AHN's Burger

 

 

439 Grand Ave
(between Bellevue Ave & Staten Ave)
Oakland, CA 94610

(510) 763-4328

 

Special Appearance by Kmill

 Where can you get a cheap burger, crinkle cut fries and a corn dog? Ahn's Burger in Oakland! Crinkle Cut fries are my favorite kind of fries-so I instantly loved this place. Ahn's isn't one of these trendy burger joints that have been popping up lately. They don't serve ridiculous sized burgers in a modern dining room-instead they serve up decent sized burgers in a "rustic" setting reminiscent of the late 70's/early 80's. So it's a hole in the wall, but its a good hole in the wall. Its a good place to get a good, greasy, and quick bite to eat 

Me @ Ahns stuffing my face

Did I mention they also have a one hour photo?

Battle of the Bay: Burrito Edition

Taqueria Las Comadres Burrito

First up is Taqueria Las Comadres in the Oakland Hills. This place was pretty good. You order your burrito at the counter and tell them which ingredients you want in it. Its like a Chipotle if Chipotle was run by actual Mexicans. They have other menu items, but the three of us all picked burritos. They were huge and cheap-my two favorite things about Mexican food. They were also really good. Did I mention they were huge? Its like two meals in one-I took half of mine home and had it for lunch the next day-and still yummy.

El Farolito Taqueria 2779 Mission St. San Francisco

Our next contender is El Farolito Taqueria in the Mission district of San Francisco. Jono had been talking about this place non-stop and finally wore me down to make the voyage across the Bay Bridge for a Burrito. Eating here was like being in Mexico, the corner stores sold those wrestling masks and the air even smelled like tacos.  In the front window there is a huge hot plate where they crisp up the tortillas and cook some of the meat. The rest of the meat is cooked on these gigantic grills along the back wall. The entrance is always packed full of people waiting in line to get there burrito.  When we finally got our burrito it was amazing. Jono describe this place as "if the place we went yesterday was a 6 out of 10-this place is an 11" and he was right. I was SO GOOD. What I like best about this burrito was unlike most places when you get avocado in your burrito its actually chunks of avocado instead of guacamole. I have to declare El Farolito the winner for best burrito, but Taqueria Las Comadres was a worthy opponent.

The Sandwich Search Begins....

Jono found his sandwich spot!

Lunch Rush @ Genova

Yummy-ness! Turkey on Dutch Crunch w/extra Mayo!

A sandwich is defined as two or more slices of bread with a filling such as meat or cheese placed between them. Jono and I do not eat just regular sandwiches-our sandwiches have standards-high standards. First they must have the best bread-dutch crunch, sourdough, soft roll-it has to be fresh and taste yummy by itself or the sandwich is going to suck. Next is the different sandwich options the place offers-if they just have the basics that's what you will get: a basic sandwich (there are exceptions to this rule but usually its how it works out). Our old favorite was Traverso's back in Santa Rosa and we're on a quest to find a equal substitute in the East Bay. Kelly told us about this place back when we visited Bakesale Betty across the street. Genova has got the same vibe as Traverso's with the deli inside of an "Italian grocery store" that sells everything from cheese and salads to pasta and panini. We got there around the same time as the lunch rush, so we took a number and waited for it to be called. We each got turkey on dutch with cheese, extra mayo and salt/pepper/oil/vinegar. We grabbed a seat outside and dug in. The sandwich was pretty good. I really wished I got mine heated because I always think sandwiches taste better warm, but it was good-okay it was really good. I think Jon has already been back like 3 times. So if he-the Sandwich Nazi-likes it you know it must be good.

5095 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609-2067
(510) 652-7401

Some Thai Food @ Summer Summer

Jono @ Summer Summer

Crispy Spring Rolls

Jono and I were craving some Thai Food, so we decided to try this restaurant that had a booth at the Framer's Market. Summer Summer Thai Eatery is just a few blocks away from our apartment on this first floor of some office building. The inside of the restaurant is really modern and not decked out with typical cheesy decor. It kind of resembled the set of House, which was funny because they also played the theme song over the sound system.

Drunken Noodles

 We started with Crispy Spring Rolls, because you can always judge a place by its Spring Rolls. The fact that we downed the entire plate in under three minutes, must have been a good sign. We only had half of one left before we remembered to take a picture.  For our main courses we ordered the Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles. We didn't share so I can't say how the Drunken Noodles were-but seeing as there wasn't any leftovers I'm guessing it was just as good as my Pad Thai-which was really good. And not to mention huge, I only ate about a 1/3 and took the rest home. It was good leftovers for the next couple of meals too.

Pad Thai

Summer Summer: 5885 Hollis St Emeryville, CA 94608
510.658.3234

 

Turkey Dinner in Berkeley

Family dinner @ Brennan's in Berkeley

Big Papa trying to decide which sandwich to get.

Open Faced Hot Turkey Sandwich

Brennan's is a old fashioned hofbrau meets sports bar. They are famous for their hand carved sandwich and real Irish coffee. Brennan isn't a sit down restaurant with table cloths and servers, it cafeteria setting. You walk in, grab a tray and watch as the guys behind the counter slice up your meet and assemble your sandwich. I got the Hot Turkey Sandwich, which was basically a small thanksgiving dinner on a plate complete with gravy and mash potatoes-and boy was it good! I think the "holy" rays of light in the picture below is appropriate. Since turkey dinner is my favorite dinner, I will defiantly be hitting up Brennan's very soon-it doesn't hurt that the prices are really reasonable and it has a full bar either. 

Too busy eating to smile for the picture!

Movie Magic in Oakland

Extra Ticket to get on the Moneyball Set

Emily 1 and Emily 2 getting ready to check in

2 hours later-Emily 1 is so over this

Brad's Out There! Emily2 Got So Excited-which is why its blurry!

On Tuesday, my dad told me he heard on the news that they need extras for the new Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball, which was filming at the Oakland Coliseum. Well, he actually told me that there was a Johnny Depp movie filming in Oakland and I figured out the rest from Google. The movie is called  Moneyball, and follows the Oakland A's 2001-2002 season. I guess the owner put together a team on "shoe string budget" by baseball standards, they managed to win the division and set the record for consecutive wins with 20 wins-which still hasn't been beaten. It stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.They are filming at the stadium for the next two weeks, and I signed up for Thursday from 4:30 pm to 11:45 pm for three people. I took the "Emily's"-Emily 1 is my friend from high school and Emily 2 is Andrew's sister.  We figured it would be a lot of sitting and standing around but we had no idea what we were in for. It took two hours to get checked in and after that we just sat around in the stands for awhile before we got to see anything interesting. Once filming got started it was pretty exciting-we were filming the scene from the 20th game of the streak when the A's gave up a 10 run lead-in the 9th making the score 11-11-then Scott Hatteberg hits a homer in the 9th and the crowd goes wild-we were that crowd. We filmed the scene were the disgruntled team enters the dugout and Phillip Seymour Hoffman (the coach) gives some sort of "just do it" speech to Scott Hatteberg, who goes out to win the game. I'm pretty sure we are in the shot where he goes to get his bat-we might be a little blurry but we should be there.  I think Emily 1 had enough of all of the waiting and was over it pretty early in the evening, but she got more into it when BRAD and ANGELINA showed up! Brad wasn't filming any scene's while we were there, but he came out and waved to us-just us not the rest of the extras that were there.

Picture of the "Set"

A Beer Tasting @ Pyramid Brewery

Ryan, Me, and Andrew doing our Pyramid Tasting Challenge

The Challenge

After feeding our bellies, we thought we'd wash some of that BBQ down with some beer-so we headed to Pyramid Brewery. Nathan and Rachel took the more sane route of ordering a single beer, while Andrew, Ryan, and I each ordered a flight of beer. Our mission was to sample all the different beer that Pyramid Brewery had on tap, which was 13. It was a tough mission and challenged us-especially when we hit the IPA's. While we didn't take copious notes, I think we enjoyed the Hefeweizen, the Apricot Ale and the cider. There was also one that had essence of chocolate that Miss Rachel loved. They do serve actual food at the brewery and have a brewery tour once a day at 4 o'clock, we missed it because our trip to Lake Merritt took longer than expected-maybe next time....

Andrew, Nathan, Rachel and Ryan @Pyramid Brew