mmm-yoso!!!

City Bistro (American and Mediterranean) (El Cajon)

Thanks for coming back to read mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food.   Kirk and His Missus are at their second spring vacation destination and Cathy is still blogging.

I couldn't figure it out.  Three clients called to make appointments and none of them would be available on a Monday morning, but all of them would be available on any other morning.  I later found out that they knew each other and met for breakfast every Monday, at this location (which had been Country Waffles for about 15 years) which was remodeled and turned into City Bistro in 2016. Across the street from Valley Foods Mediterranean Market  and about 1/2 mile from El Cajon Bistro, this location on East Main Street is another nice, neighborhood restaurant. 
There's a bar seating area along with plenty of tables.  A television is visible from every seat, each set to a different channel (and all on closed captioning). There is a white board with a daily special at the front door. 
 We ordered from the regular menu- the "Crepe Plate" ($11.99) (choice of fruit flavors; you can see this is strawberry) served with two eggs and either two bacon, two sausage or one of each. Each item was quite good, tasty, fresh.  Quality. 
 I ordered the "Pan Handle Scramble" ($10.99) with country potatoes.  The potatoes were nicely fried, randomly chopped and quite tasty.  The scramble-I asked for the meat to be a sausage patty (they make the sausage patties here). It wasn't served on the side.
 On the bottom of the panhandle serving plate was a large, fresh made biscuit, topped with the large Housemade sausage patty, topped with country gravy, topped with a scramble of eggs mixed with red and green bell peppers, onions and cheese and also topped with cheese.  Wow!  This was great, tasty and filling.  
     We returned for a lunch and tried the gyros plate ($11.99) (with a double order of salad instead of rice).  The house made tzatziki was really great as was the house made salad dressing.  The side of pita helped -there was a lot of gyros meat and I made a few little sandwiches in addition to making a gyros salad. 
 The Monte Cristo sandwich ($10.99) was a good choice.  Cheese on both slices of the French bread, plenty of turkey for the sandwich, all cooked in an egg batter: French Toast style.  The choice of sides (fries, fruit or onion rings) was easy.  Th rings were whole onions in a thin beer batter.  Crunchy, light and flavorful.  

A lot of good, fresh, 'from scratch' items here, friendly people working and regular, neighborhood clientele. There are plenty of Mediterranean items on the menu, including basturma at breakfast; we will be trying more in the future.

City Bistro 1248 East Main Street El Cajon, CA 92019 (619)442-4444 Open daily 7 a.m.-2 p.m.

 

Mister Falafel Revisited

Another stop before our offices moved last year; trying to go through all those places one more time. This time it was Mister Falafel, which I thought was quite good when they forst opened in 2013, but just hasn't been as good during my most recent visits.

Still, the folks here are so sweet and gracious.

I got the Falafel Sandwich($6.75).

Everything here is made to order, which is a good thing. The wrap was still nice and warm when I got back to the office. It was however, just a shadow of its former self. Something has changed in the recipe for falafel here. This time it was on the mushy - gritty side, with not enough crunch, the flavor milder than I recalled. Luckily, I got some garlic paste this time around (no meetings on this afternoon), which kind of saved things. This version of garlic paste is nice and pungent and really helped the sandwich, since the tomatoes weren't ripe and there just wasn't very much parsley. Also, the tahini here is not my favorite as I find it on the bland side.

Still, I really like the folks who work here, so I wanted to make sure to drop by one more time before we moved offices.

Mister Falafel
4461 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117
Hours:
Tuesday - Sunday 1100am - 800pm

It's been a while week - Alforon

My really nice revisit to Fernandez Restaurant had me thinking about places that I hadn't been back to in a while. A few came immediately to mind....then a few days later, having some all too rare free time on my hands, I was updating "the big list" (I'm still behind 10 months....hopefully I'll catch up one of these days) which had me wondering about several more places. It's been almost four years since we last did an it's been a while week. So I think it's about time......

There were three places that immediately came to mind...that I had been wondering about. One of them was an old favorite which I've unfortunately ignored for over six years! Gladly, I knew based on other Blogger's posts and how busy the place seemed when I did drive past, that Alforon was doing just fine.

I dropped by on a Sunday afternoon, during a kind of weird hour. The place was quiet. The place has been changed a bit since my first visits back in 2010. I actually sat on one of the sofa looking thingies....the owner; a really friendly and funny woman...whose name is "Samia" if I recall, sat next to me, put her hand on my shoulder and told me to "lean back....relax....see it's comfortable....we just had this done last week and want people to enjoy it!" You gotta love it.....I'm glad she didn't recognize me since it's been a bunch of years....I woulda had some explainin' to do.

I ordered an old favorite, the Chicken Tawook.....so here's how long I haven't been back....when I last had this in 2011, it was $5.75; now it's $9.25..... But it's still damned good.

The real stars of this; in spite of the abundance of chicken is the garlic paste; not overly strong, at least you don't think so, until your tasting garlic for the rest of the day....but it's wonderful here, not overly pungent; savory, light, smooth. And the bread, just enough crispness on the edges; yet soft to the bite and nice combination. The pickles do a great job of cutting through the garlic paste; chicken, and bread. It was as good as I recalled!

Sitting there, stuffed.....my appetite ain't what it used to be either. I sat and thought about all the wonderful meals I've been able to share on our little blog. And even more, all the fantastic recommendations I've received over the years; I recall this one was from ChristinaC, who has made some great recommendations over the years. Thanks again Christina....all these years later!

Alforon
5965 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Revisits - Mister Falafel and Havana Grill

Here's a few revisits to places close to my office.

Mister Falafel:

My last visit was nothing to write home about, but a revisit was due. I really wanted to know if that visit was a fluke and the falafel was as good as my first few visits. The folks here are the nicest people, so I should really come more often. I think it's the location of the place, out of view from the street, that makes it slip from my mind. Not being very hungry, I went with the Falafel "Munchie" ($5.99).

And while this was much better than on my previous visit, it was still missing something. It's a bit more gritty these days, but not bad at all and truly quite filling. I like the flavor; not too much parsley. I'm wondering if they still use the same ratio of favas to garbanzos?

The tahini here is not my favorite version; kind of bland, the pita was fine, standard issue stuff.

As always, the folks working here are warm and wonderful. And yes, they make this stuff fresh so you'll have to wait a few minutes......which is the way things should be.

Mister Falafel
4461 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117
Hours:
Tuesday - Sunday 1100am - 800pm

Havana Grill:

Soo has already posted on the Rabo Encendido here (you can read my comment in the post). The version he had looked nice, though perhaps over done. I ordered it because it wasn't on the menu during my first visits to Havana Grill.

What I got was enormous; though obviously under done and on the tough and chewy side. In fact trying to cut it without holding with my mitts, it broke the plastic knife. The flavor was quite tangy and not quite the flavor I'd experience in other versions I've had; a bit of sweetness, somewhat beefy, and in some version a bit of clove/allspice, and definitely some garlic tones. This wasn't bad; just kind of one tone in taste.

The biggest disappointment were the black beans, which during my first visits back when they first opened was really nice; complex in flavor. This one was bitter, really watery, like the stuff was from the bottom of a pot that had been cooking too long.

The rice was dry, the plantains very tasty. The folks, nice as always. I'm probably going to stick with the Ropa Vieja and the El Cubano, which placed second in my Cubano comparison during future visits.

Havana Grill
5450 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Cafe Royale

So, my haircut guy has been on the move again; I've detailed some of his moves over the years at the end of this post. So, last March he moved over to Rolando, then back to Mission Valley....then in September, back to Rolando. Well, on the bright side, I tracked him down and having to get my haircut allows me to spend a bit of time exploring a neighborhood I might not usually check out.

Fairly close to the barber (he's actually on ECB) is a place someone mentioned to me in passing (along with Bourre, which is in the same strip mall) is Café Royale....the name which actually reminds me of a cognac-coffee drink I've had. But this place is supposedly Somali - Mediterranean.

The place looks rather fast-casual; where you order at the counter. The menu kind of threw me off; I'm used to seeing pasta in East African Restaurants; it's the Italian influence. But this place had everything from the expected goat and suqaar, to the unexpected Philly Cheesesteaks (?!?), jalapeno poppers, quesadillas, burritos, and tiramisu. Though the meat is Zabihah Halal. Usually, I'd avoid a place like this; but for some reason there was an odd attraction. Plus, I was told there was a second Café Royale in, of all places, Minneapolis, go figure.

The guy working the counter was quite nice....perhaps it was my fresh clean-cut look...probably not. I wanted the lamb shanks, but was told it wasn't ready yet; so I decided on the "Goat Feast Royale". Man, this was a load of food for $10.99.....

I love how places like this and say, Safari Grill make their rice. It's so fluffy and full of flavor. And that green hot sauce doesn't mess around either. I found the goat to be on the tough side, though the flavor; coriander came through, along with the sprinkle of sumac made sure this wasn't bland. A bit too much gnawing on tough bits though.

Still the price was very good and I wanted to try that lamb shank. So after my next haircut I dropped by and ordered the Lamb Shanks Royale ($14.99). I got it to go and noticed how heavy the plastic sack was. Something else I didn't notice....the menu said "shanks" not shank. Good lord, look how much food this is.

I can't imagine any one person finishing all of this. The Missus was in shock over the portion size. It was just too much food....almost three meals total. The Missus, like I enjoys the rice; nice and fluffy with good flavor...She also enjoys that green hot sauce a lot as well.

The lamb shanks were pretty meaty and cooked pretty well; not falling apart, but nice and fork tender. Decent salt, but fairly mild in that gamey lamb flavor we enjoy. Again, look at the size of this plate.

So, you obviously won't go hungry here and the portions reminded me of going to a friend's house where "Mom" wanted to make sure you left with a full belly. It was nice trying something a bit different. The guys working here are fairly polite and friendly, though I'm not sure what I'll order if I return.

Cafe Royale
6511 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92115

Balboa International Market- eating inside the store (revisits)

Here you are, checking out mmm-yoso!!! to see what sort of food in what part of town is featured today.  Kirk is having a busy time at work and Ed (from Yuma) is having a relaxing time (in Yuma) so Cathy is posting.  

Back in December, a dear, long time friend sent a message that she was going to be in town for a day, having a book signing at Mysterious Galaxy, one of a handful of Independent bookstores we have in San Diego County. 
 
Mysterious Galaxy shares the same parking lot with Balboa International Market, which I posted about in 2010 and again, in 2012. 

She and I had a good visit after her extended signing time (many San Diegans are fans of her book, which is nominated for a World Fantasy Award).  The Mister and I have gone back to this part of town quite a few times this year to have lunch after exploring Mysterious Galaxy.

I'll spare you photos of the store interior; it's about the same as in the prior posts. Fresh breads are available and the Produce prices are particularly good. 

Walking though the doors of the market, (if there aren't any grills cooking out in front), then to the left and back corner, you'll find a deli counter with many choices, and a menu over a cash register, where you can place your order.  
There is also a stack of paper menus. Order, pay, find a seat at the front of the store (you'll get a number and the plates will be brought to you).

 The salad plate with chicken is $8 and enough for a meal or a light bite to share. (Depending on my mood, I'll walk into the store and purchase a beverage while waiting) 

The a la carte kabob plate is $4.  This is a seasoned ground beef (koobideh) kabob served on top of store baked flatbread, with the onion, grilled tomato and basil; quite enough food.

 The vegetarian meza is $9 and includes dolma, fresh made falafel, a slice of  Kuku (spinach/egg/spiced pie), eggplant salad, cucumber salad, tzatziki, hummus and pita bread.

Always good, fresh, tasty. 

Balboa International Market 5907 Balboa Avenue San Diego 92111 (858) 277-3600 Website

 

 For $1 you can get a cup of tea, which comes with tiny sugar cubes.

Boulder, Colorado: Dushanbe Teahouse and The Med

While Ed (from Yuma) posts about eating on vacation today, Cathy and Kirk are busy. The world is like that.

You don't need a weatherman to know that July and August are good times for Yumans to go on vacation, so I flew to the Denver area to see an old friend and cool off for a few days. The focus of the visit was not gastronomy, but Jane wanted me to try some of her longtime favorites. Who was I to complain about that? And she let me bring my camera, hence this post.

Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse

This teahouse is one of the most unusual spots I've ever posted about. A gift from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to sister city Boulder, Colorado, it even has its own Wikipedia page.

The building was originally constructed in Tajikistan (with no power tools), disassembled, and sent to Boulder where it took about 10 years to find a proper location, secure funding, and reassemble it. The distinctive interior – walls, ceilings, columns –  all display wonderfully carved and painted wood surfaces:

Though they serve lunches, dinners, and even high tea (if ordered in advance), we just dropped in for a little pick me up. Jane enjoyed her chilled hibiscus tea:

and I had a pot of superior grade Dragonwell:

Loved the egg timer  tea timer:
We enjoyed the beverages and the ambience.

The Med

Later we headed over to The Med for dinner:

As Jane explained, The Med has become a very popular dining spot in Boulder and has expanded over the years so that it stretches from that corner all the way back to its entrance:

We were no sooner seated at our table when a basket of truly excellent bread arrived. I really enjoyed the sourdough – nice crust, nice crumb, nice flavor – but the olive bread was good as well:

We decided to focus on tapas. The menu offered around a dozen cold choices and 20 warm, generally priced around $5. We tried to order a variety, selecting three of each.

The Escabeche arrived first:

It was an interesting approach. The yellowfin had been combined with a lot of avocado, mild green chilies, and pico de gallo and some citrus and the combination placed atop a small tumulus of cucumber strips. While certainly okay, I thought it lacked pizzazz. I expected a more assertive citrus flavor, and the cucumber strips just didn't seem to work together with the rest of the dish.

The roasted beets arrived next:

This was a very attractive plate – the golden beets contrasted nicely with the pickled onions, chevre, micro greens, and fried capers. Overall, a pleasant beet salad. Beety.

The bruschetta was enjoyable:

The toasty slices of excellent bread were spread with a white bean paste and topped off with an artichoke tapenade. A nice range of flavors and textures. Very Mediterranean.

The pastillas were the first warm tapas served:

The pan fried flaky filo crust was wrapped around a curry flavored interior of chicken, vegetables, pinenuts, and raisins. Then the savory little pastries were dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Cut into, a pastilla looked like this:

Different and distinctive flavor/texture range.

Our favorite item of the evening was the grilled polenta topped with a wild mushroom ragout:

The julienned vegetables – carrots, turnips, and scallions – provided nice contrast to the colors and textures of the polenta and mushroom sauce. Even though the shrooms look more domestic than wild, the ragout had overtones of porcini, and the polenta was crispy creamy.

Our last tapas were gambas, griddled shrimp:

This was a classic version. The shrimp were firm and flavorful. A squeeze of lemon and the parsley/scallion salsa provided accents. This was about the shrimp.

I had a glass or two of a pleasant Rioja rosé and Jane chose a Pinot Noir. The restaurant seemed lively with a lot of younger folks, and our server Henry was helpful and personable. We had a very good time.

Harvest International Market- Eat in the store (Clairmont)

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog.  Kirk, Ed (from Yuma) and Cathy write most of the posts here.  Kirk and Ed (from Yuma) are both busy this week before Thanksgiving and Cathy is not busy.

The building on the North East corner of Balboa at Clairmont Drive had finally opened in early 2013, as another location of North Park Produce.  Then it closed. Harvest International Market opened in its place.  There is another location of Harvest closer to home, in El Cajon, but it's smaller (used to be a 99 Cents Only store) and there is no eat in area, but a nice 'grab and go' selection.  Harvest has some tables and chairs inside the store and out in front.When you walk in the door, to your right is the bakery, deli and kitchen. There is also a cash register there, so you can order and pay.  The hot tea is always brewing next to the baklava area (to the left when you walk in).The by the pound area has a vast selection of premade salads, olives and cheeses, all sold by the pound.  There's also a good variety of flatbreads and small loaves to choose from.   That white stuff? It's a saltier version of Kirk's garlic sauce and quite heavenly.  The other items are baba ganoge (eggplant dip) and shirazi salad (cucumber, tomato, onion, parsley and mint mixed with olive oil and lemon juice) all very fresh and very good with the flatbread seen beneath ($1).

I purchase the yogurt based beverages from the vast selection in the back corner store refrigerators.

There is also a good selection of daily soups; I've tried most by pointing at the selection behind the glass counter.  Some are tomato based, others are cream based.  The above one had spinach and garbanzo beans, was in a creamy chicken based broth and was topped with crispy onion. The bowl was $3.The beef shawarma plate ($7.99) comes with a salad and basmati rice. There is a lot of everything and any of the plates can be shared.  On this visit, the shawarma tasted dry on its own and the tzatziki sauce was needed; I usually don't have to add any. It was very flavorfully seasoned and the next day, I heated the meat up and mixed it into scrambled eggs for breakfast and no additional seasoning was needed.  There was a sign that beef or chicken kabobs were five for $10 and we asked and ordered just one of each at the $2 each price.  Both kabobs were flavorful and very large.   It was nice they gave us two roasted tomatoes on the plate...so much nicer than a sprig of parsley. Next to the shawarma spinning upright rotisseries is a third rotisserie with gyros meat. This platter was also $7.99 and when we asked if it came with pita bread, the lady told us to grab one out of the bread box near the front.  It's a really good bread topped with sesame seeds.  We also were given a choice of specialty rice, and asked for 'the green one', as there were eight different rices in view.  

After some research, I found the rice choices are basmati with other primary ingredients: Zereshk Polo (barberry), Baghali Polo (Persian dill with lima beans), Shirin Polo (orange and carrots), Albaloo Polo (sour cherry), Adas Polo (lentils), Lubia Polo (green beans), Biryani (spices and meat mixed in) and Aloo Polo (dried plums).  

All in all, we've enjoyed exploring the deli counter and trying various offerings before we go shopping in the store.  It's a pretty standard Mediterranean Market with halal meats and some seafood and interesting cookies, sauces, teas and coffees as well as ice cream and snack offerings. 

Harvest International Market 4220 Balboa Avenue San Diego 92111 (858) 810-8228 open 7 a.m.-9 p.m. daily Website

What's My Craving? Mister Falafel

Mister Falafel, home of some of the sweetest, friendliest, nicest folks I know of.

It had been a while since I last visited and for some reason I was craving some falafel. I was starving so I got a falafel plate, which is a good amount of food for $8.99.

One of the reasons I enjoyed the falafel here were that they weren't dry and gritty. The exterior was crisp and crunchy and the exterior moist and fluffy. It wasn't quite as good this time around as it seemed over fried. The outside of the falafel were too hard and the interior was dry. The flavors are still nice and balanced though and those pickles perked things up. The baba ghanoush was smooth and smoky and quite delicious with the pita.

The tahini as always was mild and creamy. No garlic paste this time around since I had meetings later that day.....bummer.

Not quite a fail, but not satisfying either......I'm hoping the next time, things will be as I recalled. I know the couple working here will still be gracious and friendly as always.

Mister Falafel
4461 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Tasty Pizza (no pizza) (inside Parkway Plaza Mall)

Here you are, once again checking out mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Kirk and Ed (from Yuma) both don't feel like writing today, but Cathy does, so here's another post about food.

The weather out here has been quite humid the past few weeks, even with the thermometer topping at 84•, it feels miserable.  The Mister and I have tried driving to the coast and have ended up inside grocery stores with air conditioning, just to feel cooler.  Fortunately Parkway Plaza, the first indoor shopping center in San Diego County, is close to home.  

I must admit that it's been years since we really stopped here for anything other than shopping for tools, appliances or parts at the Sears store, so when we walked the mall, it was all 'new' to us.  However the Food Court had quite a few of the same old chains...until we took a closer look.This used to be a Sbarro, where I could pick up a stromboli or calzone or pizza slice when the urge hit, so pizza ovens were in place here...but thenclosely reading the menu, showed us so much more than pizza is on the menu here.The bowl of lentil soup ($3) is excellent and quite filling.  It was nice to eat something warm in the chilled air conditioned food court. Ordering the 'Spinach Pie' ($2.50) was a nice surprise.  Not a spanakopita other than being filled with fresh spinach, the home made bread was stuffed with a refreshing mix of spinach, lemon and spices.  The bread was a fresh, hearty and chewy type; the way I like bread to be.The tabbouleh salad ($3).  Oh my, this was so fresh and bright.  Parsley, bulgur, olive oil and lemon juice.Manakeesh, an arabic flatbread (this is a different dough than used for the $5 pizzas here; see the edges?) is $5.  The top photo is cheese topped, the above photo is topped with za'atar (a blend of sesame seeds, thyme and sumac)and olive oil.  Both of these flatbreads were excellent in their own way (and purchased on different visits; one is enough to share).Most of the time, we order a hot tea ($2) it's a teabag in a standard cardboard cup and a standard tea I've seen sold at local small markets but one day, I decided we should try a Turkish coffee here.  It's $3 and quite a presentation.  

So much nicer than we could ever expect.  You just never know what you'll find in a mall. 

Tasty Pizza 414 Parkway Plaza El Cajon 92020 (619)401-4400