San Francisco Roundup II: Excellent Afghan, Terrible Breakfast at Overrated Brenda's, Shabu Bar hits the spot and the Best Pork Belly at Zero Zero

What a nice surprise finding an excellent Afghan spot in Burlingame, about 30 minutes south of San Francisco. Kabul Afghan Cuisine was a gem. My favorite was this mini-dumpling in a yogurt sauce called mantoo. They sound like mandoo, Korean dumplings, except they are onion and ground lamb filled dumplings topped with yogurt and mixed vegetables. They were perfect appetizers to get your palate going before diving into the main courses. The combination of mini dumplings and with the tangy yogurt sauce was well-balanced.

The lamb stew with green peas, tomatoes, onions and spices was also spot on. The lamb was
fall off the bone tender and was perfectly prepared without any strong lamb odor. It was seasoned just right -- a great comfort dish.

The vegetarian platter included spinach, eggplant and cauliflower cooked with onions, tomatoes and spices. It was just what the other meat-heavy dishes needed. All in all, top notch. I reminded me of this fantastic homemade meal I had years ago.

On the other hand, I finally tried Brenda's Soul Food, a place serving "French Soul Food" that always has an insane line out the door. So much hype and so little to back it up. I had the pork with a poached egg and cheddar grits. The pork was smelly and the texture of the grits was all wrong -- too mushy -- and the flavor was watered down. The egg was poached right but everything else, including the tomato and onion sauce drizzled over it, was a big thumbs down.

We got an order of the famous beignets and they were ok but nothing to write home about. It had too much sugar and had to dust off a bunch before biting into it.

The shrimp and grits were equally unimpressive. It just didn't have flavor. It tasted like mass produced food. I didn't taste any quality ingredients or care that had gone into it.

You know how you crave comfort food when you're traveling and going through airports? Shabu shabu was my craving so we headed to Shabu Bar.

The important thing was that it hit the spot but it wasn't the best shabu shabu I've had.

I didn't love the sesame sauce that was too watered down and lacked flavor. I wouldn't return. I'd rather go to Shabu sen in Japantown.

Then we stopped by one of my favorite SF restaurants, Zero Zero, or 00 for the type of flour they use to make their delish pizzas.

Hands down the best dish here is the slow cooked pork belly with seared polenta squares ("Roman-style dumplings"), broccoli, shaved cheese (pecorino or parmesan), poached egg and harissa. That pork belly is perfectly cooked, super soft on the inside and nicely browned and crispy on the outside. Pop the egg and wow, I could have this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Their specials change so make sure to check but they are almost always excellent. This mushroom pizza, in addition to the classic Margharita, was first rate with a crispy thin crust and aromatic mushrooms.

This was a duck confit rigatoni with fennel, which complemented each other well with their strong flavors. Highly recommended.

San Francisco Roundup I: Amazing Grilled Octopus and Branzino at Kokkari and Disappointing Thrice-Cooked Bacon and Rice Cakes at Mission Chinese Food

I'm always up for perfectly grilled octopus and I was stoked to get exactly that at Kokkari, a Greek spot in San Francisco seemingly filled with business lunchers. I went there just for that and it didn't disappoint. The meat was soft and not to chewy -- add a refreshing squirt of lemon and we're good to go. I still dream about the octopus I had in Santorini, possibly one of the best meals with a view I've ever had.

The grilled branzino with braised greens, lemon and Cretan (!) olive oil was excellent. The quality of the fish was top notch. It was perfectly grilled with just the right amount of browned skin. Our server offered to de-bone it for us so we were able to jump right in for the flesh that was soft and flavorful. Just amazing. 

This is where it starts to go downhill. It got off to such a strong start but alas, the Chicken Souvlaki was dry and flavorless. The bulgur wheat salad was too cake-y and equally flavorless. Not even a dollop of tzatziki yogurt and cucumber sauce could salvage these duds. Thumbs way down.

We didn't expect anything too exciting for dessert but we didn't want something as sweet as baklava. We got the ouzo sorbet that came with prickly pear squares. The color of the sorbet was a curious fuchsia and had never had prickly pears so it was very odd. I was never a big fan of the clear, liquorice-like spirit but as a sorbet, it most definitely did not work and the pears didn't do much to temper the strong liquorice flavor. Not for me.

I finally ventured to Mission Chinese Food, the much-hyped, hip (without a real sign, naturally) and nouveau Chinese joint in the Mission that proclaims to serve "Americanized Oriental food" and catapulted its chef, Danny Bowien, to celebrity status. Many dishes were interesting in concept, like salted cod fried rice, but not great in execution. Most importantly, everything was so greasy that we could only have like two spoonfuls of each dish and could not consume any more of anything.

I understand Chinese food can be greasy but the Chinese food I had in China or even in San Gabriel Valley in LA isn't nearly this bad. I mean, the man just piled it on. Still, they were tasty upon first bite, at least. Take the thrice-cooked bacon rice cakes, the first image up top. The bacon was first boiled in water, cured and then pan fried, if I recall correctly. It also had sweet tofu skins that gave it a nice texture, bitter melons whose bitterness was tempered by the oil and salty sauce and Szechuan pepper for that tingling kick. Good but I wasn't that impressed with the "thrice-cooked bacon." What's the use of being cooked three times if it doesn't taste good?

The salted cod fried rice also came with Chinese sausages and interestingly, mackerel confit, which I couldn't find but probably made it even fishier, lettuce and egg with some fresh scallions and cilantro sprinkled on top. I did not like this dish despite loving salted cod and fried rice, not to mention sausage!

We thought we should get at least one vegetarian dish to balance all the porkiness (see pork belly below) and got the Mongolian long beans that was extremely salty and spicy. It came topped with horseradish bits that looked like shredded cheese. The flavors were too strong, even with a bowl of rice to go with it.

I got curious about the "Tiki Pork Belly" and it was indeed visually very Tiki with a pineapple and mini-parasol -- almost like a Pina Colada pork belly? The pork belly chunks had been slow-braised in soy caramel so it was tender and soft. It came with mandarin oranges, shaved coconuts and macadamia nuts. It seemed a bit gimmicky but overall not a bad dish.

Despite my first soso experience, I'd still like to return to try interesting-sounding dishes like tea-smoked eel, Kung Pao pastrami and breakfast fried rice. Will I be disappointed again?