The Blue Dish is closed, at least for now. Rumor has it that the owners have stretched themselves thin between the restaurant and their catering business, and they’ve decided to concentrate in the latter, as it’s more profitable. That’s too bad as I find myself in that area for lunch often and the choices are very limited: Paradiso, which is good but expensive, Cornerstone Cafe, which was disappointing last time I ate there, Viva Pancho Villa!, which is a bit too casual and unexciting for “lunching” and Zocalo, which serves sandwiches catered by The Blue Dish (which I don’t really like).
Plus all my friends like The Blue Dish, and it was the sort of place where you would always run into someone you knew, so I am quite disappointed that it’s closed. I hope they’ll reopen and I’ll keep you posted.
Year: 2006 (Page 6 of 10)
Today Desiree, the kids (sans Camila, thanks God) and I, stopped at Joaquin Deli for lunch. The new owners were there, they’ve taken over and nothing has changed. Indeed, the sandwiches we had were excellent, and the stock seemed to be the same as usual. They greeted the kids with some fruit gummies, which of course they loved.
I talked to them for a little bit and they seem very excited about the place, they also seem to not have anticipated how busy it gets. Still, they are planning to extend the opening hours to 6 PM, and they may change the minimun for delivery from the $25 it’s now. That would be good as we rarely order that much – though given how delicious their pork shoulder is, I probably should just order a couple of pounds and have them bring it over with some sandwiches 🙂
I spent a few days in Belgium a couple of days ago, mostly visiting friends and eating at their home – but we did get out one day, had lunch in Brugge and then dinner in Brussels. We went to restaurants catering to the tourist trade, both offering Belgian specialties with prix-fix menus giving limited choices.
At Brugge we went to the ‘T Oud Kanthuys restaurant, somewhere near a canal – I can’t be more specific. Adriana had some cheese croquettes which were quite nice and I had a pate paysanne (sp?) which tasted like a million others of those. Then she had the carbonnade a la Flamande, which was quite good – just like the one I made for my Belgian dinner. I had rabbit in a wine sauce (I think), which was also surprisingly tasty. For dessert I had an apple tart, and I don’t remember what Adriana had. Lunch with a coke and a beer came up to about $40 euros (service charge not included) – about $50. Not bad for a multi-course lunch of such quality.
Dinner in Brussells was at the “Aux Arcades” at Rue des Bouchers. I had the “cheese fondue”, which actually was very much like the cheese croquettes Adriana had had for lunch: thick chunks of cheese, breaded and deep fried. Good but not what I was expecting – though this seems to be what they mean by “fondue” in Belgium. I can’t remember what Adriana had as an appetizer. As her entree Adriana had their moules, not fried but in some sort of sauce. She was less than impressed by them. I had the carbonnade, which once again was good but I felt the beef was tougher than it had been that morning for lunch. Dessert was some sort of tart, not very impressive. In all, we felt the meal had not been as good and for E58 ($73), including two beers, it wasn’t nearly as good a deal.
That was it, no other Belgian food for me. I may have to go again.
Last week I went to London for a meeting, and I got to taste kangaroo. Needless to say, it was the first time. It was served in a salad, and the vinagrette dressing overpowered the flavor of the meat (served medium rare), but it had the look and texture of beef, but a milder flavor, sort of like venison. I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to order it again, but I’m glad I tried it.
Indeed, this is the second exotic meat I’ve tried recently. On my trip to the northwest of Argentina last December I had the opportunity to try llama – both in empanadas and as a steak served with the sauce. I found the meat reminiscent to pork, rather dry and not very flavorful in itself, but good with other condiments or sauces. Again, not something necessarily worth ordering but for the novelty aspect.
Alas, what I did not have in this very brief trip to London was either Indian food or fish & chips. Or anything, really. I had a couple of pasties – self contained bready pies with meat fillings – and they were very good. I imagine they are full of calories, but they do make a cheap and convenient meal. Other than that, I either ate at the conference or at the home of the friends I was staying with. And given the prices of the food in London (and everything else for that matter), I can’t say I feel too bad about that.
Perry’s Food for the Soul, the Bar-B-Q place in the Pelton Center, is closed. Perry’s had replaced another BBQ place, Bar-B-Que & Seafood Unlimited, and has in turn been replaced by yet another BBQ place, Pelton Smoke BBQ. The menu has remained virtually unchaged, though it now also features Korean style BBQ chicken, beef and ribs ($7-8), Oysters ($10, small, $13 large) as well as chili ($3-4.50) and burgers ($5-7).
A year ago I had heard that Perry’s wasn’t doing well and might have to close, but then I heard nothing else. We went there a few weeks ago and they seemed to be doing well, they just had had a large catering order so the only things left were links, an order of ribs and an order of chicken. We tried it with the mild and medium sauces and liked them better than the first time we tried them. Though still, we felt they weren’t as good as E&J’s.
But I guess the business wasn’t doing well enough, or Stephanie Perry, the owner, just got tired of struggling, for it’s been sold. It’s difficult to believe that the same kind of business can do better under new ownership. They are charging similar prices, and I can’t imagine they’d have the community support than Perry’s might have. But who knows? Perhaps their sauce is a killer. I’ll have to try it sometimes and see.
I’m a little late with this posting but better late than ever, right?
Last April was Mika’s 4th birthday. We had a party for her the day after her birthday, but I wanted to celebrate the actual anniversary of her birth – so I invited our friends Desiree and Grant, and their kids Trent and Kali, as well as our friends Regina and Boris to meet us for ice cream at the Ice Creamery. The Ice Creamery is an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in downtown Castro Valley, which serves Fenton ice cream in more informal surroundings.
We’ve been to the Ice Creamery many times before, when we want to treat ourselves or the kids, and this time it was a real treat.
I don’t know if they take reservations, we certainly hadn’t made any, and when we got there around 6 PM or so on a Saturday evening the place was hopping. There were no tables to be found. The hostess/waitress (it’s not clear who is whom there), however, tried very hard to accomodate us and was able to put some tables together as people left them so that we all got to sit together by the window. They were very efficient with the service, getting us menus and our orders in and out quite quickly, considering how busy the place was, and making a special effort to bring the kids ice cream first. Considering how antsy they were – 4 yo’s are not known for the patience – this was very welcomed. They even put a candle on Mika’s ice cream and everyone sang her “happy birthday”. At her age this was thrilling rather than embarrazing.
The kids were able to run around and play around and all in all had the most wonderful time. I think we will make going to the Ice Creamery a yearly birthday tradition.
My friend Aamani, like me, works from home so once every couple of weeks or so we get together for lunch. Last week we went to the Cornerstone Cafe. I’ve been there from time to time since I wrote my review some years ago, and I usually enjoy our brunches there. This time I wasn’t that impressed by lunch. I ordered a cheeseburger and I specified that it be medium rare (they asked). It wasn’t – there was no hint of pink to the meat and it tasted dry and boring. The accompanying fries were standard. Service was friendly and prices are reasonable, and I think Aamani enjoyed her sandwich, but I’ll stay away from the burgers here.
Cornerstone Cafe
600 Dutton Avenue
San Leandro
510-562-2535
Last week was my birthday – and this year I decided to celebrate it thrice. I had a “Murder Mystery Birthday party” the Saturday before, a pizza & cake party the evening of, and a tea party the Saturday following it. Plus my friend Regina took me out for brunch the day after the first party. Cool birthday week 🙂
The murder mystery we played for the first party was Free Form Game’s Curse of the Pharaoh, a role playing game situated in Egypt in the late 19th century. I didn’t really want to serve an Egyptian menu – I lived for a year in Egypt and I wasn’t terribly fond of the food – but I still wanted to keep with the Middle Eastern theme – while keeping things as easy as possible. So I served an array of spreads: flavored hummus and Tahina sauce from Trader Joe’s, leftover bulgarian red-pepper and eggplant spreads, homemade cucumber-yogurt salad (salt diced cucumber and let it drain, mix with plain yogurt, crumbled dried or fresh mint, chopped garlic, season with salt & pepper) and pita bread. I also added some stuffed olives, also from TJ’s. For dinner I made my famous Chicken Tagine with honey and apricots. This is a relatively simple dish to make and it’s absolutely delicious. It also escales well (I doubled the recipe to serve 13, and we probably had enough food left over for 4), it’s exotic yet accessible and works great for company. People loved it. I served it with buttered couscous.
For dessert there was birthday cake – a little chocolate & almond cake from Just Desserts I got at Costco. It was $15 – the same price as their larger chocolate cakes (which I was going to get before I saw these ones) – and much, much better. The cake was quite moist and very rich, and it fed 13 of us with several leftover slices. I served it with vanilla ice cream.
In all, the food was excellent, the game a lot of fun, and the company couldn’t have been better.
Thank you Mike for organizing it, and Regina, Lola, Iggy, Vienna, Frank, Victoria, Geoffrey, Penelope, Ramiro, Desiree and Grant for coming and making it possible!
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The day of my birthday I had a small party to which a few friends who couldn’t make it to the mystery party came. I got stuffed pizzas from Zacchary’s, which are, of course, my favorite. This time I ordered a Mediterranean pizza for the vegetarians among us and it was quite good – it has feta cheese, artichoke hearts, olives and peppers. Of course, I got a cheese one for the kids and a chorizo one for the meat lovers among us. We were all in cheese heaven.
I also made my mixed greens salad and I actually ate quite a bit of it 🙂
For dessert I got a Safeway three-mousse cake. I’ve gotten this cake several times before and it’s always a crowd pleaser. Nobody can believe it actually comes from Safeway. It’s also about $15 and it feeds 12 quite easily (it’s also rich so you don’t need to serve huge slices).
In all I had a great time, and I was quite happy to be able to share this time with friends.
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Finally, last Saturday I went to tea with my usual gang of friends, though this time Boris also joined us. We went to the Garden Court at the Palace Hotel and, of course, I had a great time. I already wrote a review which is waiting Mike’s editing but in summary the place was beautiful, the food was amazing, the teas were high quality, but the service was rushed and we felt unwelcomed to linger. That’s too bad as otherwise it could have been a superb experience.
Afterwards we went to the Ferry building and tried some olive oils. I was too full to try anything else, though Charlotte actually managed to eat a whole hotdog! It was a nice afternoon.
Now my birthday is over, but Sunday is mother’s day so I still have something to look forward to 🙂
A week or so ago I found (organic) green garlic at the farmer’s market. I’d had heard of it for the first time only recently, when it was featured in one of the dishes we ate at Chez Panisse. But I figured it was worth trying to cook with it.
You basically use it like green onions or leeks, slice/chop the bulb plus the white and light green parts of the stem. It has a much milder taste than regular garlic. I tried mine both chopped and mixed in with mashed potatoes and mixed with cheese as a stuffing for hamburgers. In both situations we really liked it, though I think it’s particularly flavorful when it’s been browned.
Green garlic has a short season in the spring so get it now and give it a try.
A couple of weeks ago I bought organic celery at the Farmer’s Market – it came in a bag. I left it out on the table that afternoon, in moderate heat. By the evening it had completely wilted. Or had it? Had it been like this all along? I must confess that I’ve never seen such flacid celery in my life – not that I’m a celery connoisseur or anything. Weird.
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