16.223 Roasted Duck (Half)

Cycle 16 – Item 223

Post 5,702

16 (Sat) August 2025

Roasted Duck (Half)

3.0

at Hong Kong Restaurant

-Palo Alto, California, USA-

with DJ

Sending the Kid Off to College (The Cal Handover): Day 3 of 8

- Day 1 (16.221 “Walnut Shrimp” (Candied Pecans with Jumbo Prawns))
- Day 2 (16.222 DeliciousHot Dog)
- Day 3 (16.223 Roasted Duck (Half))
- Day 4 (16.224 Seared Baby Lobster (Nigirizushi))
- Day 5 (16.225 Wintermelon & Seafood Soup – Go Bears!)
- Day 6 (16.226 Fettucine … Anchoïade – Let’s Celebrate in Style)
- Day 7 (16.227 Original Tofu Soup – This Is Where I Leave You)
- Day 8 (16.228 Korean Beef Short Rib with Vegetables Wraps)

In the San Francisco Bay Area. MISSION: transition DJ into his new life as a freshman at the University of California – aka Cal (to those who know) aka UC Berkeley (to those who don’t): sign up for a local mobile phone number, open a checking account, buy pillows for his dorm room. After that fateful visit to Berkeley last summer, which I’d dared to hope would inspire DJ to apply later that fall, then get accepted and enroll in the spring – meanwhile, donating to the Buddha for Academic Achievement (see 13.094 Just Regular Eomuk), asking a priest for his blessing (see 15.256 Pretty Jeon), erecting a shrine to the Golden Bear Gods (see 16.082 Kongnamul Scallop Guk), and delivering a presentation to steer him in the right direction (see 16.083 Tangsuyuk) – the dream came true. A graduate of Cal myself – Go Bears! – I look forward to buying a “Cal Dad” t-shirt.

4 nights at Hahn’s, 2 nights at Berkeley, 1 final night back at Hahn’s.

LUNCH

Barely 3 days in, DJ already caves Korean food.

Located in Cupertino Village, where all the other stores are Chinese.

Packed, mostly with Chinese customers, though all the servers appeared to be Korean.

With Jenny and Kaitlyn – who is transferring as a junior to Cal from UCSB – we all went to Tofu Plus, one of their favorite Korean restaurants, located about halfway between Los Altos and Saratoga, where I had plans to visit later in the afternoon.

As with most Korean restaurants in America, the menu offers a bit of everything.

Extending GMTD’s Korean Restaurants Abroad series (see KOREAN OUTSIDE KOREA): while USA remains the 1st country, Cupertino becomes 41st city outside of Korea where I’ve experienced Korean food (actually, I’ve probably had Korean food in Cupertino when I was a kid, but can’t remember).

Banchan (3.0): quite nice, both in variety and quality, as well as authenticity.

DJ: “OMG, the galbitang is $30 – that’s like 42,000 won.”

Me: “Kid, with tax and tip, it’s more like 55,000 won.”

At the venerable Samwon Garden in Korea, the galbi tang is listed on the menu at 22,000 won (see generally 16.217 Sinseollo Bingsu), which had seemed exorbitant at the time, far less than half the price of the same dish at this relatively humble tofu joint.

MEMORY LANE

I grew up in Northern California, generally the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically the South Bay or Silicon Valley, more specifically in Santa Clara then Saratoga. Our final home, before moving back to Korea, was a house at 18600 Aspesi Drive, where we lived from 1980 to 1985.

With an afternoon to spare, I drove down with DJ to check it out, no expectations on whether somebody would be home or how they’d react to our visit.

Looks exactly the same, as far as I can recall, except maybe that gate at the left side of the house.

When I rang the bell, the owner opened the front door but didn’t step outside (the front door is located in a small courtyard behind a gate), didn’t seem in the least interested to hear my story, and promptly shut the door. Oh well.

But the next door neighbor, who was doing yard work, was very eager to chat. He had lived there since 1986, the year after we’d moved out, purchasing the house from the original owner, who had also been the owner of our house. He remembered the names of everyone who had lived in the neighborhood back then.

I was on hand to watch the mason lay the bricks to build this mailbox in the summer of 1982 (DJ is holding a photo of me standing in front of the mailbox, circa 1983).

During college, sometime around 1995, a friend had purchased a used car and wanted to test it out on a long drive, so I suggested that we go to Saratoga, about 55 miles (90 km) south of Berkeley. We used a hardcopy of the Thomas Guide to navigate the path. Upon arrival, I just looked at the house for a few seconds and got back in the car, not bothering to ring the bell. Only 10 years had passed since we’d moved out, and I was still a college student, so not particularly prone to nostalgia.

I think that I had 4th grade in the classroom with the red door.

DINNER

Hong Kong Restaurant is a Chinese restaurant. Specializes in Cantonese cuisine, along with the standard array of American-Chinese dishes.

In stark contrast to Chef Chu’s, where nearly every customer is non-Asian, most customers here were Chinese, speaking Chinese.

After Saratoga, the plan had been to do some shopping at Westfield Valley Fair Mall and eat dinner in the mall, but nothing looked appealing to either of us, so we drove back towards Los Altos, intending to eat at Chef Chu’s.

But then I recalled Hong Kong Restaurant, which I’d discovered while researching restaurants last year. When I mentioned that they serve wonton noodle soup, DJ was immediately keen.

The food was good. While the quality of the ingredients and expertise in construction seemed to fall a bit short of Chef Chu’s, the tastes and textures were more authentically Chinese. For casual dining, I would much prefer to eat here.