Pho Hiep Grill

TC and I ate at the newly opened Pho Hiep Grill on Telegraph Canyon Road today. It's in the Vons strip mall near the 805 exit, next to a crappy Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me, so no photos in here. A more detailed post to follow, by which time, I hope to have made a second (or a third, if warranted) visit. We had the goi cuon (fresh Spring roll), Bun with Chargrilled shrimp and eggroll and Chargrilled beef with rice. The last entree was intended to be Bert's dinner. We had an early dinner today, around 4:45. I picked her up early from school so we could do errands. By the time we left about 45 minutes later, the restaurant was full. Like I said, a more detailed post with pics to follow.

Supposed to rain tomorrow. Rain is fine as long as I'm in the safety of my home, but we're going to 2 events tomorrow. I hope it doesn't rain while we're on the road. Yeah, like that'll happen.

Well, time to watch some swill TV.

Update

It's been awhile since I last blogged. Been busy with work. It's finals week for the students. The new semester begins next week and so begins another round of anticipated phone calls and meetings with parents and students who failed and are PO'd and need new classes. Ah, the fun.

I started a new hobby - jewelry making. To be more specific as to which type of jewelry, I plan to make earrings for fun. I've made a few already and sold a couple to one of my co-workers. Maybe it was out of pity! Kidding. She makes bracelets I am still practicing how to make round loops on top of beads. I spent a pretty penny at Michael's Craft store buying clearanced out beads, mostly glass and millefiore. I'm just in the experimental stage and don't plan on this being any sort of moneymaking venture.

Sucks about them Chargers! No Super Bowl for them!

By the way, TC now has eyeglasses. Was diagnosed as nearsighted after having her eye exam last week. Last June she had 20/20, but 2 weeks ago, complained to her teacher that she couldn't read the board. The nurse checked her and advised us to get her eyes checked. Yikes. According to the eye doctor, children can become eyesighted during growth spurts. In her case, her eyeballs grew "too long". We just picked up her eyeglasses today. They're cute metallic pink frames with purple glittery temples. The only thing I didn' like was the "faux" purse eyeglass case. It says "Princess" on it, and I hate that princess girl stereotype shit, but oh well. I plan to give her one of my old cases. That purse case doesn't look strong enough and I'm afraid that her glasses may get crushed in her backpack because the "case" is a bit flimsy.

Tonight, American Idol's San Diego auditions, which were held this past summer. My nephew tried out and didn't make it past the first cut. I wonder if I'll recognize anyone on tonight's show.

New ingredients tried the past few weeks (in keeping with my New Year's Resolution of trying either a new ingredient or a new recipe):
FENNEL Bulb (used in a soup)
TURNIP (I bought just one in case I didn't like the flavor - used in the same soup as the fennel)
and this week, I bought a PARSNIP and used it in another soup I made last night.

I also bought the spices Sumac and Zatar from North Park Produce last week and plan to use them soon.

Answer to Greenbox #11

And the answer is:
The offramp from the 5 to Cesar Chavez Parkway and the corner of Kearny Street.

Frida's

[Closed as of 2010 and will be reopening as El Vitral in 2012]

[Update - El Vitral never happened and it is now "Venga Venga" as of 2013]


Today, I went out with my regular lunch bunch at the new Mexican place at the Otay Ranch Mall - Frida's . The occasion? To celebrate the belated birthday of one our members. Another friend had decided on this place and we wanted to stay local (we all live in the general area) since there was heavy rain. We also didn't want to be stuck in traffic due to today's Chargers vs. Titans game (which we won, so now the SD Chargers are in the playoffs...let's see how far they'll go this year). The restaurant just opened in November and is located on the eastern edge of the mall, next to Barnes and Noble bookstore, King's Fish House and the newly opened AMC Theatres. This is the back view (but you can also enter the restaurant through here).
Along the side facing King's Fish House...

The other entrance. Note the high ceilings. To the left (inside) is a hidden courtyard.

Note the pendant rattan ball lamps suspended from the high ceiling. I liked the spacious layout of the restaurant. It must look even more spectacular on a clear and sunny day instead of a Morrisey type day (ie. "Everyday is Like Sunday").

Here's the open courtyard I mentioned earlier. Patio seating surrounds an olive tree for al fresco dining. I'm sure it would be nice eating out here on a nicer day.

To the left of this photo (this was taken towards the back) is the bar area which was empy when we arrived. Multi-candled sconces (ooh, I just made up a new word) flanked several doorways. The walls were stark white which contrasted nicely with brightly colored oversized artwork hanging throughout the restaurant.

The receptionist was very friendly and we were seated in a luxuriously huge leather booth (in a shade of terra cotta). Service was prompt and friendly and we were waited on by at least three separate servers. One thing I noticed was that the restaurant's name was on almost every serving dish, even the salsa boats (aren't these gravy boats? but since they hold salsa...). That's kind of annoying and pretentious. I wasn't sure about the restaurant but was willing to give it a try since none of us had ever been there. I figured it would be more upscale than, let's say a cheap X-berto's taco joint. In keeping the Otay Ranch Mall's upscale theme, I assumed it would be a little more sophisticated and it was. However, this automatically meant that it would be an overpriced Mexican restaurant. Don't get me wrong, eastern Chula Vista is probably glad to have nicer places to eat. To start, we were served tortilla chips with two types of sauces - a spicy red and mild green.

It was empty when we arrived at 12:30 pm but filled up after an hour and a half. I noticed we were the only Asians at this place, although one Caucasian family arrived right before we left. I wonder what the Latinos dining here though about this establishment? There were lots of families with kids ranging from elementary age to teens that day.

View from our booth...kind of dark since sunlight was sparse, plus my flash was off.

We ordered an ensalada (salad) called the Resplandor de Mango to share. These were mixed greens with green grapes, diced mangos, caramelized walnuts and goat cheese with passion fruit dressing. My friends raved on about the goat cheese but I shied away from it and savored the tartness of the mangos with the spring greens. Funny though, in retrospect, I didn't really notice the green grapes in there.

Per my request, the goat cheese and dressing were ordered on the side. Sometimes restaurants drown their salads in dressing and I wasn't sure if I'd like the flavor. In this case, the passionfruit dressing was the selling point for me and now I am going to try to make this dressing myself since this salad is pretty much like a variation of the Waldorf I made last month (my wanna be CPK knockoff with red grapes, candied walnuts, crumbled blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette).

Can you tell what restaurant we're eating at??? Tell me the name again??? They really want to hammer that fact into you head, eh?! The plates are pretty enough not to be marred with the Frida moniker. This was the "Frida Platter" (yeah, that sounded pretty hokey) which consisted of a combination of Chicken Taquitos, Cheese Quesadillas (isn't that redundant since Quesdadillas are cheese filled tortillas?), Sopes, and guacamole. Mmmm...just what Frida Kahlo would have eaten. Ha ha. While this was a nice little spread, anot to rip this place apart, I couldn't see the difference between this and the cheesy Mexican places in Old Town that serve up similar concoctions of fried whatever. It's the same thing, just gussied up on a nice plate.I ordered the Mole Verde which was a chicken breast in pumpkin seed sauce served with rice (on your left), beans (the dark lump on the right) and a corn meal donut thing filled with Jack Cheese. Actually, that was the best thing on the platter for me. I liked the crispy shell of the corn meal and the mild cheese filling. Looking back, I shouldn't have ordered chicken since I normally find it to be boring, but I was really ordering this dish for the sauce. Plus we were planning to share our bites. I ended up taking it home, but since we made several stops before going home which lasted more than two hours, I found the boxed leftovers rather unappetizing in sight and smell, so I tossed it. It was my $15.95 mistake. The sauce was "okay", nothing too exciting, but again, it's not something I'm used to. Mind you, I'm not a Mexican food expert but I normally don't like my food drowned in sauces especially the generic red and green sauces you find at every Mexican restaurant in town. The best dish I ever had was at La Ranas which had another version of this seed based sauce but with cream and more fire and kick into it. Now that was a sauce to remember. Two of our group ordered this item, which was the Filete al Pescada a la Talle, which (according to their website) is Fish (tilapia?) served in a three chile sauce along with a side of refried plantains, rice and a chayote covered in Jack cheese. My friend, the birthday girl, thought the chayote with cheese was kind of wierd and wasn't sure of it's purpose. Chayote in itself is bland, but to her, she didn't seem to think it added anthing to the meal since the rest of the meal was so heavily spiced compared to it. She was curious about this "anomaly" and mentioned it to the manager on our way out . She felt that he basically brushed her off. He told her that the chayote was bland on purpose and it was to cleanse the palate. Hmmmm, that would have been nice to know and I wonder if the server knew that? She said he did listen to her suggestion but short of rolling his eyes at her, was kind of "Yeah, yeah whatever" about it. Okayyyyy.... I picked off her plate for the refried plantains which were on the sweet side.

The last dish was the Filete Tampiquena. I didn't take notes since I thought the description would be on the website but it's not. I wish I could tell you what the sauce was and what the steak rested on but you can see your basic sides - guacamole, rice and beans. I'll have to find out and post later.We ordered two desserts, the first of which was the Flan (Mexican style caramel custard). Not being a fan of cinnamon, I wasn't too fond of this. Filipinos normally don't put cinnamon in flan. To me, flan is flan and I usually try to order something different. What's the name of this place again? I forgot! The second dessert was the Crepas con Cajeta. They really doused this with the cajeta which my friend said tasted kind of 'goaty' like the goat cheese they had with the salad earlier. Cajeta is sometimes made from goat's milk. I actually found the cajeta palatable, but a little too thick and syrupy for my tastes. Although it's hard to see, there are walnuts in the topping hidden under the powdered sugar.

Before leaving, we had to check out the lavatory. Cool sinks, similar to the one I saw at The Guild last year. Nice touch with the river rocks embedded in the walls.

There were three side by side stalls, plus one stall in the corner. My only gripe is that there are no purse hooks on the backs of the doors. It would have been nice to have one of those because I dislike putting my purse on the floor. I know that this place is still new and all, but yuck, a bathroom floor can harbor a lot of germs!

It was worth a look see but I don't know if I'd go again. Still, it's a nice option to have an upscale option for Mexican food at the mall . After lunch, we went to Borders to use a 30% coupon I had burning a hole in my pocket. I ended up getting a Vietnamese cookbook. Our birthday girl had a hankering for more dessert so we drove over to Eduard's in the Heritage area of Otay Ranch. Closed. Bummer. So we drove back to the mall and ended up at Cheesecake Factory for dessert only. We sat at the bar area where we saw LaDanian Tomlinson make what looked like a touchdown in the 4th quarter. The TD was challenged and didn't count. However, the Chargers ended up making a touchdown soon after, which was quite exciting for the fans (and workers) who eagerly watched the TV screens.

As if our earlier desserts weren't enough, we were back for more. My friends ordered two desserts - the Tiramisu, seen here in this horrid photo. Can you even see the damn thing? It's buried under all those vestigial squirts of whippped cream. Totally unnecessary, like they're hiding a bad mistake. Almost reminiscent of cats burying their clumpy little dumps. Sorry, bad comparison. This was really a travesty and to be honest, I'm not a fan of Cheesecake Factory, stemming from my disdain for chain restaurants that serve soulless food to the masses. Maybe this is someone else's idea of what a fancy dessert should like this but sheeyit people, there could be anything under this mess.

This was the Lemoncello Tort, which you notice is also festooned with the everpresent whipped cream puff of doom. This dessert was decent - not too tart and not overly sweet either. I had more of this than the ersatz tiramisu abomination.

Despite the rather inclement weather, nothing beats hanging out with several of my good friends to forget the gloomy rain. We've known each other through our professional associations for over ten years. Because all of us are in education but with different professions, we're all on the same wavelength with lots of amusing and sometimes horrifying anecdotes to share amongs ourselves. We couldn't make some of this stuff up - Boston Public has nothing on our combined share of battle stories. It's kind of nice to have that camaraderie going. Next month, Russian/Georgian food at Pomegranate!

Round 3

This weekend, we had lunch at a friends' home; their son is a classmate of TC's. We'd been rotating our homes for get togethers during vacation. Before Christmas, we hosted with Korean food. The following week was another couple who did Mexican food. Yesterday was Italian. They ordered from Buca de Beppo's downtown. We've never eaten there before. There was a huge spread, from pizza...
to Chicken Parmigiana (I hope I spelled that correctly),

Penne Pasta with artichokes in a cream sauce (Alfredo I think),

and Seafood (Frutto di Mare) Linguini. Wow!

For dessert, there was Halo-Halo. Our hostess made several items for the Halo-Halo toppings. These are bananas cooked in a sugar syrup.

Not pictured is her fabulous flan. If you've ever been to Conching's in National City, they put flan in their Halo Halo. The two bowls in front had canned and sliced Jackfruit (langka) and Pinipig (pounded and toasted rice krisps). From left to right - the jars - just like the kind they put in shave ice in Hawaii), and White Kaong (palm nuts). You can kind of see the stacked containers of purple ube. We just shaved ice, got the ingredients we wanted, and put in either a scoop of either Magnolia Ube or Mais (corn) ice cream and poured a bit of evaporated milk on the top. Yum! Even though it was a cold and wet day, the Halo Halo still hit the spot!

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of an assembled Halo Halo dessert glass but you get the picture.

Bargain at North Park Produce

I just have to rave about North Park Produce again. I was there the other day and picked up some vegetables along with spices. I thought I'd be paying a lot more than $18!!! I bought a fennel bulb (I've never cooked fennel EVER) for .60, one bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley for .25, 2 bags of carrots, celery, some fruit, and spices (garam masala, cumin, turmeric, sumac). Now I have an excsue to use those spices so I can try out new recipes. I have Padma Lakshmi's "Easy Exotic" and some of the recipes call for those items. My New Year's Resolution is to try at least one new ingredient or recipe per week. I think I'm going to like shopping at North Park - it's so close to home and the prices are right and the produce is fresh. It's fun to go through the aisles and check out unfamiliar products. I still can't get over the fact that they have Filipino stuff there. That is a godsend because I don't have to drive to Seafood City or even to Pinoy Food Mart to get my Filipino vegetable staples or Magnolia ice cream!

Zebra at the Zoo

A few days ago, I took TC to the zoo...and we saw something quite "interesting" at the zebra exhibit. Look closely...

To see this sight in "action", click here (apparently, many others have seen this and chose to upload it to YouTube!).
We didn't have an upclose look like the video's perspective. We were actually looking up at a distance at the bottom of a hill. We were at a bench eating our homemade sandwiches for lunch. Lo and behold, we looked up and noticed the rather long appendange dangling from the zebra's nether regions, but all of a sudden, the appendage began to swing forward and backward! It was hilarious, but also awkward because I had to tell my daughter that it wasn't a "leg" or a long piece of "poo" (her guesses). Uh, yeah...that was something I never thought I had to explain.

All is quiet...on New Year's Day

We all slept until 10 am!!!! Then after crawling sluggishly out of bed and hastily fixing ourselves, we went over to my parents house for New Year's Day Lunch. It was strange not having both of my siblings there. It was just my sis and her two boys. My bro and his two boys weren't able to make it, so it wasn't as lively as it could have been. My bro makes really good mongo by the way. So, my parents kept it simple this New Year's. My mom made a turkey with gravy and stuffing (not pictured) and per my request, good ole mom made Pork Estofado (pork braised in soy sauce, vinegar and sugar) with dried Lily blossoms. She hasn't made this in a really long time so it meant a lot to me that she made this dish. It's basically the same ingredients as adobo. Look at that pork fat! Oh yeahhhh...
BBQ beef skewers...Some were burnt, I mean caramelized!

I ended up eating the BBQ beef leftovers a few days later (since I was still enjoying the pork estofado) with rice, red leaf lettuce and kojuchang. Kind of like bbq beef lettuce wraps.

Traditionally, my mom makes arroz caldo but she didn't make it this year. She also usually makes miswa noodle soup with meatballs. Again, M.I.A. this year. However, she didn't forget to make Palitao! This is a glutinous rice dessert. You boil the rice balls (uh, that sounded kind of funny), wait 'til they float and roll them in sugar and grated coconut. Because my parents are old school, I know that bought a fresh coconut and grated that damn thing themselves on their little coconut grater stool. Even though the sesame seeds were missing, these tasted just as good! They're better warm rather than cold. You can't really keep leftovers of these because fresh grated coconut spoils quickly!

Round things are said to bring good luck, hence the Palitao. My mom also buys grapes and oranges and wears something polka dotted because the round dots represent money or prosperity. I have a vintage photo of my mom in a terno dancing in her town's fiesta. She was a young teacher in the early 60's and still single. Her terno, compared to the other women who had traditional floral, beaded, sequined or lace patterns was quite different. The terno had a huge polka dot pattern throughout the entire dress, even on the butterfly sleeves. I'll have to post that one day. It's quite a striking image to see such a nontraditional pattern on a very traditional dress.

I didn't take a photo of it, but my dad also bought Queso de Bola (aka, Edam Cheese) which is also something they haven't done in a long time! He served it with red grapes and crackers. It was a pretty mellow day and after a few hours, we packed up our "take home" boxes of leftovers and went home to just relax even more.

New Year's Eve & Almeijoas

For the first time, we didn't spend New Year's Eve with our regular group of friends. No one had party plans this year. Our great neighbors across the street invited us over for the Portuguese version of tapas and light snacks before ushering in the New Year. Our neighbors bought their home in our neighborhood a few months before we moved in. We are both original homeowners and this year marks the 10th year of this neighborhood. They are a very fascinating couple with two beautiful girls. The wife is Mexican American, raised in Chula Vista and her husband is Portuguese, but born and raised in Angola (in Africa). They met in Armenia (through their respective jobs) and courted each other in Angola and other parts of Africa. They all speak three languages. They are not only good neighbors, but people we are glad to be friends with. We can trust them with our daughter and vice versa and we watch out for each other, like all good neighbors should do. Unfortunately, not everyone on our street is as nice as them, but that's another post or rant for the future. My friend bought some of her tapas appetizers at Fresh & Easy such as the sliced Spanish chorizo, the pimiento stuffed manzanilla olives (oops, not pictured) and sliced of Serrano Jamon.
There were also American buffalo wings, sliced provolone cheese and also an Armenian braided cheese (Fresh & Easy) which was cut up in smaller pieces here, smoked salmon with capers, and a small plate of crackers. This is the Rosca de Reyes cake which is eaten traditionally during the holidays by Latinos. In Spanish, it is called Rosca de Reyes, but according to my neighbor's husband, they call it Bola de Rey in Portuguese. Normally the baby Jesus is baked inside the cake, but this one was outside. If you get the piece with JC, then you are supposed to host the next party. The colored strips you see on top of the pastry are dried fruit strips (guava and I forget the other flavors). The bread is kind of like Brioche. We've never had it before and we actually didn't eat it that night. Bert enjoyed it a few days later with his coffee.

Now this was a dish I really enjoyed. She made a Portuguese shellfish dish called "Almeijoas". These are supposed to be made with a certain kind of clam, but since they're not found here in the U.S., she used Manila clams instead. First you heat extra virgin olive oil in a pan with garlic slices.

Once the oil and garlic are a bit browned, add the clams and cover until they open.

Before serving, squeeze lemon juice on top and sprinkle chopped Italian flat leaf parsley. Serve with bread to mop up the sauce!

I've also seen version of this recipe where you can add white wine to the dish while the clams steam. In this version, it's just clams simmered in oil. I'm sure it's good both ways! We had white wine with this (as a beverage) and later on, a small shot of Porto.

While the adults were yakking away (yes, that's us), enjoying the food and all, the girls were at times, playing the Wii or ensconced in one of the bedrooms making a "tent" with chairs and blankets and playing Explorer. We watched on TV as the crystal ball dropped in Times Square, wearing silly hats and waving noisemakers. The girls had a blast. TC is normally never up this late and we all crashed when we got home. Luckily it was a short walk and we weren't drunk or anything. Here's to 2008 and hope that this year was better than the last! I resolve to try a new recipe at least once a week! Either that or a new ingredient. Let's see if I can do it.

Who you callin' PUTO?

Hey what's up Puto!!! No, dude, not that kind of puto! I'm talkin' 'bout these Pinche Putos right here! Last weekend we had dinner at a friends' house. The same friends we hosted the weekend before (their kids are TC's classmates). Our hostess made these puto from Bisquick! I need to get the recipe from her because they tasted very good! They didn't have that wierd ricey taste that regular puto has (which I still like, by the way). No, there wasn't any diniguan to eat this with, if you're into that. The theme that night was tacos, and like a doofus, I didn't take any actual photos of a taco, but just the accoutrements: chopped onions, cilantro and the pickeled carrots. The carrots were courtesy of El Tigre supermarket in Chula Vista.

The meat was also purchased at El Tigre supermarket in Chula Vista - chicken and carne asada, grilled and chopped up by her cleaver wielding husband.
Same with the chips and salsa. My friend made the excellent guacamole which was so good that if I didn't stop myself, I would have hogged it up and had that just for dinner alone. Sad picture, eh. The chips were not those cheap ass ones that are thin and fall apart when you dunk them into dip. These tortilla chips were thick cut pieces of the tortilla, they were salty and they had heft! Bring on that guac and salsa dip! Lower right corner - Boy Bawang Chichacorn! Like tiny corn nuts but with garlic flavor, courtesy of one of their relatives who had just returned from the Philippines

Another fun night spent with friends. Next weekend (which is actually today as I post this) is the next couple's turn to host.

Jacques Torres chocolates

Our friends N and L from NYC (Astoria, Queens) visited last week and she was quite generous with the chocolate gifts. This was a gift bag from the Jacques Torres chocolate store, just a few steps away from her work.
6 oz Dark Chocolate covered almonds dusted with cocoa powder ($6.50) + the Coffee Break Chocolate Bar ($4.50). We've tried the almonds already and they are addicting! Dark chocolate and almonds are one of the best combinations in the candy world!

A cute bag of milk chocolate covered Cheerios ($5.00). TC loved these. Now this should be the breakfast of champions. These chocolatey tidbits are already gone!

According to N, this item is one of her favorites, the Dark Chocolate Covered Cornflakes ($5.00). Another item that has already been scarfed down, sorry to say.

I could make these myself so I can eat them any time I want to instead of waiting every Christmas! These would be so easy to make too.