New Hing Lung: Cantonese Comfort Food
August 1, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — Since opening in 2000, New Hing Lung has served neighborhood cuisine at value pricing. Despite being surrounded by numerous options on Noriega’s restaurant row, this cozy restaurant has a number of elements that set it apart.
Entering the 130-seat restaurant, I am greeted with a big smile from owner Larry Chen. Chen has been in the restaurant business since he was 20, starting off as a bus boy.
He applies the keys of hospitality that he learned as a manager at Hing Lung in the Park on 19th Avenue. One key is answering any customer complaint with “No problem.” Despite being frustrated with customers at times, Chen emphasized staying calm, smiling and fixing the problem. He may also dash to the kitchen to vent his frustration to the staff.
Chen said that applying kindness toward his staff is vital to his success. When he eats with his kitchen staff after a long day of work, he converses with them, asking about their children and personal lives as a sign of respect. He also puts staff through a tryout process; when he hires a new waiter, he gives them a one-week working period to see if they are fit for the job.
While he juggles the hectic 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily restaurant schedule with being a father to three daughters, his wife Karen assists by managing the finances.
During lunch on weekdays, you can often find a crowd of neighborhood patrons, from construction workers to retirees. A piping hot bowl of house soup (which varies depending on the freshness of vegetables and herbs available) arrives before each meal. In Cantonese cuisine, soup serves to heal the body; some ingredients are claimed to have medicinal effects. The full-bodied soup at New Hing Lung replenishes the body and prepares the palate.
Similar to most Chinese restaurants, the mile-long menu can be overwhelming. While the fresh seafood tempts my palate, I often direct my attention to the plethora of budget dishes at $5.50. With a rich, savory oyster base, the Minced Beef over Spinach is a great dish, especially with rice. My two favorite comfort food dishes are Scrambled Egg with Bitter Melon (the scrambled eggs pair great with a cooling note from the melon) and Beef with Tomatoes (wok-fried sweet tomatoes balance slices of savory beef).
The Savory Steamed Pork Hash with Salted Duck Eggs is similar to a meatloaf. The Black Mushrooms, with a pungent earth tone, pairs well with Steamed Chicken. For a sweet and sour dish, the Pork Chop with Eggplant does the trick. A fusion flair is displayed in the sweet corn with fish fillet: Served with a thick sauce, the sweet corn enhances the bland tender fish fillets. My favorite dish is the Fish Fillet Tofu (logs of tofu with fish in a savory oyster sauce).
On a recent night, I ordered two dishes and drank a few bowls of soup. The total including tip was $15.
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New Hing Lung Restaurant
1556 Noriega St.
San Francisco, CA
(415) 661-8860
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Hours:
Lunch: 10a.m. - 2 p.m.
Dinner: 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.
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Prices: $8 and up
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One Response to “New Hing Lung: Cantonese Comfort Food”
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Folks:
Would that I were within walking, about 50 feet?, range of the likes of this exemplary bistro.
Fifteen bucks? Even I could eke out that sum, and I would double the gratuity to the waiter who qualifies.
Do any of you “Bay Area” residents remember one Vic Bergeron? He of the San Pablo Avenue “Hinky Dinks,” followed by the fabled “Trader Vic’s”?
The “Piedmont” types should, and the working stiffs from San Francisco Chinatown who survive might.
Of course, whereas we navvies who worked that 6500? San Pablo address may well recall the racism both in front of the velvet rope and behind same in the kitchen and service bar, how many readers of Herb Caen can vouch for an experience in the faux tiki torched rooms and the enervating redundancies of “polynesian” recordings played endlessly over thd p.a. system?
On the other hand, Vic gave value for the high-end prices of the day, chiefly through his value-for-cost foods and his top-of-the-line concoctions based on rum.
My own revered brother-in-law, years later, was privy to the racism of Trader Vic patronage in San Francisco, and I was not at all surprised.
Having witnessed, personally, the diss’ing of a young Chinese cokple of a Sunday afternnon held behind the red velvet ropes when almost the entire establishment was void of customers.
Oh, and I personally led a slave revolt of kitchen, serving, AND operative staff — only the public greeter and the lissome lass in charge of the sales items, plus, of course, the de rigueur white bartenders manning the public bar, who werd chiefly p.r. types, the bulk of the bartending residing in the service bar where race was not an issue — threatening walkout unless the pair of naifs were seated and served.
And then there was that unfortunate undergrad, UCB I would imagine, who adjured me, “Chop-chop,” as I turned to fulfill his order.
I stood for a full minute, gazubg at him and his “date” that Sunday afternoon, and then served everyone in the room long before him.
Ah, revenge is sweet, no?
Even after these long and misbegotten years.
Frank Eng
P.S.: Chen, of course, knows better, and he too will prosper and profit and grow. His staff as well.;