Three-day Taiwanese food tour around San Jose, California

My family haven’t been to California for quite a while, and we have been to Seattle for our Asian food tour many many times. Therefore, in this July 4th long weekend, we went for a 3-day Taiwanese food tour around San Jose.

Day 1

Our Southwest flight from Portland, Oregon lands at San Jose airport around noon, and then we pick up the rental car at Avis. There is a long line at Avis and it takes 1 hour to get our rental car.

We have the late lunch at Taiwan Cafe (林家萬巒豬腳) at Milpitas. We arrive just minutes before they stop taking any new customer for their lunch break.

Taiwan Cafe (林家萬巒豬腳)

We order Pork Feet 萬巒豬腳, Slices Boiled Pork Large Intestine 白切大腸, Rice Cake Cooked in Barrel 筒仔米糕, Meat Ball 肉圓, Five Spiced Roll 五香雞捲, and Taiwanese Style Oyster Pan Fry 臺式蚵仔煎. Meat Ball 肉圓 is just ok, but all others are pretty good.

Left: Pork Feet 萬巒豬腳. Middle: Slices Boiled Pork Large Intestine 白切大腸. Right: Rice Cake Cooked in Barrel 筒仔米糕.

Left: Meat Ball 肉圓. Middle: Five Spiced Roll 五香雞捲. Right: Taiwanese Style Oyster Pan Fry 臺式蚵仔煎.

After lunch, we check in at our hotel. We stay at Courtyard by Marriott Milpitas Silicon Valley, and we get a free upgrade to a King suite. The room is spacious and is well-equipped.

We have some short rest in our room, and then we go to visit Santa Clara University. It is a nice, medium-sized school. Walking in the campus also gives us good exercise to be ready for our dinner.

Our dinner is at Bento Express (台北食堂) at Sunnyvale. You can select the main entree and 4 side dishes. They have many side dishes to choose from, and they are generous in portion. My wife and I love the side dishes here and they taste just like what we get at Taiwan. I liked the food so much that I forgot to take photos.

Day 2

Our breakfast is at Chef Wu’s 歡喜樓 at Newark. It seems that this restaurant was originally at South Bay area and then moved to East Bay area.

Chef Wu’s 歡喜樓

We order Rice Roll 鹹飯糰, Sesame Flatbread with Egg and Chinese Donut 三合一, Cold Noodle in Hot & Spicy Sauce with Peanuts 四川涼麵, Sweet Baked Flatbread 甜酥餅, Taiwanese Salty Soy Milk 鹹豆漿, and Sweet Soy Milk 甜豆漿. The breakfast food taste pretty good and pretty authentic. Cold Noodle in Hot & Spicy Sauce with Peanuts 四川涼麵 is not the most common type I used to get at Taiwan, but we like it anyway.

Left: Rice Roll 鹹飯糰 and Sesame Flatbread with Egg and Chinese Donut 三合一. Middle: Cold Noodle in Hot & Spicy Sauce with Peanuts 四川涼麵. Right: Sweet Baked Flatbread 甜酥餅.

Left: Taiwanese Salty Soy Milk 鹹豆漿. Right: Sweet Soy Milk 甜豆漿.

After breakfast, we drive to North Bay area to visit University of California, Berkeley. It is pretty cold at Berkeley even in July. I regret that I did not bring any jacket or coat with me. The campus has very few students left but there are quite some visitors touring the campus. It feels nice walking up-and-down the hills in the campus after our heavy breakfast.

University of California, Berkeley.

We drive back to East Bay area to have lunch at Old Taro 老芋仔麵攤 at Fremont.

Old Taro 老芋仔麵攤.

We order Braised Pork Chop with Rice 滷排骨飯, Beef Noodle Soup 紅燒牛肉麵, and Fried Tempura 炸甜不辣. They are fine. Beef Noodle Soup 紅燒牛肉麵 is the best one among them. I probably will only order noodles if I visit this restaurant again.

Left: Braised Pork Chop with Rice 滷排骨飯. Middle: Beef Noodle Soup 紅燒牛肉麵. Right: Fried Tempura 炸甜不辣.

We then drive to West Bay area to visit Stanford University. There are a lot of visitors at Stanford.

Stanford University

After visiting Stanford campus, we drive to Stanford shopping center to have good “mall walking” exercise. We order tea at Wanpo Tea Shop at Stanford shopping center.

Wanpo Tea Shop.

For dinner, we have take-out from Taiwan Porridge 小劉清粥 at Cupertino. Cold Shredded Potato 涼拌土豆絲 and Meatball Stew with Napa Cabbage 砂鍋獅子頭 are pretty good.

Day 3

This morning, we have breakfast at Sogo Tofu (永康豆腐) at San Jose. The breakfast here is just ok. They do have good soy milk. However, we will skip this restaurant next time.

We have our after-breakfast exercise at Googleplex. We walk around the campus, which is open to public. The buildings are not open to public though.

Googleplex.

Then we drive back to the hotel. We ask for a late check-out, so we can have a rest. At 2 pm, we check out from the hotel and have a late lunch at O2 Valley at Cupertino.

We order Braised Pork Chop with Rice 滷排骨飯, Sour Plum Sweet Potato Wedge 甘梅地瓜, Grilled Taiwanese Tempura 烤甜不辣, Grilled Taiwanese Sausage 烤台灣香腸, and Grilled Jumbo Squid 烤魷魚. They are all delicious.

Left: O2 Valley. Right: Braised Pork Chop with Rice 滷排骨飯.

Left: Sour Plum Sweet Potato Wedge 甘梅地瓜. Middle: Grilled Taiwanese Tempura 烤甜不辣 and Grilled Taiwanese Sausage 烤台灣香腸. Right: Grilled Jumbo Squid 烤魷魚.

After lunch, we get some tea drinks at TP Tea 茶湯會 at Cupertino. There are many people waiting to get their order. The waiting is worth it though. We order Lemon Premium Green Tea 翡翠檸檬綠, Passion Fruit Green Tea 百香綠茶, and Signature Black Tea 蔗香紅茶. They are all very good.

TP Tea 茶湯會.

Since we still have some time before we need to arrive at the airport, we drive to Eatly at Westfield Valley Fair mall. At this point, we are full so we just walk around in the store and in the mall. Then we drive back to the airport.

Two things I will remember next time:

• Bring jacket or coat to north California even in the summer.
• Bring enough cash because many Asian restaurants do not take credit card.