mmm-yoso!!!

Paris (2022) - Bo & Mie, Ippudo, and Getting Reacquainted

And so it came to pass.....almost two-and-a-half years since we were last in Europe, we headed back. There were so many thoughts going thru our heads as we planned and then left for our first stop; Paris. Would it still be our favorite city? Was cafe culture going to be impacted.....what kind of precautions were in place? How would traveling during these times be?

On our flight outward it seemed that the quality of the food on our flights and in the lounges seemed to have taken a hit....generous portions; but not very good eats...

That shrimp salad was surprisingly the best item we had during transit.

As for masks? Well, almost nil on our flight from San Diego to LHR and in the airport. Required on the flight from LHR to CDG and also on the RER Blue Line though very sparse in Paris as a whole.

We arrived in Paris at around 10m and since we decided to stay at the same 'ol AirBnb off Rue Montorgueil, we were familiar the RER Blue line drill, getting off at Les Halles, then the short walk for key pick-up at the Key Cafe Kiosk on Rue Marie Stuart, before heading to the apartment. We were shocked at how busy all the businesses on Rue Montorgueil were....places seemed packed to the gills! The crowd also seemed much younger than I recalled. I guess I needn't have worried too much about all the cafes going out of business as overflow customers were actually standing on the sidewalks having their drinks and socializing. I thought that perhaps this was because it was a Friday night; but it seems that on almost every night all the cafes/bars were packed until at least 10pm.

The next morning I woke early, the Missus was still sleeping off the jet lag, so I decided to head on out and grab some croissants. Rue Montorgueil seemed totally different at this time of the day.

Place Goldoni seemed so peaceful.

I headed down the rather "gritty" Rue Saint-Denis past Passage du Grand Cerf....

And at the intersection with Rue de Turbigo was Bo et Mie, a place I had in my "Croissant Files" list.

The place was quite modern and what we found on this trip was that just about everywhere in Paris now takes plastic; albeit folks instantly knew you were American once you busted out the card since most US Credit Cards will not do chip and pin and/or need a signature.

It was very easy ordering in line, paying by card, and heading out. Bo & Mie has three locations in Paris and is obviously not a Artisan Boulanger, but I had read some pretty good things about the place.

Bo & Mie
18 Rue de Turbigo
75002 Paris, France

I took a different way back; heading past Les Halles and onto Rue Montorgueil, where things were still quite peaceful this morning.

Saint Eustache looked quite lovely in the morning sun.

Once back at the apartment; the Missus made me some coffee via the "pod machine" and we had the croissants.

This was not bad....lacking in enough salt and butter, though it had a decent flakiness and the interior was light and fluffy.

By now it was time to head on out for our "morning assignments". Mine was to pick-up our pocket wifi. The company that I'd been dealing with over the years now had a splashy new store on Opera and the Missus had Her sights on Chanel Cambon; so we headed on out in that general direction. One thing we noticed is that Paris seems to be getting smaller for us. We got to Place des Victoires so very quickly.

At this pace we'd be getting to our destination before opening time; so I decided to take a detour to what I read was the longest passage in Paris; Passage Choiseul.

According to this wonderful post, Passage Choiseul has only been reopened to the public since 2013.

There seemed to be quite a number of eateries in the passage.

We took our sweet old time.....and in doing so we noticed things we had before like Place Gaillon.

We popped out on always busy Opera and picking up our pocket wifi....or as they call it here "weefee".....

And then it was time to hit up Chanel Cambon; which I've detailed in earlier posts. After which we explored the "high rent district" before deciding to head on back to the apartment.

On the way back; on Rue du 4 Septembre, we passed a Picard. Tomorrow would be May 1st, which is Labour Day in France. It is a major holiday here and many places would be closed. I had dinner reservations, but we decided to head into Picard to see if we could get something for that day's lunch.

Picard is a frozen food grocery store chain, with over 900 locations in France. It's fun checking out these shops....think of Trader Joe's frozen food section on steroids....

We bought some frozen morels and an eggplant dish for our Labour Day lunch.

On the way back we were getting a bit hungry. In spite of it being late April, things felt a bit on the chilly side. Before our trip, having been to Paris once or twice a year since 2016 (except for those Covid years) we had decided to treat Paris like a home away from home....sure, we'd indulge in a Michelin meal or two, but since we sincerely believe we'll be returning until we're not able to travel any longer, we'd just have fun, exploring, but not overdoing the sights, museums and such.

And since our last real meal in Paris was Ramen, we thought it would be fun to have some slurping for lunch! And, having been to Ippudo locations in Osaka and Kyoto, I was interested to see how the Louvre location would compare.....so why not, right?

We arrived a shade past the noon opening time and went with an outdoor table....yes, it was a bit chilly, but the ramen would cure that. We were surprised at how quickly the restaurant filled up....though no one chose an outdoor table until there were none left inside.

As we usually do at Ippudo and other ramen shops in Japan; we ordered a ramen, this time the Akamaru Special and also a rice bowl, which in the case here was a Teriyaki Pork Don.

 First off, the broth was totally Ippudo; not overly salty, nice and rich tongue coating thickness, porky, the black garlic oil adding a nice nutty, sesame flavor with a pleasant pungent-sweetness.

The tamago was a perfect orb of egginess.

The weak link was the noodles. This was a total Hakata style noodle fail as the thin noodles were very brittle and hard; lacking any "pull". 

The rice bowl was fine....

The rice was cooked decently; something that we'd find was not the norm in Paris. The pork crisp and light.....

The customers were all Parisians as far as we could tell; no other Asians in sight. This was quite interesting as we'd find Parisians had quite diverse tastes during this trip to Paris.

Ippudo
74-76 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau
75001 Paris, France

As we headed back to the apartment, the sun had come out.....and with that, all of the Parisians......

Enjoying the sun and socializing. It was as if Covid never happened. Or perhaps folks were relishing and celebrating a hopeful return to normalcy? It was just a tad too crowded for us, so we decided to head on back to the apartment and rest up. We'd be headed to a favorite of ours for dinner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris, Sort Of (Before Covid) - Staying at the Sheraton Paris Airport Hotel and Heading Home

I'm doing this pre-Covid travel post out of order since I'll probably start posts on our latest trip and this one really sets up those posts. After spending a nice night and morning in Paris following our stay in Israel and Jordan we headed to Avignon and Provence, where we had a wonderful time. Though I was monitoring a situation. And the news did come down while we were in Avignon. On December 5th, 2019 France's transit workers went on strike. The strike was set to go on until the 10th, which was the day our flight was scheduled to leave CDG. We were scheduled to return via train from Avignon to Paris on the 8th of December, but that wasn't going to happen. So, I set into action; our wonderful AirBnb Host (you are an angel Fabienne) allowed us to stay in Avignon an extra night, she even offered to drive us to Marseille! So, I quickly booked a flight from MRS to CDG. I then went ahead and used our points and booked a Club floor room at the Sheraton located right in Terminal 2. 

The downside? Well, we lost two last evenings in Paris, along with two restaurants we had reservations at, one of which had become a regular stop for us.

We found ourselves in the Air France line at the airport in Marseille, right behind the cutest passenger ever!

Once we landed, being somewhat familiar with CDG, finding the Sheraton was no problem. Several trips back, I remember getting off the RER Blue Line at terminal 2 and commenting to the Missus; "look, there's a Sheraton here!" Little did I know.

We found the hotel lounge at grabbed an afternoon snack.

At dinner time, we headed back to the lounge and I grabbed another bottle of beer, the Missus a glass of wine, a plate of food, and we headed back to our room.

Which we supplemented with stuff we had bought in Provence.

While we watched night set in over the airport......

And woke as the sun rose in the morning......

The British Airways counter and gates were all the way on the other side of Terminal 2, so we headed over, checked-in, and hit the lounge for our breakfast.

And we did make our flights. One thing I noticed are the Business Class meals pre-Covid.

Which you'll be able to compare to what we had on our latest trip.

Some other meals during our layover and flight back to San Diego.

While we missed out on those last two days, I remember telling the Missus; "well, we can just make it up during our trip next year...."

Little did I know that "next year" would be cancelled and turn into two-and-a-half years later......

Thanks for stopping by!

Circling Back to Chicago Fire Grill

As I start circling back to all those "usual" places close to office before our last trip; I decided to start with Chicago Fire Grill. It had been a few months, so I decided to drop by.

Unfortunately, George wasn't there on this morning, so no pearls of wisdom on this day.

The Chicago Dog is priced at $8.......which these days is a bargain here in San Diego.

The portion of fries is about two-thirds the amount of before; but these days it's fried to a decent crispness.

The dog; is well, a Chicago Dog, a Vienna Beef dog with a decent "snap", there were three Sport Peppers this time....two were sneakily hidden, and of course the necessary fluorescent green relish....the slices of tomato, pickle wedge.....well, it had been appropriately "dragged thru the garden".

And these days I'm happy with that. Though I did miss George....so maybe next time.

Chicago Fire Grill
8935 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122

We're Back!

Well, after dipping our toes in the "Covid world" of travel by visiting CDMX and other locales in Mexico and needing to use our travel vouchers, we decided to go for it. Being unable to travel had created a large chasm in our lives and we really missed travelling, especially to what had become our favorite city. You know the place, right?

During our last visit, back at the end of 2019, we were supposed to end our travels there, but fate intervened (I'll get to that post, I promise) and we ended our trip by staying at the airport. And then came Covid, so there definitely was unfinished business here.

We started and ended our trip here this time, though there was a "bump in the road" (no, it wasn't Covid) which fortunately didn't affect us too much.

The Missus and I started things off by revisiting some old favorites.

And we got to see early on that things were, well, even more busy than we recalled. It could be that we had gotten used to "Covid vacancy", but it also seems like the demographic had changed for our favorite areas as well. But we were happy to see that cafe culture, which I was worried the pandemic would change was in fact going strong.

And then we were off to our next stops......where the Missus was kind enough to indulge my desire to see some specific "sites".

This city has so much to see and a wealth of history.

And even more fascinating stories......

After being cooped up during the pandemic, we decided to splurge and I booked us a private tour over four days.....

Where I got to try some traditional dishes in the appropriate setting. And I really enjoyed it!

And the next part I set-up for the Missus.....

Which was on a charming island.

Which we really enjoyed.......

And the Missus found Her "spirit animal"....

And She found a dish liked as well......

On our way back to the "big city" we made some interesting stops.

Back in this wonderful city, we got to check off two more places on my "list".

And it also has a San Diego "connection" as well.

And lest you think all we ate was traditional food...well....

People were warm, friendly, and the pace was more relaxed then other municipalities we've visited of the same size.

Back where we started we had a wonderful apartment.....with a view that always grabbed our attention at all hours.

And we got to "feed" some of our food obsessions.

And try out a couple of places in the city we'd always wanted to check out.

Along with eating as we usually do here.....

Along with just wandering amongst all those familiar stops.......

And checking on the progress of other places.....

I even took a baking class.

And while things had indeed changed; we took reasonable precautions and actually did self tests during our stay, what hadn't changed was our love of travel.  And we were relieved to find that our love of this city hadn't changed. 

What has changed is that I'm over two years older...so, while I get over my jet lag, keep your eyes peeled.....

While I recover and get back into "San Diego time".

And we'll see you soon....but right now, we gotta run!

Thanks for stopping by!

Champagne French Bakery Cafe

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Cathy is writing while Kirk is traveling.

 We started driving, took an exit, kept driving, saw cars in a parking lot and stopped.  This is how The Mister and I find restaurants in unfamiliar areas in the early morning.  I remembered seeing a Champagne Bakery in Del Mar when working for the Registrar of Voters, years ago, but never went there.  That location has closed.  
 Walking inside, there are three cases of freshly baked goods, with a kitchen menu along the back wall. 
 When I saw a Jesuite in the display case, I knew I had to order it.  I did not notice the giant poster on the wall until downloading this photo.  
 A Jesuite ($5.29) is a triangular, flaky pastry filled with frangipane (a soft, spreadable custard cream) and topped with sliced almonds and powdered sugar.  The pastry originated in France and the name refers to the triangular shape of a Jesuit's hat.  I knew of it but had never seen this particular pastry in San Diego.
 The pieces of flaky/crisp crust and creamy filling are delicious.  The coffee is Lavazza ($2.69).

But, we were here for breakfast.
 The Mister chose the Breakfast Crépe plate with bacon and potatoes ($11.29).  Two fresh made, thin crépes filled with soft scrambled eggs and Swiss cheese.  The herbed, crisp roasted potatoes and smoky, quality bacon rounded out this meal. 
 I decided on the Le Metro Sandwich ($7.75).  Wow.  A folded omelet, tomato, avocado and herbed cream cheese served on a fresh baked, toasted whole wheat, seeded ciabatta.  Flavors, textures, quality.

I hope we find ourselves back in the area so we can try more of the menu.  

Champagne French Bakery Cafe website 

Two locations: 162 S. Santa Fe Road, Encinitas (760) 944-9446 Open daily 6:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

11925 Carmel Mountain Road Suite 801 San Diego 92128 (858) 613-7767 Open daily 6:30 a.m.-8 p.m.

Natural Style Chicken (Point Loma)

Here you are, looking at mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Kirk and His Missus are really enjoying themselves on their well deserved vacation (I have photographic proof).  Cathy is writing this post. 

I posted about Natural Style Chicken in 2007.  Kirk posted about it in 2014.  It's been more than seven years, the restaurant has survived through Covid and it's time for a revisit post. At the far (Northeast) end of the mall on the Northwest corner of West Point Loma Boulevard at Sports Arena Boulevard, a few doors down from the original location of Gaglione Bros, is the longstanding (more than 40 years) location of Natural Style Chicken.
 The menu is pretty simple, primarily consisting of rotisserie cooked chicken  which you can see spinning in the oven at the front window if you arrive early in the morning.
 A chicken teriyaki plate ($11.99) weighs close to (if not more than) one pound.  Rice, an iceberg salad and chicken- a LOT of boneless, skinless, tender, juicy rotisserie chicken.  Served with a warm, house-made teriyaki sauce that isn't too sweet and not salty; just right.  An easily shared meal.
 But, the owner is Korean and there are both kalbi and bulgogi plates offered.  The bulgogi ($14.99) plate is wonderful, with thin sliced, marinated beef, griddled on a stovetop with cabbage, carrot and onion slices.  So tender and so much flavor!  This day we opted for the vegetable/fried rice (+$2) which was made to order with carrot, onion and egg.  Very good (again, the plate was heavy and shared). 
 There are a few side dishes on the menu.  The onion rings ($4.99) are an excellent choice.  Hand battered, expertly fried, light, crunchy, not greasy.
 Chicken Kyoza (Korean gyoza/mandu)(five for 5.99, ten for $8.99) are also perfectly fried dumplings , filled with chicken and cabbage and served with a tart, vinegar-based sauce.  

You can't go wrong here.  Nice people.  Fresh, tasty, good food.  

Natural Style Chicken 3944 West Point Loma Blvd San Diego 92110 (619) 223-9887 Open daily 11-9

Tom's Famous Family Restaurant #23 (Escondido) (revisit)

Today, mmm-yoso!!! has another post about food for you to read.  It's written by Cathy, since Kirk is still on vacation. 

I wrote about Tom's #23 last November and some things here are pretty much the same, but some changes have occurred. Walk up, order, pay...and you are asked where you will be sitting- the table numbers are tall and visible from the cash register; you aren't handed one to put on your table.  Why? Because your food will be delivered to your table by Tomcat!

   The Mister ordered a chicken fried steak breakfast ($10.99), with home fries and over easy eggs.  Beautiful, orange-yolked eggs.  Perfectly crispy fried steak, wonderful sausage gravy, crispy. skin-on potato chunks. Instead of toasted bread, He chose French toast ($1.99) Eggy, crisp with a fluffy interior.  Really nice. 

 I decided on a breakfast sandwich with ham on rye toast ($5.49).  I nice, thick slice of ham with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise along with the folded egg omelet.

Good food and a fun time. 

Tom's Famous Family Restaurant #23, 505 West 5th Avenue (at Centre City Parkway) Escondido 92025 Open daily 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Breakfast served all day

 Tomcat talks to you, politely (even says "goodbye") and knows when all of your order has been removed from the shelves.
 

Lido's Italian Food (Lemon Grove)

Well, here you are, looking at mmm-yoso!!! again.  Today, Cathy is posting about a restaurant which has been in Lemon Grove since 1955, for good reasons.  Kirk and His Missus are still enjoying themselves in another part of the world.

You may have passed without noticing.  Lido's has been there all along. The architecture on the exterior has remained the same.  As has the interior.

  Notice there are Monday-Friday Lunch Specials.

Specials have a choice of soup or salad.  Of course, only minestrone soup is offered, because it is perfect and there is no need to make any other soup; just like at home.  The salad dressing (again, only one type) is a unique version of Italian.  It is available for purchase.  Lunch also arrives with toasted garlic parmesan bread. Of course, you can order a slice of cheese bread ($2.95) (or a half loaf for $6.95 or a full loaf for $9.95).  A very nice, cheesy 'appetizer'.

 This is a 'full' order of jumbo cheese ravioli ($10.45).  A delightful, fluffy ricotta-herb filling sandwiched between thin pasta and covered in the house marinara.  It's a great meal to share (and have some leftovers).
  The eggplant parmesan lunch ($9.25) here is excellent, though it isn't photogenic.  Thin sliced (but not mushy) eggplant slices, plenty of cheese, and, because it is baked, the marinara has a more concentrated flavor.
  One of our favorite meals when dating was to share an antipasto salad (for two, $10.35) ($8.35 for one).  The triangle slices of mortadella and cotto salami sandwiching mozzarella are found around the bottom of the plate.  Pickled carrot, celery, red pepper and cauliflower complete the lettuce/tomato/olive/pepperocini covered plate. A large sausage and mushroom pizza ($19.25)would pretty much always be our order back then and still is today.  Thin sliced fresh mushrooms, a light dollop of the tomato based sauce, plenty of mozzarella and sausage (!)- mild Italian with the flavors of garlic and fennel seeds.
 The large pizza is thin.  The small is a bit thicker.  For the extra $2, there are more toppings and flavor.  We reheat the leftovers in a fry pan.  

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Ok, so it's an older Italian restaurant.  What makes Lido's unique?

This.  With every eat-in pizza (or for $4.95) you get this.  "Hors d' ouevres"
 The plate arrives looking mildly unusual with hidden joy underneath all of those Cheez-Its: thin slices of American cheese and cotto salami.   It's what makes Lido's, Lido's.

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Local, long time, friendly, fresh, consistent.

Lido's Italian Foods 7252 Broadway Lemon Grove CA 91945  (619) 469-9901 Open seven days 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Website


 The hors d' oeuvres plate also reminds us of this surprising dish, which I posted about in November of 2006.