Restaurant Review: Island Style Cafe

Island Style Café – Hawaiian restaurant in San Diego, CA

Website:  www.islandstylecafe.com

Do you think L & L is good enough? Well, this place is way way better! 

Island Style Café is a family business. The first time I went there because I saw a really good deal on groupon.com and decided to try it out. The restaurant is relatively small only have about 10 tables, but not too crowded. The service is ok, nothing to complain or rave about. Pretty standard! The price is pretty cheap (it was only one $ sign on Yelp.com.) For 2 big meals (with a little left over), dessert and soft drinks, we ended up with about $30 bill, so I think I agreed with the Yelpers.  

 

 

My first time at the restaurant was on Sunday, so it was pretty quiet. I think it’s usual for small business, especially for its quiet neighbor (on Santo Rd. just off HW 52).  My husband ordered Teriyaki Beef, I had Kalbi BBQ Mix plate, and we both shared a crepe. They were amazingly good – way much better than those we had at L & L both quality of meat and taste. The Kalbi was so great, perfectly seasoned and they also came with two sides: fried rice and side salad with their house dressing (I think it was mango dressing). The salad was so yummy, such a great comparing with a little fatty meal. The crepe was something unexpectedly good. It is more like a thin pancake than crepe to me, but so delicious.

Our second time was also great. We went on Tuesday’s evening which the restaurant had a deal 2 for $20 – big score for us once again! We tried Island BBQ Chicken and Korean Chicken with 2 sides: fried rice and Macaroni Salad (I think we had to add a dollar more for fried rice).  They both satisfied our taste bud and even better with a little bit of Siracha Sauce. BBQ dish is a safe dish - good but nothing crazy about it. The Korean chicken had a sweet taste with it and its crispiness made it such a fun dish. Again, we ended our meal with a small crepe and it was still a good pick!

 

  

(These two pictures taken by my BB might not do a good justice.)

After the second attempt, my most favorite dish is Kalbi and I highly recommend the crepe! 

Curry Recipe: Easy Thai Curry Custard (Hor Mok)

Phewww … I have been away from my blog for so long!!!

Today recipe is a curry custard, or what we called "Hor Mok" in Thai.  This dish according to my grandma, is usually made with fish in a banana leaf container and she cooked it by steaming.  I always thought that Hor Mok is difficult to make (from what I remembered), but after talk to one of my good friend, I found that it actually isn't that difficult.

Here is the recipe that I used, pretty easy and taste good.

Ingredients: 
- 1 Can of Coconut Milk
- 1-3 Tsp of Red Curry Paste (depend on your spicy tolerant)
- 1 Egg
- 1 Can of Tuna Salad
- Basil
- 1-3 Kaffir lime leafs
- Cabbage
- A pint of salt
- A pint of sugar (I prefer brown sugar. I just love it!)

*** Fun Facts ***

You can make it as a Seafood Hor Mok by adding pretty much any kind of seafood and this time I added squid.  I had Hor Mok with shrimps and other seafood like crabs before, they all tasted good.  If you are not a big fan of seafood, you can easily substitute tuna with a can of chicken salad and instead of using ramekins, you can use a coconut (no juice) as a container too.  Last fact, if you don't have a steamer, you can just bake them with about 400 F and adding a little bit of water to the sheet.  That way, the custard won't be too dry.

Cooking Time

First, mix about 3/4 cup of coconut milk (save a little bit for later use), red curry paste (depend on how spicy you like, salt and sugar.  Mix them together.  Then add drained tuna salad, egg, and bite size squids to the mixed bowl. Make sure the ingredients are well mixed. Then add basils and kaffir lime leafs.

Place cabbage (I used napa cabbage) and basils on the bottom of the containers then pour the batch on top. Then cook them in the hot steamer for about 20 minutes.

Lastly topping with coconut milk (thicken it with flour).

 

Enjoy ^-^