Revisits: Spicy House, Latin Chef, and 2 others you might know......

Sometimes it's really hard to get excited about recently opened places and I often neglect places we used to go to alot or haven't been back to recently, so here's a couple.

Spicy House:

Now Spicy house seems to be a favorite of JeffL and I'd been there at almost a dozen times, I've documented maybe three of those visits. Recently my coworker YZ, whom I shared some interesting Sichuan meals with in Madison had time to grab lunch. We decided on Spicy House. The place was doing some pretty good business when we visited.

We started with the Pork Intestines with Preserved Vegetable.

This was better than what I'd had before at Spicy House, the flavor of the intestine was a nice funky-musty without overwhelming the dish. The preserved vegetable was cut into manageable pieces this time around and helped to heighten the mild heat as well as cut the offal flavor.

We also ordered the Shui Zhu Yu - the water boiled fish.

The flavor decent, nice heat, but lacking in Sichuan Peppercorn and Doubian Jian - bean paste. I like a nice layer of oil, but this was a bit too much. The amount of fish was generous, the pieces large, though very thin. I thought the fish was prepared decently, but when I brought the rest of it home, the Missus thought it to be one the mealy side.

Overall, this was pretty good....I guess I'm missing Chinese food.....

Spicy House
3860 Convoy Street #105
San Diego, CA 92111

Latin Chef:

There was a time when we'd be at Latin Chef just about every week. But over the years things seemed to have changed and when I visited twice last year, the food was especially salty. Another thing seemed to be missing on my visits to Latin Chef, the owner, Freddy. Whenever he's there, the food and service is much better.

Anyway, we had a bunch of days where it was almost like summer recently, so I thought I'd drive on down to PB and see what was up with Latin Chef. It was lunchtime and the place was deserted. No Freddy either....I hope he's doing well. I asked the served and she just shrugged and told me, "he was here yesterday......" As she dropped off the chanchita....which was stale.

I was pretty hungry and started things out with the Cebiche Pescado.

Which was nice, the leche de tigre (the cebiche marinade) was bracing and refreshing. The fish seemed to need a few more minutes bathing in the leche de tigre, but this was nice overall.

The pescado frito was another story.

While the fish was wonderfully thin and crisp, there was way too much salt on this....so much that it edged on being bitter.

This is how my meals have been recently at Latin Chef....kind of a mixed bag. Perhaps the place is getting a bit stale. I know that since the original chef left a couple of years, taking the recipe for tiradito with him, things just haven't been the same. I'm hoping my next visit will be better.

Latin Chef
1142 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

And here are a couple just for the heck of it......

I hope you had a great weekend!

Comments

[Buddha]

I am surprised that you got thin slices of fish and not much sichuan peppercorns or douban jiang in your boiled fish.

When I have ordered it and usually I go during the week and not on the weekend there was definitely a numbness and rich flavor.

Also I would get thick slices also so not sure maybe it was a different cook?

[caninecologne]

Too bad about Latin Chef...it hasn't been the same it seems, since they started offering non-Peruvian food on the menu.

Ooh, is that koi soi???

[Dennis]

That kaloko moco is making me sleepy looking at it! A nice Sunday catch up post Kirk. Thanks as always for sharing.

[kat]

too bad about that fried fish, the last two shots look like a sure thing.

[Kirk]

Hi Jeff - We actually went during the week. It sure could have used more peppercorns and bean paste by my taste.

Hi CC - I think not having the owner around a whole lot might play into it as well. And yes, that's koi soi......

Hi Dennis - It sure did try to put me to sleep!

Hi Kat - Yes, those last two dishes did te trick.

[Buddha]

That is strange. Every time I have gone there was plenty of peppercorns.

[Kirk]

Hi Jeff - Maybe it was an off day.....