Ajito

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I love izakayas.  I make it a personal mission to try to eat at all of them.  Back in the city, there are very few izakayas.  Most of them tend to be located either in the South Bay or the Peninsula area.  I had heard that Ajito was as good as my absolute favorite izakaya Sumika (see post HERE) so I had to try it out for myself.

I can always appreciate good fried chicken cartilage.  Two different types of crunchiness.  One from the deep fried batter and one from the actual cartilage.  Not bad, but I've had better.  Some of the pieces were extremely hard and inedible.   

The beef tongue was probably the best dish of the meal.  Thin slices of beef marinated with a sauce that reminded of a Chinese stir fry sauce.  The texture was more beef like than tongue like, but it was super tender and juicy.

Had I know that the black pig sausage looked like Vienna sausages I probably wouldn't have ordered it.  Not only did they look like them, but they sort of tasted like them too.  Rubbery.  It didn't have the deep porky, fatty flavor of black pork.

Normally, I don't order oyako don, but I've had it at Sumika and it is fantastic there.  Most of the dishes here were disappointing so this simple chicken, egg, and rice dish turned out to be another satisfactory item.

Many people seemed to have raved about this grilled squid dish.  Personally, I've had better.  The squid is too salty here and it doesn't have that tenderness when biting into the rings.

Often izakayas either excel at the skewered dishes or the small dishes.  Since this one didn't seem to have the wow factor in the small dishes, I was really hoping that their skewers would win my tummy over.  The chicken breast was dry and flavorless.  Not even close to the juiciness and yumminess that Sumika's chicken has.

For some reason, chicken skin (kawa) was not on the menu, but upon asking the server, she said they had it available.  Winner!   Not!  The chicken skin was not cooked properly at all.  It didn't have any crispy, crackly bits.  No smokiness at all. 

I always like to eat yaki onigiri in my meals when available.  I just love the way the grilling of the rice makes a crispy crust.  At Ajito, its not bad.  It could be a little more crispy though.  The bottom of the rice ball was a bit soggy.  Overall, I have to say, this place is not at all like Sumika.  Its not even in the same league. 

     

Address:                   Ajito
                                  7335 Bollinger Rd.
                                   Ste A
                                   Cupertino, CA
 

Type:                          Japanese

Popular chomps:         black pork sausage
                                    squid
                                    chicken cartilage
                                    beef tongue

Chomp worthy:           beef tongue   

Bitter + Sweet

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Bitter + Sweet is a tiny cafe in Cupertino that sells drip coffees and Humphrey Slocombe ice cream!  Almost like a small piece of San Francisco without having to drive an hour north, especially when you are feening for some Humphrey Slocombe ice cream (see post HERE).

Red velvet is so 2012, but who cares?  I've seen and eaten many red velvet cakes, like at SusieCakes (see post HERE), and put away a lot of red velvet cupcakes, even red velvet ice cream (see post HERE), but this is my first red velvet latte.  I'm not usually a latte person, but I couldn't resist.  Its smell just like red velvet, but it still takes like a latte with a hint of chocolate.  Cute idea, but I couldn't help be be paranoid that it would stain my mouth red (which it didn't). 

Address:                    Bitter + Sweet
                                   20560 Town Center Ln
                                   San Jose, CA
 

Type:                          dessert/cafe

Popular chomps:        Humphrey Slocombe ice cream
                                    red velvet cafe 

Chomp worthy:           red velvet cafe
                                    Humphrey Slocombe ice cream 

L'epi D'or Bakery

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There's nothing more than I love than bread, except Asian breads.  L'epi Dór Bakery is another Asian bakery in the South Bay that serves up some Taiwanese and Japanese baked goods.  Along with various sweets, they do offer a wide selection of savory items, much more than at Clover Bakery (see post HERE) and Paris Bakery (see post HERE).

Up until this point, I've only eaten a couple of these savory Asian bun sandwiches so this fried chicken bun was something new.  Fried chicken strips along wtih crispy chunks cucumber that added even more crunch to the sweet, soft bun.  Pretty good, but I just wished that it was warm or served fresh.

 I've had the yakisoba bun at Clover Bakery and this one is completely different.  The yakisoba (fried noodles) is obviously made from the instant package you can buy at any Japanese market, but its still delicious.  Some added crunch or another texture would have been nice with this one.

With everything fried and stuffed into these mini sweet buns, its no surprise that a hash brown bun is offered here.  One hash brown patty is sliced in half then stuffed with a tomato and some slices of cucumber for crunch.  I really wanted to like this one, but its missing some sauce or another flavor to really kick it up.

Ah, the infamous spaghetti buns are also offered here.  Thin vermacelli noodles tossed in a sweet tomato sauce then stuffed into the bun.  L'epi D'or's version is topped with meatball instead of slices of hot dogs.  I prefer Clover's spaghetti buns to this one.  It seemed flavorless and the meat was dry. 

The fried bun with pickled mustard used the same fried buns that are usually found stuffed with curry.  This time its stuffed withe Chinese mustard greens that offer a little bit of sour, bitter, and crunch.

Address:                L'epi D'or Bakery
                               19675 Stevens Creek Blvd
                               Cupertino, CA 
                               

Type:                      bakery/Asian/Japanese/Taiwanese

Popular chomps:    custard bun
                                bento boxes
                                milk bread 

Chomp worthy:       fried chicken bun
                                yakisoba bun