Petit Cafe, open Monday to Friday 7:30am to 2pm, 411 30th St., Oakland. 510.208.9418. petitcafeoak.com.
The bread that Vital Vittles churns out today is made from the exact same recipe that the Schwins first baked in ‘70s. Besides salt, honey, water, sunflower oil, yeast and gluten flour, which helps the dough rise, the standard loaves, dubbed “Real Bread,” consist of the company’s own freshly milled whole wheat flour. In the ‘90s, under Kass Schwin’s direction, the bakery also started baking vegan muffins, cakes, cookies and other health-forward treats with its signature flour. Vital Vittles sources its wheat from Arrowhead Mill in Texas. All of the ingredients they use, from wheat germ to oat topping, are organic.
VITAL VITTLES BAKERY
2810 San Pablo Avenue,
north of Ashby Avenue
Berkeley
Retail sales - fresh/day-old
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 8:00-3:00
(not open Saturday, Sunday, Monday)
But what sets One Plus apart from all the other local boba shops is its jianbing. This savory crepe is topped with a layer of scrambled eggs; sprinkled with green onion, cilantro and sesame seeds; slathered with a salty black bean paste, chili sauce and sweet noodle sauce; and then wrapped around a thin, crispy layer of a cracker (usually made with fried dough; Sha bakes hers) and lettuce. Growing up in Beijing, Sha said she often ate jianbing for breakfast, and wanted to bring that experience to Berkeley.
The jianbing at One Plus is different than traditional versions you’ll find elsewhere. The crepe mix is typically made with regular flour and mung bean, but Sha wanted to make her batter healthier. One Plus offers three different batter mixes, each including different milled grains, seeds and legumes, such as millet, “forbidden” black rice, mung bean, flax seeds, and wheat flour. Many of these ingredients are milled in house, and one of the three batters, made with ground chickpeas, brown rice and quinoa, is gluten-free.
“We want to introduce people to understand the ingredients behind the food,” Sha said.
Jianbing are made to order, and start at $13.50 each.
One Plus
2161 Allston Way (near Oxford Street), Suite C, Berkeley
One Plus is open noon to 8 p.m., Wednesday through Monday; closed Tuesdays.
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I’ve had a lot of bags made by Steeped for different roasters, and I’ve found they all suffer the same problem of grounds at the bottom of the cup. But I guess that’s an issue with French press coffee too, and one of the reasons I prefer drip (via Chemex or Melitta).
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Luke Tsai in SF Eater reports on the reopening today of Huancheng Noodle House in Old Oakland’s Swan’s Market:
excerpt:
… Huangcheng has never strictly been just a Shanxi restaurant. Huang’s mother is from Sichuan, and the restaurant has always served mostly a mixture of those two regional cuisines. That’s why classic Sichuan dishes like water-boiled fish and kung pao chicken feature prominently on the menu. The restaurant’s big selling point, however, is that those chewy knife-cut noodles are featured in all of the restaurant’s noodles dishes, whether it be the hot and sour noodle soup, the noodle stir-fry with pork and green peppers, or dishes that traditionally come with a different type of noodle altogether — for instance, Huang’s version Chongqing xiao mian, the brothy, red-hot street food staple.
…
Huangcheng Noodle House Old Oakland
911 Washington Street (former Rosamunde Sausage Grill space )
Oakland, CA 94607
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Phnom Penh Restaurant is located at 3912 MacArthur Blvd. It is open 11 a.m to 8 p.m, Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m to 8:30 p.m, Friday and Saturday; closed on Sunday .
Phone number (510) 482-8989
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The star of R Noodles is snail soup, loaded with toppings, as seen at�930 Webster St., Oakland.Photo: Janelle Bitker / The Chronicle
Dishes of the Diaspora premieres Wednesday, Feb. 3 on www.kqed.org/dishesofthediaspora.and-culture-in-the-bay-area
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Cool! I want to see who around here is making bunny chow*.
*No actual bunnies are involved. It’s half a loaf of white bread that’s hollowed out and filled with meat or veg curry.
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The LA Times is looking for a new executive editor -
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Layalina Restaurant, serving Middle Eastern cuisine, opened about 3 months ago in North Oakland. It hasn’t been reviewed yet except for comments on yelp. Currently it is available for takeout with a few tables outside. A hookah lounge is in the planning stages.
Photo by Albertino M.
Layalina Restaurant
3109 Telegraph Ave
(near Alta Bates/Summit Hospital)
Oakland
(510) 338-3287
Hours are 11 am - 10 pm, 7 days a week
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Luke Tsai writes in SF Eater this morning:
excerpt:
For nearly a decade, Miss Ollie’s has been Oakland’s go-to spot for comforting Afro-Caribbean flavors — for curry goat, pholourie, and herb-infused skillet-fried chicken. This weekend, however, the restaurant is launching a pop-up series that includes several new sets of flavors: jerk Dungeness crab, yes, but also North African tagines and barbecue pulled pork from the American South.
…
The pop-up kicks off on Sunday, February 7, and will run Sunday through Tuesday (the days when Miss Ollie’s is normally closed), 3–7 p.m., for the rest of February, in part as a way to celebrate Black History Month.
Miss Ollie’s
901 Washington Street
Oakland , CA
94607
(510) 285-6188
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Luke Tsai in SF Eater:
excerpt:
…
If one of the main goals of the project is to pay homage to that old-time Chinatown nightlife scene, Lee and his partners could hardly have picked a better location. Back in the 1940s, the upstairs was occupied by a restaurant called Kuh Wah, and guests would walk downstairs to the basement to access the “cave-like nightclub” known as the Lion’s Den, as Nora Wong, one of the dancers who performed there, recounted in a story in Gastronomica about that 1940s nightclub-restaurant scene. At the time, the venue touted itself as “America’s Only Under-Ground Chinese Nite Club Featuring an All-Chinese Floor Show.” In addition to the singing and dancing women, performances might also feature some of the other famous Chinese-American stars of the scene — performers known, colloquially, as the “Chinese Frank Sinatra” or the “Chinese Fred Astaire.”
…
Lion’s Den Bar and Lounge
57 Wentworth Place
San Francisco, CA 94108
Visit Website
There will be an outside table in the alley for drinks but it won’t fully open until limited-indoor dining is allowed.
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Bamboo
open Friday to Sunday noon to 9pm; Monday, Wednesday and Thursday noon to 3pm, 5–9pm.
3766 Piedmont Ave.,
Oakland.
510.654.5033.
bamboopiedmont.com.
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Sarah Han, senior editor, food, won in the arts and culture category (print/online small division) for her food reporting in the East Bay, under the Nosh umbrella, which encompasses stories on social and ethical issues as well as restaurant reviews.
Sarah Han. Photo: Cris Gebhardt
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