mmm-yoso – Page 401 – 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.

Hawaii: Poke Paradise – Poke Stop, Alicia’s Market, Tanioka’s Seafood and Catering, Ono Seafood, and Lana’i Ohana Poke Market

December 6, 2011 mmm-yoso Honolulu, Lanai, Oahu, Plate Lunch, Poke, Seafood, Travel

Even though our trip was a mere ten days, we made sure to get in as much Poke as possible. The Missus, who by now is a full fledged poke-phile and I would often discuss the merits of the poke we ate during our trip. We tried five different shops during our stay and here's the consensus, in reverse order of our favorites. I think our favorite will be a bit of a surprise.

#5 – Poke Stop

On our previous trip I had the pleasure of chatting with a former coworker of my MIL and lifetime Leeward resident Melissa, whom I also had a great time sharing dinner with on her subsequent trip to San Diego. It was really great getting her feedback on a number of places in the Ewa/Waipahu area.Poke Stop was one of the really hyped up places, but Melissa told me that the poke was very salty and perhaps not her favorite, so we passed. On this visit, the Missus and I stopped by the little shop for a light lunch. We enjoyed the "trio" of cooked items which I'll post on later, but unfortunately, the poke here was our least favorite, that's not to say it was bad, but someone had to be numba five. The shop is rather small and the choices rather limited, some of which looked like it had been sitting around for a while, but we ended up getting two different poke along with our plate lunch, a Primo, and headed outside to one of the tables overlooking Farrington Highway.

The two poke were totally at different ends of the spectrum…..

The Sesame Ahi Poke, really didn't look much like what I usually consider to be Ahi (Big Eye or Yellowfin Tuna) at all as it was really pale in color…it was almost like Tombo Ahi, aka Albacore.

But Tombo tends to be kinda mushy and this was firm, so I'm not sure. Overall, this was really bland and the fish, though firm didn't have the richness nor oil content to carry the poke on its own. You could barely make out a whiff of sesame oil on this.

At the other end, the Kimchi Tako Poke was super salty.

The Tako (octopus) was prepared well, chewy, but not too tough. It was just much too salty. We did like the service here; the older woman and her younger counterpart were very friendly. When we said we'd be eating at the tables outside, they told us to go ahead and have a seat and brought our food to us.

Poke Stop
94 -050 Farrington Hwy, E4
Waipahu, HI 96797

#4 – Alicia's Market

This little market on Mokauea in Kalihi is known for sparse parking and great poke and roast pork.

I was really lucky, as I was driving up a car left one of the maybe ten stalls in front of the market (and drive in next door), talk about good luck!

This being a football Saturday the place was packed.

You get into one of the free-form pseudo lines and when you think you're next you tell one of the folks behind the counter what you want….and there's no need for long explanations like "one pound of spicy masago ahi poke" as simple "half spicy masago" will do. If you don't notice when it's your turn one of the other customers will likely let you know…after all, this is Hawaii, and "you no cut in line" here. On busy days you can just pay cash at the fish counter, bypassing the single cash register in the front. It just works better that way.

Of the three we bought on this day, my favorite was the Sweet Onion Ahi, which seemed very fresh, with just enough saltiness for my taste. The onions were indeed "almost Maui" in sweetness.

The Spicy Ahi had too much mayonnaise for the Missus and I, though my MIL enjoyed it.

This one also got on the bad side of the Missus…more on that later on.

There was a lot of "suji"(tough tendon/fishing line like tissue) in the Spicy Masago Ahi Poke. You really couldn't tell by looking at it. It seems like they used the cuts with the most tough connective tissue hiding under all that masago.

Did you notice the banner for Alicia's read "Broke the Mouth"? Well the spicy poke almost broke the Missus' teeth…twice She pulled bones from the poke. I chewed on a couple of scales in the masago poke, which made it not only too tough, but also scaly as well.

Not much else to say…….

Alicia's Market
267 Mokauea St
Honolulu, HI 96819

#3 – Tanioka's Seafood and Catering

We dropped by twice….once right after getting off the plane and once I braved the Saturday line out the door and down the sidewalk. The Missus and I were looking forward to the poke from Tanioka's since our previous visit.

On both visits we were lucky as the Ahi Limu was brought out fresh both times and ended up being my favorite.

It was quite good both times, nice balance of flavor, fresh fish, everything you need…..

For some reason, I found the dried aku poke much too salty this time around.

While the Pipikaula (dried beef) Poke seemed much too tame and mild.

The main reason for the revisit is that the Missus' cousins love Ocean/Seaweed Salad, something I find kinda, well, mundane….but I was told that this stuff is really expensive in China.

They could eat this by the pound….but didn't care much for poke, or poi for that matter.

The lines were long, but moves fast. The security guard who doubles as a doorman to handle the weekend crowd is very nice as well.

Tanioka's did come up numba' one on another list, stay tuned for that post.

Tanioka's Seafoods & Catering
94-903 Farrington Hwy
Waipahu, HI 96797

#2 – Ono Seafood

This one is located in my old stomping grounds; Kapahulu. It's actually in what I believe used to be the manager's studio/office for this apartment complex, apartment numba' 4. Just look for the blue apartment…..

The poke here is a couple of dollars cheaper a pound and some of the items they make up fresh for each order. The interior is tiny. This being a two person operation means that you don't move along quite as fast.

The poke here is fresh and unfettered from too many sauces and salt.

The Missus enjoyed the Wasabi Ahi:

The fish was wonderful, bright in color and with a firmness at first bite which gave way to an almost melt in the mouth texture. I did feel that it was made a bit too much restraint with regards to the "whisper of wasabi".

I enjoyed the simple Ahi Limu, except that I found the limu to be really hard.

Other then that, I thought the flavor was really balanced.

We saved the Smoked Tako for my FIL, who loves the stuff.

If I had my druthers, I might have put Tanioka's number two since I thought eating the poke at Diamond Head Look-out affected our opinions a bit.

Still, the Missus wants to make sure to revisit Ono Seafood on our next trip.

Ono Seafood
747 Kapahulu Ave.Apt 4
Honolulu, HI 96816

#1 Lana'i Ohana Poke Market

**** Sadly, Lana'i Ohana Poke Market has closed

This one was a nice surprise for us. I'd heard that there was a nice little poke shop on Gay street right off of 8th. Unfortunately we arrived on a Wednesday when it was closed. I returned the next day……

The little shop was pretty busy when I arrived….three fire fighters and probably half of the police force (two officers) were either eating or waiting for their food. The woman working the front counter was really nice. I found out that even though there's a 5pm closing time posted, they make one pan of everything a day and once that's gone it's pau hana time.

The Missus has been eating a lot of brown rice recently, and has been overjoyed to see that many Honolulu restaurant are now serving brown rice as an option. I really didn't think the brown rice movement had made it to Lana'i, but I was wrong. When I hesitantly asked the woman if they served brown rice in their poke bowls she said "of course we do". Ha….teach me a lesson…..

The Missus absolutely loved the Spicy Poke bowl with brown rice.

Not overdressed, this had a mild kick, the fish really stood out. This was Her favorite until…..

She sampled the furikake-masago ahi poke.

Put together with a restrained hand, you could make out the flavor of the furikake without it overpowering the poke. The masago added a nice crunch to everything.

Still, my favorite was the shoyu poke.

Again, the flavor didn't take over the poke. I believe there was even oyster sauce in this adding a touch of extra savory flavor. I'm not a big fan of oyster sauce in my poke since it takes over the dish, but here it was used in just the right amount. There was even a slight sweetness to the whole thing as well. The fish literally sparkled……

Much like Ono Seafood, perhaps eating our poke at lovely Hulopo'e Beach might have something to do with our enjoyment.

This was taken at about noon………the Missus and I would joke about over-crowding when there were more then ten people on the beach.

Doesn't this look like the perfect place for one of those Corona Beer commercials?

And the view when you turn around ain't so bad either…….

We actually caught the shuttle back to Lana'i City a bit early to see if we could grab some poke to stick in the fridge for dinner. Unfortunately, they had run out of poke before we returned at two pm. You can't win them all……

Lana'i 'Ohana Poke Market
834 A Gay St
Lanai City, HI 96763

Never would I have thought that'd we'd find poke this good on Lana'i.

OK, I'm getting close to the 1700 word mark, time for bed.

Thanks for reading….I gotta go check my blood mercury levels!

We’re Back……

December 5, 2011 mmm-yoso Honolulu, Loco Mocos, Oahu, Travel

Over a year ago, when we visited China, we promised the Missus' cousins that if they visited Her parents on Oahu we'd be there. Of course we had to keep that promise, right? So we're back after ten or so days and countless visits to Ala Moana and Waikele Outlets……

And during the in-between time, we were able to visit a couple of places that I'd been itching to check out.

And I managed to reaquaint myself with places I'd been thinking about for years…..places I really missed.

And newer favorites as well…..

So you know they'll be more than enough poke for a post……

We even managed a short side trip……

To the Pacific Northwest….juts kidding. By the looks of the Cook Pines can you guess where this is?

Or perhaps the ranchland???

Here's the answer…..

My father was from Lana'i and I hadn't been back in at least seventeen years. I thought it would be interesting for the Missus to visit a place with no traffic lights, seventeen miles of paved road, and a speed limit of 20 mph.

And of course we had to eat, right?

It felt great to be "home", where there is an endless supply of sunsets……

And beautiful orchids….

And of course there are those items that just grab my attention for some reason or another as well.

So let me regroup and I'll see you all tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!

Shizuoka-La Mesa (revisit)

December 4, 2011 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Hello again. You just found mmm-yoso!!! and probably are looking for some sort of blog post about food. Kirk and ed are still too busy to write, so Cathy is posting.

I wrote a post about Shizuoka in June 2007 and took it for granted, not posting again. Yet The Mister and I do eat here. It's located at the La Mesa-El Cajon border, next to the Michael's in the same mall as Souplantation and Weevil Burger on Fletcher Parkway.

Shizuoka has been here more than 20 years. The interior has not changed much. There are 16 chairs to go with six tables tables and 6 four-person booths. There is a wait to get in almost every evening.

The menu is not extensive. The prices have not increased much since 2007. Good food prepared well. I suppose it's a neighborhood place and not a destination. It could be.

The miso soup is pretty standard, made from miso paste. It has a deep flavor and the tofu cubes are a firm consistency and always tasty.

The teriyaki chicken broiled mackerel plate is still $6.20. The Mister always orders one of the mackerel plates. The mackerel is particularly good tasting large piece of fish, broiled and placed on top of shredded cabbage so the bottom stays crispy and doesn't get soft when the juice flows from the cooked meaty mackerel. The teriyaki sauce on the grilled chicken is not too sweet and made here (not from a bottle). The chicken is placed on top of bean sprouts, again so the meat does not wallow in sauce. A lettuce salad, cold noodle salad and three freshly steamed edamame beans round out the plate.

My usual meal here is centered on the chicken karage ($4). Lots of dark thigh meat lightly coated and fried and always perfect.

This time I rounded my meal out with a (shared with The Mister) seaweed salad ($2.75) and Sunomono salad ($3.50). Both are tasty, fresh made and hit the taste points I want for lunch. The seaweed is apparently 'foreign' to diners here, and free samples are offered. The sunomono has a sweet vinegar-fresh ginger dressing and is made with that fake krab stuff. The plentiful amount of shredded radish, cucumber and (different than in the other salad) seaweed makes this salad a perfect compliment to the karage.

This is a small, not fancy, great neighborhood place, serving really good food.

Shizuoka Japanese Restaurant 9118 Fletcher Parkway La Mesa 91942 (619)461-1151 (in the mall with the Souplantation and Michael's)

Tues-Fri 11:30-1:45, 4:30-8:45 Sat and Sun 4:30-8:45 Closed Monday CASH ONLY

Emma’s Mexican Food-Santee (revisit)

December 3, 2011 Cathy Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome (back) to mmm-yoso!!! the food blog. On this chilly weekend day, Cathy is blogging. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are frenetically researching places to blog.

Hello again. I noticed I had not blogged about any Mexican food in the last week, yet I know I eat Mexican food either in a restaurant or from a taco shop at least once a week. Emma's is a regular spot for The Mister and myself. In fact, Emma's was my very first restaurant post on mmm-yoso!!!. Since that post was about breakfast, and it is six years later, I'll post about lunch.

Located in a nondescript mall of cinderblock buildings on Buena Vista, just off of Cuyamaca (you can see the back of the building when driving on Cuyamaca), Emma's has been located here for more than 10 years.

It is located in the same block as the Santee Sheriff Station and Buena Vista has a Fire Department just a few blocks East. Emma's is always busy with eat in and to go orders. I have also seen the mailman eating here- a little 'hint' about where to eat I learned from FOY (friend of yoso) Trent in 2006.

The eat in area is quite large. If you order 'for here' the food will be brought to your table. That's the fresh salsa bar to the right, next to the refrigerator. Only three types of salsa here (mild and chunky, hot smooth red and hot green). That's all you need.

The menu has barely changed since 2006. Most prices have seen an increase of <$2.

The Mister ordered the a la carte flautas ($4.60). This is made with only shredded beef (not the stewed shredded beef with onion and green pepper) placed into one of those super large flour tortillas, cut in half then deep fried. Properly fried. Many other places seem to fry the exterior of the tortilla only and the inside is unfried and so a raw tortilla. The flautas here are almost completely crispy and combined with just shredded beef as a filler…really good. Eve though a la carte, sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce and a slice of tomato fill out the plate.

Emma's only has three Mariscos plates, all versions of shrimp. This is the camaron mojo de ajo- shrimp in garlic sauce ($8.60). Five plump butterflied shrimp sauteed in a buttery garlic sauce on top of rice (which gets all butter garlicy and is a joy to eat) and also served with tortillas, refried beans, sour cream and a salad (which has real, not that sauce) guacamole under that tomato slice. Fresh and really good.

Emma's Mexican Food 8781 Cuyamaca Street, Suite L (at Buena Vista Avenue) Santee 92071 (619)596-8189 hours: 7-8:30 Mon-Sat. Closed Sunday

Wa Dining Okan- Lunch (again)

December 1, 2011 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog. Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and Cathy write about meals, cooking and sometimes vacation adventures. All of us are unusually busy. Let's just say that one of us is on vacation and gathering photos and meals to write about, one of us is busy working and planning a vacation so blog posts can be written and the other one of us has a lot of upcoming activities revolving around the holidays as well as a vacation so that interesting blog posts will be written. Today, Cathy is blogging.

Hi. I did write a post about lunch at Okan in July 2010 and have been back a few times, but didn't take photos. Kirk has put up many, many, many posts about dinner. At one point, Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and I enjoyed a dinner here together. Anyhow, a friend was in town, had seen the post about lunch and wanted to try Wa Dining. We walked in at just before 2 p.m., when they take the last lunch order- Okan closes from 2:30 and reopens at 5:30 for dinner.

Located in the corner of the mall at Convoy and , in the corner next to Nijiya Market-one of few markets which sells an extensive amount of fresh and packaged organic foods as well as ready to eat food, Okan is easy to overlook.

The small interior means making reservations for dinner is pretty necessary, at lunchtime not so much. There are 31 seats in the whole restaurant.

When you sit down at lunch, a cup of cold (no ice, not hot, just room temperature) tea is brought to your table.

The lunch menu consists of ordering a "set" ($6.50). This is what our recent one looked like-(from 5:00, going clockwise) a vegetable filled miso soup, pickled cucumber and radish, rice with seaweed and a tray of small 'tapas'-nishime, a potato salad and chilled stewed vegetable.

This is a wonderful, filling item and you can just have this as a vegetarian complete meal. However each day there is a selection of add-on protein items.

My friend ordered this grilled beef dish, which seems to be topped with kim chee ($4). She said it was very good. (I'm sorry, I wasn't overly reading the menu, we were chatting).

I tried the house made tofu topped with a miso/soybean sauce($3.50). Not a sweet sauce, quite hearty and the tofu was really nice, fresh and tasty.

The lunch choices (and really, most of the dinner choices) change daily here. Because it is always current and fresh, I really enjoy whatever choices are offered.

Wa Dining OKAN 3860 Convoy Street, Suite 110, San Diego 92111 (858)279-0941

Lunch M-Sat 11:30-2:30(last order 2:00 p.m.)

Dinner starts 5:30 p.m. and ends 11:00 p.m. M-T-W, 12:00 a.m. Th-F-Sat and 10:00 p.m. Sun (last orders 30 minutes before closing all days). Website

La Mesa Bistro and Bakery- a revisit

November 30, 2011 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Hello. You are reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food-centric blog. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are not blogging today, and Cathy is.

Are you still trying to find a 'normal' way of doing things? With the return to Daylight Savings, and darkness upon us at 5 p.m. combined with the short work week and long weekend and having to catch up with everything…and neighbors putting out Christmas decorations along with the receipt of three Christmas cards in the mail, I feel very discombobulated. Having a nice lunch in a quiet neighborhood helps to sort of return to 'normal', or at least feel that way for a moment. I posted about breakfast at La Mesa Bistro and Bakery last October, and promised to follow up with a lunch post. Quick like a bunny, here's that post.

Still nestled in the far corner of an "L" shaped mall on La Mesa Boulevard at Glen Street, one signal light South from Jackson Drive (the next block over from the BMW repair shop, if you have had to go there), La Mesa Bistro and Bakery has established itself as a regular Breakfast and Lunch spot in this quiet part of town.

It's a place where you order, pay and find a seat. You get a number and food is brought to your table, in this room, an adjoining room or the outside patio. We usually grab a menu and sit down then go back up and order since there are also a few Chalkboard Specials which tend to tempt us and we tend to change our mind as to what we were planning to order. But we usually come with it is not crowded here. On weekends, there is a line waiting to just walk inside to pay. As you can see, there are ten hot pots of regular and two hot pots of decaf coffee to choose from. There are also smoothies and espresso beverages offered. Water is also self serve here. Quite a few people order a coffee or tea and bakery item to go some mornings. But, again, we were here for lunch.

Since the restaurant is open from 6-3, breakfast is served all day on weekdays, so the table condiments are reflective of all the possible choices.

I ordered a Reuben sandwich($6.99), because I was craving both sauerkraut and the rye bread baked here. As you can see, two cheeses and a lot of thin but not too thin sliced corned beef on the grilled, seeded rye bread. I did choose cottage cheese instead of fries, knowing The Mister was getting fries with his lunch choice.

Yes, a Chili Size ($7.99). Basically an open face half pound burger, topped with chili. Both The Mister and I grew up eating Chili Size with knife and fork, not lettuce or tomato. Anyhow, The Mister tried to assemble this like a regular burger, picked it up for one bite, then cut it up to eat. The burger was done to a light medium, not quite medium rare, very juicy. The bun was lightly toasted and very fresh(baked here). The coarse meat grind makes a very good burger. The chili, made the way we like it, is without beans and had a nice spicy 'kick'. (The fries here are season-salted and very good).

La Mesa Bistro and Bakery is a good place for breakfast and lunch; its just down the road from Grossmont Mall, Grossmont Hospital and the La Mesa Trader Joe's.

La Mesa Bistro and Bakery 8697 La Mesa Boulevard La Mesa 91941 (619)589-0806 Open seven days 6:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. website

Chicken + Greek Cuisine (Sid’s Place)-(Escondido)

November 29, 2011 Cathy Greek Food, What Cathy Eats!

You have just stumbled upon mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Today Cathy is blogging. Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are just too busy researching about places and meals.

Hi again. The other day, The Mister and I found ourselves in Escondido on Mission Avenue between Escondido Boulevard and Centre City Parkway.

This was the view from Mission while we were stopped at the signal light. Actually, that little green sign attached to the flag pole (on the right in the photo) caught my eye. We had to pull into the parking lot in this oddly shaped strip mall to see what this was about.

After we parked, I walked back to snap this photo of the full flaming rotisserie.

We walked in and were asked if we wanted to order "to go" or eat in. I noticed a lot of people ordering and picking up 'to go' orders. We found a seat and menus were brought to the table. There are only 11 tables inside and a handful on the patio outside. It is neat and clean and bright. Everyone working there came by the table at some point, including Sid, the owner. It felt like a family run place. (I noticed on the website that Chicken Plus has been in Escondido since 1990. That's a good thing these days.)

We ordered, noting that the menu did state items were freshly cooked to order. The food was not brought out immediately, but the wait was not 20 minutes either.

I had asked for hummus($2.50) and pita (99¢) as an appetizer. The hummus was fresh made (i.e., not chilled and I really think freshly ground in the kitchen based on the sounds I heard as our waitress called our order in through the door seen in that photo) with garlic and tahini. The warm pita bread was really nice- a bit thicker and more 'hearty' flat bread with a good 'tooth' and chew. It was warm and had flecks in it, making me think it was made with wheat. I really liked this bread.

The Mister ordered the half chicken meal ($7.49) which came with either breadsticks or tortillas and two sides. He chose the breadsticks (light and airy and hot; nice) and cole slaw (made with a light sauce which was not overpowering and the way I like it) and the potatoes au gratin. Look at those potatoes. They are fresh peeled potatoes, cooked to a nice tenderness and topped with what looks like a gravy poured over them. It is a very old fashioned (I mean *very* old school) recipe for au gratin…using chunks of potatoes (not thinly sliced ones) and topped with cheese sauce, unbaked. This was *really* good. Unexpected.

Oh- the rotisserie'd chicken is fresh, juicy and flavorful. Really good. Really, really good. The chicken is not Costco/Chernobyl sized; it is a normal size bird.

I decided to try the chicken gyros ($4.99), mainly because the salad choices were topped with gyros meat (and if you've read other posts, you know that I have decided that nobody makes their own gyros and all of it that we can get in restaurants is sourced from the same Distributor) and the name of the place has 'chicken' in it. The menu did state this sandwich was made with 'spicy' dark meat chicken topped with what you see above, and I figured that would kind of be like a salad. It was…

I did try to take a bite of the sandwich all rolled up and a lot of the fillings fell out, so I did eat this as a salad, using the house made tzatziki sauce as the dressing. The 'spicy' powdered mix topping the shredded dark chicken meat had quite a kick of heat and did taste good, but the bites of The Mister's chicken were also very good, without the added seasoning.

This was a great place we stumbled upon. We will be back for a dinner (Moussaka is on the menu!)

Chicken Plus Greek Cuisine (Sid's Place) 309 W. Mission Avenue Escondido, CA 92025 (760)480-1348

Mon-Sat 11-9 ;Sun Noon-8 Website

Phuong Trang-COMC

November 27, 2011 Cathy Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! It's still part of a long weekend and, like you, all of us here are busy with family and friends and food. Cathy has a short post today. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are researching their next contributions to this blog.

Hi again. I was COMC (Cleaning Out my Memory Card) early this morning and realized how much I photograph every thing we eat, even if I have no intention of posting…then I thought I could share these meals with you. The pictures came out quite well, and we really like the food here.

Phuong Trang is sometimes referred to (by Kirk) as "middle of the road" or "Vietnamese Denny's" Vietnamese cuisine (by others). As I said, The Mister and I like it here. We are Caucasian and think the food is good. I think it's a good place to take friends who have never had Vietnamese food, offering a good selection of fresh, tasty and mostly common (read: not scary parts of animal) choices. Plus, it's centrally located on Convoy just South of Clairmont Mesa. Between the Kick Boxing place and Big Joy Family Bakery in the mall just North of the KFC.

The Spring rolls here are very good-the wrap/skin seems to be made with a different paper than from other places; it's always bubbly. The filling is more ground meat than noodles and finely chopped carrot and cabbage in the meat filling also. This is one of few places where you get the wrapping for the rolls including mint and cilantro in addition to lettuce leaves.

Broken rice with ground shrimp wrapped in tofu skin and fried. (I forget the Vietnamese name, but always order this whenever I see it on a menu). ($6.75)

A cross section of the ground shrimp. You can see the tofu skin is very, very thin. I crave the version here.

Vegetable Summer rolls ($3.95). The tofu is slightly grilled and warm/room temperature. Lettuce, noodle and a piece of cooked egg rounds out these rolls. This is a nice choice if you don't want the fried (Spring) rolls, or want to eat vegetarian.

Jellyfish, shrimp and pork salad ($7.95). Served with the fried shrimp chips. Refreshing on a hot day.
Grilled pork, broken rice($6.25) Add egg($1) and it's a 'breakfast'. This is always soooo good.

Chinese sausage Summer rolls ($3.95)

A cross section. You can see the piece of cooked egg, lettuce and all vegetable filling. These could be a light meal with tea (50¢).

Another jellyfish/shrimp/pork salad with shrimp chips.

Something 'new' to me- grilled chicken Bun ($6.50). This became particularly addicting this past summer. I realized after I had ordered it the first time that I usually don't order-or see on the menu at Vietnamese places- grilled chicken, much less as a bun topping. (Bun (pronounced 'boon') is some sort of protein on top of chilled rice noodles on top of a salad, in this case, shredded lettuce, fresh mint and shredded cucumber) served with a fish sauce based dressing.

I hope everyone is enjoying this extra long weekend!

Phuong Trang 4170 Convoy Street San Diego 92111 (858)565-6750

The day after Thanksgiving. Breakfast at Sam Woo BBQ.

November 26, 2011 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

This is mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food. This short week and long weekend may be overrun with food and visiting with family, friends, Black Friday shopping (and perhaps preparation for a football Saturday) for you. It has been for the mmm-yoso gang. If you are checking the blog, here's a short post -with a glimpse of food- written by Cathy. [Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are recovering from Black Friday.]

Hi. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Day. The Mister and I shared a meal with our neighbors. Here are some photos of some of the food.

The top photo only shows the fried turkey and the ham. The second photo shows the 24 pound turkey…There also were brussels sprouts, candied yams, mashed cauliflower, ten pounds of mashed potatoes, about as much macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauces, a salad and a whole table of appetizers in addition to that partially filled table of desserts. There were few leftovers.

Needless to say, we did go home and experienced that 'food coma' which happens after spending a day cooking and consuming copious amounts of carbohydrates as well as the tryptophan from turkey. When we woke on Friday, neither of us wanted to cook and our list of "Black Friday" shopping deals was short -waiting in line to get into any store was not going to be necessary, so we went to Sam Woo BBQ for breakfast.

We always order the coffee (30¢). It is strong and served with sweetened condensed milk. (Hot tea is also 30¢ at breakfast; it is free with the other meals of the day)

It was a chilly morning and we decided to share a bowl of fish porridge ($3.25). (I did not even run across the hall to 99Ranch to buy a cruller donut bread to put into the soup- it would be a walk, it would be chilly and …I was saving on carbs). The porridge was excellent.

We also shared the #1 from the 33 item breakfast menu ($3.25). Stir fried rice noodles with vegetables (sprouts and onions) egg and lunchmeat (fake SPAM). This was also satisfying and was more than enough food to get us going.

I know you have all been busy and enjoying this unusual week of the year, preparing for the rest of the upcoming holidays while doing everything else. Thanks for stopping to visit mmm-yoso!!! in your spare time.

Sam Woo BBQ 7330 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard 92111 (inside the 99Ranch building)

Hail

Thanksgiving Eve

November 23, 2011 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome to mmm-yoso!!! the food blog written pretty much regularly and mostly by Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and Cathy. Everyone is busy today, but Cathy has a bit of free time at the moment, so she's writing today.

Hi. It's a hectic short week for a lot of us and tomorrow will most likely be a day of thanks, reflection, meals with family and friends, after a morning of cooking. The Mister and I have been planning for the day and its meals by practicing various cooking methods and recipes we might share. Today and tomorrow will be busy with cooking and preparation. We do need two days though.

Today for breakfast we made Oven Pancake with crispy bacon. (You can click the links to see the oven pancake recipe and how the bacon is cooked.). The greens are pea pods (from our garden), fennel stems and mushrooms sauteed in butter. Those are gala apple slices…

We bought a few stalks of brussels sprouts (@$2.99 each) from Trader Joe's.

We plan on cooking some of the sprouts according to the recipe in the middle of this post, and using one whole stalk and some other uncooked vegetables as a centerpiece for the table (instead of flowers).

Because I deliberately finished up all the bread in the house, lunch today is a square hamburger with sliced pickles, onions and tomatoes. That's a fennel, broccoli and bok choy stir fry on the side. (That's blue cheese residue from The Mister's burger on top of my burger…).

Here are some of the fruits and vegetables I plan on using for sides. Hm..where are the potatoes, onions, eggplant, asparagus and broccoli??? Gotta go cook. See you tomorrow. Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day!