mmm-yoso!!!

Chicken Wing Wednesday - Kuljem Chicken & Beer (aka Honeyjam Chicken & Beer, aka JJ Chicken)

Ok, I know you must be tired of all these KFC posts, they seem to be coming in hot and heavy right now, this will be the last one for a while...hopefully, though I do have some revisits in the queue. Based on the crazy pre-opening history of this place, you know I just had to visit. For those who don't remember; originally, back in 2021, this was supposed to be JJ's Chicken, then in August of 2022, the "JJ" sign was gone. Then FOYs Patty (in the comments of that post) and Rena (via email, with an attached photo) notified me that the place was going to be Honeyjam Chicken. I drove on over and posted a photo in October of 2022. Finally, in May of this year Eater posted on the Soft Opening of Honeyjam. I had heard about the place selling out of wings and really didn't want to repeat the BHC thing, so I waited. By the time of my visit, the signage now said "Kuljem"! You gotta love it. Which is basically "Honey" (ggul) and "Jem" (잼) means "fun", so I guess it all fits, right? Whew.....

Not wanting to fight crowds and such, I walked in at 1130, opening time on a Tuesday. 

A really nice young man greeted me and asked me if I was ordering for here to to go. I told him I'd be dining in and he led me over to a table and pointed out the QR code for the menu.

I placed my order and once he got things set he came over and introduced himself as John and is one of the owners. He also owns Arteazen, the Boba/Tea shop in the plaza. He was a really friendly guy and I guess I must have a rather generic look because he asked me if we'd met before? Seeing an opening, I asked him about first being JJ's and was told that the sign was a mistake because that's the name of their LLC; his business partner's name is Jin, so "J & J" got it? But what about the Honeyjam "thing"? Well, after being open a bit, they found that with the name Honeyjam, folks were expecting SFC ("Southern Fried Chicken") and waffles, that sort of thing, so they went with the Korean name! Got that? Double whew.....

Anyway, I ordered the wings - Original Crispy (6 piece - $12) and some Kimchi Fried Rice ($16). Not cheap, but it looks like about $2 a wing is the going rate these days? I was graciously brought a glass of water and soon enough my wings arrived. Even before the fried rice. John told me that they double fry the Original Crispy.

   These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.

What I enjoyed much more than the wings was the Kimchi Fried Rice ($16).

While I do wish they had a Spam option for this, the chicken, which I'm sure they have a lot of was ok. Loved the fried egg with the crisp edges, it was perfect. The rice was wonderfully coated and there was a good amount of crunchy, fermentally sour kimchi in this. This was quite good!

I heard some customers, who came in after me raving about the "Saigon Wings" so I knew I had to make a return visit. I did wait about a month or so, but again returned at the 1130 opening time, this time on a Wednesday. I was greeted once again, this time by John's partner, "Jin", who led me to a table and the ensuing QR code drill. And brought me a glass of H2O.

This time I decided on the Saigon Wings (6 - $12). 

  The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?

Really like the two owners who are very friendly and quite chatty. The wings are good quality, though it's a bit too crunchy for me. Funny thing is; I'll definitely get the kimchi fried rice. Now if they start offering a Spam option, well I'd be there for sure!

Kuljem Chicken & Beer
8895 Towne Centre Dr. Suite 101
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am - 2pm, 5pm - 11pm

Sushi Yorimichi Revisited

As it looks like prices keep rising...well, everywhere it seems, I've been hard pressed to find reasonably priced places to eat. Though one may ask; "what is reasonable these days?" During one of my visits to San Diego Bakery & Cafe for a breakfast bolillo, Sushi Yorimichi caught my eye. Opened during the times of Covid in June of 2021, they replaced an old favorite of ours; Thai Papaya. It turned out that the menu featured everything from sushi to ramen to yakitori. There are a couple of initial rules that I follow; if a Japanese restaurant serves a vast variety of dishes, approach the sushi and sashimi with caution. "FOY" Junichi after his visits told me that Yorimichi does not use binchotan for yakitori, so that was off the table, but he was able to provide some recommendations. As it turned out; I thought the cuisine skewed more toward the "diner"/izakaya side of the scale, but the prices, even for back in 2021 was super affordable. And that was nearly three years ago.

It was time return and check things out.

For some reason, the tiny space looks a bit brighter, and even though it has even more "stuffs" decorating the place looks more like a little cozy neighborhood izakaya, like you'd perhaps find in the back alleys of Hiroshima.

The tables are still nicely spaced and the menu is still humongous. The "rolls" take up almost two pages of the menu; which kind of tells you how the place is skewing with regards to sushi and sashimi. I did however notice something on the "specials" menu.

How the heck can you do Tuna Tataki for twelve bucks these days; unless it's just 2-3 slices, so I ordered that.

Well guess what arrived.

 My goodness; this consisted of six slices of akami maguro! Fresh, nice texture, no off flavors, refreshing. The young lady asked me if I wanted some wasabi and grated ginger and I answered with an affirmative. This just added another layer of enjoyment. The maguro was seared nicely; the fried onions adding a nice sweet-pungent-crispness; there could have been more ponzu, but this was quite good.

I also saw Chicken Wings on the menu. You could get it with either "Spicy Sauce" or sweet soy. I decided on the sweet soy. At $6.75; I kinda expected 3 wings, but I got 5, and all "flats".

    I also loved that the wing tips were attached; I just love gnawing on them, even though the sticky-sweet sauce got all over my hands. The batter was on the crunchy side, almost lacquered, and it held up for the entre meal. The meat was moist, had no off colors or flavors. The sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste though, but still, well worth the price.

And this was lunch as I was quite satisfied. $18.75 for tuna tataki and chicken wings, go figure? There were a few other customers coming in, but all of them got these huge sushi rolls, or ramen. I mentioned the prices at Yorimichi to the Missus. So guess where we had lunch the following weekend?

Yep. The Missus enjoyed the decor!

We started with one of my favorites on my previous visits, the Kawa-Su ($5.75), chicken skin.

A bit more spice than what I'd previously had; which actually helped balance out the sour ponzu tones. I enjoyed the chewy-savory chicken skin.

The Missus wanted the Agedashi Tofu ($6.75), which I wasn't too impressed with during my earlier visits.

This was decent; the tsuyu was much lighter and not as salty, the tofu, slightly crisp from the frying, but nice and creamy inside.

Sadly, the Tuna Tataki ($12) as not as good this time around.

Mainly because of the maguro, which was much more chewy, and had a metallic-tinny tinge to it flavorwise. The slices were also much smaller.

Curious about "grilled" dishes, we ordered the Tan Shio ($7.95).

So, while well seasoned, I can actually do better in our air fryer when seasoned with smoked salt, white pepper, and togarashi. Still, this was not terrible and much better than it looked.

Last up was the Karaage ($7), which I wasn't overly impressed by the last time.

This time, it was quite good; crunchy, the meat tender and moist, and most of all, the soy sauce and other seasoning came thru nicely.

In fact, the Missus and I have talked about returning for an Happy Hour meal and getting the karaage rice bowl to share and some of our favorites. As I mentioned earlier, there are folks whom we've seen ordering the jumbo sized "rolls", which we aren't interested in, nor does the yakitori or ramen interest us. It's those "izakaya" like dishes that do. Admittedly, we're not going to forget our favorites, but in this day of crazy prices, this was a nice respite. In fact, if Yorimichi was in our neighborhood, we'd be regulars.

Sushi Yorimichi
2405 Ulric St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Sun - Thurs 11am - 830pm
Fri - Sat 11am - 930pm

Don Chicken (Encinitas) and Cal Pacific Orchid Farm

Recently, I was up in the Encinitas area and decided to make a couple of stops on my way back home. The First was to the Cal Pacific Orchid Farm which I had heard about from some folks I know who live in North County and also read this on Hidden San Diego. I decided to stop by. The huge greenhouse is located off of Orpheus Avenue which parallels the I-5. It was interesting finding the place as there's a discreet single lane driveway from the street which heads up to the greenhouse and the small parking spaces.

Many of the beautiful plants are in lovely arrangements and the staff are so friendly. The gentleman working that day was very nice and spent almost a half hour chatting with me. My grandparents on Maui grew orchids and my Mom had a couple of plants when we lived in Kaimuki. For some reason, I thought that orchids needed a rather humid environment to grow, but the gentleman went through some of the various species, how they thrive in San Diego, that they do like moisture, but not too much water and not too much direct sun....which is why we saw so many in the Cloud Forest in Ecuador.

The gentleman obviously enjoys his job and has a real passion for orchids.

One thing I found interesting is that Cal Pacific will "board" your plants if they are not doing well, not blooming, or in need of additional care!

The folks here are wonderful. I'm going to make sure to get my orchids from them!

Cal Pacific Orchid Farm
1122 Orpheus Ave.
Encinitas, CA 92024
Hours:
Mon - Sat 9am - 4pm
Closed on Sundays

Of course the next item on the agenda was......well, what's for lunch? A while back, someone, I don't recall who, asked me if I had been to Don Chicken. I looked thru my emails and searched through my comments but was not able to find that recommendation. Well, you know me, could I fight off the temptation of some "KFC"? Probably not. Especially when it's just a ten minute drive away.

Don Chicken is located off El Camino Real in one of the many strip malls lining the street. I arrived a few minutes before opening, so I headed over to Baker and Olive a few doors down to take a look at things.

The open sign lit up just as I started heading back toward the restaurant. Don Chicken is yet another chain from Korea, though my friends told me that the chain is really popular in Ho Chi Minh City? Which, for some reason made me think of Crispy Chicken n’ Tomato which declares itself the most popular KFC in Japan.

On this day, the place was a one man operation, at least while I was there. The menu features Oven Baked and Fried Chicken in various sauces. The specials include bulgogi, tteok-boki, a chicken sandwich, and even katsu. But, since this was a KFC joint, I was just going to get the Fried Wings. The wings only come in orders of 10, a bit much for me, but at least it was priced at $15.99, which was much cheaper per piece that the $8.99 I paid for 4 wings at BHC recently.

And after a short wait, my wings were ready.

 The wings came with a rather large order of Mul Kimchi, crisp, not overly sweet, a good palate cleanser for fry-o-lated foods.

As for the wings, well these weren't overly large, which I prefer as the skin/batter to meat ratio to more to my liking. The meat was moist and tender, no dark areas and no off flavors.

   The batter was somewhat crunchy, but it really got soggy quickly. The seasoning seemed quite mild, but I had a raging thirst after eating 6 of these wings. I took the remaining wings home and even tried to revive in the air fryer, but that didn't work too well. I'm thinking that if I tried this again it would have to be with some kind of sauce; but based on experience with other KFC chains of this ilk, I'm going to assume it's going to be too sweet and heck, it already gets soggy-mushy too quickly anyway.

So perhaps I'll just give it a rest? If you've visited Don Chicken what was your meal like?

Don Chicken
215 S. El Camino Real Suite G
Encinitas, CA 92024
Current Hours:
Mon - Sat 11am - 9pm
Sunday 3pm - 9pm

Chicken Wing Wednesday - BHC Chicken (Sorrento Valley)

Back in June, the huge KFC chain BHC opened in what I believe is called the "Mercato Food Hall" off of Scranton Road. I made up my mind to hold out for a while before visiting and in a show of ultimate willpower actually managed to wait 9 days! Well, so much for that, right? One of the good things is that BHC opens at 1030 during the week, so I'd (hopefully) manage to avoid the anticipated crowds. I drove on over to the mall where the restaurant is located. It's kind of an interesting place as it seems that there are a good number of vacancies there....or maybe it's just that every time I've visited, most of the businesses, minus the McDonald's is closed?

I arrived just at opening time and as I walked up to the door, the open sign came on. Perfect timing right?

Well, maybe not, as when I arrived at the counter, the really nice young man working told me they were out of wings. Sigh.....

So, I had to work out a plan B. They really nice fellow gave me a little container with a chip with the Bburing seasoning, which had some cheesy-garlicky-sweet tones to it.

I asked for a recommendation and was told that the Signature Sandwich ($10) was a good deal and I thought I'd try some Cheeseballs with the Bburing Seasoning ($8). I went and had a seat.

When my cheeseballs were ready, one of the nice young folks brought it to my table along with a cup of water. Very nice service.

In keeping with the popular Bburinkle seasoning, the powder was cheesy-sweet-salty with hints of garlic and possibly oregano. It was a bit too sweet for my taste. The exterior was crisp, the filling was nicely molten and gooey, but somewhat lacking in flavor, perhaps that was due to the Bburinkle powder which basically got everywhere.

This was interesting, though I don't think I'll have it again.

As for my sandwich; well, it was huge.

In fact, I could barely finish half the sandwich. The ratio of bread to filling was off and there was way too much mayo on this.

 As you can see, the chicken took up only two-thirds of the sandwich surface area, so there were "fowl-less" bites and with all that bread and mayo, it was hard making heads or tails of the flavors. So even though that label said "please enjoy it as soon as served" there was no way I could finish this. I put half in the fridge at work and took it home. During dinner that evening, I brought out the remainder of the sandwich and the Missus and I took out the piece of chicken. Even though the batter had sloughed off, it seemed like the chicken thigh meat was nicely seasoned and fairly tender. 

Which meant that I needed to try out those wings. I returned at opening time a couple of days later and guess what? Still no wings. So, I waited a bit, like two weeks before revisiting. Even though I had items for a small lunch; I thought an order of 4 wings, which came in at $8.99......man, it's like two bucks a wing here, would be a good addition to my rather healthy lunch. 

And they did have wings available on this day. Of course, since this was the first time I'd be having the wings I went with the 4 piece "Classic Fried", having that Bburinkle powder on the chicken would just overpower things in my opinion. I did also get a side of the sweet and spicy sauce ($1). When my wings were ready, I took that quick ten minute drive back to the office where I opened things up.

  The wings were on the larger end of the spectrum and were lightly seasoned. The sauce was much too sweet for me. 

While there was some discoloration with the flesh, there were no off flavors and the meat was moist and tender.

The batter rode the crisp-crunchy line nicely and kind of reminded me of the cornflake-corn starch fried chicken my mom used to make. 

This was quite good, though one of the pieces; an unwieldy drumette was way over-battered.

Still, the wings were tender, though in need for a bit more seasoning, perhaps I need to find the right "sauce". The wings had a nice crispy-crunchy coating, which I don't think would hold up to when sauced, so if anything, I'd get that on the side.

I liked the friendly service and BHC seems to be a nice addition to the "KFC" scene here in San Diego; though I'm wondering, like hot pot and ramen, when we'll be hitting critical mass here.

You can read Soo's post on BHC here.

BHC Chicken
9450 Scranton Rd. #112
San Diego, CA 92121
Current Hours:
Mon - Tues 1030am - 1030pm
Wed - Sat    1030am - 11pm
Sundays      11am - 930pm

Zhengxin Chicken Steak (Convoy), a Quick Look

This was just a spur of the moment stop, but I thought I'd share it with you all.......

We were driving down Convoy, when I noticed that Zhengxin Chicken Steak, which I had just noticed last month had opened! I'd neither heard nor read anything about that. I pointed the place out to the Missus who knew it was a major chain from China and since that crazy parking lot (actually, most of the parking lots on Convoy fit that category these days as the bike lanes have diminished street parking) was barely half full. It wasn't meal time, but the Missus wanted to have a look.

As we entered, I pointed out the menu behind the counter, with all the fried goodies, but the Missus was focused on something else.

All the skewers.... The young man working was so very nice and explained that the skewers were fried up and the special "seasoning powder" was used on them.

We decided to order a couple as a "snack". I was told about a 6-7 wait, so I had a seat, only one table was occupied at this off hour, while the Missus went to check out Iceskimo next door.

When my order was ready, the young man actually walked out and handed it to me! Such a nice guy. He also asked if we wanted "extra powder". I told him that we'd try things out as ordered and if we liked it we'd be back. He laughed and said "I hope you enjoy it!"

And so, arriving home for our afternoon snack. We had ordered Chicken Skin (of course), Gizzards, Lamb, all priced at $1.99 and a Chicken Wing, which I thought was strangely priced at $5.99, but was huge.

The scent of cumin was clearly present.

I had thought that the Chicken Skin wouldn't hold out on the drive home, but it was still pleasantly textured, the powder has a bit of smoky-mild spice, and we really enjoyed it. It just carried the flavor of the spices well.

The lamb was gamey, cuminy, and fairly tender, quite good. The spices really came thru well on the crunchy-poultry-fried gizzards. While the Missus enjoyed the huge wing, I thought it a bit on the tough side and somewhat bland. Though it could be that I had the lamb right before trying the wing. At $5.99, I'll probably pass on that in the future.

And I agree with the young man; some extra seasoning powder would be nice; especially since none of this was especially salty.

This was a nice, pleasant surprise. We really didn't expect much from yet "another chain", but we like the flavoring and the service was wonderful. I'll return to try the "chicken steak" soon; though I don't think the Missus will want to deviate from the skewers. 

I know, I usually do multiple visits before doing a post, but this was a pleasant surprise so I thought I'd share it with you. So, hopefully you don't mind a post on Zhengxin Chicken "stick".

And, if you do drop by Zhengxin Chicken Steak, let me know what you think!

Zhengxin Chicken Steak
4609 Convoy St. #C
San Diego, CA 92111

Thanks for stopping by!

What's in a name? Cakey Bakey and Cluck n Sip

Recently, I had to get my iPhone battery changed. Our business of choice for this is iTech which is in the same strip mall as Balboa Market. Funny thing, there's a dessert shop here, the sign says "Balboa Bakery".

But, the actual name of the place is.....Cakey Bakey!

What a name!

We actually came here a couple of months back....you know me, I don't really have a sweet tooth. But on the first visit, the Missus tried a couple of items....there's a great variety of traditional Persian confections for sale, but the Missus was more interested in the "other stuffs".

Over time She's had most everything the place had to offer and has settled on one item She enjoys; the "Napolian" a mille-feuille type pastry. 

She likes that it's not too sweet and the crisp textures. 

I dunno since I've never tried it, but I'm not complaining as in these days of $10 and up pastries; well this is five bucks. So, I make sure to get one when I'm in the area.

Yes, Cakey Bakey......

Cakey Bakey
5921 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Cluck n Sip:

Well, on that same visit I needed to head on over to 99 Ranch Market. I went to use the restroom, it was 1030 and as I made my way past the food court, the place that I knew as Krispy Krunchy Chicken that had changed to Cluck n Sip was just putting out the first batch of chicken.

I noticed it was the same really nice folks working from the KKC days so I walked on over. I was told that the basic fried chicken recipe was the same as before. It was just a name change and there's some different sauces and such. Interesting.

I went and ordered six wings and some potato wedges. Of course, everything had just come out of the kitchen so it was all fresh.

    So yes, this was scalding hot. Did I notice a difference? Well, 6 wings were now $9.99 and it seemed to have much more black pepper and was even saltier than I recalled. Also, the coating got soggy quite quickly. Not sure if it was just my imagination, but it seemed that way. The wings were of decent quality, it was moist, but again really high on the sodium scale for me.

As for the Potato Wedges ($3.99), man this was a large portion for a "small size".

Like the chicken, it was like a sodium bomb. It was fairly crisp initially, but got really hard and chewy as it cooled.

Regardless of what I was told, I seem to detect some changes since the KKC days. Not sure I'll be back. Though I need to try the original location in Hillcrest one of these days.....

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

Taste of Hong Kong Revisited

As I noted during my post on revisiting Eastern Dynasty, the Missus wanted to compare Mei Cai Kou Rou. So, a couple of weeks ago we headed back to Taste of Hong Kong. After all, I really wanted those Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings again.

We got in right before 5pm and the place was fairly quiet. We ordered three dishes and soon enough our food started arriving.

Starting with the Roast Duck (of course).

This was very moist, though not quite as good as what we had on our last visit. The flavor was a bit "lighter" in terms of five spice-winey-sweetness and the skin was limp and flabby. Seems like consistency is a factor here.

Thankfully, the Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings were just as good, if not better than last time.

Crisp, edging toward crunchy, with moist flesh, it's the savory-eggy-salty treat for me!

As for the Mei Cai Kou Rou; well, that was not very good.

The pork was barely lukewarm, making it quite waxy. As you can tell by the photo, the sauce was too gloppy and lacked flavor. It was gluey blandness. There was lack of preserved vegetable as the bottom was mostly napa cabbage.

Sigh. I wish I could find something to accompany those chicken wings. 

What's even more interesting is that the folks that own ToHK has purchased China Max and according to this post in Eater should be reopening in August of 2024. We'll see. What I thought was interesting is in the last paragraph of that post - to quote:

"the team tells Eater that they’re planning on changing the focus of Taste of Hong Kong."

Hmmm.....maybe I better load up on those wings while I still can?

Taste of Hong Kong
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Viet Nom - A Soft Opening Visit

During my visit to Renaissance Towne Center to see what was going on, I had intended to getting a Chicago Dog from Chicago Fire Grill. However, I noticed a business that I hadn't heard a peep about named Viet Nom. And the place was open.

The sign said "soft opening" and things were 10% off until mid-April. So, I decided to head on in to check things out.

The interior is small, with just a few tables and a counter. The young lady who was working was nice and professional. She was also quite patient with the folks walking in to ask if they had sandwiches (they don't) and other questions.

The menu is small; three versions of pho and six sides, including youtiao, sesame balls, and such. The prices were also on the high side, but I decided to order their Pho Nom which was $19.50 and some Tamarind Wings, which was $16.50.

And then, while waiting, I saw this.

And then I realized what jogged my memory. I asked the young lady if this place had the same owner as Formoosa and Steamy Piggy and was told "yes". Ugh.....I haven't had much luck with the food from either place which just seemed all about concept. In fact, "FOY" Kenneth had asked me why I haven't gone to Flama Llama yet, knowing I love Peruvian Cuisine and I replied about having eaten at F and SP, which gave me pause when thinking about eating there and also at the company's new "KFC" place (you can read about Soo's visit here).

Anyway, it was too late to back out now and my wings soon arrived.

The coating on the wings were getting soggy quickly and ended up being more mushy than crisp-crunchy. The flavor of the glaze was extremely sweet, way too sweet for my taste, as it over powered all other flavors. The quality of the wings didn't seem too bad, though this was a bit much for me and I only finished two wings.

Soon enough the sprouts and accoutrements for the pho arrived.

I'm not sure if it's just me; but the portion sizes of sprouts, basil, and seem to have shrunk. The basil, as seems to be the norm these days was turning brown.

As for the bowl of pho; it was humongous.

   It was loaded with meat. The beef rib, their version of Xí Quách Suon Bò had also been seared a bit before service. The sliced "short rib" (as defined in the menu) was cut too thick, super tough, and lacked flavor. Strangely, what is usually not my favorite item in a bowl of pho, the squeaky meatballs was the item I enjoyed the most. Of course, there was no option for tendon or tripe. The rib meat came off the bone cleanly, was decently tender, but seemed to have had all the beefiness cooked out of it. Yes, it was a large portion of meat.

   The huge clump of noodles were mushy and over cooked. The broth was super bland....I do complain a bit about how pho broth in San Diego seems to be on the sweeter side of the scale....well, you know what, I would have gladly accepted that here! Much like the Niu Rou Mian broth at Formoosa, the soup here seemed to have been made using the "wave" method, whereupon a piece of beef was waved over some water to hopefully create flavor. The broth was super thin and watery. This seemed to be more about presentation and portion size.

Well, at least I got 10% off; even though the wings cost $16.50 and the pho $19.50. Viet Nom made Xin Chao seem like first rate pho. The thought that this is the future of pho depresses me. I usually do more than one visit; but since the place has just 9 items on the menu; three of them pho and one version of broth with the rib meat in it, I'm just going to say "Viet No" to "Viet Nom" for now.

Of course, with my luck, a couple of days later there's a post on Eater about Viet Nom. If only it had been posted before my visit. Though there was one tidbit of information in that post. Looks like the owner of these places that makes everything from Dumplings to Taiwanese to Peruvian/Latin American to Korean Fried Chicken to Pho is now going to open a ramen shop.......

One last, somewhat humorous item. I brought the remainder of the wings back to the office and told folks about it. One of the guys really enjoyed the wings. I was fascinated and asked him why. He told me "this tastes just like Panda Express....I love Panda Express!" 'Nuff said....

Viet Nom
8895 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Sun - Thurs 11am - 930pm
Fri - Sat        11am - 1030pm

Midweek Meanderings - Mama Lin's Replacing Saigon 5, it's now Ujin Ramen instead of Hanyuzu Ramen, Honeyjam Chicken Looks ready to open? And the new sign for Golden City

So, here's some "stuffs" I found while driving around. Actually, this is just a couple of places, there's much more, but the title of the post was getting too long!

Mama Lin's Replacing Saigon 5:

So, on a previous visit to 99 Ranch Market on Balboa, I noticed that Sip n' Cluck was replacing Krispy Krunchy Chicken. Imagine my surprise on my last trip to 99 Ranch when I went to the restroom and saw that a stand named Mama Lin's was replacing Saigon 5!

Makes me wonder if business in this food court is not particularly busy. The place never seems busy.....

5950 Balboa Ave (Inside 99 Ranch Market)
San Diego, CA 92111

It's now Ujin Ramen instead of Hanyuzu Ramen:

**** You can find my post on Ujin here.

So, I've been avoiding Renaissance Towne Center because of all the crazy road work. Heck, I have to deal with the ever changing traffic patterns on Clairemont Drive; why would I want to expose myself to more of the same? Still, after 7 months or so of avoiding the area, I decided to to head on over to Chicago Fire Grill to see what's going on. In the end, I ended up trying a new place that opened up there (post upcoming) and got to see what was going on.

Since I arrived before 11, I took a stroll around the strip mall. It was quite interesting. Back in August of 2022 it seemed like a shop named Ramen Hanyuzu was coming to this mall. In June of 2023, ditto. But now, in March of 2024, it looks like Ujin Ramen is coming to this spot?

My goodness......

8935 Towne Centre Drive #113
San Diego, CA 92122

And what about Honeyjam Chicken?:

Good question. I mean way back in 2021, this spot was going to be JJ Chicken. Then, in October of 2022, "FOY" Patty and Rena alerted me to changes. Apparently, the place was now going to Honeyjam Chicken. Of course, it's now March of 2024. 

Well, there seems to be some work going on here. Still, not sure if or when they will open. It must be so frustrating for folks in the area who are looking forward to these businesses open. But can you imagine; that we're hiring sign has been up since I first saw the place in October of 2022. I mean, really, you want staff.......do they think folks will wait a year-and-a-half for work? It's quite sad....

8895 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122 

The new sign for Golden City:

This is an interesting one. I saw a change of signs occurring for Golden City earlier in the week. Then "FOY" Derric sent me a message asking what was going on.

When I first saw the sign, I drove into the parking lot and peeked into the restaurant.....the guy working and the decor looked the same. My one source said it was still the same with a change in the Chinese name of the place. The Missus said that in Chinese the name is now something along the lines of "Prosperity Palace". So we'll see.....

5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

And there's more; but I'll save that for a future post. Hope you're having a wonderful week!

Xin Chao Eatery

I had been searching for some new pho places relatively close to work. Yes, I wanted to try something new. And Xin Chao appeared, in Del Mar Highlands Center. Hmmm....... So, I headed on over.

A very nice modern space. Part Vietnamese restaurant, part gastropub..... for some reason Shank and Bone came to mind.

And then when I took a look at the menu with regards to pho...well, no tendon, tripe and such. Though "dem bones", or should I say, a bone (Xí Quách Suon Bò) was available as well as an oxtail version. The folks working the front of house were quite mellow and friendly. I placed my order......

I saw chicken wings on the menu....with a fish sauce version. My instincts was to order the salt and pepper version, but I still miss the fish sauce wings from Que Huong, so I ordered that ($13).

  Geez who'd have thought we would see prices at 2 bucks per chicken wings all those year ago! The wings were nicely battered, more crunchy than crisp, the texture was not bad at all. There was a sticky glaze, which was more toward the sweet than savory, though you could make out the fish sauce. The wings were on the larger side and was decently cared for with a minimum of bitter black portions around the bones. This was not bad at all and had me wishing I had ordered the salt and pepper version.

Looking at the menu, it hinted at "pho not to offend" since there were no options for tendon or tripe. Though thinking about the customer base what should I have expected? I ordered the House Special Pho which clocked in at $18. The key item for me was what I call "dem bones" (Xi Quach Suon Bo), though perhaps it should be called "that bone" since only a single rib was in this. I was soon presented with the basil and sprouts and the sriracha and hoisin.

Let me just say that Xin Chao took the "silver medal" with regards to the smallest portion of herbs and sprouts....the second least amount I've experienced next to Mom's Pho and Grill in recent memory.

Well, at least it was more than the 16 bean sprouts I counted there....I think.

My bowl soon arrived, blazing hot.....like so hot I had to wait ten minutes before really tucking in.

I was able to try the rib bone. The meat was on the chewier side but came off the bone nicely and was actually the beefiest cut provided. Because the broth was super hot, the rare steak was over cooked by the time of consumption. The rest of meats were bland and tasteless as well. 

The waiting for the molten broth to cool down pause also meant that the noodles, which were in the typical clump were somewhat overcooked and headed toward mushy.

The broth, while tending toward the overly "sweet" San Diego style was not bad......it was very clear and defatted thus on the thinner side and lacking in richness, but still had a hint of beefy-anise tones to it. 

This was not bad overall, a modern rendition that bordered on "hipster pho and pho not to offend", but was still pretty good. I really liked the folks working here.

So, I returned.

This time to try the Crispy Salt and Pepper wings.

These wings seemed not as crisp as what I'd had before. So, I'm not sure if they bread/batter the wings differently based on flavor. Still, the garlic-salt-pepper flavor came thru nicely, and the fried appendages were quite moist and tender.

This time I ordered the Oxtail Pho ($17), which came with the same shall we say

As for the bowl, my goodness, it was even more scalding hot than the bowl before!

 But at least I didn't have to worry about my rare steak being overcooked. Based on my last visit, I decided to time how long it took before I could safely partake of my pho. Cautiously taking sips things timed out at twelve minutes and seventeen seconds. As you can see; the soup was very clear, though it wasn't as sweet-salty this time around. It did have a nice beefy "nose" with hints of star anise. 

There were three good sized oxtails, plus one "runt" provided. The oxtails were cooked perfectly, easy enough to take off the bone with chopsticks, but not falling to pieces to be lost in the soup. 

I'm thinking the extra time I needed for the soup to cool enough really messed up the noodles as like on my previous visit it was on the mushy side. 

Overall, a decent bowl.

It seems like Xin Chao is trying to ride that line of pleasing non-"pho-natics", those hoping for a more modern rendition of pho, yet trying to keep the spirit of traditionality. The prices are in keeping with the location...that is, on the high side of things. I like the folks working here, they are quite nice. A far cry from "the fastest pho in the west", which the "pho-natic" in me enjoys. Ok, enough pho puns for a while.....

I'll try and revisit in a couple of months if the weather is cool enough and perhaps see how the bone marrow is as well.

Xin Chào Eatery
3545 Del Mar Heights Rd.
San Diego, CA 92130
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 9pm