mmm-yoso!!!

Nhà Hàng Chay Hoa Từ Bi Tâm

A few months ago, I drove past the latest incarnation of a restaurant at 4591 El Cajon Boulevard.....and did a double take. It looked like yet another restaurant has taken the space; the last three, including a location of Saigon Sandwiches moved in and out so fast I never got a chance to check them out. What got my attention was the "Organic - Veggie" lettering on the sign.

I really wasn't too keen on checking this place out but "FOYs" (friends of yoso) Elle and Phuong both mentioned this place in the comments section of my Banh Mi Boulevard post. So why not? The following weekend, I drove over. Hoa Từ Bi Tâm opens at 8am, so I decided to head over for breakfast.

They've really "greened out" the place and one thing clued me in.....that this was a real "vegetarian" place; there's a bit of Buddhist literature around. This ain't no hipster - tree hugger joint. there's even floor seating available; just don't ask me to do that, I've gone though my lack of flexibility, which has turned into a bit of a phobia over the years. Well, here you can sit on the floor if you want to.

Another interesting thing.....just about everything on the menu (the Banh Xeo is $6) is five bucks!

I decided to start with the Banh Beo, something I hadn't had in a while.

The tapioca - rice cake was way too soft and was ungainly...it also strangely lacked the mild hint of sweetness. While there was a good amount of toppings; it was quite bland and sorely in need of a more savory component. The faux nuoc mam cham was super sweet and amplified the need for something savory in this dish.

In looking over the list of noodle soups; two were quickly eliminated; Bun Mam is only served on Thursdays and frankly, since that soup is a major umami bomb, I'm not sure how things would manage to hold up without seafood or meat, and the version of Bun Rieu which might have been a possibility, was only served on Tuesdays. I chose something that I thought would do well in a vegetarian format; Bun Mang; dried bamboo soup.

The highlights of this soup were the noodles; while the portion was rather small, was prepped perfectly, it shows that they really take care with what is being served. The rehydrated bamboo shoots had a nice crunch and earthy flavor. Unfortunately, not enough of that flavor was given to the broth what was surprisingly salty and on the "sweet" side. The bean curd items were standard issue....and I'm not a big fan of some wheat gluten products; which has a weirdly chalky-"off" meat flavor to me. And those items; especially the faux cha lua tasted that way.

Still; this wasn't terrible and I decided to return this past weekend to try a few other items.

I started with the Bo Bia; Jicama Spring Rolls.

I think these had been sitting a while for a couple of reasons; unlike my previous visit, where things took a while to hit the table, this came out in five minutes. In addition, the wrapper was dried out and really chewy. Third, in addition to the crunch of Jicama, I usually detect a pleasant light sweetness, which was missing here. The dipping sauce; which tasted peanut based was actually quite good; it held up well, and was nice and thick, coating things well.

Not quite knowing what to order in terms of noodle soup, I went with the Hu Tieu.

Which turned out to be a good choice. The broth, while still edging on being too salty, was fine. Because it was on the milder side, I could really make out the flavors; the lightly sweet cauliflower, the vegetal broccoli, the sliced king mushrooms, earthy and meaty. The bean curd items were fine, though I'm still not a fan of the wheat gluten stuff here. The noodles were cooked perfectly this time as well. I also enjoyed a squeeze of lime to tame the sodium and the addition of crunchy bean sprouts. This was not bad at all.....especially for five bucks!

The folks here are really nice. I noticed that all customers were a bit older; except for one table where a very unhappy young lady sat with her smartphone not eating anything while the two older women with her had noodle soup. I'm glad I tried the place; it looks like they already have a decent customer base and are trying to put out a good product. I hope they do well. I just may return one day for another breakfast...

Hey, maybe if they have one of the those "ear cleaning guys" like at Wenshu Temple? Just kidding....once in my life is enough!

Nhà Hàng Chay Hoa Từ Bi Tâm
4591 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
Hours:
Thurs - Tues 8am - 8pm
Closed on Wednesday

Thanks for the recommendation Elle and Phuong!

Opposite Sides of the Street: Native Foods and Chicken Charlie's FryBQ

I'm still a bit disappointed that all of that development on the corner of Genesee and Balboa has given birth to a slew of chain and chain like restaurants. Still, something did catch my attention which triggered off this Jungian inspired conversation from Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket:

Pogue Colonel: You write "Born to Kill" on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?
Private Joker: No, sir.
Pogue Colonel: You'd better get your head and your a$$ wired together, or I will take a giant $^!t on you.
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Now answer my question or you'll be standing tall before the man.
Private Joker: I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.
Pogue Colonel: The what?
Private Joker: The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Whose side are you on, son?
Private Joker: Our side, sir.

Two restaurants, polar opposites, one trying to place a large, wet, vegan stamp on the fast casual restaurant business, the other, a favorite among fair goers for frying just about everything, seemed to be wanting to place that stamp in our arteries.

You really couldn't find to more contradictory paths with the same goal....feeding the masses, it seemed quite appropriate that the businesses were across the street from one another. Since both were on the way to and from work and meetings, I thought I should give them a try. And you know me, it meant eating at both places multiple times. So here goes.....

On the North side of Balboa, Native Foods:

To tell you the truth, I'd been curious about Native Foods since I read Elmo's post on the chain over four years ago. Though, to be just as honest, I really wasn't excited enough to drive to Point Loma to try them out.

The set-up is totally fast casual...remove the tree hugger bright colors and this could be Tender Greens or Smashburger.....or any number of fast casual shops.

On this visit, things seemed a bit disorganized....the cashier was busy talking to her customer and going over things while two other girls just kind of milled around. It looked a bit strange to me.... 

Like I mentioned earlier, I'd been intrigued by what Elmo and his pals had from Native Foods, so I ordered the Native Nachos ($6.95) and the Native Chicken Wings - in Buffalo Sauce ($5.95).

The nachos really didn't have any mystery flavors, it was fairly straight forward. My complaints would be that the chips were stale and the "native taco meat" was like eating pieces of organic grit, being hard and dry. Everything else was fine if a bit bland.

The "chicken" was a bit too spongy for my taste, though the "Buffalo"....strange because even though it's the name of a city....it's also a name of a pretty tasty four legged critter...anyway the sauce had a mild kick, the batter was decent, but that "Ranch Dressing" was very runny and tasted watered down.

Not a great meal by any means, but not terrible either, so I returned a few days later. I feel kind of like I cheated here since I ordered a salad.....I mean, a place like this should make a decent salad, right?

What kind of drove me nuts this time around was that I saw my salad come up in the window. There were no other customers and I got it to go. The two guys; one of them obviously the manager were just shooting the breeze, so I decided to use a stop watch after watching this go on for a few minutes.

So, it took over 7 minutes for that guy to reach up and grab my salad which had been sitting in the window. Sheesh, with a manager like that, no wonder folks seem pretty lax here.

I had ordered the Mexican Cobb ($8.95) and I thought it to be a decent salad. The Native Chicken sliced thin with an "Ancho" BBQ sauce, which pretty much tasted like a regular BBQ sauce, no deep smokey-sweet chili flavors, though this was not bad at all. I guess thin slices of the stuff works best. The dressing did have a nice little kick. This was nicely put together, from the jicama to the corn, to the black beans. I'd have no problem ordering this again.

And yet, I kind of felt like I needed to try something a bit different. On my next visit, I again hit an interesting delay. Three girls at the front counter, none of them had access to the register. Common sense dictates that perhaps one should just take my order until they can find the person with the blessed access....but no, I just cool my heels.

At least there was no unecessary waiting for what I ordered, the Native Chili (cup - $3.95) and something the cashier recommended sinceI was just stumped, a thing called the Chicken Run Ranch Burger ($9.95).

Eating chili glue with a flavor that seemed watered down and bland is not my favorite experience. I'm passing on this from now on.

If you see this sandwich approaching you; run, don't walk away from it. Imagine biting into a mushy sponge with dry buns, and liquid that looks like it leaked out of coleslaw oozing out. This was severely bland and I didn't enjoy the textural experience either.

For me, it's the salads here......

Native Foods Cafe
5604 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

On the South side of Balboa, Chicken Charlie's FryBQ:

I thoguht this a fairly interesting gamble for "Charlie". It's one thing to create fatty, over-the-top Fair Food. It's another taking that "fry everything gimmick" and having a brick and mortar shop.

I first went just a few days after opening at a bit of an offf hour so the place wasn't overly busy.

In a rather interesting coincidence, I ordered almost the same items as Kirbie did for her post. The Fried Avocados and a side of Fried Chicken.

I had fried several times here, so I'll just go over it once; these are very low quality bulk fries, lacking in potato flavor and kind of dry. The avocados were the favorite item I had here.......crunchy exterior, creamy avocado goodness....like eating crusted fat. Lovely.

The fried chicken were terrible.

These came out very quickly, so I think they were laying around under some heat source. The coating was soggy, grey, sloughing off like dead skin. The meat was cold to the touch and greasy in texture. It was also strangely under-seasoned for my taste.

The next time around I ordered the FryBQ Ribs, which was probably a mistake on my part.

These were hard as rock and the sauce was much to tangy and "dry", with a bit too much spice. You really couldn't taste any smoke or the ribs for that matter. Perhaps that was by design, but these were not my favorite.

Since I was working within the rule of three, I needed to revisit one more time. So I ordered an item that I enjy when done well, the Frog Legs. Frog Legs are a tricky thing, they go dry quickly if over-cooked. If not fresh, they turn a bit sour with a kind of mushy-sliminess to them.

I believe the photo to the right is pretty much my reaction to the frog legs. The fry job on these weren't good as the batter was soft and just fell of the beast. I'm glad the legs weren't dry, but the flavor seemed a bit off. Not even close to what I had at  Red Rooster Catfish (which I believe has a new location).

And while I really didn't care for much of what I had here; I have to say the service was efficient. I saw Mr Boghosian follow up with customers who seemed ot waiting too long for their orders several times, which was a nice touch.

In the end, for a place that hangs its hat on frying, I thought the deep fry jobs were very uneven. Perhaps Chicken Charlie's forte are the fried sweets like oreoes and Klondike bars. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I'll leave that for others.

Chicken Charlie’s FryBQ
5407 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

The Roxy Restaurant, Cafe and Bar- Encinitas

Welcome (back) to mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog.  Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are busy anticipating a time to relax. Cathy found that time and is sharing a food adventure today.

A few weeks ago, The Mister and I drove North on Highway 101 along some of the 60 miles of San Diego County coastline, enjoying where we live. 

We had worked up an appetite while getting in some walking and stopped when we got to the Encinitas sign.

We had parked just across the street from the restaurant which provides my favorite San Diego County Fair food fix-  

I've posted that this was the one booth we must stop at every year.

This year, we did go to the Fair several times and got both the falafel burger ...

as well as an artichoke sandwich. Both of these sandwiches are on the menu at the Restaurant and the price is the same as at the Fair!

We stepped into Roxy's just before it started to get crowded and chose a table on the North half of the restaurant.

After reading the mainly vegetarian menu (some dishes are made with chicken, squid or fish) I decided to try a cup of the 'everyday' soup ($3)- Bean Soup, made with lentils, soy and pinto beans. The spices made this taste like a good chili and I really liked it.  The soup was served with a piece of toast...the same bread that's used for the Fair sandwiches.  (I found out it is The Baker's Wife from Bosch Baking bread brand, made in San Marcos and available at some of the weekly farmer's markets and sold in the grocery part of the Tip Top Meats store.)

I selected the avocado burrito ($7.99). A very large whole wheat tortilla with cheese, onion and olive melted onto the tortilla,

which was then filled with at least two smashed avocadoes, lettuce and tomato.  This was served with a good, spicy salsa and a very large lettuce, spinach, cabbage, tomato, broccoli and cauliflower 'side' salad. So very fresh, tasty and filling.   

The Mister ordered the Fish and Chips, one of the white board specials that day ($7.99, regular $8.99).  This was four large pieces of excellent fried fish (probably tilapia) served on top of a pile of quite memorable, thin cut, perfectly cooked fries with an absolutely wonderful house made tartar sauce.

On the South side of the restaurant is a small area where ice cream is sold.  It is Niederfrank's, a National City based company (which I posted about in 2007). I can foresee taking another few drives on the 101 before the 2013 San Diego County Fair to try out more of the menu at Roxy's.

It's Friday! Enjoy your weekend.

The Roxy Restaurant 517 Highway 101, Encinitas, CA 92024 (760) 436-5001 Mon-Sat 11:00 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Website

Chengdu: Wenshu Temple, Tea House, Vegetarian Restaurant, and an interesting "appetizer"...

After our visit to the Giant Panda Breeding Base, the Missus' cousin drove us down to Wenshu Temple to spend the rest of the day.

The monastary and temple has a history of over a thousand years and is probably best know for the "Peace Pagoda of One Thousand Buddhas", the tallest iron pagoda in China.

The crowd was interesting, the tourists being a mix of typical wanna see folks and actual true believers. A cloud of incense smoke rose above the buildings and courtyards of the monastery.

For some reason it was the wooden depiction of the Hindu Avatar, Matsya that grabbed my attention.

According to the Hindu scriptures, a devotee of Vishnu named Satyavrata was at a river washing his hands when a tiny fish jumped into them. This tiny fish pleaded for his life so Satyavrata took him home and placed him in a jar which the fish eventually outgrew. Over time the fish kept growing, moving from the jar to a pond and ultimately became the "biggest of all fish". The fish instructed Satyavrata to take it down to the ocean where it revealed itself to be an incarnation of Vishnu and warned Satyavrata of an impending flood instructing him to build a ship.....yes, a Hindu version of the Great Flood. Satyavrata became known as Manu (The First Man).

After walking the grounds for a while we gathered and headed off to one of the two tea houses on the grounds of the monastery.

In contrast to the low hum of the temple area, you could hear the rather raucous laughing and yelling as we approached.

This tea house was much different from the rather sedate one we visited before, where we saw the monks bumming cigarettes from folks.

Folks bought a cup of tea and maybe some snacks, they keep refilling your cup with hot water as many times as you want. Folks were reading, napping (in spite of the racket, some people were indeed crashed out), playing cards, games......folks just seem to be plain enjoying themselves. Shells from sunflower seeds flying about....even the birds here are pretty aggressive, flying right onto your table to take "their cut" of the profits.

Of course, after about four cups of tea, the inevitable happened....I needed a restroom, which is how I came across the worst restroom of our trip to China. No mean feat, as anyone who has been to China knows, there are contenders everywhere. But this one took the crown by a wide margin. As I walked to the toilet, I could already make out the ammonia like smell. I had thoughts of finding a bush somewhere, but banished them immediately. This was a monastery, what would my punishment be in Naraka be if I peed on a bush! I took shallow breaths as I walked into the lavatory and was amazed at the sight of the trough....it was a trough, with a trough.....a almost even pool about a half inch deep and three feet wide  of liquid(take a guess) surrounded the trough. Dozens of beetles and insects performed synchronized swimming demonstrations in the pool. What the heck was I to do? In the end, I did as probably most everyone else did, I stood well clear of the pool, hoped my ab muscles worked ok and fired away...... As I stumbled out of the lavatory, a young man entered, (all these folks drinking tea, what else was going to happen?) he came to a stop a couple feet in front of me, halted by the wall of ammonia. I could feel his pain. I really felt icky and when I sat down next to the Missus I whispered to Her:

"Do I smell like pee?"
"Why, did you pee on yourself?"
"No, but I feel like I've just walked through a cloud of it. Whatever you do, don't go to the bathroom!"

After what happened the last time She didn't heed my advice....She cut down on how much tea She was drinking.

About twenty minutes later the teahouse started closing and emptied out pretty quickly. I loved the way they stacked the chairs.

Our destination for dinner was to be the at the vegetarian restaurant on the monastery grounds.....vegetarian? Monastery? Food like what the monks eat? Really????

The place was fairly clean, looking like many of the other restaurants we ate at during our trip.....

Suddenly a friendly looking, middle aged gentleman walked up to our table. The Missus proclaimed, "oh, he made it!" So who was he? Another uncle or relative joining us for dinner? So I asked the Missus:

"Who is he?"
"He's here for you?"
"For me?"
"Yeah, while you went to the restroom, I asked the ear cleaner in the tea house to come over and clean your ears, but they closed before he could get to you. So he came over here to finish the job."
"Finish the job?"
"Aaaah, don't worry, that's the good thing about ears, you have two. One gets messed up you still have another!"

I wasn't too keen on having anyone without "MD" after their name putting anything smaller than their elbow in my ear, but what the heck, the Missus was right after all, eh? eh? eeehh?

It was kind of strange at first.....having someone probing around in your (insert orafice of choice) ear.

Notice the young lady in the photo. She is the oldest daughter of the Missus cousin. Mesmerized by what was taking place and the possibility of gore and bloodshed as well I assume. After all, it's not everyday that you see a relative you've never met before get his brain punctured through his ear canal..... Actually, the amount of awe and attention made me nervous.  I really don't think this is something that is a normal part of everyday life here......

But this guy really was a pro......

And when it seemed that the potential for bloodshed was diminished the young lady sat back down with her sisters. The ear cleaner told the Missus that my ears were really clean, but that my right ear canal was red and irritated, which is true. I told the Missus, "tell him I know that, it's the ear you yell into all the time....."

The only thing that felt really weird was when he put the vibrating tuning fork to the ear probe...it sent a huge buzz that I felt to my bones through me. It actually gave me "chicken skin".

In the end, this was an interesting experience.....don't know if I'd do it again, but the guy was very professional.

After that, the meal seemed somewhat anti-climatic. The standard of vegetarian dishes was fairly high, but as with most of these type of restaurants was really varied.

The plain vegetable dishes are the easiest to take as well as being the most "safe", but aren't much better than what you'd get else where.

But I really enjoyed the dish of peppers and green beans. The peppers were mildly spicy, but with a nice sweetness to them.

Of course there are the obvious bean curd dishes. This wasn't too bad.

I loved the Cherry Peppers in this dish, nice sweet-spicy. Interesting dish overall, those faux squid things are basically an after-thought.

The filling for the baozi tasted pretty much like standard issue vegetarian-mushroom filling. The dough was kind of mushy and the bottoms were too soggy for my taste.

The sizzling rice was actually quite good.

Nice flavor......

The rest of the items weren't to my taste. The faux sweet-sour fish was too mushy, too sweet, and I didn't care for the texture.

Needless to say, we didn't leave hungry!

Since our flight was early in the morning, we stayed in Chengdu. After being dropped off at our hotel we decided to take a walk around the area......I'm pretty sure there was a college or university around because on one of the side streets.....

Too bad we were too full to partake....

But this just means we'll have to return someday.

Cafe Cabaret- a coffee shop with food.

Hi.  You are back at mmm-yoso!!!, possibly a bookmark on your Tool Bar, or perhaps you got here by Googling.  In any case, Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are not blogging today, Cathy is.

The other Friday, again after one of our walks around a body of water...

  
 
 

Lake Murray on this day...

The Mister and I started driving and somehow got to Adams Avenue.  We saw this sign. I rounded the block and parked.  

It was the "French Crepes" sign which attracted me, because I still hadn't had any since my quest for crepes went unrequited a few weeks ago...

 
However, just the beverage menu here was filled with choices and when we saw menu items (sandwiches, salads, kabobs), breakfast items(omelets, scrambles, waffles, pancakes, French Toast) and some of the daily chalkboard specials, the crepe was soon forgotten and we ordered, paid and found a place to sit.

An outdoors-brought-inside decor with many tables inside the building as well as on the patio, apparently offering free wi-fi and community setting, we felt comfortable here.   

The nice young lady who took our order brought out the regular coffee we had ordered.  I found out the owners are Ethiopian, explaining some of the menu items. {Yes.  Too many beverage choices has me wanting to see if a place can make a regular cup of coffee.  (Cafe Cabaret can.)}
The Mister had ordered the Vegetable samosas, a light snack ($4.99) which came with a salsa dip as well as a yougurt sauce and some carrots and cucumbers.

These pockets of just baked flaky triangle shaped dough were filled with a delightful blend of peas, lentils, potatoes, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, onions, perfectly seasoned with cumin and coriander.
I ordered the chalkboard special falafel sandwich, which came with salad, hummus and whole wheat pita ($4.99). The salad dressing was a raspberry vinaigrette and the dipping sauce was yogurt based.  The fresh hummus was topped with a nice-hot Harissa sauce. The falafel inside the wheat wrap were probably made from a dry mix, had and interesting garlic flavor on their own and were cold (!)  inside the wrap filled with lettuces, onion, tomato and cucumber accompanied by a sauce which seemed to be a mix of the yogurt and harissa. There was a lot of falafel in the sandwich and the meal was quite filling and very tasty, although I ended up using all of the other sauces on the table and not the raspberry salad dressing for the salad- it tasted too sweet to me.  

This was another lucky find for us. We'll stop by when we are in the area again.

Cafe Cabaret 3739 Adams Avenue San Diego 92116 (619)284-1819 Open 6:30-10 p.m. 7 days.  Breakfast 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Website

Fairouz Restaurant & Gallery

Okay, I know it...I got some nerve doing a post on a Buffet right after Thanksgiving! Guilty as charged. And admittedly, I'm not quite the expert on Buffets and Brunches as Jim the Brunchmaster, who should probably write a "Brunches and Buffets for Dummies" book. But I've had photos of Fairouz just taking up space on my hard drive, so.......

Fairouz has a regular menu,  but we've mostly stuck to the buffet, which is $8.99 for lunch and $12.99 for dinner. And in the realm of the Hometown Buffets and various Chinese Buffets, I think that Fairouz is a nice change of pace. Though the sign says "Greek Buffet", I'd say that there are almost as many, or more Lebanese and Mediterranean buffet items.

On this visit to Fairouz, I noticed that the interior had been painted, and some additional lighting added, giving Fairouz a brighter cleaner looking interior. It had obviously been a while since my last visit.

If you think the interior slightly resembles an Art Gallery, you wouldn't be too far from the truth. The Owner of Fairouz, Ibrahim Al Nashashibi, is quite an artist, and his acrylics and water colors adorn the walls of Fairouz.

As for the buffet, there is a nice variety of items, with slight changes everyday. One thing I always notice are the description cards for the buffet items are not always placed correctly...for instance, on this day the Moussaka was labeled as Okra. For some reason I always find humor in this.

And though there are several meat items, like the Kofta Meatballs and Roasted Chicken pictured above, I usually end up enjoying the various starches and vegetable dishes more than the protein items. As you head for the buffet warm toasted pita magically appears on your table.

Okay, two types of potato, and saffron rice...do you think I got enough starch? I should practice what I preach, the Gyros meat was the only item that I really didn't care for. I enjoyed the Fava and Garbanzo beans, the Okra, and the Eggplant dishes.

Though my favorite dishes at Fairouz are the cold Garlic Potatoes, a vinegary, salty, and slightly garlicky "salad", and the various pickled cabbages.

I also enjoy the Rice Pudding with Rosewater as a refreshing end to my meal.

What's that red thingy? It had a sweet, fruity flavor, with a touch of rose water flavoring. I had to ask....it's Fruit Punch Jello! The yellow version is licorice flavored jello......

As buffets go, I think Fairouz is pretty good, and Al Nashashibi is a very mellow and nice Guy. So if you have a group of people, with vegetarians in tow, Fairouz may not be a bad option.

Fairouz Restaurant & Gallery
3166 Midway Dr
San Diego, CA 92110

(619) 225-0308

Madras Cafe - So What Did we Eat? I Don't Know, But it Tastes Really Good!

*** Madras Cafe has closed ***

This is going to be a bit of a different post. It's mainly because most of the time I had no idea what I was eating at Madras Cafe. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good! Madras Cafe resides in Little India Center, along with Ashoka the Great Cuisine of India, and the Ker-Little India Megastore among others. The difference is that Madras features Southern Indian vegetarian cuisine. I managed to take photos on two separate visits. The first with the Missus, the second with Ed from Yuma.

The only thing I really knew about Southern Indian were Dosas:

A thin crepe-like pancake made from rice and lentil flour. The regular menu features Dosas "stuffed" with a variety of items. Since we were eating from the buffet, we were served plain Dosas, nice and warm, and very much crepe-like in texture.

We were also served piping hot Idli with our meal:

Idli is a steamed rice and lentil "cake". It almost reminded me of Chinese steamed rice cakes but with a mildly grainy texture, and I enjoyed these.

On the visit with the Missus we were served this:

It was a "balloon" of crust! I have no idea what is was; and as the restaurant was quite busy, I really have no idea what this was!

Here's a photo of the Onion Chutney:

Very loose, but very tasty, especially with the Idli.

As the Missus and I discussed the food we noticed that the same North-South dichotomy that existed in China, certainly existed in India. The North part of the Country featured many wheat products; while it seemed that South Indian dishes seemed to be rice based.

We also appreciated the metal plates and compartments that separated the individual dishes, so they would not mix together; allowing for us to taste each dish individually.

On the visit with the Missus we enjoyed the Eggplant dish, nice and mildly spicy, with a slightly sweet and somewhat "earthy taste". We also enjoyed the Okra dish(on the right of the Eggplant dish above), which at first tasted very sour, yet very "clean". But as we kept eating, the sour taste kept getting stronger until it started tasting almost bitter. Funny thing  was that I mentioned how much we enjoyed the Eggplant while paying and asked what the name of it was, and was told, "It's Eggplant with sauce". Oohhhkay, I'll have no problem with that one!

My next visit was with Ed, and we enjoyed the buffet as well. What was interesting was that the items served where completely different from my previous visit!

Here are a few:

The two rice dishes were good. I enjoyed the version on the right which was a bit spicy, over the mild basmati rice with beans on the left.

My favorite dish was this version of "peas and carrots" with curry:

The melding of textures, in addition to the curry flavor and spice, made this so delici-yoso!!! Among the best peas and carrots I've ever had, and I hate peas and carrots. This changes any preconceptions of peas and carrots I've ever had.

Ed's favorite of the day was this spicy, tangy "Sambhar"(sambal):

At least that's what the Gentleman serving us called it. Basically a spicy, slightly sweet, and tangy stew. I found that most of the dishes at Madras were alot "looser" then the Indian food I've eaten before; and alot less "rich". While Ed was visiting the "facilities" our Server told me that the tangy flavor was imparted by the use of lemon and tamarind.

Here are a few of the other items served in the buffet.

A nice lentil and vegetable fritter.

I remember that I kept asking Ed "what are we eating?"

And Ed responding, "I don't know, but it's really good isn't it?"

Madras Cafe is worth a try. Even though the dishes are vegetarian, they are all very well flavored, and it seems that the dishes change from day to day. Regular menu items feature various Dosas and Idli, but the small (14-16 items) lunch buffet is priced right($6.95), and worth your attention. I've been told that the food is so hot as to be unbearable, but I didn't think so. But remember, I love spicy food. I'm sure that someone will provide some information as to what we were eating........

So what did we eat? I don't know, but some of it tasted really good!

Madras Cafe 
9484 Black Mountain Road
San Diego, CA 92126

Lunch: Tue-Fri 11:00 am-2:30 pm
Sat-Sun 11:30 am-4 pm
Dinner: Tue-Sun: 5:30-9:30 pm
Closed on Mondays