Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: John Blanchard / The Chronicle Photo: Photos By LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle

You really have to put your taste buds into high alert if you’re embarking on a culinary tour of San Jose. In a day’s wandering, you could encounter spiral-crusted pasteis de nata, pitchers full of Vietnamese fish sauce, falafel served with a thick banana shake, and an almost-insurmountable plateful of jerk chicken. To enjoy and fully embrace San Jose, this city of immigrants where the layers of history are as discernible as the wheaten flakes of roti, is to immerse oneself in the myriad ways it is possible to think and feel about food, to see cuisine from someone else’s perspective — not once in a while, but daily.

Though our coverage stretches from the North Bay to Los Gatos, San Jose has always been one of The Chronicle Food&Wine section’s weak spots. We certainly hear about it from readers — a recent newsletter I wrote about Falafel’s Drive-In prompted a flood of emails and tweets from readers who were excited to have even a small mention of a local (to them) institution in our publication.

As an outsider, it did seem strange that a city with a bigger population than San Francisco would lack a dedicated food critic (though the staff at the Mercury News is doing great in its own right). So I’ve been taking Caltrain to the city every now and then to find out just what I’ve been missing.

My first meal in San Jose was at Thiên Long, a Vietnamese restaurant in Paloma Plaza. People who acclaim the city’s Vietnamese restaurant scene (including some members of my family) often cite Thiên Long as one of the standbys. The dining room is all rosewood, and enlarged photos of menu items are tacked to the walls. Students from nearby Silver Creek High School and families take up most the tables, and you’ll quickly see that many of them are prodding at sizzling tabletop grills full of turmeric-tinted fish, dill and slivered onion and making little wraps with rice vermicelli and thin sheets of rice paper. That is bun cha ca la Vong ($27.95), which the restaurant claims is for two people but could really feed four to six. The aroma is spellbinding. A quick dip into a sauce made with lime juice and mam tom, fermented shrimp paste, adds an oceanic depth.

When you walk through Vietnam Town, past the clusters of elders sipping tea while listening to Vietnamese love songs piped through PAs, it can be hard to decide where to eat. Like San Francisco’s North Beach, so many of the storefronts are empty, and the businesses are fairly transient. On a recent visit, I went looking for banh cuon, or steamed rice rolls, but the store I had planned to check out was already closed and being built into an Asian fusion restaurant.

Photo: Soleil Ho / The Chronicle

Luckily, I found Bánh Cuôn Bun Moc Ông Ta, a fairly new restaurant where the banh cuon is fresh and glass pitchers of nuoc cham and three types of chile sauce are on every table. Get the banh cuon dac biet ($10.75), which includes Vietnamese charcuterie, a spring roll and cucumber salad arranged around two types of rice rolls: dried shrimp and ground pork with slivers of wood ear mushroom.

Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle

The bustling Pho Gà Nhà is known for its chicken dishes, and it undoubtedly owes the clear, beautiful flavor of its chicken pho ($11.95) to the restaurant’s commitment to using only free-range and locally raised birds. But the roast chicken plate (#15 on the menu, $13.50) is the perfect lunch: Half of a crisp-skinned chicken is served over a sticky, savory jus. Next to it is a sunnyside-up egg, atop a scoop of rice colored orange-red from annatto, with a little salad that usually has too much onion in it. The restaurant is always busy, but the food comes out unbelievably quickly.

Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle

If you’re closer to San Jose’s downtown, perhaps at San Jose State or visiting the museums, Back A Yard Caribbean Grill is a fantastic counter-service lunch spot. The decor is pan-Caribbean: Various flags of Caribbean nations like Aruba and Saint Kitts and Nevis decorate the tabletops, and the brick wall is painted with a mural of Coronation Market in Kingston, Jamaica. Its affordable and generous “yard plates” ($10.45 to $14.45) piled with jerk-style proteins, rice and peas and mahogany-brown fried plantains are a natural fit for the student crowd.

Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle

On the outskirts of Japantown is a wonderful Korean restaurant called Danbi. Run by a family of four, its menu appropriately leans to home-style and comforting. The kitchen makes ample use of sensationally sizzling stone pots and platters, within which squid tentacles, cloudy beef soup and bibimbap sputter and squeak. A seafood pancake ($16.95) is enormous and puffy, with each bite packed with shellfish. And the unique meat jun ($16.95), an egg-battered and fried steak that is spiritually very close to milanesa, is a congenial companion to beer and soju. Doubling the comfort factor is a gauntlet of children’s drawings that greet you as you walk through the back hallways toward the restroom — this place is too cute.

Photo: Soleil Ho / The Chronicle

Grab dessert at the nearby Pastelaria Adega, a brightly lit, casual offshoot of the Portuguese fine dining restaurant Adega. For those of us who are more familiar with the Hong Kong-style dan tat, pastéis de nata ($4) are what inspired the ubiquitous dim sum treat. Instead of a shortbread or pie crust, the Portuguese version features a crisp and layered puff pastry crust and a blistered custard filling scented with lemon and cinnamon. It’s excellent with a shot of espresso. Adega’s version is about 2½ inches in diameter, and its price reflects the intense amount of labor that goes into making them.

Photo: LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle

Speaking of pastries, Sultan Bakery and Mexico Bakery are wonderful sources for their respective cultural treats. Sultan, a pita bread factory and quaint pastry shop on an otherwise bare stretch of Stockton Avenue, is known for its variety of Middle Eastern sweets. It’s common to see people grabbing bags of pitas ($2) and trays of baklava ($15.99/pound) to go. The baklava assortment is the best way to get to know this place: With fillings of walnut, pistachio, dates and cream pudding, the pastries make for an excellent souvenir to take back home. (Or a tempting one, if you’ve got a long Caltrain ride ahead of you.)

Mexico Bakery produces beautiful tres leches cakes, bubblegum-pink conchas and fruit tarts, which have surely brightened countless quinceañera banquets in Santa Clara County, but its monster-size tortas are a major draw in its day-to-day operations. They’re big enough to feed two people — four if you order some of the eggy, miniature chocoflans for dessert. The ingredients list for the torta cubana ($10.50), not to be confused with the pressed sandwiches known as Cubanos, reads like a menu unto itself: pickled jalapeños, fresh tomato, white panela cheese, a chorizo omelet, a bisected hot dog and sliced ham. It’s both a beast and a beauty.

On the other side of town, in a neighborhood packed with car dealerships, Dia de Pesca makes some of the best mariscos in town. It’s a food truck that’s morphed into a semi-permanent restaurant complete with a dining room and garden-style patio seating. Locals line up for fresh seafood (spelled “sí food” on the menu) tostadas ($5-6.75), prawn-garnished micheladas ($9) and fried halibut tacos ($5.10). The ambience is so idyllic, especially on those especially sunny South Bay days, that you could easily forget that you’re sitting in the midst of a bunch of auto-body shops.

Photo: Soleil Ho / The Chronicle

From there, the historic Falafel’s Drive-In is just a quick walk. It’s odd and somewhat exciting to see the word “falafels” on a retro roadside sign — usually only the provenance of words like “hot dogs” or “hamburgers.” Everyone comes here. Families and groups of workers from around the area pack the place for its efficient service, consistently excellent falafels and laid-back atmosphere.

The space reads like a small-town roadside fast food stand, but the menu of Levantine dishes like beef kabab ($8.75), tabbouleh ($6.75) and foul (fava bean dip, $6.50) is what we’re all queuing up for. The falafels themselves are worthy of top billing: tiny, crunchy and green throughout from a generous amount of chopped parsley. They pair very well with the Drive-in’s famous fresh banana shakes. While sitting at one of the picnic tables in the dining area, you can feast your eyes on the giant painted mural depicting San Jose landmarks and, of course, Guy Fieri.

Photo: Photos By LiPo Ching / Special To The Chronicle

Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant sits in a strip mall in the western nook of San Jose, in a great little food corner that includes Kyusu, a Burmese restaurant, and Dan Izakaya. The cool thing about Zeni is that you can choose how you’d like to sit as you dine, in an Ethiopian-style room with low stools, wherein your food is served in a woven straw Mesob tabletop, or in a Western-style room with tables and chairs. Like a paint palette, the vegetarian combo ($16) is an eye-catching mixture of colors: berebere-flavored red lentils, yellow split peas simmered in turmeric, a root vegetable medley, stewed collard greens, and a fresh green salad served on injera. Eating in the traditional room really makes you appreciate why Ethiopian cuisine is designed as communally as it is; it’s an experience that is hard to find elsewhere in the Bay Area.

Whether you’re in San Jose for school, for a visit or for life, I envy your proximity to some of the most delicious food in the region. I can’t wait to return, but until then — send me your favorite spots!