The Best Dishes Eater SF Editors Ate This Week: March 8 - Eater SF
"If you’ve visited the Four Kings pop-up in the past, you may be wondering how the transition to a permanent space will fare. I’m here to reassure you that things are already going swimmingly. I covered their upcoming opening set for March 14, but I attended a recent preview dinner and was pleased to find that the Four Kings crew has only managed to become better in their new setup in Chinatown. Several dishes were impressive, including this Chinese sausage and bacon clay pot rice. It’s easy to take this dish at face value as mere comfort food, but there’s plenty of technique from chefs Mike Long and Franky Ho beneath the surface. The duo makes their lap cheong and bacon in-house, giving the meat a more flavorful bite than one might find elsewhere. The egg yolk at the center bathed the rice and pork in that lovely gloss and texture that eggs so nicely contribute. I could mention so many other dishes, but I’ll quickly shout out two other favorites: Don’t sleep on the Chiuchow olive green beans or huckleberry douhua. The green beans were perfectly cooked under an umami-laced sauce made of Chinese olives and fermented mustard greens, with a hint of spice from rounds of Thai chiles. The huckleberry douhua dessert was a nice, warming, silken tofu dish topped with a huckleberry compote and an accompanying flavor of ginger for balance. If you’re convinced, I’d make your reservations now while you can." - Paolo Bicchieri
