mmm-yoso!!!

Lucky Chinese Food (Santee)

Thanks for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Cathy is writing.

During the height of the pandemic, when "eating out" was kind of scary, The Mister and I had many "to go" orders from Lucky Chinese Food, a Szechuan-Cantonese restaurant located near our home since 1996.  Recently, we have been able to enjoy eating inside the restaurant.  

 Walking the door, the area to the left is where you order To-Go; the original 'footprint' of Lucky.  The restaurant expanded to having Sit-Down in 2014.
 Wonton crisps along with house-made sweet and sour sauce are brought out while you peruse the menu.  A pot of hot tea (choice of jasmine, oolong or green) is $4.50.

 The one item we always ordered to-go are these lettuce cups ($10.79).  Minced chicken, water chestnuts, carrot, white and green onion, toasted almonds served with a half head of lettuce, hot mustard and hoisin sauce.  This appetizer can stay in the refrigerator and still tastes good later in the day.  It was our Covid-19 staple.
 The wonton soup ($9.99) has a rich, deep flavored, chicken-pork broth and is filled with chicken, shrimp, vegetables and large pork filled wontons.  As you can see, more fillings than broth- a meal all by itself.
 Spicy pork ($14.79).  The pork is stir-fried with bell pepper, bamboo shoots, zucchini, carrot, celery and onions in a house-made Kung Pao sauce.  The pork is tender, the vegetables are still crisp; this is such a perfect melding of flavors and texture.  (Entrees are served with a choice of steamed rice, brown rice, chow mein or (as above) Singapore noodle).

Seafood Chow Fun ($16.99) was a recent order.  The wide noodles have the smokey 'wok hei' flavor and the shrimp, fish, scallops and bok choy/peas/carrots are each distinctly flavored.  This is a large serving, easily shared and satisfies a craving.
 Sesame chicken ($15.79) is properly fried so the batter remains light and crisp even on the bottom pieces of the serving dish.  The sweet and spicy sauce has a bit of heat (not too much; you can taste the batter as well as the chicken with each bite).

A great spot in East County.

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone, especially all the rabbits (or cats) celebrating their year.

Condolences to all impacted in Monterey Park. 

Lucky Chinese Food 9740 Mission Gorge Road #8 Santee, CA 92071 (619)596-2978 Website

Hong Kong BBQ and Dim Sum (again) (inside Vinh-Hung Supermarket)

Thanks for stopping to read this food blog named mmm-yoso!!!  Kirk (and His Missus) are gallivanting elsewhere while Cathy is writing. 

My most recent post about Hong Kong BBQ and Dim Sum was in 2019, before Covid.  Here's an update. 

 The former movie theater, now a Vietnamese Market, with the Cantonese restaurant in the former lobby has survived Covid-19. 
 You can see where the snack bar had been located in the last photo of this post. 
 From the small Dim Sum menu, we ordered XLB-soup dumplings ($6.38).  A nice bite and, as you can see, not quite perfect, but no soup was actually lost because of the creative steaming system.
 From the 'appetizer' portion of the menu, we ordered the 'Double Delicacy' ($19.95) because we couldn't decide on roasted pork or roasted duck and this was a way to get both (there were leftovers) (both of these meats are really good; tender meat, crisp skin, not too salty.).
 Lately, Chow Fun fulfills the craving I've been having for noodles.  The wide, flat, rice noodles, stir fried to get that smoky 'wok hei' flavor always seems perfect.  (This order was shredded pork with preserved vegetable chow fun ($14.95).  I enjoy the briny 'pickle-ness' of preserved vegetables in any dish and combined with the smoked noodles, each bite was delightful).

Always a nice stop before grocery shopping.

Hong Kong BBQ Kitchen 10550 Camino Ruiz San Diego 92126 (858) 408-4888 Website Open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
 Hot tea is always free.  We did have to ask for chopsticks.

Taste of Hong Kong - A Quick Look

Man, it's been tough trying to eat out since we've returned from our trip. Usually, the Missus would be craving Chinese food after getting back home. But this time, we had some pretty good Chinese and Japanese food in Paris, so the Missus has not been wanting to dine in nor do even takeout much!

While running errands when we returned, I noticed that Kangxi is Coming was now Taste of Hong Kong.

I somehow managed to talk the Missus into getting an early dinner (they open for dinner at 4) and we headed on over.

We were seated upon arrival and the menus were distributed....sadly, most of it was the "usual suspects". I walked on over to the Chinese BBQ and we really weren't impressed by the looks of things.

There was one item I was interested in and we ordered that and two more dishes to try.

First to arrive was the Pork Intestine with Preserved Vegetable ($16.95).

While the intestine was very thinly sliced it was nicely cooked, slightly crisp on the outside, the preserved vegetable was way too sweet throwing nullifying the sour-fermented flavor.

We ordered a favorite of the Missus, the Salted Fish, Chicken, and Eggplant ($16.95).

Like the previous dish, the eggplant was nicely cooked, very creamy. There just wasn't enough salted fish in this dish...if any at all. The chicken was dry and tasteless. And this dish was quite bland as a whole.

The one item I was interested in, was an appetizer, the Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings ($11.95). Which came out last, though I'm not complaining as it was super hot when it arrived.

 Man, this was really good! Crisp, moist wings, perfectly fried and seasoned. Glazed with an umami-sweet salted egg yolk sauce. This as just heavenly to eat. It's also a great diversion from all of those "KFC" places that have opened up in the area.

Of course I've been trying to get the Missus to return. I don't think the wings will do good as takeout. But so far, to no avail, so I thought I'd go ahead and do one of my "quick look" posts, so that maybe you can try out those wings. Oh, and if you find some other good dishes, by all means let me know!

Taste of Hong Kong
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Wed - Mon 11am - 3pm, 4pm - 9pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Takeout from Yummy House (Revisit)

The cooler weather has meant that I've been "doing the rounds". I decided to drop by Yummy House for some takeout.

Just like on my previous visit over a year ago, the place was totally empty. How do they stay in business? Anyway, they didn't have the wintermelon soup again this time, so I just went with the same 'ol, same 'ol. I went for a walk after placing my order.

Upon returning, my order was ready and I headed home.

Like before, I got the Beef Tendon Pot and the Lamb with Suan Cai.

The Beef Tendon Pot was disappointing; first, the portion size was half that of my previous visit.

You can tell by the light color that this didn't have enough tomato flavor, thus it lacked a nice tanginess. Also, there was very little tendon as well; it was mostly tough slices of beef. The soup was quite thick and had a greasy tongue feel to it. Man, to think I really used to like this dish.

The other "usual" dish was a bit better.

The lamb was nice and gamy; and there was a good amount of suan cai as well, though we always have add in some of our home made stuff to bolster the fermented flavor. We also add in a good amount of white pepper. Once done it had a bracing sourness that the Missus enjoys. Maybe I should just think about making this at home.

Overall, I'm probably not going to return for a while. And I'm thinking, I'll need to try some other dishes as those that were our favorites are not available or have been disappointing over recent visits. Kind of a bummer.

Yummy House
4633 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Which leads me to ask; how have old favorites of yours been faring recently?

Takeout from Eastern Dynasty (Revisit)

A few months back "FOY" KennethB sent me a couple of emails regarding recent experiences at Eastern Dynasty so I was intrigued. But of course based on our previous visits, it was going to be a challenge talking the Missus into going there. In the end, we decided to do another takeout visit.

I got there just after opening and there was only one table occupied. 

I placed my order and went for a walk. Upon returning, my order was ready and the place was starting to fill up.

I ordered what I considered to be the best item I had on previous visits and the Missus was craving Her "salted fish" dishes.

First off, we got the Eggplant with Salted Fish and Pork. The eggplant was wonderfully cooked, so creamy. But overall, the dish was worse than on the last visit; it lacked salted fish and hardly had any pork.

It also looked totally different from what we'd had before.

During my previous visits, I was specifically told not to order the Salted Fish and Chicken with Eggplant, and favorite of the Missus's at Noble Chef. This dish was the complete opposite of the Eggplant with Salted Fish. It had way too much salted fish...it was very salty.

It was so funky and fishy, the Missus could barely finish a bite. Add to that the saltiness and well..... It was left up to me to try and finish this up. It took a couple of days. I recall making double sure that I sealed the storage container tightly because I didn't want any of the noxious fumes permeating in the fridge. Heating this up in the microwave was also an interesting endeavor.

I had thought that even though we hadn't enjoyed the flavoring; or lack thereof of the Pork Maw with Preserved Vegetable, the Pork Maw was stir fried nicely. So, I decided to order the Pork Maw and Green Peas with XO Sauce.

Like the previous dishes; the stir fry/cooking technique was decent. The green peas had a good snap to them; though no wok hay. The pork maw had a pleasant chewiness with a good, mild, intestine-ish flavor. However, the savory-salty-aromatic-mild spice of XO sauce was missing. In fact, this dish could have used more saltiness. I guess you could say the XO was MIA?

We also got some Roast Duck and Kwai Fei Chicken.

 I gotta say, that Kwai Fei Chicken was the best I've had in a while. Moist, tender meat, decently seasoned. The sauce, while still high in the oil to ginger, was much better than last time. Really good. Alas, the Missus is not a big fan of Kwai Fei Ji. 

As for the Roast Duck?

Man, this really lacked any anise flavor and was quite bland. The skin was hard, not crisp, though the fat was rendered out, but the flesh was dry and really tough. I tried my toaster oven "hack", to no avail.

Kind of a bummer. I'm thinking I'll have to dine in to enjoy a meal at Eastern Dynasty. I'll probably try to talk Calvin or someone else to join me.

Eastern Dynasty
4690 Convoy St. #109
San Diego, CA 92111

Thanks for the heads-up Kenneth!

We're Back! Dinner on BA and our First Meal Back from Sizzling Pot King

Whoa...well, after spending a month in France I'm having a bit of a time of it getting adjusted to San Diego time again. And that journey home; we stayed at CDG overnight with a 7am flight to LHR, which helps as we don't have to get up early. But then there's the 5 1/2 layover at Heathrow and then the 11 hour flight home. Which is why we fly business class. Though we didn't account for the fussy baby in the seat behind us, these things happen....so even with the lie flat seats...well, I got maybe an hours sleep?

On the positive side; I'd say that the meals on BA have returned to pre-Covid quality. And it's always been much better flying back to San Diego, than flying from SD to LHR. This was pretty good.

One of the things with leaving for a month is...well, the fridge and pantry were cleaned out before we left. We arrived home at around 6pm; it was already dark. In need of something convenient with a little zip, I did a takeout order from Sizzling Pot King. Funny thing; it was in the high 20's when we left Paris, so weather here in the 40's didn't bother me much, it was basically short sleeve weather, so I got some looks when I waltzed into Sizzling Pot King; seeing all those folks bundled up looking at me like I'm some nut wearing a t-shirt. Even the young man who knows my order looked at me strangely.

Anyway, we had the usual for dinner.

It was nice and decently spicy; with a mild "numbing" from the Sichuan Peppercorns...but I'm not sure if it was all the Sichuan we had in Paris; but this seemed to be missing something. Oh well, at the least it did the job.

Sizzling Pot King
8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

And I quickly reverted back to my wimpy "San Diego weather" self......though for some strange reason, I feel somewhat out of sorts with regards to manners, pacing, and such.

I'm working on getting my act together and will have posts done.

Meanwhile.....even after a month....this is still on my mind!

Thanks for stopping by!

China Fun (Escondido)

Thank you for stopping by mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog usually written by Kirk (but He is on vacation and Cathy is writing this post).

Earlier this year, some clients told me about a restaurant near their home (I asked, I always ask people where they like to go in their neighborhood; it's how I find places if not randomly driving and stopping).  I had seen the signage, since this is kind of across the street from the Escondido location of Vallarta Market/J & M's Family Restaurant/Farmer Boys.

 I don't know what it had been before, but it's a pretty large space.
 The menu is quite extensive.  Since this was a first visit...

 The Mister ordered the Ma Pu Tofu ($12.99).  Quite large, a nice heat/spice level, plenty of pork.
 My 'usual' first time eating at a Chinese restaurant, Egg Foo Young ($12.99) This choice was BBQ pork (getting to try another favorite in this order). 
 The BBQ Pork was inside (rather than on top of) the eggy vegetable filled pancake.  Another unique version and quite tasty.

We will be back to try more of the menu.

China Fun 1450 E. Valley Boulevard Escondido 92027 (760)740-8888 website Open daily 11 a.m., closes at 9:30 Sunday-Thursday, 10 p.m. Friday-Sat

A pot of tea is $1.99 and is quite tasty as well as being served in this pretty (matching) serve ware. 

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot & Grill (lunch again)

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! on this Thanksgiving week. Cathy is writing while Kirk and His Missus are vacationing. 

My most recent post about the regular menu at Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, a chain with worldwide locations, was in 2020.  My most recent post regarding the lunch menu was in 2021.  A year later, not much has changed. 

  Menu prices have slightly increased.  The choices are pretty much the same. 
 We ordered the House Original and the House Spicy broths/"Yin Yang" ($4.25 per person).  You can also order a mushroom broth as well as low sodium.  
 The Supreme Angus Beef Lunch ($10.70) is accompanied by assorted seasonal vegetables ( thick slices of potato, daikon, a variety of mushrooms and greens) as well as fresh noodles, 'krab" sticks, frozen tofu and assorted meatballs (pork, beef and fish).  The Angus beef pieces were nicely marbled and very flavorful; quickly cooked to a pleasant tenderness in the boiling broth.
 Once again, I chose the fish filet lunch ($10.70) which has the same sides and includes an entire filet.  This was plenty of food.
 However the menu has "Add Ons" at the bottom and we decided to order the mini veggie platter ($3.95) just to try the 'lunch version'.   This was really worth it: tomato, squash, corn, bok choy, cabbage, spinach, mushrooms and chrysanthemum greens (tangho).

All in all, an excellent tasty meal.

Little Sheep Mongolian HotPot 4718 Clairmont Mesa Blvd San Diego, 92117 (858) 274-2040 Website Open Mon-Th 11:30-9, Fri-Sat 11:30-10. Sun 11:30-9:30
 Hot tea is still no charge.

Tim Ky Noodle (Mira Mesa)

mmm-yoso!!! is being written by Cathy today; Kirk and His Missus are enjoying the start of a lengthy vacation in another country.

The Mister and I had planned to try out the recently re-opened Pho Lucky, but decided against it and instead walked to the other end of the strip mall to Tim Ky Noodle, which Kirk had written an indoor eating post in 2019 and a "to go" post in 2020.  {The Mister and I have been here previously but I never posted.}

The two sided, laminated/ easily sanitized menu is a bit pared down from pre-Covid-19 days. The majority of choices are Vietnamese with some Chinese choices also.
 Still, hot tea  is brought out when you are seated; some things are back to normal.
 The seafood chow mein (crispy noodles) ($15.99) was quite large, filled with shrimp, fish and scallops as well as very fresh vegetables.  Excellent.  
 The salt and pepper fish filet with rice ($16.99) was also a very large portion.  Light and crisp fry (proper) and onion were all that was needed for this meal.  We did have leftovers of both.  

Another survivor of the Covid-19 shutdowns.  

Tim Ky Noodle 9330 Mira Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92126 Daily 9am - 830pm

Paris (2022) - Raviolis Chinois Nord-Est, Motors Coffee (again), and Chez Taeko

We arrived in Paris from Edinburgh just before 8pm. We had some decent food in the Air France Lounge in Edinburgh and also on the flight.

We arrived at CDG close to 8pm, then caught the RER to Les Halles. We made good time and since we'd be staying for five nights, I managed to get us a VRBO I'd been wanting to stay at that had a 5 night minimum. Granted, Les Halles may not be the most glamorous of areas, but our flat was on the 6th floor (since this is Europe, it's the 7th floor by US standards), but it had a lift. And while you may not think this view of Les Halles is anything to write home about.

Just raise your eyes a bit.

Yep, that's the Eiffel Tower to the left and Saint Eustache to the right. We would never tire of this view.

The Missus and I weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we headed over to our favorite street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil. Man, it was super busy, even on a Monday night.

Like I mentioned in one of my posts on the first leg of this trip, it was super busy, like Covid never happened. Well, at least this was outdoors.

We made our "rounds" then headed back down St Denis when we decided to grab a "small bite" to eat. The place we chose? Ravioli Chinois Nord-Est. To translate, "ravioli Chinois" = Jiaozi! We had enjoyed out time in Scotland, don't get me wrong, but the Missus was missing Asian food and some late evening Jiaozi sounded like fun.

The place was fairly busy, though there were a couple of empty tables. The customers were mostly Parisians with a few Chinese sprinkled in. I started to appreciate the varied tastes of Parisians on this trip as it seems they were quite open to trying and enjoying various cuisines. The Missus got to use Her Mandarin and we got the house beer....the namesake of Her hometown. Having come from Scotland where the weather was fairly cool, it just seemed so hot in Paris. So this helped pave the way to getting us adjusted.

We started with some Liang Cai - cold dishes, the stir fried potato strings and five spiced beef.

The beef had a nice five spice flavor, but was really dry and tough. The potato strings were fine, nothing special, but the vinegar helped cool us off.

As for the Jiaozi.....

We got the Pork and Cabbage dumplings....they used napa cabbage in this (whew). The wrapper was too brittle and lacked a decent "pull", the fillings though were quite tasty, well seasoned and moist and tender. This is pretty much on scale with the higher level jiaozi in San Diego.

While the food didn't blow us away, this was a fun stop, and the Missus and I had a nice time reminiscing about a trip that seems oh so long ago now. And man, the place seemed to be a popular late evening stop.

Raviolis Chinois Nord Est
115 Rue Saint-Denis
75001 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment and enjoyed our view for a few minutes before heading off into dreamland.

The next morning we woke and just lounged around for a while. I had a baguette making class scheduled in the afternoon so we decided to do some shopping. 

But first we headed over to Motors Coffee and this time we had a seat outside on the sidewalk.

The Missus thought Her Geisha "drip", what they call a pour over here was decent. I had an Americano which was quite good. We'd end up visiting one more time during our stay.

Motors Coffee
7 Rue des Halles
75001 Paris, France

From here we headed over to the Marais and just did our lèche-vitrine (window shopping) thing. We stopped into a location of Signorini Tartufi, we had first come across this shop in Avignon....yes, never got those posts done because Covid just kinda waylaid my travel posts. Perhaps I'll do a summary one day because we had a fabulous time. Anyway Signorini Tartufi is a favorite for gifts and stuff for ourselves as well.

Signorini Tartufi Paris Bretagne (Locations all over France)
3 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

We also "finally" (we'd walked past this shop several times in the past) took some time to check out Comptoirs Richard, a tea & coffee shop on Rue Bretagne.

The Missus spent a good amount of time here and even sampled some of the teas available. She ended up buying several bags as gifts and for Herself.

Comptoirs Richard
45 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

She also bought some treats from La Maison du Chocolate as well.

La Maison du Chocolat Bretagne
14 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

By now it was time for lunch. There was a place in Marché des Enfants-Rouges that I wanted to check out. Marché des Enfants-Rouges is the oldest food market in Paris, established in 1615! These days, as much as folks are shopping for groceries, the market is known for their food stalls. There was one in particular I was interested in.

This food stall is called Chez Taeko and serves up bentos, combinations, donburi, and the like. If you're eating at one of the counters or tables, you have a seat and they'll take your order. I got the Chicken Karaage and the Missus a Chirashi.  Even though there's some hustle and bustle, this is Paris, so folks aren't talking loudly, so we enjoyed the vibe.

We ate at the counter.

I enjoyed my chicken karaage, the batter was more on the crunchy side, but it was good. The sauce had a nice sweet-soy flavor and the chicken was moist. The tempura broccoli was nice, light and crisp as were the tsukemono. The rice however was terrible, hard and chewy.

That rice situation made the Missus's Chirashi not as enjoyable as my bento.

The salmon was quite good, nice and fresh, the maguro was just passable, not the highest quality; the ebi was fine as well. That rice however....man, a whole bowl of it!

We did enjoy the service, which in spite of all the customers was really efficient and the staff, all Japanese were so pleasant. So, when I walked up to pay our bill, the woman spoke to me in Japanese, I understood some of it. But when I submitted my credit card she switched to English. This was when it hit me....they knew I was American as soon as the chip on my card didn't work by tapping it on the device! I started noticing this at other businesses as well. Interesting, huh?

Chez Taeko
Marché des Enfants-Rouges
37 Rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment to drop off our packages.

Before we headed back out.

I would be taking a baguette class for the rest of the afternoon and the Missus would be exploring Paris solo. This was going to be interesting.