Beast Blog

chile rellenos!

i am a huge fan of chile rellenos (you know, the mexican stuffed peppers that are dredged in an egg batter and cooked, then served in a sauce with tortillas?). but there are so many bad ones out there. too old, too bland, over battered, over cooked.

but today i wandered into Tacubaya, the taqueria started by the folks who own Doña Tomas in Oakland.

i plunked down $10 (plus tip) for the chile relleno & the fresh homemade horchata. While you only get one pepper, it was large & stuffed to the gills. and not just cheese, but cheese (several kinds), fresh corn, and more. the sauce was not a traditional ranchera sauce, but a verde (tomatillo) sauce, topped with fresh cream and cilantro. YUM!

it was easily the BEST relleno i've ever had.

Tacubaya:
1788 4th St.
(Cross street: Delaware)
Berkeley, CA 94710
510-525-5160
Daily Hours: 10 AM-9 PM

the saga for a decent breakfast, part 251

One of the few things I don't like about the Bay Area is the lack of cheap, hearty breakfasts. Bacon & eggs manage to be under $5 everywhere else in the country! And frankly, for the typical $7-$8 Bay Area breakfast doesn't give you much more than a $5 breakfast elsewhere.

So my quest for good breakfasts has led me far & wide. Here is my current fave:

1. Montclair Egg Shop
(6126 Medau Pl, Oakland)
510.339.9554

This place is GREAT! while it can be a schlep to get up to Montclair (for us flatlanders), I find it's well worth it. Quirky decor (old timey nickel amusements), friendly servers, reasonable prices, and good food.

The potato pancakes have lots of scallions, the eggs blackstone (weekends only) is awesome, the coffee is nice and strong!

I also like:
Bette's Diner (4th Street, Berkeley)

Homemade Cafe (San Pablo & Dwight, Berkeley)

Broombush Cafe (San Pablo, Berkeley)

Meal Ticket (San Pablo & Gilman, Berkeley)

Cafe Cacao

Cafe Cacao, the new restaurant at the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory, offers free wi-fi. Along with some really tasty chocolate baked goods.

Fun Stuff in the Beast: Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory

This is the first in what I hope is a series of Fun Stuff in the Beast posts, activities to get you out of the house and enjoying what the area has to offer.

Yesterday, a bunch of friends went to the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory for a tasting and a tour. Tours are everyday at 10:30, 2:30, and 3:30.

The entrance. Which also lets you know the address.

The tasting room.

The bulk of the tour takes place in the tasting room, where our guide taught us about the harvesting and production of cacao, and then the manufacture of chocolate at the factory. This was interspersed with free handouts of their milk, semi-sweet, and bittersweet bars, as well as a dip of their chocolate sauce. All very tasty.

We then walked through the factory.

First you see the roaster:

In front of the roaster was this charmingly non-modern desk set-up:

No laptop. No ethernet. Not even a phone!

Everything in the roasting room is covered in fine brown powder.
(Ibex is the animal in the Scharffen Berger logo:

Then you move to the next room, where the chocolate is actually made.

Everyone's favorite machine is the melangeur:

Chocolate goo!

Ever wonder what's in a big tub of cocoa butter? Now you know:

The tour ends in the gift shop (naturally), where everyone is quite primed to spend obscene amounts of money of all manner of confection. I neglected to photograph the gift shop, though.

Tom ate at the Tomate Cafe

The Tomate Cafe is a funky breakfast/lunch spot in West Berkeley, not far from Vik's Chaat House. It's at 2265 5th Street, which puts it between Bancroft and Allston. Or Addison. I always get those two confused.

From the street

Order at the counter.

The breakfasts it serves are what you'd expect -- egg dishes, pancakes, french toast, etc. We went there yesterday morning. I had the special crepe (which involved mushrooms and spinach) and she had the breakfast burrito, and both were excellent.

We sat outside on the patio, which is very animal-friendly. At other tables were a beautiful parrot, and Stuart, a sausage-of-a-dog who pretty much seemed to rule the roost.

Free bacon was given to the hounds. The humans, of course, have to pay.

Tomate Cafe is run by the people who operate Venus on Shattuck. Tomate is open from 8am-3pm every day. We will be back.

Caffe Trieste coming to West Berkeley

San Francisco coffeehouse stalwart Caffe Trieste (think heart-of-North-Beach, beats, and Coppola), is making it's way across the Bay. It's good to see the retail strip along San Pablo evolve. I just hope it can continue to make its way south.

Disaster Preparedness Supplies!

This just came into my inbox:
------
Dear Neighbors,
Here's an easy way to pick up those emergency supplies you've been meaning
to get, and learn more about how to prepare and make you, your family, and
your neighborhood safer in the event of emergency or disaster.
This Saturday, October 25, Truitt and White Lumber Company and the City of
Berkeley are joining together to put on a large, multi-media emergency
supply exposition. Individual emergency supplies, and supplies for whole
neighborhoods, businesses and community agencies will be available for
buying and ordering - at favorable prices. Demonstrations and hands-on
exhibits will give you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with emergency
equipment and techniques.
EMERGENCY SUPPLY EXPO / BUY AND LEARN
TRUIIT AND WHITE LUMBER COMPANY
642 HEARST STREET, BERKELEY
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25TH
1PM - 4PM
Demonstrations, exhibits, fire hoses, hard hats, generators, music, medical
supplies. drawing prizes, giveaways, firefighters, building contractors -
lots of knowledge, and lots of supplies - and fun mixed in!
This is a wonderful opportunity for getting prepared,
-----

It's PUG-MANIA

A peak at Craigslist points out not one, but TWO pug events in the next two weeks:

On October 18, Way out in Danville (yes, I know, not normally covered here, but this was too good to pass up), you can go to a reading of The Tao of Pug.

And on October 24, a little closer to the bay, there's East Bay Pug Sunday in Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina.

Woofin' and Hoofin'

This Sunday, The Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society hosts Bay to Barkers. A nice walk and a good cause. Indiana (pictured below) will see you there!

Cinema al Fresco

Summer's here, and the East Bay has a number of outdoor cinema opportunities....

Jupiter in Berkeley opens tonight (July 2) with "The Great Train Robbery" and other silent classics. They haven't posted their schedule on the site, yet, but their ad in the paper lists:

• Eye Candy - Beatdown Thursdays, various shorts and visuals, presented on two screens
• Weekly independent films - Sunday, July 6, "Channel X: The Movie" A Hip-hop Animation Festival
• Animation Tuesdays - Tuesday, July 8, Hip-Hop Animation presented by Alfonso Amey Designs

Pyramid in Berkeley begins its films on July 19th, with "Swingers", and then on July 26th they'll show "Office Space".

And don't forget the Liberation Drive-In the last weekend every month in Oakland. According to the site:
"FUTURE THEME-NIGHTS INCLUDE:
July 25 & 25: Socio-Political Night for the Headz, w/ GNN and other video activists!
August 29 & 30: Hip-hop Night w/ Style Wars, the Freshest Kids, Sydewayz, and more."

Tokyo Fish Market!!!

OK_ i confess. i am a seafood snob. i'm also a sushi snob. but i'm also not always flush. my solution? go to Tokyo Fish Market. On San Pablo just north of Gilman in Berkeley, this little storefront backs a big briny wallop!

first off, everything is of the highest quality. sparkling seafood, tons of sashimi grade items, and all the stuff you need to go with it. (shiso leaf, quail eggs...)


every thursday, they currently have a live crab special: $3.99 a pound! they usually have uni ( i looooove uni), and last time i went, i got 1/2 a pound of monkfish liver (ankimo) for $6!!! (for the unintiated, ankimo is the foie gras of the sea...)

this makes me a very happy gal. oh yeah, they also have several flavors of gummies (litchi, muscat, pineapple, kiwi, etc...) & that makes my wife happy as well (gummies are her candy of choice while watching DVDs...)



my second fave place for seafood is berkeley bowl. less of a selection, but very decent, & the quality is great. become a regular & the fish counter people are very nice, getting super-fresh stuff for you from back.