I actually don't spend that much time in San Francisco; it just so happened that I drove in twice in the space of three weeks. (Yes, I drove, and before people start hassling me about fuel prices and pollution, let me point out that I live in Sacramento and the closest BART station is 70 miles from me. Whereas SF, the city, is only 90. All I'm spending money on is parking, and if my car gets jacked in Berkeley, I'd rather pay the $18 for a parking garage.) ANYWAY, this time the trip centered around my mom's birthday, and my brother and I  decided to treat her to lunch. After a bit of wandering and thinking and pondering and debating, we settled on Yank Sing in the Rincon Center.
    Holy cow was this place PACKED! It's open seven days a week though only during lunch hours, and it's like everyone tried to fit in a visit at the same time. But we were seated right away, water and tea was brought out, and the dim sum (or deem sum, on their website) started making its rounds.
    Without getting too detailed, here's a list of what made its way onto our table: chicken buns, pork buns, chicken satay with peanut sauce (the sauce was ground, not chunky), broccoli rabe and peas in a deliciously light sauce, soft veggie spring rolls, egg rolls, some sort of scallop thingie (which I didn't care for because, apparently, I don't like scallops), a packet of rice wrapped around mushrooms and BBQ pork, and at the end, a lightly sweet mango pudding with a strawberry slice on top. ("Happy birthday, Mom, you get the strawberry.")
    Wait, did I mention the cabbage salad? It was the first thing brought to our table, and it was devoured immediately. You may not think cabbage salad is anything special, but this was. It was... oh, cabbage, and there was ginger in it, and some sort of dressing, and I don't know, it was just REALLY SUPER GOOD. I could make that a whole meal, if I knew how they made it.
    The iced tea report is that the tea is a jasmine variety, and very, very good. Mom had several glasses. That's OK, we had a lot of shopping to get done afterward.
    I'm not going to reveal the final tab, because I don't want my mother to come here, read this entry and discover how much we paid. Suffice to say, it wasn't heinously priced. and it was totally worth it. Happy 44th birthday, Mom! —A.C.

Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 in Permalink