Tommy's Italian Deli: All the meat, drag it through the garden & don't spare the condiments...
1 May - Outback Steakhouse:
We've eaten at Outback before, up in Solano County (Vacaville) so this isn't a first time for us and we can't count it as a new place we've eaten since we moved, even though it's my first time here (the Boy eats there fairly regularly, after his Wednesday night piano class).
The Boy and I were on our own for dinner again as the wife's schedule got changed around a bit, she forgot to pull something out of the freezer and she isn't feeling well (she has a cold).
When the Boy stops by almost every Wednesday evening, he has the house salad with fries as it's relatively late by that time, almost 8:00 PM and he doesn't want to eat a big meal right before he goes to bed.
Today, we had both had heavy lunches so we felt like a light dinner.
He tried calling ahead (to be put on the waiting list) but at first their phone rang and rang, then he got the answering machine on his second try and finally, 1 stop light away, he got through and they told him it was a 10 to 20 minute wait (it's what we get for trying to go out for dinner on a Sunday night, any idiot ought to know that)...
After we stood around waiting for the table for less than 5 minutes, a 2 seat booth opened up in the bar and we took it.
After waiting almost 10 minutes, the waitress approached and said she'd be right with us, not a good sign.
Several minutes later, we ordered: 2 side salads, extra bleu cheese dressing, Shrimp on the Barbie appetizers (half a dozen shrimp with their remoulade sauce), an order of fries, iced tea for me, Sprite for the Boy.
Approximately 15 minutes later and after watching the waitress stop by the bar to spend maybe 10 minutes talking to a couple of the regulars there, another waitress brought our salads (without the extra bleu cheese) and a small dark loaf of bread and butter.
When our waitress finally tore herself away from the guys at the bar, she realized that we were still waiting for the dressing, we both needed drink refills and the Boy asked her for more bread.
Someone else walked by with a pitcher of tea and gave me a refill but the Boy was left high and dry as she disappeared, again.
After maybe another 2 or 3 minutes (right on top of our salads being served and we weren't finished, still waiting for the bleu cheese), yet another waitress showed up with the shrimp but the original waitress had gotten it wrong and ordered cheese fries instead of regular fries.
By then, I was getting a bit chagrined but she wasn't done with us yet.
The Boy had to ask the other waitress for the Sprite refill, more bread and more bleu cheese dressing.
After walking by our table several more times (and stopping to talk to the guys at the bar for several more minutes), she finally realized that something was wrong, stopped to see what we wanted and then took off to get the dressing.
Approximately 5 more minutes went by until a 4th or 5th waitress showed up with the bleu cheese and, by then, the barely above room temp generic fries. I was also out of iced tea by then but had completely given up on this airhead and had the Boy tell her to bring us the check.
Another 10 minutes went by, she stopped to talk to the guys in the bar a third time, talked to all of the other people in her section (apparently everyone but us) and finally brought the damn check.
We never did get the bread.
This place is less than 2 miles from the house here and it took us almost 2 hours for what little we had to eat, an incredible waste of our time because the waitress is so scattered and disorganized that she can't get a simple order like that right.
The salad was adequate (but a buck more than the one at Tommy's, a far better deal and a better salad), the bleu cheese dressing was the real deal with some nice chunks of the bleu cheese throughout it and the shrimp were good enough that both of us agreed we'd order them again.
It was $25.40 after taxes and I laid $28 on the table, just over 10% for the tip, and we left (I won't be back)...
By the way, there wasn't a sever, busser, hostess or manager there over 25 years old, haven't they ever heard of age discrimination?
4 May - Chili's:
I ordered my usual (beef fajitas) but this time, they delivered it on a really sizzling platter. It put off so much smoke that the people on the other side of the partition were gagging on it, as were the people across the aisle, and of course, the Boy and me. I also had an iced tea.
The Boy had his usual side salad and the Triple Play (an appetizer platter) and his usual Coke.
The only other point worth mentioning is that the waitress said "I'll be right back with your change..." That would almost have been worth an extra buck but then she brought back the coin, a one and a five (instead of 6 ones), which cost her that same buck...
8 May (Mother's Day) - DZ Akins:
We've all had a nasty cold lately (the wife got it over a week ago, I got it several days later and the Boy caught it a couple of days ago) so we're all eating differently for the moment; the wife at work (Mother's Day banquets at both clubs today), I got a slow start and had White Castle burgers from the freezer for my lunch and the Boy, being a bit brave, decided to try something new, a very popular Mexican place in Oldtown, tourist central, at high noon on Mother's Day. Needless to say, it didn't work out so he came back to El Cajon and had his lunch at Por Favor.
The idea is to eat some blazing hot chiles, etc and try to burn this cold right out of you, a theory he subscribes to but I do not...
When I picked up the wife at Steele Canyon Golf Club (they serve Mother's Day banquet instead of doing the regular restaurant thing there today) to deliver her to La Jolla Country Club for the evening Mother's Day banquet (instead of the restaurant thing there too), I figured the Boy wouldn't be wanting much, if anything, for dinner as he had had a huge lunch (grilled carne asada, cheese enchilada, beef taco, side of guacamole, chips, salsa, a soda and several refills) so I decided to find some place where I would have a reasonable expectation of being able to walk in shortly before 5:00 PM (to avoid the senior citizen's dinner rush), get served quickly and get out.
It couldn't be too near the beach, or anything particularly upscale and it has to be the kind of place you wouldn't be likely to take Mom on this, her special day (unless she is 75 years old or more, of Russian extraction and had spent 50 years living in The Bronx before she moved out here to retire and be closer to the family, especially the grandkids). DZ Akins it is!
The parking lot was almost full to capacity, not a good sign but I didn't see them spilling out of the doors, waiting for a seat to get in either.
When I got inside, the place was running at full tilt but there was only 1 party (of 3) waiting to be seated and it appears that the entire staff was working today so I got a seat immediately, even before the others waiting to be seated, as they had a small 2 person booth open now.
My server was right on top of it, I already knew what I wanted and I was tasting a free kosher pickle or two from the vats on each table less than 1 minute after walking in the door, not bad.
I had my usual there, a french dip, fries and an iced tea, and it landed on the table fairly quickly, no more than 7 or 8 minutes later (just enough time for the fries to get cooked), very fast considering it was Mother's Day, the busiest day in the restaurant year (I was impressed!)...
Everything was hot, portions are always large there, the beef was just right, my refill for the iced tea was almost instantaneous and the total was $12 something, add another $3 for the tip and I was in and out of there so quickly that it felt like I would get home before I had ever left...
And of course, there was no way that I could finish the sandwich or the fries and left a good portion of each on the plate when I left.
Later that evening, as I expected, the Boy fixed himself a bowl of tomato soup for dinner and went to bed early.
By the way, I can't let it go without mention: the wife always eats very, very well (especially at La Jolla Country Club) yet never seems to gain any weight in spite of it (it's her insanely high metabolism, no doubt) and yesterday was no exception as she had Eggs Benedict, strawberries and waffles, ham, home fries with bell pepper and onions, mashed potatoes, a brownie with peanut butter and nuts on top and some fresh fruit (strawberries, pineapple and watermelon) at Steele Canyon early in the day (basically brunch).
She says the watermelon was excellent, the first of the season and in her defense, she says it was only a taste of each of these things.
At La Jolla Country Club, for her dinner, she had 2 pieces of almond encrusted halibut (her favorite fish), salad, roasted red potatoes (she says the recipe we use here at home is better than theirs), steamed squash and a white chocolate and dark chocolate heart for her dessert.
The Third World called, they're running out of food...
9 May - Tommy's Italian Deli:
Evidently, I actually can have it MY way (I wrote it out exactly in a list and Tommy Jr. nailed it).
We stopped by on our way home from our first visit to Simpson's Nursery in Jamul
Next time, we'll pick the sandwich up first and take it with us for a nice picnic on the grounds there (it's a lovely place)...
11 May - Rosendo's Taco Shop previously Vaquero's Carne Asada and previous to that, El Barrilito:
This place has now had 3 different names, 3 different owners and a serious, complete remodel in less than 2 years (we will have been here a full 2 years at the end of this month). I had been meaning to see what was different since the most recent change, approximately a month and a half ago but just couldn't get around to it until today, when I just couldn't wait any longer.
They're now open 24 hours a day (I can't see how much business that's going to generate for them as this isn't a very busy part of town and that's not the best neighborhood either).
The guy at the cash register says it's the same family but a different owner , whatever that means (his English is about as good as my Spanish).
And they've made a few additions to the menu: menudo (tripe), various breakfasts (huevos rancheros) and 3, 5, 10 rolled mini taco plates.
I had a beef taco and Pepsi but the taco was still slightly too oily for me...
The total was $2.96
Kids, don't try this at home:
It was "soak em and smoke em" time at La Casa Weenie.
The hickory chips had been soaking in water all day, we bought a new knock-off (fake) baby Weber cooker (from China, hey, it was cheap!) and our dinner was going to be a couple of hickory smoked ribeye steaks and baked potatoes.
I threw a couple of oiled and foiled potatoes into the oven to bake for an hour plus, then started to prepare the fire.
I sat the little cooker on the shelf of the Kenmore gas grill, inserted the electric charcoal starter, covered it with charcoal and then plugged it in.
Evidently you're not supposed to use an electric charcoal starter with the Kingsford Match Light Charcoal (Doh!).
I turned my back briefly to season the steaks and when I turned around, there was a raging fire, almost instantaneously.
I grabbed a pair of pot holders, grabbed the little cooker by the handles and moved it over to the edge of the lawn so it wouldn't catch the patio roof on fire, covered it with the lid and waited for it to die down a bit.
When we bought it, we apparently didn't notice the lack of bottom ventilation holes and the lid soon smothered the fire.
We also didn't notice how close the briquettes would be to the top grill, making this thing totally useless for smoking (anyone want it?).
We'd never used this particular type of charcoal before (I wasn't paying attention when I ran into the 7-11 and grabbed it, on the way home and distracted after almost an hour in rush hour traffic) and we most certainly won't use it again as all I could smell was the lighter fluid in it...
Finally, I fired up the trusty old Kenmore and cooked the steaks on it.
When we moved here, we had to give away our standard size Weber (there was still a lot of life left in it after many years of great service) and we had to leave a whole bunch of other things behind as well; a full truck load of mainly garage things, which I miss dearly.
Our Kenmore is fine for quick (gas) grilling (and for large parties) and that smoker we bought a couple of years ago is great for doing ribs and other slow smoked items but the Weber was absolutely perfect for mesquite smoking the fajita meat (skirt steak) and hickory smoking steaks.
We're going to upgrade and will soon be doing the research on the larger Webers (we like the one with the kettle built right into the table top)...
16 May - Por Favor:
This is very likely the last time I'll ever eat here.
The food quality fluctuates wildly, as does service, but tonight was a defining point where I found myself asking why I spend any money here.
The wife had her favorite, a couple of fish tacos (a la cart), a few chips and salsa and a glass of water (she doesn't drink with her meals, how weird is that?). It was La Especial de Ramon (Carne asada, cheese enchilada, beef taco, beans and a small side order of guacamole) and a Sprite for Boy and the beef taco / beef enchilada a la cart for me (and the usual iced tea).
On Service: I had to ask for more iced tea even though we were his only table (we were slightly ahead of the little dinner rush they get on Monday nights).
When we also had to ask for the bill, it was $31 and change and when I put two $20's on the table, the server had the incredible nerve to ask "Want change?" (there goes a buck off of his tip right there).
When he came back to the table, he handed me the change in mid-air (that's also a no-no), a dime, a couple of ones and a fiver (which, now that I think about it, was a buck short).
So, besides short-changing me, he hadn't given me much choice in tipping him either; only $2 and the dime or the $5 bill (not enough ones), and there goes another buck, as Boy went to get the $5 bill changed at the cash register, so it cost him a total of $2 on the tip.
What could have been a $5.10 tip worked out to only being $3.10 (and would have only been $2.10 had I realized he had short-changed me)...
There were also enough leftovers for Wiener-Saurus Rex's dinner (some of Boy's carne asada and about half of my beef enchilada)..
19 May - Kip's Cafe - No. 95:
This started when I read an article in today's San Diego Reader while sitting in the truck, waiting for the wife (we were out shopping; at K-Mart it was toiletries, etc for her and at Home Depot, it was for stuff for the shed and garden fence I'm just starting to build).
Kip's is in a strip mall not far from here and we'd always wondered about the name and the people behind it so when they visited it for the article, we decided to check it out too (besides, we had to eat our lunch somewhere).
Long story short: it's both Japanese and Chinese with tempura this and sweet & sour that...
Today, it was the lunch special for the wife (hot & sour soup, pork chow mein, fried rice, egg roll, hot tea and a fortune cookie) and the deep fried prawn appetizers and iced tea for me.
We traded a few tastes (take away the bok choy and green bell peppers and you've got my mom's chop suey recipe from the 50's)...
Then there was the obligatory hot mustard, something that appeared to be catsup, a sweet sauce and soy sauce for dipping.
The place was clean but the food was pretty generic American / Chinese for the most part.
And, it's by no stretch of the imagination the best we've ever had (we do better at home ourselves), but it wasn't bad either and we imagine certain of our friends (and relatives) will like the place a lot...
Our total was $15.10 plus tip (another $2.90), to make it an even $18.
The El Cajon cops seemed to like it too as there were 3 of their cars in the parking lot when we left
Note: This is the 95th new restaurant (not including our research into the local fast food scene we report on in The Frankfurter Chronicles) we've eaten at since we moved in May of 2003, a full 2 years ago this month...
20 May - Kip's II:
This time, it was the Boy and me and it was for our dinner, on a Friday night.
The Boy had the Mixed Seafood Fry (lobster, crab and tuna deep fried in panko crumbs with onion rings, cauliflower and a couple of other veggie bits as well). His meal ($7.50) also came with a salad (he didn't much care for it) and steamed rice. Of course, he had his usual Coke.
I ordered the Tempura Veggies ($4.50) which had onion rings, green pepper, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and one mushroom, but as I'm not much for the cauliflower or broccoli, they didn't get eaten (I did take one bite of the cauliflower to remind myself why I don't like cauliflower).
I also ordered the Garlic Chili Shrimp (served on a bed of lettuce - $11.50) and it wasn't bad at all.
There were approximately a dozen medium-sized shrimp in this dish (and a ton of garlic) and the Boy and I polished them off fairly quickly.
The dish also came with a small bowl of steamed rice and I had my usual iced tea as well.
The Boy liked the Garlic Chili Shrimp, the Veggie Tempura and the deep fried lobster, crab and tuna but wouldn't order that same meal again, mainly because of the third rate salad and cheap ranch dressing (who eats salad in a Chinese restaurant anyway?).
On service: The server didn't add more ice when she refilled my ice tea so a few points off for that.
Our total was $30.31, twice what we spent for lunch here yesterday, and $35 exactly when we tipped out (15.47%)...
22 May - The Pizzadilla:
We first came up with this idea out of sheer desperation in Squarefield. There just wasn't / isn't a lot to eat there and I'd frequently find myself driving around Suisun (and Fairfield) looking for something, anything different, give up, go home and not eat anything.
The Pizzadilla started out as an attempt to marry the grilled cheese and the pizza, so I could do something different for my lunch at home (the wife and Boy both worked the day shift at Green Valley Country Club at the time) but the generic white bread that works so well in a grilled cheese tended to soak through with the tomato sauce...
Tonight, we invited Wild Bill over to check it out and we should point out that everything we used this time is off the shelf stuff, available at virtually every supermarket and 7-11 on the planet. Some canned mushrooms come pre-sliced but we had to do it ourselves this time.
Lightly brown tortilla on burner, apply toppings, zap it in your microwave...
24 May - Dinner @ Darla's - Sesame Crusted Red Snapper, Curry Couscous with Almonds & Green Onions and Tropical Salad:
We saw this meal on Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals" on TV Food Network.
We didn't have a jalapeno pepper or any ginger (we had pickled ginger, however) for the salad but otherwise, we followed the instructions to the letter. The wife also whipped up her standard tartar sauce and we had the first corn on the cob of the season as well.
All was fairly scrummy (and I'm not a fish guy) and both the wife and the Boy voted to have it again.
You can get these recipes on TVFN's web site or we will email them to you...
We picked up the snapper at a small fish place (El Pescador) just down the street from La Jolla Country Club ($7.98 a pound).
25 May - Tommy's Italian Deli:
This time, Tommy Sr took care of us with our favorite sandwich (see photo at top of page) with: prosciutto, salami, mortadella, pepperoni, provolone, easy on the lettuce, tomato & onions, thinly sliced green bell peppers, pepperoncini, black olives, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), balsamic vinegar, mustard, mayo, oregano, S&P (it was $10.81 including tax for the large version)...
It was served on their wonderful, crunchy bread that they bake right there, easily the best bread we've had since we got here.
And I should point out that the actual sandwich is appreciably larger than the photo portrays it to be (normally, it's the other way around). I would have to estimate that it weighs close to 2 pounds when it's done...
The wife can't have dairy so she pulled the cheese off of her half and I kicked in a little salami and prosciutto so T-Bone had a nice lunch too.
As you may remember from the last time, we were in such a hurry to eat that we forgot to take a picture until we were half done with our lunch.
When I left, Tommy Sr said "That's a good looking sandwich..."
After we thought about it for a while, we realized it needs a few dill pickle chips and we'll hold the mustard and mayo next time.
Tommy says they are working on permits to expand for more dining room space (the building isn't a year old yet and it's too small).
27 May - Panda Rice - No. 96:
Their specialty is Pho (Vietnamese Rice Noodle & Beef Soup) and I tried to persuade the wife to try it but she wouldn't go for it and ordered the generic steam table Kung Pao Chicken, steamed rice, spring rolls (with some big shrimp), Wor Wonton Soup and a Pepsi instead..
The spring rolls were pretty good and came with peanut dipping sauce.
And of course there were the usual soy sauce, a fairly hot chili oil based sauce and a black bean sauce.
The total was $13.24.
The wife took the rest of the soup and one of the spring rolls home for her dinner tonight (at work) but she also says that she'll probably never eat there again. It wasn't bad but it wasn't spectacular either.
27 May - The Charcoal House / In-N-Out Burgers:
We were supposed to have fruit salad for dinner tonight but the Boy didn't feel like it and I hadn't had much for lunch (see above) so we decided to do something off the beaten path and slide in the side door of The Charcoal House during the dinner rush (at 6:00 PM on a Friday, on a 3 day weekend) and see if we could get a couple of ribeye steak sandwiches and fries even though that is only on their lunch menu.
The waitress was fairly accommodating, the fries were hot when they hit the table but when I went to add mayo to my sandwich, the steak was medium rare to rare (I don't do bloody), so I sent it back (don't bother trying to fix it, I'm done) and waited while the Boy finished his dinner.
With my iced tea, the Boy's soda and his meal, it was $15 including the $3 plus tip (it wasn't the waitress' fault).
When we left there, I drove over to Santee for a Double-Double and a small soda at In-N-Out Burger.
The Boy took the opportunity to try their Neapolitan Shake (not bad) and our total there was $5.75.
We had had turkey (club sandwiches) for dinner last night so Meatwad got some of that and the rest of the Boy's steak for his dinner tonight.
Notes:
1) This month, I / we ate out 11 times (not including the various fast food forays which weren't reported here) and spent a total of $216.71.
Darla doesn't want to know this figure so let's keep it between us as she doesn't read most of what I write...
We also estimate that we spend approximately $100 a week at the supermarket. Of course, this doesn't include the import beers, microbrews, an occasional bottle of vino or the upscale hooch I drink (mainly Chivas Regal and once in a while, Maker's Mark or something else).
By way of comparison, our friend Lee (who lived down the street from us in Squarefield and now lives a quarter of a mile away from us here, just over the hill) and his wife, who both hold full time plus jobs, tell us that they spend an average of $1300 a month on food at restaurants...
2) As I mentioned earlier, we have eaten at Por Favor for probably our last time and intend to teach ourselves more about Mexican cooking (Carne Asada and Pork Carnitas to start with).
It is our goal to produce a better Carne Asada Burrito than they do at Rosendos (we already do serious shredded beef tacos and enchiladas, recently taught ourselves a great shrimp and chorizo quesadilla recipe and we know our way around fajitas very, very well.
We also do some excellent nachos, make our own tortilla chips, salsa, green tomatillo sauce and a world class Mexican tuna dish as well.
The wife loves tamales and has started investigating recipes for them and I imagine she'll also be making her own fish tacos here at home soon.
3) As we mentioned last issue, we intend to radically downsize this newsletter and report only on the new or unusual things we discover as we eat our way through many of the approximately 7,000 restaurants in this county (96 down, only 6,900 to go, approximately)
And it's great to have so many choices as compared to Squarefield but much or what we see doesn't interest us and realistically, it'd be hard to come up with another 100 or so that do over the next 2 years...
Therefore, beginning next issue, we will no longer report on the typical bad service we seem to find almost everywhere anymore (unless it is particularly egregious). And we will no longer mention second, third, fourth, etc tastings at any one place, for the most part...
