Short post today since I feel I am not “fully recovered” from Vegas yet. Or rather, I have so many ideas running through my head from the conference that I couldn’t focus enough to do a longer post. Hah!
Recently I met up with CC from Pink Candles at Ridgemont High. She had some birthday goodies for me and more importantly, travel information about my next fun trip to Portland! It’ll be our first visit to Portland and I’m starting to gather information about things to see and places to go and CC graciously let me borrow some maps and guidebooks. Got any Portland suggestions for me? Let me know in the comments!
CC, Jake, S and I met up in Chula Vista. Originally we were going to hit up Homestyle Hawaiian, but they aren’t open on Sundays. We switched it up and headed over to MJ’s Yogurt Time and Deli again for a quick snack.
[lumpia]
This is an order of lumpia.
I have never seen lumpia served with so much “stuff” on top. It was a mixture of sauce and lettuce and cheese and I don’t know what else. I was actually kind of surprised to see lumpia served like this. It was like getting an order of rolled tacos, but with lumpia in place of the rolled tacos.
I must be a purist when it comes to lumpia because I found this to be just a little too far out of my comfort zone. I didn’t like the tangy sauce on top of the lumpia or all of the “stuff” on top. I felt it took away from the pure joy of eating plain, crispy, crunchy, meaty lumpia. The lumpia itself was fine but it was hard to distinguish the flavor of it with the fusion toppings. Next time I would ask for it plain.
[crispy cakes]
I noticed on the menu they had an item called “Crispy Cakes”. I wasn’t really sure what they were but after getting an explanation from the nice man behind the counter, I decided to get some. Since they are donuts.
Donuts with melted chocolate chip bits inside though. What! The crispy cakes are a dense balls of fried dough. They’re like cake donuts but with chocolate chips inside the dough. They are dusted simply with powdered sugar and don’t need any more sweetness. They dough is slightly sweet but the chocolate inside gives it an “ooo” factor. It reminded me a bit of a cross between a fresh, warm chocolate chip cookie and a cake donut. I really liked them!
MJ’s Yogurt Time and Deli is still pushing the boundaries and doing fusion food in an interesting way. While not all of it my favorite, I appreciate seeing different takes on Filipino food (and more).
Check out CC’s post (one of three) about MJ’s over here.
MJ’s Yogurt Time & Deli
1550 E H St., Ste J
(between Otay Lakes Rd & Auburn Ave)
Chula Vista, CA 91913
(619) 600-3560
Portland! Great city, you will have a blast! I lived there for a while, and had many favorites. Here are a few:
I highly recommend Seasons and Regions (www.seasonsandregions.com) for their tomato basil bisque, if nothing else. I dream about that soup, and I’m not even a big fan of tomato soup! Also, I love Pambiche (www.pambiche.com) for amazing Cuban food.
For sweets, Salt & Straw (saltandstraw.com) has some amazing ice cream flavors — like pear w/blue cheese or honey balsamic strawberry w/black pepper! And, of course, Voodoo Doughnuts and their maple bacon bar are a MUST.
So much to see, do, and eat — I can’t wait to see your posts from PDX!
Hi Kate! Thanks so much for the suggestions! I will definitely check all of that out. That ice cream place sounds very unique – hopefully they will be open in the winter 🙂
it was great fun meeting up with you guys. I liked your fried ball things (I don’t know why they even call them cakes) especially since they had chocolate chips inside. as for the fusion lumpia, i agree. all that crap on top was just too much. i can see what they’re trying to do with the fusion, so kudos to them, but i prefer to eat my lumpia unadorned except with sweet and sour sauce. the dudes who work here are pretty nice too. very chill folks here.
Yeah, no idea why they call them crispy cakes either. They’re totally donuts! But that’s okay, whatever you want to call them they still tasted pretty darn good. I appreciate their attempts at fusion lumpia, too, but please. No stuff on my lumpia!
Oh my goodness, the donuts look amazing! I’m here staring at it and now I’m hungry hehe.
Only downside to reading food blogs – you can’t eat what you see immediately! 🙂