americanized "lunch specials". Sigh…..such is life….

So we all ordered dishes, with my objective of introducing these folks to other flavors and such….well Akira knows how I operate, having shared more than a few meals with me and his wonderful missus Diana is game for anything. As for Samuelo…..well at the last minute

I went ahead and ordered some Liang Cai….cold dishes, which Ms.A, in spite of eating here a couple of times a month had never even noticed….she and her husband really enjoyed these dishes.

Actually, these were among the better dishes of the evening…..

Of ocurse we had some vegetable items….like the very basic napa cabbage with black vinegar…..

Which I actually make better at home…..poor wok skills here as the cabbage really lacked any of the texture of something cooked over very high heat. The chilies really didn't bring anything to the dish…..a typical home style dish that seemed like it was cooked in a typical home.

Ms,A's husband decided to order the roasted peppers…..

Good heat(it had Akira turning a bright vermillion in color and coughing) and garlic, but not enoguh salt for me.

Akira, in spite of his low tolerance for heat, always enjoyed the Hot Pepper Prawns at Ba Ren, so he ordered the version here.

I'm not a big fan of this new style of batter, which is artificially sweet and almost cake like. This really needed more Sichuan peppercorns and in spite of looks was not very spicy….it had just been mixed with partially scalded chilies, rather than taking the time to actually stir fry the chilies with garlic and Sichuan peppercorns then removing from the heat, adding the shrimp and mixing well to coat the shrimp and batter in the fragrant seasoned oil.

The Ko Shui Ji was surprisingly tame and lacked a nice depth of flavor……a hint of black vinegar, ginger, garlic….

It was like cold chicken in weak chili oil………

The surprise of the night was the Zi Ran Yang Rou – the Cumin Lamb. Ms.A's husband had never eaten lamb before and he loved the flavor of this.

The lamb was on the tough side, but this was seasoned fairly well….it could have used more cumin, but I really enjoy a lot of cumin so take that with a grain of salt. This was a decently prepared and cooked dish.

In end the end, it was great seeing old friends, the jokes and laughter…..the food was secondary. Which was probably for the better. I've got to get Samuelo here to find those "really good dishes" he tells me about…….

Spicy House
3860 Convoy Street #105
San Diego, CA 92111

Carin de Ria – A quick first look

April 28, 2014 mmm-yoso Filipino Restaurants

**** This location of Carin de Ria has closed

Soon after Eater San Diego's announcement that a new Filipino "fast casual" concept restaurant named CARiN de RiA opened in Escondido, I had couple of folks ask me if I'd tried the place. I'd pretty much had my fill of "concepts" and fast-casual style places at that time so I just waited for a while. Recently, I found myself in the area and decided to drop by and check them out.

I liked the lay-out of the restaurant….on the small side, but very clean and simple. I especially liked the gentleman manning the counter, who I believe is the owner; very warm, but also very professional. He just seemed like someone who has a restaurant background and also really cared about his customers.

The menu is pretty tight with 5 "braised/stew" style dishes, 3 items off the grill, plus pancit (of course), and lumpia (of course…of course) and a couple of other items.

I started with some lumpia ($3).

It becomes immediately clear that you're not in a "turo-turo" ("point-point") steam table joint. First the prices….which are definitely in the "fast-casual" range. The lumpia were very small. However, they were hot, freshly made,light, and crisp. The filling also had very good flavor…..I could even make out some garlic-porkiness. This was probably the favorite item I had.

Now for most folks, the first item they's try would be either Adobo, Bistek, or Inusok…..what most places call BBQ Pork. One of my favorite dishes is Kaldereta….here it's Kaldereta Baka, basically a beef stew. Well actually, it's Caldereta ($8) on the menu and comes with two sides. I like that you have a choice of brown or white rice, but you know what I choose, right?

For my sides, I chose the "charred corn salad", which was the better of the two sides, even though it didn't have much charred color, nor the development of the sugars that a good grilling of corn would. Good salt and the tomato added a nice acidic touch to it. The eggplant and tomato salad; basically ensaladang talong. Good garlic flavor here, but it was pretty flat overall, the eggplant was too hard and chewy, and versions that I enjoy have a touch of vinegar, which was lacking here.

The rice was a tad hard for my tastes as well.

The caldereta was nice and tangy, but needed a bit more salt and lacked the complex flavors of a long braised dish. The carrots were almost raw and hard and some of the pieces of beef were really dry, like both items had been cold stored and added at the end. I also missed other ingredients I'd find in various versions of this dish; olives, red or green bell peppers, that kind of thing. It seemed like a caricature of the intended dish.

Like many other of these "fast casual" concepts; there seems to be that "soulful" component missing; though I enjoyed some of the dishes here a lot more than say, Green Shallots. As a plus, that gentleman behind the counter was very pleasant, so I'm hoping they do well. This is not the place to get your turo-turo fix; but if you want something a bit lighter you might want to give them a try. I'll probably drop by again if I'm in the area in a couple of months.

Carin de Ria
3440 Del Lago Blvd
Escondido, CA 92029

You can read Lynn's post here.

Roadtripping mmm-yoso style – revisits to some of our favorites: Song Long (Westminster), Tasty Noodle House and Hunan Chilli King (San Gabriel) and take out from Shufeng Garden (Rowland Heights)

April 27, 2014 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

I've taken folks on various roadtrips before and have even explained my strategy to folks….you need to have a basic plan of eating….what needs to be consumed right away and what you can take home, something that might even taste better later. You have to approach things with a rather balanced approach….you can't be like PeterL, who tasted a beef roll for the first time and just went after it,even when I told him we'd be getting another; possibly an even better version later…..which of course, he was too full to eat, along with the Xiao Long Bao, Shenjian Bao, etc, etc…. Just because he got greedy.

A recent, really fun roadtrip is a good example of the fun we have. We did a good deal of shopping in between meals and the Missus and I had a blast….and lots of left-overs to boot. I won't delve too much into the food since these are places I've posted on at least twice before.

Song Long – Cha Ca Thang Long for breakfast:

So this is enough for the two of us………

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this place has become a favorite of the Missus. They open early; we hit them up at just after 9am and the place was empty. For some reason the Missus really likes the Banh Trand Me here and will eat it up before the Cha Ca arrives.

We like this version of cha ca thang long…..but it really won't keep so we had this for breakfast.

The one thing being that the mam nem is the gift that keeps on giving….as in every time you burp, you'll be reminded of what you had for breakfast….until lunch of course.

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

Tasty Noodle House – for my favorite Tianjin Baozi:

So, in my mind jiaozi, xiao long bao, and to a certain extent shenjian bao will not keep. Baozi is kinda iffy; it won't be quite as good, but can be passable. For me; the version at Tasty Noodle House is my current favorite. After going about taking care of shopping and stuff we made it to this part of San Gabriel….even with all the detours and road closures by 11am. It's a tiny restaurant, so it can get filled quite quickly.

For me, the item here is the Tianjin Baozi….but the Missus felt guilty about just ordering one item for the both of us, so we started with some Fried Intestine….hey, who doesn't love fried intestine?

Somewhere between 2006 and 2009, I really developed a taste for deep fried pork rectum…to the point that the Missus says when I die, I'll be headed to the "giant chitlin in the sky". These were crisp and easy to eat; though I'm not a big fan of dipping it into hoisin sauce.

There's something wonderfully yeasty about these that just takes me back to China. The bun is light and not too sweet; there's just a bit more than a smear of meat but it is also very light…..there's a nice ginger flavor that comes through which really refreshes the palate.

Tasty Noodle House
827 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

When we start thinking in terms of "what's next", it's items that can either: keep real well, or have really assertive flavors. On this trip it meant…..

Hunan Chilli King – almost five years later:

It's been a while since we'd been here…….this is where I first understood what the term "big spicy" really meant. I also remember getting "maced" by the leftovers that I heated in the microwave. I'd been craving spicy food recently; the Sichuan in San Diego is quite timid and doesn't cut it, so it was time to return.

We started with the basic "three steamed meats"…..

See the chili seeds? This was kind of spicy and was what we called a two out of three…the smoked pork (la rou) was excellent; the chicken (how lamented that they don't seem to serve duck anymore) was good, but the fish was really hard and chewy…..it was actually better then next day.

The one dish we were wondering about is a favorite of the Missus. It was a dish simply called "steamed eggplant" on the menu, but was so good that I've made this a couple of times. It has not quite reached the heights of the dish as made at Hunan Chill King though. However, it had been quite a while since we had it and wondered if it had withstood the test of time.

Well, it has….though it wasn't quite as salty as we recalled. It was also really spicy when we had the leftovers the next day…..still a great dish though.

As a bonus; we got our fun "San Gabriel sign" fix here as well.

Hunan Chilli King
524 East Valley Boulevard
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Shufeng Garden – my take-out go to joint:

**** Shufeng Garden has closed

We had to stop by Rowland Heights on the way back to San Diego….so it made sense to stop by a take-out favorite of mine; Shufeng Garden. For some reason, it was really quite on this day.

There are basically two dishes I get from here….and perhaps some Liang Cai (cold dishes), we really need to stop by for a sit down meal again someday, but it's always the situation of "so many places to try….so little time".

Anyway, for us it's the Tea Smoked Duck:

And the Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce.

This makes for some really good take-out….though I think Sammy may disagree…….

I guess he doesn't have quite the same taste in spicy foods as we do!

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Thanks for reading!