15.173 Sauteed Pea Sprouts with Garlic

Cycle 15 – Item 173

26 (Wed) June 2024

Sauteed Pea Sprouts with Garlic

4.0

at Harborview Restaurant & Bar

-San Francisco, California, USA-

with the Family

Summer Holiday in USA (Day 1 of 11)

In the San Francisco Bay Area.  With the Family.  Their first time in Northern California.  The immediate objective is to escort DJ and three of his friends to compete in the finals of a global logic competition at Stanford University, while taking advantage of the opportunity to show the family my hometown/region, including San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Berkeley, and visit my best friend Hahn, who lives in Los Altos, maybe even drop by my childhood home in Saratoga.  The itinerary is packed, nearly every hour scheduled with activities.  Stay tuned.

Our first overseas vacation in 3 years (see most recently 13.355 Tamago), first long haul trip in 5 years (see most recently 10.301 Fish Harra), first visit to the States in 6 years (see most recently 9.360 Teppanyaki Combination: Maine Scallops + Nova Scotia Lobster Tail).

First three nights at a hotel in downtown San Francisco.

FLIGHT

-UA 892-

When DJ’s team was notified just 2 weeks ago that they’d qualified for the finals, we had to scramble to book air tickets.  The only airline that had available seats in both business (W and I) and economy (DJ and IZ) was United Airlines, which I can’t recall ever having flown before.  Though skeptical of the service quality on American carriers, we had no choice.

Our coupled seats (don’t know why the photo is so grainy, as if taken with an early model iPhone).

Fortunately, the service in business class was fine (though not the food).  But back in coach, the boys were provided only a single beverage as part of the meal service, then nothing, so I smuggled snacks to them throughout the flight, as I’d done when we went to UAE (see generally 10.295 Tofu & Mushroom Spring Roll with Hoi Sin Sauce).

LUNCH

Arriving in the city a little after 1pm, we had a couple hours to kill before our hotel check-in at 3pm, so we walked a few blocks north in search of lunch and found a restaurant on the southern edge of Chinatown.

Located at 648 Kearny Street, about 800 m from the hotel.

Hon’s Wun-Tun House is a Chinese restaurant.  Specializes in Cantonese dumplings (wonton) and noodles.  Established in 1972.

Signature Wuntun Noodle Soup (3.5): worth the hype.

The food was awesome.

We were, however, taken aback by the cost of the meal, which came out to $100 after tax and tip.

Indeed, I was warned by HS, whose company is based in San Francisco, that food is shockingly expensive in the city, even for simple things.  When I told him that our projected meal budget is $20 per person for lunch and $50 per person for dinner, he laughed.  Already $20 in the hole after a single meal.

To make it worse, the current exchange rate as of today is USD 1 : KRW 1,392, the highest in recent memory, the highest thus far in 2024 (the lowest rate this year was USD 1 : KRW 1,280 in January).

HOTEL

For the first three nights, we’re staying at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Downtown SOMA.

Located at 50 3rd Street, just south of Market Street (“SOMA = SO-uth of MA-rket”).
Plenty of elbow room, even with 2 queen beds.
Spectacular views of the city from the 26th floor: this angle facing southwest and overlooking Jessie Square and St Patrick Church – shoulda taken a shot of the southeast angle showing SFMOMA and Oracle Park.

The hotel is very nicely situated to give us quick access to many of the destinations on the itinerary, including Chinatown, Union Square, SFMOMA, and Oracle Park.

DINNER

Harborview Restaurant & Bar is a Chinese restaurant.  Specializes in Cantonese-style seafood.  Recognized by the Michelin Guide (2023) (see Best Chinese Restaurants in San Francisco).

Located at 4 Embarcadero Center, about 1.1 km from the hotel.

When planning out meals for the trip, starting with our inaugural dinner in town, I was most excited to find a venue for Cantonese seafood – my favorite cuisine of all time.  Second only to Hong Kong (maybe Singapore) (maybe Bangkok), San Francisco boasts the best Cantonese in the world, arguably.  But rather than venturing deep into Chinatown, where the truly authentic joints would be, I wanted to play it safe at a place that was fancy, famous, mainstream – a place that would appeal to affluent white people (and tourists).  Harborview fit the bill perfectly.

Kitschy decor designed to reassure white people (and tourists) that the restaurant is legit, even though no authentic establishment would look like this.
Regrettably, in my excitement, I never bothered to take a look at the actual harbor view on the outside.

As anticipated, the food was excellent.  Dishes included ingredients of the highest quality and freshness, expertly prepared, beautifully plated.

The pea sprouts, unanimously our favorite dish, started off the meal with a bang.  Perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned.  Sublimely bittersweet.  Exquisitely charred garlic cloves, with strong accents of wokhei. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the first post of our trip to Los Angeles had also featured pea shoots (see generally 9.349 Pea Shoots with Garlic).  Uncertain whether pea “shoots” vs “sprouts” are the same thing, as they look different (one has thin white stems; the other has thick green stems), and taste different (one is sweet; the other is more bitter), though very similar in essence – so maybe one is a younger version of the other.  While I am very familiar with shoots – previously described as “my all-time favorite Chinese vegetable dish: delicate yet chewy in texture, sweetish with a touch of bitter,” delicious even at the hands of Panda Express – this was my first experience with sprouts.  Based on this initial encounter, I’ll give a slight edge to shoots.

However, having ordered both a crab and a lobster, the meal kinda dragged in the end.  Two were a bit too much.  Furthermore, the methods of preparation and sauces were somewhat similar, so they kinda blended into each other.  And finally, the shells made them difficult and messy to eat, especially the crab, so we were exhausted by the physicality of getting at the meat – should’ve resisted one of them (the crab) and instead ordered something entirely different, like steamed fish or roast duck or prawn stir-fry, just to get more diversity on the table, like that epic meal on my birthday in Malaysia several years back, which had also featured lobster and noodles (see generally 8.357 Lobster with Mushrooms and Noodles in Truffle Sauce).

Maine Lobster in Supreme Sauce with (E-Fu) Noodles (2.5): went with e-fu noodles upon the server’s recommendation, forgetting that I’m not fan (shoulda opted for chow mein) – intended to be the meal’s piece de resistance, but fell way short.

Supreme/Superior Soy Sauce is a Chinese sauce.  Among infinite variations, the essential elements include light soy sauce + dark soy sauce + oyster sauce + shaoxing wine + sugar, maybe fish sauce – pretty much all the basics of any Chinese stir-fry.  The name derives from the Chinese “豉油 (siyu) (bean oil) + 王 (wang) (king/supreme/superior).”  The sauce was once featured but not described in a prior post (see generally 6.001 Braised Superior Whole Abalone).

Here, the supreme sauce was much lighter than expected, frankly somewhat bland.

Dungeness Crab with Ginger & Scallions (3.0): tasty but what a major pain in the ass.

With tax and tip, the meal came out to $273.35, not as bad as it could’ve been, given the lobster and crab, but still $73.35 over budget.

ENTERTAINMENT

Afterwards, we went to The Escape Game – a chain of 3 locations across the Bay Area – to engage in a breakout room.  We did Special Ops.  Compared to prior experiences many years ago at rinky dink joints in Manila and Seoul, the production values at this place were impressive (even so, the 5.0 Google rating with 6.4K votes is highly suspicious).

With unlimited requests for clues, breaking out is all-but guaranteed.

The game cost $179.96 for the 4 of us, an entirely unanticipated expense (IZ had spotted it on our way to lunch).

After just a single day, we are $273.31 over budget.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN USA)

(See also IN FLIGHT)

(See also BUSINESS CLASS DINING)

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