mmm-yoso!!!

Sushi Hut- a local (3 store) ch-ch-chain

mmm-yoso!!! is the blog and Kirk is on vacation.  Here is another post of what Cathy ate one day.

Hi. I'm back with a short post.  The Mister and I went to one of the locations of Sushi Hut (in Mission Valley) around March of this year and were not overly impressed.  I even deleted those photos from my camera, planning to not talk about it, primarily because I didn't want to bother going back to try different dishes. Not bad food, not great food, just...food.

We were on Clairmont Mesa Boulevard the other day and saw a couple of places inside the parking lot Kitty Corner from the Rockler Store (and Cheetahs..the men reading this know where I am now, right?) and Lo and Behold, another Sushi Hut.  A chain- who knew?

Well, we were hungry; there is a Mexican place and a Boba place a few doors down, but we thought we could try Sushi Hut one more time, just to see if it was still...meh...just food, or something better.  We were pleasantly surprised.

The paper menu says that all photos and slogans are copy written, so I won't post a photo of the menu here, but you can look at it on the Sushi Hut website,

Basically the menu has sushi, rolls, Bento Plates, Bowls and wraps, along with some Combinations thereof.   They also make some beautiful looking Party Trays.

I decided to let another wrap come into my life- second one ever - I don't know where have been, but I wanted to try this version.  Teriyaki chicken, steamed vegetables and sweet rice.  ($4.59)It was a Teriyaki Bowl in a tortilla, and pretty good.   The chicken was all white meat, the Teriyaki sauce was not overwhelming (and I added some 'spicy teriyaki' from the condiment area after my first few bites), the vegetables were crispy/fresh steamed/not soggy and the rice was a good sticky rice.   The serving was quite large for me.

The Mister tried the Bento #2 Platter ($5.29) pretty much katsu chicken cutlets, rice, two fried shrimp and seaweed salad.   We recalled that on our first visit at the other location, they told us they were out of seaweed salad, which has become one of my cravings this year for some reason- I have to try the seaweed salad whenever I see it on a menu or for sale in a market.  This seaweed salad was good with a few different types of seaweed and a light sesame dressing and good, fresh crunch.  The chicken cutlet was lightly breaded and fried and topped with a Ponzu sauce and sesame seeds and the fried shrimp were  lightly breaded with breadcrumbs and light fried so that you could taste the sweetness of  the shrimp. 

All in all, Sushi Hut has a good fast service and fresh food.  The rolls are numerous and made fresh to order and some selections come in two sizes if maybe you just want to try a few. We were not impressed with the rolls the first time we got them at the Mission Valley location and did not want to try them on this visit.  If you are in the area, stop and try a bite. (This is my subtle way of saying don't go out of your way to try it).

Sushi Hut 8058 Clairmont Mesa Blvd San Diego 92111 (858) 874-5803

5624 Mission Center Road San Diego 92108 (619) 6889214

8240 Mira Mesa Blvd San Diego 92126 (858)689-2475

Website -Click here

Izakaya Masa - A Quiet Place for Lunch

Izakaya Masa is a little Mom and Pop Izakaya, located in little strip mall(with even less parking) on Fort Stockton Drive in Mission Hills. It used to be Teriyaki Cowboy, a nice teriyaki and bento shop, that was always pretty empty. Like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes. Teriyaki Cowboy has reinvented itself, and is now Izakaya Masa.

I visited Izakaya Masa when it first reopened, and well, though the menu had been expanded, and there was more sushi to be had, I really was not too impressed. I also didn't bring my camera along....and than came Naomi Wise's review for the Reader. Being not too fond of crowds I decided to let Izakaya Masa "rest" for a while, before finally settling in for a few lunches over the last couple of months. The little restaurant is reasonably close to work, and I enjoy the lunch time vibe, very relaxed, and quiet.....though the selection of Sake, Shochu, and Chu-hi is quite impressive and tempting.

Maybe you need a closer look:

An nice variety of Sake's on the list including Kubota Manju ($19/glass, $130/bottle), and Kubota Hekijyu ($12/glass, $80/bottle).

But since I'm here for lunch..........

My favorite lunch dish at Izakaya Masa is the Katsu Don(In this case chicken - $7):

I enjoy the sauce for the Katsudon, it is neither too sweet, nor too salty/fishy. The chicken is usually moist, and the Katsu is not over saturated and mushy. The one problem is with the breading technique as the panko will tend to peel off the chicken, which if the Missus was here, would be a no-no. Still flavor-wise I enjoy the Katsudon at Izakaya Masa. Of course the flavor that Beni shoga(sliced pickled ginger), and the green onions add cannot be denied.

A few weeks later I had the pleasure of grabbing a bite with JosephE, very active Chowhounder, and FOY (friend of yoso). Since he had not tried Izakaya Masa, we decided on grabbing a meal there.

Since Joseph had not tried Ankimo(monkfish liver), I decided to start with that.

This version was a bit on the hard side, in fact it had a bit of "squeak"(think almost cheese curds) to it. I'd have preferred the Ankimo to be a bit more creamy and rich. The flavor was very faint, though not too bad.

Joseph ordered the Tempura Bento Box ($8):

It looked like a nice variety of tempura, along with miso soup, green salad, and rice. I'll let Joseph take it from here: "I remember being pleased by the crispness of the coating and the delicate cream color, which suggested fresh, hot oil and good timing. There was no greasiness or coating of oil to mar the finish. I liked the variety of vegetables and thought the shrimp was still tender. I remember being particularly fascinated by the shiso leaf tempura, which was crisp as if it had been frozen in a dusting of snow." There you have it!

I ordered a dish that was from the old Teriyaki Cowboy menu, Masa's Fried Chicken ($7):

This is basically a spicy Chicken Karaage, I had wondered what changes, if any had been made since I last ate this dish. After a bite of the chunks of deep fried dark meat chicken, I could detect no difference. The batter had a mild spiciness(almost like something made with Kimchi base), and was not too salty. I also quickly found out that the batter was not crunchy, and the chicken was inexplicably tough and dry......

Portion-wise, throwing in the standard miso soup, gohan(rice), and green salad with a tangy ginger based dressing, and this was a pretty large lunch.

A few weeks later, I dropped by, in need of a fried-food fix, and ordered the Kushi-age Lunch($8):

Kushiage are basically skewered(Kushi), fried(Age) items. This is one of the more interesting lunch items on the menu at Izakaya Masa. For lunch, a variety of 4 panko breaded items are served. On this day, it was Renkon(Lotus Root), Shiitake Mushroom, Pork, and Dark Meat Chicken, all served with a bowl of Katsu-sauce.

The Renkon had no woodsy-earthy flavor to be found and was hard. To me was just a vehicle for the sauce.

The Shiitake Mushroom...tasted well, like Shiitake Mushroom, and was a bit on the tough side. I had expected a contrasting texture between the breading and the mushroom.

The chicken was moist and tender, if a bit mild in flavor.

The best item was the Buta(pork) Kushiage:

I expected tough and fatty, but got moist and soft, with just a touch of fat for flavor. Combined with the slightly tangy-savory flavor provided by the Katsu sauce, this was an excellent combination of flavor and texture.

Finally, recently I tried the Tonkatsu Curry-Rice($7). After ordering, I could hear the pork cutlet being pounded and tenderized, the sound of egg being beaten for my cutlet, by the time I heard the sizzle as the cutlet hit the oil I could have tried out for the part of one of Pavlov's Dogs . Here's what arrived at the table.

Nice tender pork cutlet, though again the breading would peel off the meat. I didn't care for the curry, it was too thin and runny, and though it had a bit of spiciness, the curry flavor in itself was very mild. The sauteed veggies dumped onto the cutlet didn't really impress me much either. I think I'll stick with the Katsudon.

And to answer your question before it's asked, no Izakaya Masa in not in the same league as Izakaya Sakura. That said, Izakaya Masa is more inexpensive. Overall Izakaya Masa is a nice little neighborhood "chochin" (red lantern) Izakaya. If I lived in the neighborhood, I'd probably be a regular like Gil and Krista. For now I'll settle for a nice quiet place for a reasonably priced lunch.

Some notes on Izakaya Masa: There are only 8 or so parking stalls in the strip mall, so parking is at a premium. The street parking (metered during the day) may be your best bet. If you want to sit at the "sake counter" you should make reservations.

Izakaya Masa
928 Fort Stockton Dr
San Diego, CA 92103
619-542-1354

Tues-Fri 1130pm - 230pm
  5pm - 10pm
Sat  5pm - 10pm
Sun      1130pm - 230pm
  5pm - 10pm

Sakura for lunch

mmm-yoso, the blog, is never on vacation.  Cathy is writing.

Hi.  This sort of is a repeat post, except I have never talked about Izakaya Sakura .  Kirk has blogged the Bento Lunch recently.  He has enjoyed a meal or two with Ed here and blogged it a few other times and all three of us recommend it to friends, co-workers and complete strangers online and, well, it is assumed and known that it is just good. The first time I met Kirk (and Captain Jack), it was here, for lunch... Gosh almost a year ago.

This is it-click onto the photo- see the "open" sign?  That is all the outdoor advertising you will ever see here.  Not on the large billboard on the street nor on the building (it is in the back of the parking lot where the Original Pancake House is located).

Very friendly, not too large, a limited menu- which they will give while explaining what is sold out already.  They do have sushi rolls at lunch on weekends and the lunch menu is good until 4:30 on Sunday (opposed to 2 p.m. the other days of the week) and, as always, everything is wonderful and fresh.

We started out with a cold tofu appetizer ($2.50).

I forgot to take out my camera and had to re-assemble this beauty..three medium sized pieces of a firm, fresh tofu, topped with sliced scallion greens, a thinly sliced okra-like vegetable and some freshly shredded horseradish (tasted like wasabi) and surrounded by a lot of large bonito shavings.

I liked the tofu plain but then when mixing bites of it with the wasabi and bonito and onion (the okra like vegetable was not pickled, not salty..it was sliced thin but could be considered crunchy but otherwise added not much flavor-wise) it brought out so many flavors.  It was just "fancy tofu" for me.

The Mister wanted something crunchy for his meal, so he got the "mixed tempura" ($7.50) Two pieces of shrimp and one piece of fish, along with 

tempura'd green beans, kombucha squash, thinly sliced Japanese eggplant and onion.  Light, crisp, fresh. Served with Japanese pickled veggies, salad with a homemade fresh ginger based creamy dressing, 

rice, fresh made (hot) tempura dipping sauce and some really good fresh made miso soup.  I assume the soup was made with a miso paste; it was so rich/deep flavored and had two small pieces of the firm tofu in it along with fresh seaweed.

I would like to add that piece of watermelon must be one of those Dulcinea seedless personal sized ones that costs quite a bit at the grocery store-it was packed with flavor.  The Mister put it aside and saved it for us to share for dessert.

At this time of year, Hiyashi Chuuka ($8.75) is available.  I had to...(in fact, I had to yesterday when we went to Chopstix for lunch...but I digress). Cold ramen noodles on the bottom in a light rice vinegar based sauce, topped with cold pork, bean sprouts, corn, shredded cucumber, sliced cold egg, ginger, fresh seaweed and top-topped with dried seaweed seaweed shavings and served on the side, a squirt of Kewpie Mayonnaise and hot mustard.  You basically mix it all together and eat.  Kind of upgraded leftovers and a real treat.  When you consider I do not crave noodles yet I will eat this two days in a row...well, you know I must love the stuff.  Oh, I got  side of pickled vegetables also.

The one thing we always get at Sakura- night (Izakaya) or at lunch (side order) - is Karaage ($3).  A simple, unassuming tidbit of 4 pieces of skinned chicken leg meat deep fried in a light flour breading and served in a bowl of fresh made sauce (not as salty as the tempura sauce) and a pile of shredded daikon radish.  At dinner it is not served with the sauce, but I enjoy mixing the remaining tart daikon with the sauce and slurping it up.

That's it.  Lunch. Sakura.  Good.

Izakaya Sakura 3904 Convoy, #121 San Diego 92121

For Those concerned about me getting my "greens"

To appease those who are concerned about the lack of "green" in my diet (various garnishes excluded), I dropped by Nozomi on Convoy. As our very own Cathy mentioned in Her post, Nozomi is a Korean owned "mini-chain" of Korean-Japanese restaurants.

Now Nozomi is a pretty popular lunch spot, known for large portions. In keeping with these type of operations, Nozomi also seems to serve every single version of Westernized sushi roll known to mankind.

Not my cup of tea...but if it floats your boat.....

There's really only one thing I order at Nozomi, and I always call it the "Hwe Dop Bop", I think it's called the Chirashi(scattered) Salad on the menu ($11.45). It is a ginourmous salad bowl with mixed greens on rice, topped with a variety of medium quality fish...maguro, hamachi, sake(salmon), ebi(shrimp), tobiko(flying fish roe), etc....

Now I really wouldn't want any of this fish topping a piece of nigiri sushi, but in this case I'm fine with it. Why, you may ask? Well it's because I end up pouring a ton of the Gochujang based sauce (Cho Jang?) all over the salad. The drill is simple, you mix all the salad ingredients together, spoon into accompanying bowl, top with a generous amount of sauce, and have at it. Try not to let the sweat pouring off your chin, nose, and down your back deter you from completing your mission.

That mission would be to finish all 8 or so bowls of salad..... like Momma always said, remember to clean your plate(in this case bowl). On this day, the maguro was not very good...which meant more sauce. During a single meal, I will sometimes go through almost a half bottle. As for flavors, I enjoy the flavor of the mizuna and the peppery kaiware(daikon radish sprouts). The sauce while not the best I've had, has a mild sesame oil - vinegar flavor, it could stand to be a touch sweeter. If you really think about it...I'd still eat this without the fish(except the tobiko, which adds a nice crunchy texture), but hey, you need your protein, right?

I have seen 2 people splitting this, but on this visit I watched in amazement as a tiny Korean Lady polished this off, along with a roll. And she finished before I did! Well, I did get my greens, and also approached food coma status without the aid of gravy, red meat, mayo, or any of a number of fried items. Eight bowls of salad.....my body's going into shock!

Nozomi Noodle & Teriyaki
4637 Convoy St Ste 104
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 569-7773

Speaking of sushi.....during a recent visit to Mien Trung, I noticed this sign in the window of what used to be La Basil Thai. Looks like a sushi joint called "Sushi Diner" will be taking the spot of La Basil. But tell me.....are you ready for "Diner" sushi?

The Revised Rotation

I've been blessed by blogging. Through our humble little food blog, I've gotten to know so many wonderful, kind, and generous people. It's also great to know that I'm not the only (slightly...) food obsessed person out there. I'm very happy to call Howie, who does the Foodieview, a friend.

Case in point, over the last year (yes, year...) I've received a few emails and comment, asking me when I'm going to update "My Rotation". Those would be the restaurants the Missus and I think about when we make plans to eat, whether it's the two of us, or dinner with friends, or something similar in nature. I had thought that a post was in order, but didn't quite know how to approach the whole thing. Suddenly it came to me(though it could have been gas....but we'll never know), I remembered Howie's post on embedding restaurant maps in posts. I thought it was pretty neat, and Howie was nice enough to demo what mmm-yoso's map would look like.....it did look like 300 map links stacked on one another....it seemed like I've been eating in the same place like a couple of hundred times! Now, I know Howie's a really busy guy, but I mentioned updating my rotation to Him, and sent him a list of places on our revised rotation, and to my surprise a short itme later I received a response. And there was a map! You can see a more detailed map with info here. So without further ado, here's Howie's work:

Pretty cool, huh?

Do you ever go back to restaurants? Latin Chef, Tsuruhashi, Asia Cafe, and Izakaya Sakura

A question posed in a recent email (thanks CVChow!), and of course the answer is a resounding yes! It's just that I'm perhaps a little slower on "the trigger" with places I've already posted on. But once in a while I still take photos. But questions like this made me realize that I need to update my "rotation", and I will do so in the upcoming weeks.

So here are some revisits, mostly photos...kind of what Uber OC Food Blogger Elmomonster would call a "photo super shoot"...in my case, it's just a bunch of photos....

Even More Latin Chef:

One of 3 restaurants I need to add to our rotation list. The Cebiche Pescado is a current obsession of the Missus:

She craves this once or twice a week, always finishing by sipping the Leche De Tigre (Tiger's Milk) with a spoon.

Here's a photo of the Tiradito:

Tiradito is, from what I've been told a Japanese influenced Peruvian raw fish dish. This version was made using the Aji Amarillo. The fish had been sliced into strips and slightly flattened with the blade of a knife. Hmmm, sounds really similar to some of the dishes a fairly well known Chef and Restaurant Owner named "Nobu" does. Nice, though not a refreshing as the Cebiche. BTW, did you know that the Sushi Bar in Lima that Nobu co-founded is still in business? It's called Matsuei, and on our list of possible restaurants to visit for our trip to Peru later this year.

You can find previous posts on Latin Chef here and here.

Tsuruhashi, Again:

We've been eating there every other week or so. In fact, I need to revise my statement about the manager. From our second visit on, he's been so very nice, and always comes by to chat or to say hello. In fact, as I left the other day, he stopped me, shook my hand, and in the very formal Japanese way, handed me his business card.

So here's some other stuff!

The Prime Beef Tongue:

Pork Belly:

A current favorite of the Missus, the Prime Tongue w/Onion.

You only cook this baby on one side...

One of my favorite "cuts" is the Prime Skirt, it is also one of the most inexpensive at $5.25.

Though a tad more chewy than other cuts, it is still quite tender. The payoff is the nice beefy flavor.

Another one for our rotation, the original post can be found here.

Even more Asia Cafe:

That doesn't mean we still don't visit some of our favorites. Here's a few photos from Asia Cafe during a recent really fun meal with Ed from Yuma.

The Yum Asia:

Nem Khao:

With the full complement of Greens and Herbs.

The See Nam Tok:

As good as I remembered. Previous posts on Asia Cafe can be found here and here.

The $12 Lunch Bento from Izakaya Sakura:

So many posts on this place. Here's a photo I had lingering around, Clayfu has a nice post.

You can read the Chowhound post here. It is a lot of food, almost too much for a workday lunch, if you know what I mean. I've heard complaints about the lunch not being very hot....methinks that person does not know what a "bento" lunch is all about. It's a box lunch, whose history goes back to the 11th or 12th century. While digging around, I found a nice little post here. Other posts on Sakura can be found here, here, and here.

Finally, a bit of Saturday silliness:

Earlier this week, I was standing in line at the grocery check-out, and you know how some couples talk really loud, and sometimes you learn or hear a bit more than you really wanted. This young couple was in the midst of a conversation....

Young Lady: "I heard a joke that I really don't understand....I think it's really stupid, and not funny."
Young Man: "What what is...."
YL: "Some of the guys were joking around, and said - Milk a bull, and make a friend for life..."
YM chokes and spits his gum out involuntarily: "Gasp....."
YL: "What's so funny...you can't milk a bull!"
By now everyone in line is cracking up, the cashier is turning a nice red color.
YM: "Think about it, if you tried to milk a bull....."
YL: "Hey, I'm not stupid, I know Bulls are male and you can't milk them!"
YM: "Say, you tried to milk a bull?"
YL: "But you can't milk a bull...."
YM, by now somewhat composed: "But if you really tried to, ahem, milk a bull......."
YL: "That's just dumb...."
YM, looking around at all the laughing people: "Must be a lot of dumb people in this line...."

Have a nice weekend.......

Sushi Time

A few months back, I was having some sushi, and since eating at the sushi bar is very much a "social" activity, the nice gentleman to my left struck up a conversation. As with many of my conversations, the subject ended up being steered toward food (If anything, I'm consistent), and in particular, sushi. Toward the end of the conversation, he leaned toward me, and in the most conspiratorial tone, started whispering the name of "his" favorite sushi bar. Was it Ota? Maybe Shirahama? Or Sakura? The conversation went something like this:

"Sushi.....in Lemon Grove, huh?"
"Yeah, it's my go-to place in East County for sushi...."
"What's the name of the place?"
"It's called Sushi Time, I know, I know, don't let the name fool you"
"Really? Sushi Time, in Lemon Grove...."

And so, a few months later, here I was on the corner of Federal Boulevard and College Avenue. I guess it was sushi time...

I had seen this place before when visiting a nearby taco shop, but never, ever, thought I'd be eating here. I entered the dark restaurant which was pretty busy, and quickly noticed 2 things; first, I was the only Asian customer in the entire restaurant, and number two, there was the ubiquitous sheets of colored paper with names of various "rolls" taped across the back of the sushi bar......

I found a seat before two of the Itamae working, and started up a conversation with the young man. I was given a check-off sheet for sushi, SOP in most of these type of places, but decided to ask and see what was "good" this evening.

Me: "So what's good today?"
Young Itamae: Looks at me, and after taking a brief pause, "What do you eat?"
Me: "I eat anything...."
Young Itamae: Shrugs his shoulders, and gives me a small grin, "Well, we have most everything on the menu..."
Me: "Toro?"
Young Itamae: "Oh sorry, no toro...."

Somewhat nonplussed and realizing I was going nowhere, I did strategy two, and bought the Itamae some beer. Which made things quite friendly all around. I never did find out what "was good", but I did find out that the two really nice "kids"(Joe from the Valley, and Sho-go from Okinawa) were both students at San Diego State. The older gentleman was the Owner, but during my visits I never had the chance to sit in front of Him, though we had a nice conversation. It seems that he's also from Okinawa, and knew both Jou(former Owner of Sushi Ishikawa) and Kuni (former Owner of Katzra).

So I placed an order "to start" and after watching about two dozen rolls go by, the first part of my order was handed to me. And I was in shock...

It's hard to discern from the photo, but these were the largest nigiri I've ever had, in both the amount of fish, and rice.....

The Hamachi "Toro"($5.95) was quite good, creamy, with nice fat.

A far cry from the amazing Buri Toro I once had, but I was quite pleased. Much better than expected.

The Albacore "Toro"($5.95) was not quite as good, a bit on the stringy-tough side.

I'm not a big fan of Sriracha on nigiri, and made a mental note to ask to have it left off next time.

I'd asked for Hirame (Flounder) but they were out. By this time, the Young Itamae making my sushi suggested something called "white tuna"($4.95) on the menu. Now, I'm in the habit of calling Albacore "Shiro Maguro"(White Tuna), but they already had Albacore on the menu. This is what arrived:

After a bit of questioning, Joe explained that this was Escolar. Now I've had Escolar cooked, but never raw. Also, Escolar is banned in Japan, why, you may ask? Well, you can read about it here. Looks a lot like Chilean Sea Bass, but it didn't have much flavor, and I could tell that this was "saku" (cut and refrozen) fish. It had that mushy-watery texture of "saku" fish. If you're wondering, I had no side effects, even though Sam later told me, "Kirk-san do not eat that fish, people die from eating it!"(I think a bit over dramatic on his part) It seems that after consuming Escolar a percentage of  people suffer from Keriorrhoea, nuff said, you can read about it yourself, after all this is a food blog, so let's get back to the food.

By this time, I was pretty full from the jumbo nigiri, but still had one more item coming. The Amaebi:

 

This was fine, not overly sweet, but okay. The Atama(deep fried shrimp heads) were a bit too hard and chewy.

By his time, I had hit the wall, I was totally stuffed. I was still a bit surprised at the size of the Nigiri. Thinking that perhaps I got preferential treatment because of the "beer", I asked him if the size of the nigiri (I was the only person who I saw eating Nigiri that whole evening) was the norm. He replied that this was the "normal" sized nigiri sushi. The sushi was fine for neighborhood sushi. As you can tell, the cutting of the fish was not done with an immense amount of skill, but the rice was uniform in size.

When I returned home and downloaded my photos, realized that it was hard to determine the size of the nigiri. That when I decided to make another visit to Sushi Time...more research, you could say! This time it was on a Friday night, and the place was fairly busy, I could see various rolls practically flying out to hungry patrons sitting in the dining area. I managed to grab a seat in the exact same spot as my previous visit.

So this time, I ordered with some caution. And started with some Chu-Toro, the piece of fatty tuna toward the end of the belly. It's not quite as fatty or rich as O-Toro, but usually good nonetheless.

This was not bad, I've had better, and I've had worse. It pretty low in the fat department, but I was satisfied. I also got the last of it. I can see how that happened, thought these were not as large as the nigiri on my last visit, it was still quite large, and you can't get too many nigiri from one piece.

I tried to figure out a way to communicate the size...I think a comparison to my index finger came out the best:

Or maybe my cellphone(this was the smaller of the two pieces)

This time they had Hirame($4.50), but I forgot to tell them to not put on the Sriracha:

The fish was fresh, firm without being too tough and chewy.

Albacore($4.50):

Just so-so.

As before the Hamachi "Toro" was the best item of the night.

When you think about it, Sushi Time does a pretty good job for a place that does everything from Donburi to Teriyaki to Sushi. The clientle is as diverse as the menu. The service I received was very nice, even though the poor Itamae were slammed...I've never seen so many sushi rolls in my life. Personally, I'm not a big fan of super-sized sushi, preferring the perfect bite, and quality over quantity, but Sushi Time does a pretty good job, and the fish varied from decent to good. Plus, Sho-go and Joe were both really nice guys.

Sushi Time
6950 Federal Blvd
Lemon Grove, California 91945

Shizuoka Japanese Restaurant -It's been in La Mesa for all those years for a reason

Welcome to mmm-yoso the blog.  Today, it's Cathy's turn because Kirk just doesn't want to blog.

Hello again, friends. As you know I live in East County and sort of know the area.  If you are familiar, then...over there on Fletcher Parkway, where the Souplantation and Michael's are - in that strip mall- is, and has been, Shizuoka.  There are 12 or 13 tables inside, depending how you divide up those in the center, they have never expanded or extended their lunch hours or dinner hours, and the menu has stayed pretty much the same over all these years. (The dinners are 50¢ more than lunch and beef is $1 more than chicken).  17 or 18 years, in fact.  Sure, prices have gone up in general, but for the most part, that is it.  You still walk in and the nice ladies all say 'hello' (and they all say 'goodbye' when you leave).  The tables are always set with paper napkins and chopsticks.  The hot tea has always been free.  Sure, its served in a plastic teapot, with plastic teacups , but it is always fresh and tasty. 

Pretty much everything comes with miso soup, which always has seaweed and tofu in it and it is always hot.  It isn't the instant miso but made from the paste. 

Rich broth.  Soft, silky  tofu. Re-hydrated seaweed, with flavor.

We got the Chicken Karage as an appetizer ($3.20). Quite a lot of dark meat chicken, lightly breaded with a slightly spicy batter and served with a Ponzu sauce.

Light, crispy, flavorful without the sauce and...well...only $3.20.  It was a great start.

We each just wanted teriyaki Bentos this evening and I got the chicken with gyoza as my other choice. ($6.20)

All the Bento Boxes are served with a green salad with a nice ginger sesame dressing , a delightful cold noodle salad that is consistently al dente and has a wonderful mayonnaise based sauce and, the square of tofu in the middle.

The Mister got the beef teriyaki with his additional choice being sashimi- tuna, sliced thinly, in three pieces... but it had flavor.

Oh, the teriyaki sauce is a deeper flavor than I have had at other places and is not sickly sweet.  My gyoza were filled with a well seasoned ground pork filling with water chestnuts and a small amount of scallion, adding  just the right flavor as well as texture.  The gyoza skins are not too thick nor thin and the gyoza are fried to a nice crispness.

This place does a brisk take out business and is always busy.  There is a wait, it is a teensy waiting area and you will be seated in the order you walk in and stand there.  It is best to get there when they first open (they are closed between lunch and dinner) so you can be assured of a seat.  It is a wonderful, small, not fancy place with great fresh food.

Shizuoka Japanese Restaurant 9118 Fletcher Parkway La Mesa 91942 (619)461-1151 (in the mall with the Souplantation and Michael's)

Tues-Fri 11:30-1:45, 4:30-8:45   Sat and Sun 4:30-8:45

Tokyo Sushi Loha on El Cajon Boulevard- which is *not* the same place as Tokyo in El Cajon

Welcome to the blog called mmm-yoso.  Despite the fact that it is an Asian restaurant, Kirk is not blogging about it; Cathy is.  It's OK.  She knows if food is good or bad.

Hi again. A few people told me about this sushi place near SDSU, and that I should try it.  I didn't think about the name of it.  The Mister and I went there for lunch the other day...I saw the name was Tokyo Sushi Loha...sounded...well...heck, I had blogged about Tokyo in El Cajon, and  remember one comment, from  Mike, who said he went to Tokyo all the time and their sushi had the best prices in town...and well, if you read that post, you can see it was part of my string of bad meals (and actually, generally bad days) I was having back in February.   It came full circle when I was eating in this lovely restaurant.  

I really think Mike was talking about this place, which is on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego and not in El Cajon.  This place is good.  The sushi bar is very large and always busy.

As you can see from the menu (click on any photo and it enlarges) they have lunch specials, a variety of items for dinner and sushi and rolls.

There are only 13 tables inside, 12 seats at the sushi bar. It was almost full at 1 p.m.. The menu covers are made of bamboo, and so are the paper wrapped chopsticks.  When they bring you the menu, they also give you the sushi and roll menu and a pen, so you can order that way if you wish. We decided to not go with the specials and ordered some crazy things, oddly, no rice was involved in any of our dishes. {Actually there was a reason for my eating no carbs, and you'll find that out in a future post}

We read the sushi and roll menu and decided on the very last one listed- "Monkey Brains"- ($6.95)

Hush.

Deep fried spicy tuna with mushroom.  Well, the idea of a deep fried mushroom sounded like County Fair Food and we both enjoy that as one of our treats when we do go to the Fair, as well as we wanted to try some spicy tuna...so we chose it. There were those four half tennis ball sized pieces as the serving- and then the cross section- spicy tuna, a layer of real crab and then a flavorful portobella mushroom cap on the bottom, deep fried.  The description did not say it had crab, but I did notice that 'crab' was spelled correctly all over the menu, so I was happy.  The melding of the flavors was perfect.  The tuna was a nice spicy hot, the crab and mushroom both flavorful, the crunchies, fish eggs and green onions left over helped with our other plates and the sauce on the plate had a nice blend of sweet and heat.  The fried crust was nice, light,not oily.  Sure, nothing traditional, but we have established that I am the Caucasian person from East County blogging here...It tasted good and was fresh.

We decided to try the sesame chicken appetizer ($5.95) as opposed to the sesame chicken lunch special, which would have been $1 more and had less chicken, but would have had rice, a piece of tempura'd onion, salad, and 4 pieces of California roll.  This was all chicken in a not too sweet teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds, served with daikon (and a piece of broccoli) This was a good 3/4 pound, easily, of dark meat chicken and was cooked well- the meat was juicy and flavorful.  I did end up dipping it in the hot sauce from the 'Monkey Brains',  just to get rid of some of the sweetness after eating a good portion of it.

We decided to try the Seared Albacore Salad ($7.95).  This was a good choice.  The albacore was cut in chunks and not thinly sliced, as it would be for sashimi, but it was only lightly seared, still raw in the center of each cube and served on a bed of mixed greens with a nice spicy dressing, daikon, radish sprouts and, as you can see, surrounded by a border of thinly sliced tomato.  It was just a beautiful, as well as flavorful, presentation.   There was a lot of albacore on this salad, as well as the token piece of burdock, which seems to be included on every salad in every Japanese restaurant we go to.

There were many Caucasian people eating lunch here.  All the workers were Japanese.  I heard the owner is Korean. Everyone was helpful and friendly and willing to answer questions.  It is a small place.  MY ONLY COMPLAINT WAS THE MUSIC WAS TURNED UP FULL VOLUME THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE THERE. Five television sets, two set to basketball and three set to Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera 'live' concerts.

Tokyo Sushi Loha Japanese Bistro 6784 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite D San Diego 92115 (619)644-8600  fax (619) 697-1937

Lunch Mon-Sat 11:30-3:00  Dinner Mon-Sat 5:00-9:30 (10:00 on Fri-Sat) Dinner only Sunday 4:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Suzuya Japanese BBQ - A Revisit

*** Suzuya has closed

The Missus has been on a roll lately, on a Yakiniku/Korean BBQ roll to be precise. So after a very nice meal at Tsuruhashi, the Missus decided that She was ready for Suzuya....just for comparisons sake, of course! This was great for me, since I'd enjoyed my previous lunches at Suzuya, I was looking forward to trying out the dinner menu. We arrived at about 7pm on a recent Tuesday to find Suzuya completely empty.

I liked the way Suzuya is designed, with nice spacing between tables, and a understated but classy set- up for an Asian BBQ joint. Now there is one specific item that sets Suzuya apart from Tsuruhashi, and that would be that Suzuya serves Shabu-Shabu(Japanese style Hot Pot). Now the Missus was pretty excited at the prospect of having some Shabu-Shabu, it's one of Her favorite styles of eating, and frankly, it had been a while. The bummer was that on the placard it says "Two order minimum", which it would seem would blow the possibility of having a combo Yakiniku/Shabu Shabu dinner out of the water. And this requirement kinda made sense since the table had only one brazier on it. So we mentioned this to the nice young man waiting on us, who said, "just one minute", and walked to the kitchen area. He came back in a minute and said that since the restaurant was empty, they'd make an exception, and charge us slightly more. We had no problem with that, in fact we were really pleased with the service.

Soon enough the dipping sauces for the Shabu-Shabu arrived.

The condiments were the standard "Gomatare"(sesame dipping sauce) which in this case was a combination miso and sesame dipping sauce and lemon based Ponzu. also provided was a rustic type of Momiji Oroshi(usually grated daikon and chili), which in this case was grated daikon and togarashi, and thinly sliced green onions.

Soon enough a pot of water with some Kombu(kelp) arrived and placed on the burner.

Notice a problem with the photo? Well, Kombu should NEVER be boiled, as it will add a bitter flavor to the liquid. I just had to remove it.

Soon enough all of the "stuff" started arriving.....remember, this is for one order of Shabu Shabu. First the thinly sliced Rib Eye.

Well marbled meant a very moist and tender meat when briefly submerged in the liquid.

A nice generous helping of Napa Cabbage, Shingiku(Garland Chrysanthemum), Shiitake Mushroom, Tofu, Gyoza(dumplings), Onion, Carrot, and Udon. The shingiku was very fresh and had a nice flavor. The Missus enjoyed the Udon the most, as it had a nice, mildly chewy, pull to it.

This was a nice start to the meal....in fact it almost felt like enough food for the whole meal! As soon as we were done, everything was whisked away and the cooking surface placed on top of the flame, and we were ready for the Yakiniku portion of the meal.

The sauces provided for the Yakiniku was a Aka(red) miso based sauce, that had a nice sweet-miso flavor, and the standard ponzu sauce.

We started with Beef Tongue, which has become the Missus's favorite.

This however, was not the best version of tongue we've had. It was very tough, and was a bit off in terms of flavor.

The Mixed Vegetables.

Everything was as good as veggies should be. Being the carb lover, I enjoyed the boiled potatoes after they'd been grilled for a while. The Shiitakes also were excellent, but overall, I felt that I could make this at home.

The "Prime" Rib Eye:

Unfortunately, in this case the picture doesn't lie...you can draw your own conclusions......

The Mixed Seafood.

Not very impressive, especially after having the Mixed Seafood at Tsuruhashi. Everything was fine, and the scallops were good, though not sashimi grade. The shrimp looked and tasted like regular black tiger shrimp.

In the end, we were left scratching our head. I mean the service was so nice and accommodating, and we enjoyed the very relaxed atmosphere....maybe due to the fact that we were the only people in the restaurant. The Shabu-Shabu was good, but the Yakiniku fell a bit short.

 

We so wanted this meal to be great, since we really like this restaurant....

So how about price? In keeping with the Tsuruhashi post, I decided to wait till the end to summarize everything.

Shabu Shabu - $18.00
Seafood Mix - $9.50
Tongue(Jo-Tan) - $7.50
Mixed Vegetable - $5.50
Prime Rib Eye(Jo-Rosu) - $7.50
Rice - $2.00

Total $50.50 w/o Tax

And to make me feel even worse about doing this post, they didn't charge us extra for ordering only one order of Shabu Shabu! But then again, how is it that all of the Yakiniku is more expensive than Tsuruhashi? Sigh........

We will return to Suzuya, though we may just stick with the Shabu Shabu. I'm hoping that someone will comment and tell me this was just a very off night for the Yakiniku.

Suzuya Japanese BBQ
5447 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
(858) 505-0611

Lunch - Mon-Fri 1130am - 230pm
Dinner - Daily 5pm to 11pm