Sunrise Deli bills itself as “the best falafel in town,” and well, I think it’s true. With three locations in San Francisco and one in Berkeley, it’s become my go-to casual lunch spot when I’m craving Middle Eastern food. I frequent their SOMA restaurant, and on most visits, I can count on a line.
My favorite dish at Sunrise Deli is the falafel plate. Served with hummus, tahini, pita bread, and super-flavorful olives and pickled vegetables, the falafels are moist on the inside and crispy on the outside — no small feat. Best of all, Sunrise Deli’s falafels are fresh, with their vegetables picked from local farms and their bread baked at the Irving Street outpost. During my last visit, my dining companions had the chicken shawarma and shawarma plate and spoke similar praises of their freshness.
Sunrise Deli has been around since the early 1980s, so I fully accept my late pass in discovering this Bay Area establishment. But be forewarned — their SOMA restaurant closes at 4:30, so you’re better off satisfying your craving during the day.
Tequila and raw fish? This won’t end well, I thought to myself when I first heard of Hecho, the Financial District’s new robata and sushi bar boasting over 80 tequilas. I met a friend for dinner at Hecho the first time I visited, not entirely sure what to expect.
I was pleasantly surprised. We were quickly seated inside the small interior and and started off with a couple of house margaritas while we perused the menu.
We started with the smoked pickled daikon and tuna-cucumber maki. Hecho’s menu isn’t very lengthy, but what they offer is unique — no California rolls here. The vinegary daikon were super crunchy and the tuna was good quality and fresh, a welcome relief as I took another sip of tequila.
Next came the chicken karage, my favorite small plate at Hecho — perfectly crisped, super succulent chicken glazed with a spicy-sweet sauce.
Hecho isn’t the kind of place to go to if you’re ravenous — the small plates are, well, small. But they’re artfully presented and tasty. On my second visit with another friend, we ordered a few maki and finished off with a plate of cured hamachi.
Plated on a pink salt block and garnished with candied jalapeno and lemon oil, the fish was almost too pretty to eat. (Not that it stopped us.)
As it turns out, tequila and sushi can and do go together. After all, if sake is a mainstay in sushi bars , why not tequila?
To be fair, there was no lard used in the making of this dish. I used turkey bacon instead. Please don’t judge me; the end product was still a garlicy plate of fried potato goodness.
Adapted from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, this wintery dish is a snap to create and makes a great side. The original recipe uses slab bacon but if you’re cutting down on the fat, use a mixture of turkey bacon and butter, as I did.
Ingredients:
4 slices turkey bacon, chopped into a 1/4-inch dice
2 tablespoons butter
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut in half, then chopped into 1/4-inch thick slices
1 garlic clove, minced
4 sprigs of flat parsley, chopped
salt and pepper
1. Heat a saute pan over medium heat and add the butter until melted. Add the bacon and cook until the fat is rendered and the meat is crispy, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes, stirring and tossing frequently. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then season with parsley, salt, and pepper. Serve warm.
Heaven is a place where you can eat bibimbap for breakfast, bulgogi for lunch, and banchan all day long. Heaven is Seoul, at least it was for one short, gluttonous day. Melody and I arrived in Incheon International Airport just after dawn, still tired from our stay in Hanoi. We headed straight to Bon, an airport restaurant that was packed even at this early hour. “Aiport” and “restaurant” should rarely be used in the same sentence, but apparently this rule doesn’t apply in Korea.
I ordered a bowl of short rib bibimbap and mixed in some rice, gochujang, and enjoyed my breakfast with side of seaweed soup and kimchi. The short rib was super rich, but the gochujang’s sweet pepper flavor cut right through and woke me up.
Among the many qualities that makes Incheon one of my favorite airports is that it houses a section dedicated to Seoul transit tours. We walked to the tour kiosks, signed up for a day-long tour, and ten minutes later, we were on a small minivan en route to the city center. Our friendly guide, Dambi, explained that since Seoul had just experienced its worst flooding in decades in the previous week, many roads were still closed. The rainy ride to Changdeok Palace took just under an hour.
Built by the Joseon Dynasty in the fourteenth century, Changdeok Palace sits within huge park grounds the palace’s living quarters, pavilions, gates, gardens, and the king’s private residence. Much of the palace was destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and today, only thirty percent of the palace structures remain.
We spent most of our afternoon at the palace before heading over to Jogyesa Temple, the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The temple was filled with folks quietly observing their prayers, so we were soon on our way to our next stop: lunch!
Seoul’s hip Insadong neighborhood is filled to the brim with not only fashion and art boutiques, but snack shops and restaurants too. Internet, I was beside myself. So! Much! Korean! Food! I could hardly contain my excitement as we walked into a traditional, mahogany-lined restaurant.
We nibbled on our banchan while we waited for our main dishes to arrive. Sauteed mushrooms, mung bean pancakes, pickled greens, daikon raidish, seasoned mung beans and cabbage kimchi kept me sated until my bulgogi stew arrived.
I’ve never seen this dish in Korean restaurants in the Bay Area. I think of grilled meat when I hear “bulgogi,” but this bulgogi a stew, and a deliciously flavored one at that. The thinly sliced meat was super tender, and sat atop a bed of glass noodles. The broth was light but meaty — a perfect balance.
We finished our meal off with a cold plum juice digestif before we went off to explore Insadong.
We soon headed to Ssamziegil, an artist-designed shopping center showcasing handicrafts, galleries, clothing boutiques, and snack shops. I only wish we had more time here, and after two hours, we’d only scratched the surface. I bought a pair of clear glass earrings and a silver ring before calling it a day. Our ride back to the airport was waiting for us, and we had a flight to catch.
At Incheon, we quickly passed through customs and spent the rest of our time checking out the seaweed, tea, and kimchi-packed duty-free shops. So much good food, so little time. I missed Vietnam already, but I felt that with South Korea, I’d only caught a lightning-quick glimpse. Until I return, I’d like to recreate the dishes I tried in Seoul at home. Do you have any tried and true Korean cookbook recommendations? Drop me a line.
We woke up early on our last day in Hanoi to make the most of the few hours we had left in Vietnam. Despite the sense of urgency, we couldn’t pull ourselves away from the Old Quarter. There was still so much to explore.
We finally made it towards Hoan Kiem Lake and stopped at Hapro Bon Mua for a snack of fresh coconut. Feeling refreshed, we continued along the lake before stopping again at Pho 24, a Ho Chi Minh-based chain with shops around Southeast Asia. Despite the chain status, the pho is actually really good.
Melody and I each had a bowl of beef pho. The rice noodles were cooked to perfection, the beef was tender, and the broth was oh so flavorful. I bought a couple of instant pho bowls from Pho 24 as a souvenir before we headed out. (Instant noodles count as a souvenir, right?)
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Indira Gandhi park and Hoan Kiem Lake yet again. After all, our flight was leaving in a few hours so we couldn’t venture too far from our hotel.
By dusk we were in a cab heading back to No Bai International Airport. But our trip wasn’t over quite yet. There was still Seoul to be had! Too excited to sleep, I spent our flight daydreaming about kimchi, banchan, jigae and bulgogi. In other words, all of my favorite things.
