Not too long ago I came across a job posting on Craigslist for a hot dog vendor. It was tempting not to email the poster asking about the perks of the jobs, such as the daily limit of hot dogs I could eat.
I’ve seen the vendors before, on the street corners hawking wieners to tourists and Marina princesses as they run across the street in their Manolo Blahniks. As I pass the smell of relish and onions, I think: Are the vendors students? Do they have full-time jobs? How many hot dogs do they sell in a day? Are they vegetarians?
Although I’ve seen hungry passers-by wolf down hot dogs in front of City Hall or by the Caltrain Depot, I hesitate to say that the street food is a main draw for locals and tourists. Street food hasn’t quite caught on in San Francisco. In Berkeley, cheap and starving students seems to stand in line at the vendors along Bancroft Way, and in New York City shish kebabs and hot dogs seem to do okay.
There’s something really adventurous about eating street food. I hear countless tales from my friends who spent six months backpacking in South America. They tell me about having the best roasted guinea pig (yes, guinea pig), fruit juices, rice dishes they ever had.
And street food in Asia is unbeatable. From pad thai and pho to skewers and dumplings, you can’t beat the mom ‘n pops who sell their food out of bamboo baskets or bicycle baskets.
One of my fondest memories of street food is in Guilin, a province in southeastern China. I found this lady who served rice noodle soup for 15 U.S. cents a bowl. She had a bench for people to sit on, but her kitchen was set up on her bike: A fragrant barrel of broth, a pot of cooked rice noodles and plastic buckets of fresh garnishes and seasonings.
The cook wore a wide-brimmed bamboo hat, the same color of the parasol, which shielded the rain. I sit here writing this thinking about that scene, remembering the smell and the 100 laugh lines around the woman’s eyes.
When you travel, there’s bound to be places where you happen upon that surprise you. You write about it in your blog, you e-mail your friends, you take photos. I’ve been fortunate to experience many of these places, but I often wonder if these places still exist. Is the woman in Guilin still on the same street corner selling her noodles?
But drawing from my travels, it seems that street food isn’t a big hit here in the States. Perhaps the fact that we have strict codes and regulations on food sales deter people from selling bowls of noodles on Market Street.
At Singapore Malaysian Restaurant in the Richmond District, you can find dishes you’d probably see being sold on the streets in Asia. But rather than squatting on a sidewalk or hunched over a plastic stool, you sit in a dining room with spotlights and tropical-themed tablecloths.
Hokkien Mee ($7.25) is a Chinese-inspired noodle dish. Thick egg noodles are cooked with chicken, prawns, fish cakes, eggs, bean sprouts in a seafood broth. The noodles were al dente and the chicken wasn’t dried and overcooked. This is a perfect dish to have, especially in the foggy and misty San Francisco days we’ve been having. It brought back memories of eating my 15-cent bowl of noodles under a water-stained parasol.
Salty sambal married well with the mild flavors of the coconut milk-infused rice in Nasi Lemak ($7.25). Prawns, eggs, dried fish and peanuts finished off this Singaporean “fried rice” dish.
Entrées at Singapore Malaysian made more of an impression on me than appetizers. Low Bak ($7.50) is the Malaysian version of egg rolls stuffed with pork, onions, jicama, bean sprouts and served with a sweet, plum dipping sauce. The rolls weren’t swimming in oil, and the filling was fresh, with the pork remaining supple and the sprouts retaining their crunch.
Following on the jicama theme, the Rojak ($5.95) was a sweet and tangy salad with a motley of texture and flavors. Crispy cucumbers, soft pineapples, bean sprouts tossed in a shrimp paste and fish sauce dressing. Don’t let those last two ingredients throw you off; the sauces are diluted with quite a bit of sugar, which cuts the pungency.
Call me a romantic optimist, but I’m still searching for something tantamount to my noodle experience in Guilin here in the Bay Area. Sure, I probably won’t find anything similar here, but what’s the fun if you can’t live adventurously. You never know … it’s like finding love –– or a hot dog vendor –– in the most unexpected places.
Singapore Malaysian Restaurant
836 Clement St.
San Francisco, CA 94118
415-750-9518
Hours: Mon., Wed. – Thu. 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m., 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.; Fri. – Sun. 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Prices: Appetizers: $3.95 - $8.50; salads: $5.95 - $7.25; entrées: $5.75 - $14.50
Credit cards accepted.
Food: Good
Ambience: Fair
Service: Fair
Reach the Picky Eater at pickyeater@asianweek.com.