mmm-yoso!!!

The Revised Rotation

I've been blessed by blogging. Through our humble little food blog, I've gotten to know so many wonderful, kind, and generous people. It's also great to know that I'm not the only (slightly...) food obsessed person out there. I'm very happy to call Howie, who does the Foodieview, a friend.

Case in point, over the last year (yes, year...) I've received a few emails and comment, asking me when I'm going to update "My Rotation". Those would be the restaurants the Missus and I think about when we make plans to eat, whether it's the two of us, or dinner with friends, or something similar in nature. I had thought that a post was in order, but didn't quite know how to approach the whole thing. Suddenly it came to me(though it could have been gas....but we'll never know), I remembered Howie's post on embedding restaurant maps in posts. I thought it was pretty neat, and Howie was nice enough to demo what mmm-yoso's map would look like.....it did look like 300 map links stacked on one another....it seemed like I've been eating in the same place like a couple of hundred times! Now, I know Howie's a really busy guy, but I mentioned updating my rotation to Him, and sent him a list of places on our revised rotation, and to my surprise a short itme later I received a response. And there was a map! You can see a more detailed map with info here. So without further ado, here's Howie's work:

Pretty cool, huh?

Do you ever go back to restaurants?

A question posed in a recent email (thanks CVChow!), and of course the answer is a resounding yes! It's just that I'm perhaps a little slower on "the trigger" with places I've already posted on. But once in a while I still take photos. But questions like this made me realize that I need to update my "rotation", and I will do so in the upcoming weeks.

So here are some revisits, mostly photos...kind of what Uber OC Food Blogger Elmomonster would call a "photo super shoot"...in my case, it's just a bunch of photos....

Even More Latin Chef:

One of 3 restaurants I need to add to our rotation list. The Cebiche Pescado is a current obsession of the Missus:

She craves this once or twice a week, always finishing by sipping the Leche De Tigre (Tiger's Milk) with a spoon.

Here's a photo of the Tiradito:

Tiradito is, from what I've been told a Japanese influenced Peruvian raw fish dish. This version was made using the Aji Amarillo. The fish had been sliced into strips and slightly flattened with the blade of a knife. Hmmm, sounds really similar to some of the dishes a fairly well known Chef and Restaurant Owner named "Nobu" does. Nice, though not a refreshing as the Cebiche. BTW, did you know that the Sushi Bar in Lima that Nobu co-founded is still in business? It's called Matsuei, and on our list of possible restaurants to visit for our trip to Peru later this year.

You can find previous posts on Latin Chef here and here.

Tsuruhashi, Again:

We've been eating there every other week or so. In fact, I need to revise my statement about the manager. From our second visit on, he's been so very nice, and always comes by to chat or to say hello. In fact, as I left the other day, he stopped me, shook my hand, and in the very formal Japanese way, handed me his business card.

So here's some other stuff!

The Prime Beef Tongue:

Pork Belly:

A current favorite of the Missus, the Prime Tongue w/Onion.

You only cook this baby on one side...

One of my favorite "cuts" is the Prime Skirt, it is also one of the most inexpensive at $5.25.

Though a tad more chewy than other cuts, it is still quite tender. The payoff is the nice beefy flavor.

Another one for our rotation, the original post can be found here.

Even more Asia Cafe:

That doesn't mean we still don't visit some of our favorites. Here's a few photos from Asia Cafe during a recent really fun meal with Ed from Yuma.

The Yum Asia:

Nem Khao:

With the full complement of Greens and Herbs.

The See Nam Tok:

As good as I remembered. Previous posts on Asia Cafe can be found here and here.

The $12 Lunch Bento from Izakaya Sakura:

So many posts on this place. Here's a photo I had lingering around, Clayfu has a nice post.

You can read the Chowhound post here. It is a lot of food, almost too much for a workday lunch, if you know what I mean. I've heard complaints about the lunch not being very hot....methinks that person does not know what a "bento" lunch is all about. It's a box lunch, whose history goes back to the 11th or 12th century. While digging around, I found a nice little post here. Other posts on Sakura can be found here, here, and here.

Finally, a bit of Saturday silliness:

Earlier this week, I was standing in line at the grocery check-out, and you know how some couples talk really loud, and sometimes you learn or hear a bit more than you really wanted. This young couple was in the midst of a conversation....

Young Lady: "I heard a joke that I really don't understand....I think it's really stupid, and not funny."
Young Man: "What what is...."
YL: "Some of the guys were joking around, and said - Milk a bull, and make a friend for life..."
YM chokes and spits his gum out involuntarily: "Gasp....."
YL: "What's so funny...you can't milk a bull!"
By now everyone in line is cracking up, the cashier is turning a nice red color.
YM: "Think about it, if you tried to milk a bull....."
YL: "Hey, I'm not stupid, I know Bulls are male and you can't milk them!"
YM: "Say, you tried to milk a bull?"
YL: "But you can't milk a bull...."
YM, by now somewhat composed: "But if you really tried to, ahem, milk a bull......."
YL: "That's just dumb...."
YM, looking around at all the laughing people: "Must be a lot of dumb people in this line...."

Have a nice weekend.......

19th Annual Lao New Year Celebration

Yes, it's that time of the year again...all of the various festivals are starting, it's a fun and delicious time of the year. Thai, Cambodian, and Lao New Year fall on the same dates every year. I think we may have missed the Cambodian New Year Festival this year, I hope not, but I haven't heard or read anything about it. "Sao" had mentioned that the 19th Annual Laotian New Year Festival is taking place, and when I asked him about it, he was kind enough to email me the information. The festival is taking place at Martin Luther King Recreation Center on Skyline Drive.

Because of last night's storm, we initially had some doubts about attending, but today was such a nice day that we decided to check it out. We arrived at MLK Rec Center at about 1pm, and found this little festival in full swing.

I don't know if it was the really wet weather we had, or if it was the norm, but there were only 2 food booths.

This first booth had a nice selection of grilled items.

Of  course we had to have some papaya salad($3), and that grilled sausage($2) was calling to me.

This papaya salad was ordered at medium spicy, but was still quite hot. The gal making the salad was also very generous with the fish sauce, making the salad quite pungent. The sausage? Who doesn't like grilled sausage?

This booth had a sizable line, mostly for drinks and such.

The Missus grabbed a papaya salad($3) from here as well.

This was ordered "medium" as well, but was also very spicy. This version was a bit sweeter.

If you're interested, the Lao Festival runs through tomorrow.

19th Annual Laotian New Year Celebration

April 21-22
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM 

Martin Luther King Recreation Center
6401 Skyline Drive
San Diego, CA 921114

Admission $2

5 Days of Feasting Day 5 - Asia Cafe

Asia Cafe has slowly made it's way onto our "rotation". Apparently it has become a favorite of Ed from Yuma as well. You can read about His latest experience on Chowhound. On my previous posts on Asia Cafe, I noted the location, and ambiance.

Asia Cafe is really about good Laotian Home Cooking, and for Her fifth day of feasting, after the visits to China Max, Izakaya Sakura, Sushi Komasa in Los Angeles, and Ba Ren, the Missus was in the mood for some good home cooking.

We started with the Missus's favorite, the Nem Khao.

With this wonderful rice crust - sour sausage dish, you experience the best of both worlds. When wrapped in a lettuce leaf, and garnished with cilantro and mint, you have wonderful flavors along with a crunchy texture.

The Missus also went with the Yum Asia.

This seafood "salad", is served with a refreshing sweet, fish sauce based dressing. We always order ours with "clear noodles". Yum is right.....

Asia Cafe also makes very good sticky rice. One order is usually enough for the both of us.

One of my favorite dishes at Asia Cafe is the See Nam Tok:

A very simple sirloin or similar cut of beef, marinated, and pan fried, and served with a fish sauce based dipping sauce.

Today we ordered something a bit different. We asked about the whole fried fish we had seen on a previous visit. Though like the Nem Khao, it's not on the menu, the Fried Fish was available today.

Simply salted and deep fried to crisp perfection, the item that made this dish was the dipping sauce, consisting of (what else!) fish sauce, garlic, some chilies, and green onions. Very nice!

When we entered, the "Chef", the Wife of the Husband and wife team that along with their two sons make Asia Cafe "tick", greeted me with a "Hi, I haven't seen you in a while!" And while we were eating, Johnny, one of the sons brought a plate of noodles over, and said "We're doing some catering tonight, so my Mom wanted make sure you tasted some of this."

He called it Mee Lao, very tasty simple noodles stir fried with soy sauce and bean sprouts and topped with fried egg.

The damage? All of the dishes above with a pot of tea(Jasmine) for $27. Needless to say, we had a ton of leftovers.

I once asked a friend of a friend why there weren't more Laotian Restaurants, and he told me that everyone believed that their Mother made the best Laotian food, so why eat out? Well, since I can't call on a Laotian Mom to make great home cooked dishes for me, I'll have to rely on Asia Cafe, my little gem of a restaurant on the corner of 47th street and Market street for great home style cooking.

Asia Cafe
4710 Market St
San Diego, CA 92102

Asia Cafe Part II

*** Return visits to Asia Cafe can be found here and here.

The day after a fun and interesting meal at Asia Cafe, we decided to drop by the restaurant again and grab some take-out. This time we were after a few of the more well known Laotian-style dishes. So  I went in and ordered a few.

Green Papaya Salad(medium size-$4.00):

A nice size portion of sliced green papaya and tomatoes. We ordered the heat level at medium, but it was pretty mild. I thought the salad was much too fishy and briney for my tastes, much stronger then the version we had at Vientiane. Also, it was missing the wonderful flavor that peanuts bring to the dish, we had noticed a little jar of peanuts at each table, but apparently if you ordered the papaya salad "to go" you were on your own. I didn't care for it, but surpisingly the Missus enjoyed it, and scarfed it down! For those who have not had this style of Papaya Salad, please be aware; much more fish sauce is used, and not as much sugar or lime juice, making for a less sweet and more salty and "fishy" salad.

Beef Laab:

A very nice rendition of a classic dish, chock full of herbs, not dry, but not watery. The rather mild flavor let the texture of the slices of beef and tripe stand out, while letting the flavor of the herbs take a front seat. Beware the green peppers; they are very hot! The Missus didn't enjoy the slightly bitter flavor of the tripe, but that didn't bother me in the least. The overall flavor was on the mild side, but I enjoyed being able to taste all of the herbs.

The Missus had me ask about about the wonderful Laotian "Fried Rice" dish that she enjoys so much. So I described the dish to Johnny, who informed me that it was called Nem Khao. When I asked Him if they served it here, He told me "We'll make it for you, no problem!"

This wonderful dish of rice, fried garlic, pork, sausage, and other goodies, rolled in a lettuce leaf was delici-yoso! Slightly salty, with a nice nutty flavor, a very simple yet complex dish, and throughly enjoyable.

I needed one more dish, and Johnny recommended the Laotian "Beef Jerky":

I'm sorry that my photo doesn't do this dish justice. Wonderfully marinated and seasoned beef, slightly salty, slightly sweet, this was wonderful. The way to eat this is to have a piece of jerky in one hand, and a handful of sticky rice in the other.

So good! Since I went on recommendations and ordered items that weren't on the menu(as far as I know), all I can tell you is, that all four dishes and sticky rice for two(it's alot of rice) was $24.

Some Notes: There isn't a whole lot of parking in the small lot, though we never had a problem finding parking. The service is very helpful, both Johnny and Scotty want to make sure you enjoy your meal. Scotty told me that there are many dishes and daily specials that are not on the menu; we spied a fried fish with herbs and lettuce dish that another table was enjoying.

Asia Cafe
4710 Market St
San Diego, CA 92102

Asia Cafe Part I

*** Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Set on the gritty corner of 47th and Market Streets, right behind an Auto Repair shop is Asia Cafe.

Asia Cafe had been on my "list" for a while, but after driving past the strip mall one Sunday morning, I had my doubts. No, it wasn't the bars on the doors and windows, or the location behind the auto repair, nor the somewhat rundown appearance. It was the 2 people sleeping on the sidewalk, and the other people who were hanging around that made me feel nervous. But this past weekend, we decided to give Asia Cafe a shot. The only thing I could think of when we entered Asia Cafe, was "what took me so long?"

The fragrance of garlic and herbs floated in the air through the small restaurant. From all of the discussion going on in the restaurant, it was pretty obvious that all of the customers were "regulars", a very good sign. We sat at a table and a Young Gentleman brought us a menu. The Young Man's name was Scotty, and he told us it was his Mom cooking the food in the back. After fumbling around the menu, we made our selections with the help of Scotty.

A soup called Kao-Lao($6.00):

A fairly lite lemon infused broth, with cilantro, fried shallots, green onions, and garlic(yum). There was alot of beef slices, some tripe, and a ton of meatballs in the soup. I enjoyed this much more then the Missus, who didn't care for the meatballs which she said were rather rubbery. Of all of the dishes served, this one most closely resembled "home cooking."

Scotty had recommended the Yum Asia($6.50):

Scotty also had this made in a "special" way for us; he had this wonderful refreshing seafood salad served on a bed of cellophane noodles which soaked up all of the delicious fish sauce-lime juice-lemon grass-sugar-sweet chili sauce "dressing". Mint, basil, and peanuts gave the dish that extra "zip". All the seafood was prepared in an excellent manner. A wonderfully flavored, yet balanced dish, not too sweet, not to salty, not too spicy, just good eats.

Black Tiger Shrimp($6.50):

Perfectly prepared shrimp in a garlic and black pepper sauce, topped with cilantro. But totally pedestrian compared to the Yum Asia. Unanimously unremarkable.

The Seen-Nam-Toke($5.00):

As we were eating the Yum Asia and Shrimp, the wonderful smell of meat "grilling" filled the restaurant. When the dish arrived I was rather surprised, I had though this was a salad, but instead, it was a perfectly cooked, well seasoned medium rare steak. Obviously quickly marinated in lemon juice and fish sauce, the steak was beautifully caramelized. I realize, that the cut of steak was not the best, but the slices were pretty tender and the flavor was excellent; I barely needed any of the dressing. I could eat this almost every day. I was impressed, it's not easy to make, a two-dollar steak taste like a hundred bucks!

The Missus never really cared for sticky rice other then for desserts, so she ordered steamed rice, I on the other hand love sticky rice, and made sure to get an order($2.00):

The sticky rice was served steaming fresh, still slightly moist, and very fragrant. In fact, the Missus had never had sticky rice served perfectly cooked, and she enjoyed it so much that she put a pretty big dent in it! The steamed rice sat uneaten; I think She's changed Her opinion of sticky rice.

Overall, a good fairly inexpensive meal.

The Missus also purchased this for dessert:

It's a large bag of Fried Bananas($5.00). Unfortunately, Asia Cafe doesn't make these with sugar. No problemo, when we got home the Missus made some simple syrup, and coated the fried bananas with the simple syrup, and let them dry out a bit, and had a nice dessert:

While munching on Fried Bananas we talked about how enjoyable our meal was, and also how friendly and helpful the service was. We also decided to return the very next day, for a few more "traditional" Laotian dishes.

To be continued.......

Asia Cafe
4710 Market St
San Diego, CA 92102

Update on Vientiane, Dao Son, and Other Mid-Week Odds and Ends

*** Vientianne has since closed....

Just a quick "hump day" post. I created a post on March 6th, about a visit I made to Vientiane Food to Go a few weeks back. A few days ago, the Missus had a craving for the "Fried Rice" (The Lady there called it "Nem") she had eaten there. So I drove down to 47th and Imperial to find the take-out window in Lao Plaza had a "For Lease" sign on it. But luckily, the snack and noodle soup counter next door had taken over the business, and Papaya Salad and sticky rice were still available. Whew!

I ended up trying the Beef Laab:

Fairly tender slices of beef along with tripe, in a surprisingly mild fish-lime sauce. I really was shocked at the mildness of the dish, even when I ate a few hot peppers.

I also managed to get the rice the Missus wanted along with some very good perfectly fried pork rinds. The rinds were cut into thin strips, and almost looked like calamari. They hadn't the slightest bit of greasiness to them, and were "light"(in relative terms) and crunchy. Delici-yoso!!!

So 2 orders Beef Laab, Fried Rice, Pork Rinds, and Container of Sticky Rice - $15. I did ask where the Woman who formerly ran the "take-out window" had gone to, and was told that business was slow, so she decided to get a regular job. Bummer. Though I didn't try the papaya salad, both the sticky rice and the fried rice tasted perfectly fine, and so there probably is just the minimum amount of change if any.

Here's a few photos of a recent visit to Dao Son. I had the Chicken Katsu Curry($5.50):

Very thin, but spicy curry. Flavor was more like a Thai curry then the sweeter Japanese Curry. Katsu was a bit over-fried making the crust rather hard, but the overall flavor of the dish was good.

And two dishes that were on included in my previous post. The Red Chicken($5.99):

Chicken a bit too dry this time around, but oh man that sauce.........

Fried Catfish with Eggplant($6.99):

I don't know why this dish hasn't been added to the regular menu. It's always been on the "grease board menu".

Some odds and ends:

I read about the 5lb 7oz mango from the Big Island that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. You can read the article here.

And from the la.food blogging site, a post about Tommy's Ultimate Fan Free Combo Meal contest. Yep, that is the word "free"....

If you wonder what the 'Butter Side Down School of Science' is, you can find out here. Not really about food...I think????

Since it's close to that time of the year, here's Colleen's version of "Silence of the Peeps."

And finally, you can help name Pam's from Daily Gluttony's  Baby "Brother".

Oh, one more last thing, please check out the Website of a Movie I'm really looking forward to seeing. I know it's not really about food, I really was trying to figure how to tie in a link to it, but just gave up.... Looks like a really funny film!

Hope the week is going well for everyone!

Vientiane Food To Go

*** I've posted an update on Vientiane on March 15th ***

I had heard about a Laotian Restaurant called Vientiane from one of Sam's (of Sammy Sushi) Assistants. After a brief discussion and some Otokoyama he gave me directions to Lao Plaza on the corner of Imperial and 47th Street.

Blink and you'll miss the very non-descript building, that is Lao Plaza. If you manage to snag a parking spot you'll see the sign.

There it was, Vientiane Food To Go. I believe Vientiane is also the Capital of Laos. This small building holds a few "stalls" that sell everything from sunglasses to jewelry, to Laotian video rentals. The people here were also extremely "camera-shy", so I refrained from taking photos. We did get the "you're not from around here are you" feeling as we walked past the various stalls.

At the South End of the Building there is a small doorway, walk through the doorway and you enter Vientiane. To your right is a kitchen area, and we could smell the scent of soup simmering. In the middle section is a refrigerator, which is a snack and drink stand. To the left is a simple window, with various fried and hot table items. The dining area is a bit worse for wear, with Laotian Music Videos playing on the television mounted above the doorway.

I was totally lost trying to read some of the menu. I know that "Tom" are soups, as I believe "Keng" are, but as to the details, I really wasn't sure.

Luckily, the Lady working the window was so very nice and helpful. And after brief discussion we placed our order, and the lady started working on Her Mortar, preparing our Papaya Salad.

The Papaya Salad was very spicy, the papaya fresh and crisp. What I have found with Laotian style Papaya Salad, is that the sauce for the salad is very dark, and the fish sauce flavor is fairly strong. This was no exception. There was a small amount of salted blue crab at the bottom of the salad. Not bad, I'd have this again.

We also had two orders of "Sticky Rice":

To go along with the Fried Quail, that looked like they were about to up and run right off the plate.

I love steamed sticky rice, somewhat nutty in flavor, though the quail was on the dry side and fairly bland. I think I'll try the Beef Laap here next time.

The Missus also got some Fried Rice with Sausage(very delici-yoso!!!) for later, and a drink, all for $15, not bad!

My experience with Laotian food has been limited to Papaya Salad, Laap(yummy Beef Laap), and Laotian Sausage. But I'll be trying a few more dishes at the various Lao Restaurants in the area.

Some Notes: The Lady working "Food to Go" was so nice and helpful. The neighborhood can seem a bit scary, but we've never encountered any problems and you'll get a neat little cultural experience walking among the stalls in Lao Plaza. There is additional parking in the rear of the building.

Vientiane Food To Go
Located in Lao Community Plaza
110 47th St
San Diego, CA 92102

Intersection of 47th St and Imperial Ave

Sang Dao

I've been keeping my ears and eyes open for a good Thai/Laotian Restaurant here in San Diego, and have been given a few leads. Sang Dao had been recommended to me by a friend. So here we are at the dusty East end of National Avenue in Logan Heights:

Sang Dao is located next to Muang Laos Market #1, across the street from a 99 cent Chinese Food restaurant. The bars on all the doors and windows tell you what kind of neighborhood you're in, but this is where you sometimes find the best food. Enter the restaurant and you immediately know it's a real "Family" business; at a table in the back people are chatting, teenagers are watching television, and the youngsters are playing catch in the middle of the restaurant.

As we sat, I noticed the comprehensive condiment tray with everything from the standard Sriracha to shrimp paste; so far so good. A very serious, stoic, Young Lady took our order, and soon we could smell the garlic in the air, and the sound of a spatula stirring a wok!

The first dish served was the Drunken Noodles with Shrimp ($5.95):

The shrimp were fresh and tasty, the heat was very nice, and the noodles were cooked well. We also enjoyed the Chinese Broccoli in the dish. To us the dish was much too "wet", and lacked flavor beyond the heat. There seemed to be a good amount of garlic, but we really couldn't taste it, a bit more sweetness would have made this dish much more enjoyable. As we were eating the noodles the Spicy Catfish was delivered ($6.95):

The Missus had ordered this and thought it was pretty good. I however thought that it was too oily and muddy tasting. The dish featured slices of catfish that were fried, than stir fried with a sauce, I could make out the taste of galangal, but not enough to cancel out the muddy  taste. Overall we thought this dish was the weakest.

Our Beef Salad (Yum Nua- $5.95) was served next:

This dish was delici-yoso, and easily the best dish of the evening. The dish had a nice, sweet, spicy, salty, and sour flavor. The beef was cooked to perfection, and was not so hot as to start cooking/wilting the vegetables. A very balanced, very nice plate. One thing is that the "appetizer/salad sin" was committed here. That is, the salad was served after some of the main courses. Didn't matter much with us, we polished this one off.

The Spicy Fried Rice with Chicken ($6.95) was served next, as you can tell, we were on our "reverse-Adkins" tonight:

Now I ate almost the whole plate, the Missus only had a few spoonfuls, she thought the taste of shrimp paste over-powered everything, she's also not a fan of dark meat chicken, which was present here. I thought it was good, not great, but good. Yes, there was alot of shrimp paste, but I enjoyed the spiciness, saltiness, and thought the green onions added nice flavor. I think a bit of lime might have balanced out the dish a bit more.

Overall, I thought that this was really a good "home-cooked" meal. The food had that "homey" feel, and if thought of in that way, it was not bad at all. Also, the prices are really good by San Diego standards. The other thing I totally forgot was to order Larb, which is probably the best known of Laotian dishes. During the whole meal we were the only customers in the Restaurant. Service was efficient and fast, food is simple and very "home-style".

Sang Dao
4212 National Avenue
San Diego, CA 92113

Open Tues-Sun 10AM-8PM