Egg/Honey Balls

Best Japanese snack ever. Brings back childhood memories. So simple...but so good! They melt in your mouth...but they're crunchy too. They're called egg balls, honey balls, or baby ball cookies, to list a few names I've seen/heard of. These are made of milk, eggs, and soy ingredients. Can buy 'em in different kinds of packages (but these little packets connected together are the most fun) from any Japanese grocery store. I get mine from Fresno's Central Fish or R-N Market, Berkeley's Berkeley Bowl, San Francisco's Japantown, or Oakland's Chinatown.

"Bourbon" Japanese cookie things

Very lightweight, not too sweet, and crunchy. What's the flavor? I can't read katakana, but I think it has a light chocolate flavor. I could eat 50 of these. One of my favorite Japanese snack things. Got 'em from J-Town's Nijiya (grocery store thing).

Manpuku (College Ave): 7/23/08

The YWCA's English in Action program is so cool. My English partner, who's from France, and I were walking back from Safeway today, and we decided to have dinner together. I asked her if she wanted to have Mexican food cuz there was a Mexican place just ahead, but she said she wanted to try Chinese or Japanese. I didn't think there'd be a really quick Chinese or Japanese food place nearby (we had like 15 minutes to eat!), but we came across Manpuku, where you can order or just pick up sushi trays/boxes. So we got two and she tried everything. And chopsticks. This was her very first time having sushi...so I was really nervous. She ended up liking it all (even the wasabi and ginger)! Whew. It took me years to like raw fish, and she liked it on the first bite! I think she and I are going to have SO much fun eating together over the next few months. haha. She's gonna show me how to make crepes with beer! And I thought I wouldn't have anything to look forward to about turning 21 (I don't drink or really like the taste of alcohol)! The first alcoholic beverage I'm buying will be beer for crepes. How odd. :D Oh--just to clarify, she said the beer makes the crepes thicker.

Anyways! Here's what we ate today:




The presentation was a bit messy, but they were good. Kinda expensive, but it's sushi...and it was very convenient for us at the time (i.e., we needed something Japanese or Chinese that we could get and eat within 15 minutes).

Next time we gotta try non-sushi Japanese food. And fried chicken. And Chinese food. And French food? Dunno. Mmmm...food.

Biryani House ... June or July '08

In Berkeley @ University & Shattuck. Went here because I had heard it was good and because we needed a place that would be open late on Sundays. Turns out this place is open on Sundays until 10:30pm!

Chicken Palak: $5.99
Chicken Tikka Masala: $5.99
Naan: $1.00 each
Chai: FREE & bottomless

This was Derrick's Chicken Tikka Masala (this was his first time having Indian so he thought he'd play it safe with a popular dish). Oh--he wanted me to note the number 1...because he thinks he's cool. :D



Naan (hmm...a tad bit burnt and not very fluffy):


My Chicken Palak (looks like poop but tastes wonderful):



Derrick loved his...and I loved mine. The naan coulda been better, but my chicken was really tender, the chai was good, and they had little takeout boxes you can just grab yourself. And free, self-serve chai is always the best. Cheap! Spacey (so not noisy like House of Curries, although I still love House of Curries). I'll definitely go back.