mmm-yoso!!!

J-K's Greek Cafe (La Mesa)

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog, written interspersedly by Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy. Today, it's Cathy's interspersion.

J-K's, tucked in the corner storefront on University Avenue, has been in this location for more than 20 years. You might miss it if you aren't keeping your eye out for the signage.

 The little sign "Greek Style Whole Chicken $7.99" to the left of the door is take out only.

Above, the signage you'll see when driving on University.

When you step inside, you'll be greeted by someone working the grill behind the counter.  If you say you are eating in, you can take a seat at one of the eight tables. There are also two tables out in front.

If you come in Monday-Saturday at lunch time, you will be handed the Specials as well as the regular menu.

We enjoy the Greek salad here; cold, crisp lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion topped with a house made herby dressing and Feta.  

On this day, I chose the chicken souvlaki sandwich lunch.  Served on soft, warm pita, the marinated grilled chicken is surrounded with lettuce, tomato and onion and served with a house made tzatziki (yogurt-cucumber sauce) on the side.  

The Mister ordered the Grecian Burger lunch, which was an absolutely wonderful lamb-ground beef mix, cooked to a light medium.  So flavorful and served on the toasted fresh sesame-seeded bun, with lettuce, tomato and more fresh tzatziki, it was large, juicy and tasty. 

We also ordered a side of fried zucchini ($4.95) to share.  Fresh, crispy and not greasy, the fry here is done right. There are some herbs in the batter, which makes dipping in the tzatzki sauce a complimentary flavor. 

Above, the $7.99 Greek Style chicken to go.  Marinated (lemon and oregano are the predominant flavors), rotisserie'd, not as large as a Costco chicken, but oh so good...the meat falls off the bones. The Mister picked this up one evening not too long ago. 

 

The fresh tabouli ($4) goes well with the chicken.  It's made with parsley, onion, tomato and bulghur-the dressing of olive oil and lemon is on the side when it's a "to go" order.  I usually save some for the next day.

Fresh made (smoky tasting eggplant) baba ghanouge ($5.50, comes with pita) is a side I always enjoy. 

J-K's has withstood the test of time and is still going strong.

J-K's Greek Cafe 7749University Avenue, La Mesa 91942 (619)464-1915 website

 

 

Halal Pollo Asado from Casa Medina

A couple of months ago Casa Medina replaced I believe, Bismallah Restaurant....which I recall (reading the sign)served Pakistani, Indian, and yes, Chinese food. I had actually wanted to check them out several times, but the Missus, probably with good reason, always vetoed the suggestion.

Still, for some reason, the name intrigued me.......Casa, is fairly straight forward....obviously "house" right? But was the Medina, the Andalusan surname....very Spanish....or was it the Arabic "Medina"? Against my better judgement, I decided to find out.

Man, this restaurant is huge and was totally empty for my entire meal, making the meal kind of an eerie experience. So the theme is obviously Mexican, but the food is Halal.....

This would have seemed like such a strange experience if not for two things; first, the young lady working the counter was so sweet, friendly, gracious, and overall great.

There is a bar with serve yourself chips and various salsas.

The chips were hot as they were just brought out. The salsa roja was really weak, but then I found the stuff in the squeeze bottle; a chipotle based sauce with what tasted almost like yogurt/lebni in it. It was really good....that was the second thing, because from there, everything took a nose dive.

Since this was Halal, I ordered the two piece chicken plate, not cheap at $9.99. Even though the leg and thigh were really small, flavor trumps all....except when the chicken has no flavor...and is dry....and tough......

Let's not even go into the dry and hard tortillas (2), the very bland beans and the mushy and very salty rice.....well....let's not.... As I was eating, I looked around the empty restaurant, wondering if I was a victim in some kind of strange, "punk'd" like show....it was that bad. Once, many years ago, a barbershop opened up in my neighborhood. I walked by one day to see a good friend of mine giving some poor dude a haircut. I say poor dude because this friend wasn't a barber.....he was a cop! I looked at him and he gave me a nod and I kept on walking..... A couple of months later; there was a story in the paper about a sting which used a barbershop as a front....that poor unwitting customer. That's kind of the feeling I had.

Was it as bad as the Turkxican Doner-rito? No, not nearly....but that's like saying which you prefer, being electrocuted or run over by a bus. I'll take none of the above. In all honesty, if the food was halfway decent, I'd give the place another try; the young lady working the front of house was so very sweet. But as things stand....sorry to say this "ain't no Halal El Pollo Loco".

Casa Medina
5450 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Sunday Sandwiches: SuperNatural Sandwiches - the brick and mortar shop

No one was happier than I was when I heard that SuperNatural Sandwiches finally had a brick and mortar locaton pinned down. I've had my share of their sandwiches, seen them at Catalina Offshore, gotten to know Anthony(the Talking Head) and Tony(the Food Geek) a bit, since I'm kind of a regular customer and they're friends of friends....as I noted in my previous post. Which is a two-edged sword.....but in this case, I can be fairly brutally honest, it helps that they have a good product, they're nice guys, and that I run very fast when folks throw stuff at me.

I really love the fact that their location is pretty much in the pathway of one of the sites I visit in the course of work, so stopping by once in a while for lunch is great.

There is of course, the entire Nautical/Seafood theme.....a bit over-the-top for me, but so are the sandwiches. The current shop is relatively tiny and I've seen it get packed quickly.....

The two different folks I've run into manning the counter have been great....very friendly.

They've expanded the menu to include what they call the "Sinister Seven", more land based sandwiches. The original sandwiches, which have been served at Farmer's Markets and events around the county is known as the "SuperNatural 7". See kids, this is what happens when you grow up reading too many comic books.

I decided to have one of my favorites, the "Siren" on my first visit. I've had this sandwich a couple of times and love the interplay of the Mexican White Shrimp, sweet and plump, the rich aioli, the crunchy, buttery, mildly sweet, brioche type lobster roll. that shrimp is delish.....it's good stuff...I know because they cut in front me in the shrimp line at Catalina Offshore once before....

My other favorite is the bacon-scallop combo called the "Neptune".

Loved the sweet-smokey flavors, the interplay of textures, there was a mild zip from the sauces,

And while the amount of shrimp in the Siren seemed to be a bit less than what I recalled, this was exactly the sandwich that even the Missus....who is not fond of buttery-sweet brioche and aioli style sauces, enjoyed.

A couple of weeks later I returned....Anthony told me in passing, "why don't you try some of our newer sandwiches?" To translate, "we heard you're a really boring guy, but why don't you live on the edge for once and try something different?" Sheeesh, sounds like the Missus.

So I went with the Chimera, a combination of Bulgogi like beef and shrimp.

For me this was a textbook example of "too much of a good thing". You could barely make out the flavors of the Korean BBQ style beef, you could not make out any of the shrimp, either in flavor or texture....all the sauces and the buttery toast cancelled each other out. I'm sure there are folks who love this, but it was a bit too much for me.

On my most recent visit, Tony suggested the Encantado, a "Baja influenced" fish sandwich.

I had my doubts, the fish was corvina, not one of my favorites, but in terms of flavor, I enjoyed this. The escabeche really made the sandwich for me, adding just the right amount of acid-zip that it needed. I'm really not a fan of the bollilo they used, it's too much bread and too crumbly, like really cheap banh mi. I'd prefer something more crusty. Still, I'm glad they didn't use the regular brioche style roll/bread for this as I feel it would have over-powered the other flavors.

So in the end, just like in the comic books, the good guys (the SuperNatural 7) were victorious over the bad guys (the Sinister 7)....until next time, of course!

I'm happy for this really nice bunch of guys. Since I'm more of a quality/flavor over quantity kind of guy this works for me. I even think those togarashi shrimp chips aren't bad either....though I don't think I've met a shrimp chip I didn't like.

There's one last little critical item I have....please remove this somewhat embarrassing eyesore from your front door...please....

Why don't you replace it with Blogged about by "This Tasty Life"?

SuperNatural Sandwiches
7094 Miramar Rd
San Diego, CA 92121
Hours:
Mon - Fri 11am - 7pm

The Missus latest protein obsession - Beef Flap

Are you the kind of person that can eat the same thing for days on end? I'm not, but the Missus is. Once She finds something She really enjoys we can have it for days on end. Case in point; the Missus has found She really enjoys beef flap....grilled. To the point where we had this for 4 out of six days recently.

She had salads; I ended up with sandwiches which basically looked about the same.

Basically, weeknight grilling, which is an exercise in prep..... start the charcoal; prep, get it going, eat, then clean, I've had a bit of practice with this now, so with a thin, lean, but ultra-flavorful cut like the flap, it's pretty easy.

Seasoned with Ghost pepper-salt, cumin, granulated garlic, Spanish Paprika, sea salt, pepper, and Mexican oregano. A couple of squeezes of lime while grilling over a very hot grill....this is an easy one.

On the fifth day I got a break.....on the sixth, She said "it's time for a change of pace....."

So we had tacos.....sigh.....

Since this was a weekend, I did a quick brine with some air-chilled chicken thighs and used almost the same seasoning, except this one had ground Chipotle. I soaked some of the random, small wood chips, then threw on the coals after the beef was done. I covered the grill and did a quick hot smoke of the chicken....it turned out very moist and full of flavor......

So what have you been eating lately?

 

Porto: Mercado do Bolhão and A Pérola Do Bolhão

After a light breakfast at Confeitaria do Bolhao we headed across the street into Mercado do Bolhão. Like the similar markets we visited in Coimbra and Lisbon, either folks get up pretty late in the day, or these places are slowly fading away.....I'm saying that because the Minipreco across the street seemed quite busy, but this older market still display quite a bit of charm.

Albeit a pretty quiet charm on this morning.....

The busiest area was the second floor where fruit and vegetable vendors were arranging, then rearranging their displays. Many were working the special grinding machines used for kale.....for folks to make caldo verde I assume.

The rest of the place was pretty sedate....not much going on at 9 in the morning.

After stepping out of the market, we decided just to wander around a bit, through Rua Catarina, very quiet on a Saturday morning.

Somehow, we ended up in a little square, which we found out was named Praça da Batalha after a battle that took place between Porto and Moors in the 10th Century.....unfortunately, the Moors won that one.

We ended up chatting with a very nice woman from the Phillipines who was attending a conference......funny who you meet during your travels!

There's a beautiful chruch on the square, decorated in the style of many churches in Porto with Azulejos....beautiful tile work.

This is the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso, built in 1739. I loved the tile work on this one.....and another eye catching chapel, the Capela das Almas de Santa Catarina, The Chapel of the Souls and Saint Catherine.

The tilework on this chapel depict scenes from the "Death of Saint Francis of Assissi" and "The Martyrdom of St. Catherine." Quite stunning. 

The sun was starting to shine brighter and folks were starting to wake and hit the streets.....

It was back to Mercado do Bolhão. We had decided to make use of the kitchen in our apartment for dinner after having a big lunch (think, well, pork of course) and wanted to stop by one of the shops that was not yet opened when we first walked by.

Why did we come back......well, the window display is a carnivore's dream.....

Man do I love the smell of cured meat in the morning! Combined with the "milky-feet" smell of the cheeses and you have my version of Disneyland.....

I guess we'd call this place....a deli? Meat Market? Both??? The folks working here are very friendly, though none of them spoke English. Still, food is the international language.

This was one of those moments where I wish I was one of those television personalities, with "handlers", "fixers" and teams to set everything up so I could learn what everything was......but maybe not. There's nothing like randomly stumbling across a place like this that gives one such joy.

And honestly, cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, I didn't want anything too challenging......

A Pérola do Bolhão
Rua Formos 279
Porto, Portugal

Meat wrapped up, we headed across the street and had our second espresso of the the day to celebrate.....what, I don't know....joy over buying a sausage in Porto? That's a good enough reason for me.

We stopped by the Minipreco for some water and a couple of other items, then headed back to the apartment. I was enjoying the moment and looking forward to some "pernil de porco" for lunch. But deep inside I just knew that the Missus was going to make me earn that pork leg! The question was....how?

Thanks for reading!

Midweek Meanderings: Is your Itamae (and your bartender) going to start wearing gloves? Chocolate Clams and other "stuffs"....

*** An update:

I guess Take-san from Tadokoro reads the blog! Yikes.....anyway, here's part of an email he sent me:

"This is Takeaki Tadokoro.

Right now we are correcting sign which is to discontinue bear hand law.

Start 1/1 we have to use glove to make sushi now. But I don't want to use it.

So July 1 we have to pay for ticket if we are not using it.

But I don't think my customer want to eat my sushi with glove.

If I have to use glove I'm going to close my restaurant.

This law will kill the traditional sushi in California.

Please help us. Please sign Mr Andy Matsuda's petition"

 

You can find that here.

Yes, really...... Thanks to Toshiko for bringing this to my attention. According to section 113961 of the California Retail Food Code, starting on January 1st, all persons need to wear gloves when in contact with ready to eat foods....this includes your neighborhood Itamae and bartender. I usually don't get involved with stuff like this....hey, I'll just cross state lines to get my foie gras fix. But for some reason, I think this is overkill..... I've seen those folks working for those national "chains" wearing gloves....I've also seen them cross contaminate like crazy, not changing gloves when going from meat to veg, to your table! I mean, really, I think it can give folks a false sense of security..... What happened to good handwashing? Can you regulate carelessness? And man, all those used gloves have got to go somewhere, right?

I actually use these type of gloves at home, mainly for chicken, but it does not replace washing my hands and keeping a clean work area.

I'm kind of interested in what FOY "Liver" thinks about this. This 2007 study states outright "hand washing was less likely to occur with activities in which gloves were worn." I thought this Washington Post article was interesting as well.

For now, it seems that things are in a holding pattern as the the Assembly Health Committee voted unanimously to reverse and "revisit" the rule, so who knows.

Though it would be interesting to see Urasawa using gloves to make nigiri....or would it?

Chocolate Clams:

Last weekend at Catalina, Tommy told me to get some Chocolate Clams. Chocolate Clams? Never heard of them. These clams hail from the Pacific side of Baja. According to this press release, Catalina Offshore is one of the few distributors that can bring them in to the US. I chatted a bit with Tommy and found that these babies were spitting up water like crazy.....they had also been purged and were immaculate. I asked Tommy what the heck was I supposed to do with these.....his response, "figure something out."

And no, these don't taste like chocolate....

They are named because of the chocolate like color of the shells.

Once I opened them, I knew this was going to be easy......

They are quite large, about 5 inches across, and remind me of surf clams....though the flavor is quite amazing. I cleaned one and we tried it. It was quite briney with a good amount of sweetness....a bit too strong solo, but with a touch of soy-wasabi-rice vinegar, combined with some good onion, radish sprouts, and cucumber these were very good.

The Missus wanted to add a nice creamy touch, so we sliced some avocado.

So maybe you should try these out on your next trip down to Catalina Offshore Products.

What next, don't feed the animals?:

Actually, the first thought that went thru my head when I read the "Please Do Not Throw Fruits & Vegetables" was FOOD FIGHT!!! What the heck happened that led to a huge sign like this? I realize that some of the folks here are pretty aggressive, I've gotten dirty looks when I've touched "coveted fruit", but come on, really? Have we sunk so low?

Best line of the week; a little boy asked his mother; "Mommy, did Batman just get off the trolley?"

Circling Back to Yokohama Yakitori Koubou

So here's the latest in my "Circling Back" series......where I return to places that I really thought were "meh".

There's a lot to like, well sort of....about Koubou when compared to Yakyudori. The folks at Koubou have always been very friendly.....some of the Servers at Yakyudori can be downright surly or quickly get into "all business" mode. I've seen service change on a dime when folks dally a bit too long at a table. I'd easily say that the atmosphere at Koubou is a bit more relaxed and inviting.....so I do get it when folks prefer Koubou. But, I'm mostly about food, the prep, the flavor, the attention to detail, and in that mindset, Koubou really didn't cut it. Especially when we did a head to head comparison.

Recently, I heard that the food had gotten better at Koubou, so I thought I'd circle back and see what was happening.

So, this is Yokohama "Yakitori" Koubou, right? So I started with various versions of meat on a stick. At first glance, it seems that the grilling technique has gotten better in the 2 years and change since I've been here.

And yet, the buta shiso, pork rolled with shiso leaf was super tough and dry, lacking enough salt, with virtually no shiso flavor. I think the best item at Koubou is the nankotsu, grilled chicken cartilage, I love the crunch, though this was strangely lacking in salt as well. The teba, chicken wings weren't grilled evenly, the bottom piece lacking the color and crunchy skin.

The chicken breast with miso, green onion, and garlic was nicely grilled and quite substantial, but the flavors oh-so-tame. The kawa, chicken skin illustrates the uneven grilling, the top portion quite good, this was perfectly seasoned, the bottom, flaccid and rubbery.

My good friend Jenne might prefer Koubou's version of Tsukune, ground chicken meatball, but I find the tare here uninteresting and I prefer not to have hard bits in my tsukune....nothing kills your pleasure liking biting into something with the texture of a toenail.

The beef tongue here is still cut too thick in my opinion and need more salt....as I've said before, a thinner cut with crisp edges provides such a wonderful contrast in texture.

So far, not so good......except for my last item....a simple sumiyaki onigiri....yep, a grilled rice ball, which is served with miso soup.

The onigiri was nicely grilled, wafts of smokiness hit my nose......like just about everything else, it was pretty plain in flavor, but breaking it apart and putting it the miso soup; which was decently prepared, no scrimping on the miso, just elevated this very simple offering. You'd get various textures as the rice broke down, crunchy charred bits gave way to softer rice........

Which made me decide to return. After all, these cricking back posts mean more than a revisit. During my meal I noticed something interesting; there was about a 50-50 ratio of grilled versus other dishes going out. Several tables got the yakisoba and most ordered some kind of salad, which I was told is the "Koubou Style Salad".

So I returned a couple of weeks later.

This time I decided to go with more non-grilled items, stuff I'd seen other folks ordering.

Of course I couldn't help myself when I saw Buta Kakuni ($6) as a special. My advice would be to spend the six bucks on something else. This was pretty bad, very weak in the soy and sweet flavors, obviously not simmered long enough. It was served cold and several pieces were unpleasantly dry.

I decided to go with a couple of the robata items. The buta kimchi and the nankotsu (of course).

The buta kimchi was better than the buta shiso, if simply for the fact that it had flavor. Still, that spicy aioli was the only thing I could really taste, though the pork was more tender than what I've had here before.

The nankotsu on this evening is the singular best grilled item I've had here at Koubou. It was almost evenly grilled, there was enough salt, which actually elevated the flavor of the charcoal. The crunchy texture of this is not for everybody....you feel like you're eating chicken gristle, which you are; but it makes the enjoyable for me.

I ordered a small ($4) version of the salad everyone was ordering last time around, the Special Koubou Style Salad. The dressing itself is nothing special; seems ponzu based. There are strips of chicken and such, but it's the textures that make this a decent salad...the crunch of the corn and especially the torisenbei, chicken (skin) flavored chips that add to the it....good combination of flavors from the katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and the onions as well.

A perfectly decent salad.

Of course I also went with the sumiyaki onigiri ($3) again.

What could I say? The best items for me, at a Yakitori place was a salad and a onigiri.......

This time around, I paid even more attention to what was being ordered....and it was about 50-50 grilled to everything else....heck, a table, of Japanese Nationals actually ordered yakisoba, a large salad, and a plate of french fries....french fries! 'Nuff said.

So I guess it stands like this; if I want cheerful service, a shot of milk before my Asahi, chicken cartilage, salad, and a rice ball, this is where I'll come. For yakitori, it's still Yakyudori.

Yokohama Yakitori Koubou
3904 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

On a beautiful day like today, why are you reading a food blog? Sichuan Liang Mian from Dede's and Fu An Garden and one other you're sure to know.

 Honestly......it's such a beautiful day, why would you read our humble little blog? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't....really! Plus, there's a Blood Moon Eclipse tonight.

Ever since Ba Ren closed, I've been looking for a good Sichuan Liang Mian, the wonderful, spicy cold noodle dish, which has become comfort food for me. It's a simple combination of ingredients working in harmony, creating a deceptively complex balance of the "suan (sour) - tian (sweet) - ma (numbing) - la (hot) - xian (salty). I had recently tried the version at Spicy City, which wasn't very good, so I thought I'd check out Dede's, it had been a while, and also Fu An Garden.

Dede's:

Man, this was a total fail.

The noodles were mushy and the sauce watery and insipid. This had too much vinegar and in spite of the looks really lacked the spice.....probably because it was so watered down.

I've got another post on a better meal at Dede's lined up, but this was terrible.

Dede's
4647 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Fu An Garden:

While the flavor was pretty close during my last visit and the noodles terrible, this was an improvement.

Looking at this...well, I had my doubts...too pale, too much peanuts, where's the flavor? But I was wrong, all it needed was a good mix. The noodles were vastly improved, though in our opinion, the flavor still falls short....not enough "ma", not enough "suan", not spicy (la) enough......just not enough. Sad really, since the chef here used to be the #2 man at Ba Ren.

Fu An Garden
4768 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

In retrospect, perhaps just the simple item to the right will do tonight. The also deceptively simple hàn bǎo bāo. Might be nice to grab a couple  hàn bǎo bāo from jìn​chū​......sorry bad translation, perhaps someone can let me know what it should be called in pinyin. Anyway, grab a couple and go watch the "Blood Moon"....... You know, there's a punchline in there somewhere.

Have a great week!