The Cheeseboard Pizza Collective is one of those places I kept hearing about from random folks until I finally couldn’t take it anymore and went to find out what the fuss is all about. “It’s the best pizza in the East Bay!” “The crust is divine!” “How have you not visited yet?”
With all that in mind, I wasn’t too surprised when I arrived at Cheeseboard in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto to find a line winding down the street and past the pizzeria’s sister cheese shop. Cheeseboard serves only one kind of pizza per day, so it kind of makes the decision-making process easy. By the time I reached the front of the line, I already knew exactly what I wanted.
The pizza of the day was ricotta salata pizza with lemon vinaigrette, and true to what I’d been told, the crust was divine. Thin and crispy, it was a good match for the sauce and toppings, which were used sparingly. It was almost like a salad atop really good flatbread. I usually prefer traditional, red sauce pizzas, but this was a welcome departure from what I’m used to.
The Cheeseboard Pizza Collective gets incredibly busy and you’re lucky if you can manage to find a seat inside the restaurant. Not to worry if you can’t, though. There is plenty of lawn space on the street meridian outside filled with Berkeley hipsters and college students enjoying their lunch.
After you eat, make sure to visit Cheeseboard’s expansive cheese shop next door which has, needless to say, a huge selection of hard-to-find cheeses, and good bread as well. Top-notch pizza, bread and cheese? Now I see why the line is always so long.
Himawari means “sunflower” in Japanese, and that’s exactly what this ramen restaurant in downtown San Mateo reminds me of. Bright, cheerful and upbeat, it’s the perfect spot to grab a bowl of brothy noodles on a chilly day.
Himawari is a casual restaurant and is especially ideal for lunch. Make sure you’re not too hungry when you arrive, though, as this restaurant gets busy and the wait can be long. Standing around for a table didn’t bother me much; the staff is so friendly and the eclectic jazz playing over the speakers is so good that it’s hard to get peeved.
I ordered the kanitama ramen, which is a snow crab omelet served over soy ramen.
The broth at Himawari is good enough on its own, but each table has a canister of fried garlic and chili flakes for sprinkling if you’re craving extra flavor. I couldn’t resist, of course. The noodles were better than most other ramen restaurants too, including those at more popular competitors. I was disappointed in my snow crab omelet though; the crab was minimal and I could hardly taste it. That being said, the omelet was fluffy and was great for sopping up broth.
The ramen is great, but it’s the ambiance at Himawari that really makes it worth coming back to. I can’t think of a better place in the Peninsula more suitable for a fun, quick, cold weather meal.
If there’s one thing that San Mateo has no shortage of, it’s Japanese restaurants. I can think of ten within a two mile radius of downtown (and that’s not counting the two Japanese supermarkets in the area). As a result, competition is fierce, and Sushi Sam’s Edomata appears to be the most popular.
The tables were packed when I visited on a weeknight, though I was seated pretty quickly. I quickly decided on agedashi tofu to start, while I waited for my sushi to be assembled.
Agedashi tofu is one of my favorite Japanese dishes, and this was one of the best preparations I’ve had. The caramel-colored agedashi broth was light and packed with umami, and the lightly-fried soft tofu was ethereal. The bonito flakes and green onions gave it all an extra dimension of texture and flavor.
For the sushi, my dining companion and I split an order of tekka maki, kampyo maki, Philadelphia roll and an ebi tempura hand roll.
The tuna was fresh and buttery, and the ebi tempura was tasty as well. The Philadelphia roll was by far my least favorite, mostly because I really, really don’t like cream cheese in my sushi. The kampyo maki, or cooked calabash gourd maki, was good: slightly sweet and chewy.
Prices are more expensive than average at Sushi Sam’s, so be forewarned. The fish quality is top-notch, though the sushi menu selection is pretty average. They offer omakase (chef’s choice) as well, which I’ve heard is out of this world. While I wasn’t blown away by the dinner menu, I may find myself coming back to try out the omakase. At Sushi Sam’s, it seems that the sushi bar is the main attraction.
Baby Blues BBQ bills itself as a “hybrid” barbecue restaurant: they serve a Memphis-style rib alongside sauce from North Carolina. Not hailing from the south, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Tennessee and Carolina barbecue, but if it’s anything like what Baby Blues BBQ serves, I can tell you that it’s delicious.
Located right between San Francisco’s Bernal Heights and Mission districts, Baby Blues BBQ has only been around for a couple of years, having first established itself in Venice Beach before moving up north. When I visited, I had already heard rave reviews about its mac n’ cheese (or what was endearingly described as crack n’ cheese).
The wait was long when I arrived with my group; in fact, we must have waited a good half an hour before we were seated. I didn’t mind; the crowd was fun and the staff was super friendly. We enjoyed a couple of beers and perused the menu until we were seated.
I chose the Texas-style beef rib, which comes with a choice of three fixings. I went for the cornbread, collard greens and mac n’ cheese.
The ribs come covered in a dry rub, and there are spicy sauces on the tables to dress things up if you like some heat to your meat. I dug right into my Flintstones-sized rib and the tender beef practically fell off the bone, to my delight.
I was a little disappointed in the mac n’ cheese – the noodles were a bit mushy and the sauce wasn’t very flavorful. I fully admit that I am in the minority when it comes to my opinion of Baby Blues BBQ’s mac n’ cheese though. The collard greens were good but not excellent, but again, this is a matter of personal taste. I like my collard greens with a hit of vinegar; these were more spicy.
But let’s talk about the cornbread. Hands down, this was the best cornbread I’ve ever tasted. It was fluffy, moist, sweet, and just about every adjective I can think of to describe perfect cornbread. It was the stuff cornbread fantasies are made of. Seriously, I cannot overemphasize how delicious this cornbread was.
Baby Blues BBQ is a great spot for a fun, casual and heavy meal. (Did I mention the portions are huge? No? Well, they are.) If you’re looking to get your fill on southern-style barbecue, you’d be hard pressed to find a better option in the neighborhood.
I found out today that one of my favorite dim sum restaurants, Fook Yuen in Millbrae, has closed. If you know me, you know that I’m on a continuous quest to identify the Bay Area’s best dim sum offerings, so I was sad to see Fook Yuen go. But it also got me thinking about my all-time favorite dim sum establishment: Ton Kiang.
I used to live a few short blocks from Ton Kiang in San Francisco’s Richmond District, and I was a frequent visitor. I still stop by whenever I find myself in the neighborhood, and each visit has left me satisfied.
Specializing in Hakka-style cuisine, Ton Kiang offers all the dim sum classics and then some. The Hakka people originated in northern China a millennium ago, migrating all over Asia, particularly to southeastern China. Hakka cuisine heavily utilizes dried and preserved ingredients, as well as onions and lots of subtle spices.
The first dish our group tried was the shrimp and chive dumplings.
You know when glutinous dumpling wrappers become ever-so-slightly crispy yet maintain their translucency? Yeah. These dumplings pulled that off just right. The filling was good was a good balance of seafood to greens too.
Next, we tried the roast duck.
I love duck but my problem with it is how much fat clings to the meat and skin. Now I consider myself pretty adept with chopsticks, but delicately removing the fat from the skin from the meat from the bones with chopsticks is a major challenge. Almost challenging enough to not want to eat any duck. Almost.
After sampling the duck, we moved on to the chicken dumplings.
This was my least favorite of the dim sums we ate during this visit. The dumplings were plainly seasoned, the chicken was average and the wrappers were a little dry.
Next, we tried the xiaolongbao, which I’ve been wanting to taste for ages.
Xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings, are filled with brothy, steamy morsels of meat inside. The trick is to cradle your xiaolongbao carefully in a soup spoon and prick a little hole with your chopsticks before diving in, lest you make a mess. Someday, I’d like to try the original version in Shanghai.
Afterwards, we shared a plate of potstickers.
I know potstickers are run-of-the-mill, but Ton Kiang’s hold their own. Plus, doing a good job with a basic dish is often a sign of a restaurant’s quality and adeptness. The dough is thick and chewy and the insides are juicy and oniony.
Next came the plate of shrimp-wrapped scallops.
Internet, I think my eyes rolled back in unadulterated pleasure when I tried these. The shrimp-wrapped scallops have since become my favorite dim sum at Ton Kiang. Succulent, sweet, juicy, garlicy, crispy – these babies have it all. This is the stuff dim sum dreams are made of.
Despite being stuffed at this point, we trudged ahead. After all, a cart of crab noodle rolls had come by, and who can resist their siren call?
I often have shrimp or beef noodle rolls, but crab is much harder to come by. The crab had a very delicate flavor, and thankfully the sauce did not overpower the crab. Ton Kiang’s noodle rolls, as always, were thin and slightly chewy.
We ended our meal on a sweet note with a dish of fried sesame balls filled with sweet bean paste. Then we proceeded to roll ourselves out of the restaurant. It’s hard to resist saying no to the endless carts of food that are pushed around at any dim sum restaurant, but Ton Kiang makes it even harder. With a steady stream of quality dim sum, there’s a reason why they’ve consistently stayed my favorite dim sum spot for so many years.
