mmm-yoso!!!

Tacos de Mexicali

Tacos de Mexicali is one of those places that I pass at least once every week or so, always reminding myself to visit one day. Well....one day finally arrived a couple of months ago.

On one of the trips to North Park Produce.....this was before the Clairemont location finally opened, I decided to check the place out.

To be perfectly honest, I really don't know what "Mexicali tacos" are....what comes to mind are vampiras, like what Ed from Yuma had, but I was pretty sure this was not that. I would have heard about it sooner if that was true.

The interior of the restaurant is bright but a bit worn, but I appreciated a the simple menu, a single page.

You could by the prices that these aren't the smaller "street tacos", but probably more substantial. Another plus is that all the tortillas are hand made.

The one person I knew who had actually visited Tacos de Mexicali told me that I just had to have the lengua, which I thought was strange since he barely has anything else other than polla asado and carne asada....in fact, he once told me he "hated cabeza and lengua".

So I ordered a Taco de Lengua ($2.95) and Taco de Cabeza ($2.70). The tacos come to your table with nothing but the meat, It's then up to you to dress them as you wish at the salsa bar. The salsas were routine, except for the spicy guacamole which I enjoyed for some reason.

 I had requested corn tortillas, but these were obviously flour. It was a happy mistake since the tortillas had a nice stretch to them.

One bite of the lengua and I knew why the dude liked them so much. In terms of tongue, this was very mild in flavor. I thought that the condensed beefy, almost offal flavor of the tongue was missing. In those terms, it was really well prepared, soft and tender. For me it seemed like everything I enjoy about tongue had been cooked out of it. The slight waxiness, the almost luxurious richness was missing.

Ditto the cabeza.

This could have been stewed and shredded short ribs, or chuck.

I guess I could recommend this as "beginner's lengua and cabeza". It just seemed that all the redeeming qualities of tongue and beef head had been removed. If that's talent and skill, I'll tip my hat to the cook, but it's not my thing.

Still, I returned a couple of weeks later. I thought I'd try the Taco Al Pastor ($2.70) and the Carne Asada ($2.95).

As you can tell by the lack of color on the carne asada, it was pretty bland, tough, and in need of some caramelization which would probably made it a bit more interesting.

The Al Pastor, was pretty much Adobado. The marinade had a powderiness to it and the flavor was very one dimensional with just some heat from chilies. I would have enjoyed it more if it had some sweetness and acid to it. At least it was much more tender than the carne asada.

A word on the tortillas. This time I did receive the corn tortillas. These are quite refined and thin, though the masa flavor is quite clear and clean. It seems almost a bit too processed.

In terms of price-point it's not bad, but really not my cup of tea. The flavors are a bit too mild and tame for my tastes.

For another view of Tacos de Mexicali please read Mary's post.

Tacos De Mexicali
3450 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104

Istanbul: Our favorite restaurant - Gaziantep Sahre

It really did seem like we've spent a good deal of time in Istanbul. In actuality, I'm thinking maybe three weeks max. On our last couple of short stays we started getting away from Sultanahmet and taking the metro to places like Osmanbey and Sisli, home of the Nisantasi Shopping Mall. On the top floor you can walk out onto a small patio and take a photo like this one....though the heights kinda got to me rather quickly.

This is the hip and modern Istanbul, looking all the world like just about any major city in the world.......including the traffic.

Having at least a rudimentary familiarity with a city is nice as it opens up other options for shopping and dining.

We'd kind of hit the wall with eating in Istanbul. All of the nice young men in the hotel, except one, who really knew his stuff, would recommend tourist type places. Like the fish restaurants that line the touristy Kumkapi Fish Market area.

Hawker's try to lure you in....but they lose us as soon as they mentioned the "culture show"......

Across the street is the bright, mega-restaurant district of Kumkapi, which seemed a bit too much for us.

All of these type of restaurant/entertainment districts have a certain look and feel to them. The bright lights, the loud music, the free flowing alcohol. Nothing against this, but we wanted something a bit more low-keyed.

And we found just the place. It was a bit of a walk, about 3 kilometers from our hotel. But we had just walked past Kumkapi into the area known as Yenikapi. Right past a massive Korean Restaurant on Kennedy Caddesi we saw this place that looked full of locals.

We walked on up the stairs and noticed that even though the restaurant dining area was pretty large, everyone was eating on the patio. All the customers were male when we arrived, though more couples started coming in a bit later on. More importantly, everyone seemed to know the servers.....like they were regulars, just what we were looking for.

When the men started coming around with trays....we knew we had found a Meyhane.

Though I'm thinking that there must be an amount of tourist business as there's an English translation of the menu.

Anyway, we were met with sort of an amused attitude. There was one Server, a really nice guy, who spoke passable English and I think he found us a bit interesting as we took to the menu like wolves.....

All the usual suspects were present.

He seemed even more amused that I actually knew the names of some of the dishes, like Acili Ezme....

Which was really good, chunky, decent spice, slight pungency.....

And the delicious shaksuka.

All of which was made for bread....we were provided with two different variations.

The Missus just loved this salad, which I thought was a version of Coban Salatsi, but the gentleman said no....so we asked what it's called. He didn't quite know what to call it. So what to do? We he broke out his iPhone and translated it to English......"chopped salad?!?" We just cracked up. I still think it's a version of Coban Salatasi. Whatever the name, it's delicious!

There was one item we saw on every table, so I just had to try it out. The Missus hesitated at first, but I just had ot have it. The Server brought us a piece to try and we were sold.

This is called Çiğ köfte. In this case it's minced raw lamb combined with bulghar, herbs, and spices. Wrapped in the lettuce leaf with a mint leaf it is pure heaven. Refreshing, a bit lamby, herbaceous, and now one of my favorite things!

As we were polishing things off, our Server came by and dropped this off for us, saying "we have extra...."

This was a really tasty lahmacun. Nice crisp bread topped with a very tasty mixture of lamb and spices. Have you noticed the lack of Sultan posts in the last year or so? It's mainly because the Missus has had the food here.......

The next day we headed off to Rhodes and Symi, but we hadn't forgotten Sahre. When we returned to Istanbul, we had one full day before heading home. That's when we visited Osmanbey. When the inevitable lunch question arose, the Missus asked to eat at Sahre. That would be quite a hike, so we decided on a cab.....we weren't sure on how we'd communicate the instructions correctly to the driver, until the Missus found a package of sugar from the restaurant in Her bag.

It took a while with Istanbul traffic, but we finally arrived poised for lunch.

One thing we noticed as we walked up the stairs was that a makeshift table was set-up in the downstairs parking area. A family of five was eating there. The Missus quickly noticed that one of the older gentleman was in a wheelchair. I guess this is the handicap section set-up.

We were a bit disappointed to find that Çiğ köfte was not served for lunch! The Missus hadn't stopped talking about it for the week we were in Rhodes. Anyway, Her other favorites where still available. Our favorite Server wasn't working and it's not the typical meyhane set-up for lunch, so I just pointed to the menu, which was supplemented with a trip to the back to select what we wanted.

We also ordered some içli köfte.

This was a decent version. The exterior was nice and crisp. The filling, a mixture of minced lamb, bulghur, and spices was adequately flavored.

Think of this as being like a croquette or kibbeh. The best thing was the texture.

I also saw chicken wings on the menu. I really enjoyed the version at Mehmet Kebab, so why not try it here as well?

This were nicely grilled. For some reason, I've really taken to the combination of spices used for wings here. Smokey, salty, with a mild spice.

We both tried the grilled green peppers. Most regions in Turkey don't care for really spicy food. I had tried the peppers at Can Can Pide in Antalya which were pretty darn hot. But this was Istanbul, folks don't like things too hot here, so I took a bite....yikes! Man, this had some pretty good heat. That's when we noticed that all the plates on the tables around us still had their peppers intact.

It ended up being a nice lunch. We had dinner reservation later that evening at Mimolett Restaurant, a restaurant that is trying hard for a Michelin star, but we both had out hearts set on having that Çiğ köfte one more time. So we ended up cancelling when we got back to our hotel.

It was our last evening in Istanbul for this trip and we took our time walking the 3 kilometers to the restaurant.

Still we arrived at Sahre a bit early. A few minutes later "our" Server arrived, looking quite amused to see us. We asked about the Çiğ köfte, and he told us, "no, until 7....."

But we were here and determined to get what we had come here twice in one day for...... It was our last night in Turkey and this was a Meyhane, so I decided to get a couple of Efes.

Meanwhile, we noticed storm clouds coming in from the Mamaris. We, like everyone else were seated on the patio, but were safe since we had the awning above us. Soon enough raindrops started to fall and the most amazing drill was initiated. Like a well oiled machine, all the tables were moved from this configuration....

To this....in a matter of minutes......

We had started dinner......

 Of course our Server knew the Missus was after one thing. So a few minutes into our meal, he told the Missus "come" and took Her into the kitchen of the restaurant and the station where the Çiğ köfte was being prepared. He then grabbed one for the Missus to have on the way back to our table!

Of course we got the first plate when it finally came out of the kitchen.

It was just as good as our previous visit.

 For some reason, we really took to this place. We'll be back the next time we're in Istanbul.

Gaziantep Sahre Restaurant
Kennedy Caddesi No 130 Sahilyolu Yenikapi, Istanbul

We walked through all the restaurants in Kumkapi, then back to Vericeriler Caddesi which turned into Divan Yolu Caddesi.

We mainly wanted that one last view of the Blue Mosque at night.

As the final call to prayer started, I looked out at that same quiet street in front of the Hotel Djem. There's something about Istanbul that I love....that had me visiting here twice in two years. I'm not sure what it is, but it's just a matter of time before I return.

Thanks for reading!

This post is dedicated to "Senor" who got me to finally take the time to write this post. I hope you have a great time in Turkey!

The Baked Bear - and a good memory

Here you are reading the blog mmm-yoso!!! It's where Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and Cathy (as well as a few others) share posts with an underlying subject of food. Today, Cathy is sharing.

One afternoon last week, The Mister and I drove West and found a place to park near The Crystal Pier, a public pier (where you can fish) as well as a hotel at the end of Garnet Avenue, in the Pacific Ocean.

It's quite a walk down and back the 872 foot long wooden pier, quiet and beautiful.

We left the pier, walked straight ahead, past a few restaurants, took a left on Mission Boulevard and saw this building and sign next to the Fatburger.

Well, I had never heard of this place...and we had just had a nice walk, justifying an ice cream sandwich. Had to...

{It turns out The Baked Bear opened just last week, Kirbie has already posted on it}

Spacious, clean and not crowded. A nice young lady at the counter asked us if we had been there before. She then told us a common ordering method-pick a cookie flavor or two different ones, then pick an ice cream flavor...and I started to read the flavor choices on the menu board-

The first and second main sandwich choices: Cookies, brownies OR waffles!!!

When I was growing up in Detroit, one special treat my brother and I would sometimes get was a waffle ice cream sandwich at the counter at Kresge's, a Five and Dime store.  (Here's a photo). Oh, I knew what I wanted. 

The cookies were freshly baked, and the waffles (under the cover to the right of the cones) were already made...but...well, you'll see.  Cones and cups were also available...for people who are here for the ice cream and not a sandwich.

The selection of 12 ice cream flavors.  Premium ice creams, from different companies; a very nice detail.  We chose butter pecan.

The soft, fresh waffle had one side already crispy toasted. That side had the ice cream placed on it and then the waffle was folded over the ice cream, then it was placed on the flat toaster (above; like a panini maker without the ridges), to get the exterior of the waffle warm and a bit crispy...and perfect.

I know people are buying the cookie sandwiches -the cookie selection was tempting- but the waffle is absolutely my idea of an ice cream sandwich.

The waffle was just enough crispy to not turn soggy and the ice cream was a very good quality of butter pecan- salty and not too sweet with crispy pecans.  The waffle stayed intact and we were able to share the sandwich without a sticky meltdown.  It really was perfect.

Fond memory #2: I sent my brother the above photo attached to a text message...with no words... and he immediately texted back "Kresge's!!!" Yes, he also remembered our special snack outings.  

The Baked Bear 4516 Mission Blvd San Diego 92109 (858) 886-7433 website

The rest of the story (3rd memory)-

I call Mom daily. When I told her about The Baked Bear ice cream waffle, she immediately relayed a story about the horse drawn waffle cart that used to show up on Fridays in the Detroit neighborhood where she, my dad and my brother and I grew up. She told me the man would yell from the cart "Rzecz naleśnik", which is "pancakes" in Polish. She said the cart also had ice cream.

After some research, I found This Blog Post with a photo of a New York horse drawn waffle cart.  It was a memory she hadn't ever shared before. I realized Food carts are not a new invention, nor are waffle ice cream sandwiches.

Happy Mother's Day.

COMC: Revisits to those same old places - Izakaya Sakura, Pho King, Minh Ky, Kayaba, Pho Lucky, and Buga

Here's another one of those C(learing) O(ut) the M(emory) C(ard) posts. Just the same old places that I've posted on a zillions times.

You can figure out where is where, right? Just photos for this warm Saturday night.

Geeez....all the same places. Sometimes it's a wonder that I'm able to post on new places.

 

Sidi Bou Said/La Marsa (Tunisia): A quick morning walk through Sidi Bou Said, a return to La Marsa and Le Golfe

I've mentioned how beautiful Sidi Bou Said was before, that beauty even shines through the crowds walking its cobble stoned streets.

Still, we really enjoyed the still, quiet mornings when we didn't have to "wrassle" our way through the crowds.

 Perhaps the vibrant energy that the crowds bring adds it's own color and energy to the mix, but in the quiet moments you're allowed the time to just stand and enjoy the view wrapped in your own little bubble.

Still, no matter how wonderful the view, we found ourselves on the TGM headed back to La Marsa. It was no different on this morning.

There's something about the Mediterranean brightness of La Marsa, of the whitewashed buildings and the palm tree lined road that has such a retro feel for me.

And though there were tourists, there didn't seem to be as many of them.

We decided to just relax and have a cup of "cafe express" just as we had done previously and soak in the relaxed vibe of La Marsa.

I really enjoyed the cafe culture in Tunisia. Folks actually took time out of the day to socialize, read, contemplate, or whatever.......the moment was yours to enjoy.

And while the view and the beach was nice......

 It was starting to get pretty warm.

Plus, we were here on a mission......a lunch mission.

We headed back down the side streets of La Marsa, past the well to do homes, bright white, with blue windows, doors, and trim. You could tell this was the high rent district.....

Some of these places may not have looked like much from the road......

But the Mediterranean was this building's backyard.

We found the street where Le Golfe was fairly easily.

 We walked in just as they were opening. The woman who kindly seated us before they were opened the day before, first looked at us in surprise, I guess most "tourists" visit just once. Then, giving us a bright smile, told us, "welcome back" and waving with her open hand told us, "your table is waiting!"

You gotta love these folks!

Our server was also the same as the previous day, he's so nice and welcoming.

 We started with a Mushroom Salad - Salade de Champignons (13 TND - about $7.50)

This was nothing special.

Of course we had to have our favorite dish from our previous visit, the Seches Grillees.

Man, this is so good. Just enough chew, wonderfully grilled, with a smokiness that reminds me of stuff done over binchotan. Nice salt and cumin, brushed with olive oil......it hit all those flavor points.

The Missus really wanted to try the Salade Nicoise au Thon mi-cuit (16 TND - about $9.50 US)

The seared tuna was nicely seasoned and tasted fresh. The balsamic reduction really added to this salad.

The olive wood really lifted the Sardines Grillees (8 TND - about $4.75 US).

There was one item I really wanted to try. I'd seen fresh Bluefin Tuna several times during this trip. Once, in a market in Carthage, I watched in horror as two of the "fish cutters" went at a beautiful bluefin with chisels, hammers, and saws, just hacking the daylights out of it.

So today, I inquired about the Les Carpaccio de Poisson (20 TND - about $12 US) and was told it was "thon rouge", bluefin. So of course we had to get it!

This was very nice, the fish super fresh, the flavor mild, the texture light, but meaty. They gave us a little bowl of "soy sauce".....place very strong quotations around that, with wasabi. I went with lemon which added a nice acidic touch to the dish.

All in all, a wonderful meal, in a beautiful and relaxed setting. What more could we ask for?

A couple of days ago, I was checking out a Roman Colosseum, the ruins of the city of Sufetula and having fantastic lamb slaughtered by the side of the road. We crossed a great salt lake and spent a night in a tent on the edge of the Sahara. Now here I was eating bluefin tuna carpaccio at a restaurant at the edge of the Mediterrannean. I'm not quite sure of how or why, but I was just glad to be able to do this. Life was good!

Roadtrip two-fer Part 2: Ngu Binh Restaurant - Westminster (Orange County)

The Missus and I were really trying to make the most of our little roadtrip to Little Saigon. We exercised restraint at Song Long with a second stop in mind. Our good friend "Yummy Yummy" had told us that the Banh Beo she had at Ngu Binh was among the best she could recall. So of course we had to stop by.

Though it wasn't even 11 yet, the place was packed. We lucked out and managed to get a table right away. The menu is concise, made up of the specialties of Central Vietnam, Bun Bo Hue, Banh Bot Loc, Banh Beo, you get the picture. For us, this was the way. Do what you do well.

We'd already put away a decent amount of food, and "banh" can be pretty filling and substantial. We went with the "sampler" of Banh Beo, Banh Ram, and Banh Bot Loc ($6.50):

I knew I'd like this place when the plate arrived garnished with chicharron. The Banh Beo was right on target with regards to my texture preferences. It's usually either too hard and gummy or soft and doughy. I loved the tenderness, which exerted just the right amount of pull for me. The ground shrimp added nice savory tones....oh, and the nuoc mam cham was nice and strong! The Missus thought the Banh Beo was too tender and not chewy enough. Her favorite was th Banh Nam; that smear of dumpling like rice flour based dough, the nice smokiness from banana leaves, She just loved it. The Banh Bot Loc were good, though a bit more chewy then I appreciate; but overall, this was excellent.

We also ordered the Banh It Banh Ram ($6.50).

Having grown up eating mochi, I've always felt a bit of affection for this rather dense and heavy bomb of glutinous rice dumpling, filled with shrimp, which sits on an a dense fried dumpling whose texture remind me of agemochi. It is quite filling, though the version here is probably the best I've had in terms of execution, flavor, and texture.

In the end, we had quite a day, going two for two. We'll definitely be back to Ngu Binh.

Ngu Binh Restaurant
14072 Magnolia St
Westminster, CA 92683

Up2Yoü Cafe-time for a snack

mmm-yoso!!!, the blog about food, is the website you have selected to read.  Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and Cathy share food experiences here.  Cathy is writing today because the guys are busy with appointments galore.

The other day, I was craving something sweet and The Mister figured how to use the maps app on my iPhone. While I was driving, he did a search for 'desserts', saw the pin drops and told me to take a right from Convoy onto Vickers Street. Lo and behold, I found a place to park along this street of mostly Commercial/Wholesale/Maintenance businesses. 

Up2Yoü Cafe is closer to Convoy on the North side of the street; you may pass it at first, but since Vickers is a Court, you'll see it  when driving back...

When you walk in, you'll notice random, eclectic decor throughout (yes, those are black and white photos of Beatles)...

We happened to walk in when a large group was leaving and had a choice of seats in this 29 person capacity space (which oddly has about 36 seating spaces). That's the cash register, with card and board games on the counter. Pay attention to that pink and blue signage on the back wall; I'll get to it at the end...

The menu is simple and easily changeable, each section hanging by "S" hooks.

Quite a few beverage combinations are available. I selected the sweet orange tea($2.75)- it was freshly, perfectly brewed.  (It's not sweetened, just the flavor is 'sweet orange', and it was very pleasant.)

Served in a *huge* cup, along with our order of a crepe ($3.50), filled with Nutella®($50¢), banana ($1) and topped with vanilla ice cream ($1),

Here's a blurry photo of a cross section.  You can see that whipped cream was also inside the crépe. 

The crépe was very good on its own, quite overfilled and the whipped cream was *fresh*.  The vessels for conveying the various toppings are honey toast (which The Mister and I estimated to be 4x4x2 inches in size) and waffles.  There are also banana splits and something called a fried banana cheesecake: nothing savory here.  It was very good and we will be returning to try other items in various combinations. 

(After I wrote this, I saw that Kirbie's Cravings had done a post in October last year; she has a great photo of the honey toast and a link to Erin's post on Serious Eats. It looks like snow ice is either gone or just one of the easy changes from the menu board. )

Up2Yoü Cafe 7770 Vickers Street San Diego 92111 (619)663-6388 Closed Mondays. T-Th 12:30-11, Fri-Sat 12:30-midnight  Sun 12:30-10

Oh. The pink and blue signage on the back wall?   

Restrooms.

Pho Weather: The Pho Shop and Pho Point Loma

Ok, so it's in the 90's for a couple of days, then we get the wind and the rain...yikes. Well, at least it makes for some good pho weather. So here are a couple of places I hadn't posted on before.

The Pho Shop:

A couple of weeks ago AlanH sent me an email wondering about The Pho Shop. I guess he'd read through my pho posts and had noticed that I had never been there. He also mentioned that he was curious about the place because Trey Foshee had mentioned that it was his pho shop. There is of course a difference between "favorite" and best, etc, etc, etc. With all due respect, while I really do enjoy his work at George's at the Cove, when it comes to recommendations for pho, his is not the first name that comes to mind.

Still, in order to do my "pho-diligence", I put it on my list of places to try and with the sudden vturn of the weather, pho seemed like a good thing so I headed down Sports Arena and found the shop on the other side of the massive "Phil's nation".

The place is bright and clean offering local brews on tap.

The young man who served me was very nice, there's no hovering over you waiting for you to order. Unfortunately, the first thing that came to mind was Mignon Pho + Grill, a place that's does everything nice except most of the food. There were an interesting number of warning signs, stuff like, here it's not nuoc mam cham, here they call it "fish vinaigrette".....

I don't know why they left out the "sauce" portion...it really reads as carrot & fish vinaigrette.

So I just had to get me some of that, right?

I was pleasantly surprised at the the sight of my Cha Gio......they're using the right type of rice paper here. It was fried perfectly, with a wonderful crunch.

That's pretty much where it ends. The nuoc mam cham was terribly watered (and dumbed down) to the point that it had some spice, but barely any savory fish sauce or sweet tones. Blech.

The eggrolls themselves was mostly filler with almost no flavor at all.

Nice first impression, no follow-thru. And not particularly good for $3.95.

This left me wondering what the Pho Dac Biet($6.75) was going to be like.

 Actually, this was a decent bowl of pho. It wouldn't be on my top 5 list, but if it was in Clairemont it might be on the top of the heap.

Since my FOY (friend of yoso) Jenne always kids me about being, so, well, picky is the right word I guess, let's start with the good. I thought the meat prep was good...even that which I usually get down on, the slices of rare "Tai", which is the usual eye of round was decent. It might be worthwhile to get that on the side. The flank cuts were the best, just tender enough without falling apart, with a nice beefy flavor.

Nice amount of tripe, which was tasteless, but had a good crunch.....there were only a few tiny pieces of tendon though.

The noodles were on the overcooked-mushy side. The broth had a mild onion-sweetness to it, not as pronounced as the version at Pho Fifth Avenue, which I think is a bit better than this, having a bit more beefy "umph" and fat.

So while the pho here is not in the class of Lucky, Cow Cali, Pho Hoa, even Pho Hiep or Ca Dao, it's not bad. The place does more of a "pho not to offend" version, but it wasn't bad. Friendly service, clean, well lit, lots of parking.....if all that is more important than getting a top notch bowl of pho, then this is your place. Or heck, if you're a sriracha and hoisin "pho-natic" then it really doesn't matter anyway, does it?

The Pho Shop
3760 Sports Arena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110
Hours:
Mon-Fri  11am - 10pm
Sat   10am - 10pm
Sun   10am - 9pm

Pho Point Loma:

I'd been meaning to try Pho Point Loma for a while but had really put the place on the back-burner after Dennis told me about having a pretty mediocre bowl of pho there. Still, I was on my way home from my usual Sunday visit to the San Diego Farmer's Market and I decided to stop by for an early lunch.

While clean and bright in its own right, this seemed like a more traditional pho shop to me....all business and rather spartan looking. What that POS system is doing as you walk in the front door, I'll never know.

After looking over at the bowls of pho on other tables I made my decision to go with a "small" #3 -  well-done steak, flank, brisket, tripe, and tendon ($5.95).

 The broth here reminded me of Pho T Cali and not in a good way. It was salty, but lacked much of anything else.

The tendon was decently tender as was brisket, which really lacked flavor. The flank was tough and the well done steak was both tough and dry.

The noodles, found in the usual clump on the bottom of the bowl was prepped well.

But that's not enough to have me return for the pho.

Pho Point Loma & Grill Restaurant
2788 Midway Dr
San Diego, CA 92110
Hours:
Open Daily  930am - 930pm

 

 

Coffee, Bagels &Crépes - Alpine

Welcome (back) to mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog about eating experiences. Today, Kirk is busy, ed (from Yuma) is busy and so Cathy is writing.

In early April, I had to be in Alpine a couple of times and noticed this small, new place had opened, right next to Alpine Liquor on Alpine Boulevard. I stopped once, enjoyed a fresh bagel snack with coffee and made a note that The Mister needed to be with me the next time I was driving out there.

Early one morning, we drove out here again and I had the time to pay attention to details.

The 'front desk' is an old coffee cart.  I say old, because it has inspection stickers on it dating back to 2005.

There is a menu you can see from the front of the cart when ordering, it has prices.  This is the side of the building with a handicap access ramp and the priceless menu.  Turns out that Coffee, Bagels & Crépes opened on April 1.  

There is a selection of coffees in pump pots and this morning I asked for the boldest one. The coffee here is good.  The Mister ordered a breakfast crépe ($5.50) and before even taking our money, the friendly owner turned around and began measuring and mixing crépe batter for us.  What service.

What freshness!  See those orange egg yolks?  There was crispy, nicely flavored bacon and cheese inside this light, slightly sweet fresh crépe batter.  The topping was a ribbon of basil sauce.  This was quite large and so very fresh.

When we saw that the owner was making a batch of crépe batter, it seemed natural to order a second crépe. 

Yes.  Why not a Nutella® and banana crépe?  It was breakfast after all...

The cross section- the banans inside the crépe were warm and the ones on the outside were still cold; a nice contrast.  A nice breakfast outside in Alpine.  We will be returning for lunch. Soon.

Coffee, Bagels & Crépes 2250 Alpine Blvd (next to Alpine Liquor, at Marshall Road) Alpine, CA 92101 

Guai Wei Yu - Strange Flavor Fish (怪味鱼)

In keeping with the Missus' wish to never have the same fish dish for more than two or three times (there are exceptions of course) I have to keep coming up with various preparations, most of which include some kind of sauce. I'll readily admit that sometimes my answer to the Missus's, "why don't you make something good for a change" can be a hard sell. This one is a good example. I've been missing Chinese flavors, so looking at the nice piece of halibut, I thought why not guai-wei, also known as "strange flavor", but probably even more well known as the flavoring for a popular Sichuan dish called "Bang Bang Chicken"......bang bang ji si. It's basically a combination of "fish flavored" (yu xiang - 鱼香), sesame paste, and Sichuan Peppercorns.

To the Missus this seemed like heresy, She had never heard of such a preparation using fish....but I've made guai wei ji si in the days when the Missus used to eat chicken. Still, She really doubted that I could pull this off.........

In the end, She loved it....well, She loved the sauce. You talk about the classic suan-tian-ku-la-xian, the sour-sweet-bitter-spicy-salty metaphor for a flavorful, yet balanced dish the Chinese use.

The fish was prepared in typical Chinese fashion. The basic marinade step for the fish is simple:

2 Tb Shaoxing Wine
2 Tb Grated Ginger
White Pepper

Combine and let fish sit for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile the strange flavor sauce:

3 Tb Chinese sesame paste, mixed well
1 tsp sesame oil
2-3 Tb Chili Oil
1 tsp ground, toasted Sichuan Peppercorns
2 Tb Premium Light Soy Sauce
1 Tb sugar
Salt to taste
water or peanut oil to thin out the sauce

- Combine the first 6 ingredients, mixing well until the sugar is dissolved
- Add oil or water if the sauce is too thick
- Taste and adjust flavors, add salt if desired

I then dust the fish with potato starch and pan fry. Spoon on the sauce, garnish with scallions, cilantro, sesame seeds and some really spicy red chilies.

Drizzle with more chili oil.

I served this with Jinan style purple cabbage slaw on some mizuna.

I lived to cook another day.........