My friends (who both have experience with Uighur dishes in Beijing and Xinjiang itself) did not care for the lagman at all and said it tasted almost nothing like the versions they were familiar with. They did, however, enjoy the big plate chicken.

(FWIW, I thought the lagman was OK but wouldn't go out of my way for it; however, I don't have any reference point like my friends did.)

Yup, Taqueria El Menudo is open till midnight according to Yelp. I thought it was surprisingly good the one time I tried it, and they have some meat choices unusual for an SF taqueria.

Normally I would shy away from Chilean produce but the $.99/lb price tempted me. I've had muscat grapes before but don't remember them being this good. They have an intense rose/lychee flavor to them. Really excellent.

When I went in last week they had actual signs on the tables adamantly declaring that the only thing they were changing was the name. No idea why they bothered unless they felt that the "Express" was costing them business from folks who thought it was a fast-food kind of place.

How long is the average restaurant's lease? You'd think that in this day and age a food-trucky or pop-up type business might be interested in at least a short-term lease of an open storefront, with fewer of the guarantees of locked-in rent that more traditional restaurants have. Is there something that prevents property owners from doing this to get immediate cash while they continue to shop around for longer-term, higher-paying tenants?

Off topic, but to anyone who knows even a little bit about military tactics or astronomy, Gregg Easterbrook is a total joke. His style is that of a precocious 12-year-old who never matured enough to actually be disciplined and learn the nuances of stuff. http://web.archive.org/web/2006011223...

Yep, in this case seems like it's a distinction without a difference. The subtext of the email is "I know real (i.e., authentic) Barbados cooking, and what you've described ain't it."

The question when reading a Bauer review becomes: is his interpretation of "good" reliable with food that isn't the usual fine dining? I'm not sure I trust Bauer to be able to tell the good and innovative (like Radio Africa+Kitchen) from the panderers.

It's hard to convince the willfully obtuse.

We have gone over this (exceptionally weak) point again and again; I wonder why you insist on rehashing it. Sales tax reimbursement is a) a universal norm in American life in the year 2013; b), the sole, weird exception to not itemizing one's costs of doing business; c) is -by law - always the fixed percentage of whatever the region's actual sales tax rate is, allowing the consumer to be confident that every single dollar collected is actually used for its mandated purpose: going to the state's department of revenue rather than, say, getting spent on a new golf cart for the business owner.

A healthcare surcharge miserably fails all three criteria. By definition, it fails a) and b): while consumers have learned to tolerate the one exception of sales tax reimbursement in this one specific part of the world, they certainly do not want to deal with additional itemization, which needlessly complicates the bill.* And the lack of real legal regulation and consequent variability of health care surcharges means that it also fails c): the fact that every surcharge is a different amount (and not even included in a majority of cases) gives consumers no confidence that their money is truly being spent in a standardized, mandated manner, rather than the restaurant simply making up a BS number to charge and hoping (or not) that the amount collected exactly matches the amount mandated.

*And no, there's nothing special about government versus non-government-cost related itemizing in this regard, so stop pretending as if there is. Try surveying non-New Yorkers who've been confronted with a line item for the "captain's tip" on the check when dining at NYC restaurants. I guarantee you that many more of them will, even after you explain what a captain's tip is, respond "that sounds like a scam and they should stop adding that on, especially at a typical mid-range joint where the "captain" is just a plain old regular hostess" than "oh, that surely makes sense to break out an extra line for tipping the hostess."

oops, didn't see this. I've only been once and tried the savory pamonha with meat. Enjoyed it. Kauffman wrote up the place while he was still at the Weekly.

The ownership change was around September 2011 if Yelp is to be believed. Reports there do seem to have rebounded, FWIW.

Minor correction - the lunch buffet is actually $10.99. I happened to be nearby today and checked. (Ended up eating elsewhere.)

After waiting a really long time post-Bourdain visit, I went back to To Hyang again for the first time this past Friday. Very quiet night for them, which was a little unsettling.

Overall I thought it was about as good as it's been in the past. My strategy with this restaurant is to stick with either the specials or uncomplicated classics like kimchi jigae, and so far have not really been disappointed. My friends were not feeling that adventurous (one hates oxtail) and so we went with the latter route, though we got a lot of dishes I think are probably not their specialty.

The 5 of us over-ordered and got:

Kimchi pancake - about as good as I remember it, a little less crispy than I like it but a good enough version
Fried chicken wings: new to me, quite good, nice and crispy, no sauce
Jap chae with veggies - unremarkable but fine; I wouldn't have ordered this but someone at the table wanted noodles. (Not trying to put this version down - is there really a way to make a truly stellar jap chae?)
Bibimbap (don't remember the meat here, maybe seafood) -again this was ordered to please a newbie to the cuisine. Kind of hard to eat bibimbap family-style and I don't remember if I tried much of it.
Ojinguh bokum - everyone at the table enjoyed this. I thought it was better than the first time I tried it here.
Soon doobu with seafood - people liked this too I think, although this is not a soondoobu joint.
Dak dori tang - hadn't tried this here before; very good. For me this was the highlight of the dinner, especially so because I needed something to clear my clogged sinuses.

Banchan were generally the usual suspects but there was one that I think was a chayote or other squash, and also a salted and preserved clam dish instead of the crispy anchovies usually in this slot. Nice. Tried the date-infused soju, very interesting.

Still have to try the yuk hae and the oxtail dish.

PPQ Dungeness Island has been under new management for a while. Is it still as good? Early Yelp reports scared me off.

Tried the pork belly/preserved vegetable here tonight. It's basically red-cooked with soy sauce and rice wine...didn't pick up a lot of other flavors - including the preserved vegetable, which I'm guessing is something less sour like Tientsin preserved vegetable; I guess it adds tastiness but has been cooked long enough that it's not obviously salty or otherwise noticeable. It sounds like the Hakka style typically includes taro and/or fermented tofu; if either of those are in this dish, they didn't announce themselves loudly.

I dig the vibe at this place. Everyone seems to be in a good mood and, even though the space is small, I got none of the "if you don't leave so we can turn this table, SO HELP YOU GOD" attitude that seems typical at similar, extra-cheap joints like D&A Cafe or ABC Cafe. The server actually pointed out that I could order the lunch (rice plate) portion of the pork belly, even though it was well past the lunch hours spelled out on the menu. Still came with soup too.

The clay pots look like they could be promising here.

Going to dissent on the Lower Haight. While it has excellent options for drinking, its choices for eating are actually mostly mediocre.

Palmyra is good and I haven't tried Axum, but the rest of the ethnic food is overshadowed by everything else in the city:

-the plantain burrrito at Cuco's might be OK but the rest of the Latin American options pale in comparison to the Mission
-the Chinese food in the LH is a total joke
-the Indian and Thai food is OK but is weak compared with many other neighborhoods. Indian Oven is now owned by the same India Clay Oven chain that has locations around SF.
-never heard anything particularly good about any of the Japanese restaurants in the LH. Japantown is significantly more than 3-4 blocks away.
-not really ethnic but the pizza in the Lower Haight is downright awful unless you head to Divisadero for whole pies at Ragazza or Little Star.
edit to add: the Rice Paper Scissors pop-up at Mojo on Divisadero is great for Vietnamese food - but it's only one day a week

Also, I've decided that Rosamunde's is incredibly overrated - they're taking the same Schwarz sausages that every hotdog maker in the city buys, throwing some condiments on, and selling them to drinkers at $6 a pop.

If you're going to be the kind of SF resident who never wants to venture past Stanyan or into the Tenderloin for good ethnic food and is content at Memphis Minnie's/Rickybobby/Nopa, by all means the Lower Haight is for you. If you are really serious about Asian food, try the Sunset.

PS: I find much of the LH just as sketchy as the Mission. It's less dense and dystopian feeling than, say, 16th and Mission, but on the other hand it's also significantly less well-lit than much of the Mission is.

1. It's a combination restaurant/catering company.

2. In a former window blinds and shutters warehouse literally next to the 101 freeway sound wall. This is definitely not your typical restaurant experience in terms of atmosphere.

3. Which is a good thing because man, does this place make some good homestyle vegetarian South Indian food. Dosas are available, as are a few chaat dishes, but the two of us shared the "big meal of the day," an off-menu option another table was having. (The regular "meal of the day" listed on the menu is a rotating set of 3 vegetarian curries plus rice; the "big meal" gets you a few additional curries.) From what I could tell the South Indian dishes are a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday thing and on W/F the meal of the day is North Indian vegetarian dishes with chapati accompaniment. Can't remember what's offered on Sunday - maybe they mostly focus on catering then.

Copied and pasted tonight's dishes from their facebook page:

Pavakkai (bitter melon) pitla
Beetroot poriyal - I don't remember if we actually got this one; if we did the beets used were a color other than the usual purple. Maybe they had run out.
Chow-Chow (chayote) kootu
Curry leaves rice (also came with regular white rice)
Curd rice w pickles - like a savory rice pudding topped with a little achar
Vethalkuzhambhu
Medhu vadai w chutney
Rasam - I might be confusing this with the vethal kuzhambhu, but I don't think we got this soup with the meal.
Potato kara curry
Avial
Pineapple rase
Appalam (pappadum)
Pulishery
Aval payasam - this didn't come with our meal, but we didn't really need dessert anyway.

Owner and chef are a husband and wife team and are extremely friendly and happy to help explain the dishes. They also offered extra portions of any of the curries if we wanted more.

It's true that Groupon is not a very good deal for a typical restaurant, but going the Groupon route and losing some money might still be preferable to doing nothing and having people see a bunch of empty tables that used to be full.

Not necessarily; like regular coupons, Groupons allow the restaurant to engage in a little pricing discrimination to maximize revenue. If your food is actually a little overpriced and that's driving away 15% of your potential customers, a Groupon will allow you to get those 15% back in the restaurant while not having to drop prices for the other 85%.

Food and service aside, the Groupon page at http://www.groupon.com/deals/circa-sa... mentions that it's a prix fixe in two different places and links to the prix fixe menu...

You are proving the opposite point that you think you're proving. Robert's making a silly point about the semantics of "mandatory gratuities" in an attempt to sidetrack the discussion from the basic absurdity of adding a surcharge for health care (as opposed to simply raising menu prices).

**rolls eyes twice for good measure**

A non-tendentious reading of the post makes it very clear that by "mandatory gratuity" he means an itemized service charge that the restaurant places on the bill (aka "we add 18% service charge for parties of six or more"). While the consumer may technically be able to get away with blithely ignoring such a charge without the restaurant calling the cops, very few consumers are aware that they could do such a thing. If it were common knowledge that this kind of thing could be safely disregarded, no restaurant would bother with it in the first place.

Good to know - I was disappointed by Da Sichuan and thought the ma po tofu was overly Westernized.

Anyone know if they deliver? I have family less than 3 miles away near Sand Hill who might be interested in trying them...

Er...I believe Quan Ngon's bowls are all northern style (only lime and maybe bean sprouts on the garnish plate, much less star anise/cinnamon in the beef broth). Southern style would be a place like Ha Nam Ninh (surprised nobody's recommended it yet) with a spiced broth+basil/cilantro/culantro included on the garnish plate.

"Dates" - actually jujubes - are common in Asia, though I've never had this dish so I can't say whether To Hyang uses jujubes or true dates.

To Hyang is in the Inner Richmond at 2nd and Geary. They used to be open for breakfast/lunch/late night but have since cut back their hours, probably because business was slow. Prices are moderate - the special dishes listed above are higher than their typical menu. I've had the grilled mackerel and thought it was very good.

Finally made it here today. Had the pork/preserved vegetable noodle soup.

From what I gathered from my conversation with the server, their noodle puller left some time ago for another job and they aren't currently offering hand-pulled noodles. "Maybe next month." Yelp reports suggest that the availability of hand-pulled noodles has been at least very spotty for quite a few months.

Even with the machine-made noodles, I thought this was a solid bowl. Not complex, but homey and filling in addition to being quite cheap ($6.25). It sounds like much of the original clientele may have deserted the restaurant though - true, it was Monday, but the place was completely empty.

The claim two posts up was that the low HRA reimbursement rate is meaningless in measuring compliance because it's possible that companies were pouring tons of cash into their HRAs, thus producing a low reimbursement rate despite normal health care claim expenditures. Even if that were possible (questionable because the mandatory spending was supposed to be capped), the behavior of pouring tons of cash into HRAs makes no sense. If a company expects that it will need tons of cash to spend directly on employee health care, it should just pay into HealthySF instead to save itself some money and be done with it.

BTW, the extremely low average reimbursement rate for restaurants paying into HRAs was not simply sourced from Herrera's letter. The Civil Grand Jury found the same thing and described it as "alarming".

Are you kidding? One routine blood test once cost me over $300, and that was after whatever better rate had been negotiated by my mediocre insurance (FWIW, I'm relatively young and in relatively good health). I shudder to think of what the price of one trip to the ER, one MRI, or one minor surgery is for uninsured patients.

As for reimbursement rates, again, it matters because there are competing options that should limit how much the employer is actually contributing. Yes, it's *possible* that some employers are contributing $10000/employee to their HRAs, over and above their HCSO obligations, and that's what's depressing their reimbursement rates, but if they're contributing that much why aren't they just going with the cheaper City Option instead?

Not strictly true. The law specifies a minimum amount that must be spent per employee-hour, but it doesn't say that that you're not allowed to reduce your spending at all if you happen to be spending **over** the minimum of $2.33/$1.55. Isn't overpaying into the accounts through sloppy handling of surcharge funds the only way restaurants can halfway justify their rock-bottom reimbursement rates compared to the city's? Otherwise, a typical HRA would contain roughly the same dollar amount as a typical MRA, and it would be hard to avoid the conclusion that the differential reimbursement rate is coming from owners simply refusing to pay out employee claims.

No. The unethical part comes in when the business then DOESN'T PAY ITS FAIR SHARE FOR EMPLOYEE HEALTHCARE out of whatever it's set aside and then SHOVES THE EXTRA MONEY IT CHARGED CONSUMERS FOR "HEALTHCARE" BACK INTO ITS POCKETS. The problem is not that businesses saved themselves some money, it's that they deliberately gamed the system in a way that 1) deprived their employees of all the care they were entitled to and 2) grossly overcharged consumers while doing it, all in the name of making a stupid political point.

Your analogy is obfuscating what actually happened with the HRAs in question. Sorry, I don't buy into the anarcho-capitalist logic that no business owner can ever be morally in the wrong for relentlessly exploiting even the tiniest loopholes.

When I hear the words "good faith", to me that means that whatever the actual outcome, the businesses were first and foremost at least trying to provide their employees with all the health care they needed. The behavior in question did not clear that bar; therefore their compliance was not in good faith.