beno h.'s Profile

i ate dinner at kerby's as my very first meal in austin on my first ever visit to texas.  i had the lamb guisado, and it was pretty good.  it wasn't a superhuge portion, so i also had some dessert.  i know they're open really late.

uhm, i usually writing longer, better reviews than this, but i haven't had time lately.  sorry.  i hope this helps.

i think i'll give this place 3 stars.  i had seen their coupons in mailers in the past but never got around to using them.  one day, my wife and i were cruising down the strip (el camino real), looking for south asian food and figured we'd try it out after all these years of passing by.  well, it's a humble dining room.  as a silicon valley lunch venue, it doesn't offer a really fancy environment like say... madhuban or bombay garden... but hey, you know, sometimes "hole in the wall" places are the best, right?  although the appearance looked a little like some run.of.the.mill indian i've seen in strip malls around silicon valley office buildings, ones that aren't very good but know they're the only indian restaurants around (i'm thinking about that place around first and tasman in san jose, neary ciscoland). it has that mom and pop business kind of feel to it.  as we entered, i saw they sold packaged sweets and also had a punjabi video rental service or something.  well, since it was late in the lunch hour, my wife and i opted for buffet because we figured it would be quick.  later, i was pleasantly surprised to find the buffet only costs $7.99, much cheaper than other indian buffets in the area.  of course, the buffet is quite a bit smaller, but... hey, sometimes bigger isn't always better right?

well, how was it?  let's keep in mind that we visited late in the lunch hour, so maybe it's better to go at peak time; but, to tell the truth, the buffet overall was just so.so.  i personally think the desi chinese chilli chicken was the star.  i was happy to have some medhu vada, but i wish they were fresher and crispier, and i wish i could have had some coconut chutney with them.  the chicken biryani was pretty good; but then, again, i hadn't eaten biryani in a long time, so i was kind of craving it, you know?  a few improvements they ought to make: 1) the naan just sits at the buffet.  in this day and age in the silicon valley, most good buffets bring fresh naan to your table.  2) they ought to include hot chai, and they could improve their dessert offering.

well, i had a stomachache the next day.  i'm not sure if it was from this lunch or my dinner at the popular liou's house in milpitas.  anyway, stomachaches don't phase me.  i wouldn't mind returning to this place to try out their chicken dosas because i usually only get dosas at south indian joints that serve no meat.  i'm curious.  i noticed that people were placing catering orders, so maybe this place is popular for that.

since i ate here twice in the past few days; what kind of yelper would i be if i didn't yelp about this naengmyuhnjip that is just around the corner from my house here in silicon valley's / santa clara's koreatown.  this place is most famous for their naengmyuhn (cold "buckwheat" noodles).  it's funny though... because yangpyang shinae seoul haejanggook (the restaurant with like five names over in the corner of the petco strip mall on bowers/kiely and el camino real that also houses gilmok "corner place" and googoo chicken "99 chicken") offers you a choice of several different kind of noodles for your naengmyuhn, but josuhn myunok only has one standard kind of noodle.  it's kind of like how some gourmet burger joint might have a whole bunch of different, crazy kinds of burgers; while purists might prefer some shop that only makes one kind, you know?  well, this place only has one kind of noodle for your naengmyuhn, but you can have your naengmyuhn as mool naengmyuhn, bibimnaengmyuhn, or hwe(bibim)naengmyuhn.  you have _some_ choice, you know?  furthermore, you can get a combo and pair your naengmyuhn with gabi or uh... i think they have some other choices, but i rarely do those combos.  here, you can get a refill on your noodles (like how some people ask for that at pho shops), but i prefer you didn't even _try_ to ask for a refill unless you can do so in korean because i'm guessing it's not something any restaurant _loves_ to do.  non.korean speakers/readers may be oblivious to the fact that this shop serves breakfast from 700~1100a.  they serve bookuh haejanggook, konggookbap, ... probably some kind of gomtang / suhlruhngtang.... the prices look great for breakfast.  in case you don't know haejanggook is a korean hangover remedy... like menudo in mexican cuisine.  i most often get haejanggook at seoul gomtang, and i usually am neither drunk nor hungover when i get it.

in recent months, with the economic disaster, which obama's is currently fixing; many of the santa clara / silicon valley koreatown restaurants started offering cheap lunch specials.  obokjip does this.  modoorang (known to non.korean speakers as "tutti") does this... i've seen similar signs elsewhere.  anyway, like $6~8 these days can get you a very good korean lunch special in k.town.  oohguhji galbitang is a great, cheap lunch special dish.  it was good at obokjip, and, it's great here.  today, i went for yookgyeijang, which is $9.99... more expensive than the other lunch special dishes; but very tasty.

uhm, we all know that there are those "oh so cool cos they're korean and throw in a few korean words into their daily speech to pass the minimum requirements to be a konglish speaker" korean.americans that yelp stuff like "i judge a korean restaurant by their banchan."  well, i personally think the banchan is pretty good here.  or maybe i was just really starving today because i didn't eat breakfast because i was too busy washing dishes.  you see, i clean up the house before the paid housekeeper comes once every other week.  isn't it sad when you have to clean up because you're too embarrassed to show your mess to the paid housekeeping service?

the first time, my wife and i went to josuhn myunok, we showed up pretty late in the evening.  i remember our young waitress obviously was hoping to get out of there and probably hit up one of the cool korean hofs/pubs/bars like v.i.p. or jujube or rumors.  (this was before hue.)  since then i've only been there for lunch.  it's a pretty popular place for lunch, crowded on hot days since people want naengmyuhn.

oh yeah, i love how they serve their naengmyuhn with yooksoo (beef stock) in a tea cup.  i bet many people who think they know korean food but don't are caught by surprise when they drink the savoury (salty) liquid, expecting tea.  don't worry the shikhyei at the end is really shikhyei!  ha ha ha!

well, because their naengmyuhn noodles are nice and jolgitjolgit (chewy) and because the soup dishes my wife and i had at lunch today were so satisfying; i'll go ahead and give this place four stars.

easily a solid 4 stars.  i agree with everyone that this is an essential part of santa clara's koreatown.  y'know, i don't mean to start a flame war, but there is 1 particular couple here - jeff and vivian h. - that gave this place 1.star yelps.  they obviously don't know what they are talking about as they don't seem to understand the definition of "gomtang" by complaining that their dishes were too bland.  as they couldn't even speak to the server in korean, we can easily discredit their aberrant reviews.  (don't get me wrong.  i'm not being racist.  i'm actually not ethnically korean; but i at least know the culture thoroughly and can speak the language fine.)

the gomtang here is healthy, hearty, and everything it is supposed to be.  if you complain that it's too bland, then you obviously don't know that gomtang is supposed to be served unsalted and that the diner should season it with sogeum (salt) and pa (green onions) to his/her liking.  the usual standby for most people is the chadolbaegi gomtang (often just called "chadol gomtang") - currently $9.98.  in the past, i usually ordered haejanggook (suhnji issneun haejanggook) - the famous korean hangover remedy (with cooked blood cubes) - currently $9.98.  (you can ask for it without the suhnji.  it's often eaten for breakfast after a night of heavy drinking, but i only seem to get it at nights, on nights when i don't drink.  ever since i had knee surgery (after a mishap while landing a snowboarding jump at kirkwood's terrain park), i usually get doganitang (beef joint soup) there - currently $15.98.

here's a secret tip: one of the several hangeul.only signs announces that they serve jabgokbap (multi.grain rice), which is really tasty as well much healthier than white rice.

we often go to seoul gomtang after taekwondo practice with all our taekwondo friends.  since our jindotgae (korean jindo dog) goes to practice with us, you'll see her tied out outside the restaurant with all the smoking ajuhssi (older men) from the danggoojang (billiards hall) next door.  the owners are like most koreatown restaurant owners as they absolutely love sooni and bring her bones and meat scraps.  you know, in choosing a korean restaurant, maybe you're wasting your time reading yelp.  instead, just drive around k.town and look for our doggy sooni!  i'm not kidding.  she'll be tied out outside only _good_ korean restaurants.  (well, some of the good restaurants actually let her sit inside with us because they love her so much.)

i'm giving this place five stars solely because of the great dj they had there during dinner last night - april 25, 2009.  heh heh, well... actually the dj was me.  even though i had wanted to go to fahrenheit at least to try out to food there for a long, long time; i never made it out there until last night when i was called up to sub in for the usual dj.  i usually dj wedding banquets/receptions, and i really do love djing weddings; but i definitely liked the change of pace, the chance to play different music.  usually, for wedding receptions, i'm spinning top.40, hip.hop, mashups; but for dinner in a fusionish joint, i figured i'd chic it out with more electronic, ambient, mellow house and local/global, mellow hip.hop.  anyway, wow, from the dj booth, i could see it was a very fun place.

as a foodie, i guess i'd better get on with reviewing the food.  well, i ordered the lamb chops, the crab cakes, and some kind of ahi tartare or ceviche.  i actually ordered the prawns ceviche; but i guess they were too popular that night, so the waiter suggested something else.  since i was in the middle of the mix, i didn't really hear what he said the replacement was but just agreed to it, and it was really tasty.  since i was spinning vinyls, the easiest thing for me to eat in the middle of the set was the crab cakes: crispy, plump, crabbily delicious, and served atop a bed of fresh pea sprouts.  i more often eat pea sprouts as a sauteed dish, but wow... they tasted great raw.  yeah, actually, my wife was at a table with some of our friends, and she later told me she wanted some of my crab cakes, but i totally demolished them so fast.  oops.

since the lamp chops required cutting, i put that plate off to the side, and moved on to eating the ahi tartare.  if i were doing my usual top.40 hip.hop sets, i sure as heck wouldn't have time to eat like this; but since i was spinning mellow house music at that point, i could scoop some poke.ish raw tuna onto those little crispy discs.  i thought they were sweet potato chips; but, now that i can read the menu on the website, i guess they were wonton chips.  hrm... okay, well, it was a good combination.

at the end of my shift, i started to attempt to eat the lamb chops; not the ideal thing to eat while djing.  i ended up just saving it for after my shift, when dj gbeats came to relieve me.  i brought my plate over to the table that my wife and friends had.  yeah, the lamb chops were great!  well grilled on the outside yet not over done in the center, just as i like them.  those came with mashed potatoes and some kind of pickled cabbage; kind of like sauerkraut but with some kind of fusionish twist to the taste.  good stuff!

my wife ordered some nori.wrapped scallops.  they were really good even though she pointed out that they were not wrapped in nori.

well, it was a really fun place.  i would love to dj there again, and i also would totally go there to dine or party.  i feel like the place is at least as classy as santana row joints but not as pretentious, more real.

i saw this chaat joint pop up several months ago.  i saw it being installed and looked forward to trying it out.  after months of not getting around to it; yesterday, my wife and i finally checked out ichaat cafe.  it was different from what we expected.  i thought it would be like those chaat house places.  instead, it's more of a contemporary, modern, indian fusion restaurant.  it combines the chaat house places with those tandoori wraps places.  it's very clean, hip, and modern inside.

i've told the story before about when i was in india for my friends' wedding in bangalore/mysore, my friends wouldn't let us americans eat pani puri because they said we couldn't eat raw water and raw veggies.  i guess they officially kept me away from raw foods because i "kept it natural" and took no shots before the trip.  in the end, i ate various raw veggies and came out fine, but i didn't get to have pani puri there.  thus when i got back to the states, i made sure to get pani puri.  well, on this visit to ichaat cafe, i tried to order pani puri, but they were out.  just to get something chaat.ish, i ordered bhel puri instead.  i also ordered their lunch special for the day - some lamb curry and some potato curry with naan and rice.  my wife ordered some saag/palak murgh (chicken) and some masala chai.

well, the food was decently good.  it's interesting how the lunch special comes in this compartmentalised bento box thingy, very modern.looking, yet also kind of like a tv dinner.  i wonder if they end up producing a lot of waste with this disposable flatware.  my wife liked the bhel puri better than i did, which surprised me because typically starchy stuff like that is more _my_ thing.  she pointed out that her saag chicken tasted like they added the chicken in after the fact.  i can imagine that they make saag by itself, then add in either paneer or chicken afterward, depending on what you order.  the problem is that the chicken ends up not having much flavour.  however, it was still okay overall.

i'd like to return to try out their wraps.  those tandoori naan wraps debuted in the bay area a few years ago.  i tried out some of those tandoori wraps place when they first opened, but i haven't tried out stuff like that in a while.

i'm actually from nor*cal, the bay area; but my wife grew up some in socal, and her family's down there.  i snowboard about 15~20 days of the year; so when we visit her folks down south over christmas , i have to hit up at least big bear once or twice.  it's not tahoe; but it suffices.  i enjoy how bear mountain has freestyle terrain park features throughout the mountain.  anyway, this past christmastime trip, my wife and i packed in a hurry.  i personally wanted so badly to hit up the sessions warehouse sale up in scotts valley on our way down, but well... it's not really on the way down.  we would have had to make a big detour.  anyway, my wife forgot to pack any snowboarding socks; so we had to shop around for some socks while down in socal.  you know, for some reason you guys down in socal have a much better selection of sporting goods stores than we do up in nor*cal.  i think there's just more overall consumption down there, huh?  there's a lot more shopping, eh?  you have great stores like active skate/ride shop everywhere.  i like how chick's sporting goods actually has some decent boardsports gear.  even your sports chalet has some too.  taking that into consideration, why does sports authority exist down there?

well, this location is pretty big - at least by our nor*cal, bay area standards.  that day, my wife and my old college friend actually walked around both sides of the irvine/tustin spectrum., the entire thing.. walked!  what huge parking lots!  we spent the whole afternoon and early evening there.  anyway, we first needed to get snowboarding socks for my wife.  their selection of boardsports of snowsports gear was... not great.  i mean, they have stuff there, and they really try to act as if they know what they're doing and have good stuff, but they don't.  they'll have a few good decks, bindings, and boots from reputable brands and then a bunch of junk.  if you want to support an http://up.and.coming brand or a local favourite; it's not going to happen.  the staff looks ready to help; but i'm not sure _how_ they help.  none of them seem to have snowboarded or skied that much... but i guess it's all relative, isn't it?  didn't marge simpson say she wanted to teach piano lessons to kids even though she didn't know how to play the piano?  she said she figured she just had to stay one lesson ahead of the kid.

well, we couldn't find any snowboarding.specific socks from brands we liked, so my wife just bought some 2.pack of random snow socks from some utilitarian company.  ideally, we wanted socks from a good brand and a thick model of socks, as there are different kinds of snowboarding socks, and that's what she wanted.  she actually ended up buying kids size because she has small feet and hands.

*sigh* well, the morning of the day we hit up big bear, she put on those socks, and i personally chuckled to myself thinking that was her punishment for not packing well... then, shoot... the joke was on me!  apparently, i too had forgotten to pack any snowboarding socks.  i had to wear those kids socks for a day too.  argh!  had i known i had forgotten socks, i would've bought some nicer ones in other stores we saw.  other stores, while not having an acceptable variety of women's socks at least had some decent guys' socks.  *sigh*  anyway, don't buy your boardsports or snowsports gear from sports authority.  support your local boardshop or skate shop!  (i saw their selection of skate shoes, not impressive.)  (stuff's not even cheap here!)

why does big 5 exist?!  *sigh* it's depressing.  i can barely remember any good experiences with big 5.  when i was a kid, my frugal dad sometimes brought me to big 5.  i remember he bought me a pair of leather high top sneakers, which shredded while skateboarding within a day.  i wore them for a few more months though, just with plenty of duct tape on them.  some people say that big 5 (and sometimes sports authority) are good places to go for cheap sporting goods.  for some reason, people in america actually spend a good amount of money on lots of sporting goods that they rarely or even never use.  to some extent, i can relate because i once bought some softball gloves from sports authority (then sportmart) for a church softball team that i ended up not joining.  however, in general, i limit my purchases of sporting goods to sports that i _really_ do, which would be just taekwondo, snowboarding, and skateboarding.  i suck at ball sports.  just because i go to church doesn't mean i have to play basketball and softball!  some people say surfing is the new golf.  i've tried surfing before, and i give it a thumb up; but i can personally see how snowboarding and skateboarding are also new golfs.  everything's the new golf!

i have one friend (who just so happens to play golf), who supposedly loves big 5.  he makes a good living and spends well in taking good care of his family; but for some reason, he apparently likes big 5 as a place to get cheap sporting goods and athletic wear.  *shrug*  maybe there's just some kick@$$ big 5 by _his_ house; but i personally have never seen one.  i remember one time when my friend bought some really tacky oakley sunglasses at the big 5 on blossom hill.  i mean, at the time, we thought they were cool... and actually, in this day and age, maybe those kinds of clear pastic frame shades are coming back in style.  i wonder if he still has them.

anyway, for some odd reason, i sometimes have this urge to look at sporting good ads, even the big 5 ad.  is it just part of being male?  i always browse through the big 5 ad and wince at the shoddy stuff they sell.  people say, "it's like a car wreck / train wreck; you just can't look away," right?  *sigh* don't quote me on this; but man... i'm sure lots of that cheap junk is made by slave labour, right?  sweat shops....

well, in recent years, for some bad reason, every so often, when i need to buy a piece of new sports equipment or athletic wear, i somehow fool myself into walking into this big 5; most likely on my way to trader joe's or mindflow chiropractic on murphy street or something.  for example, last summer, i was so distraught over what i should wear under boardshorts when i go to the beach or go whitewater rafting.  i bought a snazzy pair of volcom boardshorts at tj maxx, but i didn't necessariy _want_ to go commando, so i considered buying some speedos to wear underneath.  do you call those banana hammocks?  well, i checked out this big 5's selection.  ugh, the cheap stuff doesn't even have cheap prices!  argh...

from time to time, in the past, i've also tricked myself into walking in to look for gym clothes.  same story: the cheap stuff doesn't even have cheap prices!  what the heck?  what is this big 5 good for? absolutely nothing!

well, for gym clothes, i'll go to sports basement.  for snowboarding gear, i'll go to maybe sports basement or else some other local core boardshop.  for skateboarding stuff, yeah, i've got to support my local skate shop, so i'll head off to ohana boardshop or caliskatz.

epilogue: in my younger, more naive, student days; when i lived in berkeley; my friend supermike (s.mike for short) and i wear shoping for some snowboarding gear.  we walked into a big 5 in richmond.  when we asked if they had snowboards, the friendly saleswoman said something like this: you know, i wish we did; but the folks in this area just don't have the resources to do sports like that.  she was really nice about it, but wow... that was kind of sad to think.  since i snowboard so much, at times, i actually considered helping out with programs like pal that take inner city kids up to the slopes to learn snowboarding.  i haven't yet found the time though.  well, while i ended up renting and borrowing gear; s.mike actually found some other big 5 in the east bay and bought some really cr@ppy setup, a cheap deck with step.in bindings and boots, not even some standard step.in system.  he had the hardest time getting those boots to click.in.  thankfully, he was actually able to return that setup to the big 5 after using it for a weekend.  lemme tell you folks, don't use step.in bindings!  do you see danny kass rocking step.in bindings in the xgames or anywhere?  standard straps are the way to go.  personally, i don't even consider flow bindings.  you want you control surface areas to be properly located and not overly spread out.  don't even think of buying snowboard equipment at big 5 (or sports authority).

are you a korean ajuhssi or ajoomma (middle.aged man or woman) who is sick of your kids' going off being so proud of being korean, dancing their wonder girls dances, noraebanging their bigbang tunes, showing off their knowledge of _ggot_boda_namja_ (_boys_over_flowers_, the popular k.drama) to their non.korean, asian.american cohorts?  well, maybe you want to show them how _real_ koreans eat.  then, pull them out of the yogurt works and bring them next door to obokjip!

obokjip is the newest addition to santa clara koreatown's t&h plaza, which houses an assortment of cool korean businesses - jin's bakery and cafe (which used to be green bakery's bbang hana bbang dool), the koreatown 2.0 fusionish beque, jei learning center, diamond skin care, the korean newspaper office, the korean postal and shipping center thingy, and then... oddly enough the smoke/bong shop and the sephardic/ashkenaz jewish joint jerusalem deli.  for a short time, benkay sushi occupied that spot as if koreatown actually had room for yet another korean sushi house.  well, the menu here is all in korean.  well, no... i think there may be some japanese subtitles to the menu... which consists of pictures and hangeul signs stuck to the freshly painted walls.  the feel of this joint is like a real pojangmacha (streetside food wagon) in korea; but the interior decor is rather contemporary and fancy.  don't expect to speak much english here.  english is such a bad language anyway... as you, the korean ajoomma/ajuhssi, should know.

well, it's time to show your wangjabyung sons and gongjoobyung daughters (prince/princess syndrome) how _real_ koreans eat!  this isn't the fancy coffeehouses of myungdong!  no, this is what it's like when you drag the yuhnyeiin (entertainers) off to the countryside on the korean reality shows to do farmwork for wages to be given to charity.  you'll be eating with the _real_ korean people, the plebes, the proletariat!  right on the outside of the glass windows, the restaurant boasts their dalkbal (chicken feet) dish.  did your little gongjoobyung/wangjabyung write that off as something chinese people eat at dimsum?!  noooo! they need to watch you eat them firsthand!  i mean, _they_ should eat them; but you know they won't.

well, right now, maybe just because the restaurant just opened; they have lunch specials for $5.99: ramyuhn, chunggookjang (extreme dwenjang jjigae), ooguhji galbitang, yookgyeijang, and one or two other choices.  otherwise, you can opt for juhngol dishes like osamboolgogi - an acronym for o(jingo)sam(gyuhbsal)boolgogi; squid, three.layer pork (korean bacon), bulgogi.  they have gamjatang (one of _my_ favourite dishes, which i have yet to try here; pork and potatoe soup) and dalkdoritang (chicken leg and potato soup).  most of the juhngol dishes run about $25.99 and are to be shared by your entire table.  of course, like a pojangmacha, they have dduhkbokki for $8.99; but i think _i_ make the best dduhkbokki at home.  come over, try it, and yelp about it!

well, i had the ooguhji galbitang for lunch today.  it had only two pieces of galbi, but it was still very tasty.  my wife had the chunggookjang.  before ordering it she didn't know what it was and thus commented, "this has lots of dwenjang."  the place has quite a homey feel to it.  it's not the fanciest food, and well... it certainly has tough competition in santa clara's koreatown.  however, i've got to say it stands out as being one of the most authentic korean joints here right now.  as i was telling my wife, it simply draws out (as customers) a different breed of koreans than what most americans think of when they envision the stereotypical korean.  maybe you have to see it to understand.

anyway, ajuhssi/ajoomma!  please bring your kids to obokjip.  it's due time they realise that it's _not_ so cool to be korean!  ha ha ha~~~!
(Y)
(-.-)
(")(")

well, relative to the selection of restaurant in auburn, i want to give this restaurant more stars, like four.  however, compared to restaurants in the bay area, i can only give it three.  i keep saying these days that since i snowboard 15 ~ 20 days a season, i really need to make a list of restaurants on the way to and from the slopes.  actually, what i _really_ need to rank all the snow resorts.  after all, there are people who go snowboarding (or skiing) so much less than i do that are rating them, so...

well, my favourite are probably alpine meadows, kirkwood, sugar bowl, and northstar.  the first three probably get the most snow.  in my heart, i'm a total terrain park slopestyle snowboarder, and i want to ride the terrain park all day; but most of my friends are typical downhill riders.  well, that's not a bad thing for me: whereas, some kids in socal / big bear can do crazy boardslides and flips but can't make it down a black diamond groomer; i suppose i've had opportunities to get myself ready for like all.mountain freestyle because of friends that just want to freeride, ride powder, ride gullies, treeride, etc.  anyway, i prefer resorts that don't segregate their terrain parks and make all other boring without any hits or ledges.  i need to be able to find stuff to jump off of and onto while friends ride downhill.... so basically, that means, i actually dislike squaw and majorly hate heavenly.  i especially hate heavenly because, even though they brag about their acreage, so much of it is not for snowboarding: so many flats and so much ski terrain.  northstar is cool because they have quite a bit of terrain park stuff; and it's also cool that i'll always run into friends there.  however, i dislike how they're trying for the country club feel (like heavenly) now.  i hate how the lodge at the bottom of lookout mountain is for members only.  the lodge at the top of tahoe zephyr is too. that snobby stuff stinks.

anyway, after a long day of snowboarding, you got to eat.  in general, my rule of thumb is that the closer you get to the bay area, the better variety you'll find.  oftentimes, on my homebound commute, i make my carload wait until milpitas to eat... or we might eat in pleasanton or make it all the way to sunnyvale to feast on indian or korean food on el camino real.  why does snowboarding _have_ to mean in.n.out?  do you really think i can eat in.n.out _every_day that i snowboard?

well, auburn is a good place to stop on evenings where you hit a lot of traffic in the tahoe hills.  oftentimes, in the darker, winter months, people want to stop earlier on the homebound commute, either because we drove through snow a long time or simply because the setting of the sun makes people think more about dinner.  in auburn, some good places to eat include (well) in.n.out, marie callender's, kau kau hawai.ian bbq, and well... you know what?  i think sum's mongolian bbq is actually my favourite place to stop off to eat in auburn.

i found sum's mongolian bbq just by chance a decade ago, while driving home from snowboarding with my pal supermike.  we were happy to find _something_ ethnic in auburn, you know?  well, kau kau didn't exist back then.  anyway, it's your usual mongolian bbq.  i have many friends that have worked in mongolia, but i never hear of mongolian bbq in mongolia.  is mongolian bbq just a chinese.american invention? i don't know, but this is a pretty good place to get it.  you get a pretty good variety of meats and vegetables.  every meal comes with fried wonton skins and red sauce and some hot and sour soup or something like that.  furthermore, you get vanilla soft serve!  that's good stuff.

well, as i said, this is your best bet in auburn.