vliang's Profile
TW Village Bistro, Now Open in San Mateo
So I ordered the double sauce noodles. The two sauces are za-jiang and sesame sauce. Neither had any heat which was kind of bland even for me (someone who isn't a huge spice fiend).
TW Village Bistro, Now Open in San Mateo
Yes, #108 is the cucumber dish. Less garlicky than most version. More sour and sweet with a wisp of heat.
Yes, #702 is the tofu dish I had. Just the tofu sliced up dressed with a bit of seasme oil.
Dan zi mi fun is rice noodle soup. #226 o nthe menu.
I would emphasize this place is a TW military village type eatery... so more Northern Chinese dishes transplanted and less Minnan or TW provincial foods. SO I wouldn't be looking for oyster omelet or ba wan or the like here.
TW Village Bistro, Now Open in San Mateo
I have gone twice now. The first time, I ordered the beef noodle soup (half tendon, half meat) and an ordered of the cold cucumber appetizer and an order of the stewed dry/firm tofu. I thought the meat in the noodle soup was the star... mine came in chunks. The soup was a bit weak in my opinion and the noodles were cooked too soft for my taste. Their cucumber and the ir tofu were outstanding. I think someone there knows how to stew / lu (as in lu wei).
The second time, I had the dan zi mi fun. That was pretty good. I had the cucumber again as I have been craving the marination flavour they have. I also ordered the stewed/ lu chitterlings. And once again, the lu wei side dishes really shined.
There is quite an extensive menu and I will be going back to try out more again.
Xiao Long Bao options in the City?
Depending of what part of town you are looking for, Bund Shanghai in Chinatown isn't bad either.
Looking for Fuzhou/Fujian Yen Wan
Yeah, I see Fujianese fish balls pop up in some places in the Bay Area. But haven't seen the yen wan dumplings. The last time I had this dish was in a place in Santa Clara on Steven's Creek whose name I can't recall in the early to mid 90's. They were one of the first in the area to have soy milk and shao bing on weekends.
Looking for Fuzhou/Fujian Yen Wan
I posted asking about this several years ago but since we seem to have more influx of Mainland restaurants so I will ask again. Do we have in the SF Bay Area a place that sells 燕丸子 (yen wan zi, or swallow balls/dumplings)? It usually comes in a soup. Seen it just steamed too. Looks similar to wonton. The difference being that the dumpling skin is made from pork punded with potato starch. It is a specialty of Fuzhou and Fujian. They have a lot of this in Taiwan too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujian_cuisine (see bottom of article)
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%81%E8%82%89%E7%87%95 (unfortunately only in Chinese)
Help! Please Crtitique the Itin I Have for Relatives Visiting
You're right on about French Laundry... but no res available. None at an okay time for Ad Hoc either which is why I was thinking lunch at Bouchon. But Benu might be a good sub and kill two birds with one stone (FL pedigree and soy sauce).
Mine do like Italian... in fact, their new restaurant in their hotel is in partneship with Igor Macchia, chef and owner of the one-Michelin-star La Credenza in Italy. This is why I was trying to stay away from the BIG Italian place like Perbacco and was hoping to charm them with homey Sardinian. But maybe Italian is just bad move overall.
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Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
The French Laundry
6640 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599
Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St., Yountville, CA 94599
Bouchon
6534 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599
Benu
22 Hawthorne St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Help! Please Crtitique the Itin I Have for Relatives Visiting
Yeah, I hear you... I was trying to sneak in some small, mid-range, neighborhoody places that I think SF is good at in this itin. Blend it with the "flash."
But I am pondering the Tadich and Kokkari idea.
Help! Please Crtitique the Itin I Have for Relatives Visiting
Oh, and I guess I should figure out a Chinese place to have in my back pocket in case they really do want Chinese desparately. I was thinking maybe R&G for salt and pepper crab since they don't get Dungeness in Taiwan? Any other ideas - I mean Cantonese isn't that great a genre in Taipei.
Help! Please Crtitique the Itin I Have for Relatives Visiting
Thx for the tip! Yeah, was wondering about Quince as everything good I had heard was before the move. You have another rec to fill that Fri night spot?
I was considering La Folie or Leur de Lys
Help! Please Crtitique the Itin I Have for Relatives Visiting
Background: Late 50's couple from Taipei visiting me in SF early Oct Well traveled. They own a 5-star hotel with higher-end Itlaian, steakhouse, and Chinese restaurants in it. Last time they were here, their business partner took them to Chez Panisse, Boulevard, Epic Roasthouse, and Burger Bar. They weren't particularly into any of it.
They have requested that I take them to "famous and special Chinese/Western resaturants." I don't think there is any Chinese in SF worth their time, but I think they meant in case they were craving a flavour of home as they are coming to me from a week in Kaui (as an aside, they don't consider Hawaiian food "Asian.") They tend to like flash and design - .. but unfortunately SF tends to do neighborhoody, mid-range the best. My planning frustration thinks we should all meet in Vegas instead, but SF it is so I am going to give them a bit of that and try to appease their need for the "famous."
Fri night - Quince
Sat Lunch - Morimoto or Bouchon (we will be in Napa Valley for the day)
Sat Dinner - La Ciccia
Sun Brunch - Zuni Cafe
Sun Dinner - La Mar
What do you think? Any tweaks? Thanks for the help!
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Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
La Ciccia
291 30th Street, San Francisco, CA 94131
Chez Panisse
1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709
Epic Roasthouse
369 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105
Bouchon
6534 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599
Morimoto
610 Main Street, Napa, CA
Currently, what is your single most addictive chinese dish to order in SF?
I have two:
1) Salt and pepper chicken wings from Capital in Chinatown
2) Cumin lamb pot from Spices 1
Dong Bei Mama Chowdown
Okay, now that I have all the pics up, I can give my take on the meal our table (Table 2) had.
First off, I did the ordering for our table while accomodating specific requests. While it may seem we ordered a lot, it's a Chowdown so the point is to sample as much as possible that one may not get to in an ordinary, smaller group setting. I will say that by the end, our table was able to polish off most of what we ordered and all of it came to only $23pp with tip. All the dishes, even the ones o nthe whiteboard, are included in the main menu and translated (albeit sometimes not very descriptively) into English. The ladies that served us did not seem to be very fluent in English and their Mandarin is very Dongbei accented so I would say even for a non-Northerner Mandarin speaker, communication isn't exactly flowing. Lots of pointing to things, patience, and back and forth (verbal and non-verbal) was needed.
In general, we tried to stick with Dongbei style food. We ordered some Sichuan and Northwestern dishes to accomodate some people's specific requests and seeing the chef was at Little Sichuan before. But I really didn't have high hopes for things like mung bean sheets being good at a Dongbei spot. Also, while lamb would be featured in this cuisine due to the Mongolian influence, Dongbei families, I know, celebrate CNY by whold hog cuisine and have restaurants specializing in this, so we felt when in doubt, PORK.
My fav's for the evening were the sour cabbage and bacon pot, the sweet and sour pork (a far cry from what the American version has morphed this dish into), the steamed lamb dumplings, the dongpo pork leg, all the cold apps except for the seafood roll, and the beef roll. I thought the intestines to be over fried and the chicken dish was blah for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and will be back to revisit some favourites...
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Little Sichuan
168 E 4th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401
Dong Bei Mama Chowdown
Last of the hot dishes (In order from left to right, first row then second)%3
Cumin lamb on iron platter
Chonqing chciken wings
Steamed lamb dumplings
Boiled pork, shrimp, and chive dumplings
But oops forgot to take the dong po braised pork leg pic
Dong Bei Mama Chowdown
More hot dishes (In order from left to right, first row then second)%3
ry fried intestines with chillies
Chicken with potato and mushroom
Beef roll
Sauteed pea shoots
ongbei pork (sweet and sour pork)
Dong Bei Mama Chowdown
Some of the hot dishes (In order from left to right, first row then second)%3
pork belly with tofu knots
sour cabbage with bacon pot (yi guo tsu) with corn cakes
mung bean sheets (double skin)
pork liver
Dong Bei Mama Chowdown
Table # 2 Cold Appetizers
In order from left to right, first row then second
Cold smoked fish
Seafood roll
Cucumber salad
Terrine of pork shoulder
Chicken roll with preserved egg and duck egg
Terrine of head cheese
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Dong Bei Mama
4737 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94118
Dong Bei Mama : Formerly Panda Country Kitchen.
Hmmm... wonder if the Sing Tao ad is available on the web? Or other Chinese language write-up. We have a Chowdown there today and I would love to get a head start on the menu perusing. Oh, and I wonder if there will be other Chinese readers at our Chowdown as I am hoping the menu is not in Simplified or we will be in trouble.
Quiet Dinner in SF Tonight
Yeah, probably b/c she was looking for a quiet, celebratory dinner while I'm not. Thanks tho.
Quiet Dinner in SF Tonight
I know this is nearly impossible... but I need a rec for a quiet dinner tonight in SF. Somewhere where you don't have tohers sitting immediately adjacent to you. Any cuisine or neighborhood is okay. Moderate pricing please so no Gary Danko type. And decent food (ie it's not quiet because there are no patrons due to crappy food). Thanks!
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Gary Danko
800 N Point St, San Francisco, CA 94109
Need Chinese or Asian lunch rec's near new job in West Berkeley
Robert and Melanie,
Thanks for the rec for Pyung Chang. I went today for lunch and got the pan fried sole and soondubu combo for $12.99. Way too much food for one person - two large sole fillets with ample banchan. The real star was the soondubu. Probably one of the best I've ever had. It was luscious, almost creamy, and very flavourful. Will be back to try the other things like the samgyetang and other flavours of jigaes.
Landlocked chowhounder seeking the best SF-area seafood
Asian preps of dungeness crab in SF are great. Salt and pepper at R&G Lounge and garlic roasted crab at PPQ Island or Thanh Long/Crusteceans. These places usually have tanks and the crabs are alive until they cook them for you. In July, the crabs may not be from waters right off of our shores. Might be further north and the meat might not be at its dense-est and sweetest. But they are fresh fro sure.
Also, if you're adventureous and have a car, you might want to check out Koi Palace which is about a 15 min drive south of SF. They specialize in all sorts of live seafood.
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Koi Palace Restaurant
365 Gellert Blvd, Daly City, CA 94015
Need Chinese or Asian lunch rec's near new job in West Berkeley
Thanks for great rec on Sura. Went today with a co-worker and ordered a spicy chicken BBQ lunch special of the day and a grilled octupus lunch special. A whole table full of food and banchans. Super tasty and well prepared for $10/ea with tip. Can't beat that. They have quite an extensive lunchtime menu that I am looking to try out.
Need Chinese or Asian lunch rec's near new job in West Berkeley
I had Rotten City last week and agree with you that it fulfills my NY pizza hankering like no other I've had in recent memory in the Bay Area. It's definitely on my weekly rotation list now. Unfortunately, the reason I asked for Asian is, while it's harder for me to cook Asian than Cal-Med to cook at home, as I get older, the more I need to have my daily fill of rice and soy sauce... lol.
Need Chinese or Asian lunch rec's near new job in West Berkeley
Great idea. I wasn't sure how far away Temescal would be as I'm not familiar with the area.
