Today, I had an interview in Santa Clara, so I drove down to the South Bay. It’s interesting how my view of travel distance differs from SoCal to NorCal. I would always think driving from Anaheim to downtown LA is soo far that it’s somewhat prohibitive, whereas I have no qualms about taking a drive down to the South Bay, even though the two routes are pretty much the same distance. But as I was making the trip down and up the I-880, I was thinking about how much of a pain this commute would be if I ever got the offer and if I decided to accept.
The upside is that I would have pretty good access to the Milpitas area during lunch time. That’s where I stopped by today after my interview for lunch. Ate at this place called Taiwan Noodle House, even though from the Chinese it’s name actually should be translated to “Taiwan Pork Chop King.” And though I wasn’t in Taiwan, I might as well have been. It smelled like Taiwan, the chatter in the restaurant sounded like it does in Taiwan, and the TV channel probably was from Taiwan. It was a strange feeling to know in my head that I was actually still in Northern California.
What was super exciting was that when I sat down and took a sip of my “water,” it turns out that it was winter gourd/melon drink! How cool is that? I mean, it was a bit diluted, but still. They also sold a variety of Taiwanese eats, so that was also very cool. I ended up trying out their pork chop rice (I mean, it is called the Pork Chop King) and got a serving of the stinky tofu (which I love, btw). But after that, it was all disappointment. I really wanted to like the place b/c of the winter gourd drink, but when it comes down to it, I would have to say that I wouldn’t come back. The food wasn’t bad per say; it just didn’t really have the Taiwanese flavor I expected out of these two common Taiwanese dishes.