Tripe, Wings, Catfish, etc.

   We're just trying to get caught up here, so I'll cover the odds and ends of this last weekend.
   Friday found me with a cancellation on our visit to PPQ Dungeness Island, which will hopefully take place this coming Friday. Instead, I fell back on my standby, Z&Y Restaurant, 655 Jackson St. At the right we see the Beef Tripe In Chili Oil (5.5). My friend Janet asked me, 'why on earth would you want to eat that?' Well, why not? Lots of other people apparently want to. Tripe, tendons, pig's ear - I've had them all. It's just an excuse to enjoy the taste sensation of the chili oil with its 'numbing' quality from the Sichuan peppercorns. Other than that, its a different texture aspect that appeals to eaters of Asian
food.
  The real challenge came with the Spicy Bean Curd Egg Noodles (5.95). Noodles can be difficult to eat with chopsticks to begin with, but throw some hot oil in there and it's impossible (for me anyway). It wasn't that much easier with a friggin' fork. Nice enough dish though, with some ground pork, pickled vegetable and the ultra soft Japanese style tofu.
   Saturday I was at Finnegans Wake indulging in a little college ball and bourbon and I realized I hadn't eaten in a while. I sent a runner off to Burgermeister to procure some chicken wings, in part to do some comparison dining, after my visit to Wing Wings the previous Sunday. I gotta say, no comparison. While you do get 12 wings/ $10 at Burgermeister, they were even smaller than the ones at Wing Wings, and tasted frozen. The hot sauce and both the ranch and blue cheese dips were bland. The only positive note is that they do have "Wing Wednesday" with wings at $.50 each.

   Sunday started with another Ritchie Rosen lunch at Yuet Lee, Broadway and Stockton. Once or twice a year Ritchie, head chef at Chenery Park Restaurant, sends out the call to meet for crab in ginger and scallion sauce, salt and pepper calamari, BBQ pork chow fun, roast duck and lots of other savory dishes prepared by Sam, Cantonese chef extraordinaire. Afterward, cocktails and Pink Section puzzles at Vesuvio, and then I headed out to the new Southpaw Restaurant, 2170 Mission at 18th St. They opened last Thursday and discovered on Sunday that their smoker was busted. So, no smoked meat. Bummer. My friend Elizabeth is the host and co-owner persuaded me to stay and try something else, like the Catfish Sandwich (8), which comes with potato salad and house made pickles. A side of Vinegar Braised Collards (5) came to life by adding some sweet chili vinegar. I like my collards cooked a little longer, but these were still good. The catfish is fresh from a farm in Sacramento and was cooked beautiful, especially with a little Alabama style 'white sauce' thrown on. They will be brewing their own beer, along with eleven other taps, and there is an admirable selection of bourbons on hand. I'm not sure about the metal dining trays - I felt like I was either on a chain gang or in the Army. But the food's good, and I expect this one to go places!