Food Dood

Head sucking goodness!!! Have you ever eaten lobster? Well, these little suckers are the mini lobsters of the freshwater world. These little rascals are so tasty just getting to their meat is the hard part.  Crawdaddy located in San Jose is one of a couple establishments that have crawdads. Trying this place out for the first time I can truly say that I’m a fan of it. The meats were all tender and delicious. There was no overcooked meat and the flavors just punched you in the face.

I’ve had crawdads once before, but only in small amounts. I’ve never learned how to eat crawdads before until now. I think I’ve tried to fumble with the crawdad, but never understood where the meat to eat was. I’ve seen people on television suck out the heads thinking that that’s where the meat is, but all you get in there is the spicy kick of the sauce. With me not knowing, I tried to simulate what I did know and boy was I in for a surprise. I grab the little sucker by it’s head and held it by it’s tail. I twisted at the head and pulled apart. The head I then sucked to get supposed meat, but all I got was a big cough because apparently all I was doing was inhaling the spicy juices. I told myself never to suck the heads that hard, but me not knowing my own suction power I did it again only to cough once more. When I got to the tail, that’s where I found the good meat. I peeled back the outer shell and the inside shell and what I got was a nice juicy tail. MmmMmmMmm

Here at Crawdaddy, I also tried the Cajun garlic buttered shrimp, fried catfish, fried oysters, and the tasty fries. All of these were just delicious. I’m not too big on oysters, but the oysters here were not bad; I just wouldn’t want to order oysters again because to me they are just too mushy for my palette.

Overall, this restaurant is a great addition to San Jose and the inside decor is just amazing with storefront facades on the wall, an aquarium when you first walk in, and two large LCD screens to watch your favorite sport on. So if you haven’t had your suck on I encourage you to check out this little shack, it’s truly a great find.

Ratings:

Overall: 8

Flavor: 8

Ambiance: 8

Service: 10

Cost: $$

Soon Dubu is one of many dishes that I can call comfort food. Although I am not Korean, it appeals to me in almost any circumstance, whether I’m hot or cold, hungry or almost full. I can even eat soon dubu anytime of day (morning, afternoon or night).

At Todam Tofu House in San Bruno, the tofu soup is pretty good, but I’ve had better. However, for the bargain price of only $8 the soon dubu here is  unbeatable.  I had the combination soon dubu combination with shrimp, clams, and pork. When you order your soon dubu or any entree you are given white rice mixed with purple rice and 10 side dishes (banchan). The banchan here is really really appetizing and I filled up on these alone. The various flavors of each side dish ranged anywhere from savory, sweet, and spicy. My particular favorite is the bean sprouts, kimchi, and fish cake.

The predominant crowd here was Asian and the number of available seats were limited. A dining room with about seating for about 50 and a private room for 20 is housed here at Todam. The service here is exceptional. The servers that served our table were extremely nice and a little absent minded given the fact that there were only two servers for the entire restaurant, who shared the responsabilities of cleaning tables, bringing out food, taking orders, and delivering the bill to the table. Our female server accidentally gave our eggs that we were to put in our soon dubu to another table and we had to ask for the eggs again as she realized that she put the eggs at the wrong table.

Overall, Todam Tofu House is a great bargain place to have a hot bowl of soon dubu. As I sat down I noticed that every table had ordered at least one order of kalbi. In the future I must try that out. I’m pretty sure if the everyone in the restaurant orders it then it must be good.

Ratings:

Overall: 7

Flavor: 7

Ambiance: 6

Service: 8

Cost: $

So last night a couple of friends and I went out to Noriega Teriyaki for some Japanese food. I wasn’t too hungry so I ended up getting a roll of sushi. I probably spent about 5-10mins just trying to decide what to get, but I finally did it. I ordered up the San Francisco Roll. How weird is that to order out of all things a roll of sushi named after the city you were born and raised. Anyhow, the roll was pretty good. I normally come here for the bento boxes, but sushi was calling me. The San Francisco Roll is made up spicy tuna and masago wrapped with unagi and avocado.

Overall, this restaurant offers a full menu of Japanese good eats. I usually come here a lot for family birthdays, my own birthday, and sometimes other people’s birthdays. The food is pretty good, but not exceptional.

Ratings:

Overall: 8

Flavor: 7

Ambiance: 7

Service: 10

Cost: $$