Another visit to Cali Baguette Express for lunch – to have Korean BBQ and try some of those tasty looking things in the front counter’s case…
From left to right – a puff pastry thing filled with sausage, mochi balls (dessert with red mung bean), egg rolls, and then egg rolls again. The lady behind the counter told me the difference between the egg rolls was only the wrapper? I didn’t try the egg rolls this time around though, that’ll be for another post.
I got one of these puff pastry looking things for $1.
I was a high roller that day, getting something in addition to my main meal! Woo. In any case, this pastry was a savory one – filled with a seasoned pork/sausage with a few stray veggies in there. The shell was pretty much like a puff pastry – golden, crispy, and flaking all over my shirt. I really liked it and was a good little appetizer before I got the rest of my lunch.
On this trip I opted to get the Korean BBQ which comes with the meat, a small salad, dressing and steamed rice. I’ve had this a couple of times before and I’ve always like the flavor of the Korean BBQ beef. This particular meal had a little too much fat in the meat and I ended up discarding a bunch of it since it was just fat. This doesn’t usually happen, so I hope it was just a fluke. The meat is well seasoned, kind of sweet and a little spicy all at once. The rice today was kind of “extra dry” like it had been sitting out a little too long. Salad is typical fair – I usually eat it in between bites of meat.
I almost got one of the dessert balls for post-lunch, but there was a line, so I skipped it. One of these visits I’m going to try the rest of those fried things and figure out which of those egg rolls is better…
9225 Mira Mesa Blvd #106
(between Rickert Rd & Black Mountain Rd – near Santana’s)
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 695-8888
I’ve never been here, but I’ve been wanting to! And I really want to try the stuff in the counter case. It looks a lot like the items served at this place in the Bay Area. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!
I would like to point out that the puff pastry bun you had is called “pate chaud!” A very popular puff pastry bun for us Viet folks 🙂
Thanks for letting me know what I ate, MaiMai 🙂 I had no idea, hence I called it “yummy thing with sausage in it”.
mary
they also sell pate chaud at K Sandwiches….i think it’s about $1 or $1.50
Hi Mary I used to be puzzled by the two kinds of cha gio eggrolls at some Vietnamese places too. The ones with a coarse texture is wrapped in the traditional rice paper (a little chewy and sweeter) and the smooth version is with Chinese egg roll skin (usually stays crispy longer but less traditional). I like them both in different ways. Those pork puff pastries is quite filling aren’t theyI? 😉
Hi CC – I haven’t been to K Sandwiches in a long time, but I did always like that they had like a bakery section there.
Hi Dennis – Thanks for telling me about the difference between those egg rolls! The smooth one looks familiar but the other one didn’t – I didn’t think I’d have enough room in my stomach to try both egg rolls and the pate chaud. I will definitely get one of each next time for my own comparison!