jhinky's Profile
Doughnut Dolly - Outstanding doughnut pop up in Oakland
I'd had a similar contemporaneously filled doughnut called naughty doughnut at Local 123 about 6 months or so back. Was that her?
$1000 budget 1 week in SF
I don't know if you could fit 16 people into Mission Chinese?
Gajalee - the real deal for Goan food [SF Bay Area board]
I asked them when I went with PSB et al., and they said (though not with too much conviction) that the chef used to cook at the original Vile Parle Gajalee. Note that they did not claim any official link.
Non-vegetarian restaurant that does great vegetarian?
If East Bay / Berkeley is okay, I think Gather fits the bill perfectly.
Thai green curry paste?
There is a Thai take-out and grocery store int he Pacific East Mall in Richmond/Albany (where Ranch 99 is). Its called Ran Khanom Thai if I am not mistaken. The owner Nut makes and sells her own green and red curry pastes as well as some sauces for Pad Thai etc. Her take-out food is delicious as well. Closest to homemade you can find. Its all organic as well.
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Pacific East
3288 Pierce St # M126, Richmond, CA
Berkeley Thai Recommendations?
Sadly the last couple times i have been to Chai Thai (within the last 3-4 months), have been absolute disappointments.
The food has been oily, and shockingly tasteless (not talking of spice levels). When we asked for Thai spicy Som Tum, we got sweet with red pepper flakes :-( The menu looks different although it still has the khao ka moo. I will probably avoid it until I read some uphill reports.
As for other places near Berkeley for Thai - if take-out is an option, I would highly recommend Ran Khanom Thai in the Pacific East Mall in Richmond. Homecooked meals that are truly spicy, funky, balanced whatever you are looking for. I have enjoyed the Kao Man Gai (Thai equivalent of Hainanese Chicken rice), couple of curries with rice and some excellent coconut desserts.
See recent link at http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/799284
Anjappar Chettinad, Milpitas
OMG, I actually emailed them a couple years back and asked them to open a bay area branch after eating in a couple of their other branches! The mutton sukka is indeed a kickass dish, at least the versions I have had in their Singapore and Bangalore branches. Funnily the Singapore branch was way superior to the one in Bangalore that I had been to. I seem to remember that they had a good prawn fry or masala type dish as well.
(Does a happy dance and plans a trip to the south bay)
Jalebi from Rajjot Sweet & Snacks in Sunnyvale
Don't they have decent kachoris? I think I have had them pre-ordered in large quantities at a friend's party.
Aside re Bengali pronounciations: Though bengalis pronounce A's as O's, we still spell em as A's. So Rajat in bong is still spelled as Rajat albeit pronounced "Raw-Jot". And Gobi in bengali is Kopi or Phulkopi, not "ghubi." The one dead giveaway for Bangladeshi restaurants (there are typically rarely ever Indian-Bengali restaurants) is "motor" for matar in Matar Paneer or Keema Matar :-)
Chinese New Year Banquet at Saigon Harbor
Marlon gives me too much credit - all I did was tag along and stuff my face at a pre-dinner dinner a few weeks back and check out the menu with him.
My favorites from the dinner were definitely the custard that everyone has mentioned, the uni was fresh and plump and the clams were delicious. I loved the gingery sauce that came with the poached chicken and made for a lovely combination. The dried oyster / scallops with the chinese sea weed that I enjoyed for its "sea" and "fishy" yet sweet clean flavors. The ginseng soup started bitter but had mellow chicken broth below. I am not much for the medicinal soups, but this I liked. By the way, is it safe to eat the ginseng roots in the soup?
I have to admit this was one of the best Chinese banquets I have attended, made more so by the company which was truly delightful, lots of old and new faces. My table-mates brought some excellent wine to the table - thank you Bryan, Nick and Terese (I am probably misspelling your name, I am sorry!). PSB, Felix, Cece, as well as David & Betsy who came late to the table :) Thanks yimster for ordering the uni custard, now I am going to crave it whenever I go to Saigon harbor! Of course marlon, for organizing such an awesome dinner and missing half of it. I hope you guys had fun too cause it was lovely sharing a table with all of you.
Last but not least, the sesame cookies and the mango pudding were pretty good, especially compared to the red bean soup that they typically provide us, which I am afraid is very much an acquired taste.
So, when's the next chowdown???
-- Urmi (aka jhinky)
uptown oakland lunch
Also try Bay Fung Tong - you can call in your order and pick it up - they are fast and cheap but pretty good Cantonese fare. The lobsters / crabs are excellent too if you want to bring a group for sit-down.
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Bay Fung Tong Tea House
1916 Franklin St, Oakland, CA 94612
Looking for sfiha
Zaki Kabob house has a spheeha on its menu. Although I have never tried it - I have pretty much loved most things I have eaten there.
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Zaki Kabob House
1101 San Pablo Ave, Albany, CA 94706
Chowdown at Yellow Pa Taut - Burmese in SOMA - Report
We arrived late and missed the samosas. The fried shrimp were tasty with their heads on. I liked how spicy the Baya Kyaw and Samosa salad was. All three salads were fresh yet spicy and intricate. My friend S really loved the Tea Leaf Salad which neither of us have had before - so we can't really compare it to BSS or the other places in the city. My other favorite was the curry catfish which had a gingery soupy gravy that was great with rice. [It tasted a lot like a kalia if anybody is familiar with bengali food]. The Mohinga and the Kauk Swe had similar broths but the Khauk Swe was lighter tasting and the one I preferred. The paratha was pretty well-made and flaky probably through the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil or lard.
I also rather liked the desserts, which I had had pretty low expectations about from other reviewers online.
Overall nothing so amazing that folks need to run down to a rather seedy neighborhood but definitely worth keeping in mind along with the usual places in the tenderloin for reasonably priced and different asian food.
Great Szechwan Chowdown
My personal favorites were the cucumber with tofu skin and the bright and flavorful veggies - the pea shoots and the green beans. Oh and the fish-fragrant eggplant is one of my favorite dishes that didnot disappoint us here. I also really liked using the green onion pancakes to sop up the red oil sauce from the appetizers. I agree that there was not enough ma la to the sauces except for the chicken with taro - that lovely numbing flavor under the tongue that is addictive. The spare ribs were also a personal favorite - the texture of the soybean with the thick dry gravy and the fall-off the bone meat was excellent with the scallion pancakes again. But then again I am afraid I had some scallion pancakes with all of the gravy dishes!! The dan dan noodles were also good - but I prefer the ones with more of the sauce/ground meat.
The soup of death had great flavor to the broth - (roasted chillis?) and Heidiepie did a masterful job of portioning it out to the hungry hordes at our table. There was also another noodle dish (chow ma noodles?) which was soupy - but I was too full to eat much more than some of the veggies and shrimp from it. There was very sweet and crunchy cabbage in it that I liked.
Linda brought lovely fruits - including bing cherries, apricots and lychees. I am afraid I was rude enough to snag the last lychee in the bowl. A lovely end to a very good meal. Finally I am glad to say we had enormous amounts of food without that unpleasant heaviness that the amount of red oil based sauces would lead one to expect.
Thanks Marlon and yimster for organizing :)
Report on Hong Kong Trip in progress
Thanks for the tip!! The place is called San Xi Lou but the business listing calls it San Xi Lou Man Jiang Hong and is on the 7th floor of Coda Plaza. It also happened to be across the street from where I was staying. We went and had lunch there once - they have an extensive menu - including Sichuan classics on their dinner menu, dim sum and hot pot separately (Interesting column in the hot pot menu called Other meats that included frog and tripe etc). The food tasted excellent, fresh and well flavored. I could not do a through chowish exploration as I went with my brother who was not hungry and a 5-year and an 8-year old.
We ordered a whole bunch of shrimp and pork dumplings (including the rice flour rolls but with a crispy fried layer and then shrimp inside, spare ribs in black bean sauce and some har gao), some soup with pork dumplings, congee for my brother and I managed to get a one person hot pot for myself. I ordered the non-spicy one which was probably a mistake but then found some sichuan chillis in oil to eat with the oyster mushrooms, crown vegetables and lamb slices and mian noodles (asked if they were hand cut and not sure if i was understood) that i ordered for the hot pot. The broth had apples and celery and lots of other veggies as far as I could make out.
Very tasty but wish I knew what to order as I have only had hot pot once before with knowledgeable hounds who helped out that time. The best part was the noodles at the end like a soup.
It was quite busy and lots of the sichuan classics headed for the other tables. Sigh. Next time!
Oh and there seemed to be an interesting place called "The Folks" on the 22nd Floor of the same building which had a lot of very interesting meats on the menu. They did not have a menu to go and the sign said it was Members Only but were very willing to seat us and show us the menu. Any ideas as to what that was about?
Chowdown 4/4/2008 Hong Kong East Ocean
Thanks Ernie for starting off the topic and thanks to Melanie for organizing. We also had the opportunity to meet the lovely Mrs. Wong, Melanie's mother.
This is a place that I have gone to many times, mostly because its the closest and most convenient dim sum place for lazy weekend mornings. It also has a fabulous view and is pretty easy to park either in its lot or the lot for the park down the street.
As for the food, I tend to get a few of my tried and tested favorites, including the jumbo shrimp dumplings, the clams in broth, the rice noodles with shrimp, and the mango pudding. These are all very well made (to my taste) and freshly prepared because of the paper and pencil approach to ordering.
I did find a few of the dishes that were new to me today to be excellent and that I would like to add to my regular rotation here, including the spare ribs which had preserved olives and black beans but also tasted of black pepper there somewhere. I also really really liked the excellent texture (crispy outside and melting inside) and flavor of the pan fried daikon cake, a rather boring sounding dish that I enjoyed very much. The octopus in the seaweed with octopus fascinated me as they were perfectly shaped and yet not chewy and a rather bright orange/red color. Interesting and tasty for a big group but I would not get it for only two diners.
The one dish I did not really care for was the salt and pepper calamari(?) - it was greasy and not very good.
The service was a little scattered, but helpful when around. Total with tips came to $20 per head. I can't remember if they charged for corkage? Thanks for the lovely wine, Nick!
7th Annual Dine about Town 2008 - what are you going to try?
Went with three other friends to Aziza for DAT and were bowled over by how great it was. Firstly they had a great menu of about a dozen appetizers, seven entrees and four desserts to choose from.
For appetizers we had the spreads with flatbread (hummus, yoghurt and gypsy pepper - the last two were outstanding), wild mushrooms in phyllo pastry, canelloni beans in a cheesey tomatoey baked dish (reminded us of really good lasagna except the beans were not mushy but crisp yet tender!!) and the cardoons salad-y dish (not particularly memorable)
For the main course, three of us had the couscous (two non-vegetarian and one veggie version) and the fourth had the lamb shank. We shared bits of everything and I have to say the couscous was a great blend of flavors and textures (raisins and almonds(?) and beautiful plump prawns, juicy cubes of chicken breast, mildly spicy sausage and a yummy lamb stew over fine couscous that soaked up all the flavors!!) The lamb shank was falling off the bone, no need for a knife, yet substantial and flavorful - with prunes and an excellent side of barley which was almost like lentils in consistency.
The desserts were amazing as well - although we were very very full by then. We tried one of each of the desserts, chocolate custard with sesame cookie, a fruit plate (beautiful dates and almonds and mandarin oranges?), cardamom ice cream with a pear galette and an absolutely delicious honey mousse with tiny cubes of a prosecco-chili gelee in it.
We were quite delighted with everything we ordered, not to forget the drinks at the beginning, including a ginger drink with gin, a tomato drink with vodka, a lavender drink and a tarragon drink with cachaca! All in all it was an absolutely great meal for $32 each before taxes and tips or drinks. The service was gracious, they read our minds by bringing us some harissa to add some more spice to the couscous (it didnt need it - we just like heat :)) and best of all were the absolutely amazing choices that were available for the DAT menu unlike the usual choice between chicken breast and short ribs or salmon... Please go!!
Old school table manners... what were you taught?
Wow - thats suspiciously like what my Indian Bengali grandmother told me - if you sing while eating you will marry a crazy man... I never sang while eating but I cant vouch for the sanity of a man who would marry me.
Phoenix to Sedona on Christmas Day
Thanks so much, I will try out all the suggestions and post back!
Phoenix to Sedona on Christmas Day
Thanks so much I will try that.
Incidentally, I just got back from India with a longish layover at Singapore too :) My cousin took me to a lovely Roti-Prata place during my 8 hour layover.
Amber India, Santana Row - what was this?
Sounds like Dhokla. See for example http://lululoveslondon.blogspot.com/2006/10/khaman-dhokla.html for picture and recipe. Lots of other recipes online as well.
HTH
Phoenix to Sedona on Christmas Day
Bay area hound here, going on a road trip with my cousin and her husband who are visiting from Singapore. We are flying in to Phoenix on Christmas Day early morning and driving up to Sedona. Any suggestions for lunch / dinner on the way or in Sedona?
We are open to all sorts of food though my cousin does not eat beef. Something local / non-chain / ethnic and small is probably what we would enjoy the most but is the type of place most likely to be closed on Christmas. I searched a bit but did not find anything on the board or elsewhere on the web.
Any suggestions would be most welcome! Many thanks in advance!!
Asian Pearl Chowdown
Thanks everyone for such great write-ups. All I can add is that it was truly an amazing meal. I loved every single course. Specially remembering the soup, the lobster and the foie gras with extreme fondness. Oh and the tofu that came with the steak and not to forget the pork belly with a crispy edge.... Ok now I am hungry for more of that...
Three cheers for Yimster's ordering and planning :)
2007 Chowing with the Hounds (SF Bay Area) Picnic Recipes
Basil Chicken:
Actually I used pretty much the recipe that Kasma has on her website (I used about 5x the recipe) - see http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/baschi.html
I use ground chicken instead of coarsely chopped up chicken as I find the taste distributes better and thats the way my favorite Thai restaurant made it :) And use as much chilli as you can - it adds to the flavor.
2007 Chowing with the Hounds (SF Bay Area) Picnic Recipes
Actually all the three Thai dishes at the picnic were made from Kasma's recipes. We are all Kasma alum so to say :). I will post the basil chicken recipe later!
Urmi (aka jhinky)
Pleasanton/Dublin dinner advice (three dinners).
I have not explored that area at all - but the one place in Dublin that I have been to is Singapore Old Town Cafe. Excellent food - some of the better Singaporean food in the bay area!
http://www.otcafe.com/
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Old Town Cafe
4288 Dublin Blvd, Dublin, CA 94568
Indian buffets and other lunch options
I believe it was PSB referring to $3.50 for two gulab jamuns - its been deleted though and so probably will this post so hopefully you will get to see this before that :) So true about the liver and mutton and the things they can do with it on the subcontinent's streets, sigh...
To keep this vaguely on topic - have you tried Cafe Dhaka - I was a little disappointed.
Indian buffets and other lunch options
Very interesting thread! Coincidentally I just went to Vik's for lunch today with 3 non-Indian colleagues from work, 2 of whom had never been before.
I had the lunch special with fish. It had a very bland side of alu matar/salad but the rice / roti was ok and the gravy for the fish was actually pretty nice though a tiny portion. It was the semblance of a balanced meal for $6. Not amazing food but nice for when I want Indian food and not the chicken tikka masala type buffets.
What went over really well with the colleagues who had never been there earlier was a bhel puri that they had never had before and loved how it felt light yet had lots of flavor.
Dana Bazar is the default though for my friends when they crave pani puri - and not just the Fremont/South Bay friends but people who have to drive down from the city as well. I have to say though that the ones who live in the South Bay have a mental picture of the mythical Vik's mostly because they never get around to there and when they do they are a bit disappointed on the whole.
Now I really want to try the Khana Peena buffet - is it good or just a great deal at $4?
@psb, although this may be going off-topic - i think Bengali restaurants situation in Calcutta has hugely improved lately - something to do with more eating out and the older, complex recipe creating generations dying out I guess.
Lunch in Berkeley near Sharffen Berger
Like the others mentioned already, 900 Grayson and Riva Cucina are the obvious choices. Only thing though is that both are closed on Sundays and you may end up at Cafe Cacao by default. Couple of other choices which are not walking distance though probably 5-10 minutes drive away - Vik's Chaat House in Berkeley and Cucina Poblana in Emeryville, also maybe Sea Salt.
Late Night Dining Ideas (Bay Area)
Spices!3 in Oakland is open till midnight everyday I think. On 12th couple of blocks down from Broadway.
Great Szechuan @ Pacific East Mall, Richmond - rival to China Village?
I had a Szechuan craving about a week back and did takeout from here. I got the spicy boiled beef (often called water boiled i think?), Ma-po tofu and tan-tan noodles.
The noodles were a little skimpy on ingredients other than the noodles but very tasty nonetheless. [Aside: I have had this in various places but no two versions seem similar - is there a standard version? Is it supposed to be dry or with gravy? The version here had ground pork and some greens and what tasted like spicy coconut flakes to me but I am sure they were not!]
The Ma-Po Tofu seemed a little too oily to me but the tofu was very very soft and once you drained the oil out as much as you could the taste was excellent too.
The definite stand-out was the spicy boiled beef - the meat was soft, meltingly tender, it had been vigorously spiced, complex. The waitress glowed when I asked her if it would be ma-la and said yes, definitely! And it had that amazing mouth-numbing flavor that I was looking for. It was also a huge portion - the beef alone made for three or four meals with rice for me. I want to go back and try other things on the menu - any suggestions? I am thinking the salt and pepper fish mentioned above and maybe one of the not so spicy things on the menu - the sweet and sour chicken maybe? (Yet another aside: I hope that does not sound too funny - I had this sweet and sour chicken in a Szechuan place in Hong Kong that was soo delicious and I have been thinking of it since I saw it on the menu here)
