What with the recent closures and transformations in Chinatown, there is only one place nearby for Baked Portuguese Chicken Rice that I know of, and I cannot go there. It's not the fault of that restaurant, but the very nice waitress there three years ago wanted to introduce me to her single friend.
[dot dot dot ... ]
Though I speak passable Cantonese, the concept of a date with someone who thinks in Chinese rather than English frightens the bejayzus out of me.
I am a middle-aged crackpot with a fondness for Monty Python's Flying Circus, Vladimir Nabokov's prose, odd study subjects like Talmud-Torah, Mediaeval History, the Dutch colonial world, and food (about which I know a lot).
A Chinese-speaking immigrant from Hong Kong or the Mainland would find me rather queer, once she got to know more about me.
And we would have little in common other than food.
Besides, I smoke a pipe. Smoking is no longer socially acceptable.
Also, no career. No chance of owning my own home.
So I responded nicely to her suggestion at the time, and never went there again. Unfortunately there are far fewer chachanteng style eateries in Chinatown now.
[Chachanteng (茶餐廳) are restaurants that have strong milk tea. Not boba joints, and not American Chinese restaurants. The food selection is Hong Kong western. Chops, casseroles, French toast, fried noodles, stew (市都 'si dou'), spaghetti, and borscht (羅宋湯 'lo sung tong'; Russian soup). Which isn't Russian, by the way.]
The one I went to with Baked Portuguese Chicken Rice has revamped.
Upgraded the menu, and reduced it to one printed sheet.
But as regards one of my favourite dishes, I am out of luck. Their curry porkchops with rice suit me nicely, and they still have a good selection of rice porridge, plus some quite interesting looking new items, so I will continue to patronize them as often as before.
No Baked Portuguese Chicken Rice.
Guk pou gwok gai faan.
焗葡國雞飯
It's a simple dish. A layer of egg-fried rice is put in a casserole, chicken chunks, cubed potato and maybe bell-pepper spread on top, mild slightly coconutty curry sauce poured over. A sprinkle of cheese, and bung it in the oven for ten or fifteen minutes, till the chicken is cooked and the cheese bubbly. It can also be done by simply glopping some mild Chinese restaurant style chicken curry over the foundation of fried rice, and sticking it under the broiler. The approach is flexible, the result is what counts. Rice, egg fragments, chicken, potato, mild curry sauce. With a slightly cheesy golden layer on top.
Ideally one or two chunks of chouriço or linguiça are in it also, for a porky fatty flavour -- at home I'll make it with smoky bacon -- and it should be stressed that it is not, in fact, Portuguese at all, but a typical Hong Kong crossover dish. Nor is it intended for high dining or healthy eating.
Have it with one of two cups of strong milk tea, then head out into the typhoon and scramble up the bamboo scaffolding for another full shift on the highrise, twenty floors up. Energy. Filling. Not high fallutin'.
Formica table food.
Just add hotsauce.
Or sambal.
AFTER WORD
What used to be the New Honolulu (新檀島咖啡餅店 'san taan tou ka fei bing dim') on Stockton Street is now 新品味 ('san pan mei'), but has not yet opened for business. It looks nice inside. And I am curious as to what foods they will serve. Naturally I am hoping that it will be chachanteng food, which is what the Honolulu had -- they were a pleasant and reliable stand-by and fall-back -- and at the very least they should offer Hong Kong Milk Tea (港式奶茶 'gong sik naai chaa'), and club sandwiches (公司三明治 'gung si saam ming ji'). Which are great with a little hotsauce. Or sambal.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Showing posts with label Milk tea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milk tea. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES
If you are in the neighborhood, you probably know where it is. If not, you do not need to know the location. Suffice to say that being outnumbered by teenage Cantonese girls drinking tea is a disquieting experience. I had ducked in for a cup of naai cha because it was raining, and I was far from my usual codger haunts (in the rain short distances become enormous).
The tea was not that good. Too white for my taste. The next time I will ask for a stronger brew and less milk.
The mural intrigued me. A koala enjoying a hot beverage with several flying cheeses. Apparently this is the Chinatown outpost of an overseas chain that uses milk imported from Australia. Hence the Aussie furball.
For which I am grateful, because if they used Dutch Lady Milk, which is sold in Malaysia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, it would have been a curvy dingbat in a long striped skirt and a winged cap, probably with blonde curls and an adorable smile. Surrounded by flying cheeses.
I am profoundly attuned to 'Dutch' sensibilities.
Dutch girl stereotypes need a trigger warning.
But everyone is cool with flying cheeses.
By the way, consumers of Dutch Lady Milk ALL have white moustaches. Which is just wrong. There is a marvelous invention known as a "napkin", perhaps you've heard of it?
A koala dreamily drinking a warm beverage of choice is something with which a man can deal. Even though I first misidentified it as a wombat.
No, female Cantonese teenagers are not loud and giddy, despite the caffeine coursing through their system. Instead, they quietly discuss homework, as far as I can tell, and check their e-mail. I wasn't really paying attention. From my own teenage years I do not remember girls drinking tea, or women of that age being particularly small.
Honestly, I do not recall a surfeit of tea parlours in Valkenswaard or Eindhoven; had they existed this blogger would have been a regular customer. The Dutch mostly swill strong coffee.
While there I thoroughly cleaned one pipe, and prepared another one for a soothing smoke in an abandoned doorway once I left. There are a number of such in the area, and of course Stockton Street substantially shuts down at six, so wandering back to the central zone under awnings and hugging the sides of buildings is both do-able and enjoyable.
I only finished half my cup. They do not carry any of the usual pastries, and teenage Cantonese girls speak English, so listening in on their conversation is possibly more undiplomatic and less interesting than overhearing a collection of old Canto codgers.
The second pipe was more enjoyable than the first.
It had already become night by then.
An excellent doorway.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
The tea was not that good. Too white for my taste. The next time I will ask for a stronger brew and less milk.
The mural intrigued me. A koala enjoying a hot beverage with several flying cheeses. Apparently this is the Chinatown outpost of an overseas chain that uses milk imported from Australia. Hence the Aussie furball.
For which I am grateful, because if they used Dutch Lady Milk, which is sold in Malaysia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, it would have been a curvy dingbat in a long striped skirt and a winged cap, probably with blonde curls and an adorable smile. Surrounded by flying cheeses.
I am profoundly attuned to 'Dutch' sensibilities.
Dutch girl stereotypes need a trigger warning.
But everyone is cool with flying cheeses.
By the way, consumers of Dutch Lady Milk ALL have white moustaches. Which is just wrong. There is a marvelous invention known as a "napkin", perhaps you've heard of it?
A koala dreamily drinking a warm beverage of choice is something with which a man can deal. Even though I first misidentified it as a wombat.
No, female Cantonese teenagers are not loud and giddy, despite the caffeine coursing through their system. Instead, they quietly discuss homework, as far as I can tell, and check their e-mail. I wasn't really paying attention. From my own teenage years I do not remember girls drinking tea, or women of that age being particularly small.
Honestly, I do not recall a surfeit of tea parlours in Valkenswaard or Eindhoven; had they existed this blogger would have been a regular customer. The Dutch mostly swill strong coffee.
While there I thoroughly cleaned one pipe, and prepared another one for a soothing smoke in an abandoned doorway once I left. There are a number of such in the area, and of course Stockton Street substantially shuts down at six, so wandering back to the central zone under awnings and hugging the sides of buildings is both do-able and enjoyable.
I only finished half my cup. They do not carry any of the usual pastries, and teenage Cantonese girls speak English, so listening in on their conversation is possibly more undiplomatic and less interesting than overhearing a collection of old Canto codgers.
The second pipe was more enjoyable than the first.
It had already become night by then.
An excellent doorway.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Thursday, March 03, 2016
THE SIMPLE LIFE
Dinner yesterday was marvelous. But it was also breakfast and lunch, because I had been too busy to go find food till long past five o'clock. Bitter melon and sliced roast duck simmered with thin noodles: 凉瓜燒鴨絲炆米 ('leung gwa siu ngaap si man mai'). Good eating!
I attacked it with hotsauce, and schrokked it down.
Perhaps I should have eaten far sooner.
The milk-tea was a lovely afterthought.
I did not used to be so casual about food. Both while growing up at home, and during my long affair with Savage Kitten, food was something to which I anxiously looked forward. Social events that involve food inevitably induce an appetite. Shared food is sacramental.
Singular food is far less so.
All the other tables had pluralities of people. It wasn't until I was nearly finished that an elderly woman came in and sat to eat alone by herself.
I could not see what she ordered, but she lifted the rice to her mouth with what seemed like a lack of any great enthusiasm.
Perhaps she should try distracting herself from food earlier in the day. Trust me, that works wonders on building an appetite. The time it took for the kitchen to huts together my bitter melon and duck with noodles seemed like an eternity, the world instantly and miraculously became bright and cheerful again once it arrived, all hot and fragrant.
I almost snatched the plate out of the waitresses hands.
An energetic squeeze of hot sauce, and voilà.
Don't bother me, I'm eating.
AND MILK TEA, OF COURSE
[Per Wikipedia, 嘁香港嘅淡奶牌子有唔少選擇，包括三花牌、子母牌、黑白牌、百佳牌等，而「三花淡奶」又簡稱花奶，係部分香港人對淡奶嘅含糊稱呼。而三花牌係雀巢公司出品。]
One nice thing about that particular chachanteng (糖潮港式茶餐廳) is that they understand the need for saucers underneath teacups. Hong Kong milk-tea (港式奶茶) tastes so much better properly served.
Not everybody grasps the importance of the saucer.
Where do you put your spoon after stirring to dissolve the evaporada (淡奶 'taam naai'), if there is no saucer (小碟 'siu dip')?
杯之下一個茶杯碟, 眞係非常最重要嘅！
It's a serious issue.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
I attacked it with hotsauce, and schrokked it down.
Perhaps I should have eaten far sooner.
The milk-tea was a lovely afterthought.
I did not used to be so casual about food. Both while growing up at home, and during my long affair with Savage Kitten, food was something to which I anxiously looked forward. Social events that involve food inevitably induce an appetite. Shared food is sacramental.
Singular food is far less so.
All the other tables had pluralities of people. It wasn't until I was nearly finished that an elderly woman came in and sat to eat alone by herself.
I could not see what she ordered, but she lifted the rice to her mouth with what seemed like a lack of any great enthusiasm.
Perhaps she should try distracting herself from food earlier in the day. Trust me, that works wonders on building an appetite. The time it took for the kitchen to huts together my bitter melon and duck with noodles seemed like an eternity, the world instantly and miraculously became bright and cheerful again once it arrived, all hot and fragrant.
I almost snatched the plate out of the waitresses hands.
An energetic squeeze of hot sauce, and voilà.
Don't bother me, I'm eating.
AND MILK TEA, OF COURSE
[Per Wikipedia, 嘁香港嘅淡奶牌子有唔少選擇，包括三花牌、子母牌、黑白牌、百佳牌等，而「三花淡奶」又簡稱花奶，係部分香港人對淡奶嘅含糊稱呼。而三花牌係雀巢公司出品。]
One nice thing about that particular chachanteng (糖潮港式茶餐廳) is that they understand the need for saucers underneath teacups. Hong Kong milk-tea (港式奶茶) tastes so much better properly served.
Not everybody grasps the importance of the saucer.
Where do you put your spoon after stirring to dissolve the evaporada (淡奶 'taam naai'), if there is no saucer (小碟 'siu dip')?
杯之下一個茶杯碟, 眞係非常最重要嘅！
It's a serious issue.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
ROYAL MILK TEA, JAPAN AND HOLLAND
Fifty years ago Lipton in Japan, as a marketing campaign geared towards a demographic whose appreciation of English things was shaped by Beatrix Potter, crime novels, men in skirts, and the sheer exoticism of the British ruling classes as represented by the characters in P. G. Wodehouse's lighthearted upper-crustian romps, started adding the word "royal" to everything. Cakes, biscuits, candies. Including a tea beverage.
What could be more British than a spot of tea?
Especially with milk and sugar.
Meanwhile, severe Dutch protestants (Calvinists, also known as 'Dutch Reformed') had found a work-around for their prohibition on coffee, tea, and alcohol. Just add milk, and call the result "healthy". The result was "Reform koffie" (coffee made by pouring boiling milk over the grounds), and "Reform thee". In order to extract the full value and benefit, one actually simmered the forbidden ingredient in generous proportion with milk. Obviously this was good for you, as it was still milk, really, and not drunk for pleasure.
Severe Dutch Protestants never do anything for pleasure.
That bottle of gin? Digestive medicine.
Spirits and cream?
Healthy!
Reform thee is the same as what the Japanese now know as 'royal milk tea' (ロイヤルミルクティー "roiyaru mirukutī"), and very similar to Hong Kong style milk tea. Add green cardamom pods and it becomes chai.
ROYAL MILK TEA
Best method is to first boil a little water (about one cup) with a heaping tablespoonful of loose Assam tea leaves for a few minutes, then add one and a half cup milk, and slowly bring it back to a boil. Slow-simmer for about a minute longer (or till sufficiently reddish-dark), then pour through a strainer into porcelain cups. Should be enough for two.
The milk tempers the bitterness of strong tea.
And, if you're Dutch, is nourishment.
Add sugar to taste.
Just remember: the Japanese drink this for pleasure, unlike the sober-minded Dutch, who seriously drink it only for their health.
French colonials will add rum from Martinique.
Both pleasure AND nourishment!
Bavoroise.
Personally I think that the Japanese have the right idea.
NOTE: There are several bottled products also called 'Royal Milk Tea', but they should largely be avoided, as they are no more than weak low-quality tea with milk and sugar. And though Lipton invented the term, the concept ran away from them. Good milk tea is strong, not sugary.
Certainly not some pallid 'put-you-to-sleep' beverage.
The whole point of tea is to perk you up.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
What could be more British than a spot of tea?
Especially with milk and sugar.
Meanwhile, severe Dutch protestants (Calvinists, also known as 'Dutch Reformed') had found a work-around for their prohibition on coffee, tea, and alcohol. Just add milk, and call the result "healthy". The result was "Reform koffie" (coffee made by pouring boiling milk over the grounds), and "Reform thee". In order to extract the full value and benefit, one actually simmered the forbidden ingredient in generous proportion with milk. Obviously this was good for you, as it was still milk, really, and not drunk for pleasure.
Severe Dutch Protestants never do anything for pleasure.
That bottle of gin? Digestive medicine.
Spirits and cream?
Healthy!
Reform thee is the same as what the Japanese now know as 'royal milk tea' (ロイヤルミルクティー "roiyaru mirukutī"), and very similar to Hong Kong style milk tea. Add green cardamom pods and it becomes chai.
ROYAL MILK TEA
Best method is to first boil a little water (about one cup) with a heaping tablespoonful of loose Assam tea leaves for a few minutes, then add one and a half cup milk, and slowly bring it back to a boil. Slow-simmer for about a minute longer (or till sufficiently reddish-dark), then pour through a strainer into porcelain cups. Should be enough for two.
The milk tempers the bitterness of strong tea.
And, if you're Dutch, is nourishment.
Add sugar to taste.
Just remember: the Japanese drink this for pleasure, unlike the sober-minded Dutch, who seriously drink it only for their health.
French colonials will add rum from Martinique.
Both pleasure AND nourishment!
Bavoroise.
Personally I think that the Japanese have the right idea.
NOTE: There are several bottled products also called 'Royal Milk Tea', but they should largely be avoided, as they are no more than weak low-quality tea with milk and sugar. And though Lipton invented the term, the concept ran away from them. Good milk tea is strong, not sugary.
Certainly not some pallid 'put-you-to-sleep' beverage.
The whole point of tea is to perk you up.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
AN EXCELLENT CUP OF HONG KONG MILK TEA
Several years ago a lesbian of my acquaintance made yum-yum sounds about the shapely teenage daughter of a colleague. Before she found out who the girl was. Now, far be it from me to begrudge another person a filthy mind -- lord knows I have one, and it gives me much joy -- but it does serve to illustrate that one must, above all, be extremely careful about what comes out of one's mouth.
There was a nice young lady sitting opposite me on the bus down to Chinatown yesterday. No, I have no idea whether she's shapely or not; her clothing was comfortable and baggy, and I spent the entire time admiring her very fine nose, mouth, cheeks, lips. Nicely sculpted lips. Out of the corner of my eye. Surreptitious. Sneaky glances.
Excellent peripheral vision.
A friend once said that I was born a dirty old man.
And that I've been getting better ever since.
As well as, vampire like, younger.
Saw her again as I was scarfing down a lovely charsiu roll, which was deliciously flaky, and a hot cup of Hong Kong style milk-tea.
I've been going to her dad's coffee shop for years.
Never even knew he had a daughter.
Two good things stand out:
1) I am far too self-disciplined to say anything culpable to a complete stranger, OR let anyone realize that my eyes are going into hyper-drive. See, my eyes are deepset, and unless there's a direct glance, I look exactly like the mysterious and poker-faced raccoon.
2) She was too self-absorbed or preoccupied to notice anything. I have reason to believe she had recently come from the dentist.
Don't ask for details, you won't get any.
I know where she got her features from.
It all makes complete sense now.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
There was a nice young lady sitting opposite me on the bus down to Chinatown yesterday. No, I have no idea whether she's shapely or not; her clothing was comfortable and baggy, and I spent the entire time admiring her very fine nose, mouth, cheeks, lips. Nicely sculpted lips. Out of the corner of my eye. Surreptitious. Sneaky glances.
Excellent peripheral vision.
A friend once said that I was born a dirty old man.
And that I've been getting better ever since.
As well as, vampire like, younger.
Saw her again as I was scarfing down a lovely charsiu roll, which was deliciously flaky, and a hot cup of Hong Kong style milk-tea.
I've been going to her dad's coffee shop for years.
Never even knew he had a daughter.
Two good things stand out:
1) I am far too self-disciplined to say anything culpable to a complete stranger, OR let anyone realize that my eyes are going into hyper-drive. See, my eyes are deepset, and unless there's a direct glance, I look exactly like the mysterious and poker-faced raccoon.
2) She was too self-absorbed or preoccupied to notice anything. I have reason to believe she had recently come from the dentist.
Don't ask for details, you won't get any.
I know where she got her features from.
It all makes complete sense now.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Thursday, March 05, 2015
MILK TEA
For the benefit of random searchers questing for tea, a brief discussion of 'chai' versus 'Hong Kong milk tea'. There are important distinctions, and if you purchase a beverage from a chain in the United States, you should know that what you are getting is crap.
Trust me. Total crap.
It ain't chai.
INDIA: THE CHAI WALLAH
Chai is also called masala chai, meaning spice tea. It is made by adding green cardamom and fennel seeds to a pot of water, heating it to a boil, then dumping loose leaf black tea into it. Reboil a few times, add milk, simmer briefly or reboil once, then strain it and add very little sugar to taste. Yes, it is supposed to be milky, but no, it is NOT a sweet hot dairy beverage. It is tea; it should taste like tea.
Everything else is an afterthought.
Good judgement is inherent.
I do not know how Starbucks and Oregon make chai.
They probably milk rabid weasels.
Damned hippies.
Weasels!
Some people also add ginger, and Kathiawadis as well as some other Gujarati types throw in black pepper. It's probably good with a dish of undhiu, but no civilized person will ever find out.
Or papad, of you are Sindhi.
Cinnamon and nutmeg are NOT part of the programme.
See previous remarks about Starbucks and Oregon.
Damned hippies.
FRAGRANT HARBOUR: THE WAKE-ME-UPPER
Hong Kong milk tea starts with a blend of black tea leaves and either lychee black or pu-erh, or both. Put it into a long cloth strainer and suspend it in a tall tin pot on the burner. Simmer a while, then lower heat to keep it perky throughout the day. To serve, liberally dollop some sweetened condensed milk into the bottom of a cup or tall glass, then pour the steaming dark tea over it and stir.
It should be hot, bitter, and sweet.
Which is very refreshing.
RELEVANT TERMS
Naai cha (奶茶): milk tea. Gong sik naai cha (港式奶茶): Harbour style milk tea; harbour refers to Hong Kong. Si mat naai cha (絲襪奶茶): silk-stocking milk tea; called thus because the long cloth strainer bag usually ends up looking bedraggled and droopy, like your grandma's well-worn garments from the days when she stilled danced with sailors at that place in Yau Tsim Mong. She's had a shocking life, believe it or not. It was just after the war.
Si mat (絲襪): panty hose.
Lin naai (煉奶): condensed milk.
Tam naai (淡奶): indifferent milk, meaning the evaporated milk sometimes used in lieu of sweetened condensed milk. Seung hei pai (雙喜牌): double happiness brand; a popular condensed milk from Malaysia. Sau sing gung lin naai (壽星公煉奶): god of longevity condensed milk, formerly made by a Dutch company in South Vietnam (local name: "Sữa Ông Thọ"), since then manufactured in North America for the Asian overseas community.
Cha chanteng (茶餐廳): tea restaurant; the type of canteen or cheap food place serving spaghetti and spam where milk-tea was invented. Yuen yeung (鴛鴦): mandarin ducks, that being the term for coffee and milk-tea mixed, a favourite beverage of students.
Tung naai cha (凍奶茶): milk tea over ice.
Bo baa naai cha(波霸奶茶): horrid Taiwanese crap with tapioca globs. Jan jyu naai cha (珍珠奶茶): another name for horrid Taiwanese crap.
Related: Royal Milk Tea
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Trust me. Total crap.
It ain't chai.
INDIA: THE CHAI WALLAH
Chai is also called masala chai, meaning spice tea. It is made by adding green cardamom and fennel seeds to a pot of water, heating it to a boil, then dumping loose leaf black tea into it. Reboil a few times, add milk, simmer briefly or reboil once, then strain it and add very little sugar to taste. Yes, it is supposed to be milky, but no, it is NOT a sweet hot dairy beverage. It is tea; it should taste like tea.
Everything else is an afterthought.
Good judgement is inherent.
I do not know how Starbucks and Oregon make chai.
They probably milk rabid weasels.
Damned hippies.
Weasels!
Some people also add ginger, and Kathiawadis as well as some other Gujarati types throw in black pepper. It's probably good with a dish of undhiu, but no civilized person will ever find out.
Or papad, of you are Sindhi.
Cinnamon and nutmeg are NOT part of the programme.
See previous remarks about Starbucks and Oregon.
Damned hippies.
FRAGRANT HARBOUR: THE WAKE-ME-UPPER
Hong Kong milk tea starts with a blend of black tea leaves and either lychee black or pu-erh, or both. Put it into a long cloth strainer and suspend it in a tall tin pot on the burner. Simmer a while, then lower heat to keep it perky throughout the day. To serve, liberally dollop some sweetened condensed milk into the bottom of a cup or tall glass, then pour the steaming dark tea over it and stir.
It should be hot, bitter, and sweet.
Which is very refreshing.
RELEVANT TERMS
Naai cha (奶茶): milk tea. Gong sik naai cha (港式奶茶): Harbour style milk tea; harbour refers to Hong Kong. Si mat naai cha (絲襪奶茶): silk-stocking milk tea; called thus because the long cloth strainer bag usually ends up looking bedraggled and droopy, like your grandma's well-worn garments from the days when she stilled danced with sailors at that place in Yau Tsim Mong. She's had a shocking life, believe it or not. It was just after the war.
Si mat (絲襪): panty hose.
Lin naai (煉奶): condensed milk.
Tam naai (淡奶): indifferent milk, meaning the evaporated milk sometimes used in lieu of sweetened condensed milk. Seung hei pai (雙喜牌): double happiness brand; a popular condensed milk from Malaysia. Sau sing gung lin naai (壽星公煉奶): god of longevity condensed milk, formerly made by a Dutch company in South Vietnam (local name: "Sữa Ông Thọ"), since then manufactured in North America for the Asian overseas community.
Cha chanteng (茶餐廳): tea restaurant; the type of canteen or cheap food place serving spaghetti and spam where milk-tea was invented. Yuen yeung (鴛鴦): mandarin ducks, that being the term for coffee and milk-tea mixed, a favourite beverage of students.
Tung naai cha (凍奶茶): milk tea over ice.
Bo baa naai cha(波霸奶茶): horrid Taiwanese crap with tapioca globs. Jan jyu naai cha (珍珠奶茶): another name for horrid Taiwanese crap.
Related: Royal Milk Tea
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
PARADISE IN THE MIDDLE OF MONGKOK
They're famous for their hot po lo bau with a pat of butter. As well as milk-tea, and yuen yeung. It's in Kowloon, equidistant between the Prince Edward Station and Mongkok East, just a short walk from either. You know where Lai Chi Kok splits off from Nathan Road? Go east, cross Sai Yeung Choi Street, and in the middle on the left hand side.
Be prepared for a madhouse.
It's very popular.
金華冰廳 KAM WAH BAKERY CAFE
香港, 太子弼街47號地下
47 Bute Street, ground floor,
Prince Edward (Mongkok), Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Bute Street (弼街 'bat kai') is named after the southern Scottish peerage of the same name, which is principally located on Bute Island in the Firth of Clyde. As with many Hong Kong street names, there is no rational connection with the appellation and the area. Nor with the transcription into Chinese; 弼 means to assist or aide.
真係超好味!
TRULY SUPER TASTY
The list of items which you really must have is, of course, topped with the toasted po lo bau (菠蘿油: 加一塊凍牛油 'po lo yau: gaa yat faai tung ngau yau'), but not far behind are the little chicken pies (雞批 'gai pai') and the egg arts (酥皮蛋撻 'sou pei daan taat'). You can also have a quick lunch there. Try the saté sauce beef (沙嗲牛肉 'sa de ngau yiuk'), which can be served on regular noodles, macaroni, or rice stick (可配公仔麵, 通粉或米粉 'ho pui gong jai min, tong fan, waak mai fan').
The meat shred and pickled brassica (雪菜肉絲 'suet choi yiuk si') is best with boiled rice noodle (米 'mai').
Their po lo bau is unusual, in that the object represents an earlier stage of development, not changed in over forty years. A thin friable layer of sugary sweet dough above the standard puffy body, firmly melded on and in. Packed with a thick and generous wedge of chilled creamery butter to melt after toasting, it can also be had with a slice of luncheon meat added, or even the saté sauce beef.
In general, a toasted po lo bau with butter and meat or jam is rightly considered one of Hong Kong's most dangerous snacks, a calorie and cholesterol overload.
Well worth eating, with milk tea to drink. Yummy.
Naturally, if it's a warm day, you should have your milk-tea with ice (凍奶茶 'tung nai chaa').
EXPLICATA
Hot po lo bau with a pat of butter: The short form is 'po lo yau' (菠蘿油), meaning 'pineapple oil'. Butter is called 'cow grease' (牛油 'ngau yau'). Pineapple bun: 'po lo bau' (菠蘿包); a sweet bun with a top layer of cookie dough which expands at a different rate than the rest, yielding a crackle-crusted confection which presents a pleasant textural dissonance. Milk-tea: 'naai chaa' (奶茶), the national drink of Hong Kong, whether scalding hot or poured over ice; strong tea strained through a cloth filter, which gives it a velvety mouthfeel, accentuated with sweetened condensed milk (煉奶 'lin naai'). It was invented at so-called 'tea restaurants' (茶餐廳 'cha chanteng'), which are places where the food is fast, the furniture is rickety, and the ambiance twixt home-town hang-out and fondly remembered cheap date. Yuen yeung: Mandarin ducks (鴛鴦), also the term for a mixture of bitter coffee and sweet milk-tea, which is popular hot or cold.
Both beverages can also be served with the glass standing in an ice bath: 冰鎮奶茶 or 冰鎮鴛鴦 ('bing jan naai chaa', 'bing jan yuen yeung'), which cools the drink down without diluting it.
This is not common everywhere.
We shall not speak of Boba Tea (波霸奶茶 'bo baa naai chaa') or Pearl Tea (珍珠奶茶 'jan jyu naai chaa'); these are very silly things.
Mongkok: Prosperous Corner (旺角 'wong gok'), formerly 望角 ('mong gok'; gazy corner, ferns corner) a once-swampy area now densely built-up, filled with residents, businesses, and shops. Prince Edward Station: Tai ji jaam (太子站), the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station nearest Nathan Road (彌敦道 'nei duen dou').
MTR: Gong Tit (港鐵 "harbour iron"), abbreviation of 香港鐵路 ('heung gong tit lou' "fragrant harbour iron road", Hong Kong Railway). Mongkok East: MTR Station by the Diocesan Boys School (拔萃男書院 'bat seui naam syu yuen'), and the Grand Century Place mall (新世紀廣場 'san sai gei gwong cheung'; MOKO) if you're interested in fabulous shopping, just south of Prince Edward Road (太子道 'taai ji dou') and Flower Market Street (花墟道 'faa heui dou'). For Kam Wah Bing Teng (金華冰廳) head south along Nathan Road if you got off at Prince Edward, go west if you took the Mongkok East Station.
Lai Chi Kok Road: 荔枝角道, a diagonal street named after a village, Lychee Corner (荔枝角村) in Sam Shui Po District (深水埗區). Sai Yeung Choi Street: 西洋菜街 literally, 'Western Ocean Vegetable Street', which refers to watercress (西洋菜 'sai yeung choi') once grown in this area as a commercial crop.
Bute: 比特島 ('bei tak dou'), also 弼島 ('bat dou'); a semi-barren island in Western Europe (西歐 'sai au') with a population of six and a half thousand souls, and a climate which is not salubrious.
Firth of Clyde: 克萊德灣 ('hak loi tak waan') the vast inlet on the south-west corner of Scotland (蘇格蘭 'sou gaak laan'), which is an area of historical significance; the Scots (一個凱爾特的支派) landed here when they invaded from Ireland.
Pickled brassica: snow vegetable (雪菜 'suet choi'), also called plum vegetable (梅菜 'mui choi') is a salt-packed wet winter mustard cabbage frequently paired with fatty pork and used in soups for flavour and colour. The dried version is 梅干菜 ('mui gon choi'). Rice noodle: pasta made from rice flour. Distinguish 米粉 ('mai fan'), which are regular rice noodles; 沙河粉 ('saa ho fan'), also simply called 河粉 ('ho fan'), which are broader and softer; and 米線 ('mai sin'), a Yunnanese specialty that require as much cooking time as Italian Pasta (意粉 'yi fan'). Jam: gwo jeung (果醬); fruit compote.
For an explanation of the tea restaurant paradigm, see: Cha Chanteng. There's a sample menu in that post which might fascinate you.
What, you may ask, brought all this to the front? Well, ask yourself, where would you rather be? Someplace reasonably warm, about to enfold a cold beverage (iced milk-tea: 凍奶茶), or in a frigid and soggy part of Northern California?
At this time of year I am not fond of rain. My feet feel chilled. Hong Kong sounds like a very lovely place to be right now, unlike the islands in the Clyde, such as Bute (弼島), which are part of North-Western Europe.
And Scottish food, let me remind you, is not pretty.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Be prepared for a madhouse.
It's very popular.
金華冰廳 KAM WAH BAKERY CAFE
香港, 太子弼街47號地下
47 Bute Street, ground floor,
Prince Edward (Mongkok), Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Bute Street (弼街 'bat kai') is named after the southern Scottish peerage of the same name, which is principally located on Bute Island in the Firth of Clyde. As with many Hong Kong street names, there is no rational connection with the appellation and the area. Nor with the transcription into Chinese; 弼 means to assist or aide.
真係超好味!
TRULY SUPER TASTY
The list of items which you really must have is, of course, topped with the toasted po lo bau (菠蘿油: 加一塊凍牛油 'po lo yau: gaa yat faai tung ngau yau'), but not far behind are the little chicken pies (雞批 'gai pai') and the egg arts (酥皮蛋撻 'sou pei daan taat'). You can also have a quick lunch there. Try the saté sauce beef (沙嗲牛肉 'sa de ngau yiuk'), which can be served on regular noodles, macaroni, or rice stick (可配公仔麵, 通粉或米粉 'ho pui gong jai min, tong fan, waak mai fan').
The meat shred and pickled brassica (雪菜肉絲 'suet choi yiuk si') is best with boiled rice noodle (米 'mai').
Their po lo bau is unusual, in that the object represents an earlier stage of development, not changed in over forty years. A thin friable layer of sugary sweet dough above the standard puffy body, firmly melded on and in. Packed with a thick and generous wedge of chilled creamery butter to melt after toasting, it can also be had with a slice of luncheon meat added, or even the saté sauce beef.
In general, a toasted po lo bau with butter and meat or jam is rightly considered one of Hong Kong's most dangerous snacks, a calorie and cholesterol overload.
Well worth eating, with milk tea to drink. Yummy.
Naturally, if it's a warm day, you should have your milk-tea with ice (凍奶茶 'tung nai chaa').
EXPLICATA
Hot po lo bau with a pat of butter: The short form is 'po lo yau' (菠蘿油), meaning 'pineapple oil'. Butter is called 'cow grease' (牛油 'ngau yau'). Pineapple bun: 'po lo bau' (菠蘿包); a sweet bun with a top layer of cookie dough which expands at a different rate than the rest, yielding a crackle-crusted confection which presents a pleasant textural dissonance. Milk-tea: 'naai chaa' (奶茶), the national drink of Hong Kong, whether scalding hot or poured over ice; strong tea strained through a cloth filter, which gives it a velvety mouthfeel, accentuated with sweetened condensed milk (煉奶 'lin naai'). It was invented at so-called 'tea restaurants' (茶餐廳 'cha chanteng'), which are places where the food is fast, the furniture is rickety, and the ambiance twixt home-town hang-out and fondly remembered cheap date. Yuen yeung: Mandarin ducks (鴛鴦), also the term for a mixture of bitter coffee and sweet milk-tea, which is popular hot or cold.
Both beverages can also be served with the glass standing in an ice bath: 冰鎮奶茶 or 冰鎮鴛鴦 ('bing jan naai chaa', 'bing jan yuen yeung'), which cools the drink down without diluting it.
This is not common everywhere.
We shall not speak of Boba Tea (波霸奶茶 'bo baa naai chaa') or Pearl Tea (珍珠奶茶 'jan jyu naai chaa'); these are very silly things.
Mongkok: Prosperous Corner (旺角 'wong gok'), formerly 望角 ('mong gok'; gazy corner, ferns corner) a once-swampy area now densely built-up, filled with residents, businesses, and shops. Prince Edward Station: Tai ji jaam (太子站), the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station nearest Nathan Road (彌敦道 'nei duen dou').
MTR: Gong Tit (港鐵 "harbour iron"), abbreviation of 香港鐵路 ('heung gong tit lou' "fragrant harbour iron road", Hong Kong Railway). Mongkok East: MTR Station by the Diocesan Boys School (拔萃男書院 'bat seui naam syu yuen'), and the Grand Century Place mall (新世紀廣場 'san sai gei gwong cheung'; MOKO) if you're interested in fabulous shopping, just south of Prince Edward Road (太子道 'taai ji dou') and Flower Market Street (花墟道 'faa heui dou'). For Kam Wah Bing Teng (金華冰廳) head south along Nathan Road if you got off at Prince Edward, go west if you took the Mongkok East Station.
Lai Chi Kok Road: 荔枝角道, a diagonal street named after a village, Lychee Corner (荔枝角村) in Sam Shui Po District (深水埗區). Sai Yeung Choi Street: 西洋菜街 literally, 'Western Ocean Vegetable Street', which refers to watercress (西洋菜 'sai yeung choi') once grown in this area as a commercial crop.
Bute: 比特島 ('bei tak dou'), also 弼島 ('bat dou'); a semi-barren island in Western Europe (西歐 'sai au') with a population of six and a half thousand souls, and a climate which is not salubrious.
Firth of Clyde: 克萊德灣 ('hak loi tak waan') the vast inlet on the south-west corner of Scotland (蘇格蘭 'sou gaak laan'), which is an area of historical significance; the Scots (一個凱爾特的支派) landed here when they invaded from Ireland.
Pickled brassica: snow vegetable (雪菜 'suet choi'), also called plum vegetable (梅菜 'mui choi') is a salt-packed wet winter mustard cabbage frequently paired with fatty pork and used in soups for flavour and colour. The dried version is 梅干菜 ('mui gon choi'). Rice noodle: pasta made from rice flour. Distinguish 米粉 ('mai fan'), which are regular rice noodles; 沙河粉 ('saa ho fan'), also simply called 河粉 ('ho fan'), which are broader and softer; and 米線 ('mai sin'), a Yunnanese specialty that require as much cooking time as Italian Pasta (意粉 'yi fan'). Jam: gwo jeung (果醬); fruit compote.
For an explanation of the tea restaurant paradigm, see: Cha Chanteng. There's a sample menu in that post which might fascinate you.
What, you may ask, brought all this to the front? Well, ask yourself, where would you rather be? Someplace reasonably warm, about to enfold a cold beverage (iced milk-tea: 凍奶茶), or in a frigid and soggy part of Northern California?
At this time of year I am not fond of rain. My feet feel chilled. Hong Kong sounds like a very lovely place to be right now, unlike the islands in the Clyde, such as Bute (弼島), which are part of North-Western Europe.
And Scottish food, let me remind you, is not pretty.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Wednesday, December 03, 2014
BRIEFLY THE WASHINGTON CAFE, NOW ELECTRIC AND UPDATED
Old timers remember it before it was Upholding Heaven. Which it had been for decades, before it became Mister Man's Tea Restaurant.
Long before then you could have cocktails there and eat casual noodles till past two in the morning. Quite a sprightly place.
The Universal Cafe went out of existence in the mid-eighties. I knew the place as King Tin, which closed in 2012. Then Mister Man revamped it, and opened up as the Washington Cafe. Which, this past summer, he completely repainted, dolled up, and turned into the Hunan House.
That's four different eateries that have occupied the spot.
Prior to 1984:
寰球酒家
UNIVERSAL CAFE
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['waan kau jau gaa']
1984 to 2012:
擎天酒樓
KING TIN / NEW KING TIN
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['king tin jau lau']
2012 till 2014:
文記茶餐廳
WASHINGTON CAFE
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['man kei chaa chaanteng']
Since summer 2014:
湘菜館
HUNAN HOUSE
"By Washington Cafe"
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['seung choi gun']
Mister Man is still involved, as the byline indicates. I suspect that he looked at Chinatown, realized that outsiders were a more profitable market segment than local residents, who are almost all rather skint for ready cash, and decided to go whole hog, and give the chain of fake Szechuan restaurants in the neighborhood some real competition.
One of those joints has since closed down.
No doubt they've also got ideas.
I have not eaten at the newest iteration of Mr. Man's culinary dreaming. The old version I liked; hot pot, tea restaurant specials, spaghetti, soup, sandwiches & quick dishes, congee, noodles, and a terrific cup of milk tea (好飲嘅港式奶茶 'hou yam ge gong sik naai chaa').
I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out to be an astounding success. Mister Man is hardworking, ballsy, and inspired. And he knows how to do a good restaurant.
Still, I prefer Cantonese food. Hunan, Szechuan, suburban American Chinese, Singapore noodles, and whatever they do in Peking, doesn't really appeal to me. Cantonese cuisine has all the flavours.
Hong Kong food is a weird fun variation.
Hunan? well, whatever.
Got milk tea?
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Long before then you could have cocktails there and eat casual noodles till past two in the morning. Quite a sprightly place.
The Universal Cafe went out of existence in the mid-eighties. I knew the place as King Tin, which closed in 2012. Then Mister Man revamped it, and opened up as the Washington Cafe. Which, this past summer, he completely repainted, dolled up, and turned into the Hunan House.
That's four different eateries that have occupied the spot.
Prior to 1984:
寰球酒家
UNIVERSAL CAFE
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['waan kau jau gaa']
1984 to 2012:
擎天酒樓
KING TIN / NEW KING TIN
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['king tin jau lau']
2012 till 2014:
文記茶餐廳
WASHINGTON CAFE
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['man kei chaa chaanteng']
Since summer 2014:
湘菜館
HUNAN HOUSE
"By Washington Cafe"
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
['seung choi gun']
Mister Man is still involved, as the byline indicates. I suspect that he looked at Chinatown, realized that outsiders were a more profitable market segment than local residents, who are almost all rather skint for ready cash, and decided to go whole hog, and give the chain of fake Szechuan restaurants in the neighborhood some real competition.
One of those joints has since closed down.
No doubt they've also got ideas.
I have not eaten at the newest iteration of Mr. Man's culinary dreaming. The old version I liked; hot pot, tea restaurant specials, spaghetti, soup, sandwiches & quick dishes, congee, noodles, and a terrific cup of milk tea (好飲嘅港式奶茶 'hou yam ge gong sik naai chaa').
I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out to be an astounding success. Mister Man is hardworking, ballsy, and inspired. And he knows how to do a good restaurant.
Still, I prefer Cantonese food. Hunan, Szechuan, suburban American Chinese, Singapore noodles, and whatever they do in Peking, doesn't really appeal to me. Cantonese cuisine has all the flavours.
Hong Kong food is a weird fun variation.
Hunan? well, whatever.
Got milk tea?
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Friday, September 05, 2014
THEY HAVE THE BEST CHARSIU PASTRIES!
One of my favourite teatime spots is not very impressive. The cakes aren't particularly fancy, there are no tablecloths, and the scones and crumpets, far from being hot and toasty, are entirely non-existent. Nor is the tea brewed in fine pots filled with leaves from Assam and Darjeeling, and ladies do not wear gloves there.
It is, in fact, the kind of place that would unprepossess many of my upstanding relatives. Not so much my late grandmother, who came from a tea-drinking culture, but my mother's side of the family.
Who seldom drank tea.
I have had no contact with the kinfolk who settled in Santa Barbara, since a very brief exchange of e-mails back in 1998 or 1999. They were old then, and we had long grown apart.
Which is an understatement van jewelste, given that growing up in the Netherlands it was impossible to ever meet them, and my mother did not have a particularly high regard for her siblings.
I'm assuming that that is due to the contentiousness hereditary among some Presbyterian / Calvinist tribal groupings. Repressed bloodlust meets hard-headed stubbornness, and all that.
I last met them before I was conversational.
If I had ever had the chance to take my mother to the place in question, she would have tolerated it with good grace, but maybe told me afterwards "son, you're goofy".
港式奶茶一杯
Normal boys do NOT have a hot cuppa 奶茶 in a bakery frequented by Toishanese peasant types, quietly listening in on the other customers talking, while munching delicious egg tarts.
Or flaky charsiu turnovers.
Personally I think they're the best charsiu turnovers in the city.
And the patrons respect my sense of privacy.
These are important things!
The listening-in part is only half-eared, as most of the time the regional speech used is particularly dense, rather than standard city Cantonese.
Except for the frequent punctuation with 'diu'.
Either snapped or drawled.
An emphatic.
最好嘅叉燒酥！
The street on which it is located is quiet, without either the flood of shoppers OR the herds of tourists. There's a job-center for Chinese speakers across the street, a place where you can arrange for a grave stone, and a doctor who specializes in women problems.
That right there could be a wonderful narrative: a gentleman in between assignments as a dimsum chef experiences psychological problems with a woman because of a funerary marker, OR dreams of placing a nice tomb stone on top of a problematic woman at his last job.
On one of the upper floors, an opera academy practices, a few doors down from the bakery a chess club meets in a basement. Towards Clay Street are a florist, a laundromat, a printers, a bubble tea place, and an herbalist. At the intersection of Washington is a "tea-restaurant" (茶餐廳 'chaa chanteng') where good rice porridge and Hong Kong style spaghetti can be had. Plus baked porkchops with 'Portugee' sauce.
There's a fine noodle restaurant a few doors up from that.
Plus more herbal stores, and barber shops.
As I mentioned, many of the regulars are Toishanese peasant types. The air is filled with that strange stand-in for the Cantonese 'S' sound, the Toishan 'HTHL'. Hthl'''''''''''''''''!
The 'T' of Tong Yan (唐人 "Chinese person") falls silent
Not 'sap man', but 'hthleep moon'. Tong yan becomes 'hong an'. And there are other more rural locutions.
In several ways, Toishanese people are like the Yorkshiremen of China. Wry-humoured, given to exaggeration for rhetorical effect, and capable of keeping a grimly straight face when telling a particularly tall one.
It's a resilient subculture.
Albeit unintelligible.
Most of the patrons are middle-aged men, no longer the young fellows who were gonna make it big in Gold Mountain, but settled down and grown realistic about their narrower prospects. Maintain and survive as long as possible, stay at a job that provides little money but a lot of community, and force the younger generation into college.
The boy will succeed, and eventually dad will retire.
When he damned well feels like it.
At around eighty.
They've learned to control their smoking, which is quite remarkable for Cantonese gentlemen. Partly this is due to the horrendous high price for a pack of fags in California, which hits the lower income levels hardest, largely it's because the health codes no longer allow you to have a ciggy going while comfortably inside with your bun and coffee.
And you really do want to sit inside.
Two small spry women work there.
Who also speak Toishanese.
It adds something.
Home.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
It is, in fact, the kind of place that would unprepossess many of my upstanding relatives. Not so much my late grandmother, who came from a tea-drinking culture, but my mother's side of the family.
Who seldom drank tea.
I have had no contact with the kinfolk who settled in Santa Barbara, since a very brief exchange of e-mails back in 1998 or 1999. They were old then, and we had long grown apart.
Which is an understatement van jewelste, given that growing up in the Netherlands it was impossible to ever meet them, and my mother did not have a particularly high regard for her siblings.
I'm assuming that that is due to the contentiousness hereditary among some Presbyterian / Calvinist tribal groupings. Repressed bloodlust meets hard-headed stubbornness, and all that.
I last met them before I was conversational.
If I had ever had the chance to take my mother to the place in question, she would have tolerated it with good grace, but maybe told me afterwards "son, you're goofy".
港式奶茶一杯
Normal boys do NOT have a hot cuppa 奶茶 in a bakery frequented by Toishanese peasant types, quietly listening in on the other customers talking, while munching delicious egg tarts.
Or flaky charsiu turnovers.
Personally I think they're the best charsiu turnovers in the city.
And the patrons respect my sense of privacy.
These are important things!
The listening-in part is only half-eared, as most of the time the regional speech used is particularly dense, rather than standard city Cantonese.
Except for the frequent punctuation with 'diu'.
Either snapped or drawled.
An emphatic.
最好嘅叉燒酥！
The street on which it is located is quiet, without either the flood of shoppers OR the herds of tourists. There's a job-center for Chinese speakers across the street, a place where you can arrange for a grave stone, and a doctor who specializes in women problems.
That right there could be a wonderful narrative: a gentleman in between assignments as a dimsum chef experiences psychological problems with a woman because of a funerary marker, OR dreams of placing a nice tomb stone on top of a problematic woman at his last job.
On one of the upper floors, an opera academy practices, a few doors down from the bakery a chess club meets in a basement. Towards Clay Street are a florist, a laundromat, a printers, a bubble tea place, and an herbalist. At the intersection of Washington is a "tea-restaurant" (茶餐廳 'chaa chanteng') where good rice porridge and Hong Kong style spaghetti can be had. Plus baked porkchops with 'Portugee' sauce.
There's a fine noodle restaurant a few doors up from that.
Plus more herbal stores, and barber shops.
As I mentioned, many of the regulars are Toishanese peasant types. The air is filled with that strange stand-in for the Cantonese 'S' sound, the Toishan 'HTHL'. Hthl'''''''''''''''''!
The 'T' of Tong Yan (唐人 "Chinese person") falls silent
Not 'sap man', but 'hthleep moon'. Tong yan becomes 'hong an'. And there are other more rural locutions.
In several ways, Toishanese people are like the Yorkshiremen of China. Wry-humoured, given to exaggeration for rhetorical effect, and capable of keeping a grimly straight face when telling a particularly tall one.
It's a resilient subculture.
Albeit unintelligible.
Most of the patrons are middle-aged men, no longer the young fellows who were gonna make it big in Gold Mountain, but settled down and grown realistic about their narrower prospects. Maintain and survive as long as possible, stay at a job that provides little money but a lot of community, and force the younger generation into college.
The boy will succeed, and eventually dad will retire.
When he damned well feels like it.
At around eighty.
They've learned to control their smoking, which is quite remarkable for Cantonese gentlemen. Partly this is due to the horrendous high price for a pack of fags in California, which hits the lower income levels hardest, largely it's because the health codes no longer allow you to have a ciggy going while comfortably inside with your bun and coffee.
And you really do want to sit inside.
Two small spry women work there.
Who also speak Toishanese.
It adds something.
Home.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Saturday, August 16, 2014
SF CHINATOWN: WHAT DOESN'T EXPLODE MAY BE WONDERFUL!
After passing several clusters of bellowing tourists on Grant Avenue, it finally struck me that visiting Chinatown is the best thing to do. Why bother finding out about San Francisco, seeing the real sights, talking to locals, when all you have to do is follow a list: go to Chinatown, hike up to Coit Tower, walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, see Fishermans' Wharf, boat over to Alcatraz, and shop for tacky crap.
So easy, so simple, so not requiring thought.
Tourist don't want to think; it's hard.
And it might require research.
The necessity to use their brains makes them stumble when it's time to return from the Golden Gate Bridge. Like anxious chickens, they will flock up to the first bus that hoves into view, and fight to board.
Never mind that several people are getting off.
This is our bus, we saw it first!
Outta the way, bitches!
It's usually the number seventy or eighty out of Marin. The driver will explain several key things, once the honoured foreigners and fat Midwesterners have stopped foaming at the mouth.
This bus does NOT go to Union Square or Fisherman's Wharf. No, he does not know how they can get there from here. Downtown is large; if they don't know where they are going, they should not take this bus.
Those tickets are only good on Muni (the city buses), he has fifty people sitting behind who are being even further delayed by tourists pointlessly yelling in Italian or German, and it costs four dollars and fifty cents to travel on this conveyance, which is a regional bus, rather than the two bucks OR convenient tourist pass on Muni. Which you missed, back there behind you, it's just pulled out, but you could have caught it if you hadn't wasted fifteen minutes arguing.
Sadly, disconsolately, the smelly and fat visitors fade into the frigid mists of the Bridge Toll Plaza, to wait yet another hour for the next Muni bus. Some of them will mob another vehicle from Marin before it is all over.
They're geese. Or sheep.
Albeit quite rabid.
And vicious.
In the same un-thought-out fashion, they go to Chinatown.
NOT THIS CHINATOWN
Part of the problem is that San Francisco always insists that this is the largest neighborhood of its kind outside of Asia. Which it isn't, by a very wide margin. New York, Toronto, and Vancouver have far greater Chinatowns, and our second and third Chinatowns are bigger too.
Another issue is that tourist guides, hotel desk clerks, and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce speak glowingly of the food and antiques, lovely brocades, fabulous quaintness, and totally cute omg sights, people, and objects.
The food is either every day Cantonese food for a local population which wants good for cheap and gets it, OR high-priced muck sold primarily to white people who demand stuff that the locals will not touch.
Tablecloths? Who ever heard of such a thing?
There is no Perrier, so sorry.
Nor ketchup.
You must understand that the ONLY reasons why Chinatown still exists are three-fold: It's a commercial nexus for people who need goods and services such as among many other things Chinese ingredients, cheap clothing, translation, and haircuts; it's a half-way house for people who are desperately unable to use English effectively and are struggling to move up and out; and old folks. Please note that NONE of these involves tourists, colourful dances and song, putting on shows for the white people, or anything else that caters to the very important non-Asians temporarily passing through.
Except, of course, for Grant Avenue. Which is in the main a ghastly tourist trap. Cameras, tee-shirts, cheap plastic breakable mementos, tea that mostly only white people drink, and coolie hats. More or less.
Really, Grant Avenue is fairly pointless.
BARBER SHOPS, FOOD, AND GROCERIES
Again, San Francisco Chinatown is by no means the enormous and significant community of "exotics" that tourist brochures say it is.
The largest Chinese population in San Francisco is out in the avenues, many of them speak English, a large number speak English better than any other language, and they're working for and running businesses that are very similar to what you would find in Milan or Iowa. The only thing truly unique is that their children are academically superior.
Unless you desperately need tee-shirts and knick-knacks, what you should do in Chinatown is get a haircut, and have a snack.
Plus buy a condiment or a dried fish.
HAIR CUT
There are very many hair dressers in Chinatown. My barber has a shop there, and he does a fabulous job on my head. His English is better than my Cantonese. Some of his customers do not speak Cantonese.
Heads are all very similar, they've seen them before.
Chinese know about such things.
SNACK
Just point. If the place is doing a booming business, it's because they offer decent food and drink at a reasonable price. No, none of the stuff they sell is weird. Most of it consists of fairly common ingredients which are combined in fairly predictable ways. Starch, meat, vegetable stuff, and flavourings. Stop asking questions, and just look at what's available. The appearance will tell you whether it's a main dish, a starch-type substance, a baked product, or contains vegetables. The people who work there might not have the time or the English ability to patiently and thoroughly discuss every tiddly little detail. And you aren't their target audience, who will return often, and whose custom they depend on.
For your assistance: BoBa is large balls of tapioca added to chilled beverages. Charsiu is a type of roast pork. Almost all pastries contain animal shortening. Dried shrimp adds a seafood saveur. Joong (so-called 'Chinese Tamales') are glutinous rice surrounding pork and beans or peanuts, wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed for hours, they keep for days. The lotus leaf packets contain glutinous rice, chicken, a slice of Chinese sausage, a little black mushroom, and only a few other ingredients, and are a delicious lunch. Dumplings could be almost anything (but will often contain an animal protein surrounded by or folded into a starchy component which may be made of rice flour, wheat, or tofu skin. If it looks crunchy, it probably is crunchy.
'Vegan' and 'kosher' are not concepts that operate here.
Even 'vegetarian' is very hard to grasp.
Allergies are your problem.
FYI: Vegetarian restaurants often have the word 素 ('sou') in the name (vegetarian is 素食 'sou sik'; "vegetarian eats"), and another term that crops up in relation to vegetarian food is 齋 ('jai'), which refers most commonly to Buddhist-type vegetarianismus. Neither are popular.
Veganism, besides being quite utterly ridiculous, is 純素食主義 ('suen sou sik chu yi'), "purely vegivorous ideology".
Kosher is 符合猶太教教規的食物 ('fu hap yau taai gaau gaau kwai dik sik mat'), "according with Judaic religious regulation comestibles".
Halal is 符合清真教教規的食物 ('fu hap ching jan gaau gaau kwai dik sik mat'), "according with Islamic custom food".
Respectively 猶太潔食 ('yau taai git sik') and 清真食 ('ching jan sik') for short.
Allergies are called 過敏 ('gwo man'), allergic reactions are 變態反應 ('pin taai fan ying'), and a food allergy is 食物過敏 ('sik mat gwo man').
Peanuts are 花生 ('faa sang'); they're nearly everywhere.
Wheat gluten is 麵筋 ('min gan'). It's good for you.
CONDIMENTS
If you're flying, you shouldn't buy sauces. Rules about what you can't bring onto a plane are strict. Otherwise, please understand that the list of ingredients required by law is very comprehensive, and that many of them contain at least one of the following: sugar, starch, a fermented fish product, salt, wheat derivatives, monosodium glutamate, and chili.
Most of them are meant to be added to food as it is cooking, a few can be added afterwords as you are enjoying the meal. None of them are suitable for massive amounts. Many of them keep very well in your refrigerator after opening. Shrimp paste is essential, Hoisin sauce less so. Douban sauce is useful, but you may not use it often enough.
DRIED FISH
Nothing says "I've been to Chinatown" like a handsome dried fish.
If you are Scandinavian, Dutch, or Belgian, you have seen such things before -- though they may not have been utilized in your kitchens in several generations -- and some Italians and Iberians may have used similar products. If you are modern middle class urban, you will likely eschew fish entirely, and if you are English or Midwestern you may not even know how to cook it when it is fresh. Likely you don't cook anyhow, at most you heat up prepackaged hot-pockets and curry.
Or open a can and mix the contents with mayonnaise.
You rely on celery salt and ketchup.
Dried fish is seldom the mainstay of a meal. But it is a valuable taste-contribution in not particularly large quantities. It will often be soaked and fragmented, and used to flavour simple vegetable dishes.
That's ONE vegetable. Not a mish-mosh of a dozen.
Cooked all dente. Not boiled to death.
Think 'blanch, then saute'.
There are multiple uses for a dried fish, of course, but it's dried; it keeps. That's the whole point of it. Just put it in a large resealable food-storage bag once you get home, if you do not intend to consume it all within weeks.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Below is a selection of places. It is short. It may seem idiosyncratic.
That is deceptive.
DIM SUM
I shan't mention the small hole-in-the-wall dimsum counters I favour, as you probably wouldn't like them anyhow. They also do jook and cheap rice plates. Eh, you wouldn't like those either.
For sit-down dimsum of high quality:
城景 CITY VIEW RESTAURANT
662 Commercial Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-398-2838
Between Kearny and Montgomery, very good.
多好茶室 DOL HO
808 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-392-2828
Just west of Stockton. Good food, a frenetic or eccentric atmosphere.
If you're a snob you might have reservations.
Why are you here?
羊城茶室 YANK SING
49 Stevenson Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-541-4949
Outside of Chinatown, in the financial district. A bit more expensive, but deservedly popular among both Chinese and white folks.
For a complete list of dim sum specialties, see this post:
Dim sum: kinds, names, pronunciation, description.
Not all of the items listed will be available.
Not even in Hong Kong.
SNACK
For bakeries, I recommend these three:
荷里活茶餐廳 NEW HOLLYWOOD BAKERY & RESTAURANT
652 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-397-9919
人仁西餅麵包 YUMMY BAKERY
607 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-989-8388
幸福餅家 BLOSSOM BAKERY
133 Waverly Place
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-391-8088
All three of these have excellent wife cakes (老婆餅 'lou po beng') and milk-tea (港式奶茶 'gong sik naai chaa'), two of them also have wonderful charsiu turnovers (叉烧酥 'chaa siu sou').
They also have other offerings worth exploring.
Sit down and take a break.
For egg tarts (蛋撻 'daan taat'), head to Golden Gate Bakery (金門餅家) at 1029 Grant Avenue, between Jackson Street & Pacific; for coffee crunch cake and mooncakes in season, go to the Eastern Bakery (東亞餅家), 720 Grant Avenue, at the corner of Commercial Street.
RICE
If you want to eat at a restaurant, go here:
京都餐館 CAPITAL RESTAURANT
839 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-397-6269
Great for family dinners and solid Cantonese food, this place can get packed and chaotic during the rush. The clientele is mostly Cantonese speaking, so don't get too fussy and persnickety; they're really trying to keep everyone happy, but that does mean that convoluted questions are better fielded during quieter moments.
上海飯店 BUND SHANGHAI RESTAURANT
640 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-982-0618
Top-notch Shanghainese food, and delightful chive and pork dumplings (韭菜豬肉水餃 'gau choi chü yiuk suei gaau'). This is a place I would love to take a date sometime.
嶺南小館 R & J LOUNGE
631 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-982-7877
Excellent Cantonese food, and very much the place you would bring your elderly out of town relatives. It's a bit fancy, but the quality has remained consistent for years. They can also do larger groups, and cocktails are available.
FLAVOURS
Condiments of most types are available at any place that looks like a grocery store. Many of them also have dried fish. Prices are all very much in line, as they really want to move the merchandise. They will not be able to answer questions very well, especially if you have a horrible German or French accent; know the subject before you go in, or be willing to take a chance. The worst that can happen is that you might waste one or two dollars.
Do NOT purchase chin cha lok (真加洛醬 'jan kaa lok'), as it explodes; very unstable!
Dried fish and soy sauce never do that.
AN AFTERWORD, TER VERANTWOORDING
Indeed, I am also white, just like you. And although I speak some Cantonese, I do not fancy myself in any way special or somehow superior. The key difference may be that I tend to obsessively look things up.
Which also explains my very minor facility in Cantonese.
That language has proven more useful in the past several years than Dutch, German, and Indonesian. This is primarily the case when I am communicating with people who do not speak Dutch, German, or Indonesian, in addition to lacking fluent and idiomatic English.
I am also an egomaniac; I like to be able to get what I want without struggling, and attract a modicum of favourable attention at the same time. A white person who is at least semi-intelligible in Cantonese is a lusus naturae, though probably not someone you want to know.
I collect cookbooks and foreign dictionaries.
And I eat rather well in consequence.
I also know how to take buses.
These are nice things.
PS: Transit information is available all over San Francisco, as well as in the guide books. Many maps also have valuable clues.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
So easy, so simple, so not requiring thought.
Tourist don't want to think; it's hard.
And it might require research.
The necessity to use their brains makes them stumble when it's time to return from the Golden Gate Bridge. Like anxious chickens, they will flock up to the first bus that hoves into view, and fight to board.
Never mind that several people are getting off.
This is our bus, we saw it first!
Outta the way, bitches!
It's usually the number seventy or eighty out of Marin. The driver will explain several key things, once the honoured foreigners and fat Midwesterners have stopped foaming at the mouth.
This bus does NOT go to Union Square or Fisherman's Wharf. No, he does not know how they can get there from here. Downtown is large; if they don't know where they are going, they should not take this bus.
Those tickets are only good on Muni (the city buses), he has fifty people sitting behind who are being even further delayed by tourists pointlessly yelling in Italian or German, and it costs four dollars and fifty cents to travel on this conveyance, which is a regional bus, rather than the two bucks OR convenient tourist pass on Muni. Which you missed, back there behind you, it's just pulled out, but you could have caught it if you hadn't wasted fifteen minutes arguing.
Sadly, disconsolately, the smelly and fat visitors fade into the frigid mists of the Bridge Toll Plaza, to wait yet another hour for the next Muni bus. Some of them will mob another vehicle from Marin before it is all over.
They're geese. Or sheep.
Albeit quite rabid.
And vicious.
In the same un-thought-out fashion, they go to Chinatown.
NOT THIS CHINATOWN
Part of the problem is that San Francisco always insists that this is the largest neighborhood of its kind outside of Asia. Which it isn't, by a very wide margin. New York, Toronto, and Vancouver have far greater Chinatowns, and our second and third Chinatowns are bigger too.
Another issue is that tourist guides, hotel desk clerks, and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce speak glowingly of the food and antiques, lovely brocades, fabulous quaintness, and totally cute omg sights, people, and objects.
The food is either every day Cantonese food for a local population which wants good for cheap and gets it, OR high-priced muck sold primarily to white people who demand stuff that the locals will not touch.
Tablecloths? Who ever heard of such a thing?
There is no Perrier, so sorry.
Nor ketchup.
You must understand that the ONLY reasons why Chinatown still exists are three-fold: It's a commercial nexus for people who need goods and services such as among many other things Chinese ingredients, cheap clothing, translation, and haircuts; it's a half-way house for people who are desperately unable to use English effectively and are struggling to move up and out; and old folks. Please note that NONE of these involves tourists, colourful dances and song, putting on shows for the white people, or anything else that caters to the very important non-Asians temporarily passing through.
Except, of course, for Grant Avenue. Which is in the main a ghastly tourist trap. Cameras, tee-shirts, cheap plastic breakable mementos, tea that mostly only white people drink, and coolie hats. More or less.
Really, Grant Avenue is fairly pointless.
BARBER SHOPS, FOOD, AND GROCERIES
Again, San Francisco Chinatown is by no means the enormous and significant community of "exotics" that tourist brochures say it is.
The largest Chinese population in San Francisco is out in the avenues, many of them speak English, a large number speak English better than any other language, and they're working for and running businesses that are very similar to what you would find in Milan or Iowa. The only thing truly unique is that their children are academically superior.
Unless you desperately need tee-shirts and knick-knacks, what you should do in Chinatown is get a haircut, and have a snack.
Plus buy a condiment or a dried fish.
HAIR CUT
There are very many hair dressers in Chinatown. My barber has a shop there, and he does a fabulous job on my head. His English is better than my Cantonese. Some of his customers do not speak Cantonese.
Heads are all very similar, they've seen them before.
Chinese know about such things.
SNACK
Just point. If the place is doing a booming business, it's because they offer decent food and drink at a reasonable price. No, none of the stuff they sell is weird. Most of it consists of fairly common ingredients which are combined in fairly predictable ways. Starch, meat, vegetable stuff, and flavourings. Stop asking questions, and just look at what's available. The appearance will tell you whether it's a main dish, a starch-type substance, a baked product, or contains vegetables. The people who work there might not have the time or the English ability to patiently and thoroughly discuss every tiddly little detail. And you aren't their target audience, who will return often, and whose custom they depend on.
For your assistance: BoBa is large balls of tapioca added to chilled beverages. Charsiu is a type of roast pork. Almost all pastries contain animal shortening. Dried shrimp adds a seafood saveur. Joong (so-called 'Chinese Tamales') are glutinous rice surrounding pork and beans or peanuts, wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed for hours, they keep for days. The lotus leaf packets contain glutinous rice, chicken, a slice of Chinese sausage, a little black mushroom, and only a few other ingredients, and are a delicious lunch. Dumplings could be almost anything (but will often contain an animal protein surrounded by or folded into a starchy component which may be made of rice flour, wheat, or tofu skin. If it looks crunchy, it probably is crunchy.
'Vegan' and 'kosher' are not concepts that operate here.
Even 'vegetarian' is very hard to grasp.
Allergies are your problem.
FYI: Vegetarian restaurants often have the word 素 ('sou') in the name (vegetarian is 素食 'sou sik'; "vegetarian eats"), and another term that crops up in relation to vegetarian food is 齋 ('jai'), which refers most commonly to Buddhist-type vegetarianismus. Neither are popular.
Veganism, besides being quite utterly ridiculous, is 純素食主義 ('suen sou sik chu yi'), "purely vegivorous ideology".
Kosher is 符合猶太教教規的食物 ('fu hap yau taai gaau gaau kwai dik sik mat'), "according with Judaic religious regulation comestibles".
Halal is 符合清真教教規的食物 ('fu hap ching jan gaau gaau kwai dik sik mat'), "according with Islamic custom food".
Respectively 猶太潔食 ('yau taai git sik') and 清真食 ('ching jan sik') for short.
Allergies are called 過敏 ('gwo man'), allergic reactions are 變態反應 ('pin taai fan ying'), and a food allergy is 食物過敏 ('sik mat gwo man').
Peanuts are 花生 ('faa sang'); they're nearly everywhere.
Wheat gluten is 麵筋 ('min gan'). It's good for you.
CONDIMENTS
If you're flying, you shouldn't buy sauces. Rules about what you can't bring onto a plane are strict. Otherwise, please understand that the list of ingredients required by law is very comprehensive, and that many of them contain at least one of the following: sugar, starch, a fermented fish product, salt, wheat derivatives, monosodium glutamate, and chili.
Most of them are meant to be added to food as it is cooking, a few can be added afterwords as you are enjoying the meal. None of them are suitable for massive amounts. Many of them keep very well in your refrigerator after opening. Shrimp paste is essential, Hoisin sauce less so. Douban sauce is useful, but you may not use it often enough.
DRIED FISH
Nothing says "I've been to Chinatown" like a handsome dried fish.
If you are Scandinavian, Dutch, or Belgian, you have seen such things before -- though they may not have been utilized in your kitchens in several generations -- and some Italians and Iberians may have used similar products. If you are modern middle class urban, you will likely eschew fish entirely, and if you are English or Midwestern you may not even know how to cook it when it is fresh. Likely you don't cook anyhow, at most you heat up prepackaged hot-pockets and curry.
Or open a can and mix the contents with mayonnaise.
You rely on celery salt and ketchup.
Dried fish is seldom the mainstay of a meal. But it is a valuable taste-contribution in not particularly large quantities. It will often be soaked and fragmented, and used to flavour simple vegetable dishes.
That's ONE vegetable. Not a mish-mosh of a dozen.
Cooked all dente. Not boiled to death.
Think 'blanch, then saute'.
There are multiple uses for a dried fish, of course, but it's dried; it keeps. That's the whole point of it. Just put it in a large resealable food-storage bag once you get home, if you do not intend to consume it all within weeks.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Below is a selection of places. It is short. It may seem idiosyncratic.
That is deceptive.
DIM SUM
I shan't mention the small hole-in-the-wall dimsum counters I favour, as you probably wouldn't like them anyhow. They also do jook and cheap rice plates. Eh, you wouldn't like those either.
For sit-down dimsum of high quality:
城景 CITY VIEW RESTAURANT
662 Commercial Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-398-2838
Between Kearny and Montgomery, very good.
多好茶室 DOL HO
808 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-392-2828
Just west of Stockton. Good food, a frenetic or eccentric atmosphere.
If you're a snob you might have reservations.
Why are you here?
羊城茶室 YANK SING
49 Stevenson Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-541-4949
Outside of Chinatown, in the financial district. A bit more expensive, but deservedly popular among both Chinese and white folks.
For a complete list of dim sum specialties, see this post:
Dim sum: kinds, names, pronunciation, description.
Not all of the items listed will be available.
Not even in Hong Kong.
SNACK
For bakeries, I recommend these three:
荷里活茶餐廳 NEW HOLLYWOOD BAKERY & RESTAURANT
652 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-397-9919
人仁西餅麵包 YUMMY BAKERY
607 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-989-8388
幸福餅家 BLOSSOM BAKERY
133 Waverly Place
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-391-8088
All three of these have excellent wife cakes (老婆餅 'lou po beng') and milk-tea (港式奶茶 'gong sik naai chaa'), two of them also have wonderful charsiu turnovers (叉烧酥 'chaa siu sou').
They also have other offerings worth exploring.
Sit down and take a break.
For egg tarts (蛋撻 'daan taat'), head to Golden Gate Bakery (金門餅家) at 1029 Grant Avenue, between Jackson Street & Pacific; for coffee crunch cake and mooncakes in season, go to the Eastern Bakery (東亞餅家), 720 Grant Avenue, at the corner of Commercial Street.
RICE
If you want to eat at a restaurant, go here:
京都餐館 CAPITAL RESTAURANT
839 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-397-6269
Great for family dinners and solid Cantonese food, this place can get packed and chaotic during the rush. The clientele is mostly Cantonese speaking, so don't get too fussy and persnickety; they're really trying to keep everyone happy, but that does mean that convoluted questions are better fielded during quieter moments.
上海飯店 BUND SHANGHAI RESTAURANT
640 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-982-0618
Top-notch Shanghainese food, and delightful chive and pork dumplings (韭菜豬肉水餃 'gau choi chü yiuk suei gaau'). This is a place I would love to take a date sometime.
嶺南小館 R & J LOUNGE
631 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-982-7877
Excellent Cantonese food, and very much the place you would bring your elderly out of town relatives. It's a bit fancy, but the quality has remained consistent for years. They can also do larger groups, and cocktails are available.
FLAVOURS
Condiments of most types are available at any place that looks like a grocery store. Many of them also have dried fish. Prices are all very much in line, as they really want to move the merchandise. They will not be able to answer questions very well, especially if you have a horrible German or French accent; know the subject before you go in, or be willing to take a chance. The worst that can happen is that you might waste one or two dollars.
Do NOT purchase chin cha lok (真加洛醬 'jan kaa lok'), as it explodes; very unstable!
Dried fish and soy sauce never do that.
AN AFTERWORD, TER VERANTWOORDING
Indeed, I am also white, just like you. And although I speak some Cantonese, I do not fancy myself in any way special or somehow superior. The key difference may be that I tend to obsessively look things up.
Which also explains my very minor facility in Cantonese.
That language has proven more useful in the past several years than Dutch, German, and Indonesian. This is primarily the case when I am communicating with people who do not speak Dutch, German, or Indonesian, in addition to lacking fluent and idiomatic English.
I am also an egomaniac; I like to be able to get what I want without struggling, and attract a modicum of favourable attention at the same time. A white person who is at least semi-intelligible in Cantonese is a lusus naturae, though probably not someone you want to know.
I collect cookbooks and foreign dictionaries.
And I eat rather well in consequence.
I also know how to take buses.
These are nice things.
PS: Transit information is available all over San Francisco, as well as in the guide books. Many maps also have valuable clues.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, May 19, 2014
CHA CHANTENG: FRENCH TOAST AND MILK TEA - 香港茶餐廳西多士同热奶茶
One of the most peculiar styles of Chinese cuisine, from the viewpoint of most Westerners, is the selection of dishes offered by a "tea restaurant" (茶餐廳 'cha chaan teng'). Many of the ingredients are more familiar than "normal" Chinese food, yet presented in guises far less expected.
Plainly put, this ain't your mom's Chinese.
What it actually is, is quick easy comfort food, hearty and filling, for an audience that happily mixes and matches whatever is available, and wants lots for less. And they want it now. They're starving, please hurry!
Especially if the time they have to dawdle is limited.
Snacks, savoury or sweet.
Fast energy.
茶 ('CHA'): TEA. 餐 ('CHAAN'): A MEAL; TO DINE. 廳 ('TENG'): HALL, OFFICE, DEPARTMENT. 餐廳 ('CHAAN TENG'): DINING HALL, RESTAURANT.
Hong Kong tea restaurants began back in the thirties when entrepreneurs set up near construction sites, docks, and factories, and with more verve than actual skill invented a selection of food and drink that everyone could afford. Once dairy specialties and bakery offerings were added, the rocket took off.
Almost nothing could be more Hong Kong than the neighborhood joint where cheap sandwiches, pork chop over rice, spam, and sundry modern convenience foods are available from morning till almost midnight, all with a cup of strong bitter tea mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
You just want a cholesterol bomb and tea? Also can!
Tomato soup, French toast, plus tea? Will do!
Toasted pineapple bun and butter? Yep!
Iced lemon tea? We've got that too.
Tomato sauce, or Portugee.
Baked spaghetti!
Nothing fancy here, but we pride ourselves on getting you happy fast, and getting you on the road again. Or stuffing you silly for a low-low price, with stuff that you never cook at home, but not-so-secretly crave.
This is what reminds you of the place you came from.
You got familiar with it over several years.
And boy do you miss it.
Of course it's totally Hong Kong style, but I associate it primarily with Chinatown and the Richmond District, seeing as I live in San Francisco. Yeah, spam too. It's a queer vice -- we white folks are supposed to sneer at that humble substance -- but not something I'm embarrassed about.
SAMPLE CHA CHANTENG MENU
For your delectation, here's a list of offerings; most good cha chanteng in Hong Kong will have many of them. They're more limited overseas.
Although in San Francisco it seems far harder than it should to get a pineapple bun (so named because of the top crust) toasted, with a thick wedge of fresh creamery butter shoved in.
Or a hot buttered piggy bun.
Oil-sand toast.
茶餐廳菜單
Soup 湯類
羅宋湯 Russian borscht soup
西班牙番茄湯 Gazpacho
粟米忌廉湯 Sweet corn cream soup
紫菜牛丸湯 Seaweed beef ball soup
紫菜豆腐湯 Seaweed tofu soup
鮮蝦雲吞湯 Wonton soup
Toast 多士類
黃油多士 Buttered toast (油多)
港式)西多士 HK style French toast with butter and condensed milk
牛油果占多士 Toast with butter and jam (油占多士)
奶油厚多士 Condensed milk toast (奶油多)
奶醬厚多士 Condensed milk and peanut butter toast (奶醬多)
咖央西多士 Coconut jam French toast
菠蘿飽 Pineapple bun
菠蘿油 Toasted pineapple bun with butter
餐肉菠蘿包 Toasted pineapple bun with butter and luncheon meat
叉燒菠蘿包 Char-siu pork pineapple bun
油沙厚多士 Oil-sand toast; thick buttered toast with coarse sugar
奶油猪仔包 Crispy hot buttered piggy bun
[NOTES: The jam used in HK is strawberry (草莓酱 'chou mui jeung'). Coconut jam is called 'kaya' (咖央'gaa yeung'), that being the Malay and Indonesian name. The most common version of HK style French toast (港式西多士 'gong sik sai do si') consists of two thick slices of spongy bread glued together with peanut butter, dipped in barely sweetened beaten egg, fried in lots of butter on both sides, served with thick drizzles of sweetened condensed milk and golden syrup. And a pat of butter melting on top, for extra good. It's called 奶醬厚多士 ('naai jeung hau do si') or simply 奶醬多 ('naai jeung do'). Jeung (醬) refers to 花生醬 ('faa sang jeung'), which is peanut butter ("pinda kaas", "beurre d'arachide"). An upscale modern variant is the nutella toast (能多益西多士 'nang do yik sai do si'). Nutella in Chinese: 能多益巧克力醬 ('nang do yik jiu gu lik jeung', 能多益榛子果仁醬 ('nang do yik jeun ji gwo yan jeung').]
Sandwich 三文治
公司三文治 Club Sandwich
咸牛肉蛋三文治 Corned beef and egg sandwich
芝士火腿三文治 Grilled ham and cheese sandwich
火腿蛋三文治 Ham and egg sandwich
午餐肉三文治 Grilled Spam sandwich.
芝士午餐肉三文治 Grilled Spam and cheese sandwich
午餐肉蛋三文治 Spam and egg sandwich
烟肉生菜蕃茄三文治 Bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich
吞拿魚三文治 Tuna sandwich
Baked Rice/Spaghetti 焗飯/意粉
焗火腿芝士意粉 Baked ham & cheese spaghetti with cream sauce
焗牛肉片飯 Baked beef rice with tomato sauce
煎蛋焗豬扒飯 Baked pork chop rice and a fried egg
焗葡汁/茄汁雞飯 Baked chicken rice with Portuguese sauce or tomato sauce
焗肉醬意粉 Baked spaghetti with carbonara sauce
焗葡汁/茄汁牛脷飯 Baked ox-tongue rice with Portuguese sauce or tomato sauce
焗腸仔肉醬意粉 Baked spaghetti and sausages with carbonara sauce
焗葡汁/白汁石班飯 Baked cod rice with Portuguese sauce or cream sauce
焗茄汁鴛鴦扒飯 Baked pork chop rice and chicken rice with tomato sauce
焗白汁雙魚飯 Baked salmon and cod rice with cream sauce
焗白汁三文魚飯 Baked salmon rice with cream sauce
焗白汁帶子蝦飯 Baked scallops and shrimp rice with cream sauce
焗白汁海鮮飯 Baked seafood rice with cream sauce
Curry Rice/Spaghetti 咖哩類飯/意粉
咖哩雞球 Curry chicken
咖哩牛肉 Curry beef
咖哩牛腩 Curry beef brisket
咖哩豬扒 Curry pork chop
咖哩石班 Curry fish
咖哩牛脷 Curry ox-tongue
咖哩海鮮 Curry seafood
Congee (rice porridge) 粥類
鯪魚球生菜粥 Dace and vegetable congee
海鮮粥 Seafood congee
牛肉粥 Beef congee
雞粥 Chicken congee
免治牛肉粥 Ground beef congee
[Same as: 碎牛粥 Minced beef congee.]
魚片粥 Fish congee
皮蛋瘦肉粥 Pork and preserved egg congee
蝦球粥 Shrimp congee
柴魚花生粥 Dried fish and fried peanuts congee
火鴨粥 Roast duck congee
爽滑肉丸粥 Pork meatball congee
猪肝粥 Pork liver rice porridge
碎牛粥 sui ngau juk: rice porridge with minced beef
艇仔粥 Sampan congee (with squid, crackling, ground meat, peanuts, crisp noodly bits)
香菇肉鬆粥 Black mushroom and pork floss congee
魚片粥 yu pin juk: fish curls congee
鮑魚滑雞粥 Abalone and chicken congee
白粥 Plain congee
油條 Chinese doughnut (fried dough stick)
Noodle soup (rice noodles or thin mein) 湯麵類河粉/米粉
海鮮湯麵 Seafood noodle soup
魚蛋湯麵 Fish ball noodle soup
牛丸湯麵 Beef ball noodle soup
牛腩湯麵 Beef brisket noodle soup
牛筋湯麵 Beef tendon noodle soup
雙丸湯麵 Beef and fish ball noodle soup
炸菜肉絲湯米 Pork shreds and pickled vegetables rice noodle soup
沙茶牛肉湯麵 Satay sauce beef noodle soup
鮮蝦雲吞湯麵 Fresh shrimp wonton noodle soup
炸鯪魚球湯麵 Fish curls noodle soup
蝦球湯麵 Shrimp noodle soup
車仔麵 Assorted noodle soup
三文魚湯麵 Salmon noodle soup
Side dishes 菜類
蠔油芥蘭 Chinese broccoli in Oyster Sauce
蠔油西生菜 Lettuce with oyster sauce
腐乳西生菜 Lettuce with soy curd sauce
腩汁西生菜 Lettuce with beef brisket sauce
釀豆腐 Deep fried minced shrimp stuffed tofu
釀茄子 Deep fried minced shrimp stuffed eggplant
羅漢齋 Lo Han vegetables
Instant noodle or macaroni in soup 公仔麵/通粉類
雞絲公仔麵/通粉類 Chicken instant noodle or macaroni
腸仔蛋公仔麵/通粉類 Sausage and fried egg instant noodle or macaroni
火腿蛋公仔麵/通粉類 Ham and fried egg instant noodle or macaroni
蝦球公仔麵/通粉類 Instant noodle or macaroni
午餐肉蛋公仔麵/通粉類粉 Spam and fried egg instant noodle or macaroni
蝦球公仔麵/通粉類 Shrimp and instant noodle or macaroni
沙爹牛肉或雞肉公仔麵/通粉類 Satay sauce beef or chicken instant noodle or macaroni
Lo mein 撈麵
咖哩牛腩撈麵 Curry beef brisket lo mein
雲吞撈麵 Wonton lo mein
蝦球撈麵 Shrimp lo mein
牛腩撈麵 Beef Brisket lo mein
薑蔥撈麵 Green onion and ginger lo mein
Rice or spaghetti plates 飯類/意粉
煎蛋免治牛肉飯 Minced beef and fried egg over rice or spaghetti
柱候牛腩飯 Beef brisket over rice or spaghetti
餐肉蛋飯 Spam and egg over rice or spaghetti
干煎洋蔥豬扒或雞扒)飯 Fried pork chop or chicken cutlet over rice
粟米雞絲或石斑飯 Chicken or cod with corn sauce over rice
鮮蘑菇雞扒飯 Chicken cutlet with mushrooms over rice
鮮茄魚片或牛肉湯飯 Tomato soup rice with cod or beef
吉烈豬扒或石斑飯 Pork chop or cod fillet over rice
蕃茄豬扒意粉 Pork chop with tomato sauce over spaghetti
枝竹羊腩飯 Lamb Stew over rice
西蘭花牛肉飯 Broccoli beef over rice
鮮茄牛肉飯 Tomato beef over rice
豉汁排骨飯 Black bean spareribs over rice
芥蘭牛肉飯 Chinese broccoli beef over rice
菜遠斑片飯 Cod with bokchoi over rice
滑蛋牛肉或蝦球飯 Scrambled egg with beef or shrimp over rice
海南雞飯 Hai Nan chicken rice
凉瓜牛肉飯 Bitter melon beef over rice
凉瓜排骨飯 Bitter melon spareribs over rice
時菜牛肉飯 Vegetable beef over rice
蝦炒蛋飯 Shrimp scrambled egg over rice
Fried Rice 炒飯
菠蘿蝦炒飯 Pineapple shrimp fried rice
生炒雞絲飯 Chicken fried rice
生炒牛肉飯 Beef fried rice
招牌炒飯 House fried rice
粟米火腿蛋炒飯 Ham, egg and corn fried rice
咖哩牛肉炒飯 Curry beef fried rice
鄉下佬炒飯 Farmer's fried rice
楊洲炒飯 Yang Chow fried rice
咸魚雞粒炒飯 Salt fish and chicken fried rice
海鮮炒飯 Seafood fried rice
福建炒飯 Fukien fried rice
鴛鴦炒飯 Two flavour fried rice
瑤柱蛋白海鮮炒飯 Seafood fried rice with dried scallop and egg white
Pan Fried Noodle 煎麵類
菜遠斑球煎麵 Fish and vegetable pan fried noodle
菜遠牛腩煎麵 Beef brisket and vegetable pan fried noodle
鮮茄牛肉煎麵 Tomato beef pan fried noodle
沙茶牛肉煎麵 Satay beef pan fried noodle
豉汁排骨煎麵 Spare ribs black bean pan fried noodle
黑椒牛肉煎麵 Beef with black pepper sauce pan fried noodle
銀芽肉絲煎麵 Pork with bean sprouts pan fried noodle
海鮮煎麵 Seafood pan fried noodle
Yi fu noodle 伊麵類
牛腩燴伊麵 Beef brisket yi fu noodle
干燒肉絲炆伊麵 Braised yi fu noodle with meat shreds.
褔建燴伊麵 Fukien yi fu noodle
海鮮燴伊麵 Seafood yi fu noodle
蟹肉干燒伊麵 Braised yi fu noodle with crab meat
Chow Mein 炒粉麵類
干炒牛河 Beef chow fun
沙嗲牛肉濕炒河 Satay beef chow fun
豉汁排骨濕炒河 Spare ribs with black bean sauce chow fun
滑蛋蝦濕炒河 Scrambled egg with shrimp chow fun
豉汁牛肉濕炒河 Beef with black bean sauce chow fun
星洲炒米粉 Singapore fried rice noodle
鯪魚鬆炒米粉 Dace Fish fried rice noodle
牛肉炒公仔麵 Beef fried instant noodle
火腿蛋炒公仔麵 Ham and egg fried instant noodle
廈門炒米 Amoy fried vermicelli
Fried Spaghetti 炒意粉
鮮茄牛肉或石斑炒意粉 Beef or cod fried spaghetti with tomato sauce
黑椒牛肉或雞肉炒意粉 Beef or chicken fried spaghetti with black pepper sauce
干炒海鮮意粉 Seafood fried spaghetti
鮮茄海鮮炒意粉 Seafood fried spaghetti with tomato sauce
鐵板黑椒牛肉炒意粉 Iron plate beef fried spaghetti with black pepper sauce
鐵板咖哩牛腩燴意粉 Iron plate curry beef brisket with spaghetti
鐵板大千海鮮意粉 Iron plate seafood spaghetti
鐵板黑椒牛仔骨意粉 Iron plate spareribs spaghetti with black pepper sauce
Refined specialties 精美小菜
大地魚炒芥蘭 Stir-fried Chinese broccoli with dried fish flavour
蒜茸炒芥蘭 Stir-fried Chinese broccoli with garlic flavour
紅燒豆腐 Red-braised tofu with black mushrooms and fresh vegetables
牛肉炒唐芥蘭 Chinese broccoli and beef
鯪魚鬆炒時菜 Stir-fried seasonal vegetable with fish shreds
蔥油黃毛雞 Ginger and scallion chicken
薑蔥爆牛肉Ginger and scallion beef
薑蔥爆牛俐Ginger and scallion ox tongue
沙茶滑豆腐牛肉 Beef and tofu in satay sauce
蒙古牛肉 Mongolian beef
梅菜斑球 Preserved vegetable and cod
炸菜牛崧豆腐 Preserved vegetable with beef and tofu
麻婆豆腐 Ma-Po tofu
宮保雞 Kung pao chicken
魚香茄子煲 Fish-flavour eggplant
蒜子斑球豆腐煲 Garlic cod and tofu in casserole
八珍豆腐煲 Eight treasure tofu in casserole
咖哩海鮮煲 Curry seafood in casserole
生菜牛尾煲 Ox tail and lettuce in casserole
瑤柱蛋白扒龍利 Fish fillet with eggwhite and dried scallops
避風塘炒蟹 Typhoon shelter crab
Sets 套餐
營養餐 Healthy set meal
常餐 Regular set meal
快餐 Fast set meal
海鮮餐 Seafood set meal
特餐 Special set meal
[NOTE: A set usually consists of a beverage, an egg dish, a main or over-rice. The regular set often is a small omelette, something meat plus vegetables, rice or spaghetti, and a cup of hot milk-tea (奶茶 'naai cha') or coffee-tea mixture (鴛鴦 'yuen yeung').]
Beverages 飲品
港式奶茶 Milk tea Hong Kong style
鴛鴦 Mixed coffee and tea with condensed milk
凍檸茶(檸檬紅茶) Lemon tea
檸樂 Cocacola with lemon
檸檬蜜糖 Lemon honey beverage
阿華田 Ovaltine
朱古力 Chocolate
好立克 Horlicks
生薑蜜 Ginger honey beverage
荔枝冰 Lychee juice with crushed ice
涼粉冰 Grass jelly with crushed ice
紅豆冰 Red bean with crushed ice
什果冰 Mixed fruit with crushed ice
珍珠奶茶 Milk tea with tapioca pearls.
椰林珍珠冰 Coconut milk tapioca pearl crushed ice
椰林珍珠紅豆冰 Coconut red bean tapioca pearl crushed ice
橙汁 Orange juice
汽水 Soft drinks
[NOTES: You may have to specify whether you want your beverage hot (热；热嘅 'yit'; 'yit ge') or cold (凍；凍嘅 'tung'; 'tung-ge'). I always have my milk tea hot, but if you are younger than me and female, it will most likely be taken for granted that you want it cold, and probably with tapioca pearls (珍珠 'jan jiu', 波霸 'bo baa'). Tapioca pearl milk tea is usually called 波霸奶茶 ('bo baa naai cha'), and some variants shockingly contain no tea. Yuen-yeung (鴛鴦) is also frequently cold (凍鴛鴦) and pearly (波霸鴛鴦). Red beans ("adzuki"; 紅豆 'hung dau') are used in sweets and desserts. 冰('bing') is ice, often crushed.]
Dessert 甜品
芒果布甸 Mango pudding
香蕉班戟 Banana crêpe
雪糕班戟 Icecream crêpe
朱古力煉奶班戟 Chocolate and condensed milk drizzled crêpe
香蕉船 Banana boat
雲尼拿雪糕 Vanilla icecream
Always wait till the server has brought you a cup of weak regular tea before asking for gong-sik naai cha, because while plain hot tea is automatic in Hong Kong in almost all types of eateries, here in America restaurants realize that many people prefer ice water for some goofy reason. White folks probably will look askance at the strong milk tea, and young Chinese Americans will ask for a chilled dairy beverage with enormous gummy tapioca balls instead.
Immature people will be disturbed by the menu in any case.
Especially if they came from the Midwest.
Or were born in suburbistan.
慢慢快快食，呀。
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LETTER BOX.
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Plainly put, this ain't your mom's Chinese.
What it actually is, is quick easy comfort food, hearty and filling, for an audience that happily mixes and matches whatever is available, and wants lots for less. And they want it now. They're starving, please hurry!
Especially if the time they have to dawdle is limited.
Snacks, savoury or sweet.
Fast energy.
茶 ('CHA'): TEA. 餐 ('CHAAN'): A MEAL; TO DINE. 廳 ('TENG'): HALL, OFFICE, DEPARTMENT. 餐廳 ('CHAAN TENG'): DINING HALL, RESTAURANT.
Hong Kong tea restaurants began back in the thirties when entrepreneurs set up near construction sites, docks, and factories, and with more verve than actual skill invented a selection of food and drink that everyone could afford. Once dairy specialties and bakery offerings were added, the rocket took off.
Almost nothing could be more Hong Kong than the neighborhood joint where cheap sandwiches, pork chop over rice, spam, and sundry modern convenience foods are available from morning till almost midnight, all with a cup of strong bitter tea mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
You just want a cholesterol bomb and tea? Also can!
Tomato soup, French toast, plus tea? Will do!
Toasted pineapple bun and butter? Yep!
Iced lemon tea? We've got that too.
Tomato sauce, or Portugee.
Baked spaghetti!
Nothing fancy here, but we pride ourselves on getting you happy fast, and getting you on the road again. Or stuffing you silly for a low-low price, with stuff that you never cook at home, but not-so-secretly crave.
This is what reminds you of the place you came from.
You got familiar with it over several years.
And boy do you miss it.
Of course it's totally Hong Kong style, but I associate it primarily with Chinatown and the Richmond District, seeing as I live in San Francisco. Yeah, spam too. It's a queer vice -- we white folks are supposed to sneer at that humble substance -- but not something I'm embarrassed about.
SAMPLE CHA CHANTENG MENU
For your delectation, here's a list of offerings; most good cha chanteng in Hong Kong will have many of them. They're more limited overseas.
Although in San Francisco it seems far harder than it should to get a pineapple bun (so named because of the top crust) toasted, with a thick wedge of fresh creamery butter shoved in.
Or a hot buttered piggy bun.
Oil-sand toast.
茶餐廳菜單
Soup 湯類
羅宋湯 Russian borscht soup
西班牙番茄湯 Gazpacho
粟米忌廉湯 Sweet corn cream soup
紫菜牛丸湯 Seaweed beef ball soup
紫菜豆腐湯 Seaweed tofu soup
鮮蝦雲吞湯 Wonton soup
Toast 多士類
黃油多士 Buttered toast (油多)
港式)西多士 HK style French toast with butter and condensed milk
牛油果占多士 Toast with butter and jam (油占多士)
奶油厚多士 Condensed milk toast (奶油多)
奶醬厚多士 Condensed milk and peanut butter toast (奶醬多)
咖央西多士 Coconut jam French toast
菠蘿飽 Pineapple bun
菠蘿油 Toasted pineapple bun with butter
餐肉菠蘿包 Toasted pineapple bun with butter and luncheon meat
叉燒菠蘿包 Char-siu pork pineapple bun
油沙厚多士 Oil-sand toast; thick buttered toast with coarse sugar
奶油猪仔包 Crispy hot buttered piggy bun
[NOTES: The jam used in HK is strawberry (草莓酱 'chou mui jeung'). Coconut jam is called 'kaya' (咖央'gaa yeung'), that being the Malay and Indonesian name. The most common version of HK style French toast (港式西多士 'gong sik sai do si') consists of two thick slices of spongy bread glued together with peanut butter, dipped in barely sweetened beaten egg, fried in lots of butter on both sides, served with thick drizzles of sweetened condensed milk and golden syrup. And a pat of butter melting on top, for extra good. It's called 奶醬厚多士 ('naai jeung hau do si') or simply 奶醬多 ('naai jeung do'). Jeung (醬) refers to 花生醬 ('faa sang jeung'), which is peanut butter ("pinda kaas", "beurre d'arachide"). An upscale modern variant is the nutella toast (能多益西多士 'nang do yik sai do si'). Nutella in Chinese: 能多益巧克力醬 ('nang do yik jiu gu lik jeung', 能多益榛子果仁醬 ('nang do yik jeun ji gwo yan jeung').]
Sandwich 三文治
公司三文治 Club Sandwich
咸牛肉蛋三文治 Corned beef and egg sandwich
芝士火腿三文治 Grilled ham and cheese sandwich
火腿蛋三文治 Ham and egg sandwich
午餐肉三文治 Grilled Spam sandwich.
芝士午餐肉三文治 Grilled Spam and cheese sandwich
午餐肉蛋三文治 Spam and egg sandwich
烟肉生菜蕃茄三文治 Bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich
吞拿魚三文治 Tuna sandwich
Baked Rice/Spaghetti 焗飯/意粉
焗火腿芝士意粉 Baked ham & cheese spaghetti with cream sauce
焗牛肉片飯 Baked beef rice with tomato sauce
煎蛋焗豬扒飯 Baked pork chop rice and a fried egg
焗葡汁/茄汁雞飯 Baked chicken rice with Portuguese sauce or tomato sauce
焗肉醬意粉 Baked spaghetti with carbonara sauce
焗葡汁/茄汁牛脷飯 Baked ox-tongue rice with Portuguese sauce or tomato sauce
焗腸仔肉醬意粉 Baked spaghetti and sausages with carbonara sauce
焗葡汁/白汁石班飯 Baked cod rice with Portuguese sauce or cream sauce
焗茄汁鴛鴦扒飯 Baked pork chop rice and chicken rice with tomato sauce
焗白汁雙魚飯 Baked salmon and cod rice with cream sauce
焗白汁三文魚飯 Baked salmon rice with cream sauce
焗白汁帶子蝦飯 Baked scallops and shrimp rice with cream sauce
焗白汁海鮮飯 Baked seafood rice with cream sauce
Curry Rice/Spaghetti 咖哩類飯/意粉
咖哩雞球 Curry chicken
咖哩牛肉 Curry beef
咖哩牛腩 Curry beef brisket
咖哩豬扒 Curry pork chop
咖哩石班 Curry fish
咖哩牛脷 Curry ox-tongue
咖哩海鮮 Curry seafood
Congee (rice porridge) 粥類
鯪魚球生菜粥 Dace and vegetable congee
海鮮粥 Seafood congee
牛肉粥 Beef congee
雞粥 Chicken congee
免治牛肉粥 Ground beef congee
[Same as: 碎牛粥 Minced beef congee.]
魚片粥 Fish congee
皮蛋瘦肉粥 Pork and preserved egg congee
蝦球粥 Shrimp congee
柴魚花生粥 Dried fish and fried peanuts congee
火鴨粥 Roast duck congee
爽滑肉丸粥 Pork meatball congee
猪肝粥 Pork liver rice porridge
碎牛粥 sui ngau juk: rice porridge with minced beef
艇仔粥 Sampan congee (with squid, crackling, ground meat, peanuts, crisp noodly bits)
香菇肉鬆粥 Black mushroom and pork floss congee
魚片粥 yu pin juk: fish curls congee
鮑魚滑雞粥 Abalone and chicken congee
白粥 Plain congee
油條 Chinese doughnut (fried dough stick)
Noodle soup (rice noodles or thin mein) 湯麵類河粉/米粉
海鮮湯麵 Seafood noodle soup
魚蛋湯麵 Fish ball noodle soup
牛丸湯麵 Beef ball noodle soup
牛腩湯麵 Beef brisket noodle soup
牛筋湯麵 Beef tendon noodle soup
雙丸湯麵 Beef and fish ball noodle soup
炸菜肉絲湯米 Pork shreds and pickled vegetables rice noodle soup
沙茶牛肉湯麵 Satay sauce beef noodle soup
鮮蝦雲吞湯麵 Fresh shrimp wonton noodle soup
炸鯪魚球湯麵 Fish curls noodle soup
蝦球湯麵 Shrimp noodle soup
車仔麵 Assorted noodle soup
三文魚湯麵 Salmon noodle soup
Side dishes 菜類
蠔油芥蘭 Chinese broccoli in Oyster Sauce
蠔油西生菜 Lettuce with oyster sauce
腐乳西生菜 Lettuce with soy curd sauce
腩汁西生菜 Lettuce with beef brisket sauce
釀豆腐 Deep fried minced shrimp stuffed tofu
釀茄子 Deep fried minced shrimp stuffed eggplant
羅漢齋 Lo Han vegetables
Instant noodle or macaroni in soup 公仔麵/通粉類
雞絲公仔麵/通粉類 Chicken instant noodle or macaroni
腸仔蛋公仔麵/通粉類 Sausage and fried egg instant noodle or macaroni
火腿蛋公仔麵/通粉類 Ham and fried egg instant noodle or macaroni
蝦球公仔麵/通粉類 Instant noodle or macaroni
午餐肉蛋公仔麵/通粉類粉 Spam and fried egg instant noodle or macaroni
蝦球公仔麵/通粉類 Shrimp and instant noodle or macaroni
沙爹牛肉或雞肉公仔麵/通粉類 Satay sauce beef or chicken instant noodle or macaroni
Lo mein 撈麵
咖哩牛腩撈麵 Curry beef brisket lo mein
雲吞撈麵 Wonton lo mein
蝦球撈麵 Shrimp lo mein
牛腩撈麵 Beef Brisket lo mein
薑蔥撈麵 Green onion and ginger lo mein
Rice or spaghetti plates 飯類/意粉
煎蛋免治牛肉飯 Minced beef and fried egg over rice or spaghetti
柱候牛腩飯 Beef brisket over rice or spaghetti
餐肉蛋飯 Spam and egg over rice or spaghetti
干煎洋蔥豬扒或雞扒)飯 Fried pork chop or chicken cutlet over rice
粟米雞絲或石斑飯 Chicken or cod with corn sauce over rice
鮮蘑菇雞扒飯 Chicken cutlet with mushrooms over rice
鮮茄魚片或牛肉湯飯 Tomato soup rice with cod or beef
吉烈豬扒或石斑飯 Pork chop or cod fillet over rice
蕃茄豬扒意粉 Pork chop with tomato sauce over spaghetti
枝竹羊腩飯 Lamb Stew over rice
西蘭花牛肉飯 Broccoli beef over rice
鮮茄牛肉飯 Tomato beef over rice
豉汁排骨飯 Black bean spareribs over rice
芥蘭牛肉飯 Chinese broccoli beef over rice
菜遠斑片飯 Cod with bokchoi over rice
滑蛋牛肉或蝦球飯 Scrambled egg with beef or shrimp over rice
海南雞飯 Hai Nan chicken rice
凉瓜牛肉飯 Bitter melon beef over rice
凉瓜排骨飯 Bitter melon spareribs over rice
時菜牛肉飯 Vegetable beef over rice
蝦炒蛋飯 Shrimp scrambled egg over rice
Fried Rice 炒飯
菠蘿蝦炒飯 Pineapple shrimp fried rice
生炒雞絲飯 Chicken fried rice
生炒牛肉飯 Beef fried rice
招牌炒飯 House fried rice
粟米火腿蛋炒飯 Ham, egg and corn fried rice
咖哩牛肉炒飯 Curry beef fried rice
鄉下佬炒飯 Farmer's fried rice
楊洲炒飯 Yang Chow fried rice
咸魚雞粒炒飯 Salt fish and chicken fried rice
海鮮炒飯 Seafood fried rice
福建炒飯 Fukien fried rice
鴛鴦炒飯 Two flavour fried rice
瑤柱蛋白海鮮炒飯 Seafood fried rice with dried scallop and egg white
Pan Fried Noodle 煎麵類
菜遠斑球煎麵 Fish and vegetable pan fried noodle
菜遠牛腩煎麵 Beef brisket and vegetable pan fried noodle
鮮茄牛肉煎麵 Tomato beef pan fried noodle
沙茶牛肉煎麵 Satay beef pan fried noodle
豉汁排骨煎麵 Spare ribs black bean pan fried noodle
黑椒牛肉煎麵 Beef with black pepper sauce pan fried noodle
銀芽肉絲煎麵 Pork with bean sprouts pan fried noodle
海鮮煎麵 Seafood pan fried noodle
Yi fu noodle 伊麵類
牛腩燴伊麵 Beef brisket yi fu noodle
干燒肉絲炆伊麵 Braised yi fu noodle with meat shreds.
褔建燴伊麵 Fukien yi fu noodle
海鮮燴伊麵 Seafood yi fu noodle
蟹肉干燒伊麵 Braised yi fu noodle with crab meat
Chow Mein 炒粉麵類
干炒牛河 Beef chow fun
沙嗲牛肉濕炒河 Satay beef chow fun
豉汁排骨濕炒河 Spare ribs with black bean sauce chow fun
滑蛋蝦濕炒河 Scrambled egg with shrimp chow fun
豉汁牛肉濕炒河 Beef with black bean sauce chow fun
星洲炒米粉 Singapore fried rice noodle
鯪魚鬆炒米粉 Dace Fish fried rice noodle
牛肉炒公仔麵 Beef fried instant noodle
火腿蛋炒公仔麵 Ham and egg fried instant noodle
廈門炒米 Amoy fried vermicelli
Fried Spaghetti 炒意粉
鮮茄牛肉或石斑炒意粉 Beef or cod fried spaghetti with tomato sauce
黑椒牛肉或雞肉炒意粉 Beef or chicken fried spaghetti with black pepper sauce
干炒海鮮意粉 Seafood fried spaghetti
鮮茄海鮮炒意粉 Seafood fried spaghetti with tomato sauce
鐵板黑椒牛肉炒意粉 Iron plate beef fried spaghetti with black pepper sauce
鐵板咖哩牛腩燴意粉 Iron plate curry beef brisket with spaghetti
鐵板大千海鮮意粉 Iron plate seafood spaghetti
鐵板黑椒牛仔骨意粉 Iron plate spareribs spaghetti with black pepper sauce
Refined specialties 精美小菜
大地魚炒芥蘭 Stir-fried Chinese broccoli with dried fish flavour
蒜茸炒芥蘭 Stir-fried Chinese broccoli with garlic flavour
紅燒豆腐 Red-braised tofu with black mushrooms and fresh vegetables
牛肉炒唐芥蘭 Chinese broccoli and beef
鯪魚鬆炒時菜 Stir-fried seasonal vegetable with fish shreds
蔥油黃毛雞 Ginger and scallion chicken
薑蔥爆牛肉Ginger and scallion beef
薑蔥爆牛俐Ginger and scallion ox tongue
沙茶滑豆腐牛肉 Beef and tofu in satay sauce
蒙古牛肉 Mongolian beef
梅菜斑球 Preserved vegetable and cod
炸菜牛崧豆腐 Preserved vegetable with beef and tofu
麻婆豆腐 Ma-Po tofu
宮保雞 Kung pao chicken
魚香茄子煲 Fish-flavour eggplant
蒜子斑球豆腐煲 Garlic cod and tofu in casserole
八珍豆腐煲 Eight treasure tofu in casserole
咖哩海鮮煲 Curry seafood in casserole
生菜牛尾煲 Ox tail and lettuce in casserole
瑤柱蛋白扒龍利 Fish fillet with eggwhite and dried scallops
避風塘炒蟹 Typhoon shelter crab
Sets 套餐
營養餐 Healthy set meal
常餐 Regular set meal
快餐 Fast set meal
海鮮餐 Seafood set meal
特餐 Special set meal
[NOTE: A set usually consists of a beverage, an egg dish, a main or over-rice. The regular set often is a small omelette, something meat plus vegetables, rice or spaghetti, and a cup of hot milk-tea (奶茶 'naai cha') or coffee-tea mixture (鴛鴦 'yuen yeung').]
Beverages 飲品
港式奶茶 Milk tea Hong Kong style
鴛鴦 Mixed coffee and tea with condensed milk
凍檸茶(檸檬紅茶) Lemon tea
檸樂 Cocacola with lemon
檸檬蜜糖 Lemon honey beverage
阿華田 Ovaltine
朱古力 Chocolate
好立克 Horlicks
生薑蜜 Ginger honey beverage
荔枝冰 Lychee juice with crushed ice
涼粉冰 Grass jelly with crushed ice
紅豆冰 Red bean with crushed ice
什果冰 Mixed fruit with crushed ice
珍珠奶茶 Milk tea with tapioca pearls.
椰林珍珠冰 Coconut milk tapioca pearl crushed ice
椰林珍珠紅豆冰 Coconut red bean tapioca pearl crushed ice
橙汁 Orange juice
汽水 Soft drinks
[NOTES: You may have to specify whether you want your beverage hot (热；热嘅 'yit'; 'yit ge') or cold (凍；凍嘅 'tung'; 'tung-ge'). I always have my milk tea hot, but if you are younger than me and female, it will most likely be taken for granted that you want it cold, and probably with tapioca pearls (珍珠 'jan jiu', 波霸 'bo baa'). Tapioca pearl milk tea is usually called 波霸奶茶 ('bo baa naai cha'), and some variants shockingly contain no tea. Yuen-yeung (鴛鴦) is also frequently cold (凍鴛鴦) and pearly (波霸鴛鴦). Red beans ("adzuki"; 紅豆 'hung dau') are used in sweets and desserts. 冰('bing') is ice, often crushed.]
Dessert 甜品
芒果布甸 Mango pudding
香蕉班戟 Banana crêpe
雪糕班戟 Icecream crêpe
朱古力煉奶班戟 Chocolate and condensed milk drizzled crêpe
香蕉船 Banana boat
雲尼拿雪糕 Vanilla icecream
Always wait till the server has brought you a cup of weak regular tea before asking for gong-sik naai cha, because while plain hot tea is automatic in Hong Kong in almost all types of eateries, here in America restaurants realize that many people prefer ice water for some goofy reason. White folks probably will look askance at the strong milk tea, and young Chinese Americans will ask for a chilled dairy beverage with enormous gummy tapioca balls instead.
Immature people will be disturbed by the menu in any case.
Especially if they came from the Midwest.
Or were born in suburbistan.
慢慢快快食，呀。
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
FABULOUS FOOD! PASTRIES AND MILK-TEA IN CHINATOWN.
The other day I watched as a little girl reacted to the display of pastries. You could tell from her rapt fascination that it was an enchanting sight, so tempting, so delicious. Remarkably, she did not importune her parent, but calmly accepted the charsiu bun as sufficient delivery on the promise.
Evenso, the items with icing and chocolate still held her attention.
Perhaps she imagined a distant place, where there are palm trees, sunlight, a gently rolling surf, friendly seagulls, and absolutely NO glass barriers in front of slices of cake.
Nor the prospect of dinner to limit her.
I also think of such things.
Often.
Usually because when I wander into a bakery in Chinatown it is late in the day and I forgot all about breakfast and lunch. Low blood-sugar levels do things to the mind.
You've seen it here before: Hong Kong style milk-tea and a snacky-poo.
Followed by smoking a nice pipe-full of aged Virginia.
I am boring and regular in my habits.
As well as food-obsessed.
But I am easily distracted, which is why breakfast and lunch are irregular at best. I've probably had more ill-advised midnight snacks than actual decent breakfasts in the last few years, and I fervently wish that Chinese coffee shops were open late in the evening.
Milk-tea, yummy pastry, and a walk through quiet streets after darkness.
Yes, that is what the ideal tropical paradise would offer.
Here's a relatively full listing of bakeries in Chinatown.
Or leastways, places that offer one or the other.
Tea (港式奶茶), pastry (糕點同餅類).
好食嘢 GOOD EATING THING!
永興餅家茶餐廳 ('wing hing beng gaa chaa chaanteng')
AA BAKERY & CAFE
1068 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-981-0123
舊金山，市德頓街1068號。
Once saw some northern girls here with impossibly short skirts and curvy golden gams, but that is NOT the reason I like the place. It's frantic, crowded, has great pastries, and there's always a bunch of old men whose conversation I can listen in on.
ABC大餐廳 ('a-b-c daai chaanteng')
ABC BAKERY & CAFE
650 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-981-0685
舊金山，昃臣街650號。
The service can be slipshod, the pastries are reliably standard. Many locals go here, not only for bakery items but also quick no-thought meals. The milk-tea is not that good, and may have a swimming pool in the saucer.
It can be loud.
And odd.
幸福餅家 ('hang fuk beng gaa')
BLOSSOM BAKERY
133 Waverly Pl
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-391-8088
舊金山，天后廟街133號。
Quite one of my favourite places. I love their charsiu sou, and they're always willing to make me a cup of milk-tea. Friendly and courteous people, mostly male customers having a cuppa after work.
It's often peaceful in late afternoon.
Very old-fashioned.
Nice.
新檀島咖啡餅店 ('san taan tou ka fei bing dim')
CAFE HONOLULU
888 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-982-6688
舊金山，市德頓街888號。
Open later than many other places, and a good selection of cha chanteng foods in addition to the bakery items. Older people and Mandarin speakers like this place, and it's a comfortable spot to while away some time while watching a Hong Kong soap opera on teevee. You could also read here.
Bittermelon and pork, spaghetti, and darn good milk-tea.
得利點心 ('dak lei dim sam')
DICK LEE PASTRY & DIM SUM
716 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-397-0788
舊金山，昃臣街716號。
They used to be much better, and less tourist-oriented.
I often wonder how they stay in business.
Perhaps it's just hard work.
東亞餅家 ('tung a beng gaa')
EASTERN BAKERY
720 Grant Ave
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-982-5157
舊金山，都板街720號。
The classic. Coffee crunch cake, dow sa bing (豆沙餠) and several interesting well-made pastries to choose from. Famous for their mooncakes. Open till eight.
小麥田 ('siu mak tin')
FANCY WHEAT FIELD BAKERY
1362 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-982-1368
舊金山，市德頓街1362號。
Fast, frenetic, a frantic battlefield, forsooth. With absolutely some of the best HK baked goods on the planet. Lovely bread, divine little Portuguese custard tarts, and everything looks so beautiful and delicious.
No wonder people go mad in here.
Deservedly.
嘉頓餠家 ('gaa duen beng gaa')
GARDEN BAKERY
765 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-397-5838
舊金山，昃臣街765號。
Some good stuff. But you'll probably never get a seat near the window.
And for some reason my accent in Cantonese excites comment.
Consequently I do not go here often.
Sometimes not in months.
No milk-tea.
金門餅家 ('kam mun beng gaa')
GOLDEN GATE BAKERY
1029 Grant Ave
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-781-2627
舊金山，都板街1029號。
They used to have tables and chairs, but their egg-tarts are now so popular that you can no longer sit there. It has a well-earned reputation.
好旺角包餅店 ('hou wong kok bao beng dim')
GOOD MONG KOK BAKERY
1039 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-397-2688
舊金山，市德頓街1039號。
Line out the door. Baked goods, steamed things.
iCAFE SAN FRANCISCO
57 Walter U. Lum Place
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-392-2682
舊金山，花園街57號。
Milk-tea, espresso drinks, pastries of a non-Chinese variety. Friendly people, and a place to sit. A perfect place for hiding out. Portsmouth Square is just across the street, so there's always something interesting passing by.
Three enterprises pay the rent here: the cafe, a florist, and a maker of dynamite lap cheung ('dry pork sausages and preserved meats'). I bought some extremely nice pressed dry duck there when it was still just the sausage king (廣州皇上皇臘味). Yes, I like this shop.
MAGGIE'S CAFE
848 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-986-6668
舊金山，都板街848號。
Fancy Euro pastries, espresso drinks, and also milk tea. Good place to sit watching tourists stumbling down Grant Avenue.
An oasis for scared foreigners.
Prices are too high.
美香餅家 ('mei heung beng gaa')
MEE HEONG BAKERY
1343 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-781-3266
舊金山，跑華街1343號。
A bare-bonesy bakery with a neighborhood feel. Real people go here, to pick up something nice to nibble on. Kids come in and say 'hi' to the folks behind the counter.
Far from the madding crowd.
美美餅食公司 ('mei mei beng sik gungsi')
MEE MEE BAKERY
1328 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-362-3204
舊金山，市德頓街1328號。
Fortune cookies and mooncakes, and that is all.
拿破崙餠屋 ('na po luen beng uk')
NAPOLEON SUPER BAKERY
1049 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-951-8133
舊金山，市德頓街1049號。
I used to go here more often, then the Filipinas discovered it and I can't even get in the door. But they do some very good stuff.
安娜閣 ('on naa gok')
NEW ANNA BAKERY
715 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-989-8898
舊金山，企李街715號。
Small, with a fairly standard selection. But they also prepare hot food, and it's a good place to have a decent lunch with a friend or two. Soup, rice, three dishes, low price.
Nice people.
荷里活茶餐廳 ('ho lei wut chaa chanteng')
NEW HOLLYWOOD BAKERY & RESTAURANT
652 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-397-9919
舊金山，柏思域街652號。
Been going here for years. And old stand-by, with quality pastries, and a nice cosy atmosphere. Plus their cha-chanteng menu is appealing. The braised lamb with dried tofu over rice is one of my favourites.
Also think of ox tails.
富祥點心 ('fuk cheung dim sam')
NEW FORTUNE DIM SUM & COFFEE SHOP
815 Stockton Street, between Clay and Sacramento.
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-399-1511
舊金山，市德頓街815號。
Not really a bakery. But they do have a small selection of baked goods.
Mostly cheap eats and dim sum. Very affordable.
I like the food, and I like the owners.
A frequent haunt.
好好味 ('hou hou mei')
SWEET MART
727 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-788-5555
舊金山，華盛頓街727號。
Milk-tea to go, lots of candies, limited supply of baked goods, and souvenir tzatzkies for the tourists.
Plus stuffed animals.
No place to sit. But they wouldn't want you to do so anyway.
心意甜品 ('sam yi tim pan')
SWEETHEART CAFE
909 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-262-9989
舊金山，都板街909號。
Tapioca teas and many strange snacks, including kaidanchai (雞蛋仔). Their sweet crepes are quite good. Popular among younger people.
Bubble drinks.
嘉賓閣咖啡餅店 ('gaa ban gok gaa fei beng dim')
VIP COFFEE & CAKES SHOP
671 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-989-7118
舊金山，布律威街671號。
Walnut tarts very good. Some excellent pastries. Sizzling platters.
I've never felt at home, possibly due to the clientele.
Perhaps because of the tables.
All sticky, lah.
華麗餠家 ('waa lai beng gaa')
WA LI BAKERY & CAFE
1249 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-986-1660
舊金山，市德頓街1249號。
Sometimes it's packed. Sometimes it's empty.
Just a normal bakery.
華盛頓茶餐廳 ('waa seng duen chaa chaanteng')
WASHINGTON BAKERY AND RESTAURANT
733 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-397-3232
舊金山，華盛頓街733號。
I like this place. It often feels empty by the time I get here, but they also do hot food, and their milk-tea hits the spot. Their menu suits me. It's very much a cha chanteng, but quality.
好旺利 ('hou wong lei')
WONG LEE BAKERY
732 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-986-3759.
舊金山，昃臣街732號。
No place to sit, everything to go. Large buns, lots of freshness, little English. The great big monstrous chicken bun is a marvelous thing. This location was where Yong Kee (容記糕粉 'yung gei kou fan') used to be.
You can also get bubble tea here.
人仁西餅麵包 ('yan yan sai beng min baau')
YUMMY BAKERY
607 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-989-8388
舊金山，昃臣街607號。
Open till nearly eight o'clock, good milk tea, fine cheesecake, and some altogether fun snacking.
Two tables only, but a splendid refuge for hiding-out late in the day.
They make several excellent and unusual items.
It's another favourite place.
金華點心快餐 ('gam waa dim sam faai chaan')
YUMMY DIM SUM & FAST FOOD
930 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-308-3819, 415-828-0856, 415-986-2783
舊金山，市德頓街930號。
Their bakery counter is small, as most of their business consists of hungry locals coming in for a cheap lunch. Good rice porridge (and they have oil-stick), some lovely dim sum items, and a decent selection of cheap steam table eats to dump over rice.
I think you get good value for your money.
There are hardly any white customers.
Tourists look around and leave.
These are good things.
To the best of my knowledge none of these places have a wine list.
They don't cater to an entitled crowd.
In any way at all.
Enjoy.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Evenso, the items with icing and chocolate still held her attention.
Perhaps she imagined a distant place, where there are palm trees, sunlight, a gently rolling surf, friendly seagulls, and absolutely NO glass barriers in front of slices of cake.
Nor the prospect of dinner to limit her.
I also think of such things.
Often.
Usually because when I wander into a bakery in Chinatown it is late in the day and I forgot all about breakfast and lunch. Low blood-sugar levels do things to the mind.
You've seen it here before: Hong Kong style milk-tea and a snacky-poo.
Followed by smoking a nice pipe-full of aged Virginia.
I am boring and regular in my habits.
As well as food-obsessed.
But I am easily distracted, which is why breakfast and lunch are irregular at best. I've probably had more ill-advised midnight snacks than actual decent breakfasts in the last few years, and I fervently wish that Chinese coffee shops were open late in the evening.
Milk-tea, yummy pastry, and a walk through quiet streets after darkness.
Yes, that is what the ideal tropical paradise would offer.
Here's a relatively full listing of bakeries in Chinatown.
Or leastways, places that offer one or the other.
Tea (港式奶茶), pastry (糕點同餅類).
好食嘢 GOOD EATING THING!
永興餅家茶餐廳 ('wing hing beng gaa chaa chaanteng')
AA BAKERY & CAFE
1068 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-981-0123
舊金山，市德頓街1068號。
Once saw some northern girls here with impossibly short skirts and curvy golden gams, but that is NOT the reason I like the place. It's frantic, crowded, has great pastries, and there's always a bunch of old men whose conversation I can listen in on.
ABC大餐廳 ('a-b-c daai chaanteng')
ABC BAKERY & CAFE
650 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-981-0685
舊金山，昃臣街650號。
The service can be slipshod, the pastries are reliably standard. Many locals go here, not only for bakery items but also quick no-thought meals. The milk-tea is not that good, and may have a swimming pool in the saucer.
It can be loud.
And odd.
幸福餅家 ('hang fuk beng gaa')
BLOSSOM BAKERY
133 Waverly Pl
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-391-8088
舊金山，天后廟街133號。
Quite one of my favourite places. I love their charsiu sou, and they're always willing to make me a cup of milk-tea. Friendly and courteous people, mostly male customers having a cuppa after work.
It's often peaceful in late afternoon.
Very old-fashioned.
Nice.
新檀島咖啡餅店 ('san taan tou ka fei bing dim')
CAFE HONOLULU
888 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-982-6688
舊金山，市德頓街888號。
Open later than many other places, and a good selection of cha chanteng foods in addition to the bakery items. Older people and Mandarin speakers like this place, and it's a comfortable spot to while away some time while watching a Hong Kong soap opera on teevee. You could also read here.
Bittermelon and pork, spaghetti, and darn good milk-tea.
得利點心 ('dak lei dim sam')
DICK LEE PASTRY & DIM SUM
716 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-397-0788
舊金山，昃臣街716號。
They used to be much better, and less tourist-oriented.
I often wonder how they stay in business.
Perhaps it's just hard work.
東亞餅家 ('tung a beng gaa')
EASTERN BAKERY
720 Grant Ave
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-982-5157
舊金山，都板街720號。
The classic. Coffee crunch cake, dow sa bing (豆沙餠) and several interesting well-made pastries to choose from. Famous for their mooncakes. Open till eight.
小麥田 ('siu mak tin')
FANCY WHEAT FIELD BAKERY
1362 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-982-1368
舊金山，市德頓街1362號。
Fast, frenetic, a frantic battlefield, forsooth. With absolutely some of the best HK baked goods on the planet. Lovely bread, divine little Portuguese custard tarts, and everything looks so beautiful and delicious.
No wonder people go mad in here.
Deservedly.
嘉頓餠家 ('gaa duen beng gaa')
GARDEN BAKERY
765 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-397-5838
舊金山，昃臣街765號。
Some good stuff. But you'll probably never get a seat near the window.
And for some reason my accent in Cantonese excites comment.
Consequently I do not go here often.
Sometimes not in months.
No milk-tea.
金門餅家 ('kam mun beng gaa')
GOLDEN GATE BAKERY
1029 Grant Ave
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-781-2627
舊金山，都板街1029號。
They used to have tables and chairs, but their egg-tarts are now so popular that you can no longer sit there. It has a well-earned reputation.
好旺角包餅店 ('hou wong kok bao beng dim')
GOOD MONG KOK BAKERY
1039 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-397-2688
舊金山，市德頓街1039號。
Line out the door. Baked goods, steamed things.
iCAFE SAN FRANCISCO
57 Walter U. Lum Place
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-392-2682
舊金山，花園街57號。
Milk-tea, espresso drinks, pastries of a non-Chinese variety. Friendly people, and a place to sit. A perfect place for hiding out. Portsmouth Square is just across the street, so there's always something interesting passing by.
Three enterprises pay the rent here: the cafe, a florist, and a maker of dynamite lap cheung ('dry pork sausages and preserved meats'). I bought some extremely nice pressed dry duck there when it was still just the sausage king (廣州皇上皇臘味). Yes, I like this shop.
MAGGIE'S CAFE
848 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-986-6668
舊金山，都板街848號。
Fancy Euro pastries, espresso drinks, and also milk tea. Good place to sit watching tourists stumbling down Grant Avenue.
An oasis for scared foreigners.
Prices are too high.
美香餅家 ('mei heung beng gaa')
MEE HEONG BAKERY
1343 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-781-3266
舊金山，跑華街1343號。
A bare-bonesy bakery with a neighborhood feel. Real people go here, to pick up something nice to nibble on. Kids come in and say 'hi' to the folks behind the counter.
Far from the madding crowd.
美美餅食公司 ('mei mei beng sik gungsi')
MEE MEE BAKERY
1328 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-362-3204
舊金山，市德頓街1328號。
Fortune cookies and mooncakes, and that is all.
拿破崙餠屋 ('na po luen beng uk')
NAPOLEON SUPER BAKERY
1049 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-951-8133
舊金山，市德頓街1049號。
I used to go here more often, then the Filipinas discovered it and I can't even get in the door. But they do some very good stuff.
安娜閣 ('on naa gok')
NEW ANNA BAKERY
715 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-989-8898
舊金山，企李街715號。
Small, with a fairly standard selection. But they also prepare hot food, and it's a good place to have a decent lunch with a friend or two. Soup, rice, three dishes, low price.
Nice people.
荷里活茶餐廳 ('ho lei wut chaa chanteng')
NEW HOLLYWOOD BAKERY & RESTAURANT
652 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-397-9919
舊金山，柏思域街652號。
Been going here for years. And old stand-by, with quality pastries, and a nice cosy atmosphere. Plus their cha-chanteng menu is appealing. The braised lamb with dried tofu over rice is one of my favourites.
Also think of ox tails.
富祥點心 ('fuk cheung dim sam')
NEW FORTUNE DIM SUM & COFFEE SHOP
815 Stockton Street, between Clay and Sacramento.
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-399-1511
舊金山，市德頓街815號。
Not really a bakery. But they do have a small selection of baked goods.
Mostly cheap eats and dim sum. Very affordable.
I like the food, and I like the owners.
A frequent haunt.
好好味 ('hou hou mei')
SWEET MART
727 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-788-5555
舊金山，華盛頓街727號。
Milk-tea to go, lots of candies, limited supply of baked goods, and souvenir tzatzkies for the tourists.
Plus stuffed animals.
No place to sit. But they wouldn't want you to do so anyway.
心意甜品 ('sam yi tim pan')
SWEETHEART CAFE
909 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-262-9989
舊金山，都板街909號。
Tapioca teas and many strange snacks, including kaidanchai (雞蛋仔). Their sweet crepes are quite good. Popular among younger people.
Bubble drinks.
嘉賓閣咖啡餅店 ('gaa ban gok gaa fei beng dim')
VIP COFFEE & CAKES SHOP
671 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-989-7118
舊金山，布律威街671號。
Walnut tarts very good. Some excellent pastries. Sizzling platters.
I've never felt at home, possibly due to the clientele.
Perhaps because of the tables.
All sticky, lah.
華麗餠家 ('waa lai beng gaa')
WA LI BAKERY & CAFE
1249 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-986-1660
舊金山，市德頓街1249號。
Sometimes it's packed. Sometimes it's empty.
Just a normal bakery.
華盛頓茶餐廳 ('waa seng duen chaa chaanteng')
WASHINGTON BAKERY AND RESTAURANT
733 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-397-3232
舊金山，華盛頓街733號。
I like this place. It often feels empty by the time I get here, but they also do hot food, and their milk-tea hits the spot. Their menu suits me. It's very much a cha chanteng, but quality.
好旺利 ('hou wong lei')
WONG LEE BAKERY
732 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-986-3759.
舊金山，昃臣街732號。
No place to sit, everything to go. Large buns, lots of freshness, little English. The great big monstrous chicken bun is a marvelous thing. This location was where Yong Kee (容記糕粉 'yung gei kou fan') used to be.
You can also get bubble tea here.
人仁西餅麵包 ('yan yan sai beng min baau')
YUMMY BAKERY
607 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-989-8388
舊金山，昃臣街607號。
Open till nearly eight o'clock, good milk tea, fine cheesecake, and some altogether fun snacking.
Two tables only, but a splendid refuge for hiding-out late in the day.
They make several excellent and unusual items.
It's another favourite place.
金華點心快餐 ('gam waa dim sam faai chaan')
YUMMY DIM SUM & FAST FOOD
930 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.
415-308-3819, 415-828-0856, 415-986-2783
舊金山，市德頓街930號。
Their bakery counter is small, as most of their business consists of hungry locals coming in for a cheap lunch. Good rice porridge (and they have oil-stick), some lovely dim sum items, and a decent selection of cheap steam table eats to dump over rice.
I think you get good value for your money.
There are hardly any white customers.
Tourists look around and leave.
These are good things.
To the best of my knowledge none of these places have a wine list.
They don't cater to an entitled crowd.
In any way at all.
Enjoy.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
COFFEE, TEA, AND CONDENSED MILK: 飲間天堂
This man loves fried noodles. Seriously. During the weekend I went over to the Washington Cafe and ordered a plate of mixed seafood fried noodles. Shrimp and squidly bits with green onion and beansprouts over thin wheaten strands. Actually, not over; but in.
Decadent with a ton of hot sauce.
I'm a pig.
I enjoyed my meal.
Delicious!
文記茶餐廳 MAN KEE CHA CHAN-TENG
The Washington Cafe is where the old Upholding Heaven (擎天酒樓) used to be. Since it became a cha chanteng I've been going there nearly every month for food of which the doctor would disapprove. You know, HK teashop chow. They've got macaroni, baked pork chop on rice, salmon steak, and spaghetti (意粉) a la Hongkongaise. Plus fried stuff. And rice plates, stuff with Portugee sauce, soup.
Oh, and a ton of more acceptably Chinese stuff too.
Plus crustaceans.
WASHINGTON CAFE
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-398-1299
Yeah, no, it's not the Man Kee Cha Chanteng near Diamond Hill (鑽石山 'chuen sek saan') in Kowloon (九龍 'kau lung'), directly north as the crow flies from Kai Tak and Kowloon Bay (啟德、九龍灣). That one's located at 31 Yuk Wah Crescent (毓華里), near Yuk Wah Street (毓華街). Between Po Kong Village (蒲崗村) and Tsz Wan Shan (慈雲山), so it should be clear how to get there. Just a short walk from the shopping centre.
The Washington Cafe in San Francisco is at the north end of Waverly (天后廟街), on the block between Grant (都板街) and Stockton (市德頓街).
Also walking distance from somewhere.
And easy to get to.
正宗絲襪奶茶 JENG JONG SI-MAT NAAI-CHA
A cha chanteng (茶餐廳) is halfway between a convenient eatery and a place with affordable satisfying snackfood. The institution originated in Hong Kong after the war, and at the time offered primarily quick stuff that would revive the working man and get him back out on the construction site or at his factory shift. Over time the menus became more eclectic, and many of them practically invented Hong Kong western food (豉油西餐).
But at all stages, from early beginning till now, serving milk tea (奶茶 'naai cha', 港式奶茶 'gong-sik naai cha', 香港奶茶 'heung gong naai cha'), yuen-yeung (鴛鴦) or mandarin ducks (coffee and tea mixed together, more milk-tea than coffee), Ovaltine (阿華田), and Horlicks (好立克).
All of which taste much better with condensed milk (煉奶).
Plus lemon tea with honey syrup and lots of lemon.
You can also get toast at such places.
It's very civilized.
Yesterday I fried up noodles and green chili peppers plus meat and egg, with lots of shredded ginger, before going out to do my laundry.
Afterwards I had a cup of half coffee and milk-tea.
Perhaps not as good as at the Man Kee.
I'll have to ask them if they can do 蕃茄豬扒 over 意粉.
I'm sure they can.
Their milk tea is very good.
非常好。
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Decadent with a ton of hot sauce.
I'm a pig.
I enjoyed my meal.
Delicious!
文記茶餐廳 MAN KEE CHA CHAN-TENG
The Washington Cafe is where the old Upholding Heaven (擎天酒樓) used to be. Since it became a cha chanteng I've been going there nearly every month for food of which the doctor would disapprove. You know, HK teashop chow. They've got macaroni, baked pork chop on rice, salmon steak, and spaghetti (意粉) a la Hongkongaise. Plus fried stuff. And rice plates, stuff with Portugee sauce, soup.
Oh, and a ton of more acceptably Chinese stuff too.
Plus crustaceans.
WASHINGTON CAFE
826 Washington Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-398-1299
Yeah, no, it's not the Man Kee Cha Chanteng near Diamond Hill (鑽石山 'chuen sek saan') in Kowloon (九龍 'kau lung'), directly north as the crow flies from Kai Tak and Kowloon Bay (啟德、九龍灣). That one's located at 31 Yuk Wah Crescent (毓華里), near Yuk Wah Street (毓華街). Between Po Kong Village (蒲崗村) and Tsz Wan Shan (慈雲山), so it should be clear how to get there. Just a short walk from the shopping centre.
The Washington Cafe in San Francisco is at the north end of Waverly (天后廟街), on the block between Grant (都板街) and Stockton (市德頓街).
Also walking distance from somewhere.
And easy to get to.
正宗絲襪奶茶 JENG JONG SI-MAT NAAI-CHA
A cha chanteng (茶餐廳) is halfway between a convenient eatery and a place with affordable satisfying snackfood. The institution originated in Hong Kong after the war, and at the time offered primarily quick stuff that would revive the working man and get him back out on the construction site or at his factory shift. Over time the menus became more eclectic, and many of them practically invented Hong Kong western food (豉油西餐).
But at all stages, from early beginning till now, serving milk tea (奶茶 'naai cha', 港式奶茶 'gong-sik naai cha', 香港奶茶 'heung gong naai cha'), yuen-yeung (鴛鴦) or mandarin ducks (coffee and tea mixed together, more milk-tea than coffee), Ovaltine (阿華田), and Horlicks (好立克).
All of which taste much better with condensed milk (煉奶).
Plus lemon tea with honey syrup and lots of lemon.
You can also get toast at such places.
It's very civilized.
Yesterday I fried up noodles and green chili peppers plus meat and egg, with lots of shredded ginger, before going out to do my laundry.
Afterwards I had a cup of half coffee and milk-tea.
Perhaps not as good as at the Man Kee.
I'll have to ask them if they can do 蕃茄豬扒 over 意粉.
I'm sure they can.
Their milk tea is very good.
非常好。
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
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