Muzita Abyssinian Bistro

We actually ate here Friday Night, on the 13th...cue scary Michael Myers) music here. Pause. Michael Myers the hockey masked serial killer, not Michael Myers) from the sucktastic "Love Guru". I replaced my 3/12 post (the GQ one) with this one, so the GQ one would come up first! So, no, I did not use the flux capacitor and go back in time like Marty McFly. After reading the article in Night and Day's restaurant reviews, we decided to try out the new "Abyssinian" place in this neighborhood. I learned that Abyssinian also refers to the area that is Ethiopia, but Muzita's owners are Eritrean. This place opened in October 2008 and is named after a relative.
University Heights near dusk:

Muzita is a cute converted cottage located near the University Heights sign, across nearby is the gaylicious Lei Lounge. Here is the review from The San Diego Union Tribune's Night & Day, which prompted me to make reservations after reading it. Here are some other reviews from Urban Spoon and Yelp. I thought we'd try the place and since it was Lent, we could go for Vegetarian items on a Friday night. Luckily I got reservations at 6 pm. We got parking around the corner near Lancer's Bar.

It wasn't crowded when we got there. My first impression was, "Man this place is small!" and "They have nice decor here". Here is the view from our table; we were seated near the front door by the outdoor patio:

View sans groovy curtain. Nice wooden floors and beautiful photographs adorning the walls. One thing I noticed was that we were the only Asians (Filipinos) here. Wait, I take that back. There was a couple sitting on the front patio that looked to be Asian (not sure of the exact ethnicity). There were a few African Americans (our server and a couple of bartenders). Not sure if they were of Eritrean/Ethiopian descent. Not that they had to be. We didn't see the owner or his wife (as described in the Night and Day article); he would have been easy to spot since he has dreadlocks. This place was pretty yuppified, i.e. urban white hipster. That also means that this place would be pricey. It's in a neighborhood that's rapidly becoming a getrified haven. Not that I think that is wrong, mind you. I'm glad to see more diversity.

Menu cover made of cork. When I first saw it, I almost thought it read "Mualta" because of the wierd font.

Appetizers:

This was the Teff Encrusted Bamya (teff is the grain used to make their unleavened bread called "Injera", "bamya" is okra). Those are microgreens garnishing the dish along with snipped chives. Okra tastes so much better fried. The sliminess factor is lessened. The coating was crunchy in parts; some sections were soaked in the yellow pepper emulsion. We really liked this appetizer because it was sweet, crunchy and earthy (due to the roasted vegetables) at the same time. We used our hands (after they gave us sealed and warmed wet wipes, nice!); no forks here.

Drinks:
My "Mess" (honey wine) and Bert's Meta Beer. He'd already tried the other types of Ethiopian beers at the other places we'd been. He'd also tried Hinano which is a Tahitian beer (during our honeymoon eons ago). I liked my glass of honey wine - it was pretty sweet. I could've downed it quickly but I wanted it to last. I've chosen to stay away from alcohol after having gone through treatment last year. You know, exercise more, eat healthier, etc. But I figured, a drink once in a while won't hurt me.

The other appetizer we ordered were the Sambussas which came with three and were cut in half. We ordered the meatless sambussas. Nice presentation, eh? They were half moon shaped, not triangular like in the other places, and much bigger too. The fillings were also substantial. They looked kind of nice, standing on the flat side, propped up like Busby Berkeley chorus girls interspersed with lightly dressed lettuce leaves and microgreen garnish. Lovely and tasty too!

Spinach & Collards Sambussa. FYI - My nail polish is called Gothik by Sephora; it's a dark, smoky gray (kind of like gun metal!). I've switched from my dark purple to this new color recently. Very rocker chick.

Stewed vegetable Sambussa. Look at that filling! This was pretty substantial. No thin filling. Still, we felt something was missing...

Bert and I realized that the sambussas needed to be kicked up a bit. We asked for hot sauce and the host brought some out. They call it Awaze sauce and it's potent in a slow and sneaky way. Kind of reminds me of Harissa sauce.

Lo and behold, our entrees which came family style:

Uncovered:

Vegetarian entrees:
Our two entrees were combined and included a green salad in the middle. There were only two rolls of injera so we asked for more. We ordered the Hamli (spinach and collards) with a side of Timtimo (red lentils) along with the Prawns Kilwa and the side of alitcha (stewed vegetables):

Seafood items:
Closeup of the Prawn Kilwa which was really delicious. There were about 5 or 6 large prawns in there. Thankfully, they were shelled. They were so tasty with the awaze sauce. TC had a few bites but preferred to eat the vegetarian items on the platter instead. A Caucasian couple who were sitting at the bar earlier, were seated next to us for dinner. It was also their first time at Muzita as well as their first time trying Ethiopian food. The man said, "This is a departure from our usual Mexican". Something tells me that they don't go out for ethnic food very much. Ya think? We found out that they live in the Kensington area and that they have a four year old girl who isn't a very adventurous eater. They ended up ordering a beef item and the prawns. The wife ended up using a fork while her husband used his hands (right on bro!).

TC had suggested that we have Ethiopian a few weeks back which was another reason why I wanted us to try this place. I'm glad that she's willing to try new things. That and the fact that she enjoys utensil free eating! After we got our food, the restaurant started to get really crowded. A couple with a small child came in and they happened to be friends with the couple next to us. "We're on our date night...with our child" said the woman. Unfortunately, they did not have reservations and since the restaurant was fully booked inside and outside, they had to be turned away.

After our dinner, we asked about desserts. Here were the choices: Tiramisu, Creme Brulee and this - the Tangerine sorbet with fresh berries. If I may say so, the desserts weren't really "Abyssinian" at all. I was disappointed by their offerings. I was expecting more authentic choices. Like what? I have no idea, but I wasn't expecting "tiramisu"! As you can see by the photo, we got the third choice to "cleanse our palates". Ha ha. I just wanted to write "cleanse our palates". The sorbet was quite tangy and fresh, but I wasn't a fan of the sour stuff, so Bert and TC happily polished it off.

The damage for tonight was $71 (sans tip). Yikes! Now, if we ate at Harar, Awash, Red Sea, or even Asmara (which is the nicest out of the first three mentioned, but I actually like Harar the best), our bill would have been cut in half. Okay, maybe $40 total. That's the price to pay when eating in an a relatively new and yearning-to-be upscale new restaurant. I'm not spraying Haterade on this place, ok? Not at all! We liked it and I'd probably go here again to eat that okra! But...(and there's always a 'but'), it lacked the authenticity and grittiness of the other Ethiopian places, which I really like.

The service here was really good - the host was pretty cool and accomodating, as was our waiter. Remember the basket cover on our food platter? I originally wanted to take a photo of that before he uncovered the food, but he did it too fast. Bert asked him later on to bring it back so I could take a photo. I was kind of embarassed but took the photo anyways just for this blog. Anyhow, our server was really cool and answered all of our questions knowledgably; he was very friendly and attentive.

I knew what to expect demographics wise when we came to Muzita, but you know the saying about eating at an ethnic restaurant...If you don't see any people of that ethnicity eating there...turn around and walk away". Well, we weren't going to walk out! It's kind of a double edged sword. It's good people are wanting to try new things. More power to them (we're part of that crowd as well). But the very people/culture to which the restaurant pays homage weren't frequenting the place. Well, maybe they do, but they weren't there last night. No worries. It was good to see the place jumping. The restaurant seemed to be doing pretty well - it was packed when we left.

Here's the view leaving:

Heading home via El Cajon Blvd:

But not before stopping by Eclipse Chocolat for a more substantial dessert. That sorbet didn't do it for me. It was too sour (which Bert and TC loved). I got the Salted Caramel Cupcake (the salt is infused with Lavender) which we've had before. I like that combination of sweet and salty. The lavender I could actually do without though.

Cross section of the cupcake. You can see some of that oozing caramel. TC and I shared this since Bert has sworn off chocolate (as well as meat and rice) for Lent:

After savoring this decadent dessert, we finally headed home. It was pretty fun going out to eat, although the check total was a bit more than we were used to paying (but we knew it was coming). We'll be trying out some other places really soon...

Dave & Buster's

One of my friends (who's completely ROBSESSED) wanted to celebrate her birthday a little early. She chose Dave & Busters, which is like a Chuck E. Cheese for adults; it's located under the freeway (805 & 8) in Mission Valley. By the way, if you click that D & B's link, you will hear some annoying music, so maybe you shouldn't click on it after all. I think she chose it because it had games and stuff for the kids. Let me tell you, it was a long ass wait for a Saturday night - we waited more than one hour to get seated. Plus, it was crowded and noisy as hell in there. I hate crowds and I can't stand the types that frequent this sort of establishment. Sorry folks, but it's not my thing. Click here for the reviews from Yelp.
The menu:

Burgers:

The appetizer was nachos with hot cheese dip and two mini sides of guacamole and red salsa. The salsa was pretty bad - it tasted like Pace Picante sauce, which it probably was, or some sort of horrid facsimile. I avoided the red salsa. Everyone was ravenous, so we attacked the chips. Okay, I attacked the chips.

My friend (one of the other mom's) ordered the steak with peppercorns (you can't see it in this photo) with a birds nest looking thing of thinly sliced and fried onions. It was also served with mashed potatoes with herbs.

My friend (the birthday girl) ordered the Chicken cavatappi with pesto. I think that's what this was but I don't remember. I'm posting this nearly one week later so my memory's gone plus I didn't take notes. I figured, "Hell, it's Dave & Buster's. It can't be that complicated that I need to take notes on their food!".

I ordered two things. This was the first item - Green salad with candied pecans, apple slices. raspberry vinaigrette (not shown - it was one the side in a little ramekin) and blue cheese. I actually ordered this without the offending blue cheese, so this salad was replaced after taking the photo and realizing the damn cheese was in there. I wanted to eat something healthy tonight.

TC and one of the other kids ordered this - Fettucine alfredo with breaded chicken. Of course, it was way too much for a small kid to eat. We took more than 2/3's of it home. There's no way a kid can polish that off, unless that kid is a sumo wrestler in training.

This entree belongs to one of the other husbands. These are buffalo sliders. Buffalo style chicken with fries...

I don't remember whose food this was but this is perhaps breaded chicken? Or Fish? Wait, maybe this belonged to the birthday girl's husband.

Bert's entree - I think this is some sort of mashed potatoes with blackened salmon and green (and yellow) string beans:

One of the kids' food - These look like Chicken strips with fries:

These were my California Bar Burgers - Four mini sliders (cooked medium - too pink for me actually) with fries:

My friend's "birthday" dessert - some sort of chocolate cake covered with whipped cream:

As you can see, the food was basic bar type/American food. Nothing spectacular or ground breaking. Luckily, we were seated in a separate room with a big movie screen. It was much quieter since we were not in the main dining areas where the noise level was high. There was a baseball game on the movie screen but no one seemed to be paying attention. I was just happy we were not seated outside. We would have been shouting to hear ourselves speak. Despite the food being mediocre, I still had a good time chatting with the moms; the kids had a blast playing games and spending their "tickets" on trinkets that totally weren't worth the cost. I don't think I would ever go here again. Ever. I enjoyed the company but not the atmosphere or food.

1st Guest Post...

This is the first guest post to my blog, supplied by my bro, who has bestowed upon himself the illustrious moniker of "Dee Schnuts". A couple of weekends ago, DN met Bert and TC for lunch at Pho Anh, the new Vietnamese place in the Southland Plaza strip mall in south San Diego. For photos of the place, check my previous posts here and here :

My bro only sent me a short blurb for this first post. He'll be adding more North County posts to this blog for me. He works in the Rancho Bernardo area so he goes out to eat a lot with his co-workers.

At Pho Anh, DN ordered the Beef Stew with French bread:

"Other places make it better. This was tasteless and bland. The meat is supposed to be soft, high pressure cooked, then marinated and stewed. It was hard. At least the french bread was fresh. A small portion for $5.95. Definitely not their specialty."

Yeah, it's kind of short but he knows the next time to take a photo of the menu, the exterior, the interior of the place, and if possible, cross sections of the food (if it can be sliced).

La Finca d'Adobe

(this post is being written nearly one week later)...After doing pre-reg at the middle school, the co-workers decided to go to this Mexican restaurant, La Finca D'Adobe on Bonita Road. This is by the 7-11, on Bonita and Frisbie. It used to be an Italian place, Palumbo's, which closed about a year or year and a half ago. Prior to being Palumbo's for about a decade or so, it was Brendory's, a Cajun place that I never had the chance to eat at (bad grammar, I know).
This was their lunch special menu. As you can see by the prices, it's kind of high (or is it because I'm cheap?)...

The ambience is rustic Mexican furniture and decoration:

Blurry menu photo:

More menu items. Click photo for larger view:

Last time I was here last year, they had just added a new room addition. The waitress gave us chips, red salsa (which wasn't really hot or anything) and pickled carrots.

I really like their plates here - handpainted Mexican style. It was nice NOT to see a logo on it, like Frida's at the Otay Ranch mall. Since there were 7 of us, I took a lot of photos. One of my co-workers got the Finca Quesadilla with Chicken (below):

Another one got the Shrimp Ceviche with tostada and crema:

Here's the lunch special fish taco plate with rice and beans:

Here's one of the items I ordered, the Tacos Gobernador (Shrimp with Cheese):

Interior view of that tasty taco ("I'm hungry...let's go get a taco" - Harvey Keitel in "Reservoir Dogs"). This was pretty damn good - You can't go wrong with seafood and cheese and peppers!

One co-worker (along with an intern) got the carne asada burrito. Man, this burrito was $7.99. You could get the same thing at Roberto's for less than half the price - and it probably tastes better too.

Cross section of the carne asada burrito:

Oops - just realized this is another photo of the shrimp and cheese taco. Oh well, here it is again for your enjoyment:

The other item I ordered was the Ceviche Mixto - This was shrimp, fish and octopus ceviche with avocado slices on top of a tostada. I couldn't finish this - it was really good, but the portion was a lot. Plus, I had the taco earlier and the chips. Gotta lay off those chips. I never really ordered ceviche before and now I think to myself, "What have I been missing?". It tasted light and fresh and I liked the tiny octopus pieces. Nice and chewy but not rubbery.

I don't know about the men's bathrooms, but wow! Check this out - this is the women's bathroom. The rustic Mexican decor extends into this room as well. The mirrors are tin with embossed designs and brightly painted enamel flowers. The tile inlays were also quite pretty. And look at those sinks:

Each sink had a different painted design...It's little touches like these that I like in a restaurant. Would I go here again? Maybe not. I'd rather eat at a hole in the wall Mexican place. But for the ambience, decor, friendly service, and decent food, yes - I would go here again.

Gotta hand it to my co-workers...they were good sports and put up with me taking pics of their food. They already think I'm wierd and this adds fuel to the fire! Ha ha.

Ba Ren Revisited

[Update - Closed in early 2012]

Last night, me and my EGF's (educator GF's) went to Ba Ren. I had been there last week with Kirk and Jack. I wanted to go there again! I didn't think it would be that soon. Our first choice of dinner outing was Masarap, which was an upscale Filipino restaurant located in the Gaslamp. Unfortunately, within one month of it's opening at the advent of this year, Masarap has already fallen victim to hard times. We were bummed because we wanted to try this new place.

So...that gave me an excuse to pick Ba Ren, if only to eat those Hot Pepper Prawns again! My GF's were teasing me, saying they wanted nicknames. Well, here goes...These are temporary. If they don't like it, they can let me know and I can rechristen them something else. I'm so unoriginal with names. Far left - K (the Knitter), D (the Diva), the ORC (no, I'm not calling her that creature from Lord of the Rings. ORC means "Other Rocker Chick"), and then there's me, CC. Ber put these lovely ovals on our mugs. Don't you just love them? We've been doing these dinners (and occasionally lunches) on and off for the past decade. It's been that long!!! #156 - Crispy rice crust with fresh calamari. There were these rectangular rice krispy looking cakes lining the bottom of the dish. There's scored squid, a leafy green veg (don't know, maybe it was spinach?), jack straw mushrooms, and another type of mushroom. I was about to take a picture of the dish, then the waiter poured the broth quicker than a dress comes off on prom night. The resulting sound was the same. Sizzle. Ssssss....Okay, that's a really bad analogy. So this is the dish after the broth was poured. Now the krispy rice cakes are soggy. The soup, by the way, was delicious. I liked the calamari (chewy) and the bamboo shoots...

The return of #221 - Hot Pepper Prawns. See my previous post so I don' have to describe this again. Just scroll down if you wish. Anyways, I ordered another one of these just for Bert. There weren't leftover last week. I just ate a cold piece earlier this morning and even though it had no chili pieces on it, that still numbed my lips and tongue! Good stuff going in. But it got me on the way out too. TMI? Just warning you, but it's really really addicting, I'm telling you!

And the return of #121 - Double Cooked Fish with Chili Sauce. Diva really liked this alot. She kept coming back to this. So did I. We finished off this plate before the end of the night.

And yes, another familiar entree -#122 -Boiled Fish Fillet in Hot Sauce. You know, by itself, the name alone sounds rather unappetizing to me. I wouldn't have ordered this if I saw it on the menu. But since MMM-Yoso ordered this for everyone last week, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the fish tasted. Despite the scary redness, this dish wasn't as hot as, say, the Prawns dish. This was also a winner with the GF's. By the way, there are vegetables at the bottom (cabbage). The sauce tastes good the next day on rice.

Close up of the "Boiled Fish Fillet":

We ordered a vegetable dish - Baby Bok Choy. Not sure how much it was. It wasn't on the menu. I was afraid my GF's wouldn't like this place since the food was spicy and unfamiliar. Luckily, they are all open minded and adventurous. These next few dishes were kind of on the safe side. So yeah, baby bok choy which is pretty tasty and harmless:

#183 - Fried Spare Ribs with Roasted Salt Pepper Corn (peppercorn is spelled separately in their menu, by the way). Diva ordered this. The pieces were bitesize which was nice. Some pieces had bone in them; some more fatty than others. The flavor was unique (to me at least). It had a dry, roasted but sweet quality to them.

Our 6 course meal came out to about $20 per person. Not bad, eh?

Okay, I just remembered some differences between this meal and last week's. Maybe because we weren't Chinese (we were one of the few non Chinese there that night), we weren't given that beans dessert. You know what they gave us? Fortune cookies! I didn't realize it until later because something seemed missing. In fact before we had our dinner, K mentioned that she was interested in the beans dessert, but not sure about it. Well, we were never even given the chance to try it. That kind of sucked.

Also, in my first Ba Ren post, Kirk had some cold dishes picked out from this little metal cart near the front of the restaurant. Remember, the bamboo shoots, peanuts, thin sliced beef? There's other choices too...Anyway, no one told us if we could get any so I assumed maybe it was just a lunch item. No....I saw other Chinese folks going up there and getting plates full of stuff. I don't know if it cost extra or not. They seemed to know what they were doing. I need some tips Mmm-yoso! Here were are messing around after dinner.

We'll be going here again!!!! Bert needs to go with me next time too. I saw an item on the menu, #214 - Fried Fresh Scallops with Hot Peppers. That's what I want!

After this incendiary mouth and face melting meal, we headed over to Michael's so the K could pick up yarn for her projects. While on our way there, we were playing "Name that Tune" on D's ipod. This is our new game now. Wow, D had a lot of ballads, pop songs, and Philippine singers. It was fun trying to guess who was who. I was stumped for a lot of them since those aren't my genres. One thing I gotta say, she had some interesting song choices. I liked her Bee Gees "Nights on Broadway" because that is the "theme song" for the SNL skit starring Jimmy Fallon for "The Barry Gibb Talk Show"! "I'm Barry Gibb! Do you know what that me-he-heans?"

After Michaels, our plan was to head over to Hillcrest for dessert and coffee/tea at Mille Feuille.