liang's kitchen

cupertino, ca

website

lots of great asian food in the south bay. derek managed to find another spot for taiwanese food. derek and i took his parents there for dinner. excellent beef noodle soup - ask for "ma la" if you want it spicy. but my favorite dish were the beef rolls - fried cong you bing (onion pancakes) flattened, filled with beef and cilantro, and formed into a roll. like a light flaky onion-y egg roll. there's other great stuff on the menu - hopefully we'll be back soon to try more.

a & j restaurant

cupertino, ca

link to yelp

craving a good bowl of noodles, we headed to cupertino village. a&j restaurant is a very basic chinese restaurant with a short menu. walk in, someone usually gestures at a table. it's the kind of restaurant where you don't have to order tea or water, they just throw it onto the table after you sit down.

we each order a bowl of noodles. derek gets the beef noodle soup. i usually do too, but this time i decided to try the tripe noodle soup. it was good, but not as flavorful as the beef soup.

southland flavor cafe

cupertino, ca

website

cupertino village is a complex with a ranch 99, a few bakeries, and several excellent chinese restaurants with strange names. southland flavor cafe? it's probably a literal translation of the chinese name, but a better translation would be "southern taiwanese cuisine." i wonder if i can make a career out of fixing chinglish. derek's parents happened to be in town while val was visiting from chicago, so we made a trip out to cupertino village. managed to pull tiffany away from her studies too for a mini family reunion.

my favorite (pictured) was the pork rice bowl which can feed a small army (or me) for about $6. another favorite was the beef noodle soup, served with the wide noodles that derek likes. the only downside to this place is that every other table orders the malodorous and aptly named "stinky tofu" (that's actually the english translation). the state of california should mandate "stinky tofu only" sections for taiwanese restaurants. we always try to finish our food quickly when we hear a nearby table say "chou dou fu" because that stuff is deadly.