Gastro Monkey // 美食家

Every time I get caught up, I manage to fall behind again. I went to Dumpling Kitchen early on this year. I don't even remember why I was in SF, and how we ended up here. Maybe it was CAAM? I honestly don't remember anymore. Luckily, I do remember the food. After parking a few blocks away (parking can be tricky on the weekends in this neighborhood), I had a feeling of deja vu. It had been a while since I went to Shanghai Dumpling King, but the walk there, the road, the trolley, and the facade of the restaurant were very similar (yes, I know, the signs are different colors). It had been over a year so I started to question if I had actually been here before. Both restaurants have Shanghainese style food, but when the food came out, Dumpling Kitchen really stood out to me for the pork belly, and the pan fried dumplings.  "Braised Pork Belly With Preserved Vegetable" - super tender, and definitely recommend trying if you're in the neighborhood! ...

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am always looking for a few favorite items. I like eating a lot of things, but certain things I feel like the search is never ending. These are my comfort foods, and because I can't make them the way I like it myself, I have to maintain the hope that someday, I'll find something relatively close to where I live. Shanghai Restaurant is located in Oakland's Chinatown. It's a comfortable little space, and the owners speak Shanghainese (this always makes me feel better, like having a Taiwanese person make my pearl milk tea). I ordered the salty soy milk with some oily sticks, stinky tofu, soup dumplings, and pan fried buns.  The salty soy milk was alright. Better than the other places I had tried before in the Bay Area, so it means I would actually go back for it again. I don't know how the places in Taiwan make it so good, but compared to those ones, this one lacked flavor. I added some vinegar in there and it was better. ...