mmm-yoso!!!

KZ Mori (Inside of H Mart - Balboa)

Recently, I had to deal with parking at H Mart on Balboa at 1030. Well, finding a space wasn't bad, though things filled up quickly and it was kinda crazy as I was about to leave. Since it was just about lunchtime, I decided to head on back into H Mart and peruse the ever changing food court. The last time I had taken a look at the food court was when Bann had closed. Of course, no sooner than had Bann closed that they were replaced with another "concept". One place that I thought wasn't too bad in the Food Court was Katzya, though my last visit there was not too satisying. They eventually closed as well. I had heard that they had been replaced by a Katsu shop, named KZ Mori. For some reason, the name sounded familiar. When I saw the logo, it hit home. I had read about a katsu shop in the H Mart food court in Arcadia named "Kazu Mori". And I think it's related somehow? 

   I walked up to the counter, the place had just opened, but there seemed to be a couple of folks waiting for their orders already. The young man working was really nice, though he looked a bit overwhelmed. I took a look at the menu....even though the portions looked pretty large, I went and ordered the Mix Katsu Combo ($19.99), which included both pork and chicken katsu and curry. 

There was one other guy working and I saw him take out a huge batch of katsu and start chopping away. Oh my. After watching the first couple of orders go out, I was wondering how he knew which was the chicken and which was the pork. My plate was made from that "pile".

Instead of getting my order to dine in; I got it in a take out box, which was a good move since it was pretty darn hefty.

Opening things up on the table revealed "blotchy" katsu to the left and "blotchy" katsu to the right, a huge pile of shredded cabbage, and some nicely cooked rice.

 The katsu had not been fried evenly and there were some darkly colored spots, the texture of the panko was kind of mealy, at least the breading wasn't separating from the proteins, but it was easy to tell which was the pork and chicken. The pork was on the left; it was thicker, had a more spongy texture, but was fairly tender, if a bit on the dry side. The seasoning was one dimensional being quite salty. The chicken on the right side was thinner, dry, and chewy. It was also quite salty. I'd take the pork any day of the week.

 I'm pretty sure the curry had been made with "cubes", it had a nice spice, but was barely lukewarm....and I was eating in the food court. It was quite gloppy and was also on the salty side. Dipping the katsu in this was just too much sodium for me.

There was standard issue Japanese Sesame Dressing for the huge pile of cabbage, which was fine. The Katsu sauce was too sour and thin for me to enjoy.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting, say EE Nami, but there seems to be a lack of QC here as I think Homestyle Hawaiian and if we're looking at food court katsu even Musashiya (though it's been a while - I need to revisit) is better. Though, if you're really hungry, perhaps this would fill the bill? I think it's more about portion size here, the place seems quite popular - I ended up taking about half the food home with me. 

I mean, take a look at the katsu.......

KZ Mori (In the H Mart Food Court)
7725 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 8pm

Honolulu - The Crack Seed Store (Kaimuki), Musubi Cafe Iyasume (Ala Moana), and Other "Stuffs"

**** I hope you don't mind another Hawai'i post. Not a whole lot of food in this one.

On this trip home the Missus really enjoyed Herself. She got some hiking ummm walking (Her definition) and we visited places I hadn't been to in decades. We also managed to stay 2 nights in "town" (Honolulu), which I really enjoyed.

But first, the Missus needed Her Li Hing Mango fix and since we were headed to town there was one place She really loves, it's in my old neighborhood, where I grew up. Located on Koko Head Avenue is the Crack Seed Store, which I included in the post linked above. I was also interested in visiting because I had found out that the original owner, Mr. Young, who BTW, ran the place for over 40 years had retired. Thankfully, he did find new owners, who according to this article are also in the same business and use the same distributors. Mr. Young also shared his "secret" recipes with them so everyone could get the same stuffs they had always enjoyed.

Anyway, we drove up, there was no street parking on Koko Head, but I managed to score some parking in the lot behind the businesses. A guy pulled out of his stall as I was turning in and guess what? He also still had over an hour of parking left on the meter. Double score!

There were several different li hing mango versions, but the Missus zeroed in on the one She likes. Forgot to take a photo of that, but here's a plethora of li hing mui.

Of course the Missus went and opened up the bag and started chowing down on it as we walked to the car.

She said it's just as good as She remembered! Awesome!

Crack Seed Store
1156 Koko Head Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816

It was still fairly early, so we decided to walk around a bit.

Looking at the businesses, when did Kaimuki get so hipster?

The Missus enjoyed this shop.

The name sounded familiar and yes indeed, the owner told us they used to be in Ward Center, but moved here in 2021.

We had fun buying gifts for folks back in San Diego. And, we even got something for ourselves.

Red Pineapple
1151 12th Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816

We then headed over to Ala Moana Center. We were staying at the Ala Moana Hotel. You know, I'd never stayed there. There was just no way I wanted to stay in Waikiki and I didn't think the Missus would  go for the Pagoda, so Ala Moana Hotel was it. 

Anyway, it was too early to check in, so we went to the mall to check things out. It was Chinese (Lunar) New Year so Ala Moana Center was all decked out.

And as often happens; we saw something that reminded us of Sammy.

The Missus did Her usual tea shopping at Lupicia.

After which, it seemed like a good time to get something small for lunch. We'd had a big breakfast back in Ewa Beach in the morning.

Thanks to fellow long time blogger Kathy, who now does the fabulous Onolicious Hawaii blog, I found the post on the Lanai, in the location old Shirokiya (we miss you so) store, in her guide to Where to Eat at Ala Moana Center. We enjoyed the Lanai because the places seemed more "local" focused. And there is a location of Musubi Cafe Iyasume there!

And we felt that two musubi would be enough for a very light lunch.

So we got the Avocado-Bacon-Egg-Spam.

The rice was nicely cooked, but in spite of the presence of my favorite canned meat product; the bacon was soggy and rubbery and there wasn't enough  avocado to really make a difference.

We did like the Kimchi and Spam version though. I mean; kimchi....Spam.....

Salty-sour-a bit of spice, say no more. I'm looking forward to having this again.

Musubi Cafe Iyasume (In the Lanai - Ala Moana Center)
1450 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96814

I had parked on the second floor of Ala Moana Center on the Mahukona Street side where there's the bridge to the hotel. I walked on over and went to see if our room was ready; which it was! Yes!

In another funny moment, the nice young man at the check in counter asked me if I've stayed with them before. I told him no, it was too expensive to stay here when I was young; though I did go to Rumors (a legendary night club in the hotel that closed in 2017) quite a bit in my younger days. He told me, "awesome, you ever heard of the Point After?" I told him I used to go there and Bobby McGee's a lot too. He then told me "my Grandfather used to go to the Point After a lot." Aiyah! Suddenly I'm "Ji-chan"?

Anyway, our room had a decent view.

We had a nice nap, then decided to take a walk before heading out to dinner. We strolled on over to Ala Moana Park for a pre-dinner walk.

As a whole it was pretty mellow on this late afternoon.

Then the strangest thing happened; I heard someone calling my name. I turned around and didn't recognize this older fellow. He identified himself and holy smokes! He was my best friend from Elementary, Intermediate, and High School, thru the mid 90's. He lived a half block from me in Kaimuki! Even though by the time I left the islands I had a new group of friends, I'd still drop by and talk story and stuff. He was the first of us to get a driver's license and used to drive his grandfather's car. We used to go to Keyhole at Ala Moana park, go swim, have some, ahem, liquid refreshment, all that kind of stuff. He still comes here several times a week to walk and still lives in the same Kaimuki house he grew up in. Makes me wonder if I would have been the same had I never left the islands? He caught me up on some of the folks that were in our "group"; some have already passed on. Everyone from that group except me ended up in the trades; painters, refrigeration, sheet metal, it's not a easy life. He still has the same phone number, which I recited from memory. It's been almost three decades and I'm not sure how he recognized me? I'll need to call him when I'm back again.

It was turning out to be an interesting trip.

Thanks for stopping by!

Road Trip - Sushi Yuen (City of Industry)

On the way back from Lancaster we decided to stop in our old neighborhood. We'd spend the night and do some shopping and drop by Mountain House for takeout on the way home the next day. I did have something planned for dinner though. There was a Sushi/Omakase restaurant that opened in a strip mall on Gale, between Fullerton and Nogales a while back named Sushi Yuen. Man, this strip mall wasn't even constructed when we moved away from the area.

Sushi Yuen is an all Omakase shop, according to what I had read they actually got seafood from Toyosu Market in Tokyo. At the time of our visit, dinner was running at $250 per person (drinks not included), with a $150 deposit for each diner.

Anyway, after checking in at the Best Western and taking a short nap, we actually walked on over......now there's not much pedestrian activity on Gale, so we did get some weird looks.

   We checked in and waited until we were walked over to our seats. The restaurant has sushi bar only seating. I counted a total of 15 seats for our dinner.

There's a brief selection of wine and sake available. We did end up having a glass of the Zaku and the Tenbei during our meal.

Speaking of glasses, metal tumblers were brought to the table. Once filled with ice water, a pattern appeared! Kinda neat.

Due to the amount of dishes in this meal, I'll try to be as brief as possible.

There was five staff working behind the counter; the head man, who introduced himself as Ryan was very friendly, as was the young man who would eagerly show us the products being used for our dishes.

And you can see what was going to be part of our first dish.

Notice all the fresh wasabi at the bottom of the screen?

   As you can tell by that photo, hairy crab was going to be in the first dish, which ended up being a wonderful savory chawan mushi.

Decadently smooth and creamy, permeated with the frangrance of sweet-savory-oceany crab, this was a wonderful start to our meal.

Next up, Katsuo (Skipjack) Tataki.

This had a mild smokiness to it; on the firmer side in texture, with that nice, all too familiar umami "punch".

Next up was the Hokkaido Hotate with Kaluga Caviar.

Gently coated, with a wonderful, light, crisp coating. The scallop was perfectly cooked, the slightly firm and wonderfully sweet flesh was so delici-yoso! It really didn't need the caviar, but heck, there it was and I wasn't going to complain about that!

We'd first come across "Tacu" in CDMX, at its most basic it's using nori in place of a tortilla. This was a negi-toro tacu.

The highlight of this was the interplay of the pungent-herbaceous-slightly sweet wasabi, the minty-chlorophllic-anise shiso, and the savory nori.

Next up was the grilled Tachiuo, belt fish.

The flesh was so buttery in texture, it basically melted in your mouth. The flavor was mild, so having the crisp skin on made all the difference.

The Akami-zuke was quite routine.

Perfectly texture maguro, but even more impressive was the rice which cooked to perfection, every grain could be counted, but the texture was soft, the "shari" was nicely balanced.

Aji-Miso was next.

Nice textural contrast, but the nice rich-savory flavor of the Horse Mackerel was kind of overwhelmed by the miso sauce.

I was quite excited to see Nodoguro (Black throat sea perch) as the next item. This is a rarity for us here in the states.

Man, this was so rich and buttery in texture. The flavor was mild and was enhanced by the "tare".

We didn't care much for the Ankimo-Yuzu. It was like they were trying to cover up the natural flavor of the ankimo.

Think of it as being mashed ankimo "potato-ish" salad. We enjoy the texture of ankimo which was not featured in this dish. Too sweet-sour.

The folks must have been reading our minds, because next up was a "shot" of Katsuo Dashi!

Which helped to "reset" our palates.

The Hirame was quite good, great texture!

While having the Hirame, we noticed some items being cooked on the griddle.

This turned out to be charred Saba, made into sort of temaki.

This was very good; the skin crisp, the oil content made the flesh so very creamy and reduced the strong fishy flavor!

Next up was another fairly rare fish for SoCal, Sayori (Half-beak) Nigiri.

So clean and refreshing! The somewhat sweet, delicate flavor wasn't overwhelmed by the tare. This was ono!

Then the Chu-Toro.

Rich and fatty goodness! On perfect rice, the tare did so well on this; adding the savory touches of soy and a hint of sweetness.

Kumamoto Tiger Prawn was up next.

While a tad overcooked, the shrimp was so sweet and oceany. 

 

We were then provided some Ebi Kakiage Udon

And were asked if we were ready for the "best part" of our meal! Whoa, even better than what we'd had? During this time we had a chance to chat with Ryan. We spoke about Japan. Ryan told us he closes Sushi Yuen twice a year to go to Japan, but is busy working with his suppliers there, so isn't able to visit many places.

And just to add an exclamation point to things we were given a preview of what was coming up!

As you can see; the A5 Wagyu came with it's own set of "papers".

As did the Hokkaido Uni!

But first, was the 8 Day Aged O-toro.......O-my!

So melt-in-your mouth tender that it should be illegal! And like all the nigiri, the rice and shari were perfect for our taste.

The sweet and deeply savory Hokkaido Uni, so creamy.

The flavor took me back to a memorable lunch in Sankaku Market in Otaru.

These last two items were so good that it made the Anago and Tamago seem like after thoughts.......I guess we needed to be brought back "down to earth?"

The Tamago was especially good, light, sweet, and fluffy. 

Usually, these two would  be the items that would close the meal. But of course there was one item we had a preview of that was missing.

Torching and smoking was in progress while we had our Anago and Tamago.

And soon enough these two covered bowls were provided.

Which opened up to display......

The A5 Wagyu! Well, in terms of flavor this was beefy heaven! Though I will say for my taste it was overcooked; I prefer mine rare.

And so a nice last dish to an epic meal, right?

But like that television pitch man says; "but wait, there's more"!

Have you ever seen or bought one of those $100 melons at the Japanese market?

The Missus had always been wondering about those and She finally had a chance to taste some.

Needless to say; the Missus thought the price of the melon is worth it!

As for the meal itself; well it was an epic one, with some excellent dishes. Would we have it again? Hmmm.....perhaps if we have an extra $800 lying around (or more as I've read that the price of dinner is now $275 per person). Sushi Yuen also serves an Omaksae lunch which is currently priced at around $150 per person and a $100 deposit for each customer. Please note that there are penalties for cancelling within 48 hours as well.

Boy has our old 'hood changed since we lived here!

 

Sushi Yuen
18558 Gale Ave.
City of Industry, CA 91748

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

Midweek Meanderings - Looks like Zen Curry is Becoming Curry Club, Fish With You coming to Convoy, New Owners for Tsuruhashi, and Other Stuffs

Just a quick midweek post on a nice, and much cooler Wednesday!

Looks like Zen Curry is permanently closed becoming Curry Club:

**** Update 8/1 - Thanks to some great work by "FOY" Elle (see comments section) Zen Curry is becoming "Curry Club". Here's a link to the Instagram Account. Thanks as always Elle!

Well, this one has been a mystery for a while. I recall first seeing the "temporarily closed" sign back in July 2023. So, just for kicks I went into the parking lot which also houses Katsu Cafe and Yuk Dae Jang and guess what? The Zen Curry sign is gone!

The same sign saying to check their website is posted.

The website still says "Reopening TBD". 

But I would assume that no sign means no reopening???

Perhaps one of our "FOYs" might know? As noted above; per Elle, Zen Curry is becoming Curry Club. Like I always say, this blog would not exist without all you "Friends of yoso"!

7309 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Fish With You coming to Convoy:

Sometimes just waiting to post something works out right. After my lunch at Izakaya Sakura I took a walk around the strip mall to see what was going on. I quickly noticed that Shen Tan BBQ had closed.

The Change of Ownership sign indicated something named Wei's Fish was taking its place.

Fast forward a week and the the Eater did a post. Looks like this will be part of chain from Beijing whose name in the US is Fish With You. When I showed the Missus the website She got quite excited. You know how much She loves Suan Cai, right? Well, this chain specializes in Suan Cai Yu. Basically, boiled fish with pickled cabbage, which the Missus loves. 

It's going to be interesting!

3904 Convoy St Suite 101
San Diego, CA 92111

Looks like Tsuruhashi has new ownership?:

While walking back to the car, I noticed a Change of Ownership sign in the window of Tsuruhashi.

Looks like it'll still be Tsuruhashi though.

Tsuruhashi Japanese BBQ
3904 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

And Finally:

My food friend "CY" asked me if I was attending the San Diego Taiwanese Festival? Huh? You know how much the Missus and I love Taiwan!

After checking out the link and additional info from a few sources, I found that it's more of a Cultural Festival brought to you by Taiwanese American Professionals (TAP), then a food festival, but it still looks like fun. I'm not sure if you know, but one of San Diego's Sister Cities is Taichung. It is taking place at Torrey Hills Park, 4260 Calle Mejillones from 2pm to 5pm this Saturday, August 3rd. I believe you need to RSVP to attend.

Looks like lots of activities for kids and such.

San Diego Taiwan Festival
Saturday, August 3, 2024 - 2pm - 5pm
Torrey Hills Park, 4260 Calle Mejillones, San Diego, CA

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Hatsuzakura

Since I went ahead and posted on the somewhat "old school" Izakaya Sakura (which we've crazily posted on 40 times over the years!), I thought I should do a post on a newer and more hip location; Hatsuzakura. A couple of months back, the Missus and I were in the area at around 430, right at opening time. The restaurant is run by the daughter and the namesake of Michelin starred Soichi Sushi next door. While, from I had heard, the place is a favorite for desserts, and while I wouldn't quite call it a Kissaten, nor a Shokudo, it was quite interesting.

We were warmly greeted and led to a two top, in this very anime pink, Instagram ready restaurant.

The Missus and I cracked up as we sat. This was quite interesting. The entree menu was a single page; with so many Yoshoku dishes, which we should have anticipated in a place like this, right?

The staff was really welcoming and we looked over the menu.

We decided on three dishes. As we waited two young ladies, dressed in Barbie pink walked in and were seated at the bar. A few minutes later, two working stiffs who looked like they had just finished a job walked in, quickly took in the restaurant, looked at each other, did an about face and bailed! It was quite funny.

It was a bit of time but our first dish, the Chicken Karaage ($13). This was a very unique looking karaage, apparently it is the recipe of Chef Soichi.

It was very lightly colored and seemed to have been coated with katakuriko? The chicken was sliced thinly, giving it a nice, light, almost ethereal crispness. We're glad it was dark meat chicken as the seasoning was quite mild, though the chicken was tender and quite positive in the "fowlness" category. It did need both the lemon and Kewpie mayo.

Next up was the Tamago Sando ($10). As soon as the sando arrived, the Missus said; "what's going on the crust is still on the sandwich?" Too many trips to Lawson I guess. Though I did agree that having that crust on made it seem "un-sandoed".....

The egg was chopped too coarse for us, the filling wasn't evenly spread thru the sando. The bread was very dry and lacked the fluffy qualities of a decent shokupan. The filling was nicely seasoned, but just seemed to be missing something.

The last item up was the Omurice ($17). 

    Egads! This was a bit too much for the both of us. The egg was slightly overcooked, which isn't too bad. But so was the rice. But the thing that really got us was how overly sour; almost puckery, and sweet this was. Also, the menu said it was filled with chicken fried rice, but other than a few tiny pieces, it seems that the bird had flown the coop?

Still, the service was wonderful and that chicken karaage was interesting. Plus, I saw those "Animae Girls" eating something that I just needed to try. And yet, it took me several months to finally return.

When I did it was for lunch service. Same nice folks greeted me and I had a seat at the bar.

On the previous visit; I saw the two young ladies each have two Bakudan Onigiri; one with kombu and the other with something else. They each put away their two onigiri and also shared a doria.....sheesh even more rice. So, I went ahead and ordered the onigiri ($7).

Let me just say, if anything fits the definition of Bakudan ("bomb") Onigiri; it's this. It's like 2 1/2 scoops of rice made into an onigiri.

 
  Take a look at the size of this beast! It uses like half a sheet of nori to wrap it. The rice was nicely cooked, but man, about halfway thru it became quite a task to try and finish this. There just wasn't enough kombu in this. I don't know how those two young ladies put away two of these? If I did that a couple of times, I'd probably be trying out for a Sumo league somewhere!

Of course I also got the karaage this time as well. But it was slightly different this time.

  It wasn't fried quite as well, though it was more highly seasoned this time. I swear they put some togarashi on this which I liked. One the negative side, the cut this time around was thicker, with some fairly large pieces. The thicker pieces were dry and only the thin slices made it thru the meal maintaining some crispness. I'm glad they gave me two slices of lemon as I needed them both. Not as good as what we'd had on the previous visit.

In the end, the service was very nice; but I guess the limited menu and style of Japanese food offered is just not our thing. I was glad to have tried it though.

Hatsuzakura
2123 Adams Ave.
San Diego, CA 92116
Current Hours:
Tues - Sat 11am - 3pm, 430pm - 9pm
Sunday     11am - 2pm, 330pm - 6pm
Closed on Mondays

Eating to beat the heat - Zaru Soba from Izakaya Sakura

Man, it's been pretty warm the last couple of weeks, huh? And not just hot, but humid as well. I was looking for a place to grab lunch in the Convoy area and of course Izakaya Sakura came to mind. Funny thing; even though Sakura has long been a favorite of mine; I'd only dined in twice since the days of Covid and my last visit had been over a year ago! Well, it seemed like the right time for a revisit.

There were actually 8 folks waiting ahead of me when I arrived at 1130 for lunch. On an interesting note; everyone seemed on the "older" side of things. I guess time is passing and the customer base for more traditional Japanese is just getting older?

Second item of note; several of my favorites, especially the item I had in mind, the Gyokai Natto is no longer on the menu. I was tempted to go for the Chirashi; but Kazu wasn't behind the bar; plus, I didn't feel like spending $32 for lunch on this day!

So, I went with another warm weather favorite from Sakura, the Zaru Soba, which, in these days where pho is $12+, seemed price right at $10. In need of a protein option; I went with a side of Karaage ($6.50) as well. What was also interesting was the service....I had gotten used to sometimes experiencing rude and perfunctory service here. But the two women working were so nice. I got my water refilled without asking, I was asked how my meal was not once, but twice! Man, what is going on here?

    My zaru soba arrived looking pretty much the same as always. The tsukemono, mildly pickled, crunchy, which I enjoy with a touch of shoyu seemed so familiar.

Things looked the same as always, until I removed the top of the little bowl of Tsuyu. Let me stress "little". This was probably half the amount of tsuyu I recalled being provided.

    As I will usually do when having zaru soba, I have a taste of the tsuyu straight up. And man, this was potent! Very strong dashi, nice soy sauce tones, quite savory. I'd only be doing a one-third "dunk" of my noodles in this! I added all the fresh wasabi and scallions, and a bit of ginger which really added a pleasurable pungency and palate cleansing layer to things.

As for the noodles; they were as expected; perfectly cooked, with a nice springy "pull".

In the end, perhaps my palate had become adjusted to things, but I chugged the last bit of tsuyu. Which by this time seemed somewhat invigorating.

As for the chicken. Over the years, as I've noted in previous posts, the karaage can be somewhat inconsistent. Today, it was quite good.

Much more flavor than I recall; I didn't even need the dipping sauce! Less crunchy, more on the crisp side, the chicken was moist and tender. Heck, I swear I could make out some togarashi in this? And $16.50 for lunch! Heck, we sometimes pay more for a sandwich these days, right?

I had one more pleasant surprise. I went to the restroom and saw this posted.

Man, this brought back some great memories! I looked at the date; a this was from almost 14 years ago! Since we all know that nothing is ever lost on the Internet, I went and found the original article by the one and only Naomi Wise (RIP, we miss you!). You can read it here if desired. Gosh, this was back in those days, before the place had a sign put up! BTW, that "sign of the times" post was one of my favorites.

Well, it's good to know, even though time has passed, with all the new fads, and generational differences, Izakaya Sakura still delivered.

Izakaya Sakura
3904 Convoy St Suite 121
San Diego, CA 92111

Hope everyone is keeping cool and enjoying the weekend!

And as always, if you have some suggestions for places to eat during our heatwave; please feel free to let me know!

Tori Nanban from Okan

For some reason, the recent warm weather had me craving Tori Nanban off all things. Not sure why? So, on one of the days when I needed to go to Nijiya later than usual, I decided to stop in at Okan for lunch. Man, it had been over 4-1/2 years since I had dined in at Okan! I did do a bunch of takeout over the couple of years, but the Tori Nanban, basically chicken karaage with a pseudo tartar-ish sauce, would not, in my mind, hold up to-go, especially since the karaage didn't do well as takeout. So, I decided the time was right to grab lunch at Okan.

It was interesting, the place was empty when I arrived at 11am, though it did start to fill up as I left.

I did know what I wanted, so it was quite easy ordering.

While the Tori Nanban lunch special had gone up $3 since the last time I'd had it, for some reason $14 seemed fairly reasonable to me.

I was quite interested too see what the Chicken Nanban version 2024 was going to be like, at one time it was my favorite version in San Diego. Soon enough it arrived.

    First thing I hit was the miso soup. I was happy to note that it was flavorful and not watered down.

What was "watered down" were the side dishes. I thought that Okan, which was once known for their wonderful Kozara Ryori and sides really jumped the shark when they started giving out seaweed salad with their lunches. And on this day; it was like a teaspoon of it. Like why bother?

 But that was the only downside to this lunch as the very generous portion of rice was hot and fluffy.

And the karaage was crisp, slightly lacquered, moist, and decently seasoned. The tartar sauce, which at times had been too mayo heavy, was nicely balanced, just enough sour tones, creamy, not overly rich, and, I know this might sound strange, somewhat refreshing.

What was refreshing was how much I enjoyed this meal. I really need to start "doing the rounds again". I need to revisit places like Izakaya Masa and Yorimichi!

I also need to thank "FOY" KerriK who send me an email a while back documenting her hunt for some good Izakaya grinds. This got me thinking about all those places I missed. Thanks for inspiring me Kerri!

Wa Dining Okan
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Lunch Served between 11am - 2pm Daily

And we'd like to wish everyone a fun and safe 4th of July! Keep cool during this heatwave!

Niban (revisits)

Hello.  Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! on this holiday week.  Cathy is writing today.

My most recent post about Niban was about 18 months ago.  This is part of the 'rotation' for The Mister and myself and I could write about meals at Niban every month, but have found restraint.

 Not much has changed here other than the prices, so here we go!

The soft shell crab roll ($11) is a filling five piece meal.  Soft shell crab, real crab and avocado are the main ingredients.
The fried calamari appetizer ($9) is always a good choice.  Four pieces of sliced calamari steak breaded in panko, crisply fried and served with (always too much) spicy sauce.  

The Vegetable Delight ($13.50) seems to be a regular choice for me; I found photos from nine different visits.  Consistently the same presentation. Eight pieces of vegetable tempura (potato, carrot, zucchini and onion), salad, eight pieces of Garden Roll, edamame, cold noodle salad, rice and tempura dipping sauce.  This is a very satisfying meal with so many varied flavors and textures.

 The Combination Bento ($13.95) with pork teriyaki and egg roll is also a good choice.

 The Stamina Udon ($13) was a nice meal on one of the (many) cold and rainy days we had early this year.  The broth has a light mushroom flavor and the ingredients (chicken, krab, fishcake, shrimp, dumplings, sweet tofu, egg, broccoli) along with the springy udon make this a very filling meal. 

The Shrimp Tempura Bento ($13.50) has five shrimp tempura, lightly fried and served with a house made tartar sauce and a portion of the Seafood Salad (bottom right) which is on the appetizer menu for $5.  A nice addition to this bento.

 When you first walk in, before turning to the cash register, look at the wall ahead.  Daily Lunch Specials from 11-2:30.

 Bento Lunch ($9.75) Six pieces of California roll, one piece Inari, three pieces of fried seafood (fish, squid, shrimp), pickled vegetables and rice.  This is a very pleasant lunch and good for the budget minded.

The Gyoza Lunch ($9.25) is also really nice.  Six meat filled dumplings  steamed or deep fried.  Salad, rice and (a very good) miso soup.  You might notice that miso soup is no longer included with the bento meals; it is $2.50 on the appetizer menu.
 I do prefer the gyoza being steamed then quick fried 'pot sticker' style.  The deep fried is a nice, crisp texture but I think overwhelms the filling.

This longstanding (first Yelps are from 2005) eatery is consistently serving good food at reasonable prices.  They have started charging $1 for hot tea, which, considering how much 'free' tea we had over the years,  is not a complaint.  It's a good green tea.


Niban 7801 Clairmont Mesa Blvd., Suite 101, San Diego 921110(858) 268-0465  Open Lunch: Mon-Sat 11:30-2:30  Dinner: Tue-Thurs 5:00-9:00 Fri-Sat 5:00-9:30 Sunday 4:30-9:00

 

Baikohken Ramen

Has San Diego hit the saturation point for ramen yet? Well, perhaps not as it seems that Baikohken Ramen created a bit of a buzz upon opening in the former Menya Ultra spot in Hillcrest. Part of it was because the restaurant, which hails from Asahikawa, (which BTW has the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Japan, think minus 40) was mentioned in the Michelin Guide to Hokkaido in 2017. What was interesting was that Ramen Adventures wasn't too impressed with the Asahikawa location, calling it yet another chain. And yet, when I think of my favorite ramen shops in San Diego, be it HiroNori, Nagi, Menya, and of course Santouka (I need to make another visit to Ban Nai) are "chains" with multiple locations. Speaking of Santouka, the chain had it's start in Asahikawa, in fact, if you've read our little blog long enough, you'd know we went to Asahikawa just to visit the original location of Santouka! So, when thinking in terms of Asahikawa style ramen, be it ever so humble, I'd be doing a comparison to Santouka.

I'm not a big fan of trying to find parking in the little strip mall where Baikohken is located. Which they share with a couple of fairly busy businesses like Oscar’s Mexican Seafood. And this was before Baikohken started up weekday lunch service, so I thought myself lucky to get parking in the lot right at 5 pm.

The shop is rather tiny, so I can imagine how difficult getting a table during peak hours might be. I'd never been to this location of Menya, so am not sure how that would compare.

During my two visits, it was the same two folks working the front of house; both the older Japanese woman and the always hustling young lady were wonderful. Attentive, efficient, friendly.

Since I had my sights on doing a comparison with Santouka, I figured it had to be a shio ramen to start. I just decided to suck it up and go with the Shio Chashu Ramen......which is $22.95! Yikes. And to add to matters, I also ordered the 3 piece Karaage $6.95. Man, nearly thirty bucks for ramen and karaage without tax and tip! Is this the world we live in now?

First to arrive was the Karaage.

   The pieces of karaage were large, the batter slightly crunchy, the chicken was on the tougher chewier side. It was also fairly bland in terms of seasoning. Not my favorite version of this.

And then my ramen arrived.

    The broth was interesting, a lot lighter than I would expect for Hokkaido style ramen. It did have a good amount of saltiness and based on what I'd read, there's supposed to be a savory-seafood based component to it, like how Santouka is in Japan. I was looking forward to that, but I really couldn't make that out. As a whole, the broth lacked complexity.

The chashu looks like it was made from butt or loin, it had been marinated and seasoned well, but it was quite tough and chewy.

The menma (bamboo shoots) were nicely marinated. The cut was quite thick, which might give some folks problems, but was super crunchy.

The tamago looked great and was marinated well. Though, well, you know my pet peeve, right? The eggs were ice cold.

   The noodles were nice and springy, of the slightly thicker variety, much like what we'd had at Noodle Zero, though it was a bit under cooked and chewy for my taste.

Overall, a kind of mixed bag. Some of this could be attributed to having recently opened. But when you create a certain amount of hype, I would think that expectations would be rather high and I was just looking for a good bowl of ramen.

Well, based on this visit you know that I was going to wait a couple of weeks before visiting again, right? Anyway, I drove on up and this time, even though it was before five on a weeknight, I had to find street parking a couple of blocks away. Still, the place was just opening when I walked on over and I easily got a table.

The same two wonderful women were working the front of house.

This time, I wasn't going to be going for a $23 ramen. I decided to try the shoyu ramen.

Of course, I couldn't let things well enough alone, I wanted to see if the cold egg was the norm so I added that ($1.95) and also some Moyashi (bean sprouts - $1.95). Which brought my bowl to almost $19.

    Man, check out that chashu. It looked different from the version I'd had on my previous visit. It was still the same overly lean cut, but was also super salty. In fact, I wasn't able to finish it!

The tamago was even better in flavor this time around, but was still ice cold.

And salty is indeed the key word here; as the broth was also a sodium bomb. I couldn't really get past the saltiness. The texture is still on the thin side for this version as well.

Wanna see how much bean sprouts you get for two bucks here? At least it soaked up some of the broth and helped to cut the saltiness.

The one bright spot were the perfectly textured, springy noodles, that did a great job picking up the broth. Now it would have been great if it wasn't so salty....and I like salty foods!

Well, I decided that two initial visits would do it for now. I'll wait a while to revisit, hopefully things will improve.

Baikohken Ramen
690 University Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103
Current Hours:
Wed - Mon 12pm - 230pm, 5pm - 930pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Also, is it just me, or does it seem like Hillcrest is ramen central now? Isn't there like 5 ramen shops within a mile? I know UTC has 3 and near Convoy things are more spread out. What do you think?