Category — Peninsula

I always wanted to try Flea Street Cafe in Menlo Park. The owner, JZ Cool, had built a series of restaurants, including the Cool Cafe at one of my favorite museums in the Bay Area, the Cantor Center at Stanford with a beautiful outdoor Rodin sculpture garden, and JZCoolEatery in downtown Menlo Park.

With my boyfriend last Friday night, we decided to go to Flea Street. Once we stepped inside, the decor felt quite homey, and service quite fast and good. We were excited to see a variety of local and organic food, and Vivek ordered a heirloom tomato fettucine (see picture) while I tried the corn seasonal soup, baby lettuce salad, and red beat harley farms goat cheese ravioli.

Out of all of these, my red beat harley farms ravioli was the most original, beautifully presented and tasty. Unfortunately, the local baby lettuce salad was quite horrible. I definitely could have made a better salad at home. Inside the salad were leaves that reminded me of weeds, the least tasty and dry lettuce leaves I have tasted in awhile. In fact, it tasted like it came out of bag. Vivek’s fettucine was so-so, but felt like it wasn’t worth the price at $19. I also felt like they did not have a lot of vegetarian entree options, which made me opt for a series of appetizers.

I think I’d go back for lunch or brunch, but not back for dinner. Of note are special farmer dinner series where you can meet the local farm workers and eat their fresh produce. Otherwise, it was a mixed review–Greens Restaurant in SF makes salads that are definitely better than this. Located on 3607 Alameda de las Pulgas, Menlo Park.

Last Thursday I went back to an organic restaurant called Sirayvah Organic Thai in San Carlos. The food presentation and organic selection was not bad. Note not everything is organic, but they used organic tofu, rice, vegetables and had a good assortment of teas and wines. Since I’m vegetarian, I tried a veggie Pad See Ew and Penang Curry with a friend Amanda, who is trying to open healthy lifestyle restaurant herself. The food came out fast, the flavor good and service very nice. The only thing I have to complain about is the prices–definitely more expensive than the usual Thai. But if you’re willing to spend a little more, I’d say give this place a try. Located on 366 El Camino Real, San Carlos.

My boyfriend and I discovered a new market near our place in San Carlos yesterday afternoon. We checked out Sigona’s, a 20 year old local market with outposts in Stanford Shopping Center and a much larger one in Redwood City, across from Costco. Once we stepped in, we were surrounded by produce everywhere shipped in daily. They clearly had organic produce labeled with reasonable pricing and selection. The only complaint I have is that I couldn’t tell which farm or region the produce came from. There were some farm names, but not consistently labeled. Located in Stanford Shopping Center, Stanford and at 2345 Middlefield Road, Redwood City.

I had been hanging out at my high school friend, Nakako’s, living room and saw a flyer for japanese groceries on the floor. I picked it up and saw alot of specials on organic tofu ($1) and organic soy sauce, and produce. She told me Japanese people naturally have a lot of organic food. I went to the Nijaya in San Francisco and San Mateo. SF is much bigger, but San Mateo still had alot of Japanese staples. Some of the things I saw organic was ginger, broccoli, soy sauce, somen, soba noodles to name a few. Nijiya is located in San Mateo, San Francisco and Mountain View.