Category Archives: Bay Area

Mi Lindo Yucatan (San Francisco)

We were planning to head up to San Francisco to buy some herbs (no, not that kind of herb 😉 ) and spices at San Francisco Herb Company (more on this later) in the Mission District. Since we were going to be there around lunch time, I thought, why not look for a good Mexican place to eat in the Mission? Searching Entertainment.com, I found a couple places that looked promising and chose Mi Lindo Yucatan. Printed out the 20% off coupon, and off we went.

Contrary to popular belief, Mexican food isn’t just about tacos, burritos, enchiladas or fajitas. (Fajitas, by the way, aren’t even Mexican – they’re Tex-Mex). Taco Bell has as much to do with Mexican cuisine as Panda Express has to do with Chinese cuisine. Mexico is a large country with a very long and varied culinary history. Mi Lindo Yucatan features cuisine from the Yucatan Peninsula in Southern Mexico. Its main cuisinal (is that even a word? <flips through dictionary>) influence is from the Mayan culture as well as French and Spanish cuisine.

What new flavors would we find at Mi Lindo Yucatan?

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Roli Roti Porchetta (San Francisco)

What’s the best roast pork you’ve ever eaten?

I’ve eaten a lot of different kinds of roast pork over the years, from Chinese roast pork, to char siu, to Hawaiian-style kalua pig, to pulled pork barbecue, and many others. I’ve even had some awesome roast pork knuckle (I didn’t even know pigs had knuckles) from a restaurant in the state of Kedah in Malaysia.

And then, I discovered porchetta. Ever since reading this article on Eating Asia, we’ve been wanting to visit the Roli Roti rolling rotisserie vendor at the San Francisco Ferry Building to have some of this delicious roast pork. One fine Saturday morning, we had occasion to drive up to San Fran to shop at the Farmer’s Market there and, of course, buy some porchetta.

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Pizzeria Andiamo’s (San Jose)

One Friday evening, Annie was craving a salad from California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. The nearest CPKs to us in San Jose are either at the Oakridge Mall or the Valley Fair Mall. Neither of which I felt like driving 20 minutes to the mall, then wasting 10 more minutes fighting for parking in the garage, and then waiting in the restaurant for another “15 to 20 minutes” (which inevitably turns into 45 minutes to an hour during primetime) with our two growling tummies plus the kidlets’. No way, Jose!

Also I didn’t feel like a salad. But perhaps something Italian…? I fired up the web browser and went over to Restaurant.com to see if there were any Italian places closer to us. Lo and behold, there’s one right in our neighborhood: Pizzeria Andiamo’s on San Felipe Rd at Yerba Buena. We had eaten there in the distant past but they had recently changed owners and I was meaning to go back.
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Kamakura Japanese Restaurant (Los Gatos)

One Sunday, we were trying to figure out where to go with a couple of friends for lunch. They love sushi. They go out probably once a week to get it. We like our sushi too, just not as often. The hard part, though, is finding a sushi place open for lunch on Sunday. We ended up picking Kamakura Japanese Restaurant in Los Gatos .

It took us a while to find parking – who knew Los Gatos was so crowded on Sunday afternoon? When we got there, the restaurant was busy, but we were able to find a table. Unfortunately, the service was quite slow.

Normally, I’d go for nigiri, but I wasn’t feeling like it today. So I got the “Golf Roll” – unagi, ebi, maguro, and avocado wrapped inside-out and then topped with tobiko. Ehh. It sounded good but I thought it was sloppily presented and really not that great tasting.

Tai, hamachi, maguro and sake sashimi. Decent, with the hamachi coming out as the best.

Overall I’d say it was overpriced for just standard or even sub-par sushi fare. Typical for Los Gatos eats in general, IMO.

Kamakura Japanese Restaurant
135 N Santa Cruz Ave
Los Gatos, CA 95030
(408) 395-6650‎

Aloha, Nate