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There aren’t a ton of Chinese restaurants in the Richmond or Sunset I’d take my parents to other than maybe Riverside. Everything else is kind of too ‘rough’ or not ‘refined’ or to their taste. Like dimsum with really thick wrappers that I don’t love either. Noodles that aren’t quite to their taste (or mine). They’re open to eating other foods but my mom is at the absolute limit (4 weeks away) and wanting comfort food. I’ve also been struggling with this a bit. Other than maybe some spots in Chinatown and Oakland and Fremont, I have to make my own comfort foods.
A lot of it comes to the minutiae of I love Cantonese foods but I don’t love Taishan food which is the style around here. Everything is kind of the same as food I love but kind of way too bland. Claypot rice in Malaysia for example is super crusty and salty and flavored but it’s just kind of sad here.
Anyway, I’m thankful to have the raw ingredients I need to make the kinds of foods that I miss. None of the Singaporean or Malaysian spots other than curry leaves bistro in Pleasanton hit quite right either.
To be clear this is already a better situation than lots of places! My original plan was to not leave home, because the food situation is so hard to beat, but since I couldn’t do that I’ve had to become very good at cooking a few different cuisines (Teochew, Hokkien, Thai, Malay, South Indian, Japanese) in order to approximate the stuff I miss
This also has to do with my theory that modern Chinese food has nowhere to grow in SF. It is very different in LA / San Gabriel valley which has a burgeoning scene of *all* types of Chinese foods from all over the world with many intersection so I often feel happy to discover new things and I am bound to find a few things that really speak to me there. But in SF it’s just a very ossified version of food from one part of Toishan that’s stayed the same way. And maybe that’s good for tradition, but if you don’t like the flavors or style that’s too bad for you. I’m definitely in that camp.
@skinnylatte I live in Marin County and yeah. Almost impossible to get anything other than your bog-standard American Chinese food here…
(There is a good sushi place here in Novato though, which is a blessing, though expensive)
@james there’s a place in Petaluma called Fantasia! Otherwise you should def drive to Richmond haha (there’s a place called Mi, homemade fishballs and dry noodles)
@skinnylatte oooooooh I haven't heard of Fantasy before, thanks! Mi looks v good too. Hmm it's lunchtime right now… 