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Author: marga (Page 93 of 112)
Waikiki Hawaiian BBQ is located in the space that once belonged to Cafe Zula (OK but overpriced) and later to a taqueria which, at least according to my friend Boris, was pretty bad. Even though the space is close enough to city hall to ellicit a healthy lunch trade, the space seems to be doomed and I can’t imagine Waikiki Hawaiian will last long, it just isn’t very good. In a city that’s quickly filling up with Hawaiian restaurants, Hawaiian food fans have better places where to get their fix.
Waikiki Hawaiian offers a large number of Hawaiian plate lunches (starting at $4 for “mini plates” and going up to $6.75 for a combo plate) as well as sandwiches and burgers (starting at $1.65!). They have many things marinated in teriyaki sauce but also some more unusual offerings such as lemon chicken and beef curry. Mike and I decided to try a little of everything, I got the BBQ Mix Plate (teriyaki steak, short ribs & chicken) and he got the seaffod combo (mahi mahi, deep fried shrimp and choice of meat). None of the food was good. The chicken had the weird consistency of processed chicken, the ribs were mostly bone and fat and the little bit of meat was very chewy, the steak was chewy too and the sauce wasn’t very yummy. In all, we were quite disapointed and see no reason to go back.
Waikiki Hawaiian is part of a small chain with locations in El Cerrito and Concord.
Waikiki Hawaiian B-B-Q
635 E 14th St.
san Leandro, CA
510-0-882
Su-Th 10:30am – 9 pm
F-Sa 10:30am – 9:30 pm
Note:
You can read Meathenge’s take on the El Cerrito branch here. It may be that we just ordered the wrong thing.
Last Sunday night I finally cooked my Bahian dinner – as in food from Bahia, Brazil. I had been planning this meal for a WHOLE year. First, I couldn’t find dende or palm oil, an essential ingredient of Bahian cuisine. A friend finally gave me a jar, but I was then missing malagueta peppers which I finally came across in a Latin store in LA. Finally armed with all the ingredients, I set a date for the meal and invited my friends Boris, Vienna and Frank over.
The meal was a great success, the food was excellent and unusual. My friend Vienna is from the Caribbean and she hadn’t encountered those types of flavors either. As everything is cooked with palm oil, everything is awfully fatty but I imagine Bahians can get away with it as their protein mostly comes from seafood, which is usually low in saturated fats. The palm oil makes most dishes pretty orange as well.
In all, I’m very pleased with how the meal turned out and you can find the whole menu here.
Next on the menu: I may make some more Bolivian dishes this weekend and I have a Berber meal planned for next week.
La Plaza Market AKA La Cubana is a Latin market in the San Fernando Valley. My father shops there for Argentine meat cuts for their weekly asado, and they have a plethora of other products imported from all over Latin America. From Argentina they have several brands of cookies, dulce de leche, yerba mate, and even things such as flour (why?). It’s pretty cool and I recommend it to anyone in the Valley.
La Plaza Market
19239 Roscoe
Northridge, CA
818-701-5005
I got this already made flan at Casa Lucas. Heed my advise and stay away from it. This thing was vile. Even though sugar is its second ingredient after milk, it wasn’t very sweet at all. Mostly, however, it had a bitter, medicine-like taste that I can only imagine comes from the artificial vanilla extract. All I can say is “yucky”.
Casa Lucas Market (Number 2, the first one is in San Francisco) is a pretty cool Latin American market on East 14th in San Leandro. As you would expect they have a large selection of Mexican products, but they also carry an eclectic selection of other Latin American products. It’s a relatively small store, so their selection /is/ limited.
I usually go there to buy empanada shells (tapas para empanadas), they also have a nice selection of yerba mate (including in little bags) and a few canned jams and Savora mustard, for some reason. They only have small jars of dulce de leche, though. They did have Havana alfajores (no habannets, though), at $1.60 each they are expensive (about 3Xs what they cost in Argentina) but ooooh, so good.
Anyway, in today’s trip I was able to find cassava (manioc) flour which I need for my Bahian meal (they also have white & yellow corn flour, rice flour and even banana flour) and guaran
This weekend we went to two African restaurants. Friday night it was Finfin
I love the restaurant reviews of the East Bay Express. When I’m looking for a new place to try for dinner, I check the Express first. They review all sort of interesting restaurants (here is where I found The New Zealander, Old Weang Ping and Tropical Paradise) and the reviews are well written and fun to read. They also tend to be much more thorough than those of the Chronicle (which are utilitarian but boring). So if you’re looking for a place to eat in the East Bay, check it out!
eastbayexpress.com | Dining
The East Bay Express has reviewed Xenia!, the new restaurant opened by the Vatran clan in Alamo. The review is mixed, the place still seems to need work, but I still want to go! Maybe in a few weeks, when I recoup from eating out so much lately.
eastbayexpress.com | Vatran’s Flying Restaurant | 2005-04-27
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