• (2/12) BBQ

I talk about food way too much, but whatever. Here are my favorite places in the Bay Area for particular foods.

• BBQ - Uncle Frank's Barbecue, Mountain View (map). Dunno if you know this, but the state of barbecue in the Bay Area is pretty poor. I didn't even know this until my family moved to Texas, but after they did, barbecue was one of the joys I discovered. Anyway, most places around here are just mediocre, but Uncle Frank's is pretty good. Totally ghetto, but good Louisiana barbecue, which apparently means spicy. Good stuffs.

• Chinese (Korean style) Jja Jjang Myun - Chef Wang, Millbrae (map). People from LA complain that it's hard to find good jja jjang myun up here and I can't disagree too much. But this place is pretty good, with good sauce and hand pulled noodles. Now that we never go up to the city, we rarely go there. There's another good place near Golden Gate Park in the city and growing up we went to Tsing Tao (map) in Campbell. The best place nearby is probably the Za Zang chain.

• Falafel - Falafel Drive-In, San Jose (map). There's no indoor seating, it's fairly ghetto, and the food is greasy, but it's very popular and for good reason. Some fine falafel.

• Greek - Athena Grill, Santa Clara (map). This is my favorite by default. I actually don't know of any other Greek places around here, but it's pretty good.

• Grilled Cheese Sandwich - Hog Island Oyster Co., San Francisco (map). You probably think it's absurd to have a favorite grilled cheese sandwich. But you've never tried the one here. It's not american on white, it's served on fresh Acme Bread with three different delicious Cowgirl Creamery cheeses - both fellow purveyors in the Ferry Building. "Fromage Blanc, Mezzo Secco and Cave Aged Gruyere". It's just absolutely delicious. It's also ridiculously expensive, like $12 or something, but every once in a while, it's worth it to splurge on the best grilled cheese I've ever tasted.

• Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich - Peninsula Creamery, Palo Alto (map). Yes, I have not only a favorite grilled cheese sandwich but a favorite grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and yes, they are different things. I'm not sure if this is the actual name of the place but that's what everyone calls it. And I actually like the food a fair bit. It's a little overpriced, but solid food. In particular, I love the grilled ham and cheese. It's about perfect - the thickness and toastedness of the bread, the cheese/ham ratio, and the meltedness of the cheese. I get this about 80% of the time when I go here.

• Ice Cream - Marble Slab Creamery. Every time I talk about this I start getting angry, but whatever. I've said this before countless times, but I hate Cold Stone and cannot understand at all why it's so popular. Jieun and I have gone there about 4 times and we've regretted it every single time. Gooey, middling ice cream and overly cutesy employees. Annoying.

  Plus, it's not even original; the cold stone concept has been around a while, and I first encountered it at Marble Slab, which is much better. The ice cream quality is way higher, and they keep the marble slabs colder than at "cold" stone so the consistency is better also. I have no idea why Cold Stone has expanded faster than Marble Slab, but it's a travesty.

  Anyway, the one in Sunnyvale (map) is the one I go to, and it doesn't look like it's doing too well, which makes me sad.

• Japanese Ochazuke - Saizo, Sunnyvale (map). Whoa, getting super specific. Ochazuke is rice in tea served with some flavorings of your choice like maguro, salmon, seaweed or other stuffs. Saizo uses this tasty broth instead of straight tea and it's really good. Jieun and I love it. In general, this is our favorite izakaya in the area.

• Japanese Onigiri - Gochi, Cupertino. I don't know Japanese cuisine well enough to know if onigiri is a comfort food or poor man's food or what, but it's delicious here, grilled so it tastes like good nooroongji with tasty filings. I didn't even realize that onigiri could taste so good until I had it here. It's a weirdo fusion type place, with like Japanese pizza and weirdo curry cheese things, but it works.

• Japanese Ramen - Ramen Halu, San Jose (map). Good stuff, really flavorful broth, good noodles. It is kind of fatty though; there's literally globs of pork fat floating around in the broth. But mmm mmm good. Ryowa in Mountain View (map) is my second favorite. Maruichi on Castro and that place next to Tomi Sushi in San Jose aren't worth going to.

• Japanese Soba - Sushi Tomi, Mountain View (map). I have this thing for Soba, it's kind of random, but yeah. Anyway, I like it here best. I've been to Mifune in SF Japantown which is supposedly great but I dunno, I like the soba at Sushi Tomi better. Go figure.

• Japanese Sushi - Sawa Sushi, Sunnyvale (map) and Sushi Tomi, Mountain View (map). Sadly, Toshi's in Menlo Park, a longtime fave, is closed. Sawa is the best but way too expensive and I don't think I can get in anymore. So Sushi Tomi is our regular sushi place. Great fish, a good sized Japanese clientele (which is very indicative) and Japanese staff.

  I generally don't like Korean owned sushi places. Just generally. For the same reason I don't like Korean mechanics or Korean products in general. Just, and maybe I'm wrong about this, but the Korean mentality seems to be not to do things really right, but just good enough to get by. Does that make sense? And again, maybe I'm wrong. But like Korean mechanics, they don't try to get at the heart of the issue, but just do enough to get the car going. Stuff like that. I think that's why Korean products (in the past) sucked, quality wise.

  I think the Japanese system is different. Like, I think sushi apprentices spend years just making the rice. Kind of overboard, but I respect the mentality, you know? Not just learn how to do it, but really master it, have it ingrained in you. Anyway, I think it comes out in the fish, the selection, cut, and presentation. But that's just me.

• Korean BBQ - Hansung BBQ, Sunnyvale. I don't even know if that's the right name. It's the one on Kiely and El Camino. They use the real wood coal thing for the BBQ. It's good. Honorable mention goes to Blue Stones, which cuts the meat slightly differently, and Palace Buffet, which I like though others don't. I was never ecstatic about Brother's on Geary. This place is much better, I think. When I'm in LA, I hate to say it because it's so hyped, but Corner Place is pretty good.

• Korean Dduk Bo Sam - Blue Stones, Santa Clara. We just discovered this dish, it's basically grilled meat, but instead of eating it with rice you wrap it up with some veggies and sauce in a thin layer of rice cake (dduk), kind of the thickness of dumpling wrap. It's pretty good. Blue Stones is the only place in the area I know that has it.

• Korean Gom Tang - Seoul Gom Tang, Santa Clara. I have no idea what the difference is between gom tang and sullung tang. Anyway, this place is pretty good, it's a great place for tasty gom tang when you're sick or when it's cold, just good comfort food. Stick with the basic gom tang though. The ggori gomtang isn't as good.

• Korean Naengmyun - Yu Chun, Los Angeles and Myung Dong Tofu Cabin, Sunnyvale. I'm cheating, since this is supposed to be a Bay Area list, but I like Yu Chun so much I try to go there any time I'm in L.A. I dunno exactly what it is that makes it good, probably a big part is the broth, but it's awesome.

  As for locally, yeah, a tofu place, go figure. But yeah, I like it here best. They used to put in watermelon, which was a nice contrast, but no more. It's still good though. I dunno any place that's really better; the one at Blue Stones in particular is awful. There's this other place my mom likes, also off El Camino, the name of which escapes me, but it's a different style, more North Korean. I like Myung Dong better.

• Korean Tofu - Tofu House, Sunnyvale. I've been to the place in L.A. Koreatown that's supposedly the best anywhere and this is comparable if not better, in my opinion. Really simple menu, pretty much just tofu, and it's all good. Better than BCD Tofu in Santa Clara, which gets an honorable mention, and much better than Gaesung and Myungdong, also along El Camino.

• Mexican Tacos - Chipotle. Food snobs will look down on me for liking a chain restaurant like this. What can I say. I like what I like. And I love the carnitas tacos at Chipotle. Love. My dilemma is, the burrito is a better mass value, but the crispy tacos taste better. So this is one example of where I value taste over value. Strangely, I prefer the al pastor with burritos. Just one of those things.

• Mexican Tortas - Savor Mexico, Mountain View. Dunno why I like tortas, but I do, and I'm very likely to get it if it's on the menu. Anyways, I'm no expert, no clue what's authentic or whatever, but there are 3 things I like in a good torta. First bread. Freshly baked is best, and not too crumbly is important to me. The one at Hot And Mild near our place is way too crumbly, you can't hold it or even cut it. Bad. Second the cheese. It's not the overwhelming flavor, but it's still more important than the meat. I think it's that Mexican cheese, no clue what it's called. Then the meat. The one at Savor Mexico isn't fantastic, but it is the better than anything else I've had at random places throughout Sunnyvale.

• Pizza (Chicago-style) - Zachary's, Berkeley. I've only been a handful of times, but I like it a lot. Big thick and good. Honorable mention goes to Patxi's and Pizza Chicago. Yes, most Chicagoans say Pizza Chicago is not true Chicago-style pizza, and I can't argue, but it's good pizza.

• Pizza (New York-style) - Giovanni's - Sunnyvale. I love this place, it's just no-nonsense pizza with the perfect amount of sauce and good cheese. I usually just get the plain cheese. It's delicious. Amici's is also good, but just too expensive.

• Soup/Salad Buffet - Sweet Tomatoes. It costs a bit more than Fresh Choice but I personally think it's worth it. (I don't go to either without a coupon though.) The food is better. Still not fantastic, but pretty good as far as these types of places go. Last time I went I had clam chowder and the potatoes were a bit undercooked. This is one of those things that are bad but still a good sign. Undercooked potatoes, bad, but the fact that they use real fresh potatoes, a good sign. Anyway, yeah, I don't mind eating here, whereas I mind eating at Fresh Choice.

• Thai - Thai Basil, Sunnyvale. The food is actually better at Amarin Thai, but you get such a value at Thai Basil that I go to it more often, especially for their lunch specials. I love this place.

• Vietnamese Sandwiches - Lee's Sandwiches, Sunnyvale. Woohoo, they opened up a Lee's nearby! I used to go to Cam Hung but Lee's is definitely better, better bread, better cleanliness. It's also white-person friendly. Not fully authentic with the veggies and they don't put in peppers, but it's a great sandwich for just $2.50. I go here a lot. At one point I ate at least once a week here, but after my office moved I go less frequently.