Sunday, March 30, 2008

Cafe Eritrea D'afrique - 4069 Telegraph Avenue

This place is currently holding the title as "Best Find" in our project thus far.

I'd wanted to try this place for a long time. The Partner in Chow wasn't so convinced that she'd like it - we weren't sure if this was Ethiopian food or more West African-style food, and she was still mourning the loss of Blue Nile.

From what we can gather, Ethiopia and Eritrea have similar/idential cuisine - or at least this place would indicate such.

We walked in to find a bunch of Ethiopian or Eritrean men at the bar hanging out. We took this as a good sign.

OK, the bad first: the atmo is lacking, it's true. Tile floors, uninspired takeout-type tables and chairs, and awful lighting. I'm someone very sensitive to lighting - fluorescent lighting in particular - so it's something worth noting.

However: the decor was made up for by our super nice waitress, the menu giving the heartfelt and compelling story of the restaurant (look up "The American Dream" and you pretty much have it), and the food.

Oh, the food. Such good Ethiopian food. Or Eritrean food. Whatever you want to call it, the food is fantastic and it's cheap. The menu warns you that the food is addictive, and we agree. We've already been back twice!

What we ordered (on all 3 trips): Vegetarian platter (for 1 feeds 2 people with a side; for 2 feeds 3), a side of the fava bean thing (it has feta on it)
Service: friendly and eager to answer questions, if not rushed in any way (even when you might be a little rushed)
Atmo: uninspired local Mom 'n Pop
Crowd: Ethiopians/Eritreans and local folks in-the-know
Spent: around $20.00
Overall rating: 4.5 sporks

We'd consider giving this place a 5 if it wasn't for the sterile atmo. But we haven't found better Ethiopian food elsewhere. Asmara wins on decor, but the food here is better.

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Chef Yu's / YuYu Za Zang - 3919 Telegraph Ave

I'll note that we've actually eaten at this place twice now due to the really awesome fried rice and the homemade noodles.

This place has both Korean and Chinese food. I didn't realize that it was a Korean chef and that the noodle side of the menu was Korean food (not having had Za Zang before), but I was in the mood for soup and took a cue from the cartoon of Chef Yu making noodles that udon soup would be a good choice.

The PIC ordered pork dumplings, fried rice and some sort of chicken (we don't remember, and we lost the receipt).

The atmo inside is lacking - not as lacking as New Big Daddy's, but not somewhere you necessarily want to sit down and hang out. Takeout is probably the best bet here.

What we ordered (we'll combine both trips): Vegetarian udon soup, pork dumplings, chicken something, Hot and Sour soup, fried rice, Za Zang.
Service: friendly
Atmo: Chinese take-out
Crowd: the neighborhood
Spent: around $30.00
Overall rating: 4 sporks

We give Chef Yu's 4 sporks primarily for freshness. The ingredients seem fresher and cleaner than most Chinese food, and the fried rice was really delicious and not remotely greasy.

The Hot 'n Sour soup wasn't particularly hot or sour. It was good, but not a standout. The chicken was pretty good too; both these dishes merit a 3.

The pork dumplings were delicious and come with a dipping sauce that really brings out the flavor. They taste homemade, and we ordered them on both trips.

The noodles come separate from whatever you're putting them in - both zazang and udon soup had them packaged separately. I liked this because it means they don't leech starch while you're in transit, but if you wait too long they become a gluey mess and you have to throw them in water to have them separate and be able to be sauced (which is what happened on the Za Zang trip).

I've heard Za Zang described as Korean Mac 'n Cheese, and I can see why. This is starchy, slippery comfort food at its finest. I got the regular $4.95 Za Zang, not the made-to-order one (Yelp advised that the $2 price difference isn't worth it). I loved this dish, though I don't generally eat pasta as a main course. The PIC didn't like this dish - something about the black bean sauce struck her as "weird" and "ew."

The Udon tasted really healthy - the vegetables were fresh, the broth was clear and clean and this would be a perfect soup if one were feeling under the weather.

Overall, we were impressed by Chef Yu and glad to find a place where both of us have a couple stand-by orders on the menu.

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Seoul Gum Tang - 3801 Telegraph Ave

Seoul Gum Tang almost looks like a Korean Community Center from the outside. It's on the corner of Macarthur and Telegraph, and has a parking lot on the Macarthur side.

We don't remember that this place has actual windows either. Glass doors, yes. Windows? We don't think so (we'll check for sure next time we traverse past).

We didn't know what we'd find inside, but the PIC was feeling a bit tired of Korean food already. Fortunately, this isn't a Korean BBQ place. The specialty here seems to be big huge cauldrons of dumpling-filled soups, which come to you on your own personal bunson burners. I'm not sure why the Koreans are so fond of portable grills and so averse to windows - one would think they'd be best off going hand-in-hand. 'Tis a mystery.

We asked the waitress what was good, and she told us "Everything!" As per the norm in our Korean restaurant experience, we were the only non-Koreans in the place and the staff was Korean. Other than Dan Sung Sa, all our waitstaff in the Korean establishments speak Korean as their first language and have spotty English, making it somewhat difficult to really get to the bottom of mysteries like "Hot ball." Hmm.

What we saw on the menu: Assorted casserole of dumpling. We don't know what was in that dumpling, and we feel better off not knowing. (It was some kind of meat.) It cost $28.95, so whatever it was I hope it's good. Something about "Hot Ball" (yes, you can giggle - we did). Most things on this menu are served in a bowl.
What we ordered: Beef/kimchee dumpling
What it came with: steamed rice, marinated zucchini, green onion and kim chee.
Atmo: Korean community center
Crowd: Korean folks of all walks of life
Spent: Around $30
Overall rating: 3 sporks

The atmo in here is very bright and has flat screens with Korean news on them. These folks get extra style points for having utensils in a little box, cool lightweight metal chopsticks, and metal rice holders for your personal rice serving to keep it hot.

The dumpling soup was service in a ginormous cauldron on aforementioned personal stove, and it had cabbage and other fresh veggies on top that you can put in and let wilt. The broth was cloudy and light cream/salmon-colored, and this freaked us out. We still don't know what was in this broth. It was good, but not knowing what was in it and the vaguely fishy flavor scared us both a little.

The soup also contained udon noodles and fish cakes - the latter of which I hate and the PIC loves.

The dumplings themselves were extremely flavorful, and we ate almost all of them.

Advice: don't take this stuff for leftovers. We brought it home to see what would happen and discovered that it became a gelatinous, milky mass when it cooled down. This was less-than-appetizing for us, but absolutely delicious to the canine residents of the house.

The dogs give this place 5 paws for allowing them three major loves all in one dish: fish, beef and noodles.

This restaurant cemented the PIC's opinion that she just doesn't really like Korean food very much, and that the only way she plans to eat it again is if we do Korean BBQ somewhere with fire grills and good meat. Exception is the Dan Sung chicken wings.

So, we may just skip the rest of the Korean restaurants. If we do, we'll list them anyway and note that we skipped them.

Kang Tong Degi - 3702 Telegraph Ave

This is the sign outside Kang Tong Degi, which is why it is known by PIC and I as "Nameless Korean place next door to New Big Daddy's."



Thanks to Yelp for filling in the blanks and giving me a name (and photo!) of this place for our blog.

Note that this is yet another Korean restaurant without windows. What on earth is the deal with this trend? Enlightenment from someone Korean, please.

In any case: This was our third try at Korean food, so we were feeling a little more comfortable with things. We walked in to find a vaguely hipster atmo much like Dan Sung.

We had two guest eaters with us for this adventure. One is a vegetarian, which would prove to be her undoing.

Like Sam Won BBQ, this place will bring you little grills to cook your meat. Unlike Sam Won, the grills are electric rather than giving you the satisfaction of actual fire. Also unlike Sam Won, you get way less condiments and groovy veggies, and the meat was frozen.

The quality of this meat paled in comparison to our impression of the Sam Won meat, and without actual flame we knew that this place just wasn't going to be as good. However, the atmo is groovier and it really puts you in the mood to drown yourself in some soju.

Unfortunately, vegetarian options are extremely limited. Our veggie friend ended up ordering some crazy noodle dish in a spicy sauce that was so hot she couldn't eat it. We're not sure what it was called; the menu wasn't very non-Korean-friendly.

What we ordered: Double beef BBQ (Sirloin and something else in chunks), vegetarian noodle thing with Ass-Burn-hot sauce, soju
Atmo: Korean hipster bar
Crowd: us and young Korean hipsters
Spent: Around $40 for 4 people
Overall rating: 3 sporks

We wouldn't go here again for the Korean BBQ (we'd go to Sam Wong BBQ), and with Dan Sung down the street with a similar groovy atmo and awesome chicken wings, we probably just wouldn't go here again, period.

However, we're glad we tried it out. At this point, the PIC has decided that she may actually be tired of Korean food. This is a problem, because we have at least 2 more Korean places that we know of before we get into the fancy stretch of Telegraph where Dona Tomas and Pizzaiolo live. Yikes.

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New Big Daddy's Chinese - 3700 Telegraph Ave

New Big Daddy's is an interesting, fluorescent-lit cafeteria-feeling takeout Chinese hole-in-the-wall.

Good Chinese food is hard to find, so we had low expectations of this place and figured it was just a proverbial notch in the Telegraph belt.

And it was. EXCEPT for one big happy surprise, and that was the "dry fry ribs" which are, I believe, actually called "dry fried ribs." I don't remember, but the first is more fun to say.

I don't know what animal spawned these ribs, but they taste vaguely like Kentucky Fried Chicken - oddly, in a good way. (This is the second establishment in this project to offer us something that tasted like KFC - odd.) They're bizarrely tasty, and the Partner in Chow ate so many that we feared that she might contract a coronary of some kind.

It seems that the dry fried ribs are in fact the specialty here, as they're called out on the menu, on the wall, and some neighborhood dudes pulled up in a hoopdie and rolled in clamoring about dry fried ribs. They were loud and boisterous, and they really wanted some ribs. On the plus side, they didn't ask me for money.


We had two standout dishes from New Big Daddy's: the ribs and the green beans with chicken. Both were unique to this establishment, and both were bizarrely good.

What we ordered: Dry fried ribs, Hot and Sour Soup, Spicy Green Beans with Chicken, Mu Shu Pork, Broccoli Beef and steamed rice. (This is way too much food for 2 people, but for the purposes of a review and PIC's taste for leftover Chinese we splurged).
Atmo: fluorescent Chinese takeout
Crowd: the 'hood
Spent: About $30
Dry fry rib rating: 5 sporks (though we don't have a baseline)
Chicken and green bean rating: 4 sporks
Everything else: 2.5 sporks
Atmo: 1.5 sporks
Overall rating: 3 sporks

The Broccoli Beef had slightly too much fish sauce, but it was still pretty good. I fear weird fluffy Chinese food beef, and this beef wasn't the usual weird rubbery/fluffy beef. It was thin and still slightly scary for me; PIC didn't mind it.

The Hot 'n Sour Soup was OK; thinner than usual, and nothing to write home about. This is one thing I order nearly every time I eat Chinese food, and this one was forgettable.

So: go for the ribs or the green beans, or don't bother.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Louisiana Fish and Chips - 2817 Telegraph Ave

I'd actually heard from a neighbor that he loves this place. I don't like fried food, but I figured we'd give it a try anyway. Hey - they have burritos, so yet another "fried seafood and burrito" place on Telegraph. The first one didn't disappoint...

Unfortunately, this one did disappoint. All the fried fish was bizarrely hard, though to be fair the crust wasn't greasy. Vaguely tasteless and otherwise kinda nasty, but not greasy. Woo.

The hushpuppies were also bland. The burrito was bland. Everything was bland and left us feeling like we were glad we stopped eating before we felt gross.

I believe that this is the place that made 2 other friends sick. I was hoping this wasn't the same place, but after eating there I fear that it was. Yuk.

What we ordered: Fried fish that came with fries, hush puppies and a burrito
Atmo: takeout fish fry
Crowd: us
Spent: Too much, probably $30
Overall rating: (we don't divide evenly; food is more important): 0 sporks

Yes, 0 sporks. We didn't like a single thing. Sorry, Louisiana Fish & Chips. Wait - no, I'm not sorry. You owe me $30 and some calorie credits!

Our advice? Avoid this place and go to Off the Hook if you absolutely must have fried fish and burritos.

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