It's Good Karma-

Vegan Cafe.


This post is long overdue. I've been eating at Good Karma since I moved to San Jose. They showed me how much can be done with tofu. I have to admit that I haven't eaten there often in the past few years-ever since they moved from 7th and Santa Clara to 1st Street.

When I moved to SJ 5 years ago (can't believe it's been that long!), Good Karma was owned by a nice older Vietnamese couple. I used to go there after work and eat dinner for five dollars when I was a poor volunteer and that was as much as I could spend on dinner.

GK is owned by some hip younger white guy(s)? now and it's got a new location and style to match. They have live music and art shows and they used to have bingo nights. The food is pretty much the same and the prices are still great but I just haven't had the same loyalty since the switchover.

We had some GK again tonight though and it was like old times. I had tofu scramble and Thai curry. John had spicy basil tofu and tofu in black bean sauce.

I need to get back soon and get some peppery turkey (that used to be my favorite on sandwiches) and try the Jamaican jerk tofu and spicy roasted red pepper hummus.

We tried the tofu chocolate mousse pie. I've been wanting to try this since I saw Jessica eating it once. It's really good--and I definitely think I could make it myself.

Two for one Vegetable? Can't Beet That!

I'm trying to make a dent in my ongoing list of new foods to try. Mercados Suvianda on 6th and Santa Clara in downtown SJ has provided all of the following new food experiences. They carry specialty items to cater to Latin American clientele and they also have many Asian foods.

Beets
I have had beets before, but I've never made them myself. I boiled some beets, let them cool and sliced them. We ate them with avocado slices and a homemade yoghurt sauce (also a first), it tasted awesome but it looked kind of ugly. Also, I learned that you can eat the greens on the beets as well. I might try this soon because I saw some good looking beets at the farmers market.

Flan
Seems strange that I've never had flan since I see it all the time. I'm not a huge fan but I'm glad I tried it. It's just not my type of dessert, I'd rather have something more complex and less gelatinous.



Key Limes
I've wanted to try these for years, ever since I read about them in the Consuming Passions book about southern cooking. Author Micheal Lee West had never had a fresh key lime because they are so hard to find. Suvianda sells them by the bag once in awhile and sells them separately right now. I had to take advantage of the opportunity to use real key limes so I used them to make key lime pie. These little guys are great, they have the taste and smell of lime candy, but sour, of course. I guess the artificial flavor is based on key limes rather than Persian limes (the ones you usually see in the grocery store.)



Asian Pear (known by several names, like apple pear and papple)
I think of this one as a snooty fruity because it often comes with its own little net wrapper to protect it. It was expensive--probably close to $3.00. I really enjoyed it, it's like an extremely juicy apple with the flavor of a pear. I was afraid it was going to be a bad experience like the grapple, but I would eat this again.

Manila Mango
Awesome! It's a smaller mango with the texture of an avocado and a yellow skin. It's not fibrous like a regular mango so no need to floss afterward. I am a manila mango convert.

Farmers Market

I had a little bit of time to check out the new farmers market today and I was pretty pleased with it. It was mostly strawberries and root vegetables for sale, which makes sense for the season in California. There were some stands with prepared food and vendors selling tea, olives, bags, handmade soaps, and the like.

I didn't get any strawberries because they're 99 cents a package at Suvianda right now, but I will definitely be trying the organic strawberries next week. I bought some spinach but I'd like to see some mixed greens and tomatoes in the future. For the first day and the hot weather, I think it had a good turn out and was really well organized. I'm looking forward to more variety in the weeks ahead. The organizers were cleaning up when I got off of work tonight and they did a great job, you'd never know they were there.

I hope the San Jose State community takes advantage of this. In my ethnographic methods class last semester we had to interview students and faculty about their health and it was a recurring theme that people wanted fresh and local produce options. It's hard to get the word out though so I'm wondering what's being done. I haven't seen or heard anything on campus yet.

right out the front door...

-The San Pedro Square farmers market will be back next Friday.
-The corrected press release follows:

City Hall Farmer's Market 3-7:30pm Starts Tues 4/21/09

The Tuesday Market provides a full-city sustainable marketplace that uses Earth Day as a jumping off point to promote greener lifestyle messages like living/working/buying local, eating organic, building/using renewable resources, and supporting green businesses.

Partners include City of San Jose Environmental Services Department, Metro Newspapers, San Jose State University, the San Jose Downtown Association, the San Jose Downtown Residents Association and other stakeholders

This is an opportunity to adopt new practices and improve the quality of our environment for a sustainable San Jose. We encourage you to walk, take convenient VTA Public Transit, or ride your bike to our free bike-parking area. If you must drive, we have two-hour parking validation for shoppers only.

The Tuesday Market is a "ZERO WASTE" event. Please bring your own reusable shopping bag or basket.

Tuesday Market is located on 5th St. between San Fernando Street and City Hall Plaza, and will be held every Tuesday from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. beginning April 21, 2009.

9 - week pilot program through June 16

full 20 - week program through September 1

BEST DAY EVER

After drinking Yuban brand coffee for a week I had my favorite Jeremiah's Pick Dark Roast Breakfast Blend back in house today. Little did I know this would be the beginning of the most awesome day ever. The first emails I read today while I was drinking my coffee were the following:

1. I was accepted to University College Dublin for the 09-10 school year.
2. I got my financial aid for next year.
3. Photos of a border collie puppy.

When I got back from the computer lab there was a notice on my door marked urgent. I thought I was being evicted on my celebration day, but it turns out that the gods are smiling down on me because...

"The City of San Jose and San Jose State University have elected to hold a Farmer's Market on all of 5th street, every Tuesday, beginning April 21st, through September 1, 2009, from 12:00 noon, to 8:00 pm."

This is directly in front of my door. I can literally walk outside on Tuesdays and have farmers there with fresh food. It's too good to be true. I will probably go twice on these days, once before class to have a good choice, and once before they close up to get deals because they don't like to bring food back to the farm from the market. I'm going to be swimming in strawberries and tomatoes and greens and melons and avocados...

What a fantastic day, this was exactly the lift I needed. This week started off terribly but the last two days have really been reinvigorating. Perfect timing! I'm going to go have an Arcade Fire dance party with myself and get ready for work, which can't deter my good mood today. From now on, at every table I wait on, I can remind myself that I will have next year to study and not work, for once.

Anniversary Weekend

I feel like this title could be longer, "Anniversary Weekend for a couple who have evolved from people who didn't cook to people whose relationship is based around cooking together." Or maybe not...

John and I had our third anniversary last weekend and celebrated true to form--we ate and drank some good food. We also both got each other cookbooks as gifts. (Go figure!) I got "500 Cupcakes" which has recipes like Eggplant Caviar Muffins and Rhubarb and Ginger Cupcakes along with some more conventional ones. I got John, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Bittman has never let us down with How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, so it should be good. He is a food journalist who I respect as much as any chef, you can check out his column in The New York Times and he's also in Spain: On the Road Again on PBS.org.

Saturday we tried a new downtown eatery- the Silk Road Bistro. The name is a clever reflection of the variety of food they offer, Indian, Mediterranean, and Pakistani. I had a samosa, naan, basmati rice, and some vegetable balls..that's the easiest way to describe them, they were like meatballs except they were made out of veggies, and they were excellent. They contained the best paneer I've ever had and it's worth going back just for the sauce. I'm not sure what was in it, but it was spicy and garlicky. This dish is called malai kofta on the menu, described as "mixed vegetable patties, cooked in a creamy gravy sauce." When I go back, I'd like to try their spicy chili naan and their paneer wrap.

Sunday we went back to the place where we had our first date, Trial's Pub. The beer was better than the food, but it was good beer so that's not a terrible thing. We had some Hoegaarden and Stella Artois and had a curry chips appetizer. I love these curry chips. I got the vegetable curry dinner because the Mediterranean plate isn't in season yet. John's dinner was better than mine, he got a shepherd's pie, which to me just seems like meaty gravy with mashed potatoes and cheese on top. I did a little research on shepherd's pie because I was curious about its origins. I figured it was just a peasant food that has retained popularity. That's pretty accurate, its origins are traced back to when potatoes became an affordable crop for the poor. Traditionally, the meat is leftovers that are turned into the base for the pie while the mashed potatoes become the crust.



Finally, we drank good wine all weekend. Saturday, we had some 7 Deadly Zins and Sunday we had Franciscan Cabernet. Good tip--you can get the 2005 Franciscan Cab at Target for $11.99-that's a steal for this caliber of wine. I'm going to get a couple of bottles and save them, it will be excellent through 2013. For dessert, John brought some cheesecake down from North Beach. Stella Pastry and Caffe on Columbus has the best cheesecake I've ever had. It's an event to eat this cheesecake. (It is a party in your mouth!) Saturday we split a piece of blueberry cheesecake and Sunday we had chocolate cheesecake with strawberries.
All in all, good eats and good company.