Burmese in Burlingame

If you're looking for a new cuisine to try, I would highly suggest Burmese. Mingalaba Restaurant in Burlingame serves up some tasty grub. Think Chinese-Thai fusion. The two times Tobasco and I went, we ordered the Shan Noodles because they were THAT GOOD. The rice noodles are served in a spicy tomato sauce with chicken, peanuts, cilantro, chili flakes, sesame seeds and pickled radish. The dish arrives pre-mixed, and the server explains each ingredient and mixes it for you. I'm assuming it's in case you're allergic or dislike any of the ingredients. In addition to this dish, we've ordered the Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and the Burmese Style Pan Fried String Beans. The Eggplant is pretty self-explanatory, and the string beans were quite interesting. You can ordered said beans with either dried shrimp or vegetarian tofu. If you just say fried string beans, they'll automatically give you the dried shrimp, which actually adds an interesting kick to the dish. And give the coconut rice a try. It's divine.

Mingalaba Restaurant
1213 Burlingame Avenue
Burlingame, CA 94010

Nepalese Food

Having failed at ordering Dosa (the place was closed) and hungry on a Saturday night, PS and I decided to check for a good deal on her Taste Card. There aren't many places in Oxford that take the card on a Sat night, but we found Kadai and Naan, an Indian/Nepalese place. Since I was craving noodles, we decided to try our luck with their Paneer Noodle dish. We were pleasantly surprised by a delicious dish that almost mimics Indian-Chinese fusion. The noodles were fried with chillies, garlic, onion and we're assuming some soy sauce and chili oil. Intermixed with the noodles were perfectly fried cubes of paneer. The mixture may sound strange, but it was one of the best dishes I've had in a while. We also ordered the Chicken Kadai, which resembles an Indian curry, but with slight variations on the herbs and spices. If you love Indian food and want to try something similar with a twist, definitely give this place a go.

Kadai and Naan
209 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1XF

Cantonese Tomato Beef

I was left with several parcels of tomatoes the other day when a friend went on a month-long research trip to California. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." But when life gives you tomatoes, make...?" Feeling slightly nostalgic for my mother's cooking, I opted to make a Cantonese dish consisting of tomatoes and beef. Traditionally, this mixture is served over rice, but I decided to make it with vermicelli noodles because I had no rice in the house, and I love noodles. My version of this recipe is quite bastardized and randomly whipped together, but it turned out pretty good nonetheless!

(2-3 servings)
3-4 cloves of garlic (depending on garlic tolerance)
250g beef mince
~330g sliced cherry tomatoes (more or less depending on your taste; regular tomatoes are alright too and actually more traditional)
soy sauce (to taste)
1 tsp sugar
375g vermicelli (i.e. rice noodles)
dash of sesame oil
2-3 eggs (depending on # of servings)

Stir fry the garlic in a bit of oil for about a minute. Add the beef mince and fry until about 75% of the beef is cooked. Add the sliced cherry tomatoes and squish them to get all the water out. Add in soy sauce and sugar and let it simmer for a couple minutes. Give the mixture a try and add more sugar and/or soy sauce depending on how sweet or salty you want it.  Stir in the vermicelli, sesame oil, and more soy sauce if needed. Mix well for another two minutes. Keep tasting and adjusting the ingredients to your taste buds. In another pan, fry up some eggs. Put the noodles in dishes and top each serving off with an egg.

This recipe is quite ad hoc, so feel free to play around with it. There's really no way of messing up as long as you keep tasting and mixing in things little by little until the flavor suits you!

Off the Grid: Civic Center Edition

Korean Taco

Braised Pork Bao (Steamed)

Recently, a Chronicle reader emailed Michael Bauer with a list on "How to tell if a restaurant is pretentious." Although the list has some good points, there are few that really make the reader himself sound pretentious. Of course, one of his points involves food trucks:

3) If the restaurant has four wheels and does not serve hot dogs or tacos. Or if the restaurant is a “pop-up”, period.

Yes, it does get annoying having to chase down food trucks or stands, and sometimes I, too, am disappointed. But hating on all trucks is a tad drastic. Anyways, that was my small spiel. Off the Grid basically involves food truck pop-ups in various areas of San Francisco. On Fridays they're usually at Civic Center (until Fort Mason opens again). You can check their twitter for links to which trucks are actually there on a specific date (they change week-to-week sometimes). Last Friday, I was able to try Seoul on Wheels and give Chairman Bao another go. My actual objective was to hit Japacurry, but they were sold out! The taco at Seoul on Wheels was fantastic. The Bulgogi was very flavourful and went surprisingly well with the tortilla. This time I tried the Braised Pork with Savoy Cabbage and Preserved Mustard Seeds at Chairman. This bao is a definitely more fusion-y. The creamy pulled pork-ness was interesting, but sent less Chinese vibes than the other baos.

http://offthegridsf.com/

Off the Grid: Civic Center
(Literally right in front of Civic Center)
11:30-2:30 on Fridays for now, but will probably move back to Thursdays

Want: Wontons

After experiencing Wonton cravings for weeks, I finally got the nerve to make them myself. The process itself is not difficult, but it is a bit time consuming. I called my mom for a recipe, but like any mom she told me "a little of this...a little of that," i.e. ingredients, but no specific quantities. I guess that's what happens you know you're a pro. I adapted my mother's advice with a recipe that appeared in the Bold Italic article on dumplings in the city. I omitted shrimp because it's expensive, and I'm not a huge fan. I also left out water chestnuts...mostly because I was too lazy to get them and am not particularly partial to them in wontons. Other than that, I basically followed the recipe, but I also added an egg yolk as per my mother's recipe. Here's a link:

http://thebolditalic.com/TienlonHo/stories/340-wrappers-delight

It's actually pretty self explanatory. Wrapping them is fun, but like I mentioned before, a bit time consuming. Be prepared to wrap around 40 with that recipe!

"Forget it, RP, it's Chinatown."

After reading a blog that claimed SF Chinatown's Hing Lung had the second best Duck Wonton Noodles in the city, I thought I'd give the place another try. I've been trying to avoid this place for the past few years because I've received really bad service on occasion. So, I know everyone's response (and my response) to this comment should be (à la the title of this post), "Forget it, RP, it's Chinatown. There ain't no service." I mean, this place admittedly has a bajillion customers, so they're not losing anything from me not going there. BUT, I'd still like a little service, please. Anyways, somehow I manage to find myself there a couple times a year, since my family's been going there for a million years. This time, the sis and I decided to start out with a brunch-y dish of Zhaliang, which is basically a chinese donut wrapped with a rice noodle roll. That explanation sounds kind of weird, but it's quite tasty! So far, so good with the food. Next, we had the Duck Wonton Noodle soup that the blog was talking about. Not too shabby. Broth, noodles, and wontons were pretty noms. (Although, I am the type who prefers my mom's home-made wontons.) The duck was well marinated and roasted, but a tiny bit fatty. To finish off our meal, we had Beef Chow Fun with Black Bean Sauce. I, myself prefer a less saucy chow fun, but this is my sis' fave dish. Sauce was good. Noodles were good. A little bit too much beef, and some of it was kind of chew-y. Overall analysis of Hing Lung: Not THAT bad. Service this time was actually alright, and we got a shit ton of food. So for now, I'll try not to hate too much on this place.

Hing Lung
674 Broadway (b/w Stockton and Grant)