Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

03 Nov 2008

Broken Yolk Café – San Diego

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Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day because after hours of solid sleep, my palate wakes up well-rested and game for another delicious day. On the Friday morning before my move to L.A., Cousin Phil took me out for a breakfast of champions at his favorite spot—Broken Yolk Café. Broken Yolk Café does brisk business on the weekends, and hungry breakfast-goers are often greeted with lines out the door. Luckily on our weekday visit, the crowd was thin and under control.

As we walked through the restaurant’s entrance, the host on duty asked if we wanted to dine outside or in. Since the sun was shining brightly and the air smelled of the sea, we settled on al fresco. Although we expected the host to take us to the outdoor seating area on the second floor, he lazily led us to the staircase and handed us menus to take with us. Phil and I are big kids and didn’t have difficulty walking ourselves up the stairs and finding a table, but as a courtesy, he should have guided us to the second floor and properly seated us. Aside from this initial blip in service, the customer care at Broken Yolk Café was friendly and dependable for the rest of our stay.

Whenever I go out for breakfast, I almost always order French toast, because unlike pancakes and omelets, French toast is difficult to prepare well at home (unless one has brioche on hand). Broken Yolk’s French toast is made from three thick slices of brioche, which results in a slightly crisp exterior and fluffy interior. Although the French toast were prepared well, the restaurant’s lack of real maple syrup made for a seriously lacking package. Serving high fructose corn syrup with maple flavoring is a cheap shortcut that demonstrates an establishment’s lack of care and good taste. I can’t wait for the day when real maple syrup is the norm at breakfast places.

Cousin Phil went for his standby—chicken fried steak. A Texas creation, “chicken fried steak is a piece of beef steak (tenderized cube steak) coated with seasoned flour and pan fried. Its name is likely due to chicken fried steak’s similarity in preparation to fried chicken.” The chicken fried steak came doused in gravy; scrambled eggs, buttered toast and hash browns were served on the side.

A connoisseur of chicken fried steak, Cousin Phil ordered an extra boat of gravy to spoon on his tenderized cube steak. Although the combination of thick gravy and fried meat was too rich for me, Cousin Phil was more than pleased with his choice and could never order anything else at Broken Yolk Café.

Broken Yolk Café is a good breakfast place, but they could be more mindful about the little things like seating customers properly and investing in real maple syrup. What makes a casual breakfast eatery great are the small details. But with a tagline like “We’ve Got Huevos” and gratis extra gravy boats to boot, I’m not surprised the customers keep coming back.

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Broken Yolk Café – Pacific Beach
1851 Garnet Avenue
Pacific Beach, CA 92109
Phone: 858-270-9655

Restaurant Review

02 Nov 2008

Bánh Mì and Moving Trucks

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The Astronomer is not a casual stargazer. In fact, he takes his science very seriously. After a year of quant-free fun in South East Asia, his brain was more than ready to delve into the rigors of graduate school. The Astronomer flew into San Diego from Birmingham the day before orientation started to pack up our worldly belongings and haul them to our new pad in Pasadena—home of the Rose Parade, Jackie Robinson and Dr. Drew.

Before sending him on his way, we lunched on banh mi, cha gio and che from A Chau, my favorite Vietnamese deli in San Diego. I’ve blogged twice prior (here and here) about A Chau’s wonderful sandwich offerings and continue to sing their praises.

Prices have gone up slightly since my last visit, but only by a quarter or two. The banh mi thit nguoi ($2.25) was solid, and like with all Vietnamese-American offerings, contained a more than generous portion of protein!

The banh mi thit nuong ($2.75) tasted of smoky lemongrass and reminded us of the delicious, stupendous, and fabulous sarnies we downed just a few short months ago.

We also shared three cha gio ($1 for three) because a gas•tron•o•my reader named BAM! once commented that he went out of his way to procure them and that they tasted even better than A Chau’s sandwiches. The Astronomer and I both really dug the cha gio, which was stuffed with pork and carrots, and appreciated that A Chau’s cooks made the extra effort to roll them using rice paper. I never knew the joys of blistered cha gio wrappers until spending time in Vietnam and now I consider them an essential component of the dish.

I also bought a portion of che dau hu la dua ($1.85)—sweet pandan-flavored tofu—because there’s something kinda magical about the subtlety of pandan. The che turned out to be a disappointment because the overall flavor was sweet, rather than pandan. Food coloring can be so tricky! I guess I’ll just stick to the tried and true ginger tofu from now on.

The Astronomer standing proudly on his U-Haul parked in my mom’s driveway.

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A Chau
4644 El Cajon Blvd Ste 111
San Diego, CA 92115-4432
Phone: 619-281-4066

Restaurant Review

31 Oct 2008

Phở Hòa- San Diego

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While The Astronomer was visiting his family and exploring the Vietnamese food scene in Alabama, I stayed in San Diego to search for meaningful employment. With the economy in such tip-top shape, I was turning down offers left and right—ha! During my time in San Diego, I had a pretty sweet routine of searching for jobs in the morning and then hanging out at my grandparents’ house in the afternoon. They’d feed me extremely well and in return I provided quality massages and good laughs.

One afternoon, my grandma expressed interest in going shopping for some new threads. She and my grandpa were heading to the Big Apple for the first time ever and she wanted to rock Manhattan in style. We settled on a date and my grandpa suggested that we fuel up on pho before giving our credit cards a workout. We nodded in agreement.

On an uncharacteristically cloudy Friday morning, my grandparents and I set out for some hot noodles and stylin’ wares.

First stop, Pho Hoa. Pho Hoa is located in a Vietnamese enclave centered around an unsavory stretch of El Cajon Boulevard. My family has been frequenting this noodle shop for years and years. Over time, the restaurant’s interior has gotten a lot spiffier, while the exterior remains dingy—at least the laughing cow is as jolly as can be.

Pho Hoa serves only one dish—pho bo. Although the menu doesn’t offer breadth, it offers a great deal of depth due to the countless combinations of beefy odds and ends available. My grandma and I both settled on the pho tai (rare beef) nam (cooked beef brisket) sach (tripe), while my grandpa chose pho tai nam gan (tendon).

Pho Hoa’s broth is clear, flavorful, fragrant and contains a thoroughly authentic dose of MSG. The various cuts of meat were plentiful and high in quality, especially the thinly sliced rare cuts. We garnished our bowls of pho with bean sprouts, limes, basil, sawtooth herb, jalapenos, hoisin sauce and Sriracha chili sauce. Our plate of greens wasn’t as huge as those in Vietnam, but it was definitely piled high enough.

While I can’t say that pho in America is vastly better than Vietnam’s, I can say with confidence that the pho bo at Pho Hoa is better than any bowl of pho bo I ate in Saigon.

After our pho fest, we headed over to Fashion Valley to find my grandma some new blouses.

My Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai walking through the mall.

My Ong Ngoai reading at Talbots while waiting for Ba Ngaoi to shop.

My Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai enjoying some massage-action at Brookstone.

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Phở Hòa
4717 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA‎ 92115
Phone: 619-283-6431‎