Jan 28th 2006: Inner Richmond Eat and Walk

In alternating overcast, drizzling, and raining weather, some friends and I walked much of the inner Richmond district in San Francisco, up and down Clement street from 2nd to Park Presidio (13th or so). It was the Chinese New Year and the Richmond district is a wonderfully diverse district with a large Chinese population. We thought it would be a nice excuse to walk and nosh some dim sum and Chinese bakery snacks. And indeed it was.

We shared a bunch of dim sum items, including:
* Shu mai. (Some places even had chicken shu mai, but these were pretty intense balls of meat. Mostly we had pork, which was actually milder.)
* Dumplings. Shrimp dumplings were good but unexciting. Shark's fin dumplings (I know, I know, we shouldn't eat shark's fin, but I don't know how much shark's fin went into them or whether it was real at all) were definitely good. Also quite good were the shrimp and leek dumplings.
* BBQ Pork Buns. Always good.
* Bamboo leaf (shaped into a triangle) filled with sticky rice and meat. (I hadn't tried these before.) The one we tried was really dense, like a whole meal compressed into a tight ball.
* Fun kuo. I hadn't seen this before and most places didn't serve them, but we finally decided to order them and they were very good. Dumplings filled with pork and some nuts.
* Congee (Chinese porridge). As always, warm and filling.
* Green onion buns. (Made with ham - would you believe it?) Like a mild onion cinnamon twist (without cinnamon).
* Sesame balls. Amazing, agonizingly sweet.
* Mooncake cookies. Also very sweet, but less oily and scary.
* Coconut peanut bun. Soft, and the flavors worked fairly well together.
* "Banana"/rice cake. A simple but good yellow cake traditionally eaten at this holiday.

All in a all, a good and wet day with friends, regardless of whether one counts the food.