The Los Altos Food Adventure - Part 2

Dish or Dash?

Sk8tr Gurl

So after we got out of our comfy leather chairs in the bookstore, we decided to head out and grab some dinner – but it was only like 3pm. So like any responsible person, I decided to teach Athena how to ride a skateboard. We headed over to a local elementary school and I steadily guided Athena through a few easy steps on how to skateboard, as I know it. I'm a left foot forward guy, and I like to put my non-pumping foot at the front of the board. For me, the key to skateboarding is to always lean forward, something I learned from wrestling (where Coach would slap my face in different directions, telling me "your body goes where your head goes!"). So to start off our afternoon I watched as Athena clumsily skated laps around the blacktop of my local elementary school.

After that, Athena and I wanted to sit down at a little café and relax, so we looked around on Yelp and Google Maps and found The Tea Zone & Fruit Bar in Mountain View. The moment we stepped into the Tea Bar, I noticed that it wasn't very cozy at all. Well, people's definitions of “cozy” may differ, but this was bordering more on the aesthetic side of things rather than a nice place where I could sit for hours while reading books and drinking tea. It was cute, but not really what we were looking for in terms of comfort. We also tried to find an outlet but the only one was next to two seats occupied by two loud men, forcing Athena and me to sit down on a little bench next to their tall glass windows. One thing that I did like about the place was the portion size, specifically how much mango smoothie they gave me. When I ordered, the cashier said that the mango smoothie only came in one size, so I said, "cool, just give it to me in that one size". Little did I know that one size was large. SO when the barista came out with this giant mango smoothie the size of a double-double from In-n-Out, I hope you can all understand my shock. Thankfully it was good – if I had to finish a very large, bad mango smoothie, that would've been very disappointing. We eventually got those seats and watched the Netflix playing on the TV until we decided it would be a good time to wrap up the entire day by getting some dinner.

At this point we were just in this daze – we were pretty tired, and it had been an extremely long day for us. So I remembered my wrestling coach talking about this Mediterranean place in Sunnyvale called Dishdash, apparently the best Mediterranean he'd ever had before. My coach isn't the type of guy to randomly praise things, so I showed Athena the spot on Yelp and we decided to hop on over to downtown Sunnyvale. When we got there, parking was again a bit of an issue, but we found and pulled in at a spot just before someone else got there. When you walk in to Dishdash, you get the sense that you're in a high-class restaurant. Well I did – I was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals while seeing men in business suits and ladies with nice dresses walking in (note to self: next time you go, at least put some shoes on). We were seated at a nice table for two, where we decided to quickly order a Maza Sampler for two and a mansaf to share. We were a bit hungry, but all thoughts of hunger went away as soon as the free pita bread hit the table. And after that, the maza sampler: a collection of seven dips that really elevates the pita bread experience. Hummus, babaghanouge, khyar b'blan, tabouli, rihan, m'nazaleh, and falafel. Well, to start out with the basics, the hummus and that falafel were great, as the falafel was just crunchy enough and the hummus offered plenty of spice. The platter offered a wide variety of spices that helped keep our stomachs (and the pita bread) occupied until the main dish came: the mansaf.

At this point we were just in this daze – we were pretty tired and it had been an extremely long day for us. So I remembered my wrestling coach talking about this Mediterranean place in Sunnyvale called Dishdash, apparently the best Mediterranean he'd ever had before. My coach isn't the type of guy to randomly praise things, so I showed Athena the spot on Yelp and we decided to hop on over to downtown Sunnyvale. When we got there, parking was again a bit of an issue, but we found and pulled in at a spot just before someone else got there. When you walk in to Dishdash, you get the sense that you're in a high-class restaurant. Well I did – I was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals while seeing men in business suits and ladies with nice dresses walking in (note to self: next time you go maybe at least put some shoes on). We were seated at a nice table for two, where we decided to quickly order a Maza Sampler for two and a mansaf to share. We were a bit hungry, but all thoughts about hunger went away as soon as the free pita bread hit the table. And after that, the maza sampler: a collection of seven dips that really elevates the pita bread experience. Hummus, babaghanouge, khyar b'blan, tabouli, rihan, m'nazaleh, and falafel. Well, to start out with the basics, the hummus and that falafel were great, with the falafel being just crunchy enough and the hummus offering plenty of spice. The platter offered a wide variety of spices that helped keep our stomachs (and pita bread) occupied until the main dish came: the mansaf.

It tasted sooooo goood.

The mansaf is essentially this giant mound of lamb and rice surrounded by a pool of yogurt, and it was absolutely amazing. When Athena and I each got a bit of the lamb, we were amazed at how easily our teeth slid through the tender meat, and how much flavor the yogurt added to the rice! It immediately changed my perspective on the quality of the restaurant; my respect for it shot through the roof. No other dish at another restaurant had done this before – it truly was an eye-opening experience for me. This one dish sliced open my expectations as easily as my teeth cut through the soft and tender chunks of lamb sitting in rice. As I consumed the mansaf, I savored the hot juice that spilled onto my tongue, enveloping my mouth with flavor. You could taste the spice, the texture, the softness of the lamb, all in one spoonful. And that is why I am definitely coming back to the one and only Dishdash in Sunnyvale.
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!