Adem Baba (Seafood)

Mmmmm... Adem Baba's sole shish kebab.  This place is a bit of a local institution, and on recommendations from Trip Advisor I ordered the fried calamari and some shishes.  A brief tangent, I have not found TripAdvisor to be very reliable.  I was able to find another review of Adem Baba from Istanbul Eats who I do greatly respect.  I'm glad I made the trip.

The bread they give you is good.  The cornbread stuff is dry.  The calamari tasted delicious, and were the right non-chewy, toothy consistency.  Their little sauce that comes with them was also pretty decent, they were just a bit too greasy.  But, the Sole shish kebabs were so delicious I still think about them.  I still crave them!

They were delicious because they were simple.  Sole. Peppers.  Tomato.  Lemon.  Simple grilled, perfectly cooked.  They had the right blend of natural flavor, heat, acid, and grill.  And a few leaves of sorrel.  I love sorrel!  I've tried to replicate them at home, and thus far have failed.  It's not cheap by Turkish standards, but it's not too bad for the average traveler.


Adem Baba
Arnavutköy Mh.  
Satış Meydanı Sokak 2
34000 Istanbul, Turkey
0212 263 2933
3.5 of 5 (shishes get a 5 all day long)

Squeeze Inn

My family descended upon the poor unsuspecting Squeeze Inn in Galt, California (right outside Sacramento) to try their famous grilled-crisp cheese cheeseburgers.  Once a modest establishment, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and other accolades have caused rather rapid and aggressive expansion.  We ordered just about every type of burger and fry they served, milk shakes, and other artery cloggers.  In the end, we enjoyed ourselves, but a mix of average service and often underseasoned food caused the overall assessment to be rather lower than where they could, and probably should, be.

The milkshakes were large and delicious.

The fries were fresh and cooked perfectly, but needed more salt.

The chili fries were a meal unto themselves and featured good, Texas-style red (no bean with meat) chili.

The sweet potato fries (a new addition) were rather disappointing.  They had an odd taste, were crisp but not 100% delicious, and the wasabi ranch sauce was probably powder ranch mixed with powder wasabi (resulting in an extremely tart, oddly tangy - in the wrong way - pretty impossible to eat mix).

The burgers were beastly (hand for scale) with a delicious side of crispy cheese (which I folded back onto the burger).

And filled to the gills!  (Fork for scale of crispy cheese).  The patties were the thin variety, not fat "Red Robin" style, but more expanded "Wendy's" style.  This said, they were juicy and well cooked.  We couldn't be sure they weren't frozen, but such is life.  The main issue with the burger was the meat was underseasoned.  Salt - Pepper.  Feel free to also add a little Garlic Powder, etc.

Overall, good but not great.  We were glad to have gone.  Crispy cheese, what a fantastic idea to create a unique burger experience around it!  Bravo!  Our party could have been a little nicer, and so could the host/first server.  For example, as we arrived (with a large group) the servers were unwilling to allow us to move together a few tables (with 3/4 of the space open).  They wanted us to sit near each other, but not connected or wait for at least 10-15 minutes.  Some quick subterfuge later and the tables were connected.  

This did not seem to be a problem for local high school kids around.  The staff seemed perfectly content to allow them to nurse their fries for 45 minutes or more and drop by to see what they needed.  It appeared we caught them between shifts though, as one less helpful waitress left, a new, more helpful waitress arrived.  Seemed they may have wanted us to wait because one waitress did not want to help a big party and end up with no tip.  I cannot say I completely agreed with how our group handled the situation, but the service from hosting to serving never was super impressive.  

The Squeeze Inn

545 Industrial Drive  

Galt, CA 95632
(209) 745-4313

3.5 of 5

thai ginger

thai ginger is an institution in the greater seattle area. first in factoria, based in a trailer, the place touts its "on of the 50 best thai restaurants in america" honors from 2007. now it has 5-ish locations. in sum, very good thai food made for the american palate. here are the details:

the ambiance is very kitchy. bamboo, a little thai art, some background music that smacks of the way southeast asia is, in people's heads. it's about as authentic an experience as maggiano's is an authentic italian experience. service neither adds nor detracts, it's middling.

this go around, i had pad thai and mini egg rolls (egg rolls = not that great, without much flavor and no meat). last time it was red curry, green curry, and tom kai ka. this hardly represents the entire menu, but it's a decent cross section.

portions are small. smallish for a normal dinner, exceptionally small for thai served in america. food flavors are good, but i take exception to their spice. first, it is not spicy. 4, 5, whatever they call their version of the most spicy, it's not. what this means is, they're serving to an american palate, and/or they had enough people complain about real spice that they stopped and now a normal spice loving person can't get a reasonably spicy meal. next, lazy spicy. spice is not developed in an ingenious stewing concoction, or with a combination of spice sources or fresh peppers. it mostly comes from crushed red chili. verdict - lazy! now, for a disclaimer. if you have an american palate, that is to say, you are a normal person who likes normal fare in the good ol' u. s. of a., i doubt you'll be disappointed.

my first thai ginger experience was with a family group of about 5 or 6. everyone ordered something different, and it was a family-style type atmosphere. i ordered a green curry with (their max) 4 stars. i went to lengths to tell the waitress, disregard my whiteness and bring me real, thai-spicy, spicy food. she chuckled and said ok. it landed with some extra chili peppers/red chili flake, and she told me she would bring me more, but i declined. a spoonful of dry chili peppers might add spice, but that's it. it destroys any real flavor that the dish does have. i tried it. i looked around. is this a joke? another friend was there, a female who loved spicy food, she also found it lacking in the spice department. meanwhile, 4 other people kept talking about how spicy their food was, and one person had forehead sweat beads. i concluded, (as the other side of the table also ordered green curry) maybe they had made it out of the same batch and disregarded their request for 2 stars. and then i tried it. it was like eating green curry flavored coconut milk. their was nothing spicy about it. nothing. truly my puny 4 star spice was spicier than their 2 star cat-milk spicy food. shock. awe. shock.

what does this all mean? not much. it's passable. good even for seattle thai food. certainly overhyped, certainly catering to the eastside's bourgeois. if you're right there, i'd stop by and give it a try, but i would not go out of my way for it.

thai ginger
five locations
my experience from:
3717 factoria blvd se
bellevue, wa
425-641-4008
http://www.thaiginger.com/
3 of 5