la bicyclette

We're still alive, I promise! This post, is long overdue, but then again, what posts of mine aren't? My birthday this past April was particularly filled with culninary goodness, and this little gem in Carmel, CA, was no exception.

Named La Bicyclette, this French restaurant was tucked away on a side street. It didn't look like much on the outside, but we (D and I) were instantly charmed by the atmosphere once we stepped inside.



It was like stepping into a little French town (not that I know what that's like). The smells of bread and other foods were incredible. The waitresses were dressed in nautical stripes and skinny black ankle pants (I suppose it's J. Crew's version of French). One such waitress apologized that our table wasn't ready and offered us some wine as we waited. D told her what he wanted--of course, I had no idea what he said, or what wine would be good, so I dumbly nodded that I wanted the same. When we finally sat, I made D take a picture of this miniature bicycle next to us.

La Bicyclette offers a prix fixe of sorts--the meal comes with a set first and second course, and you get to choose the third. They also have breads and pizzas a la carte, which seemed to be popular with the locals. A dessert menu is also available.

The first course was a lovely terrine. At first we weren't sure what it was, to be honest--some kind of paste? But it had a wonderful creamy, cheesy texture that went so well with the lightly toasted bread. Very herb-y and light.

The second course was a soup. They served it to us in a copper kettle pot, which I thought was so charming. It was a curried soup, with really deep, rich flavors. I wanted to drink it all, but I also wanted to save room for my actual entree.

For our entrees, I got the filet mignon and D got the lamb. I don't think I need to describe the wonders of beautifully cooked meat.

Afterward, D told one of the faux Parisian waitresses that it was my birthday and they gave us dessert with a candle on it! A nice gesture on their part, and a very delicious panna cotta.

It was a wonderful birthday dinner. I couldn't have asked for more.

restaurant letter grades

Okay, so that last post was so self-effacing and pointless, I decided to put this up too.

New York restaurants are now required to put up restaurant letter grades for cleanliness. Some people are happy about this--less food poisoning! Some are not--restaurants that serve genuinely good food, but don't necessarily meet Health Department requirements may lose business with the endowment of a lower grade.

Now, being from California, this idea is not foreign nor surprising, and I find that the letters don't really hinder my patronage of certain C (Asian) restaurants. Of course, that being said, I am Asian, and we all know that dirty Asian food is much tastier and much more authentic than "fine dining" "clean" Asian food, right? Right?!

Just some food for thought.

gochi japanese tapas

For our two year, Dan took me to this place in the South Bay called Gochi. He had been raving it about it for weeks, but I made sure that every time he said something good about it, I ignored it or blocked it from my mind. I didn't want to be disappointed you see (yes, I am crazy).

I shouldn't have worried.

It's located in a nondescript strip mall, but the atmosphere completely changed once we stepped inside. The decor mimics a modern Zen garden, and the space opens into a raised seating area where you take off your shoes. To the side is an aisle with regular tables, and to the side of that are private tatami rooms. It was busy, and there were waitresses and hosts running around calling out orders in Japanese. We were seated in the regular table and chairs section, but I didn't mind, because I don't like taking off my shoes.

The menu is extensive. Don't be fooled by what they show online--that's only maybe an eighth of their menu! They have everything from traditional Japanese fare to super fusion-y food, like kimchi pizza. Dan and I opted for the more traditional options with a small twist.

We started with oyster shots and a seaweed salad. The oyster shots were by far the highlight of the meal. They dressed it with a citrus-y ponzu sauce and green onions and cilantro, etc, that made it so light and fresh tasting, and not heavy at all, as oysters are prone to taste. The seaweed salad was good too, but there was too much lettuce and not enough seaweed.

Next, they brought out our hamachi sashimi. The hamachi was good, also really refreshing (the lemons helped), and the texture wasn't quite melt in your mouth, but it was still good. (I think the best hamachi sashimi I've had was at Wayo, this little sushi place in SF.)

Then we had age nasu tofu. It wasn't quite what we expected--it was deep fried eggplant with deep fried tofu dressed with soy sauce grounded pork and green onions. The eggplant was much too oily, but the tofu was amazing. The flavor and texture were so smooth and silky (it wasn't fried for too long, because the outside was barely browned), I wished there was more than four pieces! The pork was good too--they had taken out the fatty parts, so we didn't feel too bad eating all that deep fried food. Haha.

Last we had the black cod with asparagus. This dish was good too, particularly the texture of the fish. The outside was crispy, the inside was buttery, and the sauce complemented it perfect, albeit a little on the salty side. It would've been perfect with white rice, but by that time we were too stuffed to order more.

Dan had really wanted me to try their Earl Grey creme brulee, but unfortunately they weren't offering it that night (though they had green tea creme brulee). It's okay though, because we went to Fremont later to get dessert with Jess. But that's for another post!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this place--if I get to go again, I would want to try their clay pot rice! And their fusion food.

Gochi Japanese Fusion Tapas
http://www.gochifusiontapas.com/
19980 West Homestead Road
Cupertino, CA 95014-0556

san diego adventures and my mama's birthday part 1

For our mom's 50th birthday, N and I flew down to LA from the Bay Area to surprise her. My dad drove us to San Diego for a weekend filled with beach! Fun! And most importantly, food. This topic will take several installments, so I will start with the birthday dinner. N and I yelped and found a French cafe called Cafe Bleu. We went because it got good reviews, but more importantly, they had a coupon for a 3 course prix fixe meal with choices for only $15.99. What a good deal!

Alright onto the important stuff, what we had:


Ahhh yes, the quintessential mussel dish. And they did not disappoint. Delicious, delicious broth to sop up with crusty bread, juicy, succelent mussels...mmmm.

Now this was...a bit strange. It was a trio of...something. As you can tell, not memorable. But not bad either. Some kind of ceviche maybe? And bruschetta?





My mommy got the coq au vin, which is a French chicken dish cooked in wine and other good stuff until the meat just falls off the bones. Accompanied with a delicious potato gratin. Mmm.

I got a pork loin chop with a delicious mango chutney and demi glaze. My mom actually liked this better than hers, I think because of the subtle sweetness of the sauce. And the fact that it was pork. No Taiwanese person can resist pork. Trust me.

Mine also came with a gazpacho, which is a chilled tomato based soup. It was...not good. Enough said. Too strong of an herb taste, but not salty enough...and chilled soup? Ugh. I thought I would try, but never again.

My dad got the salmon. It was also just okay, nothing really stood out about it. At least it was good.

Oh, but then his came with a french onion soup that was just divine. The cheese was melty and gooey, and the soup was deeply beefy and flavorful...So, so good.

N got the scallops, also a letdown, simply because it didn't stand out. I mean, how can you mess up bacon and scallops? You can't! but that means it's hard to make it good. Should've gotten the Bouillabaise.

Overall, it was a wonderful meal, nice ambience, good service (everyone had a French accent! Super quaint). I would stop by if you get the chance to go to SD.

Cafe Bleu
807 Washington St.
San Diego, CA 92103

Next up, dessert in San Diego!

ajisen ramen

During Thanksgiving break, my family and Woolie's family went to eat at Ajisen Ramen cause apparently they had this special that was their 'Ajisen ramen' was only $6.95 or something like that. I forgot. So all of us ordered that cause this place is actually pretty pricey. That is me and 姊 with chopstick and napkin. Yes we are silly.

Anyways, we also ordered the fried tofu which was not bad. Crispy and not soggy. The ramen itself was very salty and the noodles were not really ramen noodles. I guess its cause they're Chinese and not Japanese.

Sorry Ajisen, I think I've had better.

18253 Colima Road, Unit #104
Rowland Heights, CA
http://www.ajisen-la.com/welcome.html

peace all
- n

a cote

There's quite a selection of casual fine dining in the Berkeley/Bay Area, and with the Alice Waters organic sustainable New American cuisine movement and all, everyone's trying to be green, upscale, but still California casual, food-forward, innovative, but modeling home cooking... I could wax on and on, but let me just say that it makes for an interesting fusion of confused restaurants.

Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to appreciate casual fine dining. I mean, we're from a small suburb in southern California, where casual fine dining meant Applebee's. I kid. Not really.

In any case, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite restaurants near Berkeley. If you take a stroll (or drive or bus ride) down College Ave, you'll inevitably come across restaurant after restaurant after restaurant--but tucked discreetly in the Rockridge district, you'll see a sign that looks like this:


This is a picture of the menu, but the logo is what I was referring to. When you walk it, it's dim, but not dark; there are candles lighting the couple of tables to your right and the bar area to your left. A hostess or host will greet you and you'll be led past the kitchen to the back area, where there are more tables lit with candles. Then you'll notice that it's actually a patio, you can smell the air from the outside, and the last bits of sunlight trickling in. (Please excuse my tendency to be verbose--I just wanted to detail the ambience.)

A Cote (means next to in French) is a small plates restaurant, tapas if you will, specializing in French-Mediterranean fare. Tapas are meant to be enjoyed communally, so I would go with 4 to 6 people and try everything--it's all good.

My favorite dish is the mussel dish (the menu reads: with Pernod from the wood oven). How rustic does that sound! The plate is huge (my poor cholesterol levels were dying here, but I couldn't resist, it's so delicious) and filled with mussels. At the bottom is a light, creamy broth with beautiful crusty bread to sop it all up. Mmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

We went for my friend Jen's birthday, and she ordered a fromage (meaning cheese in French) plate that came with candied walnuts, toasted almonds, walnut levain bread, sliced apples and poached figs. I don't remember which cheese she ordered (am not a big fan), but it was creamy and mild. It went so well with the nutty flavors of the bread and the sweetness of the fruits.

The last time I went, I didn't take pictures, but we had ordered all of the desserts--I really wish I had taken pictures because they were so, so amazing. I can't even pick out one that stood out, because they were just all so good.

In other words, you can't go wrong with this restaurant. The service is wonderful, the food is delicious--what more could you ask for?

5478 College Avenue
Oakland, CA 94618-1552
website

i can always use good chinese food

for melody and jr's birthday, the girls went to great china for dinner.

it was my first time and it was delicious!

so we ordered a small double skin. it was alright, not too fond of it. it was like glass noodles but made of mung bean and had random stuff in there like shrimp and squid. we mixed the mustard and soy sauce into it which gave it a wasabi like flavor, which i didn't mind ($12.95 not worth it). and sizzling rice soup (charged by person, they seriously know how to get our money). yumm.

of course we had peking duck. i think this was probably my favorite. i can't believe they didn't have the fat on the skin...even though i don't like it, but yeahh. duck is good :) ($29.95)

we ordered this crab thing that had an egg yolk on top and got mixed all together. i think its sauteed crab meat? to eat it, you put the crab mixture in between the 饅頭. omg i super like 饅頭 and it was best when it was warm. the crab thing itself was alright ($19.95). not my favorite. i think it had an interesting taste...

we also ordered jess' favorite chinese string beans ($8.95). i wouldn't really consider it a veggie dish but it was good. and also another really good dish cause i love tofu was braised tofu ($7.95). it was delicious!

so overall, i would definitely say you should eat here. its really good chinese food which is super hard to find up here, especially in berkeley where the closest we come is lotus house or sun hong kong. service on the other hand sucks a lot. the waitresses were rude and sucky. it is a bit pricey and they charge for rice (in socal you get rice for FREE!). but yes, if you are craving good chinese food, this is probably the place to go.

2115 Kittredge Street
Berkeley, CA94704
website

over and out,
n