mmm-yoso!!!

Mariscos Tone Camaron at Harland Brewing Bay Park

Sometimes it's just the smallest thing. A couple of weeks ago, I went to get my morning caffeine fix from Bay Park Coffee. I guess everyone else, and their mother decided that it would be a great time for an energy boost and there was no parking to be found on Napier or Ashton, so I had to park on Morena. While walking toward Napier, I noticed this trailer in the back of the Harland Tasting Room.

Interesting, a Mariscos Truck/Trailer was now in back of Harland. I guess they needed something to replace Rosemarie's which was here for quite a long time until they got their own brick and mortar shop.

An interesting recent development is that the Missus enjoyed the Japanese Lager from June Lake Brewing, that I had Her try Harland's version which She enjoyed even more! So, we decided to take a walk down Milton and check out Harland and the Mariscos trailer.

The place was fairly busy when we arrived. I ordered a Japanese Lager for the Missus and tried a sour.

The Missus said that She couldn't tell the difference between the draft JL versus the canned.

The Raspberry Sour was very light and I think a good candidate as a "gateway sour".

As for the food, it was done via QR code. And I'm guessing they do burgers as well as Mariscos?

As for the Mariscos, well, the name of the trailer includes "camaron" and that's what they basically have; shrimp except for the $25 rib-eye tostada.

So, we ordered the "OG Shrimp Ceviche" and the Aguachile Verde Tostadas. In a nice touch, our order was delivered to our table.

The portion sizes for $12 was quite good, though we'll be the first to say that the shrimp were really tough and rubbery. Each portion was enough to make three tostadas. Though I will say, it seems to us to be more about quantity than quality. The OG was really mild, lacking in spice, quite watery.

The Aguachile was better, with nice citrus tones.

The cucumbers were nice and palate cleansing and went well with the maize-y tostadas. Both dishes had a generous portion of creamy, mildly sweet avocado. It was still mild in terms of "heat", but maybe that's based on the demographic. This wasn't bad, though it lacked a good amount of spice and seemed a bit dumbed down.

Overall, while not my first choice with regards to Mariscos, decently priced with fairly generous portion to price.

Mariscos Tone Camarón at Harland Brewing
4112 Napier St.
San Diego, CA 92110

PB Poke House, Fish & Things Poke Bar, and Poke Chop. Does PB Now Stand for "Poke Bowl?"

I know I've mentioned trying new places and getting ideas for places when overhearing conversations. A few months ago, I was having coffee and breakfast at a usual neighborhood stop when I overheard two "bro's" chatting about food. Of course that got my attention. One of them kept on saying that PB was the best 'hood for food in town. Of course, where did he live? Right, you got that. Anyway, he mentioned that there were three poke places in PB he frequents and he even gave them in order of preference. Hmmm....you know, with the traffic, crowds, tourists, and let's not even talk about parking, I rarely get to PB. When I do it's a stop at Trader Joe's on Garnet and maybe head up Ingraham to Gelson's or  and perhaps Wayfarer. Though mornings in the "off-season" aren't too bad and I might make a stop....in fact, I'm waiting for things to settle down a bit before giving La Clochette another try (thanks for the rec' Kathy!).

But poke, eh? I had the idea of trying the three places mentioned. Of course, I wasn't going to push the issue. I've had my share of mediocre poke (at places that can't even spell "poke" - thought that's perhaps an indicator) at those "chi-poke" places. I just waited.

And then it happened a couple of months back, I needed to head out to Mission Boulevard...the Mission Beach side. So, I thought I'd just head up Mission and see if I could snag some parking on the street near one of the two places I had in mind. I really wasn't very confident, but guess what, there was street parking right on Mission across the street from....

PB Poke House:

As I crossed the street, I had a sense of nostalgia overtake me. You see PB Poke House is located here.

Folks who have been in San Diego for a while might recognize the location. Yep, the original location of Da Kine's was upstairs. Man, the memories. I was consulting in San Diego in the late-90's and missing a plate lunch. And at that time Da Kine's was the only show in town. ....

Anyway, back to reality. The shop is fairly small, it has a few tables inside and one outdoors.

The woman working was really friendly. Being more of a old fart basic poke guy, I went with the large Classic Shoyu Poke Bowl ($19.50). My bowl was ready in no time and I headed on home. This looked pretty good. As I opened up the bowl, I decided to set simple overall criteria - if this place was a block or two away, would I get the poke once in a while?

    The fish looked not bad. As I looked at the seaweed salad and surimi salad, then had a taste of the poke, I got full on 8th and B "vibes". The fish was of decent quality, fairly tender, no off flavors. Like 8th and B the fish was highly sauced and on the sweeter end of the spectrum. Not sure why they call this "classic" since it's much sweeter than what I get back "home".

The portion size was fairly generous.

 It might have been a bit much, but was really not bad at all. What was bad was the brown rice which was severely undercooked and hard. Not good eats.

So, the verdict? I guess if PB Poke House was around the corner I might eat here every so often, after all they have Spam Musubi. It's a bit too sweet and over-sauced for me, but the fish seemed of decent quality and the folks working were really friendly!

PB Poke House
4150 Mission Blvd. #145
San Diego, CA 92109
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 7pm

A couple of weeks later, I decided to see if I could sneak in and find parking at the next place which was right up the street from PB  Poke House. The name of the place......

Fish & Things Poke Bar:

In retrospect, I'm not sure I'd want to have seafood at a place that sells fish and "things"....what kind of things specifically? And after my visit, I did some checking and found that this is a franchise that started in Elk Grove? Just south of Sacramento, not quite the hotbed of fresh seafood in my mind.

Of the three places visited, this was the nicest looking, and had decent indoor and a couple of outdoor tables.

Like the other shops, this was the typical fast-casual set-up.

The menu is pretty large, featuring some cooked dishes, sushi (ahem, rolls that is), and build your own "chi-poke" bowl. 

I went with the Classic (of course) Hawaiian, which seemed like shoyu ahi ($20.95).

My first thought when I opened things up was "what's up with the mac nuts?" The half nuts were just too big for this. The shoyu wasn't overly sweet, but was used quite sparingly. The quality of the fish, while not bad, wasn't to my liking. Too much "sugi" - rubbery connective tissue. The rice was cooked nicely....I forgot to ask about brown rice. I might have been traumatized after my visit to PB Poke House.

 The portion size seemed on the smallish side, but still isn't bad compared to the "manini" 2 ounce portions I've seen at the chi-poke places.

To me second tier poke. And I'm sorry to say, second tier and raw fish is something I really don't want to eat.

Fish & Things Poke Bar
740 Hornblend St.
San Diego, CA 92109
Current Hours:
Mon - Sat 1130am - 8pm
Sunday 1130am - 730pm

After this, I decided to give it a rest and kinda left things as is. Until recently, when the Missus requested an item from a nearby Patisserie (more on that revisit later). Which just happened to be on the block right next to....

Poke Chop:

Which is another mini chain with several locations and another coming soon in Mission Valley. According to the "surfer bro'" this was the best of the three. I'd been having some luck finding parking in PB and this day was no different as I got a nice spot on Gresham, which would my "escape from PB" via Grand quite easy.

I walked on over and was crossing the street at 11 when the place opens.

By the time I crossed the street and walked in, there were already folks in line ahead of me.

Looking at the menu, it was obvious this was one of those "chi-poke" places. Pick your fish, pick your stuffs, pick your sauce, etc.....

It was interesting listening to what the guys in front of me ordered, lots of salmon and spicy tuna, mayo based sauces, won ton chips......

As for me, well the marinated tuna wasn't ready, and the nice fellow working the front of house suggested I get the tuna, I took a medium bowl ($17.50), with both the Sweet Sesame and Ginger Shoyu on the side. Which is what I got, without all the other "chi-poke" stuffs, getting just ginger, and furikake, along with brown rice.

When I opened things up at home I had a pause.

    Good lord, this looked totally like "saku", Carbon Monoxide treated fish. So much sugi, so dry looking, I was kinda not wanting to eat this. I tried a piece and it was mushy, yet chewy, with a metallic tinge. Yikes. 

On the positive side, the brown rice was nutty and tender, but man, that sweet sesame was syrupy and super sweet, the shoyu tasted fine, but even that couldn't hide the quality, or lack thereof of the fish. The ginger-shoyu was fine but could not hide the very low quality of the fish. Egads, it reminded me of the first time I learned about "saku", fish treated with Carbon Monoxide for color and preservation all those years ago.

Well, if you want to go the "chi-poke" route with a large portion of saku fish...well, this is for you. As for me, even if it were right across the street, I would not eat there. But heck, if its your thing have at it.

Poke Chop
1404 Garnet Ave.
San Diego, CA 92109
Current Hours:
Daily 11am - 9pm

As for me, well we're headed "home" in a few months, and in the interim I'm going to HFS if I just need to get some poke!

Chef John's Fish & Chips (Lemon Grove)

After finishing up my cold brew at Lemon Grove Coffee and deciding to have lunch in the area, I headed back out to Broadway and strolled a couple blocks to Chef John's Fish & Chips. This place has been recommended to me by a patron at the Poseidon Project several years ago. According to him, it was the best "Fish and Chips" he's had outside of London! Well, that's quite a recommendation!

The shop is located on Broadway. You can tell that it' had been some sort of fast-food location in the past.

Cathy wrote about this location way back in 2006 when it was part of the Tugboat Fish & Chips chain. I think she'll be glad to know that it's still a fish and chips shop 18 years later.

It's a simple set-up; you order at the counter; I got the fish and shrimp combo ($18.49). The owners are an older Korean couple; I heard them conversing in that language. They were the only two folks working on this day. I felt kind of bad for the gentleman as he seems to have some mobility problems, but still worked to fill the ice in the soda dispenser and cook the food.

I was told that my order would take about 20 minutes. A good thing as this means it's made to order. I went and had a seat.

This is what my plate looked like when ready.

I brought the fish to the forefront. Based on the size of the faux newspaper tray liner, I'd say that the filet of whitefish was around 8 inches long.

    The fries were nice and crisp, the type that was dusted to add to the texture. It was decently seasoned.

The fish was moist, very tender, the batter crisp and light. In terms of seasoning; it was very mild, I really needed he malt vinegar and would probably get some tartar sauce if I ordered this in the future. It was a nice generous portion. No off flavors.

  There were four shrimp which used the same batter, quite crisp. The rather larger shrimp were on the tougher side; like it had been cooked too long. The flavor was quite assertive, not overly sweet, but savory, I believe this was farmed shrimp as it lacked the oceany sweetness. Still, pretty big shrimp if you're into these things.

The folks running the place were professional, though based on how I saw the gentleman moving, unless they have additional staff I'm wondering if they can keep the business running much longer. This was a pretty good meal and had me wondering how Mr. Fish and Chips was doing. I need to do a revisit; though I'll need to recover from that fry-o-lated goodness.

Knowing that the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster had been solved was a great bonus! (jjk)

Chef John's Fish & Chips
8047 Broadway
Lemon Grove, CA 91945
Hours:
Mon - Sat 11am - 7pm
Closed on Sundays

This was a fun foray into an area I hadn't been to in more than a couple of years. I need to get out more often, right?

Kiko's Place - the Seafood King Mariscos Truck now on Morena

For the last couple of months I had noticed that a Mariscos Truck had been parked off of West Morena, in the parking lot of Coles Fine Flooring. Taking a closer look, I noticed that it was one of the Kiko's Place trucks, I believe there are several trucks, plus one brick and mortar restaurant in San Diego.

Man, to think, there was a time when I wouldn't blink an eye at taking a drive down to Chula Vista to have some tacos eaten on the hood of my car, but that was over 6 years ago now. Of course time and inflation have changed things. Heck, the last time I'd visited a Mariscos Truck was when the Pacific Seafood Truck was in the outlet of V-Outlet, (which has been replaced by the La Chorreada Truck) over 4 years ago!

Over the last couple of months I'd keep passing that truck on Morena, making a mental note to drop by one of these days, and the recent heat wave seemed the perfect time. The truck seems to open for business around 9am, which is when I dropped by on this day.

The guy working was quite friendly. I also liked the fact that there were tables set-up on parking lot sidewalk of Cole's with everything from napkins to hot sauce, with trash cans readily available.

The very chatty gentleman asked me if I'd been here before and I told him that I had visited the Kiko's Truck that used to be on the corner of Friar's Road and Vias Las Cumbres, in the parking lot of the liquor store. He laughed and said "that's us!" We had a nice chat, I wondering why they had moved, after all, that truck seemed quite popular. He told me that they had so many regular customers and they loved the spot, but the owner of the liquor store wanted to start charging them $6000 a month to park there! Whoa..... So, they had to find another place, which is how they ended up at this location. He said he felt bad that many of his regulars now have to drive to see him, but really appreciated how many of them still do drop by.

After our chat, I walked on up to the window to order. And whoa....

Well, the last time I had a Gobernador or Tacos de Marlyn it was $4, which I thought was expensive then....now it's $8! The "OG" Fish Taco is now $3.50. The last time I had one from a Mariscos Truck it was $1.95. Well, it's indeed a sign of the times.

I decided to get a Taco de Marlyn; funny thing, I guess due to the "customer base" his taco is on the menu as Smoked Fish. I also got one of the OG Fish Tacos as well.

I was given a cup of absolutely scalding consomme. It was so hot that I wasn't able to finish this until after my tacos!

Not bad, a bit on the "thinner" side, strong celery tones, not overly salty, pretty good "seafoody" flavors.

Soon enough, my tacos were ready and I slid over to the "salsa bar", which is nicely protected from the elements by glass doors.

I basically just needed some lime and some salsa roja for the Marlyn.

The Tacos de Marlyn was definitely the better of the two.

 The generous portion fish has a mild smokiness, wasn't too salty, and wasn't fishy in the least. Think of it as "bacon of the sea". Not a big fan of the queso on the fish, but I really enjoyed and appreciated the layer of melted cheese on tortilla which ensured that things wouldn't fall apart. I do enjoy the onions and peppers and the tortilla was pliable did the job.

As for the Taco de Pescado. Well, this is what $3.50 buys these days. At least it wasn't as bad as what I'd last had at El Zarape.

 The fish was fried nicely, crisp, the flesh moist, no off flavors. The issue would be how skinny it was. There was so much cabbage and crema that it kind of overwhelmed the poor guppy..... Well, at least the tortilla held up, but I probably won't be getting this again.

Overall, I enjoyed that Taco de Marlyn. I recall not enjoying the Gobernador from this truck while it was on Friar's Road, but heck, that was about a decade ago! Though the thought of paying $16 for two tacos....well, I need to think about that! I wonder what prices would have been like if they had stayed at the old location and pay $6000 a month for a parking spot?

Kiko's Place-The Seafood King Mariscos Truck
1170 West Morena Blvd. (In the parking lot of Coles Fine Flooring)
San Diego, CA 92110

Taipei - Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產)

You know, there are times, even in these "influencer - make things look great online" times where you might only need a photo or two of a delicious, memorable meal instead of extensive verbiage. And I think that these two photos are all that are necessary.

Add to that the fact that each of these nigiri "plates" was less than $25 each?!!?!? 

Ok, I'm going to go now, see you tomorrow! JJK! 

Though honestly, you could stop here if you'd like to.....

Otherwise, here goes.....

After spending most of the day checking out the National Center for Traditional Arts and Kavalan Distillery, we headed back to Taipei. On the way back, I thought stopping by a fishmarket-dining hall named Addiction Aquatic Development would be nice for dinner. The Missus agreed and we told our driver to drop us off in front of the market hall.

Our wonderful driver dropped us off right in front of the place which is located in a part of the Zhongshan District we hadn't been to yet.

We entered the huge market hall, historically this was the Taipei Fish Market and was transformed into the AAD in 2012. The morning fish market is now held next door. As we entered we came across tanks of seafood....wonderful looking seafood.

The Missus, who had become quite the social person in Taiwan asked one of the workers where all the seafood came from and he answered Her say, "mostly Japan!"

So, choosing where we were going to eat was pretty easy.

We picked the sushi bar of course! What's interesting about the sushi bar in AAD is that it's a stand up operation.

The young lady who served us was unusually serious compared to what we had encountered in Taiwan, but would prove to be quite good to us later on.

Anyway, instead of ordering the usual combination from the menu, we picked our own nigiri to start, based on what I saw in the counter case as I walked by. Our initial a la carte foray cost us a handy $10200 NT, now if that sounds expensive to you, well, it was about $30/US at the time of our visit. Pricey by Taiwan standards, but let's look at what we got.

We liked that the rice was on the smaller side and the shari wasn't overpowering. And yes, that buttery Otoro, Hokkaido Uni (!), so umami-sweet and creamy, tender-sweet-oceany Hotate, and Amaebi!

We also got two Temaki, the Ebi-Asparagus was $75 NT, about $2.25/US  and the Uni $150 NT - $4.50/US.

These were fine, but not nearly as good as the nigiri.

We went with the standard "Addiction Sashimi" $240 NT, think $7.25 US!

Now, I think we had been spoiled by the nigiri as the typical maguro, which was fine and the thick slices of hamachi, etc, was perfectly fine....but we wanted more nigiri.

So, we decided to order a second round of nigiri. Now this is when the young lady came in really handy. I started ordering using the Japanese names; you know, hotate, otoro, uni, when she stopped and said something to the Missus and walked away. I was wondering what was going on. Apparently, she told the Missus, "you like fatty, we have something for you!" 

And wouldn't you know it; when our nigiri arrived there was the great otoro, hotate, and uni....but also engawa, which was so collagenic and sweet!

Man, this was a great meal and when you totaled things up, it came to $ 2425 NT, big bucks right? That's about $75 US! For real.....

We had myriad of great meals in Taiwan, but man, this one really spoiled sushi for us. 

Addiction Aquatic Development
No. 18號, Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu E Rd.
Zhongshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 10491

Can you believe this?

Taiwan - Dongshan River Forest Park, National Center for Traditional Arts (Wujie), Bajia Fish Farm 八甲休閒魚場 (Yuanshan), and Kavalan Distillery

**** This is a pretty long post so I'm not going to spend too much time on food (and whiskey), so if you'd like to return tomorrow I wouldn't hold it against you. But, if you'd like to see more of Taiwan, read on....

Time was flying. It seemed like we had just arrived yesterday and here we were leaving in two days! Wanting to make the most of our remaining time in Taiwan, I went ahead and booked two private tours/drivers. On this day, I wanted to visit one of my favorite whiskey makers while exploring a part of the island we hadn't been to yet.

Our driver was right on time and while she spoke no English, the Missus's Mandarin came in handy. Our driver had an end destination and we left it up to her to make stops along the way.

The first stop was in Yilan. A rather newish "Ecopark", the Dongshan River Forest Park. Opened in 2016, it was a wonderful green space, with art installations along the way. And the railroad still passes thru the park as well.

We enjoyed wandering around and just taking in the art and the beautiful sunny day.

We had some coffee and then headed off to our next stop. Apparently, our driver just got a sort of "vibe" from the Missus for our next stop.

We stopped in Wujie Township at the National Center for Traditional Arts. This 60 acre "town" is devoted to preserving and accenting the heritage of Taiwan, be it crafts, arts, music, and so on.

The various structures represent various architectural styles of Taiwan as well.

There are even temples onsite.

And performance areas as well.

And of course art abounds.

While one could take in the art.....

Or perhaps take a boat ride in the lake.....

There was some serious shopping to be done here.

There ere workshops with artisans in residence actually doing their "thing"!

And you were free to watch.

The one shop were I wish the Missus actually bought something was the one dealing in Black Jade.

Some of the item were just plain stunning.

In the end, after being tempted so many times......

We found something we both liked.

This was fun. We actually spent almost 3 hours here!

And when we left; it was time for lunch. Our driver headed into Yuanshan. We parked and then were led past pools of fishes and other creatures being raised.

This was the restaurant of Bajia Fish Farm. As a whole, a tourist type restaurant.

The interesting thing being that the main product of this "fish farm" is Ayu, also know as "sweetfish". I was quite interested to see how it would taste.

I had read about the fish smelling like watermelon, being sweet and fruity and so on. Basically, this tasted like a milder version of sanma to me.

I was glad to have tried it here, but it wasn't anything special to me. Perhaps being farm raised changed things a bit?

Bajia Fish Farm 八甲休閒魚場 (Yuanshan)
No. 1之10號, Bajia Rd
Yuanshan Township, Yilan County, Taiwan 26444

After lunch we headed down the road a bit, soon arriving at the Kavalan Distillery.

When planning our trip to Taiwan, I had really wanted to visit Kavalan. I first had Kavalan in, of all places Paris at Arnaud Nicolas. The Missus and I really enjoyed it, when having it again at Seven Grand and found that Old Town Liquor carried Kavalan, though I really didn't get the expensive stuff. Over time, I found that I really enjoyed the Solist Amontillado Sherry Cask, but heck, I ain't spending $500 a bottle for it. Anyway, our driver dropped us at the front of the distillery. And we headed in.

Because of the amount of time we'd spent at the National Center for Traditional Arts, it was getting later in the day, and we decided not to do a tour. Instead, we went to the "main" tasting room.

And the Missus and I shared the "World Championship Series" tasting.

And with a touch of water to "open things up", the Amontillado Sherry Cask, with the rich, slightly smoky-nutty-stone fruity flavor was again our favorite.

We really enjoyed this stop!

Kavalan Distillery
No. 326, Section 2, Yuanshan Rd
Yuanshan Township, Yilan County, Taiwan 264

Soon after, it was time to head back to Taipei. It had been a fun day, but now the question was; "what's for dinner?"

Stay Tuned!

Road Trip - Bar le Cote (Los Olivos)

After spending the evening in Monterey Park and having dinner a Mandarin Noodle House we headed up to our destination. We'd be spending the night in Buellton with reservations for lunch the next day at one of our favorite restaurants in the area, Bell's. Of course we couldn't check in until 3pm, so we needed a a place to pass the time and also for some lunch.

We had always enjoyed Los Olivos; we had enjoyed our first lunch there back in 2018 at the now defunct The Bear and Star and had always enjoyed strolling and shopping the town. Even though our last meal there at Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe was just passable, we love the vibe of the town. We'd gladly stay there except that hotel and AirBnB prices there are way too expensive for us! Thus, we'd be staying in Buellton.

I had read that the owners of Bell's were now co-owners of a Seafood forward restaurant named Bar le Cote in Los Olivos and it seemed like a nice lunch and shopping stop for us. So, I made reservations for a nice Thursday lunch. The place opens at noon, and we got into town a bit early, which gave us some time to do a bit of shopping.

The Missus loved this shop.

It might have been this that drew Her in.

Avec Moi Decor
2906 Grand Ave.
Los Olivos, CA 93441

The shops kept us occupied until the clock struck noon and we walked over to the cottage which housed the self-described "Seafood Tavern".

We waited a bit to be noticed and when the rather abrupt hostess came over, we chose to eat al fresco since it was such a nice day.

The woman Serving us was very professional and nice.

We ordered a couple of dishes I'd read about and since I was a fan of the beef tartare at Bell's, we ordered that as well.

First up was the Peel & Eat Shrimp ($18).

We found the "BLC spice" a bit on the saltier side which nullified the flavor of the shrimp. The shrimp were also over-cooked and rubbery. In this case adding the cocktail sauce or the aioli just further distracted one from the shrimp.

The dry aged Yellowtail Crudo ($24) had a wonderful, firm, yet almost cheese like texture and the flavor was quite mild.

We enjoyed the acidity from the lemon vinaigrette as well.

Next up, the beef tartare ($28).

    The fried oysters were an interesting touch, I guess it was there to replace the usual egg yolk, and of course BLC is a seafood based restaurant. but we didn't care for the fishiness it added to the beef which was almost mushy. The horseradish cream was excellent; adding the palate and nasal cleansing pungency to things. It seems like everything was minced too finely. The fries were crisp and lightly dusted with what seemed to be the "BLC Spice". In this instance it seemed to work fairly well.

Last up was the Crispy Skin Branzino ($34).

This was the best item of the day; the skin was very crisp, yet light, with a briny edge. The flesh of the fish was tender, moist, with a hint of oceany sweetness. The charred lemon added a smoky-citrusy-sweetness. The Romesco Sauce was fine, but not needed. The greens were crisp and fresh.

Overall, an inconsistent meal which ran over a hundred, plus an automatic 20% (which we have no problem with) was not quite what we expected. I don't think we'll return. Which is too bad since we'd enjoyed Bell's so much.

Bar Le Côte
2375 Alamo Pintado Ave.
Los Olivos, CA 93441

Then it was time to head on over to Buellton.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mariscos Negro Durazo (again)

Thank you for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!!, an old fashioned food blog.  Cathy is writing today, while Kirk and His Missus are 'researching' future posts. 

I wrote about Negro Durazo in 2011, two times then once more in 2013.  The Mister and I have revisted since then, but I haven't written a post about this Lemon Grove Mexican seafood restaurant since Covid-19.

 When you walk in, there is a bar area to the left and the 'main' area to the right. 
All the way back is a small stage which has mariachis or a DJ or a local band is located on weekends.

A basket of warm chips along with a mild salsa were brought out with the large, interesting menu.

 We ordered Queso Fundido with Chorizo to share ($14.95).  This was served in a large/deep plate with warm corn tortillas.  A good crisp chorizo (you know I am a little picky about chorizo) on top of a quality, melty creamy cheese blend.
 My craving this day was  for a shrimp ceviche tostada ($6.95).  Look carefully at the large menu, you can find good prices for basic items.   The chopped shrimp, cooked in lime juice and mixed with tomatoes really hit the spot.  There are more tostadas on the tabletop, if you run out,
 The Mister was looking at the "Filete Especiales" portion of the menu and chose the Relleno de Mariscos ($26.95).  A large piece of fish (Didn't ask, but it was a thick, meaty filet) stuffed/topped with shrimp, octopus and marlin as well as tomatoes and onion all cooked in butter.  Served with rice and steamed vegetables (which went well with the butter) this was a tasty meal with leftovers.

Mariscos Negro Durazo 6954 Federal Blvd, Lemon Grove, CA 91945 (619)337-7704 Open at 11 a.m. daily 

8th and B Poke (National City)

At the end of May last year, I heard about a poke shop opening in National City, but we were between trips and I never made it until September. 8th and B Poke is located; well, off of 8th Street and B Avenue in one of the new residential buildings.

I had heard that the shop will sometimes sell out of poke, so I made sure to go before they opened. As a whole parking can be a bit "interesting" in this area as well.

The shop is small, with a small counter and a listing of the poke available posted on the "board". What can be confusing is that different sizes of poke "bowls/plates" are listed, but it doesn't tell you how much poke is involved with each. 

On the counter is a list of what kind of tako poke and salmon is available that day.

I figured, correctly that a Medium Plate would have two different poke and since it's really hard to find decent tako poke here in San Diego, I got the kimchi tako along with the ahi limu.

  The texture of the ahi was good. Not too much connective tissue. The fish was highly sauced, and the sauce was on the sweet side. There wasn't a huge amount of limu and the sweetness of the sauce pretty much overshadowed any of the briny-oceany flavor provided by the seaweed, though the textural crunch provided much needed contrast. The fish was of decent quality and nicely prepped.

The rice had some shoyu based sauce and furikake on it and was decently cooked on all my visits.

There was surimi and seaweed salad; routine stuff. But for some reason what they called "fish mash", tuna scrape looked really familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it at the time.

The tako was just prepped octopus with sauce squirted on it, not marinated at all, thus without much flavor. It was also overly chewy.

The ahi was not bad at all, better than most other places in San Diego. I downloaded my photos and made a note to return. I must be getting old, because we went on a couple of trips after this visit, and I totally forgot about the place. And then on my last post on Poke Etc, "FOY" Jack mentioned 8th and B! Yikes, I had forgotten about the place. I was off on that Thursday and headed right on down to National City.

Same gameplan; I arrived right before opening and ordered a Medium Plate. I got asked if I'd like to add some Shrimp Tempura ($3) and I acquiesced.

I probably should have passed on the shrimp as I saw it pulled from an air fryer.

This time I got the Spicy Garlic Ahi and the Shoyu Ahi.

   As I walked back to the car, I realized I forgot to ask the folks the burning question about the place I had in mi cabeza. Sigh! Anyway, on this visit, the Spicy Garlic Ahi, wasn't particularly spicy, nor was it garlicky, at least to me. The fish was on the chewy side but decent. As with my previous visit the Ahi was swimming in sauce.

The shoyu Ahi was quite good, not overly sauced, nor excessively sweet, good texture, nice soy overtones, not too salty. Looks like I found a winnah!

As for the shrimp, well, it hadn't held up well on the drive home. The shrimp was fairly small, though who would complain about $3 these days? It was soggy and really lacked seasoning.

And so, I was ready for a post....until "FOY" Mar commented on Friday, just a day after my visit telling me that 8th and B had LauLau on Sundays! Ok...... Of course, I miss having good LauLau, so I waited and visited on a Sunday. And yes, there's a LauLau plate ($19), which comes with one scoop of poke.

I must say that I understand folks' confusion here, there's no indication of how much poke comes with each plate, nor does it say that the LauLau plate comes with poke.....I did ask and was told I had one choice. So far, my favorite had been the Shoyu Ahi so I went with that.

It was interesting to see a line forming, which stretched out the door when I exited. I guess weekends must be pretty busy here!

   This time, I didn't forget that question, you see, that "fish mash" brought me back to a place that won the I love poke festival in OC in 2015. Yes, for a time we thought that Zarlitos had some of the best poke in San Diego. Sadly, they stopped serving poke around late 2018 or so. 

I asked and was told that this was indeed the same folks. Ohh-kay! That fish mash; think of how the old school places used to take bone scraping and make spicy tuna; it's actually quite tender, not fishy, at least what this place makes....in fact, I asked not to have seaweed salad and they gave me an extra scoop of the fish mash.

The fish in the shoyu poke was quite tender on this visit, but was much more "sauced" and sweeter than before. 

As for the Lau Lau, as you can see, the Luau leaf was undercooked and fibrous. The meat was....well, as expected lacking the salted fish and pork fat.

It was so lean, dry, and tasteless. I'll pass on this from now on.

But, that poke is pretty good; it's miles ahead of what I'd recently had at Poke Etc. So, if you enjoyed the poke that Zarlito's used to served, here's the remedy. Of course for me, HFS at Centerpark is still my go-to. But I'll definitely drop by 8th and B again if I'm in the area, if only to see what's going on.

And for even more opinions....because I guess great minds think alike; please check out Denver's and Joy's posts on 8th and B!

And thanks to Jack and Mar for the reminders about 8th & B!

What would I do without our "FOYs"!

8th & B Poke
806 B Ave.
National City, CA 91950
Hours:
Wed - Mon 11am - 7pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Honolulu - Fort Ruger Market a Quarter Century Later

The Missus and I were looking at some of my old photo albums and flipped the page to my third grade class photo. I started cracking up and the Missus gave me a quizzical look. I then pointed something out to Her. All the boys were wearing long pants (no shorts were allowed in those days), Aloha Shirts (after all, it as class photo day), the girls Mumu's, but.......most of us were barefoot! I explained to the Missus that until the fifth grade, many of us actually did walk to school barefoot (though not uphill both ways). I mean this was the late 60's, early 70's, and things were different then. Plus, as I mentioned in my post on my "old neighborhood", Ali'iolani Elementary was just a block away from where we lived.

And this kinda brings me forward to this post. On our last trip back "home", the Missus asked me when I first remember having poke. We had just finished doing some stuffs at Ala Moana and I decided to show Her. Way back, when I was in the 5th or 6th grade, my Mom had an appointment in the Fort Ruger area. I was raised by a single parent and my Mom never ever drove, so we had to catch the Ruger bus and I waited while my Mom did her thing. After the appointment, we walked over to Ruger Market, and that's where I first remember having poke I really liked, over 50 years ago! I'd probably had it before; of course during the holidays there was sashimi and stuff, but I remembered the poke from Ruger Market clearly. Later, when I was older, my friends and I would drive on over after going to Cromwell's (I can't believe the cove is still around, though maybe not for long) and grab some poke, then go for a drive around Diamond Head Road and eat at the lookout or hele on over to Kapiolani Park or Paki Park and grind there.

So, we drove on over....and heck, I hadn't been to Ruger Market since before I left the islands; which would be over 25 years, but the place looks pretty much the same.

Though it's more of a seafood- Filipino/Hawaiian restaurant these days. When I was growing up, this was the neighborhood grocery for the area.

Different grades of Ahi is available, you can get poke made with  pre-frozen Ahi (nah) or with fresh Ahi, what is called "Auction Fresh Ahi" on the sign.

You know what we got, right?

We'd already had some small stuffs to eat at Foodland Farms and this was a kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, so we didn't go too crazy. We got one poke bowl, with brown rice, the chicharrons looked really good, so we got that, and also some boiled peanuts.

And then we headed off.....just like those hanabuddah days, I drove around Diamond Head Road to the lookout.

You can find the Amelia Earhart Plaque here as well.

As well as the "best seat in the house"....at least on this day.

And the local "security detail".

We headed on down and found parking and a table at Kapiolani Park and proceeded to dig in.

I was surprised to find that the kimchi was decent; not overly fermented, but still quite refreshing. The brown rice added a nice nuttiness to the bowl. The quality of the fish was good; tender and buttery in texture without connective tissue. We preferred the restrained, classic, soy-saltiness, with a hint of oceany sweetness of the Local Style Ahi. The Spicy Shoyu wasn't very spicy and was a bit on the salty side. Still, the quality and prep was way above anything here in San Diego.

The Chicharron was as good as it looked.

Crisp, with a slight crunch; porky and savory, which just enough salt. Talk about a guilty pleasure.

As for the boiled peanuts, well, the Missus was saving them for later. Though this little fella tried to make a move on the legume.

The Missus loves Her boiled peanuts, so he didn't stand a chance!

It was good to know that Ruger Market still makes decent poke.

The older I get, the more I treasure and appreciate those times and the chances I get to reflect on them. And it was wonderful to share a bowl of memories with the Missus.

Fort Ruger Market
3585 Alohea Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816

And I also want to thank you for sharing in those memories with me! Thanks for stopping by!