San Diego Cheep Eatz mini-reviews

[kalypso]

The guanabana version was thick and sweet as expected.

Was the guanabana fresh?

[Kouign Aman]

Probably not. Cant see into the kitchen to tell. I'll ask next time I go, if I remember.

I want to see the giant bin of black-ripe plantains they must have back there. Nearly every dinner comes with maduros in abundance.

[Kouign Aman]

Good for a snack ; the Korean Grocery on Convoy, next to the back wall of Jasmine.

Got this 'cream' bun there - no cream in the ingredients, but beans are there.

It was much appreciated by the small hungry person who consumed most of it, but couldnt finish it all.

[Kouign Aman]

An acceptable lunch, not great. Quick, inexpensive: Tan Ky Mi Gia on Black Mountain Rd at Mira Mesa Blvd.

Lunch for two, with coffee and soda and tip was under $20.

Barbecue pork bahn mi - my friend enjoyed this very much. The peppers inside were breathtaking, literally.

Chicken curry soup w vermicelli (also blocks of congealed blood) - Bun Ca Ri Ga. Tasty, tender chicken. Mild curry, slightly sweet.

Menu, prices. This place has a much smaller menu that most of our local Vietnamese places, which run to small print and a dozen pages. This was only 4 pages.

[FrogPrincesse]

This thread used to be lively and fun... Time to revive it!

 

From this weekend, at Sab-E-Lee's new larger and much more comfortable location on Linda Vista road, a minute away from the previous one (which still exists with a more limited menu), a delicious duck larb. The only complaint was the cabbage on the side. I don't know if that is typical or not, but I prefer some nice lettuce...

 

 

 

Next time I want to try their version of beef & tendon soup!

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2016 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Smithy]

That larb looks luscious. I like the comment on the heat scale at the bottom of the menu. 

 

Thanks for reviving this topic!

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Yeah, if level 3 is recommended on a scale of ten, chili heads should be in nirvana at this restaurant. I noted that too. I enjoy some well balanced heat, but not blow your face off level, but it sounds like for those who do, it is available here.

[FrogPrincesse]

I ordered a 1 and there was barely any heat.

On the other hand, my husband's Panang curry, which was also a 1, had little pockets of serious heat!

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Wa Dining Okan for lunch. This is a tiny Japanese place (20 seats, half of them around a central "bar"), cash only (like Sab-E-Lee actually), on Convoy, next to a very nice smaller Japanese market, Nijiya. The style seems to be Japanese home/comfort food, at least for lunch. It's unpretentious and everything is very well prepared, with a lot of attention to detail. The selection of pickled vegetables seems to vary with each visit for example.

 

Here is the lunch with braised pork belly (ultra tender) and added mini bowl of tempura for my daughter. I think this was about $15.

I would prefer a softer boiled egg, but other than that, this is a fabulous lunch. I like that everything is served in wood or ceramic dishes (no cheap plastic here). And the miso soup, which is usually a very unmemorable item, is actually a highlight for me here.

 

 

Edited May 18, 2016 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Santouka Ramen is a Japanese chain and its San Diego branch is located inside the Mitsuwa supermarket on Kearny Mesa Road. The décor and ambiance are non existent, but the ramen is so delicious that you forget your surroundings in an instant, too busy slurping the rich broth and devouring the ultra-tender meat. I have tried other ramen places in San Diego, but this is still the reference for me.

 

I usually get the Tokusen toroniku ramen which is their specialty and has the most generous amount of pork of all options.

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Reporting on a couple of Korean restaurants I tried recently.

 

I went to Yuk Dae Jang in Kearny Mesa to try their signature dish, yukgaejang, which is a spicy beef soup made with shredded brisket and served on glass (cellophane) noodles. I got their "premium" brisket and tripe version. I am not a huge fan of tripe generally but am an adventurous eater and that sounded interesting. The tripe was actually one of the best things about the dish - it was extremely tender and delicate, and its flavor was very mild. The broth itself was quite spicy, right at my tolerance level. I read that the soup is traditionally made with bracken fern but I did not distinguish any in my bowl.

 

The menu which is fairly limited

 

 

We enjoyed their banchan (side dishes), especially the napa cabbage kimchi which was very fresh-tasting, flavorful, and not very spicy despite its fiery color.

 

 

Yukgaejang

 

My husband had the much tamer sullungtang which is an ox bone broth-based soup. We had rice & purple rice on the side.

 

[FrogPrincesse]

I was searching Yelp to look for a specific Korean dish (the search feature in Yelp works great for that purpose). The dish was jokbal, or braised pig's trotter. Only a handful of restaurant serve this dish and one of them is the recently opened Dalbam Moon Night on Convoy. This is a smaller restaurant, with only about 30 seats, which is open late, a rarity in San Diego.

 

Menu

 

 

 

Banchan

 

 

Here is the jokbal. It was my first time having it and I really liked it (good thing as there were plenty of leftovers!). The meat was very tender.

 

 

My daughter got the bulgogi - copious and delicious!

 

 

My husband got the crispy pork belly which tasted nice but was too rich for me.

 

 

 

Speaking of overly rich, the kitchen sent us this corn cheese freebie and I couldn't eat more than a spoonful.

 

[FrogPrincesse]

For dessert, we went to one of my daughter's favorite places, somi somi on Convoy. They serve the Korean dessert ah-boong, which is a freshly baked fish-shaped waffle filled with ice cream and various fillings.

 

 

Cookies & cream ice cream with nutella filling in the front, matcha & black sesame swirl in the back.

 

 

[liuzhou]

8 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

I went to Yuk Dae Jang in Kearny Mesa to try their signature dish

 

Unfortunately the link goes to a page reading "Private Site - This site is currently private. If you’re the owner or contributor, log in."

 

I never liked tripe (despite my mother's many attempts to convert me) until I ate it in China. I've since eaten it in Japan and Vietnam; maybe Thailand. I don't know how or why, but East Asia seems to do something else entirely with it.

 

[FrogPrincesse]

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Unfortunately the link goes to a page reading "Private Site - This site is currently private. If you’re the owner or contributor, log in."

 

I never liked tripe (despite my mother's many attempts to convert me) until I ate it in China. I've since eaten it in Japan and Vietnam; maybe Thailand. I don't know how or why, but East Asia seems to do something else entirely with it.

 

Thanks for letting me know. The link worked earlier, so I assume the site must be undergoing maintenance at the moment. It didn't provide details on how the tripe was prepared if that is what you were curious about. That particular tripe resembled a small tube. My guess is that it was from the small intestine and cooked for a very long time given how tender it was. I have five Korean cookbooks I borrowed from the library and none of them discusses tripe (they were published for the American market, so no wonder!  ).

[liuzhou]

33 minutes ago, FrogPrincesse said:

Thanks for letting me know.

 

You're welcome.

 

Sounds very strange indeed. If it was intestines then it wasn't tripe. Not that I mind intestines, either.

 

Anyway, thanks for the posts. Interesting reads, even though it's highly unlikely I'll ever get to San Diego.

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

1 minute ago, liuzhou said:

 

You're welcome.

 

Sounds very strange indeed. If it was intestines then it wasn't tripe. Not that I mind intestines, either.

 

Anyway, thanks for the posts. Interesting reads, even though it's highly unlikely I'll ever get to San Diego.

 

 

They call it tripe on the menu but based on shape, it looked like the intestines (similar to the Mexican "tripas"). Tubular as we would say in Southern California. 😉 It's close enough for me - it is all part of the digestive system.

 

This discussion taking place at what is breakfast time for me reminds me of a passage in Amelie Nothomb's Hygyene de l'Assassin. "Des tripes à la graisse d'oie au petit déjeuner ? C'est excellent." But I digress..

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, FrogPrincesse said:

Des tripes à la graisse d'oie au petit déjeuner ? C'est excellent.

 

My mother would have agreed on that!

[KennethT]

20 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

For dessert, we went to one of my daughter's favorite places, somi somi on Convoy. They serve the Korean dessert ah-boong, which is a freshly baked fish-shaped waffle filled with ice cream and various fillings.

 

 

Cookies & cream ice cream with nutella filling in the front, matcha & black sesame swirl in the back.

 

 

This has become a big deal in NYC too.  This weekend, we walked past a place with this and they had a line around the block.

[FrogPrincesse]

24 minutes ago, KennethT said:

This has become a big deal in NYC too.  This weekend, we walked past a place with this and they had a line around the block.

It’s all about TikTok trends these days! There was a giant line there too as we left (we apparently got there during a rare lull and were able to order right away).

At least their ice creams are pretty good.

[FrogPrincesse]

Here is a nice article about the vibrant Asian food scene in San Diego, and its origins. We are so lucky to have all these great shops and restaurants here! 
 

https://sandiegomagazine.com/food-drink/how-convoy-became-the-heart-of-san-diegos-asian-food-scene/#:~:text=In 2020%2C the city of,known for quite some time.

[FrogPrincesse]

I continued my Korean explorations last week, this time with Chon Ju Jip, a more traditional restaurant. A little bit about the owner from a 2020 article in the San Diego Reader. This was written 4 years ago so she must be ready to retire by now.

 

Quote

A Korean immigrant, Yong is 63 years old, has neither children nor a husband, and runs the restaurant with a staff of seven, including a niece who works part-time while attending Grossmont College. Yong is the sole owner and also the lead cook.

“I’m just normal people,” she said.

Yong came to this country from her native Korea in 1983. She emigrated to San Antonio with her then-husband. After the marriage broke up, Yong moved to San Diego in 2002. “I just look at the map and say, ‘Oh yeah, I gotta go here.’” She worked for five years as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant in Mira Mesa before pooling her savings and buying a little diner whose owner was looking to sell. “I just wanted to do something,” she said. Looking around at all the Korean barbecue places, she decided to try something different.

“I make traditional, home-style Korean food. I cook in a different way, just like Korean people like it,” she said. Most of her customers are Korean immigrants, she said, and many of them are regulars who come by at least once a week. “My restaurant is like a family.”

The restaurant is named after Yong’s hometown, Cheongju, the capital of, and largest city in, South Korea’s North Chungcheong province.

Yong lives off Clairemont Drive, a few miles west of Convoy Street, and said she plans to work for about five more years. “Then I retire,” she said.

There are dozens of small, quiet restaurants like Yong’s along Convoy Street, favored by local immigrants from all parts of Asia. They are tucked away in strip malls, and their names don’t even make it onto the towering center signs that face the road. Asked if she has any favorites, Yong shook her head no. “I eat this food so much,” she said. “When I go out, I want pizza or Subway.”

 

Here is the menu which is quite extensive. They gave us some barley tea which was very nice and refreshing in the warm weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to order the bossam because I was planning on making it myself and I wanted to taste it beforehand (the traditional version, not the Momofuku version which I have made before and is delicious, but not at all traditional). We thought we may need more food so I ordered a cold noodle dish, the bibim guksu.

 

Banchan was very varied. I enjoyed the tofu and the mushrooms.

 

 

The bossam was an enormous platter. I didn't realize it at first, but under the lettuce leaves were raw oysters (you are supposed to wrap them with a piece of pork belly in a cabbage leaf, add the daikon kimchi, a slice of garlic, and a sprinkle of salted shrimp, jalapeno for extra heat).

 

 

The pork belly was a little bland but very tender. We barely touched the other dish!

 

 

[rotuts]

@FrogPrincesse

 

thank you for sharing , esp the menu's

 

are individual numbered dishes meat for one person ?

 

say , entree , big pot , fish , special combo ?

 

does the barchan come automatically ?

 

;looks delicious.

[FrogPrincesse]

@rotuts Banchan comes automatically, and is complementary (and so was the barley water). It's part of Korean hospitality. It's a different assortment at each restaurant, always including some pickled items / kimchi; other items are tofu, greens, bean sprouts, etc. 

 

About the dishes and how many people they feed, it depends on the item and on your appetite. I would say that the cheaper items (~$20 price range) are meant for 1 person (and they were generous portions). The more expensive items such as the bossam are definitely meant to be shared.