to this stripmall located across from Kaiser Hospital on Zion...
Armed with yet another birthday coupon, I wanted to at least use it before it expired. We chose two combo plates (one was free).
I noticed that they added a surfboard on the wall. last year, the wall only had the mirror. A few years prior, the wall had islander knick knacks and sports memorabilia. What a big change.
Behind the counter was probably where some of the original decor went, such as th eminature wooden carabaos. The lady working the counter told me she found them at either a swap meet or thrift store in Santee. I told her that I collected the giant wooden fork and spoons and the barrel man.
Speaking of which, they have two barrel men on this shelf behind the counter. Lift the barrel and...yeah, you get the picture. We also have the barrel woman and you can imagine what "pops out".
In the corner was this...Last year, only the Chamorro greeting, "Hafa Adai" was on there. They've since added greetings in Filipino ("Mabuhay" means "welcome" or "cheers" or "life") and Hawaiian, "Aloha".
The combos were two meats plus choice of red or white rice and two sides.
Bert's short rib and teriyaki beef sliceswith red rice, and mac salad.
The beef slices were kind of fatty and chewy. Not so soft as Bert would have liked. The short ribs were okay. We traded some of our meal.
I chose Pork Ribs (very meaty), chicken kelaguen, red rice and a green salad (see, I was kind of good).
I haven't had kelaguen since having dinner here last year. It was seasoned well and the meat was most and tender.
Leftovers were taken home and surprisingly, enjoyed later by TC who really wanted to eat meat again.
The sign on the northern side of the building. Now this was pretty old. The plastic stick-on letters were peeled and peeling. There were businesses listed on there that no longer exist like Rice Jones! This was one of the first Vietnamese restaurants in San Diego not located in Linda Vista. In fact, Bert and I ate at Rice Jones the day before TC was born. Little did we know that we would be the hospital across the street the next day when she was born. I believe Rice Jones has since been replaced by Saigon Kitchen.
For dessert, I figured, we could use another coupon. I didn't bother checking the hours because I remembered going to Wow Wow Waffle at night before.
Our hopes were dashed by this sign on their gate.
Drat.
So Plan B was this place in eastern Chula Vista...
I was excited once again to see karioka (a beloved childhood dessert for me). The price for 4 was $2.50. They also had ube halaya so we had one of each dessert.
Man, that's a lot of UBE.
Sweet and sugary rice balls with coconut and boiled and sweetened purple yam...
The karioka had a nice crisp exterior. The last time we were here, they also had the banana with jackfruit flavor. The ube was just...okay. The yam is cooked with milk (which can be condensed milk or coconut milk) and butter. It is meants to be served cold. I didn't quite like the consistency of their ube; my mom's was not as pasty looking as this. But hey, I wanted to give it a try.
Previous visit to Chamorro Grill:
April 2015 with Astroboi (using the same birthday coupon)
Previous visit to Halo Halo:
February 2016
April is soon coming to a close...which also portends the end of the school year. Summer vacation can't come soon enough, I tell you!
No comments:
Post a Comment