SANTOUKA RAMEN ****

Santouka Toroniku Ramen (#7). Shio broth is silky and complex with balanced salt, seafood and pork flavors and a sesame note. The special pork (pork cheek?) is thinly sliced with a nice ribbon of fat that softens in the broth, nice soy flavor and tenderness. Noodles were good though not notable. Halu's noodles are more to my taste, but the broth at Halu is overly bitter (from smoke or garlic?). I prefer Santouka's deeply flavored and well balanced soup over the other local places. Rice with Salmon Roe is fine though nothing special just good rice with a splash of vinegar and a heaping of Ikura. Next time try the spicy miso ramen.

Mitsuwa Market - 675 Saratoga, San Jose

A&J RESTAURANT*'

Taiwanese in Cupertino

Seaweed and Bean Sprout in Garlic Vinegar Sauce - good vinegar and garlic kick.
Scallion Pancake - standard.
Beef Tendon with Garlic Sauce - o.k. tendon is in large pieces, but flavorful.
Pan Fried Beef Bun - like a large potsticker with a ground beef and chinese chive filling, just o.k. if a bit greasy.
Taiwanese Spicy Beef Noodle Soup (thin noodles) - yes, a decent version very much like the salty soy saucy type in Taiwanese night markets.
Homestyle Bean Curd - with pieces of pork, very homey.

Overall it's home-style cooking. Authentic, but just o.k. quality-wise. Decent for a very inexpensive meal. Next time try the wide noodles or maybe just try Guang Dong across the way.

SANTA RAMEN ***

My favorite ramen place is Yotteko-Ya, a Japanese chain, but the inconvenience of flying to Japan or Hawaii for lunch has left me on a quest for a local substitute. Santa Ramen located in San Mateo is the current front runner. On a recent lunch visit, I had the pork ramen spicy and it is the closest I've gotten so far to the spicy paiten ramen at YY. The soup was creamy in appearance, yet had a deep pork flavor -- mixed with the spiciness it was better than any local ramen I've tried. Simple, no seafood undertones or other more complex flavors, but good never the less. My only regret was that there was not enough soup to accompany the large portion of noodles.



I also sampled the soy sauce ramen soup which was much better than that at Halu and perhaps in competition with the soup at YY. The clear soup glistened from meat drippings with a meat rather than soy sauce flavor. Excellent.



The noodles themselves were on par with those at Halu, not as thick, but cooked more Japanese style (more chew and less softness). Though the portion of noodles was larger than normal, neither of us had trouble finishing everything. The pork or cha shu served on top of both bowls was thinly sliced and somewhat dry with very little fat. Definitely not as good as the pork at other ramen restaurants. With that minor demerit, Santa still rates as my current top pick for ramen in the bay area.

LITTLE SICHUAN**'

Lunch at Little Sichuan in the San Mateo. For some reason we keep ordering the Ma Po Tofu. It's a good version of the dish, but my favorite is still the spicy but deeply flavored Hot Boiled Beef. Strong garlic and hot pepper flavor with a slightly sour tang from the cabbage.



4th Ave, San Mateo

HIMAWARI***

Having several meetings in the peninsula over the past month, I've been able to get to some of the ramen restaurants in Melanie Wong's list. This time it was Himawari in San Mateo. I felt like something spicy so I went for the Tan Tan Men, a spicy thick broth with ground pork, menma (bamboo shoots) and chewy noodles. I enjoyed the heat of the broth, though I felt the noodles were a little bit on the thin and soft side, not as good as those at Ramen Halu. There was quite a bit of chashu. It was cut very thin and on the lean side, but still tasty. I would prefer a thicker fattier cut. The atmosphere is somewhat more modern than the typical ramen shop. It has modern lighting and that familiar Swedish modular furniture. It's a casual, but not a take out type of place. It's definitely worth a repeat visit, next time I'll give the Shoyu Ramen a try.



2nd Ave, San Mateo

RAMEN HALU**

The ramen noodles at Ramen Halu in San Jose were the best I've had in the Bay Area, thicker than the usual noodle, chewy and flavorful. The smallish restaurant was crowded on a weekday lunch hour, but the service was fast enough that the wait was minimal. The signature Ramen Halu had a broth thick with protein and delicious drippings from the cha shiu, but it was too salty for my taste. The saltiness covered any depth or subtly that might have been in the soup. Yes, judging from the Japanese looking clientele packing the place, I might be the only one with this opinion of the soup. The cha shiu was very tender and had a good ratio of meat to fat, the pickled shoots were fresh and crunchy. The fresh noodles are enough to make me return, but next time I'll order a different soup.



Saratoga near Stevens Creek

LYANG LYANG***

A pleasant lunch at Lyang Lyang on a weekend. Having been here several times before, we've already established our favorites: the Sizzling Princess Tofu, Sarang Seafood, and the Kang Kung Belachan.

The Sizzling Princess Tofu are large pieces of fried tofu covered in a mix of seafood and served sizzling in a savory brown sauce. The tofu pieces have a chewy outer layer with soft fresh tofu inside. The sauce matches perfectly with the slightly caramelized tofu and the seafood adds crunch and sea flavor to the dish.

Sarang Seafood is a mix of shrimp, scallops, and squid with vegetables in a bowl made of fried taro. The seafood mix and sauce is the same as that of the princess tofu though there seemed to be slightly less seafood in this one. The best part of this is the fried taro which is light and crispy with a thick layer of creamy taro within. The taro bowl soaks up the seafood sauce making this very rich and filling.

Kang Kung Belachan is the typical kong shin tsai or ong choi or water spinach that is served at many restaurants. Here it is fresh and has a good balance of shrimp paste to vegetable.



We also sampled the Chow Kuey Teow which I liked very much, but as I haven't had it at too many other places, I can't say if it is a good representation of the dish. The murtebak which I've had at several other places, was just o.k., the filling had a bit too much egg and weighed down the entire dish. I'd probably stick with the plain roti next time. The dipping sauce here better than the places I've tried and the roti itself is not greasy or overly buttery.

My only quibble with the place is that the seafood is most likely frozen. Though it tastes perfectly fine considering the sauces that coat it. Service is quick and efficient. I would come regularly if it were in the City.


DeAnza near Prospect, San Jose

LITTLE SHANGHAI**

Lunch at Little Shanghai in San Mateo. An extensive menu of Shanghainese dishes and small plates. After surveying the tables around me, I decided to give the Xiao Long Bao and Water Boiled Beef a try. I added an order of Green Onion Pancake, just as a good point of comparison to other places. The Green Onion Pancake came first and was ordinary, the onion flavor was there, but it was not crispy on the outside and a bit oilier than I like. Next came the XLB which were a decent effort. Much more soup inside the dumplings than at other places in the City, but the skin was on the thick side and the pork filling was plain. The best of the three dishes was the Water Boiled Beef which I ordered extra spicy. It had a nice deep red pepper flavor and was full of beef sliced thick enough to stand up to the spicy sauce, but thin enough so that it was easy to bite through -- an almost silky texture. The pickled vegetables were a good texture contrast, but were somewhat overwhelmed by the strong red pepper flavor, still other flavor elements like garlic came through. I would order this again or try some of the other offerings on the menu.




E 25th Ave San Mateo

KOI PALACE***'

Duck Dinner

SHALIZAAR***

Shalizaar has been open at this new location in Belmont for less than two weeks. The building seems entirely brand new, the floor, the bar and furniture is upscale and that's also reflected in the menu prices. At lunch hour, the dress was business casual to semi-formal and the service was excellent. Every table was taken and the bar was only place to eat without a reservation. Once seated, I received a basket of good quality walnuts, with a slice of feta and a mix of mint and basil. Soon thereafter warm pita bread from the wood fired oven arrived. According to the host the most popular starter is the Kashk-e-Bademjan, pureed eggplant and garlic, topped with mint and kashk. A huge serving of this came out and struck me as good, but nothing particularly special. On the other hand the Shishlik, marinated lamb chops were excellent, the marinade gave the meat a slight sourness which matched well against the salty caramelized edges of the chops. Dispensing with formality, I ate them like lamb lollipops. The meat was juicy and soft, though it still required a knife to cut rather than falling off the bone. The rice was particularly good. Later, I noticed that the menu offered several variations of rice, so rice is something they pay attention to, rather than just a plate filler. I'd come back again for a nice dinner, though I can't say that it's the best quality to price values out there.



300 El Camino in Belmont

Harmony Frozen Yogurt

Harmony in San Carlos is yet another yogurt place to jump on the Pinkberry craze. They use Straus Organic Yogurt and you can really taste the difference in the quality. It is thick and creamy. It tastes very natural and somewhat like sweetened sour cream, but not as tangy. The toppings are similar to those at the other Pinkberry knockoffs, but I noticed that several of the fruits are fruit in a syrup rather than just chopped up fresh fruit. For example, Yogurt Bar has fresh raspberries, while Harmony has a raspberries in syrup that looks like a chunky sauce. Don't know how it tastes, because I went with the classic plain yogurt and strawberry.

Comparing Pinkberry and its local descendents, Harmony is the thickest and creamiest, but also has the most neutral yogurt flavor of the three. Next comes Yogurt Bar which is also in the neutral yogurt flavor category, but is slightly more tangy and less thick than Harmony. Finally, Pinkberry is the iciest and most tangy with a lemony yogurt flavoring. It is probably the most artificial. At the moment, Yogurt Bar is my fave because it is natural and creamy, yet has some tang.

SARAVANA BHAVAN***

BANANA ISLAND**'

In the strip mall adjacent to Trader Joe's and hidden behind a major construction site is Banana Island, a rather large, but very casual Singapore-Malaysian place. A and I enjoyed lunch there, he said that he thinks it used to be an Applebee's because of the large island bar in the middle which is now used as storage space for the kitchen. The place had a fair number of diners, all of whom were Asian. Roti was very good, I could just eat two of these and call it a day. Lamb Rendang and Kang Kung Belechan were decent but not spicy enough. The hostess told us we should tell them to make it spicy next time. Hot Squid was not hot, but rather sweet. Next Time: Roti and maybe one of their interesting looking soups. That flat fried dessert thing looked good too, I wonder what it was.


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