mmm-yoso!!!

Jollibee (Cathy's visits)

mmm-yoso!!! , a food blog, is being written by Cathy while Kirk and His Missus are on the road. 

Jollibee, a chain originating in the Philippines, is the largest and fastest growing Asian restaurant company across the globe, with 1500 locations (70 in North America).  Three are in San Diego County.   Even though burgers are on the menu, Jollibee is primarily known for its "Chickenjoy"-marinated, hand breaded chicken which is never greasy and always crisp and juicy.   Each location has a Jolly Bee greeter at the door. 
 There are some specials near the ordering area as well as online if you pre-order.  

The restaurant is always clean, ordering is efficient.  As soon as you begin, there is another person or two listening and beginning to gather your choices.  By the time you pay, a tray or 'To-Go' bag is waiting.  You do have to fill your soda from the machine.
 A salty brown gravy is included with each chicken order.  That's a pineapple juice drink ($3.49) on the tray, which was filled from behind the counter.
  A three piece meal with one side -adobo rice- and beverage from the machine ($11.99).  Adobo rice is fried rice with pork.

Adobo is a method of cooking in the Philippines.  It is a braising of the 'protein' (although you can make adobo vegetables) in a marinade of five items: vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, soy sauce and peppercorns.
 The two piece combination with palabok ($11.99).  Palabok is rice noodles topped with a garlic-pork-shrimp sauce topped with sliced hard boiled egg; a really nice side dish.
 We also ordered the 'Limited Edition' fried pie ($2.99) which is coconut pineapple-large shreds of sweet coconut and chunky pieces of tangy pineapple in a flaky, buttery crust. The 'regular' pie (peach mango) is always satisfying.  
 On another visit, I picked up two Deluxe Chicken Sandwiches ($5.99) with a side of 'crispy fries', which remained crispy on the drive home.    "Deluxe" means the sandwich has mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.  It is served on a brioche bun.  As you can see, there was also a peach mango pie. 
 The chicken can be regular or spicy and regular is great-meaty, juicy, crispy and very large.  Packets of Cholula are available and compliment the flavor if you change your mind and want spicy.  I'm not crazy about brioche buns, since they basically don't absorb sauces (or juice) but this was toasted and fresh and not overly bready.

Jollibee has consistently great service and serves consistently great, fresh food.  An excellent chain. 

Soo wrote about Jollibee in 2021. cc wrote a couple of  Jollibee posts more than ten years ago.

Jollibee 8436 Mira Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92126 (858) 800-3130  Open daily 9-10 Website

Lee's Sandwiches (Rolando)

mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog, usually has posts written by Kirk.  However, He and His Missus are enjoying each other and doing research for future posts.  Cathy is writing today.

The corner of University at 58th used to house a great little Chinese restaurant.  The Mister and I went there many times when we first moved out here in the early 1980's.  Its signage has been preserved and the area has expanded into University Square, a shopping area anchored by a Food 4 Less, 99 Cent Only store and Marshall's. On this corner to the right of this famous sign, is Lee's Sandwiches, which began in 1982 as a family venture with 500 food trucks in Northern California and currently is a franchise in four states with 60 Brick and Mortar locations.
 The Menu Board includes six inch breakfast sandwiches (on baguette or a croissant) served all day.
  Beverages and Korean Rice dogs are available; quite a variety.
 Asian Sandwiches, served on ten inch baguettes as well as 
 European Sandwiches ("American" fillings) served on a large croissant or baguette.
 There's also a hot food display case and some offerings on the counter.
The Pate Chaud ($2.75) is offered in chicken or pork and both fillings are excellent.  
 The herbs and flavoring in the ground chicken and also in the ground pork are fresh and flavorful.  The pastry is crispy-flaky and each bite is quite nice.  The egg rolls sold from this case (five for $6) also have the same fillings and are a crispy snack.
 As mentioned, the breakfasts served all day are smaller.  
 The #82, ham, bacon, egg and cheese on croissant ($5.49) was quite hearty and filling.  The six inch croissant appears to have been baked in the baguette tray, so it's the dough but not the shape of a croissant.  Everything on the sandwich is good. 
 The #90 ($5.49) sausage, egg and cheese on a baguette was also filling.  The bread/crust ratio is good, bread is fresh baked and the sausage was a better quality than I've had in other breakfast sandwiches.  

 We returned for lunch.  I've been choosing yogurt drinks lately and the mango yogurt ($6.25) was a great choice; just enough sweet from the mango chunks and tart from the yogurt.  Of course, we had to have a Lee's Cafe original (Cafe su da)($4.49).  The strong coffee and sweetened condensed milk over ice is indeed a perfected beverage.
 The #1-combination ($6.99) is made on a ten inch baguette and includes house pickled daikon and carrots, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, mayonnaise and soy sauce. 
 Jamon-Head Cheese-Pate are the meats.  

The cured ham is not smoky, the Head Cheese has a black pepper heat which is cooled by the Pate.  Each bite was a great combination of complimentary flavors. 
 The #35  Roast Beef European ($9.49) included lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and cheese (I was not asked which type of cheese I wanted, but the menu shows a choice of American, Swiss or Provolone).  Condiments are on the side (mustard, onion, pepperoni and pickle).  Plenty of roast beef on this fresh baked, soft crusted croissant.  Satisfying. 
 The matcha green tea ($5.99 large) is another favorite beverage; a nice strong matcha flavor and not very sweet.

A good place to stop if you are in the neighborhood.

Lee's Sandwiches 5801 University Ave Suite B1 San Diego 92115  Open daily 9-8 (619) 915-5562 Website

HitH - Farmers Table (Bay Park) Revisited

So, there I was minding my own business.....when I noticed some comments on a post from back in 2019 on the Bay Park Farmers Table location from "FK". To be perfectly honest, I rarely receive comments on older posts. And to be even more honest, I (we) had never been compelled to return after our last set of visits. I had not however, tried the flatbreads at FT. So there's that. Plus, this location of FT is like less than three blocks from our house, so it wouldn't be hard to just take a walk on over to the place and return after three years, right?

I guess it was about time for me to do some H(anging) i(n) t(he) H(ood), right?

The place was pretty mellow during my visit; which I liked.

I must say, I found the service much more friendly and efficient that on my previous visits. I did notice a big difference when I received my menu. It seems all the dishes I've tried before are no longer available here.

When I did a quick check, some of those items, like the beef tartare are available at other locations. So, I'm guessing that BP customers don't like stuff like that? Well, I was here for the Truffle Flatbread anyway. Which I ordered ($20).

 Man, this was pretty big. Crust was nicely charred. Though the first two bites gave things away. The slices weren't cut all the way thru and the resulting dough was tough and saturated and not in a good, Neopolitan Pizza way. Nice truffle fragrance, but no truffle flavor. There was a ton of tasteless mozzarella. The crust, while nicely charred wasn't very yeasty, but was too salty. I liked the bacon, that almost had a flavor of jamon, which gave the pizza almost all it's flavor, but there just wasn't enough of that to overcome all that cheese. Too little radicchio or carmelized onion to make much of a difference.

I still think the food here is quite "corporate" and some folks like it that way. The service has definitely improved, though I still don't think the food is to my taste.

Farmer's Table (Bay Park)
3055 Clairemont Dr.
San Diego, CA 92117

One good thing that came out of this visit. There are places within walking distance that I haven't posted on in ages. The Missus wants me walking more, so one of my New Years resolutions? More time to "Hang in the Hood". So you'll hopefully see a couple of those posts coming your way.

Pelicana Chicken (Balboa Avenue)

I noticed that Pelicana Chicken was opening in a post last month, the latest in the "KFC invasion" of the Kearny Mesa area. In fact, I think there are more places serving KFC than pho in the area these days! Then just a few weeks later, while running some errands, I noticed that Pelicana was in soft opening mode. So, the next time I had some late errands to run (Pelicana currently opens at noon), I decided to stop by and do a takeout order.

I parked and walked into the shop and was greeted in a very cheerful and smiling manner. I was told that the place had only been open for less than a week at this time. So even though the place opened at noon, it was empty.

I know prices like this are pretty much the norm these days, but the amounts on the menu still gave me pause.

I placed my order and was told 30 minutes. So I made a quick Nijiya run and returned. I waited another 5 minutes and my order was good to go. At least it wasn't sitting around, right. 

I was wondering how the wings would hold up on the drive home, so I ordered the 9 piece Original Fried Wings ($15) and got the Original Sauce on the side which added another $1.50. It's free if you order it on the chicken. 

   The chicken held up quite well after the drive home. This batter is more of the "laquer" type and it was still quite crunchy. Not much seasoning though, so it really needs a sauce. The sauce came in a presealed container and was like a sweet (emphasis on "sweet") chili sauce that was kind of weak overall.

The Mul Kimchi was also provided in a presealed container.

   

This was not as crisp as I enjoy and much too sweet. Man, read that ingredient label. You know, sometimes I'd rather not know. It has sodium saccharin and aspartame, i.e. Equal®, and sugar (glucose) no wonder it's so sweet. Oh, and in case you didn't get your daily allowance of aspartame and want an extra one of these....well, that'll be $1.50.

I also considered getting the Sea Snail Salad, but really didn't want to pay another $24, so I just went with an order of fries ($6). As well as the wings held up on the drive home, the fries were a total fail.

You can tell by the color, these weren't fried enough. It was dry and they barely seasoned it at all.

Well, at least the chicken wings held up quite well.

A week later, I decided to give Pelicana another go. This time I decided to have the wings sauced and I figure I'd cover myself by ordering the "Crispy" Chicken Wings ($16) and went with the Soy Based Sauce. The young man working was awesome and efficient and I did the same Nijiya run. Timing was great as my order was approaching the counter as I walked into the restaurant. 

These wings are more heavily battered.

 The wings were somewhat unevenly battered, the pieces on the top were quite crunchy, but for some strange reason, even though I liked the fact this wasn't swimming in sauce, the bottom pieces had gone mushy. For some reason, the meat of the wings were drier as well. This soy based sauce was also too sweet for my taste.

Personally, I prefer the "original" prep to the "crispy", which is actually more "crunchy".

I'll chalk these visits up to the "soft opening" for now. Though the presentation, menu, and food has a definite corporate "feel", the folks working were very pleasant. We'll see what things are like in a couple of months.

Please read Soo's post here.

Pelicana Chicken
7767 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Sun - Thurs 12pm - Midnight
Fri - Sat 12pm - 1am

Midweek Meanderings - Sunmerry, The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill, and Kitakata Ramen Coming to Kearny Mesa, Palomino's #3 and Matador Mexican Grill "Under New Management"

It's amazing what you can find during one short drive. Here's what I noticed when I went to get some groceries and lunch from Nijiya. I took the "long way"; which meant starting on Clairemont Mesa, then down Convoy, then all the way down Linda Vista to Morena.

Here's what I saw.

Sunmerry, The Great Greek, and Kitakata Ramen Coming to Kearny Mesa:

Even though I haven't done a post on Sunmerry; a bakery chain from Taiwan, it's a must stop on our road trips North and during visits to Bistro Na's. We'll also stop in at the Rowland Heights location as well. For some reason, this past week, I mentioned that Sunmerry was opening somewhere near Convoy to the Missus, so She'd be able to get Her Pineapple Cake fix locally. I was thus instructed to find out the location. Finding the location was simple using our friend......Google. 

In the same strip mall as Costco Business and Target I saw three structures and this sign:

So, I got three for the price of one here.

The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill, a small chain out of Nevada and Sunmerry will occupy one building.

7951 Othello Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

And Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai which according to Eater, originated in Fukushima in another.

8001 Othello Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Looks like I got a "three for one" here.....

Palomino's #3 "Under New Management":

I go to Nijiya so frequently that I usually just head on in and then back to my car without a glance; but today I noticed that the Taco Shop in the strip mall had a "Under New Management" sign. Which I believe means new ownership.

Cathy has done several posts on Palomino's #2, but not on this location. I last visited in the days BB ("before blogging").

3860 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

So maybe.....and no, I haven't tried Two Hands Corn Dog yet either.....

Matador Mexican Grill Reopening:

On my way back, heading down Linda Vista, I took a look at the spot that used to house Matador Mexican Grill which closed several months back and noticed they were reopening. Of course; it's under the ubiquitous "under new management".

I'd never been; though an ex-coworker of mine used to like the place.

5201 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92110

And under the you never know what you'll see label......

I noticed a bit of a crowd on the Convoy side of Jasmine as I stopped at the light. There were news teams and bit of a hubbub. While sitting at the light, I noticed someone holding a freeway sign. And then it became clear. I know that there was an effort to raise money for six "Convoy Asian Cultural District" signs and it looks like they've raised the money and the signs are done.

Good for them!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Circling Back to Main Chick Hot Chicken (Clairemont) and Golden City

I often say that I would not still be posting if not for all the folks who comment of our posts. The same can be said for all the great emails and recommendations I get. There's a whole group of folks who don't comment on our posts, but are thoughtful enough to send me emails with recommendations, observations, and really great comments. One of these folks is "ChrisR" who often has some pretty interesting and sometimes funny observations and recommendations. I look forward to his emails.

Hailing from the Big Island, Chris will often have the most interesting "Subject Lines" to his emails. Here are two of them and my subsequent revisits to those places.

"The last pretty good food bargain in San Diego?"

Actually, ChrisR was the reason that I visited Main Chick in the first place....I'm not one to follow fads and at that time it seemed that all these Hot Chicken shops were popping up everywhere. Having had some good Hot Chicken in Nashville during my consulting days; all of these shops fell short. Main Chick was no exception.

But, moving away from the Hot Chicken Sandwich; Chris had this to say about Main Chick:

"But there is still one bargain left: The leg-thigh quarter at Main Chick"

"Very juicy. Comes with the same spicy aioli as the dark meat sandwich. Gotten it several times in recent months."

Well, this location of Hot Chicken is less than three miles from our house, so why not try it out, right?

The young lady working was a joy and I liked that they have outdoor seating. I ordered it "Spicy" this time, instead of "Supreme" like I did last time. My heat tolerance has gone down in my old age.....

I was asked if I needed a "fork and knife"? Huh? This is still chicken, right? And I raised up my left hand and said "fork"; then my right saying "knife". The young lady cracked up. I did pay a small price for this as I will note later on.

I sat outside and opened my container and I have to say; in contrast to what I'd had before; chicken with burnt spots on it and such, this looked quite nice.

   Turning things over was a different story as it was pretty greasy. The meat was very moist, tender, and it had that flavor of dark meat chicken that I prefer. The batter was quite crunchy but the seasoning dust is pretty gritty, though quite spicy; but there's a lack of other flavors....at Hatties, I remember the chicken being very spicy, but it still had some smokiness, most likely from Paprika and even a hint of garlic tones.

Maybe I just need to order this with no spice next time? Though I recall the "naked version" being quite bland.

But, at least it was moist and tender. And at $5.75, Chris is right, these days it's a bargain.

And the chicken had the last laugh as I had a nice thrill when I removed my contact lenses that evening.

Main Chick Hot Chicken (In Clairemont Town Square)
4705 Clairemont Dr.
San Diego, CA 92117

Subject: Did Golden City hire a chef from Royal Mandarin?

Whoa, let's talk about how to get my attention!

"While I waited, a waitress (one who in the good old days automatically brought me a fork for years despite my never using it) brought out salt-and-pepper chicken wings twice that looked crisp and dry and had a good portion size for $13.

So the next weekend, I got the wings. I have had them two more times since.

As good as the Royal Mandarin, IMO".

Okay! Sold!

I went and did a takeout order from Golden City. To cover myself, I also ordered the Kwai Fei Chicken, which has been a favorite of mine for years. 

It did smell quite good in the car, better than a "new car fragrance" for sure. And I made the fifteen minute drive back to the office wondering if the wings would be looking like this:

Opening things up, the wings looked like this.

    Unfortunately, the batter of the wings didn't hold up well, much of it getting a bit mushy and flaking off. So, if you're ordering this, it's probably in your best interest to eat them ASAP....maybe even in the parking lot! Lot's of burnt garlic which was on the bitter side, though I enjoyed the spice. The flesh of the wings were nice and moist.

And to be perfectly honest; these were light years better than what I'd had from Golden City years back. So it does look like the wings have improved over time.

On a sad note; it seems like the Kwai Fei Chicken has gone downhill as well.

 The chicken really just tasted boiled lacking in the mild hints of anise-wine and devoid of any salt or mild ginger tones....just plain bland. The sauce provided had brown specks in it and tasted a bit rancid and off. The chicken while cooked nicely, just didn't taste right.

Man, what a bummer......where do I get my Kwai Fei Chicken from now? Maybe I need to revisit Eastern Dynasty?

Golden City Restaurant
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Regardless of my opinions, I want to make it clear that I really enjoy and treasure these emails. It gets me "out there" checking things out and keeps it "fresh". It's always fun hearing from all of you and I'm flattered that you would think of me when you have an interesting or enjoyable meal.

Thanks again ChrisR!

Max's Restaurant

Max's on Mira Mesa opened at the end of June of 2020. We have a rather long history with Max's, starting during our time living in LA in the late 90's...by the time we moved to San Diego, Max's in National City had become Villa Manila, which eventually became a favorite of ours for Crispy Pata and Kamayan Night. Though to be honest, we haven't been back to VM since way before the pandemic hit. Enough of that; this is about Max's. A few months after opening, I decided to see if the fried chicken at this location (because, having been to couple of locations YMMV) was any good. Since this was in September of 2020, I decided to do takeout. I went and did an online order....just a half chicken and fries.

So, I arrived and walked up to the counter; it was 1130 and no one was in sight. I waited about 10 minutes until a gentleman showed up. I mentioned my order and was told it was almost ready......and then cooled my heels for another 20 minutes! Now, I had placed my order at 11am, arrived at the designated time, and still waited another half hour for my order. Good thing I didn't have any meetings until 1pm; otherwise......

Anyway, I opened up the cardbox containers upon arriving back in the office. The fried chicken, which I believe is brined and thus is quite juicy was as good as I remembered, thin skinned, crisp, if a bit on the salty side.

Quite nice.

I used the Jufran, the banana ketchup on the really dry and limp fries......I'll bet this was just sitting on the side during the extra time I waited for my chicken.

This was not good eats.

After this visit; I decided that I'd wait awhile before returning.....thinking that dining in might be the way to go. Not realizing of course, how long I'd be waiting during the pandemic.

And then, there was a time, when we thought we good see the light at the end of the Covid tunnel, when we thought that perhaps the worst was behind us......Calvin, "M", and I decided to actually go out and grab some lunch. Of course we wouldn't be taking any crazy chances...."M" wasn't too familiar with Filipino food...other than the usual lumpia, adobo, and the like....we headed over to Max's, arriving right at 11am. And it would be fairly quiet until right before we left.

There was only one hard working young lady on duty...I felt for her as takeout and other customers gave her a tough time. Based on my previous visit, I set some expectations, which unfortunately was pretty much in line with how long things took after we ordered.

We did of course have the fried chicken....sorry no photo, which M really enjoyed. But then, there some other dishes, like the Chicharon Bulaklak.

This is basically the fat that wraps around the intestine. It had a chewy-crispness and was fairly mild in flavor....just the slightest offal-ness. M, not quite used to the earthiness was not quite into this dish.

Calvin loves pancit palabok and enjoyed this version, I thought the noodles were a bit overcooked and it lacked the deep shrimpy-fish savory tones that I enjoy.

It just seemed under-sauced, but heck Calvin never found a version of this he didn't like....so I was happy he enjoyed it.

Just to have our carbs covered; I ordered the Garlic Fried Rice.

Which nicely filled the carb gap.

I also ordered the Classic Sisig. Unlike many of the versions in San Diego which uses leftover lechon kawale, this one used pork cheek.

I haven't had this style of sisig in years. Good swiney gaminess; though I wished they used some other parts of the pig head for some textural variety. Not bad, but in need of more spice, sour tones, and pungency from onions. This came across as pretty greasy and of course "M" was not a big fan of this.

Just to cover myself I ordered the Beef Kaldereta as well.

Man, the beef was so tough, the kaldereta while beefy lacked the tangy-sweetness, with a hint of spice that I enjoy. I also like a hint of liveriness usually provided by lechon sauce (Mang Tomas) which seemed like was missing here.

And so, one would think that I'd end things here, but there was one item that I still wanted to try.

Little did I know that it would take almost half a year for this final visit.

With things slowly improving, the skeleton crew decided to do a takeout order from Max's and I had the honor of ordering.

The drill was basically the same. I ordered at 11, was given the designated time of 1135 for pick-up. The same really sweet, but over worked young lady was the only person working the front of house and there was an additional 20 minute wait for my order.

I got it back to the office and arranged the items in the middle of the walk way between cubicles, set out paper plates, napkins, and utensils and the guys took turns getting their plates.

Of course there was a whole fried chicken. Which when hot was every bit as good as what I'd had before; though it got soft and greasy fairly quickly.

The garlic rice didn't have as much flavor as on my previous visit; but with all this fried food, we needed some carbs.

Actually, with all this fried food and pork what I really needed was to be hosed down afterward, but would have to wait until I got home!

I ordered the lechon kawali sisig which was on the dry and tough side.

And like the other pork version needed more spice and sour tones.

And of course; what I really wanted to try....the Crispy Pata.

Which looked hard and dry; but wasn't too bad. It's was not nearly as good as my favorite version, but the skin was crisp, there were nice, gelatinous, gooey bits under that skin and the meat was tender. It was milder in flavor than other versions, but was still decently porky. In fact, this was the first tp be wiped out! Good job guys!

Speaking of wiped out; I think I've had my share of fried foods for a while....at least that's what my Cardiologist told me (jjk)!

To me this last meal, even though we ate in our cubicles, there was no one else in the office so we could joke around and chat quite loudly, gave us a taste of how things used to be...... the camaraderie of sharing a meal; good or bad, the bonding of breaking bread (or scarfing down fried pork), something that has been sorely missing in our lives for the last two years!

Cheers!

Max's Restaurant
8285 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Current Hours:
Wed - Mon 11am - 9pm
Closed on Tuesdays

You can read Cathy's post on Max's here and Soo's post on Max's here.

Takeout from CoCo Ichibanya

I think many people were quite excited when it was announced that CoCo Ichibanya was opening in San Diego, I know that I was. And finally, in March of this past year they opened. And of course there were the lines, so I decided to wait....until they did online ordering which took quite a while. Each time I'd drive by I'd see all the folks waiting. When I saw a trend of shorter lines. And they finally did have online ordering at  the beginning of this month, I went ahead and placed an order when I was in the office and was given a time.

I went ahead and drove down to Convoy. I had placed my order right at 11am and was given an 1130 pick-up time. I drove down and arrived at 1125.

 As I pulled into the parking lot I received a text telling me that my pick-up time had changed to 1150-1200.....at 1125? Really? Five minutes before pickup you move the goalposts? It was a work day, so I waited 10 minutes and just walked in to check on my order. The folks working were really nice in spite of seeming to be quite harried. And guess what, my order was ready......I asked when I should have picked it up...the answer? 1130.

Ok, I figured that they are busy and still working out the kinks; I returned to the office with my Tonkatsu Curry, sauce level 2 (50 cent upcharge)....I usually order level 5, but I thought I'd just see how spicy this curry really was.

 Good lord, this was terrible. From the unevenly fried tonkatsu...notice the breading was peeling off the super dry pork. To the super watery curry, to the dry and hard rice. Man, to think I criticized Zen Curry. I know of a few CI loyalists who will say, "well, because of ingredients and such you can't compare the food to Japan". Well, let me tell you, I'm not comparing this to CI in Japan. The first CoCo Ichibanya outside of Japan opened in Honolulu. In fact it was in McCully and was just a few blocks from where my apartment used to be before I moved to the mainland....the service was terrible and they only took cash, but the curry was nothing like this. Also, when I was doing work in Irvine, the folks I was working with went to CI in Irvine, which was also much better than this.....it was like a whole different restaurant.

A few weeks later the Missus told me She wanted to try CoCo Ichibanya.......so I did the online ordering thing again.......I was given a time 1215 and I went off to do some shopping where I was then sent a text telling me my order was ready......at 1120! Sheesh, so I rushed on over to pick-up my order.

Returning home we got to opening things up right away. I had ordered the Missus's Chicken Katsu Curry with vegetables ($2.80 upcharge), just in case the curry didn't line up with Her expectations. Well, that didn't help at all.

 Man, that chicken was so dry.....and like before the breading was peeling off, which means really bad quality control in terms of the temp of the protein and the oil used for frying. Having a taste of a piece I noticed it was barely seasoned. I couldn't hide how watery and bland the curry was behind the vegetables. The Missus looked at me and said, "this can't be Coco Ichibanya".

I'm afraid to say it was.

I got the Karaage Curry and having had the curry on my previous visit, I went with level 5 spice ($1.25 upcharge). Opening my container I knew this was not going to be the curry from Coco Ichibanya I enjoyed.

The chicken was so pale, flaccid, the batter mushy, bland, and the flesh dry. At least the curry had some "zip", but it was watery, and lacking in all that makes Japanese curry enjoyable to me; a nice tongue coating umami richness, some beefiness, a hint of sweetness......

We didn't even finish half. 

The folks here are working super hard, the prices are reasonable, it's just that there seems to be a lack of quality control. CI has been open for over 6 months now, so it's hard to blame grand opening jitters. As for a pandemic personnel shortage....well perhaps..... But this isn't the Coco Ichibanya I know.

I was going to try a third takeout visit; but in the end just decided to wait....perhaps down the line, when I'm ok with dining in again, I'll give them another try.

You can read about Kirbie's takeout visit here.

CoCo Ichibanya
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Daily 11am - 10pm

Sunday Stuffs - Ghost Pepper Wings from Popeyes, the "Weekender" from Bird Rock Coffee, Harvest Market (Balboa) is Closed, and Stuffs from D'Artagnan

Here are a couple more odds and ends for yet another day where it seems like the wheels on the year 2020 are coming off...….

Ghost Pepper Wings from Popeyes:

I had a few folks ask me about the ghost pepper wings from Popeyes, I guess since even though we haven't grown anything in a couple of years, I'm kinda fond of making stuffs out of ghost peppers. So, Bob and "ST", here goes.

Frankly, even though Popeyes was once upon a time a "guilty pleasure"; it seemed like the quality (and the size) of the chicken started diminishing over the years. Finally, I just tired of it all and I hadn't been to a location of Popeyes in at least 10 years! So, when folks started asking me what I thought about the "ghost pepper wings".....well, I wasn't sure. So, on a day where I had some time; I decided to try them out.....just to kinda see. I was surprised at the price; though they really push combos; you can get 6 pieces of wings only (they did include a biscuit) for $4.99. Just make sure to bust out that magnifying glass.....as you can see on the right, the drumette was basically the size of a soy sauce packet.

The batter on the wings were really crunchy...in fact it was mostly batter, very little meat, and quite dry......I know I always say that those jumbo sized wings really mess up skin to meat ratio; but microscopic wings that are mostly batter screw up the ratio as well.

As for the spice? Well, this ain't no Quaker Steak and Lube Triple Atomic Wings that's for sure. In fact, this barely registered in the heat department for me.....it was mostly salty, with a hint of spice, lacking in the fruity-fieriness that is the hallmark of good Ghost Peppers. Pass......

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
Locations throughout San Diego

The "Weekend" from Bird Rock Coffee:

I had started ordering several cups of cold brew from Bird Rock on Morena, with no ice, a few times a week.

When the really friendly guy working there; the one whose been there for quite a while asked me what was up; I told him that we usually can't finish a whole coldbrew in one sitting so by having it with no ice; we'd just store it in the fridge. This is when he recommended getting something they call the "Weekender"; think of it as a growler of sorts. They cost $20 for 64 ounces so you basically get 5 1/3 portions for the price of less than 4. It's a good deal for us. We've been going thru about 1 every other week; though I'll still drop by in between those visits to get the Missus Her pour over fix. Though in this hot weather; we've been mostly sticking with coldbrew. I am a bit worried about all this plastic; so we're trying to find ways to reuse these when possible.

And I recommended Zgara to the guy...I believe his wife's family is from Greece as payback.

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters
1270 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110

Harvest Market on Balboa is Closed:

I had some merguez in my latest order from D'Artagnan and the Missus was eager to have me sauté them with lemon and wanted some pickled veggies, garlic paste, and flatbread from Harvest Market. So we jumped in the car and took the quick drive over and were rather shocked to find them closed:

That "closed due to Coronavirus" sign was really worrisome.

I asked around a bit and one of sources who works with the local government told me that he understands that Harvest Market has probably closed permanently due to lack of business, not an infection. This is quite tragic and I hope they decide to reopen.

Harvest International Market - Balboa
4220 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92117 

And Speaking of D'Artagnan:

I recently realized that I'd placed my third rather large order from D'Artagnan. It seems that several items have become household staples. I recall mentioning the duck prosciutto in my Ume Dressing post....but we've been enjoying the charcuterie/pates/etc during the recent heatwaves that have swept through San Diego over the last couple of months.

There's always one king of promotion; though I always look for the free shipping deals. Things are packed well and everything arrives chilled.

So far, our staples are the Duck Prosciutto, Duck Rillettes (the Missus loves making a hash with duck fat potatoes/eggs/rillette) which freeze well.

We've enjoyed the Wild Boar Saucisson Sec and will probably order the duck version next time as well.

The Torchon of Foie Gras and the Mousses of Foie Gras are favorites and I enjoy the Pâté de Campagne.

Not a big fan of the Medallions of Foie Gras and Truffle; the texture is very crumbly and the overall flavor is a bit too much; even for us.

We also didn't care much for some of the pates as well.

And of course, we do need a "bit of cheese" to balance things out, right?

Which we get from Venissimo after all; we need to support local as well, right?

It's easy enough to Google D'Artagnan. I don't do sponsors, freebies, and such and really don't want to be bothered with non-edible Spam, so I won't do a link. I'm sure you can find them easily. When ordering; you may want to set a farther out delivery date to save on shipping; if you're not getting it free.

Anyway, I just kinda always wanted to start a post with Chicken Wings and end with Foie Gras....so, at least that wish has come true!

Hope everyone has a safe and productive week!

Monday Meanderings - A Requiem for Tiger! Tiger!

Last week Thursday, I got a text from my good "FOY" Candice....it's always great to hear from her....but this time she was the bearer of bad news. She knows how much the Missus and I enjoy Tiger! Tiger! She knew that the Missus and I loved "TT" and we were actually "stalking" the place...…..we'd drive by to see if they had reopened, only to have our hopes dashed when we saw that they were still closed.

She wanted to make sure to let me know that Tiger Tiger would not be reopening; before I read the news...….that's what good friends do. And based on the emails I've gotten (thanks KarenM/Bob/ST) once the story broke in Eater (please read the Eater post), I guess a lot of folks were going to miss the place too.

As much as I was sad that Toronado closed; I kinda saw that one coming. This one however, really kinda sucks as you probably can tell by all my posts on the place. I'm surprised by how many of those posts has "back to the routine" in it. And of course the place is inextricably tied to Sammy.

I think this says quite a bit.

We're sad to see you go Tiger! Tiger!; you were an big part of our rotation in San Diego. I wish we had a chance to thank the folks for all the wonderful meals and beer we've had there over the years.

I actually made a special trip to take that first photo above on Saturday to pay my respects.

3025 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104 

Just when I thought that 2020 couldn't get any worse...……….