mmm-yoso – Page 373 – 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.

Revisits to Grandma Tofu and BBQ (aka Halmouny/Hal Mu Ni)

September 13, 2012 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

It had been a while since I'd visited Halmouny, our last couple of visits were less than stellar and the Missus hated Her Seolleongtang. After over a year and a half, I wanted a dolsot bi bim bap and decided to revisit Halmouny.

The place looked virtually the same, now with a lunch menu, but I went with the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap which is not on the lunch special menu.

This was quite good; the best I'd had in a while, the rice nice and crusty after a couple of minutes in the dolsot; the cho-jang had that nice combination of spicy-savory-sour-sweet that enhances any dish. I was more than satisfied with this.

The panchan on the other hand was fairly pedestrian. The baechu kimchi was especially salty and not very pleasant.

I did enjoy the meal enough that I returned a couple of weeks later to try something off the lunch special menu.

I went with the Ttukbaegi Bulgogi something that I'd had here before. I really didn't enjoy it too much, but wanted to see if it had improved.

It was nice t see that the whole array of panchan, be it ever so humble was included with lunch specials. The Ttukbaegi Bulgogi however didn't fare as well.

When I tried the Ttukbaegi Bulgogi before, it was way too sweet. This time it had hardly any flavor at all…perhaps a dash of soy sauce and a faint sesame oil flavor. The meat and everything else was fine, but man, this was bland.

During this visit I noticed that all rice was now served in a dolsot….stone pot. There's now some nice crusting action going on here.

Which all leads up to tonight……the Missus was craving Korean food, but not really BBQ. Did I dare mention Hal Mu Ni? And yet, I thought why not?

We both ordered dishes that we'd had before….and had been very good one time and not so good another. One really funny thing is that the Missus now knows that panchan is traditionally meant to be consumed with the meal and is not an appetizer….this understanding sure has made our meals in Korean restaurants much smoother.

The Missus decided to order the Seolleongtang, a favorite of Hers, but was one of the items that had us stop coming on our last visit here together.

I usually grab for the sea salt on the table whenever we get Seolleongtang, but this was well flavored and didn't need any help. The beef was tender, with a good bovine flavor. The Missus also enjoy the dolsot bop, which She let sit until She was half done with the Seolleongtang. By this time the rice had developed a nice crust. The Missus was given water to make Nurungji, but decided to pop the crusts into the bone broth. She also saved some up because I ordered this:

Man, this was good, better than the first time I had this here. The gul, steamed pork belly was moist, oinky and mildly sweet. This almost got Ed from Yuma doing the delici-yoso dance during a visit with hime two years ago. Had he been here tonight, it would have been a full on electric bugaloo…… The jokbal, pig trotters were nicely prepared, a symphony of textures, mildly sweet and savory, with a background anise flavor. Though we prefer lettuce as the delivery system, the napa cabbage did alright. Well, Ms "I don't eat pork" developed Her own way of eating this. She'd get a piece of meat, lay on a good quantity of ssamjang, that wonderful fermented bean-chili paste they make inhouse here, place a slice of raw garlic and jalapeno on top, making Her perfect bite. I'm more of a purist using the spicy, yet refreshing mul (radish) kimchi and oyster mixture along with ssamjang and cabbage leaves. i'm not a big fan of the salted shrimp dipping sauce though. We actually went through two dishes of ssamjangand two dishes of sliced japapenos and raw garlic….needless to say, there would be no public interaction for a good amount of time after this meal.

This turned out to be one of the better meals we've had in a while. With (hopefully) cooler weather coming up, I'm sure we'll be visiting for the soups and stews. I hope the days of inconsistency is a thing of the past here.

Grandma's Tofu & BBQ (Halmouny)
4425 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

A revisit to Slaters 50/50

September 12, 2012 mmm-yoso Burgers

**** Slaters has closed

I forgot I had this little post in the pipeline for a while, but had forgotten about it until “CC” reminded me of the place. Anyway, the Missus loves the Veggie Burger here as well as most of the fried items…..health nut that She now is.

I received a couple of suggestions for “building” my burger after my post on Slaters and I really took them to heart….so much so that I’ll probably need a new one, heart that is, after eating this monstrosity:

Egad…….anyway, I was told to get my burger with “Vampire Dip” basically the super rich garlic artichoke dip and I decided to top things off with anchovies. That’s what the burger looked like and it was only a 1/3 pound burger….which was so over-the-top and rich it finished me, before I could finish it. The flavor of the garlic sauce and anchovies just killed everything else….I could have eaten one of my old shoes and would never have known…heck it might even make the burgers here palatable. This just felt sinful and wrong….I guess I prefer my burgers without an extra helping of guilt.

Honestly, it’s a nice burger without all the “stuff”… I really needed a shower after this, maybe even a cigarette…. I’ll stay with “just a burger” next time.

As much as I like the burgers here, this was just too much.

Slaters 50/50
2750 Dewey Road
San Diego, CA 92106

You can read my previous post on Slaters here.

Revisits: China Max for lunch

September 10, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

Another revisit coming at ya'…….

China Max:

A couple of weeks back, before things started getting really crazy at work, I managed to meet the Missus for lunch. If we manage to meet, the usual place would be Izakaya Sakura, but on this day, I was craving pan fried noodles and the Missus was craving something….well kinda weird in my opinion…just read further.

To me, China Max does the best pan fried noodles in the area….it has gotten pretty pricey though. The seafood pan fried noodles are now $16.95 and that's the lunch special price! Yikes!!! However, in this case we get the best of all worlds…..

The Missus gets the shrimp, fish, etc…..I get all the seafood She doesn't want and all the noodles I can deal with. Love this dish as the slow metamorphosis begins…starting at the crisp edges and the portion under the "gravy" which slowly becomes a "wet" noodle dish. Love the contrasts of textures, the flavor of the sauce isn't too salty, nor does it overwhelm anything….though I will say the quality of the fish has sometimes wavered.

The Missus had a weird craving for Shrimp with Lobster Sauce….which I just don't care for….

I think of it as shrimp cooked in pasty egg drop gravy….the Missus on the other hand has a strange affection for this.

I guess we needed some greens so the Missus ordered Gailan….nicely done, but we usually don't order vegetables when eating out unless it's something special….I can usually pull all of this off at home.

I've been a bit down on Dim Sum in San Diego…..for the last, say……four or five years. The lack of consistency, which to me, often appears to be a lack of effort, has kind of gotten old. But I always want to have my mind changed and over the last couple of years, I think China Max has done the best with regards to dim sum in the area. So why not try a couple of items since were here….

The Pan Fried Shrimp and Chive Dumplings looked good…..

But was barely lukewarm inside…it didn't look it, but was also on the greasy side. These dumplings always have a bit oiliness to them, but when not right, they edge to greasiness.

On the other hand, the wrappers to the Shrimp and Spinach Dumplings were dry and brittle.

The shrimp had good flavor, accented by the greens, but this is a dumpling and the filling is just half the story.

I'm wondering if and when dim sum in San Diego will catch up with what's going on twenty-first century. I guess as long as mediocrity can buy the children of these restaurant owner's Mercedes Benz's things will stay the same. I do enjoy traditional dim sum when it's done right….but it has been a long time since I have had dim sum where I thought that 2 out of every 3 dishes were ok. 1 of 3 might be ok in baseball, but not in dim sum…..

China Max
4698 Convoy Street #C101
San Diego, CA 92111

Revisits: No Pho at Pho Ban Mai, Pho Lucky, and Que Huong

September 9, 2012 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Vietnamese Restaurants

Here's a round-up of revisits……

Pho Ban Mai:

Man, I hadn't been here since September of last year. I was thinking of having some Banh Xeo and this seemed just the spot. Not much has changed since my last visit…very clean, tables a bit too close together…..

I was quite hungry and thought some Bi Cuon would do as a nice start.

The wrappers were done a bit too thick and wrapped real tight. Actually, not much in here, the Bi really lacked flavor and was on the dry side. The nuoc mam cham is still good here, not watered down and not too sweet.

Then of course, my "crepe" appeared. It looked pretty much the same as on previous visits, perhaps not as crunchy, but still pretty good.

Overall, still the same…..not too much filling, but what's there is done nicely. The pork tender, the shrimp not overdone, and not too greasy.

As with previous visits, the service here is quite "modern"…..no dealing of the menu with someone standing over you, water was refilled, etc….. I would probably visit more often if we lived closer.

Pho Ban Mai
8991 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Pho Lucky:

Yes, yet again. The Missus was still a bit bitter about the nem nuong cuon at Dat Thanh and wanted to use this as a sanity check. It was quite busy when we arrived, I had never been seated almost at the west end of the restaurant before.

I had decided on getting the Banh Mi Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew with Bread), but suddenly shifted when I sat down. After chatting with the Missus, I thought why not do about the same thing we did at Dat Thanh…..

Starting with Goi Cuon (spring rolls).

These were wrapped a bit too thick, but did have a good quantity of herbs for flavor. The pork was quite tasty overall. Of course, texturally, I was missing that nice crunch that fried egg roll wrappers added to the spring rolls at Dat Thanh and Brodard, but these were nice….the Missus loves the peanut sauce here….She went through three and a half little bowls!

Next up, the Nem Nuong Cuon……

In terms of flavor, this was nice…the grilled pork "sausage" was decently flavored and caramelized….good flavors from the herbs, not as heavily wrapped as the goi cuon. Kind of one note in texture. Still, this was better than I expected.

To end things up, I decided to order what I think is the most expensive item on the menu, the Com Tam Dac Biet – house special broken rice, which is something like $9.65. I'd never had that here and really didn't expect much, but it was a rather pleasant surprise.

The Missus thought the pork chop was pretty good, I thought it a bit too salty and not sweet enough. The grilled shrimp were overcooked and under flavored. The Bi was decent but mostly just skin, without enough rice powder which adds so much to it. The cha, steamed egg was nice…I'd expected it to be dry, but it was pretty good, nice flavor. The Missus loved the sugar cane shrimp….She just loved it and I think has a new favorite here. The broken rice was moist but not very fragrant. Not in the same league as the top notch com tam places, but better than I expected.

Is it just me, or has service here gotten a bit nicer….other than the woman who runs the register, over the years? Or perhaps I've just gotten used to it.

Pho Lucky
9326 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126

Que Huong:

**** Que Huong has closed

Actually, about a week before this, Cathy, Carol, Dennis, and myself had one of our all too rare get togethers. We gathered because one of our favorite, now quite inactive (with good reason), fellow food bloggers, Sawyer was visiting. As always it was a great time….though you'll have to depend on someone else to post about it….. The place Carol and Cathy choose was Que Huong, a perfect place for a family style meal….and those wings, of course….which I hadn't had in a while.

Funny thing, about a week after that meal, I was craving those wings. The Missus had a girls night out, so I decided to head to Que Huong and have some wings. Which I had all to my greedy self….

I've heard folks tell me that these were on the small side….but I like the skin to meat ratio…you can have all the fat meat laden wings you want…heck, why not just have a thigh while you're at it? These do fine by me. The other thing is, you need to eat them here right when they get to the table; it's maximum crunch and peak flavor….

Anyway, Jay, one of the owners told me he's going through a thousand pounds of wings a month now…sheesh. Jay also told me that his mom was in the kitchen and seeing that I was looking for something lighter to go with my wings, she had made a simple salad of roasted chicken with rau ram and onions. Hey, if mom's making it, I'd better order it, right?

This was pretty good, lots of black pepper, very simply put together, an entire leg – thigh and drum of chicken stripped topped some lettuce. The combination of the citrus-pepper-cilantro flavor of the rau ram, the pungency of the onions, cut with lime for that nice acidic touch was really good. I'm thinking of making this at home…….so simple, yet it really livened my palate.

As did those chicken wings….

Que Huong Restaurant
4134 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Tunisia: Tozeur – Oases in the morning, around Tozeur, Camel for lunch, wine in the afternoon

September 8, 2012 mmm-yoso Travel, Tunisia, Tunisian Food

Man, it had been a full day….our morning started at the crack of dawn, with a walk through Kairouan's Medina and some "real" brik for breakfast. After packing up, we met Ben and we toured the Great Mosque, the Medina, and bought some makroud to bring home. We then headed to the ruins of Sufetula outside Sbeitla and had lamb on the side of the road. It was getting close to dusk when we completed the last leg of our drive….man, I bet Ben was bushed, but he didn't show it at all. Driving up the hill to our hotel, the Tozeur location of the El Mouradi chain, I noticed quite a few abandoned resort/hotel properties, things weren't doing too well with regards to tourism after the revolution it seems.

The town of Tozeur is the largest city right before the Chott el-Jerid, the vast 5000 square kilometer great salt lake that we would cross to get to the city of Douz, then Ksar Ghilaine and the Sahara. Like almost all cities and town in the area, Tozeur sprung up around an Oasis, which before the advent of tourism provided the main means of work in Tozeur, farming.

The El Mouradi in Tozeur was perfectly fine, in fact, if you took into account that we were, by most definitions visiting a strip of almost desert in the middle of two large salt lakes…..this is not quite what you think your accommodations would look like.

Of course, dinner and breakfast were included…..the food here was actually better than at Le Kasbah and we started getting into a habit of having some of the local wine, most of it very light with dinner. Tunisia is a Muslim country, but while alcohol consumption in public is frowned upon, years of French rule has ingrained the wine culture here.

After dinner, the Missus just had to get Her constellation app back out and walk around staring, not at the sky, but at Her iPhone…..

The next morning, we got up very early as we usually do and the Missus went for a swim while I checked through emails. We found out that the restaurant actually opened at 5am….I found out that folks heading back to Tunis left really early in the morning. Ben met us at exactly 8, we jumped in the all-terrain vehicle and headed off. Today was going to be an "easy day"…..

We were headed out to the very popular Mountain Oases (I just found out that Oases is the plural of Oasis – you learn something everyday). I loved this sign by the side of the road.

Heading west, you'll soon see mountains arise from the barren landscape, then a swatch of green. This is Chebika.

Soon you pass square looking buildings…..this is "New" Chebika which was built after a huge flood in 1969 wiped out the original Berber village up the hill. We arrived at the entrance to "Old Chebika" where a ton of cars and SUVs were parked, with a bunch of souvenir, coffee shops, and restaurants were clustered. This looked like a big tourist mess, something we hadn't run into since we arrived in Tunisia. Ben introduced us to a rotund and jolly gentleman named Mohammed…..who is born and raised in Chebika. With Mohammed we were able to go off the standard tourist trail leading to the spring that fed the oasis…..

There were some tight squeezes and some rather slippery steep sections, but the effort was worth it.

Because the sun shines directly on the oasis in Chebika, with the two mountains walling off the palmeraie, the oasis has earned the arabic name of Qasr el-Shams, which means "Castle of the Sun". One can easily see how it earned that name.

You could see the ruins of the old village clearly, with the new village in the background from here.

After making our way back down, we walked down the trail and to the spring which is the source off all of this…….which was surprisingly modest.

All of this, the birds singing, the frogs croaking, the dates from the palm tress, came from this little pulse of water flowing from the ground. It was humbling experience for the both of us. We've always heard the phrase "water is life", but never had it hit home like it did here.

After making our way back to our vehicle, Ben told us we'd go all the way to Mides first, since that's usually the last stop for tourists and it wouldn't be quite a busy when we arrived. Mides is a small oasis village, just a kilometer from the Algerian border. When we stopped Ben displayed his cellphone…he was getting hits from Algerian cell towers. As we stopped in the small palmeraie to take some photos, we heard a chorus of "clop-clop-clop" coming from down the road…soon enough we could see a shepherd and his sheep headed toward us.

It was really neat…..not even a look in our direction as they walked past us.

The view of Mides, perched above two gorges is quite dramatic.

The village here was also abandoned after the flood of 1969. If some of this looked familiar, I'm told the gorges were used in the movie the English Patient…..unfortunately, I've never been able to sit through the whole movie, so I can't tell you which scene it was.

The gorges also provided protection for the village….though not from flooding.

We then headed back and stopped at Tamerza, which was a rather modern looking city with ruins of the old village a bit east of the new town. We stopped at one of the man-made waterfalls for a quick look.

Heading back to Tozeur, we stopped at the public market and the medina….most of the action was occurring outside the public market as most of the stall inside the market had already closed for the day.

By this time, Ben had kind of figured out that we were interested in food….thus, for our lunch, he took us to a place that served….well, this.

The name of the place was Restaurant de la Republique and Ben told me he usually eats here when in town. Looking over the menu, the did have Dromadaire on the menu in several forms and also had it available today.

So why not, right?

The Missus ordered the Steak de Dromadaire, I ordered Brochettes (kebabs).

As you can see, it's pretty dry stuff. Also, tough…and did I mentioned pretty mild in flavor?

Not a big deal, unlike donkey or cuy, not something I really want to have again…..

After lunch, Ben drove us to Tozeur's huge palmeraie. Depending who you talk to there are between 200,000 (guide books) and 600,000 (folks in Tozeur) palm trees in the oasis of Tozeur. It was pretty amazing, driving through all those trees. In the palmeraie, it felt almost humid. In addition to all the date palms, we saw figs and other plants and trees.

There are over 200 springs pumping water into this area. A very complex system of equitable irrigation and conservation is used. That system was designed in the 13th century and is still used today, by the man whose statue you see to the right, Ibn Chabbat, a mathematician. Pretty amazing stuff.

It was getting pretty hot and Ben dropped us back at the El Mouradi. The place was pretty empty; I think the afternoon sun had chased people indoors and many were probably still on tours.

The pool area had some of the best wifi reception and it seemed like a good idea to head to the bar and buy a nice bottle of wine, which we had along with some kindly provided olives poolside.

I even finished a post while sitting poolside having a nice light, fruity, and crisp glass of Tunisian Muscat.

After a nap, as is our habit, we headed off to dinner early……we tend to sit in the same area of the restaurant, as strange as that may seem.

It was again the usual suspects for dinner, though the mechouia here wasn't too bad, especially when we poured over a nice amount of the local olive oil.

We had also learned that the most popular brand of wine in Tunisia was Magon, named after the Carthaginian Agronomist Magon, who wrote his famous works on wine making during the time of the Phoenicians. It was a decent bottle, but we were finding that we enjoyed the crisp blancs more as they tended to go better with the food in Tunisia.

After dinner, we took a walk, then drifted off……we would need our rest!

Thanks for reading!

Honolulu: Sugoi

September 7, 2012 mmm-yoso Honolulu, Oahu, Plate Lunch, Travel

On my last day, I decided to pick up something to have while waiting for my flight to the airport. so on the way to pick-up smoked fish at Tamura's and smoked Tako at Ono Seafood, I stopped off in Kalihi. Sugoi's comes highly recommended, so I decided to hit them up. They were very easy to find, I saw them when I dropped by Young's Fish Market.

Since it was pretty early the place was empty when I arrived. There was however, a huge assembly line behind the counter with stuff being piled into trays. I'd gotten specific instructions to get the Combination Bento with Garlic and Spicy Chicken ($11.75)…so being the good little soldier that's exactly what I got. Man, it felt pretty heavy, but I thought by the time I hit the airport I'd be pretty hungry.

Well good intentions and all, but by the time I filled up gas at what used to be Mel's Sunrise Chevron near Waialae…I knew by the smell permeating the car that this wasn't going to work out….man, talk about "Kusai"…..holy smokes…..for sure I'd be stopped by TSA for carrying something TSTP – to smelly to pass. Plus, all the mainlanders would be giving me "stink eye" for having something so strong smelling at the gate, while the locals would be giving me the "stink eye" of envy. So I parked right across the street from a place very familiar to me…..

And removed it from the package….holy smokes this was huge….the photo does not in any way reflect how much stuff this was…..

(The following sentence is dedicated to TFD, who sent me a text asking "what does Broke the Mouth mean"…actually it's "broke da' mouth") And after I wen' hemo da' covah……whoa…major haunas…..but in a good way.

On the top is the garlic chicken, below that is the spicy garlic chicken.

The entire bottom of the tray was covered with rice….

And the hot dog and egg just seemed like overkill.

I preferred the regular garlic chicken to the spicy version….which I thought wasn't very spicy and much too sweet for my taste. Also the glaze made it more soggy, while the regular garlic chicken was still a bit crunchy. Nice flavor…..decent garlic…..had to keep putting Listerine Strips in my mouth to try and ward off that vampire killing fragrance. Good stuff, though I'll get something more manageable next time….like maybe the keiki size??? LOL!

So how does this ocmpare to Mitsu-ken? Man, it's been sooo long. I'll put that comparison off until next time…but that'll be a lot of fun for me.

Sugoi
1286 Kalani St
Honolulu, HI 96817
Neighborhood: Kalihi

Hours:
Mon-Thu 8am – 3pm
Fri-Sat 8am – 5pm
Sun 8am – 3pm

Interesting thing about City Square Shopping Center, I remember when this was the location of GEM Kapalama…..man am I getting old.

Anyway, that's it for the Hawaii posts for now……you guys know where this is, right?

Thanks for reading!

Roadtrip: Dat Thanh (Westminster) and a revisit to Vientiane Thai Laos Restaurant (Garden Grove) – Orange County

September 5, 2012 mmm-yoso Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

The Missus was in the mood and craving some springrolls and the natural answer to that would be Brodard, which I've been to but never posted on. But just the thought of visiting on a Saturday….well, we wanted something else, so I did a bit of research and after reading Elmo's post, decided to head on over to Westminster and….

Dat Thanh:

This tiny shop on McFadden is supposed to be "The" challenger to Brodard for supposed springroll supremacy in Little Saigon, how could we not try it. The guy running the place is really nice, friendly, and seems to sincerely want you to enjoy your meal…he's quite chatty and will talk about anything from the parking situation (really bad) to what he eats on his day off (anything but Vietnamese). As you can tell it's obvious what this place is all about from that lovely photo on the menu, and in fact, if anything the springrolls we got on our plate actually looked better.

It's also wonderful that they have a combination of 2 Nem Nuong Cuon (pork sausage) and 2 Chao Tom Cuon (shrimp sausage/paste) on the menu for $6.99. These looked so wonderfully bright and fresh, I couldn't wait to take a bite…..which kinda ended my total admiration for these. First, the great….absolutely loved the fried egg roll wrappers in the middle, it just brought the texture up a level adding a wonderful crunch to everything. The good, loved the way these were wrapped, not too tight, and the wrappers weren't too thick. The mediocre, man that nem nuong and chao tom were bland…we actually pulled out pieces to have a taste. There didn't seem to have enough mint or herbs in these to give it that nice "pop' of flavor. The tuong – dipping sauce was really sweet and had an eggy flavor that the Missus wasn't too fond of.

Luckily, we also ordered the combination broken rice with BBQ pork chop $8.89:

Other than the shrimp, which was rubbery and very plain tasting, and perhaps the pork chop which the Missus thought was too sweet, but I enjoyed, this was a unanimous thumbs up……it's really hard to get the perfect broken rice plate and this was darn close. The rice was awesome, right amount of moisture for our taste and more importantly, fragrant. The Missus, who has declared Herself a non-pork eater loved the Bi, which had the right ration of skin to meat to rice powder and was also just moist enough. The cha, steamed egg and pork cake was also tasty and fresh….and not to belabor the point, moist. Ditto the shrimp in beancurd wrapper.

The nuoc mam cham was also excellent, if also a bit on the sweet side. Overall, I'd gladly return for the com tam, it was the best I've had in a while.

The Missus on the other hand was looking forward to some good Goi Cuon and was a bit perturbed….

Dat Thanh
10032 McFadden Ave.
Westminster, CA 92683

The Missus wanted something dependable and flavorful…..and She had one place in mind:

Vientiane Thai Laos Restaurant:

Not much to write here that hasn't been covered in a previous post. The first two dishes you can read about there.

The raw shrimp salad looked even better today:

And it was….in addition way more spicy as well. They never ask us how spicy we want our food here…so we just take it as it comes. This was delicious, but man it was hot. The Missus had mild burns around Her lips….no biggie though. I just couldn't stop eating that sauce….

The Nam Khao had good flavor, but wasn't as crunchy as on previous visits. Still, I just love this, it's one of my "desert island dishes".

We decided to order one more item and chose the garlic shrimp….which the Missus loved. She ate most of it, I had one piece but really couldn't taste anything because my tastebuds had been killed by that shrimp. When I recovered a bit, the shrimp was gone, but I had a taste of the caramelized garlic, which was done right….it tasted like "garlic candy".

So the Missus has another dish to order when we return.

Vientiane Thai Laos Restaurant
10262 Westminster Ave
Garden Grove,CA92843

We hit up Marukai in Costa Mesa on the way back and got some great looking black cod, so the Missus ended up getting misoyaki black cod for a couple of days……so in the end, it was a happy roadtrip for Her.

BBQ Chicken Revisited

September 4, 2012 mmm-yoso Chains, Korean Restaurants

*** BB.Q Chicken has returned to San Diego – updated post here.

*** BBQ Chicken has closed

If you've read my previous posts on BBQ Chicken, you probably already know that I've never been a big fan. A couple years back, I got into a slight disagreement with a fellow blogger on how this was notreally B(est) of the B(est) Q(uality). I found the chicken to have a bit of a fishy smell and am not a big fan of the batter either. Still, when I saw that BBQ Chicken had new ownership and was now open for lunch, I thought "why not try it again"…..hey, maybe my tastebuds had, ahem, "matured enough to appreciate the chicken". Or maybe you just need tastebuds that are super mature, i.e. dead, to really enjoy the chicken, in which case there would be no change.

What was nice was that I was actually acknowledged when I arrived, by a very nice young lady. Looking over the menu, I noticed that the lunch specials were nicely priced. Hey, even better……so I ordered a three piece "Olive Luxury Chicken Combo" ($7.99).

One of the positives about BBQ Chicken is that the chicken is cooked to order…..the negative to that is, if things aren't right in the kitchen, it might take a while. Fortunately for me, my chicken arrived sizzling…literally sizzling to my table. Also, the server endeared herself to me……she brought extra napkins! Telling me "you're having fried chicken, I think you might need some extra napkins." Perfect…..

On the good side, the chicken was very moist…and hot! But I'm still not a fan of the bland, crumbliy, somewhat greasy batter….and for some reason, it still smells a bit fishy to me. It could be that I'm just more sensitive to it, but there is something strange in the smell.

You get one side with the lunch and I chose the "corn salad", which was really bland, but at least didn't smell bad.

As for the Chicken……well, I'm still not sold.

BBQ Chicken
4768 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Mon-Thu 11 am – 12 am
Fri-Sat 11 am – 1 am
Sunday 11 am – 12 am

Oahu Plate Lunches: Grace’s Inn and Diamond Head Market and Grill

September 3, 2012 mmm-yoso Honolulu, Oahu, Plate Lunch, Travel

You can't go to Hawaii without getting a plate lunch, or two….. Here's a round-up of some plate lunches over the course of my last two visits.

Grace's Inn:

**** This location of Grace's has closed

Man, Grace's goes back a looong way for me. We used to eat at the lunch wagon near University….my good friend's first job in High School was working at the original location in Moiliili. He used to have to make the katsu sauce! Eventually, Grace's spread everywhere and like many chains of this type…sustainability just wasn't there I guess. The last time I ate at a Grace's was perhaps about 16 years ago….it was a chicken katsu, sweet sour pork mix at the now defunct (I didn't know that until the day I left for my flight home) Kapahulu location across Kaimuki High School. I'd wondered how my tastes and perhaps Grace's had changed over the years…..I knew that perhaps this would be messing with some good memories, but I just had to find out.

Man, times have changed….so the mixed plate in now three items, you're asked for two "salads"….. and since no sweet-sour pork and the pressure was on, I got some roast pork and mochiko chicken to go with my katsu.

Man, that "Asian" coleslaw tasted like it was dressed with pure rice vinegar and I was never a fan of the almost mainland like sour mac salad anyway. In retrospect, I should have just gotten the chicken katsu…memories would have remained untarnished. The mochiko chicken was way bland and greasy, even by plate lunch standards. The roast pork was dry, lukewarm, the gravy gluey, and also flavorless…where was that bottle of tabasco again? The katsu still delivered though…..

Crisp and moist, it was as I remembered, as was the tsukemono like "kimchi". The katsu sauce tasted different to me….. I recall it having a stronger ketchup base. Nice to see the chow fun still resides below the proteins.

So lets see, if we tally things up, this was batting about .400, nice if you're playing baseball, not so great if you're trying to rekindle some memories. Of course the thoguht came to me, I'd never eaten at this location. Could that have been a factor?

Grace's Inn
98-820 Moanalua Rd
Aiea, HI 96701

Diamond Head Market and Grill:

I'm not sure where I first heard about this place….I think it's either Kat or Kathy, so why not mentioned them both, right? I hadn't been round this part of Monsarrat in ages…..when this place was still Burgerland!

Man, this area is crazy now, with the trolley stopping right in front of the place, tons of Japanese tourists in the market…….still, arriving about 11 am, I managed to snag a space.

I was feeling pretty hungry, so I got the special for the day, a Kalbi – Korean Chicken mixed plate. And yes, this place does offer brown rice. My plate looked lovely, not over-carbed, and with greens….the new wave of plate lunches.

The grade of LA Kalbi, the cross cut short ribs was excellent by plate lunch standards, very tender and moist. There was a mild fruity component, but this was very mild in flavor, even when talking in terms of "local-style" kalbi which tends toward the sweet side. The chicken on the other hand was delicious, mild heat, light sweetness, not too salty….a nice savory aspect from what I believe is kochujung…really good.

I loved what I saw on the breakfast menu….so I think I'll bring the Missus next time for breakfast.

Diamond Head Market & Grill
3158 Monsarrat Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815

Sunday Stuffs: North Park Produce coming to Clairemont, Birrieria’s la Guadalajara closes, and other stuffs

September 2, 2012 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers

North Park Produce coming to Clairemont:

I went for my recycling run today and noticed this sign in the strip mall on the corner of Balboa and Clairemont Drive:

Can I get a big "ALRIGHT"! I'm looking forward to this.

The address is:

4220 Balboa Ave

Birrieria's la Guadalajara closes:

I was told about this a few weeks ago. We drove down to Chula Vista this past weekend, for some fish tacos and grocery shopping. Stopped by to confirm that sadly, one of our favorites has indeed closed. Too bad, we enjoyed quite a few meals there. Even if the birria wasn't the best, the borrego a la plancha, tacos rojo, cabeza en su jugo, were quite good. As were the hand made tortillas.

Bummer……

1310 Third Ave
Chula Vista, CA 91911

We also checked out the Northgate Market on Third Avenue…..and saw these giant mutant sweet potatoes. I placed a large orange (no, that's not a lime) for a size comparison.

Saw this woman treating her fairly good sized pooch like a baby in the parking lot of Balboa Market…loading in groceries by hand while carrying the dog with the other.

Some folks sure love their dogs!

Hope you're having a great Labor Day weekend!