Sama Uyghur Cuisine in Union City, CA

Lamb Polo at Sama Uyghur Cuisine in Union City.  

We've been meaning to try out Sama Uyghur having heard of it some time ago. Uyghur cuisine is few and far between around here, but finally today it made sense to check out, since Robin had business nearby near Fremont. We heard Sama Uyghur was truly excellent, and they exceeded our expectations.

Tasty Fungus--wood ear fungus with sliced onion, red bell pepper, red chiles, & cilantro, served in a Chinese mix of oil, vinegar & soy sauce. Outstanding salad offering, one of the best mushroom dishes I've ever had at a restaurant. Everything crisp with a clean finish thanks to the brilliant dressing.

Lamb Polo. Lamb Shank cooked until tender & falling off the bone, served with saffron rice with raisins and red bell peppers. Perfect dish.

Stir-fried Noodles with Vegetables and Lamb. Noodles tasted like they were cooked in stock, probably a lamb stock, after par-boiling until al dente. Pretty sure the scallions, red bells, celery and chiles were stir-fried with the lamb, already marinated. Noodles still had some tooth to them, so it could well be they were only boiled a few minutes before stir-frying commenced. Another masterful dish. Best Uyghur cuisine I know of in California.

Sama Uyghur Cuisine

http://www.samauyghurcuisine.com

510-431-3865

1719 Decoto Rd.

Union City, CA 94587

Anjappar Chettinad Indian Restaurant in Milpitas, CA

Anjappar Fish Meal (Thali) from lunch menu at Anjappar Chettinad Indian Restaurant in Milpitas, CA.

We recently went to the Anjappar Chettinad in Santa Clara on the way back from Los Angeles, and decided to check out one of their sister restaurants, this one in Milpitas (3/15/2018). Below is their Masala Tea, an outstanding Chai.

Since we arrived just as the doors opened, we knew we would likely order two Thalis, but what else to get? We settled on the Ceylon Mutton Parotta, made to order, stuffed with spicy mutton, as you can see below, served with raita and some curry sauce.

Above: Anjappar Fish Meal (Thali).

Above: Anjappar Mutton Meal (Thali). The Thalis have the same ingredients, except for the main dish. Even these meat versions are mostly vegetarian.

Closeup of Mutton Curry, a myriad of spices, and also some elements unseen from surface, such as the curry leaves, visible in this shot.

Vegetable dishes served with the thalis, perfectly cooked, with distinctive curry sauces that hold it together.

Closeup of Fish curry--succulent spicy sauce, and fish cooked to ideal tenderness.

ANJAPPAR CHETTINAD INDIAN RESTAURANT
MILPITAS
458 Barber Lane, Milpitas CA 95035

TEL: 408 435 5500 

www.anjapparca.com

Hours of Operation 

Monday - Friday: 
11:30am - 2:30pm & 6:00 − 10:00pm

Saturday - Sunday: 
11:30am - 10:00pm

General Tso Kitchen, in San Francisco

Last night (4/8/18) we returned to General Tso's Kitchen, and got some new dishes. Above: Wild Black Fungus w/Cucumber. Practically identical to Smashed Cucumber with Wood Ear Mushrooms.

Pork Shrimp Chive Dumplings, thinner skinned than the dumplings we got here previously.

Wuhan-style Sesame Noodle.

Above & below: Hubei Lotus Roots--deep fried, stuffed with pork. Perhaps needless to say, everything was superb.

Chinese Eggplant in Spicy Garlic Sauce at General Tso Kitchen.

We were saddened by the news that San Dong Best, the Chinese restaurant that was in this spot near 2nd & Arguello on Geary, had closed. Although we thought the name of the new place, General Tso Kitchen, might mean this new spot would feature Americanized Chinese food, our fear were put to rest when we saw they feature things like Wuhan Duck. Sure enough, General Tso seems to be doing everything San Dong Best was doing right, and more.

Always a good sign when the chiles in the oil are this dark, in my humble opinion.

Above and below: Wuhan-style Duck Neck. Don't be put off because this is variety meat. Look closely, it is marinated with Chinese spices, and definitely has a spicy kick. Eat them like corn on the cob! Very tender!

Here's that Chinese Eggplant--but also there are red bells and wood ear mushrooms. This dish is elegant and majestic. Spicy but not too much, more garlic in the brown sauce. Vegetables cooked to perfection, the sauce imbued throughout.

Lamb & Zucchini Dumplings. Clearly hand-made, each with the filling rolled into a ball (generally, meat and a vegetable), with a bit of oil, in this case Sesame oil. 

General Tso Kitchen

3471 Geary Blvd

415-668-5888

Smitten, 20th & Valencia, in San Francisco

Passionfruit & Date (L) and TCHO Chocolate Ice Cream at Smitten.

There's a lot of great ice cream in the Bay Area, and there's quite a plethora of them in the Mission.

So the deal with Smitten is they make your ice cream fresh, when you order it, using Liquid Nitrogen and mixers.

Here's the basic rundown. Both flavors were excellent, in my estimation, though admittedly Passionfruit could be challenging for some folks.

Arsicault Bakery in San Francisco

Chocolate Croissant at Arsicault Bakery in San Francisco, California.

Standing in line this morning for the first time ever at Arsicault Bakery. Not that long around 9am on a Saturday.

Everything looks so good. I was very tempted to get hot chocolate.

Above and below: the best Almond Croissant I've ever had, very very generous with the almond paste, which is more like marzipan mixed with a sort of custard, in case you've never had an almond croissant before. But likely if you're a fellow American, you've probably never had a croissant like the ones they make here, though chances are much higher if you've been to France, but that's certainly no guarantee that you've experienced something quite this exalted.

Above, and two below: Arsicault's Chocolate Croissant. I've only ever had one this good, and that was also still warm, like this one, on the streets of Paris, downtown, shortly after an inebriated Frenchman asked me if I had the money earlier that day to buy myself a cup of coffee, and I answered him yes, I bought a double espresso at a cafe on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées that was superb: an oily dark roast with bold chocolate and tobacco flavors with a long finish, that complemented the Cohiba I was smoking. Thank you sir, thank you. He had a puzzled look on his face, doubtless because I was mixing Spanish and Italian with my very feeble French, but moments later I bought this sublime Pain au Chocolate that was just like this one. The croissant dough was buttery, slightly crisp, and soft and delicate like angel's hair, and the dark chocolate was like the double espresso I described previously, bold and bitter.

A golden spiral.

Above & two below: Ham & Cheese (Gruyere) Croissant from Arsicault, also superb. Never had one as good as this. Eating it made me think of the first time I had one, at a cafe near the University of Texas, where the head pastry chef was from the south of France, and he made fabulous pastries. I remember eating one of those while someone was complaining about all the students at other tables, with maps out, talking about where they were going to travel in Europe that summer. "What's wrong with staying here? There's plenty to see in the United States."

Above and below: Kouign-amann. Fantastic, especially with the caramlized top. Completely different style, but I like the ones at B. Patisserie slightly better.

http://arsicault-bakery-san-francisco.sites.tablehero.com