Available at:
http://www.marga.org/food/int/bahrain/
http://www.marga.org/food/int/brunei/
http://www.marga.org/food/int/acadia/
Year: 2007 (Page 5 of 11)
Once again I forgot to buy onions so I can’t make the dish I meant to prepare for tonight. *Sigh* This happens to me too often.
I think I’ll suggest that we go to Los Pericos for dinner – and buy some onions on the way back. At least I can prepare the food tomorrow.
Updated Review – August 2009
Sweet Fingers is a Jamaican restaurant that has been opened in San Leandro since May. And yet, it wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I finally visited it.
It’s not that I didn’t try to go before, but even though it does have a sign with the Jamaican flag outside, it is still pretty hidden. The best way to locate it is to remember that it’s just across the street from Angelina’s.
Sweet Fingers is located in what probably used to be a bar. There are no windows, and the bar area is quite large. There isn’t much in the way of decor, just wire tables and chairs. It’s definitely a no-frills sort of place. That said, they have reggae music on weekends, and it’s perhaps better considered a music spot where they also serve food. Indeed, we were the only people who were there for lunch that Tuesday at noon.
It’s a pity because the food at Sweet Fingers is pretty good. Nothing outstanding, you won’t go home thinking San Leandro finally has the restaurant it deserves, but I liked it nonetheless.
Their lunch menu is very short. If you want meat, your choices are between jerk chicken and curry chicken – there is also a fish sandwich and quite a few vegetarian options. The dinner menu is broader and includes beef, lamb and oxtail as well as several seafood choices. The vegetarians are, once again, well covered. Lunch prices are $6-11, while most dinners are $15-16.
Aamani decided to go for the jerk chicken dish ($8), while I had the curry chicken ($9) just to be different. Indeed, the main difference between the two dishes seemed to be the curry sauce. We both found the chicken to be very good, moist and tender. The slightly spicy jerked flavor was very nice, but the skin could have been crispier. Perhaps it was better that it wasn’t, as there was little temptation to eat it. The curry sauce was very mild, nice but not compelling. The dishes came with rice and beans (I thought they were OK, but I’m not crazy about rice and beans to begin with) and with two slices of fried banana, these were great. A side dish of cornbread ($2) brought a huge, crumbly slice. I couldn’t decide how much I liked it. I think it was nice, but not extraordinary. Finally, my coke was flat.
Service was good but slow. That’s probably because the food had to be made from scratch when we got there – and we did appreciate the freshness of it.
I’ll definitely go again. Next time I’d like to try it for dinner, though. It’d also be an ideal place to go late at night, on weekdays it doesn’t close until midnight.
Sweet Fingers
464 E. 14th St.
San Leandro ,CA
510.553.9869
M-Th 11 AM – 12 AM
F-Sa 11 AM on
http://www.sweetfingersrestaurant.com/
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
I’ve just posted my entire Burmese Menu based on dishes I cooked over three nights. I wasn’t awed by the food, but it was satisfying.
This is the first time I’ve ever tried a Pinotage so it’s difficult for me to know how Zarafa’s compares to other wines of the same varietals. For me, it was a complete different experience in wine. I can’t quite describe the sharp flavor with which its greets you. Wood? Dark chocolate? Dark chocolate covered wood? I read somewhere that it smells like band-aids and I have to say I agree, but the taste has me dumbfounded. Following that is a medium-to-light body, which disappears into nothingness. Am I drinking water? It does have a lingering flavor, somewhat sweet and plumy. But very earthy and leathery. Yes, I think that’s the right word, leathery.
In all, it was a complete new experience in wine for me – though it did remind me of certain Argentine table wines. It’s not an experience that I enjoyed tremendously, but it was OK and I will finish the bottle. Mike, OTOH, didn’t like it at all.
Tonight we had leftover lamb with TJ’s Thai Red Curry Sauce. I really like their yellow curry sauce, and this one is not bad, albeit too salty for me. It’s a bit on the spicy side, but nothing that some rice can’t cure. It was good for a change of pace, but I think I’ll stick with the yellow one in the future.
Last night our friends Desiree and Grant came over for dinner and I made a Brazilian meal. It had been a while since I’d had a dinner party and made one of my international dinners, and I was very happy to do it again – even though I find cooking so many dishes at once pretty stressful.
The Brazilian menu turned out great, fortunately – and I’m now looking forward to the next international meal I’ll cook.
I had read that feijoada, a famous Brazilian sausage and black bean stew, went very well with Argentinian Malbec. Alas, I didn’t read that until the last moment, and when I went to serve it the only Malbec I recalled having at home was the 2005 Black Mountain Malbec, Watson’s Grove – a California wine. (Later I remembered that I had a Malbec I had brought with me from Argentina a few years ago). It’s a cheap wine (about $6), but it seemed like the best option for dinner.
It wasn’t bad. It had a medium body – as Malbec’s tend to do – and a fruity finish. It improved magnificently with dinner, bring forward hints of oak and black cherry. All in all, a good but not great, table wine. But whoever said feijoada and Malbec went well together, was right.
Friday night I made a Bahraini stuffed leg of lamb for dinner. I messed up on the lamb – it came out too chewy – but the stuffing was great, albeit too scant for how good it was.
Recipe at here.
Last night we opened the bottle of Vintner’s Cellar Dolcetto we won at the “Day at the Casa” raffle a couple of weeks ago. We’d drank the other of bottle of wine we won previously. The wine itself was pretty good. It resembled a muscat in being golden and sickingly sweet, and it tasted of honey and fruit. It was a bit alcoholic, though, reminding me of a madeira. It had a smooth, yet bitter finish. We both liked it.
Alas, I’m puzzled as to what this wine actually is. I researched it on the internet, and dolcetto is a black grape from Italy. The wine it produces is dark red, as I confirmed by doing a search of images of dolcetto. This one, as mentioned, was golden colored. Still, the bitter finish is associated with dolcetto – was it for that, I’d just conclude it was a mislabeled muscat.
The wine was produced by Vintner’s Cellar, a make-your-own-wine chain. It’s labeled as a Vintner’s Cellar wine, so I don’t know if this means that they made it, or if the person who donated it made it there but did not use a customized label. To add to the puzzlement, Vintner’s Cellar at least now does not offer dolcetto or muscat. Also, there is no Vintner’s Cellar in this area, so this wine must have travel somewhat.
All that said, it was pretty good, and we are sure to finish it.
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