I really like food. That might be kind of surprising given how skinny I am, but yeah, I really like and appreciate good food. So, here are some places I really like. I have a separate sushi page so I'll skip those.

Places I like to eat

• El Pollo Loco - I'm gonna say this is my second favorite fast foodish type place. Just, it's good, you can see the actual chickens, and it's not too bad for you. I'm not a health nut, but I care a little, and places like Jack in the Box and KFC, it's just bad for you. But this place is good. The classic chicken burrito. Three bucks for a tasty meal.
• In N' Out - I have no idea where the apostrophe goes on the 'N'. It's 'N Sync that screwed me up. The apostrophe goes before the N? Weird. But, I guess the apostrophe is supposed to go where the letter is replaced. But with 'N' replacing "and", it could go either way. Confusing. I'm babbling.

  Anyway, yeah, I'm not like a fanatic about this place, but it's by far the best burger around. There might be better burgers at nicer restaurants, but I dunno, when I go to a sit down place, I never order a burger. It just doesn't seem right. Anyway, yeah, great burger. There are other fast food places I go to frequently, but this is really the only place I love.

• Potbelly's (Chicago) - Hmm, yeah I think this is a cheap place. So we had a bunch of different Chicago food the last time we were there, all good, like the hot dogs and pizza, but this place stood out to me. I dunno, just good meat, good fixings, good bread, well toasted and all for $3.79! I dunno, I thought it was pretty awesome.

• Chef Wang (Burlingame?) - This is probably my favorite place for Jja Jjang Myun. Good noodles, great sauce. Plus they have good Korean style sweet and sour pork. Probably my favorite Korean-style Chinese in the area.
• Dumpling King (Houston) - I love this place. Kinda ghetto, but good. What you do is order dumplings by the dozen. They have a bunch of condiments you mix together to form a sauce. Soy sauce, vinegar, chili paste, green chilis, garlic. It's good. And hot and sour soup for a buck.
• Eatzi's (Houston) - Eatzi's makes some of the best sandwiches ever. I don't even know how to explain it, it's just good. Haven't found anything like that in the Bay Area. I've tried some of the upper scale grocery stores, like that one in the Stanford Mall. Not the same.
• Fung Lum (Campbell) - I'm not sure if I have the taste buds to distinguish the best Chinese food, but I went here recently and had a great meal. I'm going to say it was the best Chinese food I've ever had. Bold? I dunno, they had the best honey pecan prawns ever. I think the lobster is better at Hong Kong Flower Lounge though. But whatever, it was really good.
• Gombei (Menlo Park) - This is my favorite non-sushi Japanese restaurant. Everything here is good and not too expensive, a huge plus. Used to go here quite a bit, but now Menlo Park is a bit of a drive.
• Goode Co. Barbecue (Houston) - What California needs is a good barbecue place. Californians don't know what barbecue is. I didn't. I used to call cooking anything on a grill a "barbecue". But yeah, I'm still no expert, I just know I've been to places in Houston that are good and not that expensive that taste great. This is the best. Much less expensive than, say, Armadillo Willy's, and much better.
• Hunan Home's (Palo Alto) - I think this is me and Jieun's favorite local Chinese place. We have Irving to thank for letting us know about this place. It's good.
• Palace Buffet (Sunnyvale) - The best buffet in the entire world. OK, maybe not, but yeah, what a great meal. Really good meat, all you can eat. Especially since Korea House turned terrible, this has been my favorite Korean place to go to.
• Papa John's Pizza - I think my favorite chain pizza place. Sister introduced me to it some years back in Houston. The dipping sauce for the crust is key. Brilliant. Sister also introduced me to pepperoni and jalapenos on pizza. Try it. It's pretty good.
• Pasta? (Palo Alto) - Quick, tasty no-frills pasta. Not the best pasta in the world, but pretty good, fast, and not too expensive. I like it.
• Pizza Chicago (Palo Alto) - By far, the best pizza place around here. By far. It's just a really good pizza, dunno what else to say.

• Ryowa (Mountain View) - Jieun doesn't like this ramen place (she prefers Pho) but I really like it. Can't really explain why - it's just good ramen.
• Tani's Kitchen (Daly City) - Dunno if I spelled it right. This place is absolutely tiny - I think it seats 12, but really good, Gombei type food. Great donburi.
• Tofu House (Sunnyvale) - I've actually been to a lot of Tofu places, even the ones that are supposedly the best in the world in L.A. Koreatown and I dunno, I still think this place is best. I absolutely love this place.
• Zachary's (Berkeley) - Only had this a few times but yeah, it's even better than Pizza Chicago. But too far to get. When am I gonna be in Berkeley? The less the better. But yeah, an incredible pizza, the best in the Bay Area.

• Boulevard (San Francisco) - I had a great meal here. I've only had foie gras twice, but here it was so good I thought I was going to die. It was that good.
• Jardiniere (San Francisco) - I've actually only been here once, but I had a great meal. So good, I would call this my favorite restaurant. I'll never forget the dessert. A pear sorbet with candy walnut topping. The sorbet was so subtle and tasty, just amazing.
• Julia's Kitchen (Napa) - Named after Julia Child. It's surprisingly casual in dress and setup, with a nice big open kitchen, and the food was amazing. Every dish we had was delicious, and not a single miscue. I think Esquire named it the best (new?) restaurant in 2002 - it's well deserved.
• Masa's (San Francisco) - This is where I had the lobster Iron Chef meal by Ron Siegel. An incredible meal. The best single meal I've ever had. Dunno if the rest of the menu is as good, but if it's anything like this, I want it.
• Nobu (Las Vegas) - Morimoto worked at the New York branch, but the Las Vegas branch was pretty good. We got the omakase and it was great, especially this lobster tempura. And the desserts were awesome. The only negative is the seats are very close together.
• Staits Cafe (Palo Alto) - I'm actually kind of mixed about this place. The first time I went was incredible. That's not an understatement. It was beyond credibility how good the food was. They had these mussels that came in a sauce that was among the best sauces I'd ever tasted. Arthur got this origami bass that tasted incredible. Everything tasted incredible. There was not a single non-great tasting dish.

  So I took Jieun here, and the second time was less good. Mussel sauce was just OK. This noodle dish we got was mildly disappointing. But the bass was still great. I dunno, I'm thinking it's a weekday vs. weekend thing. Go on a weekday. But yeah, based on that first meal, it makes the list.

• Taste Of Texas (Houston) - Probably the best steak I've ever had. Ruth's Chris is supposedly better but I went there recently and it wasn't that great. I mean, it was pretty good, but I'd choose ToT over there. If nothing else, ToT has better side stuff - it includes all you can eat salad (including this huge cheese block) and bread, and sides. And the steak here is great. It's popular too, like hour waits on weekdays and a 2 hour wait on weekends. But they have free drinks and popcorn while you wait. Come visit Houston and I'll take you to this place.

Places I don't like eating at

• A&W - When's the last time you ate at A&W? There are barely any of these around. Anyway, there's one near my place and it intrigued me since I hadn't gone there since I was a kid visiting Oregon, but yeah, I don't think I'll go back. It's not that it was bad. It was just on the high side for fast food, no cheapo deals at all, which I love, and the service was interminably slow. I didn't get a float though. Maybe I should get that.

• Olive Garden - There are lots of chains that aren't great, but this is one I actively dislike. Just, I've never had an even serviceable meal here. It's just plain bad. This used to be my frosh roommate's favorite restaurant, which I never understood. Hate this place.
• Pizza Hut - This actually used to be my favorite pizza chain back when all they did was make pan pizzas. Now all they do is make pizzathings. Stuffed crust pizza? Double layer pizza? P'zone? I dunno, those are gimmicks, not food. Wish they'd just stick to pizza. Because their pan pizza isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

• Hawthorne Lane (San Francisco) - I must have missed something. This is always named by everyone as one of the best places in the city, without exception, but our meal there wasn't that great. It was even bad. The sauce tasted strange and the chicken was dry. I dunno, must have missed something but it was very disappointing.
• Marche (Menlo Park) - It's this upscale old school French place. The food was decent but not special, which was disappointing given the price. Quite expensive. It wasn't bad like Hawthorne Lane, but if I'm gonna spend that much I think it's reasonable to expect more.