D is for Dosa...

Date: Monday, October 20, 2008

Udupi Palace

1007 Valencia Street (21st & Valencia)
San Francisco, CA
Udupi Palace Menu (courtesy of Menu Pages.com)

Udupi Palace Yelp Review

As predicted D was a tough one. After spending numerous hours on Yelp and Google searching for an ethnic cuisine in San Francisco that starts with the letter D, patience gave way to desperation, which led to our first mulligan of this A to Z adventure. Quickly, we found out that San Francisco has no Dominican food, no Dhekelia, and no Djibouti (maybe tucked somewhere in a nook in the Tenderloin or something, but seriously we found nothing). We decided to pass on such classics as Dutch and Danish food as these two options were also non-existant in San Francisco and frankly not super interesting (no offense!). After pondering for quite some time on what other "ethnic" oriented dishes begin with the letter D, we settled on the tasty South Indian staple, the infamous Dosa!

Dosa is a South Indian crepe made from rice and skinned black lentils. The rice and lentils are blended with water and fermented overnight to form a pancake-like batter. This batter is then cooked to be super-thin and filled with basically whatever you want (potatoes, spinach, cheese, okra, lamb, lentils, etc...).

Classic Dosa

If there is one thing the Bay Area is not short on it is South Indian restaurants. The most famous in San Francisco is DOSA, which must rank as one of the best Indian restaurants in the city. As tempting as it was to head on out to DOSA and deal with the hour plus wait, we decided to go for value and instead check out the cheaper clone across the street, Udupi Palace. Udupi Palace is one of San Francisco's best kept secrets and one of the Mission's newest restaurants (it opened in Summer 2008). The restaurant is frequented by those who a) get frustrated with DOSA's wait, b) are looking for South Indian grub for under $15 per person, or c) looking for authentic South Indian food with none of the frills and fluff. With affirmation that Udupi Palace would be a great choice, we booked a flight from Cambodia to South India and off we were to our next A to Z stop.

Map of India - Udupi is located at mid-point between Panaji & Cochin

Udupi Palace gets its name from the well known city of Udupi in the southwestern coast of India. The cuisine of Udupi is actually known to adhere strictly to an ancient Indian vegeterian tradition of cooking that actually involves no onions or garlic and obviously excludes meats, fish, or shellfish. The cuisine is comprised of meals cooked with grains, beans, vegetables, and fruits. The dosa (our dinner club theme for the evening!) originated in Udupi and as you well know is a staple food in South Indian cooking.

Entrance to Udupi Krishna Temple - Famous Hindu Temple in Udupi

Udupi Palace was a riot. Although the restaurant does not typically take reservations, they made an exception for our group. As we walk in to see if our table was ready, our first thought of the place was how the hell are they going to accommodate 12 people here. The tables were all crowded, the restaurant was relatively small, all tables were occupied by distinct groups of two to three people, and on top of that more than 70% of the tables were unserved when we got there. Unless all stars align, there was no way they would time the turnover to guarantee we'd be seated in 5 minutes (best case scenario seemed like 40 minutes). Worried about how long we'd be starving outside, I calmly walked in and noted our arrival to one of the head servers, who noticed the dumbfounded look on my face that screamed "so 12 people are going to fit where?" The server offered a warm smile, wiped the sweat off his forehead from his recent trek to the kitchen, and asked if our whole party was here. I told him we were still waiting on a few more people and he said no problem as I made my way back outside.

As we waited outside for about 10 minutes, the fog slowly started to seep into the Mission. Taking that as a sign, I headed back inside to check on the status. Inside, I noticed a delicate jenga like balancing act by the waiters that involved shifting seats and tables as guests finished their meals. The process was surprisingly quick as I started to see our long table take shape. With our table close to being set (we were waiting for a group of four to finish eating), I asked if we could sit down and like that our group slowly flooded the restaurant. Our group of 12 was in a position to occupy close to a quarter of the real estate (ok, maybe an exaggeration, but it was impressive that they were able to find room for us all!).

Using lessons learned from prior dinner clubs, we knew, especially given how busy it was that night, that we needed to be aggressive with ordering the appetizers. In rapid fire motion, we ordered a few Samosa Chaats (a delicious juicy samosa bathed in chana masala, yogurt, condiments, and chutney), some traditional Samosas, as well as some kind of lentil and yogurt based appetizer. Within a few minutes of ordering, the appetizers were out on our tables. The turnaround at Udupi was pretty phenomenal (getting the check at the end of the night on the other hand was a different story).

Samosa Chaat (image courtesy of this website)

For entrees, we decided to choose four dishes x 2 for each side of the table. With so many good Dosa options to choose from, it was a tough decision, but at the end of the day we ended up ordering: the Mysore Masala Dosa (spiced crepe with potatoes smeared with spicy chutney), a Spinach Masala Dosa, Udupi Special Spring Dosa (Dosa stuffed with fresh vegetables), and an Onion Masala Dosa. Each of the Dosa plates were served with a trio of sauces with Christmas-like colors of red, green, and white. The red sauce was a spicy sambhar sauce (a sweet, tart, and sour sauce with Tamarind juice, mashed lentils, and a small amount of chili heat. A few sites online called this sauce South India's "lentil gravy"). The white sauce was a coconut chutney that was remarkably sweet (a good compliment to the spicy sambhar). The third sauce, the green sauce, (still a big question mark) must have been some kind of cilantro and mint based yogurt dipping sauce. Each of the sauces were fairly rich in taste and all around pretty damn good.

Trio of South Indian Dipping Sauces at Udupi Palace

Although some called "D" for Dosa a stretch, the restaurant was well received and a hit among the group. Definitely a place I'd go back to again. Much like the other restaurants we've been to this one was pretty cheap too. With drinks, appetizers, and a large number of entrees, the bill per person came out to just under $18. Next up on the A to Z train is Ethiopian cuisine. After spending some time in the Middle East and then Southeast Asia looks like we're finally breaking free and headed towards Africa. Where to for good Ethiopian food? Stay tuned....

C is for Cambodian

Date: Monday, October 6, 2008

Angkor Borei

3471 Mission St (30th St. & Cortland Ave.)
San Francisco
http://www.cambodiankitchen.com/index.html

Two letters down and now only twenty four to go! For C, our journey has led us on a 773 mile trek (essentially a round trip drive from San Francisco to LA) through thick jungle and rainforest to one of Burma's neighbors, Cambodia. Like Burma, Cambodia is centrally located in Southeast Asia, bordering Thailand to the west, Laos to the northeast, and Vietman to the east. The country is large, but relatively small when compared to Burma, which has a population 4x the size of Cambodia (Cambodia has around 15 million people).

Cambodian culture and cuisine (also referred to as Khmer cuisine) was influenced dramatically by the largest neighbor in the region, India. Indian art, culture, and language first made an appearance in Cambodia during the 1st century A.D. For many years, Cambodia's strategic location near the Pacific and the Gulf of Thailand made it an important pitstop for Pacific trading between India and China and as a result Cambodia absorbed a lot from its neighbors. Cambodian culture took in not only Indian influences (tumeric and ginger), but also those of China (stir fries, rice noodles, soy sauces), Thailand (galangal roots, kaffir limes, curries, fish sauces), and influences from other neighboring countries such as Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Similar to Thai cuisine, Cambodian meals are comprised of four basic elements: sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. What's interesting though is that unlike Thai cuisine, an element that's visibly missing in Cambodian food is the "heat" (you know that crazy spicyness that leaves your lips burning, your eyes boiling, your cheeks red, and your forehead sweating up a fiery storm). The heat/chili part is usually something that's served on the side during meal time vs. something that's infused in the dish. This is why you usually don't see spicy dish warnings (you know that spicy chili pepper symbol next to the food item on the menu) at Cambodian eateries. There are always exceptions, of course!

Angkor Mat (photo courtesy of this site)

Now to the restaurant. Unlike Burma Superstar, Angkor Borei did take reservations and there was no waitlist. In fact, the restaurant was the complete reverse of what we experienced at Burma Superstar, where the venue was loud, trendy, and somewhat frenzied. This restaurant was pretty low key (granted it was a Monday night) and contrary to Burma Superstar our expectations were not very high. The food though turned out to be pretty damn good. Angkor Borei is located in Bernal Heights (really more like the outskirts of the Mission) and derives its name from the golden age of Cambodian history (the Angkor period between the 9th and 14th centuries), where Cambodia was a prosperous and powerful empire that dominated much of inland Southeast Asia. Angkor is also the conventional name for the region that held the seat for the Khmer rulers during this time period. At one point Angkor housed over 100 majestic temples (the most famous is the temple of Angkor Wat - considered to be the world's largest single religious monument). Today, much of the great capital lies in ruins from ravenous wars of the past. Much of Angkor now remains hidden beneath rain forest canopies and the Cambodian landscape. Interesting note: Recently (in 2007), researchers declared Angkor to be the largest pre-industrial city in the world (the Mayan city of Tikal is now considered the second largest).

Fresh Spinach Leaves

Cambodian Crepe

Let's talk food. The food at the restaurant was actually quite yummy. After much deliberation, we finally settled on our appetizers. The dishes we ordered to start included a beef salad (pretty decent, but needed to be a little bit spicier. This dish included spearmint, bean sprouts, cucumber, scallions, peppers, carrots, and lime juice), squid salad (not for the squeemish, but highly praised and offered a great blend of spices), fresh spinach leaves (a simple, tasty, finger food dish. It's served on a large plate with spinach leaves at the center and small serving bowls around it. Each bowl is filled with a unique ingrediant including ginger, peanuts, lime wedges, red onion, chili, dried shrimp, toasted cocunut, and a special Angkor Borei dipping sauce. You essentially make a small, healthy taco out of it), and crispy cambodian crepes (filled with tofu and served with ground peanuts and a lemon-garlic sauce).

Ahmonk

Now the entrees. Our indecisiveness led to a lot of waiter based recommendations, but combined with the few dishes we wanted to order, we had an arsenal of delectable plates meticulously chosen to satisfy our varied palates. Our choices for the night were: Pineapple Fried Rice (this dish by far wins the top prize for showiest presentation. The rice goodies were stuffed inside a whole pineapple shell!), Clay Pot Mock Duck (vegeterian dish simmered with a lot of veggies and spices), Clay Pot Shrimp (shrimp dish with lemongrass, sweet basil, shallots, and a spicy garlic-lime sauce. The sauce here is key. Without it the shrimp were honestly pretty bland), Ahmonk (mild red curry fish mousse wrapped in a banana leaf basket), Spicy Green Tofu Curry (a very traditional curry dish, although it lacked the heat commonly found in comparable Thai dishes), and Pumpkin Curry (we ordered a tofu and chicken version. This dish was beautifully served atop an edible pumpkin half. Very creamy and rich in taste, similar to what we had ordered at the Afghan restaurant). The most popular dish of the night had to be the pumpkin curry as it left everyone in the group giddy with satisfied and stuffed smiles.

Pumpkin Curry

Cambodian food proved to be another successful A to Z choice. Angkor Borei was really a nice find with friendly service and overall decent dishes. The big plus is that the food was very cheap! For the quantity of food we had ordered, we were pleasantly surprised by the bill, where the cost per person came in under $20! Anyways, off we go to the next stop on our A to Z train. D is a tough one and in this case should stand for "dearth", as in a dearth of options. Obvious choices are Dominican, Danish, Dutch, Dhekelia, and Djibouti. Hmmmmm...... Seems like the group may need to get creative with this one. Stay tuned.