mmm-yoso – Page 482 – 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.

Simple Sardine Linguine: Ed’s $5 Friday

April 3, 2009 ed fromyuma Cooking, Recipes, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Cathy's busy, Kirk's busy, so today it's ed (from Yuma) sharing a favorite recipe. And yes, ed sometimes cooks on a budget.

These days we are all looking for cheap and tasty eats when we can find them. Stuck out here in the desert, I crave seafood, but craving seafood on a budget these days is tough anywhere. Today, however, I'm going to share with you an inexpensive and tasty seafood dish that can be made in Yuma and darn near anywhere else in the world. And this week, the ingredients to feed two people cost me only about five dollars.

Here's what the ingredients look like:

I will use both cans of sardines in olive oil (on sale this week for $1 each), about two thirds of a pound of linguine (figure $.65 worth), a bunch of flat leaf parsley ($.79 if memory serves), one yellow onion and a head of garlic (around a dollar total), one lemon (this time of year, given away free), four anchovies and a little of their oil, less than a tablespoon of Korean style crushed red pepper, and three tablespoons of capers (together they should bring me up to around $5).

Here's the list of ingredients:

One medium onion (sliced into strips)
One head garlic (chopped)
One bunch flat leaf (Italian) parsley (destemmed and chopped)
3 TBs drained capers
Zest and juice of one lemon
2 cans sardines in olive oil
4 anchovy filets (and maybe some oil from can)
2 tsp crushed spicy red pepper
2/3 lb linguini or other pasta
Some pasta water

I begin by frying the onions in the oil from the sardines and anchovies:

After the onions are properly fried, I add the chopped head of garlic and the four anchovies, cut into small pieces:
Before too long, I put in the crushed red pepper, the destemmed flat leaf parsley, and the capers.

Toward the end of the process, I mash up one of the cans of sardines and break the other up into large pieces, adding them to the pan:

As soon as they are properly stirred, I dump in the zest of the lemon with about half of the lemon's juice:

If I've synchronized things correctly, at this point the linguine will be slightly aldente and ready to eat. I add the linguine and a little bit of its pasta water into the pan, turn off the heat, and mix everything together. Because of the fishy oils and the dissolved anchovy, even those noodles that aren't covered with fleshy bits are full of the flavor of the sauce.

When the sauce does not fully integrate with the noodles, I place a clump of noodles in the middle of the plate and put extra sauce across the top of it. The finished dish (this is about one quarter of the complete recipe) looks like this:
I don't like to brag on my own cooking, but doggone this is good. Even Tina likes it. The sardine taste is upfront, deep, and thorough. The lemon, red chili, capers, and abundant parsley contribute flavorful background notes. Of course, none of my recipes is set in stone. Heck, some aren't even written down on paper. If I want more hot spice, more salty fish flavor, more lemon caper tang, or even more green herby parsley, I know what to do. But no cheese never.

Feeling frugal, Tina and I accompanied the pasta with a bottle of Rene Barbier Mediterranean White, which was a nice match – though it doubled the cost of the meal :-( . But for the truly frugal, I'm sure that this dish would make a bottle of Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio taste better too.

Give this recipe a try. Then mangia!

The Torta Factory

April 1, 2009 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Sandwiches

*** The Torta Factory has closed.

This little shop on El Cajon Boulevard opened up about three weeks ago. The balloons, and "Grand Opening Banner" beckoned me in.

The menu is simple, but growing everyday. On my first visit it had Tortas, Quesadillas, breakfast items, and Cemitas. They have now added tacos and huaraches, and I watch with glee as the ball of masa is formed and a tortilla is pressed out for its destiny as a huarache (huarache = "slipper", and is a slipper sized "tortilla" of sorts, topped with any number of items). The restaurant is pretty clean, and simply attired.

The salsa bar is standard, with all of the usual suspects.

My first visit was fun, the gentleman, who I believe is the owner is very friendly, and is eager to please. The prices are a bit higher than your regular taco shop, and watching the tortas being assembled, I knew this wasn't "just another taco shop."

I had Torta Milanesa de Res (breaded beef torta – $5.29):

What struck me about this torta was the bolillo (bread), it was light and airy, the crust was, well crusty, without being hard, and it was not overtoasted.

The milanesa was light and moist, but very mild in flavor. The smear of beans was just right, and most of all, this wasn't dredged in mayo.

It was a very balanced sandwich, one in which the sum of the parts worked together well. I can't say if it was the best Torta I've ever had, but I really enjoyed it. I left feeling satisfied, not like I'd been weighed down by a ton of grease and saturated fat, which has it's own rightful place in (and around) my heart, but this was very pleasant.

Which meant that I had to bring the Missus along on my next trip. The Missus wasn't very hungry, and is a bit picky about the amount of cheese (minimal) and sour cream (none) on Her Mexican food. She decided on the Quesadilla de Flour de Calabasa (zucchini blossom quesadilla – $3.99), and requested it light on the cheese, and with no sour cream. I watched as the tortilla was again formed by hand. It was a simple, but delicious looking dish:

And it was a good idea to get this easy on the cheese…since it was mozzarella cheese. The Missus loved the Guacamole, and told me She could really taste every ingredient in the Quesadilla clearly.

This time I went for the Torta de Bistec Ranchero ($5.29):

Thin sliced beef (a la Carne Asada) browned, than simmered in a mild tomato based sauce. the flavor of the onions and garlic came through. And the beef was very tender. As you can see this was dressed a bit differently from my previous Torta:

No chredded lettuce this time, and the cheese was pretty much an afterthought and added nothing to the sandwich. Again the bolillo was light and airy. In fact, I enjoyed this more than the Torta Milanesa. It could be because the gentleman told me to try some of his "chili paste", which is not on the salsa bar. He gave us a small container of what I believe is a Chipotle based paste.

It was smokey with a nice slow burn…….

On my last visit, I was determined to try something different, and went with the Cemita de Pata ($7.99). Cemitas are a type of sandwich which differentiates itself from Tortas mainly by the type of roll used. It is a round sesame seed crusted roll. The cemita I had previously was toasted, but nice and fluffy. This one was toasted, and on the crumbly side. It was pretty big……

The roll was also fairly dry, I prefer the bolillos here. If you read the menu, and think this is beef shank…be aware…..this is gelatinous, tendon like material from cows feet.

It had been cooked low and slow in a very potent vinegar and citrus mixture, making it very puckery and sour. There was a good deal of bitterness going on as well. On this day, all the customers were Hispanic, and one of them took an interest in what I had ordered. when my Cemita arrived, he asked me what I ordered. when I informed him that it was the Cemita de Pata, he laughed and told me that he is from Puebla, where Cemitas originated. He loves his Cemitas, but even he won't eat this. He did tell me that, "this place makes good stuff." So I'll take his word for it.

To me, The Torta Factory is not the place to revive yourself with a greasebomb from an all day drinking binge, or to kill your hang-over with protein overload. It does a nice job with light and well prepared food. For the other stuff, perhaps you'll do best grabbing your California Burrito from one of those 'Berto places.

The Torta Factory
4595 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115
Open Daily – 7am – 8pm

View Larger Map

Pan Fried Cucumber with Perilla – Zi Su Jian Huang Gua

March 31, 2009 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

Yep, we're still "veggin' out……" Here's another recent vegetable dish. I'm always on the look-out for something a bit different, perhaps the use of an ingredient that I'm familiar with, but had never thought of using in a type of cuisine. I saw a recipe in Fuchsia Dunlop's tome on Hunan cookery, The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, that caught my attention because it used Perilla. The original recipe uses zǐ sū (紫苏), purple perilla, but the only perilla I could find in the quantity I wanted and in good shape was Korean Perilla, which I substituted for purple perilla. What little info I could find on the use of Perilla in Chinese cuisine was a reference to Perilla Leaf Porridge as a remedy for common colds, and its many medicinal uses.

This turned out to be a remarkable dish. The cleansing flavor of the cucumber, along with the spice of dried chilies and chili oil (substituted for fresh chilies), the salty umami of soy sauce, along with a touch of sour from the clear Chinese rice vinegar. The vinegar also added a bit of sweetness to which I added a touch of sugar(my own addition), sesame oil added a nice rich nuttiness to the dish, which was all wrapped up with a good amount of minty-anise-herbaceous perilla, which really cut through the spice.

In her book Fuchsia Dunlap calls the cooking method used for this dish as "jian", pan-frying, versus "chao", stir-frying. And indeed to get the best result, you begin by laying the cucumber in a single layer in the wok to attain a nice golden color. Be aware that the yield is about 60% of what you started with.

As usual, I've taken a few liberties with the recipe.

Pan Fried Cucumber with Perilla

1 Large English Cucumber, sliced in half lengthwise, seeded, and cut crosswise into 1/4" slices
3-4 Cloves fo garlic chopped
2 tsp Premium quality light soy sauce
1-2 tsp Clear Chinese Rice vinegar
1/2 tsp white sugar
2 dried chilies deseeded
1 Tb Chili Oil w/flakes
1/3 Cup of perilla leaves, cut into a chiffonade
1 tsp Sesame Oil
3 Tb peanut oil

– Heat wok over high heat until smoking
– Add oil and swirl around wok. Add dried chilies and scald, but do not burn.
– Add the cucumber slices in a single layer around the wok and fry until the cucumber slices start turning golden brown
– Turn cucumber slices as necessary.
– Once slices start developing color, add sugar, garlic, and chili oil, and stir fry.
– When dish becomes fragrant, splash in soy sauce and vinegar, and mix well.
– Remove from heat and mix in perilla leaves. Stir in sesame oil and serve.

Some Revisits: Do Re Mi House and Leilani’s Restaurant

March 30, 2009 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

**** Both Do Re Mi House and the Serra Mesa location of Leilani's have closed

Do Re Mi House:

Hard to believe that I hadn't been back here for over three years. Sometime during that period the lettering on the windows have been redone, and now in addition to the Korean Food, it says they serve "Japanese Traditional Food"?!?? The menu looked pretty much the same, as did the restaurant, though they've removed the back partition to the place. And lunch is still pretty cheap, the Bulgogi Lunch Special at the time of my visit (December) was still $5.99. Looked exactly the same as well.

Funny how tastes change, I found the Bulgogi to be on the sweet side, though it was fairly tender, and the mandoo were better than on my last visit. Still, not bad, if the price is still $5.99.

And I still love the potatoes here. If this visit is any indication, service has now become the typical "dump and duck"…..

Do Re Mi House
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Ste M
San Diego, CA 92111

My previous post on Do Re Mi House can be found here.

Leilani's Restaurant:

Also from back in December. I got my Loco Moco fix from Leilani's Restaurant. This of course meant a Hilo Loco for me:

In some ways it was the same dependable Loco……nice gravy, hand formed patty, lean, and perhaps on the tough side, but the same as usual, as were the eggs, which could have been a bit more crisp, but were decently runny……

And there was a good amount of gravy over everything. But on this visit, I felt like something was missing…….there was a good amount of Kielbasa and Portuguese Sausage in the fried rice, which was cooked just right, but the entire package tasted strangely bland…….like they forgot to season things……

With this costing ten bucks, maybe I'm just expecting more, or maybe it was just an off day? Though the mac salad was really, really, good on this day…so good I forgot to take a photo! Maybe I need to head back to PB, and see how Leilani is doing?

Leilani's Hawaiian Restaurant
3232 Greyling Drive
San Diego, CA 92123
858-565-4637

My previous post on Leilani's can be found here.

Dry Fried Green Beans – Gan Bian Si Ji Dou

March 29, 2009 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

I've received emails in the past about various meals that have been posted. Most of those meals are family-style Chinese in nature, and those emails comment about the paucity of vegetable dishes. I'll let you in on a little secret….we love leftovers. The Missus also believes (perhaps a little misguidedly) that I can stir fry vegetables pretty well. And since we bought the Big Kahuna the Missus has problems with spending $$'s on vegetable dishes She believes we can do just as well at home. So we'll stretch our leftovers adding vegetable dishes along the way. Works well for us, so I thought I'd start posting on a few of those dishes, all of which are very simple, so I hope you don't mind.

Here's a dish that you don't need a Big Kahuna for, a classic Sichuan dish that you'll find everywhere, even in Americanized Sichuan Restaurants.

I've changed this dish a bit over the years. To be able to create this dish on i GreenBeans04 mpulse, without too much planning, I replaced the ground pork with dried shrimp. Also, instead of deep frying the beans, I've adopted the "dry-frying" technique that Fuchsia Dunlop uses in her wonderful cookbook, Land of Plenty. It takes a bit more time, but there's no wasted oil, and instead of adding more oil to the dish after dry-frying the green beans, I add my chilies and other ingredients directly to the remaining oil, and this creates even more flavor. I'm also pretty specific regarding a few other items in the dish. I'll use drinking quality Shaoxing wine, it has a mellower and smoother flavor. If you can find good Tianjin preserved vegetable, or really good Ya Cai (Sichuan pickled mustard green leaves), I'm sure it'll make this dish even better. I just used what I had in the cupboard, canned shredded Sichuan preserved vegetable. I've made the Sichuan Peppercorn optional, since the Missus doesn't care for the flavor in this dish. I've also made a similar dish using asparagus. I'll blanch the asparagus first, than do a brief "dry fry", before finishing the dish in the same manner as the green beans.

So here goes…..

Dry Fried Green Beans

3/4 Lb green beans, rinsed, trimmed, and de-stringed, cut or broken into pieces about 2" long.
3-8 Dried Chilies, deseeded
4 cloves of garlic minced
2 Tb Sichuan preserved vegetable chopped
2 Tb dried shrimp chopped (if necessary)
2 tsp Shaoxing wine – drinking quality
2 Tb Premium quality light soy sauce
1-2 tsp ground Sichuan Peppercorn (optional)
1-2 tsp (or more) Chili Oil (hopefully you make you own at home)
1 tsp Sesame Oil
3-4 Tb Peanut Oil GreenBeans03
Salt, if necessary.

1 – Heat your wok until it smokes.
2 – Add peanut oil, and turn heat down to medium.
3 – Add green beans and stir fry over medium heat(4-6 minutes) until the skins start to pucker.
4 – Remove the green beans with a slotted spoon(drain off excess oil) to a plate lines with paper towels.
5 – Add dried chilies to remaining oil and scald, add dried shrimp and stir fry until shrimps start to crisp.
6 – Add Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and stir fry.
7 – Add preserved vegetable, and stir fry until the vegetable is heated. Add Sichuan Peppercorn if desired.
8 – Toss the beans back into the wok and combine. Add chili oil. Taste, and adjust flavoring. Add salt if desired (you probably won't need to).
9 – Remove from heat and add sesame oil.

There you go…….

To tease your tastebuds a bit further, Wandering Chopsticks makes her own version of this dish. You can find that post here.

Saturday Snacks: Camau Bakery, Cheeseballs Perhaps?, or for something a bit more savory……

March 28, 2009 mmm-yoso Filipino Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Howie Eats - Where the Foodie from Foodieview Eats, yoso-silly

Just some "snacks" for Saturday…..

Camau Bakery & Deli:

This place had caught our interest a while back. We'd seen the prepackged Banh Beo, and other snacks with the "Camau Bakery" label on them. But the place always seemed closed. But on this morning, I noticed the shop was actually open! At least the open sign was out. So we stopped immediately, and found some parking. And walked on over to the door……

And it was locked!!! But the nice lady inside waved at us, opened the door and let us in. I kinda got the feeling that Camau really does catering, large orders, and wholesale orders. Nothing was out, and there were pans of covered snacks waiting for pick-up. But after passing by so many times, the Missus wasn't to be denied. She pointed at one of the containers, and said…"I want that!" The woman, who was a bit amused at the Missus's antics, told Her, "this is for an order, but since they're not going to be picked up until later this afternoon we can make more." Her name is Kieu…so thank you so much!

So what did the Missus get?

Well, a bunch of styrofoam containers of course…..

Just kidding. She got a large order of Che Xoi Nuoc. It's a "sweet soup" of sorts, flavored with sugar and ginger. In the "soup" are large dumplings made of rice flour, and stuffed with mung bean paste, much like the Chinese Tāngyuán. These also had scallions in them, and was more savory than other versions we've had before. Still, after being chilled ice cold, and covered with the accompanying cocunut milk and sesame seeds, it was pretty good.

I just wish they had regular hours…..

Camau Bakery & Deli
4857 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 583-2904

Some Cheese Balls Maybe???

One of my favorite lines from the movie, I Love You to Death. Recently, "MG" brought these to work. I had never seen them before.

Apparently, these were the "newest thing" at Valerio's. Buttery, sweet, and a bit salty….maybe a bit too oily for me….none the less, not too bad. If you like buttery…….

And how's this for the kicker….it's filled with cream cheese….

Apparently, it was Valerio's in Mira Mesa who first started selling this…..and now it's being sold at other locations. This one was from the National City location.

Valerio's City Bakery
1631 E 8th St
National City, CA 91950
(619) 477-8588

And for something a bit more "savory"….

You can get this:

Need a closer look?

It was nice breaking bread (and other things) with two of my favorite people, Howie (please check out his recently redesigned Foodie View) and Candice. And this was one of the dishes we sampled.

If you're wondering about the main ingredient, I think the food labeling may be very accurate in this instance:

Fishing Feed? = Bait???? It's all on the label!

Hope you're all having a grest weekend!

Which Wich ? – Hillcrest

March 26, 2009 mmm-yoso Sandwiches

**** This location of Wich Wich has closed

After reading this post by Paul Jamason of SD Urban, I've been following the progress of a new Sandwich Chain setting up shop in San Diego. But apparently, I hadn't been following close enough, because I didn't know the place had opened until I read another post by Paul in late February. Located on Fifth Avenue, in the Guild Theatre location, this chain asks the eternal question, "Which 'Wich?"

And even though the "sandwich assembly line" looks pretty generic….

But the concept is a bit different. Only sandwiches are served, and all sandwiches are priced the same, $5.25. There are 10 categories of sandwiches, ranging from "Turkey" to "Seafood" to a "Comfort" category(more on that one later). Doing the math that's 50 basic sandwiches. And there are only two types of bread available, white or wheat, and 8 different types of "cheese".

From there it can get a bit crazy…..there are what seems to be an endless combination of spreads, veggies, spices, and oils. All of which (or 'wich) you fill out on a brown paper sack. Once you've designed your 'wich, you hanedthe bag to the person at the register who clips it to a line and it makes its way down the assemble station. When your name is called, your 'wich is ready.

Pretty neat concept, huh? Kinda fun, maybe a bit entertaining…. Which 'wich says it creates "Superior Sandwiches", which (or 'wich) leads to the question, what is a superior sandwich? All I could get from the Which Wich website is a bunch of marketing babble, about being superior because of the innovative ordering "system", and employees commitment to 100% satisfaction.

On this day, I got a BLT on white with provolone, and just for kicks horseradish mayo. All the sandwiches come in one size, and is toasted. In fact, it does look a lot like a Quizno's sandwich, in shape and size:

So what's to like? It's a decent sized sandwich, and I like the hot pepper mix, and the horsradish mayo had some kick. I'm glad the nice gal who made my 'wich cut it in half because it was pretty messy.

The bread was meh, the turkey was pretty much the same semi processed stuff as Quizno's and Blimpies, and the bacon was chopped into bits that fell all over the place. They had also slathered a bit too much mayo over everything. It was better than Subway, perhaps a bit better than Quizno's…but not by much. In the end, it seemed more a nice concept than anything else.

But oh what a concept it is…….. There's a whole section of 'wiches called "Comforts".

And you can see what I saw, right? It's right there……not just Spam, but in case you're worried that you're getting some inferior canned meat product like Treet (you should never name your canned meat product something that rhymes with 'feet'), or even, god forbid, gasp… SPAM® Lite, you can take comfort in knowing you can get the one and only, SPAM® Classic.

The question remains, how do I complete this superior sandwich masterpiece? Feeling a bit of guilt, I checked off the "wheat" column. But when faced with the selection of cheeses, I just couldn't resist….. what do you do when the world is your oyster?

After all what could possibly be a more perfect partner for a canned meat product, than a processed cheese spread? I finished off the sandwich in a likewise schizoid manner, partnering the "crispy onion strings"(deep fried onions) with "fat free mayo", and finished the sandwich off with lettuce, tomato, and pepper mix. To her credit, the gal on the register didn't bat an eye when she saw what I ordered. There was a bit of a confusion finding the SPAM® Classic from the guys in the assembly line. But I did receive my sandwich.

I'm not going to go into detail about this "superior sandwich", other than to say that it was a mess, and made a mess because it wasn't cut in half, and the 5 slices (!) of SPAM® Classic(I'm thinking they had some canned meat they needed to "Spam-off") didn't look nor feel like it was heated.

Some Whiz on my Spam….a truly superior sandwich indeed!

All kidding aside, Which Wich may not be a bad choice if you're looking for a quick, inexpensive sandwich. Just remember it is a "chain sandwich". The concept is fun, and as you see you can be pretty creative (or a knucklehead), and get whichever 'wich your heart desires.

Which Wich
3825 Fifth Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

(619) 574-9424

Las Vegas: Rincon Criollo and Luv It Frozen Custard

March 25, 2009 mmm-yoso Cuban Restaurants, Desserts, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt, Las Vegas, Nevada, Road Trip

After dropping the Missus off in the morning, I took a 4 hour "stroll" around the strip. Things looked pretty much the same on the strip since my last visit. I had to laugh when I passed the Bellagio…….

The last time I was here with the Missus, She was attending a class as well. The venue for the class was Imperial Palace (ick), and while I had Steak Frites at Mon Ami Gabi for lunch, overlooking the Lake at the Bellagio, the Missus was served Baloney Sandwiches (true story) for lunch! I'm not quite sure if She was exaggerating, but the Missus told me the baloney had a green tinge to it….. Luckily, this time the venue was a bit better.

By the time I hit the Wynn, I was starting to get hungry, so I headed back to my car. I had one lunch in Vegas, and there were many choices. But I knew what was ruled out….

No cheap drinks…..

And no buffet…..

And in keeping with our eating "theme", nothing on the strip…..

I had more than a few choices to consider. Perhaps some Filipino Food? Salo Salo Grill had been recommended, and good ol' Elena's Restaurant had set up shop in Vegas as well. There was Yun Nan Garden for Yunnan and Sichuan. But I thought some Cuban food sounded good. Way back in the days "BB" (before blogging) 'Jorge' had recommended two Cuban Restaurants in Las Vegas. One of them was Havana Grill , but that was a bit more of a drive than I wanted. Which is how I found myself driving North on Las Vegas Boulevard, past the Little White Chapel, "Where Joan Collins and Michael Jordan were married!" (Not to each other I hope) And farther out, past the shadows of the Stratosphere. An drove into a parking lot with some pretty colorful art work:

I parked, and walked past the Reggae Lifestyle store….

And the "Adult Superstore"……

And to my destination……

Rincon Criollo Cuban Restaurant:

When I arrived, the place was starting to get busy, an older woman stood, and pointed me to a table in the corner. Most of the customers there had the rapport and body language that told me they were regulars. Most of the conversations were in Spanish……

The menu here is located under the plate glass covering each table.

Jorge had recommended a couple of dishes to me……the two version of Puerco Fritas came highly recommended, but that would have wiped me out for the rest of the day. We still had dinner plans for Lotus of Siam, so I decided on something other than pork.

As I was reading over the menu, some bread, toasted in the "Plancha" (Cuban Sandwich Press) arrived.

I had decided on the Boliche Mechado ($9.99). Boliche is a Beef Roast (usually rump roast), stuffed with Chorizo sausages, simmered in a tomato based sauce. And when it arrived at the table, it looked just like photos I'd seen of the dish:

It's very hard to see in the photo above, but there are two chorizo sausages stuffed into the slices of beef roast. The beef was nice and moist, firm, but not tough. The sauce was quite nice, tangy, with a mild garlic flavor. My only complaint would be that it was served lukewarm. I'd have preferred it a bit hotter. It came with some plain, and very mild tasting black beans and rice. The chorizo added a bit more "zing" to the dish, but not much.

Of course it seemed like every other customer had ordered the Masas de Puerco Fritas (deep fried chunks of pork) or Chuletas de Puerco Fritas (pork chops), both of which looked wonderful. Talk about food envy. Still, this was a pretty good lunch.

Rincon Criollo
1145 South Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89104

(702) 388-1906

Later that evening, the Missus wanted something "sweet" to freshen Her palate after dinner at Lotus of Siam. One of the really nice Servers recommended Luv It Frozen Custard, which is also located North of the strip, right off Las Vegas Boulevard. We arrived to a pretty crowded parking lot.

There are lots of locals that will give you advice here…..the gentleman in the photo told us he's been coming here for over 35 years…since 1973! When I first saw the sign saying "frozen custard", I warned the Missus. She is not a fan of "eggy" desserts. She ended up purchasing a combination Pina Colada/Raspberry cup.

This frozen custard was less "eggy" and lighter than the versions I tasted in Madison. The raspberry tended toward the sweeter side, and had almost an artificial flavor. The pina colada flavor was less sweet. We thought this was okay, but nothing we'd rush back for. In fact, for the rest of the evening, everytime I mentioned the place, the Missus would repeat, "it was ok…..but I didn't LUV IIIIIT!"

Luv-It Frozen Custard
505 E Oakey Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89104
(702) 384-6452

Tue-Thu. 1:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat. 1:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.

You should check them out if you're in the area….who knows….you just might LUV IIIIIT!"

Birrieria Don Rafa

March 24, 2009 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants

**** Don Rafa has closed

Brrrr, it was a pretty cold weekend! The first day of Spring (March 20th this year) brought in some cold, wet, and windy weather. I really needed something to warm me up, and I think I knew the spot. On my visit to Pho 888, I noticed this sign:

No, it wasn't the Mobile Auto Glass shop that caught my attention, but the colorful little shop in the same strip mall.

As I entered, the wonderful and intoxicating smells of Birria filled the air. The menu was small, with just three basic items Birria de Res, Birria de Chivo, and Menudo. The sign also says "Estilo Jalisco"……."Jalisco style." It is said that the Mexican State of Jalisco is the birthplace of birria. This made ordering easy…..Birria de Chivo of course($8). Well not that easy, the two really nice ladies working the place didn't speak English. They understood "Birria de Chivo", but then asked me a few (probably) basic questions, which was answered through pointing and nodding. The hardest one was when I was told to have a seat, and pay after my meal…… Finally, they called upon the very nice, tall gentleman in the back, who explained everything to me.

I took a seat on one of the stools, and soon enough, all the accouterments arrived.

Finely minced onion, chopped cilantro, lime, a "muy picante" salsa, and a shaker of oregano. Some pretty decent corn tortillas, nice and warm, were dropped off as well.

And soon enough a steaming plate of Birria de Chivo arrived….the brime of the plate spilling over at the edges. It smelled heavenly. I did notice the beans were also totally immersed in the broth along with the meat.

I knew instantly that I was going to enjoy this. Rich and hearty, with a wonderful gamey flavor, a hint of smokiness, with onions and the upfront heat of the salsa to cut the richness this was a perfect remedy for a cold day. For my tastebuds, no lime or salt was needed.

I even enjoyed the beans!

This was one hearty meal. And unlike some of the Birria de Chivo I've had in the last year, this one didn't fall short. Watch out for the sneaky bones though. It could have been the perfect dish at the perfect time, but I really enjoyed this. Also, not having been to Jalisco, I couldn't tell you if this was the real deal or not. But it sure hit the spot. It's just a matter of time before Masa Assassin eats here, and I'm looking forward to hearing his opinion.

Not much English spoken, but everyone is very nice and helpful. Only a few items on the menu. Generous portion sizes. I can only tell you that after this meal, I was ready to tackle my first really big chore of the weekend……a nice nap!

Birrieria Don Rafa
631 Broadway
Chula Vista, CA 91910

Road Trip: Tianjin Bistro – San Gabriel (Los Angeles)

March 22, 2009 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

**** Tianjin Bistro has closed

*** Additional posts on Tianjin Bistro can be found here, here, and here

I'll put off my last post on Vegas. Instead, I thought I'd post on our lunch st.op on the way home from Vegas. We were ready to leave Vegas after our meal at Lotus of Siam, really. Things had started getting pretty crowded, and folks were up to the usual antics on the strip. We woke the next morning, and hit the road by 8am. We did of course, intend on stopping in the LA area for lunch. My initial intent was on stopping at Earthen Restaurant in Haci enda Heights since I'd heard so much about it. And we made pretty good time, rolling into the plaza on Azusa at 1130……but Earthen was already packed, with folks waiting in line, and a 30 minute wait. Plus, the Missus looked over the menu and wasn't particularly moved….not moved enough to wait at least 30 minutes. Better to be on the move, than to wait smelling food for a half an hour. So digging into my "black book" I came up with another choice; Tianjin Bistro in San Gabriel. If you are a long time reader off our blog, you may recognize the location, as being the former Mei Jia Deli.

Mei Jia Deli was a roller coaster ride for us. The place looked like it was always in the weeds, the nice staff being run ragged, the customers down right rude and demanding…. But still, the Missus kinda liked the place. And when "Andy" who used to have a wonderful blog called "the ABC" (we miss you Andy!) told me this place became a Taiwanese Restaurant, no one was more sad than the Missus. It seems this place has a hard time holding businesses, now, a year or so later, it's a Tianjin restaurant again.

The interior looks much neater, but who decided on the pepto-bismol pink paint job? On the good side; perhaps pink will calm the nerves of the high strung and demanding clientele that once visited Mei Jia Deli! Another item of note. The tables are lined with inexpensive pink tablecloths, which is itself lined with plastic that looks like garbage bag material.

The atmosphere was also different; very laid back and friendly. The owner, a very nice gentleman, gave us a good amount of attention from the beginning. The menu, was itself different, and the posted specials on the wall added to the confusion. It didn't help that we weren't really well versed in Tianjin Cuisine. Though Tianjin is a scant 2 hour trip from Beijing, the Missus wasn't too familiar with the cuisine, other than knowing that Tianjin was well known for their snacks and street food. The menu itself seemed to be an interesting combination of various dishes, many of them familiar (as you'll soon read). And it could very well be Tianjin Cuisine, since Tianjin is known to be a port city, and thus perhaps the food has had many varying influences over the years. About the only thing I remember about eating at Mei Jia Deli, other than the Gua Ba Cai, were the Gou Bu Li Bao Zi (Stuffed buns that dogs are not interested in"). I did notice that the menu contained a great number of Lamb dishes which made me very happy.

There was one other thing that the Missus enjoyed. While chatting with the owner in Mandarin about the various dishes, the woman on the table behind us suddenly started chiming in, and than the woman behind the front counter! The Missus was laughing and smiling. She later explained to me that this was "just like Beijing. You could have a seat, and folks would just start talking……" She was in Her element. The woman had told Her, "don't listen to him(referring to the owner), listen to me, I'll tell you what is good here!" There's a straight forward, without being rude attitude to this place and the customers. The Missus told me this is a trait of Northern Chinese, they call "shuang liang" (sorry not sure of the piniyn), being honest, non-pretentious folk. You gotta love it……

We started with the Cumin Lamb($8.99):

One thing I quickly noticed was that this restaurant uses a lot less oil for cooking. As for the lamb, it was much more tender than it looked. It lacked a strong cumin flavor, and the lamb was only mildly gamey. We were both worried that the amount of cilantro used in making this dish would just overwhelm all the other flavors, but it did not. I really loved the large slices of garlic that had been caramelized during cooking. Not a bad dish.

We also ordered the Yang Rou Chuan (Lamb Skewers – $4.99):

Lamb skewers…..one of the ultimate examples of streetfood if you ask me. These were a bit different. Usually the meat is grilled, which helps develop the flavor of the lamb. These were deep fried, so you gained the wonderful texture of deep-fried meat, but it seemed like all the flavor had been lost. We both found this to be quite bland.

While eating, we enjoyed the view of the great pyramids of Tianjin! Beautiful, aren't they?

Pyramids? Tianjin? Ha……these are called "Wo-Wo Tou" , a steamed corn based "bread" (I use the term bread very loosely). The Missus ate this on occasion while growing up….but it is my Mother In Law who misses this. During the hard times of the Cultural Revolution this was a staple in Northern China. I guess there's a whole lot of memories tied up in the humble steamed corn "bread".

Lest you think this in any way resembles American Corn Bread, you're in for a big surprise! It is not sweet nor moist. These cakes while very fragrant are dense, very dry, and very hard to swallow. When the owner of Tianjin Cafe asked the Missus how these were, She said, "I like the taste, but I can't swallow…."

After eating one of these, and almost feeling it sitting in the bottom of my belly, I can understand its usefulness during hard times. It has bulk to it, and will fill you up and "hold you" for a good amount of time.

For my In-Laws, and many of the same generation of Chinese, I'm sure wo wo tou represents many of the hardships, and the good times, of their youth. There's a bit of nostalgia tied up in this and the Missus enjoyed this.

We also ordered the Suan Cai Yang Rou (Preserved vegetable with lamb hot pot – $6.99), Suan Cai Bai Rou (preserved vegetable with fatty pork hot pot) is also available. I was surprised at the portion size, which was very generous.

Suan Cai is a pickle made from Napa Cabbage. It is blanched in hot water, salted, and a weight is placed on it. The fermented cabbage smells just like sauerkraut, and tastes very similar, except in this case it is much more sour. The Missus, knowing of my love for pickled veggies ordered this.

This is a very simple hot pot, made with suan cai, water, frozen tofu, which managed to act like a sponge for the broth, and fatty parts of lamb.

More from my MIL; "this is a winter dish. During the winter, when a pig is slaughtered, nothing is wasted. The fatty parts of the pig is used along with suan cai to make a hot pot." Which is pretty much what this was. The flavor was rather mild, but just as with many soups, stews, and hot pots, it tasted much better the following day. A simple, but satisfying dish. While we were eating this, the owner came by and asked how we liked the food. And added the phrase, "now do not lie….if you lie to me, you lie to your stomach!" I was really starting to like this place.

Last, we had the Pan Fried Dumpling (Tianjin Baozi – $6.99). Which looked just like…..

Shengjian Bao!!! These arrived upside-down on the plate. I noticed a lack of the lovely crust of a SJB, again, much less oil was used here.

The top portion of the bao was pretty fluffy, and enjoyable.

The filling was more firm than other versions, and drier, but not in an unpleasant way. It did have good flavor, porkiness with a nice sesame oil flavor.

It reheated pretty well the next day. Now if it had a better crust…….

There was one more thing the Missus wanted me to taste:

Beijing style yogurt. Bluecherry Yogurt Bar is a Alhambra shop, which looks like it's trying to push fro-yo for the young clientle. But this was a little carton of Beijing style yogurt. At Tianjin Bistro, it cost $2.25. This is a drinkable style of yogurt, which is lightly sweetened, and very tart and sour.

I really enjoyed this………now this would be a fad I can get in to! It reminded me of the refreshing and restorative yogurt we had in Cusco.

The owner of Tianjin Bistro told the Missus that he wanted to serve the kind of food he missed when he first came to America. As the sign says in Chinese, this is homestyle food, some of it simple, most of it hearty, some of it pretty good. I think we'll be back……

Tianjin Bistro
534 East Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Open Thurs-Tues 11am – 10pm
Closed on Wednesday

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