Week 19- Mr. Bagel Cafe

 Mr Bagel Cafe, located at 1423 E.14th St. is a cute place, with about 20 seats that served delicious homemade bagels with just about anything on them, as well as dozens of specialty bagel sandwiches.  The also serve several different types of Vietnamese Bánh mì sandwiches.

In the mood for a breakfasty sandwich before our hike, I asked for their recommendation, and was told the California sandwich was the most popular, so I had to go off their recommendation.  This sandwich comes with cucumber, tomato, avocado, lettuce, and roasted turkey.  There was also something listed as ‘buttermilk’ on the ingredients, but never found out what that was…maybe the sauce accompanying it. You can of course choose what type of bagel it come on, and I can almost never turn down an asiago cheese bagel.

In hindsight after looking over the menu, I noticed that this happened to be the most expensive thing on their menu ($6.75) but still worth it.

My better half asked for a Bánh mì without cilantro (I know she’s a freak, Vietnamese food without cilantro?)  and having never had one myself, didn’t know that there were multiple kinds one could get, and so didn’t know what protein to get her.  So I got what I would have wanted in a sandwich, roast beef.  Turns out that pork is the more common ingredient to put inside a Bánh mì, but it can really be just about anything.  It came with the usual fixings, pickled carrots and daikon, and a spicy sauce, and even though we’d asked for no cilantro, it still came with it.  It was easy to pick off since it was in long stems, so no harm, no foul.

As others have mention on the internets, one of the pluses of this place is that the two behind the counter (presumably the owners) are friendly and efficient, and that it is quiet (probably something the owners wish they could change) because there were few people inside.  However they looked optimistic about selling a ton of bagels as the counter display was full of tasty treats.

Give this place a shot!  Better bagels than Zocalo, and just as good as Main Street Bagels on Macarthur Blvd.

Distance traveled:
Mr. Bagel Cafe:  2.2 miles round-trip
Total traveled so far: 30.2 miles

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January 31, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Week 18- Los Perricos (again)

Week 18- Los Perricos (again)

So apparently there are at least three Los Perricos in San Leandro, and this is the review from the next one on this quest.  Located at 1389 East 14th St., they serve the same menu as far as this casual reviewer can tell, and it is the standard fare you’ve come to expect from this company.  The burritos are still humongous, the quesadillas will still fill you up, and it gets to you quickly.

This time around I got a carne asada chimmichanga, which is a deep fried burrito, minus the salsa, sour cream and the guacamole.  Yummy!  The thought never occurred to me to deep fry one before, and boy was it a good idea.  This Los Perricos version wasn’t dripping with grease like I expected, but was pleasantly warm and crispy.

My partner in crime didn’t know what she wanted, so she picked something at random, and as it turns out was tasty.  Camarones Empanisados plate was a plentiful amount for breaded and fried shrimp (much like the ones from Sizzler actually) with the usual rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, and pico de gallo salsa.

One of the oddities of this place is that there are two medieval torture devices on their counter whose function isn’t immediately apparent.  I just had to ask, and the woman at the counter told me that they were juicers for fresh squeezed orange juice and carrot juice.  OJ I get, but carrot juice?  Seems a bit odd to have an entire machine devoted to the production of carrot juice, but the woman informed me that they do in fact make a fair number of them every day.  Who would have guess.  Maybe I missed out, and didn’t get the full Los Perricos experience.  Thankfully there is another one coming up in a few more blocks.

The decor of this shop is a bit different than the first one I went to, for obvious reasons.  The other is part of a shopping mart, and is very busy all the time.  This one is more of a restaurant feeling, it still has the TV with Telemundo on, but the volume is at a reasonable level, and its small and not too distracting.

I walked there with the dog, but there is a ton of parking in the San Leandro Plaza center.

Distance traveled:
Los Perricos:  2.0 miles round-trip
Total traveled so far: 28 miles

, Food
January 31, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Week 17-Thai Satay

Thai Satay, at 1376 E. 14th St. (www.thaisataysanleandro.com), is another small looking restaurant on our way down East 14th, but this one, is significantly larger than it looks on the outside. The restaurant was fully decorated with all sorts of little Thai tchotchkies that filled up the mostly empty restaurant. The host & waiter led us to a table by the window, which is smart! Makes the place look full from the outside, and sucks you in. He was the almost the perfect waiter in my mind, because I usually hate it when a waiter wants to be all chatty with me. He snuck in the food with out a lot of hoopla, and cleared and filled water seamlessly. 

For some reason, I can never seem to order Thai food and be happy with it, so I left it up to my family to order something I would like. Greatly successful. 

First thing up was an order of the most tempting sounding thing on their HUGE menu, the angel’s wings.  These rather large chicken wings are stuffed with noodles, celery, ground chicken and spices, and deep-fried till crispy.  The sauce on the side is the perfect add on, both sweet and spicy.

The shredded papaya green salad, I’ll be honest, I don’t remember trying, because I don’t usually like papaya. Family enjoyed it though, and there wasn’t much left on the plate at the end of the meal. I remember thinking that it had a bit too much of the chili dressing on it.

This pineapple fried rice with shrimp was great. Maybe it was the festive bowl it came in, maybe it was the deliciously sweet pineapple. The rice was cooked all the way through without being soggy, and was nice and crispy. We ate all of it. I need one of these bowls for my house desperately. I would eat everything out of that bowl, I swear.

The Pad Thai definitely wasn’t one of the best I’ve had. It wasn’t at all spicy, and everything was a bit soggy, but the shrimp were cooked with something special I haven’t tried before.  But since I’m not a huge fan of spicy things, (for those of you who don’t know me, I get terrible hiccups that last for hours) this wasn’t a negative thing for me. 

My father ordered the grilled calamari and shrimp, and was reluctant to share. We did manage to wrestle a few from his clutches, and they were tender and well cooked. In most places I’ve eaten grilled calamari, the squid is rubbery and tough, but this order was neither.  

The Thai noodle soup with shrimp (in hind sight, I am now noticing that we got 4 out of 5 dishes with shrimp in it.  Guess we love shrimp!) was a bit more spicy, and made terrific leftovers the next day. It had a great deep red Thai curry sauce.

Thai Satay is the first Thai food I’ve had in San Leandro, so I’ll let you know how it compares to others down the road.

Distance traveled:
Thai Satay:  2.0 miles round-trip
Total traveled so far: 26 miles

Food
November 28, 2011Permalink Leave a comment

Week 16- Tequila Grill

Now I’ve been to the Tequila bar twice, once when I was first staring this food blog—so long ago—and once just recently. Both experiences were definitely positive, but for different reasons. I’ll talk about the first one first, and get to the actual review of the food last. 


A new friend took me here as a thank you for helping her out filling out new hire paperwork for a new job as a medical transcriber.  Mary and I had never met before, but a family member who is visually impaired introduced us over Facebook and since I only live a few blocks away, and do paperwork like this for a living, offered to help.  Mary is totally blind and so is her roommate.  It seemed like hours passed filling out the same information, name, DOB, SSN, address, over and over and over again on 20 or more pages of legal documents. We finished the task, and as I excused myself, they offered to take me to lunch as a thank you.  

This lead to some interesting topics of conversation that I have previously not thought about: the restaurant experience for the blind.  Their first criteria for dining was the location, mainly if they knew how to navigate their way there safely. Second was the menu, did they have a Braille menu? Was the waiter patient enough to read them everything on the menu? Their third criteria was how the staff treated those that couldn’t see.  

I drove them this time, so the navigation wasn’t an issue, so that made the menu a priority.  Tequila Grill doesn’t have a Braille menu, but apparently few places do.  The waiters had been patient at some point and described the menu for them, so they were ready.  The food escapes me now, I think I got some brunch omelet, and commented that the place was full of pre/post-church goers.  There were a few tidbits that make this breakfast stick in my mind, one being that the waitress treated them as she did everyone else, with respect and politeness.  The second was the use of touch that the waiters used with Mary.  In the service industry, it’s inconceivable to touch a guest at all unless it’s a friendly pat on the back or a hand shake.  These folks were directing Mary’s had to the glass of water once they refilled it, and touched the plate and silverware with their hands so they knew where everything else was. Amazing and thoughtful.

Anyhow, I have been made more aware to the difficulty of the blind, and it bears more thought.  If going to get something to eat is this complicated, imagine commuting 30 miles by public transportation to a new job.  

Now back to the food!  This time around I went with an old friend from college days.  After I managed to sway people away from the fru fru mango or raspberry margaritas, we got a hugantic pitcher of a top shelf margaritas for just $25!  Much better choice, and here was more than enough to go around for the three of us. 

I ordered the steak fajitas, hoping that they came on that super fun sizzling platter, like they sometimes do, and I was not disappointed.  The steak was a bit stringy, and a bit over cooked, but the seasonings were good.  I’ve never had fajitas that had tomatoes before, but it was a welcome addition.  There were all the fixings on a separate plate, the tortillas, beans, rice, salsa, and lettuce.  I did have to ask for more than the three tortillas they gave me, but they at least came out quickly. 

Our house guest got the tortilla soup, asking the waitress if it was enough for a whole meal.  She got the polite response “Depends on how hungry you are.”  Turns out that it was the perfect amount of food for her, even though she ate most of my leftover fajitas as well.  It was just the right thickness and spiciness, really chickeny and with a depth of flavor. The limes and avocado were a nice touch too.

We also tried the sopa,  it’s basically a thick, fried corn tortilla filled with all the tasty goodness that might come inside a burrito.  Yummers!

This restaurant looks like it was once a 1950s diner, with a long counter, and a wheel ticket holder in the middle.  Anyone know what this place was before?  I’d be curious to see if my guess was correct.

There weren’t too many people here on a Saturday night, maybe 10 or so, but with so many choices for good Mexican food in San Leandro, how do people make their choices?  Sounds like they do a lot more business Saturday and Sunday mornings with their breakfast menu. 

No website to link to (maybe I should offer my limited web design skills for these locals, eh?) but their menu is available through a third party.

Distance traveled:
Tequila Grill:  2.1 miles roundtrip
Total traveled so far: 24 miles

Food
October 12, 2011Permalink Leave a comment

Week 15–Buffet Fortuna

This blogger is stuffed!  Two all I can eat places in a row!  This place, Buffet Fortuna, has two locations, one in Oakland, and one on 1330 Washington Ave in SL.  Once again their entrance is not on East 14th, but they do have a large presence on the street, so I just had to try it out.  Yelp reviews weren’t helping much with my desire to eat here, but I have had perfectly pleasant meals where reviews were low before.  Maybe this would be one of them.

Nope!

We went for their buffet of Dim Sum advertised on their website for just $9.25 a person!  What a deal!  Well we were both charged $14.95 each, and there was nary a Dim nor a Sum in sight.  There was some sushi (at a Chinese food buffet?) and several other items that you might expect to see in a steam table type Chinese food place.  Beef broccoli, ginger chicken, chow mein, etc.  Dim Sum is Cantonese for snack, apparently, and the only snack-like items were chicken tenders and shriveled wontons.   

Oddly enough they had crab on the buffet line too, which is odd for the middle of the summer right?  Well it tasted like it had been in the freezer since it was caught, whenever that was, and tasted completely bland, much like the chicken tenders did!

I did my due diligence as a professional reporter and got a second plate; maybe I chose all the wrong things for my first try…The ribs were dessicated and inedible, the wonton soup was too bland, yet salty, the mac and cheese was just plain old not good, and the sweet and sour pork was just OK.  

Props to the sushi chef here though.  It was probably the only thing from asking for my money back.  Maybe they need to reconsider the theme of this huge, mostly empty restaurant.

Distance traveled:

Buffet Fortuna:  2.0 miles roundtrip
Total traveled so far: 21.9 miles

Food
September 25, 2011Permalink Leave a comment

Week 14- Sizzler

So I’ve been a bit late on my weekly blog, partly due to vacation time, and work being more busy, but also partly because I’ve been dreading this stop on the long trek down East 14th.    

While Sizzler’s address is technically not on East 14th (201 Davis Street to be exact), I felt that since it is directly on the corner it deserved a mention.  Sizzler, as a company, has been around since the late 50s apparently. It was a staple of my childhood, where for $10 my parents could try and fill that hollow leg of mine, as a growing young man/teenager.  Not to say we were regulars, by any means, but whenever there was an extended car trip to some remote corner of the Southwest, Sizzler was a terrific break from campground food and hot dusty climates.  I distinctly remember the last time I was in a Sizzler, as it was such a relief from car camping in Arizona.  My cousin and I decided that we needed to be inside this air-conditioned dream world for as long as we could, so we made a contest to see how much we could eat.  You’ve never seen two 10 year olds eat so much in your life.  With the restaurant right near the train tracks, we saw dozens of freight trains go by as we each went up to the all you can eat salad bar 10 times.  Nice.

Twenty years later, I’ve ventured back.

I was dreading coming here for two reasons.  One being that I think my palate has evolved a bit since I ate at a Sizzler last, and knew that I would find something at fault with the food.  Second, I didn’t want to spoil a fond childhood memory with bad food.  

I brought with me an army of buddies this time, to create new memories of Sizzler and to enjoy a Friday night out.  

First off things have changed in the way that you order, you walk up to the register, order, pay, tip (if you tip on a credit card they give you the cash to leave on the table, which is weird), and then go find a seat somewhere.  Fortunately a group was just leaving as we arrived, as the place was packed, definitely a good sign!

I ordered a steak, all you can eat fried shrimp, a baked potato, and one trip to the infamous salad bar.  The whole meal was amazingly good to my surprise!  I was expecting a microwaved steak product, and a handful of rubbery shrimp, but instead I’m almost 100% sure that my steak came from a cow, and that the fried shrimp were caught and breaded fairly recently.  There were maybe 30 shrimp with the first order, and I am embarrassed that I couldn’t even finish what they brought me, let alone ask for more.

Others tried the grilled shrimp combo, or a burger, or shrimp and salad, and one person (who shall remain nameless) only got the salad bar.

The salad bar was smaller than I remember them usually being (maybe that’s just because I grew 2 feet since I was last in a Sizzler) but it was well stocked with yummy items.  The taco bar was a bit sketchy, because it included spaghetti, but I still made myself a taco (no cheese sauce though please), got some onion rings, a chicken wing or two, potato salad, a cup of clam chowder and a Cesar salad.  

Now do you see why I didn’t need more shrimp?  My friend Emma asked for extra plates so we could gorge ourselves more, but when they came we found that we couldn’t possibly eat any more.  Poor wasted plates…

Don’t forget to save room for dessert!

Nothing like a small dessert to top off the evening: soft serve ice cream with Oreo cookie crumbles, banana pudding with vanilla wafers, cantaloupe, and one chicken wing.  Mmm…

Needless to say we ate all that we could eat, and possibly a few bites more than we really should have.  

I can see why it’s so popular.  A few years ago my 5 year old niece invited us all to Denny’s for Valentine’s Day because “it’s a really good restaurant.”  There was also a long wait and one guy was on his phone: “Why am I at Denny’s? Cuz there’s hella people up in Sizzler!” Now I understand.

Be prepared to wait a bit to get inside, as it is a hopping place on a Friday night, and enjoy some decent food and discount prices.

—-

Distance traveled:

Sizzler:  2.0 miles roundtrip

Total traveled so far: 19.9 miles

Food
September 3, 2011Permalink 1 Comment

Week 13: “HelloMama”-Boston

Started writing this while on vacation, but was having such a great time, that I didn’t get to finish till just now.  Enjoy!

As promised, I am breaking up my very awesome vacation in Boston, to keep this food blog going. Vacation is great BTW. It’s been over a year since I’ve taken more than a three day weekend off from work and it’s awesome. This vacation I find myself tagging along with my wife as she works, and I play. We both went to college here in Boston, and wanted to revisit some of the old stomping grounds, and I was amazed how much has changed here in just under 10 years time. Much of the shops were the same, with a few exceptions, my first job in Boston for example, the Sports Depot was one of the premier sports bars on the east coast, winning awards and accolades from fans. Still the only place where I worked where I have been punched in the face. It is now a Pizzaria Regina. Still looks exactly the same as is used to, with a few alterations for the better. The Kells is now The Rack, and O’Maleys (once the darkest dank bar I’ve ever seen) is now a swanky gastro pub, Deep Ellum, serving up yummy breakfast and all sorts of delicious beers I’ve never heard of (you won’t find and Sam Summer here!). 

In keeping with the style of food that I’ve been seeing in San Leandro, I’ve decided to write a review of my local pizza place in Allston, called La Mamma’s.  They used to serve a large greasy cheese pizza for $7.99, and even though they were literally two blocks away, our lazy butts would always order it to be delivered.  Nothing fancy about this place, except for the cheep pizza, and the phone greeting “HelloMamma?”

The other items that I’ve eaten there are empanadas, little doughy things with different things stuffed inside, like spinach, mushroom, peperoni etc.  The mushroom filling is basically the condensed cream of mushroom soup you can buy, stuck in flaky dough and fried until it’s molten hot. 

Most of the time you need to apply the wad of napkins that they give you to degrease your pizza, however this time it was pleasantly not uber greasy.  Everything was exactly the same from my memories ten years past.  Even down to sharing it with old friends, and new friends on the front stoop.

Food
August 31, 2011Permalink Leave a comment

Vacation!

The blog may be on hold for a few weeks while in vacation. I just may do a few posts from Boston and one from London, we’ll see how this vacation plays out. Some of the leading contenders for a blog post are the lobster shack we went to yesterday in Maine, or La Mama’s pizza in Alston. When I get to London I’ll have nothing to do but eat and drink till then cows come home. Off to vacation! Wish me luck!

Food
August 1, 2011Permalink Leave a comment

Week 12: Roccab’s Café and Deli

We’ve come now to the natural border in San Leandro, the Estudillo Creek, that runs from Lake Chabot to the Bay. We are about to leave the land of Ignacio Peralta, the former Mexican land owner, who raised cattle and grains on the northside of the creek, and into the José Joaquín Estudillo estate. 

There are so many cool old photos, and maps of the area, giving rise to thoughts of people settling here 176 years ago. So many of the plots of land are now honored with street names, where huge orchards, cattle pastures and grain fields used to be.  What’s your favorite historic San Leandro fact?

But for now, lets settle in on a sandwich.

Roccab’s Café and Deli at 1070 E. 14th Street is a small cafe right on the edge of the creek just past city hall and the police station. They are open early, 6AM till 5pm, and serve up yummy coffee and pastries for breakfast, as well as salads, and sandwiches for lunch.  Their website seems to need a bit of attention, as all the photos are linked incorrectly, but they link to the pages they are supposed to at least! 

There is a surprising back patio area overlooking the creek/jungle, that you would never think would be there. On this beautiful day we could see tons of blackberries that were just starting to think about being ripe. Only the most bold and daring person could venture down there though, as the blackberry bushes were about 5 feet tall.

I didn’t get a good photo of Roccab’s interior, as is was hella crowded when we entered, and when we left, which is always a good sign. I borrowed this one from the kids over at yelp.  

I consider myself a bit of a sandwich connoisseur, in fact at my house we measure costs if things in number of sandwiches it would cost.  ”Fix the roof?!  That’s like 1,500 sandwiches right there!”  They have the usual deli selections and bread, and the two we had were great. My roast-beef was perfectly cooked and still moist, and the bread was super soft and delicious. The turkey sandwich was also delish.

Not much to report other than they were nice enough to let us bring the dog outside to their patio. Thanks sandwich people! Maybe I’ll stop in for breakfast on my way to work some time!

—-

Distance traveled:

Roccab’s Café and Deli:  1.8 miles roundtrip

Total travelled so far: 17.9 miles

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July 18, 2011Permalink Leave a comment

Week 11: D’Gonzalez Carnicería

This week I have a guest blogger!  My wife always contributes by going to each of the previous 10 restaurants with me, and she wants to share her experience from D’Gonzalez Carnicería at 796 E 14th St.  Give her recipe below a try!  It was delicious!

Hi there, Michael asked me to write up this next place because I’m the cook in the family.  He cleans up, and is very good at it even though I love to make a mess!  

D’Gonzalez Carneceria is the kind of store I love to have in my neighborhood.  We stopped by on a Saturday and everyone had the same question: “Do you have carnitas left?”  On the weekend they have carnitas, chicharrones, and tamales for sale, along with a bunch of different cuts of meat and their own sausages.  I’ve come in a couple of times to get meat, and they’re always really helpful in suggesting what cut I should get and how much I need for how many people are coming over.  This time, for lunch we got a bunch of carnitas and their sweet tamales.  I also got two pounds of their pork chorizo and a big bag of beans to make some soup for dinner for our out of town guest.  They also have chicken chorizo, which I haven’t seen elsewhere.  We eyed the chicharrones, but decided two kinds of pork was enough for one day!  They had pork belly and skin, both were puffy and bubbling and smelled really, really good.  Another customer tried to convince us it’s healthier than chips, no carbs, right?

At home, we assembled the carnitas tacos with corn tortillas, sour cream, avocado, and La Victoria Red Taco Sauce.  I grew up with La Victoria Mild my whole life, but when I finally moved out and did my own grocery shopping I discovered it comes in HOT! Yes!  The carnitas was perfectly cooked and fell apart into tasty bits at a touch.  It was very mildly flavored and not too salty, next time I would do some more seasoning and fry it up a bit at home.  

The sweet tamales were tasty and interesting.  I liked the bits of real corn in them, kind of like a really dense corn pudding.

The chorizo was great to cook with.  I got the single, long kind which was easy to cut up or squeeze out.  The sausage was spicy but not too hot, there were a lot of other flavors that came through.  It wasn’t too salty or greasy either, there wasn’t a big red pool of fat as it rendered down.  The chorizo was perfect for frying up with scrambled eggs and tortillas for breakfast, and it made my whole house smell like Sunday brunch at my uncle’s.  Also great for soup!

Here’s my recipe for Chorizo Bean Soup:

Start by soaking a big bag of beans in hot water.  Probably two pounds will do it, let them soak for an hour or two.  Take about a pound and a half of chorizo and brown it in a deep pan (I like to use my ancient dutch oven I got in reward for years of pet sitting as a kid).  Either squeeze it out, or cut it into slices if you like it chunkier.  Take out half of the browned sausage and add in chopped garlic and rosemary, diced onions, one little can of tomato paste, and some cumin.  Let that get all cooked down for a few minutes, then add in the beans and enough white wine and water to come up to the top of the pan.  Nothing fancy, break out the Franzia!

 

Scrape up all the tasty brown bits off the bottom of the pan, cover, and let it simmer until the beans are done.  Depending on the size of the beans this can be anything from an hour to three hours.  You can just put the whole thing in a 300 degree oven if that’s easier.

When it’s done it will be a deep, evil red like this!  You can even see the chorizoey goodness!  Chop up some leafy greens, I used chard because that’s what’s growing right now, but something like kale or mustard greens would be good too.  Stir it in and let the greens cook down a little bit.

Put the reserved sausage back in and eat with bread.  Know what else would be good sprinkled on top? Chopped up pork belly chicharrones…maybe next time!

—-

Distance traveled:

D’Gonzalez Carneceria:  1.6 miles roundtrip

Total travelled so far: 16.1 miles

Food
July 3, 2011Permalink Leave a comment