mmm-yoso – Page 337 – 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.

Unusual sweet treats.

December 20, 2013 Cathy Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog. We (Kirk, Ed (from Yuma), Cathy and a few others) try to share some sort of food centric post almost daily…no reason, other than we do indeed all eat and like to write about it. Cathy is sharing today.

It's close to Christmas and people are probably using up vacation days and perhaps doing last minute shopping. Thought I'd share some sweet surprises found around town recently. Maybe you've seen something out of the ordinary in your shopping travels, too.

The Mister and I tend to stop in to K Sandwiches once a week, either for a sandwich (breakfast, lunch, dinner) or something from the steam tray, or a grab and go croissant, loaf of bread and tasty beverage. A few weeks ago, while waiting in line to pay, I noticed this handwritten sign on the counter.

You know I had to.

Crépes, made in the waffle maker, thin and rolled so they cool to a nice, light crispiness. 50¢ each. The green one is pandan flavor (a light, floral, kind of nutty-like pistachio pudding is light, sweet and nutty in flavor) and the other is original flavor (pretty much tasted like it was made with coconut milk). Both with black sesame. A nice treat and a box full would be a nice gift.

K Sandwiches 7604 Linda Vista Road at Mesa College Drive San Diego 92111 (858)278-8961

Trader Joe's is carrying these frozen treats. I saw them being put into the freezer the Monday after Thanksgiving. $3.99 for a box of four. Pronounced "queen yamman". This pastry originated in Brittany, France; a popular Breton dessert.

These frozen treats are similar to the Trader Joe's frozen croissants (you have to proof overnight/6 hours and then bake). (That's a pumpkin croissant starting to rise in the background.)

The Kouign Amann will bake in its cup into crispy, sugary layers.

Not as many layers as a croissant, but like a croissant dough-with sugar between the layers. The sugar caramelizes and is crispy. I adore this basic, simple French dessert. That I can make it fresh- and one at a time- makes it perfect.

Rose Donuts, all the way at the West end of Linda Vista Road, near USD (NOT the location in the same parking lot as K Sandwich) is open 24 hours. (it's in the same mall as Ryan's). Rose's makes and sells wonderful croissant based sandwiches, grilled burgers, hot/grilled sandwiches, bagels, ice cream, a variety of beverages…and…not just donuts.

Oh, these two items are NOT the same. The larger one is your traditional 'apple fritter', which is, indeed, wonderful, large and filled with apples and cinnamon. The smaller one…in the front of the above photo…

An apple-blueberry fritter. Oh my, yes. A wonderful, surprising, fritter. Unexpected and great.

Rose Donuts 5201 Linda Vista Road San Diego 92110 ( 619) 294-8856

I hope everyone runs across a delightful surprise. Soon.

Birrieria Don Rafa (Chula Vista)

December 19, 2013 Cathy Mexican Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping at mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) aren't blogging today: work, holidays, weather…you know. Cathy has some time, so she is blogging.

This weather has been wreaking havoc with The Mister's sinuses for about five days now and combined with the chilly mornings, we both were in search of some sort of comfort food. I was driving on Broadway in Chula Vista, across from the mall around H and I Street and this signage caught my eye.

I drove around the block so we could park without walking too far. For some reason, the name "Don Rafa" sounded familiar, but the more fun and familiar word to me was "Birrieria". Stew: comfort, warmth and flavor. After I was home, I found this post, written by Kirk in 2009. It seems we had similar experiences at the same business in different locations on the same street almost five years apart.

The interior is bright, neat and clean. Very little English is spoken. There's no need.

There are several signs on the walls, as well as at the bottom of this complete menu, reminding you that the salsa is very spicy. No medium, no mild, the salsa is what it is. I like that. The choices of beef (res) or goat (chivo) made the small menu slightly complicated.

As we placed our order, the condiments were brought out (containers of oregano and salt are on every table). That's the spicy salsa…it is, and it complimented the meal as did the other variables.

The Mister was immediately drawn to the pozole on the menu. He was asked if he wanted a small or large order and he ordered the small ($6.50)-the menu prices are for large. Then he had to decide if he wanted goat or beef…

A very generous serving of birria de chivo pozole (and yes, there were bones, as per the other warning on the bottom of the menu) including skin and tendon and, of course, hominy. This was excellent, a bit smokey in flavor, and good stewed goat and served with fresh made then fried corn tortillas.

A cheese quesadilla on corn tortilla($2.25). The fresh made then grilled corn tortilla had a sweetness and filled with a good amount of soft stringy (Oaxacan) cheese. Bites of this plain, simple item was a perfect accompaniment with the other food we ordered.

I also ordered a birria de chivo taco ($1.65) with everything- beans, onion and cilantro. It was served on a single, smaller sized tortilla and the gamey flavor of stewed goat combined with the other items was just a perfect balance.

I wanted to try the beef birria also and the ahogada style (sauce covered) sounded good ($6). This was basically a beef birria filled quesadilla (but a much larger size corn tortilla than the other quesadilla ordered), (again, fresh made) covered with consume and beans. Lots of cheese in the tortilla, lots of tender stewed beef and the sauce just made this just a perfect mix of flavors and the serving size was very generous.

Glad we stopped here; we left feeling full and warm and clear headed…just what we needed.

Birrieria Don Rafa 560 Broadway Chula Vista 91911 (619) 934-5135

Midweek Meanderings: Waldo’s closes, the sign at First korean Market (U Mart update), and the menu at Yu’s Garden

December 18, 2013 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

I think one of these posts is overdue. Here's a collection from the last couple of weeks.

Waldo's Chili Dogs Closes:

I saw this while driving through Clairemont Square a couple of weeks ago.

After the litigation to have the name change, new owners, the place never seemed to gain any traction. Now they're closed.

4250 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

The sign at First Korean Market:

I've been wondering what's been going on with the (supposedly) soon to open U Mart in the old Zion Market location. So I dropped by First Korean Market which is taking over the space and found this sign (click to enlarge) The sign says U Mart is supposed to be opened mid-December, which is kinda like…well…right now, right?

I did a quick walk through and found the meat department completely closed, shelves depleted, and items at deep discount, which tells me the move should be coming soon….I think.

First Korean Market

Becoming U Mart

4611 Mercury St
San Diego, CA 92111
Between Engineer Rd and Dagget St

Supposedly any day now….

Yu's Garden Menu:

FOY (Friend of Yoso) "YummyYummy" mentioned the menu for the soon to open Yu's Garden is up, so I dropped by and took some photos (again click to enlarge).

4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Recently Consumed – The Comfort Food Edition

December 17, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, yoso-silly

It's been a pretty busy couple of months……luckily, I have folks like Cathy and Ed from Yuma to help me out. Without them, I truly doubt that this blog would still exist. Life has its rhythm, an ebb and flow, and this was just a long "high tide" I guess. Things are starting to settle a bit now, still kind of crazy, but I'm dealing with one or two crises per day, rather than four or five.

One thing I really notice this time around was how my eating just sort of retreated into its own simple comfort food mode……but I guess that's what comfort food is……

Here's a little collection of what we ate during the period when I was too busy or tired to cook……

So here's the requisite Spam, Eggs, and Rice bowl……

I just noticed….doesn't the soy sauce make it look like an "unhappy face"……

If I took photos of all of these dinners…and lunches, it would probably be a collection of similar egg and rice bowls.

Eggs, rice, and salty protein…..I guess that does it for me……

Even when I had time at home, it was stuff I could just prep and forget about until ready…..

The Missus got into the act too…..She loves steamed egg. This one has cold smoked scallops with sesame oil.

Which leads me to the question…..when things are going crazy; what's your "comfort meal"!

Roadtrip: Xi’an Kitchen (City of Industry) and other stuff

December 16, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

After lunch at Shanghailander Palace we made the short drive to Gale and the City of industry for our appointment. We had thoughts of getting our appointment done and having an early dinner and possibly a later snack. Unfortunately, what is usually an hour appointment became a 2 1/2 hour one. Kind of bushed we decided to just stay in the area. We hadn't been to the area on Gale west of Fullerton Road in ages and I had a choice of two places; Remy's or Xi'an Kitchen.

The choice became rather easy as I've been looking for good Shaanxi food since we returned from Xi'an a couple of years ago. The places we've tried just didn't measure up. We didn't set our hopes too high….I just really wanted a good Yang Rou Pao Mo, unleavened bread in mutton soup.

The place was totally different in terms of service from lunch; the young lady here just wanted to do the bare minimum. She was more interested in talking to her friends on one of the tables than serving customers. In fact, when the older couple on the back table, returned the Yang rou chuan; the lamb skewers, because they thought it was too fatty, she loudly and blatantly mocked them when taking it back to the kitchen.

I was fascinated to see Rou Jia Mo on the menu as "Chinese Hamburger". This is basically a flat bread filled with fatty pork. What's not to like. In my mind, I thought if this was half as good as what we had at Fan Ji La Zhi Rou Jia Mo (樊记腊汁肉店), I should be happy. With that as the benchmark, I guess I should be satisfied.

The filling was rich and greasy, with a good porkiness, just about right. It was however, ice cold, which made it somewhat unpleasant. The bread was over-worked and too dense , repelling the wonderful porky goodness of something like this version from Xi'an:

The Yang Rou Pao Mo tasted almost exactly like the version at Shaanxi Gourmet, so perhaps these two places are somehow related?

In places such as Tong Sheng Xiang (同盛祥) in Xi'an, the dense unleavened bread is brought to your table whereupon you break the pieces up and the hot mutton broth is poured over everything. I didn't expect that here, could you imagine the young lady having her social time interrupted for those annoying customers? Anyway, like Shaanxi Gourmet, the bread was wrong, very waxy and slippery, seemingly over-worked, developing too much gluten. Thus the bread never absorbed the flavor of the broth, which was decent, and the nice and flavorful lamb.

Of course I was wishing for something along the lines of this.

No cilantro, chili paste, or pickled garlic either…perhaps I needed to ask for those standard accompaniments? So, I recall saying that Shaanxi Gourmet didn't quite take me to Xi'an….perhaps to New Guinea; this one took me to Catalina Island…….. Still, the portion size was quite large, and would fill one up quite adequately.

We ordered one other item; called "Braised Meat in Fermented Sauce", basically preserved meat.

We both loved the texture of this cold dish, though it was pretty salty. Still, this was the best dish of the evening.

The prices here are very reasonable, but you get what you pay for. I'll pass next time….should have gotten Niu Rou Mian next door at Remy's.

Xi'an Kitchen
18213 E Gale Ave
City of Industry, CA 91748

After dinner, we decided to drive up Fullerton Road into La Habra, then to Imperial to check out one of the Missus's old favorite haunts; Brea Mall. For some reason, the place just looked dull and uninspiring to the Missus….ah, how times have changed. After walking off dinner we crossed over the 57 and checked out Mother's where the Missus bought some apples….which seemed to be the theme of this roadtrip; the Missus bought apples everywhere; Braeburn, Black Arkansas, Crimson Gold; we got back home with a bag full of apples….go figure!

We ended the evening at Daiso….the Missus bought some trinkets for some friends. If I recall, this used to be a dance studio, which I think has moved further down the strip mall.

In what seemed oddly humorous to me; they kept announcing how many minutes to closing from the time we entered….830 pm, every five minutes! By the demeanor of the staff you could see that they just wanted us the heck out of the store; it was easy to read between the lines here. "Attention Daiso customers, don't go away mad….just go away!!!" After escaping from Daiso, we walked over to 85C bakery, where we soon noticed all the other folks who had gotten kicked out left Daiso had gathered. Daiso refugees one and all!

What was really sad is that the Albertson's, which used to anchor this strip mall is now gone. We hated the Von's in Rowland Heights, which became SF Supermarket, so we used to shop here every so often. I'm not the biggest fan of these mega-chains, but we had nice memories of the place.

So Von's in Rowland Heights is gone, Albertson's in Hacienda Heights, along with Ralph's off of Colima Road in Hacienda Heights, and Ralph's in Diamond Bar. Wow……..

We crashed early, deciding to leave for the next leg of our roadtrip early; like 530 am early. The Missus wanted to stop by Donut King in the same strip mall for a cup of coffee, for old times sake.

When we lived here, Donut King used to be open 24 hours….now they open at 3am. I'm still amazed that the place survives with Krispy Creme literally a block away and all the Asian Bakeries, but there were a couple of folks in the place at 530, so I guess they're hanging on.

It's been over a decade since we left this neighborhood…..we mulled over all the changes as we headed off into the early morning darkness……

Tiger! Tiger!

December 15, 2013 mmm-yoso American/New American Restaurants, Gastropub, Pubs and Pub Grub

**** Tiger!Tiger! has closed

Over the years, I'd been to a couple of Gastropubs but had always been disappointed in my visits one way (decent food, but way over-priced) or another (mediocre food, still way over-priced). A couple of months ago FOY Candice decided to prove that I was wrong and took a merry band of us to her two favorite gastropubs. Our first stop was a place I'd always wanted to check out, but never found the time, nor was I able to convince the Missus (if you think I'm a hard sell….) to take a chance and check them out.

It was late on a weekend afternoon when we visited. There were 6 of us, which meant we could taste a nice variety of food.

I'm not a beer-o-phile; though I enjoy more than my fair share of Craft Brews. Here at Tiger Tiger, things seemed slanted more on the food end; whereas our second destination Blind Lady seemed to have a stronger focus on beer. Other than being owned by the same group, both locations are equipped with a wood fired oven, which is put to good use here.

We started off with the Sausage Poutine Fries.

Call me a purist; but I'd really like my poutine to have cheese curds and brown gravy. The sausage gravy made it taste too much like breakfast and the sausage seasonings kind of detracted from the dish.

I didn't care much for the Wood Fired Oysters as well…..just too much.

It was almost as if this dish was created to make one think they weren't eating oysters.

My opinion took a 180 when the Puerco entered the scene.

Sorry, not the best photographic representation of this lovely sandwich. The wood-fired pork had a mild smokiness to it; I like the pickles, they cut through any richness. The bread was nicely toasted…..good flavors, good combination…..by far my favorite item.

My friends understand that I view the "slap-anything-on-a-baguette-and-call-it-a-Banh Mi" syndrome with a cynical and somewhat jaundiced eye. By my definition, this really ain't a Banh Mi. It is however, a nicely put together sandwich. MrQ loved what the combination of cilantro and pickled onions brought to the party. The aioli had a nice kick that brought everything into focus for me.

Candice told me that there are always a couple of seasonal vegan offerings on the menu. Wood fired veggies sounded good. We started with the Spaghetti Squash, not my favorite thing in the world, but here it was really well done.

The pesto like sauce really gave the usually bland squash a nice boost in flavor.

The Wax Beans were really delicious.

The beans still had a bit of snap, good salt-acid in the flavor, along with olive oil to give it a bit of richness.

All in all, I enjoyed the food…..and the company of course! In fact, I ended up bringing the Missus here a couple of weeks later. But that's another post. On this day, we were off to our next stop; Blind Lady Ale House……..

Tiger! Tiger!
3025 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104

COMC: Guess the Curry and other silliness

December 13, 2013 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, yoso-silly

It's been a while since I've done one of these C(learing) O(ut the) M(emory) C(ard) type posts. So, here's some silliness for the day:

Guess where the curry is from:

It seems that curry has been my default choice when I really am not sure what I'm craving in recent weeks. So can you guess where each of these three are from? If you look carefully, this really isn't hard at all.

Here's a preview of our next installment….guess the karaage!

Just joking…well…maybe not!

Let's just end with some sashimi and sushi shots…….because one can never get enough of those, right?

Las Vegas Road Trip: NFR vacation and some meals

December 12, 2013 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Festivals & Events, Las Vegas, Nevada, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food centric blog, often with stories leading up to the reasons for the food. That's what's happening today. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are busy with 'research' for their food posts. Last week, Cathy mentioned she would be leaving on a vacation soon. She went and returned and now is blogging about her days out of town.

National Finals Rodeo, the best of the best. The top 15 cowboys from North America in each of seven events compete against each other in a rodeo a day for ten days. On the tenth day (this Saturday), the winner amongst winners receives a gold belt buckle in addition to their cash winnings. It's on the GAC channel, but last year the tenth day was broadcast on ESPN.

Before the rodeo starts, there's the Star Spangled banner, a prayer, a song by a famous Country Artist and the competitors line up and tip their hats to the crowd. The events are over in two hours.

Ms. T and I drive out here every year (and have for nine years now) for a "girls weekend" of relaxation, shopping and Rodeo. You can see splashes of pink on the cowboys and/or their horses as well as in the crowd because we were here on Day 5 of the Rodeo, "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night.

My photos demonstrate the speed of timed events and not much else; the iPhone isn't quite sophisticated.

The Thomas and Mack Arena is surrounded with Sponsor booths and advertising.

The interior has a varied selection of food and adult beverage choices.

This booth caught my eye since I was looking for a low carb choice for a snack. This had sales of macaroni and cheese, chili and macaroni, chili dogs and also sold a cup of chili- for $3!

Meaty and with beans and a good tomato broth, topped with cheese and onions (no extra charge), this was a really satisfying snack. Chili and Rodeo also seems 'right'.

Ms. T and I had rooms reserved at Green Valley Ranch Resort, in Henderson.

The hotel, spa and casino are a nice respite for us.

After checking into our rooms, we met in the casino and walked across the street, through "The District" and across the main road to a Whole Foods store, where we each purchased snacks. \

The Protein bars and pecans and almonds were brought from home, as was the tea. Inside the box was from the prepared foods/serve yourself/by-the pound chicken adobo, which was delicious!

We went to Cowboy Christmas, a free-admission gift show, the following morning. Many purchases were made and events and giveaways enjoyed.

That first evening, I wandered into the casino area, where there is a"Food Court" and (of course) found a Starbucks, which took the place of a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf location a month ago.

The Capriotti's storefront in the Food Court caught my eye, with the 'breakfast' signage. I asked, and they said I could order a breakfast sandwich, even at 8 p.m..

I love being able to watch short order cooks…

Egg, cheese and genoa salami on a toasted Kaiser roll ($3.27). Excellent. Quite large and very, very tasty. I need to find out of the Capriotti's around here does breakfast; the menu looked good.

Every hotel has a 24 hour restaurant.

The Grand Cafe, inside Green Valley Ranch has a special menu from midnight until 6 a.m.

This is the most expensive menu item ($5.99) -steak, eggs(poached), hash browns and toast (rye). Coffee is extra, and necessary at this hour. The NY strip steak is a real NY strip and quite large and was perfectly cooked medium-rare, as I had ordered.

Of course, Ms. T and I also at at Feast (Link to restaurants in the hotel) the all-you-can-eat buffet, where I enjoyed a plate of mains (liver and onions, chicken picatta, egg drop soup and spicy eggplant), a plate of salads (ranch salad, egg salad, mandarin beets, sweet potato salad and pear Bleu cheese salad) and my 'carby' dessert plate (a cannoli and mashed potatoes with gravy). The food and pastries prepared in this hotel are exceptional.

At 6 a.m., a coffee service is set up in the lobby area. We were on our way home at 6:30. The outside temperature was 15.

The drive home was uneventful, except for a portion of the I-15 and I-215 split, with high winds and large profile vehicles parked on the sides of the freeway.

Home before noon.

I hope everyone has the time to take a relaxing vacation during this hectic time of year.

Hump Day Hot Dog from Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria (Mission Hills)

December 11, 2013 mmm-yoso Hot Dogs

In the area for a meeting, so dropped by for a quick bite on the way back to the office.

For a Chicago Dog of course…….

Still a bargain at $4.75, with decent fresh cut fries…… Roll steamed the right way, sport peppers, neon relish….dragged through the garden. The Vienna Beef Dog had a decent snap to it. As before, I still think it needs celery salt.

Lefty's Chicago Pizzeria
4030 Goldfinch St
San Diego, CA 92103

Man, I gotta get back to Chicago, but not until it's warmer! If not for this:

Maybe this…..

Though it's hard to resist those magical three words; beef….juicy……hot

Happy Hump Day!

Roadtrip: Shanghailander Palace (Hacienda Heights)

December 10, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, Xiao Long Bao

I took some time off at the end of last week. We had an appointment in LA and since I'd been working pretty hard over the last couple of months, I thought it would be good to take an extended roadtrip. Our first day would be in our old neighborhood of Rowland/Hacienda Heights and then we'd move further "North" for a few days.

Since this was a multi-day trip, we stopped at HK Plaza to stock up on some snacks and tea for our trip.

We also took the time to see what was going on here…..

We weren't too hungry, but of course we also didn't want to squander a lunch, so we headed to a place that caught the Missus' attention the last time we stayed in the area. According to what I've read, Shanghailander Palace was aiming to be the area's equivalent of Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Restaurant. So we stopped by to have a light lunch.

Arriving at almost 2 pm on a Wednesday, we were shocked to see how busy the place was! The crowd was composed of mostly older folks and larger groups. I really could have done without the middle aged woman dressed almost "cosplay" style in a short plaid skirt, blouse, and schoolgirl like sweater….yikes, it gave me the heebies!

The service was rather slow, but it could be understood since the place was slammed.

We started with the Xun Yu – "Shanghai Style Smoked fish", which as I've often explained, isn't really smoked. In what seems like the "new style" of Hu Cai (滬菜), this is served warm (deep fried after marinating) rather than as a cold dish.

I enjoyed this version as it was light, mildly "winey", not too sweet (though still too sweet for the Missus), with a nice soy flavor. Even though this was obviously fresh water fish; it lacked the muddy flavor I find unpleasant. This was much better than the version at Shanghai Number 1. I also thought the portion size was nice for an appetizer.

I will say that the tea we ordered – Ti Guanyin, a favorite of mine was just plain insipid.

I didn't see one of my favoite dishes; jellied pork on the menu, so we went with the mutton version instead.

I loved the texture, but the sauce provided was just wrong. I ended up opting for black vinegar instead.

Of course we had to get Xiao Long Bao. We went for the Pork and Crab version.

These were average at best. The tuft at the top was too hard, the wrappers ok….no leakage here, if perhaps a bit too thick and gummy. I thought the filling had decent flavor; not too sweet, but you could definitely make out the crab. Not enough soup though…..hardly any soup.

Some of the other dishes….stuff we could order if we could handle left-overs like the Braised Pork looked really good. So I think we'll probably be back.

Overall, this was a nice start to our roadtrip, which would be taking us North, culminating with dinner in San Mateo at Michelin Starred Wakuriya. Man was I going to enjoy this roadtrip!

Shanghailander Palace
1695 South Azusa Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745