Jinxi Eats

Nozomi Sushi Noodles & Teriyaki

Apr 102013

S and I love “Americanized” sushi rolls, complete with the spicy mayo and cream cheese and BBQ eel sauce and whatnot. Our favorite place for sushi here is Sushi Diner – the rolls there are so creative, and all of them (that we’ve tried so far) are delicious. However, recently we heard about Nozomi Sushi & Teriyaki from our friends and decided to try it out. There are two locations, one in La Jolla (in the Regents Pizzeria/ Einstein Bagels plaza) and one on Convoy, in the same plaza as Dede’s Teajuice City. The Convoy location is supposedly the better one.

The restaurant owner is Korean; you can read about him and the restaurant on the website for the La Jolla location (for some reason, there is no website for this location…) The menu is also largely the same across the two locations, as is happy hour.

We had originally planned to share the chirashi salad, which is supposedly a really huge portion, but S wanted to try the rolls instead. The couple at a table near us ordered the chirashi salad, and it was huge – the container was a giant serving bowl. I think it’d take more than just S and me to finish it off. I also contemplated taking a photo of it, but decided it was a bit too sketchy since the couple seemed to be enjoying a date…We knew the portion sizes would be big and didn’t want to over-order, so each of us just picked one roll. S chose the Alaska Roll, which has spicy tuna, crab, sprouts, salmon skin, cucumber, and avocado. The outside is layer of tempura batter.

Alaska Roll ($12.95)

The roll was indeed pretty big… it also arrived on a huge platter with, and the individual pieces were laid out instead of in a roll. There’s also a bunch of ice in the platter, and the rolls were lying on top of a piece of Saran wrap. Creative, but I didn’t see what part of that roll really needed to be kept on ice the whole time. The whole presentation was a bit weird. Overall though I thought it tasted not bad. The proportions of the fillings was a bit off – it was mostly crab and barely a hint of the spicy tuna, but I liked the crunchy salmon skin. The tempura batter on the outside made it a bit messy to eat. Continue reading »

04/10/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 04/10/2013
8 Responses
Asian, Fusion, Japanese
Tagged with: Nozomi, San Diego, Sushi

[Baking] Lemon Curd Coffee Cake

Apr 072013

Recently I’ve been getting tons of lemons in my CSA box, and I thought I’d try my hand at making lemon curd. I followed the recipe from Baking Bites, and it worked really well.

Then I figured, why not incorporate the lemon curd into a cake?

I found a recipe for lemon curd coffee in my The Taste of Home Cookbook, and modified it for what was in my pantry. It turned out quite well – the moist cake contrasted well with the crumble topping, and there was plenty of lemon flavor throughout.

I usually bring some of my baked goods to work to share, but cakes are usually a bit messy for office snacking – so I made another batch into coffee cupcakes instead.

04/07/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 04/07/2013
4 Responses
baking, Dessert
Tagged with: cake, lemon, lemon curd

Taste of the Himalayas

Apr 032013

In Berkeley, there is no shortage of good Indian food. Some of my favorites include Khana Peena, Vik’s Chaat (website), and Flavors of India (website), and there were so many others that I hadn’t tried or explored. After moving to San Diego, I get periodic cravings for Indian food, and while S’s favorite is the popular Punjabi Tandoor, I actually thought it was too mild and creamy for me. When I want Indian food, I want a big hit of flavor.

Recently, S took me to an Indian/Nepalese restaurant that he found a while ago – he said I’d definitely enjoy the spiciness and flavors, and his Nepalese friend endorses the place. I have tried Nepalese food once before and immediately jumped on board when he said “spicy.”

The restaurant is located on Midway Dr., near Phil’s BBQ. In fact, S said that he first discovered it when he and a friend was looking for another place to eat when the line at Phil’s was too long. There was a short wait here, too, even at 8:30pm (on a Saturday). He says that they get pretty crowded during regular meal times. The service was also a bit slow – there were plenty of open tables, but they just weren’t clearing them off and seating customers. Also a funny note about service: when we asked for our check at the end of the meal, the waitress had actually lost the slip of paper with our order on it… so she had to come over and ask us again what we had just eaten.

We had already looked through the menu online prior to arriving, so we had pretty much made up our minds already. S said that we should try the Nepalese dishes (as opposed to the standard Indian dishes such as chicken tikka masala, etc.). But first, we were given a cup of complimentary curried lentil soup, which I really enjoyed.

I was surprised to find out that S didn’t know what lentils were… haha.

Lukshya ko Momo – minced lamb steamed dumplings ($9.95)

We started off with an order of “Momo” – Nepalese steamed dumplings – from the appetizer menu. There are three options for filling: vegetable, chicken, and lamb. We picked the lamb. The taste actually reminds me of Chinese dumplings or even Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) but without the soup. Continue reading »

04/03/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 04/03/2013
2 Responses
Indian
Tagged with: Nepalese, San Diego, spicy food, Taste of the Himalayas

[Baking] Sesame Kale Chips

Apr 012013

I mentioned in my Avocado Milk Pound Cake post that I have been getting lots of local, organic produce from my CSA subscription. Most weeks, the selection is similar, and I enjoy coming up with new ways to cook with ingredients that I don’t normally buy – for example, kale. I know that kale is full of nutritious goodness, but before I joined the CSA I actually never bought it because, well, I wasn’t sure whether I could make it taste good. But with the CSA, I had to learn how to use kale. So I’ve done the usual – stir-frying it, incorporating it into sauces and pasta… but the other day I thought, I’ve bought kale chips as snacks before and really liked them, but why not try to make my own?

One of the key things that I learned is to make sure the kale leaves are completely dry. If they’re even slightly wet, the chips will end up really soggy. I’ve had that happen to me a couple of times… I washed the leaves and just got impatient and didn’t dry them all properly before tossing it into the oven. Sad, sad, soggy kale chips emerged.

Done properly, though, these kale chips were a delicious, savory snack. They (almost) completely replaced potato chips for me, although there are days when I still can’t resist opening a bag of good old Lay’s. Continue reading »

04/01/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 04/01/2013
4 Responses
baking
Tagged with: chips, healthy snack, savory snack, veggies

Paipa’s Buffet – Sycuan Casino

Mar 312013

A couple of my friends have been talking about taking us to check out the San Diego-area casino buffets for quite some time – it’s pretty cheap, and you get a lot of decent food. S and I have hesitated for a long time because it is pretty far out from where we live, but finally we were convinced and made the trip out to Sycuan casino, a good 35 miles away from our home.

I saw some “no cameras” signs around the casino, and the entrance to the buffet is right next to some slot machines so I didn’t want to take photos and get in trouble. Wouldn’t want to be kicked out after such a long drive…

The price for the buffet for dinner time is around $20, but if you sign up for a free Club Sycuan card, there’s an automatic 20% discount, making the price around $17 per person. Compared to the buffets in Las Vegas (or even other all-you-can-eats), the price is really good. Too bad the extra gas money makes up for it.

The food selection is actually sort of small, though, compared to many other buffets I’ve been to. There are the typical stations: salad, pasta & pizza, Mexican, Asian, “comfort food,” and of course the meat, seafood, and dessert.

My friend recommends the prime rib here, and it was indeed quite delicious. You can ask for just a cut of the medium-rare meat, or have it lightly grilled for a bit more doneness. I liked it grilled, but S preferred the medium-rare version. There was also an assortment of sauces: horseradish (2 different levels of spiciness!), aioli, and plain mayo. I liked the spicy horseradish the most.

And of course, crab legs. Since S doesn’t normally eat shellfish, I sort of go crazy when there’s an unlimited supply of it for me to eat. There are several versions of crab legs: chilled, steamed, and also stir-fried with peppers and onions. I preferred the chilled. Continue reading »

03/31/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 03/31/2013
No Responses
American
Tagged with: all-you-can-eat, buffet, Paipa's Buffet, San Diego

Lolita’s Taco Shop (favorite menu items)

Mar 292013

I’ve written about Lolita’s Taco Shop before and mentioned that it’s one of our favorite places in San Diego. Last time, I tried the enchiladas and enjoyed them, but most of the time S and I actually stick to the burritos. While many people rave about the California Burrito here, our tried-and-true favorite is the Carnitas Burrito – the pork is super flavorful, and the meat is tender and also has crispy brown bits.

Carnitas Burrito ($4.75)

03/29/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 03/29/2013
4 Responses
Mexican
Tagged with: burritos, Lolita's, San Diego

[Baking] Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mar 252013

When it comes to cookies, S isn’t a huge fan of chocolate dough, and to be honest double chocolate chip cookies aren’t usually my go-to – my favorites are always the classic chocolate chip cookie and peanut butter cookie. But a craving hit the other day, so I made a batch of double cc’s. I actually tried to stuff some of them with these new “cookie chips” that I picked up from Von’s – basically they are half-dollar-sized, really crunchy cookies.

They’re quite delicious on their own, but stuffing them into another cookie didn’t work so well. I guess after being in contact with the wet cookie dough, these cookie chips softened quite a bit, so I didn’t get the textural contrast that I had wanted. The peanut butter flavor went really well with the chocolate, though – gives me some ideas for new things to try…

Well, even though the stuffed cookies weren’t that successful, I thought I’d share the recipe for the double cc cookies anyway. They still turned out really well and are very chocolatey.

03/25/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 03/25/2013
No Responses
baking
Tagged with: chocolate, cookies & bars

Fig Tree Cafe (Pacific Beach location)

Mar 232013

Brunch is one of my favorite meals – relaxing atmosphere and comfort food, accompanied by good conversations. It’s been a while since I had the time to enjoy brunch, so recently I made plans with a girl friend to check out Fig Tree Cafe in PB. I had a Groupon deal, and it seemed like a decent place.

The restaurant is, quite literally, underneath a tree. I’m not good with plants but I’ll just assume that’s a fig tree… All the seating is on the semi-covered patio. Thankfully, it was a warm-ish day.

We started out with some coffee & tea. Look how gigantic that mug of tea is, compared with the standard cup of coffee! I think the tea cup must have been at least 1000 c.c.

Shrimp & Mango Salad ($10.75)

03/23/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 03/23/2013
No Responses
American, Breakfast & Brunch, Cafe
Tagged with: brunch, Fig Tree Cafe, San Diego

The Kebab Shop (Mira Mesa location)

Mar 212013

S is normally not a big fan of Mediterranean cuisine – something about the yogurt and lemon-based dressings turns him off, I guess. But he does agree that The Kebab Shop serves pretty delicious food; we have visited a couple of times before, and recently I had a craving for it, so we stopped by the Mira Mesa location with some friends.

Lamb Plate with falafel and eggplant salad ($8.79)

We were both pretty hungry, so each of us decided to get a rotisserie plate – you can choose chicken or lamb, and it comes with a salad and hot side. I had forgotten how large the portions were here… my lamb plate actually lasted me 2.5 meals. I really like the lamb meat, roasted on a vertical spit and sliced thinly so that ever piece is nice and crispy on the outside. The falafel was also pretty good – it wasn’t overly dense or greasy, and had a lot of flavor. The eggplant salad was good but not too memorable; I’ll probably try another salad next time.

Chicken Plate with rice and macaroni salad ($8.79)

Chicken Plate with saffron rice and macaroni salad ($8.79)

03/21/2013
Posted by Jinxi on 03/21/2013
No Responses
Mediterranean
Tagged with: San Diego, The Kebab Shop

[Baking] Avocado Milk Pound Cake

Mar 172013

After I moved to San Diego, I signed S and myself up for a CSA (community supported agriculture) – partially because I’d like to support local farmers, but also because I wanted to have some challenge in the kitchen. Normally, I only cook about five different vegetables: cabbage, Taiwanese lettuce (A-choy), broccoli, cauliflower, and mung bean sprouts. After subscribing to a CSA, I knew that I’d have to get creative – every other week, I would pick up a box of produce freshly harvested from a local farm, and the contents depend entirely on what the farm grew and harvested. So I learned how to use zucchinis and squash, how to make good salads, how to make kale chips, how to roast a pumpkin. I’ve tasted some of the most delicious and fresh citrus fruits and vegetables. A friend of mine subscribes to a different farm’s CSA, and we have actually been trading our produce every time. It’s been awesome.

Recently, I have been getting avocados in my box. S and I, in true Un-Californian fashion, actually don’t like avocados that much. Blasphemous, I know, haha. But I’ve been learning to like it and to use it in new ways (and also trading it away…). Luckily for me, Kirbie’s Cravings has a whole recipe section dedicated to avocados! After perusing all the recipes and also checking what’s in stock in my kitchen, I decided to try out the avocado milk pound cake.

Even after all the quick breads and loaf cakes that I’ve made, I still don’t have a loaf pan… how is that possible? So instead of a real pound cake, this turned out to be a square cake instead.