{"id":252270,"date":"2017-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/super-size-me\/"},"modified":"2017-10-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T07:00:00","slug":"super-size-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/super-size-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Super size me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>\n

The menu is as dizzying as the voluminous food portions at Hash House a Go Go in Hillcrest, where customers over the past 18 years have consistently exclaimed, \u201cOh, my God!\u201d when their meals are served.<\/p>\n

As a less-is-better kind of guy, I\u2019m an infrequent patron of the place. Although I love bringing out-of-town guests here, if only to see their eyeballs obtrude over what co-founder Johnny Rivera describes as \u201ctwisted farm food\u201d deployed on jumbo plateware and garnished with tall-standing sprigs of fresh rosemary.<\/p>\n

\"Super
Wait lines are a common sight outside of Hash House a Go Go (Fotograf\u00edas de Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In my most recent visit with two relatives in tow, we waited only five minutes to land a table \u2014 a miracle considering there are snaking lines out front on any morning of the week.<\/p>\n

Seated in muy<\/em> heavy metal chairs amid black-and-white photographs of tractors and barns supporting the Midwest diner theme, we were each handed oversized brunch-lunch menus. If you\u2019re in a hurry (we weren\u2019t), reading through the rambling number of options ranging from flapjacks and waffles to egg dishes, salads and sandwiches is enough to make you late for everything. It took us 20 minutes to make final decisions, and even then, we remained tentative in our choices.<\/p>\n

\"Super
The \u201ctractor driver\u201d breakfast combo (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My visitors each chose the \u201ctractor driver\u201d combo, which comes with a humongous pancake as well as two eggs any style and a choice of bacon, sausage links or potatoes.<\/p>\n

One combo had the plump, greaseless pork sausages, which we found delectable. The other came with several strips of curly bacon that we unanimously agreed needed another five minutes on the griddle to achieve preferred crispiness.<\/p>\n

The pancake on each plate was breathtakingly large; a photo-worthy thing that immediately drew numerous comments after my aunt posted it to her Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Both cakes were somewhat dry beneath their golden surfaces, thus requiring generous measures of butter and syrup to revive them.<\/p>\n

I opted for corned beef hash with two eggs cooked over-easy as requested.<\/p>\n

I had high hopes for the hash and wished after seeing wild boar chilaquiles delivered to a nearby table in a porcelain bowl the size of a hand sink that I had chosen them instead. The customer who ordered the dish shared his raves with us as he dove into the pile of meat and queso fresco mantling the tortilla chips.<\/p>\n

\"Super
Corned beef hash (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My hash was chunky with par-cooked bell peppers strewn throughout large pieces of potatoes and cubed beef that tasted oddly like ham. Semi-melted Swiss cheese draped the medley. Rounding out the plate was a decent buttermilk biscuit too big to finish and a slab of fresh watermelon.<\/p>\n

In previous visits, I tried the grilled meatloaf with eggs, a homier and more satisfying departure from classic steak and eggs that required only a gentle push of the fork for cutting through the fat slice of nicely seasoned meat.<\/p>\n

\"Super
Crispy potatoes make for a hearty sidekick during breakfast (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the dinner menu, I shared with a different visitor the \u201csage fried chicken and bacon waffle tower,\u201d a signature dish that captivated us with two deep-fried chicken breasts coated heavily in sage-spiked batter. They were served over thick Belgian waffles encasing several strips of bacon. Here, quantity squarely matched quality.<\/p>\n

\"SuperUnfinished meals are commonplace at the restaurant. They\u2019re neatly boxed and placed into brown-paper grocery-size bags for easy hauling. Wait staffers instinctively know when to \u201cwrap it\u201d before you even ask since you essentially receive the equivalent of two meal portions for the price of one. It\u2019s part of Hash House\u2019s allure, which has spread to locations in Las Vegas, Chicago, Orlando and other U.S. cities.<\/p>\n

Other meal options, depending on the time of day, include a variety of \u201cfarm scrambles\u201d with either roasted chicken, smoked bacon, ground turkey or sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese. You\u2019ll also find sausage gravy and biscuits; eggs Benedict with pork tenderloin; an \u201cupside down\u201d chicken pot pie with cracker crust; stuffed burgers; Maine lobster tacos; and many more dishes not intended for customers monitoring their calorie intakes.<\/p>\n

\u2014Frank Sabatini Jr. is the author of \u201cSecret San Diego\u201d (ECW Press), and began his local writing career more than two decades ago as a staffer for the former San Diego Tribune. Reach him at <\/em>fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":251319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Super size me","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}