Monthly Archives: October 2011

Tofu skin rolls – Ton Kiang

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Tofu skin rolls Ton Kiang

Steamed bean curd skins stuffed with what tasted like a meat and shrimp mixture, in a brown sauce and topped with chopped green onions.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

This was one of the few successes during my visit to ton Kiang.  It was very tasty and the 3 pieces were decently sized.  I’m not sure what the oily brown sauce was, but it had a nice mild flavor.  I loved the texture of the soft, filmy tofu skin surrounding the dense meat filling.  I don’t know if these skins were store bought, but I would love to see how they are made by hand.  It looks pretty cool from what I’ve seen online!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Chicharron y queso pupusas – Balompie Cafe

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Chicharron y queso pupusas Balompie Cafe

Thick corn tortillas filled with minced ground pork and cheese filling.  $5 for two.
Balompie Cafe, San Francisco

$5 for two large pupusas – SCORE!  Even less if you order them to go.  I’ve only recently discovered this delicious and addictive, traditional Salvadoran dish.  Where have I been, right!?  These things are so warm and comforting and they can be filled with so many things.  I always seem to order a meat and cheese combination.  These pupusas (shown above) were very good and quite large for the price.  I also tried their fish and shrimp pupusa, but didn’t enjoy it as much.  It had a strong, artificial seafood flavor and aftertaste.  Regardless, I would definitely recommend Balompie Cafe for yummy pupusas!

Curtido Balompie Cafe

The pupusas are served with pickled vegetables and a traditional curtido.  The pickled vegetables were scrumptious!  The curtido consists of a lightly fermented cabbage slaw with chilis and vinegar, and a watery tomato salsa.  I couldn’t help but drown my pupusas with the curtido, lol!  No sense in wasting food!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Squash pizza – Beretta

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Squash pizza Beretta

Delicious pizza with squash, provolone, prosciutto, onion and goat cheese.  $15
Beretta, San Francisco

I usually don’t go for vegetable pizzas, but this one was spectacular!  Granted it also had prosciutto (that was my compromise, hehe).  You can see that it had SO much squash on it – I kind of felt healthy eating this pizza.  The thin crust was very good and it was sturdy enough to support all the toppings.  It had a nice bite, good char and a great flavor.  Beretta is up there with Delfina Pizzeria as one of the places where I feel confident on consistently getting a delicious pizza!

Siu lung bao – Ton Kiang

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Siu lung bao Ton Kiang

Steamed Shanghai meat (pork) and soup dumplings.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

Are you kidding me?!  This has got to be one of the worst Shanghai soup dumplings I’ve ever tried.  I remember someone once saying that they didn’t like it when xiao long bao are steamed in foil cups, and now I know why!  This dumplings were so dry and barely had any soup inside.  The wrappers were thick and gummy, and the metallic reflection of the foil seemed sad compare to the beautiful, transulent green of a napa cabbage leaf or even a parchment round.  If you want to try Shanghai soup dumplings for the first time, do not go to Ton Kiang!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Duck confit – Reform Club

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Duck confit Reform Club

Large leg and thigh served with succotash, corn, tomato, shelling beans and basil. $40 for 4-course dinner.
Reform Club @ Specchio, San Francisco

This dish was one of the highlights of this pop-up dinner, partly because it was a full sized portion.  The other courses were tiny!  OK, the duck was also delicious and it was beautifully plated.  I also loved the succotash.  The bright vegetables were a great counterpoint to the rich duck.  The skin on that duck was SO good  and crispy, noms!  One guy at our table contemplated ordering another portion.  He was a big fellow and he was starving, poor thing…

Yeung qi dze – Ton Kiang

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Yeung qi dze Ton Kiang

Deep fried eggplant slices filled with a shrimp mixture.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

Yet another disappointing dish from Ton Kiang.  These stuffed eggplants are one of my favorite dim sum dishes, and they managed to completely ruin it for me!  You can see from the photo that the color is a bit off and that’s because this was one of the greasiest things I’ve ever eaten!  The greasy was literally dripping off this thing once you picked it up with chopsticks, EW!  It had absolutely NO flavor except from the excessive oil that end up coating your entire mouth.  Good thing this was the last plate we had, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to taste the others from the oily film coating our taste buds.  Sadness…

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Carnitas tacos – La Taqueria

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Carnitas tacos La Taqueria
 

Roasted pulled pork with pinto beans, salsa and wrapped in flour tortillas. $3.50 each
La Taqueria, San Francisco

My apologies, but this place is SO over rated and over priced!  The tacos may be large, but they were bland and the juice from the salsa (seemed to be used as filler) kept dripping down my arm.  It baffles me how these tacos made it on the 7×7 Big Eat 2011 list but then again, so did dim sum at Ton Kiang!  Both are disappointing and not worth a special trek to try them.  I honestly think that any taco truck in the Mission has better carnitas tacos and they’ll be cheaper too.  You’ve been warned, lol!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2011, 2012, 2013

Eggplant caponatina – Beretta

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Eggplant caponatina Beretta

Fried Japanese eggplants with cherry tomatoes, celery, basil, capers, Sicilian green olives, toasted pine nuts, white balsamic vinegar, and topped with a generous portion of burrata cheese. $9
Beretta, San Francisco

Wow, Beretta doesn’t skimp on the burrata cheese for this dish!  I personally love buratta.  The cream filled fresh mozzarella cheese acquires such a creamy, luscious texture.  It’s absolutely divine.  I’ve never had eggplant caponata before this, but I really enjoyed it.  The dish was very flavorful and the fresh vegetables, basil and pine nuts helped to brighten the fried eggplants.  There’s a lot going on here, but they all work.  The buratta is additional, but I highly recommend ordering it.  I don’t think I would have enjoyed this dish half as much sans the buratta!

Congee – Ton Kiang

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Congee Ton Kiang

Rice porridge topped with fried crispy wontons and chopped cilantro.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

My first congee experience was horrible and I’ve never liked this Chinese rice porridge since.  I was in the San Francisco Chinatown and had walked into a random Chinese restaurant where everything was written in Chinese except for a few menu items tacked onto their walls, one of which was congee.  I ordered the chicken congee without really knowing what it was.  When I received the HUGE bowl of white rice porridge, I was so disappointed.  There are a few textures I really don’t enjoy and runny, slightly slimey, slightly thick and gelatinous porridge with bits of things floating in it is one of them, lol!  I took a few bites, left the restaurant, and have never tried congee since. 

…Until my trip to Ton Kiang!  And I must admit, that it wasn’t half bad this time around.  It still took some mental tricks on my part to try it, but I believe that I almost enjoyed it.  I think this version was thinner than the previous and didn’t have any mysterious ingredients hiding inside.  The crispy wontons and cilantro also helped to disguise the porridge texture and added some familiar flavors.  I’m not going to start ordering congee on a regular basis, but at least now, I know I can somewhat enjoy it!  🙂

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Cocktails – Beretta

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Nuestra Paloma Beretta

Nuestra Paloma – tequila, elderflower, cointreau, grapefruit, bitters. $10

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010

Dolores Park Swizzle Beretta

Dolores Park Swizzle – rhum, lime, maraschino, absinthe, bitters, garnished with mint. $9

Airmail Beretta

Airmail – rum, honey, lime, prosecco. $9
Beretta, San Francisco

If I had to rank these 3 cocktails from best to OK, I would say Nuestra Paloma, Airmail, then Dolores Park Swizzle.  The Nuestra Paloma had a great, distinct flavor combination.  I personally love tequila, and the addition of the other ingredients made for a wonderfully bright (and strong) drink.  The Airmail was good and very drinkable.  It didn’t taste particularly special though.  I didn’t enjoy the flavors int he Dolores Park Swizzle.  The cocktail was beautiful, but there was something in it that turned me off.  Perhpas it was the addition of absinthe.  I must say that I’m always impressed by the bartenders at Beretta for their cocktail making abilities, and almost all of their speciality cocktails are DELICIOUS!  During my last visit, though, our first drinks didn’t arrive at our table until our second dish was out.  Now that’s kind of inexcusable – sorry!

Carne asada burrito – El Farolito

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Carne asada burrito El Farolito

Super burrito with soft flour tortilla filled with grilled steak, rice, beans, fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and avocado. $6.25
El Farolito, San Franciso

Like most Mission burritos, this one from El Farolito is ginormous (and quite delicious if I may add)!  The carne asada was tender and flavorful, and the other ingredients are evenly portioned.  They don’t over-fill the burrito with rice like some other taquerias.  The salsa, however, was SO frickin’ salty!  It pretty much destroyed my taste buds and ruined several bites of the burrito.  I immediately stopped using more once I figured out that it was the salty offender, lol!  If you plan on tackling this huge burrito, save your appetite or stow half for later!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

Gao choy got – Ton Kiang

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Gao choy got Ton Kiang

Steamed then pan fried green chives and shrimp dumplings.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

I’ve mentioned before that these dumplings are one of my favorite kinds of dim sum.  I love the strong, sharp taste of the garlic chives and the crisp texture of the fried ends.  These dumplings at Ton Kiang, however, were SO tiny!  They were the size of those frozen dim sum dumplings you get at Asian markets that always seem to be on sale.  Naturally, these 4 dumplings went down quickly and barely made a dent in our dim sum hunger.  I also remember the filling being somewhat dense and dry.  This maybe one of my favorite dumplings, but this version was a disappointment.

Dipping sauces Ton Kiang

Dipping sauces.  The yellow sauce was hot mustard, but I’m not sure what was the green sauce.

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012