Interesting mention about Korean food. I had a really really excellent Korean tofu house experience in New York several years back. Light, clean food but really tasty...unfortunately I can't remember the name. We stumbled upon the place by accident.
Tried a few Korean tofu places in the South Bay when I was living in Santa Clara, but none of them could match up. Also tried a place in Seoul that served "Royal Court Cuisine." Perhaps no one really eats that stuff these days but it was interesting, and at least quite different from the usual bbq and bi bim bap that I'm used to seeing in restaurants. One of the dishes was something like abalone and tiger prawn in seafood broth with ginko nuts. If you're ever in Korea, and ready to splurge a bit, it might be worth a try, if only for curiosity sake.
Okay, those aren't really answers to your question. But you may very well have tried anything I might recommend, since I'm local.... Here's two places.
If you eat Ethiopian food, and haven't tried it yet, there's Zeni restaurant in San Jose. I'd tried a couple other places and thought the food tasted much better here. But who am I to judge Ethiopian food? However, the Erytrian security guard in my building later recommended it to me as "the best restaurant in the Bay Area...people go from San Francisco to eat there." www.zenirestaurant.com
Here's another, a French bistro type place in SF. The Butler and the Chef Bistro. Good food, cute little place in a cute location (South Park!), and you can't beat the name of their website.
www.thebutlerandthechefbistro.com
AKA
www.oralpleasureinc.com/cafe/
Merry Christmas!
and some nice conversation to be had with your audiences this weekend. Have great shows tonight and tomorrow,
Some goes for old grandmothers (like mine). But it's always fun to be around older people who think you don't know Taiwanese and actually understand.