Pho Anh Revisited and Blueberry Strudel

It's the return of my favorite Tokidoki bag, the Concerto Punk print in Graziosa (Messenger Bag style). Look at all of the cute characters! There's an angry razor blade, several vinyl LP's, a snake haired girl holding a Molotov cocktail, a mohawked baby with a Flying V guitar, a kissing couple (the dude has some serious Elvis hair!), Adios Star playing drums, and more. I also like the multicolored zipper, which is de rigeur for the Tokidoki bags. I like the messenger style the best. The other styles are either too tiny to hold anything for me or too large and bulky. This size is kind of in the middle for me. I find that with the tinier bags, you don't get to see much of the print pattern. This is my favorite print so far.
One week later, we were back at Pho Anh in the Southland Plaza strip mall in the South Bay. It's considered San Diego, not quite Imperial Beach. We sat in the back this time instead of near the front. It's a pretty long and deep place, but narrow.

Bert told me those (fake) plants were called "Creeping Charlies". I guess they aren't spider plants after all. There were A LOT of those plants in here.

We got the fried spring rolls. They were stingy with the accompanying vegetable/herbs. There were about two leaves of lettuce and two sprigs of mint. No cilantro, just some shredded carrot, which I didn't think served any purpose except as a garnish. I was disappointed in this. The fried spring rolls looked too lumpia-ish to me. They tasted okay, but we've had way better and with more lettuce/mint/cilantro.

I ordered the Grilled Pork Chop with Rice plate. I really liked this - the marinade on the pork chop was smoky and sweet. The pork chop was also cooked just right as well. It wasn't dried out. I loved the bits of fat on the edges too. Mmmm...I barely made a dent in this- I ended up saving half of it for dinner later. Ooh, look at the cucumbers. Fancy! Sorry this is ugly looking. I actually forgot to take a photo of Bert's dish. He had already started eating it and put in Sriracha sauce. Well, this is Bun with Grilled Chicken. Exciting huh. I did't bother taking a photo of TC's dish which was the same shrimp soup with rice noodles from the week before.

Other than the pitiful amounts of greens with the spring rolls, we were happy with our orders at Pho Anh. We got served again by the chef. The crowd eating there was mixed. We saw white, Mexican, African American, and some older Filipinos (heard them speaking in Tagalog). There's not a lot of Vietnamese people here in the South Bay. At our local Vietnamese place, Pho Hiep, it's pretty mixed too, but most of the "Asians" tend to be Filipinos. Pictured below is my new favorite dessert to make - Blueberry Strudel, courtesy of my cute nurse friend (she's appeared before in writing in my blog - I saw "Twilight" the 2nd time with her and we went to 59th and Lex in December).

Blueberry Strudel

Ingredients:

2 Sheets of Puff Pastry (I used the Indo-European brand from North Park Market - it's only $4.79 and the sheets are much bigger than Pepperidge Farm). Make sure you defrost this ahead of time - it takes about an hour. I used Pepperidge Farm the 2nd time I did this and the filling was too much. For these sheets, it doesn't seem like enough, but it works actually. It's so damn good!

Filling:

1 8 ox block of softened cream cheese

1 cup of sugar

2 tsp of vanilla extract

1 egg yolk, beaten (in another bowl, beat another egg yolk to brush on top of pastry before putting on topping)

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (I used the organic wild blueberries from Trader Joe's)

Topping:

2 tbsp softened butter

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup sugar

Glaze:

1 tbs melted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp lemon juice (I just eyeballed it)

Here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Defrost the puff pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet and keep cool.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tsp of vanilla and 1 of the egg yolk.
4. Gently fold in the blueberries.
5. Spoon the filling down the long side of the puff pastry.
6. Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg yolk.
7. Fold over and seal well. (I like to turn it over so you don't see the "seam")
8. Make 3 or 4 slashes on top of the pastry to allow air to escape.
9. Brush the top with extra egg yolk.
10. In a small bowl, combine the softened butter, 1 cup of sugar, and almonds until the mixture is crumbly.
11. Press the topping into the dough.
12. Bake for 35-45 minutes.
13. Cool.
14. In a second small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp melted butter, and lemon juice.
15. The icing should be runny (if not, add a little milk): drizzle it over the strudel.

NOTE - Make sure you seal the sides of the pastry very well. And when putting the crumb topping on, press firmly so the pastry is encased in the sugar topping. The first time I made this, it came out quite well. The second time, I used a different puff pastry, the Pepperidge Farm (which my friend uses, but her version is better than mine). It was totally fkd up because I melted the butter for the topping which was a mistake. I beat the filling a little too much so it was too runny, thus is spilled over and was hard to seal. Since the Pepperidge Farm sheets are smaller, my fkd up filling overflowed because I didn't seal it well either. It opened up and ended up looking like Lard Ass Davy Hogan's barf after the blueberrie pie eating contest. If you are pop culturally challenged, are over the age of 70, or have lived in a cave or under a rock for the past twenty years, please watch this heartwarming movie clip from Rob Reiner's 1984 movie classic, "Stand by Me" if you don't get my reference.

And to drive the point home even further, please enjoy this subtle homage, nay a paean to "Barf", if you will, from "Family Guy" :

These are the two strudels I made. This is attempt #3. I didn't take pictures of Attempt #2. I meant to bring it for my co-worker's birthday, but I was pissed off because it opened up and didn't look "pretty". We kept one and gave the other one to our neighbor across the street who loved it. Since I didn't bring the strudels to work that morning, Bert saved the day by getting a fruit strudel at the Hans and Harry Bakery in Bonita. I told my colleagues that I refused to serve them something that didn't measure up to my standards. They told me that they didn't care and would have eaten it no matter what it looked like as long as it tasted good. I knew it would still taste good, but I wanted it to be perfect (because I am anal).

A close up of one of the pieces with the sugar glaze...

I'll be making this again really soon! A new favorite!

In - n - Out

After doing a few errands that morning, we made a quick pitstop to this place:
Yes, the return of In-n-Out. And on Valentine's Day. How appropriate. Ha ha. I needed to make a return at the Otay Ranch Mall so we went here for a quick bite to eat. I didn't want to eat too much since Bert and I were going to have dinner at JRDN later than night, so he and I just shared a burger. TC had her own. Man, there were tons of workers behind the counter:
We also got a chocolate shake which was so thick we had to eat it with a spoon. Unless your lips have suction like a Hoover or a Dyson, the milkshake wasn't going up the straw worth shit.

We sat by the counter...it was mega busy that day.

Here's our single patty hamburgers. Bert forgot to get ours with grilled onions. That is my Tokidoki Concerto Punk Graziosa messenger bag (Fall 2008 Collection). I love this print! It's got little punk rockers singing, selling t-shirts, playing guitar, a character holding a broken bottle. Plus, the predominant color in the bag is dark purple and gray! Purple, if you didn't already know it, is one of my favorite colors!

Our hamburgers with fries (to share). No animal style since it's kind of messy. I'm not a fan of the thousand island sauce on my fries. Actually In-n-Out's fries aren't that great. Remember the crinkle cut fries at Carl's Junior? No? That's because they haven't done 'em that way since the early '80s! I liked those! Rally's fries are better than these - they have some sort of seasoning on it that gives it more flavor.

In any case, I'll be going here again next week with my co-worker!

JRDN

In honor of Valentine's Day, I broke out my Tokidoki L'Amore Ciao. The L'Amore print was from Spring 2007 and now a collector's item. I bought the Ciao from a friend who was unloading some of her collection. Here is an archive of the Tokidoki collaboration with LeSportSac. My other prints are Famiglia, Tutti, Adios Star, Trasporto, and the very last print, Vacanze...I love how the characters are coupled up, like the chili peppers, the flowers, the cactus people and the milk boxes. Cute! The only thing about this bag style is that it's too small to fit my stuff!

[Edit - This is not the bag I brought to dinner at JRDN though - that was my black Dooney!]
Valentine's Day is one of the few occasions that I dress up and wear a tiny bit more makeup than I normally do (this means blush and two more blended eyeshadow colors). So yeah, I wore a dress, but not a fancy one. It was an older dress - it's a boatneck sleeveless sheath dress by Banana Republic. I call it my Audrey Hepburnish funeral dress but it's very classic, I think. Our daughter was hanging out with my sis and her boys (thanks if you're reading this sis!) so we were off on our own without TC (a rarity indeed). Our reservations were for 5:30 but we got there a tiny bit before 6 pm since there was traffic on the I-8 (congested near Mission Center Road).

The sun was still out and we got to see a beautiful sunset. Our destination was JRDN at Tower 23, a boutique hotel on the edge of the Pacific Beach boardwalk and steps away from Crystal Pier. The first time I went to JRDN was for lunch last summer for my co-worker's bday . See the post here. We did valet parking. Note to self - Don't fart in the car before you turn it over to the valet. Please, don't judge. You know you fart in your cars too. Actually, the smell had already dissipated by the time we reached the Hotel/Restaurant. Thank goodness for air freshener!
We were actually carded here by this young guy before entering the restaurant! WTF! Well, I guess he's doing his job, but damn, I'm old enough to be his mom (if I were a teen mom). When you walk in, there's the bar area. To the left is a quieter dining area which is where we were seated. This is my attempt to take a photo by our window view but all you can see is Bert's reflection and the cool undulating wave wall which changed colors every few minutes.JRDN had their own prix fix Valentine's menu for the night. It was kind of pricy but we (actually Bert) wanted to splurge just for tonight. It was $70 a couple or $90 with wine pairings. To make it fun and also so I could blog it, we chose one of each course (except for the salad since there was only one choice).

Blurry pic of the wave wall:

Instead of choosing wine pairings for the dinner, we chose one glass each. Bert had a Pinot Noir and I had an Albarino.

Because I'm lazy - here's the menu for each course...This is the First course - Appetizers:

Love those little horny descriptions - check it out, "lagging libidos", and citrus is energizing for "long nights". Who wrote this shit?
I had the Hamachi Sashimi - This was a first for me because I normally don't eat raw fish. This was very good - the fish was sliced very thin and had a hint of citrus flavoring. I also liked the texture of the seaweed salad - crunchy!

Bert had the Oyster Shooters. Sorry, but I couldn't bring myself to try this. Not a fan of raw oysters. He really liked it - especially the ponzu sauce.
Second Course - Salad: There was only one choice.
I really liked the brie here, it was melted just slightly so. The pine nuts nuts are supposed to make you horny. Ha ha! Okay....I also picked out the red onion slices but ate everything else. I wished there was more than one crouton.

Third Course - Seafood:
I had the Lobster. The sauce was quite different - the vanilla went really well with the butternut squash puree. The agnolotti (little raviolis) were also delicious - very tender. I would eat a whole plate of those. By the way, the portions for this dinner were just right. They were not big ass portions, but just enough to whet your appetite for the next course. I also liked their presentation. Everything was on a pristine white plate; the shapes of which varied (big oval, square, rectangle, etc). I think all food looks better on white dinnerware. Serve me a hotdog on a white square plate witha squiggle of ketchup and I'm good to go.

Bert had the Seabass on the hornificating Fennel Puree which added just a tad of licorice flavor. I just made up a word by the way.

Fourth Course - Meat:
Bert was a good sport and got the Venison. In retrospect, I didn't even notice the "coffee-anise" flavor. I only had a few bites of his venison and didn't really care for it. It had a strange gamey flavor to me. Oh, read the description above about carrots. Not only are they a phallic symbol but they can help "aid seduction". Woo hoo! The Yorkshire Pudding was just a big bread poof (or popover mutant). There was hardly any filling inside but it's probably supposed to be that way. I really liked the demi-glace though. I could just mop that up with some bread...
I had the Meyer Ranch Beef Filet. See those burnt looking shavings on top? Those were the truffles which tasted kind of dirty to me. Excuse me, they are Himalayan truffles! I had this cooked Medium. I didn't post a cross section of it because it came out too bright, but it was still pink inside. Mmmmm, Nice and tender. Soft and moist. Prince song titles?

Closeup of Bambi's flesh:

The Yorkshire Pudding with demi glace (nestled inside in scant amounts was the apple chestnut stuffing). This is not American pudding which is like a dessert, but a savory type of dish - more about this delicacy here .

My beef filet was resting on top of an "herbed potato galette " which a fancy way of saying "herbed hash brown". I loved it - nice and crispy! The shine is from my knife and I was too lazy to crop the bottom of the photo out.

And lastly, the Fifth Course - Dessert (cut off at the bottom but basically saying how chocolate is an aphrodisiac, yada yada yada):
That's a chocolate squiggle on top of a small scoop of vanilla ice cream draped with rose petals. The chocolate cake wasn't that exciting to me. There was a hint of chili. (they used chipotles - I asked). Bert is a fan of Dark Chocolate (or even Regular Chocolate) with Chili, especially those Lindt Chocolate Bars with the funky flavors. The dusting you see on the plate is chili powder as well. There were also "chocolate cookie" crumbles surrounding the ice cream which I found a bit annoying. There were two sauces - one was chocolate and the other was fruit based but it wasn't raspberry. It was some other kind which escapes me at the moment.

We had really great service; there were 2 to 3 waiters who served us. They knew the menu and did not hesitate whenever I asked them questions about the ingredients. If there's one thing I don't like, it's ig'nant waitstaff. These guys knew their sheeyit. Dinner was super fab! The food was excellent! Now I'm planning where our next dinner outing will be!

Happy Valentine's Day

Have a very lovely Valentine's Day!

I Want this Piano Music!

OMFG - "Purple Rain" was on FUSE channel a few nights ago and I caught this scene...





Anyone remember this song? I do! It's called "Father's Song" and it appeared only in the movie. Unfortunately, this song was not included on the accompanying movie soundtrack. Actually the piano music for this "song" is a variation of the guitar solo that Prince plays towards the middle/end of "Computer Blue" (which is the first song on my Playlist above - love the lesbian introduction with Wendy and Lisa!). The "Purple Rain" piano song book had this song in it, although it was not quite the same; it was a more simplified version. How do I know? I remember playing the damn thing. Anyways, Thane of the Universe had it! And now he can't find it!!! Fk! Find it Thane! I called him last night and he can't remember where it is or if it's gone. This book is out of print!!! I borrowed the book back in high school (yes, in sophomore year, 1984-85) from Thane. I loved playing "Take Me With U", "The Beautiful Ones", and "Purple Rain" (although the title track was kind of slow and a bit boring). the inro to "Let's Go Crazy" was also fun especially if you used the "organ" setting on the Casio keyboard (fk, dating myself here!). Thane, if you're reading this, start looking!!! Now! This book is hard to find!
(edit - I just saw it on ebay for $40! Fk! As Bush Senior would say, "Nah Gon' Do it!")

I remember the guys (Bert, Ronin, Thane, Mr. Drummer, Thor and Superman) making video projects for our Honors History class. They did a report on Czar Nicholas and the Russian Revolution. Thane played the piano music to while Superman sang slightly different lyrics. It was hilarious...Oh yeah, as the music played, there was a scroll with cartoons illustrating the song! Superman do you remember the lyrics? This was to the tune of "Darling Nikki " (The Foo Fighters did a decent remake of this nasty Prince classic):

"I knew a czar named Nicky, I guess you could say he was a bad king...
I met him in the castle messing a-round with the queen!"

(Original lyrics: "I knew a girl named Nikki, I guess you could say she was a sex fiend..I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine!"

This song is also infamous for inciting the wrath of failed 2000 Presidential Candidate and former Clinton Veep Al Gore's bitch of a wife, Tipper Gore to come up with those damned Parental Advisory warnings and founded the dreaded PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center)! Remember these stickers? They were all over albums like "2 Live Crew" and "Slayer" and gangsta rap stuff back in the early 90's! I don't know about you, but those stickers sure weren't a deterrent to my music buying habits in the early 90's.



One of Tipper's innocent daughters was listening to "Darling Nikki" and was shocked by the lyrics. Duh, hello....It's Prince. "Erotic City"? "Soft and Wet"? "International Lover"? "Do Me Baby?" Don't be surprised byatch!

Anyways, blast from the past!

Pho Anh

There's a new Vietnamese place in the South Bay - Pho Anh opened three weeks ago and is located in the decrepit Southland Plaza shopping center, right off the I-5 and Palm Avenue exit. This whole area used to be a tomato farm back in the late 70's. The strip mall's anchor, Mervyn's went out of business as did many other stores like Miller's Outpost, Clothestime (this was way back when), and the Wherehouse (remember when they used to sell records?). Well, Pho Anh is on the same side as Vons and is next to a Mexican food place, Tacos de la Playa. We saw this place a couple of weeks ago but weren't hungry at the time. This time, we decided to finally check it out.
Everything in their menu is under $6.95, with most items being $2.95 for appetizers, $5.75 for the soups and various rice/meat dishes. Not bad...But how was the food?

I don't know what store Pho Anh replaced, but man, was it green in there! The tiles were with with dark green diamonds. There were A LOT of fake spider plans in hanging baskets. The side paneling was also dark green. The interior is also quite deep. The mirrors on one of the walls make the place look more spacious. The bathroom is also way in the back. Note - there is only one bathroom. I give it a 6 and 1/2 on a scale of 1 -10 (1 being a total shithole and 10 being you could eat off the toilet seat) in cleanliness.

The condiment/utensils/napkins tray. You have your Sriracha sauce, fish sauce, hoisin, and soy sauce. That's also one of my new splurges, my Tokidoki Celebrazione Graziosa messenger bag. Tokidoki is the brand, Celebrazione is the limited edition print which was released in Winter of 2008 and Graziosa is the style of the bag. I got it on mega sale at Karmaloop online when they slashed everything half off! The Tokidoki characters are all dancing like it's 2009 (ha ha, like 1999!) One character has a John Travolta'ish white suit, there's happy disco balls, the character Donutella, Ciao Ciao (Adios' girlfriend) holding a glass of bubbly and more! I love it! It's such a happy print.

So, the entire seating area is against the right wall. Towards the front of the restaurant is the cash register with the kitchen on the left. Above us is a lit up photo display of their dishes (numbered), and yes, more fake spider plants.

Our waters had a thin slice of lime! Very nice! Plus the glasses were a normal size, 8 oz, not those big fkn 1 liter tumblers that I can never finish.

Our appetizer - the Goi Cuon Tom ($2.95) - Fresh spring roll with shrimp, served with peanut sauce. The garnish plate was for the soup to come. These were okay - kind of thin, but made to order. They weren't just sitting there waiting to be served, like at some places where you can tell. Their peanut sauce also had a squirt of hot sauce in it. Most places we've been to don't do that. The garnish plate had bean sprouts, lime halves, jalapeno slices and several sprigs of basil. No saw leaf herb though. I thought the amount of basil was quite generous. Pho Hiep Grill near our place is stingy with the basil - They give only 1 or 2 sprigs.

Here's my order - the Bun Bo Nuong ($6.95) - Bun with BBQ Beef. It came with the nuoc cham and a small bowl of soup (that was a first for me). Actually, my dad would like this because he likes ordering broth to pour on his bun. I don't think that is the right way to eat bun, but hell, I'm not going to change his eating habits, eh. I liked my food - the bbq'd beef strips had good flavor to them and were also soft, not chewy and gross. The bun wasn't clumped together either. The noodles had good separation.

Bert's Cafe Sua ($2.75) - Iced espresso with condensed milk.

Bert had the Pho with the rare steak and well done flank (sorry, don't have the Vietnamese name) -($5.75). We noticed they didn't have two price points for the pho. Sometimes there are two different prices to denote the small and large servings. Bert thought the soup was not as clear as it could have been. It looked kind of cloudy, but it still tasted all right. He said the noodles weren't the best in his opinion because they were clumpy.

TC had the Pho Tom ($5.75) - the Shrimp Soup. She ended up eating only 1 or 2 shrimp. I took one and Bert had the rest. The noodles, for her, were the main attraction. That's my hand by the way with my gothic dark purple polish.

The service here was very friendly and prompt. It seemed to be family run - there was a young girl who greeted us and two older girls (maybe late teens or early 20's) who were cleaning the tables in the back. The lady who took our order was perhaps the owner (I'll find out next time). Everytime our food came out, it was served either by her or the chef in the back. He seemed happy to see us and made sure that we had what we needed. We'll be going here again next week. Another post to come!

Updates below...

Since I've been back to work three weeks ago, I haven't had much time to blog.

Let me tell you this...after the fuckery that comprised my life last year, work is EAZY! Complaining students? Parents? Teachers? Conflicts in schedules and meeting deadlines? Anything is easier than having cancer. That's my new perspective - don't sweat the small stuff.

Everyone at work has been pretty patient with me and my questions about the new computer system. I felt like I was starting from scratch learning this newfangled, yet inefficient computer scheduling program that sucks King Kong's black hairy ball sack to the highest of sucktivity. Nevertheless, I'm learning as I go and I seem to be doing ok.

It's kind of funny when some students did double takes when they saw me in my office. The freshmen don't know me, so they were expecting my sub. The older kids who knew me welcomed me back and noticed my short hair, which by the way, is growing more and more each day.

I've had the opportunity to hang out with one of my co-workers, another one of my GBF's (Gay Boy Friends) - to In-n-Out Burger several times. Sorry, no pics. Yesterday I went to JNC Pinoy Foodmart for lunch. JNC are also known as the dumbasses who burnt down the small building near the old Henry's in front of Southwestern College about four years ago! I blame it on their lumpia frying oil! Ha ha, but seriously, they had an electrical problem and the fire was traced to them...Pics of that soon. The lunch, not the fire.

Places to try:
Lisa's Filipino Cuisine in Eastlake - This is fairly new and located in the Vons shopping center. I do have an issue of the word "cuisine" in the title, when this is just a point-point/steam table place. When I hear "cuisine", I'm thinking of a nice sit down restaurant with real metal utensils, cloth napkins and table cloths. I'm thinking something classy, not a regurgitation of what's already out there in terms of Filipino steam table joints. But, wtf, I'm going to give it a try anyways. I miss the old Barrio Fiesta Philippine restaurant that used to be in National City but is now a Mexican place, Casa de Oro. Barrio Fiesta was the closest thing to a decent sit down Filipino restaurant that made your food fresh and you wouldn't be embarassed to bring guests there either!

Masarap downtown - For those of you that don't know, "Masarap" means "Delicious" in Tagalog. This is a new, upscale Filipino restaurant downtown, somewhere on C Street, I believe. I checked out their website a few weeks ago - the decor looks quite clean and modern. I forgot what was on their menu but I do remember that they made a version of Kare Kare with Lamb, not oxtail. Hmmm...What makes me cringe is the poor grammar and sentence structure in their text. I tried to look it up again online just now and the website doesn't seem to be up anymore. WTF! Anyways, as a Filipino American, I want other ethnic groups to like our food too, but it's kind of embarassing when their website is rife with poorly written text. Maybe their food isn't as bad as I've read about in the yelp reviews...I still want to try it!

Kabul Market on Convoy - Bert and I vacillated on eating there or at Crab Hut last November. Crab Hut won out. The Food Ho (aka The Pork Porn Pages) just ate there. Now I'm curious!

Dinner to look forward to:
JRDN at Tower 23 in PB on Valentine's Day! This will give me an excuse to dress up again! Last year we went to Urban Solace and the year before that, Laurel.

Currently reading:
"From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris. This is the 8th novel in the Southern Vampire Mystery Series (from which the HBO show "TrueBlood" is based). Vampires, werewolves and shapeshifters!

"Coraline" by Neil Gaiman (author of the DC Vertigo series, "The Sandman"). I originally bought this for my daughter TC but the girly goth in me wanted to read it as well.

"Lights, Camera, Soundtracks: The Ultimate Guide to Popular Music in the Movies" (Paperback)by Martin C. Strong

Currently listening to:

"Neverland" by The Mission UK and
"Black Holes & Revelations" by Muse (one of the most brilliant albums ever!)

JNC Pinoy Foodmart

It's actually Thurs 2/12 as I type this post. Last Friday I met one of my friends for lunch at JNC Pinoy Foodmart, which is the local Filipino food place in east Chula Vista. My friend is a history professor at the nearby Southwestern College. We met to do a trade of sorts - he had a Paul Frank "professor" monkey shirt to give me and I had a few Filipino American history videos and books to give him. He was one of the first to teach Filipino American studies in San Diego and predated Uncle Roy Morales, esteemed lecturer at UCLA in the late'70s. He was also an activist back in the late 60's/early 70's in the burgeoning Asian American/Pilipino American movement in San Diego. Anyhow...we chose JNC because it was closeby our work places and also because the food was already made so we wouldn't waste time ordering food.

I don't have a recent photo of the exterior, but it's a small mom and pop place next to Domino's pizza and some copy shop across from the (now defunct) old Henry's Market. We got there at 12 noon and luckily got a spot at one of the crammed in tables. The Filipino Channel (TFC) was blaring overhead, much to my annoyance. Sorry, but I can't stand Filipino TV from the Philippines. I think their shows are really lame - I know a lot of lolas who watch their swill and they love it, and more power to them, but TFC is not for me. That's why we don't get that channel!

Here's a shot of the steam table. To the left, bistek and onions, beef afritada, below it, some dish with beef livers, and to the right, pancit bihon. The stuff in the back is sinigang (sour soup), pinakbet (vegetable stew), and adobo. You don't see a lot of fresh veggies here folks.

This view is to the left of the bistek and onions...From the far left corner, fried whole fish, then beef mechado with potatoes and red bell peppers (beef stew with fat!). The lower left corner, which is cut off is a type of soup with shrimp and vegetable (I think it's opo squash), and to the right of that is some sort of beef dish. Sorry I don't know what it's called. Bad Filipino!
You can see more fried fish to the left, some soupy items (one had fish heads in it!) and the one in the middle, above the second green handled ladle was one of my favorites, Adobong Pusit (Squid Adobo) - I love that! Ink sacs and all! They didn't have diniguan today though. I would have eaten that if they had it.
Lunch was on the Prof, so I got the two item combo with rice, which they give waaay too much of. I barely made a dent in my rice. My two items were Pinakbet, which is vegetable stew with pork and bagoong (salted shrimp fry). I love pinakbet but rarely make it because my husband hates the main vegetables in the dish, which include okra, bittermelon, and eggplant.

The other item in my combo was the Bistek and Onions which was served in a separate container. Some of the meat pieces were a little fatty so I ended up not eating those pieces. I wish the onions were a little more cooked/caramelized. Raw onion breath isn't good when you're meeting students and possibly parents who walk in unannounced. This is flap meat/flank marinated in soy sauce and lemon juice. Asides from the fatty pieces, it was okay, but doesn't compare to my dad's version.

The Prof had the two item combo - half rice/half Pancit Bihon along with the everpopular Bistek and Onions. I didn't take a picture of his food - I felt kind of wierd doing it there. It started getting busy with all the college students across the street and a bunch of older lolos and lolas who started coming in during the lunch rush. It was a nice change being out of the office - I could literally feel the stress coming off my shoulders as I drove out of the school parking lot. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish my monstrous serving of food so I took it home.

Unfortunately, I put the styrofoam clam shell (unprotected by a plastic bag) on top of the passenger seat. Then, I thought twice about it and placed it on the floor on the passenger side. I guess I didn't see that the pinakbet had leaked slightly and left a nice square outline of a stain later that afternoon. The next morning, the ripe smell of bagoong assaulted my nose and I saw the tell tale stains on the seat. My husband ended up scrubbing it with that Oxyclean shit and vacuuming it as well as Febrezing the car and the car seat. He left all the windows open to air it out in the garage. The next morning, it still smelled like bagoong. It's smelled like that for nearly a week now! That'll learn me! My car now has a new air freshener, which kind of masks the odor, but it's still there, like the lingering scent of a dead animal.