F is for Filipino

Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008


Tselogs Tapas Cafe
6055 Mission Street
Daly City, CA 94014
http://www.tselogs.com/Tselogs/Home.html

Filipino cuisine was an interesting one. It was our first real trek outside the city into one of the more scenic neighborhoods in Daly City - you know the pretty dead at 8pm "not-sure if my car will be there when I leave the restaurant" kinda blocks. Before we talk about the restaurant and the food let's learn a little bit more about the Philippines and Filipino cuisine. The Philippines is the world's 12th largest country with a population of over 91 million people spread throughout the country's more than 7,100 islands. The cuisine of the Philippines is fairly standard Southeast Asian grub with a little Spanish flair. Spain ruled the Philippines all throughout the colonial period pretty much from Ferdinand Magellan's arrival in 1521 to the end of Spanish rule in 1898. The Spaniards' influence to the Philippines extended beyond the introduction of exotic spices and artifacts, the Spanish language, and Christianity. Spanish rule brought with it tomatoes, garlic, chili peppers, modern oil/onion sauteing techniques, marinading techniques like adobe, as well as Spanish staple foods such as Paellas and flan. Although historians agree that more than 75% of Filipino cuisine came from Spain, other cultures, like Arab, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and even American, had their influence on Filipino culture and food.


Filipino cuisine might as well be a synonym for Pork. I'm not exactly sure how many pigs were slaughtered for the benefit of feeding our party that night, but everything from the egg rolls to the seafood noodles had pork in it. For non-pork eaters, the options were definitely thin at the restaurant, but there were a few things to choose from which we'll discuss later on.

Filipino cuisine = homage to pork

If you look at the menu at Tselogs, you'll notice a common theme. Every dish ends with the suffix "silog". Now what in the heck is silog you might ask. Well silog comes from the combination of two words "sinangag", which I guess is Filipino for fried rice and "itlog" which is the word for fried egg. When these two foods are combined into one meal, it becomes kosher to call it a "silog". The word you add before "silog" is essentially the main component of the dish you're eating. Spamsilog, for instance, is spam, fried rice, and eggs, while Bacsilog is short for bacon, fried rice, and eggs. Silogs are apparently very popular during breakfast time, which is why Tselogs is a trendy breakfast spot. Although the food served at Tselog's is breakfast oriented and the restaurant name has "tapas" in it, don't be fooled. The food is extremely hearty (think Filipino style comfort food) and the portion sizes by no means resemble tapas - the portions were ginormous.

As we sat down and were handed the cheap xeroxed menus, a number of us were disappointed that various items from Tselogs' catering menu did not work their way into the "tapas" menu. Yes, there were a few of us (only a few of us) avidly looking forward to tasting "Dinuguan" (which to me sounds like Dinosaur dung). Dinuguan, as eloquently described by Wikipedia, is a "Filipino savory stew of blood and meat simmered in a rich, spicy gravy of pig blood, garlic, chili, and vinegar." As Rachel Ray would say "delish" or my favorite "yum-o". Unfortunately, we weren't graced with this dish that evening. Another disappointment was that Tselogs was out of the delectable gelatinous canned meat, Spam! Spam is apparentely a big part of the Filipino breakfast experience.

Yum, visit the Spam website

To kickoff our dinner, we started with appetizers, which included "lumpiang shanghai" (filipino eggrolls). As a non-pork eater, I did not sample the eggrolls, but they looked pretty standard and people seemed to think that they were ok. Next up was soup, which I believe was one of their specials for the night. What kind of soup you ask? Bone-in savory pork soup of course. The soup looked pretty standard (I must admit I was skeptical when I heard people had actually ordered this) but those who sampled it thought it was ok. The only complaints I heard were that there was more bone than pork in the soup and that the meat was fattier than it needed to be. So far so good in my book though as we're two dishes into our dinner with no fatalities or stomach churning runs to the bathroom.

Palabok (Filipino noodles)

Next up were entrees or as we jokingly called it "the logs". Per the waitresses' recommendation, we ordered our dishes ala carte instead of ordering the silogs with the rice & egg compliment. The ala carte logs were pretty cheap (about $5 per dish) so we decided to order a variety of dishes to sample (we later found out that the amount of food we ordered could probably feed a small village in the Philippines). As we sifted through the 10 or so logs on the menu, we noticed that close to all had some kind of pork in it. Even one of their shrimp and noodle silogs had Chinese sausage (a.k.a. pig) in it. The non-pork eaters at the table ordered the sisigsilog (chicken sisag), bangsilog (fried milk fish), a few orders of the garlic fried rice (burnt garlic bits at the top looked like bacon bits), and the palabok (Filipino noodles) kicked up a notch with extra vegetables. If you thought the non-pork eaters were screwed, this is definitely not a restaurant I'd recommend for vegetarians. One of our brave vegetarian dinner club member had to settle for either the garlic fried rice or the noodles. Other dishes ordered that evening included the shrimp silog mentioned earlier and the embutidosilog (Filipino meatloaf).

Embutidosilog (mystery Filipino meatloaf)

Out of all of the dishes we ordered, the best dish of the night was by far the chicken sisag. Chicken sisag is essentially minced chicken fried and sauteed in garlic, onion, soy sauce, and lemon served atop a sizzling hot plate (the meat was in fact sizzling, kinda like the fancy steak fajitas you get at a Mexican restaurant). Chicken sisag is definitely something we'd order again and would recommend it highly to anyone who comes here or to any other Filipino restaurant. The vegetarian noodles had to be second on the good stuff list for the night. The noodles were decently flavored, spiced, and salted. There wasn't really anything special about the noodles (no fancy secret sauce, etc... ). The noodles were good enough that the table went through the entire plate we ordered. We unfortunately can't say the same for a few of the other dishes.

Chicken Sisag

The rest of the dishes we ordered that evening were well, "interesting". The shrimpsilog (or whatever it was called) was shrimp and Chinese sausage tossed in noodles served with one of the most fluorescent, neon yellow sauces I've ever seen. If the lights went out at Tselogs, I swear we would have been ok with this dish as our light source. Aside from the strange color, the dish was "goopy" for lack of a better term. For the longest time, we thought one of the main ingredients in this dish was raw egg yolks, but the waitress had insisted that eggs had no business in the dish. To this day, the bright yellow sauce remains a mystery (i don't think we want to know what was in there). One brave soul ended up taking the dish home as "leftovers", but only because he felt bad that the table managed only a few bites of the dish. He felt empathy for the waitress who clearly looked disappointed. It did not help that we had answered her question on whether we wanted anything boxed with the response, "yes, everything but that one".

Shrimpsilog and its bright yellow mystery sauce

Next on the strange food category was the mystery meatloaf (embutidosilog). The meatloaf looked like holiday cake with its multi-colored stuffing - imagine eating raisin bread where the raisons were each a different color. I don't think too many people gobbled this one down (I certaintly didn't as this was one of the pork dishes). Most of us were wondering whether these colored raisons were fruit, jellybeans, or M&Ms. Nothing screams appetizing like pale-colored mystery meat with Christmas lights for filler. The last dish we had that night was the fried whole fish (bangsilog). Nothing really special or unique about this one. The fish was edible, but most of us thought the fish was dry, meatless, and a little fishy in both smell and taste.

Bansilog (appetizing photo, ehh?)

All in all, Tselogs was a big disappointment and our worst dinner club experience to date. The chicken sisag is really what saved the dinner that night. Who knows maybe it was an off night, the main chef was out sick, or maybe Tselogs is just a better place for breakfast. We've heard Filipino food is good, but we didn't get it that night for sure. A lot of people do rave that Tselogs is the best restaurant for Filipino food in the city. There have been countless positive reviews online, including some on Yelp. There has even been a Filipino cuisine focused show that highlights Filipino cuisine and uses Tselogs' as an example (see Youtube video here - the lady in the video describing the food was actually our waitress that night). Anyways, our journey from Ethiopia to Filipino may have ended in tragedy, but we're hoping our stay in Germany for "G" will be better. Until next time.

E is for Ethiopian...

Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008


New Eritrea Restaurant & Bar
907 Irving Street (between 10th & 11th ave)
San Francisco, CA (Inner Sunset)
Yelp Review
Menu (courtesy of MenuPages.com)

E was a welcoming letter choice. Unlike D, which was a tough one for us, E for Ethiopian came as a recommendation from one of our regular A to Z patrons during our C for Cambodia dinner. Having never really tried Ethiopian food myself, the choice was a no-brainer. With Ethiopian food as our choice, we embarked on to a region that's more than 4,000 miles from our D for Dosa adventure in India.

Regional Map

I've always equated Ethiopia with the pseudo funny South Park episode highlighting an Ethiopian child called "Starvin Marvin" and mocking Sally Struthers for her famous Christian Children's Fund Feed the Children role (80s YouTube Feed the Child Video here). As far as the food was concerned, I had no idea what to expect, but was definitely pleasantly surprised by the results. Ethiopian food is spicy but not burn your tongue spicy and a lot of the food, for lack of a better word, was mushy (i.e. nothing in our meal was really crunchy and this is predominantly due to Ethiopian's long stewing techniques). For the adventurous, Ethiopian food does have some unexpected dishes out of "left field" like their version of beef tartare (the Kitfo raw ground beef dish). All in all, Ethiopian food was surprisingly good and addictive - by the end of the meal you are disgustingly full.

Ethiopian Flag

Ethiopia is a landlocked country that sits at the Horn of Africa in the northeast region of the continent, a stones throw away from Saudi Arabia. The country is located in a precarious position adjacent to hostile African countries and downright frightening heavily armed seperatist factions that have been responsible for hundreds of thousands of genocidal killings over the last decade. Originally called Abysinnia, Ethiopia is Africa's oldest state and home to some of the earliest ancestral fossils, fossils that date back 5 million years. Believe it or not Ethiopia is the second most populous nation in Africa. Despite its size, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries on Earth and is notorious for famines and droughts, most notably the devastating famine of the mid 80s, where more than 1 million people died. The famine in the 80s generated international media attention that led to the Sally Struthers commercials and phone-a-thons noted earlier. Ethiopia unfortunately has never fully recovered from the crisis and is in the midst of another famine (currently, anywhere from 10-15% of the population is in need of aid). Rising food prices, the global economic crisis, and a terrible crop season in both 2007 & 2008 have all been factors that have led to the nasty situation in Ethiopia (a few articles on the crisis: USA Today, CS Monitor, and YouTube News Video).

Injera (photo courtesy of sacatomato.com)

Ethiopian cuisine is unique. It is the epitomy of family style cuisine where utensils are absent from meals and all entrees are placed onto one massive plate (I was bummed we weren't eating on the floor, but maybe at M for Morroco we'll have better luck). At the restaurant we ended up ordering more than 8 different dishes and each one ended up on a large pizza-pan-like platter with all of the food sitting atop Ethiopia's own "wonderbread", the injera. The injera (which is also served on the side like Nan at Indian restaurants) is Ethiopia's utensil (well not officially). You essentially use it to scoop your way through the mushy entrees. Injera bread is extremely filling with a subtle sour taste and the look and texture of a sponge. Injera is essentially a pancake-like sourdough bread made out of fermented teff flour. Teff is a species of lovegrass native to Ethiopia and is an important food grain in the country. The teff seeds are tiny (smaller than Quinoa seeds). You would think that something native to a country that's more than 8,900 miles from San Francisco would be expensive, but thanks to the great state of Idaho, the USA now raises its own seeds meaning costs have been kept down and teff is relatively inexpensive. Although the process of making injera bread can be challenging, here's a blog (courtesy of the Mestawot website) that includes an injera recipe for us all to try.

Teff Grain (courtesy of whole life nutrition blog site)

Prior to ordering the main dishes, we had some Sambusas (or Sambusac) to hold us over (I think we actually had these at the A for Afghan outing). Sambusas are essentially a variation of Samosas or Empanadas and are popular in Southwest Asia, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa. The vegeterian Sambusas we had were filled with lentils and were very tasty.

New Eritrea Restaurant Platter

A main component of Ethiopian meals are stews, referred to in Ethiopia and the region as "Wats". Wats usually begin with chopped red onions cooked until softened, then mixed with spices, vegetables, legumes, and/or meats, such as fish, chicken, goat, lamb, and beef (pork is not served at Ethiopian restaurants due to the Muslim and Ordodox Jewish makeup of the population). Stew options were aplenty at New Eritrea. For simplicity sake, the group defaulted to the veggie combo platter, which included three to four different stews: lentil beans (Tumtumo), okra, collared greens, and a potato and bell pepper stew. In addition to the veggie platter, we ordered some meat dishes: lamb dish in curry sauce, carrots, and potatoes (Allicha Bagee), a chicken dish (believe it was the Kilwa Borho), and the infamous Kitfo. For the Kitfo, we were asked if we wanted it raw (seriously?) or rare (likely an "Americanized version"). Kitfo is a traditional Ethiopian cuisine, which consists of raw ground beef marinated in mitmita (a spicy chili powder) and niter kibbeh (a seasoned clarified butter). The spices really hide the raw, reddish beef color (you can be fooled into thinking it is cooked through). At the restaurant, the dish was served in a small bowl tucked at the corner of the large serving platter. At first glance, the dish looked like it had been cooked and I forgot we ordered it "rare" (ok, yes I admit we were wimps for not ordering it raw), but as soon as you bite through the chewy, mushy texture you know there's something funky going on here (quote from an AtoZ patron: "the texture was a little disturbing"). Surpringly, the inner anamilistic side in me enjoyed this dish (I can't speak for everyone though). Admittedly, after eating half the bowl and both feeling that gooey rawness drip down your chin and that raw cow texture coat your esophogas, you can only help but pause and ponder whether this is even sanitary. The dish tasted ok though so I wrote off any concerns and kept chowing down. With no toilet hugging / stomach pumping episodes that night or the next morning, I call the Kitfo a success, although I don't think I'd order this dish again as I only found it to be ok.

Starvin Marvin (photo courtesy of this site)

All in all, New Eritrea in the Inner Richmond was a good find. The food was decent, pretty consistent, and cheap (would not consider this one of the top A to Z spots we've been to, but would definitely come back here again if I'm craving Ethiopian food). If you're ever in the mood for having a massive Kitfo binging party New Eritrea is great for large groups (we sat in a seperate section in the back). Next up on the list is Filipino food. From what I can tell there are some borderline sketchy places scattered around San Francisco, so we'll see. Let's hope F will be as good as E. Stay tuned. Aman (Ethiopian for Goodbye).

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.

B is for Burmese...

Tuesday, September 24, 2008


Burma Superstar
309 Clement St. (between 5th & 6th Ave.)
San Francisco
http://www.burmasuperstar.com/

Surprisingly, the decision for B was simple and the obvious choice became Burmese! The discussion on what we were going to do next came up at the first dinner club and more than 40% of the group recommended Burma Superstar. The other 60% of us had no clue what we'd be getting ourselves into, but knew by the glittering eyes and ravenous smiles of those that had been to this trendy spot in the Inner Richmond that we'd be in for something special. And like that the choice had been made and we were off on a more than 2,500 mile journey from Afghanistan to Burma.

Before we get into details of our dining adventure, we should talk cuisine and culture. Burma (also known as Myanmar) is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia occupying more than 261,970 square miles (roughly the size of Texas) with more than 55 million inhabitants. Burma is bordered by the People's Republic of China and India to the north, Laos to the east, Thailand and the Bay of Bengal to the south, and Bangladesh to the west. Similar to Afghan cuisine, Burmese food incorporates the best its neighbors have to offer, heavily influenced by the cuisines of China, India, and Thailand. This melange of cuisines is what makes Burmese food so great (especially if you like spicy food with lots of complicated flavors and textures)! Indian influences include samosas, biryani, Indian curries, and nans; Chinese influences include noodles, stir-frying techniques, bean curds, and soya sauce; while Thai influences include curries, chiles, coconut, and delicate spices. Yum!

Now back to the restaurant and the food. Burma Superstar is one of those places that's ALWAYS busy. In fact, the restaurant is so popular that they don't even bother with reservations. Instead, the way Burma Superstar operates is that they have a waiting list which you can call in (awesome idea). They take down your phone number and essentially give you a call when your table is ready. The wait tends to be fairly long so be prepared for a +45 min wait (because of the size of our group our table was ready 1.5 hours after we called in. Pretty insane for a Tuesday night!). Luckily, we knew the wait would be long so we had a plan and parked ourselves at Plough & the Stars (local Irish Bar) until our table got called. Burma Superstar must do the wait thing on purpose cause once you get through those velvet curtains and you're inside smelling the food, you can't help but try and convince yourself to order as much food as humanly possible (at this point we were beyond starving).

Samosa Soup

Although the wait took forever, the food came out in droves and very quickly. As soon as we sat down, the group quickly peered through the menu, grabbed the waiter's attention, and ordered some classic and highly recommended dishes for appetizers that included: Vegetarian Burmese Samosas (slightly different than Indian Samosas in that the texture is similar to Thai spring rolls and served with a side of special sweet red sauce instead of tamarind), the Rainbow Salad (a salad made with four types of noodles, tamarind dressing, green papayas, and 22 other ingredients!!), and lastly, the Mighty Tea Leaf Salad (a must order! that includes Burmese tea leaves, tomatoes, fried garlic, yellow split peas, sesame seeds, and peanuts). The beautifully presented dishes were placed atop a rotating plate at the center of the table that made it easy for us to maneuver food from one side to the other. The Rainbow and Tea Leaf salads were introduced to the group by a waiter who meticulously described every single ingredient in the dish (you can only imagine how lost we were after the waiter walked us through ingredient #6 of 22 in the Rainbow Salad). After the "what's in your food today lesson", the waiter proceeded to toss and mix the salads with laser-like precision and delicateness. The tossing and turning reminded us of trained card dealers and their approach when working the 3am shift at a Las Vegas Casino. Within 5 minutes of being served our appetizers, the food was gone. Delish! (Speaking of Rachel Ray did you know that at least three Burma Superstar dishes made an appearance on the Food Network's "Sizzling Summer Destination" series. Each dish prominently gloated in italics on the menu). Now off to the entrees?

Rainbow Salad (photo courtesy of this blog)

Burma Superstar has so many great options for entrees. They have a large menu of seafood, meats, and vegeterian dishes. The long wait outside forced the group to ensure they all had orders in mind prior to sitting at the table. So one by one the group began blurting out their favorites and the dishes they wanted to try. To start, we knew we needed to try the Vegetarian Samosa Soup. Boy was this dish hearty, but full of flavor. We loved it. At first, when you think Samosa soup you probably think of an unappetizing soggy Indian Samosa that's been dipped in hot water for a short while. This was different. The Samosa chunks were a mix of both crunchy and soft samosa pieces and the soup was full of spices that made each bite a tongue pleaser. Next on the order was the Classic Burmese Chicken Casserole and the Burmese Style Curry Shrimp, which both included a nice palette of unique sweet and spicy Southeast Asian flavors. Other dishes ordered that evening included Shan Noodles (rice noodles in spicy tomato sauce with cilantro and peanuts), Pea Shoots (staff recommended), and this spicy lamb dish (quite spicy! some of us were in heaven with this one, others were chasing down the sweat beads that ferociously manifested themselves after every bite. This one was a hot one.).

Spicy Chili Lamb Dish

Burma Superstar proved to be a great choice for B and a remarkably great value play (we were surprised at how reasonably priced it was especially given the glutenous amount of food we had all ordered). So far 2 for 2 on this A to Z adventure. Next stop on the train, Columbian? Cuban? Cantonese? Cambodian? Stay tuned... :-)

A is for Afghan

Date: Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Helmand Palace
2424 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco
http://www.helmandpalace.com/

So marks the beginning of what we're hoping to be a spectacular run of restaurants. The first spot in the A to Z dinner club series was a success. Tucked away at a busy intersection on Van Ness Avenue in Russian Hill, Helmand Palace treated us to remarkable food at surprisingly reasonable prices. For most of us, it was our first experience with Afghan cuisine and apparently our first geography lesson on Afghanistan (a number of us actually wondered whether or not Afghanistan was landlocked). Here's a quick Afghanistan geography question: what four countries ending in "stan" border Afghanistan: 1) Pakistan, 2) Turkmenistan, 3) Uzbekistan, and 4) Tajikistan. Who knew? And yes, Afghanistan is landlocked and aside from the "stans" listed above it borders China and Iran.

Now to the food. As with many other countries, Afghanistan was influenced heavily by its neighbors and by the fact that it lay in between important and ancient trade routes between Central Asia and India. As a result, Afghan food has strong ties with Persian, Mongolian, and Indian cuisines. Indian spices, Persian meats, mints, and subzi (spinach), and Mongolian noodles, are just a few examples of some of the things you'll find at an Afghan restaurant.

At Helmand Palace we were treated to a menu with a ton of options. So many options in fact that for a moment we were all caught too paralyzed to make a decision. Luckily, we had some Nan-e Afghani (Afghan bread) and tasty dips to hold us over while we decided. The strategy then became to simplify and select five dishes each representing one of the following: beef, chicken, lamb, vegetarian, and fish. The fish choice was easy (actually only two choices on the menu. Not much more you can expect from a landlocked country). We ordered the Quormay Ma-He, which is the fresh fish of the day, pan-fried and sauteed with ginger, garlic, sundried tomatoes, potatoes, peeled tomatoes, and spices. Yum! The dish was flaky, light, perfectly cooked with a beautiful blend of spices. A hit for sure and a top two candidate for the evening.

Next choice was vegetarian. The Kaddo was highly recommended by foodies and Afghan cuisine enthusiasts and it did not disappoint. The dish incorporates sweet, spicy (not spicy hot), and creamy characteristics and is made up of pan fried then baked baby pumpkin seasoned with sugar and served with garlic yogurt sauce (+ground beef sauce in the non-vegetarian version). This dish was spectacular and the #1 hit at Helmand. A website with a Kaddo recipe for those interested can be found here: http://mikes-table.themulligans.org/2007/11/07/kaddo-bourani/ (interestingly enough and totally random the site references Helmand's sister restaurant in Massachusetts).

Aside from these two favorites, other dishes ordered during the night included the Mourgh Challow (sauteed chicken breast with sauteed spinach and pallow), Dayjee Kabab (leg of lamb with yellow split peas, onion, red peppars, and vinegar) and the Chapendaz (beef tenderloin served on sauce of grilled tomato, cumin seeds, hot peppers, onion, and wheat barley).

Safe to say that our first stop on the A to Z train was a hit! Next up for B? Bolivian? Burmese? Brazilian? hmmm.... stay tuned.

A to Z Dinner Club Kickoff!

We started the A to Z Dinner Club as an excuse to both check out great new restaurants throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area and to bring together people, who normally don't get together on a day to day basis, for dinner & drinks. The goal is to essentially expand our food horizons by exploring new cuisines from various parts of the world every two weeks or so (any region is fair game!). The restaurants will be chosen in alphabetical order based on the relevant cuisine or region.