Meeting friends in Palo Alto for dinner, but don’t know where to go? Or behind on all the newest restaurants that have opened in that posh Peninsula city?
Dan Pitt of Palo Alto comes to the rescue. By day, he’s a consultant. But in all other hours, he’s a foodie obsessed with eating his way through his favorite city. Find his list and opinions of Palo Alto restaurants here.
I tore into a bag of the new Newman-O’s Peanut Butter Creme Filled Chocolate Cookies, and curiously took a bite. As I contemplated whether I liked the new cookie sandwiches, my hand started reaching for another. And then another.
That answered that.
Basically, I had to close up the bag and move it to another room so that I wouldn’t end up inhaling the entire package. The deep cocoa-tasting, crisp chocolate cookies encase a creamy, subtly salty peanut butter filling. I especially like how the cookies are not that sweet.
Driving past the profusion of strip malls that make up El Camino Real in Santa Clara, it’s easy to miss so much.
But look closely along that stretch, and you’ll spot what was until recently the only Korean tea house in the Bay Area.
It’s easy to overlook Chasaengwon tea house on the second floor of a non-descript office/retail building at bustling 3330 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, near a See’s Candy store. But if you do, you’ll be thoroughly missing out.
Jinsook Hong opened her charming tea house/cafe here because the city already was home to a sizable Korean-American community. Hong operated a tea house in her native Korea, until immigrating here 21 years ago.
A quiet matriarchal figure, Hong is here seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., carefully preparing all the tea and all the food, such as hearty kabocha or abalone soup, and the most popular item – a huge bowl of green tea shave ice with green tea ice cream, mochi and fresh fruit that’s big enough for four people to share. She will even prepare a special menu if given advance notice.
You’ve enjoyed trendy wine bars. Now, take a seat at a soothing tea bar.
Puripan Tea Garden opened its doors a month ago at San Jose’s Santana Row. This cozy oasis sells 70 types of loose-leaf teas, the majority of them Korean. Although Koreans traditionally don’t drink black teas, the store has imported a range of black teas from India and China, as well.
If your experience with tea has been limited to the bagged variety, you are in for a treat here. Most run-of-the-mill tea bags contain more tea “dust” than actual leaves. Glass containers here display tea leaf samples that can be opened to experience their intoxicating fragrances.
Besides many types of green tea, Koreans have a tradition of brewing tea from grains such as corn and barley, as well as more unusual plants such as persimmon leaves. Store proprietor Ellen Kim explained that during Korea’s Chosun Dynasty (the 1300s), the tax on tea was so high that people resorted to brewing “tea” with other ingredients.
As you know, I love nuts of all kinds. My latest paramour? The native Sicilian almond called Pizzuta.
This rather flat-shaped almondÂis amazing. It has a rich, intense, almost creamy flavor. Think marzipan — but with a pleasant, toasty bitterness and none of the aching, cavity-inducing sweetness.