Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches are all the rage, with more restaurants and food trucks popping up every day offering them. What’s important when making a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich is that, regardless of how far one strays from the American cheese, butter and sourdough formula, it’s still greasy comfort food.
Articles by Aaron Carnes
The latest coffee shop in downtown San Jose, Devine Grind, is located, somewhat discreetly, on Devine Street, immediately north of St. James Park. Devine Grind is sparsely decorated yet has a welcoming atmosphere. This is definitely not a cookie-cutter corporate coffee place.
The decor of this Japanese/Hong Kong cafe is simple, but the place bubbles with activity. Loud, energetic music plays on the speakers, and there is a rack of random magazines available for perusing, not to mention several board games.
This Persian bakery comes close to one-of-a-kind status—there aren’t many in the South Bay. Yet, it is different, even for Persian food. They make a point, he told me, to select items that wouldn’t be found at Persian restaurants in the area.
Each Dishcrawl takes place within a particular city, downtown area or neighborhood, with at least four participating restaurants, all within walking distance of one another. Lee hopes that this gives diners the opportunity, not only to become more familiar with the restaurants in their community, but to become better acquainted with their community as well.
For most Americans, a waffle is a waffle is a waffle. End of story. Judy Vandoorne, on the other hand, actually went to Belgium to study the art of making waffles properly. Her new food truck, Waffle Amore, steers clear of the American-diner version and instead offers waffles with the authenticity of a Belgian street vendor. She even purchased an oven imported from Belgium.
Downtown San Jose isn’t exactly a hot spot for Indian restaurants, particularly those with a bent toward southern Indian cuisine. Luckily, we do have Dosa & Curry, a casual, inexpensive restaurant on Fourth Street, across from San Jose State University..
As far as ambience goes, Falafel Stop is a simple, comfortable, no-frills walk-up stand with mostly outdoor seating. The small kitchen is visible to anyone placing an order. You can even watch as they pour the falafel flour into a grinder to form the falafel balls before deep frying them.
The fact that Chapul Bars have crickets in them is not nearly as exciting, or alarming, as it may sound. There are no visual signs of the insects, and the amount of cricket flour used is so small that the flavor of the other ingredients overpowers their distinct nutty, earthy taste. It’s almost as if they’re not there, which was a deliberate decision on the part of co-founders Pat Crowley, a resident of Salt Lake City, and Dan O’Neill, a California native whose day job is at Intuit in Mountain View.
