521978 Fri May 23 09:37:19 -0700 2008 8 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 3714855 Greetings SF Chowhounds! I recently moved to SF from San Gabriel Valley. I would love your recommendations on places that serve Chinese Style breakfast ala Siao Bing, Fan-Tuan, XLB, turnip pastry, Oyster omelet with red sauce and savory soybean milk/soup. Any recommendations in SF or nearby? I am willing to drive 20-30 minutes. Fri May 23 09:37:24 -0700 2008 194649 taikuo 1 3715152 This one is a bit of a mixed bag. Since you mentioned SGV, I'm guessing you are more used to the Taiwanese variety, but to get all those things you mentioned (minus the oyster omlette) in SF city you'd probably have to hit up a Shanghainese restaurant and on weekends only. It is sad there isn't a place up here like Yong Ho (and this one other place whose name escapes me but serves the same thing but better quality) in SGV that you can pop in at 6 am and get the stuff daily. For the SF Bay Area, the earliest is 11 am (when the places open) and Saturday to Sunday only. :-( If so you will likely not find a place that does all of the above superbly in SF city and even in SF Bay Area, but more annoyingly, a place that does one or two things great. For the more hardcore Taiwanese style breakfasts, you may have to drive a bit further south but same situation where one or two things are great for each place. My info is very out of date for SF city, but maybe others like Xiao Yang will know better Shanghainese style weekend breakfast places to meet your immediate needs. For one of the best turnip pastry/luo bor si bing, head to Kingdom of Dumpling (the restaurant) on Taraval in SF or Kingdom of Chinese Dumplings (the frozen to go shop) in Noriega. The outer layer is not only flakey and great, but the insides are paired with perfectly sliced julienne daikon (you'd admire the knife skills of the chef) and very finely minced pork, and when cooked right the interior is moist and juicy. I'd make this a destination stop as often as possible if it were closer to me (the restaurant that is). I'm sure if someone proposes the idea to the owners they would (if they could) offer a full line of the brunch items. Outside of SF: I've found some very decent chive boxes (jiao tsai her zi) that are quite authentic (at least the insides) at Sun Tung in San Mateo. I can't remember if KOD or KOCD has these or not, but would be worth trying otherwise. They say the best siao bing is at Chef Woo's in San Jose (near Cupertino), might be a bit too far for you. Everyday Beijing in San Mateo has a very nice purple rice congee (zir mi zoh) with red bean and carrots. This would definitely appeal to the Taiwanese breakfast palette. The downside is their fried crullers/yoh tieo are not so good, and unless you are used to a slightly burnt taste to their soymilk, you may find their version a complete turnoff. The only two places I'm aware of that offer Northern Chinese breakfast daily in the South Bay are: L'epi Dor Taiwanese bakery in Cupertino (they make their own siao bing and yoh tieo in house but it is not that great, but at least you can get it any time of day) New Nutrition House in Milpitas (have not heard any major applause about this place though). Other Peninsula options for Northern Chinese style breakfasts (weekends only but the good part is open at 9 am) Marina Foods (supermarket) San Mateo, Cupertino (the better location of the two as you get more variety and a much larger Taiwanese expat population and thus demand). Fri May 23 10:53:00 -0700 2008 3714855 12872 K K 2 3716030 Wow! Thank you for your recommendations KK! Yung Ho was a decent standby as is Mandarin Deli. If anyone is in SGV, I recommend the Yung Ho in Rosemead and skip the one in San Gabriel because it's smaller and parking is impossible. They are both on Valley Blvd. so it can be easily mistaken. There are many places in SGV that serve Chinese breakfast 7 days a week which was a luxury in hindsight but I don't mind it being on weekends only in SF as I'll take whatever I can get short of flying back to visit family and doing a tour of Valley Blvd. favorites. :P I've been reading good reviews for Kingdom of Dumplings so that will be my first stop. I can't wait to try your suggestions and report back (with pictures hopefully). Fri May 23 15:30:44 -0700 2008 3715152 194649 taikuo 2 3741075 REPORT BACK FROM KOD Hey ChowHounds, I just made my trip to KOD this past weekend with a friend of mine. The very nice young waitress was helpful but couldn't understand English too well so I ordered in Mandarin. We ordered the Turnip pastry, Lamb and Veg dumpling and Pork and Napa dumpling. Unfortunately, they were out of the XLB because we got there after 2PM! The very nice owner chatted us up and said business has been picking up steadily and they have been running out of XLBs on the weekends. He recommended getting there earlier to get an order in. The Turnip pastry - very comforting and good though it was cooked in a pan instead of baked. This is not a bad thing by any means but a different method of preparation than what I've had before. The pastry was crisp and substantial. The baked versions I had were closer to filo dough and tended to be much more delicate to handle. The KOD version also uses what appeared to be smoked bacon/pork instead of ground pork which gave it a subtle smokey flavor which worked well with the radish. The Lamb and Veg dumpling was good but my friend and I enjoyed the Pork dumplings a bit more as it was juicier and had a little bit of soup in it. I asked for hot sauce/chili oil and the owner brought out a chili paste I haven't had in ages. It was pink in appearance and I tasted a hint of fermented tofu (it had an earthy taste not too unlike 1,000 year old egg. It was hot (and I can eat hot as my mom put chili in everything she cooked) and when added with the soy sauce, ginger and vinegar, put the dumplings into pure comfort food category. I will definitely be heading back to try the XLBs. One a side note, their specials board is really random as they offered everything from curry to rack of lamb with mashed potatoes. lol Mon Jun 02 07:32:26 -0700 2008 3715152 194649 taikuo 3 3742019 You didn't miss anything. Like XY said, XLB is a bit of an afterthought so you had a decent sampling of KODs offerings. There is juice or soup in their XLB, but relatively bland and definitely not one of their best. You won't find anything as good as Din Tai Fung or Mei Long/JJ in Southern Cal up here (maybe except Koi Palace dim sum of all places, or Yank Sing purportedly). My experience is that with XLB in the Bay Area is that you have to go to a place that specializes in it or at least is known for them even if they may not be Shanghainese restaurants. KOD is unfortunately not one of them, but they do great in other things. I really enjoy KOD's meat and spinach(?) huan duan in noodle soup. The broth has no MSG, cooked in 4 hours with mushrooms. The noodle is light, bouncy, and fresh. It's super homey good although might be a bit too strong in pepper accents. Yeah if you don't ask specifically for the dipping sauce of your choice for dumplings, default is black vinegar. Or you could smuggle in your own ponzu sauce ;-) They say the specials board is the continuation of the owner's brother's former restaurant, David's Kitchen, hence the curry, rack of lamb etc (Chinese style western). Hence the addition of creme brulee on the menu as well. Fermented tofu chili? Is that "dou ban jiang?" Agreed, the dipping sauce is equally as important, and a good mix can elevate this stuff to great heights. Some like ponzu sauce, and I personally enjoy black sesame oil, soy sauce, white pepper, although I've come to appreciate simple black vinegar as well. What I hope to try sometime are their various appetizer (cold) dishes. Mon Jun 02 11:52:24 -0700 2008 3741075 12872 K K 4 3742952 Ah, thank you for the insight into the specials board. I thought it was a bit of a non-sequitur but that makes sense. We also tried their soybean noodle with fresh cilantro. Although it was refreshing and light (cause it was like a steam room in KOD), I suspect many might deem it bland. We actually doused it with the pink chili sauce. I did some research and the chili paste is not dou ban jiang as I believe that variety is black bean based. I think it's actually "picked" tofu. My mom used to serve it with congee and it was salty and funky as hell (but it's not stinky tofu). It had the consistency of a firm custard with a creamy mouth feel. I found a link that highlights it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_tofu I've been to some mom and pops in SGV where they served this style of chili sauce and it's kinda like crack. I'll hit up Ranch 99 to see if they have this. Also, at some all you can eat Chinese Hot Pot places I've been to, they serve this pickled tofu (blended with water) as a sauce in addition to Satay to mix with your egg. I've had the XLB at Koi Palace and although very good, I found the dough to be a tad dried out when it finally arrived at our table. Since it was my first time at Koi Palace I noticed they didn't really have the steam carts and by the time the waitress made the mad rounds around the dining room and came to our table with the XLBs, they've been out of the steam for at least a good 5-7 minutes. I think serving it as it comes out of the steam is really important to keep the temperature and moisture in the skin balance right. I'm just splitting hairs as my overall impression of Koi Palace was a good one. And what a bargain compared to Yank Sing! - if my mom found out I paid $140 for 4 people on Dim Sum, she'd disown me. :P Mon Jun 02 16:17:00 -0700 2008 3742019 194649 taikuo 1 3715438 Thread from last year includes another write up by K K. http://www.chowhound.com/topics/386631 Fri May 23 12:17:59 -0700 2008 3714855 10131 Chandavkl 1 3741223 I believe you can find credible versions all of these at Taste of Formosa on Clement. Shanghai House on Balboa makes the best savory soy milk soup (xian dou jiang) I've found in North America (weekends only) as well as excellent xiao long bao, and cifan tuan. Kingdom of Dumplings has the best turnip pastry (luobosi bing) around, but only passable XLB, IMHO. Mon Jun 02 08:27:28 -0700 2008 3714855 131118 Xiao Yang 2 3742858 My ever expanding waistline will be heading over to Shanghai House for xian dou jiang. Thank you for the reco. I will be reporting back with my experience. Mon Jun 02 15:52:01 -0700 2008 3741223 194649 taikuo