Beers Of The World

   A fairly decent swill with a slightly hoppy finish. No alcohol content listed. Available in a six pack of 11.15oz cans at BevMo for $8.99. Drink it really cold with your favorite koozie.

Wretched Excess Wednesday...

   I got a freebie from Scoutmob and I read about this new Asian-style hot dog shop on Fillmore, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Holy Dog is located at 1552 Fillmore, just off Geary Blvd. Now, they serve a bulgogi hamburger, but they couldn't serve me a hot dog with bulgogi on top, like the one I had in NYC. I opted for the Kimchee Dog (5.95), a smoked bratwurst with, I must say, an unappealing topping of soggy kimchee and onions sauteed with some kind of sauce and doused with cheese whiz. I would have been happy with a good all-beef dog topped with uncooked kimchee.
  I actually started my quest at Bun Mee, 2015 Fillmore near Pine St. The Scoutmob coupon was good for a free shredded Napa lettuce salad or the Mango Sesame Salad pictured here. This was gone in about four bites, but what do you want for free? I needed more, so I ordered the Salt and Pepper Garlic Fries (4.5), which are excellent even though I didn't get a lot of garlic flavor. The cook said he may have been a little stingy but would do better next time. The great thing about these fries, besides being perfectly crunchy and non-oily, is that they include sliced jalapeno and red onion. If you order these just say you want plenty of garlic. The black pepper gives a nice kick, BTW.
   I definitely want to go back for a bahn-mi, even though they're a bit pricier than what you find on Larkin St. They use Kurobuta pork, there is a crispy turmeric catfish that sounds good and for you vegetarians there is smoked eggplant.
   I'll wait until my second visit before I give a rating. To see the menu got to:www.bunmee.co

Chile Lindo - 2944 - 16th St., between Mission & So. Van Ness, SFCA

   I've ridden by this place innumerable times on the 22 Fillmore bus and I decided to check it out yesterday. As you can see, it's a simple walk-up style establishment where you can dine al fresco or get it to go. Chilean empanadas are the item here, with five options including a vegan pie made with Yves Meatless Ground. All are made with homemade dough, your choice of filling, given a light egg wash and baked. If you decide to eat there, it takes about five minutes to warm them up.
  The classic empanada is the Empanada de Pino (5.5), with a filling of Niman Ranch beef, sauteed onions, raisins, black olive and hard boiled egg, seasoned with paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. If you want to jazz it up a bit you can buy some pebre, a Chilean cilantro-chile pepper condiment, for $.50.
   Another meatless option is the Empanada de Chilnaga (5.5) pictured at the bottom. This has mozzarella, cheddar and jalapeno but isn't overly hot spice wise.
   A number of coffees and teas are available, including espresso, and you can also get Inca Kola and Inca Blu, the soft drink made with purple corn.
   I like it well enough to give it a 3.5 on the Food-O-Meter. You can check out there website at:www.chilelindo.com

Roostertail - 1963 Sutter, between Webster & Fillmore, SFCA

   Here's hoping you had a good Christmas. Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but between the holidays and being in the hospital a couple of days, I got a little behind.
   Roostertail just recently opened in the space occupied by Cafe Kati for several years. The emphasis here is on Rotisserie Chicken (6.5 for a quarter, white meat) pictured here. You can buy a half or whole as well. While the meat was tender it was also a little dry. You have a choice of pesto or sweet BBQ sauce to dip into, which helps with the dryness. I chose a side of Onion Strings (4.5) and some Brisket Baked Beans (4). The strings were mercifully free of batter and quite tasty, but could have been cooked at a higher temp - they're currently cooked at 350 degrees - to retain less cooking oil. The beans were somewhat bland, lacking any sweetness from molasses or brown sugar, and the brisket didn't have a good smoky flavor which would have  enhanced the taste.
   You can choose from a number of salads, sandwiches, beef and pork dishes if chicken isn't on your agenda. I'll give it a 3 on the Food-O-Meter.
To see the menu, go to:sanfrancisco.menupages.com/restaurants/roostertail

Yamo - 3406 -18th St. at Mission, SFCA

   On my second attempt to have some pulled pork at Southpaw I was thwarted again by the fact that they've changed the opening time to 5pm on Thursday. What's handy, I said to myself. Oh, Yamo. I hadn't been there since it was operated by a single Asian man who, besides being a fairly decent cook, was also a pretty damned good guitarist. It seems in the course of the last few years that Yamo has achieved hipster cult status. I've seen people standing in line outside the door to get into a place that seats ten at best. If you're claustrophobic, this isn't the place for you. Even though there are four women running the show, only one was cooking, and it took about 15 minutes to get this simple Black Bean Tofu (6) dish, which was pretty bland and needed some Sriracha to get it up on its feet. I guess the allure here is because it's 'cheap and funky'. It still gets only 2.5 on the Meter.

Wok And Go - 2700 - 24th St. at Potrero, SFCA

    Do you know how to say 'grease pit'? Well, you do now. Another coupon adventure, good for $25 worth of food and drink - except seafood. WTF does it matter what you order, if it's good for $25? Also, we were told you had to order 'a soup, an entree and a chow mein or fried rice'. We had Black Pepper Beef Chow Mein, very oily and the noodles overcooked, the meat flavorless and mushy, probably due to sitting in a marinade with baking soda. Hot And Sour Soup, which wasn't half bad, except they overdid it with the lily buds. Ma Po Do Fu, which you should probably never order in a resto with Cantonese cooks. Lots of cornstarch and of course no Sichuan pepper, but they did see fit to throw in some peas and carrots. Argggh! And Salt And Pepper Chicken Wings, which had absolutely no taste of either spice and were oily to boot.
   If you want Chinese food on 24th St., stick to Ming's Fung Lam and the Punjab. Oh, and Tobias said he barely made it in time to work where he could use the toilet; seems our lunch had a cleansing effect. Oh well, #409 out of the way. 1 on the Food-O-Meter.
   BTW, a new high-end Resto called Hakkasan is coming to One Kearny St. It promises to be the Chinese equivalent of Nobu, and is part of an international chain based in Dubai.

For Your Library...

  The next best thing to eating food is reading about it. In this scholarly, but by no means boring, revised edition from 1983, Ms. Tannahill discusses the evolution and migration patterns of people and their means of sustenance, from prehistoric times to the present. Revolutions in planting and harvesting techniques, machinery, methods of preservation, battles for ownership of valuable crop and spice-producing areas of the world, the invention of cookbooks and so on and so on. This belongs on the shelf with other great books like Salt, Much Depends On Dinner and The Art Of Eating.
  There are many listings on www.abe.com for the first edition (1973) and also for 1989, which may or may not be updated,

El Patio - 3193 Mission St., SFCA

   I was famished after my visit to the doc at St. Luke's, and this little place is right around the corner, a stones throw from Los Panchos. Since we're always looking for those perfect pupusas, I said why not? I should have looked at the menu instead of just ordering the usual queso and loroco, since they have a zucchini variation. As it were, these were pretty run-of-the-mill, the dough a little thick and chewy and the filling a bit shy of the normal. Even the curtido tasted a bit old. Couldn't argue with the tamarindo or the salsa, they were fine. It looks like Los Panchos and La Santaneca are still the front runners.

Breaking New Ground,,,

    When you sit at a table at Z&Y, you'll notice some menus under the glass top. One is dim sum and is written in both Chinese and English. The other is in Chinese only, and I decided yesterday to find out what some of these dishes were. I started on the left side, and chose the first three.
   At the top we see Bitter Melon With Honey -Feng Mi Liang Hua (6.5), simply paper thin slices of melon on ice, drizzled with honey and garnished with bits of red bell pepper. A perfect warm weather dish and a nice contrast to any hot, spicy dishes you may have ordered.

   Next is one of those nose-to-tail dishes, Pig's Tongue Wrapped in Pig's Ear (6.5). I was unable to translate this at home, but Michelle, the owner at Z&Y, told me they call it 'pillow talk'. I will get the proper Chinese name on my next visit. Fairly bland, that's why you have that wonderful bowl of dipping sauce. Underneath you can see the menu I'm talking about.
   And lastly, another room temp dish Spicy Fish Fillet - Zhao Pai Zi Wei Yu, (6.75), which roughly translates to 'house special nourish flavor fish'. It comes in a spicy sauce with cucumber and dried soy beans. I think just about anybody could handle this one.
   The main thing here is, never hesitate to ask about what's written on the wall in a Chinese resto. You don't know what you might be missing!

Recent Dishes at San Dong, 3741 Geary Blvd., SFCA

    As you may know, I like this place a lot, mainly because they have hand pulled noodles (save the jokes, please). But they have other things as well, and here's three new ones for me. At the top, Beef with Radish Dumplings (12 for 6.99). I didn't find these all that exciting. The dough was a bit thick and the filling a bit bland. I fixed this with a bowl containing some soy sauce and hot chile paste.
    They feature a number of skewered grilled items, including this Lamb Skewer (1.50), which I found much tastier than the ones I had at The Pot Sticker. Well cooked but still very juicy, with a nice spicy rub to counter the fatty richness. We'll get more next time!
    Among the apps and cold dishes is the Vinegard Fugus (sic) (3.99), which is mu erh, or 'cloud ears'. This provides a nice tartness and acidity to balance anything rich or sweet, plus it has its own slightly crunchy texture, somewhat akin to jellyfish but a little softer. A dish I haven't seen anywhere else.

Beers Of The World

   The back label sez this beer "captures the elemental essence of Tibet and the high Himalayas." Hmmm. It's made with pure Himalayan spring water, Tibetan barley, Saaz hops and yeast. No indication of alcohol content. Medium bodied with a malty finish. As with most beers like this, drink it cold, real cold. The label asks you not only  to recycle, but to also "be kind". 10% of profits go to philanthropy of some sort in Tibet. $8..49/6pk of 12oz. bottles at BevMo.

New Food Product

   Not only did I get my first Christmas card on Saturday, but I may have gotten my first 'gift'. While foraging at the Alpha Market I came upon this new product from venerable Casa Sanchez. If you're in Texas, almost all restos and food companies refer to tortilla chips as 'totopos'. Now we have an amazing addition to the snack tree. These chips are made from blue corn, quinoa, chia and maca. A lot of you are probably familiar with quinoa by now, but if not, it's a South American seed known to the Incas 6,000 years ago. Chia I'm sure you know, and I don't think any chia pets died in the making of this product. Maca is an herbaceous plant native to Peru and is rich in calcium, magnesium, iron and p-methoxybenzyl isithiocynat (a purported aphrodisiac). The chips are GMO free, gluten free and salt free. And the best part of all - 1.5gm of fat per 1oz. serving, as opposed most snack chips that range from 8 to 20gm. To accompany, I like the Hot Salsa Roja pictured here, but you can use any you like, dear heart. Encourage your favorite market to carry these, be it Safeway, TJ's, Whole Paycheck, Bi-Rite, etc.and help keep a good thing going.

On The Taco Trail - Nico's and Tacolicious Mission

   Today we speak of two taco joints that aim to expand on your typical fare in the Mission. Mr. Manson and I visited Nico's at 1310 Upper Grant a couple of Fridays ago with a Scoutmob coupon good for $10 off our meal (let me mention here, one reason I like Scoutmob is you put no money up front, so if your coupon expires before you use it, no loss). At the top you see Mr. Manson's burrito, of a variety which I do not recall. Suffice it to say, he thought it was just OK, it didn't rock his world. Also, a basic bean and cheese burrito here is $6.75, a pretty hefty price.
   I wasn't sure how big the tacos were going to be here, so I ordered three. On this particular they were offering the Friday Fish Taco Special (2 for 5) and I also ordered a Beef Taco (3.5).They add what they call Crakslaw to their tacos and burritos, and we both agreed that we could do without it. You can also order your tacos 'greengo' style, with a crispy inner shell and soft outer shell with a layer of avocado sauce in between. This might be the way to go in the future. You have a choice of hot sauces in the cooler where the soft drinks are. I'd be willing to give it another shot.
   And now on to the Mission, where a little slice of the Marina comes your way courtesy of Tacolicious. Their new location at 741 Valencia has barely been open a week or so and they've already had a protest group crying about the eviction of their upstairs neighbors, which of course they had nothing to do with. You can read all about in The Inside Scoop on SFGate. We're concerned about the food.
   I had time to kill before Tobias arrived, so I ordered a
well Margarita (9.50). I haven't checked the wholesale price of El Jimador Blanco Tequila, but I think $9.50 is a bit dear for the well. Some fine chips and salsa to help ease the pain; they use La Palma tortillas exclusively and fry the chips in house, and the salsa cruda is pretty good.

   When Mr. T. arrived we ordered some Fried Sweet Plantains (7.25) with Rancho Gordo heirloom beans and a cumin crema, along with the Drunken Beans (5) with bacon, onion and 'pickled things'. I neglected to ask what the pickled things were, but whatever they were, they didn't make anything all that more exciting. Both of these were a nice accompaniment to the tacos.
   Prices vary according to how many you order - we chose four for $12. These included a Fried Rock Cod, Cochinita Pibil (braised pork), Shot-And-A-Beer Braised Chicken and the Guajillo Braised Beef Short Rib. If you don't like cilantro, ask them to leave it off. You get a tray of sauces, including a tomatillo, a chipotle and an habanero. I liked my tacos well enough, but Tobias said the chicken and the short rib tasted basically the same.
   One thing that irked me was that we were presented the check without being asked if we were finished, and while we were sorting that out, the bartender removed the leftover beans in a flash. When I said I'd planned to take those with me, he said I could buy some to go. Huh?
   If you're looking for squeaky clean surroundings, this is the place for you, no pigeons nesting in the rafters. I will probably stick to Taqueria San Jose and Taqueria Vallarta, where said pigeons supposedly have been ousted. 3.5 on the Meter (1 to 5).

More from The Pot Sticker - 150 Waverly Pl.

    I just to have another one of the "Chef's Masterpieces", so I called on Thursday and asked for the House Special Chicken, or I Ping Zhao Pai Ji (18). This consists of room temperature chicken, boned out but with the skin, skewered and submerged in a spicy sauce with large chunks of cucumber. Floating on top of the sauce is a thin layer of chile oil. This was quite good and of course, too much for one person. Naturally we take the rest with us. Not content to order just one dish, I also took in some Eggplant with Garlic Sauce (Yu Xiang Chi Tzu - 7.95). A bit disappointed with this dish - too much cornstarch, sauce a little too sweet and the eggplant mushy. I relayed my thoughts to Jenny, the host, and she said they can always cook it to my specifications. That's how you get customers to come back. In the meantime, if you didn't read my review of Country Sky in the Marina, I mentioned that I had the same dish there and it was by far the best I'd had in a long time.

Le Zinc - 4063 - 24th St., SFCA

    Have you ever put off going somewhere just because you took the word of someone who hadn't even been there? And then you took said person with you for lunch and suddenly they seemed to think it was pretty decent. Well, that's the story here and said person shall remain unnamed.
   Le Zinc has been operating for quite some time now in the midst of Noe Valley and I'm glad I finally gave it a shot. A $50 Groupon helped in making my decision, and we went on a Monday for lunch. The Salade du Jour (10) consisted of frisee with lardons, croutons and that lovely poached egg on top, in a light raspberry vinaigrette. I found it odd that they didn't bring any bread along with the starter, but rather with the mains. I chose the Coq Au Vin (18) simply because I hadn't had it in about 30 years. A classic old school French dish of chicken in a red wine sauce with julienned carrot and zucchini and mashed potatoes. Once again, I'm not a fan of 'tower' serving - I like my chicken here, my vegetables there and my taters next to both. I will say this was a succulent dish, not too salty, the mashed potatoes very rich in flavor - I suspect a healthy dose of butter and cream.
   The unnamed companion had the Foie Gras (16) and reminded me that come next July, there will be no more available in California. I hope the PETA people are happy. No doubt there will be an underground market for it, just the same as there used to be for California sturgeon roe. At any rate, we both agreed that it was quite good and we offered our condolences to the duck that sacrificed his or her all.
   To cap this pleasant experience, a little Sorbet (8). We chose mango and the coconut-lime flavors, served on a house made tuile which had bits of candied orange peel in the crust. Dynamite! I really like this place and I want to come back for dinner. They have a patio in back, but they allow dogs out there if you go through the parking lot and enter by the back gate. Sorry, I don't like pets at the dinner table.
   4.5 on the new Meter (1 to 5)