San Francisco restaurant news and notes [SFBA] 2017

41st/ Taraval- Andytown Roastery, Training Lab, & Coffee Supply.

Silician pizzeria- Pink Onion, next to Rainbow.

Also Media Noche, Cuban at 19th and Valencia. By Madelyn Markoe (from Tacolicious)

Enjoy Vegetarian, the well-regarded Chinese vegetarian restauarant at 839 Kearny St. in Chinatown, has been split in two – literally. Half of the storefront (with a new 2nd door) is now occupied by cutesy boba joint E Tea, whose flagship store is on Geary. It seems to be a franchise arrangement, since Enjoy Vegetarian is listed as the owner of the branch. (Either that, or they bought the business).

Enjoy Vegetarian
E Tea

A branch of Vancouver’s Asian fusion Bao Down “gastrobar” is now open in the Vintage Court Hotel on Bush St., according to Yelpers. Nice looking food, if you want to bow down to $15 baos and $16 kimchi fries.

At the other end of the spectrum, there’s a new Russian (or Ukrainian) stall in the International Food Court serving piroshkis, pelmeni, and soups.

$15 bao or $3.50 piroshki, it’s up to you.

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Did I just miss the hyperinflation memo? $15 for a fried chicken bao?

This dude is holding $120 worth of baos and he probably needs all of them to fill up. Why not just go have a proper tablecloth meal?

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Thai style rolled ice cream, Let’s Roll Ice Creamery is rolling into inner Sunset in a couple of weeks. More on the rolled SE Asian ice cream craze:

New Ukrainian option at the International Food Court on Kearny: Pushkin

Vareniki/pelmeni (dumpling), piroshki (stuffed bun) and boscht.

https://www.pushkinsf.com/

Interesting.

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Just stumbled across this Sina list from last fall of recommended Bay Area Chinese noodle restaurants. It’s in Chinese, and I hope your browser’s translation is better than mine – still trying to figure out the connection between Gourmet Noodle House and Alaskan sled dogs.

Interesting that they picked Yin Du on Pacific Avenue for wonton noodles over established Chinatown heavies like ABC and Hon’s.

How is Sina’s reputation when it comes to blog posts like these? Some publications write ‘articles’ that are pretty much paid adverts.

I don’t think I am the person to ask about that, since I don’t read Chinese.

I thought the picks were pretty good, and i’m motivated to try Yin Du on account of the company Sina has them keeping.

They lifted at least these two pics from Yelp for the article though. Wonder what Stoppelman has to say about that.

Ultimate Bowl

Fantastic!

I’ve done that myself, for my blog. (But I always give Yelp credit.)

But you aren’t a public company…

I’ve tried QQ. You’ve been to the Shanghai Noodle Place. They are pretty good. The Teochew pick is pretty weird. Yin Du uses green onion instead of chives for the wonton noodles. The noodles and the wonton look pretty decent in the yelp pics. If you do try, please let us know how you like it. Like you, I am curious how they compare to the other wonton houses in Chinatown.

I’m no wonton noodle expert, but I do love to eat it. What’s the issue between Chinese chives and green onion. Tradition? Flavor? DOC-like rules? I’m not being cheeky. I’m just wondering.

Traditionally, chives are used. The traditional wonton noodle houses in Hong Kong use chives. These days, I believe some shops use green onions as a cost cutting measure.

As for taste, green onion is more mellow in taste vs chives. I am ok with both though slightly prefer chives.

If a shop uses chives, however, it may signal a larger dedication to tradition in other areas of the prep, like they may make the broth with tile fish that results in a more intense dried seafood aroma in the broth. But of course, there are shops that make broth with tile fish that use green onion.

I think he was referring to regular chives, not Chinese chives (a.k.a. garlic chives).

You are right, the pics look good, particularly the duck wonton noodles.

One more- Steep Creamery in SOMA is also doing rolled icecream.

Per Yelp, Noe Valley Bakery has opened a branch in West Portal; Big Big Pan (Korean soju joint) has replaced Osaka Imai on Noreiga (same owner).