Tour de El Camino Stage 1: Santa Clara

On Saturday Hing and I decided to travel the Santa Clara portion of the El Camino Real, looking for a rumored cluster of Indian markets. On our way down 880 we stopped in Fremont and checked out one of the stores I had visited the previous week. This time, I knew what clothes I wanted to look at, and I knew what size I needed too, so I was able to walk right in to the store and start shopping. I looked and felt like a paying customer, and that made it easier for me to chat with the shopkeepers about what I was looking for and why. I was no longer a tourist.

I didn't find any shirts there in my size and favorite colors, so we moved on to a Pakistani/Indian lunch place in the Irvington district of Fremont. Hing knew what to order and how, since he has been to this lunch place and others in the chain several times. The food was great. I am looking forward to more rich spicy sauces over rice. We shared the restaurant with several cricket teams.

Finally we made our way to the El Camino Real, starting at the center of Santa Clara. We saw and stopped at a few Indian food markets, but it wasn't really much fun to visit without a shopping list. The markets were busy and lively, and had great spice sections, but I won't visit another one until I am ready to try cooking an Indian meal and need specific ingredients that I can only get at an Indian market.

We traveled along El Camino Real until we noticed we were seeing more Korean shops than Indian shops, and we started to think that we had seen all there was to see. We turned back home right as we got to the border of Sunnyvale, which I am now told is the true beginning of the Indian section of the El Camino Real. I will check that part out this week.