39 - Aunt Charlie's Lounge - San Francisco

133 Turk St., San Francisco, Ca. 94102, (415) 441 - 2922

Last visit - January 2006

Aunt Charlie's Lunge

Yes, these are a couple old reviews that I am porting here from a couple years ago. I guess this is a trip through memory lane. It will also start a 5 part series of bars.

(image from unknown source)

The moment you step into the bar, you see it all: the narrow walls, the fluffy cloud-like ceiling, the bar on your left, and old TV hanging on the ceiling. In other words, this bar is small! I think the maximum capacity is twenty.

I went on their dragqueen show night. It was dark and a small crowd of people were drinking by the back of the bar, staring at the curtain to a stage. From there on, drag queens came out in their full made-up appearances and started singing to their heart's delight. It was a loud and rather festive event. I was kind of awestruck because it was my first time at this kind of thing.

The bartender is a old bearded man with a long pony-tail. He serves super stiff drinks. I saw him do my cranberry-turkey, and he let the bottle run up to about three-fourth's full then splashed the top with a little cranberry: the result, a very strong drink. For $4.50, it's a steal.

I think the bar is made up of mostly regulars, but welcomes strangers. It is a bit away from downtown, so it might be difficult to find.

38 - Ajisen Ramen - Fremont

47890 Warm Springs Blvd., Fremont, CA., (510) 353 - 1133

Last visited - September of 2009

(Image from http://www.ajisensf.com/)

We went here by accident. I wanted to find Kuro-Ramen and instead we saw this on Yelp and got excited. We've had Ajisen at two other places before, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia. What a weird coincidence, we thought.

To disclose, this was supposed to be a light meal before a night of gaming and cocktails at Dave and Busters at the Great Mall. It turned out to be a lot more food than we thought. We found the place after a drive through the quiet city parts of Fremont. It was a starry night and we opened the moon roof to get a better sight of the sparkling sky. Boy was that a stupid idea, the smell of Fremont's garbage dumps could be smelled from afar.

We arrived at the restaurant and were seated by a young Chinese girl. I wasn't expecting a Japanese person, but she did have the usual "irashaimase" greeting from the Ajisen Ramen franchises. The Japanese beer posters and the giant banner that said "Kumamoto tonkotsu" style reminded me of Japan's ramen shops. We ordered our ramen, two beers, and a plate of their kara-age fried chicken. She took our order and we saw the cooks in the back making our order. They had an air of pride in their work. At least they dressed the part, like izakaya chefs in Japan.

The food came and it was pretty tasty. The noodles was not soggy and the broth was rich with flavor. I went for the miso and my girlfriend went for the volcano. She usually goes for the spicy stuff. Our ramen was good and the fried chicken was good too. It came in six giant pieces: each of them equal to the size of three chicken McNuggets stacked together. It became a hearty meal. We slowly enjoyed our meal, and listened to Jpop music coming from overhead speakers. It was a nostalgic treat!

37 - Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot - Fremont

215 S. Ellsworth Ave, San Mateo, CA. 94401, (650)343-2566

Last visit: October of 2009

(image from Yelp.com)

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is where I first tried bamboo for dinner. The insides of bamboo is white, film-like, and tastes like tofu. We dipped it into the hot pot for a couple of minutes and pick it back up with our chop-sticks and it is drenched in the flavor of the chili filled broth. It's not bad, not bad at all. Bamboo, and a host of other Chinese-Mongolian foods can be ordered for hot pot at Little Sheep.

I went there with my girlfriend's family and we ordered two pots for two tables. The hot pot came with a divider because we wanted a spicy soup as well as a mild flavored one. They do refill the broth, but it doesn't hurt to request it. We ordered the lamb shoulders and some beef for our meats.

The dishes of uncooked food came and we had a nice time dipping things in and waiting for it to heat up. All the dishes are heated by hotplates on the tables and we just left it on the highest temperature. Cooking meats and noodles are fun, but waiting for shrimp and seafood to boil isn't. I recommend trying the bamboo (insides of bamboo) because it sucks up the flavor of the soup. We liked the beef and lamb, but everything else was so-so. The spicier (red) flavored soup is better than the mild (white) soup.

It's a fun place for kids as they get to see things get cooked. If I had a kid, I'd threaten to cook them in it whenever they get out of line.