mmm-yoso – Page 386 – 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.

Airport Food – The Great Dane (Madison), Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food (London-Heathrow), and Cousin’s BBQ (Dallas-Forth Worth)

June 16, 2012 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, BBQ, Dallas, London, Madison, Wisconsin, Texas, Travel

Getting something to eat during long layovers is a necessary evil. Waiting for flights or connecting flights you're often left with a choice of fast-food joints, pre-packaged foods at high mark-ups. Over the last couple of years airports have started featuring more popular local chains and greater variety. And while I'm still convinced that something is lost in the transition (most notably a nasty Superdawg at Midway Airport) it still makes things interesting. Also, for more interesting posts check out Dennis's posts on airport meals.

Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company – Dane County Regional Airport:

**** The Great Dane Pub in the airport has closed

In spite of all my trips to Madison, I'd only flown into the local regional airport once. Mainly because I'd be able to justify a rental car if driving from Chicago, which turns out to be a fairly relaxing drive for me. But I quickly banished the thought of driving from Chicago in February…..moi….the guy from Hawaii who lives in San Diego, dealing with the possibility of snow, sleet, ice, or worse? So there I was at the airport at 1230 for a 430pm flight because that's when the airport shuttle ran. I even skipped lunch so I go thru security and looked for something to eat…..and lo' and behold……there was a branch of the Great Dane right in front of me.

I took this as a sign of sorts…….because of scheduling and transportation issues, I hadn't been able to complete my usual rendezvous with deep fried cheese curds on this trip. During my first visit to Madison, I'd had my first dose of those at the Fitchburg location of the Great Dane.

So even though prices were anywhere from $3 – $5 higher then the non-airport locations, how could I ignore the divine placement of the Great Dane, right?

I must say that these were rather disappointing. The curds were quite hard instead of having a nice gooey texture. These were also on the salty side, not anything like versions I'd had previously.

If you've read my previous post on the Great Dane, you realize that this ain't food for the calorie or fat conscious. With that in mind I went all in and ordered the Brat and Bacon Burger….something I also ate before.

Man, this was greasy, even more greasy than expected and I'd had this before! The grease saturated the roll cuasing it to be a mushy mess. The burger was tough and overcooked, though the brat was decent. Not particularly good eats overall.

The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company
Dane County Regional Airport

Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food:

Finding out that we'd be flying through Heathrow an acquaintance of mine told me that Gordon Ramsay had a restaurant in terminal 5. He told me that the place has changed the game with regards to airport food. I was indeed a bit curious….we'd seen the brash and bombastic Ramsay on his Kitchen Nightmare show and really wondered……"he talks a good talk, but does he walk the walk?" Since we had four hour layovers in both directions, we thought we'd try something small on our way to Istanbul, if it showed promise, we'd have more on our way back. This seemed prudent, because the prices ain't cheap folks! Personally, I'm not a big fan of Heathrow for a couple of reasons….the signage sucks, this is coming from a guy who has travelled to five continents. They make you sit around in terminal five, which lacks sufficient seating until anywhere from 1 hour to 30 minutes before your flight. Then you have to find your gates. They make you go through additional checks even though you're connecting and charge a rather exorbitant amount for wi-fi. I will say that I find the British accent and slangquite entertaining though. When the security guy wanted a red head who had just gone through the detector to stop you shouted, "hey, you there, GINGER-Girl, please move about to the side please!" Ginger-girl?

The actually entrance to the restaurant can be hard to find initially, but once down that alleyway, everything opens up to a large, wide-open seating area.

We started with something very basic, the Steamed English asparagus, pan fried duck egg , grain mustard dressing (£8.75 – about $16 US at the time).

This was pretty atrocious for a couple of reasons. First that "pan fried" duck egg was cold, had no taste, and the whites were rubbery. It had the look of "buffet eggs", eggs that were cooked in an egg ring, then placed in a hotel pan over sterno to serve during a lunch or dinner buffet. How do I know? I've made these many times during a previous career. The asparagus was tough and fibrous, the lower, very tough portion should have been peeled. The stalks were also severely under-seasoned and the mustard sauce was also fairly bland. I wonder what Mr Ramsay would have said had he come upon this dish at one of his "nightmare" restaurants? Can't fry an egg to order and trim asparagus?

The Crispy Duck Salad with Watercress, chilli, and ginger (£12.50 – over $20 US at the time) was a bit better.

The duck was flavored nicely, sweet, mild five spice flavor, made in the fashion of Chinese style crispy beef. The watercress was nice, though we found some yellowed leaves at the bottom. Couldn't really make out the ginger flavor, but the dressing was nice and we could have used a tad more of it. Still, I'm not sold that this was a twenty dollar salad, even with the airport mark-up.

In the end, we were glad we started small here and decided to skip it altogether on the return trip.

Gordon Ramsay Plane Food
London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

Cousin's BBQ – Dallas Forth Worth Airport:

In case you're thinking that I hate all airport food, that's really not the case. During another one of my trips I had a four and a half hour layover at DFW airport. Now I kinda like terminal B, wi-fi is free, there's enough interesting shops to keep me occupied, and I enjoyed most of my meal at Cousin's BBQ.

Cousin's is a DFW chain of six restaurants, so I figured if I had a meal in this airport, it should be here. Since this was Texas, I decided on the brisket.

First off, I found the sides to be mediocre; the mashed potatoes bland and the gravy like glue. The coleslaw needed a favor infusion and the Texas toast was like cold, stale, buttered bread. Not a big fan of the runny sauce either.

But I really enjoyed the brisket, which I found to have a nice, though light smoke flavor.

I loved the crisp end piece which had a nice balanced flavor, The meat was tender and moist though not falling to pieces.

I felt totally satisfied after this meal. It was probably the best thing I've eaten in an airport in a long time. If I'm ever here again, I'll probably pass on the sides and do a brisket sandwich or something.

In the end, I'm not expecting great food in an airport, decent food that I feel is worthy of the price will do it for me.

Cousin's BBQ
Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Terminal B, Gate 28

Izakaya Sakura-lunch

June 15, 2012 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Well. You have found yourself at mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog. Kirk is busy with work, recovering after a long vacation. ed (from Yuma) is busy with all sorts of things yet enjoying an early Summer day (within Yuma). Cathy is busy writing short posts for the blog.

It seems none of us has done any posting about Izakaya Sakura in about a year, yet if you go to the "search" box just at the upper left of this page, you will find that there are 959 mentions of "Sakura" on this blog. It's time to blog a more current mention of this favorite 'hidden' spot.

I say 'hidden' because Izakaya Sakura has no signage-on the street or the building in this mall, anchored by The Original Pancake House. Those three yellow awnings in the center cover the windows of Izakaya Sakura, which is next to the Armed Forces Recruiting Center.

There was a fire in one of the adjoining buildings a few months ago and Sakura had some remodeling done which included adding some window seating as well as putting the alcohol refrigerator slightly out of view of everyone. However the menu, food preparation and prices have remained about the same.

As always, a wet towel is brought out before the meal, along with chopsticks a napkin and my beverage of choice, hot tea.

There are always two lunch menus brought out; the regular one with many choices and the menu with a description of the Bento of the day written in English on one side and Japanese on the other. Only ten of these are available at the price of $12. Not only does it include miso soup, salad, a dipping sauce and preserved vegetable, but various preparations of beef, chicken, fish, shrimp and egg as well as the noodles with roe, pickles, warm radish with a pork sauce and rice.

I chose the "fish with mushroom" for my meal ($9). As you can see, it is accompanied by the miso, salad, rice noodle salad, pickles and rice. I had never ordered this before and was very pleased to see the quite large piece of fish was fried -in a very unique way- so that the crust stayed crispy crunchy for the whole meal even though it was covered by the very tasty three mushroom-spinach-egg sauce. As always, all of the food was excellent.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Izakaya Sakura 3904 Convoy Street San Diego 92111

Istanbul: The Grand Bazaar, Kara Mehmet Kebab, Haci Bekir, Hafiz Mustafa 1864, and Rami Restaurant

June 13, 2012 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Desserts, Istanbul, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

That title long enough for you? I considered not finishing the Istanbul posts of our 2011 trip, but thought I should probably do them because they influenced our most recent trip. Of course, probably the most serious omission in our posts was not mentioning the Grand Bazaar, spread over nine acres, with over 60 streets, and over 550 years old, of course we had to check it out, if only for a couple of hours. We decided to enter through the main gate of the Bazaar……

Depending on what your source is, it is said that there are somewhere between 3,000 to 4,000 shops in the Grand Bazaar. That's a lot of stuff……stuff that was also more expensive than elsewhere. I guess the overhead must be pretty high here. since we travel pretty light there wasn't much room for "stuff". So of course we were here in search of something to eat! I'd read a post on Istanbul Eats about a kebab shop in the Bazaar area. The Bazaar itself contains many "Hans", which used to be inns which is where travelers would stay. If you're interested in more about the Grand Bazaar as well as a walking tour, you might want to get this book. And while walking navigating the bazaar might seem a bit of a task, we had little trouble finding CebiciHan….you walk through a short, low ceilinged, passageway and find yourself there……just a few yards in distance, but seemingly a universe away from the bustle of the Grand Bazaar.

In a tranquil courtyard, next to a tea shop with a large group of older men were socializing and playing cards was the shop I was looking for called Kara Mehmet Kebab.

It was a peaceful and relaxing place, the guys running the show were friendly….and quite mischievous. When the borek vendor came by, hands filled with a pile of borek above his head, they started tickling him and slapping his behind….trying to get him to drop all his profits. Funny thing, we later saw a photo of the borek guy in the book I mentioned above!

I started with a refreshing glass of Ayran.

The Missus wanted some tea, which was brought from the tea shop next door.

Ordering for me was pretty easy….I just went with the Karisik Izgara…the mixed grill. The Missus wanted to try the Adana Kebab. Things started off with a nice Coban Salatasi, shepherd's salad, which was quite good as it was dressed with what tasted like balsamic vinegar.

The Missus enjoyed Her Adana Kebab. Though it was milder than She expected, it was very moist and tender……..which is where many of the kebab places here in the states fall short.

My mixed grill turned out to be quite a bit of food (duh!).

Strangely….well, knowing me, maybe not…..I really enjoyed the grilled chicken wings which were moist and full of flavor…smokey, salty, sweet, and mildly spicy. The skin was even fairly crisp.

This turned out to be the best meal of our time in Istanbul.

Kara Mehmet Kebap Salonuu
Iç Cebeci Han No: 92
Grand Bazaar, Old City, Istanbul

It was also a lot of fun watching the old men argue over a game of cards……one gentleman slammed his cards down and started to walk away in a huff while all the other guys tried to get him back. Some things are universal and we couldn't help but laugh. The other men were cracking up and pointed at us saying something in Turkish……the guy sheepishly smiled, waved at us, and went back to the table where his smiled disappeared, pointing to another gentleman, the one who probably beat his rear end off, and the game resumed.

Soon enough it was time to hit the bustling streets of Istanbul again.

We still needed to pick up some small gifts to bring back to us. One of the guys back at the hotel told us to get Turkish Delight from Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir.

According to the story, back in 1777 Bekir Effendi created Turkish Delight and this shop has been in existence since then. We were told that it was the oldest continuously run business in Istanbul at over 230 years. I'm not a big fan of lokum, but heck, if you're going to get it, it might as well be from the originators, right?

By the time we were headed back to our hotel the heat and crowds were starting to wear us down. The Missus noticed a shop with a second floor dining area and decided that it would be a great time for a break.

We ordered a snack and some tea downstairs then walked up the narrow stairwell (the norm for Istanbul) to what turned out to be a very nice dining area.

It turns out that the name of the place was Hafiz Mustafa 1864….I guess for when it was established. This was the perfect little break we needed.

While looking at the photo of the street below, I recalled how crowded and busy things seemed.

And yet, when we returned home, we missed the lively, vibrant, and very social environment……much like we missed China when we got back from our trip there.

Of course, right at that moment, I could more clearly empathize with this fellow we passed on the way back to our hotel room.

This was nothing a nice shower and a short nap couldn't cure and I was ready to go. The front desk folks had recommended at restaurant called Rami to us earlier. It was called very nice and classy…well, we had been travelling with just backpacks and really weren't in the position of visiting anyplace too fancy. We were assured that we'd have no problems with the restaurant which is located in a charming little house a few blocks away.

Well, the house may be charming, but the gentleman who seated us was far from that. The pace was empty, but he was quick to tell us where we couldn't sit….nothing on the second floor, no tables with a view….all reserved, even though the place was totally empty and would remain so during our entire meal.

It did seemed like the spacing of tables were a bit cramped, but of course that didn't bother us since no one else was there.

Our Server promptly dealt us our menus and proceeded to disappear for a good long time. No water, no nothing……. When he returned, I think we made our second "mistake"……..we'd had a good amount of food for lunch. To us, it seemed that just have a combination of starters for dinner would just be the perfect thing. His response, "humph……."

We went with the cold starters combination (TRY 29 – about $18 at the time).

All I remember after tasting this was how bland and ice cold this stuff was. It was like cafeteria food.

We also ordered the "Hot" Starters Plate (also TRY 29)……hot was just being used in the broadest of terms I suppose as most of this was also cold and somewhat greasy.

That lahmacun was plain nasty and we quit after one bite each.

Believe me when I say it was far from what as written on the menu.

As we were almost(thankfully) through our meal the Server plunked down some bread at our table……I mean really, if you're going to get all stuffy and pretentious on us, at least show me that you know how to time things and do your job. After all the great experiences we had in Istanbul, this was a rather sad way to end our trip.

As I sat at the window of our hotel room and listened to the last call to prayer for the evening I realized something. I usually work a little harder when researching places to eat when we travel. All the sites and history of Istanbul had taken over and we had stayed with places close to the Old City. I would have to fix that next time we were here. And based on how much we loved Istanbul, there would be a next time.

Sammoon-another visit

June 12, 2012 Cathy Iraqi Food and Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Sammoon has closed.

This is mmm-yoso!!! It's a food blog. Kirk is still adjusting to the time zone and not blogging. ed (from Yuma) is adjusting to not having to be at work early each day and is not blogging. Cathy appears to be adjusted and this is a short blog post.

It does seem that my blog posts are about return visits to a bunch of places. This is because when The Mister and I go to eat out, we like to patronize local businesses close to home which are relatively inexpensive and serve really good food. When I first posted about Sammoon, it was after only a few visits. The business is run by recent Iraqi immigrants who make really good food and Sammoon is part of our "regular rotation".

Sammoon is located within walking distance from the El Cajon Courthouse as well as the new El Cajon Police Headquarters and ends up being quite crowded around lunchtime on days when court is in session. However, on Fridays and weekends, business is steadier without the 'rush' and that's when we like to go out for lunch. The owner, takes great pride in putting out a good product and there is a wait for most food orders, because items are prepared fresh.

The oven over there along the wall is where the Sammoon bread and all the sweets are made, daily. You can see the two rotating upright spits of schawarma (beef and chicken) along the other wall. Sammoon bread is shaped in its unique way and is a heartier type of bread, almost the texture of Ciabatta.

The oven is also where this wonderous cheese bread is made. Listed on the wall menu by the cash register, this is only $1. You can see how much cheese is on the fresh baked bread by looking at the cross section with a bite taken out…Fresh baked bread, still hot. The cheese, mixed with parsley does not melt much, but browns. It is firmer than Mozzarella and it has a good flavor- like Feta in texture, but less salty. We've never asked what kind, just ordered.

This is the chicken schawarma salad ($7.99). Yes, it is large. There is lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, onion and Feta and a nice oil and vinegar dressing on the side to pour over all of that freshly cooked thinly sliced chicken. The salads are served with fresh Sammoon bread.

Here is a better photo of the Sammoon bread with my blackened salmon salad ($8.99). The salmon is rubbed in Za'atr- a mix of finely ground oregano and sesame seeds and the flavor is amazing. This is not as much protein as on the chicken salad, but just as satisfying.

Anyhow, glad I could share another meal. Hope everyone is having a good week.

Sammoon 190 Magnolia Avenue, Suite 103 El Cajon 92020 (619) 441-2823 Open 10-10 Sun-Thurs and 10-midnight on Friday & Saturday

COMC: Stuff we ate before our trip: The Waterfront Bar & Grill, Bay Park Fish Company, and lunch at Chin’s Convoy

June 11, 2012 mmm-yoso Burgers, Chinese Restaurants, Seafood

Man, I'm still kinda feeling it, but didn't want to leave you high and dry. Here's a round-up of stuff we had before our vacation….the Missus, after spending too much time talking to folks on our trip now uses the term "holiday"……sigh. Anyway, just another COMC (Clearing out the memory card) post.

The Waterfront Bar & Grill:

Of course I needed to have a burger before we left, so why not The Waterfront early on a quiet weekday?

Just a burger for me…..no big deal………it did the trick.

Of course the Missus just had to order the veggie burger….. I couldn't bring myself to take a photo of it.

The Waterfront Bar and Grill
2044 Kettner Blvd
San Diego, CA 92101

Bay Park Fish Company:

We hadn't been here in a while and the prices here seem to have gone up. But it's still not bad for what the Missus enjoys here the most. The smoked fish plate.

I actually went for the crab cakes this time around.

These actually had a good amount of crab in them but had been "worked" a bit too much for me. I prefer chunks of crab rather than something that looked like it had been mixed to death.

Bay Park Fish Company
4121 Ashton St
San Diego, CA 92110

Chin's Convoy:

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

Seems like I'd been eating here a bit more often recently. Though I really can't tell of anything I especially enjoy. Here's the Wuxi Spareribs which were fairly tender, but possibly too sweet if you're not used to what is often called "Jiangnan" style food…..that would be the cuisine of areas to the immediate south of the Yangtze river.

Not bad, but the sweetness just got kind of tiring after a while….like a piano hitting the same key over and over again. I should have ordered two dishes and dealt with leftovers for dinner.

Chin's
4433 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Hiep & Grill (revisit)

June 10, 2012 Cathy Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Well, you've found mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog. Kirk is busy recovering from the last leg of his vacation, ed (from Yuma) is busy recovering from events occurred in Yuma and Cathy, recovering from a sunburn, is able to blog a short post today.

Hi. The other day, it was chilly and The Mister and I both wanted noodles and broth. We could not agree on the type of broth, nor on which the animal we wanted to eat. It occurred to me that we hadn't had any Vietnamese food lately and so we headed to Linda Vista and Pho Hiep & Grill, which I've posted about, and so has Kirk. This location has been here more than 20 years (it originally was Pho Hoa Hiep and the first place The Mister and I ever ordered pho). It is our favorite place, with Pho Lucky Seafood being a very close second.

Not much has changed in all these years.

The condiments on the table are standard. The tables are highly laquered. There are two televisions and on this day, both were playing a black and white Mexican (not translated) Cowboy movie.

The Mister's Dac Biet (small, $5.50)- a rich beef broth, noodles, onion, herbs and thin cut rare lean beef, rare brisket, fatty brisket, flank, tendon and tripe.

The pho add-ins at the top, which includes sawtooth. The Mister and I shared that plate. The ginger sauce is to add into my to my Pho Ga ($5.50) -a very rich chicken broth, noodles, onion, fresh herbs and -my reason for eating here- you are asked if you want only chicken breast meat, or "all of it". Of course, since The Mister got just about every part of the cow, asked for every part of the chicken. As you can see, there was chicken liver and also heart with dark as well as white meat from the bird.

A favorite place where each of us can get exactly what we want, when we want everything. I hope everyone is having a good weekend and will have a nice week.

Pho Hiep and Grill 6947 Linda Vista Road (at Ulrich) San Diego 92111 (619) 268-8406

open 7 days, 7:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.

This location has no website, but the other two locations in Chula Vista share This Website

St. Spyridon’s Greek Festival 2012

June 9, 2012 mmm-yoso Festivals & Events, Greek Food

Man, I'm a bit fried after a 30 hour plus return trip….the main problems being a delay at Heathrow and my inability to sleep on flights in spite of flying in World Traveller Plus class. Well at least the Missus and I caught up on a bunch of movies.

This morning I woke up, still in a bit of a haze and remembered that St. Spyridon's Greek Festival was this weekend. It used to be that we'd go every year. But for whatever reason, there was a gap of several years until I went last year. So I thought, "jet lag be damned, why not just go…." I'd usually go on the first day, but that wasn't going to happen this year.

It just so happened that admission is free between 11am and 1pm today and tomorrow (Sunday), so this would not cost me anything at all. One quick tidbit. This year the parking is at the San Diego Unified School District offices up on Park. There's a shuttle, but I decided to take the rather long walk to jar my senses back.

Things look about the same as last year……though I did notice that even at 1115am things looked ready to go, you didn't have to wait for the lamb or other items at the Taverna booth.

As usual, the Taverna, Dining Room, and the Pastries drew the most attention.

Of course there are other choices as well, saganaki, gyros, and a wine bar come to mind. I did end up grabbing some olive oil from the grocery booth and just had to get some lamb and loukaniko (which was pretty good) to go from the taverna, which made for a pretty hefty lunch for me. It's pretty decent fair food.

Anyway, go check it out if you have time. You can still get in free from 11 to 1pm tomorrow. More information on the event's website. Yamas!

St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church's Greek Festival
3655 Park Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92103

Friday Festival Hours: 5PM-10PM • FREE ADMISSION 5PM – 10PM
Saturday Festival Hours: 11AM-10PM • FREE ADMISSION 11AM – 1PM
Sunday Festival Hours: 11AM-8PM • FREE ADMISSION 11AM – 1PM

Where the heck we are…..home stretch edition

June 8, 2012 mmm-yoso Greece, Rhodes, Symi, Travel, yoso-silly

I hope you've enjoyed this series of posts. We're headed into the home stretch of our vacation, so this will be the last for a while.

From Tunisia, after a day layover, we headed to our next stop. The main attraction, other than the beaches is a fairly large walled city. The town itself really stirs the imagination. The terms Knights, Grand Master, and the location of one of the ancient wonders of the world really grabs the attention of a person who read about the Crusades and knights as a young boy.

To give things perspective. We're staying in a converted house that is over 700 years old!

While most of the folks I know talk in years, here they talk in centuries..

Of course we had to eat……

We also visited a village with an ancient acropolis towering over it. Very impressive..again it stirs the imagination. There was also some alternate transportation available for those interested….we actually felt sorry for the poor animals…..

We also visited a village with one of the most beautiful harbors I've ever seen……

This dish was a nice surprise for us.

We spent a night in a nearby village. The hotel seemed like a converted geriatric hospital. But I gotta say the view from our table during dinner was priceless.

So that's it for now. Next time you hear from me, I'll hopefully be home. Let me know if you enjoyed these posts and maybe I'll try to do them the next time we take a trip.

As always….Thanks for reading!

Carnival Supermarket-Lunch in the Store

June 7, 2012 Cathy Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!

Well. You've found yourself at the mmm-yoso!!! food blog again. Kirk is vacationing in a colorful part of the world, ed (from Yuma) is having fun in Yuma, a colorful part of the United States and Cathy has ventured to a colorful part of San Diego.

Hello again. If you've ever been on Convoy street at Mesa College Drive, in the parking lot where K Sandwiches and Anh Hong are, or maybe parked in that parking lot and walked over to Mien Trung or Sushi Diner and then left the parking lot on the side street (onto Mesa College Drive), you have to turn right and at the signal light, which is Ashford Street, make a U-Turn to get back to Convoy, (or you can turn right into that parking lot, where Homestyle Hawaiian is located).

If you make a right on Ashford, about a half mile through that neighborhood of houses is a signal light (which is Beagle Street and Stalmer Street) and Carnival Market is about 100 feet further, on the West side of Ashford.

Carnival is a local, neighborhood Supermarket. It is small. When you walk in the main door, you are in the Produce Department. To your left are the check out counters.

To your right are the Ready to Eat counters.

Yes. Lamb shanks- this is not just a Mexican Market; several Middle Eastern items are made and sold here, but not flatbreads. The Chicharron in Salsa Verde is a specialty that not many markets or restaurants sell; it is really good.

Whole roasted chickens, various pork preparations…

We'll be back to this counter for lunch after a short tour.

There is a bakery section, which makes all sorts of desserts.

Five floor-to-taller-than-me doors of small baked goods. (Made without preservatives or lard).

The small (10 for $1.10) and large (4 for $1) bolillos are made fresh several times a day.

As are the tortillas, which I always purchase.

The seafood counter is small, but has good choices.

As does the meat counter.

and the cheese counter.

Just enough selection and variety and good prices to get me to visit here regularly.

Then there is the Eat In Area. A visit here isn't complete without a ready to eat item or three…

The tables are next to the Taqueria and there is a salsa bar available.

There are several house made salsas (which you can purchase in the cases) and other condiments available. You get your hot foods and pay at the front cash registers then walk back here to the tables to eat.

The Guisado of the day was $5.99 a pound. This much was $5.27. It was Beef Birria -essentially pot roast- definitely made with garlic, cumin, cloves, cinnamon and I am sure many other spices as well as several types of chilies. The meat was very tender, the sauce very rich and deep flavored.

This is about 1/2 pound of shrimp and octopus cocktail ($4.27). Fresh, fresh made. Fresh, plump, large shrimp. The sauce is very mild and salsa and hot sauce were added while I was eating.

I'm sure you noticed above that the fried tilapia, whole or fillets, was $2.99. Add rice, beans and four hot, fresh tortillas and this plate was…$3.99. You know I had to. The lady behind the counter was surprised I wanted the whole fish and went to some trouble to select one of the larger, meatier ones for me.

Once again, I finished it all.

Carnival Market isn't large, but it has everything you might want or need. And then some.

Carnival Supermarket 3560 Ashford Street San Diego 92111 (858) 277-1505 Open 7 am-10 pm, seven days

Los Palmitos Taco Shop-Salads, Soup and Fish

June 6, 2012 Cathy Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!

Yes, you're reading mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog. Kirk is enjoying a vacation and doesn't have the bandwidth to blog. ed (from Yuma) is doing lots of things (in Yuma) and blogging isn't one of them. Cathy is the blogger for today.

Hello. I blogged about Los Palmitos in 2008 and thought the food was really good, but the taco shop did not become part of the "regular rotation" for The Mister or me, since it is not near home or work for either of us. However, I do have friends who give me recommendations about their favorite places and items to try and so when driving around town, I have stopped here on a more regular basis have found some standout selections for the times when I don't want a taco or burrito.

You can tell by the architecture of the building that Los Palmitos used to be a Taco Bell. The kitchen is intact and used as a kitchen. There are no other similarities.

This is the poster in the side window, if you need a reason or want an excuse to stop here. Yes, beer. At a Taco Shop.

The salsa bar, which has rules, is filled with four fresh made salsas and other condiments.

The brown-ish salsa is habañero. It is *very* good; there is heat but the other flavors come through. The next hottest is the green salsa, which has a touch of garlic in the flavor. The darker red one is my favorite: it is a chipotle- a roasted jalapeño- and tastes 'full' and rich, almost creamy to me. The lightest red one is very mild; almost like just tomato sauce with a bit of onion, especially after you taste the stronger flavors and then go back to this mildest salsa. Fresh chips come with all orders.

Ground Beef Tostada ($6.10)- simple meal that isn't a burrito. Beans on the bottom, ground beef, cheese, sour cream, guacamole and salsa fresca (chopped tomato/onion/cilantro) all inside an edible flour tortilla bowl. This is very good. However, for a few pennies more-

The Carne Asada Salad ($6.25) is beautifully presented. It isn't in a flour tortilla bowl and there are no beans (less carbohydrates!). It is flavorful and quite large and filling. Lettuce topped with a mild, creamy house dressing, cucumbers, carne asada, cheese and shredded tortilla strips. This is a healthy, filling choice for a meal here.

Caldo de Res ($6.99) Beef soup, with add ins. Rich beefy broth, corn,carrots, squash and a lot of tender pieces of beef. I usually eat half the soup 'as is' and then add in the lime, onions and cilantro and rice…it's like having two different main courses.

Whole fish, fried ($10.05). Usually listed on menus as mojarra frita, this traditional Mexican tilapia preparation is perfectly done at Los Palmitos. The cleaned fish is slit (so it won't curl when being fried) and then rubbed with a marinade of lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Then the fish is pan fried in olive oil. The fish is served with rice, beans (the beans are really good here), tomatoes, salsa fresca, cucumbers, pickled onions, sour cream, guacamole and tortillas.

The day I ordered this fish, the chef from the kitchen brought it out to me. I think he was proud of this presentation, and the fact that someone had ordered something other than burritos. Usually the nice lady working the cash register will hand the fish to me over the counter. This fish was large and the meat was moist and had a good fresh flavor.

Once again, I ate every last bit.

I think Los Palmitos is a hidden gem.

Los Palmitos Taco Shop 5145 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard (between Limerick and Longford) San Diego 92117

(858)974-1946 Open 8 a.m.-midnight, daily Website