I may be heading to San Francisco and I need your help-- now

[noahbites]

I've been doing a project based in Los Angeles called Man Bites World (www.manbitesworld.com) where I'm eating the food of a different country every single day-- in a row. No breaks, no days off-- just a different country's food every day. Yesterday was Day 100-- and I'm almost out of options down here.

The LA Chowhound boards has been a huge help to me, but with my options in LA essentially gone, I'm considering heading up to the San Francisco for a few days to see what I can find up there.

Here is the archive for what I've done so far: http://manbitesworld.com/Archives/76/...

I've heard about Pizza-Rama which is supposed to serve Mongolian food-- but it seems like they're out of business now. So any ideas that you guys have would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Here are some of the bigger countries I can't seem to find:

Kazakhstan
Wales
Saudi Arabia
Panama
Paraguay
Uruguay
Macedonia
Iceland
Netherlands
Mongolia
Turkmenistan
Oman
Albania

Then there are a lot of small island nations, like the Bahamas, and a lot of African nations.

If it seems like it would be worthwhile, I may head up there.Thanks everybody for any help you can offer.

Noah

[Dave MP]

Hmm, this is hard.

Does Little Sheep count as Mongolian Food? http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/abou... It seems like this exists in LA too though....but maybe this doesn't count as Mongolian.

I know that one of the people who worked at the middle eastern deli near my house is Algerian...not sure if any of the food is typical Algerian cuisine, but I can find out.

I see you had Samoan food....is there any Tongan food in the Bay Area?

There must be Panamanian food somewhere around here, but chowhound search doesn't find anything.

For the countries you list, it seems like New York might be a better bet than San Francisco (though I could be wrong).

Macedonian is probably in New York, and I bet there is Dutch food there too....and I bet also Oman, Albania and Kazakhstan can be found there too, though I don't know of any specific places.

[noahbites]

Hey, thanks for your help. Yeah, unfortunately, due to my financial situation (namely, not having any finances), New York would just be too difficult.

Hm. Well keep your ears peeled. I'm scheduled to run out in LA in the next couple of days, so if there isn't much up there, it may be time to throw in the towel.

[pane]

funny to see this--i've been enjoying your blog.

like dave, i haven't found most of the cuisines you're looking for. certainly you can find some weird and out-of-the-way food, especially if you're renting a car and can drive north or south.

here are just a few ideas...

tunisian: cafe zitouna on polk in san francisco
laotian: Vientian Cafe in oakland
mongolian: chin hua (http://www.chinhuamongolianbbq.com/) way out in vacaville
senegalese: little baobab
ethiopian-influenced: radio africa (served at coffee bar

)

good luck! make sure to report back if you make it up here.

[Melanie Wong]

He can scratch Chin Hua . . . the online menu is typical ayce buffet food. Have you eaten any Mongolian specialties there?

LIttle Sheep which others have mentioned has lamb skewers, meat pies and other dishes of Mongolia. The list includes Tibet, so maybe Inner Mongolia qualifies as well.

[Xiao Yang]

It's true that Tibet and Inner Mongolia are both "Autonomous Regions" but by the same logic you could consider Xinjiang, Guanxi, and Ningxia as separate countries (not that there's a lot of Ningxia cuisine around).

[Chandavkl]

Besides, there are restaurants with names similar to Little Sheep in the Los Angeles area. Actually they used the name Little Sheep for a while but turned out to be fakes and had to be renamed. There is a Mongolian community in Oakland--they've been in the news lately due to the tragic killing of one of the community members. I thought I recall reading about a true Mongolian restaurant somewhere in Oakland.

[Melanie Wong]

There's a bonafide Little Sheep in San Diego, http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/find... , which would be closer than coming up here.

Pizza-rama is/was the Mongolian place in Oakland.

[susancinsf]

I have been following and loving your threads on the LA board...

but confess I haven't had time to read the blog in detail, so I am not sure: does eating from a deli/store count? You can get Dutch herring, cheese, pastries at either Holland's Best in San Jose:

http://www.hollandsbest.com/

or the Dutch Delight deli in Petaluma:

http://www.dutchstuff.com/index.html

though when I was in the Netherlands what I remember most are tater tots! :-

)

For Mongolian, what about:

LIttle Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot (San Mateo)?

http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/index.asp

(edited to add: Oh, I see DaveMP already thought of that...

)

Also, if the deli/food product thing works and you do come to SF, you might check out the New World Market on Geart in SF. It is mostly Russian take out items, but I'd bet if you check out their shelves you'd also find imports from some of other other Eastern European countries...

and in a similar vein, Oakland has several Caribbean Restaurants and Markets, which might be a source for bahamian foods. Conch fritters come to mind, I wonder if you could get those at Tropix Cafe in Oakland.. Here is a thread that might help, though Penny's, alas, is now closed:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/355062

For Macedonian: there is a Macedonian Orthodox Church in Los Angeles: St. Mary's: have you called to see if they have any festivals? there will probably be one you can get tickets for Orthodox Christmas or New Year if you can hold out another month or so.

-----
Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot
215 S Ellsworth Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401

New World Market
5641 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94121

Tropix Caribbean Restaurant
3814 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA 94611

Dutch Delight
475 King Rd, Petaluma, CA 94952

[ML8000]

That's a pretty tough list. You might consider putting something up on Craig's List or Yelp and ask someone to cook it for you. I've met people from some of those countries but never seen restaurants. Or go to their foreign counsels.

You might check out Berkeley/Oakland, lots of African eateries. A Taste of Africa in Berkeley serves West African/Camaroonian (sic?) food.

Also there use to be an Albanian/Italian (?) restaurant in SF. Can't remember its name.

[adamshoe]

I think it was called "Istria", but don't know if it's still there. Adam

[wolfe]

Hey Adam, I thought so too. but are we confused about Albona that serves Istrian food.
http://albonarestaurant.com/
Editted to show Istria
http://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/istria/

-----
Albona Ristorante Istriano
545 Francisco St, San Francisco, CA 94133

[Mari]

I think that would qualify as Croatian, not Albanian.

[ML8000]

Yeah, I knew it was around there. That's all I can say. I was in the region :)

Wikipedia says that Istria is shared by Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. Seems like you can get a 3-for if you go there. Maybe not. At least you get Istrian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istria

[Xiao Yang]

How about "Albonian?"

[adamshoe]

(Loud sound of smacking my hand on forehead...) You are so right. My bad, Adam

[Mari]

I am stumped, but I just remembered that the Front Porch in SF has Caribbean food. There is a Bajan entree on the menu, but I don't know how authentic you need to get. There seem to be a few Caribbean restaurants in Oakland. http://www.thefrontporchsf.com/main.html

[susancinsf]

yes, now that I've looked at your actual updated blog, scratch the Jordanian, but Front Portch would be a place to check out if you do head up: someone said in another thread that they sometimes serve the conch fritters (which I consider to be Bahamian) and as Mari notes it appears there are actually several Bajan dishes on the menu, so since I don't see Barbados on your list yet either (unless I missed it) this seems like a spot to try. Also, the menu says that their beef is Uraguayan, though I'd guess that doesn't count (?).

[moto]

noahbites, you've probably given this notion of yours long consideration, but you might be filtering possible results out by the manner in which you are framing your quest--you appear to be using political definitions of "country" when food culture doesn't always split up that way. For example, you hope to find an identifiable "Macedonia" place distinct and separate from an "Albania" place, yet the political state Macedonia (split from the former Yugoslavia) encompasses roughly half of the geographic/cultural entity of the same name which overlaps parts of Albania and Greece. So there might be Macedonians preparing americanized versions of their home foodstuffs but superficially getting identified as Bosnian or Greek.

If Indonesians who lived in the Netherlands had a place that served both Indonesian and Dutch food, would that be considered Netherlands food? I'm a little surprised that there isn't a Welsh pub in greater LA/OC.

Have you considered posting your request for assistance on the Calif. board--there are probably some places in the central coast area, possibly S.Diego, or the central/San Joaquin Valley that would be easier for you to reach overland from LA.

Food has such cultural associations in contrast to political boundaries that Basque places in your grid would have to be either Spanish or French, if I understand what you are trying to achieve, and I wouldn't be surprised if cafes run by folks from Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan in order to reach the American consumer call their places Persian or Afghani because those labels are identifiable in terms of a cuisine.

You're on a great quest, and when you have the means I suggest a visit to London--relatively cheap to get to, no great linguistic skills required to get around easily, and plenty of food purveyors from a multitude of lands under distinguishable flags. good luck and cheers

[susancinsf]

in a similar vein, much of what would be considered authentic Saudi food is Bedouin in origin, shares a lot with Jordanian and Palestinian Bedouin food, so you will probably find the same dishes at other middle eastern places..

Speaking of Jordanian food I noticed that you didn't have it as of a week or two ago (per the posts on the LA board). I am thinking that Jordanian food can't be that hard to come by in LA, but just in case you still haven't found it, and do come to SF, mansaf, considered the Jordanian national dish, is on the menu at Fattoush (and it is a pretty good version to boot). Also, though I don't like the food there as much, Good Frickin Chicken is owned by Jordanians, and also has mansaf on the menu. Indeed, GFC evokes Jordan to me: it serves the same type of rotisserie chicken in very similar surroundings to that which I found to be ubiquitous when I was in Amman. For that matter, I've heard or read that the same type of rotisserie chicken places are very common in Saudi Arabia.

-----
Fattoush Restaurant
1361 Church St, San Francisco, CA 94114

Good Frikin Chicken (Goood Frikin’ Chicken)
10 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110

[noahbites]

Wow. Thanks everybody.

Yeah, the country decision gets pretty difficult down the line and there can be a lot of cross over-- yet there's trouble with any decision. But regardless, it looks like we're going to be wrapping it up soon. The rest of the list is pretty darn difficult to come by.

I'm still trying to figure out whether San Francisco would be worth it.

[susancinsf]

In weighing the decision, I would definitely plan to drive up, I noticed you alreaded heeded moto's advice to also post on the CA board. Plan to come up 99 and see what you can find in Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley.

You may want to explore around San Jose as well, and a car would be nice for that.

Good Luck and happy travels!

[Xiao Yang]

I'd say you should strart checking for a cheap flight to NY. You could probably add a few in Queens (I know a Uruguayan/Paraguayan bakery around the corner from a Nepali/Bhutanese dumpling shop, just for starters).

The new owner of Lee Hou Restaurant in SF, in an blurb written for Chinese Restaurant News, described his cuisine as "Chinese and Mongolian" and does have some lamb dishes on the menu, FWIW. (I don't think "Mongolian Beef" counts!)

Little Sheep is based in Inner Mongolia, a province of China, to be technical (the chain is owned by Inner Mongolia Xiao Fei Yang Foodservice Co Ltd.) but I suppose they could be considered to be serving the food OF Mongolia.

[noahbites]

Thanks everybody. After reviewing everything (including my bank account), I think I have to scrap the San Francisco idea.

I really do appreciate all your help, and I'll hopefully be up there soon anyway to do some good eating.

[Chuckles the Clone]

Well, for future reference the guy who owns La Traviata, the out-of-place Italian
joint on Mission St, is Albanian. You could probably talk him into Albanianizing
something for you.

-----
La Traviata
2854 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110

[weem]

Don't forget Vatican City, technically the smallest country in the world. Seems like their communion food (wafers and wine) should be easy enough to find. Maybe I'm wrong. :-)

[noahbites]

We actually did do Vatican City! There were papal blessings, holy water, artichokes and the most amazing lasagna I've ever had in my life (Roman style).

http://manbitesworld.com/articles/87/...

[Chuckles the Clone]

Netherlandish: you could get a rijsttafel at Borobodur.
Wales: Prince of Wales Pub, San Mateo

Some missing Africa: In Berkeley, we've got the aforementioned
Cameroonian Taste of Africa. Nigerian at Lagosia. Ghanaian at
Tropical Paradise.

Mangal's is a Fiji and Samoan food importer in San Leandro.

-----
Lagosia
1725 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94703

A Taste of Africa
3015 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

Tropical Paradise Restaurant
2021 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704

Borobudur Restaurant
700 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Mangal's Market
1699 E 14th St, San Leandro, CA

[Chandavkl]

Isn't there Tongan food in East Palo Alto? Don't think there's any in L.A.

[rworange]

Lagosia closed

Though the OP isn't coming up here, for future reference there was some restaurant in Vallejo that was serving food from Guam, I think. Don't know if it is still open. Couldn't find it through search.

[Melanie Wong]

You might be thinking of Georgia Street Grill in Vallejo.
http://www.georgiastreetgrill.com/tog...

[bbulkow]

First of all, prince of wales has changed owners and is now swingin' door

Second of all, I don't know what Welsh food is, but I suspect it's not blindingly hot habenero hamburgers.I'm fairly sure the old owners were brits, don't drive all the way over looking for welsh food.

Third of all rijsttafel is usually categorized as indonesian.

There is an underwhelming tongan/samoan market on Willow near east palo alto, but to my knowledge no restaurants.

[Chuckles the Clone]

> I don't know what Welsh food is, but I suspect it's not blindingly hot habenero hamburgers

Seaweed pancakes and rabbit made out of cheese, as far as I know. Yeah,
that was stretching it. Though for the record, "brits" includes the Welsh, even if
the actual Prince is English.

At Mangals, you can get cans of Fiji-produced corned beef spaghetti. Which, according
to a friend from near there, is as authentic as it gets.

[Ruth Lafler]

Does Fijian-Indian count? Is Curry Corner in Hayward still around?

[Melanie Wong]

Talked to a friend tonight about a Kazakh cafe and market in the East Bay. The name, Sahara, is deceptive, as it's not Arabic. They have kazakhi style kabobs and other items. You might want to call to confirm.

-----
Sahara Market
6783 Dublin Blvd, Dublin, CA

[Melanie Wong]

Just wanted to note that the ownership of Sahara changed this month and it's now an Afghani kabob house and international market, not Kazakh. Here's my post on my visit this week, http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/582801

[wolfe]

The end of the trail as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...