mmm-yoso!!!

Strasbourg - Exploring, Lamian Restaurant, and L'Atelier 116

One of the great things about being in Europe during the last of November until the end of the year are the Christmas Markets. We had really enjoyed the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg when we visited several years earlier. And the Missus just couldn't keep still for the two weeks we were in Paris, so I decided to book two nights in Strasbourg. It's less than a two hour train ride from Gare de l'Est. Because this was a rather last minute decision, I wasn't able to book anything on Grande Île. Instead, we stayed at the Hotel Tandem, which was quite comfortable right next to the train station.

It's quite convenient and just a short walk (or you take the tram) to the Grande Île. That first evening, we just wandered the Christmas Markets, which brought back wonderful memories and ate at the market. I'll do an out-of-sequence post on that when we get closer to Christmas.

The next morning, we had a light breakfast and coffee at the hotel and decided to do a bit of exploring. During our previous visit, we hadn't spent much time in the area known as "Petit France", a neighborhood which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with lovely cobblestone streets and half timbered houses. You might be thinking "wait, but this is France, right?" Well, Alsace is right on the border of France and Germany and thus, has changed hands many times. The area named Petit France is not named after it's nationality, but as I mentioned in an earlier post:

"the name "Petit France" is not named for its architecture, but because of a 16th century hospital that treated "zum Franzosel" (the French disease), aka syphilis while still a free city in the Holy Roman Empire. Apparently, the citizens of Strasbourg believed the disease was the fault of the French. Basically, the idea was to isolate those with the disease in a structure in this district."

There was one structure we saw on our earlier trip that we didn't visit. On the River Ill stands the Barrage Vauban a dam and bridge.

That passageway on the bridge is the Passage Georges Frankhauser. There's a terrace and crossing above the passage with what looked like a nice view so we decided to cross into Petit France that way.

What I hadn't read was about the passage itself.

Lining the passageway were gates that almost looked like jail cells. And within the "cells" were various sculptures and castings.

And the view from the roof was quite nice.

From here we crossed the Ponts Couverts.

And we were in Petit France.....

Love the charming houses and streets......

And the canals.....

If we hadn't already done it on our previous visit, we would have taken the canal tour.

We wandered thru more Christmas Markets.

Before ending up at Place Gutenberg and familiar territory.....

We grabbed a light lunch at one of the Christmas Markets and headed on back to the room. We took the ever popular Grand'Rue back to the Canal du Faux-Rempart to get back to the hotel.

Along the way, we passed a Boulangerie I had on my "list". The Missus wanted to get something to have with Her afternoon tea, so we stopped in.

Man, the place was super busy, but the line moved quickly and the Missus got Her treats.

She enjoyed these and we decided to head on back for some croissant and coffee before catching our train the next morning.

L'Atelier 116
116 Grand'Rue
67000 Strasbourg, France

We relaxed then once the sun set, headed on out to check out the markets and lights.....

Soon enough, it was time for dinner. The Missus had already had Her fill of Alsatian Christmas Market cuisine and because our trip was made at the last minute, I wasn't able to make reservations at any of the places I as interested in.

So, we decided on......well, Chinese of course! There was a noodle soup shop I had on my "list" and while the Missus was highly suspicious of my choice She went along. The shop was also along Rue du Fossé-des-Tanneurs, on the way back from Place Kléber. The name; Lamian.

The place was pretty busy when we arrived, but there was no wait for a table. There was one of the chefs working the "lamian" action for all to see.

So yes, they made their own hand pulled noodles here. Of course, we had to order that.

We started with a nice cold beer and some Cacahuetes au Vinaigre Pimente (3,5€/$3.75US), basically boiled peanuts with vinegar and chilies.

As for our noodle soup, we got the Soupe de Nouilles au Boeuf Braise - Legerement Pimente (14,9€/$16.35US), basically Beef Noodle Soup, slightly spicy.

  No, this wasn't cheap, but the meat, while being a tad more chewy than I prefer was quite beefy, the broth had a nice beefiness, was decently rich, with good five-spice tones, not overly salty, with a mild spice to it.

The noodles, were slippery and stretchy and quite good as well.

The boiled egg was overcooked, the yolk hard and dry.

We got the Canard Laque (5,5€/$6 US) - literally translated to "Peking Duck". This was not quite Beijing Kaoya, but the skin was fairly crisp, the flesh on the dry side, but the flavoring wasn't too bad.

And for the equivalent of six bucks US, this was perfectly fine. The version of "duck sauce" was terrible though.

We also ordered some Jiaozi, the Raviolis au Bouef et Celeri (5,5€/$6 US).

 The dumplings were quite large; the wrappers too brittle and chewy. The filling for the jiaozi were very beefy, with nice celeri tones, seasoned quite well, but quite tough. We were surprised that the black vinegar-soy dipping sauce was not half bad. This was our least favorite dish of the meal.

Half the fun was watching all the customers; about one-fourth were Asian, the rest were not. We got a kick watching the woman on the table next to us eat Her noodle dish. She used a fork to twirl the noodles, like you'd do with Italian pasta. She was really enjoying her meal and seemed to relish her Tsingtao! She ordered a second one, but wasn't able to finish. And at the end, she went and made sure to take some photos of the noodle maker.

Adorable! We had fun watching French folks eating Asian food on this trip; whether it was Jiaozi, Ramen, A Sando, Sichuan, hot pot, or yes, Niu Rou Mian, they seemed up for it!

There was quite a line when we left.

After all, what better on a chilly winter evening but some noodle soup, right? Even in Strasbourg.

Lamian Restaurant
20 Rue du Fossé-des-Tanneurs
67000 Strasbourg, France

We headed back to the hotel and had a nice night of sleep. The next day, we awoke our train back to Paris wasn't scheduled to leave until 1044, so we headed back to L'Atelier 116 to get some espresso and a croissant Au Buerre.

The croissant was nothing to write home about; the exterior was decently flaky, but it needed more butter and was too doughy. 

As we were enjoying ourselves, an interesting thing happened, the Missus heard someone call Her name! Oh my, it was one of Her coworkers! She was visiting Strasbourg with her parents to check out the Christmas Markets. The woman's parents were so much fun; they had just come from....well, Paris of course! And loved France. We had such a great time talking to them that we had to force ourselves to leave in time to check out and catch our train. Such a fun coincidence; running into the Missus's coworker and her parents, at a random Boulangerie....in Strasbourg! 

Life is amazing, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Stuffs - Xinjiang BBQ (supposedly) Opening in Linda Vista in January, Monsta Ramen and Curry Coming to Convoy, and Cocinas del Monte Replaces Mariscos el Cata

I haven't done one of these in a while, so.......

Monsta Ramen and Curry Coming to Convoy:

I noticed the sign when I drove by Convoy Village Shopping Center, so I headed on in to take a look.

Hmmm.....something called Monsta Ramen and Curry. Well, perhaps ramen and Japanese curry haven't hit saturation point in San Diego yet?

Tried to do some searching on this, but didn't find anything, so perhaps some of you "FOYs" with better skills can fill us in?

4344 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Cocinas del Monte Replaces Mariscos el Cata:

While driving back yesterday after doing my Saturday routine, I noticed that the sign for Mariscos el Cata had been replaced.....

It's now Cocinas del Monte? I mentioned this to my good friend Candice, who replied "this corner must be cursed". I have to agree.

2543 Congress St.
San Diego, CA 92110

And finally....

Xinjiang BBQ (supposedly) Opening in Linda Vista in January:

You know how you get used to just seeing the same 'ol, same 'ol when driving? Well, I guess I had gotten used to seeing this:

The signage had been up for over four years and Yum Cha Cafe had vacated the space over two years earlier.

So I'm not sure how many times I drove past here before I noticed this.

Whoa so like seven years later, it looks like a business will open in this spot!

I'm thinking this is an offshoot of the Xinjiang BBQ in the SGV? So, it looks like one of those lamb skewer and beer places that have become quite popular in the SGV.

And when I did that "Google thing" I saw this:

January is just over a month away!

So we'll see....

6933 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Ok, so we'll see.

Revisits - Chung Hing, Chicago Fire Grill, and Tenkatori

So, what would you consider a decent price for lunch close to work that's not a sandwich these days? Maybe under $14? Yeeesh, I never thought I'd ever be typing that. So, since we've gotten back from our trip, I thought about a couple of places......GyroGrill came to mind, but then I recalled that the "Gyro Combo" was $15 bucks when I last visited back in May.

After thinking over things a bit I came up with three places last week and I tried them all in a row. So here goes.

Chung Hing:

I'm not sure why Chung Hing came to mind. I'm not a fan of Chinese fast food, but I drive past the place quite often. Last time I visited; a whole 16 years ago a plate at Chung Hing was barely over five bucks! I was wondering how things were now, so what the heck.....

Chung Hing opens at 1030 and I got there at around 1045. Walking up to the shop, I noticed that "combination plates" are now $10.75, which in terms of the area is dirt cheap.

The woman working was all business. The only item I've found being close to edible here is the char siu; which is kinda their ahem, "claim to fame". So, I got the Chicken Wing - Char Siu plate with Fried Rice. They chopped the char siu fresh for me; I paid and was on my way.

    Yes, that's what the plate looked like. Man, those...in very loose quotes "won ton" were like a cardboard gau gee, time didn't do the wrapper any favors as it was quite chewy.

The fried rice was on the mushy side, but decent coated and on the salty side.

    The chicken wings were still a crisp-crunchy when I got back to the office, but had way too much MSG and had me gulping down water in no time at all.

The char siu is still the best item here, though I think it has slipped a bit over the years. It's now a bit leaner with many pieces on the chewier side. The pieces that aren't incinerated and bitter have a decent savory-sweet porkiness.

Well, at $10.75 these days I guess I got what I paid for? I have eaten at Panda Express in nearly two decades, how much do they charge now? And in that vein, we may have to wait another 16 years before I eat here again.

You can read about Soo's visit here and Mary's visit here.

Chung Hing
7160 Miramar Rd
San Diego, CA 92121

Chicago Fire Grill:

Man, had it been a year-and-a-half since I last visited? I think part of the problem is all the crazy road construction in the area with ever changing traffic patterns. Still, it had been a while since I'd seen George, so I decided to return to Chicago Fire.

The Chicago Dog, which comes with fries is now $9, up a buck since my last visit; but still under ten bucks. The young lady working the register was quite nice and George was busy working the back. 

    It seems that I had a "shift" in the tomatoes on the drive back to the office. I was just happy to have tomatoes on my dog which were MIA on my last visit. The fries, which were crisp on my last two visits, were soggy and dry this time around; though I kinda liked the pieces that had celery salt on them.

Other than the roll being on the soggy side, it was pretty much status quo, snappy dog, sport peppers, neon green relish, and all......

Still, under ten bucks......

Chicago Fire Grill
8935 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122

Tenkatori:

Well, Tenkatori is an interesting one. I will usually order the Mix Bento Box. But never online. Just for kicks I went and checked how much it was online....$16.30! I will usually call, but this time I drove down and got there right at 1030.

So, would Tenkatori's Mix Bento make the $14 cut-off? 

Well, look at the price on the menu; $12.50. Can you believe a $3.80 upcharge just for ordering online, not even delivery? Sheesh.....

    All the chicken, both the karaage and the wings were nice and crisp and very moist; nicely seasoned, a hint of soy, but not overly salty. The best I've had from Tenkatori thus far.

The mashed potato was consistent with other visits; though a bit too cold for my taste.

The one item not good on this day was the rice. Holy cow, it was so mushy and sticky, like it hadn't finished steaming. Look at how it stuck to the piece of karaage in the photo above. Maybe I should have been like FOYs Derric and Junichi, just ordering a bunch of chicken and just forgo the starches.

Perhaps next time! I will say that Tenkatori seems to have really "hit their stride" at least with regards to the chicken.

Tenkatori Miramar
6780 Miramar Rd Suite 104
San Diego, CA 92121

When it comes right down to it. For a $1.75 more, I'll take Tenkatori over Chung Hing any day of the week......

Where in the world are we - part 1

So yes, we're off on another trip and are having a great time. We are now on the third "stop" of this holiday.

The first stop was a place we've flown thru so many times, but really never took the time to enjoy. This time, we wanted to check things out and enjoy. And that we did. It's a bustling city, full of iconic locations.

Yes, it's an easy guess......

There's so much to see that we limited our visits; I'm sure we'll be back. After all, there's so much history here.

And spent a good amount of time at places we did visit.

And, as we've done in recent years, we carefully picked tours to suit us. Which usually have an interesting wrinkle to them.

What about the food you may ask....after all; the main focus of our humble little blog is still food.

Well, what we ate here ranged from two Michelin Star Chinese.

To more traditional grindz.

Our next stop was a pleasant surprise for us. Considered to be the fashion and business center of this country; it still seemed quite laid back. We enjoyed strolling the streets and plazas, which included one of the oldest shopping malls in the world. Which was quite stunning.

The Duomo was also something to behold.

We included a visit to the roof as part of our admission. Even though raindrops were falling, it was stunning.

There was one main reason for our visit, which did not disappoint.

And our favorite meal of our trip thus far was here.

Which was located in the wonderful little neighborhood we were ensconced in. In fact, we ate all of our meals in this area. Which included some traditional dishes of the region.

We're now at our next destination and enjoying things. We hope all is well with you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Taste of Hong Kong (Cathy's visits)

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog about food and where you have found yourself stopping to spend some time reading on this lovely October day.  It's a day when Cathy is writing while Kirk is keeping busy, elsewhere.  

Kirk had been here initially in January and returned again a few weeks later with a different experience.  The Mister and I decided to try Taste of Hong Kong and see what we thought.

 Decades ago, this location was the first restaurant where The Mister and I had Dim Sum (carts and all).  The area at the front door had a window counter display case of roast ducks and roast pork; we would stop here for some roasted treats to take home if not going to Woo Chee Chong down the street.
 Fried squid appetizer ($8.99).  This came out last and was freshly fried to a nice, light crunch, not oily and was an excellent version, with garlic and peppers.  This could have been my meal, but we shared.
 House Special Pan Fried Rice Noodle ($17.95). Beef, pork, chicken, vegetables, egg, rice noodles all stir fried with a smoky wok hey comfort flavor.  A nice plate that we enjoyed.
 Combination Platter-Choice of Two roasted meats from the window display at the back of the eating area ($19.95).  Roast duck and roast pork belly.   Juicy, fatty, crisp skin with moist, flavorful, meaty goodness.  Enough left over for a nice dinner.  
 Prices are in line with other Cantonese style restaurants.  Quality is great.  Service is excellent.  We will try again.

Taste Of Hong Kong 4428 Convoy Suite 320 San Diego 92111 (858) 240-2728  Closed Tuesday.  Open 11:00-2:30, 4:30-9:00 
See-the hanging ducks and pork are back in the corner display case.

Paris - Les Artistes du Ravioli, Patrick Roger Chocolate, and other "Stuffs".

On our fifth full day in Paris we decided to just go with the flow and just do whatever came to mind during the day. During the previous four days we'd had plans, but on this Saturday, we just wanted to kick back and enjoy things. So, a visit to our favorite little spot on Rue Montorgueil, Café du Centre was in order. So, we strolled on over. It was fairly early on this Saturday, so the streets weren't quite as busy, though the shopping on Rue Montorgueil was in full swing.

So, we sat, had our Cafe Allonges and just watched the world go by for an hour or so.

So relaxing; it's a favorite pass time of ours.

From here we headed off to do some shopping in the 2nd; passing this art installment which we don't remember seeing before right in front of the Bourse de Commerce.

Doing a bit of a search when I returned to the apartment, I found that this is called Cheval et Cavalier (" Horse and Rider") by American artist Charles Ray.

We strolled thru the lovely Galerie Vero Dodat which I've mentioned before.

We love walking thru the and exploring the covered passages of Paris. 

It was fun checking things out. There were some cute pooches as well......

There's always something to draw your attention.

After our required stops along the way, we headed on back. Stopping at Hôtel de Ville, City Hall for a bit. You see this was during the first week of December and the Christmas Markets were open. Hôtel de Ville has a Christmas Market of its own.

While not as fun and those in the Alsace (we'd actually be taking a short trip soon) it was a fun little stop. And we saw this well behaved little one posing for a photo which stopped us in our tracks.

My goodness......he looked like Frankie! The Missus and I looed at each other and smiled. Maybe Frankie was looking down at us at this moment! "We miss you everyday Frankie!"

We took busy Rue des Archives back in the direction of the apartment and the Missus saw a chocolate shop named Patrick Roger and we stopped in.

Many of the chocolates seemed sculpted like pieces of art and the Missus decided to buy an assortment.

The Missus didn't enjoy these quite as much as Her favorite, but it was a fun stop.

Patrick Roger
43 Rue des Archives
75003 Paris, France

As we got to the apartment, we decided it was time for some lunch. The side streets close to where we were staying had quite a few Chinese restaurants, in the Haute Marais of all things. I mentioned the History of this in an earlier post. We saw this shop and decided some jiaozi might be nice on a winter day.

The window was all fogged up because there were quite a few people in the place and there was a woman making jiaozi in the front as well. Customer base was a mix of Chinese and regular Parisians. 

We got an order of Pork and Cabbage Jiaozi and an order of Baozi.

 The wrapper was too thick and chewy, the filling tender but on the bland side. The black vinegar provided was really weak. These weren't very good.

The Baozi was better, but not by much.

The dough was too rubbery, though the pan fried portion was better. It was fairly yeasty in flavor and not overly sweet. The filling here was more tender and juicy, but still on the bland side, in need of a ton of the watery black vinegar.

Not quite sure in the dumpling "artiste" was inhouse on this day? But it was an inexpensive lunch.

Les Artistes du Ravioli
33 Rue au Maire
75003 Paris, France

And it was close to the apartment which was a good thing since I was ready for a nap!

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris - National Archives Museum, Aux Merveilleux de Fred, and a Revisit to Maison De Chengdu

After our lunch at Restaurant La Mosquée de Paris we headed back across the Seine back to the apartment. There was one shop that the Missus saw on our way to the Jardin des Plantes that She waned to check out.

Aux Merveilleux de Fred is a chain of shops with branches all over France, London, Europe, New York City, and even Tokyo specializing in, well, Le Merveilleux, a meringue based dessert.

The Missus wanted to try this so we bought a couple for our "le goûter" (afternoon tea).

Aux Merveilleux de Fred
24 Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe
75004 Paris, France

We dropped by the apartment and after storing the Merveilleux, we noticed that it was still fairly early in the day. We had passed the National Archives Museum a couple of times on our walks and had noticed that there was a special exhibit on Epidemics being held for a couple of months. Since the special exhibit was free, we decided to head on over.

The National Archives Museum was formerly known as the Musée de l'Histoire de France and is located in the Hôtel de Soubise which was originally established in 1371! It's quite a grand looking mansion.

We walked thru the entrance and then up the stairway to the exhibit.

And there were boards with information and timelines of the various epidemics in France's history.

Along with documents, paintings, and other displays along the way.

There were no English translations on the labels, but when I'd come across something like this, I would go ahead and use Google translate.

Which usually did a good job in translating. In the case above:

"Instructions and memories necessary both to prevent contagious disease and to get rid of it when a city is attacked, by means of quarantine."

And sometimes, like in the case below, no translation was necessary.

There were also interesting drawings, paintings, and photographs that documented moments in history.

And lest you think this was all about long ago history, I found this photo to be quite compelling. It is a photo of the Louvre on the first day of the Covid shutdown in Paris, March 17, 2020.

After viewing this, we toured some of the other rooms of the "Hotel".

And then did a quick walk thru the gardens, which would be a nice place to relax during better weather.

All in all, a nice 90 minute stop for us.

Heading back to the apartment, while the Missus relaxed, I took a short trip out to the Carrefour for some tea. After all, we needed that to pair with our Merveilleux forle goûter, right?

These were light, not overly sweet. Not something we'd seek out, but nice for a pleasant afternoon tea.

We then settled in for a nice afternoon nap. Upon awakening, I went ahead and checked emails and such. Night came upon us quite quickly. I hadn't made reservations for dinner on this evening. We'd be spending so much time in Paris that I just made reservations for ever other night. We had been quite disappointed with lunch and the Missus wanted some "comfort food". We were pleasantly surprised with our spur of the moment selection on the first night in Paris that we decided to return to Maison De Chengdu.

We selected our favorite dish from that visit; the Intestine Dry Pot and it was indeed a winner again.

Crisp pork intestine, nicely moderated spice, a bit of ma, just a nice dish with rice.

We also selected a dish we saw several of the tables of Chinese customers order the last time; the green beans with pork.

Another winner here! The beans still had a nice crunch...there was some "wok hay" going on, smoky tones, a touch of spice, a good amount of savory soy sauce and white pepper. 

In "bean mode", we also got the long beans with pork. 

This one was a bit on the bland side.

This was a nice dinner, straight forward Sichuan style cuisine, something I wish we had here in San Diego.

Maison De Chengdu (古味成都)
16 Rue Volta
75003 Paris, France

We had a nice post-dinner stroll; something that we should actually do more of here at home as well. Life was good!

 

2024 Rose Parade float Road Test 4, breakfast at Tam's Noodle House (2) (Rowland Heights)

mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog which sometimes posts about reasons for finding the food.  Today is one of those posts; Cathy is writing.

Starting in June, the last Saturday of the month is when Phoenix Decorating Company has road testing of floats for the upcoming Tournament of Roses Rose Parade, which will be held on January 1, 2024.  There are other companies which construct floats as well as six self-constructed floats in the Parade.

Link to 2024 Road Test #1

2024 Road Test #2

2024 Road Test #3

 Shriners Hospitals for Children will sponsor this float, "Believe In Tomorrow", keeping with the Theme of the 2024 Parade, "Celebrating A World Of Music, The Universal Language".   Floats are colored in to help with decorating.

 "A Lovely Day for Hope", presented by the City of Hope hospital system was tested for mechanics and maneuverability with 'weight' on board. 


 The 2024 entry from Trader Joe's is titled "a-one, a-two, a one-two-three-broccoli" and includes Trader Joe (collapsed at the back of the float, now but will be raised for the Parade) conducting a trio of broccoli and various vegetables playing musical instruments.  The beaters in the yogurt cup at the front will produce bubbles along the parade route.  Another beautiful float.

 A new entrant in the Parade for 2024 is from Coding for Veterans.  Unsure about the title.  The center looks like it will have a screen.  The outlines of aircraft are a H-60 and F-35.  
 This entry is from Western Asset.  It is backing into the barn.  You can see the Driver of the float (who proceeds down Colorado Boulevard by looking down and following the Rose Colored Line on the street) to the right in the photo and the Spotter (who looks out the front, communicates with the Driver via a headset) to the left.   You can see rectangular vented 'windows' at the fronts of the 'completed' floats, where the Spotters are seated.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It was just before 8 a.m. and The Mister and I headed South then East, looking for breakfast.  We saw a sign visible from the street for a 99 Cent Only Store with a tiny (maybe three foot by two foot) sign on top of it "Tam's Noodle House".  There were cars in the parking lot.  We stopped.

 Walking inside, we were directed to the last open table. Tam's opens at 8 a.m.

 The breakfast menu was handed to us. 
 At the top of the menu, beverages are included!  (Iced beverages are an additional $1.50). The tea was good and strong and kept refilled constantly.

 From the menu, "C"- vermicelli with Satay Beef plus scrambled egg & bun with butter (the price was $12.99, not the $13.99 as on the menu).  Great broth with tender, flavorful beef and non-mushy noodles.  The scrambled eggs were soft and fresh made (I did add some chili crisp to them after a few bites) and the steamed, soft bread was just enough.

 "F"- beef stew with steamed noodle too plus scallop congee ($13.99).  I saw the noodles being rolled in the kitchen when I went to the back toward the restroom.  Fresh, soft, a thin layer...really nice.  That beef stew was excellent, tender and such flavor.  The scallop congee was really a great version.  The scallops were dry/shredded and interspersed throughout each bite.  

This was almost too much food (we did have some leftover and it reheated well for a light snack).  We want to try more of the breakfast offerings, but also the fact that the regular menu has more choices, is reasonably priced and the restaurant is open late, makes this a possible place to stop for dinner after we decorate floats in December.

Tam's Noodle House II 19035 Colima Road Rowland Heights 91748 (626) 820-9977 Open daily 8 a.m.-10 p.m.

 

Midweek Meanderings - Minh Ky Changing Ownership and Nha Quoc Te Being Replaced by Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara

Here are some changes coming to City Heights!

Minh Ky Changing Ownership:

Reading about this in Eater San Diego caught me by surprise! And the link to Minh Ky's website yielded this message:

Man, I've been going to Minh Ky forever it seems. Minh Ky had the distinction of being one of the last places I dined in at before the big Covid shutdown, I even did takeout in December of 2020, and felt it was only right to revisit once I started feeling comfortable with dining in again. It's one of those places that I ate at starting back in 2004, before I started this blog!

At least Minh Ky is not closing like other long time businesses in the area such as Tan Ky Mi Gia and Cafe Dore. I'm hoping the food will be just as good.

If you need one last visit, the long time owners last day will be October 2nd. After that, you can still visit them at Dumpling Inn.

Minh Ky Restaurant
4644 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115

Nha Hang Quoc Te Being Replaced by Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara:

A while back "FOY" Elle asked me if I'd seen the sign for a new business in the Nha Hang Quoc Te spot. It just seems that I don't get to City Heights as much as I used too. Especially the area around Quoc Te which has some crazy road work (road work Clairemont Drive and Towne Center Drive - both roads I drive on all the time is bad enough!) going on.

But, I did make the effort to see what was happening this past weekend.

And yes, Quoc Te is being replaced by Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara! I'm assuming it's the same ownership as the Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara I ate at in Chula Vista?

I know, I need to start doing my rounds again!

4448-A University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

A big thank you to Elle! Thanks for thinking of us Elle!

Roadtrip - Jiou Chu Dumplings (Rowland Heights)

So, the Missus's new favorite restaurant is Mountain House. And since that meal we've been back three more times, I'll combine that into one post later! And we've stayed overnight on each visit. On the first revisit, we dined at places I'd posted on before, so I'll do that in a COMC post. The third time we did a bit of a longer road trip, that'll be coming up. This was the second revisit. We were looking for a place for lunch. On our previous trip, I'd read about a new dumpling shop opening in Yes Plaza. Aaaah, Yes Plaza, I'd posted on our "history" with Yes Plaza before and my has the place changed. Anyway, after having dinner at Mountain House on the previous trip, we took a drive to the strip mall. It was 730pm and at that time Jiou Chu Dumplings was only open from 5pm to 830 pm and there was still a line of folks waiting outside! The Missus looked at Her Instagram and wouldn't you know it, so many influencers showing off! Of course, often times it's all about the "content" and attention than the actual food.

The week before we left for Rowland Heights, Jiou Chou started opening at 11am. We decided to go for lunch and arrived at around 1040. The place was empty, there was no line, so we headed off to Hong Kong Market to buy some snacks and returned. It was just after 11am when we parked and noticed that there was a line!

Notice the 85° logo on the signage? Well Jiou Chu is owned by 85C and has two restaurants in Taichung, where we had just been a couple of months prior! This is the first location of the dumpling restaurant in the U.S.!

 There was a sign posted saying that the place wasn't doing takeout orders on this day. I guess they were anticipating a major lunch rush? By the way, this was a weekday. One thing we noticed, that is usually a positive sign were that most of the customers were older folk, which to us is usually a pretty good sign.

We were led to a table and seated. The restaurant was pretty sizeable.

Folks just kept on coming in and within fifteen minutes of being seated we noticed that the place was full!

Listening in, the Missus noticed that folks were placing orders to dine in and additional orders to go! I guess that's how they got around "no to go orders" for the day?  Several of the parties around us had apparently been here before. Ordering was done, at least by us, using the QR code. We noticed that many of the older folks struggled a bit and had their orders taken by the very accommodating staff.

Of course we started with the Pork Xiao Long Bao ($11.99). We quickly noticed that the prices were pretty good, perhaps that's why all the folks were coming out?

    These were not very good. The wrapper was chewy and brittle, there was some "soup" in the XLB but it was very bland. The filling was tough and chewy and also pretty much tasteless.

Kinda sad overall.

Next up were the two versions of Pork Chops. When we were in Taiwan the Missus said several times that I "didn't meet a pork chop that I didn't enjoy".

The Fried Pork Cutlet ($8.49) had a nice black pepper flavor, decently salty, but was over fried, tough, and dry.

The best item of the meal was the Fried Pork Strips ($8.49).

Think of this as a pork version of the typical Taiwanese "popcorn chicken". It was crisp-crunchy, moist, with a good amount of five-spice, white pepper, and salt.

We had wanted to order some Guotie since the photos looked quite good. They were out of several versions so we ended up getting the Kimchi-Pork version ($11.49). Good lord, this was a mistake.

The wrappers were gummy, the filling was weird, the "kimchi" lacked flavor as did the pork which was chewy. The menu warned that these dumplings contained hot soup, but that was a false alarm as there was none. This was our least favorite item of the meal.

Well, this meal was a fail. Unlike Taiwan where "lines don't lie", here in the states things can get over run by hype it seems. That's too bad as we were kind of excited about eating here. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

At least we tried it......and we'd be headed to Mountain House for dinner.

Jiou Chu Dumplings
18156 Colima Rd.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748