South Bay Area & Silicon Valley Dining Options
Winter Kraftbrew will be in the Landmark Ballroom at the San Jose Women’s Club. We will be pouring some fantastic Winter Spiced Ales, Porters and Stouts. Delicious menu to be provided by Naglee Park Garage. Come by for some excellent brew…s, live music, and good food.
Address: 75 S 11th Street, San Jose CA, 95112
Event Date: January 28th, 2012
Hours: 3pm-9pm
FREE admission – just pay to taste!
For Chinese New Year in South Bay you have to make a stop by Cupertino Village. I have to admit right off the bat that I am not a Dim Sum expert. However, my friend, originally from Singapore, knows Asian food in the Bay Area and has taken me to Joy Luck Palace (Cantonese) for Dim Sum (on weekdays) for the past two years to celebrate the Chinese New Year. There is a lot of variety and I’ve always found it to be tasty. This year I made a new tradition and that is to eat a chicken foot (not pickled) and it was pretty good!
After lunch/brunch, walk around and buy jasmine tea at Ten Ren and bubble tea or a green mango smoothie at Fantasia. Pick up Chinese New Year Candy and Mooncakes from Sheng Kee Bakery. Then, with your Chinese New Year shopping list in hand, stop by 99 Ranch Market and pick up everything you need. Mandarin oranges are the most popular and most abundant fruit during Chinese New Year so don’t forget to pick some up at 99 Ranch Market.
Everyone goes crazy over the parking at Cupertino Village on yelp. If you go during the week just make sure it is after lunch (but at least by 2pm to be able to eat at Joy Luck Place which closes for lunch at 2:30pm), it is much easier to park but at that point, remember, they are starting to have fewer Dim Sum choices.
(408) 255-6988
On Blame it on the Food we’ve basically gotten to the point where we just write about the places we like. Enoteca is no exception here, we like it. One of the reasons we’ve become fond of it is because as our cousin who works in the food industry says, when the management is good in a restaurant and there is a positive vibe in the work environment, the place shines all around. This is exactly how the environment is at Enoteca La Storia because the owners have created this and are so nice and professional and therefore so is their staff. They always seem to welcome customers and they feel bad if you have to wait for a seat. They feel so bad that they often give you a complimentary glass of Prosecco to sip on as you wait. Enoteca has only gotten more and more popular since the first time we visited.
I’ve actually been meaning to write about Enoteca La Storia in Los Gatos so many times in the last year but it is very dim inside in the evening and it makes it really hard to get decent photographs of the food and space. So I finally accumulated enough photographs to give you a feel for the interior and a bit of the food. It is a wine bar that serves some food and you can sit at the bar or at tables. The backroom has some larger tables that seem like they could be reserved for larger parties. When people come into the wine bar they typically talk, eat, drink, eat a bit more and drink and hang out for extended periods. This is actually something I really like about it, you can meet friends at 8pm and hang out from there on out ordering snacks, wine, and to end, one of their really tasty desserts.
The food ranges from cheese to salumi boards (domestic and imported salumi) and crostini as well as paninis, salads and great desserts (carrot cake bites and chocolate cake with bacon bits). The majority of the food is nicely displayed and served on cutting boards. For wine you can order half glasses, glasses, and bottles to share or flights. We typically get a glass of wine each (or a Pliny de Elder, they often have that too), a cheese and salumi selection (Are Salumi & Charcuterie the Same Thing?) and then an awesome dessert like the chocolate cake with bacon bits on top! If you come with at least four people the better deal is to buy a bottle (it is something like after the first bottle corkage fee, you don’t have to pay quite as much for each additional bottle). Check it out on an upscale date night or plan to meet a couple of friends for chatting and good times. It is kind of a bar for when you want to keep it classy, not really a hip spot so to speak but definitely not hipster – trendy maybe for the older crowd (40’s and up in age and not a kid or family spot). On Fridays and Saturdays it can get fairly busy so keep that in mind.
416 N. Santa Cruz Ave.
Los Gatos, CA 95030
Phone: 408-625-7272
Email: info@enotecalastoria.com
The Huffington Post San Francisco asked San Francisco Food Bloggers about the Best Noodles In San Francisco? When they asked us, we had to mention Tantan-men from Halu Ramen.
Check out the Article: Food Bloggers Reveal Their Faves:
The Naglee Park Garage is the kind of neighborhood restaurant that you want located a short bike ride down the street from your house. There is a small interior space with a few bar stools and some tables with the kitchen wide open and the grill right there. In any case it is located very close to San Jose State University, hence the 7-11 right next door. It was featured on Triple D’s, which is how we found out about it, but I’m not sure that it is a typical Triple D’s pick, it is maybe a bit on the hip divey side, so OK, it works for that. You order your food and a beer (Allagash White – A traditional Belgian Wheat Beer on Draft) at the counter and can grab a seat inside or if it is nice enough you can sit out back at a picnic table in the beer garden. The menu is not what you would expect from an order at the counter joint. The fare includes interesting seasonal California foods such as salads including their classic Picnic Salad with beets, blue cheese, and bacon or a seasonal salad with apples, pears, endive, and goat cheese as well as tasty burgers and interesting main dishes (Ribs, Trout, Lamb Meatballs). My choice for tastiness (and a great date night place to sit at the bar) is to split the burger and order a small salad and an interesting side … oh, as well as what I would consider the best item on the menu, their Chocolate Bread Pudding with whip cream and candied pecans (or vanilla too) for dessert.
I’ve been to Naglee Park Garage at least five times now and my friends from out of town dig it. They do have breakfast (mmm… tri-tip hash), although I’ve never tried it and they also cater local backyard family-style events which sounds interesting and you can check that out on their website.
Do you need to pretend you are among the ladies who lunch, even though you have to head out on the one day of the weekend that you don’t actually have to work? This is California right … everyone works. The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards is your spot for a ladies who lunch outing. Wente is also a good place for dates with your honey, hubby, or daddy too (we saw all of the above). The complimentary lunch valet also makes you feel like your out-for-lunch aka on vaca. You even get to head out of town a bit for a nice drive in the country to get there, an SF Bay Area Day Trip for sure, without having to go all the way to Napa or Paso Robles. It is about a 45 minute drive from Mountain View and from Oakland to get out to Livermore, CA. As you get closer to Livermore you will find fruit stands along the road. We bought cherries along the way and had a cherry spitting contest, FYI, not at Wente (don’t get yourself kicked out).
We liked snacking on: Cayenne Spiced Roasted Nuts, Maple, Garden Herbs & Warmed Nicolau Farms Goat Cheese, Herbed Bread Crumbs.
We liked sipping on: SEASONAL COCKTAILS such as the Lavender Martini and local wines.
* Photos by Deb Hayes
I was introduced to Mezcal Restaurant in downtown San Jose, CA, after seeing the Mapplethorpe photo-exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art last week (& Mezcal is right across the street from the SJMA). To be honest, when I first walked by Mezcal I thought it was a cheesy, downtown SJ bar from the outside (and that is probably my own bias) but I was so pleasantly surprised when we stepped inside. Friends who had dined there numerous times and who really know their moles and real Mexican food (sorry, no burritos here) highly recommended Mezcal Restaurant. The cuisine is authentic Oaxacan regional cuisine with an accent on their homemade moles and imported Oaxacan Mezcals (Mezcal is a distilled alcoholic beverage, a sibling of Tequila, made from the maguey plant – boasting a delicious strong smoky flavor). The moles are created by the mother, Doña Libo, (owned by two sons and their mother) with ingredients imported from Oaxaca. The indoor dining room boasts a collection of hand painted Mezcal boxes that are very contemporary Mexico and beautifully displayed together on the bar. The atmosphere is fun with tables, chairs, and art also imported from Oaxaca. The service we received was wonderful and welcoming with lots of information about each dish served. We even got to go back in the kitchen so Deb could photograph Dona creating homemade tortillas (pictured above).
When you arrive you are served chips that allow you to taste the three different kinds of mole sauce:
The mole dishes are the stars of the menu, as is the unique Chapulines (fried grasshoppers sautéed with garlic, lime and salt served as an appetizer). I recommend the Estofados, Enchiladas, or Enmoladas, depending on which mole you liked (corn tortillas with mole, cheese, onions, your choice of meat, I got the pork). You can buy mole to go but it is expensive because there are so many ingredients (imported from Oaxaca) and it is such a time consuming dish to create. Also, don’t miss the homemade Pecan ice cream and the Horchata with fruit and nuts that you can order at lunch time.
I am going to be bold here. This is one of the best restaurants I have tried in the area in 2011. When I go back I will order: A Mezcal cocktail, Chapulines for an appetizer, Estofados as my meal, and definitely the Pecan Ice Cream for dessert. Try it out and let me know what you think!
25 West San Fernando Street
San Jose, CA 95113-2477
(408) 283-9595 ?
mezcalrestaurantsj.com
Alrighty, this is my Valentine’s Day Gift Pick for your special lady:
After a Chinese New Year’s occasion of Dim Sum at Joy Luck Palace with a friend we ventured around the Cupertino Village Asian strip mall of stores and restaurants all there together, to buy more of, one of my all-time favorites, Jasmin Pearl Tea. Jasmin Pearl Tea is quite expensive at about $100 lb and reminds me of my childhood (not sure why at all, but it does). At Ten Ren Tea, sitting on the shelf next to the Jasmin Pearl Tea, was another lovely looking blend called Rose Pearl Green Tea that had a combination of Jasmin Pearl Tea and dried Rose Buds for $144 lb. I knew it would be good and thought, this is the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for your girlfriend (s), mother, grandmother, and wife. You don’t want to buy a pound because that would be a LOT of tea. A $15-20 sachet worth of tea is the perfect amount. With the tea, you could include a beautiful tea pot set, mug, candies, chocolates or … !
