mmm-yoso!!!

A Familiar Face at Izakaya Sakura

Recently, my good friends "XiangJiao" and "YummyYummy" told me that I needed to have dinner at Izakaya Sakura. Izakaya Sakura? My goodness, I mean, I think Sakura has the most posts on our humble little blog. I mean Cathy, the late Ed from Yuma (we miss you so much!), and I have done numerous posts on Sakura, from the "old days" to the day Sakura actually had a sign put up. I mean, what more was there for me to see there?

Still, it had been eight months since I visited, which filled a gap of of three years since I dined in at Sakura...though I did do takeout during the "days of Covid".

So, I thought why not?

And when I walked in, it was a surprise indeed!

But first, the food. I had always enjoyed the Chicken Karaage at Sakura, so I ordered that.

And got some sashimi.

 Does the presentation of the sashimi look familiar? Well, it should. When I sat, I was told "Sashimi Kirk-san...." it wasn't a question, more of an affirmation.

And I got quite the sashimi plate; a great combination of what was fresh and available. And then of course the "aji-senbei" to end things.

I'm sure you figured it out by now; Sam was now working at Sakura. It's kind of funny in a way. I've known and been a customer of Sam's for over 20 years. From the days at Katzra, to Sammy Sushi, then Wal-Mi-Do, and finally Sushi Yaro. It's quite ironic and interesting to see him working at Sakura, our most posted on restaurant....side by side with Kazu.

Sam is looking happy and seems to have recovered well from previous health issues.

Yes, the smile is back.

And I think it's more then a bit ironic to think that the purveyor of what I thought was a great example of the neighborhood sushi bar was now at one of our most posted on restaurants.

Life is interesting, isn't it?

Sam currently works evenings on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fridays.

Izakaya Sakura
3904 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Hawaiian Fresh Seafood Liberty Station

On a recent drive to Con Pane to get some sourdough for the Missus, I decided to drop by HFS's shop in Liberty Station. Strangely, I've been to the Market at HFS numerous times. Heck it's even on my warm weather rotation. But strangely, I'd never been to the shop they opened in Liberty Station that opened during the fall of 2021. It's not quite "poke weather" for me. But, after our recent trip "back home" I was kinda missing some decent poke so I decided to drop by.

This location is located off Womble Road (now that's a name) and Historic Decatur Road, in the back of Trader Joe's. It was just past the 11 opening time and I was shocked to find the place empty!

I figured that they wouldn't have a huge selection here and was correct. Only 6 different poke and three were salmon, which, sorry, I'm not going to get.

The young lady working was very nice. I got a Medium Bowl with Brown Rice ($18). And as is the usual when doing takeout, had the rice separated from the fish.

Got the shoyu ahi and the kimchi ahi. While there was some "sugi" (connective tissue) in the shoyu ahi, the quality of the fish was good overall. That kimchi ahi had a nice "kick" to it. The shoyu ahi was well coated and nicely flavored, not overly salty. The ahi pieces without the sugi was nice and buttery. A good portion size overall.

 And this was just what I needed at this moment. Don't get me wrong, this would be just decent poke back home; but it sure beats all those "chi-poke" places out there. And it made for a nice lunch.

Hawaiian Fresh Seafood Liberty Station
2400 Historic Decatur Rd. Suite 107
San Diego, CA 92106
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 6pm

Get Out There! The 2023 San Diego County Fair (Part one: before opening)

mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog, is being written by Cathy today. 

Yes, it's that time of the year.  In two days, the 2023 San Diego County Fair opens. The opening gate looks a little different, going with the theme:
 'Explore the outdoors and get s'more of what life has to offer' is the idea behind the simple entrance decor.
 The Theme building, to the right when you walk in, has a friendly looking entrance.



 Not much was set up as of last Wednesday.  The rides and food booths had been at the Los Angeles County Fair during most of May until Memorial Day and all had been packing up for the move to San Diego.

The only 'special food' for this Fair that I have seen is Chicken Charlie's is selling a 'deep fried s'mores on a stick' (batter dipped and fried marshmallows topped with chocolate sauce and graham cracker crumbs).

 Home Made (formerly Home and Hobby, formerly Home Arts) was setting up.
 Displays are finalized after judging, so as to focus on the Competition participants and winners.

Collections, needle arts, preserved foods, baked goods and cake decorating will all have ribbons displayed when you get to the Fair.  

Home Arts and animal auctions are why we have County Fairs; farmers and their families proudly showed off the fruits of their year of labor.

 2023 San Diego County Fair June 7-July 4.  Closed Monday and Tuesdays in June. Website (tickets and parking are cashless and available online)

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Last year, I only wrote one post about the County Fair.

 The Theme of "Heroes Reunite" was a continuation of the canceled 2020 Fair with the "Heroes Unite" theme. 

Decor around the Fairgrounds had capes and various heroes depicted. 

There was something The Mister and I noticed when we attended on a Thursday.  

 

 It turns out that every booth on Thursday had a $3 special.  There were pieces of paper, most handwritten, with a $3 Thursday special listed and taped to the booth behind the cash register.  There was nothing written on the Website nor on the Daily Fair Events handouts listing this pricing. I highly suspect the same will be happening on Thursdays during the Fair this year and will update asap. If you notice, most of the $3 specials are small (battered veggies, mini cream puffs, mini Dole Whip, fried pineapple and fried Oreos), but that fried pineapple from Chicken Charlie's was the whole $9 item! I hope that remains the Thursday special. (Remember there are five Chicken Charlies booths; each had a different special).

    Of course, we also purchased our 'regular' items, which included fried pickles, grilled vegetables, the artichoke sandwich and an apple tower.

In the meantime, I hope you can Get Out There and enjoy the San Diego County Fair!

Big Island - Koana Again (Mountain View), Big Island Candies (Hilo), and Village Burger (Kamuela)

After having an encore viewing of Halemaʻumaʻu the previous evening we were tempted to stop by again to check things out in the morning but decided to just keep the amazing visions of the previous night fresh in our memory instead and head on to our next stop of our trip. 

The Missus had enjoyed the Geisha pour-over from Koana the previous day and wanted to have it one more time so we stopped there for our morning coffee.

On this morning a young lady was working. She was very friendly and the Missus got Her coffee.

 I enjoyed sitting right outside the shop. The view of the plantation style houses reminded me of our trips to Honolua "small kid time" to see my grandparents.

I'm sure we'll stop by again whenever we're in the area.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

As we headed up thru Hilo, we decided to stop by another very familiar place, Big Island Candies. Waaay back when, a stop here was mandatory during our visits to Hilo.

It was right before Lunar New Year, so we made sure to get some goodies for my MIL.

And a bunch of omiyage as well.

And even "stuffs" that well....I'm still not quite sure about

Good lord, we bought so much that we got a free tote bag and a discount! Like I said before, when you visit "make sure to bring lots of money!"

Big Island Candies
585 Hinano St., 
Hilo, HI 96720

From here we headed up the Hamakua Coast, a drive we've made many times, past Honokaa, and finally into Waimea, which we call Kamuela. We were a bit early to check in at our accommodation, so we headed over to the Parker Ranch Center to get some lunch. 
If you've read our posts on the Big Island, you'll find that we really love revisiting favorites. And since we had enjoyed Village Burger so much the last time we were here we decided to grab lunch there.

 We had enjoyed the fact that everything from the pasture raised beef, to the brioche buns, to the mushrooms in the mushroom burger is local. The Missus had really enjoyed the mushroom burger the last time and of course, this being Parker Ranch territory, I needed to have that Big Island Beef Burger.

Of course, a decade has passed since we last visited, so we expected some changes. And yes, the burgers were smaller than what we'd had before.

Still, while there seemed to be a bit more "binder" in the Missus's Hamakua Mushroom Burger ($11), it was still full of earthy-umami goodness.

It used to be served on a sort of ciabatta type roll, but I think the yeasty-fluffy-mildly sweet brioche type roll does quite well to balance out the mushrooms. The Missus didn't order any mayo or mustard, which was a good choice as one could really enjoy the mushroom flavor.

I ordered my Burger ($11) Medium.

  This was cooked a bit past that, but the burger was so beefy! I requested just a touch of mustard, which combined with the wonderfully sweet and acidic tomato really helped to balance out the beefiness. The beef was a bit toothsome; but that's the deal with pasture raised beef made from cuts like chuck and brisket.

We both enjoyed this trip down burger-memory lane.

Village Burger
67-1185 Mamalahoa Hwy
Kamuela, HI 96743

We then took some time to explore Kamuela a bit and do some shopping.

And then we'd walk past a place.......

That would suddenly bring back memories from past visits.

And things just felt "right".

Thanks for stopping by!

Ngon Ngon Food To Go

Back during June of last year, I saw this signage on the side of Vinh Hung Market when I first noticed Paris Sandwiches was opening in Mira Mesa.

Ngon Ngon Food to Go? Well, that was interesting. Then of course, we did a bunch of travelling. And then, on one of my visits to see if Paris Sandwiches was open yet....they weren't, I decided to check things out.

Ngon Ngon has one of the shops down the hallway, before you get to Song Huong, right across what I think is a Filipino Bakery that never seems open?

Even though the name of the shop includes "Food-To-Go" there are several simple tables for those who want to dine in.

One thing I liked right away was the menu....this ain't your typical pho shop.

I went ahead and did a take-out order for something I hadn't had in a while, Bo Luc Lac. I then went and got some 85 Degrees stuff for the few folks in the office. When I returned my order was waiting. These folks are pretty darn fast.

Here's my Bo Luc Lac ($16).

   This was actually not bad. The large salad did have some brown leaves, but while the rice looked dry, it wasn't.

The beef was pretty good, with a pleasant toothsomeness. The sauce was a bit on the saltier side, but not overly so. I do like a hint of sweetness and deeper savory tones in my Bo Luc Lac, which was missing here. I usually expect a bit more green and red bell peppers, but really enjoyed the onions in this as it added a much-needed pungency to the dish.

This was actually better than what I expected.

So, I fully intended to return; though I guess with my schedule, trips, and such, I kind of left this place on the back burner. And when I did return to the plaza, I usually ended up going to Paris Sandwiches. Of course, it took one of our great "FOYs" to wake me from my slumber. In my post on Kumo Japanese Sandos, "Elle" inquired if I'd ever be doing a post on Ngon Ngon. Oh, yes! Thanks for the reminder Elle!

I really wanted to try a couple of dishes. So, on one of the days Calvin was actually in the office, we decided to head on over for lunch.

We started off with the Garlic Butter Chicken Wings ($9). These came out super-fast.

So, I believe the wings were being kept warm then fried quickly again before serving. The interior was on the dry side, but the batter was quite crunchy. Not much in terms of butter, but there was more than enough garlic to ward off any possible vampire attack. Good amount of salt as well.

Of course, we had to try the Bun Cha Hanoi ($15).

  A generous plate of fresh-looking bun, basil, mint, et al was provided. The nuoc mam cham was on the sweeter side of things. The sauce for the Bun Cha was on the sweeter end of things but wasn't too bad. Loved the pickled veggies, which helped to cut the sweet and saltiness. There were two good size pork patties, which were on the chewier end of things. The actual pork slices were much more flavorful in my opinion.

This was a pretty good version of the dish. I'd order this again.

The last item to arrive was the Cha Ca Thang Long ($17). This looked pretty bad.

While it arrived on the typical sizzling plate....well, it wasn't sizzling. The dill and onions were soggy and wilted, and the fish cold. This was quite strange. Totally a far cry from our favorite version in SoCal. The fish tasted slightly muddy as well.

It did come with the usual accoutrements and the Mam Tom wasn't bad at all. 

A pair of women came in a bit after us and ordered the Cha Ca and it arrived sizzling; so perhaps this was just a mistake? Perhaps our plate was sitting for too long? Still, even if it was an "oopsie", this is bad quality control.

I'll give them a pass this time.....

The woman brought us some rice pudding for dessert which was a nice touch.

As things stand; I'd have the Bun Cha and Bo Luc Lac again and I may try a couple of other dishes at this no-frills stand. The woman working is very nice and with Bolsa closing, this place fills a niche.

Ngon Ngon Food To-Go
10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126
Current Hours:
Tues - Sun 9am - 8pm
Closed on Mondays

Chamorro Grill Revisited

A while back FOY "ChrisR" sent me an email recommending the PSER at Chamorro Grill. That would be Portuguese Sausage, Eggs, and Rice for those who haven't spent much time in Hawai'i. I had meant to drop by; but PSER is kind of a breakfast thing for me, and Chamorro Grill doesn't open until like 11am. Recently, I needed to take my car in for servicing in the Mission Gorge area and by the time my vehicle was ready it was nearly 11. So, I thought it would be a good time to check out the PSER at Chamorro Grill. 

Man, would you believe it's been almost 13 years since I last visited! Yeow.

The place looks basically the same. I went and placed my order at the counter, the Portuguese Sausage, Eggs, and Rice ($13) and a small side of Kelaguen ($3). I ordered my eggs easy over. About 15 minutes later my food was ready.

 I got my plate with Red Rice instead of white. The rice was done quite well, moist, good texture, there was another scoop of rice hiding under the eggs. There was a good amount of Portuguese Sausage, which was really crisp and hard, almost like it was deep fried! While I do like the exterior of my sausage crisp; this had taken it a bit far. The sausage was dry. The eggs were a nice easy-over and that egg yolk flowed beautifully over the rice. No off flavors: though I needed to get some salt as it seems that they don't season the eggs. I also like my eggs crisp around the edges.

I was curious as to how the Kelaguen would be.

While lacking in chilies, the chicken was much more finely chopped than what I'd had here previously. It was moist and tender, good sour tones, perfect sodium level. The finedene was strange; quite salty, but not sour enough. Still, this was a decent version.

The folks working were nice, they told the thank you and goodbye as I left. I'll need to make sure not to wait 13 years to return!

Chamorro Grill
6628 Mission Gorge Rd.
San Diego, CA 92120
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 8pm

Thanks for the email and recommendation ChrisR!

Big Island - The Volcano Thursday Market, Revisiting Halemaʻumaʻu, and Dinner at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant (Again)

After lunch at Suisan we headed back to the Kilauea Lodge and took a short break. I also made late dinner reservations at the restaurant, this would allow us to spend more time revisiting Kilauea Caldera. We decided to head back out before sunset so we could easily find parking and relax and watch the "show". Before heading back there, I had one more stop in mind. It was Thursday and Volcano Village has a local food and crafts market at the Cooper Center. So, we headed there first.

It's a quaint little market and it seems that a lot of the folks there were locals as folks were having fun socializing.

Food and craft booths were set-up thru the community center.

It was a nice little stop.

Volcano Thursday Market (At Cooper Center)
19-4030 Wright Rd.
Volcano, HI 96785

We then headed back to the Kilauea Overlook and easily found parking adjacent to the lookout. There were folks just arriving to check out the "show".

Folks even brought beach chairs! We chatted with a few folks and they were all locals; some driving all the way from Kona!

Several folks brought offerings for Madame Pele.

We just stood and watched Halemaʻumaʻu doing its thing.

As the sun slowly set the bright red colors became the star of the show.

You could even make out the spatter cone!

We just loved this! We stood our eyes fixated on the crater, just as amazed as we were the night before. Heck, if we stayed another night, we would have returned again!

As it was, we felt blessed to have been able to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience twice!

More folks started arriving and the parking lots were closed. It was time to head back for dinner.

We just wanted to take things easy on this evening and had made dinner reservations at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant again.

The staff here are wonderful, so warm and friendly.

This time we started with the Coconut Brie which came with the bread made inhouse.

 The coconut crust was a bit too sweet for us. There were also spots where the coconut was burnt, adding a rather unpleasant bitterness to the dish.

We enjoyed the bread.

The Missus had the same main as previous night, Crispy Tofu.

Again, we thought the star of the dish was the cauliflower and mushrooms.

This time around, I kind of went against my better judgement and got the Seafood Risotto.

The risotto was the standard par cooked version and some of the arborio rice was under cooked and hard in the center, it was also on the salty side. The Kaua'i Shrimp was outstanding, sweet and briny, cooked perfectly. The mussels were overcooked and dry; but the clams were nice and tender.

Overall, based on our dinner the previous night, we got what we expected. Of dishes, made better by the fantastic staff.

Kilauea Lodge Restaurant
19-3948 Old Volcano Road
Volcano Village, HI 96785

And most of all, we got to witness the glory of Madame Pele and nature!

Big Island - Koana and Mountain View Bakery (Mountain View), Chain of Craters Road, and Suisan (Hilo)

We had a wonderful first day and evening on the Big Island. Man, it's hard to believe that it had been a decade since we last visited.

And since we were staying in Volcano Village, we wanted to resurrect an old tradition we had. But first, the Missus wanted a nice cup o' joe. I had done a bit of research and found a place in Mountain View, about a 15 minute drive from Volcano Village that just seemed perfect for the "coffee snob" in the family. A place named Koana.

This specialty coffee shop only did pour over....like I said, this place would be perfect for the Missus, right?

The bright, rustic space was quite welcoming.

As was the owner; who kindly took time to explain everything they had for the day. 

In addition to the local coffees the place sold....

There were other local kine stuffs as well.

The Missus immediately homed in on the Paradise Coffee Kona Geisha Champagne Natural. The owner of Koana, Brian, told us that this coffee won the 2022 Hawaiian Coffee Association competition. Oh-kay.....

While we waited for our coffee we took a quick look around...the place has a real "old time" feel to it and reminds me of Honolua, way back in the 60's and 70's.

Meanwhile, I felt a bit peckish, so I walked on over to Mountain View Bakery. Man, the last time I was here was back in 90's, before I met the Missus.

This place is famous for their Stone Cookies and has been around since 1936! It's got a real old time, small town feel to it.

I got a taro mochi donut and a Spam Musubi. Breakfast of champions!

The mochi donut is made from glutinous rice and has a bit of a chew to it. It wasn't overly sweet. I liked it, but the Missus did not.

My musubi was perfect!

    The Missus loved Her coffee and wanted to buy a bag. So, we went in and took a look around and could not find the coffee. So we asked Brian who told us he had two bags left behind the counter. He sold us one. It was $95! The Missus just absolutely loved this coffee.

Thus is life in the mmm-yoso household. The Missus gets Her $95 Kona Geisha coffee and I get a......Spam Musubi! Sounds like a fair deal, right?

We also bought some other stuffs as well.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

Mountain Vewi Bakery
18-1319 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

From here we headed back into Volcanoes National Park and proceeded to do what has become sort a tradition for us; a drive down Chain of Craters Road.

It's something we've done on every visit to the Big Island since we got married years ago.

It all seems familiar, and yet, different on every visit.

It's a reminder of how amazing this "Blue Marble" we live on is. We make stops along the way. At familiar places, like the Hōlei Sea Arch.

And there's another tradition we have or at least had, which I mentioned in my post from all those years ago:

" We always drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road, park, it used to be that you'd park just a couple of yards from the flow, but now you walk about a half mile or so. I always take a photo of the Missus at the point where the lava is covering the road.

When we look back at the older photos, we've noticed that the flow has moved and even though things might seem the same when the picture is taken; looking at the photos all lined up reveals that nature never stays still. For us, this is a nice timeline of sorts....the Missus on the lava flow, moving, maybe at an imperceptible speed, but nevertheless, still slowly moving."

Well, with time comes change. What used to be this:

In 2012, is now this in 2023. Though it's chained off.

Of course soon enough the question of "what's for lunch" came up. Well, the Missus had Her heart set on Suisan, which has long been a favorite of Hers. We'd arrived in Hilo on a day when Suisan was closed. So off we went on an hours drive into Hilo!

    We were interested to see what effect the "time of Covid" had on Suisan and it was soon evident. Gone are the tables out front. You wait in line in front of the shop, there's a limit to the amount of folks they let into a shop at any one time.

Gone are the cold cases and the selection of poke is much smaller now.

We got a poke bowl with the Ahi Hawaiian and Shoyu Ahi ($15.50), a quarter pound Ahi Mango Habanero, and even went and tried the Scallop Lemon Shoyu and the Butter Garlic Prawns. We took our stuffs to the former location of the restaurant outside Suisan which is now closed and went for it.

 In terms of fish quality the ahi in the Ahi Limu and the Mango Habanero was excellent, tender and almost buttery. Some of the pieces in the Shoyu Ahi had "sugi" that made it chewy. I wish there was more limu in the Ahi Hawaiian, though the flavoring for all three poke was spot on, not too salty, but well prepped and seasoned. The Mango Habanero was a nice surprise, fruity spice, perfect salt, without being too sweet.

As for the "pupus", well, the Butter Garlic Prawns were really tough, not much garlic flavor.

The Lemon Shoyu Scallops were also really chewy and there was an amount of "grit" in it that we didn't enjoy.

Still, that poke did "hit the spot". We'd return one more time before leaving the Big Island; though we'd stay with just poke on that visit.

Suisan Company Limited
93 Lihiwai St
Hilo, HI 96720