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"slug": "best-japanese-pop-up-oakland-plenty-plus-asuka-uchida",
"title": "The Fanciest Japanese Pop-Up in Oakland You Haven’t Heard Of ",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>During the week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyoakland/\">Plenty\u003c/a> is an understated little cafe that has become a lunchtime staple for scores of Uptown Oakland office workers. Regulars might come two or three times a week to get their fix of butter-miso salmon, avocado toast or any of a half-dozen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a>-inflected grain bowls.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In other words: It’s a lovely everyday restaurant. But not exactly someplace you’d think to go for a special celebration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When I visited Plenty on a Sunday afternoon in August, however, I experienced the most elegant multi-course Japanese meal I’d eaten in many months. The airiest tempura, made with seasonal farmers market vegetables. Pristine sashimi. A tuna’s head picked clean and gelatinized to form the most amazing maguro “head cheese.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Dish after artfully plated dish came out, all served in a casual, intimate setting. Every other table, except one, was empty the whole time we were there. It felt like we were dining in a friend’s living room — if said friend’s bar happened to be stocked with a killer sake and shochu collection.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a tempura rice bowl, artfully drizzled with thick soy sauce.\" class=\"wp-image-13994424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chef Asuka Uchida’s take on ten-don, or a tempura rice bowl. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it turns out, this special prix-fixe lunch pop-up, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyplusoakland/\">Plenty Plus\u003c/a> (or Plenty+), takes over the restaurant just one Saturday and Sunday each month. It comes courtesy of chef Asuka Uchida, whose cooking I’ve gone out of my way to seek since her days at B-Dama, where she made the most comforting pork belly and mizuna hot pot. Later, at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/fish-and-bird-izakaya-closing-22264629.php\">recently closed\u003c/a> Fish & Bird Izakaya, her gravy-drenched hamburg steak was my single favorite pandemic-era heat-and-eat dish. Over the past decade, she’s quietly made a name for herself as one of the Bay Area’s most respected Japanese chefs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Uchida and Plenty owner and co-chef Jack Lin came up with the idea for Plenty+ in 2025, after Uchida had already been working at Plenty for a couple of years. She’d taken the job after suffering a knee injury at Fish & Bird, and the more casual cafe gig offered some respite from the 13-hour shifts she used to work. Lin, who describes himself as Uchida’s “biggest fan,” says the food on Plenty’s day-to-day menu became much more refined as soon as she came on board. But he also felt like it was a waste for such a skilled chef to spend her days \u003cem>only\u003c/em> cooking katsu bowls and fried chicken sandwiches. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wanted to showcase her talents,” Lin says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, the two began to plan occasional pop-ups on weekends, when the restaurant is normally closed. Lin gave Uchida full creative control over the more upscale prix-fixe meals (currently priced at $80 a person). She builds each month’s menu out of seafood that’s in season at Tokyo’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyosu_Market\">Toyosu Market\u003c/a> and whatever produce catches her eye at the Old Oakland farmers market. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I never make the same dish twice,” Uchida says. “It’s my feeling every time.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of dark miso soup loaded with assorted green vegetables.\" class=\"wp-image-13994425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The soup base was dark, savory Hatcho miso and a dashi made with both bonito and dried flying fish shavings. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During my lunch visit, the meal started with a trio of cold dishes. There was toothsome \u003ca href=\"https://tsurizukan.com/en/fish/isaki/\">Isaki\u003c/a> (chicken grunt) sashimi topped with sweet cherry tomatoes and a slurry of numbing sansho pepper. There was an extra-jiggly version of chawanmushi crowned with sweet, peak-season Hokkaido uni. My favorite was the aforementioned head cheese — a thunder blast of earthy umami with squishy, pleasingly gelatinous bits from the fish’s eyes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Every dish had some element of surprise and delight. The second course was probably the most texturally interesting bowl of miso soup I’ve ever eaten, loaded with spongy taro stems, a super-slippery variety of seaweed and the wispy tendrils of a kabocha squash plant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the entree, Uchida served her take on a tempura rice bowl, or ten-don. Instead of your standard shrimp or sweet potato tempura, the bowl was built around interesting seasonal vegetables: beef and pea shoots, sweet manganji peppers stuffed with Gulf shrimp, and pork tenderloin wrapped around a stack of green beans and eggplant. We marveled at the deep-frying precision that allowed us to bite cleanly through each crisp bundle of meat and vegetables. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of the cross section of beef-wrapped pea shoot tempura.\" class=\"wp-image-13994426\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The tempura was a showcase for Uchida’s deep-frying skills. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay Area, most Japanese restaurants tend to specialize in clearly defined categories of dishes — the tempuras and sushi rolls and assorted grilled skewers. But even as Uchida works within those same basic frameworks, the cooking at Plenty+ feels more modern and idiosyncratic, like what you’d find at a little unmarked izakaya you might stumble upon in some alleyway in Japan.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Plenty+ days, Lin plays the part of “server and glorified dishwasher,” as he puts it. But the service, too, is part of what makes the meal feel so special and intimate. Lin says they intentionally stagger their \u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">reservations\u003c/a> so there are no more than a couple of tables at a time. Every time he dropped off a dish for us, he’d spend several minutes offering detailed commentary about the provenance of the ingredients (e.g., the young ginger you can only procure at the farmers market at 5 a.m.) and the specific precepts of cooking wizardry deployed. “Take the shiso leaf and slap it in your hand before adding it to the cocktail,” he instructed us at one point. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert.jpg\" alt=\"Two small jars of bright purple shaved ice.\" class=\"wp-image-13994427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dessert was Kyoho grape granita served over lemon-thyme sponge cake. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s the kind of narration you expect at a fine dining restaurant — but in a jeans-and-hoodies kind of setting and, while not inexpensive at $80 a person, a much lower price point than what you’d pay for a comparably delicious, labor-intensive tasting menu at a fancier Japanese restaurant. Lin says they’re able to keep the price relatively low because he and Uchida are the only ones who work the pop-ups. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As soon as one month’s edition is over, Uchida immediately starts planning for the next.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Oct. 10–11, Uchida is serving her version of another comfort food classic: stuffed cabbage rolls served in a clear broth. The rest of the menu is a work in progress, but Lin says they’re trying to source hatahata (sandfish) and sanma (Pacific saury) from Japan to make karaage and sashimi, respectively. Dessert is chestnut cake with roasted apple ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“But as far as how it all gets plated,” Lin says, “it’s always a surprise.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/plenty-plus\">\u003cem>Plenty+\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> takes place roughly one weekend a month, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., at Plenty (1825 San Pablo Ave., Oakland). The next edition will be on Oct. 10 and 11. The current price is $80 per person; \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">\u003cem>advance reservations\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> are required.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>During the week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyoakland/\">Plenty\u003c/a> is an understated little cafe that has become a lunchtime staple for scores of Uptown Oakland office workers. Regulars might come two or three times a week to get their fix of butter-miso salmon, avocado toast or any of a half-dozen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a>-inflected grain bowls.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>During the week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyoakland/\">Plenty\u003c/a> is an understated little cafe that has become a lunchtime staple for scores of Uptown Oakland office workers. Regulars might come two or three times a week to get their fix of butter-miso salmon, avocado toast or any of a half-dozen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a>-inflected grain bowls.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In other words: It’s a lovely everyday restaurant. But not exactly someplace you’d think to go for a special celebration.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When I visited Plenty on a Sunday afternoon in August, however, I experienced the most elegant multi-course Japanese meal I’d eaten in many months. The airiest tempura, made with seasonal farmers market vegetables. Pristine sashimi. A tuna’s head picked clean and gelatinized to form the most amazing maguro “head cheese.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When I visited Plenty on a Sunday afternoon in August, however, I experienced the most elegant multi-course Japanese meal I’d eaten in many months. The airiest tempura, made with seasonal farmers market vegetables. Pristine sashimi. A tuna’s head picked clean and gelatinized to form the most amazing maguro “head cheese.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Dish after artfully plated dish came out, all served in a casual, intimate setting. Every other table, except one, was empty the whole time we were there. It felt like we were dining in a friend’s living room — if said friend’s bar happened to be stocked with a killer sake and shochu collection.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Dish after artfully plated dish came out, all served in a casual, intimate setting. Every other table, except one, was empty the whole time we were there. It felt like we were dining in a friend’s living room — if said friend’s bar happened to be stocked with a killer sake and shochu collection.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a tempura rice bowl, artfully drizzled with thick soy sauce.\" class=\"wp-image-13994424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chef Asuka Uchida’s take on ten-don, or a tempura rice bowl. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As it turns out, this special prix-fixe lunch pop-up, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyplusoakland/\">Plenty Plus\u003c/a> (or Plenty+), takes over the restaurant just one Saturday and Sunday each month. It comes courtesy of chef Asuka Uchida, whose cooking I’ve gone out of my way to seek since her days at B-Dama, where she made the most comforting pork belly and mizuna hot pot. Later, at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/fish-and-bird-izakaya-closing-22264629.php\">recently closed\u003c/a> Fish & Bird Izakaya, her gravy-drenched hamburg steak was my single favorite pandemic-era heat-and-eat dish. Over the past decade, she’s quietly made a name for herself as one of the Bay Area’s most respected Japanese chefs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As it turns out, this special prix-fixe lunch pop-up, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyplusoakland/\">Plenty Plus\u003c/a> (or Plenty+), takes over the restaurant just one Saturday and Sunday each month. It comes courtesy of chef Asuka Uchida, whose cooking I’ve gone out of my way to seek since her days at B-Dama, where she made the most comforting pork belly and mizuna hot pot. Later, at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/fish-and-bird-izakaya-closing-22264629.php\">recently closed\u003c/a> Fish & Bird Izakaya, her gravy-drenched hamburg steak was my single favorite pandemic-era heat-and-eat dish. Over the past decade, she’s quietly made a name for herself as one of the Bay Area’s most respected Japanese chefs.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Uchida and Plenty owner and co-chef Jack Lin came up with the idea for Plenty+ in 2025, after Uchida had already been working at Plenty for a couple of years. She’d taken the job after suffering a knee injury at Fish & Bird, and the more casual cafe gig offered some respite from the 13-hour shifts she used to work. Lin, who describes himself as Uchida’s “biggest fan,” says the food on Plenty’s day-to-day menu became much more refined as soon as she came on board. But he also felt like it was a waste for such a skilled chef to spend her days \u003cem>only\u003c/em> cooking katsu bowls and fried chicken sandwiches. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Uchida and Plenty owner and co-chef Jack Lin came up with the idea for Plenty+ in 2025, after Uchida had already been working at Plenty for a couple of years. She’d taken the job after suffering a knee injury at Fish & Bird, and the more casual cafe gig offered some respite from the 13-hour shifts she used to work. Lin, who describes himself as Uchida’s “biggest fan,” says the food on Plenty’s day-to-day menu became much more refined as soon as she came on board. But he also felt like it was a waste for such a skilled chef to spend her days \u003cem>only\u003c/em> cooking katsu bowls and fried chicken sandwiches. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I wanted to showcase her talents,” Lin says.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So, the two began to plan occasional pop-ups on weekends, when the restaurant is normally closed. Lin gave Uchida full creative control over the more upscale prix-fixe meals (currently priced at $80 a person). She builds each month’s menu out of seafood that’s in season at Tokyo’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyosu_Market\">Toyosu Market\u003c/a> and whatever produce catches her eye at the Old Oakland farmers market. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So, the two began to plan occasional pop-ups on weekends, when the restaurant is normally closed. Lin gave Uchida full creative control over the more upscale prix-fixe meals (currently priced at $80 a person). She builds each month’s menu out of seafood that’s in season at Tokyo’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyosu_Market\">Toyosu Market\u003c/a> and whatever produce catches her eye at the Old Oakland farmers market. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I never make the same dish twice,” Uchida says. “It’s my feeling every time.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of dark miso soup loaded with assorted green vegetables.\" class=\"wp-image-13994425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The soup base was dark, savory Hatcho miso and a dashi made with both bonito and dried flying fish shavings.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of dark miso soup loaded with assorted green vegetables.\" class=\"wp-image-13994425\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The soup base was dark, savory Hatcho miso and a dashi made with both bonito and dried flying fish shavings.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>During my lunch visit, the meal started with a trio of cold dishes. There was toothsome \u003ca href=\"https://tsurizukan.com/en/fish/isaki/\">Isaki\u003c/a> (chicken grunt) sashimi topped with sweet cherry tomatoes and a slurry of numbing sansho pepper. There was an extra-jiggly version of chawanmushi crowned with sweet, peak-season Hokkaido uni. My favorite was the aforementioned head cheese — a thunder blast of earthy umami with squishy, pleasingly gelatinous bits from the fish’s eyes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>During my lunch visit, the meal started with a trio of cold dishes. There was toothsome \u003ca href=\"https://tsurizukan.com/en/fish/isaki/\">Isaki\u003c/a> (chicken grunt) sashimi topped with sweet cherry tomatoes and a slurry of numbing sansho pepper. There was an extra-jiggly version of chawanmushi crowned with sweet, peak-season Hokkaido uni. My favorite was the aforementioned head cheese — a thunder blast of earthy umami with squishy, pleasingly gelatinous bits from the fish’s eyes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Every dish had some element of surprise and delight. The second course was probably the most texturally interesting bowl of miso soup I’ve ever eaten, loaded with spongy taro stems, a super-slippery variety of seaweed and the wispy tendrils of a kabocha squash plant. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Every dish had some element of surprise and delight. The second course was probably the most texturally interesting bowl of miso soup I’ve ever eaten, loaded with spongy taro stems, a super-slippery variety of seaweed and the wispy tendrils of a kabocha squash plant. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For the entree, Uchida served her take on a tempura rice bowl, or ten-don. Instead of your standard shrimp or sweet potato tempura, the bowl was built around interesting seasonal vegetables: beef and pea shoots, sweet manganji peppers stuffed with Gulf shrimp, and pork tenderloin wrapped around a stack of green beans and eggplant. We marveled at the deep-frying precision that allowed us to bite cleanly through each crisp bundle of meat and vegetables. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For the entree, Uchida served her take on a tempura rice bowl, or ten-don. Instead of your standard shrimp or sweet potato tempura, the bowl was built around interesting seasonal vegetables: beef and pea shoots, sweet manganji peppers stuffed with Gulf shrimp, and pork tenderloin wrapped around a stack of green beans and eggplant. We marveled at the deep-frying precision that allowed us to bite cleanly through each crisp bundle of meat and vegetables. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of the cross section of beef-wrapped pea shoot tempura.\" class=\"wp-image-13994426\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The tempura was a showcase for Uchida’s deep-frying skills.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of the cross section of beef-wrapped pea shoot tempura.\" class=\"wp-image-13994426\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The tempura was a showcase for Uchida’s deep-frying skills.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay Area, most Japanese restaurants tend to specialize in clearly defined categories of dishes — the tempuras and sushi rolls and assorted grilled skewers. But even as Uchida works within those same basic frameworks, the cooking at Plenty+ feels more modern and idiosyncratic, like what you’d find at a little unmarked izakaya you might stumble upon in some alleyway in Japan.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay Area, most Japanese restaurants tend to specialize in clearly defined categories of dishes — the tempuras and sushi rolls and assorted grilled skewers. But even as Uchida works within those same basic frameworks, the cooking at Plenty+ feels more modern and idiosyncratic, like what you’d find at a little unmarked izakaya you might stumble upon in some alleyway in Japan.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On Plenty+ days, Lin plays the part of “server and glorified dishwasher,” as he puts it. But the service, too, is part of what makes the meal feel so special and intimate. Lin says they intentionally stagger their \u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">reservations\u003c/a> so there are no more than a couple of tables at a time. Every time he dropped off a dish for us, he’d spend several minutes offering detailed commentary about the provenance of the ingredients (e.g., the young ginger you can only procure at the farmers market at 5 a.m.) and the specific precepts of cooking wizardry deployed. “Take the shiso leaf and slap it in your hand before adding it to the cocktail,” he instructed us at one point. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On Plenty+ days, Lin plays the part of “server and glorified dishwasher,” as he puts it. But the service, too, is part of what makes the meal feel so special and intimate. Lin says they intentionally stagger their \u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">reservations\u003c/a> so there are no more than a couple of tables at a time. Every time he dropped off a dish for us, he’d spend several minutes offering detailed commentary about the provenance of the ingredients (e.g., the young ginger you can only procure at the farmers market at 5 a.m.) and the specific precepts of cooking wizardry deployed. “Take the shiso leaf and slap it in your hand before adding it to the cocktail,” he instructed us at one point. \u003c/p>\n"
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert.jpg\" alt=\"Two small jars of bright purple shaved ice.\" class=\"wp-image-13994427\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dessert was Kyoho grape granita served over lemon-thyme sponge cake.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s the kind of narration you expect at a fine dining restaurant — but in a jeans-and-hoodies kind of setting and, while not inexpensive at $80 a person, a much lower price point than what you’d pay for a comparably delicious, labor-intensive tasting menu at a fancier Japanese restaurant. Lin says they’re able to keep the price relatively low because he and Uchida are the only ones who work the pop-ups. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s the kind of narration you expect at a fine dining restaurant — but in a jeans-and-hoodies kind of setting and, while not inexpensive at $80 a person, a much lower price point than what you’d pay for a comparably delicious, labor-intensive tasting menu at a fancier Japanese restaurant. Lin says they’re able to keep the price relatively low because he and Uchida are the only ones who work the pop-ups. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As soon as one month’s edition is over, Uchida immediately starts planning for the next.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As soon as one month’s edition is over, Uchida immediately starts planning for the next.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For Oct. 10–11, Uchida is serving her version of another comfort food classic: stuffed cabbage rolls served in a clear broth. The rest of the menu is a work in progress, but Lin says they’re trying to source hatahata (sandfish) and sanma (Pacific saury) from Japan to make karaage and sashimi, respectively. Dessert is chestnut cake with roasted apple ice cream.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For Oct. 10–11, Uchida is serving her version of another comfort food classic: stuffed cabbage rolls served in a clear broth. The rest of the menu is a work in progress, but Lin says they’re trying to source hatahata (sandfish) and sanma (Pacific saury) from Japan to make karaage and sashimi, respectively. Dessert is chestnut cake with roasted apple ice cream.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“But as far as how it all gets plated,” Lin says, “it’s always a surprise.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“But as far as how it all gets plated,” Lin says, “it’s always a surprise.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/plenty-plus\">\u003cem>Plenty+\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> takes place roughly one weekend a month, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., at Plenty (1825 San Pablo Ave., Oakland). The next edition will be on Oct. 10 and 11. The current price is $80 per person; \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">\u003cem>advance reservations\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> are required.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/plenty-plus\">\u003cem>Plenty+\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> takes place roughly one weekend a month, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., at Plenty (1825 San Pablo Ave., Oakland). The next edition will be on Oct. 10 and 11. The current price is $80 per person; \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">\u003cem>advance reservations\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> are required.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "The monthly prix-fixe feasts at Plenty Plus are the brainchild of chef Asuka Uchida.",
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"title": "Plenty Plus Is Oakland's Most Delicious Japanese Pop-Up | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>During the week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyoakland/\">Plenty\u003c/a> is an understated little cafe that has become a lunchtime staple for scores of Uptown Oakland office workers. Regulars might come two or three times a week to get their fix of butter-miso salmon, avocado toast or any of a half-dozen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a>-inflected grain bowls.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In other words: It’s a lovely everyday restaurant. But not exactly someplace you’d think to go for a special celebration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When I visited Plenty on a Sunday afternoon in August, however, I experienced the most elegant multi-course Japanese meal I’d eaten in many months. The airiest tempura, made with seasonal farmers market vegetables. Pristine sashimi. A tuna’s head picked clean and gelatinized to form the most amazing maguro “head cheese.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Dish after artfully plated dish came out, all served in a casual, intimate setting. Every other table, except one, was empty the whole time we were there. It felt like we were dining in a friend’s living room — if said friend’s bar happened to be stocked with a killer sake and shochu collection.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a tempura rice bowl, artfully drizzled with thick soy sauce.\" class=\"wp-image-13994424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-tempura-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chef Asuka Uchida’s take on ten-don, or a tempura rice bowl. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it turns out, this special prix-fixe lunch pop-up, known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/plentyplusoakland/\">Plenty Plus\u003c/a> (or Plenty+), takes over the restaurant just one Saturday and Sunday each month. It comes courtesy of chef Asuka Uchida, whose cooking I’ve gone out of my way to seek since her days at B-Dama, where she made the most comforting pork belly and mizuna hot pot. Later, at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/fish-and-bird-izakaya-closing-22264629.php\">recently closed\u003c/a> Fish & Bird Izakaya, her gravy-drenched hamburg steak was my single favorite pandemic-era heat-and-eat dish. Over the past decade, she’s quietly made a name for herself as one of the Bay Area’s most respected Japanese chefs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Uchida and Plenty owner and co-chef Jack Lin came up with the idea for Plenty+ in 2025, after Uchida had already been working at Plenty for a couple of years. She’d taken the job after suffering a knee injury at Fish & Bird, and the more casual cafe gig offered some respite from the 13-hour shifts she used to work. Lin, who describes himself as Uchida’s “biggest fan,” says the food on Plenty’s day-to-day menu became much more refined as soon as she came on board. But he also felt like it was a waste for such a skilled chef to spend her days \u003cem>only\u003c/em> cooking katsu bowls and fried chicken sandwiches. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wanted to showcase her talents,” Lin says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, the two began to plan occasional pop-ups on weekends, when the restaurant is normally closed. Lin gave Uchida full creative control over the more upscale prix-fixe meals (currently priced at $80 a person). She builds each month’s menu out of seafood that’s in season at Tokyo’s \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyosu_Market\">Toyosu Market\u003c/a> and whatever produce catches her eye at the Old Oakland farmers market. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I never make the same dish twice,” Uchida says. “It’s my feeling every time.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of dark miso soup loaded with assorted green vegetables.\" class=\"wp-image-13994425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-miso-soup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The soup base was dark, savory Hatcho miso and a dashi made with both bonito and dried flying fish shavings. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During my lunch visit, the meal started with a trio of cold dishes. There was toothsome \u003ca href=\"https://tsurizukan.com/en/fish/isaki/\">Isaki\u003c/a> (chicken grunt) sashimi topped with sweet cherry tomatoes and a slurry of numbing sansho pepper. There was an extra-jiggly version of chawanmushi crowned with sweet, peak-season Hokkaido uni. My favorite was the aforementioned head cheese — a thunder blast of earthy umami with squishy, pleasingly gelatinous bits from the fish’s eyes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Every dish had some element of surprise and delight. The second course was probably the most texturally interesting bowl of miso soup I’ve ever eaten, loaded with spongy taro stems, a super-slippery variety of seaweed and the wispy tendrils of a kabocha squash plant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the entree, Uchida served her take on a tempura rice bowl, or ten-don. Instead of your standard shrimp or sweet potato tempura, the bowl was built around interesting seasonal vegetables: beef and pea shoots, sweet manganji peppers stuffed with Gulf shrimp, and pork tenderloin wrapped around a stack of green beans and eggplant. We marveled at the deep-frying precision that allowed us to bite cleanly through each crisp bundle of meat and vegetables. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of the cross section of beef-wrapped pea shoot tempura.\" class=\"wp-image-13994426\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-beef-and-pea-shoot-tempura-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The tempura was a showcase for Uchida’s deep-frying skills. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay Area, most Japanese restaurants tend to specialize in clearly defined categories of dishes — the tempuras and sushi rolls and assorted grilled skewers. But even as Uchida works within those same basic frameworks, the cooking at Plenty+ feels more modern and idiosyncratic, like what you’d find at a little unmarked izakaya you might stumble upon in some alleyway in Japan.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Plenty+ days, Lin plays the part of “server and glorified dishwasher,” as he puts it. But the service, too, is part of what makes the meal feel so special and intimate. Lin says they intentionally stagger their \u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">reservations\u003c/a> so there are no more than a couple of tables at a time. Every time he dropped off a dish for us, he’d spend several minutes offering detailed commentary about the provenance of the ingredients (e.g., the young ginger you can only procure at the farmers market at 5 a.m.) and the specific precepts of cooking wizardry deployed. “Take the shiso leaf and slap it in your hand before adding it to the cocktail,” he instructed us at one point. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert.jpg\" alt=\"Two small jars of bright purple shaved ice.\" class=\"wp-image-13994427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/plenty-plus-dessert-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dessert was Kyoho grape granita served over lemon-thyme sponge cake. (Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s the kind of narration you expect at a fine dining restaurant — but in a jeans-and-hoodies kind of setting and, while not inexpensive at $80 a person, a much lower price point than what you’d pay for a comparably delicious, labor-intensive tasting menu at a fancier Japanese restaurant. Lin says they’re able to keep the price relatively low because he and Uchida are the only ones who work the pop-ups. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As soon as one month’s edition is over, Uchida immediately starts planning for the next.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Oct. 10–11, Uchida is serving her version of another comfort food classic: stuffed cabbage rolls served in a clear broth. The rest of the menu is a work in progress, but Lin says they’re trying to source hatahata (sandfish) and sanma (Pacific saury) from Japan to make karaage and sashimi, respectively. Dessert is chestnut cake with roasted apple ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“But as far as how it all gets plated,” Lin says, “it’s always a surprise.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/plenty-plus\">\u003cem>Plenty+\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> takes place roughly one weekend a month, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., at Plenty (1825 San Pablo Ave., Oakland). The next edition will be on Oct. 10 and 11. The current price is $80 per person; \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://plentyoakland.wixsite.com/website/reservations\">\u003cem>advance reservations\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> are required.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "nobuya-late-night-sushi-boxes-izakaya-pleasant-hill",
"title": "Nobuya Brings Elegant Late-Night Sushi Boxes to the East Bay Suburbs",
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"headTitle": "Nobuya Brings Elegant Late-Night Sushi Boxes to the East Bay Suburbs | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Two men seated at a sushi bar devouring large quantities of sashimi served in elegant wooden boxes.\" class=\"wp-image-13994005\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nobuya, a newish izakaya and sushi restaurant in Pleasant Hill, is known for its elegant sushi boxes. (Thien Pham)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003cem>The Midnight Diners\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003cem>Thien Pham\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Everything about \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nobuya.sushi/\">Nobuya\u003c/a> is a bit of a surprise. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Start with the restaurant’s location on a quiet, semi-residential stretch of Pleasant Hill. We hadn’t previously found \u003cem>any\u003c/em> late-night dining in this particular swath of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/contra-costa-county\">Contra Costa County\u003c/a> suburbs, so when we heard about this newish sushi spot and izakaya, we were surprised to learn that it stays open until 11:30 p.m. on weekends. When we pulled up at a little before 10 on a recent Friday night, we were struck by the casual elegance of the dining room — all paper lanterns and light wood partitions, with quaint little nooks to sit in should you want some privacy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The crowd, at least at this hour, skewed toward older couples and groups of middle-aged businessmen, but the atmosphere — aided by an upbeat \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_pop\">city pop\u003c/a> soundtrack — felt lively and fun.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We made a beeline for the sushi counter, where our server immediately dropped off two bowls of piping hot miso soup. The main reason we’d made the trek out to Pleasant Hill is because Nobuya specializes in the kind of ornate wooden sushi boxes that are trendy now on social media — glistening, jewel-like slabs of sashimi, each one artfully arranged in its own little compartment. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve mostly only seen these boxes at higher-end Japanese restaurants in San Francisco or down on the Peninsula. To be able to snag one this far away from the big city at this hour of the night? We knew we had to try it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, our gregarious sushi chef, Carlos, turned out to be a one-man orchestrator of good vibes. He chatted amiably in Spanish with the middle-aged couple seated next to us, then slid enough free bites across the counter — a raw oyster topped with flying fish roe and citrusy soy, a baked scallop in a pool of lemon cream sauce — that we started to worry we’d been recognized. In the end, he really did just come across as an uncommonly friendly dude, eager to chat about his favorite East Bay sushi joints (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/utzutzu/\">Utzutzu\u003c/a> in Alameda and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sushi-sho.com/\">Sushi Sho\u003c/a> in El Cerrito — both deep cuts that made it clear that he knew ball).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Exterior of a sushi restaurant lit up at night. The sign above reads, "Nobuya."\" class=\"wp-image-13994008\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The rare late-night restaurant in the Pleasant Hill area, Nobuya is open until 11:30 p.m. on weekends. (Thien Pham)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nobuya isn’t an overly precious sushi restaurant. It doesn’t offer traditional omakase service, and you can do well for yourself whether your raw fish indulgence of choice is simple nigiri or saucy, over-the-top Americanized rolls (the “Chuck Norris” seems to be a popular choice). We started with a Snow Cracker appetizer from the “Today’s Special” section of the menu, where the most interesting izakaya-style small plates are listed. This was the perfect little appetizer, proving that the kitchen doesn’t take itself too seriously: one big jalapeño stuffed with snow crab and cream cheese, coated in panko, deep-fried and cut into bite-size segments, like a tiki bar’s take on a jalapeño popper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The main event was not one but two different, but equally excellent, sushi boxes. First came the Omakase Box, whose nine compartments each contained three generous slices of sashimi: hirame (fluke), sea bream, chutoro, maguro, hamachi, salmon, amaebi (sweet shrimp), uni-topped scallops and, in the center, a mound of roe-topped sushi rice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Every cut was delicious — the clean bite of the hirame, the heavy ocean umami of the sea bream, the delicate sweetness of the shrimp. We were given an unlimited supply of toasted seaweed to make little wraps with, and, since the box included the shrimp, the chef served their deep-fried heads on the side so we could enjoy their pungent crunch. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the end, my favorite item in the box was the one I normally find the most boring: the lean maguro, which came in thick slabs topped with a dab of yuzu kosho pepper paste, and had an impossibly smooth texture and clean, savory flavor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At $69, the box is a bit of a splurge, but I’ve definitely paid more for smaller portions of lower-quality sushi. The same was true of the kaisen box ($59), which embodied a different form of luxury. For this set, a layer of sushi rice was topped with a whole row of uni. Next to that, a row of ikura, a row of sweet scallops and, finally, a whole row of sliced toro, with little flowers scattered on top to make it pretty. You could stir everything together and eat it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13986360/yaichi-kaisendon-japanese-seafood-bowls-udon-milpitas\">like a rice bowl\u003c/a>, but we opted to pile a bit of this ‘n’ that onto the sheets of nori, rolling the whole thing up and eating it in one bite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Either of the sushi boxes would be easily shareable, just like the oden (fish cake soup) we ordered as a finishing dish. I loved sipping on the rich, peppery broth between bites of sushi to cleanse my palate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Add it all up, and Nobuya really ought to be \u003cem>the\u003c/em> late-night hotspot for this corner of the East Bay suburbs. But the restaurant was nearly half empty for the duration of our visit, and more and more so as the hour crept past 10 p.m.. For now, it seems, the vast majority of Nobuya’s clientele are locals from Pleasant Hill and its immediate surroundings (who all tend to be in bed by 9 o’clock, Carlos confided with a chuckle). The place has yet to be discovered by the legion of twenty- and thirtysomething food influencers always on the lookout for a new spot to hype up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As good as the food at Nobuya is, that almost certainly won’t be the case for much longer. In the meantime, I’m going to relish the opportunity to walk in at 10 o’clock, without a reservation or any prior planning, and luxuriate in one of the most satisfying late-night sashimi dinners in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nobuya.sushi/\">Nobuya\u003c/a> is open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–10:15 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–11:30 p.m. at 1428 Contra Costa Blvd. in Pleasant Hill.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Two men seated at a sushi bar devouring large quantities of sashimi served in elegant wooden boxes.\" class=\"wp-image-13994005\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nobuya, a newish izakaya and sushi restaurant in Pleasant Hill, is known for its elegant sushi boxes.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003cem>The Midnight Diners\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003cem>Thien Pham\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003cem>The Midnight Diners\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003cem>Thien Pham\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"\n\u003cp>Everything about \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nobuya.sushi/\">Nobuya\u003c/a> is a bit of a surprise. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Start with the restaurant’s location on a quiet, semi-residential stretch of Pleasant Hill. We hadn’t previously found \u003cem>any\u003c/em> late-night dining in this particular swath of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/contra-costa-county\">Contra Costa County\u003c/a> suburbs, so when we heard about this newish sushi spot and izakaya, we were surprised to learn that it stays open until 11:30 p.m. on weekends. When we pulled up at a little before 10 on a recent Friday night, we were struck by the casual elegance of the dining room — all paper lanterns and light wood partitions, with quaint little nooks to sit in should you want some privacy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The crowd, at least at this hour, skewed toward older couples and groups of middle-aged businessmen, but the atmosphere — aided by an upbeat \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_pop\">city pop\u003c/a> soundtrack — felt lively and fun.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The crowd, at least at this hour, skewed toward older couples and groups of middle-aged businessmen, but the atmosphere — aided by an upbeat \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_pop\">city pop\u003c/a> soundtrack — felt lively and fun.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We made a beeline for the sushi counter, where our server immediately dropped off two bowls of piping hot miso soup. The main reason we’d made the trek out to Pleasant Hill is because Nobuya specializes in the kind of ornate wooden sushi boxes that are trendy now on social media — glistening, jewel-like slabs of sashimi, each one artfully arranged in its own little compartment. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve mostly only seen these boxes at higher-end Japanese restaurants in San Francisco or down on the Peninsula. To be able to snag one this far away from the big city at this hour of the night? We knew we had to try it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>We made a beeline for the sushi counter, where our server immediately dropped off two bowls of piping hot miso soup. The main reason we’d made the trek out to Pleasant Hill is because Nobuya specializes in the kind of ornate wooden sushi boxes that are trendy now on social media — glistening, jewel-like slabs of sashimi, each one artfully arranged in its own little compartment. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve mostly only seen these boxes at higher-end Japanese restaurants in San Francisco or down on the Peninsula. To be able to snag one this far away from the big city at this hour of the night? We knew we had to try it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, our gregarious sushi chef, Carlos, turned out to be a one-man orchestrator of good vibes. He chatted amiably in Spanish with the middle-aged couple seated next to us, then slid enough free bites across the counter — a raw oyster topped with flying fish roe and citrusy soy, a baked scallop in a pool of lemon cream sauce — that we started to worry we’d been recognized. In the end, he really did just come across as an uncommonly friendly dude, eager to chat about his favorite East Bay sushi joints (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/utzutzu/\">Utzutzu\u003c/a> in Alameda and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sushi-sho.com/\">Sushi Sho\u003c/a> in El Cerrito — both deep cuts that made it clear that he knew ball).\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, our gregarious sushi chef, Carlos, turned out to be a one-man orchestrator of good vibes. He chatted amiably in Spanish with the middle-aged couple seated next to us, then slid enough free bites across the counter — a raw oyster topped with flying fish roe and citrusy soy, a baked scallop in a pool of lemon cream sauce — that we started to worry we’d been recognized. In the end, he really did just come across as an uncommonly friendly dude, eager to chat about his favorite East Bay sushi joints (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/utzutzu/\">Utzutzu\u003c/a> in Alameda and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sushi-sho.com/\">Sushi Sho\u003c/a> in El Cerrito — both deep cuts that made it clear that he knew ball).\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Exterior of a sushi restaurant lit up at night. The sign above reads, "Nobuya."\" class=\"wp-image-13994008\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The rare late-night restaurant in the Pleasant Hill area, Nobuya is open until 11:30 p.m. on weekends.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Exterior of a sushi restaurant lit up at night. The sign above reads, "Nobuya."\" class=\"wp-image-13994008\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The rare late-night restaurant in the Pleasant Hill area, Nobuya is open until 11:30 p.m. on weekends.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nobuya isn’t an overly precious sushi restaurant. It doesn’t offer traditional omakase service, and you can do well for yourself whether your raw fish indulgence of choice is simple nigiri or saucy, over-the-top Americanized rolls (the “Chuck Norris” seems to be a popular choice). We started with a Snow Cracker appetizer from the “Today’s Special” section of the menu, where the most interesting izakaya-style small plates are listed. This was the perfect little appetizer, proving that the kitchen doesn’t take itself too seriously: one big jalapeño stuffed with snow crab and cream cheese, coated in panko, deep-fried and cut into bite-size segments, like a tiki bar’s take on a jalapeño popper.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nobuya isn’t an overly precious sushi restaurant. It doesn’t offer traditional omakase service, and you can do well for yourself whether your raw fish indulgence of choice is simple nigiri or saucy, over-the-top Americanized rolls (the “Chuck Norris” seems to be a popular choice). We started with a Snow Cracker appetizer from the “Today’s Special” section of the menu, where the most interesting izakaya-style small plates are listed. This was the perfect little appetizer, proving that the kitchen doesn’t take itself too seriously: one big jalapeño stuffed with snow crab and cream cheese, coated in panko, deep-fried and cut into bite-size segments, like a tiki bar’s take on a jalapeño popper.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The main event was not one but two different, but equally excellent, sushi boxes. First came the Omakase Box, whose nine compartments each contained three generous slices of sashimi: hirame (fluke), sea bream, chutoro, maguro, hamachi, salmon, amaebi (sweet shrimp), uni-topped scallops and, in the center, a mound of roe-topped sushi rice. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The main event was not one but two different, but equally excellent, sushi boxes. First came the Omakase Box, whose nine compartments each contained three generous slices of sashimi: hirame (fluke), sea bream, chutoro, maguro, hamachi, salmon, amaebi (sweet shrimp), uni-topped scallops and, in the center, a mound of roe-topped sushi rice. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Every cut was delicious — the clean bite of the hirame, the heavy ocean umami of the sea bream, the delicate sweetness of the shrimp. We were given an unlimited supply of toasted seaweed to make little wraps with, and, since the box included the shrimp, the chef served their deep-fried heads on the side so we could enjoy their pungent crunch. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Every cut was delicious — the clean bite of the hirame, the heavy ocean umami of the sea bream, the delicate sweetness of the shrimp. We were given an unlimited supply of toasted seaweed to make little wraps with, and, since the box included the shrimp, the chef served their deep-fried heads on the side so we could enjoy their pungent crunch. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the end, my favorite item in the box was the one I normally find the most boring: the lean maguro, which came in thick slabs topped with a dab of yuzu kosho pepper paste, and had an impossibly smooth texture and clean, savory flavor.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the end, my favorite item in the box was the one I normally find the most boring: the lean maguro, which came in thick slabs topped with a dab of yuzu kosho pepper paste, and had an impossibly smooth texture and clean, savory flavor.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At $69, the box is a bit of a splurge, but I’ve definitely paid more for smaller portions of lower-quality sushi. The same was true of the kaisen box ($59), which embodied a different form of luxury. For this set, a layer of sushi rice was topped with a whole row of uni. Next to that, a row of ikura, a row of sweet scallops and, finally, a whole row of sliced toro, with little flowers scattered on top to make it pretty. You could stir everything together and eat it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13986360/yaichi-kaisendon-japanese-seafood-bowls-udon-milpitas\">like a rice bowl\u003c/a>, but we opted to pile a bit of this ‘n’ that onto the sheets of nori, rolling the whole thing up and eating it in one bite.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>At $69, the box is a bit of a splurge, but I’ve definitely paid more for smaller portions of lower-quality sushi. The same was true of the kaisen box ($59), which embodied a different form of luxury. For this set, a layer of sushi rice was topped with a whole row of uni. Next to that, a row of ikura, a row of sweet scallops and, finally, a whole row of sliced toro, with little flowers scattered on top to make it pretty. You could stir everything together and eat it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13986360/yaichi-kaisendon-japanese-seafood-bowls-udon-milpitas\">like a rice bowl\u003c/a>, but we opted to pile a bit of this ‘n’ that onto the sheets of nori, rolling the whole thing up and eating it in one bite.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Either of the sushi boxes would be easily shareable, just like the oden (fish cake soup) we ordered as a finishing dish. I loved sipping on the rich, peppery broth between bites of sushi to cleanse my palate.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Either of the sushi boxes would be easily shareable, just like the oden (fish cake soup) we ordered as a finishing dish. I loved sipping on the rich, peppery broth between bites of sushi to cleanse my palate.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Add it all up, and Nobuya really ought to be \u003cem>the\u003c/em> late-night hotspot for this corner of the East Bay suburbs. But the restaurant was nearly half empty for the duration of our visit, and more and more so as the hour crept past 10 p.m.. For now, it seems, the vast majority of Nobuya’s clientele are locals from Pleasant Hill and its immediate surroundings (who all tend to be in bed by 9 o’clock, Carlos confided with a chuckle). The place has yet to be discovered by the legion of twenty- and thirtysomething food influencers always on the lookout for a new spot to hype up. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Add it all up, and Nobuya really ought to be \u003cem>the\u003c/em> late-night hotspot for this corner of the East Bay suburbs. But the restaurant was nearly half empty for the duration of our visit, and more and more so as the hour crept past 10 p.m.. For now, it seems, the vast majority of Nobuya’s clientele are locals from Pleasant Hill and its immediate surroundings (who all tend to be in bed by 9 o’clock, Carlos confided with a chuckle). The place has yet to be discovered by the legion of twenty- and thirtysomething food influencers always on the lookout for a new spot to hype up. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As good as the food at Nobuya is, that almost certainly won’t be the case for much longer. In the meantime, I’m going to relish the opportunity to walk in at 10 o’clock, without a reservation or any prior planning, and luxuriate in one of the most satisfying late-night sashimi dinners in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>As good as the food at Nobuya is, that almost certainly won’t be the case for much longer. In the meantime, I’m going to relish the opportunity to walk in at 10 o’clock, without a reservation or any prior planning, and luxuriate in one of the most satisfying late-night sashimi dinners in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nobuya.sushi/\">Nobuya\u003c/a> is open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–10:15 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–11:30 p.m. at 1428 Contra Costa Blvd. in Pleasant Hill.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nobuya.sushi/\">Nobuya\u003c/a> is open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–10:15 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–11:30 p.m. at 1428 Contra Costa Blvd. in Pleasant Hill.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "Pleasant Hill finally has a destination for excellent sushi until 11:30 p.m. on weekends. ",
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"title": "Nobuya Brings Elegant Late-Night Sushi Boxes to the East Bay Suburbs | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Two men seated at a sushi bar devouring large quantities of sashimi served in elegant wooden boxes.\" class=\"wp-image-13994005\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya2-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nobuya, a newish izakaya and sushi restaurant in Pleasant Hill, is known for its elegant sushi boxes. (Thien Pham)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003cem>The Midnight Diners\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003cem>Thien Pham\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Everything about \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nobuya.sushi/\">Nobuya\u003c/a> is a bit of a surprise. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Start with the restaurant’s location on a quiet, semi-residential stretch of Pleasant Hill. We hadn’t previously found \u003cem>any\u003c/em> late-night dining in this particular swath of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/contra-costa-county\">Contra Costa County\u003c/a> suburbs, so when we heard about this newish sushi spot and izakaya, we were surprised to learn that it stays open until 11:30 p.m. on weekends. When we pulled up at a little before 10 on a recent Friday night, we were struck by the casual elegance of the dining room — all paper lanterns and light wood partitions, with quaint little nooks to sit in should you want some privacy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The crowd, at least at this hour, skewed toward older couples and groups of middle-aged businessmen, but the atmosphere — aided by an upbeat \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_pop\">city pop\u003c/a> soundtrack — felt lively and fun.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We made a beeline for the sushi counter, where our server immediately dropped off two bowls of piping hot miso soup. The main reason we’d made the trek out to Pleasant Hill is because Nobuya specializes in the kind of ornate wooden sushi boxes that are trendy now on social media — glistening, jewel-like slabs of sashimi, each one artfully arranged in its own little compartment. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve mostly only seen these boxes at higher-end Japanese restaurants in San Francisco or down on the Peninsula. To be able to snag one this far away from the big city at this hour of the night? We knew we had to try it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, our gregarious sushi chef, Carlos, turned out to be a one-man orchestrator of good vibes. He chatted amiably in Spanish with the middle-aged couple seated next to us, then slid enough free bites across the counter — a raw oyster topped with flying fish roe and citrusy soy, a baked scallop in a pool of lemon cream sauce — that we started to worry we’d been recognized. In the end, he really did just come across as an uncommonly friendly dude, eager to chat about his favorite East Bay sushi joints (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/utzutzu/\">Utzutzu\u003c/a> in Alameda and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sushi-sho.com/\">Sushi Sho\u003c/a> in El Cerrito — both deep cuts that made it clear that he knew ball).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Exterior of a sushi restaurant lit up at night. The sign above reads, "Nobuya."\" class=\"wp-image-13994008\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/nobuya-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The rare late-night restaurant in the Pleasant Hill area, Nobuya is open until 11:30 p.m. on weekends. (Thien Pham)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nobuya isn’t an overly precious sushi restaurant. It doesn’t offer traditional omakase service, and you can do well for yourself whether your raw fish indulgence of choice is simple nigiri or saucy, over-the-top Americanized rolls (the “Chuck Norris” seems to be a popular choice). We started with a Snow Cracker appetizer from the “Today’s Special” section of the menu, where the most interesting izakaya-style small plates are listed. This was the perfect little appetizer, proving that the kitchen doesn’t take itself too seriously: one big jalapeño stuffed with snow crab and cream cheese, coated in panko, deep-fried and cut into bite-size segments, like a tiki bar’s take on a jalapeño popper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The main event was not one but two different, but equally excellent, sushi boxes. First came the Omakase Box, whose nine compartments each contained three generous slices of sashimi: hirame (fluke), sea bream, chutoro, maguro, hamachi, salmon, amaebi (sweet shrimp), uni-topped scallops and, in the center, a mound of roe-topped sushi rice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Every cut was delicious — the clean bite of the hirame, the heavy ocean umami of the sea bream, the delicate sweetness of the shrimp. We were given an unlimited supply of toasted seaweed to make little wraps with, and, since the box included the shrimp, the chef served their deep-fried heads on the side so we could enjoy their pungent crunch. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the end, my favorite item in the box was the one I normally find the most boring: the lean maguro, which came in thick slabs topped with a dab of yuzu kosho pepper paste, and had an impossibly smooth texture and clean, savory flavor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At $69, the box is a bit of a splurge, but I’ve definitely paid more for smaller portions of lower-quality sushi. The same was true of the kaisen box ($59), which embodied a different form of luxury. For this set, a layer of sushi rice was topped with a whole row of uni. Next to that, a row of ikura, a row of sweet scallops and, finally, a whole row of sliced toro, with little flowers scattered on top to make it pretty. You could stir everything together and eat it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13986360/yaichi-kaisendon-japanese-seafood-bowls-udon-milpitas\">like a rice bowl\u003c/a>, but we opted to pile a bit of this ‘n’ that onto the sheets of nori, rolling the whole thing up and eating it in one bite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Either of the sushi boxes would be easily shareable, just like the oden (fish cake soup) we ordered as a finishing dish. I loved sipping on the rich, peppery broth between bites of sushi to cleanse my palate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Add it all up, and Nobuya really ought to be \u003cem>the\u003c/em> late-night hotspot for this corner of the East Bay suburbs. But the restaurant was nearly half empty for the duration of our visit, and more and more so as the hour crept past 10 p.m.. For now, it seems, the vast majority of Nobuya’s clientele are locals from Pleasant Hill and its immediate surroundings (who all tend to be in bed by 9 o’clock, Carlos confided with a chuckle). The place has yet to be discovered by the legion of twenty- and thirtysomething food influencers always on the lookout for a new spot to hype up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As good as the food at Nobuya is, that almost certainly won’t be the case for much longer. In the meantime, I’m going to relish the opportunity to walk in at 10 o’clock, without a reservation or any prior planning, and luxuriate in one of the most satisfying late-night sashimi dinners in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nobuya.sushi/\">Nobuya\u003c/a> is open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–10:15 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–11:30 p.m. at 1428 Contra Costa Blvd. in Pleasant Hill.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "best-matcha-bay-area-oakland-berkeley-sf-san-jose",
"title": "11 Vibrant Bay Area Matcha Cafes to Keep You Well Caffeinated",
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"headTitle": "11 Vibrant Bay Area Matcha Cafes to Keep You Well Caffeinated | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Be sure to check out our full \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/fall-guide-2026\">2026 Fall Arts Guide\u003c/a> to live music, movies, art, theater, festivals and more in the Bay Area.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>These days, every young person in the Bay Area seems to be walking around with some variation of the same green drink: matcha. Traditionally made by whisking finely ground green tea leaves with hot water, the beverage has been used for ceremonial practices in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japan\u003c/a> for thousands of years. Over the past decade, however, the vibrant drink has taken America by storm. The United States now imports \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2PpIvUKwo\">over 2,000 tons\u003c/a> of matcha per year, turning the tea powder into drinks, ice cream treats and even skin care products. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay, it feels like a new matcha cafe or matcha-forward coffee shop opens almost every day. Each place offers its own take on the drink, whether it be a latte with your choice of milk, an obsessively sweet concoction of cookie butters and banana puddings, or a simple americano.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Matcha, like life, is all about balance. I spent the past several weeks trying many of the Bay Area’s hundreds of matcha cafes. Here are some of my favorites. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>EAST BAY: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding a cup of iced coffee topped with a layer of pale green matcha cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993215\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The matcha americano with cream top at Yume Mori on August 21, 2026, in Berkeley. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yumemori.matcha/\">Yume Mori \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>2319 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jazz plays inside this minimalist cafe located in a line of popular matcha cafes near UC Berkeley. The spot is hard to miss because there is always a crowd of people waiting outside — tweens holding mom’s spot in line while she searches for a parking space.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yume Mori is one of the few shops where customers get to choose a specific regional variety of matcha for your drink, each one boasting a different flavor profile. The cafe also serves matcha soft serve, matcha crepes and house specialties like clear matcha (made with coconut water and topped with matcha cream) and genmaicha lattes (made with green tea blended with roasted rice). The matcha here has a vibrant color and taste, but if you don’t care for those intense nutty and astringent flavors, there are also sweeter options like tiramisu, yuzu miso and cold brew options. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mindcoffee.ca/\">Mind Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1816 Euclid Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Away from the traffic of the busier parts of Berkeley sits Mind Coffee, a popular study spot for students on the north side of campus. Mind has a large selection of coffee, teas and pastries, and the matcha drinks, in particular, are some of the most creative in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Einspänners are especially popular here. These froth-topped drinks, named after a type of horse-drawn carriage, originated in Vienna, Austria. But they’d been a fixture in Korean dramas for years by the time they made their way to the States. Einspänners are traditionally a coffee drink, but Mind features less common versions like an Earl Grey matcha Einspänner latte (which tastes a bit like a sweet, syrupy bowl of cereal) and an iced matcha sakura Einspänner with pink milk, which transports you into a forest of cherry blossom trees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte on a sun-dappled wooden table.\" class=\"wp-image-13993222\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte from Kitsch Coffee in Oakland on Aug. 20, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kitschcoffeeoakland/\">Kitsch Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>590 2nd St., Oakland\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kitsch Coffee shares space with a vintage furniture and home goods store in Jack London Square. The big open space is always full with people working behind laptops, chatting with friends or sifting through racks of vintage clothes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kitsch is a coffee shop, but the place takes matcha seriously. Matcha here is bright green and can be amped up with housemade syrups with flavors like ginger and lavender. The carrot cake matcha even comes with a cream cheese foam to mimic the frosting on a slice of cake. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fortheloveofmatchacafe/\">For the Love of Matcha\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Grand Lake Farmers Market (Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue, Oakland)\u003cbr>Temescal Farmers Market (5300 Claremont Ave., Oakland)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This weekly pop-up at the Grand Lake and Temescal farmers markets closes once it sells out, so it’s best to arrive early. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The menu rotates based on the season. For summer, they have sweet corn, fig, vanilla and the forever favorite strawberry matcha latte. The farmers market stand is popular, so oftentimes you’ll find many of the flavors crossed out in permanent marker. The Matchacano is my go-to drink, but you can always up the flavor with their seasonal syrups and cream tops. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding matcha soft serve ice cream on a sugar cone.\" class=\"wp-image-13993225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A customer holds a matcha-and-vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream cone from Urban Matcha in Castro Valley on Aug. 20, 2026 (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/urbanmatcha.castrovalley/\">Urban Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3311 Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A hidden gem in suburban Castro Valley, Urban Matcha provides a matcha oasis in a somewhat unlikely part of the Bay. At 7 p.m. on a recent Tuesday evening, the cafe was full of chatty teens, people finding a calm place to get work done and families ending their night with their favorite sweet treats. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Part of a chain that extends from California to Las Vegas, the cafe is especially notable for its matcha-flavored desserts. This is the kind of place where every other customer walks out with their hands full of matcha parfaits loaded with agar jelly, corn flakes, matcha gelato, red bean paste, mochi balls and a big scoop of matcha soft serve. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SAN FRANCISCO: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/constance.tea/\">Constance Tea\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3512 Balboa St., San Francisco\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Located on Balboa Street, in the Outer Richmond, Constance Tea is the only place in San Francisco where tea leaves are stone-milled into matcha in house. This new shop isn’t the place to find the drinks that satisfy your sweet tooth. Instead, Constance focuses on the basics: a small selection of hōjicha (roasted green tea), Einspänners and traditional matcha drinks made with matcha sourced from various regions in Japan, showcasing different flavor profiles. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During a recent visit, my matcha americano was a vivid green, perfectly balanced between earthiness and a nutty aftertaste, with a cream top that provided just the right amount of milkiness to complement the grassy taste of the tea. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers side by side holding creamy matcha drinks.\" class=\"wp-image-13993221\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Customers hold their matcha drinks at Ceré Tea on Valencia Street in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2026. The tea shop specializes in matcha and hōjicha drinks. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cereteaxyz/\">Ceré Tea \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1186 Valencia St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This popular matcha spot in the Mission, with locations throughout the Bay Area, has all the makings for a viral cafe, with its full-body selfie mirror and minimalist design. The menu puts matcha and hōjicha at the forefront, featuring drinks infused with yuzu, ube, guava and more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The matcha leans toward the brighter and more bitter side, but you can always sweeten the deal with a banana or crème brûlée cream top. Trendy offerings like Einspänners and cheese cream toppings are also available. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matchacafemaiko/\">Matcha Café Maiko \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1581 Webster St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This wildly popular Honolulu-based chain has become a Bay Area mall staple. It’s a quick, convenient and portable way to take your matcha to go. Big chains often don’t maintain their quality, but Maiko is always consistent, offering a convenient option to grab your matcha on the go. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Perfect for a matcha beginner, the shop is known for its wide variety of matcha desserts:soft serves, shaved ices, parfaits, frappes and floats. The matcha here strikes just the right balance of sweetness and rich matcha flavor, providing the best caffeine boost after a day at the mall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SOUTH BAY AND PENINSULA: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha drink with white swirls of crème brûlée–flavored cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The crème brûlée matcha swirl at Izumi Matcha in San Mateo on Aug. 27, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/izumi.matcha/\">Izumi Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>180 E. 3rd Ave. Unit 100A, San Mateo\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With three locations in the Peninsula and South Bay, Izumi is one of the only cafes in the US that \u003ca href=\"https://izumimatcha.com/premium-matcha-powder/\">sources its matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen\u003c/a>, a highly regarded producer in Uji, Japan. Inside, the walls are lined with tins of the Marukyu matcha powder, along with tea kettles, matcha serving bowls and matcha whisks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The broad menu of teas and desserts really highlight the quality of the matcha itself. The matcha latte options include trendy flavors like a crème brûlée swirl that adds an element of creaminess as a counterpoint to the bright matcha flavor. In addition to the drinks, the shop also offers a diverse selection of matcha- and tea-flavored ice creams — everything from ube to “intense matcha.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/aroma.cct/\">Aroma\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 150, San José\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This East San José tea, coffee and chè shop sells a wide variety of Vietnamese-inspired coffee and tea drinks. Matcha is the powerhouse of the menu, available in 10 different flavors, many of them featuring Southeast Asian ingredients like pandan, guava, banana cream and mango sticky rice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The matcha at Aroma is strong, but not overpoweringly bitter. The quality of the tea shines through even when paired with thick, sweet, syrupy banana, mango and yuzu puddings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha parfait in a sundae glass, layered with fresh strawberries and ice cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993421\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Another view of the matcha strawberry parfait at Matsu Matcha. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matsumatcha.usa/\">Matsu Matcha\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3030 El Camino Real, Santa Clara\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp> A calm oasis located inside a busy shopping plaza in Santa Clara, Matsu serves bright green matcha in many different formats. The cafe’s extensive menu offers matcha gelato (available in five levels of increasing intensity, plus a seasonal flavor), matcha floats, matcha flights and much more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The matcha flights are a good option for customers who have trouble deciding. They feature a triple dose of matcha, a matcha latte with matcha cream on top, a seasonal matcha (guava during my recent visit) and a matcha float (available in flavors like grape and dark chocolate). \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>These days, every young person in the Bay Area seems to be walking around with some variation of the same green drink: matcha. Traditionally made by whisking finely ground green tea leaves with hot water, the beverage has been used for ceremonial practices in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japan\u003c/a> for thousands of years. Over the past decade, however, the vibrant drink has taken America by storm. The United States now imports \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2PpIvUKwo\">over 2,000 tons\u003c/a> of matcha per year, turning the tea powder into drinks, ice cream treats and even skin care products. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>These days, every young person in the Bay Area seems to be walking around with some variation of the same green drink: matcha. Traditionally made by whisking finely ground green tea leaves with hot water, the beverage has been used for ceremonial practices in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japan\u003c/a> for thousands of years. Over the past decade, however, the vibrant drink has taken America by storm. The United States now imports \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2PpIvUKwo\">over 2,000 tons\u003c/a> of matcha per year, turning the tea powder into drinks, ice cream treats and even skin care products. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay, it feels like a new matcha cafe or matcha-forward coffee shop opens almost every day. Each place offers its own take on the drink, whether it be a latte with your choice of milk, an obsessively sweet concoction of cookie butters and banana puddings, or a simple americano.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay, it feels like a new matcha cafe or matcha-forward coffee shop opens almost every day. Each place offers its own take on the drink, whether it be a latte with your choice of milk, an obsessively sweet concoction of cookie butters and banana puddings, or a simple americano.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Matcha, like life, is all about balance. I spent the past several weeks trying many of the Bay Area’s hundreds of matcha cafes. Here are some of my favorites. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Matcha, like life, is all about balance. I spent the past several weeks trying many of the Bay Area’s hundreds of matcha cafes. Here are some of my favorites. \u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
"text": "EAST BAY: ",
"level": 2
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>EAST BAY: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>EAST BAY: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"attrs": {
"id": 13993215,
"sizeSlug": "full",
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"alt": "Hand holding a cup of iced coffee topped with a layer of pale green matcha cream.",
"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding a cup of iced coffee topped with a layer of pale green matcha cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993215\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The matcha americano with cream top at Yume Mori on August 21, 2026, in Berkeley.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding a cup of iced coffee topped with a layer of pale green matcha cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993215\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The matcha americano with cream top at Yume Mori on August 21, 2026, in Berkeley.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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{
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"attrs": {
"text": "Yume Mori ",
"level": 2
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yumemori.matcha/\">Yume Mori \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yumemori.matcha/\">Yume Mori \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>2319 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>2319 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jazz plays inside this minimalist cafe located in a line of popular matcha cafes near UC Berkeley. The spot is hard to miss because there is always a crowd of people waiting outside — tweens holding mom’s spot in line while she searches for a parking space.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Jazz plays inside this minimalist cafe located in a line of popular matcha cafes near UC Berkeley. The spot is hard to miss because there is always a crowd of people waiting outside — tweens holding mom’s spot in line while she searches for a parking space.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yume Mori is one of the few shops where customers get to choose a specific regional variety of matcha for your drink, each one boasting a different flavor profile. The cafe also serves matcha soft serve, matcha crepes and house specialties like clear matcha (made with coconut water and topped with matcha cream) and genmaicha lattes (made with green tea blended with roasted rice). The matcha here has a vibrant color and taste, but if you don’t care for those intense nutty and astringent flavors, there are also sweeter options like tiramisu, yuzu miso and cold brew options. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Yume Mori is one of the few shops where customers get to choose a specific regional variety of matcha for your drink, each one boasting a different flavor profile. The cafe also serves matcha soft serve, matcha crepes and house specialties like clear matcha (made with coconut water and topped with matcha cream) and genmaicha lattes (made with green tea blended with roasted rice). The matcha here has a vibrant color and taste, but if you don’t care for those intense nutty and astringent flavors, there are also sweeter options like tiramisu, yuzu miso and cold brew options. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "Mind Coffee",
"level": 2
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mindcoffee.ca/\">Mind Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mindcoffee.ca/\">Mind Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1816 Euclid Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1816 Euclid Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Away from the traffic of the busier parts of Berkeley sits Mind Coffee, a popular study spot for students on the north side of campus. Mind has a large selection of coffee, teas and pastries, and the matcha drinks, in particular, are some of the most creative in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Away from the traffic of the busier parts of Berkeley sits Mind Coffee, a popular study spot for students on the north side of campus. Mind has a large selection of coffee, teas and pastries, and the matcha drinks, in particular, are some of the most creative in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Einspänners are especially popular here. These froth-topped drinks, named after a type of horse-drawn carriage, originated in Vienna, Austria. But they’d been a fixture in Korean dramas for years by the time they made their way to the States. Einspänners are traditionally a coffee drink, but Mind features less common versions like an Earl Grey matcha Einspänner latte (which tastes a bit like a sweet, syrupy bowl of cereal) and an iced matcha sakura Einspänner with pink milk, which transports you into a forest of cherry blossom trees.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The Einspänners are especially popular here. These froth-topped drinks, named after a type of horse-drawn carriage, originated in Vienna, Austria. But they’d been a fixture in Korean dramas for years by the time they made their way to the States. Einspänners are traditionally a coffee drink, but Mind features less common versions like an Earl Grey matcha Einspänner latte (which tastes a bit like a sweet, syrupy bowl of cereal) and an iced matcha sakura Einspänner with pink milk, which transports you into a forest of cherry blossom trees.\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/image",
"attrs": {
"id": 13993222,
"sizeSlug": "full",
"linkDestination": "none",
"alt": "Matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte on a sun-dappled wooden table.",
"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte on a sun-dappled wooden table.\" class=\"wp-image-13993222\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte from Kitsch Coffee in Oakland on Aug. 20, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte on a sun-dappled wooden table.\" class=\"wp-image-13993222\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte from Kitsch Coffee in Oakland on Aug. 20, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"attrs": {
"text": "Kitsch Coffee",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kitschcoffeeoakland/\">Kitsch Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kitschcoffeeoakland/\">Kitsch Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>590 2nd St., Oakland\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>590 2nd St., Oakland\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Kitsch Coffee shares space with a vintage furniture and home goods store in Jack London Square. The big open space is always full with people working behind laptops, chatting with friends or sifting through racks of vintage clothes. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Kitsch Coffee shares space with a vintage furniture and home goods store in Jack London Square. The big open space is always full with people working behind laptops, chatting with friends or sifting through racks of vintage clothes. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Kitsch is a coffee shop, but the place takes matcha seriously. Matcha here is bright green and can be amped up with housemade syrups with flavors like ginger and lavender. The carrot cake matcha even comes with a cream cheese foam to mimic the frosting on a slice of cake. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Kitsch is a coffee shop, but the place takes matcha seriously. Matcha here is bright green and can be amped up with housemade syrups with flavors like ginger and lavender. The carrot cake matcha even comes with a cream cheese foam to mimic the frosting on a slice of cake. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "For the Love of Matcha",
"level": 2
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fortheloveofmatchacafe/\">For the Love of Matcha\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fortheloveofmatchacafe/\">For the Love of Matcha\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Grand Lake Farmers Market (Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue, Oakland)\u003cbr>Temescal Farmers Market (5300 Claremont Ave., Oakland)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Grand Lake Farmers Market (Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue, Oakland)\u003cbr>Temescal Farmers Market (5300 Claremont Ave., Oakland)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
],
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This weekly pop-up at the Grand Lake and Temescal farmers markets closes once it sells out, so it’s best to arrive early. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>This weekly pop-up at the Grand Lake and Temescal farmers markets closes once it sells out, so it’s best to arrive early. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": {
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The menu rotates based on the season. For summer, they have sweet corn, fig, vanilla and the forever favorite strawberry matcha latte. The farmers market stand is popular, so oftentimes you’ll find many of the flavors crossed out in permanent marker. The Matchacano is my go-to drink, but you can always up the flavor with their seasonal syrups and cream tops. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The menu rotates based on the season. For summer, they have sweet corn, fig, vanilla and the forever favorite strawberry matcha latte. The farmers market stand is popular, so oftentimes you’ll find many of the flavors crossed out in permanent marker. The Matchacano is my go-to drink, but you can always up the flavor with their seasonal syrups and cream tops. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/image",
"attrs": {
"id": 13993225,
"sizeSlug": "full",
"linkDestination": "none",
"alt": "Hand holding matcha soft serve ice cream on a sugar cone.",
"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding matcha soft serve ice cream on a sugar cone.\" class=\"wp-image-13993225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A customer holds a matcha-and-vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream cone from Urban Matcha in Castro Valley on Aug. 20, 2026\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding matcha soft serve ice cream on a sugar cone.\" class=\"wp-image-13993225\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A customer holds a matcha-and-vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream cone from Urban Matcha in Castro Valley on Aug. 20, 2026\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"attrs": {
"text": "Urban Matcha ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/urbanmatcha.castrovalley/\">Urban Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/urbanmatcha.castrovalley/\">Urban Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3311 Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3311 Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A hidden gem in suburban Castro Valley, Urban Matcha provides a matcha oasis in a somewhat unlikely part of the Bay. At 7 p.m. on a recent Tuesday evening, the cafe was full of chatty teens, people finding a calm place to get work done and families ending their night with their favorite sweet treats. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A hidden gem in suburban Castro Valley, Urban Matcha provides a matcha oasis in a somewhat unlikely part of the Bay. At 7 p.m. on a recent Tuesday evening, the cafe was full of chatty teens, people finding a calm place to get work done and families ending their night with their favorite sweet treats. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Part of a chain that extends from California to Las Vegas, the cafe is especially notable for its matcha-flavored desserts. This is the kind of place where every other customer walks out with their hands full of matcha parfaits loaded with agar jelly, corn flakes, matcha gelato, red bean paste, mochi balls and a big scoop of matcha soft serve. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Part of a chain that extends from California to Las Vegas, the cafe is especially notable for its matcha-flavored desserts. This is the kind of place where every other customer walks out with their hands full of matcha parfaits loaded with agar jelly, corn flakes, matcha gelato, red bean paste, mochi balls and a big scoop of matcha soft serve. \u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
"text": "SAN FRANCISCO: ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SAN FRANCISCO: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SAN FRANCISCO: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"attrs": {
"text": "Constance Tea",
"level": 2
},
"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/constance.tea/\">Constance Tea\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/constance.tea/\">Constance Tea\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3512 Balboa St., San Francisco\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3512 Balboa St., San Francisco\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Located on Balboa Street, in the Outer Richmond, Constance Tea is the only place in San Francisco where tea leaves are stone-milled into matcha in house. This new shop isn’t the place to find the drinks that satisfy your sweet tooth. Instead, Constance focuses on the basics: a small selection of hōjicha (roasted green tea), Einspänners and traditional matcha drinks made with matcha sourced from various regions in Japan, showcasing different flavor profiles. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Located on Balboa Street, in the Outer Richmond, Constance Tea is the only place in San Francisco where tea leaves are stone-milled into matcha in house. This new shop isn’t the place to find the drinks that satisfy your sweet tooth. Instead, Constance focuses on the basics: a small selection of hōjicha (roasted green tea), Einspänners and traditional matcha drinks made with matcha sourced from various regions in Japan, showcasing different flavor profiles. \u003c/p>\n"
],
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>During a recent visit, my matcha americano was a vivid green, perfectly balanced between earthiness and a nutty aftertaste, with a cream top that provided just the right amount of milkiness to complement the grassy taste of the tea. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>During a recent visit, my matcha americano was a vivid green, perfectly balanced between earthiness and a nutty aftertaste, with a cream top that provided just the right amount of milkiness to complement the grassy taste of the tea. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"attrs": {
"id": 13993221,
"sizeSlug": "full",
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"alt": "Two customers side by side holding creamy matcha drinks.",
"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers side by side holding creamy matcha drinks.\" class=\"wp-image-13993221\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Customers hold their matcha drinks at Ceré Tea on Valencia Street in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2026. The tea shop specializes in matcha and hōjicha drinks.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers side by side holding creamy matcha drinks.\" class=\"wp-image-13993221\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Customers hold their matcha drinks at Ceré Tea on Valencia Street in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2026. The tea shop specializes in matcha and hōjicha drinks.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "Ceré Tea ",
"level": 2
},
"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cereteaxyz/\">Ceré Tea \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cereteaxyz/\">Ceré Tea \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1186 Valencia St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1186 Valencia St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This popular matcha spot in the Mission, with locations throughout the Bay Area, has all the makings for a viral cafe, with its full-body selfie mirror and minimalist design. The menu puts matcha and hōjicha at the forefront, featuring drinks infused with yuzu, ube, guava and more. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>This popular matcha spot in the Mission, with locations throughout the Bay Area, has all the makings for a viral cafe, with its full-body selfie mirror and minimalist design. The menu puts matcha and hōjicha at the forefront, featuring drinks infused with yuzu, ube, guava and more. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The matcha leans toward the brighter and more bitter side, but you can always sweeten the deal with a banana or crème brûlée cream top. Trendy offerings like Einspänners and cheese cream toppings are also available. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The matcha leans toward the brighter and more bitter side, but you can always sweeten the deal with a banana or crème brûlée cream top. Trendy offerings like Einspänners and cheese cream toppings are also available. \u003c/p>\n"
],
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},
{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "Matcha Café Maiko ",
"level": 2
},
"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matchacafemaiko/\">Matcha Café Maiko \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matchacafemaiko/\">Matcha Café Maiko \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1581 Webster St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1581 Webster St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This wildly popular Honolulu-based chain has become a Bay Area mall staple. It’s a quick, convenient and portable way to take your matcha to go. Big chains often don’t maintain their quality, but Maiko is always consistent, offering a convenient option to grab your matcha on the go. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>This wildly popular Honolulu-based chain has become a Bay Area mall staple. It’s a quick, convenient and portable way to take your matcha to go. Big chains often don’t maintain their quality, but Maiko is always consistent, offering a convenient option to grab your matcha on the go. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Perfect for a matcha beginner, the shop is known for its wide variety of matcha desserts:soft serves, shaved ices, parfaits, frappes and floats. The matcha here strikes just the right balance of sweetness and rich matcha flavor, providing the best caffeine boost after a day at the mall.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Perfect for a matcha beginner, the shop is known for its wide variety of matcha desserts:soft serves, shaved ices, parfaits, frappes and floats. The matcha here strikes just the right balance of sweetness and rich matcha flavor, providing the best caffeine boost after a day at the mall.\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "SOUTH BAY AND PENINSULA: ",
"level": 2
},
"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SOUTH BAY AND PENINSULA: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SOUTH BAY AND PENINSULA: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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{
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"attrs": {
"id": 13993424,
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"alt": "A matcha drink with white swirls of crème brûlée–flavored cream.",
"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha drink with white swirls of crème brûlée–flavored cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The crème brûlée matcha swirl at Izumi Matcha in San Mateo on Aug. 27, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha drink with white swirls of crème brûlée–flavored cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993424\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The crème brûlée matcha swirl at Izumi Matcha in San Mateo on Aug. 27, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "Izumi Matcha ",
"level": 2
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/izumi.matcha/\">Izumi Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/izumi.matcha/\">Izumi Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>180 E. 3rd Ave. Unit 100A, San Mateo\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>180 E. 3rd Ave. Unit 100A, San Mateo\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>With three locations in the Peninsula and South Bay, Izumi is one of the only cafes in the US that \u003ca href=\"https://izumimatcha.com/premium-matcha-powder/\">sources its matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen\u003c/a>, a highly regarded producer in Uji, Japan. Inside, the walls are lined with tins of the Marukyu matcha powder, along with tea kettles, matcha serving bowls and matcha whisks. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>With three locations in the Peninsula and South Bay, Izumi is one of the only cafes in the US that \u003ca href=\"https://izumimatcha.com/premium-matcha-powder/\">sources its matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen\u003c/a>, a highly regarded producer in Uji, Japan. Inside, the walls are lined with tins of the Marukyu matcha powder, along with tea kettles, matcha serving bowls and matcha whisks. \u003c/p>\n"
],
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{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The broad menu of teas and desserts really highlight the quality of the matcha itself. The matcha latte options include trendy flavors like a crème brûlée swirl that adds an element of creaminess as a counterpoint to the bright matcha flavor. In addition to the drinks, the shop also offers a diverse selection of matcha- and tea-flavored ice creams — everything from ube to “intense matcha.”\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The broad menu of teas and desserts really highlight the quality of the matcha itself. The matcha latte options include trendy flavors like a crème brûlée swirl that adds an element of creaminess as a counterpoint to the bright matcha flavor. In addition to the drinks, the shop also offers a diverse selection of matcha- and tea-flavored ice creams — everything from ube to “intense matcha.”\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "Aroma",
"level": 2
},
"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/aroma.cct/\">Aroma\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/aroma.cct/\">Aroma\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 150, San José\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 150, San José\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This East San José tea, coffee and chè shop sells a wide variety of Vietnamese-inspired coffee and tea drinks. Matcha is the powerhouse of the menu, available in 10 different flavors, many of them featuring Southeast Asian ingredients like pandan, guava, banana cream and mango sticky rice. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>This East San José tea, coffee and chè shop sells a wide variety of Vietnamese-inspired coffee and tea drinks. Matcha is the powerhouse of the menu, available in 10 different flavors, many of them featuring Southeast Asian ingredients like pandan, guava, banana cream and mango sticky rice. \u003c/p>\n"
],
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},
{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The matcha at Aroma is strong, but not overpoweringly bitter. The quality of the tea shines through even when paired with thick, sweet, syrupy banana, mango and yuzu puddings.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The matcha at Aroma is strong, but not overpoweringly bitter. The quality of the tea shines through even when paired with thick, sweet, syrupy banana, mango and yuzu puddings.\u003c/p>\n"
],
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{
"blockName": "core/image",
"attrs": {
"id": 13993421,
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"alt": "A matcha parfait in a sundae glass, layered with fresh strawberries and ice cream.",
"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha parfait in a sundae glass, layered with fresh strawberries and ice cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993421\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Another view of the matcha strawberry parfait at Matsu Matcha.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha parfait in a sundae glass, layered with fresh strawberries and ice cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993421\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Another view of the matcha strawberry parfait at Matsu Matcha.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"attrs": {
"text": "Matsu Matcha ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matsumatcha.usa/\">Matsu Matcha\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matsumatcha.usa/\">Matsu Matcha\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3030 El Camino Real, Santa Clara\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3030 El Camino Real, Santa Clara\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp> A calm oasis located inside a busy shopping plaza in Santa Clara, Matsu serves bright green matcha in many different formats. The cafe’s extensive menu offers matcha gelato (available in five levels of increasing intensity, plus a seasonal flavor), matcha floats, matcha flights and much more. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp> A calm oasis located inside a busy shopping plaza in Santa Clara, Matsu serves bright green matcha in many different formats. The cafe’s extensive menu offers matcha gelato (available in five levels of increasing intensity, plus a seasonal flavor), matcha floats, matcha flights and much more. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The matcha flights are a good option for customers who have trouble deciding. They feature a triple dose of matcha, a matcha latte with matcha cream on top, a seasonal matcha (guava during my recent visit) and a matcha float (available in flavors like grape and dark chocolate). \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The matcha flights are a good option for customers who have trouble deciding. They feature a triple dose of matcha, a matcha latte with matcha cream on top, a seasonal matcha (guava during my recent visit) and a matcha float (available in flavors like grape and dark chocolate). \u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "A guide to the best matcha lattes, Einspänners and soft serve in the Bay.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Be sure to check out our full \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/fall-guide-2026\">2026 Fall Arts Guide\u003c/a> to live music, movies, art, theater, festivals and more in the Bay Area.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>These days, every young person in the Bay Area seems to be walking around with some variation of the same green drink: matcha. Traditionally made by whisking finely ground green tea leaves with hot water, the beverage has been used for ceremonial practices in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japan\u003c/a> for thousands of years. Over the past decade, however, the vibrant drink has taken America by storm. The United States now imports \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2PpIvUKwo\">over 2,000 tons\u003c/a> of matcha per year, turning the tea powder into drinks, ice cream treats and even skin care products. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay, it feels like a new matcha cafe or matcha-forward coffee shop opens almost every day. Each place offers its own take on the drink, whether it be a latte with your choice of milk, an obsessively sweet concoction of cookie butters and banana puddings, or a simple americano.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Matcha, like life, is all about balance. I spent the past several weeks trying many of the Bay Area’s hundreds of matcha cafes. Here are some of my favorites. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>EAST BAY: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding a cup of iced coffee topped with a layer of pale green matcha cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993215\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/082126-FALLARTSGUIDEMATCHAINTHEBAY-15-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The matcha americano with cream top at Yume Mori on August 21, 2026, in Berkeley. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yumemori.matcha/\">Yume Mori \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>2319 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jazz plays inside this minimalist cafe located in a line of popular matcha cafes near UC Berkeley. The spot is hard to miss because there is always a crowd of people waiting outside — tweens holding mom’s spot in line while she searches for a parking space.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yume Mori is one of the few shops where customers get to choose a specific regional variety of matcha for your drink, each one boasting a different flavor profile. The cafe also serves matcha soft serve, matcha crepes and house specialties like clear matcha (made with coconut water and topped with matcha cream) and genmaicha lattes (made with green tea blended with roasted rice). The matcha here has a vibrant color and taste, but if you don’t care for those intense nutty and astringent flavors, there are also sweeter options like tiramisu, yuzu miso and cold brew options. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mindcoffee.ca/\">Mind Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1816 Euclid Ave., Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Away from the traffic of the busier parts of Berkeley sits Mind Coffee, a popular study spot for students on the north side of campus. Mind has a large selection of coffee, teas and pastries, and the matcha drinks, in particular, are some of the most creative in the Bay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Einspänners are especially popular here. These froth-topped drinks, named after a type of horse-drawn carriage, originated in Vienna, Austria. But they’d been a fixture in Korean dramas for years by the time they made their way to the States. Einspänners are traditionally a coffee drink, but Mind features less common versions like an Earl Grey matcha Einspänner latte (which tastes a bit like a sweet, syrupy bowl of cereal) and an iced matcha sakura Einspänner with pink milk, which transports you into a forest of cherry blossom trees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte on a sun-dappled wooden table.\" class=\"wp-image-13993222\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-9-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A matcha latte and strawberry matcha latte from Kitsch Coffee in Oakland on Aug. 20, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kitschcoffeeoakland/\">Kitsch Coffee\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>590 2nd St., Oakland\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kitsch Coffee shares space with a vintage furniture and home goods store in Jack London Square. The big open space is always full with people working behind laptops, chatting with friends or sifting through racks of vintage clothes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kitsch is a coffee shop, but the place takes matcha seriously. Matcha here is bright green and can be amped up with housemade syrups with flavors like ginger and lavender. The carrot cake matcha even comes with a cream cheese foam to mimic the frosting on a slice of cake. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fortheloveofmatchacafe/\">For the Love of Matcha\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Grand Lake Farmers Market (Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue, Oakland)\u003cbr>Temescal Farmers Market (5300 Claremont Ave., Oakland)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This weekly pop-up at the Grand Lake and Temescal farmers markets closes once it sells out, so it’s best to arrive early. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The menu rotates based on the season. For summer, they have sweet corn, fig, vanilla and the forever favorite strawberry matcha latte. The farmers market stand is popular, so oftentimes you’ll find many of the flavors crossed out in permanent marker. The Matchacano is my go-to drink, but you can always up the flavor with their seasonal syrups and cream tops. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding matcha soft serve ice cream on a sugar cone.\" class=\"wp-image-13993225\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHA-NG-30-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A customer holds a matcha-and-vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream cone from Urban Matcha in Castro Valley on Aug. 20, 2026 (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/urbanmatcha.castrovalley/\">Urban Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3311 Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A hidden gem in suburban Castro Valley, Urban Matcha provides a matcha oasis in a somewhat unlikely part of the Bay. At 7 p.m. on a recent Tuesday evening, the cafe was full of chatty teens, people finding a calm place to get work done and families ending their night with their favorite sweet treats. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Part of a chain that extends from California to Las Vegas, the cafe is especially notable for its matcha-flavored desserts. This is the kind of place where every other customer walks out with their hands full of matcha parfaits loaded with agar jelly, corn flakes, matcha gelato, red bean paste, mochi balls and a big scoop of matcha soft serve. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SAN FRANCISCO: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/constance.tea/\">Constance Tea\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3512 Balboa St., San Francisco\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Located on Balboa Street, in the Outer Richmond, Constance Tea is the only place in San Francisco where tea leaves are stone-milled into matcha in house. This new shop isn’t the place to find the drinks that satisfy your sweet tooth. Instead, Constance focuses on the basics: a small selection of hōjicha (roasted green tea), Einspänners and traditional matcha drinks made with matcha sourced from various regions in Japan, showcasing different flavor profiles. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During a recent visit, my matcha americano was a vivid green, perfectly balanced between earthiness and a nutty aftertaste, with a cream top that provided just the right amount of milkiness to complement the grassy taste of the tea. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers side by side holding creamy matcha drinks.\" class=\"wp-image-13993221\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260820-MATCHAINTHEBAY-11-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Customers hold their matcha drinks at Ceré Tea on Valencia Street in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2026. The tea shop specializes in matcha and hōjicha drinks. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cereteaxyz/\">Ceré Tea \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1186 Valencia St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This popular matcha spot in the Mission, with locations throughout the Bay Area, has all the makings for a viral cafe, with its full-body selfie mirror and minimalist design. The menu puts matcha and hōjicha at the forefront, featuring drinks infused with yuzu, ube, guava and more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The matcha leans toward the brighter and more bitter side, but you can always sweeten the deal with a banana or crème brûlée cream top. Trendy offerings like Einspänners and cheese cream toppings are also available. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matchacafemaiko/\">Matcha Café Maiko \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>1581 Webster St., San Francisco (and other locations)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This wildly popular Honolulu-based chain has become a Bay Area mall staple. It’s a quick, convenient and portable way to take your matcha to go. Big chains often don’t maintain their quality, but Maiko is always consistent, offering a convenient option to grab your matcha on the go. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Perfect for a matcha beginner, the shop is known for its wide variety of matcha desserts:soft serves, shaved ices, parfaits, frappes and floats. The matcha here strikes just the right balance of sweetness and rich matcha flavor, providing the best caffeine boost after a day at the mall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>SOUTH BAY AND PENINSULA: \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha drink with white swirls of crème brûlée–flavored cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993424\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The crème brûlée matcha swirl at Izumi Matcha in San Mateo on Aug. 27, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/izumi.matcha/\">Izumi Matcha \u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>180 E. 3rd Ave. Unit 100A, San Mateo\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With three locations in the Peninsula and South Bay, Izumi is one of the only cafes in the US that \u003ca href=\"https://izumimatcha.com/premium-matcha-powder/\">sources its matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen\u003c/a>, a highly regarded producer in Uji, Japan. Inside, the walls are lined with tins of the Marukyu matcha powder, along with tea kettles, matcha serving bowls and matcha whisks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The broad menu of teas and desserts really highlight the quality of the matcha itself. The matcha latte options include trendy flavors like a crème brûlée swirl that adds an element of creaminess as a counterpoint to the bright matcha flavor. In addition to the drinks, the shop also offers a diverse selection of matcha- and tea-flavored ice creams — everything from ube to “intense matcha.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/aroma.cct/\">Aroma\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 150, San José\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This East San José tea, coffee and chè shop sells a wide variety of Vietnamese-inspired coffee and tea drinks. Matcha is the powerhouse of the menu, available in 10 different flavors, many of them featuring Southeast Asian ingredients like pandan, guava, banana cream and mango sticky rice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The matcha at Aroma is strong, but not overpoweringly bitter. The quality of the tea shines through even when paired with thick, sweet, syrupy banana, mango and yuzu puddings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A matcha parfait in a sundae glass, layered with fresh strawberries and ice cream.\" class=\"wp-image-13993421\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/260827-MATCHAINTHEBAY-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Another view of the matcha strawberry parfait at Matsu Matcha. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/matsumatcha.usa/\">Matsu Matcha\u003c/a> \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>3030 El Camino Real, Santa Clara\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp> A calm oasis located inside a busy shopping plaza in Santa Clara, Matsu serves bright green matcha in many different formats. The cafe’s extensive menu offers matcha gelato (available in five levels of increasing intensity, plus a seasonal flavor), matcha floats, matcha flights and much more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The matcha flights are a good option for customers who have trouble deciding. They feature a triple dose of matcha, a matcha latte with matcha cream on top, a seasonal matcha (guava during my recent visit) and a matcha float (available in flavors like grape and dark chocolate). \u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "tbd-yakitori-san-francisco-hina-tommy-cleary-dry-aging",
"title": "San Francisco’s Yakitori King Is Back",
"publishDate": 1776960389,
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"headTitle": "San Francisco’s Yakitori King Is Back | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Tommy Cleary opened his landmark \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a> skewer restaurant, Hina Yakitori, back in 2019, most diners in San Francisco had never heard of “omakase”-style yakitori. The Divisadero Street restaurant was the first yakitori spot in the U.S. to do away with a la carte ordering, instead breaking half a pasture-raised chicken into a 16-course tasting menu — skewer after precisely \u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwine.com/here-s-why-chefs-call-this-japanese-charcoal-the-best-in-the-world-8656405\">binchotan\u003c/a>-grilled skewer highlighting the juiciness of the bird’s underarm, the crunch of the gizzard, the exquisite tenderness of the thigh oyster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was, in a word, amazing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant cemented Cleary’s reputation as the king of the Bay Area’s high-end yakitori scene. But at $165 per person, Hina was a once- or twice-a-year splurge for all but the wealthiest Bay Area diners. And so, after it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933006/hina-yakitori-closing-grilled-chicken-omakase-san-francisco\">closed in 2023\u003c/a>, Cleary started thinking about how he might create a more accessible yakitori restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988787\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988787\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori.jpg\" alt=\"Three small plates of yakitori, presented in an elegant wooden box.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">TBD’s yakitori is served without the actual skewers. Pictured here: the wing drummette stuffed with cheese, thigh with shansho, and breast with green onion. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some ways, then, his new izakaya, TBD — a partnership with SF sushi superstar Ray Lee (Akiko’s, Friends Only) — is a return to Cleary’s roots. Longtime customers might recall that the earliest iteration of Hina was a much more \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/hina-yakitori-in-oakland-works-magic-with-whole-chickens-and-a-charcoal-grill-2-1/\">casual yakitori joint in Oakland\u003c/a> where you could order five or six skewers, a rice bowl and a cold Asahi, and be out the door for $40 or $50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TBD isn’t exactly an inexpensive restaurant. You can go all out, as I did during a recent dinner visit, and order every yakitori item on the menu, some sashimi, a couple of hot appetizers and a finishing hot pot, and drop well over $100 a person. But a single diner can also order one small set of grilled items and a (quite substantial) fried chicken leg for about $50, and leave completely satisfied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleary is hoping that range of price points will make TBD the kind of place where regulars might more easily visit a couple times a month. He cites a recent Saturday night when a customer came in by herself, ordered tuna tataki, fried chicken and one box of skewers, and then sat at the counter reading a book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki.jpg\" alt=\"A puffy savory pancake topped with cabbage and orange fish roe.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">TBD’s take on okonomiyaki — a puffy king crab pancake topped with sauerkraut and ikura. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s kind of the ideal situation,” Cleary says. “You come by, do your thing, have a good time and leave. I feel like the vibe is warm and intimate, but also lively like an izakaya.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Cleary closed Hina, he questioned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933006/hina-yakitori-closing-grilled-chicken-omakase-san-francisco\">whether he ever wanted to open a restaurant in San Francisco\u003c/a> again. In the end, the opportunity to team up with Lee, who runs two of the city’s most celebrated \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/friends-only-akikos-sushi-17872403.php\">sushi spots\u003c/a>, was too intriguing to pass up. The new restaurant is located on the edge of Union Square, in the space that originally housed Akiko’s. Broadly speaking, Cleary heads up the yakitori program while Lee is in charge of sashimi and hot izakaya-style small plates. But the whole kitchen team collaborates on every dish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The aforementioned fried chicken leg, for instance, is a showstopper of a dish that comes with the claw attached — Lee’s idea, Cleary says. Another chef, Jerry Lam, built out the rest of the dish — the double-fry technique that gives the chicken its exceptional crunch, the honey-butter chile glaze, the housemade furikake topping. And the hint of shichimi togarashi and side of yuzu hot sauce echo the \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/21/22241119/hina-yakitori-yagenbori-nashville-hot-chicken-japanese-shichimi-togarashi\">hot chicken sandwiches\u003c/a> Cleary sold at Hina during the takeout-only days of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988789\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal.jpg\" alt=\"A trio of grilled chicken offal served in an elegant wooden box.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A trio of chicken offal: the gizzard, the liver and the heart. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And even though TBD is a more casual restaurant, Cleary is still pushing into new frontiers of yakitori technique. For instance, the izakaya is one of the very few yakitori specialists that forgoes the skewers themselves — a first for Cleary. At TBD, the various cuts of grilled chicken are instead presented in an elegant wooden box. One box comes with a trio of different cuts of crispy chicken skin, topped variously with ikura and pickled mullet roe. Another plate features an egg-yolk-topped chicken meatball served between two rice-flour wafer buns, like a Japanese ice cream sandwich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted something that looks a bit better and more unique, I guess,” Cleary says. “I wanted my own thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other big change is that Cleary is now one of the only yakitori chefs in the U.S. who’s dry-aging all of his chicken — a logical area of experimentation given that Lee’s sushi restaurants are known for their innovation in dry-aging raw fish; they’ve already got several of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DXFI38_DwN5/\">aging cabinets\u003c/a> on site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988790\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune.jpg\" alt='Chicken meatball served as a \"sandwich\" inside two wafers.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The tsukune (chicken meatball) comes between two monaka wafers, reminiscent of a Japanese ice cream sandwichj. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Up until this point, however, dry-aging chicken hasn’t really been a thing in the yakitori world. According to Cleary, the results have been incredible: “It makes the skin really, really crispy and concentrates the flavor of the meat a lot more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13988444,arts_13987061,arts_13986360']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>The only problem for diners who want to score a TBD reservation right now? The restaurant isn’t open to the public yet, strictly speaking. Only folks who are on the Akiko’s, Friends Only and Hina mailing lists have access to a private OpenTable link. The idea, Cleary says, is to slowly ramp up the number of covers the kitchen is able to handle in a given night — and to give longtime supporters first dibs on checking out the new spot. The restaurant might still be a couple months away from opening at full clip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Cleary says the intent isn’t to gatekeep the restaurant in any kind of elitist way. Everyone is welcome, he says. But for a private reservation, for now at least, you have to \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tbd.izakaya/\">follow TBD on Instagram\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We post the link in our stories,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>TBD is open Tuesday to Saturday, 5:30–8:30 p.m. For now, follow the restaurant on \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tbd.izakaya/\">\u003ci>Instagram\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, where it periodically posts its private reservation link.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Tommy Cleary opened his landmark \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a> skewer restaurant, Hina Yakitori, back in 2019, most diners in San Francisco had never heard of “omakase”-style yakitori. The Divisadero Street restaurant was the first yakitori spot in the U.S. to do away with a la carte ordering, instead breaking half a pasture-raised chicken into a 16-course tasting menu — skewer after precisely \u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwine.com/here-s-why-chefs-call-this-japanese-charcoal-the-best-in-the-world-8656405\">binchotan\u003c/a>-grilled skewer highlighting the juiciness of the bird’s underarm, the crunch of the gizzard, the exquisite tenderness of the thigh oyster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was, in a word, amazing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant cemented Cleary’s reputation as the king of the Bay Area’s high-end yakitori scene. But at $165 per person, Hina was a once- or twice-a-year splurge for all but the wealthiest Bay Area diners. And so, after it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933006/hina-yakitori-closing-grilled-chicken-omakase-san-francisco\">closed in 2023\u003c/a>, Cleary started thinking about how he might create a more accessible yakitori restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988787\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988787\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori.jpg\" alt=\"Three small plates of yakitori, presented in an elegant wooden box.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-yakitori-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">TBD’s yakitori is served without the actual skewers. Pictured here: the wing drummette stuffed with cheese, thigh with shansho, and breast with green onion. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some ways, then, his new izakaya, TBD — a partnership with SF sushi superstar Ray Lee (Akiko’s, Friends Only) — is a return to Cleary’s roots. Longtime customers might recall that the earliest iteration of Hina was a much more \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/hina-yakitori-in-oakland-works-magic-with-whole-chickens-and-a-charcoal-grill-2-1/\">casual yakitori joint in Oakland\u003c/a> where you could order five or six skewers, a rice bowl and a cold Asahi, and be out the door for $40 or $50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TBD isn’t exactly an inexpensive restaurant. You can go all out, as I did during a recent dinner visit, and order every yakitori item on the menu, some sashimi, a couple of hot appetizers and a finishing hot pot, and drop well over $100 a person. But a single diner can also order one small set of grilled items and a (quite substantial) fried chicken leg for about $50, and leave completely satisfied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleary is hoping that range of price points will make TBD the kind of place where regulars might more easily visit a couple times a month. He cites a recent Saturday night when a customer came in by herself, ordered tuna tataki, fried chicken and one box of skewers, and then sat at the counter reading a book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki.jpg\" alt=\"A puffy savory pancake topped with cabbage and orange fish roe.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-okonomiyaki-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">TBD’s take on okonomiyaki — a puffy king crab pancake topped with sauerkraut and ikura. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s kind of the ideal situation,” Cleary says. “You come by, do your thing, have a good time and leave. I feel like the vibe is warm and intimate, but also lively like an izakaya.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Cleary closed Hina, he questioned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933006/hina-yakitori-closing-grilled-chicken-omakase-san-francisco\">whether he ever wanted to open a restaurant in San Francisco\u003c/a> again. In the end, the opportunity to team up with Lee, who runs two of the city’s most celebrated \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/friends-only-akikos-sushi-17872403.php\">sushi spots\u003c/a>, was too intriguing to pass up. The new restaurant is located on the edge of Union Square, in the space that originally housed Akiko’s. Broadly speaking, Cleary heads up the yakitori program while Lee is in charge of sashimi and hot izakaya-style small plates. But the whole kitchen team collaborates on every dish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The aforementioned fried chicken leg, for instance, is a showstopper of a dish that comes with the claw attached — Lee’s idea, Cleary says. Another chef, Jerry Lam, built out the rest of the dish — the double-fry technique that gives the chicken its exceptional crunch, the honey-butter chile glaze, the housemade furikake topping. And the hint of shichimi togarashi and side of yuzu hot sauce echo the \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/21/22241119/hina-yakitori-yagenbori-nashville-hot-chicken-japanese-shichimi-togarashi\">hot chicken sandwiches\u003c/a> Cleary sold at Hina during the takeout-only days of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988789\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal.jpg\" alt=\"A trio of grilled chicken offal served in an elegant wooden box.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-offal-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A trio of chicken offal: the gizzard, the liver and the heart. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And even though TBD is a more casual restaurant, Cleary is still pushing into new frontiers of yakitori technique. For instance, the izakaya is one of the very few yakitori specialists that forgoes the skewers themselves — a first for Cleary. At TBD, the various cuts of grilled chicken are instead presented in an elegant wooden box. One box comes with a trio of different cuts of crispy chicken skin, topped variously with ikura and pickled mullet roe. Another plate features an egg-yolk-topped chicken meatball served between two rice-flour wafer buns, like a Japanese ice cream sandwich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted something that looks a bit better and more unique, I guess,” Cleary says. “I wanted my own thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other big change is that Cleary is now one of the only yakitori chefs in the U.S. who’s dry-aging all of his chicken — a logical area of experimentation given that Lee’s sushi restaurants are known for their innovation in dry-aging raw fish; they’ve already got several of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DXFI38_DwN5/\">aging cabinets\u003c/a> on site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988790\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune.jpg\" alt='Chicken meatball served as a \"sandwich\" inside two wafers.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/tbd-tsukune-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The tsukune (chicken meatball) comes between two monaka wafers, reminiscent of a Japanese ice cream sandwichj. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Up until this point, however, dry-aging chicken hasn’t really been a thing in the yakitori world. According to Cleary, the results have been incredible: “It makes the skin really, really crispy and concentrates the flavor of the meat a lot more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>The only problem for diners who want to score a TBD reservation right now? The restaurant isn’t open to the public yet, strictly speaking. Only folks who are on the Akiko’s, Friends Only and Hina mailing lists have access to a private OpenTable link. The idea, Cleary says, is to slowly ramp up the number of covers the kitchen is able to handle in a given night — and to give longtime supporters first dibs on checking out the new spot. The restaurant might still be a couple months away from opening at full clip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Cleary says the intent isn’t to gatekeep the restaurant in any kind of elitist way. Everyone is welcome, he says. But for a private reservation, for now at least, you have to \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tbd.izakaya/\">follow TBD on Instagram\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We post the link in our stories,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>TBD is open Tuesday to Saturday, 5:30–8:30 p.m. For now, follow the restaurant on \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tbd.izakaya/\">\u003ci>Instagram\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, where it periodically posts its private reservation link.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Naoko Takei Moore has beautiful memories of her mother’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a> home cooking. Growing up in Tokyo in the ’80s, she savored those moments when she and her mom stood side by side in the kitchen making fresh onigiri and mochi, and, most of all, when they’d sit around the family table to enjoy a meal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4ZHSAtvjUG/?hl=en&img_index=1\">yose-nabe\u003c/a>, a kind of hot pot made with simple ingredients like clams, fish and whatever vegetables they had on hand — all cooked in the traditional Japanese clay pot known as donabe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best part, she says, was when they’d lift the lid of the pot to reveal the finished dish, and all of the steam wafted up. “It’s so special,” she says. “It never gets old.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the introduction to her new cookbook, \u003ca href=\"https://toirokitchen.com/products/simply-donabe-cookbook\">\u003ci>Simply Donabe\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Takei Moore recalls how years later, after she’d immigrated to Los Angeles, she found herself wanting to share traditional donabe with her new community in the United States. In 2008, she founded \u003ca href=\"https://toirokitchen.com/\">TOIRO\u003c/a>, a company that sold handmade donabe imported from Iga, Japan, and started hosting donabe-centric Japanese cooking classes in her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before she knew it, she’d become donabe culture’s number one evangelist in the Western world, co-authoring her first award-winning cookbook on the topic (\u003ci>Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking) \u003c/i>in 2015, and expanding her business to include a brick-and-mortar donabe shop in West Hollywood. She’s also become a minor celebrity on Instagram, where she goes by “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mrsdonabe/\">Mrs. Donabe\u003c/a>” and has more than 47,000 followers who marvel over her \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DERIT5-PuMw/?hl=en&img_index=1\">gorgeously presented\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DNjUQbRSZMj/?hl=en&img_index=1\">one-pot\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DRFm3pbkjW0/?hl=en&img_index=1\">dishes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987068\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1334px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987068\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian woman stirs a pot of soup.\" width=\"1334\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell.jpg 1334w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell-1025x1536.jpg 1025w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1334px) 100vw, 1334px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Takei Moore stirs a pot of soup cooked in a traditional donabe. \u003ccite>(Matt Russell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These days, she says, donabe cooking has become mainstream in ways she never could have imagined when she first started teaching her little grassroots cooking classes, when most of her students couldn’t even pronounce the word. (It’s “doh-nah-bay,” not “doh-nah-bee.”) Now, magazines like \u003ci>Food & Wine \u003c/i>and \u003ci>Bon Appétit\u003c/i> will reference “donabe” in recipes without feeling the need to translate the word as “Japanese clay pot,” and TOIRO routinely gets orders from customers across the U.S. and in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Takei Moore says the gospel she’s spreading isn’t really about any particular recipe or cooking technique. Instead, she believes using donabe in day-to-day cooking is a pathway toward a slower, more intentional and more idyllic life — what she calls her “happy donabe life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the eve of a book tour visit to San Francisco that will include \u003ca href=\"https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/products/naoko-takei-moore-author-event-simply-donabe-japanese-one-pot-recipes\">a talk at Omnivore Books on Food\u003c/a> and a special dinner at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DUwLLUBEk3M/?img_index=1\">Rintaro\u003c/a>, I spoke to Takei Moore about the connective power of food and the life-changing, near-magical qualities of her beloved donabe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke Tsai: Can you briefly explain what a donabe \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>is\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb> for those who don’t know?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Naoko Takei Moore:\u003c/b> It literally means clay pot — “do” means clay, and “nabe” means pot. It’s the foundation of Japanese cuisine, going back more than 10,000 years during the Jōmon Period. So it’s almost like donabe is a national cookware for Japanese people; it’s so close to everybody’s heart. Almost every household owns at least one. It can be something very inexpensive and mass-produced, or, or you can invest in something a little bit more artisan — the super-premium style can go up to $1,000 or $2,000. But most donabe are very affordable and approachable, and if you use it properly, it can last for a long, long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In the introduction to your book, you talk about how donabe isn’t just a cooking tool; it’s a “way of life” — and a way for a person to have a happy life. Can you elaborate on how that’s the case?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13986360,arts_13959259,arts_13926203']Ultimately, it’s a lifestyle, and it really symbolizes Japanese communal dining. In Japanese conversation, when we say “nabe,” it refers to a hot pot dish, but it also means “let’s get together.” Instead of saying “let’s get together,” we might say, “Let’s nabe sometime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you make hot pot in a donabe, you set up a tabletop burner in the center of the table, put the donabe there, add all the ingredients, and then you cook. Everybody gets to participate: Someone is in charge of the main cooking, but you might ask, “Can you pass that? Can you stir?” It’s really not about the vessel itself or the recipes, but it’s more about how donabe plays a role in communication and connecting people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because donabe is essentially just a bowl and a lid, there’s always this time when the dish is done, so let’s reveal. That’s when everybody’s eyes just focus on the lid. And the joy when the donabe lid is lifted, that’s really so special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s really not about the finished dish, it’s the process of the entire meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987070\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987070\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of meat and seafood, ready to be cooked in a donabe for a hot pot meal.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A display of raw meat and seafood, ready to be cooked in the donabe. \u003ccite>(Matt Russell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A lot of American home cooks already have too many pots and pans and might feel like it’s too much to buy this kind of specialized cooking vessel. What do you say to those people when convincing them to give donabe cooking a try?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First of all, I completely understand. [laughs] I promote the spirit of donabe cooking — if you want to use different kinds of pots, that’s totally fine. But I have seen so many people who are like that who say, “Ok, I’ll give it a try,” and buy a basic, medium-size donabe. Then they come back and say, your donabe changed my life and changed my family’s life. They talk about how the donabe is so beautiful to look at and how, when it’s at the center of the table, it just connects people. It becomes their Sunday ritual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, people comment that when cooking in donabe, somehow the food magically tastes better. And that has been proven scientifically, because donabe is made of porous clay. It takes more time to build the heat, and once it gets hot, it stays hot for a long time. So if you’re making a braised dish or a stew or soup, when the pot cools down very slowly, that’s how you develop multiple layers of flavors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is there one recipe in particular that you suggest that people try cooking in order to convince them of the “donabe way”?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s hard because all the recipes are so personal to me! But probably miso soup or a hot pot dish. Soup is so essential in my life because it calms me and slows me down. Also, rice tastes so good when you cook it in the donabe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987071\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987071\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell.jpg\" alt=\"A woman seated in front of a spread of Japanese small plates.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cookbook also includes recipes for assorted small bites meant to be eaten as part of a donabe-centric meal. \u003ccite>(Matt Russell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What about the versatility of donabe? Can you use it for cooking dishes that are completely non-Japanese? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love making curry in the donabe. And orange saffron rice, which is inspired by Persian cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, donabe is not about the recipes; it’s really about the spirit of the cooking. Braising is part of every culture. Recently, I made a Mediterranean-style chickpea and lamb stew with tomato sauce that was really brilliant. And one time, a customer in Norway made a reindeer stew in the donabe and sent me a photo. It looked absolutely delicious.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://toirokitchen.com/collections/books/products/simply-donabe-cookbook\">Simply Donabe\u003c/a>\u003ci> is available wherever books are sold. Takei Moore will be in conversation with food journalist Lauren Saria at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/products/naoko-takei-moore-author-event-simply-donabe-japanese-one-pot-recipes\">\u003ci>Omnivore Books on Food\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (3885a Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco) on Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. The event is free to attend, but space is limited. Takei Moore will also help the chefs at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://resy.com/cities/san-francisco-ca/venues/izakaya-rintaro?date=2026-02-25&seats=2\">\u003ci>Rintaro\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> prepare a special a la carte donabe menu based on her recipes on Feb. 25. As of publication time, only a few reservations are still available.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Naoko Takei Moore has beautiful memories of her mother’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">Japanese\u003c/a> home cooking. Growing up in Tokyo in the ’80s, she savored those moments when she and her mom stood side by side in the kitchen making fresh onigiri and mochi, and, most of all, when they’d sit around the family table to enjoy a meal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4ZHSAtvjUG/?hl=en&img_index=1\">yose-nabe\u003c/a>, a kind of hot pot made with simple ingredients like clams, fish and whatever vegetables they had on hand — all cooked in the traditional Japanese clay pot known as donabe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best part, she says, was when they’d lift the lid of the pot to reveal the finished dish, and all of the steam wafted up. “It’s so special,” she says. “It never gets old.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the introduction to her new cookbook, \u003ca href=\"https://toirokitchen.com/products/simply-donabe-cookbook\">\u003ci>Simply Donabe\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Takei Moore recalls how years later, after she’d immigrated to Los Angeles, she found herself wanting to share traditional donabe with her new community in the United States. In 2008, she founded \u003ca href=\"https://toirokitchen.com/\">TOIRO\u003c/a>, a company that sold handmade donabe imported from Iga, Japan, and started hosting donabe-centric Japanese cooking classes in her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before she knew it, she’d become donabe culture’s number one evangelist in the Western world, co-authoring her first award-winning cookbook on the topic (\u003ci>Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking) \u003c/i>in 2015, and expanding her business to include a brick-and-mortar donabe shop in West Hollywood. She’s also become a minor celebrity on Instagram, where she goes by “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mrsdonabe/\">Mrs. Donabe\u003c/a>” and has more than 47,000 followers who marvel over her \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DERIT5-PuMw/?hl=en&img_index=1\">gorgeously presented\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DNjUQbRSZMj/?hl=en&img_index=1\">one-pot\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DRFm3pbkjW0/?hl=en&img_index=1\">dishes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987068\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1334px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987068\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian woman stirs a pot of soup.\" width=\"1334\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell.jpg 1334w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Naoko-1-c-Matt-Russell-1025x1536.jpg 1025w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1334px) 100vw, 1334px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Takei Moore stirs a pot of soup cooked in a traditional donabe. \u003ccite>(Matt Russell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These days, she says, donabe cooking has become mainstream in ways she never could have imagined when she first started teaching her little grassroots cooking classes, when most of her students couldn’t even pronounce the word. (It’s “doh-nah-bay,” not “doh-nah-bee.”) Now, magazines like \u003ci>Food & Wine \u003c/i>and \u003ci>Bon Appétit\u003c/i> will reference “donabe” in recipes without feeling the need to translate the word as “Japanese clay pot,” and TOIRO routinely gets orders from customers across the U.S. and in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Takei Moore says the gospel she’s spreading isn’t really about any particular recipe or cooking technique. Instead, she believes using donabe in day-to-day cooking is a pathway toward a slower, more intentional and more idyllic life — what she calls her “happy donabe life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the eve of a book tour visit to San Francisco that will include \u003ca href=\"https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/products/naoko-takei-moore-author-event-simply-donabe-japanese-one-pot-recipes\">a talk at Omnivore Books on Food\u003c/a> and a special dinner at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DUwLLUBEk3M/?img_index=1\">Rintaro\u003c/a>, I spoke to Takei Moore about the connective power of food and the life-changing, near-magical qualities of her beloved donabe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Luke Tsai: Can you briefly explain what a donabe \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>is\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb> for those who don’t know?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Naoko Takei Moore:\u003c/b> It literally means clay pot — “do” means clay, and “nabe” means pot. It’s the foundation of Japanese cuisine, going back more than 10,000 years during the Jōmon Period. So it’s almost like donabe is a national cookware for Japanese people; it’s so close to everybody’s heart. Almost every household owns at least one. It can be something very inexpensive and mass-produced, or, or you can invest in something a little bit more artisan — the super-premium style can go up to $1,000 or $2,000. But most donabe are very affordable and approachable, and if you use it properly, it can last for a long, long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In the introduction to your book, you talk about how donabe isn’t just a cooking tool; it’s a “way of life” — and a way for a person to have a happy life. Can you elaborate on how that’s the case?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Ultimately, it’s a lifestyle, and it really symbolizes Japanese communal dining. In Japanese conversation, when we say “nabe,” it refers to a hot pot dish, but it also means “let’s get together.” Instead of saying “let’s get together,” we might say, “Let’s nabe sometime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you make hot pot in a donabe, you set up a tabletop burner in the center of the table, put the donabe there, add all the ingredients, and then you cook. Everybody gets to participate: Someone is in charge of the main cooking, but you might ask, “Can you pass that? Can you stir?” It’s really not about the vessel itself or the recipes, but it’s more about how donabe plays a role in communication and connecting people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because donabe is essentially just a bowl and a lid, there’s always this time when the dish is done, so let’s reveal. That’s when everybody’s eyes just focus on the lid. And the joy when the donabe lid is lifted, that’s really so special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s really not about the finished dish, it’s the process of the entire meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987070\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987070\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of meat and seafood, ready to be cooked in a donabe for a hot pot meal.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Meat-Group-c-Matt-Russell-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A display of raw meat and seafood, ready to be cooked in the donabe. \u003ccite>(Matt Russell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A lot of American home cooks already have too many pots and pans and might feel like it’s too much to buy this kind of specialized cooking vessel. What do you say to those people when convincing them to give donabe cooking a try?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First of all, I completely understand. [laughs] I promote the spirit of donabe cooking — if you want to use different kinds of pots, that’s totally fine. But I have seen so many people who are like that who say, “Ok, I’ll give it a try,” and buy a basic, medium-size donabe. Then they come back and say, your donabe changed my life and changed my family’s life. They talk about how the donabe is so beautiful to look at and how, when it’s at the center of the table, it just connects people. It becomes their Sunday ritual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, people comment that when cooking in donabe, somehow the food magically tastes better. And that has been proven scientifically, because donabe is made of porous clay. It takes more time to build the heat, and once it gets hot, it stays hot for a long time. So if you’re making a braised dish or a stew or soup, when the pot cools down very slowly, that’s how you develop multiple layers of flavors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is there one recipe in particular that you suggest that people try cooking in order to convince them of the “donabe way”?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s hard because all the recipes are so personal to me! But probably miso soup or a hot pot dish. Soup is so essential in my life because it calms me and slows me down. Also, rice tastes so good when you cook it in the donabe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987071\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987071\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell.jpg\" alt=\"A woman seated in front of a spread of Japanese small plates.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/Small-Bites-2-c-Matt-Russell-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cookbook also includes recipes for assorted small bites meant to be eaten as part of a donabe-centric meal. \u003ccite>(Matt Russell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What about the versatility of donabe? Can you use it for cooking dishes that are completely non-Japanese? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love making curry in the donabe. And orange saffron rice, which is inspired by Persian cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, donabe is not about the recipes; it’s really about the spirit of the cooking. Braising is part of every culture. Recently, I made a Mediterranean-style chickpea and lamb stew with tomato sauce that was really brilliant. And one time, a customer in Norway made a reindeer stew in the donabe and sent me a photo. It looked absolutely delicious.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://toirokitchen.com/collections/books/products/simply-donabe-cookbook\">Simply Donabe\u003c/a>\u003ci> is available wherever books are sold. Takei Moore will be in conversation with food journalist Lauren Saria at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/products/naoko-takei-moore-author-event-simply-donabe-japanese-one-pot-recipes\">\u003ci>Omnivore Books on Food\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (3885a Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco) on Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. The event is free to attend, but space is limited. Takei Moore will also help the chefs at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://resy.com/cities/san-francisco-ca/venues/izakaya-rintaro?date=2026-02-25&seats=2\">\u003ci>Rintaro\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> prepare a special a la carte donabe menu based on her recipes on Feb. 25. As of publication time, only a few reservations are still available.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>One of the most memorable breakfasts of my life was at a small sushi stall at the old Tsukiji fish market in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japan\">Tokyo\u003c/a>, where I dug into a big wooden tub of rice topped with a mountain of incredibly fresh-tasting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">uni, ikura and fatty tuna\u003c/a>. It was just past eight o’clock in the morning. After I’d devoured most of the raw seafood, the shopkeeper poured hot dashi over the last little bit so I could slurp it up like the most exquisite rice porridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Call it a typical Japanophile’s romanticized tourist experience, but for years I’ve thought about that bowl of seafood. I never found anything quite like it in the Bay Area until a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yaichi_restaurant/\">Yaichi\u003c/a>, a newish restaurant specializing in fresh seafood bowls, or kaisendon, in the Ulferts Center shopping plaza in Milpitas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986367\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986367\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant. The blue curtain hanging in the doorway reads, \"Yaichi Japanese Udon & Seafood Bowl.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant is located in the Ulferts Center shopping plaza in Milpitas. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Open since this past fall, Yaichi sells three progressively luxed-up versions of its sushi bowl. The basic “Ume” bowl ($26) comes piled extravagantly high with minced yellowfin tuna, flying fish roe, scallops and a plump morsel of snow crab leg meat. The more premium bowls ($32 and $41, respectively) add a generous scattering of ikura (marinated salmon roe) and Hokkaido sea urchin to the mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginner-friendly instructions displayed on every table teach first-timers how to best enjoy the kaisen don: First, place some of the rice and seafood on a piece of dried seaweed, wrapping it up to eat like a sushi hand roll. Then, mix together some wasabi and house-brewed soy sauce and pour it over the remaining seafood. The briny pop of the ikura and the buttery ocean umami of the uni make for an especially delicious combination when stirred into the warm rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986366\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986366\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2.jpg\" alt=\"Japanese seafood bowl piled high with salmon roe, sea urchin and other assorted raw seafood.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another view of the “Matsu” bowl — the fanciest and most expensive of Yaichi’s seafood bowls. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Toward the end of the meal, you can add the optional ochazuke set ($4.50), which comes with shredded shiso, seaweed, tiny rice cracker balls and a single piece of salmon sashimi. Add all that into what’s left of your bowl (make sure you save some of the rice!) and then pour hot dashi over everything, transforming the sushi bowl into a gentle, cozy soup that warms you up from the inside. In that way, diners get to enjoy their kaisendon as two totally different dishes in one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant is the brainchild of Tokyo-raised chef-owner Nobu Kashima, who also runs Leichi, a popular izakaya in Santa Clara. In Japan, he explains, you can find kaisendon at casual izakayas, at beachside seafood restaurants and — perhaps most commonly for foreign tourists — at fish market kiosks like the one I ate at Tsikiji. In recent years, popular, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C_XZH2zz_pE/?hl=en&img_index=1\">Instagram-friendly kaisendon chains\u003c/a> in Tokyo have been known to draw two-hour lines during the dinner rush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay Area, though, Kashima says he hasn’t really seen any restaurants specializing in these giant seafood bowls, though you might find a more modest version on the menu at certain sushi restaurants or izakayas. What’s much more common are chirashi bowls, which feature a variety of sashimi scattered on top of a bowl or bento box of vinegared sushi rice. Kaisendon like Yaichi’s, on the other hand, usually comes with plain, unseasoned rice, which makes it more suitable for the ochazuke treatment — also a relative rarity in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986371\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986371\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of dashi broth with seafood and rice.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The optional ochuzuke set gives diners an additional way to enjoy the meal. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apart from the seafood bowls, Yaichi offers a concise selection of izakaya-style appetizers, my favorite of which was the delightful DIY Japanese potato salad, which comes with a little mortar and wooden pestle. You pound the potatoes to your preferred texture before mixing in the mayonnaise, cucumber, onion, soft-boiled egg and your choice of ham or salted cod roe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13986256,arts_13926203,arts_13957143']Eventually, the restaurant’s other main specialty will be udon. Kashimi says he’s in the process of importing a noodle machine from Japan so that he can make the udon fresh in-house. Both the noodles and the broth will be made according to the Sanuki style from Kanagawa Prefecture. The noodles are meant to be particularly chewy, and the broth will have a strong fish flavor from dried sardines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kanishi says he’s hoping the udon will be available within the coming month. At that point, the emphasis of the restaurant will be split evenly between the udon and the seafood rice bowls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people really like noodles,” he says. “But if you’re eating noodles every day, you miss the rice. That’s why I want to do both.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://yaichi.netlify.app/\">\u003ci>Yaichi\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open daily 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. and 4:30–8:30 p.m., except for Tuesdays, when the restaurant is closed. It’s located in the Ulferts Center at 668 Barber Ln. in Milpitas.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>One of the most memorable breakfasts of my life was at a small sushi stall at the old Tsukiji fish market in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japan\">Tokyo\u003c/a>, where I dug into a big wooden tub of rice topped with a mountain of incredibly fresh-tasting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-food\">uni, ikura and fatty tuna\u003c/a>. It was just past eight o’clock in the morning. After I’d devoured most of the raw seafood, the shopkeeper poured hot dashi over the last little bit so I could slurp it up like the most exquisite rice porridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Call it a typical Japanophile’s romanticized tourist experience, but for years I’ve thought about that bowl of seafood. I never found anything quite like it in the Bay Area until a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yaichi_restaurant/\">Yaichi\u003c/a>, a newish restaurant specializing in fresh seafood bowls, or kaisendon, in the Ulferts Center shopping plaza in Milpitas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986367\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986367\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant. The blue curtain hanging in the doorway reads, \"Yaichi Japanese Udon & Seafood Bowl.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-exterior-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant is located in the Ulferts Center shopping plaza in Milpitas. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Open since this past fall, Yaichi sells three progressively luxed-up versions of its sushi bowl. The basic “Ume” bowl ($26) comes piled extravagantly high with minced yellowfin tuna, flying fish roe, scallops and a plump morsel of snow crab leg meat. The more premium bowls ($32 and $41, respectively) add a generous scattering of ikura (marinated salmon roe) and Hokkaido sea urchin to the mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginner-friendly instructions displayed on every table teach first-timers how to best enjoy the kaisen don: First, place some of the rice and seafood on a piece of dried seaweed, wrapping it up to eat like a sushi hand roll. Then, mix together some wasabi and house-brewed soy sauce and pour it over the remaining seafood. The briny pop of the ikura and the buttery ocean umami of the uni make for an especially delicious combination when stirred into the warm rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986366\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986366\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2.jpg\" alt=\"Japanese seafood bowl piled high with salmon roe, sea urchin and other assorted raw seafood.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-closeup-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another view of the “Matsu” bowl — the fanciest and most expensive of Yaichi’s seafood bowls. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Toward the end of the meal, you can add the optional ochazuke set ($4.50), which comes with shredded shiso, seaweed, tiny rice cracker balls and a single piece of salmon sashimi. Add all that into what’s left of your bowl (make sure you save some of the rice!) and then pour hot dashi over everything, transforming the sushi bowl into a gentle, cozy soup that warms you up from the inside. In that way, diners get to enjoy their kaisendon as two totally different dishes in one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant is the brainchild of Tokyo-raised chef-owner Nobu Kashima, who also runs Leichi, a popular izakaya in Santa Clara. In Japan, he explains, you can find kaisendon at casual izakayas, at beachside seafood restaurants and — perhaps most commonly for foreign tourists — at fish market kiosks like the one I ate at Tsikiji. In recent years, popular, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C_XZH2zz_pE/?hl=en&img_index=1\">Instagram-friendly kaisendon chains\u003c/a> in Tokyo have been known to draw two-hour lines during the dinner rush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay Area, though, Kashima says he hasn’t really seen any restaurants specializing in these giant seafood bowls, though you might find a more modest version on the menu at certain sushi restaurants or izakayas. What’s much more common are chirashi bowls, which feature a variety of sashimi scattered on top of a bowl or bento box of vinegared sushi rice. Kaisendon like Yaichi’s, on the other hand, usually comes with plain, unseasoned rice, which makes it more suitable for the ochazuke treatment — also a relative rarity in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986371\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986371\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of dashi broth with seafood and rice.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/yaichi-ochuzuke-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The optional ochuzuke set gives diners an additional way to enjoy the meal. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apart from the seafood bowls, Yaichi offers a concise selection of izakaya-style appetizers, my favorite of which was the delightful DIY Japanese potato salad, which comes with a little mortar and wooden pestle. You pound the potatoes to your preferred texture before mixing in the mayonnaise, cucumber, onion, soft-boiled egg and your choice of ham or salted cod roe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Eventually, the restaurant’s other main specialty will be udon. Kashimi says he’s in the process of importing a noodle machine from Japan so that he can make the udon fresh in-house. Both the noodles and the broth will be made according to the Sanuki style from Kanagawa Prefecture. The noodles are meant to be particularly chewy, and the broth will have a strong fish flavor from dried sardines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kanishi says he’s hoping the udon will be available within the coming month. At that point, the emphasis of the restaurant will be split evenly between the udon and the seafood rice bowls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people really like noodles,” he says. “But if you’re eating noodles every day, you miss the rice. That’s why I want to do both.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://yaichi.netlify.app/\">\u003ci>Yaichi\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open daily 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. and 4:30–8:30 p.m., except for Tuesdays, when the restaurant is closed. It’s located in the Ulferts Center at 668 Barber Ln. in Milpitas.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Fire Shuts Down One of the Bay Area’s Best Tonkatsu Restaurants",
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"content": "\u003cp>A late-night fire at a downtown \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/danville\">Danville\u003c/a> strip mall has shut down one of the Bay Area’s top restaurants specializing in tonkatsu, or Japanese-style fried pork cutlets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jungdonkatsu.com/\">Jungdon Katsu\u003c/a> first opened mid-pandemic in 2022 as a tiny ghost kitchen takeout operation in Emeryville. Almost immediately, the shop’s juicy, preternaturally crunchy pork cutlets gained a loyal following — the \u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/i>restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez called them “exceptional and satisfying” in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/jungdon-katsu-17618778.php\">rave review\u003c/a>. Last year, owner Joyce Kim \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/favorite-katsu-bay-area-new-restaurant-19760638.php\">opened the larger, sit-down version of the restaurant\u003c/a> in Danville, sharing a space with Taru Sushi, the sushi spot she’d run at that location with a business partner since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jungdon and Taru were two of the several businesses that closed indefinitely after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.danvillesanramon.com/fire-wildfire/2025/10/21/businesses-shut-down-after-fire-damages-building-in-downtown-danville/\">Oct. 20 fire\u003c/a>. Reached by phone, Nicole Kim, the owner’s daughter, tells KQED it’s unclear whether the Danville restaurant will ever be able to reopen. Even though the Jungdon space wasn’t caught in the blaze, the whole building suffered so much structural damage that there’s no way for customers to safely enter the restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Luckily, no one got hurt,” Kim says. “It just feels really weird because my mom worked really, really hard to get to this point [for it to be lost], all because of this stupid fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13982930\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13982930\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior courtyard of a restaurant. The banner in front reads \"Jung Don Katsu.\" ' width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior courtyard at Jungdon’s Danville location. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, she says, her mother is trying to stay positive. Even before the fire, the Kims had already started working on building out a new full-fledged restaurant in Emeryville, at 6485 Hollis St. — a process they’re now trying to fast-track so they can open in the next month or two. Kim has also started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuild-taru-sushi-and-jungdon-katsu\">GoFundMe campaign\u003c/a> to help tide the business over during this transition — and, especially, to support workers at the Danville restaurant who now likely have to find new jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Jungdon fans can get their fix at the Emeryville ghost kitchen location, which remains open for takeout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jungdon serves several varieties of breaded deep-fried meat, including menchi katsu (made with ground pork) and chicken katsu. But the pork katsu is the dish that made it a destination restaurant, with long lines out the door nearly every night at the Danville sit-down location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13980829,arts_13971770,arts_13959432']You can find tonkatsu on the menu at most all-purpose Japanese restaurants, and the fried pork cutlets feature prominently at curry shops and casual cafes, where they’re often served in sandwich form. But specialized katsu shops that serve the fried cutlets the way they do in Japan — piping hot on a wire rack, with a mound of thinly shredded cabbage on the side — are extremely rare in the Bay Area. In the East Bay, in particular, Jungdon Katsu was basically one of one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During dinner service, the elder Kim would pound and bread each batch of katsu to order, using fresh panko breadcrumbs to make the shaggy breading puff out outrageously. For dine-in customers, the percussive \u003ci>thud-thud-thud\u003c/i> of Kim pounding each pork cutlet into tender submission made for a comforting soundtrack to the meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim first fell in love with pork katsu in her native Korea, and at the new Emeryville location, she’s working on adding a thinner, sauce-soaked version of the dish to the menu — what Koreans call “old-fashioned katsu.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Kim, the daughter, says the family is hoping for the best as far as reopening the Danville restaurant is concerned. If that proves to be impossible, they’ll explore the possibility of opening a new location closer to that part of the East Bay, perhaps in Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A late-night fire at a downtown \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/danville\">Danville\u003c/a> strip mall has shut down one of the Bay Area’s top restaurants specializing in tonkatsu, or Japanese-style fried pork cutlets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jungdonkatsu.com/\">Jungdon Katsu\u003c/a> first opened mid-pandemic in 2022 as a tiny ghost kitchen takeout operation in Emeryville. Almost immediately, the shop’s juicy, preternaturally crunchy pork cutlets gained a loyal following — the \u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle \u003c/i>restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez called them “exceptional and satisfying” in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/jungdon-katsu-17618778.php\">rave review\u003c/a>. Last year, owner Joyce Kim \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/favorite-katsu-bay-area-new-restaurant-19760638.php\">opened the larger, sit-down version of the restaurant\u003c/a> in Danville, sharing a space with Taru Sushi, the sushi spot she’d run at that location with a business partner since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jungdon and Taru were two of the several businesses that closed indefinitely after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.danvillesanramon.com/fire-wildfire/2025/10/21/businesses-shut-down-after-fire-damages-building-in-downtown-danville/\">Oct. 20 fire\u003c/a>. Reached by phone, Nicole Kim, the owner’s daughter, tells KQED it’s unclear whether the Danville restaurant will ever be able to reopen. Even though the Jungdon space wasn’t caught in the blaze, the whole building suffered so much structural damage that there’s no way for customers to safely enter the restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Luckily, no one got hurt,” Kim says. “It just feels really weird because my mom worked really, really hard to get to this point [for it to be lost], all because of this stupid fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13982930\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13982930\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior courtyard of a restaurant. The banner in front reads \"Jung Don Katsu.\" ' width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/jungdon-katsu-exterior-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior courtyard at Jungdon’s Danville location. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, she says, her mother is trying to stay positive. Even before the fire, the Kims had already started working on building out a new full-fledged restaurant in Emeryville, at 6485 Hollis St. — a process they’re now trying to fast-track so they can open in the next month or two. Kim has also started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuild-taru-sushi-and-jungdon-katsu\">GoFundMe campaign\u003c/a> to help tide the business over during this transition — and, especially, to support workers at the Danville restaurant who now likely have to find new jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Jungdon fans can get their fix at the Emeryville ghost kitchen location, which remains open for takeout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jungdon serves several varieties of breaded deep-fried meat, including menchi katsu (made with ground pork) and chicken katsu. But the pork katsu is the dish that made it a destination restaurant, with long lines out the door nearly every night at the Danville sit-down location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>You can find tonkatsu on the menu at most all-purpose Japanese restaurants, and the fried pork cutlets feature prominently at curry shops and casual cafes, where they’re often served in sandwich form. But specialized katsu shops that serve the fried cutlets the way they do in Japan — piping hot on a wire rack, with a mound of thinly shredded cabbage on the side — are extremely rare in the Bay Area. In the East Bay, in particular, Jungdon Katsu was basically one of one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During dinner service, the elder Kim would pound and bread each batch of katsu to order, using fresh panko breadcrumbs to make the shaggy breading puff out outrageously. For dine-in customers, the percussive \u003ci>thud-thud-thud\u003c/i> of Kim pounding each pork cutlet into tender submission made for a comforting soundtrack to the meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim first fell in love with pork katsu in her native Korea, and at the new Emeryville location, she’s working on adding a thinner, sauce-soaked version of the dish to the menu — what Koreans call “old-fashioned katsu.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Kim, the daughter, says the family is hoping for the best as far as reopening the Danville restaurant is concerned. If that proves to be impossible, they’ll explore the possibility of opening a new location closer to that part of the East Bay, perhaps in Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "kids-slurping-noodles-udon-bampfa-berkeley-david-horvitz",
"title": "Teaching Your Kids the Fine Art of Slurping Noodles",
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"content": "\u003cp>For multimedia artist David Horvitz, slurping noodles isn’t just a way of eating. The Los Angeles-based artist says that as a half-Japanese person, he sees it as part of his cultural heritage: In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japan\">Japan\u003c/a>, after all, slurping is widely understood to be the correct way to enjoy a bowl of noodles, and to show appreciation to the person who cooked them. Here in America, where slurping is considered bad table manners, Horvitz always wanted to teach his own daughters the pleasures of a proper slurp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so Horvitz turned noisy eating into part of his art practice. Or, to be specific, he and Bay Area chef Leif Hedendal will be putting on a kid-friendly experiential art show of sorts at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive this Sunday entitled \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/teach-your-children-slurp-noodles\">Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles\u003c/a>. Hedendal will serve bowls of homemade udon, and the young participants will slurp those noodles while mic’d up to an amplifier, creating live noise performance — a sonic soundscape of slurping, if you will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone, Horvitz explains that the origin of the project was a \u003ca href=\"https://mocastore.org/products/1037032\">screen print\u003c/a> he created in 2023, also called \u003ci>Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles\u003c/i>, for which he hand-wrote those words with actual udon noodles, let them dry, and then screen printed them onto Japanese washi paper. Later, he and five other Asian artist friends put on the first version of the live slurping performance at a \u003ca href=\"https://active-cultures.org/project/soup-tart-los-angeles/\">Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) event\u003c/a> in Little Tokyo in L.A. They ordered udon from a little Japanese diner called Suehiro Cafe, a couple blocks away. “We slurped [the noodles] with a microphone,” Horvitz recalls, “and my friend processed it live with an analog synth and made these crazy sounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13976893\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13976893\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-scaled.jpg\" alt='Screen print of squiggly letters made with udon noodles. The text reads, \"Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Horvitz, ‘Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles,’ 2023. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of David Horvitz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13934852,arts_13935854']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>Now, recasting the event in Berkeley with a focus on kids, Horvitz mostly hopes the noodle-slurping extravaganza will be a lot of fun. But he also sees an educational component. For Japanese American kids like his own, it’s a matter of knowing their history and lineage — and knowing that they can stand up for themselves if, say, a classmate sees them slurping and tells them it’s weird. And for non-Japanese kids? The message is that “slurping \u003ci>is \u003c/i>the proper etiquette,” Horvitz says. “You can tell that to your parents when you go home — that they should be slurping too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, and the udon for the BAMPFA event won’t be your run-of-the-mill cup o’ noodles. To prepare, Hedendal, known for cooking elaborate dinners \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/t-magazine/jessica-silverman-gallery.html\">for Bay Area art-world luminati\u003c/a>, asked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101895308/rintaro-cookbook-brings-the-izakaya-to-your-kitchen\">Sylvan Mishima Brackett\u003c/a> (chef-owner of the Mission District izakaya Rintaro) to give him a lesson in making udon from scratch — in other words, these will be pedigreed, \u003ci>hand-rolled\u003c/i> noodles that the kiddos will be hoovering up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to enjoying a good, comforting meal, participants will also use some of the extra noodles to create sumi ink art that they can bring home. And Hedendal hopes to incorporate some impromptu noodle-making lessons as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, as Horvitz notes, even though the event is ostensibly geared toward children, noodle lovers of all ages are welcome to participate. “Adults who don’t slurp should learn how to slurp too,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>There will be two sessions of ‘Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles’ at BAMPFA (2155 Center St., Berkeley) on Sunday, June 1, at noon and 1 p.m. Space is limited, and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/teach-your-children-slurp-noodles\">\u003ci>advance tickets\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are required, though Horvitz says he’ll do his best to accommodate anyone who comes.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Artist David Horvitz’s udon event at BAMPFA is an ode to noisy eating.",
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"title": "A Berkeley Udon Event Teaches Kids to Slurp Their Noodles | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For multimedia artist David Horvitz, slurping noodles isn’t just a way of eating. The Los Angeles-based artist says that as a half-Japanese person, he sees it as part of his cultural heritage: In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japan\">Japan\u003c/a>, after all, slurping is widely understood to be the correct way to enjoy a bowl of noodles, and to show appreciation to the person who cooked them. Here in America, where slurping is considered bad table manners, Horvitz always wanted to teach his own daughters the pleasures of a proper slurp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so Horvitz turned noisy eating into part of his art practice. Or, to be specific, he and Bay Area chef Leif Hedendal will be putting on a kid-friendly experiential art show of sorts at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive this Sunday entitled \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/teach-your-children-slurp-noodles\">Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles\u003c/a>. Hedendal will serve bowls of homemade udon, and the young participants will slurp those noodles while mic’d up to an amplifier, creating live noise performance — a sonic soundscape of slurping, if you will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone, Horvitz explains that the origin of the project was a \u003ca href=\"https://mocastore.org/products/1037032\">screen print\u003c/a> he created in 2023, also called \u003ci>Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles\u003c/i>, for which he hand-wrote those words with actual udon noodles, let them dry, and then screen printed them onto Japanese washi paper. Later, he and five other Asian artist friends put on the first version of the live slurping performance at a \u003ca href=\"https://active-cultures.org/project/soup-tart-los-angeles/\">Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) event\u003c/a> in Little Tokyo in L.A. They ordered udon from a little Japanese diner called Suehiro Cafe, a couple blocks away. “We slurped [the noodles] with a microphone,” Horvitz recalls, “and my friend processed it live with an analog synth and made these crazy sounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13976893\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13976893\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-scaled.jpg\" alt='Screen print of squiggly letters made with udon noodles. The text reads, \"Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/teach-your-children-to-slurp-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Horvitz, ‘Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles,’ 2023. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of David Horvitz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>Now, recasting the event in Berkeley with a focus on kids, Horvitz mostly hopes the noodle-slurping extravaganza will be a lot of fun. But he also sees an educational component. For Japanese American kids like his own, it’s a matter of knowing their history and lineage — and knowing that they can stand up for themselves if, say, a classmate sees them slurping and tells them it’s weird. And for non-Japanese kids? The message is that “slurping \u003ci>is \u003c/i>the proper etiquette,” Horvitz says. “You can tell that to your parents when you go home — that they should be slurping too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, and the udon for the BAMPFA event won’t be your run-of-the-mill cup o’ noodles. To prepare, Hedendal, known for cooking elaborate dinners \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/t-magazine/jessica-silverman-gallery.html\">for Bay Area art-world luminati\u003c/a>, asked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101895308/rintaro-cookbook-brings-the-izakaya-to-your-kitchen\">Sylvan Mishima Brackett\u003c/a> (chef-owner of the Mission District izakaya Rintaro) to give him a lesson in making udon from scratch — in other words, these will be pedigreed, \u003ci>hand-rolled\u003c/i> noodles that the kiddos will be hoovering up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to enjoying a good, comforting meal, participants will also use some of the extra noodles to create sumi ink art that they can bring home. And Hedendal hopes to incorporate some impromptu noodle-making lessons as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, as Horvitz notes, even though the event is ostensibly geared toward children, noodle lovers of all ages are welcome to participate. “Adults who don’t slurp should learn how to slurp too,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>There will be two sessions of ‘Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles’ at BAMPFA (2155 Center St., Berkeley) on Sunday, June 1, at noon and 1 p.m. Space is limited, and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/teach-your-children-slurp-noodles\">\u003ci>advance tickets\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are required, though Horvitz says he’ll do his best to accommodate anyone who comes.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "mexican-hibachi-fusion-burrito-benihana-bay-area-pinole",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen you walk into \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mexihibachi/\">MexiHibachi\u003c/a>, a new \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mexican-food\">Mexican\u003c/a>-Japanese fusion restaurant in Pinole, the first thing you notice is the giant mural on the wall: a stylized image of a samurai — full armor, katana held upright — facing off against an Aztec warrior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just the first of many cultural collisions that grab the diner’s attention. There’s the endless loop of Karol G reggaeton music videos juxtaposed with traditional Japanese decor elements like red paper lanterns. There’s the name of the restaurant, “MexiHibachi,” painted in bold letters in the tricolor of the Mexican flag across the body of a flying dragon. And there are the smells — a potent mix of garlic butter, taco sauce and teriyaki that’s meant to get your mouth watering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is, after all, a restaurant that specializes in Benihana-style Japanese hibachi with a Mexican twist: big plates of steak and shrimp served over fried rice or garlic noodles, everything cooked on a flat-top grill — and also stuffed, sometimes, into a burrito or a quesadilla, and drizzled with the kind of creamy orange hot sauce you might find at your favorite taqueria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That unique combination of flavors and cross-cultural influences has made MexiHibachi one of the hottest new restaurants in Contra Costa County since it opened in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971776\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971776\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A restaurant employee brings two plates of food out to customers.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">MexiHibachi employee Jocelyn Valadez brings out customers’ orders. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The brainchild of chef Francisco Arce and his wife Silvia Cortes, the business started during the pandemic-spurred economic downturn of 2022, when Arce’s day job as a union painter had slowed to a standstill. With medical bills piling up for their young daughter, who needed eye surgery, the couple decided to supplement their income by starting a home-based catering operation. At first they mostly sold quesabirria, but at that point \u003ci>everyone \u003c/i>was doing quesabirria. Meanwhile, Arce had picked up tens of thousands of followers on his \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@chefblackstone\">TikTok cooking channel\u003c/a>, where, among other recipes, he showed off the Benihana-style hibachi skills he’d learned working at a teppanyaki restaurant in Alameda. “Everyone was like, ‘Where can I get my hands on a plate?’” Cortes recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So they decided to give it a shot. The first MexiHibachi pop-ups featured a portable flat-top grill that they set up in a 10-by-10-foot tent in front of their house in Richmond. Eventually, as word got out, they started booking big backyard quinceañera and anniversary parties, where Arce entertained guests by \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@mexihibachi/video/7219617566027779370\">flipping shrimp directly into their mouths\u003c/a> and casually lighting up the grill so the whole thing burst into flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one of those pop-ups, MexiHibachi caught the attention of their current business partner, Juan Nuñez, a local entrepreneur and tattoo artist. He set Arce and Cortes up in their first brick-and-mortar kitchen space, a little takeout shop attached to Nuñez’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/juannuneztattoo/?hl=en\">tattoo shop\u003c/a> on San Pablo Avenue in Richmond. Business was brisk, and before long, they’d outgrown that kitchen as well. With Nuñez’s help, they found their current space, in a Pinole strip mall, last April and renovated the space themselves. (Nuñez, with his tattoo art background, did all the murals.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971460\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971460\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29.jpg\" alt=\"A man and woman pose for a portrait seated inside a restaurant, in front of a mural of a samurai fighting an Aztec warrior.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silvia Cortes (left) and Francisco Arce, owners of MexiHibachi, pose for a photo at their newly-opened teppanyaki restaurant. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a surface level, MexiHibachi’s take on teppanyaki doesn’t look \u003ci>so \u003c/i>different from what you might find at a regular old Benihana. Its staple dishes are the combo plates — your choice of proteins (steak, shrimp, chicken, salmon or scallops) served over a bed of garlicky, buttery fried rice; spicy udon noodles; or, my favorite, an excellent, extra-savory version of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\">garlic noodles\u003c/a>. But then in addition to your standard hibachi shop “yum yum” sauce (a creamy, slightly tangy aioli) and ginger soy sauce, customers also have the option to drench their meal in MexiHibachi’s fiery housemade diablo sauce (again, something akin to a taqueria \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13958466/la-vics-orange-sauce-la-victoria-taqueria-late-night-san-jose\">orange sauce\u003c/a>). Even more fusion-minded customers have the option to pack the whole meal inside the confines of a cheesy quesadilla or a burrito — with or without the addition of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913985/hot-cheeto-burrito-taqueria-el-mezcal-richard-montanez-san-pablo\">Hot Cheetos\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the coming weeks, Arce plans to introduce more new dishes that play with the restaurant’s Mexican and Japanese influences. There will be a Baja-style fried fish taco, topped with both the red diablo sauce and the white yum yum sauce, for a subtle Japanese touch. They’ll also serve a version of spicy Mexican caldo de siete mares that has elements of an Asian seafood noodle soup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971784\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971784\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A burrito cut in half to reveal steak, Hot Cheetos and fried rice on the inside.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1296\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-800x518.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-768x498.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-1536x995.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-1920x1244.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A steak hibachi wrap with Hot Cheetos, one of the restaurant’s Mexican-Japanese fusion dishes. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Arce and Cortes didn’t invent the “Benihana-but-make-it-Mexican” food genre, but the trend seems to be fairly new, picking up steam in the early 2020s. A handful of other \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/losgallosxezbachi/\">restaurants\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hibachiteppanyaki90/\">food trucks\u003c/a> with similar menus opened in the Bay Area in the past couple of years. There are even more of them in Southern California, where at least one popular chain — \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mexihanashibachigrill/?hl=en\">Mexihanas\u003c/a> — has been around since 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13900855,arts_13913985,arts_13963832']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>One might assume that the trend stems from some deep, abiding love that Mexican Americans have for Benihana and its offshoots, but Cortes says that hasn’t been her experience. While some of MexiHibachi’s younger Mexican American customers might have eaten at a Japanese teppanyaki spot like Benihana at some point, most of the older Latino customers have no idea what to make of the restaurant the first time they come. At first, she says, “we were being compared to Panda Express.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our clientele at the beginning were more African American than anything,” Cortes recalls. But as word about MexiHibachi spread, Latino customers started to familiarize themselves with the pleasures of a steak-and-shrimp combo plate and griddle-top garlic fried rice. “Now they know what hibachi is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971461\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971461\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47.jpg\" alt=\"Stir-fried udon with shrimp, beef and broccoli.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The New York steak, chicken and shrimp spicy stir-fry udon plate. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Given that most Mexican American diners don’t have a long history with Japanese teppanyaki, the origin of the Mexican hibachi trend is probably even more obvious and mundane: As Nuñez notes, if you walk into any Benihana-style restaurant in the Bay Area these days, the vast majority of the chefs doing the fancy tricks on the grill will be Latino. (Arce himself learned his craft at one of those spots, after all.) It only makes sense, then, that some of those cooks would eventually open their own hibachi businesses and put their cultural stamp on the cuisine. It’s the same reason we’ve seen an infusion of ambitious Mexican-owned \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hakashisushibar/?hl=en\">sushi restaurants\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13917556/davids-pastas-pizzas-richmond-red-sauce-italian-tortas\">red-sauce pasta joints\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course even more than the food itself, Benihanas are famous for their \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/23737639/benihana-be-the-chef-onion-volcano-shrimp-tails-performance-anxiety\">bag of tricks\u003c/a> — the juggling of spatulas, the shrimp tails flipped into the chef’s hat, the eggs that magically multiply underneath a bowl. And, as it turns out, MexiHibachi’s kitchen crew all trained in this dinner-and-a-show approach to teppanyaki; they’re fully conversant in the language of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kDxl_eiYycM\">flaming onion volcanos\u003c/a>. Arce has been honing his repertoire of crowd-pleasing stunts for years — one of his most popular moves, he says, is when he makes the steaks dance on the plancha to the tune of “I Like to Move It.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971777\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971777\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A chef in a black baseball cap lights his grill on fire.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Arce sets the grill aflame. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, Cortes says, only customers who book MexiHibachi for private catering events will get a whole show with their meal. Their current space in Pinole isn’t big enough for the chefs to do tableside grilling, and the kitchen is set up, conventionally, in the back. A big chunk of the restaurant’s business is just takeout orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But,” Cortes says, “it’s definitely our goal and dream to open a fancy restaurant like that, like a Benihana, in the future.” There’s no precedent for that kind of grand, showy Mexican fusion teppanyaki restaurant in the Bay Area, and even L.A.’s more established Mexican hibachi scene mostly consists of food trucks and small takeout shops. But Arce and Cortes don’t think the idea is all that far-fetched — not when their business has already grown so much in the span of just a couple of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I definitely see it happening,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mexihibachi/\">\u003ci>MexiHibachi\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Wednesday to Thursday noon–9 p.m., Friday to Saturday noon–10 p.m. and Sunday noon–8 p.m. at 1578 Fitzgerald Dr. in Pinole.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A new Pinole restaurant packs Benihana-style teppanyaki into a burrito, with a hit of diablo sauce.",
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"title": "Mexican Hibachi Is the Bay Area’s Next Great Fusion Cuisine | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen you walk into \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mexihibachi/\">MexiHibachi\u003c/a>, a new \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mexican-food\">Mexican\u003c/a>-Japanese fusion restaurant in Pinole, the first thing you notice is the giant mural on the wall: a stylized image of a samurai — full armor, katana held upright — facing off against an Aztec warrior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just the first of many cultural collisions that grab the diner’s attention. There’s the endless loop of Karol G reggaeton music videos juxtaposed with traditional Japanese decor elements like red paper lanterns. There’s the name of the restaurant, “MexiHibachi,” painted in bold letters in the tricolor of the Mexican flag across the body of a flying dragon. And there are the smells — a potent mix of garlic butter, taco sauce and teriyaki that’s meant to get your mouth watering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is, after all, a restaurant that specializes in Benihana-style Japanese hibachi with a Mexican twist: big plates of steak and shrimp served over fried rice or garlic noodles, everything cooked on a flat-top grill — and also stuffed, sometimes, into a burrito or a quesadilla, and drizzled with the kind of creamy orange hot sauce you might find at your favorite taqueria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That unique combination of flavors and cross-cultural influences has made MexiHibachi one of the hottest new restaurants in Contra Costa County since it opened in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971776\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971776\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A restaurant employee brings two plates of food out to customers.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-20_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">MexiHibachi employee Jocelyn Valadez brings out customers’ orders. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The brainchild of chef Francisco Arce and his wife Silvia Cortes, the business started during the pandemic-spurred economic downturn of 2022, when Arce’s day job as a union painter had slowed to a standstill. With medical bills piling up for their young daughter, who needed eye surgery, the couple decided to supplement their income by starting a home-based catering operation. At first they mostly sold quesabirria, but at that point \u003ci>everyone \u003c/i>was doing quesabirria. Meanwhile, Arce had picked up tens of thousands of followers on his \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@chefblackstone\">TikTok cooking channel\u003c/a>, where, among other recipes, he showed off the Benihana-style hibachi skills he’d learned working at a teppanyaki restaurant in Alameda. “Everyone was like, ‘Where can I get my hands on a plate?’” Cortes recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So they decided to give it a shot. The first MexiHibachi pop-ups featured a portable flat-top grill that they set up in a 10-by-10-foot tent in front of their house in Richmond. Eventually, as word got out, they started booking big backyard quinceañera and anniversary parties, where Arce entertained guests by \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@mexihibachi/video/7219617566027779370\">flipping shrimp directly into their mouths\u003c/a> and casually lighting up the grill so the whole thing burst into flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one of those pop-ups, MexiHibachi caught the attention of their current business partner, Juan Nuñez, a local entrepreneur and tattoo artist. He set Arce and Cortes up in their first brick-and-mortar kitchen space, a little takeout shop attached to Nuñez’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/juannuneztattoo/?hl=en\">tattoo shop\u003c/a> on San Pablo Avenue in Richmond. Business was brisk, and before long, they’d outgrown that kitchen as well. With Nuñez’s help, they found their current space, in a Pinole strip mall, last April and renovated the space themselves. (Nuñez, with his tattoo art background, did all the murals.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971460\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971460\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29.jpg\" alt=\"A man and woman pose for a portrait seated inside a restaurant, in front of a mural of a samurai fighting an Aztec warrior.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-29-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silvia Cortes (left) and Francisco Arce, owners of MexiHibachi, pose for a photo at their newly-opened teppanyaki restaurant. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a surface level, MexiHibachi’s take on teppanyaki doesn’t look \u003ci>so \u003c/i>different from what you might find at a regular old Benihana. Its staple dishes are the combo plates — your choice of proteins (steak, shrimp, chicken, salmon or scallops) served over a bed of garlicky, buttery fried rice; spicy udon noodles; or, my favorite, an excellent, extra-savory version of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\">garlic noodles\u003c/a>. But then in addition to your standard hibachi shop “yum yum” sauce (a creamy, slightly tangy aioli) and ginger soy sauce, customers also have the option to drench their meal in MexiHibachi’s fiery housemade diablo sauce (again, something akin to a taqueria \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13958466/la-vics-orange-sauce-la-victoria-taqueria-late-night-san-jose\">orange sauce\u003c/a>). Even more fusion-minded customers have the option to pack the whole meal inside the confines of a cheesy quesadilla or a burrito — with or without the addition of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913985/hot-cheeto-burrito-taqueria-el-mezcal-richard-montanez-san-pablo\">Hot Cheetos\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the coming weeks, Arce plans to introduce more new dishes that play with the restaurant’s Mexican and Japanese influences. There will be a Baja-style fried fish taco, topped with both the red diablo sauce and the white yum yum sauce, for a subtle Japanese touch. They’ll also serve a version of spicy Mexican caldo de siete mares that has elements of an Asian seafood noodle soup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971784\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971784\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A burrito cut in half to reveal steak, Hot Cheetos and fried rice on the inside.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1296\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-800x518.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-768x498.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-1536x995.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-48_qed-1920x1244.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A steak hibachi wrap with Hot Cheetos, one of the restaurant’s Mexican-Japanese fusion dishes. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Arce and Cortes didn’t invent the “Benihana-but-make-it-Mexican” food genre, but the trend seems to be fairly new, picking up steam in the early 2020s. A handful of other \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/losgallosxezbachi/\">restaurants\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hibachiteppanyaki90/\">food trucks\u003c/a> with similar menus opened in the Bay Area in the past couple of years. There are even more of them in Southern California, where at least one popular chain — \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mexihanashibachigrill/?hl=en\">Mexihanas\u003c/a> — has been around since 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>One might assume that the trend stems from some deep, abiding love that Mexican Americans have for Benihana and its offshoots, but Cortes says that hasn’t been her experience. While some of MexiHibachi’s younger Mexican American customers might have eaten at a Japanese teppanyaki spot like Benihana at some point, most of the older Latino customers have no idea what to make of the restaurant the first time they come. At first, she says, “we were being compared to Panda Express.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our clientele at the beginning were more African American than anything,” Cortes recalls. But as word about MexiHibachi spread, Latino customers started to familiarize themselves with the pleasures of a steak-and-shrimp combo plate and griddle-top garlic fried rice. “Now they know what hibachi is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971461\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971461\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47.jpg\" alt=\"Stir-fried udon with shrimp, beef and broccoli.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-47-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The New York steak, chicken and shrimp spicy stir-fry udon plate. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Given that most Mexican American diners don’t have a long history with Japanese teppanyaki, the origin of the Mexican hibachi trend is probably even more obvious and mundane: As Nuñez notes, if you walk into any Benihana-style restaurant in the Bay Area these days, the vast majority of the chefs doing the fancy tricks on the grill will be Latino. (Arce himself learned his craft at one of those spots, after all.) It only makes sense, then, that some of those cooks would eventually open their own hibachi businesses and put their cultural stamp on the cuisine. It’s the same reason we’ve seen an infusion of ambitious Mexican-owned \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hakashisushibar/?hl=en\">sushi restaurants\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13917556/davids-pastas-pizzas-richmond-red-sauce-italian-tortas\">red-sauce pasta joints\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course even more than the food itself, Benihanas are famous for their \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/23737639/benihana-be-the-chef-onion-volcano-shrimp-tails-performance-anxiety\">bag of tricks\u003c/a> — the juggling of spatulas, the shrimp tails flipped into the chef’s hat, the eggs that magically multiply underneath a bowl. And, as it turns out, MexiHibachi’s kitchen crew all trained in this dinner-and-a-show approach to teppanyaki; they’re fully conversant in the language of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kDxl_eiYycM\">flaming onion volcanos\u003c/a>. Arce has been honing his repertoire of crowd-pleasing stunts for years — one of his most popular moves, he says, is when he makes the steaks dance on the plancha to the tune of “I Like to Move It.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13971777\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13971777\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A chef in a black baseball cap lights his grill on fire.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/20250205_MexiHibachi_GC-25_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Arce sets the grill aflame. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, Cortes says, only customers who book MexiHibachi for private catering events will get a whole show with their meal. Their current space in Pinole isn’t big enough for the chefs to do tableside grilling, and the kitchen is set up, conventionally, in the back. A big chunk of the restaurant’s business is just takeout orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But,” Cortes says, “it’s definitely our goal and dream to open a fancy restaurant like that, like a Benihana, in the future.” There’s no precedent for that kind of grand, showy Mexican fusion teppanyaki restaurant in the Bay Area, and even L.A.’s more established Mexican hibachi scene mostly consists of food trucks and small takeout shops. But Arce and Cortes don’t think the idea is all that far-fetched — not when their business has already grown so much in the span of just a couple of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I definitely see it happening,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mexihibachi/\">\u003ci>MexiHibachi\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Wednesday to Thursday noon–9 p.m., Friday to Saturday noon–10 p.m. and Sunday noon–8 p.m. at 1578 Fitzgerald Dr. in Pinole.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How to Debunk MSG Myths? Go Back in Time and Alter History, Of Course",
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"content": "\u003cp>When playwright Keiko Green was in her early teens, she learned that her grandfather — her ojiichan — had worked as a food scientist for Ajinomoto, the Tokyo-based company best known for inventing monosodium glutamate, a.k.a. MSG. In that moment, Green recalls, she didn’t feel a sense of pride in her family’s contribution to culinary history. Instead, she felt something more akin to shame. For a biracial \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-american\">Japanese American\u003c/a> kid growing up in a predominantly white suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, the MSG link was just one more thing that made her different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just felt like I was sticking out so much,” she recalls. “And there was that teenage part of you that wants to just disappear into the background and be a little invisible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And anyway, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13966489/asian-american-chefs-msg-event-series-sf-chinatown-edge-on-the-square\">wasn’t MSG \u003ci>bad\u003c/i>\u003c/a>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, no. Years later — long after Green had learned that those old “\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-rotten-science-behind-the-msg-scare/\">Chinese Restaurant Syndrome\u003c/a>” campaigns were based on \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/an-msg-convert-visits-the-high-church-of-umami\">bad science\u003c/a> and, often, blatant \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/eddie-huang-racial-insensitivities-behind-msg-chinese-food-criticisms-n1115386\">racism\u003c/a> — the playwright recreated this moment of racialized teen angst in her play \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2024-2025-season/exotic-deadly-or-the-msg-play/\">\u003ci>Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, which opens at San Francisco Playhouse on Jan. 30, directed by Jesca Prudencio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970888\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970888\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a baseball cap seated in a theater with her arms outstretched. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keiko Green wrote ‘Exotic Deadly’ during the pandemic, drawing on her own family connection to the Japanese company that invented MSG. \u003ccite>(Jessica Palopoli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like Green, the protagonist, Ami (played by Ana Ming Bostwick-Singer), is an Asian American teen growing up in the late ’90s. Ami first hears about MSG from a doctor on TV who warns about the flavor enhancer “poisoning America.” When she learns that her grandfather was the Japanese scientist who invented the headache-inducing powder, it’s like finding out that her own blood is tainted. She, too, wishes she could just make herself invisible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where the play deviates a bit from personal biography. Ami decides that the best thing to do is to travel back in time to prevent her ojiichan from ever inventing MSG, thus redeeming her family’s reputation and saving the entire world in the process. As you do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madcap sci-fi twists notwithstanding, Green says \u003ci>Exotic Deadly\u003c/i> draws on her own adolescent experience more than any of her previous work. The play taps into the self-consciousness that Green felt about her Asian identity, especially when it came to the “lovely, nutritious bento” lunches that her mother packed for her every day. Those lunchboxes became a daily battle, Green recalls, even though she \u003ci>loved \u003c/i>her mother’s cooking. She especially relished her traditional Japanese breakfasts: a full spread of grilled fish, rice, miso soup, pickled plums and, her favorite, the sticky, funky fermented soybeans known as natto. (“I would obviously never take natto to school,” she says.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Green remembers having bottles of the MSG seasoning powder at home, but her mom kept them hidden in a little cupboard — as though she, too, believed there was something shameful about the stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Later on, when I thought about that shame of internalized racism, I really thought back to the image of my mom keeping that bottle hidden away,” Green says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970890\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970890\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Director Jesca Prudencio (left) and Green at a workshop for SF Playhouse’s production of ‘Exotic Deadly.’ \u003ccite>(Jessica Palopoli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Green, whose recent work includes a writing credit on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/11/29/1215793965/interior-chinatown-is-a-genre-bending-exploration-of-asian-american-identity\">Hulu’s genre-bending adaptation of Charles Yu’s \u003ci>Interior Chinatown\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, knew she wanted to write a play about her family connection to MSG. But every time she tried, it always felt a little bit too clichéd. It was only after the COVID shutdown hit, she says, that she stopped worrying about whether the “gatekeepers” of the theater world would approve of the play. She wrote \u003ci>Exotic Deadly \u003c/i>mainly just to make herself laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the play does deal with heavy themes of racism, Green says, it’s also by far the “craziest” play she’s ever written. “It breaks every rule,” she says. “It has a bajillion characters. Sometimes we change locations three times on a page.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And since pseudoscience had imbued MSG with so many fake, insidious properties, Green thought it would be fun to give MSG even \u003ci>more \u003c/i>fake effects: “In this play, MSG makes you really good at kung fu fighting. It can make you time travel. It heals your bones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the character who goes by “Exotic Deadly” (played by Francesca Fernandez) — a phrase that Green took directly from an old article about MSG. The name also evokes her memories of her early days as a stage actress, when every role for Asian American women seemed overtly sexualized. “Even in Shakespeare, they wanted you to play the prostitute,” she recalls. In the play, Exotic Deadly is the new girl from Japan who serves as Ami’s foil — who loves MSG, is proud of her Asian identity, and is full of rage toward the systems and stereotypes that oppress her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play ends with a big spectacle, and the idea, Green says, is for the climactic moment to \u003ci>feel\u003c/i> the way that MSG tastes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13966489,arts_13934852,arts_13920714']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>For Asian Americans who grew up in the heyday of \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/qhxho4/what_are_all_the_azn_pride_people_back_in_the/\">AZN Pride\u003c/a>, the reclamation of MSG has been a major project of the past dozen years, championed by chefs like David Chang and Anthony Bourdain, and food scientists like \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20150115205527/https://luckypeach.com/on-msg-and-chinese-restaurant-syndrome/\">Harold McGee\u003c/a>. These days, MSG pride is as mainstream — and as widely \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@iantedy/video/7056639071141121306\">memeified\u003c/a> — as boba pride, and “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” has been thoroughly debunked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even still, Green says that every time she wonders if a play like \u003ci>Exotic Deadly \u003c/i>is still relevant after such a sea change, she’ll see a comment from a theater colleague or a random poster on the internet who says, in full earnestness, “Finally, someone is talking about how deadly [MSG] is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while COVID helped birth the play, it also set off a wave of anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. In March 2021, when Green was preparing for the first big stage reading for \u003ci>Exotic Deadly\u003c/i> at The Old Globe in San Diego, the Atlanta spa shootings happened — eight people, including six women of Asian descent, shot and killed by a young man who told police he had a sex addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Exotic Deadly\u003c/i> doesn’t deal directly with the violent side of exotification — to be clear, by Green’s own account, the play is a pure comedy. But the spate of anti-Asian hate crimes in the past few years has made her think about how for so many immigrants, their culture’s food is often the very first thing they’re made to feel ashamed of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re taught at such a young age that it’s okay to ‘other’ certain kinds of culture and food,” she says. “So when I see violence, when I see anti-Asian hate, I actually feel like it’s all extremely connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2024-2025-season/exotic-deadly-or-the-msg-play/\">Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play\u003c/a>\u003ci> runs from Jan. 30 through March 8 at SF Playhouse (450 Post St., San Francisco).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When playwright Keiko Green was in her early teens, she learned that her grandfather — her ojiichan — had worked as a food scientist for Ajinomoto, the Tokyo-based company best known for inventing monosodium glutamate, a.k.a. MSG. In that moment, Green recalls, she didn’t feel a sense of pride in her family’s contribution to culinary history. Instead, she felt something more akin to shame. For a biracial \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/japanese-american\">Japanese American\u003c/a> kid growing up in a predominantly white suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, the MSG link was just one more thing that made her different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just felt like I was sticking out so much,” she recalls. “And there was that teenage part of you that wants to just disappear into the background and be a little invisible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And anyway, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13966489/asian-american-chefs-msg-event-series-sf-chinatown-edge-on-the-square\">wasn’t MSG \u003ci>bad\u003c/i>\u003c/a>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, no. Years later — long after Green had learned that those old “\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-rotten-science-behind-the-msg-scare/\">Chinese Restaurant Syndrome\u003c/a>” campaigns were based on \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/an-msg-convert-visits-the-high-church-of-umami\">bad science\u003c/a> and, often, blatant \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/eddie-huang-racial-insensitivities-behind-msg-chinese-food-criticisms-n1115386\">racism\u003c/a> — the playwright recreated this moment of racialized teen angst in her play \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2024-2025-season/exotic-deadly-or-the-msg-play/\">\u003ci>Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, which opens at San Francisco Playhouse on Jan. 30, directed by Jesca Prudencio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970888\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970888\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a baseball cap seated in a theater with her arms outstretched. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli4-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keiko Green wrote ‘Exotic Deadly’ during the pandemic, drawing on her own family connection to the Japanese company that invented MSG. \u003ccite>(Jessica Palopoli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like Green, the protagonist, Ami (played by Ana Ming Bostwick-Singer), is an Asian American teen growing up in the late ’90s. Ami first hears about MSG from a doctor on TV who warns about the flavor enhancer “poisoning America.” When she learns that her grandfather was the Japanese scientist who invented the headache-inducing powder, it’s like finding out that her own blood is tainted. She, too, wishes she could just make herself invisible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where the play deviates a bit from personal biography. Ami decides that the best thing to do is to travel back in time to prevent her ojiichan from ever inventing MSG, thus redeeming her family’s reputation and saving the entire world in the process. As you do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madcap sci-fi twists notwithstanding, Green says \u003ci>Exotic Deadly\u003c/i> draws on her own adolescent experience more than any of her previous work. The play taps into the self-consciousness that Green felt about her Asian identity, especially when it came to the “lovely, nutritious bento” lunches that her mother packed for her every day. Those lunchboxes became a daily battle, Green recalls, even though she \u003ci>loved \u003c/i>her mother’s cooking. She especially relished her traditional Japanese breakfasts: a full spread of grilled fish, rice, miso soup, pickled plums and, her favorite, the sticky, funky fermented soybeans known as natto. (“I would obviously never take natto to school,” she says.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Green remembers having bottles of the MSG seasoning powder at home, but her mom kept them hidden in a little cupboard — as though she, too, believed there was something shameful about the stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Later on, when I thought about that shame of internalized racism, I really thought back to the image of my mom keeping that bottle hidden away,” Green says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13970890\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13970890\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/SFP_ExoticDeadlyWorkshop_JessicaPalopoli2-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Director Jesca Prudencio (left) and Green at a workshop for SF Playhouse’s production of ‘Exotic Deadly.’ \u003ccite>(Jessica Palopoli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Green, whose recent work includes a writing credit on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/11/29/1215793965/interior-chinatown-is-a-genre-bending-exploration-of-asian-american-identity\">Hulu’s genre-bending adaptation of Charles Yu’s \u003ci>Interior Chinatown\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, knew she wanted to write a play about her family connection to MSG. But every time she tried, it always felt a little bit too clichéd. It was only after the COVID shutdown hit, she says, that she stopped worrying about whether the “gatekeepers” of the theater world would approve of the play. She wrote \u003ci>Exotic Deadly \u003c/i>mainly just to make herself laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the play does deal with heavy themes of racism, Green says, it’s also by far the “craziest” play she’s ever written. “It breaks every rule,” she says. “It has a bajillion characters. Sometimes we change locations three times on a page.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And since pseudoscience had imbued MSG with so many fake, insidious properties, Green thought it would be fun to give MSG even \u003ci>more \u003c/i>fake effects: “In this play, MSG makes you really good at kung fu fighting. It can make you time travel. It heals your bones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the character who goes by “Exotic Deadly” (played by Francesca Fernandez) — a phrase that Green took directly from an old article about MSG. The name also evokes her memories of her early days as a stage actress, when every role for Asian American women seemed overtly sexualized. “Even in Shakespeare, they wanted you to play the prostitute,” she recalls. In the play, Exotic Deadly is the new girl from Japan who serves as Ami’s foil — who loves MSG, is proud of her Asian identity, and is full of rage toward the systems and stereotypes that oppress her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play ends with a big spectacle, and the idea, Green says, is for the climactic moment to \u003ci>feel\u003c/i> the way that MSG tastes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>For Asian Americans who grew up in the heyday of \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/qhxho4/what_are_all_the_azn_pride_people_back_in_the/\">AZN Pride\u003c/a>, the reclamation of MSG has been a major project of the past dozen years, championed by chefs like David Chang and Anthony Bourdain, and food scientists like \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20150115205527/https://luckypeach.com/on-msg-and-chinese-restaurant-syndrome/\">Harold McGee\u003c/a>. These days, MSG pride is as mainstream — and as widely \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@iantedy/video/7056639071141121306\">memeified\u003c/a> — as boba pride, and “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” has been thoroughly debunked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even still, Green says that every time she wonders if a play like \u003ci>Exotic Deadly \u003c/i>is still relevant after such a sea change, she’ll see a comment from a theater colleague or a random poster on the internet who says, in full earnestness, “Finally, someone is talking about how deadly [MSG] is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while COVID helped birth the play, it also set off a wave of anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. In March 2021, when Green was preparing for the first big stage reading for \u003ci>Exotic Deadly\u003c/i> at The Old Globe in San Diego, the Atlanta spa shootings happened — eight people, including six women of Asian descent, shot and killed by a young man who told police he had a sex addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Exotic Deadly\u003c/i> doesn’t deal directly with the violent side of exotification — to be clear, by Green’s own account, the play is a pure comedy. But the spate of anti-Asian hate crimes in the past few years has made her think about how for so many immigrants, their culture’s food is often the very first thing they’re made to feel ashamed of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re taught at such a young age that it’s okay to ‘other’ certain kinds of culture and food,” she says. “So when I see violence, when I see anti-Asian hate, I actually feel like it’s all extremely connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2024-2025-season/exotic-deadly-or-the-msg-play/\">Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play\u003c/a>\u003ci> runs from Jan. 30 through March 8 at SF Playhouse (450 Post St., San Francisco).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959437\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959437\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Two men eating noodles and sushi hand rolls at a bar counter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley’s Kinda Izakaya stands apart from the masses of expensive and overly precious izakayas in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>The Midnight Diners\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Thien Pham\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on vibes alone, I knew \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kinda.izakaya/\">Kinda Izakaya\u003c/a> was going to be my kind of spot the moment I walked in. The walls were papered over with manga panels and vintage-y beer posters featuring sumo wrestlers and lucky cats. Yellow Asahi beer crates had been flipped upside down to use as stools. Strings of paper lanterns and colorful little flags gave the feeling of dining outdoors in an alleyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I took one whiff of the smoke coming off the charcoal grill, and all of the pleasure receptors in my brain started firing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Open since last summer, Kinda is Berkeley’s newest izakaya — which, broadly defined, is a kind of Japanese pub that serves food that goes well with beer and sake. It’s one of my favorite restaurant genres. But with a few notable \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/review-abura-ya-a-punk-rock-fried-chicken-pop-up-1/\">exceptions\u003c/a>, Bay Area restaurateurs have tended to reinterpret the izakaya to mean an upscale bar that traffics in $15 meat skewers and stingily-portioned $25 plates of raw fish — and closes well before 10 p.m., as if to add insult to injury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Kinda seems to understand on a molecular level is that izakaya culture is meant to be fun, a little bit boisterous and very, very casual. The restaurant is open until midnight on weekends, and at a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Friday night, the place was packed — a mix of middle-aged couples seated shoulder to shoulder at the bar and groups of twenty- and thirtysomethings chatting happily as they split a big spread of dishes. The dining room thrummed with upbeat J-pop that made you want to dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959438\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959438\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: View of a Japanese izakaya from outside the front window. Paper lanterns and flags are hung up both inside and out.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On weekends, Kinda is open — and lively — until midnight. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kinda has the fun and casual part down, even if it isn’t exactly a cheap restaurant; it’d still be a splurge for most college students schlepping over from Cal’s campus, which is a few blocks away. That said, you can buy a big-ass pitcher of cold beer for $24. And the menu is broad and varied enough to make it just as easy to piece together a tasty meal for about $30 a person as it is to ball out and drop a couple hundred bucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most importantly, the menu runs the gamut of typical izakaya food categories — raw seafood, salads, skewers, fried things, skewers, rice bowls, noodles and more — with enough verve and creativity to keep things interesting. If anything, the menu is so long, and everything sounds so fun, that you might be hit with decision-making panic. “Golden spoons” with ikura, uni and Hokkaido scallops? Grilled beef tongue with ponzu, egg yolk and fresh wasabi? That same tongue served on a curry plate? With sufficient stomach space and a more robust budget, we would have ordered it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13958926,arts_13957599,arts_13955884']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>Most everything we did order hit the spot. There was a block of cold tofu topped with sweet seaweed and salmon roe, equal parts briny and refreshing. There was a big bowl of fried chicken skin (at $10, the deal of the night), as immaculately crunchy as the wonton strips they serve at Americanized Chinese restaurants, which was the ideal match for cold beer. There were hand rolls piled high with grilled eel and ponzu-kissed raw yellowtail. Our favorite was a bowl of udon carbonara topped with bonito flakes and spicy, bright-orange cod roe — a creamy, buttery taste of the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We finished with a grilled rice ball that had been brushed with a sweet soy sauce glaze and cooked over hot charcoal until it was smoky and crunchy and perfectly golden-brown: an elite-tier final bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kinda is also the rare Bay Area restaurant that feels tailor-made for a solo (midnight) diner — where you can swing by after work, grab a seat at the bar, order a couple of cold appetizers and a plate of mentaiko pasta, and feel completely comfortable and unhurried. I think we can all toast to that.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://kindaizakaya.com/\">\u003ci>Kinda Izakaya\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Monday through Thursday 5:30–11 p.m. and Friday to Saturday 5:30 p.m.–midnight at 1941 University Ave. in Berkeley.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959437\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959437\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Two men eating noodles and sushi hand rolls at a bar counter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley’s Kinda Izakaya stands apart from the masses of expensive and overly precious izakayas in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>The Midnight Diners\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Thien Pham\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on vibes alone, I knew \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kinda.izakaya/\">Kinda Izakaya\u003c/a> was going to be my kind of spot the moment I walked in. The walls were papered over with manga panels and vintage-y beer posters featuring sumo wrestlers and lucky cats. Yellow Asahi beer crates had been flipped upside down to use as stools. Strings of paper lanterns and colorful little flags gave the feeling of dining outdoors in an alleyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I took one whiff of the smoke coming off the charcoal grill, and all of the pleasure receptors in my brain started firing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Open since last summer, Kinda is Berkeley’s newest izakaya — which, broadly defined, is a kind of Japanese pub that serves food that goes well with beer and sake. It’s one of my favorite restaurant genres. But with a few notable \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/review-abura-ya-a-punk-rock-fried-chicken-pop-up-1/\">exceptions\u003c/a>, Bay Area restaurateurs have tended to reinterpret the izakaya to mean an upscale bar that traffics in $15 meat skewers and stingily-portioned $25 plates of raw fish — and closes well before 10 p.m., as if to add insult to injury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Kinda seems to understand on a molecular level is that izakaya culture is meant to be fun, a little bit boisterous and very, very casual. The restaurant is open until midnight on weekends, and at a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Friday night, the place was packed — a mix of middle-aged couples seated shoulder to shoulder at the bar and groups of twenty- and thirtysomethings chatting happily as they split a big spread of dishes. The dining room thrummed with upbeat J-pop that made you want to dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959438\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959438\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: View of a Japanese izakaya from outside the front window. Paper lanterns and flags are hung up both inside and out.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/kinda-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On weekends, Kinda is open — and lively — until midnight. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kinda has the fun and casual part down, even if it isn’t exactly a cheap restaurant; it’d still be a splurge for most college students schlepping over from Cal’s campus, which is a few blocks away. That said, you can buy a big-ass pitcher of cold beer for $24. And the menu is broad and varied enough to make it just as easy to piece together a tasty meal for about $30 a person as it is to ball out and drop a couple hundred bucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most importantly, the menu runs the gamut of typical izakaya food categories — raw seafood, salads, skewers, fried things, skewers, rice bowls, noodles and more — with enough verve and creativity to keep things interesting. If anything, the menu is so long, and everything sounds so fun, that you might be hit with decision-making panic. “Golden spoons” with ikura, uni and Hokkaido scallops? Grilled beef tongue with ponzu, egg yolk and fresh wasabi? That same tongue served on a curry plate? With sufficient stomach space and a more robust budget, we would have ordered it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>Most everything we did order hit the spot. There was a block of cold tofu topped with sweet seaweed and salmon roe, equal parts briny and refreshing. There was a big bowl of fried chicken skin (at $10, the deal of the night), as immaculately crunchy as the wonton strips they serve at Americanized Chinese restaurants, which was the ideal match for cold beer. There were hand rolls piled high with grilled eel and ponzu-kissed raw yellowtail. Our favorite was a bowl of udon carbonara topped with bonito flakes and spicy, bright-orange cod roe — a creamy, buttery taste of the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We finished with a grilled rice ball that had been brushed with a sweet soy sauce glaze and cooked over hot charcoal until it was smoky and crunchy and perfectly golden-brown: an elite-tier final bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kinda is also the rare Bay Area restaurant that feels tailor-made for a solo (midnight) diner — where you can swing by after work, grab a seat at the bar, order a couple of cold appetizers and a plate of mentaiko pasta, and feel completely comfortable and unhurried. I think we can all toast to that.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://kindaizakaya.com/\">\u003ci>Kinda Izakaya\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Monday through Thursday 5:30–11 p.m. and Friday to Saturday 5:30 p.m.–midnight at 1941 University Ave. in Berkeley.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957148\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957148\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: a man shovels scallops into his mouth while sitting at an elegant bar. On the counter are tidy lobster sandwiches and fizzy cocktails in highball glasses.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nokori is a Japanese whisky highball bar hidden inside Sunnyvale’s TETRA Hotel. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>The Midnight Diners\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Thien Pham\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here in the Bay Area, the search for late-night food is mostly a matter of excavating the unexpected gems that are hiding in plain sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To wit: In order to get to \u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/nokori-sunnyvale\">Nokori\u003c/a>, an elegant Japanese whisky bar in Sunnyvale that most Sunnyvaleans haven’t even heard of, you first have to navigate the city’s maze of identical high-tech office parks. Sandwiched between a couple of these anonymous tech campuses sits a \u003ca href=\"https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/sjcva-tetra-hotel-autograph-collection/overview/\">stylish boutique hotel\u003c/a>. And inside that hotel, after you walk through the cool, minimalistic lobby, past the shiny gold leaves dangling from the ceiling, you’ll spot this very chic, very Japanese little cocktail bar — with room for no more than seven or eight people at the counter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we sidled up to that counter at around 10 o’clock on a recent Friday, there was only one other gentleman there, nursing a cocktail and watching the Japanese F1 race on the TV with the volume turned off. So it really felt like we had stumbled on a secret spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, we had come because we’d heard Nokori was open until midnight every night, and that it served a concise, appealing menu of fancy izakaya-style small plates until the kitchen did its last call at 11. And also because the bar specializes in the Japanese whisky highball, which happens to be my favorite drink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A basic highball is just Japanese whisky, soda water and ice, but Nokori is one of a handful of bars around the Bay Area that has installed a \u003ca href=\"https://punchdrink.com/articles/toki-japanese-whisky-highball-machine-has-been-hacked/\">special soda dispenser\u003c/a> from Japan that makes the soda water extra-extra fizzy — so much so that the bubbles look visibly angry. The bar serves a whopping nine different highballs, and it uses the expensive kind of ice that’s just one long, perfectly clear cuboid in your glass. All of which to say: My yuzu highball was fantastic. Cold and refreshing as could be. Subtly citrusy. Sneakily strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957149\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: An elegant hotel lobby with modern, minimalist couches and an elegant bar at one end of the room, with sparkly gold leaves dangling from the ceiling.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For late-night diners looking for a more quiet and chill experience. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was the food, however, that will bring me back. We ordered torched Hokkaido scallops that were served in a style you might expect to find at one of the Bay Area’s buzzier, Asian-inflected fine dining restaurants. The mostly raw scallops had a zippy leche de tigre dressing and were artfully garnished with algae, rice puffs and briny sea grapes that burst in your mouth — a fun pop-and-crunch effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13956683,arts_13955884,arts_13954112']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>I also had one of the tastiest versions of Japanese karaage-style fried chicken that I’ve eaten in months — just impeccably crispy, well-seasoned and juicy thighs, no bells and whistles other than the little bowl of watery onion salsa that you could spoon over the chicken for a bit of brightness. And, perhaps most decadently, there were furikake-topped lobster grilled cheese sandwiches, served on bouncy Japanese milk bread. (Could I \u003ci>really\u003c/i> taste that it was lobster, instead of some less rarefied protein, under all that cheese? Maybe not. But I did want to dunk everything on the table into the savory miso aioli that came with the sandwich.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No surprise, all those small plates can add up to a bit of a hefty bill if you’re eating \u003ci>dinner\u003c/i> dinner. But for a fancy late-night snack at the bar? Considering that we were the only people ordering food at that hour, everything was so much more ambitious and better-tasting than it really needed to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many of the Bay Area’s other after-hours spots are notable because of how crowded and bustling they are even late into the night, but Nokori’s virtues run in the opposite direction, appealing to anyone looking for a more chill and quiet late-night experience. This is the kind of elegant hotel bar where you might imagine yourself striking up a conversation with a beautiful stranger, or maybe your side-piece — or, if luck isn’t on your side, a couple of unkempt food writer types.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tetrahotelsv.com/dining/nokori/\">\u003ci>Nokori\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open daily from 3 p.m. to midnight inside TETRA Hotel (400 W. Java Dr., Sunnyvale); the kitchen is open 4–11 p.m. If you park in the hotel parking garage, Nokori will validate your parking.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A basic highball is just Japanese whisky, soda water and ice, but Nokori is one of a handful of bars around the Bay Area that has installed a \u003ca href=\"https://punchdrink.com/articles/toki-japanese-whisky-highball-machine-has-been-hacked/\">special soda dispenser\u003c/a> from Japan that makes the soda water extra-extra fizzy — so much so that the bubbles look visibly angry. The bar serves a whopping nine different highballs, and it uses the expensive kind of ice that’s just one long, perfectly clear cuboid in your glass. All of which to say: My yuzu highball was fantastic. Cold and refreshing as could be. Subtly citrusy. Sneakily strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957149\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: An elegant hotel lobby with modern, minimalist couches and an elegant bar at one end of the room, with sparkly gold leaves dangling from the ceiling.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Nokori-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For late-night diners looking for a more quiet and chill experience. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was the food, however, that will bring me back. We ordered torched Hokkaido scallops that were served in a style you might expect to find at one of the Bay Area’s buzzier, Asian-inflected fine dining restaurants. The mostly raw scallops had a zippy leche de tigre dressing and were artfully garnished with algae, rice puffs and briny sea grapes that burst in your mouth — a fun pop-and-crunch effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>I also had one of the tastiest versions of Japanese karaage-style fried chicken that I’ve eaten in months — just impeccably crispy, well-seasoned and juicy thighs, no bells and whistles other than the little bowl of watery onion salsa that you could spoon over the chicken for a bit of brightness. And, perhaps most decadently, there were furikake-topped lobster grilled cheese sandwiches, served on bouncy Japanese milk bread. (Could I \u003ci>really\u003c/i> taste that it was lobster, instead of some less rarefied protein, under all that cheese? Maybe not. But I did want to dunk everything on the table into the savory miso aioli that came with the sandwich.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No surprise, all those small plates can add up to a bit of a hefty bill if you’re eating \u003ci>dinner\u003c/i> dinner. But for a fancy late-night snack at the bar? Considering that we were the only people ordering food at that hour, everything was so much more ambitious and better-tasting than it really needed to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many of the Bay Area’s other after-hours spots are notable because of how crowded and bustling they are even late into the night, but Nokori’s virtues run in the opposite direction, appealing to anyone looking for a more chill and quiet late-night experience. This is the kind of elegant hotel bar where you might imagine yourself striking up a conversation with a beautiful stranger, or maybe your side-piece — or, if luck isn’t on your side, a couple of unkempt food writer types.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tetrahotelsv.com/dining/nokori/\">\u003ci>Nokori\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open daily from 3 p.m. to midnight inside TETRA Hotel (400 W. Java Dr., Sunnyvale); the kitchen is open 4–11 p.m. If you park in the hotel parking garage, Nokori will validate your parking.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"order": 8
},
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"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
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},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"order": 9
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"hyphenacion": {
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"source": "WaitWhat"
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
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