Revisits: The Spotted Cow and Gala Chicken

Here are a couple of revisits for today.

The Spotted Cow:

**** The Spotted Cow has closed

When the Missus needs something from Zion Market on the weekend, I'll go right when they open. I really never paid much attention to the food court during these morning visits until I was a bit hungry one day and was surprised to see the Spotted Cow open for business.

I really hadn't been overly impressed on my previous visits, but being a bit hungry I thought it would a good time to try the food again. Instead of the items I had before, I decided to go with the "Mi"; egg noodle soup. The young man working was very nice and efficient. I was surprised to see all that cilantro and scallions floating at the top of my bowl.

The broth and the herbs was pretty much what I expected, lacking in savory flavors and salty (broth) and fairly sparse (herbs and veggies).

What really surprised me was the amount of char siu in this bowl....my goodness. Not the best pork, a bit light in flavor and some rather overly chewy bits. But for a $6.95 bowl of noodle soup, this was probably the most I've ever seen in a bowl of egg noodle soup.

A very generous amount of egg noodles as well.....prepared quite well.

This might be the way to go here if you need a quick bite. Not a place to go out of the way for....but if you're hungry at 9am in the morning and are shopping at Zion Market, this might be ok. If ok will fill the bill.....

Spotted Cow Viet Kitchen (in the Zion Market Food Court)
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, California 92111

Gala Chicken:

One evening, the Missus needed me to pick something up from Zion on the way home from work.

Looking at the Gala K(orean) F(ried) C(hicken) stand, I thought it would be a good chance to try the chicken again. It had been about a year since I tried the chicken here, they had just opened and I had hopes the execution was better.

I went for a regular order of wings ($7.99). I was told it would be about a 20 minute wait, so I went ahead and finished my shopping. By the time I was done, so were my wings. I went home and opened up my the styrofoam container.

The wings were still hot, the coating wasn't quite as crumbly as I recalled, and not greasy, though I still think the seasoning is on the bland side. The wing pieces were fine, but the drumettes kind of dry and tough. I turned over one of the pieces.....

Sigh...... If you read my earlier post, you might recall how the guy running the fryer kept poking and cutting into the chicken pieces during the cooking process. So the chicken is losing moisture, drying out..... I would think if your business is frying chicken and have been doing it for over a year, you'd know when it was done without having to cut into pieces.

That's it.... what more can I say? I think it's sad that a product would never hit full potential because of something like this. I also realize that it might not matter to you, but it does to me.

Gala Chicken
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd (Inside of Zion Market)
San Diego, CA 92111

Comments

[kat]

:( KFC

[caninecologne]

Those are sad drummettes!

[Lynnea]

will keep the egg noodle soup in mind next time I am hungry at Zion, although i have to admit, I never make it past Paris Baguette to the food court. I just can't resist all those adorable little (though low quality) pastries! :) they will have to really, really up their game if they want to keep their new Paris location viable. Cheap quality won't cut it in Paris like it does with me ;D

[Jason]

That fry job looks like it was done during amateur hour.

One thing I liked about Ranch 99 was the Sam Woo fulfilled any cheap breakfast needs. The Spotted Cow could fill that void that for Zion, would be nice if they had a breakfast menu with cheaper prices but less portions (like Sam Woo).

[Kirk]

LOL Kat!

They are CC.

Hi Lynnea - One must give in to temptation now and then....

Hi Jason - That would be really good...though not likely. There's just not enough volume for them to justify that right now. Though maybe there would be if they lowered their prices during breakfast.

[Soo H.]

Doh! I didn't notice him cutting into my wings the few times I visited. I found some really tasty wings at Werewolf. They are grilled not fried.

[Kirk]

Hi Soo - I still haven't found grilled wings better than Yakyudori.

[Lynn]

I haven't had xa xiu in a while and now I am craving it! Do any recommendations come to mind?

The chicken wings are quite lumpy with all those cuts. If you hadn't taken it to go, would you have said anything to the guy? Though, it wouldn't be worth another 20 minute wait...

[Kirk]

Hi Lynn - The state of Chinese BBQ in San Diego is quite sad....so I really can't make any recommendations. If I had eaten there I may have mentioned something....