Monday, July 21, 2008

Homma's Brown Rice Sushi

July 2008
Take-out dinner

Total hole-in-a-wall sushi place off of California (take a left on Birch coming from El Camino, and it's on your right, but in a little alleyway). It's family run I think and just has a few tables inside and out. We ordered about 5 different rolls to go, and they told us about 35 minutes. So not speedy. But it was good. Brown rice in sushi is a first for me but was ok. Fairly reasonable too, $22 for five rolls and ikura.

*Cash only

*Per Yelp - Hours: Mon-Thu 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Tue 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Wed-Thu 12:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fri-Sat 12:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fri-Sat 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

2363 Birch St Ste B, Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 327-6118

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Pampas

Marie's Going Away Dinner
June 2008

Great new Brazilian churrascaria across the street from the train station at Alma and Hamilton. Pretty big and trendy venue, with a lounge/bar space up front and several dining areas. They have pretty good caipirinhas and other fresh mixed drinks.

Like many churrascarias, there is a phenomenal salad bar buffet ($27 I think), which would be worth it by itself. Add $20 and you get all you can eat meat too. Yum. Not the cheapest place, but fun and you definitely get full.

http://www.pampaspaloalto.com/

529 Alma St, Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 327-1323

Assab Eritrean Restaurant

Dinner
July 2008

For those of you now familiar with African geography (I am guilty also), Eritrea is next to Ethiopia in northeastern Africa. The food is like Ethiopian, with flatbread you eat by hand.

Assab is in what yelp says is Western Addition/NOPA. The food was good -- when we finally got it. We had an 8:30pm reservation for 11 people, but I think our appetizers didn't come out until 9:45 and dinner about half hour later. I was pretty cranky and hungry to say the least, then overcompensated and felt gross, but that's my problem. Sambusas are good, liked the meat better than veggie. Assab is known for vegetarian food, though I liked the meat dishes too.

Apparently the honey wine is one of their specialities - made from honey and hops, it was syrupy and sweet, not quite what I wanted for the night though others seemed to like it.

2845 Geary Blvd (between Collins St & Wood St), San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 441-7083

Friday, July 18, 2008

Tomales Bay Oyster Company

July 2008
Picnic with Take, Carolyn and James

Wonderful trip to Tomales Bay up Route 1 about an hour north of San Francisco. There is a parking lot, picnic tables and a counter to buy oysters, but you can make a fantastic day of it if you bring up the right stuff. Mainly several bottles of champagne and white wine (we brought 5 and ended up taking a trip to get a few more), tons of picnic food, and good company.

Bring shucking tools if you have them (gloves and knife), though they will sell them to you for $15.

The oysters come by dozen in different sizes. To be honest, the "large" oysters were a bit too much. We settled on the medium size ones, and then the special which was these "doubles", two of them stuck together. I think like $10-$15 per dozen, great deal.

I love raw oysters (bring cocktail sauce, highly recommend lots of horseradish and lemon), but they do have little grills that you can use, if you bring your own charcoal and brickettes. Some other tables were kind enough to let us use theirs and the grilled oysters are pretty phenomenal.

They don't take reservations, so go early, particularly on nice weekend days in the summer. Closes at 5pm, and they will kick you out, so make sure someone can drive home by then.

http://www.tomalesbayoysters.com/

15479 Highway 1, Marshall, CA 94940
(415) 663-1242

Tortilla Heights

Dinner
July 2008

Just like Tortilla Flats in NYC, good Mexican, pitchers of margaritas and generally a good time.

www.tortillaheights.com

1750 Divisadero Street (between Bush St & Sutter St), San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 346-4531

The Melting Pot

Dinner
July 2008

Interesting fondue place in downtown San Jose. They have varying levels of gluttony from single entree to four courses for two. We got the plain deep fry in olive oil with one entree of Cajun meats and shrimp and one of filet medallions. Comes with veggies too. Not so cheap.

http://www.meltingpot.com/

72 S First Street, San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 293-6020

Los Cubanos Restaurant

Dinner
February 2008

Yummy family owned Cuban place. Not particularly cheap, but home style hearty food.

www.loscubanosrestaurant.com

22 N Almaden Ave, San Jose, CA 95110
(408) 279-0134

Tuesday, July 1, 2008