Pinkberry

368 Santana Row

San Jose, CA

95128

(408)557-8333

There are multitudes of frozen yogurt places popping up all the time.

In fact there are two frozen yogurt being built within 1/2 mile of my house as we speak. Frozen yogurt has the advantage of being less filling, less calorie, and less fat than ice cream. No wonder in health conscious california that this dessert is so popular

One of most popular and best in my opinion is Pinkberry.

The local branch around here is located in the Santana Row outside shopping mall in San Jose.

What makes Pinkberry so special? It is extremely popular especially on weekends and hot summer days. The line can get quite long, but because it is located right in the middle of Santana Row, there is often street musicians playing and a crowd outside. It makes for passing the time quicker while waiting in line. You can not ask for a better atmosphere than that.

Well, most of the time frozen yogurt places has multiple flavors, and toppings. Lots of frozen yogurt places weigh the final weight then charge you. This is actually quite a rip off, since the fruit is quite heavy. Often times you end up paying way more than you intend to for simple frozen yogurt. That's why I recommend only going to yogurt places where it's a set price for the frozen yogurt and a set price for the topping.

Pinkberry has great choices of toppings, ranging from yogurt pieces to exotic fruits. I often just enjoy the the simple combination of mango and blackberries. Though feel free to mix and try other flavors. You do not put the toppings or the frozen yogurt yourself, a staff does it for you. Do not worry, they are often pretty generous and you never feel you did not get enough fruit.

They only have three flavors of frozen yogurt, but I find that is enough. They have original, green tea and pomegranate. The original is the most popular and if it is a really busy day, I find that the yogurt can be kinda soft due to the fact it does not have enough time to set. The green tea is pretty good. It is sweet with just a hint of green tea flavoring. The pomegranate is a bit more sour that the original, but mixes well with the fresh fruit. The original is a perfect combination of sweet and sour that you are looking for. It is creamy and not overly sweet. It is the most popular for a reason.

Final Words: Brave the lines and try out Pinkberry and see how frozen yogurt should be done.

Food: 4 stars

Service: N/A

Price: Average. Good bargain if you consider that they do not weigh their product.

Overall: 4 stars

Race Street Seafood Kitchen

247 Race St

San Jose, CA

95126

(408)287-6280

One of few institutions on San Jose, Race Street Seafood Kitchen is for lovers of the deep fried. Particularly if you love your seafood deep fried, then look no further. They are known for their fish and chips. Though to be honest, I'm not a big fan of their french fires. It could be a bit more crisp and seasoned a bit more. The fish on the other hand is first rate. The building looks like an old mom and pop restaurant and hides the incredible popularity of the food within. Next to the restaurant, it's their fish market. So in essence, you can eat lunch there and pick up something for dinner.

First a bit about fresh fish. Believe it or not, fresh fish does not taste fishy. Fishy is not a good taste to have. It should taste like the ocean or the waters that it comes from. There should be a bit of salty brine taste to the fish. The flesh should be flaky if cooked properly and not dry. If it's dry, then it was cooked too long.

On back to the Fish Kitchen. We arrive just before lunch time about 11:30, there was already a bit of a crowd and parking was a bit hard to find. The smell of fried fish hits you the second you enter the door. Fish kitchen is quite popular so plan to get there early, and preferably before lunch time. The line can be long, but moves quite fast. You put in your order at the cash registers and wait for your number to be called.

I ordered a shrimp etouffee jr, fish and chips, fried scallops, fried squid, small bowl of clam chowder and lastly a fillet mignon kabob. The shrimp etouffee was actually quite tasty. It had some fresh shrimp, with a spicy Louisiana style etouffee sauce. The spicy actually hits you as an after taste which is quite nice. The bowl of clam chowder, I must admit was not my favorite. It lack any clam taste and was a bit runny, and not thick. They have a sign that says it's an award winning clam chowder, I must have ordered it on the wrong day. The fried scallops, had the same heavy battered as the fish. It does not match well, it covered the taste of the scallops, they should have used a lighter batter, like the one they use for the fried squid. The fried squid had a lighter batter or coating and was seasoned lightly. It was pretty good, not over cooked. Most squids if you over cook it becomes rubbery and quite chewy. The fillet mignon kabob was actually pretty good. It was something new, so I gave it a try. It was tendered, and a sign says they have aged meats that are aged 21 days. They must have used those meats for their kabobs. The meat was tender, juicy and had a good beef flavor. All it needed was a bit more seasoning, perhaps an extra pinch of salt, and it would've been perfect.

But the main star of the show and the reason why people keep packing it in was the fresh fish.

Like I said early the batter is quite heavy, but the fish stands up well to the batter. It taste quite fresh, with a salty, briney, and a hit of fish taste. The meat flakes up and not overly dry.

They have a choice of tartar and ketchup as condiments, though I didn't use either. I wanted to taste the fish. The fries are place on the bottom of the basket, but I said before, I'm not a big fan of the fries. The fish are a decent size and one or two pieces will generally fill me.

You can have different types of fish and have it grilled instead of battered fried. But I like the old standby.

Final Words: I would have to say go for the fish, you can't go wrong.

Food: 3 1/2 star

Service: N/A (self service)

Price: Average

Overall: 3 1/2 Star.

The great meat or bread debate

One of my favorite podcast that is no longer running was the 1up Fm. During their reign, they often had this debate that center which is more important. The meat or the bread for a good sandwich.

Now this debate which seems rather straight forward is actually quite deep. For instance, which is the main flavor component the bread or the meat? You can have a sandwich that has this great aromatic crusty bread, but then the meat does not live up to the bread. All you really taste is the bread. Then how many times have we eaten a sandwich where the meat was fine, but the bread was soggy or stale? I myself have been disappointed before with one component or both, in my sandwiches.

To have a great sandwich, no doubt you really need both. The bread has to be crunchy on the outside with a great crust (herbs and flavoring are optional). This give the foundation of the sandwich. This is the first thing you taste, and there is nothing like a sound of a good crunchy bread as you are biting into it. You do not want a bread that is so strong in flavor that it hides the meat, but you do want one that adds flavor. More of a subtle note in the background.

The meat has to be juicy, enough so that some of the juice flavors the bread. It does not have to salty meat, because I have tried sweet and savory meats and some of those are outstanding. For example, some of the Vietnamese sandwich are quite sweet, yet quite delicious. The meat needs to be a decent amount, nobody wants to take 3 or 4 bites of bread without getting to the meat. The bread maybe the first thing you taste, but the meat must be the taste that you remember. Why? Well, we often name our sandwiches based on the meat, so we associates the name and taste of the meat. There are a few bread that the name is included, most often it's because they also have strong flavors. Rye for example is a bread that can stand with the meat.

But the meat must be full of flavor and full body.

There you have it, both are equally important in a great sandwich. Now if someone where to point a gun to my head and make me choose. I would say I have to go with meat. Like I said, it maybe the second thing you taste, but it must be the taste that you remember.

Now someday we'll look at whether a good sandwich needs any condiments.

Update: We had posted a poll on this site to see if our readers agreed with me. And apparently most of you do. The final results were 70 percent was for meat and 30 percent was for bread.

The Village

378 Santana Row #1035

San Jose, CA

95128

(408) 248-9091

Hello folks,

Last night I visited one of the more trendy places in San Jose, which is Santana Row. If you do know this place, it is located near Westfield Valley Fair Mall. It is essentially an outdoor mall, where people go to eat, shop and general go to be seen. Upon walking up and down the strip, you can see trendy restaurants, flashy cars, and boat loads of people. My wife and I wanted to try out Citrus restaurant, but unfortunately it was close. We then walked over to Yankee Pier, a seafood place, but they said there is about 10 minute wait for a table, even though we saw empty tables everywhere. So we walked across the hall to The Village restaurant.

I must admit this was not the first time eating at The Village. The first time was a year ago and I distinctly remember ordering a rack of ribs, and the ribs were cold. I had the waiter sent it back to the kitchen. So after a year, I figured I can give the village another shot.

We were greeted warmly by a young gentlemen and sat down right away. It was pretty hot out and so we selected the cool of the interior dinning room. The restaurant is what I consider typical rectangular restaurant where the seating is arrange in a straight fashion away from the entrance on one side of the building. The decor has wine on the walls and a typical American or California furnishings, more causal than formal.

Another young gentleman was our waiter and took our orders promptly. We ordered the Seared scallops as an appetizer, the fresh fish of the day for my wife, Syah braised boneless short rib for myself. We asked for bread while we waited, and did we ever waited. Apparently everybody else also ordered at the same time, because it seemed like the kitchen staff got slammed.

You can tell a lot of about a restaurant by the little details. The bread they brought to us was warm and the butter was excellent. The butter was air whipped so it was light and fluffy. This was a nice touched, it made for an easy and excellent spreading. Though it lack strong buttery flavor, I tend to like this much more. We liked it so much that we asked for seconds on our bread and butter, but to our disappointment, the second butter was not air whipped, but a straight forward pat of butter.

We waited so long the the chef, gave us our appetizer on the house. When it finally arrived, it was prepared perfectly. Nice seared on both sides and sitting on a bed of polenta, with a micro greens on top. It was seasoned nicely, with a brown butter sauce, and some crisp prosciutto pieces on the side. So the food was worth the wait apparently.

We waited some more for our entrees to arrive. My wife's fish was mainly a seared what appears to be some sort of white fish, though the name escape me at the moment. It has a micro salad on the side. It was cooked nicely with a crisp outside and soft interior. Although I did not see anything special about it, my wife did enjoy it.

My braised beef short rib was nicely done. The sauce had a good reduction and was quite flavorful and rich. It was your typical reduce dark wine sauce, but the execution was good. They put some fresh tarragon, and a side of swish chard mix with I think was polenta. The side was quite buttery and heavy, really did not match well with the heavy short rib. They should have exchanged the side with my wife's micro salad for more of a balance and contrast. Otherwise I could not find any other fault with the dish. The beef was soft and tender and barely needed a knife for cutting. The sauce match well and gave the beef a great deep rich burgundy color. It was salty with a hint of herbs like most braised beef has.

The meal was quite heavy and left little room for desert. I must say I was quite satisfied by the end of the meal.

Overall other than the long wait time, (for which we were compensated for), I would say we had a good time with some great food.

If you happened to swing by Santana Row in San Jose, give the Village a try. I gave it a second chance and I'm glad I did.

I will start my general review grading here: We'll use stars. By default it will be out of 5 stars.

Food: 4 stars. I cannot complain about the food. Well prepared

Service: 3 stars. I cannot blame my waiter but the wait time cannot be ignored.

Price: Tend to be more on the pricey side, not for budget minded people.

Overall: 3 and 1/2 stars.

Welcome

Welcome

Hello, welcome to my new blog the Hypertaster.

This is my blog in the world of food. Family friends often come to me for advice about food, where to eat, or my opinions on restaurants. Why is that? Well, I have a personal motto of Live to eat, not eat to live. I love everything about food, from the first whiff of aroma when the waiter finally brings out your order, the first tantalizing first bites, all the way to savoring the last bite of morsels. Food makes you want to live, it can express as much emotions as a good song, tell a story, be an edible art.

Food does not have to be pretentious or grand, it just has to be good. I can tell you have have paid obscene amounts of money on one meal, and I didn't even bat an eye. People often say, I wasted my money on food, yet I can remember to the utmost detail of the finest meals I have. That does not mean that I would prefer to eat at high class expensive restaurants over cheap and homely ones. No, like I said food just has to be good, in fact, I can contend that a great bowl of pho or ramen is etched in my memory as much as a meals I paid 500 dollars for (that was 500 per person).

I will often go out of my way to try authentic cuisine. Sometimes, I may not like it or sometimes I end up loving it that I refuse to eat anything that is not authentic to that particular cuisine. I can at least say, that I am not afraid to try it. I may not like it, but I will try any food.

If you want to know a bit about myself, I'm Chinese, married a Vietnamese and father of two.

Have a passion for food all my life, worked in my family restaurant every since I was 10. Though we do not own a restaurant anymore, I still have an eye on what makes good food.

I'm fortunate enough to live in the San Francisco bay area, where I consider one of the epicenter of great ethnic and regional food.

Here's a quick hint to start with. If a restaurant that is crowded has a sign that says "cash only." the food tend to be good. Why? Because they know their food is better than others that they can command to accept only cash only. And people are willing to go through with the hassle of bring cash. Think about it, if you were a restaurant owner, you don't want to pay a credit card company any transaction fees. You want to pocket all that income in your wallet. So you only accept cash, but your product better be good or people would rather go to a place that conveniently accept credit cards.

I will begin posting my impressions of restaurants, meals, food tv shows, and recipes (if I have them).