best dishes (and restaurants thereof) along the convoy corridor SD

[kare_raisu]

perhaps one of san diego's greatest ethnic enclaves, the covoy corridor hosts innumerable asian restaurants; this leads me to ask if there were a "Taste of Convoy" what dishes would be served an from what restaurants.

On a similar note...on a recent outing to Ranch 99 - I contemplated grabbing one of the hanging ducks from sam woo (next to a gorgeously caramelized hanging whole-half a pig) for an easy dinner with pancakes and accrout. Are they good -- i noticed the takeaway inside ranch 99 has them as well, any one try? Any reccomendations of dishes to order at these two places?

btw...pick up a turnip cake and pork shao mei next time your at 99 -divine.

[stevuchan]

Jajangmyeon (Black noodle) - Santong palace.

Bun bo hue - Phoung Trang

Som Tam - Flavor Thai

Beef Shank Soup - Dumpling Inn

Uni - Sammy Sushi (maybe save for taste of Engineer)

Cheers.

[daantaat]

Green Tea snow bubble from Tapioca Express

nyeung mung from Boo Cho Korean BBQ

kalbi from Buga Korean BBQ (not quite on Convoy, but in the environs)

vegetable tempura from Chopstix

stir-fried ong choy and salt and pepper fish filet from Dumpling Inn

[pbhomey]

Sweet & pungent chicken at China Max (small menu)

All the ramen bowels at Tajima

Fried oysters at Sakura

Dim Sum at Emerald

[Josh]

Crab cakes at China Max

Tuna tataki at Tajima

Char-grilled pork meatball summer rolls at Convoy Noodle House

The amazing green-onion bread at Jamillah Garden

[kare_raisu]

could you describe the neatball rolls? sounds incredible

[Josh]

They're the standard Vietnamese summer roll - rice paper, bean sprouts, cilantro, with charcoal-grilled ground pork slabs running the length of the roll. Love them. Only I skip the sweet dipping sauce they're served with and use the chili paste instead.

[kare_raisu]

star anise flavoring?

[Josh]

Might be, sorry not sure.

[Phoo D]

For whole roast duck, I prefer the ones from Jasmine Express - which are actually slightly cheaper than Sam Woo's. The only issue there is finding a parking spot in the strip mall on Convoy.

Other dishes on Convoy:

Hwoe Dup Bop at Seoul BBQ.

Dim Sum at Emerald or China Max

Chirashi at Sakura (I could keep listing favorite dishes from this place for a while)

I know I'm missing some spots, but this is all I can come up right now.

ed

[tiffany]

IMHO I think that Phoung Trang has the best Vietnamese spring rolls (egg rolls). I've been to a lot of different Vietnamese restaurants mostly in Convoy, El Cajon, and Mira Mesa... plus my family also makes our own (which are great too, we sometime add taro in the filling), but still think that the ones at Phoung Trang are great.

What sets them apart from the other places is the rice paper that they use for their spring rolls that are the more delicate, transparent wrapper that is actually a lot harder to work with & fry. They give a texture that is perfectly crisp on the outside but with the slightest chewiness on the inside... wrap it up in a leaf of lettuce, dip it in fish sauce... i love it!

[young_chower]

How much do those go for? I have been thinking about gorging myself with spring rolls. How much would it cost to get stuffed with some of these rolls?

Also, excuse my ignorance, but what's the difference between a spring roll and and egg roll?

[tiffany]

Sorry it's been awhile since I've been there, but my mom just went this week and said that it's between $4-5 for a plate of 6 rolls... maybe $4.99? If you eat it wrapped with the lettuce and other greens, I would say that 1 dish would be plenty. If there's 2 or 3 people eating, it makes for a really great appetizer.

Spring roll is just the Chinese to English literal translation. Egg rolls? I'm not sure, but I always knew them as egg rolls growing up. In Vietnamese it's "cha gio" I think. I'm sorry for being unclear. I just use the terms interchangeably.