Last Saturday, I had dinner with several friends at Pho Ca Dao in Mira Mesa. Nothing beats a filling bowl of pho and only $4.35 too! The cheapness of dinner was offset later by the exorbitant prices we were to experience at Just Fabulous which is on Adams Avenue right next to the Kensington sign. Luckily, I was comped by my friends, but for 4 of us, they coughed up $23 each (tip included). We all got a dessert and coffee, except for me because I had a French Viognier which our waiter recommended since it was not as overly sweet as this other dessert wine I was eyeing.
The desserts differ in presentation from Karen Krasne's Extraordinary Desserts ( on 5th in Hillcrest) because the frou-frou stuff is not ribbons and flowers decorating the cakes. Instead, of just cake slices, you can order mini cakes with what they call 'accoutrements'. The whole plate is decorated with squiggles of fruit coulis, chocolate, gold leaf accents, rolled white or dark chocolate wafers stuck into the sorbet that accompanies the dessert along with fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries), as well as edible glitter. I had a ganache covered chocolate bombe which had thin slivers of chocolate encircling it, much like chocolate tombstones. Encased in the bombe was chocolate mousse with a luscious center filled with passionfruit and lemon creme. It was accompanied by mango sorbet in a whisper thin tuile (wafer) shaped into a bowl...One of my dinner companions had a four sided pyramid which was covered in ganache. The base of the pyramid was encrusted with hazelnuts which also formed the crust.
Yesterday, we went to Asia Cafe, which is a Laotian eatery in the hood. Located on the corner of Market Street and 47th, it is in a really rundown stripmall which includes a Thai/Lao video store, a barber shop, a Lao/Thai mom and pop market, and a few other tiny store fronts with bars in the front. I got the recommendation from the MMM-Yoso!!! food blog (it's one of my links) and it worth a look see. We had nem-khao which is Laotian fried rice (it's not on the menu- it's so good - the rice is totally crispy and nutty tasting---lots of green onions and cilantro too), sticky rice (served steaming hot in a woven cylindrical basket with a lid), a spicy beef entree (Bert's choice - his new screen name), the Yum Asia which was a seafood salad, and the Seen-nam-toke, a marinated beef salad. When it came time to pay the bill, I was blindsided because the total came out higher than my mental calculations. Turns out their menus were 10 years old and the prices were not updated, so the owner told us each item should be .50 higher. Damn, how much does it cost to print new menus dude!!! In any case, we enjoyed our food and our leftovers. The child enjoyed eating her sticky rice with her hands. The restaurant also serves Chinese and Thai food. They also have their versions of pho and com (broken rice) dishes. I'm glad we checked it out. I'd go back again to try some of their other dishes.
Watched Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown today with the child. I can't stand Ray Romano's voice. It was okay for me, but she loved it and thought it was hilarious.
The desserts differ in presentation from Karen Krasne's Extraordinary Desserts ( on 5th in Hillcrest) because the frou-frou stuff is not ribbons and flowers decorating the cakes. Instead, of just cake slices, you can order mini cakes with what they call 'accoutrements'. The whole plate is decorated with squiggles of fruit coulis, chocolate, gold leaf accents, rolled white or dark chocolate wafers stuck into the sorbet that accompanies the dessert along with fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries), as well as edible glitter. I had a ganache covered chocolate bombe which had thin slivers of chocolate encircling it, much like chocolate tombstones. Encased in the bombe was chocolate mousse with a luscious center filled with passionfruit and lemon creme. It was accompanied by mango sorbet in a whisper thin tuile (wafer) shaped into a bowl...One of my dinner companions had a four sided pyramid which was covered in ganache. The base of the pyramid was encrusted with hazelnuts which also formed the crust.
Yesterday, we went to Asia Cafe, which is a Laotian eatery in the hood. Located on the corner of Market Street and 47th, it is in a really rundown stripmall which includes a Thai/Lao video store, a barber shop, a Lao/Thai mom and pop market, and a few other tiny store fronts with bars in the front. I got the recommendation from the MMM-Yoso!!! food blog (it's one of my links) and it worth a look see. We had nem-khao which is Laotian fried rice (it's not on the menu- it's so good - the rice is totally crispy and nutty tasting---lots of green onions and cilantro too), sticky rice (served steaming hot in a woven cylindrical basket with a lid), a spicy beef entree (Bert's choice - his new screen name), the Yum Asia which was a seafood salad, and the Seen-nam-toke, a marinated beef salad. When it came time to pay the bill, I was blindsided because the total came out higher than my mental calculations. Turns out their menus were 10 years old and the prices were not updated, so the owner told us each item should be .50 higher. Damn, how much does it cost to print new menus dude!!! In any case, we enjoyed our food and our leftovers. The child enjoyed eating her sticky rice with her hands. The restaurant also serves Chinese and Thai food. They also have their versions of pho and com (broken rice) dishes. I'm glad we checked it out. I'd go back again to try some of their other dishes.
Watched Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown today with the child. I can't stand Ray Romano's voice. It was okay for me, but she loved it and thought it was hilarious.
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