mmm-yoso!!!

Turo Turo Thursday: Revisits to R&B Filipino Cuisine and Manila Fast Food and Desserts

Here's more steam table goodness for your Thursday.

R & B Filipino Cuisine:

Being kind of off the beaten track, it's easy to forgot about R&B. One weekend I was driving around Mira Mesa and R&B suddenly came to mind. Not sure why....but it was enough for me to take that right turn on Camino Ruiz......

They were doing pretty good business when I arrived. Taking a quick glance at what was available, it was easy to make a decision.

The beef steak (bistek) had just come out and I recalled that I'd had the tapas on a previous visit and didn't think it was too bad. The meat was pretty tender considering it was pretty low grade round or sirloin. It was too salty for my taste and whatever citrus they had in this really didn't help balance things out. The worst was the flavor I can only describe as "scummy", that weird almost offal-blood like flavor of low grade meat cooked in its own scum.

I also got the sisig (duh), which was nicely flavored, decent vinegar and heat. It was just a bit too bitter and mushy, but not bad overall.

The folks here looked pretty beat on this day, but they were nice enough. I still haven't run into the hamonado my friend's husband recommends, so hopefully one day.

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

Manila Fast Food and Desserts:

I can say with some confidence that Manila Fast Food is probably the busiest of the turo turo joints in the area. Being near Seafood City helps, there are always people in the place, which makes for decent turnover. Looking over things I went with the sisig and beef mechado, easy picks. Though they had just brought out the lechon, which I've had mixed success with here. After talking to Kirbie about her rather recent experiences with the lechon here.....I probably made the right choice.

The Beef Mechado was very mild, but at least it wasn't too salty. The stew quality beef was pretty tough. Overall, it could have used a bit more flavor, perhaps a bit of al onger cooking time.

I've always thought the sisig at MFF had a decent balance of flavor, the sour-salty-spicy. My problem was how watery, mushy, and waxy the whole deal was. Well, no complaints about texture this time around. Unfortunately, there seems to have been a trade off with regards to flavor. The usual bright tones of the dish, especially the spice was now AWOL. I guess you have to choose between flavor and texture with regards to MFFs sisig?

Manila Fast Food and Desserts
8979 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Thanks for reading. I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Turo Turo Thursday: A Revisit to Conching's Cafe

Over the course of the last twelve weeks I managed to revisit a couple of turo turo places, which I'll post on over the next few weeks. Actually, I dropped by Tita's twice during this period, but they didn't have any sisig, so I decided not to wait in those massive lines. I've heard that they actually changed the sisig recipe when AZ(not you "AZ", the other AZ) visited; I always thought the sisig there was terrible. So it took a television thing to get them to make a better product? I guess even they knew their sisig wasn't up to par..... Well enough of that. Here's enough saturated fat for a week or so.

There was a time not too long ago, when I thought that Conching made some of the best turo turo sisig in San Diego. As of a couple of years ago, I felt that the sisig had slipped a bit. It just wasn't as good. Those thought were percolating in mi cabeza as I parked.

No matter how many times I visit, walking to the turo turo ("point point", a reference to steam table cuisine) counter, I can't help but be amused at the ice cream parlor look. Someone asked me to describe the interior once and the best I could come up with was "Farrell's meets patis". Because I had just come from the long lines and cold stares at Tita's, the stark emptiness of the place really made an impression. There were no other customers during my entire meal.

Looking over the steam table items, I saw something I never recalled seeing before, so I ordered it.

I guess it's the purple tinted red color that got me...plus this had slices of pork belly in it. Well, even more than the color, catching a whiff of it as I brought this to my table really got my nares out of the morning doldrums. I actually liked this; it was salty, in a good way, very savory, obviously from a good amount of bagoong alamang. It was also fairly spicy, a rarity in most Filipino dishes that I've had....the possible exception being bicol express and some versions of sisig. Still, I didn't know what the heck this was and the woman behind the counter wasn't in a particularly chatty mood, so I took a photo and sent it to my former coworker "MG". Who informed me that this was a dish with the catchy name of Binagoongang Baboy. The combination of pungent bagoong, garlic, chilies, tomato, and green bell peppers, adds up to salty-savory,tangy,spicy, and pretty delicious in my book. I have another dish to be on the look-out for in the future.

Of course I had the sisig.

Which was disappointing. Oh how the mighty has fallen. This was soggy, lacked vinegar, and had rather unpleasant bitterness to it. 

On a positive note, I have a new dish to look out for. On the flip side, it seems that the sisig here has gone downhill. I asked MG when I saw her a couple of weeks later. She told me that the food at Conching hasn't been very good for the last six-eight months. Sad.

Conching's Cafe
3400 E 8th St.Ste 115
National City, CA 91950

 

Breakfasts of Champions: San Diego Edition - Hinotez, 777 Noodle House, Island Style Cafe, and Zarlitos

Whew, I'm pretty beat today, so I thought I'd just go with some recent breakfasts in photos. These were basically the photos I sent along with text messages to my FOYs that led to JohnL telling me to put them into a post. I'm pretty sure you'll recognize the places/dishes:

I still haven't gotten round to doing a proper post on this place. Still waiting to check out the yakitori I guess. I mentioned the special place in my heart this type of dish holds. I still prefer whole raw eggs, but "hot spring eggs" (onsen tamago) will do, even if these were a bit more runny than other versions I've had. For $6, I consider this a real nice breakfast.

Hinotez
7947 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

I've stopped by 777 Noodle House a couple of times while doing my weekend morning grocery shopping. The Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho - Phnom Penh Noodles (Dry) is what I'll usually order. The price for this has gone up, but is still just $5.77.

I always look forward to the broth on the side, mainly because I really enjoy the sight of the pork leg bone in the broth. No offal in this version, but it is quite filling. One morning, as I sat and ate my breakfast, I noticed that all the tables were speaking different languages...one table Vietnamese, another Spanish, the one to my left Cantonese, right in front of me was a family that I think was Somali, the one in the corner Lao....the room was full of beautiful noises.

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

This next one needs no introduction.......

My quarterly loco moco...........well, actually a Kaloko Moco ($8.95).

Island Style Cafe
5950 Santo Road
San Diego, CA 92124

And it just wouldn't be right for me to do a breakfast post without a "silog" meal, in this case a Longsilog ($5.75) from Zarlitos.

The longanisa didn't look too good, but was nicely charred on the exterior. I can tell you that cooking longanisa can make a mess of your frying pan. This was a decent meal for the price. I enjoyed it more than the Spamsilog I had a couple of months back.

Zarlitos Family Restaurant
505 East 8th St.
National City, CA 91950

So there you go, a quartet of breakfasts.......have anything good for breakfast recently?

Sunday Stuffs: Revisits to the Original Sab E Lee and Pinoy Fiesta, Sakura temporarily closed.

I hope everyone is having a dry Sunday...this one has been a cold one!

I dropped by Izakaya Sakura this past week and they were closed. They had this sign posted:

I guess the place suffered some smoke damage from a fire next door..... I hope they reopen soon!

About every two weeks or so I drop by the Original Sab E Lee for take-out. I decided after my seventh post on the place in April 2010 to cut back on posting about the place. Over the course of the last year and a half, we had some really take out meals and some that weren't quite as good. I found that it's all about who is in the kitchen. Last week, the Missus told me that we should drop by the place and actually have a meal there..........which turned out to be quite nice.

There's something about getting everything fresh from the kitchen......

The Original Sab E Lee
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

This past weekend, I happened to be in the National City area at around 10 or so. I thought I'd drop by Pinoy Fiesta since I hadn't been there for a while.

So here's the two item combination.... Menudo(which tasted like Mechado) and Sisig.

Breakfast of champions......

The menudo was nice and tangy, the beef was fairly tender, there was a nice bit of pepperyness to it. The sisig was like before, gummy, waxy, bland, and this time ice cold to boot. I'll make sure to show some restraint and pass on it next time. Like everywhere else, prices have gone up and is now in the high six dollar range.

Pinoy Fiesta
550 E 8th St
National City, CA 91950

 

Sisig Sunday: Porky's Lechon

I was quite surprised to hear that Asian Noodles had closed, though on my last couple of visits there last year the food seemed to be a bit tired. Still, I had thought of this as an institution of sorts in National City. In fact, my first post on the place was way back in October of 2005! Even though I was sad to see Asian Noodles go, the name of the new place got me a bit excited......

 

I mean really....when you have both "Porky" and "Lechon" in your name.....

And when this fellow greets you at the door.....

 

The interior hasn't changed much since it was Asian Noodles, with just a steam table added.....

 

And while your porko-phile senses are usually pleasantly assaulted in many of these "turo-turo" shops, here it was basically....well, nada.

Still, noticing that they sold lechon by the pound ($10/lb), courtesy of our friend pictured above and had two types of sisig in trays...actually there's mention of a third, bangus (milkfish) sisig, but I didn't see it on my visit. Well, I thought I'd hit the promised land and ended up buying a pretty good amount of food starting with a half pound of the lechon.

 

Sadly, the lechon was suffering from steam table fatigue. Poor mister/Ms piggy above had given his very fleshly life for a sadly dry and bland dish. The skin was hard, though the lechon sauce was fairly decent.

Seeing that I was already ordering pork, I went with the Chicken Sisig and Pancit - a single item combo here is $6. And while it's not quite "Tita's sized" it was a good amount of food.

 

On the good side, this was nice and moist. Chicken Sisig can end up being quite dry. However, there just wasn't enough of a sour component nor heat and pungency(i.e. onions, which also adds a bit of a textural counter-point) for my taste. Even though I knew it wasn't short on salt, based on my thirst afterwards, I found this strangely bland. I mean really...where's the siling labuyo (bird chili)?

And while the pancit was perfectly cooked it also suffered from lack of flavor.

Still, I had the thought that perhaps this was just an off day and returned for more. This time I simply got a two item combo, passing on the pancit and a ghostly pale palabok, and going with just steamed rice with sisig and chicken adobo. The results were basically the same.

 
This was a tweener sisig, it didn't go far enough to be sisig Pampanga with the gamey pig head flavors and the chewy and gelatinous textures of ear and tongue. There was basically not enough crunch or porky goodness for this to be standard steam table lechon kawale sisig. Not enough onions, vinegar, and spice. Other than the Chinese sausage, you were pretty much left in a vast greasy wasteland.

The chicken adobo was better, but not by much.

 

It was on the bland side for my taste with not enough black pepper....

Maybe it's my fauly for expecting too much from a place with both "Porky" and "lechon" in its name. Too bad, because the woman working here is very nice and I so wanted that perfect sisig-a-licious meal. I try them out again in a couple of months, maybe things will be better then.

Porky's Lechon
1430 E Plaza Blvd 
National City, CA 91950

Revisiting Villa Manila

I'm getting this done rather quickly because FOY (friend of yoso) "TammyC" was wondering what we ate.

It had been at least three years since I last visited Villa Manila, and really hadn't posted on the place since October of 2005, so I figured why not. Come to think of it, I hadn't had Filipino food in quite a while. I pretty much knew the dishes I wanted, but there was no way I'd be able to eat all of that wonderful fried food and come out in one piece, so JohnL, PeterL, and Ange were nice enough to accompany me.

The place looks essentially the same as it did a three years ago, though the menu has a couple of new dishes, lunch specials, and so forth. So why don't we get right down to the food and the one item that arrived first and thus nary a remnant of it saw a doggie bag...the Chicharron Bulaklak, deep fried intestines, delicious......

 

Crisp, with a slight "stickiness" to it, these went down quite easy when dipped into vinegar and garlic.

I've always enjoyed the Nilagang Baka - Beef shank soup. At $17.75 it ain't cheap, but the broth is pretty rich.

 

There was a good amount of meat under what seemed like half a head of cabbage. What I didn't know is that you get free refills of broth....they refilled this twice and John left with what seemed like an entire container of Nilagang for later on.

One of my favorite dhishes at VM has always been the Bicol Express and was a bit dismayed when I couldn't find it on the menu. But when I asked the gentleman informed me that they still make it. For those uninformed critics of Filipino cuisine (you know who you are) this would be a surprising dish, with origins in Bicolandia, the dish utlizes coconut milk, bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp paste made from krill), and surprisingly for many, chili peppers.

 

The pork was very tender and the sauce tasted great on rice....of which we had ordered the bagoong rice and garlic rice along with the steamed version (Are you reading this AZ?).

For me, I thought the fried chicken wasn't particularly good.

 

It was pretty dry and though nicely seasoned, there was no crispness to it. It seemed severely over-cooked.

For me, the meal (the world and my heart literally) stopped at the Crispy Pata.

 

Man, I love the crisp skin, a couple of bites of the fat and gelatin kind of makes me light-headed. But hey, a pata every couple of years.......that's not bad at all! I was pretty much wiped out after this. I'm not used to eating so much rice anymore either......

Peter and John kept on trucking with the Daing Bangus - fried (yet again)whole boneless milkfish.

 

And Angela also ordered the eggplant salad............

The prices at Villa Manila are not cheap, but we ended up payingabout $24 a head, which I don't think was too bad. After all, it was fun ordering a huge spread of food (tons of leaftovers), eating and "talking story"...good friends, good food......good times, always.

Villa Manila
500 East 8th Street
National City, CA 91950

Is rice still nice? Revists to Homestyle Hawaiian and Point Point Joint

Over the two years or so, my rice intake has really decreased. I'm not so sure if it's age, environment, or what. These days, Da' Boyz are the biggest consumers of rice in the household. It used to be that when we were on vacation, I'd be missing rice after a couple of days....but this time... nada. In fact, the Missus specifically asked me a couple of times if I was missing rice, and strangely I wasn't. And as a matter of fact, it wasn't rice that I was missing. So was rice still nice? After a couple of weeks, I had ample time to see with some revisits:

Homestyle Hawaiian:

I hadn't been back around these parts since last year. The plate lunches here are still pretty much a bargain at around $6 - $6.50. And Mo will always try to make what you want. Even though it isn't on the menu per se, I wanted a Chicken Cutlet.....

 

Basically a chicken katsu plate with gravy....there's a whole scoop of...yes, rice under that chicken and gravy. It did hit the spot, though I wasn't able to finish it off. An acquaintance of mine just can't figure out why I like this..... the main issue being the chicken starts getting soggy under the gravy. Of course this person loves chicken katsudon??? Go figure....

The one complaint I may have about the plate is the mac salad.... I still think Mo needs to add more salt to it.... it's kind of bland for my taste.

Homestyle Hawaiian Island Style Food
7524 Mesa College Drive
San Diego, CA 92111

Point Point Joint:

When you're in need a rice fix, one usually never needs to look further than a good old Filipino "turo-turo" (point-point) joint. And where better to go then a place actually named point-point joint, right? Actually, I wasn't intending a visit to PPJ...... earlier in the weekend, my good FOY (friend of yoso) TammyC just happened to mention sisig, which suddenly had me craving it. I initially went to Conching's since I really like their sisig. TammyC and I always joke about buying a tray of sisig for one of our potlucks, but we're afraid that we'd be the only ones who'll eat the stuff, which is not necessarily a good thing. You'll die with a smile on your face though! Anyway, Conching didn't have any sisig, and what they had looked terribly greasy on this day. I hadn't been to Point-Point in a couple of years, so I thought I'd drop by.

 

It had been about four years, but not much has changed. Seven bucks got me a huge plate of rice, three scoops of sisig, ginisang ampalaya thoughtfully put into a separate container, since I told the friendly woman (and surprised I order this, "OOOoooh, you like this?") I obviously wouldn't be able to finish off the whole thing. Along with the freebie sinigang.....

 

The lechon kawale used for the sisig had almost a jerky-like texture, I'm fairly certain it was fried twice. Not necessarily a bad thing since it didn't get soggy. I'd prefer it a bit more crisp.

 

There was a good ratio of pork to onions, but the flavor was very mild. I enjoy a more bracing sisig; a stronger vinegar flavor and more spice. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.

The bittermelon was strange.......

 

Both oily and bland, a strange adjective to use when a dish uses bittermelon. The bittermelon wasn't very strong in flavor, which sometimes is a plus. But in this case the dish had almost no flavor, too much "soup", and a oiliness that coated your tongue in a rather unpleasant way.

The sinigang at PPJ has always been pretty good. The Missus used to want this when She wasn't feeling well. This wasn't bad, but it had almost a pure vinegar flavor... almost like the vinegar hadn't been simmered.

Point-Point Restaurant
916 East 8th St
National City, CA 91950

I guess in the end, rice is still nice (I'm sure you'll enjoy that AZ)..... I just don't have the capacity, nor crave it quite as much anymore....which may not be a bad thing.

Tonight's Dinner - Fried Chicken Skin and Sisig from Conching's Cafe

"It's the most unhealthiest time of the year......"

Or something like that. At least that's the tune going through my head while crunching away on the deep fried chicken skin portion of my dinner from Conching's Cafe:

 

I ended up getting dinner here after spotting Sisig....... which isn't always available from the steam table at Conching.

 

Strangely, after looking through my posts I noticed that I've never done a post on Conching's......... even though we've been there a number of times. The only thing I found was a post which included the sisig which I've always thought was among the best. This wasn't quite as good....falling a bit short on the vinegar. It's still better than most.....

Still...... fried chicken skin and sisig...... I think I'll be eating a bunch of salads after the New Year.

 

Oh, and when you visit Conching's, you can't forget the ice cream...... Ube and Avocado used to be the Missus's favorite (I like Jackfruit)...... but those have been replaced by......

 

Corn and Cheese.... yep, corn and cheese. Well, cheddar cheese is what they told the Missus. It's not what you think. It's not too sweet, but rich and creamy.... and no, there really isn't a big cheese flavor....perhaps something closer to a light cream cheese?

While waiting for Her Corn and Cheese ice cream, a Young Lady was asking a boy, possibly her son what flavor he wanted. Standing tippy toe, the boy exclaimed, "I want chocolate!" The woman smiled and looked down at the child and told him, "you can have chocolate anywhere, but when you're here you need to try something new and different!" Amen, lady, amen......

Conching's Cafe
3400 E 8th St.Ste 115
National City, CA 91950

Chibugan

Back in August I did a short post, noting that Eddels inside of Vinh Hung Market had changed ownership and was now named Chibugan. I recently finally got around to visiting Chibugan.

I did notice that the place had been cleaned-up a bit. Doors had been installed in the interior entrance, and the place has been painted a bright orange.

This place is a typical"turo-turo" (steam table) joint, featuring items like Pork and Chicken "BBQ", and a few desserts. Another big difference is the woman who works the front counter, who is a bit different from the the previous staff who were friendly and loquacious. She's more quiet and serious, and perhaps a bit more cautious. Not good or bad, just different.

The two item combo, with steamed rice rings in at $5.99. the portions aren't "Tita's sized" but are adequate. 

Looking over the steam-table I made my choices, which ended up being pretty predictable. Sisig was one of choices of course.

 
 For me, this wasn't a very pleasant Sisig. First, as you can clearly see, there was a ton of ginger, which overwhelmed most of the flavors, in a dish that's usually packed with sour, salty, and spicy notes. Second, the pork was much too waxy, and in this type of Sisig, I'd have enjoyed having some crisp pork skin which would have added a nice one-two crunch with the onions. The Sisig was also ice cold, which made it seem much more greasy.

The second item was something that I'd strangely never had before, Goat Adobo (Adobong Kambing):

 This was pretty good, the chunks of goat was moist and tender. There was a hint of black pepper, but it didn't over-power the dish. In fact, this was pretty low on the salty-scale for Adobo, but not in a bad way. I did enjoy it.

Which gave me enough reason to return. The woman working the front counter, saw me entering, and told me "today this is the goat dish" while pointing at one of the trays. She had remembered me..... I guess I'm now the "goat guy".

 
Kaldereta was what she was pointing to. Which was one of the items I got.

This was a pretty mediocre version of Kaldereta; there were mostly bones in what I got, almost no meat. The goat flavor was too mild, and with the huge amount of tomato used to flavor this dish, it was almost like eating bony Filipino Menudo. Which was kind of a bummer, since I paired this with...... yes Menudo.

Fairly mediocre as well; fairly bland, an adjective I rarely use when describing Filipino dishes. The meat was dry and tasteless....... in fact just about the only thing that stood out in this dish was pervading taste of tomato sauce.

I did enjoy the Goat Adobo, but the other dishes really did nothing to inspire me to return. I'd say that Chibugan is a cut above Olga's and Ed's, but perhaps a notch below Manila Fast Food and Desserts and R & B.

Chibugan
10550 Camino Ruiz (In Vinh Hung Supermarket)
San Diego, CA 92126

Turo Turo Thursday: Manila Fast Food and Desserts redux

Back in 2008, "Maribelle" left a comment on my April 2006 post on Manila Fast Food informing me that this very popular "turo-turo" shop had come under new ownership. I made a note in my black book, and kinda just forgot about the place for a while, Until reading Kirbie Cravings post a couple of months ago. So a few weeks back, finding myself in the area, I found myself back at the strip mall which houses Seafood City.

   

And I gotta say, the place is as busy as ever. And it seemed that for every Filipino in the place, there was someone of another ethnicity in line.

 

The tocino and lechon kawale looked good, so I purchased a two item combo with those two pork items.

The Lechon Kawale, the wonderful simmered than fried pork belly dish looked great.

 

As with Lechon Kawale, whether at Pinoy Fiesta, Tita's, or Point Point Joint timing is important, so I nowadays, I never set my heart on Lechon Kawale when going somewhere. I wait until I arrive, and if the Lechon looks nice and fresh, I'll get it. This looked good, but the skin was too hard and chewy, and the fat was waxy and greasy, instead of silken and gelatinous. The Lechon sauce was fine, but a bit too sweet for my tastes.

 

The tocino was hard (even for tocino), and pretty bland. Not the best I've had. All in all, not quite as good as I've previously. So of course, I wasn't about to leave it at that, and returned a few weeks later. This time, there was a full complement of dishes available, and I ordered what looked good.

One of the dishes I quickly pointed to was the Kaldereta (basically a spicy stewed goat dish), one of my favorites. As the young lady started scooping up the Kaldereta, the young lady behind her yelled out, "hey, wait..." and looking straight at me said, "that is goat you know." I found the young lady's reluctance to serve me the Kaldereta strange since I made it a point to wear my "Kaldereta gear":

 

After pointing to my t-shirt, and telling her that I love goat, she added, "hey, you know  it's spicy...." I can sort of understand her reluctance, especially since it seems that the customer base is much more diverse now, I'm wondering how many folks have bought the Kaldereta, and once getting a whiff of the branch chain fatty acids produced by the rumen of sheep and lamb, combined with the thymol stored in the fat might have freaked out a bit.

 

This was very good, the meat was tender and moist, very gamy, mild spice, and well flavored. It was perhaps over stewed as the potatoes had melted away, but that didn't bother me at all.

I always thought the Sisig on my previous visits had a decent sour and spicy flavor, but was always a bit too wet. And indeed it did look a bit wet on the steam table, but I decided to have it anyway.

 

Wow, this was waaaay to soupy. I did think the flavor was good though, a nice amount of sour and decent spiciness. In my opinion, if you combined the flavor of the Sisig at Manila Fast Food with the texture from Betchays, you'd have some pretty good Sisig on your hands.

And of course, there's still Crispy Pata ($11.99)..... well, maybe next time!

Manila Fast Food and Desserts
8979 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126