Saturday, March 22, 2008

Fat Apple's - El Cerrito : Meatloaf Sandwich.

While I don't typically rave about Fat Apple's, and I've been there a few times, both the one in Berkeley and El Cerrito, today is an exception. After a good morning of working a Kiwanis Project we were famished and decided to stop by FA for a quick bite. While I can't speak about anyone else's meal, I can say that the Meat Loaf Sandwich that I had was absolutely wonderful. Maybe I was just starving, but I suspect that even if I wasn't then I'd still be loving it. Served on a nice sweet roll for a bun, it came with a healthy serving of fresh red cabbage slaw, that was thankfully only lightly sauced and still crisp. The meatloaf was a healthy portion of two slices, that was decently made and seasoned but not too salty. But what I think MADE the sandwich was a housemade, BBQ sauce-compote that was just amazing. Hard to describe, but it had my taste buds craving more. Sweet, tangy, not quite smoky, but it just really enhanced the meatloaf. Tomatoes and a spear of dill pickle came on the side. A definite big thumbs up from me for this dish and I may come back later this week to get it again.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Le Bateau Ivre Cafe

I kept passing by this restaurant/coffee bar, Le Bateau Ivre Cafe, and thinking I need to try this place. But for some reason, the facade just wasn't memorable to me. I kept thinking it was a blue victorian house... anyhow, I finally found it. The pictures of it, even now I barely recognize.

It is built into a house, so the layout is interesting. I like it. I haven't seen the rest of the house but the area I was in seemed very comfortable. The room I was in was a living room. It had many large windows with white curtains. There were paintings and mirrors on the wall as well as a large plant set off to one corner. I'm told the rest of the restaurant is much fancier than this room.

The crowd was described to me as, "people who have been coming back 15-20 years" On that note, the waiter was extremely nice, and funny. My coffee cup was always filled with some very very tasty freshly brewed coffee.

I had corned beef hash for breakfast, for the cost, the portions were not big, but came with a good sized serving of fresh fruit. The corned beef hash though, wow. Cooked with celery and onions, with fresh corned beef, fried to just the right degree of crisp. Being my second breakfast of the day, I slowly savored the melting of flavors. The celery was cooked soft adding a mild sweet flavor to each bite. The fruit was fresh, well portioned and delicious. The meal came with a little fresh raspberry jam for my wheat toast. All in all, a good meal, I'd go back to study... if they didn't mind.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Maritime East - Berkeley, CA

So for a Lenten Friday four weeks ago I just really wanted to get some good seafood, so I thought to myself, where haven't I tried that supposedly does good seafood...

Maritime East! For those of you who don't know, it's a relatively new spot in Berkeley on Telegraph about a half mile south of campus. It took over the old Zax Tavern location, which I also used to like, but which was a bit expensive.

Maritime East apparently is an East Bay expansion of an SF restaurant called Cafe Maritime. While the focus is on seafood, there's definitely enough variety that Veggies and Carnivores could have their fill as well. Since it is Lent, I restricted myself to the Seafood, hoping to go back for a taste of the much touted Cheeseburger they serve (reported to be one of the best in the Bay Area).

After first checking out their menu to make sure it wouldn't break the bank (definitely not a cheap eats kinda place, but you can get away with a very full meal on less than $40-$50/pp even with a drink) we proceeded through the door. Doublewong was once again my foodie partner in crime.

After a somewhat hilarious and surprising pyro mishap we reviewed the menu and asked several questions about the food and restaurant. Even though the cocktails sounded great, we decided to go dry that night, since I was going to be driving down to SJ right after dinner. To start, they offered the complimentary plate of bread, artisan & baguette slices along with soft butter and sea salt. Great bread! and you don't usually see the sea salt accompany the butter in too many places since most butters already have salt in them, but I did like to sprinkle the salt on myself in this case since I believe the butter was unsalted.

We ordered a couple of starters to begin with. Seafood Chowder, Brussel and PeaSprout "Hash" and a pair of raw oysters (Marin Miyagis & Nootka Sound) each since doublewong has never had raw oysters before. The oysters went over well, though I could've gone for a couple more. But at $2.5-3 each, that could get out of hand. Better to go oyster crazy during happy hour. The Seafood Chowder included clams, mussels, fish, fingerlings, bacon, leek cream. It was a lighter cream base than what either of us were used to, but it still worked. I didn't realize that there was going to be bacon until after it was ordered, but I just avoided it in the few spoonfuls I had. Very tasty and chocked full of goodies, a definite recommend. The "Hash" didn't go over very well. It was ok, just sort of bland. Actually it reminded the both of us of garlic sauteed peasprouts that you can get at most good chinese places, except this was more bland.

For our mains, dw ordered the “Deviled” Dungeness Crab with meyer lemon linguini, poached farm egg ($22) and I got curious and ordered Arctic Char fennel, olives, chick peas, saffron nage ($23.5) cause I didn't know what Arctic Char was (turns out it's closely related to salmon & trout and has characteristics of both). My first taste of arctic char was good, seared and roasted with a bit of salt and pepper I believe. A very interesting fish, it has the bright deep pink color of salmon and a similar texture but it had the flavor of trout. Cooked perfectly, it was still tender and not dry. I don't think it will be one of my favorite fishes, but a good option should I see it on other menus.

The real gem of the night though was the crab linguini. Housemade fresh pasta in a light sauce with nice big chunks of dungeness crab and mix in the poached egg on top and you have a winner all-around. dw enjoyed it immensely from what she tells me and I'll have to order it on my own the next time I go. I think we both made good choices though.

A comment on the space. There were two rooms to the restaurant, the regular dining room and the room with the bar. If I remember correctly, it's not much changed from Zax, maybe a little cleaner and the lighting is better. You could probably have a very nice but casual dinner there if not totally romantic. It did seem to get a little loud when things filled up as the even went on but not too bad that you had to strain to hear the person across from you.

And except for the mini-inferno on our table, the service was very good. Everyone was nice, all of 0ur dishes/utensils/drinks were promptly cleared/replaced/refilled when done, and the server was well informed, except for the oysters which she found out about for us.

Somerset - Rockridge area, Oakland

I got treated to a very nice dinner by doublewong the other night at a new restaurant for both of us. From my research, Somerset is a relatively new restaurant in the Rockridge area (less than a year old I think), with a somewhat standard California cuisine, casual/fine dine atmosphere.

Our dinner consisted of the following:
French Onion Soup
Wild Mushroom Tart
Garlic Lemon Prawns
Braised Beef Short Ribs with chantrelle mushrooms and soft polenta
Broiled Chilean Sea Bass served with savory white rice, roasted vegetables and a shallot parsley sauce
Molten Chocolate Cake with Raspberry sauce and topped with whipped cream

This was a hit and miss kinda meal. While overall it was good, it was very rich but I was disappointed by several things which should've been good considering the price point. I liked the French onion soup, but I only had a few spoonfuls. I could see how it could be too salty after having the whole thing. It was definitely a bit rich, but the soaking toast in the soup still had a nice texture. Plus I actually liked that it didn't have a think layer of melted cheese that most other places serve it with.

The mushroom tart was good. Flaky pastry and lots of mushrooms, I just wished it came out warmer and a bit bigger. I would've been a much bigger fan.

The garlic lemon prawns were a disappointment for me. While the garlic lemon sauce was okay, there wasn't much subtlety to it and it was even enough. Plus the prawns seemed a bit overcooked and somewhat small. Would not order it again.

On to the entrees. I'll start with mine, which was the Chilean Sea Bass...now I know what you're probably saying, and after thinking about it, I was saying it too...how could they be serving Chilean Sea Bass, isn't it supposed to be off limits. Mentally, I knew it wasn't a good thing to be eating a possibly endangered fish, but unfortunately, my mind got pwned by my mouth and stomach and I ordered it anyways before Brain could interfere, all the while hoping that this chef somehow found a source of sustainably farmed sea bass. My ethical guilt aside, oh man, I love Chilean Sea Bass...nicely roasted and sitting on a bed of savory rice. So good. Buttery, white succulent flesh...drool. While I was distracted by just the taste of the Sea Bass itself, the preparation was pretty standard and didn't really stand out in any way. I've definitely had better in more Sea Bass available days, years ago.

Double ordered the Braised Beef Short Ribs and really...how could you go wrong with those words. Fall off the bone tender and a savory seasoning and sauce. This was very rich and I only had a few bites of it, but what I had was thumbs up. Unfortunately the polenta nor the "chantrelle" mushrooms didn't do it for either of us. And in fact, we were pretty sure the so-called Chantrelle mushrooms were actually just regular old button mushrooms you'd find at Safeways dressed up in brown sauce. We were very disappointed by that.

While I was too full to consider dessert, Double had to try the Molten Chocolate Cake. Sounds good right? But boy, I was disappointed. I should figured it wasn't going to be what I expected when we ordered it at the end of the meal and not 20 mins to the end of the meal. There was nothing molten about this cake. In fact, it was flat! like a pancake almost. How sad, here we were expecting a nice little mini tower of chocolate oozing goodness and then all we get is a flat kinda flower shaped cake. It wasn't even warm really! Yeah, definitely ended what was otherwise a nice meal on a somewhat sad note. Don't get me wrong, we finished it though, we always finish it, but it was a disappointment nonetheless.

Service was pretty nice and friendly. Though they sort of messed up our reservation, thinking it was going to be four people. Luckily we were the first diners of the night and that was easily resolved. It was pretty casual, which is the vibe we usually give so I didn't mind that at all, though at times it seems like I was having a hard time communicating what I wanted sometimes with the waiters and waitresses.