The Midnight Diners is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. 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.
Original Joe’s Westlake Is a Time Warp to Red Sauce Heaven
This Cozy Thai Cafe Serves Eye-Popping Desserts Until Midnight
Sunnyvale’s Secret Japanese Whisky Bar Serves Killer Late-Night Karaage
The Bay Area’s Great American Diner Is a 24-Hour Filipino Casino Restaurant
This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m.
Sunnyvale’s Hottest Late-Night Food Spot Is the 24-Hour Indian Grocery Store
This Turkish Kebab Spot Is a Late-Night Oasis in the Outer East Bay Suburbs
This Viet-Cajun Spot in San Jose Serves the Freshest Crawfish Boils Until 4 a.m.
Top Dog Is Just as Good as You Remember
This San Jose Food Truck Slings Tiny Pancakes and Big-Ass Tacos Until 3 a.m.
San Bruno’s Late-Night BBQ Spot Is a Temple to Hip-Hop and Smoky Brisket
Marin County’s Best Late-Night Restaurant Is a Poker Room With $26 Prime Rib
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958045\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958045\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1.jpg\" alt=\"Man devouring a steak while sitting at the counter at a restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Original Joe’s Westlake is one of the few places where you can get both good steak *and* red sauce Italian. \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>I never ate the old Joe’s of Westlake, which opened in 1956. As far as I can gather, the Italian chop house stayed perfectly frozen in time for nearly six decades — serving the same char-broiled steaks and heaping plates of pasta to multiple generations of Daly City families. Eventually, the restaurant was sold to the owners of the North Beach Original Joe’s, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/arcanumarchitecture/p/CxOGBirRWCR/?img_index=1\">lovingly renovated\u003c/a> the place and reopened it \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Joe-s-of-Westlake-returns-in-over-the-top-6838178.php\">to much fanfare\u003c/a> in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even post-renovation, Original Joe’s Westlake still feels like a bit of a time warp. The handsome, low-slung building, with its neon signage and vaguely space-age, curvilinear architectural design, looks straight out of the ’60s, as do the waiters in tuxedos offering to grind fresh black pepper on your linguine. The whole dining room is full of quaint mid-century details: starburst chandeliers and shiny leather booths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor has the restaurant’s popularity diminished. Now, as always, Westlake Joe’s at peak dinner hours is one of the hardest reservations to land on the Peninsula. What I like to do, then, is stroll in at around 10 p.m. on a Friday night, an hour before closing, when it’s usually possible to snag one of the swivel seats at the counter without having to wait. (Prior to the pandemic, the restaurant used to stay open until midnight, but we’ll take what we can get.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As grand as the cushy, classic mid-century green leather booths are, the counter spots are the best seats in the house, with their close-up view of the finely orchestrated chaos of the open kitchen: six or seven line cooks standing shoulder to shoulder, cranking out dish after dish with no wasted motion. One of them, a thickly bearded chef in a black headband, handled the charcoal broiler where most of the meat cooks — the heart of the whole operation — all on his own like a magician, tending to the hot coals and nimbly flipping the seven or eight steaks that he had going at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958046\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958046\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Red facade of Original Joe's Westlake lit up at night.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On weekends, the Westlake location of Original Joe’s is open until 11 p.m. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Original Joe’s is your quintessential birthday/anniversary/Father’s Day kind of restaurant, and when I’ve come for big celebratory dinners, I’ve always gotten the 24-ounce bone-in porterhouse: a richly marbled, special occasion-worthy steak. But for a casual, slip-in-for-a-quick-meal-at-the-bar kind of night, the $32 Steak Ala Bruno (one of the old Joe’s signatures) is more my speed. It’s a 10-ounce flat iron steak marinated in garlic, olive oil and rosemary, then char-broiled to a phenomenally tender, juicy medium-rare. It’s fantastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of my biggest complaints about the Bay Area dining scene are 1) how few proper steakhouses there are, and 2) how difficult it is to find good red-sauce Italian, which constituted one of the four major food groups of my East Coast upbringing. The beauty of Original Joe’s is that those are precisely the two areas where it excels. You don’t even have to convince your dining partner to go halfsies to have them both in one meal; you just need to opt for the ravioli as your chosen side. Steak \u003ci>and \u003c/i>plump, meat sauce–laden ravioli. Unspeakable luxury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13957599,arts_13956683,arts_13951914']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>There are, of course also pasta entrees, served on comically oversized plates: rich, oozy bricks of lasagna and a child’s Platonic ideal of spaghetti and meatballs (in large enough a portion to feed five children). There’s an unorthodox version of shrimp scampi linguine that comes tossed in a lemony garlic cream sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when you’re seated at the bar, Original Joe’s offers the kind of impeccable service that feels both understated and a little bit old-fashioned. To start the meal, we’d ordered a Louie salad to share, and without saying anything, our kindly server had the kitchen split it into two bowls, each one piled high with tiny pink bay shrimp and slices of avocado and hard-boiled egg — the kind of small gesture that made us feel well taken care of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking around a happily buzzing dining room, still more than half full well past 10 o’clock, we saw we clearly weren’t the only ones. Maybe my favorite thing about Original Joe’s Westlake is that it’s that rare “fancy” restaurant — along with \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOZPxo3qPM\">House of Prime Rib\u003c/a> and a handful of others — that feels both timeless and oddly democratic. It’s not an inexpensive restaurant, and there’s an Old World kind of formality to the servers in their black vests and starched white shirts. But you’ll find more diversity here than you will at just about any of the trendy hotspots a couple of miles north in San Francisco — diners of all ages (with the over-80 crowd especially well represented). All ethnicities. Folks in T-shirts and sweatpants and folks in full-on power suits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone seemed to be celebrating something. And everyone looked like they were having a good time.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.originaljoes.com/westlake\">\u003ci>Original Joe’s Westlake\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant is located at 11 Glenwood Ave. in Daly City.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958045\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958045\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1.jpg\" alt=\"Man devouring a steak while sitting at the counter at a restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/originsljoes1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Original Joe’s Westlake is one of the few places where you can get both good steak *and* red sauce Italian. \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>I never ate the old Joe’s of Westlake, which opened in 1956. As far as I can gather, the Italian chop house stayed perfectly frozen in time for nearly six decades — serving the same char-broiled steaks and heaping plates of pasta to multiple generations of Daly City families. Eventually, the restaurant was sold to the owners of the North Beach Original Joe’s, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/arcanumarchitecture/p/CxOGBirRWCR/?img_index=1\">lovingly renovated\u003c/a> the place and reopened it \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Joe-s-of-Westlake-returns-in-over-the-top-6838178.php\">to much fanfare\u003c/a> in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even post-renovation, Original Joe’s Westlake still feels like a bit of a time warp. The handsome, low-slung building, with its neon signage and vaguely space-age, curvilinear architectural design, looks straight out of the ’60s, as do the waiters in tuxedos offering to grind fresh black pepper on your linguine. The whole dining room is full of quaint mid-century details: starburst chandeliers and shiny leather booths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor has the restaurant’s popularity diminished. Now, as always, Westlake Joe’s at peak dinner hours is one of the hardest reservations to land on the Peninsula. What I like to do, then, is stroll in at around 10 p.m. on a Friday night, an hour before closing, when it’s usually possible to snag one of the swivel seats at the counter without having to wait. (Prior to the pandemic, the restaurant used to stay open until midnight, but we’ll take what we can get.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As grand as the cushy, classic mid-century green leather booths are, the counter spots are the best seats in the house, with their close-up view of the finely orchestrated chaos of the open kitchen: six or seven line cooks standing shoulder to shoulder, cranking out dish after dish with no wasted motion. One of them, a thickly bearded chef in a black headband, handled the charcoal broiler where most of the meat cooks — the heart of the whole operation — all on his own like a magician, tending to the hot coals and nimbly flipping the seven or eight steaks that he had going at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13958046\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13958046\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Red facade of Original Joe's Westlake lit up at night.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/original-joe2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On weekends, the Westlake location of Original Joe’s is open until 11 p.m. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Original Joe’s is your quintessential birthday/anniversary/Father’s Day kind of restaurant, and when I’ve come for big celebratory dinners, I’ve always gotten the 24-ounce bone-in porterhouse: a richly marbled, special occasion-worthy steak. But for a casual, slip-in-for-a-quick-meal-at-the-bar kind of night, the $32 Steak Ala Bruno (one of the old Joe’s signatures) is more my speed. It’s a 10-ounce flat iron steak marinated in garlic, olive oil and rosemary, then char-broiled to a phenomenally tender, juicy medium-rare. It’s fantastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of my biggest complaints about the Bay Area dining scene are 1) how few proper steakhouses there are, and 2) how difficult it is to find good red-sauce Italian, which constituted one of the four major food groups of my East Coast upbringing. The beauty of Original Joe’s is that those are precisely the two areas where it excels. You don’t even have to convince your dining partner to go halfsies to have them both in one meal; you just need to opt for the ravioli as your chosen side. Steak \u003ci>and \u003c/i>plump, meat sauce–laden ravioli. Unspeakable luxury.\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>There are, of course also pasta entrees, served on comically oversized plates: rich, oozy bricks of lasagna and a child’s Platonic ideal of spaghetti and meatballs (in large enough a portion to feed five children). There’s an unorthodox version of shrimp scampi linguine that comes tossed in a lemony garlic cream sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when you’re seated at the bar, Original Joe’s offers the kind of impeccable service that feels both understated and a little bit old-fashioned. To start the meal, we’d ordered a Louie salad to share, and without saying anything, our kindly server had the kitchen split it into two bowls, each one piled high with tiny pink bay shrimp and slices of avocado and hard-boiled egg — the kind of small gesture that made us feel well taken care of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking around a happily buzzing dining room, still more than half full well past 10 o’clock, we saw we clearly weren’t the only ones. Maybe my favorite thing about Original Joe’s Westlake is that it’s that rare “fancy” restaurant — along with \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOZPxo3qPM\">House of Prime Rib\u003c/a> and a handful of others — that feels both timeless and oddly democratic. It’s not an inexpensive restaurant, and there’s an Old World kind of formality to the servers in their black vests and starched white shirts. But you’ll find more diversity here than you will at just about any of the trendy hotspots a couple of miles north in San Francisco — diners of all ages (with the over-80 crowd especially well represented). All ethnicities. Folks in T-shirts and sweatpants and folks in full-on power suits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone seemed to be celebrating something. And everyone looked like they were having a good time.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.originaljoes.com/westlake\">\u003ci>Original Joe’s Westlake\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant is located at 11 Glenwood Ave. in Daly City.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957597\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957597\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Two men eat noodles and Thai desserts with an animalistic fervor.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The charms of Ping Yang Thai Grill & Dessert are at least twofold: homey Thai noodles and rice dishes, and over-the-top Asian desserts. \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>One of the most charming restaurants I’ve been to in San Francisco is a little Thai cafe that sits on a relatively unobtrusive street corner in Lower Nob Hill, stays open until midnight every night, and serves a menu that’s equal parts impeccable Thai home cooking and gloriously over-the-top desserts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s only the beginning of the pleasures that \u003ca href=\"https://www.pingyangthaigrilldessert.com/\">Ping Yang Thai Grill & Dessert\u003c/a> has to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant has a cozy, lived-in quality. The walls are lined with succulents, climbing vine plants and other assorted greenery. The steady stream of guitar-driven Thai pop-rock that plays over the speakers was catchy enough to get my head bopping. A small bookshelf is stocked with the same mix of slightly random reading material you might find in a friend’s living room: \u003ci>Harry Potter\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Catcher in the Rye\u003c/i>, some test prep workbooks, the Thai translation of the \u003ci>Detective Conan\u003c/i> manga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The menu, too, is optimized with an eye toward homey comfort. Which isn’t to say that the cooking is uninteresting or unambitious. In fact, Ping Yang serves a whole slew of dishes that I rarely see at other Thai restaurants in the Bay Area, like fried silkworms and mok pla — a Lao dish that consists of catfish steamed inside a banana leaf. This is, after all, the kind of Thai restaurant that has a specials board handwritten in Thai, with no translation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ping Yang also serves one of the most ubiquitous home-cooked Thai dishes that you’ll only occasionally find at a restaurant: a Thai omelet. This is one of my all-time favorite egg dishes (which, coming from an egg-obsessed person, says a lot) — essentially just egg and fish sauce, whisked together and fried quickly in a hot wok until it’s puffed up and golden-brown. Served over a plate of hot jasmine rice, Ping Yang’s herb-flecked version is simple and supremely comforting, especially when doctored with a few dabs of Sriracha. Left to my own devices, I would happily eat this twice a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a similar comfort food vein: the restaurant’s pad see ew, which, by contrast, is a dish you can find at practically every Thai restaurant in the U.S. But I was enamored with Ping Yang’s homey, oil-slicked version of the dish, which was loaded with vegetables and full of umami without being overly salty. It didn’t hurt that I ordered the version with pork jowl, a luxurious, underrated cut that gives you a little of the fattiness of the belly with a nice, crisp, cartilaginous chew. After applying a few liberal drops of prik nam som (chili vinegar) from the condiment caddy, we inhaled this dish in a matter of minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, this is restaurant-quality food cooked with light enough a touch that I could easily imagine myself eating here multiple times a week if I lived in the neighborhood — especially with so much of the menu left to explore, and many of the dishes priced at $15 or less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957596\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957596\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2.jpg\" alt='Illustration: Exterior of a restaurant at nighttime — the sign reads \"Ping Yang.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Located in Lower Nob Hill, the restaurant is open until midnight every night. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Truth be told, I would come even if the food were only half as good, because the vibe at Ping Yang is just so pleasant, welcoming and chill. Half the people who came in during our visit seemed to be regulars or personal friends of the owners, and no one seemed to be in any particular rush. At around 10 o’clock on a Thursday night, a couple of thirtysomething Thai dudes had their laptops out, sipping cold Thai lagers while they worked on a project. Others came in after dinner elsewhere just to share a dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The service, meanwhile, was friendly without being overly familiar. I especially appreciated the conviction with which our server delivered her recommendations when we asked for them. “The pad see ew is my favorite,” she said without a moment’s hesitation when we asked about the noodle dishes. And later, when it was time for dessert, she once again spoke, with absolute certainty, in favor of the watermelon bing soo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954983,arts_13953702,arts_13952823']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>Ah yes, dessert. Can I speak for a moment on how dispiriting I have found it, personally, that there aren’t more dessert shops in the Bay Area open past, say, 9 o’clock? The struggle is real, and if you’ve felt it too, I am here to tell you that Ping Yang is the solution to your woes: It serves a vast Thai and pan-Asian dessert menu until midnight every night. In contrast to the homey, simple quality of the savory foods, the desserts are elaborate and over-the-top in a way that feels made for Instagram — but \u003ci>also \u003c/i>entirely delicious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are Hong Kong–style toast boxes filled to overflowing with ube ice cream, whipped cream and all manner of fresh fruits. There are variations on the Thai-style dessert rotis that are wildly popular at night markets all across Asia. The banana roti we tried was a deconstructed version — crispy roti wedges piled on a plate and topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and condensed milk, with a stack of banana slices arranged neatly on the side. You assemble each perfect bite yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for that watermelon bing soo? It was fully half of a small, sweet watermelon, served with the carved-out balls of its flesh piled high inside the rind itself. Layered inside was the bing soo, or shaved ice, itself — mixed with condensed milk and shaved so finely that for the first several bites I was convinced it was ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s just say the recommendation didn’t miss: This was the tastiest, most refreshing dessert I’d eaten in months.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pingyangsf/\">\u003ci>Ping Yang Grill & Dessert\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Monday through Saturday from noon–3 p.m. and 5 p.m.–midnight, and Sunday 5 p.m.–midnight at 955 Larkin St. in San Francisco.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957597\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957597\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Two men eat noodles and Thai desserts with an animalistic fervor.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/Ping-Yang-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The charms of Ping Yang Thai Grill & Dessert are at least twofold: homey Thai noodles and rice dishes, and over-the-top Asian desserts. \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>One of the most charming restaurants I’ve been to in San Francisco is a little Thai cafe that sits on a relatively unobtrusive street corner in Lower Nob Hill, stays open until midnight every night, and serves a menu that’s equal parts impeccable Thai home cooking and gloriously over-the-top desserts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s only the beginning of the pleasures that \u003ca href=\"https://www.pingyangthaigrilldessert.com/\">Ping Yang Thai Grill & Dessert\u003c/a> has to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant has a cozy, lived-in quality. The walls are lined with succulents, climbing vine plants and other assorted greenery. The steady stream of guitar-driven Thai pop-rock that plays over the speakers was catchy enough to get my head bopping. A small bookshelf is stocked with the same mix of slightly random reading material you might find in a friend’s living room: \u003ci>Harry Potter\u003c/i>, \u003ci>The Catcher in the Rye\u003c/i>, some test prep workbooks, the Thai translation of the \u003ci>Detective Conan\u003c/i> manga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The menu, too, is optimized with an eye toward homey comfort. Which isn’t to say that the cooking is uninteresting or unambitious. In fact, Ping Yang serves a whole slew of dishes that I rarely see at other Thai restaurants in the Bay Area, like fried silkworms and mok pla — a Lao dish that consists of catfish steamed inside a banana leaf. This is, after all, the kind of Thai restaurant that has a specials board handwritten in Thai, with no translation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ping Yang also serves one of the most ubiquitous home-cooked Thai dishes that you’ll only occasionally find at a restaurant: a Thai omelet. This is one of my all-time favorite egg dishes (which, coming from an egg-obsessed person, says a lot) — essentially just egg and fish sauce, whisked together and fried quickly in a hot wok until it’s puffed up and golden-brown. Served over a plate of hot jasmine rice, Ping Yang’s herb-flecked version is simple and supremely comforting, especially when doctored with a few dabs of Sriracha. Left to my own devices, I would happily eat this twice a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a similar comfort food vein: the restaurant’s pad see ew, which, by contrast, is a dish you can find at practically every Thai restaurant in the U.S. But I was enamored with Ping Yang’s homey, oil-slicked version of the dish, which was loaded with vegetables and full of umami without being overly salty. It didn’t hurt that I ordered the version with pork jowl, a luxurious, underrated cut that gives you a little of the fattiness of the belly with a nice, crisp, cartilaginous chew. After applying a few liberal drops of prik nam som (chili vinegar) from the condiment caddy, we inhaled this dish in a matter of minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, this is restaurant-quality food cooked with light enough a touch that I could easily imagine myself eating here multiple times a week if I lived in the neighborhood — especially with so much of the menu left to explore, and many of the dishes priced at $15 or less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13957596\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13957596\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2.jpg\" alt='Illustration: Exterior of a restaurant at nighttime — the sign reads \"Ping Yang.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/pin-yang-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Located in Lower Nob Hill, the restaurant is open until midnight every night. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Truth be told, I would come even if the food were only half as good, because the vibe at Ping Yang is just so pleasant, welcoming and chill. Half the people who came in during our visit seemed to be regulars or personal friends of the owners, and no one seemed to be in any particular rush. At around 10 o’clock on a Thursday night, a couple of thirtysomething Thai dudes had their laptops out, sipping cold Thai lagers while they worked on a project. Others came in after dinner elsewhere just to share a dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The service, meanwhile, was friendly without being overly familiar. I especially appreciated the conviction with which our server delivered her recommendations when we asked for them. “The pad see ew is my favorite,” she said without a moment’s hesitation when we asked about the noodle dishes. And later, when it was time for dessert, she once again spoke, with absolute certainty, in favor of the watermelon bing soo.\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>Ah yes, dessert. Can I speak for a moment on how dispiriting I have found it, personally, that there aren’t more dessert shops in the Bay Area open past, say, 9 o’clock? The struggle is real, and if you’ve felt it too, I am here to tell you that Ping Yang is the solution to your woes: It serves a vast Thai and pan-Asian dessert menu until midnight every night. In contrast to the homey, simple quality of the savory foods, the desserts are elaborate and over-the-top in a way that feels made for Instagram — but \u003ci>also \u003c/i>entirely delicious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are Hong Kong–style toast boxes filled to overflowing with ube ice cream, whipped cream and all manner of fresh fruits. There are variations on the Thai-style dessert rotis that are wildly popular at night markets all across Asia. The banana roti we tried was a deconstructed version — crispy roti wedges piled on a plate and topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and condensed milk, with a stack of banana slices arranged neatly on the side. You assemble each perfect bite yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for that watermelon bing soo? It was fully half of a small, sweet watermelon, served with the carved-out balls of its flesh piled high inside the rind itself. Layered inside was the bing soo, or shaved ice, itself — mixed with condensed milk and shaved so finely that for the first several bites I was convinced it was ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s just say the recommendation didn’t miss: This was the tastiest, most refreshing dessert I’d eaten in months.\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/pingyangsf/\">\u003ci>Ping Yang Grill & Dessert\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Monday through Saturday from noon–3 p.m. and 5 p.m.–midnight, and Sunday 5 p.m.–midnight at 955 Larkin St. in San Francisco.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "late-night-japanese-whisky-highball-karaage-sunnyvale-nokori",
"title": "Sunnyvale’s Secret Japanese Whisky Bar Serves Killer Late-Night Karaage",
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"headTitle": "Sunnyvale’s Secret Japanese Whisky Bar Serves Killer Late-Night Karaage | KQED",
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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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"title": "Sunnyvale’s Secret Japanese Whisky Bar Serves Killer Late-Night Karaage | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\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>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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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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"slug": "late-night-filipino-food-24-hour-cafe-colma-lucky-chances",
"title": "The Bay Area’s Great American Diner Is a 24-Hour Filipino Casino Restaurant",
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"headTitle": "The Bay Area’s Great American Diner Is a 24-Hour Filipino Casino Restaurant | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956692\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956692\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of three men devouring halo-halo and other Filipino food at a diner counter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Located inside Lucky Chances Casino in Colma, Cafe Colma serves tasty Filipino dishes 24/7. \u003ccite>(Raynato Castro)\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 artist Thien Pham. 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. This week’s guest artist is local dentist (and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13915387/amateur-bbq-competition-comic-dentist-pleasant-hill\">\u003ci>barbecue champion\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>) Raynato Castro.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generally speaking, there are two types of people in the Bay Area. Those who have never been to our region’s only 24-hour Filipino restaurant. And those for whom \u003ca href=\"https://www.luckychances.com/dining.aspx\">Cafe Colma\u003c/a> — the frenetic, perpetually crowded diner located inside the Lucky Chances Casino — is nothing short of a local icon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To put it this way: Ever since we started this project, I’ve been jonesing for the kind of nostalgic late-night diner that I grew up loving on the East Coast. You know the kind, with the laminated placemat menus, the milkshakes and Monte Cristos, and endless 24-hour breakfast options that hit just right at 2 a.m. Who knew the closest thing to capturing that vibe would be this Filipino casino cafe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like any proper diner, Cafe Colma is the place you’d go for brunch with your mom and your siblings, or where the entire extended family might swing by after picking someone up from SFO. It’s also the last stop you’d make after a long night of dancing and/or drunken foolishness — for local Filipinos, that might be after the Asian rave lets out at Temple Nightclub (which is closing soon, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/soma-nightclub-permanently-close-19398549.php\">R.I.P.\u003c/a>). It’s no coincidence that the lines at the restaurant hit their peak at around 2 or 3 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was only about a 15-minute wait when we rolled in at around 11 o’clock on a recent Friday night, which gave us time to walk around the card room proper, with its bright lights, solemn pai gow tables and 90% Asian crowd. Every so often, a bleary-eyed poker player would turn around and inhale several spoonfuls of fried rice from the little wheeled cart placed next to the table for that purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viewed in that light, the existence of Cafe Colma is purely practical: fuel to keep the most degenerate gamblers going deep into the night. But if we came in expecting a meal of cheap, okay-enough carbs, what we found instead was surprisingly homey and comforting food — and, honestly, the most enjoyable Filipino meal we’d had in months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956693\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956693\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4.jpg\" alt=\"In a brightly lit casino room, players sit around a card table. One is eating fried rice off of a little cart behind him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can eat garlic fried rice while you’re gambling. \u003ccite>(Raynato Castro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The menu is equal parts Chinese, Filipino and diner-style American, so whether you’re craving pancakes, prime rib or stir-fried bitter melon with scrambled eggs, Cafe Colma has got you covered. At its heart, though, this is a Filipino spot. When we ordered way too much from that section of the menu, we were rewarded with hit after hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The be-all and end-all is the kare-kare, a version of the classic oxtail and peanut sauce dish that tasted like someone’s grandma made it. The oxtails and beef tripe were impossibly tender and savory, bathed in a creamy peanut sauce that’s spiked with salty, pungent bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) for extra oomph. If you’re a lover of soft, squishy foods — of picking up bones and sucking them clean — this is your Platonic ideal of a dish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13955884,arts_13956218,arts_13953224']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Filipino food is a perfect late-night food because it’s cuisine that understands how to use vinegar to cut into a heavy meal of fried meats. All told, we must have had at least three or four different vinegars on the table. There was a pink one to dress the tokwa’t baboy, a very Filipino “salad” of sorts, made up of boiled pig ears and fried tofu. And then two different vinegar-based sauces for the crispy pata — a positively prehistoric-looking pork leg with the kind of thick, impeccably crunchy skin that every serious pork lover craves. We made quick work of the pata with our bare hands, but the sauces were what made the dish: the bright and spicy vinegar spiked with chilies and raw garlic, and the thicker one that was earthy and slightly sweet, made with pork liver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, we couldn’t leave without trying two of Cafe Colma’s most famous signatures — first, its buttery silogs, or garlic rice breakfast plates, served with fried eggs and your choice of meat. We opted for a surf-and-turf combination of bangus (aka milkfish) and pork chop, and both were fried to juicy, full-flavored perfection. Finally, to finish, who could resist the siren call of ube ice cream–topped halo-halo served in big sundae cups, especially when offered to us after midnight? “You’d better make that two orders,” we said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I used to be one of those food purists who believed that there was some objective measure of deliciousness you could use to judge restaurants, and that nothing else particularly mattered — not the atmosphere or the service or the time of day. But look: There are other Filipino restaurants that serve fried pork and garlic rice that’s better, or at least as good, as Cafe Colma’s. But sitting there at the counter as we spooned up the last bits of red bean and condensed milk from our halo-halo, a little drunk on nostalgia and the prospect of hitting a lucky run at the blackjack table, that prospect was hard to imagine.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.luckychances.com/dining.aspx\">\u003ci>Cafe Colma\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open 24/7 inside \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/luckychancescasino/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Lucky Chances Casino\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> at 1700 Hillside Blvd. in Colma.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Go to Cafe Colma for delicious kare-kare and halo-halo at 3 a.m.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956692\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956692\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of three men devouring halo-halo and other Filipino food at a diner counter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Cafe-Colma-Eating-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Located inside Lucky Chances Casino in Colma, Cafe Colma serves tasty Filipino dishes 24/7. \u003ccite>(Raynato Castro)\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 artist Thien Pham. 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. This week’s guest artist is local dentist (and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13915387/amateur-bbq-competition-comic-dentist-pleasant-hill\">\u003ci>barbecue champion\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>) Raynato Castro.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generally speaking, there are two types of people in the Bay Area. Those who have never been to our region’s only 24-hour Filipino restaurant. And those for whom \u003ca href=\"https://www.luckychances.com/dining.aspx\">Cafe Colma\u003c/a> — the frenetic, perpetually crowded diner located inside the Lucky Chances Casino — is nothing short of a local icon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To put it this way: Ever since we started this project, I’ve been jonesing for the kind of nostalgic late-night diner that I grew up loving on the East Coast. You know the kind, with the laminated placemat menus, the milkshakes and Monte Cristos, and endless 24-hour breakfast options that hit just right at 2 a.m. Who knew the closest thing to capturing that vibe would be this Filipino casino cafe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like any proper diner, Cafe Colma is the place you’d go for brunch with your mom and your siblings, or where the entire extended family might swing by after picking someone up from SFO. It’s also the last stop you’d make after a long night of dancing and/or drunken foolishness — for local Filipinos, that might be after the Asian rave lets out at Temple Nightclub (which is closing soon, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/soma-nightclub-permanently-close-19398549.php\">R.I.P.\u003c/a>). It’s no coincidence that the lines at the restaurant hit their peak at around 2 or 3 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was only about a 15-minute wait when we rolled in at around 11 o’clock on a recent Friday night, which gave us time to walk around the card room proper, with its bright lights, solemn pai gow tables and 90% Asian crowd. Every so often, a bleary-eyed poker player would turn around and inhale several spoonfuls of fried rice from the little wheeled cart placed next to the table for that purpose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viewed in that light, the existence of Cafe Colma is purely practical: fuel to keep the most degenerate gamblers going deep into the night. But if we came in expecting a meal of cheap, okay-enough carbs, what we found instead was surprisingly homey and comforting food — and, honestly, the most enjoyable Filipino meal we’d had in months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956693\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956693\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4.jpg\" alt=\"In a brightly lit casino room, players sit around a card table. One is eating fried rice off of a little cart behind him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lucky-Chances-Card-Room-v4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can eat garlic fried rice while you’re gambling. \u003ccite>(Raynato Castro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The menu is equal parts Chinese, Filipino and diner-style American, so whether you’re craving pancakes, prime rib or stir-fried bitter melon with scrambled eggs, Cafe Colma has got you covered. At its heart, though, this is a Filipino spot. When we ordered way too much from that section of the menu, we were rewarded with hit after hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The be-all and end-all is the kare-kare, a version of the classic oxtail and peanut sauce dish that tasted like someone’s grandma made it. The oxtails and beef tripe were impossibly tender and savory, bathed in a creamy peanut sauce that’s spiked with salty, pungent bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) for extra oomph. If you’re a lover of soft, squishy foods — of picking up bones and sucking them clean — this is your Platonic ideal of a dish.\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>Filipino food is a perfect late-night food because it’s cuisine that understands how to use vinegar to cut into a heavy meal of fried meats. All told, we must have had at least three or four different vinegars on the table. There was a pink one to dress the tokwa’t baboy, a very Filipino “salad” of sorts, made up of boiled pig ears and fried tofu. And then two different vinegar-based sauces for the crispy pata — a positively prehistoric-looking pork leg with the kind of thick, impeccably crunchy skin that every serious pork lover craves. We made quick work of the pata with our bare hands, but the sauces were what made the dish: the bright and spicy vinegar spiked with chilies and raw garlic, and the thicker one that was earthy and slightly sweet, made with pork liver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, we couldn’t leave without trying two of Cafe Colma’s most famous signatures — first, its buttery silogs, or garlic rice breakfast plates, served with fried eggs and your choice of meat. We opted for a surf-and-turf combination of bangus (aka milkfish) and pork chop, and both were fried to juicy, full-flavored perfection. Finally, to finish, who could resist the siren call of ube ice cream–topped halo-halo served in big sundae cups, especially when offered to us after midnight? “You’d better make that two orders,” we said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I used to be one of those food purists who believed that there was some objective measure of deliciousness you could use to judge restaurants, and that nothing else particularly mattered — not the atmosphere or the service or the time of day. But look: There are other Filipino restaurants that serve fried pork and garlic rice that’s better, or at least as good, as Cafe Colma’s. But sitting there at the counter as we spooned up the last bits of red bean and condensed milk from our halo-halo, a little drunk on nostalgia and the prospect of hitting a lucky run at the blackjack table, that prospect was hard to imagine.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.luckychances.com/dining.aspx\">\u003ci>Cafe Colma\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open 24/7 inside \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/luckychancescasino/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Lucky Chances Casino\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> at 1700 Hillside Blvd. in Colma.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "late-night-taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup-stinky-tofu-oakland-chinatown",
"title": "This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m.",
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"headTitle": "This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m. | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956224\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg\" alt=\"Two men devouring a bowl of soup noodles and a plate of fried tofu, with chopsticks in their hands.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lounge Chinatown serves an array of Taiwanese street food classics — including stinky tofu — until 2:30 a.m. every night. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. 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>Much has been written about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/americas-chinatowns-are-disappearing/581767/\">demise of the American Chinatown\u003c/a>, as well as the specific troubles that have plagued Oakland Chinatown in recent years — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/oakland-chinatown-faces-a-dual-pandemic-of-violence-covid/\">double whammy\u003c/a> of pandemic-related doldrums and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/02/12/oakland-chinatown-policing-hate-crimes-community/\">fears about anti-Asian violence\u003c/a>. These days, the neighborhood feels like a ghost town anytime after 6 o’clock at night, to say nothing of the late-night jook and roast duck feasts I remember enjoying even just five or six years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’d never guess at any of this, though, if your only data point was Lounge Chinatown, a stylish Taiwanese bar and restaurant that opened in December of 2022 with the explicit intention of being a late-night destination: It serves its massive menu of Taiwanese and Chinese street food specialties until 2:30 a.m., seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Run by the folks behind Dragon Gate (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13918993/dragon-gate-oakland-taiwanese-restaurant-reopening-karaoke\">another classic Oakland night spot\u003c/a>), Lounge stands out like a gaudily neon-lit, bamboo-bedecked beacon amid the well-weathered storefronts and boarded-up windows of 8th Street, in the heart of Chinatown. At a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, it was one of just a small handful of places in the entire neighborhood that was still open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing you notice about Lounge Chinatown is the decor, which is so hiply and aggressively Asia-fied in its aesthetics that 20-year-old me, at the very height of my AZN pride, would have \u003ci>eaten it up\u003c/i> — all sleek red leather booths, lucky cat figurines and sexily back-lit Taiwanese whiskey bottles. Five or six different kinds of light fixtures, all designed to resemble various paper lanterns, bask the dining room in a nightclub-like glow. Meanwhile, a mural running the length of the restaurant depicts an unidentified Asian night market scene in such a way that the night market looks like the coolest damn place in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the kind of restaurant where you might imagine Jet Li — or Son Goku, at the height of his powers — strolling in for a late-night bowl of noodles. And, honest to God, even middle-aged me found the whole vibe to be pretty badass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956225\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant on a dark street. The sign reads \"Lounge Chinatown,\" and the entrance is suffused in glowing purple light.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant’s aggressively Asia-fied aesthetics are a whole vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The main reason we’d come, however, is because I can never resist the siren call of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13940133/stinky-tofu-childrens-book-ra-pu-zel\">stinky tofu\u003c/a> — or of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">Taiwanese street food\u003c/a>, more broadly. Even more so when it’s still available hours after midnight. As it turns out, the menu covers a surprisingly (and intimidatingly) vast range of Chinese and Taiwanese food genres, running the gamut from meat skewers to hot pot and malatang. You’ll do very well for yourself if you stick to the most famous Taiwanese classics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t unnecessarily squeamish, you’ll start, as we did, with an order of the fried stinky tofu, which arrives at the table crisp-edged and deliciously pungent, served with all the standard accompaniments: pickled cabbage, soy paste dressing and a dollop of chili sauce. It’s about as tasty a version as you can find in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13955884,arts_13951914,arts_13952823']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>The best way to sample a bunch of things is to order one of the bento boxes, which come with a big scoop of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">lu rou fan\u003c/a> (braised pork rice), pickles, sautéed greens and a marinated egg. We went with the fried pork chop — a nostalgic classic for anyone who’s ever bought a boxed lunch at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2019/3/6/18241749/bento-box-best-food-train-stations-taiwan\">train station in Taiwan\u003c/a>. Lounge’s version hits all the right notes: the jolt of five-spice powder on the crunchy batter, the juiciness and lavish fattiness of the thick, bone-in chop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the star of the menu has got to be the beef noodle soup, a faithful rendition of one of Taiwan’s most famous dishes. The noodles are thick and chewy. The generous chunks of beef shank and tendon are slow-cooked to a jiggly, luxurious tenderness. And the broth? Spicy and savory, heavy on the tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorn — almost \u003ci>too \u003c/i>boldly flavorful for me to finish the entire bowl, making it perfect for sharing. It’s pure comfort food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll have to come back again, with more stomach space or a larger group, to try the extensive selection of lu wei, a uniquely Taiwanese genre of cold, braised street snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My usual worry with a place like Lounge Chinatown is that it’ll be too loud or too trendy — too many weekend karaoke warriors singing badly in public. But the truth is, the restaurant was busy during our visit but not exceptionally so. The vibe was more Chill Place for Quiet Conversation than it was Loud Party Zone. Like the rest of Chinatown, it seems, the restaurant is just starting to get things rolling again. And I, for one, am ready to see what it looks like when it really hits its stride.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lounge Chinatown is open 10:30 a.m.–2:30 a.m. daily at 366 8th St. in Oakland.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Oakland Chinatown Late-Night Restaurant Serves Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup and Stinky Tofu | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956224\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg\" alt=\"Two men devouring a bowl of soup noodles and a plate of fried tofu, with chopsticks in their hands.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lounge Chinatown serves an array of Taiwanese street food classics — including stinky tofu — until 2:30 a.m. every night. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. 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>Much has been written about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/americas-chinatowns-are-disappearing/581767/\">demise of the American Chinatown\u003c/a>, as well as the specific troubles that have plagued Oakland Chinatown in recent years — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/oakland-chinatown-faces-a-dual-pandemic-of-violence-covid/\">double whammy\u003c/a> of pandemic-related doldrums and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/02/12/oakland-chinatown-policing-hate-crimes-community/\">fears about anti-Asian violence\u003c/a>. These days, the neighborhood feels like a ghost town anytime after 6 o’clock at night, to say nothing of the late-night jook and roast duck feasts I remember enjoying even just five or six years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’d never guess at any of this, though, if your only data point was Lounge Chinatown, a stylish Taiwanese bar and restaurant that opened in December of 2022 with the explicit intention of being a late-night destination: It serves its massive menu of Taiwanese and Chinese street food specialties until 2:30 a.m., seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Run by the folks behind Dragon Gate (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13918993/dragon-gate-oakland-taiwanese-restaurant-reopening-karaoke\">another classic Oakland night spot\u003c/a>), Lounge stands out like a gaudily neon-lit, bamboo-bedecked beacon amid the well-weathered storefronts and boarded-up windows of 8th Street, in the heart of Chinatown. At a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, it was one of just a small handful of places in the entire neighborhood that was still open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing you notice about Lounge Chinatown is the decor, which is so hiply and aggressively Asia-fied in its aesthetics that 20-year-old me, at the very height of my AZN pride, would have \u003ci>eaten it up\u003c/i> — all sleek red leather booths, lucky cat figurines and sexily back-lit Taiwanese whiskey bottles. Five or six different kinds of light fixtures, all designed to resemble various paper lanterns, bask the dining room in a nightclub-like glow. Meanwhile, a mural running the length of the restaurant depicts an unidentified Asian night market scene in such a way that the night market looks like the coolest damn place in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the kind of restaurant where you might imagine Jet Li — or Son Goku, at the height of his powers — strolling in for a late-night bowl of noodles. And, honest to God, even middle-aged me found the whole vibe to be pretty badass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956225\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant on a dark street. The sign reads \"Lounge Chinatown,\" and the entrance is suffused in glowing purple light.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant’s aggressively Asia-fied aesthetics are a whole vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The main reason we’d come, however, is because I can never resist the siren call of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13940133/stinky-tofu-childrens-book-ra-pu-zel\">stinky tofu\u003c/a> — or of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">Taiwanese street food\u003c/a>, more broadly. Even more so when it’s still available hours after midnight. As it turns out, the menu covers a surprisingly (and intimidatingly) vast range of Chinese and Taiwanese food genres, running the gamut from meat skewers to hot pot and malatang. You’ll do very well for yourself if you stick to the most famous Taiwanese classics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t unnecessarily squeamish, you’ll start, as we did, with an order of the fried stinky tofu, which arrives at the table crisp-edged and deliciously pungent, served with all the standard accompaniments: pickled cabbage, soy paste dressing and a dollop of chili sauce. It’s about as tasty a version as you can find in the East Bay.\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>The best way to sample a bunch of things is to order one of the bento boxes, which come with a big scoop of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">lu rou fan\u003c/a> (braised pork rice), pickles, sautéed greens and a marinated egg. We went with the fried pork chop — a nostalgic classic for anyone who’s ever bought a boxed lunch at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2019/3/6/18241749/bento-box-best-food-train-stations-taiwan\">train station in Taiwan\u003c/a>. Lounge’s version hits all the right notes: the jolt of five-spice powder on the crunchy batter, the juiciness and lavish fattiness of the thick, bone-in chop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the star of the menu has got to be the beef noodle soup, a faithful rendition of one of Taiwan’s most famous dishes. The noodles are thick and chewy. The generous chunks of beef shank and tendon are slow-cooked to a jiggly, luxurious tenderness. And the broth? Spicy and savory, heavy on the tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorn — almost \u003ci>too \u003c/i>boldly flavorful for me to finish the entire bowl, making it perfect for sharing. It’s pure comfort food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll have to come back again, with more stomach space or a larger group, to try the extensive selection of lu wei, a uniquely Taiwanese genre of cold, braised street snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My usual worry with a place like Lounge Chinatown is that it’ll be too loud or too trendy — too many weekend karaoke warriors singing badly in public. But the truth is, the restaurant was busy during our visit but not exceptionally so. The vibe was more Chill Place for Quiet Conversation than it was Loud Party Zone. Like the rest of Chinatown, it seems, the restaurant is just starting to get things rolling again. And I, for one, am ready to see what it looks like when it really hits its stride.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lounge Chinatown is open 10:30 a.m.–2:30 a.m. daily at 366 8th St. in Oakland.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sunnyvale’s Hottest Late-Night Food Spot Is the 24-Hour Indian Grocery Store",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955888\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955888\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of Indian food on an outdoor table, including a rice combination tray, two samosas, a mango lassi and a plate of dahi puri. A man puts one of the dahi puri in his mouth.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Near midnight, all of the tables outside of Apni Mandi were occupied by diners feasting on chaat and curry. The Sunnyvale grocery store serves hot food 24 hours. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>One of my personal oddities is that I love going to the grocery store late at night, strolling the fluorescent-lit aisles of my local Safeway a few minutes before closing, when the place resembles a ghost town. There is a sort of Zen-like quietude, I find, to being the only person in the freezer aisle picking out a tub of ice cream, or contemplating the 17 different varieties of instant noodles. In these days of still-mostly-remote work, sometimes it’s the only time I leave the house all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not that any of this could have prepared me for the mind-boggling crowd of produce browsers, chai drinkers and late-night snackers; the heaps of bagged spices and upbeat Bhangra music; and, all together, the glorious chaos of an Indian grocery store at midnight. Specifically, the 24-hour \u003ca href=\"https://apnabazar.com/\">Apni Mandi\u003c/a> (formerly \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sunnyvale_adda/\">Apna Bazar\u003c/a>) supermarket in Sunnyvale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, it was news to us that there even \u003ci>is \u003c/i>a 24-hour Indian grocery store in the Bay Area, much less one that sells hot vegetarian curries and chaat at all hours of the night. But even knowing that the place existed in theory, we were amazed to see just how many people — all ages, almost exclusively South Asian — had come to the grocery store past 11 o’clock at night. Outside, the eight or nine umbrella-topped tables in front of the store were all occupied by groups of friends making happy conversation over spreads of roti, curry platters and pani puri, devouring the food in the half-darkness. The only light came from the big, neon-yellow “Apni Mandi” sign glowing overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside, the aisles were jam-packed with shoppers loading their carts with various sundries — a bag of onions, a bunch of half-ripe bananas, some Maggi noodles. More than a few just stood there chatting with a cup of (quite tasty) hot chai in hand, poured from the free chai dispenser at one end of the store. Others stood in line at a kiosk dedicated to selling assorted Indian cakes and sweets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If my typical late-night grocery jaunts are more of a soothing, slightly antisocial balm, this felt electric — reminiscent of my favorite night markets in Asia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955889\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955889\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside.jpg\" alt=\"A crowd of people waiting in line to order food inside an Indian grocery store. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The longest line is at the hot food kiosk, where customers can choose from a variety of chaat, flatbreads and vegetarian curries. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By far the longest of the lines was the one for hot food. For 24 hours a day, customers can choose from an assortment of chaat, flatbreads and vegetarian curries, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/apna-bazar-sunnyvale?select=3570jvAKSEfKa0hWChZlHg\">rotating selection\u003c/a> of which are displayed in Apni Mandi’s steam table setup. There is, I’ll admit, a certain intimidation factor to ordering here if you’re a first-timer not fluent in the vocabulary of kulchas and bhaturas. When you get to the front of the line, none of the curries are labeled, nor is it obvious what anything on the chaat menu even \u003ci>is\u003c/i> if you haven’t had it before, and the long line behind you might add to the pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But look: My feeling is that it’s healthy and character-building for every American to experience this mild level of discomfort at least once in a while — and when it’s in the service of procuring delicious food, who can complain? For the record, Apni Mandi’s friendly employees were happy to answer our questions, and, in a pinch, the smile-and-point method works perfectly well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954983,arts_13954112,arts_13954597']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>For just $8.99, the thali platter comes with rice, onions, roti and your choice of two of the day’s curries. The kadhi pakora was savory and tangy, with bits of vegetable fritter that had soaked in the sauce until they were pleasantly soggy. On the other end of the flavor spectrum, the paneer makhani was a chunky tomato-based curry with a wonderful zip of heat. Lunch, dinner, 3 a.m. snack, it doesn’t matter: This thali would make a fantastic meal at any time of day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But really, everything we wound up ordering was delicious (and absurdly reasonable in price). The market’s hallmarks include its fresh, fat samosas, which come two to an order, with an aggressively well-spiced potato filling — the perfect thing to help you sort yourself out if you’ve had a little too much to drink. And the dahi puri are simply a delight: Close cousins to the better-known pani puri, the crispy semolina shells are topped with spices, tamarind chutney, yogurt and little crispy noodles. Try fitting the whole thing in your mouth at once for the ideal tangy-spicy-sweet bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With apologies, then, to my local Safeway, let us give praise to the 24-hour Indian grocer — to the pleasures of the hot food stand and the prospect of leaving home at midnight for the express purpose of sipping hot chai with friends in the produce aisle. Now that I’ve experienced it in all its glory, I’m afraid there’s no turning back.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sunnyvale_adda/\">\u003ci>Apni Mandi\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open 24/7 at 1111 W. El Camino Real Ste. 107 in Sunnyvale.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955888\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955888\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of Indian food on an outdoor table, including a rice combination tray, two samosas, a mango lassi and a plate of dahi puri. A man puts one of the dahi puri in his mouth.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Near midnight, all of the tables outside of Apni Mandi were occupied by diners feasting on chaat and curry. The Sunnyvale grocery store serves hot food 24 hours. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>One of my personal oddities is that I love going to the grocery store late at night, strolling the fluorescent-lit aisles of my local Safeway a few minutes before closing, when the place resembles a ghost town. There is a sort of Zen-like quietude, I find, to being the only person in the freezer aisle picking out a tub of ice cream, or contemplating the 17 different varieties of instant noodles. In these days of still-mostly-remote work, sometimes it’s the only time I leave the house all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not that any of this could have prepared me for the mind-boggling crowd of produce browsers, chai drinkers and late-night snackers; the heaps of bagged spices and upbeat Bhangra music; and, all together, the glorious chaos of an Indian grocery store at midnight. Specifically, the 24-hour \u003ca href=\"https://apnabazar.com/\">Apni Mandi\u003c/a> (formerly \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sunnyvale_adda/\">Apna Bazar\u003c/a>) supermarket in Sunnyvale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, it was news to us that there even \u003ci>is \u003c/i>a 24-hour Indian grocery store in the Bay Area, much less one that sells hot vegetarian curries and chaat at all hours of the night. But even knowing that the place existed in theory, we were amazed to see just how many people — all ages, almost exclusively South Asian — had come to the grocery store past 11 o’clock at night. Outside, the eight or nine umbrella-topped tables in front of the store were all occupied by groups of friends making happy conversation over spreads of roti, curry platters and pani puri, devouring the food in the half-darkness. The only light came from the big, neon-yellow “Apni Mandi” sign glowing overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside, the aisles were jam-packed with shoppers loading their carts with various sundries — a bag of onions, a bunch of half-ripe bananas, some Maggi noodles. More than a few just stood there chatting with a cup of (quite tasty) hot chai in hand, poured from the free chai dispenser at one end of the store. Others stood in line at a kiosk dedicated to selling assorted Indian cakes and sweets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If my typical late-night grocery jaunts are more of a soothing, slightly antisocial balm, this felt electric — reminiscent of my favorite night markets in Asia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955889\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955889\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside.jpg\" alt=\"A crowd of people waiting in line to order food inside an Indian grocery store. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/apnimandi-inside-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The longest line is at the hot food kiosk, where customers can choose from a variety of chaat, flatbreads and vegetarian curries. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By far the longest of the lines was the one for hot food. For 24 hours a day, customers can choose from an assortment of chaat, flatbreads and vegetarian curries, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/apna-bazar-sunnyvale?select=3570jvAKSEfKa0hWChZlHg\">rotating selection\u003c/a> of which are displayed in Apni Mandi’s steam table setup. There is, I’ll admit, a certain intimidation factor to ordering here if you’re a first-timer not fluent in the vocabulary of kulchas and bhaturas. When you get to the front of the line, none of the curries are labeled, nor is it obvious what anything on the chaat menu even \u003ci>is\u003c/i> if you haven’t had it before, and the long line behind you might add to the pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But look: My feeling is that it’s healthy and character-building for every American to experience this mild level of discomfort at least once in a while — and when it’s in the service of procuring delicious food, who can complain? For the record, Apni Mandi’s friendly employees were happy to answer our questions, and, in a pinch, the smile-and-point method works perfectly well.\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>For just $8.99, the thali platter comes with rice, onions, roti and your choice of two of the day’s curries. The kadhi pakora was savory and tangy, with bits of vegetable fritter that had soaked in the sauce until they were pleasantly soggy. On the other end of the flavor spectrum, the paneer makhani was a chunky tomato-based curry with a wonderful zip of heat. Lunch, dinner, 3 a.m. snack, it doesn’t matter: This thali would make a fantastic meal at any time of day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But really, everything we wound up ordering was delicious (and absurdly reasonable in price). The market’s hallmarks include its fresh, fat samosas, which come two to an order, with an aggressively well-spiced potato filling — the perfect thing to help you sort yourself out if you’ve had a little too much to drink. And the dahi puri are simply a delight: Close cousins to the better-known pani puri, the crispy semolina shells are topped with spices, tamarind chutney, yogurt and little crispy noodles. Try fitting the whole thing in your mouth at once for the ideal tangy-spicy-sweet bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With apologies, then, to my local Safeway, let us give praise to the 24-hour Indian grocer — to the pleasures of the hot food stand and the prospect of leaving home at midnight for the express purpose of sipping hot chai with friends in the produce aisle. Now that I’ve experienced it in all its glory, I’m afraid there’s no turning back.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sunnyvale_adda/\">\u003ci>Apni Mandi\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open 24/7 at 1111 W. El Camino Real Ste. 107 in Sunnyvale.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This Turkish Kebab Spot Is a Late-Night Oasis in the Outer East Bay Suburbs",
"headTitle": "This Turkish Kebab Spot Is a Late-Night Oasis in the Outer East Bay Suburbs | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955527\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955527\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671.jpg\" alt=\"Two men devour a Turkish cheese bread, pulling the stretchy cheese away from their mouths with grotesque expressions on their face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The must-order item at Sultan’s Kebab is the boat-shaped cheese pide. The restaurant’s Livermore location is a late-night hub in the outer East Bay, open until 11:30 p.m. daily. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>Even with its handful of bustling dive bars and lounges, Downtown Livermore probably isn’t ever going to be known as an after-hours hotspot. But for the past year, at least, Livermoreans who get hungry after 11 o’clock at night have had at least one place — \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BtUo7sYHm2D/\">Sultan’s Kebab\u003c/a> — where they can go to satisfy their cravings for shawarma, kebabs and, most spectacularly, hot, cheesy Turkish flatbreads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least that was how it seemed on a recent Friday night, when the casually chic counter-service restaurant only seemed to get busier and busier after 10 p.m. Every booth and table was filled with groups of friends, young couples on dates, even families with small children (no judgment!). By the time we left, it felt like every person in Livermore who was still awake must have been sitting down for a meal at Sultan’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the original Pleasanton storefront debuted in 2010, the restaurant has expanded into a mini sultanate, if you will, with three kebab shop locations spread across the sleepy Tri-Valley suburbs. With its sleek bar counter, fire-engine red interior and faux wisteria tree (in glorious, faux full bloom) overhanging the entrance, the year-old Livermore location is the fanciest-looking of the three — and the only one that’s open late enough to qualify as a late-night restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sultan’s Kebab is a Turkish restaurant that markets itself as “Mediterranean” — which, in contemporary American restaurant parlance, largely functions as \u003ca href=\"https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/should-you-be-embarrassed-to-confuse-middle-eastern-food-with-mediterranean-food#google_vignette\">a way for immigrant chefs to make their food businesses palatable\u003c/a> when they aren’t sure how comfortable customers will be with dining at an establishment that’s explicitly Afghan, Palestinian or Iranian. For most diners, it’s just shorthand for the fact that you’ll probably find hummus and some kind of kebab on the menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955528\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of a brick-lined restaurant. The lit-up sign reads, "Sultan's Kebab"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At 11 o’clock on a Friday night, it feels like every Livermorean who’s still awake is dining at Sultan’s. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a place like Sultan’s, though, it really is possible to see the throughline between cuisines as seemingly disparate as Turkish and Italian — say, in the mild and delectable braised lamb shank, with its rich gravy studded with strands of celery, a dish which, if you look at it a little sideways, doesn’t look or taste so different from the osso buco served at your local homestyle Milanese spot. You can even see it in the Iskender kebab: thin slices of spit-roasted lamb and crunchy pita, all tossed in tomato sauce and served alongside a massive pool of yogurt. Sultan’s is the most “marinara” version of the dish I’ve ever eaten — so sweet and saucy, it wouldn’t feel out of place at my favorite red-sauce Italian joint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954983,arts_13954597,arts_13953224']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>This act of cultural translation is perhaps most explicit in Sultan’s selection of the kind of traditional Turkish flatbreads that are popularly known in the West as “Turkish pizza” — a rarity here in the Bay Area. There’s the thin-crusted lahmacun, with its topping of heavily seasoned minced lamb and raw onions. And then there are the toasty, boat-shaped pides, which bear a passing resemblance to the (Republic of) Georgian cheese boats known as khachapuri. The one we ordered was topped with oozy melted cheese and shjouk (aka sujuk), a Turkish sausage that’s like a coarser, more thickly sliced pepperoni. This was exactly the kind of thing I crave late at night: hot carbs with a slick of grease and, as an added bonus, an epic cheese pull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If I were to send you to Sultan’s — at any time of day but especially after 10 p.m. — I would have you start by sharing one of these piping hot cheese pides. From there, if you are a lamb eater, I’d have you order the lamb kebab plate: #1 on the menu, a straightforward classic, and also by far the tastiest of the entrees I tried. Super-savory, well-blistered and exquisitely tender, the meat comes with rice, good hummus, pita, salad — a perfect self-contained meal. Finally, for dessert, if you don’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhrdSylKQ-Q\">pull an “Edmund”\u003c/a> and get distracted by Sultan’s colorful display case full of Turkish delight, I recommend the homemade rice pudding. It’s very cold and refreshing version, with a thin, golden-brown layer of milk skin on top that’s especially satisfying to cut into with your fork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a meal that will send anyone to bed feeling generously stuffed and well taken care of, whether you’re a Livermore resident heading home just down the road or a visitor passing through, on your way to some other, less kebab-wealthy part of the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Livermore location of \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sultanskebab.net/\">\u003ci>Sultan’s Kebab\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily at 2491 1st St. The restaurant also has locations in Pleasanton and Danville, but those aren’t open as late.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955527\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955527\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671.jpg\" alt=\"Two men devour a Turkish cheese bread, pulling the stretchy cheese away from their mouths with grotesque expressions on their face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3671-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The must-order item at Sultan’s Kebab is the boat-shaped cheese pide. The restaurant’s Livermore location is a late-night hub in the outer East Bay, open until 11:30 p.m. daily. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>Even with its handful of bustling dive bars and lounges, Downtown Livermore probably isn’t ever going to be known as an after-hours hotspot. But for the past year, at least, Livermoreans who get hungry after 11 o’clock at night have had at least one place — \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BtUo7sYHm2D/\">Sultan’s Kebab\u003c/a> — where they can go to satisfy their cravings for shawarma, kebabs and, most spectacularly, hot, cheesy Turkish flatbreads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least that was how it seemed on a recent Friday night, when the casually chic counter-service restaurant only seemed to get busier and busier after 10 p.m. Every booth and table was filled with groups of friends, young couples on dates, even families with small children (no judgment!). By the time we left, it felt like every person in Livermore who was still awake must have been sitting down for a meal at Sultan’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the original Pleasanton storefront debuted in 2010, the restaurant has expanded into a mini sultanate, if you will, with three kebab shop locations spread across the sleepy Tri-Valley suburbs. With its sleek bar counter, fire-engine red interior and faux wisteria tree (in glorious, faux full bloom) overhanging the entrance, the year-old Livermore location is the fanciest-looking of the three — and the only one that’s open late enough to qualify as a late-night restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sultan’s Kebab is a Turkish restaurant that markets itself as “Mediterranean” — which, in contemporary American restaurant parlance, largely functions as \u003ca href=\"https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/should-you-be-embarrassed-to-confuse-middle-eastern-food-with-mediterranean-food#google_vignette\">a way for immigrant chefs to make their food businesses palatable\u003c/a> when they aren’t sure how comfortable customers will be with dining at an establishment that’s explicitly Afghan, Palestinian or Iranian. For most diners, it’s just shorthand for the fact that you’ll probably find hummus and some kind of kebab on the menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955528\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of a brick-lined restaurant. The lit-up sign reads, "Sultan's Kebab"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_3673-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At 11 o’clock on a Friday night, it feels like every Livermorean who’s still awake is dining at Sultan’s. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a place like Sultan’s, though, it really is possible to see the throughline between cuisines as seemingly disparate as Turkish and Italian — say, in the mild and delectable braised lamb shank, with its rich gravy studded with strands of celery, a dish which, if you look at it a little sideways, doesn’t look or taste so different from the osso buco served at your local homestyle Milanese spot. You can even see it in the Iskender kebab: thin slices of spit-roasted lamb and crunchy pita, all tossed in tomato sauce and served alongside a massive pool of yogurt. Sultan’s is the most “marinara” version of the dish I’ve ever eaten — so sweet and saucy, it wouldn’t feel out of place at my favorite red-sauce Italian joint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>This act of cultural translation is perhaps most explicit in Sultan’s selection of the kind of traditional Turkish flatbreads that are popularly known in the West as “Turkish pizza” — a rarity here in the Bay Area. There’s the thin-crusted lahmacun, with its topping of heavily seasoned minced lamb and raw onions. And then there are the toasty, boat-shaped pides, which bear a passing resemblance to the (Republic of) Georgian cheese boats known as khachapuri. The one we ordered was topped with oozy melted cheese and shjouk (aka sujuk), a Turkish sausage that’s like a coarser, more thickly sliced pepperoni. This was exactly the kind of thing I crave late at night: hot carbs with a slick of grease and, as an added bonus, an epic cheese pull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If I were to send you to Sultan’s — at any time of day but especially after 10 p.m. — I would have you start by sharing one of these piping hot cheese pides. From there, if you are a lamb eater, I’d have you order the lamb kebab plate: #1 on the menu, a straightforward classic, and also by far the tastiest of the entrees I tried. Super-savory, well-blistered and exquisitely tender, the meat comes with rice, good hummus, pita, salad — a perfect self-contained meal. Finally, for dessert, if you don’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhrdSylKQ-Q\">pull an “Edmund”\u003c/a> and get distracted by Sultan’s colorful display case full of Turkish delight, I recommend the homemade rice pudding. It’s very cold and refreshing version, with a thin, golden-brown layer of milk skin on top that’s especially satisfying to cut into with your fork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a meal that will send anyone to bed feeling generously stuffed and well taken care of, whether you’re a Livermore resident heading home just down the road or a visitor passing through, on your way to some other, less kebab-wealthy part of the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Livermore location of \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sultanskebab.net/\">\u003ci>Sultan’s Kebab\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily at 2491 1st St. The restaurant also has locations in Pleasanton and Danville, but those aren’t open as late.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This Viet-Cajun Spot in San Jose Serves the Freshest Crawfish Boils Until 4 a.m.",
"headTitle": "This Viet-Cajun Spot in San Jose Serves the Freshest Crawfish Boils Until 4 a.m. | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954986\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7.jpg\" alt=\"Two men in glasses devouring their food ravenously. There's a big bowl of shrimp and crawfish in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">By the end of our meal at Cajun Bistro 7, we’d left a pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses in our wake. The Viet-Cajun spot in San Jose is open until 4 a.m. daily. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. 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/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first thing you notice upon walking into San Jose’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is how barebones the setup is. Layers of disposable plastic tablecloth are stacked on every table, and there’s little decor to speak of beyond a potted bamboo plant and a few kitschy floral dinner plates mounted on the wall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a vibe I like to call “Asian Mom’s Basement,” and it happens to be the setting where I feel most comfortable — where a group of friends might spend several hours with a deck of cards and a spread of snacks, just shooting the shit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my experience, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/in-praise-of-late-night-ramen-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">restaurants that look like this\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> always serve amazing food, and Cajun Bistro 7 proved to be no exception. We trekked to this relatively low-profile strip mall shop because we heard it serves some of the best Viet-Cajun seafood boils in San Jose until 4 a.m. (!!!) every night. But if anything, that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">undersells \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just how good the restaurant is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a little past 10 o’clock on a Friday night, the place was packed with Vietnamese American twentysomethings, and every table had ordered one of the big seafood boil combinations — three or four pounds of crawfish, clams, mussels and head-on shrimp served in a plastic bag full of bright red sauce. It’s the kind of restaurant where plastic gloves are provided (and highly recommended), and you still wind up with a huge pile of dirty napkins at the end of your meal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954990\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of the Cajun Bistro 7 at night, when the restaurant is lit up as though glowing from within.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don’t be deceived by the restaurant’s understated appearance. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I will be honest: I’ve never been to Louisiana, and I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life telling people that I think crawfish are “OK” but, truthfully, a bit overrated. I realize now that I must have been eating a whole lot of frozen crawfish. The specimens at Cajun Bistro knocked my socks off — plump and meaty with firm, sweet flesh that was tastier than any lobster.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other seafood was also excellent, especially the gigantic shrimp, whose heads we ripped off with our hands, sucking on the sweet, briny juices inside. What sets this seafood boil apart, too, is the sauce. We opted for the “Sweet California,” which the owner recommended. At first, I worried it would be too sweet and too far removed from the traditional Cajun style. But if anything, it grew on me with every bite — super-garlicky and buttery with slight sweetness balanced by a tingle of heat, and a creaminess that I found irresistible. The evidence? The pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses we left in our wake.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This wasn’t just the best seafood boil I’ve had in San Jose. It might be the best one in the whole Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954597,arts_13954112,arts_13951914']\u003c/span>As if that that weren’t enough, Cajun Bistro also serves a full traditional Vietnamese menu, including one of the tastiest bowls of home-style bun rieu — the crab-infused tomato broth noodle soup — I’ve had in the Bay: a balanced, deeply flavorful broth, impeccably fresh herbs and a jolt of funky nuoc mam (fermented shrimp paste) to make you feel alive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right now is a good time to visit Cajun Bistro 7, as we’re nearing the peak of the Louisiana crawfish season (though the restaurant offers crawfish year-round, sourcing the little crustaceans from the Sacramento Delta during the fall and winter months). Maybe the most unbelievable thing about the restaurant, apart from the delicious food and friendly service, is — again — the fact that it’s open until 4 a.m. every single night. That decision, we were told, was born out of sheer practicality rather than some grand plan to dominate the South Bay’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13954112/orale-taco-truck-san-jose-late-night-pancakes-midnight-diners\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after-midnight food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Their live crawfish shipment comes in at 5 a.m. every morning, so they have to stay up that late anyway.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though I must admit: The idea of eating a full-on seafood boil at 4 o’clock in the morning sounds like sheer lunacy, even to me. But if you’ve achieved that particular side quest, I’d love to meet you at Cajun Bistro someday for a pre-dawn meal. If only just to shake your hand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily at 3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 116 in San Jose. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954986\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7.jpg\" alt=\"Two men in glasses devouring their food ravenously. There's a big bowl of shrimp and crawfish in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">By the end of our meal at Cajun Bistro 7, we’d left a pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses in our wake. The Viet-Cajun spot in San Jose is open until 4 a.m. daily. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. 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/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first thing you notice upon walking into San Jose’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is how barebones the setup is. Layers of disposable plastic tablecloth are stacked on every table, and there’s little decor to speak of beyond a potted bamboo plant and a few kitschy floral dinner plates mounted on the wall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a vibe I like to call “Asian Mom’s Basement,” and it happens to be the setting where I feel most comfortable — where a group of friends might spend several hours with a deck of cards and a spread of snacks, just shooting the shit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my experience, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/in-praise-of-late-night-ramen-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">restaurants that look like this\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> always serve amazing food, and Cajun Bistro 7 proved to be no exception. We trekked to this relatively low-profile strip mall shop because we heard it serves some of the best Viet-Cajun seafood boils in San Jose until 4 a.m. (!!!) every night. But if anything, that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">undersells \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just how good the restaurant is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a little past 10 o’clock on a Friday night, the place was packed with Vietnamese American twentysomethings, and every table had ordered one of the big seafood boil combinations — three or four pounds of crawfish, clams, mussels and head-on shrimp served in a plastic bag full of bright red sauce. It’s the kind of restaurant where plastic gloves are provided (and highly recommended), and you still wind up with a huge pile of dirty napkins at the end of your meal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954990\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of the Cajun Bistro 7 at night, when the restaurant is lit up as though glowing from within.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don’t be deceived by the restaurant’s understated appearance. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I will be honest: I’ve never been to Louisiana, and I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life telling people that I think crawfish are “OK” but, truthfully, a bit overrated. I realize now that I must have been eating a whole lot of frozen crawfish. The specimens at Cajun Bistro knocked my socks off — plump and meaty with firm, sweet flesh that was tastier than any lobster.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other seafood was also excellent, especially the gigantic shrimp, whose heads we ripped off with our hands, sucking on the sweet, briny juices inside. What sets this seafood boil apart, too, is the sauce. We opted for the “Sweet California,” which the owner recommended. At first, I worried it would be too sweet and too far removed from the traditional Cajun style. But if anything, it grew on me with every bite — super-garlicky and buttery with slight sweetness balanced by a tingle of heat, and a creaminess that I found irresistible. The evidence? The pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses we left in our wake.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This wasn’t just the best seafood boil I’ve had in San Jose. It might be the best one in the whole Bay Area.\u003c/span>\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>As if that that weren’t enough, Cajun Bistro also serves a full traditional Vietnamese menu, including one of the tastiest bowls of home-style bun rieu — the crab-infused tomato broth noodle soup — I’ve had in the Bay: a balanced, deeply flavorful broth, impeccably fresh herbs and a jolt of funky nuoc mam (fermented shrimp paste) to make you feel alive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right now is a good time to visit Cajun Bistro 7, as we’re nearing the peak of the Louisiana crawfish season (though the restaurant offers crawfish year-round, sourcing the little crustaceans from the Sacramento Delta during the fall and winter months). Maybe the most unbelievable thing about the restaurant, apart from the delicious food and friendly service, is — again — the fact that it’s open until 4 a.m. every single night. That decision, we were told, was born out of sheer practicality rather than some grand plan to dominate the South Bay’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13954112/orale-taco-truck-san-jose-late-night-pancakes-midnight-diners\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after-midnight food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Their live crawfish shipment comes in at 5 a.m. every morning, so they have to stay up that late anyway.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though I must admit: The idea of eating a full-on seafood boil at 4 o’clock in the morning sounds like sheer lunacy, even to me. But if you’ve achieved that particular side quest, I’d love to meet you at Cajun Bistro someday for a pre-dawn meal. If only just to shake your hand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily at 3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 116 in San Jose. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Top Dog Is Just as Good as You Remember",
"headTitle": "Top Dog Is Just as Good as You Remember | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954605\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954605\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of two men eating hot dogs standing up, inside the hot dog shop. Behind them, a woman adds ketchup to her hot dog.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In its own way, Top Dog is a quintessential Berkeley restaurant — one that feeds hungry college students, and also middle-aged cartoonists and writers, until 3 a.m. on weekends. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. 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. This week, guest artist \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/brianabreaks/?hl=en\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Briana Loewinsohn\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> joins the excursion.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you attended UC Berkeley, or spent any significant amount of time near campus, then Top Dog requires no introduction. Open since 1966, the original Durant Avenue location is just a slip of a no-frills hot dog joint, with a bar of self-serve condiments and toppings and a small counter where maybe three diners, tops, can stand shoulder-to-shoulder while housing some classic all-beef wieners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For generations of Berkeleyites, however, the place is magic. People always want to start with Chez Panisse when telling the city’s illustrious food history, but in its own way, Top Dog is just as much of a quintessentially Berkeley restaurant, with its jaunty wiener-in-a-top-hat logo, offbeat libertarian propaganda posters (“Discard Statism. Unbend the Knee!”) and gruff grill cooks who brook no bullshit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-Dog-Berkeley-libertarian-aid-coronavirus-15200903.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">endured\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for all these years, through various \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/08/13/berkeleys-top-dog-fires-employee-went-white-nationalist-rally\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">controversies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and nightmarish street parking, for one simple reason: The hot dogs themselves are so damn good. Especially when you walk into the shop at 2 a.m., when every other restaurant in the vicinity is closed, there isn’t a more beautiful sight than the Top Dog flat-top, which is always piled high with dozens of sizzling sausages — more than you would think is advisable to cook at one time. But those grillmasters know what they’re doing. For as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, packages of cold Top Dog franks have been easy enough to buy and cook at home. They just never taste as good as they do at the mothership.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954606\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954606\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a hot dog restaurant. The \"Top Dog\" sign has a logo of a hot dog wearing a top hat.' width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original Berkeley location has been open since 1966. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are 11 different sausages on the menu, each of them with their own brigade of loyalists. The original kosher all-beef dogs are, of course, unimpeachable, with that snappiness to their casing that’s at the heart of the restaurant’s almost-60-year legacy. If you eat pork, though? Allow me to recommend the garlic frankfurter, which boasts a 75/25 mix of beef and pork and fresh garlic in the sausage itself, resulting in the juiciest, most flavorful dog of them all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954112,arts_13930727,arts_13914585']\u003c/span>Really, though, it’s hard to go wrong. The hot links are excellent, more akin to spicy frankfurters than the kind of thing you’d get a barbecue spot. If you’d like something a little softer and squishier, the bockwurst has your name written on it. And, with apologies to anyone from Chicago or New York, I’m convinced that Top Dog’s crusty, well-toasted sesame-seed French rolls might be the greatest hot dog bun of them all. They just have the perfect amount of airiness and chew.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best thing about eating a Top Dog at 1 o’clock in the morning is the simplicity of the meal. The dogs don’t really need anything added, though a tub of the mild, creamy potato salad makes for a nice side. And the standard, serve-yourself condiments station, in its own way, stays true to the restaurant’s libertarian spirit. Want to drench your hot dog with ketchup like you’re a small child? No one will judge you here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You would think that this slice of campus around Durant and Telegraph avenues would be a gold mine for after-hours deliciousness, but the options are surprisingly sparse. There’s Kingpin Donuts (a late-night legend in its own right), a couple of pizzerias, a boba shop — and, honestly, not much else of note. Gourmet sports bars, fancified Taco Bells, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kqedfood/p/Ct4ciTYR5-t/?img_index=1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">late-night coffee shops\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and “Munchie”-themed meal delivery services have come and gone and come again, but at the end of a long, hungry night, Top Dog is still the king. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">May it reign for many years to come.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.topdoghotdogs.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog’s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> original Berkeley location is at 2543 Durant Ave. in Berkeley. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m.–2 a.m., Friday 10 a.m.–3 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.–2 a.m. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954605\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954605\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of two men eating hot dogs standing up, inside the hot dog shop. Behind them, a woman adds ketchup to her hot dog.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In its own way, Top Dog is a quintessential Berkeley restaurant — one that feeds hungry college students, and also middle-aged cartoonists and writers, until 3 a.m. on weekends. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. 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. This week, guest artist \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/brianabreaks/?hl=en\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Briana Loewinsohn\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> joins the excursion.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you attended UC Berkeley, or spent any significant amount of time near campus, then Top Dog requires no introduction. Open since 1966, the original Durant Avenue location is just a slip of a no-frills hot dog joint, with a bar of self-serve condiments and toppings and a small counter where maybe three diners, tops, can stand shoulder-to-shoulder while housing some classic all-beef wieners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For generations of Berkeleyites, however, the place is magic. People always want to start with Chez Panisse when telling the city’s illustrious food history, but in its own way, Top Dog is just as much of a quintessentially Berkeley restaurant, with its jaunty wiener-in-a-top-hat logo, offbeat libertarian propaganda posters (“Discard Statism. Unbend the Knee!”) and gruff grill cooks who brook no bullshit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-Dog-Berkeley-libertarian-aid-coronavirus-15200903.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">endured\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for all these years, through various \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/08/13/berkeleys-top-dog-fires-employee-went-white-nationalist-rally\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">controversies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and nightmarish street parking, for one simple reason: The hot dogs themselves are so damn good. Especially when you walk into the shop at 2 a.m., when every other restaurant in the vicinity is closed, there isn’t a more beautiful sight than the Top Dog flat-top, which is always piled high with dozens of sizzling sausages — more than you would think is advisable to cook at one time. But those grillmasters know what they’re doing. For as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, packages of cold Top Dog franks have been easy enough to buy and cook at home. They just never taste as good as they do at the mothership.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954606\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954606\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a hot dog restaurant. The \"Top Dog\" sign has a logo of a hot dog wearing a top hat.' width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original Berkeley location has been open since 1966. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are 11 different sausages on the menu, each of them with their own brigade of loyalists. The original kosher all-beef dogs are, of course, unimpeachable, with that snappiness to their casing that’s at the heart of the restaurant’s almost-60-year legacy. If you eat pork, though? Allow me to recommend the garlic frankfurter, which boasts a 75/25 mix of beef and pork and fresh garlic in the sausage itself, resulting in the juiciest, most flavorful dog of them all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>Really, though, it’s hard to go wrong. The hot links are excellent, more akin to spicy frankfurters than the kind of thing you’d get a barbecue spot. If you’d like something a little softer and squishier, the bockwurst has your name written on it. And, with apologies to anyone from Chicago or New York, I’m convinced that Top Dog’s crusty, well-toasted sesame-seed French rolls might be the greatest hot dog bun of them all. They just have the perfect amount of airiness and chew.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best thing about eating a Top Dog at 1 o’clock in the morning is the simplicity of the meal. The dogs don’t really need anything added, though a tub of the mild, creamy potato salad makes for a nice side. And the standard, serve-yourself condiments station, in its own way, stays true to the restaurant’s libertarian spirit. Want to drench your hot dog with ketchup like you’re a small child? No one will judge you here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You would think that this slice of campus around Durant and Telegraph avenues would be a gold mine for after-hours deliciousness, but the options are surprisingly sparse. There’s Kingpin Donuts (a late-night legend in its own right), a couple of pizzerias, a boba shop — and, honestly, not much else of note. Gourmet sports bars, fancified Taco Bells, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kqedfood/p/Ct4ciTYR5-t/?img_index=1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">late-night coffee shops\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and “Munchie”-themed meal delivery services have come and gone and come again, but at the end of a long, hungry night, Top Dog is still the king. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">May it reign for many years to come.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.topdoghotdogs.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog’s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> original Berkeley location is at 2543 Durant Ave. in Berkeley. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m.–2 a.m., Friday 10 a.m.–3 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.–2 a.m. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This San Jose Food Truck Slings Tiny Pancakes and Big-Ass Tacos Until 3 a.m.",
"headTitle": "This San Jose Food Truck Slings Tiny Pancakes and Big-Ass Tacos Until 3 a.m. | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954115\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: In a tented dining area, a man holds a large shrimp taco while his companion stuffs a huarache into his mouth.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Orale taco truck is open — and stays busy — until 3 a.m. on the weekends. It’s located in the Alum Rock neighborhood in Eastside San Jose. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>The party is in full swing when we pull up to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/?hl=en\">Orale\u003c/a> taco truck at 11 o’clock on a drizzly Friday night, in a tire shop parking lot in Eastside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/san-jose\">San Jose\u003c/a>. The tented, ad hoc dining area has the festive, easygoing bustle of a backyard barbecue, all lit up with string lights. Off to the side, a taquero grills up a massive batch of carne asada, perfuming the air with the smell of sizzling fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We drove out to this stretch of strip malls on Alum Rock because we’d heard that Orale stays open until 3 a.m. on the weekend — and, in fact, does a brisk business \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy-n3XKuyzk/?hl=en\">all the way until 3\u003c/a>. And so it does: When we arrive, the line runs seven or eight customers deep. It only gets longer the further into the night we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orale belongs to that new-school brand of taquerias and taco trucks we have here in the Bay, with the kind of wide-ranging menu that seems to encompass every Mexican street food trend to hit our region. In the mood for consomé-drenched \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria\u003c/a>? An \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931115/tacos-el-rulas-richmond-taco-truck-alambre-papa-loca-instagram-food-influencer\">alambre\u003c/a>? A \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CwJGFbgpXHG/\">bacon-wrapped hot dog\u003c/a> topped with everything under the sun? Orale has it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the place doesn’t seem to have caught that social media–induced sickness where every burrito needs to be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952597/worlds-largest-burrito-guinness-record-la-costena-mountain-view\">longest of all-time\u003c/a> and every plate gets drowned in an unconscionable amount of salsa — all \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936325/social-media-biggest-pupusas-burritos-instagram-tiktok-latinextravagant-bay-area\">for the sake of the ’gram\u003c/a>. Orale serves some big-ass tacos, but they’re sensibly constructed and just darn tasty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashiest menu item is probably the “mar y tierra” surf-and-turf taco, tailor-made for the kind of indulgent eater who thinks no steak dinner is complete without a broiled lobster tail. In this case, the “surf” consists of plump, well-seasoned grilled shrimp, which come draped, deliciously, over a layer of juicy carne asada, then topped with guacamole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My favorite, however, is Orale’s tripas taco, for which the cow’s small intestines are cooked in their own fat until they reach textural perfection: crispy on the outside but not over-fried, so the inside retains its softness and chew. Topped with a drizzle of spicy orange salsa to cut into the slight gaminess of the meat, it’s one of the best versions I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954117\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954117\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Diners sit at folding tables set up under a white tent on a drizzly night while others line up outside a taco truck to order their food.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Set up in the parking lot of a tire shop, the taco truck features a quintessential Bay Area crowd and vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Orale is also notable for its variety of masa-based specialties, like its huaraches — crunchy, slipper-shaped masa shells topped with lettuce, tomato, sliced avocado, crema, refried beans and your protein of choice. The vegetables are so fresh, you can almost order the dish as a (massive) “salad,” to balance out your meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13953224,arts_13953702,arts_13904835']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Funny as it sounds, one of the main reasons we had driven out to Orale is because we heard that it also serves little pancakes, and late-night dessert (or breakfast??) options are a particular rarity. In this respect, too, Orale didn’t let us down. Next to the truck, they set up a couple of portable molded pancake griddles, where they’ll cook you a batch to order: nine little pancakes or 25 \u003ci>even tinier\u003c/i> pancakes for $10, each one flipped with a toothpick like a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G845YGiLwaw\">Japanese takoyaki maker\u003c/a>. Then they dress them with whatever you pick from the toppings bar — I chose strawberries, condensed milk, cajeta and, why not, some smashed up Fruity Pebbles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My friends, these were a delight. I don’t know if it was the lateness of the hour or the makeshift nature of the setting, but I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed a plate of pancakes so much — when the pancakes were so hot and fluffy and well-browned on the edges. It made me want to start a campaign for more street-side pancake vendors everywhere, or at least for one within walking distance of my home. Since it often takes a while for taco orders at Orale to come out, my advice is to go dessert-first. Have some pancakes while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, by the time we’d finished, the wait time for tacos was easily half an hour, and the line showed no sign of thinning out. But the vibe at Orale is so pleasant — so \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">quintessentially San Jose\u003c/a>, with an almost perfectly diverse crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings (Latino, Black, Asian American) — that no one seems particularly pressed. Everyone is content to chill and make small talk with their neighbors at the long communal folding tables. About how great those tripitas are. And what a perfect time it is to be out here, eating this food, enjoying this night in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/\">Orale\u003c/a> is located at 2240 Alum Rock Ave. in San Jose. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m.–1 a.m., Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m.–1 a.m. Cash only.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954115\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: In a tented dining area, a man holds a large shrimp taco while his companion stuffs a huarache into his mouth.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Orale taco truck is open — and stays busy — until 3 a.m. on the weekends. It’s located in the Alum Rock neighborhood in Eastside San Jose. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>The party is in full swing when we pull up to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/?hl=en\">Orale\u003c/a> taco truck at 11 o’clock on a drizzly Friday night, in a tire shop parking lot in Eastside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/san-jose\">San Jose\u003c/a>. The tented, ad hoc dining area has the festive, easygoing bustle of a backyard barbecue, all lit up with string lights. Off to the side, a taquero grills up a massive batch of carne asada, perfuming the air with the smell of sizzling fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We drove out to this stretch of strip malls on Alum Rock because we’d heard that Orale stays open until 3 a.m. on the weekend — and, in fact, does a brisk business \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy-n3XKuyzk/?hl=en\">all the way until 3\u003c/a>. And so it does: When we arrive, the line runs seven or eight customers deep. It only gets longer the further into the night we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orale belongs to that new-school brand of taquerias and taco trucks we have here in the Bay, with the kind of wide-ranging menu that seems to encompass every Mexican street food trend to hit our region. In the mood for consomé-drenched \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria\u003c/a>? An \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931115/tacos-el-rulas-richmond-taco-truck-alambre-papa-loca-instagram-food-influencer\">alambre\u003c/a>? A \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CwJGFbgpXHG/\">bacon-wrapped hot dog\u003c/a> topped with everything under the sun? Orale has it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the place doesn’t seem to have caught that social media–induced sickness where every burrito needs to be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952597/worlds-largest-burrito-guinness-record-la-costena-mountain-view\">longest of all-time\u003c/a> and every plate gets drowned in an unconscionable amount of salsa — all \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936325/social-media-biggest-pupusas-burritos-instagram-tiktok-latinextravagant-bay-area\">for the sake of the ’gram\u003c/a>. Orale serves some big-ass tacos, but they’re sensibly constructed and just darn tasty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashiest menu item is probably the “mar y tierra” surf-and-turf taco, tailor-made for the kind of indulgent eater who thinks no steak dinner is complete without a broiled lobster tail. In this case, the “surf” consists of plump, well-seasoned grilled shrimp, which come draped, deliciously, over a layer of juicy carne asada, then topped with guacamole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My favorite, however, is Orale’s tripas taco, for which the cow’s small intestines are cooked in their own fat until they reach textural perfection: crispy on the outside but not over-fried, so the inside retains its softness and chew. Topped with a drizzle of spicy orange salsa to cut into the slight gaminess of the meat, it’s one of the best versions I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954117\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954117\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Diners sit at folding tables set up under a white tent on a drizzly night while others line up outside a taco truck to order their food.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Set up in the parking lot of a tire shop, the taco truck features a quintessential Bay Area crowd and vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Orale is also notable for its variety of masa-based specialties, like its huaraches — crunchy, slipper-shaped masa shells topped with lettuce, tomato, sliced avocado, crema, refried beans and your protein of choice. The vegetables are so fresh, you can almost order the dish as a (massive) “salad,” to balance out your meal.\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>Funny as it sounds, one of the main reasons we had driven out to Orale is because we heard that it also serves little pancakes, and late-night dessert (or breakfast??) options are a particular rarity. In this respect, too, Orale didn’t let us down. Next to the truck, they set up a couple of portable molded pancake griddles, where they’ll cook you a batch to order: nine little pancakes or 25 \u003ci>even tinier\u003c/i> pancakes for $10, each one flipped with a toothpick like a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G845YGiLwaw\">Japanese takoyaki maker\u003c/a>. Then they dress them with whatever you pick from the toppings bar — I chose strawberries, condensed milk, cajeta and, why not, some smashed up Fruity Pebbles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My friends, these were a delight. I don’t know if it was the lateness of the hour or the makeshift nature of the setting, but I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed a plate of pancakes so much — when the pancakes were so hot and fluffy and well-browned on the edges. It made me want to start a campaign for more street-side pancake vendors everywhere, or at least for one within walking distance of my home. Since it often takes a while for taco orders at Orale to come out, my advice is to go dessert-first. Have some pancakes while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, by the time we’d finished, the wait time for tacos was easily half an hour, and the line showed no sign of thinning out. But the vibe at Orale is so pleasant — so \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">quintessentially San Jose\u003c/a>, with an almost perfectly diverse crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings (Latino, Black, Asian American) — that no one seems particularly pressed. Everyone is content to chill and make small talk with their neighbors at the long communal folding tables. About how great those tripitas are. And what a perfect time it is to be out here, eating this food, enjoying this night in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/\">Orale\u003c/a> is located at 2240 Alum Rock Ave. in San Jose. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m.–1 a.m., Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m.–1 a.m. Cash only.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "San Bruno’s Late-Night BBQ Spot Is a Temple to Hip-Hop and Smoky Brisket",
"headTitle": "San Bruno’s Late-Night BBQ Spot Is a Temple to Hip-Hop and Smoky Brisket | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953708\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK.jpg\" alt=\"A man devours a spread of barbecue: brisket, ribs, collard greens, potato salad.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hip Hop BBQ Shack offers everything you could want at 10 o’clock on a Friday night: brisket, links, NBA Jam and a steady stream of ’90s and 2000s rap classic. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>San Bruno’s hip-hop-inspired late-night barbecue joint doesn’t simply play rap music while you eat your ribs; the actual name of the restaurant is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CsMg0XGPaeu/\">Hip Hop BBQ Shack\u003c/a>. Nearly every inch of the place is crammed full of assorted knickknacks and memorabilia, including a corrugated “Wall of Fame” that’s lined end to end with old vinyl and framed photos of hip-hop luminaries, both local and mega-national: Tupac, Kendrick, Mac Dre, Keak Da Sneak and, for some reason, Justin Bieber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waiting for our brisket plate, we fiddle with an NBA Jam mini arcade machine — itself an object of mid-’90s nostalgia. Over the speakers, Kid Cudi is off-key rap-singing about \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrDfSZ_6f4U\">lonely loners\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all a little on the nose. But the formula seems to work, mainly because the barbecue itself is so solid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that Hip Hop BBQ Shack is a fairly recent rebrand of The Famous Rib Shack, a longstanding Peninsula destination for ’cue, with the old sign still lit up out front. For the last few years, Chef Mae, the one-woman force behind San Francisco’s popular (and now-shuttered) Hyde Away Blues BBQ, has set up shop, slinging a barbecue menu that’s slightly fancier and more newfangled than your typical old-time joint. The mac and cheese has truffle oil in it here; the sauces are boozed up with bourbon or whiskey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953710\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953710\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a barbecue restaurant, with a sign that says, \"Rib Shack\" lit up above.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The old “Rib Shack” sign is still lit up above the restaurant. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Late on a Friday night, we cobbled together a plate of hot links and brisket, and found both to be legitimately tasty. The links were plump and fatty, bursting with juice, and had that good snap you look for in a sausage. The brisket was chopped into big chunks rather than sliced and seemed to have some of the burnt ends — that \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2014/7/8/6194903/the-burnt-ends-of-kansas-city-a-guided-tour\">crunchy, well-blackened Kansas City innovation\u003c/a> — mixed in so that you might get several different textures in a single bite: the crisp, peppery bark; the tender, pleasantly smoky meat; the little nubs of fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Note that this is the style of barbecue that comes slathered with a lot of sweet sauce — two kinds, in this case: a red, bourbon-based barbecue sauce that was slightly spicy and another one that was gold and mustardy. (A 49ers theme, maybe?) You can, of course, ask for the sauce on the side. I just wished we’d been given some plain white bread to help sop it up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13953224,arts_13951914,arts_13951382']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Meanwhile, the collard greens might have been the most flavorful version I’ve ever had — slow-simmered in ham juices until they were loaded with savoriness and umami.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the kind of restaurant that sells out when it sells out — sometimes as early as 8 p.m., we were told, especially if there’s a big game on. If that’s the case, does it even qualify as a late-night restaurant? All I know is we arrived at close to 11 o’clock on a Friday night, and apart from a few side dishes that had sold out, the kitchen was still turning out big plates of ’cue. Call ahead if you want to be sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Shack is also the kind of place where at the end of the meal, after we eat our fill and bob our heads to a steady stream of ’90s and 2000s rap classics, Chef Mae encourages us to consider throwing our next hip-hop-themed birthday party here. “You just have to wear all Adidas,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if I have \u003ci>that\u003c/i> on my 2024 bingo card. But if I’m hungry for barbecue on the Peninsula late at night, now I know exactly where to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hiphopbbqshack/\">Hip Hop BBQ Shack\u003c/a> is open at 223 El Camino Real in San Bruno, Friday through Sunday from 6–11 p.m. (or until sold out), and Wednesday to Thursday 6–10 p.m. (or until sold out). \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953708\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953708\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK.jpg\" alt=\"A man devours a spread of barbecue: brisket, ribs, collard greens, potato salad.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/HIPHOPRIBSHACK-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hip Hop BBQ Shack offers everything you could want at 10 o’clock on a Friday night: brisket, links, NBA Jam and a steady stream of ’90s and 2000s rap classic. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>San Bruno’s hip-hop-inspired late-night barbecue joint doesn’t simply play rap music while you eat your ribs; the actual name of the restaurant is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CsMg0XGPaeu/\">Hip Hop BBQ Shack\u003c/a>. Nearly every inch of the place is crammed full of assorted knickknacks and memorabilia, including a corrugated “Wall of Fame” that’s lined end to end with old vinyl and framed photos of hip-hop luminaries, both local and mega-national: Tupac, Kendrick, Mac Dre, Keak Da Sneak and, for some reason, Justin Bieber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waiting for our brisket plate, we fiddle with an NBA Jam mini arcade machine — itself an object of mid-’90s nostalgia. Over the speakers, Kid Cudi is off-key rap-singing about \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrDfSZ_6f4U\">lonely loners\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all a little on the nose. But the formula seems to work, mainly because the barbecue itself is so solid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that Hip Hop BBQ Shack is a fairly recent rebrand of The Famous Rib Shack, a longstanding Peninsula destination for ’cue, with the old sign still lit up out front. For the last few years, Chef Mae, the one-woman force behind San Francisco’s popular (and now-shuttered) Hyde Away Blues BBQ, has set up shop, slinging a barbecue menu that’s slightly fancier and more newfangled than your typical old-time joint. The mac and cheese has truffle oil in it here; the sauces are boozed up with bourbon or whiskey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953710\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953710\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a barbecue restaurant, with a sign that says, \"Rib Shack\" lit up above.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Hiphopribshack2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The old “Rib Shack” sign is still lit up above the restaurant. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Late on a Friday night, we cobbled together a plate of hot links and brisket, and found both to be legitimately tasty. The links were plump and fatty, bursting with juice, and had that good snap you look for in a sausage. The brisket was chopped into big chunks rather than sliced and seemed to have some of the burnt ends — that \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2014/7/8/6194903/the-burnt-ends-of-kansas-city-a-guided-tour\">crunchy, well-blackened Kansas City innovation\u003c/a> — mixed in so that you might get several different textures in a single bite: the crisp, peppery bark; the tender, pleasantly smoky meat; the little nubs of fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Meanwhile, the collard greens might have been the most flavorful version I’ve ever had — slow-simmered in ham juices until they were loaded with savoriness and umami.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the kind of restaurant that sells out when it sells out — sometimes as early as 8 p.m., we were told, especially if there’s a big game on. If that’s the case, does it even qualify as a late-night restaurant? All I know is we arrived at close to 11 o’clock on a Friday night, and apart from a few side dishes that had sold out, the kitchen was still turning out big plates of ’cue. Call ahead if you want to be sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Shack is also the kind of place where at the end of the meal, after we eat our fill and bob our heads to a steady stream of ’90s and 2000s rap classics, Chef Mae encourages us to consider throwing our next hip-hop-themed birthday party here. “You just have to wear all Adidas,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if I have \u003ci>that\u003c/i> on my 2024 bingo card. But if I’m hungry for barbecue on the Peninsula late at night, now I know exactly where to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hiphopbbqshack/\">Hip Hop BBQ Shack\u003c/a> is open at 223 El Camino Real in San Bruno, Friday through Sunday from 6–11 p.m. (or until sold out), and Wednesday to Thursday 6–10 p.m. (or until sold out). \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Marin County’s Best Late-Night Restaurant Is a Poker Room With $26 Prime Rib",
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"headTitle": "Marin County’s Best Late-Night Restaurant Is a Poker Room With $26 Prime Rib | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953228\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2.jpg\" alt=\"Man cuts a piece of prime rib while eating at the bar; next to him, another man devours a burger.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The $26 Thursday night prime rib plate at Pete’s 881 Club is one of the hidden gems of Marin County — but the poker room’s other bar food is also well worth seeking out. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>To find the best late-night food in Marin County, you have to snake through the dimly lit, warehouse-dotted back roads of San Rafael, past the auto dealerships and the landscaping supply stores, until you pull up to a low-slung, windowless brick building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/petes881club/\">Pete’s 881 Club\u003c/a>, and at first glance, the place looks like a lot of different things before you’d ever suspect it of being a notable dining destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13951914,arts_13952384,arts_13952823']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Most prominently, it’s a sports bar — an old-school one, in both its aesthetics and its (gracefully aging) clientele. Ten wall-mounted TVs ensure a clear view of the Warriors game from any seat in the house. Pete’s also happens to be the only legal poker room in Marin County, which accounts for the two felt-topped card tables set off to one side of the room. On any given night, you’ll find an assemblage of serious-looking Texas Hold’em players in rumpled sweatshirts and baseball caps, poring over their stacks of chips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You order food at a place like this because you want something to snack on while you watch the game, or because you don’t want to drink too many PBRs on an empty stomach. But you don’t necessarily expect the food to be any good\u003ci>.\u003c/i> You certainly don’t expect a $26 prime rib that draws favorable comparisons to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOZPxo3qPM\">House of Prime Rib\u003c/a> (at about half the price) — pink in the center, immaculately seasoned and succulently tender, with a charred crust and a streak of luscious, wobbly fat down the middle. The plate comes with horseradish cream, a big ol’ baked potato and some of the most delicious creamed spinach I’ve ever had — a super-rich version laced with bacon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prime rib plate at Pete’s is available on Thursday nights only, and it comes with one big caveat, for the purposes of this column: Even though the kitchen stays open until at least midnight every night, the prime rib — along with the prime rib dip sandwiches the bar sells on Fridays — \u003ci>always\u003c/i> sells out early. You have to get awfully lucky to snag a plate after 9 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953230\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953230\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior of a nondescript bar, with the sign for "Pete's 881 Club" above in green lettering.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pete’s is located in a sparse, warehouse-lined stretch of San Rafael. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, the rest of the food at Pete’s is also pretty darn good. Apart from the nightly specials, the menu reads like a typical sports bar menu — burgers, wings, pizzas and the like. But everything we tried was so much better than it needed to be. Better than it had any business being, to be honest. The chicken wings? Transcendently crunchy, served with the buffalo sauce on the side for dunking. The onion rings? Flawless. Everything tasted like homemade food, not freezer food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also tried Pete’s version of a “Juicy Lucy,” a \u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/2022/01/14/an-ode-to-the-jucy-lucy-or-juicy-lucy-of-minneapolis-which-may-be-the-best-cheeseburger-in-america/\">Minnesotan regional specialty burger\u003c/a> in which the patty itself is stuffed with cheese — a funky blue, in this case — so that the melted cheese oozes out when you bite into it. Delightful, even if the burger had a few too many toppings for our liking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While we were perusing the menu, the friendly bartender told us we’d have to come back on a Wednesday to try their famous chicken Anselmo special, a pan-fried chicken dish that comes drenched with gravy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s fucking bomb,” she said about that chicken, and also literally every other menu item we asked about. And you know what? She didn’t lie to us once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://petes881club.com/\">\u003ci>Pete’s 881 \u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"http://petes881club.com/\">Club\u003c/a> is open at 721 Lincoln Ave. in San Rafael from 10 a.m.–2 a.m. daily. The kitchen is open until 1 a.m. Thu.–Sat. and until midnight the rest of the week.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953228\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2.jpg\" alt=\"Man cuts a piece of prime rib while eating at the bar; next to him, another man devours a burger.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/pete-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The $26 Thursday night prime rib plate at Pete’s 881 Club is one of the hidden gems of Marin County — but the poker room’s other bar food is also well worth seeking out. \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 artist Thien Pham. 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>To find the best late-night food in Marin County, you have to snake through the dimly lit, warehouse-dotted back roads of San Rafael, past the auto dealerships and the landscaping supply stores, until you pull up to a low-slung, windowless brick building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/petes881club/\">Pete’s 881 Club\u003c/a>, and at first glance, the place looks like a lot of different things before you’d ever suspect it of being a notable dining destination.\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>Most prominently, it’s a sports bar — an old-school one, in both its aesthetics and its (gracefully aging) clientele. Ten wall-mounted TVs ensure a clear view of the Warriors game from any seat in the house. Pete’s also happens to be the only legal poker room in Marin County, which accounts for the two felt-topped card tables set off to one side of the room. On any given night, you’ll find an assemblage of serious-looking Texas Hold’em players in rumpled sweatshirts and baseball caps, poring over their stacks of chips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You order food at a place like this because you want something to snack on while you watch the game, or because you don’t want to drink too many PBRs on an empty stomach. But you don’t necessarily expect the food to be any good\u003ci>.\u003c/i> You certainly don’t expect a $26 prime rib that draws favorable comparisons to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOZPxo3qPM\">House of Prime Rib\u003c/a> (at about half the price) — pink in the center, immaculately seasoned and succulently tender, with a charred crust and a streak of luscious, wobbly fat down the middle. The plate comes with horseradish cream, a big ol’ baked potato and some of the most delicious creamed spinach I’ve ever had — a super-rich version laced with bacon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prime rib plate at Pete’s is available on Thursday nights only, and it comes with one big caveat, for the purposes of this column: Even though the kitchen stays open until at least midnight every night, the prime rib — along with the prime rib dip sandwiches the bar sells on Fridays — \u003ci>always\u003c/i> sells out early. You have to get awfully lucky to snag a plate after 9 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953230\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953230\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior of a nondescript bar, with the sign for "Pete's 881 Club" above in green lettering.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Petes-2-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pete’s is located in a sparse, warehouse-lined stretch of San Rafael. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, the rest of the food at Pete’s is also pretty darn good. Apart from the nightly specials, the menu reads like a typical sports bar menu — burgers, wings, pizzas and the like. But everything we tried was so much better than it needed to be. Better than it had any business being, to be honest. The chicken wings? Transcendently crunchy, served with the buffalo sauce on the side for dunking. The onion rings? Flawless. Everything tasted like homemade food, not freezer food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also tried Pete’s version of a “Juicy Lucy,” a \u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/2022/01/14/an-ode-to-the-jucy-lucy-or-juicy-lucy-of-minneapolis-which-may-be-the-best-cheeseburger-in-america/\">Minnesotan regional specialty burger\u003c/a> in which the patty itself is stuffed with cheese — a funky blue, in this case — so that the melted cheese oozes out when you bite into it. Delightful, even if the burger had a few too many toppings for our liking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While we were perusing the menu, the friendly bartender told us we’d have to come back on a Wednesday to try their famous chicken Anselmo special, a pan-fried chicken dish that comes drenched with gravy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s fucking bomb,” she said about that chicken, and also literally every other menu item we asked about. And you know what? She didn’t lie to us once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://petes881club.com/\">\u003ci>Pete’s 881 \u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"http://petes881club.com/\">Club\u003c/a> is open at 721 Lincoln Ave. in San Rafael from 10 a.m.–2 a.m. daily. The kitchen is open until 1 a.m. Thu.–Sat. and until midnight the rest of the week.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
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}
},
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"id": "bbc-world-service",
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"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
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"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"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.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"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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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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},
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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.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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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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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"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.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"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. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"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. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"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)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"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",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"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.",
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