mmm-yoso!!!

Banh Mi Express Revisited

Getting the rather "Americanized"  banh mi from Poppy Boba had me wondering how some of regular banh mi stops were doing. So, I set out to do some revisits. I decided to start with my most "recent-decent" banh mi, which was from Banh Mi Express, which provides one of the few pre-lunch options that is not fast food or premade bento's in the area on a Saturday morning.

The place was doing some pretty good business on this morning. Remember when this was Phuong Nga Bakery and Cafe? Banh Mi Express is kind of interesting as I think of it being a bit of a "tweener" between the more traditional banh mi and more Westernized versions. For instance, the menu only features westernized names for the sandwiches.

For instance, I decided on the Cha Lua....which is on the menu as "Pate - Meat Loaf" ($7.75). It seems that the going price for banh mi seems to run in the 7-8 dollar range these days. I couldn't believe the version at Poppy was over ten bucks!

Once back home I unwrapped my Banh Mi.

I was glad to note that the house made bread was back to normal, not the rather strange version I got on my previous visit. There was a bit too much mayo for my taste, but a good amount of funky pate was provided. The cha lua were sliced thinly, which I kind of liked. The jalapenos were quite mild and I noticed that the cucumber slices were MIA. The cilantro had quite a bit of think stems.

The bread was crusty and yeasty. There were proportionally less pickled vegetables than I would have enjoyed. 

Not a bad banh mi; but it did fuel my curiosity even more. It was time to "make the banh mi rounds" as it were.

Banh Mi Express
9353 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 7am - 4pm
Saturday  8am - 3pm
Closed on Sundays

Spicy Pot from Zhang Liang Malatang (Clairemont Mesa)

Well, in a blink of an eye, Sizzling Pot King became a location of Jiang Liang Malatang! Now, on my last visit to Sizzling Pot King just last month, the woman, whom I believe is one of the "owners" of the franchise told me they were "adding" Malatang. I thought they were just going to start serving hot pot in addition to the dry pot, but a drive past the place a couple of weeks later revealed what was going on!

Whoa! So, it seemed that Sizzling Pot King has become a location of Zhang Liang Malatang. From what I could gather it's a pretty big chain. I know of locations in Rowland Heights and Irvine to name a few places.

It took a bit of work, but I managed to talk the Missus into visiting, because they do a version of dry pot, which they call the "Stir Fried Spicy Pot". We found parking on Engineer Road since the parking lot was full. Upon walking in, I recognized the previous owners of Sizzling Pot King. They explained that we'd fill up a bowl of ingredients just like Malatang and just tell the folks we want "dry pot". So, it was off to the races.

One good thing I liked about this process was you get to choose your ingredients. I've noted that over time Sizzling Pot King had stopped offering or removed items from the dry pot. Now I could pick my own and there was tripe, Chinese cauliflower, even stuff like Konnyaku Knots, several types of bean curd.

Of course, all this comes at a price. It's $13.99 a pound for ingredients and another $3.99 charge for the dry pot. Rice is $1.50.

You can season and et things as spicy as you want by adding items from the sauce bar.

What we picked ended up being $40, with the dry pot upcharge, and one rice. Even with us getting a bunch of different bean curd and mostly offal, this was cheaper than before.

The place filled up pretty quickly. The clientele seemed to be on the younger end of the scale.

Soon enough our order was delivered. It doesn't look like a whole lot of food, but there was enough for me to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

   Not quite as "numbing-hot" as what we had before; though it had more of a pronounced soy sauce - white pepper flavor. It was still decently spicy; but the "stuffs" from the sauce bar made up for things and then some.

The rice was mushy and not very good.

   We enjoyed the frozen tofu; there was a firm bean curd we didn't care for. The intestine and two types of tripe were lovely....of course the Missus loves quail eggs. The lamb and sliced beef were meh.....at least to us. It seemed that offal was the way to go for this dish. At least for us.

And so, we decided to see what takeout would be like. And I returned and put together a bowl.

And got a variety of various sauce mixes.......

This came out to be $35.

The Missus enjoys the raw garlic- chili flakes - raw chilies - sesame oil combination the best.

In the end Zhang Liang does a decent job of replacing Sizzling Pot King for takeout. Which is what we'll be visiting for.

Zhang Liang Malatang
8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 1130am - 3pm, 5pm - 930pm
Sat - Sun  1130am - 930pm

Pho Kha

During my first try at checking out Phonomenal the place was packed. I drove by and saw a line down the block and of course no parking to be found. I hadn't even considered a "plan b". Then I recalled a place that was mentioned to me a while back. I parked on the side of 8th Street and looked up the address. The only reason I remembered the place was that the guy recommending the shop said something that sounded like "Fa-Kha".......now this was right after we got back from a visit "home". I think ex-pat Kama'aina's like Mar, Kyle, Bruddah James, or Alan might understand why my first response was "what you called me?" Of course I started cracking up when I realized that was the name of the restaurant. The guy had no idea why I was laughing to myself.....he gave me one odd look and went back to having his beer.

Anyway, looking up the place, I noticed the address 2424 Hoover Avenue......whoa, this was in a part of National City I hadn't been to in ages! I think the last time I was close by was when Mi Pana was open. I drove on over and found the shop in that strip mall, with a Starbucks, Denny's, Jersey Mike's and Handel's.

It's a tiny shop, this was a weekend, if I recall, with all businesses, weekdays are busier here. Plus it was 1030 on a Sunday, thus the place was empty.

I was pointed to a table, had a seat and given a menu. 

I was here to see how the basic pho was; so I went with the P3 - Rare Steak, Brisket, Tendon, and Tripe; regular size ($15.75).

And then the utensils arrived......

And along with the single sprig of basil....well, you know.

The bowl didn't look to bad when it arrived.

 The broth was super salty and "San Diego sweet". It was really defatted, thin, and lacking in richness. There was an abundance of scallion which was nice, but not enough cilantro to overcome the overly salty-sweet soup.

The most interesting was when I took a look at the proteins. Check out the "rare steak"......all the pieces were fully cooked, dry, and tough. There was one piece of hard tendon. The brisket/flank was sliced a bit thick, but had nice beefiness. The best item was the abundant tripe; nice and crunchy.

There was a generous amount of noodles which were decently prepared.

I guess this is what a sixteen dollar bowl of pho is these days?

I'm glad to have tried the pho here, but see no reason to return.

The service was all business and my bowl came out fairly quickly.

Pho Kha
2424 Hoover Ave.
National City, CA 91950
Current Hours:
Daily 9am - 9pm

Wildland and a Revisit to Sleeping Tiger Coffee (Carlsbad)

Between all our Road Trips, we've taking JJ out to "explore" a bit. On one fine morning, we decided to head up to Carlsbad. We had enjoyed Jeune Et Jolie so much, that when the team behind that restaurant opened a breakfast-brunch-bakery we really wanted to try it out. I had read that dogs were allowed on the patio area, so we decided to head on up.

We easily found parking on State Street and when we passed Wildland, it wasn't very busy at all. So we took JJ on over for a walk thru the village and along Carlsbad Boulevard.

But first, we decided t get our caffeine fix at a familiar locale, Sleeping Tiger Coffee inside of Witch Creek Winery. The two tables fronting Carlsbad Boulevard were empty, so the Missus sat with J, while I went in and ordered us a Tanzanian Pour Over and a cold brew.

We find it interesting that Starbucks next door is quite busy, while there's no one getting coffee here. 

The Missus enjoys the pour0vers from here and the cold brew is pretty strong and wakes me up.

We sat and relaxed for a bit. We both think the coffee at Sleeping Tiger is much better than the Starbucks next door and wonder why folks aren't supporting a local business with a superior (in our opinion) product.

Meanwhile; JJ was wondering where "All the witches" were?

Sleeping Tiger Coffees (In Witch Creek Winery)
2906 Carlsbad Blvd.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Current Hours:
Thurs - Mon 7am - 5pm
Tues - Wed   7am - 3pm

Fortified by caffeine we took JJ on a nice stroll along Carlsbad Boulevard overlooking Carlsbad State Beach, finally turning back near lifeguard tower 35. Walking back thru Carlsbad Village and along State, we arrived back at Wildland, which was still not very busy, so we grabbed a table on the patio.

I sat with JJ while the Missus went to peruse the menu.

The Missus decided on the three item Smoked Fish Plate ($18). Meanwhile, my food friend "LL" recommended the Shakshuka ($20), and after a pretty "meh" version at Flora, I was interested in trying this one.

Ordering is done at the counter; you're given a number and your food is brought to you.

The Smoked Fish Plate was quite good. We chose the Smoked Salmon, Olive Oil Poached Yellowtail, and the item that really made this for us; the Hot Smoked Pastrami Kampachi, which was full of smoky-peppery-herbaceous flavors.

Loved the veggies, so fresh, the tomatoes sweetly-fruity-acidic; man, those cucumbers crisp and palate cleansing. The vegetables were excellent. The weak point of the dish was the bread, too chewy, with a hard crust.

As for the Shakshuka.

 

  I thought this was going to be herb overload, but the dill actually complemented the acidic tones of the dish and the celery leaves added a mild "grassiness" to the dish. It seems that the versions in San Diego use za'atar and leave out the cumin and harissa. The eggs were nice and runny, with a hint of smoky-savoriness.

As with the smoked fish plate, the bread was the weak link here, being too chewy and the crust hard. Still, the dish was pretty good overall.

We did enjoy our time at Wildland and will make sure to return for that smoked fish plate and JJ enjoyed visiting Carlsbad.

Wildland
2598 State St.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Current Hours:
Sun - Thurs 8am - 9pm
Fri - Sat       8am - 10pm

Road Trip - Cailloux Cheese Shop (Solvang)

After our rather "busy" morning and afternoon, we settled back into the Viking Inn for a nice afternoon nap. When dinner time arose, we didn't want to go very far. There was a place we'd seen the previous day, that was actually open on a Tuesday (many businesses are closed on Monday and Tuesday in Solvang). Cailloux Cheese Shop is located in a courtyard that also houses McClain Cellars, Dascomb Cellars, and Cordon Tasting Rooms. It is a cheese shop - restaurant, you purchase cheese - charcuterie - wine to go, or have access to a menu of French style dishes along with accoutrements for a cheese plate along with beer and wine by the bottle or glass.

We were having an early (430) dinner, the place closes at 6pm, and this seemed perfect. So, I went in and placed our order, paid, and we had a seat in the patio. The folks working here are so very friendly and kind. We were immediately asked if we needed the heaters turned on. Which we didn't.

The Missus went with a Chardonnay and I had a Savignon Blanc.

The Missus wanted to try the Cassoulet, which seemed like a bargain at $18, so we started with that.

At this price, I didn't expect anything like what I make at home, but this was pretty good. The Guanciale added a nice rich, porkiness to the dish, which wasn't overly salty.

There was a decent amount of duck in the dish; kind of chewy, but flavorful. The beans unfortunately, were pinto, I didn't expect Tarbais or even Flageolet beans at this price point, but thought even Cannelli would have been better. I did mention this to the kind older woman who helped bring out our dishes; I believe she is the owner, who said pinto beans are the only thing they can afford to keep the price down. I totally understand!

Our Cheese and Charcuterie plate was huge!

 I liked the fact that they "flagged" the cheeses for us. I especially enjoyed the Mitica KM39, firm and flavorful, it went well with the bread. I'm a fan of blue cheeses so I enjoyed the Stilton. I wish they sold Port by the glass, which would have been perfect with this; but unfortunately they don't. The Missus enjoyed the Spanish Chorizo and I the prosciutto and pate. The Pico went well with the candied walnuts as well.

This was a generous and well put together plate. The staff are wonderful. I was curious about the name of the place, "Cailloux" translates to "Pebbles" in English, but we weren't near a beach or river bed. I asked and was told that the owner named the shop after her late pooch, named "Pebbles"! You gotta love it! I know JJ did!

We were finishing right before the 6pm closing, but were told "please take your time - we won't be leaving until after 730". Very nice! It was a perfect early dinner for us and we'll make sure to return!

Cailloux Cheese Shop
1623 Mission Dr. Suite L
Solvang, CA 93463

We strolled back to the motel; the Missus relaxed in the little grass area reading. I took JJ for a nice stroll in the neighborhood. After JJ had his dinner, I took JJ to get a nightcap. During our last stay in Solvang, we discovered Vaquero Bar, attached to the Coast Range Steakhouse. The place seemed to have quite a few locals. I decided to take JJ and head on over.

The place was empty, except for one other customer, who seemed to be a regular.

I had a fairly "stiff" Old Fashioned and a nice chat with the Bartender, who also works with the county doing road repairs. He confirmed my "observations" on the morning and evening traffic patterns. He told me that this was indeed "slow" season. Things start picking up at the end of March, going all the way thru summer/early fall. 

Vaquero Bar (In Coast Range Restaurant)
1635 Mission Dr.
Solvang, CA 93463

This was a perfect end to an enjoyable stay. 

Though we had yet another road trip coming up in a few weeks!

Stay tuned!

Coffee Culture (Old Town) and Inka'fe (Bay Park)

Just a couple of caffeine fixes for today.

Inka'fe (Bay Park):

Back in January, I noticed that Inka'fe was replacing Humble Bean in the little building on the corner of Denver and Ingulf Streets. The shop didn't seem open yet, but on JJ's last grooming visit, we passed the shop and it was open! We needed to kill some time and wait for "J", so we decided to head on over to check things out.

It's a small shop, but there are quite a few coffee based drinks and Peruvian specialties on offer. I had read that Inka'fe is a woman owned business that specializes in organic beans harvested from Peru. There's also Inca Kola and even Lucuma Ice Cream on offer.

There are basically three different roasts that are rotated for the basic coffee drinks. On this day, it was the "City Roast". The Missus got a latte, which She thought was quite smooth, almost too smooth, and mild in flavor. I got a Cold Brew, which also did not seem especially strong.

It was quite easy to drink and seemed to be a bit lighter.

The young lady working was a joy. I need to return when things warm up and get some Lucuma Ice Cream and maybe an Inca Kola.

Inka'fe
2615 Denver St.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 7am - 4pm
Sat - Sun 8am - 4pm

Coffee Culture (Old Town):

I like to take JJ over to Old Town for a walk during the off season, when things are quiet in the mornings. On this Sunday morning, I skipped my usual coffee routine and we just headed on over to Old Town. I had thoughts of grabbing a cup at Garden Coffee, but I had forgotten that they open at 9....it was just past 8. And then I saw this.

Ah, yes.....I remembered seeing the sign for Coffee Culture replacing Hola Paris in the Urban Market back in December. I guess they had opened? I walked on over and yes indeed, they were open. 

Man, dig the art work! The young man working; I believe his name is Santiago was really friendly. We even had a chat about places in Mexico. On this day, the coffee featured was Guatemalan, so I got an Americano. I also saw that they have croissants, so I decided to take a chance....there's no bakery on sight, and they didn't have one on display, but I was told they had them. So, I got one of those as well.

The Americano was very earthy, though not bitter and lacking the sweet-acidity I enjoy....it was pretty stiff though and woke me up.

This was a decent cup.

Santiago was nice enough to heat up the Butter Croissant for me, but when he handed it to me, I knew it was basically mass produced stuff.

Very dry, not too crisp-flaky, lacking in salt and butter, the interior doughy......I'll just leave it at that.

Oh well, I'll come back and get a cup again though. The young man was so nice. On this day, JJ was just wanting to "get on with things".

Can you see he's telling me "daddy...hurry up?"

I hope they do well here. The Urban Market seems to have a pretty high rate of turnover. I'm thinking the lease rate must be pretty high.

Coffee Culture
2548 Congress St.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon - Tues 9am - 5pm
Wed - Sun 8am - 6pm

Paris - Those Familiar Places Café du Centre and Maison de Chengdu

Well, during our trip to London, the Cinque Terre and Genoa, and Milan, you knew I had to include my favorite city in Europe, right? Yes, we were staying in Paris, though only for four days this time around. Since we'd been on the go during our trip so far; we just wanted to mostly hang out in Paris. This was our seventh trip to the "City of Lights".

Our flight from Milan to Paris was just briefly delayed. And we had a decent lunch on the flight.

To make things easy for us, we stayed at the Citadines Les Halles. It was easy to get to from CDG via the RER Blue Line. From there, it was just a short walk to our favorite little street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil, which I've posted on many times. And of course, we had a seat at our favorite cafe, Café du Centre to just watch time pass us by.

It was pretty late in the day for a Cafe Allonge, so the Missus had a glass of wine and I had a Kir.

My goodness, it was great to be back in Paris!

Café du Centre
57 Rue Montorgueil
75002 Paris, France

When dinner time arrived, we decided to head on over to our favorite simple little Sichuan Restaurant, Maison de Chengdu. Which we first discovered when we stayed in Paris for two weeks and our apartment was just a block away. We strolled up Rue Montorgueil.....

Then taking a right on Rue Réaumur...yes, it was kind of the long way, but we enjoyed passing all those familiar places, including the apartment we stayed in during that two week visit. A right on Rue Volta and we had arrived.....

The restaurant was pretty quiet on this evening.

Though they had a ton of food delivery orders.

This time we took a seat on the ground floor and basically ordered the same items as on our last visit. And of course, we started with a Tsingtao.

The only item that was not as good as on our previous visit was the Stir Fried Mountain Yam as it was missing the red and green bell peppers and had hardly any woodear.

The Intestine Dry Pot was nicely cooked; the intestine actually had a bit of "crunch" to it, along with a decent amount of numbing tones from the Sichuan Peppercorn.

The Green Beans had a bit more pork this time around and was stir fried nicely.

The Missus got Her Chinese food fix in. All of this came out to about 42€.....let's say $50/US, which along with the minimal tipping in France, this was a bargain.

You can read about all about our previous visits in the links.

Maison De Chengdu (古味成都)
16 Rue Volta
75003 Paris, France

We took a nice long after dinner stroll, thru all those familiar streets, doing the Flâneur thing. In Paris, it's quite easy getting your "steps" in. You just don't realize how much you walk.

It was a joy to be back in Paris!

Me Sen - In 99 Ranch Market Clairemont Mesa

In yesterday's post on Sam Woo becoming San Wo I indicated I'd noticed two big changes in businesses within the 99 Ranch Market on Clairemont Mesa. The second one was this little shop, that has taken over the space previously occupied by the longstanding Sau Voi Deli. I walked on over and took a look.

A very nice young lady greeted me and told me they had just opened the past weekend and currently open at 10am. She also gave me a menu to view.

It's a nice and tight menu, just seven items featuring Thai Noodle Soups. Seemed like a nice change of pace for the area, so I decided to return. I arrived at a quarter after ten and there were already three of the five tables filled. I took a seat and the young lady brought me a menu and some water to get started.

I decided to get the Boat Noodles ($15.95) medium spicy, which turned out to be just right as I didn't have to add any chili oil or chilies.

It was nice and fragrant.

    It came with a variety of "cuts"; I went for the chicharron right away. 

The broth was quite soy-savory, I'd say almost beefy, with a decent amount of spice and anise-cilantro tones. Lots of flavor in this.

There was one large cut; it looked like brisket. I enjoyed the tendon, which looked tough, but was quite tender. There were two whisps of tripe which were nice a crunchy. Even the two pieces of liver were not bad.

   The Server recommended I get the rice noodles with this which reminded me of pho. It was perfectly prepared with a nice stretch to them.

Not the largest portion, but enough for me. I thought this was quite good and decided to return for a menu item.

I think it's really hard to find a good version of Khao Man Gai in San Diego, so I was excited to check it out so I returned a few days later. Unfortunately, they were out of the dish, so I had to find something else on the menu to try. 

I decided on the Kway Chap ($14.95)

   I was happy to note that they actually use the appropriate noodle, the curly-rolled rice noodle sheets known as kway chap in this. Nice and chewy! 

Als of note; the eggs while hard boiled weren't overcooked and did not have that greenish-grey tint. Decent soy sauce flavoring as well.

The meats again included chicharron, the rough cut of the tendon, some intestine, various other beef cuts and what tasted like stewed pork.

 The broth didn't have any spice, seemed a bit more porky and rich than the boat noodles. I ended up using the chili oil, which also had some nice acidity, and some chili flakes to help cut the richness.

Not a bad soup either.

I appreciated the fact that the portions skewed toward more Thai-sized. They seemed to be doing a pretty good takeout business. The folks working were very nice. I'm glad that we have a place that offers something a bit different in the area and that the prices aren't bad.

Now I gotta try that Khao Man Gai.....

Me Sen
7300 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Tues - Sun 10am - 8pm
Closed on Monday