Let me be completely frank and tell you that I’ve been to this restaurant a handful of times before… each time I go there I’m not sure why I ever decided to eat there – but for some ungodly reason I always go back when I’m craving greasy chinese, because it’s simply the best.  This was one of those days – BUT… it was extraordinarily awesome this time, and you know why?  Because I went long after the lunch rush – around 3pm, and they made it FRESH for me!  Now that I know the secret, I only go there after 2:30, when it’s almost a guarantee that the food is empty behind the counter, and they are forced to make my dish from scratch (or almost).  It really makes a difference, and this orange chicken was well worth it (see below).

As you can see,  I got a healthy portion of rice and chicken, and let me tell you – the chicken was fried perfectly and had a nice crunch, with a nice piece of chicken inside… the sauce was light and a little spicy – not too gooey like some orange chicken sauces.  It was awesome, and totally hit the spot!!

New Ming Chinese Restaurant
641 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105-4126
(415) 989-8544

The post New Ming’s Chinese: Orange Chicken w/White Rice appeared first on Fryhole.

Here’s what we ordered this time… I’ll go item by item…

These are Shanghai dumplings.  It’s the house special and they are DEE-LISH to the millionth.  They are little steamed dumplings with a soupy liquidy and kind of meaty center.  Literally soup inside the dumplings.  You need to pick them up very carefully with your chopsticks otherwise you will break them and the liquid will come spilling out.  They are seriously to die for and I could eat like 10 servings of these little babies.  Sometimes I go to Yank Sing just for these dumplings…

These are fried shrimp coated in batter with pieces of green onion in the batter.  They’re really good and it’s pretty incredible how big the shrimp pieces are… I mean, “prawns”.  (I always forget that west coasters call shrimp “prawn”.  It’s weird to me, us Pennsylvanians just call it shrimp).  These are good though – they’re not my favorite but they always end up on the table.

Oooh yum, these are Scallion Rolls.  I usually have to special order these because they don’t really keep them stocked on the rolling carts.  So if you ever go to Yank Sing and don’t see them, just ask for them and they will bring you an order.  These are my 3rd favorite item at Yank Sing… they are phyllo flakey dough filled with a scallion-y kind of spinich-y center and rolled up into those cool donut shapes.  They’re really good and I usually dip them in my special mix of soy sauce and hot peppers that I mix up beforehand… heaven!

These are bacon wrapped shrimp and asparagus.  It’s good but I kind of wish the bacon was a little crispier.  they usually only cook it enough to hold it all together, it’s not crispy, and it’s not thick and smokey like Canadian bacon.  It’s good though…

Next up is my 2nd favorite item at Yank Sing – the sticky rice and bbq pork in a banana leaf.  It’s sooo freaking good and when they give it to you the banana leaf is all wrapped up.  They slice it open when you get it, and all this steam comes out and it’s so hot and yummy…check out the next pic!

Here’s the leaf/rice cut open.  It’s so amazing… the rice is sticky rice, and the center is filled with bbq pork.  I believe it’s the same pork that they put in the steamed pork buns.  This dish is seriously so good though, if not the shanghai dumplings, the sticky rice!

Here’s a mini order of scallion dumplings.  I think there’s shrimp inside too, I can’t remember… but they’re good.  Not super filling though.  I only get these on a whim because they’re not savory like the other good greasy stuff.

Yank Sing has an entire dessert cart.  It’s filled with things like Sesame Balls (above), Jello, pie, cake, sweet buns, etc.  I always end my meal though with an order of Sesame Balls.  They are flled with red bean paste and they come smokin hot.  The server snips them open when you order them and they are sweet and nutty at the same time.  My favorite way to end a yummy dim sum meal!

The only downside to this place is that there are no prices on anything so you dont really know how much you’ve spent until the bill comes… and sometimes it’s a bit shocking (myself and a friend have spent over $100 for the meal).  I usually mentally prepare myself for a big bill before I sit down because some things are more expensive than others.  I think it’s worth it though, especially if it’s your first time eating dim sum (or in my case, my hundreth+).

Yank Sing
101 Spear St
(between Howard St & Mission St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 957-9300
www.yanksing.com

The post Yank Sing: Dim Sum (yum yum!) appeared first on Fryhole.

Anyway, the food is good. I am a massive carnivore, and I honestly can’t complain about this food. I’ve eaten at alot of vegetarian restaurants, and I can tell you that the “meat” at Golden Era is the most “meat-like” out of all the different variations of seitan and tofu/soy products out there. The “beef” even has a stringy meaty texture, and the “chicken” is soft and tender and you can also see the “fibers”.  The thing I hate about most vegetarian food is that I’m always left feeling an unfulfilled void after my meal – but my void is filled at Golden Era, especially with the fried stuff.

I started off with the steamed veggie bun. It’s pretty good, I usually get it every time I go there. The photo isn’t as good as the normal ones because I had my lens baby on my cam – wasn’t really planning on eating out so I didn’t have my “food lens” with me…

This steamed veggie bun is very good.  The bun is soft and warm.  It kind of looks uncooked when it arrives (as most steamed buns look)… it’s dough-y and the inside is stuffed with a bunch of veggies, including black beans, tomato chunks, corn, peppers, onions… it has a nice, mild vegetable flavor.

This is the Spicy Gourmet Chicken.  I never had this dish before – I think it is new.  I think it’s supposed to be the “General Tso’s” version minus the battered fried balls of chicken because it was both a little sweet and had a nice little spicy bite to it.  I ordered brown rice with it but I didn’t eat much of it… the chicken was enough.  It doesn’t come with sauce though so to me it’s hard for me to justify eating it with rice.  It was good though, I would probably get it again.

Golden Era Vegetarian Restaurant
572 O’Farrell St.
(between Jones St & Leavenworth St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 673-3136
www.goldeneravegetarian.com

The post Golden Era: Steamed Veggie Bun, Spicy Gourmet Chicken appeared first on Fryhole.

Being the white-bread American that I am (in a Korean body), I immediately scoured the menu for General Tso’s chicken, which was my ultimate favorite Chinese take out item when I was living back east in PA/NYC.  I am getting used to the fact now that most Chinese places out here don’t have it, and the ones that do confuse it with Kung Pao chicken.  So I settled on the “orange chicken” instead.

We waited quite a while for the food to come, and I ended up being the “lunch loser” since my friend’s dish came out about 10 minutes prior to mine.  Drrrr.

So when it finally came out it looked great.  A big healthy plate of steamed white rice and another big plate of the orange chicken…. see photos below.  The chicken was really good.  I really appreciated how it wasn’t breaded and fried to death — it was only lightly breaded, and the sauce was flavorful and thinner in consistency than the normal thick sauced fluorescent orange fried balls that you usually get at most Chinese places.  You could definitely taste the chicken.  The orange chicken chunks were in small pieces too so it was pretty easy to eat, no complaints there.

I had a fun time at Henry’s and the food was good too.

110 Natoma Street
(between 2nd St & New Montgomery St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 546-4999
www.henryshunanrestaurant.com

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