L ifestyle /C ulture
San Francisco Treats
F OO D
KERI WHITE | JE FOOD COLUMNIST
I TOOK A RECENT TRIP
to San Francisco and was
eager to experience its world-
class Chinese food. It did not
disappoint. We dined at two places
in Chinatown: China Live
chinalivesf.com/ and Mr. Jiu’s
misterjius.com/. The former is a large space
with several different elements
— the ground floor houses a
casually elegant open kitchen
restaurant-cum-market where
you can buy sauces, season-
ings, kitchen gadgets and both
useful and decorative items.

The upper floor offers a formal
prix fixe, multi-course dinner.

We opted for the downstairs
dinner, and the food was truly
outstanding. We
certainly enjoy
good-quality Chinese food
in Philadelphia — those who
fondly recall Susanna Foo or
Yangming will know what I
mean — but even more casual
places like Mustard Greens
or Lee How Fook deliver
high-quality cuisine.

These two places in SF were
a cut above. The food delivered
complexity and sophistica-
tion, not to mention beautiful
presentation. China Live’s dumplings were
delicate and flavorful. The fried
scallion bread was miraculously
light. The Peking duck rolls
were melt-in-your-mouth duck
breast infused with robustly
sweet and spicy kumquat sauce
and wrapped in crispy sesame
pockets. I don’t even like duck
much, and I was enthralled.

Mr. Jiu’s is a Michelin-star
restaurant, also in Chinatown.

We struggled for a month to get
a table and in the end managed
to snag 5 p.m. walk-in seats at
the bar, where they serve the
full menu.

Everything we had was
delicious — silken mapo tofu
topped with spiced ground beef
was our bartender’s recommen-
dation with a warning that it
was spicy. We gave it a whirl,
despite my lack of enthusiasm
for tofu, and it was delicious. We
also enjoyed the beef chow fun,
rabbit with purple peppers and
shishito, and chicken dirty rice.

But the thing that stood out
to me, surprisingly, was the
Sichuan fermented cabbage. It
was sliced into thin ribbons and
Stir-fried chicken with carrots and snap peas
brought a symphony of flavors
— spicy, tangy, funky. I couldn’t
stop eating it. I was determined
to attempt a recreation at home.

Now I’m no canner, and the
idea of sterilizing jars and
avoiding botulism is scary to
me. Ditto having something
fermenting in my kitchen for
weeks on end.

But I was determined to make
a simpler, user-friendly version
of this dish, and I did — soaking
cabbage in a spicy vinegar for
a few days in the fridge did
the trick. It didn’t bring the
fermented funk or the tender-
ness of Mr. Jiu’s, but it delivered
Photos by Keri White
a spicy kimchi-esque dish that I
have eaten solo, as a side with stir
fry, tossed with tuna and heaped
on sandwiches. I also saved the
surplus vinegar brine — mixed
with jarred barbecue sauce —
as a delicious chicken marinade
and used it to flavor the stir fry
below. UNPLUG
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