chewing @ chef chu's

We dined at Chef Chu's with an old friend and her ex-pastry chef buddy the other night. The ex-chef had some hilarious stories to share about working for the upper ranks of the US government.

We started with a vegetarian hot and sour soup. The soup had good flavor, but it relied too heavily on pepper for heat. Our dining companions, one being from the mid-West, the other from the East Coast, were not use to that much pepper in their food, enjoying the soup, and mopping their brows.



After the soup we had vegetarian goose and spicy pickled cucumber. The veg goose reminded me of mock duck that I'd had elsewhere, only more dense and more 'meat like' flavoring. The cucumbers are always good, but sweeter than spicy.

Next came the special lobster in sauce with noodles, all pieces and parts of the lobster proudly displayed. Everyone else said the dish was delish!


At this point everyone was ready for a bucket to make room! Out came a whole fish, deep fried, topped with a spicy sauce, my veg Singapore "style" noodles, seasonal asparagus sauteed with garlic and the kid's candied pecans with prawns. I can only attest for the asparagus and noodles, they were quite good.

Everyone shared an order of fried banana with ice cream for dessert.

Dinner was pretty good. Chef Chu's is not the ultimate destination for Chinese food in the Bay Area, but it is good and always consistent.

Chef Chu's
1067 N. San Antonio Road
Los Altos, CA 94022
(650)-948-2696

bagel breakfast

Stopped at Izzy's this morning for 2 bagel sticks, one for me, one for the kid. We agreed we should have gotten everything bagels instead, they have garlic and more salt.

Izzy's makes the best bagels on the Penninsula. I'm sure the SF store makes the best ones in SF.

Izzy's Brooklyn Bagels
477 S California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 329-0700

chaat-a-rific

Stopped by Sehbali Cafe in downtown Palo Alto around 4:30pm to pick up an order of Bhel Poori for the kid's dinner. Fortunately for me, the dish was made a bit too spicy, so I ate most of it. Chaat "to go" isn't the greatest idea. It should be eaten ASAP otherwise it gets a bit soggy. Still, it was a nice warming meal.

While I waited for the dish to be assembled I watched the other patrons. My favorite was one table with two people and one laptop doing business cold calls.

Sehbali Cafe
235 University Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301

(650)-566-8860

netted a friend into neto

Thought I'd run into a friend who shops at the Mountain View Farmer's Market, just had a feeling...

Refused to buy the kid baklava at the market. As we walked back to the car I offered to buy her a pastry. Looked up, there was my friend heading towards the market. Told him we were off to Neto, and invited him to join us.

I've been to Neto a number of times. I prefer their savory dishes to their pastries. I find their pastries to be a bit doughy, and lacking in salt (and I'm a low salt kind of blogger!) Being 10am, figured I'd give their pastries another try. The kid had an eclair, our friend had a chocolate babka, I had the pita with zahtar. The pita was doughy, but slathered with zahtar, it didn't matter. The kid ate half of the eclair, then ordered a pita with zahtar. Kid got us samples of the chocolate croissant, which was doughy and lacking salt.

Washed everything down with a Turkish Coffee.

Neto Caffe & Bakery
135 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
650.625.9888

bad blogger, haven't posted for a while

I've been bad. I haven't posted for a while. What has happened since I last typed...

1. Five of us had lunch at Madison and 5th today. 1pm on a Saturday downtown Palo Alto was busy, Madison and 5th wasn't so. Mad and 5th is an Italian eatery with a decent menu, clashing interior and high prices ($11 for a glass of the house red. "It's from Napa!" is all the waiter could tell us about it).

Three of the five diners were vegetarian. The waiter insisted the soup of the day was vegetarian. He didn't sound convincing, so we asked him to double check. The hostess came by to inform us the soup had chicken stock.

I had the Gratin of Pear Carpaccio, a confused dish of thinly sliced pears with lettuce hiding cheese and nuts melted on the top of some of the pear slices. Once I discovered where the cheese and nuts were, I enjoyed the dish more.

For a main course I had the pumpkin ravioli in a brown butter sage sauce special of the day. It was quite tasty, but I would have enjoyed one or two raviolis with a side of veggies instead.

Dessert was a Nutella crepe with what looked like mango in it (!!??) with a fruit sauce on top and vanilla ice cream. The elements were good, combined was a bit strange. I should have ordered a different dish, the dough used for the ravioli and the crepe had similar tastes. The kid had her first chocolate fondue. It was a match made in heaven.

Overall the meal was good. I'd eaten here once before, and was luke warm on the place. I'll give them one more try before passing final judgement.

I'll try to bring my camera next time!

2. Read Tuva or Bust!
A few weeks back a KFJC jock played a Tuvan throat singing piece. I'd heard Tuvan pieces in the past, but this piece caused me to google for information on Tuva. I found mention of Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey, and picked it up from the library.

The book recalls the author, Ralph Leighton, and his friend Richard Feynman's attempt to travel to Tuva in the late 1970's, early 1980s based on their interest in the spelling of the capital Kyzyl. Tuva was part of the Soviet Empire. Soviet/US relations were not great at the time. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the work required to investigate each and every fact, potential contacts, and hoops to jump through for permission to travel to Tuva in the pre-Internet age.

Madison & Fifth
367 University Avenue
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 323-3900

The People's Pizza Dough

Was in Berkeley for the final weekend of a year long one weekend per month class.

Saturday I visitedThe Cheeseboard Collective Saturday morning for a yummy Sourdough Cheese Roll before class, and City Batard, a Chocolate Cake Loaf (pieces to go into the kid's lunchbox) and a lump of The People's Pizza Dough for home. Well, it is pizza dough and they are a collective...

Found the pizza dough to be really runny, no amount of flour on our hands would allow it to be worked with. Dumped it into our Kitchen Aid mixing bowl, added flour, and got a workable lump of dough. Made a pizza for the kid for dinner on Saturday and Sunday, as well as Monday for lunch.

Did Poulet for lunch. Had a veggy sandwich there. Paid no attention to the food, since I was told I would be coming back from lunch and teaching a class. I had nothing prepared, so I spent lunch studying and writing furiously.

Sunday stopped at Sweet Adeline for a delicious heated Cheddar and Scallion Scone and an Apple Turnover to bring home.

Lunch found a group of us at Taste of the Himalayas for a buffet lunch. The buffet is usually good, today I found the food bland and uninspired.

Taste of the Himalayas
1700 Shattuck Ave., Suite #A
Berkeley, CA 94709
510-849-4983

Sweet Adeline Bakeshop
3350 Adeline Street
Berkeley, CA 94703
510-985-7381

Poulet
1685 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA
510-845-5932

Cheeseboard Collective
1504 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA (they don't list a zip on their web page)
510-549-3183

Garden "Flesh"

Garden Fresh is a small Chinese vegan restaurant in a strip Mall anchored by a Baskin Robbins. They specialize in faux meat dishes (chicken, ham, steak) in sauces, large portions, and a friendly staff. I've eaten here dozens, if not hundreds of times over the last 10-12+ years. The staff has remained almost the same over time and remembers your likes and dislikes.

I have a love/hate relationship with the place. I like supporting vegetarian establishments. I love most of the "meat" taste and texture in their dishes, but can find the sauces a bit too sweet. When they say "spicy," they mean mild. Then again, I like my food very spicy.

Four of us went for lunch on Monday. They now have 2 menus - one printed, one on a whiteboard of (never changing) specials. We wanted to try new dishes. We'd ordered almost everything off the printed menu in the past. We debated about ordering the "Basil with Vegetarian Kidney" off the printed menu. but realized we weren't manly enough to try faux kidney. We ordered 2 dishes from the printed menu - Orange Vegetarian Steak and Green Boat. We'd had both dishes dozens of times before. Both are very good, but a bit sweet.

All entrees come with 2 scoops of brown rice and a cup of corn and tofu chowder. The chowder is bland for my taste, so I dump a lot of chilis in it.

Pix of the Orange Veg Steak:



We also ordered two dishes of whiteboard menu - Braised Green Beans and Pork Chops. Green Beans pix:



The Green Beans were good, the Pork Chops were, well, tough and had a gristly consistency (just like 'real' pork!). We ate everything.

I'd order all the dishes again, minus the Pork Chops. We noticed a sign that they were under new ownership as of October, 2006. I hope the staff got together and bought the restaurant. I'll ask them next time I am there.

Garden Fresh
1245 W. El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040

(650) 254-1688