Izakaya Sozai ***

Shishito peppers sauteed with garlic very nice. Tonkotsu ramen excellent soup, slightly underseasoned for me, but I'm a saltaholic. Good egg. Chicken skin yakitori very nice, strong sauce with a nice punch.

Yummy Yummy **

Sate Beef Noodle Soup with Egg Noodles #8 (ordered spicy) - I loved the tender meat and strong sate flavor. 

I had written off YY before due to a lackluster Bun Bo Hue, but this was such a great showing, I might have to come back and give the BBH another shot.

Little Beijing *'

On Noreiga

Green Onion Pancake - thick layered and crispy.
Dan Dan Noodles - lots of peanut sauce not much meat, I prefer the one at Z&Y because it's a little less saucey and more flavorful.

All the other tables had pot stickers and fried chicken wings.  The menu also had water boiled beef, something I might try next time.  It seems like a hangout for Chinese students from SF State.

Hong Kong Lounge II **'

No wait at 10:30 and service was better than original location.

Shrimp Dumplings
Fried Tofu Skin Roll
Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaves - a very good rendition
Salted Pork Porridge - o.k.
Noodles with Clam and Crab Paste - was a bit disappointing, the ramen noodles in the dish mediocre.
Chive Dumplings - translucent gummy skin, not my favorite

Toyose **'

Kimchi Fried Rice - excellent rendition, perfect seasoning and the egg yolk dripping over it added the right amount of substance to it.

Hae Mul Pajeon - chock full of seafood and nicely fried.

Yogurt Soju - a little weak alcohol wise, but good flavor

Seafood Jige - a variety of seafood in a spicy stew, the fish meat added flavor to the soup, but the meat itself was a bit mealy.

Fried Chicken - o.k. nicely seasoned, but needs sauce or something to finish it.

Outerlands in Winter

They have a new chef.

Great cocktails
*Celery root soup with delicious bread.
Little gems with a well balanced buttermilk dressing.
Cavatelli - pasta a bit heavier than I like.
Petrale Sole - not my taste.
*Duck confit w/ pomagranate, very good.
Espresso Financier - good dessert, nicely accented with citrus.

JUST WON TON**'

Just Won Ton is a noodle soup shop located across from some accountants' offices, on Vincente Street in the Outer Sunset. Hot Beef Wonton Noodle Soup and their fried tofu stuffed with pork are the two items I consistently order. It's a Cantonese diner style food with some homestyle rice plates and a neighborhood crowd. The wontons are the best thing they have, with a thin wrapper, a good ratio of shrimp to pork and a nice little pop when you bite into them. The hot beef is actually not that spicy but adds a little hot oil flavor to the broth.

The fried tofu is nothing special, but it's a nice conduit for soy sauce and the hot pickled condiments. Each fried tofu triangle is has a small slit in the middle where they stuff some ground pork to add a bit more to it. This might actually be more successful if the tofu pieces were a bit smaller. The large tofu pieces drown out any porky taste, but still I like their general thinking on the dish.



Vincente at 23rd

NEW CHEUNG HING**

**Update: This restaurant is now closed**

I've passed New Cheung Hing too many times to count. Somehow their hanging ducks have never enticed me to taste something from their counter of prepared foods. The few times that I have walked into the restaurant, the prepared foods seemed like they had been in the steaming trays for a long time. It just didn't appear as fresh as the food found at similar places on Clement. On a night when I was craving some vegetables, I decided to give the sit down part of the restaurant a try. The menu had a lot of decent sounding items and I quickly zoomed in on the Rock Cod Fillet with Tender Greens. When I asked what the greens were they told me it was bok choy. O.k. that's typical for a Cantonese restaurant, but I was craving something else. After asking if they had anything else, she said no, but then I suggested Kong Xin Tsai (water spinach) one of my favorite greens and she said they could do that. I was a little hesitant because I wondered whether the produce would be fresh. Turned out great. Some nice fillets sauteed in a light garlic sauce with a heaping mound of vegetables, the sauce was light and allowed the fish and the greens to shine. It tasted great and looked so good that the table next to me asked for theirs to be cooked the same way.




























To whet my appetite, I started with the Crab with Fish Maw Soup, one of my favorite soups. Their version had a decent amount of fish maw and real crab. Though they might have gone a little overboard with the thickening agent, I would definitely order this again.




























The menu shows some very inexpensive family dinners ranging from four to ten folks, which might be worth trying. The place is not bad, the food much better than I expected and the service efficient. I probably wouldn't get anything from their already made counter except for the duck or roasted meats, but wouldn't mind coming back to sample a few more of their freshly cooked items.

Irving and 20th

TOFU VILLAGE**

Tofu Village on Irving at 20th has taken over the space that once housed the only good Taiwanese restaurant in the city. Oh well. The space is the same, though they've added a flat screen tv to the wall and were playing some Chinese movie with Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Despite the movie, the neighborhood and the previous version of the restaurant, there were quite a few people speaking Korean around our table. My caucasian friend pointed at the menu which shows a scale of spiciness from top to bottom: Extra Spicy, Spicy, Medium, Mild, and White. That's right, "White" is the mildest seasoning. We laughed.

This time I tried a straight up Combination Tofu rather than getting a combo with some bbq. The Combo Tofu was in a nice sized bowl, bigger than the one at My Tofu House, and filled with large chunks of tofu. Though the flavor was there, I was a little bit disappointed with the skimpy fillings. Only a couple of pieces of clam and two very small shrimp with the head on top. At least the service was good, they kept asking if we wanted more panchan. The panchan was not terribly exciting, though they did give each of us our own little fish and as much japchae as we could eat. Unlike other tofu places, they didn't pour hot water into the stone rice bowl -- not that I ever eat that water mush, but I like the idea of it. The dinner for two came out to $24 including tip, so I can't complain. Though next time I'd order the Dae Ji Bulgogi or the Kalbi.



Previous Tofu Village Post

Irving at 20th

TOFU VILLAGE**

Heading over to have dinner at Kevin's Noodle House on Irving near 19th, I saw that the old Taiwanese snack place has now changed from a jook house to a Korean tofu place. I had to try it. Tofu House has the usual assortment of soon tofu chige and a pretty good menu of combos which enables you to have tofu chige and some bbq. I opted for spicy pork bbq and tofu and ordered it 'very very spicy' -- First off, it came very very spicy, thank you tofu house for not shying away from giving me some heat. The tofu was a very small pot, appropriate for the combo, but chock full of shrimp and clams and tofu. Though it did not include a raw egg. Accompanying the tofu was a plate of spicy pork, which was at least 6 ounces -- a lot of sweet slightly spicy and very tender pork on a bed of onions. The panchan was decent and they included jap chae as a panchan, so I got two servings of that. For $15 it's a pretty good deal considering it's enough food for two people, or one gluttonous person such as myself. Next time: the kalbi and tofu combo.

PLAYA AZUL*** & THE LIME TREE*'

Met up with A for a lunch of Caldo de Siete Mares and a Tostada de Ceviche de Pulpo at Playa Azul, and then we went over the top with a double at Mitchell's. The soup was very hearty and tomato based full of vegetables and seafood. We were smart enough to split the soup as I think it would be just too much for any one person. The ceviche is a very good deal and I would definitely go for the pulpo again. Next time try the Filete Relleno (fish stuffed with crab and shrimp), taco salad cancun and the tostada de ceviche de camarones. Also the blood orange sorbet at Mitchell's was excellent.

After that hearty lunch, I really wasn't in the mood for a big dinner, but I had to catch up on all of J's news. We settled on The Lime Tree as I read that they had a good cheap Roti Pratha. It is indeed a good deal for only $2.50, but a bit too buttery for my tastes. So moist it was like a flattened croissant. Delicious, but the dipping sauce had too much curry powder and wasn't that flavorful. We also enjoyed the Martabak which is the same roti wrapped around some ground beef and onions. This would be a good lunch, solid and more tasty than eating a hamburger. The beef rendang and roasted chicken with sweet chili sauce were subpar. The rendang had no depth of flavor, no spiciness whatsoever. It could just have easily been an Irish beef stew as a Indonesian curry. The roasted chicken was nothing special, not bad tasting, but I think I could do better at home. Still, all this food with soft drinks for only $20 with very warm and friendly service. Nice neighborhood lunch stop. Next time stick with the Murtabak.