Santa Clara Native: Where the Locals Eat

• Name: DP “DareBear” – 3rd or 4th Generation Californian + First Gen. Chinese
  
• Occupation: Bartender & Graphic Design Student

• How long he’s lived in San Jose: More than 20 years!

• Favorite Local Eat and Treat: Family Birthdays Celebrated @ Okayama Restaurant
• Location: Japantown, San Jose

“DareBear” always takes girls for first dates to Okayama!  Then they fall in love, and with the way the story was told to me, with the restaurant anyways.  Okayama Restaurant, family owned and operated in Japantown since 1967 (one of last three historical Japantowns remaining in the US),  is also DP’s family’s favorite place to go for special occasions, particularly birthdays (they give special treatment for birthdays).  They always call ahead for reservations because it can be crowded.  DP and his sister both order the Beef Teppanyaki.  His mom gets the Soup with Tofu, his brother orders the Chicken katsu (Hawaiian Dish), and his father likes the Beef Teriyaki.  DP remembers as a kid being served otter pops on his birthday and says adults got green tea ice cream.  On their website I noticed that they offer a free birthday lunch or dinner with your ID for a party of 4 or more.

(408) 289-9508

For those who don’t know, San Jose has a Japantown neighborhood.  This neighborhood has many delicious restaurants of all types, and this past Saturday it hosted the Spirit of Japantown festival.  This festival won points with us right away by its lack of entry fee.  They closed off the streets of the neighborhood and set up tents full of food, drinks, Japanese products and social groups.  Other points made by the festival were for the ample beverage tents, lack of lines, and the import tuner car show (with the required pin-up girls on location).  But, this being a food blog, we were disappointed by the minimal amount of food tents.  Granted, the restaurants and storefronts were open to offer up shaved ice and other ice cream type treats to all of the melting participants out on a 95 degree day, but i can go to restaurants any day of the week.  There were delicious pot stickers, an interesting spamshimi, and wheat noodle udon that we failed to try because we assumed there would be more food.  In conclusion, we recommend more food to make this festival rise to the level of deliciousness that was the Eat Real fest.

http://www.spiritofjapantownfestival.com/

Zach: I’ll keep this one short.  Not enough food but the food there was good. I would love to try some Japanese items that I wouldn’t normally get a chance to eat.  Short lines which I love. Not over crowded and nice to visit the area.  Still way better than the Gilroy Garlic Festival!

This was our second trip to Ramen Halu.  We’ve been here before but it was so good the first time that we had to go back.  Like most of America, I was very familiar with the packaged ramen noodles that were 10 for a dollar, but I never realized that ramen noodles were a real Japanese dish that could be so full of amazing flavor.  Look here for some background on ramen.

We were the first ones through the door at 5:35pm on a Monday night and we were greeted with a loud greeting in Japanese.  Everyone was busy getting the place ready for dinner service.  The huge pots of broth were simmering on the stove in the back with the owner/cook working his magic to render that delicious pork flavor from the bones.  The menu here is filled with all kinds of appetizers that I can’t wait to try on my next visit, but we were here for the large bowls of Tantan-Men ramen which is the seasonal ramen soup for summer.  I have to borrow the quote from their website because it’s superior to anything I could possibly come up with.

Making it’s first appearance at HALU this summer, “ The mid-summer Tantan-Men ” is perfect during the hot summer in San Jose with its bold and deep spiciness that you can feel it deep in your body.
The deliciousness of the ingredients become alive from scratch : white sesame seeds are roasted to make the “ Chi-ma-jyan ” , 10 kinds of spices are blended to make the “ Ra-yu ” (spicy oil) . It is combined with our rich pork based soup, which consists of green and yellow onions, seaweed, garlic, and ginger, which is boiled for numerous hours.
This red, hot, spicy & healthy “ Tantan-Men “ makes you lively !
This Tantan-Men is topped with our special ” Niku miso ” which is made from ground pork, selected spices, and Tenmen-jan from Haccho miso, memma/ seasoned bamboo shoots, ho-rensou/spinach, kikurage/ear mushrooms, negi/ green onion, nori/seaweed, and pakuchi/cilantro.

There are also four other soups on the menu, all with different kinds of broth and different ingredients.  I’ll give you a quick rundown, but visit the website for a full description.

• Sho-yu ramen Is a clear broth based on Dashi(Japanese traditional fish broth) and combined with chicken, pork and soy sauce.
• Shio ramen is similar to sho-yu only lighter in taste and color
• Halu ramen Their signature ramen is based on their rich pork broth with the addition of dashi and many vegetables.  It’s a cloudy creamy brown soup, but in the best way possible.
• Tsuke-men This one is a plate of cold noodles served with a small bowl of rich smoky pork broth for dipping the noodles.

Our soup arrived only minutes after we had ordered it while the place began to fill up.  When I took the picture of the interior the place was empty, but before we left almost every seat was full.  If you’re worried about not finding a place to sit, don’t be.  The turnover is pretty quick as the soup has been cooking on the stove for multiple hours and it is served fresh and fast, as the only thing to cook are the noodles.  On top of the low cook time the service is good.  Another little thing that we both enjoyed was the lemon flavored water.  One thing to remember if you plan to eat at Halu is that they are open for lunch on Tuesday but closed for dinner service.

Zach: Ramen Halu has one of my favorite places to eat in San Jose or the rest of the Bay Area thus far.  I’m a lover of porky goodness from way back and the pork soup base is out of this world in my opinion.  I’ve tasted every soup on the menu and they are all excellent; outstanding even.  I guess it just depends on what you’re in the mood for.  My favorite is the Halu ramen, but the rich soup that they use for the Tsuke-men is very good as well.  Another great thing is that you can request the amount of salt or fat in your soup.  I usually get 3/4 salt and that’s about perfect.  Highly recommended.

John: This place is one of my favorite finds, especially in the Stevens Creek area, where there are many eateries, but few that are worth returning to.  I am also quite fond of the surfer decorations, with a couple Japanese-shaped surfboards on one wall and postcard-size framed ocean photos on the other.  The Halu broth is amazing, though I agree with Zach about lowering the salt just a touch.  I toy with the idea of asking for more fat in my broth, but I doubt my doctor would approve.  The Tantan-men was my favorite, because it has more of a spice to it.  As the website says, it gives you energy on hot summer days, which I found to be true while sitting through a lecture on legal ethics.  Go for it, you won’t regret it.

Website with menu and hours

(Google Map)

Even on a slow stroll at a banana slugs pace you might miss this tiny little sushi joint in Los Gatos.  I’ve been wanting to check this place out for the last couple of months mostly because of its minuscule size.  It only seats eight at a time.  The place was full when we walked up but the wait was short as the sushi chef/owner kicked a couple out when he noticed us looking in.  As soon as I walked in I almost turned around due to the strong fishy smell lingering in the air, but I was determined to give this place a chance, due mostly to my love of all restaurants/bars cozy and tiny.  After examining the menu, John and I decided on splitting three rolls: the Volcano roll (tuna, scallion, tobiko, Japanese fire sauce), Pat’s Homerun roll (eel, macadamia nuts, “special sauce”)  and my old standby the Spicy Salmon roll (Spicy Salmon is not on the menu, but you can ask to have salmon substituted in a spicy tuna roll) ($21 total).  While I watched the chef whip up some pending orders, I could tell he’s been doing this for a while.  He throws a roll together in about two seconds flat and palms all six pieces of the sliced roll in one hand as he throws it on your plate.  We quickly received our rolls before I had a chance to forget what I ordered (common occurence) and it was almost exactly what I pictured it to be.  All of the rolls were good. Not fantastic and not bad.  Not the best ever but then again not as bad as the initial smell led me to believe it would be.  When all was said and done, we were out of there in what seemed like 20 minutes if not less.  Give it a shot if you’re in the area.

John: Overall, I enjoy SOTR for its fast service and tasty rolls.  The establishment is BYOB, which we did not know (and seemed to be the only ones who didn’t).  If you bring your own sake they will give you a bucket of ice, sake decanter, and cups.

www.sushi-on-the-run.com