Early Bird Special: Poleng Lounge

J. Birdsall

Luym, grilling up goodness at the S.F. Street Food Festival.

Seems that some chefs are born fierce, while others (credit changing tastes, the alignment of the planets, whatever) have fierceness thrust upon them. That second option describes the trajectory of Tim Lyum, chef at Poleng Lounge (1751 Fulton at Masonic) and a guy getting a lot of second looks these days, thanks to the city's sweaty embrace of street food. Sounds crazy now that San Franciscans are itchy to line up in some park for a $5 paper boat of underground chicken adobo, but Poleng used to have a secret menu of what Lyum told SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody he considered "challenging ingredients." Well, Lyum's Asian street-food dishes are secret no longer, and ingredients that once gave most diners chills are smoking hot. Read Brody's take on Poleng's lemongrass-scented, calamansi-spiked deliciousness (as well as Lyum's plans for a street-food-inspired lunch service) later today at SFWeekly.com. We'll give you a little whiff after the jump.

Poleng Lounge offers an attractive and convenient option for hungry locals. It's the place where chef Tim Luym, who grew up in Manila and whose own melting-pot ancestry includes China and Spain, reinvents the street food he fell in love with in Southeast Asia. "A lot of people that travel to Asia are afraid to try the street stalls, for sanitary reasons, so I definitely wanted to re-create those dishes," he said. "They utilize as much of everything as possible, like the pig's head -- snout and ears -- for sisig in the Philippines. So do we. We do a pork belly dish, and we use the skin to make chicharrones."