North Park Sushi & Grill

DO NOT GO if you:

are looking for an authentic Japanese Sushi restaurant.

DO GO if you:

are vegetarian.

are looking for inexpensive fun rolls.

are tired of going to Sushi Deli. (or getting rolls with cream cheese there)

don't really understand differences between nigiri and maki.

use wasabi to the point that your soy sauce is more like a paste.

I ordered rolls and they are decently good. Especially for the price. The rolls I ordered are:

North Park Roll (vegetarian!)

Rainbow Roll

CA Roll

All of them were good. Partially because I like the tinge of sweetness of the crab fillings in the Rainbow and CA Rolls. I did not taste, but my vegetarian Indian husband said his North Park Roll was "great." It is rare that my husband finds vegetarian sushi other than cucumber roll, so finding more than a few vegetarian options on the sushi menu was refreshing.

So, here is my problem with the restaurant. I ordered Hamachi (yellow tail) nigiri. The fish was sliced so thin that it actually had a hole in it. Seriously, it had to be as thin as 1mm (0.04 inch.) I had never had such thinly sliced fish on nigiri. Further more, amount of rice rice under the yellow tail was humongous, maybe to compensate for the small volume of the fish. Same for Unagi (eel), this was a bit thicker than Hamachi, but by not much. It was teared on the edges, again, I think it is because it was sliced too thin.

For me, its not worth the money.

So would I go back to the restaurant? Sure when I want to get quick fun rolls. But if I am craving for my usual authentic sushi, I would definitly not go there. Instead I would go other Japanese restaurant, for example Surf Side Sushi. They have never failed me.

If you want to try there, here is their website. http://www.hanaoka-restaurant.com/?cid=27 The restaurant is located on University Ave., between 30th and Ohio.

Mahon vs. Manchego

I am known for loving cheese in my household. (though there are only my husband and me in my household) I like almost any kind of cheese, but what I really enjoy is hard cheese. My favorite cheese has been Manchego for at least last 5 years.

I have been facing a serious problem for last 2 years. 2 years ago, I decided to go to school to get MA in counseling psychology. I thought I would be able to work 30 hours/week during day time and go to school at night. I don't know what I was thinking---amount of the homework and reading assignments are not something I could do being a part time student. So I end up taking student worker position at school. As you can imagine, student workers are the cheapest labor ever. I am not complaining about my pay check here. I really like what I do at school and I don't mind the very little pay check that I receive. One problem is that I feel guilty buying expensive cheese! So I have only been buying my guilty-pleasure of Manchego only about once every few months.

Anyway, I got the cheese bug going again, so I decided to walk over to Whole Foods to get my fix. As I was looking for my Manchego cheese, I realized that perhaps I should start looking for a cheaper alternative for Manchego! I decided to grub another hard cheese. I looked and looked, contemplated for good 10 minutes to deicide. And my decision--Mahon cheese.

My verdict today

Manchego cheese gets 5 stars

Mahon cheese gets 2 stars

Yes, it was KO by Manchego.

And my search for cheaper alternatives to Manchego continues.

Inside of Rie

I am not writing any reviews today.

Lately, I have been working on essays for graduate school admission. I am applying for masters in psychology counseling. I am hoping to become a marriage and family therapist.

One of the topic that I am working on is "Discuss how relationship with your parents affected your personality development". Oh, boy, this really opened up a can of warms inside of me. My mother and I had a rather difficult relationship. Just so that you know, I understand nobody has "perfect" parents or relationship.

My mother decided that she did not want to take on parent role after she was divorced from my father when I was 7. She made clear to me that I must take care of myself while she worked as a nurse day and night to make ends meet. I understood our situation and took care of myself. But I was so lonely. I did not have anyone to talk to at home. I used to come home to an empty house. At night time, I was really afraid of darkness so I kept lights on when I went to sleep. To keep the noise in the house, I kept TV on as much as I can. But one day my mother became upset that our house was mess and she disconnected the TV to punish me. So the house became super quiet at night time after that. I craved for attention, good or bad, so much, I used to make up small lies at school. I never learned how to communicate properly and had hard time connecting with other kids. After a while, I just stop even try to make friends. I put on a "I don't care" face to protect myself from feeling hurt or humiliated. As a consequence, I grew up with very little self-confidence with lots of ego to cover it up.

Great thing happened when I was 17; moving to U.S.. This is where my real journey started. I lived with my wonderful wonderful host family which consists of Mike, the dad, Mary, the mom, Mindy, the 7 year old daughter, Matt, the 5 year old son. They took me in like a real family member. Mike and Mary were constantly involved with my school and social activities. This was new to me and felt good to have them!! I absorbed all the love and care they provided. They also showed me other important aspects of living: structured lifestyle, parents responsibility, adults responsibility, clean living environment, etc.

Anyway, I can tell you that Mike and Mary had a lot to do with making me the way I am now. I am independent, compassionate, driven, loving, trusting and passionate. Time to time, my low-self esteem comes up to surface and I must remind myself that those days are over and I love and am being loved by people around me. I am still fragile; people's mean words can easily hurt me. But, again, I try to resolve by thinking how unimportant those words are.

I chose not to live in the past, although now and then I have my moments. Because of my past, I appreciate what I have now so much more than anyone can imagine. ( or maybe you can ) Especially my cockroach-free apartment!

Thank you for reading this rather long story. LOVE

Monica's Cafe in North Park, San Diego

This cafe is so cute. I am in love with this cafe.

Monica's is a relatively new cafe. A very friendly waitress with really cute hair cut told me that they had only been open since last Oct. Of course, the owners name is Monica whom I have not met yet. But she must be a very stylish person in order to designe such a cute cafe. This cafe must have been a house before it became a cafe. They have 5 parts to it: where you order, main area, two rooms, and nice back yard. One of the room is painted in bright green and she tied the room by placing a few green tables in the main area. Oh, I should not forget to say this; they have free Wi-Fi. That is like a heaven for people like us.

They are even dog friendly. They have a water bowl and dog biscuit in the front and you can take your dog to the back yard where people and dogs can co-exist peacefully. This back yard is also finished very nicely. It's quiete and serene.

Inside to outside, this cafe provides kind of like.....hummm, how do I say......Zen feeling.

I refrain myself from giving rating on coffee here. I admit, I am not a real coffee drinker. I like cafe au lait and cafe latte. As you can see, I like milk with my coffee. Thus, I should not give any rating on coffee quality.

You just have to pay a visit there. They have very nice waiteresses too. Now, that's a bonus!

Taste of Uptown Hillcrest Review

I would give 1.5 stars (out of 5) for this event.

What it is: You walk around ( or take shuttle) in Hillcrest to taste and get familiar with what 44 restaurants in Hillcrest area offer.

Cost: $30/person + service fee ( little bit over $3)

Time: April 19th, 12pm-4pm

I was angry after coming across some of the fancy restaurants offered some "dinky" food. For example, Kimosabe only offered brownie-ice cream-sandwich. How is this a representation of this award winning restaurant offer? Another example is Rannoosh Mediterranean Cuisine. They only had a quarter size Falafel ball for me, and they did not even bother to put it in a plate or offer me a napkin. Basically, bunch of Falafel balls in a big bowl and I guess we were supposed to pick it with hand...???? Isn't that unsanitary?

Another thing is that some of the restaurants run out of the food. You know, I don't go to restaurant and prepay for the food then find out they don't have any food for me. That just does not make sense to me.

I must give my honest thanks to some of the restaurants ( I list them below) which had small plate of the real food they serve at regular days. Because without them, I would been starving.

• Lotus Thai Cuisine ---3761 Sixth Ave., --- delicious. yum :-) Picture on the top of this page
  
• St. Tropez Bakery & Bistro ---3805 Fifth Ave.,
  
• Bombay Exotic Indian Cuisine ---3960 Fifth Ave., --- very nice decor
• Pizza Nova ---3955 Fifth Av., ---The best pizza in this event!
• Chipotle ---734 University Ave. Same good old Chipotle! (picture above)
  

There were 3 Sushi restaurants.
Good: Ono Sushi ---California roll with mango salsa, Edamame and Sake (nigori). Sake was good.
OK: Sushi Itto ---Just really mediocre place.
Really Bad: Nami Sushi ---"Gotta be kidding me" bad. I had a chance to get a plate, but they ran out of food after my turn around 3pm. The California roll tasted like any other ghetto restaurants and service was bad. I really don't know what is good about this place. Well, I guess they have a prime location in the corner of 5th and University.

One more thing, if you are vegetarian, don't try this event. This event is not vegetarian friendly. Luckily I can eat everything, but my boyfriend who is a (relatively easy) vegetarian starved during this event.

I really like Hillcrest. In deed, I like Hillcrest so much that I live here. I have no ill wish here. I really hope they will improve the event for next year.

Rie's 33rd Surprise Birthday Party!

Here is the pictrue.

Happy Hour at Poseidon Restaurant at Del Mar

It was my birthday last Friday, and my girlfriend Shana wanted to take me out to happy hour. Usually, when girls go out to happy hour, their purpose is to drink and talk ,and perhaps flirt a little. However, Shana and I like to eat. Our primary purpose is to find good food. When she gave me 3 choices of restaurant/bar, I had to look into their menu on line before making my decision. 3 choices are as follows:

1. Jakes Del Mar
2. Pacifica of Del Mar
3. Poseidon

Jakes has 7 dishes on their menu which are categorized as "Bistro" and they are 40-50% off between 4-6pm. Otherwise, everything else ( alcoholic drinks, "starters" and soups and salads) are at regular price. Not bad. But only 7 dishes are discounted....hummm....

Pacifica of Del Mar has $1 off all drinks and discounted bar menu items between 4-6:30pm. They don't specify how much discount or which bar menus are discounted. See, their information is not good enough for me. $1 off of drinks is really nothing. Their drinks are already pretty expensive.

Poseidon has happy hour from 4-6:30 and clearly stated their 19 of the "Bistro" menus are 50% off. Also their Margarita is $4, Cosmo is $5, house Shard and Merlot are $5, and some beers are $3. Pretty good deal to me!

It is called Happy Hour, I want to feel happy after the bill comes too. So, Poseidon was the most natural choice for Shana and me.

So here are the foods and drinks we ordered:

• Drink: Cosmopolitan ($5 )-----I have had better. It tasted little bit like cough syrup.
• Food: Calamari Basket ($5)-----Just OK. I would like it to be little bit more crispy.
• Food: Steamed Clams ($7)-----pretty good. I liked the bread which came with it.
• Food: Crab Cake ($6.50)-----Lots of crab inside. Very tasty dressing. Bit dry, though.
• Food: Duck Tacos ($5.50)-----GREAT! Nothing more to say. Just GREAT.
• Food: House Salad ($3.50)-----good, I guess. Who can mess up a salad?
• Food: Caeser Salad ($3)-----good, I guess...
• Desert: Kona Coffee Gelato ($5)-----pretty good. This was not discounted.

Other staff:

• Waitress: Very good looking, very sweet. She came to check up on us just right amount of times and just at right times. She should get raise for being such good waitress.
• Customer Base: I would say men and women between 37 -55. Yea, we (early 30s)were the youngest at the bar. Looked like Poseidon is a place for middle aged people hang out and flirt with other single middle aged people.
• Atmosphere: Very relaxed and classy. Not noisy but not quiet-just right amount of noise.

At the end, all these came just a little under $50. In my opinion that $50 was well spent. Would I go to Poseidon for another happy hour? Oh, YES.