The Alley Cafe, Pinole

"I told you." --Andy

Andy is the pickiest eater on the planet. This is his favorite breakfast place on earth. I hate to admit it, but I love The Alley too. This is the perfect place to go when you're in the mood for a no-nonsense, no frills greasy spoon breakfast. Don't expect any rosemary potatoes or eggs benedict here...They only accept cash and you will leave with arteries slightly more clogged than usual.

They serve hash browns, not home fries, and the toast comes pre-buttered. According to Andy these are the two signs of a great restaurant. While I'm not sure I agree with that, I do agree with paying $4.50 for two sunny side up eggs, four slices of sourdough toast, two entire hot links, and about five potatoes worth of hash browns.

The service here is very nice, sometimes slow when it's busy (there's usually only one waitress and one cook), and they are really big Giants fans. This is the only negative aspect of the place as far as I can tell. There is an old lady who comes in every day wearing an A's jacket, though, and they seem to treat her fine so I'm not too worried about it.

Living in El Cerrito, this place is close enough that it's not a bad trip. If you are in the area and in the mood for a classic greasy spoon diner with charm, check this place out! I try to go later in the morning on Saturdays because it can get packed early on and after church on Sundays. It's a balancing act because they close at 2pm, but if you can, give this place a shot.

The Alley Cafe is located at 2265 Pear Street in Pinole.

Louisiana Fried Chicken, El Cerrito

No, THIS is the place where you are supposed to get fried chicken. The service isn't anything to write home about (don't expect anyone to multi-task or work fast or be very friendly), but the chicken has always been consistently great!

The fried chicken has a great, thick, crunchy skin that actually isn't greasy; the meat itself is always hot and juicy, even the breast meat. Plus, it's spicy. The first time that Andy and I ate their chicken, we weren't prepared enough. It's a really slow spice that gradually gets hotter and hotter, but we couldn't stop eating the food to be bothered to notice that our mouths were slowly beginning to burn. Andy eventually had to run to the store and get us lemonade while I continued to pick up and eat every single crumb of the leftover fried bits.

We have always gotten the food to go. Normally, I would say that fried chicken to go is a bad idea, but this chicken is so crunchy that it doesn't get soggy, even after it's been in the refrigerator for 2 days (not that it makes it that long without being eaten). When we've ordered a family pack for $15 (I swear not for just the two of us...), we've gotten 8 pieces of chicken, 4 rolls, and one large side, so the food is also very affordable.

My favorite side by far is the greens. They too are spicy, and have slices of pork thrown in to help flavor them. I haven't been impressed by any of the other sides. Andy and I have tried the dirty rice (too dry), the rolls (taste store bought), and the cole slaw (actually pretty good, because I like mine with light mayo and theirs has hardly any). But, my recommendation would be to make some mashed potatoes and rolls at home and then get everything else from Louisiana Fried Chicken. Go here it's so good.

This restaurant is a chain, but I can only speak for the El Cerrito Plaza location. They have a website: http://www.louisianachickenbayarea.com.

They are located at the El Cerrito Plaza, if you are facing Albertson's, it is on your right in the corner. Their phone number is (510) 524-9633.

I have no idea what their hours, are, but I think they close kind of early (around 8). GO!

Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen, Berkeley

Just as I was getting ready to move out of Berkeley, Andy and I noticed advertisements for a New Orleans-style restaurant moving into that graveyard of a building on Shattuck that used to have Eddie Bauer and Gateway. I'm pretty skeptical of anything in that building, but I still looked at the menu online...They have beignets!! How could I resist?!

I've been to Angeline's twice now...The first time I went with my friend Nnekay before going to see Stranger than Fiction (very cute movie!). It was pretty empty when we arrived, since it was only about 5:00 p.m., but the wait staff was very friendly and accommodating. We chose to sit next to the window. Surprisingly, the interior of the restaurant was very cute, but elegant. Pay attention to the gigantic alligator/crocodile thing on the wall, it's made entirely of buttons.

Nnekay ended up ordering the BBQ shrimp and I ordered the jambalaya (both about $12.95). Both of our meals were really filling and incredibly tasty. The shrimp comes with a thick, sweet, brown "BBQ" sauce on it, which is delicious. It is served over rice with veggies on the side. The shrimp was cooked perfectly and was served with just the right amount of sauce. The waitress told us that it was originally just an appetizer but since the shrimp ended up being so popular, they decided to make an entree out of it. If you can, try this shrimp--I was skeptical at first but it really was delicious. My jambalaya was nice and spicy but there wasn't too much heat. It is packed with chicken and andouille sausage, so when I brought my leftovers home to Andy he was super happy and ate them all in one sitting. That's another great thing--the servings are huge! They don't look all that big, but because they are so dense and packed with flavor, I only ate about half of my jambalaya.

For dessert, we each got an order of beinets. They were listed at $3.50, so we figured that we should each get a serving and then sneak them into the theater. Fortunately and unfortunately, the servings are huge. We each got a box that had about six or seven nicely sized hot, non-greasy but fried goodness covered in pounds of powdered sugar. I'd like to say that we didn't eat all of our boxes because we were too full but neither of us could stop eating.

When I went with Andy, we were also going to see a movie, so we again went early. Since we got there around 4:45 p.m., we got the lunch menu. I found that the dinner was pretty affordable for what we got, but the lunch menu is a great deal. The only issue was that the jambalaya wasn't ready yet (jambalaya gets served after 5:30 p.m.). Andy was very sad, but decided to order the hamburger with a side of hushpuppies. The great deal was my oyster po'boy with a side of gumbo for only $11.

I got a full-size sandwich packed with fried oysters, lettuce, and tomatoes. The oysters were breaded with a little bit of cornmeal, which made them extra crispy on the outside, but really tender on the inside. The gumbo was also awesome. Unlike most gumbo that I've had in the past, which has usually been sitting around for a few hours, this tasted fresh. Nothing was overcooked, even the shrimp, which were tender and still juicy. The okra was also cooked just right so that it wasn't too slimy.

Andy was pleased with his hamburger and said for the first time ever that he was really pleased with my blind selection of a restaurant. I had never had hushpuppies before, but Andy said that they were a bit different from the ones he's used to--these had more flavor. They were served really hot with a crunchy outer texture, but the cornmeal on the inside was sweet and soft.

Too bad we didn't have time for dessert. The food was so good that we ate everything on our plates. Oh, and the movie we saw was decent too (The Departed).

Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen is located on Shattuck near Bancroft in Berkeley.
2261 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 548-6900

They are open Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.
Lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Dinner is served from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday,
and 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday.

They also have a website: http://angelineskitchen.com/

Japan, Day 13

Friday, November 24,2006

On our last morning we decided to have breakfast at our hotel again. I think the people at the hotel kept laughing at us because it was so hard for us to figure out how to eat at the tables. Plus, we didn't know what to do with half the stuff. But, they were nice enough to take a picture of us. We had the entire room all to ourselves!

Here's the entire meal. We were served rice, soup, noodle soup, dried fish, seaweed, eggs with ham, pickles, salad, and agedashi tofu. And they say the Japanese don't eat a lot.

And that was our trip! Hope you enjoyed reading about it and seeing our pictures!

Japan, Day 12 (Part II)

Thursday, November 23, 2006

So I thought that the Buddha in Kamakura was big but I was wrong. After leaving Himeji castle, we rushed back onto the train and headed over to Nara, which is the home of Todai-ji, home of I believe the largest Buddha in all of Japan. The building itself measures 188 feet on the front and rear, 166 feet on the sidewalls, and 157 feet top to bottom.

As we walked (and sort of ran), we passed a ton of deer. So many that it was actually kind of scary because you don't want them to get too close to you but it's hard to pay attention when you're trying to run and dodge all of their crap, too. Plus, there are street vendors everywhere, but they aren't selling food for the people to buy, they are selling food for the deer! I know, the deer are sacred, but they are getting a bit out of control.

I don't really recommend doing both Himeji and Todai-ji in the same day, we had to run to the gate to be let in on time. Fortunately, we made it. Here is the wood building that holds the Buddha.

And the Buddha itself, created out of bronze. The photo doesn't really do it's size justice. It stands at 14.98 meters...It's face alone is 5.33 meters, so you can kind of get an idea as to how gigantic it is. I can't even comprehend the weight--500 metric tonnes.

This is one of the two smaller bronze statues that are on either side of the giant Buddha. By smaller I mean maybe 8 meters high.

This guy is a guard who stands behind and to the right of the Buddha to protect him.

We then left and tried to find this 5 tiered pagoda. We got lost, it kind of sucked. We kept walking in the wrong direction through this really creepy forest. I was really scared that we were going to get attacked by a rabid deer but it never ended up happening. When we finally figured out which way that we were going, we walked by a lady who was selling baked yams from a tiny little cart. I was starving, so it really hit the spot. It was so simple, just a yam, baked until soft, served in a paper bag.

Finally, we got to the pagoda. In person it's really impressive.

This is a temple that is next to the pagoda.

Lots of places were closed at this point, so we didn't explore it. Plus, I was starving. Margaret had told us that we should go out for Shabu-Shabu (meat cooked in hot oil at the table), so we tried to find a place that served that. It's hard to find stuff like that when you can't read any of the signs, but one place had a sign in English. Plus, they had some good looking fake food in the window.

The place was set up so that the table we sat at had a huge, hot grill in the middle. We both ordered beef with vegetables. The food came to our table partially cooked, and then it got finished off on our table grill. We got thinly sliced beef with cabbage, Japanese sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. It was a perfect meal. In fact, ever since eating there I've been praying that I'll run into a place in the U.S. with something similar.

The perfect last dinner in Japan...

Japan, Day 12 (Part I)

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Dad really wanted to take me to Osaka Castle, but I chatted with Margaret online when we were at the Kyoto Station and she said that Osaka Castle was lame and too "cementy" compared to Himeji Castle. Determined to prove Margaret wrong (he didn't), Dad decided that we would go to Himeji instead.

We had to take the bullet train to Himeji from Kyoto, but then to get to the castle, we just had to walk for about ten minutes. Even from the train station, the castle is impressive. But first, the Teddy Bear Shop for Zoey:

Here's the castle from far away.

And the gate leading up to it (this after we crossed the giant moat).

Getting closer...

The thing in front of the castle is one of the many walls surrounding the castle. The walls are actually very narrow buildings with room for guards to walk around inside.

Despite the castle's size, it is covered in tiny, beautiful details. The marks on the ends of the tiles are the family's crest.

And yet another gate to get to the castle.

It really was tiring to climb all this way, but there were so many old ladies with their canes who were beating me to the top, which was somewhat inspiring to at least get there.

Originally when building the castle, the community had a lot of trouble getting everything together. The story is that an old lady brought a rock from her house to help build the base of the castle. Her example made everyone in the town of Himeji get inspired to help out, and soon, everyone was bringing rocks to the castle.

I think this is the last door that we had to go through to get into the castle. At this point, we had to take off our shoes so that we didn't ruin the beautiful wood floors throughout.

The main tower has five stories, and what makes this castle particularly cool is the fact that it has never been destroyed by warfare, unlike most castles. Everywhere you look, there are little holes in the walls near the floor, which are rock throwing holes. They are angled just right to hit anyone walking up the road to the castle. Higher up, there are holes for shooting arrows. As I looked along the walls, I noticed a bunch of hooks all over the place. We later learned that they were all for storing weapons. The entire castle seemed to be devoted to storing weapons--there are hooks everywhere you look, and where there are no hooks, there are closets for storing more weapons.

Also lining the hallways are artifacts that have been found throughout the years. One of the neatest things was some old samurai armor. It was made for someone who was about 3 feet tall! There was also a lot of artwork.

Here's a view from the top:

Also at the top is a shrine.

The stairs on the way up and the way down were really steep and slippery. Yes, we minded our heads. I ended up having to take off my slippers and just walk around in my socks.

This diorama shows the layout of the city of Himeji. The English sign said that the city is divided into three different parts. The city itself is surrounded by a wall, which defined what was a part of Himeji and what wasn't. The people who lived in the outermost part of the city were the farmers. The people who lived inside the second wall were the samurai and skilled workers. Finally, inside the moat and third wall was the royal family (plus as you saw, tons of walls and doors past that).

A view from right in front of the castle.

This area is where people were allowed to commit suicide--the English signs literally said, "Suicide Quarters." As we walked down into this area, we had to go through a dark, cave-like structure. It was really weird because it seemed to get darker the second we entered this area. The black crow making creepy noises didn't help the mood.

Also creepy was this well--supposedly a woman was drowned in it and her screams could be heard from the well until her body was finally removed.

And on that happy note, that about finished our trip to Himeji Castle. The only other thing that for some reason I don't have any pictures of would be the Princess's Quarters. The area built for the Princess is a long, narrow building to the side of the castle. Instead of being hard wood, her room had tatami mats and a dressing area. The entire building was for women to live in.

What a cool place! Dad did admit that Margaret was right, this place is waayyyy cooler.

Japan, Day 11 (Part II)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

After Shugakuin, we headed over to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. This temple is covered in real gold leaf and surrounded by water. The water is covered with geese and lily pads.

This part was actually kind of gross--there were like 50 koi all in an area of about 3 cubic feet (oh no, that really is the Chemistry class having an effect). That many of them all together in such a tiny space was really sick. But, looking up and seeing the lake as a whole along with the gold building to my left, I got over it.

Just about a ten minute walk away from Kinkakuji is Ryoanji, a temple with the most famous Zen rock garden in Japan. The garden consists only of rocks, raked pebbles, and moss. It is set up in a way so that no matter where one sits to view the garden, they can never see every single rock. I'm not sure I get this place...The people who come in to visit the garden are allowed to sit all along a deck that runs along one side. Everyone just kind of sits there silently. I tried it for a while...Still not sure I got it.

Here's another view...

And another view...It is a peaceful place but I still am not sure I get it.

We tried to then take the bus to our next destination (this is a huge departure from everything else we did that day) and got lost. Just wait, this was unexpectedly one of the coolest places we went and it was worth walking around and getting angry and not being able to find a cab for over an hour.

Uncle Lionel had recommended that we go to a samurai movie studio lot. When we first pulled up in the cab, it looked awful--a huge warehouse with huge pink, green, and blue characters on the front. The tickets, bought at a movie theater ticket booth, were half off because it was so close to closing time.

When we first entered, we just saw the inside of a warehouse that just had movie posters everywhere. I was disappointed until we turned the corner and saw this:

It's a universal studios for Japanese samurai films!!!! It felt like I was at Disneyland, except it was almost cooler because no one was there and we could walk around like we owned the place.

It's too bad I haven't seen more samurai movies, though, otherwise maybe I'd recognize some of these sets. The signs posted around the lot say that the sets are used for all types of movies.

The sign next to this bridge says that it has been used in almost every single Japanese movie. The curved bridges are really stereotypical of Japanese movies, and they said that they just put a different sign up next to the bridge each time, and it becomes whatever they want.

Just like at Disneyland, they have samurai character guys walking around!!!

I guess you can compare this building to that magic show building on Main Street USA. Inside, there was a guy putting on a show about special effects.

I couldn't understand him, but I got the gist of his show. He was showing off how sharp his sword was, and then pretended to cut himself, but it turns out it was just special effects stuff.

Here are some more sets...

Don't you just feel like you're looking at a scene from the middle of old-time Japan?

Dad and I both were starving at this point (we pretty much got kicked out of the movie studio because it was closing). After being taken for a ride by our cab driver, we decided that we were craving gyoza (Japanese pot stickers). We tried to find some good places, but I was really really really sick of the Kyoto Station restaurants.

So, we headed over to the ever-reliable Hotel Granvia and asked the concierge for a recommendation. We just pretended that we were guests at the hotel and he recommended a really cool place.

It was about a 15 minute cab ride away, very close to the path of philosophy near Chionin. This place is definitely worth a trip, especially late at night. The restaurant has a diner-like style. We were able to sit at the bar on stools, and got to watch everything get cooked.

There were three things on the menu: gyoza, pickles, and beer. Everything was delicious. My mouth waters just thinking about this place. The gyoza are cooked to order, so they are always fresh, hot, and crispy.

For a while I thought our waiters were laughing at us for continuing to order more (the cucumbers were served by the plate, and the gyoza were ten to a plate), but then I looked at the Japanese couple next to us, and they each started out with two orders by themselves of everything.

The gyoza place is open really late, so I can only imagine the kind of crowd they get after people finish partying...Here is our cook putting some fresh gyoza onto the freshly oiled grill.

He then dumps some water on them and cover them to let them steam.

It got to the point where all I could do was count the seconds for him to take the top off and come to our table with another order of gyoza. I think we ended up eating at least 30 gyoza each, plus about 3 cucumbers worth of pickles.

I even may have ordered a beer! Dad did have to finish it for me after I drank half, but it seemed only appropriate to have at least one. You can see here how tiny the restaurant was.

Here's the menu--everything was really affordable, which was even cooler, especially in Japan. I know, it's in Japanese, but I think you can get the idea. I think the conversion rate from dollars to yen is about 80 cents to 100 yen.

Mmmm sooo gooood. I think it's time for a midnight snack. Maybe you'll get lucky and I'll post once more.