THE MORE THINGS CHANGE

One of the places where I used to go on Stockton Street has, from the looks of it, changed hands. And one wonders at the type of place it will be. It used to be New Honolulu (新檀島咖啡餅店 'san taan tou ka fei bing dim') at 888 Stockton Street; the new name is 新品味 ('san pan mei'), though the English signage remains the same. That entire block is becoming different. Wycen Foods (祥發臘味) a few doors up moved over a year ago from the location of many years. They are presently just around the corner on Clay Street, facing where Hang Ah Alley terminates. Good preserved meats, Canto style. I was glad to see them re open.

The New Honolulu was a typical Hong Kong style chachanteng. Plate lunches, a number of specialty dishes, baked goods very nice, and milk tea. Plus friendly staff and a good albeit quirked ambiance.


It was more or less my kind of place.


They're still remodeling, and have posted no menus or an opening date. All I can tell is the walls are going to be different, and there are interesting light fixtures. Which is not enough to go by.


I keep telling myself that change is good. But I'm kind of pissed off at how many familiar places disappear. And don't get me started on the movie theatres there that no longer exist, or the old school lunch counters, of which there were several. I do not want to sound like Grandpa Simpson.
I never wore an onion on my belt.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

MOONCAKES, SAN FRANCISCO

The moon festival is a Chinese celebration on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. This year it will be September 15. There's a whole bucket load of meaning and symbolism to the event, most of which you do not need to know, and would not pay any heed to whatsoever anyway.

So, in short, here are the most important things to keep in mind:


THE MOON FESTIVAL 
中秋節 ('jung chau jit')

Over three thousand years of tradition, worship in gratitude for the harvest.
Full moon.
There are stories.
Family togetherness.
Revolt against the foreigners.
Lanterns.
Eat mooncakes.


MOONCAKES 
月餅 ('yuet bing')

Mooncakes can be made with any number of fillings. Often they will contain a salted duck egg yolk, which makes them richer and adds complexity to the sweetness. Very delicious!

There are four kinds that in my mind you should consider:

單黃蓮蓉 ('daan wong lin yung'): single yolk lotus seed paste.
雙黃蓮蓉 ('seung wong lin yung'): double yolk lotus seed paste.
單黃豆沙 ('daan wong dau saa'): single yolk red bean paste.
雙黃豆沙 ('seung wong dau saa'): double yolk red bean paste.

Yes there are many others. And regional variations. But start with these.

Where might you buy them?


BAKERIES
餅家 ('bing kaa') 

THE AA BAKERY & CAFÉ
永興餅家茶餐廳 ('wing hing bing ka tsa tsan teng')
1068 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 981-0123

EASTERN BAKERY
東亞餅家 ('tung ah bing ka')
720 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 433-7973

Both bakeries are famous for their mooncakes. The AA also has Hong Kong style milk-tea (港式奶茶 'gong sik naai chaa'), the Eastern is, additionally, famous for their coffee crunch cake.

Every bakery in Chinatown will have mooncakes.
Don't worry, you won't be left yearning.

If you do not have a chance to head into Chinatown, you can also purchase tins with four cakes apiece, made by several companies, available at many Chinese grocery stores out in the Richmond or Sunset.
A well-know imported brand is Wing Wah (榮華 、榮華餅家), from a company located in Yuen Long (元朗) in the New Territories.
Many people look forward to a tin.
It's a celebration.



I myself will NOT be buying a tin of mooncakes this year, as I am single, not particularly festive, and I feel fat.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

STEAMED PRESERVED DUCK THIGH: 蒸臘鴨肶 JING LAAP NGAAP PEI

One of my acquaintances was laying it on thick, talking about organic baby vegetables harvested fresh from the soil, to be lightly steamed, and eaten with gluten-free noodles.
Oh so delicious! And pure! How could I not love it!
A meatless and sacramental meal.

Well, given that gluten-free makes me giggle, especially when combined with the word 'noodles', he's right. He's also out of his Vegan mind, lord help him, and utterly goofy, but yes, I love it.
Purely as a funny concept.

Stupid white Vegans from suburbistan don't know how to eat.
And shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a kitchen.
Steaming, btw, is NOT for vegetables.

It's for meat.

Such as the lovely dry-preserved duck thighs, dense and delicious, that you can buy in Chinatown. They're made by adding curing salts, soy sauce and rice wine, then wind-drying them for a few days. In so many ways they define satisfying winter food.

The commonest way to utilize them is by steaming them on top of rice.


蒸臘鴨肶飯
Jing laap ngaap pei faan

One fatty preserved thigh.
One Chinese sausage, skinned and cut diagonally.
Two or three re-humidified black mushrooms.
Two cups rice.
Shredded ginger.
Shredded scallion.

Rinse the thigh in cold water, then dunk it briefly in boiling water.
In addition to shocking the meat with moisture, this also washes off dust and shrotzim, and sterilizes.
Then take your cleaver and whack across into thinnish chopstickable chunks.
Put these on a bed of parboiled rice that you have placed in a clay pot, strew some shredded ginger and scallion on top, place the lid on the pot, and cook till done. Let it sit for a few minutes.

Many people don't chop it till after the steaming, but I think the heat permeates it better, and the grease renders easier into the rice, if you do it my way. In either case, the result is a beautiful well-flavoured and fragrant rice, and chewy tender rich meaty duck.


The two premier places to purchase such lovely duck legs, as well as several other kinds of preserved meat products, are Mow Lee and Wycen Foods. Both produce beautiful high-quality laapmei.
I would suggest going in and selecting some stuff at random, then taking it home to experiment. Dried meats have a deeper flavour than fresh, are used in smaller quantities, and are considered perfect warming food.
For heavens sake, do NOT point and ask goofy questions!
English is not their greatest skill set.
Don't be a tourist.


茂利腊味
Mow Lee Company
774 Commercial Street
San Francisco, CA 94108.


祥發臘味
Wycen Foods
832 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94107.


I also bought some bitter melon while in C'town today, and a huge bag of crispy crunchy fresh Jalapeños (尖椒 'jim jiu' ). Bold veggies are excellent with preserved meats. And chilies are, of course, a vegetable.

Instead of lapcheung I will add two or three soaked dried oysters (蠔豉 'hou si') to the top of the rice before steaming, gout be damned.
Besides rice, a vegetable dish is essential. I love bitter melon, as well as chilies. Both are good for the blood.
And rather than all long-grain rice, I plan to "borrow" some of my apartment mate's Arborio, which she purchased for an experiment with risotto over the holiday season, and hasn't used since.


I'm looking forward to dinner.

And leftover rice tomorrow.

With a fried egg on top.

And raw chilies.

Lunch.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

DISAPPEARI​NG RESTAURANT​S ON STOCKTON STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO

You may not have noticed, but Stockton Street has become somewhat poorer. Four good eateries have recently closed down, in order that we may dig a metro line. Their locations are vacant, and the long building at the north end of the block where they were will probably be torn down soon.

You's Dimsum. Little Paris. San Sun. Joy Hing.
Respectively: yummy cheap snackiepoos, Vietnamese sandwiches, oodles of noodles, and superlative hot chicken noodle soup (phở gà).
Plus Vietnamese coffee with ice and condensed milk (cà phê nâu đá) at two of them: Little Paris and Joy Hing.
There will be far less fun on Stockton now that they're gone.


But they have all found new spaces.


得意糕點
YOU'S DIMSUM
Old address: 937 Stockton Street.
New address: 675 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133.
Tel. 415-781-6923

小巴黎咖啡室
LITTLE PARIS COFFEE SHOP
Old address: 939 Stockton Street.
New address: 2305 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA 94122.
Tel. 415-681-7666

三陽咖啡餐屋 [麵飯粥粉]
SAN SUN RESTAURANT
Old address: 941 Stockton Street.
New address: 848 Washington Street, San Francisco, CA 94108.
Tel. 415-296-8228

再興黄毛雞粉
JOY HING B.B.Q. NOODLE HOUSE
Old address: 943 Stockton Street.
New address: 710 Kearney Street, San Francisco, CA 94108.
Tel. 415-981-0531


With the exception of Little Paris, they are within easy walking distance of their previous location. And Joy Hing will be a most welcome addition to my lunch or dinner list, as it is now only a stroll away from work. They plan to re-open on November 14.
I'll let you know if there are any delays.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

LITTLE PARIS COFFEE SHOP ON STOCKTON STREET - VIETNAMESE SANDWICHES & ICE COFFEE

One of the places that's been around since Noah landed the Ark is a hole-in-the-wall on Stockton Street: The Little Paris Coffee Shop.
It has been a favourite haunt of Chinatown school kids, residential hotel dwellers, and local working folks for over a generation now, and people in their twenties and thirties nostalgically stop by when they revisit the old neighborhood.
It is exactly as they remember it, but it also isn't. They remember it better than it ever was.
Often it was their first taste of non-Chinese food, and they fondly recall the Vietnamese sandwiches, noodle-dishes, and sweet shloopy puddings.

[Shloopy puddings: tapioca pearls, bean starch globules, or strange-flavour gelatin squiggles in a cold syrup drink, often with coconut cream added. You can eat it with a spoon, or pour it into a glass of ice-cubes. Pandan, grass jelly, soaked basil seeds. Salt plum, longan, or jackfruit.]


For many, it was also their very first experience of being wired to the gills on real coffee - in most places in Chinatown, the coffee verges on repulsive by noon-time, when the cafeteria style percolators have kept it warm for several hours. It's drinkable if thinned down with plenty of milk, but you won't finish the cup.
Vietnamese coffee, on the other hand, is strong and fresh. You actually have to wait for it, as the boiling water was poured into the little drip device just after you ordered it.
Slow coffee, but it speeds you up.

[Coffee: cà phê (咖啡 ka-fei). Iced coffee: cà phê đá (咖啡冰 ka-fei bing). Coffee with condensed milk and ice-cubes: cà phê sữa đá (咖啡奶冰 ka-fei naai-bing ). Hot milk coffee: cà phê sữa nóng (热咖啡奶 yeet ka-fei naai).
Coffee filtering device: cà phê phin (咖啡濾器 ka-fei lui-hei).]


The Little Paris is a neighborhood place. It has a hometown feel, and the regulars know what they want, and what to expect.
For those who left before adulthood, the memories of this place are forever gilded, and their first time back may be disappointing.
They've had the same stuff elsewhere since then, better too. Though at higher price.
Little Paris does not pretend any superiority, and may seem almost pedestrian.

However, if your expectations are not inflated by imprecise recollection, and you accept it for what it is, you cannot be dissatisfied.
The noodle dishes are excellent, the cold meats are exactly what you wanted, and the sandwiches use real Vietnamese baguettes.
Where else in C'town can you enjoy good cup of cà phê sữa đá, scarf down a fresh sandwich, and surreptitiously listen to aunties quarreling?

[Vietnamese baguettes: bánh mỳ (餅麵). Biscuit bread. The dough is made with a mixture of wheat flour and rice flour, resulting in a lighter bread with a crust that benefits particularly from toasting without the interior becoming too moist or spongy.
That's why it's much better.
The regular Vietnamese sandwich, also called bánh mỳ, or bánh mỳ đặc biệt (餅麵特別) contains sliced pork, either liver paté or head cheese, cilantro, sliced cucumber, and đồ chua (sour stuff: daikon and carrots shredded into diluted tamarind with a little fish sauce, sugar, chili flakes).
Sliced green chilies or red hot sauce may be added to taste. Frequently the inside of the baguette is buttered a bit to add flavour.]


You may remember Little Paris from your childhood, when you hurried there from school to get a warm flaky sandwich and a small container of green dark dark green sweet squiggles in syrup, or to scarf down some rice-skin rolls ('gỏi cuốn', or 'món cuốn', using 'bánh tráng' sheets) with fresh shrimp.
Ten of you sat at a six person table, divvying up the goodies that your limited funds afforded, and it was utterly good!

[Sweet snacks: Bánh bò (glutinous rice flour and coconut milk confection), bánh da lợn (steamed pastry of alternating layers made from tapioca flour, rice flour, and various flavourings), bánh đúc xanh (cooked rice flour paste flavoured with pandan), bánh hấp (steamed glutinous flour pastries), chè chuối (banana & tapioca in coconut milk), etc.]


I remember the place from when I lived a few blocks away, and wanted a treat.
Back in those days, for three dollars including tip, I left filled with coffee, sugar, and meat. Oh boy.
And no Northbeach weirdoes were present to be a nuisance.

It's less than ten blocks from the office. Perfect for Saturday lunch.


BÁNH Mỳ

'Yat go tong yiuk mien-bau, tong mai yat pui Yuet-nam ka-fei, m-koi. Ni do sik.'
一個凍肉麵包, 同埋一杯越南咖啡, 唔該. 呢喥食.
["One 'regular' sandwich ('gelled-meat bread-bun'), one cup Vietnamese coffee, please. Here eating."]

'Yiu m yiu tong, ah?'
要唔要凍, 呀?
["Want-not-want cold?"]

'Yiu tong, m-koi.'
要凍, 唔該.
["Want cold, if you please."]

'Wah, gam lek-ge tong-wah.'
譁, 咁叻嘅唐話.
["Wow, such smart Cantonese."]

That last comment was delivered sotto voce to somebody off-side. It is not uncommon for speakers of Chinese to be surprised when someone who is clearly not related to them is actually able to say a few intelligible words.

[Note: Lek 叻 = 聰明. But also connotations of cool, hip, too clever by half.]

- - - - -

'Ho-m-ho-yi jor, ah?'
可唔可以坐, 呀?
["Can-not-can sit?"]

'Jor, jor.'
坐, 坐.
["Sit, sit"]



All tables were occupied. I sat down at a table with an elderly woman who had ordered a noodle soup dish that contained roast duck, very scrumptious looking. The both of us concentrated on our food and did not talk.

At the table in the back an old codger was being kept company by his daughter or granddaughter while eating noodle soup. He was riotously holding forth.
"Well of course Ah-Fong is sick ('peng-joh lah!'), what did you expect? What did anyone expect? The old devil ('lo sei kwai') is eighty six, that's when you're SUPPOSED to visit the hospital ('yi-yuen') all-time!"
Sluurrrrrrp!
"Him, ah, approximately gone dead already, still all time insists on walking, that sour bitter face very cringe every foot! Can't stand living, too shit-scared to die!"
Sluuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrp!!
"And his wife, ah, old bothersome hag! She can't WAIT till the stinky crow-smell passes life! Hope insurance pays her for years of putting up with his bad temper, rotten air! Greedy eyes, hah!"
Sllllluuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrppp!!!!!!
"Hospital can't stand him either, cure him REAL good, so he never come back!"

With a satisfied clatter of utensils the old man finished eating.
His female relative had not had a bite. Maybe she was treating the old guy.
She got an earful of bad-luck talk for her trouble, poor woman.
The food and conversation cheered him up immensely, though.
He was smiling.


At a table near the door two customers had an exchange with the boss-lady.
"Wah, this coffee NOT good fragrance! Can change?"
"Why? All same, no difference!"
"But it so stink!"
"You not want? Miss, you why order? Big machine!"
"Huh!"

Listen, lady, if you wanted good fragrance coffee, you should've ordered the 热咖啡奶 (yeet ka-fei naai), only fifty cents more, ten thousand times better.
The proprietress cut the customer a fifty cent break off the bill, and the woman was happy.
She drank all of her 'so stink' coffee, too.



小巴黎咖啡室 (SIU BA-LEI KA-FEI SAT)
Little Paris Coffee Shop
939 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Tel : (415) 982 6111


Half a dozen types of Vietnamese sandwiches - regular, chicken, barbecue beef, barbecue pork, smashed meatball, vegetarian - iced coffee, chilled dessert-type drinkies. Hot noodle soups, the usual variety you would expect in a Vietnamese establishment, plus one or two more that will surprise you. Cold noodles, and small eats.
Tables for six along the wall, one table that only seats four in the back.
Fresh uncut short baguettes near the front, plastic cups of electric-coloured slooshy stuff on top of the counter, Vietnamese charcuterie in the chilled vitrines. Croissants, also.
Grab a menu and sit down. The waitress will ask you what you want in a moment.
She speaks Cantonese, English also can.

The place is clean, the service quick.

Sandwiches: $3.00 - $3.50.
Regular ('stink') coffee: $1.50.
Vietnamese drip-coffee: $2.00.

If you really REALLY want just regular stink coffee, you should come before nine o'clock, when the dust motes dance in the morning sunlight slanting in through the front. The machine coffee is fresh then.
But why not have a drip-coffee anyhow?
If it's that early, you'll need to wake-up.
Hot curry noodle soup for breakfast, cà phê sữa đá, and a seat near the front, so that you can watch the traffic on Stockton Street.
Packed buses slowly edging forward, parents walking their children to Gordon J. Lau Grammar School (劉貴明小學 Lau Kwai-ming Siu-hok) on Clay Street just up from Stockton, delivery trucks blocking the street so that merchandise can be unloaded, taxis honking frantically because some very important customer desperately needs to get to the airport or an equally important yuppie needs to get to a clerical job downtown.


Years ago you might have bought a pack of State Express 555 Virginia straights here, to smoke while you waited for your second cup to drip.
Many Việtkiều (越僑) and VietWah (越華) preferred the taste of the tobacco that they grew up with, and there was a lively trade in smokes from Hong Kong and Canada smuggled in.
Every Vietnamese shop sold non-filter Virginias.
One tin of 555 was cheaper than a pack of American cigarettes.
Far, far better quality too.
And you could still smoke indoors.

I haven't seen 555 in a very long time, several years.
But I had a Vietnamese sandwich only hours ago.

Yeah, I like the place.
Been going there for years.
It's somewhere to come back to.


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly: LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

STOCKTON STREET: YOUR OTHER FOOD ENVIRONMENT

Many visitors to San Francisco Chinatown stroll down Grant Avenue, marveling at the strangeness and exoticism of the souvenir stores. Apparently they do not have souvenir stores – or teeshirts with clever slogans – where they come from.
I think they’re from Iowa. I’ve heard there’s nothing worthwhile there.
They may also be from Oakland, however.

Most residents of the greater Chinatown area do not frequent Grant Avenue very much.
Reason being that all the real stores are up on Stockton. Dry goods, bottled and canned ingredients, fresh fruit and vegetables, live seafood, fresh and preserved meats, soup fixings.....



蟲草城海味店 - STOCKTON SEAFOOD CENTER
['chung chou seng hoi mei dim']

The last time I strolled into 蟲草城 ('bug grass city') on Stockton Street, there were no other non-Cantonese people there. Which is extremely odd - there is so much on their shelves and in their bins that the good people of Iowa (or Oakland) might not have seen before. Surely they can use their cellphone cameras to capture the moment for aunt Doris back home in Iowa or Oakland? Nevertheless, every time I go there, not a tourist in sight.
Baruch Hashem.

蟲草城海味店 is located in the Old St. Mary's School building, right on the corner of Stockton and Clay, you cannot miss it. Bins of dried fish of every variety, as well as the full gamut of herbs used in tonic soups and stews.
It bills itself as the 'Stockton Seafood Center, Inc.'. There is NO fresh fish there, but if you want conpoy, or trepang, or ebi, it is absolutely THE place.
You should probably know what you want before you go in, as the staff may find explaining what they stock a little difficult - they have good reason to assume that their customers are already somewhat knowledgeable, and in any case Chinese-conversant.



海鲜世界 - A SIDETRACK FOR THE FASTIDIOUS FLEMING
['hoi sin sai gaai']

Stockton Street is also where you can find fresh eels. If you love Paling Int Groen ("anguilles au vert") as much as I do, you should know this.
In fact, you may have purchased 黄带 several times already.
Alas, fresh sorrel is NOT available on Stockton Street - it isn't a traditional Chinese ingredient - but you can order it from some of the food stores elsewhere in the city. It does not keep for more than a day, so simply chop it up and cook it with a little olive oil till it softens, then freeze it for later use.
For the tarragon, you should probably grow it in a window box. A little bit goes a long way.

Eels, by the way, are also very good with mashed fermented blackbeans. Just add plenty of garlic, and frazzle up the chunks with wine and chopped bellpepper. They will add their own rich gelatin to the sauce.

海鲜世界 is on the West Side of Stockton Street, between Jackson and Pacific, framed by Pacific Seafood Trading Co. and Family Depot. I don't believe it has an English name, hence the creative reading I have given for the characters, which actually should be translated as 'fresh seafood world'.

There is much more there than just eel, they also have a good selection of fresh-caught fish, and different sizes of shrimp, crab, shellfish, lobster.
Live usually costs about twice the price of the recently deceased, varying slightly based on availability.



大發人參海味行 - IVY'S EXQUISITE FOOD COMPANY
['daai faat yan sam hoi mei hong']

This is a primary resource for ingredients used in tonic soups, as well as dried fruits, various luxury ingredients, plus hair vegetable, tofu skin sticks, soy bean sheet, gon taufu, preserved pork strips, lapcheung, dried abalone, etcetera.
The San Francisco Chinatown location has only been open a short time, just up from Stark Alley, between Broadway and Pacific. I believe they have a somewhat longer history in Oakland C'town.
Very attentive staff, fluent in both Cantonese and Mandarin.


NOTE: Next post will be about eating on Stockton Street.



==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================