Back in the day, Fred’s Old Fashioned Burgers was Jake and I’s favorite spot for burgers. It was in our regular rotation even though we had to go alllllll the way out to El Cajon for it. I loved their peanut butter chocolate shakes dearly and I especially loved their simple burgers and tasty french fries. We noticed a serious decline in quality and customer service before the El Cajon location shut down last year. There was still Alpine, but …

After we dropped off the kiddos, Jake and I went on a few errands. We had been talking about making tacos for dinner and wanted to check out this place in City Heights that made fresh tortillas.When we got there though, the place was closed. Sad faces, man! They closed at 2PM but there was a sign on the door in Spanish and pointed next door. My Spanish is not that good and I vaguely understood that tortillas were sold …

Jake used to live in the heart of City Heights and used to work at the Albertson’s on University near I-15. We spotted this place some years ago (six to seven, almost the whole length of our relationship) just driving up and down that dreaded street: Tom’s BBQ. We could tell it was Chinese from the top sign we couldn’t read but we didn’t really know anything else about it. Whenever one of us would mention it, we’d shrug our …

I heard of Hogetsu Bakery awhile ago – after all, this place has been around for decades – but I didn’t get around to visiting until this past weekend. Hogetsu specialized in Japanese tea cakes (mochi and the like) and is run by a husband and wife team.

We almost passed right by it – it’s in a nondescript strip mall with a bunch of other plain looking buildings. Nothing really stood out here and I have a feeling it looks …

I have some kind of thing for tamales. I really love a good tamale. I used to go to a particular tamale vendor weekly at the farmer’s market in Scripps Ranch a few years ago – when to my dismay that vendor was gone and replaced with a “gourmet” tamale person who charged more and the tamales were NOT as good despite their snooty gourmet status. Gourmet does not equal good! It’s just a fancy word so you can charge …

I feel like I am battling and fighting off a cold right now. Let’s keep this short and sweet!
I originally came to Luong Hai Kyfor one of their kick ass lunch specials (garlic chili pork chop for $6.55) but I didn’t take any photos of that because I didn’t feel like it that day. A few weeks later I took Jake and T here for a little dinner.

[egg rolls - $5.95]
I want to eat egg rolls, like, all of the …

This time around after another one of Jake’s later night games, we headed out to the Riviera Supper Club in La Mesa for another late night happy hour.

It was Wednesday night – around 9:30PM and there was a live band playing near the front entrance. I felt like a hip adult out for a drink on a weeknight…

… even thought all I had was a Diet Coke. There were no booths in the bar area at first, so we saddled …

Other bloggers are doing like “Best of 2013!” posts, but not me. We are just chugging right along with more reviews here like a whole new year isn’t happening tomorrow.
If I were to do one of those Best of! posts, this breakfast might actually make the list. So we’re ending the year on a high note, at least! Stacey alerted me to this most awesome of breakfast specials over at Tip Top Meats in Carlsbad, CA. I used to be …