The Best Dishes Eater SF Editors Ate This Week: Spring 2023 - Eater SF
"The thing about revisiting a restaurant you haven’t frequented in a number of years — say, before the pandemic — is a worry that perhaps you’ve given the food a glow of nostalgia. That possibility was certainly on my mind as I drove up to Lucky Chances Casino to research Cafe Colma, a diner I visited both in the wee hours of the night with friends and in the daytime with my Filipino family. But when I tucked into a bowl of kare kare, it was good in that way the food you grew up with can be: nostalgic, yes, but also comforting and, in my case, something I didn’t know I needed or was missing. Peanut sauce serves as the foundation of this Filipino stew filled with tender oxtail and tripe, alongside green beans and eggplant. Eaten over steamed white rice, the deep, slightly sweet sauce, and the curry ingredients play against the intense umami flavor of bagoong, or agamang. The fermented shrimp paste cuts through the richness to inject a bit of salinity into each spoonful, while the vegetables give it a bit of lift. As I took bites and looked around the dining room, I remembered late nights in these same booths. The food at Cafe Colma is still solid as ever, and it’s reassuring this restaurant is still there for me, at any time of day. Cafe Colma, 1700 Hillside Boulevard, Colma." - Lauren Saria
