San Francisco - Alison Bing [113]
Ethnic Taste Treats
Anyone attempting to leave the city of San Francisco without trying dim sum and burritos should be turned back at the airport for their own good – though once you try them, you might not want to leave. Dim sum is Cantonese for what’s known in Mandarin as xiao che (small eats); some also call it yum cha (drink tea), and there are dozens of places in San Francisco where you’ll call it delicious. Waitstaff roll carts past your table with steaming baskets of dumplings, platters of garlicky sautéed greens and, finally, plates of sweet crispy sesame balls and creamy egg custard. Bring friends along to share the bounty at venerable Ton Kiang Restaurant or the stylish City View, or organize a dim-sum crawl to explore the counter-service joints lining Clement St between 5th and 9th Sts or Stockton St between Clay and Jackson Sts.
The most hotly debated local dish is the SF burrito, which is nothing like the imposters you’ll find elsewhere. Your choice of beans (pinto, black or refried), meats (grilled or stewed) and salsas (fresh chopped pico de gallo, tangy green tomatillo, smoky mesquite or spicy mango) are loaded onto a flour tortilla and rolled into a foodstuff the approximate length and girth of a forearm. To contribute an informed opinion to the debate over who does burritos best, head to the Mission District, take your pick of busy taquerias (taco restaurants), then compare notes online with the admittedly obsessed Burrito Eater (www.burritoeater.com).
Seafood
The Pacific offers a haul of seafood to San Francisco diners, but there’s trouble in those waters: some species have been overfished, and their extinction could throw the local aquaculture off balance. Monterey Bay Aquarium has been monitoring local fish stock for decades, and its Seafood Watch program helps diners identify best options, good choices and items to avoid on local seafood menus – find out which of your seafood favorites are on the best list at www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx.
Delicious, sustainable, local seafood choices found almost year-round include wild Dungeness crab, locally farmed oysters and locally farmed caviar. From late fall through spring you’ll find Dungeness crab on virtually any San Franciscan menu, but locals make a ritual of the season’s arrival with a trip out to PPQ Dungeness Island in outer Richmond or a steaming bowl of cioppino (cho-pee-noh) seafood stew, served by the vat at Catch. Freshly shucked raw oysters have been a bar-top staple in the city from Gold Rush days, and the happy hour tradition continues at El Rio. The most venerable purveyor is Hog Island Oyster Company, where you can taste-test a few different variations for $1 each at happy hour. Tsar Nicoulai sustainably produces America’s most sought-after ostetra caviar, and you can taste what the fuss is about at Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Cafe.
Sourdough Bread
San Francisco is famous for its sourdough bread, although the pucker-inducing aftertaste can be an acquired taste. The most famous ‘mother dough’ in town dates back to 1849, when baker Isidore Boudin hit on a combination of wild yeast and bacteria that’s been kept alive and getting a rise out of Boudin Bakery’s bread ever since. You’ll see people eating Boudin sourdough bowls filled with clam chowder down at Fisherman’s Wharf, but be warned: the combination of starchy, salty glop, crusty carbs and the very occasional clam has yet to be proven digestible.
Return to beginning of chapter
VEGETARIANS & VEGANS
To all you beleaguered vegetarians, accustomed to eating out in places where the only non-animal dish is some unspeakable vegetarian lasagna: you’re in San Francisco now. Your needs are not an afterthought in California cuisine, which revolves around seasonal produce instead of the usual American meat and potatoes. Vegan fine dining is not an oxymoron here, with inventive menus at Millennium and the legendary Greens. On the cheaper side, vegetarian options abound at taquerias, pizzerias, Japanese noodle joints, Thai restaurants, Ethiopian