Gary Soup

I follow what you are saying, but didn't I get the "Cantonese" part. They use egg noodles in the north (wonton is of northern origin) though admittedly not for chao mian or tang mian. The fresh soup noodles we buy in Chinatown SF (90 percent Cantonese clientele) are eggless, as far as I can tell. They typically come in three grades, "regular", "Shanghai" and "Hong Kong", but the only difference appears to be in thickness. Now that I think about it, maybe the egg compensates for the softness of the wheat flour. (I'm no cook, as you can tell!) A harder wheat is typically used in the U.S. for commercial Chinese style noodles. My wife prefers them to the noodles she was used to in Shanghai, as they stand up better to boiling. (She avoids the thick Shanghai noodles, however, because she finds it difficult to get the right degree of "doneness" in chao mian.) It probably makes sense to go for a softer flour if you are making egg noodles and want to get the same texture and flavor as you would in south China.

Potassium carbonate solution is sometimes used in Chinese cooking in place of baking soda (I stumbled across that while researching xiaolong bao wrappers). I'm not sure what the poster means by Cantonese mian either, except that they tend to be thinner than the northern varieties.

PS: Tell him to leave room for the Gordon Biersch Garlic Fries at the Park, or he'll be sorry (they have a commanding presence).

21st Amendment is a brewpub with, ta-da, CUISINE. Its' a short walk from Pac Bell park. And if HWOE likes the beer, he can continue drinking it at the Park (they have it on tap). Personally tested, personally approved. Trust me, I wouldn't jive a baseball fan who likes good food. But he'd better be rooting for the home team! 21st Amendment

Wednesday Lunch: FW is a wasteland for good dining, unfortunately. I agree with McCormick & Kuleto as one of the best options; it gets as much a local trade as a tourist trade. There's an In-N-Out Burger at the wharf if you don't have them up there and are curious about it. (I've never been to one). Eagle Cafe at Pier 39 is steeped in history, and offers decent American chow at a bargain proce. Friday Lunch: Tong Kiang, or better Chinatown, over Yank Sing. Yank Sing's dim sum is "interpreted" somewhat for the Western palate and very pricey. If you want to do Chinatown, I'd recommend Gold Mountain (on Broadway) or my current fave, Y. Ben House on Pacific. At Ton Kiang, or at the Chinatown places, you'd be getting more of the real dim sum experience; at Yank Sing on a Friday, you'd be part of a largely non-Asian business lunch crowd. Saturday Lunch: La Taqueria is a good bet at lunch time. El Farolito and the other burrito places generally specialize in "San Francisco style" burritos (LOL) which are really dinner-sized, bulked up with a lot of rice and beans. They're good, but more than I, at least, like to eat for lunch, and you probably don't want to be burdened with doggy bags when you're traveling. La Taqueria's burritos dispense with the padding. Saturday Pre-flight: Millbrae, next to the airport, has some lauded Chinese restaurants, if you didn't get enough Chinese food. The airport itself has some restaurants with pretensions to "cuisine". Millbrae and the airport are not my stomping grounds, so you may need to do your own further research, or hope that someone else chimes in.

1) If you mean a real San Francisco burrito, any of the place mentioned EXCEPT La Taqueria. No slam against La Taqueria, just that it's more Southern California/Mexican than the three-pound siesta-inducing puppies (bloated with rice and beans) we go for here in SF. 2) This kind of place is not in my budget (so sayeth the wife) but most of the votes seem to fall into the Gary Danko column for value, boldness and service, in my voyeuristic observations. 3) Do you mean joint as in JOINT? Gold Spike and Capp's Corner have all the cigarette smoke and celebrity photo patina, but are basically Italian-American bust-your-gut style. Rising with a bullet seems to be Osteria del Forno for quality and value, but it hasn't achieved "joint" status. 4) Maybe Harbor Village. Yank Sing has a lot of fans, but has a not strictly traditional "updated approach." For the full-on dim sum experience, with all the din and bustle, you might want to try Gold Mountain in Chinatown (or Y. Ben house, my favorite, but not quite as approachable). 5) Beats me.

Well, I can tell you are LA people by the 40% sunglass population. But which one is Tissue? I'm hopeful of finally checking out the xiaolong bao at a DTF when I get back to Shanghai in October (what was that about "coals to Newcastle"?) and then I'll know how envious to be of youse guys. BTW, is there a Jerome in that lineup?

And brown eyes? (Just guessing.)

Don't thank me, thank The Great Teacher (Google).

Oops, I mistakenly responded to an older post (see immediately above). I think the same linked information might be useful to you. Note that for salty eggs (simple method) it says to SEAL the container.

Here's just about all you need to know about preserved eggs (pidan): Egg Preservation in China Note the statement "The eggs are eaten without cooking". (This is from a scientist). The only ways of using preserved eggs (a.k.a. "1000 year old eggs") I know of are as a topping for zhou (congee) or cutting in quarters or eighths lengthwise and served as an appetizer for eating from hand (or chopsticks). The stuff about "horse urine" is an old canard, IMHO.

I guess I should have read the Daily Gullet article before my pedantic display. I get my tea neither by land nor by sea but by air (from sencha.com, a great source for both Chinese and Japanese green teas). What shouild I call tea?

To add to this esoteric subject, the word "tea" is said to come from the way "cha" is spoken in the dialect of China's Fujian province (origin of most good oolong teas). In Shanghainese dialect, "cha" is pronounced "zo" with a falling and rising tone (3rd tone).

Yeah they drink a lot of XO, Chivas, or Johnny... Beer is quite commonly drunk nowadays at restaurant meals in Shanghai (at least at MY table).

Good summary. Here is another good rundown from a semi-"official" mainland site: Chinese Imperial Cuisines It also gives some history of the cuisines. Elsewhere on the site there's a tutorial with recipes (click on the button at the bottom right-hand side of the page).

Rampant dyslexia here? Or am I the only one who thinks Sugar Toad is asking about making rice wine, not wine rice?

Do we have to go through this AGAIN? Suffice it to say that the richest source of free glutamate in nature is mother's milk (you can look it up). I guess that's an argument for bottle-feeding, huh?

Come to San Francisco, specifically North Beach. We're the only part of town with no Starbucks, simply because we displayed a little ATTITUDE about coffee at a couple of public hearings the chain had to go through. The Planning Commission wasn't cowed, but $tarbuck$ got cold feet. I refuse to drink espresso that's made by a machine that weighs less than I do

Some of us in Norte Califas envy you guys for having a Din Tai Fung down there. DTF's xiaolong bao are said to be the equal of some of Shanghai's best, and that's saying a lot. Here's a pic of some very tasty-looking xiaolong bao at DTF in Taipei. Come back with a report on them, please.

For dim sum, I personally like Y. Ben House on Pacific Ave. above Stockton St. Their shrimp dumpling (I assume you mean "har gow") is the equal of Ton Kiang's, and cheaper. They seem to do anything with seafood well. If you're with a companion or two, add the seafood chow fun as an "anchor" dish. It's heavenly, and you'll still be able to keep the tab under $10 pp easily.

Like this one? The recipe is HERE, if you want to try it at home!

We're definitely "innies". It helps that my wife is a good and efficient cook of (mostly Shanghainese) Chinese food AND is very frugal. I manage to drag her and the kid out for lunch every week or two, and for dinner on special occasions, but I have to be prepared with the correct answer when she asks me if the restaurant's food is better than her own cooking. When we're in Shanghai, it's another matter. Between our local eatery, where we can have a great dinner for 3 (including a tall bottle of beer for me) for $4-5 US, and her relatives who want to spare us that great expense by cooking dinner for us, there's mercifully no need for her to cook.

You guys are getting WAY off topic, I'd say, but what the heck. My daughter spent a lot of growing-up years in the neighborhood you're discussing, first on Thomas Ave. and later on Pleasant Valley Court. She spent her pennies at the Star Market for candy, but not produce. Those were the days when the Shrine of Good Food was around Cedar & Hopkins in Beserkeley, particularly the Monterey Market and Westbrae Foods. (Of course any trip to them was ancillary to shopping at the Co-op at Shattuck & Vine.

My wife, her sister and her mother (all fairly recent immigrants from Shanghai) make something like you mentioned, called "pao fan". It's really just leftover rice that's been boiled a short time in a little water, and often she will only put pickled vegetables in it. It's quick and easy, and also a useful prop for her melodramatics: when she's feeling put out, or sorry for herself, it'll be "Me? I'll just eat pao fan," even at dinner time. She will, however, make a more conventional zhou, especially if she has some pidan handy to put in it. When going out for breakfast, or picking it up from the local food stall, I think Shanghainese tend to prefer savory dou jiang, invariably with you tiao. It's nothing against Shanghainese home cooking, it's just that they really don't do breakfasts. My wife is an excellent cook, as is her mother.

Good choices. I would add Bistro Clovis, for good and affordable French cuisine. For REALLY affordable Thai, Lalita Distinctive Thai on McAllister @ Leavenworth, a much shorter walk.