The wife got several cook books for Christmas presents this year and we tried a new recipe tonight, Wonton Soup.
The recipe calls for a cup of ground pork and half a cup of chopped shrimp but she ran out of wonton wrappers before she ran out of meat.
Of course it also featured chicken broth and sesame oil so the soup was incredibly rich, far better than anything you'd get at a restaurant.
She also made green onion pancakes (flour, water, sesame oil, chopped green onions) with light soy and hot Chinese mustard for dipping.
Muy delicioso!
If you'd like to try this dish yourself, please let us know and we'll send you the recipe.
2 February - Red Lobster in La Mesa:
It was just after 4:00 PM, I had dropped the wife off in La Jolla, the Boy was on his way from work to his piano class so I was all on my own.
It was also early enough to beat the Wednesday evening dinner rush, virtually anywhere I wanted to go.
We'd had skirt steak fajitas at home last night (Wild Bill was actually early for that meal) so Mexican was out of the question, we're having spaghetti at home tomorrow night so Italian was out and after a process of elimination, Red Lobster won out.
I had the Jumbo Shrimp Special (8 Scampi and 4 deep fried shrimp) with tartar and cocktail sauce.
For my side dishes, I had the cole slaw and rice, an iced tea (2 refills) for my drink and a couple cheddar rolls before the meal arrived.
I had heard the ad for this on the radio recently so it was in the back of my mind when I was trying to decide what to do this evening.
Service was generally very good except the waitress was overly familiar (kneeling in the booth across from me and calling me "Honey").
The total was $18.18 plus tip, making it an even $21.00
5 February - Tommy's in El Cajon / Chili's in Santee:
We started out to have a small pizza, a little salad and something small for the Boy as he had eaten late, just before the movie this afternoon.
We ended up with the same waitress we got the last time (who grabbed my glass by the rim) so I watched her this time.
True to form, I saw her stick her thumb in the iced tea pitcher's pour spout so we got up and left before we ordered.
We ended up at Chili's, just when the dinner rush hit, so we walked right in and sat in the bar.
The Boy ordered a salad with extra bleu cheese dressing and a Coke while I had the beef fajitas, well done, no shredded lettuce and iced tea.
I had a few bites of his salad and 2 fajitas and he ate the bulk of the salad and 1 fajita.
All was going well until we asked for more tortillas and our check.
My food got ice cold while the waiter took his sweet time talking to the next table (evidently they're both Italians, yadda, yadda, yadda and the customers couldn't make up their minds about what they wanted to order while he just stood there, etc).
Then he bussed another table instead of tossing me 2 freaking tortillas so I could finish my meal while it was still edible.
Finally, I walked over to the kitchen door and asked for more but by then it was way too late, I was pissed and left him a little over a dollar tip...
It won't hurt me to leave the table a little hungry but I hate wasting a couple of good fajitas...
Super Bowl Sunday:
Warm Cherry Tomato Salad
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 pints cherry tomatoes, rinsed and stems removed
6 scallions, sliced on an angle
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, a generous splash
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat
Add oil and garlic and cook 2 minutes
Add tomatoes and scallions and cook until skins begin to burst
Add vinegar and remove from heat
Add salt, pepper and parsley
Toss and serve
Note: The Boy and I were having Ribeye steaks and a wedge of lettuce salad for our dinner tonight and I decided it was time to try a recipe that I had been wanting to try for some time now. I cooked up a half batch for myself.
Boy didn't like it (he doesn't like cooked or stewed tomatoes) and the wife was at work but it's a keeper....
A couple of days later: We had this dish again, this time when the wife was at home. She bought twice as many tomatoes this time as the baskets were kind of small and we had it with baked chicken, peas (for the Boy) and roasted red potatoes with rosemary, garlic and sea salt.
We have come to the realization that we should eliminate the parsley altogether and garnish the dish at the end with the chopped green onions rather than cook them along with the tomatoes.
13 February - Gaglione Brothers:
This time, it was just the Boy and me after dropping the wife off in La Jolla for her short Sunday night shift (it's actually her Friday shift as that's the last day of her work week).
We had 2 small cheesesteaks with mushrooms and extra cheese, 1 order of fries and 2 small sodas.
They know me by now and told me what I wanted when I walked in (no salt, extra cheese, add mushrooms) can't complain...
Everything was just right and I'll live without another cheesesteak infusion for at least another couple of weeks or so.
And driving within a mile or so of this place on a regular basis (24 times a week) has made me lose all desire to do it myself at home.
We took a small amount of leftovers home for Senor Fuzzybutt (he loves meat and cheese)
The total was just short of $20.
14 February - Jasmine Bistro:
Besides it being the wife's only day off work this week, it was also Valentine's Day and the wife's anniversary (on the 17th) so, romantic that I am, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and stopped by for a little dim sum this morning.
We'd been buying garden supplies at Home Depot so first we had to wash the stench of cow manure off of ourselves. We had left the truck parked out front, out of sight, and we were fairly certain no one would steal a couple of hundred pounds of the stuff while we ate...
We had the shrimp shu mai, shrimp rice balls, pork shu mai, shrimp and scallop dumplings and spring rolls.
For dipping sauces there was the obligatory hot mustard, a chili sauce, a sweet & sour sauce and another fruit based sauce (not sure what but it could be apricot) and, of course, soy sauce.
The wife had a pot of the Jasmine tea and I had the usual iced tea.
Service was almost good this time with only a few minutes wait until someone realized that there were now a total of 4 parties in the entire place. It was cold in there as someone had left a side door open so I got up and closed it.
Service also lagged a bit in refilling my iced tea (at $2.50 a pop, I was damn sure going to get my money's worth).
The total, with a 15% tip, was $26.
16 February - DZ Akins Deli & Restaurant:
I had the French dip, fries and an iced tea.
The total was $15 with tip.
PS: The au jus was room temperature and I think it made me sick...
Casa Guadalajara: Combination Plate No. 3 with beef taco, beef enchilada, beans & rice
17 February - Casa Guadalajara - No. 90:
This place is owned by Diane Powers, the woman who put Oldtown on the map and has run one of the most successful tourist destinations in the country for the last 20 plus years. Oldtown includes many of the best Mexican restaurants here including Casa de Bandini, (which is our own favorite) and the adjacent Casa de Pico. Unfortunately, she faces imminent turn over of the complete Oldtown franchise to the same out of town pikers (Delaware North) currently staffing the brand new downtown baseball stadium (PetCo Park) with volunteer church groups, etc
They pay approximately $1 an hour (donated to their organizations) instead of creating a few fair paying jobs for an area sorely in need of them
Delaware North also has the concessions contract for Yosemite National Park.
And unlike most of Oldtown, Casa Guadalajara has plenty of their own off street parking.
Design-wise, the place is a riot of traditional colors, with red clay tile floors, white stucco walls, decorative tile work virtually everywhere you look, the obligatory wrought iron railings, and wood tables, chairs and rafters.
The salsa was pretty good, a little spicy without being downright mean hot, the tri-color chips were fun, at least for a change, the sauce on the enchilada was dark and spicy, but there was hardly any cheese on the taco. The beans were good and the rice was light, fluffy and flavorful.
And it was very reasonably priced ($8.95 for the combination plate, $2.50 for a bucket of iced tea, maybe 32 ounces) for a total of $12.34 after tax; $16.00 after tipping generously.
Service was adequate.
When it comes to great, authentic Mexican food, we're extremely spoiled and although I would have loved having a local place like this in Northern California (or anywhere else in the country), it's just like dozens of others here...
19 February - Geno's West Coast Style Barbecue:
Finally, I tried Geno's ribs (they don't seem to have baby backs), so it was the beef ribs this time.
I got the 1/3 rack for $10.99 with 2 side orders.
The sauce leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion (it's not my cup of meat at all), the ribs were too fatty and greasy, and, to be fair, I should point out that we're really spoiled here when it comes to ribs and this decision was made hastily as I had just had our own excellent baby back ribs 3 or 4 nights ago. The cole slaw was mediocre, the corn bread was too sweet, too thick and doughy and was also served room temperature (the butter wouldn't melt). The mixed fruit on the side contained peaches, pears, pineapple and passion fruit and I had a small (refillable) Pepsi.
The total was $13.12
22 February - Lemon Grove Fish & Chips:
It was a dark and stormy night (I bet that's the first time a restaurant review ever started out that way)...
It was approximately our 5th visit here and there appears to be a new owner.
We ordered the 4 Fish (Cod), 8 Shrimp & Fries platter for $10.99.
And we chased it all down with lots of tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, catsup and lemon wedges.
The Boy was fairly hungry so he also ordered the fish soup - which was lukewarm at best - for $1.99 for a large styrofoam container.
And we had three canned 7-Ups (we drank two of them and brought the other one home).
I definitely did not care for the Cod but everything else seemed to be the same as before.
It was $17.00 total.
23 February - Cohiba XV (Extra Vigoroso):
As you may know, Cohiba is a famous brand of Cuban cigars.
We see them sold in Mexico all the time but we lucked upon a source of them about a mile from here recently.
Because they are illegal in this country, we've seen them sold for as much as $40 to $50 each, especially when we lived in Silicon Valley but the price in Mexico is somewhere between $9 and $12 each. These, however, cost me $8 each, no tax (from one of the first people we met when we moved here who, needless to say, wants his name kept out of it...).
I'd never had the chance to smoke one in our several trips to Mexico (Tijuana, Tecate and Ensenada by way of Rosarito, etc), mainly due to time constraints, but I made up for it yesterday....
27 February - Attempted Olive Garden:
I should have known better than to walk into this place at 5:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon.
Normally, when it's that busy, I sit in the bar area and it's fairly quick service there but this time, there didn't seem to be a server or at least one who understood that they should at least be seen in the bar every few minutes (I did see one hiding behind the bar and ignoring the full floor)..
After about 15 minutes, I got up and left and ended up at Rally's, choking down a cheap burger...
28 February - Chili's in Santee:
The wife and I were out shopping for a storage shed at the local Lowes and Home Depot and decided to grab lunch right across the street.
It was Monday, her normal day off from work and rather than making her cook 2 meals that day, we went for the path of least resistance...
I had the usual: beef fajitas, well done, hold the lettuce on the garnish plate and iced tea and the wife had their reformulated half pound burger, medium well, with fries and chipotle sauce on the side.
Everything was fine except the fries were room temperature and the other server who refilled my iced tea is obviously unclear on the concept as she didn't add any more ice so what I ended up with was a glass of room temperature, slightly bitter and overbrewed tea...
The total was $23 including a tip of $3.10.
