Foodhoe's Foraging

Dinner at Bong Su Restaurant

July 23, 2008 – 12:08 pm

311 Third Street (at Howard), S.F., CA | website

My good friend TK took me to see the awesome Frida Kahlo exhibit at the SFMOMA last week. The museum is open one night a week, so we scheduled a visit to the show (apparently you have to get an appointment these days at museums…) and then dinner afterwards. The collection shows intensely personal and vivid imagery, and there is a wonderful collection of photographs of her and her family. Many of the paintings were featured in Julie Taymor’s biographic film Frida

The galleries were super crowded which made it hard to get close enough to read the interesting narrative and after a while we became tired of feeling like we were dragging our feet through molasses…. it was time to head over to Bong Su for dinner which is conveniently just down the block. I came here a while ago and enjoyed their wonderful happy hour (highly recommended).

We had no reservation and were seated way, way in the very back in a nice quiet corner

I insisted right away that we must order the Bánh Khot (10). I love these shrimp cupcakes that have been profiled by the Gastronomer here. Now if you don’t know the Gastronomer, she currently lives in Vietnam and has been chronicling a very delicious life as she travels and works in Saigon. I’m so drooling over her description how these are served with greens like lettuce or mustard greens along with fresh herbs and pickles and are described by Graham of Noodlepie as being green ‘n lean and airyfairy. I want! What do we need to do to make this happen? Dear Bong Su, please take note that foodhoe says, we need airyfairy greens with these cupcakes please.

The outside crust of the rice flour cupcakes are crunchy crisp which enclose a slightly sticky, silky soft and savory custard filled with baby shrimp and topped with dried shrimp and green onions. These are served with nuoc mam (fish sauce) that you have to pour into the cupcake because if you try to dip it, the whole thing starts to disintegrate.

I wanted to try the Shaking Beef (26) because DDR had said it was very good here. Also known as Thit Bo Luc Lac, it is so named because of the cooking method which involves a back and forth shaking of the skillet as you sear the cubes of beef. Here’s a pretty good recipe from the Slanted Door that I’ve actually made successfully at home. It’s wok seared with garlic and onion then served with peppery watercress that gives a bright contrast to the rich succulent beef. The watercress is lightly dressed and when tossed with the hot beef, wilts and everything blends together into a delectably tangy sauce.

The Chili Aubergine (8) had a charred smokey flavor that TK was not fond of. In fact it reminded her of the grilled eggplant at Fuku-Sushi that I think I ordered as well, and she revoked any future eggplant ordering on my behalf. This was tossed in with some chili sauce and fried leeks and not terrible.

We briefly debated over Garlic Fried Rice or Garlic Noodles (8) and ended up with the noodles, which were delicious. They were long chewy egg noodles wok fired with garlic, black pepper and butter. Mmmmm, they had a great caramelized and toasty flavor and the noodles were nice and chewy.

Unfortunately, we had no time for dessert and had to end our evening rather abruptly as TK realized she was about to be late. Ah well, I didn’t really need dessert after all that … Dinner was good, I hope to return with Mr. K to check out more of the menu.

By foodhoe | Posted in asian, brilliant, food type, foodhoe's favorite, fusion, happy hour, northern california, san francisco, soma, vietnamese | Tagged banh khot, bong su, shaking beef | Comments (0)

Paradiso Restaurant in San Leandro

July 22, 2008 – 10:01 am

685 Bancroft Avenue, San Leandro, CA 94577 | 510-430-9310 | website

We’ve come to Paradiso more than a few times and each visit we are reminded that San Leandro really does have a nice restaurant. It’s very popular with the locals but we have never been turned away without a reservation. We like the casual, friendly energy in the restaurant, probably more than we like the food, but it really is a great local spot to hang out. The only other place that can be categorized under nice restaurant in the area would be Horatios in the marina which has gone even further downhill from my last visit… Nope, these two restaurants really can’t be lumped into the same category at all.

It’s located on an obscure corner that borders a residential area and we often get lost trying to find it (obviously we need to eat here more often if we can’t remember where it’s located). The dining room feels very open with the exposed ceiling and bright skylights overhead.

Our waiter was very engaging and encouraging and something about his manner gave me a slight case of the giggles. This is not a bad thing… The two types of bread were good, the focaccia was lightly smeared with tomato sauce - these would have been so good with a bowl of olive oil and balsamic dip… I think you need to ask for it, but since I had already consumed an entire basket of bread with dip at lunch, I didn’t.

We split a Caesar Salad served with garlic croutons and Parmesan cheese (8), which had freshly grated Reggiano and our server dosed very well with the pepper grinder. This was very good, the cheese was grated with a microplane device into sheer strands that melted on your tongue.

We shared a bowl of Wood Oven Roasted Mussels with garlic and white wine (11). This was amazing!

The broth was the best part, it was lemony and garlicky and delicious spooned up and especially to dunk both the crostini and the bread in.

Yes, this looks a big surgical and vaguely pornographic, but just look at the beautiful broth with flecks of parsley and bits of garlic floating among the glistening globules of olive oil.

Things were looking good up to here, this is where we really needed to be served another dish of something really really good to tip the scales over into the realm of wow that was a great meal. But alas, this was not to be… instead we split a dish of Seared Scallops which were served with a sauce that wasn’t nearly as good as what came with the Mussels. And the french fries were left laying on top of the sauce where they quickly became waterlogged and soggy.

Mmmm, but the scallops were plump, sweet and delicious. And so once again, we had a pretty good meal, but we left feeling cheated somehow…

The food is mostly good, sometimes even great, and I’ve yet to find my favorite dishes. I definitely would like to try the wood-fired pizza and the mignonette appetizers the next time. The problem is that there are so many other great restaurants that we tend to neglect our little neighborhood gem.

Onto the cake… Mr. K had walked in with a little box that was obviously from a bakery that he whisked by me and tucked into the fridge. This did not escape my notice, so I declined even looking at Paradiso’s dessert menu, much to our waiter’s disappointment, especially when he found out it was my birthday.

It certainly was beautiful - a stunning and dramatic chocolate mousse cake from Cocola Bakery on Santana Row in San Jose. It had a layer of crunchy things that kind of reminded me of cocoa puffs and the mousse had an odd banana flavor that sent Mr. K running (he has a phobia about squashed bananas….) It had the distinctly firm airy texture of too much gelatin, which was too bad because I prefer the kind of mousse that is made with raw eggs and whipped cream - the fluffy and gooey kind. Dang, I sound so ungrateful!

I don’t really feel that I am another year wiser…

By foodhoe | Posted in american, brilliant, east bay, food rating, food type, modern, san leandro | Tagged paradiso, san leandro | Comments (3)

Lunch at Neumanali, Hayward

July 21, 2008 – 7:05 am

742 - B Street, Hayward, CA | 510-583-9744 | website

Wow, I just noticed that I am on post number four hundred and two! I rarely pay attention to these things, but that is a milestone of sorts. And so it’s fitting that I find myself re-visiting one of the first restaurants that I reported about that first year of blogging before I had even figured out how to get pictures up…

You would never expect to find such a place in downtown Hayward! It’s just around the block from Panda Express occupying the ground floor of a renovated victorian building. The name is simply the phonetic spelling out of Newman Alley, which is one of the names that the historic location has been known by. B Street seems to be ground zero for a much needed gentrification effort. I have heard that there is a multiplex theater under construction nearby and that a Cal State East Bay (used to be CSU Hayward but people thought that a more generic name would sound better) alumni is planning to open an upscale bar and restaurant called Bijou sometime later this year.

I came here last Wednesday, for a quick celebratory lunch before I went to the DMV. You see, it was my birthday and my drivers license expired, so I took the day off from work because it sucks to work on your birthday. I really felt like celebrating though, because earlier that morning I had upgraded to Wordpress 2.6 and completely hosed this blog, so if you happened to stop by between 11-12 that morning, you would have seen the generic Hello World post that all wordpress blogs start off with. Long story short, I used this fantastic plugin backup utility that restored everything and I mopped my brow and decided it was time for a nice lunch before my appointment at the DMV. The restaurant is past the commercial area on a shady tree lined block and has a nice parking lot in the back of the building. I walked up and was greeted at the door by a friendly fellow in black who invited me over to a lovely table by the window. The interior is bright and comfortable with interesting artwork on the walls.

Hmmm, I thought as I looked doubtfully at the little salt and pepper cellar on the table. We had dined here once before in 2005 and I have never been able to convince Mr. K to give them another try… which is a shame because we have so few nice restaurants in the area. Anyways, we both only remember how horribly over-salted everything was, but I felt that since the restaurant was still open, that must have been an off night.

I was served slices of soft sourdough bread in a pretty little basket with a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar that was compelling to look at and in reality was a big black hole that sucked me into a frenzy of swabbing up as much as possible with the soft crusty bread…

Lunch began with a warmed Goat Cheese salad with Mixed Greens and red wine vinaigrette. This was delicious and simple, the greens were fresh and the cheese had an addictively crunchy layer of breading that added a toasty texture that I enjoyed.

The warmed goat cheese was soft and crumbly inside and almost melted in the center. I finished the whole thing which was a good two and a half inches across.

The menu for the day included Cioppino with Garlic Crostini (17), which was a very robustly flavored tomato based stew full of prawns, scallops and bits of some kind of fish.

At no point did I feel a need to reach for the salt cellar, as the savory seafood stew was full of black briny olives as well as a generous handful of capers that exploded in vigorous bursts of salty pickle flavor. The crostini were rubbed with raw garlic and once again I found myself sucked into the black hole as I began to slurp up this heady combination of garlicky toast with thick pungent stew . I think that my server felt a need to avert his eyes from the spectacle as he could see I was feasting and wanted no interruptions for a time. I decided to pass on dessert since Mr. K was taking me out for a nice dinner…

I am glad to report that I really enjoyed lunch and have convinced Mr. K that we will come back to dine in their outside patio in the back of the building. It looks cozy and well protected from the elements - a perfect spot to enjoy our east bay summer weather.

We often express dismay that we are perpetuating the poor local economy of our beleaguered San Leandro/Hayward neighborhoods by doing most of our shopping and dining in SF/Oakland or Alameda but we have such paltry local resources. There’s the Bay Fair Farmer’s Market on Saturday and the Estudillo Produce which is mostly closed during the non-business hours when I am available to shop. We don’t even rate a Trader Joe’s and the long awaited Fresh & Easy chain plans to open two nearby locations seem to have stalled out. As a consequence, I go to pickup my weekly fruit and vegetable CSA box from Terrafirma based in Winters, CA and the montly meatbox that comes from somewhere in the North Bay. Just another case where my money goes to another cities sales tax coffers…

So, yes we love that Hayward has such a nice spot and look forward to see what else develops in the area. In the spirit of supporting our local businesses and tax base (not to mention saving on gas!), I’m going to try to unearth more of these far East Bay gems…

By foodhoe | Posted in american, brilliant, east bay, food rating, food type, hayward, location, modern, northern california, outside dining | Tagged hayward fine dining, neumanali | Comments (6)

McKormick and Kuletos

July 20, 2008 – 9:23 am

Ghirardelli Square, 900 North Point Street, SF, CA 94109 (415) 929-1730

Before leaving for Tahoe, I went for lunch with my friends DebbieG and DebbieN. We decided to check out an old standby that is near to the office, McKormick and Kuletos which is part of the McKormick and Schmicks chain, I know, a chain, how boring… But our version includes the distinguished name of local restaurant design legend Pat Kuleto (who is responsible for such gorgeously romantic spots as Boulevard, Jardiniere, Farallon, and Waterbar among others). It’s in Ghirardelli Square and charges the high prices that you expect for a restaurant occupying prime real estate in a tourist spot. But it has such lovely views of the bay…

The restaurant interior has high wood paneled ceilings with elegant stained glass accents in the large windows overlooking the water. It’s a multilevel dining room with booths and the tables that are all swanky and dressed with crisp white linens. Across the way is Aquatic Park so you often will see a variety of intrepid souls out swimming in the chilly waters of the bay. We decided to eat in the bar, where we can get our merchant discount and hopefully quicker service.

I had the Crab Louie Salad (24), which arrived with quite a pile o’ crab, over crisp greens, cucumbers, tomatos and hard cooked eggs. There were a few canned black olives that I find I am no longer able to insert my fingers into…

Yes this was good, very good. Enough creamy thousand island dressing and eggs to make it feel not very virtuous or healthy…

DebbieN went for the grilled fish of the day, which ended up being Halibut. It was served simply with lemon butter, steamed rice and veggies and was very expensive, close to $40. For lunch!

And DebbieG went with the Grilled Swordfish Sandwich (17ish) with housemade chips that were super greasy and largely inedible.

This looked like a nice meaty piece of fish, slathered with roasted red pepper aioli along with slices of fresh tomato and lettuce.

One of the drawbacks of working smack in the middle of such a tourist spot is the lack of affordably priced restaurants but unless you order the fish of the day, McKormick and Kuletos is a very nice setting where you can take a breather from the crowds and enjoy a decent meal. The food is well prepared, but nothing to write home about. I enjoy the fish and chips, but at $18 you can find comparable for less but then again you won’t be enjoying the fine views…

By foodhoe | Posted in american, fisherman's wharf/ghirardelli, san francisco, seafood | Tagged ghirardelli square, mckormick and kuletos | Comments (5)

Jake’s on the Lake, Tahoe City

July 19, 2008 – 4:19 pm

The Boatworks Mall, 780 N. Lake Blvd., Tahoe City, CA 96145 | (530) 583-0188 | website

We enjoyed a very nice lunch at Jakes which has a spacious outside patio overlooking the Tahoe Cove marina. The building is large and sprawling and we loved that the tables were not crowded together. The view was just endless blue waters and sunshine. Of all the family style casual restaurants we went to during the week in Tahoe, this was our favorite, the service was friendly, professional and very attentive and it was such a relief to have enough space to breathe in some of the beautiful scenery and enjoy a quiet meal with my family.

Mr. K and I split the Caesar Salad (8), this is my half. It was pretty good and our waitress cranked out a lot of black pepper for us. I didnt’ care for the chunky thick shreds of cheese though.

This is the Shrimp and Crab Melt (15), the melted provolone cheese concealed a mound of bay shrimp and crab salad mixed with chopped tomato, fresh dill, onions and mayonnaise. It was served over toasted english muffins with some coleslaw on the side.

It tasted like a tuna melt, and I think it needed some hot sauce but didn’t realize it at the time. It was gooey and slightly decadent and I wished for some potato salad too.

After our bogus meal at Mamasake the night before, my sister had a craving for something Japanese. She enjoyed the Shrimp Udon Noodle Bowl (14.50) and said it hit the spot. It was a large bowl of fresh udon noodles in dashi broth mixed with julienned vegetables, shitake mushrooms, bok choy, mung bean sprouts, and grilled shrmp.

My parents split the Reuben Sandwich which was filled with corned beef, house-made sauerkraut, thousand island, on marble rye (14). It came with big home cut fries

Mr. K had the Angus Beef Burger which was served with grilled onions and tillamook cheddar and regular fries (13.5). If I recall correctly, this was the third burger of the week so far and he said it was very good.

It certainly looked good.

One of the reasons we chose this place was because of the waterfront dining and for the KIMO’S Hula Pie® (7). According to the menu It’s what the Sailor’s swam ashore for in Lahaina. It’s a pretty big piece of pie and when we ordered it, our waitress said she would try to find an extra big one for us to share.

So what is it exactly? It starts with a crushed oreo cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream, drizzled on top with fudge and caramel and served with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I can tell you that it was darn competitive between four people. In retrospect, we should have had two cuz I’m still thinking about that dessert and my few paltry bites… that was delicious. Probably the best thing on the menu.

The bar has a bit of the tiki feel and has big wooden canoes hanging from the ceiling. I noticed on the menu that Jake’s is part of a chain of restaurants owned by TS Enterprises, which runs a number of other restaurants including Kimo’s in Lahaina, Hawaii, Dukes in Malibu and Keoki’s Paradise in Maui, along with the Sunnyside Resort in Tahoe City that also serves that Hula Pie.

So yeah, I recommend Jakes. It’s a beautiful big wooden structure with brilliant views and decent food along with excellent service and the Hula pie… and so ends our eating adventures in the north shore of Lake Tahoe.