San Francisco Blog

We try to spend as little time as possible under fluorescents, which is why we were heartened by news that a favorite (if ill-lit) pho place, Pho Clement, added a second location on Geary, sans harsh, flickering lights.
Even pho looks better in soft light. There are two dozen numbered combinations here (this is the medium-size #10, Nam Ve Don, well-done flank steak, $7.50), or you can customize with other meats. Besides the usual plate heaped with bean sprouts, Thai basil, sawtooth herb, chiles, and lime, you can amp things up via a forest of condiments: sriracha, hoisin, soy, chile oil, sesame oil, and vinegar.

Tru Gourmet serves beautiful, creative, and organic dim sum at the Metreon's daily Island Earth Farmer's Market, including vegan potstickers and dumplings in varieties like wild butterfish and Dungeness crab. While certainly pricier than many dim sum places around town, TG's baked BBQ pork bun ($2.50 each, or three for $6; pictured above with Dungeness dumplings) is one of the tastiest and most substantial we've ever sampled. The wheat flour bun contains a generous filling of lean Prather Ranch pork. Warning: Three of these fancy meat donuts might just send you into a deep and delicious food coma.

Primal and stretchy, with a filling tinted delicious

The counter lady can get surly if you violate some unspoken protocol, and the shumai (left too long in the display case) can end up hard as the burgers at a multiplex. But the baked chicken buns ($1) at this well-trafficked Inner Richmond dim sum joint make you forgive all that and more. The paisley-shaped beauties are lacquered to a high gloss with egg. Break one open and the sweet aroma of yeast dough engages some primal yearning for mom and carbs. Tender and stretchy, it reveals a hefty filling of sliced, poached chicken and yellow onion tinted delicious with soy sauce. It's the kind of thing you find yourself devouring, head bent low over the table without looking up, till it's gone. You don't even mind getting in line again for a second, even figuring that the counter lady isn't going to like seeing you. She'll just have to deal.
Clement Restaurant 621 Clement (at Eighth Ave.), 752-9520.

We may have to wait for Tamearra Dyson's animal-free soul food joint Souley Vegan to reopen in a new location in Oakland (301 Broadway at Third St.), but fortunately we don't have to wait for her cooking. Dyson still offers ready-made meals at the Grand Lake Saturday farmers' market and, on this side of the bay, in the refrigerator at Rainbow Grocery (1745 Folsom at Division). Her hearty red beans and rice ($4.29) packs big bursts of garlic and spice, with cooked tomatoes that have a pleasant bite without crossing into squishy territory. Readers of the East Bay Express voted Souley Vegan the East Bay's best soul food last year, a real feat when you realize the competition had trotters to give them a leg up.

Ike's Place (3506 16th St. at Sanchez, 553-6888) makes the heartiest sandwiches you ever wrapped your mouth around, many under eight bucks and almost all with wacky monikers like Do You Smell What Barack is Cooking? (BBQ ribeye and smoked gouda). You'd never know it from BAF's girlish figure, but we're partial to the Fat Bastard ($6.96), a stack of ham, bacon, and American cheese, slathered with plenty of Ike's signature secret Dirty Sauce. There's also the Hella Fat Bastard, which swaps out fried mozzarella sticks for the American. We would have tried it, but we'd have gone 98 cents over our $8 budget. Besides, we're pretty sure it would've killed us.

No doubt this all sounds a bit gross to you veggies and vegans, but don't let that stop you from giving Ike's a try -- there's an extensive sandwich menu for you, too. Instead of a Fat Bastard, how about a Meatless Mike?