Food!

Mission Pizza (Fremont, CA)

First, I want to give a shout out to Mission Pizza in Fremont. Mediocre pizza is common, but outstanding pizza is rare and Mission Pizza has it. I don’t know if they do something special, but their crust is perfect and their toppings are incredible. One thing I really missed on the East coast is that pizza places never did sauce the way I like it: tangy and rich. Lots of cheese. Soft but not soggy crust. It’s fantastic pizza, and the people who work there are always really nice; it’s a wonderful place, and if you are in the area (1572 Washington Blvd, Fremont, CA), you should try it. It’s a cute place with plenty of indoor seating; they’ve got some games in there – I think one is a claw game – anyway, I always get take-out but that’s because I can walk over.

Mission Tasty Hut (Fremont, CA)

There’s a couple of little strip malls off Mission Blvd; in one is a USPS, a dry cleaners, and a couple of restaurants including a dim sum place. The mall is dominated by a kid-oriented Kung Fu studio, but the hidden gem is an a little building in the parking lot which contains a fast-food place called Mission Tasty Hut. It’s often pretty busy, so locals know about it; they sell an odd (to me) mix of foods – fish & chips, wagyu burgers, oysters & chips, and a wide variety of fruit tea drinks, yoghurt teas, and boba drinks. The place is barely larger than the kitchen, and often you’ll only be able to order at the kiosk because there’s one person cooking and another putting orders together, and nobody at the till. It’s absolutely worth it, though, because the french fries are shockingly good, and they have a teriyaki salmon burger which is to die for. It’s not ground salmon; it’s a fillet, and you should order it fried – it’s not “breaded” fried, but it is mouth watering and sloppy-joe levels of messy to eat. I can’t express how surprisingly good this place is. Seating is exclusively outside, but they have a bunch of tables and generous umbrellas. I haven’t worked my way through their menu yet, but doing so is in my bucket list. My mouth is watering just typing this out.

Horchata

I’ve been grooving on Horchata lately. Apparently everyone knew about it but me; I only recently discovered it. I first got it pre-packaged in the alternative milks section. It looked tasty and dang. After inhaling the first box, I bought two more and drank those over the next few days. I know it’s a lot of sugar, and I honestly thought I’d tire of it quickly and then only get it occasionally. Well, I didn’t tire of it, so I decided to look up a recipe and make it.

It’s not hard. If you have a good blender, like a Vitamix, it’s really easy; if you don’t, you have to soak some rice overnight – and don’t try it with a KitchenAid; it’ll just burn out the motor. The recipe I found talked about both methods but only gave a recipe for the soak-version. It also makes over 2.5 quarts of the stuff, which doesn’t fit into a Vitamix (or, at least, not our Vitamix, which can handle 2q). So here’s the recipe I worked out that works in a 2q blender. Again, rice gets gooey and is likely to burn out a standard mixer. Vitamix, Blendtec, and other “professional” blenders can power through a rice sludge – many consumer blenders which are perfectly fine for most kitchens and which cost a hell of a lot less can get overheated and burn out. Anyway, I don’t want to be responsible for costing you an otherwise perfectly good blender.

• 1c rice
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 6c water
• 1/4c sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract

So, most recipes specify long grain rice. Sushi rice works fine; I’d just avoid brown rice. Recipes also specify “Mexican cinnamon”. Mexico does not grow cinnamon; “Mexican cinnamon” is just Ceylon cinnamon. Frankly, you can probably use any kind; I prefer ceylon in any case, so that’s all we buy, but if you have another kind just use that. Use a half-stick of cinnamon if you have that. Do not add all of the sugar at once the first time; taste it until you figure out how sweet you like it I tend to add a little less, but these amounts are based on the original recipe I used. Finally, a while ago I found some ground vanilla, which I really like, so I use that; the original recipe called for vanilla extract, which I’m sure is fine.

Add the rice, water, and cinnamon to your mixer and blend until it’s smooth. It will take several minutes, as the rice has to get chopped up and absorb the water. I generally go slow for a few minutes and then ramp it up as it starts looking done. You’re looking for “creamy” – dip a teaspoon and you’ll know by mouth feel if it’s smooth enough. It won’t be sweet yet. If it feels too thick, add more water until it isn’t. The final step is to add the sugar and vanilla, and blend it enough to mix together. You end up with just under two quarts of ready-to-drink Horchata, which fits nicely in a pitcher. You want to serve this cold, so over ice or well-refrigerated – and if it isn’t obvious, this should be refrigerated.

I’ve seen recipes that say you can mix this with milk or water to think it out and make it less like a dessert, which I think is a good idea.

There’s some secret to mixing it I haven’t figured out; sometimes, it gets all blended together and stays that way, but often it separates in the fridge. It’s nothing a little stirring doesn’t fix, but it is a little perplexing, because I don’t think I’m doing anything differently each time.

Ok, so that’s my food post. If you’re anywhere Mission San Jose around meal time, you owe it to yourself to try something at Mission Tasty Hut, or grab a pizza from Mission Pizza.