There is a lot of justifiable grumbling about the economy nowadays, but one of the fringe benefits is that right now, travel is ridiculously cheap. And I've never been a gal who can pass up a great value, an excuse to escape, or free shared accommodations from a dear, dear friend.
So, I was off to San Francisco as the roving foodite compass for said dear friend and MILF-y maven, the sweet-toothed Sugar Momma.
Sugar Momma presented a few golden opportunities for an always-ravenous wanderer like myself:
- She'd never been to SF before (or California, for that matter).
- As much as Sugar Momma loves food, there was a laundry list of eats that a gal raised in upstate NY had never tried before.
- Sugar Momma is no wuss. Even if she's sure she'll hate it, she'll still try it.
That in mind, I crammed as many firsts and technicolor noshing into 5 days as any sane pair of chickadees could manage.
Let's start with the cheapies, shall we?
I found Pho Tan Hoa on Yelp!, and figured it was a good place to pop Sugar Momma's Vietnamese food cherry. She looked a 'lil worried as I lead her into a vaguely sketchy bit of the Tenderloin in pursuit of lunch, but she relaxed once the harried (but amazingly efficient) proprietor set fragrant bowls of pho and bò kho (Vietnamese beef stew) in front of us.
I know pho is old hat for a lot of you readers, but I was psyched when SM emerged from the bowl with a grin and a thumbs up, unfazed by the thin sheets of rare filet cooking in the piping-hot soup.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of bò kho, it's served with nicely crackly baguettes to sop up the slightly curried, anise-spiked jus as you work through the fall-apart chunks of beef, tendon, and carrots.
And since this was our first meal in SF, I was stupid about pacing, so I got a totally unnecessary order of Summer Rolls as well. Super-fresh, the soft mung bean wrapper perfectly packaging sliced shrimp, vermicelli, and herb salad, these babies were a great value (four of them to an order, at just-around $5), and SM loved them, so no regrets.
(Only bloat!)
Another lunch of firsts for Sugar was dim sum at Yank Sing, another find off of Yelp!. I know, there is dim sum in NY, and some of it ain't half-bad. But I want to live a life where dim sum is BETTER than ain't-half-bad DAMMIT, and CA will always ROCK the Empire State in this respect. Check out these soup dumplings (Xiǎolóngbāo):
See how sultry-thin those skins are, so skimpy that the whole thing is slumped with soup that you can actually SEE??? GORgeous. That's how it should be, and I'm glad that Sugar's very first one was a great one, bursting with nuanced soup and a tender pork-and-crab filling. The black vinegar wasn't even necessary on these gems.
The barbecued pork buns (charsiubao) were a proud example of their kind, sweet-savory steamy treats:
Also toothsome were the crispy-on-the-outside, creamy-on-the-inside, pork-filled taro puffs (woogok) made with a light hand and a properly hot deep fryer (I've had some Gawd-awful greasy ones in NY); the shrimp-and-chive dumplings (gauchoygao) were kind of a non-event.
We managed to save some room for sweets; meet happily gelatinous and creamy mango pudding (before being doused in evaporated milk) and the ragged half of a shamelessly flaky custard tart (dantat):
Sometimes, serendipity intervenes--our last budget-minded lunch came from a homey little Japanese joint that I'd noticed one night on the way back to our hotel.
Dojima-An is not unlike places you'd find in the East Village, or even back in Hawaii, and for good reason--the appeal of well-made starch is universal, and Japanese comfort food cures what you didn't even know was ailing you (namely, taste-bud fatigue).
Sugar Momma scored herself a bowl of hot soba with lacy vegetable tempura:
...and I tucked into udon with stewed chicken, eggs and sauteed onion. A hug in a bowl!
I love Cali. Even in a tiny, homey place like this, the quality of the fish was better than it had any right to be. We each treated ourselves to a piece of spanking-rosy hamachi nigiri (yellowtail tuna), beloved by sushi-snobbypants and sushi-novice alike:
Like buttah. I had to hold back from having sushi for dessert.
Patience, I told myself. Finite space, and all that! Tune in next post for the fancier vittles!
(Oh, and if you're keeping score, Sugar Momma has dug everything she's tried so far. SO proud of her!)
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Pho Tan Hoa
431 Jones St
(between Antonio St & Ellis St)
Civic Center/Tenderloin
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 673-3163
Hours:
Mon-Sun. 8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Yank Sing
101 Spear St
(between Howard St & Mission St)
SOMA
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 957-9300
Hours:
Mon-Fri. 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Dojima-An
219 O'Farrell St
(between Cyril Magnin St & Powell St)
Union Square, Civic Center/Tenderloin
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 956-0838
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