mmm-yoso!!!

Lunch at Chef Jun

Chef Jun was one of those "local" places that opened in Bay Ho, back in 2019. While most of what I'd gathered from folks who ate there; it was the "rolls" that they liked, even though they claimed to serve "Kappo", think higher end small dishes and such. I actually did takeout a couple of times during Covid and wasn't too impressed. Still, I made a note to revisit once things settled down....apparently the note got lost...or perhaps my "dog ate it"? Anyway, I'm finally trying to catch up on things from those days. I decided to head on over for lunch.

I arrived at 1145 and was surprised to see a couple of tables already occupied. I guess there's a real demand for places like this in the area. The nice young lady greeted me and I told her a seat at the "bar" would work out perfectly fine for me.

The sushi bar is the "modern" high bar, where you can't see the fish, nor really interact with the Itamae. I guess what I saw at Moment Sushi is kinda the norm these days?

I decided to go with the Sashimi Lunch Special which is priced at $25.

I was happy to see that fresh wasabi is provided.

The lunch came with a sizeable salad.

   Which was perfectly fine, except that the Sesame Dressing was quite salty. I came to find out that this is the "house" dressing that they actually sell. My favorite item in the salad were the kyuri-asazuke, the pickled cucumbers which held up well to the salty dressing.

The miso soup arrived next, which was perfectly fine, and scaldingly hot. It wasn't watered down, savory-beany, not overly salty.

And then the sashimi arrived.

   I'm not going to go into excruciating detail here. I will say, that my favorite item was the scallop; the hotate was tender and sweet. 

There was perfectly fine salmon; most of the slices were quite thin, the Spicy Tuna Roll, which I chose over the California Roll was fine as it was mostly fish, not overly sauced. The shiromi and hamachi were dry, but ok. The unagi was really dry and mealy.

And then there was this.

    Was it what I thought it was? Because you can't really interact with the Itamae, I asked the young lady working and she confirmed that it was Escolar (aka "white tuna"), which as far as I know is still banned in Japan. You can Google and find out why. Anyway, it's not my favorite fish; I find it mushy and tasteless.

That really poorly cut, thin slice of maguro was also pretty bad, quite metallic in flavor, but I guess it wouldn't matter if you're using the fish in all those rolls, right?

As a whole, this was fairly mediocre and left me wondering if this is what $25 bought these days? And would it be different if I came for dinner and ordered things ala carte? Still, the environment, which is totally not what I enjoy at a sushi bar....yes, maybe I'm an old fart....but part of the joy of eating there is the interaction between the Itamae and customer...perhaps that makes a difference these days?

And perhaps folks who dine at Jun can tell me what they enjoy here? This place is in my neighborhood and I'd like to support it!

Chef Jun
4033 Avati Dr.
San Diego, CA 92117
Current Hours:
Tues - Fri  1130am - 9pm
Sat - Sun   4pm - 9pm
Closed on Monday

Pho Tan

Life is kind of interesting, sometimes things just happen. A good friend, who shall remain nameless....you'll soon see why, had recommended a place for Jiaozi......which based on previous experience I wasn't too keen on, after all, I'd been to the short lived location once and never did a post. Still, because I was going to be in the area, I decided to drop by. Unfortunately, or more perhaps, fortunately, the place was closed.

Well, perhaps this time my timing was good, right? After all, I wasn't looking for alternate sources of protein on this day.

But, it was time for an early lunch, and I had a place on my list, which "FOY" SDJulie mentioned in the comments on my last post on Pho Duyen Mai. I thought it was just the right place at the right time.

Pho Tan. I think this used to be Pho Poway, or something like that? Anyway, I walked on in; the shop was fairly empty except for a couple of folks doing takeout.

I was guided to a table. Thankfully, unlike what Julie had experienced and mentioned, the AC was working well on this day.

The young lady working was very nice. I looked over the menu and in the end decided to get good 'ol #17, the pho with well done flank, brisket, tendon, and tripe ($14.50).

Soon enough a rather sparse plate of sprouts and basil was delivered to my table.

And then a rather large bowl of pho was delivered. I wasn't expecting it to be so large!

  First thing I noticed was how dark the broth was. Second thing was what was slightly submerged. Good lord, it was a huge slice of brisket! Unfortunately, it was too thick, and ended up being very chewy.

The scalding broth had a hint of that "San Diego sweetness" that pho seems to have here, but it wasn't overwhelming. It was super hot, not overly salty, with a hint of beefiness. Not bad at all.

 I had to kind of take my time since that broth was super hot, so I'm not sure if it contributed to the noodles, being delivered in the typical clump on the bottom of the bowl, being on the mushy side.

I was surprised to see so much tripe and tendon in this bowl; along with all that chewy flank, this was a meat lover's dream bowl. Sadly, the tripe seemed not cooked long enough, and like that brisket, was super tough. Think of trying to chew on rubber bands.

The flank while being a bit chewy was not as tough as the brisket and had some nice beefiness. Based on all of the other proteins in the bowl, I expected the tendon to be hard and crunchy, but it was quite tender.

Overall, I'd say it measures up well to just about anything I can get in Kearny Mesa. I'd gladly return in an instant for a revisit if it wasn't almost a 50 mile round trip for me. The folks working seem to be very nice. As it stands, I'm glad I checked the place out and will be sure to return to try other things on the menu; i.e. the Banh Mi Bo Kho, when I'm in the area.

After all, I won't be getting dumplings in that other shop anytime soon!

Pho Tan
12316 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Current Hours:
Wed - Mon 10am - 830pm
Closed on Tuesday

Thanks for reminding me about this place Julie!

Cuisinery Food Market (Eurofood Depot) Revisited

Since Eurofood Depot moved and became the Cuisinery I've been stopping by every 2-3 weeks. Of course, getting the escargot is a must. It's now a staple of the household. I'm usually wary when places are taken over, but in the case of Eurofood Depot, it seems to have really improved the variety of items. There are, of course stuffs that I won't get, like tamales, bacalao croquettes, various seafood, prepared meals, and non-French items. But, we have come up with some items we've enjoyed.

What we've also noticed is that prices on some items have gone down by a buck as well.

And it seem that the Cuisinery is always coming up with some kind of marketing thing. Recently, they started opening on Sundays, and with that, it seems that they now have coffee, tea, and donuts....

Not sure about this....seems very 7-11.......

I do like that the charcuterie and cheese selection has been expanded. Especially since they now carry Epoisses, which Lazy Acres and WF also carry; but they sell it in half sizes.

Yes, it's that stinky, washed rind, cheese that we enjoy. In that previous post I shared the urban legend that Epoisses is banned on public transport in Paris (it's not).

The Missus also enjoys the Brie-style sheep based Perail Papillon.

These are not always in stock; so if you specifically want it, I've been advised to call ahead.

All of this is good, but for us, it's a couple of the frozen food items that we enjoy. Yes, there's the escargot, but after trying a couple of items....yes, there were some not so great choices, there are two that we keep in the freezer for those "lazy nights".

The Bacon Wrapped Wagyu was a surprise.

I do two phases in the air fryer, starting with a air roast and ending with an air fry to crisp up the bacon. I was surprised that the bacon crisps up nicely. It's a savory-salty-beefy treat.

Really nice with a crisp beer or glass of wine.

The other being the Caramelized Onion, Feta, and Bacon Bites. I'll usually make half a box. I'll do the air fryer thing, starting at the prescribed temp, then raising it up by 20 degrees at the end to crisp things up.

It turns out light, crisp, sweet-savory-salty.......

This was a nice surprise. Trader Joe's has a version of this that was terrible, so I didn't have high hopes, but this one is another keeper.

I enjoy shopping at Cuisinery Food Market. This is what I'd hoped Picard was going to be (it was not). There always seems to be something new; whether I'm motivated to try it out is another story, but it's always interesting. Nice folks working as well.

Cuisinery Food Market
7340 Miramar Rd. Suite 105
San Diego, CA 92126
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri  10am - 6pm
Saturday   10am - 5pm
Sunday      9am - 2pm

Road Trip - The Dog & Bear Tavern and Where We Met (Tahoma)

After a satisfying lunch at My Thai in South Lake Tahoe, we headed up the 89. It was a quick half hour drive to our destination in Tahoma, a town on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, with a population of just over 1,000. The area was recommended by one of the Missus's coworkers. I really wasn't too sure about the location, but we ended up enjoying the area.

Other than all the outdoorsy stuff, there's not much going on in the area. The town has one pretty nice Market/Deli, a burger place, a pizza/gastropub/wine bar, and a coffee/gelato shop. We had an Vrbo just a few blocks from the restaurants and coffee shop. The little cottage was very comfortable, though we had to get used to using "bear fences", making sure to arm them whenever we left.

Once we got settled, we walked the couple of blocks down Pine Street to check out the two restaurants and coffee shop.

The coffee-ice cream shop was open. And the Missus decided on a coffee while I went in a different "direction".

I went with a small Pink Grapefruit Gelato, which was nice and refreshing.

Look who else wanted a Gelato!

Where We Met
7000 West Lake Blvd.
Tahoma, CA 96142

We then crossed over West Lake Boulevard and walked to the end of Pine Street. There's a small beach with a beautiful view of Lake Tahoe.

We strolled back to the cottage, then drove on over to the General Store for a few things and headed back. After relaxing for a bit, we decided to head out for an early dinner at the Dog & Bear Tavern, which was in the same little mall as Where We Met.

It was only 430 and the place was pretty busy. We got one of the two tops. It seems like the place really specializes in pizza, but we found the rest of the menu quite interesting.

The menu was totally not what we expected and we took some time to look over things. The Missus had a nice glass of wine. I got a crisp Pilsner.

We decided on two items; the first being the Chicken Liver Mousse Flatbread. The portion was quite generous.

Well, this was quite a surprise; in a good way. The flatbread was fluffy and yeasty, I can understand why folks would like the pizza here. The duck liver mousse was creamy, smooth, slightly offal-ly, rich, with a slight bitter-sweet finish. There was a touch of pungency and the duck cracklins' were like....well, "crack". The strawberries added a sweet-fruity-acidity to the dish. This was quite nice.

The other dish we got was the Duck & Kimchi Loaded Potatoes. It just seemed like a bit of an odd combo, so we were interested in trying it.

This one might have been a bit too much; the rich-gamy duck was over taken by the sourness of the kimchi. Goat cheese and that gochujang mayo just piled on with tart sourness. The potatoes, roasted in duck fat were really tasty on their own, but this was a bit over-the-top for us.

Still, this was by far our favorite meal during this road trip. The folks working were very friendly and so were the locals. We would end up returning the following evening.

The Dog and Bear
7000 West Lake Blvd.
Tahoma, CA 96142

After dinner, we decided to take a walk. The Missus's coworker who comes up here a lot recommended heading to Sugar Pine Point Beach for paddle boarding. We planned to head on over the next morning, but decided to take a walk over, about a mile and a quarter each way. There's a path that follows the road that is lined with soaring trees.

Gosh, it was so beautiful. We got to the park, strolled thru the parking lot, and then walked over to the shore.

I can understand why people love it here!

We'd return early the next morning to ensure a good parking spot. 

We walked on back.....

We decided to head back into the Dog & Bear for a nightcap. This time we had a seat at the bar. The Missus got a glass of wine and I got an Amber Ale.

It was a nice way to end the day!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Croissant Files - La Clochette Cafe & Bakery (Mission Valley)

In one of my recent Croissant posts, "FOY" Kathy mentioned La Clochette du Coin on Cass. I had actually tried to visit once, but there was a huge line and they ere out of Butter Croissants by the time I got into the shop. Still, I had been planning to try and visit again; but then faith...or something intervened. I had heard that La Chlochette opened a shop in Mission Valley, in the newish enclave of Civita. Since I had to make a TJ's run, I thought I should try and see if the shop was open. I hadn't been in this area of Mission Valley in ages. Man has it changed; with a large park, they now have a Saturday Farmers Market and food trucks on Tuesdays. It's a far cry from what MV was when we first moved to San Diego in 2001 and lived off Friars Road for a couple of years!

And while there seemed to be a good amount of traffic I found some parking on Civita Boulevard and walked around the corner to see that the bakery was open.

This was a fairly early Sunday visit and the place was quite empty. I walked on in and took a look at the offerings.

While there wasn't anything the Missus was keen on trying; I zeroed in on the Butter Croissant (of course).

So, I simply got one Butter Croissant ($5.25), then headed over to Trader Joe's to get some shopping done.

Once home, I put everything away, then it was Croissant Time. The color of the croissant was fairly dark, though it had a nice "rise" and good layering.

 The pastry was quite flakey and crisp. The interior a bit wet and on the doughy side, but acceptable. The amount of salt was good, but it was sorely lacking in butter.

Too bad, because this definitely had potential. 

Still, this location is still in the soft opening phase. The Grand Opening isn't until October 5th. So, I'll probably visit some time after that to see how things are.

I want to thank KathyH for the reminder on La Clochette and if she is reading this; does the croissant look the same as the version in PB?

La Clochette Cafe & Bakery (Mission Valley)
7995 Civita Blvd. Suite 11
San Diego, CA 92108

 

Midweek Meanderings - Paragon Deli Closes, Pho Nom Coming to Convoy, and Wooltari Premium K-Food Coming to Clairemont Mesa

Just a couple of things for this "hump day".

Pho Nom Coming to Convoy:

I saw this when driving down Convoy, in the old Mr Moto Pizza location.

That drawing looked really familiar, so I asked one of my contacts, and sigh...yes, it's the Viet Nom - Formoosa - Steamy Piggy folks. I guess Convoy needs more over-priced, hipster-concept Vietnamese food, right? 

I wonder if they're going to do that "get a free dessert for a Yelp review" which you have to show your Server before getting your freebie stuff?

4646 Convoy St. Suite 114
San Diego, CA 92111

Wooltari Premium K-Food Coming to Clairemont Mesa:

Now this one has me a bit interested. I saw this sign when I had to get some hard wood charcoal at Barbecues Galore for a recent revisit to June Lake (more on that later)

I know folks who do online ordering from this company. They do a lot of prepared, frozen, gourmet type Korean products. It'll be interesting to check out.

According to Google, they are set to open on October 3rd.

7420 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

And Sadly, Paragon Deli Closes:

Man, this one caught me off guard. Cathy sent me a text with this screenshot. This seems to have happened rather suddenly?

I know it was a favorite of Cathy's and while I only did one post on the shop, I had gone back a couple more times. I was meaning to return and get another Francesinha, but sadly that will not happen now.

Man, we recently lost Perry's; Tip Top is closing at the end of the month, and now this..... Quite sad.

2724 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92106

Chimpum Callao

So, I wasn't sure if I should do this post. After all, these days, if in San Diego, based on price, I try to do more than one visit. It's something that I took to heart a long time ago. Though in this day and age, with prices going thru the roof, not only for food, but for fuel, it's been kind of tough.

Like I said, this is a one visit post, on a mom-and-pop place that serves one of my favorite "cuisines", not sure if that's grammatically correct, but I hope you understand. 

Anyway, a while back I read about a new Peruvian restaurant opening in the Southcrest Barrio Logan area. If you've been reading long enough, you know that I have a love for Peruvian cuisine which first started when we were living in LA and visiting places like El Rocoto and El Pollo Inka. Over the years, our travels have taken us to Peru, which has only stoked the flame.

So, upon reading about Chimpum Callao, I had to check the place out. And so, here's where it gets interesting. Our friend Google and that favorite 4 lettered site and even Instagram (at that time) listed a 10 am opening time. So, once done with my Saturday errands, I headed over, not at 10 am, but 11 and arrived in the rather gritty strip mall at 11. Only to find the place closed.

Notice the business hours...... Sigh.....

Still, being the hard-headed person I am, I returned after my usual Saturday errands the following Saturday and got there at 1030 and the place was open.

So, I sauntered on in.

The place was quite empty when I arrived. There were two young men working the front of house, one was really friendly, the other was quite busy on his phone. This was so obviously a mom-and-pop shop.

The menu had the usual suspects....and even pollo ala brasa which wasn't ready yet.

I decided to go with a basic; the Lomo Saltado ($15), a dish that I've had at so many places, here in the states and Peru as well.

And of course an Inka Cola....

As for the Lomo Saltado.

  This was interesting as in terms of flavor, it seemed to lack the sour vinegar tones. Though, I had to remind myself, when reading tomes like the Exotic Kitchens of Peru, which is probably the first Peruvian Cookbook that I owned, the recipe for Lomo Saltado did not include vinegar. But, it did not include soy sauce either, which goes against everything we've had in Peru.

I was brought a little bowl of what they told me was "hot sauce". It was quite good, nice heat...when I asked if it was "aji rocoto" the young man stood back and said "yes", it is!

 Anyway, in terms of the dish, the beef was really tough, and quite "metallic" in flavor. There wasn't enough tomatoes to add a nice acidity to the dish. As for the papas fritas....well, I had to "dig" to find them. There were a few quite dry pieces of potato provided. In terms of flavor, this was slightly salty, lacking in the sour tones, with metallic tones. The rice was fine, though also on the dry side.

Not quite what I had in mind when I ordered this. As I paid and left, the young man approached me and held out a plate saying, "please take one"......it was a plate of Alfajores.

It was a nice touch. He also asked me if I was "nikkei", as in Japanese from Peru. I was ever so humbled, but told him that I wasn't. I asked for a confirmation on hours and was told that 10am was the opening time for the place. 

The menu was quite limited, but with the recent cooler weather, I thought that some Seco de Cordero might be really good. So, on a recent Saturday, I headed back down and arrived at 11am; only to find the place closed.

At which time, based on my previous visit, I decided to just put this one away for now. After all, while I really love all these mom-and-pop places, my one meal here wasn't very good. And I know there's a recently opened Peruvian Restaurant closer to where I live.

What do you think? I went one for three.....it's a bit of a drive; should I have given it another try? I did ask to confirm the hours; but perhaps I should have called to confirm....but really????

Chimpum Callao Peruvian Restaurant
3582 National Ave.
San Diego, CA 92113

Revisits - Minh Ky and Pho King

So, we were having such hot and humid weather, and then "bam", suddenly it's fall? The temps around here plummeted from the low 90s to the low 70's in the blink of an eye. I for one am kinda enjoying the cooler weather as I can get my noodle soup fixes in.

It's kinda strange that my first two visits when doing my noodle soup "rounds" was Minh Ky and Pho King. I didn't realize it at first, but when looking over previous posts, there was a common thread. And no it's not about being across the street from each other, nor is it about possibly having the two worst parking lots in the area; though there are other contenders for that "title".

The strange thing is that in recent years, I tend to do tandem posts on the place. In March of 2020, right before we shut down because of Covid, I visited Minh Ky on March 14th, then Pho King on March 15th! As we all know all restaurants and bars were shut down for dining in on March 16, 2020. Man, has it been over 4 years already? Then in December of that year, I did takeout from both places on back-to-back days! Of course, my last visit to Minh Ky was back in November of last year after the change of ownership. And my recent somewhat mediocre meals at Tim Ky and LHK had given me some motivation to return.

Minh Ky:

It was Minh Ky that I had in my sights. It had been a fairly regular stop from when we moved to San Diego. In fact, my first post was back in January of 2006! Of course my last visit was after the business had changed ownership and I wasn't overly impressed during my visit after the change.

It had been over ten months since that visit; long past the time when I should have returned. As I figured, there was no parking available in the lot, but I managed to find a space on tiny Meade Avenue and walked on over. It was a Sunday, at 930am and the place was already half full!

Though instead of my "usual" from here; I went with the Won Ton and Dumpling Egg Noodle Soup which is now $12.95. Not to beat that long desiccated horse, but I remember when it was was $4.25!

  Well, for starters, the broth didn't have the "super clear" look of the previous two versions I'd had recently. There was some nice savory tones; slight pungency, it was a bit on the sweet-salty side. I was quite thirsty for the rest of the afternoon.

I preferred the dumplings; there were three, to the won ton, also three in population. The dumplings had more savory tones; weren't as tough as the won tons. At least the wrappers stayed on for the duration; so no "dumpling disrobing" like at LHK.

The noodles were a bit undercooked and almost crunchy.

 You can tell the broth wasn't overly thin as it did a decent job of coating the noodles.

The char siu, like in most versions of this soup was on the leaner and chewier side; but it did have some flavor, even if was a bit too sweet for my taste.

Overall, a pretty good bowl. I'm glad this visit was much better than my previous one.

Minh Ky Restaurant
4644 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92115
Current Hours:
Fri - Tues 9am - 8pm
Closed on Wednesday

Pho King:

"PK" was a last minute decision for me. It was Saturday and I went for revisit to a place that ended up being closed, even though the sign said it opened at 10; it was 1030, and on my one successful visit, I was assured they opened at 10am. So, where to go? Well, I decided to chance a visit to Pho King. It had been a while, over 4 years since I had dined in, as noted above. As for parking; well, there was nothing in the parking lot, but I took a spin around the block; nothing on Meade, but as I came around ECB, there was parking right on the street in front of the place! I guess it was meant to be?

I strolled on in and was told "sit anywhere" by the older gentleman working.  I noticed that he knew all the customers on this day; so I obviously stood out.

I looked over the menu and was going to order my usual, the Hu Tieu Mi Kho, but instead I ordered the Hu Tieu My Tho Kho (small - $12.95), which I last had here waaaay back in 2007! Oh, and because I know you're wondering, it cost $5.95 back then. The older guy was kind of worried about me ordering this; telling me first that the "soup is on the side" and that there is intestine in the dish. I told him I knew that.

Once I convinced him that I would not totally freak out at what I'd ordered, the sprouts and veggies arrived. I'd always enjoyed that Chinese celery was included here; though now it's mostly just lettuce.

Soon enough the Hu Tieu My Tho Kho arrived.

  I quickly set about tasting the different items. The soup was far from bland, but really had that "San Diego sweet" pho flavor. It was also high in msg as well.

There were two shrimp and one piece of squid, but at least 5 slices of liver and some really tough pork....oh and half a fishball. I wonder what happened to the other half?

    One of the first thing that came to mind was the "Hu Tieu shenanigans". You know, the time I ordered the Hu Tieu Mi Kho and got a single strand of Hu Tieu in my bowl! Well, this time around there was a good amount of stretchy hu tieu, along with firm, slightly crunchy egg noodles.

For some strange reason; other than being on the greasy side, the sauce seemed pretty bland. I remember it having a distinct porky-tomato-garlicky flavor. It did coat the noodles well and combined with the super salty broth, at least provided some flavor.

As for the meats; I liked the pork stomach and intestine the best; good chewiness, with a hint of offal-liness. Man, that liver was really bitter-metallic-funky; the guy wasn't kidding. I won't go into great detail about how I mix and eat; it's still the same as noted at the end of this post.

While I'll probably go back to ordering my usual next time; this was an interesting foray into something different from the menu.

And then there was the funny conversation at the end of my meal when I went to the register to pay.

The older gentleman looked at me and said "are you Japanese?"
I answered "Yes, I am."
"No wonder you like the hu tieu, we get it from Japan" he replied.
I countered with "Yes, I know.....I can tell", which got a surprised look from him.
I laughed and said "just kidding", which cracked him up as I walked out the door......

You could say I enjoyed Pxx Kxxg around. (Sorry, couldn't help it)

Pho King
4658 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92115
Current Hours:
Thurs - Mon 10am - 8pm
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday