Bay Area Menu Files: August 2014

Spreadz (Santa Clara, CA)

Spreadz-- Everything but hold the Onions

Tucked in the center of a business park, surrounded by other businesses (specifically encircled by Nvidia), you need a dash of luck and a bucket of snooping to find this gem of a sandwich shop. Opened a few months ago, this family owned sandwich shop caters to the breakfast and lunch crowds that work in the area.

Drive too quickly and you’ll miss it. It’s a small deli sandwich shop and they’re only opened Monday to Fridays during normal business working hours (meaning from 8 AM to 5 PM) but don’t let that hold you back. If you happen to be in the area, I recommend stopping by for a bite.

They serve tasty sandwiches on warm Dutch Crunch and Sourdough bread and a quick check on their yelp page shows that they use Boar Head’s deli meats and cheeses. And if you’ve never tried Dutch Crunch, it’s hands down, my favorite type of bread. I'm sorry potato bread! I still love you! Now, I don’t know what they put on top of the bread for it to provide such a loud crunch, but it’s amazing, while still remaining chewy and fluffy inside.

And if you wonder just what kind of drinks do they have to accompany your sandwich, look no further. It’s as if they raided a 7 Eleven and stole their entire drink aisle because it’s hard to stare at that drink display and not find something that fits your taste. You have soda, coffee, tea, juice, energy drinks and etc. Basically anything that you may want that’s not alcoholic is in their drink choices. In fact, where can I buy one because I want that in my house. Can it also be self-refilling?

Okay, that was overkill, but it's so beautiful.

Anyways, on the few times I've been here, I've gotten their tri tip sandwich (Friday’s Special, must try!) pastrami sandwich and their turkey sandwich, all delicious and props to Spreadz for serving half sandwiches as well. Not only that, they also offer soup and while I’ve only tried the clam chowder (creamy and hearty with lots of clam), they also serve chili. I’m not sure if it changes daily or if those two a permanent staple to the menu. I like how they put a lot of care in assembling the sandwich and the ingredients they use are definitely fresh.

The people who work at Spreadz are warm, helpful and accommodating, even when it gets a crazy during the lunch rush. And seeing how Specialty’s parking lot has been reduced to such a miniscule size, Spreadz look much more pleasing. Not to mention, it’s a walkable distance from work.

My philosophy: I exercise to eat more.

EDIT: Since this entry, Spreadz has updated their menu. I was informed of that when I tried to call and place an order the other day and found out they no longer had one of the menu items. So I headed over and took photos of the new menu for you guys to take a look.

Do you have a favorite sandwich shop? Have you ever tried Dutch Crunch? Is there a lunch place you swear by that’s near your work?

Spreadz

2348 Walsh Ave.

Suite G

Santa Clara, CA 95051

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, by Amy

In Food, Korean

Seoul Food: Ultra Music Festival & Myeongdong (Day 3)

Ready, Set, Go! Ultra Music Korea… disaster!

I’ll say it right now. I did not make it to Ultra Music Korea. At least not past the VIP entrance. For a more indepth explanation of what exactly went wrong, just keep reading.

Saturday = Ultra Music Korea. It was that simple. That was all I had planned for Saturday. After all, Visit Seoul flew us out to Korea and they gave us tickets to Ultra Music Festival sooo… it would make sense that we attended the festival, right?

Ultra Music would’ve been my first EDM festival ever, if I ever did make it in. I’m not a huge follower of EDM with the minor exception of anything that made it onto the radio waves. But the artist setlist for Saturday looked fantastic, so I was pretty excited to go.

After spending the entire morning prepping and dressing up for Ultra, we headed down to the front lobby where I asked the concierge for the quickest route to the stadium. Unfortunately, he gave us instructions to go to the Olympic Park, rather than the stadium. Needless to say, the two of us made a small detour along the way.

Around 1:30 (approximately when the festival started), we went to the information booth and asked the volunteers as to where we would pick up our tickets. Problem was, nobody seem to know for certain. I showed them the email I received from the Visit Seoul and our travel agency and they told us to go around the stadium to the West Gate, where the VIP entrance was located. This is where the language barrier got frustrating. Communication can only go so far when I can’t understand Korean and they don’t understand English. When we made our way around to the West Gate, we were greeted by ‘men in black’ or essentially security guards who were monitoring the entrance. We tried our best to explain to them that we wanted to pick up our tickets for the festival, but they didn’t understand us. That was the start of my “if only I had internet to access google translate” moment.

After providing the phone number to the travel agent who arranged the trip, he called her and they talked and he told us to sit and wait. Turns out VIP ticket entrances does not start until 3 PM. I was only notified thru email indicating arrival at 1:30 PM. After half an hour or so of waiting, they moved us to the VIP waiting area where we sat around with other groups who I dubbed the Korean Gossip Girls. If there were anybody I encountered in Korea during those five days that resembled the ‘Upper East Side,’ it was them.

Time passes by slow when you’re just sitting and waiting. Things got more confusing once the other VIP groups started to enter the stadium with tickets, leaving the two of us sitting there. After bypassing the security entrance, we went to the VIP tables asking for our tickets and they asked us what “TIER” we were in, which of course-- we had absolutely no idea.

Another call to our travel agency finally gave us the answer: the tickets were for FRIDAY, not SATURDAY. They were not two day tickets and on yes, we were “VVIP” but only for Friday. That meant on Friday, they reserved a table (I’m assuming which included the rest of the winners), but only for that day. Unfortunately, there was nothing the volunteers could do about it and as frustrated as I was with the whole situation, I couldn’t do anything about it either. And yes, I flew halfway around the world to attend a EDM festival, but all-in-all, I was turned away at the gate.

It was poor calculation on Visit Seoul and the travel agency part seeing as while they did tell me I could pick up my tickets on Friday, they didn’t inform me that they were only for Friday. And seeing as though I never talked to the other two winners, I wonder if they managed to attend the festival.

Misunderstandings and language barriers aside, the two of us spent a good 2-3 hours just hanging around the entrance of the stadium wasting time doing nothing. By that time, it was almost 4 PM and I was tired and jet lag was kicking in again, but seeing as though we essentially did nothing that day, initiate PLAN B.

Myeongdong, here we come!

Lost in Translation: Multinational Myeongdong

Following the pattern from Thursday and Friday, I’m sure you can figure out by now that we got… lost. Eventually we wandered into Gongcha which thankfully had wi-fi. With a little luck and some major help from Google, we were able to find our way to Myeongdong.

Myeongdong, the shopping mecca of Seoul and arguably the to-go place if you’re into Korean makeup and skincare. During the course of the few hours, I ran into multiples of the same skincare/makeup store (Tony Moly, Etude House, Its Skin, The Face Shop, Nature’s Republic and etc.) in every corner of every street crammed together that made up Myeongdong.

Alongside the many skin care shops, there were clothing boutiques, restaurants and some familiar names like H&M and Forever 21 that littered the street. If you take time to just look up, you’ll see even more restaurants and coffee shops on the second and third floors of the buildings.

Being such a large tourist attraction, the sales associates working in the shops know a variety of languages, the major ones being Chinese and Japanese. So here I was walking into the stores and the first thing they do is greet me in Chinese. And when I didn’t give them a response, they switch to Japanese and finally English. I have to say, it’s quite impressive and there was an occasion where we were paying at the register and the sales associate told us the total in Chinese and then proceeded to thank us in Japanese. Well, even the best of us would get our languages mixed up every now and then.

Since, this is a food blog, LETS get down to the FOOD, shall we?!

Aside from the Gong Cha (oolong milk tea with boba), I had on my way to Myeongdong, I ate everything else from street vendors. All the shopping didn’t give much time for sitting down and eating a proper meal. And by the time the two of us finished shopping, it was already 10:30 PM and we needed to catch the subway back to the hotel.

So the first thing I ate was takoyaki! And these were some pretty bomb-tasting takoyaki. I forgot to take a photo because we were too busy scarfing them down while avoiding running into people.

TIP: Many street vendors have buckets or trays where you put your money in and grab your change. Due to sanitary reasons, they don’t want to touch the money while cooking and preparing the food. Koreans put a high level of trust into their customers, thinking that they would do the right thing rather than grabbing the bucket and making a run for it. You don’t see that happening in the States, not that I know of anyways.

Also not photographed was our visit to the Dragon Beard Candy Man. And for those who are unfamiliar with the concept of Dragon Beard Candy, it’s essentially made from a huge lump of sugar that is flexible enough to stretch out and folded over many times and thus producing very thin strands of sugar coated in powder sugar. The strands are then pulled into smaller sections and wrapped with a nut mixture filling to resemble a cocoon. The taste is similar to cotton candy, sweet and melts quickly in the mouth, but with a crunch thanks to the nuts. The Dragon Beard stall is definitely a must-visit for visitors especially if you’ve never seen the sugar pulling process before because it’s very entertaining and the Candy Man was good at his job. He even has the entire explanation down in English.

The reason why it’s called Dragon Beard is because when eating the pieces, some sugar strands could end up sticking to your lip, hence “Dragon Beard.”

Moving on over, we had our encounter with this lovely humungous soft serve green tea ice cream. Now, I love my ice cream, as noted in my previous “Matcha Love” post, but I was no match for this. Before I even got half way, it already started to melt and dripped all over my hand.

There came a point where I couldn’t even taste the ice cream or feel my mouth anymore because I was trying so hard to eat it quickly. In the end, the ice cream won... and I lost and that was when I lost my appetite for the rest of the night.

Defeated by ice cream. I don’t know how someone would finish it before it starts melting everywhere. UNLESS! You were standing in a freezer. If only I had a mobile freezer. Sigh.

It's calling to me!

I didn’t even have it in me to try the Softbee ice cream that I kept hearing people talk about. With the honey comb…

As the night wind down and we finally realized just how LATE it was and how much we disregarded dinner, I had my last snack for the night. It was a fried-battered rice cake and wieners on a stick. It was deep fried and greasy and possibly one of the most delicious thing I ate that night, if you don’t count the takoyaki. By that point, it was my hunger speaking, but all night as I was walking around, I saw people passing by carrying skewers of it and I had no idea what it was, but if it’s deep fried and it’s on a stick-- just how bad could it be-- tasting wise. So I’m glad I went for it even if that meant I suffered and woke up with a puffy face the next morning.

KFC chicken doesn't taste that great. At least when I tried it at the stadium.

It was a failure on my part for the lack of food photos, but seeing as how crazy Saturday flew by, I’d give myself a break. If anything, I made up for it on Sunday when I met up with a friend at Edae.

Coming Up Day 4: Exploring Edae, Insadong and Hongdae. Korean BBQ. Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream. Noraebang.

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, by Amy

In Bay Area, Food

Matcha Love (San Jose, CA)

0Comments

, by Amy

In Food, Korean

Seoul Food: Kpop Entertainment Companies & Shopping (Day 2)

Seoul Ready for Friday

Day 2 of my Seoul trip was centered mostly around… kpop. To be precise, I suppose you could call it a treasure map hunt except we were keeping an eye out for Korean Entertainment companies. Never mind the possible appearance of a kpop idol, which didn't happen to my disappointment.

After getting up bright and early the next morning, the two of us headed down to the lobby to try out the breakfast buffet. And I have to say, it was pretty extravagant. During the few days we were there, the quality and quantity of food they had at the buffet was great and consistent. I wished I took photos of all the food that was there, but I was more focused with eating—and even then I forgot to take pictures of my plates.

They had an assortment of cold Korean side dishes (kimchi, pickled daikon, pickled small crabs, pan-fried tofu and etc.), dim sum (this area, they were lacking. It tasted like the ones you can purchase from 99 Ranch), udon and omelets (made to order), your standard western breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, sausages etc.) and cold cereals. If that wasn’t enough, there was also a salad bar, fruit bar, cold dessert bar (packaged yogurt, hand mixed yogurt) and baked goods area for those who just want to eat bread in the morning.

Steamed egg custard, dim sum, bacon and a very small piece of fermented crab

Expertly made omelet. I want those skills.

More bacon (you know me), potato hash, sausage, smoked salmon, pan-fried tofu and silken tofu

Thanks for the breakfast vouchers Seoul Palace Hotel! It saved us the trouble of buying breakfast every morning.

The Game is On!

[Cue the Sherlock song]

But no, if there’s ever a time to listen to a song while reading my blog post, the time is now.

After the first (and arguably most important) meal of the day, it was time to get down to business. We planned to spend Friday morning tracking down the Entertainment companies around the area. I did some research before arriving to Seoul and that was the only thing that I had on hand besides the subway map I grabbed from the front desk earlier that morning.

The goal was to find: JYP, FNC, CUBE, SM and if possible CUBE CAFÉ all before lunch time. We left the hotel at approximately 10 AM, I believe and took the subway to Apgujeong.

It was right before the World Cup Series.

Apgujeong Rodeo is a long street filled with brand name shopping. There were high-end department stores and huge “gallery” shops dedicated to familiar names like Cartier, Tiffany’s, Louis Vutton, Tory Burch and etc. Think if they took out all the high-end stores from Valley Fair Mall and gave them a 5,000+ square feet boutique. Out of curiosity, the two of us headed inside a department store and boy, oh boy, for a second there, I thought I was K-Drama chaebol-royalty. There was a doorman who was in impeccable uniform who bowed and opened the door for you and when you enter, everybody bows.

It’s very surreal and I find it odd, but this is a culture difference. A+ on customer service. That’s for sure.

After a brief detour (but really… we got lost), we were finally heading the right direction. During this incredibly long walk down the street, we were also desperately trying to find wi-fi. Now, in America, Starbucks offers free fast wi-fi, but Korea… doesn’t. Okay, well they do, but you need to be a resident living in Korea. So silly me, thinking that wi-fi was readily available, I bought the Yuzu Shaken Iced Tea. The grandé set me back a whopping ₩5,000.

And here I thought Starbucks back home was expensive. I find that food in Korea is cheap, but anything that’s not a Korean brand is more expensive. So basically anything American, like KFC, Starbucks, McDonalds and etc, will be equivalent if not pricier than what you find in the states.

After our first failed attempt, we wandered in and out of various cafés asking if they offer wi-fi until we found it in Caffe Bene. My friend ordered a latte (sweet potato, I believe) and we just sat there for a bit to check on our social media platforms and to email my parents.

It was impossible to take a clear photo because the trees were in the way.

Not long afterwards, we continued our journey (I use this loosely because really, we were just taking a brisk walk down possibly one of the cleanest streets I’ve seen ever in my entire life). And eventually, we found it! And by it I mean Cube Entertainment. That was the first entertainment company we ran across.

After doing the fan girl touristy thing where I snapped a few photos, we headed down the street and found JYP. Now JYP Entertainment was right across from Dunkin Donuts and whereas Cube was pretty empty (fans wise), there were a couple girls who were seated inside Dunkin Donuts who didn’t seem like they were just there for the donuts—if you know what I mean.

A little more walking got us to FNC Entertainment. There was a humungous CN Blue banner hanging off the building, so it was hard to miss.

Last but not least was SM Entertainment. The idols must be out and about because the only fan I saw at SM was the girl who was sitting by herself in the photo. What I noticed was that FNC and SM were in a residential area. At first I thought we were heading the wrong direction, but they were tucked in such a private residential area. Right across from SM Entertainment was a park for goodness’ sake.

So as we were heading back from the direction we came, we decided to search for Cube Café as well. Since we were in the area. But well… lets just say we took a small detour before finally location Cube Café. Sadly, we did not run into any of the idols while we were there, but I did grab a refreshing green tea latte and I will never turn down free wi-fi in Korea.

By this time, it was already past 1 PM in the afternoon. So by the time we made our way back to the Express Bus Terminal Station, we needed to eat something. Jet lag does weird things to my appetite. I'm almost never really hungry. Stopping by one of small restaurants in the “food court,” we shared a roll of mixed Kimbap (anchovies, kimchi and beef) and a bowl of oden. By this time it was close to 3 PM.

The Aftermath

This was when I decided that since we were so exhausted from all the activities from earlier that morning, we would skip out on the Ultra Music Festival today and instead go tomorrow. After all, it was two days and we didn’t know any of the acts that were playing on Friday. That was a mistake that eventually cost us the Ultra Experience.

But… more on that on Saturday!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Instead, we went back to the hotel, freshened up and decided to explore and shop til we dropped at the Express Bus Terminal Shopping Mall. And for all of you out there who like to shop, this place has the best deals when it comes to clothes. We soon figured out that all the small shops out there with the exceptions of “specialized” boutiques carry the same clothes, but just varies in the price. But the best deal was in the Express Bus Shopping. I’ve seen clothes that they sell in Hongdae or Ewha, but ₩1000 - ₩5000 more expensive than what I saw in the Express Bus Terminal.

Needless to say, a lot of damage was done that night.

After a few hours of shopping, we finally made time to eat. Going back to the food court area, we stopped by another stand and ordered dinner. I got an order of Tonkatsu and it was one of the best tonkatsu I have ever eaten. It had the right crispy-ness from the bread crumbs and yet it was still succulent when you bite into it. I don’t know if it was the thickness of the pork or just the coating or everything combined, but it was delicious.

Your standard radish & kimchi combo

THIS was awesome.

Even if I did find the frosted corn flakes on my salad a little odd, but nevertheless I scarfed it all down. And if I remember clearly, it was pretty reasonable too. I think it was around ₩6500 and the beauty of Korea was that there was no tax and no tips.

For desserts, we ordered shaved ice from Eskimo Hawaii. Or shaved snow? It was a very fine milky texture topped with a lot of red beans and two pieces of pumpkin. Pricing-wise, it’s similar to what you may pay in America for shaved ice. I find that desserts and drinks in cafes don’t vary much in price between Korea and America.

Coming Up Day 3: Ultra Music Festival. KFC. Myeongdong. Street Eats

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, by Amy

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Spreadz (Santa Clara, CA)

Spreadz-- Everything but hold the Onions

Seoul Food: Ultra Music Festival & Myeongdong (Day 3)

Ready, Set, Go! Ultra Music Korea… disaster!

Lost in Translation: Multinational Myeongdong

Matcha Love (San Jose, CA)

Much Love for Matcha Love

Seoul Food: Kpop Entertainment Companies & Shopping (Day 2)

Seoul Ready for Friday

The Game is On!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

About me

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Spreadz (Santa Clara, CA)

Spreadz-- Everything but hold the Onions

Seoul Food: Ultra Music Festival & Myeongdong (Day 3)

Ready, Set, Go! Ultra Music Korea… disaster!

Lost in Translation: Multinational Myeongdong

Matcha Love (San Jose, CA)

Much Love for Matcha Love

Seoul Food: Kpop Entertainment Companies & Shopping (Day 2)

Seoul Ready for Friday

The Game is On!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

About me

Stay in the Loop

Follow by Email

Talk to Me

recent posts

Blog Archive

Labels

Followers

Featured Post Via Labels

Instagram

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