mmm-yoso!!!

From Winter to Summer in a Week! Revisits to Menya Ultra and The Market At HFS

Well, so far the first couple of weeks of the New Year has been quite hectic....not only work, but sadly, Frankie had a seizure on New Year's Day. He's doing fine now, eating, drinking, pooping....going on walks. He's been blind for a while and has dementia, but hanging in there. We've set-up sort of a "senior living" area for him, with an indoor/outdoor rug, several beds, indoor dog gates, and one of those indoor wifi cams with pet motioned detector, and such. He's doing as well as possible considering the circumstances.

And like I said, we take a couple of walks during each day and I'm surprised that there are places within two blocks of home that I had never discovered before.

And then of course; there's been the weather! From the mid-40's around New Year to record breaking highs in the 80's this past week.

Our eating definitely reflects that.

We started with our usual takeout from Menya, during the first week of January with temps dipping into the high 40's and low 50's; adding in a "ahem" snack for me, some Negipon; which the Missus also enjoyed.

I've gone thru "my drill" with the stay at home kit before; so I won't beat that dead horse. I will say that I used the leftover noodles to make a nice Japanese curry noodles for one of my lunches.

Menya Ultra Ramen
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
858-571-2010
Current Hours:
Mon - Thurs 1030am - 2pm, 4pm - 8pm
Fri - Sun   1030am - 8pm

And then this past week happened....man, I don't recall having the mercury hit the mid-80's where we live in January. So the Missus was wanted Her "fix" from HFS.

I had to work a couple of hours during the weekend anyway and then headed off at around 935, getting to HFS right before 10.....and there were already 3 parties ahead of me in line!

Regardless, things went quite quickly. I hadn't been here since winter hit.....now HFS has two registers and things go a bit faster.

The Missus got Her fix....though one of these days I'll go through "the drill"....as the Missus has Her poke "done" a certain way.

In my opinion, still the closest I can get to "home". Though "FOY" ChrisR, who is from Hilo told me things can be slim pickins' around closing time at HFS......which makes sense; we wouldn't go to our poke places near closing as all you going get is da leftova's….

Anyway, we're hoping you're hanging in there. My true hope is that we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Market At HFS
6491 Weathers Place
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 282-0591
Current Hours:
Daily 10am - 4pm

Take care and be safe!

A winter road trip-Denver to San Diego

mmm-yoso is a food blog.  Todays post is about food but not about any local places and is written by Cathy.  Kirk is really busy.

Long story short: 2020 was a sad year for all of us and for my family personally.  Death certificates were involved and a small consolation was the availability of a vehicle with low mileage (opposed to mine with 230K miles).  My brother started driving and called from Iowa last Tuesday.  I flew into Denver on Wednesday and we began driving West together.  Here are some highlights of the trip, with food. 

The Denver Airport is huge and there are three terminals/train stops before you get to luggage pick up.  I was fascinated.

 We were on our way in the chilly weather, with a view of the Rockies. 
Needing to fuel up and get a snack or two, we stopped into one of the many Convenience Store Truck stops that line our highways and byways, Kum & Go.  Yes.  It was mentioned in the middle of this post. 




 There is more, much, much more offered.
 No, I did not purchase any branded merchandise, not even the washable face mask.  We took the Exit in Golden, Colorado to Historic Central City, Colorado, a former Mining Town  which has the primary road named Casino Parkway.  We stopped here, the Monarch Casino Resort Spa. There's a 24 hour Cafe.



 Shrimp linguine, a bowl of (really good) clam chowder and a side salad with my undecided dressing choices. Great food, pretty town. Still decorated for Christmas.
That night we got to Silt-Rifle, Colorado and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, which had a beautiful view from the room. and a bagged breakfast instead of buffet, because...Covid.  (and yes, it was cold- ). 
Eventually, we got to Utah,  which has Rest Areas with explanations of your view. 

Freeway exits notify you of businesses at that exit.  We saw "Mom's Cafe" and had to. It's about two miles form the exit.


The Special- Hot roast beef w/ mashed potatoes and vegetables.  Soup of the day: Chicken noodle.  We each ordered the same thing.
 Home made noodles.  Dumplings, really.  A wonderful, perfect broth.  Quite a bit of chicken.  A great cup of soup.

 A huge portion of roast beef.  Real mashed potatoes, lovely beefy gravy and more fresh carrots.
 Our nice waitress, Kathryn, brought this warm delight out.  She called it a 'scone' and said it was what Mom's was known for.  It was a sort of Indian Fry Bread.  Still warm, it tasted slightly sweet and was fluffy and nice.  With the honey butter on top, it was a fancy donut! So glad we stopped here. 

Price?  each special was $8.99, beverages $2.29

Mom's Cafe 10 East Main Street Salina, Utah 84654 (435) 529-3921 Website

We continued driving through Utah, a bit of Arizona and then Nevada, which had pretty rest areas.
I dropped my brother at the rental car area at the Las Vegas Airport and checked into the hotel, which had this view from the 9th floor in the morning.
  My dinner was an appetizer plate.   Breakfast the next morning was the corned beef hash.  Driving home to California, I stopped in Baker, but only for photos.  Then I continued on to San Diego.  A winter trip, with food,   and a new (to me) car.

Stay safe!  

Sorry for the lack of posts

My apologies for the lack of posts. The last couple of weeks has been some of the most challenging I've had in my career, which stretches back to 1989. Never thought I'd be working this hard in the twilight of my career. Anyway, hoping to catch up on some posts this week.

And share stuff I've eaten, like this with you all soon.

Take care, be safe!

Ol' Rodeo's Meat Market and Yogurt Mill (El Cajon) again, but it's COVID-19

Thanks for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog trying to share a bit of 'normal' during these decidedly abnormal times.  Cathy is writing today while Kirk enjoys His job.  

I wrote about our favorite 'secret' place for great food with great dessert back when times were simpler, all the way back in August of 2019.

 The small, conveniently located market has been in El Cajon for at least ten years.  The Mister and I purchase warm tortillas and carne asada as well as other meats from the butcher shop counter, while ordering from the in store taqueria. Way back when 'eating in' was allowed (October?November?) The Mister and I woke up talking about craving the birria.  The meal is now $8.99 and was brought to one of the properly spaced in-store tables. The birria is either beef or mutton (depending on the day) and is a deep flavored, long simmered (at least three hours) wonderful stew.  There are ancho as well as guajillo peppers, garlic, oregano and a wonderful mix of herbs and spices.
 We have been ordering birria "To Go" and the packaging is nice.  The broth is kept separate from the meat and the serving size is the same or larger as the in-store plating.
We usually order one taco ($2.50), so that the other person has something to eat while the other is enjoying the stew. Our favorite here is the adobada (marinated pork).
 Although the carnitas is quite nice.  

Eating local; an easy resolution.

Ol' Rodeo's Meat Market 927 Broadway El Cajon 92021 (619) 401-7351 

Right next door is The Yogurt Mill.  (That is Ol' Rodeo to the right in this photo)
 Family run now in its 43rd year. Just frozen yogurt and a variety of toppings. Five of the flavors change daily (including one non-dairy and one non-sugar), five remain the same (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coconut and peanut butter).  The "Baby" size ($3.60) is enough for sharing.  

  Flavors shown here are tart peach and pistachio; peanut butter and coffee (not photogenic, but tasty); strawberry and coconut.  

Always a nice ending to a good meal.

Yogurt Mill 935 Broadway El Cajon 92021 Open daily 11-9

Takeout from Yummy House

After doing that crazy three stop takeout thing for the Missus, I started thinking about other Chinese Restaurants in the Convoy area. And Yummy House came to mind. For some reason, I thought that I hadn't been there in over a year.....but doing a search, I found that I actually last visited in February. Well, I guess with the pandemic raging, February of 2020 just seems like a different time these days. Anyway, since I'd pretty much have never seen customers in the place, I was wondering if they were still open. On one of drives I passed by and did notice they were still open. A few days later, I gave the online ordering on their website a shot.

And I'm happy to say, everything went fine as my order was ready and waiting when I arrived.....I barely spent 3 minutes in the place!

I unpacked the three dishes I ordered when I got home and set to work.

The Stir Fried Pork Intestine ($13.98), was passable, nice texture, mild musty-funkiness, with a bit of heat.

It was a decent prep, but nothing special, and perhaps could have even used a bit more savory-saltiness....sheesh, when was the last time I said that about any takeout Chinese food?

My usual favorite the Beef Tendon Pot ($16.98) portion size was quite a bit smaller than I recalled.

And while the "sauce" was a bit thinner than on previous occaisions, the tendon was pleasantly textured; slightly firm, but yielding easily when bitten into. I like the tanginess of this tomoato based dish, but the Missus isn't fond of the amount of acidity. The beef was sligtly toothsome, but full of beefy goodness. Still my favorite dish here.

For the Missus I got the Lamb with Suan Cai ($16.98)....I had to laugh as this is called Sauerkraut with Lamb on the online menu.

While the suan cai here wasn't overly fermented in flavor; and we were out of our homemade which we like to add to these type of dishes, our first batch of the year was bottled two days ago, so the Missus thought this was pretty "weak" and then proceeded to polish it all off, so perhaps it wasn't that weak after all? I did manage a few bites and found the lamb to be on the dry and chewy side, but nice and gamey. It definitely could have used more sour-fermented tones; but this was not bad and far from bland.

So, overall a not bad meal. I Yummy House is surviving thus far and I'll probably order from them again when I'm craving the Tendon with Tomato Hot Pot and perhaps find some other items I enjoy on the menu.

Yummy House
4633 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 499-8999
Current Hours:
Tues - Sunday 2pm - 1030pm

Recently Consumed

I had ST email me asking what happened to my usual New Year Osechi post, the one I've been doing since 2005. I have noticed that the availability for sale has gone down over the years and the model has increasingly become a "preorder" one. Of course, this year was even more different...….so I just went for a visit during a short break on the 30th and found, that even at 11am, there were pretty slim pickins'.

And frankly; I thought the lines on NYE were going to be crazy; which they were......I drove past on NYE and the line stretched all the way across the mall! So perhaps this 15 tradition has come to an end.....

As for us? Well, I used up the rest of our Duck Confit, along with my bag of Cassoulet Beans from Rancho Gordo, which has been selling out of everything since Covid, and some Garlic Sausage from D'Artagnan and made the Missus Her Cassoulet. She specifically wanted duck in the cassoulet along with a duck leg on top and also a fried egg.....

There have been quite a bit of beans/lentil soup and stews in the mix this year. Is it just me; or does it feel much colder this year? Or is it just that I'm working from home so much?

And still having a pound of garlic sausage left; I did a sort of white bean stew, using the sausage, pancetta, duck rillette, and chard.

The Missus requested Oden "Her way", which meant no kamaboko or chikuwa....only the expensive stuff. This time I put in some kokubo (turnips) which She enjoyed.

And then of course; there's my comfort food".

And....I even went ahead and made Karaage Curry......

Left over Soppressata from a recent order from Salumi Chicago made a decent frittata. Topped with Truffled Marcona Almonds....

And there it is....a round up of dishes that I remembered to take photos of the last couple of weeks.

Tell me, what have you been eating at home?

Our Last Meal of 2020 - Sushi Tadokoro

It's an understatement to say that 2020 has been a difficult year; a year like none I've experienced in my lifetime and hope no one ever has to experience again. And yes, this year has been different; though I always try to be optimistic as we turn the page on each year....this one though, I can't wait to flip over.

Still, even though things are different, the Missus and I decided that we needed to at least celebrate the fact that we made it through.....so far...there's still a couple of hours left.

And so, we ordered our NYE takeout from Tadokoro a few days ahead, which turned out to be a good move since when I arrived to pick our food up; folks ordering takeout were out of luck.

Things were buzzing; but there were no shortcuts to be found on what we had for dinner.

It was a delicious meal, one which I hope is repeated many times in the future. Heck....maybe even next week? After all, we need to start 2021 on the right foot, correct?

Sushi Tadokoro
2244 San Diego Ave
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 297-0298

Anyway, thank you all so much for taking time out to read our humble little blog during these tough times. We wish everyone a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Take Care!

 

Kanazawa Curry Rice and Nagoya Teba To Go From Yakyudori

Over the last couple of months I've found that depending on the context and situation, certain words will bring on a sort of nostalgia....taking me back to certain places and times. I had been wanting to get dinner from Hinotez while it was open for takeout. But after outdoor dining shut down, Hinotez went into hibernation. One evening, when the Missus was working; doing a night shift to help out in the South Bay, I just went over to Yakyudori's website and found that they were doing takeout. And then I saw it...….Kanazawa, a city we enjoyed visiting, and of course Nagoya.....bringing back memories of having yakitori at the original Yakyudori and also Hinotez 2 there.

Well, I just had to place an order.

I placed an order for the "Kanazawa" Curry Rice and recalling how much I enjoyed the karaage curry version at Hinotez, got it that way. And also an order of Nagoya Teba as well. Things were ready when I arrived....I had been kinda leery of Yakyudori when they put the "tent" up for outside dining as it was closed on three sides, which for me is bad for ventilation. Now with outdoor dining shut down it was totally removed.

I unpacked upon reaching home and set about to devour dinner immediately.

This was quite promising as the curry was still hot and the karaage….well, I just had to try one, was crisp with decent savory tones....well marinated. It perfectly mirrored what I had when I did my Yakuyudori versus Taisho posts years ago.

I eagerly poured the very thick curry over the karaage and rice.

The curry was thick and beefy (a hallmark of Kanazawa style curry from what I understand), like a good ragu of sorts. While it could do with having a bit more spice for my taste, it was just like a wonderful hearty, beefy, curry gravy for the crunchy, salty-savory karaage. Every bit as good as what I had enjoyed at Hinotez in the past...perhaps even better; darker, richer....nearly teetering on "too much of a good thing" but I enjoyed it, especially after what I recently got from Zen Curry.

Sadly, the Nagoya Teba did not meet expectations. Even though it had held up pretty well on he drive home.

It was more crunchy than crisp; but was missing the distinct taste of black pepper, not enough sesame seeds, way too sweet; even with regards to Nagoya Teba.

But I really didn't mind, the curry was a winnah! And while we didn't have curry when we visited Kanazawa, we will be sure to try some when we get back there. And while those wings didn't deliver; heck, I was happy just to remember our trips to Nagoya and Kanazawa and all the great memories. And perhaps, for a moment, when dreaming of being able to travel again....there was a slight glimmer of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.....one that I hope will be shining brightly soon.

Yakyudori
4898 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 268-2888
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am - 2pm, 430pm - 8pm