It has happened! San Leandro has finally gotten an Indian restaurant. We’ve hoped for it, begged for it, and it’s finally here. Alas, I haven’t been there yet, so I don’t know how good it is, but it’s here.
My Ultimate Tandoori has opened in the space previously occupied by La Bella Italia. The owners of La Bella Italia are themselves Indian (from the Punjab, I’d guess, as they are Sikh) – but their true love is Italian food. Alas, La Bella Italia was not very successful in its current location, I rarely saw anyone there, so they seem to finally give in and give San Leandro what it really needs: an Indian restaurant. They’ll continue serving Italian food, however. We had desert there last month, and it was quite good, so they’ll hopefully keep that.
As for the new menu, it includes your usual North Indian dishes (they have chicken tikka masala and lamb korma, my favorites), but a bunch of others as well. Indeed, I wonder if their menu is not too ambitious. They have a daily lunch buffet for $7 (11 AM – 3 PM).
I hope I’ll get to go this week – I’ll let you know what I think.
My Ultimate Tandoori
15015 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-278-5899
Daily 11 AM – 3 PM and 4 PM – 10 PM
Page 92 of 162
May 2011 Update
A couple of days ago, Mike was in the mood for sushi and I was in the mood for not cooking, so when he suggested that we go to Fat Fish Sushi, I got in the car and went with him. Clearly, we had all forgotten about our previous experience at Fat Fish Sushi – which we proceeded to replicate almost to the letter.
Fat Fish Sushi has become a very, very modest restaurant. Your order at the counter, but dishes are brought to the table. Prices don’t seem to have increased much since our last foray. Once again, Mike ordered the Lion King roll and the unagi, and once again the thought the former was unimpressive and the latter was OK. I ordered a bento box with beef teriyaki and chicken katsu. The beef teriyaki was just like the time before, bland with an overly sour sauce. The chicken katsu consisted of very small, thin strips of breaded fried chicke with an overwhelmingly sour katsu sauce. Neither was particularly tasty. Mika had a kid’s bento box with two huge breaded & fried shrimps (the breading had no flavor), a California roll, which she sort of liked, and chicken teriyaki, which had a weird consistency.
In all, a meal that should not be repeated.
—
June 2009 review
I’m not a big Japanese food eater (indeed, I don’t eat sushi), but my husband and kids like it, so we go to sushi restaurants from time to time. Of the handful of sushi restaurants in San Leandro, Ozeki Sushi Teriyaki was our favorite. I even liked their teriyaki. It changed names (to Fat Fish), and probably ownership, quite a while ago – and we hadn’t gone back since. Today, however, when I agreed to have Japanese food for lunch, that’s where we headed. I’m sorry to say that the food quality has gone down considerably. Even though I’m not crazy about the other Japanese restaurants in town, I would definitely not go back to this one.
I had the beef teriyaki plate ($8). The beef was tender and lean, and the portion was quite generous, but the beef had not been salted and, in the words of my husband, it was “the blandest piece of meat I’ve ever eaten”. The teriyaki sauce tasted mostly of soy sauce (and yet, not a salty soy sauce). A little salt improved the meat considerably, but not the point of actually calling it “good”. Unless you like bland food, take my advise and skip it.
You may also want to skip the Lion King roll (a California roll with baked salmon & tobiko). Mike speculates that the salmon & tobiko had been added to the top of the pre-made roll and quickly microwaved – the roll had both hot and cold spots. Needless to say he was not impressed.
The miso soup and unagi ($1 per piece) were fine.
In all, a disappointing experience.
Fat Fish Sushi
14701 E 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-614-8900
M-Sat 11:30 AM – 9:30 PM
Sun: 5 – 9:30 PM
The last issue of Food & Wine magazine has an article about the “best new chefs” and a picture of 11 of them in the cover. Mika, my 7-year-old, took a quick look at it and noticed “there is only one girl”. And indeed, she’s right. There are also no noticeable minorities. Do you need to be male and white to be noticed as a chef in America? Or are only white men becoming chefs?
Top Chef, the Bravo TV reality series, seems to have little trouble finding a good number of women and minorities for its show (though most winners have been white males) – so I don’t believe that good, new women & minority chefs are not there, perhaps they are just not cooking at the “bistro”-style restaurants where many new chefs establish their reputations. Or perhaps they are cooking more ethnic cuisine.
Food & Wine Magazine has an article in its latest issue on the question of whether meats should be salted before they are cooked. There are few issues that are as controversial in the area of cooking. Some cooks are convinced that if you pre-salt meat, it will dry out. Others think that pre-salting greatly enhances the flavor. Harold McGee, the food scientist author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
But that’s all theory. What’s actually the truth when you hit the skillet? Food writer Oliver Schwaner-Albright set to find out. He got some meat, salted some a day ahead, and the other right before cooking. Then he roasted chicken and pork ribs, seared steak and braised lamb shanks. The results? Inconclusive.
The pre-salted chicken was more flavorful and moist while the pre-salted ribs were awfully dry. There was no consensus on which steak was better, but the pre-seasoned lamb was definitely more delicious than the other one. So no golden rules, it seems that what works best will depend on the type of meat and preparation. Oh well, I’ll have to continue salting by instinct (or recipe) 🙂
Though I love to write about my experiences with food, I’m not much of a reader of food writing. I use cookbooks mostly for recipes (though some, like Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook
It’s probably for that reason that I did not fall in love with Food & Wine magazine when I started receiving it. It contains lots of long articles about things I care very little about, it has an altogether “posh/foodie” sort of feeling (so very 2005) and I can never find any recipes I want to make. I got the July issue today and I was just about to write lambasting it when, to my great surprise, I actually found some articles I wanted to read (e.g., one on the guy who won Top Chef). First time, I think.
Still, one good issue will not make me renew my subscription.
I had been looking forward to my short trip to Barcelona almost as much for the food I was going to taste as for the places I was going to see and the people I was going to see. With the advent of restaurants such as El Bulli (where I have not been and which does not serve Catalan food) and Manresa (in the Bay Area), Catalan cuisine is achieving some sort of recognition in the US. My sojourn through Catalan cuisine was quite successful and I now wanted to see what Catalan dishes would taste like when cooked right. Alas, I ended up being disappointed, not as much as in the cuisine, as in my own experience with it.
The first problem was that for whatever reason I became a bit stomach sick after arriving in Barcelona – whether the culprit was airline food or a Burger King burger from Kennedy airport, I will never know – but the fact was that I didn’t feel like eating anything my first day in Barcelona. A small lunch at Restaurante Taxidermista in Barcelona’s Plaça Reial was my first introduction to Catalan food – but its brief menu only allowed me to taste pa amb tomaquet (bread with tomato) and some Catalan sausages. They were both very good, however.
I didn’t eat again until the next day, when I ended up by accident (i.e. telling myself “I’ll sit down at the next restaurant I find”) at a Galician restaurant somewhere. Here I had some more pa amb tomaquet, some ravioli with sauce and some grilled quail – neither of which impressed me. Once again I skipped dinner that night.
The next day was the start of the meeting I was attending. I had lunch with my colleagues at Restaurante Mango, on Aveda. Diagonal 635, very near my hotel. Mango does not actually serve Catalan food, instead concentrating on pizzas, salads, pastas and paellas. I had the Tropix pizza (E12) and it was good, though nothing special. My colleagues seemed happier with their salads and pastas – so maybe pizza is not the way to go here.
That evening we had the buffet dinner at Restaurante Contraste, the restaurant of the Hotel Princesa Sofia, where we were staying. This was probably the best buffet dinner I’ve had. Though the selection wasn’t terribly broad, everything they had was fresh and great tasting. I had a simple salad (beware that there are no ready-made dressings, though) and then two of the three pre-made entrees. I think one was cannelloni and the other some stewed meat, very good though a bit salty. There were plenty of desserts, I tried the crema catalana which once again did not impress me – but most of the other bites were quite good. They also have a grill station which I didn’t try, my suspicion after several meals is that Spanish/Catalan beef is not particularly good in the first place. Other people seemed quite happy with their selections, though. I think the buffet is about E45-50, but we got a special group rate. In any case, if you want to eat at the buffet you may want to inquire whether it’s cheaper if you pay for it when you register.
The next two lunches were at the University, where we were served 3-course meals which included wine! Leave it to the Catalans 🙂 The food was quite good though not terribly exiting. Our second dinner was at a popular restaurant in the Gothic quarter – unfortunately I don’t remember the name. We had popular Catalan tapas/appetizers such as croquettes, tomato bread and several things I didn’t recognize – but everyone seemed quite happy with them. I had the veal with brie, which seems to be a popular dish in Barcelona, and it was nice but also not too exiting – the veal wasn’t as tender as you’d wish. I ate it assuming that baby cows are not mistreated in Spain the way they are in the US – I hope that’s true.
Our last dinner was at La Botiga, also close to the hotel. It was also quite good.
So, what am I left with? Well, my impression now is that Catalan food as randomly served in Barcelona is good and solid, but not magical. My standards, however, may be too high – I’ve been cooking a lot of really good Mediterranean food lately (you’d be surprised at how many “C” cuisines are in the Mediterranean), and, if I say so myself, I’m quite a good cook, so it takes a LOT to impress me.
I had my first meal in Barcelona at Restaurante Taxidermista about a week and a half ago. I was quite hungry after having roamed around the old part of the city
for a while, but I was being too picky as to where and what to eat. I
wanted to eat outside, somewhere that had a prix-fix menu that fit my
mood. My pickyness was irritating me to no end, so I finally cajoled
myself into agreeing to sit down at the next empty table I found at
the Placa Reial, where I was as I was carrying on this internal
conversation. That ended up being the Restaurante Taxidermista, not
altogether a bad choice.
The main reason why the Restaurante Taxidermista was not a good choice
was that it has a very limited menu, a few appetizers, a couple of
sandwiches, maybe some seafood stuff I glanced over, nothing much or
much varied. I could have done better elsewhere. Still, there I was,
and there I was eating so I ordered a portion of pa amb tomaquet (E
1.75), literally, “bread with tomato”, a dish consistent of (French
style) bread brushed with a generous amount of olive oil as well as,
well, fresh tomato. It sounds simple, and I had meant to make it when
I cooked Catalan food, but it is such a Catalan specialty that I wanted to try it. And indeed the dish is no more and no less than the sum of its ingredients, it tastes just like you expect it to taste
(though perhaps fresher, given that we are more used to having cooked
tomatoes on our bread), and that´s pretty good. I enjoyed it.
I also had a plate of butifarra, two Catalan sausages with sweet sauteed onions
(E 4.30). The sausages didn´t look that great, but the onions were
nicely caramelized (clearly with the help of some sugar), and the
sweet and hearty flavors went well together. I also enjoyed it.
And that was it. Really. I did have a small coke (E 2.30) and got
some Italian ice cream on the way home, but that was it for my first Barcelona lunch. Pretty sad.
Restaurante Taxidermista
Placa Reial 8
Barcelona
Spain
93 412 45 36
http://www.taxidermistarestaurant.com/
Marga’s Restaurant Reviews
La Botiga is a 3-restaurant chain of mid-priced contemporary Catalan restaurants in Barcelona. A few colleagues and I had dinner at the one located near Avenida Diagonal last Tuesday night, and we were all quite pleased with the experience. We had a very pleasant dinner in the outside patio, the food was good and the service attentive and accommodating.
La Botiga’s menu offers perhaps half a dozen appetizers, plus some salads, and perhaps a dozen entrees (mostly priced E12 and under). My colleagues were all happy with their appetizers which included croquettes and fritters, very fresh asparagus with some sort of sauce and, of course, bread with tomato. They seemed to be pretty pleased with their entrees as well – and they were surprised that the hamburger surprised plate consisted of a stuffed hamburger patty with no bun. I thought my steak kebab lacked ummf and didn’t like the undercooked potatoes it came with, but it was all in all alright. My desert of crema catalana was a little lacking BUT after having made it once and eaten it two or three times, I’ve come to the conclusion that crema catalana just can’t compare with its French cousin creme brulee.
Service was professional and quick – we never lacked for anything, and the waiter happily let me use a credit card to pay part of my bill.
La Botiga 2
Gandesa, 10
Barcelona
Spain
93 410 48 47
http://labotiga.angrup.com/
Marga’s Restaurant Reviews
Marga’s Catalan Menu
Ben and Jerry’s line of organic ice cream flavors (introduced in 2003), has not been doing very well. I haven’t really seen them in supermarkets, and this week they made an appearance at my neighborhood’s Grocery Outlet – for $1.50 each! I tried their organic vanilla and organic strawberry and they were both fine, not spectacular. These are not flavors I usually get, so I can’t say how they compare to the originals.
It’s another matter with Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, which is one of my favorite B&J’s flavors. Alas, I’ll have to continue eating the regular version (usually $3 on sale at Safeway), as the organic version just doesn’t do it. The problem starts with the flavor of the ice cream, the chocolate is just not deep enough, it lacks that almost bitter richness of the original. In a blind test, I would not guess it was Ben & Jerry’s. The lack of flavor continues in the brownie – which is also dry (how do they manage to make a brownie that is sitting in ice cream dry?) and non-chewy. Not a brownie you’d pay to eat. In other words – there is a reason why this ice cream is being sold at Grocery Outlet.
Note: Biggies has closed.
Biggies BBQ has been opened for a couple of months already, but I didn’t find out about it until the San Leandro Times did a story on it last Thursday. Of course I had to go – not just because it’s my moral imperative to review each and every restaurant in San Leandro (except for those that are obviously bad), but also because I like Brazilian food. I will note that while Brazilians love meat and their espetos corridos are legendary, their meat is unfortunately not as good as that from Argentina. Then again, nobody’s is.
Biggies BBQ is a very most restaurant located in the Marina Faire shopping center in San Leandro. It looks like a shopping mall restaurant, it has no decorations or ambiance and the tables/chairs are the cheapy kind. But that in itself is an advantage, as it suggests cheaper food. We went there for dinner the Friday night after the article about them came out, and while the place was pretty empty when we got there, it really filled up by 7 PM or so. Alas, they weren’t prepared for this – the lone waitress could barely keep up with the needs of every table, and every table in the restaurant was occupied. The kitchen seemed to have the same problem, while our appetizers came right away, we had to wait over one hour for our entree. And believe me, an hour with hungry/antsy kids is just not fun.
Biggies’ menu needs to be redone. As it is it lists appetizers, drinks, daily lunch specials, weekend specials and desserts. No, it doesn’t list entrees, which makes it quite disconcerting. Apparently this is because they have different offerings each night (though only a couple of these), though they have the Brazilian BBQ plate ($13) every day. Many of the offerings, furthermore, are listed by their Portuguese name, and the menu doesn’t explain what they are. This all means that the waitress needs to spend some time explaining the menu to each table – which, of course, makes service even slower.
We started with two pasteles, which turned out to be large, square, fried empanadas-like pastries filled with minimum seasoned ground beef ($3 each). Despite the lack of meat I really liked them, the dough was both crispy and doughy and had a nice flavor, the meat was also nicely seasoned (not in the least spicy). The kids liked them too.
We followed by what I thought was the esfirra ($3 each) but, looking online, might have been a joelho (not in the menu), a baked sweet bun filled with cheese and tomato (I think, though the waitress said it was ham). This was also very good.
After an hour or so we had the Brazilian BBQ which consisted of two chunks of beef, a tiny Brazilian sausage and a small chicken leg. The meat was a little tough and overdone (medium rather than the medium rare I’d requested), but it had a great flavor. The intense marinade brought up, rather than hid, the gamy taste of the beef and I loved it. The only problem was that the marinade was too salty. The same can be said about the sausage and the chicken. The latter had a very crispy skin and moist meat. The meats were served with a large quantity of rice and (refried?) beans (which Camila liked).
In all, I was very happy with the food, but Mike and I thought that it was a tad expensive – HOWEVER, I just realized that you can buy gift certificates for the restaurant (dinner only) at restaurant.com – a $25 gift certificate usually costs $10, so you’d save $15, but sometimes you can get them for as cheap as $2 (keep an eye on dealdetectives.com. That would be a savings of $23!!! I wish I had thought about checking restaurant.com yesterday! I don’t know how they can make any money at those prices, which worries me a little (I want them to stick around!).
I will definitely go to Biggies BBQ again – though in several weeks, when it becomes less busy 🙂
Biggies BBQ
13700 Doolittle Drive #110
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-2371
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
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