Viva Pops and Mariposa

While we were waiting to get our table at Tao, we sat down in these bright cherry red chairs next door to Tao. They belonged to this shop, Viva Pops.

Hmmm, we were curious...

I liked how the starburst pattern of their logo is pattern like the one behind the Virgin of Guadalupe. This particular mural was tkaen somewhere in the Mission District in San Francisco during our trip last month (which I still have to finish those series of posts).

View from inside - there were patterns on the windows. Across the street is an old movie theatre that's been converted into a fabric shop. Inside the colors were candy like. There was also a string of lights framing the window with little popsicles covering the tiny bulbs! Too cute!

There was a diorama on the counter made by school children. They used recylced items for this art project. I ended upchatting with the lady working the counter. Jill Altmann, the owner wasn't in that evening. The woman and her son were chatting with a another customer and her two kids.

Viva Pops is a "popsicle" store, not really ice cream. The flavors are all natural and the bars are handmade. At $2.50 each, they are a bit pricy, but TC used her own money for this (again, thank you Grandpa!). She really wanted to try the Mango Passionfruit bar. Bert and I were saving our appetites for Mariposa (yes, again) down the street. They have a lot of really cool flavors as you can see.

Here's that Mango Passionfruit bar...it had a nice fresh flavor to it. Very fruity and intense.

I bought a few pins too. The one in the upper right corner had a smiling blue popsicle with the words, "I'll melt with you". These same pins were also available as shirts and there were the original art prints on the walls too. Awwww, so cute.

I got cavities just looking at these smiley cartoon popsicles. I wanted to fart rainbows and prance around sprinkling fairy dust while skipping to William Shatner singing, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"! If you haven't heard his craptastic version of that classic Beatles song before, just youTube and listen to the aural ear fuckery that is Capt. Kirk mangling the Beatles in his own inimitable way. This song by the way is also featured in Rhino Records classic compilation, "Golden Throats" in which celebrities from the 60's and 70's warble horrid cover versions of popular songs. Play it one time for laughs or for clearing out your parties of unwanted guests. Or, if you have a twisted sense of humor like me, enjoy it for what it's worth!

This was Bert's first time to Mariposa...

Sign on the wall that I liked...

Here's our cups - I got the peanut butter fudge with black cherry. Bert got the coffee and the Mexican chocolate.

So creamy and so good...


Here's another song from my CD mix from TORC, "The One That I Love" by Big Country from their 1993 album, "The Buffalo Skinners".

Kinda sad about lead signer Stuart Adamson. He committed suicide by hanging himself in November 2001. So tragic.

And not to be a Debbie Downer, here's another more upbeat song from a different cd mix TORC made for me when I was recovering from my treatment a couple of years ago. It's one of my fave mixes because she put a lot of songs on there to cheer me up. This is one of my fave quirky songs by Georgia natives, the B-52's:

"Hello I'm Suzy, I'm a Pisces! I like chihuahas and Chinese noodles!"

"La la lalala
La la lalala
La la lalalalala!"

Return to Tao

Man, we ate out a lot last month!

After my excursion to Normal Heights with TC, we decided to go again later that week with Bert. This time, I had the coupon from City Beat and I wouldn't forget to order drinks. We went on a Friday night without reservations. I didn't think it would be too crowded. Turns out we only waited 10-12 minutes instead of the half hour.

Here's my new Converse with the folded tongue flap.

Snapshot taken while waiting for our table...

Bert liked the salad - again, spring greens with fruit dressing and fresh tofu made inhouse.

They sat us at the back wall near the register. The walls are literally covered with customer scribblings and praise and such.

Bert pouring his beer...

This is a Japanese beer (can't make out the entire name thanks to Junichi who commented on this post, I was told that this beer is called is  Koshihikari Echigo. Thanks Junichi!) which he liked; it was pretty light.

TC got the Udon Nabeyaki with shrimp tempura. She liked that the heads were attached and had a fun time sucking the juice from the head after viciously tearing it off with her teeth. Look Mommy! Heh.

I should try this next time because I like the thickness of the udon noodles.

Bert got the lemongrass chicken with some sort of wild rice mix instead of white rice. He really really liked this dish. I think the plate is too damn huge though.

I also ordered the same thing as TC but instead of udon noodles, got it with soba. This was $6.36 while the udon was $8. The Lemongrass chicken was $10 something. So, the cheapest item ended up being free. My gripe about the shrimp tempura was that the batter was way too thick instead of nice and light. It tasted "too fried". I also enjoyed sucking the shrimp juice from the head! Please, no nastay jokes here.

Look at that steam rising from the soup! It was so flavorful with these really tasty mushrooms inside plus an egg (that whitish thing). When I poked it, the yolk spilled out so I mixed it into my soup which made the flavor so much better. I normally don't like runny eggs, but in this case, it was really good.

We were served the complimentary ice cream as dessert. The two choices were Mint Chocolate Chip and Green Tea. I thought the mint was a wierd flavor to pair with the mango and strawberry purees and fruit.

Again, our server, the owner was super nice. She remembered me and TC from before and was happy that we brought along Bert.

I think I like eating here at lunch much better. Not as crowded. It was fkg crowded that night and with all the people packed in here, was noisy as fk as well. But the buzz was positive. Not too many families out though.

While we were waiting earlier, we noticed the ice cream place next door. So that's where we were going next...

JNC Pinoy Foodmart

Ah, the local Filipino food joint...It used to be called Pacific Food Mart back in the mid 90's. Then in the early 2000's, this whole little building complex burned down. The flower shop Duffodils never returned once the complex was rebuilt. The Domino's is still there but the copy shop is gone and now there is a computer repair place. Turns out that there was "faulty wiring" in the Filipino place that caused the fire. Sucks eh.

Anyhow, the place has new owners with a new name. I like going here to get snacks or last minute ingredients like Mama Sita's mixes (Afritada, Menudo, Sinigang - Tamarind and Guava flavors), or Magnolia ice cream (now that nearby North Park Produce stopped carrying Filipino ice creams), and food from their steamtables. They always have a good selection. On weekends, they have a outside grill on for grilled pork or chicken skewers.

This is in the same strip mall that is right in front of Southwestern College. There used to be a Henry's here but now the store is vacant. There is also Yokoz (which sux royally since the owners changed! Don't go there!) and Pho Convoy Noodle House (our "go to" Vietnamese place when I don't want to cook).

I had TC along with me after picking her up from school. I needed some sinigang packets and was looking for ube jam (which they didn't have unfortunately). Here's a shot of their steam tables. They had so many good choices there (adobo, sisig, sinigang, fried fish, menudo, afritada, mechado, bittermelon with shrimp, pinakbet, pancit, longanisa, lumpia and fkng a - they had dinuguan!!!!)....

What I wanted to try was their Sariwang Lumpia ("fresh" lumpia", meaning not fried; the wrappers are also different).

Here it is...this is an item you will hardly see in Filipino places. Usually wrapped with wax paper, fresh lumpia consists of a thin crepe wrapped around sauteed juliened carrots and sweet potato, pork, shrimp, celery, and served with a sweet soy-garlic sauce (cornstarch based).

I've seen some recipes that call for "ubod" which are coconut palm hearts. You can buy them canned here. When we were young, my mom used to make fresh lumpia on special occasions. She made the wrappers so paper thin on her electric skillet. Her sauce was so damn good too. She also put green beans in there. As you probably figured out, every mom does it differently.

Here's the "fresh" lumpia opened up. I didn't like how they wrapped the waxed paper. I'm used to it just encasing the roll, not folded and tucked into it, forcing you to open it and making it kind of messy to eat and ruining the look. At least for me. It still tasted good.

I love all the different vegetables in there along with the crunchy peanuts. These were $2.99 each. TC drowned hers in the sauce. She never had this type of lumpia before which is why I got one for each of us. Plus, I was kind of hungry!

Here's some of the Mama Sita's and Knorr mixes I bought ranging from .80 to .90 each.

And just like the dude at Leocynn's Lumpia, JNC also had a shelf with religious figures. The 2nd one is Our Lady of Penafrancia (the Patroness of Bicol, a region in the Philippines known for their spicy food such as the "Bicol Express"). The third one is the Santo Nino. Don't know what the first and last figurines are. I'm a bad Catholic. Ha ha. Well, growing up, even though we went to church every Sunday, our parents at least didn't force us to do the rosary or have a shrine with statues, flowers or the Santo Nino. We weren't that religious actually.

The last time I had Sariwang Lumpia was at a friend's baby's birthday party. His mother made it and when I saw the huge tray laden with the wrapped fresh lumpias with the lettuce peeking out, my stomach did cartwheels of joy. It's just not that common of a party food because it is kind of time consuming to make, but it's really worth it to eat it!!! This is one Filipino food that I really like eating but hardly ever do because it's so hard to find. I'd pick this over fried lumpia!

Do any of you like certain Filipino dishes and if so, what are they and why do you like them?

More songs from the CD that TORC made me:


Prefab Sprout comes from, of course, England, the country with the coolest bands EVER! This hidden gem is the second song from their 1985 album, "Steve McQueen". Man, I have to hand it to TORC for introducing me to these bands. Of course, these songs are from the 80's, so it's right up my era. After the 90's, music really started to go downhill in my opinion.

The Go-Betweens were from Australia (another country which produces cool bands like AC/DC, the Church, the Divinyls, Jet, Icehouse, Silverchair, and Wolf Mother). "Right Here" came out during my junior year in high school, 1986 (the same year Bert and I watched our first movie, "Pretty in Pink" in the theatres). I could kick myself for not even knowing about this band. The video says "1987" but I looked up their discography and this song came out in 1986. So there.

Pizzeria Luigi & Eclipse

For Halloween lunch, we decided to finally try this place out, Pizzeria Luigi on El Cajon. It's right next to Eclipse Chocolate and right around the corner from Alabama Street which has Mama's Bakery and Lesbianese Deli.

There were so many choices. Good thing all three of us were here. My mind was already scheming on how to "maximize" our choices. The lunch special is $6 for 2 slices of pizza and a soda. Sounds a'ight to me. So....

I snuck in some photos while Bert ordered our slices...It was Charger game day and yes, we won against the Tennessee Titans, which has localboy and Filipino American offensive lineman, Eugene Amano, who hails from the RB area. Because not enough tickets were sold, the game was BLACKED OUT so Bert had to just listen to the radio in the car and at home to get the details on the game.

There's two locations of Pizzeria Luigi - Golden Hill and this one. We'll have to try the other location one day.


These were my two slices - Spinach with ricotta cheese and Ricotta with mushrooms. Sofa King Good!!! Loved the texture of the cheese. The only thing I didn't like was the end of the crust - too hard. But I loved how thin the crust was and the slice wasn't so big that I would need to fold it.

Here are TC's choices - the Pineapple with Ham and the Sausage with Olives, which I ended picking off her plate when she wasn't looking. Fk, okay, when she WAS looking! She's not an olive fan anyways!

Bert got Sausage and Cheese along with the Three Meat Pizza (ground sausage, pepperoni slices and  sliced sausage!). The three meat slice was great! I wish they would make that but with spinach on top.

Just let your eyes gaze upon these slices of perfection...

Huminah huminah...(and welcome to the Gun Show!)

Of course, we had to have dessert too and since it was right next door and since we didn't want to drive anywhere else, we went to Eclipse. I've been there so many times, I can't even count and I don't feel like hyperlinking my past visits, although one memorable time was back in April with the Educator GF's took me out for my birthday. That was the same day as the fkg table fiasco at Que Huong.

We got the Cocoa Nib Rocher  ("Roh roh roh! Say that in a pretentious French accent) which they touted as "vegan" and "gluten free", but I didn't give a flying fk about those qualities because I'm not a vegan and I am not allergic to wheat products. I wanted it because it looked like an anemic cow patty with tiny little brown sprinkles on top. Plus, it was kind of merenguey (yes, I just made up that word dammit). It was $2 and super sweet. In fact, so sweet that we could only manage a few bites before boxing it up as leftovers.

This was the Burnt Caramel Marshmallow cupcake. First of all, the marshmallow is not really the main event. It's just the topper. But it's a handmade marshmallow which TC devoured. She wasn't too crazy about the filling, which I really enjoyed. The caramel had that nice "burnt" flavor which tasted awesome with the dark chocolate cake and the ganache frosting. I only finished half of this. Too sweet.

Bert's cupcake was the Espresso - complete with espresso beans on top. Very nice and bitter. The cupcake, not Bert.

There's that Rocher again...Wacka wacka wacka!

The Eclipse employees were getting ready for their 3rd Anniversary Dinner so they were cleaning up and getting the tables ready.

Would we go back to Pizzeria Luigi? A definite yes. We plan to try the other types of pizza and Bert wants to try some of their beer selection as well...

Who else ate at this location of Pizzeria Luigi?

Roger from The Fifth Deadly Sin went here back in July 2008
and Darwin and Ange from Eat, Darwin, Eat! went this summer...

While these folks went to the Golden Hill location:
Mary from Foodies - A Southern California Food Blog
Ms Cinda from Cherry Blossoms in my Dreams

and the Food Ho from The Pork Porn Pages went back in early Jan 2009 but I didn't know if it was the Golden Hill or El Cajon Blvd location.

Songs that are running through my mind right now:
"Honeydrip" by Ian McCullough (former lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen - I love his voice!)
and "Tears" by The Chameleons UK (a postpunk British band that I should know about, but sadly didn't).

OMG! ALL of the BEST 80's bands are from the UK!!!


These songs are courtesy of a CD that TORC made for me and I must say that she outdid herself. I only knew about 3 or 4 songs on that whole CD! She included some bands I hadn't heard of or weren't too familiar with like the Chameleons UK along with Prefab Sprout and Julian Cope. She also threw in some obscure ditties by Gary Numan (no, not the song "Cars"), Big Country (no, not "In a Big Country"), Gang of Four, Killing Joke, and the Lightning Seeds. TORC, your musical taste is just as awesome as mine! (Thank you, thank you verrry much said in slurred Elvis accent)