2/21/04 - Sau Voi Deli, 7330 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard (inside 99 Ranch Market), (858) 292-0986.
I was in a rush for lunch this afternoon, since Linda wouldn't return from her class until 1:45, and the monthly book sale at the North Park library ended at 3:00. That left very little time for book hunting (in retrospect, that would have been a good thing - once again I bought way too many books, which necessitated a trip to IKEA for yet another book shelf... but I digress), and if Linda was hungry stopping for food would only cut into that time more. So, thinking ahead, I stopped by this little Vietnamese deli in 99 Ranch Market. Of course, trying to park at 99 Ranch on a Saturday afternoon isn't exactly wise - it's a horribly cramped lot, with way too many people who tend to do really dumb things, like waiting fifteen minutes for a 95 year old man to finish loading his groceries into his car, thus causing a traffic back up of biblical proportions. Not having nearly enough patience for that, I usually park on the street behind the store, and walk the extra fifty yards.
The deli is a cramped little place. There's a counter with several heating plates full of mostly unidentifiable food (there is this weird thing that looks like kernels of corn floating in a gelatinous goo that I have never been able to muster the courage to order) and a cooler on the other side packed with prepackaged food. The menu on the wall behind the counter has big pictures of various plates you can order, none of which is more than $5. They all look good, but today, as always, I order the incredibly cheap barbecued pork sandwiches. They're served on French rolls, with some kind of mayonaise, julliened carrots, cucumber, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro. Oh, yeah, and the dark red barbecued pork, kind of fatty, but oh-so-flavorful. Just got two to go.
While the old, white-haired man was busy putting together the sandwiches, I noticed a new contraption on one side of the store. A large, metal monster, with a sign above advertising 8 oz. of sugar cane juice for $2. I was tempted to try it. Another customer ordered one, though, and I got to watch them stick a couple of 2 ft. lengths of sugar cane into the juicer, and out poured a cloudy white liquid. Seemed a little too sweet for my taste, though. I also passed the time waiting (these sandwiches can take awhile) by trying to figure out what these Mexican guys were talking about. They were sitting at a tiny table near the front of the deli, looked like they were on lunch break from the Ford dealership across the street. Their lunches, in styrofoam boxes, looked delicious, with mounds of meat and spring rolls. I could only understand about one in five words they were saying... all those years of Spanish in high school wasted.
The sandwiches were spectacular, as always. Last week I said that the Costco Polish sausages were the best lunch deal in town, but if you factor in quality, this has got to be it. Linda thought it was so nice of me to have brought her lunch (I don't think she realized my selfish motives, but hey, I'll take whatever I can get), and I had plenty of time to buy too many books.
Total cost: $4.50
2/17/04 - Fidel's Norte, 3003 Carlsbad Village Drive, Carlsbad, (760) 729-0903.
I went up here with Jon and Chris to meet Bryce. It's a convenient place, since Bryce has to drive down from San Clemente for our semi-regular dinner. Sometimes we go to the other Fidel's (Fidel's Sur?) in Solana Beach, and the food is pretty much indistinguishable.
Usually I have the carne asada or the carnitas, both of which are pretty good, although the carnitas some times come out too dry. But tonight I branched out and had the chile colorado. This is one of their dishes that comes with your choice of shredded beef, chicken or pork. I went with the shredded beef.
Before the food arrived, though, were the margaritas. I sprang for the Patron margarita, which was worth the $7.25. It was really a good margarita, except that it was so tiny. Alas. Feeling a little stingier after that splurge, my second drink was a draft Dos Equis, which was actually better with the food.
Well, probably the best thing I can say about the chile colorado was that it was filling. Clearly the meat hadn't been cooked in the sauce, just covered in it at the last minute, so that the flavors didn't really penetrate at all. The sauce was all right, if a little watery, and not very spicy. Came with the standard rice and beans, with my choice of corn or flour tortillas (took the corn - tasted like the came from the grocery store). All of our plates came with a generous layer of white (jack?) cheese melted over everything - can't complain about that. I'd say that it wasn't awful, but next time I think I'll go back to the carne asada.
When I say it was filling, I'm not joking. Clearly it was enough for two meals, but I powered through it. I'm writing this sixteen hours later, and I still don't feel like eating anything. Of course, I did eat plenty of the chips and salsa while waiting for the food to arrive, so that probably contributed.
Total cost: $22
2/16/04 - New Shanghai, 4681 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa, (858) 569-4833.
Again, came to New Shanghai with Linda after ceramics class. We just got take out this time, though. We both go the same
zha jiang mian that we had last time we went there. The noodles were just as good this time as last. One order was enough for me to take home ans share with the other Linda, and pretty much made a meal for both of us. Noticed that they have hot pot there again, for only $11.80, all you can eat. Going to have to go back for that soon.
Total cost: $5
2/15/04 - Pacifica Del Mar, 555 Camino Del Mar, Del Mar, (858)792-0476
It was Linda Liu's birthday today, so I took her here to celebrate. It was a nice day, kind of going in and out of cloudiness, so we sat on the patio to enjoy the great view of the ocean beyond the rooftops across the street. A nice patio, with a strange tent-like covering (it looks like, from photos on their website, that they replace it with umbrellas in the summer), bright white linens, and weird, bright, wooden fish napkin holders.
First things first, the bread. Good stuff, soft, and slightly crunchy crust, with tiny bits of kalamata olive flecked throughout (I liked this, definitely preferable to some kalamata loaves with huge chunks of the salty olives in them). Excellent vehicle for butter!
The lunch menu looks like a scaled-back version of their dinner menu, with more salads and sandwiches, but still a few larger entrees. We ordered the mussels as a appetizer, and Linda had the seafood stew while I ordered the fish tacos.
The mussels came in a rather basic broth, lots of white wine, tomatoes, garlic, and sorrel. Not very inspiring, but good for dipping the bread in. The mussels were the smaller black mussels, fairly fresh, but with a little too much sand in some of them. In fact, Linda pulled one out that spilled out about a teaspoonful of black sand into the dish! Still, if you just powered your way through the occasional grittiness, it was all right.
My fish tacos came attached with long bamboo skewers to hold them together, served on top of red tortilla chips (a little overboard on trying to present the tacos, but okay), and two small side dishes of jicama slaw and salsa. The jicama slaw was actually very good, more mild than most I've had, with larger pieces of jicama and a creamier sauce. No attempt was made to spice up the slaw, which actually made it possible to taste the jicama. The tacos were all right, although over-stuffed with too many tomatoes and too much lettuce. But the fish was well cooked, blackened with a sweet, slightly tangy spice rub, and topped with chipotle aioli (another San Diego standard, like the jicama slaw). Overall the tacos were fine, but by the time I started on the second one I was beginning to wish I had ordered the more exciting sounding seared Ahi sandwich with wasabi aioli.
Linda's seafood stew was made with saffron, and so was all yellow. It had mussels, clams, prawns, salmon, some sort of white fish, potatoes, and onions. I tasted a bit of it. It was very delicate, and the saffron flavor definitely came through. Kind of like a rice-less paella, I guess. It came with a couple of toasted pieces of bread garnished with more of the chipotle aioli.
Overall, I think I'd have to say that it was pretty good, but probably not as good as it should have been, for the price. Then again, the view of the ocean probably made it worth it. Good service (although our waiter had a tendency to sneak up behind us, and reach around with an iced tea pitcher or a fresh lemonade, and startle us), and free validated parking in the garage downstairs.
Walking out, we almost had to stop for a margarita at Epazote next door, but I managed to control my craving. I suppose that'll have to be a future entry.
Total cost: $40
2/15/04 - McDonald's, 7085 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Clairemont, (858)279-0679.
Okay, so, I was having a fast food kind of day today. Dinner was Big Macs and fries at McDonald's. I know, it's awful, but Linda had a coupon for eighty-nine cent Big Macs, and we were feeling poor. Plus, the Big Mac is an American classic, and everyone should eat one every now and then, to remind himself what it is to truly be an American. We got four Big Macs and two super-sized fries (Jesus, but that's a lot of fries). We brought them home, and shared with Charlie, so it's not like we're total pigs.
Total cost: $8 (with coupon)
2/15/04 - Costco, 4605 Morena Boulevard, Clairemont, (858)270-6920.
Sunday morning trip to Costco with Linda and Matt. Not a good place to go on the weekends, generally, but luckily it wasn't over crowded today. Absolutely the best thing about Costco, though, is their Polish sausage. For $1.50 you get a huge sausage, or a hot dog if you prefer, and a coke. I mean, it's not the healthiest thing in the world, but it's only $1.50. And one is generally enough to fill you up, although two isn't out of the question. Condiments are limited to mustard, ketchup (don't even get me started on idiots who put ketchup on hot dogs), and relish and onions dispensed from these huge sausage-grinder like things. They have a little patio area with small tables under umbrellas, and it's almost pleasant, listening to the traffic on the five and watching the idiots trying to navigate the parking lot with those huge carts.
This is by far the best lunch deal I have found in San Diego. They have other stuff on the menu - pretzels, some kind of baked chicken pocket thing, and pizza. And Matt was raving about the hand-dipped ice cream bars... I'll have to try that next time.
Total cost: $3.23 (for two Polish sausages and two cokes)
2/6/04 - T.G.I. Fridays, 8801 Villa La Jolla Drive, La Jolla, (858) 455-0880
I don't generally like to eat at Fridays - pretty much it's over-priced, greasy bar food. But, as a place to meet a friend after work for a beer and a burger it's not bad. I went here with Jon, and we sat at the bar, as we almost always do. We were lucky tonight, there were only two tables full of undergraduates celebrating their birthdays. So, we only had to hear the staff singing an amazingly annoying rendition of 'Happy Birthday' twice.
But, they do have a decent stock of beers on tap. I went with the usual Newcastle, and Jon had the usual Bass. They serve their beers in the traditional pint for about $5, and a larger 24 oz. glass for nearly $7. So, either way, you're getting ripped off, but where else are you going to go for a beer in La Jolla? Happy hour is generally cheaper, but I think it ends at seven, and good luck getting Jon out of the lab before that.
The only real food I ever order is a burger. They have several different varieties, and also a 'build-your-own' option. I always go with that, and create the Justin Burger - blue cheese, bacon, and avocado. Their patties are thick and fairly juicy, and the fries are usually pretty decent (although tonight they were a little soggy). Everything else on the menu seems terribly over-priced to me (in fact, at nearly $8, my burger wasn't cheap).
The only warning I'd give is that if you sit in the bar area, service can be slow at the tables, as the bartender has to keep coming out from behind the bar to serve you. It's not too bad, but if you prefer faster service, sit at the bar.
Total cost: $33 - Two big beers, one pint, and two burgers. Not cheap, but again, where else are you going to go near campus?
2/6/04 - Cotixan, 4676 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Clairemont, (858) 483-9758.
Cotixan is one of about ten thousand Mexican fast food restaurants in San Diego. What sets it apart are two things: its proximity to Linda's house, and its carne asads nachos. Linda never has anything to cook at her house - literally nothing. So, we sat around trying to think of something to cook, knowing we'd have to go get the groceries first. This led us to a conclusion we often make - it'd be cheaper and faster to just get the nachos from Cotixan down the street.
These are no ordinary nachos. This is a mammoth plate of chips covered in beans, carne asada, slathered in guacamole and sour cream, and topped with tons of grated cheddar. It's definitely a meal for two. I finished off a whole plate myself once, but I hurt for days afterward. The calorie content has to be unreal. But they're just so good that they are always finished off. The best are the chips at the bottom, when they've become all soggy with fatty goodness, and have to be eaten with a fork. Mmmmm... I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.
I like to think of myself as something of a carne asada nacho connoisseur, and the Cotixan nachos are by far the best (and the largest, which helps) in town.
Total cost: about $6 (I can't remember the exact price, and Linda was kind enough to drive over and get them this time)
2/2/04 - New Shanghai, 4681 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa, (858) 569-4833.
I went here with Linda Liu (not to be confused with Linda Lew, my girlfriend) after our Monday night pottery class. It was a bad night at the potter's wheel for me - couldn't seem to make anything work - so I gave up early, and Linda had a hurt finger so couldn't throw anything. Better this way... when we stick around until class is over at 9 I am so starving I can't think straight and have crazy ideas, like eating at TGI Friday's.
I suggested New Shanghai, one of my favorite after-hours Chinese places, because I wanted their xiao lung bao (literally 'little dragon buns'), these steamed pork dumplings that squirt out scalding hot juice when you bite into them. Linda agreed to my suggestion, because she wanted the zha jiang mian - these sticky noodles with a pork sauce. I'd never had them before, but Linda's description was making me drool.
The good thing about New Shanghai is that they have a late dinner menu, with a long list of items for $7.25. I immediately started looking for the Chinese character for 3 - three stacked horizontal lines - which is how I recognize one of my favorite dishes. Often translated as 'House Special Chicken', the literal translation is 'three cup chicken' (see my recipe - it's never as good as good restaurants, but at least I try). So, we ordered that to complement the noodles and the dumplings.
The noodles arrived first, a heaping bowl that probably would have been enough of a meal in itself. The sauce was a sort of brown sauce, with minced pork and dry tofu, with whole peanuts and soy beans, something to make it spicy, and sesame oil. I couldn't tell what all went into the sauce, but my god, these noodles were soooooo good. Go get some. Now.
The xiao lung bao came next, served in the steamer tray. They were good, juicy little pork balls with lots of ginger, in dough wrappers twisted together at the top. They're served with a tiny dish of julliened ginger, into which you're meant to pour vinegar from the bottle on the table for dipping. Linda taught me the trick of putting the dumpling into your spoon, so that when you bite into the juices run into it (as opposed to, say, all over my shirt), and then you can drink the juices. Most of the dumplings were good, but a couple of them were undercooked or something, and had a really awful flavor, which made me a little frightened of biting into the next one. I've had these here a lot, though, and that's the first time that ever happened.
The three cup chicken came last, as it takes a little longer to cook. This is absolutely one of my favorite Chinese dishes (although, actually, I think it's a Taiwanese dish). It's chunks of chicken, on the bone, cooked in rice wine, soy sauce, and black sesame oil, with tons of garlic, sliced ginger, green onions, and basil. It makes this gooey, sweet sauce that makes my eyes roll back in my head when it's prepared properly. It's great when you eat it over rice, and get the sauce all mixed in with the rice... New Shanghai isn't bad, although it's not nearly as good as the first time I had it (at a Taiwanese restaurant called Tainan Cafe which, unfortunately but hopefully not prophetically, was replaced with a Szechwan restaurant called Spicy City). One caveat - beware of bits of bone; the pieces of chicken are brutally hacked up with a cleaver, leaving bone shards lurking in the sauce, so chew carefully (leaving the bones in is important in cooking, though - I think it must be the marrow that adds flavor to the dish).
So, I have to thank Linda for introducing me to a delicious new noodle dish. And for teaching me the spoon trick.
Total cost: $20 (and we had enough leftovers for both of us to have lunch the next day... not bad)
2/1/04 - Jasmine, 4609 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa (858) 268-0888.
Went to Jasmine this morning for dim sum, one of my favorite Sunday meals. Only problem was that it was just Linda and me, and so to get a good variety we ordered way too much food. Oh well, it'll make a good snack during the Super Bowl this afternoon.
The dining room at Jasmine is cavernous, and packed with as many tables as can reasonably fit for the always-packed Sunday morning crowd. Luckily we got ourselves motivated fairly early, arriving just before 11am, which meant the wait for a table was only about five minutes. I've had to wait forty-five minutes before, but that's usually when I've come closer to noon. Of course, the more people you have the longer you'll wait. But, on the other hand, you can choose a lot more dishes with a bigger group (and it always ends up costing less per person with more people).
As usual, we got a table off to one side of the room, which meant we were out of the high-traffic cart area. In our first fifteen minutes there we had exactly one cart pass by (mmmm... these hairy little fried taro dumpling things, filled with pork and green onions, nearest I can come to spelling them is ham sur gok... devoured in about fifteen seconds). The lack of cart traffic made me grumpy, and I started raving about how I should take the place over and enforce a rational system of cart paths so poor schmucks like me don't have to wait around for their char siu bao. Linda suggested that the carts were just going slowly today because there was a disturbingly large percentage of white people at the restaurant this morning, and we were eating too much.
Finally we started to get carts passing by, stacks of steamer racks, plates of fried things, and the woman with the porridge who kept seeming offended when I refused her. So, we had the usual stuff - mostly little dumpling-like things filled with pork or shrimp. Churn fun, these steamed sticky white noodles with shrimp embedded in them, covered in a thin sweet sauce. I had to order the churn fun with the long fried Chinese donuts inside (oh man, though, that was worth the wait - the woman we ordered it from seemed surprised that I wanted them). Oh, and something we don't usually get - shark fin dumplings, with pork and shrimp and what looked like crab, and presumably shark fin. Mmmm... and the steamed short ribs with black beans, delicous! Finally, when we were done with all that the woman came around with the steamed barbecued pork buns (my favorite!), but we were too full. Had to have them, though, so they came home with the leftovers.
Linda was right, though, the proportion of white people there this morning was high. This doesn't bode well... I think that when more white folks start showing up, Chinese restaurants tend to change their food to meet what they imagine the white people will expect. More sweet-and-sour pork, fewer chicken feet. I hope that doesn't start happening at Jasmine.
Dim sum is great. It's a wonderful way to spend your Sunday morning. While Jasmine isn't the best I've had, it's just so much fun, you've got to go.
Total cost: $30 (but about 1/3 of our food we took home as leftovers)
1/31/04 - Rancho's Cocina, 3910 30th Street, North Park (619)574-1288.
Linda and I stopped by Ranchos, at the corner of 30th and University, for lunch after a morning of thrift store book shopping in North Park and City Heights. It's a small, homey little Mexican place, with a profusion of lush plants growing around the entrance, spilling over onto the sidewalk. We were handed menus, and seater ourselves at a narrow table in the middle of the restaurant. This place was packed (always a good sign), and we got one of the last available tables. The menu is huge, with a large selection of vegetarian and vegan items, beer, wine, horchata, breakfasts... it went on and on. I settled on the carne asada plate, and Linda went with the chicken quesadilla and a chicken enchilada with mole poblano.
My carne asada was great - very flavorful, and juicy. Nothing at all like what passes for carne asada at the -ito fast food Mexican places around San Diego. And the guacamole was delicious - freshly prepared, with large chunks of avocado in it (my only complaint was that they were skimpy on the amount they gave me - but it made up for in quality what it lacked in quantity). The side dishes weren't spectacular - the rice lacked much flavor, the flour tortillas were dry, and the refried beans weren't bad but weren't great. That last was my fault, though - I should have requested the black beans.
Linda's chicken quesadilla was terrible, but huge. The chicken had been stewed or something, and was very wet, which led to a sodden quesadilla. The enchilada was just all right - the mole wasn't very flavorful, and was actually slightly bitter.
The service was pretty slow, but friendly. And there was some sort of mix up with taking our credit card, which further delayed us (but that was fine with me - it gave me time to realize that $11 was just too good a price to pass up on that twenty-one volume history of the United States at the thrift store across the street).
I should also note that we had been there for lunch once before, and had the tortilla soup, which was excellent (but not as good as mine - see my recipe). I also had the avocado enchiladas in blue corn tortillas that time - they were good, but I'd only advise ordering those if you have a serious love of avocado.
All in all, it's not a bad place at all. I'll definitely be going back - they got a pescado veracruzana that sounds good. And I would definitely reccommend this place to any vegetarians or vegans.
Total cost for two: $18.00 (we had a coupon from the 'Community Value Pages' which took about $3.00 off the total)
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