Wednesday night, after the anti-China rally in SF, the girls wanted pizza. Mike had a meeting, so i decided to stop at Sergio’s on our way back. I’d had the pizza there before and found it OK. Well, this time it sucked.
The onion rings were good enough, even if their ranch dressing couldn’t match the Italian one at Angelina’s. But they were crispy and it was a good-sized portion (for about $7, it better be).
Their pizza, however, left much to be desired. I did not like the sweet tasting sauce, the only plus was that there wasn’t much of it. The cheese didn’t stick to the pizza, so it was pretty messy to eat. The tiny pieces of pineapple were not good quality, and the linguiza wasn’t my favorite either. In all, it was not a pizza I enjoyed. The kids were also not happy with it. I would not order it again.
The coke also has a medicinal taste to it.
The one plus of the evening was the service, the waitress was quite nice.
Still, I’m sure it’ll be a long time before we return.
Sergio’s
150 W. Juana Ave.
San Leandro, CA.
510-895-0880
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Year: 2008 (Page 16 of 19)
Update: This restaurant has closed
I first heard of Chicago Blues Cafe when I found out that its owner, Mark Tichy, was running for city council. The little restaurant occupies the space that belonged to a flower & coffee shop in the parking lot of Palma Plaza. It’s expanded its size and now it features a small, covered dining area. It’s pretty cute.
The cafe serves an extensive breakfast, lunch and dinner menu (though I think they close early, perhaps at 7). They seem to specialize on pizza and bbq. My friend Elektra has had their chicken pizza and she said it was very good, it featured a thick crust that reminded her of Zachary’s.
I went for breakfast, however, and ordered their caramelized banana & nutella crepe (about $4.50, I think), one of the three crepes they offer (all with nutella). It was *very* good. It was huge, with very generous amounts of both bananas and nutella, and it was delicious. I would definitely order it again, but this is a dish to share – it’s just too sweet to eat it all by yourself.
The only problem was that it took a long time to get it. We’d plan to eat at the restaurant, but I I had to pick up Mika at a set time. It probably took them a good half an hour to prepare it.
I’m planning to go back to Chicago Blues Cafe, this time to try their BBQ.
Chicago Blues Cafe
13802 E. 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 352-3053
Yesterday, I took my first cooking class. IT was given by the San Leandro Adult School on Malaysian and Thai cooking. The class was four hours and consisted in learning to cook 3 dishes – two Malaysian and one Thai. The instructor, Jenny Sim, is a Chinese Malaysian who lived in Thailand for 20 years. She knows a lot about the cooking of all Southeast Asia (and India), and was able to answer questions and give us an overview of the foods of the area.
The first dish we made was Chicken Rendang. I’ve had beef rendang a bunch of time at different Indonesian restaurants, so I was happy to learn how to make it. It was more complicated than I thought, it involves making a paste with shallots, ginger, chillies and garlic, which is then fried before other ingredients are added. It also requires you to have galangal and tamarind paste (to make tamarind juice). It’s not a simple dish, but the results were amazing. The recipe works with meat as well, and I’m planning to make it soon. When I do, I’ll post it here.
The second dish was Gulai Lemak Nenas, a Malaysian pineapple shrimp dish with a soupy curry. This one also required some exotic ingredients, including fresh turmeric and shrimp paste, but also was delicious. Of course, I didn’t eat the shrimp, but the pineapple curry part was great with rice. I don’t think I’ll make it, as I’m not a shrimp eater, but was very happy to try it. If someone e-mails me asking for the recipe I’ll post it.
Finally, we made Larb, Spicy Beef with Mint Leaves. This is a northern Thai dish, often found in Thai restaurants, and I was surprised at how simple it was to make. It didn’t require any exotic ingredients, save for Thai chili powder, and it was very quick. Basically you fry the ground meat by itself and mix it with the other ingredients once cooked. You serve it with cabbage leaves and other raw or blanched veggies. I’m definitely planning to make this sometime.
All the dishes can be made at a variety of spiciness. A couple of us are not particularly fans of fiery foods, so Jenny reduced the amount of chili in her recipes – the results were perfect.
(Photos courtesy of Ken Paris, a proficient cook and classmate who also happens to be a reader of this blog 🙂 Thank you Ken!!!)
I also learned some general things about cooking:
-You can peel a shallot more easily by first banging it with the side of a knife.
-It’s better to snap the end of green beans than cut them.
-You make tamarind juice by buying tamarind paste and mixing it with water
-You make ground rice by browning regular rice and then grounding it
And probably other things I can’t recall now
Anyway, I’m taking the Southeast Asian cooking class next month (for my birthday) which will have an emphasis on noodles. The classes are only $30 (really) and include all the food – which you get to eat at the end of the class (there are vending machines for drinks just outside the classroom). The SEA class will take place on May 3rd from 9am – 1pm. You can register online but it’s a pain.
The only negative thing about the class is that it doesn’t take place in a kitchen. They just don’t seem to have kitchens at the cooking school, so it takes place at a regular classroom and the teacher has to bring all the equipment (including gas burners, an electric wok and an electric rice maker).
Anyway, I’m hoping they’ll have more of these classes during the summer and fall.
As I mentioned in my last post, yesterday was Mika’s 6th birthday party and as usual I got her a Safeway cake. I’d been going with Safeway cakes for several years – ever since I got a horrible cake from Just Desserts for her welcoming ceremony. Why pay $60+ dollars for something that in the end doesn’t taste good?
Part of the reason I go with Safeway is that there aren’t many choices for cakes in San Leandro. Costco has cheap cakes, but I dislike the frostings (which you know most likely have hydrogenated oils in them) and they only have basic designs, OK when your kid is very young but a problem by the time they are into cartoon characters. (Yes, I’m one of those parents that gives into commercialism and let’s her kids have character parties – I also buy Bratz for Mika! shoot me).
The chinese bakery
has nicely decorated cakes, with cartoon characters and all, but I find their cakes not to be sweet enough. This is a plus for some people, but I’m just not into them.
There is, of course, Marita’s, whom I like to support as they are locally and minority owned -, but while I like their cakes (in particualr their frostings), they don’t offer decorations. Plus I’m not sure you can get a rectangular cake that is less than a 1/2 or full sheet.
Then there is Baskin Robbins. We’ve gotten cakes from there before, and they are usually pretty good – if extremely expensive. Indeed, we were planning to get Mika one of them – but they didn’t have the Bratz decorations she wanted.
So we went for our tried and true Safeway cake. They didn’t have Bratz decorations but they did have Bratz pets decorations (I didn’t even know they existed!) and that was OK with Mika – who by then realized there weren’t many other choices. Plus the good thing about Safeway is that if you don’t want such a junky cake you can order it with whipped cream and strawberries (or another fruit). I usually get the white cake, which is very light, and the results are very good. For Camila’s birthday I actually got the whipped cream and banana cake, and I may have liked it even more. Best of all, the kids love it and I don’t feel they are eating too much sugar.
The one minus about Safeway cakes is that they aren’t cheap. A small, 1/4 sheet cake is about $21! You can get a half-sheet cake for about $16 at Costco. But hey, I’m willing to pay for whipped cream and fresh strawberries (and nice decorations). You can order the cakes just one day in advance, good for us procrastinators.
One thing to keep in mind is that the cake book that they have outside does not include all the decoration options. I was bummed when we didn’t find the Bratz there, but Mika insisted that we ask if they had Bratz anyway. I thought it was futile, but once again my 6-yo proved to be smarter than her mother. They indeed have other cake books under the counter – and usually they carry a Bratz cake. Unfortunately, there is a backorder on Bratz decorations and that’s why we had to go for the Bratz pets, but the point is that even if you don’t see what you want in the book, you should ask.
Anyway, this is a long posting to say that I like Safeway cake.
Yesterday was Mika’s 6th birthday parties. She had 5 friends over, as well as her 3 yo sister. I don’t want to tell you the mess they made! But hey, that’s for Mike (mostly) to clean up! They did have the time of their lives, though.
The party included dinner, and Mika wanted the main dish to be apple chicken sausage. This is what else I served:
-carrots with ranch sauce
-cubed Monterey Jack cheese (went over very well)
-laughing cow cheese (they didn’t like it much)
-Ardell’s apple chicken sausage, sliced
-cheese tortellini with butter (and grated cheese for those who wanted it)
-fruit salad
-popcorn
-cake
It all went over pretty well. I didn’t feel bad that I was feeding them too much junk, and the kids enjoyed the food. There was a lot of waste, of course, and also a lot of leftovers.
2013 Update
Emil Villa had a fire and is closed, it doesn’t seem that they’ll be re-opening.
October 2011
We went to Emil Villa’s for dinner last night, as Mika was in the mood for ribs. I don’t have much of an update, as we got the same thing we usually get: Emil’s Rib Sampler ($21). This time I actually paid attention to which ribs we liked the most, and the best ones were definitely the baby back ribs. They were more tender, if a bit less meaty than the other ones. Still, all the ribs were very good. Indeed, I thought they were better than in the past. I also enjoyed the BBQ sauce, which was perhaps a bit sweeter (and thus more to my liking).
Service was phenomenal. Mike and I shared the sampler, and our waitress brought the dish in two plates unprompted. The portion was definitely large enough for the two of us. She also was very efficient bringing back drinks and catering to the kids.
In all, it was a very good experience.
December 2010
We go to Emil Villa from time to time. We usually get a BBQ ribs combo to share – 3 types of ribs with two sides for about $22. We all like the ribs, Mika in particular. The other food is less successful. Breakfast, in particular, is best avoided.
March 2008
Last night Mike went out with an old friend to dinner (he went to La Provence, in the Mission, where he had an OK soup and some awesome ravioli) and I was left at home with the kids. I was feeling pretty jealous, so I decided to take the kids out to dinner myself. I’d been in the mood for BBQ ribs for a while, and Mika couldn’t resist the smoky aroma of Emil Villa’s, so that’s where we headed. Even though Camila was a little devil, it was a good choice.
We decided to share the ribs platter, which has gone up in price (it’s $21 now) and gone down in variety/amount of food (it now comes just with two sides and buns, no soup or salad). Still, the ribs were enough for a mom and one kid (Camila only ate 1 rib). We enjoyed all of them. My favorite were the baby back ribs which had a very nice glace and did not need any extra BBQ sauce. The other ones were definitely helped by the sweet sauce, which wasn’t too spicy even for Mika. I’d definitely order this again.
The french fries and mashed potatoes we ordered were pretty ordinary, nothing to write home about.
This time we weren’t too full for dessert (when is a 6 yo too full for dessert?), and Mika ordered the chocolate cream pie ($4 a slice). It didn’t look that chocolaty to me, but she liked it. I had no complaints about the banana cream pie ($4 for smallish slice). It was bananaish and creamy, and very good. I may make a banana cream pie today myself 🙂 Camila had some chocolate ice cream ($3), which was unwisely served on a saucer. It was very chocolaty.
Dinner for the 3, including 3 drinks, came to $39. Not cheap, but those were pretty good ribs.
Emil Villa’s
1800 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 351-7427
How is this possible? I have blogged about almost every restaurant I went to in Kenya – but I forgot Carnivore! Carnivore, of all restaurants? The most famous restaurant in Nairobi, if not Africa, by any measure? How could I forget?
And yet, I remember writing about it, but where? I can’t find it in any of my blogs. So I will have to blog about it again. For Carnivore is a restaurant that deserves some attention.
First of all, I’m sad to announce, that Carnivore no longer serves game meat. There seems to be a law against the selling of game meat, so the only thing in the least exotic in their menu is crocodile (which is bony and has a mild fish flavor). They also had ostrich meatballs, but ostrich stopped being exotic, at least in California, quite a long time ago. The meatballs were pretty good, though.
The way it works, at least for those ordering meats, is that for a fixed price (I don’t remember how much, about $25, I think), they bring large chunks of meats which the carve for you tableside. The meats are cooked in Maasai swords over a large BBQ pit at the front of the restaurant. Most are marinated, and most of them were pretty good. The first round of meat comes pretty quickly, but if you want seconds you will have to chase the waiter.
Among my favorites that night (early March, 2008) were the sweetly basted chicken wings, the also sweet but not very meaty pork ribs and the nicely seasoned lamb chops. The sliced meat and pork were too dry for my taste, though the fruit sauce helped the pork a little. The chicken was not bad either, though also a bit dry, as was the leg of lamb. They also had several things I didn’t bother trying: chicken gizzards, turkey and sausages.
Avi, who keeps kosher, had food from the vegetarian menu. I don’t remember what he ordered however, but his first dish was so bad he had to send it back. He rather enjoyed the one he got to replace it. The vegetarian menu is also all-you-can-eat.
Luke had several dawas to drink, while I stayed with cokes. I think Avi had wine.
For dessert I first ordered the blondie with ice cream, but that thing was inedible, it tasted like dry, dense cardboard. Fortunately they had no problem exchanging it for some OK ice cream. Avi and Luke shared a pineapple cake which wasn’t bad, and a cheesecake that tasted and felt more like light lemon pudding.
The restaurant itself was pretty empty in early March, though I’m sure as tourists return to Kenya, the place gets very loud and crazy. I’m not sure if that would be for the better or worse. In any case, it’s a place I wouldn’t mind going back to.
Dinner came to a little over Ks 7000 for the three of us (upwards of $105) – which really wasn’t too bad for the experience.
Carnivore Retaurant
Nairobi
Kenya
605933-7 602786
The Moonflower restaurant is located at the Palacina Residence and Suites – an apartment building not far from our own in Nairobi. A colleague lives there and we decided to join her for dinner there a few nights ago. It was a pretty good experience and, but for the price, I wouldn’t hesitate on going there again.
The Moonflower is mostly an open air restaurant. They have a few tables inside, more in a veranda and some on the law. There is even one within a very nice looking Arabian style tent. The place is very nice. I’d describe its menu as serving California cuisine, or at least new American cuisine. There are pastas, ribs and even duck. Most dishes are around Ks 1000, ($15) – which is not really expensive if you think in western terms.
This time we decided to have a full-fledged meal. We started with appetizers. Gabriel had the shrimp and Brianna the asparagus (I think they were about Ks. 600 – $9). They both liked them. I had the baked brie (about the same price), which was OK. Everyone liked it, but I’ve had better. It was definitely good with the apple slices, but three lilliputian slices didn’t go far. It’d have been better, of course, if served with some good quality balsamic vinegar.
My main dish were ribs (Ks 1100, $16.50 for a full rack, Ks 800, $12 for half a rack), which I shared with Gabriel. They were good, the glaze was pretty nice – sweet and tangy – but they weren’t really tender. I don’t know if it was a problem with the meat or knowing how to really cook it. Brianna had the fish and chips, a dish which she enjoys often. She was very pleased with this version. Gabriel had a pasta with salmon, a dish which he also often orders. He thought this version was nice, but his expectations weren’t great either. As for Fiona, she went for the duck. This was probably the worst dish of the evening. The half duck was glazed with some sweet black sauce that didn’t make it look particularly appetizing. Its main problem, however, was that it was quite dry – very, very overcooked. The glace was nice, but the meat itself wasn’t well seasoned. I’d definitely not order it.
Fiona was luckier for dessert. She got the berry pavlova and she liked it a lot, the bite I had was very nice. I had the flourless chocolate cake, and it was also good though not outstanding. I don’t remember how much desserts were, but they weren’t cheap.
In all, we had a very good time at Moonflower – it was relaxing and enjoyable and if I was ever in Nairobi again, I’d revisit it.
Moonflower
at the Palacina Residence & Suites
Kitale Lane, off Dennis Pritt Road
Nairobi
+254-20-2715517
http://www.palacina.com/moonflower.asp
This afternoon we went to lunch to Basilico, a pizzeria a the Ya Ya Center in Hurlingham. My colleagues wanted to go to Osteria del Chianti, but I’d just been there Monday night AND Wednesday night, and there has to be a limit at how often one patronizes a restaurant! Plus it’s not like I like their food that much.
So when Gabriel, a colleague from work, suggested that there was an Italian place at the Ya Ya Center, and Brianna (my boss) said it was OK with her, I was quite happy. And indeed, I had a pretty good eating experience.
Basilico is your typical shopping mall deli-style restaurant, don’t expect much in the way of ambiance here. But it’s cute enough. It offers sandwiches, pizzas, pastas and a few main dishes. But being an Italian place I decided to go for the pasta. I had fusilli (I think) with a tomato mushroom-prosciutto sauce. It was quite good, just the sort of hearty Italian pasta I like. The pasta itself was not cooked al dente (it wasn’t soft either), which was a big plus for me.
Gabriel was less happy with his pasta with a gorgonzola cream sauce. He’d had it before and he’d enjoyed it, or maybe he misremembered. Brianna had nothing bad to say about her fish & chips, and as someone who has hang out in London quite a bit, that’s probably a high recommendation.
Prices were in the mid hundreds, my pasta, for example, was Ks. 600 – $9. Outrageously expensive if you ask me, but that’s the name of the game in Nairobi.
Basilico
Ya Ya Center
Lenana Road
Nairobi
0721 618886
Punjabi by Nature is one of the restaurants in the foodcourt at “Prestige Plaza”, where the closest Najumatt to our apartment building is. They have several restaurants/stands, offering Kenyan, Indian, Turkish, Chinese and other foods. I’ve had the Turkish stuff before and it wasn’t bad. The mutton korma I had tonight at Punjabi by Nature wasn’t particularly good.
Its main problem was that it lacked complexity, the sauce was spicy but otherwise bland (if that makes sense). I ate it – and the hot naam with which it was served was pretty good, and the mutton was tender. Still, I probably wouldn’t go there again.
The mutton korma was Ks.450 – $6.75, about average for the restaurant.
Punjabi by Nature
Nakumatt, Ngong Road
@ Prestige Plaza
1st Floor, Food Court
Nairobi
0721625900
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