Saturday Stuffs: Honey Pig is now Old Village and Silver Ark is gone(or has been for quite a while), and would you hold it against me if I ordered a Ma-ka-ka Burrito?

Honey Pig is gone:

Man that was quick. I first heard about it from "YY", and saw that a new business had quickly moved in. It's now a place called Old Village... and the sign says "Korea's best Chef in twenty years!"

 

It makes me wonder what the saturation point is for Korean Tofu Houses.... well, I guess it's much higher than the saturation point for Korean BBQ's, huh?

Silver Ark has been gone for a while:

A couple of days ago, the Missus asked if we needed to do a revisit of Silver Ark after our last not so good visit. I told Her that Silver Ark has been gone for a while, and is now a Thai Restaurant. I then displayed photographic evidence. Which made Her ask me why I hadn't mentioned anything.....

 
She had a good point...... so here's a mention several months after I actually took a photo of what was Silver Ark and is now Siam Nara. I've heard that they are associated with Amarin. Anybody been there yet?

And finally.......

I've been waiting months trying to figure out when to do this post. And have come to the conclusion that there really wouldn't be a perfect time. It involves Vallarta Express on Genesee, a place Cathy has posted on. I really don't eat too much taco shop fare anymore, perhaps I'm still suffering from post tramatic shock from Howie's "Battle of the 'berto's", but I just have kinda stopped eating Carne Asada and California Burritos. But to paraphrase a much more interesting man then me, "I rarely eat Carne Asada Burritos, but when I do, I prefer Vallarta Express." Well kinda...... for some reason, when the carne asada is on it's quite good, I think they use soy sauce......but I've had my share of clunkers as well. The last time I stopped in at Vallarta Express was back in October. I was tired, on my way back home from a long day at work, and a trip to Henry's, and I just decided to grab a California Burrito..... I hadn't had one in a while. I even took a photo of Vallarta Express....which I think came out pretty peachy-keen and neato-rooney....

 

It almost says..... "aaaah Vallarta Express at sunset", huh? But on this day, the food was really secondary...and knowing me, what I eat rarely takes a back seat. I was in the drive thru, behind a Lexus SUV. The woman sticks her head out and orders a "Cho-rye-zo burrito". The disembodied voice blares from the speaker "so that will be a chorizo burrito?" The woman, using her best "outside voice" says "ummmm yes, and one more thing, can I get a ma-ka-ka burrito?" I'm laughing so hard I almost take my foot of the brake. The Lexus doesn't move, mainly because not an utterance comes out of the little speaker box. Perhaps they're searching for some "ka-ka"? Having worked in restaurants and fast-food, I can only imagine what is currently going on in that little shack...... Yes, one could only imagine......

The woman finally moved forward, puzzled look on her face and eventually made her way out of the drive-thru..... I hope she got her "ma-ka-ka", or reasonable facsimle.

In comparison, my CAB.... that's a California Burrito, not you CAB was totally anti-climatic.

 

OK, so I "set-up" the burrito by taking my photo of it leaning up against a container of brown rice.... perhaps it's a Jungian duality statement..... but maybe I just needed to lean my burrito against something.

This wasn't the best burrito I've had from Vallarta....too much sour cream in this one.

 

But just having that moment was, at least to me, worth $5.25.........

Have you ever had one of those moments?

Vallarta Express
4277 Genessee Ave.
San Diego, CA 92117

Open for "Ma-ka-ka and Cho-rye-zo" 24 hours a day.

Comments

[Dennis]

Hi Kirk, do they still charge for the pickled carrots?? I think I miss GrE-Zy take out burger.

[Jack]

I haven't had any beef in awhile but the "ma-ka-ka" burrito is sounding so appetizing! ;)

[DD]

Where is old village tofu stew place?? 5.99 is above deal... Thx for keeping us in the loop :-)

[PedMa]

Hello, we have been to Siam Nara, nice place, with some e-san food items, a set with som tom, sarong hai, or gai yang...sticky rice etc.

Worth a try, also had the Boat Noodles, very good! We hear from the staff that the Yenta Fo is also very good.

The staff is very very nice and wai when you come in.

[Dennis]

Oops I forgot to mention, Wow Honey Pig didn't last very long did it.. I never even got to try them.

[kat]

I was thinking an all red burrito because in Japanese Makka-ka is really red...

[MikeW]

We just came back from Siam Nara and it was very good. Very nicely decoratedand excellent service. They have Miang Kum like Sabe Lee but use cooked shrimp vs. dried shrimp. The prices are pretty similar but service and decor goes to Siam. Our table had the boat and Yentafo noodles which waspretty good. Will like to try their E-San food next time. Manager told us they are opening another restaurant next week in Pacific Beach next week

[Cathy]

I'm so going to order phonetically next time. Everywhere.

[liver]

Siam Nara does their seafood very well. Perfect scallops the last three times we went there.

[ish]

By virtue of proximity, we are at Vallarta probably more than is prudent. Not my favorite, but the hubs loves their mahi mahi tacos and their Caesar pepita salad is actually quite good. One night I noticed they had buffalo (!) on the menu and was really excited to get my buffalo burrito back home – Buffalo in a burrito! Healthy! Unusual! Imagine the hysterical look on my face when I got a mouthful of breaded chicken, cheese, sour cream, and buffalo sauce…Not sure why it didn’t occur to me that buffalo chicken was a lot more likely than actual buffalo when I saw it on the menu, but I promise that I wasn’t driving a Lexus SUV at the time!

[Food detective]

LOL. Goodness, I made Mr. C google ma-ka-ka burrito ...he doesn't even understand what that is and he's pretty good at deciphering phrases.

No! I love that Pig Pig place!

I poked my head in Siam last time I was at that "nuoc mam" banh mi place and they look super fancy. There were two lady standing by the door just waiting for customers. (but there was no one around...not even in the parking lot)

Mr. C used to eat at Amarin's a lot before he discovered SEL.

[Lori]

I bet she wanted a "machaca" burrito and didn't see/say the "h". ;)

[AZ]

I went to a Mexican restaurant one day and a man sitting at a table near me pointed to the menu and asked the waitress "what's this?" She told him it was album-diggus soup that it was made with meatballs in a tomato flavored broth. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Then my sister-in-law told me about her friend who tasted a really good coconut drink and when the waiter came to take drink orders the woman told him she wanted penis colitis, my sister-in-law said everybody at the table almost fell off their chairs.

[Lynnea]

Oh gosh! i really wanted to try honey pig, if only for the adorable name. oh well =)

Thanks for the funny post!

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - I've never gotten the pickles there....so I don't know.

Hi Jack - LOL!

Hi DD - It's in the old Arirang spot - 4681 Convoy St Ste B
San Diego, CA 92111

Hi PedMa - I guess we really need to check them out. I haven't seen you guys in a while; I hope all is well.

Hi Kat - I think the woman wanted a Machaca Burrito - shredded beef.

Hi MikeW - Alright....we need to check them out soon!

LOL Cathy...... just think if you thought the Philly Burrito...was actually a Filly Burrito.

Hey Liver - Gong xi fa cai, xin nian kuai le!

Oh my ish...... that is funny....

Hi TFD - She was trying to order a Machaca Burrito....

Hi Lori - That's exactly what she wanted...... at least that's the only item on the menu that's even close.

LOL AZ - It could have been "all-balls dingus".... I did stand behind a woman at In N Out once who wanted hers... ummmm, Doggy Style! ;o)

Hi Lynnea - If you really want to try a place called Honey Pig, there's a restaurant in Koreatown of the same name!

[Loren]

You wanted a good California burrito you should've gone across the street from that place to El Cotixan - been eating there 10 years :-)

[Kirk]

Hi Loren - Funny, but I've never had a good meal there...... I'll give it a shot again the next time!

[janfrederick]

Our friends have been ton the new thai place and said it was pretty good. We'll probably find out for ourselves within the next couple of day.

I too rarely eat CABs anymore. I usually make my own at home using the Big Kahuna.

[Loren]

Kirk, really? Huh, that's odd. Never had a bad meal there. Let me know when your next coming I'll be sure to spread some good karma over the place (or I'll just bribe the server :-p)

[Carol]

Guess I should have read all the comments before looking up what she was trying to order. Hehe, machaka. Wonder if she pronounces El Cajon as "el cajun"?