mmm-yoso!!!

So Wrong, part one

mmm-yoso!! is a blog about food, written by a few friends.  Today, ed (from Yuma) and Kirk are busy, so Cathy is stepping in with a short post.

Hi.  I haven't posted in a while.  Life has been kind of busy and both The Mister and myself had that fever/cough/crud/spitting thing going on, so, even though we were eating, nothing seemed interesting enough to write about.  But I took some photos anyhow.   I decided to share some oddities.  This is the first episode.

It was Lent.  40 days of some sort of sacrifice before Easter.  Usually people give up some sort of food as their sacrifice.  Sometimes it is just not eating meat.  Every fast food restaurant had some sort of fish sandwich/deal going on.

Wendy's Fish sandwich, which was really good.

Jack in the Box had a great deal.

My ever favorite McDonald's Filet O Fish Fridays

Then, I saw this at Der Weinerschnitzel.

You know I had to stop and try it.

Because it looked ..so wrong... So very, very wrong.

Basically a fish stick on a hot dog bun, with lettuce and tartar sauce.  Less than $2. 

It did taste pretty good, quite a heavy/large fish stick which was fried properly and served on a steamed bun with iceberg lettuce and a vinegary tartar sauce.

Conclusion: don't judge by looks.

Secondary conclusion: There may be a Food Stylist job open soon.

It's almost the weekend.  Hope everyone has been having a good week, even though Tax Day was in the middle.

The Better Half: Stressed Economy Special

Kirk and Cathy, as always, are eating and thinking about sharing their meals with you. Today, however, it is ed (from Yuma) discussing a recent meal he had in San Diego.

[The stressed economy wasn't special for this place - sadly, it's now closed.]

After a few days of eating Thai Vietnamese Korean sushi (no, not at the same time), I was looking for something different. I also had discovered that The Better Half was offering, between 5 and 7 p.m., a stressed economy special, three courses for $15.

The restaurant actually occupies two buildings linked by an outside patio, which is where the hostess greets customers. On the left side is the small kitchen, visible from the street, which offers a view of the chefs working hard on their preparations:

 On the right is the two-room dining area:

It is modestly, but tastefully decorated, and the track lighting allows small lamps to focus on each table top:

 As you can already tell, this tasteful lighting does not make for the best photographs, so let me apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures in this post.

I had another reason for this visit. I was in San Diego by myself this trip, and the thought of having dinner and a half bottle of wine (The Better Half specializes in 375 ml bottles) seemed inviting. In fact, I was very impressed with the wine list; I had no idea that such a wide variety of excellent wines were available in smaller bottles. Wines on the list ranged from $14-$91, with many choices between 15 and 25. I settled on a Pinot Noir from Paraiso Vineyards ($22), located in the Santa Lucia Highlands area in northern Monterey County, a winery that I was already familiar with from my days in Monterey:
I had already looked over the standard menu and was prepared to order the fruit stuffed quail, accompanied by a wild mushroom risotto, if nothing on the special menu was inviting. But the economy menu insert offered all sorts of tasty dishes, a choice of salad or wild mushroom soup as a first course, grilled mahi-mahi in cilantro sauce, wild game meat loaf with mashed potatoes, or Cornish game hand hen with rice pilaf for a second choice, and some tasty desserts for the third. I could have eaten any of the choices happily.

After I ordered, a large whole-wheat and fig dinner roll was brought to the table. I could smell its arrival as the aroma of warm bread filled my nostrils:

 Accompanied by lightly herbed whipped unsalted butter, this was a perfect start:

Soon my wild mushroom soup arrived. Okay, to be more accurate, a soup plate arrived with a small pile of sliced sautéed wild mushrooms sitting by themselves on the bottom of the dish. For a moment I was puzzled -- this was like no soup I had ever seen before -- and then the friendly and helpful waitperson poured a dark grayish brown liquid from a metal teapot into the bowl. It looked like this, only much more inviting:

 Perhaps the best mushroom soup I have ever eaten. The sautéed wild mushrooms added a bit of texture to the creamy broth. The primary flavors were Portobello and wild mushroom, accented perfectly by the flavor of sherry. The wine note served much like a squeeze of citrus into a rich soup, complexifying the savory breadth of the overall flavor.

Soon after I finished with the soup, the main course arrived. I had chosen the game hen with the pilaf:

The bird was roasted perfectly, still wonderfully moist and tinged slightly pink at its innermost joints. The flavor was straight forward without many herbs or any marinade. Good basic roast fowl.

The pilaf was the star of the plate. The flavor was rich and deep. I could taste both the wonderful stock in which the pilaf was cooked, as well as the flavors of the grains. The range of textures was amazing. The white rice and orzo (rice shaped pasta) were soft; the wild rice and wheat berries were chewy; and the sliced almonds added a perfect touch of crunchiness. Some chopped scallions added color:

 The meal ended with a large scoop of excellent strawberry ice cream accompanied by mint leaves:

By the standards of a pho house this was an expensive dinner. But for fine dining, and this truly was fine dining by any standard, the meal was a bargain. And truth be told, I have spent far more than this at Sakura. Far more. Kirk will no doubt remind me that the meal would have been extremely cheap if I had drunk water instead of Pinot Noir (and The Better Half has a nice choice of bottled waters as well as tapwater). Oh well, if price were the only issue, I would be chomping down at McDonald's Dollar menu. :-)

The Better Half, 127 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92103, (619) 543-9340

Saturday Stuffs: Yes, you can get Beer Lao in San Diego and Luong Hai Ky opening in Mira Mesa

Yes, you can get Beer Lao in San Diego:

During our vacation in Laos, I found myself totally smitten with Beer Lao. After returning home, I did a bit of research, and found that Beer Lao had 2 distributors in the United States. And one of them was HC Foods in Commerce. I had also seen Beer Lao at World Foods  on El Cajon Boulevard. But on our visit to World Foods, there was no Beer Lao in sight. Which got me thinking......if I were a Beer Lao, where would I place myself, for easy purchase and consumption?

And I guessed correctly!

   

This lovely case of Beer Lao was just going out on the floor, when we grabbed it. In the name of not separating this family of 12 Beer Lao siblings from each other in a strange country, we purchased the whole case. Came out to $32 with tax and CRV.

   

The purchase of this case got us a bit of attention at the check-out counter. A young man, chatting with the young lady running the register, looked at the case and said; "Beer Lao?" To which I replied; "yes, Bialao (which is the way they pronounce it in Laos...one word), it's good stuff!" This brought a big smile from the young man, "oh yes, nothing better than Bialao, it taste good, and help with heartburn and indigestion." Ah yes, Beer Lao, the magic elixir, cure for whatever ails you.....

For some reason, the young man, eyes glazing over, starting talking to us about Laos. When the Missus mentioned Naem, he brightened significantly, "yes, yes, Naem, mmmmm...." The Missus, entering into interrogation mode, tried to extricate whatever info She could, but as usual it ended with; "I no make Na-em, my mother makes it....it is the best!" After a few minutes, and discussions on Vientiane and Luang Prabang, Lao food and drink, we managed to extricate ourselves. And to our surprise, he left the market, entered his car and drive away. Based on his dress, and the manner in which he was conversing with the cashier...we thought he worked there. And where was "there" specifically?

97 Super Market
4679 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

 

The young lady mentioned as we were leaving; "we moving in end of December or January, going to corner of University and 30th. You find us easy, I'm putting up a big Cambodian, Lao, and American flags!"

  So, how did the beers compare? As you can tell, the labels of what we had in Laos (to the right), and what we bought differed a bit. But that was probably because the product was being exported to the US. We did detect a few differences in taste and texture; the Beer Lao we bought here is much more effervescent and foamy. Also, the mouth feel is less "creamy", and the finish isn't quite as sweet, as what we detected in Laos. Whether due to changes occurring in shipping, formulation, or maybe it was just "atmospheric"? We can't be sure......

It's not like I'm going to stop drinking the stuff!

Luong Hai Ky Opening in Mira Mesa:

As indicated by FOY "Sandy", Luong Hai Ky is opening a branch in Mira Mesa.

 

This location will be on 10606 Camino Ruiz. Don't you love the "Original Chinese Noodles Restaurant" sign?

El Dorado Mexican & Peruvian Restaurant

One day on a trip down to Hogetsu Bakery, I noticed El Dorado, sitting in a strip mall on the corner of Palomar Street and 3rd Avenue in Chula Vista:

The Missus and I had nice memories of Peruvian in Los Angeles, so we had to make a trip down to Chula Vista for a visit. We arrived during a week day for a lunch, and found the colorful restaurant completely empty. Looking around we started to realize that this visit may be a bit of a mistake.

The decor and signs screamed out "Sports Bar". But we forged ahead! The very friendly and helpful Waitress, took our order and brought over some chips and Salsa.

The chips were not oily and tasted fresh, with a nice corn taste. The salsa had a nice spicy and sweet flavor; for some reason it reminded me of Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Salsa, except fresher and more spicy. Things were looking up! While we were waiting for our order, we watched the Young Lady who served us cleaning with complete awe. I'm talking about really clean, really fast, and really thorough. If we could give her a "letter grade" Ala DOH, she'd get an 'A+'.

Finally our dishes arrived. I ordered the standard Lomo Saltado ($5.50):

Lomo Saltado, is a traditional Peruvian "stir-fry" dish, with strips of beef, onions, tomatoes, and most of all french-fries, yep french fries! A carb lovers dream! The dish usually has a touch of heat provided by some hot pepper. This version was a major disappointment. The steak was tough, dry, and tasteless; giving new meaning to the term "two-dollar steak". The onions and tomatoes were over-cooked and mush, as were the french fries. Though the taste of remnants of the onions, fries, and tomatoes(skin) was fairly tangy, there was a lack of any heat. The rice with frozen peas and carrots,was really dry. 'Nuff said.

The Missus really surprised me and ordered Anticuchos($5.50):

Anticuchos is a skewered meat; in this case beef heart, marinated in vinegar and chilies. This was served with a pretty weak "white" sauce, the thin slices of heart were decent; slightly gamey, but not too rubbery. The thick slices tasted too much like liver, which I don't care for, and was much too dry. Overall, the beef heart was really under seasoned and bland. The best part of the dish was the slice of deep-fried yucca. Crisp on the outside, with a dense and starchy interior.

We had pretty much written off this meal when the Deep Fried Plantains arrived($5.50):

We were a bit turned off at the almost black, charred appearance when the dish arrived. But the plantains were just darkly caramelized, and were sweet, tangy, and rich. The condense milk like "leche" helped to smooth out the flavor. Unfortunately, the plantains are not reason enough for us to return. The menu is quite extensive, with dishes like Cau Cau (tripe stew) and Arroz Chaufa (Peruvian Fried Rice), but we'll leave that for others to explore.

El Dorado Peruvian and Mexican Seafood & Grill
311 Palomar St
Chula Vista, CA 91911

San Diego Tet Festival 2006

During a recent trip to Vien Dong Supermarket, I noticed a banner announcing  a 3 day Tet Festival at Qualcomm Stadium. What a minute, did you say 3 day festival and Qualcomm Stadium! My immediate thought was, "man, that's quite ambitious", after all I've been to many of these "Asian Festivals", and most have been really small. Like 12 booths small, with only 4 booths of food, and 1 of them is funnel cakes, and the other is a taco stand. So we wanted to make sure  to attend, and arrived at about 2pm on Saturday:

We arrived to a pretty full parking lot, and were surprised at the amount of people. Admission was 4 bucks, and we entered and made a beeline for the food stands which took up a whole end of the festival!

Now I understand that the Vietnamese population in San Diego is topping 30,000, and I think they were all here! And all of them were talking on cell phones at the same time!

There were some pretty good size lines at most of the booths, but if you wanted Funnel Cakes or Tacos, there wasn't a wait!

There was tons of food, so here are a few pictures.

The Vietnamese food ranged from Banh Mi to Noodles; but the one common denominator was Cha Gio; it seemed that every stand sold them. Either 2 for a dollar, or 3 for a dollar. The perfect festival food, we tried several, and they ranged from okay to fairly terrible. But this was a festival, right? Part of the experience is the ambiance. What spoiled the it for the Missus was the booth that sold these:

The gal at the wire mesh window(great idea BTW, keeps all sorts of critters and dust out); took cash from several individuals with Her bare hand, then proceeded to grab the Cha Gio and put them on paper plates with the same bare hand. The Missus just got completely grossed out, and made sure they replaced ours.

Many booths had various Chicken Skewers/Sates, which ranged from $1.50-$2.50 a piece:

This one had a nice lemongrass flavor.

Banana Fritters($1.00):

Fried Chicken Drumettes($3.00):

Crispy, but a bit on the bland side. Luckily a small container of sweet chili sauce was provided.

We had to leave a bit prematurely. A combination of being tired, dry weather, and maybe some dehydration, and blood started pouring out of my nose, which took a while to stop. Funny, it didn't seem anyone noticed! Here are a few more photos:

And my favorite:

Some notes: The Tet Festival was presented by the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance of San Diego, and by and large was well put together. There were everything from carnival rides to vendor booths. But the one area I would suggest some changes would be in the traffic and parking control. Using teenagers to direct traffic didn't really seem to be working, half of them were just "hanging out", while one Young Man was hurling insults, and other four letter words at Drivers while frantically directing cars, we were waiting for someone to come out and slug Him!

Tandoor Indian Cuisine

Many consider the Mission Valley area North of the 8 Freeway stretching from Fenton Parkway until Old Town to be Chain Restaurant and Fast Food Hell. In fact, Ed from Yuma in one of His most inspired moments described a certain area of Mission Valley this way; "From a chowhound standpoint, Hotel Circle may as well be one of Dante's circles of Hell." Has to be one of the best lines I've heard. At first glance all you see is PF Chang's, California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, Carl's Jr, Bennigan's, Fuddruckers, and the Food Courts from the 2 shopping centers that occupy a large portion of the valley. But there are a few interesting choices in Mission Valley. Tandoor Indian Cuisine, formerly KC's Tandoor, is located in the Ralph's and Long's strip mall bordered by Mission Center Road and Friars Road.

In fact, this was the restaurant that made the Tandoori Chicken that the Missus was so infatuated with, and eventually burned-out on that I mentioned in an earlier post. Now, with Indian food back in our rotation, we finally paid a return visit to the latest incarnation of this Indian Restaurant. Tandoor Indian Cuisine, is one of several little restaurants huddled together forming a "food court" of sorts in the middle of this strip mall. As a matter of fact, a new location of El Portal is a few doors down from Tandoor.

Though the ownership of the restaurant had changed, other then an expanded menu, just about everything else seemed the same. Unfortunately, this includes the aloof and sometimes downright rude service. As in: "can you hurry up and make up your mind and order", when there's no other customer in the restaurant except me. I guess it's "Mission Valley Burnout" caused by crazy lunch hour traffic. "Don't go away mad; just go away...." You know, I rather enjoy eating meat, but don't take pleasure being treated like a piece of it!

On this visit I had 4 piece Tandoori Chicken Combination($7.99), with Rice Pulao(Basmati Rice), and Dal as my side orders:

All combination plates also include a piece of Naan. There were 2 small thighs and 2 small drumsticks, that were moist and tender and cooked in the tandoor located on one side of the restaurant.(White meat .75 more each piece) Today, the slightly charred areas of the chicken tasted good (cancer be damned!!!), though the overall flavoring of the chicken was somewhat bland, and not as good as we recalled. The distinct mildly smokey taste we remembered was missing. As the Tandoori chicken here has never been especially spicy nor herbaceous, any missing flavor component was especially evident. The rice was dry, and the Dal, was well dull, just overly watery.

The Missus ordered the Lamb Curry Plate($6.79):

Along with the Lamb, the plate included Naan, Rice, Dal, and Raita(yogurt and cucumber dip). The lamb was very soft and tender, the Missus enjoyed the flavor of the lamb and curry, which I thought was a bit on the watery side and found the tomato based curry a bit odd.

The hit of the day was the Garlic Naan($1.99), which we ordered in addition to the Naan included in the plates:

The Naan was rolled out and cooked in the Tandoor to order and you get it hot and crusty. It also helps that there is always a generous amount of garlic and herbs on the naan. I usually enjoy watching the Naan cook in the Tandoor, but this time the Cook gave me an annoyed look when I moved over to watch him. I guess the attitude was transferred along with the ownership of the restaurant. We probably won't be back, at least until we're prepared to deal with the attitude again, which may be a while.

Some Notes: Tandoor is not a sit-down restaurant, but closer to a "fast-casual" style eatery. There's a Saturday Dinner Buffet and Sunday Brunch for $7.99. The menu is quite extensive with over 70 items. The strip mall that Tandoor is located in can be a real zoo during lunch hours and during holiday season. Getting back to Friars Road from the parking lot can also be somewhat frustrating at times.

Tandoor Indian Cuisine
5608 Mission Center Road
San Diego, CA 92108

Open Daily 11:00 AM to 9:30 PM

Luong Hai Ky Restaurant

I first noticed Luong Hai Ky Restaurant on a visit to Chopstix. On a recent visit I had noticed that all the "Servers" had disappeared; as I was leaving Chopstix I saw half of them sitting and smoking on the sidewalk, and the other half were eating in Luong Hai Ky. The funny thing was, I'd never noticed the restaurant before. Probably due to it's location in the rear of the strip mall.

On a typical "soup weather" day, I dropped by Luong Hai Ky. As I looked over the approximately 100 items on the menu I realized that this was a Chinese-Vietnamese noodle house; in the same vein as Minh KY. The interior of the restaurant was deceptively large, with about 25 tables and large fish tanks lining one side of the dining area. The dining room and tables were also very clean.

On my first visit I ordered a simple bowl of Won Ton Noodle Soup($5.00):

A modest bowl was brought out, with topped with a "shrimp cracker" and green onions. The won tons (6), were almost identical to those at Minh Ky; very dense pork meatballs, with a small slice of shrimp placed on one side. Three small slices of well flavored Char Siu, along with the typical "ball" of crunchy egg noodles occupying the bottom of the bowl. What made this bowl of noodle soup stand out was the tasty, quite dark broth. Obviously a mildly intense chicken based broth, there was a bit more going on; slightly salty, but without the "parching" MSG effect, a hint of sweet, but most of all a interesting savory flavor. When I paid at the counter I inquired as to the nature of the broth. I had a feeling that perhaps shrimp, or some other flavoring was added, but was told that there was no seafood in the broth.

Having enjoyed the soup, I returned for an encore, just to see if the broth was consistently flavored. I ordered the "carb special"; Won Ton & Dumpling Egg Noodle Soup($5.50):

Again, the portion size was nothing to write home about. This time there were 4 won tons and 4 "dumplings".

The dumpling wrappers were a bit thicker than the won tons, and were flat in shape. The filling was ground pork along with crunchy strips of "Cloud Ear" fungus. Though the broth was a tad milder on this visit; it still had alot of flavor. And I never really had to touch any of the condiments provided. Notice the strange bottle of French's Mustard in the background, every table had a bottle. French's Mustard? I don't quite know what to make of that......

On my last visit; not being in the mood for noodle soup, or rice, and being a sucker for thin egg noodles; I ordered the Combination Fried Egg Noodles($7.50):

In stark contrast to the modestly portioned noodle soups, this was a pretty generous portion of egg noodles, along with a variety of stir fried cabbage, carrots, onions, and other vegetables. The meat consisted of a few shrimp, and some really tough beef. The noodles, though stir fried well, were pretty bland, and I ended up reaching for the bottle of soy sauce and white pepper.

So I think I'll stick with the noodle soups at Luong Hai Ky, though the menu is fairly large, and there is quite a bit to choose from.

Service at Luong Hai Ky, is typical for these type of Restaurants; fast and efficient. I enjoyed the tea served here, it was Jasmine. Though on my first two visits, I received a small pot of tea; on my last visit I only got a single cup! At least I was never charged for tea. In the end, Luong Hai Ky, is really not worth going out of the way for, but if you happened to be close by, well maybe......

One other observation; it has to do with the rather odd taste in the Music I heard here. On my first visit, it was the Carpenters Greatest Hits. On my second visit it was a strange cacophony of pseudo-Asian-classical music blaring away so loud, that I swear I was headed upriver with Willard to terminate Kurtz with "extreme prejudice"! On my third visit, it was a strange mandolin-like muzak, imagine a swarm of bees playing The Girl from Impanema, and other elevator standards, quite strange. The hard surfaces in the restaurant, made the music even louder, and it kind of drove me nuts. Though at least there's no music pumped into the restrooms. There's nothing weirder then "doing your thing" hearing Phil Collins singing "Can you hear me....can you hear me calling....."

Luong Hai Ky Restaurant
4633 Convoy St Ste 107
San Diego, CA 92111

Open 10am to 10pm Daily

Road Trip: Wat Thai Temple - North Hollywood Part II

*** Update 01/01/09 - Wat Thai food court had reopened, on Sundays only.

*** Due to neighborhood complaints about parking the Wat Thai Temple food court has closed.

Fairly stuffed on my Sausages and Papaya Salad, I sat watched the various vendors at work while waiting to see what the Missus would "find". It was also fun to watch what others were eating.

Soon the Missus returned with Her "bounty" including a large Sticky Rice with Mango($5.00):

A huge, perfectly ripe mango with sticky rice flavored with coconut. I hadn't had mango so good since I lived in Hawaii! The Missus told me that she had intended to purchase a small plate, but the Lady working the stall in the ultimate display of up selling, waved a huge mango in front of the Missus telling her; "Biiig one, moah betta, biiig one moah betta!" So how could she resist? I'm not quite sure how these vendors managed to get such perfectly ripe mangoes in the middle of Winter, but I'm sure not complaining! This is a "must eat" item if ever visiting Wat Thai.

Among other items; sticky rice with taro and sweet beans ($1.00):

I didn't get to taste this, but it met with the approval of the Missus.

More sausages, two sour sausages, another grilled sausage, and another "sausage patty":

The sour sausages had grains of rice in them and were sour enough to make me "pucker up", and were somewhat addicting. The other sausages were not as good as the versions I purchase earlier.

A fabulous Fish Curry in banana leaf($3.00):

Tasting like a really good panang curry, this little cup had a layer of shredded cabbage on the bottom, followed by a thin layer of thai basil with coconut milk, followed by the wonderfully moist and tender flaked fish in a red curry sauce. This was all topped off with a chiffonade of kaffir lime leaf. An amazing little dish! This same stall was selling meat from roasted pork shank. When you placed an order the pork meat was removed from the bone; chopped and placed over rice, it looked soooo good! But my arteries sent "no mas" signals to my brain which prevented me from ordering that dish. In what was a slightly humorous moment, the Missus asked the Lady manning the stall if she could purchase the pork bones, which the Lady responded "You have dog, huh?", and proceeded to trim off two shank bones, and placed them in a sack. When the Missus offered to pay; the Gal simply laughed and said "No, no, I give you free, for dog!" So even Sammy and Frankie made out!

On the side directly opposite the food stalls, we could see this Woman, busily moving back and forth. She looked like the busiest Woman in the whole food court; but had no customers! So we walked up as she was packaging two containers of white "disks", that a Young Lady came and "swooped up".

Totally intrigued, and having exactly $3 in tokens left, we decided to order the Kanom Krok. The Lady proceeded to oil the cast iron "pan".

And poured a rice and coconut "batter" into the molds.

And green onions are added if you wish. After cooking for a few minutes, and when the batter is starting to "bubble", a sweeter lighter batter is added to top off the Kanom Krok:

The Lady asked us if we wanted to go and take a "walk" around the Temple, and come back in 10 minutes. But we decided to just wait and had a nice chat with Her.

When the sides of the confection has developed a crust and the middle of the batter is starting to solidify, the Kanom Krok is loosened.

Until it's ready:

And it's packed up and ready to eat:

The way to eat Kanom Krok is to place two half disks together to form a sphere and eat them right away - they're Delici-yoso!!! One quick note, the interior of the Kanom Krok is positively molten. So unless you want to become a candidate for a lip and tongue graft, proceed with caution! (Thanks for the reminder MEalcentric)

When you visit Wat Thai please make sure to take a walk around the Temple grounds, you'll truly feel transported to a whole "different world".

There are so many different things available; you can' t possibly try everything in one trip. We're saving the Fried Banana/Taro/Sweet Potato, and the Soup/Noodle stalls for the next time. Yes, there will be a next time!

Visiting the Wat Thai Temple was such a fun and delici-yoso experience; even the lousy traffic on the 101 and 5 freeways, and the almost 3 hour trip back to San Diego didn't dampen my spirits.

Wat Thai of Los Angeles
8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave
North Hollywood, CA 91605

Weekend Food Court - 8am-6pm Every Weekend!

Road Trip: Wat Thai Temple - North Hollywood Part I

*** Update 01/01/09 - Wat Thai Food Court has reopened on Sunday's only

*** Due to neighborhood complaints about parking the Wat Thai Temple food court has closed.

The weekend "food court" at the Wat Thai of Los Angeles, the largest Thai Theravada Buddhist Temple in the United States has long been a food destination on my "list" of places to see and eat. After seeing various posts on Chowhound; Monster Munching, and Professor Salt's blog, You gonna eat that?; and several years of coaxing and cajoling, the Missus finally gave in to a "short" road trip up the I-5, from San Diego to North Hollywood for a Saturday eating frenzy.

We left fairly early and made what could on some days be considered an ill-conceived 130 mile trip in a brisk 90 minutes. Once off the freeway, and taking the turn at the corner of Cold Water Canyon and  Roscoe Boulevard, you immediately see Wat Thai Temple looking quite out of place, looming above this land of auto repair shops, service stations, and the adjoining residential neighborhood. We had purposely chosen a fairly early morning during winter, that didn't coincide with any festival, so that we would not have to compete with the masses for parking or seating, nor have to wait in lines for any long period.

At 915 in the morning, all the vendor stalls are open but there are no lines:

And the fragrance of ginger, garlic, fish sauce, and Thai herbs are floating in the air. Noah seems to have designed this "food court". There are two of everything. Two stands making papaya salad, two "sausage/meat" stands, two stands making soup, and so forth.

The Vendors take no cash; instead you go to one, or more of the "token" booths and exchange cash for tokens.

After exchanging our cash for tokens; the Missus went off in one direction, and I in another. I made a beeline for this booth in the middle of the food court:

I had already pretty much knew what I would be ordering, but since there were no crowds I could take my time, and I looked over the larb and other sausages.

But my sights were set on having a Papaya Salad($3.00), even in the dead of winter.

And so while the Lady was hard at work at the mortar, I had time to look around.

And ordered a chicken satay($1.00):

Perfectly grilled; slightly charred around the edges, moist and mildly flavored, this was very good. The Missus was very surprised at my display of restraint; I didn't order any beef or pork, or any other of the satays.

I did order this interesting "sausage"($2.00):

If someone knows what this mystery meat is called, please let me know. It's a nicely formed rectangle of "meat", spotted with garlic and rice, with a slightly crunchy, almost tripe like, gelatinous strings going through it. The sausage was dense, garlicky, and slightly sour. And not the slightest bit salty; I had expected "Spam on a stick", but this was not even close. I really enjoyed the flavors and textures of this "mystery meat".

I also slid over to the booth next door and ordered a grilled sausage skewer($1.00):

Very similar to a"formed" sausage patty; this was nicely flavored, and quite dense. Nice pepper and garlic, and a slight sweetness throughout the sausage.

Finally, my Papaya Salad was ready:

As I sat, I took time to admire this melange of ingredients; green beans, peanuts, julienned green papaya, and tomato were readily visible. Along with a generous amount of Blue Crab.

The salad was as close to the most perfect Papaya Salad I've ever had! There was such balance and harmony(in such an appropriate venue) between the fish sauce and lime juice, the tomatoes added a touch of sweetness and kept the sour lime juice in check. The interplay of textures between the papaya, green beans, and peanuts was excellent, if on a menu, it could be called "crunch, three ways". The crab added at briny, salty component, that was tempered by the lime juice. The "heat" was perfect; I'd gotten medium. Spicy, but not so spicy as to block out all of the other flavors. This was delici-yoso!!! Even on a winter day, where everyone around me was having soup and porridge, this Papaya Salad was King.

I ate half of everything, and saved half for the Missus. But where was the Missus?

To be continued.......

Madras Cafe - So What Did we Eat? I Don't Know, But it Tastes Really Good!

This is going to be a bit of a different post. It's mainly because most of the time I had no idea what I was eating at Madras Cafe. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good! Madras Cafe resides in Little India Center, along with Ashoka the Great Cuisine of India, and the Ker-Little India Megastore among others. The difference is that Madras features Southern Indian vegetarian cuisine. I managed to take photos on two separate visits. The first with the Missus, the second with Ed from Yuma.

The only thing I really knew about Southern Indian were Dosas:

A thin crepe-like pancake made from rice and lentil flour. The regular menu features Dosas "stuffed" with a variety of items. Since we were eating from the buffet, we were served plain Dosas, nice and warm, and very much crepe-like in texture.

We were also served piping hot Idli with our meal:

Idli is a steamed rice and lentil "cake". It almost reminded me of Chinese steamed rice cakes but with a mildly grainy texture, and I enjoyed these.

On the visit with the Missus we were served this:

It was a "balloon" of crust! I have no idea what is was; and as the restaurant was quite busy, I really have no idea what this was!

Here's a photo of the Onion Chutney:

Very loose, but very tasty, especially with the Idli.

As the Missus and I discussed the food we noticed that the same North-South dichotomy that existed in China, certainly existed in India. The North part of the Country featured many wheat products; while it seemed that South Indian dishes seemed to be rice based.

We also appreciated the metal plates and compartments that separated the individual dishes, so they would not mix together; allowing for us to taste each dish individually.

On the visit with the Missus we enjoyed the Eggplant dish, nice and mildly spicy, with a slightly sweet and somewhat "earthy taste". We also enjoyed the Okra dish(on the right of the Eggplant dish above), which at first tasted very sour, yet very "clean". But as we kept eating, the sour taste kept getting stronger until it started tasting almost bitter. Funny thing  was that I mentioned how much we enjoyed the Eggplant while paying and asked what the name of it was, and was told, "It's Eggplant with sauce". Oohhhkay, I'll have no problem with that one!

My next visit was with Ed, and we enjoyed the buffet as well. What was interesting was that the items served where completely different from my previous visit!

Here are a few:

The two rice dishes were good. I enjoyed the version on the right which was a bit spicy, over the mild basmati rice with beans on the left.

My favorite dish was this version of "peas and carrots" with curry:

The melding of textures, in addition to the curry flavor and spice, made this so delici-yoso!!! Among the best peas and carrots I've ever had, and I hate peas and carrots. This changes any preconceptions of peas and carrots I've ever had.

Ed's favorite of the day was this spicy, tangy "Sambhar"(sambal):

At least that's what the Gentleman serving us called it. Basically a spicy, slightly sweet, and tangy stew. I found that most of the dishes at Madras were alot "looser" then the Indian food I've eaten before; and alot less "rich". While Ed was visiting the "facilities" our Server told me that the tangy flavor was imparted by the use of lemon and tamarind.

Here are a few of the other items served in the buffet.

A nice lentil and vegetable fritter.

I remember that I kept asking Ed "what are we eating?"

And Ed responding, "I don't know, but it's really good isn't it?"

Madras Cafe is worth a try. Even though the dishes are vegetarian, they are all very well flavored, and it seems that the dishes change from day to day. Regular menu items feature various Dosas and Idli, but the small (14-16 items) lunch buffet is priced right($6.95), and worth your attention. I've been told that the food is so hot as to be unbearable, but I didn't think so. But remember, I love spicy food. I'm sure that someone will provide some information as to what we were eating........

So what did we eat? I don't know, but some of it tasted really good!

Madras Cafe 
9484 Black Mountain Road
San Diego, CA 92126

Lunch: Tue-Fri 11:00 am-2:30 pm
Sat-Sun 11:30 am-4 pm
Dinner: Tue-Sun: 5:30-9:30 pm
Closed on Mondays