S3, Rudfords & Embargo Grill revisits

Some of these pix are from a few months ago...

which got put on the back burner and are now just being churned out, heh heh...

Lunch round up - Carnival, Halphen Red, Los Pollos, Pho Convoy, Cali Baguette, the food court in Su Mercado, Sandwich Bags Deli, Gunco Ramen and Mandarin

Time to clear out the memory card before the end of the year,

featuring past lunches...

Tropical Star Revisit

Last night TC was enjoying homecoming...

After dropping her off, it was time to do a revisit to Tropical Star!

Havana Grill

It's finally Fall Break (yeehaw!)...

TC's school had their homecoming game that evening so we had date night...

Return to the Blue Pig & Porto's

We'd been here before...

this cute little vintage store on Magnolia...

Return to the Cravory & Embargo Grill

After demolishing the whole coffee program at Mostra and appeasing D's desire to windowshop for home furnishings...we made our way to this strip mall for a two fer...

Maximize our time, I say....

After all those sweets, we wanted something savory...

Return to Andres and Gelato Vero Caffe

TC was watching a play for extra credit for school which meant...

date night for a few hours, so off we went to Linda Vista...

Return to the LA Roadtrip - January 2015 Day 2 Porto's & cool window art @ Creature Features

Everytime we stay overnight in Burbank...

we always make sure to go to Porto's...

It's across the bridge on their  main drag, Magnolia St...

Embargo Grill + The Cravory

While it was cloudy and gloomy down in Chula Vista and in central San Diego, it was sunny and verging on almost warm in Point Loma...

Lunch and dessert with Kirbie was on the agenda and it would be killing two birds with one stone. If you look above, you will see both of our destinations that day.

Return to Porto's - Burbank

Back to the Food Road Trip with D from several weeks ago.

Since we were in the area, we went here...

Oh yeah, Porto's once again!

Porto's - Burbank

Finally! My LAST post on our Summer Road Trip!

As mentioned in the previous post, the next day was Father's Day. Instead of eating the spaghetti and pizza leftovers from Guido's, we got up early so we could go to Porto's in Burbank.

Thankfully it was only a few minutes away and we were able to snag some coveted parking in their private lot!

Day 9 Highlights...

Even though we returned last week, here are acouple of shots from the last day of our trip...

Last Sunday was Father's Day so we went out to breakfast at a local Cuban place in LA...

Two words.

Potato ballz.

Dinner was spent at my parents...Here's good ole' dad making some mini omelettes with seasoned ground beef and mixed peppers...

The Filipino "tortilla" (pronounced 'tor-teel-ya'; the double "ll's" are not pronounced as "y's", which is the Spanish pronunciations) - is basically a simple egg dish in which you can put any filling you want (meat, seafood, vegetables), which are then cooked into the beaten eggs. Sometimes my mom would saute onions, tomatoes, and garlic and fold that into the eggs. That used to be one of my favorite childhood dishes. If they wanted to get fancy, they'd add ground beef and peas. It's kind of like a way to get rid of leftovers as well.

I can't believe I have two weeks left of vacation then it's back to the grind...

Andres Restaurant

[went to this place the same day we went to the Brewhouse for Thane's 40th - 7/3]
Even when the economy wasn't so bad, we would always use coupons from those entertainment book fundraiser things. Here's one such occasion when we used one...at Andres Restaurant on Morena Blvd.
They'd expanded into a bigger restaurant. There is also a Latin market next door, but it was kind of sparse inside.
The reception area of the restaurant. We ate in the smaller section off to the right of this. Behind the counter is a bigger banquet area.
Thank goodness for coupons...
It was also sparse in the dining area but filled up before we left.
Bert asked the waitress what she would recommend for beer - this was her pick, the Bohemia.
I had the Palomillo, which is steak seasoned Cuban style sprinkled with parsley and onions, and served with rice and beans. That was one huge piece of meat. It was sliced thinly though, but still...I didn't want to eat too much since we were going to Thane's shindig later that evening. I loved the seasoning on the meat which went well with the rice. As for the beans, not a big fan of beans in general. I thought the onions would be better caramelized.
This was Bert's dish - the pork with rice and pigeon peas. His rice was much better than mine and we ended up getting a little off each others' plate. We figured our plates would be subtantial, so TC shared our food as well. That's the beauty of these 2 for 1 coupons. Lots of food for half the cost.
I think we'll be going here again soon! After lunch, we went to the next door market where I bought a few jars of dulce de leche and these round wafer things called "obleas". I've bought them before at Tropical Star...Love them! Sorry no pix of that!

15 Favorite Food Photos

On MMM-Yoso's website, he recently posted his 10 Favorite Photos of Food., as did guestbloggers Ed from Yuma and Cathy from San Diego (but her's was 9). Well, I couldn't pick just 10, so I made mine 15. Here are my favorite food photos over the past few years. Let me add that the photos aren't gallery quality, but just my favorite by virtue of either having been memorable meals whether they were made by me, someone else or at a restaurant or food cart or whatever. Because I'm anal like that, I've included dates in parentheses, which mean nothing to the reader anyways.

Gambas al Ajillo made by yours truly. Spanish style garlic shrimp (11/1/07)
Nem Khao (Laotian fried rice) at Asia Cafe (9/15/07) An assortment of Macarons from Bouchon in the Time Warner Center, NYC (6/26/07)
Shack Burger from the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, NYC (6/27/07)
My Mom's Pinakbet (5/28/07)
Pastelillos from the House of Puerto Rico at Balboa Park's annual International Food Fair (5/27/07)
Fries at the Belgian Frie in Pacific Beach (4/22/07)
Margherita Pizza at Bacione in Hillcrest (4/6/07)
Spring Greens with Seared Citrus Scallops at the now defunct Just Fabulous (current home of Burger Lounge in Kensington)
King Crab Legs at a birthday party (3/17/07)
Rabbit Three Ways at Laurel (2/17/07). This was actually my husband's meal, but I also had a bit of it!
Papaya Salad at the Vietnamese Tet Festival (2/11/07)
Tostones at Habana in La Mesa (9/30/06)
Dinner at my Uncle & Auntie's place in Keaau, Hawaii (BBQ chicken, kalbi ribs, grilled salmon, salad, broccoli, and Hawaiian Sun Passion Lilikoi drink(6/27/06)
Spam Musubi at the Hilo Market (6/28/06)
I could probably include 10 more, but this is it! For now!

Dinner at Habana

[Update - Habana closed maybe a year after this post. It is now The Riviera Supperclub as of 2013]

These posts are a little out of order. I'm finally getting to them tonight...Last Saturday (9/30), before attending the PASACAT Extravaganza at the Joan Kroc Center in La Mesa, we had dinner at Habana, located on 7777 University Ave, which was a few blocks west. This photo was actually taken on Father's Day, where TC and I took Bert. This is a fairly new Cuban restaurant. One of the wrought iron wall hangings...(this photo also from June '06)
We ordered mango nectar (Goya brand). Man, this can had 40+ grams of sugar! Yikes!
I didn't want to eat an actual entree, so I ordered several appetizers to eat with my Habana salad. These are the croquetas, which are deep fried mashed potatos with ground beef and peas inside.
The appetizers came with a trio of sauces. The red one was supposed to be really spicy, but it wasn't. The one at the top of the triangle formation was a light citrus sauce, and in the 4 o'clock position was a mango salsa.
Here are the tostones, which are mashed green plantain rounds which are fried, not once, but twice! The tostones were served with mojo de ajo (garlic sauce).
Ahhh...empanadas. The half moon shaped one was filled with spiced beef, potatoes and peas. The mutant looking one next to it was a three cheese variation. What the hell happened when they formed that one? Unfortunately because of the spinach problem, they weren't serving their spinach/mushroom variety. These were nice and crispy and best of all, FRIED.
This was my Habana salad, which I ordered plain. The dressing actually did come on the side, but I touched it not. Rather plain looking. I wonder what made this particular salad Cuban? The avocados? Perhaps the dressing that I shunned?
Empanada innards....mmmmm
Bert Wolfe ordered the bistek palomillo, which is pan fried steak marinated with garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper. Fried onions are served atop this meaty delight. He selected the arroz con gandules (yellow rice with pigeon peas) and a small side of sweet yams with a crunchy pecan topping (actually, this seemed like American southern cooking). The white rice on his plate came from TC's food because she wanted some of his yellow rice. They did a trade of sorts. We took half of the steak home and it was devoured the next day. Another view of the steak...

Korean and Cuban food

First the Korean food:

Yesterday, TC and I had lunch with Lotus at Buga Korean restaurant. You can read her post about it. Unfortunately my lunch special wasn't that special. It came with a side of chap chae noodles, a green salad with a dressing of unknown origin, two pieces of California roll (which TC ate), rice with a sprinkling of black sesame seeds, and the most colorless bulgogi I have ever seen.

One thing I do have to say is that the Korean waitress was pretty honest. I was looking through the menu trying to find something kinda small for TC to eat, because I wasn't sure if the lunch special would be enough for both of us to share. I asked the waitress what "Noble noodles" were because it had no description and plus, it was only $5.95 (I was assuming it was a small dish and perhaps something TC could eat).

This is what she said (in her heavy Korean accent): "Ahh...that is for Americans....It is not good!"
She didn't even bother answering my question. When I asked her again about it, she shook her head in disgust and said, "It's not good, you order something else".

So basically, it's a subpar noodle dish that they only make for "Americans" (meaning 'white people') who supposedly don't know the difference between good and crappy food. Well, she didn't say THAT, but she implied it. And I'm almost sure she said this to me because I am not white and "Asian" (more specifically Filipino American) and presumably have better taste in food than an "American" who'll gobble up any swill because it's exotic to them. That's up to debate as well, but man, talk about dissuading someone from eating something from your own establishment!!!

When the waitress used the word "American" (i.e. white person) it reminded me of how my mom uses the term in the same way. I grew up hearing my mom equate Americans with being white. "Oh you know, Americans only like eating cereal for breakfast not rice and meat like us", or "Americans don't bring good food to potlucks, only chips and potato salad" (equating them to being cheap OR perhaps uncreative food providers) and other things like that. I remember telling her when I got older, "Hey mom, we're Americans too! We live in the U.S. and I was born here! I'm American too!" But she would say, "You know what I mean!!! Plus you're Filipino first". Well, I may be of Filipino descent, but I'm also American, so I consider myself both. I don't salute the Philippine flag or call myself a Philippine national. My mom's way of thinking is typical of a lot of the older generation of Philippine immigrants (that I know of). They aren't into the hybrid/multi-ethnic terms and consider all Americans as being white only.

Next, the Cuban food:

I went out with a group of educator friends (two are teachers and one is an assistant principal) for our monthly food adventure. We used to go out regularly for either lunch or dinner but after two of us had kids and one got married five years ago, those outings dwindled. We have recently resurrected our practice of trying differing restaurants for fun. My friend originally chose a Puerto Rican place in Lemon Grove. Unfortunately, it went bust and they do not serve dinner. So, on to plan B which was to try a similar cuisine. Luckily there was talk of a new restaurant that just opened in La Mesa (the former site of Jamarr restaurant---the only reason I know this is when I mapquested it, Jamarr's name came up with that address instead of Habana).

Habana opened its doors in March of this year. I recall reading a review in the paper and it seemed to be favorable. We ordered 'tostones' for our appetizer, which are sliced green plantains that are smashed flat and then fried. Then, they are fried again to make them extra crispy. It was served with a ramekin of what they called "garlic sauce" and a sprig of parsley.
I ordered a ribeye steak (they called it Bistek Palomillo) which was marinated in lime juice, salt and pepper and served with grilled onions on top. The steak was served with a choice of two sides. I chose yellow rice with giandules (pigeon peas) and a sweet yam with pecan topping (think of sweet potato pie). One of my friends ordered the fried chicken with white rice and the sweet yam; another ordered fried pork chops with white rice mixed with black beans and simmered in white wine plus the same yam side. The other friend ordered two empanadas because she wanted to save room for dessert. Our desserts were as follows: I had the coconut empanada (not spectacular - it was just shredded coconut in a turnover and fried), another had the guava empanada (I think they used sweet guava jam or jelly for this), and the other two ordered a tres leches cake (I thought it was good, but she thought it was too dry) and a Cuban style bread pudding (quite heavy/dense). In all, we enjoyed our food. I boxed half of my steak plus some rice and sweet yam for Bert Wolfe to enjoy later.

Plan for tomorrow:

ETHNIC FOOD FAIR AT BALBOA PARK 10 am - 5 pm

@ the International Cottages

We plan to go just for a tiny bit. We aren't going to eat a lot since the BBQ is later that afternoon. It's been a tradition for us for the past five years or so to attend with TC in tow. It's a way for us to sample foods we normally wouldn't try. I always look forward to Puerto Rican 'pastelillos' (empanadas), while Bert likes the Hungarian spicy sausage sandwiches or the bratwurst from the House of Germany. Last year we tried food items from the Houses of Puerto Rico, Columbia, Israel, India, Iran, Turkey, England, and France. They also have Chinese and Filipino food there, but hell, I can get that anywhere and I can make it better too. We usually forgo the House of Italy for the Spanish paella and the Argentinian empanadas. I also like the pastries from the Scandinavian countries. The most tasteless thing I have ever eaten was a 'Cornish pasty' from the House of England. It was bland and had no seasonings in it. Ugh. British food = bad.

After sampling some of the food items, we'll let TC run around and be free near the Botanical Gardens. I also want to check out and use the macro lense feature in the cool camera Shogun let us borrow. Perhaps take some close ups of some orchids or of the Spanish architecture at the park.