It's Vicky again… blogging away about another restaurant up here in the Bay Area.
Sam and I recently moved in the Bay Area and left the vicinity of this restaurant that used to be a staple-go-to-place. For months we didn't swing by but would occasionally entertain the thought of eating there. Yesterday, bogged down with 18 library books were pushing the deadline for being overdue, we had rushed to my cousin's solo concert at San Jose State to hear her perform for her graduate studies… and still forgot to go to the library. When we got home, we decided to go to Darda for dinner since there was a library branch along the way.
It's interesting… how over time and distance certain cravings become more muted. When I first decided to move away from La Jolla, I couldn't fathom how I would be able to survive with Roberto's or Mister A's. Over time, I whetted my cravings with a taqueria crawl up here and spanning distance, those cravings slowly disappeared. To us, Darda was the same way. Fortunately, it's not a plane ride away. Unfortunately, it meant that we'd have to fight tooth and nail through some really bad traffic in order to get a good meal. Last night was the perfect opportunity.
It was a nice familiar shopping center and we found parking at our usual curbside spot. Walking into the restaurant, Sam had told me that we moved to the Peninsula to be closer to San Francisco, yet it seemed like our dinner variety had greatly been reduced and at the end of the day, we actually visited SF far more frequently than now. I guess that just means we should schedule in more day trips up to eat.
Darda is a favorite amongst the Muslim community here. I remember when I was attending UCSD, and meeting some of my new suitmates, one of them hailing from Walnut Creek (which is an hour northeast of San Jose) we bonded over our mutual liking of the green onion bread from Darda.
Sam and I settled in and ordered our classic staples: Knife Cut Noodles Stir Fried w/ Chicken, Green Onion Pancakes, Beef w/ Scallions, and Szechuan Green Beans… Ahhh… it was glorious!
The beef dish came out first, glistening was flavor and absolutely fragrant with the "high heat wok smell." The beef was extremely tender which leads me to put in a little blurb for how much I love Halal restaurants… their meats all taste extremely fresh and are tender to the bite.
The beef was followed up quickly by the knife cut noodles. Being that we just came back from TW, the noodles weren't as chewy or "Q" as we'd like them to be. They didn't have that much of a bite to them and the thinner pieces were bordering on the mushy side. At the end of the meal we had mentioned this to our server and she advised us to make it a point to order it on the "Q" side in the future and it would come out perfectly. 
Ahhh… and the green onion pancakes… they were more like crepes, super thin, yet extremely extremely chewy. It was perfect! Sam wrapped the beef in the crepes and ate them a la burrito style. 
I love that they sear the beans with oil at an extremely high heat which results in the skins separating and wrinkling. The beans are cooked with marinated turnip and ground beef and finished with some wine and soy sauce. Delicious!!
I'm starting to drool as I'm writing up my recap. As we finished our meal and walked out with really full stomachs, again… we questioned why it took us so long to make the drive out here after we moved… Darda… oh Darda…
Oh and ironically since I finally did do my TX post… I just booked my tickets to head back to Houston to spend New Year's. More southern eats coming ahead! ๐
Darda Seafood Restaurant
296 Barber Ct
Milpitas, CA 95035-7915
408.433.5199
http://www.dardaseafood.com
I’m starting to drool too – just reading about that food.
Hey Vicky – Looks great! We love Muslim Chinese….though it always throws me off when they add “seafood” to the end of the restaurant names (i.e. Hunan Seafood – when the province never touches the ocean)
Hi Vicky, all the dishes look so good! I lived in Milpitas/San Jose for several years before moving down to SD. But it’s been years since I’ve been back up. This will definitely be a place I’ll visit if I ever get back up there.
I’m going to Milpitas for our annual Thanksgiving with my parents. We are SO there next Wednesday!!!
@ ed – I have a bad habit of reading and oogling at food blogs before lunch.
@Kirk – I agree! It’s quite strange!
@Carol – I hope you did get a chance to eat at Darda before you left!
@Janfrederick – YAY!!! ๐ They also have a bunch of really good dishes… just hard to order a lot when its two of us!
ooh, I missed the addition of Bay Area coverage – very cool, especially cuz it’s way closer to me! Looks delicious.