Marga's Food Blog

I eat!

Author: admin (Page 46 of 51)

Oriental Tea House – San Leandro – Updated Reviews

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Update 12/11

As you can see by the updates below, it’s been our custom for many years to go to to the Oriental Tea House for dinner on Christmas day.  This year it was just Mike and I, my sister and the kids having left earlier in the afternoon.  The food was good, as usual; the service just as frantic.  I had the crispy chicken, which I usually like here and it was good.  First they gave me the crispy duck, and as the two look alike I took a couple of bites.  It was so fatty that it was almost inedible.  Fortunately they realized their mistake and brought the chicken.  Mike had the kun pao chicken which he didn’t feel tasted like that, but I thought it was good. We got there around 5:30 PM and we were able to get a table for 2, but I don’t know if there were any larger tables available.  By 6 PM the placed was packed.

One thing to note, the Oriental Tea House’s menu is pretty prosaic, filled with the typical dishes at Chinese-American restaurants. However, on Christmas, at least, the restaurant is packed with Chinese and Chinese Americans. The people managing the restaurant as well as the waitresses are also Chinese (some have a very rudimentary understanding of English). This suggests to me that the OTH may also have one of those Chinese-only “secret” menus that many Chinese restaurants have (the idea is that they include dishes that Americans would not be interested in eating).

Update 12/10

Another year, another Chrismas, another dinner at the Oriental Tea House. This Christmas day we got there around 5 PM, and the place was completely empty. It started filling up around 6 PM, but there were still a couple of large tables empty by the time we left (6:20 PM or so) – so next year we won’t go as early. As we did go when the place was empty, service was more relaxed. The food has increased a bit in price, but it’s still very affordable. We got 6 dishes plus fried wontons for 5 adults and 4 children and we ate everything! I was happy with all the dishes (beef chow mein, Mongolian beef, chicken with two mushrooms, kun pao chicken, sweet & sour pork, veggie platter) my favorite was probably the kun pao chicken, the Mongolian beef was a close second. In all, another good meal.

Update 12/09.

As usual we went to the Oriental Tea House, in San Leandro, for Xmas dinner; this time with my sister Kathy and my brother and his family. Once again, service was hurried – the Oriental Tea House is very popular on Xmas day – but efficient. Food came on time (except for the sweet & sour pork which was delayed) and it was generally good (and cheap). Mike was happy with his beef with snow peas, as was my sister-in-law with her broccoli beef. My brother David ordered the beef curry, not on the menu, and his dish was pretty good, though very mild. I’m not sure if that was because the waitress misunderstood that he wanted his dish spicy (the English language skills of the workforce at Oriental Tea House are very limited), or because they just have a different understanding of spicy than we do. In any case, it was mild.

I ordered the roast duck, having liked the roast chicken in the past, which was a mistake. The duck was nicely cooked and very flavorful – but it had the obligatory thick layer of fat and my chopstick skills are not advanced enough to allow me to get to the meat between the fat and the bone. I had a fork, but without a knife it was an impossible endeavor. Next time I’ll stick with the less fatty chicken, which is also very good.

Finally, Kathy had the sweet & sour pork, which she liked but Mike and I thought was quite unappetizing – with fat pieces of pork and a slimy sauce. To each its own.

In all, it was a good meal and we’ll definitely be going there again next Xmas.

December 2008

We celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas itself, so in the past we’ve found ourselves at a loss as to what to do for dinner on the 25th. After a huge Xmas Eve dinner, and a kitchen full of dirty dishes, the least I want to do is cook again. So some years ago we started a tradition of going out to the Oriental Tea House, in San Leandro, for Xmas dinner. The Oriental Tea House has pretty good American-style Chinese food (though given the large number of Chinese that eat there, I suspect they may have a second menu as well), it’s cheap (most dishes are around $7), and most importantly, it’s actually open on Xmas.

This year was no exception. We probably got there around 6 PM or so – I recommend you go early as the place gets packed by 7 (on Xmas, at least). Service was rushed but attentive, and the food was up to standard.

I liked the roasted chicken quite a bit. The skin was impossibly crispy, and the meat was nice and moist. It’s rather bland by itself, but add some of the accompanying seasoned salt, and it’s delicious. The beef with oyster sauce was pretty good as well – nothing extraordinary but competently executed. I liked the thick-noodle chicken chow mein, it was flavorful and devoid of too many bean sprouts (I’m not a fan). I wasn’t thrilled about the doughy sweet & sour pork, however, but then again, I wasn’t in the mood for anything sweet. I thought the pieces of pork were too chewy and the sauce too sweet.


In all, it was a good Xmas Eve experience, and I look forward to going there again for our next Xmas dinner.

March 2007

Last night we went to the Oriental Tea House with a bunch of our friends (for memory’s sake, they were Donovan & Parker with Luther and baby Will, Regina and Boris, and Eddie and Arthur with Laurel, Bailey and Dee). We ordered a bunch of dishes: fried calamari, friend wontons, chicken chow mein, vegetable chow mein, lemon chicken, kun pao chicken, half a roasted chicken, beef with some sort of green beans and a couple of shrimp dishes. I was amazed at how good everything was. It was great to be able to savor so much variety – and to be with so many friends – but the actual food was all very good. And the bill was terribly cheap at $86 – which fed an army of 8 adults and 6 children.

We were all able to fit at one, very crowded, table – larger parties or those with more adults, would have to split in two.

We are now planning on getting together for dim sum some Sunday morning. If any of my friends are reading this, and want to come along, just e-mail me.

March 2005

Today we made it to the Oriental Tea House for dim sum. We liked it much better than East Village, though we didn’t get to taste the baked pork buns as they were out of it by the time we got there around 1 PM. The steamed pork buns were excellent, however, the bread was moist, the pork succulent and not too sweet. I got an additional order to go. The fried chicken was also very good, crispy and moist and wonderfully spiced. We also found a winner in the paper wrapped chicken – moist and delicious – and on the shrimp dumplings. We were less fond of the sesame balls and the deep fried meat balls, I’d never had those before and the thick pastry wrapping had a strange consistency that I did’t find appealing. Egg custards were OK, but not sweet enough for my taste. Lunch, including 3 canned sodas, came to $24 before tip. It’s pretty crowded on Sundays, but I’m sure we’ll be going again.

Oriental Tea House
604 MacArthur Blvd.
San Leandro
510.562.2828

Original Review

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

2008 Christmas Eve Dinner

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

My 2008 Christmas Eve Dinner may very well be my last Christmas dinner for a while. I loved the menu and I loved cooking it and serving it and eating it, but it was a two day affair (three, if you count shopping), and it was exhausting. I also spent more time in the kitchen during the meal than I really wanted to. I’m also not sure that it made sense financially – taking my guests to a relatively nice restaurant would have probably been cheaper. But hey, it was a nice experience and the food was great.
This time dinner included Mike and I, our two daughter, my father & sister, and our friends Lola and Ignatius. Great company.
I started by serving a Mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. I wanted to use the very expensive balsamic vinegar Mike got me for Xmas last year. The results were very good.
This was followed by Butternut squash soup with cider cream. Apparently my father has not stopped raving to my mother about the soup. Everyone else also said they liked it, and given that Mika (my 6.5 yo) had seconds, I’m inclined to believe them.
The third course consisted of panettini served with Hot artichoke & spinach dip and Mushroom ragout. Everyone loved the dip – I enjoyed the mushrooms. They’re both dishes I might make again (the dip definitely if Kathy, my sister, requests it again) – plus I now have a dish for it.
The fourth course was supposed to be Rost Rack of Lamb with Madeira Peppercon Reduction served with Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley, Roasted cauliflower and steamed broccoli. Alas, I neglected to trim the lamb, and it took much, much, much longer to cook than I imagined. Alas again, by the time I realized that, I had already served the sides – so the couscous turned out to be the fourth course. Fortunately, it was absolutely delicious.
The cauliflower wasn’t as successful. I’d cooked it in the toaster oven because I didn’t have the main oven was busy with the lamb (and I only have one oven). I removed it when it started to brown, and that apparently was too soon as it was undercooked. I had to throw out most of it.
It took quite a while for the lamb to hit the table, and I did have to cut it in individual chops in order to cook it quicker (which reminds me, I really need a carving knife), but it was absolutely delicious. I would definitely recommend serving it on the rare side of medium-rare (as I did by default). It was moist, tender and incredibly flavorful. I did buy it at a good butcher, Enzo’s Meat & Poultry’s in Rockridge, and at $17lb it was $4-5lb more expensive than the lamb at the supermarket & Costco. But it was domestic, which I wanted, and I think well worth the price. It couldn’t have been better.
The sauce, on the other hand, was a complete failure. On the one hand, it would have been a crime to cover the taste of the lamb with any kind of sauce. Really, I should have thought of that. On the other, the sauce itself wasn’t that good. I didn’t like the briny taste of the peppercorn, and I might have reduced the madeira too much because I thought it was almost bitter. Fortunately, I had the good sense of only putting a little bit on my plate.
Dinner ended with two desserts. I made a Low sugar apple-sauce for my dad, and everyone ended up loving it. It’s made with apple juice concentrate instead of sugar – but apples still have a lot of natural sugars, so it’s still not the best.
I also made Cornmeal cake with buttermilk ice cream. I don’t think this dessert was as popular as the other one, but I personally liked it very much. The cake was sweet and a tad dry, but the ice cream added the moisture it needed. They both definitely compliment each other very much – neither is as good by itself. The buttermilk ice cream was pretty good – it had great consistency, very creamy though dense (and not at all crystally), and its lemony taste is reminiscent of cheesecake. It’s definitely a dessert I’d recommend.
I had planned on serving hot chocolate with speculoos, a Belgian spice cookie I’d made the day before. IMHO, the speculoos were great, and the kids themselves loved them – but Lola didn’t seem to be very impressed. A couple of people ate one, but most of us were too full from dinner. I did leave some for Santa, who ate at least one 🙂
And that was dinner. We had a Treana viognier/marsanne wine with the earlier part of the meal and a Deloach Zinfandel with the latter part. The white was better than the red.-

Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I have long been interested in Israeli couscous, but I had never really cooked it – for one, because it’s difficult to find. Trader Joe’s has started carrying it, though, and I have no doubt that it will become one of our starch staples. Though it’s probably not as healthy as whole-wheat regular couscous, it’s less messy (you can’t imagine the mess little kids can do with regular couscous), more attractive, and, most importantly, Mika really likes it.
Despite my inexperience with Israeli couscous, I felt it would be an ideal companion to the roasted rack of lamb I was serving. I wanted a side that would have a relatively soft flavor, so as to not compete with the lamb, that would be able to stand to the sauce I was serving with the lamb, and that would be good on its own. This recipe met all the requirements.
Indeed, I’m surprised at how it managed to be both quite simple and amazingly delicious. I ended up serving it as a 4th course, rather than a side, because my rack of lamb took forever to cook, and it actually worked pretty well on its own. I definitely ate a large plate of it. Those who waited say it also went very well with the lamb. My only concern with the recipe is how much butter it takes. When I make it again, I’ll try to reduce it to 3 Tbsp. and see if the results are noticeably inferior.
Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley

  • 5 Tbsp. butter
  • 2/3 cup pine nuts
  • 2 large shallots, chopped
  • 16 oz Israeli couscous
  • 1 large cinnamon stick
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 3/4 cups chicken broth
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
  • black pepper

Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. Add the pine nuts and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Meanwhile, melt 4 Tbsp. of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until brown, about 10 minutes. Add the couscous, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Cook until the couscous browns slightly, about 5 minutes. Stir often.
Add the chicken broth and the salt and mix well. Bring the couscous to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the couscous is done and all the liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Mix in the pine nuts and parsley. Add black pepper to taste.
Marga’s Best Recipes

Mushroom ragout on toast

December 26, 2008 / / 1 Comment

mushroomtoast.jpg
My husband wanted foie gras for Xmas Eve dinner – but I just couldn’t justify the expense on this economy. I thought first about making scallops, but as I’m not a great fan, I settled on mushrooms instead. I looked and looked and looked for a great mushroom ragout recipe, to no avail. So I decided to use this one for wild mushroom crostini as it got good reviews and could be made the day ahead. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but I thought it was quite tasty. Still, I served it on store-bought garlic parmesan panettini (only because a friend got me a package for Xmas, and I figured that using it would mean having one less thing to do), and the flavor of the toasts sort of overwhelmed the mushrooms. If you make them, use regular toast (see original recipe for instructions).
I also had to alter the types of mushrooms I used because one package of oyster mushrooms I bought was bad (damn Safeway) and I couldn’t find crimini mushrooms at the supermarket.
The recipe below is what I made.
Mushroom ragout on toast

  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 large shallots, chopped
  • 3.5 oz oyster mushrooms, chopped
  • 7 oz shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
  • 1 lb white mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/4 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tsp fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 cup grated Fontina cheese
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 36 small toast slices

Preheat broiler.
Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and saute for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until they start to brown – about 6 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
Add cream, rosemary and lemon peel and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let cool down. Add the two cheeses and mix well.
Place toasts on a baking sheet. Spoon mushroom mixture onto the toasts. Bake until the mixture starts to brown, about 3 minutes. Serve warm.

Marga’s Best Recipes

Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

My sister Kathy asked me to make artichoke & spinach dip for our Xmas Eve dinner. Though I neither like artichokes or spinach, and I had a very heavy menu, I decided to honor her request. She is pretty appreciative of my food, and it’s always nice to cook for someone who is going to appreciate it.
There were many recipes to chose from, but I settled on this one, by Tiffany Brennan in allrecipes.com. My version is very close to hers, though I had to change a couple of ingredients to suit what I had at home. I also sort of halved it – as I didn’t expect that many people to eat it. The proportions below will serve 4 served with toasted bread.
I made the dip the day before, covered it and let it come to room temperature before baking it.
My guests absolutely loved it – I’ll definitely make it again for Kathy. As for me, I couldn’t bring myself to taste it.
Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip

  • 4 oz cream cheese
  • 2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
  • 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 Tbsp. grated Romano cheese
  • 1 small clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp. herbs de provence
  • a dash of celery salt
  • 6 oz canned artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
  • 1/4 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed
  • 2 Tbsp. mozarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350F
Mix together the cream cheese, mayo, parmesan & romano cheeses, garlic, herbs de provence and celery salt. Add artichoke hearts and spinach and mix.
Transfer dip to a baking dish and sprinkle with mozarella cheese. Bake in a preheated oven until the top is bubbly and lightly browned – about 15 minutes.
Marga’s Best Recipes

Butternut squash soup with cider cream

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

soup.jpg
For some reason, my daughter Mika got it into her head that she liked butternut squash soup, and she requested that I make it for Christmas. Now, butternut squash soup is not my favorite, but she was pretty insistent, which she rarely is for any food item.

I made this soup based on a (surprise, suprise) epicurious.com recipe. The recipe got great reviews, and people at my dinner table really liked it. In particular, Mika loved it.

Personally, I wasn’t sold by it, but I felt the cider cream was an essential ingredient for the soup to work – the sour element gave it an extra dimension to what would otherwise have been pretty bland results. I used Trader Joe’s sparkling apple cider, because that’s what I found at TJ’s. I used Better than Bouillon for the chicken stock – I usually just add the water and the appropriate amount of concentrate, rather than make the stock before hands. It’s easier and just as effective

I made the soup a day in advance and I think that improved it. I’d make it again if my daughter requested it.

On a different note, I found that the easiest way to peel the squash was to cut it into sections and then use a pairing knife to peel.

I didn’t change the recipe very much (if at all) – though below I’m providing adjusted ingredients. The original recipe turned out twice the amount of soup I needed to serve 8 as a soup course. There were no leftovers, though.

Butternut squash soup with cider cream

  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into small chunks
  • 2 medium leeks, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
  • 1 Granny smith apple, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
  • 3/4 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1/4 tsp. dried sage leaves
  • 2 1/2 cups chicken stock.
  • 3/4 cup apple cider
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup whipping cream
  • half bunch of fresh chives, chopped.

Melt butter over medium-high heat in a stock or large pot. Add squash, leeks, carrot and celery. Sautee for about 15 minutes, until soft. Add apples, thyme and sage and mix. Add chicken stock and 1/2 cup of cider. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until apples are tender. Cool.

Puree the soup in a blender, in batches. Return to the soup.

Meanwhile boil 1/4 cup cider in a small pan and reduce it by half. Cool. Place sour cream in a small bowl and whisk in the cider.

Bring soup to a slow boil. Add the whipping cream and mix well. Transfer the soup to a serving dish and drizzle with the sour cream. Top with chopped chives.

2008 Christmas Eve Dinner Menu

Marga’s Best Recipes

Salad with balsamic vinaigrette

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I wanted to use some of the very expensive balsamic vinegar Mike got me last year, so I looked for a vinaigrette recipe to use on a simple mixed green salad. This one was super easy and delicious. The only change I would make next time is adding some crunch to the salad – roasted pecans or walnuts would work well. The recipe, as most of my non-ethnic recipes – comes from epicurious.com.
Salad with balsamic vinaigrette

  • 1 lb mixed greens
  • 3 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Wash and dry the greens.
In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and garlic. Whisk in the olive oil, a little bit at the time. Mix with greens and serve.

2004 Deloach Sonoma County Zinfandel

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

deloach.jpgThe second wine I served at our Xmas Eve dinner was a 2004 Deloach Sonoma County Forgotten Vines Zinfandel that I had bought at the winery years before. At $35 this is close to the most I’ve ever spent on a wine – so I had great expectations for it. I had, of course, liked it at the winery – but I’m not sure to what degree you can trust your taste buds when you go wine tasting.
I was concerned about this bottle as soon as I opened it. First, the cork broke a little bit when I tried to take it out with my rabbit corkscrew – I was successful with a regular corkscrew, however. I love the rabbit, but it does fail to work on many a cork.
Then the cork was half way wet (not just the bottom but the sides). That concerned me that the wine had gone bad, but it tasted fine. And it did. It was a good wine, dark, balanced, with stature. I tasted like an adult wine for adults, its dark fruit had settled in, there weren’t any shouting flavors; a fine wine. It just wasn’t an amazing wine. It wasn’t what I’d consider a $35 wine.
Now, that may be because I was unconsciously comparing it to the Hess wine I’d served with Hanukkah dinner – which was vastly superior (and twice as expensive), or because it had gone somehow bad – but it just didn’t allure me. Oh well.

2005 Treana white wine

December 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

treanna.jpgFor Xmas Eve dinner I served a couple of wines. We started with a wine wine, a 2005 Treana Central Coast, Mer Soleil Vineyard wine composed of 50% Marsanne and 50% Viognier. It’s yet another wine I won at a raffle/auction (yes, I participate in a fair number of those things). The wine retails at about $27 dollars – which means it was a wash with what I spent on tickets, but it was a good cause 🙂 .
The wine was actually very good, and it got accolades at my Xmas Eve dinner. I thought it was pretty sweet, almost competing with a dessert wine. It was pretty fruity, and very nicely balanced. It also managed to keep its flavor through the different courses I served with it (bread & olive oil/salad with balsamic vinaigrette/butternut squash soup/crostinis with mushrooms & artichoke dip). In all, if you like sweetish wines, this is definitely one you should consider.

Xmas gifts 2008

December 25, 2008 / / 0 Comments

In previous years I got all the hardcore kitchen equipment I needed – a good quality food processor (though I came to discover, while I was cooking Xmas dinner, that it has a crappy lid), a good quality blender and a good quality mixer – so my cooking items request for this year was much less greedy. And alas, I got the most important things I wanted.
My mother gave me her old (but barely used) toaster oven. It’s a Black & Decker and small enough to fit in our very limited counter space. It’s great because our old one is probably over 10 years old and had not been working well (i.e. burning toast) for quite a while. Now I can finally get rid of it! The only problem with this toaster oven is that it doesn’t come with a baking sheet – and I doubt I can find one small enough for it. That doesn’t matter for toast – but it makes it hard to use for things like toasting nuts. Hmmm – perhaps I could find a very small aluminum pan to put there? Or use tin foil to make a little mold? Any ideas?
bowls.jpgAlso from my mother, a set of pyrex mixing bowls I had asked for. All my mixing bowls are plastic and old – and I wanted something better quality (so, at least I can feel more luxurious when I cook) that had lids – so I can put whatever it is directly in the fridge. I haven’t opened these yet, but they look very nice and got good reviews.
Mom also got me a small (10″ x 14″) cookie sheet that comes with a matching silicone mat. It’s Cooking with Calphalon brand. I’ve never used a baking mat, and I’m hoping it’ll be good – it’d beat having to use expensive parchment paper or cleaning baking sheets. The cookie sheet is on the small size, but I think it’ll fit in the oven along side my regular large baking sheets.
Finally, my sister Kathy got me a set of CorningWare. It includes a 2.5qt casserole, a 1.5 qt one and a 16 oz one. Only the bigger one comes with a glass lid, which makes it appropriate for baking in the oven – but that’s the one I really needed. Alas, CorningWare has the weird pricing scheme in that it’s often cheaper to buy a set of dishes than just one. I’m not sure what I’ll use the little ones for. The little one would work for hot artichoke-spinach dip (I made some last night for Xmas dinner, and as I didn’t have one that size I divided it into smaller ramekins). Any ideas what the 1.5 qt one (which only has a plastic lid) could be used for?
And that’s it – not many food gifts this year, but then I didn’t ask for many 🙂 I did ask for a dutch oven, but I’m not really disappointed that I didn’t get one, as I’m not sure that I’d use it very often.
Could it really be true that I don’t need/want anything else for the kitchen? Nah – I did notice while cooking Xmas dinner that I do need more wooden spoons.
Oh, and I forgot, I need a butcher’s knife, a carving knife and kitchen shears.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Marga's Food Blog

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Pinterest
fb-share-icon
WhatsApp
FbMessenger