Jollibee - Seafood City food court

Yesterday TC and I had to run a few errands, one of which took us to Seafood City...

Since it would be awhile before coming home and having dinner, I let TC have a small "snack" at Jollibee's..

They have what they call "Little Big Bites" for only 99 cents. There are two varieties: Spam and Corned Beef. Although TC likes both, she got the one with Corned Beef...

The pan del sal was pretty soft on the outside, but toasted on the inside. I'm not sure if that was cheese in there, as I only had a tiny bite to sample and didn't get any of it. There was more bun than meat. It was still a satisfying snack for TC. We needed to get a few vegetables for a few dishes this weekend. When we checked the seafood section, the live crabs weren't there. TC wanted to poke at them with the tongs. There's usually an old Lola or auntie whacking the crabs  and testing their feistiness in order to get the best ones. Next time, haha!

Black Angus

The other day my parents invited us out to lunch at the Black Anus Angus in Chula Vista.  It my my nephew's bday (he turned 12) and almost everyone on my side of the family would be there. MIA were my bro and Bert who were both at work...

Man, I haven't been here in years...I don't think much has changed though.

On our way to UTC and Hot Dog on a Stick

Even though it was a sunny day, there was a marine layer on the coast. Here's the I-5 right after the Garnet Ave exit.

You can barely see the Mount Soledad cross on that hill (leftish middle)...

As we approached La Jolla, we pass by the white spires of the Mormon Temple. Back in 1993, when I was still in grad school, Bert and I were able to take a free tour of the Temple before they officially closed it off to gentiles (non Mormons). We had to wear these little plastic booties over our shoes so we wouldn't ruin their floors. It was quite surreal being in there. You also had to be invited by an LDS (Latter Day Saints) member and one of the women in the master's program was LDS.

Fast forward to UTC...I remember when going to this mall was an adventure. For us kids who lived down South, this was pretty fkg far to drive. Plus, La Jolla was a lot "whiter" back in the 80's than it was now. It's so much more diverse.  While TC and Bert enjoyed ice skating, I did a bit of walking around, browsing, and shopping. TC had a late lunch from Hot Dog on a Stick.

Here's that nice and healthy lunch - Two corn dogs (Remember the mall scene in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"? The one with Freud holding a corn dog and tilting it forward as he said, "Tell me about your mother!" Ha ha!).

As you can tell, she loves ketchup.   Mmm, meat tube...fried...

They skated until the allotted time; after that, it was time for the local ice hockey team to take the ice. We headed back home down South to Chula Vista...

Point Loma (cont'd) - Noodles & Company and Salvation Army

TC found a cool camouflage print three ring-binder with a zipper at Goodwill while I found a few interesting plates. I saw Noodles and Company across the street...There used to be a Noodles on the corner of Eastlake Parkways and Otay Lakes Road. It closed about a few years ago and is now a Wings-n-Things. It's right next to Mariscos Hector, a Mexican seafood place. It's in the same strip mall with the big Kohl's. Not that I shop there...because I don't. Anyways, I spied Noodles so that's where we went...


We saw their trio special - a side salad, a small entree with your protein of choice for $7.50...

I had my eye on the Japanese Pan Noodles while Bert wanted the Pad Thai.

TC wasn't that hungry since she had some of the mango smoothie and the tomato cheddar twist from Jamba Juice earlier.

While it was kind of dead when we got there (11:30'ish), it started filling up by the time we left. Plus many customers were also choosing to sit outside because the weather was so nice.

I liked the lighting in here. I also liked that there weren't a lot of people around so I could freely take my photographs, ha ha.

This place looked just like the one did in Chula Vista, but this was much bigger. I guess business wasn't so good in that location so they closed.


Here is Bert's Caesar salad and his (wanna-be) Pad Thai. The sauce was really weak. The bean sprouts were nice and fresh tho'. He had shrimp in his Pad Thai as well.

Here was my entree - the Japanese Pan Noodles which were udon noodles in a soy based glaze with stir fried vegetables. I also chose beef. The sauce was a bit too salty and sweet for me, but I really liked the noodles.

If you ever go here, look for this sign:

Since I was on a vintage plate and candlestick mission, our next stop was the Salvation Army on Sports Aroma Arena Blvd; this is right next to a Pier 1. Too bad it wasn't Labor Day because everything was going to be half off. I ended up only getting 1 small plate ($1.00) for my future craft project.

With lunch out of the way, it was time to head up North to ice skate!

Panda Express

With finals week approaching (which means 'minimum days') and signaling the hotly anticipated end of the school year, my co-worker and I wanted to take advantage of the nice day and get out of the office. The other day, I had lunch with a co-worker at Panda Express in Eastlake (in the same shopping center as Target and Lowe's). 

The place was crawling with high school kids, all wearing their PE uniforms. Turns out that the local high school's PE class walked over to the mall (chaperoned by their teacher/coach) so every table outside was filled and there was literally no place to sit or even stand without bumping into someone. I saw a kid wearing a shirt denigrating another rival school which made me crack up inside.

We ended up ordering our food to go and driving over to Eastlake Village Walk to eat our lunch in relative peace and quiet. Meanwhile, I noticed that they had a new item. If you click on this photo, you can probably see it better, the Honey Walnut Shrimp.

Here's our to-go bag...we sat outside Los Primos Mexican food at the Eastlake Village Walk complex (near Pho Hiep Grill Chateau; God, that title always makes me cringe!)...

I got the Mandarin Beef with the "new" Honey Walnut Shrimp with noodles instead of rice. This was $5.79 for the 2 entrees + a side. The honey walnut shrimp was okay. No shrimp shells on the tails, thank goodness. There weren't that many candied walnuts though. I've tasted better (more recently at Panda Inn at Horton Plaza). I really wanted to try this even though it's not that healthy for me.

The stickiness also fucked with my temporary crown, which I've had on for a week already. I get my actual crown next week. Well, I'd been eating on one side only but apparently, some of the food migrated to the left side of my mouth and got stuck. When I felt something between my teeth, I tried getting it out and dammit - it was my worst nightmare come true. And by nightmare I mean, horrible visions of my teeth falling apart or disintegrating, or in this case, the whole temporary crown lifting off in one sickening piece like a scab you peel off your arm or leg. What would Freud think of that? Hmmm!  Seriously, I do have bad dreams of my teeth getting crushed or falling out and stuff. That and scary bridges. And clowns. And Kenny G.

Frantic with worry, we tried checking my dentist's office on the way back to work to see if I could get it fixed as a walk-in. Just my shitty luck, the office was closed. I was paranoid for the rest of the day not wanting to eat or drink anything because my molar was so sensitive. It was so gross looking at it too, all hollowed out and shit. It was not fun brushing my teeth later that day.

Anyhow to make a long story even longer, I was able to get it fixed this morning. Ten minutes tops. Thank goodness! Since I saved the temporary crown, the dental assistant glued it back on. Hopefully it will last me this whole weekend because dammit, it's Memorial Day weekend and I want to eat some goodass food!!!!
 
Upcoming posts:
Food/Events:
The Philippine Fair at Kimball Park
The Ethnic Food Fair at Balboa Park
 
topics:
My late movie review for "The Runaways"
More "Listography" music lists
My ode to all that is Canadian (in anticipation of our upcoming trip to YYZ and Manitoulin!)
 
and more...
 
Four more work days!!!!

IHOP

[Sometime in mid-late July]

It was one of those days where I wanted to just slum it. First of all, I wanted to use up my coupon for this place. Secondly, I knew that TC would like IHOP because they serve breakfast all day. Thirdly, it was close by. This is the IHOP location on Otay Lakes Road, near Eastlake Parkway; it's right by McD's in the Vons shopping center. Coupon time does not always equal good food but I was willing to sacrifice good taste for family time.

Please enjoy my ever so awesome spray paint/face obscuring skillz. Yeah, I rule. That's Bert on the right. They had these spiral mylar thingies hanging from the ceiling. Lovely. The theme was tropical or Hawaiian or something like that.
I haven't eaten in one of these places in who knows how long...it's like Denny's/Coco's/Carrow's/Bob's Big Boy/Bakers Square, etc...(haven't eaten at that last place, actually but wanted to throw it in there!)...
Bert's cup of joe and TC's orange juice:
Click to see their offerings if you dare. See the smile face pan cake? Should be on a new blog called "Pancake Wrecks".
Of course, the smiley face pancake is what my daughter wanted. She got the chocolate pancake with chocolate chips with a horrible squirted on face. The eyes had two maraschino cherries on it. Very evil looking. The chocolate chips were dumped haphazardly on the lower portion of the "face".
Bert got this entree - The Tuscan chicken griller...
Doesn't quite look like the photo on the menu, eh? It was a grilled chicken breast with mayo, a roasted tomatoe, a lonely lettuce leaf and a grilled cheese bun. Wait a minute, I just realized you could have read that description above on the photo of the menu. And I just saw that I was wrong about the cheese.
Here's the cross section of that sandwich - featuring the so-called juicy chicken. Never mind my weak sarcasm - my husband liked his sandwich and that's all that mattered.
I ordered this - the Philly Cheese Steak Super Stacker...
And again, it doesn't look quite like the photo above, huh...My cheese looks kind of washed out. I wanted grilled onions along with my french fried onion rings!!! Now those, I liked!

I basically denuded my sandwich and picked apart the meat, cheese and onions. Well, half of it, since I didn't finish it. Bert and I shared our onion rings and fries with TC. She didn't even eat all of her pancake, so we took it home where she had the leftover the next day. Another no cook breakfast for me. Hey, don't judge. I can't be like Martha Stewart EVERY DAY. Snort.

Another coupon adventure for you. Will we go here again? Probably, but maybe I'll eat something beforehand.

Panda Express

Today one of my co-workers and I decided to have lunch at Panda Express in Eastlake. It's in the same area that has Lowe's, Target, Wendy's, Bento Noodles, Daphne's Greek, and Miguel's. We chose Panda since the food's pretty much ready to go and we wouldn't have to wait long.
It was amazingly empty when we got there. Normally the place is packed, but perhaps with the economy being so bad, people aren't eating out so much. We came during the lunch hour, mind you, so seeing it so bare was a bit surprising.
Ah, the steam table offerings...
We sat outside to take advantage of the sunny weather...
Violating my self-imposed "trying to eat healthy" rule, I caved and got a Panda Bowl. Although you can't see too much of it, I had noodles instead of rice underneath the wanna be spicy beef chunks. It wasn't orange chicken though. I can't remember what they were called. I want to say Mongolian or Beijing Beef or some corny moniker like that. The sauce was overly sweet.
My co-worker had the two item entree - He had noodles instead of rice, plus another item that I am unable to identy (top left corner) and the orange chicken.
Isn't that kind of scary? I coudn't even figure out what that stuff was that he had...Mystery vegetables? Myabe tofu or eggplant? But it doesn't look like it. It couldn't have been meat since he already had the orange chicken. I think I learned my lesson later that day as I suffered on the commode. Put it this way, the Beijing Beef or whatever did not have a good effect on me. That's what I get for eating fried, greasy and overly sauced meat at Panda.

Portuguese stuff & Rubio's

A few weeks ago, TC's school had their Multicultural Day for the 2nd graders. Last year when she was in 2nd grade, me and a group of the other Filipino American parents did the booth for the Philippines. If I may say so myself, I think our booth was one of the best there last year. We had not just one table, but five (3 were ours) so that we could properly display many of the items borrowed from the PASACAT dance company and the various families who helped out.

I will never forget last year's Multicultural festival because that was the week my hair started falling out. My first chemo was in early May last year. I went for about 2 and 1/2 weeks thinking, "Hey, it's not so bad...I still have my hair!". Then the third week of May rolled around. I was stressed out over the booth and trying to get everything together. Later that week, my hair felt "different". For example, after I'd brush it, it felt kind of limp and lifeless. My hair didn't "react" the same way when I flat ironed it. The biggest telltale sign was the hairs falling out without resistance when I ratted some parts of my hair. It was the wierdest thing too when I'd flip my hair or brush it back with my fingers and a whole clump would just fall out. I was terrified that my head would be bare by the end of the day. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I was still kind of freaked out that people would notice that I was "shedding". Seriously, if you held onto a lock of my hair and pulled slightly, it would separate from my scalep easily.

The decision to shave it all had been brewing in my mind for the past few weeks that month. The Multicultural Day was on a Thursday. The next day, I went to my hairstylist and had my head shaved. My daughter was with me and took photos of the whole process. I still had some hair since my stylists didn't shave it bare, but just with maybe 1/4 of an inch left. I looked like GI Jane. Anyways, I can't believe it's been a year already!

Back to the topic, this year, our neighbor across the street was going to have a booth for the Multicultural Festival. Although she is Mexican American, her husband is Portuguese (but born and raised in Angola, a former Portuguese colony in Africa). She needed help to man the booth so Bert was kind enough to help her out. She had her lesson plan prepared, the decorations for the booth and was wearing a native costume of her husband's hometown in Portugal (actually his parents' hometown). Bert educated the kids about soccer player, Cristian Ronaldo.

Here is a basket of assorted food items from Portugal - Linguica (sausage), canned sardines packed in oil, a loaf of bread, olives, cheese (I wasn't able to find out what kind it was), and grapes...By the way, the grapes were fake.
Our neighbor also ordered a few dozen of this brand of Portuguese soda, Sumol. Although there are a lot of different flavors, she chose the Passion Fruit to serve the kids. She also gave us a couple of cans! Tastes like Hawaiian Sun brand soda...which is a good thing! Super sweet!
On another day, Bert, TC & I were running errands in the Eastlake area. I had a few coupons for Rubio's so we went there to make use of them.
We used a coupon for a new food item that Rubio's was inflicting upon the public, I mean, offering to its customers - The All-American Taco. I had a 'buy one, get one free', and Bert had one as well. We decided to give it a try even though one of my students told me he didn't really like it. The "All-American Taco" is basically a hamburger in a tortilla. Bert was watching them make it and it was a half a ground beef patty with cheese that they grill. They they put it in the flour tortilla along with chopped lettuce and tomatoes. As you can see, the photo on the display does not resemble the actual food item itself!!!!
The verdict? It was good for a try but I don't think we would go back to order this. I prefer their regular fish tacos much much better.. Well, TC liked the All American Taco because she likes cheeseburgers and this was the bastardized Rubio's version of it.

PF Chang's

It's actually May 27 and I'm posting this days later. So, the Friday before Mother's Day, I didn't feel like cooking so we decided to use a giftcard I got as a bday gift. It was for this place (see below). We went to the Otay Ranch location...

As you all know, I'm not into chain restaurants, but the giftcard was singing to me a la Bill Withers, "Use me!"...Did I mention, I didn't feel like cooking that night?

It was pretty crowded when we got there. We didn't have reservations. The service wasn't so great. After we got seated way way in the back, the waitress told us that "so and so" would be with us shortly. Well, that person never showed up. After almost 10 minutes of nothingness, I was ready to get up and complain, but the hostess noticed my pissed off look and apologized. She said the server hadn't arrived yet and she would get someone else to take care of us, which she did. This new server was awesome - attentive, helpful, and made sure that we weren't kept waiting.

Nah, we didn't order from this prix-fixe menu:

For starters, we got the lettuce wraps. The chicken was a bit too salty for my tastes. TC really liked it. Anytime she can eat without utensils is great for her. I wish we were given more lettuce though. But yeah, standard wanna be Chinese food.

Hot chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar in the tall bottles. There was also hot chili paste, some sort of chili sauce and hot mustard in the smaller containers.

My lettuce wrap with the fried noodles:

Side order - sugar snap peas with garlic. This was pretty good. This was a "large" order. We ended up taking most of it home to enjoy for later.

Orange peel Beef. God, that sounds kind of gross, but it tasted "aight'. The sauce was overly sweet. I guess some folks dig that, but I could have done without the sugar overload.

Lemon Scallops. The scallops are friend and served with a creamy lemon sauce with sliced scallions. This was actually pretty good, but a bit sweet as well.

Instead of white rice, we ordered brown rice. They gave us two tiny serving bowls, which wasn't really enough, but that was okay since I'm trying to lay off of rice. Our dessert was the banana spring rolls served with coconut ice cream and berries. That is a caramel sauce that is drizzled over the dessert.

So, it was an okay meal that was mostly free. Of course, we ended up spending more than the giftcard's amount, but we paid the difference. Next, time to rent some movies! Our Friday night routine...