The stay in San Jose is great and food is generally good at large and beauniful cafetera at the community building. There are several different counters for food and they offer many options of daily special. For me, as for many Chinese visitors to the State, to order food is not easy. I like to order food with “this” or “that”. The name of Chinese food and western food is different. The name of the Chinese food tent to very short (3 or 4 characters at most) and not specific. For western food, it is a very long and descriptive, and typically has “with” in the name. I enjoyed my large plate Roasted Half Chicken w/ Flat Parsley-Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes at Tapestry, Los Gatos. It was great, among the best American food I had have. Actually, the America menu should be easier to understand because it states the food, how it is cooked and all the ingredient. Although I can write an English blog, I still cannot read the menu well. It seems to be another language. My best practice is to look for an item with one of the following words: Chicken, Noodle, or Rice. It works great for me, since the result is very predictable. Just like I didn’t got surprised if I order orange juice.
Every meal, no matter what I ordered, it seems there are always fresh vegetables with green leafs in it. I don’t often eat this in China. I cannot remember that last time in China that I eat un-heated, fresh vegetable leafs. We eat many vegetables, but we often eat cucumber, tomato salad. We also put fruits into salad, but not leafs. For other vegetables, especially those with large leafs, we typically will fry it and turn it into hot dish. So I have some kind of feeling that I became a rabbit, with all kinds of green vagetables (which I don’t know the name) full of my mouth. Of cause, as you can imagine, I should be so-happy rabbit.
:),eating in western countries is really not so good for chinese,but i think you will get used to it gradully.
:),eating in western countries is really not so good for chinese,but i think you will get used to it gradully.
I find it strange that American food in America tastes better than American food in Shanghai.
But that seems to be the case.
I would respectfully disagree with the above statement that “eating in western countries is not so good for chinese”. Not so in places like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York City or Los Angeles Metro. If Jian Shuo have a chance to visit numerous Chinese Plazas like Milpitas Square, Little Taipei Square in Fremont, he will feel much different and foods there are pretty good, although may not compared to Hong Kong or Shanghai quality but still pretty close. Second Chinatown in SFC’s Mission District is also very good spot for excellent Chinese food, especially Cantonese style. Basically, Chinese restuarants are countless and everywhere in the Bay area, due to higher competition from Chinese eaters (1 million Chinese residence?) than other regions, the qualities are usually quite good.
Still nowhere can compare to LA’s Monteray Park’s for its authenticity. When I was living in Silicon Valley, occasionally, we’ll drive down to LA to find the best Chinese food. It’s usually worth the drive. I remember I once went to a Shanghainese restuarant in which they were serving one of the best little steam buns, full of juice and I have to admit, tasted better than the one I had in Shanghai’s Chen Huang Temple restuarant.
Stay long enough and you won’t feel so happy being a rabbit and eating raw greens any more :) Enjoy the life in SV and, if you would have time to meet up , lemme know. Have fun!
jqian, why would you find it strange that American food in US tastes better than American food in Shanghai? Was that a typo? I had 2 very bad meals at Shanghai’s finest western restaurant, Jean Georges (part of 3 on the Bund) and have almost never had a really good meal of western food in China (exceptions for the Courtyard in Beijing and Brazilian bbq places).
Haha..I like this blog. Be-leaf me, raw greens are good for you =) even if you feel like a rabbit ;)
Hi JianShuo,
Welcome.
You can relax and eat the fresh green leaves in San Jose because the washing process for fresh vegetables is carefully controlled in good restaurants and no contaminants or disease vectors are left on the raw items. It is not a good idea to eat fresh raw greens in China unless we are very familiar with the owner of the restaurant and know that complete cleaning and near-sterilization occurs in the kitchen prior to serving.
I am glad you are here and hope you have a very good time.
I live just over the hill from San Jose, by the ocean, and I have written to you once before and your blog has been very helpful to me in business.
Best wishes,
Lee
hehe you are saying something I am repeating everyday now – like a rabbit to eat those greens every lunch – exact the same word
Eating green leaves is a pretty way of life and when you get used to it, it may taste pretty good with salad dressings.
To answer “boran”‘s question, I don’t know why western food tastes bad in Shanghai. It puzzles me too. And the pricing is sometimes more expensive than that in the states. Could be because of low competition in Shanghai and ignorance of Chinese dinners to western tastes. So that management may get lazy in controlling the qualities.
Wish I’d known you were going to SF before. I could have told you some Chinese restaurants around the Bay Area — including Shanghainese style food — that would make you so impressed you would not like the Chinese food they serve in China anymore! But, you probably want to try the local food there, and be aware that in the SF Bay Area, you are eating “California cuisine” which is quite different from the rest of America, and much bettter, IMHO.
michael, absolutely! SF and LA sometimes can produce better Chinese food than even in Shanghai. Chinese in California are in the millions. And it’s said to have the most Chinese population other than Mainland China. One can live in SF or LA metro and never becomes homesick.
For western style food in Shanghai, try “Always” café at 1528, Nanjing Xi Lu – not far from JingAn temple. Their “Tournedos” beef is just excellent, and the mexican food is good too.
Happy hours, and english speaking service.
More expensive, but excellent, is the buffet at Intercontinental Hotel, Zhangyang Lu in Pudong.
Jianshuo, try a real burger in a “Jack in the Box” burger restaurant !
Better than Burger King and McDonalds.
In California, I love “In And Out” Burger, fresh meat, fresh fries, just better than any fast food chain stores.
I tried the chicken in “Jack in a box” on Geary, SFO. It tastes no big difference than McDonald.
Hi Jianshuo, try the beef-burger at JIAB next time !
The chicken burger at McDonalds are in fact better than their beef burgers,
I don’t know why… Perhaps because they have to compete so hard with KFC in big cities in China !
(I were in Yichang last year,and the two fast-food chains do always put their shops very close to eachother – maybe some special chinese policy ?)
You probably can’t find good burgers in fast food restuarants. They serve gourmet burger in many high-end family restuarants. Sometimes they can cost $7-8 a piece. In California, among fast food eateries, IN & OUT burger really stands out.
Salad…I love a good salad and is very healthy. After being in China for some time period I miss having salad since I have it with every meal.
On the other hand I miss the wide variety of chinese dishes that I’ve had while travelling through china.
I’ve found that my friends who also travel to china do better if they find some things locally they like versus living on western food.