Our horses’ hooves were muffled by the moist ground on the trail that afternoon. The path meandered along the emerald hills that led to our destination. I sat atop my beloved steed Rosy Nante, and Mr. Harada bounced along next me on his rented pony,…
Articles by Kathy Manlapaz
The lunch crowd suffers from no shortage of options along the strip of East Santa Clara Street running through the heart of downtown San Jose. At midday, the corridor is awash with desk jockeys and blue collar workers, all on the hunt for a quick…
The phone rings at 4am. Diaa Altali answers, half-asleep, worried something is wrong. The voice on the other end of the line belongs to his friend and business partner, Elias Stanton, who can barely contain himself. “Heart-shaped falafel,” he declares. “We’re gonna do a heart-shaped…
We South Bay denizens are no strangers to pho. Home to the second largest Vietnamese population outside of the motherland, Santa Clara County is brimming with restaurants serving up brothy, beefy noodle bowls. Southeast Asian flavors have an outsized influence on the growing San Jose…
Long a culinary term of art, “fusion” is often associated with the deliberate combination of two distinct traditions. From falafel tacos to ramen burgers, these endeavors are usually the work of some enterprising chef, seeking to surprise diners with something new. Such pairings are rarely…
The decor at Camper, an approximate abbreviation for California Menlo Park, nods to the idea of camping from the comfortable distance of an orderly suburban neighborhood. There’s a framed photograph of a VW van with its tent set up in the middle of a forest….
It was early morning, probably around 11:30am, and I was in the garage listening to Ram Jam while cleaning my piece. I had been drinking the holiday eggnog that was about to go bad. It’s usually good for about 60 days after the date on…
There is little doubt that the South Bay has come into its own as a beer snob’s paradise. Downtown San Jose boasts at least 10 taprooms focused on high-end hoppiness, and even craft cocktail bars can’t ignore the craze: Over the weekend, Haberdasher drew a…
Despite their empty stomachs, the diners lining up outside of Taro San Japanese Noodle Bar were entirely peaceable. On a mild winter night at the Stanford Shopping Center, anticipation for a homemade bowl of udon outweighed any grumblings about the wait time. When the hostess…
Jo Lerma-Lopez was going crazy. Not only was she stressing over all the normal things that preoccupy restaurateurs, like the city’s bureaucratic red tape, the menu and the aesthetic details—from the wrought iron dining room chairs and zinc bar to the soothing, azure blue of…
