I have seen razor clams for sale at Tokyo Fish Market on San Pablo. Not sure if they have it all the time, so probably should call first.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009...

Try Golden Horse on Hyde between California and Pine, across the street from Cala Foods in San Francisco. Pretty yummy there.

Just went to Angelfish in Alameda last night and noticed Takoyaki on their regular menu. I would assume they don't serve the frozen kind, but I didn't ask. From the quality of most of their food, I would highly recommend trying it out!

Just wanted to chime in about this really wonderful place...we tried the
-mlaoui (whole wheat blinis) with zaalook (eggplant salad)
-tagine jilbana (lamb w/green peas, olives, artichoke hearts)
accompanied by homemade lemonade and mint tea.

Everything was outrageously delicious...the tagine came with a nice lamb shank with marrow and the peas were really tender but not mushy. We sopped up every last drop of the delicious stew with the supplied baguettes. The blini was crispy and hot and the amount of eggplant salad inside a perfect proportion, subtle, not overwhelming the blini.

The homemade lemonade was perfectly sweet but lemony and the mint tea packed with fresh mint.

We dream of going back to try different dishes. The owner is very attentive and softspoken and clearly cares about your dining experience. My favorite part of the menu is where it says on the front: "Most Credit Cards Accepted - Cash is better". You gotta love it.

GO. RIGHT. NOW. It's pretty darn yummy IMHO.

Ever since moving from SF to El Cerrito, I have been missing places like Lon Ting for curry spaghetti and pork chops and reliable, late-night places for a good bowl of jook. Not being a huge fan of Daimo or Macau Cafe in the 99 Ranch Mall complex, I was incredibly excited to try Jac's for dinner tonight. We ordered:
-1000 year old egg and lean pork jook
-salt and pepper tofu
-curry spaghetti with chicken fried steak dinner special (soup, garlic toast, milk tea included).

The bowl of jook was E N O R M O U S and the order of spicy salty tofu was similarly sized...with the tofu cubes around 1/2" square (which makes for a quite lovely ratio of crispy-outside to custardy-inside). Both of these dishes were delicious and piping hot, and the spicy salty tofu not greasy.

The curry came in a bowl separate from the spaghetti (also a very large serving) with two pieces of "chicken steak" (which turned out to be pan fried chicken cutlets). The curry was not the 'Madras' style (Cantonese-American?) curry but a more coconut milk type yellow curry (more Thai in flavor). All of it still very tasty!

The prices were very reasonable: $4.38 for the jook, $3.88 for the tofu, $7.88 for the chicken steak and spaghetti. Plus they have a $5.88 "Daily Deal" menu for family style dishes (photo attached).

There are lots of yummy things to try (I got my eye on "Moqua in Dried Scallop Sauce)and I will definitely be back! I will have to bring extended family so more can be sampled...thanks to rworange for the ChowHeadsUp!

Thanks again to all the organizers for their Herculean efforts in accomodating everyone - it was a resounding success! It was inspiring to be amongst so many Hounds.

I was at Ruth's table and everyone was patient enough to let me document our dishes before descending upon them like locusts, albeit polite ones. You will find these photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsquared...

Of the cold appetizers, my favorites were the spicy beef tendon and the green beans.
Of the main dishes, the spicy boiled kidney/beef/fish with napa cabbage, traditional eggplant, and #67 dry fried chitlins with celery (from Chengdu Table A) were standouts. The zha jiang mein was really tasty too (if a little shy of cucumber) and I found the chewiness of the homemade noodles perfect.

I think when coming here next, I would be mindful of ordering a nice balance of spicy and non-spicy dishes. I definitely want to try the fish/bean thread soup and the flower tofu dish...

Ruth made the astute observation that the "Classic" dishes on the menu were likely Americanized, which is a nice way of distinguishing the 'old Gold Mountain favorites' from the 'down-home-old-country' grub.

After lunch, a 50-50 cup of lime granita and chocolate ice cream from Sketch was the icing on a very spicy cake. Thank god that stuff melts or there wouldn't have been room for it.

It was a pleasure to meet so many Hounds - here's to future Chowdowns!

When I was a kid, during family car trips Mom would give us a salted plum to tuck into the back of our mouth whenever one of us started to feel carsick. It really works....

Mostly I think all those varieties of plums are snacks for those who love sour-salty. I have a friend who tears through bags of preserved ginger everyday. Not for the faint of heart.

It's down and dirty, but still a great dog: Top Dog in the lobby of the Long's drugstore at Pleasant Valley and 51st.

Four of us went to Bocadillos for lunch today and overall, had a fine meal. We ordered:

Tapas of the Day - which was Lamb Loin chops (cooked to order:rare!)
BLT
Catalan Sausage with Manchego and Arugula
Chorizo with Walnut Paste
Tuna Melt
Lamb-burger
Beet Salad with Chicory and Braeburn apples
Patatas Bravas with Romesco

and for desert:

Warm Chocolate Cake with Banana Ice Cream
Macaroons "Luzien" with Pistachio Ice Cream

All the 'bocadillos' were good, with the exception of the Chorizo (not enough walnut paste?). The BLT, Tuna Melt (fresh tuna, yum!), and Catalan Sausage were excellent. The Lamb-burger was a tad overdone and underspiced IMO, but still yummy. By in large, the relative proportions of ingredients in each sandwich were right on (except for the Chorizo).

The Patatas Bravas were OUTRAGEOUSLY good. Not greasy, yet crispy and spicy. The Romesco was excellent too (and nice with the lamb-burger).

The Warm Chocolate cake was very delicious, a souffle texture and the Banana ice cream the perfect accompaniment.

Seating for a party of our size was limited to the communal table which was fine except for the wind blowing in on us from the door. Service was friendly and accomodating, if a little distracted.

Photos of above can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsquared...

Thanks to all Chowhounds for all the suggestions and another fine repast!

Had a birthday lunch there yesterday and the eel in the banh mi is Unagi. Very spicy when you hit the unseeded jalapenos (they coulda been sliced a bit thinner) but i must agree with the others, it was mighty fine.

Our party also shared the Oyster Po'Boy, the Grilled Calamari with Gigante Beans and Pesto, the Clam Chowder, and the Haricot Vert with Chantrelles and Maitake. Unbelievably, we also fit in a Brownie Sundae with Salty Caramel Ice Cream.
All the dishes were rock solid good, the Calamari was a nice generous sized portion and the squid perfectly cooked, but the standouts were the Clam Chowder (with uniformly diced potato, onion and bacon that held up in the finished soup, and the clams were a nice size) and the Haricot Vert (SO DELICIOUS IT HURTS). My sister remarked that the Chowder was so good, you don't notice that they kinda give you half a bowl.
Don't get me started: the Brownie Sundae was pretty perfect. Proportion of warm brownie to ice cream to whipped cream and nuts was....perfect. Pictured below in half devoured form:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsquared...

Thanks for all the great suggestions Hounds...our visit was the first of many. Good seafood restaurants are in a class all their own.

i know this is an old post, but i just ate there tonight and it was pretty good. i used to eat here a lot, mostly for dinner. must haves:

-grilled eggplant with pork and shrimp (#24): great smoky eggplant flavor and what isn't better with ground pork, hello.
-string beans with tofu (on additional page in back of menu): beans are usually crispy and not overdone.
-bbq chicken is very delicious.
-squid salad is also decent, as is the crepe appetizer.
-FRIED BANANAS with vanilla ice cream: always served piping hot, light crispy batter, best eaten in 2 seconds which may be hazardous to the roof of your mouth. outrageously good!

give it another go. servers are also very nice. if you like it spicy, say so, as i suspect they hold back a little on the heat in general.
really, it's the grilled eggplant and fried bananas that shine brightest for me here. hands down.
(the above refers to the Oakland CTown location on 8th St....never been to the other.)

Penzey's (penzeys.com) also carries it. They aren't local but they got it.
http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzey...

I have been reading past posts re: GBL and yummy Northern dumplings and how it moved from El Cerrito to San Pablo Dam Road. I am looking forward to trying it out and wanted to see if anyone had any recent feedback.

Thanks in advance!