mmm-yoso!!!

Chicken Wing Wednesday - Furaido

Back in the comments section of my Bonchon post, "RedDevil" asked me if I had been to the new KFC place that opened in Atlas Market. I'd already heard about the place and had in on my list; so on holiday weekend, after working the morning I headed over.

The good thing about Furaido is that they open at 1030 in the morning; so I could easily beat the crowds.

Located in the Food Court area; Furaido claims to serve gluten free fried chicken; which means it's probably using rice flour and the texture of the wings reflected that. The wings come from the market and are Halal as well.

On both my visit I got the 10 piece wings; because; well, I'm all about wings. You get two choices for a glaze or "dip" or dust..

I went with the Devil Garlic and like Kirbie (please check out her post), I was fascinated by the having Furikake on my wings as well.

A couple of observations that were true for all the wings and drumettes I had here. The batter is obviously rice flour based and on the crumbly-hard side than crunchy. It is not oily and the fat has been rendered nicely on these wings.  The batter is also quite dry and is not seasoned; more on that below. I believe they also over fry the drumettes which make them tough and dry. The wings are large; which can through off moisture, and skin to meat ratios....I prefer my wings smaller; bigger is not necessarily better, and these tend toward being over battered....I mean you work hard to render the fat and develop a nice light crisp skin; why cover it in a ton of batter?

The Red Devil (thinking of you RD!) Garlic; while not quite turning the wings a shade of red was my favorite here; it wasn't too sweet, slightly spicy, and best of all, the wings weren't just drenched in sauce.

The Furikake wings needed a kick up in flavor as; like I mentioned before, the initial product is not seasoned, so this was bland; there's no moisture from a sauce or glaze; so these are even drier.

Overall; plus - minus.

Between visits; "SomTommy" emailed me and said he enjoyed the Garlic Soy Wings and "Top Secret" Dip on his wings and so on my follow-up visit....

Man, these were fried even harder and was even more crumbly. Can you tell which one has the Garlic Soy? It's the one on the left; it was very lightly sauced which I would usually appreciate, but the unseasoned and dry wings needed more.

As for the Top Secret......with a tip of the hat to "FOY" CC, do you remember what the "secret sauce" at Bronco Burger was? Yep, that was this.

So, in the end; the Devil Garlic Glaze is what I enjoyed the most. The wings here have too much batter for my taste; even more than Cross Street. If you like a thick batter and larger wings and drumettes; you might enjoy Furaido. But get a glaze or Dipp; or enough "dust" because the chicken isn't seasoned enough on its own. As for me; well, I wouldn't go out of the way to visit Furaido.

For a different perspective please check out Soo's post along with the afore mentioned post by Kirbie.

Furaido Premium Chicken Company (Inside Atlas Market)
14837 Pomerado Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Hours:
Open Daily 1030 - 8pm

Revisits - Chon Ju Jip and Pho 7 Cow

Well; last night was the good old Daylight Savings Time "Spring Forward"....so yes; I guess it's spring, though it's still kind of chilly out there. I'm not really complaining as it gives me more "soup time". Here are a couple of recent revisits.

Chon Ju Jip:

Man, has it really been over 5 years since I last visited? Time sure does fly. For some reason; my recent visits to Woomiok had me wondering how Chon Ju Jip was doing. The place was looking a bit beat and run down....do you remember when this was Ko Hayang Jip back in the 'oughts?

I stopped in for lunch and decided on getting the Galbitang ($10.95).

And just like the interior; the panchan seemed a bit old and tired. The portions were tiny and some of it was kind of on the dry side and very mild in flavor.

The Galbitang came in a sizeable bowl; it was nice and steaming hot. The rice provided was decent; though not very fragrant.

The soup did need a good amount of salt; though it was slightly beefy and not bad at all. The rice vermicelli was over done and mushy. The beef ribs were very tough and all the flavor had been extracted from the meat.

Kind of a sad metaphor for the current state of this tiny little shop.

Perhaps I need to return with the Missus for the Gamjatang or Heukyumso Jungol.

Chon Ju Jip
4373 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours
Mon - Sat 10am - 10pm

Pho 7 Cow:

In my very sad post on the sad state of Pho at Pho Lucky; "Alan" mentioned that perhaps I needed to head back out and start checking out all those pho places again. I was thinking about this while driving down to National City this past weekend. I recalled that Pho 7 Cow had made a decent bowl of Pho during my visits back in 2017. So, instead of hitting up my intended destination, I stopped by Pho 7 Cow.

Like on my previous visits there was a good amount of staff working and things went quickly and efficiently.

The basil looked like it was on brink of starting to turn color, but the sprouts and the cilantro were fine. I was surprised at the amount of meat in this; a small #4 ($7.75). The flank was tender but quite bland; the brisket better, the tripe, of which there was a good amount was well prepped, crunchy, with a slight offal flavor, there was one tiny piece of tendon which was on the hard side.

The noodles were in the typical clump on the bottom and took some work untangling; but was decently chewy and not over-cooked.

The broth was a bit richer than on previous visits; it was on the darker side, but clear. There was a slight hint of anise and onion, with a mild beefiness, and best of all; it wasn't too sweet.

This was not bad. Actually better than I expected. So perhaps I do need to "make the rounds" again at all of those pho shops.

Thanks for the suggestion Alan!

Pho 7 Cow
1025 Highland Ave
National City, CA 91950
Hours:
Daily 10am - 9pm

Woomiok (Soft Opening)

At the end of February Eater announced the business that would replace Red Cate had opened. I was quite happy to learn that it was a Seolleongtong shop. This year; the weather has been perfect for Seolleongtang, so of course I headed right on over first chance I had.

The shop is nicely put together; clean lines, and of course the inevitable wood paneling.

While the place is still in Soft opening mode and the folks seem to be rushing around a bit; I gotta say, the service was quite good.

Of course I had to order the Seolleontang. Out first was the panchan; which were nice and spicy, not too salty, and decent by San Diego standards. In other words, I'd love for someone to have really good fermented panchan. Still, this wasn't bad.

I laughed when the next items came out...….

The container of scallions totally reminded me of Seoul.

Soon enough, my bone soup arrived.

I forgot to take a photo of the rice; which for some reason, I thought was excellent. The broth, while not overly thick, nicely coated my tongue, and with a dose of salt, had a nice beefiness. When I mentioned his place to one of the folks at work; he mentioned that he had read (I found out on the four lettered site) that the soup was really bland. I had to explain to him that you needed to add salt to your taste to it...aiyah…. The brisket was nice and beefy; I was surprised that the tendon, which looked tough was nice and tender. Though there's not a large amount of meat in the broth, what there is was quite good.

This was quite a satisfying meal; so I soon returned.

I ordered the Galbitang; but after placing my order, the nice woman informed me that Galbitang wasn't available, so I had to order something else.

So, I decided to try the Donkkaseu (aka "Tonkatsu"). The panchan on this day was even better, especially the kkakdugi (radish kimchi); which had a nice spice, sourness, and was fairly refreshing.

Whoa; check out the pork cutlet.

Even though it was pounded thin like schnitzel; it was quite large; I could finish just a bit over half of it. It was by the book, fairly moist and tender, but nothing special. I'm not a big fan of the runny and fairly bland sauce that typically accompanies the donkkaseu. In fact when I order this from Bann, I bring my own Japanese Katsu sauce. The rice was once again excellent. Cabbage drizzled with ketchup and mustard and a routine macaroni salad completed things.

You couldn't complain about the portion size; that's for sure. But I sure wished they had what I originally wanted. Oh well, the hazards of visiting during soft openings.

I mentioned trying this place out to the Missus; who enjoyed Seollongtang and She asked me; "Is it as good as Imun is Seoul?" Geeez… My response? "Well, Imun has been around for 115 years, and Woomiok for like 2 weeks, give them a try." Which is what seemed to be happening as most of the customers on my two visits were older Korean folks trying out the new kid in town. I'm hoping they do well (and last longer than Great Wow and Red Cate) and hope they have the galbitang when I return.

I guess everyone thinks it's perfect weather for this; check out Kirbie's post here.

Woomiok
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Tues - Sun 11am - 9pm

Eating inside HMart

Here you are, reading mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food, again. Welcome.  Kirk is enjoying some time off and Cathy is writing.  

We've had HMart in San Diego since 2012. There are only a few 'food court' selections inside the store, unlike at the Super H Mart in Diamond Bar (mentioned in the middle of that post). There is one "Enter" and one "Exit" door.  To the right of the 'Enter" is a small kitchen, cooking and wrapping food for those who want to 'Grab and Go'.  There is a small seating area (including two corner chairs which are useless).  The kitchen prepared meals are pictured above the 'By the Pound' items.  ($8.50/lb)(Hot or Cold)
The hot items are plentiful, protein based (other than rice) and kept fresh, since the cooking area is three steps behind the trays.
The cold area has a great selection, especially if you are thinking about buying something you've seen pre-packed in the refrigerated area of the store.  There's also sliced sushi roll pieces, pork and tofu if you want cold protein.
We grabbed a few items on this visit before beginning to shop.  Cold items were kimchi, seaweed salad and marinated mushrooms.  All were good (nice flavor/mild heat of kimchi) and complimentary to the hot items- fried squid, fried head-on shrimp and breaded, fried pork in a sweet sauce. Total for these two boxes was $6.  The item on the bottom right was just packed (still warm) and placed in the open refrigerated area.
 Pan fried crab cake ($3.50).  Fresh vegetables, plenty of crab, crispy fry. A good meal on its own.

There's a dispenser of hot water, cups, utensils and condiments in the eating area, so you can have a decent meal.  

HMart 9440 Mira Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92126 (858)577-0060 Open 8 a.m.-10 p.m. daily Website

NEW LOCATION (opening  in February): 7725 Balboa Avenue (SE corner at the 805) San Diego 92117 (same parking lot as the 24 Hour Fitness) 

Chicken Wing Wednesday - Bonchon

I was quite excited to hear that Bonchon was coming to San Diego. I don't think we've had good K(orean) F(ried) C(hicken) in our fine city. I've visited solo and with folks from work four times since they opened at the end of the year.

I'm not sure if it was because we had lunch here....but Bonchon was fairly empty on all my visits.

I had consistently good service on all my visits; though I could do without the blaring K-pop.

The other thing that has been consistent is the chicken wings. The classic "KFC" twice fry method is used here, rendering the excess fat and creating a nice, pleasant, lacquered crunch, without having overdone the batter.

On all visits; the wings have been moist, the meat glistening, with no off dark spots, or broken bones.

Also, kudos for using wings that aren't gigantic, keeping a nice ratio of skin/batter and meat. What made me even more happy was the inclusion of wing tips, which were great for gnawing. One of the bozos I ate with mentioned that adding the tips were making the wings seem more weighty....until I pointed out to Einstein that we weren't paying for this by the pound.

The sauces were much like what I've had at other KFC places in the US and Korea. The spicy tends to be very one-dimensional and the soy-garlic tends to be on the sweeter side.

After the third visit; I decided to just get the soy garlic easy on the sauce. Which suited me just fine and let the pickled radish refresh my palate.

One other thing; I found the wings to be evenly glazed on all my visits as well.

You know; I think I still prefer Kyochon….but maybe I just need to do a comparison. Regardless; I enjoyed the wings.

One of the reasons for going with other folks is to be able to check out items on the menu.

So here goes.

The Seasoned Fries. Had this twice; both times it was seasoned nicely; the cheese adding a milky-salty component. Consistency though, goes both ways.

While the dusting adds a nice crunch; the fries were really dry both times I tried these.

The Bulgogi "Tacos" were more like pseudo-salad wraps. The flour tortilla had the texture of cardboard.

The bulgogi in this case was really bland and not marinated long enough and really didn't bring enough flavor to things.

We had two different fried rice; the bulgogi (the guys just wouldn't give up on the bulgogi) fried rice(sorry, photo didn't turn out) was so bland; it really needed some oomph. The Kimchi-Bacon Fried Rice, while in need of more fermented-savory kimchi sauce, was quite satisfying.

As you can tell by the color; it needed more of the kimchi juice; but the bacon did well....though if they'd put in some Spam...… Still, not bad.

The Japchae was passable.

The noodles were stretchy and chewy. There was enough soy-garlic sauce on this; without killing me with sweetness. The meat was too tough and lacked much flavor....there was also a light metallic edge to the flavor as well.

It's nice to finally have a good Korean Fried Chicken shop in town. Liked the service, the wings are fried to order, and have been consistent across my four visits. I'm not sold on anything other than the wings. But heck, this is a KFC shop, right?

Please check out Kirbie's and Soo's post on Bonchon as well.

Bonchon
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon - Thurs 1130am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm
Fri - Sat   1130am - 3pm, 5pm - 11pm
Sunday      4pm - 9pm

Revisits - Bann Cutlet & Teriyaki and Sarap Filipino Kitchen

A couple of revisits to places on Miramar Road that I posted on rather recently.

Bann Cutlet & Teriyaki:

I think the freshly prepared food at Bann is a decent choice; the prices aren't bad, and while it's not outstanding, you do get what you pay for. During one of my recent revisits; I recalled that while I've tried the Chicken Cutlet here (nicely fried, but the sauce is not to my taste); I hadn't tried the Teriyaki. So why not? Also, the two young ladies who work here are really nice. And (maybe) because I waited for my Teriyaki Chicken so long, they gave me a fried egg for no additional charge.

Whatever the motive for the gratis egg was; I appreciated it. As you can tell; this is a fairly hefty lunch....man, so much rice. As I posted on earlier; I do enjoy the salad, and that mandu was still crisp when I got back to the office.

The chicken was on the rubbery side, but not bad.

Not a big fan of the teriyaki sauce; it's too sweet for my taste and texture is really gloppy. The rice was perfectly cooked; the bok choy (along with the salad) made sure I got my veggies.

Though it was too much food. I'll stick with a "bowl" next time which is still more than enough for me. Like the kimchi fried rice bowl...….

Bann Cutlet & Teriyaki
9506 Miramar Rd
San Diego, CA 92126  

Sarap Filipino Kitchen:

After our visits to Sarap; the gang at work couldn't wait to revisit. And so; with one of the folks having a birthday, even though there were only four of us, we headed back to Sarap.

We ordered the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings again.

While these were ok; they weren't as crisp as on my previous visits. Still, not bad. Also, not seasoned as much either.

The Lechon Kawale. I wanted to try this again after having a terrible version earlier.

The skin was much better this time around; though the pork belly was on the dry side, and the leaner portions were rather tough. I enjoy the lechon sauce here; it's on the fairly mellow side, with a nice balanced flavor.

Crispy Pata (of course):

This time around; the pata was chopped up; the meat taken off the bone and the two ends, with the nice gelatinous parts laying at each end. It was still good, perhaps a bit drier, but the skin was wonderfully crisp; the porkiness of the leg coming through nicely. It was also a bit smaller than last time as well.

Daniel from Georgia loved the Sinigang and the Bagoong Fried Rice (sorry no photo).

Not a huge portion; but the tamarind based broth was rich, had a nice sourness, and man; the okra (I do love my "neba-neba") was gooey goodness. The pork was moist and tender and this had that nice "aaah" appeal. I'd gladly have this again.

We ordered some white rice with this......but hardly touched a quarter of it......

So, there you go....still a mixed bag; but still closer than Villa Manila which I think is better. They also need to staff better....it's go early, or wait a while for your food.

I also heard that they have started serving breakfast on the weekends now.

We'll see how things go here.

Sarap Filipino Kitchen
7580 Miramar Rd
San Diego, CA 92126

Chicken Wing Wednesday - Gala Chicken

I had to drop by Zion Market to pick some stuff up....mainly beef knee bones. Yep, beef knee bones. At the end of my "smoke session" I'll do the knee bones and give them out as gifts to folks who have dogs......the pooches really love the stuff.

Anyway, it nearing lunch time and I decided to grab something to eat. Gala Chicken had moved from their original location in the market, to the spot that Myung In had before they recently closed.

I decided to order the Chicken Wing combination....though in retrospect; maybe I should have just ordered wings.

In terms of wings; this might have been the best I've had at Gala. I'm glad they don't cut into the chicken anymore to test doneness and the batter wasn't too crumbly; like I've had here twice. The chicken was very moist; though it wasn't evenly coated in batter....it was also slightly greasy, but not in a bad way. In terms of seasoning; I still like some hot sauce on the wings....though not the overly sweet stuff that's provided.

Overall; all that rice seemed like overkill to me; they were quite heavy handed with the vinegar in the mac salad; but it was nicely chilled and along with the shredded cabbage helped to cut any greasy tones and richness. And the shredded cabbage made me feel like I was actually getting some vegetables...….along with cutting the richness, it helped to cut the guilt as well.

Not the best wings; but still decent, and better than I'd had here in the past.

Gala Chicken
7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd (In the Zion Market Food Court)
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Tues - Sat 11am - 730pm
Sunday      11am - 630pm

Eating to Beat the Heat - Buga

I think we're at the point where people are asking; "when is this heatwave going to end?" And it looks like another hot week ahead of us.

I stopped off at Buga for lunch between meetings last week. The location; right off the 805 is a pretty convenient stop. It was hot, and muggy. Instead of going for the Bi Bim Naengmyun, I decided on trying the Yukhoe Bi Bim Bap. It had been over four years since I'd last had it at Buga.

Like I mentioned in my previous post on Buga; the panchan here is not as good as it used to be "back in the day". The nsmul was fine; but the baechu kimchi didn't have any fermented tones to it; it simply tasted pickled.

Still, I was here for the Yukhoe; which turned out to be pretty good. The beef was sliced into nice thin strips; not a huge portion, but good enough for me. No off flavors; very clean finish, and they've reinstated the egg yolk. Lots of tasty veggies, made for a really healthy and satisfying meal. Rice is served on the side here. And while the beef wasn't as good in quality as what I've had at Prime Grill, this was well worth the $17.99.

And while this obviously wasn't in the league of Brother's Raw Beef (형제육회), it did "hit the spot".

Buga Korean BBQ Restaurant
5580 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Eating to Beat the Heat - Revisits to Iron Pig Alehouse and Prime Grill

Here are a couple of more revisits to places during the recent hot and sticky weather we've had.

Iron Pig:

I'm not sure why we don't drop by Iron Pig more often. Actually, I do know why; these days the Missus is more into wine and cocktails and beer has lost favor with Her. She is also not fond of the tumblers used for wine here...…...yes, She's becoming a bit of a snob I guess.

Still, on one of those hot days, I wanted one of my favorite salads....the "Man Salad". Which, by the way; the Missus enjoys as well.

Smoked brisket, goat cheese, arugula, Portobello mushrooms, and yes, French fries. With a nice vinaigrette that doesn't over power nay of the ingredients. Great crisp textures, combined with beefy-milky flavors. Definitely a favorite of mine.

That said; I'm not a big fan of the BBQ here; though the Missus does enjoy the rib tips....She likes chewing on the cartilage and crunchy bits. It's also one of the few items still on the Happy Hour menu.

Sadly the smoked wings; which I enjoy here, is no longer on HH menu.

So, we'll save that for our next visit.

Iron Pig Alehouse
1520 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

 Prime Grill:

For some strange reason; the Missus enjoys a nice Dolsot Bi Bim Bap when it gets really hot. I was glad to know that even though Prime Grill now has an AYCE menu; it still features good quality items on the menu.

Though I think the panchan here has definitely taken a step down from when Ed from Yuma and Cathy joined myself back 2016 when the place first opened. It is still a step above all the other Korean BBQ places in town.

Over the last couple of years; the Bi Bim Naengmyun at Prime Grill has over taken the version at Buga as my favorite. The noodles are not under cooked, but not mushy, and are the thinner version.

On this visit; they provided a good amount of the spicy-savory sauce; add some cho-jang, vinegar, and I'm good to go.

And the Missus got Her Dolsot Bi Bim Bap.

And all was good in the world. At least until we had to step back out into the heat and humidity.

Prime Grill
4620 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

What have you been eating to beat the heat the last couple of weeks?

Bann Cutlet & Teriyaki

I saw this place during one of revisits to Pho 46 (I'll get to that one of these days). It was before eleven am, so I peered at the menu and was intrigued.

So, a couple of days later I returned. The young lady who manned the front counter was very sweet. She told me that everything here is cooked to order.

I decided to order the Kimchi Fried Rice ($9.95).

Which came with some tiny, yet nicely stuffed fried mandu. Closer to the stuff you'd buy in bags at the market, but with much more filling, and a decent pork taste to it.

I enjoyed the fresh green salad; the croutons and edamame were my favorite components. The dressing seemed based on red wine vinegar.

The amount of fried rice was fairly generous. It was scalding hot, topped with a sunny side up egg; crisp around the edges. A good amount of decent quality kimchi; not much fermented flavor, but lots of it. The rice was coated well, though the flavor was pretty one-dimensional.

Still, not bad at all.

On the way from meetings, I did the Spicy Pork ($8.95), a riff on daeji bulgogi.

Man, this was a lot of food. The steamed rice was just perfect......fragrant, fluffy. The pork had been stir-fried with onions and peppers, but it was fairly tender and had a nice savory-mildly spicy kick to it, which kept my interest while eating it. Of course I couldn't finish this, so I shared it with one of the guys in the office.

Totally worth the price.

Since I hadn't tried any of the namesake items....that would be the cutlet or teriyaki; I ordered the Chicken Cutlet Plate ($9.95) on my next visit.

This was an interesting "mixed bag". The rice this time was horrid, dry, with hard pieces.

Cooked to order, this took a while but the chicken cutlet was fried perfectly. Even though it was white meat; it was moist and tender. The breading stuck onto the chicken and didn't peel off, adding that nice crunchiness to things. This was; I daresay, a bit lighter than other versions of katsu I have. On the other side of the coin; those two sauces were terrible; from the runny, what seemed mayo based (hana battah) sauce, to the other, mildly salty, runny sauce....it just didn't stand up to the fried food. I think I just might tell them to forgo the sauces the next time and bring my own katsu sauce.

By this time; the young lady had remembered me, and she recommended I try either the Spicy Chicken or the Marinated Beef Plate. I went with the Marinated Beef Plate ($9.95).

As you can tell by the photo; this pseudo "bulgogi cum teriyaki" was really bland. It had too much vegetables; which really watered down any soy-sweet-savory flavors. The beef was also on the tough side. This really tasted like Bann tried to add to the portion size by cutting it with veggies.....

Pass.

If you consider Bann to be "fast-casual" food; I'd say it's pretty good. The price point isn't too bad, the ingredients are decent, and that green salad quite good. Items are cooked to order and the young lady who works here is very nice.

Also, if you visit, take notice of the certificates from Le Cordon Bleu which got my attention. Yep, it's from Le Cordon Bleu alright.....Seoul. First time I've seen certificates from the Seoul campus. And it's for pastry and boulangerie...maybe why I like those croutons so much and my friend likes the biscotti they sell on the front counter.

For me; coming from a plate lunch and what I call "Korean meat-and-three" background, this isn't too bad.

Bann Cutlet & Teriyaki
9506 Miramar Rd
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Mon - Sat 11am - 9pm