mmm-yoso!!!

Cambria (During Covid-19) - Fiscalini Ranch, Cambria Coffee, Shamel Community Park, and Dinner at Black Cat Bistro

During our roadtrip last November, our second stop was in Cambria. We had really enjoyed our dinner at Madeline's the night before. From the food, wine, and wonderful service....it was such a nice experience. We were looking forward to our full day in the town. Man, it really felt good to be travelling for a bit. We had really missed it.

I had gotten up early in the morning. The office had an urgent request so I was on my laptop and the phone for a bit. After my call, the Missus wanted a cup o' Joe. So I got dressed and headed out.

I crossed Highway 1 onto Main Street, which was quite sleepy at this time of the morning.

I really enjoyed the quaint, artsy, but unpretentious vibe of Cambria.....and a definite sense of humor!

A few blocks down was my destination; Cambria Coffee Roasting Company.

While I understand that there's a deck seating area upstairs with a view of the street; at this time, due to Covid restrictions it's closed. Basically, a table was set-up in the doorway and you could place your order.

And then you stand aside until you are called. I was happy to note that Cambria Coffee does pour-over.....which would make the coffee snob in the family (the Missus) happy. So, I got a coffee and a pour over for the Missus.

It was nice to see locals seeing each other....during these times, with the social distancing and such, I'm sure it's a treat for those on fours legs as well for those on two.

I went and walked on back to our room. The Missus enjoyed Her coffee. While not quite on the same level as Birdrock, She did enjoy it.

Cambria Coffee Roasting Company
761 Main St.
Cambria, CA 93428

Bolstered by caffeine, the Missus was ready to head out. I had done a bit of research and planning for this trip to keep the Missus busy. One thing that caught my attention was Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. Previously owned by the Fiscalini family since the late 1800's as a cattle ranch, it was sold in the 1980's to a developer. The plan was to create a residential area, much like what surrounds the ranch. Fortunately (for us), the developer went bankrupt and the North Coast Small Wilderness Area Preservation was formed and raised 11 million dollars to purchase the property. The preserve consists of over 400 acres of trails which straddle both sides of Highway 1. You go from one of the last Monterey Pine Forests to the beautiful coast.

There are at least 17 trails available all of which are well maintained and makes for rather easy hiking. I decided that we should start at Huntington Road entrance, basically just an gate with street parking and walk along the Ridge Trail.

Where we quickly came upon an interesting bench.

This one is known as the, well, Dolphin Bench of course. We'd come to really enjoy the wonderful and quite artistic benches crafted with driftwood along the way.

We hiked along the Ridge Trail coming upon the pine forest.

And then meandered down to the Bluff Trail, which was scenic and beautiful.

And course there are those benches that I mentioned earlier....they really looked like works of art to us.

We took our time, sitting on the benches and enjoyed the views along the way.

These were the Missus's favorite benches.

Once we reached the North Windsor Boulevard Entrance, we headed back up the SeaClift Trail and eventually back from where we started.

Fiscalini Ranch Preserve was a fun, relaxing, and needless to say beautiful way to spend our day in Cambria.

It was time well spent.

After our hike, we headed into Cambria's East Village to do some shopping.

Which was a lot of fun......

We headed back to our very comfortable room at the El Colibri for, at least for me was a well earned afternoon nap.

I had made dinner reservations for this dinner at a restaurant in the East Village. I asked the Missus to get ready a bit early....She was a bit perturbed, but went along. We got into the car and instead of heading across Highway 1 I took a right turn down Windsor Boulevard and right at the turn down the hill stopped and parked at Shamel Community Park.

As we walked from the parking lot to the beach, the Missus got it.....

And boy was it beautiful!

Doesn't get much better than this, does it?

After the stunning sunset, we headed to our dinner destination, finding parking on the street. And enjoying the wonderful fun and artsy décor along the way.

Dinner was at Black Cat Bistro. The menu looked interesting.... We were seated in a covered porch area. During this time SLO County was under the Red tier and had 25% indoor, we requested outdoor. There were only two other couples during our whole meal....all from out of town and the other two parties had such cute and well behaved pooches with them.

The meal started in fine fashion with a delicious Crab Cake and Shrimp Salad ($17).

The shrimp was fried perfectly, the batter was light and crunchy, the shrimp sweet, plump, and oh so tender. The crab cakes was well made, full of crab meat, moist, the breading stood up well in the face of the remoulade sauce. The arugula added a nice balance as the mild bitterness helped to cut the richness. This was easily the best dish of the night, a memorable dish.

Next up was the "Paso Robles Pork Belly" ($15).

Love the addition of Gigante Beans; the pork belly was fine, the sauce was too salty and sweet for our taste.

Next up; the Gnocchi ($14). The gnocchi is fried giving it an interesting texture.....but beyond the light crispness, the interior was too mushy.

We did enjoy the earthiness of the mushrooms paired with the pleasant bitterness of the radicchio. This added a nice dimension to the plate, though that cream sauce just wasn't to our taste.

The last dish of the evening was the main reason I decided to book our dinner at Black Cat Bistro; the Strozzapreti ($25). The Missus loves strozzapreti and strigoli, the wonderful toothsomeness of the pasta. This was a vegetarian version which the Missus was more than happy to order.

There was just too much going on in this dish and the pasta was over cooked and on the mushy side, lacking in that nice chewiness the Missus enjoys. We enjoyed the purple cauliflower and Romanesco....the Missus just loves Her cauliflower. The currants seemed a bit too much for the dish as was the cream sauce. We would have preferred a bit more restraint in the saucing of the dish....but hey.....this is the US, not Italy. Sometimes, simple is best.

Overall a nice meal; friendly staff, the other two parties were from out of town and come to Cambria yearly. The Black Cat Bistro is a favorite of theirs. The Missus enjoyed the wine pairings as well.

Black Cat Bistro
1602 Main St.
Cambria, CA 93428

As you can see; we didn't go to bed hungry!  We really enjoyed Cambria and will be sure to return.

Pho To Go From Pho Hoa Huong

The Pandemic has really accelerated the Missus's online purchases....to the point that She often doesn't remember what has been delivered. Of course, while the Missus is very good at ordering and opening things up at home, as I noted before, She's not really very good at making trips to the Post Office to pick up or to do returns. Well, at least when I had to make this last trip to the Post Office, it was to return items. Luckily, working from home, I was able to schedule a quick trip to the Post Office. It was between meetings at around 10am and when thinking about what I'd be picking up for lunch in the area, the solution quickly became clear...….the "fastest pho in the west" might fill the bill.

So, just over a year to the day I last visited, I dropped by Pho Hoa Huong, this time for takeout. I placed my order.....for good old #4 (now $10) and headed to the Post Office where there was no line. I basically made it back to PHH in ten minutes and guess what? My order was waiting....in fact, the nice gentleman saw me walking over form my car and brought my order out to me! Man, it's such a far cry from those days when they basically dealt the menu out to you and then hovered over you to order. Not that I miss those days at all, mind you!

So, unpacking at home...man, the Pho broth was super hot! And in character it was quite dark, though a bit less fatty than before.

As I mentioned in a couple of recent posts....it just seems that portion sizes have increased quite a bit during the pandemic. Since I got home with a good amount of time before my next call, I decided to have an early lunch.

The broth wouldn't need much heating and the noodles were nicely under-cooked. So, I briefly brought the broth back to a boil, then easily separated the proteins and herbs/veggies from the noodles. I placed a noodle strainer in the noodle bowl, placed the banh pho in it and then poured the boiling broth over it, separating the noodles easily.

There was a decent amount of sprouts and a ton of sliced jalapeno. A couple of leaves of good looking ngo gai....though the basil was starting to go bad with most of the leaves discolored.

The broth was pretty dark and I noticed that distinct sweetness that pervades pho broth here in San Diego; not as bad as most other places, but it looks like it's creeping into the "old school" places like here. At least it wasn't overly salty. There was a mild anise-beefiness to it as well.

The noodles were just spot on perfect; even better than what I've had when "dining in" during those pre-Covid days. Once unclumped it had a nice al dente pull.

I was quite impressed with the tripe; clean finish with a good crunch to them. The rest was fine; the tendon was decent, the flank was actually better than the brisket, with a nice toothsome chew and good beefiness. The brisket was too tough for that cut and lacked a good bovine flavor.

This might be the best overall non-frills pho I've had in a while....of course, I haven't had much pho during these times. But I was quite satisfied with my lunch.

Pho Hoa Huong
6921 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 8am - 9pm

An Update on Hogetsu Bakery

You'll notice some comments on my post on Hogetsu Bakery from back in 2005. Apparently, "FOY" Junichi found out that the folks from Hogetsu were set to retire! Oh my.....Jenne then chimed in with what she knew (it's so great to hear from you!). Based on this, I decided to head on down to Chula Vista.....man, I hadn't been in the area since 2019 and to Hogetsu since January of that year! Yikes!

I parked an walked on in. Things seemed like business as usual with Mrs Takeda at the front counter.

She looked at me and said "it's been a very long time, huh?" Yes, after all these years the Takeda's still don't know my name.....but they know me as the "kimishigure" guy, since that's the Missus's favorite and also, because of this thing I wrote back in 2011.

After placing my order; I broached the question......both Takeda's seemed surprised that I would even know about the possibility of their retirement. I told them that Hogetsu is much beloved (which earned a waved and "uugh" from Mrs Takeda) and that word spread fast. So, upon hearing this I drove on down to see them.

They explained to me that it was time; but that they are training two people. Also, that the target date for the retirement is January of 2022. By this time, customers were coming in and I didn't want to interrupt the flow of business. So, I'll return in a few weeks and let folks know if their is an update.

I have mixed feelings about the possibility of retirement for the Takeda's. As far as I'm concerned, they are a San Diego institution. But I also know that it would great for them to finally get a break and enjoy life. They've been mentioning retirement to me over the last couple of visits and also the physical limitations of getting on in years. I'm hoping they get a well deserved time to enjoy life.

And it looks like we've got some time to have our wonderful wagashi and let the Takeda's know how much we appreciate them.

There was one burning question that I did ask before I left.....you see, as of say 2018 the Takeda's still didn't own a home computer or laptop. So I asked if they have one now or plan to get one upon retiring. Mrs Takeda laughed and waved me off; "no, of course not......we haven't had one all these years and have been fine. And, I'm too old to learn those kind of things."

Ah yes...….some things will never change!

Hogetsu Bakery
1210 3rd Ave.
Chula Vista, CA 91911
Current Hours:
Wed - Sat 10am - 5pm

Takeout Revisit from Golden Island

And so it came to pass....a few days ago I went into the office and due to vacations, etc, I was the only one there. A huge office space that once held maybe over 75 people, was left to me. Of course I was used to an empty office when I get into work at around 515am....but by 830, there I was, all by my lonesome. Then around nine-ish I went to refill my water bottle, when I noticed the motion control light in the back was one. There was one other person in the office.....being from a different team/department, we often passed each other and said hello, but never really spoke. But today, well, while filling my water he came into the kitchen area to use the coffee pod machine and we had a nice short chat. At the end of which, he mentioned it just having been Lunar New Year and yet, he hadn't had any Chinese food this year. I think he thought I was Chinese. Anyway, I ran into him again when going to the restroom and he mentioned he'd be getting lunch at this place he had wanted to try called Golden Island. I mentioned that I'd visited for takeout a couple of times and what I knew about the place. I also told him he could order online and not to freak out at the prices. Anyway, he decided to go for it and told me that if I wanted to place an order he'd be happy to pick it up for me. It had been nearly five months since I last visited and I had been thinking about the getting the Kwai Fei Ji from there....about the only thing I really enjoyed. So I went and placed an order, gave the dude some cash, and he went tp pick up my order....hey, who needs Uber Eats/Doordash/etc, etc, etc!

Anyway, he returned at around 1130 with my order. In addition to the Kwai Fei Chicken, I ordered the dim sum item that was at least decent during my visits, the Shrimp Siu Mai (now $6.69 was $6.19 a few months ago) and decided to try something new, so I went with the Pan Fried Shrimp and Chive Dumpling ($6.69).

When I opened my package, I knew something was amiss....do you see what it is?

No, it not the Shrimp Siu Mai, which again, while being a bit on the tough side, was perfectly serviceable.....perhaps a bit mild in flavor...it could have used more of the briney-sweetness of really good shrimp. I brought two of them home and the Missus thought they were not bad.

I'd never seen Pan Fried Shrimp and Chive Dumplings that looked like this:

What the heck is going on with the wrappers? Jiu Cai Jiao wrappers are usually made with combination of wheat and tapioca starch or glutinous rice flour. When pan fried, this allows for a nice crispness, and a pleasant, very mild sweetness. This looked like they just went with some leftover siu mai wrappers, then threw in in  pan to get a hint of "brown" on it. The filling as almost all chive, which over-powered everything else.

This was so weird. I mean, the online process is - you place your order and wait for an acknowledgement, you get a confirmation email where the restaurant can update your order....the guy in the office ordered turnip cake, but they were out so he replaced it with something else. I'm thinking they should have done that here? I only ate one, I brought the other two home and when the Missus saw this, She just plain refused to eat it.

In case you're wondering what this should look like.....

At this point, I was kind of worried about my Kwai Fei Chicken ($15.99). But I was relatively happy with what I got.

The sauce wasn't quite as good as what I'd had the last time. It had much more oil and not enough scallion, the flavors seemed a bit muted, but it wasn't terrible.

As for the chicken, well in terms of the nice winey-anise-poultry flavor, with a bit more salt this time which actually helped. I did find the white meat on the dry side, but the dark meat slices were very nice.

So no complaints with that.

I do wish I could find some other dish at Golden Island other than the Kwai Fei Chicken....let me know of any dish you recommend here.

Golden Island
10660 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126
858-578-8800
Current Hours:
Daily 10am - 930pm

Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho To Go From 777 Noodle House

This past weekend the Missus wanted me to drop off some coffee from Her favorite place at work.

After dropping off Her caffeine fix; I felt a bit hungry and decided to head on over to City Heights, a regular stop for me, but not so much in these days of Covid-19. While I had visited the area for some takeout, that was before Christmas....to think that I'd usually be in the area at least every other week in those days "BC" (before Covid).

I was craving some Bun Mang Vit from Tu Thanh and since it was after the scheduled opening time; about 930am, I drove on over....only to find them closed...sigh.....

I quickly decided on a "plan B", 777 Noodle House. Man it had been over a year since I last visited and I was wondering how things were.

As I arrived to the back parking lot, I noticed that sets of tables and chairs had been set-up for outdoor dining.

The interior was stark and looked so bare with all the tables and chairs stacked up in the corners. Plexiglass had been set-up on the counter, all those Covid precautions.

The one thing that has remained the same is the wonderful woman who works here; even though I hadn't been back in over a year she greeted me and even with her mask on I could tell she was smiling! I ordered my "usual", the Hu Tieu Nam Vang ("Phnom Penh Noodles") Kho ("Dry"), though this would be the first time I'd be having it to go. I paid and waited in the back parking lot for less than ten minutes before my order was ready.

Here's what it looked liked unpacked at home.

Things nicely packed. And like other experiences I've had with take-out, I noticed that the portion size seemed a bit larger. A lot more ground pork, noodles, and soup.

The broth was still hot, so I didn't need to heat anything up.

The noodles were still warm and had been coated with a mildly sweet soy. It wasn't stuck together in a clump which was good; but like on a few previous visits were on the overcooked side and somewhat mushy.

When eating at 777 the bean sprouts are blanched which made for a nice textural contrast. In this case it wasn't blanched....I could have taken some time to heat up the broth and blanch those bean sprouts, but I was hungry.

Nice combination of flavors and textures with the ground pork, the fried garlic, slices of char siu. The shrimp were nicely cooked, but tasted a bit on the muddy side. I really liked the mildly pungent, citrus tones the cilantro added to the bowl so I added a bit more that I had onhand.

The soup was pretty good this time around, not overly salty, but not as deeply flavored. That rather hefty pork hock was just perfect swiney goodness, tender, but not mushy, nice bits of slightly chewy tendon.

I did enjoy this, it did "hit the spot", and for the price of slightly north of seven bucks how can you complain? And that woman who is always so nice and gracious....I need to visit more often.

It had me thinking of how the other stops for Hi Tieu Nam Vang was doing. Perhaps in the next few weeks I'll find out!

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105
(619) 283-3185
Current Hours:
Daily 8am - 9pm

Takeout Revisit - GyroGrill

Back in October I did a post on GyroGrill. A few weeks later, I went ahead and got lunch for the skeleton crew at work and they really took to the place. It has become a regular stop for them. They basically order one item; the Pork Gyro Meal. Even though the price has gone up a dollar; I still think it's a good deal for $8.99. Another change is that GyroGrill now closes on Sunday. Also, see below for changes in the hours of operation.

And while the pork still has the same shortcomings as before; sometimes a bit chewy, slightly dry, and a bit light in the seasoning department, it still has a decent pork flavor. It's not bad and way better than the mystery meat "Kronos" gyros you see everywhere. I also enjoy the hand cut potatoes, which is the one thing here that I prefer to Zgara. That thick Tzatziki....with a cream cheese texture has grown on me....

On my previous post on GyroGrill, I mentioned that I would try other items on the menu. So, on one of my visits; I went ahead and ordered the Beef Souvlaki Combo.

And ordered the rice pilaf and garbanzo beans as my sides. The garbanzos were much more tender this time around and still had that nice and tangy tomato flavor. The texture of the rice was quite good; but it was bland. The garbanzos were the best thing about this plate.

As you can see that beef was really dry and bland. You can't complain about the portion; but man, it really entered "two dollar steak" territory. This was way too much food so I shared it with a coworker.....who is a fan of that Pork Gyro meal and he didn't care for it either.

So, I guess I'll stick with this.

The folks from my team in the office on my Birthday, all two of them, wanted to buy me lunch.....so guess what we had?

It was a very nice gesture! And made my day......things like that just seem that much more special during these times.

Gyrogrill
6780 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 586-7700
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 9am - 7pm
Sat       830am - 6pm
Closed Sun       day

Kim's Deli

In previous posts I've mentioned the phrase "Google is your friend". Here's another example.....I went ahead and Googled "Teriyaki Beef Sandwich" and was surprised at one of the results. It was fairly close to the office, named Kim's Deli....which seemed like one of those little business park sandwich shops. Looking over the menu, I was fascinated and based on the name, well, it immediately reminded me of The Sandwich Place. I went ahead and drove on over finding the shop in (of course) a business park at the end of a cul-de-sac.

I entered and headed over to the social distancing marks....I was the only person in the place. Soon enough, a very nice Korean woman came over and I ordered the Teriyaki Beef sandwich, priced nicely at $7.

I went ahead and drove back to the office and opened my sandwich.

This was actually not bad for the price. The beef, while obviously reheated in a microwave was more tender than what I expected and while a bit on the sweeter side, nicely marinated and not overly salty. It's actually better than TSP's. The bread was standard issue a bit crumbly, but yeasty. I'm not sure about the provolone cheese on this, the jury's out.....I'll try it again and see. There was a bit too much mayo, but this was a decent sandwich....especially for seven bucks.

While waiting for my sandwich; I noticed that there were some poke bowls (sorry, not for me) and a Bulgogi Bowl ($9) available. The woman working told me it was available every day. So, a week later, I called in my order, which was ready for pick up when I arrived.

I was quite surprised at the heftiness of my package and when opened was surprised at the quantity of food.

I cracked up when I opened my "box" up....as this was bit more than a "bowl"; but beyond that, the plate totally reminded me of something I would get from a lunchwagon back in my hanabuddah days or if they added in some, say namul and kimchi, it would look like one of the "local kine" (I always say local style meat and three) Korean takeout places.

Nothing fancy here; the japchae was straightforward; on the salty side and mostly just noodles.

The Bulgogi was the same meat as the teriyaki; but more tender this time and fairly well marinated.

Again, no frills, straightforward.

I mean, really, what do you expect at this price point?

The green salad was fine, fresh, with a sesame dressing.

The extra sauce for the bulgogi tasted like Yoshida's.

The rice was plentiful, but on the dry side.

No complaints really; I felt I got what I paid for...….

After this visit; I decided that I needed to try a deli sandwich to just complete the set. I called in an order for the Green Chili Roast Beef ($7). Again I called in my order which was ready for pick-up when I arrived.

As you can see; the sandwich used a standard issue telera style roll; though it was a bit more substantial than some I've had.

This one fell a bit short for me; mainly because I wished for a bit less lettuce and more roast beef. The slice of green chili only covered half the sandwich as well. There was quit a bit of avocado in this though. It was on the bland side overall.

Kim's seems to be a good place for hard working folks to get decent food at a good price.

Folks who are regular readers of our little blog know that I have a definite affection for these family owned, mom-and-pop places. Nothing fancy here; just decent food at good prices and on many days....well, that just fits the bill.

Kim's Deli
8515 Arjons Drive
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 566-0370
Hours:
Mon - Fri 7am - 2pm
Closed on Saturdays and Sundays

Takeout Revisits - Sizzling Pot King and Village Kitchen

Man, what a difference a year makes. Last year, we kind of celebrated the Lunar New Year by taking a trip to San Francisco (I'll finish those posts one of these days). The LNY fell on January 25th last year; quite early. This year, well it's a whole different story....a whole different world it seems. Hard to believe that I first started working on Covid-19 items on February 10th of last year!

Still, we wanted to have some Chinese food; nothing fancy....we knew for sure that places would be swamped and really just wanted a dry pot to go from Sizzling Pot King; which has been a recent favorite of Hers.

So, I headed over to SPK and got there right when they opened and placed an order. Of course they were busy and I was told that instead of the usual 15-20 minute wait, it was going to be at least 45 minutes. Anyway, I placed my order and walked back to my car......and then it came to me; why not do a short version of the Missus's "I want it and I want it all"? Thinking about timing and such; I decided on Village Kitchen, which is about a 10-12 drive from SPK.

So, I headed over and there was a small queue, but after 10 minutes, I managed to make a takeout order, which I was told was going to take about 30 minutes. Perfect! I jumped back in my car and returned to SPK where my order was just being packed...….

After which I headed back to VK and after a five minute wait, my order was ready to go.

So, the Missus got Her fix from Sizzling Pot King (and I was told on a previous visit, no more cauliflower).

Good "ma-la" and spice, even at medium heat. The trip was quite good on this day.

And was pleasantly surprised by the "bonus dishes".

The La Rou with Cucumber Skin was on the greasy side and not very spicy. There was a lot of smoked meat though.

The Stinky Tofu "Stew" had some decent spice and funkiness, with a touch of acidity.

After our last experience with the Eggplant and Green Chili with Preserved Egg, I decided not to order it.

And so, we'll have leftovers for a couple of meals, which suits us just fine. Maybe I won't have to cook as much this weekend!

Sizzling Pot King
8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Village Kitchen
4720 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Yes, it's almost like we're living in a different time these days. Still, whether you say “Gong xi fa cai”, “Gong hei fat choy”, “Chuc mung nam moi”, or "Saehae bok mani badeuseyo", we'd like to wish you a healthy, safe, and wonderful 2021. A much better year than 2020.

Take care!