Izakaya is Japan’s take on tapas, small plates of food designed to go with beer and sake. Silicon Valley has a wealth of izakaya restaurants, and while the range and execution of the dishes at Kyora put it somewhere in the middle tier of South Bay izakaya restaurants, it still deserves a place on the map.
Articles by Stett Holbrook
Because the winegrowing region is so vast (from Half Moon Bay to Watsonville and Santa Cruz and both sides of the Coastal Range), it’s easy for wineries to get overlooked by would-be wine tasters and customers. That’s were wine trails come in handy.
Guillaume Bienaime, executive chef of Marché in Menlo Park, has spearheaded a fundraising dinner Oct. 24 aimed at supporting the restoration of the Gulf of Mexico and wetlands along the southern U.S. coast. He has teamed up with several top restaurants and winemakers for a one-of-a-kind event at Menlo Park’s Madera restaurant. Proceeds will go to the Save Our Gulf fund of the Waterkeeper Alliance to support the seven Waterkeeper organizations of the Gulf Coast.
There are several things that set the restaurant apart. One, there’s a fish market connected to Cook’s that boasts an impressive selection of fresh fish. The market happens to be the seafood source for one of Silicon Valley’s best-known tech moguls, which means that the fish that goes into the deep fryer comes straight from the boat—and that makes a difference. Fresh fish is better-tasting fish.
Ask the Sommelier checks in with Michael Guerra, co-owner of Enoteca La Storia, a new wine bar and shop in Los Gatos. The store celebrates the wines of Italy.
I’m all for small-scale agriculture, but what difference were these city farms making? A few people were getting some fresh lettuce and tomatoes and learning how to grow their own food, but is that it? Industrial food production is a disaster, but given the power and reach of the factory food machine, what change can cute, plucky little urban ag bring about?
Liang’s is a California-based chain with four locations in Southern California. The Cupertino restaurant is the company’s only NorCal spot. Models of World War II–era fighter planes and a few modern jets dangle from the ceiling. The menu and walls are adorned with photos of military officials and family snapshots from the Chiang Kai-shek fighting days
Even though I had never eaten at Palo Alto’s Lavanda Restaurant and Wine Bar, somehow I had an image in my mind of what it was all about: Italian food that rambles around the Mediterranean to pick up a few other culinary influences. I figured it was pretty good, but given the profusion of lackluster Italian restaurants on University Avenue, I never stopped in to see if my preconceived notions were correct. But a few weeks ago, I happened to walk by the restaurant and a flier caught my eye. “Specialties from Croatia,” the paper read. Croatia? That’s not what I expected.
We’re familiar with pho, Vietnam’s best-known culinary export. Some of us are even familiar with bun bo hue, a spicier version of beef noodle soup from central Vietnam. Now, I would like to introduce banh xeo, a crepe filled with sizzling pork and shrimp that everyone ought to get to know better. Pronounced “boon say-o,” banh xeo consists of a rice-flour crepe seasoned with turmeric and filled with bits of pork, shrimp and bean sprouts. It’s a popular South Vietnam street food that’s served with piles of lettuce leaves and fresh herbs.
La Costa del Sol specializes in Salvadoran food, but to cover their bets they’ve also got the full lineup of tacos, burritos and enchiladas. But it’s the Salvadoran food that stands out here. Salvadoran food isn’t like Mexican food at all. It’s not spicy and is rather simple and straightforward where Mexican food can be quite complex. This is Central American soul food—pan-fried steak and chicken with lots of onion, hearty meat and vegetable soups, fried pork and yucca and, of course, pupusas.
