Monday Meanderings - Potato Powder Love Noodle (for real) replacing Shann Xi Magic Kitchen in 99 Ranch Market (Balboa), TP Tea coming to Clairemont Town Square, and slicing your own bread at Whole Foods

I'm doing one of these "meanderings" posts today because I just noticed a couple of things over the last two days that I thought interesting.

TP Tea coming to Clairemont Town Square:

I took JJ to an early morning walk and since I like to keep it some variety, I'll often rotate venues. For some reason, I headed on up to Clairemont Town Square early in the morning, and quickly noticed something new.

Looks like the chain TP Tea - which I guess stands for Taiwan Professional Tea, is opening a shop which was the last known location of Isa.Bella, located in the same structure as Main Chick Hot Chicken. For me, this is great, as I always wondered why there weren't more Asian businesses in this huge complex, other than the Panda Express.

4705-A Clairemont Drive
San Diego, CA 92117

Slicing your own bread at Whole Foods:

The Missus wanted some escargot for dinner, so I headed to the Cuisinery to restock. She also wanted some bread and I really didn't want to drive to Secret Sister or even Con Pane. So, I decided to head on over to Whole Foods La Jolla, which is sort of on the way to the Cuisinery. I had gotten the Baby Boule from there before and had it sliced. It's small and not too expensive and would do in a pinch. When I arrived and walked to the bread counter I asked for a Baby Boule and was told it's now self serve....this includes the slicing of the bread!

I've seen these used at Con Pane and Secret Sister....but never thought it would be safe for me to use one! 

But I just tried it out. It's not hard at all. The hardest part was getting the sliced bread into a bag!

It turned out ok.

And I still have all my fingers.....

Whole Foods Market
8825 Villa La Jolla Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92037

Potato Powder Love Noodle replacing Shann Xi Magic Kitchen in 99 Ranch Market (Balboa):

Yesterday, the Missus told me She wanted me to make my Cumin Chinese Cauliflower. So, I headed over to 99 Ranch Market on Balboa. I walked past the food court to see what was happening adn noticed that Shann Xi Magic Kitchen was closed. Which I thought was strange.

There was a note posted on the counter...never a good sign....

Which just confirmed what I thought.....well, this location of Shann Xi Magic Kitchen is closed. So, it looks like you'll need to go to the Convoy location if you're craving their food. 

I also noticed a note on the cash register.

And it seems like "Potato Powder Love Noodle" is opening here next month? What a name! I did a quick search and found that PPLN has shops in San Gabriel and City of Industry. Knife cut and potato noodles (thus the name I guess) with various broths.

Man, Shann Xi is one of the "OG" stands in the food court, which has been kind of a revolving door with Dao Xiang recently replacing Mama Lin's, which replaced Saigon 5, and Cluck n Sip replacing Krispy Krunchy Chicken within the last year.

It seems that places are having a hard time staying in business here.

5950 Balboa Ave (In the 99 Ranch Market Food Court)
San Diego, CA 92111

Comments

[Som Tommy]

Wtf, I just ate at Shanxi a couple of weeks ago. Cumin cauliflower sounds interesting

[Junichi]

Maybe the leases in the food court are expiring and are not being renewed by the restaurants. Potato powder noodle sounds interesting.

[Kirk]

I think they closed on the 15th ST. So, you probably got in just before they shut down.

Could be Junichi. I don't know if there's enough business there.