Best Fried Chicken at San Tung

Chinese restaurant San Tung in the Inner Sunset is often impossible to get into—unless you're willing to scribble your name on the white-board just inside and resign yourself to a long(ish) wait. And yet, you'll see throngs of people huddling outside on the sidewalk, more than willing to cool their heels until their name is called.

That's because they know what to expect: San Tung's cooks dish out lip-smacking goodies on a near daily basis. Addicting stuff like the dry sauteed string beans, dry black bean sauce noodles, hot braised bean curd ... and let's not forget the original dry fried chicken wings.

Fortunately, San Tung's got a newish cafe-cum-to-go spot right next door to its more traditional restaurant where you can pretty much get all of the same in-demand items (along with ice cream and bubble tea) sans the long wait. So, one night not too long ago, we strolled on in and ordered some of the black bean noodles along with a plate piled high with the best fried chicken in town.

Deep-fried to crispety perfection, the well-seasoned original dry fried chicken wings come spiked with a tongue-tingling dose of garlic, ginger and roasted chile peppers. 

Mmmmmmm. Finger-lickin' good.

Welcome Nopalito

PH and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch at newly opened Nopalito in the Inner Sunset. The blustery grey day could do nothing to dampen our spirits as we celebrated PH's birthday with the bright flavors of lime, cilantro and tomatillo in the scrummy ceviche appetizer, not to mention the other well-made Mexican dishes we ordered today.

 

The ceviche: tender morsels of marinated fish and squiggles of calamari tossed in lime, tomatillo, jalapeño and cilantro with a generous fan of avocado on top and a pile of tortilla chips by its side.

The chicken enchiladas came doused in a richly satisfying sauce of chiles, chocolate and nuts topped with a tangle of onions and a crumble of queso fresco, plus a mound of refried pinquito beans.

Yummy Yummy is ... yes ... Yummy

Yummy Yummy Vietnamese Restaurant saved our Friday night when a bunch of us met up in the Inner Sunset to get down and dig in at next-door neighbor San Tung. But as we started poring over San Tung's menu and salivating with talk of the dry fried chicken wings, black bean noodles and the dry sautéed string beans, the lights went out. In the entire restaurant. Doh. We were SOL.

Temporarily, that is. Because, after ditching the defunct San Tung and walking around to a couple of other eateries, we finally landed at Yummy Yummy, which puts out an insanely addictive garlicky-chile basted whole crab, not to mention some really wicked good bowls of piping hot pho and bun.

My go-to bowl is #3—the pho tai, or beef noodle soup with rare steak.

But this night I decided I wanted to turn up the heat and chose #9—the bun bo hue, or spicy beef and pork noodle soup.  

#9 looks a lot spicier than it is, though the heat did keep building as I slurped on my noodles and guzzled down the succulent and savory chile-laden broth. No matter. A frosty mug of Tiger beer helped cool things down. 

Love Yummy Yummy. 

Yummy Yummy Crab

The spicy roast crab at Vietnamese resto Yummy Yummy is hands down the best of its kind in SF.


The uber garlicky-fiery chile sauce is out of this world. My folks, whom I took there while they were in town, gave it the highest of all compliments (in their book), saying this had exactly the flavor components of an excellent Korean marinade (mind you, I did say Yummy Yummy is in fact a Vietnamese establishment).


My ma, who doesn't really care for crab at all, couldn't help but sneak a leg or 2 or 3 onto her plate; it was the garlic-chile-onion-scallion-sesame sauce that she was in love with. And so was I—oh yes, and the crustacean itself was damn good too.