Sunnyvale Farmer's Market - Romanesco Broccoli & Choy Sum

I did the weekly run to the Farmer's Market alone today since V is feeling a little under the weather. It was beautiful weather outside however and the market was absolutely buzzling with crowds.

The Farmer's Market helps us keep it both healthy and affordable. We pick up everything we need for the week, both fruits and vegetables for anywhere between $20 to $30, and we don't have to go anywhere else. Well, the only other stuff we pick up at the grocery store are green chilies, ginger, cilantro (if I cannot find it in the market), milk and eggs.

Today with a 20 dollar bill, I picked up around 3 lbs of mandarin oranges, couple of daikon radishes, 1 head of cabbage, yams, garlic, yellow onions, 2 bunches of some chinese greens, and 2 heads of "romanesco" broccoli.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesco_broccoli

A quick google search told me that the Chinese greens are called "Choy Sum".

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blphotochoysum.htm

Pictures below of the romanesco broccoli and choy sum are mine:

We love the market because it happens right in downtown, and we can sit down in one of the cafe's and get a bite to eat (or even brunch) if we feel like it.

(Our previous Farmer's Market post here has a picture of the market.)

Borobudur near Union Square

Borobudur restaurant
700 Post St
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 775-1512

www.borobudursf.com



V and I had noticed Borobudur several times walking in the Union Square neighborhood. The name stuck in my head because of the architectural monument of the same name in Indonesia, which we had studied about in history. Borobudur is an ancient Buddhist temple and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. More about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur

The pictures of Borobudur look impressive, we hope to visit there some time in the future! Borobudur, the restaurant, on the other hand, did not impress us very much.

After spending a few hours on our feet at the Asian Art Museum, we were ready to sit down for a good lunch. Reluctant to move our car from a great parking spot we had snagged, we decided to walk over to Borobudur.

A few other tables were occupied in the restaurant, but it wasn't very crowded. A little while after we got there, a large group of Indonesian women arrived dressed in their Sunday best. There was just one harried waitress handling all these tables. Eventhough she was doing her best, service was slow.

We ordered Bakwan Jagung (corn fritters) to start with, it was reasonably good but nothing to write home about. For the main course, we ordered the Fuyunghai (Vegetable Egg Foo Young) and a Vegetable Tempeh Stir Fry. The stir fry was okay, but the Foo Young totally spoiled the taste for us. It was too oily and smelled a little like fish. When we walked out of the restaurant we didn't feel too good because of all that oil, and I was screaming for a coke to wash away all the oil and fishiness.

We picked the restaurant because of favorable reviews and maybe their meat dishes are great, but we wouldn't go back there. V and I agreed that it is not a great pick for vegetarians.

The bill came to around $30 for the two of us with tax and tip.

Krishna restaurant in Fremont

Krishna Restaurant
40645 Fremont Blvd # 1,
Fremont, CA‎
(510) 656-2336

There are difficult hikes and then there are dreaded ones. Mission Peak in Fremont is one of those dreaded ones, V feels so more than I do. We hiked with our friends, P & V. P seems to agree with that view, whereas V calls it a "moderately difficult hike". On paper, the specs look fairly benign (~2000 ft ascent in 3 miles) and we have done more difficult hikes, but Mission Peak always seems daunting.

We wouldn't have kept our steadfast pace up and down the mountain if we didn't have visions of Krishna's Gujarati thali floating in front of our eyes. The two guys declared the day before that the hike was worth doing only for the reward of the post-hike lunch at Krishna.

We finished our hike with perfect timing, a little before 11:30, which is when Krishna opens its doors for lunch on Saturdays. There was no one else at the restaurant when we arrived. V says in the halcyon days of silicon valley, there would be a line of people waiting to get in to Krishna when it opened.

We went inside to wash our hands at the sink and I was pleased to see how clean the kitchen was maintained. We each ordered the lunch thali, but to start off, we ordered a couple of appetizers - the "khaman dhokla" and the "kachori". We all loved the spongy "khaman dhokla" which came with a green chutney. I wasn't too sure of the "kachori" stuffed with green peas, which came with a sweet tamarind chutney, but everyone else seemed to dig it.

The lunch thali ($5.50 on weekends) contained white dhokla with mint chutney, carrot pickles, rice, roti and a choice of one of two curries of the day, which was chana masala or aloo mutter that day. (V had the rice on his plate swapped out for more roti.) We also got a cup of daal each, which we all relished thoroughly. Gujarati daal tends to be a little sweet, but this was just right. I thought the two curries were okay, but somehow they were satisfying like only a home-cooked meal can be. Our dessert was one piece of besan barfi each. (Ofcourse I got V's share being the one in the family with the sweet tooth). Even with all these items, portions are pretty small at Krishna, and one has to order a couple of side orders of snacks if you are really hungry.



Krishna is an all-vegetarian restaurant. The bill came to $8 per person - definitely cheap eats! However V was still hungry when we left the restaurant - guess the meal didn't make up for all the calories we burnt at Mission Peak.

A Vegetarian in Napa - Ubuntu

Ubuntu Restaurant and Yoga Studio
1140 Main St
Napa, CA 94559
(707) 251-5656
http://www.ubuntunapa.com/

If you are visiting the Napa valley wine country, then Ubuntu is a must-visit whether you are a die-hard vegetarian, a conscious eater, a serious epicure, or just someone who loves good food. It is also extremely popular, so make sure you plan in advance and make reservations. February is low-season for the wineries, even so, we had to make our reservations almost 3 weeks in advance.

As soon as we made plans to go to Napa, V had his heart set on going to Ubuntu and wouldn't stop talking about it. I was totally intrigued by the name - Yoga studio & restaurant?! Isn't that totally hippie? Still Ubuntu does not claim to be a raw food mecca or an ayurvedic prescription diet place, it simply claims to serve healthy food made from locally grown vegetables. In fact most of the vegetables and herbs are grown in their own gardens. Chef Jeremy Fox calls it a vegetable restaurant rather than a vegetarian restaurant. He and his wife Deanie Fox, who is the pastry chef at Ubuntu, have finally figured out a way to make vegetarian dining upscale and interesting.
Ubuntu is located in downtown Napa on Main street and there is a parking lot right across the street. However, V and I walked from our B&B despite the rain, perhaps to salute Ubuntu's commitment to reduce their carbon footprint. (You can read about their efforts in that area on their website, it is rather amazing.)

The restaurant is a huge high-ceilinged place with wooden floors and a bar on one side. There is a long wooden table down the middle of the hall, for community dining. The bar side also displayed three life-size stone sculptures of nudes, rather intriguing. The yoga studio I beleive is upstairs. The kitchen is open (or maybe partially so), and we saw Chef Jeremy Fox standing at the counter outside the kitchen putting his finishing touches to all the dishes going to the tables.

At the end of the meal, V walked over to chat with Jeremy Fox. I was skeptical because it was an extremely busy time, but V was gone for a good 10 minutes and from the table it seemed like they were chatting away like old friends. (V has to write about what they talked about). V also managed to click a picture (above).

We were offered an intimate 2-person table. The menu varies depending on the season (also I guess the chef's mood) and it is tapa-style. Our waiter recommended that we order about 5 to 6 dishes and share. In that sense, Ubuntu would be great to visit with a large group of friends. (V found in his recent reading that hanging out with friends at meals eating and talking is a key contributor to happiness.)

We ordered the following (pictures below in same order)

chickpea fries with HERBS romesco sauce

warm sunchoke carpaccio (coated with black trumpets, shaved FLORENCE FENNEL, "bordelaise")

rustic rancho gordo 'yellow eye' bean stew (torn bread, ROSEMARY, chili & braised SPIGARELLO)

local yellow corn grits, smoked with hickory (fried brussel sprouts with parsley & lemon, APPLE bbq, RED SORREL)

cauliflower in a cast iron pot (roast-puree-raw-"couscous", our vadouvan, CORIANDER toast)

All were delicious and served beautifully in unique serving dishes which enhanced their exoticity. I am not sure I can even pick favorites among the above, but sunchoke carpaccio was definitely unique and bold. V loved the corn grits. (Only one item that we ordered was not to our liking, the sauerkraut and emmental pizza which our waiter was nice enough to take back immediately).

We ended this superlative meal with a delicate dessert - meyer lemon and white chocolate parfait. It looked so pretty on the plate that we almost didn't want to touch it.

The check came to $80 with tax and tip. Next time, we will plan to visit with friends so that we can share more items.

Update from V:

This restaurant proves that there is serious money to be made in high-end vegetarian cuisine. Cyrus and Tom Keller's French Laundry have both started full vegetarian courses. But, Jeremy a native San Jose son, shows that his finer touches to "vegetable" food have not been unnoticed by the illuminati of the food world. The presentation really wins the gold medal for this place, the ambiance, service and taste make a gallant attempt in securing other medals.

As V mentioned I decided to meet the great Jeremy Fox. He is really very easy to approach and to converse with. The kind of guy we hope to see as a judge in Top Chef (Hint hint, Top Chef Producers). We spoke about his background, his passions and above all how well the restaurant is doing. The quick answer is very well. It made my day when Jeremy said he will go out and visit our blog site, and we were especially thrilled when he said the name of our blog was really "cool".

We have started saving our nickels and dimes to make sure we can do our next Ubuntu run sooner than later. Over and out, outstanding scrambled eggs are calling my name, as prepared exquisitely by my own Top Chef.

Lucky Creation in San Francisco

Lucky Creation Vegetarian
854 Washington St,
San Francisco, CA‎
(415) 989-0818‎


It was glorious and sunny in San Francisco on the day of the Chinese New Year parade. Quite lucky, considering that it rained the days before and after the parade. Having gotten there early, V and I walked up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, where we ate our sandwiches. Then we walked up and down Crooked Street (Larkin) and over to North Beach until we found a nice little cafe' to park ourselves. Around 6 pm, we headed over to China Town hoping to find a good spot to watch the parade, but the street was totally packed. After standing around for an hour and a half with people leaving, V and I found ourselves in the front with a grand view of the dragons, lions and marching bands. It was nice!


By 8:30 pm we got hungry but luckily for us, V had looked up a great little vegetarian restaurant just a block up from the parade on Washington at the intersection of Waverly. It is not difficult to find cheap eats in China Town, but that usually means nothing to a vegetarian. So I did not expect to find this little hole in the wall in the middle of China Town serving vegetarian food exclusively. It must be popular; we saw several people waiting outside in the shivering cold. We too put our name on the list and stood outside in the cold. Again luckily, it wasn't a long wait.

The place is very unassuming and the service is brusque. We placed our order of 2 entrees from the "Specials" menu. Our choices were "Sauteed Mushroom with Gluten Puff and String Bean" and "Vegetarian shirmp and vegetables in spicy sauce"... atleast I think that is what they were called... the descriptions pretty much matched the dishes.

Apparently the speciality at Lucky is the "Wheat Gluten Puff". In fact they sell it by the pound ($4.50/lb) at the front of the store. We did find it quite tasty. The mushroom - string bean - gluten dish was out of this world, and the shrimp dish was quite good. V liked the latter better than I did.

Only cash is accepted, no cards. The dinner bill came to $24 for both of us with tax and tip. I think we were in and out of there in 30 mins! Definitely cheap eats which we are in the lookout for in this economy. V pointed out that eventhough we had been to several vegetarian "faux meat" places, we had never been to a Chinese vegetarian place. He may be right. Most of the places in the South Bay are Vietnamese.

Ginger Cafe in Sunnyvale

Ginger Cafe

398 W. El Camino Real, #114,
Sunnyvale, CA‎
(408) 736-2828‎

http://www.gingercafe.net/index.html

As part of V's LARP, we decided to try out another local restaurant at the busy intersection of Mathilda and El Camino. Ginger Cafe' identifies itself a "Asia Pacific Rim Chinese cuisine" restaurant. For some reason, I imagined it to be a Thai restaurant. Also, though unassuming from the outside, it is copious inside and nicely decorated.

On a Friday evening at 7 pm, the restaurant was very sparsely populated. Our friends, J & S joined us and we were seated at a booth near the window from where we could see the rain coming down incessantly. We were happy for this since the dry weather in January had worried us.


The menu is quite elaborate and they have a vegetarian section. Our friends J & S decided to go separately from us and order non-vegetarian dishes. V and I started off with the steamed veggie dumplings from the Dim Sum menu. The dumplings turned out to be too sticky and we had quite a time separating the paper from the bottom of the dumpling and finally gave up with the last one! Must say it tasted pretty good though.

For the main course, V was his predictable self and ordered Kung Pao Vegetarian Chicken with a side of extra peanuts. The Kung Pao was excellent, probably the best I have tasted in this area. V liked it quite a bit too and thought it was less oily than elsewhere.

I ordered the Thai Curry Vegetarian Duck which was mouth-smackingly delicious. Truly. We took some leftovers back home and had it the next day.



Service was attentive, and we will definitely be back here. Ginger Cafe seems to have a very good lunch menu too at reasonable prices. The bill came to $30 with tax & tips. Not cheap eats, but not bad either.

Rok Bistro in Sunnyvale

Rok Bistro
124 S Murphy Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 95133
(408) 733-7651
http://www.rokbistro.com/

V2 and I were on our way back from the City and the traffic was unusually heavy because of a popular concert in Shoreline Theatre. The weather was very cold and our wallet was leaking, thanks to our friends in Wall Street. While driving down 101 and contemplating all these factors, we came up with the idea to revive our approach to help our hometown economy. LARP, Local Area Revitalization Program - our answer to Paulson's TARP.

As part of this grand LARP, we decided to eat out at a new fusion restaurant in downtown Sunnyvale. The restaurant serves Swiss Fondue with barbecue-inspired rock cuisine. For a vegetarian, this idea looks much better in paper than in practice.

The ambiance is high-end, but not quite white-linen. The maitre'd was friendly and gave us a nice booth at the kitchen end of the restaurant. A group of young professional women sitting on the table next to us made it clear that high-volume sound is the background motif in which good food is usually served. Incidentally, our waiter informed us that is how the Swiss like to eat their fondue, potluck style, a lot of people, a lot of noise and a lot of good cheese and wine.

We started with the avocado salad which had baby spinach leaves topped with sliced avocado, cheese and nuts. We loved it, and were off to a good start.

Next came the fondue. We tried the special of the day, which was "Pesto" cheese fondue. V2 tells me it came with Swiss and Gruyere cheese (she knows these things better). Our waiter turned on the burner at the table, placed the hot pot on it to melt the cheese. We were given a platter with bread and assorted vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, mushroom, broccoli) to dip in it. We both enjoyed it to the last bite and dip. All, except one item, on their regular fondue menu is vegetarian.

The main feature of Rok Bistro is the "Hot Volcanic Rock" entree. The food is cooked at the table on a rock that has been pre-heated for a number of hours. Since we are suckers for the house specials, we had to try it. However, for vegetarians, it is a poor choice between Grilled Portabella and the Vegetarian Platter. I, for one, am not a big fan of mushroom. except for the ones with medicinal powers, so we went with the Vegetarian Platter. The entree was not as satisfying as the previous courses. The owners apparently are still figuring out the right selection for the vegetarian stuff, as tofu roks have been quite a bomb.

We ended the 3-course meal with a gelato on a cold rock. The gelato was nothing to write home but did it's part in a journeyman way. (Must point out though that V2 loved it, as she does anything sweet, and especially loved the novelty of the cold rok).

All in all, this place is really a unique experience, a must-try, but somewhat geared for the meat-heads. In fact, we had to point out the right spelling for "vegetarian" on their fliers, but they gave us a 10% discount for that service. Cool!!! The bill came to approximately $60 with tax and tip.

(This post was written by V! Glad he is becoming active again.)

Layang Layang in San Jose

Who are these people who don't beleive in global warming? They should have visited the bay area last weekend. It was unseasonably warm and V and I were lamenting just that when we stepped outside for a workout. We talked about the drought conditions in the state, and whether this year's spring flower season will be as brilliant as last year's.

By the time we got to Layang Layang (technically in San Jose, but close to Cupertino) for lunch, we were quite warm. The restaurant is in a non-descript building by itself on a busy road. We had been here before around 2 years back and remembered it was quite good. We were not disappointed this time either. They have a separate vegetarian section in the menu which always pleases us.
http://www.layanglayang.us/

Usually we order the "Roti Canai" (see review of Rasa Malaysia) for appetizer, but this time we decided to try something different and ordered the Roti Buddhist. This came with the same dipping sauce as the Roti Canai but the roti itself was stuffed with egg and vegetables. We didn't hate it, but we will stick with the Roti Canai next time. Service was excellent. We asked for some more curry sauce and it arrived very promptly at the table.



For the main course, I had to order "Kang Kung" or Chinese water spinach. It was simply stir fried in a garlic sauce, and was delicious.

V ordered the Sarang Veggie - the menu had a suggestive note "It's a must" - how could we not order it! The dish came in a "taro root nest" and was filled with vegetables and cashews. The outer shell (fried taro) was quite delicious, although not sure how healthy.



The bill came to $36 for the two of us with tax and tip, which we felt was a bit steep for lunch. Otherwise, in terms of service and food, the place was great.