Vacation Interruptus, Sushi, and some other updates

"ok Kirk give it up.. you're not going to Washington" - from Andy The ABC.

I had to chuckle when I read that comment on my impending vacation post. Little did I know how close to the truth Andy was...so he can either see into the future, or he put some double voodoo hex on us.

To give just a summary of events:

First off our cab was 40 minutes late, I had to call the cab company twice. Maybe we should have just pulled the plug right then.

We manage to get to the airport, check in, and get to the gate just as our 820 Flight to Seattle is set to board. Great timing, or so we thought!

We board, and our flight never leaves....all power to the aircraft is turned off. Soon comes the announcement that there is a problem with the aircraft's hydraulic system. First thought in my mind is, "I'm glad they caught it now". So we sit for 45 minutes in an aircraft with no A/C, lights, etc, while technicians checked out the problem. Several minutes later we are asked to exit the aircraft, and the plane is whisked away...never to be seen again. We are asked to wait in the boarding area.

We wait......at about 10 am there is an announcement that the plane is being checked on further. At 1030, we are told that there will be an additional update at about noon, so please return to the gate then. At 1130, we are told that a part is being flown in, and it may just be a case of replacing that part....BUT, just in case, a top notch repair crew from LA is driving in!??!! We are given $6 meal vouchers...funny, but at sandwich costs $7.99, but hey the gate crew is very nice and apologetic.We check and all afternoon and early evening flights are "overbooked", and I mean overbooked....and of course the standby list is growing. Poor folks who have connecting flights.... At 1230, we are told the part has arrived, a big cheer goes off in the boarding area. Lady next to us is calling around on her cellphone trying to find some other airline that has available seats...to no avail. I hear someone talking about driving to LAX to attempt to make the 5pm flight. It is getting surreal. At a little after 2pm, we are told the flight has been canceled, that we need to return to the ticket counter, to rebook....the mad stampede starts. In line at the ticket counter, one of the agents tells us to first go to baggage claim to pick up our luggage. The Missus and I both go "no way"...we'll get ticketed first, if possible, than claim our luggage, which I'm pretty sure hasn't been delivered to baggage claim yet, and return to check in. At a bit after 3pm we finally get to the counter, and the very apologetic agent tells us that the only flight available will be the 845pm flight, it will arrive in Seattle at 1130pm. I do a quick calculation...we'll be cooped up at the Airport for another 5 hours. Get into Seattle, claim our luggage, by the time we catch the shuttle it's be at least 1230am, get to the hotel and check in, by then it'll be at least 130am....which means we'll be dead tired and settled at maybe 3am.....no thanks. We'd have lost almost half of our vacation, be dead tired, and not enjoy ourselves. So we canceled. I went and waited for our luggage, which at this point still had not been delivered to baggage claim. The Missus started making phone calls, first She called Sammy and Frankie's trainer, with whom we board Da' Boyz. She then called the airline's "Customer Care", who gave Her a claim number, and basically told us, because we used an online service to book our vacation, we need to contact them. I know who's going to get an interesting letter about things like contingency, planning, and a word called proactive.....I mean everyone is nice and apologetic, but how many times can you hear "I'm so sorry", it starts to ring hollow after a while. We catch a cab back home, during which we make calls and manage to get refunds on the airfare and hotel. I also call the restaurants and cancel our reservations. Still, we lost out on cab fare, boarding costs, and other miscellaneous items. Not including the 8 hours of vacation I'll never get back, at the end of the day we paid about a $100 or so for the pleasure of sitting in, and milling around Lindbergh Field for over 8 hours. Not quite the vacation I though of.

I'm just glad we didn't need to be in Seattle. If this were a business trip, I would have just sucked it up, and soldiered along. I have done consulting work that required extensive travel in the past and have had my share of delays(it once took me 36 hours to get home), but I have never really written down a blow by blow account like this.

We picked up Da Boyz, and had to decide on dinner(this is a food blog after all, so you know I have to do something about food). After milling about with the mass of humanity, we really didn't want to go to anywhere very crowded. The Missus wanted sushi...so we decided on Restaurant Yakata down in National City. In my previous posts on Yakata, I noted how the Itamae, Makoto told me that Friday and Saturday evenings are His slowest. So we arrived, and indeed, there was only one patron at the sushi bar, and one table occupied.

As usual, it was Omakase all the way here. We started with a nice combination sushi:

Just a quick rundown. As before the Hotategai(scallop) was fabulous, in fact the Missus requested another order. The real winner was the Albacore Belly.

So soft and rich, I thought it was Hamachi Toro. The Hamachi was good, I thought the Maguro to be on the dry and tough side.

I thought the Uni was good, but the Missus thought it was excellent, "sweet and creamy".

The Missus and I shared a tempura appetizer(not pictured), and along with the second order of Hotategai(Makoto gave us the last of the Albacore Belly), Makoto made us this interesting gunkanmaki.

Uni and Tobiko(Flying fish roe) were put into a bowl, and mixed to a creamy consistency. Ika (squid) was sliced and combined with the Uni/Tobiko mixture. Whoa, good stuff, great combination of texture(crunchy tobiko, slightly chewy ika) and taste(sweet from the Uni, a slight briny flavor from the tobiko, some mild heat from the restrained use of wasabi).

Makoto than brought out a spring roll wrapper, moistened it, and created this:

Toro was then scraped and instead of mixing with Negi(green onion), it was combined with minced Jalapeno. Cucumber and Lettuce were added for texture, and to help "cool things down". The sauce was a combination of Ponzu and Sriracha...a "Spicy Ponzu". It was good, perhaps a bit too much going on, the flavor and texture of toro was kinda lost. Lot's of flavor though. I asked Makoto what the name of this was...and he just shrugged...so we called it the "Makoto Burrito".....

The last item was this:

In the middle of all of this was a shrimp tempura. The Missus didn't like the combination of cool fish, with the still hot tempura. I thought the textures were interesting, but the flavor of the fish was a bit lost.

Overall, a very nice, relaxing meal. All told, which is what you see, plus the extra Hotategai, Tempura appetizer, and 2 large Sapporos was about $65.

Restaurant Yakata
2424 Hoover Ave
National City, CA 91950

A few updates:

Da' Kine's

I'd been told that Da' Kines in Pacific Beach had closed, so I dropped by to check it out myself. And yes, they have closed:

And yes, they are closed. As I was walking away, I ran into a nice young man wearing a Da' Kines sweater, and we struck up a short conversation. According to Daniel(I'm hoping I remembered His name correctly), Da' Kines in National City and Mira Mesa are still open, and a new location at Liberty Station in Point Loma will be opening in the near future.

Chef Tony

"StR" left a comment on my post on Chef Tony, here's the info:

"I just spoke with the owner on the phone. They have been closed for ~3 months (the building is going to be torn down), but they are planning to reopen at a new place (to be decided) within 1-2 months."

I drove by ealier this afternoon, and yes, the entire mall is empty, including Chef Tony.

I'm hoping they have a successful reopening soon!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Comments

[Jo]

Yes indeed, you had an interesting "vacation". You shoulda come here! ;o)

[Captain Jack]

Hi Kirk,

What an ordeal at the airport. Like you said though, good thing the figured out the plane was screwed before you took off. Did the Da' Kine's guy say why the PB branch closed? I always loved their macaroni salad.

[Kathy]

Awww, I'm sorry it didn't work out Kirk. Maybe just not meant to be? But at least I'm glad you had a really good dinner - you certaintly deserved it! :)

[clayfu]

sorry to hear about your ordeal! one time my girlfriend and i had a 9 hour flight back from NY due to strong winds, then we drove from LA to SD right after. Bleh.

[wandering chopsticks]

Oh no! So that's what happened. :(

But man, the sushi dinner would have put me in a good mood.

[Reid]

Kirk,

Too bad about the vacation. I love Seattle and would have been extremely disappointed.

[ed (from Yuma)]

That beats (in a bad way) any airport story I have.

Sushi looks good though.

Better luck next time!

[Rob]

Sorry you guys had to go through that. I thik Airline service is get worse and worse. They lost Pan's luggage when she and Maya came back from Japan. Customer service tried to spin it that it was our fault. Sheesh. Sushi looks good. Will have to give them a try.

[nhbilly]

That sucks big time...
You didn't blog the airport food ;-)
Sushi looks so good, can't wait for some fishy.

[Andy 食神]

sorry to hear about your ordeal but there was no vex at all! No harm intended. Honest!

At least their was a good meal at the end of the day. Which airline did you fly. Did u get your luggage back? it seems almost if no-one on their plane got their luggage back =(

[Kirk]

Hi Jo - Yeah, we shoulda......

Hi CJ - No they didn't mention why, other than "It was a sudden kind of thing..." So I really didn't want to pry. You'll be able to get some of their mac salad in Point Loma soon!

Hi Kathy - Yes, all was well after than sushi!

Hi Clayfu - Double bleh!

Hi WC - Nothing like some good sushi to put one in the right frame of mind.

Hi Reid - It was just not meant to be. We love Seattle too, but we'll get there sometime this year.

Hi Ed - I'm sure everything will be better next time.

Hi Rob - Happy New Year...give this place a try, it's very low key, and the selection small, but there's some really good fish.

Hi Billy - Too tired to take photos of airport food, yogurt and fruit basically. Can't wait for more good sushi.... ;o)

Hi Andy - The airline was Alaska, and we've flown them many times. We did get our luggage back, had to wait a while for it. Your comment cracked me up....made us think, "hmmmm, so Andy's the one who did this?" LOL!

[howie]

:-( That stinks! At least you had a nice meal at the end of the day.

I just Anthony Bourdain's episode on Seattle, and I really want to go. I guess Mario Batali's dad opened up a salami store, and people say it's incredible.

Which restaurants were you planning on trying out there?

[Kirk]

Hi Howie - We had resos at Nishino, and Monsoon, planned on a lunch at Seven Stars Pepper.....all this will have to wait, I guess.......

[Passionate Eater]

I was going to ask you what airline it was, but I just read over your comments and discovered that it was Alaska. Sometimes, you gotta really raise a stink to get your money back. Do you think that they would give you travel vouchers to compensate for all the time and effort and expense that they put you through? What you had to go through really was atrocious, and I think it all falls directly on Alaska's head.

[Kirk]

Hi PE - They'll be receiving a "letter", so we'll see what happens......

[mizducky]

Oh, Kirk, what a total bummer! Major sympathies on both the airport purgatory and missing out on Seattle. But you dined well, which is always a damn fine revenge. And as you say, you'll get to Seattle again eventually. (Probably sooner than me, too!)

A thought for that next time: have you gone to Bai Tong, right outside the entrance to SeaTac Airport? I've found that dinner there can take the sting out of dealing with SeaTac: http://www.baitongrestaurant.com/

[elmomonster]

Oh man. Sorry to hear about all that. Hope you get something out of the letter you guys are sending.

[Jo]

Can I read a "Maybe next time we will!" in there? ;o)

[Kirk]

Hi Mizducky - Looks good.....funny thing is, we usually don't drive when visiting Seattle, we've found the mass transit system to be excellent!

Hi Elmo - I won't hold my breath....

Hi Jo - Sure......

[Lindy]

Hi,
Have you heard if Chef Tony has found his new location yet and reopened yet? Or when he might reopen. I am SO dying for a chicken schwarma!!!!
Thanks, Lindy