Text 23036, 100 rader
Skriven 2012-03-29 12:11:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: tr 437
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My friend Dave was by to fetch me. He owed me lunch for
some reason, and after an initial suggestion of Max's, we
decided, based on the niceness of the day, to go down past
the Hilton to Kincaid's, whose main dining room has a great
view over the bay (and incidentally, the landing patterns
at the airport). The food was tertiary to the view and the
company, and I completely forget what I had - it wasn't
much, because there was dinner to come, and anyhow Dave's
gone short, and I didn't want to soak him. I think I got
an appetizer (maybe not even that) and a big Sierra Nevada.
Dave said his burger was good.

We enjoyed the view for a while, but that eventually gets
old. As I had a few hours before meeting my friends for
dinner, Dave let me use his apartment for a shower and a
nap - his place is up Turk St. in the Panhandle so fairly
convenient to Chinatown, where my dinner was to be.

The Fish and Elisa had had their wedding rehearsal dinner
at Oriental Pearl a few months ago, so we decided to meet
up there, as no doubt they would be recognized by the
management, and we would be treated extra specially. As
it turns out, they weren't, but we were served well anyhow.

I got to the restaurant plenty early, but my friend Tom was even
earlier. We camped out on the sidewalk in front for a while,
waiting for our glamorous friend Sheri, who is a blonde and might
be expected to walk past.

As it was she found the place no problem, followed in short
order by Elisa, who had said she'd be late but had gotten out
of work early no problem and driven up from Silicon Valley
with easy traffic. The Fish, who it was intimated would be
early, was the last to arrive, and we trooped up for our
reservation for a round table for six. My friend Jim was
supposed to be there but had sent a vague e-mail excuse:
turns out it might have been more serious than an ordinary
blowoff - he's the one to whose funeral I went a week later.

Sheri's a veggie who mourns for the pig on the plate but is
perfectly happy to dine next to the pig who has the pig on
his plate, if he's sufficiently entertaining, so we got a
mixed but mostly non-vegetarian meal.

Vegetarian egg rolls were crisp, done in hot, reasonably
fresh oil, filled with cabbage. It's amazing that vegetarians
can eat as much cabbage as they do without polluting the
atmosphere.

Vegetarian steamed dumplings filled with mushroom, carrot,
and of course cabbage were pretty good.

Regular steamed dumplings had a blander pork mixture than I
favor and needed sauce of some kind - I used hot oil, the
others used mostly ginger-steeped soy or red ginger vinegar.

Shanghai small soup dumplings - the specialty of the house;
they were good but nothing special, the wrapper trying as
with all of this ilk to skirt between chewy and fragile.
These were both chewy and fragile.

Fish and Elise wanted fried squid with spicy salt: rather
heavy but quite tasty, a B- version.

Tom, recently returned from Asia I believe, wanted to try
the sliced pork with lotus root, the meat heavily coated
with cornstarch guck, seasoned with soy and a bunch of MSG,
and stir-fried slowly and greasily with thin slices of that
peculiarly tender and crunchy vegetable. Oddly, the taste
was superb, and this might have been the best of the dishes.

Chinese broccoli with Chinese sausage and smoked pork belly
was my choice. Again, the taste was excellent, but the
texture this time had flaws, those being, in a nutshell,
tough vegetable, tough sausage, and tough pork belly.
A little effort hydrating things would have yielded big
payout, including the opportunity for the restaurant to
serve a smaller portion.

The vegetarian offering was fried tofu puff with black
mushrooms, comforting and pretty good.

Beverages of the day were Heinekens for Tom and me,
umbrella drinks for the rest of them.

The Fish required that we get sesame balls for dessert -
these were the usual thing, chewy rice dough stuffed with
bean paste, rolled in sesame, and fried. I too love 'em.

As everyone had been prompt, even with leisurely service
and a couple extra drinks we had plenty of chatting time,
but as always, I had a plane to catch.

The Fish got me to the airport in jig time - it was not a long
way out of his way, as he and Elise live somewhere around San
Bruno anyway.

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