Category: Food | Restaurants

I've been to the French Laundry a couple times and it really is that good but it's really intense and goes a little overboard. It's more like a clinic than it is a dining experience. Bouchon (bistro food) is so much cooler and cheaper. The only other restaurants I've been to are Boulevard, Chez Panisse, and Gary Danko.

I'd love to check out more but it's pricey to be eating out.

---

Three Stars
The French Laundry, Yountville

Two Stars
Aqua, San Francisco
Chez TJ (new), Mountain View
Cyrus, Healdsburg
Manresa, Los Gatos
Meadowood, St. Helena
Michael Mina, San Francisco

One Star
Acquerello, San Francisco
Ame (new), San Francisco
Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford
Bistro Jeanty, Yountville
Bouchon, Yountville
Boulevard, San Francisco
Chez Panisse, Berkeley
Coi (new), San Francisco
Cortez (new), San Francisco
Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
Farmhouse Inn Restaurant, Forestville
Fifth Floor, San Francisco
Fleur de Lys, San Francisco
Gary Danko, San Francisco
L Bistro, Sebastopol
La Folie, San Francisco
La Toque, San Francisco
Madrona Manor (new), Healdsburg
Martini House (new), St. Helena
Masa's, San Francisco
One Market (new), San Francisco
Quince, San Francisco
Range, San Francisco
Redd (new), Yountville
Rubicon, San Francisco
Sushi-Ran, Sausalito
Terra, St. Helena

Been going out lately to some nice restaurants in the East Bay.  Here's what I thought anyways…

Recently went to Rivoli finally on Solano Ave in Albany.  Very tasty, a little pricey.  Italian/California Cuisine type restaurant.  It's a small restaurant.  Awesome service.  The street is very cool.  Nice to walk up and down.

Rockridge 

• Oliveto's (upstairs) – one of the best restaurants in Oakland, Italian/California cuisine, pricey, great food, nice atmosphere.  It's a special occasion place.
• Hiro's Sushi – been going here a lot.  family style, laid back Japanese food, very homey; guaranteed no line, so perfect if you get stuck at Kirala and you're hungry.  Up the block, Uzen is pretty good too.
• Somerset – hard to characterize the food here, I guess upscale American.  The food is good, good for brunch, the decor is classy but lots of wood.  A friend of a friend owns it.
• Soi4 – trendy Thai, nice place for a hot date

Wood Tavern, haven't been yet but supposed to be good.  Pearl is supposed to be good.  We also go to Cactus Taqueria, Citron or Acote on special occasions.  We also go to Zachary's pizza when the mood hits.  Haven't been yet to Pizzaiolo in Temescal.  And I do like LaneSplitter's Pizza also in Temescal.

Temescal

• Pyung Chang tofu house.  Not as good as My Tofu House on Geary but pretty good.
• La Calaca Loca – quick Mexican food.  good chicken soup and fish tacos.
• Tanjia is this Moroccan place.  Very cool with Belly Dancing, food is ok.
• Bakesale Betty's of course – oatmeal cookies, chicken sandwiches are too dangerous

Haven't been to Genova lately for sandwiches.  Need to go back to Dona Tomas (fancy Mexican) to give it another chance.

Piedmont Ave

• Bay Wolf – kind of every day fancy, California cuisine.  Food is good.  Strangely went here twice this year.
• Jojo – my all time favorite restaurant, country French, menu doesn't change much, best steak frites – my favorite dish
• Went to Fenton's for an ice cream sundae.  The first few bites were good but their ice cream kinda sucks.  Tango Gelato down the block has no line and is 10x better.

Haven't been to Lotus Thai this year… :-)  Cesar (spanish tapas) is so overrated, always packed.  Dopo (Italian) overrated and packed too.

On the hit list to try next is:

• Art's Crab Shack, Ohgane
• And non-Oakland: Bistro Luneta (in San Mateo), Foreign Cinema (SF), Ozumo (SF) and that should do it

I'm kinda sick of restaurant food. I've been going out a bit lately and here's what I don't like:

• there are *no*, *none*, *zero* healthy, cheap, everyday type restaurants — a place where you could eat everyday and feel good about it, e.g. a healthy $5 – $7 meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• food portions are huge, I'm now just getting maybe two appetizers and sharing dessert versus getting an entree, it's no wonder as Americans we are so overweight;
• the prices in general are whack, way overpriced! Across the board.
• the food is more or less the same (across genres), not very creative menus, nothing is wowing me lately (and I've been going to good places);
• Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese places cater to an American palate so the food is not necessarily "authentic". Sure different ingredients here but I hate it when it's dumbed down.

It's not that I can do better, I can't. But at home at least I can control portion size, the quality of the ingredients, cooking some things correctly (salmon or any fish overcooked at a restaurant sucks!), and price to an extent.

To me the only good thing about going out to a restaurant these days is that I don't have to worry about washing dishes and putting them away. And that's about it.

I've been going down memory lane, food-wise anyway, and stumbled on another food I ate when I was a kid. I don't remember how often I drank Yakult, it seemed like it was often.

I picked up a 5 pack of Yakult and sure does taste the same as I remember. I think the last time I drank Yakult was 20 years ago?

Yakult is supposed to be some probiotic and there's like beneficial bacteria in it. Kombucha is the same thing in terms of another beneficial bacteria.

Anyway, there isn't any proof around the health benefits of Yakult, it's just supposed to replenish all the good bacteria you may have in your digestive system. People have been drinking it for a while and nobody has died. Haven't heard people hitting 60 home runs in a year by drinking it though either.

Would love to know more, especially if you drink/drank Yakult as a kid in the Philippines? Why, other than it tastes pretty good? Is Yakult's marketing team just that good?

Taho is basically soft soy bean curd and you can find it at most grocery stores but getting it fresh is better. Sometimes I get mine from Hodo Soy Beanery at the Berkeley Farmer's market or at this Chinese grocery store in downtown Oakland. The first time I went to go pick it up at Hodo Soy, the vendor gave me this look like "you know what that is, you're Filipino." I gave him a glance that said "yup". Mind you, we're in Berkeley.

Sago is tapioca made out of cassava or yuca root? I think. It's pretty much flavorless and lots of those tapioca drink places or bubble tea places have them. There are bubble tea places in San Francisco and there's one near UC Berkeley, they're popping up.

The brown stuff I guess is just sugar, I never thought to ask what it was. It's some cane sugar syrup thing. All of it together and the fact that it's cheap makes it addictive. The taho supposedly originated from China and the tapioca was brought by the Spanish as cassava originates from South America.

Anyhow, I used to often eat taho and sago as a kid and I kinda remember the whole experience. We used to get it from a vendor who walked the streets yelling, "taho, sago". When I eat it now, there's a lot familiar about it and it's one of those foods that makes/keeps me Filipino.

It was cool to be able to find a good looking photo of it on Flickr. It's not necessarily the most photogenic food out there. If you want some taho and sago you can go to the Philippines or to Goldilock's Bakery, there's actually one in Mountain View on Rengstorff.