My persimmon tree is filled with almost ripe fruit, and I’d love to get rid of it. If anyone wants some free hachiya persimmons (those are the type that need to be eaten soft), you are more than welcome to have them. Just e-mail me.
Year: 2007 (Page 2 of 11)
Update: San Gaspar reopened after a fire. I haven’t been back since.
I’ve been meaning to write the restaurant review for San Gaspar for a couple of weeks now, but I haven’t gotten to it so my recollections have gotten dimmer. I can tell you that we went with my friend Arthur and his kids, this is a place they frequent and like quite a bit. I thought it was pretty good too. The food was quite well priced, in the very low teens for pretty large platters. I had the carnitas and they were very good – large chunks of flavorful meat, not too dry. They came with a huge portion of good fries. Arthur had the chimichanga and he also enjoyed it. On the other hand, their quesadilla – which we ordered for the kids – was pedestrian. Mike’s enchiladas were also just OK. Their chips and salsa were pretty tasty, but not old-Chevy’s quality.
The restaurant itself is pretty modest, but it reminded me of the sort of restaurants in Mexico. It was comfortable, and had their been other people there, I’m sure it would have been convivial. As it was, pretty empty, the kids (an we had 5 with us) were able to enjoy some freedom and play around.
In all I had a good experience and would go back. Mike, on the other hand, wouldn’t be rushing back.
San Gaspar Restaurant
201 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 562-6197
The following is a review from one of my readers. My review of Ozeki Teriyaki is available here.
Ozeki Teriyaki / Sushi is located at 14701 E 14th St. We went there on an
impulse at about 7 pm tonight (11/13/07). The decor is plebeian, but never mind that.
The cheery waitress waved us to a table, and at length we got the house
salad: mostly iceberg lettuce, with a sweet-and-sour creamy dressing which
had a faint savor of peanuts. That was accompanied by a very satisfactory
(and plain) miso soup, which made me resolve to make it at home every day.
It’s all probiotic and stuff.
The menu is humongous, because they use the same one for lunch specials,
appetizers, dinners and a la carte sushi. My husband had chicken katsu – and
their tonkatsu sauce tasted better than Tsuru Sushi’s, for some reason. The
chicken was sliced after frying, and was piled attractively on a big chard
leaf. The meat was fresh and cooked in oil that had not been over-used, so
he was happy.
I had trouble deciding, but eventually settled on “Chirashi A,” which
differs from “Chirashi B” only because it’s a smaller dish. I asked the
waitress to describe it. “Sushi rice,” she explained, “and sushi,” gesturing
that the rice lay under the sushi. That seemed a little carb-heavy for me,
but I said OK.
What she brought me was a great big bowl of rice covered with what must have
been half a pound of *sashimi* – raw fish! Mind you, it was excellent fish,
cut into slabs about 1/2-inch thick – but there was much more than I wanted
to eat. Some of it was gorgeous, like the “super white tuna” (as the
waitress called it), which I would happily eat every day. It is almost as
white as typing paper, and shows little or no muscle structure at all, and
it is sheer savory tenderness. There was also an end of octopus tentacle,
sliced lengthwise – good flavor, but very tough. I didn’t eat it, but it was
something to write home about, definitely. There was also a generous helping
of raw salmon, some raw tuna (the usual cherry-red, muscle-striated kind), a
few pieces of halibut (I think), and some white, tough, fishy-tasting bits
garnished with flying-fish eggs. I love flying-fish eggs; they are such a
pretty shade of orange, sparkle like diamonds, and crunch pleasingly in the
mouth. The plate was garnished with big mounds of pink pickled ginger and
wasabi paste – probably colored with spinach and spiked with horseradish, as
the paste kind tends to be, but there was a little sweetness in it that
helped everything harmonize. Nevertheless, I brought home a lot of sashimi.
We are definitely going back – after all, this adventure only cost us $25
for two people – but next time I’ll order something that isn’t raw. Well,
maybe a little side order of “super white tuna.”
Michaele Maurer
Hi Marga,
I’m still religiously reading your reviews. Thanks for keeping us up to
date on the best of the best in San Leandro. 🙂
One of my readers e-mailed me to recommend “Sushi Avenue” in San Leandro. She says they have very fresh fish, large size sushi rolls with generous portions and excellent service staff. “The teriyaki dinners are so large and comes with so many sides that it’s
impossible to finish Prices are pretty reasonable (especially for the portion sizes) and it
has ambience (a plus for San Leandro)” It also has easy parking.
I’ll give a try and let you guys what I think.
Sushi Avenue
1042 Marina Blvd
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 352-5536
Enjoy!
peggy
Last night I had my friend Aamani and her family over for hors d’ouvres and sangria. I wasn’t up to actually cooking, so I let Trader Joe’s do the catering. I got the Coconut Curry Chicken Sticks, the Pastry Bites with Feta cheese and caramelized onions and the Mushroom Turnovers. I’d had all before. The chicken sticks are pretty good but they scream for some kind of dip – probably that Thai sweet and sour sauce. I didn’t have any, though. The mushroom turnovers are also very tasty, a favorite of mine. But the pastry bites were just delicious, I can’t imagine I could make something better. I can seem myself buying a couple of boxes for my next party (hey, nobody needs to know). The only problem is that I may eat them all myself.
I also served TJ’s andouille sausage, which nobody ate, and bread with triple cream brie, which was very good.
I went by the old Casa Maria–Kolbeh–Taqueria–andy & joe’s building a couple of days ago and saw that it’s becoming a Salvadorean restaurant. I don’t know when it’ll open and what it’ll be called (though the name was on the window, I can’t recall it) – but I do wish them luck (and good food!). I’m not crazy for Salvadorean food myself, but I’m willing to be converted!
Mike has just returned a few edited reviews – so I finally get to put them up. Here they are:
–Cafe de la Paz served us its delicious take on Latin American dishes – but did we just get lucky?
-We visited Spettro’s again, for Mike’s 40th, and it was probably one of the most disappointing meals we ever had.
-We celebrated Mike’s 40th again at The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton and had an amazing albeit terribly expensive meal.
-After two visits to Chevys in San Leandro I learned that they just can’t do babyback ribs
Mike stills owes me reviews of Doña Tomás and the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus
Last night I threw my annual Halloween party – a smallish event (as I have a small house) for both kids and adults. I was originally thinking of making a Creole menu – but then my friend Arthur asked me to make empanadas, my signature dish. Arthur is moving away (darn him!) so I figured I’d owed it to him. That meant changing my menu, which wasn’t that big a deal, as I recycled many old favorites. I served.
-Tortilla chips with guacamole (storebought)
–Deviled eggs (Mike’s favorites)
–Meat empandas
–Chicken Satay
–Chocolate chocolate chip cookies
-Pumpkin pie (from Costco)
–Spider cake
The menu wasn’t very Halloweenish, but I wasn’t inspired this year. The food, however, was great. Mike loved the deviled eggs and was happy to have some leftover for today. The meat empanadas received raves – specially from Arthur. I was very happy with the chicken satay. I changed the recipe a little bit because I remembered that last time the sauce had been too spicy to eat. I used 1 Tbsp of red curry paste in the peanut sauce instead of the 3 I originally had written in the recipe – and 1 1/2 tsp of red curry sauce in the chicken marinade instead of 2. It was great, the chicken was only slightly spicy and the sauce was restaurant-quality. I’m going to modify my recipe to show this.
The cookies were pretty good, not spectacular but child friendly. I think next time I’d try another recipe, though, just to see if I can find something even better.
The cake turned out just like the one in the picture. Once again I used a bunt cake from Lucky’s (old Albertsons), good n’plenty’s cut in two for the eyes and a pink full good n’plenty for the nose. Kids loved it.
For drink we had water, coke, Tropical punch and wine. I don’t know what the first few bottles we had were (people brought them with them), but the latest was a 2005 Virgin Vines California shiraz which my friend Alistair in particular liked very much. I’m not one for Shiraz in general, but this one was very nice – even though it came with a screw cap (a la Australian wines). I’m pretty amazed that Virgin has gotten into wines as well, they seem bent on getting into every industry. In any case we enjoyed it.
The party went very well, we had as many adults and children as our house could accommodate and the kids seem to have a great time running around and playing. I was really surprise how 12 kids could not only fit in our house, but play so well together. Hurray for little kids!
Today I took my daughter to lunch at her favorite chain restaurant, Panda Express (783 A Street, one of *three* locations in Hayward). It was much better than I expected. For $5.50 you get your choice of fried rice or a simple chow mein, and any two of about a dozen entrees.
All the meat is tender and seems to be of decent quality.
I didn’t try the fried rice, but the chow mein has “wok hei” – the smoky aftertaste of a properly made stir-fry. The orange chicken (my daughter’s favorite) was tangy and not over-sweet; the crust was not mushy at all. The sweet and sour pork is – well, inoffensive.
I had broccoli beef and black pepper chicken. The broccoli was cut a little too large to be convenient to eat. It would have been more manageable either cut smaller or cooked a little longer. Mind you, it was delicious. The pepper chicken was aromatic with black pepper, but not hot, and strewn with slivers of onion and green pepper.
Very little of the food is prefab; we were able to see a huge glass-fronted refrigerator filled with trays of raw vegetables.
I don’t know that it’s a particularly child-friendly place: most of the chairs and tables are tall, like bar stools, which would be risky for small children. (My daughter’s an adult, so that wasn’t an issue for us.)
There are banners hung from the ceiling proclaiming “Gourmet Chinese Food.” I wouldn’t go that far, but Panda Express presses most of the Chinese-American-cooking joy buttons.
Michaele Maurer
It’s time to update the list of wines I have at home, so I can check it next time I need a wine to match some food. Clearly I need to buy more cheap wines. And clearly I need more special occasions for the expensive wine.
Under $10 wines
Chateau Briot 2004 Bordeaux
Columbia Crest 2003 Two Vines Cabernet Sauvignon
Zonin Proseco Brut
Villar Carlotti Prosecco
Medium Priced Wines
2000 Atlas Peak Vineyards Sangiovese, Napa Valley
Piper Sonoma Brut
Better wines
2006 Bink Sauvignon Blanc, Randle Hill Vineyard (this, like the other Bink wines, we got at an auction for Girl’s Inc – we paid $80 for all four)
2002 Casola Lopez Malbec (my cousin Betiana Lopez gifted it to me in Argentina)
2004 DeLoach Sonoma County Zinfandel ($35 or so, bought at winery)
2003 BV Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon (I think $20, Mike likes it)
2001 Yorkville Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon (bought at winery)
A syrah we bought at Roederer and that’s too high up in the closet for me to look at.
2001 Fife Meritage (was $15 at Safeway off $32)
2003 Bink Merlot, Hawks Butte Vineyard
2003 Bink Syrah Hawks Butte Vineyard
2004 Bink Pinot Noir Weir Vineyard
1999 Roederer L’Ermitage Brut ($45 bought at winery)
Sweet wines
Westover Port (someone must have gifted it to us, doesn’t say which kind, must be around $20)
2005 V. Sattui Muscat (bought @ winery >$20)
2005 Navarro White Riesling ($29 small bottle)
Lustau Dry Amontillado Los Arcos Sherry
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