mmm-yoso!!!

Have a fun...and safe Halloween

Something we've noticed over the last couple of years. Not sure if you've noticed it too?

It seems like decorating has really grown in size and scope! Man, some of the yards in our neighborhood! 

Of course, we were out of the country last Halloween, but I think it's been really expanding ever since the times of Covid. I've noticed the same with Christmas as well.

Even the one house that really used to go all out, now has the entire corner going and even the roof!

And they've got this "show" going on at night?

Though perhaps this represents a change in demographics and gentrification?

Perhaps you've noticed the same thing where you live?

Regardless, we here at mmm-yoso want to wish you a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Thanks for hanging around.....

And I know everyone is kinda busy. And when you gotta go.....well, you gotta go!

Happy Halloween!

Nhu Y Revisited - A "Com-tam-plation"........

The Missus was really disappointed in the Com Tan Dac Biet from Pho Duyen Mai. She immediately made it my mission to find a decent Com Tam. One of the first places I had in mind was Nhu Y. It had been a while since I last dined there....man it was in 2019! Of course, most of my visits to Nhu Y was for the Bun Mam, though I recalled the place had a decent Com Tam Dac Biet....but that was years ago and "FOY" Elle had mentioned that portion sizes at Nhu Y had gotten smaller recently, so when deciding to visit, I didn't set my expectations too high. 

The parking lot where Nhu Y is located can be hit or miss, but we managed to find parking in the lot on this morning.

The outdoor area of the restaurant was filled with those "guys doing coffee", but the dining room was empty except for two other parties.

Of course the Missus got the Com Tam Dac Biet ($13.25).

This was very "old school", which the Missus appreciated. The Bi was sliced thin and dusted with roasted rice powder and was nice and porky. The "cha" the egg-pork "loaf" was on the dry and chewy side. The pork chop was nicely flavored, salty-mildly sweet but was also quite chewy. The Tan Hu Ky, crisp bean curd with shrimp paste, was nice and crisp. The broken rice was quite rustic, but decently textured. The nuoc mam wasn't overly sweet as many versions are these days. Not bad overall and decently priced for these days.

When we walked in, there was a petit woman just destroying the Bun Cha Hanoi. It was quite impressive. So, I decided to get that ($14.25).

 I know that Elle said that the portion sizes here have decreased, but I thought this was pretty generous. Lot's of bun and a good amount of lettuce and herbs,

In terms of the proteins; the sliced pork was the better of the two this time around, nicely marinated, good savory-sweet balance. The meatballs were on the tough side of the scale. But when wrapped in the bun lined lettuce, garnished with mint, cilantro, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and pickled radish, dunked into the nuoc mam, this made for a very nice bite. I do wish there was more pickled veggies though.

I finished things off topping the bun with meat, veggies, and pouring on the nuoc mam cham. I did not leave hungry!

This was a decently priced meal and the Missus thought the com tam was pretty good, but She still wanted to try a few other places. Well, it was time for some additional "com-tam-plation"!

Nhu Y Restaurant
4712 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Stay Tuned!

The Curry Club (Formerly Zen Curry)

Back at the end of July, I thought that Zen Curry, which had been "temporarily closed" since summer of 2023, had permanently closed. As always, our great "Friends of Yoso" (FOYs) came thru, as Elle notified me that Zen Curry was becoming something named "Curry Club". It was the same owners and the place had their soft opening in the middle of August. In the beginning the place was only opened for dinner; so I decided to wait until lunch hours were available. A couple of weeks back, I noticed that the Curry Club now had lunch hours, but only on weekends. On a recent weekend, I finally decided to check the place out, to see the state of the curry.

I arrived right past the posted opening time of 11am and easily found parking. I quickly noticed that the sign for the business has not been put up yet.

It seems that the interior has been changed a bit, though it still looks simple and functional.

There were folks already in the place when I arrived.

The menu seemed similar to what I recall at Zen Curry, but this difference caught my attention.

Interesting......it seems like the Curry Club has created a mechanism for controlling the spice and associated flavors.

My experience with the tonkatsu over the years had not been very good; so I decided to stick with the "meat product" I had enjoyed the best here, the Spam® Katsu.

Asking about the various chili powders I was told that the best approach to determining which spice level you enjoyed was to take a spoon of the curry and sprinkle a bit of the chili powder in it, starting from the mildest of the three, and determine which suited you the best.

I thought that was an interesting approach, so as soon as my plate arrived, I started the process.....

As soon as I seasoned that first spoonful, I stopped.....well sheesh; what about the blog???? I guess I got a bit too excited......

Anyway, here's the Spam® Katsu Curry, minus one spoon of the sauce.

 In the end, I settled with the Cayenne Pepper seasoning as it had a nice bit of heat, mild smokiness,  a bit of a "bite" if you will, with a touch of sweetness. I actually tasted the seasoning by itself! 

Zen Curry had a habit of "over-frying" the Spam Katsu and this looked basically the same. Still it was crisp without being hard. The meat product was nice and salty....heck, it was Spam®, whaddya expect?

One of the things I disliked about the curry at Zen was how pasty and bland it had been on some visits. This version was smoother and creamier; it was still a bit weak in terms of beefiness, but was not overly sweet, and not very pungent overall.

I enjoyed the "add your spice" step, I think it's a bit more than a gimmick. I'll probably return somewhere down the line and try the tonkatsu or maybe the "Curry Moco". And maybe add in some garlic chips?

Until then, I think it's getting to be curry season(ing) around here. I need to start my "rounds" again! Any suggestions on where to start? Does Hinotez still do curry? They used to be a favorite of mine....though they're only open for dinner these days.

The Curry Club
7309 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Tues - Fri 5pm - 9pm
Sat - Sun  11am - 3pm, 5pm - 9pm
Closed on Mondays

London - Dinner at A Wong Part 2

**** So, this is part 2 of our dinner. If you haven't read part 1, you can find it here.

After the "Banquet" and the "Dim Sum", the next set of items up were named "Fish".

Anhui Province Red Braised Fermented Wild Seabass, I'm thinking that this was supposed to be a homage to Chòu Guì Yú, which uses a brine based fermentation technique?

We enjoyed the textural variations within the dish. The ikura like fish roe presented a savory-brininess. The fish was tender, not overly salty.

The "Why We Don't Need to Eat Shark's Fin Soup" was interesting, subbing agar for the shark fin.

We were told to pour the soup, which had a nice gelatinous richness onto the Braised Abalone with Shiitake Mushroom and Sea Cucumber which was part of the "set". It was a bit of overkill. For some reason the abalone tasted somewhat bitter?

And then there was the Garlic Steamed Tiger Prawn, Mung Bean Noodle, with "Superior" Soy. Not sure why they needed to add the Superior Soy to the name.....I use it in my dishes all the time and think of it as a kitchen staple?

Nice balanced garlic-ginger tones in this; but the tiger prawn was over-cooked and tough.

Next up were the "Snacks".

Starting with the riff on Rou Jia Mo; something we loved during our trip to Shaanxi.

   A very interesting put it together yourself presentation. The mantou was a bit too doughy; it should be more crisp as well. The lamb had really been stewed in the juices and sauce, but was quite mild in flavor. It seemed a bit "tame"...which I think was the issue we had with many of the dishes here.

Soy Chicken with Ginger Oil and Oscietra Caviar. Man Ossetra Caviar, with Soy Sauce Chicken?

It was accompanied by some soy sauce for dipping. The caviar and soy sauce did a great job balancing out the dish which skewed sweet.

We did enjoy the texture of the Pulled Noodle Cracker with Japanese Wagyu and Shrimp Chili Oil.

But the Wagyu seemed a bit lost here. The chili oil was savory, but wasn't particularly spicy.

Next up were the "Five Flavours"; now you know how much I reference suan-tian-ku-la-xian, the sour-sweet-bitter-spicy-salty metaphor for balanced dishes.

Gong Bao Chicken, Roasted Peanuts, and Hot Pot Essence.

This was a nice bite as the ma-la (numbing spice) came thru cleanly.

We were provided with Nashi Pear edges with Sichuan Peppercorn as a palate cleanser for the final dishes.

The presentation of the Sweet and Sour Corn Fed Chicken, Thai basil, Pineapple and Candied Walnuts was eye catching.

But like many of the other dishes, the "Emperor had no clothes". It was too sweet; the chicken was not crisp enough and bland. Not enough basil to really add that anise goodness to the dish.

Not sure why the Roasted Cashew, Tamarind, Dried Shrimp and Coriander Cheung fun wasn't on the "dim sum" menu.

The Missus enjoyed the crisp youtiao that crowned the dish; it again skewed a bit sweet, though the cheong fun was nicely texture with a nice "pull" to it.

The silken tofu in the Chrysanthemum Tofu and Lemongrass Broth was beautifully silken.

The dish came with a very nice soup spoon of sauce on the side.

We were told to eat the tofu in combination with the Yunnan Seared Beef with Mint, Chili and Lemongrass.

Which was fine. As you can tell, we were getting a bit worn down by this time.

And my notepad on my phone was getting quite full.

On the bright side; the last "main dish" was quite interesting. The Young Coconut with Madagascan Black Pepper Sauce.

I know, doesn't look like much from this angle. But turn the plate around a bit......

Yes, there's more black truffle here. We were surprised that it went well with the slightly sweet and nutty coconut. The black pepper sauce really balanced the dish out with the fried shiso leaf adding in that touch of minty-anise-vegetal tones.

As you all know, I'm not much of a dessert guy, but I found the Coconut Water Ice to be quite refreshing. Especially after so many items.

The Candied Walnuts with Blue Cheese was an interesting, very non-Chinese item for dessert.

The Missus enjoyed the version of Dragon's Beard Candy provided.

We took the Petit-Fours with us. The Missus enjoyed them with coffee the next morning.

So, if you've made thru both posts, I'm sure you can figure out what we thought of the meal. The service was a bit hovering, but very nice. The presentation of the dishes were quite excellent; but we don't eat with our eyes. For a place whose owner claims to be a "Chef-Anthropologist", many of the dishes really didn't capture the essence and soul of the cuisine of the various regions of China to us. 

As for the price; it was 200£ per person plus another 200£ for the wine pairing....which the Missus liked BTW. So, all told including service charges/tips the bill came out to about $1k US!

We'll have to mark this one up to "well, at least we finally tried A Wong".

A. Wong
70 Wilton Rd.
Pimlico, London, United Kingdom

London - Dinner at A Wong Part 1

**** OK, this is going to be a two-parter, since dinner was 30 courses!

I was really excited about our first dinner in London. I'd made reservations at A Wong which has the honor of being the first Chinese restaurant with 2 Michelin Stars outside of China. I had purchased the A Wong Cookbook which is no longer printed, way back in 2016. I'd tried some recipes with mixed results. Yet, I believed eating at the restaurant would provide some insight.

The restaurant was located about a mile-and-a-half from our hotel and the Missus decided we should walk. It was a pretty nice walk as we strolled thru the Green Park and past Buckingham Palace.

I did enjoy the walk.

A Wong is located on Wilton Road in Pimlico and it's a fairly low-keyed spot, between a Mexican restaurant and a Brazilian Steakhouse. We were welcomed as we arrived and seated at the bar.

The menu is like a book, the 30 courses divided up into 6 sections with specific "themes" like the "Banquet", "Dim Sum", and "Fish". We also took the wine pairing as well. As for the Chef/Owner, Andrew Wong has quite the story, as does the location, which was formerly his parent's restaurant.

You can read the link and the page from the menu below if interested. 

 

Apparently, the Chef has travelled across China and wants his menu to reflect his travels. I don't think I need to say how difficult it would be to pay homage to all 8 great traditions as well as regional cuisine like Hakka, Yunnan, and others. Chef Wong does fancy himself as a Culinary "Anthropologist" so this was going to be interesting.

The staffing of the restaurant is kinda amazing; it seems like there's a 1:1 ratio of staff to customers. The downside is that there's bit of "hovering" going on, which can be somewhat uncomfortable at times.

The meal was brought out in "groups", the first 8 dishes, comprising the "Banquet" arrived in unison. I must say the presentation was quite good.

That's Fish Fragrant Oyster on the right and Beans with wasabi soy sauce, and Osmanthus Jelly on the left.

The Yúxiāng Qiézi (fish fragrant aubergine) Oyster was first.

The oyster was nice and briny; but things basically stopped there as the "flavoring" was quite mild. I was looking for the layering of flavors, pungent-sour-a hint of sweet-spice, but this really lacked that.

We were instructed to have the Osmanthus Jelly next.

Mild pungent tones from the wasabi soy; we enjoyed the refreshing jelly.

We found the Yunnan Sweet Potato with Tamarind and Shrimp Caramel to be overly sweet.

The sweet potato noodles were the highlight of this, great texture, not overly sweet, somewhat vegetal.

The Smacked Cucumber with Trout Roe was decent.

Crisp cucumber, the briny trout roe added a nice layer of flavor, but it could have used more garlic and assertive - refreshing flavors which to me, are the hallmark of this dish.

The "Tiger Salad" with Cumin Lamb and Split Buttermilk was too sour-tangy, though I guess if you added more cilantro you could have gotten some weird Jeera Chas, but then that wouldn't be Chinese cuisine.

To be perfectly honest, the lamb was pretty much lost in this.

I was looking forward to the Cantonese Honey Roasted Pork with Grated Foie Gras.

Loved that foie gras powder; it did provide that "soul of foie gras", liverish-offaly-savory tones. Heck, I'd sprinkle it on my toast every morning! The pork was barely lukewarm, chewy, and the marinade too sweet.

The Isle of Mull Seared Scallop and Honey Glazed Char Siu was way too sweet (it seemed a common theme here?). The "crackers" on each side of the filling was really crumbly and really made a mess.

Our favorite dish of the set was also the most interesting looking.

That's the Zhou Dynasty Cured Scallop and Stuffed Crab Claw. Within the confines of the crisp noodles resided briny-savory-pleasantly sweet scallop and a stuffed crab claw.

Balanced flavors-seasoning and great textural contrasts. I mentioned how funny it was that our favorite dish so far looked like a "palm tawashi"!

Next up were the "Dim Sum" courses. Would they be changing the course of the meal? Six dishes were delivered to our table.

First up was the "Shanghai Steamed Dumplings" (aka Xiao Long Bao) with Ginger Infused Vinegar.

The "skin" was on the gummy side, the "soup" was very "gingery" (I guess there's no false advertising here), which overwhelmed the flavor of the dumplings.

The Wood Ear Fungus acted as a good vehicle for the mild sweet-sour tones of the dish.

The slice of onion was definitely needed to balance things out.

The Dim Sum Duo was up next for us.

First off, the wrappers on both the shumai and har gow were really "rubbery". The pork cracklin' was an interesting addition to the shumai, in fact, like the vinegar foam for the har gow, both were the most interesting features of the dish, which otherwise would be very mediocre dim sum to us.

We were instructed to have the Choy Sum with Century Egg as a palate cleanser before the last two dishes.

The Missus, who loves pidan, thought this too mild.

Next up was the Raw Wagyu, Fermented Meat Paste.

Being a big fan of tartare, I was looking forward to this; but it was way too sweet in my opinion. The slices of raw pear just exacerbated things.

Another dish that caught my attention was the "Memories of Peking Duck", foie gras, and smoked duck.

Oh my, caviar on one end, truffle on the other! We were instructed to eat this in two bites, to fully enjoy the dish.

Not a fan of the pancake like wrapper, but the smoked duck was very tasty. We couldn't make out the foie gras. The "truffle bite" added a pleasant mildly sweet-earthy flavor to things. The caviar seemed to amplify the saltiness of the smoked duck and seemed like overkill.

Well, at this point we had made it thru the dim sum but were still less than halfway thru the meal! There were still 16 more dishes left!

If you're still intrigued by the dishes here, stay tuned for part 2!

London - Checking out Fortnum and Mason

Man, time is flying by isn't it? We've been doing so much traveling since Covid subsided. I think with getting older comes more a sense of urgency. The desire to get those "bucket list" items is higher. What do you think? Anyway, hopefully better late than never.

We had flown thru Heathrow so many times. Mostly as a layover to Paris. This time, we decided to stick around and explore London a bit. After consultation with the Missus, I booked our stay in the Piccadilly area. Yes, it's tourist central, but heck, we are tourists after all, right? We stayed at the Dilly a historic hotel.

As we usually did we flew on British Airways, Business Class. And as I mentioned in a previous post, it seems that the food has returned to pre-Covid levels.

That celeriac gratin was pretty good.

I did make the mistake of ordering the "Full Breakfast", which lived up to its name....I was quite full after this.

The Heathrow Express made getting from the airport to Piccadilly a snap and our hotel was centrally located. We had slept well on this flight and the Missus arrived just rarin' to go. I had made dinner reservations at a place I'd wanting to visit since I bought their cookbook in 2016. But first, the Missus wanted to explore a bit. Thre is of course, so much to see here!

So we headed on out from the hotel.

This seemed to be a rather "high-rent" district. It was fun to see a K Minamoto here....we always stop by the Ala Moana store when "back home".

There was one place in particular we wanted to check out. When at Heathrow, we always stop by Fortnum & Mason, just to have a look around. In fact, we once bought one of their pre-packed "hampers" for a pretty penny to snack on while waiting for our flight. 

The Piccadilly location was located a block away from our hotel.

F&M touts itself as an "upmarket" department store....well, no kidding!

One of things that surprised us was how popular Halloween seemed in London.

And even though it was early October, the store was all decked out for Christmas!

We enjoyed checking out the various floors and the decor.

So fancy! 

Much like those Japanese Department stores, the lower level features a "food hall"; though it's obviously not your run-of-the-mill food floor.

We spent a good amount of time here and would end up getting some lunch to-go a couple of days later.

It was a nice place to see all those things that you can't afford!

Fortnum & Mason
181 Piccadilly
London, United Kingdom

We took a walk a bit further afield, even checking out a rather upscale shopping arcade on the way back to the hotel.

Back in our room, there was a knock on the door. One of the hotel's staff dropped off some "welcome gifts" for us!

This was a nice touch!

We were really enjoying things!

Thanks for stopping by!

COMC, The Turo-Turo Edition - Revisits to Nanay's Best BBQ, R&B Filipino Cuisine, and Manila Fast Food & Desserts

A few months back, I did my "Turo-turo Rounds" in the MM area. It took a while since I really can't put it away like I used to. The photos have been languishing for a while and I've done a ton of posts on these places, so I thought I'd just do a quick C(learing) O(ut the) M(emory) C(ard) post.

I'll so them in order of enjoyment. 

So, numba 1.....

Nanay's Best BBQ:

This one is a bit of a surprise since I didn't care much for the food when it first transitioned from Tem's nearly a decade ago now.

I got the BBQ Pork and the Spicy Chicken....basically their version of sisig.

While the rice was on the dry side; the BBQ Pork had a nice mildly smoky-sweet-salty flavor and decently toothsome.

The Sisig-ish spicy chicken had a mild spicy, the chicken was fairly tender, it did have a decent vinegar "kick" to it.

Nanay's Best BBQ
6715 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92121

R&B Filipino Cuisine:

Based on my previous visits, I fully expected to enjoy R&B the most. Man, I've been going here since 2008! Though I haven't visited since January of last year. The sisig here is what I get on every visit. So, I got that and the what had just come out when I arrived, the Afritada.

Funny thing, I always get "half-rice" here and it's still a lot!

The Afritada was terrible. The meat was super tough, and it had a greasy tongue feel, along with being on the bland side.

The Sisig was decent, still a bit of crisp-crunchiness on the skin pieces, good sour tones, a bit of spice, the onions added a pungent sweetness and were quite crisp.

R & B Filipino Cuisine
11257 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

Manila Fast Food and Desserts:

"MFF" just hasn't been up to par during my last couple of visits. Though I must say, the place is always quite busy, even at 930am in the morning when they open. Must have something to do with the location, which is right in the same mall as Seafood City.

I got the sisig, which was terrible, waxy, tough, lacking in spice and vinegar, almost cold in temperature.

The Beef in the Mechado was fairly tender, but lacking in flavor. The stew was salty, greasy, and in need of more tomato....and heck, it just needed to be something other than a sodium bomb!

Well, at least the rice was not bad.....

There was a time when MFF was a decent choice for turo-turo, but I just haven't enjoyed myself over the last couple of visits. Kind of sad since I've been going here since 2006.

Manila Fast Food and Desserts
8979 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

So, there you....I'm going to give my arteries a rest for a while now.....

Where is the world are we - part 2

It was quite obvious from my previous post that we were in Australia.

We're headed home today from HNL, but I thought I'd do a quick post.

We spent our last couple of days "Down Under" in Sydney. For a change of pace we stayed in the Chippendale area. Which was quite bustling, but the main reason for staying in the area was....

Yes, Chinatown. When doing some research, it became obvious that there was not only Chinese cuisine here, but Thai Town and Korea Town abut the area. It is so culturally diverse!

The area also houses several Universities and the population near Chippendale really skewed to the younger crowd.

We did two wonderful activities during our three days.

The first being a morning kayak journey in Sydney Harbor. 

The Missus and I were the only two people on this tour, so we had the guide, "Sam" all to ourselves. It was so much fun!

Like Sam said, "this is like paddling in a postcard!"

The second was an all-day adventure. This was a private tour, with a local and it was amazing! It was customized to our desires and we got to see wonderful views.....

Where tour groups don't venture.

We got to learn about the plants in the region.

We stopped at an area with Aboriginal drawings. It's kind of hidden off the side of the road. We were the only folks there. And I guess the site is not visited by many non-Aboriginal folks because a ranger came over to check. And it was great listening to him.

We stopped at seaside village where it's mostly locals since transit doesn't go here.

But the highlite was a stop at a Wildlife Sanctuary/Rehab where we got to meet the wonderful inhabitants of Australia up close.

And we got to spend some "Koala-ty" time with this fella!

His name is Arnold!

One of the great benefits about staying in the Asian district was enjoying the diversity of food! Sydney has such a great variety....and some of the items were delici-yoso!

We spent our free time wandering down streets and alleys.

That's not to say that the Missus didn't get Her share of Barramundi....

Anyway, we're leaving for our flight in a few minutes.

Hopefully, my next post will be done from San Diego!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rubios, Home of the Fish Taco

mmm-yoso!!! welcomes you back to another post from Cathy; Kirk and His Missus are elsewhere.

Rubios opened its first location in 1983 in the Mission Bay area of San Diego, primarily serving Baja style fish tacos.  Locations have expanded throughout California, Arizona and Nevada.  Serving sustainable seafood as well as chicken and vegetarian dishes, Rubios is a walk up, order and pay and your food is brought to your table type of restaurant.

My usual order is the two fish taco plate ($8.99), part of the "Five under $10" menu.  Beer battered wild caught Alaska pollock topped with cabbage, salsa fresca, a 'secret sauce' (it is mild and white) and served on a warm corn tortilla along with tortilla chips and "no fried" pinto beans, this is a tasty filling meal.

Similarly, the Signature Fish Burrito ($12.99) is a very filling meal.  It kind of looks small but the cross section cut shows the flour tortilla is packed full.  There are three pieces of beer battered crisp fried wild caught Alaskan pollock, guacamole, black beans, white sauce, mild salsa, cabbage, onions and cilantro.  This comes with a side of tortilla chips.  An easy way to eat and there is flavor in every bite.  I do like the black beans a bit more than the pinto beans, but both are good. 

The Mango Avocado Salad with grilled Mahi-Mahi ($15.49) was The Mister's choice this day.  Brown rice and quinoa, a mango salsa and slices of Hass avocadoes over Romaine and topped with squared tortilla chips.  The 'normal' salad dressing is a lemon agave white balsamic vinaigrette.  You can choose other proteins (langostino lobster, grilled shrimp, chicken, blackened Mahi, grilled steak, grilled salmon or blackened salmon as well as grilled veggies)(prices of proteins vary).  This salad is protein packed and tastes so good.  The variety of textures as well as the contrast of warm fresh grilled fish is unexpectedly nice. 

I must say that the grilled veggies option is exceptional; there are grilled poblanos, cauliflower, red bell pepper, marinated red onions, and roasted corn.

Always fresh and essentially a local (not nationwide anyhow) spot. Choices for everyone.

Rubios Coastal Grill Website Many locations Opens at 10:30 a.m. daily

It looks like a re-branding might occur soon.

 

Farmer Boys (Again)

Thank you for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog sometimes with details of adventure of finding the foods blogged.  This isn't one of those posts; Kirk is the one having adventures while Cathy is here, blogging in between being busy.

I wrote about Farmer Boys the first time in 2015 and mentioned another meal in 2017 and just haven't blogged about all of our many visits over the years.  This family owned franchise of almost 100 locations in California and Nevada with the motto of "Farm Food Ain't Fast Food" purchases locally grown fresh ingredients and prepares a fresh cooked, made to order meal, serving delicious flavorful food. 

There are two locations in San Diego County, both in Escondido.

The Farmers Chopped Cobb salad ($ 14.99) includes greens, grilled chicken breast, diced Hass avocado, chopped tomato, hickory smoked bacon, that tiny hard boiled egg and cheddar cheese and is served with a chili ranch dressing (but you can ask for any of the available house made dressings).  The Mister really likes Cobb salads and says the one from Farmer Boys is his favorite, often asking me to bring one home when I am in the area.

The Sourdough Chicken Avocado Sandwich ($11.99) also includes grilled chicken breast, thick slices of bacon, a smashed Hass avocado, tomato, cheese, lettuce and mayonnaise on locally baked (Galasso's) sourdough bread.  The toasting of the bread and combination of ingredients is just so satisfying.  This is a very hefty sandwich and easily shared or half can be saved for a later meal. 

Four piece Fried Zucchini sticks ($6.49) was our choice as a side. Very large pieces, hand sliced and hand battered are served with some house made Ranch dressing and perfectly fried; the zucchini is cooked through and the cornmeal based batter is light, crispy and not greasy.  

Farmer Boys serves quality food all day (you can see breakfasts in my prior posts; the menu is pretty much the same as it was nine years ago). 

Farmer Boys  Website 

-1333 East Valley Parkway Escondido 92027 Open Mon-Sat 6-midnight, Sunday 7-midnight

-925  West Mission Center Escondido 92025 Mon-Fri 0530-10, Sat 6-10, Sun 7-10