Asia Cafe Part I

*** Asia Cafe has closed

*** Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Set on the gritty corner of 47th and Market Streets, right behind an Auto Repair shop is Asia Cafe.

Asia Cafe had been on my "list" for a while, but after driving past the strip mall one Sunday morning, I had my doubts. No, it wasn't the bars on the doors and windows, or the location behind the auto repair, nor the somewhat rundown appearance. It was the 2 people sleeping on the sidewalk, and the other people who were hanging around that made me feel nervous. But this past weekend, we decided to give Asia Cafe a shot. The only thing I could think of when we entered Asia Cafe, was "what took me so long?"

The fragrance of garlic and herbs floated in the air through the small restaurant. From all of the discussion going on in the restaurant, it was pretty obvious that all of the customers were "regulars", a very good sign. We sat at a table and a Young Gentleman brought us a menu. The Young Man's name was Scotty, and he told us it was his Mom cooking the food in the back. After fumbling around the menu, we made our selections with the help of Scotty.

A soup called Kao-Lao($6.00):

A fairly lite lemon infused broth, with cilantro, fried shallots, green onions, and garlic(yum). There was alot of beef slices, some tripe, and a ton of meatballs in the soup. I enjoyed this much more then the Missus, who didn't care for the meatballs which she said were rather rubbery. Of all of the dishes served, this one most closely resembled "home cooking."

Scotty had recommended the Yum Asia($6.50):

Scotty also had this made in a "special" way for us; he had this wonderful refreshing seafood salad served on a bed of cellophane noodles which soaked up all of the delicious fish sauce-lime juice-lemon grass-sugar-sweet chili sauce "dressing". Mint, basil, and peanuts gave the dish that extra "zip". All the seafood was prepared in an excellent manner. A wonderfully flavored, yet balanced dish, not too sweet, not to salty, not too spicy, just good eats.

Black Tiger Shrimp($6.50):

Perfectly prepared shrimp in a garlic and black pepper sauce, topped with cilantro. But totally pedestrian compared to the Yum Asia. Unanimously unremarkable.

The Seen-Nam-Toke($5.00):

As we were eating the Yum Asia and Shrimp, the wonderful smell of meat "grilling" filled the restaurant. When the dish arrived I was rather surprised, I had though this was a salad, but instead, it was a perfectly cooked, well seasoned medium rare steak. Obviously quickly marinated in lemon juice and fish sauce, the steak was beautifully caramelized. I realize, that the cut of steak was not the best, but the slices were pretty tender and the flavor was excellent; I barely needed any of the dressing. I could eat this almost every day. I was impressed, it's not easy to make, a two-dollar steak taste like a hundred bucks!

The Missus never really cared for sticky rice other then for desserts, so she ordered steamed rice, I on the other hand love sticky rice, and made sure to get an order($2.00):

The sticky rice was served steaming fresh, still slightly moist, and very fragrant. In fact, the Missus had never had sticky rice served perfectly cooked, and she enjoyed it so much that she put a pretty big dent in it! The steamed rice sat uneaten; I think She's changed Her opinion of sticky rice.

Overall, a good fairly inexpensive meal.

The Missus also purchased this for dessert:

It's a large bag of Fried Bananas($5.00). Unfortunately, Asia Cafe doesn't make these with sugar. No problemo, when we got home the Missus made some simple syrup, and coated the fried bananas with the simple syrup, and let them dry out a bit, and had a nice dessert:

While munching on Fried Bananas we talked about how enjoyable our meal was, and also how friendly and helpful the service was. We also decided to return the very next day, for a few more "traditional" Laotian dishes.

To be continued.......

Asia Cafe
4710 Market St
San Diego, CA 92102

Comments

[Kathy]

Such a feel good find, you were rightfully rewarded for not letting inital appearances deter you Seems like you felt right at home :) Having a better sense of who's in the kitchen does alter a meal experience. As for the Seen-Nam-Toke - if only you had saved a piece for me! lol.

[Kady]

I'm glad it ended up being really enjoyable. Good for you for taking a risk at a place that might not have been that appealing from the outside! Now I'm craving sticky rice. Surprisingly enough, it's really hard to find a good sticky rice.

[stacey]

Wow! Now I definitely want to go, but you've scared me a little... is it safe for two ladies in their early 20's? We don't have any burly man friends out here. :)

[RONW]

well Kirk, just in case you weren't aware of it yourself, the restaurant paid top dollar to hire the unsavory characters to hang around the restaurant. The proprietors contracts the crew out of the Actor's Guild to add atmosphere to the joint.

[howie]

Great find! I'm so glad you're scouting out these hole-in-the-wall places near my neighborhood. It's hard to tell the good from the bad from the outside.

[Kirk]

Hi Kathy - Yes, literally right at home, which bests describes the food - good homestyle food.

Hi Kady - I think most places overcook the rice making it very dry and hard. Asia Cafe does a good job.

Hi Stacey - Lunch or an early dinner should be fine. You notice the Lexus in the photo, well several of those were parked in the lot - the people in the restaurant were really nice.

Hi RONW - I must say that if those were actors, they were very convincing.....

Hi Howie - Nice little restaurant with some pretty good, affordable food.

[lance]

Kirk,

Thanks to you and Reid, I had Pho for the first time last weekend. Very nice light beefy broth. It was a place across the street oceanside of Pearlridge in that small shopping area. BTW, are the meatballs made from beef or beef with a mixture of innners? That spicy side condiment that you add to the broth was very tasty too. Ask the guy that served us, but couldn't understand what he said. All I could get out of the conversatioin is that they made their own. Got to being a paper and pen next time. Would you know what that is. It had a spicy bean paste meaty texture. Sure would taste good over spaggetti noodles.

[Kirk]

Hi lance - I've had beef meatballs with rice and sometimes tripe and other "stuff" in them. Glad you enjoyed your Pho' adventure.

[Jack]

Nice find Kirk. Maybe the people sleeping on the sidewalk were just waiting overnight for the restaurant to open and slept in :)

[Rachel]

Hi kirk!! Looks like you've been busy. Glad you found such a great authentic place. I like hole in the wall kind of places but I too would have been detered by the outward appearance. That Yum Asia salad looks out of this world!

[Kirk]

Hi Jack - Never thought of that!

Hi Rachel - The Yum Asia was very delici-yoso!!!