Molinari is closeby for great sandwiches. For pizza you could also gave something at Flour & Water Pizzeria or Tony’s. And Lush Gelato around the corner fir dessert
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Molinari’s is where, years ago, I first bought Ortiz tuna, Spanish tuna packed in Spanish olive oil. Now I buy it by the case every couple of years when on sale at Zingerman’s.
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Imperial Garden Seafood, Portola, San Bruno Ave.
Chiu Chow Fun Guo
Siu Mai
Ha Gow
Lo Bak Go
Cheung Fun
All vegan dim sum in an actual Canto restaurant. So much happiness and nostalgia. I never thought I would eat dim sum ever besides sesame balls and plain cheung fun. Miss my family members who past.
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These were vegan??? Wow. Guess no chicken feet 
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No picture because my sandwich was missing a few ingredients but went to Gus’s. Absolutely loved the Dutch crunch roll. I wish it wasn’t bisected and I wish I had the veggies I asked for but wow. I asked for it to be toasted. Not sure if that’s a sin or not. Much better than the Ike’s we get down here in LA/OC.
Need to tackle on mission burritos (veg) and more sandwiches with Dutch crunch (veg).
Had a quick drip from Andytown. One thing I like about SF coffee shops is the smaller size cups with high quality beans. I rather drink less coffee with better beans while paying the same or less than Starbucks/Philz.
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That luo buo gao looks great.
Left Bank at Jack London closed. No traditional French food in Berkeley or Oakland?
carnitas zamora - exceptional carnitas, texturally perfect - meat itself is actually perfectly tender unlike the vast majority of carnitas places where it tends to be slightly to significantly overcooked, skin is the perfect point of gelatinous sticky, same with the buche. tortillas are also perfectly matching - ideal balance of softness with pliability for structural integrity of tacos, and salsas are also perfectly matching foils to the carnitas.
better than any i’ve had in LA to date. easily worth the soon-to-be $8 bridge toll
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Best Friends at the corner of San Pablo and Solano in Alameda is a nice new natural wine bar and shop. They have a type 42 license, which means they can (and do) welcome dogs, but no minors. No kitchen but some cold snacks.
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Since we were at Best Friends we walked down the block to Wojia.
Note the tip recommendations calculated on the total bill including tax…
Needed to be mixed more. I started mixing before I remembered to take the photo.
Salad was a nice foil to the spicy dishes. !
Toothpick lamb was excellent. !
So were the glutinous rice balls (crisp ouside, kind of mochi-like inside), eggplant, and green beans.
Great meal, plenty of food for three (only needed one order of rice). I’ll be back soon.
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Tried the relocated (from SF Mission District to the old Citron space) Monk’s Kettle. At least for now they’re open until midnight seven days. Still had a decent crowd when we left atat 10:30 on a Wednesday.
Good fries. Roll seems kind of expensive for the size.
Burger was good except the pretzel roll was too hard so everything tended to squish out the sides. Potato leek soup was good.
Lamb shank was good and huge, got a couple of lunches off the leftovers. The Greek salad was kind of an odd pairing but I’d still order it again.
Hot chocolate was good. The middle cookie was great, chocolate filled with peanut butter like a Grisbi? Other two would not order again.
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5 posts were merged into an existing topic: Miscellaneous off-topic posts
Have you tried GDY yet?
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I am not @JeetKuneBao but tried it once and really liked it (even more then Ming Kee which is normally my place for such a bbq focused lunch)
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I have not tried the new locations.
I don’t eat meat now!
I think both Ming Kee and GDY are both great. Probably the best in casual Hong Kong BBQ.
If I can remember from my own experience and from others here is that Ming Kee does certain things better than GDY and vice versa. Both are better than anything I had in NYC and SGV if that matters with the exception of Ruby BBQ roast pork.
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I’ll be back in town for a short visit towards the end of January.
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is Oakland, Calif., the new “it” food city?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/dining/food-eating-predictions-2025.html
Had a random craving to go to Original Joe’s, which I hadn’t been to since they moved to North Beach. There were reservations open mid-afternoon Saturday, so I figured we could just walk in, but at 3:30 there was a half-hour wait, so we hung out in the bar to wait for a table in the dining room. Fun mix of locals (some pretty eccentric) and tourists, though the pop music and multiple TVs showing sports aren’t my style.
Got seated in the front dining room rather than the back with the booths. Maybe the front is for walk-ins and large parties: there was a party of over 20 and another of 15.
Red wine selection ran the gamut from A to B, all high alcohol and to my taste inappropriate for the old-school Italian dishes I wanted to order, so went with seafood instead.
Sourdough bread was sour. Not as sour as at Sam’s Grill but still old-school.
Neglected to take a photo of the clam chowder, which was good, lots of clams, not overloaded with potato like some places.
Forgot to take a photo of the fritto misto until I’d eaten maybe half. Huge portion of squid, shrimp, fennel, green beans, green olives, and a slice or two of lemon a la Zuni. Breading on the shrimp was a little thick and it was flaking off the fennel, but overall quite good.
Good crab Louis, again forgot to take a photo until we’d eaten quite a bit. Huge portion of crab, lots of good avocado. Best of the versions I’ve tasted in recent years.
Filet of sole picatta, good version, nice capery butter sauce. Came out before I’d finished the fritto misto, so I guess it’s a place where you need to order in stages.
Choice of sides: spaghetti, fries, mashed potatoes, or house-made ravioli. Went with the latter for old times’ sake. They were exactly like Lucca Ravioli Co. on Valencia used to make. I’m not sure it’s possible to cook them al dente: texture’s kind of like gnocchi. Nostalgic.
Baked “Gelaska,” pretty good though a bit hard to get a balanced bite.
Spumoni gelato, pretty good, tons of nuts. Sad they didn’t have the traditional semifreddo version but this was the best of the three desserts.
Pistachio panna cotta, flavors were great but too much cornstarch or whatever so the texture was a little gummy. Barely sweet. Could be an excellent dish if they nailed the textures.
Fun meal. Reasonable prices for the quality and portion sizes. Might go back one of these days with a reservation for the back room and a bottle or two of my own wine.
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Thai Nghiep Ky Mi Gia, Sunset. The duck leg, thick egg noodles and fresh drip Vietnamese coffee are great. The quality of other dishes may vary.
Ma’s Dimsum & Cafe, Chinatown. The main draw here is the Clay Pot Rice. I tried the Wet Beef Chow Fun. While it didn’t have the traditional presentation, the flavor and Wok Hei were spot on.
P.S. Lung Fung Bakery on Richmond has my ideal Cocktail Bun. Their standard items tend to sell out by 2 PM.
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