snewdl's Profile
Big Skenny's Fish and Chips in Sunnyvale
The okra was cut. Didn't seem frozen--freezing changes the texture. See the photo!
Big Skenny's Fish and Chips in Sunnyvale
After presenting nothing but tantalizing signage on an otherwise empty shopfront for a long, long time, Big Skenny's Fish and Chips in Sunnyvale finally opened earlier this year. I went for lunch: 3 pieces of red snapper for $7-ish, and a basket of fried okra for an additional $1.50.
The fish was just about perfect--fresh, and fried in a minimal, cornmeal batter, served with tartar sauce or malt vinegar. The okra was also quite fresh. There are squirt bottles of ketchup and hot sauce at each table.
The simple menu also offers catfish, oysters, french fries, fried zuchinni, and (I think) coleslaw. The daily special board had dessert (cake today, $2). Now if only they had hushpuppies...
Overall, this is a promising addition to the Sunnyvale El Camino chow-ish scene
1173 W El Camino Real (at Bernardo)
Sunnyvale
Near Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View?
I'm a fan of Falafel & Kebob (1477 Plymouth), just down Shoreline near the movie theater, especially their lamb shewarma. Right next door you'll find Sunny Bowl, which serves Korean (bi bim bap), and a sushi restaurant. Across the street is Pizzaria Venti, which I've never tried, and a Starbucks.
If you're willing to drive 3 miles, just head down Shoreline and go downtown, to Castro St. Castro Street has everything.
Uighur/Uyghur food in San Francisco proper?
The Islamic Chinese restaurants I've seen in the area are Hui, as opposed to Uighur/Uyghur/(add your own spelling). If anybody comes across a Uyghur restaurant in the area, please let us know! For that matter, I'd be interested in Uzbek restaurants as well.
I've seen Uyghur waiters at Darda in Milpitas--perhaps somebody could ask them?
I dream about the food I had in Turpan: lagman with hand-pulled noodles and lamb kabobs.
Tradiciones Peruanas in Sunnyvale
We had an excellent lunch at Tradiciones Peruanas (byline: "Peruvian Seafood") in Sunnyvale today, and I'm surprised this place hasn't been mentioned on this board. We ordered the antichuchos (grilled beef hearts) and pescado sudado--a whole steamed fish in a sauce with tomatoes, red peppers, and onions. Everything was really good, and the fish was fresh. I was especially gratified to see whole fish on the menu--I can't take a seafood restaurant seriously unless if they're only serving fillets (yeah I'm looking at you, Cantankerous Fish). Next time I'll have to try their pescado a lo macho (?)--a fish fillet smothered in other seafood--or their seafood rice.
Service was helpful and friendly--we're not really familiar with the cuisine, but the waiter was happy to describe the dishes and make recommendations, even after my toddler sneezed in his face.
It's located in the same strip mall off Lawrence as Hong Kong Saigon Harbor, Giovanni's, and a number of other asian eateries; for such a dingy strip mall, it's really developed into quite a foodie destination.
Try it and let's hear what you think.
1161 N Lawrence Expy
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Oakland: Tongan Kitchen - Otai, roasted pig, faikakai, lolo, lo'l feke and Philly cheese steaks
rworange, thanks for the report! I was bummed to find that the Tongan place in East Palo Alto had closed (their squid in coconut milk was a real find), so I'm happy to hear there's at least one other option in the Bay Area.
If anybody knows of other Tongan eateries, let's hear it!
Mtn View sightings: bulgogi truck, Scream Sorbet
thanks, Melanie!
hmmm. what an interesting website.
Mtn View sightings: bulgogi truck, Scream Sorbet
A question and a tip:
Q: I was driving near downtown Mountain View friday night and found myself behind what appeared to be a taco truck, except it had BULGOGI painted across the back. Exciting! The truck turned down a side street and disappeared into the night. I searched this board and the web for more info, but found nothing. Anybody know about this?
Hot Tip: Scream Sorbet has started showing up at the MV sunday farmer's market, and their sorbet is really amazing: amazingly creamy, with novel flavors. The selection differs every week; last week I tried the fig sorbet, and this weekend they offered concord grape, kettle corn (!), and a wonderful vanilla-almond.
Great Al Pastor at Chavez Market in Sunnyvale
> What other qood taquerias are around there?
I was always a fan of Tres Potrillos, right down the road from Chavez.
Chef Xiu in Mtn View
Thanks for the follow-up reports, Melanie and KK.
I wouldn't characterize Chef Xiu as Taiwanese. I'm guessing "bei fang te se" on the menu ("northern specialties") refers to Dongbei?
Did anybody mention the large servings? ;-)
Menus for HK/Cantonese/Sichuan traditional cuisine
Ah, the secret menu dilemma. Here's a "secret menu" translation I wrote years ago for Joy Restaurant in Foster City. The menu doesn't offer many cantonese dishes, however.
http://robertyu.com/wikiperdido/Joy%20Restaurant%20Secret%20Menu
If you want to go crazy on this topic, you can also get yourself a copy of McCawley's "The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters".
Chef Xiu in Mtn View
We had a tasty and amazingly economical meal at Chef Xiu in Mtn View the other night. This is the cozy, miniscule restaurant that replaced the former Shanghai Taste Delight, on El Camino.
The waiter gave us a big plate of seaweed as an appetizer, which I thought was a promising start.
We ordered:
- Home style tofu: nicely spicy
- steamed whole sole: with ginger and green onions
- fried string beans (gan bian si ji dou)
- pork with preserved vegetable: fresh bacon steamed with dried mustard (mei gan ko rou), a hakka dish
- "cumin seed lamb in hot plate": think cumin lamb fajitas--dramatic and popular with the other customers
- "three kinds of seafood w/ tofu skin vegetable": misidentified; the "tofu skin" is actually mung bean skin (la pi)
Everything was quite good, especially given the serving sizes and the prices (hey, did I mention the prices?). I lamented the passing of Shanghai Taste Delight, but this certainly gives me consolation.
The front of the take-out menu says "bei3 fang1 te4 se4" - "northern specialties"? Not sure exactly what that entails, but I was happy to find that the entire menu is translated into english. There was a secret menu posted on the wall, but the printed menu is sufficiently exotic that I don't feel like I'm missing out on too much.
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Chef Xiu
855 W El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040
SF: Nopalito - the end of the barbacoa crawl (part 3)
Good post. Thanks!
Any recommendations for barbacoa and consumme on the peninsula or south bay? I saw that Casita Chilanga (RWC) has it on weekends, but I've never tried it. Where else can I find it?
Wild Food
Yes, there's fennel growing all over the edges of the bay. When it blooms, the little yellow flowers are particularly sweet.
In Mtn View, the Stevens Creek trail extends from near downtown to the bay. A friend and I once rode our bikes down the trail and stopped to sample every edible-looking plant (this was in late summer). We found:
- blackberries
- apples
- huckleberries
- wild grapes
- plums
The local native americans (the Ohlone) knew everything about the local plants, and a couple of books have been written about them. Also, there's a book called __Early Uses of California Plants__ by Edward K. Balls (Univ. of California Press), which describes local plants and their many uses.
Taiwanese and Thai beef stew noodles in the East Bay?
well, there's QQ Noodle in Fremont (the "Q" indicates the Taiwanese preference for chewiness). I'm not certain they have spicy beef noodles, but given that they are taiwanese and specialize in noodles, the odds are in your favor.
I've only been once, but thought that their noodles were fantastic!
What are thai beef stew noodles?
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Q Q Noodle
3625 Thornton Ave, Fremont, CA 94536
Eats Near Shoreline Ampitheatre
Definitely go to Castro Street--it's just a few miles from the amphitheater. Leave plenty of time to get to the concert, though. For big events, sometimes the traffic backs up at 101/shoreline.
Recs near SFO airport?
If you like chinese, consider TMM Deserts on Millbrae Ave, just off 101 (you can't get much closer to the airport). It's not just desserts: they have a full, HK-style cafe menu. I've had several of their soup noodle dishes, along with a steamed-milk custard thing, and they were all quite good.
And I second the Basque Cultural Center.
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TMM
350 Adrian Rd, Millbrae, CA
Taquerias in Sunnyvale?
It's been a long while since I visited Tres Potrillos, but I liked them: plenty of seating, really thick tortilla chips, fish burritos, and occasionally (beef) buche.
Best Fish and Chips Ever?
I'm a fan of Race Street Seafood, in San Jose. It's a fish market and kitchen.
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Race Street Seafood Kitchen
247 Race St, San Jose, CA 95126
local seafood/fish restaurant in gainesville?
I visit my folks in Gainesville several times a year, and lately I've been looking for restaurants serving the local catch--either seafood or freshwater--and preferably whole. Given Hogtown's proximity to the Gulf, the Atlantic, and the St. John's River, you'd think this would be easy, but it's not!
I've been to the Northwest Grille and it's a fine restaurant, but their menu lists tilapia, Alaskan pollack, and salmon. Likewise Bonefish Grill (no bones there either--all fillets). Where are the seasonal shrimp, the mangrove snapper, and the local scallops? Northwest Seafood up on 16th has these items, and in my dream scenario, NW Grille would have a direct pipeline to NW Seafood. But the don't.
So...any recommendations for Gainesville or nearby? I don't care if it's fancy or a dive, as long as it's fresh!
-snewdl
African and Carribean food on the peninsula.
Well, there's Back-a-yard in Menlo Park...
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Back A Yard Caribbean American Grill
1189 Willow Rd, Menlo Park, CA 94025
tepache in SF Mission OR near Mtn View?
Well, it's summer finally, and after having heard about tepache (Mexican fermented pineapple drink) for years, but never actually seeing it, I'm making it my mission to find it!
Can anybody tell me which restaurants would be likely to have tepache in either the Mission, in San Francisco, or in the vicinity of Mtn View?
If places are serving any other fresh drinks beside the usual melon-sandia-horchata agua fresca, let's hear it!
thanks!
the Eternal Tripitas Taco Crawl
I love crispy taco de tripa, but I'm always asking myself: what is "tripa" anyways? The name sounds like "tripe," but it's clearly no form of (beef) tripe that I've ever seen. I don't think it's beef stomach at all. Beef intestines, maybe?
For that matter, what _animal_ does tripa come from? I wouldn't be surprised if the crunchy little rings are pork intestines. Or maybe it's just that "tripa" can be used to describe a range of meat.
Fu Lam Mum/Moon resurfacing in Mountain View
Fu Lam Mum opened today, just in time for the Mtn View Spring Family Parade.
Anybody else try the dim sum? My friends and I thought it was remarkably good! A good, broad selection of dishes on carts (not too greasy), no flops, and the service was good. Given that it was their first day, it was an amazing meal.
The tables were packed at lunch--I guess there was lots of pent-up demand for yum cha in MV.
I'm definitely going back.
Where to Buy Live crawfish?
my friend buys a live crawfish every year for kraftskiva, and after researching the issue, the only __reliable__ source seems to be Bob's Bait Shop in Isleton:
http://themasterbaiter.tripod.com/
Not really the bay area. But close.
I've seen them at Lion Market in San Jose and 99 Ranch, but not consistently.
More birrieria questions - anyone tried the San Jose birrierias ... & elsewhere
Hmm, no replies! For no reason at all, I recalled driving by Birrieria Jalisco years ago and thinking "I've got to try that some day." Hasn't anybody been to the birrierias in San Jose?
Chinese restaurants, Mountain View or Sunnyvale
Castro Street in Mountain View is a wonderful place for Chinese food. I'm fond of pretty much everything at Queen's House (which is Taiwanese), but you should also try the northern-style Chinese at Cafe Yulong (e.g. fish jiao zi). The folks at Chef Liu are really friendly. I've also had good meals at Hunan Chili and New China Delight.
Near Castro Street, on El Camino Real, is Shanghai Taste Delight. Absolutely worth checking out, especially if you can read their secret menu.
My favorite Chinese restaurant in Sunnyvale is PF Chang's. Just kidding! Actually, it's Windsor Fish and Chips, on Old San Francisco Road. Good Taiwanese food! Gotta love those pig ears!
I believe the dim sum place in Cupertino mentioned by lj2899 is Pan Tao.
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Cafe Yulong
743 W Dana St, Mountain View, CA 94041
Queen's House
273 Castro St, Mountain View, CA 94041
Windsor Fish & Chips
876 Old San Francisco Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
shanghai taste delight / crab with silk gourd
thanks! Do you happen to know how to translates the "braised water skiier" (hong2 shao1 hua2 shui3) ?
shanghai taste delight / crab with silk gourd
I don't know about the daily menu, but here's my translation-in-progress of their fixed secret menu. I'm working off an old copy, but I don't think it's changed much, if at all.
http://www.robertyu.com/wikiperdido/Shanghai_Taste_Delight
The people who work there are pretty friendly and probably speak at least a bit of english. I imagine they would be willing to accommodate a non-Chinese-speaking foodie.
