El Salvadoreno with Lotus

[sometime in early July with Bert, TC, Lotus and her daughter]

We haven't been to El Salvadoreno in awhile, so it was about damn time we went again. I'd been thinking about their Pupusas..If you click on their link, you can see the menu (seen below) in all of its inhumanly mouthwatering and Douglas Sirk-like steak glory (the 'steak' is a reference to John Travolta ordering one of those in 1994's "Pulp Fiction" at Jack Rabbit Slim's). Go ahead and click and prepare to have a mouthgasm. See my previous two posts on El Salvadoreno here.
The curtido (pickled cabbage and carrot slaw) with two kinds of salsa. The one of the left is not so great. It's too watery and not even spicy. The brighter orangey one on the right is the one you want to dump all over your food.
Bert's soda is the Kolashampan, which is from El Salvador. It tastes like pineapple. The drink on the right is TC's "ensalada" which is pineapple juice with chopped fruit (apples and one other kind, which I don't remember). Very refreshing, but I personally don't like my drinks to have chopped up shit in them. Like boba - I don't like boba. I don't want to chew on things while I'm supposed to be drinking.
Here's our pupusas - "Revuelta con todo" - with everything, which means cheese, beans, jalapeno, pork and loroco (an edible flouwer found in El Salvador). I really love the texture of these pupusas - they're a bit chewy.
My salad was originally ordered without dressing. I guess the waitress wasn't paying attention because it came with dressing. I asked her to please send me a plain one since that was what I ordered. It took forever getting that one. Maybe she was pissed off or something for the extra hassle, but shit. She should have gotten it right the first time. Hopefully, she wasn't like the waiters in "Waiting" and didn't do anything nasty to it. Or like Horatio Sanz's character (aka "The French Toast Guy") in "Road Trip" where he rubs, no, GRINDS French toast in his crotch out of spite. Yeah, let's hope none of that happened with my salad. I saw no signs of logies in them or hair. Bert's - The Bisteck Encebollado a la Plancha (Grilled steak and onions) with rice/beans/avocado. We both liked this plate - meat and onions? Yes please.
Lotus had the Salpicon de Res (Salpicon beef - diced and minced beef) with rice and beans. The meat wasn't really spicy but not being a connoisseur of salpicon, I don't know if it's meant to be spicy or not.
Why the hell is this picture in here? It's Bert's food again but from another angle...I wished it came with more avocado slices!
TC's food - the fried chicken with rice and beans. It was, uh....kind of boring. The chicken was kind of burnt looking. It was a thigh piece with part of the back. She liked the skin - nice and crispy. Oh to be young again and not have to worry about cholesterol.
I ordered one of these the last time we were here. Here's my Baleada with carne asada inside...This is a fkg big tortilla chock full of MEEEEEAT. So good. You must have one.
Go ahead...lick your computer screen. You won't regret it.

Eddie's Place

[Original outing was on 7/12 during the Coupon Spree of Summer 2009]

A few days after our dinner at Sea Rocket Bistro, we found ourselves in the North Park neighborhood yet again. Armed with yet another coupon provided by the lovely HotFudge, we decided to check out a place neither of us had ever gone to before...Bert and I had already perused the Uptown and Downtown magazines for their coupons...This place sounded pretty good. Not pretentious. It wasn't too far. It had Philly cheese steaks. That pretty much sealed the deal with Bert.
Our destination was the recently opened Eddie's Place, also on 30th. I liked the name because it sounded nice and dirty, like the kind of place you'd find on the wrong side of the tracks. See the Yelp reviews of Eddie's here. Some people thought they were kind of pricey, but shit, we had a coupon so it was a'ight.
Since it was a Sunday and fairly pretty early for lunch (11:30'ish), parking was pretty easy to find. What I like about North Park is that most parking (at least on the side streets, not the main drag, like University Ave) is free. You just have to hunt for it on Friday and Saturday nights though. Looks like this used to be a house but equipped with a rather labyrinthine handicapable walkway.
Here's their menu which can be found online at the first Eddie's link above.
There were framed posters and other type of memorabilia related to Philly in here.
My favorite was this one! Isn't that a great lineup! Back in the day too! In 1986, I was still in high school (summer before senior year!)! Seems like there is a resurgence (it usually comes in waves) in old school hip hop. My 7th grade nephew was sporting a Run DMC shirt last week. The Vietnamese waitress at Pho 888 (haven't posted that yet) also had on a Run DMC shirt. You can buy those at Wal-Mart or Target nowadays. Back then, the only way to get a t-shirt with a band logo on it was to go to the concert. You couldn't buy your "look" at the store like you can nowadays (ex: Hot Topic). Damn posers.
More of their menu...click to enlarge. Sorry if it's still blurry.
So many choices...Lots of American style comfort food here. For those of you that know me, it's not my favorite style of food. But, since Bert is such a big fan of Philly cheesesteaks and because we both wanted to try a totally new place, relatively risk free (since we had that damn coupon), whynot, right? Man, they have meat loaf here. To me, meat loaf is pretty damn exotic. They also had a pork ribs plate and a spaghetti and meatballs plate. We definitely have to go here again (with the coupon, of course).
This was TC's dish - the kid's hamburger with fries which isn't on the menu, but it's basically a smaller version of their burger with American cheese. Here it is without the top bun. I snuck a tiny bite of hers (we traded bites of our meals) - the patty meat was pretty good but it could have used a little more seasoning.
Hmmm, the flash made this look too much like a Hollywood starlet's fake tan, but these were the sweet potato fries, which were $1 extra if you had it with a burger. Nicely seasoned. Despite what you see here, these weren't burnt.
This was my Philly cheese steak sandwich - Mushroom, Steak and Onions with Provolone Cheese (extra .75). I hardly eat these types of sandwiches, but damn! This was so fkg good! I almost ate the whole thing! This totally kicks ass on "Steak Umms" which we loved as kids while growing up. The difference is like night and day!
Just look at that melted cheese! And that meat! Yeah, I'd eat this again!
Now for Bert's - Pepper, Steak & Onions with Provolone cheese. The rolls, by the way, are "Amoroso" rolls, which are synonymous with Philly cheese steaks. Although I'm sure there are bread fans out there, after a few bites, I deconstructed my sandwich and ignored the bread. Here's a cross section of the Pepper Steak and Onions...I wish mine had green peppers in it...would have been even better.
Service here was friendly. There were two girls working the counter. The place filled up before we left. It seems like a cool local hangout...Like I said, we'd go here again for their dinner specials.

Sea Rocket Bistro

[original date of entry 7/10, but delayed due to enjoying vacation too much to post every day, so that's why I wait several weeks to a month to post four or five entries at a time!]

All right folks - Sea Rocket Bistro in North Park is another place we went to in which we utilized a COUPON, which was graciously provided by the ever so awesome Food Ho. Another reason to use the coupon was the fast approaching expiration date of July 17th. So yeah, we HAD to use it or lose it! This time, we brought TC - she's pretty adventurous for a kid. She eats what we eat. No fast food shit for her. She's willing to try almost anything. Sea Rocket is known for serving local and sustainable foods, if you're into that tree hugging stuff. See the Yelp reviews of Sea Rocket here.
Sea Rocket is at the location of the old Linkery on 30th Ave, which moved up the street. Since it was a Friday Night, parking was scarce. We parked a few blocks away. North Park on Fridays is pretty happening. It was quite a foreign scene to us non-urban hipsters. We felt like a fuddy duddy married couple (but I think we're hip to some degree, ha ha) going to a hip food joint with our kid. We have no nightlife to speak of, so this was kind of like a field trip for us.
They had a $2 tapas menu and some other reasonable starters.
I don't know if it's like this everyday, but the clientele didn't seem very "ethnically diverse" (at least for the night we were there). With the exception of a gay "White on Rice" couple, and one other dark haired and brown skinned person (seen below with the yellow shirt), we were the "diversity". In any case, people there were really chill and cool. I didn't feel like how I felt at The Lodge in Pebble Beach...There was no "Could you please pass me the Grey Poupon" feeling here. I didn't feel like Billy Ray Valentine not understanding the "S Car Go" joke in "Trading Places". TC was the only kid though! As always!
Bert's beer - the Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale.
I'd read about and heard about Sea Rocket's sardines on a stick, so that's what we got. It was, ta da..$2 a skewer. We got one of those and another sardine appetizer. The sardine was grilled quite nicely and was impaled on a stick that seemed more substantial that your regular barbecue stick.. The sardine was also coated with olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt, which I really loved. The only thing I didn't really like were the bones, which are actually edible, but I don't like the feeling of the tiny thin bones traveling down my throat. Bert and I took a few experimental nibbles, but left the rest for TC because she loves almost anything on a stick. She enjoyed the sardine just as much as we did.
The other sardine appetizer was the poached sardine fillets on bread...I liked this better than the one on a stick since the bones were gone from this. We let TC polish these off as well. I felt like such a hillbilly since I'd never had fresh sardines before, only canned ones. If you are Filipino, you may have grown up eating canned sardines in tomato sauce with rice or miswa noodles. The brand my mom always got was "Ligo" which is the #1 brand in the Philippines.
This was my entree (description lifted straight from their menu) - the San Diego Fisherman's Stew - $16. "A hearty mixture of Carlsbad clams, mussels, squid and market fish chunks in a tomato-based broth, served with crisped ciabatta bread slices".

I really liked my entree. The portion was just right - it wasn't some bigass honkin' portion like they serve at Buca de Beppo or Claim Jumper. It was a normal non gluttonous sized plate. I liked the variety of seafood included in this dish. The broth was also pretty good, not too salty. It was pretty satisfying but not overly heavy. I didn't like the bread too much though and ended up giving it to my daughter so she could eat it with her clam chowder. This was Bert's plate - the Pan-Seared Market Fish - price varies ($16-$18 - I don't remember but we had a coupon so it was all good!)Pan-seared seasonal fish fillet (usually a choice of two different types of local fish as available) served with sauteed greens (Swiss Chard, Kale, Mustard Greens, etc.) and roasted butternut squash, garnished with our chimichurri sauce.

In this case, the fish was Chilean Seabass - that poor overfarmed fish. Bert cannot seem to pass up Seabass whenever it pops up on a menu. Instead of butternut squash, he had roasted carrots. He felt the fish was a bit overcooked and didn't flake as nicely as other seabass entrees he's had in the past. I had some of his greens - which turned out to be mustard greens, which I absolutely love. Nice and bitter! TC had the clam chowder, which she ate with some of my bread...She really liked the clam chowder, especially the clams which came with their shells. She enjoys taking out the meat. The soup was pretty filling, with lots of clams and diced potatoes in it.
After our dinner, we decided to pass on dessert since we were pretty full. While walking to our car, I snapped a photo of this totally wanna be Patrick Nagel looking ad for a North Park beauty salon. Remember the Duran Duran "Rio" album cover and the Charlotte Russe logo of a new-wavish type chick in the late 80's? That's the style of Patrick Nagel...Anyone that was around in the 80's has probably seen at least one graphic print of Nagel in any mall poster shop. Unless you lived under a rock or something...More on him here.
We'd go here again just to try a few of their other offerings. The food and service was pretty good here - we had a really nice waitress. Aaaand...because we're tight like that, we're going to wait until we get another coupon!

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!

Los Primos

[sometime back in mid-July...]

Here's another post in which we used a "coupon" from my entertainment value book. There are two Los Primos locations nearby - one in the San Miguel Ranch/Albertsons' shopping center, and one in the Eastlake Village Walk complex, which is this location here (see below). It's right next to a yogurt place.
Buy one, get one free is always good in my book!
That's Bert. Don't you just love my fabulous spray painting skills? Who needs Photoshop when you can crudely white out anyone's face to protect their identity?
This restaurant had cool paintings (well, they were cool to me) of Mexican village/town life...
We got two combos ($7.99 each - but we saved $7.99 with the coupon!)...This combo had the rice, beans, beef taco and rolled tacos...Yeah, kind of pedestrian, but shit, I wanted something crunchy.
Bert's entree had rice, beans, and two enchiladas. We shared our food with TC - she really liked the enchiladas since she couldn't really eat anything crunchy with her new expanders in her mouth and all.
I know this isn't high end or anything, but it's a good deal and the food did taste pretty good here. Lunch here was a pretty loud affair - since it was vacation, there were a lot of teenagers in there...We ended up taking some of our stuff home since it was so much food. Next coupon outing?

Sab e Lee for the Umpteenth time

[This visit was on 7/9 - went with a friend who's never been here before]

One of my very good friends wanted to go out for Thai...what better place than Sab e Lee? We used to work together, then she transferred to a (then) newer school. I missed having offices next to each other - during the rare moments of down time, we would bullshit in each others' offices or trade funny anecdotes...Anyhow, here's our drinks - my iced coffee on the left and her iced tea on the right.
She chose a noodle dish - which I forgot the name of, but it had beef in it. I'm such a lazy food blogger. I have the menu around somewhere but don't feel like getting up to look for it! Sorry dudes. I think it's the spicy noodles with mint and beef.
Another view of the noodles:
Papaya salad - spice scale 6, but it tasted like a 4. It wasn't hot enough to numb my lips.
Of course, I had to order the Northeastern Style pork sausage (with curry and rice)...I could eat just this with sticky rice and be happy. If you've never had this, it's #48 on the menu, I believe. This was the first time I'd ordered dessert here - we wanted the "Ruammit" but Kobey (the owner) said he was out. He did have, however, imported Thai ice cream. The flavor was coconut, but it was a light greenish color due to "bai toey" (that's just one variation of the spelling), which is also known as "pandan", a leaf used in Southeast Asian cooking. It imparts the light green color you see here and a slight vegetal flavor. When I asked Kobey what made the ice cream green, he wrote the name of the ingredient for me and described it. It sounded like pandan leaves to me, so when I looked it up online at home, I found that "bai toey" and "pandan" were one and the same. The yellowish orange bits you see in here are jackfruit, which were kind of chewy. We liked this very much - next time I go here, I'll see if they have it. And...I'll let Kobey know about the "pandan" (since he didn't known the English name for 'bai toey')!After lunch, we went to Thuan Phat for a cultural plunge (for my friend that is). I got some ingredients for bun and iced coffee. As we parked in Thuan Phat (which is just down the street from Sab e Lee), I realized I left my book bag with my junk and waters in it. We went back immediately and Kobey had already set it aside for me. He is super nice as well as knowledgeable about food. That's one reason why I like going back to Sab e Lee. It may be small, but there is a lot of care that goes into their food. They don't rush it and slap it down on your plate so you can get in and out in thirty minutes. No one hassles you here and the owner is always willing to share his knowledge about his dishes with the customers! Now that's great service! And the food kicks ass on those pussified Thai places all over San Diego too!