Dim Sum at Yank Sing

One of the restaurants Nola recommended in San Francisco was a dim sum place called Yank Sing. I found from the guidebook she lent me that there are a few locations around town, none of which are in Chinatown. There was one that looked to be close to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which was about the only place I knew I had to visit.

So, after a trip to Lombard Street (see picture of famous crooked street), we took the cable car all the way to back to Market Street, and caught a bus in the general direction of where the restaurant appeared to be located.

We were kind of lost, but I having just looked at the guidebook I knew Yank Sing had a Stevenson Street address but could not find it on the map. When we got off the bus at the end of the line, I looked up and there was Stevenson. A one-half block stroll down got us to our destination.

We walked in, got a table and the first cart by was this Peking Duck.

Dim sum is served here by waitresses rolling carts of food, usually contained in steaming bamboo containers, around the restaurant and explaining to the guests what the delights contained therein. Several carts came by with a variety of items–spicy chicken chunks swimming in a sea of dried chiles. Chicken in foil, which the waitress explained was like barbecued chicken. Crab claws, and shrimp with stir-fried walnuts.

The house soup dumplings were the first offering, the technique for eating them was demonstrated by the waitress. First she put a small dish of a red, I believe, plum-based sauce with slivers of ginger on the table, and filled up a Chinese soup spoon from the dish. The soup dumpling went into this soup spoon pool and then into waiting hungry mouth.

The chicken in foil was messy, yet tasty. I put a few drops of chile oil on everything except the spicy chicken, which just seemed like overkill.

A great meal overall, and the kind of experience I was hoping to find in San Francisco. Thanks, Nola!