Tea House at Japanese Tea Garden

On my visit to San Francisco I wasn't planning on doing many "touristy" things.  Many buildings, attractions, and sites that most tourists flock to really don't interest me that much.  When I visit a new city, I get to know it best I can through its food and people.  However, when I read about the Japanese Tea Garden located right outside Golden Gate Park, I couldn't resist making the one hour trek over from my hotel to see it.

The Japanese culture has always piqued my interest.  The architecture, the people, the clothing, customs, traditions, language, and food.  I mean, really, what is there not to love?  Everything about it is beautiful.  Offering a type of zen and tranquility no matter what is it you're gazing upon.

The Japanese Tea Garden in SF is said to be America's oldest public Japanese tea garden.  It was originally created in 1894 as a one-acre Japanese-style garden.  Over the next few decades, a man named Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese landscape architect, had moved his family onto the property.  Mr. Hagiwara put all his personal wealth, passion, and creative talents into the garden to achieve in what he thought in his own eyes was perfection, and expanding it to about five acres.

In 1942, along with many other Japanese Americans, Mr. Hagiwara and his family were forced to move from their home and live in internment camps.  When WWII was over, he and his family were not allowed to move back into their home, and in subsequent years, many of the Hagiwara family heirlooms were removed, replaced with other additions, and eventually turning into a public space for viewing.

Walking up to the Japanese Tea Garden is very minimalistic.  Open landscape with a few small statues and man-made stools in front of an Asian-style gate.  On one of these stools sat an older Asian male, playing a Japanese flute for passer-by's.  What made him stand out was his engaging smile as he played, saying with it "I am happy, and there is no other place in the world I would rather be than here right now".  As you then walk through the main entrance, you are transported into another world.

Prosperity Dumpling

I don't know if you can find a better deal in NYC, and if you can, I'd love for you to show me.

Rickshaw, I think we've met your match.

Prosperity Dumpling is literally a hole-in-the-wall located in Chinatown.  Walk too fast down Eldridge Street at night and you may miss it, as the yellow sign hanging above the door can not be seen.  Just look for the line out the small door and wait patiently for a few minutes, and you'll be greatly rewarded.

Prosperity isn't much to look at.  A small counter lining the wall with two bar stools is all that is inside.  The space can fit about 3 customers comfortably.  However, the line here moves fast, and everything in here is dirt cheap.  That's what tempted me to venture out to Chinatown and try this place out.  The dumplings here are 5 for $1. That's right.  No gimmick.  No hustle.  You get 5 jumbo dumplings for $1.

Now I've had cheap meals before, and it's always you get what you pay for.  What can you really expect for that price?  I can tell you, now from experience, these are the best dumplings I have ever had in NYC, and the fact they are so incredibly cheap makes them taste even better.

Rickshaw Dumpling Truck

Dumplings aren't something you need to learn to love.

The Rickshaw Dumpling Truck is one of many mobile food vending units of Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, which has several locations throughout New York.  Rickshaw Dumpling Bar was co-founded in 2005 by Chef Anita Lo.  In my mind a very high-class but low-key chef, she is the Executive Chef of Restaurant Annisa in Greenwich Village, and has been a former contestant on Iron Chef America, Top Chef Masters season 1, and most recently seen in the public eye on Food Network's Chopped.  In 2010 she left Rickshaw Dumpling Bar to pursue other culinary interests, but her legacy still lives on in these handmade, steamed bundles of joy.

At the Dumpling Bar locations, you can choose between five different types of dumplings.  You then have your choice of getting them pan-fried or steamed, on top of a large salad or in a bowl of hot noodle soup.  Service is fast, the portions are large, and everything is just so damn good.

Although still good, the trucks only offer three types of dumplings, and you can only receive them steamed, and on their own with a dipping sauce.  Chicken with Thai basil, pork with Chinese chives, and vegetarian edamame.  Rickshaw prides itself on using organic Bell & Evans chicken, the same used by most NYC restaurants, and organic edamame.  The flavors are clean, and do come through.  However, at $6 for 6 pieces, you wonder how paying $1 for a steamed dumpling is justified.

BonChon

The freshness, the bold flavors, the passion put into every piece of food that comes out of the kitchens, the unrelenting pursuit of perfection.  That is why Korean food makes my mouth water.

BonChon chicken is one of many Korean fried chicken chains that have popped up in the United States over the past few years.  Like pizza joints across New York, fried chicken restaurants live all over South Korea.  Never eaten as a meal but more as a snack, South Koreans enjoy their wings and drumsticks with hot peppery sauces, garlic-soy sauces, pickled radishes, and beer or soju (think Korean vodka, but VERY strong).

So now their fried chicken lifestyle has made its way over the United States.  But what makes it so different from the fried chicken we all grew up on?  For years what we have referred to as the ultimate soul food?

Southern fried chicken is all about the crust, and cooks that are truly passionate about their chicken spend years trying to perfect their recipes.  Brining, marinating, dredging, and frying.  Size, oil temperature, cooking times, and condiments all come into play.  Most of the time served with skin, and sometimes not.  Arguments can be made for hours going back and forth as to who does it best, and which method is correct.