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Rick: will you have transport so you can make it to Reno? Here's a report from my last trip. Basically: Beto's for Mexican, Kyoto for Japanese. Dish is a good breakfast spot. (addresses are in the link) I never did find anything amazing in Tahoe itself -- but I don't tend to like going to expensive restaurants, nor am I big on the "steak and seafood" craze, which would only leave casinos... of which Reno has a bigger selection...

El Huarache Azteca is rapidly becoming my favorite place in the Fruitvale area. But I don't recall green bell peppers on that dish? I'm pretty sure they were nopales (cactus). That's why they seemed flavoured in a different way. (I ordered that same dish the last two visits) Not surprised you were the only gringo there -- I haven't seen other gringos on any previous visits. But then it's Fruitvale. Coworkers who I have attempted to entice into going there flee with cries of "aaah, crime!", even though I've walked around after dark with no problems. Dunno. Guess they're just saving the good food for me. ;-) From what I hear, you should go there on weekends for the barbacoa and menudo. Hearsay, but it's way crowded on weekends.

Is this "Las Montanas Mini Market" on 1725 Willow Pass Rd? I'll be in Concord this afternoon, but there were many matches for Las Montasas -- apparently they have several restaurants of that name up there. This was the only market one I saw. Thanks!

Because then anyone can be considered a professional food critic! ;-)

Gold's commentary is certainly pithy, and reads like one expects a good quick restaurant review to read... but writing ability and culinary tastes are a very different thing. I do enjoy many of his columns, but there are times... I like mongo_jones' comment: he's catering to "hipster-anglos". I consider myself a gwai-lo gaijin gringo, but I'm often surprised at what many of my friends refuse to even try when we go out. My current fave soup is Yuk Gae Jang (when asked for *cough* extra spicy). But if I were writing a food column, that probably wouldn't be my first recommendation, because, as noted, many readers wouldn't go there: there's no comparable American dish. Admittedly, it's very likely that there was cross-cultural contamination of foodstuffs (not that these are bad things!). Vietnam and Korea aren't all that far apart. But unless he's willing to go into the cultural anthropology behind it, I'm not going to buy it. ("oooh... a lot of cuisines use "fish"... and Iceland has lots of fishing... must have come from there!") I had chicken soup growing up. Did I assume, the first time I had pho, that it was a derivative? No. (it was much better, in my opinion, but.. ;-)) Just because two things are similar does not a causal relationship form.

I don't think you'll find a lot near Yosemite. It's way off the beaten path, and once you're there, it's a long drive anywhere else -- so the area tends towards chains or expensive places. (I did find a pizza joint that was incredible, but nothing else impressed me). It's also going to eat up a big chunk of your trip -- there and back costs you a day. Not that I want to discourage you; the scenery is fabulous, but if you're looking for food, I wouldn't head there. Going up (or down) 1 is fun for a few hours. I highly recommend it, but after a while, you get tired of slowing down for stoplights every two miles when you hit the next townlet along the highway. Still, great views, and if you head north, you could go past glass beach and the like near Fort Bragg. Some pretty good eats there. I will try and dig up my postings about the area. Wine country isn't going to give you cheap eats, but near there will. If you continue north on I-80, there are a lot of stops on the way to Sacramento that have big Mexican communities. Dixon comes to mind; if you search the board for "Mr. Taco" you'll see one of the places. There should be a lot of cheap authentic Mexican in the area, as many of the grape pickers seem to be Mexican. Or, just head to the Fruitvale area of Oakland -- right off the BART (subway) from Walnut Creek you can get to a big Mexican district, replete with sit-down restaurants and "taco trucks". Otaez, El Huarache Azteca, La Torta Loca, Taqueria San Jose... all are good and within blocks of the Fruitvale BART station.

There are a few downtown Oakland places that might make something like that... a falafel "wrap" with falafel, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, hummus, tahini, and optional hot sauce wrapped in lavash. You can get it at Aroma (19th+Franklin), and Billy's and Jimmy's I think (Broadway, at 16th or 20th; I get the two mixed up).

Marshall Farm's: candles and honey, in that order. Stumbled across them a few years ago, and was regaled by a ten minute introduction to regional honeys, along with a description of why the honeys tasted different, and what was strong (or weak) this season. One week during the wintertime they had a small variety of candles made from leftover wax as an experiment. They burned with an incredible honey smell, and the 6" tall candle lasted us.. well, four hours per night for over two months. We praised them, recommended them, and asked for them off-season a few times, and they now seem to carry them all the time. Even the small votive candles last for ten hours or so. Friendly, quick to offer samples, and they have a nice variety of regional honey. I also loved the crazy lady (lazy left eye, missing teeth in front, heavy set) who used to sell citrus fruits at the Grand/Lakeshore farmer's market on Saturdays. Haven't seen her over the last year, though. Very talkative, but would always dig through the piles for "the just ripe fruits" for me. I don't recall any signage, though.

I was just in Stockton on Thursday for business, and was taken to a spot named China Palace. It was pretty good. Not amazing, but I wouldn't mind returning. We did the "six person" meal on the back of the menus: six courses plus house soup for $68. The soup was eggdrop (whee); the courses we chose were: salt'n'pepper prawns: okay, but it was prawns with legs and tail and all, deep fried and then seasoned. honey'n'walnut prawns: pretty good, if a very simple taste deep fried sole: hard to eat, but nicely done (some sort of beef ribs): probably the best in my mind, with a mildly spicy red bbq glaze (beef with bok choi): the veggies were good, the beef seems to have given all its flavor to the sauce, so was only so-so ginger and onion crab: not too bad, although this was the dish least consumed (probably because nobody wanted to be greedy and take the main section) Not phenomenal, but after this thread I was prepared to just claim I wasn't hungry and hit a fast food joint on the way home. A pleasantly good surprise. China Palace 5052 West Lane 4C-F (in a plaza) 209/955-0888

They (Taqueria San Jose) do have an Oakland location, near 35th and International/14th. It was pretty good. I didn't try the cabeza or lengua, though, but the carne asada and al pastor tacos were tasty. (there are only so many tacos one can eat in a single meal!) Pretty good salsas, too. But the birria (goat) was tasteless; I could only tell what it was because it wasn't any of the identifiable items... quite a disappointment. I am a gringo, though, so I have no idea how authentic it was. Given other people's comments (about the SF and San Rafael locations), I think the Oakland one must not be quite so good. The food was tasty, but not mouth-watering. Noisy, too But I would go back there. I'm just not running back.

Two recs were made recently elsewhere. Chowhound Posting Not mine, so linked rather than pasted.

Yup, and a Marie Callender's. (I've only been out there once, and that's where I ate)

All I would ask for in addition is -- addresses! Maybe they're there, and I just didn't dig deep enough? (and yes, you can get them from different sources, but I like my information all in once place..) Great images!

I agree. A coworker keeps dragging us to Peony, which usually costs us twice what we'd pay at Tin's... but he's the sort of person who puts decor over food. Give a choice in Oakland, I'd go to Tin's -- friendly and fresh without the pretense.

Are there details about this (and other restaurants) anywhere online? Went to Farallon's web site (www.farallonrestaurant.com), but their newsletter talks about 2003 only... (edit) Never mind, I found a link. Farallon itself, as well as the complete list.

That's probably not the one OP got bagels from (since it's nowhere near SFO). But you're right; that particular Noah's during that timeframe was pretty good. But even that one is pretty sad nowadays (although you wouldn't know it from the line out the door!). Noah's now occupies the same niche in my head as Starbuck's or Subway: "place that is for some reason very popular, but which holds no interest for me, and which has a branch every couple of blocks to prevent people from escaping". Not to sound too antagonistic: there must be something about those places that attracts so many people. I'm just not the target market.

They also don't maintain any inventory. In the downtown Oakland area, I've gone in at 11am, only to find they're out of everything but egg bagels and plain onces (and one or two I don't like, like sun-dried tomatoes and asiago). At the Lakeshore site they never have condiments. Nothing like getting them halfway through making a sandwich, only to find they have no mustard and no mayonnaise. Huh? And they didn't warn me up front? I just don't go there anymore. I miss bagels, but not that badly.

I agree with tipping the waitress. Even when I go to restaurants and use "2 fer 1" coupons I try to tip on what the price would have been. Not sure I would have paid for the meal, having been given a chance not to. Yes, you ate the food -- but at the cost of several hours of your life, and the suffering of your taste buds and stomach. In my mind I would already have paid for it. Payment in pain, not cash, but if they're offering that currency...

I've been in similar positions in the past. It's easier just to pay the bill and complain later... especially in places where bad service caused the problem (and it was part of the problem in this case; had they checked you could have complained in time). Had a similar problem once at Chevy's (in Alameda), where our fajitas came out but no tortillas arrived. By the time we managed to flag anyone down, everything was cold. The meat wasn't trimmed well, either This was after waiting 20mins+ for our drinks to arrive. It shouldn't take two hours to try (and fail) to eat at a chain restaurant. For the $21.83 bill (or so) we left $22, figuring the whopping $0.17 tip would indicate to the waitress that she was incompetent. Similar service problem at a local joint (Connie's Cantina in Oakland). After waiting half an hour for the bill, went up to the register (and waited another five minutes). She rang it up as $22, I gave her $40, and got... $8 in change. I complained, and so she rang it up again -- this time getting $27. Fine. I'm frustrated and getting a headache, and I figured it was worth the $5 just to get the heck out of there. (I left no tip, figuring the $5 counted towards the tip) At home I checked the menu I had taken, and even the $22 was high -- should have been $18! So I wrote up a scathing review on chowhounds, and frequently tell people to stay away from the place. Hey, even now I'm reaping the benefits by being able to whine and moan about the event a year later! Of course, in that case I had enjoyed the food, so there was no excuse for not paying -- my grievances are with the service and the casual 40% price hike at the register. Does this help improve the restaurant? Probably not. But as Chef Fowke (OP) indicated, he contacted them and got a pretty pathetic reply. I would minimally have expected a gift certificate to help promote going back (which probably wouldn't cost them a thing, as he would doubtless choose never to return). But does posting about it help? Certainly! Helps other people to know not to come back, and it feels good, too...

The "Friends of the Oakland Library" bookstore (Oakland, near 7th and Washington?) doesn't have a huge selection (maybe a hundred or so)... but you can often find older cookbooks, and they cost next to nothing. I picked up five or six books from there over the years, and I think the most expensive one was $5. No chairs, but there's a great crepe place next door (Toutatis).

waiter.com appears to deliver, but has a $60 minimum.

Food Network had a one hour special about this sort of thing. One of the longer segments was devoted to a company based in south SF that did it. Sorry -- no idea what the show or the company was named. I seem to recall there were "cook your own" meals (with prepared ingredients and explicit instructions) for about $50, and "we cook in your home" for about $150.

Someone mentions Hunan Village! Hurrah! It's my favorite for hot'n'sour soup, mu shu, and kung pao (their kung pao beef is actually a deep fried variant). They're great at substituting ingredients if you have allergies. My wife loves carrots, and they're willing to make a small batch of hot'n'sour with extra carrot shreddings just for us. Of course, it might be my fave simply because I can walk there in five minutes... and eating there several times a month for seven years makes us regulars. But still great. Closed Sun for lunch and on holidays. The Grand Lake Theater is just several doors down, if you want to do dinner and a movie (although be prepared for a bigger crowd Thu-Sat evenings).

marie-louise: No prob, I fully understand. Many the day has been that boss-man came in at 11:40am, only to drag us into two hour meetings. Luckily they need me enough that I can grumble and whine, so the lunchtime meeting frequency has dropped to about once a month. I'd been thinking of setting up a kind of "casual lunch" meeting, where whoever wanted to (and was free) would just meet at 11:45 somewhere fixed, and we'd decide where to go from there.. maybe weekly, maybe monthly. If we dragged in some chowhound folks, we could probably get ten folks interested (meaning two or three might make it each time). If I ever get organized, and something happens along those lines, I'll do a top-level post here...

Ah, Vien Huong, I forgot about them. 7th and 8th. Definitely a good, inexpensive, filling eat. I like the "chow jew my fun".