Psycho on the Road: Asian Street Food (Mill Valley, CA)

Thursday was an eventful day, despite spending the majority of the day in the car.  We left Big Sur, after having the complete local experience the previous evening at our motel bar.  We befriended a woman named Zosia, a stunningly beautiful local gardener, whom I am certain secretly runs Big Sur.  The next thing we knew, a gaggle of local Big Sur residents were swarming around us, competing for our attention.  After too many drinks during this incident, we were ready to book it out of town the next morning.  We stopped in downtown Monterey to have breakfast burritos packed with chorizo, eggs, and red skin potatoes.  We then stopped in Santa Cruz, where we took a drive through forest, and witnessed some hullabaloo on the beach between a crew of policemen and a vagrant.  We continued on, up the coast and then through San Francisco, when we became hungry.  Very hungry.

Uncertain of where we were actually going to stay the night, my travel partner made the wise decision that we seek food immediately, as things were deteriorating fast.  We stopped in Mill Valley, a swanky little town, just north of San Francisco, where we luckily found a spot called Boo Koo, which is defined at Southeast Asian street food with a California twist.  We were starving, so not of the most discerning mindset, but even with that said, we really enjoyed the fresh, fast, and inexpensive fare.

Jean had wok seared brussel sprouts, marinated in fish sauce and sriracha, finished with lime.  They were served on top of a cabbage slaw, which is great for people who enjoy cruciferous vegetables on top of their cruciferous vegetables.  She enjoyed it thoroughly.  She also had a side of spicy ginger beef, which had been either stewed or braised, and then shredded.

I had the Chinese Chicken Salad, which was slightly sweet, spicy, and had plenty of sesame oil throughout, which is only a good thing in my book.  The greens were a combination of mixed greens, romaine, and Napa cabbage, peppered with julienned carrots and daikon radish.  Interspersed throughout the salad were cold wheat noodles, similar to udon, but thinner, and they gave the salad a nice heft.  The salad was tossed with a light sesame chile vinaigrette, and topped with teriyaki glazed chicken, and a half of an avocado, thinly sliced.  My meal was delicious, if slightly over dressed.  There were also fresh herbs throughout the salad, which allowed for random bites flavored with mint, Thai basil, and cilantro.  Despite the fact that I was positively starving, I feel confident that this was an above average meal: tasty, fresh, and a great value.  It gave us the strength to soldier on, and find a great, sleepy little beach town to spend the night: Bodega Bay.  Coincidentally, it is same location where Hitchcock’s “The Birds” were filmed, and I must say that sea gulls were a tad  aggressive there.  Psychosomatic?  Entirely possible.