SFO and back east
 

Thanks to DGolds, I got a couple hot tips for
dim sum places: Ton Kiang, on Geary at 22nd
(he said to go early, maybe 11:00) as his
first choice, and Hong Kong Flower Garden on
Geary at 17th. We headed to Ton Kiang just
before 11, and the line was halfway around the
block; so we went to choice number two, which
we discovered had changed its name (and
ownership) to Parc Hong Kong, while retaining
the same kitchen staff. We found the place
crowded but not stifling, and the two of us
got seated at a table for 4. What we had:

Eggplant stuffed with ground pork was lengths
of Asian eggplant split and filled with a
coarse chop of pork and coated in brown sauce
- a respectable peasanty kind of dish, on the
heavy side.

Salt and pepper calamari - the standard
treatment, but rings only, no tentacles; the
salt salty, the red peppers spicy but not
fatal, and some minced scallion a pleasant
touch.

Shrimp dumplings with mayonnaise - I
discovered this Hong Kong dish in London, and
I continue to order it as I find it amusing.
It's a regular shrimp filling inside a deep-
fried flaky pastry, with a dish of sweetened
mayo on the side. In London they add canned
fruit cocktail; here it was just mayo. I don't
know which I prefer.

Octopus and seaweed was a special (it cost
about twice what the regular things did). A
dozen baby red-cooked octopus ringing a
mixture of various seaweed in julienne. An
excellent dish, if you don't mind infanticide.

Shrimp and chive dumpling - good, standard

Taro dumpling stuffed with pork, shrimp, and
mushroom - ditto, but lighter than the norm

Turnip dumpling - ditto, but heavier than the
norm

Open mouth laughs - unfortunately, they
cheated, making regular sesame seed balls
with yellow bean paste and slashing them
open, instead of forming them carefully so
they open up upon frying.

Service was polite and quick but rather
monolingually Cantonese (I am no help,
despite my appearance).

By the time we left at noon, the line here
too was out the door, mostly Chinese
families.

Food was good-to-excellent, but maybe next
time we'll go to Ton Kiang at 10 am!

We got another recommendation of a place
downtown called Yangtse; does anyone have
any opinions bout it?

- - -

Highlight - dinner at Jardiniere with two
IPO mavens (I have no interest in IPOs but
just happen to be friends with some people
who are)

Jardiniere is an extremely trendy black glass
and metallic place about next door to the
opera house: it features California-Pacific
Rim cooking and is one of San Francisco's
supposed destination restaurants. As my year's
budget is shot to heck, I figured, why not.

As the three of us had differing dining agendas
(meh had just a couple Absoluts with a twist,
followed by the hamachi appetizer; mee had
soup and salad; and I had oysters, starter,
and main course) we decided to stick with the
Domaine Carneros brut nv, a toasty attractive
bubbly with good Chardonnayness: the first
glasses were slightly oxidized, and I
mentioned this in passing, and subsequent
glasses were void of this defect.

Malpeque oysters with mignonette - good
oysters (farmed north of Seattle), briny, a
minimum of that weird cantaloupy/cucumber
taste that so often typifies Pacific oysters.
The mignonette didn't add anything, as it
seldom does unless the oysters are on their
last, um, legs

Seared hamachi over avocado salad with rice
- meh thought this was spectacular and didn't
share (this perhaps a philosophical issue)

Carrot-ginger soup - good, you or I could make
it, but the dominant spice wasn't ginger, it
was 5-spice

Scallops in nage with "pea medley" - big
crusty grilled Maine scallops in a delicious
froth, accompanied by sugar snaps, baby green
peas, julienned snow peas

Lobster salad over corn cake with marinated
white corn - Maine lobster, about half of a
small one, on something between polenta and
cornpone. Actually a brilliant dish, defying
description

Halibut - pan-broiled just rare in the middle,
the rest flaking off into big white flakes,
sided with baby leeks, hen-of-the-woods, and
white asparagus: this ws a dish where the
many disparate ingredients came together to
make a real symphony.

meh is a regular there, so we were treated
to a complimentary "Delectables" plate,
which consists of a couple dozen tiny tastes
- chocolate with creme fraiche truffle filling,
little walnut tarts, eclairs, cinnamon cookies,
a tiny blueberry muffin, a couple strands of
candied orange peel. We couldn't eat the whole
thing, and so I got to take breakfast on the
plane: I have it before me now - a shard of
dark chocolate, a crescent-shaped chocolate
truffle, two tiny snickerdoodles, a tiny
oatmeal-raisin (?) cookie, a piece of pistachio
shortbread, half a blueberry micro-muffin,
a baby macaroon, and a chocolate, which is,
hmm, filled with the richest caramel I've
ever tasted. And a hazelnut chocolate cup
topped with an almond.

We got out for 60 apiece but only because two
of the three of us ate quite modestly (but well).

UA 152 SFO 2335 0519+1 (0529 actual) ORD 742 7B

After dinner, I was dropped off by mee at the
incredibly busy SFO airport, where hundreds of
cars were heading to the arrivals area, and a
smallish percentage of that (but enough to cause
congestion) were going our way. Got there with
plenty of time to spare - tried to go to the
side security, which was closed; but there was
not much of a line! at the regular security,
which quickly and efficiently sent me through
secondary (never figured out what made me keep
beeping). 1K room was closed; but the RCC at
the UA pier was not too crowded; I checked in
behind a line of only two or so, including one
fellow who was trying to use timed upgrades
(a peculiar and obfuscatory concept, very
United). Checkin took about zero time. They
called last call, and I moseyed to gate 80 for
boarding, which - although the plane was full
- 372 according to the purser - seemed pretty
calm. Sleepy passengers are good passengers.

One inoperative restroom out of two upstairs.
Audio didn't work the one time I thought to
check.

Would you like a snack? (at midnight, 2 Central)
They offered a roast-beef sandwich and a slice
of cheesecake, which about everyone turned down
(a bunch of SF marathoners among us, who knew
better than to pollute their bodies with UA
food), and most of us settled down for a snooze.

I was wakened by some turbulence and quite a bit
of flash and crash. We were kaboomed twice on
the starboard wing (I didn't see much, but the
passengers on that side said the sparks and
stuff were spectacular), and for the last
half hour the cabin crew was instructed to
stay put. My seatmate, who was wakened by the
second strike, and I wondered whether we'd end
up at DSM or MSN; better I guess than wondering
whether we'd end up in one piece. The piloting
seemed expert: we made a slightly diagonal but
otherwise okay landing into a pea-soup fog
occasionally illuminated by close lightning.
Got near the gate and then were told that the
guide-in crews had been yanked for safety, so
we sat a few minutes until there was a lull in
the storm. Service was good as far as I could
tell on this flight - as long as I was
conscious. Deplaned through a soaking wet
leaky jetway. Hot-footed it to the 1K room,
where as nonchalantly as possible I asked what
the weather for the rest of the day was going
to be; the guy sort of chuckled (they had 4
people working there, 3 at the desk; mine was
the one closest to the door). I asked to be put
on the first flight to the northeast - MHT,
PWM, BDL, PVD, or BOS - and got 23A going to
Boston. I asked to be put on the DM as well.
Waddled back to the computer to cancel
appointments for today. Then off to B14 to see
what was what. Boarding was pretty much over
at 6:20, and I asked what my chances were for
F; was told, we'll call you. They did.

UA 502 ORD 0644 0958 (1007 actual) BOS 752 1A

Aside from being on a brief ground hold,
caused by more fireworks, and a quite bumpy
ascent to cruise, this was an uneventful
flight. Chatted up the FA, who said that
this plane too had been hit by lightning on
its trip in from SAN, shortly before ours
from SFO. No audio for the first half of
the flight; then Ch 9. Breakfast, for those
with the stomach for it, was fruit plate or

Sampler: two sausages; some of the famous
horrible UA hash browns; a couple rather
resilient pancakes (to go with the evil-
tasting Knott's syrup); a quite decent
pain perdu with creme anglaise. Only
problem was that someone had thought the
creme anglaise was cheese sauce and thus
dumped it on the sausages and hash browns.

Also a decent fruit cup, whose honeydew
slice was too tough to be cut with the
knife provided and in fact too tough to
chew; but very good blueberries,
strawberries, and cantaloupe.

In contrast to other UA croissants of late,
today's were like coiled-up rubber bands.

Came in just a few minutes late to a warm,
sunny, humid Boston. Discover that this was
about the only flight that made it back east
from ORD this morning.

Scorecard for the flights:
empower 0/4
Ch 9 0.5/4
menus: 0/4
salt/pepper shakers 3/3 (didn't check the other)
ground crews - fine
flight crews - fine
cabin crews - fine
equipment outbound - uncomfortable
equipment back - okay
luck (mine) - good

Hong Kong Flower Garden - yummy!

There's a second one (I'm pretty sure that they're related, but not 100% sure) right near SFO on Milbrae and El Camino Real. It's a godsend for Sunday afternoon flights.

If you get lucky, you can get a table overlooking the south part of SFO and watch planes land while you eat great Chinese food.

Great report! Sorry didn't get a chance to meet you while at SFO...

Violist:

I was on UA 502 this morning from ORD-BOS! This is my "usual" flight but I got there a little late (my ride to the airport was late) so most of the plane had boarded by the time I got there. I was the sleepy head in 9A but you probaby didn't venture out of FC! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

------------------
Regards,
- Anna

Shootski, AnnaS - near misses are my specialty! Having met you before, I know what I missed this time.

I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have overlooked you if you'd been there in MY 9A when I got on the plane. F was at about 16 when I boarded, and I did a quickscan for FT tags and stuff; no you, no luck; later they filled F right up - my seatmate was on the 7:45 that got cancelled.

How was your ride to the airport? Did you ever have a moment of doubt about whether the flight was going? The guy at the 1K room protected me on a couple flights Just In Case.

Gee, violist, didn't realize 9A was your seat, the past month or so it's been mine. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Ride to the airport was wet but alright. I did have my doubts about the flight leaving, especially when seeing the downpour and lightning while waiting for my ride. I had been hoping, though, that if the plane didn't go, I could just go back home! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cool.gif

Figures that I tend to get stuck trying to get home rather than when leaving home. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

Take care & see you in the skies!

------------------
Regards,
- Anna

Been to Ton Kiang a few times...it's one of my g/f's favorite restaurants, because they don't do the heavy sauces. We don't do dim sum there, though.

We've been to Yank Sing (Embarcadero Center area) for dim sum, however. Pricy, but quite tasty. I especially loved their coconut Jell-O! :-)

------------------
Michael

Oddly, after 45+ years of eating Dim Sum I just had coconut jellstuff for the first time yesterday! Took a buddy and her two teenaged kids for a snack (3 soups and 16 dim sum dishes) before watching OMB Watch beat the Greenpeace Sea Slugs by somewhere between 15 and 20 runs (people started losing count). The kids really dug the coconut stuff, which surprised me. We were at Lei's Garden in Washington Chinatown, a place I hadn't tried before. I'll post the menu as part of a trip report in the next few days.