The new Olympic Cafe visits + Golden Donut once again

The old Olympic Cafe on the Northwest corner of Texas and University closed late last year and recently reopened. I took Astroboi there for breakfast for his early birthday...

(view on Camino del Rio South under the 8)

Astroboi is the king of surface streets...

(sign at the bottom of Texas St.)

So we took the "scenic" route from Grantville to North Park

Zorba's revisit

Mr. TJ, another co-worker and I had a training nearby...

it wasn't for another hour or so and I suggested this place...

Return to Olympic Cafe & Golden Donut

Earlier today I made good on my promise to take TC here...

Bert also accompanied us quite early to beat the rush...

Elena's Greek Armenian Cuisine

After a day of viewing exhibits at the Grammy Museum and the Griffith Observatory, we only had a few snacks in between. Dinner was supposed to be at this tiny Armenian place called Moon Mart Kabob but we couldn't find it in the strip mall, so again, we went with Plan B...

which was Elena's Greek Armenian Cuisine. We figured, when in Glendale, (hich has a sizable Armenian population), we should have some Armenian food...

Canada 2012 - Night 1 - Zet's

Okay...here goes!

After arriving in YYZ late night, we got our rental car and were wondering where to eat for dinner. I find that sometimes the best recommendations come from locals, not guide books that want to steer visitors to tourist traps.  We wanted someplace that was open at night. Someplace near the airport and someplace good. The guy at the rental car lot recommended several places, such as Swiss Chalet (a Canadian chain that specializes in chicken) and Zet's...

"Zet's...That's Zed-E-T-S!" he told us....

He gave us some simple directions and off we went in search for a late night meal...

Return to Daphne's

Waka waka waka....

Or shall I say, "Pac Man Fever" (horrible song that was)?

Daphne's Greek Cafe, Terra Nova

So here goes...after reading Mary's post on free birthday meals last year, I signed up from a few sites just for fun, such as Rubio's, Benihana's, Daphnes, MXN, and Red Robin. Earlier this week, TC and I headed over to the Daphne's Greek Cafe in the Terra Nova strip mall, which has Marshalls, Big 5, Bed Bath and Beyond and Sports Authority.

Now I'm not much of a Greek food fan, but I wanted to get the free meal for TC not for me. I ate before coming here so I didn't plan on having the actual meal.

Just for signing up on Daphne's site, you get "Pita Points" and a free appetizer. Now I had to do two separate transactions to get both the Hummus and Pita starter and the combo plate.

TC enjoyed the pita and hummus (original flavor) and I had a piece as well just to try it out.

As you might surmise, we sat outside. Number one, the weather was nice so we may as well enjoy it. Number two, it was away from the prying eyes of others and in the relative comfort and anonymity of being by ourselves.

For my comped birthday plate which comes with a salad, you can choose two items plus a side. I let TC decide - she wanted one veggie and one beef kabob with wheat pita.

She let me choose the side which was fire-roasted vegetables...

And there you have it...the combo plate that TC enjoyed on my behalf. I had a bite of the beef kabob and let's just say it was not so good. The beef was dry. She liked the chicken more because it was juicier. TC also felt the salad was too salty but that's because of the feta cheese. And as we all know, feta cheese = yuck. I would rather smell LeBron James' stanky shoes after playing the NBA finals. Sorry! Not a fan of the feta! For the most part, TC enjoyed the chicken kabob, the salad and vegetables. We took half of it home anyways since it was a lot of food for a kid.

We were off to do errands and to pick up a few items for my upcoming birthday dinner on the actual day with both sides of the family...

Off to Seafood City!

Daphne's Greek Cuisine

[Marathon post alert! Scroll down for the latest 5 posts!]

Last week we finally had the chance to go to Daphne's Greek Cafe in the Eastlake Target shopping center. TC had a free meal given to her after she earned an award at school. Bert and I had a coupon (hell yeah man) - buy one entree get one free, so we took advantage.

I'm not into Greek food too much but gave it a shot. We did go to Zorba's earlier this summer and I liked that. Especially their flaky spanakopita.

TC got a Chicken Pita plate with rice and a side of Tzatziki sauce with a drink. Hmmmm, those fillings seem kind of sparse to me.

I got a Pita burger (yeah, that's really Greek isn't it...) with a side of rice and salad and that same sauce. I ended up giving some of my salad to TC so she could have greens. I ended up giving the other half to Bert because I didn't like that the salad already had dressing on it as well a feta cheese which I do not like. I liked the burger which was nicely seasoned and quite juicy but ended up eating mostly the meat and not the pita. It was kinda too doughey for me.

Bert was nice enough to let me have his roasted vegetables (carrots, green beans). He got the Gyro combo with salad. The vegetables were really good!

So all in all, we only paid for one meal (the combo), so yay! I don't think I'd go here again since I'm not into most of their offerings. TC's school used to give free meals to Islands (also in the same shopping area) for student awards. The only thing with Islands was that the meal was free if an adult paid for an entree. But then they switched over to Daphne's pogs which offered the kids a free meal with no obligation for an adult to buy anything. Either way, an adult (one or both of us) would be accompanying our kid to the restaurant so it didn't really make a difference.

After dinner we went to Target so I could finish Christmas shopping.The day before, I went out with Divalicious and we took advantage of the sales at Aztec Stores at SDSU - 75% selected shirts. So, I'm pretty much done. I'm so anal but hey, I won't be stressing out later since I'm pretty much done. I usually get 90% of my shopping done before the end of October. My next goal is to have our Xmas cards done in the next two weeks with the intent to mail it at the end of November. I like being first. What can I say...heh heh.

Zorba's Greek Restaurant

Sometime last month, we finally went to this place...it's on Broadway in Chula Vista, on the northern outskirts right before it turns into National City.

I've never watched the movie, "Zorba the Greek".  I'm not too keen on certain types of Greek food but I wanted to try their buffet so off I went, with Bert and TC as willing accomplices.

I didn't take too many photos of the buffet but they had a big selection of fresh salad items as well as hot entrees...


This is family owned and run and the people working there were super nice. They were very welcoming and you could tell that there were regulars there. Everyone was really nice here...We were told to sit wherever we wanted so I chose the far end of the dining area.

Look, there's Anthony Quinn on the movie poster!

Here's their menu:

Only $8.95 for the lunch buffet (for adults). I don't know why people would order from the regular menu when you can get practically everything from the buffet.


I got several triangular pieces of the spanakopita. Normally I don't like feta cheese. But when it's mixed with spinached and wrapped in buttery and flaky phyllo dough,then I'll eat it. I got a cabbage roll, rice,  and somewhere in there was a Greek version of lasagna (pastitsio)...as well as an eggplant dish (sorry, forgot the name).

There's Bert's plate - he got some gyros meat (I passed because I don't like lamb), pita, gren salad, some sort of chicken dish, potatoes, and vegetables.

This was TC's lemon chicken soup with rice which she really liked.

Here's Bert's second plate. Actually, he got one of those cabbage rolls for me!

I got one of each small dessert - different types of baklava and another dessert that absolutely dripped with honey. That powdered sugar cookie was kind of too thick but it had a cinnamony type flavor. We shared this between the three of us.

TC also got some fresh fruit and some sort of Greek rice pudding. Looks kinda goopy to me. I am not a fan of soft and wet desserts. I have to stop using that phrase, "Soft and Wet". Sorry Prince. And yes, that's an actual Prince song title.

All in all, it was good for the price. I'm not a Greek food connoisseur but I enjoyed most of what I had. I passed on the chicken items. I really liked that spanakopita though! I was hoping for real stuffed grape leaves but it was cabbage instead.

After lunch, we were on our way to the Chula Vista Nature Center. We had a 2 for 1 pass while TC had a free pass. Good thing too because they raised their prices from $5 for an adult to $11!!!! Yikes!

So long Zorbas! I hear at night time, there's belly dancing!

San Gennaro Festival, Cendrillon, Ovelia's

Although it rained the night before, the weather was sufficiently decent to go out without an umbrella (but I brought one anyways). This is my friend's neighborhood in Astoria, which (according to Wikipedia) has the highest concentrations of Greeks outside of Greece. There are so many little ethnic eateries - it's amazing how much variety there is here. L and I walked a lot that day. Well for lazy ass me, that was a lot of walking. I'm not used to being a pedestrian. I feel so vulnerable. I need the safety of my car! Ha ha. I forgot what street this is and I haven't put in the hyperlinks yet, but below is a Filipino restaurant in the East Village (I think it is the East Village), Pistahan. Unfortunately, it was closed.

Just up the street (or was it down the street?) is Elvie's Turo-Turo ("point-point"). This is a Filipino fast food joint. You point to what you want on the steam table and they give it to you with two scoops of rice for less than $6. Just like the places in National Ciety and San Diego. We didn't eat here.

Somewhere in the East Village...

The Joe Strummer Memorial...

Although I was recommended to eat here, the line inside was too damn long. This is a well known deli known for their huge sandwiches (pastrami anyone?) but it was also featured in the infamous "fake orgasm" scene as performed by then non-trout lipped Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally".

Katz's worker preparing some food...

Hey, my last concert that I went to was the Cult....Back in 1991! D'oh!

One of many bootleg DVD/CD places in Chinatown...this is where I got my Goshuken Seasons 1 -3 and the TV version of Densha Otoko.

I'm not sure what kind of fruit this is...

Dried mushrooms stand in Chinatown...

Fruit and peanuts stand...

This was kind of gross. There were dried oysters with flies crawling all over them. Tasty. There was also dried shrimps in the other bins. Smelled kind of funky. After walking several blocks through Chinatown, we headed to Little Italy, which is only two blocks.

We were wanted to eat here...at Lombardi's(sorry no exterior shot), but the wait was 45 minutes! Fk that, so we walked down the street...

Lo and behold, it was a festival for San Gennaro. It was mega busy and super crowded.

I wanted a "snack" before we had our real lunch so I just went to the first pizza stand I saw. There were about 10 different kinds of pizza there. You choose whatever slice you want and the guy heats it up for you in an oven. The pizza place from whence these pizzas came was located behind this stand. We saw some workers running back and forth with freshly made pizzas.

I bought one slice and had the guy cut it in half so L and I could share it...

This slice had ground beef, tomatoes and cheese (not sure if it was mozzarrella because the texture was a little different, maybe ricotta?)...Whatever it was, it was pretty good. The crust was the best part - very crispy through and through.

After consuming our pizza slice snack, we headed over to the SoHo area. But before that, we checked out this whimsical (and overpriced, like everything seems to be in SoHo) shop called Pylones. These are hair brushes. So cute yet so unnecessary.

We finally reached Cendrillon ("Cinderella" in French) on Mercer Street. This is an upscale Filipino fusion place. It opened more than a decade. The owners also have a great cookbook out called "Memories of Philippine Kitchens".

For starters, we had the spring rolls with achara (pickled green papaya relish)...

Actually, these lumpia were pretty good - they were filled with cabbage, shrimp, pork, string beans and carrots...The lumpias were slices on the bias (nice touch), but looked kind of ugly just laying there. Perhaps the presentation could have been better. Maybe standing up? Or leaning against each other?

The lumpia (or spring roll as they call it):

My friend had the Baby Back Ribs Adobo with bok choy and blackish purple rice. The ribs were 'de-boned'. Although he liked and enjoyed his dish, he felt the baby back ribs were too "vinegary" for his taste. Taking the bones out kind of takes the fun out of eating baby back ribs though. I had some of his bok choy - good stuff. The rice was a little different tasting, but it looked cool though.

I ordered the Balinese Fried Chicken with Sweet Potato Salad (alas, no rice for me). The two sauce accompaniments were Sriracha (it tasted like it was mixed with something else) and a very very sweet Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce). The chicken was marinated with coconut milk, turmeric, ginger, galangal, and coriander. You could really taste the flavors in the crispy chicken skin. I only at the thigh piece - it was very rich; the breast piece I ended up just eating the skin and taking the meat back to their place. I wasn't too crazy about the cubed sweet potatos. Some pieces were still kind of hard. Despite our waiter's (who was a white guy by the way, not a Filipino) entreaties to order dessert, we were both full. Remember we had pizza before this! Did I really want to pay $8 for Halo-Halo? But seriously, I was full and couldn't eat another bite.

We called it a day and headed back to the apartment. This lovely sight is from their local butcher shop. You can see Wilbur and Billy hanging in the window...

plus a few of their other friends down here:

After several hours of rest, dinner was planned at a local Greek restaurant, Ovelia's. It was a few blocks away. By this time, my friend N had already returned from her business trip. We three met up with L's sister who also lives in the neighborhood. We ended up getting a bunch of appetizers which made up our dinner. One of them was Spanakopita (spinach and feta inside a phyllo dough).

Wait, L actually ordered an entree - some sort of fish with lemon seasoning and fries. The fries don't seem very Greek to me.

Another appetizer was the calamari:

Plus we had the Pikilia which is three kinds of dip with pita bread. The dips included Melitzanosalato (eggplant - it'sat the top), Taramoselata(which is cod roe, but it didn't taste fishy at all), and Tzatziki (yogurt with cucumber and mint).

We also had an order of seasoned meatballs (sorry, I forgot to write the Greek name for it) which was served with Tzatziki...I guess I'm not used to Greek seasoning because I didn't really like it. Although the waitress said the meat was beef, the seasoning to me, tasted off and contributed to my lack of enthusiasm for this dish. It smelled lamb-y but it wasn't lamb.

For dessert we had Loukoumades, which is bite sized pieces of fried dough drenched with honey. They gave us so many pieces! Although there were four of us there, we couldn't even finish half of it.

Mmm...fried dough is always good!