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Sunday Sandwiches – Running Into a “Little Frenchie” (Francesinha) at Paragon Deli Cafe

June 23, 2019 mmm-yoso Sandwiches

**** Sadly, Paragon deli has closed.

Just before we returned from vacation I received an email from (Friend of Yoso) FOY Som Tommy. He started off mentioning visiting a newish deli in the Point Loma area and running into a sandwich I'd mentioned from our travel posts. I almost fell down when he said it was a Francesinha! Apparently he remembered the sandwich from my post on Cafe Santiago in Porto. In case you don't remember what that Francesinha, called a "Little Frenchie" because it was based on a Croque-Monsieuer looked like; this might help.

I had always regretted not having another one of these while in Porto….basically, the Missus would not let me have another….under the guise of caring for my health and fortitude!

So, here I had another chance.

This tiny, but well adorned little shop….I really loved the décor from the tin ceiling tiles to fans; is located in a strip mall on Shelter Island Drive, in the same structure as Fiddler's Green. Parking is a bit of a challenge as there are only two spaces for Paragon in the lot.

The gentleman training the young lady on the register on this day was really friendly and I found my target on the lunch menu at the bottom of the "Signature Sandwiches" list….."Portuguese Francesinha". How appropriate since as the Portuguese have a long history, especially as Tuna Fisherman in Point Loma. We had a short chat at the counter talking about Porto, where the gentleman had been just last year and the Francesinha.

Which was brought to my table shortly by a very friendly older gentleman…….this was humongous.

In case your keeping score; this has ham, roast beef, Linguica Sausage, cheese, topped with a fried egg and "Francesinha sauce" and it was recommended that I have fries with it……the fried egg and fries would have made the "Francesinha a Santiago" at Café Santiago, which is what I regretted not ordering.

The sandwich had been decently toasted, so the bread held out pretty well. The Linguica garnered most of the attention the flavor stood out the most. The egg was a perfect easy over, not that all this gooeyness needed any help. Loved the fries which stayed relatively crunchy thru the whole meal…mainly because this wasn't as drenched in sauce as versions in Porto.

The usual tomato and beer based sauce was also a bit tangier, thicker, and milder than the version I had in Porto. If I had one wish; it would have been the use of a more flavor forward cheese as while it was wonderfully stringy and gooey; I'd have enjoyed more milkiness.

And yes; this was a total calorie bomb, I basically finished two thirds of it before saying "no mas"…..but if I had perished; it would have been with a smile on my face!

I'm sure regular readers would have quickly noticed that this was a single visit. I liked the folks here so much; that I'm sure to revisit. The place seems to have quite a few regulars; at least on this day. They wondered if I lived in the neighborhood and quickly made recommendations for my next visit. And, if I do have another Francesinha; I'll make sure to bring reinforcements.

Paragon Deli Café
2724 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
Hours:
Mon – Sat 7am – 3pm

Revisits – Kangxi is Coming and Spicy Hut

June 11, 2019 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Both of these restaurants have closed

Man, seems like we've hit summer overnight. It was pretty warm today….so why not turn up the heat a bit more with these revisits.

Kangxi is Coming:

My first couple of visits was a mixed bag; so I waited a while before returning. Calvin and Daniel from Georgia decided to join me. Looking over the menu, which had changed a bit from our previous visits, we noticed a couple of items that we enjoyed when this place was Village North.

Since the kitchen staff is supposedly the same a VN, we started with the Black Pepper Beef which we had enjoyed at Village North.

There was basically no spice to this and the beef was too tough. It didn't have the toothsome, but velvety texture of previous versions we'd had here.

I ordered the La Zhi Ji, the classic chicken with chilies dish. The portion size was quite large.

First off; there wasn't enough chilies and this wasn't spicy enough. Secondly, barely any Sichuan peppercorns, so the "ma-la" effect wasn't there. This was really salty and the batter for the chicken was too thick.

Bummer…..

Finally, we noticed one of our favorite dishes from Village North; the Fried Shrimp with Chilies.

This was strike three…..the shrimp were over-cooked; the shells weren't crisp; all that other "stuff" didn't add anything to the dish and again, barely nay Sichuan peppercorns.

Now, I really like one of the ladies who works here. She remembers me from my visits when this place was VN. But that isn't enough to keep me coming back if the food is as mediocre as it was on this visit. It feels like Kanxi is Gone…..

Kangxi Is Coming
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Spicy Hut:

One of our co-workers; "SJP" has gotten a promotion and will soon be changing departments. "YZ" and I wanted to take her to lunch to celebrate. We asked her what she wanted and she said "Spicy Hut"! Now "SJP" had never had Sichuan food until she had lunch with us a few months back. So we were pleasantly surprise at her choice.

SJPs favorite dish at Spicy Hut is the La Zhi Ji. Chef Hu, seeing both "YZ" and myself, told us he'd be making this personally.

Which meant that there was good amount of numbing, floral Sichuan peppercorn, and decent spice. While not on the same level as Ba Ren, the chicken was nice and crunchy, with a good amount of "ma-la".

The Shui Zhu Yu (the classic "Water Boiled Fish" dish) was better than on previous visits.

A darker, deeper, red meant there was enough spice in this. It's still a bit short in the "ma-la" department, but it's definitely spicy enough. The fish was nicely prepared, very tender, succulent, basically almost melting in your mouth. Still, this dish could be even better, with more complexity….more chili bean paste, hints of ginger and garlic, etc. Still, not bad at all.

Finally something to balance things out; the Guo Ba, the sizzling sound of the crispy rice as the sauce is poured over it is supposed to be "good luck"; so it was an appropriate dish.

The "gravy" was a bit more gloppy than usual; though it might not really matter as the textures change with every bite. It was a bit heavy handed in terms of white pepper and salty. The fish was also not poached as well as it was in the Shui Zhu Yu.

Still, Chef Hu's strength is fish and chicken, so our dishes turned out to be as good as expected. No, it's not Ba Ren, but I enjoy the food here more than Chef Hu's other restaurants – Fu An Garden and Spicy King. And for once I didn't order the Ko Shui Ji ("mouthwatering chicken").

I'll be sure to get that next time.

Spicy Hut
9460 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126

Little Italy Bar & Grill (Scripps Ranch)

June 5, 2019 Cathy Italian Restaurants, Pizza, What Cathy Eats!

Here you are, reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Kirk had been on vacation for two weeks, got home, posted a few things and the time zone change hit. Cathy is writing today's post.

The Mister and I were driving around, aimlessly, looking for someplace 'new' to us, as we tend to do. This storefront, in a strip mall next to the Vons in Scripps Ranch, had been a French Restaurant, open only in evenings. In 2016, it became an Italian Restaurant- open for breakfast on weekends as well as lunch and dinner daily. We decided to stop. We were asked if we wanted the Breakfast or the Lunch menu- and took one of each. (Thumbnails at bottom of the post).
There are various tables and seating areas, including an outdoor patio.
The signage out front indicated "All Starters 1/2 off Sat-Sun open-5". The Burrata starter (regular $15.95, so $7.97) was ordered. Wow. What a quality cheese, creamy and so very fresh. Topped with some crushed black pepper, it was served on top of sliced Roma tomato, a good slice of prosciutto de parma and large pieces of basil. Olive oil and balsamic decorated the side of the plate. If I were alone, I'd order this (and at 1/2 price, two) as my meal.
We decided to share one entree and had a choice of soup or salad. The soup of the day wasn't one we liked, so we asked for the side salad (dressing already mixed in; house Italian was what we chose), a refreshing choice.
Chicken Parmesan ($14.95) was ordered (lunch menu) and, as with proper Italian entrees, the plate came with sides of steamed vegetables and pasta topped with the house made marinara. Fresh, flavorful sides. The chicken, pounded thin, breaded and (properly) fried was moist and juicy, crispy and light, parmesan flavors and topped with more fresh marinara and Mozzarella. Great.
At the top of the Lunch menu is a "Bambino" (10 inch) pizza with one item ($10.95). We thought we should try it, choosing artichoke. Not too thin of a crust, wood fired and lightly charred. A light amount of marinara, plenty of cheese as well as artichoke. We took home leftovers and had a light dinner.

Another quality neighborhood restaurant. A great find.

Little Italy Bar & Grill 10006 Scripps Ranch Blvd (between Red Rock Drive and Aviary Drive) San Diego 92131 (858) 368-4688 Open Mon-Wed 11-9, Th-Fri-11-10, Sat 9-10. Sun 9-9 Website

Ban Lao Cuisine Revisited

June 3, 2019 mmm-yoso Lao Restaurants

**** Ban Lao has closed

My recent revisit to Mekong Cuisine had me wondering how Ban Lao was doing. It had been nearly a year since my last visit, so on that very next weekend, I decided to head on up to City Heights and check things out.

Ban Lao opens at 10am on weekends, so the severe parking shortage in the lot isn't quite as bad. I arrived right after they opened and was seated by the friendly and talkative women working.

Of course I had to decide what to eat. It was fairly warm that weekend so I went with the Nem Khao. The last time I ordered the Nem Khao here I thought the portion provided was on the smaller side. This time though…..

It was twice the size of what I'd previously had here! This was a rather rustic version; large chunks of pleasingly sour sausage; thicker slices of pork skin. It was a very pleasing in terms of savory-sour tones; though the rice that had been on the outside of the ball when fried was more chewy than crisp. Lots of lettuce and herbs provided, allowing for a nice combination of various flavors; from the mild anise to sour to salty, and so forth.

I also went with what was one of my favorite items here – the Sien Savanh, the Beef Jerky.

The version here is not totally dry and hard; rather it is crisp on the exterior and chewy and on the softer side on the interior. The umami of the fish sauce really set things off and the chilies and sweetness in the dipping sauce added another dimension to things.

I enjoyed my meal so I returned the next weekend. Things had cooled off a bit…..we're having such crazy weather this year. Which made for a good opportunity to try the Khal Piak (Khal Peak).

Man, this was a huge bowl of soup. The broth was not quite as thick as the version at Mekong, but it was just as scaldingly hot! It was more salty than that version, along with being more peppery. The noodles in this case had been cut into short pieces, but had a nice chew. The broth had a touch more complexity than the version at Mekong. A couple of standard issue, "squeaky" meatballs completed the soup.

It did "hit the spot" and I left with full, warm belly. Nice to know that Ban Lao is still making decent Lao food.

Ban Lao Cuisine
4126 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Mon – Fri 1030am – 930pm
Sat – Sun 10am – 930pm

Créme & Sugar (Del Mar)

June 1, 2019 Cathy Desserts, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt, What Cathy Eats!

You are reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Kirk is vacationing and Cathy is writing, again.

After The Mister and I finished lunch at Seasurf Fish Co, we passed this storefront two doors down.We thought we should have dessert here.
Peeking inside we noted familiar decor, consistent with other dessert/coffee places.
The hot and iced drinks menu is on the wall behind the Ordering area.
But, far more interesting choices are on the wall to the right, behind the ice cream freezers.(If you can't enlarge to read the handwritten wall menus, here is the two-sided menu you can grab at the counter). The offerings are "Epic" and pretty much 'County Fair Worthy' (there are some photos on the menu). We decided to go basic, ordering a single scoop ($3.75) of Butter Pecan ice cream. The serving is HUGE. The ice cream was good, but the flavor not as 'buttery'/salty as other versions. The pecans were chopped small. It is a quality ice cream, but a different flavor will be chosen next time.
We decided an Affogato ($5.50) over Sweet Créme ice cream would be nice. Servings elsewhere are not this large. The espresso here is excellent. The ice cream was rich and had a ribbon of condensed milk running through. Quite nice. This will be ordered again.

There are also cookies and slices of cake available. Next time.

All in all, a lot of dessert, fresh and tasty. We were stuck in traffic and got home late; neither of us was hungry at dinner time.

Kirbie has been here.

Créme & Sugar 3646 Del Mar Heights Road Del Mar 92014 Website Open Sunday-Thursday 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri-Sat 9 a.m.-10 p.m.

The UPAC Neighborhood Cafe (City Heights)

May 28, 2019 Cathy Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, Caffeine Fix, Filipino Restaurants, Mexican Restaurants, Sandwiches, Somali Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog primarily about food. There are many ways we (all) encounter places to share a meal. Cathy is writing today, while Kirk and His Missus continue to enjoy their vacation.

As is our usual method, The Mister and I began driving with hunger but no destination in mind. We saw this eye-catching signage "Now open at 8 a.m., Breakfast Specials". Of course we had to stop.

I knew the location. Kirk had written about it in 2010, then The Mister and I went to Pho Tay Do a year later. The 4600 square foot restaurant now has become a Social Enterprise Center run by the non-profit organization Union of Pan Asian Communities.

A spacious area is now the Cafe, but that's only part of this Neighborhood Enterprise Center: Kitchen Creations, a Technology Hub, Product Design and Print Shop (hence, the signage) and The Community Gathering Place are each part of this building providing much needed resources and opportunities for both UPAC clients and the ethnically diverse residents and small business owners of City Heights.

It was breakfast time when The Mister and I walked in and we didn't know what to expect.

The Breakfast menu is next to the cash register. The Lunch and Global Menu as well as the Beverage menu are on the wall to the left.

The yogurt parfait ($2.50) was one choice. Looks simple and basic. Nope. The fruit mixture (various fresh berries) is prepared in the kitchen, as are the granola toppings. The yogurt is wonderful and thick.
Overnight oats ($2.50) was another choice, made with oats, chia and almond milk with cinnamon, this was also served with the granola topping. Wonderful mix of flavors and so good. Will get again.
One menu item was 'Three Injera and large Tea" ($4). The Somali thin and spongy pancakes were made to order, topped with sesame oil and sugar. We used our hands to tear and enjoy these warm and flavorful flatbreads.

The tea choices were Chai or Somali tea (or assorted bags). We were told that one had sugar and the other didn't. This tea -a mix of spices- was also made with the individual ingredients here. Oh my, what a difference in being able to taste the cardamom, cinnamon, fresh ginger, cloves, black pepper! This was a wonderful, refreshing accompaniment to our breakfast.

Of course we returned. The turkey cranberry sandwich ($5.50) was served on a croissant (croissants and bagels are not made here) and was filled with fresh ingredients. The house-made cranberry sauce was spread on both sides of the bread, the greens are spinach, the meat was of high quality. An excellent sandwich.
We also ordered a side salad ($3.50) which you can see, arrived with walnuts on top…a fancy touch. Fresh ingredients. Quality. Of course the dressing is made here.
We decided to order from the Global Menu and chose this month's Filipino offering-adobo chicken ($5.85). Wow. An excellent version of this basic Filipino cooking and marinade method. Vinegar, garlic, salt (or soy), black pepper and bay leaf are the flavors of adobo-prepared anything (I've had mushroom adobo and it's great). Even the rice was high quality. Let's go back to when we walked in and pay attention. All of the products sold on the shelves to the left are printed here. The Product Design and Print Shop is equipped with all professional machinery. The Youth who work here design and print the items (and are available to print items people order).

Now, check out the glass case to the right of the cash register. Fresh baked items daily.
On top of the glass case there is a basket with bits of day old items to sample…so you'll know what to order next time. This was a berry turnover, which was still warm. Again, the berry mixture made in house. So good.

A great addition to the neighborhood for many reasons. Wonderful food and worth the stop.

The UPAC Neighborhood Cafe 5296 University Avenue #A 92105 619-255-7644 Mon-Fri 8-5 {Kitchen closes at 3, but sandwiches, beverages and the baked fresh daily items available from 3-5}

Union of Pan Asian Communities website

This is the current menu; the Global menu changes monthly.

Brick Bowl-Sourdough, Vinegar, Korean-Kearny Mesa

May 26, 2019 Cathy Korean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

CLOSED- Brick Bowl and its wonderful food is now gone. It will be missed.

mmm-yoso!!! is the name of this food blog. Welcome (back). Today, Kirk is vacationing and Cathy is writing.

I saw the signage across the street from my parking spot after shopping at Niban and picking up a 2019 calendar. Another new place to try. Turns out that Brick Bowl is known as 'the restaurant next to Yu Spa', a Day Spa with a Korean style sauna and many other services. Since the parking lot also houses several auto repair shops as well as a busy car wash, Brick Bowl has a variety of customers (and potential customers) looking in at the menu choices.
There are some menus to the right of the cash register where you order and pay. Photos of menu are at the bottom this post. The chalkboard special is good Monday to Friday and is the best way to try a smaller portion of the menu basics.
The fresh made sourdough bread is the basis of the Brick Bowls.

You can 'Build your own Brick' (starting at $9.99) Choose a sauce, a meat, veggies, cheese and add-ons. There are also six choices of 'Chef Specials'-ingredient mixes decided. The Mister wanted to try the "Bocelli's Italian Meatball Brick" ($10): marinara sauce, 100% beef meatballs (seven were in our Brick), cooked spinach, grilled onions, grilled bell peppers, olives, tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese. The grilled, buttery, herbed garlic bread on the side is what was pulled out from the thick cut slice of fresh sourdough.
The photo doesn't do it justice, but this bowl is about two inches thick. Everything tasted so good- very fresh ingredients.
The secondary item available here are the (hot or cold) sparkling vinegar drinks ($3.99). The "Elixir of Acid" graphics, as well as the tabletop tent information is interesting.
We have tried the mango and the pineapple flavors, but there are more: passion fruit, lychee, pomegranate and watermelon. The Mister and I used to purchase 'drinking vinegars' at Korean markets, but now add sparkling water to apple cider vinegar, at home. The same is done here-along with the various fruit flavorings. There is an A La Carte Menu and we decided to try the pan fried dumplings ($7). The filling chocies are either vegan or pork. We went with pork. The filling was meaty and flavorful and the dumpling skins were thin and crispy and also wonderful. This was a nice little snack.

There is also Bibimbap ($11) which we got with beef and egg. We received a second bowl and you can see the divided up ingredients. This was so fresh and so tasty and had just enough (not too much) rice…despite the fact that it wasn't served in a hot stone bowl so the rice didn't crisp up, every ingredient was so fresh and it all went very well together. Small containers of kimchee, pickled radish and cucumber were also given and there are house made condiments, water and cutlery on a table near the door. A cup of seaweed soup (beef broth or vegan) comes with the bibimbap. A lot of seaweed and so much flavor.

There are only a few other A La Carte menu items to try and some other drinks along with planning out some Brick Bowl combinations…I do like limited menus and the Korean choices make this small restaurant even more intriguing.

Brick Bowl 3927 Convoy Street San Diego 92111 (between Ostrow and Othello) Open Mon-Thurs 11:30-3, 5:30-9. Sat 11:30-9, Sun 11:30-8 Website

City Bistro (American and Mediterranean) (El Cajon)

May 23, 2019 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Mediterranean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for coming back to read mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food. Kirk and His Missus are at their second spring vacation destination and Cathy is still blogging.

I couldn't figure it out. Three clients called to make appointments and none of them would be available on a Monday morning, but all of them would be available on any other morning. I later found out that they knew each other and met for breakfast every Monday, at this location (which had been Country Waffles for about 15 years) which was remodeled and turned into City Bistro in 2016. Across the street from Valley Foods Mediterranean Market and about 1/2 mile from El Cajon Bistro, this location on East Main Street is another nice, neighborhood restaurant.
There's a bar seating area along with plenty of tables. A television is visible from every seat, each set to a different channel (and all on closed captioning). There is a white board with a daily special at the front door.
We ordered from the regular menu- the "Crepe Plate" ($11.99) (choice of fruit flavors; you can see this is strawberry) served with two eggs and either two bacon, two sausage or one of each. Each item was quite good, tasty, fresh. Quality.
I ordered the "Pan Handle Scramble" ($10.99) with country potatoes. The potatoes were nicely fried, randomly chopped and quite tasty. The scramble-I asked for the meat to be a sausage patty (they make the sausage patties here). It wasn't served on the side.
On the bottom of the panhandle serving plate was a large, fresh made biscuit, topped with the large Housemade sausage patty, topped with country gravy, topped with a scramble of eggs mixed with red and green bell peppers, onions and cheese and also topped with cheese. Wow! This was great, tasty and filling.
We returned for a lunch and tried the gyros plate ($11.99) (with a double order of salad instead of rice). The house made tzatziki was really great as was the house made salad dressing. The side of pita helped -there was a lot of gyros meat and I made a few little sandwiches in addition to making a gyros salad.
The Monte Cristo sandwich ($10.99) was a good choice. Cheese on both slices of the French bread, plenty of turkey for the sandwich, all cooked in an egg batter: French Toast style. The choice of sides (fries, fruit or onion rings) was easy. Th rings were whole onions in a thin beer batter. Crunchy, light and flavorful.

A lot of good, fresh, 'from scratch' items here, friendly people working and regular, neighborhood clientele. There are plenty of Mediterranean items on the menu, including basturma at breakfast; we will be trying more in the future.

City Bistro 1248 East Main Street El Cajon, CA 92019 (619)442-4444 Open daily 7 a.m.-2 p.m.

The Fancy Fish (Mira Mesa)(again)

May 18, 2019 Cathy Salads, Seafood, What Cathy Eats!

Sadly, The fancy Fish has closed. It will truly be missed, as it was a regular stop during the pandemic.

Thanks for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Kirk is taking some time off and Cathy is filling in with posts about meals she has enjoyed.

First things first. I wrote a post about The Fancy Fish in July, 2017. The menu prices are the same. The only difference noted is there is an $8 Fish and Chips special (along with a few other items) now offered daily, instead of only on Friday (and on Friday, the Fish and Chips is $7.50).The (currently only, but soon to be referred to as 'the first' San Diego HMart is just to the right in the above photo).

Walk in, order, pay and your food is brought to your table. You'll be checked on by one of the owners during your meal.
The glassed in open kitchen can be fun to watch. In front of it, you can get your own beverage (from a Stubborn Soda machine), utensils, condiments and, if needed, to-go boxes.
We decided to try the daily $8 Fish and Chip special (there are other specials, too).
Two large pieces of white fish, lightly breaded and perfectly fried, served with a good portion of thin cut (also perfectly fried; non-greasy) potatoes and an excellent slaw. This by itself could be a light meal for two. But, we were hungry.
Seared albacore tuna salad ($12.50) was the order.
The salad is served in a very large bowl (almost three inches tall) with a choice of house made dressings (Ranch, Thousand Island, Cilantro Lime, Toasted Sesame, Honey Dijon, Berry Vinaigrette and Cusabi (cucumber wasabi; a pleasant, lighter version of straight wasabi).

Fancy Fish is an underrated, gem of a restaurant.

The Fancy Fish 9430 Mira Mesa Blvd (at Westview Parkway) San Diego 92126 (858)586-6228 Website Open Sun-Thurs 11a.m.-9 p.m. Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Gaya Gaya – A First Look(s)

May 15, 2019 mmm-yoso Asian Fusion/Pacific Rim/Hawaii Style Fusion, Filipino Restaurants, Poke

***** Gaya Gaya has closed

About a week-and-a-half ago, one of the folks in the office told me that Sarap had changed owners.

A day later, I read in the Eater that DJ Tangalin had taken over the spot and renamed it Gaya Gaya.

While I thought my meals at Bivouc Ciderworks were a bit of a mixed bag, I was interested in checking the place out. As were a couple of other folks so we headed on over.

The interior looks a bit more spacious; the rather huge benches and tables had been removed and things spaced out a bit better. Other than that things looked pretty much the same. The "Sarap" signage is still up, but one look at the menu and you know it ain't the same place. The names of the dishes are familiar, but reading the descriptions, well, it was now a different world. There seemed to be fusion touches to many of the dishes.

Of course; there were those that were excepted.

It had been ages since I've had decent Balut….but man five bucks! Whatever, I decided to try it. No one else around the table wanted to join me though.

In most cases; I've had it overcooked, which really didn't help texturally. Also, the nice "fowl-ly" flavors are lost. This was nice, soft, juicy, savory, with a light mustiness. I have a couple of stories about the first couple of times I had balut back home in Hawaii; but I'll save that for another day. I really enjoyed this version as it wasn't over-cooked.

The Bicol Express ($15) here is served with mussels.

While I missed the spice (thus not really Bicolano in my mind) and the usual good dose of bagoong; the mussels were tender and those twice cooked potatoes did well in the dish. This dish seemed more Thai than Filipino to me. Still, not bad.

The Bagoong Fried Rice ($6) on the other hand was terrible.

The rice wasn't coated well; there were many clumps and some really hard pieces of rice. Not enough bagoong for our tastes. All of us had eaten the bagoong fried rice at Sarap, which was much better than this.

Calvin just had to order the "Award Winning" Tuna Poke ($13).

Maybe it's because I just got back from visiting "home"; but man, this was bland. It seemed so good while reading it through on the menu; but the fish wasn't coated well enough, not enough white shoyu. The fish itself was fine, moist, tender, but was just so bland.

Next up; the Crispy Pata ($19).

This was interesting; the pata seemed brushed with a slightly sweet glaze. It was served with a pseudo atsara which had masago in it. The soy concoction was interesting as it had a good balance of salty and sour. Sadly, the skin of the pata was really hard….not crunchy or crisp, hard. The flesh was also quite dry…not sure why the mint-dill garnish was necessary. It was disappointing.

So, a bit disappointing, but I wanted to do a revisit a few days later….sadly, I had no takers so I headed over by myself.

I decided to go with the Adobo Rice Bowl ($12). This was quite good.

The pork belly was cooked just the way I like; not falling to pieces, but super tender and moist. The sauce was a perfect balance of salty to mildly sour, with just a hint of sweet. The porkiness of the pork belly came through nicely as well. The rice was decently cooked, perhaps a bit on the dry side. The pickled cucumbers helped to cut the richness of the dish. No, it's not your typical "gut-busting" portion; but more quality than quantity.

I also decided to the order the Pinakbet ($9).

This was decent; the eggplant soft and buttery; the pumpkin was slightly firm and not mushy, with a touch of sweetness. Loved the bagoong in this….it added a wonderfully pleasing savoriness and saltiness to the dish. I did sorely miss ampalaya (bittermelon); which I think adds tannic-bitterness to pinakbet.

Overall, a decent visit. Which had me wondering; was the first visit just a fluke? So, I decided to drop by one more time. Not being particularly hungry; I just went with the Chicken Tocino Rice Bowl ($11).

Not quite sure about this….the chicken thighs didn't seem to have been marinated enough. It had a decent amount of saltiness; but really needed that fruity sweetness (usually from pineapple if I recall), and some tanginess. The color was really light and the chicken was on the dry side. The egg was overcooked for my taste; I'd have preferred easy over. The rice was moist and fragrant.

Well, not sure what to make of my visits. The Servers working, a different one on each of my visits are very friendly; but man, the space is so large, so I'm hoping they'll staff a bit better. I feel the prices would be fine for elevated Filipino food; but I'm not sure if that's what is happening here. Still, things are still on soft-opening mode. The chef was either meeting with folks or doing paperwork in the dining area on each of my visits.

I'm going to revisit in a couple of months; hopefully things will just keep on improving.

Gaya Gaya
7580 Miramar Rd
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Daily 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm