mmm-yoso!!!

The Fishery in PB - One More Time

It's Ed (from Yuma) again, this time having a dinner with Tina at The Fishery in Pacific Beach. You're invited to join them. Kirk and Cathy will happily share meals with you at the blog as well, just not today.

I have no memory of my first visit to The Fishery on Cass Street in Pacific Beach, but I know the restaurant opened back when I was a denizen of PB in the late 90s.  In 2009, I posted about a couple of meals Tina and I had at the restaurant. Unfortunately we hadn't been back since.

The exterior of the restaurant has not changed as far as I can tell:

And the interior still has hard wooden tables, wooden walls, a fish counter, and very little noise abatement, making the restaurant occasionally LOUD on the busy Saturday night when we visited. Soon after we arrived, Nate, a professional and helpful server, brought us menus and a wine list. He answered our questions, and when asked for help choosing a wine, he suggested the Lagar de Cervera, Albariño, 2011, from the Rias Biaxas region of coastal Galicia in Spain.:

It was good, beginning with clean flavors of tart apple, opening up with a more generous mouth feel and depth and complexity of flavor, and concluding with a smooth and lingering finish. It also complemented the seafood we ordered .

Our meal began with some slices of good but not outstanding bread alongside a whipped lightly herbed butter:

The white bread had a nice crust but isn't especially memorable. The brown bread was in the style of a German bauernbrot, slightly nutty with a mild taste of rye flour –kindof like pumpernickel but neither as dense nor intense.

A good-sized bowl of clams cooked in a spicy white Bordeaux wine reduction showed up next.:

The clams were small and slightly chewy though they were flavorful, garlicky, and fresh. The salty and strong flavored broth was great for dipping the little clams and the crunchy slices of  garlic bread.

We had each ordered a soup. The clam chowder was nothing exceptional, containing few clams or potatoes; however, it was very well balanced, smooth, and creamy:

The very fishy seafood soup was more interesting and complex.: 

Throughout the soup, chunks of various fishes, large pieces of tomato, and abundant celery, onion, and green pepper slices provided texture as well as flavor. We agreed it was outstanding:

Tina's entrée was macadamia encrusted Alaskan halibut.:

The perfectly cooked piece of halibut rested on a soft fluffy bed of buttery mashed Yukon potatoes. The fish was topped with fresh frisee and slices of red pear.:

Circling the plate was a spicy purée of chilies and red stone fruit. The sweet spicy flavors were accented by the small pickled red chile slices.

I chose the fresh local sea bass – which I thought was perfectly cooked to just beyond rare:

While the same buttery mashed potatoes underlay the fresh filet, it was topped with a tart apple slaw and accompanied by grilled and charred baby brussel sprout halves and tasty mustard vinaigrette. Where Tina's fish’s flavors had been lit up by sweet spicy accents, my naturally sweet sea bass was contrasted with tangy slaw and vinaigrette. We both love our entrées.

Overall, Tina and I were delighted with the meal. Sometimes it was a little too noisy for us to easily carry on a conversation, but the service and the food and the overall experience left us feeling full and happy. Though not cheap, we felt the dinner was a reasonable value:

The Fishery, 5040 Cass St, San Diego 92109, 858-272-9985  

Playing with my food - using Tapioca Maltodextrin: Sesame - Salt Powder

Though I love food...both consuming and cooking; once in a while I kind of hit a rut and need a little change of pace. I don't remember where I first about Tapioca Maltodextrin and its effect as a fat stabilizer. I'm sure it wasn't in Modernist Cuisine at Home which I bought last year. And looking through it. Maltodextrin is only mentioned in two recipes and barely in passing. I do recall seeing something, perhaps on Youtube where an olive oil powder was made. Anyway, a couple of months ago I bought Modernist Cooking Made Easy, which had a short chapter on Maltodextrin. It just seemed like fun.....plus Maltodextrin is plant derived and a pretty common food starch. First I cleared things with the Missus who has a Masters in Chemistry, then I went ahead and ordered a pound.

Getting to the point; tapioca maltodextrin can turn fats and oils into pastes and powders. For my first try, I decided to use something that we have around the house and use in sparing quantities...sesame oil was an easy choice.

One of things you'll notice right away is that tapioca maltodextrin is lighter than air....so no sneezing....no heavy breathing either. You don't need anything more than a whisk for this one. Using the recipe in Modernist Cooking Made Easy as my reference, it was a simple as this:

Sesame-Salt Powder (based on the recipe in Modernist Cooking Made Easy)
50 grams sesame oil
2 grams kosher salt
25 grams tapioca maltodextrin (this was about 3/4 cup)
extra tapioca maltodextrin as needed

- Pour sesame oil into a large mixing bowl (a large mixing bowl)
- Add salt and mix
- Add 10 grams of tapioca maltordextrin...gently, unless you want clouds of the stuff all over the place
- whisk in until a paste forms. Slowly add the rest of the maltodextrin. It will begin to clump.
- Whisk until it starts to form "beads", you may need to add more maltodextrin to get the texture you want.

Other than a couple of maltodextrin clouds floating about, this was easy.....

It will stay in powder form as long as it doesn't come in contact with liquid...though it lasted a while even when on some poke I made.

There's quite an interesting sensation...ahem, "mouthfeel" when it turns back to oil in your mouth.

It was also delicious on my Hiyayakko Tofu.......

I really didn't detect much in terms of any additional flavor....by itself, there's a very faint sweetness, which I could not detect when using it with my poke or tofu.

Truffle Powdered Popcorn, caramel - salt powder, nutella, and probably duck fat or bacon powder seem around the corner. This will be great for dipping....

This was a fun experiment.....now it's on to Xanthan Gum and Lecithin!

Scenes from the first San Diego Night Market

I mentioned this back in August. The Missus and I decided to go early, like five minutes after things were scheduled and the place was already packed. We parked on the street; the combination of Zion shoppers and folks checking this out made for a chaotic parking situation. The folks who put this on managed to keep a small footprint.

The area with peace and quiet was the Beer Garden. Perhaps it was too early, but it also seemed that 50% of the folks here weren't legal drinking age and the crowd was overwhelmingly Asian. I probably would have settled in here if we stuck around.

There was a decent variety of food booths, though only one really interested me. It also seemed that just about everyone else was interested in this one as well.....the grilled cuttlefish on a stick looked quite appealing....though the super long line did not.

This was at 5:15 mind you....just imagine later on?

It was nice to see some familiar faces......

Here are some of the other food booths.

Other than Pangaea, nothing I was particularly interested in.

The size of the crowd this early on in the evening shows that San Diego can really get behind this concept.

I hope they do well.

It runs tonight from 5pm - 11pm. It's about 8 right now, so you still have time to get on down there and check it out yourself.

7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

 

Evora: The Agua de Prata Aqueduct, Snacks at Pastelaria Conventual, and dinner at Adega do Alentejano.

The town of Evora is quite charming, within the preserved city walls are cobblestone lanes, charming streets, the place just oozes character. After a wonderful meal at Botequim da Mouraria, followed by a nap, we were ready to do a bit more exploring. I really wanted to see the Agua de Prata Aqueduct, the "Aqueduct of Silver Water", which stretches into Evora from the Northwest. It was literally a block from our hotel. You turned the corner and the aqueduct was in sight.

Construction on the aqueduct began in 1531 and was completed sometime in 1537 and brought water to Evora from Ribeira do Divor about 5 miles away.

What made this interesting to me was that I had read that there were houses and other structures actually using the pillars of the aqueduct as frames. Pretty amazing, no space wasted.

Of course the aqueduct works on gravity, so as the structure goes lower, so do the buildings.....

Which eventually turns to garages and sheds as it heads earthward.....

While walking along the aqueduct we heard an "hello, hello.....how are you? Would you like to have your picture taken?" We turned and saw a woman huffing and puffing, up the street....her name was Toni, from Australia, who had decided to move to Evora! Needless to say, we had a wonderful chat. I have to say, Toni is quite an interesting personality, her husband had passed away, and somehow, in her 60's she had decided to move here. Of course we had many questions; like "how's your Portuguese?" Her answer; "well, I'm starting lessons next week." Man, talk about living an adventure.....

We headed off to our next destination....it was time for some coffee and a snack or two. We passed quite a few sights on the way, some of which I'll cover in a future post. Here's a photo of Igreja da Graça, the Church of Grace. I found the figures on the facade kind of scary and the church just looked spooky to me.

We finally reached our destination, up one of the side streets; the Pastelaria Conventual, which specialized in "Conventual cakes", basically sweets that originated in the areas convents.  I had a seat outside, while the Missus went to town.

We were told that the item Pastelaria Conventual is known for is the pão de rala, a "thin cake", made of eggs (quite a bit) and flavored with almond, with a touch of orange. It was a bit too "eggy" and sweet for me.....pretty heavy stuff too.

As was this.....

What was really funny was watching the Missus biting into this and freaking out.....

It was an empada de galinha, basically a miniature chicken pie, with a heavy chicken flavor.

It was nice to just sit down; have a cup of Cafe Americano and let time pass. It's something we here in the States aren't real good at......just sitting and watching the street scene; your own personal relaxation "aquarium".

Pastelaria Conventual
Rua do Cicioso No.47
Evora, Portugal

After our snack we wandered around for a bit, then headed back to the Albergaria do Calvario, checked email, freshened up and headed back out.

The heavily touristed Dos Mercadores was now quiet. The day trippers were gone, the young folk had headed to other places to enjoy the evening, and the shops had closed.

The heart of Evora, the Praca do Giraldo, the main square was now quiet and sedate, totally different from the bustling version we had seen earlier in the day.

Somehow, we ended up at the Templo Romano, the Roman Temple once again.....we quickly noticed how different it looked at this time of the day.

We walked across the street to the Largo da Porta de Mouro where the Missus snapped this beautiful shot of the sun setting over Evora......

How wonderful.....

Ok, enough of that....time for dinner. The Missus wanted something hearty, which the region, the Alentejo was known for. We decided to walk on down the now quiet side streets of Evora....

To Adega do Alentejano.......

The restaurant is actually quite large, but we were the only customers. The red checkered tablecloths gave it a homey feel and the gentleman serving us seemed a bit aloof at first, but ended up being quite a nice guy.

Things started out in the typical manner, appetizers brought to our table...if you eat, you pay. We also got some of the ohuse wine which actually comes from the barrels you see in the back of the dining area.

We looked over the items written on the chalkboard to determine what to get while we had our first earthenware pitcher of wine.

The Missus had been curoius about the Sopa de Tomate, tomato soup, wince She first read about it. The deal was sealed when She was told to not "order anything else...it is not a bowl of soup, but a meal!" They weren't kidding.

 There's a lot this heart soup has got going for it; slices of bread soaked with a broth that just feels like a warm comforting embrace. There is of course the Missus' favorite, two eggs poached in said broth.

And like the info-mercial goes, "but wait, there's more...." a bowl of charcuterie accompanies the soup; fried pork belly, linguiça, and yes, farinheira, the "flour sausage" the Missus hated, which tasted just lovely deep fried.

Can you say comfort food????

If you think about it; this part of the Alentejo is almost like the great plains in a way, it is one of the hottest  regions in Europe. Instinctively you'd immediately balk when offered a dish that includes clams, right? Well perhaps I had my doubts, but one of the classic dishes of the region is Carne de Porco à Alentejana, a dish that includes the wonderful local pork as well as clams. I just needed to try this.

The clams were surprisingly fresh, tender, and tasty, with a nice briney goodness. The pork, which seemed to be shoulder was on the chewy side, but the flavor of pork here is wonderful, it reminds me of what pork tasted like when I was a kid, even better. The fried potatoes went well with all the rich gravy/broth.

This was also fairly inexpensive as well. The Missus had asked for something hearty and She got that at Adega do Alentejano.

Adega do Alentejano
Rua Gabriel Victor do Monte Pereira 21 A
Evora, Portugal

Thanks for reading!

 

Mariscos El Titanic (City Heights)

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) and others who contribute posts here are busy. Cathy is not busy, so here's a meal she's had that you can vicariously enjoy.  

It is so good to be able to live here in San Diego; we are close to the ocean and close to Mexico and the combination of those- Mexican seafood- fast became a favorite and a comfort food not long after we moved here.

It was the week between birthdays of The Mister and myself and my day to choose where and what I wanted to eat.  (He chooses the first three days, which start on his birthday, we have to agree on the middle two days and then I get the last three days, ending on my birthday). El Titanic was my first choice.

 

Driving North on Fairmont, it's not easy to miss the freshly repainted Mariscos El Titanic building.  It's right across the street (Dwight Street) from Murphy's Market (a great little neighborhood store that has a wonderful bakery, nice selection of produce and quite an extensive meat counter and makes some really good tortillas, ceviche and salsas).

The neon 'waves' at the top edge of the building are attractive in the evening.  This is a typical mariscos joint that has several televisions and sometimes carries boxing matches and charges a cover on those weekends...otherwise in the evenings it's loud with bandera music.  We came here for lunch and it wasn't crowded or noisy.  

Each table is topped with a good selection of condiments.  Fresh made corn chips, limes and salsa are brought out after you order.

Be warned- the salsa is *not* tomato based; it's all chile, hot but not overwhelming.  It's good to use with your seafood order instead of the vinegar based hot sauces on the table...

The Mister ordered a gobernador taco, marlin taco and made it a combo ($10.50).  You can see the cheese lined corn tortilla filled with sauteed shrimp.  There were some onion and green pepper bits sauteed in there also.  The marlin is a smoked fish and was stir fried with bell pepper and onion and was very very good; not salty as sometimes marlin can be.  

I chose to have mojarra -whole tilapia- deep fried ($10.50).  This particular preparation was so complimentary to the fish.  There was a light seasoning on the skin, but nothing else.  The fish was a good size, very meaty and just so right.  The rice, beans, tortillas and even the salad all just went together so well. A good, memorable meal. 

Yes, I'm back to documenting the cleaned carcass of whole fish consumed. Every bit was good.

I hope you week has been going well. 

Mariscos El Titanic 3600 Fairmont Avenue San Diego 92105 (619) 584-2894 Website            

 
I noticed this guy hanging from the ceiling as we were leaving...I am so unobservant.

Sweet indulgences up North (BC's, Donut Man and Cream Pan)

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog. We (Kirk, Ed (from Yuma), Cathy and a few others) write about food, either directly or indirectly.  Today, Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are busy and Cathy is writing, directly.

If you follow this blog, you know The Mister and I drive North about once a month to see the progress and assist with the decoration of Rose Parade floats. We leave home at 5 a.m., drive North on the Interstate 5, get to Pasadena at 7 a.m., view (and document) the road tests and that part of the day is over before 9 a.m. We eventually drive home South on the 15, using various navigational routes to get there. We stop along the way there and home.

Just about one mile from the Pasadena Farmers market is a small donut shop named B.C. Donut.  The only workers are the owners, a husband, his wife and their daughter.  The place is open 24/7 and  has a small walk up window, just like the 24/7 Taco Shop that shares the same parking lot. They have a lot of offerings: smoothies, sandwiches made on their fresh croissants and a good variety of donuts.

 

The apple fritter is what to order here ($1.50).  Fluffy, usually still warm, apple chunks and swirls of cinnamon enrobed in a smooth soft glaze.   It's the best we've ever had. There are no more words.

B.C. Donuts 2525 E. Foothill Boulevard Pasadena 91107 (626) 795-0012

Driving down Route 66, parallel to the 210 to get to the 15, you will pass many iconic (or iconic appearing) restaurants, coffee shops and...in Glendora, Donut Man.  Apparently we have timed our visits correctly: this 24/7 donut shop has people lined up on the front porch, ordering at the window, even at midnight.

If you want to try the fresh strawberry donuts, you need to hurry; their last batch of fresh strawberries will be sliced and used on September 28 (this Saturday). Donut Man also makes fresh peach donuts, in August.

Here's a peek through the side window...

These glorious giant twists are "Tiger Tails"- almost one foot long, raised donut twisted with chocolate and glazed...enough to share.($1.70)

These apple and lemon filled donuts are made the same way the fresh stawberry (and peach) donuts are made...the dough is fried, topped (glaze or crumb or powdered sugar) then sliced and then filled.($1.70)

Ta Da! A full tray of the infamous strawberry donuts($3.50), also crullers (95¢)...

I've never tried the ones on the left, topped with fruit and cream; I don't know if they are filled, but probably they are. The cake donuts (90¢) are always good.

Here's what it looks like through the ordering window; organized chaos.

Our order.  The strawberry donut (with complimentary fork)($3.50), a plain glazed cruller (90¢), chocolate topped old fashioned (95¢) and raised crumb (90¢) .  The crumb was our least favorite; it was kind of dry. If there were nothing to compare it to, it would be just a good donut...The strawberry donut- it's just overflowing with fresh strawberries on a perfect raised glazed donut.

Donut Man 915 E. Route 66 Glendora, CA (616)335-9111  Article in today's San Gabriel Valley Tribune  Link to recent post on My Burning Kitchen

On the way North, taking the Red Hill Exit off the 5, it's a hop and skip to get to Cream Pan, which opens at 6 a.m. daily. The shelves are not quite full at 6:15 when we get there, but everything on them is *fresh* and usually still warm.

We always get a strawberry croissant ($1.40), a ham and cheese croissant ($2.50)-my favorite ham and cheese baked in bread confection, ever...and on this visit, The Mister wanted to try the pecan roll($3).  At first, The Mister was shocked at the price...then we unfurled it (after the first bite of the crispy flaky crust)... 

This confection is LINED with toasted pecans!  Well worth the $3.

Cream Pan 602 El Camino Real Tustin, CA 92780 (714) 665-8239

Yes, none of these 'regular' stops of ours have websites...all have great, fresh, quality treats.  Hope all of you are having a good week!

Raki Raki Revisited - Waylaid by a ramen burger

I had promised myself a return visit to Raki Raki to have the Tsukemen back in November when the weather got a bit warmer.....well, if the record heat we had recently wasn't a sign from some divine being....in short, it was tsukemen time.

But a funny thing happened on the way to my noodles. I believe I'm usually hype free and don't really follow fads. Yep, I'm just your usually fuddy duddy, boring kinda guy. But in a moment of temporary insanity I ordered this:

A ramen burger.......or should I say a "Dream Come True California Ramen Burger" ($9.75)

Even I have those moments it seems....after eating this I mumbled "what was I thinking" to myself as I walked into the psycho parking lot on Convoy. Hopefully not too loud....

The burger is 100% angus beef, over-worked and cooked to death as it's tough as leather. The flavor is nice and beefy. All of the juices from the burger seemed to have collected in the greasy, bland, flaccid, mushy bunch of noodles used as a bun. The fry job on these was lousy as it fell to greasy pieces after two bites. I had imagined something like crispy "cake noodle" like I get back home, this was not very good. The "crisp" rolled pork slice they call "underbelly" was more like hard and the edges burnt and bitter.

The sweet potato fries were light and mildly crisp, with good flavor.

But man, who you gonna sue for this oil spill?

This was like something dreamt up in a college dorm room after a couple hits of the cash crop. For a more mature point of view, perhaps you should read Kirbie's post on the ramen burger.

I sent out texts and photos to my friends, then had a moment of paranoid reflection.......first Yes! Pingo and now a ramen burger...what's going on? What next...a Harley, porn 'stache, and a couple of tats? Maybe this was that male menopause I'd seen my friends go through? Yikes!

I needed to fix this......which I did by returning for the Standard Tsukemen ($8.75).

 It was as before, noodles with a nice texture, perhaps a bit over-priced for what you get, and the broth edged on the too salty side.

But most importantly, this seemed like a return to normalcy. At least for now....

RakiRaki Ramen and Tsukemen
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

 

Bentowich

*** Bentowich has closed

I get some pretty interesting emails at times.....and as many of the other food bloggers can attest, about a good third of them are press releases, free stuff (which really isn't free if you think about it), and all of the other PR driven spiel. I even get my share of emails from folks.... whom I shall affectionately call "shills". Don't take this the wrong way, some of these folks are endearing as heck...and others, well, I'm thinking it's a single, or perhaps a small group of folks are plain persistent. I'd been getting emails for almost six months, at a pace of about one every two weeks, from different email addresses, all with pretty much the same writing style, telling me about their "favorite place".....with the rather strange name of Bentowich.

Yes, I get it.....bentos and (sand)wiches. I thought the location a bit odd; at the outskirts of Old Town....but in retrospect, I think it's a pretty good idea, Japanese Fast Casual among the scores of Cantinas and tourist traps.

So I finally made it down on a bright (and hot) Saturday, finding parking on a side street. The interior looks efficient and spartan.....

The outdoor seating area is quite nice and bright, if a bit too hot this time of the year. Still, when things cool down it'll be a great place to have a meal.

The concept is a lot simpler than the name would suggest; you pick your protein, determine the context (bento, sandwich, yakisoba, salad), add a couple of toppings/sides, sauce, soup or salad(and dressing), and your on your way.

The assembly is pretty much fast-casual, the food is already prepped/sliced, you deep fry or saute adding some sauce, take it to the Kelvinator where it's put together, and you're done. The key high lite of all of this is that everything is made fresh to order, a key component of "fast casual" type places. There are some unique touches, like having my bento served in a nice bento box.

As you can see, I went with the Sliced char Siu Roast Pork ($8), bento style.

You can chose white rice, brown rice, or onigiri, which is what I choose. You might as well go with white rice as this onigiri is truly white rice scooped into an onigiri mold, other than some furikake on one and some nori on the other, it's not really flavored (i.e. I grew up with onigiri seasoned mildly with salt.

The two "sides" I order were the pickled daikon and carrots and the Asian cole slaw. The pickled daikon was way too sour and salty, while the cole slaw was rather unremarkable. I selected the green salad with Miso Caesar dressing which was watery and weak.

Having seen that the pork was pre-sliced and portioned off, I expected it to be dry and tough, but it was cut thin enough for it to be tender and sauteed quickly keeping it moist. The "teriyaki" sauce was very mild, a hint of sour, more of a glaze, without much sugar, which actually worked in its favor as the flavor of the pork came through nicely.

I thought this was decent in terms of value and quality, so I decided to drop by again when driving back from a meeting in Hillcrest. The pickled daikon came to mind. While being way to sour and salty eaten solo; I thought it would be a great compliment to a sandwich. So I decided to get the Yakiniku Sliced Prime Rib in a sandwich, one of the more expensive items on the menu.

This was a nice sandwich. The roll held up well. The sauce, which tasted the same as what was on the pork kept things moist. The pickled daikon and carrots really added a nice refreshing component to the sandwich, a la banh mi.

I got the green salad again, this time with the wasabi ranch; which was again very runny and lacking in flavor. Sadly, it seemed that the dressings here are watered down.

Overall, the prices were decent, the folks working here, the low-keyed, efficient, and polite young lady, along with the very polite young man.....I'm still trying to pin down the exact time in my life when I became "sir", were very pleasant. So a few weeks later I decided to drop by on a Saturday.

I ordered a Chicken Katsu sandwich, something that I like, though will not get at most bento places because it's that awful combination of dry (the katsu) and mushy (the bread). But since they make the stuff to order at Bentowich, I really couldn't go wrong, right?

When it arrived I thought two things; both of them incorrect. First, the portion size looked quite small, but after opening the sandwich, the portions looked decent, if not especially large. Second, the breading looked really dark, so I thought this was going to be very dry, which it was not.

After my previous experiences with the salads...well, to be more precise, the salad dressing, I was going to get miso soup even though it was hotter than the sun's surface on this day. But after seeing the not so great looking soup on another customer's table, I relented and went with a salad again.......and finally found a dressing that I liked here, the Jalapeno Cilantro. Just enough zip and flavor for my taste.

Frankly, I'd be eating at Bentowich every so often if they were in my neck of the woods.....even though they won't make me forget about my favorite Japanese lunch places, I still prefer this to Chi-poodles and Ba-HA Flesh. The staff here is nice; even to the kind of "ticky" woman who I've seen here on two of my visits, who sits on the table right in front of the counter and has the kind of stare that gives me the creeps. I'm wondering, could she be the one who is...nah, couldn't be.

Bentowich
2367 San Diego Ave
San Diego, CA 92110

Ok, whoever you are, you can quit with the emails now!

Andy's Coffee Shop & 2014 Rose Parade road test & Pasadena Farmers Market (Road Trip)

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! Kirk and Ed (from Yuma) are busy busy busy right now, so Cathy is writing a post for today.

Yes, another road test for some floats that will participate in the 2014 Tournament of Roses parade was conducted on Saturday and The Mister and I woke early so we could be there at 7 a.m.  Since this is a food blog, the first part of this post is about our breakfast that morning. 

Andy's Coffee Shop is located on Colorado Boulevard; it's easy to miss (parking is in back and we are always looking for cars on the street to see if a place is open).

Inside, it's a step back to the 1950's.  In fact, a few episodes of Mad Men were filmed here. 

There are photographs signed by famous stars of the past.  The large photos are of crowds camped in front of the storefront to watch the Rose Parade.

The Mister ordered French Toast ($5).  It's made with fresh bread, unlike when we make it at home with days old bread.  So very good- crunchy on the exterior and creamy soft on the interior. 

I ordered a bacon and egg sandwich on rye toast ($7.25).  Really really good and served with crispy hash browns. 

This was a very good meal and we enjoyed sitting at the "U" shaped lunch counter in the center of the room, seeing the hustle and bustle of the workers: the booths and tables were taken. 

Andy's Coffee Shop 1234 Colorado Boulevard Pasadena, CA 91106 (626)793-0825 Mon-Sat 7-3, Sun 7-2

Before our breakfast on this overcast morning, we were on Raymond Street

The colorful float with them "So Near and Yet Safari" is very animated with the gazelles racing, giraffes bowing their necks and elephant ears flapping as well as water flowing from the top of the 'rock' formation.  Behind that float, you can see the "Banner" float- which will introduce the 2014 parade with it's theme of "Dreams Come True".

 

Here is the City of Glendale float, covered in its cocoon.  Last month, it was only out of rebar and a lot of the design wasn't very clear.

The CIty of Los Angeles float was also in it's rebar form last month.  Now that it's covered and partly painted, the details are emerging.

Above, you can see the City of Los Angeles float in its collapsed state (so it can fit into the Phoenix Decorating barn as well as under street and signal lights along the parade route) and you can also see the head of the Chinese dragon, which is painted with its colors and ready to be decorated. All items covering the float must be natural, alive or had been alive and in case glue fails or items are washed off by rain, you'll still see color when watching the floats in person or on television. I think it's nice that the dragon will be on the 'other' side of the float- away from the television cameras-people sitting on that side of the street sometimes don't get to see a lot of the float details.

After our breakfast, we stopped at our usual Saturday morning Pasadena trek- the Farmers Market, held in the parking lot of Pasadena High on Sierra Madre Boulevard.   

You can see the cloud covered Sierra Madres in the distance...very overcast.  That's the booth where we always buy a loaf of seed filled, corn meal bottomed rye bread for $4.75. It's so good.

This market is my favorite out here; it's busy and the vendors are knowledgeable and the variety is amazing.

We drive North on the 5 and home on the 15...where we passed a convoy of about ten Marine LAVs (Light Armored Vehicles; they float)...another Saturday of fun.  Hope you are having a good weekend!

Yes! Pingo

**** Yes! Pingo has closed

For some reason the name of this place just didn't motivate me to visit. After reading posts by Kirbie and Jinxi, I did feel a bit more motivated. I really hadn't had decent Taiwanese food in San Diego, so I recruited my buddy Candice, to see if Yes! Pingo would fill the bill.

For some reason, the name of the place makes me think of the Hello Kitty gate at Taipei Airport. the interior has that fast-casual, boba/tea shop look.

I liked the menu which was full of standard Taiwanese "snack" items, many of which were familiar to me having spent five years living in the SGV.

So where to start? Well, I thought the classic oyster pancake (omelete) would be a decent choice.

My preference is for a bit more egg and a bit less flour/starch, which made this gummy. The usual ketchup based sauce could have used some flavor as this was kind of bland and runny. The oysters were decent, though rather sparse.

I like a good Ba-wan, pretty much a glutinous meatball, called Taiwanese Meatball on the menu.

This had a couple of large chunks of pork, tasteless and tough. This also lacked flavor and was rather disappointing. I never thought I'd be wishing for something from the now defunct 168 Restaurant.

Looking to improve our luck; I went with another Taiwanese standard that almost never fails. The fried pork chop.

Loved the texture, crisp and light. But whomever seasoned this must have dead tastebuds because this was extremely salty....unpleasantly salty.

One of my favorite Taiwanese dishes is Three Cup Chicken......

Loved the color, but this was also way too salty...almost bitter in flavor. I was wondering who was in the kitchen?

We met our final dish with trepidation.....Niu Rou Mian, beef noodle soup.

The best thing about the broth was that it was hot......other than that...well where to start. The noodles were overcooked, the beef tough, dry, and cold in the center. The worst was the soup, which was insipid, tasting like a beef bone was merely waved over it. This needed more of everything....

At the end of the meal I asked Candice what she thought the best dish was. Her response? The pickled vegetables that came with the pork chop! I also asked an acquaintance of mine who is from Taiwan about the place. He laughed and told me the owner is a well intentioned recent University Grad with no restaurant experience and that the kitchen doesn't have much either. It just seemed that the dishes here were really skewed on our visit; either very bland or way too salty. It wouldn't be too bad if one or two of the dishes were this way, but all five were. I know other folks really like the place, so perhaps it was a bad day. I really don't know what to say.....

Yes! Pingo
4813 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111