On The Road Again For Chinese Food

There was nothing unusual about our trip up to San Francisco in September of 2019, my 90th trip to the Bay Area.   Who knew it would be more than two years before I made my 91st trip last month?  And not only did the pandemic keep us at home, and for a while almost completely away from Chinese restaurants, but also left us in the dark as to what Chinese restaurants may have closed, and what new ones might have opened up in the Bay Area.  Arriving after dark on a Monday, I was fortunate to find the bright, newly opened Taishanese Cuisine on Broadway.  It was so busy we had to wait for them to clear a table before we could sit down.  Looking at the menu, Taishanese Cuisine was something new under the sun, with modern Taishanese food including Cantonese hot pot dishes, seldom if ever seen before in the United States.  Unfortunately, these and other dishes were all family sized, and indeed looking at the table setup the restaurant was clearly designed for large family gatherings, so we were stuck with the relatively small a la carte entree portion of the menu.  

The curry chicken was a real surprise, as it was the first time I had ever seen that dish with fried, breaded chicken. 

 

We also had a large dish of white ong choy.

 

By the time we finished up it was almost closing time and the restaurant staff was getting ready for their meal.  I got a chance to get a peek at their clam and taro hotpot, something I had never encountered in a Chinese restaurant.

The highlight of the trip was our visit to the San Mateo branch of Palette Tea House.  The San Mateo branch of Palette was just as interesting as the Ghirardelli Square location with an array of interesting and delicious dim sum.  The restaurant was also visually quite striking with the biggest video display I’ve ever seen dwarfing the open kitchen below.  One scene on the video display was a mountaintop view.

Then that view would change to an underwater vista.

The food itself was just as good as at the San Francisco branch.  Like in San Francisco they had the black swan taro puff, except that for some reason the edible portion of the puff was the customary brownish color, unlike the black ones we saw in San Francisco.

However the San Mateo branch had a sibling creation that San Francisco doesn't have, the golden durian swan puff.

The most colorful dish was the multicolored xiaolongbao, with paprika chicken, turmeric crab, squid ink truffle, beet minced beef and spinach kale varieties.

 

The Peking duck was top notch.

 

Here's the blueberry mochi balls.

 

But the culinary highlight was the plainest looking dish we had, the cruller wrapped eel rice noodle roll.  Indescribably delicious!

 

And certainly there was no mistaking the path to the restroom with these changing ceiling lights pointing the way.  Here are some samples of the display.

After lunch we walked around the recenyly expanded Hillsdale Mall.  There were almost no customers in the mall, and many of the storefronts were vacant.   However, there was a Sharetea that was open and doing business, so I had this taro ice with pudding.

 

Of course particularly after a two year absence from San Francisco Chinatown, I was eager to see what other new Chinese restaurants had opened.  No surprise that there wasn't a lot of turnover, and indeed I was just glad to see that a lot of the restaurants had managed to survive the pandemic.  The most interesting opening was Empress by Boon in the old Empress of China location, but there were no reservations available during sensible dinner hours even weeks in advance of our trip.  This left Osmanthus Dim Sum lounge as the next most interesting opening, particularly since they carried my absolute favorite dish, the crispy bbq pork bun.  Besides being happy to see this dish, I thought it was an indication that Osmanthus might be a legitimate new dining option in Chinatown, where we typically find lodging but normally don't eat lunch or dinner.  But while the crispy buns were fine, the price ($9 for this regular order), the clientele and the vibe screamed "hipster."

Beyond these the only new places I discovered were Yu Cafe, replacing iCafe on Walter U. Lum P where I had this pineapple watermelon smoothie.

 

And New Love Tea Cafe on Broadway replacing T & T Cafe with its array of Taiwanese influenced snackies like these lobster balls.

 

To complete the Chinatown portion of the trip we then headed out to Lai Hong Lounge, one of the few good dinner places in Chinatown, but  the sign said “Closed For Remodeling” (uh oh).  So it was on to  V & J Café, which has a three item $28.50 special, an extremely high QPR for both quality and value, large portions and very tasty.  This is the bitter melon with beef.

A few of the dishes have a surcharge, like this fish with wine and ginger sauce which is a dollar or so extra.

 

This is the curry potato fish casserole.

 

The other highlight of the trip was the visit to Sifu Wong Kitchen in Sunnyvale.  For many years one of our most favorite Bay Area restaurants was the Hong Kong style specialist Cooking Papa, with locations in Foster City, Santa Clara and Mountain View.  Always a crowd and always great food.  But then the individual stores were sold off and everything went downhill, so much so that we received warnings for Bay Area friends not to bother with the new operations.  So it was great news when Cooking Papa's original head chef decided to open his own Hong Kong style restaurant in the Sunnyvale Ramada Inn, called Sifu Wong's Kitchen.  In a way Sifu Wong was a disappointment since we loved Cooking Papa’s Hong Kong style entrees.  However, with his own restaurant, the chef decided to serve dim sum at lunch time, which was not what we had been anticipating.  The dim sum was very good, though, as demonstrated by people lining up every morning before the restaurant opens, as well as the premium prices charged.  I have to say that while it doesn't look like much, their traditional baked bbq pork buns are the best I've ever eaten.

 

Similarly their egg tarts are as good as any from a sit down dim sum restaurant.

 

A real specialty is their herbal chicken feet, brimming with flavor.

 

 One of their signature items is their black gold lava bun.

 

Another different item is the combination shrimp and chicken egg roll.

 

This is their bbq pork pastry.

 

Topped off by a different and refreshing mango pomelo sago dessert.

While in Sunnyvale we also revisited a nearby shopping center that we had patronized a few times in the past.  At Hotpot First, I grabbed this order of popcorn chicken.

While at Ming Tasty, this wonderful combination of a number of my favorite ingredients, including bean curd sticks, egg tofu, and bamboo pith.

But not to say it was all Chinese food on the trip.  (Well, barely.)   A trip to the original Fisherman's Wharf area netted our absolutely favorite clam chowder in a bread bowl at Sabella and Latorre.