September 2005:
Entries to be added later (they were printed in our other newsletters or blogs and I need to pull them from there).
August 2005:
"You say hello, I say goodbye..." - The Beatles
This will be the last issue of "A Taste of San Diego".
It's not that we're going to quit writing about our culinary adventures here in our new home but that the basic concept is changing and will now cover food on a wider level, everything from my normal rantings about poor service to the larger world of food in general.
And instead of the few people who this goes out to now (everyone we know here, basically), this should appeal to a much wider range of readers and provide a place for my other food related writings, etc.
We still don't have a name for it and welcome your suggestions...
Soylent Green is people...
For instance, have you heard about Hufu?
It's a soy derived product much like tofu only it's meant to taste just like human flesh.
The inventor (I'm not really sure that that's the right word) envisions selling this product to "old school" cannibals in Micronesia to satisfy their cravings for a real Manwich, without the legal hassles involved it trapping and butchering it yourself.
A pleasant thought, no?
He further rationalizes it by saying it's also a product for the culinarily curious, just a wee bit of a stretch in my mind.
Finally, he reports that he came up with the exact recipe by doing numerous interviews with former cannibals to make sure he got it just right.
30 July - Por Favor:
Tonight it was John Horsley (my room mate in college), me, the Boy and John's daughter Ashley.
They're on vacation from Florida.
The Boy and John both had the La Especial de Ramon (Carne Asada, cheese enchilada, beans, rice, guacamole)
And Ashley and I had the Number 4 and the Number 12 (not sure which is which) but one is the beef taco / beef enchilada plate (with beans and rice) and the other has a cheese enchilada / beef taco (and the beans and rice).
John and I both had iced tea, Boy had a Coke and Ashley had a couple of glasses of milk.
The total was $50 and coin, $58 after tip.
The server "shopped the food" meaning he either can't or won't read the ticket to see what order goes to which seat, a real no-no in fine dining.
He was quick with the refills and the kitchen bogged down shortly after we got our food as we were approximately 15 minutes ahead of the herd all getting there at the same time (why we really like being out of synch with the rest of the world)...
7 August - Pat & Oscar's:
Small pizza, salad, breadsticks, sodas, lotsa food
$21.08
8 August - Karina's Mexican Seafood III:
The cheese was lukewarm, rubbery and barely melted in the Boy's Molcajete (I had a bite but it wasn't good).
The wife had 2 fish tacos with beans and rice (I ate the beans)
I got a wretched shrimp cocktail in ice water (I sent it back and didn't order anything else).
We also had the usual chips, salsa and an iced tea for me.
The total was $35 with a minimal tip and it'll be a long time before we come back, if ever...
16 August - Submarina - No. 101:
I thought it was a small, local chain but it turns out that they've been in the business 25 years now and are all over SoCal.
We visited the new franchise model in Santee.
On my first visit, I had the East Coast Sub.
It was way too large for this old man, I should have asked for oregano and told them to go easy on the veggies.
The cucumber slices, lack of oregano, the generic cold cuts and the bland sweetness of the bread made it a little too sweet for my palate.
And it didn't help that I spilled my Pepsi on it but even then, it was too much sandwich (I should have ordered the 6 inch one)
It's very Californian there, with the sprouts, sliced cucumbers, avocado, etc.
And evidently their signature sandwich is the turkey, avocado (it figures) and cheese but since we're having beer can chicken tonight, I had to try something else
The Boy had eaten at the El Cajon location and wasn't favorably impressed so I hadn't tried it until I read the recent article in the paper about them going the franchise route.
Way back in approximately 1975 or so, we had eaten at Togo's 2nd location, in San Jose, and they're been a favorite of ours ever since (have the hot roast beef).
So far, this ain't no Togo's...
See their web site here: www.submarina.com
17 August - Submarina II:
This time, we ordered the 6 inch sandwiches and I had the ATC (avocado, turkey and cheese) with tomato and mayo, small chips and a Pepsi.
The wife had the Italian Sub.
There wasn't a lot of turkey and it was sliced way too thin in their signature sandwich.
And the avocado left a perfumey aftertaste in my mouth.
The total was $12.74
The wife rates it (in order) below Togo's and Port Of Subs but higher than Quizno's and Subway, which sort of falls off the bottom of her chart.
21 August - Anthony's Fish Grotto - No. 102:
Anthony's is right on the edge of El Cajon and La Mesa and right across the freeway from Brigantine, which we checked out last month.
The restaurant itself has nice (if dated) decor, blue and aquamarine paint, fish downspouts on the edges of the building's roof, a, fountain, a small lake, a mural, rock walls, painted concrete floors, rainforest landscaping and appears to have been there a long time.
The fish shaped downspouts, which resemble gargoyles on much larger buildings, constantly spout water into the small lake and the fountain sits in the center, right in front of the dining room windows.
We walked in the door early Sunday evening, right at 5:00 PM, and not unexpectedly, the place was full of senior citizens.
The Boy had a side salad, Coke and deep fried calamari appetizers and it was the Shrimp Cocktail, Crab Louie and iced tea for me
We also had a basket of bread with butter mixed with sun dried tomatoes, garlic, etc
Our total was $37.37 before tip, $43 after.
Good service, mediocre food (too many vegetables in the Louie, 3rd rate crab and shrimp, no horseradish in the shrimp cocktail, etc)
I agree with the Boy when he says the Brigantine is better
Anthony's is certainly no Swan Oyster Depot, one of The City's best restaurants despite the fact it only had a dozen stools at the counter...
Like Anthony Bourdain ("Kitchen Confidential") says, only order the fish on Tuesdays through Fridays...
Where I / we ate this month:
Anthony's Fish Grotto
Arby's - Twice
BK - Twice
Gaglione Brothers
Kip's
McD's - Three times
Pat & Oscar's
Popeye's - Twice
Por Favor
Submarina - Twice
The 'Schnitz (Wienerschnitzel) - Three times!
The Tin Fish
Wendy's
NEXT MONTH:
As you have no doubt noticed, we just completed Phase 1 of our "31 Days" project and will now begin Phase 2, where I will behave myself for a month and only eat regular meals (no snacks) and lay off the beer, booze and the usual late night combination of chocolate and salt.
No cigars either...
I haven't figured out what to substitute for my early morning caffeine and sugar thing yet (we tried substituting English muffins in the toaster and a cup of tea but that just doesn't do it for me). I realize that the level of processed sugar, preservatives, etc in the factory made baked goods can't be good for humans but I'm not a breakfast cereal guy (I can't remember the last time I drank milk), I don't do coffee either and I have to throw something in there just to calm it down long enough for all of my other circuits to come online first thing in the morning...
Any suggestions?
This will be the last issue of "A Taste of San Diego".
It's not that we're going to quit writing about our culinary adventures here in our new home but that the basic concept is changing and will now cover food on a wider level, everything from my normal rantings about poor service to the larger world of food in general.
And instead of the few people who this goes out to now (everyone we know here, basically), this should appeal to a much wider range of readers and provide a place for my other food related writings, etc.
We still don't have a name for it and welcome your suggestions...
Soylent Green is people...
For instance, have you heard about Hufu?
It's a soy derived product much like tofu only it's meant to taste just like human flesh.
The inventor (I'm not really sure that that's the right word) envisions selling this product to "old school" cannibals in Micronesia to satisfy their cravings for a real Manwich, without the legal hassles involved it trapping and butchering it yourself.
A pleasant thought, no?
He further rationalizes it by saying it's also a product for the culinarily curious, just a wee bit of a stretch in my mind.
Finally, he reports that he came up with the exact recipe by doing numerous interviews with former cannibals to make sure he got it just right.
30 July - Por Favor:
Tonight it was John Horsley (my room mate in college), me, the Boy and John's daughter Ashley.
They're on vacation from Florida.
The Boy and John both had the La Especial de Ramon (Carne Asada, cheese enchilada, beans, rice, guacamole)
And Ashley and I had the Number 4 and the Number 12 (not sure which is which) but one is the beef taco / beef enchilada plate (with beans and rice) and the other has a cheese enchilada / beef taco (and the beans and rice).
John and I both had iced tea, Boy had a Coke and Ashley had a couple of glasses of milk.
The total was $50 and coin, $58 after tip.
The server "shopped the food" meaning he either can't or won't read the ticket to see what order goes to which seat, a real no-no in fine dining.
He was quick with the refills and the kitchen bogged down shortly after we got our food as we were approximately 15 minutes ahead of the herd all getting there at the same time (why we really like being out of synch with the rest of the world)...
7 August - Pat & Oscar's:
Small pizza, salad, breadsticks, sodas, lotsa food
$21.08
8 August - Karina's Mexican Seafood III:
The cheese was lukewarm, rubbery and barely melted in the Boy's Molcajete (I had a bite but it wasn't good).
The wife had 2 fish tacos with beans and rice (I ate the beans)
I got a wretched shrimp cocktail in ice water (I sent it back and didn't order anything else).
We also had the usual chips, salsa and an iced tea for me.
The total was $35 with a minimal tip and it'll be a long time before we come back, if ever...
16 August - Submarina - No. 101:
I thought it was a small, local chain but it turns out that they've been in the business 25 years now and are all over SoCal.
We visited the new franchise model in Santee.
On my first visit, I had the East Coast Sub.
It was way too large for this old man, I should have asked for oregano and told them to go easy on the veggies.
The cucumber slices, lack of oregano, the generic cold cuts and the bland sweetness of the bread made it a little too sweet for my palate.
And it didn't help that I spilled my Pepsi on it but even then, it was too much sandwich (I should have ordered the 6 inch one)
It's very Californian there, with the sprouts, sliced cucumbers, avocado, etc.
And evidently their signature sandwich is the turkey, avocado (it figures) and cheese but since we're having beer can chicken tonight, I had to try something else
The Boy had eaten at the El Cajon location and wasn't favorably impressed so I hadn't tried it until I read the recent article in the paper about them going the franchise route.
Way back in approximately 1975 or so, we had eaten at Togo's 2nd location, in San Jose, and they're been a favorite of ours ever since (have the hot roast beef).
So far, this ain't no Togo's...
See their web site here: www.submarina.com
17 August - Submarina II:
This time, we ordered the 6 inch sandwiches and I had the ATC (avocado, turkey and cheese) with tomato and mayo, small chips and a Pepsi.
The wife had the Italian Sub.
There wasn't a lot of turkey and it was sliced way too thin in their signature sandwich.
And the avocado left a perfumey aftertaste in my mouth.
The total was $12.74
The wife rates it (in order) below Togo's and Port Of Subs but higher than Quizno's and Subway, which sort of falls off the bottom of her chart.
21 August - Anthony's Fish Grotto - No. 102:
Anthony's is right on the edge of El Cajon and La Mesa and right across the freeway from Brigantine, which we checked out last month.
The restaurant itself has nice (if dated) decor, blue and aquamarine paint, fish downspouts on the edges of the building's roof, a, fountain, a small lake, a mural, rock walls, painted concrete floors, rainforest landscaping and appears to have been there a long time.
The fish shaped downspouts, which resemble gargoyles on much larger buildings, constantly spout water into the small lake and the fountain sits in the center, right in front of the dining room windows.
We walked in the door early Sunday evening, right at 5:00 PM, and not unexpectedly, the place was full of senior citizens.
The Boy had a side salad, Coke and deep fried calamari appetizers and it was the Shrimp Cocktail, Crab Louie and iced tea for me
We also had a basket of bread with butter mixed with sun dried tomatoes, garlic, etc
Our total was $37.37 before tip, $43 after.
Good service, mediocre food (too many vegetables in the Louie, 3rd rate crab and shrimp, no horseradish in the shrimp cocktail, etc)
I agree with the Boy when he says the Brigantine is better
Anthony's is certainly no Swan Oyster Depot, one of The City's best restaurants despite the fact it only had a dozen stools at the counter...
Like Anthony Bourdain ("Kitchen Confidential") says, only order the fish on Tuesdays through Fridays...
Where I / we ate this month:
Anthony's Fish Grotto
Arby's - Twice
BK - Twice
Gaglione Brothers
Kip's
McD's - Three times
Pat & Oscar's
Popeye's - Twice
Por Favor
Submarina - Twice
The 'Schnitz (Wienerschnitzel) - Three times!
The Tin Fish
Wendy's
NEXT MONTH:
As you have no doubt noticed, we just completed Phase 1 of our "31 Days" project and will now begin Phase 2, where I will behave myself for a month and only eat regular meals (no snacks) and lay off the beer, booze and the usual late night combination of chocolate and salt.
No cigars either...
I haven't figured out what to substitute for my early morning caffeine and sugar thing yet (we tried substituting English muffins in the toaster and a cup of tea but that just doesn't do it for me). I realize that the level of processed sugar, preservatives, etc in the factory made baked goods can't be good for humans but I'm not a breakfast cereal guy (I can't remember the last time I drank milk), I don't do coffee either and I have to throw something in there just to calm it down long enough for all of my other circuits to come online first thing in the morning...
Any suggestions?
July 2005:
Hefty Serve & Store: Plates are lids, lids are plates...
Well, we found it at Ralph's and finally tried it.
It seems to work well (see above) and the wife really likes them now that she's used them a couple of times
Photo is grayscale for clarity because of extreme contrast in the colors as it was shot close to sundown with poor lighting...
2 July 2005 - Karina's Mexican Seafood - No. 98:
It was a Saturday night and it was just me and the Boy out looking for some dinner.
We had recently heard about this place through their great, full color ad in The San Diego Union Tribune.
This (the El Cajon location) is the 5th outlet of the Chula Vista based local chain
It's fairly pricey, especially considering the neighborhood, less than 2 miles from here and on the way to Steele Canyon Golf Club.
And the menu is this lavishly printed multi-color thing but we went into sticker shock at some of the prices ($89 for Karina's Seafood Platter, which is enough to feed two or three people maybe) and most dinners start off at approximately $20 or so.
The main entrance isn't properly marked and we and half a dozen others tried to walk in the back door; they need to move the neon OPEN sign away from that door (which is always locked) and around toward the front (the side actually) of the building, where they put the new entrance.
I had the grilled prawns with 6 huge prawns (as big as small lobsters), beans rice, butter, plenty of lime wedges and tortillas. The platter usually comes with salad instead of the beans but I asked them to substitute it for me and we were pleasantly surprised at how good the beans were.
I don't care for the way they do the butter here (like that lobster place in Ensenada we visited last year) as I prefer it to strike a more subtle note with just a hint of garlic and white wine. They do it that way at a number of places here and it's too blatant and overpowering for my tastes...
The Boy ordered the crab ceviche (lime juice marinated crab, onions hot sauce, tomatoes served in 2 avocado halves).
And there were the obligatory chips and salsa (we aren't very fond of the salsa as it was a little too tomatoey and sweet)
I had the usual iced tea and the Boy drank a Coke.
CUSTOMER HELL: Service was poor at best.
We sat there for quite some time waiting for a menu and finally had to go get them ourselves, our waitress didn't acknowledge us, after she brought our drinks, she left us alone to the point that if she had walked into the room once more without taking our orders, we would have stood up and walked out, she took forever to bring us the bill after we specifically asked for it, then asked the bus boy for it after a few more minutes went by and then it was the wrong one, we had to ask for drink refills and she bought the Boy back an iced tea instead of a Coke, etc.
The total was $36.50 or so with tax, I dropped 2 twenties on the table and we walked out.
The waitress should be glad that I didn't want to wait another 10 minutes for her to give us change or that I didn't have the exact amount on me or I would have put that on the table with a one cent tip, the ultimate insult to a server and something we've never, ever done before...
I would say that we'll never be back but the wife is going to want to check the place out as the food in the ad, on the menu and in real life, all looks wonderful and this is just her kind of place (I do imagine that she'll have plenty to say about the service standards however).
5 July 2005 - Karina's II:
On our first visit, we walked in through a rear door and sat in a corner booth. This time, we parked on the side and walked in what is now the new front door. The waitress / hostess told us to sit anywhere we liked and we chose a booth right near the grill (the chef's table?).
To start things off, we ordered our drinks; I had my regular, an iced tea (fortunately, this time they didn't throw in a slice of lime like they had the last time, which threw the taste off), the Boy had a Coke and the wife had a glass of water with several twists of lime.
I should point out that I lived down south a number of times (Mobile, Alabama twice and Biloxi, Mississippi) and the custom there is to pre-sweeten iced tea and although I drank lots of it there (as Dave Attel from "Insomniac") would say "When in Rome, do as the Romanians do" - I've been waiting for months to use that line), in my dotage, I prefer my tea like I do my women - clear, strong and slightly bitter...
Before any of our order arrived, someone in the kitchen sent us a free plate of ceviche.
I'm not much for uncooked fish but the wife and Boy swooped on it, along with a basket and a half of chips and a bowl of salsa.
For appetizers, the Boy and the wife had the Seven Seas Soup (lots of shrimp with octopus, squid, scallops, mussels, clams, fish and topped off with a crab leg). We had noticed this dish being served on our first visit and tucked the idea away for when we could bring the wife with us as she loves fish soups in all forms and knew she'd want to give this one a try.
I tasted a bit of it but paced myself as I knew how much food was coming our way and didn't want to fill up prematurely.
For his main course, the Boy ordered the Shrimp, Steak & Cheese Molcajete (magma hot cheese in a super heated red hot, hollowed out chunk of lava rock bowl with shrimp, beef and mushrooms (the Boy says you can get a sun tan while eating your dinner as the bowl was so hot).
I asked the waitress what that word meant and even though she is Mexican, she had no clue...
The wife had the Fish Plate with Ranchero Sauce and double rice (instead of beans or salad).
We also asked our waitress to find out what kind of fish it is but she didn't know that either and the cook could only answer in Spanish so we still aren't sure but the wife says it was light and flaky and a very good cut, whatever it was (we can always email the company to ask)...
I had the Shrimp Shish Kebabs (with slices of tomato, green bell pepper, onion and bacon) and rice and beans.
As usual, it was way too much food but we got pretty good service this time.
The total was $67 plus change, $11 plus the leftover coin for a tip, for a grand total of $79.
The Boy paid the tip, I paid the rest as the wife has been putting in a large amount of time at work recently and she deserved a change of pace.
As it is now, it'll be 16 shifts in a row for her over the last 2 weeks until Monday; when she finally gets a day off.
On the other hand, she grossed a whopping $421.82 for working an 8 and a half hour shift on the 4th of July as it was her 7th day in a row and a holiday as well, so she made double time and a half plus a $50 holiday bonus for a grand total of $471.82 before taxes, not bad at all...
It's an all-hands-on-deck thing at La Jolla Country Club for their 4th of July festivities as they stage their own fireworks from the golf course, bring in a big band, hire a carnival and hold a huge cookout by the pool for 1500 or 1600 members and guests (up from 1300 last year)...
And of course, the wife and Boy ate too much but as an old man, I've learned to be more prudent.
And there was enough fish and rice left over for the wife's lunch tomorrow
She really, really liked it, in spite of the prices and says we'll be back soon only we'll order a lot less food the next time...
And I have to admit that I have changed my mind about this place (as did the Boy), in spite of the lousy service on our first visit and the fact that I really don't like fish nearly as much as they do.
Mr. Funny (the Boy) says he had a hard time putting his finger on it and only after we left did he realize that the waitresses' uniforms (white blouse, black skirt) and their physical similarities (most are young, attractive and mainly Mexican) reminded him of something: the matching babes in Robert Palmer's ("Addicted to love" and "Simply irresistible") music videos (and he actually liked the 80's)...
See their web site here: www.karinasmexicanseafood.com
15 July 2005 - Jasmine Bistro:
The wife and I dropped by for a little Dim Sum this morning and had their Shrimp Sui Mai, Scallop Dumplings, Lotus Sweet Rice (glutinous rice steamed in a lotus leaf with mushrooms, shrimp and other meats), and for our dessert, the Sesame Balls (which are filled with lemon curd).
We'd had the shrimp and scallop dishes numerous times before and the lotus rice on our last visit but the sesame balls were new to us.
I had an iced tea and the wife had a pot of hot jasmine tea.
The food was very good, especially the nutty after-taste of the sesame balls but service lagged as the cart got ahead of the horse, so to speak, as the steam cart girl served us before our server was able to get our drinks on the table. That's important, especially when the customer takes a big bite of something dipped in very hot Chinese mustard (which we had to ask for along with the soy sauce) and instantly regrets it...
And needless to say, I ran out of iced tea immediately and there was another perceptible lag in the service until the server noticed it, despite the empty glass sitting at the very edge of the table, a universal symbol to refill me NOW.
She should have also noticed my directly staring in her direction, eating utensils (chop sticks) down, not being able to eat another bite until I put the fire out in my mouth. A good server scans her tables every minute or so instead of disappearing for 5 minutes or more at a time.
And after we asked for the check, the server apparently got busy doing something else so after approximately 5 minutes of waiting, the wife got up, walked over to her and handed her the cash behind the line. The wife had said that that was going to cost her an extra buck but when she handed me back the change, she admitted that she has a very hard time tipping 10%. The total was $20.85 before tip, make it an even $24.
16 July - Don Mario's Taco Shop - No. 99:
According to the sign out front, this is "San Diego's Best Mexican Food".
It's been open for approximately the last 6 months or so but we finally got around to checking it out this evening.
Like a lot of places here, most of the seating is outside (with 3 or 4 tables inside).
I had the beef taco / beef enchilada combination with beans and rice, the Bay had the carne asada burrito and we both had Cokes.
Boy liked his burrito better than the one at El Barriilito but says they need to add sour cream and cheese to the guacamole and Pico de Gallo.
He also liked the beef enchilada better than any of the others we've tasted since we got here.
The chips and salsa were nothing to write home about.
We paid a total of $14.06 for it all and he'll be back (I'm largely indifferent - it was good but not what I'm really looking for)...
And as it was self serve, no tipping was involved.
19 July: Dinner @ Darla's:
We saw this recipe on Giadda de Laurentis' "Everyday Italian" on TV Food Network.
The halibut is cut into cubes, wrapped in bacon (she used pancetta but...) and then grilled.
We stopped by El Pescador on the way home from picking the wife up at work in La Jolla.
I had 3 jumbo prawns done the same way (and a taste of the halibut).
We had home made tartar sauce and drawn butter for dipping
We also had wild rice, steamed cauliflower and green beans cooked in bacon grease with little chunks of cooked bacon, sautéed onions and a tab of butter on top when served (along with plenty of freshly ground black pepper).
Wild Bill joined us (no left overs)...
25 July - Brigantine - No. 100:
One of the wife's co-workers at Steele Canyon Golf Club had told her about the $1 oyster shooters and $2 fish tacos during happy hour.
We checked out their La Mesa store, one of several locations including Point Loma, Del Mar, Escondido, Poway, Coronado.
This location is on the lower edge of Mount Helix and overlooks a major freeway (I-8) but is far enough above it so the noise isn't a problem.
They also own 3 Miguel's (East Lake, Point Loma and Coronado), Zocalo's (in Old Town) and Azul in La Jolla.
Happy Hour is from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM (generally) but Dinner starts at 5:00 PM so we missed being able to taste anything from the dinner menu that visit as we arrived at approximately 4:15 and we'll get to the rest of the menu on our next visit.
I had the Brigantine Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail ($6.99) with Jumbo wild Mexican shrimp, cocktail sauce and horseradish) and iced tea ($2.29) . The horseradish and cocktail sauce were wonderful .
The Boy ordered the Santa Rosalia Shrimp Scampi ($11.99) with Jumbo wild Mexican shrimp sautéed with avocado butter, flamed with tequila and served with sourdough garlic bread) and the Calamari Strips ($4.99) which were "...dusted with Italian bread crumbs and served with cocktail sauce and our famous jalapeño white sauce".
He also had an oyster shooter ($1.29), a fish taco $2.29) and a Coke ($2.29).
I gave the Boy a couple of my shrimp, he had some of the wife's Cioppino: San Francisco-style Cioppino ($7.99) with clams, mussels, salmon, cod (we think), and scallops, sautéed red and green bell pepper, a very light tomato based sauce and topped with tomato-basil bruschetta and he also did some major damage to everything else...
The wife had some of the Boy's Scampi, several Calamari Strips and a fish taco as well and drank ice water with her meal.
I also had a couple of the Boy's Scampi and one of his Calamari Strips to taste all 3 dipping sauces: the leftover scampi juice (see ingredients list above). It was a magnificent sauce and the Boy almost went for a straw to get every last bit), their cocktail sauce with a fair share of freshly ground horseradish and their "...famous jalapeño white sauce..." whose appeal apparently eluded me but not the Boy.
Service was very good (I put the empty iced tea glass on the edge of the table and it was like a military surgical strike when she immediately refilled it). Our total was slightly over $45 with tax ($42 something before) so we rounded up slightly and walked out of there $52 poorer but stuffed to the gills, so to speak. Both the wife and Boy agreed it was wonderful and we'll definitely be back soon.
See their web site here: http://www.brigantine.com/
Wretched service, poor manners & absolutely no brains:
I went to the local (El Cajon) Wienerschnitzel for my annual National Hot Dog Month big tip for the server thing and a very preggers 16 year old took my order at the counter.
She isn't too bright (no one is who is that young and that knocked up could possibly be accused of being intelligent) and when I told her that someone had spilled soda in the salt packets, please give me a salt, she walked around the counter to see for herself, making me wait while my food got cold, like I was lying to her. After she established that it was, indeed, soaked in soda, she went back around the counter, told the manager and finally gave me a packet of salt. As an adult, I resent being second guessed by a moron, especially for a freaking salt packet.
Never-the-less, doing the mature thing, I still gave her the tip, explaining it was National Hot Dog Month.
Without flinching (or even saying thank you), she tossed it on the shelf below the counter, like so much trash.
She'll go far in life...
Where we ate this month:
LUNCH:
Bunboy'z - The 4th time (I had the steak sandwich, steak fries and a Coke) - $13.00 including tip
Wienernschitzel - $4.19
Burger King - $6.58
Woodies Chili Dogs - I had a chili dog, the wife had the pastrami and we split an onion ring and root beer - $10.58
Jasmine - Dim Sum - $24 including tip
Rally's - $6.48
Arby's - Twice (Desperate times call for desperate measures)
DINNER:
Karina's Mexican Seafood - Twice - see review above - $119 total
Popeye's - Once with the Boy - $10.59, once by myself - $6.42
McDonald's - The Boy started his MBA program (Analytical Math is his first class) and I was on my own for dinner - $5.08
Chili's - The Boy and I split a side salad and some beef fajitas - $23.00 with tip
Don Mario's - $14.06
Brigantine's - $52
In-N-Out Burger - $14 and change - My college room mate John Horsley and daughter Ashley were visiting and had never been to In-N-Out...
June 2005:
20 June - Rockin' Baja Lobster - No. 97:
It was the day after Father's Day and we waited until then to avoid the rush, plus the several million tourists normally found here.
The Boy had offered to take his dad out for dinner (thank you!) but Monday is always better because it's also The Darla's only day off.
The Rockin' Baja Lobster has 4 or 5 locations throughout the county; one up north somewhere (I forget), one in Bonita, on the way to the border, one in Downtown (I think) and the one we visited in Oldtown, shortly after the turnover to that out of state company (a long story)...
We thought parking might be a problem and grabbed the first spot we saw, in the old Casa De Bandini (it WAS our favorite Mexican restaurant but the first thing the out of town concessionaire did was close it down and turn it into a French restaurant - the sacrilege!) parking lot and walked through much of Oldtown only to discover that they (RBL) have their own fairly large parking lot and it was almost empty...
So we also got our exercise in for the day.
And most of Oldtown is now way too touristy and the vendors seem to be hawking a lot of cheap souvenir type goods.
We started off with a small galvanized bucket of 3 color chips, with numerous choices at the salsa bar and some fresh hot tortillas.
We tasted close to a dozen of the salsas, everything from the standard Pico de Gallo to one based on mango, another based on hot chili oil in a paste, yet another with a tomatillo base and one more with a lot of pickled onions (I can't remember any of the others).
For our drinks, the wife had lemonade, the Boy had a Sprite and I had my normal iced tea
The boy ordered up the Baja Sampler platter with some very generic spicy wings (feh!), deep fried calamari and lobster taquitos, some pretty creamy guacamole, sour cream and chipotle and ranch sauces for dipping. He liked the calamari and lobster taquitos but only ate one wing.
The wife went for the Tacos Autenticos with 3 carne asada tacos with guacamole, beans and rice with a small Caesar salad on the side
I had to try the Lobster and shrimp bucket with rice, beans and also with the Caesar salad, lime wedges and rendered butter for dipping.
Their ads for this feature item are, to say the least, somewhat deceptive as it looks like a bucket full (in reality, it's 4 tiny little lobster tails and 4 medium shrimp) all sitting on a deep bed of wadded up napkins, almost to the top of the bucket, a lot of padding and very little food for $20...
I also thought the seasoning was a little off and everything was deep fried (had I known that, I wouldn't have ordered it for that reason as well).
I persuaded the Boy and the wife to have one of my lobster tails and a shrimp each and he and I shared one of her carne asada tacos as well.
She also had some of his platter and he had some of our side salads so everyone got a taste of everything.
After having been here a couple of years now, I think it's safe to draw a conclusion and the more I have it, the less I care for Mexican lobsters, especially the way they try to spice them up.
They aren't bad but I want to taste the sweet meat, not some cook's idea of how it should be spiced...
Service was adequate but I had to ask for more ice for my tea.
The after tax total was $52 plus change, what the hey, make it an even $60 with tip (I tossed in half so it really only cost the Boy $30 but he also bought his dear old dad a great set of flat wrenches with internal ratchet mechanisms on sale at Sears, so I made out this year!)..
I should also mention the pigeons and sparrows with the nerve to fly into the place and walk around sucking up a few chips dropped on the floor and occasionally causing a customer to duck when they fly by...
And there's the issue of the running water from the indoor fountain.
It's pleasant at first but gradually becomes annoying and I would not let them seat me anywhere near it again.
The place was decorated in the usual kaleidoscope of colors and is a fairly cheerful and friendly watering hole for the locals from what we've seen when we drive by and it's in full tilt mode but was almost empty inside (it was early) during our visit, approximately 5:00 PM on Monday.
Overall, it's OK, something we would have been lucky to have in Squarefield, but fairly average for here, nothing special...
You can see their web site here: www.rockinbaja.com
A few days later, I saw another ad for the place in the local paper, noticed how blurry and vague the photo of their bucket is, discovered their web site address and went looking for a photo of this farce. Evidently they have the good sense not to show the photo on the site...
I had considered going back there one more time, just to take a photo of this scam but...
"A Year in Food"
Have you heard about the guy who put together a book of photos of everything he had eaten in one year?
I did something very similar when I turned 39 (13 March 1987) until the day I turned 40, exactly one year later.
I wrote down EVERYTHING that I ate or drank in that time, a 3 inch thick diary of loose leaf pages (man, I used to be able to eat!).
It started when I saw a photograph (a week or so before my birthday) of how much food an average family of four can eat in a year.
It was virtually a semi-truck trailer full of stuff; I was amazed and after thinking about it for a while, a plan formed...
I also went "on the wagon" during that period, which meant no beer, no hooch, no vino, no cigars, no nothing for a year either.
I'd done that periodically over the years, generally only a month or so at a time (it's good for you).
I also figured why wait for your mid-life crisis to come to you when you can go get it yourself: bring it on!
Now, I'm an old man and I can't eat, drink or sleep like I used to be able to do.
Just 2 beers and I can feel the hangover coming, I pass out shortly after 9:00 PM, I can't sleep past 6:15 AM to save my life
But the upside is that I can afford some really great beer and high quality hooch now...
And I admit that I had stashed a great bottle of hooch, several world class beers and a cigar old Fidel himself would have loved (it was good!) just for that day, when the year was over and I could revert back to my natural tendencies.
Of course the beer tastes funny after you've been away from it for a while and you can't drink like you used to be able to do.
I kept that rubber band wrapped pile of paper for almost 20 years, lugging it around from place to place (we'd moved at least 3 times since). I finally got tired of looking at it, a sad reminder of how my stomach seems to have a mind of its' own, regardless of what I would choose were I really in control (besides, the rubber bands finally broke), so I tossed it last year when I came upon it while looking for something else...
And I didn't have a digital camera at the time (they hadn't been invented yet) or that would be my book...
A few conceptualities:
Someone needs to invent a pop top can that doesn't snap when you open it.
It wakes the dog up every morning if I do it in the living room (he sleeps on the patio) and risks waking up the Boy or the wife if I do it in the back of the house to keep from waking Wiener-Saurus Rex up.
Although it may seem trivial and of very little significance at the moment, the guy who invents this is going to make a fortune
It could be something as simple as a dimple in the top, formed when the piece is first punched out of sheet stock...
Permission to use the technology involved applied to literally millions and millions of canned drinks made every day in this country, much less in the rest of the world, would be worth millions and millions of dollars over a life time...
Hefty Serve N Store:
Have you seen those new snap together picnic plates (Hefty Serve N Store)?
Two interchangeable plastic picnic plates snap together to form a To Go container (Plates are lids, lids are plates...).
That's an absolutely brilliant idea, wish I'd have thought of it!
And it's somewhat like the modern bicycle: every single component was already in place for several hundred years before someone finally came along and put it all together...
This concept was literally sitting there, staring us all in the face, laughing at us, mocking us, and nobody noticed it (until now).
How many times have you transferred food from a plate into a To Go container or covered it with plastic wrap or foil?
Now multiply that times hundreds of millions of people around the world over the last several generations (and interpolate that figure out into the distant future), these guys will make a huge fortune off of this one...
We very rarely eat leftovers but we do give away a lot of food so we'll pick some up, test drive them and let you know all about it next month...
If you haven't seen them yet, go here: http://heftybrands.pactiv.com/ServeNStore/index.aspx
Where we ate this month (there are probably a few others but this is the gist of it):
LUNCH:
Arby's - twice
Burger King - twice, once with the wife
Buster's Windy City Dogs
Bunboy'z - a new sports bar / weenie / burger stand in Downtown El Cajon - three times so far, once with the Boy
McDonald's - Double cheeseburger ($.99), small fries (no salt) - also $.99, small soda (likewise, $.99) for a whopping total of $3.23 with tax...
Tommy's - twice and possibly for the last time as service was wretched and we walked out again*
Rally's - twice, once with the wife
Wienerschnitzel - four times: I'm so ashamed!...
DINNER:
Chili's - with the Boy
Gaglione Brothers - Mushroom Cheesesteak with extra white American cheese, fries (no salt), small Pepsi
Kip's - my third visit
Olive Garden - with the Boy
Popeyes - twice, once with the Boy
Rockin' Baja Lobster Bar & Grill - all hands on deck for this one
That's a total of at least 24 meals out this month.
As we only eat 2 meals a day here (at the most), that's 40% of our meals in restaurants this month, an extremely high proportion for us.
And that works out to a total of $267.54, as of the 28th (we write everything down so retrieving the numbers was the easy part).
*Notice the remarkable restraint I'm showing by not telling you all about it...
Abysmally Bad Service:
1) We had another incident of a waitress grabbing our glass by the rim only this was even more egregious as after I commented about it and told her I won't be drinking from that glass again, she sloughed it off and more or less outright ignored it so I told the other server all about it (and several other server horror stories) and had her bring me another soda. The next time I'm in there, I plan on telling her boss, the owner...
2) And in another incident, in another place, a waitress had to be told what the wife wanted 4 times (!) and still got it wrong, tried to charge us for a double order when all we wanted was a single and then, when it came time for me to order, started with the same stupidity all over again...
It was the day after Father's Day and we waited until then to avoid the rush, plus the several million tourists normally found here.
The Boy had offered to take his dad out for dinner (thank you!) but Monday is always better because it's also The Darla's only day off.
The Rockin' Baja Lobster has 4 or 5 locations throughout the county; one up north somewhere (I forget), one in Bonita, on the way to the border, one in Downtown (I think) and the one we visited in Oldtown, shortly after the turnover to that out of state company (a long story)...
We thought parking might be a problem and grabbed the first spot we saw, in the old Casa De Bandini (it WAS our favorite Mexican restaurant but the first thing the out of town concessionaire did was close it down and turn it into a French restaurant - the sacrilege!) parking lot and walked through much of Oldtown only to discover that they (RBL) have their own fairly large parking lot and it was almost empty...
So we also got our exercise in for the day.
And most of Oldtown is now way too touristy and the vendors seem to be hawking a lot of cheap souvenir type goods.
We started off with a small galvanized bucket of 3 color chips, with numerous choices at the salsa bar and some fresh hot tortillas.
We tasted close to a dozen of the salsas, everything from the standard Pico de Gallo to one based on mango, another based on hot chili oil in a paste, yet another with a tomatillo base and one more with a lot of pickled onions (I can't remember any of the others).
For our drinks, the wife had lemonade, the Boy had a Sprite and I had my normal iced tea
The boy ordered up the Baja Sampler platter with some very generic spicy wings (feh!), deep fried calamari and lobster taquitos, some pretty creamy guacamole, sour cream and chipotle and ranch sauces for dipping. He liked the calamari and lobster taquitos but only ate one wing.
The wife went for the Tacos Autenticos with 3 carne asada tacos with guacamole, beans and rice with a small Caesar salad on the side
I had to try the Lobster and shrimp bucket with rice, beans and also with the Caesar salad, lime wedges and rendered butter for dipping.
Their ads for this feature item are, to say the least, somewhat deceptive as it looks like a bucket full (in reality, it's 4 tiny little lobster tails and 4 medium shrimp) all sitting on a deep bed of wadded up napkins, almost to the top of the bucket, a lot of padding and very little food for $20...
I also thought the seasoning was a little off and everything was deep fried (had I known that, I wouldn't have ordered it for that reason as well).
I persuaded the Boy and the wife to have one of my lobster tails and a shrimp each and he and I shared one of her carne asada tacos as well.
She also had some of his platter and he had some of our side salads so everyone got a taste of everything.
After having been here a couple of years now, I think it's safe to draw a conclusion and the more I have it, the less I care for Mexican lobsters, especially the way they try to spice them up.
They aren't bad but I want to taste the sweet meat, not some cook's idea of how it should be spiced...
Service was adequate but I had to ask for more ice for my tea.
The after tax total was $52 plus change, what the hey, make it an even $60 with tip (I tossed in half so it really only cost the Boy $30 but he also bought his dear old dad a great set of flat wrenches with internal ratchet mechanisms on sale at Sears, so I made out this year!)..
I should also mention the pigeons and sparrows with the nerve to fly into the place and walk around sucking up a few chips dropped on the floor and occasionally causing a customer to duck when they fly by...
And there's the issue of the running water from the indoor fountain.
It's pleasant at first but gradually becomes annoying and I would not let them seat me anywhere near it again.
The place was decorated in the usual kaleidoscope of colors and is a fairly cheerful and friendly watering hole for the locals from what we've seen when we drive by and it's in full tilt mode but was almost empty inside (it was early) during our visit, approximately 5:00 PM on Monday.
Overall, it's OK, something we would have been lucky to have in Squarefield, but fairly average for here, nothing special...
You can see their web site here: www.rockinbaja.com
A few days later, I saw another ad for the place in the local paper, noticed how blurry and vague the photo of their bucket is, discovered their web site address and went looking for a photo of this farce. Evidently they have the good sense not to show the photo on the site...
I had considered going back there one more time, just to take a photo of this scam but...
"A Year in Food"
Have you heard about the guy who put together a book of photos of everything he had eaten in one year?
I did something very similar when I turned 39 (13 March 1987) until the day I turned 40, exactly one year later.
I wrote down EVERYTHING that I ate or drank in that time, a 3 inch thick diary of loose leaf pages (man, I used to be able to eat!).
It started when I saw a photograph (a week or so before my birthday) of how much food an average family of four can eat in a year.
It was virtually a semi-truck trailer full of stuff; I was amazed and after thinking about it for a while, a plan formed...
I also went "on the wagon" during that period, which meant no beer, no hooch, no vino, no cigars, no nothing for a year either.
I'd done that periodically over the years, generally only a month or so at a time (it's good for you).
I also figured why wait for your mid-life crisis to come to you when you can go get it yourself: bring it on!
Now, I'm an old man and I can't eat, drink or sleep like I used to be able to do.
Just 2 beers and I can feel the hangover coming, I pass out shortly after 9:00 PM, I can't sleep past 6:15 AM to save my life
But the upside is that I can afford some really great beer and high quality hooch now...
And I admit that I had stashed a great bottle of hooch, several world class beers and a cigar old Fidel himself would have loved (it was good!) just for that day, when the year was over and I could revert back to my natural tendencies.
Of course the beer tastes funny after you've been away from it for a while and you can't drink like you used to be able to do.
I kept that rubber band wrapped pile of paper for almost 20 years, lugging it around from place to place (we'd moved at least 3 times since). I finally got tired of looking at it, a sad reminder of how my stomach seems to have a mind of its' own, regardless of what I would choose were I really in control (besides, the rubber bands finally broke), so I tossed it last year when I came upon it while looking for something else...
And I didn't have a digital camera at the time (they hadn't been invented yet) or that would be my book...
A few conceptualities:
Someone needs to invent a pop top can that doesn't snap when you open it.
It wakes the dog up every morning if I do it in the living room (he sleeps on the patio) and risks waking up the Boy or the wife if I do it in the back of the house to keep from waking Wiener-Saurus Rex up.
Although it may seem trivial and of very little significance at the moment, the guy who invents this is going to make a fortune
It could be something as simple as a dimple in the top, formed when the piece is first punched out of sheet stock...
Permission to use the technology involved applied to literally millions and millions of canned drinks made every day in this country, much less in the rest of the world, would be worth millions and millions of dollars over a life time...
Hefty Serve N Store:
Have you seen those new snap together picnic plates (Hefty Serve N Store)?
Two interchangeable plastic picnic plates snap together to form a To Go container (Plates are lids, lids are plates...).
That's an absolutely brilliant idea, wish I'd have thought of it!
And it's somewhat like the modern bicycle: every single component was already in place for several hundred years before someone finally came along and put it all together...
This concept was literally sitting there, staring us all in the face, laughing at us, mocking us, and nobody noticed it (until now).
How many times have you transferred food from a plate into a To Go container or covered it with plastic wrap or foil?
Now multiply that times hundreds of millions of people around the world over the last several generations (and interpolate that figure out into the distant future), these guys will make a huge fortune off of this one...
We very rarely eat leftovers but we do give away a lot of food so we'll pick some up, test drive them and let you know all about it next month...
If you haven't seen them yet, go here: http://heftybrands.pactiv.com/ServeNStore/index.aspx
Where we ate this month (there are probably a few others but this is the gist of it):
LUNCH:
Arby's - twice
Burger King - twice, once with the wife
Buster's Windy City Dogs
Bunboy'z - a new sports bar / weenie / burger stand in Downtown El Cajon - three times so far, once with the Boy
McDonald's - Double cheeseburger ($.99), small fries (no salt) - also $.99, small soda (likewise, $.99) for a whopping total of $3.23 with tax...
Tommy's - twice and possibly for the last time as service was wretched and we walked out again*
Rally's - twice, once with the wife
Wienerschnitzel - four times: I'm so ashamed!...
DINNER:
Chili's - with the Boy
Gaglione Brothers - Mushroom Cheesesteak with extra white American cheese, fries (no salt), small Pepsi
Kip's - my third visit
Olive Garden - with the Boy
Popeyes - twice, once with the Boy
Rockin' Baja Lobster Bar & Grill - all hands on deck for this one
That's a total of at least 24 meals out this month.
As we only eat 2 meals a day here (at the most), that's 40% of our meals in restaurants this month, an extremely high proportion for us.
And that works out to a total of $267.54, as of the 28th (we write everything down so retrieving the numbers was the easy part).
*Notice the remarkable restraint I'm showing by not telling you all about it...
Abysmally Bad Service:
1) We had another incident of a waitress grabbing our glass by the rim only this was even more egregious as after I commented about it and told her I won't be drinking from that glass again, she sloughed it off and more or less outright ignored it so I told the other server all about it (and several other server horror stories) and had her bring me another soda. The next time I'm in there, I plan on telling her boss, the owner...
2) And in another incident, in another place, a waitress had to be told what the wife wanted 4 times (!) and still got it wrong, tried to charge us for a double order when all we wanted was a single and then, when it came time for me to order, started with the same stupidity all over again...
May 2005:
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...
April 2005:
Fuddruckers Ribeye Steak Sandwich
April was a pretty slow month for us when it comes to eating out. Part of it has to do with our trip to visit my mom and brother in Silicon Valley and the other part has to do with saturation as there are only about a dozen other places left that I am currently interested in checking out.
When we were in Silicon Valley, I ate burgers at McDonald's several times as we were much more interested in getting back on the road quickly than anything else (we did over a thousand miles in less than 40 hours) but there were a couple of bright spots.
The first was a small neighborhood Italian eatery just around the corner from my brother's house. He'd never eaten there but knew the owners from when one of them worked for him at another San Jose area restaurant. I didn't eat there but the wife says she really enjoyed it (some penne pasta with marinara sauce, antipasto, hot tea). I was too wound up to eat anything, especially since we'd had a great lunch earlier that day at LA's famous Tail O the Pup (please see the April issue of TFC for a complete report of our lunch at one of wienerdom's most popular icons).
We've also modified our policy about reporting on the regular places we eat.
Shorter is better, unless something goes tragically wrong (or wonderfully right)...
31 March - Chili's in Santee:
Boy and I were on our own for dinner due to the wife's schedule being changed and not having anything defrosted or ready to cook at home.
The Boy had his usual side salad with extra bleu cheese dressing and a Coke and I had my regular beef fajitas and iced tea.
I had a few bites of his salad and he had a couple of my fajitas.
The waiter was the same guy who was too busy gabbing with the customers to actually do any serving when we sat in his section last month but fortunately, he handed us off to another server and went on his break.
She served the salad at the same time as the fajitas but other than that, service was adequate.
It was $20 exactly with a $4 plus change tip
11 April - Gaglione Bros:
I was by myself this time, everything was great - $10.76 total (8 inch mushroom cheesesteak - no salt, extra cheese, fries - no salt, small soda)
12 April - S & M Chinese:
We were celebrating the wife's raise (La Jolla Country Club) and decided to go out for dinner, even if it was a Monday night which is generally the only night in the week we can count on a good, home cooked meal as the wife now works 3 day shifts and 5 night shifts a week.
For the soup course, it was the hot & sour for us and the egg flower for the Boy.
For appetizers, it was the egg rolls for me and the Boy but the wife made the mistake of ordering the salad (she can't have the bleu cheese).
For drinks, it was iced tea for me, hot tea for the wife and a Sprite for the Boy.
For the main courses, it was the prawns and scallops fish basket, spicy prawns and the orange beef.
For dessert, the wife had the mango sorbet, the Boy had the mud pie and I had the green tea ice cream, a great palate cleanser.
From the decor to the menu, this place really takes us back to various Chinese eateries we knew (and frequented) in the late 60's or so.
This last visit, I had a serious flashback moment when they served the Boy's Sprite in a glass identical to the ones they used at an old girlfriend's favorite Chinese place in Peoria, Illinois (ah, my old college days...). I drank many a Vodka Collins from that same exact glass...
Service was prompt and efficient and it came to a total of $62 plus change; what the heck, make it an even $72 with tip.
17 April - Chili's in Santee:
When dinner time rolled around this evening, the Boy and I soon came to realize that there was nothing in the refrigerator or defrosted from the freezer (we've been busy) and so we were on our own again...
Boy's choice, we headed over to Chili's for the same old, same old, (the beef fajitas and a side salad, which we both split) and an iced tea for me and a soda for the Boy)
Service was mediocre at best, no refills, no checking back after the food was served (by someone else) no pre-bussing the table to get rid of the dirty dishes, no help with the spill (she saw it from a distance of less than 2 feet) and immediately turned around and walked the other way, etc.
She isn't a waitress so much as she is an order taker and should go back to work at the counter at McDonalds.
The total was $23 with tip.
It would have been more but after I placed my empty tea glass so close to the edge of the table and deliberately cleared everything else away so that she couldn't possibly have missed it (yet she continued to ignore it), I took back a buck from what I was going to tip her.
It's a good thing we didn't linger any longer as I would have taken back even more as time went on...
18 April - Dim Sum @ Jasmine Bistro:
We were shopping for work suits for the wife at the mall in El Cajon this morning.
She got 2 coats, 3 shirts and 3 slacks for $213 and change and we decided to have lunch while we were there...
"Who is this Sheldon Devane?"
We had the shrimp shu mai, shrimp dumplings, shrimp, shitake mushrooms and rice wrapped in a lotus leaf, an order of spring rolls and a cup of steamed white rice. The wife had her usual hot tea and I had my usual iced tea.
Service was the normal mediocre (with all new faces there again), almost everything was only moderately warm and I had to ask for more ice for my tea.
This is approximately our tenth visit over the last 23 months and more often than not, service is hit or miss, mainly because of their very high turnover rate (it seems like they always have a "help wanted" ad in the paper, a sure sign of a problem restaurant).
The total was $23 including tax and tip.
23 April - Por Favor in El Cajon:
As you may remember, Por Favor was one of the first Mexican places we ate at when we first got here.
And as you may also remember from our subsequent reports, their quality fluctuates wildly and they have an ad in the paper for help much of the time. Last year, they also lost one of their 4 locations (the other one in El Cajon).
The first thing the Boy and I had was a couple of baskets of chips & salsa.
I ordered the La Especial de Ramon (grilled carne asada, beef taco, cheese enchilada, refried beans and a small serving of guacamole) and the Boy had the Carne Asada Quesadillas which came with a side of guacamole as well.
He had his usual Sprite, I had my usual iced tea
Boy had some of my carne asada and cheese enchilada and there was enough leftover for a certain long little doggie's dinner.
The food was good, service was adequate and the total was $25 and change, $31 with tip...
25 April - Tommy's Italian Deli & Restaurant:
We've written about Tommy's numerous times over the last year or so and it almost routinely disappoints and then amazes us every other time we eat there. Most of our problems are service related as the waitresses sometimes just aren't too bright, trained very well and sometimes they just plain don't know what the heck they're doing (and could care less).
In turn, I find myself alternatively being pleased one time and incredibly frustrated the next.
Today, I was fresh out of ideas for lunch, short on time and since we were driving right by the place on the way back from the mall...
I wanted a small sandwich with all of the Italian meats, run it through the garden and throw some vinegar and oil on it.
What I got was a (large) deli combo with ham, salami, mortadella, capicolla, domestic prosciutto (still good stuff) and provolone, some finely shredded lettuce, sliced green bell pepper, sliced tomato, sliced mushrooms, black olives, powdered oregano, vinegar & oil, salt & pepper...
They make their own breads there (wonderful crust) and it's even better when it's fresh out of the oven and still warm.
It was huge, way too much for me and it had to have weighed at least a couple of pounds.
There was also some turkey loaf in there but we gave that to the dog.
And it was the closest they have ever gotten to what I want.
Part of the problem is that they pass the order along verbally, first from the woman at the cash register who took the order, then to Tommy Jr as she appeared to be confused (this is the same girl who put her thumb in the pour spout of the pitcher of iced tea a couple of months ago, which caused us to get up and walk out without ordering) and eventually the order goes back to the guy who actually makes the sandwiches.
Now I know that my best bet is to go directly to Tommy Jr. and next time, I want some pepperoni and pepperoncini as well...
As I was leaving, the guy who made the sandwich told everyone there "I'm having that for lunch!" and told me to "Be careful with that!"
The total was $10.76 and there was more than enough for me, the wife and Dog Boy.
27 April - Tommy's Italian Deli & Restaurant:
Flush from my recent success at actually getting what I wanted (more or less), I decided to press my luck and grab a quick pizza at Tommy's.
When I sat down at the table, I realized that it was going to be the same waitress who grabs the drink glasses by the rim and stuck her thumb in the pour spout of the iced tea pitcher so I grabbed a Vernors (since 1866) out of the drink cooler in the wall.
I ordered my usual, a small side salad with extra blue cheese dressing and a small pepperoni pizza, easy on the sauce and easy on the cheese.
I had to ask for more salad dressing again after waiting quite some time (she's not too good about checking back, especially when I was the only one in the place) and I had her bring me another Vernors (the pizza was good, as it usually is, but she didn't have anything to do with it).
When I asked for the check and a to go box (for a couple of leftover slices for the dog), she asked "Can I bring you some change?" (I'd thrown a $100 bill on the table), more than a bit presumptuous of her, to say the least; then there's the fact that I really would rather have had iced tea instead of spending another $4 or so on bottled soda just so she couldn't stick her thumb in my drink...
The total was $18 and coin so I left her the coin and $2 (somewhat less than 15%)...
Note: According to my calculator, we spent $211.52 this month not including our visit to Tail O the Pup, Tommy's in LA,, what we ate on our trip to Silicon Valley, what didn't get reported here, you know, the routine stuff like going to McDonalds, our favorite local weenie stand, etc.
We can also point out at least a 18 times we ate out during this month (5 more times on our trip to Silicon Valley alone) plus the 8 listed here, a visit to The Dog Out, we tasted the new Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger at Jack in the Box, lunch at Arby's, McD's, BK, possibly more.
I have no idea what we spent at all of these other places (but I do write everything down)...
PS: Sheldon Devane is from the series "Wings" when Lowell (Thomas Haden Church) asked Fay for a shrimp recipe and Lowell being Lowell...
March 2005:
Ribeye Steak Sandwich with Fries @ The Charcoal House in El Cajon
4 March - The Charcoal House - No. 91:
This is one of El Cajon's oldest restaurants.
The red vinyl banquettes, red vinyl booth dividers, red vinyl padded table tops, red sponge painted walls, red carpet and faux red brick all suggest the late 60's or so as the last time it was remodeled. I should also point out the extremely dim lighting (I couldn't read the menu).
Steele Canyon Golf Club held their employee's Christmas party here but I don't do those sort of things so this was my first visit.
We went for lunch after reading a review in a small paper that covers the East County (they mentioned a rib eye steak sandwich on the menu).
As you may know, I've been looking for a local place with a decent steak sandwich for quite some time...
The review also mentioned the French onion soup, a favorite of the wife's...
I ordered the ribeye sandwich, of course (with grilled onions and mayo) and it came with generic plank fries ($7.95, very reasonable).
It was adequate, especially given the price, and I also had the usual iced tea.
The wife had the half pound burger which came with her choice of fries, salad, fruit or a cup (a fair sized bowl, actually ) of soup ($6.50).
Of course, it was the French onion for her and she said it was delicious.
Bonus: there was enough burger and steak bits left over for the dog's lunch as well.
Service was good (the woman had worked at both Steele Canyon Golf Course and La Jolla Country Club) and with tip, it was $21 exactly.
6 March - Great Khan Mongolian BBQ - No. 92:
Bored silly, I was driving around looking for something, anything different to eat when I stopped by the mall to see if the music stores there have a copy of a CD I have been searching for (The Beach Boy's "Surf's Up").
No luck in finding that CD but while I was there, I decided to see if there was anything worth eating in the food court and more importantly, if the lines weren't too long as it was Noon on a nice, sunny Sunday...
I noticed Khan's, a Mongolian BBQ place where you're responsible for putting the meal together so if it's wrong, it's also because of you.
I filled my bowl with frozen, shaved beef, some green onion tops, soy bean sprouts, mushrooms, a few noodles, chose my sauce (some garlic sauce, a mild hot sauce and the house sauce all mixed together), and handed it to the guy at the big round cast iron grill to cook.
At that point, he told me to choose either rice or noodles and thinking it was to be served on the side, I asked for the noodles.
What he did then totally ruined it for me as he added a large bowl of noodles to the beef and veggies I had put together and when it was done, I had a bowl of way too many soggy, oily noodles instead of the healthy veggies and a little meat I had thought I was getting.
No other Mongolian BBQ place has ever done it to me that way before.
And unlike most other restaurants of this type, it wasn't all you can eat so I was fairly disappointed with the whole thing and won't be back.
I also bought a medium Pepsi for a total of $7.53.
Cold Stone Creamery - No. 93:
On my way out of the mall, I decided to have a bit of dessert.
This places advertises a dozen different freshly made flavors and dozens of toppings (cookies, nuts, chocolate, candy & fruit).
Their gimmick is that they hand mix the ice cream with your choice of toppings on a refrigerated marble slab.
I had the banana with walnuts in a large waffle cone and it was very pricey: $4.72 (yes, for one scoop!)...
Casa de Bandini:
We had an out of town guest for the week, Bobby Coma of San Francisco.
Of course, that's not his real name but any of you who have met him know why he's called that...
We've known him for over 30 years now, since the Boy was less than a year old and in fact, met him when he was installing the phone at an old Navy buddy's apartment who we had tracked down shortly after getting back to California in late 1974.
Bob is also the head cheese at one of San Francisco's best known gourmet shops, "Say Cheese".
I picked him up at the downtown bus station shortly after 8:30 PM and we had a couple of hours to kill until I pick the wife up in La Jolla so rather than make the trip all the way to El Cajon and back, we decided to have some good Mexican food at one of our favorite places here.
Bob had the carne asada with rice, beans and tortillas and I had the beef taco / enchilada, rice & beans (my normal).
I had an iced tea, Bob had a Negro Modelo.
We also had a side order of guacamole as well as the usual chips & salsa.
Bob had spent all day on the Greyhound (it's a 12 hour trip) so he was absolutely ravenous by the time we ate, well after 9:00 PM.
Everything was good, service was precise and it also changed Bob's mind about Mexican beer.
The total was $40 with tip.
7 March - The Tin Fish / Miracle Mile 1949 Delicatessen
We spent Monday playing tourist with Bobby Coma and drove down I-5 just short of the border then over to Imperial Beach.
Our destination was the IB pier; more specifically, The Tin Fish at the end of the pier for some great seafood.
To our absolute amazement, when we got there, we discovered that it was closed and the end of the pier was fenced off.
And it was also hazy so the view wasn't very good and you could barely distinguish the Coronado Islands off the mouth of the Tijuana River...
Looking for another option, we headed up the Silver Strand to downtown Coronado and stopped by the Miracle Mile 1949 Delicatessen.
Bob had their kid's dog with mustard and kraut and a side order of potato salad, the wife had the pastrami / corned beef sandwich with fries and I had the Club (no bacon - ham, with very thinly sliced turkey of suspicious origin).
They "dry-bunned" me (not enough mayo or mustard / too much bread), they used green leaf lettuce instead of iceberg and worst of all, my fries were room temperature...
Bob said the dog was too greasy and harsh tasting
To be fair, the wife enjoyed her sandwich and we bought some of all 4 meats (ham, turkey loaf?, pastrami and corned beef) home for Meatwad.
I had a Coke, Bob had a Coke and the wife had her usual glass of water (she doesn't generally drink with her meals).
The total was just over $22 or so but they lost a point or two in my book...
9 March - Vaqueros Carne Asada:
We ordered the normal carne asada burrito (it was cold, again!), the shrimp quesadilla (way too much salsa) and Bob ordered the nachos (well, not really as he asked for some guacamole and chips but)...
This is the last time I'm going to eat there until I talk to Victor, one of the owners, about the cold burrito (how does that happen when the very first step is to cook the carne asada?) and the excessive oil on the tortillas when you order a taco.
Note: The receipt didn't say "Vaquero's" on it and a few days later, the sign was down so changes are evidently afoot there...
10 March - The Brew House in La Jolla:
We stopped by this place to kill a half hour while we (Bob and I) were waiting to pick the wife up after work in La Jolla.
I had seen this place several times before and had made a note to stop by and check it out so...
Bob had the IPA and I had their dark ale (both were very good) and Bob also had a couple of shots of hard liquor.
As I was the driver, all I could have was a small beer and a very small taste of several others.
The beer was all good, their prices were very reasonable and we will be back for another visit when circumstances permit.
11 March - Claim Jumpers:
For appetizers, we started off with their marvelous shrimp taquitoes and a giant plate of onion rings and dipping sauces for both dishes.
And we all shared my side salad of a wedge of lettuce with bleu cheese dressing with chopped tomatoes, green onions and crumbled bacon.
Boy and I shared a ribeye steak with baked potato.
Bob had the surf (lobster tail) and turf with prime rib instead of the filet mignon and a baked potato
For drinks, Bob ordered iced tea, a shot of Jameson's Irish Whiskey, a half bottle of King's Estate Pinot Noir (not bad!), cognac and a coffee.
He didn't touch the tea.
I had the usual iced tea and the Boy had a Coke.
Service wasn't that good as our waitress was fairly haughty (I think she thinks she's a model...) and didn't bother to "check back" after the food was delivered. She was also oblivious to direct eye contact, swiveling heads and never once even glanced at our table...
The total was $150 (Bob's treat, which was a good thing as he did most of the damage himself) and I threw a $20 tip on the table. It would have only been $15 as the service was minimal at best but I didn't have anything smaller than the twenty.
Bob then tossed another $20 on the pile but I persuaded him not to give her that much and take back $10.
We were there 2 and a half hours, absolutely the longest I've ever sat still and the only redeeming factor is that we tied up her table so long...
12 March - Tommy's Italian Restaurant:
I had my usual: a small pepperoni pizza, easy on the cheese and sauce and a side salad with black olives, croutons, pepperoncini, etc.
Both Bob and the Boy had fettuccine alfredo and a side salad.
For drinks, it was a Sierra Mist for the Boy, a Becks for Bob and I had an iced tea, hold the thumb...
Everything was excellent as usual.
Service was pretty good (we told our server about the other one putting her thumb in the pour spout of the pitcher and on the rim of the glass).
The total was $46 plus a $10 tip Bob threw on the table.
13 March - Gaglione Brothers:
This was Bob's last meal with us here and as an old East Coaster, he knew all about cheesesteaks and would appreciate Gaglione Brothers..
Bob had the 8 inch mushroom cheesesteak, garlic fries & soda while the Boy and I split a 12 incher, regular fries and a couple of small sodas.
Everything was great as usual, the garlic fries were amazing with the fresh garlic and Bob was impressed
The total was just over $24 so the Boy popped for it as it was my birthday and I tossed $3 into the tip jar.
As an added bonus, the dog got a nice dinner from the leftovers (meat and cheese are his top two picks).
15 March - The Fishery - No. 94:
This one started with a coupon for $1 oysters on Tuesdays in March (shuckers, apparently, are standing by...).
This is a full scale operation (warehouse, wholesale / retail outlets & restaurant) and it's located in Pacific Beach, a few blocks off of Garnett, a major tourist destination (Party Central) and conveniently, it's also on the way home from La Jolla Country Club (sort of...).
It's a nice building with a very nice little dining room in a nice neighborhood with some very nice sidewalk seating as well.
As the wife got off late, we ran smack into the 6:00 PM dinner rush but fortunately, didn't have to wait more than a few minutes for a table.
The wife and Boy had 8 of the oysters (4 different kinds) on the half shell, with freshly ground horseradish and cocktail sauce.
The Boy also ordered the clam chowder and the wife had a bite (it has a cream base and she's lactose intolerant so...).
And they both wolfed down the ceviche with a base of chips and salsa (I had a taste).
We all shared the fish (halibut), shrimp and calamari with fries and slaw platter
The tartar and cocktail sauces were excellent, the fries were generic (but hot) and the slaw was very good, with a light vinegar and oil base.
The halibut was extremely fresh and had a great texture
I had the usual iced tea (unfortunately all they had was passion fruit flavored), the Boy had a Coke and the wife had water.
Everything was great (we all agree) and we will be back (this is now our favorite fish place here).
And evidently it is also a favorite for four separate La Jolla Country Club members and their wives as they were sitting at the next table...
Service was generally competent with one small exception: I had to ask for more iced tea.
The total with 15% tip was exactly $40
See their web site here: www.pacshell.com
Note: This is the 12th time we've eaten out in the last 15 days, a new record for us...
17 March - Souplantation:
There's not really much to report about our visit this time (other than to report that we did it).
Everything was the same as every other visit; the Boy ate well and I had my usual salad, a piece of their dark bread fresh out of the oven, a very small slice of the cheese pizza a small bowl of soft serve ice cream with chocolate sauce and chopped nuts and, of course, iced tea.
19 March - Chili's in Santee:
Boy and I went to lunch early one Saturday and discovered that they had cancelled their build your own burger campaign (that didn't take very long). I had the Mushroom Swiss Burger and it was the Bacon Cheese Burger for the Boy
And I went for my usual iced tea and the Boy had his regular Coke.
The fries were ice cold when they got to the table and our server Tiara appears to have the metabolism of a tree sloth so we didn't bother to ask for hot fries as they would also be cold by the time they got to our table anyway...
It was also fairly expensive at $19.24 (including tax) for 2 burgers, fries and drinks...
Coming soon to the Santee Trolley Center Mall: www.roadhousegrill.com
21 March - The Tamale Factory:
We (the wife and I) were on the way home from a trip to the Home Depot (in Santee) for a refill spool for her weedeater and since it was also her only day off, I decided we should stop by one of her favorite places for lunch.
This place is just across the street from the aerospace company where the boy works (he's a "regular" there and when we asked if the girl behind the counter knew him, she said "No lettuce, nice guy...") and it's also one of the first places we tried out when we first got here.
I had 2 beef tacos (ala cart), easy on the lettuce and medium (refillable) fountain Coke and the wife had a pork tamale with a side of rice.
The tacos were fairly standard, nothing to write home about (but certainly adequate) but the tamale looked wonderful with the melted cheese (the wife forgot that they put cheese on them there), the Mole sauce was delicious and the rice was fluffy and perfect.
It came out to $10.54 including tax and I tossed a buck into the tip jar on our way out.
22 March - The Fishery II:
For our second visit, we got there just before 5:00 PM so the lunch menu was still in effect. It was just me and the wife this time as the Boy had to work until 5:30 and the wife was off early today.
For appetizers, the wife had a couple of the March Tuesday Special $1 Oysters with cocktail sauce and freshly grated horseradish, while I had the bread & butter (it had a good crust). At another table, we saw a guy down a platter of a dozen oysters and then order another half dozen while the table behind us told him that they had just put away 40 of them themselves. And one of the La Jolla Country Club members (who was there when we made our first visit last week) says that the oysters used to be 50 cents each until they raised the price this year.
The wife had the butter encrusted halibut (her favorite fish) with aioli sauce and side orders of salad with a fair dressing of some pretty good balsamic vinegar, the cole slaw, also with a great, light vinegar and oil dressing, wedge cut potatoes and a glass of water.
I had them make me up a plate of shrimp scampi (it's not on the lunch menu but I wanted to try the colossal prawns) with aromatic rice of some sort and a Coke as their iced tea has the fruit flavoring (which I detest)...
My dinner also came with steamed (al dente) white asparagus, which I traded to the wife for her potatoes, a taste of the salad and the slaw. I also gave her a prawn and some of the rice.
The prawns were great and the sauce was excellent (mainly garlic and butter with a touch of lemon).
Service was fair and the total was $41 including the tip.
25 March - Olive Garden in Santee:
I asked for them to make me an order of Fettuccine Alfredo with Prawns (the "prawns" were tiny, more like 41 - 50's). It wasn't on the menu this time but it's something they do by request any time.
And the Boy had the (all you can eat) Salad and Breadsticks (the salad almost always needs extra dressing there). He also ordered a side of Marinara sauce for dipping ($2.75).
I had the iced tea, he had the Coke.
Service was adequate and the total was $33 with tip.
27 March - Fuddruckers in La Mesa:
It was Easter Sunday and the Boy and I were on our own as the wife has a big Easter function at both clubs today.
I had the ribeye steak sandwich with grilled onions and mayo.
The Boy had their special, a stuffed burger with bacon and cheddar cheese.
I also ordered the Frings (a basket of room temperature, generic onion rings and lukewarm wedge cut fries).
And we had a couple of sodas from the machine.
The steak cut seems to get cheaper and cheaper but at least there was enough to bring home for the dog's dinner this evening.
Our total was $20.54 or so...
Note: The official total is now 18 meals eaten out this month, probably an all-time record for us as we eat so well at home...
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