Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in jgische's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
9:13 pm	It's good to know there are still low-quality spammers out there But seriously, does anyone fall for this? I mean, I guess if I really didn't want to "loose" my account... ----- Subject: Dear Yahoo! Account User ! ! ! From: Yahoo! Mail Dear Yahoo Account User, This message is from Yahoo! Mail message center to all Yahoo! Mail account owners. We are currently upgrading our database and e-mail account center due to congestion. We are deleting all unused Yahoo! Mail account to create more space for new accounts. To prevent your account from closing, you will have to verify it below before One (1) week from now! VERIFY YOUR YAHOOMAIL ACCOUNT NOW!!! Yahoo Mail ID:................................ Password:..................................... Your Birthday:................................ Your Country or Territory:.................... Click on the reply button to send the above requested information to us. Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account before One (1) week of receiving this warning will loose his or her account permanently. Regards, Yahoo! Team. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright/IP Policy - Terms of Service - Guide to Online Security NOTICE: We collect personal information on this site. To learn more about how we use your information, see our Privacy Policy Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. ---------------------------------------------------------------- (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
12:57 pm	Silly but amusing waste of time http://jgische.mybrute.com (Comment on this)
Friday, May 1st, 2009
2:31 pm	Tea party for daddy Forwarded to me at work: One day my mother was out, and my dad was in charge of me. I was maybe 2 1/2 years old. Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a gift, and it was one of my favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!' My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I came down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy; and she watched him drink it up. Then she said, (as only a mother would know), "'Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
11:34 pm	Oidon Oidon is Japanese noodle place on 4th Ave in San Mateo, located up above the Japanese market by the intersection with South San Mateo Dr. Look and feel: It's a small, homey-feeling place. Maybe ten small tables and a bar. There's nothing fancy here, but it feels authentic. Menu: Mostly noodle soups and noodle dishes, with an assortment of other options. Be forewarned - their soups come to the table practically boiling. The food: I pretty exclusively focus on the soups. I love the comfort of a good noodle soup, so that's what I order. These are the ones I recall strongest. Champon - Seafood, meat, and vegetables in a salt-broth with ramen noodles. Delicious. This is my favorite item on the menu. Nabeyaki Udon - Seafood, meat, and vegetables in a dashi broth with udon noodles, served in an iron pot. Seafood Nabeyaki Udon - As above, with more seafood and less meat. Service: They can be slow, especially when they're busy during the midweek lunch rush. Other than that, the service is fine, if not notable. Value: You get a huge bowl of soup for a reasonable price. Totally worth it. Will I go back? Oh yes. Especially on rainy winter days. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
9:57 pm	Homma's Brown Rice Sushi Homma's is a tiny sushi place that specializes in brown rice sushi. Location: Just off California Ave in ???-town (what do you call this area?) Palo Alto just off California Ave. It's about as hidden as a restaurant can be. Look and feel: It's a tiny place with no frills at all. Four small tables inside with plastic chairs. Another four tables outside. Miso soup served in styrofoam cups. You're not going to be impressed by the atmosphere, so if that is something you crave, don't bother trying this place. The food: Fresh fish and assorted vegetables served with hearty brown sushi rice. Brown rice in sushi is different, without doubt, but if you're looking to get away from white rice in general, you owe it to yourself to try this place. The fish is excellent, and the assortment of vegetable options is impressive. Service: They're not quick, but they're nice, and they'll get to you eventually. None of the locals seems to eat in, they call in their orders an hour ahead of time and then pick up when it's ready. I recommend following that lead if you can. Value: It's reasonably priced sushi. Not cheap, not crazy expensive. Given the lack of amenities, I'd say it's a little pricier than you might expect, but the food quality is really good, and honestly, if you want brown rice sushi, this is the only game in town that I know of. Will I go back? Yep. This is our sushi of choice at the moment, even though it's not exactly in the neighborhood. (Comment on this)
9:55 pm	Juban Juban is an Asian BBQ place in Burlingame. Some coworkers love this place, so I joined them for lunch Location: Downtown Burlingame. Look and feel: Non-distinctive. It's clean and decently appointed. This is neither a reason to go nor a reason to avoid. Menu: Asian bbq. The food: I tried the Garlic Steak & Ginger Pork Yakiniku. The meat is served raw, and you cook it on the tabletop grill. Both meats were pretty good. Tasty, but not exactly tender. A few vegetables to grill alongside were a nice touch. The side dishes of spinach, daikon, bean sprouts, and soy sprouts were good. The Tamago soup was forgettable. Service: Service was reasonable, but given how empty they were, I would have expected a little more attention. Value: Here's where they lose me. This would be a perfectly fine $10 experience. But the price for that meal is $13.50, so it's actually a $17+ lunch. That's just beyond reasonable for the quantity and quality of the food. Will I go back? Unlikely. There are many better food options out there that I already know about, and countless options that I haven't tried. This just isn't good enough to qualify for my rotation. (Comment on this)
9:51 pm	Tava Tava is our favorite local Indian restaurant. Location: Downtown San Carlos on El Camino, across from the Caltrain station. Look and feel: White tablecloth-covered tables, cloth napkins, Indian chatchkes on the walls. The usual for an Indian restaurant except for two notable differences. #1 - The place is huge, which is even stranger because of #2 - The place is empty. It's actually a little depressing to eat inside if you don't have a group of at least four. Menu: It's a standard Northern Indian menu, but it also has a few sections with Southern Indian food. Don't count on the latter, though, since I know they have discontinued some of it, specifically they no longer make Dosa, which is a shame. The food: We order from Tava a lot, so I'll just list the ones I have a strong memory for. (No, we didn't order all of this at one time.) Tandoori Mixed Grill - Nice assortment of meats, including fish, shrimp, chicken, lamb, and minced lamb. Good tandoor flavor. Everything cooked well. Chicken Tikka Masala - They do this classic Indian dish proud. It's flavorful and rich. Really tasty. Butter Chicken - Some friends of ours always order this for their daughter, so we had the opportunity to try it. It's somewhat similar to the Tikka Masala, but with a sweeter flavor and less heat. We've become big fans. Ghost Saag - This is a nice version of lamb saag. It's good, but not special. The saag is solid, and the lamb is okay, but as is all-too-common in Indian restaurants, there is little in the way of flavor blending between the lamb and the spinach. Baingan Bhartha - Reasonably smoky eggplant dish. Quite tasty. They get a nice consistency with the eggplant mashed, so it's not in chunks. The only thing about this dish we don't like is the big pieces of ginger, but they are avoidable. Bhindi Masala - Their preparation of this okra dish is different than I've seen at other places. It's actually chopped pieces of okra cooked into a spiced stew. It's okay, but not quite the way I like it. I think this is drier than I tend to prefer. Navrattan Korma - Excellent dish of assorted vegetables and nuts in a sweet yellow cream curry. Really good, and you never get to the point where there is just sauce and no stuff left. Saag Paneer - Same saag as above, but with cheese rather than lamb. Good dish, not their best. Naan/Garlic Naan/Chapati - I've liked all of the breads we've ordered here, but their garlic naan is my favorite. Service: When we eat at the restaurant, we have found the service to be fine. The water always stayed full, which is honestly my biggest issue with wait staff. Value: Here I have to break my review in two parts, one for dining in, and one for taking out. Eating in, I think Tava is reasonably priced. The dishes are of fair size, and the prices are reasonable, but there are well better deals to be had. Taking out, for the same price as eating in, their dishes are a fair bit larger, so the value is much better. Will I go back? Absolutely. This is the place we order Indian food, and have been for the past year or so. I'm not terribly excited to dine in, but for takeout this is at the top of our list in San Carlos. (Comment on this)
9:47 pm	Pampas Pampas is a Brazilian steakhouse in Palo Alto. Location: Downtown Palo Alto, across from the CalTrain station. Look and feel: Pampas looks the part of a nice, modern restaurant. There is a comfortable and open bar as you come in the front door, and an interesting architectural design that has seating along the walls of the main floor, with the middle of the restaurant turned into a bi-level seating arrangement. It's a slick way of adding more table space, and it makes for some interesting views. The seating is comfortable, and the tables feel spaced well such that you're not sitting right on top of the other diners. Menu: The specialty of the churrascaria is rodizio, which is basically an all-you-can-eat meat feast. Servers wander the restaurant with freshly cooked meat on spits, slicing as much as you want onto your plate. In addition, Pampas has an impressive Side bar with salads and an assortment of side dishes and charcuterie. If you're not into eating yourself silly via the meat route, you can order off the menu. The food: The "Breads" - Before we even looked at a menu, a server sat a plate of "breads" on the table. The three items on the plate were a tasty fried polenta, a wonderful fried banana, and a delicious Brazilian cheesebread that tasted like a parmesan popover. This was a most excellent way to start. They happily brought another plate of these when we asked. -- The drink - Dark & Stormy - I was in the mood for a cocktail, so I ordered this drink. It was basically ginger beer with some rum. It was tasty, but to be honest, I don't think the rum added anything. I'd prefer just a ginger beer in the future. -- The Side Bar - The side bar has an impressive array of items. There are a couple of salads, plus the option to build your own. There are meats and cheeses. There is a cold pasta. There are assorted grilled and roasted vegetables. Between the two of us, we sampled maybe half of the items. Marinated Mushrooms - These were outstanding. Even if you have no interest in the rest of the side bar, the mushrooms are worth going for. Cucumber Soup - Cool and refreshing, but honestly, I thought it tasted like raita. My wife disagrees. Zuchinni Fritters - They look like hush puppies. We were both a little disappointed in these. There just wasn't anything interesting about them. Pear, Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds w/ Blue Cheese - This was different and pretty good. -- The Rodizio - aka Meat! I'm going to sort this in general order of enjoyment. Linguica - Brazilian sausage. This was pretty uninteresting. Leg of Lamb - This was good, but it didn't grab me. To be fair, leg of lamb is not my favorite cut of meat. I really liked the balsamic reduction they served with it, though. Sirloin with Parmesan/Garlic - Chunk of beef with some parmesan or garlic. Tasty, but not exciting. Bacon-Wrapped Turkey - The bacon was yum. The turkey was there basically because they didn't think they could just serve bacon on a skewer. My wife said this was like a club sandwich. (Yes, that's a good thing.) Top Sirloin - When they sliced this and it hit my plate, I looked down and thought to myself "wow that's rare." But the cut of meat was so good, it still cut like butter. This was like a really good piece of roast beef. Tri Tip - Similar to the top sirloin, although cooked a little further. Came with a delicious tamarind sauce. Spicy Chicken - Spicy drumsticks. Very juicy. I pulled off the skin, and the meat was still very flavorful. Yum. Spicy Pork Loin - This was a really juicy, tender, and tasty cut of pork. Grilled pineapple - I'd never had hot pineapple before, and now I can't figure out why I have been missing this incredible food. Lamb Chops - Were were close to stuffed when the waitress came by to ask us if we'd tried all of the meat. The one thing we knew we hadn't seen was the lamb chop, so my wife mentioned that. The waitress immediately went looking for a server and was back in a minute with our missing item. We actually split one since we were ready to burst. Oh my god. Best lamb chop I have ever had. It was so tender I'm not sure I even needed to chew it. It was a testament to how full I was that I didn't ask for another. -- Dessert - Are you kidding? I don't understand how so many reviews here on yelp talk about dessert. It's an all-you-can-eat meat buffet. Who the hell has room for dessert that you would then need to order and pay for separately? We'll try to visit some night when we just want dessert, because the reviews here rave about them. Service: I was very impressed with the service tonight. The meat servers were ever present, our water glasses never got below half-full, and the executive chef himself came out to answer some allergy questions we had. Value: I don't feel cheated, but this place is not cheap. Is the rodizio worth $44? Not often, certainly, but once in a while. Will I go back? We're definitely going back for dessert, but I might have to go without the wife if I want dinner again. (Comment on this)
9:36 pm	CreoLa CreoLa is a creole place in San Carlos. We've driven by it hundreds of times, yet never managed to stop in before. We were in the mood to try something new, and we'd gotten a recommendation for this place recently, so we decided to try it out. Location: San Carlos, on El Camino. Look and feel: Comfortable feel, with enough masks and beads to make it obvious that this is a creole place. They have a parking lot which didn't seem that big, but on a Monday night we had no trouble finding space. Menu: Creole food with a nice mix of the staples and some new takes on the flavor profile. On M-Th nights they have a special where you get an appetizer, a salad, a main, and a dessert for $28, so my wife and I both availed ourselves of that option. The food: Bread - Warm, soft french bread with soft salted butter. Shrimp, Crab, & Fennel Bisque - Nice flavor, a little thin. Crawfish Hush Puppies - Crunchy outside, yummy cornbread with crawfish on the inside. I thought these were delicious. House Salad - There's no actual choice when you get the special, so we both had the house salad. Romaine lettuce, some pecans, canned mandarin orange slices, and a nice dressing. Cheese (either goat or bleu) optional for a $2 upcharge. I had the goat cheese, and the cheese was a bit lost. I think the bleu might hold up to the dressing better. Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish - Very tasty. Moist fish in a thick delicious crust. The whipped potatoes were fine, if not exciting. Perfectly prepared green beans rounded out the dish. Sunday Chicken - Oven roasted chicken breast. This is one of the best roasted chicken dishes I've ever had. Wonderfully juicy and flavorful, with a crispy skin. The cornbread stuffing had a moist, sweet corn flavor, and complemented the chicken well. The same wonderful green beans accompanied. Pasta with Chicken and Green Beans - We asked what they had for kids, since our five-year-old daughter was with us. They do a pasta dish with your choice of sauce, chicken or shrimp, and a vegetable. The dish turned out to be a nice sized plate of pasta. The chicken chunks were really well cooked and the green beans were nice and crisp. We were well impressed with this as an offering for children. Combo Pie - A combination of their peanut butter mousse and chocolate mousse, served on a crispy wafer crust. This was outstanding. Sweet without being cloying. Beignets - New Orleans style donuts with powdered sugar, whipped cream, and fresh fruit. Not the best I've ever had, but still tasty. A perfectly reasonable representative. Overall, we were very happy with the food. Everything was tasty, and the quantity was just right. Not enough to stuff, but plenty to satisfy. Service: In general, I think the service was really good. The waiter was attentive, and the busboy was really on the ball. He never let us run out of bread or water, and our plates were cleared as soon as we were done with them, yet we never once felt rushed. There were only three negatives. First, they didn't actually get my daughter's dish correct. We ordered it with shrimp, not chicken. (She didn't seem to notice, and it was late so we wanted her to start eating, otherwise I would have mentioned it to them.) Second, we didn't actually know that there was to be an upcharge on the salad until we got the bill. Not that the $2 is particularly meaningful to me, but still, the "what kind of cheese would you like with your salad?" question didn't resonate as an additional cost to me, especially on a prix fixe menu. Third, there was a slight pacing issue in the food delivery, in that there was a pretty long lag between salad and the main course. Value: $85 after tip for two adults plus one child. So it's not cheap, but I thought it was a reasonable price for the quantity and quality of food. Will I go back? I am pretty sure we will. Maybe next time we'll actually eat a little more in the creole style. (Comment on this)
9:28 pm	Gator's Neo-Soul Cafe Went to Gator's for lunch this week to try out their lunch buffet. Location: Downtown San Mateo. Your best bet for parking is the multi-level lot directly behind it. Look and feel: You enter through their newly added lounge area. It looks really nice. Classy. In the dining room, the seats are comfortable and the decor is understated. Menu: I was there for the lunch buffet, so I never even saw a menu. The food: Mac 'n cheese - Really freaking good mac 'n cheese. Sweet and cheesy, with the cheese a little thick, not runny. Meatloaf stew - Chunks of meatloaf in a sauce. Good, but not special. Fried chicken - Small pieces of juicy fried chicken with a nice crisp skin. Fried catfish - Breaded catfish nuggets. Good, but a little heavy on the breading:fish ratio. Mashed potatoes - Whipped to an incredibly light and fluffy texture. Oh, and did I mention buttery? Collard greens - Very tender greens, in what I believe is a slightly pickled sauce. Quite nice. Corn bread - Moist and tasty. Cole slaw - Meh, not really worth bothering with. Potato salad - Nice, full flavor. Dirty rice, Red beans - I lump these together because, really, who eats them separately? Nice flavor, but I've never found the southern version of rice & beans to be all that interesting. It's good, just not my favorite. Chicken jambalaya - Pretty good, but nothing outstanding. Overall, I found the food to be good, but not stellar. For a lunch buffet it was well above the norm. One thing to note is that this is a lot of starch, between the rices and the pastas. This is not a place for a diet. Service: It's a buffet, so there's not much to report. My water never emptied and my empty plate was bussed before I got back from getting my second plate of food, so the servers did their job. Value: $11 for a lunch buffet of this quality seems perfectly reasonable. Will I go back? Almost certainly, but not too often. It's local to my office, so I expect to come back every once in a while when I'm looking for a heavy southern meal. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
3:16 pm	Chatting about the California Propositions It's that time of year again, when California demonstrates that the state constitution is largely a worthless piece of crap, and we have our usual 12 propositions on the ballot for the uninformed electorate to vote on. God forbid our elected officials actually do anything other than NOT agree on a budget. Anyway, I've been reading up on these, and am looking to generate some conversation among people with brains. Feel free to comment with any insight you might have. I'll start a comment thread for each prop so it will be easier to follow the conversation. Prop 1: High speed rail bonds, $10 billion Prop 2: More humane farm animal confinement standards Prop 3: Children's hospital bond, $980 million Prop 4: Parental notification Prop 5: Nonviolent drug offender rehabilitation programs Prop 6: Police funding Prop 7: Renewable energy generation Prop 8: No gay marriage Prop 9: Victim's rights Prop 10: Alternative fuel vehicle bonds, $5 billion Prop 11: Redistricting amendment Prop 12: Veteran's bond, $900 million (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
1:15 am	What do you mean you can't turn it down? Alexandra was helping us in the kitchen the other day. I was juicing the last of the lemons from our backyard tree, using the juicing attachment for our Cuisinart. It is, as you might expect, not a quiet operation. As Alex bored of helping out, she went over to her computer to play, when she realized that the racket I was making was a bit of a distraction. So, naturally, she politely asked me to turn the volume down. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
1:18 am	Restaurant review: Hobee's Hobee's is small northern California restaurant chain. The restaurants are community-minded and tend to be on the healthier side, but not to the extreme. Location: Several places around the bay area. The one I visit most frequently is in Belmont, on the frontage road east of 101 right by Oracle. As far as I can tell, the restaurants are largely interchangeable, with the primary difference being how crowded they are at given times. Look and feel: Simple and unpretentious. I think of the look as "breakfast cafe." I tend to visit on weekday mornings, when they're not all that busy, so that my group of buddies can play poker tournaments over brekky. Menu: They serve breakfast all day, in addition to having a lunch/dinner menu that has somewhat standard sandwiches, burgers, and pastas. They're best known for their breakfasts, and that's pretty much the only time I eat there. The food: (This was not all eaten at one sitting.) Blueberry Coffeecake - Honestly, this is probably their biggest differentiator. If you go to Hobees, try the coffeecake. If you don't find it delicious, this is probably not going to be a fave for you. Mama's Papas - One of their special hashbrown dishes. Hobee's hashbrowns are the cubed potato style, rather than the shredded potato style. This particular dish is made with turkey bacon, spinach, mushrooms, and cheese. I usually get it with an over-easy egg topper. This is easily my favorite dish here. It's tasty and filling. Florentine Scramble - eggs with spinach, mushrooms, and cheese. Served with coffeecake or hashbrowns. Good dish. Iced Tea - I make note of this because if you just order iced tea, you're going to get their "special" cinammon-orange tea, which I personally found cloyingly sweet. You can order "regular" iced tea. Service: The service is usually solid, and they typically don't give us any grief over taking a table for a couple of hours while we play. Every once in a while they're busy and they need to free the table, but that has been rare. Value: It's not a cheap breakfast, but I think it's reasonably priced. Will I go back? Of course. This is a regular in the rotation. (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
9:12 am	Restaurant review: Jeffrey's Hamburgers Jeffrey's Hamburgers 42 S B St San Mateo, CA 94401 (650) 348-8698 Jeffrey's (no website, wtf?) is an updated take on a 1960's burger joint. Location: Downtown San Mateo, on Second. Street parking can be tough right there, but there are tons of lots between 3rd and 4th. Look and feel: Think diner, but you order at the front and then find a table. They don't seem to have enough tables to handle the amount of business they do, even with their outdoor section at the back, so that can be a pain. Lunchtime can be especially busy, so don't go here if you're in a rush. Menu: Mostly diner food, which means burgers, grilled sandwiches, hot dogs, shakes, and the like. They also have good salads. The food: Bacon Cheeseburger - You can't survive as a diner without a good burger, and Jeffrey's has a pretty good one. It's not the best I've ever had, but it's solid. They have a condiments station where you can choose your own toppings. It might be the only place I see iceberg lettuce anymore, other than when I get a salad at a sushi restaurant. Baby Greens Salad with Chicken - This is a really nice salad, and one of the main reasons I like to come here. Fresh greens (NOT iceberg, which makes me wonder why that's what you get at the condiment bar), pecans, crumbled blue cheese, slices of cantaloupe & honeydew, strawberries, with a light vinaigrette. The grilled chicken is optional, but really brings it together. Fish and Chips - We ordered this for Alex (assuming we'd get to finish it off for her.) Lightly-battered and deep fried, the fish was prepared perfectly. The fries were pretty good, but not anything special. Onion Rings - Meh. They do their rings with breading, which leads to a very heavy coating that hides the flavor of the onion. If they used the same batter from the fish and chips I'd have been much happier. Service: Since you order at the front, there's not much in the way of service, but the servers bring your food to your table when it's ready, and they don't let dirty tables linger, so they're doing their jobs well. Value: It will run about $10 per person, which seems perfectly reasonable for this area. Will I go back? Yep. This is an irregular member of our dining rotation. I've been there both for lunch and dinner, and will continue to partake. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
8:36 am	At the hospital We're at the hospital this morning, getting ready to give birth to our second child. I love that technology has advanced to the point that there is wireless at the hospital so I can be online. It's going to be a long day... Current Mood: tired (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
2:19 am	Restaurant review: Bombay Cuisine, Grand Rapids, MI I found Bombay Cuisine while traveling to Grand Rapids for a few months. I was shocked to find an Indian restaurant at all, let alone one of this quality, because the city overall is pretty barren of any ethnic foods. Location: On Lake Drive. Look and feel: It's a warm feeling establishment. Comfortable without being fancy. All of the servers are white, which was pretty much typical for Grand Rapids, but still seems weird to me. The cooks seem to be Indian, which is all that I really care about. Menu: It's a pretty standard menu for an Indian restaurant. They seem to have a large wine selection, of which I never partook. They also have 2 for 1 beers on tap, and the selection here is excellent. The food: I ate here many times over the course of a few months, so I tried a few of their dishes. I didn't experiment as much as I might have otherwise because I found a few favorites that I just loved. One thing to note is that, just like everywhere else in this city, they don't make spicy food unless you challenge them. I finally figured out that when I ordered my dishes at a level 12 (on a scale of 1-10) I was able to eat it without needing to add the pepper sauce. Saag Ghost - I don't know how they do it, but they manage to get the flavor of the lamb to spread throughout the spinach such that the dish is completely unified, as opposed to pieces of lamb sitting in the saag. I've ordered this in many restaurants from New York to San Francisco, and I think this place does it best. I am still amazed. Bangain Bartha - This is one of the smokiest eggplant dishes I've ever had. It's outstanding. Murg Methi, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Lababdar, Chicken Bhuna, Vegetable Korma are all good dishes, but none of them grabbed me the way the above two did. Masala Roti, Garlic Roti - Both excellently prepared wheat versions of naan. Samosa - Their potato pastries are very good, and an excellent choice if you are hungry since the wait for your entrees might be a little while. Value: Meals here are a little expensive for the Grand Rapids area, but well worth it. Eating there, I typically found the bills to be around $60 for two people, including beer, after tax and tip. Will I go back? If I ever find myself back in Grand Rapids, this is the first place I will eat. (Comment on this)
1:26 am	Restaurant review: The Pita House, Grand Rapids, MI I found Sami's Pita House while traveling to Grand Rapids for a few months. I was pleasantly surprised to find such good ethic food here, because the city overall is pretty barren of it. Location: Two locations, one near Lake Drive, and other on 28th Ave. Look and feel: Very simple setup, basically like a sandwich shop. You order at the counter and can take your food to go or eat it at the tables there. It's not fancy, but it's perfectly functional. Menu: They have a nice selection of Greek and Mediterranean foods. The food: I typically ate the Lebanese Gyro Platter, which consisted of gyro meat, hummus or baba ghanoush (I would ask for half of both), pita bread (including an option for wheat), and a choice of salad. The gyro and the spreads are excellent. The pita is fine, if not special. I found the Greek Salad to be mediocre. I've also tried their Kibbe and Felafel, both of which are available in individual pieces. Both are also quite good. Their lentil soup is ok, but not really worth adding to your meal, especially given that their meal portions are very generous. Value: For $15 or so, you can eat like a king. It's worth every penny. Will I go back? If I ever find myself back in Grand Rapids, you can be sure I'll be back. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
10:09 pm	Restaurant review: Manresa Manresa is a very well-reviewed restaurant tucked into downtown Los Gatos. We've had a friend say that he has had the best meal he's ever had here, so Kim and I had been looking forward to a chance to try it out. The style of food is kinda nouveau-American. Location: Downtown Los Gatos just off the main drag. There is tons of parking in a city lot behind the restaurant. Look and feel: Very nice, classy, subdued decor. Interesting middle eastern rugs adorned the floor. Mellow lighting. Even with other people sitting next to us for part of our meal, it felt rather private, which was nice for a quiet, romantic dinner. Menu: A prix fixe menu of a dozen or so dishes. They have an extensive wine list, including a recommended pairing for the menu. I'm not that big a drinker, and my wife is allergic to sulfites, so I was satisfied with a single glass that I nursed throughout the meal. The food: It's been about a month, so my hastily cribbed notes are going to have to suffice, but this is a summary of what was served. Amuse Bouches: Red pepper jujubee, and a black olive madeleine - This was a really creative start. The savory flavors coming from the gumball and the cookie were quite good. Strawberry gazpacho with minced cucumber - Served in a double shot glass, this was what it sounds like. It tasted cool and fresh. Very different. Croquette with molten pealeaf and lettuce center - This was a small potato cube about the size of a normal 6-sided die. The filling was like a creamy green soup. I could have easily eaten a dozen of these. Egg with maple syrup, sherry vinegar, and salt - Served in the eggshell, this was basically a warm raw egg with some other flavors. It was more odd than anything else. Fois gras soup with zucchini flower - Kim had this instead of the egg dish since she was pregnant and could not eat the raw egg. She made out like a bandit, because this was most excellent. Appetizers: Spring peas with assorted shellfish - The peas were young, fresh, and tasty. The shellfish was too salty and fishy. We were not particularly fond of this one. Cured mackerel and seaweed ice - The mackerel was okay, the seaweed ice was fascinating if not wonderful to eat. The vegetable garden - This was a gorgeous creation. Assorted vegetables, in assorted preparations, made out to look like a small garden. It was very flavorful, although the handful of foams in this dish really made us wonder what the deal is with foams in today's restaurants. It's pretty for the presentation, but really, the texture is rather awful. Soft shell crab - Nothing particularly special or noteworthy about this dish. It was a fine representation. Main dishes: Hake in algae emulsion with sorrell - Nice preparation. We really liked the sorrell. Roasted squab breast, vanilla apple sauce - Delicious squab. The vanilla apple sauce was an excellent accompaniment. Spring lamb, cauliflower puree - A rather basic preparation, but quite good. Desserts: Fig ice cream with an apricot sauce and milk foam - I really don't remember this one. Strawberries & cream with chamomile ice cream - We really enjoyed the chamomile ice cream. White chocolate/coffee/graham cracker with cherries and chocolate ice cream - All of the flavors blended well. Strawberry jujubee and a chocolate madeleine - These looked exactly the same as the first amuse bouche, but these were sweet rather than savory. Even though these were tasty, and certainly the more expected flavors, we found that we liked the savory versions better. Service: The service was excellent. No water glass ever got close to empty, and the food was served and explained exquisitely. Value: The bill for the two of us, with only one glass of wine to accompany the two meals, was $392 after tip. I wasn't expecting this to be a cheap meal, but I also wasn't quite expecting it to be quite that much. Having said that, I've eaten at the French Laundry before, so this wasn't a unique experience for me. On the other hand, the French Laundry was by far the best meal we've ever had, such that we actually felt justified by the experience, and hope to go again someday. This wasn't nearly up to that level of quality. The food was good, but not great, and I'm afraid that for this kind of an expense I really do expect something extraordinary. I feel that it didn't live up to those expectations. Will I go back? Very unlikely. There are a ton of great restaurants in the bay area that we haven't tried yet, and several we have that we liked much better than this. Maybe we hit them on an off night, but for a $400 meal, you only get one chance with me. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
12:54 am	The Refuge The Refuge The Refuge is a wine bar that serves food in a style that I can best describe as a cross between kosher deli, pub food, and french cuisine. Location: Downtown San Carlos on the southern end of Laurel Street. Plenty of street parking, but you might need to walk around the corner. Look and feel: It looks like a nice wine bar. They have a scattering of tables and booths, and a small outdoor patio with another handful of tables. It's a loud place, but not cacophonous. We took our 4-year-old daughter and it wasn't a problem at all (other than the fact that there wasn't a whole lot on the menu for her to eat.) Menu: It's a wine bar, so of course there is a full wine list. There is also a nice selection of Belgian beers. For food, they have a large selection of charcuterie (fancy word for cold meats) and cheeses, as well as cheesesteaks, burgers, pastrami, and appetizers. The food: Pastrami with slaw and dressing - I'd heard that the pastrami here was really good, so the only question was which pastrami sandwich I'd be ordering. Since the only mustard I saw on the table was yellow (I had no idea Gulden's even made a yellow mustard), I went with the slaw and Russian dressing to avoid missing spicy brown deli mustard. The sandwich was made with thickly-sliced pastrami on very soft, fresh rye bread. It was an excellent sandwich, but I have to say that the pastrami was fattier than I would have liked. French Onion Dip cheesesteak - My wife, not a big beef eater, ordered this because of the fennel, gruyere, and onion soup dip. She's still raving about it, weeks later. Fries - Solid fries, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Children's Grilled Cheese - Really thick bread made this a rather large sandwich for my daughter to get into her mouth, but it worked. Service: The service was okay. They seem a little understaffed, and they're more focused on serving the wine patrons than the food patrons, but I never felt neglected. Value: There's no way around the fact that this is a pricey place. $14 for that pastrami sandwich, and it didn't even come with fries, which were $3 extra. They did only charge $4 for the grilled cheese, which did come with fries. So at least I won't have to avoid the place because it's too expensive to feed my child. Will I go back? Definitely. There aren't that many places that do a good NY-style pastrami sandwich out here in the bay area, and this new york Jew needs that fix once in a while. (Comment on this)
12:49 am	Kung Fu Panda Alex's pre-K class went on a field trip to see Kung Fu Panda a few weeks ago, and I chaperoned. I was pleasantly surprised at the appeal to adults the movie held. It was a reasonably interesting story, and the humor was far less sophomoric than I expected. The kids all seemed to like it, but it did strike me that there is a huge amount of fighting in the film. Not unexpected for a cartoon version of a martial arts flick, but still, it didn't seem like the perfect vehicle for young kids to enjoy. (Comment on this)