Oakland

This year, Barakat expanded her business by investing $10,000 of her own funds along with a $7,000 loan in February from the Oakland Business Development Corp. The money was used to buy a van, computers, tents, tables and other supplies. She also took a 14-week business training class at Women's Initiative for Self Employment. Come for the food -- stay for the hipster quotient. Oakland's Golden Lotus restaurant, run by devotees of a cult figure calling herself Supreme Master Ching Hai, serves up an udderfull of fake meat dishes, all in a quixotic attempt to recapture the lost carnivorous glory of the newly vegan. The result is a tasty brew of various "just kidding" meaty delicacies, from fake fish to Clintonesque chicken. You can select from over one hundred items on the menu, a remarkable accomplishment given the lack of variety that usually characterizes vegetarian restaurants. The vegetables on a bed of crispy noodles swim in a tangy sauce, while the fake shrimp actually looks and tastes like shrimp. The kitchen staff applies the same diligence and creativity to all the meals, providing amusement to die-hard vegetarians who don't really care, as well as comfort to meat-eaters feeling lost. While the quality of service is sometimes less than desirable, the food is reliably tasty and damn cheap -- prices range from $4.25 to $12.95 per dish. But it's the patrons who make Golden Lotus da bomb. If you're in the mood to people-watch, and the 20th-and-Broadway urban art-punk scene makes you go all slack-jawed and gooey, then scarf some glutenesque shrimp vermicelli between three and four in the afternoon, when Oakland's underemployed bohos strap on their feedbags and head over. It's chopstick-lickin' good. (from the East Bay Express "Best of" issue: 2003) The Oakland Real Estate service allows you as the user to locate a real estate agent to help you purchase or sell your next home or property. This service allows you to locate Pre Screened Real Estate agents for Oakland California. We hope that your experience in selling or purchasing your next piece of Real Estate is successful. We invite readers to share their opinions through the Letters column. We ask that readers limit themselves to one letter every 30 days, keep their letters as brief as possible (250 words or less), and that they be legible and clear. We will edit for length, taste and clarity. Send your letters to ``Letters to the Editor'' at The Oakland Tribune. Please include your name and address, daytime phone number and signature. Anonymous letters, letters whose authorship can't be verified, mass-produced letters or copies of letters to other parties will not be published.

Reserve Airfare	Purchase Airline Tickets	Reserve Car Rental	Book Flights
Golf Packages	Cruise Packages	Ski Packages

Oakland - Book Hotels, Airfare and Rental Car

Oakland Hotels

Oakland Vacation Packages

Oakland Airfare

Oakland Car Rental

Oakland