Food Crawl Part 3: Oakland and Berkeley

For the third installment of food crawl, we headed over to the East Bay. Heather planned this round which was great because she knows all the good places to hit in Oakland and Berkeley. We were supposed to start at Bakesale Betty's, but they ran out of chicken sandwiches before we got there (at 2:15 - they close at 3).  Big huge bummer. Especially because we must have only just missed it because we saw  plenty of people unwrapping or just starting their incredible looking sandwiches.

So instead, we walked down the road and started at Burma Superstar.  I had never attempted to try Burma Superstar because I've been intimidated by the lines. If you feel the same way, I highly suggest you check out the Oakland location at about 2PM because it was empty. We ordered the  tea leaf salad and rainbow salad and you should too. 

This is the tea leaf salad, and the leaves really do come from Burma (or so says the menu).  I loved the presentation of the salads at the table - they arrive with all the components segregated to a section of the dish and then the waiter (very quickly) goes through all ingredients and then tosses it table side. Besides the tea leaves there are tomatoes, lettuce, peanuts, fried garlic and a whole bunch of other stuff. It tastes like nothing else I've had before and I loved those fried garlic pieces. 

I wanted to try the rainbow salad when I saw that it had 22 different ingredients.  How can you pass up a salad that has 22 ingredients? I wish I could remember what was in it besides noodles (4 different types) more fried garlic, tofu, papaya, pepper, fried onion and 11 other ingredients I now can't remember. I actually liked this salad better than the tea leaf salad. All the different textures and flavors came together to make a really distinct and fun dish. I believe the menu called it "a party in your mouth".

Our next stop was over in Berkeley at Vik's Chaat Corner. This place is part grocery store, part restaurant. The restaurant is no frills: order at the counter, sit at tables that are reminiscent of a high school cafeteria, and eat your food with... biodegradable sporks.

At Vik's we ordered a couple of mango lassis and a veggie kathi and then tried to figure out how to eat the kathi with the sporks.

The four of us quickly devoured both the drinks and the food. The kathi (which is only served on the weekend) was really nicely spiced and flavorful and the lassi would have been perfect to drink with it if I hadn't finished it before the food arrived.  I also liked that nearly everything that was left when we finished eating - plate, cups and sporks - were compostable and the restaurant has a big green bin to allow you to do just that.

Next up on the agenda was the Imperial Tea Court, also in Berkeley.  They have a huge variety of different teas and also a decent selection of food. We decided to try a white tea and an herbal tea as well as some veggie dumplings.

Imperial Tea Court allows you to experience different types of tea service, and we chose the Gaiwan tea presentation.  Both teas were really mild and subtle and though it wasn't my most favorite tea I've ever had, I really enjoyed the presentation of it as well as just hanging out and talking with my friends over tea.

Next up on our list was ice cream. We drove over to Ici in Berkeley and waited in line and debated which flavors to get. We were only going to get two, but we couldn't decide between them all and in the end picked three: toasted almond, chocolate caramel and orange rosemary toffee.

Ici is another shop I would love just for the design, but the ice cream really holds up. My favorite of the three flavors was the orange rosemary toffee - three flavors you wouldn't think to put together but tasted amazing. Everyone else picked the toasted almond chocolate almond as their favorite, but really everything we tried - including the flavors that we sampled before ordering - were great. I have to say, I much prefer Ici to Humphrey Slocomb, and I think it's pretty comparable to Bi-Rite Creamery.

After ice cream, we decided to take a little digestion break and headed over to the Berkeley Rose Garden which is now in full bloom.

We wandered around here for awhile, building up our appetites for our final stop, Boot and Shoe.  Boot and Shoe is a pizza place and the sequel to Pizzaiolo (the name is held over from the former tenants of the location).  We hung out for awhile in the bar, drinking sparkling rose, while we waited for a table.

The bar is tucked away in the back of the restaurant and after awhile we decided to stop waiting for our table and commandeered the back corner of the bar and started ordering food.

This is the farro salad minus the burrata but plus the ricotta. I only had a small bite of this one - at this point our group had grown to six - but I liked what I tried.

We also ordered a couple of pizzas: potato, pancetta, fontina and rosemary and a margherita pizza topped with arugula.

I loved the potato/pancetta combination but wasn't overwhelmed by the margherita.  The atmosphere was fun and I liked the weird paintings on the wall and I would totally go back to hang out there. 

This food crawl was the super-sized version of our previous food crawls and a really good time. Thanks Heather, for picking out such great spots. Now, when can we go back to Bakesale Betty?


(for restaurant addresses and phone numbers, click below)  

Guerilla Cafe, Berkeley

We had a nice brunch in the sun at Guerilla Cafe.

Heather and I shared the Mediterranean Plate, which is two poached eggs, toast, tomatoes, olives, cucumber and feta. I really like the idea of this dish - I love poached eggs, and I like that it's served with something lighter than the normal stuff you get poached eggs with. My problem with it though was that the eggs weren't really poached.  I love when you put your knife into the egg and the yellow runs out of it. This was more like a hard boiled egg disguised as a poached egg. 

We also shared the Waffle of the Day - which was orange zest waffles - and they were delightful. They served it to us as 4 mini waffles which made sharing very easy.  The orange was subtle but it added a lot of flavor. 

G

Guerilla Cafe

1620 Shattuck Ave

Berkeley, CA 97709

510 845 2233

La Note, Berkeley

La Note is in my top 3 breakfast places in the Bay Area. The first time I went there was the first time I was ever in this area - when I was living in LA and had come up to visit Heather. We had so much fun that day, which started with a huge breakfast of eggs and pancakes and I can't remember what else - but enough that we had to take a stack of pancakes to go. I remember that we attempted to drive out to Stinson Beach after, with our extra food, but got bored of driving and pulled over at some other (closer) beach instead and had a picnic of leftovers. That first trip was when I first started thinking "I should really move to San Francisco" and eventually I came to my senses and did just that (well, Oakland really, at the time). 

When Kev and I first started dating, this is one of the first places I took him in the East Bay. He won extra points for loving it as much as I did. When his parents came to visit a few months later, we took them there too. Guess what? They also loved it. 

Fast forward 5+ years later. Kev and I are now married and living in San Francisco and no longer go to La Note as often. Yesterday his dad John arrived for a visit from Wales. We both took today off and had plans to go to Mama's in North Beach for breakfast. We got there at 10:30, but there was a huge line (I know. There's always a huge line, but it's Friday, don't you people have to work?).  John said: What about that place you took me to in Berkeley?

And so we headed over the bridge to Berkeley, where there was a line at La Note, but we braved the wait and it was so so worth it. The first thing I ever ate at La Note was the Cote Nord (or as we like to call it - eggs on bread) and I still order that 90% of the time. They scramble the eggs so that they are super creamy, and then they are placed on toasted levain bread with either goat cheese or cream cheese. AND they are served with the most amazing roasted tomatoes. 

Both dad and son got ham and cheese omelettes, which were also incredible - and not at all dry. But we weren't done there - we also wanted pancakes. We couldn't decide between the oatmeal raspberry and the lemon gingerbread with poached pears - so we got both. I love that you can opt for just one of each, instead of a whole stack.

You see that empty plate? All of our plates looked just like that. But if that isn't enough to convince you to go, I will leave you with this thought. As we were eating, John said "sometimes at home, I think about this place.  I never thought I'd get to go back".

Go here.