This is not to say that these are good snacks for Ms. Diary Mika – but she loves them.
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We saw Luso Mercado appear on East 14th Street, close to the Bayfair Mall, a few months ago. Apparently it relocated from some place else in San Leandro.
It makes sense to find a Portuguese deli in San Leandro, which until recently had a very large and active Portuguese community. Indeed, San Leandro’s other claim to life is to be California’s sausage capital. Many of these Portuguese settlers apparently opened linguiza factories .
I’ve been meaning to go to Luso Mercado for a while, just to check it out and see if they carry Brazilian products as well (they don’t). We finally did a couple of days ago and found that Luso Mercado is, indeed, operated by Portuguese people (they were speaking Portuguese in the shop). The store concentrates on deli products and Port. They have an incredible selection of aged Port. If you’re looking for a ’69 port to celebrate a 35 birthday, you will likely find it here – expect to pay close to $200, however. Their selection of sherry, madeira and other fortified wines is pretty good as well. It takes us five years to go through a bottle of madeira, but next time we run out we’ll certainly go there.
They had a variety of sausages (and linguiza, now we know where to find the real, real thing) and Portuguese cheeses. They also carry many, many cans of canned fish (specially cod), tons of Portuguese olive oil (I’ll try some next time I run out) and assorted Portuguese products.
Luso Mercado Delicatessen
15100 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA 94578-1904
(510) 352-0163
Zachary’s Pizza has, without doubt, the best pizza in the Bay Area. Indeed, probably the world. I’ve never really had pizza in Chicago (whose pizza Zachary’s tries to imitate), but I just can’t imagine how it could be any better.
Zachary’s offers two types of pizza: thin and stuffed. I have never had the thin pizza and I never will (that would seem to me to be a waste of a visit to Zachary’s), so I can’t comment about it. The stuffed pizza, however, is heavenly. What you get is more a cheese pie than a pizza. A bottom layer of dough is covered with tons of cheese (but I always order extra-cheese anyway) and toppings and then topped by another layer of dough. This whole thing is covered by stewed tomatoes. The description, however, doesn’t do justice to the result. You really need to try it to know why it rocks.
Zachary’s has two locations, one on Solano in North Berkeley and the other in Rockridge. They both have an eat-in section which are fairly nice. The walls tend to be decorated with children’s drawings of Zachary’s pizza. Getting a table is usually very hard, specially during peak eating hours. You have to be prepared to wait (or go, put your name down and stroll through the neighborhood). They don’t take reservations, but you can pre-order your pizza when you put your name down, so that it’s ready once you your table is ready.
What we usually do is get take-out (Zachary’s doesn’t deliver, it also doesn’t take credit cards, it’s a cash-only place). We live a 20-minute drive away from the closest Zachary’s (the one in Rockridge) but the pizza is still warm by the time we get it here. My favorite pizza is the plain cheese (with extra cheese), though last time we had one with Canadian bacon and pineapple that was also very yummy. Mike prefers the ones with toppings. His favorite is the Mexican chorizo, a spicy pizza with green chiles and Monterrey Jack cheese. We had both of these last Thursday night and we were all very pleased. A large pizza has 8 slices. We usually each eat two slices for dinner or one for lunch.
It usually takes 40 minutes for the pizza to be ready so order accordingly. I’ve found that the leftovers microwave well, but make sure not to overheat it. I use 2 minutes on high but I have an old microwave.
2011 Update It’s been 20 years since we started going to Zachary’s pizza (and 7 years since my review) and Zachary’s continues to make wonderful, delicious stuffed pizza. From time to time they add more varieties to their menu and prices, of course, go up. Last night we had their Carne stuffed crust pizza ($28 for a large), which comes with Italian sausage, pepperoni, salami, chopped bacon and mozzarella. It wasn’t my favorite. There were too many toppings, they were too salty altogether, and they didn’t let the flavor of the cheese shine through. It was still a great pizza, but not as good as their plain cheese pizza (still my fave). Zachary’s has added a new location in San Ramon now, which we haven’t been to. They take reservations there.
Zacchary’s Pizza
5801 College Ave.
Oakland, CA
510-655-6385
Sun-Thur: 11am-10pm
Fri-Sat : 11am-10:30
http://www.zacharys.com/
We went to La Bella Italia for lunch on Thursday. This is the restaurant that took over Pring’s, our favorite coffeehouse, when the new owner couldn’t make a go at it. I’d gone to Bella Italia twice before at this location, and my impressions of the food had been mixed. The non-pasta dishes had been pretty good while the pasta had been blah.
The lunch menu offers salads, pasta, pizzas and sandwhiches. When Bella Italia was at its old location, lunch there was a steal with pastas at $4 and pizzas $4-5. Prices have gone up a couple of dollars now, so that while the prices are reasonable, Bella Italia is no longer the bargain it was.
Mike had a sausage sandwich and I think he liked it, though it wouldn’t win any awards. I had the tortellini bolognese, the same dish than Mike had had in our first foray into this restaurant, and my impression was similar. It was better than the other pasta dishes we had sampled there since, it was homey and perfectly eatable, though it was more a tomato sauce with meat added than a regular bolognese sauce.
Bella Italia is owned by a Sikh family. Supposedly the owner hates Indian food, which is too bad as I love it, and if there was an Indian restaurant in San Leandro I’d go there all the time.
Here is my previous review of Bella Italia.
Oftentimes when I ask Mike what he wants for dinner, he tells me “chicken cordon blue”. He had no idea what chicken cordon blue was, but it sounded French and complicated and he figured I wouldn’t make it. That way, he didn’t have to actually think of something I could make for dinner.
Every time he mentions it, I call his bluff, tell him what chicken cordon blue is (for some reason he keeps forgetting) and he backs off from it. Finally, I figured that the best way to finish this routine was to actually make some chicken cordon blue so he could decide for himself whether he wanted it or not. I’m not sure now if that was such a great idea.
Chicken cordon blue (fried chicken breasts stuffed with ham & cheese) has never sounded that appealing to me, it made me think of ’50s housewives, but I was determined to find a good recipe. I couldn’t find any on epicurious.com, but allrecipes.com had plenty of well-rated cordon blue recipes. I decided on this one not only because it got great reviews, but because it was very simple and it came with a sauce. It was a great choice. The chicken was quite good and the sauce worthy of its many calories.
I diverged from the original recipe in a few ways. I used prosciutto instead of ham, Provolone cheese instead of Swiss, and beef bouillon instead of chicken bouillon. I also cooked it for only 20 minutes instead of the required 30 as several reviewers had complained that the chicken was too dry. The chicken was fully cooked after 20 minutes so it didn’t require any extra time.
This dish is actually good enough that you could serve to company.
Chicken Cordon Bleu
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- 4 slices Provolone or Swiss cheese
- 4 slices prosciutto or ham
- 3 tbsp. flour
- 1 tsp. paprika
- 6 tbsp. butter
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 tsp. chicken or beef bouillon granules
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
Directions
Pound the chicken breasts until they are very thin. Place a slice of cheese and prosciutto on each breast. Fold over and fasten with toothpicks. Mix the flour with the paprika. Dust the breasts with the flour mixture.
In a large skillet melt the butter. Brown the chicken breasts on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done.
Remove the chicken from the pot and keep warm. Mix the whipping cream with the cornstarch. Whisk gradually into the simmering sauce. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens. Serve the chicken with the sauce.
Monday night I made braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions from this Epicurious recipe. They smelled wonderfully but tasted flat. I think next time I make lamb shanks I may use the Zuni Cafe recipe for braised oxtails.
Friday night was “girls’ night out” for my friend Lola and I. We decided to go to Asena, a Mediterrenean restaurant in Alameda. The food was wonderful and I liked the casual atmosphere. It’s not a place for tots, though, so I doubt I’ll go there again aytime soon.
After Asena we briefly considered going to Tucker’s for ice cream but we were too full. Instead we headed to our usual hangout, Horatio’s, a local steakhouse that also has a very nice lounge where you can eat dessert. Their desserts are very good and it’s a nice place to hang out.
*Update*. We’ve ordered pizza from here a few more times. My impressions continue to be the same, good, standard pizza. For future reference, my friend Tita, who likes thin pizza, didn’t really like this one. Also I hadn’t realized this but they charge for delivery.
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Pizza Guys is a northern Californian chain with a location in San Leandro. As far as I know, it
It doesn’t take much to get a last-minute table at a good restaurant in New York, just a $20-100 a bribe. At least this is what James Beard found out in his bribing experiment in New York. I don’t know if it would work just as well in the Bay Area, but it might be worth finding out.
EPICURIOUS: GOURMET: JAMES BEARD: POCKET FULL OF DOUGH
Tonight for dinner I made Estofado de Vaca Aragon
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