mmm-yoso!!!

ASA Bakery a Quick Look

So, the Missus on Her forays thru social media asked me if I knew about the new Japanese Bakery that opened in the East Village. Well, I'd seen the sign for ASA Bakery while taking a walk and waiting for our takeout order from Sovereign and I'd read the post on Eater. So yes, I knew about the place being opened by the owners of BeShock Ramen, they also opened a speakeasy type establishment and a omakase only sushi bar discreetly hidden on the premises. Now, in spite of my love of croissants, I was going to wait this out a bit as I figured the opening hype machine was in full swing. But since I had a weekday off, the Missus wanted me to check the place out. So, I figured I'd at least get a croissant out of it, right? Seeing that they opened at 9, I headed on down to East Village, found some parking and arrived at 920, only to see the line. On a weekday!

Sigh...... You know, we love lines in Taiwan, but our experiences here....well, not so much. But I'd already found parking and had walked on over.....so I guess I was (or should have been) committed.

    Well, along with lines, I found that ASA likes their signs. Like the one above that states only 3 pastries per person. Good thing I didn't promise anyone else some goodies from here right?

The line moved rather slowly, though folks seemed quite excited about the place which I took to be a good sign. The gentleman to the right in the photo seemed to be a regular because he knew the employee checking the line and they had a nice chat while waiting.

And more signs......

Wow, they open at 8 and pastries are only available until 1030. Well, according to this "sign" they had opened at 9am on this day.

Well, that's some demand I guess. Speaking of demand, the clock had nearly hit 950 when I got my turn to order and take a look at what's available!

Whoa...it was barely 930 and there were only four items left. On a weekday.

I think the back kitchen must be pretty small to only be able to make small batches; for such a large space? And sigh.....no croissants aux buerre. I ended up getting my allocated three items and walked out at 940. Check out the line as I left. I'm wondering if these folks were just getting coffee or drinks because, ahem, according to the signs other stuff wasn't available until 1130?

On the way to the car I did get to check out some interesting machinery on display along 14th street.

After doing a bit of "Googling", I came to find out these are "Industrial Artifacts" from the Sinclair Collection, in case you're interested.

I drove home and the Missus opened things up.

Since there were only four bakery items left, I got three. One of the items was the chocolate-macadamia "baguette". 

   This is baguette in name only and absolutely does not have any attributes of bread. It was hard as rock....hope you have good teeth if you get this. You basically didn't tear this; you cracked it into pieces. The chocolate was fine, not too sweet, but since whole macadamia nuts were used, the distribution was haphazard and you'd only occasionally find one.

I also got the Custard Choco Crunch and the Chocolate Danish.

The Missus had a bite of each, made a face and put them back in the carton. She was going to throw it away; but I told Her "I spent over forty minutes in line for this, so you're going to have to finish them." She told me to have a taste of the Chocolate Danish. The chocolate on top was fine, but the pastry was hard and dry, like cardboard. Wow. I left the carton on the dining table and it "mysteriously disappeared" a few hours later. Hmmm.......

Man, this was so disappointing. We'd been to our share of Japanese style bakeries in Japan, here in the states, and other countries as well and never had anything close to this. Perhaps there was a reason these were the only items left? Though folks before me seemed to be buying them up? Oh well, after this and our visit to Jiou Chu Dumplings, if the Missus wants to check a place out and mentions Instagram, I may just run away. As for ASA, well, unless folks tell me their croissants or if any other items here are outstanding, I'm just going to stick with Izola Bakery when I'm in the area.

ASA Cafe & Bakery
634 14th St. Suite 110
San Diego, CA 92101

(They seem to keep changing hours so I'm not going to be listing any) 

Sunday Sandwiches - Crossroads Deli and Gourmet Artisan

I had been wondering how some of those sandwich shops close to our office has been doing so I decided to check a couple out.

Crossroads Deli:

I guess I hadn't been here since 2018, though Cathy did visit last summer. Perhaps it's the location in the La Jolla Crossroads Apartment complex that causes it to slip out of consciousness? I will say, it a fairly close location.

Things have changed quite a bit since my last visit. There seemed to be quite a few online orders ready for pick-up at the menu board.

The guys working have always been friendly and because of the location, they really seem to know their customers.

I decided on the "Al's Famous Club" ($11.75).....man, when I first visited back in 2014, it was $7.50! These days eleven bucks is considered a pretty reasonable price for a sandwich. Once you order, they ask that you wait outside and soon enough my sandwich was handed to me.

  This was a decent sandwich. I've always liked the thin shaved turkey and even though the bacon is in "bits" there's a good amount of it in the sandwich.

I like the dressing used, good acidity. And this time there wasn't too much mayo on the sandwich. One thing I forgot from the last time I had this sandwich was to request it toasted. I think the texture would enhance the experience.

I need to visit more often.

Crossroads Deli
9085 Judicial Dr, Ste 100 (Inside the La Jolla Crossroads Apartment Complex)
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Mon - Sat 8am - 3pm
Closed on Sundays

Gourmet Artisan:

Yes, GA is a convenient stop to pick up lunch from our office. I noticed that by ordering pick up from their website, you won't incur any additional charges. 

Like Crossroads Deli and many of the sandwich places in the area, they open early which makes ordering and pick-up a breeze.

I ordered my usual, the Prosciutto Sandwich ($10.25) with the fries ($2.95)....they used to call it "Parmesan and Garlic" fries, but now just call it their "Signature Fries", though they say that it has truffle oil, parmesan, and garlic.

    My order was ready when I arrived....I just sauntered in, gave my name, and headed back to the car and office.

Over the years, the fries have been a mixed bag, somewhat hit and miss. This time it could have been a bit more crisp, but it sure had enough garlic on it. Enough to warrant a couple of "visits" from the hovering masses! So those fries never go to waste.

As for the sandwich; well, I did request for "easy mayo", but that seemed to have been lost in the translation? Though the ciabatta was nicely toasted this time. I enjoy the combination of prosciutto, pesto, and arugula so I guess that's why I keep ordering this. I'm thinking I'll need to order a burger again one of these days.

Gourmet Artisan
7094 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 8am - 4pm
Closed weekends

Hope everyone has a great week!

COMC - Memories of Meals in Provence (Before Covid)

**** This post is done by request. It's of places we visited back in 2019. I'll be back with more up to date posts tomorrow!

I was recently asked about some recommendations for Provence. The reader (who requested anonymity) sent me a fine email asking me if we'd ever been there. And yes we had! And we loved our tine in Provence and enjoyed our stay in Avignon. But why no posts you might ask? Well, we visited in the winter of 2019. I always seem to have a backlog of travel posts it seems. By the time I had gotten around to posting on our trip....well, this thing named Covid happened. For the longest time, I really didn't feel comfortable doing travel posts.....in the middle of a pandemic. And then when I restarted, well, I was so behind. I was not even going to do posts on our trip to Israel and Jordan. But thanks to "FOYs" KerriK and LaurieH, who both indicated that they wanted those posts, I did them. But by the time those were completed it was mid-spring of 2022! I did a post on our short stay in Paris before heading to Provence and then decided that with a huge backlog of travel and road trip posts to just forgo posting on Provence. I did mention our "interesting stay" at CDG, before heading home from that trip since it dovetailed into our returning to Paris in 2022. So, since this "FOY" wants to see some photos of our meals in Provence....waaaay back from 2019, here goes.

La Cuisine du Dimanche (since closed):

Was our first dinner in Avignon.

This was an interesting meal. Some of the combinations were odd and the presentations somewhat strange for some dishes.

La Cuisine du Dimanche
31 Rue de la Bonneterie
84000 Avignon, France

L'Agape:

This was a nice dinner. Modern presentation, nice flavors.

L'Agape
21 Place des Corps Saints
84000 Avignon, France

Avenio:

Our favorite dinner during our stay in Avignon.

Avenio
19 Rue Des Trois Faucons
84000 Avignon, France

Maison Ripert:

This was a nice meal. A bit too much going on, but still excellent ingredients.

Maison Ripert
28 Rue de la Bonneterie
84000 Avignon, France

L'Épicerie de Ginette:

Lest you think we were just eating in fancy restaurants. one of our favorite places was L'Épicerie de Ginette. We visited twice. After all, who wouldn't love this.

We loved the tartines here.

L'Épicerie de Ginette
25 Place des Corps Saints
84000 Avignon, France

And while I'm not sure how valuable this post will be now, I hope your meals are wonderful!

Trining's Bakery & Cafe (Mira Mesa) Revisited

Recently, I as headed to Paris Sandwiches to grab me a banh mi for lunch. I parked and started walking over to Paris, when, for some reason Trining's caught my eye. It had been a couple of years since I last visited and I wandered on over. I wasn't sure the place was open since the sign wasn't on.

But as I walked on over I noticed folks eating and waiting for their orders.

    From previous experience I knew what was available from what was on the white board.

I saw a customer at one of the tables attacking what looked like sisig....it looked pretty good so I ordered that along with the Beef Kaldereta. These days a two item plate costs $12.99 and when paying I found out there's a $1 upcharge for sisig. I think it might be a good idea for folks to know stuff like that?

I drove back to the office and unpacked my lunch.

 So this comes with three, not two scoops of rice....really bad quality rice, the color wasn't right, no fragrance, terrible mealy texture.

The Kaldereta was the better of the two items. Though the beef was sinewy, it wasn't overly tough. Nice savory-tanginess. Though not quite as good as the version I had here last time, it was definitely better than the sisig.

This actually looked quite good when the guy was eating it and at first glance. A closer look and I started noticing how dark the lechon was. And guess what? Just like the last time I had it here, the pork was super hard. The peppers were "shibai" and there was almost no "heat", nor enough sourness, and not enough onion to make a difference in the dish at all.

Ok, so I got distracted. Sometimes you win, sometimes you get mediocre sisig...... There are, in my opinion, much better options in this mall.

Trining's Bakery & Cafe
10606 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

 

Midweek Meanderings - Minh Ky Changing Ownership and Nha Quoc Te Being Replaced by Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara

Here are some changes coming to City Heights!

Minh Ky Changing Ownership:

Reading about this in Eater San Diego caught me by surprise! And the link to Minh Ky's website yielded this message:

Man, I've been going to Minh Ky forever it seems. Minh Ky had the distinction of being one of the last places I dined in at before the big Covid shutdown, I even did takeout in December of 2020, and felt it was only right to revisit once I started feeling comfortable with dining in again. It's one of those places that I ate at starting back in 2004, before I started this blog!

At least Minh Ky is not closing like other long time businesses in the area such as Tan Ky Mi Gia and Cafe Dore. I'm hoping the food will be just as good.

If you need one last visit, the long time owners last day will be October 2nd. After that, you can still visit them at Dumpling Inn.

Minh Ky Restaurant
4644 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115

Nha Hang Quoc Te Being Replaced by Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara:

A while back "FOY" Elle asked me if I'd seen the sign for a new business in the Nha Hang Quoc Te spot. It just seems that I don't get to City Heights as much as I used too. Especially the area around Quoc Te which has some crazy road work (road work Clairemont Drive and Towne Center Drive - both roads I drive on all the time is bad enough!) going on.

But, I did make the effort to see what was happening this past weekend.

And yes, Quoc Te is being replaced by Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara! I'm assuming it's the same ownership as the Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara I ate at in Chula Vista?

I know, I need to start doing my rounds again!

4448-A University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

A big thank you to Elle! Thanks for thinking of us Elle!

Takeout Revisits - Chaba Thai and Ngon Ngon to Go

Just a couple of takeout revisits for a busy Monday.

Chaba Thai:

I thought we needed a break from our revisits to Sovereign. Been doing a lot of takeout from there and really aren't taking photos any longer. I was busy and wanted something on the way home from the office, with ample parking, and less seedy surroundings. I thought doing the usual takeout items from Chaba Thai might work out.

I ordered the same items as usual and went for shopping at 99 Ranch Market before returning to get my takeout. All was ready when I returned in 20 minutes and I headed home.

The Krapow Gai, the Missus's favorite dish from Chaba had a lot of minced chicken, in need of as bit more spice and was on the dry side. There was quite a bit of pidan hidden under all that chicken which made the Missus happy. The produce didn't seem a fresh as usual though.

Of course I got the Khao Kluk Kapi with Honey Pork.

    When all the planets align this is a good dish....of course no one wants to only have a dish be good once every 30 years, right? This was actually better than what I had on my last visit. The pork was nicely marinated and cooked, the meat moist and tender. The rice could have used a bit more shrimp paste, but was passable. I do enjoy the lime, onion, and some of the apple with this dish as it adds different dimensions of pungent, acidity, and tannic-sweetness to the bites of pork. This time the scrambled egg was placed on the side and the Missus poached that before I had a shot at it. In terms of portion size; I noticed that there was less pork than on previous visits.

I do wish there were more options with regard to decent Thai cuisine in the area.

Chaba Thai Kitchen
8010 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Ngon Ngon To Go:

Man, has Ngon Ngon been open for over a year already? I had done a couple of revisits for takeout, just getting the Bo Luc Lac. But on a recent visit, I decided to get something different. 

And just decided to get the Com Thit Nuong, the pork chop with rice, which was the cheapest item on the menu at $11. I placed my order and went to get some pastries for the crew in the office.

    My order was waiting when I returned. Overall, for eleven bucks this wasn't bad at all. The rice wasn't of the best quality, but was cooked decently. There was a standard green salad which was on the verge of heading south.

The pork chop was not bad; a bit on the more salty than sweet side, but quite flavorful overall. The texture, as anticipated, it was on the chewier side, but not dry. There were two pieces one laying on top of the other. 

The Nuoc Mam Cham wasn't quite as sweet as what I'd had here before which I enjoyed and really livened up the pork.

    This was not bad at all. A humble dish, decently flavored, and nicely priced for this day and age. Nice folks working here too! There was a steady flow of folks eating in and picking up takeout. I'm happy that business, at least to me seems to be doing well.

Ngon Ngon To Go
10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

Paris - Trois Croissants, Ernest & Valentin Reaumur, Boulangerie Pezeril, and Liberté Turbigo

If you've been reading our little blog long enough, you know I've got a thing about croissants. A good croissant aux buerre is a thing of beauty to me; crisp, light, buttery..... And of course France, and especially Paris, home to over 30,000 bakeries would be the place to try them, right? Thru trying a bunch of croissants during our trips we've come up up with our favorite, which we've revisited several times. There is one interesting thing though. When I ask folks that own the apartments or work at the hotels we stay at about their favorite, they'll undoubtedly name a place within a block or two. When I mention our favorites, I'll often get an odd look. I've kinda figured things out; the French believe that a croissant, like the baguette is a birthright and with all those bakeries there's bound to be one in close proximity. I was once told that within the main arrondissements there will be one within a short walk and being a regular means that you develop a relationship with the folks in the boulangerie. The owner of our apartment told me that there were two boulangeries within a block of the flat. Well, he was wrong as there were three! One opened during our two week stay!

So, at least in terms of croissants, I decided to do the "live like a local" kinda things during our two week stay. So here goes.......

Ernest & Valentin Reaumur:

We saw this location of Ernest & Valentin, I believe there are six locations within the city limits of Paris, right when we arrived as it had a prime location on Rue Reaumur right by the stairs exiting the Arts et Métiers metro stop.

This shop was bustling, but the service was efficient and somewhat friendly. 

This would be my favorite croissant aux buerre of the three I tried. It was decently crisp and flakey.

It was light and fluffy. While it could have used a bit more butter, in terms of a balance of butteriness to salt, this was the best of the three.

 

I would end up having this four times during my stay.

Ernest & Valentin
42 Rue Réaumur
75003 Paris, France

Boulangerie Pezeril:

A block to the East on Rue du Temple is Boulangerie Pezeril.

This was by far the busiest of the three boulangeries. There was always a line in the morning.

This place had a nice local vibe and the employees seemed to really know their regular customers.

Unfortunately, the croissant was quite over baked and hard.

While it had a decent butteriness, I didn't care for the texture. I also noticed that folks really didn't go for the croissants here. There was one good things about this visit. While paying for my croissants I noticed three police officers walk in. They knew exactly what they wanted. Each got Jambon Buerre - the ham and butter baguette sandwich. This was a great clue for me. I would end up stopping by for a sandwich to eat on the train when we did day trips. As it was pretty good.

Boulangerie Pezeril
183 Rue du Temple
75003 Paris, France

Liberté Turbigo:

One the third day of our stay I needed to head on over to the local Carrefour City and noticed that a Boulangerie was opening up.

This was to be the sixth location of the Liberté chain. A few days later they were open and I dropped by.

During my 2 visits, it seemed like the demographic skewed to the younger crowd. If I recall these were also the most expensive.

These were the largest croissants; quite substantial, but lacking in enough butter for my taste and a bit doughy as well. Still, not bad.

Liberté Turbigo
63 Rue de Turbigo
75003 Paris, France

Spending a couple of weeks in one location was fun, at least for me. And can you imagine having three bakeries all within a block of where you're staying? I was told that in Paris "there's a boulangerie on almost every corner". And, at least in this case, it seems that saying is true!

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris - Dinner at Les Enfants Rouge (Again)

After taking a break from a fun day, we decided to head on out before dinner. The destination? One that we consider a must visit during the holiday season in Paris. We are always interested to see the Christmas window displays at Galeries Lafayette. This would the third holiday season we'd be in Paris, so we couldn't miss that, right?

We walked on over from the 3rd Arrondissement to the bright lights of Galeries Lafayette in full Holiday mode. We strolled around and took in the holiday window display.

Every year the display tells a story. The last time we were in Paris during the holiday season (pre-Covid, 2019) the theme was bees and the hive.

This time, the theme....well, we couldn't quite figure it out.

Can you figure out what the story is about?

After making it around to all the windows; it looked like something to do with outer space and aliens?

Later we'd return to Galeries Lafayette and get the full scoop on the story.....

From here we decided to walk to our dinner destination. Of course, this is Paris, so it was a stroll full of landmarks....

I had made reservations at a place we'd enjoyed previously. Les Enfants Rouge, located right around the corner from Marché des Enfants Rouges was a favorite of our from our previous trip. Yes, we'd been to several places of what we call the "Nikkei revolution" in Paris. Chefs from Japan who worked in the highest levels of French restaurants and eventually opened places of their own. We'd been honored and blessed to sample the dishes at places like ERH, Pertinence, and Alliance among others. But what we had enjoyed at Les Enfants Rouge was the unfussy dishes which leaned more toward Japanese cuisine in our opinion.

As before we strolled down the quiet side street and entered the neat and rather austere restaurant and was greeted by the very kind and professional hostess who led us to our table. As before we went with the three course menu for  75€ and one wine pairing.

And like before, we basically shared everything family style and the great service picked up on this and placed dishes in the middle with separate plates for us!

The Lamb Terrine was so very tasty, mildly gamey, and might I say, almost refreshing in  a way?

Loved the purple cabbage slaw and the shallot and parsley sauce, all of which went well with the terrine and the bread! The terrine was also perfectly seasoned with an soft texture which belied the look of a farmhouse style terrine.

The Duck Hearts were not as metallic-iron-ny as expected.

In terms of flavor, it was definitely savory and very "ducky" to the tenth power. The foam had a nice sweetness to it, helping to temper the flavor of the duck. We didn't care for the Roquefort Risotto which had some hard pieces and detracted from the overall flavor of the dish.

The Roasted Scallops were fabulous, perfectly cooked, still rare in the center, sweet, with a briny finish.

The seafood based "sauce" was very creamy, hints of savory shellfish, the mushrooms were earthy, with a mild sweetness to them.

And then the dish we were waiting for, the Tempura Fish. On our previous visit, it was the highlight of the meal. Make that "meals" as this again was amazing!

This time the fish was maigre, which I understand is croaker. The fish was coated in a light and crisp batter and was very moist. For us, it's that deeply savory, nori based "dashi" that is so deeply umami and really takes the mild flavored fish to a different level. 

There was one dessert that sounded interesting, the Baba with Toki Whiskey, a 10€ upcharge.

The typical looking Baba arrived at the table and then, no kidding, they brought a bottle of Toki out and proceeded to pour around two ounces of it over the Baba. We cracked up! Liked the whiskey, not quite sure about the "Rum Baba".

We both enjoyed the Lychee Mousse which wasn't overly sweet. And surprisingly the grapefruit supreme paired well with this!

This was another wonderful meal at Les Enfants Rouge. Great unpretentious service, great food, we can't wait to return. 

Les Enfants Rouges
9 Rue de Beauce
75003 Paris, France

Of course, this in itself presents another interesting issue of sorts. Over time, we've come up with some favorite places to eat. And it seems that it may be hard to try other places without sacrificing a visit to one of our favorites! 

Though looking at it another way, if that's the biggest issue we have with Paris; well that's a nice "problem" to have, right?

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!