by Hoyt Nelson
A Few Updates: Stone Stew (Iranian) has now moved from Saratoga Ave. to 205 N 4 th St. San Jose 408-622-1067. As I mentioned before, Harry’s Hofbrau is closed. We now go to Esther’s Bakery and Catering in Los Altos – it’s even better for good German food.
Here are some of my tips and picks for food from many nations. Until the shelter in place has lifted, we can only dream about going out!
American: Nick’s Next Door 11 College Ave. Los Gatos new American $$$ 408-402-5053: We splurged a bit for a friend’s birthday party in late 2019 and the food was very good, except for everything being very salty and over sauced for my taste. My rib eye was cooked perfectly rare, but had more gristle than I expected for $35 and the French fries were soaked with its gravy. One of the reasons I ordered it was because it came with a fairly large piece of bone marrow which I had not eaten before. Unfortunately, the sauce overpowered its delicate flavor, so I still don’t know what bone marrow tastes like. We were served in a large tent outside and heaters were provided on request when it got colder later that night. Although not the fault of the restaurant, there was another very loud party in the same tent which took away from the charm of the place. Service was nice and parking was fairly easy. Would I go back? Only if I knew they reduced the salt served on most dishes.
Indian: We love Indian food and we like variety, but there are very few Indian restaurants that serve buffets in the evening. We tend to need a nap after a large meal, so eating at a buffet for lunch tends to ruin any plans for the rest of the day. The solution for many years was Sneha, just off Lawrence in Sunnyvale, close to Central Expwy. but in 2017
and 2018 it lost its touch and we stopped going. In 2017-2020, it changed hands several times. On 8-18-2019 we checked Yelp and read some encouraging reviews for its new incarnation and so we tried it again. Happily, was back to its former good self, but it changed hands again so we don’t know what it’s like now. I don’t know of any evening buffets now in operation except for special variants of this genre.
African: There are many forms of African food: Ethiopian, Moroccan, Egyptian, Somalian, etc. but most commonly found restaurants in the US have similarities such as the liberal use of the flat bread called injera (or similar sounding name). It is a thin, flat bread, up to about 14 inches in diameter which can resemble thin foam rubber. (Don’t wory, it
tastes way better than that.) It is used as a base on which stews, salads, etc. are placed in various piles that sometimes sits on a large basket affair with a conical upside down basket on top to cover everything from flies, dust, etc. Injera is also used as an eating implement. You tear off a small piece of another injera disk and use this to grasp a bite off the piles on the base. Some of the stews (with or without meat) can be hot (spicy). The meat is goat, fish or chicken, but usually not pork (as many countries are predominantly Muslim. My wife was uncertain about the goat, but quickly
learned to like it. The beer is good and the national mead (with honey) drink called Tej is interesting. They make a show of pouring tea from a great height above a tiny glass. It is very sweet and is frequently flavored with mint.
Ethiopian: Pretty much as described above. We have quite a few of these, but our hands down favorite is Walia on Stevens Creek at Bascom. Many years ago, we liked Gojo on Stevens Creek, San Jose, but haven’t sampled it lately.
Moroccan: In addition to the stuff mentioned above, an interesting dish is a chicken pie flavored with cinnamon and sugar. Many places hang a cloth or parachute over the eating area to resemble a tent and you sometimes have to sit on a cushion on the floor. Belly dancing frequently accompanies the dinner and the whole experience frequently lasts for several hours.
Egyptian: There don’t seem to be any Egyptian places in the Bay Area, but the stuff we had in Egypt was more traditional stewed meats and veggies with some Egyptian spices. (If you ask Yelp for Egyptian, they are really list just the standard middle eastern stuff.)
Somalian: There’s only one, and it’s hard to find. Jubba is across the street from the light rail station
