Saigon 2, a Vietnamese restaurant, has opened in San Leandro. I haven’t been there yet, so I can’t report on it, but it’s getting mostly postive reviews at Yelp.
That said, do we really need a new Vietnamese restaurant in San Leandro. As far as I know, we already have 5: Vo’s, Le Soleil (my favorite), Pho Anh Ha, Tu Tai (where I haven’t been) and Halan (is that the one near K-Mart?). There might be others (if so, let me know). Now, in a town with just one Thai Restaurant, with no Indian, no Ethiopian, no French, no South American and no Middle Eastern restaurants – do we need six Vietnamese restaurants? How about some variety!!!!
Anyway, I may or may not give it a try. If you do – please let me know what you think of it. It’s located at 2113 Marina Blvd (between Menlo St & Doolittle Dr) and there is a 10% off coupon in last week’s San Leandro Times.
I also saw in the San Leandro Times an add asking for waiters/staff for a new restaurant in Manor Square. The restaurant is called Double B Bar & Grill and I know absolutely nothing about it. They don’t have a phone number in the ad, so I can’t even call and ask. Again, if you know something about it, comment here or e-mail me.
As Mike (my husband) reports in San Leandro Bytes, his blog about all the goings on in San Leandro, Grocery Outlet, a discounter of mostly canned/boxed food, is coming to San Leandro. The store, which is almost finished, is located on East 14th, near Estabrook Street – a stone throw away from my house. It occupies the lot previously occupied by the Salvation Army. An affordable housing unit for seniors is being built next door.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to a Grocery Outlet – but I’m hoping this one will be cleaner and neater than others of its kind. I’m also hoping it will not add a lot to the traffic on Estabrook St. – which is already congested at rush time.
That said, I’m happy that we’ll have a grocery store so close to our house. Though we don’t buy much in the way of packaged food, it’ll be useful for emergencies.
In other news, the Starbucks downtown, near Safeway, is going out of business. Starbucks is shutting many of its stores, so it’s not a huge surprise. The Starbucks which is /at/ Safeway seems to be safe for now.
I just saw this video in Salon.com and I cannot get over the shock of seeing Padma Lakshmi, of Top Chef fame selling herself in this commercial for Carl’s Junior (or another burger company, I can’t imagine anyone paying attention to what the product actually is). If you are a guy, you’ll probably think the video is really hot. As a woman I find it repulsive. Doesn’t she make enough money on Top Chef, modeling and writing cookbooks, that she also needs to cheapen herself in a commercial like this?
I also just heard that she is Salman Rushdie’s ex-wife – which doesn’t surprise me, the guy may be a great writer, but he’s also a publicity whore.
I’ve just finished cooking and writing up my Catalan and Corsican menus.
I’d specially recommend the Catalan Civet de Porc and the Corsican cheese & mint beignets.
Next on the agenda, Baleares (I’d skipped it before), Chilean & Cretan food.
I made lamb chops from this epicurious.com recipe last night for the adults, given the lamb chops were on sale at Lucky’s for 50% off. I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of using unfiltered apple /juice/ rather than /cider/ – because I could either get filtered cider or unfiltered juice. The results were quite good, but not spectacular. I’m not sure that there is a spectacular way of preparing lamb chops, though 🙂 Still, next time I’ll try something else.
Last night, to celebrate my oldest daughter’s 7th birthday (which we are celebrating again today, and celebrated before on Wednesday), I made my grandmother’s sponge cake. It has been over 25 years since I’ve had it, but I think what I made was pretty close to the original. The cake, perhaps, wasn’t as light – and the lemon curd was too creamy-looking (I remember my grandmother’s as being more translucent). But it tasted quite close to what my grandmother made, and it was very yummy.
My oldest wanted sponge cake for a tea we were hosting yesterday so I revisited this recipe with her. It was fun making it together, though a bit messy giving all the sifting and we used up lots of bowls. This time I didn’t make the lemon curd (even as a child I preferred with with whipped cream as a frosting), but rather served it along side fresh strawberries and blueberries and whipped cream. It was a big success with kids and adults alike. Thanks Granny!
December 2020 update
I made this again for our coronavirus Christmas dinner – nuclear family only – and it was a huge success. This time I didn’t add any cream to the filling, and I added only 1/2 cup of cream to the remainder to use as frosting. I think this is how I’ll make it in the future.
This cake was extra special because we used lemons from the tree that started growing on its own besides our house – probably a child of the lemon tree our neighbors used to have.
November 2022 Update
I made the cake for my Thanksgiving dinner this year at my oldest’s request. Even though I didn’t eat it until the next day, as I was too tired for dessert that night, it was perfect and just like I remembered it from my childhood. Like the time before I didn’t add cream to the filling and only 1/2 cup of cream to the frosting, and it’s definite the right way to make it.Â
Granny’s Sponge Cake
2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs, separated
1 cup cold water
2 tsp. lemon rind, grated
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
2 tsp. lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix sifted flour with the baking powder and the salt. Sift three additional times. Set aside.
Beat together 4 yolks with the cold water and lemon rind until light and frothy. Gradually add 1 1/2 cups sugar and then the flour. Set aside.
In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the lemon juice and beat until it has stiff peaks.
Fold the egg whites into the flour mixture. Pour into ungreased 8″ baking pans. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool, unmold and frost.
Granny’s Lemon Frosting
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/3 cup water
4 tsp. butter
2 tsp. lemon rind
1/2 cup to 2 cups whipped cream*
Combine the sugar, flour, eggs, lemon juice, water and butter in a medium pot. Put pot on top of a double boiler, or directly under a very low heat, and cook stirring constantly until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely.
Fold in the lemon rind and 1/2 cup of whipped cream. Spread between cake layers. Fold in the remaining 1 1/2 cups whipped cream, and frost top and sides of cake.
*Note: I think it comes out better if you don’t fold in any cream for the filling and use only 1/2 cup of whipped cream for the frosting.
We had a library sale at the San Leandro Public Library this morning, and I can’t believe how badly I fared cookbook wise. There were barely any good cookbooks, and pretty much nothing ethnic/international. What I ended up buying was: China Moon Cookbook
Modern Chinese cuisine from a now-defunct San Francisco restaurant
Ghirardelli Original Chocolate Cookbook
The Ghirardelli Factori Store is close to our home and we shop there all the time. I’ve seen this cookbook there and have been tempted to buy it – now I got it for less than $1 🙂 A Feast of Scotland
I hesitated in buying this cookbook as it’ll be many years before I get to the “S” cuisines, but you never know when I’ll want to celebrate some Scottish festival.
Last night I made Crema Catalana, a Catalan custard similar to creme brulee. That meant I had a lot of egg whites leftover, so I figured I’d make meringues.
Both my mother and my grandmother Granny used to make meringues from time to time. Granny made them white and crunchy. My mother insisted on putting food coloring on them, and they always ended up being soggy. I much preferred Granny’s. In Argentina, meringue “sandwiches”, with a dulce de leche filling, are pretty common. Tiny ones are presented as masas finas, and huge ones make a diabetes-inducing snack.
Still, in my many years as a home cook I’d never made meringues – I guess I thought they were too hard. Nothing could be further from the truth. It must be the easiest thing I ever made. Basically all you do is beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks, add sugar (1/4 cup per egg white – I told you they were sinful) and beat until the peaks form again. Then you put them in a 200F pre-heated oven for an hour, turn off the heat and leave them in the oven for another hour. The ones I made last night turned out beautiful, even though the girls (7 & 4 yo) were the ones to put them on the cookie sheets (make sure to oil/flour them well).
Will I make them again? Perhaps if I have too many egg whites to get rid off, but really, they are so sugary that I feel bad giving them to my children.
My friend Penelope and I went to Makiyaki for lunch a few days ago. This time I had a bento box with ton-katsu and chicken teriyaki. It was fine. The teriyaki seemed tastier than the time before, while the ton katsu was sort of bland and had the texture of chicken instead of pork, but at least was tender. I thought the dish was a bit expensive for what it was, but I don’t have any major complaints. I’d probably go there again, but really, this is a place to go for sushi, not teriyaki.
Makiyaki
134 Pelton Center
San Leandro, Ca
510-895-0488 San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
Last night I made milanesas. I hadn’t realized how long it’d been since I last made them, but neither my 7 nor my 4 yo remembered them. For the uninitiated, milanesas are simply thin cutlets of meat that are pounded, passed through an egg bath and then breaded with bread crumbs (I use Italian style for extra flavor, and add salt & parsley flakes to the egg). You fry them in a little bit of oil (I use olive) and then eat them. They are particularly good with lemon juice squeezed on them.
As usually, the kids first refused to eat them – pronouncing them “yucky”. Also as usual, Mika, who was unusually hungry, agreed to try a bite – and she loved it! Camila followed and she liked them as well, though didn’t eat that much of it. Mika had seconds and requested that I make milanesas twice a week now. Well, that’s unlikely to happen but I will cook them more often.
The main reason why I made them was that now the girls have swimming until late twice a week – so on those days I need dishes that I can make very quickly. Milanesas are very quick to make (and you can even make them in advance), and you can cook them in the oven if you want to avoid using oil.
Saigon 2, a Vietnamese restaurant, has opened in San Leandro. I haven’t been there yet, so I can’t report on it, but it’s getting mostly postive reviews at Yelp.
, that she also needs to cheapen herself in a commercial like this?
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