Sue's Birthday at Newport Seafood, Kitchen United Mix, Jackson Market

Sue's Birthday

plus early weekend fooding

Supermarket sushi.

Of the 10 "restaurants", this is 1 of the 3 that were taking orders.

Of the 10 "restaurants", this is 1 of the 7 that were not. WTF.

Very closed.

Very closed, part 2.

Fresh Brothers pizza was supposedly open but their kitchen looked pretty closed, too.

Wild Rice is just another brand name for the existing sushi counter at Ralphs.

Supermarket sushi.

The tuna and fake crab weren't bad but the rice was cold and hard and gross.

Seaweed salad was at least not overly sweet, so not too awful.

Rainbow roll with cold hard rice, yuck.

Pea sprouts at Newport Seafood.

Photographing food.

Medium sized house special lobster with noodles.

The spread.

String beans with dried fish. Quite good.

Christine, Sue, and Ophelia. And the carnage.

Melo Melo for dessert.

Durian flavors are TO GO only.

Part of the selection.

Sue and Ophelia decided they needed more.

Photographing food.

Sunset mango coconut.

Market Pizza at Jackson Market menu.

Salad sheet. Inside.

Inside.

Dessert case.

The back area is huge.

Hallway from the store to the outdoor seating area.

Deli salad.

Showing off 4M's new pantry.

Friday-Saturday fooding roundup highlighted by Sue's birthday at Newport Seafood.

Started things off with Kitchen United Mix at Ralphs' in Westwood. Not sure when all these pseudo-restaurant-kitchens are open, 'cause I tried around 1:15pm for three days in a row and seven of the ten listed all said they weren't taking orders. Maybe I should have tried at the lunchtime rush? Either way, finally drove there instead of trying to order online, found that the existing in-house-sushi-kitchen at Ralphs rebrands themselves as "Wild Rice" but serves you the same crappy sushi and poke. To their credit the poke is almost edible except for the rice, which is disgusting.

Followed up with Sue's birthday dinner at Newport Seafood and Melo Melo. Had some last minute drop-outs so had to order less food than planned, but the medium house lobster special with noodle (5 to 6 pounds, 5.25 pounds in this case) is always good. Melo Melo for dessert is a typical noveau Asian dessert experience, and people strangely love the glass jars. t'was amazing that Christine actually took time out of her busy schedule to join the Lee sisters, too. Happy Birthday Sue!

Next day was lunch at Jackson Market. Arrived just a few minutes too late to get breakfast, which honestly looks the most interesting of the menu options there. Sandwiches and salads aren't bad at all, but they lack the deliciousness of better known places like Bay Cities Deli and hence aren't quite the draw. Did not realize til this visit that Jackson Market apparently owns a big chunk of the block though-- the back outdoor seating area is far bigger than I had previously appreciated. And wifi/cell signal inside the market sucks.

Wrapped things up with a quick visit with 4M and their new pad. Technically 2M, as the other half of 4M were both taking naps.