VIETNAMESE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

We haven't found a truly great Vietnamese restaurant around us. There are some pretty good ones - we sometimes visit the one in the Pacific East Mall for pho, but nothing that has been truly amazing. While driving over to kickboxing a couple of times, I had noticed a pho restaurant called Pho Hoa in a strip mall in Richmond - the neighborhood north of us. It's not really the safest neighborhood, nor one that we visit often, but the restaurant we saw always seemed like it was packed with Asians. So one evening we finally decided to check it out.

We decided to go to dinner early, since I was being a little paranoid and wanted to eat while it was still light out. This meant that we were basically the first people to show up at the restaurant (though we were quickly followed by a few other people). Since this was our first time visiting the restaurant, I decided to get a few simple things.

The first thing we started off with were fish cakes.
There were okay. They weren't my favorite fishcakes that I'd ever had, since they weren't crispy and had a more oily flavor. Maybe because we arrived there early, the oil still hadn't heated up fully. (when you fry at a lower temperature, whatever you're frying will absorb more oil and end up soggy rather than crispy).

Then a order my usual - a bowl of chicken pho.
It was actually a very good bowl of pho. And the side additions it came with were very fresh and tasty. I must say, that's it was probably the best bowl of pho that I've had in the East Bay. However, I must warn that the service here is high lacking, and they aren't exactly nice. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to visit this restaurant again. Though it was good, it wasn't truly amazing enough for me to go there rather than the Pacific East Mall. So I'll continue looking for some really great Vietnamese here in the East Bay.

ZAKI KABOB HOUSE

Ok, as stated in my previous post, I have a bit of a backlog of restaurants to work through, so the Ecuador posts will have to wait a bit. I've learned that some of the best restaurant recommendations come from friends, and this has certainly been true of our friends Paul and Armando. They've lived in the East Bay for quite sometime, and have been very helpful in introducing us to some of our favorite restaurants like Sabuy Sabuy and Vanessa's. This was also true of Zaki Kabob House, a restaurant located just 3 blocks from their home, and one that I had never even noticed.

The first time we went to Zaki, we had tried to go on a Monday, but the restaurant ended up being closed. So we went back a different night. Our friends had given us some suggested dishes to order. First I started off with an order of the hummus.I gotta say, their hummus is pretty damn awesome. It's really smooth and I think they put a ton of tahini in it, but it's also really tasty.

I ended up getting the half chicken for dinner.And it was delicious. It's covered in spices and roasted until it falls off the bone. The rice it comes with is also very tasty. It's obviously a large portion, and I didn't end up finishing the whole thing. Best of all, it's a great deal - I think it's around $8.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered a lamb burger, which our friends had also suggested. It was contained lots of different herbs, and I think he liked it quite a bit. The only problem was that it was so juicy, it kinda fell apart, and was impossible to set down.One of the best things that Tom discovered was this mint lemonade. It's like a whole lemon pureed with a ton of mint and ice and it's soooooo tasty. We totally loved it.

Since this post is a bit delayed, I've actually been to Zaki quite a few times. Like 5 times in a span of 3 weeks - which is when I stoppped going, I kinda OD-ed on it. I've learned that the rotisserie chicken is much better when you have it there. By the time you get it home, it's less juicy (though still yummy). Also, I've learned that you should order the chicken kabobs - I found them quite dry the time I ordered them. As for the service, it's super friendly since it's run by a family, but it can also be kinda slow and sometimes spotty. They make up for it with the super friendliness, though. Also, though the offer a few vegan and veggie options, I think the meat dishes tend to be the more outstanding items on the menu. I took my vegetarian cousin, and she liked it a lot, but I'm not sure my other vegetarian friends liked it as much.

At any rate, I think it's a great place, and it's definitely become one of our regular eat out spots. I hope the restaurant does well. I always like to see small family owned business succeed - especially when they're serving great food.

I'M BACK!

Ok loyal blog readers, I know it's been a long time since I've written anything here (it's not like the rest of you have run a chocolate shop during Valentine's Day), but I just want you to all know that I survived Vday and am back from vacation and will soon be updating the blog. First I have some old posts to catch up on, but then you can look forward to some more recent posts about our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands last week. So stay tuned! (hopefully my sunburns will have healed by then.)