Last weekend, an old friend from Boston asked me if I wanted to take in some dim sum at an old favorite place of his in San Francisco. Yank Sing held many a fond memory for him, so off we went to the 49 Stevenson Street location, although apparently they have an even larger venue on 101 Spear Street in the Rincon Center.
The restaurant has been around since 1958 and tout over 60 different varieties of dim sum, including some of their more popular choices such as Har Gow Dumplings, Shanghai Pork Dumplings, Snow Pea Shoot Dumplings, Phoenix-Tail Prawn, Peking Duck by the slice or their Imperial Walnut salad, which we didn’t have but it looked fabulous on our neighbor’s table. It is served with purple cabbage, jicama, and honey roasted walnuts in an Asian herb dressing. My favorite? The honey baked seabass.
Since we didn’t opt for any deep fried options, some of the delicious steamed and grilled offerings included seafood basil dumplings, mandarin dumplings with chives, snowpea shoots, spinach or muchroom dumplings, potstickers, peking ribs, turnip cake, chicken satay, minced chicken in lettuce cup, or a soft shell crab. (YUM!)
The Peking Duck, which is served with steamed seashell buns, finely slivered scallions and a tangy Hoisin sauce.
Plenty of fried options if you want to go there including scallop balls on a skewer, bacon wrapped prawn, crab claw, spring rolls or a green onion cake.
Steamed is the way to go though…
Some of the items take hours and hours to prepare and I’m told, not a one person job.
The desserts were scrumptious also — from egg custard tarts, coconut cream rolls, egg custard buns and mango pudding (below) to pistachio ice cream pie and sesame balls, there’s plenty to choose from.
We give it a royal thumbs up and was not hosted in any way. Check out either one of their two San Francisco locations for a dim sum experience you’ll remember for awhile.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.