announcer:â a kqed television production. â woman: it kind of was, like,the bang that set off the night. man: that isthe funkiest restaurant. thomas: the honey walnut prawnswill make your insides smile. [ laughter ] woman #2:more tortillas, please! man #2: what is comfort foodif it isn't gluten and grease? man #3: i love crã¨me brã»lã©e.
woman #3: the octopus shouldhave been, like, quadrapus, because it was really small. sbrocco: and you know thatwhen you split something, all the calories evaporate,and then there's none. whalen: that's right. hi. i'm leslie sbrocco. welcome to"check, please! bay area," the show whereregular bay area residents review and talk abouttheir favorite restaurants.
now, we have three guests, and each one recommendsone of their favorite spots, and the other twogo check them out to see what they think. this time we're travelingnot just back in time to revisit past segments, but traveling around the world for some innovativeinternational flavors. from chinese fareto east german cuisine,
we're stretching your palateand your spice tolerance. our journey beginsin the middle east as season 2's gillian chase guides us to shattuck avenuein berkeley to a place where freshnessis so important, the owners growa lot of the food they serve. in fact, they spend as much timein the garden as they do in the kitchen. it's what makes every plateso special at zatar.
kelly: we put our whole heartand soul into this place. we're always here. if we're not here,then the restaurant closes. waiel and i have our handsreally in everything that goes on in this restaurant, from harvesting vegetables everymorning from our own garden and hand-choosingall the ingredients -- whether it comes from our gardenor from other local vendors -- and then also doingall the cooking ourselves.
we decorated the restaurantourselves. we tiled the tables. it's really part of us. waiel: zatar is middle easternspices we use in our cooking made of thyme, sumac,and sesame seed with sea saltand good extra virgin olive oil. good olive oil -- that's what mediterranean foodis all about. kelly: this isn'tthe type of restaurant
where we're interestedin turning tables fast, have a line out the door. that's not our priority. we really like people to come inand sit and enjoy their meal, enjoy their wine, enjoytheir company, and leave happy. that's what's most importantto us. sbrocco: okay,what makes this place so great? chase: well, it is absolutely,completely handcrafted, extremely high-quality attentionto detail.
the owners are always there. they do everything themselvesin the kitchen. they don't rely on kitchen helpto prepare certain things, which means that the loveand attention to detail and the quality is shown inabsolutely everything they do. everything is cooked to order. sbrocco: and they grow most ofthe vegetables in their garden. chase: yeah, they havethis beautiful half-acre garden. they buy produce -- if theydon't have it in their garden --
that's organic. they buy their meat fromsustainable organic sources. their philosophy of lifeand their philosophy of food shows in their food. i just thinkthey're very cutting-edge, and they're sort of a gemthat is hidden. sbrocco:maybe not for long. all right, nish.what do you think about zatar? nadaraja:i was blown away by it.
it was very unpretentious,just an intimate setting. sbrocco: what were someof the dishes that youhad that stood out? nadaraja: the main thing -- my friend and i, we split thekabob feast, which was a feast. you know,as gillian pointed out, everything was naturally raised,sustainable, which is great and all,but -- sbrocco: it's all aboutwhat it tastes like. nadaraja:it tasted fantastic.
i love lamb and grew up on lamb, and this was, you know,a real treat. sbrocco: and they describe itas eclectic mediterranean, so you do have influences. and the chef and owner is iraqi,but his wife is american, so you have a lot of italianand lebanese and all sorts ofthose influences. chase:they travel extensively, and they take recipes fromplaces that they've traveled
and kind of throw itall in there and make their own renditionsof it. nadaraja: and sowhen we were eating there, also, the wife turned out to beour waitress. and she was so excited about what sort of winewe wanted to try. sbrocco: which are organicor biodynamic. nadaraja: yeah, and telling uswhat sort of spreads to try. that was, like,another great starter they had.
there's all these differentsorts of spreads you can have. sbrocco: and when you sit down,zatar is a traditional mixture of sumac and sesame seedsand thyme, and you get thatwith the flatbread, right? nadaraja:yeah, and another side of itwas that it wasn't gimmicky. i didn't feel likethis was in my face, that, "oh, well, we use organic,sustainable this and that." and i feel sometimesthat's seeped into restaurants. here, i almost had to prodit out of them a little bit.
sbrocco: but did you taste it?did you, angelo, taste this? i mean, you're shaking your headover here, going, "yeah." festa: well, i'm in agreementwith all that's been said. we shared a kabob for two, andthey had a special that night, which was the calamari. and it was so good,we had a double order. so, at the end of --here's the -- can i say the -- the only negative about thisrestaurant, the only negative -- at the end of the meal, youknow, the three little piggies
just about ate throughthe whole menu, and it's a cash-only place. sbrocco:ah, big thing to note. right. festa: yeah.well, we were forewarned. to be fair, we were forewarned. but nevertheless, there we were, turning our pockets inside-outtrying to come up with the cash. nadaraja: i did findthat it seemed a little pricy when i looked at the final bill.
chase: see, i think that if thatrestaurant was four blocks down next to chez panisse, no one would ever complainabout the price. i think that the neighborhood is the one negative thingabout that restaurant because you don't expect to have this extremely gourmet,high-quality meal with an excellent wine list that's perfectly pairedto all of their dishes,
but if you had itin a different area, you'd say,"wow, this is such a bargain." sbrocco:and, gillian, when you go, what are some of your favoritesthat you order? chase:the boreka appetizer. i don't knowif you guys had that. the filo pastry stuffedwith greens and sheep's milk fetawith herbs. the haloumi --that's always my favorite.
it's sort of a greek cheese. it's very low in fat, so you can grill itand it doesn't melt, and they put it on grilled breadwith fresh herbs. and that night, we discovered all these different typesof basil, like, sort of scatteredthroughout different dishes. sbrocco: and what aboutother dishes for you? did you have anyother appetizers that stood out?
you said the lamb kabob. and, obviously, this isa vegetarian-friendly place. chase: yeah, absolutely. sbrocco:any other dishes for you? nadaraja:well, that's a funny point because, to me,mediterranean is lamb, and so it's interestingthat this was your choice because it was, to me,such a meat-heavy place. but looking at itwith this new knowledge,
there's a lot of thingsthat, you know, i enjoyed that were plain and simplevegetarian that really addedto the whole experience. sbrocco: casual in terms ofthe ambiance and the atmosphere? you don't need to getdressed up? -nadaraja: oh, very casual.-festa: not at all. sbrocco: you don't need to wearyour marilyn monroe tie? festa: no. no ties. sbrocco: all right, gillian,this is your restaurant,
so tell people what they shouldlook for when they visit zatar. chase: well, the very first timei ever went there what struck me wasthat, if i was traveling, this is the type of restaurant that i would wantto stumble upon, that i would go into it and go,"wow, the owners are here, and there's so much loveand passion in the cooking, and it's beautiful,and it's real." there's no, like you said,no gimmicky anything.
and i'd come back homeand i would tell everyone, "oh, i was in this little town,and i found this amazing place, and it really mademy trip great." and that, to me,is what this restaurant is, and it's right here. and it's totally undiscovered. sbrocco: all right. would you go back ifyou're in the neighborhoodor make a trip there? festa: we'll go back,
but we're gonna hitthe atm machine first. and obviously, we couldn't -- even with three people, wedidn't get a good cross-section. i'm interested in tryingsome of the items you mentioned. you know, i would thinkthat they would have a little more choice inthe price range on the wines, but other than that,it's a great restaurant. sbrocco: it didn't stop you,though, from drinking the wine. festa: no, no, not at all.
sbrocco: [ laughs ]all right. nish? nadaraja:i'll definitely go back, and i'd be surprisedif they didn't remember us. it was that sort of place, that i feel likethey took the time to really say hello and come up. sbrocco: that's a nice feeling,isn't it? nadaraja: it definitely is. sbrocco: if you would liketo try zatar restaurant,
it's on shattuck avenueat university in berkeley. the telephone numberis 510-841-1981. it's open for lunch on monday, with lunch and dinnertuesday through saturday. reservations are recommended, and the average dinner tabper person without drinks is around $30. they now accept credits cards. we first sampled the hotand spicy szechwan flavors
of annabel chen's pickin season 2. not for the faint of heart,the bold and fiery cooking continues with the same chefin the same kitchen and the same menuin the dining room at this newly decorated spotin albany. although the ambiancehas changed, the address onthe treelined street hasn't. on solano,it's called china village. yao:i've been around the restaurantbusiness for 30 years.
also, i'm the chef. people normally think chinesefood is kind of a fast food. my mind is to tryto turn that around, to let the people know some partof the real chinese food. but most of the thingsfound interesting in the sichuan cuisine, our sichuan cuisineis different. you've got to use all differentkinds of ingredients, at least about 20 to 40 kindsof ingredient measured together.
they have like a clay potof sautã©ed-type or steamed-type things. every dish tastes different. some of the customers,they always try to look, "what is the best?" or"what are the good things?" those kind of customerscome down, the first thing they walk inand they ask you, "what is the special today? what is the best you havetoday?"
each spice should bea different taste. i'm still going back to thechina, to the world training, get something new or traveluntil we find something else, let our bay area customersee what the real thing is. sbrocco: now, annabel, talkto us about sichuan cooking. chen: sichuan cooking is famous, known for its hot and spicydishes. but that's not all of it. it has multiple combinationsof different flavor.
you have the sweet and sour,spicy and sour, the tender lychee flavor, the fragrant -- they call itfish fragrant flavor. so even if you don't eatspicy food, you can geta few good sichuan dishes out of the menu, you know, goingto a good sichuan restaurant. that's why i recommendedchina village 'cause i think our great bay area hashundreds of chinese restaurants, and most of them are very goodin cantonese cooking,
but sichuan dishes,sichuan cuisine, it seems likea less-known cuisine. sbrocco: well, we all think ofkung pao chicken or something. chen:exactly. kung pao chicken or hot and spicy shredded porkor beef dishes, but those are not all. so china villagehas very innovative but still very authentic,traditional sichuan dishes. sbrocco:are some of your picks?
chen: my favorite is what they call a westsichuan-style fish fillet soup, when it comes outin a big soup tureen and covered withoil-roasted pepper on top, so everybody just droptheir jaws like, "how am i going to eat this?" and they've got to skim offthe dried chilies, and then all you see is justa pure, creamy chicken broth with all these fish filletin it.
sbrocco: oh, see, you're makingme hungry already there. chen: yeah. sbrocco: what about yourexperience at china village? nisen:i liked it quite a bit. we went with friendsand ordered a lot of stuff. and there was only one dishi wasn't crazy about, but everybody else was,so, um... you know, everything had a lotof nice heat, but not so muchthat it overwhelmed anything.
it was like layers of heat. it was really niceand different from dish to dish. a lot of sort of clay pot or more sort of stewed,liquidy kind of stuff. it was really great. -and the onion ---chen: pancake? nisen: thank you. the sesame fry breadis fantastic and great, a different experience
than, you know, the typical riceas your starch. sbrocco: did you have a standoutdish, jeffery, when you went? sammon: oh. well,we had a different experience. we went late afternoon.it was almost empty. there was one other couplein the place. the one woman wasfolding napkins, and so she was readyfor our order at any time. she was, like,right on top of her game. there was a large enough room,so i'm sure when it was full
that the whole rattleof conversation would be running amok, but at the time, we just heard the buzz of the electric coolerand the aquarium tank. so there was this constant buzzin the room. and they said that the entreeswouldn't be prepared with msg, but i had the lamb with cumin that the woman saidwas very popular. my sweetie hadthe chicken chow fun,
which didn't havemuch vegetables, didn't have much chicken, but the noodles were nice,and the sauce was nice, and they did some nice sauces. but after we left, we reallystarted getting headaches, so we really started questioning whether or not there was msgin it or not. sbrocco: or how much wineyou had. [ laughs ] sammon:well, i had one glass of wine.
they had a great littlewine list for like a glass-topchinese restaurant. i had a sterling merlotthat was just exceptional. and the portions were huge. i wound up making an omeletthe next morning with a little bit of the lamb. and it was all right, you know? sbrocco: so, maybe just askfor a preparation without msg. sammon: yes.
sbrocco: and, annabel, whatwould you have to say to jeffery in terms of -- should he ordersomething differently? chen: yeah,i would say chow fun, that kind of dish isa very typical cantonese style. if you can't handlethe spiciness, they have a lot ofgood meat dish or clay pot, the beer duck,the spicy beef stew, you know,a few interesting dishes. sammon:i wish i would have gottena little bit more adventurous.
i mean, they had over 218 thingson the menu. chen:i know. it's a big menu. sammon: it's like,"oh, where do we even begin?" nisen: yeah, and we had a cold,really spicy rabbit. and then the duck you mentionedi think is what we got, and it was just phenomenal. that and the peanut tofuappetizer were the standouts for me, and, overall,it was really good.
sbrocco:if you're a vegetarian, and a lot of people obviouslyare in the bay area, is this a good spot to go? chen: yeah, there are a lot ofdishes now -- if you're a vegetarian,if you like tofu, they have a variationof different dishes made of tofuand other vegetables, and it's equally very tasty. they can make it very spicyor mild.
sammon: i was a littledisappointed with the rice because it was very fluffy. chen:ask them for a small rice bowl. it's a lot easierthan the plate. sbrocco: then you can scoop. chen: i have a hard timebecause i have to use a fork if i'm eatingthe long-grain rice on a plate because it's really fluffyfor chopsticks to pick up, so we just shufflelike a little kid.
sbrocco: annabel, tell peoplewhy they should go and make a trip to albany ifthey don't live in the east bay. chen: add some good spiceto your dining experience. if you like spicyor even if you don't like spicy, try some new dishes. this is a chinese restaurantwith a different flare. it's totally different from the hot and sour soupand the sweet and sour pork, so give it a try.
you will like it. and i have to warn you --it's very addictive. sbrocco:[ laughs ] you go all the time. and, jeremy, did you feel likethis was a good value for you? nisen: yeah, absolutely. it was the most affordableof the places that we visited for "check, please!" and it was wholly enjoyableand kind of an adventure, and, like i said,a lot of great spice
and a couple real standoutdishes and good service. sbrocco: and would you go back,jeffery, do you think? sammon: i personally wouldn'tjust simply on the msg factor. however, a lot of my friendsare very san fran-centric that never leave the cityfor any reason and going out to albany,getting out from under the fog, going someplace different,trying something different -- and it's a little, nice,clean place down the street. it's a great,little neighborhood,
great, little restaurant. i don't know if i'd recommendthe restaurant personally. however, i wouldn't sayit was a bad restaurant. if you would like to trychina village, it's on solano avenueat ramona in albany. the telephone numberis 510-525-2285. it's open every day for lunchand dinner with dim sum on weekends. reservations are acceptedfor parties of 5 or more,
and the average tab per personwithout drinks is around $25. in season 6,we met flexitarian lori hã©bert sinking her teeth into the menuat her pick. it's a place with an austere,industrial interior, reminiscent ofpost-war east germany that contrasts with the romanticcandlelight, tasty draft beer, memorable cooking,and generous portions. on south van nessin san francisco, it's called walzwerk.
schmidt:my name is christiane schmidt,and i'm the owner of walzwerk. walzwerk started when isabell mysyk and mecame to america and found out that all thegerman restaurants in america are bavarian. and we are from east germany,we lived in berlin, and we thought it's a good idea to create a place which showsthis side of germany. the name of the restaurantwalzwerk means "steel mill,"
and the original idea was to havea very industrial restaurant because east germanywas so industrial, and it's also easy to pronounce,i think, for germany. the food at walzwerkis very east german, what was very commonin east germany, what we eat when we grow up,what my grandmother use to make. we try to be very liketraditional german, so all the beers we haveare from germany.
a lot of germans meet, we havea lot of germans working here. it's a little community,which i really like. everything you see on the wallsis from east germany, carried over in a suitcasefrom germany to show. and all east german customerswho come, they're like, "oh, this is likea little revival tour, like from 20 years ago." it's very special. sbrocco: all right, lori,i said east germany.
it's really â former east germany. but what is so uniqueabout the cuisine at walzwerk? hã©bert: you know, my husbandtook me to walzwerk the first time on our fourthdate maybe eight years ago, and we go back all the time. i had no idea at the timewhat i would eat there because i was a vegetarian. but one of the things i loveabout their menu is they have many, many greatmeat-and-potato-type options,
seafood options, but they have incrediblevegetarian options. the vegetarian schnitzelis my favorite, and i can have it againand again because it's a little differentevery time. sbrocco: even thoughyou're not a vegetarianper se anymore, right? hã©bert: i'm not. i considermyself a flexitarian now. still lean towardsthe vegetarian side of things, but that is a dish thateven friends who are omnivores
will order the vegetarianschnitzel and love it. battersby: vegetarian schnitzel.how do you do that? hã©bert: so, you swap outthe pork loin with cauliflower, beets,carrots, and they bread itthe way they do the pork loin, and it's justperfectly seasoned. they serve it with a gravy that's different every timethat i go. and their mashed potatoesare always very amazing.
sbrocco:and it's german cuisine, but with almost a russiansort of influence to it. you know, solyanka -- the soup that is likealmost a borscht-y character. what did you have when you went,jacob? battersby: i loved this place,i just want to say, and i had the chicken breaststuffed with apple and bacon with a sun-dried cherry. hã©bert:that's my husband's favorite.
battersby: oh, my goodness.it was so good. sbrocco: yeah, i mean, and beingthe beer guy that you are, this is -- what? -- 15-plusbeers that you can choose from, really esoteric,interesting beers, as well. battersby: i had somewhere to goafter, so i held back on it, but i did have anotherfranziskaner. -i'm a little bit ---sbrocco: loyal guy. battersby: hefeweizen was great.oh, yeah. sbrocco: all right, bob,you're keeping quiet over here.
when you went to walzwerk --are you a german-food guy? bjorkquist: [ sighs ] i hadn't been to a germanrestaurant in over 30 years. sbrocco: okay. bjorkquist:and it may be another 30. hã©bert: oh, really? bjorkquist:it didn't work for me. sbrocco: okay. why? bjorkquist: first of all,i like a more airy atmosphere,
and it is a little dark. sbrocco:"walzwerk" is "steelwork." christiane, the owner,is from former east germany. bjorkquist: i could have beenin east germany. hã©bert: you could have been. bjorkquist:yes, as i looked at the wall -- sbrocco:mike myers coming in in his... bjorkquist: i saw karl marxand lenin and a third comrade, and i thought, "well, we'regonna give it a try anyway."
unfortunately,for the three of us, the schnitzel didn't work. the roast pork that i expectedto get roast pork was rolled porkthat was room temperature. bjorkquist: so, things just -- sbrocco: which is traditional. bjorkquist:well, i didn't realize that i was gonna beso traditional that night. so, it just wasn't it.
although i took a lookat their sister restaurant, and it looked more intriguing, and i liked their menuon the website. battersby:i have been to schmidt's beforeabout two weeks previous. sbrocco: and same owners. battersby: and i reallypreferred walzwerk. and it was for the reason youweren't caring for it too much. i really like the idea. i walked in there.i've never been to germany.
i felt like i was on vacationfor a minute. i really did, yeah. it was like this small, little,intimate, fun, you know, mismatched platesand little tables, and i really enjoyed that. sbrocco: sort ofan industrial area of town. battersby: yeah, i mean,it was cool. i really felt like i was in adifferent country for a minute. sbrocco:and, lori, what other dishesdo you get when you're there?
because you've got the, ofcourse, schnitzel and spaetzle, and you've gottraditional dishes. pickled herring they've got.all sorts of things. hã©bert:they have some great soups. we love, of course,the potato pancakes. i guess that's very obviousand traditional, but they're always amazing. they do give you a little canapã©when you arrive. sbrocco: like pumpernickel breadwith a little cheese spread.
hã©bert: that's a nice treatthat we like. you mentioned the dish you had.that's my husband's favorite. so, those are our go-to dishes, the vegetarian schnitzeland the chicken breast. battersby:and we split that one, as well,and it was so filling. it was perfect. sbrocco:now we can talk about desserts. christiane, the owner,as i mentioned, has a dish on there -- cold dog?
did you have the cold dog? it was served at her kids'birthday parties in germany. so what did you have? it's sort of a wafer dish,but what did you have? battersby: i had --it might have been a special, but it was the chocolate puddingwith a vanilla sauce. and it was not too sweet. it was nice and cool afterthe hearty and kind of richness of the entrã©es themselves.
and i got to say, the ownersthere were so nice and fun. i loved how they took careof us. sbrocco: all right, lori,this is your restaurant. tell us about walzwerk. hã©bert:well, we love walzwerk for the charming, funky,and fresh eastern-european atmosphere, as well as a menu that satisfies vegetariansand meat lovers alike.
sbrocco: all right. bob? bjorkquist:it was just a unique experience. i'm glad i did it. sbrocco:all right. and, jacob. battersby: so, i would just saythat walzwerk is a fun, intimate,mini euro vacation, you know? i enjoyed it. it felt like i got to get outof the u.s.a. for a minute. sbrocco: walzwerk on southvan ness avenue at 15th street
in san francisco. the telephone numberis 415-551-7181. it's open for dinnertuesday through sunday. reservations are acceptedfor parties of 4 or more, and the average tab per personwithout drinks is around $30. if you missed these placesthe first time around, we hope you've enjoyeda look back at these great spots because now you have anotherchance to check them out. thanks to gillian chase
who focused on middle easternflavors where freshness reigns at zatar restaurant. annabel chen picked piquantat her spicy choice of china village restaurant, and lori hã©bert chose the hearty, stick-to-your-ribsmenu at walzwerk restaurant. so go to our websiteat kqed.org/checkplease. it's where you can applyto be a guest on the show and where you can watchevery episode
or subscribe to the podcast. you can also read my notes onall of the wines we're drinking. and don't forget to follow uson facebook and twitter for exclusive behind-the-scenesclips, pics, and notesfrom me and my travels. we love hearing from you. so join us next time when three guests will recommendtheir favorite spots right hereon "check please! bay area."
i'm leslie sbrocco,and i'll see you then. cheers!
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