The Castro Valley Adult School will be offering several cooking classes this summer. These include Cake Decorating, Doughnuts making, BBQing and Mexican & Southern cuisine. Castro Valley has classroom with 3 kitchens in it, so the classes are very hand-on.
The San Leandro Adult School does not have a kitchen-classroom but it has offered cooking classes in the past. Their class catalog/schedule for the summer is not yet in their website, and I haven’t seen a paper copy – so I don’t know if they’ll have them this summer.
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Mika made pancakes all by herself this morning! It’s the second time she makes them, but last time she wasn’t very clear about directions/proportions. She didn’t relize that 1/4 cup of sugar was different from 4 cups of sugar 🙂
This time we took out all the ingredients together (good thing, because I put something in a jar that looks very much like coarse sugar – I don’t know what it is, but I suspect a dangerous chemical), and we went over the proportions (what is a cup, what is a tablespoon and what is a teaspoon). The result was that she did very well – she even remembered that we needed to include sugar, which I’d left out when I copied the recipe!
The pancakes came out great, very fluffy and great tasting! We didn’t have any maple syrup (a visit to TJ’s is in order), but we ate them with a strawberry sauce and whipped cream. The strawberry sauce was great, all I did was put a bunch of washed, cut strawberries in the blender, add a little bit of water and some sugar. How much of each will depend on your strawberries (how sweet they are) and blender. Mika really liked the sauce (I did too)! By itself, is also healthier than maple syrup – and cheaper! I learned the “recipe” in a cooking class on sauces I took at the Castro Valley Adult School.
This time I actually cooked the pancakes myself, I’m a little weary of letting her cook by herself now. She’s still a bit too short to comfortable see and handle pans on top of the stove and, like her mom, she can be a little clutzy.
She wants us to have a tradition of Saturday morning pancakes. I know that traditions are really important for kids, and our lives are pretty disorganized, so that may be a nice thing to do.
It’s unlikely you’ll find anything if you look for “Hart Authentic Orange Chicken” online – at least I didn’t find anything when I looked. It seems that this frozen entree is made by Hart Food Products from Lakewood, CA. I bought it at Grocery Outlet, and I imagine they are their only distributor. Actually, given Hart’s pathetic website, it’s difficult to believe they are any sort of serious company. Which really tells you something about where Grocery Outlet sources its products. And indeed, orange chicken seems to be one of only three or four products Hart offers .
Anyway, I was in Grocery Outlet yesterday and thought I’d take a look at the frozen stuff they had, as I’ve been feeling less and less like cooking lately. This orange chicken product didn’t seem too bad – at least in comparison to the brand-name frozen food products. Yeah, it has a lot of salt, corn syrup and a myriad of preservatives, but so do all the brand name products. At least it had chicken as its main ingredient 🙂
It’s not obvious from the picture in the package, but this is really popcorn chicken – which is annoying as that means it has much more breading than you would like. It’s uncooked so you need to bake it for 20 minutes, pan fry it for 10 to 15 minutes, or deep fry it for 6 minutes. Then you mix it with the orange sauce which comes in 3 packages. You can’t microwave it.
As for the taste, it met our very low expectations. Mike found it too bland, while I thought the chicken had a subtle “off” flavor. The sauce was OK, somewhat orangy and not too sweet.
I’m unlikely to buy it again.
** UPDATE July 2012**
The owner of Hart Chicken e-mailed me a few weeks ago and told me they’d made changes to their product and to give it another try. I was reluctant, because one of the changes involved getting a different supplier of chicken pieces that produced more uniform – but smaller – pieces. I figured one of the major problems was the size of the pieces, so this wouldn’t help. But I figured I would give the product another try (though it would have been nice if he’d sent me a coupon rather than I having to buy it myself) and I was happier than the time before.
The pieces are still small (they need to be in order to be ready within a reasonably period of time, given that they are not pre-cooked), but this time I went into the meal experience thinking of it as popcorn chicken. So I wasn’t disappointed by their size.
I also used much less oil than the instructions called for, which you can do if you stir fry the chicken.
The sauce was supposed to have an improved flavor, and I think it did. It was just the right amount to coat all the chicken – though a bit more would have been welcomed for any rice or veggies you might want to throw in. I did note this time that the sauce takes on a full 10 oz of the 32 oz of the package, which is quite a lot.
Anyway, Hart Orange Chicken is still not for me, though as you can see below it has many lovers (and haters).
The downtown San Leandro farmers’ market is back again for the summer season. It opened yesterday with some band playing that fortunately wasn’t as loud as bands last year. We found most of the same food stands from last year, in addition to a new prepared foods stand: Casbah Exotic Food. They serve a short, but eclectic, list of dishes – if I well remember Moroccan chicken, curry chicken, gyros (I think beef) and a steak sandwich. I’m pretty sure they had another item as well. I think all the plate were $5.
I had the Moroccan chicken plate, which really was a chicken gyro. It consisted of a pita bread covered with lettuce & some tomato, and some pieces of pretty bland chicken. I ate it but did not enjoy it, and I was hungry afterwards. Mike had a slightly better experience with his gyro. He liked the marinated beef, but thought that the portion was also too small. $5 is not much, but I rather pay a dollar or two more and be satisfied.
Fortunately Meyers BBQ is back with their chicken teriyaki and huge hot dogs.
Now that I have Grocery Outlet so close, I figured I’d start making a list of what I /can/ and /cannot/ find there – for my reference as well as yours. As more items come to sight and mind, I’ll add them to this post.
Not Available
Whipping cream
Fresh herbs
Spaghetti
Fresh bread
Sugar
Meat I’d want to eat
Fish sticks
Any soft toilet paper
Name brand cleaners
Natural peanut butter
Available
Grapes
Avocados ($1.50!!!!)
Melons
Off-brand bacon that was actually good
Tyson chicken (which I don’t want to eat)
Stouffer meat lasagna party size for $10
Frozen bagels stuffed with cream cheese (it could be worse)
$3 bottles of wine
Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider
Sliced bread
Analgesics
Nescafe/Tasters’ Choice Instant Coffee
Lemons (I think 25c each)
Jiffy peanut butter
Ana Rosa’s occupies the space previously occupied by El Novillo, also a Mexican restaurant. It’s only a few yards away from my house, so I was hoping it’d be great – or at least good. Alas, I’d qualify it as simply “OK”.
I went last night, with Mika and Camila, to “celebrate” Cinco de Mayo. I was too lazy to walk all the way to Los Pericos, my favorite taquería in town and too unprepared to make something at home either. So Ana Rosa’s it was.
I ordered a beef quesadilla ($7), while Mika had a regular chicken burrito ($5) and Camila had a small plain cheese quesadilla ($5). The menu did list the plain quesadilla at $5 – but when the waitress asked me if I wanted a large or small quesadilla, I assumed that the small one would be less. My bad, I paid $5 for a tiny tortilla filled with a little bit of cheese. Outrageous.
My beef quesadilla was larger – it consisted of an oversize flour tortilla, filled with cheese and diced beef, folded in half and toasted. It was served with a scoop of guacamole (the thin, runny type), sour cream, lettuce and a slice of tomato. Personally, I don’t really like toasted tortillas. I much prefer the method used at Los Pericos in which a large flour tortilla is steamed, filled with the beef, cheese, salsa, guacamole and sour cream (and lettuce, if you want), and then rolled as a burrito – but that’s why Los Pericos is my favorite taqueria. This quesadilla tasted just fine, the flavor of the meat was overwhelmed by the toastiness of the tortilla, but there wasn’t anything disagreeable – or particularly agreeable – about it. I just didn’t dig it.
Finally, Mika’s burrito was quite large, filled mostly with rice. Mika didn’t like it, or at least didn’t eat it, so Mike had it for dinner later on. He found it to be completely bland, he says that he’s liked every other burrito he’s had more – there was just nothing to this one.
As for the restaurant, Ana Rosa’s has a very small dining room – but it was full when we went on a Tuesday around 5:30 PM. They have sit-down service, and the lone waitress amazingly managed to serve the whole dining room and calculate the checks by herself. She was very pleasant and the service was good. As for the place, there is no atmosphere to it – just a place to go and have a quick bite to eat, not to linger.
All in all, I’m sad to repeat that Ana Rosa’s fails as a taqueria that I would frequent. I can imagine I’ll go again, but just because it’s so close to my house. But even then, I can’t imagine it’ll be anytime soon. I’ll get off my butt and go to Los Perico’s.
Ana Rosa’s Mexican Restaurant
2089 E 14th St # C @ Estabrook
San Leandro, CA
(510) 357-3022
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Update: This restaurant is now closed.
The following is a message I got about a restaurant on the road between SF & LA. I haven’t been there – but after that recommendation, I’ll definitely try it.
My wife and I stop at the Planeta Rojas Café in Button Willow each time we travel to L.A. and return.…it is down the way from the Taste of India…in back of the Shell Gas Station.
While you have to push past that they prepare their food out in front in a portable “Taco Coach” and you order inside the red building…the food is excellent. I am a Mexican Food lover and connoisseur…I grew up in L.A….spend a lot of time in Mexico..and know the best places in the Bay Area. Nobody, not any restaurant from Mexico City to any place in the Bay area….touches their Chile Relleno…it is all made fresh…this is not fast food…but, they serve it quickly. Try the Chicken Tostada if you’re on a diet. The prices are cheap…and a complete lunch for 2 is $13 to $20…including a soda.
One other thing…you might think the owners are just arrived from Mexico…a married couple…they’re not, both hard working & very friendly and proud parents of a new U.S. Marine stationed in San Diego…just joined and doing his boot camp. He joined for 6 years to become an Military Police. You won’t be disappointed.
Mike Emley
Last night I made a heart clogging pasta carbonara from this Fettucini Carbonara recipe at allrecipes.com. I’ve made other pasta carbonara recipes, and I’d been disappointed with them. This one, on the other hand, was absolutely delicious, beyond restaurant quality, by far the best carbonara recipe I’ve ever made. What’s interesting it’s that it didn’t differ much from other carbonaras, so I’m not sure what made it that good. It might have been the center-cut bacon, which was an unknown-to-me brand from Grocery Outlet – but who knows?
Here is the recipe:
Pasta Carbonara
Ingredients
Instructions
Heat olive oil in a heavy sauce pan over medium heat. Saute the shallots until soft. Add the onion and bacon and saute until the bacon is almost browned. Add the garlic, saute until the bacon is nice and crispy and keep warm over very low heat.
Meanwhile make pasta in lightly salted water.
Also meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, cream and cheese together.
Drain the pasta, put in a large serving bowl, add the bacon mixture, then the egg mixture, mix well and serve.
I’d bought some frozen mahi mahi at Trader Joe’s, and I wanted a child-friendly recipe to use them up. I found one for Mahi Cutlet with Meyer Lemons and Capers at the Food Network, which got very good reviews. I, of course, made it with regular lemons (you can read my rant about lemons here). The results were mixed. I liked the fish itself, the breading was crispy and stayed on the fish, but it was bland. Next time I’ll add salt to the eggs.
The sauce, OTOH, was a complete waste of expensive ingredients. It was bitter, too sour, and had a weird off-taste. I think the fish would be better with just lemon juice added.
Camila really liked the fish – and this is a child that has a “it’s yucky” attitude to everything I make. She called it fish nuggets, and I guess that was enough for her to eat it. Mika wasn’t hear for that dinner, but I think she may try it next time.
Of course, fried fish is not ideal for anyone, but I’m hoping that if they start eating fish this way, they’ll accept it in other permutations later.
Today was the (unofficial) opening of the new Grocery Outlet “supermarket”, located a stone throw away from my house. I was a little dubious at first about what the store would do for the neighborhood (and clearly, this is not a posh neighborhood by any stretch of the imagination), but once I looked at it from the point of view of how this would ease my grocery shopping, I welcomed it with open arms. Indeed, I think I may have been responsible for suggesting this location. I remember distinctively talking to the manager-to-be of Grocery Outlet a couple of years ago, when they wanted to place it in the old-Albertsons building downtown (which we fought), and suggesting that the lot by my house would be a better location.
Of course, being that it opened today, we had to check it out today – and we were pretty impressed. Bear in mind that the store is brand-new (well, the building itself was vacated by the Salvation Army, but it’s been cleaned and painted so that it’s now unrecognizable), so you would expect it to look nice – and it did, the aisles were wide, the light, functional, and the colors, soothing. It wasn’t as faux-quaint as Trader Joe’s, but not as austere as your regular supermarket either. Everything was nice and neat (again, as you would expect), I can only hope it stays like that.
Now, for what matters, what does Grocery Outlet carry? Well, clearly they are attempting to be like a real supermarket and they carry a little bit of everything, specially vis a vis packaged stuff. Most of their products seem to be overstock – things that didn’t sell that well at other markets. I think that will mean that what’s available will change frequently. Today, for example, they had Haagen Daz sticky toffee pudding ice cream – a flavor introduced in 2006, that seems to no longer be on the market (at least it’s not listed in their website). No choice, but it was just $1.50 – about half the supermarket on-sale price. They also had off-brand stuff, but much less than what they use to sell when I frequented the Berkeley location. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, some of that off-brand stuff (I remember the frozen baked Alaskas) was pretty good. As you can expect there are lots of canned stuff.
Prices are generally low, but not everything is a bargain. Haas avocados were $1.50 – three times as much as what Smart & Final and Mi Tierra supermarket has them for this week. Suave shampoo was $1.50, about the same price as the Safeway’s. But Nestcafe coffee was about $3 less than it’s at Safeway.
They had a surprisingly large wine selection – mostly of cheap wines, of course. I’m thrilled, as this will mean that when I need wine for a dish and don’t have any 2-buck-chuck at home, I can just go across the street and get something.
In all, I don’t anticipate doing my shopping per se at Grocery Outlet, but rather use it as a place where to either get specific things that I know they have them for less – or to go and get something I realize at the last minute I’m out of (darn! I didn’t check if they had flour).
I will, however, write from time to time about special bargains that they have, or interesting items. This time I bought a slice of cheese that I plan to serve blind to my guests on Saturday. Let’s see if anyone can identify it 🙂
Next Day. I went to Grocery Outlet to see if I could get something for dinner. The answer is, unfortunately, no. They have Tyson chicken, but I think that was the company investigated for disgusting chicken practices. They had a few different cuts of pork and very little beef. But I feel uneasy about the quality and origin of the meat they sell. I did notice that they do have a small produce section, I didn’t study it, though.
One thing they don’t have are enough carts or any baskets – making buying just a few things a hassle.
As for dinner, I decided to make spaghetti carbonara and thought I had everything I needed at home. Of course, once I got here I realized I didn’t have enough bacon 🙁
Finally, Grocery Outlet is having its Ribbon Cutting on Thursday, May 7th at 5:30 PM. They’ll have sandwiches or something like that. The Grand Opening is on Saturday, May 9th, starting with Coffee and Treats at 8 AM. They’ll have raffles, samples, etc. – kind of like the BBQ they had a couple of years ago, when they wanted to get public support for converting the downtown Albertson’s building into a Grocery Outlet.
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