Asian Restaurants w/ Sustainably Raised Meat?

[lexdevil]

Some of you may remember the Chinese Food 101 course that I led a couple of years back at the high school where I teach. This year my spring "Intraterm" offering will be a course on MEAT! The focus of the class is overcoming the fiction of the styrofoam tray. I'm planning a week of guest speakers, farm visits, sausage making, a butchery class, etc. I also want the students to try the bits and pieces that they may be less familiar with. Due to our focus on sustainable farming, most of my favorite places for Asian food would be inappropriate. We'll go to Taco Grill for Pozole Surtido and Menudo using Niman Ranch pork, but I'm having trouble coming up with equivalent Thai/Lao/Chinese/Vietnamese/Korean options.

I want to do lunch at a different place each day. We'll be going to Oliveto one day and Taco Grill another. That leaves three days to cover. We're likely to be visiting farms in Tomales and Vacaville, so places on the way to/from would be good. If you can't come up with anything Asian, I'm open to other suggestions. They just need to use non-sketchy meat.

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Taco Grill
3340 E 12th St, Oakland, CA 94601

Oliveto Cafe
5655 College Ave., Oakland, CA 94618

Niman Ranch Corporate Headquarters
1600 Harbor Bay Pkwy, Alameda, CA 94502

[ML8000]

I think you're going to have to look upscale or at least in that direction. I'd try Slanted Door (not sure) or Noodle Theory (if I recall).

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Slanted Door
Ferry Slip, San Francisco, CA 94111

Noodle Theory
3242 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA 94123

[lexdevil]

I know, but I keep hoping not. I'd like the kids to try chicket feet and assorted offal, but that's not in the cards at Slanted Door, and pork belly is as close as Noodle Theory gets.

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Slanted Door
Ferry Slip, San Francisco, CA 94111

Noodle Theory
3242 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA 94123

[sydthekyd]

Daimo in the Pacific East/Ranch 99 Shopping Center right off of Highway 80 at the Central Avenue exit.

[lexdevil]

Really?! I love Daimo. Where do they get their meat?

[Melanie Wong]

Just about every duck any of our local Chinese restos offer up was raised by Reichardt Duck Farm in Petaluma. more info on the farm's website.
http://www.reichardtduckfarm.com/

The whole chickens with heads (including beaks) and feet raised for the ethnic Chinese market by Vikon and other producers are freerange, referred to as "walking chickens". These are also used for steamed lemongrass chicken, pho ga and other dishes at many inexpensive Vietnamese restaurants, such as Pho Ao Sen in Oakland.

Japanese restaurants often feature kurobuta pork, just ask which supplier when you see it on the menu.

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Reichardt Duck Farm
3770 Middle Two Rock Rd, Petaluma, CA

Pho Ao Sen
1139 E 12th St, Oakland, CA

[eastbaychk9]

That's great to know Melanie! I am trying to eat only sustainably-raised meat so I've been avoiding Chinese restaurants assuming that they don't use any of it. And I love Chinese food, especially dim sum! Do you know if the other chicken/beef/pork they use (like cut-up meat for stirfry chicken dishes, etc.) is also sustainable? I dont' like the fancy asian restaurants too much plus i can't afford them so that's not an option for me on a regular basis.

[Melanie Wong]

The frozen chicken breasts that many restaurants use to cater to non-Asians probably are not. For other chicken parts, pork or beef, there's no clear preference, so you need to ask the restaurant the source of supply.

Here's more about Vikon chicken, called wai hong gai in Cantonese.
http://www.atozastro.com/shop/scripts...

[kc72]

There was mention of Tru Gourmet (Metreon Farmers Mkt) and Harmony Restaurant (Mill Valley) having organic dim sum

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Tru Gourmet
San Francisco, CA, San Francisco, CA

[Melanie Wong]

Tru no longer sells at Metreon.

[Pei]

Bang San Thai in the Tenderloin claims on their menu to use halal meat, but I don't know anything beyond that. A caveat about Bang San: the food is always at least pretty good, but rises to really really delicious depending who's cooking. It seems random and they have a lot of people in and out of that tiny kitchen, so I can't ID who the real winners are, but I keep going back because like I said, it's always at least pretty good.

[yummyrice]

Well for Lao food, Lingba Lounge in SF serves grilled Lao-style "free range" chicken that comes with papaya salad and sticky rice.

http://www.lingba.com/menus_lunch.html

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Lingba Lounge
1469 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94107

[Windy]

PPQ on Irving advertises some kind of natural meat for its pho.

Is the Old Mandarin halal?

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Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant
3132 Vicente St, San Francisco, CA 94116

PPQ Vietnamese Cuisine
1816 Irving St, San Francisco, CA 94122

[Melanie Wong]

Yes, Old Mandarin is halal, but halal refers to the method of slaughter and may or may not be raised sustainably.

[MeatyTreats]

Betelnut and Namu are excellent choices. I work in the sustainable meat industry here in the bay area and these are two of my favorite places for smart asian foods.

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Betelnut
2030 Union Street, San Francisco, CA 94123

Namu
439 Balboa Street, San Francisco, CA 94118

[Robert Lauriston]

Halal != sustainable, but it's generally a pretty big step away from the styrofoam tray. I've been told that most of the beef comes from Niman but I don't know that that's true. Lambs, sheep, and goats come whole from more-or-less local ranchers.

Oasis Market in Oakland has a walk-in with a picture window next to the meat counter so you can see the whole animals, plus a restaurant so you can eat some meat right then. Cheap, too.

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Oasis Market
3045 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609

[escargot3]

I'm very curious as to how it is that hallal = sustainable.

I was under the same impression as Melanie that hallal merely refers to how the animal was slaughtered, and then perhaps how the meat is handled afterwards.

Can you give a little more info to explain?

[Robert Lauriston]

The ! turns = from "equals" to "is not equal to."

From talking with butchers etc., I think that a lot of the halal meat hereabouts is sustainable or at least naturally raised. There's no certification or guarantee, but the mainstream corporate meat system is not set up to deliver the fresh whole animals these butchers have.

[sfbing]

I'm not sure you can take it for granted that if the animal were whole it was naturally raised. If that were true, wouldn't that also be true of most Asian butcher shops? Because they typically break down whole animals (particularly pork) to generate the non Western cuts desired by their clientele. And at some places, the flavor of the meat and fat (which is a very good indicator of quality) is average, at best. Plus, the prices are rock bottom and the farmers I've spoken to say it is very hard to raise an animal sustainably for that cheap.

I suspect that while the mainstream corporate meat system is not set up to deliver whole fresh animals to everybody, there is somebody who has a nice little niche doing so to ethnic markets.

[Robert Lauriston]

I'm not taking anything for granted, just reporting what I've heard from butchers.

Some sustainably raised sheep and goats are a by-product of low-tech weed control.

[Fig Newton]

True, you can't always assume that whole = naturally raised, however you can glean some information from a whole bird that you can't from a pre-butchered animal. Seeing the whole animal at least insures that the animal was raised well enough that all its parts are intact and healthy.

Joel Salatin talks about whole animals in his book "Holy Cows and Hog Heaven," saying that "For the most part, cut up chickens are the way the industry utilizes blemished carcasses. Maybe a bird has a breast blister, broken wing, or broken leg. Mixing and matching parts allows a whole bird to be salvaged."

[Melanie Wong]

That's a good point, thank you. The chickens raised for the Chinese market are sold with heads and feet on. The beaks are intact, whereas chickens raised in CAFO are mostly de-beaked, I've read.

BTW, whole Vikon chickens are on special for $8.99 at Lion markets. I bought one in San Jose on Monday before the chowdown at Sumiya. Oh, the Japanese yakitori places like Sumiya in Santa Clara, Sumika in Los Altos and Kokko in San Mateo use "jidori" free-range birds.

[BernalKC]

Robert said that halal does not equal sustainable. The "!" is geek for "not".

[escargot3]

Thanks, guys, for the translation..
Guess I'm a certified square ...but definitely not a geek.

[wolfe]

Sign of not equal for non geeks ≠.

[Melanie Wong]

Most of the halal meat counters I've visited source beef from Harris Ranch, not Niman. Lambs and goats tend to be from more local sources. Chickens mostly from Fulton Valley in Sonoma County.

I've been reading about a Certification movement for "green" halal, likewise Eco kosher, but don't know of any suppliers locally. Anyone know more?

[vulber]

It depends if you define Niman Ranch currently as sustainable. I lost a lot of respect for them when I read about why Bill Niman left them.

Nonetheless, I know Zadin in the Castro serves Niman Ranch beef.

Namu also does.

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Namu
439 Balboa Street, San Francisco, CA 94118

Zadin
4039 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114

Niman Ranch Corporate Headquarters
1600 Harbor Bay Pkwy, Alameda, CA 94502