Lunch With Beth / Oolong Noodle House

Oolong Noodle Company is on Washington Street, across from the Pyramid, in the space formerly occupied by Louie's. Beth had been there before, but never tried the combination menu because the soup is so good.

  

 But since there were now two of us, we ordered one soup and one meal to share. We got the pork belly noodle soup.

And, making a theme of the pork, we ordered pork spare ribs with eel-flavored rice. It was definitely enough food for two, and tasty as well.

 

They kept the fish tank in the entry

There's too much glare from the street to see clearly, but the woman on the left is making noodles. 

Crab Splurge With Gina

Gina nabbed a Groupon for Fisherman's Grotto and invited me for a crab dinner. Her friend Louie was in town and came with us, but he didn't indulge in crab.

As soon as we sat down, our waiter brought us a platter of sourdough bread. Delicious on its own, it was perfect for sopping up all the garlic butter that came with the crab.

 Gina and Louie started with New England-style clam chowder. I had the salad.

  

We had a choice of roasted crab with garlic butter, steamed crab, or cold crab. It wasn't a difficult decision for us! The crabs were cracked for us, and so easy to pull apart that we didn't need the provided tools.

Crab swimming in garlic butter

 Louie opted for the parmesan-crusted halibut, which was covered in a tasty orange sauce that he couldn't quite identify.

Louie came along, just for the halibut.

 Our Groupon included a tiramisu to share, and we supplemented it with spumoni.

The restaurant's theme carpet

We were fascinated by the giant, fancy Applebee's across the street. Fortunately, no birds had defaced Gina's window and I got a good picture. If you're visiting SF, please check out a local resto, it will most likely be delicious and maybe even cheaper than Applebee's. We can give you lots of ideas if you're not sure where to eat in this town!

2015 Dinner with the San Francisco Writers Conference Volunteers

San Francisco Writers Conference Advisory Board member Harvey Pawl again invited the speakers and volunteers to be his guests at a Chinese banquet at Great Eastern on Jackson Street. We met up in the hotel lobby and took advantage of the warm weather to walk through Grant Street to the restaurant. The street fair was just ending, but there was still a lot to look at, and we temporarily lost a few of our people to shopping.

As soon as everyone was finally present and seated, we were served a platter of fried shrimp dumplings. Crisp on the outside, tender shrimp on the inside. Unfortunately, Angela wasn't there to remind me to take a picture of the insides of the dumplings before I gobbled my share.

Quickly following the shrimp were golden pumpkin fries. Again, crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

 Then it was more shrimp, this time sauteed with cashew nuts and vegetables.

 The shrimp was followed by steamed supreme chicken.

And a platter of beef with ginger and scallion.

 Deluxe mixed vegetables

were quickly followed by a perfect Peking duck with steamed buns. The skin was delightfully crisp, with no fat underneath.

Duck!

Vegetarian noodles. 

More veggies! Sauteed mustard greens with deep fried bean cake and Chinese mushrooms.

Fried rice finished the meal. There was also white rice on the table for those who wanted it.

 And, of course, a fortune cookie.