One night, Annie played a mind-reading game with me: “Guess what I want to eat tonight?”
“KFC?” I replied, half-jokingly.
“Chicken is close, but not fried.”
“Ah,” I say, “East Lake.” Our go-to Chinese restaurant in San Jose for good, cheap eats. We had to hurry out the door, though, to beat the dinner rush. We made it just in time to snag a table. (One of my guilty pleasures is watching the line of waiting diners grow longer as we eat. Muhuahahahaha!) Continue reading East Lake (San Jose) Again→
We were in the neighborhood so we decided to stop in at Tokushima do Henkotsu for some of their delicious ramen and fried rice. But when we got there, we found that the shop had changed! Apparently the old guy had retired, and there was a newer, “hipper” ramen shop in the same place. We thought we’d stay and test it out. (“You never know unless you try.”) The menu isn’t very extensive, nor expensive. The waitress said her favorite was the miso ramen with vegetables. I got that while Annie ordered the shoyu ramen with vegetables. Continue reading Kahoo Restaurant (West San Jose)→
Back in Honolulu, Annie and I used to go produce shopping almost every Saturday morning in Chinatown. By lunchtime we were famished. If we didn’t have other plans, we’d often stop in at Mei Sum on Pauahi and Smith Streets. You could get pretty good quality dim sum at a more reasonable price than the fancier places like Legend in the Chinese Cultural Plaza.
Nowadays, dim sum is more of a “once in a blue moon” deal. There are some good places to eat in Milpitas and Cupertino, not to mention faraway restaurants like Koi Palace in Daly City. We’ve tried out other dim sum places (Hong Kong Saigon in Sunnyvale and East Ocean in Alameda) but our go-to dim sum restaurant of choice is Dynasty on Story and McLaughlin right here in San Jose. Continue reading Dim Sum @ Dynasty Restaurant (San Jose)→
We went to Pho Y #1 Restaurant on Capitol Expressway near Silver Creek Rd in South San Jose for dinner one night. It’s supposedly the best place for pho in San Jose. But in a city with the highest concentration of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, that’s a bold statement to make and a hard reputation to maintain.
I wasn’t feeling like all those assorted beef cuts you usually get in pho, so I just ordered mine with beef meatballs.
It’s not bad, but I don’t think it’s the best pho. The broth here is nothing special – it doesn’t make me go “ahhhhh” when I take that first sip. The broth over at Beef Noodle #1 across the way is better, IMO.
