Glad you liked it! We've done Andy's for gifts in the past. Definitely do come back to try the sugar plums during the holidays - they're excellent.

Michael

Regarding the apricots: In the South Bay, Andy's Orchard in Morgan Hill has beautiful presentations of dried apricots and other dried fruits, and the fruit is top notch. C.J. Olson in Sunnyvale also has some nice dried fruit presentations, and they have wonderful apricots as well.

Michael

I had a fabulous dinner there tonight, starting with the wood-grilled squid with lotsa grains, fava beans, and yogurt. But the star was the entree of sand dabs with asparagus, snap peas, and spinach with a chive butter sauce. The only time I've had sand dabs this good was on a previous visit here!

What a great springtime dish this was, full of ingredients that I don't like unless really top-notch quality, and they delivered superbly. The recommended txakolina went great; I think I may have had that in my previous sand dab meal here as well. While they do take reservations now, I believe they leave half the house open for walk-ins.

Michael

Please do! I suggested Chef Zhao as well and it would be great to have a Chowdown there.

Michael

This was great fun! The restaurant didn't fall into either of the common problems with Sichuan places in this area: make everything too bland, or make all the spicy dishes and overwhelming blast of ma la spice that obliterates everything else. The dishes here had varying levels of spiciness with a variety of flavor profiles.

My favorites included the tendon appetizer, the mapo tofu, the cumin lamb, the potato, and the cabbage. But I liked just about everything except the eggplant (have had many better renditions), the kidney (like PekoePeony, I'm not a kidney fan and this didn't convert me), and the sesame ball soup (reflecting my blind spot regarding desserts in Asian cuisines).

The Chongqing wings reminded me of the version of this dish that I had in Beijing. Some folks who were more experienced with cumin lamb thought it was just OK, but this was first time having this dish so the novelty effect and the very different flavor profile from the rest of the dishes helped it stand out for me.

The wine list included a Thomas Fogarty Gewurztraminer which went will with these dishes. Beer choices were limited so all the beer drinkers went with Tsingtao.

Thanks to Melanie for organizing, to PekoePeony for the pictures, to RWCFoodie for keeping track of everything we ordered, and to all the fellow hounds for a delightful meal.

Michael

I had this dish for the first time at Bodega Bistro a few weeks ago. Someone else here wasn't too enthused about their rendition, but my sister and I both thought it was delicious! Recommendations in the South Bay area would be great for comparison.

Michael

Looks interesting - hope to try it soon.

Michael

No Sichuan peppercorns or red chiles? Sounds like my ma po tofu at South Legend, one of the worst ever. I've had no desire to go back since that experience.

Michael

Search and you should find lots of Sunnyvale and Mountain View choices for Indian. All are vegetarian-friendly, and many are vegetarian-only. Current favorites include Madura and Madras Cafe for vegetarian; Taste Buds, Peacock Mountain View, and Shah for vegetarian and non-vegetarian; Amber India and Artisan - The Menu in Mountain View for fancier Indian.

Michael

Each time I've visited Eden Prairie I've checked to see if anyone had moved into the old Roly Poly space at Flying Cloud and Viking, since this is the closest lunch spot to the office. On this trip I was delighted to see Teque Arepa in this space.

$5 gets you a tasty chicken or pork arepa. They have many other choices of fillings, including vegetarian choices, along with empanadas and a few other dishes.

This is a very nice addition for getting a quick and tasty lunch in Eden Prairie!

Michael

We went to Bodega Bistro for lunch when visiting the Terracotta Warriors and were very happy with that choice. A Chowhound favorite in that neighborhood for very good reason.

Michael

In addition to bbulkow's recommendations, Vero in downtown Palo Alto is an excellent choice for Italian, and Amber India and Artisan - The Menu are both great choices for Indian food in Mountain View. All should be veggie friendly. I wouldn't send someone who is sick of Evvia to Dio Deka as the styles are quite similar though the details differ.

Michael

Thanks for the Tortas Frontera recommendation. The chipotle chicken torta made a delicious lunch during today's connection at ORD.

Michael

Hmm, the mansaf was not as great as usual on our last visit either - the lamb wasn't as flavorful as before, though the rice and yogurt sauce were still fine. Hopefully it's a lull, not a trend. Thanks for reporting back!

Michael

I often eat at Lers Ros in Hayes Valley before rehearsals when I don't want anything very spicy. There are lots of good non-spicy choices among the noodle soups and the rice plates. Favorites include the Kao Kha Moo, Kao Na Phed, Kao Mun Kai in the rice plates and the Kuay Tiew Combination and Kuay Tiew Phed Toon in the noodle soups. In the original Thai-style dishes, the Pla Trout Tod Nam Pla is another good choice.

Michael

Thanks for the tip! I didn't know that Vaso had moved on from Athena and then opened a new place. I'll definitely try this out.

Michael

Athena Grill nearby in Santa Clara is the obvious choice. Lots of great things on the menu there.

Michael

Wonton noodle soup from Fung Lum's SFO International Terminal outlet has been my lunch tradition before flights out for international business trips. I've always enjoyed the great shrimp in the wontons and combination of wonton, noodle, and broth. But with this thread, I also admired the long tails of the wontons, the al dente thin noodles, and noticed the scallion vs. chive garnish. I'm not sure what's in the broth; it's not very red but it's quite tasty.

Michael

I think Coi's greatest strength is often their vegetarian or vegetable-oriented dishes. I wouldn't hesitate about keeping that reservation, but do be sure to let them know about the vegetarian menu in advance.

Michael

Tried to go on Saturday but they were full. Hope to try it soon!

Michael

You don't have to order the roast chicken. There are many other great things on the menu that don't have an hour wait. Anything out of that oven is wonderful.

Michael

If this may be your one and only time in San Francisco, you can do much better than Gary Danko, both for food quality and overall local flavor. Zuni Cafe would be my classic northern California choice.

Good game is surprisingly uncommon around here, but Pläj (a Cal/Scandinavian restaurant in the Civic Center) is currently serving a lovely venison dish. When are you coming? These dishes sometimes disappear from menus as we get closer to summer.

Michael

Venticello is a nice Italian place just 3 blocks away. I haven't been there in a while, but it was a great choice for us when we had a concert at the Masonic Center.

Michael

La Ciccia, our wonderful Sardinian in Noe Valley, seems the most obvious choice to me in the "places I've missed" category.

Michael

I loved Miki's cheese counter, which was far better than anything else around. But everything else seemed comparable to other places in the area. That combined with the problematic location - not near anything else, hard to get in and out of - makes for a tough combination for a boutique store.

I wouldn't get angry at people for not supporting a store that wasn't enough of either a local or regional destination to overcome its location handicap. Maybe the cheese folks can open a smaller cheese-only shop nearby, but in a better location?

Michael

I'm preparing to head back to Frankfurt. There are some nice recommendations from apfelwein and FRAexplorer that I want to check out, plus some favorites from previous visits. Are there any new / updated recommendations? German cuisine is still the main focus, either in traditional or newer styles, and accessible via U-Bahn or S-Bahn.

Thanks,
Michael

In general I agree about the quality of German food in the Bay Area, but Leopold's in San Francisco makes one heck of a great schnitzel. I generally get back to Germany once a year to calibrate myself. Still don't know where to find an excellent sauerbraten here though.

Michael

If you find some, please let me know! I too miss this dish and have it just about every time I'm in the Boston area.

There are indeed a variety of spicy wonton dishes around here. All the one's I've had have been thinner wontons and either a red-oil or sesame/peanut-based sauce, vs. the soy-based sauce at Mary's. They're fine, but it's not the same thing.

Michael

Yes, it's boneless white meat, as is true for most places around here. As far as I know this is a English-Indian dish, so I'm not quite sure what "authentic" means in this context. Bone-in meat is used in many other dishes at Taste Buds like the chicken curry and gongura chicken special.

Michael

I do order this dish sometimes when I can't have spicier food, and my favorite is from Taste Buds in Sunnyvale. Everything there is more home style than at lots of other places.

Michael