Breakfast Revisits - Zarlitos Family Restaurant, Elijah’s Restaurant & Delicatessen, and Poke Etc

A couple of breakfast revisits.

Zarlitos Family Restaurant:

It's already been established that Zarlitos is the Missus's favorite breakfast stop. Basically, it's poke for breakfast. And the Missus can sometimes put away a pound of this stuff.

I however, had to still work and find the perfect breakfast counter-point. It became a real "Goldilocks" type of moment. No, not that Goldilocks; this Goldilocks!

The first time...well, I just had to try the sisig. But man, this was way to sour for breakfast.

As a whole not too bad in terms of sisig; but I wanted a bit more spice. The pork was crisp and not overly chewy, but it was just missing something....and perhaps was not the best choice for breakfast.

On another note; a friend sent me a bunch of postings last month....apparently Anthony Bourdain anointed Sisig as the next big thing. I dunno, I think my first post on sisig was way back in April, 2006. Hey, even an old fuddy-duddy unhip food blogger enjoys a moment where one of his favorites dishes; one with its own category list hits the spotlight. As for the next big thing? Hmm.......

Next visit; I went the ex-pat local boy route.....the Spamsilog.

Man, talk about too much of a good thing......I expected like maybe two slices, max. But this was three fairly substantial slices. Way too much saltiness. Even though the Spam looked undercooked; it was strangely crisp. I think it was dumped in the fryer. In spite of this not working out, I did find part of the equation. First off, I'm not a big fan of the standard garlic rice here...and they do give a lot of rice. I got steamed rice and found that the Missus sharing a good amount of it....and one of my eggs to boot.

So we were at two out of three here.......almost there.

And then I ordered the Chicksilog; the fried chicken quarter, rice, and eggs.

The chicken is simply fried; but the fat has been rendered out from under that crisp skin. It's obviously been double-fried. That skin was nice, light and crisp, with a enjoyable level of greasiness that just goes well with some vinegar.....yes, vinegar is a must as it really cuts the fattiness.

That's two easy-over eggs hiding below the fried chicken. I share one egg and about a third of the rice with the Missus, along with a bit of the chicken....of course She loves that skin dipped in vinegar. I place the egg on top of the rice; break the yolk, and add shoyu.

As Goldilocks said; "this one is just right".......

Zarlitos Family Restaurant
505 East 8th St.
National City, CA 91950

Elijah’s Restaurant & Delicatessen:

I'd managed to bring back a pound of Schwartz's smoked meat from Montreal and the Missus wanted me to track down some Rye Bread. For some reason; I recalled that Elijah's sold their own rye bread. "AlanH" had also recommended the goulash soup, which was a Wednesday special at Elijah's, so I got there right before 11am on a Wednesday to check it out.

This being a breakfast posts; you can kinda figure out how I fared. The really nice gentleman informed me that they weren't serving the goulash soup at this time.

So I took a look at the menu.

Breakfast I believe is served all day....for some reason the Reuben Omelette ($10.95) jumped out at me. So I ordered it. Man, talk about a load of food.

And to be perfectly honest; I kinda enjoyed it.......slight sour and crunch from the sauerkraut; sliced corned beef added meatiness and saltiness, the Swiss cheese a blanket of milky comfort, and for some reason Russian Dressing.....now, when I used to work in a restaurant during my younger days; we added a dollop of mayonnaise to our scrambled eggs for extra richness...here it's the ketchup in the dressing, along with the mild acidity from the cheese that really helped things along.

The potatoes were nicely fried and seasoned....the Missus really likes the potatoes here, so I saved most of it for Her. Along with half the omelette which I had later on for dinner.

So I struck out on the goulash soup, but didn't do badly at all.

Elijah’s Restaurant & Delicatessen
7061 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Poke Etc:

I know poke at Zarlitos and Longanisa at Poke Etc? What can I say? I'd actually been wanting to try the Ilocano Longanisa, something that I haven't had since my days "back home". Like I mentioned in my Poke Etc post last year. My Filipino friends back home were Ilocano and that was the type of longanisa I was used to. Man, when I had my first Longsilog here on the mainland!

Anyway; the Ilocano Longanisa here comes with eggs and rice, with an amazing price of $4.95! So finally, a year later, I made my way back and ordered it.

For some reason I expected easy over eggs; but man, that's a lot of eggs and longanisa for five bucks. The eggs weren't seasoned and were on the gummy side. The rice was better than on my previous visits. Maybe because it was 10 in the morning. Something was not right with the longanisa; I'm used to garlic hints with a sour, vinegar bite....but these tasted, well, almost rancid, bitterness. It also smelled kind of strange.....sort of cheesy...which I love in cheese....but not quite here. I'd actually taken this home before eating or I'd ask the really nice woman about it. So basically decided to cut my losses.

I'll probably go back to the poke here during future visits.

Poke Etc
916 E 8th St
National City, CA 91950

Comments

[kat]

wow a pound of poke...go Missus!

[Kirk]

Yes....a pound of poke Kat! Amazing....

[Faye]

Mayo in scrambled eggs! Never thought of that! Will have to try that the next time I make eggs.

[Kirk]

Not too much Faye....just a little bit and make sure to beat well to break down.

[RedDevil]

Montreal smoked meat. What time should I show up? Can get great rye bread (and pastrami) shipped overnight from Langer's in LA (really good stuff and haven't found anything as good down here). Gotta get to Zarlito's! Thanks as always!

[jack]

I just came back from the Philippines and was able to have vigan longganisa when i was in Manila. Typically it's only found in the city of Vigan, in the Ilocos area. So good!

[Kirk]

Lol RD....it is quite good! I've been to Langer's though not in quite a few years. Schwartz's was amazing.

Sounds delicious Jack!

[caninecologne]

The smoked meat at Schwartz's...I still dream about it, ha ha. Yeah, that spam looks kind of dry. :(

[Kirk]

Man, that stuff was soooo good CC!