One of my favorite local blogs is Cool San Diego Sights, posts are put up on a regular basis and and some of the posts are quite interesting. And during the pandemic, I took to visiting places I'd long heard of like finding the grave site medallions for folks who are buried un San Diego Avenue. Along those lines, I had heard that Mission Hills Park, Pioneer Park had graves onsite and also buried in the park. And after reading this post, I decided to head on over to the park which I'd driven past many times.
It's a nice park, located right next to a school.
The pooches always seem to be having the best time!
The wall surrounding the park looks pretty old.
And as you head east just south of the playground area (?!!?!?) overlooking Washington Street you see it.
Good lord! Apparently, this was the site of Calvary Cemetery, which fell into disrepair. And in the 70's it was decided that there should converted into a park. So, you figure they'd go ahead and move the 800 graves, right? Well, they removed all the tombstones except for those that line the edge of the park. They did not however, remove the graves…..so all those folks are still buried under Pioneer Park. There a list of them in the park.
You can't make this stuff up?
While driving back from Pioneer Park, I passed a place that I hadn't thought about in years.
Ibis Market! Man, we used to get our hummus fix from here when we first moved to San Diego and lived in Mission Valley. Which would be over 21 years ago!
I decided to stop and check the place out.
It pretty much looked the same.
I walked to the deli counter and had to rub my eyes…..
Deli sandwiches are priced at $6.99…….which is crazy low for these days!
But I was interested in other items…..
The Missus and I miss Harvest Market down the street which closed during the pandemic. So, I sent the Missus a text and got a couple of items….
The hummus sampler. The Missus liked the jalapeno hummus, my favorite was the classic hummus, our least favorite was the artichoke hummus which had curry in it. It had a bitterness we didn't enjoy.
The Missus recalled how much She always liked the Dolmas, so I got that for Her.
I got my old favorite, the pickled beets which I still enjoy.
So much that I finished the whole container.
We enjoyed this warm weather meal with some pita that I bought as well.
A few nights later, the Missus sent me to Ibis to get some Falafel….I wasn't too keen on getting deli counter falafel, but what the heck. Of course I got my pickled beets and another item that I recalled liking.
The Armenian Potato salad, which is pretty good.
We still had pita bread and hummus leftover, so I just had to figure out how to heat up the falafel.
So, this is what worked the best. I got the toaster oven out and put it on toast at a high temp. I then microwaved the falafel for 1 minute to heat thru. I then crisped it up in the toaster oven. Not the best falafel I've had but the outside was crisp and interior was fairly moist and still had hints of a nice creaminess.
I like the couple that run the place; they are quite friendly and helpful.
It's nice to know that Ibis is still open two decades and one pandemic since we last visited.
Ibis Market
1112 Fort Stockton Drive
San Diego, CA 92103
Hours:
Daily 10am – 7pm
I just had to smile when I saw some of the brands. Benedicta, Bonne Maman, Fossier, Gavottes…….items that would be right at home at your local Carrefour or Monoprix. For some reason it just made me happy. The gentleman working named Franck was a joy. I believed he is one of the owners.
The quality of the ahi wasn't quite as good as what I'd had on previous visits; with more "sugi" (connective tissue) than usual.
And I was happy, because my Pork Gyro was as good as ever.
The first was outside Fallkirk at a huge park between two canals. There stood two huge and magnificent sculptures of horse heads called the 
The Drover Inn, a "drover" is a cattle herder has been here for over 300 years. And while we stopped for lunch….well, many of the "creatures" on display would surely have enjoyed having me for their lunch.
So, I guess the Haggis won out! 
As I walked toward the shop I noticed several gentleman sitting facing the front of the store and then noticed that they have a television facing the parking lot, so folks can watch from outside of the place! Funny thing. Though I'm quite used to the Vietnamese Men "doing coffee" thing…..I don't ever recall seeing them watching Paw Patrol before, which is what was streaming at the time I entered the shop.
The bread seemed to be at that overly dry, almost stale stage as it was quite crumbly and hard. Check out all the cilantro, that wedge of cucumber, and all those pickled veggies! I guess they wanted to make I was getting my daily allowance here! Of course that threw the balance of the banh mi off a bit. The jalapenos weren't overly spicy, the pate nice and funky, the Cha Lua sliced super thin, and the Thịt Nguoi standard issue. 
Yikes. Well, the chicken was nice and moist, but the skin lacked color, was really rubbery, and worst of all the whole thing lacked flavor. I mean it really lacked flavor. Like I've said before, I really can't call this Kai Yaang. Strange thing is, I've made recipes from Su-Mei Yu's cookbook and things have turned out well. In fact, there's a "Gai Yang" recipe in 
They closed on August 21st and the signage is already down.
And I've got quite a history with them; from the days at 
It's the unit between 
At the curve in the alleyway stood a little gelato shop. The Missus and I decided to take a short break here.
Good lord, this was so delici-yoso, perfectly roasted, the bones were bursting with buttery-beefy marrow, which just melted in your mouth. A perfect amount of salt and the herbs added layers of flavor. This was so darn good, that we immediately made reservations to return on our last night in Guanajuato.
