Now that summer has finally arrived, this late sweltering heat makes me want to sip on some iced tea and listen to the Quiet Storm. What I mean is, I’ve been fostering very little motivation this week, but I do have some pictures from my excursion to the East Bay on Tuesday.
The frankfurter with chili @ Top Dog, Berkeley. Sure, a generous mound of shredded yellow cheese might add some visual flair, but I also have to admire the red-monochrome guise of a stripped-down, no-nonsense chili dog. And here it is. Cash only, player.
The #11: Sometimes hot really means hot.
So many Asian restaurants seem to be closed on Mondays, and I always seem to fall into this trap again and again. Today, I had driven down to Berkeley on another ramen mission, this time to Norikonoko on Telegraph, which is catty-corner from one of Berkeley’s best used book shops, Shakespeare & Company Books. I found a killer parking spot just off of the main drag, fed the meter full of coinage, and soon found out that Norikonoko was closed. Fortunately, Berkeley offers a target-rich environment when it comes to Asian [... read more ...]
Shoyu ramen with pork, spinach, and bamboo shoots.
Living in the Napa Valley, I’ve long been searching for a decent bowl of ramen that doesn’t require a bridge toll. Unfortunately, there’s no realistic solution to this problem, so far as I can tell. For what it’s worth, I can at least find the Vietnamese counterpart to ramen at Pho #1 in Vallejo, which I also recommend wholeheartedly. But despite their superficial similarities, pho is not ramen, and the latter dish still requires a $5 trek across the Carquinez Bridge, if not the Golden Gate. I mention this fact [... read more ...]
Crispy Shrimp with Ginger and Onions.
As I’ve been dining out these last few weeks, I’ve been making a concerted effort to broaden my horizons, although my approach itself has been somewhat passive: Basically, I’ve simply committed to ask my servers about their own favorite dishes, and then agree (no questions asked) with whatever recommendation is proffered. It may not seem revolutionary, but it’s actually a much different approach than my typical routine, where I might become fixated on, say, chicken and waffles, and then attempt to sample every option available in the Bay Area. Since beginning this [... read more ...]
Few streets in the Bay Area can match the quaint charm of Albany’s Solano Avenue, the heart of which occupies about two dozen blocks between San Pablo Avenue to the west and The Alameda (an odd street name, for sure) to the east. To its credit, this crosswalk-laden stretch of Solano Avenue features very few franchises or chain stores, yet it does boast plenty of neighborhood restaurants and shops, perhaps none more noteworthy than China Village. Most of the time, I’ll include a visit to China Village whenever I’m catching a flick at the Albany Twin (or perhaps at [... read more ...]
