China Gourmet - 2210 H South Shore Center, Alameda, CA 94501 – (510) 521-6337

February 19, 2013 – We had a rare weeknight outing because V&G’s folks went to see “Lincoln.” The movie is three hours long, so we had plenty of time to have a great Chinese meal. Somehow with all of the other good Chinese restaurants in town, China Gourmet had not been in our regular routine. China Gourmet is in the Southshore Shopping Center. We knew that Stopwaste and MASC were working on a project to expand recycling and composting through the whole complex. More on that later.

We had:

§  Salt & Pepper Calamari – We had heard about calamari on NPR’s “This American Life,” so we were relieved when it came out as calamari steaks, deep fried with salt & pepper. Greta says, “I liked the salt & pepper calamari because I already like calamari and since there were seasonings it tasted even better. I would give it five out of five stars.”

• Stir-fried Mixed Mushrooms – Several unusual types of mushrooms, stir-fried along with snow peas. Greta says, “The mushrooms tasted yummy. I especially liked the big stir-fried mushrooms because they had the most flavor out of them all. I also like the shiitake mushrooms.”

§  Crispy Fried Sole (deep fried and topped with soy sauce) – Vera says, “It had fish on both sides.” We ate all of the fish on one side and turned it over and had more fish on the other side. It was even saucier on the second side. Both Vera & Greta like to eat whole fish and often order it at Juanita’s. We looked around for the eyeballs (a treat), but couldn’t find them. Did you know that sole (like flounder) has both eyes on one side of its body?

§  Bok Choy – We ordered Bok Choy (to get some more veggies) which was steamed in a mild sauce. A nice accompaniment to the other spicy food.

§  Indonesian Fried Rice (curried fried rice with chicken, shrimp, pineapple cashews, and red pepper) – This was an unusual example of fried rice. Very tasty.

Compost Report – Jessica is working on getting all of Southshore optimized for recycling and composting. It is complicated because there are so many businesses and over 10 restaurants. Several of the larger anchor tenants (like Safeway and Trader Joe’s) have their own collection service and their own recycling and composting programs. But all of the smaller stores throughout the mall share recycling and trash service, so it will take some effort to increase recycling and add composting. China Gourmet cooks from scratch and so they have a lot of vegetable trimmings. We gave a MASC brochure to the manager and she took great interest in the program. She said that she would share the information with the owner.

So, check out the yummy Chinese food at China Gourmet. They even have a full bar (which is an extra bonus). Tell them that you are really looking forward to all the recycling and composting that they will be doing once the whole Southshore Center complex is maximizing recycling and composting.