SHAN DONG RESTAURANT, OAKLAND

Tom and I still don't have Oakland Chinatown totally figured out. We haven't had the best meals there and aren't quite sure where to go. Plus, everyone speaks Cantonese, which means mu Mandarin is pretty useless there. Luckily, we decided to meet up with our friends who've spent plenty of time there, and they took us to one of their favorite spots, the Shan Dong Restaurant.

Now, this is one of the random restaurants off a main street in Oakland Chinatown that you'll never go into unless someone takes you. When we arrived, it was pretty full, but we were able to grab a table. So this place is known for it's noodles and dumplings, and that's exactly what we ordered. You can even get homemade noodles for $1 more, but my friend said it's pretty much the same, and not worth spend the extra $1.

So here's what we got. This is the sesame noodle.

It's made with really nice fresh noodles, a sesame sauce, chilis and sauteed veggies. It's actually quite tasty (I'm kinda craving it now). Plus, you can get it with pork if you want. We also got a scallion pancake:

Which was pretty good. And finally, I got a plate of dumplings:

It's really nice that they even offered an option for chicken dumplings. I don't know if I've actually seen that in another restaurant. And they were pretty good. The skins were kinda thick, but the filling was pretty tasty. Overall our lunch there was quite good, and I think we didn't spend too much money there. And the best thing is now I know a restaurant to eat at when I'm hungry and in Chinatown.

OLIVETO, ROCKRIDGE

Since my little sister, Cathy, was in town with her boyfriend, Ben, we decided to head out to dinner at a place we hadn't tried before. We ended up in Rockridge, which is a really nice area in North Oakland, filled with shops, and on that day, a street festival that was winding down when we arrived. We headed over to a restaurant called Oliveto, which is a pretty famous restaurant in the East Bay. The upstairs area is the fancy party, but they also have a small cafe downstairs, specializing in small plates and pizzas.

The cafe is pretty cozy, but they had quite a few seats available and we were seated immediately. After perusing the menu, we decided to order a few small plates. Tom, Cathy and Ben ordered pizzas, while I ordered a chicken brochette.

Here's a photo of one of the small plate: a salad of octopus and beans. Normally Tom loves octopus, but he also hates celery, so he was so so on this.

And then there was my chicken. On the menu it was $15, so I was expecting something more substantial than a single skewer of chicken. Now, it was really tasty, with lemon zest and grilled bread sandwiched between the chicken pieces, but for $15, I should've gotten at least 3 of these.

Not surprisingly, I ended up being pretty hungry. I stole some pizza from Tom, but even then I was hungry. So post dinner, we check out Ici, a very famous ice cream place also in Rockridge. There was a line out the door, but I gotta say, it wasn't worth it. I just like gelato much more then ice cream. At least it filled me up, though.

So even though the food (what I had of it) at Oliveto was pretty good, the price are just too high for the portion sizes. I wouldn't mind going back if someone else were paying. Actually, Ben paid, but I mean more like my parents, but I'd just prefer to go somewhere where I don't walk out hungry.

SAUSAGES AND FRITES

As many of you know, Tom and I have plans to adopt an additional kitty and one day a dog. Not right away - we're gonna wait until we have more room, first, but that didn't stop us from attending the annual SPCA Adopt-a-thon at Jack London Square in Oakland. It was our first time to Jack London Square and there was a lot going on that Sunday. We saw plenty of cute puppies and kitties and there was a also a farmer's market to walk around.

Earlier in the week, I had read of review of a place serving sausage and frites right in the area called O'My Dawg, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be quite a small shop, and after perusing the menu, I realized that there weren't any non-pork or beef options. That's a little unusual for the Bay Area - even the little hot dog cart a block from work serves turkey dogs, and they only have 5 things on the menu. I think this place will figure it our pretty soon, and add either turkey or veggie dogs. At any rate, this meant that I'd be eating just frites. That wasn't a bad option though. Here they are below.

They were definitely skinnier than the traditional Belgian frites that I've had, but they weren't bad. And I like the slightly smokey and spicy aioli that it was served with.

Meanwhile, Tom had two different type of sausages. I don't remember which ones, but he actually liked them quite a lot - enough to say that he'd want to go back again in the future. (and he tends to be pretty picky about his hot dogs). As for me, the setting was nice, and the owners were very friendly, but I think I'll wait to go back when they've got a turkey dog on the menu.

AN OAKLAND WEDDING BANQUET

As many of you know, Huong and Kjell got married in the Bay Area a few weeks ago. Their ceremony was on Sunday, but they had the traditional Chinese banquet on Saturday evening at the Restaurant Peony in Oakland Chinatown. We arrived a bit late (having been told that everyone shows up late to these things), so food started being served shortly after our arrival.

We got seated at a table with all of our friends, and the table next to us was filled with even more friends (it's nice going to a wedding when you know so many people). And even though some of the food was unfamiliar to Tom and other guests at our table (and I just didn't eat a lot of what was served), we still enjoyed the plentiful food.

We started off with the typical plate of cold cuts, filled with slices of pork, pickled veggies and jellyfish. I enjoyed the jellyfish, though would have preferred it with more pickled veggies.

The next item that followed were these tasty fried crab balls. (There was also a plate of roast suckling pig, which I didn't photograph since I didn't eat any)

Next up, a dish or broccoli, shrimp and scallops- all very fresh and tasty.

Next, my favorite dish of the night, the Peking duck with those fried shrimp chips that my sisters and I used to fight over when we were kids.

Here's a photo of the duck after we had consumed the skin with the little pancakes (unfortunately, the didn't give us nearly enough scallions or plum sauce)

A plate of ginger scallion lobster was served.

Followed by a plate of pan fried noodles:

And the final dish, the steamed fish with soysauce, ginger and scallions.

Overall, the food was decent enough, but it was actually really oily and greasy, thus it was a heavy meal. Since it was so oily, I actually didn't end up stuffing myself and walked away from the meal a little hungry (amazingly enough). I'm not a huge fan of the banquet food at Peony, but I've heard from many sources that they have a great dim sum, so I'm hoping to try that out in the future.

Oh and to finish the meal, we had a bowl of red bean soup (the Chinese aren't really known for their desserts), but at least this was a nice, light way to finish the meal.

DIM SUM AT LEGENDARY PALACE

We're still trying to find a good dim sum place. I know it exists, we just probably need to go into SF to find it. But we made another try at finding dim sum in downtown Oakland with a trip to Legendary Palace. I knew of Legendary Palace because it's this giant gaudy restaurant that sits on a prominent corner in downtown Oakland. Plus, Huong and Kjell had considered having their wedding banquet there, so we thought it was worth a try.

When we entered (it was pretty early in the morning), the first floor seemed pretty full, so we were shown to the second floor, which was much emptier. This wasn't the prettiest restaurant in the world- the carpet was worn and generally not very welcoming or clean feeling, but that's often how dim sum restaurants can be, so we went with it. Here's a view of the upstairs banquet room where we were seated.

We ordered a few of our usuals- shrimp in rice noodles, steamed chicken buns and steamed pork buns. All of it was ok, but nothing spectacular. Plus this place was certainly not a friendly place for those who don't speak Chinese (or really Cantonese for that matter).

We wanted to order some har gaw or siu mai, but after giving a few carts a try, we finally gave up on it and felt it was time to head out. I can't say I was full, but I'd had enough at Legendary Palace. Overall, we don't plan on going back and are still looking for a great local dim sum place. I subsequently told Huong about our visit there, and she agreed that it wasn't the best place for dim sum. And so the search continues....