New Week, Old Favorite

Honestly we tried. Attempted to visit something new and report on it. But the neighborhood where this particular Korean restaurant is located is unfortunate from the perspective of finding a parking space. Unlike most commercial districts in San Francisco, this one lacks parking meters, and although there is a two hour limit on parking, most of the vehicles looked as if they were cemented in place. We did see a couple of lucky souls get a space, but alas, despite circumnavigating the neighborhood three times, nothing.

Since we were already in the Richmond district, it was a very short hop over to Clement Street, one of the hubs of Asian shopping, eating and living. And we found a meter within one short block of the Taiwan. This restaurant has been a mainstay of our 'cheap eats' dining out almost since we first came to California. I need to check in with the management to figure out the year the Taiwan was founded, but it had to be the early 1970's at the latest. The menu here is pretty much the usual laundry list of dishes, but there are a number of standouts. Steamed dumplings are meticulously prepared by one or two men working in the front window; during crowded times you can stand in the entry way and get increasingly famished as you watch mountains of dough and five-gallon containers of ground pork filling transformed into dozens upon dozens of dumplings, ready for steaming, frying or boiling. This is also one of the best places to have Kuo Teh (pot stickers,) since they too are freshly made and incorporate the same delicious filling. Another area of the menu filled with treasures is the noodle section; today we enjoyed a hefy bowl of Szechuan Spicy Noodles. These are pretty much your standard-issue egg/wheat noodle, but the sauce is what makes it interesting. It is a creamy peanut sauce, with some ground pork thrown in, and a dab of hot oil. There is a vegetarian version that omits the pork, but that we will leave for others to explore. This dish, similar to if not identical to Dan Dan noodles, is surprisingly hardy, and we soon realized that one bowl ($5.25) could in fact be sufficient lunch for both of us. That did not stop us from ordering a plate of Dry Braised String Beans. These are seared in a wok with a bit of oil, which makes the skin crackle a bit yet leaves the insides tender. These come with a bit of ground pork, and a dark sauce that probably contains soy sauce, a touch of sugar and maybe a bit of bean sauce as well. Like most of their dishes, these are not overly seasoned, yet offer distinctive tastes. Our final item was Steamed Dumplings, which lived up to their previous high level of quality; in fact, we saw our order being made from the raw ingredients straight through to the steaming. Fresh, and delightful.

All this was of course too much for one sitting, so our waitress neatly filled two carry out containers without spilling one morsel, better, I am sure, than either of us could do. It seems to be a custom to order more than you need, specifically so as to create leftovers; we've noticed that nearly every table in the predominately Asian restaurants we frequent seems to leave with a bag or two of the ubiquitous little white wire-handled containers.

The Taiwan is decidedly not about dining elegance. The room is narrow with small tables for two or four down each side, and a center with a few larger tables. Our friends call it the Pink Palace, thanks to the generous use of this color on both the exterior and interior surfaces. The room actually has a high walkway, which seems to offer access to some of their storage; the whole effect is somewhat like sitting in a stunted cathedral. That being said, the service has always been friendly once you get used to the rapid pace of the place, which can really get hopping. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the restaurant is the consistency; the dishes we ordered in the 1970's are delivered today with the same flavors and textures that made us believers in the first place.

As for the second week of radiation: nothing to report yet. That is, I am using my new ultra-portable Acer Aspire One to blog in real time. As I sit here digesting Andrea is back in the treatment area. After this visit she will have her brief weekly meeting with her supervising doctor, who is the one who has primary responsibility for the design and course of her treatment. If there's anything outside of the routine you can be sure you will read it here.