mmm-yoso!!!

Bonita Farmers Market-smoked tri tip

mmm-yoso!!! welcomes you back.  This is another post written by Cathy (because Kirk is elsewhere, with His Missus, preparing/researching some postings).

Recently, a dear client mentioned a memorable sandwich he and his wife had for lunch from this local market.  It's located in the same parking lot as Hans and Harry's in Bonita.

   The Mister and I stopped in on a Saturday and walked through the store which is undergoing renovations.  Fresh, warm tortillas in an insulated box on the floor, as well as all sorts of beverages, a couple of grocery aisles and a small freezer as well as a meat counter with well-priced selections made this look like a convenient place in the neighborhood.  We ordered and paid at the check out counter.
 There are outdoor tables and on the weekends, the smoker is filled with meats (ready at around 2 p.m., if you want to purchase by the pound).
 Soon, our sandwich was brought out. ($11.99, includes a beverage from the cooler).
 It's already cut in half and ordered with 'everything'- mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato,  avocado, onion, pickled jalapeño and pickled carrots.  Sometimes we have to 'rearrange' the tri-tip on our sandwich. 
 The meat has an excellent flavor-smoky and meaty (with a thin smoke ring),even with the condiments.  The torta is soft and fresh.  The size is just right for sharing.

A wonderful sandwich and great neighborhood store.

Bonita Farmers Market 5080 Bonita Road Bonita, CA 91902 Website (619) 292-3115 Open Mon-Sat 7 a.m.-7 p.m., Sun 7:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

 You might notice the truck in the parking lot, as well as neighbors who stop by on weekends.

Ramona Country Bakery (Ramona)

mmm-yoso!!! is being written by Cathy today; Kirk and His Missus are on another adventure!

The Mister and I had purchased a loaf of local made bread when we went to Frazier Farms Market in La Mesa and it was very good.  I only remembered it was from Ramona.  Fast-forward to February and some clients were telling me about 'this new bakery in town' and I recognized the deceptively simple name which had been forgotten.   The facades of buildings on Main Street in Ramona are quite interesting.  The Miles Mercantile building (on the West side, between Sixth and Seventh) is the home of Ramona Country Bakery, which opened in October, 2022.  The bakery is family owned.     It's next to the Town Hall and across the street from Turkey Inn, if you need a better visual.

 Sttep inside and there's a beautiful area of antique furniture pieces filled with fresh made bread, right next to a small condiment area (for the coffee served here).
 Behind (as well as on) the counter are cloche covered fresh baked treats.
 I did order a plain cheese danish ($3) the other day (blueberry cheese was also available) and it was excellent with a light puffy, crisp laminated dough as well as a flavorful creamy cheesecake filling; not too sweet.
 In February, I chose the Cranberry Walnut Bread ($7).  Soft crust, springy texture and just enough raisin and crisp walnuts to make a slice taste good plain (with or without butter), toasted (with butter) or as the base of a chicken salad sandwich. 

When I walked in the other day, I could smell fresh baked bread- and a loaf of the plain sourdough ($7) was the bread that had just finished baking-and my order.  Crisp crust,  a soft and elastic center crumb texture.  The sourdough bread is made with organic flour and naturally leavened with triple fermenting.  The 'sour' part is just right- not too bold.  It is an excellent bread.

We will return to try another bread (there are quite a few choices) and some more sweets with a cup of coffee.  Soon.

Ramona Country Bakery 733 Main Street, Suite B Ramona, CA 92065 (971) 732-9585  Open Tues-Fri 8-5, Sat-Sun 8-4 Website 

Takeout from Tenkatori (Again)

A couple of weeks back "FOY" ChrisR sent me an email with some photos with the title "Tenkatori impresses". I then sent him a link to my post from May of last year. Apparently Chris hadn't read that post? And here I thought he was a F(riend) o(f) Y(oso)! Of course, I'm just kidding (I think?). I actually appreciate that email as it placed a reminder in "mi cabeza" about returning to Tenkatori.

I thought about online ordering, but there's an additional $3 fee that I'd rather provide as a tip to the restaurant. So, just like what I do for takeout at EE Nami I called in my order right at 11. I was given the time of 1130 for pick-up.

I arrived a bit early and managed to find a space in the rather merciless parking lot. The woman working the counter was juggling a couple of takeout customers and the phone which seemed to be ringing non-stop. 

By the time I made it to the counter my order was waiting...in fact, it's that first package in the photo above. I had ordered the "Mix" Bento Box which was $9.90 in May of last year. It is now priced at $12.50.

The drive back to the office took about 15 minutes and this is what the Mix Bento looked like.

   The wings actually held up better than the Karaage. Don't get me wrong, the karaage was very moist and tender, but that light, what seems to be katakuriko based batter is made for eating quickly. I think of the flavors are very nicely balanced, soy-with a touch of sweetness. I like that the karaage still has skin attached. The "whole" wings (tips and drumettes included) did well. Like I've mentioned before, I like the addition of wing tips as they add a nice cartiligous texture with the addition of the batter of course. I could make out a touch of the shichimi togarashi a lot clearer than the karaage.

The potato "salad" was the same as before, mashed potatoes. Decently seasoned, with a sweet, teriyaki like sauce on it. The rice was a bit harder than I like, but serviceable. This is not by any means a large portion of protein, but these days it's enough for me.

Which lead me to wonder why I don't come here more often. Of course, I really like the gizzards and the nankotsu.....so I'll probably wait for a day when Calvin comes into the office to order all that stuff.

Thanks again to Chris who took the time out to send me an email with photographic evidence! Hope you get back to Hilo soon!

Tenkatori Miramar
6780 Miramar Rd Suite 104
San Diego, CA 92121

Takeout from Soi 30th (Revisit)

Thai is usually a spring-summer kind of thing for us. But, upon returning from our trip "home", the Missus was craving some Thai food. We thought it would be nice to do some takeout from Soi 30th. We'd place our order then take a walk and pick-up our takeout on the way back to the car. Man, Soi 30th was pretty busy, but as usual the folks working were quite nice. We placed our order, then went for a short walk before circling back to pick up our food which was ready as I walked thru the shop's doors.

We got back positively famished and unpacked our order.

Something struck us right away, one of dishes was missing an ingredient, the dishes didn't seem as fragrant as what we'd had befor.

The Larb Moo Krob has always been a favorite of mine, but this was really disappointing.

I ordered this spicy but it was really mild, it lacked rice powder which adds a nice nutty flavor to the dish. The pork was hard and tough, not good eats. Man, this was really dry overall and it lacked savory tones....almost like they forgot the fish sauce. 

After the larb, I was kind of worried about the Chinese Broccoli (gai lan) with Pork Belly.

 This was a shade better than the larb, at least it had a bit more heat to it. The gailan was crisp and nicely stir fried. The pork belly suffered the same fate as the previous dish; it was hard. We were left wondering what was going on with the usually crisp and tasty pork belly.

The last item we ordered was the Chicken with Holy Basil.

   Well, the first thing the Missus said when I opened this was "where's the fried egg"? We had ordered and paid for the "fried egg option" but they forgot to put it in this dish. Bummer. And I wasn't about to drive all the way back to 30th street for a $1.75 egg. This dish needed more basil and the overall texture was on the greasy side. At least the chicken wasn't hard and dry as we'd experienced before.

This meal left us scratching our heads, as a whole we had enjoyed our meals from Soi 30th, so we weren't quite sure what was going on here. Perhaps it was just a bad day, but going oh-fer-three is not good.

Soi 30th
3442 30th St.
San Diego, CA 92104

Toulouse - Le Capitole, Basilique Saint-Sernin, and Dinner at Le Bibent

After having a bit of an adventure trying to get out of Carcassonne, we made our way to Toulouse by bus, which ended up taking 4 hours. Once we made it to the city however, things went quite quickly. We were staying right on the the main square Place du Capitole. And it was a snap getting there on the metro, which was fast and efficient.

We stayed at the Hotel du Grand Balcon.

We really enjoyed the location and our room had a view of the square and this being the end of November, there was a lively Christmas Market happening. We loved just watching the goings on from our window.

I listen to quite a few Podcasts and one of my favorites is Join Us In France. A frequent guest on the Podcast is Elyse Riven who runs Toulouse Guided Walks. Not knowing much about Toulouse, I tried booking a tour with Elyse, but unfortunately this being the holiday season Elyse was travelling during our time in Toulouse. That said, Elyse was so generous in making a few recommendations and I did download her VoiceMap audio tour. We really enjoyed Toulouse and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to book one of her walks next time around.

We were quite happy to find that our room was ready when we arrived. We freshened up and then headed out. It turned out that Toulouse was a wonderful city for walking. Our first stop was right across the square at Le Capitole, a combination City Hall, Theatre, with beautiful State Rooms. 

To us, Le Capitole seemed more like a grand art gallery, then a municipal building.

From the Grand Staircase which dates back to 1674 and beautiful paintings that adorn it.....

Which leads to three halls, each featuring stunning artwork.

Whoa.....we really didn't anticipate all this grand and quite stunning art!

It was a nice first stop for us in Toulouse.

From Place du Capitole streets stretch out in  all directions like a spider web. We headed up north a bit to see Basilique Saint-Sernin. This huge Romanesque style church was constructed in the 11th Century.

This was once the church of the Abbey of Saint-Sernin. Only the church remains. It is said that Pope Fabian sent the church's namesake, Sernin, consecrated as a Bishop to France, which was then Gaul, where the Christian religion had been replaced by pagan beliefs. Sernin, would walk past the various pagan temples, the idols would suddenly not be able to prophesize. The priests grew angry, seized him, tied him to a bull and he was dragged to his death. The Bull finally ended up on the street going up to the Basilica, now named Rue du Taur (Route of the Bull) and at the place where the bull finally deposited the body of Saint Sernin is a church now named Notre Dame du Taur.

The interior, as expected is quite grand.

And is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We even found a statue of Saint Roch, the Patron Saint of Dogs!

We stopped by Notre-Dame du Taur on the way back to the hotel. I took a photo of the exterior of the church later in our visit.

We returned to our room and took a short break before dinner.

One of the challenges I encountered while making plans for our stay in Toulouse was making reservations for dinner. Most places did not do online reservations and my French is horrendous, so there's no way they'd be able to understand what I'm saying. I did manage online reservations at two places, one of which was a recommendation from Elyse. We did try to drop by restaurants to attempt to make reservations, but alas, the places were booked solid. I really need to do that French immersion thing.

Still, Toulouse had a more relaxed vibe than Paris, much less touristy. In fact the Aerospace and Aeronautics sector is the largest employer in Toulouse. We really enjoyed our time in the city, though I'm not going to quite fall in line with this....

For dinner, I had made reservations at a place nearby, off Place du Capitole, named Le Bibent. There was a familiar name associated with Le Bibent, Christian Constant, whose restaurants we've eaten at in Paris. Even though he is now retired, we were interested to see what Le Bibent would be like.

It was a drizzly evening and we were seated close to the bar area. The restaurant has been restored to it's former glory in the Belle Époque style and is quite stunning.

As is typical of our eating habits, we went with three entrees and one plat; starting with the eye catching Carpaccio de Tete de Veau (14€).

This was quite good, the veal head was tender, mild in flavor, it almost melts in your mouth. The mustard seed vinaigrette added a nice layer of sour-pungent tones, the greens were amazingly crisp, with a mild nutty bitterness. We loved the combination of flavors and textures.

The Missus loves Her Oeufs en Meurette (16€) so we had to get that.

The Missus enjoyed the poached egg, the potato mousse was a bit too starchy-gooey for us. The red wine sauce was nice, not overly bitter. This was not bad.

Of course we had to get the Foie Gras En Croute (21€).

The pastry was on gummy side though the "fillings" were really wonderfully "offaly"-earthy in flavor. Loved all the wonderful textures and flavors that the various greens and the pickled onions provided.

And of course, we had to try the Cassoulet (29€), which ended up being quite diapppointing.

We liked the "crust", but things ended there. The beans were hard, the dish was too salty, this was just not good eats to us.

Of course the Missus was hoping for that ethereal Cassoulet, but it was still not to be found.

Still, in terms of price, this was not a bad meal at all.

Le Bibent
5 Place du Capitole
31000 Toulouse, France 

And we enjoyed the "feel" of Toulouse.

Folks here were very friendly and kind......

 

Yoso-Silly - It's Ramen Weather

Man, has the weather been crazy or what? With more rain that I can ever remember, I just didn't want to leave home. But, it was great ramen weather, right? So ramen it was......

   Which kinda hit the spot. This was not bad. So, here's where it gets interesting. This was actually from a package, albeit with some "additions". A few months back, I saw some frozen ramen on sale at Nijiya at $3.99.  I thought it was expensive (it's now $5.69). And having tried the Nijiya brand and other stuffs by Sun Noodle that I thought wasn't very good....still, I couldn't help myself so I bought 5.

And this turned out not bad. Noodles by Sun Noodle, the tare has a bit of that metallic instant noodle flavor, but I tamper it down by using more water, usukuchi shoyu, grated garlic, and shaved onion. That chili crisp doesn't hurt as well. And I'll use whatever I have at my disposal, like some frozen jioazi, some frozen chashu, leftover roast duck and duck fat....it all works well.

So perhaps I've changed my tune with regards to packaged ramen....

Still, I don't think I'm willing to try this yet.....

Especially after our experience at their location in Kyoto.

Still, this has been interesting and I'm wondering what the effect of all these "atmospheric rivers" have had on your eating habits?

Tahona Bar

A couple of months back, the Missus and I decided to go to Tuetano for our date night. The Missus was wanting to have a drink or two, so we walked on down and took the trolley to Old Town. It's great having the Trolley off Morena. Once we got to Old Town however, the Missus just wasn't "feeling it". She wanted a cocktail. Just then, I recalled reading that a bar specializing in Mezcal, Cocktails, and Oaxaca influenced cuisine had opened a couple of years back in Old Town named Tahona. So, I suggested we check it out.

And while there were some misses with the food; we enjoyed the service, the cocktails, the Mezcal (of course), and the general vibe of the place. So much that we've visited a half dozen times since.

We always get there right after 4pm and on nice days we sit outside and enjoy the fresh air (and heaters). When it's a bit more chilly or drizzly, we'll have a seat in the bar area.

And since there's usually no one there, we'll take the corner table, which has a view of El Santo Campo Cemetery (I included that in a previous post) and the dining room.

While I truly believe that Old Town is trying more than ever to please locals, there's the simple fact that this is a tourist hot spot. And it's quite apparent in some of the dishes. We've stayed away from stuff like the Chips and Salsa and Guacamole.

We tried a few tacos, but all are over $8 for a single taco and while not bad, we know we can get better elsewhere.

Some of the fusiony tacos didn't fare much better. The Tempura Nori "Taco", which used nori as a base was not very enjoyable for us.

This mish-mash of quick to get soggy tempura nori, bland mahi mahi, overly sweet mole, made doubly sweet and salty with unagi sauce, with pickled daikon and carrots - a la do chua was just a mess.

We've tried a couple of other items, like the Empanadas ($16), which got soggy quickly and the smoked tuna was too fishy and salty for the Missus.

And I guess they were trying for a Mediterranean feel by adding that tapenade, which wasn't bad.

On the positive side, we found some dishes we really enjoy here. More on that later.

Because, well, one of the reasons we keep returning are the cocktails.....

  Some of which feature ingredients that include Hoya Santa; which, if you read our Oaxaca posts you know the Missus loves. My current favorite cocktail is the Oaxacan Firing Squad (above) and the Head Ancho (right) which has a nice spicy component to it.

I usually will have one cocktail, then finish with a Mezcal (of course). And when it comes to Mezcal, this place is great. The staff really knows their stuff, in fact, they all seemed to have gone and visited Oaxaca. On our last visit we started chatting with our Server about Boulenc. And once they find out we've been to Oaxaca, do the suggestions start coming! They are quite enthusiastic about their Mezcal and Tequila. In fact, they even got us to try Mezcal Pechuga which was so smooth and smoky. I'm kicking myself for not trying it when we visited Palenque el Cornejo!

And the Missus has found that She has a taste for Tequila Anejo; specifically this one.

As for our favorite dishes at Tahona? Well, there are three we currently order.

We enjoy the Wagyu Aguachile Tostada ($18).

In this case, all of the pieces went together well; from the toothsome, though very beefy flavored grilled wagyu, to the refreshing, not overly sour leche de tigre, which also had a bit of heat to it. The guacamole acts like a cool, calming component, while the pickled veggies and onions add a pungent-sour. The tostada adds a ice maize-crunch to things.

We had wanted to try the Flor de Calabazas Tempura ($18), but they were out on our first two visits. They've had them on subsequent visits and we order it on every visit.

This is another example of somewhat disparate ingredients working well together. The tempura batter adds a nice crispness to the delicate squash blossoms. It seems that it all just melts in your mouth. The earthy eggplant crema gives the dish a smoky heft and the olive oil adds a fruity-rich component.

And the one dish that we luckily ordered on our first visit, the Birria and Bone Marrow ($28).

 The beefy birria partners well with the buttery-rich bone marrow. This version has some great richness and bulk, we favor this more hefty version to the more delicate version at Tuetano. We also order this a specific way. We ask to replace the blue corn tostadas with corn tortillas which has a stronger maize flavor and also want a salsa that has a good "kick", since the birria here can really stand up to it. We enjoy the roasted shishito peppers and the fun "pepper roulette" that it provides.

We enjoy those three dishes above with the cocktails and agave spirits at Tahona. Add in the very friendly and enthusiastic staff, which can overcome the somewhat slower service at times and it's currently on our "date night" rotation. At least until tourist season starts. Though perhaps by arriving at 4pm those crowds can be avoided.

Tahona Bar
2414 San Diego Ave.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Tues - Thurs 4pm - 10pm
Fri - Sat 4pm - 11pm
Sundays 4pm - 10pm

Doing the trolley/bus thing can be beneficial, especially during the slower season. One night, we walked into El Santo Campo Cemetery.

We saw three young men walk into the cemetery with these strange looking lights, meters, and gear. We started chatting with them. Turns out they are Ghost Hunters! The Missus who is usually quite reserved with strangers started chatting them up! Apparently, they are from Vista and were spending a couple of nights in Old Town. They had spent the previous night at the Whaley House. And when the Missus asked if they had seen anything, they shared a video they recorded on some strange lights and the meters blinking and stuff. You gotta love it!

One evening, we walked over to Casa de Reyes, which can be crazy busy during peak season and times. But on this evening, there was a duo playing music, folks just kicking back and enjoying things and a group of folks dancing! It was adorable!

And for some reason, because we were walking just like we do in some of our favorite cities, it felt like we were on vacation.

While sipping that Mezcal, I closed my eyes and while I was actually sitting there in Old Town, my mind was many, many, miles away.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Takeout from Village Kitchen (Again)

I was recently referred to as a "Debbie downer" in the comments section of one of my posts. Which I actually thought was funny. So, perhaps for a change of pace, here's a more "positive" post! 

The Missus hasn't really been wanting Chinese food since we got back from Paris. We found a Sichuan restaurant that served simple, but really enjoyable food. We liked it so much that we ate there three times in two weeks! Go figure. But, on one of our "date night" dinners at EE Nami, we passed Village Kitchen and the Missus stopped as said "maybe we should get takeout from here soon". Which is how I found myself ordering takeout one evening.

The really nice woman who remembers me from when she used to be at Kangxi is Coming was working. She's always been so nice to us and was happy to see me. 

I went and ordered three dishes, two oldies but goodies, and because a favorite of the Missus, the La Rou with Cucumber Skin in no longer on the menu, something a bit different that I saw. The woman told me it "was good to come and order" because of the extra fees involved with online ordering.

In case you're keeping score, from left to right, the first two items are the Preserved Radish Skin with La Rou, the Eggplant and Green Chili with Preserved Egg, items which we've ordered many times before. On the right is the Baby Bamboo Shoots with Minced Pork.

The Preserved Radish Skin with Hunan Smoked Pork was quite good, perhaps the best rendition we'd had from VK to this date.

Nice crunchy dried radish, with smoky and surprisingly tender La Rou, nicely stir fried, not greasy, decent spice. This was quite nice.

The Eggplant and Green Chili with Preserved Egg was my least favorite dish of the evening as I felt it was on the greasy side.

The Missus enjoyed all the pidan hidden under the mashed eggplant.

The big surprise was the Baby Bamboo with Minced Pork.

This dish also featured preserved vegetable, which added a nice sour-salty flavor to the dish. Great earthy-soy flavors with a mild spice, this is a new favorite of ours.

We were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed this takeout meal. We'd been doing takeout from Village Kitchen quite often in recent years and this might have been the best yet.

So, a week later, guess what the Missus wanted? It was indeed "rinse and repeat". And wouldn't you know it, we thought that this was even better than what we'd had previously.

Take a look at the Baby Bamboo dish, man, it was nice and spicy this time around!

   They sure didn't short us on the chilies did they? And more preserved vegetable which just lifted the dish in my opinion. Great smokiness to the dish, perfect amount of soy and sodium flavors.

The eggplant was better this time as well, less greasy, the mashed and melt-in-your mouth eggplant was quite good. There was definitely more spice in this as well. The Missus loved this.

And to top things off, the radish skin with la rou was better as well! There was much more smoked pork this time, the radish skin was so nice and crisp, this was quite enjoyable.

   Not sure who was cooking on this day, but I'm hoping the person will always be there on my visits! And the dishes really brought some heat this time around....maybe it was a new delivery of chilies? The one a sat next to while waiting for my takeout?

We go back a way with Village Kitchen to when they first opened. It seemed like the place had hit a rut for a while and was inconsistent. But while there were differences in the dishes for these two meals, they were both good. Here's hoping that this is how things will be from here on out!

Village Kitchen
4720 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117