mmm-yoso!!!

Kalei's Kitchenette

A couple of months back I heard about a plate lunch place opening in Rancho Penasquitos named Kalei's Kitchenette. I noticed that the place opened at 10am, so I decided to take the drive on over and get there before the lunch crowds. 

The shop is quite tiny with just a few indoor and outdoor tables and counter seating.

And the menu is quite concise as well with basically six items available not including poke bowls on the weekends and specials.

One thing that quickly caught my attention were the photos and the chef's story. He's a real local boy from Maui. What really grabbed me was the photo to the right of the story. The Chef, Andy Mangiduyos graduated from the same High School as my mom (many decades later of course), Lahainaluna!

Of the menu items, four of them can be made into a mixed plate, called "Kalei's Plate" ($17).

I decided to get the Huli Huli Chicken and Garlic Chicken to start things off. You can also choose your "sides", two of them for your order. Of course I got rice and mac salad.

 The plate was quite heavy on the proteins. Personally, I liked having only one scoop rice as I will often tell the folks at turo-turo places to give me "half rice" these days. 

The rice was cooked fine. The mac salad wasn't coated evenly and was quite bland.

The Garlic Chicken was the better of the two proteins as it was crunchy, much like Taiwanese "popcorn" chicken. Though I would have liked a heavier garlic flavor, it was seasoned decently, good salt and pepper and was far from bland.

    I've yet to find decent Huli Huli Chicken outside of Hawaii and versions I've had here in San Diego have not been very good. Too much ketchup and sweetness to things. And while this version was better than what I'd had previously, it was still not my favorite. The chicken is supposedly marinated and smoked, but I really couldn't detect much smoke flavor. They tangy sourness of the sauce was a bit too much for me. The texture of the chicken was fine and the flesh was fairly moist.

That visit was back in July. I had meant to return, but the distance from work was a bit of a hinderance. Finally, I found a window of opportunity for a takeout revisit. This time I decided on the combo of the Teriyaki Beef and Kalua Pork. This felt even heftier than what I'd ordered before and upon opening.....

    The mac salad, though a bit over-mayo'd was nicely seasoned this time around. I could make out hints of vinegar which really elevated it. 

Man, look at all that beef and pork!

The teri beef was nicely marinated, though it was a thick and chewy cut. It didn't need the extra sauce on it as it had enough flavor. I used the leftovers of this to make a teri-beef sandwich for dinner!

   I liked the kalua pork, it was moist and tender, not overly salty, with a decent smokiness to it. In fact, the Missus tried the leftovers and said it tasted familiar. Hmmm....... This is probably the best version I've had in San Diego.

I do wish Kalei's was a bit closer to home. But the distance is probably better for my waistline and cholesterol, right? The young lady working on both visit was very nice. The shop is small and other folks I know have complained about the wait time during peak periods, so that should be accounted for. As for the loco moco? Well, I'm saving that for another day!

Kalei’s Kitchenette
9926-F Carmel Mountain Rd.
San Diego, CA 92129
Currnt Hours:
Tues - Sat 10am - 6pm
Closed on Sundays and Mondays

Postscript: As you all probably know, there was a tragic event that occurred between my two visits and Andy (Kalei is Andy's son) being from Lahaina coordinated the transport of donated non-perishable items flown to Maui on Alaska Air. I loved seeing the HFS truck in the video on Kalei's Instagram page. They've currently paused the donations of supplies, but different options are noted on their Instagram page.

Roadtrip - Revisiting the Torrance Farmers' Market and Canton Restaurant - Cháo Cá Chợ Cũ (Westminster)

We slept well after our dinner at Mountain House, we thought our room at the renovated Best Western wasn't bad, except for the terrible WiFi, but heck, we were here to relax, right?

We got up rather early (for a Saturday) since we had three stops in mind. The first being Porto's in West Covina, we used to go to the Buena Park location when I was doing work in OC and you can read all about Cathy's visits in her Rose Parade float posts. We just basically stop for two things the Missus wants, the dulce de leche cookies.

Next stop was a place we used to drive the 90 mile round trip to almost every Saturday when we lived in LA, the Torrance Farmers Market, which I've posted on several times already. Though it had been over ten years since our last visit! Sheesh, time sure does fly! We found parking where we've always have and was surprised to see that the Farmer's Market has grown a bit since the last time we were here!

We ended up buying quite a bit of produce and stuffs! Which was great since I was missing my usual Saturday shopping.

Torrance Certified Farmers' Market
2200 Crenshaw Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90501
Saturday 8am - 1pm

As for our last stop?

I mentioned that I had another place for Cha Ca Thang Long in my last post on Song Long. I had done a bit of research and the name Canton Restaurant - Cháo Cá Chợ Cũ kept appearing.

The restaurant is located in a strip mall on Westminster Boulevard along with Stater Brothers, Seafood Paradise, a Shabu Shabu place, a Pho Shop, and a score of other businesses and homeless folk.

The place is known for their Cha Ca Thang Long and Chao (rice porridge).

It opens at 930am. We arrived at 945 and there was already a large party seated in the place.

An older couple run the place, the gentleman the front of house and the woman swings between the kitchen and the dining room.

We placed our orders and soon enough a large plate of herbs and veggies to accompany our Cha Ca arrived. The gentleman placed the plate on our table and I took a look noticing that there was a lot of brown and wilted produce on the plate.

This didn't seem like a good start. But a minute later, the woman came out of the kitchen and did her "rounds", quickly noticing the state of our plate, swooping in, and replacing it immediately. We didn't have to say a word! Good save!

Soon enough, all the other accoutrements made their way to our table.

And good lord, that mam nem was serious business.....whoa was did it smell potent.

The Cha Ca was quite lovely......

The portion sizes are quite generous, the fish very moist and tender. The seasoning is on point and that mam nem takes it to another level. Wish the onions were a bit more caramelized, but I didn't order this for the onions. The dill just helps to restore the palate while adding a citrusy-anise flavor to things.

We had seen another table order the Cha Gio, so we ordered that as well.

    Man, these were super stuffed, full of porky goodness, hint of sweet- savory tones, and wrapped with rice paper. It was slightly more chewy than I prefer, but man, the overall package was much better than anything here is San Diego. This also heated up well in the air fryer!

As we walked out the Missus said to me, "looks like we have a new place for Cha Ca, huh? I think I want to come back here next week!" Whoa......

Canton Restaurant - Cháo Cá Chợ Cũ (Cash only)
8550 Westminster Blvd.
Westminster, CA 92683

Well, we were two for two on this overnighter. As for returning the following week....well, we'd have to wait an additional week for returning!

Thanks for stopping by!

EE Nami Revisted

The Missus wanted to have dinner at EE Nami again recently. So, we decided to make a date night out of it. This was last minute, so we made sure to get to the restaurant 15 minutes before opening. It was a good thing too since there was only two tables without "reserved" signs on them.

The Missus was really craving the special that we had on our previous dinners, Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Nigiri. And I had really enjoyed the Ankimo with Smoked Takuan. Unfortunately, both of these items are no longer offered. In fact, there was only one special on the menu.

So, we looked over the menu and decided on what we wanted to order.

We started with what is listed on the menu as "Salted Squid Offal" - aka Shiokara ($7.50). There's a certain fusion-ny accommodation of some of the dish at EE Nami and I'm glad this dish wasn't made that way. 

This very funky, with wonderful assertive briny-savory tones that almost fakes your tastebuds into thinking there's a sweet component to things. This dish comes with a footnote on the menu that states:

"this dish has a strong flavor"

Well, I'm glad that in this case it was a true statement!

Next up was the one special on the menu; the Spicy Marinated Octopus and Tomato ($8.50).

It should have read salty tako with wonderful, fruity tomatoes. The octopus was fairly tender, but not spicy in the least, but very salty. The tomatoes were sweet, with that wonderful "taste of sunshine".

And like the octopus, we didn't find the Spicy Fried Chicken ($11.50) to be spicy at all, at least not by our standards. 

The sauce is supposedly made with both doubianjang and gochujang and did taste fairly beany, but it really didn't bring much to the dish. Like I mentioned before, some of the menu items portion sizes are quite "American" and it seems like the chicken dishes here are like that. The chicken was very crispy and moist. The Missus said She would have rather just had the chicken without the sauce as it was also nicely seasoned as well. I guess next time.....

And of course, we got the Fillet Tonkatsu ($22.50).

Which was good as ever; crisp panko breading, moist, and tender. As I've also mentioned before, this should be eaten at the restaurant, we could tell that the meat started drying out and getting firm rather quickly. I'd get the fillet for inhouse and the loin for takeout. Of course we loved the refreshing cabbage between bites.

As a whole EE Nami was a nice meal, service was quite attentive on this visit and I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

EE Nami
4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
Current Hours
Wed - Sun 1130am - 2pm, 530pm - 10pm

Paris - Le Bouledogue

After spending our first full day in Paris, we had reservations for dinner at a place recommended by an acquaintance of mine. They often stay in the Marais and enjoy a brasserie named Le Bouledogue. We were staying just a few blocks away so the nice walk down to Rue Rambuteau was quite easy for us.

The interior of the restaurant is quite charming and the brasserie's namesake is "Elliot" who was owned by the previous owner of this establishment. Service was interesting, the gentleman running things seemed almost irritated and angry at something. The woman who was our Server was very nice and friendly. 

I'm sure this place is quite popular. It was 7pm on a Tuesday night and every table was reserved!

The menu is full of "classics" which made us quite happy. We placed our order and soon enough dishes started arriving.

Of course we had to get the Bone Marrow (11,5€). We were quite astounded at the portion size!

The bread provided was wonderful. The nice Server told us it was from the famous boulangerie Poilâne. So, another place to add to our list to check out. We found the bone marrow to be under roasted. In fact, the last of it was on the bloody side and metallic in flavor.

Another standard for me; Beef Tartare (27€), I was a bit concerned about the price, but like the bone marrow, the portion size was quite large.

Goodness, this was indeed a "plat principal"! The frites were on the soggy side, but as with potatoes outside the states, the interior was creamy and yielded a nice, almost sweet flavor. The greens were bitter, yet quite refreshing. The tartare was quite mild in flavor, I like a bit more Dijon, capers, and cornichons in mine, to add pungency and contrast. The cut was also more coarse than I prefer, thus making this a bit more chewy than I prefer.

The Missus is a fan of Andouillette, having enjoyed the versions we've had in Lyon and other places in France. So She ordered that (25€) as Her main.

    Again the greens and frites were quite good. That Andouillette was quite, well, rotund, literally bursting at the seams. This was quite funky, shades of lampredotto! The tripe was quite thick and chewy, but this was not bad overall.

As we were dining, the tables filled up; about a 50-50 non-French to French speakers. Folks were being turned away at the doors. Seems like Le Bouledogue is quite a popular place indeed! For us, well, it seemed more about the portion sizes here.

Still, who wouldn't love Elliot?

Le Bouledogue
20 rue Rambuteau
75003 Paris France

Paris - Cimetière des Chiens and Chez Ajia

One of the great things about spending 2 whole weeks in Paris is that it gives us time to do a bit more exploring outside of the center of the city. We'd always been fascinated by cemeteries and had already visited Pere Lachaise twice on previous trips. On that subject, did you know that the oldest pet cemetery in Europe (it's often claimed to be the oldest in the world) Cimetière des Chiens, established in 1899, is located in the suburbs of Paris, right across the Seine from the 10th Arrondissement in Asnières-sur-Seine? I took a look at this web page, saw a familiar name, and convinced the Missus it would worth a morning visit.

So, there we were catching the metro after our morning croissant and coffee, ending up at the Mairie de Clichy metro station and then taking the 20 minute walk, crossing the Seine, and ending up at these gates.

Talk about a rather grand entrance! We arrived at just past the opening time of 10am, paid our €3.50 entrance fee and walked on in.

Right at the entrance is a statue of the famous rescue dog Barry (who is actually in the Natural History Museum of Bern).

The inscription on the plaque reads:

"He saved the lives of forty people. He was killed by the forty-first"

Though according to several sources Barry was retired to Bern, Switzerland to live out the rest of his years.

Lest you think it's just pooches interred here.....

There's even a cat mausoleum in the cemetery.

Some of the graves date back to when the cemetery was established. This one goes back to 1900!

This one is for the two pooches of a Princess.

And this one is for the one and only Rin Tin Tin....yes that Rin Tin Tin.

Still, it was the other tombstones that caught our attention. There were several folks in the cemetery tending graves of their beloved.

You can tell they were loved.

They give so much to us........

I know we still talk about Sammy and Frankie everyday. 

Sometimes when we travel, we're rushing from place to place, from event to event. Having some time to just stroll and think about how lucky we are and how blessed we are does one good and puts things into perspective.

Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques
4 Pont de Clichy
92600 Asnières-sur-Seine, France

We crossed the Seine and headed on back to out apartment. After a short break, we decided to head on out to do some "lèche-vitrine" ("window licking") the French term for window shopping. This took us down to the area around Rue de Rivoli. When it came time for lunch; the Missus, knowing we had dinner reservations at a Brasserie was craving some Asian food. I had an interesting place on my "list" named Chez Ajia, run by a husband and wife team, she is the chef and hails from Taiwan and her husband who is French runs the front of house.

We arrived just past 1pm and easily found a table. We found out that the nice gentleman taking our order is one of the owners; he was really friendly, spoke perfect English, and turned out to be quite entertaining; more on that later. The restaurant is what I would call "coffeehouse - cozy". What was interesting is that you are given a device with three buttons on it, like we have at many Korean restaurants here; to call for service or your check. The menu was full of basic Taiwanese "standards".

The Missus is always up for eggs, so we started with a basic Basil Omelette (10€).

This was like something you'd make at home, it could have used more salty - savory tones, the eggs were adequately fluffy.

We ordered the "Loh Bih" (16€) which had some of favorite side dishes.

The eggs were very tasty and the bean curd skin knots were nicely marinated. The pig ears were not seasoned enough and the smoked tofu and seaweed tasted like it came out of a package from 99 Ranch Market.

Meanwhile, the owner, I believe his name is Geoffrey came on over and started chatting with us. And frankly, this was the most memorable part of the meal. He asked us where we were from and we said San Diego...he then asked us where in San Diego and we said "Bay Park". He knew exactly where it was! You see, he spent a year in college at SDSU! And then for some reason we mentioned Hacienda Heights and Rowland Heights. And he said he spent almost year nearby when going to the University. He asked us where about and we mentioned being near Colima Road at HK Plaza. He then said something that made us totally crack up - "so, you could smell the chou doufu then....." Yes, I guess the "scent of Shau Mei" extends all the way to Paris!

The last item of the meal was our favorite, the Guo Bao (11€).

The bao was on the gummy side; but the pork belly was nicely balanced in flavor, just enough sweet to even out the soy sauce, the meat was very tender with a nice savory porkiness to it. 

It was a good way to end an interesting meal.

Yes, our first two meals back in Paris was Sichuan and now Taiwanese. Heck, we were spending two weeks here, why not eat like we live here, right?

Chez Ajia
4 Rue du Roi de Sicile
75004 Paris, France

Thanks for stopping by!

Mad For Cheesecake (National City)

Recently, the Missus had an appointment in National City and wanted me to drive and wait for Her. Sigh...... Her appointment was in the South Bay Plaza Shopping Center, you know, where Seafood City is located. Her appointment was going to be for at least an hour so I thought I'd find myself a place to sit and have some.....

Well, perhaps another day.

I just wanted some tea and saw this shop next to Seafood City.

I walked on up to the counter and ordered some Oolong unsweetened and heck, since the Missus really enjoys Japanese Cheesecake, I decided to get one for Her. The folks working the counter were so friendly and told me they had just opened a little over a month ago.

Well, when we got home the Missus tucked right into the cheesecake, She cut a slice and wouldn't you know....it actually jiggled! Just like what we'd had in Japan. I was allowed a taste and the cake was light, fluffy, and not overly sweet! The Missus thought it was better than where I was commanded to we currently get the Missus's cheesecake, Uncle Tetsu.

So, of course I've now been back a couple of times to get the Cheesecake ($13) here.

The Missus loves the texture and flavors in this. Slightly "cheesy" with a clean, almost lightly citrus finish, without being overly sweet.

You'll notice that the logo on the cheesecake says Cheese Garden. Well, according to this post in Eater, the owner who also owns the Bonchon franchise in San Diego, brought and runs the Toronto based Cheese Garden in Carmel Valley, which will soon be changing its name to Mad For Cheesecake as well.

There's a whole list of desserts and drinks listed, including a Baked Cheese Tart, Double Fromage Cheesecakes, and so on. It'll be interesting to see how the Missus's taste evolves with this one.

The folks running the place are very friendly.

And Uncle Tetsu is now a distant #2 on the Missus's "list".

And so you could say that at this moment, the Missus is "mad for cheesecake".

Mad For Cheesecake
1420 E Plaza Blvd Suite B-5
National City, CA 91950
Current Hours:
Sun - Thurs 11am - 9pm
Fri - Sat        11am - 10pm

The Market at HFS has Moved and is Now Hawaiian Fresh Seafood (HFS) At Centerpark Labs

A couple of weeks back, I decided to head on to the Market at HFS. For some reason I went to their website and noticed the name of the place had changed to HFS at Centerpark Labs? I took a look and noticed that the address had changed as well! Strange because I had been to the Weathers Place location just a couple of weeks before! Anyway, I headed on over to make the 10am opening time. The "new" location was one traffic light further east on Mira Mesa Boulevard at Flanders Drive. Driving in, I found the new location with minimal problems because they were setting up as I drove into the parking lot.

I parked and walked on over. There a large outdoor eating area at this location.

And I saw a familiar face setting things up. It was Hope the manager who is from Aiea.

After setting up, it was still before opening time and Hope saw me, waved and came on over to chat! It was great seeing her. Hope told me they had just completely moved things over a couple of weeks before and things were now busier than ever with an expanded menu and hours. The Weathers Place shop still did wholesale and Hope was in charge of both places! Yikes! She was working long hours, but was trying to find some manager candidates.

Meanwhile there was line forming, but I didn't care since I was enjoying my chat with Hope. She even guided me into the shop and had the young lady running the register hand me a menu. Hope told me that they had really expanded the menu with cooked items, I'd already tried the fried ahi belly, but she recommended the Ahi Kama, the collar, which I'll make sure to try on one of my future visits.

Meanwhile, I gave "JeffP" my copy of the menu since he's a fan of HFS and didn't know they had moved, so here's a copy from their site.

These days, you can gaze at the seafood offerings like before.....

But you order at the register, where they also have the available poke as well.

On my two visits, I just went with my typical poke bowl, I always get the rice separate from the fish and I usually avoid the salmon items.

And the portions seem a bit bigger, but the poke is as good as always.

And it makes me miss "home". 

If you have trouble finding the shop, look for the big "6835" on top of the building, or the outdoor eating set-up, and there are signs strategically placed.

And yes, you can get poke for dinner since they're open until 8pm these days. Though I'm not sure what the selection will be like then.

Maybe "FOY" Jason who mentioned stopping by this location as well might know?

HFS at Centerpark Labs
6835 Flanders Dr.
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Daily 10am - 8pm

Hola Paris

Back in May, I was doing a morning walk around Old Town, when I walked into Old Town Urban Market mainly to see what was going on with the location of Barrio Donas that was opening there. You can read about my visit to Barrio Donas here. When I noticed that the shop opening right across from Barrio Donas had some activity going on. It was called Hola Paris, a name which harkens to some of our favorite places to travel, so of course I was interested. There was a nice couple setting things up, when I inquired about the name, the nice owner named Gabby is Mexican and her Husband who is handling the chef duties named Benjamin is from the outskirts of Paris! Thus, Hola Paris! Of course, I then cracked them up when I left saying "merci, adios, au revoir"! 

The place opened a couple of weeks later. Looking at the menu, which featured pastries and crepes was perhaps not going to be our cup of tea. We had spent two weeks in Paris during our last trip to the city and one of the places we tried was the ever popular crêperie Breizh Cafe. It turns out that we didn't care for the savory crepes there.

Still, the owners of Hola Paris seemed so nice. So, I decided to check things out. I went on one quiet morning to the very "Instagrammable" looking shop in the Urban Market.

Benjamin broke into a big smile and laughed when he saw me.......I guess he remembered me! We had a nice conversation and I mentioned I don't care for sweets much. I also mentioned that during our last stay in Paris, we tried crepes and didn't care for it. He asked where  and I told him Breizh Cafe. Benjamin quickly explained that Breizh Cafe makes Bretonne style crepes, which uses buckwheat. The style made here is based on the sweeter style crepes made with wheat  flour. He also pointed out, because of the Mexican touches, the several of offerings are quite savory and even have some spice.

He recommended I try the Ham y Queso ($13), which includes jambon and queso fresco. 

Upon turning, I noticed this sign, which gave me flashbacks!

I asked him about it and was told Gabby loves Chanel! I mentioned the Cambon location....and apparently Gabby loves that location as well! Oh boy.......

Anyway, I went and had a seat and soon enough my crepe was delivered.

The crepe was light and at first a bit too sweet for me.

But as I tucked into it, the saltiness from the ham and the mild, rich milkiness of the queso fresco started coming to the forefront. While this was still a bit too sweet for my taste it was not bad!

I waited about a month, before revisiting. And Benjamin greeted me with a smile. In thinking about what I'd had on the previous visit, I thought that a bit of heat might really spice up things a bit. So, I decided to order the La Suiza ($14), which included tomatillo sauce and a green salsa. 

   This time the crepe was delivered with a fork and knife. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy chicken in a crepe, but it wasn't bad at all. Actually, the bite of tangy-sour heat from the sauces/salsa really made it enjoyable to my palate. The sweetness was tempered and the cheese really helped to balance out the flavors. I do think this could have used a bit more salt. And heck, even more spicy too!

   I'm glad I tried Hola Paris. While it's not something I crave, Benjamin and Gabby are so nice and friendly. I really enjoyed chatting with Benjamin about Paris.

It'll be interesting to see what other savory items make it to the menu...and heck, I might even just have a Kir Royal here once day!

Hola Paris
2548 Congress St.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 9am - 6pm
Sat - Sun 9am - 7pm

Hoping that everyone is safe and well......

Man, I never thought I'd be doing one of these posts 2 weeks in a row.

How is everyone in San Diego doing? We're hoping that everyone made it thru Hilary unscathed with property intact.

Things really hit home when I did my Saturday shopping...places did seem a bit more busy, but then I dropped by Marukai for a couple of things and one guy had an entire shopping cart full of Gallon spring water bottles; like 20 of them! And the cashier rang him up (they are 99 cents at Marukai) without blinking an eye. I know, I should have taken a photo, but I was totally in shock. As usual my last stop was at Sprouts, I noticed there was a long line at the registers. And then when I passed the water section, oh my!

Shades of "shopping in the times of Covid"! Though it obviously wasn't as bad, my friend told me that Trader Joe's had been cleaned out.

Since I was running late, I managed to visit Gusto Market and purchase something we "just needed".

Which ended up being part of our "brunch" yesterday.

By early afternoon, Hilary had gone from a Category 4 Hurricane, to a Category 2 (here's the measurements) to a Tropical Storm.

We've been in Kyoto when Typhoon Vongfong hit and I remember Iniki as well. But this is SoCal and the last time a Tropical Storm had hit California was in 1939! I don't think we are quite as prepared for events like that!

At 345pm I opened my phone and stuff just kept on coming....

Man, with the fires in Canada and Washington state, the fire in Lahaina, now the hurricane/tropical storm. 

We hope that you all made it thru Hilary unscathed! We hope all is well!

Roadtrip - Mountain House (Rowland Heights)

The Missus had enjoyed our last overnight Road Trip to Monterey Park so much, that She wanted to do another one ASAP. This time, She wanted to try some places we hadn't visited before. I did a bit of research and found that a Szechuan restaurant with origins in New York had recently opened. In of all places, old neighborhood of Rowland Heights....Rowland Heights?

Well, we decided to make it an overnight kind of thing and I went and found another place for sort of "brunch" the next morning. We made good time and got in kind of early and decided to drop by Hong Kong Plaza which we hadn't been to since before Covid. First we dropped by Hong Kong Market, which had kind of changed a few years back. It's now got a bunch more snacks and stuff.

And a more interesting variety than 99 Ranch Market.

I will get various snacks and also items like aged black vinegar and better quality soy sauce from here. One thing we noticed, the market was totally dead on a Friday afternoon.

We decided to take a walk around; places like Hong Kong Fishball House, Yi Mei Deli, and Shau Mei, remnants from when we lived less than half a block away in the late 90's are still open. We decided to take a stroll in the indoor portion of the mall and was shocked.

Good lord; it was totally empty.....

It felt so eerie walking along past the empty businesses.

And passing Happiness Restaurant made us especially sad.

And not because we've had great meals here, it's because on our last visit there was a turtle named Manie, who was 6 1/2 at the time and was the actual namesake of Manie's Restaurant which preceded Happiness. We wondered and hoped that Manie is ok.

The end of the parking lot was layered with trash and the overall feel was quite depressing.

We then headed to our accommodation for the evening. I had read that the Best Western Plus on Gale had been renovated and got a "interior" room, which was a major blessing because the freeway noise (the hotel faces the 60) can be quite loud. As it is, we had a pretty quiet room, with noisy, but effective A/C, and got in a short nap before we headed off to dinner.

Refreshed after our nap, we decided to walk to our dinner destination a mere 15 minutes away. Of course, no one walks around here and we got some stares, especially with all the cars entering and exiting the 60 as we crossed over.

The mall where Mountain House is located is fairly new and the area used to be on the seedy side when we lived close by. Indeed, there are still homeless camping out behind the Motel 6 next to the mall. But man, this looks a lot different than when we lived around here.

We arrived 15 minutes before opening and there were already folks waiting in line for the place to open. Mountain House only takes reservations for parties of 6 or more people.

The interior is pretty fancy, almost Traditional Taoist in nature. With everything from a koi pond to semi private alcoves in the somewhat maze like set-up.

Things started off with some tea, which the Missus enjoyed.

And we liked the ornate patterns on the lovely tea cups.

In spite of the rather fancy setting; we found the prices to be quite reasonable. Of course, it had been so long since we'd had good Sichuan in the states so we went a little crazy.

The gratis cabbage with chilies was a nice start. Nice ma-la sensations were brought to the forefront.

We started with what might be the signature dish at Mountain House the "Liang Yi" - Hanging Laundry ("Swing Pork Belly" - $13.95). Where strips of pork belly and cucumber are hung on a rack.

 The Laundry" hangs over a bowl with a smoky-mildly spicy chili oil, with a large dollop of garlic paste in the middle. We quickly noticed that fat was dripping off the slices of pork belly enhancing the concoction.

This was the Missus's favorite dish of the evening. She loved the combination of mildly spicy-pungent-savory flavors all finished with the clean, refreshing cucumber. 

Of course we had to order the La Zi Ji ($19.95). Which was brought to the table on the blade of a shovel.

This was also lovely, great ma-la, the small pieces of chicken were nice and crunchy. There was some bones to be found so you approached things with some caution, but this was really good. The leftovers were also great, heated in an air fryer, though I almost blinded myself when I opened it!

The Rabbit with Mixed Pepper ($25.95) was indeed spicy.

But there were too many shards of bone and it was way too salty.

I loved the Ma-La Intestine ($23.95).

Crisp and light, offal-ly pork intestine, perfectly numbing and spicy, not overly salty....the swiney excellence came thru nicely.

We ordered something called the Bamboo Trio ($16.95). Which featured Duck Tongue, Bamboo Shoots, and "Poached Chicken" (Ko Shui Ji - $16.95).

   This was an interesting Liang Cai (cold dishes) trio; the Duck Tongue in a chili oil was interesting. Usually, when we've had duck tongue, there's a hard inedible piece of bone in the center making eating it somewhat ponderous. The center of the tongue in this dish was cartilaginous, reminding us of nankotsu, with a pleasant crunchy shewiness.

The Bamboo Shoots were crunchy, with pickled peppers, creating a nice earthy dish.

The chicken in the Ko Shui Ji was tender and the overall flavor was by the book Sichuan.

The dish we enjoyed the least were the Won Tons in Hot Sauce ($9.95).

The won tons were decently flavored and tender, but the sauce lacked balance.....in spite of looks, it was overly greasy, not especially spicy, and just not pleasant to eat.

The Missus ordered one....then another dessert. I guess She really enjoyed it.

Overall, the highs really outweighed the lows. And we thought this was the best Sichuan we've had in over a decade. The Missus couldn't wait to return to try other dishes....and we'd end up returning sooner than I thought. My goodness, if the Sichuan here in San Diego was half as good as what we had here.

Mountain House
18888 Labin Court
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

We returned to our room with tons of leftovers; fat and happy.

Our room overlooked the strip mall with all the restaurants on Gale across from 99 Ranch Market. It was interesting watching the battle for parking spaces.....

We were really enjoying our time here......

Thanks for stopping by!