San Francisco: San Tung & Nihon

Got some new stuff to talk about!  I haven't done much this summer in terms of food, but I did start off the summer by attending two great music festivals.  Finally, this past weekend, I traveled to San Francisco for a few friend's birthday, and of course, San Francisco is always a top destination for food!

Since I did go up mostly for birthday celebrations, I didn't really plan out what I wanted to eat, but still got to try a few popular places in SF!


San Tung
1031 Irving St
Between 11th Ave & 12th Ave
Inner Sunset
San Francisco, CA 94122
santungrestaurant.com

San Tung is this super popular Chinese restaurant with over 2800+ reviews on Yelp and still maintains 4 stars!  Quite amazing.  There's always a wait so rather than heading into Inner Sunset, we ordered take out!  Talk to anybody in SF, and they'll take you that the bread & butter of San Tung is their legendary "dry" chicken wings.

Not really "dry" since it does have a sweet & savory sauce over it.  I'm sure the "dry" refers to the Chinese word "乾炒" which literally means "dry stir fry," and that loosely means frying in the wok.  By the time we got it, the skin wasn't really that crispy anymore but it was still good.  Next time, gotta go there and try the wings hot.

Ordered a few types of dumplings.  Pork & Chive was definitely my favorite.

Pork & Cabbage.  Nice subtly sweetness from the cabbage.

String beans, which is always a favorite dish of mine at Chinese restaurants.  At San Tung, it has a noticeably sweeter flavor to it.  There's also a good amount of preserved mustard tuber.  

Combo fried rice.  For sure would've been better if we had it at the restaurant.

We also got these bigger dumplings.... I liked the other two better :P

Seafood sesame noodle.  I'm a huge fan of sesame noodles, but at San Tung, it has a really sweet sesame sauce, so I wasn't a big fan of it.  They packed the noodle and sauce separately to prevent it from getting mushy.  Good call. 

Black bean noodle (zhajiangmian).  I actually liked this one... not what I am used to for zhajiangmian but I like how it is not overly salty like many places!

Glad I finally got to try San Tung, although after the meal, I have decided that I must check out the place for myself to really see if I liked the place or not.  While it is convenient that we did take out, the long drive back from one end of the city to the other probably cooled the food down so it's not as enjoyable!

After lunch, we headed towards Biergarten for some outdoor boozing.  

Cool spot but damn that loooong line just for beer.  Love the litre mugs!


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Afterwards, we walked to Nihon Whisky Lounge, which is another popular place with high ratings on Yelp.  I was told they had the West Coast's biggest whisky collection, and we did have a few whisky drinkers in our group so we were pretty damn excited.

We actually went there for happy hour and during happy hour, they have many of their menu items and drinks at half off!  I did have a bit of reservation about the food at this place.  I was afraid of it being... "washed down" or fusion to suit the taste of people, and I guessed right.

Oh took these with my iPhone since I didn't have my camera at the time... so quality and lighting is gonna suck.  A lot :P


Nihon Whisky Lounge
1779 Folsom St
Between Erie St & 14th St
Mission
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.dajanigroup.net/

Oimo no Tempura with mountain potato, taro, and sweet potato with a sweet & sour sauce and pink salt.  Loved the taro!  It's been awhile since I got to have fried taro.  Great tempura batter.

Washu Gyu no Tataki with seared US Kobe beef with yuzu sesame dressing.  There's a nice peppery crust on the Kobe.  Beautiful marbling too.

Yukke with raw US Kobe beef (hanger cut) marinated with garlic sesame soy sauce.  Probably my favorite.  It really is raw beef but that marinade is right on and even though it is a hanger cut, which usually means it is really chewy, that Kobe beef was amazingly tender.

This was when it began to feel like the place was just... meh.  Nihon - flash fried breaded walu & tuna with sweet soy sauce & lemon aioli.  

Teba Karaage - Japanese style buffalo wings.  After eating so many wings for lunch.... definitely was not craving more wings haha.  I gotta admit, the seasoned sesame is a nice touch though.

Hamachi Shiitake with shiitake mushroom stuffed with hamachi, tempura fried, served with sweet chili & sweet soy sauce.  I loved the shiitake mushroom and the hamachi with the crunchy tempura but c'mon... the sauce is pretty damn generic and ruined the shiitake.

Dynamite with baked seafood, sautéed onion & shiitake mushroom in dynamite sauce.  Not a big fan of mayo, and I don't think I ever will be so I've never been a huge fan of dynamite.  Cool presentation though!  They light up the plate so the it can heat the bowl and warm up the dish.

Samurai Roll with spicy tuna & jalapeño, topped with tuna, avocado & habañero tobiko.  Meh, was hoping for some quick from the spicy tuna and jalapeño, but none.

Tori - grilled chicken with soy glaze.  The soy glaze, which is just their version of teriyaki sauce, was sorta... fruity?  Something was a bit off about it :P

Butabara, which is gilled pork belly.  I wish they had some sesame oil & salt for this hahah.

Funny, the only picture of the drinks there that I took was this one I took on Instagram, Peat's Old Fashioned.  They added sugar to it so it was very sweet, and it seems pretty watered down.  Two rocks only too...

Even though my drink was only so-so, the drinks others ordered were pretty spectacular.  Was not feeling the food since I'm still a fan of more authentic Japanese food.  Our server was a huge fail too.  She was just rude so it did ruin our experience.

Next up, Pizzeria Delfina!

Taipei: Ramen Before My Flight - Day 4

Day 4 meant that it was the last day in Taipei for me on this work trip. Diana, Cyeh, Sophia, and I planned to have lunch around the City Hall area since I was gonna be in that general area for work.

We really didn't know where to go for lunch so we ended up walking around a bit and somehow ended up at at ATT Center once again. Like all shopping centers and department stores in Taiwan, there's a restaurant area on the top floors. We got up there and instantly I was drawn to Sanji 三士 because there was a line forming outside! Sanji turned out to be a ramen shop and I've been craving good ramen for awhile so we decided to wait out the 20 minutes in line!

Sanji 三士

ATT 4 Fun Xinyi Store 5F

12, Songshou Rd, Taipei

ATT信義店5F

台北市信義區松壽路12號

Outside it says that it is Kagoshima-style ramen. Don't really know if Sanji came from Japan or just a ramen shop with Kagoshima-style ramen. Never had Kagoshima-style ramen so I was very excited to try!

You can add $65NT to make your ramen into a combo, so I figured why not. Picked the chasu bowl with Calpico as my drink and they came first!

Chasu Rice. Very big bowl of rice... much bigger than the ones I'm accustomed in the States. Nice flavor on the pork but there should be more :P

I've drank so much Calpico on this trip... yet still not sick of it!

I ordered the Deluxe Ramen 華麗三士拉麵, which was #1 on the menu. Comes with 4 slices of chasu, soft-boiled egg, and a bunch of toppings. Kagoshima-style ramen has a tonkotsu/seafood-based broth with thicker noodles than normal ramen. Soup is very nice although it is a bit salty. I can see why the thicken curvy ramen would be popular since it gives it "Q" and gives it a nice bite!

I think Santouka is still up there for me, especially the one I've had in Japan, but this is definitely one of the better ramen I've had in Taiwan! Over the past 2 years, I've noticed more and more of these specialty ramen shops opening up. Gotta make an effort to visit a few more the next time I am in Taipei.

Great soft-boiled egg. Perfectly cooked.

Chasu. Good mix of fatty and lean parts.

Others' Longma Ramen 龍馬拉麵, which is essentially a simpler version of mine. Less toppings with two slices of chasu and only half an egg.

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Afterwards, said bye to all and went back to work. Of course I stopped by Ten Ren again since it was at ATT but didn't take a picture of it this time. Let's just say... I've had over 10 milk tea in 4 days in Taipei :P

After work, decided to head to this street near the Da An MRT Station and the post office since there's a bunch of food vendors there! Michael Lin's favorite beef noodle soup stand is there as well.

The street with all the food vendors. It's sorta like... a nightmarket except during the daytime! This picture sums up the trip pretty well too. Rained the whole time. I didn't see the sun once the whole time in Taipei haha.

Somehow I always end up at this fry stand, 老K雞排. They also have steamed items here but I always get chicken here. The boss lady is crazy! She can speak English VERY WELL. I ordered in Chinese but when a Philipino lady came up, she was speaking English fluently!

Fried Chicken Steak. Dark meat flattened a little, breaded, they sprinkled with chili powder and white pepper seasoning!

After I finished that, saw an egg cake 雞蛋糕 stand so decided to get that!

Ahhh I miss egg cakes so much. Glad to get it this time around. I actually got a machine so maybe I'll try to make some one day.

Fluffy and doughy.

Before I left for the airport, decided to grab an Assam Milk Tea from 7-11 for the road.

Once again, beef noodle soup from the China Airlines VIP Lounge. Still the best lounge food ever.

Dim sum items: dumplings, glutinous rice balls, xiao long bao, glutinous rice 粽子 (Chinese tamales), and shaomai.

The glutinous rice 粽子 was my favorite out of all.

First time I sat in the China Airlines's new business class! Bigger screen!

Generally food is better on the leg from TPE to LAX... but it was whatevers... food came all at once rather than one course at a time like the LAX - TPE leg.

Thai Curry Fish. Again... didn't care for it.

Very bland looking garlic bread. What happened???

Went with the Chinese-style breakfast cause they had some weird omelette on the menu again.

Side items were better than on this leg! Bean curd & egg pancake.

Pickled cucumber and pork sung. The pork sung in Taiwan is sooooo good. It's the pork or something... so much better.

So this was a loaf of bread that I sneaked back from Taiwan: mango bread from the famous Pasadena Bakery 帕莎蒂娜烘焙坊 in Kaoshiung! The bread was ridiculously good. Sweet Taiwanese mango chunk baked into an artisan loaf of bread. The texture and the aroma when I heated in the oven was amazing.

This is the bread that made the bakery famous: dried logan wine loaf 酒釀桂圓大麵包. A loaf of bread with dried logan and nuts that's made without any eggs and oil. The dough is infused with wine. Amazing aroma with notes of barley! The head baker actually placed in several international events, including first in the Asian competition then 2rd in the world competition!

So I got back on a Wednesday and as soon as I unpacked, I began to pack for New York since I was leaving the next night!

Seafood Madness Part 1: Midori Sushi in Encino

It's weird, I've always wondered why there are no good all-you-can-eat Japanese spots in LA. There's a few but it's always something wrong about them that makes me go, "Yea, not gonna spend the money for this again."

However, Leonard has been craving about this AYCE place out in Encino, called Midori Sushi, for the past 3-4 months, but we never found the time. Midori actually has 3 locations, one in Universal City and the other in Sherman Oaks, down the street from the Encino location. He's tried the other locations but somehow always go back to the Encino spot so this past Saturday, finally got the time to head out there with Leonard & Diana to check the place out.

Midori Sushi

17047 Ventura Blvd

Encino, CA 91316

midorisushi.net

Small location on Ventura Blvd. The restaurant is quite deep, with a sushi bar on the left side and a modern decor. I guess it's a hip spot in Encino? All sorts of people there: families with children, men/women in clubbing attire, couples out on dates, and students.

Nice! I love marinated ginger. They eventually just gave us extra side of ginger cause we were demolishing them.

Started off with some fried calamari. Drizzled with a sweet soy sauce. I like how the batter is really light!

Of course, gotta order tempura. Comes with shrimp, pumpkin, sweet potato, broccoli, and green bean. Got two to share.

First order of nigiri: salmon, albacore, and ono (king mackerel)

Albacore. Nicely done with the green onion and a little bit of yuzu dressing.

Ono. Holy crap this fatty fish is good. The sauce over it is great with it.

Really fresh salmon. Probably the freshest of the night. I like their fish to rice ratio :]

Godzilla Roll. California roll topped with spicy tuna, scallop, spicy baby shrimp then drizzled with ponzu sauce. The topping is a nice mix of spicy goodness.

Hokkaido Roll. Spicy shrimp & cucmber then topped with seared tuna, avocado, ponzu and chili oil.

Samurai Roll. Spicy crunchy albacore roll topped with seared tuna, fried onions, and ponzu sauce. I love the fried onion bits! Favorite roll of the night.

Salmon skin hand roll. Salmon skin definitely not skimped on :]

Unagi. Slightly torced before serving so there's some crispiness.

SALMON KAMA! That Saturday the special for AYCE was salmon kama. We had to get two.

Chicken gyoza.

White fish. Dressed with a sauce but probably needed since white fish is pretty tasteless.

Hamachi! Pretty fresh.

Spicy crab nugget. Spicy crab meat topped with avocado on top of crispy rice tempura and eel sauce. Seems like all restaurants are beginning to have a crispy rice item now, not that I'm complaining :P

Bonzai Roll. Garlic albacore topped with spicy tuna and crispy onions.

Tokyo Roll. Spicy baby shrimp and avocado roll topped with salmon tempura and bonito flakes. What part of that doesn't sound good?

The special orders (1 per person only). They weren't a fan of iruka (salmon roe) and I'm not a fan of ebi (shrimp) so we only got one order of each but definitely took advantage of the uni.

Uni. Ok... so I'm still in the process of trying out uni and I've been grossed out a lot thanks to not-so-fresh-and-gives-out-odd-smell ones but the ones at Midori are good! Still gotta get used to the texture but I'm getting there hahah.

Iruka :] Love the salty goodness, especially when it pops.

Ebi. Can't really say much about it since I didn't eat any of it but it actually looks good!

Actually it was a good thing I didn't eat the shrimp probably because the following day (Sunday), Lydia & Young came to South Bay for a visit and we ate a lunner of orgasmic proportion (part2).

Overall, I like Midori. Actually, I like it a lot! Next time will probably be ordering more nigiri rather than the rolls since if it is the first time I just wanted to get a taste of everything. Lame how the closest location is Universal City, and that's still a drive. Time to start cajoling Leonard for the next Midori adventure :P