mmm-yoso!!!

Noodling Around: Santouka, Yakyudori, Izakaya Sakura, Gunco, and a special gift from Dennis.

Here are a couple of bowls of ramen from (fairly) recent visits.... plus what was a nice little bonus (for me) at the end. Since I've posted on most of these places before, I'll keep the verbiage to a minimum.

Santouka:

Still our favorite. The Missus likes the Miso Ramen, which I feel is much too salty. I stick with the Shio Ramen.

 

And as I mentioned in a previous postit has to be "toroniku", with the special fatty pork on the side.

 

The pork is wonderful with just a quick dip....steep it in the broth and it'll fall to pieces. This has become comfort food for the Missus, the rich pork bone based shiro seems to fix the Missus right up when She's feeling a bit under the weather. At close to ten bucks, it ain't cheap, and it's not everyday ramen..... but it sure fixes us up!

Santouka Ramen
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd(In the Mitsuwa Marketplace)
San Diego, CA 92111

Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori:

I'm not sure if others have noticed this; but having been here six or seven times, I've found the ramen to be better when Nabe-san is in the house. My three previous visits had been a bit disappointing, but this bowl of Shio Ramen made up for it all.

 

The broth was nice and savory. I've been told that Yakyudori uses a special salt for this brought in from Japan. I'm not sure about that, but this was delicious. Just rich enough, the noodles done perfect for my taste; firm, but not hard. The one item that has always been perfect on my visits is the boiled egg. The chashu was tender, not too rich, but good overall. As I finished my bowl, I let out the "aaaah" of satisfaction.

Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori
4898 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111 

Izakaya Sakura:

Izakaya might be one of my favorites, a long time fixture on our rotation. I don't think I'll be standing in line for the Shio Ramen here however.

 

The noodles were a tad over-cooked for my tastes....which could be remedied by ordering it more firm. The broth however, was pretty mediocre....... I recall Dennis mentiong how thick the broth was here. I guess they've gone in the opposite direction.... this was waaaay "assari" (thin) and plain salty. It seems that you'll be playing ramen roulette here due to the inconsistency......

Izakaya Sakura
3904 Convoy St #121
San Diego, CA 92111

Gunco:

Speaking of my buddy Dennis; we recently had a bite, or should I say bites in Chula Vista. we started with fish tacos from Mariscos El Pescador, followed by a visit to Hogetsu, ending with some ramen from Gunco. I've never really had great luck with the ramen from Gunco. But this time, the Shio Ramen I had was not bad.... perhaps Dennis has some major ramen "ju-ju" going on.

 

The broth was a bit low on the "richness" scale for me, but the shiro was pretty good, if a bit too heavy handed with regards to ginger. The noodles were cooked perfectly. The chashu is still too tough and dry, though. I'm finding that the ramen here seems to get better on every visit.....

Gunco Ramen
305 Palomar St
Chula Vista, CA 91911

 

Speaking of ramen.... and the always generous Dennis. Having just returned from Okinawa and Japan (please check out his posts). Dennis had a gift for me. Being the ramen-maniac that he is is Mr Radiused Corner made sure to check out the Ramen Museum.

And ever thoughtful, Dennis had a box of various ramen from the museum for me!

It has been pretty cool in the evenings recently, so the Missus and I decided to do a sampling of the ramen.

I'm including notes Dennis gave me along with our observations about the various ramen....so here goes. From the top to the bottom. 

Box 1 - Komurasaki:

 According to Dennis: "I heard kumamoto style tonkotsu is usually on the lighter side compared to Hakata (cousins). As for slangs for firmness in these thinner straight noodles there's Barikata which many people get and even Harigane ("steel wire") which is firmer still. The firmest would simply be to ask for Nama (raw) where the noodles swim in the boiling water for a mere 15 seconds or so. Again these terminology for noodle firmness only applies to the Fukuoka/Hakata/Kumamoto tonkotsu ramen."

 

 

This was light alright........ the broth was a wonderful shade of pale, but we found this bland. I only cooked the thin Hakata style noodles for only 45 seconds, and that was still too much as it really got mushy quickly.

Box 2 - Harukiya

From Dennis: "one of my favorite shoyu ramen. very old school with a good dose of dried fish. I think they're one of the permanent fixtures in the raumen museum (most shops rotate). It was too fishy for my gringo friend I took with but I personally wish more places made shoyu's like it."

 
Check out the fat content in that package!

Man that broth smelled really strong, like I was boiling a pot of anchovies! At first taste, the broth had a good fishy punch. But a funny thing happened along the was..... the more we sipped, the more we enjoyed. This one grew on us.

 
I gave the noodles a three minute cooking and it was perhaps a bit longer than needed.

Box 3 - Ideshoten

Per Dennis: " I believe it's technically a tonkotsu-shoyu. It wasn't my favorite of the day (tried it there) but has a lot of character. remember loving the noodles."

This one came with a little bag of dried green onions.

 

More shoyu to my tastes, I'm not a fan of the noodles which are not as firm as I enjoy.

 

A nice middle of the road ramen.

Box 4 - Sumire

Dennis says: " Intensely miso. They came to mitsuwa's fairs a few times. might be a bit salty for some and I think I already warned you about the amount of fat."

This was my favorite of the bunch (the Missus preferred the Harukiya).

 

 

Loved the menma..... best noodles of the bunch as well, they held up well.

 
As a whole, I'm not a big fan of miso ramen, but I loved the flavors and the richness of the broth. I guess I'm going the next time Sumire is at Mitsuwa!

 I need to thank Dennis again for giving the Missus and I our own little ramen adventure! Yoso-generous!

Thanks so much Dennis!

There are times....

When I feel so blessed....... Recently, I was invited to a home of some good friends for a combined birthday, Tet meal.... and I do mean a meal. My good friends; Peter and JohnL's Mom, a fantastic cook invited me over for a wonderful feast.....

Not much more to say, other than feast your eyes.... everything was home made... from the sausages:

 

To all the pickles...

 

 

I can only say.... "man this was soooo good...."

 

 

 

 

 

From a tiny kitchen in a cottage off a side street in Clairemont, such wonderful dishes arrived......

 

 

 

And then, when all the guys settled in for the usual "games of chance".......

 

And liquid refreshment.....

 

There was even more.......

 

 

All of it home made......

 

Ever had twenty year old Nuoc Mam? The flavor is so deep......

 

 

 

There are times when I imagine how life is for other folks.... on this night, I felt so lucky to be me; and to be surrounded by my friends who I treasure so...... life would not be the same without them!

Mission Gorge Cafe-Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner: Greek, American, Mexican

Welcome (back) to mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog.  A written record of food eaten, prepared and enjoyed by some friends.  Kirk and ed (from Yuma) aren't writing any records today.  Cathy is writing and recording. 

Hi.  A few weeks ago (as you can see by the rain soaked parking lot in this photo), The Mister and I were out and about and saw that Taste of India had changed ownership.  In fact, it seems the the people who had worked here before it became Taste of India were back.  (It used to be Frank's Happy Chef, which I hadn't posted on despite eating there a lot...).  This location is on Mission Gorge, very close and between to the two Kaiser Hospitals, in the same mall as Souplantation.

 
The interior tables, chairs, and other inventory is the same (although the walls are no longer painted to match the fuchsia pink of the chairs). As always, a fresh rose on every table...

The Mister ordered the "Mighty Swiss Alps" fritatta ($7.95) Eggs, mixed with ham, mushrooms, Swiss cheese, tomatoes baked in the pan and topped with sour cream (sort of looks like snow on Swiss alps...) and chives.  It was a really good blend of flavors, served with the country fried potatoes (nice and crisp) and the English muffin.

I wanted something more "Greek" and since it was still breakfast time, I ordered the gyros omelette (7.95). Gyros meat and tomatoes mixed with the egg and topped with Feta cheese and served with the tomatoes, lettuce, more Feta, tzatziki sauce and pita bread.  Excellent flavors, satisfying my cravings. 

 

A few days later, we were again in the area at lunch time and The Mister ordered the chicken and gyros Greek salad ($9.45).  More than enough for two, served with hot pita bread...

The Greek salad was made of mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers,onions, olives, Feta Cheese and a home made Greek dressing which did not overwhelm the flavors of anything.  The gyros and chicken were fresh grilled, still warm and very complimentary.

A few days later we were again back in the area and it was lunchtime.   Something Mexican was in order, and since it was still raining, a bowl of the tortilla soup sounded good. ($3.45).  An excellent portion, filled with chicken and vegetables and very definitely home made.   The vegetables (carrots, celery, onions, potatoes and rice) were plentiful and chopped in random shapes.  The chicken had flavor on its own and the tortilla strips were fresh made and crispy.

I decided to try the 1/2 pound gyro burger ($6.95) and pulled out the gyros meat for this photo. The addition of hand breaded onion rings was $2.95 and worth it. Excellent frying technique.

The burger is a 1/2 lb steak burger ($5.95)and was char grilled ( we were not asked how we wanted it grilled, but it was just right).  Good flavor, moist and went well with the soft sesame roll, topped with standard burger toppings.  The amount of gyros was significant (only $1 more than the 1/2 lb steak burger) and the tzatziki sauce went with everything-together or eaten on the side).

I'm very happy Mission Gorge Cafe is here.  I guess I could say it's back...it has the same owners as Miramar Cafe ,who started their business when Frank's closed.  Both places are good. 

 
Mission Gorge Cafe 6171 Mission Gorge Road San Diego 92120 (619)283-2887 Mon-Sat 7 am-9pm, Sun 7 am-8 pm

Road Trip- Shau May (Hi Pie) Restaurant, San Gabriel

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog. Today, Cathy is blogging. Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are "researching" places to blog.

Well.  The day was fairly mundane, chilly, the first day of the year.  The Mister and I were going to Pasadena to see the Rose Parade floats after the parade ended.  We drove North on the 5 instead of the 15...a bit more of a drive, but we hadn't taken that route for more than three years.  It was all new and interesting for us. We missed our exit.  But since we knew the general direction we were heading, had no interest in turning around. Suddenly, the freeway ended and we were in Alhambra.  Then the street had a sign welcoming us to San Gabriel. I had no idea we were heading or even near the San Gabriel Kirk always talks about.   We saw this:

Hi Pie Restaurant. That's what the sign says.  We parked, stood out front.  A nice lady opened the door and said "Happy New Year" with a heavy accent and held the door open.  We went in.  

Steam trays.  Menu above the trays. 

Menu on the wall. There are tables inside and out, including two eight person communal tables in the center.

The nice Lady, who spoke broken English, asked us what we wanted and I told her noodles with shrimp.  She told one of the young girls working behind the counter what I wanted. The Mister pointed to some items  and the nice Lady told us what they were.

We sat near the steam trays at one of the communal tables and saw how quickly items were replenished and replaced.  Seems everything is always fresh and a brisk business was going on.

The Mister ordered a three item combination ($4.99)

Really good steamed rice, Ma Po tofu, on the bottom right, (excellent soft soft tofu, with a spicy different than I have ever had, no meat-in fact at least half the menu is vegetarian); ground pork stuffed tofu, on the bottom left, (again, nice light spices and wonderful flavor, tofu firm)and pork belly, in the front on the photo below... 

Not crispy pork belly. Flavorful, wonderous, melt in your mouth pork belly...on top of heavenly chopped vegetable something sauce.  Seriously good.

Still, we wondered about the name "Hi Pie".  I grabbed a business card, and my order came from the kitchen.

See the upside down business card in the top corner?-"Hi Pei Corp." At the top was "Shau May Restaurant" Somebody orders signs.  Somebody is dyslectic.  Or maybe they got a good deal...

ANYHOW This noodle dish($5.95).  Heaven.  The shrimp really tasted like they were sauteed in butter.  The mushrooms were soft and flavorful.  The cabbage, carrots and onions were great and crispy. Oh, and the noodles- not mushy, cooked, but firm.  The way I like them.  The sauce was not overpowering, but complimentary.

We could get extra rice from pots against the wall, and our own soup, as much as you want...

This one was vegetarian-winter squashes in a plain broth.

This one had a very rich, meaty broth and the green vegetable was not spinach, but more of a cabbage-an older bok choy maybe... 

 Then, since The Mister was kind of planning on dessert of some sort, and since there would be no pie..I walked over to the other side of the cash register.  These were toppings you could select, for shaved ice. Three toppings, $3.95 with tax. I was asked if I would like brown sugar and/or sweetened condensed milk on top.  I only chose the milk (New Year Resolution was still in effect).  I could get more shaved ice if I wanted... 

Oh. My.  You can see one of the lychees by the spoon there...and some black tapioca (boba) and then the green apple jelly.  So delightful and refreshing.

The food here was really very good.  The restaurant is definitely frequented by locals who are knowledgeable about the unlimited rice and soup options.  The dessert was a bonus for us and a great start to moving forward in 2011.

Shau May Restaurant - Hi Pei Corp. 830 E. Valley Blvd. San Gabriel CA 91776 (626) 569-9600 

 

Monday Meanderings

Yes, I've been hacked:

My email that is. Sorry to say that I think everyone on my contact list was sent high volume spam from my email address. I've hopefully corrected that. On the good side; it was really nice hearing from folks I hadn't heard from in a while. I just wish it was under better (and legit) circumstances. My apologies.

Meet my latest "toy":

For some reason I actually opened up and looked over the monthly adds for Marukai. I noticed that various Shichirin were on sale for the whole month. I decided that we needed a bit of an upgrade from our little Hida Konro. The one selling for forty bucks was a bit too large....

 
So I went with the one on sale for just under twenty bucks.

 

 

 

Marukai also has Binchotan on sale this month.... just be aware that the label says it's made in  Myanmar. I know some folks are sensitive to that. I also thought that there were US trade sanctions against imports from Myanmar.... but maybe I'm wrong?

 

 And just because I needed to include some food photos:

I'm including photos of our New Years Eve dinner(s). You know where, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mira Mesa Banh Mi Tasting: BaLe, Tan Ky Mi Gia, Express Deli (Lucky Seafood), Cali Baguette Express, Corner Sandwich & Cafe, Baguette Up, and Sorrento European Bakery

A couple of weeks ago, while having my SPAM® and Egg Banh Mi and Baguette Up I suddenly realized that perhaps Mira Mesa had the most Banh Mi shops on one single stretch of road in the greater San Diego area. I could recall at least seven places; which sounded just enough to do a super-duper crawl/comparison.

And my good friends, bless their hearts, are always game and up for something different, and have been with me on different food excursions, crawls, and meals. Since I've done a shorter rendition of this before, I pretty knew what I wanted to do. There would be two cars; we'd meet in the parking lot of Lucky Seafood. We'd order the "special" at every stop, and get it just the way the sandwich is served. We'd hit BaLe, Tan Ky Mi Gia, and Express Deli first since it's in the same parking lot.  I handed out pens and sharpies to mark each restaurant with the name and prices. Of course I didn't count on PeterL writing the wrong prices down on a sandwich (it's a darn good thing he's got Angela to keep things straight), but I remembered the prices anyway. There were also some timing glitches since Express Deli seemed to have a thousand sandwich orders and took a while to make our sandwich. We headed off across the street to Cali Baguette Express, while TammyC and MrC headed off to a place I'd seem recently called Corner Sandwich & Cafe, located behind Popeyes in the same mall as Seafood City. We hit Baguette Up, while the other team headed to the finish at the other end of Mira Mesa Boulevard and Sorrento European Bakery. This was our meeting area as the food court is empty on Sundays, giving us ample room to do a tasting.

 

We had come prepared; disposable cutting mats, paper towels, knives, and water. And PeterL was our "cutter" and displayed great skill in cutting each Banh Mi into six pieces. In order to keep things as fair as possible, we ate the sandwiches in chronological order.... not quite FIFO, more like FIFI - first in, first in. I've been told in emails and some comments that the differences in Banh Mi are so small that it's really not worth mentioning. While I've always believed that I could make out differences in various sandwiches. And this tasting bore that out; and I was very surprised at how significant the differences were.

For the sake of time; I'll spend most of the post on the two favorite, and the two that we thought really weren't to our tastes. Strangely enough, the voting was unanimous on the two best, and the two worst.

The two favorites:

Express Deli:

 

Even though our sandwich took forever, and what's up with giving us mostly stems of cilantro(?), we really enjoyed Express Deli. The portion seemed on the small side, meat cut into very thin slices, but you make out the flavors of the Jamon and other meat, and the bread was toasted perfectly, making this heck of a good Banh Mi. Proportionally this was our favorite....plus the pickled carrots and daikon tasted good.

 
At $3.25, it's one of the more affordable sandwiches.

Express Deli
9326 Mira Mesa Blvd (inside Lucky Seafood)
San Diego, CA 92126

Cali Baguette Express:

I like the sandwiches from the El Cajon Boulevard location, but haven't tried the Mira Mesa location until today. Like Express Deli, Cali Baguette Express was either first or second on everyone's list.

 

 At three bucks this was the cheapest sandwich. Cali Express makes their own bread, so even though we noticed that they didn't toast their banh mi, it was still slightly warm when we ate it. The bread is pretty light, and even though it's nothing close to what we had in Vietnam (what is?), the crust was flaky, and the bread to fillings ratio was good.

 
It was a long, but not huge sandwich, which looked the prettiest of them all when unwrapped......

Cali Baguette Express
9225 Mira Mesa Blvd #106
San Diego, CA 92126

And much like the two favorite, the two we enjoyed the least was also a unanimous vote. Sadly, the second to last was.....

Sorrento European Bakery:

 

I've had some pretty good sandwiches here before, but the bread on this day was especially stale....... and having had six sandwiches before this one, everyone noticed right away.

 

We all oohh's and aaah'd at the chunky pate, but it had no taste. The probably from a can pate on the Express Deli sandwich had more flavor. Actually, the flavor of the cucumber over-powered everything else in the sandwich.

Sorrento European Bakery
6755 Mira Mesa Blvd #117 - in the Sorrento Plaza Shopping Center
San Diego, CA 92121

The unanimous last place, and I do mean for all six of us was.......

Corner Sandwich & Cafe:

This was a mystery place, as I've only passed it once. It looked like one of the Viet coffee places with all the older men hanging out outside. The Banh Mi here tied for the most expensive at four bucks.

 

The sandwich itself looked promising when opened up.

 

And then it happened, as we each took our first bite of the sandwich. Starting with MrC, then Angela.... an "whoa, this tastes really fishy". And yes indeed, there was fish cake in this one. The bread also seemed a bit old...... but the fishy taste pretty much overwhelmed everything.

TammyC was the last to have a bite.... she was taking notes, not fooling around, was she? We pretty much agreed with her notes on this one.

 

"Nuoc Mam Taste......fish cakes....bread sucks....." She never finished her slice......

Corner Sandwich & Cafe
9005 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

As for the rest? I'll just keep this short:

BaLe:

 

Bread was on the mealy side, kind of hard overall. PeterL and Angela said they got an "eggy" taste, probably from the spread that BaLe uses.

Ba Le French Sandwiches
9396 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

 

Tan Ky Mi Gia:

Had the most hefty sandwich of the bunch.

 

The crust of the banh mi was too hard and chewy....it was also a bit too bready and dry for us along with not being toasted. This Banh Mi was tied at the most expensive at four bucks. We all liked the choices of meat in this sandwich, but there was just too much bread.

Tan Ky Mi Gia
9330 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Baguette Up:

 

 Even though this sandwich had the nicest looking Thi Ba Chi (roasted pork belly), TammyC in her notes summed it up for us..... "bland". Nothing really there to make this sandwich stand out. I will say, that along with Cali Baguette Express, Baguette Up has the nicest service.....

Baguette Up
8155 Mia Mesa Blvd. Suite #3
San Diego, CA 92126

This was a fun time, and also an eye opening experience, especially for JohnL, PeterL, and TammyC who are Vietnamese and have grown up eating Banh Mi. We never expected such great differences, but each sandwich was very different from the other!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I've been blessed to know folks like JohnL, PeterL, Angela (whose warmth and graciousness always keeps us going), TammyC, and MrC! So what's next guys????

Fruitland & Deli- A fruiteria in El Cajon.

mmm-yoso!!! is the food blog you are perusing. Cathy is writing today, because Kirk is busy perusing things and ed (from Yuma) is busier perusing even more things.

Hi again.  In the last two years, a friend has taken me to Jamba Juice.  Twice.  I was overwhelmed both times, having to order from the huge menu board with many choices and derivations.  I always have gone to Fruiterias around town and could not understand how JJ had peaches in February... and finally asked my friend who looked at me and slowly said "it's frozen fruit"...Oh. OH.  I tried to explain my not understanding.

Then, I realized I have never even posted about Fruiterias on this blog.  So, here is a post about one in East County. {A fruiteria is basically a fruit shop where fresh fruit is served in various ways and other items, usually sandwiches and chilled seafood, are offered so as to make small meals. A neighborhood Mexican Bistro Cafe -no tacos or burritos or salsa bar.}

 

Fruitland and Deli has been on this corner where Second turns into Jamacha at Main Street in El Cajon for about three years now. It is in the same parking lot as Dubai (now Sultan)is located.
Clean and not too small (seating for about 25) inside, it offers items all Fruiterias offer...
with a menu in English above the ordering area.

Happy colors decorate the interior.  A selection of hot sauces are on every table.

 
Ices(raspados), smoothies, milk drinks(licuados), all juice-juices, 'diet' juices (not with artificial ingredients, but with vegetables as well as fruit...(you drink for the diet effects)), iced coffee drinks, fruit bowls-large in size, even the 'small' for $6.50-(plain, topped with yogurt or cottage cheese, crema or condensed milk and granola), paletas(ice cream on a stick..wonderful flavors), sandwiches, seafood, tostilocos (another post), tamales and salads.
#1 Licuado (milk shake) (small) ($3.60)There is powdered milk in this one,  made with papaya, banana, cantaloupe, banana and strawberries.
Medium camarones coctele (shrimp cocktail)($9.60) We counted 23 good sized, plump and flavorful shrimp in this one. The broth was mostly lime juice, not overly tomato.  However the cucumber, avocado and cilantro made this quite delightful and very flavored. It's refreshing.

We decided to share a pork torta (#1)($6.50), especially after the Young Man behind the counter told us the bread was made fresh daily in the store.
This sandwich, made with a good portion of sliced, moist and flavorful pork roast and a bit of mayonnaise, was topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeno and avocado and is definitely a meal in itself. The bread was indeed fresh, with a nice crispy crust and it was toasted.

Everything here is fresh, seasonal and takes a short while to be brought out, because it is all made to order.  This is how I enjoy eating.

Fruitland & Deli 109 Jamacha (between Main and 2nd) El Cajon 92019

Last Night's Dinner: Afghan inspired Cauliflower

It was only a matter of time before the Missus got tired of jumping in the car and going to Aria on the chance that they'd have Her favorite cauliflower dish. This meant trying to make something that frankly, I wasn't too confident I'd pull off. But it came out much better than I thought it would.

 

I'm not really going to list a "recipe" for a couple of reasons. First I used regular off the shelf supermarket brand Curry Powder, ground coriander, and tumeric....... starting with a ratio of 2:1:1.

 

In the end, I ended up adding at least double that amount of curry powder to adjust the flavors. I don't feel comfortable advising someone to use off the shelf Curry Powder from a supermarket in the amounts I did. Second, the Missus swears that Aria uses Dill in their recipe, so I ended up adding 2 teaspoons of dill. The end product came out surprisingly good......quite a shock for me.

I started with 4 tablespoons of olive oil heated over medium heat, then added 2Tb Curry Powder, 1Tb ground coriander, 1 Tb ground tumeric, stirring the the spices into the oil to let them "bloom" for about 20 second or so until fragrant.

 
To this I added one large onion chopped, and seven cloves of garlic finely minced. Once the onions had started softening, I added 1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and the dill. Once this mixture started bubbling I added my cauliflower, the equivalent of one medium head of florets, mixing to coat the cauliflower. Once the florets were coated I added 1/2 cup of water, mixed well, tasted the sauce and added salt and pepper to taste, and adjusted the flavor a bit further with more (quite a bit) curry powder. I then lowered the temperature, gave cauliflower a good mix, and covered the dish. I'd open and stir every five minutes or so, and added water, in quarter cup portions twice to keep the sauce from getting too dry. After about twenty minutes or so, the cauliflower had reached the desired texture......soft and almost buttery.

 

A quick taste, and the addition of a bit more salt and fresh ground pepper and it was ready to go......

It ended up not being that difficult......

So did you try to cook anything new this week?

The Fortuna Foodcourt in Foothills, Yuma: La Botana, Tacos Durango, and El Cositas

Kirk travels the world and SoCal looking for interesting food and blogs about it here. Cathy knows San Diego better than the cops and blogs about eateries from SD to Michigan. But today, ed (from Yuma) is posting about a collection of trucks and carts in a strange and unexpected part of Yuma: The Foothills       

 As I wrote last May in a post about Kodiak seafood, The Foothills, a neighborhood about a dozen miles east of the main part of Yuma, is not usually where someone would go looking for good and interesting restaurants.  Populated this time of the year mostly by retired winter visitors, it hardly seems like it would be the home to some of the best taco trucks/shacks in Yuma.  But it is.

Over the last few years, a group of culinary entrepreneurs have established a clump of small eateries just off of an access road that runs  parallel to Fortuna Blvd south of I-8. Back in 2005, Kirk dubbed a similar congregation of taco trucks on 8th St a foodcourt.  This newer aggregation is more numerous and varied.  Little places popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

 This picture  from the parking lot of the neighboring Walgreens shows only a small number of the them:
There is a place serving date shakes and another serving Mexican hot dogs:
Another spot that never seems to have customers serves barbecue:
Jersey's is the home of the 3 pound hamburger -- and all sorts of other burgers as well:

This post, however, is just a brief introduction to the three taco trucks located in the area.

La Botana is the fanciest with a semi-enclosed dining room as well as an outdoor deck:
Each table has a squeeze bottle of spicy homemade salsa, a bottle of lightly flavored guacamole sauce, and another rather unusual condiment:

I ordered four different tacos off the extensive menu and asked that they come with "everything." The pork adobada taco was pretty good.  The tortilla was warm and fresh, the pork mildly seasoned, and the toppings (chopped onions, scallions, cabbage, and cilantro) appropriate:
The lengua may have been the best of them all -- the meat tender, rich, and deeply flavored:
The chicken (covered with shredded lettuce and diced tomato) was also good to start with, and even better squirted with some hot sauce and guacamole sauce:

Notice the nice char on some of the pieces of chicken.  Love that.

The only disappointing taco -- and it was only a minor disappointment -- was the fish taco:

Although the fish was perfectly fresh and the toppings decent, my preference in fish tacos is a crunchier crust.

A couple of days later, I went to the second Mexican stand, Tacos Durango:

I had good memories of a visit there last winter when I didn't have my camera with me. It is still a pretty humble little taco truck connected to a covered enclosure:
Here the condiments and salsas are located in a small weatherbeaten little box with a plastic cover:
While the price of the shrimp taco ($2) seemed a bit steep when I ordered, I had no complaints when the taco arrived:

This was a huge taco.  The four shrimp, totally greaseless and completely covered in crunchy coating, tasted exactly like fresh shrimp.  Outstanding.  To my mind, the best in the county.

After I ate one of the shrimp, which reduced the contents of the taco to something that I could fold over, I squirted lemon on them and decorated the remaining shrimp with crema and choices from the salsa bar:
The fish tacos, made with fresh battered pieces of real whitefish were almost as good as the shrimp ones:

The al pastor, on the other hand, was a bit dried out and over cooked:

The spicy coating on it was excellant, however, and I suspect that the  pastor here is usually better than this.

The lengua was tasty if not quite as muy rico as the version at La Botana:

A few days later I returned to the food court again, this time going to Tacos El Cositas:
I was pleased to see asada (skirt steak?) cooking on an outside grill:
Here the condiments are in a covered cooled section of a large aluminum stand:
I received four tacos -- one fish, one shrimp, and one carne asada on the large plate, and something called a chipilones on the smaller plate on the left:
All of these tacos were huge in size.  Both the fish and the shrimp tacos were crunchy, and the fish taco might have been even better than the one at Durango.  I believe the owner/chef double fries them if one requests crunchy. Here is a close up of the shrimp taco as decorated:

The best taco, however, was the chipilones.  At first the name puzzled me (I just ordered it without knowing for sure what I was going to get) but as soon as I saw the taco, I realized that it was El Cositas's version of the eponymous taco from the famous and gigantic taco emporium in San Luis, Sonora.  In fact, the chef/owner told me that El Chipilon is owned by his brother.

with proper toppings the way I like, the taco looked like this:

Heaven on a tortilla de maiz.  The asada meat was tender, moist, and deeply flavorful.  The cheese and roasted green chile added a perfect Sonoran complement to the wonderful beef.

El Cositas has a more extensive menu at dinner and even serves Vampiras, the elusive vampire taco.  Out in The Foothills.  Whodda thunk that?

A couple notes. The only restroom available is in Walgreens. Each restaurant keeps its own hours, and most of them are seasonal. But if you go around lunch or dinner between October and April, you will find something (probably many things) tasty and inviting. I sure did and I will be back.

Suzhou: Noodles and Sheng Jian Bao

I realize that I really need to finish all my posts on China before we head off to our next vacation, so I'll try to catch up in the next few weeks.

We left Hangzhou on bus, the distance being about 100 miles and took about 2 hours. We arrived at the bus station in Suzhou, just South of downtown and made it to our hotel. This location of Green Tree Inn had seen better days. The carpets were scuffed and torn, much of the place smelled of cigarette smoke, the rooms were on the beat side. Still, you really couldn't beat the location just two blocks from Guan Qian Jie, the main downtown pedestrian street. Plus, the staff here was very nice, especially the housekeeping gals. One was so nice we actually tried to tip her.......which seemed to shock and offend her. I guess she didn't want to be mistaken for being a capitalist??? We were a bit hungry so after settling in we decided to grab something to eat. The young lady at the front desk suggested a noodle shop just a few yards away from the hotel.

 

The Missus said this seemed to be a chain of some kind. And as with many of these types of shops the drill is as follows..... you order and pay at the front desk.

 

Take your ticket to the back window were they'll prepare your order and you pick it up and eat at your table. As you can see, most of the dishes here are below 10 Yuan ($1.50 US).

 

The Missus went with an Eel Noodle Soup:

 
She told me the Eel was not very good.

I had the same type of noodle soup, but with a pork chop and preserved vegetable.

 

I felt about the same way regarding my pork.... it was tough and dry.

In spite of looks the broth was very mild in flavor, though the noodles, which were very loooong weren't bad.

We hedged our bets with some Chao Nian Gao (stir fried rice cakes), which was much better, if a bit more filling than the noodle soup.

 
After getting some food in our bellies we walked up the two blocks or so to the heart of downtown Suzhou, Guan Qian Jie. The first thing I realized is that although Suzhou seemed much more crowded than Hangzhou; things seemed to move at a slower pace. Unlike Hangzhou, which seemed to be much more "edgier" folks here seemed to enjoy relaxing, people smiled, laughed, and things seemed much less harried.

Almost directly from the hotel, our street took us up right behind the well known Xuanmiao Taoist Temple, also known as the "Temple of Mystery". I never found out what the "mystery" was, but maybe someone out there can fill me in.

 

With all the hawkers and vendors, this place sung out "tourist trap" to us..... so we decided to just enjoy the view. But we did find out that the first temple was built in 276 A.D. destroyed a couple of times. The current main hall was rebuilt during the Song Dynasty and the only remaining structure of that style in Suzhou.

Guan Qian Jie has all the trappings of the "new" China; a KFC and a TGIFridays is close by.....

 

But turn the corner and you'll see something like this.......

 

Looking at the line, I thought it was for a movie or something. But the Missus told me that this place made stewed meats..... and apparently was very popular.

Peering through the window, I was tempted, but the line went all the way down the street.

 

Renmin Lu is one of the main streets in Suzhou. One one side of the street is one of the many canals which why Europeans gave Suzhou the nickname of "Venice of the East".

 

The water was a bright green. But strangely, there was no smell.....

Folks lived above many of the businesses lining the street..... I love the shoes drying in this photo.

 

Actually this bridge is a landmark for us. Right to the North of it was this shop, which was doing some major bang-up business.

 

As you can tell by the line........

 

 

So what were most of the people waiting in line for?

 

Why Sheng Jian Bao of course!

While I found us a spot outside the restaurant, the Missus paid at the front counter and stood in line. While waiting, She brought out Her camera and took almost thirty photos! Here are a couple:

 

 

 

 

There was an army of workers making Sheng Jian Bao! I found us two seat at one of the tables outside the restaurant. When I first looked at the SJB I was unimpressed.....

 

But it only took one bite...... the tops were surprisingly fluffy, the bottoms looked burnt but were just nice and crisp.... I'm guessing that those pans have been heavily seasoned over the years. The interior was full of lip melting soup...... slightly sweet, and very savory. The meat(quite a bit actually) was tender and full of pork flavor.... on the sweet side for the Missus; I loved it.

I saw a middle aged woman looking for a seat, so I gave her mine, and grabbed one of the plastic kiddie stools. She smiled and thanked us, and told the Missus "you're not from here, are you?" When the Missus said no, she decided to become our SJB "tutor". Using her chopsticks to grab an invisible SJB (strangely, she was the only person I saw who wasn't having SJB... she was having noodle soup). She instructed the Missus to turn the SJB on its side. Then "you bit a tiny hole in the side to let the steam out, and suck...Suck....SUCK all the good juice out first! Careful not to burn your tongue." It right then that I knew...... I was really going to enjoy this city.

As we finished our meal and walking up Renmin Lu, a little army of women, each carrying a stool and packages walked passed up ahead, and disappeared into an alleyway. Curious, I made sure to peer down the alley when I passed it...... it was women workers going on their lunch break.