2011 Apr 21 - Papa Urb's

2011 Apr 21 - Papa Urb's Grill
Tracy, CA

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Mom has her exercise class at 10:00AM every day except Sunday. And today her class goes overtime by about 10 minutes. It is usually a half hour long. So I will wait in the lobby for her to finish.
Thursday's it is the Arthritis Foundation Exercises


We then head again to Tracy, since I have to pick up the Apple Strudel for Easter Dinner at my home this year. But our first stop is lunch at Papa Urb's Grill.

TRACY - Not even the Pacific Ocean could keep these two worlds apart.

On one side, you can expect tacos, empanadas and menudo to fulfill your palate.

On the other, adobo, white rice and sigsig are the staples.

In Tracy these cultures collide at Papa Urb's Grill, a Filipino and Mexican fusion restaurant that is quickly becoming a local favorite.

Full article at: Papa Urb's Review at Recordnet.com {link opens in a new window}

This is my first time to eat at Papa Urb's. It has only been open since last November.
Located in a little strip mall using the driveway for the In-N-Out Burger


Most of the customers have Take-Out orders. The place is really small with only three tables of four plus a handful of high back chairs along the far wall counter.
Two of the three tables


Mom and I take the lone third table. We get the expanded menu and will go to the cash register to place our order.
Mom looking at the wall menus


There is a printed menu that explains some of the dishes and one that has a few photos of them.
Here the printed menu


Now the next two photos show the four Wall menus.

Here is an explanation of the items that are on the wall menus:

KARE-KARE: a traditional Filipino ox tail stew in a peanut-based sauce. The recipe varies from family to family and person to person.

MENUDO: a traditional stew from the Philippines. While it has the same name as the Mexican dish of the same name, it is not made with tripe but rather with sliced pork and calves' liver.

IGADO: a popular Ilocano dish made from pork tenderloin and pig’s innards such as liver, kidney, heart. This is definitely one of the best Filipino foods around.

KALDERETA: a dish made with cuts of pork, beef or goat with tomato paste or tomato sauce with liver spread added to it.

DINUGUAN: a savory stew of meat simmered in a rich, thick spicy gravy of pig blood, garlic, chili, and vinegar.

LECHON KAWALI: pan roasted pork belly.

FRIED BANGUS: fried marinated milkfish.

ADO-BOWL: Adobo is pork or chicken, or a combination of both, is slowly cooked in vinegar, cooking oil, crushed garlic, bay leaf, black peppercorns, and soy sauce, and often browned in the oven or pan-fried afterward to get the desirable crisped edges.
This dish is adobo over rice in a bowl.

TOCINO BOWL: a cured meat product native to the Philippines. It is usually made out of pork and is similar to ham and bacon although beef is also used.

SISIG BOWL: traditionally fried and sizzled chopped bits of pig’s head and liver, but here it is chopped bits of roasted pork shoulder.

EMPANADAS: Filipino empanadas usually contain ground beef or chicken meat, potato, chopped onion, and raisins (somewhat similar to the Cuban "picadillo") in a sweetish wheat flour dough. There are doughy baked versions, as well as flaky fried versions. Often, to lower costs, potatoes are added as a filler.

LUMPIA and SHANGHAI: spring rolls. Deep fried. Popular versions include lumpiang shanghai a deep fried meat filled usually fairly narrow spring roll often accompanied by a sweet chili dipping sauce.

The middle two menus are in both photos.



I settle on the Sisig Tacos. For four dollars you get two generous tacos.
My Sisig tacos before eating



Here after a couple of bites opened to see the filling


Here is the Salmon Belly plate from one of the other tables where two doctors from Tracy Hospital are having lunch.
With rice, salad and a fried egg


Mom decides on the pork Lumpia which is ground pork rolled in a won ton like wrapper and deep fried.
Mom only finished half of her order



"Hey, this is pretty good"



But too many



Drinking her Sprite

I also have an order of dinuguan to go for a friend in Stockton.


From here we stop at Kandi's Pies and Pastries to pick up dessert for my Saturday Sausage Feed and for Easter Dinner.


My fellow high school classmate has been craving some dinuguan for quite awhile now. So I told him that I would pick up an order for him at Papa Urb's.
Back in South Stockton my friend Hon Harrison holding his prized dinuguan


I asked that he open it and give the sauce a taste.
Inspecting the dinuguan


Saying Hi to mom.

Now I have to drive mom back so she can make her 2:00 PM Bingo. She plays Bingo four times a week at Bayside Landing. We make it back with 15 minutes to spare.


~end for now
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2011 Apr 14 - Shorter's BBQ

2011 Apr 14 - Shorter's BBQ and Kandi's Pies
Tracy, CA

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Today's Lunch is a trip to Tracy about 20 miles southwest of Stockton. Our first stop is at Kandi's Pies and Pastries. Their Tracy shop is only open for about 10 days before Easter and Thanksgiving and about three weeks before Christmas. Kandi's does business during the year at Farmer's Markets and sells her pies frozen through four places in Northern California.
Here is a link to their web site.
Mom heading to the entrance


We have been coming to the bakery every holiday now for the past six or so years.
Mom at their porch


Inside are the pastries and cookies as well as some knickknacks that are for sale.
Kandi's daughter behind the counter as mom looks at the pastries


Kandi's pies are really good.
The eclairs and strawberry puffs, upper left are also wonderful


That's Kandi working the cash register.
That is not our order


We just get a few packages of Easter sugar cookies and an eclair and strawberry puff for the Shorters.
Mom heading out with her Easter cookies


Then it is a short drive to downtown Tracy and Shorter's BBQ.
Link to Shorter's web site
Mom heading into Shorter's


Mrs Shorter is working today on her day off. She has a full time job as a nurse in Stockton.
Mrs Shorter showing mom to a table


Here is Dave Shorter welcoming mom to his restaurant.
Dave always asks me "How's mom" whenever I go there without her


My BBQ Chicken with coleslaw.
My gout attacks have me minimizing my beef and pork consumption


Mom has the Kid's Meal of BBQ Ribs. It is suppose to be a small portion of ribs with one side dish and a kid's punch drink.
Mom has more ribs than in a normal kids meal. She had already eaten one rib before I took this photo.


Picking up a meaty rib


Dipping it in the BBQ sauce


The lunch aftermath


We are finished with lunch.
The Shorter's waving good bye


One quick stop at Ghiradelli's Factory Outlet. I need a few squares for next weekend's Sausage Feed.
Mom heading into the Factory Outlet


I had to get back before the 2:00 PM Bingo Game at Bayside Landing. It is just a little after 1:00 PM when we get back to mom's.
Walking in from the parking lot


She dropped off one of the packages of Easter Sugar Cookies at the Lobby desk.
Mom signing back in


Another view from mom's window.
There is a barbecue grill in the courtyard


Mom has about 45 minutes to rest before her Bingo game.
Her dog is watching from the window sill

Until next time.

~end
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2011 Apr 07 - L and L Hawaiian Barbecue

2011 Apr 07 - L and L Hawaiian Barbecue
Stockton, CA

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Mom has moved to her own studio apartment in a Senior Independent Living facility about one mile east of where she was before moving. At 89 it was in her best interest to have someone else do the cleaning and cooking for her. She has been living at Atria Bayside Landing since Sunday, March 27, 2011 so less than two weeks.

Here is the introduction at their web site:

At Atria Bayside Landing, residents will enjoy elegant independent living with the security of constantly available caregivers. Keep fit at the on-site wellness center and physical therapy studio, and relish frequent outings to theaters, museums and parks that enhance retirement living. Atria Bayside Landing is conveniently located in the beautiful Brookside development, a safe and desirable location in Stockton, California, surrounded by several lakes, a championship golf course, and miles of wide, tree-lined walking paths.

With a maximum of 76 residents it is not too big. Plus their food is tasty I had dinner last Thursday night with Mom at Bayside Landing.
The entrance just south of March Lane


Today would have been Mom's 68th wedding anniversary. Mom and Dad celebrated 64 anniversaries before Dad passed away in August of 2007 at the age of 94. So we took some flowers to the cemetery before going to lunch.

L&L Hawaiian BBQ is a fast food chain with close to 200 restaurants in Hawaii, California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Texas, New York, American Samoa, New Zealand and Japan.
The front of the restaurant


The menu is on the wall. The plate lunch comes with two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad and a meat entree.
We get there before the lunch crowd


Since this particular L&L is located between UOP and Delta College there is a lot of collegiate stuff on the walls.
Mom waiting for her order


Mom has the traditional Japanese dish of Spam Saimin. Actually:

The favorite local fast food of the Hawaiian islands (also considered the national dish of Hawaii) is Saimin, an inexpensive noodle and broth soup. It is considered the supreme comfort food of the Islands, eaten at any time of day. You can find this soup at snack bars, coffee shops, and even on the McDonald's menu (in Hawaii only). Saimin is basically the same thing as ramen, a Japanese noodle soup.

Grilled spam in the noodle soup. Mom knows the owner pretty well and I think her order has more Spam than normal.


The owner also adds the side of sunomono or cucumber salad.
Mom only finished half of the bowl and took the rest with her


My lunch is a Mini, which has a little less meat, one scoop of rice and I took the green salad over the scoop of macaroni salad.
My BBQ Chicken Mini lunch plate with the complimentary sunomono



Mom is waiting for the soup to cool down some


Mom eating her lunch


Mom is still drinking her green tea and is carrying it with her.


Back at Bayside Landing we will have to sign Mom back in. Residents can come and go at will, but the staff needs to know their whereabouts if someone should inquire or there is an emergency. So there is a sign out/in book.


Walking through the lobby


Walking down the hall


Unlocking her apartment door still carrying her cup of tea


Note the dog on her window sill in the shadows on the left.
The view from her apartment window onto the Courtyard


Mom decides to rest up before the 2:00 PM Bingo game in the Activity Room


~end for now
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