mmm-yoso – Page 420 – 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.

Farm Market and Sandwiches

March 21, 2011 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Markets & Grocers, Sandwiches

**** Farm Market & Sandwiches has closed

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Bale on Linda Vista was gone (again) , and in its place was Farm Sandwiches and Market. With a name like that, I almost expected a little mercado making tortas on the side. A bit confused I decided to drop by a couple of days later……

And noticed that not much had changed, except the name. The shop still made Banh Mi and the market side, though looking a bit worn was still trucking along.

Even the sandwich sign looked the same, as were the prices……. for some reason, I couldn't recollect seeing Bo Dao Phong (a peanut butter sandwich) on the menu before! (no kim chi peanut butter banh mi, though).

Since I was here, I decided to order a couple of sandwiches. This might have been my most unfortunate decision of the week. The guy in front of me started snickering when I placed my order. When I asked him what was up, he shook his head and told me he had ordered a dozen sandwiches, and was still waiting for them 25 minutes later. There was one woman who also placed an order for two sandwiches right before me. She was smart enough to leave and returned for her sandwiches later. The poor guy waited another 25 minutes for his sandwiches! Then it was my turn to be the poor guy……

Pacing the floor, I noticed how worn down this place is looking.

Half open containers, partially cut fruit, the place looked quite disheveled. Meanwhile, I looked and noticed that there were three people working on making sandwiches. The woman returned for her sandwiches, and still had to wait ten minutes. It really looked like the folks making the sandwiches were walking under-water…… another ten minutes, and my sandwiches were ready. Forty-five minutes for two sandwiches……

Carrying the bag to the car, I noticed how heavy these sandwiches were.

I started with the Dac Biet (House special combination – $3.50) first.

The bread (from Le Chef….. standing around so long, you couldn't help but pick up on things) for both sandwiches was severely under-toasted. Thus the always pleasing flaky-crusty texture was missing. The sandwich was stuffed with generous amounts of a very bland Cha Lua (defatted pork sausage) and a tough and bland BBQ Pork. The pickles were really cut thick and didn't have much flavor either. I won't even go into the very old and thick cilantro stems…..

I thought I would fair better with the Nem Chua ($3) Banh Mi. Nem Chua, a naturally fermented pork based sausage, is one of my favorite things.

In spite of having all of the sort-comings my other sandwich had, this was a tad better. There was quite a large portion of Nem Chua in the Banh Mi. Still, it was a lot milder than the sour-tangy-salty notes I love in my sour sausage.

I must admit, the folks looked to be trying real hard, but really seemed like they were not up to the task. I don't think I'll be rushing back for Banh Mi from here.

Farm Market and Sandwiches
6959 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA

More from Sultan Kebab and Baklava

March 19, 2011 mmm-yoso Turkish Food

As you can tell…. by having another post so soon after the original, we must enjoy this restaurant. Actually, it's the Missus who drives our visits. She loves having a plate of various meze… they know Her now, so they just tell Her to pick what She wants….

The Missus has found that She enjoys the Dolmalar made with zucchini more than the version made with eggplant. There seems to be something new on most of our visits.

And of course there's the hot lavas……

Here's another recent plate the Missus put together……

I have been slowly trying to work my way through the Kebob menu…… it's hard, when you consider I really enjoy the Adana Kebob. This is the Beyti Kebab, a beef based kebob wrapped in lavas:

Think in terms of a ravioli kebob…. this actually tasted like it had ghee drizzled over it… it was maybe a tad on the rich side for me.

A couple of nights later I had the Alanzik Kebab ($14), which was very good.

Chunks of tender lamb, laying on a bed of babaganoush, with a nice rich sauce poured over everything. I really enjoyed the flavors….. though I barely finished half of it…..

Since I also ordered a Lahmacun.

Basically a lavas topped with spiced beef, reminiscent of the Soujook from Alforon. The slightly charred lavas, nice and crisp, along with the spices and beef were a nice combination. And the Alanzik tasted even better the next day……

If the toughest decision I have to make for any given day is between having dinner at Alforon or Sultan….. you know it hasn't been a bad day!

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Jeow Mak Keua – Lao Eggplant Dip

March 17, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

I was surprised to receive a couple of emails regarding the Num Jim Jaew from Siam Nara, asking me for a recipe. The funny thing is; I've made this a couple times, and actually took photos when I made this after our return from Laos, where it's called Jeow Mak Keua. For some reason I just never got around to making it.

This was something I actually made at the Tamarind Cooking School, and came out looking like this:

You can tell this one was quite spicy, lots of chilies. And of course the "kitchen" where this was made wasn't quite the same as home.

This recipe is based on what I m ade there….. it's very easy. I've even made t his using roasted garlic which adds a heavenly sweetness to the Jeow…. if you decide to do that, make sure to use a neutral, or no oil at all on the garlic.

Jeow Mak Keua – Lao Eggplant Dip:

3 Small-Medium Japanese Eggplant
4-8 Thai Bird Chilies
4-5 Cloves of Garlic Skin on
1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro Leaves
1-2 Stalks Green Onion – Green parts only sliced thin
1/2 Tsp Salt
Fish Sauce

– Prick eggplant and chilies with a knife or skewer.
– Grill eggplant, chili, and garlic, until the skin is blackened. I usually grill right over hot charcoal which adds a layer of smokiness to the dish, but you can do the same over a gas flame or under the broiler.
– Peel Garlic, and slice eggplant lengthwise keeping the stem portion on and intact… it should look sort of like a flower.
– Pound the garlic, chili, and salt together in a mortar to make a paste.
– Then pound each eggplant in the mortar, by holding the stem of the eggplant and pounding it until all the flesh is removed. You can then pull the skin off the eggplant out by the stem. Conversely, you can just peel the eggplant.
– Add the cilantro and green onions and pound into a thick paste.
– Taste and add fish sauce to taste.

There is another recipe in which you boil the eggplant and chilies first until soft, peel and squeeze the excess moisture out of the eggplant, pound in a mortar to a paste and stir-fry.

Siam Nara – a first look(s)

March 15, 2011 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Soon after all the great comments on this post, the Missus and I headed up to Siam Nara, one of the three restaurants owned by Suree Suksudecha of Amarin Thai. Or perhaps as I heard a customer on his cellphone trying to give his friend instructions calling the place, "sayonara"……

The interior of the restaurant is nicely done, lot's of gold, but not terribl y over stated. The menu is fairly large, and had many items that tempted us. The staff is very nice in the gentle, understated way of many Thai I know. From the napkins to the china, to presentation, you can tell that Siam Nara is trying for a more upscale experience, without being stuffy. Of course, having a young staff means sometimes humorous little things happen….. it seems that I could never get my glass of water refilled without some of it, or at least an ice cube or two falling to the table. And yet, the effort was there…. and we appreciated that.

Of all the items we ate during our meals; we enjoyed the seemingly most simple item, the Pla Yum Mameung ($14):

I'm not a big fan of tilapia, but it's mostly due to my upbringing where you'd see tilapia in drainage canals, and such. I recall fellow blogger RONW calling tilapia the mahimahi of the Ala Wai Canal, or something like that. In fact, as recently as 2005, I still had problems with eating the stuff. Chef Alan Wong actually covers the stigma of tilapia in his new cookbook The Blue Tomato. Anyway, I'm glad we tried this dish. The tilapia was perfectly fried, light, clean tasting, crunchy. The papaya salad, while nothing really special, and not spicy in the least (they never asked) was the perfect tart, sour, salty foil for the dish.

In second place would be the Pla Pad Cha ($12), which looked like something we would have gotten right off the boat dock at Tha Chang, right down to the baby green peppercorn.

The overall flavor was surprisingly mild….. I was expecting something worthy of Yai Restaurant. The tilapia in this case tasted a bit on the muddy side.

The Crystal Noodles, a fancy way of saying Pad Woon Sen with Shrimp ($9.99) was pretty good.

This came served over a heating element…you gotta watch that, this started burning after a while. Lot's of black pepper on this, something that I've gotten used too with Thai food, the serve it that way in Thailand as well. The glass noodles were fine, gladly they were not over-cooked, but there was nothing that stood out. The Missus mentioned that even though it seemed that this restaurant was trying to be a bit more fancy than most, they didn't bother to devein the shrimp……

I just had to try a curry, since I've never been real happy with any version of Thai curry in San Diego. I went with the Gang Phed Ped Yang ($14 – a roasted duck red curry):

I liked the consistency of the curry, not too thick, and not too thin and runny. But as usual, barely any spice, way too artificially sweet, too much coconut milk, and you really couldn't make out the flavor of the duck in this dish.

Still, the food displayed promise, and the Pla Yum Mameung was very good; perhaps even better than Sab E Lee Santee's Signature Fish in some ways. So I kept this post on the back-burner, but for some reason we never went back. Finally, on a night the Missus went out with Her friends, I decided to return. What drew me back was a little conversation I had with one of the very nice young men working at Siam Nara. He told me the chefs were from Issan, and I had noticed a section of the menu listing "set" E-san dinners. I also quickly noticed Kai Yang on the menu, and in my mind's eye, I pictured something like this:

These photos were taken on the streets of Nong Khai, right across the Mekong from Laos. Kai Yang is one of the signature dishes of Issan/Laos. When done well, there's a whole myriad of flavors going on, salty from fish sauce and/or salt, perhaps some sweetness from sugar, wonderful touches of herbs and garlic……… it's some of the finest roasted chicken I've had.

So, of course I ordered the Kai Yang set ($16), which was presented quite nicely.

The chicken just didn't look right though. It looked like something that had been precooked then thrown on the grill to apply grill marks….. more on that later.

The dish came with some nice and hot sticky rice, perhaps a little too wet, but still, it was very hot…. the young man standing by the table started giggling when I began eating it with my hands. I guess he didn't expect that….he quickly brought me more napkins.

The Som Tum – papaya salad was the same as before, very mild. I'm thinking I'll have to take the initiative and actually order things spicy since they never ask; even for the E-san dishes. This also isn't close to an Issan style Som Tum, which is very similar to Lao style.

The sweet chili sauce, was just what you think.

My favorite item on the plate was the Num Jim Jaew, which I believe is usually called Nam Prik Num in Chiang Mai, and Jeow Mak Keua in Laos. It's an eggplant dip of sorts, and something I love. I make this at home once in a while after learning how to make it in Luang Prabang at the Tamarind Cooking School.

Nice texture, good savory flavor, decent heat, all that seemed to be missing was perhaps a bit more garlic. Still, this is the one item I finished and wished for more.

The chicken itself was disappointing. First, I dunno if you noticed, but the chicken in Thailand is a bit smaller; it's usually free-range, not that I realistically expected that here, but perhaps they'd go with all dark meat for more flavor? Here it was the large pieces, flaccid skin…..most of the Kai Yang or Kai Ping I've eaten doesn't have a crispy skin, but the skin has some texture other than rubbery.

That chicken breast was just sooooo dry, even slathered in sweet chili sauce. The main flavor that I could detect was that of the coconut milk, no lemongrass, garlic, kaffir lime leaf, basil, or even heat to speak of. I'm thinking I could do better at home, so maybe I'll try.

Even though the food leans to the "gringo" side for us, it's not sayonara to Siam Nara; like FOY (friend of yoso) "Liver" mentioned in previous comments; this place seems to do seafood really well. The prices aren't bad by San Diego standards and, I really enjoyed the service.

Siam Nara Thai Cuisine
8993 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Some trivia:Did you know that Suree actually has her own cookbook? You can check it out here.

Suzhou: Hot Pot

March 14, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Suzhou, Travel

After a filling lunch De Yue Lou we slowly headed back back to our room for our regularly scheduled afternoon nap. That's a photo of the North Temple (Beisi 北寺塔) Pagoda, reputed to be the oldest pagoda South of the Yangtze river.

Exhausted I immediately fell into a deep sleep back at the hotel. When I awoke it was already dusk, and the Missus was ready……. for some shopping! We walked along and browsed the various silk shops. While the Missus was looking at some silk, I noticed this in one of the glass cabinets…….

I thought "what a neat stuffed animal"! Until it moved!!!! And holy smoke it was a live cat just chillin' lying inside the glass case…..

Purchases in hand, it was time for dinner…… it had gotten a bit cooler over the last few hours, and a slow drizzle had started. We wanted something nice and warm in our bellies, so passing this hot pot shop made our dinner decision easy.

The place seemed to be doing some pretty good business…….

The Missus ticked off what She wanted…. we were in the mood for more vegetables, so that's the way we went.

We went with the "lamb bone soup"…….

There actually was a pretty good sized leg bone, with a decent amount of meat attached to it in the broth, along with cucumber, carrots, napa cabbage, and bean curd strips. The hot pot had a nice lamb flavor, making frozen bean curd a perfect ingredient. The only meat we had was fatty sliced lamb.

This shop also had a sauce bar, with all the usual suspects; fermented bean curd, etc….. and a couple of spicy options. I believe the sign says that you can have two choices, but we noticed folks just going ahead and helping themselves….. "so when in Rome" and all that.

I loved the mixed wild mushrooms…….

I did a good job of gnawing all that meat off the bone, and we finished two refills of the bone soup….

It was just the right thing for the moment. We left with warm full bellies, the rain had passed, and we took the long way back to the room.

We were up early the next morning, and caught a 5am cab to the bus station…. the very green bus station…..

Suzhou's bus station wasn't quite as nice and clean as Hangzhou's, and the restroom were pretty horrific, even by China standards. You could smell the latrine from the other side of the bus station. I don't know how the toilet paper vendor (yes, you either brought your own, bought some, or…. well, let's not go there) could stand it.

Soon enough, we were on the bus headed for our next stop…. Nanjing.

Halmouny (Grandma Tofu and BBQ) a revisit

March 13, 2011 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

The Missus and I finally made it back to Halmouny a couple of weeks back…… it was cold and rainy, and the Missus was craving the Seolleongtang from here.

It does seem that something always changes on every visit. Now Halmouny is going for the late night Soju crowd.

And another sign near the door announces breakfast! Man, this place is trying to cover every meal. Throwing every idea at the wall to see what sticks. To me, this seems a bit discouraging……

Prices here have also risen a couple of bucks. I was considering the Galbi Jjim but decided against that since I wasn't sure what was going to come out of that kitchen. In the early days of the restaurant I thought the Galbi Jjim was decent, but something changed, and on one visit with Ed from Yuma it had become a whole different dish. I probably would have still ordered it, if only to see what had become of that dish, but it was now $18.99, four dollars more than at the same time last year.

Soon after placing our order, the panchan came out.

I know folks often wish for different and creative panchan; but most times I'm happy with the standards if they are done well. I still think the Baechu Kimchi, the standard Napa Cabbage kimchi is missing a level of savory flavor. Still, the gamja jorim (simmered potatoes) here are one of my favorites, and I'll admit tastes better than my version (for now).

In spite of the ever changing food here, the panchan, and the very nice service has always been a constant for us. The young lady serving us kept asking us if we wanted refills, and we went through for bowls of the potatoes.

When our bowls of rice came out, the Missus peeked and exclaimed, "oh no, I hate this stuff…."

I'm not sure when Halmouny started serving the "healthy" purple rice (rice with adzuki beans)…. It turned out that the Missus actually kinda enjoyed this version.

Her Seolleongtang ($9.99) was a different story. This dish looked like a totally different dish from what we had a year ago. It was impressive looking though……

I guess the additional two bucks tacked on in recent months meant you got huge rib bones sticking out of your soup? This dish tasted off, the meat had a flavor reminiscent of that stale refrigerator taste. That flavor permeated through the broth, making this rather unpleasant.

I went with something I hadn't had here before, the Ttukbaegi Bulgogi ($15.99):

Basically a clay pot – stew usually consisting of bulgogi, vegetables, and cellophane/glass noodles. I just love the dramatic bubbling cauldron action as it arrived…

I had imagined a flavor close to Yook-soo Bulgogi, but this was way too sweet. The beef was also not as tender as I recalled.

Overall, this wasn't the most stellar meal we've had at Halmouny. It also got me wondering if the gul and jokbal bossam is still as good. Walking out of the restaurant, I noticed they had a lunch special menu…….

Personally, I just wished that the food here was more consistent.

Halmouny – Grandma Tofu and BBQ
4425 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

COMC: Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria – Mission Hills

March 11, 2011 mmm-yoso Hot Dogs, Sandwiches

This one is from last year….. yes, I'm COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card). After returning from Chicago, I guess I mentioned Chicago Dogs one too many times…. the Missus suddenly wanted a Chicago Dog! We decided to check out Lefty's in Mission Hills……

Though I've been to the North Park location a couple of times, and even included Lefty's in my Chicago Dog marathon post (sadly the other two places have closed), I haven't been here since it was Phil's BBQ.

By San Diego standards the Chicago Dog and fries is a relative bargain at $4.25….. by Chicago standards…. well, let's put it this way; I could get a Chicago Dog and a generous portion of Duck Fat Fries from Hot Doug's for a buck more.

I like the Chicago Dog from Lefty's, the dog has a decent snap, there are most of the working parts I enjoy in a Chicago Dog, the sport peppers, and so forth. I do wish that they'd put a bit more celery salt in the dog…. but hey, there are folks that don't care for the stuff I guess. The bun seemed a bit on the soggy side, but the Missus had no complaints. She also enjoyed the hand-cut fries; while not sporting a good amount of skin, it had a nice potato flavor.

I ordered a Chicago Beef, which at $7 is about two bucks more than Chicago. I didn't expect anything close to what I had in Chicago, which was a good thing, since this was basically a French Dip with bottled Giardiniera.

This was much too dry, the beef tasted like regular roast beef dunked in processed "jus".

Oh well, you can't win them all. I'll stick with the Chicago Dogs….

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

Postscript: I've had a couple folks ask, and recommend Chicago style deep dish/stuffed pizzas (including you Liver!). And if you wonder why you've never seen a post…. well, the explanation's rather simple. But I'm sure you'd rather a have a story instead, right? More than couple of years ago, I was in Chicago on business. I had my eyes on some stuffed pizza, but one of the folks I was with insisted that we go here first.

Pizzeria Due…… we kill a deep dish, but man, all that cheese is killing my lactose intolerant self. We head off and stop at Giordano's. Because I'm with the folks I work with…. well, I gotta at least try…….man, this was tough. I'll spare you the gory details and just say, all that cheese almost killed me……. talk about "due"……

Can you guess the chicken karaage?

March 9, 2011 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

*** The contest is closed as of 8pm 03/10/11 – congrats to Dennis and SomTommy who got all five correct. Thanks for playing! ***

I must eat too much chicken karaage….. I've got tons of photos. So…… since I haven't done one of these in a while, I thought we'd do one of those quizzes. I'll display a photo of the chicken karaage, along with a hint or two, which will make it pretty easy if you've been reading for a while. Five chicken karaage, first five emails (yes emails)that guess correctly will get a Peet's eCup, espresso based drink on us. So make sure you send your guesses by email, ok? I'll close the contest after the first five correct guesses.

So here we go……

#1 – Is one of my favorites, light, crunchy, perhaps a tad too bland, but I still order it quite often:

The answer is…… Izakaya Sakura

#2– I've recently not been happy with the chicken karaage here…… but on a recent visit, the Owner was in attendance, and it was quite good. I noticed that he twice fried these, something which many of his employees don't do.

It's Yakyudori of course!

#3– Is not on the menu as "Chicken Karaage", but for intents and purposes that's what it is. Decent flavor, but in my opinion the pieces are too large, thus making the batter to meat ratio lower than I'd enjoy. The batter is not crunchy enoguh for me as well.

This one is Masa's Spicy Chicken…. from Izakaya Masa.

#4– Is from a place I frequent. They keep tinkering with the karaage here. I've had some better then others….. I never know what I'm going to get…..

This one is from Sushi Yaro.

#5 – The portion size is the largest of all of these. And the flavor is pretty much MOR (middle of the road).

The problem here is that the batter isn't crisp enough for me, and the execution is not there. I've had these twice over the last two months, and each time there were a couple of pieces like this.

Soggy……under-fried. A lack of quality control……

This one is from Tajima…. so there you go!

So there you go! Remember, send your guesses by email!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Finding the Pho in Phoenix: Pho 43 Express

March 8, 2011 ed fromyuma Bun Bo Hue, Pho, Phoenix/Scottsdale/Chandler/Central AZ, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk needs a break and Cathy is reeeallly busy, so today ed (from yuma) is posting about some place not in Yuma or San Diego.

Knowing that we were going to be in the Phoenix area around Presidents' Day, Tina and I thought about some places to eat. Both of us, as it turns out, were hungry for Vietnamese. A little research on Chowhound turned up a list of Vietnamese restaurants.

The one closest to where we were going to be was Pho 43 Express on 43rd Ave in the Maryville district of Glendale. We figured we'd give it a try.

The restaurant is a stand-alone building with plenty of parking in a neighborhood of multiple ethnicities — so far, so good:

The large number of family members (no school on Presidents' Day) let us know that this was a family restaurant, not a pho factory like some of the assembly line SD pho restaurants. The folks were friendly.

Looking over the menu, we realized that this was primarily a noodle House, with bun, pho, hu, and mi dishes predominating. That made ordering easy. A large combination pho and bun bo hue.

The garnishes arrived first and were all on one plate. There were plenty of bean sprouts and shredded cabbage, abundant mint and basil, lemon wedges, and a few jalapeno slices:

Although a few leaves of basil were blackened at the edges, we had plenty.

The first soup to arrive was the bun bo hue:

I thought it was a pretty decent bowl of soup. The nearly spaghetti size noodles were nicely cooked. They still had some pull and were not all clumped together. There was enough chili spice and a slight taste of the sea underneath the meat flavors in the stock. Kirk, of course, would have deemed it insufficiently funky and reached for the shrimp paste. But he wouldn't have found any on the table:
The beef in the soup was good (though not memorable), but the meaty highlight of the dish where the pieces of pork leg. Look at this:
And here's another:

Loved all the tender pork meat and the abundant tendon.

Still, I think we liked the pho even more:

Again the noodles were extremely well prepared. Separate and not overcooked. The stock rich, slightly sweet, with a nice anise flavor. The jalapeno slices and basil contributed nicely.

Unlike the bun bo hue, this soup had very little tendon and not much brisket. On the other hand, it was full of crunchy tripe and had remarkably flavorful rare steak:

I was impressed by the slices of rare steak. Normally that is my least favorite, and to my palate, the least flavorful pho meat. Here, it was really good and steaky. Amazing.

We also had good homemade lemonade:

To be honest, I was pretty impressed with this little restaurant. Maybe we just got lucky, but the pho was better than most that I've had in San Diego. And I would order the bun bo hue again as well.

I have not included prices because I'm sure that the carry out menu that I carried out is out of date. That large bowlof dac biet pho must cost more than five dollars, and the bun bo hue has got to be more than $4.90. However, I'm sure they are still incredible values.

Pho 43 Express, 2844 43rd Ave, Phoenix AZ 85009, (602) 269-3383. Open 8 am – 8 or 9 pm every day but Tuesday.

Sultan Kebab and Baklava

March 6, 2011 mmm-yoso Turkish Food

I often mention all the great recommendations I receive. Over the years, folks like "KenB" have always been spot on with their recs, and any moment I receive an email from them is a joyful one. Recently, Ken gave really strong scores to Sultan Kebab and Baklava. I'd passed the shop, when it was only a bakery several times (and Cathy has posted on the former restaurant at this location) on my drives in the area, but now they had a restaurant, and from what Ken told me, and excellent one. Also, this wasn't one of the many Iraqi-Chaldean restaurants in the area; but a Turkish one!

The owners of Sultan have taken over the space. I was interested in the large refractory oven……. which made me really look forward to the bread!

The folks here are very friendly…. the young man working the oven noticed my interest, and kindly showed me how it operated. He also tried to describe all of the delicious looking meze behind the counter! Same gentleman even made a recommendation when I mentioned how large and diverse the menu was.

I had a yogurt drink to start, while the Missus went with the Turkish Tea, which is free…..

The Missus, enchanted with the selection of vegetable dishes, went with the $10 combination, which came with a large piece of what we were told was "pide"….. crusty on the outside, featuring a nice soda flavor. It is quite substantial.

Here's the Missus combination plate…. which I happily tucked into as well.

Some items were real favorites with us; the spicy tomato-chili based dip which we were told was called something like "ismit", it had a nice kick. The mixture of feta and spices, the spicier version of the minced eggplant (the young ladies called both of them Babaganoush) without the yogurt, and the wonderful potato-eggplant-sweet pepper-tomato concoction called Saksuka, were also favorites.

The hummus had a bit too much tahini for our tastes and the while I enjoyed the Dolmalar, this one being the stuffed eggplant version, it was too heavy for the Missus.

Might I also mention the large, plate-sized, Lavas, warm, light, soft, with a mild chew. It slowly becomes more cracker-like as it cools.

I young man manning the oven recommended the Kuzu Sis ($13), basically skewered lamb, mildly seasoned.

The plate came with two salads, a typical pilaf, and a bulgur-thin pasta pilavi that had a nice nutty flavor. The lamb was nicely grilled, with a bit of chew, and pasted best when wrapped in some lavash with a dollop of the yogurt based dip.

The Missus also got some baklava to go…… I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but the Missus' favorite is the chocolate baklava.

I really couldn't wait to return; and I recently had another opportunity. PeterL, Ange, JohnL, and I decided that Sultan sounded like just the right thing. We started with a small meze combination.

Then had another! Along with two bread……

PeterL and Ange shared the Kuzu Sis, and they also sampled (with John eagerly joining in) two of the Domalar….one zucchini, one eggplant.

John went with Kiymali Pide ($5), a seasoned ground beef topped a crunchy flat bread that had been brushed with egg. It reminded me of the Soujouk from Alforon.

With the bread being much more substantial and crusty.

I ordered the Adana Kebab, which was a winner……

This was right up my alley; moist and tender ground beef, sprinkled with tart, tangy sumac, seasoned with a nice variety of spices, along with some good heat from ground chilies……. I think I'll ordered this wrapped as a sandwich…. enrobed in a whole lavas would make this a perfect meal.

There's a lot to explore on the menu here; including the usual Doner and Iskender Kebabs, but items like Kellepaca (literally "head and feet") and a number of various meze and salads. I enjoy the friendly service, the prices aren't bad, and that really friendly young man in the kitchen will keep us coming back. The Missus enjoys the baklava from here; I was told that Turkish Baklava differs from other versions in that honey is not brushed on top of the baklava.…instead a simple sugar syrup is applied. Being that I haven't yet been able to get a bite of it….. I'll just have to trust the Missus' opinion.

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Open 10 – 11 Daily

Thanks for another great recommendation KenB!