mmm-yoso!!!

Sunday Stuffs.....

I think of this more as a Sunday check-in. How is everyone doing, physically, and well, mentally as well? I keep wondering how all the FOYs are doing.

On my "mission for groceries" I was wondering how some of the restaurants with long histories on Convoy are doing.....Ichiro came to mind. The entire parking lot at 4344 Convoy was empty, with Tasty Bakery the only business open in the strip mall.

And the sign at Ichiro's..... I think I need to make it a point to get more take-out.....

I took the long way home; wondering what was open in the Linda Vista area.... Thai Papaya had a sign saying that The Original Sab-E-Lee is open seven days a week. Pho Hiep and Grill is closed as is Pho Hoa Huong. The porch where the "old timers" used to hang out and drink coffee had been taken over by a group of homeless folks.

As I drove past Tio Leo's on Morena....for some reason, I always make it a point to check out the signs...….this is what is currently posted.

We've cancelled our upcoming trips...luckily, we're able to either get vouchers or full refunds....one of the Airbnb hosts replied to me saying that though their home is an amazing place to visit; now was not the time. Her son is an Emergency Room Physician and she is ever so worried about him.

I have a ritual of sorts when I return from a long trip. I'll get my fix of if a West Coast Icon. Since we wouldn't be travelling anytime soon, after shopping stop at Mitsuwa, I ordered one of these.

I even got Animal Fries.

Which confirmed, much like the egg at Santouka, that I'm still not sure why folks like the fries at In-N-Out....no matter how much lipstick you put on the pig...…it's still a pig. Still, having one of my Bi-annual visits to In-N-Out was both comforting and sad at the same time.

Hope all is well.....

Boll Weevil (Lakeside)

mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food.  Kirk is taking a break and gathering intel for future posts.  Cathy is writing.

Back when Kirk, Ed (from Yuma) and I were writing "Burger Week" posts, Kirk wrote about Boll Weevil in 2006, and I wrote about it in 2010 along with another 2010 post.  Since then, a Boll Weevil opened (and subsequently closed) only two miles from home.  We went there regularly, yet I never posted about it.  Now, the closest Boll Weevil is about six miles away, in Lakeside. 

This location, approximately a mile from the Lakeside Rodeo grounds, is appropriately themed. It's very large inside and has various areas where parties can be held. 

The Mister and I tend to order the same thing on each visit.  This is unusual for us because at other places, we like to order different things and share.  When we go to Boll Weevil, it is for this:  
1/2 pound Steerburgers, medium rare, no cheese ($8.69).  This is a very satisfying meal when using the (photo at bottom) tabletop condiments.  
A 'complete' burger sort of looks like this, before the soft, toasted bun is smashed so as to be able to fit into my mouth.
 The Mister got all wild and crazy on the last visit and ordered a Buffalo Chicken Salad ($10.99) with Bleu Cheese dressing.  The nuggets of chicken are lightly floured, fried and tossed in a nice Buffalo sauce.  The lettuce, crispy, provides a nice cooling effect along with the chunks of bleu cheese in between bites.  The Texas toast, slathered in garlic butter, is a nice accompaniment.   On that visit, I ordered a half pound steer burger, medium rare.  It's what I do.  
One day, there was a tabletop special of a double cheeseburger with fries ($10.49).  It was two 1/4 pound patties, so sort of the same as our 'usual' order but with cheese.  Different for us, anyhow. It was good. 
There are plenty of sides to choose from here, but the Frings (fries and rings) ($4.49) are a fallback order when we are hungry.  

There are only five locations of (the 1966 founded, originally named Cotton Patch) Boll Weevil.  Still a good, unpretentious burger.

Boll Weevil 9741 Wintergardens Road Lakeside, CA 92040 (619) 334-1718
 

Bully's East Bistro Sports Bar

mmm-yoso!!! thanks you for dropping by (again).  Kirk and His Missus are out and about and Cathy is writing about a few meals.

Family owned since 1971, Bully's East is located on the Southeast corner of the I-8 at Texas Street (the street parallel to the interstate is Camino Del Rio South).  A fascinating history, known for their prime rib (not in this post) as well as quality, value and service, Bully's is a San Diego mainstay. 
There is plenty of parking, but you may have to drive around the building to find a spot. 
 The interior has several dining areas in addition to the Bar area.  There are sports memorabilia on the walls and a television can be seen from just about every seat in the building. There is a paper of specials outside the front door as well as on the bulletin board in the lobby when you walk in.  There are additional specials on the table.

We were here in early October and there was an Oktoberfest/sausage plate offered ($19).  Three different sausages, coarse ground (one was very spicy; another was garlic-y and one was smoked) each had a tight 'skin' and 'snap' when cut, grilled with sautéed onions and fresh cabbage and potato slices.  This was served with a salad with house made bleu cheese dressing.  It was good and won't be on the menu until next year.   
 One item always on the menu is French onion soup ($5.25).  It's made in house, is not too salty and is very beefy.  I'm pretty sure the leftover prime rib bones are used for this.  This is pretty much always a choice. 
  The Prime rib melt ($18.50) is a decadent choice for a lunch sandwich.  There is enough to be shared.  It's on thick cut, pan toasted sourdough and filled with caramelized onions and Provolone. There's some horseradish sauce and au jus is served on the side.  The French onion soup as well as the Potatoes Anna were my two (included) side choices.  The sandwich was large, the French onion soup is so very flavorful and those Anna potatoes were perfect!

    A Wednesday special noted on the wall,
grilled 12-oz. ribeye ($26). A perfect medium rare, wonderful char-such flavor.  The description is 'topped with a mushroom demi-glace and crispy onions'.  There were no onions and we mentioned it and received what I think are more than would normally be served...a nice snack, because the steak and mushrooms and sauce were perfect without needing any additions (not even salt).  This came with two sides and as you can see, the baked potato and a salad (this time, Thousand Island, also made from scratch) were the choices.
 This is the Bully Burger ($12.50).  It's on an onion roll, char grilled (to a nice medium rare, as requested), coarse ground chuck, at least 1/3 lb.. One of the best burgers ever. It doesn't need cheese.  The 'spread', lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle are also not needed, but are quite complimentary after eating about half of the burger 'plain'.  Two sides are included in the price and this time, it was the mac and cheese (great) and (again) the French onion soup (+$1.25).

Bully's has breakfast on weekends.  Another post.  We've done that.

Bully's East Prime Rib-Bistro-Sports Bar 2401 Camino Del Rio South San Diego, CA 92108 (619)291-2665 Website Open Mon-Fri 11 a.m.-midnight, Sat-Sun 9 a.m.-midnight

 You never know who you'll see here at lunchtime during the week. 

Tobey's 19th Hole Cafe (revisit)

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog, covering meals consumed near and far.  Kirk is busy with meetings all day, so Cathy is writing a short post.

 The Mister and I tend to take guests out to 'local' rather than 'trendy' places. The other day was no exception.  I've written about this San Diego City golf course (since 1934) restaurant only a few other times in the past years, yet it is a regular stop, usually for a breakfast meal and the view. 

The parking lot nearest the main building is sometimes crowded, but there are nearby 'overflow' lots. 

Stepping inside the Clubhouse, the restaurant is to your left, the view is straight ahead. There's a bar area as well as tables and booths.
 Have a seat by the window and notice how the menu cover reflects your view.
 Breakfast is served all day here.  You can get a one egg, one pancake two bacon (or sausage) meal for $7 or two eggs, two pancakes and two bacon (or sausage) for $9.25.  The (extraordinarily large) pancakes are light and fluffy and really tasty (sweet without needing syrup).  The eggs were perfectly over easy and the bacon was very good.  All in all, a very large breakfast if you order the 'two' instead of 'one'.  Coffee here is $3 and is constantly kept filled. 
The menu board out front has breakfast and lunch specials and on this day, a choice of a hot roast beef or hot meatloaf sandwich ($10.25) were the lunch specials.  I did order the hot beef, but received this hot meatloaf sandwich.  Instead of returning it, I decided to try it.  Good choice.  A very nicely seasoned (chunks of tomato mixed in with a light breadcrumb) meatloaf on (my choice) wheat bread with gravy and mashed potatoes.  A quite large serving and flavor filled. 
The Mister ordered a Chili Size ($13.50), onions on the side (for me) and tots as his side dish choice. This is a wonderful meal.  The bread is on the side; knowing it gets soggy, it's served this way.  Kind of perfect.  The chili, as always, is meaty, lightly spicy, has beans.  Tots are the best choice of side here, unless you are craving a salad (or regular french fries or potato salad).  

Another great meal with a great view in a San Diego neighborhood. 

Tobey's 19th Hole 2600 Golf Course Dr. San Diego, CA 92102 (619) 234-5921 Open daily 6-6 

Tom's Famous Family Restaurant-Burgers (#23)(Escondido)

mmm-yoso!!!, a long running blog about food;  it's what you are reading.  Cathy is writing today because Kirk is resting and relaxing.

Driving around the Southern California Counties, we've seen a number of restaurants with the signage of 'Tom's Burgers' and finally decided to stop.  This location in Escondido on 5th Avenue, is #23.  Upon some investigation, I found out the real restaurant name is 'Tom's Famous Family Restaurant", the first restaurant opened in 1962 in Los Angeles  and there are 19 eat in locations and four express locations. Tom's serves breakfast, lunch and dinner (breakfast all day).
The menu is fairly extensive, with some options unique to each restaurant,  White Board Specials and various posters on the windows showing deals and Happy Hour prices.  You order, pay, grab some condiments and the food is brought out to you- on ceramic plates (the only disposable items were the napkins, paper wrappings and fountain drink/milkshake containers).  When we were here, only two vehicles used the Drive Thru and I only saw three people order and take food 'To Go". Every seat inside the restaurant was taken; families having meals on a Saturday afternoon.

The Classic Cheeseburger ($4.69) at first looked dwarfed by the bun, which was in reality very light and fluffy, toasted and had the usual accompaniments (lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and homemade thousand island).  The burgers here are char grilled and have the flavor that I crave. This 1/4 pound cheeseburger was a good choice for our friend. 
I wanted to try the 50/50 burger ($4.99).  50% ground bacon and 50% ground beef.  This was 'juicer' than the Classic burger, but, because of the char grill, the bacon flavor was not distinctive.  Still, I enjoyed the (quite large) patty (it seemed larger than the 1/4 pound cheeseburger patty).
One of the window specials was a Texas Bacon Cheeseburger combo ($7.99).  This had such a meld of flavors and was quite large...the amount of fries was tremendous...steak fry cut, light and fluffy interior with a crispy exterior, sprinkled with a seasoned salt.
 Since this was our first visit and we didn't know how much we were ordering, the Tom's Sampler ($5.20) was a choice.  More fries (we took home a lot) along with zucchini fries (more vegetable than crispy breading; good) and onion rings (really good; light and crispy breaded whole rings of sweet onion).  

A lot of food for a small price.  We will be back (or will stop at another location) to try breakfast items as well as dinner platters.  When my craving for char-grilled burgers returns, it's good to know Tom's has a few San Diego County locations. 

 Tom's Famous Family Restaurant #23- 505 W 5th Ave Escondido, CA 92025 (760) 737-2377 Open Daily 6 a.m.  Closes at 10 p.m. Sun-Thurs, 11 p.m. Fri and Sat Website 

Chicago Fire Grill

After moving to our UTC location last year, I drove down to Renaissance Towne Center to see what were some of the lunch options. I quickly noticed that JK Burgers & Hot Dogs ( it replaced the long standing Chicago on a Bun which I first posted on back in 2005 a few years ago)was gone and had been replaced by a shop named Chicago Fire Grill.

I love my Chicago Dogs (the Missus especially enjoys SuperDawg), so much so that I even ordered one at Hot Doug's (after I ate the Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage  of course). So, I decided to stop by.

The design of the place remains the same....though now it's bright yellow. another very unique thing about this shop id the Owner, George, who chats everyone up, has very unique opinions, and always cracks me up. He does remind me of the colorful characters I've met from or in Chicago.

So of course I got the Chicago Dog, priced nicely at six bucks, which comes with what I call very typical Chicago "Natural" style fries.

The fries were very hot, potato-ey, and really reminded me of what you'd get at places like Jean and Jude's Red Hots. Usually not my favorite style since it can get soggy and there not much crispness; but this was pretty good.

The dog; from Vienna Beef had a nice snap, the dog had, in the typical way been "dragged through the garden", with tomatoes (a bit too unripe), sport peppers (a favorite), the radioactive fluorescent green relish, and the typical, standard issue poppy see roll. I didn't ask if it was a Mary Ann Poppy Seed Bun, but it sure looked the part.

The roll didn't stand up for very long. It was also cold; so I don't think it had been steamed. Other than needing celery salt; this was a good facsimile, and a good deal at six bucks. Plus George's unending rambling to customers cracked me up.

I was told to come back and get the Lamb Burger. Being a good soldier, that's exactly what I did. A lamb burger and fries for nine bucks ain't too bad these days. It was pretty hefty.

The fries didn't hold up too well on the very short drive to the office.

The burger itself looked fairly messy, but the bun really stood up well.

Loved the gaminess. When I was asked for doneness, I answered "medium", thinking, like many burger places in San Diego, this was just a question and my burger was going to be well done regardless of what I said. I was wrong; it was moist, with a nice chew, and totally medium.

Loved the milky-saltiness of the feta cheese, and the nice mild acidity and creaminess of the tzatziki. Nice pungent onions helped cut through any richness....though again, the tomatoes weren't ripe enough to add anything to the sandwich.

Overall, a pretty good burger.

Having been quite satisfied with my previous two choices, I decided to revisit and order the one item that call Chicago home that I enjoy more than a Chicago Dog......an Italian Beef sandwich. Which I ordered "wet"........

While the roll; a perfectly respectful Gonnella Roll; I'm thinking par-baked, held up well. The beef was really tough and surprisingly dry. It also lacked flavor and the jus, of which the folks at the shop nicely packed for me wasn't beefy; it had way too much herbs in it and was quite greasy.

The fries this time around were also on the greasy side, I'm thinking from the jus that had dripped on it.

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

I'll keep coming by; basically for the Chicago Dogs and the prices. I'll definitely try some of the other sausages and burgers....but that Italian Beef is definitely a "no go".....oh, and I'm definitely looking forward to George's "words of wisdom" as well.

You can read Soo's post on Chicago Fire Grill here.

Chicago Fire Grill
8935 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122
Hours:
Mon - Fri 11am - 9pm
Sat - Sun Noon - 9pm

2018 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade: Post Parade Showcase of floats, Snacks and a meal: Cream Pan (Tustin), Arsen House of Cookies (Pasadena), T Burgers (Monrovia)

mmm-yoso!!! is primarily a food blog, but there are many events surrounding meals.  Both Kirk and Cathy like to write about that aspect of the eventual meals.  Today, Cathy is writing.

 The 2018 Tournament of Roses, with the theme "Making A Difference", is over.  There were numerous events and activities between Christmas and December 31-the Bands and Equestrian Units had presentations, you could visit float decorating places and a two day event, "Live on Green".  The parade and football game were on January 1.  Following the parade, the floats lined up on Sierra Madre (at the end of the 5.5 mile parade route) and were on display (the Post Parade Showcase of Floats) from 1 p.m. on January 1 and again from 9 a.m. on January 2.  

There was a little advertised way to get into all of the Official Tournament events for one very small price- The Event Pass Pin was sold for the first time this year at the Tournament House, the Pasadena Museum of History, Vromans Bookstore and online for $10! (The fee just to view the floats at the Showcase was $15 per person this year).

There were road tests of the floats in July, August, September, October and November.  The Mister and I helped to decorate floats in early December.  There are more details and excellent reporting of all Tournament events at this link to The Rose Examiner.

I could not decide how to show you the floats: there were 44 in the Parade.  Six were not judged, six were self constructed and the others were constructed by four professional float companies.  24 were recognized with awards.  All of the floats were beautiful, detailed, magnificent and decorated by volunteers, especially the week following Christmas when the live flowers were delivered.  Each float deserved to be recognized.

So, I had to pick and choose through my photos (so you wouldn't be bored). There were surreal floats.

There were little details on every float...

(These guys were on the 'off camera' side of their float, you never saw them if you were watching the parade on television.)
One of the record breaking floats held 100 people- two farmers from every state in the Union. 
There were cute floats (but all of them were cute, weren't they?)

 I could mention the mishaps which happened at the end of the parade route...

(it seems the float operators forgot (or weren't warned as to when) to collapse the float at the end of the route, resulting in some damage).

It was a great theme, a great parade and I have at least two photos of every float.  If there is one in particular you would like to see, I can add it at the end of this post. THIS is a link to the entire parade from KTLA TV

Soo went to see the 2018 floats, too!  Maggie also has a great point of view of the post parade.

But now, we return to the Food portion of the blog...

 We got to Cream Pan around 7 a.m., ordering the same items (ham and cheese croissant and a cheese cracker) we had on our last visit along with a loaf of sesame bread. The cheese based items were a light breakfast.  Cream Pan 602 El Camino Real Tustin, CA 92780 Website 

We had parked off of Washington Street and walked to the Blue entrance to the Post Parade Showcase of floats.  On the way back to the car, we passed Arsen's House of Cookies, where we have stopped several times previously.  Mrs. Arsen recognizes us and we catch up, about once a year.  

 We purchased some sweets for cc and for ourselves. 

 As well as four of the (still warm, freshly made) cheese/herb pastries on the counter. Total cost? $9. The bonus was I received an Arsen's Bakery calendar (last photo, bottom right) which will be used a lot this year. 

We headed East, didn't want to take the freeway and ended up on Foothill in Monrovia.   This looked like an interesting place to stop for lunch. We hadn't noticed it before, but Yelp has posts going back to 2007...
The menu has breakfasts, Greek, Mexican and American (salads, burgers and sandwich) choices. 
The half pound burger ($6.39) was char-grilled and had that flavor I crave.  It was cooked to order (medium rare), served on a fresh toasted bun with 'everything' (lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and mayonnaise). As with every establishment that serves Greek/gyros, the onion rings ($3.79) were handmade, whole onions, sweet, properly fried with a cornmeal based breading. (The ranch sauce was an extra 50¢ and wasn't even necessary.)
Since we were in this part of the State which serves pastrami at almost every fast food joint (I need to do a post of all the taco shops up here which have pastrami on the signage), The Mister ordered a Pastrami sandwich ($8.99).  When asked what he wanted on it, he only asked for mustard and pickles...and that's what was received.  The bread to meat ratio is so wonderfully in favor of the meat...which was smoky, peppery and lean.  A wonderful sandwich.

T Burgers 226 W. Foothill Drive Monrovia, CA 91016 (626)357-4844

This was the start to 2018.  Almost 12,000 steps of walking and wonderful food.  So far, resolutions kept!

The theme of the  2019 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade:

Outback Steak House (Revisits to a place never posted)

Here you are, at mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Kirk isn't writing today, you know why.  Cathy is trying to write an interesting post. Here it goes.

Long story short: I was given a lot of restaurant gift cards this past year.  I don't regift.  The people who give me cards ask specifics about the meals and what we enjoyed, so I take photos.  The Mister and I have been pleasantly surprised so far.  

 Outback is an Australian inspired steakhouse, founded in 1988 in Tampa Florida by four friends.  It is now a Company of restaurants which include Bonefish Grill, Carrabbas Italian Grill and Flemings Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar.  Outback's decor is rugged yet minimal.  There is an electronic device on each table.  You can order and pay for adult beverages, appetizers and even (for $2) play trivia games.  You can also pay your final bill without waiting or flagging down your server.When first seated, as the menus are dropped off, a warm loaf of honey wheat bread and unsalted whipped butter is brought out.  The bread is 'stabbed' with a serrated steak knife, which is needed to slice the whole (small) loaf.

All of these items are from the Lunch menu, thumbnail at the bottom of this post.
  With almost each lunch entree, you have a choice of soup or salad.  There is a chicken tortilla Soup (not pictured), or this baked potato soup (wonderfully decadent)or for $1 more, french onion soup (even more decadent).  You can either have a Caesar or this, a House salad, with dressing on the side.  I was pleasantly surprised with the fresh vegetables, including cucumber on this salad.  The House Ranch dressing is very good.   The Classic Cheeseburger Combo ($9.49) was cooked to a perfect medium rare, had a nice char to the exterior, served on a wonderful fresh egg bun, had a choice of cheese and of course, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle.  This was an *excellent* burger.  
Six Gold Coast Coconut Shrimp Combo ($9.49) I used to order an appetizer plate of these as my meal...but six, along with either soup or salad is a 'healthier' meal.  You can see the plump shrimp, light breading and tender coconut.   The two two chicken taco combo ($8.99) (substitute steak instead of chicken, add $1). I splurged.  This was really good.  Different than a taco shop; not carne aside marinade; kind of fancy.
  An Aussie Cobb Salad ($9.99) Fresh mixed greens, chopped hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, bacon, Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese and freshly made croutons. The Bleu Cheese dressing on the side was quite wonderful.  An Outback Burger, ($8.99) with fries...again, wonderful, cooked to a medium rare...and look at that bun. I ordered the 6 ounce center cut sirloin ($14.99) with a baked potato and asparagus (fresh vegetable of the day).  It was cooked to a perfect medium rare, had some sort of (tasty) marinade (didn't need any condiments added). The baked potato was so very good; I haven't had a baked potato in forever and all of those flavors triggered good memories. The asparagus was oven roasted and crispy tender with a bit of salt on top-again, needing no additions. 

But, this is Outback- what about the famous Blooming Onion? Well, it is $8.49, very large (really, it is a meal) and I just couldn't bring myself to order one, even to share.  

Until it was free.

I was listening to NASCAR one Sunday and heard that Outback sponsors a Racer -Kevin Harvick- and if he finishes in the Top Ten in a weekly Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, you just have to go into Outback the following Monday and say "Bloomin' Monday" and your table gets a free Blooming Onion appetizer for free. Here's a link.

So we did have one Blooming Onion.  The crust was crispy, spicy and large.  The onion was tender and sweet.  We took home leftovers after eating it before and during one of the above meals.  I used to be able to eat this much food along with adult beverages and not go into a food coma.  Things change. 

Overall, the meals at Outback were great.

Outback Steakhouse. Nationwide locations. Website

Thai Burger Company (Clairmont)

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog, written by three friends, interchangeably.  Kirk has been working a lot of extra hours this week while Ed(from Yuma) is relaxing after his interesting vacation.  Cathy is writing a short post.  

The Mister and I shop at Carnival Supermarket about once a month.  Back in February, I recalled seeing this storefront and signage and made a mental note to stop in...but things got busy. The few times since then, we had just had lunch and I kept that mental note tucked away somewhere...Finally, curiosity got the best of me...a pig as signage, the name of 'Thai Burger Company-Home of the Original Rice Burgers'.  We had to stop.     Walk in and there's the counter in front of you.  You order from the limited menu (five appetizers, four burgers and a few interesting beverage choices), pay and find a seat at one of the three tables out front.  It turns out that Thai Burger Company started as a Food Truck, originally near the Navy Exchange at the 32nd Street base.  It still is a food truck, at various farmers markets around town.  
 This was our shared meal; we had just purchased beverages at Starbucks before deciding to stop here.   The chicken pot stickers ($3.50) were wonderful, the filling of chicken and still crispy fresh cabbage was plentiful, fresh and very nice.   The skewer of calamari balls($3.50) was quite large; if we had an order of three skewers ($10), I think that would be too much food.  The balls were nice, I suppose a bit standard, and two were enough for me, especially with all the other food.  (Other skewered choices are shrimp and imitation crab).
 The classic BBQ pork rice burger ($7) was a great choice.  The 'bun' of sticky rice was not too thick.  The meat was marinated with the just the right amount of flavors and that charred grill flavor was the perfect touch. If this had been served on a plate, the amount of rice to meat was a perfect ratio.  Eating this like a burger wasn't too messy; the rice held up and there was actually more meat than 'bun'. 

Now I'm curious about the other 'burgers' available- chicken satay, curry pork and fried tofu.  Also the beverages do look interesting.  We'll be back.

Thai Burger Company  3520 Ashford Street (at Beagle) San Diego 92111 Open Mon-Fri 11-3 and 5-9 Sat/Sun 11-9 

2017 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade- float decorating, meals at Kolache Factory (Tustin) and Tops (Pasadena)

Thanks for stopping to read our food blog, mmm-yoso!!! Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy contribute to various posts about various foods and various activities.  Today is that kind of a post, by Cathy.

Yes, it is that time of the year. The countdown to the 128th Tournament of Roses Rose Parade has begun, floats are being decorated. We volunteer with the Petal Pushers at the  Phoenix Decorating Company Rose Palace barn.  We had to check in at 9 a.m. to begin work, left home at around 6 a.m., stopping in Tustin.

 In the same mall as THH, where we stopped for breakfast before the first road test this year,  the Kolache Factory has its sole California location. Kolach, Czech or Slovak in origin, are soft, puffy, slightly sweet dough 'circles' filled with various ingredients.  These portable, almost 'hand pies' are fresh made all day.     As you can see, quite a variety are available.  In the back, a sausage, egg and cheese ($3.19), the middle is a 'Kolache of the month'-turkey with stuffing- ($3.88) and in the front is a cream cheese kolache ($1.62). Each of these were warmed, so very fresh and really tasty.  We have such a variety of places to choose from on that street (Cream Pan is less than a mile away, just East of the 5) Kolache Factory 14091 Newport Avenue Tustin 92780 (714) 730-2253 Website   We got to the Rose Palace as the sign-in area was being set up. Just inside, the Crew Chiefs were getting last minute instructions.  This barn would be busy soon.  The Lions Clubs International float: 'Celebrating 100 Years of Service' is magnificent! Shriners Hospital for Children, with the float titled 'Anything Is Possible' is so whimsical. The Odd fellows and Rebekahs float, 'Through The Ages' features a gazebo, wedding cake, diploma and mortarboard and a book with pictographs of prior events.    The Lutheran Laymans League has their 67th entry into a Rose Parade with the float 'Celebrate Jesus', observing the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
 The American Armenian Rose Float Association has a parade entry for the third year, 'Field of Dreams'.    The United Sikh Mission, with its float 'Together We Rise' is also in the Rose Parade for the third year. This float will be so beautiful! All that stuff in the foreground of that photo?   Construction in the barn.  It's the NHL float (which The Mister and I really had hoped to work on). 


 Then there is the Farmers Insurance float. It looks so ...'plain'...just like a large Recreational Vehicle (especially compared to the 2016 float (at bottom of this link). We were specifically asked to not photograph the secrets of this float while decorating, but the title of 'We Came, We Saw, We Covered' is a clue.  You'll love it when you see it!    So what did we do this day?  "Dry Decorating", or "Detail Decorating" is its own job.  Scissors and glue...  Beans, peas, poppyseeds, dry flower petals...more glue...In a cold barn for eight or so hours.  It was fun, but a long day. By the time we got down Colorado Boulevard, the sun was setting and we were hungry!The Original Tops, (Since 1952) is always a tasty stop (I wrote about breakfast here two years ago).  The meal was simple, a bowl of chili ($4.59) (made from scratch daily; no beans, a bit of heat and unique great taste), 1/4 lb burger ($3.79) charbroiled on that constantly used grill, imparting a delightful flavor on the toasted bun and simple toppings and a SMALL order of onion rings ($3.39) Thick cut onions in a light, seasoned batter.  We had leftovers and were so satisfied.

The Original Tops 3838 East Colorado Boulevard Pasadena, CA 91107 Open daily 6:30 a.m.-11:00p.m. Website

The Rose Parade is in January 2, 2017 (never on a Sunday)  Artist rendition of most of the 2017 Rose Parade floats