151. Bay Area - Yummy Yummy Vietnamese Raw Beef Salad / 火車頭牛肉粉 (SF: Inner Sunset)

Yummy Yummy in the Inner Sunset is one of those places you never forget.  Though pho is written in Vietnamese on the yellow awning over the door, this restaurant makes more than just bowls of rice noodles.  The raw beef salad is one of the most popular items, and it is what I remembered from my first visit here three years ago.  It is almost absurd as to how squeamish I was about eating raw beef just three years ago because I would easily select fresh steak tartare off any restaurant menu, particularly from Olympic Provisions in Portland.

Thin, almost translucent, sheets of rosy red beef gets showered with such a healthy dose of lemony citrus that it almost cooks the protein.  The fragrance comes from the fried shallots and chopped basil, and the toasted peanuts provide a complementary crunch to the smoothly soft beef.  I detect some quickly fried garlic in there too, and my tongue likes it.

The fish sauce fried chicken wings is a must order item just as much as the raw beef salad is.  The skin is crisp.  The glaze is spicy.  And the chicken itself is damned hot.  There is a big chance of burning your fingers, so if you can manage eating chicken wings with chopsticks, I would highly recommend it. 

The main attraction at Yummy Yummy is arguably the whole crab.  There are about half a dozen different seasonings on the menu.  We ordered cua rang moi, the house special salt and pepper and crab.  The restaurant provides each person a shell cracker, thankfully, and the three of us tore through that sucker and demolished its tender soft inner meat.  Real good stuff... this is the traditional way of eating seafood before Boiling Crab ever came along.


There is much more on the menu... from the requisite variations of pho to rice cakes and rice dishes... to grilled beef, frog, eel, and even a large vegetarian section.  I have yet to try those because I order the raw beef salad, chicken wings, and whole crab whenever I come here, but I don't doubt that I see some cooked beef and rice cakes in the future.  Until then, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Yummy Yummy
1015 Irving St.
Inner Sunset
San Francisco, CA 94122

ML - 20130831

Post 37: Birthdays at Maison Akira (LA-SGV: Pasadena)

There are a slew of friends' birthdays coming up, so I have been plotting (err.. planning) a few festivities.  While looking through pictures from last year's birthday celebrations for a few ideas, I came across a series of photos from outings at Maison Akira in Pasadena.

I came here for the first time for the Sunday champagne brunch for Connie's birthday.  I discovered right then that everything Maison Akira offers, from food down to service, is prepared, executed and presented with innate Japanese precision, courtesy of Chef Akira Hirose.  Granted, the brunch buffet is nowhere close to the spread at Universal Hilton, but not a single one of Chef Hirose's dishes are disappointing.  And the doesn't have the same mass-produced feeling that the Vegas buffets or the Universal Hilton buffet has.  Here are some of the expertly prepared plates from the Sunday brunch:

Assorted sushi.
Eel (unagi), salmon (sake), tuna (maguro), egg (tamago), and eggplant (nasu).

Crab chawanmushi.

A petite pool of pesto graces the top of the steamed egg.

The crab chawanmushi was my favorite item in the buffet spread.  The steamed egg is absolutely supple... beautifully supple.  Just slight pressure from the push of my fingers on the teaspoon pierces the skin of the chawanmushi to lift a portion of porcelain delicate, custard colored, tofu textured, protein laded bliss.  The pesto that sits atop the egg allows the tongue to flirt with a slightly saltier flavor for just a few seconds... just long enough for your brain to process the pesto's European origins... but not long enough for your brain to change its views on how Japanese the chawanmushi dish actually is.  Continued excavation into the sake cup sized chawanmushi reveals a pinch-sized lump of fresh crab meat, tender from its recent steam and juicy from absorbing of surrounding egg.  Mmmmm... who's ready to head back for seconds?

The first visit was such a relaxed and pleasant experience that it mandated an evening visit during the dinner service.  I revisited Maison Akira with a group of friends for Allison's big birthday, and we ordered a range of appetizers and entrees in both the tapas and regular plates.

Duo of Japan hamachi sashimi and big-eye tuna tartare.
This dish is so simple yet so tasty.  The wasabi tobiko atop the hamachi
is a creative substitute for the traditional grated wasabi root. 
It literally bursts with nose-clearing spice. 

Trio of big-eye tuna tartare, sashimi and sauteed Hokkaido scallops.
The first dish was a favorite, so we ordered a second helping.  The tartare is fresh,
and the hamachi melts in your mouth.  The scallops are still rare in the middle.  Perfect.

 Tower of portabello mushrooms, yams, tomatoes and maytag bleu cheese.

This combination of vegetables from the ground is piled as high as the pungent 

yet creamy bleu cheese will allow it to go.  It has a transcendentally earthy feel.

Grilled duck foie gras in a port wine truffle sauce

with daikon pot-au-feu and king oyster mushroom.

One of the greatest experiences in life is biting into a chunk of fatty foie gras 

and having its fat juices burst into your mouth and run over your tongue.

Oyster flan in a sea ikura beurre blanc.
This dish combines two of my favorite foods together... oyster and sea urchin roe.
Their creamy textures and ocean origins blend well together.

American kobe beef ravioli in karashi red wine sauce.

Although flavorful, the tender fattiness of the kobe beef is missing from the ravioli.

I'll be having Japanese kobe beef in steak or for shabu shabu in the future.

Sauteed Canadian scallops with king oyster sympatic in lobster jus.
The zucchini basil flan acts as the nucleus for the electrons of scallops,
holding the soft flavor and smooth texture of both flan and scallop together.

Baked Alaska.
Teenage Glutser has an action shot of the baked Alaska during the flambe process here.

I've only ever read about Mrs. White's baked Alaska at Mr. Boddy's extravagant dinner parties in the Clue series as a elementary school kid.  I finally got a chance to try this marshmallow flambeed dessert dish.  The surprise inside is a Japanese green tea ice cream, sweetened by the raspberry sauce and softened by the tough yet airy roasted marshmallow.

 

Vanilla ice cream with fresh berries in a cookie shell with caramel netting.
The best desserts are simple, fresh, and don't push you into a food coma.

The restaurant is nestled on Green Street behind the Pasadena's main thoroughfare in a space that has room for just over a dozen tables.  The mirrors at any ends of the dining room trick the guests into thinking that the restaurant is actually much larger than it really is.  There are chef prix fixe menus as well as a chef's omakase tasting menu, which I am quite curious to see about next time I visit.  Reservations are highly recommended.  Who's ready to drop some bills?

Until we make it rain again, let's get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20101014/20091101+28

Post 29: Yummy Yummy Is Yummy Yummy (SF: Inner Sunset)

When I told Janet about my plans to visit the Bay Area, she wanted to take me to her favorite Vietnamese restaurant in town.  Scratch that.  She wanted to take me to her favorite restaurant in town.  It just happens to be Vietnamese.  She messaged me and said that I HAD TO try it.  And yes, it was in ALL CAPS.

So as the last meal before I left (my heart in) San Francisco, we stopped by Yummy Yummy in the Sunset District, where the Asian food is still authentic and hasn't yet been toursited out like it has been in other parts of town (namely, Chinatown).



Janet took charge of the menu and showed us some of her favorites:


Raw beef salad.  The paper-thin slices of beef (from which part I have no idea) looked just a bit like hot pot beef from the yellow styrofoam tray at 99 Ranch.  But the basil, onions (both fried and raw), and peanuts helped disguise it. 

Rare steak? Not a problem.  Raw beef? Eeek.  I squeezed a good amount of lemon on the beef hoping that the acid would cook the beef fast enough so it didn't look so red.  But as the second hand on my watch ticked away and as Janet, Grace and Alex ate away, I decided to suck it up and just inhale it.  Look, I'm still here.  Blogging, no less.  Ergo, the raw beef salad is safe.  Oh, and I forgot to mention... it was bomb diggity delicious.  A punch from the peanuts, a bite frm the basil, and a kick from the onions made the raw beef salad somethin' spectacular.  I was ready for another roll of beef.


Fish sauce marinated butter fried chicken wings.  Like whoa.  These little deep-fried wings and drumettes come out with fish sauce, strands of raw onions and carrots, and pieces of raw garlic poured over the top.  This item is not on the menu (just yet) and was suggested (more like pushed) to us by the boss.  (Janet, Grace and others on Yelp think that it's Yummy Yummy's counter to the amazing-delicious chicken wings from San Tung next door.)

The sauce over the top makes for the kind of crispy batter that begins to soften as time goes on, so eating quickly is a necessity.  The only problem is that the chicken wings are fried to a point so hot that my fingers felt a bit smoldered just from the steaming heat.  Damn.  Catch 22.  It's like trying to eat the most delicious ice cream cone outdoors in the hot summer heat.  It's panic trying to get through the entire cone before it melts, but it's pleasure with every successful bite.


Crab with spicy onion seasoning.  What it really should be called is crab with spicy onion, garlic, pepper, green onion, ginger, everything seasoning.  That's what it is, and that's what it tastes like.  It's a fresh whole crab in all its glory.  Although I'm a little sad that this crab had to die for this meal, I'm glad knowing that the crab died to make four hungry people happy. 

Everyone gets their own shell cracking tool, which is great because otherwise, we'd never be able to get inside to experience the pillow-soft sinews of the martyred crustacean.  And I'm not joking about the crab meat being pillow-soft.  If seafood stink and sanitation weren't such major factors, I'd take the sinews of the crab and stuff me a pillow! What a wonderful night's sleep I'd get... but seafood stink and sanitation are major factors, so... crab pillow I shall not make.


Spicy beef pho.  This pho wasn't your typical pho from ordinary Vietnamese restaurants.  The beef was sliced thicker... the soup had a spicy kick... and if you couldn't tell already, the color was a boiling red.  Oooh.  But the additions were the same as any: bean sprouts, basil leaves, citrus squeeze (lemon instead of lime here), and green chili peppers.

We ordered the pho with thicker, white flour noodles as opposed to the traditional thinner, clear rice noodles.  They were just as springy and elastic as expected from the typical pho noodle.  The best part? The soup, of course.  I didn't feel like I was slurping up an MSG-infested, sinkwater-colored bowl of denatured enzymatic proteins.  This... was just simply Vietnamese beef noodle soup.  I like.



Hear that Janet? I like.  Thanks, Janetabulous for introducing me to this Yummy Yummy-ness.  Next door to San Tung next time?

Until then, let's get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20100817/20100725

Post 17: Red Hot Kitchen (East LA)

When I first heard that Red Hot Kitchen served Korean BBQ tacos, it seemed like just another player in the recent Korean-Mexican fusion craze.  However, after I got a chance to stop by with Rose to sample their nine-item tasting menu.  With its stationary stomping ground (not a truck) and plenty of peculiarities such as the jalapeño bomb and mushroom popper,  it was clear that Red Hot Kitchen had set itself apart from the others.  

This was the bonanza in my box:

Item 1: The avocado mango salad consisted of a colorful array of fruits and vegetables.  It was pleasing to the eye as well as the stomach, for it provided a refreshing start (or end) to a not-so-light meal.

Item 2: The spicy pork and kimchee quesadilla had a smell so strong that it reminded me of foods like Taiwanese stinky tofu that pack powerful, pungent punches.  That didn't mean I didn't like it though.  My appreciation for pungent foods goes far and beyond... the smellier the kimchee, the better.

Item 3: More like a jalapeño torpedo than a jalapeño bomb, this was one of the most creative items on the tasting menu.  If you think the typical gooey, cheese-filled, breaded and fried jalapeño popper is delicious, try one that is stuffed with crab and cream cheese and topped off with not just Sriracha but the ever-popular spicy mayo. Placing it in your mouth is like a slow-mo, clock-ticking countdown to an explosion of spiciness.

Item 4: The beef chimichanga was more like a bomb or a bean flower in full bloom.  At first glance I thought it literally looked like a tub of beans held together with a deep fried tortilla.  It probably wasn't such a good idea to have the chimichanga after the jalapeño bomb because the Sriracha and spicy mayo started mixing together, so it became a bit difficult to discern the flavors.  Regardless, the outer layer was fried to a distinct crisp, and who's to refuse a crispy, deep-fried crunch?

Item 5: Upon first bite of the bulgogi slider, I knew I was in love.  It wasn't the meat that captured my attention but the bread.  It was so soft, so sweet... like biting into a pillow of bread.  I might have even closed my eyes for just a bit when as I was savoring the sweet and savory taste.  I discovered later on Yelp that the rolls were the original King's Hawaiian sweet bread.  Although it's great to know that the chef knows his bread, the King's roll may have stolen the bulgogi's thunder just a bit.

Item 6: There's no way I could have simply popped the mushroom popper into my mouth, but because of that I was given an opportunity to repeatedly crunch on the popper's ridiculously crispy shell.  I had thought that perhaps the mushroom would have been diced or somehow blended in with the crab, but surprise! Like opening a time capsule (which I've never done... horribly analogy), an entire mushroom cap tumbled out when I sliced the popper in half.

Item 7: By the time I had reached for the short rib taco, it was cold... not lukewarm or cooled off... but cold.  No matter.  The flavor of the meat was just napping, and a squirt of the lime definitely woke it up from its slumber.

Item 8: I could tell that the chicken taco would have been better had it been warm, so I took it home for a minute-nuke in the microwave.  The chicken was still tender and still moist, but the short rib had left a stronger flavor on my palate.  I may have to try it on-site again in its solitude for a better taste reference in the near future.

Item 9: The slice of Mexican pizza is not the prettiest item on the menu; I'll tell ya that right away.  But after a few bites, this petite piece of pizza begins to be a bit addicting.  This quesadilla on crack is cheese sandwiched between tortillas... topped off with beans, guacamole, onions (both green and white), and sour cream.  Did I forget the meat? Something red (perhaps tomatoes or salsa... no more Sriracha!) may help its aesthetic appeal.

The tasting menu was a great way to get a glimpse of what the little bungalow could create.  The menu is extensive, so I'm sure anyone can find at least one item to enjoy.  If it's your first time there, the japaleño bomb is a great way to whet your appetite.  Props to this local business for sprouting in this tough economic environment. 

Mentions: 

Thanks to Rose for dragging me out to get my mind away from a difficult day.

ML - 20100417