mmm-yoso!!!

Modena - Osteria Francescana

You could say that even though I as surrounded by great works of art at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam I was distracted. You see, while we had planned on visiting Florence, I had really wanted to check out Emilia-Romagna. And so we made plans; but one of the key elements to this was trying to get reservations to the restaurant proclaimed to be "the Best Restaurant in the World", Osteria Francescana, which in fact has now won that title more than once. So there I was, on my smartphone, surrounded by the works of Van Gogh, on the first day on the month at 10am trying to get reservations. I managed to get us dinner reservations; not on the exact day I desired, but a day later. It kind of messed up my planning a bit, which turned out to be a blessing since I tweaked my plans to include Ferrara for a night which we really enjoyed.

And so, after having already had an enjoyable time in Modena, we headed off to dinner at Osteria Francescana.

Things start off when you walk up to the colorful, but discreet doorway to the restaurant....and ring the doorbell?

And are greeted by....a Security Guard? Actually a fake security guard, a life-sized, and quite real looking statue.

Let me just say; the service was flawless, just the right balance of professional, yet amiable, there's nothing stuffy about the place. Dishes were brought out perfectly timed, yet you felt relaxed. The wine pairing we had with our tasting menu was excellent according to the Missus; yet only one of them was from Italy.

There's also something I like about the austere, yet tasteful dining room; well spaced, lighting sets a good mood. Yes, you can tell, Osteria Francescana has three Michelin Stars.

The bread was interesting as it had a really nice texture, but was quite plain in flavor.

Ah, this was really traditional bread, no salt added, which went nicely with the olive oil.

Soon after; the dishes started arriving.

Starting with the Aula in carpione, "re-imagined fish and chips" (above). A crisp enrobes a small fish topped with a fish flavored ice cream. Nice umami tones; for some reason this really reminded me of the flavor of various Japanese snacks.....so perhaps that's why we weren't really blown away by the flavors.

Next up were the Cuttlefish and Caper puff topped with a very tasty tomato powder.

The macarons were really mild in flavor and seemed to be a case of perhaps getting a bit too out there. The parmesan crisp added a much needed milky-saltiness to things.

Talking about reminding me of Japanese drinking snacks; the "Sardine that is not a Sardine", eel cream inside a fish skin bread, really tasted like Japanese fried fish skin snacks.

Which kind of made us crack up.

The "Tribute to Normandy" was an interesting play on a place and a theme. There's an interesting, yet clean and refreshing flavor to this "oyster" which is topped with a nice apple granita. The texture is interesting as well. According to the story, Massimo Bottura first had an oyster when he was a teenager in Normandy. Along with the oysters, he had lamb and cider. So this is a dish that celebrates that time; the granita is apple (cider), the foam, which was a bit too salty, is oyster water, and the oyster...is not an oyster, but lamb tartare.

Next up was an interesting dish....I mean literally, the plate looked charred as did the "paper" that topped the sole prepared three ways.

The edible "paper" was made out of dehydrated sea water, then scortched...it made for a dramatic affect and the fish was perfectly cooked, but the dish proved to be much too salty for us.

One of Massimo's signature dishes; "An Eel Swimming up the River Po".

I can sum up the flavor of the Eel in one word; "anago"....it tasted totally like anago. I did enjoy the polenta cream flavored with onion, but the apple jam really clashed with the sweetness of the eel.

"Green over Brown, over Black: camouflage rice". Basically three risottos in one, a porcini (brown), vegetable (green), and oyster (black).

We fond the risotto to be too hard for us and though on occasion you'd get a nice bite of all three working in harmony, it was just a bit too much going on.

"From Cervia to Modena - Leeks, Shallots, and Black Truffle".

Wonderful combination of pungent-sweet and earthy flavors. Great "nose" on this dish as well.

The "Crunchy Part of the Lasagne".

Think of it as a fried noodle cracker on top of Ragu Bolognese, which nice a velvety.

"Suckling Pig, Tender and Crunchy".

Like the sauce stenciled piggies? The pork was fabulous; skin perfect, meat tender, nicely seasoned. The sauces ruined the wonderful pure taste of the swine. Bad thing was; you get three pieces, so don't make too many mistakes with sauces!

About this time, the Chef came out to chat and take a zillion selfies with customers. He is quite energetic, friendly, and really knows how to work the house.

Much like our experience at Azurmendi, we were kind of at a loss when the chef came to our table...….so we chatted about, well, what else...food! I mentioned how amazed we were at the Emilia-Romagna's bounty, it was more then we expected. When Massimo asked me what I was most impressed with....I'm sure he expected something like Balsamico, Prosciutto, or Parmesano-Reggiano. So when I said that culatello had been a revelation to me; he smiled widely, patted me on the shoulder, and said something to one of the Servers. He walked into the kitchen and brought this out to the table himself.

"It is our own Culatello...aged 46 months" he said. He smiled tapped me on the shoulder and said, "enjoy"...… Man, it looked really lean, but it had such a deep, cheesy-porky flavor, and just melted in my mouth that I almost uttered a profanity. So, I now have a story...… the cranky old man can now say, "did you hear the one about when Massimo Bottura served me salumi?"

I have an even better one. "Did I tell you about the time we spent a grand for dinner and the best bite I had was a salad?" Yes indeedy. This is called the "Caesar Salad in Bloom". It is amazing layer of various crunchy textures, flavored powders, various herbs and edible flowers, mounted on a leaf of lettuce.

It is to be eaten in two wonderful bites....I have a thing about textures; this was a symphony of varying degrees of crunchiness, along with bitter-sweet-sour-pungent.... We were amazed at the complex mélange of tastes on a singe leaf of lettuce. By far our favorite item of the evening. (of course for me it was the culatello….but that wasn't on the menu).

Did I mention that Osteria Francescana serves "popcorn" for dessert?

And of course more dessert for the Missus.

So, was it worth almost a thousand bucks for dinner? I often say that at this level it can sometimes be more about the experience. The presentation are like works of art; there is playfulness, transformation, and creativity. Whether that makes for an amazing meal is truly a personal opinion. The service was among the best we've had. The personal touch was amazing. So, while I don't think we'd do this again; I'm glad we did.

Do you really need the address of Osteria Francescana? Ok, here it is..... And no; I haven't seen "A Chef's Table"....

Osteria Francescana
Via Stella 22
41121, Modena, Italy

And yes; Modena is stunning at night......

Machu Picchu Bar and Restaurant

A few months ago, one of my coworkers mentioned a Peruvian place he and his wife loved. They are, like me, big fans of Peruvian food. I was surprised at the recommendation. It was a place in the Gaslamp, named after one of the places I'll never forget; Machu Picchu. He highly recommended the Pescado alo Macho; so I headed on down soon after.

The restaurant is located on 5th Avenue, next to Rockin' Baja Lobster. The interior is quite wide open and really looks like a sports bar with an additional dining area upstairs.

This being 1130 on a Sunday, the place was totally empty. The person tending the bar told me choose any table and I had a seat. A menu was provided and I started with a Chicha Morada; which wasn't overly sweet, though the cinnamon-clove flavor was also slightly muted. It was fine though.

In a short while my pretty generous plate arrived. The gentleman told me to be careful of the Aji sauce....which he pronounced Ah-Gee, rather than the correct Ah-hee...oh well.

The dish as a whole wasn't too bad at all. The fish, sea bass, was fried nicely, light and crisp, moist flesh with no off flavors.

The rest of the seafood was a mixed bag; the calamari rings were tough and rubbery and the mussels overcooked. The shrimp edged on being dry and overcooked as well. The sauce was very thin; but quite spicy....it definitely was "macho".

I prefer my sauce for pescado alo macho with a combination of aji Amarillo and aji rocoto; this one was quite one-dimensional and could have used perhaps a bit more tanginess from tomato and some pungent-savory flavors. It wasn't too salty though.

And while the rice was on the dry side and the "salad" was quite simple....looking at it I was thinking some sarza criolla would be a nice pungent, slightly spicy way of helping things along....even though that sauce...and the Aji was quite spicy, it would help to refresh. But it was just a salad with a simple dressing.

Still, the fish was the star, and was not bad at all.

So, a little over a week ago, when I took the trolley and visited the Little Italy Mercato and the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, I decided to head on over to Machu Picchu. This time, the young man working was obviously Peruvian. Again the place was empty, except for two couples at the bar having mimosas.

This time, I started with the Causa Limena which was huge.

The sauce again had a good amount of spice. It was a bit too cold, the potatoes were on the mealy side. I like the potatoes in my causa to be moist and slightly creamy, this more mealy. The chicken filling had enough celery, but way too much mayonnaise for my taste. Lots of chicken though. Not my favorite version.....though it was quite hefty.

I couldn't help but order the cebiche pescado. The fish again was decent quality, but it had been in the citrus a bit too long and was starting to get mushy. The marinating liquid, the leche de tigre ("tiger's milk") was too thin and was much too sour. I prefer a bit more balance in my leche de tigre, a bit of oceany fish stock, pungent onion, cilantro, you get it. The sauce was again spicy Aji Rocoto based. I asked the young man if this was just Aji Rocoto; or if they snuck in some Aji Limo as well. He told me it was just Aji Rocoto. I wished for a bit more Canchita, but I really wouldn't have enjoyed eating it my favorite way....with a spoon of leche de tigre.

The camote was mushy and lacked the sweet and sometimes cinnamony tones of those in Peru. And corn on the cob replaced the wonderful large kernel "choclo", Peruvian corn.

Not a terrible version of cebiche pescado, but lacking in some of the details that make this dish one of our favorites.

Service was a bit slow, but friendly. The portions are quite generous but with typical Gaslamp prices.

Machu Picchu Bar & Restaurant
314 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101
Hours:
Sun - Thurs 11am - 10pm
Fri - Sat   11am - 11pm

After that lunch, it was easy getting on the Green Line back to pick my car up. Perhaps I need to check out other places in the area when my car in in for service.

Thanks for reading!

More Ramen Ruminations - Revisits to Karami Ramen and Ramen Ryoma (Clairemont Mesa)

Two ramen places I promised to return to. The Missus calls me "boring"; I call it consistency....but, on these visits, I decided to have something I hadn't ordered before.

Karami Ramen:

I'd heard that the menu had changed up a bit since I first visited in August. In fact, "Som Tommy" recommended the Curry-Shoyu Ramen......which I would probably never order on my own. I recalled the curry being okay...so on a pretty cold day (insert "by San Diego standards" disclaimer here), I thought it might be worth a try.

The same funny young lady....who warned me about the (not so) Triple Super Spicy Chashu Shio Ramen last time was working. I went ahead and ordered the Curry-Shoyu Ramen.

So, this was kind of interesting. Apparently, the ramen broth is poured in first; then the curry in the center so it's separated. The curry was barely lukewarm while the shoyu broth was just slightly hot, mixing it together made it colder than I prefer overall. The curry here is actually not bad; though again, the beef is really dry. This was ok; if you like curry flavored ramen broth, or runny curry, you'll love this. I had tasted the broth and it was less salty than I recalled, but really lacks any depth of flavor....so maybe the curry is doing you a favor. The noodles were the typical type you'll find everywhere; though it was cooked nicely, and was actually hotter than anything else in the bowl. Enjoyed the thick sliced menma, nice crunchy and earthy flavors. As before, the egg was cold and the chashu dry.

I was the only customer in the place. I believe we're hitting "critical mass" with regards to ramen in San Diego. I'm wondering how long Karami is going to last?

Karami Ramen
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Ramen Ryoma:

Another shop I promised to return to. With their second location now open in PB and a third coming soon, I thought it might be a nice time to return. I visited on a Sunday right when the place opened and like Karami, it was pretty quiet.

Having tried both the Shoyu and Shio ramen; I decided to go with the Miso Ramen, with tamago.

While the broth edged on being a bit too salty; it was fine in this framework and was overall less salty than what I'd had here before. It wasn't very miso forward; just a hint of umami and was fairly rich while not being greasy. While I didn't find the broth thick enough to coat my tongue it did cling really well to the perfectly cooked curly and chewy noodles. This might be the best of the three versions of ramen I've had here. The chashu was too tough and salty. The egg was nicely done and not cold.

Not bad, definitely worth another visit....one of these days.

Ramen Ryoma
9119 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92123
 

Back to Golden City

Golden City is one of those places that Cathy, Ed from Yuma, and I, have posted on a number of times. I've been going to Golden City from my pre-blogging days when the place was on Convoy; to the reopening in October of 2005, thru changes in ownership and so on. It's always been a convenient place to grab a decent lunch, if you choose right.

And so; right before Christmas, we had some time on our hands and Calvin was starving, so we headed on over to Golden City.

I got my usual favorite; the Kwai Fei Chicken.

Which was sadly, not very good this time around. The chicken was dry and tough and that sauce had way too much scallion in it....it had turned green! Bummer....it had been a while since I'd had this and I was looking forward to it.

We also got the Chee Cheong Fun (rolled rice noodle) with XO Sauce.

Uneven cooking technique doomed this dish. The rice rolls were tender; but weren't evenly coated in XO sauce. Burnt bits didn't help things at all either.

The best dish of the day was the Roast Pork.

While not nearly as good as the "Macao Roast Pork" when it was on the menu....I don't know how many chefs ago; the skin was crisp; if a bit unevenly roasted. The pork was moist; with a good bit of fat, and not overly salted....you could enjoy the flavor of the swine.

You know; I'd always thought that Golden City in some form would easily outlive me......who knows; it still might. But this was definitely not up to expectations. Hopefully, things will be better next time I visit.

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Chicken Wing Wednesday - Bonchon

I was quite excited to hear that Bonchon was coming to San Diego. I don't think we've had good K(orean) F(ried) C(hicken) in our fine city. I've visited solo and with folks from work four times since they opened at the end of the year.

I'm not sure if it was because we had lunch here....but Bonchon was fairly empty on all my visits.

I had consistently good service on all my visits; though I could do without the blaring K-pop.

The other thing that has been consistent is the chicken wings. The classic "KFC" twice fry method is used here, rendering the excess fat and creating a nice, pleasant, lacquered crunch, without having overdone the batter.

On all visits; the wings have been moist, the meat glistening, with no off dark spots, or broken bones.

Also, kudos for using wings that aren't gigantic, keeping a nice ratio of skin/batter and meat. What made me even more happy was the inclusion of wing tips, which were great for gnawing. One of the bozos I ate with mentioned that adding the tips were making the wings seem more weighty....until I pointed out to Einstein that we weren't paying for this by the pound.

The sauces were much like what I've had at other KFC places in the US and Korea. The spicy tends to be very one-dimensional and the soy-garlic tends to be on the sweeter side.

After the third visit; I decided to just get the soy garlic easy on the sauce. Which suited me just fine and let the pickled radish refresh my palate.

One other thing; I found the wings to be evenly glazed on all my visits as well.

You know; I think I still prefer Kyochon….but maybe I just need to do a comparison. Regardless; I enjoyed the wings.

One of the reasons for going with other folks is to be able to check out items on the menu.

So here goes.

The Seasoned Fries. Had this twice; both times it was seasoned nicely; the cheese adding a milky-salty component. Consistency though, goes both ways.

While the dusting adds a nice crunch; the fries were really dry both times I tried these.

The Bulgogi "Tacos" were more like pseudo-salad wraps. The flour tortilla had the texture of cardboard.

The bulgogi in this case was really bland and not marinated long enough and really didn't bring enough flavor to things.

We had two different fried rice; the bulgogi (the guys just wouldn't give up on the bulgogi) fried rice(sorry, photo didn't turn out) was so bland; it really needed some oomph. The Kimchi-Bacon Fried Rice, while in need of more fermented-savory kimchi sauce, was quite satisfying.

As you can tell by the color; it needed more of the kimchi juice; but the bacon did well....though if they'd put in some Spam...… Still, not bad.

The Japchae was passable.

The noodles were stretchy and chewy. There was enough soy-garlic sauce on this; without killing me with sweetness. The meat was too tough and lacked much flavor....there was also a light metallic edge to the flavor as well.

It's nice to finally have a good Korean Fried Chicken shop in town. Liked the service, the wings are fried to order, and have been consistent across my four visits. I'm not sold on anything other than the wings. But heck, this is a KFC shop, right?

Please check out Kirbie's and Soo's post on Bonchon as well.

Bonchon
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon - Thurs 1130am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm
Fri - Sat   1130am - 3pm, 5pm - 11pm
Sunday      4pm - 9pm

2019 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade Showcase of Floats, a meal at Mr. D.'s Diner (Pomona)

mmm-yoso!!! is primarily a blog about food.  There's always some reason we get to try the food that is blogged about.  Today is a post of a New Year tradition (which I've shared for a few years) and a meal at a 'new-to-us' place.

The day began with an early wake up and drive North to Pasadena, where the 130th Tournament of Roses Rose Parade showcase of floats were lined up end-to-end on Sierra Madre Avenue, at the end of the five mile parade route. The walk along the floats is 2.5 miles and it's not all flat. There were 45 floats, along with Equestrian Units and Marching bands, for a total of 91 Units in the Parade.  (I do have photos of each of the floats, many photos.  If there is one you would like to see, I can put it at the end of this post).  For now, here are some details of some of the floats which you might have missed as they ran across your television screen in less than 30 seconds. "Books Keep Us on Our Toes", by The UPS Store featured this ostrich in her ballet shoes and won the Sweepstakes Trophy for most beautiful entry encompassing float design, floral presentation and entertainment. 
"Garden Fresh" by Mrs. Meyers Clean Day featured the trademark outline of Mrs. Meyer watering a bathing (see the loofah?) sunflower.
 Easter Seals is observing its 100th year and in addition to a cake and gifts, there was a cupcake or two on the float.  The Lions Clubs International float, "Rockin' the Vest" (an ode to this 2011 'Rap' video used for recruiting new, younger members) had the Lion tail swinging along with the music. Also note the various materials used on the body of the Cadillac-nothing is one dimensional when decorating.

Cal Poly and "Far Out Frequencies" incorporated a guitar, accordion, tamborine and french horn in the design. 
Carnival Cruise Lines had some SCUBA divers "underwater".
The backside of the drumming "Taiwan The Heart of Asia" entry from China Airlines (which won the International Trophy for Most Outstanding float from outside the United States) is beautifully detailed. 
When the Stella Rosa "Taste the Magic" float first appeared, there was a great display of confetti and streamers, but even in the stationary position, there is a sort of motion seen in the design.  
If you are from Southern California and listen to the radio, when Trader Joe's ads are finished, the announcer always says 'Thanks for Listening'...and the abbreviated license plate on their float (THX4LSN) is an ode to that detail. 
The Big Bear "Play-Rest-Repeat" float entry showed many of the various activities available all four seasons in this community a few hours North of San Diego. Not only skiing and snowboarding,  but also boating and fishing.

The Northwestern Mutual float, showed an elephant family on vacation, taking 'selfies'.  This view (of the camera screen taking the selfie) was of the 'off camera' side; every part of each float is detailed.

 There was a small fire on board the longest float entry this year (Link to story), disrupting the end of the parade.  The float was saved because of good preparation (you know, all of those Road Tests I post about have one of the tests the ability for the entire float to clear off and out in 45 seconds).  This entry from the Chinese American Heritage Foundation, "Harmony Through Union", depicting the final nail joining the Transcontinental Railroads (the "Golden Spike") was on display at the Showcase   as was the tow truck that brought the float to this location. 

Here are details of some other floats.

When we left the Showcase viewing area and started driving, we had to stop at Arsen's House of Cookies first (for cookies, boureks and a calendar) then headed East...somehow getting to Foothill Boulevard while passing many 'possible' lunch spots.  We had seen another location of Mr. D's Diner but kept driving, until we saw this location and stopped.

The building looked like it had been a Coco's or some similar type of 'family' restaurant.  The 'Specials' list outside the door showed us the pricing was reasonable.  

The decor, 50's (this is part of "Route 66" after all).  The menu had nine pages. The "To Go" menu only has seven pages.
We hadn't had much of a breakfast, so the Pancake Combo ($8.49) was a choice. Really nice, sweet, fluffy pancakes, perfect over easy eggs, skin on sausage and crispy flavorful bacon.  Just right. 
 As with many of these family type diners, Greek choices are on the menu.  The "Traditional Greek Salad" ($10.79)(add chicken $2.99) has on the menu in bold lettering "Lettuce Upon Request".  "Traditional" means you get this- tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, bell peppers feta and greek olives tossed in Greek olive oil and herbs. The (very large) bowl was topped with toasted pita. With the (plentiful amount of) grilled chicken, this was a hearty, tasty, perfect meal. It didn't need lettuce.

Glad we stopped and hope to stop here again.

Mr. D's Diner 401 E. Foothill Blvd. Pomona, CA (909)938-4222 Open daily 6 a.m.-10 p.m. website

Roaming for Ramen - Revisits to Santouka, Nishiki Ramen, and BeShock Ramen and Sake Bar

It's definitely been ramen weather over the last couple of weeks; so I took advantage of the nice chill (all relative of course) to revisit a couple of ramen places I haven't been to in a while.

Santouka:

Even with wall to wall ramen in San Diego these days; I still count Santouka among my favorites. And though it's no longer my #1 favorite; I'd still take it over just about every other place. Though you can tell that there's been a whole lot of ramen shops opening in San Diego since I don't think I've been to Santouka in over a year!

Still, Santouka was the Missus's favorite, so much so, that we sought out the original flagship shop in Asahikawa.

Foe me; there's just one thing to get here. The Shio Toroniku.

Which is, of course what I got. The noodles were firm, with a nice chew, the broth not overly salty, rich, and scalding in the signature thick sided bowl....a necessity in Asahikawa where the coldest temperature in the history of Japan was recorded. The pork cheek was fairly tender and well flavored, nice soy tones going on. It delivered as expected. I decided to go without the terminally over-cooked egg....which, unfortunately, like that bowl is a signature of Santouka….it was the same in Japan! The one difference I do note is that the broth in Japan has a hint of seafood. I recall it being that way when Santouka first opened here in San Diego; but it seems to have gotten more "pork forward" since then. Not that I'm complaining about that.

Santouka Ramen
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd(In the Mitsuwa Marketplace)
San Diego, CA 92111

Nishiki Ramen:

In the same strip mall as Santouka and Mitsuwa. Calvin had never been and had been asking to go. I hadn't been in a while, so I thought why not.

We started with the Chicken Karaage; which was nice and crisp.

It was too salty and lacked the savory complexity of a good karaage

After my Santouka visit; I decided to put my preference for straight up Tonkotsu style broth on hold and try some different things. So I ordered the "Smoke Bomb Black" Ramen again.

This looked very rich, almost greasy, but it was strangely not. You got a hit of garlic at the front end; but not much other than a bit of pork-poultry....the broth lacked the tongue coating richness I anticipated, it was almost weak, somewhat anticlimactic you could say. The temp was also on the colder than I prefer as well. The noodles were over-cooked for my taste and a chashu tough. I did enjoy the sweet crunch the corn brought to this bowl and the egg was perfectly boiled and not cold.

So now that I've had this twice, I can move on......though I'm not sure to what.....

Nishiki Ramen
8055 Armour St
San Diego, CA 92111

BeShock Ramen and Sake Bar:

I'd been wanting to return to BeShock since I first visited over two years ago. Having two long weekends with no plans on a couple of those days meant I could finally head back and check in at BeShock.

I got there right when they opened and was greeted by two cheerful, smiling faces. The young ladies here were very friendly and efficient.

Being a fan of using Shio Koji in my recipes; I was intrigued by the Chicken Koji Ramen. So I decided to get that.

I expected something on the salty end of the spectrum and this was that; but it also lacked any real complexity. The broth was too thin and really lacked richness; I'd expected that nice umami from Shio Koji; but that was definitely lacking. That dry, flavorless chicken breast didn't help things as well. The egg; while cold, was cooked nicely as were the standard issue noodles. I guess this is "healthy ramen"?

I was thrilled to see Nagoya Teba on the menu. I recalled that the owner was from Nagoya, so I was excited to try out these chicken wings.

Decently, though not evenly fried and the flesh was on the drier side. The wings weren't evenly glazed with the sauce and was really too sweet. It definitely needed that kick of black pepper and more soy sauce, garlic, ginger juice, you name it. You can tell by how light the wings are in color; this needed more....

I thought the service was very nice and I'll definitely drop by again. Though I'll go for a more conventional ramen next time.

BeShock Ramen & Sake Bar
1288 Market St
San Diego, CA 92101

Traditions- 2019 calendars, Rosca de Reyes and fresh roasted chestnuts

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog and sometimes food is a small part of the posts.  Today, it's about 2/3. Cathy is writing.

Happy New Year and thank you for the good wishes via Kirk's post.  It's a time of finishing up the holiday season, rearranging and writing '2019' on paperwork.   Part of my regular activity consists of acquiring new calendars from various businesses and sometimes posting about them with photos.  This year is the same. 
It started out slow; there were four Saturdays before Christmas in December 2018.  A lot of businesses waited to do their giveaways with a purchase.


Then giveaways began en masse and my friend, cc, helped by also collecting some of the calendars from various South Bay businesses.  I had told her that it was sad that our, 'regular' calendar from Orchard Supply Hardware (which closed in October) would be missing after giving away a train-centric calendar every year since 1931.  She even purchased one calendar for us (the outhouse one on the bottom right corner of this last photo (it will hold a prominent place in The Mister's office). We actually needed to find space for two more calendars because now there are so many.  

Within some of the above linked posts there has also been mention of Rosca de Reyes, a traditional Mexican bread shared on the 12th night after Christmas (Epiphany, January 6, Feast of Three Kings), usually while taking down Christmas decor. (In France, the traditional bread is Galette de Rois).  cc and I did a small 'food crawl' the other day and stopped at three South Bay bakeries.

 All of the bakeries had beautiful window art advertising the upcoming holiday.

They also had beautiful displays of the roscas for pre-ordering...
 as well as plenty of samples.

However, I had already pre-ordered (as well as picked up and mailed one Rosca on Thursday) from Su Pan. I was there at 6 a.m. today.
and Roscas as well as other fresh baked sweets were everywhere, fresh and ready to be picked up.  
A Grande for our neighbor and a Chica for us.  Fresh..so very fresh; the car smelled great.  Three slices with breakfast was perfect!

Another annual tradition is to take advantage of the freshly roasted chestnuts from in front of Lucky Seafood Market (which ran out of calendars before we got one). The little tent covering the chestnut roaster has disappeared, but the roaster, attached to a propane tank is right there at the door. (Apologies for the thumbnails, something happened with the phone update and the large size shows up sideways, but clicking on these enlarges and makes them appear upright...I don't know...).

 

There is one more annual tradition, which will be posted soon.  Does anyone else have unusual traditions?