Miss D's Hush Puppies Report

I haven't been able to eat out in the High Desert for a while due to some summer trips and a few other factors so when my birthday rolled around I took advantage of the opportunity to go to a local restaurant.  I have been craving BBQ for a while and I knew if I chose that the rest of the family would be excited so when my wife suggested we try Miss D's Hush Puppies we were all in agreement.

Miss D’s is located at 14845 Monarch Blvd in Victorville not far from Victor Bowl. It is in a shopping center and a little hard to see from the road. Once you pull in the parking lot it is on the east side. It has limited seating and when we entered many of the patrons were waiting on carryout orders. There are menus at the tables so you can seat yourself and look over the menu. We were addressed as soon as we walked in and quickly set to figuring out our order. 

The menu is diverse covering the range of traditional items that might be expected at a soul food restaurant. Specialties from the southern part of the US include BBQ, fried fish, Po Boy sandwiches, Jambalaya, Gumbo and Fried Chicken and Waffles. There is also a long list of side dishes and desserts. After familiarizing ourselves with the options for a while and figuring what sounded best we put in our order. Between us we got two chicken Po Boy sandwiches, one of which was shared between the kids, a fried seafood plate, a BBQ brisket plate, a BBQ rib plate and a pulled pork plate.

The kids loved the sandwich. It consisted of a long soft roll grilled and filled with freshly fried chunks of chicken breast lettuce tomato and accompanied by a container of dressing. The plate was finished with French fries.

The seafood plate came with fried catfish, fried shrimp and hush puppies plus two side dishes. I opted for mac and cheese and yams. The fish and shrimp where freshly fried light not oily. The catfish was still moist but fully cooked and the shrimp were large and meaty. The house specialty hush puppies were the highlight of the meal. Fried to perfection they weren't heavy or dense but rather bready and seasoned with a unique spice mixture that highlighted but didn't overpower the cornmeal base. The mac and cheese was delicious and creamy filled with strings of stretchy melted cheese. The sweet potatoes were cooked soft in a sweet sauce and like the other dishes were great.

The BBQ brisket was another highlight. The delicate balance between the BBQ sauce and the smoky tender meat was achieved. It was accompanied with sweet potatoes too but also fried okra. Even okra sceptics would be tempted with the cornmeal battered okra. It was well fried and avoided the risky okra challenges of being undercooked or being too soft and slimy. Rather it was tender and pleasant with the unique flavor okra has.

My son wasn't sharing any of his ribs but I know they were good because he polished them off in no time. I could tell they were tender to the point of coming off the bones. Also I tried a taste of the pulled pork and it was good consisting of minced pork in a sweet barbecue sauce.

Everything we ate was excellent. The recipes were all good versions and each dish was prepared with skill and love. There was a sign by the register that said food is made fresh to order and encouraging patience. Patience is in order especially if there are lots of other customers but your patience will be rewarded with delicious food. Miss D’s Hush Puppies is among the top of the list of restaurants in the High Desert .

Sayaka Japanese in Corona Report

I came across a new show on Netflix recently called Japanese Style Originator which is a series from Japan where various elements of Japanese culture are showcased. The first episode I watched had a section on tempura and how it is eaten in Japan so that set me craving tempura. So when I was down on Colton recently looking for a place to get lunch I was able to satisfy that craving.

The restaurant we found was called Sayaka Japanese Restaurant and they had several bars/rooms with various subcategories of Japanese foods but we sat in the dining area because we were there for tempura. We started with an order of gyoza and for our entree my wife and I both ordered Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura. It came with miso soup, rice, a salad and a bowl of dipping sauce for the tempura. Each item was good. The light fried coating and the well cooked vegetables and shrimp helped us experience what we had seen on the show a few days before, a small part of Japanese culture.

The high desert has a number of Japanese restaurants so hopefully I will be able to share reports on our local options in the upcoming months. In the meantime if you are travelling and Japanese foods fits the bill Sayaka Japanese restaurant is located right off the 15 freeway in Colton at 1060 S Mt Vernon Ave.

Los Alazanes Report

We recently braved some stormy weekend weather to satisfy a craving for Mexican food. Our search brought us to the Apple Valley location of the local chain Los Alazanes. Los Alazanes bridges the gap between a more formal sit down type restaurant and a carry out place. On the night we were there we had the dining area to ourselves but despite the weather there was a constant trickle of people in getting carry-out orders. Los Alazanes is also a good compromise between a place with more authentic food and one modern and clean enough my wife doesn't have to worry.

We ordered a carnitas sope, grilled chicken wet burrito, machaca combination plate and both a bean burrito and quesadilla kids meal. I only had one bite of my wife's sope. It consisted of a thick base of corn masa formed into a disk and cooked than topped with your choice of meat, shredded lettuce, cheese, Pico de gallo and crema. The shredded pork carnitas were a good choice complementing the sope well. The grilled chicken burrito had big chunks of grilled chicken that tasted of their time on the grill and some time in a marinade that included lime juice and some spices. My machaca was also well prepared. The shredded pork was flavorful and moist and the slices of peppers and onions were cooked to tenderness without being too soft. The meat and veggies were scrambled up with some eggs and covered with cheese. The combination plate was served with hot corn tortillas and a side of refried pinto beans and rice. Each were a good version of their kind. One added note is that their salsa bar includes sliced radishes and carrots pickled with jalapenos which are accompaniments I am always glad to see.

Los Alazanes is located in the Jess Ranch Theater shopping center northwest of the Best Buy. The address is 18805 Bear Valley Rd in Apple Valley. They don't appear to have a website so to preview their menu you'll need to use a third party menu site. They have all of what I would consider the standard menu items and the prices rest between more formal dine in Mexican Restaurants and take out places. I have also enjoyed eating at the other Los Alazanes  locations in the high desert but we return most often to the Apple Valley location. One thing of note is they are open very late so it's a great choice for a late night craving.

Spice of India Report

It was not long ago that I went for the first time to Spice of India and had a lot of great food. Since then I have been hoping that I would be able to go back soon. That finally happened Saturday night when we left our pitiable kids home with a Hot-N-Ready and went. It actually worked out well for us because we were trying to get some shopping in and noticed they stayed open until 10:00. We weren't there that late but it feels good to not have to worry about being there after their normal hours.

Though we had ordered them on our previous trip we still wanted to try the vegetable samosas again. I think they may have been even better this time. I didn't remember the garnish before but this time they had thin sliced carrots and lettuce with a spice mixture sprinkled on top. The garnish alone was worth the price but the samosas were great too. The pastry was flaky and buttery and the vegetable filling was spiced and well cooked.

I ordered a sweet Lassi to drink which was a sweetened plain yoghurt drink. It was very refreshing, not too sweet and the perfect accompaniment to spicy foods which becomes important later in this meal.

We each chose an entree to share. My wife got aloo gobi and I ordered the tandoori platter. I justified the big plate reasoning I could bring what I didn't eat home to my son to make up for leaving him home with five dollar pizza. The aloo gobi came with a side of basmati rice. It consisted of diced potatoes and cauliflower all cooked with a mixture of spices.

The tandoori platter was a collection of most of the items on the tandoori part of the menu, specifically there was tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, tandoori fish, lamb tikka and ground lamb kabob. All of it was served on a hot iron griddle with sliced onions, peppers and lime wedges and it came sizzling and steaming to the table. We also got an extra order of garlic naan. The meats and vegetables were all timed right. The vegetable cooked enough to be softened but not so soft they lost their texture. The meats were all still moist inside but seared and with a hint of char outside. I requested medium spiciness and they were spicy. Not painful but the kids would have had no chance at that level. The fish was firm and tasted fresh and the spice mixture they were dusted in was not too strong to cover the flavor but pleasant and tasted slightly of ground coriander which has a bright flavor. The chicken was well flavored. The tandoori chicken had a noticeable yoghurt flavor which is the trademark of that item. The ground lamb kabob was good too but my favorite item on the tray was the lamb tikka. It was well flavored, not too gamey, and the spices subtle enough to let the flavor of the meat shine. 

The naan bread was chewy but crispy at the edges. It tasted like it was cooked in a clay oven over a hot charcoal flame.

I feel a little worried that there is only one restaurant like this in the high desert that I might be judging it too lightly but I really feel that it would equally match the better Indian food I have tried over the years. I look forward to coming back many times.

Spice of India is located at 15751 Main Street in Hesperia. It is in the back corner of the  Stater Brothers Shopping Center. The restaurant appears clean and orderly. The decor is standard fare for an Indian restaurant and the service has been good on each of our visits. In the back is a large buffet table which is used at lunchtime and the buffet specials are a great way to experience Indian food because many of the dishes translate well to that type of service and you can try many different dishes. I especially like to go to Indian food with a group of people because it is commonly shared family style and you get to try a bigger variety that way. 

The Galley Fish Tacos Report

I noticed the teriyaki place by the Starbucks in the Home Depot shopping center had been replaced by a new restaurant. The Galley Fish Tacos and Beer has just opened so I took the whole family. The address is 12218 Apple Valley Road Suite 105 and the website is http://www.thegalleyfishtacos.com . I am a longtime fan of fish tacos though not of beer so once we checked the menu to be sure there were options we filed in and stood for a long time before the counter trying to make up our mind.

The menu had tacos, burritos, salads and a few other items so we eventually made up our minds and ordered. We got the namesake Galley fish tacos, potato tacos, a shrimp burrito, kids steak taco and kids fish and chips.

The Galley Fish taco was a panko crusted white fish fried crispy. It was served on a corn tortilla with shredded cabbage, Pico de gallo and creamy tart white sauce. Having never had a potato taco (sweet potato excepted) I wanted to give it a try. It turns out it was made with mashed potatoes shaped in a tube and fried til golden brown. It was dressed the same as the fish taco except instead of a soft tortilla the tortilla was fried crisp. The shrimp burrito was huge and had plenty of large shrimp.

Several of our meals were combos. The sides were options of white or cilantro rice and black or peruvian beans. The cilantro rice was pale green and not too strong. The Peruvian beans were creamy soft and had a mild unique taste in the same flavor family as pinto beans. I tried my sons kids meal and the fried fish tasted of beer batter though he didn't seem to notice.

The restaurant was clean, had fun decor and the staff was patient with us. It turned out to be a good family friendly place and a good option for fish tacos in the High Desert.

Pho Kobe Report

I had a chance to bring my kids to Pho Kobe in Victorville.  It is the second of the currently open Pho restaurants that I have eaten at in the high desert. It is located at 15208 Bear Valley Road in Victorville, the former Walmart shopping center.

This place was pretty casual.  Ordering takes place at a counter and you seat yourself.  When it is ready your food is brought to your table.  The menu is printed on a large signboard with photos.  There were several items other than Pho on the menu.  Staff was helpful and the food was brought quickly.

We ordered spring rolls, two bowls of Pho and smoothies all around. The spring rolls consist of lettuce, carrot shreds, herbs and shrimp wrapped with elastic translucent rice wrappers. They were fairly large and accompanied with a dish of peanut dipping sauce. 

We shared these and the soup and the staff brought us extra bowls without us even needing to ask. Pho traditionally comes with a bowl of clear beef broth, thin rice noodles, onions, scallions, cilantro and your choice of meat.  It also generally is accompanied with a dish containing bean sprouts, basil, chiles and lime wedges that you can add in to your preference.  Chili sauce is also available on the table.  One bowl we ordered had beef, brisket and flank and the other had rare beef, tripe and tendon. Beef balls are also available but the dish we ordered came with three options so meatballs got short shrift. 

I split the soup in my bowl with my youngest son but was wary of sharing the tripe and tendon with him since they are not universally loved.  His brother donated some of his meat. We added bean sprouts, basil and lime juice to the bowls and rather than jalapenos I opted for some of the red chili sauce for a little heat. You might be hesitant to order soup with tripe or tendon.  Certainly don’t let that keep you from trying pho (you can always get just meat you are familiar with) but consider giving these things a try.  These are standard items and people all over the world love them. They are unfamiliar but by trying them them become more familiar and you can learn to like them. They add something to pho you don’t get if you only get the meat.  Their texture is unique and pleasant and after a few times you can grow to appreciate what they add to the experience of eating pho.  We each had a smoothie. Three strawberry and one jackfruit two of them with boba. My younger kids are still gaining an appreciation for boba but like pho I am encouraging them to keep trying.  I always have them try some of mine and they are slowly warming up to them. For the uninitiated boba are marble sized balls of black tapioca. When prepared for the smoothies they become smooth chewy textured nuggets that intersperse through the smoothie. You even get to use a extra large diameter straw so they fit.

There is a tendency in restaurants for us to associate one item for a whole cuisine.  Tacos for Mexican or sushi for Japanese.  These cuisines actually have many more foods available rather than the one item that becomes associated with it.  Pho is one of these items that for many has come to typify Vietnamese food in general.  Of course only a certain number of foods can be translated to a restaurant format and be made available in places far from home where available ingredients and infrastructure might be pretty different.  Because of this we get certain foods that seem to be able to transcend cultures and become a symbol of an entire culture.  Pho is a delicious symbol but remember that there is more to a cuisine than the one item that symbolizes it.

Complete High Desert Restaurant Breakdown

It can be difficult to find new restaurants in the High Desert so in order to sort through and hopefully find new options I decided to take the data from the County Health Department and sort through it to come up with a list of places to seek out.  If you want the data to sort through yourself by your own criteria you can download the entire list here: https://www.sbcounty.gov/dph/ehsportal/Facilities/Food

The list includes all facilities that the County Health Department inspects which includes schools, convenience stores, groceries and all of the chains.  I took the master list and started filtering out the places that don’t apply to what I am interested in with food such as popular chain places, schools, etc. The list can be sorted by city so I set aside the communities outside of the Victor Valley for use when I am traveling outside of my typical range. Here are some interesting observations and some places I am looking forward to trying out.

On the date I uploaded the list there were 15,508 different entries.  Once I removed the communities other than Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley and Adelanto there were 1595 left.  Then I sorted through the listings for those communities and took out the places that weren’t local restaurants.  There were 290 left. They didn’t already have a category for the type of restaurant so I added in that column and gave them a type. The categories I came up with were mostly related to ethnicity such as Mexican, Chinese, etc. but also includes categories for bakeries, groceries and burgers. The Victor Valley has:

American

34 American Restaurants

16 Burger Places

3 Hawaiian Places (One is a chain but I kept it because I like it)

8 Southern/Soul Food Joints

20 Pizza Places

11 Sandwiches

2 Seafood Restaurants

1 Fine Dining/ Fusion (Chateau Chang)

Asian

7 Chinese Restaurants

2 Asian Buffets

1 Filipino Market/Restaurant

18 Japanese Places (Almost all sushi)

3 Korean Restaurants

1 Mongolian BBQ

5 Thai

4 Vietnamese

1 Indian Place (plus maybe another in a gas station I haven’t been able to chase down yet)

Latin American

90 Mexican Restaurants (I hope to do a better breakdown on these later)

3 Salvadoran

Other

9 Italian Restaurants (outside of Pizza Places)

1 Middle Eastern (Plus Mu’s Street Food)

1 African Restaurant

1 Jamaican

I hoped that I would come across some other type of restaurant that I really liked but unfortunately there were not many surprises.  There were no Peruvian, Persian, German/ French/ or any European except Italian, Brazilian/Argentinian, Moroccan or Cuban.  In the future I would like to cover some of the non-restaurant entries that are of interest.  There are 18 Donut Stores, 7 Ethnic Groceries, 12 Frozen Desert Places and 5 Bakeries (though I don’t think this includes some of the panaderias that are in the area)

Now I can start making priorities based on some of the available choices and hopefully get some new reports uploaded soon.