Cheap, fast, tasty. That’s all I ask a bento box to be, but places usually skimp on flavor, busting the sacred trinity. Hydration Café does not skimp. For about $5 and some change, you can get a generous portion of your choice of fried cutlets (chicken, pork, squid, mackerel, tofu, vegetarian fish filet) served with a small public-school iceberg-mix salad with a kind of creamy thousand island dressing on the side, half a salty sauce soaked tea egg, 2″ x 1″ x 1″ firm tofu rectangle, a …

Oh no! I’m officially a Silicon Valley whore. I’ve worked at Apple, Yahoo!, Adobe, (am still currently a Research Consultant for Google), but eBay made me a juicy offer and a tops title plus pet insurance(!), so I’m there now, helping with the overhaul design bonanza. Woowoo! So far, it’s an awesome place to work; I seriously never thought it would be, since their old site wasn’t much to look at and their homepage now looks very gossip mag, but I’ve been promised big big, albeit …

Holy crap Jack Black works here! A doppelgänger who speaks spanish. It’s like Nacho Libre, cafeteria version. I haven’t ordered from his section, I usually stick to the daily specials like veggie paninis or falafels. Consistency is not their game, with tender wedge fries one day and denture-denting the next. Maybe they’re refrying ‘em? The pasta is passable, relying on additions like sausage or mushrooms to save it from Bland City. Your tastebuds won’t ever be blown away here, in fact I use …

Tofoo Com Chay feels like family when Ben, the friendly upbeat shopowner with the photographic memory greets regulars by name every time without fail. One tiny counter lady seems to only know the english word “dear”, repeating it often. But the service is only one of the reasons why you’ll make frequent visits. The completely Buddhist vegetarian fare with Vietnamese flair is enticingly inventive with an array of fake meats that could fool a carnivore. Their grilled psuedo pork has actually been charred over an open …

Yah, I’m a little late announcing it, but yah it opened a little late because they wanted the Grand Opening to be “just perfect”. What’s with Japanese and detailed perfectionism anyways? Ruins my life! Just kidding. Anyway, Daiso is a store packed with tons of cutesie utilitarian items from Japan and on the cheap. Some folks call it a “dollar store” type, but it’s generally way more expensive than Ichiban Kan, which to me is a true dollar store, which sometimes (if rarely) holds a …

Thank God this place has their infamous orange sauce because their burritos taste like garbage. And I don’t mean a euphemism for bad food, I actually mean garbage like someone dumpster-dove for the tomatoes and lettuce and left ‘em in mayonnaise out in the sun (I saw that taqueria caveat piece on the news; I know how some restaurants cut costs). But oh yes, the addictive orange sauce is one of those enigmas that is probably better left a mystery. It’s creamy, it’s spicy, that’s all I …

This weekend marks Fangoria’s first Weekend of Horrors in San Jose (the first in my recollection, at least). Why they would host it in San Jose, I can’t say. It’s certainly the least interesting of the “big cities” in California. As far as the film scene is concerned, San Jose plays host to Cinequest Festival, the place where major festival rejects go to die, and its Camera Cinemas present the most pathetic Midnight Movie lineup in the nation. But hey, there’s something to be said for the festival being right …

The past few years worth of Midnite Movie offerings at the Camera Theaters in San Jose have been nothing short of laughable. Sixteen Candles and Super Troopers? Please. If I can see the film on weekend mid morning cable, it’s assuredly not Midnight Movie fare. Thankfully the Camera Cinemas have shaken the know-nothing-hipster KSCU organizers of previous years and replaced them with more knowledgeable parties at the Silicon Valley Metro. Sure, there are still some questionable mainstream picks, a la Corpse Bride (we’d rather see some Svankmajer or Brothers Quay), …

After a disappointing run earlier in the month at the San Francisco Sakura Matsuri or Cherry Blossom Festival, we were expecting more from this weekend’s events in Cupertino and San Jose and had fun perusing the craft booths and exhibits, listening to koto players and enka singers.
SJ and SF Nihon Machi (Japantowns) are two of the last of a dying establishment, especially with the majority of SF’s buildings recently sold off. With many Japanese marrying outside of their race or failing to teach their children the language or the …

Sometimes I ponder the oddities of life. Okay I ponder about them a lot. Like why would people in Hawai’i stand in line all day for a cream puff? Well, that’s what happened when Beard Papa first opened up shop. Well, at first they kinda piggybacked on Shirokiya, a local Japanese department store/supermarket/bakery located in Ala Moana, the largest open air mall in the world. Hawai’i loves cream puffs; everyone praises Liliha Bakery’s Coco Puffs and Komoda’s, so of course word traveled fast and soon …

So the San Jose City Council approved a plan this past week to spend $5 million of taxpayer’s money to purchase land for a potential stadium for the Oakland A’s. Nevermind that the Oakland A’s have repeatedly stated they have no intention of relocating their team to San Jose, nor would they think about moving any further south than Alameda.
Furthermore, keep in mind that the City Council also paid PG&E $10,000 a few weeks back to look into the possibility of relocating some of the electrical infrastructure to make way …