Try mainland China in San Francisco
By: Patricia Unterman
Special to The Examiner
November 6, 2009
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| Brothy: Boiled lamb with preserved vegetable in warm pot is one of many delightful broth-based dishes at Old Mandarin. (Bret Putnam/Special to The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — As usual, I was having a tough time readjusting to the West after a trip to Shanghai, but when I walked into Old Mandarin Islamic, I felt the reassuring vibes of mainland China.
Two workmen were pondering a huge piece of electronics laid out on a big round corner table. A heater?
The rest of the small dining room was full of eaters dangling thin slices of lamb and beef, greens and tofu from chopsticks into metal hot pots of boiling broth.
Servers with saucepans full of more broth rushed to the tables to replenish. A small cadre of cooks worked feverishly in a doorless cluttered kitchen as they gave advice to the workmen in the dining room. The division between front and back of the house had essentially vanished. Like so many of my haunts in China, Old Mandarin was an extension of a family compound.
My Old Mandarin meal soon hit the table, typically all at once.
No. 49, a miniversion of a hot pot called “warm pot” was a clay pot full of paper thin lamb, sauerkrautlike preserved vegetable, glass noodles, tofu and fresh cilantro ($10.95), all cooked instantaneously by the boiling broth. The pickled vegetable gives it a bracing tartness that cleanses and soothes.
Every regular orders No. 62, Peking Beef Pancake ($8.50), a buoyantly crisp, savory, multilayered, deep fried bread, filled with chopped beef, luscious with a drizzle of hoisin sauce.
No. 34, stirred egg with vegetables, ($9.95) a fluffy, swirled omelet with golden edges draped over a mound of julienned vegetables, is a must. A dash of soy sauce focuses the flavors. The Old Mandarin kitchen uses a very light hand with salt.
An intense, exciting dry stir fry of tissue-thin lamb, wok-seared with cumin, chili, green peppers and onions, No. 27, called Mandarin lamb ($10.95), evokes the Silk Road, a signature dish.
Look to the “Chef’s Specials” section of the menu to explore more of this northern Chinese-style of cooking. Or throw your own lamb feast (about $45 a person with tip) for a group.
One night, 11 of us filed through Old Mandarin’s kitchen, then through a garage and a warren of rooms, to a small private room just big enough for one round table. Frankly, it looked like the family’s private dining room. We attacked a 17-course mostly lamb menu encompassing every part of the animal ending with a huge hot pot into which we plunged a mountain of lacy chrysanthemum greens. They were delicately licoricey, minty and divine, melted in the hot broth.
Consuming the whole animal, as the Chinese have done for centuries, makes ecological and culinary sense, as so many Western chefs now are discovering.
As for the installation going on during my recent dinner, the workers finally lifted a gigantic flat screen television into place. Someone darted out of the kitchen with a carpet sweeper; the chairs and table were brushed off, and by the time I left, a new party was seated around a hot pot.
Patricia Unterman is author of the just released second edition of the “San Francisco Food Lovers’ Pocket Guide.” Contact her at pattiu@concentric.net.
Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant
- Location: 3132 Vicente St. (between 42nd and 43rd avenues), San Francisco
- Contact: (415) 564-3481
- Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday through Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
- Price range: $5.50 to $19.95
- Recommended dishes: Peking beef pancake; warm pot with lamb and preserved vegetable; pan fried lamb dumplings; boiled lamb dumplings, stirred egg with vegetables; Mandarin lamb; lamb with green onions
- Credit cards: MasterCard, Visa
- Reservations: Accepted
