mmm-yoso – Page 424 – 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.

Fruitland & Deli- A fruiteria in El Cajon.

January 21, 2011 Cathy Fruiterias, Sandwiches, Seafood, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!

Fruitland & Deli has closed.

mmm-yoso!!! is the food blog you are perusing. Cathy is writing today, because Kirk is busy perusing things and ed (from Yuma) is busier perusing even more things.

Hi again. In the last two years, a friend has taken me to Jamba Juice. Twice. I was overwhelmed both times, having to order from the huge menu board with many choices and derivations. I always have gone to Fruiterias around town and could not understand how JJ had peaches in February… and finally asked my friend who looked at me and slowly said "it's frozen fruit"…Oh. OH. I tried to explain my not understanding.

Then, I realized I have never even posted about Fruiterias on this blog. So, here is a post about one in East County. {A fruiteria is basically a fruit shop where fresh fruit is served in various ways and other items, usually sandwiches and chilled seafood, are offered so as to make small meals. A neighborhood Mexican Bistro Cafe -no tacos or burritos or salsa bar.}

Fruitland and Deli has been on this corner where Second turns into Jamacha at Main Street in El Cajon for about three years now. It is in the same parking lot as Dubai (now Sultan)is located.
Clean and not too small (seating for about 25) inside, it offers items all Fruiterias offer…
with a menu in English above the ordering area.

Happy colors decorate the interior. A selection of hot sauces are on every table.

Ices(raspados), smoothies, milk drinks(licuados), all juice-juices, 'diet' juices (not with artificial ingredients, but with vegetables as well as fruit…(you drink for the diet effects)), iced coffee drinks, fruit bowls-large in size, even the 'small' for $6.50-(plain, topped with yogurt or cottage cheese, crema or condensed milk and granola), paletas(ice cream on a stick..wonderful flavors), sandwiches, seafood, tostilocos (another post), tamales and salads.
#1 Licuado (milk shake) (small) ($3.60)There is powdered milk in this one, made with papaya, banana, cantaloupe, banana and strawberries.
Medium camarones coctele (shrimp cocktail)($9.60) We counted 23 good sized, plump and flavorful shrimp in this one. The broth was mostly lime juice, not overly tomato. However the cucumber, avocado and cilantro made this quite delightful and very flavored. It's refreshing.

We decided to share a pork torta (#1)($6.50), especially after the Young Man behind the counter told us the bread was made fresh daily in the store.
This sandwich, made with a good portion of sliced, moist and flavorful pork roast and a bit of mayonnaise, was topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeno and avocado and is definitely a meal in itself. The bread was indeed fresh, with a nice crispy crust and it was toasted.

Everything here is fresh, seasonal and takes a short while to be brought out, because it is all made to order. This is how I enjoy eating.

Fruitland & Deli 109 Jamacha (between Main and 2nd) El Cajon 92019

Last Night’s Dinner: Afghan inspired Cauliflower

January 20, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

It was only a matter of time before the Missus got tired of jumping in the car and going to Aria on the chance that they'd have Her favorite cauliflower dish. This meant trying to make something that frankly, I wasn't too confident I'd pull off. But it came out much better than I thought it would.

I'm not really going to list a "recipe" for a couple of reasons. First I used regular off the shelf supermarket brand Curry Powder, ground coriander, and tumeric……. starting with a ratio of 2:1:1.

In the end, I ended up adding at least double that amount of curry powder to adjust the flavors. I don't feel comfortable advising someone to use off the shelf Curry Powder from a supermarket in the amounts I did. Second, the Missus swears that Aria uses Dill in their recipe, so I ended up adding 2 teaspoons of dill. The end product came out surprisingly good……quite a shock for me.

I started with 4 tablespoons of olive oil heated over medium heat, then added 2Tb Curry Powder, 1Tb ground coriander, 1 Tb ground tumeric, stirring the the spices into the oil to let them "bloom" for about 20 second or so until fragrant.

To this I added one large onion chopped, and seven cloves of garlic finely minced. Once the onions had started softening, I added 1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and the dill. Once this mixture started bubbling I added my cauliflower, the equivalent of one medium head of florets, mixing to coat the cauliflower. Once the florets were coated I added 1/2 cup of water, mixed well, tasted the sauce and added salt and pepper to taste, and adjusted the flavor a bit further with more (quite a bit) curry powder. I then lowered the temperature, gave cauliflower a good mix, and covered the dish. I'd open and stir every five minutes or so, and added water, in quarter cup portions twice to keep the sauce from getting too dry. After about twenty minutes or so, the cauliflower had reached the desired texture……soft and almost buttery.

A quick taste, and the addition of a bit more salt and fresh ground pepper and it was ready to go……

It ended up not being that difficult……

So did you try to cook anything new this week?

The Fortuna Foodcourt in Foothills, Yuma: La Botana, Tacos Durango, and El Cositas

January 18, 2011 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Kirk travels the world and SoCal looking for interesting food and blogs about it here. Cathy knows San Diego better than the cops and blogs about eateries from SD to Michigan. But today, ed (from Yuma) is posting about a collection of trucks and carts in a strange and unexpected part of Yuma: The Foothills

As I wrote last May in a post about Kodiak seafood, The Foothills, a neighborhood about a dozen miles east of the main part of Yuma, is not usually where someone would go looking for good and interesting restaurants. Populated this time of the year mostly by retired winter visitors, it hardly seems like it would be the home to some of the best taco trucks/shacks in Yuma. But it is.

Over the last few years, a group of culinary entrepreneurs have established a clump of small eateries just off of an access road that runs parallel to Fortuna Blvd south of I-8. Back in 2005, Kirk dubbed a similar congregation of taco trucks on 8th St a foodcourt. This newer aggregation is more numerous and varied. Little places popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

This picture from the parking lot of the neighboring Walgreens shows only a small number of the them:
There is a place serving date shakes and another serving Mexican hot dogs:
Another spot that never seems to have customers serves barbecue:
Jersey's is the home of the 3 pound hamburger — and all sorts of other burgers as well:

This post, however, is just a brief introduction to the three taco trucks located in the area.

La Botana is the fanciest with a semi-enclosed dining room as well as an outdoor deck:
Each table has a squeeze bottle of spicy homemade salsa, a bottle of lightly flavored guacamole sauce, and another rather unusual condiment:

I ordered four different tacos off the extensive menu and asked that they come with "everything." The pork adobada taco was pretty good. The tortilla was warm and fresh, the pork mildly seasoned, and the toppings (chopped onions, scallions, cabbage, and cilantro) appropriate:
The lengua may have been the best of them all — the meat tender, rich, and deeply flavored:
The chicken (covered with shredded lettuce and diced tomato) was also good to start with, and even better squirted with some hot sauce and guacamole sauce:

Notice the nice char on some of the pieces of chicken. Love that.

The only disappointing taco — and it was only a minor disappointment — was the fish taco:

Although the fish was perfectly fresh and the toppings decent, my preference in fish tacos is a crunchier crust.

A couple of days later, I went to the second Mexican stand, Tacos Durango:

I had good memories of a visit there last winter when I didn't have my camera with me. It is still a pretty humble little taco truck connected to a covered enclosure:
Here the condiments and salsas are located in a small weatherbeaten little box with a plastic cover:
While the price of the shrimp taco ($2) seemed a bit steep when I ordered, I had no complaints when the taco arrived:

This was a huge taco. The four shrimp, totally greaseless and completely covered in crunchy coating, tasted exactly like fresh shrimp. Outstanding. To my mind, the best in the county.

After I ate one of the shrimp, which reduced the contents of the taco to something that I could fold over, I squirted lemon on them and decorated the remaining shrimp with crema and choices from the salsa bar:
The fish tacos, made with fresh battered pieces of real whitefish were almost as good as the shrimp ones:

The al pastor, on the other hand, was a bit dried out and over cooked:

The spicy coating on it was excellant, however, and I suspect that the pastor here is usually better than this.

The lengua was tasty if not quite as muy rico as the version at La Botana:

A few days later I returned to the food court again, this time going to Tacos El Cositas:
I was pleased to see asada (skirt steak?) cooking on an outside grill:
Here the condiments are in a covered cooled section of a large aluminum stand:
I received four tacos — one fish, one shrimp, and one carne asada on the large plate, and something called a chipilones on the smaller plate on the left:
All of these tacos were huge in size. Both the fish and the shrimp tacos were crunchy, and the fish taco might have been even better than the one at Durango. I believe the owner/chef double fries them if one requests crunchy. Here is a close up of the shrimp taco as decorated:

The best taco, however, was the chipilones. At first the name puzzled me (I just ordered it without knowing for sure what I was going to get) but as soon as I saw the taco, I realized that it was El Cositas's version of the eponymous taco from the famous and gigantic taco emporium in San Luis, Sonora. In fact, the chef/owner told me that El Chipilon is owned by his brother.

with proper toppings the way I like, the taco looked like this:

Heaven on a tortilla de maiz. The asada meat was tender, moist, and deeply flavorful. The cheese and roasted green chile added a perfect Sonoran complement to the wonderful beef.

El Cositas has a more extensive menu at dinner and even serves Vampiras, the elusive vampire taco. Out in The Foothills. Whodda thunk that?

A couple notes. The only restroom available is in Walgreens. Each restaurant keeps its own hours, and most of them are seasonal. But if you go around lunch or dinner between October and April, you will find something (probably many things) tasty and inviting. I sure did and I will be back.

Suzhou: Noodles and Sheng Jian Bao

January 17, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Suzhou, Travel

I realize that I really need to finish all my posts on China before we head off to our next vacation, so I'll try to catch up in the next few weeks.

We left Hangzhou on bus, the distance being about 100 miles and took about 2 hours. We arrived at the bus station in Suzhou, just South of downtown and made it to our hotel. This location of Green Tree Inn had seen better days. The carpets were scuffed and torn, much of the place smelled of cigarette smoke, the rooms were on the beat side. Still, you really couldn't beat the location just two blocks from Guan Qian Jie, the main downtown pedestrian street. Plus, the staff here was very nice, especially the housekeeping gals. One was so nice we actually tried to tip her…….which seemed to shock and offend her. I guess she didn't want to be mistaken for being a capitalist??? We were a bit hungry so after settling in we decided to grab something to eat. The young lady at the front desk suggested a noodle shop just a few yards away from the hotel.

The Missus said this seemed to be a chain of some kind. And as with many of these types of shops the drill is as follows….. you order and pay at the front desk.

Take your ticket to the back window were they'll prepare your order and you pick it up and eat at your table. As you can see, most of the dishes here are below 10 Yuan ($1.50 US).

The Missus went with an Eel Noodle Soup:

She told me the Eel was not very good.

I had the same type of noodle soup, but with a pork chop and preserved vegetable.

I felt about the same way regarding my pork…. it was tough and dry.

In spite of looks the broth was very mild in flavor, though the noodles, which were very loooong weren't bad.

We hedged our bets with some Chao Nian Gao (stir fried rice cakes), which was much better, if a bit more filling than the noodle soup.

After getting some food in our bellies we walked up the two blocks or so to the heart of downtown Suzhou, Guan Qian Jie. The first thing I realized is that although Suzhou seemed much more crowded than Hangzhou; things seemed to move at a slower pace. Unlike Hangzhou, which seemed to be much more "edgier" folks here seemed to enjoy relaxing, people smiled, laughed, and things seemed much less harried.

Almost directly from the hotel, our street took us up right behind the well known Xuanmiao Taoist Temple, also known as the "Temple of Mystery". I never found out what the "mystery" was, but maybe someone out there can fill me in.

With all the hawkers and vendors, this place sung out "tourist trap" to us….. so we decided to just enjoy the view. But we did find out that the first temple was built in 276 A.D. destroyed a couple of times. The current main hall was rebuilt during the Song Dynasty and the only remaining structure of that style in Suzhou.

Guan Qian Jie has all the trappings of the "new" China; a KFC and a TGIFridays is close by…..

But turn the corner and you'll see something like this…….

Looking at the line, I thought it was for a movie or something. But the Missus told me that this place made stewed meats….. and apparently was very popular.

Peering through the window, I was tempted, but the line went all the way down the street.

Renmin Lu is one of the main streets in Suzhou. One one side of the street is one of the many canals which why Europeans gave Suzhou the nickname of "Venice of the East".

The water was a bright green. But strangely, there was no smell…..

Folks lived above many of the businesses lining the street….. I love the shoes drying in this photo.

Actually this bridge is a landmark for us. Right to the North of it was this shop, which was doing some major bang-up business.

As you can tell by the line……..

So what were most of the people waiting in line for?

Why Sheng Jian Bao of course!

While I found us a spot outside the restaurant, the Missus paid at the front counter and stood in line. While waiting, She brought out Her camera and took almost thirty photos! Here are a couple:

There was an army of workers making Sheng Jian Bao! I found us two seat at one of the tables outside the restaurant. When I first looked at the SJB I was unimpressed…..

But it only took one bite…… the tops were surprisingly fluffy, the bottoms looked burnt but were just nice and crisp…. I'm guessing that those pans have been heavily seasoned over the years. The interior was full of lip melting soup…… slightly sweet, and very savory. The meat(quite a bit actually) was tender and full of pork flavor…. on the sweet side for the Missus; I loved it.

I saw a middle aged woman looking for a seat, so I gave her mine, and grabbed one of the plastic kiddie stools. She smiled and thanked us, and told the Missus "you're not from here, are you?" When the Missus said no, she decided to become our SJB "tutor". Using her chopsticks to grab an invisible SJB (strangely, she was the only person I saw who wasn't having SJB… she was having noodle soup). She instructed the Missus to turn the SJB on its side. Then "you bit a tiny hole in the side to let the steam out, and suck…Suck….SUCK all the good juice out first! Careful not to burn your tongue." It right then that I knew…… I was really going to enjoy this city.

As we finished our meal and walking up Renmin Lu, a little army of women, each carrying a stool and packages walked passed up ahead, and disappeared into an alleyway. Curious, I made sure to peer down the alley when I passed it…… it was women workers going on their lunch break.

Some Revisits: Noble Chef, Yum Cha Cafe, and Hong Kong BBQ

January 16, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

Here are a couple of revisits.

Noble Chef:

It's pretty much inevitable when I get to know someone, that one of the first items for discussion would be, "have anything good to eat lately". And such is the case with my Dry-Cleaner Lady, with whom I've shared recommendations and opinions over the years. One recent discussion was over Noble Chef. We both are of the opinion that many of the dishes were executed better before the previous owners retired. Although we both thought that as time passed the food there is getting better. The Dry Cleaner Lady told me that although the broth was pretty weak, the Hu Tieu with Shrimp Balls were pretty good. So during the recent rain and cold I decided to drop by and grab a bowl of Hu Tieu with Beef and Shrimp Balls:

And yes, the broth was decidedly bland, in need of help from the sweet-soy and other condiments. I'm used to a mild pork flavor broth for my Hu tieu soups…. this had almost no flavor. The Beef Meatballs were fairly "squeaky", and were also pretty weak. Those shrimp balls did have a nice shrimp flavor and were quite tender.

The rice noodles were prepared well, slippery with a mild chew to them.

Overall an ok bowl, but I don't think I'll be having this again due to the really watery broth.

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)278-8688

More posts on Noble Chef can be found here, here, and here.

Yum Cha Cafe's cheapo 3 item BBQ Combo:

**** Yum Cha Cafe has closed

On a recent jaunt to Thuan Phat Market to pick up some vegetables the Missus wanted for dinner, I decided to check out what was going on at Yum Cha Cafe. I think things have slowed down a bit, so now there's all manner of specials going on. One caught my attention right away.

Granted, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of Yum Cha's Roast Duck. But 3 meats and rice for under five bucks? You know I just had to try it out. As the various meat was pulled and chopped I was surprised that it seemed like a good amount of protein. And the box seemed to weight at least two pounds. Not along the lines of Tita's in terms of insurmountable food, but the styrofoam box seemed quite hefty.

Opening the box up, it looked like there was a head on collision of Chinese BBQ that fell on a mattress of rice. After playing a bit of Chinese BBQ CSI, I could make out what was what.

The best item was the roast chicken which was very moist and tender., even the white meat sections:

It had a nice mild lemon grass flavor.

The Roast Duck was also moist, fairly meaty, but lacking in flavor.

The skin was on the rubbery side. Overall, this was better than what I had before, but still not even close to top-notch.

The worst item overall was the BBQ Pork, tough and bland are not good when it comes to Char Siu.

The best item overall were the pickled vegetables, which were good, if on the sweet side. So could I recommend this? Well, if you were really hungry and had only five bucks………this could be two meals.

Yum Cha Cafe
6933 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Roast Duck from Hong Kong BBQ and Dim Sum:

If you've read my previous post on this place you'll know that I've been less than pleased with what I've had here. But after a recent less than satisfying meal from Song Huong, I wandered through Vinh Hung Market and walked pass the Chinese BBQ, and the Roast Duck looked pretty good, so I decided to buy me half a duck.

Which ended up being pretty good, much better than what I've had before.

So perhaps I'll return to try some other items in the future.

Hong Kong BBQ & Dim Sum
10550 Camino Ruiz(Inside of Vinh Hung Market)
San Diego, CA 92126

Postscript: With the left-over duck, I decided to make something. You see, I was still fuming from spending fifty bucks for a mediocre Peking Duck meal at Duck House in Monterey Park. I was especially disappointed in the stir-fried duck meat with bean sprouts which had no flavor at all. When I mentioned this to the Missus, She called me out and asked, "could you do better"…….

Which is why I made this with the leftovers.

I used my 55,000 BTU Big Kahuna to revive and crisp up the duck meat. Added the bean sprouts, which if you've just bought a high BTU wok stove, is a great way to learn to use it. Flavored at the end with duck drippings and premium soy sauce……

Compared to this:

Sushi Yaro-Lunch

January 13, 2011 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog. A few friends share blogging "duty". We pretend it is a difficult task, but it's just fun. Today, Kirk has been elsewhere, having fun. ed(from Yuma) is in Yuma, having fun. Cathy is here and having fun.

Hi. Remember the other day last year, when Kirk mentioned Sushi Yaro was having $3 lunch specials? If not, link to it here.

The Mister and I decided to (finally) try it for lunch the other day. The parking lot wasn't full

because we were the first ones there that day. We checked out the 'White Board' near the kitchen as we walked in.

and ordered the $3 vegetable curry special (could have also had stir fried beef, pork, chicken or yakisoba also for $3). It came with a cabbage based salad (in the photo below) and the good serving of fresh rice and an excellent amount of a good curry with potatoes, onion and carrots and a bit of beef in the curry sauce.
I had a craving for poke that day and ordered it off the regular menu ($9.50) It came with the miso soup (very good), salad, side of rice and was presented on the plate this way…with a carrot petaled flower centered with radish and bunny ears of burdock in the poke…
which was an extremely fresh ahi tuna. Marinated in soy sauce, sea salt, sesame oil, onion, garlic, seaweed and some furikake.
One item on the White Board this day was 'stir fried giant clam' for $3.99. It is on the regular menu for $8, but Sam was working that day and he made it …so very tender, almost melt in your mouth like chicken liver or uni melt in your mouth texture. The vegetables were stir fried just enough…crispy and fresh and if I had known the wonder that this item was, I'd have ordered two and had both for myself…

Excellent deals on the $3 lunch and everything excellent at Sushi Yaro. Day or night. Fun.

Sushi Yaro 7905 Engineer Road San Diego 92111

Tonight’s Dinner – Shui Zhu Yang Rou (Water Boiled Lamb)

January 11, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

This classic Sichuan dish is usually made with Beef – Shui Zhu Niu Rou, the version made with fish Shui Zhu Yu is one of our favorite dishes at Ba Ren, which more appropriately calls these dishes "Boiled in Hot Sauce". Tonight I thought I'd try making it with lamb.

I was surprised how well it turned out…. not quite sure about the photos though. The Missus said they look like brains boiled in hot sauce! The recipe is loosely based on Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe in her fantastic cookbook, Land of Plenty which I've referenced many times over the years. If you have that recipe handy you'll notice more than a few differences. First, I really used water, not stock for this. I also bumped up all the spices, and used four different sources of chilies, including Korean Ground Red Chili and my home made chili oil. I also used tablespoons of freshly toasted and ground Sichuan Peppercorns instead of teaspoons. If you try this recipe out, you may want to increase it even more since I used Sichuan Peppercorns directly from Sichuan that had never been irradiated. Instead of numbing your tongue and lips, it'll numb your entire face. I also used finely minced garlic and a touch of grated ginger, which really helped the dish along.

What's really interesting about this dish is that it's built in layers using a single wok. First you use the chilies and most of the ground Sichuan Peppercorn to develop a chili-and-peppercorn infused oil.

You then remove the chilies and use the oil to very briefly stir fry your vegetables. Because I used two different veggies, I made this in two batches.

And layered one on top of the other in the bowl to be used for serving.

Next you build your "sauce", much like the way I do my Ma Po Tofu. Once you have your sauce boiling you add your meat, which has been marinating in Shaoxing wine, and mixed with a cornstarch mixture. You stir briefly with chopsticks to ensure the meat is separated. Once the meat is cooked you remove the meat from the now thickened sauce, and add that to the bowl. You then pour the sauce over everything. Chop the dried chilies, sprinkle them on top of everything along with more Sichuan Peppercorn….. and it's done.

In case you're thinking this was a long drawn out process, it was actually pretty quick. I even made another stir fried vegetable dish for dinner…… Oh, and it was more "Ma" (numbing) than "La" spicy, at least to me.

Shui Zhu Yang Rou – Water Boiled Lamb:

2/3 lb vegetables – mung bean sprouts, lettuce, napa cabbage, etc
2/3 lb Sliced Lamb
2 Tb Shaoxing Wine (Drinking Quality please)
10-15 Dried Red Chilies
3 Tb freshly toasted and ground Sichuan Peppercorn
3 cloves garlic finely minced
1 tsp grated ginger
3 Tb Peanut Oil
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 tsp Ground Red Chilies
3 Tb home made chili oil
4-5 Tb Sichuan Chili Bean Paste aka Doubian Jian (make sure it's made from Broad Beans)
4 Tb Corn Starch combined with 4-5 Tb water to form a paste
2 tsp Dark Soy Sauce
2 tsp Premium Soy sauce
1 Tb white granulated sugar
2 cups water
salt to taste
Cilantro

– Prep and slice (if necessary) your vegetables
– Slice dried chilies in half and discard the seeds
– Combine the sliced lamb with Shaoxing Wine, mix well, and let marinate
– Add peanut oil to a medium hot wok. Add the dried chilies and 2 tablespoons of Sichuan Peppercorn to the wok.Stir Fry until the chilies start to brown, do not scald. Quickly remove the chilies.
– Add vegetables to the wok and stir fry quickly. Since I used two different items I did this twice. I added a touch of salt and the ground red chilies to the greens. Just briefly cook the vegetables, they should still be crunchy when removed from the wok to create the first layer(s) in your bowl.
– Add the canola oil (I used canola oil instead of peanut oil for this because peanut oil is so darn expensive nowadays) and turn up the heat.
– When the oil begins to shimmer add the Bean Paste, stir frying until it is fragrant.Add garlic, ginger, and mix quickly.
– Add water, soy sauces, and sugar.
– While the liquid is coming up to a boil. Combine the cornstarch mixture with the lamb and mix well.
– When the sauce is boiling, dip a chopstick into the sauce and taste. Adjust the flavor if necessary.
– Start adding the slices of meat to the sauce. As the sauce comes up to a boil use chopsticks to separate the slices of meat.
– Once the meat is cooked, use chopsticks or a slotted spoon to top the vegetables with the meat.
– Pour the bubbling sauce over everything
– Chop the red chilies, and sprinkle on top, drizzle on chili oil to taste along with the remaining tablespoon of Sichuan Pepper.

Chicago – Johnnie’s Beef (Arlington Heights)

January 10, 2011 mmm-yoso Chicago, Sandwiches, Travel

Awakening from a Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage coma, I felt compelled to make the most of my time in Chicago and at least try to get something to eat. I really didn't feel like driving back into downtown Chicago, but what could I get in Arlington Heights? I quickly had an answer. Earlier in the day I drove up Arlington Heights Road past a shop that the same fella who mentioned Peep's told me about. Leaving no room for wiggle, I was simply told that "Johnnie's Beef makes the best Italian Beef, no two ways about it!"

So after a quick shower to rejuvenate myself, I jumped in the rental car, and headed North for a couple of blocks to Johnnie's Beef. Walking through the doors a wonderful beefy smell hit me, and I was ready for action.

The service…. well, more like the procedure here was mercifully fast. You order, and in no time you have your Italian Beef ready to go. And because there is a constant flow of customers…. you really don't want to mess up the rhythm by taking too much time.

The sandwich….I got mine "dipped" with hot peppers, rang in at a shade over four bucks. It's not a super-stuffed sandwich, but well proportioned for my taste.

I've had Italian Beef sandwiches at Mr Beef (On N Harlem) and Portillo's, but nothing has come close to this. The beef wasn't cut too thin, but was very tender, yet not mushy, full of beefy goodness. The sandwich was just soaked enough, the crust retained a nice chew, and the bread was wet, but not over-saturated with juices that had retained a good beef flavor, with a belnd of herbs and spcies that were balanced. In addition to some crunch, the spicy giardiniera had the perfect amount of heat and brine to wake up my still sluggish palate. In fact, I guess you could say that this was strangely invigorating.

Good thing Johnnie's is in Chicago. If it was here in San Diego, I'd be in line a couple times a week.

The next morning while checking out, thinking that perhaps there might be something even better out there, I asked the young man at the front desk for a recommendation for an Italian Beef sandwich. He immediately replied, "Johnnie's Beef." Digging a little deeper, I mentioned that I had Johnnie's the night before, and if he'd have any other recommendations. Suddenly, a loud, disembodied voice boomed out of an open doorway, "if you tell him anything other than Johnnie's you better get your friggin' a$$ outta here cause you're fired!"

Well, I guess that answers my question, huh?

Johnnie's Beef
1935 South Arlington Heights Rd
Arlington Heights, IL 60005

Baguette Up

January 9, 2011 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Restaurants

*** Baguette Up has closed

A couple months back FOY (Friend of Yoso) Pheth mentioned a new Banh Mi shop opening in the same strip mall as Vinh Hung Market, Luong Hai Ky, et al in Mira Mesa….. I had to chuckle when she mentioned that the name of the place was Baguette Up. How…. umm, well cute isn't the right word, neither is quaint…. witty perhaps? About a week later "Melanie" mentioned this shop in her email about Song Huong. So it was only a matter of time it was "batter up" for Baguette Up (I guess I can almost be as pun-ny).

Baguette Up has its' own doorway, but seems to share space with the Boba shop named Bobalicious (of course…). Actually, the space for the Boba (sorry, I have a limit on how many times I'm willing to type out out Boba-licious) is twice as large.

For some reason I'm reminded of an ice cream shop whenever I walk in. Even though the menu says, "deliciously different"….. funny, but I don't see anything really different about the fourteen Banh Mi, several of which are "gringo specials" from other Banh Mi shops.

As for the prices; well they're pretty much in line with the other Banh Mi shops in the area as well.

So of course I went with the #1, the "special" (aka Banh Mi Dac Biet – $3.50) just to see what their Dac Biet consisted of. There's nary a word in Vietnamese as far as I could see; so it just seemed that this place was trying to distance itself. The sandwich itself seemed pretty small when I got it.

The bread itself was very fresh on this visit…. it had that light flakiness of a decent Vietnamese Baguette. Opening up the sandwich I was also pleasantly surprised to see pate, albeit a very mild pate, but I was glad to see that this little shop was actually trying to make a proper Banh Mi.

The overall portions of meat in the sandwich was on the small side; think Express Deli with lower quality protein. Also the pickled carrot, there was hardly any daikon, was not pickled enough, and hardly had any flavor.

The one interesting thing was the jalapenos. The jalapenos in this sandwich had some kick, which just about killed off everything in the sandwich. On the good side, it was just cilantro leaves, and not all the tough stems, which was nice for a change.

In the end, I thought this sandwich was not a very good value. And usually that would be it for me. Except for two things; first, the young lady manning the counter has got to be one of the nicest, friendliest, and attentive persons I've had the pleasure of coming across in a while.

Second, before walking out to the car to consume my sandwich, I noticed something which I could perhaps call "deliciously different"…. it was lucky #8:

After all, I always say "everything tastes better ina Banh Mi" right? (And I do mean everything.) So I returned for a SPAM® and Egg Sandwich ($3). There was a different young lady this time; but with the same sunny disposition:

I mean really, there are few things in my world better than SPAM® and eggs, and those would be SPAM® musubis, and perhaps Spam® Katsu Curry? This time, the bread wasn't so fresh, but there were two eggs in my Banh Mi, and with two slices of SPAM® this was fairly filling.

And if I wanted to get nit-picky, the eggs were cooked a bit more than I'd prefer, the pickled vegetables were still terrible, and all Banh Mi Trung (egg Banh Mi) should always have a sprinkling of Maggi. Still, this was a decent sandwich. But don't think it was a huge sandwich……

Because it was not….. but it would be a good breakfast. Which gets me to my next point; there are three egg sandwiches on the menu, but the place doesn't open until 11am.

So what can I say? That SPAM® and Egg was okay, the special less so. Service was great, prices are in line, not sure if I'll return, but it's always fun checking out a new place!

Baguette Up
8155 Mia Mesa Blvd. Suite #3
San Diego, CA 92126

Thanks for pointing this place out to me Pheth and Melanie, I'd have never found it otherwise!

Xmas Eve Roadtrip: Lucious Dumplings – San Gabriel, Qing Dao Bread Food – Monterey Park, Shufeng Garden and Happiness Restaurant – Rowland Heights, and other places (Los Angeles)

January 6, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

Just as we did the previous year, the Missus and I decided to have Christmas Eve dumplings in the SGV. In an attempt to show some restraint, the Missus picked one restaurant, and I another for Jiaozi. We'd then do some take-out for our Christmas day meal. This year the Missus selected Lucious Dumplings in San Gabriel.

Luscious Dumplings:

The Missus ordered the Pork and Celery Dumplings that we had enjoyed so much on our previous visit. This time around they were disappointing, the wrappers weren't made quite as well, a bit too tough, and though the texture of the filling was spot on, it was devoid of celery flavor.

Having been told that the Guotie here is really good, I decided to go with the pork version.

And though they really didn't look like the style of Guotie I'm used to, but I liked the color. Picking up the guotie gave me pause…… first the potstickers were strangely stuck together. Pulling them apart yielded thin strands….. When I took a bite I realized that the strand were sugar based as these were rather sweet. I'm guessing that instead of the water-cornstarch slurry used to create a crust attaching the guotie together, this one had something akin to simple syrup.

The filling for these were well flavored, and for me the sweetness detracted from our enjoyment of these.

The Missus was kinda bummed since we enjoyed our previous visit so much. Hopefully we'll have better luck next time.

Luscious Dumplings Inc
704 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel, CA 91776

My choice was an easy one……..

Qing Dao Bread Food:

Of course. The Missus called me predictable and boring because I selected Qing Dao Bread Food last Christmas Eve. And as always I ordered my Lamb Jiaozi.

The wrappers were dead on perfect for me, soft with a bit of al dente "stretch" . These had a bit less "soup" than what we're used to here. The Missus also thought the filling was on the tough side this time. I thought they were fine.

The Missus, unsatisfied with what we had at Luscious Dumplings, decided to order the Vegetable Jiaozi. I had my doubts since this type of Jiaozi tends towards blandness…… I was wrong.

I managed to try two of these, and the flavor was quite good…… too good. The Missus and I agreed that veggie dumplings would never taste this good without a little "flavor enhancement" if you know what I mean. Whether or not our suspicions are justified or not, this was enjoyable.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 North Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Our next stop was…..

Tianjin Bistro:

For my Christmas Yang Rou Suan Cai Guo, which of course I got last year as well.

I prefer getting this to go as it actually tastes better to me the next day. The flavors have time to meld, and the sour-gaminess is even more pronounced the next day.

Tianjin Bistro
534 East Valley Blvd. #8
San Gabriel, CA 91776

At this point the realization (with the Missus's help of course) that I was becoming pretty predictable, and that we needed to change things up a bit…..

So we drove East on the 60 freeway, past the rain scrubbed sky, with a wonderful view of the San Gabriel Mountains on the background……

To our old neighborhood of Rowland Heights. This stop was:

Shufeng Garden:

A Sichuan Restaurant across from Hong Kong Plaza that I first read about on Pam's Blog.

I had planned out what we were going to order until…… I saw an older woman sitting on the table near the door going to town on what looked like Tea Smoked Duck. She was gnawing and sucking away on the bones like this was her last meal before the electric chair. So we just had to order the Tea Smoke Duck. We paid, and took a short walk around the shops…. when we returned, the woman was still sucking away…..perhaps at the same bone? While it seemed kinda gross at first, her enthusiasm for that bone started making me hungry!

I've grown used to duck in Sichuan and Hunan restaurants being a bit on the bony side. In those cuisines flavor is king. This was the most meaty Tea Smoke Duck I can remember ever having. That entire container is just half a duck. The duck was moist, and while I think the smokiness and tea flavor was on the muted side, it was pretty good overall.

We also got a few cold dishes:

All of which were on the bland side (for Sichuan food) and forgettable.

Still, we'll be returning in the future to try some of the other stuff here.

Shufeng Garden
18459 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

So we had the beginnings of a pretty good meal for Christmas going…. but there was something missing. As you can probably tell, I'm not real big on sweets. There is however, a snack dish I just love. Right across the street in Hong Kong Plaza was a restaurant called Manie's which is long gone. It has been replaced with another Sichuan Restaurant called:

Happiness Restaurant:

And while the name has changed, much of the menu (other than the seemingly hundreds of "new dishes") looked the same.

There was one item that we decided to order…. we just had to see if they prepared the same way. Liang Ci Ba (Sticky Rice Cake – $4.95).

This is basically six large globs of sticky rice cake, topped with a peanut-sesame paste…. and it was… and still is delicious. Not too sweet, but just right for my tastes, this stuff literally sticks to your ribs as it is quite "heavy". This was dessert for the Missus and I for three meals.

Shufeng Garden also has this on the menu, but we just wanted to see how it would be here.

While we waited for our Liang Ci Ba, we watched the turtle occupying a tank at the front of the restaurant.

While the little guy was munching on a slice of cucumber, I turned to the Missus, and we both ended up blurting out, "I wonder when he'll be on the menu" at the same time! What is it that they say about couples who have been married a while thinking alike???

Happiness Restaurant
18438 Colima Road #106
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

After grabbing some jerky, and with Liang Ci Ba in hand we headed home…. ready for a nice Christmas meal.