mmm-yoso – Page 544 – 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.

Big Kahuna’s

November 27, 2006 mmm-yoso Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

*** Big Kahuna's no longer resides in PB.

Located in Pacific Beach on Ingraham Street is Big Kahuna's:

Part pizza joint/sports bar, part plate lunch restaurant, I've been told that the owner of Big Kahuna's is the Grandson of the original owner of Da Big Kahuna's Pizza on Puuloa Road in Honolulu.

Of course with a name like Big Kahuna, you'd have to go with a beach-surfer-tropical theme.

Though Big Kahuna back "home" is known for the pizza and sandwiches, I thought I'd try out the plate lunches. If you're wondering what the pizza at the original Big Kahuna looks like you can find a post on where else, but Ono Kine Grindz, it even has a photo of, ahem, the Big Kahuna "Balls".

For lunch one afternoon I ordered the Beef Teriyaki Plate($8.95):

In a few minutes a very large plate arrived, three scoops of rice, even! I enjoyed the macaroni salad, with just the right amount of mayo.

The teriyaki was indeed "local-style", on the sweeter side with the flavor of ginger. The sauce was more of a glaze, than a sauce.

Though I love good pineapple(my Dad is from Lana'i), I hate it as a topping for food, so I scraped it off. The meat was a very tough sirloin, and I mean very tough, and in spite of the sauce quite dry.

One evening I found myself in the area, and decided to try out the Lau Lau Plate($8.95):

Again three scoops of rice, and quite a large Lau Lau, which smelled promising.

The luau leaf tasted bit on the bland side, not the usual flavor of "greens" that I enjoy so much. There was a nice chunk of fat in the Laulau, but no salted fish, and the pork was on the dry side. To be perfectly frank, this is a typical Mainland Laulau, so I wasn't very disappointed.

While I was waiting for my Laulau the very nice Waitress mentioned a breakfast menu, and was kind enough to bring me one to check out.

And there it was….a Loco Moco. I was told that Big Kahuna's serves breakfast on weekends, so I made a mental note…..

And made an appearance at 1030am on a Saturday morning. I walked in, and it seemed that everyone was still sleeping….so I grabbed a table, and eventually managed to order my Loco Moco($7.50):

After a short wait, my Loco Moco made it's way to my table in slooooowww moootion. First thing I noticed was that the burger was crumbled and stir fried with onions and a gravy. For some reason the thought, "I think this is last night's burger", kept playing over and over in my head….

The eggs(3) were okay, easy over, the yolks slightly runny, though I would have enjoyed crisp, crunchy edges on my eggs, but that's being nit-picky.

The gravy, was more like a sauce, and the nice, dark color belied the fact that it was pretty bland, luckily there was a good selection of condiments and sauces to help out. Ditto with the crumbled burger, though it was piping hot.

The service at Big Kahuna's is "bar service", and though very nice, sometimes a bit on the spacey side. I had ordered my toast dry, but got it buttered, and the Server/Bartender was more concerned with stocking beer than bringing me my Diet Coke. Still every contact that I've had at Big Kahuna's has been friendly.

I've tried a few other items that are not pictured, all portions are quite large, always making sure you get enough carbs! The Kalua Pork, though a bit under flavored was pretty good. I thought the Portuguese Bean Soup was very bland, lacking a nice smokey flavor ham-hock flavor, and with hardly any beans, sausage, or anything except soup for that matter. I've not had the pizza at Big Kahuna's though it looks pretty good, though those "balls"(12 for $6) – garlic bread rounds baked in butter, and topped with melted cheese cheese, make my arteries cringe in fear. I'll cover the Big Kahuna Burger on a future post.

Big Kahuna's
3780 Ingraham St
San Diego, CA 92109

Fairouz Restaurant & Gallery

November 26, 2006 mmm-yoso Buffets, Lebanese Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants, Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants

Okay, I know it…I got some nerve doing a post on a Buffet right after Thanksgiving! Guilty as charged. And admittedly, I’m not quite the expert on Buffets and Brunches as Jim the Brunchmaster, who should probably write a "Brunches and Buffets for Dummies" book. But I’ve had photos of Fairouz just taking up space on my hard drive, so…….

Fairouz has a regular menu, but we’ve mostly stuck to the buffet, which is $8.99 for lunch and $12.99 for dinner. And in the realm of the Hometown Buffets and various Chinese Buffets, I think that Fairouz is a nice change of pace. Though the sign says "Greek Buffet", I’d say that there are almost as many, or more Lebanese and Mediterranean buffet items.

On this visit to Fairouz, I noticed that the interior had been painted, and some additional lighting added, giving Fairouz a brighter cleaner looking interior. It had obviously been a while since my last visit.

If you think the interior slightly resembles an Art Gallery, you wouldn’t be too far from the truth. The Owner of Fairouz, Ibrahim Al Nashashibi, is quite an artist, and his acrylics and water colors adorn the walls of Fairouz.

As for the buffet, there is a nice variety of items, with slight changes everyday. One thing I always notice are the description cards for the buffet items are not always placed correctly…for instance, on this day the Moussaka was labeled as Okra. For some reason I always find humor in this.

And though there are several meat items, like the Kofta Meatballs and Roasted Chicken pictured above, I usually end up enjoying the various starches and vegetable dishes more than the protein items. As you head for the buffet warm toasted pita magically appears on your table.

Okay, two types of potato, and saffron rice…do you think I got enough starch? I should practice what I preach, the Gyros meat was the only item that I really didn’t care for. I enjoyed the Fava and Garbanzo beans, the Okra, and the Eggplant dishes.

Though my favorite dishes at Fairouz are the cold Garlic Potatoes, a vinegary, salty, and slightly garlicky "salad", and the various pickled cabbages.

I also enjoy the Rice Pudding with Rosewater as a refreshing end to my meal.

What’s that red thingy? It had a sweet, fruity flavor, with a touch of rose water flavoring. I had to ask….it’s Fruit Punch Jello! The yellow version is licorice flavored jello……

As buffets go, I think Fairouz is pretty good, and Al Nashashibi is a very mellow and nice Guy. So if you have a group of people, with vegetarians in tow, Fairouz may not be a bad option.

Fairouz Restaurant & Gallery
3166 Midway Dr
San Diego, CA 92110

(619) 225-0308

Happy Thanksgiving

November 24, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

I know it’s a day late…but I’m hoping everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

We did this year, what we’ve done for the last several years….started Thanksgiving Day off with some Dim Sum. I’ve already posted on Pearl back in November of last year, and even did our Thanksgiving Dim Sum there last year. So I won’t bore you with descriptions, just photos.

I may have missed a dish or two, and no Peking Duck 2 ways for $18, this year. All told, it came out to $30. Took a few laps around the path in back of the restaurant to help burn some of this off.

We hope everyone had a safe and fun Holiday!

Thanksgiving Day with friends

November 23, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

This is Cathy’s Thanksgiving Day menu. Enjoy!

Hello again. Happy Thanksgiving Day.

As you know, I had an incident involving gravity 23 days ago and basically am one handed. This does not lend itself well for my using knives, or any sort of tool normally used in cooking…go ahead, try to make scrambled eggs using only one hand, I dare you… I have seen a frying pan defy gravity and fling itself onto the floor in front of me. My dear neighbor graciously invited us to her house for the annual feast of thanks. This worked out perfectly- we made (OK, The Mister made) the starchy products and my neighbor made the main course..it was great fun and easy for me…I can’t even wash dishes by hand with this cast on….

The appetizer of raw vegetables, gherkin pickles, olives and dips. (dinner rolls in the background)…

Some condiments (and those desserts in the background)..

A very nice spiral sliced ham, cooked in an oven bag- it came out very moist.

The turkey, cooked in an oven bag and with *really* good stuffing (must be the butter used to saute the onions and celery)…

Side dishes- the Green bean casserole, always a favorite.

The mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn.

These were *excellent* baked beans.

of course, dessert…pumpkin pie, chocolate bourbon pecan pie, whipped cream and some kona coffee.

We hope all of you had a good day spent with family, friends, people you love.

Thanksgiving Eve

November 22, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

A quick post. The Mister just took two of these chocolate Bourbon pecan pies out of the oven and the house smells wonderful!

It’s just the refrigerated/rolled pie crust, unbaked, a handful of chocolate chips on the bottom, the recipe for pecan pie from the Karo Syrup bottle and you soak the pecans in Bourbon overnight.

Oh, and we are practicing with the new smoker and $1/pound turkey legs tonight, too.

The finished product came out moist and tastes more like ham than turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving from mmm-yoso!

Tajima

November 21, 2006 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Ramen

We’ve been going to Tajima since we first moved to San Diego back in 2000. I used to enjoy the Menchi Katsu(breaded deep fried ground/minced meat – in this case beef) Curry, now long gone from the menu, the various Ramen, and the Missus had always enjoyed the Okonomiyaki(a savory type of Japanese pancake).

Since an Ownership change a few years back, the menu has been expanded to accommodate a large variety of Izakaya style dishes(think pub grub/tapas style dishes) and Westernized Japanese dishes. Since I’ve started to make Okonomiyaki at home, the Missus hasn’t expressed a desire to eat at Tajima. So most of my visits have been for Ramen at lunch.

On this day, I had my favorite dish at Tajima, the Chashu Ramen($8.95):

The broth for the Chashu Ramen is Tonkotsu style, which is the whitish long boiled pork bone broth. While not as rich and velvety (nor as oily for that matter) as the version from Daikokuya in Little Tokyo(Los Angeles), it is still the best version of Tonkotsu style broth that I’ve had in San Diego. Though the broth is much darker in color than almost every other version I’ve had, it is not overly salty, and on the mild side, with a nice amount of oil.

The Char Siu on this visit were 3 slices of mildly flavored pork belly, accompanied by some slices of bamboo shoot, a boiled than marinated egg, bean sprouts, and a piece of nori.

Though thick noodles are available, I usually stick with the thin noodles(you can get more noodles for $1). The noodles have a nice pull and texture, but could stand to be a bit more chewy. I love that boiled egg…..

On some days, I want more of a "blank slate", a very mild broth, so I’ll have the "Ramen"($6.95), which in the case of Tajima is a Shoyu Ramen:

The broth is a mild Soy Sauce based broth to which I usually add a nice scoop of garlic paste, and some Shichimi for some zing. Speaking of the garlic paste; on a previous visit a gentleman with some obvious olfactory problems dumped 3 spoons of the garlic paste into his ramen….taking a sip of his soup, his eyes opened wide, exclaiming "Holy crap, this isn’t mustard"…..he-he-he.

As previously mentioned…I love that boiled egg. A nice hot bowl of Ramen on a rainy day, very few things better than that.

On this day, I needed my fix of Umami, and ordered this:

In case you can’t really identify it, let me help you:

It’s the Marinated Baby Squid($3.95), a salty-pungent-winey-slightly sweet offering, with a mild Shiokara-like flavor. The julienned basil added a nice clean flavor to this dish.

On a recent visit I managed to drag the Missus along, and being quite hungry we tried a few of the appetizers, along with a main course.

We started with the Tako Wasabi($3.95):

This was pretty good, more on the sweet side, than salty. The Missus enjoyed it, and even thought it was better than the version at Sakura!

The Tuna Tataki($6.95):

Looked fairly nice, but the fish was tough, the ponzu watery, and weak in flavor, and the fried garlic only added a bitterness to the dish.

The Chicken Karaage($3.95):

I love Chicken Karaage, in fact I love Chicken Karaage so much that it only needs to fulfill one of two criteria. Either it’s nice and crunchy, with mild flavor, or it can be cold and have a nice salty-soy-slightly-sweet-mildly gingery flavor. This version was on the soggy side, which would be fine if it was loaded with flavor. But as you can tell by the color………

The Miso Nabeyaki Soba($8.95):

Hardly any miso flavor, and soggy noodles. The shrimp tempura was fine, nice and crisp.

Minchi(Menchi) Katsu($9.95):

Aaaaah, minced meat, breaded, and fried, how can that be bad? Honestly, not a bad version, nice and crisp on the outside, and not oily at all. The patties had a good amount of filler which kept it moist, and the onion flavor came through. The "butter noodles" are not my favorite thing, and the Hijiki(seaweed) had not been cooked long enough and was like eating wood. The Menchi Katsu came with a bowl of miso soup(okay as miso goes), rice, and a combo Demi Glace – Katsu Sauce, that was too sour for my taste.

OH, before I forget…one of the really great things about Tajima is the late night Ramen! Check check the hours:

Yep, open till 3am Thursdays through Saturday(Convoy location only). And it’s a good thing; for now, I think I’ll stick with the ramen at Tajima. Don’t forget to try the Okonomiyaki!

Tajima Japanese Restaurant
4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

and now

4411 Mercury St
San Diego, CA 92111

Meat by the Side of the Road-really

November 20, 2006 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso!!! is NOT on vacation. Cathy is blogging while Kirk is not. You are here. Continue reading.

Hi again. This is a good, true account of my life.

One day, about 7 years ago, I had occasion to be driving to the house of a friend, daily, in Valley Center (Just north of Escondido, where the Wild Animal Park is located). It was the week before Easter and I noticed, in front of Fat Ivor's (one of 4 restaurants in Valley Center- google it) this yellow trailer, off the side of the road …it says "Optimist Hams and Turkeys" (for now, the turkeys is crossed out..more about that later)…and I drove on by. I asked my friend about it and she had lived in Valley Center and said she saw it there, on occasion, for all the years she had lived there (about ten years at that point) . As I was driving home, I had to stop (you all know I *had* to stop). Here is a better photo, with Fat Ivor's, which is perpendicular to the road, in the picture:

As you can see, some friendly, Valley Center Optimists are sitting under a cover, waiting to chat with you.

I was curious that first time…and back then they were selling half and full smoked hams and also smoked turkeys. The Optimists were using the smoke pit at Fat Ivor's after hours and then sealing the meat in double wrappers. They had a handout, indicating 100% of all proceeds would be used to help Youth in the area, like this handout this year:

Oh, and I happened to be *very* hungry that first time. Back then the half ham was $25…today its $35 and it is *well* worth the price.

The ham is not at all salty nor is it dry. It is deeply smoky, not artificial, and anyhow, I recall I tore through the two layers of thick plastic on the way home, while driving, to tear off a piece of that ham.

Remember, The Mister, born in Finland; smoked meat is something he craves, and he knows what he likes (smoked cheese by the way, is just plain *wrong*).

I've been getting a half ham every holiday since. The half ham is $35 this year, the full ham is $55. It became less cost effective to smoke turkeys. (Something about having to have them reach a very cold temperature within two hours after smoking).

Note that sometimes they run out, but you can order and pay and pick up another day. It's only available these three Holidays a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter) and is *worth* the drive.

Aren't you glad I stopped? I am.

The yellow trailer, in front of Fat Ivor's 27961 Valley Center Road, Valley Center, CA 92082. Starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Saturday before Christmas and the Saturday before Easter

Lolita’s-Don’t say they did not warn you

November 19, 2006 Cathy Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is NOT on vacation. Kirk is taking a day off from blogging, and Cathy has found-surprise- another Taco Shop to talk about…and she has an add on..

You have driven on Clairmont Mesa Boulevard, I know it. 99Ranch is right across the street, and Teri Cafe and Pho T Cali is right in this mall. You’ve seen this place, it used to be a Souplantation, which moved down the street to an area with less parking but apparently more table space. ( I do so like planning ahead).

As you walk in, on the wall to the left it’s written: "Patience is the essence of fine Mexican food"

That’s your clue…its not really fast food. Its still a taco shop. You walk in, order, pay and wait…look at the receipt: Its written there, too..

So, here is the main menu, and there are some handwritten specials also.

You can see the full menu here ..you know, while you are waiting… (look at the site-Under the "Lolita’s Taco Shop" logo…there it is..that darn talk about patience)…so load up on the salsa bar..it has radishes,scallions, jalapeños and limes! You can eat those while you wait…

AND FINALLY your number is called…

The carne asada torta (beans, carne asada, guacamole on a fresh, toasted telera roll) was excellent, as was the mashed potato taco.

This is one of the breakfast burritos: Eggs, cheese, potato and bacon.

This is the unrolled breakfast burrito, so you can see more of the filling. The potatoes were sliced and crispy-sauteed..nice.

So, yes you will wait, and yes, its worth it. Its a nicer atmosphere and a better quality of food.

Lolita’s Taco Shop 7350 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92123 (858) 874-7860

And now, a little diversion…

I tend to write about cooking at home, Taco Shops and Mediterranean style foods…and just wanted to let you know, I do frequent fast food places…for a reason. On Halloween, I decorate…oh, sure not like my neighbor does-

But I save my fast food bags, throughout the year, and line the driveway, making interesting luminaria:

When its dark, it looks more like this photo from last year-

..and I didn’t take a photo of it in the dark this year…

because Oct 31, 2006 at 5:50 a.m…well, I was walking up at the top of the hill in my backyard: (that is Nutmeg, by the way) the hill is higher up that these stairs indicate-there is a deck, two more stairs up and one step down..oh, it doesn’t matter…gravity, displacement, Colle’s fracture of the distal radius…

This was at about 11 hours after it happened. On November 15, because the healing wasn’t quite right, I was casted twice:

You might notice the palm of my hand is 90° in a different position than in the other photo. This is the 4th cast, in 15 days…and as a side note, my elbow is immobilized, so the cast goes to my shoulder….

Oh, I drive a manual transmissioned car…and I worked for the Registrar of Voters, as a "Troubleshooter", manning 4 driving locations, on November 7 (as did The Mister). I am not complaining. Its just I am now realizing how much, even though I am ambidexterous, how much we use two hands a day….dental floss anyone?? Kirk knows of the plans I had for Thanksgiving that are now on hold, and how upset I was, especially with the latest cast. I appreciate all of your kind notes hoping for a speedy recovery. It probably won’t be, but hopefully I won’t need surgery.

So, that’s it, mystery over…and in summary, go with the fall, don’t try to stop yourself with one hand…it doesn’t work.

Is It Soup Yet? Guess the Restaurant – It’s Fortune Cookie Express

November 16, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

I haven’t done one of these in a while. I recently had a pretty good bowl of soup, and thought "hmmmm, maybe it’s time to give away some coffee".

So here we go, I’ll post a few photos. Email me the name of the restaurant, and I’ll Email the first 7 correct answers a free cup of Peet’s. Now that it’s getting a bit cooler, doesn’t a cup of Peet’s sound good?

Okay…..the name of this Chinese Fast Food Restaurant is:

As much as I hate the name…it’s Fortune Cookie Express, hidden behind other businesses on Balboa avenue. And most of the usual Fast-Food suspects are in view from Chop Suey to Beef Broccoli.

It’s one of the last places on Earth that I’d be eating….but the Chow Ma Mein was recommended by the Twins at Sandwich Emporium. Turns out that you won’t find it on the regular menu….but if you check out the photos on the side wall you’ll see the a photos of "Chowmamein".

Looks pretty spicy, huh?

The Chow Ma Mein, seems to use all those Chinese Fast-food components…the thin cut stir fry refugee veggies, fast food chow mein noodles, the sliced beef, etc….

Though I enjoy the fried garlic, and the 5 pieces of shrimp, the Chow Ma Mein is a bit on the oily side, but for $3.99, who’s going to really complain. The Chow Ma Mein is nice and spicy, though lacking in much other flavor, and will fill you up…….

BTW, there was one correct guess! Kudos to Kimmie!

Fortune Cookie Express
5931 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Midweek Madness

November 15, 2006 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

Wow, it's Wednesday already. Here are a few midweek odds and ends.

Kayaba

One half of the new food stands in the Mitsuwa Marketplace has revealed itself.

From what I understand Kayaba will be doing Soba, Katsu, and the like. I'm hoping for a Santoka Ramen as well. One can always hope……

The Missus had a hankering for Una-Don, so I purchased some Unagi from Nijiya, but decided to make my own quick and dirty Nitsume(Eel sauce). We've purchased the bottled stuff, and found it either to be too salty, or too sweet, or having strange flavors. So I decided to try a slight modification of an interesting recipe I found in DK Kodama's Sushi Chronicles from Hawaii, which I purchased on my visit to Sansei a few weeks back. The recipe is pretty easy, and after seeing the amount of Sake in it I had my doubts, but it turned out to be quite good. Maybe a tad on the sweet side, but not bad at all.

The recipe uses some short cuts, like hondashi…which worked out well, since I didn't happen to have a whole bunch of Eel trimmings lying around. The recipe also calls for the Hondashi to be boiled…which made it a fishy-bitter during the first pass, so I cut the amount in half, and added it right before the reduction process, and it worked. I'd been taught never to boil anything after adding Hondashi, but in this case it worked during the low boil. Purists may just want to skip the recipe, if it hurts too much.

Easy Unagi Sauce(Nitsume)

2 Cups Sake
1/2 Cup Mirin
1/2 Coy Sauce(Yamasa or Aloha)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Hondashi

1 – Mix all ingredients except Hondashi in a pot. Bring to a boil stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to medium-low and add Hondashi.

2 – Reduce mixture by half to a light syrup.

3 – Store in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate. According to the original recipe this will keep for up to 1 month.

I still don't quite know what to do about the Missus's other current obsession:

Have you ever known anyone who craved brussel sprouts???? With Nitsume??? And Rice???

One last item – mmm-yoso's very own Cathy Doe has been recovering from illness, so I'd like to make sure to tell Her to hang in there, and get well soon. She's still posting too..what a trooper!