mmm-yoso!!!

Turo Turo Thursday: Olga's Food Place

I've got a bunch of one or two-off sets of photos consisting of visits to various "turo-turo" (point-point) shops all of San Diego. I really didn't know how, or where to place them. I was thinking of just doing a week of these "steam table" shops, which are a staple. I do wish there would be more medium range restaurants like Tribu Grill and Gerry's Grill in San Diego, but alas, whether based on attitudes or local culture it is not to be. So I've decided to do one of these places every week or so until I run out!

You may have seen the sign, so you may think that name of this joint is "Filipino Lumpia". Unless, of course, you've read Dennis's post, which you can find here.

   

But if you enter through the door.....

 

You might find a quaint "turo-turo" shop. I say "might" because the first time I ventured through those doors, right after I saw the Filipino Lumpia sign, the place was empty, totally empty, and not even my "hellos" would create a stir in the place.

 

My next visit would be much, much, different. I happened to walk in when Rocky was working. Rocky, along with his wife Olga run Olga's Food Place and Lumpia Factory. Rocky, originally from Cavite is a jovial and friendly soul. At first glance, he reminded me of retired entertainer Teddy Tanaka, circa 1970's in dress.

   

There are usually 8 steam table offerings daily, and something even more special on Fridays and Saturdays:

 

In case you think that Filipino and Cuban food make strange bedfellows, you wouldn't be alone. You see, Olga is Cuban, and the quiet older woman there on Fridays and Saturdays, who I believe is Olga's Mother cooks one or two Cuban Dishes. Rocky is easy to talk to, and if you show any interest or knowledge of Filipino Food, he'll undoubtedly ask you, "are you Filipino"? I saw him ask a somewhat incredulous African-American young man this, when he ordered the adobo; "you know ADOBO! Are you Filipino???" Somehow, coming from Rocky, this is just plain charming, as I've been asked three times, and can't help but chuckle........

On this day, I went with the two item and starch turo-turo standard($5.00), selecting  the just prepared Cuban Arroz con Pollo (Chicken Rice) as my starch.

 

In one corner, I selected the Fish Sarsiado. This sarsiado preparation used tilapia, which was on the dry side. The tomato-onion based sauce had good flavor, and this was very low on the "patis" (fish sauce) scale.

In the other corner was Cuban Chicken Fricasse (Fricasé de Pollo):

 

Mild in flavor but very moist, this was a rustic home-style dish.

My favorite was the Arroz con Pollo, in spite of the fact the rice was on the mushy side, was full of flavor.

 

On other occasions, I've arrived to find the place packed with a swarm of young folks, reading, playing, and just being kids. I think that Rocky and Olga have a huge family, and extended family.

One non-Friday I arrived and just went with the simple two item combo, this time with a version of Tocino and Adobo.

 

The radiation red tocino was dry and flavorless, and left me unimpressed.

The Adobo on the other hand was pretty good. Notice I say "adobo", not chicken adobo, or pork adobo. This was a combination chicken and pork adobo.

 

The meats were tender and moist, and the  black pepper flavor in the sauce stood out. This was not bad. I'd say this was easily worth the five bucks, not "National City level" food, but I think a bit better than Phil-Am a few miles away.

Olgas main business is in lumpia. At four for a buck, it's pretty much a bargain. 

  

The pork, and the "mixed" is better than the beef, and though not quite as good as FredCel's lumpia, you can get 100 lumpia for $25!

Overall, an interesting Mom-and-Pop-Filipino-Cuban-turo-turo joint. Now that's one of a kind.....

Olga's Food Place
2314 Morley St
San Diego, CA 92111

Please read Dennis's post on Olgas on a Radiused Corner, which can be found here.  

Asian Noodle revisited

There's something about this place that keeps me coming back every six to eight months or so. It could be that I'm just a sucker for a good story, in this case the story of Ma Mon Luk(Asian Noodles claims to be "Home of the famous Ma Mon Luk Family"), the migrant from Canton who is credited with being the pioneer of Chinoy (Chinese - Filipino food) cuisine. You can read a bit more in my earlier post on Asian Noodle. I'm also fascinated by the Chinese Diaspora, and how the Chinese have influenced food wherever they have landed. Or perhaps, I'm just intrigued by the blending of flavors..... who knows, but I always return.

   

One thing I'll miss about Asian Noodles is the friendly "Liza" who would entice us off the sidewalk to eat. She passed on recently, much too early, we'll miss her.

On one of my visits, I finally took a photo of the giant woks in the cooking area.

 

This post will be on some of the "other items" here.......not just the Beef Mami or Siopao.

On one of my visits I tried the Seafood Mami, at ten bucks it was one of the more expensive items on the menu.

 

I really didn't enjoy this. As is the case about half the time here, the noodles were very mushy. The broth was bland, and the seafood of low quality. It's always bad when the best thing about a soup is the Napa Cabbage.

When I mentioned this to good FOY "MG", I was told that I had ordered badly, and that we'd needed to make a visit to Asian Noodles so she could set me straight. A few months later, the day finally arrived. As we had a seat, MG started kidding the shy and very nice young lady taking our order. She easily passed as Filipino to me, and even MG had been fooled at first. One one visit however, when MG started chatting in Tagalog with her, the truth was revealed......she is Thai! The young lady understands enough Tagalog to get by. I'm wondering how many folks think that she's a nice, young Filipino gal? The rule was no Mami, no Siopao, I've already had those dishes.

MG suggested I try the Beef Pares.

 

This classic "pair" (pare) is a simmered stewed beef served with garlic rice. I found that garlic rice might just be the way to go here, nicely browned fried rice, with a nice garlic flavor. The stewed beef was a palette of familiar flavors; soy sauce, star anise, sugar, and a touch of garlic.

 

The beef was fairly tender, the larger pieces were a touch on the dry side. I enjoyed the broth/gravy, it was like a good Chinese Beef Stew.

MG ordered the Tapsilog, and insisted that I try some of the Beef Tapa.

 

The exterior of the beef was crisp, the interior soft, and wonderful combination of textures. The flavor was an excellent combination of salty and sweet, which reminded me a bit of Mongolian Beef. It was different from most versions of Beef Tapa I've had.

We also ordered the "Special Pancit".

 

Basically a chow mein like dish. The noodles again were a bit too soft for my taste. The beef was fairly soft and moist, but this was just kinda plain to me. It showed no characteristics of being prepared in a wok.

For me garlic rice is the way to go here; and I'll probably be back for the Beef Tapa in a few months!

Asian Noodles
1430 E Plaza Blvd 
National City, CA 91950
10am - 8pm Daily

Saturday Snacks: Camau Bakery, Cheeseballs Perhaps?, or for something a bit more savory......

Just some "snacks" for Saturday.....

Camau Bakery & Deli:

This place  had caught our interest a while back. We'd seen the prepackged Banh Beo, and other snacks with the "Camau Bakery" label on them. But the place always seemed closed. But on this morning, I noticed the shop was actually open! At least the open sign was out. So we stopped immediately, and found some parking. And walked on over to the door......

 

And it was locked!!! But the nice lady inside waved at us, opened the door and let us in. I kinda got the feeling that Camau really does catering, large orders, and wholesale orders. Nothing was out, and there were pans of covered snacks waiting for pick-up. But after passing by so many times, the Missus wasn't to be denied. She pointed at one of the containers, and said..."I want that!" The woman, who was a bit amused at the Missus's antics, told Her, "this is for an order, but since they're not going to be picked up until later this afternoon we can make more." Her name is Kieu...so thank you so much!

So what did the Missus get?

 

Well, a bunch of styrofoam containers of course.....

Just kidding. She got a large order of Che Xoi Nuoc. It's a "sweet soup" of sorts, flavored with sugar and ginger. In the "soup" are large dumplings made of rice flour, and stuffed with mung bean paste, much like the Chinese Tāngyuán. These also had scallions in them, and was more savory than other versions we've had before. Still, after being chilled ice cold, and covered with the accompanying cocunut milk and sesame seeds, it was pretty good.

   

I just wish they had regular hours.....

Camau Bakery & Deli
4857 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 583-2904

Some Cheese Balls Maybe???

One of my favorite lines from the movie, I Love You to Death. Recently, "MG" brought these to work. I had never seen them before.

   

Apparently, these were the "newest thing" at Valerio's. Buttery, sweet, and a bit salty....maybe a bit too oily for me....none the less, not too bad. If you like buttery.......

   

And how's this for the kicker....it's filled with cream cheese....

 

Apparently, it was Valerio's in Mira Mesa who first started selling this.....and now it's being sold at other locations. This one was from the National City location.

Valerio's City Bakery
1631 E 8th St
National City, CA 91950
(619) 477-8588

And for something a bit more "savory"....

You can get this:

 

Need a closer look?

 

It was nice breaking bread (and other things) with two of my favorite people, Howie (please check out his recently redesigned Foodie View) and Candice. And this was one of the dishes we sampled.

If you're wondering about the main ingredient, I think the food labeling may be very accurate in this instance:

    

Fishing Feed? = Bait???? It's all on the label!

Hope you're all having a grest weekend!

Clearing Out the Memory Card - Revisits to, Pho King, Sab-E-Lee, Tita's Kitchenette, Okan, Ba Ren, & one more. Plus some Vien Dong Linda Vista rumors.

I can't believe how many photos I've stashed away for no good reason. It hardly ever rains here in San Diego, so if I'm saving 'em for a rainy day, these'll never see the light of day. And usually, if I return to a restaurant several times, I pretty much stop taking photos. But these are exceptions, and instead of a rainy day, we'll just have to say I saved these for one, super hot-dry, SoCal day. So hot, to prevent my fingers from melting on my keyboard, I'm going to keep the verbiage to a minimum. So let's see how many different cuisines I can hit in one post.

Pho King:

Yes, it's the Hu Tieu Mi Kho(large - $7.25), from the unfortunately named Pho King.

And even though the ingredients aren't quite the same on each visit, and the pork-soy sauce mixture is a sodium bomb, I like this. Being served "dry", also makes it a pretty good dish for a scalding day.

Just don't eat the Pho'.

Pho King Restaurant
4658 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Speaking of don't eat the Pho, check out what FOY, and one of my favorite bloggers, Jelly, ate....this is what they call Pho in Ulsan. Jenn asked me not to weep, but it's hard not too....

Even more Sab-E-Lee:

The Shrimp Larb($6.95):

Man, this was the hottest thing I've had at Sab-E-Lee so far(And I've had more than a few items from the menu)...nearly burned my lips off.

A bit more toward my taste was the Nam Sohd ($6.95):

If you've ever had Nem Chua (Vietnamese fermented sausage), you'd know what the flavor of Nam Sohd was like. It is a fermented sausage, less dense than it's Vietnamese counterpart, lighter, and with whole peppers embedded in the meat. Combined with a slice of raw garlic, some galangal, and maybe a chili or two...it will surely get your attention.

What I found interesting was that this is listed under "Salads" on the menu. What was really good, but I don't have a photo of is the Larb Pet, the grilled duck larb. The Missus scarfed it all up before I had a chance to even catch a whiff of it. She did mention that it was very good, so I'll have to take Her word for it.

Sab-E-Lee Restaurant
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

Tita's Kitchenette:

3 years after my first post on Tita's, and I still ask myself the same question. How can 1 person finish all this?

MG was kind enough to pick up lunch for us, and in addition to the lechon kawale, was nice enough to pick up something "more healthy" (in relative terms) a Tortang Talong, what they call an "eggplant omelette". I wasn't even able to make a dent in this!

Tita's Kitchenette
2720 East Plaza Boulevard
National City, CA 91950

In case you wondering how they make this, you can find a nice YouTube-y thing here.

Wa Dining Okan:

We've dropped by Wa Dining Okan a few times since my last post. And though the Gobo Salad wasn't up to par on our last visit. I really enjoyed the Beef Tataki ($8.25):

Light, tasty, good acid, quite nice.

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Ba Ren:

What would one of these posts be without Ba Ren. After all these years, still our favorite. If you want to read previous posts, you can find a listing on my rotation page. Not much more to add, just a few photos:

Steamed Pumpkin stuffed with Pork (#129 - $14.99, you need to call one day ahead).

I've had this a few times before, but it was especially good on this visit! This was during dinner with Ed from Yuma & Tina. I'll let Ed comment if he desires.

And of course during other visits; the usual suspects.

Ba Ren
4957 Diane Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

And one more just for the heck of it:

This one is for FOY JeffreyC:

I know how much he enjoys Katsudon. It's a bit too hot for that right now......but this version from Kayaba was passable.

Kayaba
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd Ste 119 - In the Mitsuwa Marketplace
San Diego, CA 92111

I hope you enjoyed, this little collection.....

Recently heard about Vien Dong Market in Linda Vista:

I can't confirm this, but I recently heard from a very good FOY, that the former Owners of this location of Vien Dong has reacquired the lease. This would mean that Vien Dong would reopen after a renovation. Again, this has not been confirmed...so if anyone knows anything...let us know!

Hope you're all having a great week!

Saturday Stuffs

Just some odds and ends....

Bud's Reopens:

Just in case you missed "GoBears" comment, Bud's Louisiana has reopened. The newest incarnation is located in Tierrasanta, right behind the Round Table Pizza:

They are currently only open for lunch, from Monday through Saturday 11am to 3pm.

Bud's Louisiana Cafe

10425 Tierrasanta Blvd, #105
San Diego, CA 92124

Have I mentioned it before? I love Filipino Parties:

The Missus is the Godmother of a friends son, and a few months ago the Christening took place. You know that the party was going to be good.

This was a big one....a 2 lechon party!

That first roasted pig was gone really quick.

But man does not live on Lechon alone:

It was some spread, along with the usual Pancit and Lumpia, there was Kaldereta, Pinacbet, and tons more:

And being one of the Godmothers had its benefits...a whole plate of lechon from Pig#2, the Missus got to eat with the Aunts and Cousins in the "back room", and Frankie got a "cabeza"! Guess what the Missus was the most happy with?

More save our taco trucks!

Bandini has posted about saving LA's Taco Trucks from extinction. You can find updates at saveourtacotrucks.org. I received word from yumtacos.com, that Sacramento is attempting to do the same thing:

"Here in Sacramento, we have lots of terrific, and some very authentic, Mexican food - places that specialize in all sorts of regional dishes, from various types of ceviche and shellfish to birria and plenty more.
But some of the best, cheapest and most straightforward is served at our many taco trucks, which are - incidentally - the only place that many second and third shift workers can go to eat. Late at night in the industrial zones and elsewhere, you will often see lines of cops, firefighters, hospital workers, warehouse staff and janitorial workers lined up at the trucks.
The trucks don't park outside of open restaurants, nor do they usually park on public streets; almost all are at regular, scheduled locations, sometimes a single location all night; these are always parking lots, private property that they've received permission (or pay rent) to use.
Our city council, at the behest of restaurant owners, has enacted new regulations that effectively criminalize these trucks without consulting truck owners or customers. For example, the new 30 minute per location time limit - when truck owners take 20 minutes to set up, lock down their propane systems and heat up the grill, and 15 minutes to clean up - will mean they'll have to drastically cut down on safety and/or cleanliness just to serve a single customer. And not being able to do business after dark means that the vast majority of their business - night shift workers - will have nowhere to eat except for drive-through hamburgers. The city council claimed there was a public health nuisance attached to the trucks, although ours are all inspected regularly by the county and not a single truck has ever had a complaint filed against it or failed an inspection, unlike many of the restaurants who fear the competition of the trucks. One city council person claimed police reports linked violence to the trucks, a charge the Sacramento Police department disputes, showing clearly that there is no such causality.

We'd very much like your help and the help of your readers. We've set up a petition, where we'd like get several thousand signatures of locals and visitors; even non-Sacramentans are invited to sign, to dispute the Council's claim that tourists find the trucks a blight on our city.

Here is our petition"

I really enjoy the Taco Trucks here in San Diego, and other places I've been. You know that once  legistlation like this is successful; it is just a matter of time before it makes its way down to San Diego.

What does Professor Salt and the State Department have in common?

Before he starts saying his name is "Salt...Professor Salt." I'll spill the beans. The State Department sent a video team to film a short documentary on the 4-Q BBQ Team, of which Professor Salt is a member of. You won't find anything more American than BBQ; and you won't find any BBQ team that represents the amazing diversity of our Country than 4-Q. Congrats guys!

You can find the video here.

If you really want to feel good:

I'm not quite the Youtube-ist(is there such a thing). I really don't follow all of the strange, amazing, and somewhat entertaining videos on YouTube. But sometimes, I find wonderful things on other Blogs. Such is the case with this wonderful video. It was from a post in the wonderful blog, Heather in Paradise. And according to Heather's post, which references Snopes.com, the story is true! Even better.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Fredcel Lumpias & Catering Restaurant

This one is thanks to "Dee" who emailed me, and asked what I thought about Fredcel..... I had heard about them, but just in passing. I didn't realize they were located right off University on 38th street. The reason I hadn't seen them before is that I usually zoom by that intersection, and they are located a door or two down the street. But if you look for the bright yellow building, you can't miss them.

After breakfast at El Salvador Pupuseria y Restaurante, I walked on over. They were closed, but just the photo of the Sisig was enough to bring me back. I don't think I've ever been able to walk away from Sisig.

A few days later, I finally made my way to Fredcel, and walked through the door, tripping the "beeper". The interior is spartan, but clean. The tinsel around the pole made me smile.....it was cheesy, in a nice way.

The steam table held about 10 various offerings. A quiet, but nice young man helped us. I was again with MG, and we were picking up lunch for a couple of us. He was so quiet, that MG first thought he didn't speak Tagalog.....he did of course. The prices here are "bargain city". One item plus rice or pancit is $3.99, two items $4.99, a third item is $2 more.

On this day I decided on the Kaldereta Baka(Beef Kaldereta) and Sisig(my lucky day):

The portion size is not quite the ginormous Tita's Kitchenette-sized plate, but I've heard that prices have now gone over $6 at Tita's. And of course, we don't have to put up with the attitude.

The Kaldereta was interesting. The beef looked tough, but it was fairly tender, with a "fat cap". The flavor was a bit lacking in the tangy, tomato department, in addition it had a bell pepper flavor, without a hint of "heat". It was also too thin and watery. To me, it looked almost looked like a weak Beef Mechado, but I was told it was Kaldereta.

The Sisig was pretty good, at least to my taste. It had a nice bracing, puckery, vinegar flavor, a mild amount of heat, and the Lechon Kawale was still crisp. It was not greasy. A very pleasant version of Sisig.

Speaking of Lechon Kawale......I somehow managed to rationalize("this is going to be 2 meals, so don't worry"), and justify purchasing an order($2) of Lechon Kawale. Mainly because it was sitting there looking all golden and lovely. As Lechon Kawale goes, this was fair to good, crisp but not hard, the fat portions were nice and buttery, and the meat, though on the dry side was not too bad. It was a bit on the bland side, and the lechon sauce was nice, not too sweet, not too "livery".

I did end up sharing everything, which made me feel a bit better. Altogether not a bad meal.

Recently, the Missus was looking to ordering some lumpia for a party. Not wanting to drive all the way down to National City, I mentioned that the prices at Fredcel were pretty good - 100 lumpia/$30. In order to check out the lumpia, I made a Fredcel run.

  Man the plate had a ton of rice on it! What really impressed me as I chomped on my lumpia(I needed a quick taste), was that I was given 6 lumpia! I ate one before deciding to take a photo. The lumpia was not bad, lots of filling, decent flavor, not oily, fairly crisp. Can't ask for much more. I'm not a big fan of the sweet and sour sauce though. It is a neon red, teeth hurting sweet concoction, that has hardened to almost a jelly like texture.

Even though I had arrived at 1130, there were only 4 items on the steam table; pork adobo(of course), the kaldereta, pinakbet(which in retrospect is what I should have ordered), and Menudo, which is what I ordered. The menudo was fairly bland, and was probably the least favorite item I've had from Fredcel.

Before we had checked out Fredcel, MG and I had wondered if people enjoyed this place simply because it was the only place that served Filipino food in the vicinity. But overall, the food was decent, and it's a good value to boot. And the Missus is ordering the lumpia from Fredcel for Her party........

Fredcel Lumpia & Catering
3876 38th Street
San Diego, CA 92105

Open - Mon-Sat 9am-9pm
       Sun 9am - 7pm

Thanks for letting me know about Fredcel Dee!

Goldilocks Asian Cuisine

Here something I didn't know until recently, June 12th is Philippine Independence Day, which marks the day that the Declaration of Independence of the Philippines was signed in 1898. All these years, and I never knew this until recently. Of course, there are those who think it should be a different day, but understanding that all Filipino's I know are always up for a good time.....

So what better on this day than a post on that Filipino institution Goldilocks. No, not the Fairytale Goldilocks, but the very successful Goldilocks Bakeshop and Restaurant chain, which according to both the company website and Wikipedia was started out of an apartment in Makati City. Now with over 200 locations world-wide, I guess you could call this success story a real life fairytale. To be honest, when I first found out that Goldilocks was opening up a location with not only a bakery, but a restaurant as well in National City, I wasn't too excited. I've eaten at Goldilocks in Artesia, and also had "turo-turo"(steam table) food from the now defunct West Covina location, and had never been too impressed. However, the always reliable MG told me that the menu at Goldilocks had been revamped, and the food had improved. So recently, MG, MrB, and I descended upon Goldilocks. Goldilocks is located in the same strip mall as Seafood City(which has really been spruced up inside), Golden Chopsticks, Ohana Hawaiian BBQ, and Asian Noodles among others. There are times (think weekends) where this is a strong contender for most insane parking lot in San Diego.

The dining area of this location of Goldilocks is clean, though it was a bit smaller than it looks from the outside.

In what would be the first of many small missteps, we were basically ignored while waiting for a table. There was no else waiting, the place was empty, and the woman doing the seating was just standing ignoring us. Finally, without a word, the woman grabbed some menus and walked us to a table, where we were basically forgotten. After 15 minutes, MG tried to flag down one of the 6 or so workers, but was ignored. After another wait, another Server came by, and took our order, and disappeared. We had ordered drinks, but they never appeared.

Finally, when our first dish arrived, MG asked for water in Tagalog, and we received it soon after. Our first dish was the Beef Salpicao($8.49):

The very tender slices of beef, chopped peppers, and onions arrived on a sizzling plate, and was topped with a nice sprinkling of garlic. It was, however, strangely bland, and greasy.

A few minutes later our Sizzling Sisig($7.49)  arrived:

This version of Sisig was quite bland as well; almost no vinegar flavor, nor spice, and the pork, though nice and fatty, was more greasy than rich. I liked the raw egg cracked on top of the pork, but I ended up adding a ton of vinegar, and even some salt, which I almost never do, to give this flavor.

Soon enough, our Crispy Pata ($13.49) arrived.

Though not a gargantuan version of the wonderful simmered, dried, than deep-fried pork leg dish(which is probably for the better), this was a nice rendition. And even if this version was lacking in the gelatinous goodness department, the skin was perfectly fried, and the meat amazingly moist. The sauce had a nice sour-tart-saltiness that I really enjoyed. I'd have this again.

At this point our biggest problem was that our rice had never arrived. We had ordered both steamed and Adobo Rice, and expected that the steamed rice would be arriving soon. How can you eat this without rice? After trying to flag down several people, MG finally found someone who would get us rice. But of course, our rice was still MIA. Meanwhile......

This location of Goldilocks features something they call "Pick A Pika", various menu items served in smaller portions a la Dim Sum. In fact, the dishes are wheeled around in a Dim Sum Cart.

And served in little bowls in Dim Sum Tins. All of the items(about 20 or so) are $3. It is nice because you can select from a good variety of items, and try out things you may not be sure of. Be aware, that even though it may sound like a bargain, the portion size of each dish is only 2-3 bites of food, so you can easily spend $18-$21 dollars. Especially if you don't get your rice.........

MG wanted to try what we both thought looked like Beef Mechado, but was actually Beef Kaldereta:

 

This was a winner, with a good beefy-tomato flavor. The beef was quite tender. MrB, MG, and I each had 1 bite.

MG had wanted me to try an Ilocano dish called Beef Pinapaitan, and this was a good way to try it.

I was told that "pait" means bitter, and they sure weren't kidding. Man, this was a puckery-bitter that elicited a "whoa" from me. MrB took the severe sour looks on MG's and my face as a signal that perhaps he should pass on this. A few days later, after doing some research, I found a Pinapaitan recipe, and one of the key ingredients of the dish is bile. The combination of sour and bitter was quite strong. I took this little sampling home for the Missus to try. Her reaction, "ouch"...yes, ouch. Must've been so bitter it was painful!

Meanwhile, we were still barely picking at our food. Why? We still had not gotten our steamed rice! In fact, after our Adobo Rice arrived, MG had to flag down one of the Servers and ask about our steamed rice.

I really enjoyed the Adobo Rice, nice hints of soy-black pepper-vinegar, with a small amount on diced chicken. I'd like this with a couple of easy over eggs. Finally, a few minutes after our Adobo rice arrived, we also received our steamed rice, and really dug in.

Overall, the food, if on the pricey side, was not bad, better than I expected. The service however, left much to be desired. There looked to be no table or section assignments, so things ended up occurring in a rather haphazard manner, with things slipping through the cracks. I'm not sure if I'll go back. Maybe your luck with the service will be better than ours.....still, who can refuse Crispy Pata.

Goldilocks
1420 E. Plaza Boulevard
National City, CA 91950

Open 8am-8pm - Closed on Tuesdays

A National City run--Villa Manila, Seafood City, Bread Deluxe

Assistant blogger mizducky is taking another turn blogging for mmm-yoso today. Enjoy!

Alert readers of the comments on my maiden post will have noticed that long time FOY (Friend of Yoso) Candice had called me out regarding our long-postponed run down to National City for some Filipino food. Well, we finally made it down there this past Saturday, and had a wonderful time (even though it took me a day or two to recover from the food-overload).

Candice had hit up our fearless leader Kirk for suggestions, and he had recommended Villa Manila for the crispy pata. I live right by the 805, and traffic was pretty light, so I got there in no time flat--early even, which was fine by me because I enjoy scoping out strip malls to see what-all else is hidden away in them. I noted another restaurant and a market in this one, and was about to stroll over and start checking them out, only to be pleasantly surprised to run into Kirk himself. He had a busy day but was happily able to make time to share in our upcoming pata attack.

That pata creation turned out to be one impressive chunk of extreme pork fat art, but it got some stiff competition in the richness department from some of the other stuff we ordered, like the niligang baka (big chunks of fatty beef in broth) and Bicol express (chunks of pork in a sauce of coconut milk tinted pink with bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) and spiked with a little chile hit).

We couldn't decide whether to get garlic rice or bagoong rice, so of course we wound up getting both. I requested an order of pinakbet to get at least a token vegetable presence into this meat-and-carb extravaganza, and so that the bitter melon might help cut all that richness--Villa Manila's pinakbet is pretty mild, but that turned out to be just right.

This was a lot of food! And Candice and Kirk generously let me take home all the leftovers--heh, I think it was more a matter of them not wanting to overdose any further on all the richness. Hey, I never turn down free food! Plus I got to play Henry the Eighth with the remains of the pata. :-D

After lunch, Kirk continued on his errands, but Candice and I hadn't had enough, so we went over to check out the nearby Seafood City. There we saw all sorts of cool stuff--but somehow my camera didn't make it out of my purse. I think I must have been experiencing my own lowgrade version of Kirk's pata-inspired food comas--only instead of feeling like going off into a dead faint, I just got a little more spacy than usual.

But I do have photos of the item I bought at Seafood City, and the other item I bought at Bread Deluxe, the little bakery just next door, both of which feature--ta-DAH!--food of a different color!

The vivid blue color of these shrimp just bowled me over. Alas, when cooked the shrimp and shells turned the more conventional shrimpy pink-and-white colors--though they were still quite delicious. If anyone knows how to preserve that blue color after cooking, please let me know!

I'm normally immune to bakeshop temptations, but again I was hooked by an outrageous color, this time the purple of these sweets.  They're called kalamay, and  as you'll see when you click the photo for the enlarged view, they're nothing but glutinous rice, sugar, jackfruit juice ... and a bucketful of food coloring.  The fruit flavor wasn't all that intense, but they had that chewy-slippery rice-flour dough mouthfeel that I'm  really getting addicted to.

So that's it for this food adventure ... now to wait for my cholesterol level to recover before I do it any more damage (but yum, it hurt so good...)

R & B Filipino Cuisine

I'm constantly amazed at the amount of recommendations I've received from FOYs(Friends of Yoso) since I've started blogging. Restaurants in locations that had never even entered my mind. A good example is R & B Filipino Cuisine in Mira Mesa. R & B is located on Camino Ruiz, North of Mira Mesa Boulevard, an area that I hadn't ever visited. But thanks to FOY JanFrederick, who mentioned R & B in several comments, I made an effort to check them out.

R & B is a little Mom and Pop "turo-turo" joint, that offers about 20 or so different steam table options daily. The Lady who works the counter is very nice, always smiling, and chatting in her relatively high pitched voice, the Gentleman who works the front is on the quiet side, but still very nice.

The prices are reasonable, $3.99 for 1 item and a starch, $5.79 for 2 items and a starch. On this day, I decided on the (what else) Lechon Kawali and Beef Mechado(Beef Stew), which at first I thought was Kaldereta.

The Beef Mechado was good, though it did not have as much gravy as I would have liked(probably why I thought it was Kaldereta). Nice tomato tartness, the beef was fairly tender, with a touch of black pepper flavor.

We had times our visit pretty well, the lechon kawali was moist, and not too waxy, nor greasy. The skin was crisp, not hard, making this a pretty good version of lechon:

What I didn't care was the lechon sauce, the liver based dipping sauce. It was too bitter for my tastes. Still this was a pretty good meal......

Which led to another visit, where I again got the 2 item combination:

This time with Pancit Bihon....which wasn't greasy, and had a decent flavor....but it was almost all noodles....in fact, other than 1-2 pieces of stray cabbage, and 1 small piece of chicken, this was all carbs.

Because of the hour (10am) not everything was available, so I got the lechon kawali again.

This time the lechon was on the dry side....

Now where's the "missing item" you ask? Here it is:

 

This was something I'd never had before, Kilawing (per the menu, I've also seen it spelled as Kilawin) Puso, banana blossom simmered in a vinegar based sauce. I could also identify a bit of pork, but not much else. The banana blossom had the texture close to that of artichoke. Overall, this was a very bracing dish. Per instructions, I ate the Kilawin with the pancit, a touch of Kilawin on top of a bite of pancit, the saltiness helped to cut the sour flavors.

Did I mention Filipino Breakast? On weekend mornings R & B offers Tapsilog, Tocilog, Dasilog (Bangsilog), and of course the classic Longsilog, all for $4.50. All the dishes come with 2 eggs(any style), and Garlic Fried Rice. I recently had the Tapsilog:

The Tapas wasn't bad, more tender than most versions, and decently flavored. The Garlic rice, didn't have enough garlic for my tastes(but very few do), and the rice was hard and dry in sections. The easy over eggs were overcooked, the yolks hard. Still, not bad for $4.50......less than a bowl of Pho.

A friend's Husband who eats here once in a while told me the Pork Adobo is pretty good, JanFrederick enjoys the Sisig, and the Hamonado has also been recommended. Unfortunately, I haven't run into any of them in my visits....always Chicken Adobo, never Pork! Hopefully, I'll be more lucky in the future.

R & B Filipino Cuisine
11257 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

Mon-Fri 930am-730pm
Sat 8am - 7pm
Sun 8am - 6pm

Thanks again for the recommendation Jan!

Eddels - Who you calling Puto???

With a name like Eddels Deli, you'd think perhaps a European Deli....bakery.....hmmm... And that   name does look out of place on the sign for Vinh Hung Super Market on Mira Mesa. Though if you've taken the opportunity to check out Eddels, you'd know that it's a Filipino turo-turo (point-point, steam table fast food) and dessert joint.

Oh yes, In fact, you don't have to walk through Vinh Hung Market to get to Eddels....you just follow the sign:

Yes, that little sign.

You'll enter the little turo-turo joint and your senses may be overwhelmed by the various wonderful fragrances wafting through the air. The signage says that Eddels specializes in Cebuano Cuisine, food from the island of Cebu. And though I've had some of the specialties like Tinola, I'm far from an expert on regional Filipino Cuisine.

The fairly dark, interior of Eddels has that slightly organized, but disorganized, look that many turo-turo joints like Point-Point Joint have, the ubiquitous television running FTV soap operas, the Pepsi clock, the large map of the Philippines, next to a hanging planter with faux plants.....

To say that the prices at Eddels are reasonable would be an understatement. 1 item and a starch is $3.99, 2 items and a starch, is $4.99, and looks something like this:

First off, let me just say that I like the Pancit Bihon at Eddels. I think they use a good amount of broth or stock to flavor the pancit...even the Missus thought it was pretty good. Texture was decent, not mushy.

On this day I had some Paksiw na Baboy. Paksiw, if I recall correctly is a way of cooking that utilizes vinegar-sugar-soy, and usually uses leftover pork or lechon...or even pata. This version had nice sweetness, if a bit short in in the flavor of vinegar. And though the pork was a tad on the tough side, I enjoyed it.

Of course, once I saw the Sisig, I had to have that as well:

The Sisig was very moist, and not oily. There was much more "stuff" like red bell peppers, a few chili peppers, than I'm used too. And though Cebuan cuisine is known for the use of sili (Chili Pepper) I didn't find this to spicy at all. It was not bad, not great...too little vinegar and spices, but not bad. This version of Sisig, as is typical in San Diego uses left over Lechon....it just struck me, I ate two dishes of leftovers! It was very good leftovers though!

I had been told that Eddels was also known for their Puto...no NOT that kind of Puto....this kind of Puto:

Basically a rice cake, in this case steamed in a banana leaf. The Missus really enjoyed it, I didn't get a shot.....in short She told me, the "flavor of the banana leaf, and the fact that it isn't too sweet, and very moist makes this."

There's another version, that is caramelized, available as well. Both are $1.99:

The people at work enjoyed this version, but the Missus prefers the steamed-only version. Regardless, I've been told, this really good Puto!

On another visit this is what I decided to get:

To bad the Lechon Kawali had all the life sucked out of it by the heat lamps. It was more like dry, flavorless chicharron.

On this visit the really nice lady who appears to run the place started handing me samples. Noticing my non-Filipino-ness, She told me, "You know, I make the best BBQ" while handing me a piece of BBQ pork on a toothpick. And it was indeed pretty good...so I had some of that as well.

A bit on the sweetish side, and maybe too chewy, but overall not bad.

In case you aren't totally fried on the food at Eddels....here's BBQ Chicken and Pork Adobo:

The pieces of pork in the adobo was cut too big, making it very dry, and the meat flavorless. I also enjoy a bit of black pepper flavor in my adobo which this lacked.

The BBQ Chicken was okay, and bit too tough and dry this time. I enjoyed the nicely flavored charred bits though.

I wish I had brought my camera along on a subsequent visit...I was starving, and had a wonderful Kanding Caldereta(goat stew). I'll bring my camera next time...and hopefully they'll have that caldereta.

The Lady who runs Eddels is very warm, always smiling and nice. The Gentleman who works there is a bit of a grump, but is okay. The prices are very reasonable for the area(Mira Mesa) and portion size. For less than the price of a bowl of Pho at most places in the area...you can have 2 meals.

Eddels Deli
10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

(858) 527-0072

Hours to the right: