Wing Lee / Banana Leaf

San Francisco, CA

Popped into Wing Lee...Happy Bakery...er, whatever it's called on 23rd and Irving for a quickie breakfast.

Mmm...I love shortbread crusted egg custard tarts (dan taat). Shoosh...I'm a part of the smaller shortbread/cookie crust faction. I only wish this sucker was hot...and the custard silkier and eggier.

Dan taat rating: 6.5/10 Passable. Eh, it's all about the timing...hot, fresh ones are the best!


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Milpitas, CA

After some shopping at McCarthy Ranch, we stopped off at Banana Leaf for a belated birthday lunch for my aunt. We weren't terribly hungry, so decided to order 3 apps and one rice plate.

Green papaya salad ($6.95)

Roti prata ($2.95)

Satay combination - chicken and beef ($6.95)

Hainan chicken with rice ($8.50)

The papaya salad had a heavy hoisin-based dressing that smothered the papaya shreds in sticky sweetness. I much prefer the Thai fish-sauce based dressing in som tum (green papaya salad).

The roti prata was airy, crisp, light, yet with slightly chewy sections. Wonderful! Nearly every table had this appetizer. The curry had a light coconut flavor and a teeny bit of heat. Would definitely order it again - but next time, I want one for myself. =P

Now the satays - the highlight of the meal for me. Super succulent, juicy chicken and beef skewers. The meat had to have been marinated as they didn't need the requisite peanut based sauce. Need I say it again - no dryness!!! Damn good juicy meats on sticks!

The Hainan chicken rice was decent. Auntie complained that the chicken wasn't a free-range or Empress chicken but the meat was very juicy. Mom complained that the dish did not come with the ginger condiment. I complained that the rice wasn't chicken-y enough. But hey, it was pretty good and we're just selectively picky, especially with my aunt and chicken.

El Taco de Oro / La Tapatia, Part II

South San Francisco, CA

El Taco De Oro taco trucks, (~Lawrence Ave @ Littlefield Ave and Grandview Dr. @ East Grand Ave, plus other locations)

On the way back from running errands, I pulled over on Utah Avenue when I spotted a taco truck and patrons lining up for food. I had been wanting to try some tacos at the various trucks I see around the area but never really had the chance since I don't usually leave work for lunch. I figured, this one was busy and the price was right ($1 tacos). Funny, I used to work down the street from this particular truck but I never ventured past very mediocre Coliazone Cafe and Luigi's Sandwiches.

(Clockwise from bottom: pollo, carne asada, pastor)

Most of the customers were ordering burritos and tacos. I ordered the three shown above for 3 whopping dollars. I hopped back into my car to enjoy these goodies at work when I spotted another taco truck. Impromptu taco truck taco taste-off! *oink oink* Well, this second taco truck was also a El Taco de Oro truck! Neat...I guess I could only taste test between the two trucks. =P

Carne asada taco from the other El Taco de Oro truck in SSF

Small mounds of meat, salsa, cilantro, and onions covered the smallish ~5" diameter griddled corn tortillas. I think I'll have to give the first truck I encountered on Littlefield the slight edge since the first carne asada was a bit juicier. I'm too tired to break it down, but I'd definitely want to try the burritos others were getting. Yummy...

Nation's Hamburgers

Daly City, CA

After a quest with "L" for Happy Meal Toys (ssshhh), we stopped off at Nation's for a real burger. Nation's Giant Hamburgers is a Bay Area chain with its 24 locations serving up burgers and pies all day long at the Daly City and Tracy locations.

I opted for the new Wild Salmon burger and shared a piece of lemon meringue pie with "L."

I had forgotten to ask for no mayo or onions. Oh well...napkins to the rescue! The wild Alaskan salmon patty was cooked to perfection but to be honest, I was rather disappointed by this sandwich. I think I can get the same wild Alaskan salmon patty at Costco. Heck, I think there are a few in my freezer. =( Sandwich was messy, but filling. Nice cool pieces of crunchy iceberg lettuce and 3 halfway decent large slices of tomato. Would I order it again? Prolly not. I think I shall stick to the burgers.

The 1/4 pie slice looked pretty good when it was just served. The cloud of meringue with a nice light browning topped off a creamy smooth lemon filling. My main gripe was that the meringue started sweating after our burgers were done. The meringue partly-melted, partly-oozed in my mouth - not the most pleasant of textures. The lemon filling was the best part - not terribly sweet and fairly lemony. The crust was nothing spectacular. I couldn't help but think, we should have went for the strawberry pie instead.

Beard Papa

San Francisco, CA

My good friend L kindly brought me two Beard Papa cream puffs, knowing how much I've been wanting to try some last Sunday. (She's a seriously faboo friend plus a food-buddy.)

We started a running gag with the cows...

Hmm, what's this?Ooh! Two cream puffs!Mmm...cuuuustaaaard...mooooooo. *buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp* ~~~CH4 CH4 CH4~~~

*drooooool* My Achilles heel would be custard. Shoot, my wedding cake will be egg custard tarts topped with custard/cream puffs!

The Beard Papa filling overwhelms the pastry. It's like, 80% custard cream and 20% max of pastry. Even me, a custard lover, found it overwhelming. I could see the vanilla flecks in the custard from the touted vanilla beans used in the filling. The custard had a very distinct eggy flavor and was not too firm but not too thin. Nice!

Would I go back for a cream puff? Sure! Do I rank it as one of best ever? Nope. Really, the disproportionate amount of custard throws the puff off.

Boulevard

San Francisco, CA

=( My coworkers and I trekked out to lunch at Boulevard to celebrate another coworker's retirement last Monday. The 10 of us fit nicely into their wine room. Quiet enough to each other, private enough so that we wouldn't annoy people with our conversations and sometimes highly animated discussions. Dark and cozy...intimate. Plus, we had fun looking at all the wines. "Hey, did anyone bring a backpack?" =P

For starters:

LAURA CHENEL GOAT CHEESE & HAZELNUTS
Marinated Beets, Blood Oranges, Endive Watercress & Hazelnut Vinaigrette
(3 of us had this)

SEARED DAY BOAT SEA SCALLOPS
Soft Polenta, Fava Bean, Pine Nut & Meyer Lemon Relish, Balsamic Jus
(3 of us had this)

The remaining had one of the following (no pics...people were digging in!):

HEARTS OF BUTTER LETTUCE
Bosc Pear, Gorgonzola Cheese, Candied Walnuts
&
DUCK BOLOGNESE & PORCINI RAVIOLI
Spring Peas, Bacon & Chervil, Natural Jus
&
FRESH DUNGENESS CRAB CAKE
Yellow Tomato Vinaigrette, Avocado, Watercress

Onto the lunch entrees:

CHAR RARE AHI TUNA

Three Mediterranean Salads: Farro Tabbouleh; Tiny Italian Ceci Beans in Hummus Zucchini Ribbons & Squash Blossoms Viniagrette

DRY AGED CALIFORNIA LAMB CHOP & SICILIAN LAMB SAUSAGE
Wrapped in Pancetta Crushed Yukon Gold Potatoes with Arugula, Mascarpone, Confit Garlic & Chili Flakes Natural Lamb Jus

GRILLED FLORIDA BUTTERFISH (ESCOLAR)
Fregola di Sarda with Clams & Rock Shrimp, Tomatoes, Herbs, Garlic & Shallots, Wild Arugula

One person had the Wasabi Crusted Mahi Mahi with Sauteed Pea Shoots with Baby Shiitake Mushrooms Ginger Beurre Blanc & Sesame Vinaigrette (not shown). I was one of the four who ordered the escolar. I loved how the little al dente pastas that were gently cradled by the clamshells since the sweetness of the escolar drippings flavored the pearls of fregola di sarda. The escolar was perfectly cooked with that moist, rich white flesh. However, I think mine was overseasoned on the outside. I had to gulp down a few glasses of water with the entree. Still, the nice char and moist flesh made up for the salt. The rock shrimp were surprisinly plump and perfectly cooked though the clams were just okay without the slight brininess I like. The savory fish drippings were definitely a great accompaniment to the more mild clams.

For dessert:

KAFFIR LIME SCENTED CREME BRULEE w/ Lime Madeleine cookies

BLACKBERRIES & RASPBERRIES
Meyer Lemon Meringue (Look at that ice malt crystal sugar decoration!)

Others had the Strawberry "shortcake" Lady Finger Cake with Strawberries, Mascarpone Meringue & Fresh Strawberry Coulis or the Ice Cream Sandwich selection with macadamia nut ice cream, and two other ice creams that I forget. I split the creme brulee dessert with my coworker "H" since we were stuffed. She had wanted the madelines and I'm a sucker for all things cuuuuuustaaaaaaaaaaard. The most interesting bit of the dessert was the ice malt sugar decoration on the blackberries and raspberries covered with meringue. When you get a bunch of nerdy biochemists together, we get really into the chemistry behind the formation of something so clear.

Ice malt pellets...a form of maltose?

We had a lovely lunch sending off a dedicated colleague who actaully started off our eating fest in the morning with a cheese puff from Fatapple's and fresh cherries and strawberries! I sure am going to miss her sarcasm, wit, and honesty but at least we squeezed in precious good times. =(

Pre-Mother's Day @ Sun Tung

Been rather backed up in my fooding entries. Attempting to catch up now! =)

San Mateo, CA

On May 13th, pre-Mother's day, I took my mom out for lunch to avoid the crowds on Sunday. Besides, Mom works on Sunday nights so Sunday doesn't work out most of the time. See, my mom is a non-fancy, non-frou-frou person. Though I tried to persuade her to choose a nice restaurant for Mommy Day, she selected Sun Tung in San Mateo. We wandered around B Street looking for a Shanghai place her coworker had raved about. Sun Tung (or Shandong) serves up Shandong dishes as well as Taiwanese dishes and their special weekend menu caught our eye.

We stepped in the restaurant at 2:45pm, close to their lunch closing time at 3pm. Still, we were greeted warmly by the woman behind the cash register. She kindly asked whether we wanted hot tea but we asked for ice water instead on this hot Saturday while she dropped off the checklist of weekend specialties. As my mom perused the menu, I looked around this teeny 30 seat restaurant. The table behind us was finishing up and had a small box of marinated pig ears. I love the slightly chewiness of the flesh contrasting the crunchier cartilidge. Mom selected for us the zha zhang mian ("Chinese Spaghetti" on the menu), the jellyfish in mustard sauce, and pork dumplings. I also ordered the pig ears and the ci fan tuan.

Marinated pig ears, "Chinese spaghetti"

Jellyfish with mustard sauce

Ci fan tuan - Chinese donut, pickled mustard, and pork shred/fluff

Pork dumplings

The first appetizer that came out was the pig ears from the deli case. I'm not certain, but they look homemade or prepared. The zha ziang mian was okay, but I think I would have preferred fresh hand-pulled noodles instead of spaghetti-like noodles. The crisp and firm jellyfish shreds were very refreshing but with a nice big mustard, sinus-clearing kick. The dumplings had a fairly thin homemade skin. Very good, but I wonder how the other dumplings are.

The standout though, was the ci fan tuan. I think it was described in English as Chinese donut stuffed in sticky rice or something along those lines. I think this tops even the memory of my first and most delicious fan tuan - though a few more zha cai pickles couldn't hurt. =D The donut they used was unlike you tiao - it was extra fried and crispy. Plus, they were rather generous with the rousong. Perfect balance of ingredients - not overly ricey like other versions I've had. This was most similar to the very good version at the former Taiwan Point on Irving St. in SF.

Anyway, for $23 including tip, we left stuffed and with most of the food minus the dumplings. The staff members were sitting down to their lunch, which looked VERY very good. Will definitely return!

Coconut Bay / Preston's / Han Il Kwan / Creations

Oh my...what a food filled weekend with friends! Time to get back on that diet now. =*(

Burlingame, CA

Coconut Bay

My coworkers K and I had a brilliant plan for lunch on Friday - let's escape work and go out to lunch for a change! What a plan indeed. We needed some sun and to enjoy this beautiful day. We headed to Coconut Bay, a Thai place we had been to previously in Burlingame.

My coworker "I," the hand model, showing off her Thai iced tea.

The four of us got to the restauant around 1pm for a late-ish lunch. We had spied the $6.95 lunch specials on our previous visit in December and went for those deals. K had the yellow curry with chicken while "I" had the red curry with vegetables. Both R and myself had the papaya salad and BBQ chicken combo, mine with sticky rice, hers with steamed rice. These lunches all come with complimentary soup (a mushroom/vegetable one that day), two greaseless vegetable egg rolls, and green salad for K and "I."


Oh, what a large amount of food this was! It didn't look like too much, but my portion of chicken included the whole leg barbecued with a yellow spice rub.

My sticky rice came in this cute container.

Up close and personal with the papaya salad.

To be honest, I was rather full after the cup of soup, the veggie egg rolls, and the papaya salad. I was disappointed by the bland papaya salad. Limp and soggy, this salad lacked any zing or assertive flavor. I did not spy any dried shrimp or crab paste or anything really pungent. Plus, chopped bits of flavorless mealy tomato added to the poor texture of the salad. Meh...it couldn't have been that many calories, right? =P The sticky rice was indeed sticky...of the long grained chewy variety I am fond of. I ate 1/3 of it before giving up and making room for...

Preston's


Woo hoo! It didn't take much of a suggestion by R for us to zip on over to Broadway to Preston's for ice cream!

Mmm...homemade candies! And, they had the HUGEST chocolate dipped strawberries! They were seriously about 3/4 the size of my fist. But hey, we were on a mission - ice cream! R had told us her son had chocolate ice cream embedded with gummy bears and "I" HAD to have some. Gummy bear is one of her favorite flavors at Polly Ann's - yet she hasn't been in luck with it in stock the days she goes. The gummy bears are premixed and frozen with the ice cream, resulting in extra chewy, kinda hard bears. To our (slight) disappointment, the chocolate ice cream gummy bear mixture apparently never existed at Preston's. =( BTW, Preston's sells Loard's ice creams. I like me a local institution.

K got mocha almond (methinks), R had green tea, "I" had peppermint, and me got meself butter brickle. (Darn, why does "I's" intiial have to be I?! Haha...) Mmm...butter toffee candy...

Funny, R felt guilty about eating ice cream for the 7th day in a row...so she performed surgery on her cone and toppled her portion her ice cream onto ravenous K's cone. LOL...

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San Francisco, CA

Later that evening, I met up with a few friends for dinner at Han Il Kwan. C had a craving for Korean BBQ and has only found 2 or 3 places in the East Bay she seems passable by her SoCal/Korean mom standards. It's a favorite place of another friend D, and it had garnered decent reviews on Chowhound.

Grilling spicy pork...

Onion and peppers in vinegar, mung bean sprouts, and mung bean cake

Pork mandoo (dumpling) soup

Bulgogi (BBQ beef), stir-fried ojinguh (squid)

Us 5 polished off most of the food in the $99.95 family dinner for 4 plus an extra set of mung bean cakes ($7.95) and around 12-15 plates of banchan (side dishes). The family set included bulgogi (thin sliced marinated rib-eye), spicy pork, sauteed squid, mo dum jun (battered and pan fried shrimp, oyster, fish, vegetable), jap chae (clear noodles stir-fried with beef and veggies coated in sesame oil), marinated broiled fish, and man do kuk (dumpling soup). My favorite dishes of the night were the mung bean cakes and the stir-fried squid. I also LOVE banchan...I'm way amused eating those little dishes than the meat. =) The squid legs were very tender but with some bounciness and the mung bean cakes were just soooo good hot off the skillet. The weakest dish would be the mo dum jun. The batter used on the veggies and seafood was a thick, eggy concoction that left everything soggy and soft. Homestyle, but a bit too soft.
All in all, I thought the meal was pretty good though I want to compare other Korean BBQ places now, except Brother's. =) Yet another food adventure to be had!


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Creations

We moseyed a few blocks for dessert on Geary. Actually, it was more like 12 short blocks since we walked in the wrong direction searching for Creations. D'oh! I'd parked just around the corner too! =P

I'm glad Creations (aka Hui Lau Shan) serves pretty healthy desserts using fresh fruit because we were not in the mood for something rich after all that Korean food. Mmm...fresh mango and we were in luck! We had sweeeet mango that night. (FYI: "crystal snow" = frog ovaries...supposedly food for your health in some way...=P) Sago are teeny pearls made from sago palm starch, I believe. They are a teense larger than tapioca found in tapioca pudding and not the boba tapioca pearls.

I ordered the daily made mango mochi (#31) and the mixed fruits sago in mango juice (#36). Both C and L had one of the more popular jelly drinks, sago and mango and coconut milk (#52) with the 16 oz upgrade for $0.60 more. W had sago with pomelo and mango (#23) and J had the mango cubes and sago in mango juice (#51) with the upgrade. I apologize for the crappy colors in the pix...horrid horrid lighting and fiddling with manual controls helped only slightly. =(

Sago with pomelo and mango

Mixed fruits sago with fresh mango juice

Mango mochi

I love having fruit for dessert so I don't feel like I'm about to explode. The mango juice in my sago as well as the others' drinks was fresh and somewhat syrupy, as it should be. The small sago pearls were so smooth rolling around my tongue in the viscous mango juice. All the fruit I had was nice and ripe. Plus, my dessert gets a thumbs up for looking like the photo in the menu. =D I was rather stuffed after my dessert so I took the last mango mochi home. The thin rice flour layer topped with coconut enveloped fresh, tender, juicy, sweet chunks of mango from what I saw. We could hardly catch the attention of a server since we were hidden in the back room near the restrooms so I devised this contraption for bringing the mochi home:

Two clear plastic spoons clasped together with a hair elastic. I is sly sometimes...=P Or just silly. Oh, it stank being near the restroom...some woman (we know it came from the ladies restroom) had some "intestinal issues." As we were enjoying our dessert, a foul cloud of funk moved over us. OMG...narsty! I was thinking...who farted? L was wondering, is that durian?! Ugh...

TMI TMI!

My main gripe was the service, or rather, the lack thereof. Not to be stereotypical, but these waitresses are the snooty type who spend more time gossiping than actually working and snubs ABCs.

Good times, good times. Next time we're in that area, we'll hit up Joe's Ice Cream for some Joe's It's. (Like It's Its...)

All Star Tamale / Taqueria de Amigos

San Francisco, CA

After a morning workout, I headed over to the Alemany Farmer's Market near the 101/280 interchange. We arrived somewhat late (8:45am) but were lucky to find a parking spot. I hadn't been to this farmer's market in over six months and I was glad to see what veggies and fruit were available. The Ferry Building Marketplace is more posh but the Alemany market has more Asian veggies, very reasonable prices, and some organic produce. I noticed a few new stalls pushing more upscale items (a French patisserie stall) and a few empty slots (vendors/farmers with produce not in season) but the usual vendors were present.

Mom and I made a beeline to the All Star Tamale cart for some breakfast. I think the prices have increased a bit while the tamales shrank, but one makes an excellent breakfast for me. I do miss the elderly gentleman who used to sell tamales out of a big white plastic bucket back in the day.


Shown above is an unwrapped red pork tamale (1 for $2.50, 2 for $4.50, 4 for $9) with a plastic-wrapped sweet corn tamale ($1.25 ea??).

Saucy!

Now, All Star Tamale offers at least 4 different unlabelled sauces. I just splashed mine with the four closest bottles. I figured one was some sort of salsa verde, one was a type of red mole, some yellow-orange sauce, and a salsa roja. The tender, fluffy masa gave way to a well-spiced pork filling.


I had also ordered a Oaxacan-style tamale wrapped in a banana leaf. Mom and I swapped halves - I really liked this chicken-filled one as well. I love the aroma the banana leaves impart to the tamale. Again, the amount of fluffy and non-leaden masa balanced the meaty filling.

We also liked the sweet corn tamale. About half the size of a regular tamale and studded with corn, this lil guy was just lightly sweetened. Very tasty.

All Star Tamale, based in Pittsburg, CA, roves the Bay Area. This post on Chowhound.com lists the current locations where these tamales can be found. After tamale-fication we browsed the stalls for some fresh fruits and veggies. I bought a large bouquet of tender, young Thai basil for $1. Oh...did that smell good!!! I really didn't need that much Thai basil and honestly rather have had half the amount for half the price, but these were fresh beauties. We also picked up a 10 lb bag of super sweet, small oranges.

Best of yet, I picked up 3 baskets of these babies:


Mmm...strawberries! Prices are still a tad high and I know that it's still early and that the strawberry crop was partially damaged by the excessive rain and hail we'd had over the winter. Vendors throughout the market had similar prices though I purchased mine from the strawberry vendor selling from the stall with the strawberry mural on the wall (3 baskets for $5). =) The kind lady vendor gave me one strawberry to sample and hers were the sweetest of the ones I'd tried. She even topped off my tray with more strawberries!

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San Mateo, CA

After running errands and shopping at Whole Foods and Costco, we headed to Marina Plaza where the Marina market is the anchor. We meant to check out the Malaysian restaurant that was advertising its grand opening, but we ended up at Taqueria de Amigos instead. Every time we stop off at Marina, we see this little taqueria bustling with activity. I stepped up to the counter and ordered the al pastor taco and a pollo asado taco ($1.85 each) and a regular carne asada burrito ($4.95) for mom.


The grilled chicken was moist though somewhat greasy and flavorless. The al pastor was the real winner here - I couldn't tell if this taqueria had a pork roasting spit but I had a nice mix of tender and super crispy, charred, flavorful pieces. Topped with chopped fresh onion and a scatter of cilantro, this taco really hit the spot. The al pastor was teense greasy, but no more than I usually encounter. Along with freshly fried chips (amongst the best I've had) some salsa roja, and a sunny windowside seat, I was rather content.

Tortilla: 8.5/10 - Nicely grilled but not too greasy.
Pollo Asado: 7.5/10 - Perfectly cooked but needed some oomph.
Al pastor: 9/10 - Crispy bits, tender bits, and flavorful. Right up there with Taqueria San Jose in Oakland.

Funny, I seriously dislike raw onion and cilantro - and tacos are some of the only food I can tolerate with onions and cilantro.

Now, the burrito was a total disappointment. While the carne asada was flavorful, this $5 burrito was tiiiiiiiny.


This had maybe a 3" diameter at best and maybe 8" long. As you can see, they were skimpy on all of the ingredients, though in good proportion to each other. Plus, they tucked in a good chunk of the tortilla into the burrito! WTF! This shows that this sized tortilla can handle more fillings! Such a ripoff...El Farolito's are twice as big for $4. I would strongly recommend the super or jumbo burrito instead - other patrons' burritos looked more hefty. Since Mom had filled up on the excellent chips and salsa, she was still satisfied with half.

Anyway, we headed into Marina for some groceries. Mom likes their coarse ground pork for making wontons since it adds a nice texture to the filling. I bought one of these:


A ci fan tuan ($2.50 - ouch)...yum! You tiao/you zha gwai are yet another food I'm not fond of by itself or with congee, but I love in another dish. I remember the first time I had this was at a Northern Chinese/Shanghaiese restaurant in the Sunset (SF) which is long gone now. That place had the BEST zha jiang mian (Beijing-style, vs Korean-Chinese style). *sigh* A cí fàn tuán is a Shanghai dish with glutinous rice wrapping around a filling of Chinese donut (you tiao), preserved mustard (zhà cài), and pork fluff (ròu sōng). So filling...sooooo goooood.