mmm-yoso!!!

A & D Hawaiian BBQ - National City

Well, there I was in Grove Plaza Center with the intent of grabbing a bite at Karihan. Unfortunately, there was no Kare-Kare on this morning, and for some reason, all of the food looked like it had been "sitting around" for quite a while....at 11am in the morning. So I decided to head next door to A&D Hawaiian BBQ.

 

I've been kinda down on the whole Hawaiian BBQ thing.........most of it seems to be a bunch of folks who could care less about what they plop on a plate, who are just looking to make some $$$ (replacing Spam with Treet - heresy I say!). And frankly, after looking over the menu at A&D, full of the usual suspects, I wasn't particularly moved. But it had been so long since I've had even a borderline terrible Lau Lau, that I was willing to sell my soul, and drop my standards. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, there was no Lau Lau, only Kalua Pork available.

 

So I made an adjustment, and placed my order, and waited. Meanwhile, I gazed upon the borderline neon green walls. During my wait, the very nice Woman manning the counter was constantly cleaning. Now A&D isn't the most visually pleasing little place, the tables have various names, initials, and other verbiage carved into them, and it does look a bit aged for a place that's only been in this location for a year, but man this woman was really cleaning......

 

Unable to make a decision, I had ordered the ubiquitous "BBQ Mix" ($7.29). The nice lady brought the styrofoam container over to my table, and when I grabbed it, it felt like it must've weighed two pounds.....

 

And everything was hot...so hot that it steamed up my camera lens, and I had to wait for a minute or two to take photos. As with all these BBQ Mix plates, all the regulars were in attendance. The BBQ Short Ribs...please don't call them Kalbi....they are about as close to Kalbi as I am to Brad Pitt. That said, these were not bad, not as tough as the usual cross cut short ribs are, the marinade is not as sweet as many, which is fine with me.

 

The BBQ Beef was well marinated, pulling toward more of a ginger-shoyu flavor. It was also fairly tender, and without the usual "sugi", which is what we call nylon fishing line back home, the usual tough, and inedible tendon that is usually found.

 

The BBQ chicken looked on the light side, but was pretty tender. The norm would be chicken that had been marinated, pre-cooked, dumped back into a steam tray with marinade, and reheated before serving, making it really tough. I really got the feeling, based on the wait time, and how hot everything was, that these folks cook their stuff to order.

 

I really liked the Mac Salad, it was nice and cold, with a perfect amount of mayo, and some salt for a change. The rice was a bit hard and dry, though.

There was one more item that I had to order. On the door is a sign. That sign says "6 Piece Chicken Wing Special - $1.99". Yes, it seems that A&D is in the Salt and Pepper Chicken wing business.

 

The batter on these is light, and crisp, and the chicken is juicy, but it does not hold up well, and lacks the "crack-like" addictive flavor.

This way too much food for me, so I took half of it home. What I thought was interesting, was that the Missus had pretty much the same opinion. And I didn't even tell Her what I thought of the food. They say after you've been married for a while..........

A few weeks later, I was in the area, and decided to drop by A&D again. This time I paid a bit more heed to the menu, and had to chuckle at the "Healthy Meals" portion. since when is Chicken Katsu or Crispy Shrimp, considered healthy? Perhaps they mean a "healthy appetite"?

Being the predictable person I am, I of course ordered:

 

Yes, a Loco Moco ($6.99). I readily admit that I have a thing about the two easy over eggs, hamburger patties, gravy, over rice. It is something that I long for on a visceral level. So how does this rate on the modified "Rubio Scale", created by James Rubio of Big Island Grinds. For those not familiar with the scale, you can check out my post from waaaaay back in 2005. And in case you're wondering, why the Big Island? It is believed that the Loco Moco was created on the Big Island circa 1949. Sorry to say that I wasn't able to sample the Loco from the Lincoln Grill, but the Missus and I have had more than our share from Cafe100.

So moving right along.......

#1 - The Burger - Pure and simple pre-formed. Tough.  - 2.0 points

 

#2 Eggs - A bite overcooked for me. But worse of all, they didn't clean the griddle before frying the eggs. Too many black, "mystery bits". - 1.0 points

 

#3 Rice - Perfectly cooked this time. - 3.0 points

#4 Gravy - Wow, really salty....really, really, salty. I've hardly ever left gravy to sit and congeal, but had to this time. - 1.0 points.

 

#5 Stuffs - In this case the Macaroni Salad, which wasn't as good as my previous visit, but still pretty good. - 3.0 points.

For a total of 13.0 points, which ranks it as being fairly mediocre, even by Hawaiian BBQ standards.

Overall, A&D serves up standard Hawaiian BBQ fare. I felt that with regards to the BBQ, you get a pretty hefty size portion of food, which was pretty good. There are also $4.99 specials such as Chicken Katsu. The service was, at least for me, a notch above the standard indifferent service at most of these places.

A&D Hawaiian BBQ
Grove Plaza Center
2220 Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

Open Daily - 11am - 9pm

Some Revisits: Do Re Mi House and Leilani's Restaurant

Do Re Mi House: 

Hard to believe that I hadn't been back here for over three years. Sometime during that period the lettering on the windows have been redone, and now in addition to the Korean Food, it says they serve "Japanese Traditional Food"?!?? The menu looked pretty much the same, as did the restaurant, though they've removed the back partition to the place. And lunch is still pretty cheap, the Bulgogi Lunch Special at the time of my visit (December) was still $5.99. Looked exactly the same as well.

 

Funny how tastes change, I found the Bulgogi to be on the sweet side, though it was fairly tender, and the mandoo were better than on my last visit. Still, not bad, if the price is still $5.99.

 

And I still love the potatoes here. If this visit is any indication, service has now become the typical "dump and duck".....

Do Re Mi House
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Ste M
San Diego, CA 92111

My previous post on Do Re Mi House can be found here.

Leilani's Restaurant:

Also from back in December. I got my Loco Moco fix from Leilani's Restaurant. This of course meant a Hilo Loco for me:

 

In some ways it was the same dependable Loco......nice gravy, hand formed patty, lean, and perhaps on the tough side, but the same as usual, as were the eggs, which could have been a bit more crisp, but were decently runny......

 

And there was a good amount of gravy over everything. But on this visit, I felt like something was missing.......there was a good amount of Kielbasa and Portuguese Sausage in the fried rice, which was cooked just right, but the entire package tasted strangely bland.......like they forgot to season things......

 

With this costing ten bucks, maybe I'm just expecting more, or maybe it was just an off day? Though the mac salad was really, really, good on this day...so good I forgot to take a photo! Maybe I need to head back to PB, and see how Leilani is doing?

Leilani's Hawaiian Restaurant
3232 Greyling Drive
San Diego, CA 92123
858-565-4637

My previous post on Leilani's can be found here.

NaniMoku Hawaiian BBQ

I realize that over the last couple of years, I've kinda gotten away from all da' plate lunches, and stuff like that....... Still, once in a while, I just need a plate lunch. And in spite of the many Hawaiian BBQ joints in San Diego, a good plate lunch is hard to come by. As I mentioned before, for me, all Hawaiian BBQ is a subset of plate lunch. And most Hawaiian BBQ places do not offer the variety, nor quality of food that an old school plate lunch joint would. 

I wondered, what exactly would Nani Moku be....just another Hawaiian BBQ rehash, or perhaps a good solid plate lunch.

   

I had made a trip to Nani Moku's back in September of last year, thinking I'd be visiting Da' Kine's. I was shocked to find Da' Kine's gone, and Nani Moku in its place. But after looking at the menu, it looked just like Da' Kine's with a new name. Even the staff looked the same, as did the "daily specials..... Except for a little placard that had "Loco Moco" specials..... did you say Loco Moco specials? I was so there, tucked in the pocket of my personal, gravy laden, comfort zone. I ordered the Chicken Katsu Loco ($6.95). Which to me was basically what we call a "Chicken Cutlet" back home. In Hawaii, the term Chicken Cutlet is synonymouswith Chicken Katsu with Gravy. Which this was, except for the easy over egg.......

 

And I enjoyed the very runny easy over eggs. Many places nowadays are starting to hard cook their eggs, but this was wonderfully runny, if unseasoned. I'm sure the eggs could have been a bit more crisp around the edges, but that may have been asking a bit much. The cutlet was full on Da' Kine's, thin, with lots of breading. It was moist, which was nice, and the gravy was dark and seasoned. The macaroni salad was chilled, though still lacking in salt, but better than it usually is.

 

Can you tell that I enjoyed it? I told myself to hang in there, save the photos, and return later on. Soon enough, it was a new year, and I still hadn't returned to Nani Moku. One day, I was going through and deleting photos, when I came across the Chicken Katsu Loco..... and I knew where I'd be headed for lunch......

I returned to Nani Moku, walked up to the counter......

 

And no moa' Special Loco's.... and what the heck is a "Kaluha Plate?"

 

You may say; "you know what they mean......" To which I'd reply, "oh, like ordering some Dung Pao Chicken?" At this point, the menu was Da' Kine's recycled, which, if done well is not a bad thing.

So I ordered a Three Item Mix ($8.75) to get a taste of several menu items, which was a good amount of food:

 

The Chicken Katsu was a safe bet, and was fine as always, along with the ketchup based Katsu sauce:

 

You can tell by the photo the problem with the Kalua (not Kahula) Pork and Cabbage:

 

Once upon a time, this might have been half decent, with a good pork to cabbage ratio, but what I got served was the stuff scrapped from the bottom of the chafing dish...hard and dry.

The Teriyaki BBQ Chicken was moist, but lacked a nice marinated flavor.

 

The Mac Salad was again, nicely chilled, with a perfect amount of mayo, but lacking in salt, or a good savory flavor.

 

Overall, pretty much typical inconsistent Da' Kine's...except for one thing....the rice. Da' Kine's had a bad habit of serving mushy rice. On both visits to Nani Moku, the rice was good....at least that was consistent. As to whether I'd be back.... I dunno.....

Nani Moku
1635 Sweetwater Road
National City, CA 91950

Sun - Thurs: 11am - 8pm
Fri - Sat: 11am - 9pm

Midweek Meanderings

Just a few items to get you past "hump day".

Mr Dumpling:

A few weeks back, I received an email(Thanks MrC), than PedMa commented regarding Mr Dumpling. Located on Convoy Court, right behind 99 Ranch Market, I managed to take a drive past this weekend.

 

The sign says "Chinese Grill", and the name is "Mr Dumpling".....so it gives you an inkling.

Le Chef Bakery:

During early morning Banh Mi runs, I've noticed packages of Baguettes being delivered with tags that read Le Chef Bakery. I was never really able to find out much. But look at what I drove past while taking a detour on Ruffner Street.

 

Looks like a wholesale bakery operation. Anyone know anything?

Mo's is Closed:

Back in September, 'CD' commented on Mo's, basically saying that the place has been closed by the Health Department. I wasn't able to drop by before our trip. So this past weekend, I dropped by, and yes Mo's is closed.

  

The only item of significance was a Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control suspension notice.

 

Which, if I recall, doesn't usually shut a restaurant down, it just suspends the establishment from serving alcohol. I'll do some further digging and see what I can find out. I've been told that Mo is only currently doing catering. I'll let you know what I find.

Beer Inquiry:

I recently received an email asking me if I knew where Asahi Kuronama could be found in San Diego. Unfortunately, I can't find the email. So I'm posting what I found here. I've seen Asahi Kuronama on the shelves at both Nijiya Market and 99 Ranch Market. 

   

Nijiya Market
3860 Convoy St Ste 109
San Diego, CA 92111

99 Ranch Market
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Now if I can only find me some Beer Lao..........

And Finally:

Here's a nice piece of photoshop work from FOY (Friend of Yoso), and fellow Food Blogger Dennis who does A Radiused Corner. Dennis has a great sense of humor, and has called me the "Banh Mi Rover".....and he backed it up with this:

 

You know......I can see the resemblance! Thanks Dennis!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

BBQ Express Teriyaki Hawaiian BBQ

BBQ Express Teriyaki Hawaiian BBQ (whew that's mouthful), recently replaced the Convoy location of Extreme Pita. My first thought was, just what we need, another Teriyaki joint in the area, or is it a Hawaiian BBQ, or maybe .....???

You've got to give them some points for creative use of a former locations sign....just check out the sign from Cathy's post on Extreme Pita. I guess it's not that far a stretch from Extreme Pita to BBQ Express Teriyaki Hawaiian BBQ (I sense some redundancy).

One quick look at the menu, the crew, and the "salads", and you'll know right away this is a Korean owned and influenced restaurant.

So what is the food here like? I walked in and ordered a Teriyaki Chicken Plate ($6.95):

 

The chicken was taken from a portable steam-table unit sitting on the back counter, chopped, placed on rice, and covered with a too sweet teriyaki sauce. Very mundane.

You get to choose 2 salads, and among the choices was a dangmyeon dish, reminiscent of Japchae, it was in fact the best thing about the whole meal. It also had me wishing for something along the lines of Gina's BBQ, or even a Yummy's Korean BBQ. Now that's a Korean style plate lunch!

This on the other hand.......

Still, thoughts of perhaps getting just the side dishes with rice, brought me back. And I asked if I could just get the Japchae, macaroni salad, and rice....and got a smile, and a blank stare in return. I asked again, and got the same response. I'm guessing that was a "negatory sir"...... So I splurged and ordered the BBQ Kalbi plate ($8.45):

This time the very thinly sliced cross-cut ribs were cooked to order, but I could have done without the very liberal amount of the same bad teriyaki sauce poured over the ribs before serving.

Again the Japchae was the best thing about the meal.

And though the macaroni salad was on the runny side, it wasn't terribly sweet as Korean style mac salad tends to be, and was actually not bad.

 

In the end, nothing really compels me to return. In spite of the long name.....BBQ Express Teriyaki Hawaiian BBQ...I felt the place fell very short. And I'm still wondering what part the Hawaiian BBQ is? To me, it's just another teriyaki joint. Maybe you'll have better luck.

BBQ Express Teriyaki Hawaiian BBQ
4898 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111 

Island Style Cafe

I must admit I was in a bit of a rut for a while. I was getting stale; and a bit bored with the places I had sampling. I have a pretty good collection of meals to post about, but could not muster the energy to post about them. But just like that; things would turn around. Starting first with Sab-E-Lee, followed by Wa Dining Okan, I've regained my enthusiasm. Fast forward to about a week ago..... I received an email from FOY "Shawn", who mentioned a new Hawaii kine grindz place that had opened up in Tierrasanta. Having read about my obsession with Loco Mocos, Shawn had taken the time out to send me an email about Island Style Cafe. With nice folks like TanyaS and Shawn keeping an eye out for me, it's almost as if I have my own Loco Moco Patrol out there! And I appreciate the effort. Shawn had even done my research for me: "The restaurant is owned by a husband and wife.  The husband cooks while the wife takes care of the tables.  The husband worked as a chef at the Four Seasons prior to moving here.  The wife worked for Aloha airlines until they went out of business.  They had initially planned on helping their brother/brother-in-law start a restaurant and commuting back and forth from Hawaii.  Well, once Aloha went out of business they said what the heck and moved here to make a go of the restaurant business." After reading that story, I made it a point to check the place out.

The interior of the restaurant is spartan, but very clean. The menu is interesting to say the least; all the regulars are represented; Teri-Beef, Hamburger Steak, Korean Chicken, and Chicken Katsu, are on the menu. What really stands out on the menu are the presence of crepes! Crepes? There are 4 "sweet crepes", and 4 "breakfast crepes" on the menu. This place is really into breakfast, as breakfast items comprise almost half the menu.

The other thing that stands out is Teri, who handles the front of house. She exudes warmth, and has the most sincere, wonderful smile. Once She found out that I'm from Hawaii(they are from Kona), the pidgin starts leaking out...from the both of us.

The Loco Moco-ish item on the menu is called the "Kaloko Moco". Unfortunately, the menu says it's served until 11am, and it's a bit past that when I entered the restaurant. But with Teri; all things are possible, and getting my Kaloko Moco($8.75) is not a problem. This is one pretty original Loco, I'll say that much!

It is very pretty, at least to me. If there is ever anything that I'd want a plastic version of, a la Japanese Plastic Food, it would be this.

This Loco came with the standard equipment, 2 eggs easy over (nice and runny), a hand formed hamburger patty (grilled with great flavor, but dry and tough), and gravy (Ono-licious, tasted like it was made from scratch). In addition, it was upgraded with Fried Rice, which I've had with a Loco Moco before. The fried rice had a generous amount of chopped Spam and Ham, and if a bit on the mushy side, had really good flavor, without being too salty. The item that was really different was the crepe! Yes, all of this cholesterol goodness was placed on top of a savory crepe. I wasn't sure if this would work; but the crepe was studded with chopped Spam and Ham, and even though there was a very mild sweetness, it didn't detract from the overall flavor. In fact, I thought it was a nice combination. And in a nice touch, Teri recognized I was a Kama'aina, and brought the required condiment to my table, a bottle of Tabasco, without a single utterance from yours truly. And though I've really cut down on my Loco Moco consumption, I'll have this again, without doubt.

On another visit, I decided to try out some of the items on the Plate Lunch menu. I went with a "mix plate" of 2 items ($9.75). I chose the Chicken Katsu - Korean Chicken combination.

A bit on the high side price wise, but this was pretty good. The Katsu was chicken breast, and very moist. The cutlet was fried to perfection, the panko crust crisp and light. The Katsu sauce was very "local style", ketchup based and tangy. The Korean Chicken was nicely marinated, and had obviously not been laying in a pan, and reheated. It was moist and tender, I enjoyed the marinade, which had a nice flavor, if a bit on the sweet side. The macaroni salad was spot on with regards to the amount of mayo used. It was also nice and cold, which is exactly the way I like my mac salad. I'm not a big fan of tuna in my mac salad, which is a personal preference, so this version is not my favorite.

As I'm writing this post, I've come to the realization that these folks get it, with regards to the food they serve. It is well made, the little things matter (the temperature of the mac salad), they care about what they serve, and it comes across as not just being "a business". At least that's what I think so far. It helps that Teri is warm and welcoming. The menu has several salads, and I overheard that some of the dressings(Mango Vinaigrette, Papaya Seed) are made in house. Burger are also featured prominently, and I think Dennis will be happy to know that there's Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich on the menu, though I gotta talk to them about the pineapple ring!

Even though the menu lists the hours being 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, I don't think they're open for dinner yet.

You know, 2 out of the 3 of the restaurants that I've enjoyed lately have happened because of recommendations. What would I do without you all!

Island Style Cafe
5950 Santo Road
San Diego, CA 92124

Thanks for the recommendation Shawn, this place is a winna!

Junz Teriyaki & BBQ

This one is for TanyaS who is always nice enough to let me know when She sees something "new".

It looks like North Park now has a plate lunch shop. Junz Teriyaki & BBQ opened in the beginning of July, and all it took was the mention of the word "Loco Moco" courtesy of an email from Tanya to get me in the front door of Junz.

If I recall, this was a Gyros & Fried Chicken Shop. But man, it's sure been "prettied up"(is there such a phrase?).

And, if you really need it, you can still get a Gyros or Falafel Sandwich...with a side order of Spam Musubi.

So what did I get? Well, being the consistent (a nice way of saying predictable) guy I am, I got the Loco Moco ($5.95). On the menu it's the "Loco Moco Hawaiian" which I think is kinda, well insulting...perhaps it should be the Hawaiian Style Loco Moco? This was the first of many signs that perhaps this was just another attempt at cashing in on "Hawaiian BBQ". The next indicator was when the Loco Moco arrived:

What the heck? I had not read the part that said, "Gravy Teriyaki Sauce".....actually it was just teriyaki sauce. I did enjoy the egg, which was a very Bi-Bim-Bap-ish perfect, and for the price expected the preformed hamburger patty, which was unexpectedly cut into 4 pieces. But the rest of this was a train wreck. From the teriyaki sauce to the mixed peas, corn, and carrots mixed into the rice...to the soggy iceberg lettuce, to the mushy rice, this wasn't very good.

At least the Teriyaki Sauce wasn't overly sweet. This was just a bit strange. Just one more thing, on the menu it says "Hamburger Patties" and "Eggs". Last time I checked, those are plurals, as in "more than one".

Not that I need to do any additional damage to my cholesterol level......but perhaps this should be fixed in future editions of the menu? I'm still trying to figure out which "Island" this "Style" of Loco Moco is from. And here I thought that the Loco Moco that Kat posted about was a bit odd!

Still, that egg was mighty good, and in some very strange way I really wanted to like this place. I liked the decor, and the ladies are very nice. So I decided to give it another go. This time, because of the that egg, I thought perhaps there was some Korean roots to the food, and thought that perhaps the Spicy Chicken Teriyaki($6.95) would be a good item to try. I mean, a nice Dak Bulgogi style chicken with Kochujang for a tad of heat.

It was not to be, it was just "spiked" teriyaki sauce, on top of fast-foodish, food courtish, chicken. The 1 scoop of rice, was cooked perfectly this time, and the macaroni salad was a bit too runny, but tasted fine.

There was very little to separate this stuff from what you'd get at generic shopping mall food court...you know, the "same chicken, different sauce" syndrome. Perhaps I should have had a Spam Onigiri (Falafel Sandwich?).

It's kind of a bummer. Like I said, the ladies working here are really nice, and the place is sparkling clean and bright. As I looked at the take-out menu, I noticed that this place is run by the folks who own North Park Sushi & Grill across the street, and Hanaoka Japanese Restaurant, which I understand has been in National City forever. The menu has items like Saimin, Gyoza, Hummus(!), and Teriyaki in several forms. Maybe someone can tell me what I need to order from Junz!

Junz Teriyaki & BBQ
3010 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104

Hours: Mon-Sat 11am - 9pm

Thanks for letting me know when you see something you think I'd be interested in Tanya!

Saturday Stuffs: No Moa Da' Kine's National City, What's this about Drive-thru Banh Mi, A Surprise at Sammy's, and other "stuffs"

Just some Miscellanea for the weekend:

No Moa Da Kine's National City, La Dat:

I've been thinking about doing another plate lunch week, and it seems that I always do at least one post on Da' Kine's. After all, they've been around over a decade. So, back in July I had a plate lunch at Da' Kine's, and decided to drop by one more time a few weeks ago. And to my surprise, this facade:

Was replaced with this:

Wow, so this is the third Da Kine's to close. Only the new Liberty Station location is still open. Oh, I did have lunch here, but you'll have to wait for that post. This is what I had at Da' Kine's in July:

I'm still contemplating plate lunch week....but all the Teriyaki - Hawaiian BBQ, blah, blah, blah, gets to be the same after a while. Maybe I should just intermingle them.....what do you think?

Nani Moku Hawaiian BBQ
1635 Sweetwater Road
National City, CA 91950

What's this about drive-thru Banh Mi?:

A few weeks ago, "22cards" (thanks for letting me know), reported that Cali Baguette Express's long awaited Banh Mi Drive-thru was open. And not only that, but they were now open 24 hours a day! So that very Friday, the Missus and I headed out to Cali Baguette Express, at about 930pm, and found the place completely dark, totally closed, not a creature was stirring. We were so disappointed, we headed straight to Golden City and had Peking Duck...talk about depressed.

Determined to get to the bottom of the "drive-thru" mystery, I took a serious detour, and hit up CBE at 630 am a recent morning. and indeed all the "signs" were in full display. It does say Open 24 Hours, looks like the Drive-thru is from 9pm to 6am, which would have been right in the ballpark. So I ordered a Banh Mi Trung ($2.59), and asked the young lady about the drive-thru. I had a bit of a problem understanding, but I believe the gist of it was, the store closes at 9pm, with only drive-thru service from 9-midnight Sunday-Thursday, and 9pm thru 6am Fridays and Saturdays.....I think. Maybe someone else will have more info.

  As for the Banh Mi, the bread was better on this occasion than my previous visits. Warm, decently crusty, with some chew. The egg wasn't dredged in Maggi, which is what I've gotten at a few places. It was not bad....of course it could have just been that I love Banh Mi Trung...especially when I'm starving.

Sure beats one of those egg mc-something's any day of the week.

Cali Baguette Express
5215 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego CA 92115

A Sammy Surprise:

I haven't been to Sammy's in a while, but on my last visit, not being too hungry, I just had a few pieces of Nigiri.

No big deal, right? Except for one thing; knowing that I don't really use the usual rehydrated-dry-wasabi-powder-that-is-Coleman's-mustard-in-disguise, Sam told me to try what he placed on my plate. It was real wasabi.....actually wasabi paste, probably from Pacific Farms. It's still not as good as fresh ground wasabi...but it's much better than the "other stuff". I'm not sure if Sam was just trying it out, or if he's going to carry it from now on.......so it'll be interesting to see.

Sieu Sieu BBQ Reopens:

I dropped by Barbecue's Galore, and noticed that Sieu Sieu BBQ had opened in the  former Maui Maui Hawaiian BBQ location on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. I'm not quite sure if this is something to be very happy about. When we first moved to San Diego, we visited Sieu Sieu at it's old location on Linda Vista Road a few times.....and had some of the worst Chinese BBQ I've ever experienced.

Dry roast pork and Char Siu, and some of the most bland Roast Duck I've ever had. But as I was walking past the place, I noticed how busy they were.....full of Chinese! It could be that they were all just checking things out. But maybe we should be too!

Sieu Sieu BBQ
7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

I hope everyone's having a great weekend!

L & L Hawaiian Barbecue - Hillcrest

It used to be that I'd eat plate lunches at least 3-4 times a week. You could say it was the backbone of my diet back then. But having lived on the mainland for over a decade now(has it really been that long?), my diet has changed in some pretty significant ways. That would mean no more 3 squares a day featuring that carbo-licious staple, rice. It seems that a plate of protein with at least 2-3 carbs(or in the case of Chili Spaghetti-Rice with Macaroni Potato salad, 4 carbs) has kinda fallen by the wayside for me. And to make matters worse, when I had my latest Loco Moco craving, I realized that I hadn't had a plate lunch since January; over 4 months! My how things have changed.

I don't know why, but I always thought that Hillcrest was an interesting location for an L&L. And even though I work in walking distance of this location of L&L, I had never made an effort to eat there. But, suffering from severe Loco Moco withdrawals, I decided to check them out.

In addition to the standard issue L&L menu, this location also offers "Healthier" options. After all, this is Hillcrest.

One thing I did notice was that my Loco Moco was going to cost $8.29! But, since I made the effort to walk over........

  So how did this measure up? Using the "Modified Rubio Scale for Loco Mocos", originally developed by James Rubio, who does the food blog Big Island Grinds, here's how the scoring(on a scale of 1 thru 5) went.

BURGER: Standard burger was well seasoned, moist(!), and mildly beefy. Pretty good for a Hawaiian BBQ joint. - 3.0

EGGS: Could be more crisp around the edges, and not seasoned. Yolk was nice and runny. - 3.0

RICE: Kinda hard. - 2.0

GRAVY: On the light side, but nice and salty. Pretty decent. - 3.5

STUFFS: Too much mayo on the macaroni salad, which could have used a shake of salt. - 2.0

Total: 13.5 - Not bad for one of these Hawaiian BBQ joints.

This location of L&L was bit better than some of the other locations, so I may just have another meal here one day. The service was fine, the young lady manning the register was very nice, but a bit spacey.....she forgot to charge me for my drink, I had to remind her.

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
3803 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103

You can find my "collection" of Loco Mocos here.

Da Kine's - Liberty Station

Recently, whenever I need to make a trip to Trader Joe's, I've headed down to the new store located at Liberty Station, the former Naval Training Center in Point Loma. It never seems too crowded(except on Sundays when Church services next door let out), and there always seems to be abundant parking. So, it's only natural that I'd visit the new location of Da Kine's located in Liberty Station. Liberty Station itself is very large, and I've noticed that there is a severe lack of signs. Due to the barracks-like nature of the place, you may have some problems finding your destination. For instance, if I didn't tell you where I was headed, what would you make of this.......

The actual sign for Da Kine's is pretty small:

So don't blink...you might miss the place.

On the day of my first visit, I wasn't quite ready for a full on plate lunch. And an item on the menu, the Linguica Burger fascinated me. In Hawaii, we call Linguica "Portuguese Sausage", an island staple that is so incorporated in Island Cuisine that McDonald's serves it! In fact, there are several brands of Portuguese Sausage that "compete" for the Hawaii market share. In case you're wondering, The Tasty Island did a Portuguese Sausage Comparison, as did San Diego's own Barefoot Plumies.

Anyway, the Linguica Burger($5.00), comes with fries:

While waiting for my burger, I noticed that everyone else was getting their food before me. One of the women working, came to me and told me, that the Linguica Burger takes a bit longer than other burgers because, "it is made fresh." Perfectly fine with me, I'll take a hand made, cooked to order burger over something preformed any day of the week. The burger arrived steaming hot. I noticed the odd shape of the burger, and the flavor hinted at Portuguese sausage, a much leaner, and not as spicy version of Linguica. To me it headed more in the direction of chorizo.....the meat was moist, and overall was fine for 5 bucks. The fries were 100% processed, and just an after-thought.

The only complaint was that one edge of the burger was charred, and tasted that way.

About a week later, I found myself doing a Trader Joe's run again, and this time I was in the mood for a plate lunch. To try and check out as much as I could, I ordered the "Wop Yo Jaws"(I'm still kinda uncomfortable saying that...) which is the 3 item mixed plate($8.75):

  The first thing I noticed was that the portion size, and "look" of the plate lunch was more toward the late Pacific Beach location, than the now also defunct, Mira Mesa location. The Katsu, was the signature Da Kine's Katsu, thin sliced chicken, creating a larger breading to meat ratio. The katsu was cooked to crisp perfection.

I don't know why I ordered Kalua Pork and cabbage....I'm usually disappointed, but in this case, it wasn't too bad. There was a good amount of pork(much of it was under the katsu), it was moist, mild smokiness, perhaps a bit light on "porky sweetness", but not overly salted. I was pleasantly surprised. Also, there wasn't much cabbage in this.

The Macaroni salad was the best that I've had at  Da Kine's, the mac salad actually had a decent amount of mayo and flavor for a change. If you look at the photo to the right, you'll notice what I didn't enjoy. The teriyaki chicken was very dry, like it had been sitting for a very long time, and hardly had any marinated flavor. I almost broke my knife trying to cut it. The rice was improperly made, and I encountered several hard, indigestible grains. This lunch had started well, but ended badly.....

To me, if you can't make rice, you have no business serving plate lunches. This had to be a fluke...even though I always thought that Da' Kine's PB location always had rice on the mushy side, this was really bad. So just to be sure, I recently had another plate lunch....

This is "Da Buggah".....sheesh(Two item mixed plate - $8):

The rice was fine, so the last visit must have been a fluke, but the macaroni salad was gladly, not a fluke. The Teriyaki Beef was the less sweet, more soy in flavor "local style", and in spite of being low grade meat with lots of connective tissue, it was more tender than it looked. The teriyaki chicken was better than the last time, but not much, this time it was more tender and moist. Though it was hotter than the last time, I still think that it is under marinated, and the grilling process does not lend enough flavor to the chicken. Even the extra sauce provided doesn't do much for the chicken.

I like the decor at this location of Da Kine's.....it seems to be a combo of warm woods and sports bar. There's also a simple outdoor eating area which will be pretty nice when the weather gets warmer, it already seems to be a favorite of the "lunchtime kids". One last thing, there's a Woman who works here, who is a bit older than the others, who is very nice, always checking to make sure everyone gets what they need.

After overhearing some conversations, I got the impression that Nelson Ishii doesn't have much to do with this location....and reading this on Da Kine's website, perhaps "semi-retired?" I wouldn't blame Him, Nelson is considered by many as the "Plate Lunch Pioneer" in San Diego.

Da Kine's Plate Lunches
2400 Historic Decatur Rd
San Diego, CA 92106

Check out the Doggie Parking Station at Trader Joe's: