Geno's Un-Burger: $7.50
4 May: Geno's BBQ
This was our third visit (we had the shredded pork sandwich the first time, the tri-tip the second time)
Today I ordered The Un-Burger: shredded steak with Geno's Sauce, BLT, avocado, cheese, mayo and sautéed onions.
I should point out that it doesn't mention that the meat is shredded on the menu board.
And I asked for plain mayo this time (not Geno's mayo) and should mention that great bun again (see photo above).
It was great but way too much food for me and sloppy as well (Geno brought me a plastic fork and Handi-Wipe).
As I was leaving, he was talking to another customer about the benefits of his sauce (I never heard anyone pitch BBQ as health food before)...
7 May: The Little Fish Market
It was early Friday evening and an early Mother's Day too, courtesy of The Boy.
The wife ordered the Mesquite Grilled Halibut with side orders of Rice Pilaf and Cole Slaw and hot tea for her drink.
The Boy had the Ceviche (which he shared with his mom), New England Clam Chowder in a small loaf of Sourdough Bread and an orange soda.
I had the Bacon Wrapped Shrimp on a skewer (also cooked over mesquite), Rice Pilaf, Cole Slaw and an Iced Tea.
This is about the only place I'll ever eat the slaw (other than at home and at The Tin Fish).
And I would be remiss not to point out the excellent drawn butter and their great tartar sauce...
And of course, while we were waiting for our food, we immediately polished off a plate of their great (free) sourdough bread and butter...
The wife says the halibut was probably the best she's ever had.
And they changed the shrimp on a skewer recipe a bit, using much smaller shrimp instead of the giant Tiger Prawns they used to feature (they were the size of small lobsters and were probably the sweetest I've ever had). Think of it as more shrimp for a few bucks less...
The bill was just over $45.
This is a smaller, limited menu, limited service (with a small fraction of the work force) version of the larger ones we are most familiar with and it's also 10 miles closer than the downtown San Diego location (not to mention the free parking and the absolute lack of tourists at this one).
It's almost self serve here as there are no waitresses (unlike their larger locations where service is generally pretty well-polished): you place your order at the register and the same guy who takes the order also "runs" the food to your table to insure that it's hot when delivered.
This outlet is located on a very busy corner and is also very attractive, architecturally (there are several dining rooms including a round one with a dome and a great outdoor seating area too). It has all of the touches its' larger brothers have, such as the tile and glass work, touches of hardwood and a lot of large photos and taxidermied fish on the walls, only on a much smaller, substantially more affordable scale.
We've eaten at The Fish Market for well over 20 years now (they have 2 Silicon Valley locations) but the last time we had eaten at one was when we were here on vacation a couple of years ago and the wife got severe food poisoning from the Cioppino and wiped out our motel room at Holiday Inn (we can never go back there). She also missed several days of work (and went to Kaiser) after we got back to Squarefield.
And come to think of it, I had a batch of bad shrimp once in Silicon Valley (mid 80's) and did some serious damage to the surroundings myself (I had no idea the human body held so much liquid, easily several gallons; much less that it could eliminate it all almost instantaneously).
It took us quite some time (2 years) to persuade the wife to give it another shot (and it took me a while to go back there then), needless to say...
They have a number of locations up and down the West Coast and one in Phoenix as well and in spite of a couple of cases of food poisoning (it is fish after all and it sometime comes with the territory), we highly recommend them.
Most, if not all locations, also feature an in-house fish market so you can take it home and cook it yourself.
They also sell their cook book at the register but it's not cheap ($30).
See their web site here: www.thefishmarket.com
8 May - Vaquero's Carne Asada:
I finally tried the (shredded) beef enchilada here and have to say that I was (only) mildly disappointed with the sauce and that it had way too many Ortega peppers to suit my taste but at $1.60 each, it's still way up on the list for good cheap Mexican food.
Their shredded beef taco is $1.90 so with an enchilada and Coke, you're looking at a great $5 lunch or dinner, less than a mile from the house...
14 May - Filippi's Pizza Grotto:
We first heard about this place when Sam The Cooking Guy visited their downtown (first) location, which has a full Italian Deli inside.
They are a local chain with close to a dozen outlets all over the county and apparently all of them are owned by different family members and differ on their layouts and menus from store to store.
They also differ on their cleanliness and the one we visited (near Quaalcom Stadium) had us out the door and down the road literally seconds after we walked into the place to take a look around.
It was dimly lit (at 11:00 AM), not too clean and didn't have a deli either so we'll check out one of the other locations when we get a chance.
There is one on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach and as I get over that way a lot more often than I get into downtown San Diego...
14 May - Philadelphia Sandwich Company:
After deciding not to eat at Filippi's, we hit the road and ended up at the Philadelphia Sandwich Company.
We ordered our usual (cheesesteaks, fries and a soda) and when it arrived, we realized that they had went over to the dark side the way many places have here and no longer use the shredded ribeye steak but instead heated up some sliced roast beef and melted a little cheese over it.
This is NOT how it is done and that was our last visit there (it was nice while it lasted).
15 May - Olive Garden:
It was a late Saturday afternoon, the wife was at work and The Boy was going out with some friends so I was on my own for dinner.
I had just dropped the wife off at La Jolla and had passed 20 miles of strip malls and free standing restaurants along the way and nothing seemed to appeal to me. All I really wanted was some vegetables, nothing fancy and certainly not worth going to a salad bar with all of the other stuff like soups and desserts which they would charge me for even if I didn't eat any of them.
I'd had a lot of fast food (especially beef) lately and a simple salad would be just perfect.
As I passed the Grossmont Mall in La Mesa, I realized that I should take a page from my brother Jim's book and drop by the Olive Garden for salad, breadsticks and an iced tea, that would be just perfect.
After I had my salad fix and a breadstick and a half, I realized that a little pasta would go well with it after all (especially watching everyone around me drinking red wine) so I asked the server for a menu.
I didn't see anything I wanted so I asked her if it would be possible for a dish of Shrimp Alfredo.
Evidently, you can have it your way there...
17 May - Togo's:
We discovered that the local (Mission Valley) Togo's was exactly where I thought it was the last time when I drove right by it without seeing the giant sign from the freeway (am I going to have to get driving glasses next?).
I had even driven into the parking lot, right in front of the place and didn't see it (I later realized that a tree had blocked the sign).
We should point out that Togo's is a Silicon Valley company and we discovered them shortly after they opened their second outlet in an old house across the street from The Pruneyard (a shopping center in Campbell) in 1975 and have eaten there ever since.
They are known for their generous portions and our favorite is the hot roast beef.
They must have well over 100 locations, maybe a lot more than that (I heard that they're even in Washington DC now).
And Squarefield got a Togo's a couple of years before we left and it was worth the time to drive across town for lunch every once in a while.
The wife had her usual, the hot pastrami on multi-grain bread (I know, I know: she also puts mayo on her hot dog and sprouts and avocado on virtually everything else, despite all I've tried to teach her) and I had my usual, the small hot roast beef on white with mustard, mayo, pickles, peppers, salt & pepper and Swiss cheese. We split a Lay's Original chips and a Pepsi.
Their web site: www.togos.com
We had decided to call it a modified beach day (it was a tad too cool on the ocean for a serious bike ride) so we drove out to Ocean Beach then over to Sunset Cliffs and all the way out Point Loma to the Cabrillo National Monument, the Lighthouse, the tidal pools, etc and then past NTC (Naval Training Center, where I went to Teletype Repair School 32 years ago now) on our way back.
We had also looked for the MTV "Real World" house so we could send a few photos to everyone but never did figure out where it was (we know approximately where it is from watching the program) and called it a day.
17 May - Casa de Bandini:
Late that afternoon (when The Boy got home from work), we went out for dinner at Casa de Bandini in Oldtown.
It's supposed to close down soon in a handover to a competing concessionaire so it was a last hurrah of sorts for us as it has been our favorite upscale Mexican restaurant since we first started thinking about moving back down here, just over 4 years ago now.
Besides chips and salsa and a side order of their great guacamole (probably the best we've ever had), the wife had the 2 tamale plate (no beans or cheese), the Boy ordered 4 tostaditos for appetizers and beef fajitas and I had the beef enchilada and beef taco plate with beans and rice.
The wife had water, the Boy had a Coke and I had the iced tea.
The wife had ordered pork and beef tamales with 2 different sauces and what she got was a couple of dried out chicken tamales and the service could only be considered mediocre at best on this visit (it's been excellent on all previous occasions) and we left a 10% tip...
One more thing: as we walked by, a bus boy (maybe in his early 20's at most), smirked and said something that I didn't quite catch until we were at the hostess station. I don't know if it was directed at me or he was talking about the waitress (the wife's theory) but I'd swear he called me a fatass when I walked by and it was all I (and the wife) could do to keep me from stomping his young punk butt all over the place...
29 May - Tommy's Italian Deli in El Cajon:
The new Tommy's seats 28 people (I counted) and there is 1 waitress and several others at the register and to-go counter.
Tommy recently built a new building right next door to the old one (which will soon be a music store) and they re-opened a few days ago.
For my first visit (it was highly recommended by a couple of local guys who live in the neighborhood), I had the Prosciutto and cheese with a drizzle of olive oil on a great roll (great, crunchy outer texture and warm, delicious bread inside). The entire thing must have been 15 inches long and it was fairly expensive ($9.99) but the other sandwiches on the menu are reasonably priced.
They also do pizza, calzones, various pasta dishes and have a regular lunch special menu.
The salads and sandwiches I saw the other customers chowing down on all looked great and we will be back to check it all out soon.
From a mural on the wall at Rita's Mexican Food in El Cajon
31 May - Rita's Mexican Food:
I noticed this place a couple of months ago (it's behind the local Dairy Queen) as it appears to be a CHP (California Highway Patrol) hang out.
It must be like the truckers as they always know the good places to eat, right?
We checked it out on the way to the movies ("Van Helsing") which we didn't get to see due to a ticket mix up (it's a long story...).
I ordered the beef taco with a cheese enchilada plate (rice, beans), the Boy had the shrimp burrito and the wife had a small fish taco.
With 2 medium sodas, the grand total was $15.25.
I should point out that the shredded beef taco was easily the best thing we tasted and right up there with almost any other Mexican place, high end or at the very bottom of the heap and we've almost become jaded by the fact that they are so good here, all across the board.
There really wasn't anything special about this place so we have to assume that the CHP hangs out here for something other than the food (we suspect it's because their parked patrol cars can't be seen from the street), so much for that theory...
Are these things really necessary and how did our ancestors ever live without them?
I just don't get it...
You know those plastic things they put between the groceries at the store to keep your order from being mixed up with he next customers?
I just don't get it.
I looked them up and for lack of a better term, they're officially called "grocery dividers".
I was at the grocery store this morning and the little old woman in front of me slapped one of these silly, silly things on the belt between our orders even though my stuff was a couple of feet away from hers (4 fruit pies and donuts, Lava hand cleaner and a can of cranberry sauce).
What really amazed me though was how all of the men, mature, supposedly rational and responsible adults all of them, followed suit.
It's not like everyone isn't watching the cashier or that you're willing to pick up a few of the next guy's groceries because you're a nice guy or anything like that.
And it's almost ritualistic now and everyone (else) has been programmed to follow instructions, whether it makes any sense or not.
Even stranger, everyone around you acts nervous if you don't immediately grab one to cordon off your stuff and invariably one of them will reach over and do it for you, whether you want it or not..
What's with that?
When did all of the big, strong men in this country become such little old women?
It reminds me of the time I pulled up next to a car at the stoplight and the little old lady took one look at me and the trike I was riding and reached over and locked her door. Like Seinfeld when he went to a heckler's place of work to heckle them back, I now make it a point to lock my car doors anytime there's an old lady in the crosswalk...
Google lists 831 hits for the topic, a virtual mini-industry (and the company that makes the example above has 8 models in their product line).
And I don't want to cause a recession or anything like that as invariably some people have built their careers on these idiotic plastic devices but this is one of the dumbest "inventions" ever foisted on modern man.
Do we really need them?
Is the world really a better place because of them?
And what about the fact that most of them shove one more advertisement at you while you're trapped in line waiting for the woman in front to count her coupons, write a check and put everything back into her purse before you can take your turn at the register?
Call me Mr. Cranky Pants...
