Month: August 2009

The East Bay is home to a large Ethiopian community, made evident by the Ethiopian restaurants that dot Telegraph Avenue and the surrounding neighborhoods in Oakland and Berkeley. Still, it took me several tries until I found an Ethiopian restaurant in the East Bay that stood up as some of the best Ethiopian food I’ve had.

Cafe Colucci doesn’t sound like an Ethiopian name, but the menu is authentic. So authentic, in fact, that they don’t carry my favorite dish sometimes served at other Ethiopian restaurants: bamya alicha, a deliciously spicy okra stew that is strikingly similar to the Iranian khoresh-e bamiyeh. I’ve been told at other Ethiopian restaurants that bamya alicha isn’t truly Ethiopian, hence why most restaurants don’t serve it.

Cafe Colucci’s menu is instead filled with Ethiopian classics: azifa, messer-wot, kifto and the ubiquitous doro tibs. During our visit, my dining companion and I ate family style, as is the norm at Ethiopian restaurants, and shared a platter of doro tibs (chicken sautéed with spices and tomatoes), azifa (spiced lentils), messer-wot (lentils in berbere sauce), kik-alicha (split peas in turmeric sauce), gomen (collard greens) and atakilt (string beans, carrots and potatoes sautéed in turmeric sauce).

The split peas and lentils were my favorite – spicy, smoky and very slightly sweet. We ate with our hands, sopping everything up with addictively chewy and sour pieces of injera bread. The best part about Ethiopian food is that even after you’re done eating everything on your platter, there remains a huge piece of injera underneath, soaked with the flavors of each component of the meal.

I usually get a stomach ache after eating here, but I think that has much more to do with the huge portions and spiciness of the food than anything else. The stomach pains are worth it though, and Cafe Colucci has become my go-to Ethiopian restaurant in the East Bay.

There’s something kitschy to be said for sushi boat, or conveyor belt sushi restaurants. It’s not a particularly traditional presentation of sushi, and who knows how long that little plate of tekkamaki or hamachi has been making the rounds.

Still, there’s a novelty to it that I just can’t resist. And if you choose a sushi boat restaurant that is busy and well-regarded, you can ensure that your sushi hasn’t been sitting out there for too long. My favorite is Isobune, which bills itself as the “original sushi boat.” I’ve been a frequent visitor to both their Burlingame and San Francisco Japantown locations for years.

Both branches offer several varieties of sushi, but the Japantown location is always more crowded and so the boats are refilled more quickly. Both locations’ selection range is good, offering everything from the Americanized crunchy roll to broiled baby octopus maki. If there is something you want in particular but don’t see, Isobune’s sushi chefs are always more than happy to oblige. (I often go for a cleansing and slightly sweet kampyo maki at the end of my meal.) My only wish is that Isobune offered less American-style sushi and more traditional variations.

Isobune’s sushi boats offer a few non-sushi items as well, like edamame, mango pudding and deep-fried shrimp heads.

These shrimp heads may not look appetizing, but they’re delightfully crunchy and flavorful. Plus, the looks of horror from those dining around you as you bite into a piece are totally worth it.

Isobune’s sushi is fresh, the service is good (particularly in Burlingame), and best of all, the anticipation of not knowing what kind of sushi will come around the corner next makes for a really fun dining experience.