bangkok spoon

mountain view, ca

link to yelp

this is one of derek's favorite lunch spots near the office. he ordered the pad kee mow and i ordered the pad see ew. he he enjoys the thinner longer noodles that they use here, although i prefer thicker rice noodles, similar to ho fun in chinese restaurants. decor was very nice, prices were good, service was friendly and speedy. food was decent, although derek's was a little bit better because it was spicy. my tofu had a little bit of a char on it which i liked but others might not. overall, not a destination restaurant, but a good spot for some noodles if you're in the area.

fu lam mum

mountain view, ca

website

fu lam mum is a pretty large dim sum restaurant, with the carts and everything. it doesn't have a very wide selection of dim sum, but they definitely have the basics covered. we ordered ha gow (shrimp balls wrapped in rice paper), shu mai (pork wrapped in noodle), lo mai fun (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), luo buo gow (turnip cake with pork) and ham sui gok (fried mochi dumplings filled with pork). sorry for the mix of cantonese and mandarin pronunciations, but that's how derek and i order dim sum.

each dim sum dish was okay - nothing spectacular and maybe a little on the greasy side for my tastes. the luo buo gow wasn't crispy enough and the ham sui gok didn't have enough pork in it. my favorite was the ma la gow (malaysian yellow cake) - which we had to make a special request for. it's extremely light, airy, not-too-sweet yellow cake, steamed in a basket. overall, i wish fu lam mum offered more variety, like the amazing spread we had at emerald in san diego. the search for quality dim sum in the south bay continues ...

ryowa

mountain view, ca

link to yelp

i really miss all of the fantastic ramen shops we used to eat at in nyc (and the ones we tried in tokyo, of course). the south bay is seriously lacking in the ramen department. derek managed to find a spot on castro street in mountain view. it was pretty crowded when we went on a saturday afternoon. we had to wait a while before we could grab a stool. the shop reminds me of the ramen bars we visited in tokyo - simple layout, condiments on the bar, stool, wait until a spot opens before you sit and slurp.

i ordered the tsukumen, dipping noodles - while it was good and satisfied my craving, it wasn't nearly as good as the tsukumen with fatty crispy pork at setagaya. it's also missing the dense chewy noodles. but ryowa has buttered corn, good broth, decent noodles, it will do just fine. i'm hoping the crowd of eager ramen eaters indicates a growing interest in this japanese specialty and we'll see more ramen shops open up in the area.

luu noodle

mountain view, ca

link to yelp

life's been busy, involving a lot of travel lately, but i'm going to try to catch up with some entries this morning. derek and i discovered this awesome noodle spot close to target in mountain view. it's perfect -- start with a big bowl of cheap noodles to carbo-load before a major target shopping trip.

i get the combo noodles with wontons and meatballs. vietnamese/chinese style noodles. good, clear broth. perfectly dense and chewy noodles. when derek and first went here, they included fried pork skin as a garnish - yum. last time we went, no more fried pork. not sure if it's a permanent change or if we were just unlucky. service is non-existent, you pay at the counter by telling them your table number, booths are kind of uncomfortable, and i would avoid the shrimp. but for $5 a bowl, i'm not going to complain.

hangen szechuan

mountain view, ca

link to yelp

every little town in silicon valley has a "downtown" area. having recently moved from manhattan, using the term "downtown" with respect to the south bay definitely requires quotes. mountain view's "downtown" is called castro street. one street, several blocks, lined with restaurants, small grocery stores, and random bookstores. there's tons of chinese food on this street. i suspect that derek and i will be familiar with every restaurant very soon.

first stop was hangen szechuan. huge restaurant. empty. which is usually not a good sign, but the food was surprisingly good and the service extremely attentive. we ordered some spicy animal innards, spicy chicken, and not-too-spicy noodles. pictured is the spicy chicken, which only derek could eat because it was too spicy for me. he ate the whole plate - it was that good. we'll definitely be back here.