The Los Altos Food Adventure - Part 1

Another day, another food adventure

Athena!

So one of my latest food adventures is actually a make up for one that was supposed to happen on
Senior Ditch Day – I had tentatively planned to hang around Los Altos with Athena for the day, but when another group of friends decided to go to San Francisco to eat and drink boba, I had to jump on that train. But today I redeemed myself by making it up to Athena; we spent the entire goddamn day eating food – that’s right, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Athena and I could’ve gone around the entire Silicon Valley eating food and spending money, but we were limited by one very interesting thing: her car. According to Athena (I have yet to bear witness to this) the car is fairly unreliable, and even her dad was scared it would break down if we went too far. Lucky for us, there is an abundance of high-quality food in the Los Altos-Mountain View area, so let’s just jump right to it!

The first spot on the list is Tom’s Depot – a place I’ve gone many times and deserves a blog post of its own. It’s definitely got the small-town breakfast spot feel (Los Altos is a small town, so duh) and it’s design probably hasn’t changed in a while. This doesn’t detract from the appeal of the place though; it just adds to the feeling. So when you walk into Tom’s you have the option of sitting at a small bar, some lower tables near the windows, some normal tables in the center, or some high tables, all with the ridged chrome trim that just screams 1950s nostalgia. So we took our seats at the high tables and put down our orders  - our good friend Paras actually joined us for this part of our trip, but he had to leave for a bit but will come back in part 2. My favorite order is the #3 Breakfast Special which includes an option of pancakes or waffles, a choice of meat, and hash browns. While waffles are cool and everything, you have got to order the pancakes at this place. The amount of fluff these bad boys have is just amazing: if you let a fork fall on them it just bounces a bit and jiggles around. In addition to these wonderful pancakes, you get some good old bacon that is just full of crisp. The hash browns make you remember the good old days back in elementary school when you’d pop a frozen hash brown in the toaster oven and watch as the metal spirals heated up and changed color like the sun rising above the sea. I’m not sure why but hash browns just bring me back to those days...might just be me though.

Paras' strawberry pancakes

Our next stop is a downtown Mountain View staple: Sushi Tomi. Our initial option for lunch was a food truck located on Rengstorff in Mountain View, but when we arrived, it wasn’t there. Turns out they tweeted that morning that they wouldn’t be there until a later time, so we decided to head for one of the best Japanese restaurants in Mountain View. Sushi Tomi isn’t really located on Castro, which is the main street, but two blocks down on an off-street. There’s not many signs pointing you to the place, and the storefront can be described as discreet. But once you step in, you’re in a nice little Japanese spot, almost like an enclave hidden from the hubbub of the busy Silicon Valley. Athena and I got there during the lunch rush and were lucky to get a parking spot at <redacted> and a seat right as we stepped in. Usually, I like to get the chirashi or even their Chicken Katsu Curry Lunch Special, but this time we opted to get some maki and sashimi. We opted for the Rainbow Row and the Lunch Sashimi Special, which didn’t fill us up but left us satisfied. I didn’t really eat anything absolutely spectacular here this time, so I’ll have to talk about it in another blog post. The service here is really amazing: they give you a lot of attention and don’t hesitate when you ask for something. I am definitely going back to try more of their stuff, and although it is a bit expensive, I can guarantee that it’s worth it.

Sashimi platter!

We ended our morning/lunch by driving over to downtown Los Altos, where I got schooled by Athena. I live pretty far away from downtown, so I thought that Main Street was the only main attraction of the area. Turns out I missed State Street, which has a bunch of cool shops including what I shall just call the rock shop. The rock shop sells rocks. Pretty simple right? Not really, considering most of these rocks are thousands (maybe even millions) of years old and are very expensive. Some of the rocks have dead animals in them, but most of the rocks are shiny and a bit translucent. While I was a bit hesitant about the rock shop in the beginning, I came to love it by the time I left. The curator there really does a lot of work collecting all the items, with pieces coming from places as far as Germany. Definitely check out the rock shop when you get a chance: it will be worth your time.

After checking out some rocks, Athena and I hopped up State Street to get some Tin Pot Creamery. I just wanted ice cream, but Athena insisted on coming to this particular eatery. When we walked in, I saw the lady in the back putting sugar eyes on a scoop of ice cream and had a quick flashback to January when I ate something similar in San Francisco. Compared to the ice cream at Belly Good, the ice cream here is a lot better. We got the lemon and cookie monster flavors, and it is very evident that Tin Pot is a creamery rather than your standard ice cream shop. The lemon was sufficiently sour and combined with the amount of sweetness one could taste created a nice harmonious balance. The cookie monster was great too, with its creamy texture periodically punctuated with the gentle crunch of an oreo crumb left in the soothing vanilla ice cream - a perfect way to put the proverbial cherry on top of such a nice day.

Cute!

After a pretty long day of eating and hanging out, we decided to check out Linden Tree Books, a bookstore in Los Altos. It’s very nice and quiet, and occasionally some kids come through, but the best part is that there are some nice comfy chairs where you can just sit down and read a good book. So in there, we took refuge from the beaming California sun and relaxed, held between the loving arms of a leather chair, reading a book about the Super Bowl for fifth graders.

You can find me on Instagram as @stumpyeatsfood and on yelp at theplumpcat.yelp.com. You can also check out more of my photos on Flickr! If you've got a restaurant recommendation or even a recipe that you think I should try, send it to me at ryanjchen2@gmail.com! Thank you for reading!