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.

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!

Ditch Day! Let's go get some boba, guys! - San Francisco, CA

Classic

BOBA!!!

Every year, around 400 Saint Francis seniors are blessed with an official "Ditch Day" where they go off to the beach to have fun or fish at a nearby lake. But because I run a food blog, I went to eat food in San Francisco. Our plan was for the South Bay people to meet up at the Mountain View station and head up to San Francisco by Caltrain (with Jennifer, the lone East Bay person, heading up by BART), but things kind of went wrong as soon as we started. Our great friend William woke up an hour after we got on the train, so we decided to check the the Museum of Modern Art without him. One of the main purposes of this trip was to get Jennifer some more photos for her Instagram, but the other big one was to check out some great bubble tea. The boba shop we decided to go to was Boba Guys - regarded as one of the best in the city. I just knew I had to check it out.

Indian Pizza! - Tasty Subs and Pizzas in Sunnyvale, CA

Nice and spicy

Have your friends ever agreed to meet up at a place then decide to pull out and move the entire group to another place? Well, that's how this food adventure started out. I was out with my friends after watching Alien: Covenant (spoiler alert: it's scary) and Paras, Athena and I were literally about to order at Teanado (maybe I'll write an article about this place sometime) when Shlok gives me a call and tries to convince me to go get pizza instead of some good bento. I had never heard of "Indian pizza" before, and I wasn't too keen on getting my mouth burned because of how spicy it was, but I decided to trust him and we went off to the next plaza. Just a word of caution: parking in the plaza is pretty rough. It took a slightly shady parking lot move for us to get a spot for Shlok and Nihar but it did the trick (Please note that this blog does not endorse the use of shady parking lot tricks).

Grill Talk - Sumika Grill in Los Altos, CA

Miles P. Olson (2017, color)

Smoky

Actually, before we move on to the next parts of Vegas, I have to write about a stellar dining experience I had in my hometown Los Altos, CA. This place is better known as "Steve Job's Hometown", or even "small town next to Mountain View", but the downtown has some restaurants that can definitely hold its own. I'm here this time with Miles P. Olson at Sumika Grill, one of the higher rated restaurants in the town. Miles and I talk often on Snapchat and Messenger, but we only really make the commute to hang out when someone is visiting from outside of the Bay Area. That being said, I was really excited to see Miles again, since we had quite a bit to catch up on since our last time out for food.

Gotta Eat Em All - Poke Bar in Mountain View, CA

Pass on this

I had Poke once before on the East Coast - it was at this place called PokeStop, and I remember being extremely tired while poking through a bowl of rice covered with some seaweed and fish and thinking that it was kind of like chirashi. Light flowed through the busy shop as hungry New Yorkers flowed in and out of the shop, some giving me the stank eye as I sat in a coveted spot - forcing them to seek a spot elsewhere.

Sorry, Vegan Cheese Doesn't Taste Like Cheese - Veggie Grill in Saratoga, CA

Vegan Cheese is bad

Winnie!!!

Once upon a time, this young man was a vegetarian. That's right. From fifth through 8th grade, I thought that vegetarianism was really cool! But starting in freshman year, I decided that I wanted some more protein in the form of meat so I reverted to the good old omnivore lifestyle. I've never considered going vegan though - in fact, being vegetarian was a pretty big hassle in and of itself! But the point is, I've eaten quite a bit of vegetarian foods in the past. And a lot of substitutes, including the all famous Tofurkey which can taste a bit like actual turkey! In my past experiences with substitutes, if it's good and I forget that I'm eating a substitute, then I won't notice a difference. Well Veggie Grill has earned my respect for creating a few Vegan dishes that I ate without noticing the fact that they were Vegan. So a gold star to the salad with bacon substitute and the Koreatown tacos, but a frowny face (like the one your physics teacher puts by a question when you make a mistake) to the nachos.

Stacks on Stacks - The Original Pancake House in Los Altos, CA

Nostalgic comfort food at 6:30 am

Carter looking dramatic

The Original Pancake House has been around in my hometown, Los Altos, for a long time - like Tom's Depot, it's a staple of Los Altos life and history. I remember my dad dragging me there at some early hour when I was like five in order to get a good spot in line! It used to be packed with people every morning - especially Saturday mornings - trying to get a taste of some of the best pancakes in town. It's kind of like when baby boomers look back on "good old days" - things are different these days. More specifically, there was no wait to get in to the famed Original Pancake House in Los Altos this morning when I came in for breakfast with my friend Carter Fox.

I Got Baked in San Francisco - The Sequel

So is it habit forming?

Erika!!!

So Erika lets the Carleton GroupSnap (is that a thing) know that she's going to be in San Francisco on January 28th, so guess what happened: Miles and I roll out through BART and CalTrain and meet up with her at Montgomery. So Erika, Miles and I were pretty close friends during the SCSI, and the main thing that brought us together was our shared love of music. Miles likes more underground and new artists, so when he played music off his phone it was always an adventure for me (and probably Erika, I don't really know). But anyway, we're all good friends, and of course Miles and I agree to go to Erika's top choice location: Mr. Holmes Bakehouse. That's right folks, we're back. Let's get baked in San Francisco

Going Psycho - Psycho Donuts and Pho with @winnie.fried

Thought I was going psycho for a second there

Once again, we are back with Winnie (follow her here) and are more determined than ever to experience the food wonders of Downtown San Jose. I usually don't head down to San Jose, but Winnie's robotics lab is in the middle of it, so I arranged for a lunch at Pho 69. Downtown San Jose is a pretty funky place, mostly because of its location and the very, very, very popular convention center. Lots of things go on in there, ranging from volleyball tournaments to even a minor Blizzcon if I remember correctly. Anyway, this weekend was no different, with a bunch of costumed people waiting around.

I Got Baked in San Francisco - SF Day Trip Part 1 with @winnie.fried

Future employers please disregard title

Winnie and I got baked in San Francisco

This past Monday, I went on a trip to San Francisco with my friends Winnie and Jenny - Winnie also has a food-focused Instagram page, you can follow her at @winnie.fried. So beforehand, we made a plan to visit two bakeries/cafes - Mr. Holmes and Belly Good - and left the lunch option open. Like Miles and Lia, Winnie and Jenny are friends from my time at the Carleton Summer Computer Science Institute, and this is the first time we've met since the trip despite living in the same area. So anyway, our first stop was at Mr. Holmes, which had a deceptively long line. The actual area for customers is small, possibly to force them out into the cold (just kidding), and even though we got there bright and early at 10am, it seemed that their stock of cruffins had either been depleted or not even made yet (you can check this on their website).

Live Your Lyfe: Lyfe Kitchen - Cupertino,CA

Note the abundance of avocadoes

Trendy healthy restaurants are everywhere in the Bay Area. Whole Foods, Sprouts - name the healthy restaurant/market, we've got it. Some of these are great, but some aren't. Luckily, LYFE isn't one of the latter. It's located in the new Main Street plaza near Vallco in Cupertino, and this place is amazing at night. As we enter the holiday season, the plaza has got lights on almost every tree. Even the tall palms are lit up by amber lights snaking all the way to the top. But enough about the plaza, let's talk about LYFE.