Belated Birthday Dessert - Eclipse Chocolat

[Marathon posting session - Scroll down for the newest 3 posts]

After our awesome lunch at Que Huong, we went over my dessert choices. Extraordinary Desserts downtown? Chocolat Cremerie in Hillcrest, Heaven Sent Desserts in North Park or Eclipse Chocolat on El Cajon? We've been to ED and HS, and didn't want to deal with the shitty parking downtown or  even worse parking in Hillcrest for that matter. We'd all been to HD before but not everyone had been to Eclipse, where parking wasn't that much of a hassle and we knew it wouldn't be crowded. So, Eclipse it was.

D and KD looking at the dessert case. The shelf on the left had different kinds of in-house made chocolate bars infused with herbs, fruits, nuts and/or spices. One of my favorites is the Dark Chocolate with Moroccan spices.

That's TORC looking at the other display case...hmmmm, what to order?

We had our eyes on these...these are like huge chunks of chocolate with nuts and other stuff in it...

Some of their cupcake offerings. If you click on the photo to make it larger, you can make out what the placards say...

They ended up treating me to my choice which was the Sea-Salted Caramel cupcake covered with dark chocolate ganache and topped with lavender flecked sea salt. I've had it before and I was craving it again.

And more cupcakes...

Loved the seating here, but we ended up sitting at the table to the right (not pictured) with a great window view.

Now we also came here with the idea that they'd still be serving their Seasonal Dessert Platter, which in the past, was four different types of desserts for only $12. Unfortunately, they no longer offered it because it wasn't that popular. So, we ended up choosing 4-5 different things so we could share them among ourselves.

Here's D's choice,  the Sea Salt Nib Rococo - which had Marcona almonds (which the owner buys from Costco, I know - I've seen the cans), marshmallows and cocoa nibs within. The cool guy working the counter sliced it up for us. I really liked this, even more than my own dessert choice.,

Someone ordered the Bread Pudding - which was croissants with chocolate inside and a scoop of ice cream on top. I don't know about you but I don't like mixing hot and cold with my desserts. I especially dislike drippy melted ice cream on anything except an ice cream cone. That's not to say this was not a good dessert; on the contrary, it was. I just didn't like the hot and cold combo. I'm not an 'a la mode' kind of chick.

This was TORC's choice - the Muscovado  Caramel cupcakes which is topped with Muscovado sugar over dark chocolate ganache, hiding a nice caramel filling.

Here's all four desserts together, and a fork in action.

I ordered the iced passion fruit green tea...the other drinks were Earl Grey tea and some sort of coffee drink on the right. Yeah, really descriptive there. KD's coffee came with a really cute and tiny thimble sized cup for her cream!

Here's a cross section of my Sea Salt Caramel, you can see the lavender on top...

This was the Muscovado Caramel cupcake...

Wait! There's more! D ordered another item (forgot the name of it), but basically it was like a sweet cinammon roll but smaller than those mongo Cinnabon types. The icing was kind of cold. It probably would have tasted better warm.

Before we left, I bought a Peanut Butter and Banana cupcake for Bert and TC to share. The filling was peanut butter (Bert's fave flavor). The bananas on top were those sweetened dried kind you can probably get at Trader Joe's or the Henry's bulk bin.

Here's our desserts after we laid waste to them...

Take a gander at D's beautiful bracelet which was a gift from her mom in the Philippines. I love how each semiprecious stone is a different color and there are different shapes (rectangle, square, oval, heart). Very lovely!

Here's us cool chicks...

I'll have to do a separate post about one of my gifts since it was so RAD...It was a book called "Musical Listography" from TORC and it's like the best book ever! Every page is blank with a topic that you fill in like "Songs to Play at your Funeral" or "Songs that You Hate" or "Songs to Break Up to", etc...Those song lists would be great topics for future posts!

The next birthday in our group isn't until August, but we are still planning on doing our regular lunches or dinners during our summer vacation!

Belated Birthday Lunch @ Que Huong

Well what do you know? It's another visit to Que Huong yet again! This time for a belated bday lunch with my educator GF's, TORC (The Other Rock Chick), Divalicous and KD (the Knitting Diva). I think I kind of scared them when I told them we were going to eat crocodile...which we actually didn't. I'll save that for another dining experience with Bert and more adventurous friends.

I was hoping that Jay would be there since he remembered me from last time. Unfortunately, he was out that day at a wedding, according to the Japanese anime-haired waiter who seated us. Okay, the restaurant was fking empty and I know that since we had a party of four, he sat us at a regular square table with no lazy Susan. I politely asked if we could have a larger circular table with the lazy Susan since we'd be ordering a lot of food and it would be easier, blah blah blah. He said that he couldn't seat us at a round table because they were "reserved" (cue sound of crickets). I thought, okay, well maybe a huge ass lunch party was going to come in and take over the restaurant, so all right. BUT, that did not happen, so we could HAVE sat there. I made a mental note of this for a future visit.

I know that if Jay were there, he wouldn't have played us like that. So we reluctantly sat at the square table. The whole time we were there, Dragon Ball Z-haired guy sat a party of 5 at a circular table and one dude sat at a big table as well. Doesn't look like a big party to me. So, I guess I will have to talk to Jay about that next time.

Two of us ordered cafe sua da's (Vietnamese ice coffee with condensed milk). This was already served iced rather than dripping from a filter.

This is what I had my eye on last time, the Pork and Shrimp Jack Fruit Salad, so that is what were ordered, or rather, what I ordered because I was the Queen Bitch for the Day. I looked up a few recipes online for this and it's pretty easy to make.

And here it is. This was even better than the Banana Blossom Salad from the last time I was here. The green jackfruit had a nice meaty texture and you had your sour, sweet, salty, spicy, and herbal flavors in there.

Everone liked the sesame rice chips as well. KD said she would have been happy having this as the meal. Ugh, you can see my ultra dry skin on my thumb! Yuck!

This was another item I wanted to try last time...

The Wild Boar with Lemongrass & ed Pepper was also served with the sesame rice chips. The boar didn't really taste "wierd" at all. It kind of tasted like pork. You could really taste the lemongrass in there. The sauce was fantastic. It was great with rice the next day too. Although the menu said it was "topped with dill", that herb didn't really look or taste like dill to me. I didn't want to ask anime-haired guy though.

More of the boar and my horrid dry skin. Well, not dry enough to peel like "Goldmember" in the third Austin Powers installment but dry enough for me to notice. None of us had lotion in our purses! Sacrilege!

For my friends' sake, I ordered the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepe).  Again, it was kind of too mushy and eggy-like for me. They loved it though. I think I prefer the smaller version with a more crisp exterior.

Here are the herbs and sauce for the crepe.

Like my first visit, I loved the Caramel Prawns in Ginger and Black Pepper Sauce. The prawns were a little bit smaller (there were 5 instead of 4), but it was just as good as I remembered. Even though we ate all the prawns, I took home the sauce!!!

I really loved the sauce here and oh yeah, nasty jokes were implied with sucking the juice on the shrimp heads.

And here are the ever popular wings. This is where our spiky and fey haired friend scored a few points. He did a large order of wings for us but did half with fish sauce and the other half with tamarind. Thank you "Mr. I-Won't-Seat-You-In-the-Larger-Table-But-I-Will-Seat-other-Asian-people-with smaller-parties-instead-of-you! "I liked the fish sauce wings' flavor better than the tamarind, which I found too cloyingly sweet.

After opening my gifts, reading my cards, etc, we gathered up our stuff to go to the next place for today's lineup.  Next up, dessert!

Progressive Lunch - Asia Cafe, Que Huong + Fruity Yogurt

[This lunch occurred last month...but I'm finally posting it now for your food porn pleasure!]

Last month, Bert and I did a progressive lunch with the very cool owner and creator of PNOY Apparel, his lovely fiancee and one of his associates. Check out his new collection, "The Truth Hurts" at his site. I have several of his shirts and they're always either conversation starters, headturners and attention getters. His site is  also one of my links for "Things I like and so should you!"  After talking about food one day, we decided to meet up for lunch during my Spring Break. Turns out none of them had ever had Lao food before, so of course we had to go here...

I love how they taped post it notes "add .50" or "add .75" to their menu instead of printing new ones. The first time we went to Asia Cafe in 2006, this would have been helpful because we didn't realize the menu prices were out of date. When we got the bill, it was higher than we'd calculated. Anyways, I thought this was funny

Since this was going to be a progressive lunch, we didn't plan to have a full on meal here. Just two items. The first was the Nem Khao, crunchy fried rice with fermented sour pork sausage, chopped peanuts, whole dried chili peppers, green onions and cilantro.

The Nem Khao is not on the menu. You have to ask for it by name. The rice is served with a plate of fresh lettuce and sprigs of cilantro. Needless to say, the Nem Khao was an immediate hit. There were no leftovers, put it that way.

The other item was the Lao Beef Jerky which we likened to Filipino tapa, but cut in thick strips. This was still smaller than the Cambodian beef jerky Bert and I had at Sophy's in Long Beach (see that post here). This beef jerky wasn't as "dry" and you could taste the delicious marinade throughout the meat.

As a snack on the way out, Bert bought a ziplock bag of fried pork ears!

Mmm! Tasty! Crack your fillings kind-a crunchy!

And we were off to our next destination. Exiting Market St. back onto the 805, we took the 15 to University and headed over to the neighborhood of City Heights.

Our next stop was Que Huong...

What luck! Jay, the cool guy who was there last time, was here today! He showed us some more "money origami" that his friend made. Last time it was a dragon. This time it was Buddha:

The same friend also made twin money dragons holding a ball. Pretty cool, eh!

Now, after we placed our orders, Jay came out with this complimentary Banh Xeo. He remembered me and Bert from our previous visit and apologized for not having made the rice crepe to high usual standards. Actually we couldn't tell the difference. He told us that the last time we were there, they were using a different rice flour and so he wasn't too happy with how it came out, so he comped us this, which was quite nice.

This is the rice porridge that came with the crepe. It was kind of like arroz caldo - very gingery.

Here is the Banana Blossom Salad with Chicken. This time, instead of plain shrimp chips, Jay served it with the toasted sesame rice paper. Everyone loved this!

We also got a large order of the Fish Sauce Chicken Wings served over a bed of lettuce and green onions with slice tomatoes. The footed dish of salt and black pepper also added another flavor dimension. This item was also a hit.

So here's the aftermath...

Next up was dessert at another Lao place, Sang Dao which was just one street on El Cajon Blvd.  Here we are passing Etna's and in the distance you can see Saigon Restaurant.

Next is Pho Ca Dao...behind that (not pictured) is World Market...

A couple of blocks later, on 54th and El Cajon, was Sang Dao. We wanted to have their sticky rice with mango and coconut milk for dessert.

And in the words of a disappointed and pissed off Filipino uncle, "Gah-dammit, sheeyit!" Sang Dao  was closed on Mondays. I should have checked first but oh well!

Since we'd already found parking in this hell hole of a parking lot, we wanted to just have dessert wihtin walking distance. We ended up going across the street to this yogurt shop called "Fruity Yogurt"...

They had the usual sweet and tart flavors as well as the regular and sugar free...

I was excited by their Taro flavored yogurt!

It was serve yourself and .39 an ounce. Of course, you can add more weight to your yogurt by pouring on extra calories in the guise of these "healthy" and "not so healthy" toppings. This was healthy since it was fruit...

Here's more "healthy" toppings...

And here's some of the junk...this was the candy part. They also had bins that had different kinds of chopped nutz.

I don't even remember whose this belonged to. Wait, it was the "associate's" cup 1. I think that's captain crunch and mochi balls on there.

This was mine and Bert's - Chocolate with coconut and underneath it is the taro flavor. I sprinkled on some sliced almonds (they didn't have "chopped" almonds) and mini mochi balls.

This yogurt was shared by the designer and his fiancee...I don't really remember the flavors but at this point, wtf!!!! She is rocking one of the new designs, which is pretty cool because it looks like a vintage print. It's a female warrior and the word "Malakas" means "Strong"!

It was a fun day with the progressive lunch...too bad about Sang Dao though. Everyone liked the different dishes at Asia Cafe and Que Huong. I thought it was cool that Jay remembered me too. On our way home, we passed by this place on the Northwest corner of 52nd and El Cajon, the Khmer Spirit Cambodia, Karaoke Lounge.

I dug up this mini review Khmer Spirit through and internet search and came up with this mini blurb from San Diego's City Beat:

The Enrique Experience

"Cruise El Cajon Boulevard enough, past the hookers and Cricket Wireless retailers, and you’ll stumble upon a magical land known as Khmer Spirit Karaoke Lounge. The place’s sheets-as-window-treatments and a lone cholo vigorously scrubbing his front bumper at the neighboring self-service car wash at 11 p.m. quickly set the scene. Inside, the repurposing of bed linens continues, as tables are covered with what appears to be remnants of old duvets—the fancy brocade kind you’d find at Ross.

Under a string of Christmas lights, a chanteuse’s wail—a cross between a dying baby dolphin and a Jihadist’s combat chant—was strong enough to overpower the police sirens outside. Donning Cindy Lauper-inspired garb, the would-be karaoke star delighted the crowd with a permanent cat-who-ate-the-canary grin. The bar’s dance protocol was something to behold: It started off with a rhythmic chain full of pomp and regalia that led to the pairing of couples, who would disperse after each song was over. I was mesmerized; then again, they would be, too, if they saw me bust out the Macarena at my cousin’s Quinceañera.

“Cambodian community in San Diego is small. It’s good we have place to go,” owner Peter let me know. He then took me upstairs to his apartment, where a girl in a Jabbawockeez T-shirt kindly offered me a beer.

I hit it off with a toothless man who was sitting next to me, courtesy of the universal thumbs-up sign (our only way of communicating) and later joined him in a room where a middle-aged woman rocking bangs so stiff you’d swear her kids pranked her by switching out her Vidal Sassoon product with Liquid Nails, was selling snacks. Bamboo rice, “pig fritter” and, yes, even balut, an egg with the almost fully developed fetus in it. [my notes - Hey, balut is Filipino!]“Try” he mumbled, lifting up the treat and putting me eye-to-eye with its contents. Brave as I am, I sadly gestured a thumbs-down. Flashbacks starring the poultry that inspired me in my youth—Big Bird, the San Diego Chicken and Talkatoo Cockatoo were too much to bear. To paraphrase the great Meatloaf: I would do anything for this column, but I won’t do that."
(article by Enrique Limon)

Last but not least, I had to get a photo of  the very nicely named Pho King!

I bet they get a lot of crank calls!