Valentine's Day: Thai Food

We really had no specific hankerings for dinner, so we just walked downtown and let our noses be the guide. We were between a Thai place and an Italian place, and Thai won. King of Krung Siam was the name of the place, and it was decently crowded. We were sat immediately (it was a little after 8pm), and water was served. I had only read through the appetizers and salads when the waiter came to take our order, so we had to ask for a few more minutes. The entrees spanned several pages, so I flipped through to see the categories. I read through noodles and rice dishes and hadn't even gotten to three pages of options when the waiter came around again. Now, those who know me well know that I read the entire menu every time I go out to eat, unless I go there often and know what I want (like the tuna melt pita and Greek fries at Pitaria. that's all I ever get there). So while I was a bit frustrated, I realized that it was Valentine's Day so the guy could be doing his best if it's been packed all day. So, we went ahead and ordered - Chicken & Pork Satay as an appetizer, I ordered Chicken Pad Thai (no peanuts), and Jonathan ordered the Red Curry with Chicken and a side of steamed rice.

There were chicken, pork, and beef options for the satay, and while we ordered a chicken/pork combo, the plate we were served was all chicken. They were delicious though... marinated overnight in a slightly sweet and slightly sticky sauce. There was peanut sauce on the side, and chopped vegetables (cucumber, peppers, onions) in a light sauce as another side. The vegetables were great with the satay (aka chicken on a stick), and Jonathan said it was a good peanut sauce. The only downfall was that they were brought out WITH the meal, instead of first (and the table behind us got their spring roll appetizer quite a bit sooner than their meals). Jonathan enjoyed his curry, noting that it was hotter than the pa-nang he had the last time we got Thai. The taste was too coconutty for me. I was very unimpressed with my pad thai, and will note it as the worst I have ever had (and I've gotten it fast-food style before!). First, the bean sprouts were very long and not mixed in. Second, besides the noodles, there were only a few green onions, a bunch of carrots, and a minuscule amount of (cubed and unflavored) chicken. I tried to make the most of it, but there were two other (big) problems. One, there were no chopsticks. Not one table in the restaurant had chopsticks! So, I had to eat with a fork, which I really hate to do for certain foods, pad thai included. Second, the wedge of lime was very small. Now, I usually ask for extra limes (I probably use the equivalent of a whole small lime if given the chance), so this isn't a big deal. BUT, when I asked the server for extra limes, he repeated "limes?" as if he didn't know what it was. So I pointed to the lime on my plate and reiterated my request. He seemed to understand.... but brought my back two LEMON SLICES instead of LIME WEDGES. Now, the funny part is that in many countries (like Bangladesh), the word for lemon and lime is the same, even though they have both fruits. But I pointed to a very GREEN lime, so I have no idea what happened. Anyway, I didn't eat very much of the meal, for the reasons all mentioned already.

While our water was refilled regularly for the first half of dinner, we were ignored for a good twenty-five minutes when we were ready for the check. Eventually Jonathan had to get up and go request that our check be brought so we could pay and leave. Needless to say, we only gave a 10% tip.

Chef Liu

A group of us went for Chinese at Chef Liu. It was a super-cheap place to eat, and we had a ton of food. The potstickers were a little pricey, but were delicious. The beef chow mein was so-so. The scallion pancakes were fantastic and worth so much more than the cost. And the spicy wontons were a hit with everyone else, I just didn't particularly care for them. The dozen we had were gone in a flash. Their lunch specials also look wonderful, at just $5-7 a person. I imagine we'll be back, possibly again as a post-clubbing snack. The only downfalls: 1) our water was not refilled quickly enough, although they did come by a couple times without prompting. 2) there seemed to be two tables shooting off racial comments at one another and it escalated into shouting and fighting gestures. It was rather uncomfortable, as we were less than ten feet away, but the employees made one table leave (albeit the more innocent table). Oh, and they don't split checks, but that's not the end of the world, as it's a fairly common practice out here.

Pizza in Downtown Mountain View

Jonathan was feeling like some pizza, so we headed into downtown for some. It was only our second outing for pizza since we've been here, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. I'd read about Kapp's Pizza Bar and Grill in my Frommer's, so we decided to try it out. One of the pies they recommended was the Wild West, a BBQ pizza. It had chicken, green peppers, onions, mozzarella, and cheddar with a bbq sauce instead of marinara. We didn't wait too long before it came out, and it was delicious. The chicken was very tasty and the bbq sauce was good and thick. The onions and peppers were cooked to the perfect degree, and the mixture of the cheeses made for a stringy and tasty topping. The best part was the crust... it definitely had the flavor and texture of a good Jersey crust, which excited me. We ordered a medium and took half of it home, so it was a pretty good deal. They have some neat booths, so we want to go back with some friends at a later point and try those out. The rest of the menu included pizzas, salads, typical appetizers (mozzarella sticks, potato skins, chicken wings, onion rings, fries, and poppers), a few calzones, three burgers and three pasta dishes, and a few sandwiches. Certainly an interesting array of options, but it seems odd to me to order non-pizza at a place with "pizza" in the name, LoL. It reminds me of that episode of Home Improvement where Brad and Randy are talking with Angela and her sister about what they order at a Chinese place... pizza and burritos!

The Chinese New Year... with cheesecake

We took the Caltrain and the BART into San Francisco this afternoon for the country's second-largest Chinese New Year Parade. We headed from the Powell Street Station to Chinatown to Union Square Park, figuring that would be an excellent place to watch the parade since it goes completely around it. But, the place is closed off tightly (and it wasn't when we came into town, so they must have cleared it out just a short while before), with policemen not letting anyone through. So we found a decent spot to stand. We were about 3 people in from the street, and it was only about 4pm (the parade did not begin until 5:30). Jonathan suggested that he try and get a reservation at one of the restaurants that are on the nearby roofs. He headed off to see what he could find out and I held our spots. Turns out that the wait for a patio seat at the Cheesecake Factory on the top of Macy*s was about an hour, which would seat us when the parade began. So, we took it and proceeded to wander Macy*s for about 45 minutes.

We were seated at exactly 5:30, and our waiter (Joe) was kind enough to switch us from a center patio table to an edge table, so there was just a wall of glass between us and the world below.  We also had the opportunity to dine exquisitely at a restaurant that we don't normally go to, as it's quite pricey in Florida. For some reason, the prices here were on-par with those of a Chili's. We had the Firecracker Salmon Rolls, which were spicy salmon rolled in spinach and dried in a wonton wrapper, served with a sweet chili sauce and cabbage (delicious sauce, the salmon was kinda overpriced otherwise). I had the Hot Turkey Supreme, which was humungous (I don't think I even ate half before having it boxed up). It was an open-faced sandwich served with fresh fries... it was brioche bread, turkey, spinach, tomato, and bacon, all covered in a white cheddar sauce. I loved it, and thought the cheddar cheese sauce was delicious. Jonathan had the Grilled Skirt Steak with mashed potatoes, corn, and onion strings. He quite enjoyed the steak (it was in a mushroom sauce, so I wasn't a big fan), and we both thought the mashed potatoes were amazing. The onion strings, notsomuch. We also had to splurge the $7 to share a slice of the Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake. It was phenomenal: fudge cake, chocolate cheesecake, vanilla mascarpone mousse, and chocolate, with whipped cream and surrounded by chocolate and vanilla syrup piping.

A Sushi Buffet

Jonathan's colleague from Cape Canaveral, Li, was out in Sunnyvale for a week with some LM employees, and we were able to get together for dinner. We headed out to Cupertino to go to Todai, a sushi buffet. It's a nice place for being in the Vallco mall, near Sears and the AMC movie theater. It's set up like a Golden Corral, with the buffet being mostly along a counter that spans the back of the restaurant.

Aside from chicken teriyaki and some pork chops, almost every dish was seafood or sushi. There were some noodles and rice though. The sashimi only offered salmon and tuna, both of which were decent, but not the freshest/most flavorful. There were about twelve nigiri options, the ebi (shrimp) weren't the greatest, and the eel was not good. Tuna and salmon were good, and I believe Jonathan tried a few of the whitefishes without complaint. Now, there were probably twenty different rolls, ranging from your California to spicy tuna to a "fruity roll" which was crab with banana and kiwi. There was a spicy scallop salad roll, which tasted just like it sounds, and a chicken salad roll, which was a little like liver. None stick out too much in my mind, but that's okay since I chowed down on tuna sashimi. I also tried the Hawaiian Poke, but the tuna in that was too fatty to make up for the delicious marinade on the salad. The crispy calamari was among the most delicious I've ever had (and far more delectable than any I've tried off of a buffet), but the grilled calamari was rubbery - neither Jonathan nor I cared for it.

The dessert options were plentiful. Chocolate and vanilla soft serve, creme brulee, cream puffs, three types of cheesecake, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, butter cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, green tea cook, several gelatins, mango yogurt, and a few fruit tarts. Allegedly they have wonderful crepes, but we did not see any. The cookies were pretty bad (and hard), and the cake was a bit dry. Jonathan loved the creme brulee, and the cheesecakes would be enjoyed by those who like that particular pastry.

This little balloon guy to the right was sitting on the cashier's counter. I thought he was cute, and the cashier made a joke about it being his boss.

[update: 4/16/11: Todai is closed]

BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse

We were really planning on eating leftovers for dinner when Kathy asked us to join her for dinner, and I hadn't met Kathy yet, so we did that.

Kathy took us to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse in Cupertino. It wasn't even fifteen minutes from our place, so it worked out quite well. The place was packed, and Kathy was surprised we were able to find parking and not have to valet. She had also called ahead and put us on the list at least half an hour before we got there, and there was another half hour wait when we arrived. Those who entered the same time were told a wait-time of an hour! We went to scope out the bar, and a table became available, so we grabbed it (very lucky!). Jonathan tried the Piranha Pale Ale, but I forgot to ask how he liked it. Kathy said pretty much everything was good there except the jambalaya (and I'm glad she told us that, since we're big into New Orleans cuisine and have high expectations in that area). She highly recommended the side salads, so Jonathan tried the caesar and I had the house with honey mustard. They were pretty good, and a good value for $2.95 each (salads and raw veggies are expensive out here if you haven't heard me mention that before). Jonathan and Kathy split a deep-dish pizza ("BJ's Favorite") with meatballs, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, olives, onions, and tomatoes. It also had a few bites of buffalo chicken for some reason, LoL. While he noted that it wasn't Uno's, it was still a good pizza. I was overwhelmed by the size of the menu, and although I wanted to try their pizza (it seems to be what they're known for), I decided to have something else since there was already pizza waiting in the fridge from the night before. So, I chose the Blackened Chicken Potato. Think McAlister's, but the potato wasn't as big. Toppings included blackened chicken breast strips, red peppers, green onions, jack and cheddar cheeses, and ALFREDO SAUCE. At first I was a bit skeptical, but the alfredo turned out to be a fantastic topping. As is the usual with a stuffed potato, I was only able to eat half of it (and thus added to the collection of leftovers in the fridge), but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly, Kathy mentioned that there are very few places around that serve potatoes as a side. We had noticed this, but figured we just must be hitting places that didn't do potatoes. Me and my spud-loving self are kinda sad, and I'm not sure how to overcome the situation just yet. (We ran into a similar dilemma last weekend when there were no boxed mashed potatoes at Costco or Target.) Had we been hungrier, we would have gotten dessert. They have a giant cookie topped with ice cream (a Pizookie) that they're known for, but we'll have to get it another time. And although it was a delicious place to go, I don't know if I'd want to wait an hour. But if I can really just call ahead an hour early and waltz in, that'd be worth it. Oh, and if you were wondering, it was actually a very quiet restaurant when you consider the number of people in there and the set-up of the place.

Jack in the Box: Take Two

We planned on eating at home for lunch today, but the new vehicle called out to us, wanting us to drive it around some and use the new features, so we took it to Jack in the Box, LoL.

Jack in the Box was our 'eh' meal. This time I ordered the Chicken Fajita Pita, and Jonathan got the Sirloin Sourdough Melt. I was very disappointed with mine, it was a soggy pita with a large leaf of lettuce, a few chunks of tomato, and chicken and cheese. The salsa it was served with was spicy but runny. Jonathan said that his was okay, he wouldn't get it again. When I had a bite of his, I thought it was too fatty.