Marga's Food Blog

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Munching Around the Bay: Naschmarkt

September 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This relaxing Campbell restaurant offers good food and friendly service.

I was excited when my friend Lola chose Naschmarkt to celebrate her 50-something birthday. My experience with Austrian cuisine has been extremely limited. I have never been to Austria or eaten at an Austrian restaurant before, and while I cooked Austrian food as part of my international food project, this was twenty two years ago, and it didn’t turn out that well.

Despite living in the Bay Area for close to four decades, I also don’t think I’d ever been to Campbell. We didn’t end up seeing much of it, but I enjoyed strolling up and down Campbell Ave., seeing the bougie restaurants and stores, and perusing the stalls at the farmer’s market. We even bought a bottle of cider, though I dropped and broke it before we could try it.

It was a beautiful Sunday in early September, and sitting in Naschmarkt’s sidewalk patio was a lovely experience. It’s about a block away from all the buzzle of the street, so it’s quieter, but still allows for some people watching. It added to the European aspect of the meal.

While we waited for Lola to arrive – we were early – I enjoyed a sparkling water (we weren’t charged for the bottle), while Mike had a blood orange cosmopolitan ($17) which he liked very much.

We started by sharing the homemade pretzel with double-smoked bacon, beer-cheese sauce and chives ($16). I’m not a huge fan of pretzels, and while I appreciated that this one was soft, I felt that the flavor was too strong to compete against the cheese – which was good, but very subtle. The cheese sauce was actually better with white bread, or with the interior of the pretzel (though there isn’t too much of that). I don’t think I would order it again myself. Mike liked that the bagel was warm, and he liked it with the mustard rather than the cheese sauce.

We also shared the sausage trio ($36), which came with a smoked pork bratwurst, a spicy paprika wurst, and a “sausage of the day”and was served with red cabbage, sauerkraut, caramelized onions, and Dijon mustard.

I’m not the hugest fan of sausages, and I wasn’t personally impressed by any of these. Mike and Lola liked them, however and in particular the spicy paprika one. Mike thought they were all good, even if he can’t recall what the “sausage of the day” was.

I had been planning to get the chicken paprikash ($25) for lunch, as I’ve made several versions of this dish and have enjoyed them, but they didn’t have it available for lunch that day. So I settled for the spätzle ($30), which comes with smoked chicken, corn, brussels sprouts leaves, tarragon and mushrooms. I had mine without corn and extra mushrooms. This is listed under appetizers ($20) but you can have a lunch-size portion as well. As it happened, the lunch size portion was too much after having the other appetizer, so I took half of it home.

Overall I liked it, though I didn’t love it. I think the problem was that it was too mildly tasting except for the smoked chicken, and then the smoked chicken was a bit overwhelming in flavor. I think I might have enjoyed this more if it had bacon instead of chicken. I did like the chewy consistency of the spätzle. I don’t think I’d order it again.

Mike had the classic wiener schnitzel ($32) which comes with Austrian potato salad. The wiener schnitzel was a very good, nicely seasoned and very tender milanesa. I think even my milanesa-loving daughter would have approved. Mike enjoyed it, and I loved the couple of bites he gave me. It made me realize that I should make milanesas soon.

Lola had the Hungarian beef goulash ($28), consisting of beef shoulder braised in paprika and served with herbed spätzle, Hungarian pepper, and sour cream. We both felt the dish was quite good. I made goulash before, as part of my exploration of Hungarian cuisine, and this one was comparable. Of course, they nailed the spätzle too.

We couldn’t go to an Austrian restaurant and not have dessert, so Mike and I shared the apfel strudel ($16), described as “apple & hazelnut strudel with whipped cream, toasted almonds & vanilla bean ice cream” – though there was no whipped cream that I could see. I’ve had apple strudel before, but I will confidently say that this was the best version I’ve tasted. It was served warm, which helped a lot, but the crispy yet chewy dough and perfectly sweetened apples, with the occasional crunch of the toasted almonds, was just awesome. I definitely recommend you have it here.

Lola had that day’s special, which was some sort of cheesecake with sour cherries ($15). She liked it quite a bit, even more than my apple strudel – I disagreed, but I’m not fond of cherries.

To celebrate her birthday, they also brought her a complimentary trio of sorbets ($9 otherwise). The passion fruit, blood orange and mango sorbet were all very good, though I found their somewhat chewy consistency disconcerting (I’m guessing they use gelatin). The flavors were very intense and not overly sweet.

Service by a European-sounding gentleman whose name we didn’t catch was outstanding, friendly and efficient, and he was particularly good at seemingly upselling us (that pretzel was not our idea).

In all, we had a great, relaxing time, and I would totally recommend it. Naschmarkt has another location in Palo Alto. 

Naschmarkt
384 E Campbell Ave 
Campbell, CA
(408) 378-0335
Su- Thu 11:30 – 2pm, 5 – 9 pm
F - Sa  11:30 – 2pm, 5 – 9:30 pm

A Day in the Napa Valley: Celebrating Mike’s Birthday

September 13, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A perfect day reliving old memories and making new ones

This year, we celebrated Mike’s birthday in the Napa Valley. It was his idea. As we talked about possibilities, he mentioned he’d like to get a mud bath. And that, of course, meant going to Calistoga – the closest place for such experiences. Once that was decided it was a matter of choosing what to do for the rest of the day.

I knew, almost immediately, that we’d start by having sandwiches at Guigni Deli in St. Helena. We’ve been going there for decades and they make the absolute best sandwiches in the world. I can’t imagine visiting the Napa Valley and not hitting Guigni’s. The sandwiches were as good as ever.

I looked and looked and looked for activities to do between St. Helena and Calistoga that didn’t include wine tasting, but it was pretty much impossible. There are a few art galleries in both towns, but wine tasting is otherwise it. So I just went with the flow and decided our next stop would be Mumm, the maker of sparkling wines. It was a perfect way to continue our day. The champagnes were delicious and the whole experience very relaxed.

We had some time to kill before our next wine tasting experience, so we headed back to St. Helena to grab some ice cream at A Roman Holiday Gelato. I was luckier than Mike with my ice cream choice, but I was nice and shared with the birthday boy.

We then headed to our second wine tasting experience at Tank Garage Winery. Here, we tasted the worst wines ever – and we have tasted wines in some very iffy places. They just sucked, but the experience was cool.

It was then time for our mud baths at Golden Have Hot Spring Spa & Resort. I’d chosen this place as they had couples mud baths and it was a great experience. While we waited, we had water infused with different fruits that was quite tasty – so even this ended up having a culinary aspect to it.

The mud baths are in a private room which also includes a shower. The bathtubs are laid out in an L configuration with your feet towards the middle – so that you can see each other. The mud was very, very hot, and while you get used to it, it can be a pretty intense experience. It was very relaxing, however.

Showering off the mud, on the other hand, took far longer than we thought. It was our fault – we should have put our hair in a bun and kept if away from the mud. As we didn’t, we spent forever removing it from our heads.

It was then time for a cooler dip in a jacuzzi tub. Mike enjoyed it a lot, but I was still overheated and couldn’t deal with even warm water.

We were then taken to a relaxation room, where we laid on beds with cucumbers over our eyes while soft music played. It was very nice and helped us cool down.

Finally, we got to hang out in the pool, filled with mineral water from the area. It wasn’t at all crowded, the water wasn’t too hot, and it was a very fun experience. They had showers with shampoo and conditioner, so we could get our hair back to normal before we headed for dinner.


Dinner, at the Mustard Grill, was also great. Not my entree, mind you, but the place is a lot of fun and Mike loved his food – and it was his birthday.

In all, it was a perfect day that brought together. I’ll just have to plan more like this one.

A Day in the Napa Valley: Mustard Grill

September 13, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This Napa Valley classic has outstanding service and a fun atmosphere.

Mustard Grill has been a staple in the Napa Valley for four decades. Founded by Cindy Pawlcyn, one of the creators of wine country cuisine, it features American classics with Californian sensitivities, and hyper local ingredients. We drove past it for decades, always curious about trying it but never quite making it.

It’d been in Mike’s mind, however, so he suggested it when we started making plans for his birthday extravaganza in the Napa Valley – so I promptly made a reservation.

Dinner there was a lot of fun, and it crowned a wonderful day for both of us.

We were a little late for our dinner reservation, but we called and there was no problem accommodating us. We only had to wait by the bar for a few minutes before we were seated. The area of the bar, which includes a number of tables in addition to the bar itself, was quite busy on that Saturday evening and the atmosphere was very jobial.

The restaurant itself has several connected dining rooms and a semi-casual atmosphere. We saw women dressed up in lovely dresses, and guys in t-shirts and baseball caps. According to the server at one of the wineries we went to, it’s a favorite among locals, though it obviously also attracts tourists and day trippers like us.

We got a corner table on the outer dining room, the one with the windows. Though it gave me a look to the server station, the sunlight in the room (it’s summer, after all), made it jovial. Tables are very close together and the place was quite crowded, but it didn’t detract from the experience.

The menu of “deluxe truck stop classics” was pretty extensive, and included sandwiches in the low 20’s and main dishes priced from the high 30’s to mid 40’s. In addition they have a few daily specials, including a tostada and a pasta. They have, as you’d expect, an extensive wine list, but Mike and I were wined out that day (the perils of being old). Instead I had a coke ($4.50, free refills) while Mike had a River City root beer ($4.50 for the bottle). Mike liked it as much as he likes all those craft root beers you occasionally encounter.

Dinner started with bread, butter and salt. This was a great idea. Salted butter is usually lower quality butter, and not everyone prefers it or can deal with the extra sodium. As it happened, the bread and butter were very good, and adding a little salt made them even better.

I had hesitated a lot about what to order – I wasn’t terribly hungry -, and the waiter had recommended the meat loaf ($30) which came with garlic mashed potatoes, a horseradish BBQ sauce and unadvertised greens. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it. The BBQ sauce, which drowned the meatloaf, was too ketchupy, too acidic, too thin and just unenjoyable. The meatloaf itself, when most of the sauce was brushed away, needed more seasoning. Now, this is a popular dish so I’m going to guess that this is a matter with my taste alone. Mike didn’t dislike it, but thought it was nothing special – he wouldn’t order it either.

The mashed potatoes, however, were delicious.

Our waiter very nicely offered to substitute with another dish – but I wasn’t that hungry and didn’t think it was necessary. He then very unnecessarily took it off the bill, which was extremely nice and definitely makes me want to go to Mustard Grill again. I just wouldn’t order the meatloaf.

Mike ordered the grilled halibut ($39) which was on special that day. It came with new potatoes, rainbow chard and piquillo pepper sauce. Mike liked the fish, it was cooked perfectly, nice and flaky. He liked the sauce, though he wasn’t sure if it enhanced or replaced the flavor of the fish. He’d recommend it.

To celebrate Mike’s birthday, the restaurant gave us a complementary ice cream scoop. Unfortunately for Mike, it was espresso flavored. He is not a coffee drinker, and it’s not because of the caffeine. So I had it all for myself. I thought it was very good, light and flavorful. I did particularly like the fact they brought it as a gift.

Mike ordered the lemon-lime tart ($14), which is described as having “ridiculously tall brown sugar merengue” and I have to say I agree with the description. He loved it. In his words “the pie was absolutely awesome”. It wasn’t just the Alice-in-wonderland look – which did cause stares from other tables -, but he loved the flavor of the merengue, which was quite unique. The lemon-lime curd was also extremely tasty. Really, this was the perfect dessert for him.

I, personally, found the merengue too sweet, but I had just eaten the somewhat bitter espresso ice cream.

As mentioned, service was excellent. The place was popping, but it’s clearly appropriate staffed and the waiters are professionals who know their jobs. In all, I can’t think of a better place to celebrate a birthday. I am totally looking forward to going back.

Mustard Grill
7399 St. Helena Highway
Yountville, CA 
707-944-2424
M-Th 11:30 AM - 8 PM
F-Su 11 AM - 9 PM

A Day in the Napa Valley: Tank Garage Winery

September 11, 2024 / / 0 Comments

We found the worst wines in the Calistoga.

During my years of visiting the Napa Valley, I have tasted some terrific wines and some cheap ones that only could be described as “drinkable” (hello, Sutter Home!), but never before we’ve had what I can only describe as undrinkable garbage. But I guess there is a first time for everything.

I hate writing these things down, because aside from the wines, we had a lovely experience at Tank Garage, and I love the premise of having a winery on a converted garage. But I guess that’s the problem with gimmicks, you only need one if the product yourself is not up to par.

From the outside, Tank Garage looks the part, with two sparkling clean 50-style gas pumps that match the look of the winery itself. For people still obsessed with 1950’s Americana – which I’m not but can appreciate from time to time -, this helps transport you into the area. At least, in the outside.

The inside is pretty cool as well, though I’m not sure it follows any particular theme. They have several tasting rooms, and we sat at the back one which lacks windows, and is thus pretty dark. It had more the atmosphere of a club, than a garage.

As is the case with other wineries, you do have to make reservations here – and the place was actually booked up when we arrived – someone walked in and couldn’t be seated.

Our table was ready when we got in. Obviously I’d let them know it was my husband’s birthday but now what his name was. Ooops. We did appreciate the gesture and the sense of humor, though.

We were given a menu with the wines available that day – both to taste and wine – though our server chose them for us. I wrote my notes on the menu, and then promptly forgot it, so I’m relying here on my very poor middle age memory. But in general, I can say that I felt all the wines we tasted were bad. Except for the first one, they all did get better once they were oxygenated – but that meant they reached two-buck-chuck quality.

As mentioned earlier, this is a gimmick winery. It specializes in eclectic blends, which seems more thrown together during a drug daze rather than thoughtfully thought about. It doesn’t seem like they ultimately care what they bottle. They only sell at the winery, which is not surprising.

The tasting of what I feel were about 5 wines was $30 – cheap by Napa Valley current standards – but we only had one, as Mike didn’t feel like drinking. He only tasted a couple of the wines here.

We started with Hella Fizz ($50), a  pét-nat. These are wines that instead of having a double fermentation – on the barrel and in the bottle, as in the case of the ones we tasted at Mumm -, are bottled before their first fermentation. The result is supposed to be a light, soft fermentation and an easy to drink wine. Of course, it’s also a much less balanced, mature and sophisticated wine. Apparently, some pét-nat wines can be really good, but it’s clear that Tank Garage chooses this method because it’s much cheaper – though they price these wines as if they were fine champagne.

I found Hella Fizz to be extremely empty. There was nothing to it, barely a hint of grapes. If I had to choose between this one and André champagne, I think I’d go for the André.

It only went downhill from there. The wines we tried Camera Shy ($48), Crushed Hearts ($38), Talk Dirty to Me ($75) and possibly another one I can’t recall all suffered from the same issues. They were weak and practically undrinkable when first poured, and just barely drinkable when properly aerated. For the Crushed Hearts wine, the server lay the need for aeration (though, mind you, he didn’t mention it before we tasted it) on its “carbonic maceration” process, a process that has bunches of grapes sealed into a tank and pumped with CO2. But he did tell us the other wines wouldn’t need it, which was totally untrue. They do. If you are trying them, swirl them for a while before drinking them.

Despite the lackluster wines, we did have a very good time. The tasting was relaxed, our server was solicitous and charming, and the room was nice enough to hang out for a while. I wouldn’t go back, but I’m glad we tried it.

Tank Garage winery
1020 Foothill Blvd.
Calistoga, CA
(707) 942-8265
T-Th 10 AM - 5 PM
F-M  10 AM - 6 PM

A Day in the Napa Valley: A Roman Holiday Gelato

September 10, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Napa is not just for wine.

After champagne tasting at Mumm, we had some time to kill before our next wine tasting experience in Calistoga, so we headed back to St. Helena for some ice cream at A Roman Holiday Gelato.

The small shop serves ice cream and sells espresso, coffee and tea. The ice cream changes from time to time, so you need to check the board for that day’s offerings.

They have set up tables and chair outside, under big umbrellas and it was actually quite pleasant to sit there, even in a rather hot summer afternoon. Even though it’s on the street just around the corner from the main one, it was a sleepy Saturday afternoon, and the only traffic were people going to the salon next door. We had a pretty pleasant time sitting there.

Mike got a cup of watermelon sorbet ($5) and he was actually a bit disappointed. The sorbet was actually a bit too sweet and it did not really have much of a watermelon flavor. I wonder if they used commercial watermelon juice (which doesn’t taste like watermelon either) instead of fresh watermelon.

My cup of brown butter chocolate chip cookie gelato ($5), on the other hand, was fantastic. I’m not sure if the brown butter referred to the ice cream or the cookie, but they were both terrific. The cookie had a rich, caramelized flavor and the ice cream was bright and flavorful and a great contrast. I was nice and shared it with Mike, because it was his birthday – but I’d eat a whole cup on my own. 

A Roman Holiday Gelato
1336 Oak Ave Suite A
St Helena, CA 
W-Mo 12 PM - 7 PM

A day in the Napa Valley: Mumm

September 10, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Mumm sparkling wines reminded us of what Napa is all about

Spending the day in the Napa Valley means one thing: wine tasting. And long gone are the days where you’d carelessly go from winery to winery, choosing them at a whim, without having to worry about reservations and tasting fees. Wine tasting in Napa now requires both organization and money; lots and lots of money.

I decided to go to Mumm after our lunch stop at Guidi’s Deli because I knew I’d be wanting some sparkling wine – in my old age, I’m looking for fun wherever I can get it.

I didn’t realize until we arrived for our 12:30 PM reservation that we had actually been there back in 2016, when relatives from Argentina came to visit. We had sat in the patio back then, but it’d been a lovely spring day. On what I knew would be a hot summer one, I figured seating inside would be a better choice – even with COVID being at epidemic levels once again.

It turned out that I was right, not only was it more pleasant inside in terms of temperature, but we had a lovely view of the vineyards. As no one was sitting anywhere near us, and the room was large and airy, we felt pretty safe.

Our experience at Mumm started with a complementary glass of sparkling wine, offered to everyone. That day, it was the Mumm Napa Brut Reserve ($50), an all around crowd pleaser. It’s 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, some of the wine is aged in oak barrels for a years before being blended and allowed to ferment in the bottle for another four years.

It’s a very well balanced sparkling wine, quite effervescent, and not too much bitterness or acidity. It’s a brut, but it had hints of sweetness. It’s just very easy to drink and what I’d call a happy wine. And it is a mature wine, it reminded us of what Napa is all about – and that expensive wines are expensive for a reason. I totally understand why Mumm features it as their all-around wine.

Mumm offers three different tastings, each of three different sparkling wines, costing $40 to $48 per person. In addition, the server chooses a fourth wine after they get to know your preferences. You can also order cheese plates to nibble on, but as we had just come back from lunch we didn’t bother with that.

We chose to share the “club spotlight” tasting ($45). These are wines only available at the winery and for the wine club.

They served us the first two wines together with the recommendation that we drink them cold – and I, perhaps for the first time, realized the importance of an ice bucket. Even though it wasn’t particularly hot inside, the wine did get warm pretty quickly and all the wines lost their magic once they were tepid.

Our first wine flight taste was the 2018 Blanc de Blancs Reserve Extra Brut ($60) from Napa Valley. This was aged for five years in the bottle. I wasn’t as fond of it. Being an extra brut, it was more bitter than the preceding one. It also had smaller bubbles, which is neither here or there. My husband didn’t taste the bitterness but actually found it frutier and easy to drink. He liked it more than I, but we both agreed it was a very well balanced, non-acidic, adult tasting sparkling wine.

Our second wine, the Devaux Ranch Reserve Rosé ($55), wasn’t too different from the previous one. It was mostly pinot noir with a tiny bit of chardonnay, and made into a rosé (for which, if I remember correctly, they use the peels). This was aged 45 months in the bottle. I felt this wine had a bitter core, but circled by fruity flavors. I’m not the sort of person who can ever tell which fruit a wine is supposed to taste like – but then again, at a recent dinner my friends and I thought a blood orange sorbet was actually guava flavored. Mike once again didn’t taste the bitterness and instead found it very easy to drink, very smooth and just “yummy”. He did feel it had a shorter finish than the previous wines, however.

The third wine in the Club Spotlight was the Brut Reserve Extended Tirage ($60). This 60/40 combo of pinot noir and chardonnay was aged in the bottle for 7 years. It led to extremely small and effervescent bubbles, which just tickled your mouth as you drunk it. It was tasty, not too bitter but just so much fun.

Finally, our server chose for us the Eclipse Blanc de Noirs ($55). It was very similar to the one before, well balanced and extremely effervescent, with those fun little bubbles, but it had a great story behind it. It is made from the grapes harvested on August 21st, 2017, the day of the total solar eclipse we experienced in the West Coast – though it wasn’t a total eclipse here in California.

This was, indeed, the perfect wine for us. Mike and I took our girls to Oregon to see the total eclipse, and as we looked for good locations for it, we found ourselves in a beautiful stream in the forest, with only one other person there. We watched it sitting on the rocks, experienced the full sound effects of the birds going quiet, the temperature going chilly and then the magic of the eclipse itself. Earlier this year, we went to Dallas to see another total eclipse – but the 2017 one was the most special that I will always remember. Needless to say, we bought a bottle of this champagne for a special occasion.

As it was Mike’s birthday, the server very nicely brought him a little box of truffles to celebrate. Of course, we shared them. These included a salted caramel truffle and a brut rosé raspberry truffle. They are made by Anette’s Chocolates in the city of Napa, because we all know that colabs are the order of the day.

I loved the salted caramel truffle, which was rich, not overly sweet and just delicious. I didn’t like the other truffle too much, it was just too bitter and intense for my taste – Mike, of course, much preferred it. I think our tastes in chocolate reflect our tastes in romantic partners as well.

And that was our tasting experience at Mumm. Our server was very efficient, a good story teller, a pleasant conversationalist, and gave us a great experience. So much so that I was actually thinking we should join the club to repeat this. We probably won’t, it’s too much money, but it’s the first time I’d ever been tempted to actually join a club. 

Mumm Napa
8445 Silverado Trail
Rutherford, CA 
(800) 686-6272
Daily 10 AM - 4:30 PM

A day in the Napa Valley: W. J. Guigni Grocery Co. Deli

September 5, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The best sandwiches in the world

I don’t remember when I first discovered Guigni’s Deli in St. Helena, but it was certainly over three decades ago. At that time, the Napa Valley was a paradise for a young like ourselves, short on money but seeking fun and relaxation. Wine tastings were mostly free and abundant. Of course, we needed food to absorb all that wine and Guigni’s Deli became our place to go for lunch. We loved the sandwiches so much ,that I think only one visit to Napa over these three decades, have we skipped lunch there. So when Mike suggested he wanted to spend his birthday in Napa Valley, I knew we would start our day by having lunch at Guigni’s.

It had been many years since our last visit, and the place has changed a bit. There seem to be fewer items for sale cluttering the store – it’s now more of a deli than a grocery. The bathroom behind the dining room in the back was also locked. The deli was also much less busy than we remembered it to be, though we did go pretty early.

What had not changed was the assembly line type of ordering. You should start by selecting your drinks and anything else you want to buy before going to the counter. Then you select and order your meat and cheese behind the meat/cheese counter, move to the right and select and order your bread, your veggies and your condiments, and finally move on to the cashier and pay for the whole thing.

You can then sit at one of the two tables by the front windows or go to the small dining room in the back. Of course, you can also take the food to go and have your own picnic at whichever winery allows you to do so (many no longer do).

As we were early, we were able to grab one of the window tables, which made the experience much more pleasant.

Mike started with a deviled egg, and I was reminded that it was at this deli that I learned about deviled eggs in the first place. I don’t like eggs myself (unless they are made into a dessert), and deviled eggs were not part of my upbringing. Mike was quite pleased, as in the past.

I will admit that, as is my custom, I considered ordering something other than a roast beef sandwich – just for novelty’s sake. But I couldn’t make myself do it. Since that first, amazing roast beef sandwich decades ago, that’s all I’ve ever had at Guigni’s and how could I change now? So I went with the roast beef and Muenster in a soft sourdough bun, standard condiments (including their Guigni juice dressing), tomatoes and added an avocado ($2.50, they use half in the sandwich). My sandwich was large and delicious. Days later, I’m still dreaming about it. It was soooooo good. Really, they have the best sandwiches ever.

Mike also got a roast beef sandwich, but he had his with the standard veggies and dressings, save for tomatoes. He chose brie as his cheese, and loved the whole thing. I took a bite but it was too overwhelming with sprouts for my taste. To each their own.

Mike didn’t get a receipt, but I think the sandwiches were about $15. Not cheap, but totally worth it. 

Guigni's Deli
1227 Main St
St Helena, CA 
707-963-3421
M-Th 9 AM - 3 PM
F-Su 9 AM - 4 PM

Munching Around the Bay: Susie Q’s Pizza Review

September 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This Hayward pizzeria serves great wings, but just average pizza

I discovered Susie Q’s Pizza a couple of weeks ago while going to dinner at Khao Hom in Hayward. I don’t usually pay attention to pizzerias, but they had posters expressing support for Palestinians and calling for an end to their genocide by Israel – which made me want to support them in turn. So when Mike was out to dinner one night, I suggested to my daughter that we get some take out from Susie Q’s. Mike never wants to get pizza, unless it’s Zachary’s.

Susie Q. had pretty good reviews online, and I decided we should try a little bit of everything. They have a family pack for $40 that includes a large one-topping pizza, cheesy bread, an order of wings and a 2-liter soda, and I got that in addition to a sub for my daughter.

The cheesy bread ($10) was really disappointing. It had gotten really good reviews online, but it was way too salty and just not that tasty. It came with a green sauce and a red pasta sauce, neither of which was particularly great either. I still have some of it left in the fridge waiting garbage pickup tomorrow. Needless to say, I wouldn’t order it again.

For my large 1-topping pizza ($25.2), I got half mushroom, half cheese. The mushroom were very, very scant – you’d think they could have used the half they saved on the cheese only part in the other half. Where I tasted them, the mushrooms were fine, but a single mushroom in some slices was just sad. Other than that, the pizza was OK, but not memorable. It has a medium crust, and a good balance of bread to sauce to cheese. It just wasn’t better than any of the other pizzas at local pizzerias. If Susie Q was my closest pizzeria, I’d order it from them – but otherwise there isn’t a particular reason to.

Susie Q has lots of options for make-your-own-pizza, including different sauces and thicknesses, as well as a number of specialty pizzas.

The tossed wings ($13 for 6), however, were delicious. They have them on several flavors and we went with the honey garlic. The wings were very crispy and the sauce clung to them very well. The honey garlic was a little spicy for me, but I could only eat one anyway, as the kids just loved them. I will definitely order these again in the future and try the other flavors.

Finally, my daughter ordered a classic Philly cheese stake ($15), which comes normally with mayo, grilled onions and sweet peppers only. Other toppings are extra, but they didn’t charge her the 80cents for the lettuce (perhaps because she held the onions and peppers). Still, the fact that they charge you extra for lettuce and ketchup since a little bit stingy.

My daughter liked the sandwich, though the filling was a little stingy too. She wasn’t awed by it – she’d have it again if were eating there, but wouldn’t go out of her way to get it.

I really, really wished I had liked Susie Q’s better, as I’d love to support a Palestinian supporting business. And I will give it another try – they also have pastas, and their wings were that great.

Susie Q's Pizza
22580 Foothill Blvd
Hayward, CA 
‍(510) 537-2888
Sun - Th: 11 AM - 11 PM
Fri - Sat: 11 AM

San Leandro Bites: Hanami

August 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This newish Japanese restaurants will put a smile on your face

“You want to go for Japanese food?” Mike was surprised. I don’t eat sushi, so I only tend to eat at Japanese restaurants when I want to treat my older daughter. Mike loves Japanese food, though, so he was game when I suggested we go to Hanami, a relative new restaurant in the Broadmoor neighborhood of San Leandro.

Hanami had attracted my interest unwittingly. The picture that showed up next to its very-good-review of Yelp was that of a cheesecake. I had wanted to make a Japanese cheesecake when I cooked Japanese food several years ago, but I never quite got around it. So I was intrigued with the possibility of actually trying one. Still, it was the thought of having ramen that attracted me to Hanami. In all my year of eating Top Ramen, I’d never actually had gotten ramen at a restaurant, and I thought it was about time. As it happened, it really wasn’t.

Our first impressions of Hanami were pretty positive. The little restaurant is very casual and it functions under the misfortune of having a very square room, but it manages to capture the kitschiness of Japanese material culture without going overboard. It was, overall, a pleasant place to eat at.

We sat by a cupboard with little nick knacks, which provided visual stimulation while we waited. I totally love the rabbits wearing kimonos.

We started our meal with the Gyoza ($7). These deep fried dumplings were served with soy sauce. Mike really liked them and I thought they were good, but the flavor of the shell overshadowed the subtle pork filling. I’m not sure I’d get it again but Mike would.

Mike got the miso soup with his combo, and we both really enjoyed it. It has a very bright, fresh miso broth that was refreshing on a hot summer day. We’d both definitely have it again.

Mike had the Combo F ($27) which came with an unagi roll, three pieces of salmon sashimi, two potato croquettes, two tempura shrimp and some edamame, in addition to the aforementioned miso soup. It was a lot of food on top of the gyoza and he brought most of the roll and the croquettes home.

He enjoyed everything very much. The unagi roll was fresh and very tasty as was the tempura shrimp. He did feel the salmon sashimi was bland – but then again, that’s what you expect from raw salmon and there was lemon and soy sauce to brighten up. The croquettes were delicious, I was amazed at how much flavor they packed. In all, he really enjoyed the meal and would order it again.

I got the ramen ($17) but I messed up, big time. You get to choose our protein and your broth. I decided on chicken katsu, as it’s a favorite, and a pork broth, as I didn’t see a chicken broth in the menu. But then I thought about it some more, and didn’t think that pork broth and chicken would necessarily go together, and not knowing what would work I went with the curry broth. This, as my best friend Lola told me later when I described to her this fiasco, is not a regular broth for ramen – though curry sauce is often eaten with chicken katsu.

The problem came because while I can use chopsticks, I’m not the most competent person with them. And grabbing the noodles of the bowl without dripping the bright yellow broth on my white shirt proved impossible. Every attempt led to an unwashable stain – at least I wasn’t greatly attached to the now ruined shirt I was wearing. The thick spoon with which the ramen was served proved to better. I couldn’t even manage to keep the noodles on it, much less use it to bring them to my mouth. Little kids at other tables were managing alright, so this is just proof of my own clumsiness, but it did make it clear restaurant ramen is not for me. So much for my plans – formulated between the appetizers and the main dishes – of traveling to Japan.

I did eat the chicken katsu and it was… bland. Without katsu sauce, there wasn’t much flavor to it. Dipping it in the broth risked those pesky drops falling on my shirt, so I mostly ate it plain. I wouldn’t order it again.

I took the ramen home with me, packed in a large plastic bowl thick enough that I’ll reuse, and ate it the next day – with a fork and metal spoon. It was quite good. Not out of this world good, but just like you’d expect a generic curry broth to taste. Still, I wouldn’t have it again. What I would have next time is more of that amazing miso broth.

It was finally time for what I really came here for: the cheesecake. They had several flavors in addition to cake slices. I went with the mango cheesecake ($6) and it was everything I dreamed of. Flavor and consistency wise it reminded me a bit of the cheesecakes at Junior’s in NYC. It wasn’t as sweet as a regular cheesecake and a bit chalkier. But it was bursting with flavor, particularly from the pieces of mango – which tasted oh so fresh on that hot summer evening. The thin crust – was it even there or did I imagine it? – tasted like sponge cake, something else that reminded me of Junior’s. In any case, I loved it. I wouldn’t go back just for a slice – it was relatively small and while the price is not excessive for a restaurant, I’m still not used to current prices, but I’d certainly love to eat it again.

We got sodas with dinner, which were $3.

Service was good and attentive. You order by circling what you want with markers on a laminated menu, which helps avoid miscommunications.

In all, I’d go back – probably when my sushi loving daughters is back in town – but I’ll order something else as a main . I’ll still get the cheesecake. 

Hanami
377 Bancroft Ave
San Leandro, CA
(510) 969-4923
Tue - Sun 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM - 8:45 PM
Closed 9/16 to 10/23

Trader Joe’s Cacio e Pepe Gnocchi Review

August 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A solid – but not too solid – dish

I’m a fond of Trader Joe’s frozen gnocchi dishes and this Cacio e Pepe Gnocchi is no exception. The gnocchi were large, pillowy but with some weight in them – they really just that the perfect density. They come in a mild creamy cheesy sauce that is brightened by what you would swear is freshly ground pepper. If you like the flavor of black pepper, you’ll enjoy these.

The package should serve two if you add a salad. I cooked them according to instructions in the microwave, and that worked very well. It sells for $3.50

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