The Answer!

It's been nearly 2 weeks since I posted this question, "Where is this greenbox located?"
The answer: On the corner of University Avenue and the Southbound onramp to 805.

HOPR Ethnic Food Fair

Earlier today we went to the Ethnic Food Fair at Balboa Park, which is sponsored by the House of Pacific Relations. We had been going for years (even before TC was born); we started bringing her when she was two so she could be exposed to different foods. This year we went with one of her classmates and his parents. Although parking was filled to capacity by the Organ Pavilion which is adjacent to the event and the neighboring International Cottages, we ended up parking a short distance away behind the Hall of Champions. Meanwhile, in the grassy area across from Balboa Hospital, the bigtop was up as the Fern Street Circus was in full swing that day. We arrived by 11 am and immediately headed over to the Latin American booths.

This booth was selling pastries and drinks:

Bert ended up buying a shwarma (I hope I spelled that right) here ($3 or $4):

Isn't this supposed to be served with a yogurt sauce? Well, if it was, it was missing! Despite the dryness, he enjoyed the grilled meat with peppers.

We passed by this booth,

as well as this one. We were kind of looking around first before making our choices. Lines were still short. I noticed that House of France was missing. They usually serve crepes. Also MIA were the Houses of Iran and India - which I was hoping they'd be there...

Where's the HAGGIS?

This smelled really good! But, we got caught up watching a Philippine dance performance by students from Morse High School.

One of our first food purchases was the sausage sandwich with sauerkraut ($4) from...

Hungary!

TC and her friend had the lettu which is a Finnish pancake ($3 or was it $1.50?). They were also selling blueberry soup. I think I'll have to try that next time. It sounded interesting!

I was bummed because the pastellilos (their version of an 'empanada') weren't ready and I had already paid for 3 of them at $3 a pop! I was told I had to come back half an hour later...

Instead, I came back 10 minutes later and luckily the pastellilos were done! Piping hot! Spiced beef filling with onions and potatoes!

We liked the Puerto Rican pastellilo the best over the other Latin Countries' version of empanadas. I think Columbia makes their crust with corn meal. I didn't like it. This was flour and was light and flaky! Argentina's crust was too dough-y.

Lines were mercifully short for their paella ($6):

My clam was missing the meat! Boo! But the rest of the meat sufficed! Chicken drummette, mussel and bits of shrimp and squid.

This year, instead of buying my pastries from the Scandinavian countries, I bought this dessert plate ($2.50) from the Czech Republic. Clockwise from left: apple strudel, poppyseed cake and a prune filled cookies (made me regular, just kidding).

More homemade goodies from the Czech Republic:Baklava coming up...

Now these were goooood! There's pistachio on the left and walnut on the right ($1 each):

House of Israel:

More baklava...Forgot how much this cost (it was Bert doing this food run):

We smelled sausage!

TC and her classmate shared a choripan which is a sausage sandwich

crusty bread ($4):
Her classmate's mom bought an empanada:

And last but not least after our alfresco picnic, we all visited the Aerospace Museum. Forget about the Spirit of St. Louis, Fokker planes, the Lunar Rover and Gemini! What ruled was the PSA Stewardess Outfit Exhibit! Groovy baby! Shagadelic!

Memorial Weekend BBQ

Yesterday we had our yearly Memorial Weekend BBQ with our group of regulars. The theme was Korean food. Here are the red lettuce leaves for the bulgogi wraps.
I went to Zion the day before (after having lunch at Pho Hoacalli Express with Bert) and bought the bulgogi meat, pre-marinated kalbi ribs and ready-made panchan. Hey, I wanted the food prep to be as easy as possible. Here's the potato salad from Zion (it had Asian pear in it).

I also bought marinated perilla leaves ('shiso' in Japanese).

In addition, I bought seasoned spinach (it had sesame oil and seeds). The stems were too stringy though.

Here's that kojuchang. Witha smidgen of this potent paste, Lotus made the sauce for the bulgogi lettuce wraps using some of the paste, soy sauce (I had reduced sodium), sesame oil, 1 garlic clove and sugar. What was missing were sesame seeds. Not to worry because it tasted pretty good without it. Sorry, no kimchi!

For dessert we had fresh cherries:

The non Korean meat item was our bbq'd chicken thighs (with skin on). What I did first was marinate the thighs in teriyaki marinade. Bert bought a jug of it at Costco (I forgot the brand, but it was teriyaki marinade with sesame and ginger). I added half a bottle (the small one) of Mafran banana ketchup (it would also be good with the spicy Mafran). Slather the sauce over the meat, making sure to push the sauce under the skin. Let it marinate overnight. The next day, bake it was 350 F for about 45 minutes...Then finish it off on the grill and baste with the sauce it baked in (bad grammar, I know). Here it is right out of the oven...

And after being grilled by my husband Bert...That carcinogenic BBQ'd skin was good!

As promised, Lotus made her chapchae. You can read her "how to recipe" right here ! It was so good - it had carrots, spinach, mushrooms, beef...I'm getting hungry just looking at this photo!

Note to self, buy the 5up sliced bulgogi meat next time. I bought the 10up (which are sliced pretty thin). When I marinated the meat, I think I put too much bulgogi marinade. Then, when I tried to separate the slices to put them in the pan, it all turned to mush. In any case, it was still eaten by our guests. I wasn't happy with how this turned out, but it still tasted good.

Here's a shot of the kalbi ribs

Mulysa was kind enough to bring some pork bulgogi (also from Zion).

It was funny, she was at Zion the same day I went (only at a different time); same with Lotus. Bert grilled the meat but it probably would have been easy to do this up in a pan.

What I had on my plate, a bit of potato salad, Lotus's excellent chapchae, a kalbi rib piece, white rice, a lettuce leaf with a bit of the chili paste and bulgogi and spinach. I was grazing.

Next party will be lumpia - I'll make it if Lotus fries it!

Pho Hoacali Express

[Update - Is now renamed as "Pho Cow Calli"]

Last Friday I was off (yay, 4 day weekends rule!) so I met Bert for lunch up in his neck of the woods. We went to Pho Hoacali Express on Black Mountain Road in Mira Mesa. It's quick, it's cheap and it's filling.
Located in the Black Mountain Village strip mall.

I've always liked their green chopsticks, so much that I bought a pack actually from World Market last year (near Pho Ca Dao on University). When we walked in, Bert held up two fingers to the waiter and we were quickly ushered to table 19 all the way in the back. I had a nice view of the bathroom! : )

Here's my view of the restaurant. It was only 11:15 am (yes, early) so it wasn't packet yet. By the time we left, it was filled with customers.

Their happy cow menu:

Murals of Vietnam near our table:

We ordered the fresh spring rolls for our appetizer. Looks like they were stingy with the shrimp. Most places put 3; we only had 2!

I liked their sauce and the crunchy peanuts!

Bert's pho condiments. You can't see too much of it, but there is the saw leaf herb underneath the basil.

Our meal is almost a repeat of what we had a Phuong Trang earlier that week. Bert had pho with flank while I had bun (not pictured just yet)

We both ordered Vietnamese iced coffee (espresso actually) with condensed milk. In a rare faux pas at Pho Hoacalli, the waiter brought out only 1 of the coffees (the one on the right). You could see that the coffee had already dripped down. I had to ask for the other one and boy, did they put a load of condensed milk in that one! What the hell man.

Espresso grounds...You can buy these metal contraptions at Vien Dong for about $1.50 (well, that's how much I remember paying for it back in '95):

The coffee mixed into the glass of ice and mixed up:

The waiter not only forgot to bring out both iced coffees at the same time, but he also mixed up my order. He brought Bert's pho and a steaming bowl of curried something, which I didn't order. That caused some confusion and he had to get another waiter to spoke English to speak to me and I had to clarify my order. I ordered bun with the char grilled shrimp and fried eggrolls.

I ended up getting my order several minutes later. Hopefully, not with a big juicy logey mixed into it. I watched 'Waiting'; I know that pissed off chefs do...As Eddie Murphy said in "Comedian": "I make special won ton soup for YOU!"

Here's that great fried and crunchy pork fat I love!

I enjoyed having a day off, although sans TC because her school only had a 3-day weekend. Well, school (and work for me) will be done in 3 weeks! I'm counting the days!