mmm-yoso!!!

Sushi Deli 3. It's all about what to order.

Thank you for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!.  This post is not written by Kirk or Ed (from Yuma). Cathy is polite and eats any thing anywhere when friends invite her out.

I've heard the stories, read the 'reviews' and ordered carefully a few Tuesdays ago when client-friends invited me to dinner.  It seems a lot of people think Sushi Deli 3 is a loud place, with customers mainly of the younger/college age crowd, serving lesser quality fish in the (five menu pages of) rolls with corresponding low prices.Most of that above statement is true.  Being (probably) the oldest person in the room, not looking for a date and not drinking alcohol because I drove myself gave me an advantage in being able to order what I wanted (reading the whole menu) and not worry about any sort of social interaction other than with my friends; the televisions on the other side of the room were muted. [Above is a photo taken on a Sunday.  You can tell this is not a weekday because there are empty parking spaces on the street.  The day I met my friends, we found out you can't even be put on the wait list until all members of the party are present.  We waited about 30 minutes for a table that day.]  Since I was not paying, I was polite and ordered the "July Special Bento" ($5.99) which included a very nice miso soup, chicken karaage, tempura vegetables, salad, four pieces of California roll and a heck of a lot of rice. The roll contained *real* crabmeat, not 'krab'. Everything was quite good, fresh, properly fried and plentiful. I was not disappointed. 

Unafraid to bring The Mister here, we decided to try a bit more of the menu.  Above, hot tea (no charge) and a pint of Shock Top ($3).

We were seated in a creatively decorated air conditioned room toward the back of the building.  It was fun to check out the decor and not have to talk business, listen to loud music or a television. 

The Mister ordered a calamari salad ($5.99).  This was served in a VERY large bowl with mixed lettuces, shredded cabbage and carrots on the bottom, cucumbers and tomato and a cup of nice vinegar based salad dressing along with a large amount of perfectly fried, crispy and non-greasy calamari rings. The seaweed poke salad with yellowtail ($7.50) was a bit different than I'm used to- it was a non- marinated poke/sauce placed over the raw fish, but very good.  The fish was fresh, plenty and tasty and the sauce had a nice 'bite' and was not overpowering.  (For $1 less, you can get a lettuce and seaweed salad, which appears larger because of the lettuce, but has less fish and less avocado). 

A side order of tempura ($3.99).  Again, perfectly fried, lightly battered and consisting of one piece of 'krab', one chicken breast tender, one shrimp, two broccoli pieces and two sweet potato pieces.  This could be a meal for me.

The last item to arrive at our table were these un-artfully displayed pan fried gyoza ($2.99), which were very tasty and pork filled with very little filler.  I'm glad we ordered these; presentation isn't everything.

All in all, I can see why the younger crowd dominates; the prices are low for the amount of food served, which is prepared quite well and the beer on tap selection is good.   

Sushi Deli 3  7986 Armour Street San Diego 92111 (858)292-5515 Open Mon-Thurs 11:30-2:30 , 5-9 Fri 11:30-2:30, 4-10, Sat 12-10, Sun 12-9 Website The menu is interesting to read in that there are all sorts of additional charges if you want to make substitutions in your selections. 

Revisits: The Spotted Cow and Gala Chicken

Here are a couple of revisits for today.

The Spotted Cow:

When the Missus needs something from Zion Market on the weekend, I'll go right when they open. I really never paid much attention to the food court during these morning visits until I was a bit hungry one day and was surprised to see the Spotted Cow open for business.

I really hadn't been overly impressed on my previous visits, but being a bit hungry I thought it would a good time to try the food again. Instead of the items I had before, I decided to go with the "Mi"; egg noodle soup. The young man working was very nice and efficient. I was surprised to see all that cilantro and scallions floating at the top of my bowl.

The broth and the herbs was pretty much what I expected, lacking in savory flavors and salty (broth) and fairly sparse (herbs and veggies).

What really surprised me was the amount of char siu in this bowl....my goodness. Not the best pork, a bit light in flavor and some rather overly chewy bits. But for a $6.95 bowl of noodle soup, this was probably the most I've ever seen in a bowl of egg noodle soup.

A very generous amount of egg noodles as well.....prepared quite well.

This might be the way to go here if you need a quick bite. Not a place to go out of the way for....but if you're hungry at 9am in the morning and are shopping at Zion Market, this might be ok. If ok will fill the bill.....

Spotted Cow Viet Kitchen (in the Zion Market Food Court)
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, California 92111

Gala Chicken:

One evening, the Missus needed me to pick something up from Zion on the way home from work.

Looking at the Gala K(orean) F(ried) C(hicken) stand, I thought it would be a good chance to try the chicken again. It had been about a year since I tried the chicken here, they had just opened and I had hopes the execution was better.

I went for a regular order of wings ($7.99). I was told it would be about a 20 minute wait, so I went ahead and finished my shopping. By the time I was done, so were my wings. I went home and opened up my the styrofoam container.

The wings were still hot, the coating wasn't quite as crumbly as I recalled, and not greasy, though I still think the seasoning is on the bland side. The wing pieces were fine, but the drumettes kind of dry and tough. I turned over one of the pieces.....

Sigh...... If you read my earlier post, you might recall how the guy running the fryer kept poking and cutting into the chicken pieces during the cooking process. So the chicken is losing moisture, drying out..... I would think if your business is frying chicken and have been doing it for over a year, you'd know when it was done without having to cut into pieces.

That's it.... what more can I say? I think it's sad that a product would never hit full potential because of something like this. I also realize that it might not matter to you, but it does to me.

Gala Chicken
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd (Inside of Zion Market)
San Diego, CA 92111

Ly Heng Asian Restaurant

Back in January, I noticed that Hao Vi was gone, replaced by Ly Heng. I was intrigued so I decided to stop by for a some noodle soup.

The interior look basically the same.... it seems like a nice family is running the place now.

The menu looked overwhelmingly Vietnamese, having seen the writing on the window, I asked the nice young man where their family was from. It turns out that they are from Cambodia. So, Ly Heng is one of those hybrid noodle houses, like Trieu Chau and 777 which reflect the family's travels.

I wanted to try the Hu Tieu Nam Vang - Phnom Penh Noodles, but they only had a Banh Pho version on the menu - which I ordered.

Served with blanched bean sprouts, I found the broth to be a bit too salty for me. The noodles were overcooked as well.

There was a nice variety of protein items, but nothing really stood out.

The nice young man told me that they had just opened and would soon be adding more items to the menu. So I decided to wait a couple of months to return.

Flash forward a whole six months....Ly Heng had slipped my mind. One Friday evening, MrQ mentioned how much he missed Hao Vi...... which reminded me that I had always intended to return to Ly Heng.

Man, look at the grafitti on the sign.....why on earth would folks waste their time defacing a business's sign like that?

The same folks were running the place and there seemed to be a few more items on the menu. I took my time looking over the menu this time and found one of my favorite dishes; Beef Sate Noodles, which I ordered "dry".

And guess what? They even had Hu Tieu.

To be perfectly honest, the highlite of the meal was the pork bone soup, which, though a bit on the salty side hit the spot, as did all that tender pork. This was more of a rib than pork leg bone, which suited me just fine.

There were a couple of slices of fairly tender beef. The "sate" in this case was mainly peanut and chili paste, lacking the shallots and other flavors that add complexity to the sauce. I will say that it might be the spiciest sate I've had.

The portion of noodles was very generous, and it was prepared well, with a nice stretch and not mushy.

While I wish the menu was more diverse, it's heavy on Vietnamese style noodles dishes - thre are many places in the area that do it just as well or better, I'll probably return and try something else.... so long it has that pork soup!

Nice people and decent prices.

Ly Heng
4451 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Thurs - Tues 8am - 8pm

 

The Donut Man-It's Peach Donut Time! (Glendora)

Thanks for dropping by mmm-yoso!!! on this humid day (we had some rain and then it hit 80).  Nothing is perfect, but maybe a road trip will help. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are staying cool today.

I mentioned The Donut Man in one of my conglomerate posts last year and a few  other local bloggers also drove North, all of us reporting on the infamous fresh strawberry donuts. Early this past Thursday, I checked a Facebook page, took the car to Costco for fuel and told The Mister to get ready.  Road Trip!Yes, it's time for the short 'season' of peach donuts and their availability. 

The signage is only hanging from the front of the building and not even yet set up on the side windows (as the strawberry signs are in the other posts). Also, the crowds had not yet descended upon this iconic Southern California donut shop. 

Walking past the side window, you could see a new tray of the seasonal treats was being prepared...

to be properly displayed in the front window.

I purchased two boxes of exactly the same choices (one box for cc and her family)(a Tiger's Tail, French Cruller and Buttermilk Bar) and drove back to San Diego (after a quick lunch across the street) and our road trip was done.  No crowds (except on the freeways) and the peach donut run was history.

Oh-the donut itself is a very large raised and glazed donut, cut partly through and then just the fresh peaches in a glaze placed inside.  The resulting confection was heavy in weight, the donut was light and airy with a crispy sweet outer shell. The filling wasn't as sweet as canned pie filling and the peaches still had texture.

The Donut Man 915 E. Route 66 Glendora, CA (626) 335-9111 Website

Prague: Havelske Market, a walk along the Vltava River, and the Dancing House (Tančící dům)

So what does one do after a hearty and filling lunch accompanied with a liter of beer? Well, think about what we'd be having for dinner of course!

Actually, we had quite a bit of leftovers and decided to drop a place we passed early in the morning.

So we decided to dodge the raindrops on the way back to the apartment and see what the place had to offer. Havelské Tržiště (Havel's Market) is the oldest market in Prague, dating back to the 13th century.

Two-thirds of the market stalls seem to be dedicated to souvenirs, which looked pretty inexpensive compared to other places. Stalls at the other end are dedicated to mostly fruit, with some vegetables.

We managed to find some good cherry tomatoes and lettuce for dinner.

Back at the apartment, we did most of our packing, we'd be headed out to our next stop in the morning. After a short nap we decided to take a nice walk along the Vltava River. I just love the buildings in Prague......there's no uniform nod to any one style, which makes each structure unique.

There are a couple of islands in the Vltava River, the largest being Slovanský ostrov. The island was gradually formed by deposits from mills in the area. It is a pretty good sized island.

There actually was an objective to all of this. The Missus wanted to see the building named the Dancing House (Tančící dům).  This distinctive structure was designed by Vlado Milunić and a very familiar name - Frank Gehry. I've been to two Gehry designed structures, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, so this made it a nice trio.

I guess it does kind of look like a couple dancing, thus the nickname, "Fred and Ginger". Perhaps tilting your head a bit brings a bit more life to the structure?

Well, maybe not.....

Having reached our destination, it was time to head back.....at this point, the Missus decided that we should have a last beer in Prague. So we found Minipivovar U Medvídků, a microbrewery owned by Budvar

The place was packed, so we decided to just grab a couple of beers to have after dinner.

The Oldgott Barique Ležak 13° seemed to be a higher alcohol version of the "half and half", half dark, half pilsner. The aroma was on the sweet side, but the beer was woody and bitter, not my favorite combination.

The X33 was basically a doppelbock, kind of funky, almost sour scent, foamy, but with a mild fruity initial taste.

Hm. We were still looking for something in the Czech Republic we liked. And we'd sure keep trying until we found it!

Symi, Greece: Gialos Harbor, Taverna Trata, Pedi Beach

On most trips, I plan one "interesting" thing to do....I won't say it's off the beaten path (I'm still a tourist), or adventurous (look, this is me, right?) to do. Just something a bit, well, "interesting"....like spending the night in a tent (a "Four Star" tent mind you)in the Sahara, or hiking the Great Wall from one province to another, perhaps it's hiking the supposedly longest gorge in Europe, I'd even say some of the meals we've had filled the bill, whether at a restaurant or something lovingly made by the relative of a friend.

For our trip to Istanbul and Rhodes, I really wasn't sure what to do. So I started reading through things and the words, "the most beautiful harbor in the Greek Islands" popped out at me. The harbor is named Gialos and the Island Symi. Once the home to master ship builders.....the "Argo" the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts was supposedly built on Symi.

Now we could have easily just done a day trip....but I decided why not stay on this island with a population of 2500....and not even in the main city, but on the other side of the island....in a little fishing village named Pedi Beach? Which is how we took the ferry and arrived on the island of Symi with a boat load of day-trippers.

When they say that Gialos Harbor is the most beautiful in the Greek Islands, they aren't kidding....

The vivid colored buildings lining the mountains contrasts with the blue waters in the harbor to create a dramatic and romantic backdrop. The clock tower, named Roloi guards the harbor.

After disembarking the boat, we wandered a bit looking for the "bus" to take us to Pedi beach, eventually finding it near the South side of the harbor. We were off to Pedi Beach.....

The bus actually drives on the side of the harbor, right along the deep blue Mediterranean,which is a bit disconcerting as it looks like you'll be treading water at any moment. It then maneuvered it's way up then down the winding roads of mountain, some that seemed scarcely wide enough to hold the bus. At the end of the line you end up at Pedi Beach and if you're staying there, the Pedi Beach Hotel.

The Missus took a look around; all the occupants seemed to be older couples, many of which were tanning on the lounges in front of the hotel or couples with kids......asking me, "so, this is where we're staying huh?"

And the actual "beach" seemed to be a tiny spit of something...which wasn't quite sand about 10 yards long in front of the hotel. "So, this is the beach, huh?"

And yet; there was something quite idyllic about this place..... in spite of all the people there was a kind of quiet.

I'd gotten us a superior room, which had a wonderful view of the harbor. You had no choice but to decompress looking out from the deck.

We'd definitely get in a quiet night here, but that would have to wait, as we unloaded and the Missus decided we'd head back to Gialos for lunch.

We caught the bus back and had them drop us at the top of mountain. We'd walk down taking in the view of Gialos Harbor all the way.

I'd say this might be the most beautiful harbor in the Greek Isles, what do you think?

We wandered about peeking into the tavernas that dotted the harbor. Most were rather uninspiring....mostly expensive tourist fare.

For some reason, it was this little taverna a bit away from the water's edge near all the jewelry shops, that caught our attention.  Named Taverna Trata (Trawler), maybe it was the little rough around the edges look of the place, perhaps it was the two tables of what looked like locals eating here. But something drew us to the place.

It did have the look of many of the other tourist type tavernas, with plates of prepped ready-to-go-in-a-minute seafood dishes.

But the place was just a bit more quiet and relaxed, so we decided to have lunch here....

This is Greece, right? So of course we started things off with some of the house wine...it was pretty warm so we went with the house white, dutifully delivered in the standard tin cup.

We started off with the house version of Eggplant Salad. Not bad, lots of garlic flavor, better than we expected. This seemed to revive us in a way.

The Missus is a big fan of Horta, the boiled wild greens.

This was nice, not over done and mushy, still a bit firm, lightly seasoned, quite good with a squeeze of lemon.

At this point we decided to veer away from the standards. The next thing I saw on the menu was sea urchin....you know how I love my uni (that still kinda sounds wrong all these years later). I was curious to see how this was served.

I was interested in how Mediterranean Urchin would taste. These were small, a very bright, almost orange color. Doused in olive oil, the flavor was more briney than I was used too....not quite as sweet as well. The texture was much more mushy....

Then came something both the Missus and I had heard about, Symi Shrimp.

These tiny shrimp are a local delicacy in Symi and now I know why. The shells are thin, but firm and really crisps up nicely. The shrimp have an amazing, almost condensed shrimp flavor and sweetness. Seasoned simply with salt and pepper, man, these were so good, you just pop them in your mouth and crunch away to your hearts content.

The Eggplant Imam, stuffed eggplant had nice seasoning.

The tanginess from the tomato paste, nice black pepper, onions adding a bit of crunch and sweet-pungency. Though the skin was really tough, the flavors were nice.

And for dessert???? Are you kidding me? Another plate of Symi Shrimp of course!

The tall, husky, fellow running the front of the house was a man of few words, but very nice.....he laughed when we ordered more Symi Shrimp, "very good....very good, huh?"

Very good indeed!

Taverna Trata
Near the bottom of the Kali Strata steps
Gialos, Greece

Mission completed, we headed back to Pedi Beach. It was time for a nap!

 

Antojitos in El Centro Again

This is Ed (from Yuma) writing again today. A big thanks to Kirk (and Cathy) for letting me post stuff here and a big thanks to you for reading it.

I have already blogged about this small Mexican restaurant recently. It feels strange to do two posts about the same place, particularly when it is not even in Yuma, even though Tina and I have had two more interesting meals heresince my last post. So I promise this is my final post  about Antojitos Como en Casa. Even if Anthony Bourdain asked me to meet him here for lunch, I would not blog about it; you would just have to see it on Parts Unknown. 

The plain exterior has not changed:

The bright and colorful interior is the same as well, but here is a picture of a wall in the side room:

And this is the area that is a tribute to Jorge Negrete (or is that Pedro Infante?):

The service at Antojitos has always been excellent, the waitstaff attentive, friendly, and helpful. On every visit, chips and salsa arrive in an instant:

Here is a close-up of the brightly spicy green salsa, largely mashed roasted green chiles:

And a close-up of the rounder and deeper dried red chili salsa:

Again, the aguasfrescas ($3 large, $1.75 small) have been outstanding; in particular, on our visit in June, the watermelon fruitwater, which we had never had before, was crisp and flvaorful without being a sugar overload:

On that June visit, Tina and I both had soup. She chose the chicken soup whose name I can never remember:

Remarkably, this excellent and rich soup was different from the chicken soup I had a few months previously. Mine had had abundant chickpeas – Tina’s was more like a caldo de pollo, full of vegetables as well as tortilla strips, cheese, and red onion slices.

The broth in my menudo ($8.50) was fully flavored, savory and rich. In it, soft, succulent, yielding little pillows of tripe contrasted perfectly with abundant nixtamal:

On our next visit, we ordered two different aguasfrescas (Antojitos always has 3 choices, but the choices have never been the same on any two visits). Tina had the cucumber/pineapple:

I had lemon/strawberry:

As good as hers was, I loved my lemon accented, intensely strawberry water even more. This place has the best aguasfrescas I have ever tasted – by far.

Since this visit was on a Saturday, Tina and I were looking forward to sharing an order of the lamb mixiote, available only Friday through Sunday. It soon arrived at the table:

We decided on the option with beans and rice ($18.50), so we got a small bowl of soupy but tasty frijoles and plenty of Mexican Rice:

The lamb also came with homemade yellow corn tortillas, smaller than regular corn tortillas with the bright golden color and a very corny taste:

When we peeled the tinfoil back, we saw a whole lamb shoulder with a bone protruding at one end, the meat covered with parchment paper and surrounded by a rich and flavorful consommé:

With the paper removed, we could see the moist braised shoulder, laden with herbs and spices, looking tender and inviting:

The meat made wonderful simple tacos:

Maybe the most flavorful braised lamb I have ever savored, and I have eaten (and cooked) a lot of lamb shacks over the years. One of the reasons for the savory complexity of the dish was the layer of maguey leaves we found underneath the mixiote:

The owner/manager of the restaurant said that their particular version of the dish is native to Hidalgo, a state in central Mexico just east and north of Mexico City. This restaurant’s roots in central Mexico help explain the cuisine here and why this place seems unique in the American Southwest border region.

Since Tina and I happened onto Antojitos, we have been finding excuses to go to El Centro – there are some different stores in their mall; there's a Costco; it's a convenient stop on the way to LA. I never realized how many reasons there were to visit El Centro. However, since I will not be blogging about this place again (at least not in the immediate future), you now have a reason to visit El Centro yourselves - to find out more about Antojitos Como en Casa.

Antijitos Como en Casa, 425 Desert Gardens Dr, El Centro, CA 92243, (760) 482-5621, open 8 am – 8 pm every day, except Mondays. website

In a pickle: Utopenci - The Drowned Man

All hail the Drowned Man......

We always return from our trips having learned a little something....about ourselves, our tastes, there's always a new wrinkle. While in the Czech Republic, we fell in love with this "hospoda" (pub/tavern) specialty; Utopenci, literally "drowned man". There's just something about these tart-sour-porky sausages that really refresh when you have it with a cold one.

Why "drowned man"...well, we heard two stories, typical of the rather dark, ironic, humor we found in the Czech Republic,....the "Czech twist" we call it. The first is that the inventor of this dish, a pub owner, got drunk one night and drowned to death, hence the "drowned man". The second story is that these pickled tubular meat items look like drowned bodies bobbing around in the jar......

We tried Utopenci wherever we saw them on the menu in the Czech Republic and even bought a couple from markets when we went shopping. The Missus could be heard exclaiming "I really am craving a drowned man...." in the airport....luckily, we were in Prague so other than the tourists, everyone else knew what She was talking about.... I think.

These are knackwursts from Tip Top Meats, smoked forcemeat type sausages. If you buy an uncooked sausage, you can heat them in the pickling liquid before bottling.

Couple of key points, it is important to make that slice two-thirds of the way through. It ensures that the sausage absorbs all of that pickling goodness. Second, as with the Pickled Onion recipe, this is a "starter" type deal. Make adjustments to your taste, this uses a 2:1 ratio of vinegar to water...add celery, chilies, garlic....smoked pork!

Main thing is that those little "men" floating around in your fridge hit the spot......

Utopenci - The Drowned Man:

3/4 Cup Water

1 1/2 Cup White Vinegar

1 tsp Kosher salt

1/2 tsp Whole Peppercorns

1/2 tsp Whole Allspice Berries

2 Bay Leaves

1/2 Onion sliced 1

1/2 lb Smoked Sausage - kielbasa/smoked knackwurst, or whatever sausage tickles your fancy.

- Combine water, vinegar, and salt in a pan and bring to a simmer.

- Add bay leaves and simmer for 5 minutes. Add in peppercorns and allspice

- Once liquid cools slice sausage 2/3 way through - if using kielbasa cut down to size first.

- Place a slice of onion in sliced part of sausage. Place a couple of slices of onion at the bottom of a sterilized jar.

- Pack sausages in the jar

- Cover with liquid, seal jar and leave 5-7 days before eating.

There you've a set of drowned men you can call your own!