San Francisco Consumptibles

Having now returned from my trip to San Francisco, clearly we're all in need of a recap of some of the key meals in hindsight that I haven't yet touched upon. Now, normally I'd head straight on over to Gordo Taqueria in the Richmond district (one on Geary near 14th Ave., and one on Clement near 24th Ave.). However, this time I thought I'd try something out of the ordinary and went to Los Hermanos first (in the Marina district, by Chestnut and Fillmore).

Los Hermanos is a different burrito experience than Gordo. Their meats are much saucier, the rice isn't as heavily colored, and their guacamole and sour cream are watery in comparison. I happen to really enjoy the flavor of the sauce on their chicken and beef (the beef is somewhat like a Chile Colorado). Above is a shot of me with the burrito -- you can see by my ecstatic expression how fabulously exciting holding one of these in my hands really was. I munched it halfway, but at that point my interest began to wane. I have two theories as to why this might be: (1) the 2.5 lbs of burrito was beginning to fill me up, or (2) though the burrito is a nice change of pace from Gordo, it's just not as tasty at the end of the day.

Yes, intrepid readers, you know what this meant! The next day, my friends Tom, Jaa and I awoke early and headed straight over to Gordo, where I continued my food journaling documentation endeavors. Now that I've been living in Seattle for about seven years on and off, I've perfected the answer to the question, "what do you get at your favorite restaurant in all of San Francisco when you may only get to go there a couple of times a year?". Here it is, the long-awaited unveiling:

1. Carne asada corn quesadilla, no salsa, with hot sauce.
2. Carnitas flour quesadilla, no salsa, with beans, rice, guacamole and hot sauce.
3. Chile verde super burrito, no salsa or sour cream, with hot sauce.

Let's flesh this out a little more and explain some of the reasoning behind these selections. First of all, I always omit salsa as I find that when inserted into the component, it invariably makes the meal cold and wet. I like their salsa, but if I use it at all I want to apply it on a per-bite basis. Second, their hot sauce is unique, fabulous and tasty -- it's a green watery liquid that's probably a 3 / 5 spicy-wise, but also imparts a nice chile flavor to the dish. Third, sour cream never reheats well in the microwave, and I also find I sometimes grow tired of it, and if it's permeated the whole item then you're rather out of luck, so I omit it as a rule.

So, you may ask, what's so special about this place? Why do I love it so? Why do I (quite literally) dream about it a few times a month? Why do my brother and I treat it like holy ground? Pictures can't necessarily do it justice, but I'll try.

Examine the carne asada quesadilla to the right. This was the last bite, and it was as delectable as the first. Fried in lard, thick with cheese, and beef that's been sitting in brown beef juice right up until the moment they spooned it onto the quesadilla. The tortilla is soaked in grease but crunchy. I usually put some salt on each bite. This is my standard opening appetizer dish. The carnitas corn quesadilla is also excellent, but the carnitas is greasy enough that it pushes it beyond the category of "appetizer" into the "you won't be able to eat the rest of your meal" arena.

Next up were the flour quesadilla and the super burrito. There's a style and approach question here -- which do you eat first? Do you eat some of one, and then the other? I went with my gut instinct, and as you can see here, that meant holding one in each hand and alternating bites.
In my opinion, the primary item is the burrito, with the quesadilla acting a bit like a "chaser". Where one might normally grow tired of the chile verde sauce, here I was able to use the carnitas in the quesadilla to quell any uprising mutinous outcry of my tastebuds. Variety is the keyword here, and I made sure there was plenty of it. The flour quesadillas are lighter and flakier than the corn ones usually turn out, and they're much bigger, which makes it easier to have all of the burrito-based materials (beans, rice, etc.) added to them. One could argue, "Why even order a burrito? It's not fried, so it can't possibly be as tasty as the quesadilla." And, you'd basically be right. I ordered a burrito because ordering two flour quesadillas is absolutely and completely over the top, but I still needed a delivery vehicle to carry two different meats into my belly.

I've eaten a lot of chile verde in my time, but the best is here. Here's a close-up shot of the last piece of chile verde I was able to eat.

The meat has been cooked to a pot-roast tenderness, where it flakes easily and absorbs a great deal of the tomatillo sauce or whatever it is that's used to make the chile verde. Burritos made with this ingredient tend to be saucier than most, so look out if you're wearing anything that you'll be sad to drip upon. White oxford cloth shirts need not apply.

As I type this, I am wistful and despondent, knowing that it will be months before I am again able to visit this mecca of culinary delights. For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, seek it out, and think of me.

San Francisco, Day One and Half of Two

On arrival in San Francisco on vacation for a week or so, my friends Tom and Jaa greeted me with a festival of glory at the R&G Lounge chinese restaurant in Chinatown. A long-time staple and favorite of ours, we ordered:

• Hot and Sour Soup with Wonton: pork and shrimp filled solid wontons with noodle that isn't overcooked, and a hot and sour soup with all the right ingredients and flavor.
  
• Lemon Chicken: hot, crispy, high-qual lemon dipping sauce, pure and simple.
  
• Three Treasure (or something like that): Shrimp stuffed peppers, tofu and eggplant.
• Beef Ho Fun: wide flat noodles with zesty beef hunklets.

For lunch today I stopped by Hahn's Hibachi, one of a small chain throughout the city that professes to serve Korean BBQ. I love the stuff, but am not sure how authentic it really is. I'm especially fond of their hot chili sauce which is somewhat like sriracha with more pepper seeds and a bit of vinegar mixed in.


Here's a shot of the sandwich. Note the melted cheese, the thick boneless chunks of chicken (and not all dry, flavorless white meat), and you can see a bit of the light brown Korean BBQ sauce in among the chicken, cheese and bread as well. The bread is thin, but not too thin, and soft so that it doesn't slash up your mouth. I wolfed this thing down in about 3 minutes. It's $6, and it'll be one of the best $6 you ever spent.

I'm also a big fan of their meat plates: I usually get the combo chicken and beef, but they're all good. Meat mountain reigns supreme at Hahn's, and you just can't go wrong. We should all eat there as often as possible.

Rumor has it that tonight I'm eating at Wasabi and Ginger, a Sushi place somewhere near Russian Hill.