Foodcrawl with Cathy - Stops 5, 6, 7 & 8 - Star Dust Donuts, DK-Che, Gloria's Bakery & Gonzalez Panaderia

Continuing the food crawl with Cathy...

we hit the jackpot when we saw Star Dust open!

We will miss you Mr. Andrade - Oasis Ice Cream Parlor

Farewell to Mr. Juan Andrade, owner of Oasis Ice Cream Parlor...


who recently passed away...

Panaderia Gonzalez is now Panaderia Cazares

After getting my prized tortillas and the trio of coyotas from Otay Farms Market...

I headed south on Broadway and hung a right on Coronado Ave. As you cross the bridge across the 5, hang a left on Hollister (it's near that awesome birria place, Birria Fernandez)...

DK Che

After seeing this place since late last summer...

TC and I finally went to check out the no-longer-new fruiteria on Palm Ave...

Seafood Friday #2 - Crisp Fish 'n Chips

TC told us about this new fish and chips shop that replaced the old taco shop on the corner of this strip mall at the corner of Saturn Blvd and Coronado Ave in Nestor (which is NOT Imperial Beach), which is part of an unincorporated part of San Diego (a sliver that shares the same 92154 zip code as Otay Mesa)...

According to yelp, this place opened "2 months ago" but when we spoke to the girl at the counter, she said they'd been open since October...

This photo was taken before we left. When we arrived earlier, there were a few families eating in and other individuals waiting for their orders to be filled...

Stop 5 - Oasis Ice Cream Parlor

In keeping the crawl "local", dessert was here, Oasis Ice Cream Parlor, a South Bay mainstay for over 30 years..

(photo from my "Return to Katy's Cafe and new flavors at Oasis" post, July 2014)

The flavors are not like any other you'll see at other mainstream places...

Another epic South Bay Food Crawl: Stop 1 - Birria Fernandez

Our first stop was a place I'd heard about and pass by every week. It's kind of hidden but..

it's really not that hard to find. Birria Fernandez is right off the 5 South off ramp to Coronado Ave...

South Bay Food Crawl 3 - Highlights

This past Sunday, several of us enjoyed a South Bay food crawl...

This will just be a highlight of the different places we went before the full-fledged posts are up....

The return of Pan de Muerto

It's that time of yearagain...

where sweet orange/anise flavored breads topped with bones abound at local Mexican bakeries...

Noodles Noodles

On the corner of 16th and Palm in the nebulous area between San Diego and IB is this nondescript strip mall, B ay City Plaza...

It's not quite IB, but still in an unincorporated part of San Diego that some call Nestor or even Egger Highlands (according to the SD Reader article linked at the end)...

All I knew was that there was a new Thai place to try out...

Return to Mexico Lindo and Gloria's

My obsession with Mexican bakeries continues...

Yes, I was back again...back for MORE of those palmiers, which are the best I've had...

Gonzalez Panaderia

We are down in the area every weekend and I thought we'd kill two birds with one stone. Currently obsessed with pan de muerto and Mexican bakeries, we headed over to a tiny bakery that we'd seen only in passing but never went to. Isn't that how it always is with food finds?

On our way there, we passed by the South Bay Drive-in, one of the last few remaining drive-in movie places in San Diego. The last time we saw a movie there was 20 years ago, "Wayne's World 2", ha ha!
Yeah, that was a damn long time ago. We left early and got a refund because my crappy car radio couldn't pick up the audio clearly.

Looks like they painted the back of the screens. It used to be white.

Every Sunday they have swap meets there, but I digress. The bakery turned out to be just right around the corner...

Save a Lot Market

A long time ago this supermarket on the corner of Saturn and Coronada used to be Alpha Beta. That's telling you my age there, ha ha. Then it turned into a Safeway, then Albertsons, then closed about a year ago.

The once shuttered stored was recently reborn as a "Save a Lot" market and opened earlier this year...

Pulutan time at the Kababayan Market

Hot off the press as of 1/10/14 - Cathy was just here and saw that Kababayan is now CLOSED. However, it has since relocated near the Spring Valley area, near Leocynn's Lumpia.

We were on a mission...

a mission to get these:

Cholesterol levels be damned, we would get some o' these flavor bombs!

Northgate Market

Last weekend we stopped by the Northgate Market in Nestor to pick up a few things...

This used to be a Safeway back in the 80's, then it became El Tigre (I almost typed Le Tigre..."Hold that tiger!")...

Return to Baja Oyster Bar

Last week, TC and I had to go to IB to pick up some "sublimated" plaques (photos are transferred onto a metal plate; they're really cool looking) that I ordered for my Ninang's upcoming birthday and anniversary celebration. I was going nuts trying to figure out what to get a woman who has everything. I resorted to emailing her son, my godbrother (he's one year older than me) and he suggested something personalized. Anyways, after picking up the plaques, we stopped by the Blue Baja Oyster Bar for a quick dinner.

It's on the corner of Saturn and Coronado, across from Jack in the Crack.

Boll Weevil

Last weekend before going to Oasis, we had lunch at Boll Weevil located in the strip mall right off the 5 and Palm freeway exit. This strip mall is called Southland Plaza and there used to be a Mervyn's (now gone), Clothestime (OMFG - so 80's! That too was gone a looong time ago; now it's a military recruiting station), Miller's Outpost (also defunct as well), and Wherehouse Records (my sis used to work there; our friends would also give us "free" rentals or save the good movies for us). There is a Vons and CVS, as well as a Carrow's and on the other side, a big Home Depot. One weekend, you can see a lot of day laborers. Pho Anh is also here (blogged about back in February last year and again later that month) and the Mexican place next to it, Las Playitas, is now a Cotija's taco shop (.99 potato tacos baby!).

Back in the late 70's, this whole area was a farm. I remember going here with my mom and siblings and we would pick tomatoes. There was a set fee and you could pick as much tomatoes as you could carry. Southland Plaza was built in the early 80's and I remember going school clothes shopping at Mervyn's in junior high with my mom. For us, this place was closer than going all the way to Plaza Bonita.

Now I don't know about you guys, but I have NEVER eaten at Boll Weevils (same with Del Taco, and Arby's). Since I had a coupon, we figured we'd use it before it expired. Hmmm, Broaster Chicken?

We got to seat ourselves...it wasn't crowded just yet.

Menu:

It was pretty large in here. This is just one side of the restaurant. There's a also a section that had two pool tables. We sat in a booth near a window and also to make sure no one was going to steal our car. Just kidding, this place isn't that ghetto.

Mmmm.onion rings! And ooh, "Frings" - French Fries and Onion Rings combined in a big, shiny, happy, fried lovefest...

The coupon was "buy one lunch entree and get one free". So for our first item, Bert and I planned to share the Mushroom cheesburger (1/3 lb)....Check out the "I.B. on Fire Cheeseburger" - it has jalapenos and habanero peppers with pepper jack cheese! Oooh.....that'll do some internal damage!

and this, the Buffalo Chicken Salad (description below). And since we "saved" moolah on one entree, we got a side order of onion rings (we'll try the Frings next time) and got TC something from the kids' menu.

Every table has a tray chock full of condiments and sides (pickled peppers, sliced red onion rings, pickles, ketchup, some sort of mayo-spread thing, and mustard):

If we didn't get the salad (ordered so we could have something "green"), I could have eaten one of these one my own. Check out the mushrooms and melted swiss cheese on this!  Also, our waitress was really cool and made sure our burgers were already cut in half for us...

That patty was one of the best I've had in awhile...nice and juicy (they were done about medium).  This burger was so good and I was kind of regretting getting the salad now because eating only one half was like a tease.

Here was the Buffalo chicken salad with the ranch dressing and (gross) blue cheese on the side. TC also enjoyed the salad, but not the chicken pieces because she thought they were too spicy. Well for me and Bert, they weren't and like the rest of the food, was gone by the end of lunch.

The salad also came with a side of garlic bread - My only gripe was that the "garlic" was a layer of garlic powder with melted cheese and broiled on top of the bread (looked like an egg based bread). The topping peeled off nicely like a crusty scab, but of course it tasted much much better (not  that I've ever tried eating a scab okay?).  I ended up eating the scabrous topping and the crusty edges.

Here's TC mini cheeseburger with fries...it wasn't miniscule like the version she had at Burger Lounge earlier this year (cough*overhyped*cough). It wasn't as huge as an adult version either. According to her, it was just right.

And our onion rings....while these were all right, I would have preferred that the batter not be as "smooth". I like onion rings with the bread crumb type crust instead, like the kind at Burger King or that frozen shit you buy at the grocery store.

TC made ketchup eyes on her onion ring and insisted that I take a picture of her creation...

So, that was our first visit to Boll Weevil and hopefully we'll have other opportunities to come by and try their other burgers like the Avocado burger and the Three Cheese burger (not sure about the I.B. on Fire one though!)...

Back so soon? Return to Oasis...

After last week's visit, we stopped by again this weekend. Ha, you can see my foot in the windshield reflection! Nice.

This time, we all got doubles....At the top is TC's Canteloupe and Mango. You can only see the canteloupe flavor at the top though.  The canteloupe flavor was really intense and quite refreshing. She has a thing for fruity flavors and oh yeah, the colors are quiet pretty too. Quite attractive to tweens.

At the bottom left corner is my cup - A tiny scoop of Banana on top (a freebie!), then Trail Mix underneath that with Double Chocolate Chip on the bottom. I was debating whether to get another flavor I hadn't tried, but dammit, I really like that Double Chocolate Chip.  The Trail Mix was just Vanilla with trail mix added in. I don't think I'll be getting that again because, while I like raisins, I just don't like them in my ice cream. And oats too. Hey, you live and learn, eh?

At the right is Bert's choice - he got a double of just the Butterscotch which seems to be his favorite flavor. No mixing with another flavor, just pure and unsullied Butterscotch which made Bert happy.

We also were lucky enough to see the owner, Mr. Juan Andrade that day. He was busy that day. We saw people eating ice cream outside several shops down, plus more at his front table and inside his store. He was a pretty happy fellow and when he handed TC's cup to her, he said, "Here you go, my friend!" which I thought was really sweet.

When he was scooping my two flavors, he hesitated a tiny bit, then placed a tiny scoop of banana on top of my cup even though I didn't ask for banana. As he was doing so, he said in a soft voice, "Saah-geeng" while smiling at me. I had to ask him again what he said and he repeated it, "Saah-geeng". I heard Bert snicker in recognition of the word. I then realized he was trying to make a "Filipino Connection" with me - you see, "Saging" (pronounced "saah-geeng", accent on the first syllable) is Tagalog for "banana". I smiled and said, "Yes, saging! Salamat!". He laughed and smiled once he realized I understood him. 

I'm sure he's picked up a bit of Tagalog especially since there's a lot of Filipinos living down South. It's cool that Mr. Andrade uses the words and phrases as ice-breakers too. While we were sitting at a table enjoying our ice cream, an elderly Filipina lady with a walker came in. Her back was stooped and she walked really slow. She also talked quite slowly and asked him what his flavors were. Even though he had a big board with the flavors and despite the flavors being labeled in the freezer cases, he was kind enough to name all the flavors to her.

As he was naming the flavors, he threw in the Tagalog word for tamarind, which is "Sampaloc". When he mentioned that he had the "Sampaloc" flavor, I noticed the lady perk up in recognition. She took a while to decide and then she took even longer to count out her $1.35 in change to the owner. In fact, he stood at her table, instead of behind the counter, patiently waiting for her without getting pissed off like some people might have. He was kind and gracious to her and thanked her in Tagalog too. Now that's service!

In my last post, I said we'd get some paletas next time. Well, next time was NOW. We each picked out two flavors.  Although we didn't have a cooler or dry ice with us, Mr. Andrade said it would be fine since we live in nearby Chula Vista. He also told me that his daughter lives in Oceanside and brings boxes of these home every week and they don't melt. I tell you, he is seriously a super nice guy. He seems very sincere in wanting to please his customers. He also knows his regulars, greeting them as they come in and chatting with them in Spanish or English.  Or in my case,  in Tagalog, even though I don't speak it (I understand it more than I speak it) and known mainly the bad words!

So, here are half of the paletas on our beautiful rug with dirt stains from the past 12 years...from left to right: Chocolate Chip (my choice), Lime and Strawberry (TC's):

Here's the other half (L to R): Coffee along with Peanut Butter (Bert's choice) and lastly, Walnut (my choice).   And I put the paletas on the cleaner part of the rug. Hey, they were wrapped, all right?

I inhaled ate the Chocolate Chip one yesterday - Man, these bars are so dense with no air whipped into them. They are heavy in your hand and worth every penny.

Fk those shitty artificially flavored Popsicles - these are the real deal. The Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Coffee and Walnut were Cream based while TC's choices, the Strawberry and Lime were just plain fruit and sugar. She just had her lime one tonight and it was a mix of very tart with a tiny bit of sweet. I thought it was too sour for me, but she digs that stuff, so yeah...

Can you see the Chocolate Chip on the far left? I should have taken a photo and unpeeled that bad boy. All the big chips were at the top of the bar! I kind of wished they were dispersed more evenly throughout the bar, but I'm not complaining...that much! Seriously, this was really good. I think next time we go here, we will be prepared and bring a small ice filled cooler with us.

South Bay (cont'd) - Oasis Ice Cream Parlor

Finally, the money shot!  The post you've all been waiting for, Oasis Ice Cream Parlor!

Oasis is nestled between a pizza place and a hair salon in a strip mall housing a Rite Aid and Albertsons. It's on the corner of Coronado Ave and Saturn. Oh, by the way, I was wrong about the t-shirt place. It's still there, just a few doors down so if you want to get your "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" t-shirts, you know where it is!

 Back to Oasis...Step right inside and get ready to taste some good-ass homemade ice cream...

Oasis has been a fixture in San Diego since 1978. It is owned by husband and wife team, Juan and Juanita Andrade. According to an older SD Union Trib article (link is at the end of this post), Juan hails from a small town in Michoacan which originated these fresh fruit and cream based paletas (ice cream bars). In fact, his great-aunt and great-uncle first opened Michoacan-style ice cream parlors in the 1940's in Mexico.

Mr. Andrade was not there that day but a younger woman was. Since this is family owned, I'm assuming that she was his daughter. There are several freezers full of homemade ice cream. The mango looked pretty good, but I had my eye on blueberry because that was a new flavor.

Look at that intense pink swirly ice cream (strawberry and cream). It's right next to coffee, cookies and cream and another flavor I think might be caramel. There were also flavors like rice, guayaba (guava), tamarind, banana and your regular flavors (chocolate, vanilla strawberry). There was another freezer stacked full of paletas too. Like MEGA STACKED!

There's Bert trying to decide on his flavors.

Although we both got three flavors each, you can only see the top flavor. I had Cookies and Cream, Double Chocolate Chip (oh my gosh, there were so many chips in there! awesome), and their newest flavor Blueberry at the bottom. Bert had Coffee, Butterscotch and Walnut. The scoops aren't that huge or anything, but the flavors were very true and intense.

The only problem with getting three flavors is that the bottom flavor got drowned out by the top flavors. Bert couldn't really taste his Butterscotch when he got to it. On the other hand, I eat faster than him so I didn't really have that problem with discerning between the flavors. The Cookies and Cream was really rich and thick. I loved the Double Chocolate Chip because there were chips in every spoonful! And the Blueberry! There were real bits and pieces of blueberry in there and the color was this really nice creamy bluish purple.

TC chose to have her ice cream on a cone. She liked the fruit flavors more than we do so she got Orange at the bottom topped by Watermelon. The watermelon was so refreshing and you can tell this is handmade because there were real bits of the black seed in there.

Click photo of menu below to make larger...

Since Bert and I got triple scoops, our cups cost $3.60 while TC's double cone was $2.20. I think this is a bargain compared to the chain ice cream places which charge $3 or more for one measly scoop.
As you can see, the place is pretty small (seats maybe 6-8 inside with a table for 3 outside), but their business was brisk with families popping in, couples, and so on.  We'll have to come back again to get some paletas.

Until our next visit!

Other articles/reviews on Oasis can be found here:
May 2004 from City Beat
June 2005 SD Union-Tribune
July 2010 article from Sign on San Diego
and the overwhelmingly postive reviews from yelp here
San Diego CitySearch
and
the sdinsider pages
and lastly, Darlene's nostalgic post from My Burning Kitchen which spurred me to finally try this place.

Many of the articles talk about how nice the folks are who run this place, how friendly the owner is and how happy he is to see people enjoying his ice cream. I'm so glad that we finally went here after all these years. I think we will be going here every week now!