albear_garni

Working close to San Francisco's Chinatown, you begin to figure out which places are worth going to for a meal. And thanks to Asian co-workers, I've learned a lot about the many aspects of Asian Cuisine, from Cantonese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese Chinese, to Korean and Japanese, to Vietnamese and Thai. Bring them on!

Some time ago, I discovered the joys of wonton soup. Not the soup you get in restaurants as a first course, with small wontons and tolerable broth, but the kind chock full of ingredients (and not wor wonton, either). My first love was with a soup at a place no longer around, the since burned-out International Food Mall, at the corner of Kearny and Bush. Located in the basement, there were Philippino, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Taiwanese stalls, all good. but it was the Dumpling soup at the Taiwanese stall that stood out. With dumplings made with pork and shrimp, a superb chicken broth, broccoli, carrots, scallions, chunks of chicken and more whole shrimp, it sent me into heaven the first time I ate it. Did I forget the siracha sauce? I went back at least once a week, and could never tear myself away from that soup!

Currently, there are two places I go to, one is a small place called 77 Chinese Cuisine and Hawaiian BBQ. You ask for the soup off the menu. Not as good as my first love, it substitutes bock choy for the broccoli, and the dumplings are as tasty, but it's still good (once again with hot sauce).

The second place is Golden King, at 757 Clay in Chinatown. A Vietnamese, not Chinese restaurant, it takes the dumpling soup to a new plane with the addition of a vietnamese style broth (chicken, with a touch of beef), lettuce as the vegetable, fresh basil, sliced green hot peppers, a squeeze of lemon and the addtion of shredded chicken. I omit the bean sprouts - it would be one thing too much!

Again slightly off the menu, but they do know what to serve me when I walk in the door!

However, any new suitors are more than welcome....