SF: San Tung Takes on Wings

The end of last year I visited San Francisco to take my aunt from Indonesia around. We were staying my a good friend of my cousin's and on my first night she took us to San Tung, a popular Chinese restaurant in the Inner Sunset district.

She said San Tung is supposed to have really good chicken wings and my aunt likes chicken.
Chinese=cheap. Chicken wings=sound good to me. I hesitated a bit because the friend is actually a vegetarian, so she wouldn't really know if the place was good. It had a good Yelp rating, so I wondered if it would be up to snuff.

A really spicy pickled cabbage that's served at every table.
My aunt and friend both liked it a lot. I didn't try it at all (didn't I just say it was supposedly really spicy?).

Because the friend is vegetarian, we also ordered some eggplant in garlic sauce ($7.50)
Generous portion and it packs a punch of flavor. The eggplants were sweet and tender and the sauce was a little spicy and very flavorful.

What we came for: The Original Dry Fried Chicken Wing ($9)
For my sake, we didn't get the hot ones that night. The wings had a nicely crispy skin, and a sticky sweet sauce. I preferred it to Bonchon/Kyochon in LA since it's not as sweet, the skin is crunchier than Kyochon (tho maybe not Bonchon), but mostly because it is CHEAPER. For $9 we get a whole plate of big chicken wings, not a small basket of tiny wings for $10. The value proposition is much higher.

Noodles in Black Bean Sauce ($8): SKIP.
Seems like a lot of Yelpers liked this dish, but I didn't. I usually really like the Korean-Chinese black bean noodle, jjangmyun, but here the homemade noodles were doughy and mushy, the black bean sauce was bland. The list of beef, shrimp, and calamari on the dish was tempting but I don't think it worked particularly well. It was a big bowl of bland starch to me.

San Tung for the most part serves a solid Chinese meal, but it's really the dry fried wings people come for and it isn't all just hype. The crispy wings were quite good and I'll pay for these over Kyochon any day. But then, would I otherwise drive so far and wait for a table for wings?

San Tung Chinese Restaurant
1031 Irving St
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 242-0828
www.santungrestaurant.com/menu.html

It's a Gal Chat: The Heyday of LA Times Food Section

Did you know there's an organization called the Culinary Historians of Southern California?
No? Interesting, right?

Of course, they don't just study gastronomical history among themselves. Here's what might interest you: This Saturday they are bringing the big name "girls" of the Los Angeles Times Food Section from the 1960's-80's together for a talk, and it's FREE to the public.

In attendance will be Betsy Balsley, Donna Deane, Rose Dosti and Barbara Hansen (whom I've had the pleasure of meeting and she's amazing).

Here's more details:

Saturday, April 10th, 10:30 am
Los Angeles Public Library
Mark Taper Auditorium, Downtown Central Branch
630 W. 5th St.

Free and open to the public

With over 100 work years of combined experience, the team of Betsy Balsley, Donna Deane, Rose Dosti and Barbara Hansen produced the Los Angeles Times Food section in its heyday beginning in the late sixties, into the 1980's. During this era the food section had 40 to 50 pages every week, with popular columns such as Culinary SOS and Borderlines and dozens of original recipes. Recipes were prepared for publication in a magnificent test kitchen. The LA Times Food Gals will reminisce about this extraordinary era of food journalism, the resources they had to produce a great food section.

A reception with themed refreshments will follow the talk at approximately 11:30.

Pal Cabron: Cemitas & Clayudas Cabronas

Pal Cabron is the brainchild of siblings Bricia and Fernando Lopez, whose family own the Guelaguetza restaurants. Pal Cabron is also perhaps the only restaurant in town serving Cemita Poblana, the sandwich that is the street food staple of Puebla.
Pal Cabron generously offered to donate a bunch of gift certificates for Bid and Eat when I was doing a fundraising for Haiti, so one Sunday I drove over to pick them up. And have lunch, of course.

Javier Cabral, aka The Glutster, was an early discovered of Pal Cabron and his blog post brought bloggers' attention to the place. They even added a painting of him on the wall.

Even though it was only lunch time and on a Sunday, I couldn't skip the much-praised Michelada.
Spicy and savory! Worcestershire sauce and a little Piquin chile is topped with Pacifico beer. A strong wake-upper here.

I dragged a friend of mine from East LA here. My friend asked me what he should get, and I recommended the one thing I've had (during Glutster's bday wine tasting trip) which I really enjoyed before: La de Barbacha ($5.95) which is Barbacoa de Borrego Enchilado (Seasoned Lamb)
Cemita Poblana here is made with a freshly baked roll sprinkled with sesame seeds and stuffed with the meat you ordered, avocado, onions, quesillo, milanesa, queso panela ... all that good stuff. When I had it during our lunch picnic, I really enjoyed all the flavors that went in and the tender meat itself.

Since I've had their cemita before, I wanted to try their clayuda this time. I was still full so I avoided meat and went with the basic with black beans and Oaxacan string cheese, Quesillo ($5.95).
It may look like a pizza to you at first, but don't be expecting similar flavors. The large and crispy tortilla is spread with pork fat, black bean paste and topped with cheese. It's crunchy, it's rich and fatty and cheesy. Very satisfying. Next time I'll add some chorizo on top.

Even though I was full, as we were leaving I gave in and got a horchata after all. The horchata here, just like the one at Guelaguetza, is topped with pecan bits, melons, and tuna (cactus) puree.
The perfectly refreshing end.


Cemitas y Clayudas Pal Cabron
2560 E Gage Ave
Huntington Park, CA 90255
(323) 277-9899
@PalCabron