So after we ate lunch, we were walking through the parking lot back to the car when they spotted the roasted sweet potato stand. OMG, could this be real?! I never heard of this before… my friends couldn’t believe that I had never heard of it before – I agree especially since I lived in NYC and don’t ever remember having this on the street…

We got an order (which included 3 potatoes, one for each of us) and holy shitake, SO GOOD!!!  I’ll let the photos talk now…

Here are our potatoes, hot from the oven!

Here is the front of the stand (facing the parking lot).

Basically, you just peel off the skin and eat the potato inside. This potato was literally the hottest item I have ever put into my mouth, straight from a volcano… I swear there must’ve been lava in that oven.  You know when you eat something too hot and you have no drink to cool your throat down?  I was pretty much gagging on the heat, as I envisioned my throat being torched by this delicious sweet potato!

So freaking hot had to take a break and put it in my hand.  The potato itself was remarkably sweet and flavorful, especially for having nothing on it at all. I wished I had cash so I could get another order for the road!

If you’re ever down in Santa Clara, look for the sweet potato stand in the strip mall, and treat yo’ self!

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I stopped by after dinner with a friend so it was dark out… here’s what the outside looks like.

Some shots of the inside… as you can see, it’s bright and happy.

Here’s the main ice cream freezer.  If you decide to forego looking at the main menu on the wall, make sure you note which flavors are marked with a (V) in the case because those are VEGAN, and they’re made with NUT MILK.

Here’s the main wall that lists all of the flavors. Again, pay attention to which flavors are marked with a (V), because those are vegan.

I’m not a vegan, but I’m not opposed to trying vegan things. I think if you’re a vegan you definitely lose your taste for non-vegan things and acquire a specific taste for vegan things, so for vegans, these flavors are probably very delicious, but for a non-vegan like myself, I just can’t do it.  The first time I visited Curbside I accidentally ordered a vegan flavor (peanut butter) and didn’t realize it at the time, until I tasted it, and something was just not right… just a little weird, like, not creamy and rich, but a strange bland weird non-dairy flavor. Then I realized I ordered the vegan flavor, and everything made sense.

My regular flavor here (and everywhere) is mint chocolate chip. Hard to go wrong with a good mint chocolate chip, and this one definitely does not disappoint. It’s minty – the fresh kind of minty, and the chocolate chips are very small (shaved). It’s really good!

I like how they serve sugar cones too, classic!

Curbside Creamery
482 49th St, Oakland, CA 94609 (Temescal Alley)
www.curbsideoakland.com

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Anyway, everytime we go there on a Sunday when they have brunch I always order the same thing.  The Basil Pesto Tofu Scramble.  I can pretty much depend on this dish being pretty spot on each time – salty, pesto-y… the homefries are also pretty good although I usually add alot of salt… and the toast is pretty good too, usually pretty crunchy and sliced thick.

So there it is in all its glory… the scrambled tofu is the closest thing to eggs as you’ll get at Herbivore. All in all, this is a pretty good dish… so good in fact that I am afraid to venture off and try other things on the menu.

Just an FYI if you order coffee or a latte with your breakfast, they don’t have real milk or half and half.  It’s soy milk.  And they don’t have Splenda or sweet and low… only natural sugar and agave nectar.  They also don’t have coke or sprite or any of your favorite sodas.  Just San Pellegrino Aranciata and Limon and some other natural sodas… so don’t get your hopes up if you’re thirsting for a freakin Coke, you won’t get it.

Herbivore
2451 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 665-1675
www.herbivorerestaurant.com

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The inside of the restaurant is a giant u-shaped bar.  Not a drinking bar… but a food bar – like in real diners.  There were pretty many people there too – I got there around noon.  Everyone inside was talking to each other and there was an Asian woman taking orders and another woman cooking.  It was pretty cozy inside and I felt right at home.  The place had a nice campy feel – kind of like a jersey diner meets a California chinese restaurant meets diner food… I loved it, and I didn’t mind being alone!

I ordered grilled cheese and fries.  I actually ordered hot ham and cheese but I don’t think she heard me say ham because I got only cheese.  It was ok though because it was a bangin sandy.

This was the best grilled cheese sandwich I’ve ever had.  Seriously… it was so cheesy and with every bite warm cheddar came stringing out… amazing!  I ordered it on wheat which was good but I think it would be even better on sourdough.  The fries were really good too – full of potato and fried perfectly… not too crisp, not too undercooked.  …I almost licked the plate clean!

Pretty Lady Restaurant
1733 Peralta St
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 832-1213

[ratings]

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I didn’t start eating these chips until I was finished with my sandwich.  They were worth the wait, and to me, this bag of greasy goodness was the perfect ending to my perfect lunch.

I can’t remember the last time I ate Miss Vickie’s chips.  In fact, I dont usually pay so much attention to the brand of chips I’m eating if they have the flavor I want… but Miss Vickie’s chips really stood out to me – so much that I wanted to write a review.

So, what makes these chips so great? Let me tell you. Not ONLY are they sea salt & vinegar, but they are KETTLE COOKED as well!!  To me, and my roots in good ol’ PA, there’s nothing better than kettle cooked potato chips.  I used to eat Grandma Utz’s kettle cooked chips by the bag, and these are just about as close as they come out here in California since they don’t sell Grandma Utz’s here, boo.  So, since these puppies are kettle cooked, they have a very subtle extra buttery and greasy crunch than their non-kettle cooked counterparts, making the sea salt and vinegar have a tangy sweetness that the other salt and vinegar chips don’t have.  I do sometimes find that other sea salt and vinegar chips are so strong that they make your face twitch a little.  These don’t, the salt/vinegar flavor is generous but not overbearing.

Here’s another pic of the chips… don’t they look amazing?  These chips have the perfect thickness too with a light crunch.  The crunch is not as intense as other chips, and they’re not as “thin” crunchy as lets say, “lays”… you know what I mean.

[box type=”note”]Click here to order a box of Miss Vickie’s Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips[/box]

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I started off with Tamarindo’s daily aqua fresca – it was cucumber melon. The most amazing cucumber melon aqua fresca I’ve ever had… you could taste the freshness of the cucumbers and the sweetness of the melons… AMAZING…!! (I had 2)

Since “antojeria” means “place of little cravings” you can simply say it’s Mexican tapas. We ordered a bunch of different things, starting with (above) the sopecitos. OMG I’m freaking out right now, these aren’t on the online menu, I wonder if they took them off?! Anyhow, I can’t tell you offically what’s on them, but I can try to remember…. There were 3 different ones. the first one was vegetarian and had potatoes, spices, onion and cotija cheese, the second one had chicken asada and the third had carne asada, all topped with some onion and cotija. These little puppies were amazing!! The mini sopas are all warm, and the sopa itself is warm a little crispy on the bottom. The carne asade one was really really spicy…

Next we have the chilequiles. What are Chilequiles you ask? Well, at this place, they are heaven meets my last meal in jail. They are not nachos — basically they are tortilla chips, tossed in chipotle puree and topped with cotija (white cheese) and cilantro. At some other taquerias the chips come doused in red sauce, but not at Tamarindo. First of all, the chips are the thick, crunchy homemade kind. They are awesome because they’re the kind that stay crunchy through the meal… no sogginess here! And even though the chips are covered in sauce and cheese and the outsie might get a little soggy, the inside is still crunchy! If you go to Tamarindo, you HAVE to get this dish. In the time we were eating dinner, I think almost every table had a plate of them – they looked so good coming out of the kitchen that everyone started ordering it!!

This is the rice and plantains side dish. Now, words can’t really describe how delicious this side dish is. I could probably eat 2 or 3 of them as my meal. The rice was special. It wasn’t just a scoop of regular white rice. They definitely cook it with spices and maybe some coconut milk or something sweet, because it is a light, slightly salty sweet rice. The plantains were soft and warm, and very plantain-like… nothing over the top there… it was the rice that really sent this dish over the edge.

Here is the Sopa Azteca. This wasn’t one of my choices but I tasted it and took a pic anyway. This is one of the vegetarian options. It’s a chili puree soup and has chunks of cheese and avocado in it. It’s spicy and has a very rich and spicy flavor… spicy in the heavy, smokey way.

Lastly, some nachos and guacamole. I was still hungry so I ordered this, and boy was it good!! I think it’s the chips that finally did me in — after I ate half a plate of those chilequiles and then an order of nachos… The chips are the addictive kind, the kind that are buttery, salty and super crunchy – the kind when you eat one, you need to eat another and another and it snowballs until you’re left swiping the crumbs up with your finger to eat them too. The guacamole was really good – the mushy sweet kind with chunks of diced tomato and sprinkled with white cheese.

Tamarindo definitely gets a slam dunk for this meal, thanks to the chilequiles, the rice and plantains and the chips. Woo hoo!!

Tamarindo Antojeria
468 8th St
(between Broadway & Washington St)
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 444-1944
www.tamarindoantojeria.com

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Anyway, the food is good. I am a massive carnivore, and I honestly can’t complain about this food. I’ve eaten at alot of vegetarian restaurants, and I can tell you that the “meat” at Golden Era is the most “meat-like” out of all the different variations of seitan and tofu/soy products out there. The “beef” even has a stringy meaty texture, and the “chicken” is soft and tender and you can also see the “fibers”.  The thing I hate about most vegetarian food is that I’m always left feeling an unfulfilled void after my meal – but my void is filled at Golden Era, especially with the fried stuff.

I started off with the steamed veggie bun. It’s pretty good, I usually get it every time I go there. The photo isn’t as good as the normal ones because I had my lens baby on my cam – wasn’t really planning on eating out so I didn’t have my “food lens” with me…

This steamed veggie bun is very good.  The bun is soft and warm.  It kind of looks uncooked when it arrives (as most steamed buns look)… it’s dough-y and the inside is stuffed with a bunch of veggies, including black beans, tomato chunks, corn, peppers, onions… it has a nice, mild vegetable flavor.

This is the Spicy Gourmet Chicken.  I never had this dish before – I think it is new.  I think it’s supposed to be the “General Tso’s” version minus the battered fried balls of chicken because it was both a little sweet and had a nice little spicy bite to it.  I ordered brown rice with it but I didn’t eat much of it… the chicken was enough.  It doesn’t come with sauce though so to me it’s hard for me to justify eating it with rice.  It was good though, I would probably get it again.

Golden Era Vegetarian Restaurant
572 O’Farrell St.
(between Jones St & Leavenworth St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 673-3136
www.goldeneravegetarian.com

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