True Burger
We ate at True Burger, in Oakland, last weekend and have to say that True Burger is now my new burger place — post workout reward, post Tahoe/road trip meal. It’s a small restaurant and they do burgers, fries, milkshakes, and that’s about it and they do it really well.
In comparison to In N’ Out, True Burger’s burgers have much better flavor, better bun, slightly larger, and less greasy. In N’ Out’s fries aren’t very good, True Burger fries are crispy and tasty. The milk shakes are tastier too, it’s vanilla or chocolate or with fill-ins like vanilla with strawberry, peanut butter, coffee, etc. You could say that True Burger is looking to create reference, by the book best versions of the American burger, fries, and milk shake and they do a ridiculously great job. Here’s a much better review but essentially, no more trips to In N’ Out.
red velvet cup cake, from Cupkates Bakery
Cupkates Bakery
The other “best thing I’ve eaten” moment was a week or so ago when I was gifted with a Key Lime pie cupcake from Cupkates Bakery. If you see the Cupkates cupcake truck, wave them down and buy the $3 Key Lime pie cupcake. It’s just crazy good. I guess they drive around Oakland and San Francisco.
Key Lime Pie $3/ea
A graham cracker crust, key lime cake, curd filled, and topped with meringue frosting. Available with or without toasted coconut.
pop-up general store (OPEN TODAY 6/30/2010 at 5pm – 7pm at Grace Street Catering) is part of this interesting food movement that’s happening in the Bay Area along with Jon’s Street Eats, Eatwell Farm, any Bay Area farmer’s market — where there’s this mix of food reverence, technology, and a bit of grunge.
Anyway, here’s pop-up general’s store description:
is a group of professional cooks {nearly all of us current or former Chez Panisse cooks} making the foods we love to eat. We Pop-Up every two or three weeks so that you can get your hands on some.
pop-up general store is effectively in Ghost town. Whatever. Will check it out. One of our favorite restaurants that closed, Cafe Jojo’s in Oakland (which had the best steak frites), is now doing catering and offering products through the store so it’s pretty cool to see them back in action.
We’re over at the Berkeley Bowl and I’m about to go grab some Nutella. Nutella has a low glycemic index and therefore ok to eat? That’s what I told myself anyway.
Next to Nutella on the shelf is Nocciolata and instead of grabbing Nutella, I grabbed it instead. Glad I did because Nocciolata is ridiculously delicious, tons better than Nutella — game over. It’s available on Amazon and it’s worth seeking out.
Anyway, make sure you’re on a workout program before you buy a jar.
I deleted my previous post on Rikyu, I delete too much, oh well. We ate there the other day and the waitress was like, “I think you wrote one of our very first reviews, aren’t you rebron?” Funny. That’s my work nickname. I’m not much of a reviewer. More of generalist, go/don’t go, buy/don’t buy.
Anyway, go to Rikyu for some really good sushi and Japanese food. The sushi chef is from Kirala and the quality of the fish is great. We haven’t tried too many other things but the miso soup is really good and their salad is a real salad. A lot of places serve wimpy miso soup and salad. If you get shiso leaves with your sushi, I think you’re at a decent sushi place. I’m still on quest for a Japanese place that serves fresh wasabi.
The waitstaff is cool, very attentive. It just opened and it’s not in the most trafficked location so there’s no wait yet. If you don’t feel like waiting for Kirala, then go here. And while there are at least four other sushi places on College Ave. (and we’ve eaten at those too), one almost every two blocks, this one is the real deal. It’s a homey, no nonsense sushi place.
Sites I’ve heard are pretty good for mail ordering food:
Some tea recommendations (per request):
My absolute favorite tea – Rose pouchong from Fortnum & Mason
Other favorites:
- Puerh (various) from Imperial Tea court (based in San Francisco)
- Ginger Peach, Ginseng Peppermint, Good Hope Vanilla, and a few others from Republic of Tea
- Korean Red Ginseng tea
- Marrakesh Mint from Mighty Leaf tea and they have other good flavors
- Genmai-cha and Mugicha, a barley tea
I haven’t tried Numi Tea but they’re local based out of Oakland over near the Embarcadero. Teance is local too out of Berkeley. Starbucks serves Tazo and their tea is ok.
Puerh and Republic of Teas are what I regularly drink. Tea is supposed to be good for you, does stain your teeth worse than coffee though. I haven’t figured out what to drink when, e.g. if you’re sick drink such and such tea, though puerh and red ginseng do give me an energy boost and calms me down, and gingseng peppermint is my stress reducer.
Coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon and evening.
Related thoughts on coffee and chocolate
Hood Honey ~ Harvested from OakTown NeighborHoods, this Honey from Oakland, CA is very popular with the locals. Our bees stay out of trouble bee-cause they are too busy gathering sweet Oakland nectars. This honey is a middle-range amber village mix.*
Supposedly eating local honey (a teaspoon a day for 2 – 3 months before allergy season), can help you from having bad allergies. For those in the Bay Area, Marshall Farms has honey from different areas of the Bay. The theory is that the honey has pollen from the area and you get to ingest some of that and so your body is used to the pollen.
I think I’m trying it a little later this year for it to work (still trying it though) and definitely will do it next year. My allergy cocktail of claritin, nasonex, similisan, and a couple other things aren’t helping.
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* Even the beekeepers are making fun of the crime in Oakland. Ridiculous. Hood Honey is really good though.
** Random extras. I still need to try Tupelo honey; and, Strauss Family Creamery, where we get our milk, makes really good vanilla and chocolate ice cream. It’s cheaper than Ben & Jerry’s by a bunch. Worth seeking out, tastes homemade.
This oyster po’ boy from Brown Sugar Kitchen, in West Oakland, is going to give Bakesale Betty’s fried chicken sandwich a run for her money. You watch.
There’s Flora Restaruant, B Restaurant, and some new restaurant that just opened up near Jack London Square (folks from San Francisco) that I can’t seem to find, that I want to try. Flora is in my favorite building (blue Art deco across from the Fox Theatre) in Oakland, that I’d love to own one day. We tried Sura restaurant, a relatively new Korean restaurant on “kimchee row” on Telegraph, and it was pretty good. Good soondobu.
The (household) consensus is that the best restaurant in the East Bay is Rivoli.
