mmm-yoso!!!

Teri Cafe is now Katsu Cafe

I've never been the biggest fan of Teri Cafe, which I've always thought served low second tier Americanized, Japanese food with sort, kinda, maybe, a plate lunch-ish touch. There were however, folks who really felt that I was totally wrong and they've let me know that over the years. So, I finally decided to circle back to Teri Cafe and give them a serious shot, just no "rolls" or ramen for me. I was in for quite a surprise.

So, first things first. The miso woup here was heinously bad, watered down, lukewarm and without flavor.

Second, my yakisoba was delivered and I was given a fork and spoon....no chopsticks, which I had to go and get.

The noodles were decent, but overall this wasn't nearly as good as what I had here before, which wasn't all that great anyway. The flavor was on the bland side, I like my yakisoba to have hints of worcestershire and the flavor here was faint. It also lacked any of the typical garnishes like pickled ginger. I was content with the chicken, which could have been cooked a bit more to give it a bit of crust, but it was fairly moist. I was glad the teriyaki sauce was on the side as the version here tastes a bit too heavy in soy and is pretty salty.

As I was leaving I was surprised to see the change of ownership notification......

And a few days later, Teri Cafe became Katsu Cafe. So why not check it out, right?

It was exactly the same restaurant, menu, decor......

Ironically, "Katsu" isn't on the menu per se; it's still listed as Chicken Cutlet and Pork Cutlet on the menu. I recall being corrected once when I ordered the Chicken Katsu, "you mean, the chicken cutlet...."

Well, to check on the namesake, sort of, I ordered the Chicken Katsu Cutlet ($8.65). It was nice to see that I was provided chopsticks by the really friendly....extra friendly, like everyone suddenly took happy pills friendly, girls here.

And guess what, they brought me chopsticks without having to ask for them!

You really can't fault the portion size, though that green salad is much too large and the dressing too thin and sour. The potato-mac salad on the other hand is decent, but seems to have a bit of a citrus taste to it that I really don't care for.

The chicken could have been fried a while longer, it was too light in color and soft. Much of it peeled away from the chicken, meaning the product was probably too cold when breaded. The sauce tasted like by-the-book bottled katsu sauce, which is not a bad thing. All-in-all, it was sustenance.

One big improvement; the miso soup, while still not great, at least had more flavor and was served hot.

This was certainly not a bad lunch; so I decided to return.

Tonkatsu, ummmm Pork Cutlet ($8.65):

Basically the same production as the previous visit with the miso soup and salads. This time however, they had done a nice fry job on the pork. The panko was crisp and sported a nice color. Just based on the portion size and price point, I didn't expect this to be say; Kayaba, and it was not, as the pork was on the dry side, though it was adequately tender.

So where does Katsu Cafe rank? Well kinda in the Chopstix category for me. It's not bad, the portions are fairly large, the staff seemed a lot more friendly...the owner was bouncing around contantly talking on his phone rather loudly, checking the television, the doors, everything but the customers on both visits; kind of like he didn't feel comfortable talking to them..... Personally, based on these two visits, I think it's a bit better than it was, perhaps new blood has provided a bit of fire. Plus, I overheard the owner talking loudly on the phone that he was replacing Pepsi with Coke.

So perhaps I'll drop in every once in a while to see if they start calling their Cutlet, Katsu.......

Katsu Cafe
7305B Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111 

COMC: Guess the Curry and other silliness

It's been a while since I've done one of these C(learing) O(ut the) M(emory) C(ard) type posts. So, here's some silliness for the day:

Guess where the curry is from:

It seems that curry has been my default choice when I really am not sure what I'm craving in recent weeks. So can you guess where each of these three are from? If you look carefully, this really isn't hard at all.

1.

2.

3.

Here's a preview of our next installment....guess the karaage!

Just joking...well...maybe not!

Let's just end with some sashimi and sushi shots.......because one can never get enough of those, right?

Noodling Around: Mien Trung, Pho Lucky, Santouka, and Ramen Yamadaya

I believe I've mentioned that over the last couple of years, rice has been replaced as my starch of choice by noodles. Never has it been more apparent than over the last two hectic, busy weeks at work. Sheeesh....and like I've also said before, I don't think this blog would still be in existence were it not for Cathy and Ed from Yuma. Who always come to the rescue.

Anyway, long days, meant more than my fair share of long strips of dough. Here's a round-up.

Mien Trung:

There's nothing like a spicy, sweat inducing,  end to the day....and soup is good too! Mien Trung just does Bun Bo Hue right for me; spicy, salty, sour, is the formula. The soup is always hot which welcomes the shredded veggies and herbs. When the broth does edge toward salty, a touch of lime tames the sodium.

The Missus still enjoys the Bun Rieu, though She take umbrage to Mien Trung's switching of the noodles for the Bun Rieu to the wrong style.

Mien Trung Restaurant
7530 Mesa College Dr
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Lucky:

I wanted a real bowl of Pho Bo Kho after the lack luster version at Spotted Cow, even though I had to wait a couple of weeks.

This bowl had twice the meat, twice the flavor, and was cheaper than the food court equivalent.

Oh, and there was a fire sale on tendon on this day....must have been a "Lucky" one for me.

Pho Lucky
9326 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126

Santouka Ramen:

A cold snap means that the Missus is looking forward to ramen. Her favorite is still Santouka's Shio Toroniku Ramen with Egg, not cheap, but totally comfort food. This one with Chasu Gohan added.

Ramen's popularity has spawned one good thing....folks understand ramen now. I hardy hear all that whining about how ramen is so expensive compared to pho. Well, I still hear it sometimes, perhaps I've just gotten better at ignoring it.

Santouka Ramen
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd
San Diego, CA 92111

Ramen Yamadaya:

**** Ramen Yamadaya has closed

I gotta ask....what happened here?

We ordered the Kotteri (extra rich) Tonkotsu and got this, watery and bland. A far cry from what I had just a couple of weeks ago. This was rather insipid and barely past lukewarm in temperature.

The chasu has improved and the kakuni pork was pretty good too. But the main reason we choose Yamadaya is for the broth.

This was disappointing......

Ramen Yamadaya
4706 Clairement Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Chopsticks Inn Restaurant-La Mesa

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog.  Centered mostly around food, we (Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy) write about various places, recipes, ingredients.  Here's a post about a place, written by Cathy.

As mentioned in another post, frequently I meet clients for an exchange of paperwork and often they offer to buy me lunch.  I let them choose the location, asking them where's a place they enjoy- knowing they might not be as adventurous as I- and also they are aware of the price point, since they have offered to pay. 

Chopsticks Inn has been in the corner of this storefront area in La Mesa since 1988. It's the same corner and shares the same parking lot as La Mesa Bistro & Bakery . The owner of Chopsticks Inn was born in SouthEast China, moved to Hong Kong where she grew up with her Grandmother and eventually moved to the US, learning Japanese and Thai cooking along the way. As you can see from the signage, a multitude of Asian cuisine choices are available. 

The interior of the restaurant is decorated in a higher end Asian look. The waitstaff is friendly, efficient and knowledgeable.  

We both ordered lunch specials, which came with a choice of soup.  Hot and Sour and Egg Drop were our choices.  When we were first seated, the fried wonton strips and small plate serving of a sweet/vinegar 'duck' sauce were brought to the table. 

The Red Curry Chicken lunch plate ($7.55)- came with the soup, an egg roll (all vegetable), cream cheese fried wonton, steamed rice and a very good size serving of red curry chicken-made with fresh mushroom, red and green bell peppers and celery.  Yes, celery, which was very complimentary with the flavors. 

The Kung Pao chicken ($7.25) was also accompanied by the same sides, as this was also a lunch special. You can see it also had fresh mushrooms, celery and is topped with peanuts.  It wasn't very spicy-hot, but was made with very fresh ingredients and tasty...had just a bit of heat, which was nice.

Fortune Cookies were brought out with the bill.  I haven't seen packaged Fortune Cookies in a long time and it was fun reading and exchanging our predictions. (Hot tea was $1 each).

This was a very nice, quality meal.  I noticed the Dim Sum is a la carte as well as available as platters, that Bento boxes are available at lunch and dinner prices and many noodle and rice dishes are available along with Chinese "Family" meals (priced per person).  A new item they were promoting were Boba beverages.  

A very interesting restaurant in an unexpected location.

Chopsticks Inn Restaurant 8687 La Mesa Boulevard La Mesa, CA 91942 open Tues-Sun 11 a.m-9 p.m.  (619) 466-4470 Website

Jump Tokyo

mmm-yoso!!!, food blog, descriptions, sharing experiences.  Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy write here quite a bit.  This time, it's Cathy's turn.

Long story short, a client wanted me to meet for lunch and exchange of paperwork. Knowing I lived 'just up the road' (Friars Road turns into Mission Gorge Road, going straight into Santee), he suggested Jump Tokyo, which is at the intersection where the name change occurs.  I have seen Jump Tokyo over the years (more than ten years), passing by when parking in the lot to go to other restaurants in the same parking lot, but never have eaten here.

It's in the same mall with a Rubios, Einstein's, Carl's Jr as well as Troy's Greek Restaurant, San Diego Brewing Company, Saigon Star, Gaglione Brothers, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Ra Ka De Ka and several other restaurants.  Within walking distance from Kaiser Hospital, the businesses are always buzzing.  The parking lot is large enough to handle cars for all the restaurants (Looking at you, Convoy Street) and I've never had a problem finding a spot here.

Inside, the wooden tables and chairs are nice to see.  The decor on the walls includes paper specials.  

My friend ordered the chicken katsu plate ($7.95).  The chicken was a good size, pounded chicken breast that was lightly breaded and crispy fried-not burned nor dry. Placed on top of the shredded cabbage ensured the cutlet stayed crispy and didn't get soggy through the meal. It was served with the rice (topped with three edamame) and a generic salad, topped with a sesame oil based dressing.

We thought we had ordered vegetable tempura, but somehow received these tempura'd onion rings.  Same price ($4.95) as the vegetable tempura. Nicely fried, not greasy and the onions were sweet and thick..

I ordered the tuna tataki salad ($8.95). Not pretty, but very tasty and quite large. The hot tea was $1.50 each.

When we were part way through our meal a group of eight who were obviously 'regulars' came in and occupied one of the larger center tables.  They knew what they wanted to order and seemed very enthusiastic about each item when it was brought out (many rolls from the sushi area).  I'm going to have to explore the menu with The Mister some day.

Jump Tokyo 10450 Friars Road San Diego 92120 (619) 280-4043 

Noodling Around: Revisits to Ramen Yamadaya, Mien Trung, and Pho Convoy Noodle House

Well, it's finally starting to cool off a bit, which means I can start-up on noodle soup again. Here's a trio of revisits, with minimal verbiage.

Ramen Yamadaya:

**** Ramen Yamadaya has closed

Along with Santouka, one of my two favorite ramen shops in San Diego.

My usual M.O. is to order the Kotteri Ramen with Kakuni Pork, but that would have been pushing it a bit for lunch, so I just went with the Kotteri Ramen.

With noodles extra-firm of course.

The extra rich broth just gives you that "warm blanket on a cold day" comfort...makes me kinda look forward to winter.

Ramen Yamadaya
4706 Clairement Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Mien Trung:

For some reason I was kinda craving some Bun Bo Hue and the Missus was kind enough to humor me....even though it was almost 90 outside at the time. So I got my Bun Bo Hue and it was delici-yoso.......even through the perspiration running down my face.

The BBH here has sometimes been a tad off....but on this day it was just what I needed. As usual, the Missus got Her Banh Nam and we shared some Hen Xuc Banh Trang.....I just think an order of the Fish Sauce Wings from Que Huong, these spicy clams, and a couple of cold ones......aaaaaah....

Mien Trung Restaurant
7530 Mesa College Dr
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Convoy Noodle House:

**** Convoy Noodle House has closed

No, I didn't want to push my luck and have the pho here, which had been not so great on my last two visits. I had a bunch of meetings and either needed to have lunch at 10am or have nothing at all until dinner. Since they open at 10, I decided to grab a bowl of noodle soup.....the Mi Dac Biet (House special egg noodle soup) to be exact.

It's gone up 30 cents to $7.25. On the good side, the shrimp are deveined, the fish cake is decent, and the portion of noodles was nice. On the not so great side, the noodles were over-cooked, the pork tasteless and dry. The broth had flavor, though it seemed like mostly MSG....it used to be much better here. I'm wondering what happened?

Maybe I should go back to Pho? But you know what I think about the Pho in the area, right?

Pho Convoy Noodle House
4647 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Sunday Stuffs: Hinotez 2 replacing La Playita, Bristol Farms discounts, and what's fermenting in our hallway

Just some odds and ends for an "atsui" Sunday.

Hinotez 2 to open in the former La Playita location:

Cathy originally noticed the sad news that La Playita had closed.

This week she followed that up by telling me that Hinotez 2 was opening in that location. So I went over and sure enough, that's what it says.

I kinda find this a bit odd.....I've been to Hinotez a good dozen times and the place has never been what I'd call busy, but maybe I'm going during the wrong time. It'll be interesting to see what this tiny shop will be doing.....perhaps take-out only?

5185 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Bristol Farms discount:

I know, it's already pricey, so what's 10% gonna do? Well, we do shop here about once a week, the Missus enjoys the sausages, and I like the meat department, especially when there are good sales, like baby back ribs for $3.99. So anyway, I saw this on my last trip and though some folks might be able to take advantage of the discount...it's for both students and faculty, which is nice.

Bristol Farms
8510 Genessee Ave
San Diego, CA 92122

What that fermenting in our hallway:

Well, the Missus decided She wanted to make Her own sauerkraut, go figure. So after doing some checking online She decided to go with the 10 liter Harsch Gairtropf Fermenting Crock Pot. So we've got a bunch of purple cabbage fermenting away......this type of crock uses a water seal, so every so often gas is released through the water with a fairly loud "blooop". It can throw you off a bit. You'll be sleeping then hear "blooop"......

As for the smell? I just blame that on Da' Boyz.....

Hanging with Ed from Yuma at Sushi Tadokoro

I finally got to hang out with Ed from Yuma and Tina on a recent visit to San Diego. It had been a while, so it was great to catch up on things. I thought Tadokoro would be the perfect place. Like I said before, I've posted enough on this place already so here we go with a pseudo COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card) type of post.

Seems like Take-san is always trying a new wrinkle here and there....this time the ankimo had ponzu gelee.....

Take-san told us he had "lots of good things tonight....." he wasn't kidding.

Ed's "delici-yoso dance" even made an appearance! I hope you enjoyed dinner Ed; it was nice seeing the both of you!

Sushi Tadokoro
2244 San Diego Ave
San Diego, CA 92110

Raki Raki Revisited - Waylaid by a ramen burger

I had promised myself a return visit to Raki Raki to have the Tsukemen back in November when the weather got a bit warmer.....well, if the record heat we had recently wasn't a sign from some divine being....in short, it was tsukemen time.

But a funny thing happened on the way to my noodles. I believe I'm usually hype free and don't really follow fads. Yep, I'm just your usually fuddy duddy, boring kinda guy. But in a moment of temporary insanity I ordered this:

A ramen burger.......or should I say a "Dream Come True California Ramen Burger" ($9.75)

Even I have those moments it seems....after eating this I mumbled "what was I thinking" to myself as I walked into the psycho parking lot on Convoy. Hopefully not too loud....

The burger is 100% angus beef, over-worked and cooked to death as it's tough as leather. The flavor is nice and beefy. All of the juices from the burger seemed to have collected in the greasy, bland, flaccid, mushy bunch of noodles used as a bun. The fry job on these was lousy as it fell to greasy pieces after two bites. I had imagined something like crispy "cake noodle" like I get back home, this was not very good. The "crisp" rolled pork slice they call "underbelly" was more like hard and the edges burnt and bitter.

The sweet potato fries were light and mildly crisp, with good flavor.

But man, who you gonna sue for this oil spill?

This was like something dreamt up in a college dorm room after a couple hits of the cash crop. For a more mature point of view, perhaps you should read Kirbie's post on the ramen burger.

I sent out texts and photos to my friends, then had a moment of paranoid reflection.......first Yes! Pingo and now a ramen burger...what's going on? What next...a Harley, porn 'stache, and a couple of tats? Maybe this was that male menopause I'd seen my friends go through? Yikes!

I needed to fix this......which I did by returning for the Standard Tsukemen ($8.75).

 It was as before, noodles with a nice texture, perhaps a bit over-priced for what you get, and the broth edged on the too salty side.

But most importantly, this seemed like a return to normalcy. At least for now....

RakiRaki Ramen and Tsukemen
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

 

Bentowich

*** Bentowich has closed

I get some pretty interesting emails at times.....and as many of the other food bloggers can attest, about a good third of them are press releases, free stuff (which really isn't free if you think about it), and all of the other PR driven spiel. I even get my share of emails from folks.... whom I shall affectionately call "shills". Don't take this the wrong way, some of these folks are endearing as heck...and others, well, I'm thinking it's a single, or perhaps a small group of folks are plain persistent. I'd been getting emails for almost six months, at a pace of about one every two weeks, from different email addresses, all with pretty much the same writing style, telling me about their "favorite place".....with the rather strange name of Bentowich.

Yes, I get it.....bentos and (sand)wiches. I thought the location a bit odd; at the outskirts of Old Town....but in retrospect, I think it's a pretty good idea, Japanese Fast Casual among the scores of Cantinas and tourist traps.

So I finally made it down on a bright (and hot) Saturday, finding parking on a side street. The interior looks efficient and spartan.....

The outdoor seating area is quite nice and bright, if a bit too hot this time of the year. Still, when things cool down it'll be a great place to have a meal.

The concept is a lot simpler than the name would suggest; you pick your protein, determine the context (bento, sandwich, yakisoba, salad), add a couple of toppings/sides, sauce, soup or salad(and dressing), and your on your way.

The assembly is pretty much fast-casual, the food is already prepped/sliced, you deep fry or saute adding some sauce, take it to the Kelvinator where it's put together, and you're done. The key high lite of all of this is that everything is made fresh to order, a key component of "fast casual" type places. There are some unique touches, like having my bento served in a nice bento box.

As you can see, I went with the Sliced char Siu Roast Pork ($8), bento style.

You can chose white rice, brown rice, or onigiri, which is what I choose. You might as well go with white rice as this onigiri is truly white rice scooped into an onigiri mold, other than some furikake on one and some nori on the other, it's not really flavored (i.e. I grew up with onigiri seasoned mildly with salt.

The two "sides" I order were the pickled daikon and carrots and the Asian cole slaw. The pickled daikon was way too sour and salty, while the cole slaw was rather unremarkable. I selected the green salad with Miso Caesar dressing which was watery and weak.

Having seen that the pork was pre-sliced and portioned off, I expected it to be dry and tough, but it was cut thin enough for it to be tender and sauteed quickly keeping it moist. The "teriyaki" sauce was very mild, a hint of sour, more of a glaze, without much sugar, which actually worked in its favor as the flavor of the pork came through nicely.

I thought this was decent in terms of value and quality, so I decided to drop by again when driving back from a meeting in Hillcrest. The pickled daikon came to mind. While being way to sour and salty eaten solo; I thought it would be a great compliment to a sandwich. So I decided to get the Yakiniku Sliced Prime Rib in a sandwich, one of the more expensive items on the menu.

This was a nice sandwich. The roll held up well. The sauce, which tasted the same as what was on the pork kept things moist. The pickled daikon and carrots really added a nice refreshing component to the sandwich, a la banh mi.

I got the green salad again, this time with the wasabi ranch; which was again very runny and lacking in flavor. Sadly, it seemed that the dressings here are watered down.

Overall, the prices were decent, the folks working here, the low-keyed, efficient, and polite young lady, along with the very polite young man.....I'm still trying to pin down the exact time in my life when I became "sir", were very pleasant. So a few weeks later I decided to drop by on a Saturday.

I ordered a Chicken Katsu sandwich, something that I like, though will not get at most bento places because it's that awful combination of dry (the katsu) and mushy (the bread). But since they make the stuff to order at Bentowich, I really couldn't go wrong, right?

When it arrived I thought two things; both of them incorrect. First, the portion size looked quite small, but after opening the sandwich, the portions looked decent, if not especially large. Second, the breading looked really dark, so I thought this was going to be very dry, which it was not.

After my previous experiences with the salads...well, to be more precise, the salad dressing, I was going to get miso soup even though it was hotter than the sun's surface on this day. But after seeing the not so great looking soup on another customer's table, I relented and went with a salad again.......and finally found a dressing that I liked here, the Jalapeno Cilantro. Just enough zip and flavor for my taste.

Frankly, I'd be eating at Bentowich every so often if they were in my neck of the woods.....even though they won't make me forget about my favorite Japanese lunch places, I still prefer this to Chi-poodles and Ba-HA Flesh. The staff here is nice; even to the kind of "ticky" woman who I've seen here on two of my visits, who sits on the table right in front of the counter and has the kind of stare that gives me the creeps. I'm wondering, could she be the one who is...nah, couldn't be.

Bentowich
2367 San Diego Ave
San Diego, CA 92110

Ok, whoever you are, you can quit with the emails now!