When theJade gets hungry...

Aziza 02/??/07

2007-03-07T23:18:00.000-08:00

I just realized I have unpublished photos for this place so I will put them up now. Because it's been a while since I've been here, I'm not really going to write a detailed review other than saying that the experience is two thumbs up, the Mediterranean Spreads is highly recommended, and the eggplant that comes with the tuna is delicious! Also, the desserts are nothing to gloat about.

Marin Roots Farm Mache & Cicory: Spiced asian pear compote, humboldt fog cheese, young walnuts

Mediterranean Spreads: Smoky eggplant, pomegranate-almond, yogurt-cucumber-dill, flatbread

Longline-caught Yellowfin Tuna: seared rare, fennel seed crust, roasted tahini, tunisian salad, eggplant

Devils Gulch Ranch Rabbbit: Hungarian Paprika, baby carrots, parsnip puree, dried bing cherries

Seared Day Boat Scallops: warm vegetable salad, pine nut-currant vinaigrette, marash pepper

Lamb Chops: Details not provided'

Some Chocolate Caramel Thingy

Pistachio Cardamom: cake, moscato d'asti poached dried apricots, orange creme fraoche

Yelp
Homepage
Neighborhood: Outer Richmond
5800 Geary Boulevard
(between 22nd Ave & 23rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121

AWOL but back with OSHA! 07.03.06

2007-03-07T11:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry all, I've been kinda lazy recently, but I'm back...hopefully for a bit.

Osha is a chain Thai restaurant that is scattered all through out SF. We heard this place was good, so we decided to try the one on Second Street. My first impression of this place is loud. Although this place has ambience that resembles that of an upscale restaurant (ie dimly lit), the first thing that came to my mind when I entered this place is loud, perhaps quite as bad as your typical canto restaurant. We had to shout at one another to converse. This kinda ruined the entire dinner. However, the interior decor was top notch, from the lighting to the seats. Half the seating in the restaurant was a row of benches, each side of the bench bench seating maybe 5 people. The other half of the restaurant, where we sat, had nest chairs surrounding a square table. On one of the supporting beams was a wood carved wall hang. Very nice indeed.

Clearly we didn't order the right dishes because everything we ordered was just average. We ordered the special of the day that included BBQ pork, salad, and a cup of sticky rice. We also ordered their Pineapple Fried Rice, Larb salad, and Fried Banana with Ice Cream.

First, we were served the Larb salad. The ingredients included ground chicken with lime-juice, chili, red onion, green onion, and fresh mint. It arrived at our table with a bundle of mint leaves and other veggies on the bottom topped with the chicken. We thought it would be a cool refreshing salad, but WOOOOOO were we wrong. When the ingredients said chili, they meant chili full pieces of chili peppers. Not only were their pieces of full chili peppers in the salad, I think they also chopped some of the chili up into itty bits and pieces and hid them amongst the ground chicken, so every bite was fiery. Although I have a tolerance for spicy food, this came as a surprise and the combination was actually pretty gross. We had to mix the Larb with the pineapple fried rice to drown out the spiciness.

The pineapple fried rice was really standard and boring. With regards to presentation, they tried to be a little different than most other Thai restaurants so instead of being cliche and serving the rice in a semi-pineapple, they served it normally on a plate! How unique!... The fried rice was a little greasier than I liked it, but the sweetness was alright.

The BBQ pork is shown above and although it looks good, it doesn’t taste very different from the BBQ chicken you can get at a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant. It had a hint of peanut flavor, but really, all I could notice was that it was it's dryness, toughness, and chewy-ness. The accompanying salad was standard with a light vinaigrette. The sticky rice came unsweetened in a small bamboo cup.

Lastly came the over-sweetened caramelized fried bananas with coconut ice cream. The fried bananas were broken into chunks, deep fried in batter, and then pierced through a wooden skewer. Then they were leaned alongside the coconut ice cream. The ice cream was probably the best part of the meal as it actually had strips of coconuts in it.

We realized we missed a recommended dish, the Volcanic Beef, which is a grilled flank “stake” (yes…as spelled in the menu) submerged in their special Lava sauce and served hidden between the inner rings of a tower of onion ring. Oh well, my first experience was already pretty bad so they probably won’t be seeing me again unless someone ties me in chains and drags me in.

Yelp
Homepage
Neighborhood: SOMA
149 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Shanghai Restaurant Returns...

2007-02-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I will do a second review on a restaurat I have already visited, the Shanghai Restaurant located in Milpitas. I won't go into the details regarding all the dishes as they were similar from the last time we went, with the exception of one dish that I will get into here. I finally had an opportunity to try what I missed out on last time which is their Xiao Lung Bao. I will comment on this simply because I believe I'm a little pickier and have a little more expertise with this dish.

Rarely have I been to a restaurant that makes this really well with the exception of a few. In Times Square of Causway Bay, Hong Kong, there is a Shanghai restaurant near the top floor that prepares it really well. In Warms Springs Boulevard across from the old Lions in the center where Q-cup is, there used to be another restuarant that is now sadly closed down. Although I question the hygene of that restaurant, they made a killer Xiao Lung Bao. Lastly, there is this place.

For those of you who are not familiar with this dish, on the outside, it looks like any other dumpling. However, the initial bite in it should be filled with boiling hot soup that gushes into your mouth. This soup is usually a block of frozen pork stock or fat. As the dumpling is heated, this block begins to melt in the dumpling. All this, the soup and the meat paste, is wrapped around the "usual" dumpling wrap.

To eat the dumpling, there is also a special technique as it is usually eaten with a chopstick and soup spoon. You pick up the dumpling with your choptsicks from the tip of the dumpling where the skin was pressed closed with the fingers. You do this as this is usually the most durable point so you minimize the chances of puncturing it. Next, you slowly place it onto the spoon, and you eat it holding it in the spoon. This is so when you bite into it, the soup is retained in the spoon.

There are several things to look for when eating this, the meat paste, the skin, and then the soup. For me, the most important part is usually the skin because it is where most places go wrong. With skin, there is usually a tradeoff with regards to thickness and durability (durability to hold in the soup). Some places are able to hold in the soup well but we end up eating a slab of flour along with it. Too thick. Othertimes it's too thin, and the wrapping punctures during the steaming procees and the soup just seeps out leaving you with a relatively dry dumpling. The skin here is masterfully prepared. From my own eating, the skin was thin and soft. Not dry and rough and not at all hard and chewy. Check. Also, the soup was well retained. Double check. Already, by my standards, this would be considered pretty good dumplings.

So what turns this from good to masterful? A couple of scenarios turned up. One of my friends accidentally dropped this onto a plate as he was dipping for soy sauce. Usually with an other dumpling, the skin would rip, the soup would spew out, and we would start crying over our lost soup. Not here. Even with the really thin skin, it held it's composure really well saving the soup. Bonus points! Secondly another friend ate his dumpling really late into the dinner, about 15 - 20 minutes after it has been served to us. Usually, the dumpling would have been signifcantly dryer by now, and as you pick it up from the crate, the bottom would stick and it would tear the bottom leaving you with a soupless dumpling. Not here. This demonstrates the moisture and smoothness of the skin.

The meat and the soup were also good. I was going through some of the yelp reviews, and one of them was commenting on how bad the skin was here and how it was dry. I really question whether or not 1) we went to the same restaurant, 2) they just got really unlucky, 3) we just got really lucky, or 4) they just have no idea what they're talking about. I can assure you the skin here was not dry, and as confirmed from several of my friends who are also Xiao Lung Bao fanatics and have been here numerous times, this place does prepare it really well. Although, I will not be biased about it and try the Xiao Lung Bao at Shanghai Classic that this person speaks so highly of to do a comparison.

Update: I would like to confirm that the mistake is actually mine, and that the yelp link does NOT correspond to the restaurant in mention (I have made the change appropriately with regards to the address in the previous post, and will update the location once it is determined.) Alas sadly, the yelp link does correspond to the other place I do like (the unsanitary place) but I cannot completly reject Anita M's review (link for reminder) as that restaurant is not particularly consistent with their dumplings. But when they were good, they were really good. I do not believe a yelp page exists for this restaurant yet, and I may just start one.

That is all for today.
theJade

On another note, posts to look forward to in the near future: Saizo dinner from a week ago, and Aziza from this weekend.

UPDATE: Oh, I forgot to mention, the Xiao Lung Baos are special's here. With any dinner over 25 bucks, you get a crate of 8 for free. Now it's $1.75...oh no....cry me a river...still a steal.

Santa Ramen

2007-01-29T00:39:00.001-08:00

We call this place, 4:00 ramen, and I have waited to come here for at least half a year, since the time SS told me about it. Why is it called 4:00 ramen? Because if you want to make it in without having to wait in line for at least an hour, you’ll have to go by 4:00. Of course, that’s mostly an exaggeration but actually, there is some truth to it. We arrived at this place during a cloudy/rainy night at 6:00 and already, there were at least 10 names preceding ours on the list with well over a dozen people standing in front of the store with several others sitting in their cars. SS has hyped up the place, this crowd is making it even worse. Hopefully, my high expectations wouldn’t be met by disappointment. Indeed it wasn’t.

We were called into the restaurant after 45 minutes of waiting, and even then, we had to wait another 15 minutes to get a free table. Orders were taken as we were standing in line waiting for our table. Although they have a paper menu, the menu most people go by is made of concrete. A spreadsheet showing all different combinations of soup base and main ingredient was posted on the sidewall of the restaurant. Pick your soup, pick your ingredients, and that’s how an order is made. Also on the wall is a section of things that are sold out. The funny thing about this place is that everything is pre-prepared during the day. Once they’re sold out of a particular item, that item is sold out for the rest of the night, whether it is the ingredients or the soup base. Then, once everything is gone, the store closes.

Tonight, I wanted to order the Braised Pork with Roasted Pork in pork soup, but sadly, the braised pork sticker was taped onto the sold out wall just as we were about to get our table. Great luck eh? So, roasted pork had to suffice. The ramen looked like any standard ramen you would get at a ramen house. However, the initial bite into the pork was delicious. It instantly broke apart into your mouth and although it was roasted, it wasn’t salty like most other ramen houses. The noodles are your typical Ryowa type noodles but different from that of Maru Ichi. The soup was rich and creamy topped with a minimally sufficient amount of green onions (you can't really go wrong with more green onions...mmm mmm). I usually never drink the soup because of the over saturation with sodium, but this was perfect. I would have finished it easily if it weren’t for the fact that the soup was so rich and heavy. It was almost like they stuck a stick of butter in it, but really they just use pork lard. Not that that sounds any better but it was oh so tempting to drink. I am aware it’s customary to finish the entirety of your meal out of respect of the chef, but I think he would appreciate it even more if I didn’t clog my arteries and returned for a second visit (which I will do). I did however slurp my noodles at exactly 93dB. Wait, no, that's actually kinda loud, but hey, who's measuring?

For appetizers, we ordered fried chicken wings. When it came out, I thought they were slabs of chicken breasts but flipping it over, the 2 bones that compose the wing were pretty apparent. However, they appeared to have removed the tendons from the edges of the wings, so it looked like 2 bones stuck between a slab of meat. It was mildly seasoned if at all, but it still had a very tasty natural flavor to it. Not bad for something so bland.

Overall, two thumbs up for the ramen, and they can expect to see me again. Hopefully next time, the braised pork won't be sold out.
Yelp
805 South B Street
San Mateo, CA 94401
(650) 344-5918

Gyro House 07.01.20

2007-01-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

Working on a Saturday sucks, so I took the time to find some joy out of it by going out to lunch. On Castro Street in Downtown Sunnyvale lies a restaurant that serves one of the best Gyros I've had, at least in terms of the meat. Their lamb and beef is freshly prepared on a rotating skewer and then thinly cut and placed onto the tortilla. The tortilla itself wasn't too great, dry like most other places, but meat was really succulent and juicy. The flavor was relatively mild which is good; not like a slab of meat that has been dipped in MSG. It was accompanied with salad and a mildly sour dressing. How very Mediterranean.

The service? Well there really isn't much service. You exchange your order for a number at the counter. Then you look for your seat, if any are even available. The seating here isn’t too great and I can imagine it filling up pretty quickly on a weekday if it’s this full on a Saturday at 13:00. In no time, they give you your order. Value wise, it was really filling, and the entire meal was under 10 bucks with a drink. All in all, a pretty good experience. I’ll definitely be back.

Yelp
212 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
(650) 940-9316

Four Seasons Tofu House 07.17.01

2007-01-19T00:29:00.000-08:00

Four Seasons Tofu House is a petite restaurant with a not so petite menu. Of all the Korean places attended in the southeast bay, this place has the widest range of dishes ranging from your standard Tofu pot, to Korean BBQ, to Bim Bap. In addition, they serve the purple rice. My favorite. They also serve the rice-flavored tea here. Clearly, I am easily impressed as this tea is served at almost every Korean restaurant.

Below is an overview of their free appetizers. I will not go through each and every single one of them, but I will attempt to butcher the ingredients; I have no idea what some of these things are.

Every night, this place serves their homemade tofu with different flavors. Tonight’s was, I believe, kimchi flavored tofu. The tofu itself was firm, once fried, and pickled in kimchi sauce.

Above is their potatoes marinated in a sweet sauce, another one of my favorite Korean mini dishes.

Here is their kimchi. I love kimchi, especially when it comes with the really large and crunchy napa pieces. The spiciness of the kimchi here, however, was not up to par.

The rest will just be pictured below. Keep in mind that these dishes are free, and bottomless.

For my main course, I ordered the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap (Steamed Rice topped with beef and steamed vegetables), as their Bim Bap was recommend by several friends.

Don’t ask me the pronunciation, I just pointed to the menu. The type of dish is Bim Bap, which is essentially steamed rice scoped into a scorching hot clay pot. Then depending on the order, various ingredients are added on top. When received, the rice in the middle is nice and chewy, but those touching the edges of the pot become seared and crispy. Not a particularly difficult dish to get wrong, but delectable nonetheless.

Salad and soup (which I was unable to capture a photo of but was vaguely reminiscent of miso soup) accompanied the order.

I would highly recommend this place if you’re looking for an intro to Korean food. There are lots of different types of food to choose from. I have yet to hear about their bul gol gi (barbecued beef), but you really can’t go wrong with either their tofu or their bim bop.

Yelp
42100 Blacow Rd
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 657-5286

Shanghai Restaurant 07.01.14

2007-01-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

This was a hard decision for me. I’ve mentioned this before, but I only get one lunch a week and as it is Sunday, I needed to consider whether or not this should be my lunch of the week and then said to myself, sure. It’s really early in the week so this’ll make it really hard for me while at work especially when my coworkers ask me out.

This is my first time here. It is really a hole in the wall restaurant with about 7 tables of which, if I recall correctly, all of them seat four people. I realized too late that I should’ve caught a picture of the inside and the sign. Oh well. This place serves homely food, meaning the food is food that you might find in a typical household, as opposed to the food found in larger restaurants, which are prepared a little more professionally. It’s just a different style of eating so I need to compare them differently as it is a different type of experience.

We came here hoping for the Xiao Lung Bao, directly translated to “little dragon bun,” but they were all out. Apparently this dish is really famous here, so I’ll need to come back and give those a try. I really love Xiao Lung Bao, especially if the wrapping is really thin, yet hard enough to hold the soupy substance inside.

The above dish is the Shanghai Pu Dong San Huang Chicken, which I believe is a “running” chicken meaning the meat is usually more lean and tough than that of the standard chicken. You know, the kind that stands there all day accumulating fat. Supposedly it’s a better type of chicken but I don’t like it as much because usually it’s really tough and chewy. This plate is served cold with a bowl of their specially prepared soy sauce. The chicken wasn’t too tough this time, which is good. It is essential to dip the chicken with the soy sauce, as it is unflavored without it. The special sauce is probably a concoction with various sauces along with some green onions, cilantro, etc. It wasn’t too salty, nor was it spicy. Overall, it was a pretty good dish.

We also ordered the Shanghai Salty Pork w/Rice; for those of you who understand Mandarin, it is “chai fan”. This dish is prepared by mixing some Salty pork with some sort of veggie that resembles bits of “bok choy” (but I know it’s not), and then placing it in a heated clay pot and letting it sit. It’s stir fried a bit with oil, and then placed in a scorching hot clay pot set aside to let outer layer of rice crispin. Overall, it is your standard “chai fan”, nothing particularly outstanding about this one, except that the amount of oil used was less than many of the other places I’ve been to.

This is the “Dai dou miu”. I’m not really sure the translation into English as it wasn’t on their typical menu, but it is just a type of veggie. We wanted ours prepared with a garlic soup as opposed to the flavorless soup. Not a bad dish. This is a really typical Chinese dish you might find prepared iin a Chinese household.

Last in our order was the Wu Ci Short Ribs. I thought there would actually be pieces of bone, but what I really found were chunks of pork wrapped around a piece of tendon. I have one word for this dish. Oily. Really, this dish was dripping in oil it was kind of gross. Don’t get me wrong, the flavor was good. Just the amount of oil was overwhelming. I believe a lot of peanut oil or just peanuts were used as that was the prevalent flavor in the dish. This is a dish worth trying once just for the flavor, but I probably wouldn’t order it again unless I don’t mind having a heart attack at the age of 50.

Overall it was not a bad experience. I didn’t get to try their Xiao Lung Bao, which was a disappointment, but their food really isn’t too bad for what it was worth (10 bucks a person including tip). It could’ve been cheaper, but we ordered a little more than we could eat, so we ended up with leftovers.

Yelp
1708 N. Milpitas Boulevard
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 263-1868

Update: I do not currently have the address of this place, but I can tell you where it is located. It is located in the Party City/Lees Sandwiches Plaza off of Calaveras and Abbot near the 880/237 junction. It is a VERY small restaurnt and maybe has a total of 10 tables or so, so keep your eyes peeled.

Broadway Bistro 07.01.13

2007-01-14T18:30:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I hit up Broadway Bistro with my family. It's a medium sized Chinese cafe located near some pretty big name Chinese restaurants in Milbrae such as Hong Kong Flower Lounge, and Fook Yeun. This is a place also of custom because there is a fixed set of dishes we usually order. The service isn’t the greatest. The service is really slow because I don’t think they have enough waiters to meet the demand of customers. The atmosphere is clean, like some of the better Chinese café’s you’ll go to.

The above is the Beef Brisket with Rice Noodle or "Ho Fun". There are two types of Brisket Noodles. The more popular one is the one with the brown-spiced soup, and the other is the clear soup, "Ching Tong". Each, from what I've noticed, uses a different type of brisket even though they're both named beef brisket. Either that or their preparation allows for the completely different texture. The brisket with the clear soup is usually softer and breaks apart in your mouth when you first eat it as compared to the one that comes with the brown soup that is usually a little harder but still brakes apart easily. I will always order the clear broth over the brown broth if they serve it, and this place does serve it. This is usually one of my favorite dishes here because their clear broth brisket is really tender. However, today, it was either over prepared, underprepared, or the meat was just plain "old". The brisket was really tough and chewy to the point it was inedible. Bad job this time around. This, however, isn't the norm as usually it is really good. The broth was about the same as before, their noodles are also really good, but the key portion of the dish simply failed. Just a note on the image. It might look kinda gross because of the yellow fatty colored yellow substance. It's not fat, it's actually beef tendon.

In addition, we ordered the Hong Kong Styled Beef Chow Fun. Even with Chow Fun, there are two types. One is prepared “dry” and the other “wet”. This place makes a really good “dry”. Usually we never order the dry simply because it’s oilier than the wet to prevent the noodles from sticking together while it is prepared. However, one day a while back, we ate here. A few tables over, someone ordered this dish. As the waiter walked passed our table, the aroma of the soy sauce absorbed in the noodles, and the overall dish was so good I had to order it. That was how we found out they made a really good “dry” Chow Fun. Today’s was prepared just like before, a really strong scent accompanied by a really strong flavor. The noodles also weren’t drenched in oil. This is usually a good indication that the restaurant has really good “wok hei” (for those of you who are Chinese speakers, you should understand what this means, but in essence it means their stove is really powerful. Yes, that sounds weird, but that’s pretty much what it means).

Last to arrive was the Baked Garlic Lamb dinner, which is served with a dinner roll and a soup. Their lamb is pretty decent. It doesn’t have much of that game meat stench you get from a lot of other lamb dishes. That could however be clouded by the intense amount of garlic sauce they put on top of each of the lambs. I brushed off some of the garlic just to test, and the stench was only minutely present. The texture of the meat was like that of a fillet mignon: really soft and tender. Perhaps the worst part of the dish was the garlic. Don’t’ get me wrong, I love garlic, but this was just overwhelming.

Overall a good restaurant, but very disappointing as the dish I was looking most forward to, the beef brisket, wasn’t prepared up to par. I would still recommend the place, and I would still order the same three dishes if I go again. I’ve been here enough not to let this one blunder be representative of all the times I’ve been to the restaurant.

Yelp
349 Broadway
Millbrae, CA 94030
(650) 692-3378

Rokko's Fine Japanese Cuisine 07.12.01

2007-01-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

Rokko's is a Japanese restaurant located in Downtown Sunnyvale that I've visited a few times for lunch. This is my first time eating here for dinner and the quality of the food really isn't any better, the portions are only slightly larger, but the prices appear to have jumped two fold. Sadly, I don't have a copy of the menu, and I couldn't find the menu online, so you'll have to just go with my descriptions of the dish.

For dinner, I ordered the two platter combo, along with a plate of half cooked fish for the appetizer. I tried to be a little adventurous this time, ordering a combo item I can't quite pronounce "Saba " and turned out to be simply a plate of grilled Mackerel. The second item of the combo was an assortment of sashimi.

The half cooked fish was that of white tuna presented atop a vinegared soy sauce with pickled onions. As a side note, I enjoy eating white tuna much more than I do the red tuna. What is the difference anyway? Is it a completely different fish? Or is it just a different portion of the gargantuan tuna? Back to the dish, The fish itself was slightly seared on the outside leaving the middle raw. Biting into the tuna, it easily broke apart first starting with a grainy texture followed by a really smooth and sweet flavoring of the middle, the typical sensation you feel in your mouth with half cooked fish. The soy sauce mixture accompanied the fish really well, with particular accolade to the onions. The quality of the fish itself? Not particularly sure, but I can tell you it was nothing like that of Ray's. Then again, Ray's was raw, so who knows.

Like most combos, it was served with the usual salad and miso soup. No surprises here. The sashimi was served first. I usually eat my sashimi plain with no soy sauce or wasabi. I know, you lose some of the flavor, but with raw fish, I like tasting it's freshness without anything to blanket it. The sashimi is your average sashimi. The sake was just okay, it wasn't as fatty or sweet as I like it. It also wasn't as smooth and "slimy" as the time I went to Rays. Sorry, but after going to Rays, I think it has set the bar in terms of fresh sushi. They also gave 3 pieces of maguro, one yellow tail, and several pieces of various other fish I don't quite know. Clearly, I'm not that great with names. I eat the food, I smell the food, but for heaven's sake, don't make me remember their names...haha. Just kidding. I'll learn it eventually.

The saba is a little different from what's usually found at your standard Japanese restaurants. It's essentially a grilled piece of mackerel. Very reminiscent of the breakfasts I used to have when I was in Japan. The fish was very firm, sweet, and juicy, and they gave a really hearty portion as well. On the side were some edemame beans and also a piece of fried "who knows what". It looked like the skin of fried wontons, but why it was served with my fish, I have no idea. Perhaps someone could leave in the comments section an explanation. :-P.

The tea? Really, Japanese tea usually tastes the same to me. I'm not exactly a connoisseur of teas, but I usually know what I like. To me, Japanese tea really all tastes the same. It has this grainy texture to it that I don't particularly like. Perhaps this is an indication that the tea isn't too great, who knows. For me though, I still prefer Chinese teas or other herbal teas.

Rokko's? It's worth a try. Their lunch is a killer deal as you can usually order their lunch special and it's about 7 bucks and you get the main dish of the day, rice, salad, soup, and a plate of sashimi. Their dinner on the other hand is quite expensive. They're pretty packed during lunch though so make sure to avoid the traffic by going earlier than 12:00 or later than 1:00 on a weekday. Value wise, it's not bad if you go for lunch. Food quality is passing but not spectacular. Service is average.

What dishes would I recommend? The seared white tuna was good, as was the mackerel. From past experiences, their rolls are acceptable as well; you can pass on the sashimi though.

Yelp
190 S Frances St
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 732-7550

FINALLY...

2007-01-11T00:56:00.000-08:00

I am caught up to date with my restaurants, with the exception of Le Papillon, which really isn't even worth doing an entry on becausee it's been so long ago. Maybe I'll do one just of the photos. Sorry for the sloppier posts, as I was a little behind schedule and was trying to rush through them. Either that or some of the restaurants didn't leave much of an impression on me so I didn't have much to say. From now on, I hope to post the day of the meal. Hopefully, my future entries will be properly spell/grammar checked and will be a little more descriptive.

Neto Sausage Co Inc: 07.01.11

2007-01-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

Finally, a chance to return to Netos. They're mainly a sausage store, but if you go during lunch time on Tuesdays and Friday's, they open up the barbecue and you can purchase a sandwich. Their menu consists of several different types of sausages, the steak sandwich, and the grilled chicken sandwich. From what I hear, either stick with their sausage sandwich, or go else where.

A little intro on how to order here, as you could get lost if it's your first time. Out front, you will see a large barbecue in which you pick out the specific type of meat you want. This time, I chose the spiciest, the calabrese, which really wasn't too spicy at all, but none the less, really good. He'll give you the slab of meat on an aluminum tray. Take this tray, go inside the shop, and head towards your right and wait in line. You get to the front, select the type of bread and the other sandwich supplements. Mine was served with a french roll, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and a bag of sun chips. She'll take the meat, you walk to the left side of the store, pick out a drink if you choose, then wait in the line that grows to the left. Here, you'll pay for the sandwich, pick up the sandwich, and you're ready to go.

The following pictures demonstrate how to reach your sandwich:

The sandwich was good, as usual. Definately hit the spot this time. First time trying the calabrese, and definately won't be my last time. Their bread is nice and chewy, not like some delis where the bread is as hard as a rock. The best part of course, is the sausage though. That's why you come here right?

Recommended? Definately! The only disadvantage is that if you're a really big eater, the sandwiches might not be large enough. They were, however, big enough for me. =)

Yelp
3499 The Alameda
Santa Clara, CA 95050
(408) 296-0818

Pho Saigon 07.01.06

2007-01-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

Yup, even if it's going to be as plain of a meal as pho, i'm going to have an entry on it. This dinner was right after we returned from our snowboarding trip. We were pretty indecisive about where to eat, so we decided to get something simple, pho. My photos didn't turn out too well partially because I used my parents Powershot A540. I didn't want to risk taking my Canon 350d up to the snow.

I got the #12 large, which was Rare Steak with Brisket. Brisket is probably my favorite pho meat if done correctly. This place did not do it correctly, nor was the rare steak any good. The brisket was kinda tough and chewy. There might also have been a few slices of sour rare steak. Usually an indicator that the meat has gone back. Hey, I'm still here aren't I? At least the rice noodles weren't hard and clumped together. The soup...well I rarely drink the soup because it's usually MSG water so I can't make much of a comment on this one.

Would I go back again? Probably not in the near future, but I usually like to give restaurants a second shot. Perhaps a little earlier next time, and not when they're about to close. From initial impression, there are definatley a lot of better pho places nearby.

Yelp
46825 Warm Springs Blvd
Fremont, CA 94536
(510) 683-8951

Banana Leaf 07.01.05

2007-01-10T22:28:00.000-08:00

The same day as Shiva's, I went with my parents to another local Malaysian place for dinner. Just an FYI, but I currently have this rule of only one lunch and one dinner out a week. This dinner won't count as I made the exception that eating out with family does not count. Really though, I made that exception because if family dinners were included, my history of restaurants visited would be pretty short. Whenever I eat out with them we go to the same blasted restaurants every time. Since I live to eat, there is no way I can be restricted to such a small selection of restaurants :-p. My friends are definately a little more adventurous making the diversity of the food displayed on this site possible ^_^.

The business here is booming. If you come here during a peak time, expect to wait half an hour or so. Perhaps make reservations before coming. The tables are placed really close together so there really isn't much room to move around, not quite as bad as Tablespoons but still... The kitchen is open so everyone can see how the food is being prepared. I was going to take a picture of one of the chefs preparing a Roti Prati and I almost got a decent shot but the stupid auto focus wasn't working in the dim light and was quickly stopped by one of the managers. Apparently, they don't like people helping them advertise :-p. Or perhaps there are other...reasons...considering they only objected me taking pictures of the kitchen area... Okay, I'm not getting into this so let's just leave it at that. No need to worry though. This place IS clean.

Everytime we go to Banana leaf, we usually order the same food, and tonight was no exception. We started out with the appetizer, the Roti Prati. I think this place makes one of the better Roti Prati. Roti Prati, for those of you who do not know, is essentially a thin piece of tortialla along with a bowl of curry. You're supposed to tear the tortilla with your hands, dip it in the curry, then eat it. I like my curry pretty spicy, but it's not so here. I think I've been desensitized by all the Indian food I've eaten. However, they do make up for it with their nice, thin, and chewy "tortilla".

Second, we got the Pineapple Fried Rice. Really, I've had this so much, it's just...meh now. It's not bad, they give ample amounts of pineapple and the fried rice is sweetened just right. However, I've had this dish way too much so it's getting dull.

Third, we ordered the Pahd Thai. I used to be a really big fan of the Pahd Thai here, but for some reason now, they've made it wetter than I like. I like my Pahd Thai a little more dry. However, at Banana Leaf, the Phad Thai was like noodles drenched in ketchup. Not up to my standards.

Lastly was dessert. My favorite portion of the meal at this place as we always order the same thing. We got the Bobo Cha Cha, which is essentially coconut milk/water with yams, sweet tomatoes, corn, sago, and perhaps some other things. I love this dessert, served chilled or warm. This night, we ordered it warm as it was cold out. The only thing that would make this dessert any better would be to add more yams and sweet potatoes to it. All in all though, it still wasn't that bad. It definately doesn't compare to the one I had in Singapore though where the temperature was a blazing 90 degrees and although the Bobo Cha Cha had the same ingredients there was much more substance and a mountain full of shaved ice which slowly melted as you ate into it. It was worth the flight over just to try it. Okay, maybe not. However, it's unfair to compare a dish served here with with a dish served in it's country of origin.

All in all, the food is pretty good, although not the best. I would definately recommend people to go to this place at least once just to try it. Personallly I like Nyonya a little better, but that's just my opinion.

Yelp
182 Ranch Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035

Shiva 07.05.01

2007-01-10T00:07:00.000-08:00

On the fifth of January, right before my snow boarding trip, my friend and I picked up our rental boards and then decided to go see what was available on Castro Street, Mountain View. I was already running late for work, but I told him I'd go out and eat. So I kept my promise and we quickly rushed to see what was available. Picking up the boards took longer than expected...wait..you really don't care about all this do you. Onto the restaurant. We landed at Shivas, and Indian restaurant. My friend said their dinner was good so we decided to try their lunch. I was hoping more for a sit down where we can place orders, but instead, for lunch it was only buffet style. However, for 10 bucks a person, this really wasn't too bad of a deal considering what you get.

The lunch itself was pretty rushed so the pictures turned out sloppy, the food was more guzzled than eaten, there wasn't much food left as it was nearing 2:00 (also excuse the sloppy pictures), and so the experience wasn't all that great. Not that the restaurant itself was bad. I just hate rushing through meals when I'm in the mood to sit and enjoy, particularly if it's a restaurant I've never been to. I'm also not particularly keen on buffets, especially if the food is new to me, and I'm short on time. Granted, I get to try a plethora of different foods, but really, I can't remember what I'm eating anymore after all the flavors get kinda jumbled up together and my memory of the meal is just, mush.

I guess I'm really just making excuses for myself because I really can't remember much of what I ate. As an amateur at Indian food, everything is just a sauce. The foreign names just makes it even worse. I do, however, have pictures of near empty serving platters where the food was provided (hence the bad pictures) along with the title of the dish, so I will list them below.

Potato_Pakora: Potato pieces coated with multispiced flour batter and deep fried. Is this dish just supposed to be like leftover batter? Wait no..all the potatos are just gone..>_<.
Rice Pulao: Long grain saffron flavored rice with green peas dressing.

Dal Makhani: Black lentil simmered overnight with onions, tomatoes, and spices.

Gobhi Masala: Cauliflower cooked in a special sauce. You know...some of these descriptions are so vague

Shahi Paneer: Cottage cheese pieces in a rich creamy tomato gravy.

Baigan Delight: Eggplant in a special blend. Again, another great description....really....

Opo Masala: Opo cooked with a variety of spices. Um, I have no idea what Opo is....

Lamb Roganjosh: Tender lamb pieces cooked with a variety of spices in a traditional way.

Butter Chicken: Boneless chicken pieces cooked in tomato creamy gravy. So that's what this stuff is called. I think we usually have this served at work, except at work, I think it's a little spicier. This had a spice rating of zero. I prefer mine a little spicier, but good none the less and very very creamy. This photo clearly shows that it was all gone, so all I had was the sauce, yet it was still pretty good.

Malai Chicken Tikka: Chicken pieces marinated in yogurt and spices and roasted in a clay tandoor (clay oven). This was somehow specially prepared for us. Don't ask me how. This was quite an interesting dish as the chicken was prepared in yogurt which made this thing slightly sour. Not too bad in my opinion. I'm not usually a fan of the white meat of birds but this was surprisingly juicy.

Here is a sample of one fo the plates I gathered. Not really sure what's on it. I did go for seconds, but that plate was much emptier as this was almost enough for me. Lotsa food.

This is probably the hightlight of the meal. They had really good nan. Not too oily, yet it was crispy on the outside and really chewy on the inside. This had to be requested separately, kinda strange for a buffet but it was oh so good. Probably the best nan I've had. Period. It was so good I have two pictures up for it.

The following are the two desserts.

Rice Pudding: Long grain Basmati rice cooked in reduced milk with sugar, saffron, and raisins.

Special Gajrela: Shredded carrot cooked with sweetened reduced milk, nuts, and raisins. Smelling this, my friend thought it would be spicy, but eating it, it was like eating a lump of brown sugar. It had a really grainy texture and was also really sweet. Indian desserts still aren't my thing.

Would I recommend this place? Sure. I can't make a really good judgement on the place because all I had was the buffet, but their buffet was worth the 10 dollars. Hell, the nan alone made the meal worth it. I will be coming back for dinner to give better assessment. Stay tuned.

Yelp
800 California Street
Mountain View, CA, 94043
(650) 960-3802

Tablespoons 06.12.30

2007-01-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

I was so hyped to go to tablespoons, perhaps a bit too much. It partially it's because it's been a restaurant on my list for a good 4-5 months, and partially because the prices on the menu looks affordable compared to a few other places I've been dying to go to...like MM and FL...>_<. Moving on. This place is really kind've a hole in the wall. The photo you see below of the door and the window to the left, that's about how narrow the entire restaurant is.

LOOK, they use spoons for the door handles. I wonder why ^_-.

Here is another photo of their address plate. Nothing really interesting, just felt like putting it up.

The service was pretty good...that's all I really have to say about that. Now ONTO THE FOOD.

The above order is called the Seared Alaskan True Cod and it's description is Roasted Spaghetti Squash, Almonds, Carrots, Rock Shrimp & Red Curry. Really, to me, I've eaten so much fish, that my favorite is still prepared the chinese way, steamed with soy sauce poured over it. This wasn't too bad of a fish. This was my friends order, and I just had a small piece but from what I could tell, it wasn't over cooked. The meat itself had a really smooth and buttery texture. It was also boneless which really surprises me sometimes because in a lot of Chinese dishes, the fish comes with a ton of bones. All in all, not too bad, didn't leave too much of an impression though.

This is the hangar steak that my friend ordered. I thought it would be like a pretty hefty piece of steak, maybe like one you would get at a steakhouse, but no. Instead, this came in the form of very tiny slices. Slightly disappointed though as the meat was prepared medium....MEDIUM. Who the heck orders their meat medium? I like mine bloody rare :-P. Really though, the meat didn't leave too much of an impression on me. It's been about 9 days since I've been there and I really can't remember much about this dish, meaning it wasn't particularly bad, but not spectacular either. It is to note however, that tablespoons only had 3 servings available that night, of which my friend got one.

I believe this was this signature dish as it was the best dish of the night. The mac and cheese. One might wonder, how can someone prepare a good mac and cheese...i mean...isn't the blue box good enough. Apparently, not really. This was prepared with really sharp cheddar, good and strong. The first bite into it was, wow, this is sharp cheddar, not that cheap stuff that comes out of a blue box. Then you begin to notice a grainy crispy kind of texture. At first I thought this was bread crumbs but later realized from the menu that it was Applewood Smoked Bacon. Wow, no wonder it was so good. Ridiculously smooth and creamy, yet also ridiculously heavy. Good none the less. Hands down, best Mac and Cheese I've ever had.

This was my order, the Duck Confit Ravioli, which is described to have Maitake Mushrooms and Foie Gras Emulsion. The ravioli's were not bad. The inside seemd more like a ground mush of both duck and foie gras so I really couldn't distinguish the taste, but the foie gras did add a sweet flavor to the "dumplings". And the mushrooms, I really couldn't tell there were mushrooms on there. I think it was because my tastebuds were still with the mac and cheese.

Their desserts were really boring. My friends ordered the Cookie platter (top) which included White Chocolate-Macadamia Nut, Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream in the middle. The cookies were still scorching hot as though they were fresh out of the oven. Nice and soft, but, but the dough itself wasn't anything special, and the cookies seemed to be underdone. I ordered the Roast pear upside-down cake (bottom): Maple Genoise, Pinenuts and Bosc Pear Sorbet. A friend had recently ordered another pear dessert at Le Papillon and thus, I was thoroughly decieved by this desserts title, as it's ingredients also included pear. However I was disappointed to find out that really, there were only several chunks of pear on the top, and the "Roast Pear" was actually a sorbet preprared tempura style. The round egg shaped piece on the right...yup that's the pear sorbet. And the genoise cake? It reminded me of bread pudding...bleh.

I think I was a little overhyped for this restaurant. Nothing was really to my expectations with the exception of the mac and cheese which was just amazing. The food really isn't bad, the atmosphere is good, and the service is good as well, but the food wasn't just up to my expectations considering how long I've wanted to go. It's a good date spot, I would recommend it, and if you're not that picky on the food, their food really isn't that bad. Definately order the mac and cheese. Perhaps, just skip the dessert.

Rays Sushi 06.12.30

2006-12-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

I've been to Tomodachi numerous times, and I've heard that their sushi chefs originated from this place called Ray's but never been there. On this day, I was invited to go with my cousin fror lunch. He was quite experienced with the place, so I asked him what was good. He said to get the raw stuff...and that..is what we did. We ordered 4 different plates, as displayed below.

We decided to get an appetizer kinda food, so we got a platter of Raw Oysters. By golly, the oysters were AMAZINLY fresh and clean. It was served on top of ice with a dab of chili sauce in the middle of each piece, and a piece of lemon that was juiced on top. It didn't have any of that smelly fish flavor. They were also superbly cleaned as there was no sand reside whatsoever. I'm not a big fan of raw oysters as they sometimes have that strong fishy flavor, usually, and they're usually not cleaned really well, but this place completely changed my opinion on that.

Here we have the Sake (raw salmon) Don. My sister complained that the Don was a little plain. Usually, it's served with a bit of flavoring or soy sauce. However, this was just..Rice....and Fish. Oh, and a slice of lemon. But let me tell you something, if you can't tell by image of the fish, the salmon was ridiculously fresh and a good cut. As the fish slipped into your mouth, and you take your first bite it was crisp, yet buttery and sweet, just how good salmon should taste and feel like in your mouth. I know...crips isn't the best term to describe it...but what is the opposite of limp in terms of food? :-P.

This is the Maguro sashimi. The worst dish of the three in my opinion, but then again, i'm not that versed with tuan. Sadly, I was the one who ordered this one. What I dislike is the metalic taste of the tuna. Anyway, this one had a really strong iron taste, and the meat itself was pretty rough. I've had much better tuna elsewhere.

Lastly was the Hamachi sashimi, a much better dish. I'm not too familiar with yellowtail either, but after this experience, I will definately try it more often. It was MUCH sweeter than the salmon. The initial bite into a piece demonstrated a freshness that was not present with the maguro.

All in all, a really good experience at Ray's sushi. Surprisingly this is my first time eating an all raw meal. I never though I'd get full off just raw fish and rice...but clearly, this was enough. The bill came out to be about 55 bucks for 3 people so it wasn't too bad for what we got. Definately would recommend this place. My advice? Get the raw stuff.

Yelp
888 W. A Street
Hayward, CA 94541
(510) 887-0701

Becks Steak and Seafood - 06.12.27

2006-12-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

This night, I went to Becks Steak and Seafood for an anual Christmas Dinner with a group of friends. This isn't my first time here, but it is my first time EATING here. I was over an hour and a half late so my friends helped me order. Thus, I can't really comment on the service except that my food was served almost immediately as I walked through the door. Good timing I suppose.

This is the Veal Scaloppini Sautée In Garlic, Mushrooms, And Marsala Wine from Becks. The Scaloppini came out luke warm, so slightly disappointing. There was only a very faint almost non-existent hint of marsala in the sauce but hardly any of it was absorbed into the mushrooms or the veal. I was expecting a more potent flavor from the marsala. The veal itself wasn't overcooked and wasn't tough chewy at all. However, it's consistency reminded me that of a piece of hamburger patty from McDonalds, has been overcooked at sitting for a long time. Then again, I i'm not an expert on veal, so what do I know. Right? The veggies were nothing special, just your standards steamed veggies with some seasoning on it as was the mashed potatoes. The dish turned out to be 13 bucks for a filling meal.

Overall, pretty average food but at a decent price. Would I go again? With the right people? Sure. But I might order something different.

Yelp
36665 Cedar Blvd
Newark, CA 94560
(510) 797-7556