America’s biggest Halal food festival returns to Fremont
Saturday, June 30, Halal Fest will bring together chefs and vendors who specialize in Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern, Arab, Mediterranean, African and American cuisines — all selling dishes made according to Islamic dietary guidelines.
Saturday, June 30
Noon to 10:30 p.m., Town Fair Plaza, 39100 State St., Fremont; $7 (children 10 and under free); www.halalfest.com
Thanks for the notice. Any recommendations from people who’ve been before?
I went to the one in SD a few months ago and thought they were good, if pricey and a little fancy, but they did fill you up. Homemade tortillas. I hit the El Tonoyense truck this weekend and their tacos are up to $3 each now, and it takes at least 3-4 to fill me up so that’s $9-$12.
The mini taco chain I’d really like to see imported from San Diego is The Taco Stand. Great fish tacos for $3, pastor on the trompo with pineapple and made to order tortillas. Cheap, fast and casual.
Manresa suffered fire damage again.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Manresa-burns-for-second-time-in-four-years-13081881.php
That’s exciting. A chef with Manresa and Village Pub pedigree is opening a Filipino restaurant in early 2019 in San Mateo.
Josh Sens | Photo: Nader Khouri | October 11, 2018
Soondubu and galbi lettuce wraps get a fine-dining spin at Maum in Palo Alto.
https://modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/korean-tasting-menu-silicon-valleys-answer-lazy-bear
some of the best lines I’ve seen in a while:
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It being Palo Alto, I’d been bracing for an evening of tech-world peacocking, but there wasn’t much of that to mock. Someone mentioned the company he’d sold. Someone else let slip that she’d gone to Harvard. But it was the most benign of humblebragging.
The meal itself, meanwhile, struck me as invitingly un–Palo Alto, bleeding-edge cuisine in a leafy suburb that, for all its pioneering in the new economy, has long lagged well behind the culinary curve. Maum is a disruption in the local dining scene. Out came a dish called duck dduk-galbi, a play on a grilled meat patty traditionally made with short ribs. In this case, ground duck spiked with ginger and serrano chilies was pressed into a cylinder and grilled around a duck bone, the ends of which protruded. It looked like headwear for Wilma Flintstone, but it was very real and very delicious.
The Ticket: A recommended dinner for two at Maum
Prix fixe per person. . . . . . . $165
Oyster with kimchi ice; squash leaf; corn tartlet; soondae with salted shrimp; umhook with hot mustard; caviar, potato, and biscuit; tomato, cucumber, and kelp; soondubu with alliums and soy; sablefish haemultang; duck dduk-galbi; galbi, ssam, pickle, and jang; oxtail, rice, and broth; strawberry and buttermilk; barley-and-buckwheat ice cream; mignardises
Split beverage pairing. . . . . $140
Total for two. . . . . . $470
Maum
322 University Ave. (near Bryant St.), Palo Alto, 650-656-8616
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I wish Josh Sens did a review Maum instead of a profile. I get that its bleeding edge cuisine for Palo Alto, but what I’d really want to know is whether its good enough relative to the $165. 
Because there are many good places in the Bay Area to spend $165 …!
Shake Shack is opening its first doors in the Bay Area tomorrow at Stanford Mall.
I was wondering where the smoke goes, and if there will be a taste change due to less “patina” …
According to KCBS Radio, San Jose’s oldest restaurant, Wing’s Chinese at 131 E. Jackson St., closed last night (Feb. 24) due to ‘leasing issues.’ It had opened there in 1925.
While I agree, and saying “really good for Palo Alto” is not my favorite way of reviewing, the price-performance angle is so personal, and prices are crazy everywhere. $165 certainly puts it in a certain echelon and needs to be be judged appropriately. I can easily spend about $80/pp in palo alto without trying too hard, although usually I can keep it closer to $40 / $50 pp. We went to Aster in SF a few weeks ago, were very impressed, and that’s a $75 list, I think after one pairing and tax we were upward of $100/pp, so I would want Maum to be notably better than Aster. Lazy bear is about $200 ( depending on day ), so a place doing $165 should be in the same ballpark as lazy bear.
My GF’s least favorite for price/performance was Bird Dog. I didn’t think it was that bad, she was scandalized by the price performance ratio, and she rarely complains about that.
Precisely. $165 should be wow-wow territory. And I really hate to pay $165 to not even get your own table. I mingle, but prefer to do that eating at a taco truck, not when I am trying to figure out the components of a presumably complex meal.
Palo Altans seem to love Bird Dog. I haven’t been, but probably won’t bother now.
Dittmer Bubert of Dittmer’s in Los Altos passed away earlier this month. Glad that he was able to see the reconstruction of Dittmer’s in the current new location after the fire a few years ago. RIP.
excerpt:
What promoters are calling the nation’s largest festival devoted to halal foods returns to Fremont this weekend.
On Saturday, June 29, the seventh annual Halal Fest will bring together chefs and vendors who specialize in Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern, Arab, Mediterranean, African and American cuisines — all selling dishes made according to Islamic dietary guidelines.
The 7th Annual Halal Food & Eid Festival aka “ Halal Fest ,” will be on Saturday June 29th, 2019 at The Town Fair Plaza in Fremont, CA from 12 noon to 10:30pm! Get your Tickets now at Tix.HalalFest.com
Details: Noon to 10:30 p.m., Town Fair Plaza, 39100 State St., Fremont. Admission is $7 (children 10 and under free); parking is free. www.halalfest.com returns-to-fremont-this-weekend/
Stanford is getting a new Filipino lunch place: https://www.yelp.com/biz/blend-eatery-stanford-2.
Two new pupusa places that I hope to try soon- the Pupusas El Torogoz truck in East Palo Alto, and Marvin Gardens in Newark. I would have never guessed a place called Marvin Gardens is serving pupusas.
Catrina’s by Seiki House, Oaxacan food + bubble tea in a Japanese named restaurant
What a weird combo- Oaxacan and boba? The Oaxacan menu looks nice enough though.
THE MENU: Peri peri is another name for the African bird’s eye chile, which is combined with lemon, garlic and other herbs and spices to create a secret-recipe sauce. After marinating for 24 hours, the chicken (they use all-natural, veggie-fed, no-antibiotic birds here) is cooked, then flame-grilled and sauced.
Port of Peri Peri
3283 Walnut Ave., Fremont
510-256-9901
myperiperi.com
Nice - I have some chicken marinating in Peri Peri sauce right now.
