By Elena Kadvany
E-mail Elena Kadvany
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I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community.
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Banana Leaf, an Asian-fusion restaurant in Milpitas, has snagged the former Menlo Hub location in Menlo Park for a second location.
The owners of Banana Leaf did not respond to requests for comment, but City of Menlo Park Economic Development Manager Jim Cogan confirmed the restaurant is moving in to
1029 El Camino Real. The space, next door to Su Hong's sit-down restaurant, has sat vacant for more than a year after Menlo Hub's owner fell behind on rent and was
eventually evicted.
Banana Leaf's website describes its "heritage" as a "delightful" mix of Malaysian, Thai, Indian and Chinese. A large menu ranges from roti prata and tuna sashimi to curry dishes, banana leaf-wrapped seabass, 10 kinds of noodle dishes and Singaporean black pepper crab (a cool $38.50).
For more on the Milpitas joint, check out now-Palo Alto Weekly reviewer Sheila Himmel's write-up in the San Jose Mercury News in 2000:
Banana Leaf's cuisine has familiar ring. According to the review, owner Kay Yim is a Malaysian of ethnic Chinese descent who left a career in high-tech sales and marketing to open the restaurant.
Stay tuned for more details and an opening date.
