One of the weird things about being a tech journalist is that your social circle is pretty far flung. Between the many bright and truly delightful people who work within the bowels of the various tech companies I cover and the journalists I’ve worked with over the years, my peer group is spread across the globe like a Gaussian cloud with its central limit dithering between San José, Austin, Bangalore, and Taipei. In this wired age, it’s pretty easy to keep in touch but e-mails and the occasional phone call are no substitute for a good face-to-face conversation. That’s why I always make sure to meet up with some of my buddies for a beer or a plate of something cheap, hot and ethnic when we all descend on the Valley for whatever conference we’re attending that month.
Cheap, hot and ethnic is how I describe the tiny hole-in-the-wall places we love to haunt when we’re not dining on somebody else’s corporate credit card. Thanks to several waves of immigration from all parts of the planet, it’s tough to go more than a block or two without bumping into a small luncheonette or modest café where the menu is not always in English, the recipes in the kitchen are handed down from a favorite aunt in The Old Country, and a Caucasian boy like myself is in the distinct minority. Despite the fact that you can get a full meal at these places for less than the price of an appetizer at the
Lion and Compass,
Parcel 104, or
Birks, their food usually has as much flavor as any of those fancy corporate feeding troughs, and a whole bunch more character.
Being from Central New Jersey, where the restaurant cuisines are generally limited to Americanized Italian, Americanized Chinese, Americanized Indian, and American Diner, I always find it a treat to wander into whatever Korean, Burmese, Vietnamese, Pakistani, or El Salvadorian joint I stumble upon and get a taste of something that makes the folks sitting at the other tables think of home. Of course, abundance of choices can be a problem since you can only eat three or four meals a day. The gang of writers, PR flacks, and assorted hangers-on who joined me for dinner after a busy day at DesignCon solved this dilemma by giving everyone a chance to give a one-minute elevator pitch for their favorite place to eat and then taking a vote.
We ended up at a small Korean Barbeque, run by an elderly couple who served up platters of spicy pork and beef, red-hot kimchee soup, and icy
Hite beer (“From naturally fresh water”) until we couldn’t move. I can’t tell you the place’s name since the sign outside says BBQ and then the rest is written in Korean. Since I was not driving, I have no idea where it was except that it was somewhere in San José on Saratoga Avenue off US-280 in the same shopping center as a Lion food market. If you want to look for it, my buddy Paul snapped a photo of the sign. (
Editor’s Note: The address of this restaurant is 487 Saratoga Ave, San José with the Pictures USA store on the right of the picture at 489 and The Lion Food Center, on the left, at 471; in my time in San José this had been a U-Bake Pizza and then a Big Bite Pizza. It was then a very good Persian food restaurant called Hot Bite Kabob; even with all the kudos that restaurant received it looks like it couldn’t make it either. We hope some reader can identify this latest iteration.)The following day, my Korean itch was sill not scratched so my friend Bill and I headed for the
So Gong Dong Tofu House (231 W Calaveras Blvd, Milpitas), where $9.95 bought us huge bowls of spicy soup laden with tofu, veggies and whatever animal parts we wanted, all served still boiling in a traditional thick ceramic bowl. As with most Korean dishes, the small bowls of kimchee, pickles, sprouts and other savory tidbits that accompanied our meal added wonderful flavors and textures that complemented the soup.
Of course, one cannot live by Korean alone so the next night I let my buddy Andy drag me off to
Shalimar, a Pakistani tandoori palace in Freemont where the quality of the food was inversely proportional to the atmosphere of the place’s utterly nondescript, Formica-topped décor. Having eaten at many Indian and Pakistani places where everything is cooked with a generic mélange of spices, it was a real treat to find that each dish had its own distinctive flavor. Oddly, the biggest treat of the night was the humble naan, or flat bread, which was baked locally that day and then toasted in the tandoor just before it hit the table.
With my visit nearly over, there was only time to hit one last favorite spot. Although it is neither particularly hot nor ethnic, the
Fourth Street Bowl rates high on my list because they serve good, honest home-made diner food that’s never seen a powdered mix, pre-portioned serving or canned gravy. After chowing down on the generous steaks, sandwiches, and daily dinner specials, you can head out the back to the cocktail lounge or bowl a few rounds on lanes that seem to be straight out of the 1960s and are open till the wee hours. Some of my favorite Silicon Valley memories are from the night when my buds Andy, Robert and I capped off an evening on the town with a midnight bowling session.
About my only regret from the trip was that I did not get a chance to visit the Lunchbox Café, a small luncheonette that’s been adopted by an Ethiopian family. Located at 1876 W San Carlos in San José, it’s close to Santana Row, but you couldn't have a greater contrast. Other than a wall calendar with photos of their native land, the current tenants have foregone any attempt to update the drab décor of the sandwich shop that previously sat behind the Lunchbox Café logo in the window. Instead, they have put all their energy into reproducing the spicy, stomach-warming specialties of their homeland with deadly accuracy. Not for the faint-hearted, this is definitely some of the best African fare you’ll ever have without taking a long jet flight. And the price is right too – it’s almost impossible to spend more than $10 for lunch, including tax, tip, and a cup of flavorful Ethiopian coffee that’s strong enough to stand a spoon up in (I’m told it’s made from beans the owner roasts himself).
I’ll be back in a month or so to help deliver our Product of the Year awards to the Silicon Valley companies that earned them and am already looking forward to seeing some of the friends I missed on the last trip. I’ll also look forward to checking out some of their favorite cheap, hot, and ethnic haunts.
Comments? Questions? Want to share your favorite restaurant with your fellow readers? Write me at
lhg at en-genius dot net, or post your comments on our blog.
