Return to Hanna's Gourmet

My Ninang (godmother) was in town this past week and we had the pleasure of having lunch with her yesteray. Off we went to pick her up at my godbrother's house in La Mesa...

(heading North on the 125 towards the 54)

This unusual sight greeted us when we got off Lemon Grove Way onto High Street.

Hmmmm, I could say something nastay but I won't...

Anyhow, I wanted to take her out someplace very nice and with good food. Hanna's Gourmet fit the bill perfectly. I loved it when we took KD there for her birthday lunch a few weeks ago.

Another big reason we wanted to go here was because of the featured cuisine of the week...

which happened to be Hungary!

The last time we went, it was Italian and none of us ordered anything from the Italian choices I'm sure they were awesome but we couldn't resist the lure of Hungarian food. The last time we had anything Hungarian was during our Toronto trip in 2010.

One of their cases held coleslaw, bean salad, Moroccan braised chicken legs, baked beans, and organic kale salad...

It was a beautiful sunny day and outside seating was available but I wanted my Ninang to be comfortable. To refresh your memory, my Ninang is the one who we visited back in the summer of 2009 and 2011 in Pebble Beach. She is currently now at Carmel by the Sea and we have an open invitation to visit and stay with them if we do another road trip.

For starters, Bert had a coffee while my Ninang and I both enjoyed the organic berry blossom iced tea which was fruity and refreshing.

I thought it might be nice to have them try the kale salad which we liked so much during our premier visit. Unfortunately for me, the dressing was way too tart. I didn't remember it tasting like that a few weeks ago. Our server said they used only lemon as the dressing, but man, it was so sour, I didn't really enjoy it. Everyone else though, liked the salad which had sun dried tomatoes, lentils and goat cheese..

I ordered one of each item on the Hungarian menu. This was the mushroom soup that we would share:

This was one of the best versions of mushroom soup I've ever had. It was so colorful as opposed to the unappetizing gross and gray soups with which I usually associate mushroom soup. Dill was a popular garnish today as it appeared in our soup as well as our entrees.

We loved the rich flavor of this soup which had a bit of paprika and richness from the sour cream.

TC ordered from the regular menu. Below, TC's pulled pork sandwich on focaccia bread served with a fresh green salad.

The bbq sauce was a bit on the sweet side, but she really liked this dish, finishing only one half of the sandwich.

My Ninang's Beef Goulash ("gulyas" in Hungarian): a rich beef stew seasoned with paprika and other spices. We loved the wide Pappardelle noodles that came with our dishes. The name "pappardelle" is derived from the Italian word "pappare" which means "to gobble up". Ninang was kind enough  to let us have a taste or two of her goulash. The sauce smelled so good and I wished we had ordered this for ourselves as well.

Of course, a food blogger's strategy is to not order doubles from the same menu, so we were happy to have the Chicken Paprikash. Bert and I shared this dish together.

Our dish consisted of two fall-of-the-bone pieces of chicken (one thigh and one leg) and a most delicious sauce. And would you just look at that meat? You  didn't even need a knife to cut this up! The one utensil that was most needed that was missing was the damn spoon! C'mon, how could we enjoy every last drop with a fork!? This dish was so good that I'm going to be making this tomorrow!

We all enjoyed everything here, from the soup to the salad and our main dishes. My Ninang was happy to try a little bit of everything that day. I told her to save some room since we would be going somewhere else for dessert. Yes, we were introducing her to our "two-part" strategy.

Below, the painted utility box that's right in front of Hanna's. If you were lucky like we were yesterday morning, you could park next to this!

Previous visit to Hanna's Gourmet here.

Service was very good but not as attentive towards the end of our meal as the restaurant started to fill up. There was only one server (the same gal from last time), along with Hanna's husband. We didn't catch a glimpse of Hanna that day since she was probably busy in the back cooking and plating up the dishes.

After giving my Ninang several choices for dessert and going over the pros and cons of the sites, we decided that we'd go to the one where she'd never that type of cuisine.

Up next, dessert at a familiar and nearby spot!