mmm-yoso – Page 471 – 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.

Luang Prabang: Tamarind Cooking School Part 1 – Trip to Phousy Market

February 3, 2009 mmm-yoso Laos, Luang Prabang, Markets & Grocers, Travel

In previous Luang Prabang post, I mentioned two personal rules that I broke during our stay in Luang Prabang. The first was buying t-shirts, the second was taking a cooking class. I had never really been interested in taking a cooking class, but because we were staying in Luang Prabang for 6 days, why not? Plus, I really didn't know very much about Lao, or Luang Prabang cuisine. I had read up a bit about Tamarind Restaurant, and thought why not? The Missus made other "shopping" plans for the day, and I made reservations for the cooking class.

Tamarind was located right around the corner from our hotel, right across from Wat Nong Sikhounmuong.

The class is pretty much an all-day affair, and cost $25 US. The fearless leader of our group of Aussies, Brits, French, and yours truly, the token Asian-American was Joy Ngeuamboupha, who, along with Caroline Gaylard, own Tamarind. Joy and his sisters work the kitchen of Tamarind.

The first part of the class was a market tour of Phousy Market, which is the largest market in Luang Prabang, and supplies many of the homes and restaurants in Luang Prabang. Phousy Market (also spelled Phosy Market) is vastly different in scale than the morning Fresh Market, the products sold are much more mainstream (relatively), and there are some pretty large vendors in the market.

We all jumped on a soon to be overloaded tuk-tuk, and headed off to market.

I'll keep the text down to descriptions, a few things I learned about Lao food and eating habits, and a few anecdotes from here on.

As with all of these type of markets, everything is separated.

Which included the all important Water Buffalo Skin.

Available in all shapes and sizes, I was most familiar with the slices used for Jeow Bong, the wonderful Chili Dip.

Of course there were dried chilies:

And Padek in many stages of, ummm, fermentation.

Joy noted: "As you can see, no flies. When it is good, the flies won't touch it!" I thought perhaps the inverse was true……

One large portion was devoted to the varied produce available in Luang Prabang.

Here's Joy with a piece of Sa-Khan (piper ribesioides), which is used in the making of Or Lam, the various Lao stews.

And of course, there were "Hops", the stuff we saw eveyone munching on. I also learned that the flowers are edible as well.

And of course chilies, like these bright little ones:

At this stop Joy asked if anyone wanted to try one of these chilies. Seeing there were no takers, I decided to volunteer. Now Mom always told me, "the smaller the chili, the hotter it is." And man were these tiny chilies hot! Even though I didn't let the chili touch my lip, I felt an almost scalding heat in my mouth. I wanted to let out a "whooooaaa", but could only let out a "gakkkk." At which point I noticed that all the women vendors had stopped, and were watching me. They just started cracking up, and laughing. Joy told me, "the ladies say, only the tourists are crazy enough to eat these chilies by themselves……"

As we walked pass the fruits, and stopped by this lovely pile of Sapodilla, Joy answered aquestion I had about fruit. We had noticed a lack of fruit in the very tropical Luang Prabang, and I was wondering why.

The reason? It is believed that fruit is for the very young, and the very old, who have problems chewing, or little or no teeth.

Eggs were another little learning moment for me.

All eggs that are produced in Laos are stamped. If there are no stamps on the eggs it means that it was probably imported. Eggs with what looks like hand written numbers on them are fertilized duck or chicken eggs (aka Balut), and the numbers indicate the gestational age of the eggs.

And soon it was off to the meat "department":

I learned that in Luang Prabang, offal is much more expensive and treasured than lean cuts.

I also learned that Water Buffalo is getting to be much more expensive. Machinery is slowly replacing the Water Buffalo for use in agriculture, so there are less of them.

I was also surprised at how many turkeys I saw.

With the Mekong River on one side, and the Khan River on the other, you knew that fish and other products of the river was quite important.

This catfish was very much alive, and even tried to bite my finger off. I was told that it can live for quite a long while out of the water.

On the outer perimeter of the market reside some of the more interesting items, like bee larvae hives.

And all manner of dried "meat".

You could make out some fish, birds, and various rodents. But I had no clue what some of this stuff was.

Soon enough, Joy met us at the tuk-tuk, with a little plastic bag filled with greenish liquid, and a little bamboo tube. I guess it was time to start cookin'!

Stay tuned for part 2!

Road Trip: Hwang Hae Do Korean BBQ – Garden Grove (OC)

February 2, 2009 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Orange County, Road Trip

**** This location of Hwang Hae Do has closed

I took a day off right after the New Year, for the purpose of going on a short eating road trip to LA and the OC with two of my friends, MrS, and the entity that is known as the EatingMachine. We started at Mei Long Village, for Xiao Long Bao, and a few Shanghainese cold dishes. Next it was off to Food Cabin, for more Xiao LongBao, Shengjian Bao, and other assorted dishes. Lucky for us, "DaMachine" was running smoothly, easily eliminating any possibility of leftovers. On the way back, we decided to stop for a "real meal" in the area of Garden Grove Icall Koreatown South. I had written down a few listings in my "black book", but Mr S, pulling from his Korean roots dismissed my list, brought out his cell phone, and went off on a speed dial frenzy. The consensus, was for Hwang Hae Do….. which was one of the places on my list! Ha!

Hwang Hae Do looks quite humble in comparison to some of the newer and more fancy restaurants in the area. And boy does this place love its photos, posters, and fliers.

The interior is "old wood rustic", with the ever present Plasma Television going strong.

Hwang Hae is a province in North Korea, so if the name meant anything, this would be North Korean inspired food. I had written down the dishes that I wanted to try at Heang Hae Do, and looking down the list, after all the XLB, I crossed off the mandu, but had something else in mind. And MrS, after chatting with the really nice lady, came to the same conclusion. And, of course it was one of the items on the myriad of flyers posted everywhere around the place.

After Mr S placed our orders in Korean, the panchan arrived. There were a few items, I enjoyed, the baechu kimchi (Napa Cabbage kimchi) was very good. And I don't recall seeing dotorimuk (Acorn Jelly) much in San Diego. But most of it was pretty mild in flavor.

Pretty soon a metal "pan" of sorts was placed above the BBQ brazier. The pan had a "moat" of sauce encircling it.

It was Yook-soo Bulgogi($18.99/order – minimum 2 orders) time! A huge platter of thinly sliced meat, onions, scallions, and mushrooms arrived, and was piled on the top of the pan.

For ease of use, part of the meat was portioned off on a bowl placed on the table.

While the rest remained on the platter, table side.

Sheesh, do ya' think this was enough? And what is even more impressive…..this was only 2 orders, and came with rice, and 2 beers (OB).

For those who have never had Yook-soo Bulgogi, I think I can best describe it as a Sukiyaki like dish.

This broth was mild and balanced in flavor, just lightly sweet. There are places in San Diego that make this, but most versions are much too sweet and heavy. The meat was good in quality, soft, and almost melted in your mouth.

And while we were waiting for our meat to cook, MrS had ordered us Mul Naengmyun, the classic North Korean cold buckwheat noodle soup dish.

The tangy broth, even when tempered with liberal doses of vinegar sent my tastebuds into overdrive. It was a nice foil to the meat, and was a very effective palate cleanser. Even with all the meat, I managed to finish my entire bowl. Yes, we each had an entire metal bowl. In case you're interested there's an interesting post on Naengmyun in Pyongyang which can be found here.

As if to add the "cherry on the top", at the end noodles are placed in the meat infused broth.

After all of that food we had earlier, I can't believe we finished everything in fine fashion. Total damage, 2 orders Yook-soo Bulgogi, 3 Mul Naengmyun – $62.

The only problem we had was staying awake on the drive back to San Diego.

The service was efficient, the lady was very nice. Not much English spoken, but there are all those posters everywhere….

Hwang Hae Do
9567 Garden Grove Blvd
Garden Grove, CA 92842

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El Salvador Pupuseria y Restaurante – A revisit

February 1, 2009 mmm-yoso Salvadoran Restaurants

We used to have El Salvador Pupuseria y Restaurante on our rotation, but in recent years it had fallen off. Not because the food had fallen off, but because we just didn't visit enough. Over the last few years, the restaurant has cleaned upa bit, and gone are the loud video games. The interior has been freshened up a bit…with the emphasis on "a bit", and does look nicer.

This being Sunday, there was a steady flow of customers in and out of the restaurant, and a good number of take-out orders. And though the two young ladies running the floor looked a bit overwhelmed, they were very nice and friendly.

Things started with the basic chips and salsa.

Things look the same, right? So why a new post? Well, first off, like most places, prices have increased a bit. Pupusas are now $1.99, still a bargain, and the weekend soups (like in this post), have gone up a dollar to $7.95. It is still a very reasonable eating option.

Also gone is the "whole bucket of curtido", which is now served thusly:

Still, a change in prices, and modification of side dishes, would not usually mean a new post.

What would entice me to do an updated post? Well, today we noticed an item on the menu, we had not noticed before.

It's called Pacayas Forradas con Huevo ($7.95). Never heard of it. Doesn't look like anything particularly interesting. But brush off some of the really nice mildly sweet and rich tomato based sauce, and the egg batter, and something like this looks back out at ya'.

Don't they look like little tentacles that are going to reach out and grab you? Or maybe baby-baby corn? The pacayas, had a crunch to it, and a puckery-tannic bitterness, that bothered the Missus a bit. The sauce did well to balance out the flavor. And lest you think this is an ovo-vegetarian dish, we spied strands of meat in the sauce, and pulled out a chicken wing-tip from under the pacayas. The sauce was good….very good, and we mopped every drop of it up with the tortillas.

So what is pacaya? Not much on the Internet, but I found this post and photo from a Guatemala blog that provided a good bit of information. Appears that this was the flower from a species of palms called Chamaedorea.

And yes, the Pupusas are still quite good.

And Pupusas de Queso con Loroco has been added to them menu (or maybe we just didn't notice before). You can find a photo of Loroco on this post from Ed from Yuma.

My favorite of the day was the Pupusa de Chicharron, which was so good, I forgot to take a photo of it. Great pork flavor.

So why El Salvadoran food today…and why have I been checking out a Guatemalan blog? hmmmm……..

El Salvador Pupuseria y Restaurante
3824 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Yum Cha Cafe – A brief look…..

January 31, 2009 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Yum Cha Cafe has closed

It seems that a whole bunch of FOYs (Friends of Yoso) have been on "Yum Cha Cafe watch". A few days back, FOY Trent email'd me saying that he saw equipment being moved into the space….and like a good YCC groupie, I was there that afternoon to take a photo.

Walking up to the window, I peered at the menu…..and felt funny. This was getting a bit out of hand. There's a fine line between groupie and stalker. So I backed a-waaay from the window, leaving behind the gathered condensation left by my nose and hands, walked away, and decided to tuck Yum Cha Cafe back into the far reaches of my mind.

Until……. I received an email from another FOY, Fred, who informed me that Yum Cha Cafe was open. A perfect storm had formed. I had gone in to work at 6am and been so busy that I skipped lunch, I was hungry, the Missus had also been "shopping" so She had skipped lunch. Yum Cha Cafe here we come…..

There are two ways of ordering…you can either fill in one of the order sheets and hand it to someone….or elbow your way in line and order from one of the ladies, who may hand you off to another lady, who in turn, will pass you off to the cashier. One other thing, Vietnamese is the language of choice for many of the employees at this location of Yum Cha Cafe.

Compared to the San Gabriel location, the prices here are about 40 cents to a dollar more here in San Diego.

And there was a full complement of Chinese BBQ, but no Rice Porridge today.

Yum Cha Cafe in San Gabriel serves up decent quality food at good prices, how would the new San Diego location hold up? Well…… we'd like to make a few more visits, so you'll have to wait for a bit. But that means that you be able to visit, and form your own opinions, right?

But just as a tease, here's some chicken feet ($1.39):

I'm showing these with the express purpose of tempting FOY and fellow food blogger CAB.

I think the Missus kinda enjoyed these…

Even though the prices here are 40% higher than LA, the Missus and I filled up for a total (including tax) of $8.78. And because great minds think alike, I think we saw Cathy's Husband (The Mister) walking into the place as we were driving out!

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

Open Daily: 8am-8pm

Wandering Chopsticks writes about the San Gabriel location of Yum Cha Cafe in this post.

A white bean and sausage Cassoulet-ish meal

January 30, 2009 Cathy What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog about food we (Kirk, ed (from Yuma) and Cathy) eat. We like to talk about it. You apparently like to read about it. Welcome back.

Hi. Cathy here, making a meal for two for less than or equal to $5 out of stuff I found on sale this week.

Casseroles are communal meals- one dish meant to be shared. Cassoulet, a French casserole meal, is based with white beans, meat and herbs. Essentially, it is a peasant dish said to date back to the 14th century siege of Castlenaudary during the Hundred Years' War, fed to the soldiers to keep them strong and send the invaders away. If you win at Trivial pursuit by knowing this little fact, you owe me.

The French can make cassoulet kind of very fancy, using duck confit or smoked duck as a protein, but you can use chicken, or sausage, smoked pork, pork rind, pig knuckles or a combination of meats. White beans are the key ingredient.

It so happened that Vons had the smoked sausage marked down to $1.99 and the one pound of beans was 49 cents at Food 4 Less, so this was going to be an extremely inexpensive couple of meals.

I'll mention some optional add ins as I go along.

Rinse and clean one pound of white beans and put into a pot with 8 Cups of water.

Let boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat, cover and let stand one hour.

Next, put in one whole small onion, one whole carrot and the center of a celery stalk (you know-the feathered part that you usually toss out). I also put in a couple of sprigs of thyme and two bay leaves.

Let simmer until the rest of the water is absorbed and the beans are mostly tender and fully almost cooked, about an hour.

(You want all of these ingredients whole, because you will be removing them).

While the beans are cooking, chop up the onion, carrot and celery and put into a hot pan with olive oil. Let the ingredients sweat on low heat for about 20 minutes. Until the onions are translucent (not burned).

Add the sliced sausage and some Herbes de Provence and saute until warmed through, about 5 minutes.

Now add some liquid (beef or chicken broth or stock, and-or some red wine, or just water-but add some more seasoning if you only add water) and simmer for another five minutes-to get that flavor infused in the meat and vegetables.

Remove the whole vegetables from the cooked beans, which should have very little (if any)water in it and add the vegetable sausage mix. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes until the liquid is also absorbed into the beans.

You could serve with a salad or piece of crusty bread. The flavors get deeper overnight.

Cathy's Cassoulet

1 lb white beans, 2 small onions, celery and carrots, smoked pork sausage, broth or red wine, Herbes de Provence.

Optional: smoked ham, pork, pork rind, chicken or duck. Brown the chicken or duck if you are using it.

Quick soak the beans. (add 8 C water, boil for 2 minutes, cover, remove from heat and let soak for one hour.

To the beans, add one whole carrot, one whole small onion, a few celery stalks to the water and simmer until the rest of liquid is absorbed, about 50 minutes. (optional: add fresh thyme and 2-3 bay leaves) Remove those whole vegetables (and herbs).

In another pan, with about 2 Tbs olive oil, on low heat, sweat a chopped onion, celery and carrot until the onion is translucent-about 20 minutes. Add the sliced sausage and some Herbes de Provence and stir, heating through the meat (about 5 minutes).

Add liquid (broth and wine or water and some Herbes de Provence) to cover the vegetable/meat mix, bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable/meat/liquid mix to the cooked flavored beans. Mix well and return to a low heat, covered, until the liquid is absorbed into the beans (about 15 minutes).

Luang Prabang: Tat Kuang Si, Boungnasouk Restaurant, and the Night Handicraft Market

January 29, 2009 mmm-yoso Lao Restaurants, Laos, Luang Prabang, Travel

For us, one of the must visit sites around Luang Prabang is Tat Kuang Si, Kuang Si Waterfall, located about 20 miles South of Luang Prabang. Why? Well, because of this:

It's pretty easy to get to…you hire a "Jumbo", who drops by a "ticket office" and get admission to falls for you.

The Jumbo will park in a parking-shopping-eating area, and you can take one of either two routes. One is a well paved asphalt road, and the other is a pretty easy forest trail that meanders it's way up to the falls.

Some of it was mildly reminiscent of Kbal Spean in Cambodia.

You could hear the water rushing down alongside the forest trail. There were a few areas where folks can swim in the crystal clear water. Also along the trail is the Luang Prabang Bear Rescue Center.

All the bears here have been confiscated from poachers, and they all looked to be in good shape. Adriactic Black Bears (Moon Bears) are endangered, mostly due to Habitat Fragmentation, and the market for bear parts and bile.

You can find more info here.

Funny, there are two things that I've never, ever done on our international vacations…… one of them is buy a t-shirt. But Laos finally broke me, I ended up buying a "Free the Bears" t-shirt, as well as a BeerLao t-shirt. I also broke the other rule, more about that later……

As we walked up the trail, we passed a few "mini-falls".

And to tell you the truth, I had not expected much. I've seen more than my fair share of waterfalls. But I already thought this excursion was well worth the time. There were the bears, and I was enchanted by the pristine looking water.

But as we walked in the clearing and took a look at the falls…..

I realize that my lousy photography skills really doesn't do justice to the falls. But for a scale comparison, check out the guy in the photo to the right.

The falls are 180 feet of crystal clear water. There are no liability issues here, you can walk pretty much right up to the falls. And cross on wooden bridges in various states of maintenance.

Boungnasouk Restaurant:

Lunch on that day was at a restaurant we passed on our way back from Somchan Restaurant. Just like the afore mentioned restaurant, Boungnasouk(the restaurant is owned by the guest house across the street) was located with a view over the Mekong.

We had looked over the menu, and thought it would be a decent alternative.

Not being very hungry we ordered just a few items. Very predictable items…..

Of course I got the Khai Pene:

This version of the dried, pressed, and fried river moss was thinner than the version at Kheam Kong Restaurant, and had more "stuff" going on.

The Jeow Bong came on the side, and was by far the best version we had on the trip.

Nice garlic flavor, with a mild spiciness. The water buffalo skin pieces were a bit big, but not too tough.

Of course the Missus got the Luang Prabang Salad:

The Salat Nyam was not very good, the dressing lacked any great egg flavor, though the watercress was nice and tender. Boiled Egg slices were also omitted, and while the cucumbers were decent, the tomatoes (strange for Luang Prabang) were under-ripe, and lacked the "flavor of sushine".

To finish things off, we had the Cucumber Salad:

This cucumber version, of the more well known papaya salad, was nicely pungent, but the heat had been gringo-ized, and the seeds were not removed before shredding.

Over all, mediocre……

The Night Handicraft Market:

Around 4pm there is Luang Prabang's version of evening "traffic". Sisavangvong, from the National Museum until the intersection of Kitsalat becomes a bustling beehive of activity.

Part of it is due to folks heading home, but most of it is because the street is undergoing the transformation to the Night Handicraft Market.

The sandwich and fruit drinks booths, move from the area on the corner of Kitsalat, across the main street.

Electricity is set-up via a tangle of extension cords on the street.

Food stalls are set-up along the side streets. This woman specialized in pig parts, especially heads. Over several days I spotted her method of keeping herself "nourished". For every three or four pieces she chopped, she ate one!

At sundown, the main street is closed, and Sisavangvong becomes a huge market…..of handcrafts of infinite variety.

And while the parents sell and socialize, the children study under the glow of the lightbulbs.

And the food stalls do a bang up business.

Usually having our meals fairly early, we didn't eat much at the stalls. But one night, the Missus saw a vendor making the Lao version of Kanom Krok.

And couldn't resist. But these weren't very good, the flavor was off, as was the overall texture.

I'm sure if we spent enough time in these alleyways, we'd have found some pretty good, and cheap eats.

One of the most entertaining little encounters happened at the Night Market. On our first night in Luang Prabang, walking through the night market, we noticed that many of the women vendors, had branches in their hands. On top of these branches were a nut like fruit. They were cracking away, just going at it. The Missus, who has loves sunflower seeds, was determined to find out what this was. And so we were off on a mission!

The Missus finally cornered a woman who was munching (cracking) away.

Not being able to find these…..the Missus was determined to buy them off the woman. Now the Missus fancies Herself as being quite the bargainer, and when the woman said 8,000 Kip, the Missus responded with; "no-no, 4,000 Kip." And so the great deal was made.

The Missus felt proud and quite smug….She had been "Queen of the Deal…Baroness of the Bargain." Of course we turned the corner and found out that a bunch of this stuff went for 2,000 Kip! We also noticed that the woman had already eaten half the bunch!

So what was this? I was told it's hops! As in beer hops!

And so, every evening, under the heat of the lightbulbs, the Missus became a "hop-popping" machine. "Oh (crack) this is (crack-crunch) sooo (crack – pop) good! I'll (crack-pop-crunch) really miss (crack) it!"

Ka Ti Thai Cuisine

January 28, 2009 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

**** Ka Ti Thai has closed

I was driving past Montgomery Field on Aero Drive, when I noticed a tiny sign posted on the grass in front of one of those non-descript grey colored strip malls. Craning my head to read it, I almost drove right off the road! Sheesh, if you thought texting or cell phones were major driving hazards…… But there was a payoff for my pulled neck muscle. The sign read "Thai Food". I took a right on Glen Curtiss Road, and another right onto Gibbs Drive, which, along with running parallel to Aero, is the only way you'll get in to the parking lot of these strip malls.

And lo' and behold, what was once a pizza shop, was now a Thai Restaurant! In the oddest of locations. Unfortunately, the place was closed.

Luckily, I found myself in the area around lunchtime several days later. I parked and entered the tiny restaurant.

The first thing I noticed was the decor………wow, lot's of lace. It looked more like a Southern Tea Room than a Thai Restaurant.

I had spied a list of Lunch Specials ranging in price from $6.95 to $8.95 on the billboard outside.

I was greeted, and seated by a smiling Young Lady and was handed the menu. I was positively famished so I ordered a few items.

I started with the Som Tom (Papaya Salad – $7.95). In keeping with the S(tandard) O(perating) P(rocedure), I was asked for a "heat level". My reply of "Thai spicy please", was met with a gasp, an uncomfortable smile, and a "please, one moment". At which time the young lady, scurried to the kitchen. I could overhear a discussion, and there was some moving noises…perhaps preparing the defibrillator, and maybe the fire extinguisher? The Server returned, and obviously concerned with my survival, verified that I indeed wanted my Papaya Salad spicy. After reaffirming my commitment to chilies, she gladly placed my order.

The Som Tom arrived, nice, bright, and fresh. The young lady thoughtfully included some extra napkins for me, which came in very handy. As for the salad itself, it was very "HWOP", that would be "hot with out pungency". I enjoyed the sweat inducing spiciness, as well as the good amount of tart-sour lime in the dish, but there was a lack of fish sauce; and no other component (dry shrimp, salted crab) to add that umami bang to the dish.

I also ordered the Spicy Noodles with Chicken (lunch special price – $6.95). It arrived looking pretty good.

This was pretty much a drunken noodles type of dish. The chicken was moist and soft. The noodles sorely needed a bit of "wok hay" as it presented itself as flaccid edging on mushy. The dish was very tamarind heavy, making it too tart….. you know the phrase, "too much of a good thing….." The heat level was decent. I took my leftovers home, and the Missus had a taste of it, and responded with a "whoa……..puckery." Still, the service was very friendly, and I wanted to give this place another shot.

So, with the Missus occupied for the evening, I dropped by Ka Ti for take-out. I had wanted Nahm Tok, but they were out, so instead I went with the Marinated Pork Ribs ($12.95). Which, according to the menu, were pork ribs marinated in Coca-Cola. While waiting for my order, I heard the microwave pinging, not once, but three times, which did not bode well for my meal. When I arrived home and removed the plastic cover from my tray, this is what greeted me:

The ribs looked very pale, I had expected something with more caramelization. The flavor was very reminiscent of braised sweet-sour pork, and was not bad. The texture of the ribs were very soft, too soft, again much like something braised. My first thought was that they could have just used pork shoulder with a Coca-Cola braise and achieved something better than this for less. The veggies were very routine broccoli and carrots. I was provided with a good sized container of Jasmine Rice as well.

You know, I like the staff at Ka Ti, they are warm and pleasant folks from just outside Bangkok. I want them to do well, especially in this location. But I found the food to be mediocre Americanized Thai, though I've done much worse, and paid much more for Thai in San Diego. Still, this is the best, if not the only Thai for at least a mile, and adds more diversity to what is offered around Serra Mesa.

Ka Ti Thai Cuisine
8690 Aero Drive #114
San Diego, CA 92123

Open Mon – Fri – 9am – 7pm

View Larger Map

Yuma: Jeannie Wah’s Chinese & American Bistro

January 27, 2009 ed fromyuma Chinese Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

It's ed again, over in Yuma, not Kirk or Cathy. You are warned.

This old school Yuma Chinese restaurant has closed.

Shortly after I moved to Yuma, I decided to try every Chinese restaurant in town. It wasn't that hard — there weren't that many. Several old time Yumans recommended a Cantonese steakhouse named Gene's. It was the oldest Asian eatery in town.

So I stopped by one lunchtime and ordered a lunch special: chicken chow mein. What I was served looked a lot like this:

As soon as I began eating, I flashed back to my small town childhood and the "country and western" Chinese restaurant that was my parents' favorite in the 1950s and 60s. Every thing seemed exactly the same, from the combination of vegetables down to the predominant flavor of American soy sauce.

And like the memory from my childhood, this chicken and vegetable melange topped a thick pile of crunchy noodles, just like you could get out of the can:

For me, this flashback was not the resurrection of a pleasant memory, though to be fair, I should mention some friends who moved to Arizona from Boston and are so happy to find these old-school dishes that taste "just like the Cantonese food back in Massachusetts." In any case, Gene's was never my favorite, and I considered it a typical and ordinary ABCDE (Kirk's coinage: American Born Chinese Dining Establishment).

Gene's no longer exists, but the friendly woman who was its last manager has recently opened a new dining establishment, Jeannie Wah's Chinese & American Bistro:

She has a tough task in this economy, but she is trying to attract new customers with new dishes while still satisfying the old customers from Gene's with American food, snickerdoodles, and dishes like that old-school chicken chow mein ($8.50).

New note: I must say that the version of the chicken chow mein at Jeannie Wah's is better than the old version for 3 reasons. 1. The soy sauce is real soy sauce – not a complex flavor, but not bad either. 2. The Chinese greens mixed with the bean sprouts add a slight balancing touch of bitterness that works well in the dish. 3. The noodles are fried on premises and have real flavor and real crunch.

On my first visit to the very nicely decorated new eatery, I got lucky and ordered one of the lunch specials, the Wah's Up Today Noodle Bowl ($7):

This was really good, much better than any picture can convey. The broth was densely flavorful and rich. The chicken and barbecued pork were adequate as were the plentiful Chinese cabbage pieces and chopped Chinese mushrooms. The real highlight of the dish, even better than the outstanding stock, were the noodles. They had a perfect chew to them, with great mouthfeel and good flavor.

In fact, noodles seem to be one of the strong points of the restaurant. I recently ordered Gene's Cantonese Panfried Noodles ($11) to go:

Again the noodles were toothsome and flavorful. Notice the plentiful wok hay. The vegetable selection was also good. In addition to the usual suspects, there were sugar pea pods and plentiful crunchy baby corncobs. The only bummer in the entire dish were the shrimps. While their flavor was unexceptional, I never realized that it was possible to cook a shrimp to the point where it was as tough as sirloin steak. As tough as it is to believe this, that's how tough those shrimps were.

I also have picked up their version of Kung Pao chicken ($9.50):

The dish was good. I appreciated the plentiful topping of cashews, and the amount of chicken was generous as well. Providing texture and flavor contrast were more baby corns, onions, red bell peppers, and some type of mildly spicy chopped green pepper. As the picture shows, this dish was not super picante, but the red chili flakes and the chopped green chilies did provide a one/two capsicum punch.

Perhaps because of my central European roots, I love various combinations of pork and cabbage. At Jeannie Wah's, I was pleased to see double cooked pork on the menu ($8.50). And of course, I ordered it on one of my first visits to the restaurant:

The version here is very basic, but certainly adequate. Compared to the dish at Mandarin Palace (my favorite version in town), this one was very simple — just cabbage, barbecued pork, and chili flakes. The pork here also lacked the fatty richness that makes the rendition at Mandarin Palace so outstanding. Nonetheless, I could eat this again happily.

I'm glad that this restaurant opened. This is such a wonderful change from the Chinese buffets that dominated the Asian food scene here in Yuma just three or four years ago. Prices seem fair, and portions are generous. Istill need to explore more of the noodle dishes here, as they seem to be a real strength of the place. Nonetheless, Jeannie Wah's is not going to replace Yummy Yummy as my favorite local Cantonese place, nor does the menu offer the diversity of Mandarin Palace. Still, it fills a very flavorful niche out here in the desert.

Jeannie Wah's Chinese and American Bistro, 1360 4th Ave (actually off 14th St close to 5th Ave), Yuma AZ, 928-783-0080

You know by the line…….

January 26, 2009 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

At 815 in the morning at Sam Woo:

It's not any ordinary day. Granted, it ain't Thanksgiving at Honeybaked Hams…….

Anyway, whether you say, Gong Xi Fa Cai‏, or Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, or whatever you might say, we'd like to wish you all:

Happy Lunar New Year!

Soy Sauce Chicken Drumsticks

January 25, 2009 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Walking along the meat department of 99 Ranch Market, I was in search of something to make for dinner. Something easy and low stress…..when my eyes happened upon these:

The humble chicken drumstick. As I stood and stared(obviously mouth agape – good thing there were no flies around) at the styrofoam tray of poultry, my mind took me back to the joys of the drumstick. Has there ever been anything more perfectly designed than natures own "meat-on-a-stick?" And as a child, I adored them. So on this day, instead of the chicken legs, or whole fryer that I had been contemplating, I returned home with 8 drumsticks.

But what to do with them…….would it be a simple "fry-job"? Or perhaps a dijon based baked drumstick? There seemed to be a infinite number of options…… As I put away my groceries, direction became pretty clear. I had purchased some Gailan (Chinese Broccoli), so the direction would have to be Asian. And so I settled on doing a basic "Soy Sauce Chicken" recipe. Something I've been making for years. After all, I was doing drumsticks, so isn't there anything more basic than doing a simple soy sauce braise?

So here you go, a simple, Sunday, soy sauce, dish. You may want to make it on Saturday, and heat it on Sunday, it will taste better.

Soy Sauce Chicken Drumsticks

8-10 Chicken Drumsticks, or 3lbs various chicken parts, ORRR 1 whole fryer.
2 cloves of garlic smashed
2 3/4" pieces ginger smashed
2 star anise
4 scallions, white parts only, bruised
2 cups water
1 cup light soy sauce
2-3 Tb dark soy sauce
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup Shao Xing Wine

1 – In a wok or dutch oven combine water, ginger, star anise, garlic, and scallions, over medium heat.
2 – When water starts to boil, add soy sauce, sugar, and Shao Xing. Stir to dissolve sugar. At about this point, I always taste my braising liquid….if you've never done that before, please do…it may taste "yuck", but after making dishes over time, you'll be able to better predict how things will turn out, and make adjustments.
3 – Add chicken to wok, turning several times to make sure chicken is fully coated for about 5 minutes.
4 – Turn heat to low, and simmer chicken, turning every 8-10 minutes until done. These drumsticks took only 20 minutes. Do not overcook, the chicken will fall apart and get mushy.
5 – Serve with a little dish of the sauce.

You can take this in many directions….soy sauce eggs anyone? I found this to be close to the salty edge, so I made up a Ginger-Scallion Oil, just like what I make for my cold ginger chicken, which cut the salt and fat real well:

I hope you had a great weekend!