Archive for chinese

livin the dream

February 10, 2008 at 10:38 pm · Filed under chinese

Hai Sunhai-sun.jpg
3137 Laguna St. (x Lombard St.)

So, I’ve never been to this place in person. When bbg and I first moved in to our apartment, we didn’t know much about the city and we were open to experimenting (with food, that is). As such, when takeout menus appeared rubberbanded to our front door, we tried a couple out. Hai Sun caught our eye because, supposedly, they cook with very little oil. We figured that if we were gonna eat Chinese food, we could at least try to be healthy about it, so we made the call. Take out Chinese food in a tiny urban apartment? I must be an adult now.

Like I said, I’ve never physically been to the place, so I can’t say much about the interior or table service or anything like that. I have ordered from there about a dozen or so times since we’ve been in SF. Ordering on the phone seems to be the most painful part since the person taking your order doesn’t always have a firm grasp on the English language. It’s also pretty confusing when you only order two dishes instead of the normal 5 or 6. Ordering the food is semi ok, but giving directions on where you live can be tricky. Delivery is pretty speedy, even on a Saturday night. They’ll also call you if they can’t find your apartment or if your buzzer isn’t working.

The food is satisfying, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best ever. We usually get some kind of chow mein and a spicy beef dish. The menu boasts lots of different kinds of Chinese cuisine (Mongolian, Szechuan, Hunan, HK). I’m pretty ignorant and thus don’t know the difference between them. We’ve tried them all and the best seems to be Mongolian beef – very spicy. The dish comes with tones sliced onions and lots of long cut scallions. The onions add a nice, sweet crunch to the dish, which I enjoy. They also manage to soak up some of the flavor and are cooked enough to to be onion-y. I don’t really appreciate the scallions, so I pick them out. The meat itself is tender and comes in nice, thin slices. The sauce isn’t very oily, true to the Hai Sun promise, but rather it’s light, almost watery and used in an appropriate amount (read: not smothering the dish). And it’s hot! Your mouth and lips will be tingly for quite a while after you finish dinner.

Chow mein comes in different flavors: special, different meats, veggies, etc. After some hits and misses, we’ve settled on the BBQ pork. The noodles are a bit oily, but not as much as noodles you’d normally get at other restaurants. The pieces of meat are your typical Chinese BBQ pork, only in small bits. Besides the meat, the noodles come with shreds of cabbage that have a mustard-y flavor. Yuck. I usually pick these out since their flavor can be pretty strong. Otherwise, a good dish, always my favorite.

Overall: If you’re feeling lazy and you want some fast, and possibly healthy, Chinese food, this is a good option. Like most takeout places, I’ve ordered plenty of times, but I never order anything different once I’ve found the magic combo. Delivery is free, so I take advantage and only order two dishes, hah. Like I said, I’m livin’ the big city dream. I’ll probably never go there in person, and that’s fine.

Rating: 7/10

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Get educated!

January 22, 2008 at 10:11 pm · Filed under burmese, chinese

Burma SuperStar
309 Clement St. (x 4th Ave.)
burmasuperstar.com
Photo: yelp.com

For those of you who don’t know, it was my birthday awhile ago. To celebrate, it was someone’s idea to go big and go to Burma Superstar. This restaurant, as far as I can tell, is legendary. People who’ve been rave about it, people who haven’t been have heard other people rave about it. It’s kind of a big deal. Every time bbg and I go to Clement, the place is packed and people are outside waiting. Like, a lot of people. I’ve always wanted to try it out, but I’m an impatient person and we never did end up going… until now!

Before we begin, you’re probably asking yourself, where is Burma exactly? To which, I would say, ignorant! Let me teach you a thing or two…. Burma is in Southeast Asia, surrounded by China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and water. As such, its food has influences from all of those countries. The country itself is freaking huge. To learn more about this extraordinary country no one seems to know much about, please visit here. I did.

Onward! I mentioned the group of people always waiting outside the place, right? We figured if we went on a Monday night, we’d be ok. Nope. Our wait was about 45 minutes, outside, in the cold. Here’s a tip: they don’t take reservations, but you can call ahead of time and put your name on their list. They can give you a time estimate and call you when your table is ready. The catch is that if they call your cell phone you have to be there in about two seconds or they give your table away. Trust me, I was sitting out there for 45 minutes and I saw the hostess give away more than one table. Hah!

We finally get in and after staring at the menu outside for a long while, we order pretty much immediately: their famous Rainbow Salad, chicken casserole with cardamom cinnamon rice, sesame beef, and SuperStar Noodles. Plus a Thai iced tea and ginger lemonade. Here we go!

The Rainbow Salad has been featured on the Food Network (according to the menu) and contains a whopping 22 ingredients! The salad is brought out on a square bowl with small portions of the ingredients laid out next to each other. The waiter points out each ingredient and mixes them together in a taramind dressing. The salad features four types of noodles, so it’s more of a noodle salad than a regular cabbage salad. I think the 22 ingredients is impressive, but when you eat it, I don’t know how much of an impact each ingredient makes. The dressing is very, very tangy and has a nice spicy kick to it. The spice is enough to give your lips a little tingle and the tangy-ness is enough to make you pucker a little. It’s an interesting mix, but very tasty. Tasty enough that bbg ate some, and then had seconds! (He never eats salad and is even disgusted by it.) Bbg ate it, twice (!), it’s that good.

After we finish the salad the rest of the food comes out. The sesame beef is the only thing we order that isn’t Burmese, and you can tell right off the bat from it’s name that it’s Chinese. While it’s like any other Chinese dish you can get at any other Chinese restaurant around, it’s far and away a much higher quality than the regular stuff. The meat is incredibly tender and melts in your mouth. Its thinly sliced and looks a little red, but is far from chewy and tough. The beef is smothered in a heavy, dark, sweet and slightly spicy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds (to remind you of what you’re eating). I liked it, but definitely needed some white rice with it. I would say the sauce is like most sauces you’d get at a Chinese restaurant, probably less greasy.

The chicken casserole with rice reminded me of Indian and Ethiopian food I’ve had before – maybe the cardamom and cinnamon? The braised chicken comes covered in yellow rice in a clay pot. The chicken comes on the bone (unfortunately), but is very very very tender and easily comes off the bone. The meat is very juicy and flavorful. The casserole comes with a few pieces of shrimp that just tasted like shrimp. The rice is also very tasty and flavorful. I liked it, but the flavoring was so much so that I didn’t want to eat the rice like I normally eat rice: with meat to sort of dilute strong flavors. The rice combined with the meat is nice, but maybe a little overwhelming. The raisins in the mix were nice little sweet surprises!

Our last dish was the SuperStar Noodles. The noodles come with pieces cucumbers, potatoes, tofu, dried shrimp, and cabbage. Sadly, the noodles come to the table at room temperature (intentionally), which is kind of weird and something I’ve never had before. The noodles and various accouterments are covered in a chili sauce, which gives it a nice little bite. Otherwise, it’s sort of a tomato-ish kind of sauce, maybe even a little bland. Good, but I think the temperature really threw me off base. We ended up taking half the noodles home (plus half the casserole – we ordered too much!), and I ate them for dinner the next night. Served hot, they tasted a lot better. The same, but just hot.

The drinks, briefly, were good. The Thai iced tea came unmixed, which is always fun. It had a nice balance of tea to milk, with a slight bit more milk, so it was sweeter, which is what I like. The ginger lemonade is quite literally that. Take a sip of a nice tangy lemonade and then a tiny bite of ginger (sort of like the pickled stuff you get next to your sushi at Japanese restaurants) and you’ve got the drink. The ginger wasn’t overwhelming, just a nice little twist.

The place is TINY. A few tables along each wall and tables in the middle, probably can’t seat more than 70 people in the joint. The walls are painted calming colors and decorated with, I presume, Burmese artifacts. Wood carvings, small statues, cloth tapestry type things, etc. Everything was very simple and elegant. It was authentic but not cheesy, cool but not hipster. I liked it a lot. But seriously, SO SMALL! Our table was a mere foot from the tables next to ours, so I got to know the couples next to us pretty well.

Overall: A nice place with amazing food. There’s a long wait to get it: long enough that you wouldn’t want to do it on a regular basis, but well worth it for special occasions. Did I mention the spectacular food – a cuisine you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere, even in the City! Not perfect, but certainly great. I’m definitely going back and trying the rest of the menu.  Fast and friendly service once inside, and extra points for being across the street from Genki! (The perfect desert!!)

Rating: 9/10

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be a local

May 30, 2007 at 9:16 pm · Filed under asian, bakery, chinese

Golden Gate Bakery
1029 Grant Ave. (x Jackson St.)

Photo: yelp.com

I admit, I’ve been absent for a good while, but only because I was sick, then busy, then stressed out, then on vacation. But I’m back!

If you like Asian goodies, you’ll like this bakery in Chinatown. It’s famous for it’s dan tat (or egg tarts), within the City, the Bay Area Chinese community, and beyond. Read reviews and 9 times out of 10, people are raving and for good reason. Oftentimes there are lines outside this busy bakery, and if you’re not careful, you’ll most definitely get cut! Sometimes if someone takes a little too long, or doesn’t make eye contact right away, one of the locals with chat up the people behind the counter and grab goodies before you.

Their dan tat is reeeeeeeeally good and usually still warm when you buy. They’re very tempting, as shown by my boss who one day stopped in for a snack (1 or 2 egg tarts) and convinced herself to buy 6! She upped the number to 4 to get even change, then six so she could get a pink box to carry them in, instead of a plastic baggy. The egg tarts are slightly sweet, the crust is flaky, and there is a subtle boiled egg flavor – perfect! They’re cheap, too.

The bakery carries other stuff, of course. I’ve tried their BBQ pork buns, which are nice, but a little too sweet for me. They have the usual goodies like sponge cake and sesame buns with red beans inside. To be honest, I really haven’t had much here beyond the egg tarts, but I’ve seen people come empty handed and leave with bags of boxes in each hand. It’s one of the few places that is consistently crowded. The inside is really small, no place to sit since the display counter takes up most the space. There’s usually a line outside with at least 3-4 people waiting.

Cash is best, be prepared to order quickly. I’ve never seen them run out of anything, and everything looks pretty fresh. It’s a little more expensive than other bakeries, but that’s not really saying anything since other Chinatown places are soooooooo cheap (where else can you eat a huge lunch for under $2?).

Overall: Some say overrated, but well worth the wait to at least try for yourself. Famous for good reason.  If locals like it, you know it’s pretty good.
Rating: 8/10

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out and about

May 13, 2007 at 4:29 pm · Filed under chinese, dim sum

Y. Ben House Restaurant
835 Pacific Ave. (x Stockton St.)

Photo: yelp.com

I’ve only had dim sum a handful of times (not counting take-out) and of those times, I’ve been to this place twice. About a month back I went for a luncheon for work and this weekend I went with some Berkeley friends for a Saturday afternoon around the City.

The place is pretty large and thus noisy. The restaurant consists of one large room with a high ceiling and tons of people. We showed up a little before 1pm, so it was still packed, but we were able to get a table pretty quickly. The waiters pushing the different carts full of food were extremely aggressive during both my visits. At times two carts would approach us with two waiters trying to give you about 6 different dishes, and in the confusion, people at the table agree to probably more than they would like.

But that’s ok because the food is really good. There are plenty of plates to choose from and it’s fun to try them all. Their cha siu baaus are small, heavy on the sauce and light on the bits of pork, but still tasty. The other kind of baau was also good, the bread not too sweet and the meat flavorful and not very salty. The onion bread is a little plain and pretty greasy. The Chinese broccoli comes with a dark, syrup-y sort of soy sauce, a nice change of pace from all the carbs we were downing. We also tried some really delicious shrimp thingy. It was wrapped in a wonton, then deep fried, so it makes sense that it was good since most anything can be good if it’s deep fried. The turnip cake was a little strange for me, I suppose it’s because we were calling it cake, so I was expecting sweet and not subtle and salty.

Their chow fun and chow mein is very greasy, but contains bean sprouts so it’s crunchy, something I always appreciate with noodles. Beware of the shrimp rolls that look like spring rolls. While they taste good, the wrapping feels like thin plastic sheets in your mouth and makes the entire roll less than appetizing. I was surprised by rice noodle rolls filled with shrimp (it was a popular meat at my table) and this other bun type thing stuffed with shrimp and greens. Both seem very simple but come with a flavoring that you’ll find in a lot of Asian dishes. I think it’s a generic meat flavoring that you get when you cook things in a wok. (I apologize in advance if this sounds ignorant, I really know nothing about cooking, let alone any particular ethinc cuisine.)

The sesame balls are terrific. They’re red bean paste with a sort of mochi rice shell, deep fried and then covered with sesame seeds. The ball is crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. The red bean paste is slightly sweet, not really sugary, which compliments the plain taste of the rice. There are other dishes besides what I’ve mentioned, like porridge and steamed pork ribs. There are so many choices that it’s hard to catch everything without ending up with tons of leftovers.

I think if you’re looking to watch what you eat or if you’re a vegetarian then you’ll be SOL, most dishes contain meat, deep fried or cooked in oil, and covered in some form of carb. What’s great is that while you feel guilty for gorging yourself on foods that are obviously not fat-free, you are more than happy with the check. For our party of six the bill was only $32 ($36 with tip). Everyone left stuffed with food, so it’s an amazing deal. I think we got over a dozen plates and a wide variety of options, so in all, a good place to check out and a standard dim sum experience.

The downside? I’ve read reviews on yelp.com before this weekend and most low reviews were due to lack of cleanliness at the restaurant.  Well… hate to break it to you, but it’s true.  I used the restroom at the restaurant and it definitely stuck with me.  The doors to the bathroom stall didn’t close and there wasn’t any toilet paper.  The sink wouldn’t turn off and the floors were sticky with who knows what.  I caught a glimpse of the back area, and it’s your typical back-of-the-restaurant scene: not anything you’d like to see.  Generally dirty enough where you’d feel uncomfortable touching anything from months (or longer) of exposure to heat and grease.  But, I didn’t see any bugs or small animals wandering about, so not totally terrible.  Waiters cut up food items with scissors, and that can’t be the cleanest option out there, but they were more or less mindful of not touching your food with their hands.

Overall: Good food if you’re not watching your girly figure, but don’t eat anything if you drop it on the table because you never know.  Typical dim sum place and you can manage if you don’t speak Cantonese.  CHEAP!

Rating: 8/10

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weekend in the south bay

April 22, 2007 at 4:46 am · Filed under asian, buffet, chinese, sushi

Crazy Buffetso crazy!
780 S. Winchester Blvd. (near I-280) in San Jose – Show me!
Cuisine: Chinese, sushi, Asian

Photo: yelp.com

This weekend I went home to Santa Cruz for my cousin’s 8th birthday party. My family (more specifically, my paternal grandmother, the matriarch of the family, and her two sisters) is obsessed with the Crazy Buffet and we’ve been going there for various celebrations more times than I care to remember. For those familiar with the City, Moonstar Restaurant on Market St. is basically it’s equivalent.

The place is unspecific Asian, with mostly Americanized Chinese food. You’ll find soggy spring rolls and fire engine red sweet and sour sauce that can top either fried chicken or pork pieces. There’s also a basic sushi bar featuring simple maki rolls as well as California rolls and something with cream cheese in it. A big drawing point has to be the variety of seafood you can get. There are mussles with melted cheese, crab legs, shrimp, fried fish, and even little baby octopi (my dad loves that stuff).

The food, like every other buffet I’ve ever been to, was ok, but far from superb. It’s greasy and you feel bad after eating so much, but hey, it’s a buffet and you should get your money’s worth. The spring rolls are always bad, and some of the fruit and veggies are obviously not fresh (the corn on the cob was frozen, pineapple was canned, etc). But I hear the seafood wasn’t so bad (I don’t really enjoy seafood). I’m sure the shrimp was good, I just couldn’t bring myself to peel off the skin to try.

The sushi was decent, so we tipped the sushi chefs. The chinese food was average: chow mein, sweet and sour, chicken and broccoli, etc. The black pepper chicken, however, was great. Spicy, but not so much that you don’t taste anything after the burn, and a little sweet. Crunchy. Much better than sweet and sour, which I secretly love to death.

Oh the desserts! At first I was excited because they had cheese cake. It was a large batch, as if someone made it in a standard 13×9″ pan and then turned it upside-down to dump out the cake. I got a piece (even though we brought our own cakes for the celebration) to try it out – I couldn’t resist! I was pretty disappointed. The cheese cake was soggy (perhaps it was once frozen?), and very, very bland. They had other desserts like rice pudding, jell-o, and the old staple of buffets: frozen yogurt in chocolate, vanilla, or swirl!

In all, not a bad place for large groups to come together and stuff their faces. Very family friendly as it’s loud and filled with other families. The decor is mostly left over from the Marie Calendars it used to be, which is strange when mixed with the cuisine, but something I’ve seen before. Probably wouldn’t go back on my own or recommend it without being sarcastic. One thing’s for sure, though, it’s cheap! And as my dad likes to say, “You can’t beat that with a stick!”

Overall: Decent, but not good for your health or your tastebuds. Don’t go there unless you’re forced, and when you are, don’t complain because it’s not as if they’re poisoning you. Plus it’s rude.

Rating: 4/10

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