Serendipity on the Street
August 29, 2003
New Hong Kong Menu
667-669 Commercial St.
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-391-3677
Hours: Mon.–Thurs., Sat.: 11 a.m.– 9:30 p.m.; Fri.: 11 a.m.–10:30 p.m.
Price: $2.50–$8 for soup and noodle soup, $3.75–$5.25 for rice plates, $3.75–$8.50 for entrees.
Credit Cards accepted.
You know that feeling you get when you stick your hand down in between the sofa cushions and grab a couple of quarters or you reach down into your jeans pocket and pull out a twenty? Well, I haven’t had that feeling lately.
But something similar did happen to me last Friday. My friend and I had planned on getting some dim sum over at City View on Commercial Street. Neither one of us was feeling particularly hungry; my friend said her stomach was acting strange, and I had just polished off a huge container of organic salad that I had brought from home. So dim sum it was.
It was about half past noon and I had an inkling that the financial district lunch crowd was out in droves and there might be a wait at City View. It’s interesting how little of that crowd makes it past Kearny Street to dine at other Asian restaurants (not counting the ones in North Beach.)
As expected, there was a line by the door and those dining didn’t look like they were going to budge soon. So my friend and I looked at each other and circled around looking for other restaurants. We didn’t have to walk very far to New Hong Kong Menu. It was just across the street from City View.
We figured some of the customers here had initially planned on eating at City View but, because of an unnecessarily long wait, decided to eat at New Hong Kong Menu instead. Default restaurants sometimes get a lot of flack, but some have managed to hold their own. Case in point: Chef Jia’s next to House of Nanking has managed to keep a steady crowd coming with their inexpensive spicy and sweet Hunan cuisine.
New Hong Kong Menu has two dining rooms with green carpeting and green bamboo prints on the walls, and a cafeteria-like board with removable white letters at the front of the restaurant. A defunct and mossy fish tank sits near the entrance of the restaurant with several tiny goldfish milling about. It was a busy lunch crowd, but nothing that required us to wait for a table.
You should expect to wait a while for your food, though, unless you order won ton or noodle soups. The good thing is, you get a free bowl of lotus root and beef soup while you wait.
We wanted to try the Pig Skin and Fish Balls Claypot ($5.95), but since the restaurant was out of pig skin, we opted for Fish Balls with Bean Curd in Broth Claypot ($6.95), a generous and delicious pot of bubbling firm tofu, fish balls, cilantro, ginger and scallions. The brown broth wasn’t runny but it wasn’t gummy either, the consistency was just right to coat the fish balls (called “fish eggs” in Cantonese, but made with ground fish meat and cornstarch).
We really enjoyed this dish. The tofu was well prepared and, unlike many restaurants, it wasn’t deep fried. Everything came together in this dish.
Next, a huge plate of the Seasonal Vegetable with Beef Stew ($5.95) arrived at our table, with hefty cubes of beef (from the cow’s stomach region) swimming in a brown gravy with cilantro and scallions on top a bed of thick, long stalks of green gai lan (Chinese broccoli). The beef was tender, but there were some cubes that were a bit stringy. Eat those with some of the sauce and you’re good to go. The gai lan was fresh and I liked how the restaurant had slightly pre-snipped the stalks to make it easier, and less messy, to eat.
Our last dish was the Prawns with Scrambled Egg over Rice ($4.75). This is one of those dishes that spells c-o-m-f-o-r-t. I love the way my dad makes it. In Cantonese, this dish is called “smooth egg shrimp rice.” The eggs aren’t runny or raw, but the consistency after they’re prepared is creamy and, when eaten together with warm steamed rice, this dish is heaven.
New Hong Kong Menu’s version wasn’t too bad. The prawns, which weren’t deveined, were cooked with white onions, carrots, celery, garlic and eggs. I would have liked more eggs, because it seemed like the egg sauce had been combined with some cornstarch and water to create a slurry. Still overall, the dish was a good deal.
We capped off our lunch with a bowl of homemade Black Sesame Paste ($2.00), a thick soup of ground black sesame seeds with rock sugar thickened with glutinous rice flour or yam flour. My mom has perfected this sweet concoction, and makes it regularly for its good taste and health benefits (eyes, hair and skin). Some places serve you the instant pre-made kind and mix it with some warm water, but New Hong Kong Menu’s had the nice bitterness that only comes from freshly ground black sesame seeds. It was slightly higher on the cornstarch and water side, but coming from a restaurant, it was good.
So my advice to you: Go to New Hong Kong Menu, but skip the sweet and battered meats with fried rice dishes, and try some of the clay pots or braised noodles. The waitstaff is somewhat brusque and their English is somewhat limited, but they get your food to your table.
Unexpected surprises always give reason to smile. Whether it’s finding a parking space on Friday night in the Mission or catching the train by 30 seconds, the feeling you get is one of elation, and “Wow, I do have some luck.” For me, finding a restaurant which I probably would have never tried or given a benefit of a doubt, and having that impression totally changed, is just as good.
Comments
Got something to say?