We've been eating ridiculously good food here in Oakland. Our visit has sincerely contained two of the best meals I have ever had in my life! One was a noodle dish at an Indonesian restaurant and another was at place called "Casserole House," where the garlic-soy fried chicken was incredible.
One night, we visited Smitten for some Willy Wonka-esque liquid-nitrogen-cooled ice cream (Cookie dough with pretzels! Strawberry balsamic!).
The following day, I went to the old-timey Ice Cream Bar on a solo trip into San Francisco. The ice cream was good, but the ambiance was better!
On our last night in Oakland, Lian and his friend Mika took us out for Japanese fried chicken. We walked through the funky, graffitied streets of downtown to a pop-up restaurant called Aburaya. There, we scored a small table outside and were treated to miso-honey fried chicken, garlic umami chicken, fried avocado with wasabi mayo, and plenty of veggies on the side.
After supper we went to the historic bar at Cafe Van Kleef. The place is famous for their Salty Dog cocktails, and for good reason! They were grapefruity, sweet, tart, salty, and mellow all at once; perfectly balanced and delicious.
Lian, thanks for introducing us to all kinds of delicious foods! I love you so much!