48 San Diego Reader September 1, 2016
Salvaged dish
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Corned beef in Kearny Mesa Elijah’s Restaurant, 7061 Clairemont Mesa Bou- levard, Kearny Mesa. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found myself driving to Kearny Mesa for lunch or dinner over the years, but I do know 100 per- cent of those trips involved eating Asian food. Until this week. Rather than ramen or soft tofu stew or dim sum, this time I took the Clairemont Mesa Boulevard exit looking for a Jewish delicatessen. San Diego doesn’t have a glut of Jewish delis,
especially since Elijah’s Restaurant closed its locations in Del Mar and La Jolla over the past five years. But in 2015 Elijah’s took over the former site of a sports bar near the 99 Ranch supermarket and brought blintzes to the neighborhood. It’s a little strange
walking into a brand- new deli. Whether in L.A. or New York, most of the traditional delicatessens I’ve vis- ited have been around long enough to earn the descriptor vener- able. Even DZ Akins has been around more than 35 years in La Mesa. While Elijah’s has years behind it as a brand, this new address features reclaimed wood decor and a clean-looking custom-built bar complete with limited craft beer on draught. But I was there for a piled-high cured-meat
liver and onions, a smoked whitefish platter, and challah french toast, for example. I could have ordered 20 different meals to invoke the classic Jewish deli experience and about 40 representa- tive of American diner food. Corned beef got this nod this day, because
FEAST!
Elijah’s makes it in-house and describes its sand- wiches as “overstuffed.” Such sandwiches rarely come cheap, and whether you opt for smoked turkey, beef tongue, pastrami, or chopped liver, you
can expect to pay $12 to $14 for a sandwich and side salad. If you opt for one of the “sky high sandwiches” featuring two kinds of meat on three slices of bread, the price goes up to $16. Elijah’s had the AC pumping, so despite the
hot summer weather I felt cool enough to go for the $14 half-sandwich-and-soup special. There’s nothing excit- ing about chicken noodle soup, so I asked them to throw in a kreplach dumpling to keep things interesting. The broth reminded me of Lipton’s instant soup, but I relished the aromatically spiced ground beef filling that kreplach — it really sal- vaged the dish. Likewise, the corned
Corned beef piled high on an “overstuffed” sandwich
beef benefitted from fresh rye bread and Ba-Tampte deli mus- tard. Though stacked
admirably thick, the beef skewed just a little too dry for me to call it outstanding. It’s still tasty, though, elevated by the rye and spicy mustard to make for a satisfying high-stack sandwich. Whether you’re looking for a classic Jewish deli
sandwich on rye bread. Which isn’t to say I didn’t consider something else. Elijah’s menu covers a huge amount of ground: nova lox and eggs,
meal, a pretension-free brunch, or a big plate of comfort food, Elijah’s continues to deliver. Only now it’s in Kearny Mesa.
by Ian Anderson
The toppings cover up the yellowtail, and the sweet sauce obscures the fish flavor.
Poke by any other name would not taste as sweet Poki One N Half, 8055 Armour Street, Kearny Mesa. Right on trend, I noticed a new poke shop is about to open on University Avenue in North Park, and it’s got a terrible name. Poki One N Half does use an alternate spelling of poke, but it’s the irksome grammar and terrible branding of “one n half ” that hurts my eyes. So I’m just going to call it Poki One Half. Branding should count, considering the ambi-
tion here is a new local chain. There’s another Poki One Half coming soon to Clairemont Mesa, and a first location opened this summer in Kearny Mesa. Though North Park is much closer to me, I decided to pay that one a visit rather than wait — unfortunate name aside, serving poke is enough to get me in the door. At this point, the fast-casual poke concept
is getting familiar — choose your rice or salad bases, pick your fish, add your choice of sauce and toppings, and bam, you have your very own, made-to-order poke bowl. Poki One Half offers seven kinds of seafood — ahi tuna, alba- core, yellowtail, salmon, scallop, octopus, and shrimp — which is a good start. Made-to-order bowls range from 8 to 11 dol-
lars in small, medium, and large sizes. How- ever, the actual size of the bowls doesn’t change, just the amount of fish added to it, mea- sured in scoops. Small equals two scoops, medium gets three, and large bumps up to five. Whic he ve r you
choose, you may add as many toppings as you like, and that’s where Poki One Half excels. Starting with a bed of brown rice and two scoops of yellowtail, I added white onions, avocado, cucumber, seaweed flakes, seaweed salad, masago, and ses-
ame oil. I could have kept going with edamame, jalapeños, wasabi, or imitation crab meat, but even without these free extras, the small bowl was stacking up to be filling. Toppings are nice, but good poke thrives on
decent fish made better by tasty sauce and spice. Sauce choices here include original, spicy, hot, and fire. Spicy seemed a modest way to go, as I didn’t want too much heat to obscure what the fish was doing. So I settled for only a little kick. Honestly, it might as well have been no kick
at all. It wasn’t spice that covered up the fish, or even the litany of free toppings. It was sweetness. I tried to understand where this was coming from. Sugar in the seaweed salad? In the cucum- ber marinade? It must have been the sauce. Rather than an
umami shoyu sauce, this sugary form overpow- ered anything the fish might have contributed. Even the sesame oil couldn’t overcome it, and I’m not entirely certain wasabi would have fared better. I believe the only sweetness in a poke salad should come from sweet onions and the raw fish itself. If you like dessert for dinner, maybe you’ll
settle for this budget-friendly poke maker. But when it opens in North Park, I will pass. by Ian Anderson
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