mmm-yoso – Page 492 – 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.

Curried chicken salad

August 8, 2008 Cathy Cooking, Recipes, What Cathy Eats!

Yep, the blog mmm-yoso!!! is where you are. Today, it's Cathy's turn.

Hi. A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with Kirk and Carol and we were brainstorming about different things to blog about. I do cook and eat at home..and I have had this habit, for years, of only buying sale items and making a meal out of them(along with some staples I always have in the house). I was going to do a series of "$5 Fridays" but figured that would obligate me to always be doing something, plus not all of you who read this blog have access to the same stores and sales we do out here in Sunny Southern California…so, I decided to show you some of my easy meals that I am making coincidentally with sale items and post something once a week. Hopefully on Friday.

Oh, and I have been on this 'curry craving' kick lately. Maybe it is just turmeric, since a curry is just a blend of spices, one of them always being turmeric…

This week, Henry's has chicken breasts (with skin and bone) for 99¢ a pound. So I bought a four pack and boiled two of them, cooled, skinned and tore the meat off the bone, chopped it up.

Then I mixed : mayonnaise, orange marmalade (assume these are basics in your house), curry powder (bought in the bulk bin at Henry's-one scoop cost 18¢), some fresh lime juice(they are on sale 5/$1 as opposed to 39¢ each for lemons) and some salt and white pepper(again, assume those are basics).

It looks this way because the marmalade has all the skins of the fruit in it, but you can taste and add or subtract the amount of ingredients.

Then I fold the above sauce with the chicken and some green onion tops (25¢ for one bunch this week) until just blended.

Sometimes I chill it, to get the flavors to meld…but depending on the heat of the curry, it doesn't matter…sometimes we just sit down and eat it at room temperature. With rice. Or greens. Or some naan from Trader Joe's.

Cathy's Curried Chicken Salad

3 C cooked diced chicken (or really any meat or fish that is cooked)(leftovers?)

2 green onions, chopped

Put with each other in bowl and set aside.

Whisk together:

1/2 C Mayo , 1/2 C orange marmalade, 1 Tbs lemon or lime juice, 1 tsp curry powder, salt and white pepper.

Stir in with chicken and green onions until just blended.

Quick, simple and, at least this week, less than $5 for at least two servings.

Que Huong Revisited…many times Part 3 – Maybe it is all about the Jackfruit Salad?

August 7, 2008 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Que Huong has closed

After our previous visits to Que Huong, you'd have thought that we'd had our fill. But the Missus thought the menu had some potential, and so in future visits we tried a few different items. So here they are:

Banh Xeo($5.95):

This is something I remembered from our first visits to Que Huong way back in 2005. It was still delivered with a pile of fresh herbs and lettuce. It was still crisp, and not oily in the least. I do think that they've cut down on the amount of shrimp and other "fillings", but it's still my favorite in version in San Diego.

The Catfish Clay Pot($8.95):

It looks large in the photo, but it was more of a "personal sized" version. The strong fish sauce- maggi-lemongrass flavor was great, but the fish was a bit too "muddy" for my tastes. The Missus enjoyed it, and there was one added "bonus" that I liked. The bottom of the pot was lines with pork belly..soaked in the sauce and caramelized…delici-yoso!!! I ordered this during another visit with Ed from Yuma, and the most wonderful Tina (thanks for putting up with us!). I knew this was right up Ed's alley, so maybe we'll find out how he enjoyed it. You'll need some rice for this one.

The Jackfruit Salad ($12.95):

Most of the versions I've had of this dish(Goi Mit) tends to be on the milder side. And this dish would be as well, except that it has a nice amount of Rau Ram, peanuts, and a Nuoc Mam Cham that runs on the sweeter side. If you've never had Jackfruit before, and have some preconceived notions about taste and texture….the jackfruit is very mild, and has an almost "meaty" texture. There a nice amount of pork and chopped shrimp in the dish, and the portion size is pretty large. It comes with sesame-rice crackers. The only real problem, and I've noticed this with some of the dishes here….there always seems to be that "one thing". There are many hard peppercorns in the dish…real hard…chip your teeth hard, so tread carefully.

On one visit, we decided to try the Goat Hot Pot (small – $22.98). I had thought it was a bit on the expensive side, but it was enough for 3 people. The broth is laden with dried Jujubes, and has a very strong lemongrass flavor.

The best item is the taro, which has been fried before being added to the hot pot, giving it a nice texture and flavor.

I really wouldn't order this if you're a meat lover, the chopped goat was an after-thought, tough and flavorless.

A plate of Mi (egg noodles) is provided, along with some vegetables, in this case a plate of Bok Choy. The soup is "never-ending", in that you can request refills of the soup (but not the noodles or veggies…that'll cost you). After a refill, we needed to add some water to the broth, it was getting pretty salty. For the final refill, they provided a bowl from which we could just refill as desired. You can see how much "stuff" is in the broth, just by looking at the bottom of the bowl:

The jury's still out on this one.

It's an interesting crowd at Que Huong, during the earlier hours, it's Vietnamese families(for the hot pot, and other family style dishes), and an occasional Hispanic visitor (they seem to enjoy the fried rice and pan fried noodles). As the evening gets later, the group gets younger, and people start ordering the wings, and other smaller dishes.

One of the Young Men, by the name of Jay is fabulous. He'll come by and answer any questions you may have, and tell you about some of the other menu offerings.

Que Huong Restaurant
4134 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Siem Reap: Palm Sugar, and Everybody has a Durian story, right?

August 5, 2008 mmm-yoso Cambodia, Siem Reap, Travel

As I noted at the end of my last post, we had just finished a repast of Khmer Noodles (Num Banh Chok), and the Missus had wandered off. It seems that She had been unable to ward off the temptation of fresh Durian. And having been suitably tempted, She purchased a nice fresh Durian. I’m sure that all travelers to Southeast Asia has at least one Durian story, and here’s ours.

The Missus has this Durian, the smell of ripe compost wafting in the air so thick I could have cut it with a chainsaw. She brings it into the car…now you must remember that we have a whole, hot, humid day ahead of us.

And though Narin thought it humorous that the Missus would be so excited over Durian, I was kind of worried about having the smell of stewing sewage permeating the car for the entire day. Which led to a conversation:

Me: Did you really have to buy that Durian?
The Missus: Looks good, huh? And I didn’t see any "no Durian" signs around the hotel.
Me (lowering my voice): You realize that this car isn’t Narin’s, right? He’s probably renting it. And he’ll return the car smelling like Durian.
The Missus: Oh…..

Suddenly, the Missus brightened up…it had all become clear, a solution presented itself. The Missus reached over, opened my backpack, placed the Durian into my backpack, and zipped it up tightly. I should’ve kept my mouth shut. To this day, Sammy will be walking past my backpack, he’ll suddenly stop, sniff, and look up at me with an expression that says: "Daddy, did you poop in your backpack?"

Along the way to our first destination Kbal Spean, we passed numerous stands; each with woks, or pans simmering over fire. Narin, seeing our interest, stopped. These stands were making Palm sugar:

Narin showed us the various Palm Sugar products.

And even went over the fruit and differences between the male and female palm. Unfortunately, I flunked Palm anatomy and physiology, so I don’t know which is which.

There was also a Cashew Tree, which fascinated me. I’d never seen one up close before.

The nice lady even had the Missus taste a cashew fruit…..I could tell by the sour look on Her face, that I wanted no part of it.

As our way of thanking the lady for being so gracious, as we found most all Cambodians to be, we ended up buying two tubes of palm sugar.

This palm sugar is darker than the palm sugar I buy at the market here in San Diego.

The flavor is a much more condensed "complex" sweetness. I used some in a Beef Salad I made, and because I used the usual amount of the stuff, it overpowered everything else in the dish!

As we headed up the 25 or so kilometers to Kbal Spean, it started raining pretty hard. Narin smiled, turned to us and said: "this is quite unusual, it is early for the rains to start, you must be good luck."

Here’s another Durian story, some friends of mine have a bunch of siblings…so many that I think I’ve lost count. When they were young, their Mom, always so resourceful, used to lock up the Durian in a cabinet with chains and a padlock!

So what’s your Durian story?

Niu Rou Mania, A Niu Rou Mian comparison: Shanghai City, 168 Restaurant, and Dumpling Inn

August 4, 2008 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

*** Shanghai City is no more. It is now Spicy House.

We had been pretty happy with the Niu Rou Mein at Shanghai City. The Beef Noodle Soup always had a nice rich and deep flavor, good oil content, some spice, and the noodles had a pleasant mouth feel for us. In fact, on a good day, I'd say that it would have measured up pretty well with anything we've had elsewhere. But recently, before the weather turned warm and humid, we decided to drop by Shanghai City. And of course, I had the Niu Rou Mein. I think you can often measure how long you've been doing something by comparing prices. The price of the NRM in my first post, in October of 2005, the weekend breakfast special price for NRM was a major bargain at $4.25. During my next post in December of 2006, the NRM was $4.95, and still a bargain. In March of 2007, it had gone up another dollar and was $5.95. And now it's $6.45, it really makes me feel like I've been doing this for a very long time.

I'm not sure what the regular (non-weekend breakfast special) price is for the NRM. We got our NRM in pretty quick fashion.

And were a bit disappointed. The broth was much lighter, and the flavor was on the watery side. The meat was very tender, but bland, lacking any beefy punch. The noodles were the biggest let-down, they were over-cooked and mushy, not the doughy chewiness we usually enjoyed.

Which led me to…….think about retrying other restaurants. So here's 2 more to make a NRM tri-fecta.

*** 168 Restaurant has closed.

168 Restaurant:

The place looked much cleaner than I remembered, and the tables lacked the signature "San Gabriel stickiness", but Beef Noodle Soup was still on the menu. I went with the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup($6.50):

The bowl was smaller than what I recall, but it looked and tasted the same. Second rate noodles, the broth was quite weak, lacking richness. I've always enjoyed the pickled greens, and on this occasion the beef was very tender, and had a decent 5 spice flavor, but the broth had a unpleasant bitter-burnt aftertaste.

Dumpling Inn:

This time I went for the gusto Beef Noodle Soup with home made noodles ($7.95 + $1 = $8.95!), the most expensive NRM I've ever had.

I enjoyed that the large bowl arrived steaming hot. The broth was much darker than what I've had on previous visits, and this time it had a nice beefy punch, but lacked any richness (oil), and was very salty. It did look so good that 2 people who walked in while I was eating this asked the Server what I was having, and ended up ordering this. The beef was tender, but lacked flavor, as if all the beefiness was sucked out of it. There was a ton of the medium-wide "home made" noodles provided, but it really did nothing for me. No chewiness, or the nice slightly doughy texture, in the end I would have just been fine with the regular noodles. In addition, there was a giant messy clump of noodles all stuck together in the bottom of the bowl. Which led me to wonder how these were being stored.

Just as a reminder, home-made doesn't mean fresh……

So I'm left in a quandary……I'm hoping that Shanghai City's NRM will be back in form next time. But now, I'll be back to trying other versions in San Diego again. Looks like it's back to square one.

Mutant Green Chilies

August 3, 2008 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Today it’s ed (from Yuma) posting at mmm-yoso. Just a note, if you are researching genetic variations in pepper cultivars and you Googled some search terms and ended up here, you probably want to search again – unless you like eating chile verde.

When I moved to Yuma after having lived for most of the previous 15 years in California, I was sure I knew what green chile was – chunks of pork stewed in a mildly spicy green colored sauce consisting of tomatillos, green chilies, onions, garlic, and fresh cilantro.

My sense of green chile was challenged, however, soon after I arrived in Yuma and began eating at some of the "old school" long-time Yuma Mexican restaurants. I realized then that not all green chile was the same. Although it took me a while to get used to these mutant forms, nowadays I appreciate their unique flavors and their place in the traditional cuisine of this border community.

One of the best and most unusual examples of this old style of green chile is the version found at Yuma’s oldest Mexican restaurant, one that has roots back into the 1930s, Chretin’s. Recently relocating from a rather shabby building in the middle of an older residential section of town (see the first picture), Chretin’s now occupies a large and fancy location at the intersection of Arizona Avenue and 16th St (second picture):

For $7.60 (or less as a lunch special), you can get Chretin’s green chili burrito enchilada style (also known as saddle style or as a wet burrito):

This style of burrito is fairly simple but also very traditional in Yuma. One fills a flour tortilla with the green chile and then ladles more green chile on top of the burrito along with cheese. Of course, some of you must be saying, "Green? Green? There’s nothing green about that chile." And you’re right. Do not try adjusting the color balance on your screen, because Chretin’s green chile is indeed brown in color. As near as I can tell, this style arose back in the day when fresh or frozen green chilies were not available year around. Therefore, the main source of chile flavor (rather minimal in actual fact) had to be dried green chile powder. One of my friends says that Chretin’s green chile is just odd flavored brown gravy with meat, since the sauce is clearly thickened with flour and the main source of picante heat is black pepper:

A careful look at this close-up shows that the meat in the green chile is a very tender, coarsely ground beef, reflecting the Sonoran background of most of Yuma’s citizens before World War II. The ~~gravy~~ sauce also contains flecks of tomato and bits of onion. While this is very far away from anything I would’ve considered green chile when I moved to Yuma, I have grown to like this unusual dish at Chretin’s.

Another old-school Mexican restaurant in town is El Charro, a restaurant that has been managed by one branch of the Gutierrez family since 1949. For many native Yumans and numerous winter visitors, this restaurant on 8th St is the essence of Mexican food in Yuma. Personally, I have always found their large portions to be generally bland and low in flavor. One example of this blandness is their salsa, which tastes like a can of chopped tomatoes mixed with a can of diced mild green chilies:

Nevertheless, I have always been intrigued by their "El Green Saddle," as they call their version of a green chili burrito enchilada style. In fact, this dish is so much a part of the tradition here that it is only dish mentioned in the history of the restaurant painted on the wall:
When served,"El Green Saddle" looks like this:

Again, you would be right to say "this isn’t green!" And yeh, the predominant color of this "green" chile is red. Even when one cuts into the burrito and looks at it up close, there is as much tomato red here as there is chile green:

So what is the secret to this dish? Having eaten it several times, I am convinced that El Charro’s green chile is simply coarsely ground beef and onions cooked with left over table salsa. That would explain both how it tastes and how it looks. It would also explain why El Charro features this dish. You have to do something, I guess, with all that leftover salsa.

Another branch of the Gutierrez family (92 year old Bessie and her descendents) also began in the restaurant business back in the 1940s, although their oldest restaurant currently in operation is La Casa Gutierrez, which has been located in an old house on Orange Avenue since 1960:

Although their fast food outlets, Mr. G’s and Chile Pepper, serve credible versions of their green chili recipe, its best incarnation is in a green chile dinner (Tuesday lunch special pictured) at La Casa Gutierrez:

Although this green chile is the most watery of any in town, I still love the fresh green chile flavor that arises from all these large pieces of green chile. Nonetheless, the use of ground beef and presence of chunks of tomato, instead of tomatillo, marks this as another Yuma mutant green chile:

While I have had the green chile burrito enchilada style at the restaurant (and it’s good), the green chile lunch special on Tuesdays is one of the best meal deals in Yuma. For $5.25 (including tax), you get chips (store-bought, unfortunately), salsa, a good-sized portion of green chile, your choice of a beverage (the lemonade is killer), rice, beans, and a soft and flavorful flour tortilla almost the size of a bedsheet:

The newest of the restaurants serving atypical green chile in Yuma is Eduardo’s, which dates back to 1964, meaning that it is less than 45 years old. Currently located in a strip mall on Avenue B between 16th and 17th, this small restaurant has its own unique take on green chile. The Chile Verde burrito, enchilada style, currently costs $5.50 and looks like this:

From the outside, this burrito looks a lot like the others, with almost as much red tomato color as green chile color. When you cut into the tortilla, you find beef, tomato, fresh green chile, cheeses, and sauce all mixed together:

It is only when you focus on the meat itself, that you can see one of the main differences between this green chile and the others in this post. Eduardo’s does not use ground beef. Instead, numerous sizable chunks of stewing beef have been slowly cooked to utter tenderness:

These chunks of beef give this dish a wonderful deep beefiness. The other difference, one that you cannot see, is in the spiciness of the finished product. All of the other mutant green chilies are very mild in flavor and have virtually no picante heat. Eduardo’s, on the other hand, sets your mouth afire with chili spice. While not a standard California-style green chile, I have to admit that this is one of the tastiest green chilies I have ever eaten.

I hope you folks have enjoyed reading about these unusual and weird green chilies in Yuma because I have enjoyed eating them.

Saturday Stuffs

August 2, 2008 mmm-yoso Blog

Just a few quick one’s for today:

(Another) Santana’s Opens:

Right on Morena Boulevard in the old KFC location, and just .75 miles from another Santana’s.(I checked).

The banner says that both locations are open. Shades of Starbucks! I’m thinking they may close the other location.

Santana’s Mexican Food
1975 Morena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110

Another new restaurant in the cursed corner:

First it was Linda Vista Food to Go, than Mi Ngoc So 1, and last Thai by Tara. I’m not sure what it is now…but the sign says "Grand Opening Aug 2/08". I’ll check it out soon.

2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

The Power of 3:

I’ve noticed something over the last couple years. I tend to buy books in "three’s". While it’s not as fascinating as say, the Number 23 enigma. The purchases have weird pattern to them.

I bought my "sushi trilogy" at the same time:

I tend to read several books at once, and have finished both The Zen of Fish and The Sushi Economy which are similar but different.

Then there my "Chinese Food" trilogy, which I also bought at the same time:

Of course, this one could get off on a technicality, since I preordered Serve the People, and it didn’t arrive until several weeks ago. I just finished The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, and really enjoyed Jennifer 8 Lee’s writing style. I’m still working on Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, which may end up being one of my favorites.

Last year, I ordered my "Japanese Cookbook Trilogy":

The reason for purchasing Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, has an interesting story behind it. I don’t know how, or why, but my Mom owned a copy of that book. After she passed away, it disappeared…or maybe got accidentally discarded, I’m not sure. So when I saw that the 25 anniversary edition had been published, I bought it.

This one might be stretching it, but it’s kinda, sorta my "food science trilogy":

I know Sauces by James Peterson might be pushing it, but I spent 3 hours reading through it after it arrived.

So do you think this is a bit strange? I’m not trying to get all Jim Carrey on you, but I just noticed this weird habit.

BaLe Linda Vista Reopens

July 30, 2008 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Markets & Grocers, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Restaurants

*** Bale has closed and is now Farm Sandwiches and Market.

So finally, Ba Le on Linda Vista resurfaces. The sign on the "old location" said the end of May, but when I took that photo it was already June! And when I shopped a Vien Dong Market a few days later, that sign was gone. This past weekend, I noticed that Ba Le had indeed taken the place of the old Dai Tan Supermarket, which had been there for quite a while.

In spite of the looks, there is quite a bit of parking further down the lot, where you're not packed in, and people aren't backing into you(I saw a little Vietnamese Lady driving a BIG SUV, hit another parked, BIG SUV, and she just kept on going…). As I walked in, I wondered what the heck Ba Le was doing with a market….but I guess that's the plan.

Seeing that the sandwich counter is not yet completed, I inquired about Banh Mi, and was told, that even though the counter, and seating area wasn't finished yet they were serving Banh Mi. And the current special is; buy 2 get 1 free. So I placed my order, and seeing the chaotic situation; a line of grocery customers, I took a walk around the market.

Dai Tan never struck me as being the cleanest looking market, but the place has been cleaned up a bit, and the lighting is much better. The produce looked fresh, and there was quite a steady flow of customers.

Which meant I'd probably be waiting a while, so I took a seat. Surprisingly, a few minutes later one of the Gentlemen comes walking out of the back of the market with 3 Banh Mi. Which I paid for, than proceeded to hightail it out of the parking lot, before a little lady in a BIG SUV had a chance to hit my car.

So, what did I get? Well let's start with the Dac Biet (special – $3.50):

In my visits after my post on the old BaLe location, I found the sandwiches to be inconsistent. There was a tendency to over-margarine, than over toast the baguette, making the bread crouton-hard…the stuff that rips up the roof of your mouth. This would obviously distract from the decent crust-to-bread ratio. Today, the baguette was okay, slightly crusty, but nothing special. The meats were piled to each side of the baguette…the ham on one side, the Cha Lua on the other…kind of strange. All of the meats, and the pate were very mild in flavor, if not down-right bland. The jalapenos were quite mild on this day. All in all, nothing special….

The Xiu Mai(meatball sandwich – $3.00):

The crumbled Xiu Mai(meatball) had a very mild flavor…sort of like what could be described as a "pork meatloaf". Not bad, even though I enjoy a more assertive flavor. Because of the juicy meatballs, this Banh Mi got soggy pretty quickly, but at least it wasn't dry.

As for the Banh Mi Bi, the Missus didn't feel like eating it, so I took it for lunch, well, breakfast the next day. I won't go into that, "Bi-cause" I wouldn't want to wish that decomposed sandwich on anyone. It just is not a fair assessment of the Banh Mi.

With regards to the Banh Mi, not much has changed at BaLe. If you enjoyed the sandwiches at the former location, you'll enjoy them here. But at least now you can catch up on some shopping while waiting for your sandwiches. All sandwiches run from $3 to $3.50.

BaLe Supermarket and Sandwiches(In the former Dai Tan Market location)
6959 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA

Santouka Ramen – San Diego, A revisit

July 29, 2008 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Ramen, What Howie Eats - Where the Foodie from Foodieview Eats

After my not too satisfying visit to the new Santouka in San Diego, I thought I’d wait a bit before trying it out again. But the opportunity arose a lot quicker than I’d thought. The always thoughtful Howie, proprietor of The Foodie View invited me to join his merry group for lunch. (BTW, check out his new feature, The Foodie View of the Day). On this day, the Shio Ramen was spot on, from the wonderfully tongue scortching broth, to the toothsome and elastic noodles. Unfortunately, I was enjoying the wonderful company of Michelle, Caron (of San Diego Foodstuff), and Howie so much, that I really didn’t feel motivated to take photos. Great conversation will do that to me sometimes.

Recently, the Missus, needing a change of pace, wanted some ramen. Now the Missus is not a big ramen fan, though I think it is due to the fact that She’s had too much "bad ramen". Being that a request for ramen occurs about as often as an appearance of Halley’s comet in the mmm-yoso household, I jumped at the chance. We arrived at the Santouka "booth", and the Missus wanted something "salty", so it was a large Miso Ramen for Her, and since She has never met a boiled egg She’s never liked, we got the boiled eggs(99 cents) as well. Since I wanted to do an "apple for apple" comparison, I decided on the Shio Ramen again($7.99 – large), and of course I got a side of boiled egg as well.

The shiro(broth) was excellent, tongue melting hot, rich, but not greasy, and full of porky goodness, sweet, and mildly salty. The Chashu was also very good, soft, but not falling to pieces, rich in flavor, and very moist. Even the Missus, who, ummm, "doesn’t eat pork", loved it! The noodles were a bit off today, hard and brittle, instead of being chewy, with a nice elasticity. Still, this was way better than that first bowl I had.

I had a sip of The Missus’s Miso Ramen, and it still strikes me a being too salty. As for the boiled eggs….the Missus loved them so much, She traded 1 piece of Chashu for my eggs. Sorry, but I wasn’t going to just give away my boiled eggs. Chivalry has its limits.

So there you have it, a revisit to Santouka in San Diego, not as good as my undocumented second visit, but better than my first. Still not better than the bowls I’ve had in Torrance and Costa Mesa, but getting there.

Santouka Ramen
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd(In the Mitsuwa Marketplace)
San Diego, CA 92111

Swiss Noodles

July 27, 2008 ed fromyuma Cooking, Recipes, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

All regular readers of mmm-yoso know that both Kirk and Cathy can cook. ed (from Yuma)? Well, today will prove that (with some help) he is not completely lost in a kitchen.

I still remember getting to know Tina at a party last spring, and as often happens with me, we began discussing food. When she not only told me that she loves spaetzle, but that she also could prepare those tasty egg noodles, I realized we could make wonderful food together – in particular a flavorful Swiss dish that cried out for homemade spaetzle. Now we’d like to share (at least virtually) this traditional meal that is one of our favorites. Here’s how it is done.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion
4-5 slices (or 1/4-1/3 lb) bacon
2 bunches Swiss chard

1/3 lb Swiss cheese (preferably real Gruyere)

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch nutmeg

black pepper to taste.

Start by chopping the medium onion:

Then dice the four or five slices of bacon (I got some applewood smoked bacon from my local butcher, but bacon ends and pieces work well too):

After discarding the large rib ends, chop up two bunches of Swiss chard (green ribbed if possible). By the way, this is a huge bowl:

Then shred approximately a third of a pound of Swiss Gruyere cheese (pictured is a little over half a pound of aged Gruyere in wedges and then grated):

At the same time, you will need to prepare the dough for the noodles. After you mix together two eggs and half a cup of milk, add a cup and a half of flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, a half a teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of nutmeg, and beat with a wooden spoon or with the dough stirrer on an electric mixer until the ingredients are fully combined, thick, somewhat stiff, and stretchy. The dough should look like this:
At this point, you should have a large pot of lightly salted water being brought to a boil on the stove. On another burner, begin to fry the bacon at medium heat. Cook until much of the bacon fat has been rendered, but do not cook the bacon fully. Then add the chopped onion and mix together and continue frying:
When the bacon and onion mixture is ready, add the chard handful by handful and stir. If you wish the resulting dish to have some crunchy parts, add leaves and rib pieces at the same time. For a more uniform texture, separate the ribs and cook them for a minute or two before adding the leafy parts. Reduce heat, if necessary, to prevent overcooking.

The other half of the dish, the noodles, take less time. Back in the day, my grandmother would have spread the dough out on a small hand-held cutting board and sliced strips of the dough into the boiling water. Lacking my grandmother’s talent, patience, and wrists, most people today will use a spaetzle press to extrude the noodles. One can also extrude the noodles through a colander, but notice that the perforations at the bottom of the well of this press are not round and are irregular in shape; this flatness and lack of uniformity is key to top quality spaetzle:

When the water is boiling, fill up the utensil’s well about halfway, place over the pot, slowly push down, and send the fresh noodles into the boiling water:

Unlike Italian pasta, these egg noodles do not easily overcook, so that one can refill the well and drop more noodles into the boiling water. Using a wooden spoon, stir the noodles and let the water come back to a full boil. At this point the spaetzles are done.

After draining in a colander, the noodles should be added to the frying pan with the other cooked ingredients and quickly stirred together. Place the contents of the frying pan into a bowl and add the shredded cheese to taste. At this point, you may also add fresh grated black pepper (unless, like me, you forget). You will notice that the spaetzle noodles are not smooth and uniform, but rather pitted, bumpy, and irregular. This texture gives these homemade noodles plenty of surface areas so that they interface wonderfully with gravies or sauces. After the ingredients are all stirred together and the cheese has become wonderfully melty and gooey, the dish should look like this:
For our meal, Tina and I had previously chopped up a couple of heirloom tomatoes and added a few leaves of fresh basil:
After we tossed the tomatoes with the basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil, we plated this salad next to our main course:
This was more food than two hearty eaters could devour, and probably could serve up to 4 normal people. The heirloom tomato salad was good, but the noodles were supreme. The combination of textures and the creamy smoky flavors made this dish (even though I was at the stove) a success. I have no idea what this dish is called, but with the spaetzle, the Swiss cheese, and the Swiss chard, I guess calling it Swiss Noodles will have to do. Before I got to know Tina, I made the dish with regular packaged egg noodles. It was okay back then, but she just makes things better. Yum!

Saturday Stuffs

July 26, 2008 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Filipino Restaurants, yoso-silly

Just some odds and ends….

Bud's Reopens:

Just in case you missed "GoBears" comment, Bud's Louisiana has reopened. The newest incarnation is located in Tierrasanta, right behind the Round Table Pizza:

They are currently only open for lunch, from Monday through Saturday 11am to 3pm.

Bud's Louisiana Cafe

10425 Tierrasanta Blvd, #105
San Diego, CA 92124

Have I mentioned it before? I love Filipino Parties:

The Missus is the Godmother of a friends son, and a few months ago the Christening took place. You know that the party was going to be good.

This was a big one….a 2 lechon party!

That first roasted pig was gone really quick.

But man does not live on Lechon alone:

It was some spread, along with the usual Pancit and Lumpia, there was Kaldereta, Pinacbet, and tons more:

And being one of the Godmothers had its benefits…a whole plate of lechon from Pig#2, the Missus got to eat with the Aunts and Cousins in the "back room", and Frankie got a "cabeza"! Guess what the Missus was the most happy with?

More save our taco trucks!

Bandini has posted about saving LA's Taco Trucks from extinction. You can find updates at saveourtacotrucks.org. I received word from yumtacos.com, that Sacramento is attempting to do the same thing:

"Here in Sacramento, we have lots of terrific, and some very authentic, Mexican food – places that specialize in all sorts of regional dishes, from various types of ceviche and shellfish to birria and plenty more.
But some of the best, cheapest and most straightforward is served at our many taco trucks, which are – incidentally – the only place that many second and third shift workers can go to eat. Late at night in the industrial zones and elsewhere, you will often see lines of cops, firefighters, hospital workers, warehouse staff and janitorial workers lined up at the trucks.
The trucks don't park outside of open restaurants, nor do they usually park on public streets; almost all are at regular, scheduled locations, sometimes a single location all night; these are always parking lots, private property that they've received permission (or pay rent) to use.
Our city council, at the behest of restaurant owners, has enacted new regulations that effectively criminalize these trucks without consulting truck owners or customers. For example, the new 30 minute per location time limit – when truck owners take 20 minutes to set up, lock down their propane systems and heat up the grill, and 15 minutes to clean up – will mean they'll have to drastically cut down on safety and/or cleanliness just to serve a single customer. And not being able to do business after dark means that the vast majority of their business – night shift workers – will have nowhere to eat except for drive-through hamburgers. The city council claimed there was a public health nuisance attached to the trucks, although ours are all inspected regularly by the county and not a single truck has ever had a complaint filed against it or failed an inspection, unlike many of the restaurants who fear the competition of the trucks. One city council person claimed police reports linked violence to the trucks, a charge the Sacramento Police department disputes, showing clearly that there is no such causality.

We'd very much like your help and the help of your readers. We've set up a petition, where we'd like get several thousand signatures of locals and visitors; even non-Sacramentans are invited to sign, to dispute the Council's claim that tourists find the trucks a blight on our city.

Here is our petition"

I really enjoy the Taco Trucks here in San Diego, and other places I've been. You know that once legistlation like this is successful; it is just a matter of time before it makes its way down to San Diego.

What does Professor Salt and the State Department have in common?

Before he starts saying his name is "Salt…Professor Salt." I'll spill the beans. The State Department sent a video team to film a short documentary on the 4-Q BBQ Team, of which Professor Salt is a member of. You won't find anything more American than BBQ; and you won't find any BBQ team that represents the amazing diversity of our Country than 4-Q. Congrats guys!

You can find the video here.

If you really want to feel good:

I'm not quite the Youtube-ist(is there such a thing). I really don't follow all of the strange, amazing, and somewhat entertaining videos on YouTube. But sometimes, I find wonderful things on other Blogs. Such is the case with this wonderful video. It was from a post in the wonderful blog, Heather in Paradise. And according to Heather's post, which references Snopes.com, the story is true! Even better.

Hope you're having a great weekend!