Beef Pan Fried Noodles – Milpitas, CA
Ever had a meal that wasn’t bad but wasn’t good? I guess the only category to classify it under would be “blah”. In my opinion, food has to be good. You don’t put things in your mouth that don’t taste good. The storage space in your stomach is very precious, so precious that only delicious foods should be allowed to reside there. I absolutely hate it when I order something that ends up being “blah”. My beef pan fried noodles (HK Style) was just that; it was “blah”.
Instead of eating in the restaurant, the food was ordered to go, which isn’t a problem since they store the sauce for the noodles separately so as to make sure the noodles stay crunchy until you eat it. The noodle part was great, it stayed crunchy, and it was in general just fine. The beef sauce that I poured over it… not so impressed. I mean, this isn’t the absolute worst I’ve ever had… but it felt like a waste of space. A waste of treasured stomach space that could have been used to store something that was delicious. Let me elaborate, the beef sauce was bland. Its not that it wasn’t salty, but it was just tasteless. I don’t think it would have mattered how much soy sauce or salt they put in it, it just didn’t have any “beef” flavor. Everything just tasted so empty, and uninteresting. It was so not worth eating.
Now, the reason why I filed this entry under “nasties” is because of my sister’s vegetarian fried rice. I don’t know how her fried rice was made, but it smelled disgusting. If I had to describe the odor permeating off of her fried rice, I would say it smelled of wet dog. Yes. Wet dog (maybe like 20 wet dogs in a small room together). Can you even believe that? How can VEGETARIAN fried rice be made to smell like wet dog? When she first complained of the smell, I didn’t really think anything of it. Until I got up and walked by her fried rice. I wasn’t even going to it to smell it, I was just walking by so I could grab some extra napkins, and I gagged. It was SO bad that I could smell it from about 3 feet away. Without hesitation I told her to throw the whole thing away because it was too disgusting. I’m not big on wasting food, and I don’t do it often, but that plate of fried rice was inedible. We won’t be ordering take out from that restaurant again.
Crab Alfredo Pasta – Fremont, CA
This particular restaurant is a favorite of mine, it consistently offers great service and delicious food. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience there! The only downside of visiting this restaurant is that there is often a wait to be seated (generally between 10 to 20 minutes), but good food is worth waiting for.
Once seated, the server brings over a freshly baked sourdough bread round. I have to say, this bread is AWESOME. Its always piping hot, as if it came straight from the oven. The outside is crusty and crunchy, while the inside is soft and fluffy. Smear a little bit of butter and it is super delicious. If you manage to eat the whole round, you can always ask for another one. I adore artisan breads, and prefer it to regular loaf breads (sandwich bread). I believe this sourdough bread round is the best bread I’ve ever had in a restaurant.
My favorite item on the menu has to be the crab alfredo, I order this every time. It is absolutely delicious! There’s real Alaskan crab meat, and a lot of it, they don’t skimp out on this ingredient. Since it is an alfredo pasta, they use fettucini pasta, which I’m actually not too fond of. I find that the crab alfredo sauce is just right, its creamy and smooth, and just the right amount of saltiness. The crab is fresh, none of that “fishy” smell/taste that is often associated with seafood. When it comes to the noodles, it is cooked al dente, but at the same time it does taste a little on the bland side when eaten without the crab. The potion size is big, most of the time I end up with a to go box because I simply can not finish. The crab alfredo comes with a garlic parmesan bread on the side that I never eat. I find that this piece of garlic bread is overly oily (an absurd amount of butter), and it just doesn’t taste very good. I’d much rather eat the yummy sourdough bread instead.
They have a small dessert menu, and we always end up sharing the same dessert because its just that good. The Mud Pie, with its coffee ice cream and cookie crumb crust… So good. Will definitely satisfy your sweet tooth!! :D My favorite part is, and always will be, the cookie crumb crust. :)
