mmm-yoso – Page 396 – 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.

Birrieria’s la Guadalajara

January 15, 2012 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants

*** Birrieria's la Guadalajara has closed.

A couple of weeks ago we noticed a Birria place had opened on Third avenue. I always glance at that new strip mall since there seems to be a location of Tacos el Gordo that is taking forever to open. A couple of days later, I was chatting with one of my co-workers, Karina, about, well what else…food! Both her and her husband's family are from the Guadalajara area, so I happened to mention how much I enjoy Birria. She told me that their current favorite place for birria in the South Bay area was Birrieria's la Guadalajara…….which send that light bulb blinking. I knew exactly the shop she was talking about. So on that very weekend, we headed off for some birria….

The place had only one table going when we arrived and we were qiuckly seated by a really nice young man.

First thing I noticed was the wide open look, making it really seem like birrieria ……. second thing was the fragrance of the consomme dancing in the air, a mixture of herbs and chilies that really get your stomach going…even at 9 in the morning. Yes, birria is breakfast food for many. Third, there was a woman behind the glass partition making fresh tortillas.

The menu is a single sheet and focused, on birria of course. I'd be somewhat worried if the place started serving up California Burritos……though there is Carne Asada and Arrachera on the menu.

As soon as we were seated salsas and the typical accompaniments arrived at the table.

The gentleman who delivered this and took our order was tall and quite dignified, happy to answer any questions. Though there was no question as what we were ordering…..birria de chivo ($9.60 – 1 order) and birria de borrego of course….goat and lamb.

Both arrived steam rising in a plume over the bowls, looking just about the same. The protein looked nicely roasted and tender. We really could not tell what was what at first glance. But after quick tastes we could easily make out the two.

The birria de chivo was more stringy, but to our surprise more mellow in flavor than the lamb.

The broth was just mildly spicy, but not too oily, and there was a bit of flavors form various herbs, but so much that we couldn't tell which type of meat we were eating. There was much more goat than lamb and I ended up taking leftovers of this home where I poured it over rice and reheated after the rice had soaked up all the juices……..add onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime….

The lamb (borrego) was the better of the two, more tender, stronger in flavor, and fattier as well.

What was really good, were the freshly made tortillas…..

A bit thicker than I'm used to and so hot you barely hold one in your hand for more than second or two, these stood up to the birria real well. I caught the Missus just eating tortillas straight a couple of times…… These really had some heft to them.

We had enjoyed our meal so much that we returned the following week. There were a couple of menu items we wanted to check out. The same young man greeted us at the door with a "welcome back". I guess there aren't too many Asian customers…… I found out his name is Jorge and that this restaurant used to be located on Main Street, but they moved to this location about seven months ago. As we were seated, the same older gentleman brought over the salsas and our menus….

I was surprised to see two salsas and radishes this time around. Jorge came around to explain; "we are a work in progress, trying to make everything better…..in fact, in February we can start serving cervezas."

The Missus and I ordered one each of the Taco Rojo, one goat and one lamb ($2.90 each). A freshly made tortilla was dunked into the consomme, then placed on the flat top for a short while to let some carmelization take place, but still keeping it pliable and moist. It was then filled with meat and arrived looking quite beautiful in my opinion.

There was a slight crispness to the tortilla, but man this was good, perhaps a bit on the salty side, but adding some lime really cut the saltiness. The onions and cilantro went together so well with the rich meat.

Even though they serve the taco with a fork, we went at it with our hands………making a lovely, delicious mess.

I had also wanted to try the Borrego a la Plancha ($10.20), roasted lamb that is then placed on the flat-top. Creating wonderful crisp edges adding some wonderful flavor and texture to the lamb.

Served with consomme and rice on the side, I added a touch of consomme to the meat, then put the meat (later I started adding rice), onions, cilantro, lime, and a touch of the more spicy of the salsas into the tortillas. Another brief dunk (which later I just plain stopped doing because this was so good) and I was good to go…..

This was a nice Sunday Brunch for us…..for under twenty bucks. It was also nice to go home and take that Sunday nap after.

We'll be back again soon….I want to try the Cabeza de Res En Su Jugo….beef head cooked in its own juices, man does that sound good.

Birrieria's la Guadalajara
1310 Third Ave
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Open Daily 8am – 7pm

When you have Lamb, you make…..Lamb-aide??? Nah, you make Lamb Hash and Lamb-Bulgur Soup

January 13, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Shades of my What to Do kinda Ali Nazik Kebab post. A couple of weeks past I decided to roast a leg of lamb.

Not wanting too much, I bought half a leg fro Seisel's, though in retrospect I should have gone to one of the many Halal markets in the greater San Diego area to pick this up. I rubbed the lamb with a paste of garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme. Same with the potatoes….I also threw in some leftover daikon as well. I decided to roast everything in my cast iron pan letting the fat from the lamb render off onto the root veggies.

Man, did the root veggies taste great….unfortunately the flavor lamb wasn't strong enough for the Missus. It was too tame and She refused to eat it. Then She uttered those fateful words…"I'm not eating it, but you better not waste any of it!"

Ohhhh-kay….there were a couple of pounds of lamb left after I had my fill, so what to do????

Duh…..one of my favorite things to do with leftover prime rib, ham, rotisserie chicken….not so much turkey though, is to make a hash. However, I wanted to roast more potatoes…so it was 86 on the potatoes in the hash. In the end, I minced up a bunch of the lamb, added minced onions, garlic, cilantro, oregano, and thyme. I used a couple of tablespoons of Greek yogurt as a binder and it crisped up pretty good. Finished with some salt and pepper, it was delici-yoso…..

Roasted some red potatoes, sauteed off some collard greens and used the rest of the yogurt in a sauce, combining it with dill, lemon juice, garlic juice, salt, and pepper. Topped with a poached egg (of course), this was a heck of a brunch. For some reason the lamb flavors came through much better when caramelized in nice crunchy bits. I can't believe I've had years of cold lamb sandwiches (pretty darn good though), when I should have been making this.

I didn't stop there, though. Based on the Missus criticism, I decided to take this one step further and saved a small amount of meat and the lamb bone. Recently, I had been leafing through Jaque Pepin's latest cookbook, the huge Essential Pepin. I recalled the lamb-barley soup recipe.

So into the pot went the lamb bone, no beef broth for this version. Of course, the Missus requested it done to Her taste so no barley in this one. I replaced the barley with bulgur, which I added during the last half hour of simmering.

Flavored with some leftover fresh thyme, cilantro, and celery hearts (freeze the buggers instead of throwing them away – they have great flavor). This ended up being quite good, with no complaints from the Missus.

The Missus often takes credit for "inspiring" what I make in the kitchen……and She's probably right.

Chengdu: Giant Panda Breeding Research Base and some lunch…..

January 12, 2012 mmm-yoso Chengdu, China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel

I'm thinking I should have put "some lunch" in tiny letters here….so I wouldn't mind at all if you're not interested in Pandas, if you came back another day……but otherwise……

Even though the San Diego Zoo has had a long love affair with Pandas, the one place on my list for Chengdu was the "Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding", whew, that's a mouthful. I'm not quite sure why….but I really wanted to check the place out. And apparently, so did a host of other folks….

The base itself is a bit over 200 acres…making it quite large. There are different trails to take, a large lake, a museum, panda food processing center, etc, etc…….

But of course, we were here to see pandas….. so we headed off, past the ponds….

We thought we saw something as we turned a corner……

But no, these were Red Pandas…cute in their own sense, but nothing like the giant pandas we wanted a glimpse of.

In my reading I found that red pandas belong to the family musteloidea, more closely related to weasels and skunks than the giant panda.

As we meandered along the trails, past the empty nursery (it was not quite the season for little ones), I was prepared for not really seeing a giant panda….which wouldn't have been such a bad thing as I could always go to the San Diego Zoo to see them. Then as we walked down one of the trails we saw this…..(feel free to click on the photos to enlarge)

Laying down, lazily munching on some bamboo……

Suddenly the Panda decided to sit up…….possibly recalling that mom always said never to eat lying down…"you might choke on something!"

All the while having a firm grip on bamboo….never missing a beat, all done in a leisurely fashion.

Only to decide that supine was only way to eat………I'm sure this one approved of breakfast in bed.

As we walked pass the pandas, the Missus was totally gaga over them, it made me wonder…..

What made pandas so cute….was it the head to body proportion? Or perhaps the white and black color and the black around the eyes that made them look larger? Or perhaps the somewhat ambling movement that made the panda seem to be eternally dawdling?

For some reason, I really enjoyed watching them grasp their food, in an almost human way……I guess I could really relate to that. I recall seeing something on one of those channels once, about how the pleasure center of the brain got going after just a brief glimpse of something "cute"…..

Heck maybe fellow blogger Lynnea can tell me why………..

Because in the end……

I decided that knowing the why's would take all the fun out of it…….it was better just to forget about it and enjoy……

Which is what we did at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base.

It was a bit past normal lunchtime when we left the Panda Center and the Missus' cousin here was really not food-centric…so we could really understand the effort he had put in during the past two days…heck, we'd be bushed too. So we didn't blame him at all for choosing one of the tourist type restaurants right across the street from the Panda Breeding Center for lunch.

And the food, unlike many tourist centric restaurants in other countries (including our own) wasn't too bad.

Here's another item that folks living in the Western world sometimes find strange…remember, cucumber is a gourd and it is treated as such….

Remember my $1 cucumber recipe or Zi Su Jian Huang Gua?

Some of the dishes seemed to be part of the parade of Sichuan's greatest hits……

Though that Mapo Doufu wasn't bad at all…….

Needless to say we didn't leave hungry. It was onward to our next stop Wenshu Temple.

Thanks for reading!

Scenes from Jianyang, Sichuan

January 11, 2012 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Jianyang, Markets & Grocers, Travel

This is pretty much a COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card) post. During our time in China we stayed in Jianyang for one evening, here are some photos we took during that time.

The hotel provided a buffet style breakfast, that looked quite typical, but had quite a few breakfast items that were interesting.

Sure there was rice porridge and the like…..but there were a number of spicy Sichuan dishes as well. I had really never given thought to what the typical Sichuan breakfast would be…..the thought of having some "ma-la" (numbing hot) dishes first thing in the morning seemed very different to me.

Just as tomatoes are often treated like fruits in China, potatoes are treated like true vegetables. It's not uncommon to see them stir-fried.

I wasn't sure how my body would react to having this stuff early in the morning….but it turns out that I enjoyed it to some extent.

Even though the population of Jianyang is pegged at 1.2 million and I'm assuming growing as the local textile industry does, the streets in the area where we stayed were wide and pretty much empty. Perhaps everyone had already gone to work……

This seems really great, but as anyone who has tried to cross the street in China knows……other than driving on the correct side of the street (something which is rather flexible in its own right), the "rules" here are different. Because there was no traffic, cars and trucks were driving as fast as they could on these streets….shades of Phnom Penh!

Many of the smaller businesses were located on the side streets…..

I heard a familiar buzz as we passed the Baozi stand…..I immediately knew what it was, as we turned the corner I found that my hunch was correct.

It was the local morning market……

For me, the most entertaining set-up were all the meat hanging for display, it was a literal "meat curtain".

The meat did look quite fresh……

The market itself wasn't too crowded, so after a cursory walk-through we headed back down the street to a bit more exploring. Daily life in Jianyang seemed a bit more laidback, though the speed of things in Chengdu seemed quite relaxed as well.

You never know what you'll see wandering down the street in a city that you don't reside in.

You see things that are unfamiliar, greeting them with almost a child like wonder…..

I loved the makeshift "ramp" built from rebar. You relaly couldn't make out the rebar from a distance. You'd suddenly see a jug zipping across the sidewalk!

We saw this hanging in front of a Jianyang Mutton Soup shop(luckily no carcasses of wild dog in sight), we saw a typical display of how the Chinese stretch the law a bit….

There was an older man with a large cutting board squatting on the sidewalk chopping and hacking at the mutton. Imagine if you will, someone doing this on a major four lane road in your city! He was dressed in the typical stained white teeshirt, white paper hat (after all there are hygenic standards, right?), cigarette dangling from his mouth, hacking away. Suddenly, a police vehicle drives to the curb and one of the guys starts yelling …..I'm assuming telling him not to portion his mutton the the sidewalk. The "chef" ignores the officer. So what does the guy in the car do? He grabs a megaphone and starts using the darn thing, loud enough to shake the leaves off the trees (which are falling on the chopped mutton meat). He screams for about five minutes, but is just ignored. So what does the officer do next? Does he and his partner get out of his vehicle to enforce the law? Heck no, they just swear at the guy (so the Missus says – through the megaphone) and drive off. Jianyang's finest on the job!

Later that morning, the Missus' cousin took us on the short tour of one of the lakes in the area. There are islands in these lakes that house hotels and resorts. You can get to them by boat.

We ended up having lunch at one of the hotel restaurants. Nothing particularly memorable.

Like I said earlier; potatoes are treated as a vegetable…..

Actually, the "saliva chicken" (so good you can't stop drooling) was decent. Not very spicy (La), but it numbed half your face (Ma).

As a whole, like we were told, the food in this part of Sichuan isn't as spicy-hot.

For dinner we were taken to a Hot Pot place.

Which was more of a "hip" hot pot shop, where the young folks seem to going for hot pot and socializing.

Actually, the broth was pretty good, though again, more numbing than spicy.

It was a nice side trip for the Missus as She got to meet relatives…….

Country Kabob Restaurant #2- Point Loma

January 10, 2012 Cathy Greek Food, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome back to your bookmark of mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog. Kir is busy today and ed(from Yuma) is busier. Cathy has a post about one of her meals.

Hi. As I may have mentioned, the days from Thanksgiving until this past Monday have been filled with some sort of appointment/event/errand. I've felt like Sisyphus just trying to accomplish something each day, only to have to start over the next morning. Fortunately, I do know the importance of taking a bit of a break to reconnect with friends, usually over a meal (or at least a hot beverage). One day in December, I found myself in Point Loma, on Rosecrans near the former Loma Theater, now a Bookstar.

Look over there to the right; you can see the tables and umbrellas out in front of Country Kabob.

Yes, we were there in December. The interior of the restaurant is clean, with tablecloths, even for lunch.

It was a chilly day, and my meal came with a bowl of lentil soup. Unlike any lentil soup I've ever had, this vegetarian version was smooth/not as chunky, with the lentils almost falling apart in the very flavorful broth. I liked this soup very much (and will order it again, even if it isn't part of a combination plate).

We decided to share the fried zucchini appetizer ($3.95). It wasn't outstanding, but was fried perfectly and not too greasy; pretty much standard. If I were to rate the meal items ordered on some sort of scale, this would be last, but only because everything else was outstanding. The sauce to dip the zucchini was home made, yogurt based with cucumber and fresh garlic and really good.

My friend ordered the gyros sandwich($5.95) and it was A. Huge. 2)Fresh-with a wondrous fresh/hot pita bread and tasty, moist, lamb and beef. iii. Topped with sumac(!) and the *really wonderful* home made tzatziki (which was the fried zucchini dip) as well as tomatoes, onions and parsley. Honestly, this was one of the best gyro sandwiches I have ever tasted and I've tasted a lot.

I decided to try the spanakopita-falafel plate ($9.95), so that I could try a bunch of items, in a sort of appetizer-ish way. The Greek salad had a very, very good dressing. It was olive oil based with fresh as well as dry herbs, the Feta on top had a nice tang and was fresh; a bit different than 'standard' restaurant Feta; it made me want to go to Vine Ripe Market on my way home to buy one of the imported Feta cheeses they sell, to try and find this Feta. [As a side note, the imported, more expensive Fetas are wondrous.] The falafel were made from fresh garbanzo beans -and parsley- and were light and flavorful. The spanakopita was with flaky filo, creamy (I think Ricotta cheese was mixed with the Feta, or it was a really different Feta in this version or maybe there is egg.) (Oh, there was some rice in this spanakopita also) and the spinach just tasted fresh…there were fresh herbs flavoring this also (definitely dill and parsley). As I was leaving, I asked about the pita bread, and found out it is parbaked and then heated when ordered, explaining the soft, freshness.

Yet another great find. So glad we stopped here.

Country Kabob Restaurant #2 3145 Rosecrans Street Suite A San Diego, CA 92110 (619) 226-2524 Website

Mariscos Monday: Oscar’s Mexican Seafood

January 9, 2012 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Seafood

**** This location of Oscar’s has closed

Man, it was almost like summer for a couple days there, wasn’t it? I don’t ever remember it hitting 80 degrees around New Year! The weather put the Missus and I in the mood for some mariscos. And though we thought of heading to La Playita, or even down to Godoy. We simply wanted a couple of tacos and it was well past the time of El Pescador or El Prieto. Then I recalled that FOY (Friend of Yoso) Candice had mentioned that a mariscos place had opened near the border or PB and La Jolla called Oscar’s.

Getting there was interesting……when going North on Mission you take a left at Turquoise and the place comes up rather fast. If going this route, you might have to figure out where to take that u-turn. Only street parking is available as far as I could tell. The restaurant is tiny, located right next to a smoke shop…or as the Missus says, it’s right next to the “Hoo-kar” (Hookah) store. He-he-he…..

There are literally 6-8 seats in the place and a small counter area outside. The kitchen is bright and shiny and the young man running the place friendly and most helpful. We saw grilled snapper tacos on the greaseboard, but they had run out for the day when we arrived. The menu is compact, with many of the “regulars” you’d see at one of those mariscos trucks.

The Missus started with the Smoked Marlin Taco ($2.75 – tacos de marlyn):

In terms of price, this was cheaper than most trucks, though it wasn’t nearly as stuffed. I never got a shot as the Missus polished it off in no time. She told me the fish was spot on in terms of flavor, but there was a bit too much cheese on it. I dunno, She cleaned this out pretty quickly.

I ordered a Fish Taco ($1.99)

Very routine, nicely fried, though a bit on the smaller side. The batter was fine, though I prefer mine a bit more crisp. There were some hidden what tasted like habanero in the pico, though the salsas are served on the side…a pretty nice touch. The tortillas were massed produced, but decent.

The “Fish Stew” (small – $1.50), was probably the weakest item we had. Served in a 8 ounce styrofoam cup that you’ll usually get the gratis consomme in at most mariscos joints. There were two shrimp and a small scallop or two along with a not so tasty piece of fish in this.

This caldo was just too weak, tasting mostly of celery and lacking the deep flavor of what you’d get elsewhere.

To finish off, I ordered the Cucaracha ($7), also known as camarones a la cucaracha……cockroach shrimp.

The shrimp were headless, but nicely fried before being put to bed in very bracing, spicy-sour, tomato-chile sauce, which was more like a broth. The shrimp were cooked well, the meat tender, the shells adding a nice crunch…making the sounds that you would get when you step on the unofficial Hawaii state animal. This definitely called for some tortillas since there was so much sauce. I ordered some tortillas….which they nicely never charged me for (though I’m thinking it should some with them). But man, it was too sour and spicy for me….man, my tolerance is getting real low, I think I need to head back to Hunan Chilli King to build my resistance and get maced by my food again. The Missus on the other hand, went through this like a hot knife through butter….though She told me “that sauce is burning a hole in my stomach” on the way home.

While really not quite up to par with our favorite mariscos joints, this place wasn’t bad and is a nice addition to the neighborhood. The folks here are very friendly and the prices not bad at all for the area.

Oscar’s Mexican Seafood
703 Turquoise St
San Diego, CA 92109

Roasted Parsnips and Kabocha with Caper Dressing

January 8, 2012 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

The Missus has been trying to cut down on meat consumption over the last year and I'm really trying to support Her. However, there's just so much roasted vegetables, which we make twice a week one can really deal with. This started me off on trying other vegetables and greens, stuff like Chard, Kale, Celeriac, Rapini, even sauteing Collard Greens. Mushrooms now is a big part of the Missus' diet. I'll often now make protein for me and a large shared veg dish for us, or even something just for the Missus. We're also trying not to waste as much….and I had half a Kabocha staring me in the face. For New Years I'd made Kabocha Nimono using half the squash…..now I needed to do something with the other half. I'd also bought a bunch of parsnips most of which I roasted with potatoes….

Looking for some inspiration, I opened Yotam Ottolenghi's wonderful cookbook, Plenty. I really trust this cookbook, ever since I tried out the Mushroom Ragout with Poached Egg recipe and it turned out to be one of the best things I made all year. As fate would have it, I opened up the book to a recipe for roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes with caper vinaigrette…….I guess it was meant to be. I basically subbed the kabocha for the sweet potatoes and adjusted the cooking time.

For me, cookbooks tend to be a set of ideas and guidelines, though many times I'll follow the written recipe the first time through, making adjustments later. To me, Ottolenghi's book is more of an idea book. Using items I had on hand and adjusting for taste, this came out real well. The adjustments? I used 12 cloves of peeled garlic rather than a split bulb, kabocha for the sweet potatoes of course, replaced the fresh thyme and rosemary with dried thyme and oregano, two fairly large red onions instead of four, two vine ripened tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes, and I used honey instead of maple syrup in the vinaigrette. The recipe times the addition of the vegetables into three stages to make sure that everything is cooked, but not overcooked.

Speaking of the vinaigrette, the Missus initially didn't want me to use it, but I eventually wore Her down and She ended up loving what it added to the dish…..just a slight acid and mild sweetness, not enough to interfere.

Roasted Parsnips and Kabocha with Caper Vinaigrette

About a pound or a bit more of (peeled)parsnips cut into 1 1/2" – 2" long by 3/4" pieces
2 medium-medium large red onions cut into wedges
12 cloves garlic peeled but left whole
1/2 kabocha pumpkin sliced into pieces about the same size as the parsnips (leave the skin on)
2 tomatoes cut into eighths
Dried Thyme
Dried Oregano
3/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used Spitiko)
Salt and Pepper

– Preheat oven to 375
– In a bowl coat the parsnips, onions, and garlic with 1/2 cup of the olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and oregano.
– Spread on a baking sheet or roasting pan
– Roast for about 20-25 minutes.
– Coat kabocha with more olive oil and add to the pan, combining with the other ingredients.
– Roast for about another 30 minutes
– Add the tomato wedges to the pan and roast for about another 15 minutes. You may want to give everything a gentle stir then finish off. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.

After adding the tomatoes put together your dressing.
Combine:
4 Tb Capers chopped
1 Tb Honey
1/2 Tb Dijon mustard
3 Tb Extra Virgin Olive Oil – I used a low acidity Picholine Olive Oil for this
2 Tb fresh squeezed Lemon juice

Whisk ingredients together to emulsify.

Remove vegetables from the oven….I put everything into a nice cast iron pan which I intended to use at the beginning bt proved too small.
Pour dressing over the veggies and lightly mix.

This turned out well….I can only imagine what other combinations of root vegetables and herbs can be done in this manner.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Natto Okonomiyaki

January 6, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Strangely, one of posts that I most often get emails and comments about is the one on making Okonomiyaki. It's quite interesting, I'd get stuff telling me that you don't need the yamaimo, saying it doesn't make any difference in the texture, always from folks that had never even tried using it for making okonomiyaki(I have tried not using yamaimo – the result is fine, but it ain't the same)…so if you've never even tried using it, how would you know if it makes any difference? But hey, okonomi means "what you like", so whatever floats your boat…..I know what floats mine…a couple of tablespoons of gooey, grated yamaimo. Secondly, it's about the folks who tell me to use a non-stick…….I've never gotten the kind of wonderful caramelization you get with my cast iron pan on any non-stick…even the new expensive non-stick pan I have is basically for crepes and items that don't need a nice crust. Personally, I prefer mine to look something like this.

The Missus had been looking through a couple of recipes in Elizabeth Andoh's new cookbook Kansha. The one She found most interesting used this…..

It was the recipe for Natto Okyaki, a natto pancake of sorts. The reason I'm not linking to the cookbook is that the recipe really didn't work out…it uses soy milk and only two tablespoons of soba flour. Needless to say it really never really firmed up. It tasted pretty good…maybe a bit bland, but really made a mess and looked, well not very attractive. But the seed had been planted….plus, I still had a good amount of Soba-ko left over. I decided to use my base okonomiyaki recipe, replacing cake flour with Soba Flour and using natto as the main filling. I liked the idea of using zucchini in Ms Andoh's recipe so I cut back on the cabbage. I didn't think dashi and natto would make such a great combination, so I used plain water. I had thoughts of making and incorporating mustard paste, but had the idea of using wasabi instead. I also added some soy sauce to add another layer of flavor. It tuned out pretty well. It's also a nice way of having natto if you've never had it before or want to eat it, but find the look, smell, or sight of it rather unsavory.

I used a half recipe, but made two smaller okonomiyaki. After doing the first with the standard katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), okonomi sauce, furikake, etc…the Missus found She preferred it unadorned using a simple wasabi-soy sauce mixture for dipping……as the name says, "as you like it"……

Natto Okonomiyaki

Batter:
1/2 Cup Soba flour, sifted
1/2 Cup water or Dashi
2 TB grated Yamaimo/Nagaimo(Japanese Mountain Yam)
1 tsp salt

1 – Sift Flour into a bowl.

2 – Add Water, yamaimo, and salt.

3 – Mix to a pancake batter consistency(do not over-mix). The batter will be sort of a gluey pancake batter

Filling:
2/3 Cup finely shredded cabbage
1/2 Cup finely julienned zucchini
2 scallions green parts only finely sliced
1/4 Cup finely sliced red onion
1-2 Tb Benishoga
2 – 1 1/2 oz portions (usually styrofoam trays) of natto
1 Tb prepared wasabi
1 Tb soy sauce
1 Egg

1 – Add natto to batter and using chopsticks stir in a figure eight motion to separate the sticky beans and incorporate into batter
2 – Add the cabbage, zucchini, scallions, onions, and benishoga. Crack an egg on top and stir to mix.
3 – Add wasabi and soy sauce and gently incorporate.
4 – Oil up your pan and your ready to go…..

My original okonomiyki recipe can be found here. Have fun and make it "your way"! Just don't tell me not to use yamaimo, or to use a non-stick pan…..

I think this is the Missus' new favorite………..

Tropical Fruit Paradise- a fruiteria on Friars Road

January 5, 2012 Cathy Fruiterias, Sandwiches, What Cathy Eats!

Hi. You've found mmm-yoso!!! the blog about food. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are doing chores and other things and Cathy is blogging today.

Well, it's time for a new calendar and maybe some new habits, or at least a resolve to develop new habits. I feel so fortunate we live in Southern California and have access to fresh produce daily, and that so many fruiterias are in our large County. Many are in East County and I suppose are pretty ubiquitous, since I've posted only of one other fruiteria, merely dropping in to grab a beverage, salad or sandwich when I'm on the run; Fruiterias do not only sell fruit salads and smoothie drinks, but regular salads, sandwiches and sometimes mariscos. A fruiteria location opened last year on East Friars Road, where it crosses Mission Gorge Road-across from the Black Angus. I had been meaning to stop here, but was always in the wrong lane and on my way home to Santee. The other day, I made Tropical Fruit Paradise a destination.

If you miss the driveway from Friars, you can turn at the signal light (Riverdale) and drive up behind the building then into the parking lot in front of the strip mall.

The bright and clean interior has menu suggestions everywhere when you walk in. I suppose some people only buy a packaged beverage and/or piece of fresh fruit…

The beverage selection include shakes (licuados) made with milk, juice blends (jugos), freezes/smoothies and you can make your own with up to three choices for either $3.50 (small) or $4.00 (large), with an add protein shot for 99¢. fresh fruit and vegetables are good to have at any time of the year, not just as a 'resolution'.

Sandwiches on torta, salads and wraps are also part of the menu. While we were eating, several people came in to pick up some large phoned in orders.

The Mister ordered a "Cubana" sandwich($6.99), which ended up larger than the photograph on the wall.

Not at all a Cuban Sandwich, a Cubana includes (perfectly lightly breaded) milaneza, grilled chicken, grilled ham, grilled chorizo, a freshly cooked egg, American and Jack cheeses on the toasted torta bread, topped with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, onion and jalapeño made this sandwich well worth the price (and I am glad we decided to share; this was huge and a super good sandwich).

I wanted to try a pico de gallo salad (small, $4.99) and I must say this was absolutely the tastiest, freshest, nicest pico I have ever had. The jicama, cucumbers, oranges and watermelon were covered in fresh lime juice and the chili seasoning was really the perfect amount and really complimented every item in the container. Let's just say I have a new food obsession for January and possibly the New Year. I wish everyone resolve a positive and fun change for 2012.

Tropical Fruit Paradise 10387 Friars Road San Diego 92120 (619) 584-4786

Sunrise Cafe-San Clemente

January 4, 2012 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Road Trip, San Clemente, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping by to look at mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food. Cathy is blogging today, appearing organized. Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are busy with things.

The other Saturday, The Mister and I woke at a decent hour and then a leisurely drive North, to Pasadena, and on our way, took the El Camino Real exit from the I-5, in San Clemente, looking for some place open for breakfast. This caught our eye.

So we stopped, parked in back and were greeted by one person cleaning a table outside and another nice lady as soon as we walked in the door.

We were seated in the adjacent room, which was set for the soon to be crowd, with each table sporting jams, jellies, sugars, syrup, salt, pepper and a bowl of half and half containers, each with one green Irish Cream flavored coffee whitener container. (Coffee is $2 here, good and refilled constantly). Our waitress was very friendly and seemed to know everyone else eating here and made us feel at home.

The Mister ordered what he wanted- corned beef hash with over easy eggs, home fries and a biscuit with gravy ($7.75)

The biscuit was fresh made, home made and quite large. The gravy had sausage and some pepper in it (had to add more). The corned beef was pretty standard and good and those eggs were jiggly-over easy, cooked the proper way. The home fries were really nice and flavorful; probably fried in butter.

I ordered the veggie omelet($8.50). This menu item caught my eye, because in addition to avocado, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms,onions and cheese, the menu listed cauliflower as an ingredient.

It was a three egg omelet and I asked for tomatoes on the side (instead of potatoes) as well as rye toast. The omelet was very good, even with the mushrooms being canned. All the other ingredients were fresh and tasty and the omelet was really filling.

We really liked the food, homey feel and the super friendliness at Sunrise Cafe as well as being in San Clemente without the summer crowds. This may become a regular stop for us, in the off-season. I'll have to post where we eat when we visit this beach city in the summer…

Sunrise Cafe 701 N. El Camino Real San Clemente, CA 92672 (949) 498-6379 Open 7 a.m. M-F and 7:30 a.m. Sat-Sun, closes at 2:30 p.m. every day