A Day in the Life: South Bay Edition

A lot of my friends live in the south bay and have been talking up a few places. It was just a matter of time before they let me in on their recent finds....

Korean bakery - what?? I didn't know such things existed. Paris Baguette is like a Guppy's/85 Degrees but Korean-owned although you wouldn't be able to tell. They have a lot of modern/westernized Asian pastries, some more traditional Korean buns, and of course, shaved ice. There isn't any point of reference in the photo, but our "mini" size could feed like 5 people.

A green tea cream cheese pastry, and a pastry filled with sweet potato mochi (very interesting and unexpected, texture-wise)

There's also an older Chinese man who sells roasted sweet potatoes in the same Korean plaza. Brings me back to China! Too bad it's freaking hot, or else I would've gotten some.

And then there's Mama Chen! Apparently this is the place to be for Taiwanese cuisine, and you can tell how popular it is by the availability of their dishes. Even at 7pm, they had run out of cucumbers and beef noodle soup. I will just have to go back another time! Mama Chen is also sporting a new 'do, much more chic than her previous stylish perm.

A glutinous rice bun filled with meat and stuff, doused in ketchup sauce. A little too chewy for my taste, but interesting (I can see why Cynthia likes this stuff). Lo mien, refreshing cold noodles with a touch of sesame oil.

Pork chops, flavorful and tender. Taiwanese sausage is much sweeter than its Canto counterpart, and Jess had to get popcorn chicken in the foreground

Ketchup fried rice with an omelet on top. Tofu skin filled with meat and onion, then deep fried (served with ketchup sauce of course).

We capped the day with some "roti" bread from Honeyberry, this yogurt shop that also sells other random sweets. Roti bread has absolutely no relation to the flaky, fried roti of southeast Asian cuisine. It's pretty much a Chinese pineapple bun, but the draw is that it comes in different flavors (plain which is mocha-ish, butter, and green tea) and they warm it up so it's nice and toasty right out of the oven. Really nothing special, but the craze is really impressive in itself.

Thus concludes my south bay day. It was really like being in a foreign land.

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Bandwagon (bandcart?)

Good grief this food cart thing is getting ridiculous. Street food, food carts, street vendors... whatever you want to call it... this type of food has been lacking in SF, a thought that I've mentioned before and have felt for a long time (long before MSF came around). The concept is obviously nothing new, and if you ever go to other big cities (outside of LA), you'll see non-taco-truck food vendors everywhere.

Well, it's finally happened. I'm sure the recession has a lot to do with this sudden surge (less money = people want cheaper food, people can't afford renting restaurant space, people need extra cash, etc), and maybe the whole immediacy of the twitter craze, but I think the bigger influence is MSF. I just hope this fad is about serving good food, and not just about being hip and catering to the Dolores Park scene. If only! I'm sure there will be plenty more popping up around the city, but here's the running list:

Magic Curry Kart
Creme Brulee Cart
Amuse Bouche Guy (this guy doesn't have any permits = Amuse Douche? har har that was cleverrr)
*Correction* Apparently none of these guys have permits, and there's also a spring roll guy now.

Non-cart "street food"
John's Snack and Deli: I actually ate here a few days ago*, and eater finally got word today
Kitchenette
Kasa (it's been around for awhile and actually is a restaurant, but they've been having special street food nights featuring different regions of India)

* John's Snack and Deli has been around Financial for awhile, serving up "home-cooked" Korean food for cheap, like dok boki, bibimbap, etc. After LA's Kogi cart exploded, John and wife followed suit and started making kimchi burritos and tacos. I had both (pictured above), and let's just say that it wasn't for me. I haven't tried LA's Kogi, but I'm going to assume it's better than this. Don't get me wrong, John's Snack and Deli is great, but I don't think kimchi and cheese mix very well.

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Asian Food in the Sticks

At Geoffrey's request, here is my list of Asian food in the Richmond/Sunset

richmond:
- shanghai dumpling king (balboa & 34th): good xiao long bao (ghetto and dirty)
- shanghai house (balboa & 38th): hand-cut noodles
- oyaji (clement& 33rd): japanese tavern food
- burma superstar (clement & 4th): burmese - super trendy, long wait, but good!
- mandalay (california & 5th): burmese - less trendy, no wait, still good! and cheaper than burma superstar. the "special noodles" are really good
- tofu house (geary & 11th): korean tofu soup
- brothers (geary & 3rd i think): korean bbq
- taste of formosa (clement & 26th i think): taiwanese
- kitaro (geary & 18th i think): cheap japanese/sushi
- mayflower (geary & 27th): chinese - good for specialty dishes (and more expensive), supposedly good dim sum

sunset:
- san tung (irving & 11th): korean chinese, good dry fried chicken, dumplings, spicy peanut noodles
- "korean restaurant" (taraval & 40th i think): don't know the real name, but there's a sign outside that says "korean restaurant"
- cheung hing (irving & 30-something?): good BBQ pork
- PPQ (irving & 19th): pho and other vietnamese food
- pho hua (irving & 19th): I like their pho better, but some of my friends don't agree
- south seafood village (irving & 15th): decent dim sum
- ebisu (9th? & irving): decent sushi (a bit on the expensive side)
- hotei (9th? & irving): decent udon

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San Tung

1031 Irving St. (between 11th 12th Aves)
(415) 242-0828

Chinese-Korean in the Sunset

This is another of my favorite places in SF, and it never fails. Anything with dough is good (i.e. noodles, dumplings), and they're pretty well-known for their chicken wings.

What to order: chicken wings (dry), dumplings (either shrimp+leek or pork - i prefer the prior), fried shrimp (served with the same sauce as the chicken wings), noodles (their black bean noodles aren't that good... but the peanut sauce one is pretty decent, as is the spicy combo noodle soup thing). Their green beans aren't bad either.

This place is pretty much packed every night, and during lunch on the weekends. Expect a wait! It's worth it though.

*** Edit: There was a time when I ate here every week (good lord! I know. Almost as bad as Brian Sze and Hotei!). Now it's like once every other month after Kevin moved. However, the other day I tried their pork+pickled vegetable noodle soup for the first time (which is more of a Taiwanese dish), and it was quite satisfying. I like!

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