- 2 months ago
Chef Samin Nosrat joins Condé Nast Traveler to guide you through San Francisco’s must-try food spots. From the city’s best mission-style tacos at La Taqueria, and traditional Cambodian cuisine at Lunette, to the Japanese izakaya Rintaro, discover the flavors that define San Francisco’s vibrant food scene.
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00:00It's unassuming looking kind of chunky dip
00:03and some vegetables.
00:04I know, I know.
00:05And then you're like,
00:06and then you take a bite
00:08and you have like revelations,
00:10rainbows and sparkly unicorns in your mane.
00:16Hi, I'm Samin Nasrat.
00:18We're in San Francisco
00:19and today I'm gonna take you
00:20to some of my favorite restaurants here.
00:22This is where the chefs eat.
00:27Our first stop here in San Francisco
00:29is La Taqueria.
00:31It's my very favorite taqueria in the Mission,
00:33but it's not exactly a hidden secret.
00:35It's many people's very favorite taqueria
00:38and I love it for its fresh ingredients.
00:41The same family has been running it for over 40 years.
00:44The guacamole is made every hour.
00:45It's just so incredibly delicious.
00:49We're in the Mission District of San Francisco.
00:51It's the heart of the Latino community here.
00:53Since I've lived here in the late 90s,
00:55the Mission has gone through so much gentrification.
00:58This was the place you could see
01:00the big tech buses going by.
01:02The Latino community has such deep roots
01:04and such great community fire and power
01:07that through all of the gentrification,
01:09they've been able to hold on.
01:11And businesses persist, the community persists.
01:14It's like one of my favorite parts of the city.
01:17The meat is cooking on the grill and it smells so good.
01:19So let's go in and get something to eat.
01:25I have no standard order here.
01:27I've always had the same rule.
01:28The person who introduced me to this place taught me,
01:31you look at who is working which station
01:33and you know your favorite burrito guy
01:35and your favorite taco guy.
01:36And for over 20 years, as long as I've been coming here,
01:39if Miguel is making tacos, I get tacos.
01:42This is the guy.
01:43Look for Miguel.
01:45He's chopping meat right now.
01:46It's so fresh and vibrant.
01:47So I'm probably just going to get some carnés hot tacos.
01:50I always get the strawberry agua fresca here if they have it,
01:53because there's actual ground up chunks of strawberry in it,
01:56which you never see that anywhere.
01:58Like it's just whole beautiful fruit
02:00and it's so fresh tasting and so delicious.
02:03The thing I'm remembering right now
02:05and why La Taqueria has always been my favorite
02:07and I think why it's everyone's favorite
02:09is you are watching them cook.
02:11The ingredients are so unadulterated and pure.
02:14It's like such a pleasure to eat food that tastes this fresh.
02:18This is the kind of taco you can only get in California.
02:22You can only get this here in San Francisco.
02:24It's just so special and so good.
02:26And you can see the layers of everything,
02:28the meat, the whole beautiful beans.
02:30That's the other thing I love here
02:32is there's not like 10 kinds of beans.
02:33There's just vinto beans and they're always perfect.
02:36The pico de gallo, the spicy green sauce, the avocado.
02:41It's just like a watercolor painting.
02:44It's so beautiful.
02:49This is so good.
02:51You can taste the char of the grill.
02:53I'm guessing they cook the tongue just super simple with onion and garlic.
02:57But there's so much cilantro and so much onion
03:00that it creates kind of this burst of freshness and crunch
03:04and sort of heat a little bit from the onion.
03:06And then there's the green sauce, which is really spicy and delicious.
03:10They put a generous amount of there on there,
03:12so it kind of popped my eyes open a little bit.
03:14But I think it's just a tomatillo salsa with chilies and cilantro probably.
03:19But we should ask them how they make it because my guess is that they probably
03:22griddle the tomatillos before they blend them.
03:32What's in the green sauce?
03:33Tomatillo.
03:34Tomatillo.
03:36Serranos.
03:36Serranos.
03:37A little salt.
03:39Cilantro?
03:39No.
03:40No.
03:40And do you cook the tomatillos or are they raw?
03:42No.
03:43We put them in a pan.
03:45Uh-huh.
03:46Roast it.
03:46Oh, you roast them.
03:47Yeah.
03:48And then we boil the serranos.
03:52Uh-huh.
03:52This is like the taste of la taqueria.
03:55Yeah.
03:56People want to buy it all the time, you know,
03:58and we lose about five of these a week.
04:00Oh, people steal them.
04:02Don't take the bottle.
04:03But your taco's getting cold.
04:05I know it's getting cold.
04:06I got to eat.
04:06Stop talking to me.
04:12We're here at the Embarcadero in front of the beautiful ferry building.
04:23Come inside, and I'll take you to a really special restaurant.
04:28Here we are at Lunette, run by Chef Knight Yun.
04:31I didn't know a lot about Cambodian food until I started eating Knight's food,
04:35and it's blown my mind.
04:37The entire cuisine is based on a fermented shrimp paste,
04:40so the flavors are so rich.
04:42They're full of umami and sweetness.
04:44There's a funk.
04:45There's a little acid.
04:47It's just so many layers of flavor in every bite that kind of explode your mind.
04:52California actually has the largest Cambodian population outside of Cambodia.
04:57They've historically opened donut shops,
04:59so there is a great sort of culinary heritage,
05:02just not always in Cambodian food.
05:05And Knight was really special because she's truly self-taught.
05:08She realized she didn't know very much about her own culinary history.
05:11She took herself to Cambodia, apprenticed herself to grandmothers and aunties and all sorts of cooks,
05:18learned all of the traditions, and brought them back here.
05:21So this is like your signature dish?
05:26It is.
05:27What you have here is keteopurompan, it's been on the menu since day one.
05:31Like Thailand has their hot Thai, Japan has their ramen, we have our keteopurompan.
05:36It's a clean pork bone broth with dried squid,
05:40roasted onions that we simmer for like seven to eight hours.
05:45Oh my god, it's so good!
05:47Thank you!
05:49It's like clean tasting, it's sweet, there's a deep level of flavor,
05:53yet it's also clean in this kind of miraculous way.
05:56Yeah, it's so delicious.
05:59And there's, so there's sliced pork.
06:00There's sliced pork, there's some shrimp in there,
06:02ground pork, and then it needs the fried garlic, that makes it special.
06:06Yes, it has all the different textures, it's amazing.
06:10I think one of the things I always feel about your food is it looks so simple and understated,
06:18but it tastes so complex, and there's so many layers of flavor.
06:23And to me that is always like a sign of time,
06:26and there's all this kind of invisible work that's been done
06:29that you don't necessarily see in a bowl of broth and noodles,
06:33but then you taste it and it explodes in your mouth,
06:35and there's just flavor after flavor after flavor after flavor.
06:39There's like a lot of love and complex ingredients and techniques that goes behind it.
06:44It takes me back to my childhood, like my mom cooked it with a big pot,
06:47friends and family would come over on the weekend,
06:49just, I know, I'm feeling all like sentimental, I don't know, all the feels right now.
07:00So, here's the pork big bowl.
07:02Thank you!
07:03And then I brought something extra special because I know you love our salads.
07:07Oh my God, I love the salad.
07:08I made this yum cabbage salad for you.
07:10Thank you so much!
07:11With all the crunchy toppings.
07:12This salad, the first time I had it, I came with my friend Josie's a baker here in San Francisco.
07:17We went to tonight's last restaurant. We ordered the salad, and on the menu it looks like cabbage
07:22and chicken and peanuts. He's like, oh, I've made that before.
07:26I was like, you've never made this before.
07:28I know this isn't always on the menu here.
07:30No, it's not.
07:30But if you do see it on the menu, you have to get it.
07:33So, I mean, I have to try this one first because I dream of it.
07:36Yes, please.
07:37Yeah, and you're the one who taught me.
07:39I learned how to make fried shallots from you, from your recipe,
07:42because I'd only ever fried things the Western way in the hot oil.
07:47But I learned from you, you started in cold oil, and you have so much more control,
07:51and they become just perfectly even brown.
07:53And so it was, that was a revelation to me.
07:59Does it taste the same?
08:00It tastes the same.
08:01It's so good.
08:03Is there just whole leaves of basil?
08:05You got cilantro, new basil, but whatever herbs you want, but usually it's like with Thai basil.
08:11This is so crunchy.
08:12I need a shallot now.
08:13Yes, get in the shallots.
08:16That's so good.
08:17So, this is very special because when I put this on the menu,
08:21I was actually very nervous that people might not like it,
08:24because it has fermented fish paste, which is what Cambodian food is about.
08:28Phunk, but then the fermented fish paste called brahok, hence the name of the dish,
08:32it connects like Cambodia past, present, and future.
08:36And because of Cambodia's history, so much was lost through the war.
08:39So, to be able to cook with this ingredient is very special.
08:42So special.
08:43Yes, but then there's coconut milk in there,
08:45and then our version in Maripal, which is called kreung,
08:48it has like lemongrass, shallots, galanga, turmeric.
08:52So that kreung with coconut milk and brahok,
08:55yes, yeah, it's like the trifecta and like Cambodian food.
08:58The coconut really comes through.
09:00It's delicious.
09:01And there's all these textures from the, well, from the crunchy vegetables.
09:04From crunchy vegetables, yeah, vegetables.
09:05But also the pork, it kind of melts in your mouth.
09:08It's spicy, but not too spicy.
09:10Yeah.
09:10It's funky, but not too funky.
09:12Yeah.
09:12It's a little bit sweet.
09:13It's creamy and rich from the coconut.
09:15It's just, it's perfect.
09:17It's amazing.
09:17That's like how I would describe Cambodian food, actually.
09:20This is the kind of thing where neither of these things look
09:24Exactly.
09:24Super extraordinary or fancy.
09:26Yes, uh-huh.
09:27And then you eat them, and it's like all of the flavors are bouncing all over your palate,
09:32like rainbows and shooting stars.
09:35It's just something so unexpected and so delicious every single time.
09:39I love it.
09:40Oh, thank you so much.
09:42Oh my God.
09:42Oh my God.
09:44It was so good.
09:53So even though this wasn't technically one of the stops on our tour,
09:56I can't pass a Buffalo soft serve cone without getting one.
10:00So we're here at Gots and I'm just going to get one.
10:03Hi.
10:03How are you?
10:04Great.
10:04How are you?
10:05Can I have a Fiordi latte cone, please?
10:06Yeah, of course.
10:07Would you like the cake cone or the waffle cone?
10:08Ooh, cake, please.
10:10The buffalo milk itself is so much richer and creamier.
10:14It's higher in fat content.
10:16You're welcome.
10:16Just like, you know, buffalo milk mozzarella.
10:19It's also this crazy, beautiful, pure white color, unlike cow's milk.
10:24And it's just the creamiest, most delicious thing.
10:26There are only a few places where you can get it.
10:28So when I see it, I always get it.
10:30And this is one of them.
10:31Thank you so much.
10:32Thank you so much.
10:35Delicious.
10:36It's so creamy.
10:37Look at that.
10:39It's perfect.
10:41All right, let's go for a walk.
10:42We're back in the Mission and we're at Rintaro, which is probably my very favorite restaurant
10:57in all of San Francisco.
10:59And that's because I've known the chef and owner, Sylvan Mishima Brackett, since I was 19 years old.
11:05We both worked at Chez Panisse where I was a busser and a cook, and he was Alice Waters' assistant.
11:11Since then, he went on to open this beautiful Japanese izakaya, which he describes as sort of
11:18a melding of his California cooking influences and his Japanese heritage.
11:23I love this welcome drink.
11:32I look forward to it every time I come here.
11:34I think it's so special that they go and collect and harvest these ume plums that are grown about
11:40150 miles away.
11:41They get enough for the whole year.
11:43They cure them in alcohol.
11:45So they're kind of just like a little bit of a buzzy treat.
11:49And it's just served with some fizzy water and a little bit of the alcohol.
11:52But the ume Japanese plums are kind of a sour plum.
11:55So it's like a little bit of a sweet and sour, a little bit of a fizzy drink.
11:58And it's just such a nice gesture that everyone who sits down gets this little welcome drink.
12:11Sylvan, this is always so beautiful.
12:13Will you tell me what everything is?
12:14So this is the back loin of the wild bluefin tuna from San Diego.
12:19This is the belly section.
12:20Wow.
12:21Our local halibut cured on kombu for four days.
12:23That's a kampachi yellowtail amberjack from Baja.
12:26Boston mackerel cured in vinegar.
12:28It's really good with the ginger.
12:30Formerly live spot bronze.
12:32I mean 10 minutes ago from Santa Barbara.
12:34Santa Barbara.
12:35And then a freshly grated wasabi.
12:37A little pickled wasabi leaf.
12:39A little gumiboshi paste for the halibut.
12:41Wow.
12:42When you come here and you get this,
12:43you feel like somebody just gave you a jewel box.
12:46Each fish is treated and cured individually.
12:49This wasabi comes from 50 miles away.
12:52When we got here, somebody was grating it by hand.
12:54In all of the food I've ever been served in my life,
12:57I always think that this is the most beautiful dish I've ever been given.
13:02This is the fatty tuna belly.
13:03I had to go for it first and it melts on the tongue like butter.
13:07It's so beautiful.
13:09So this is the California halibut with the umeboshi paste.
13:13What's so special about Rontaro is that it is really a perfect marriage of tradition
13:18and respect for the ingredients and respect for what came before.
13:22Kind of like you're in Japan in the middle of San Francisco and I love that.
13:26Oh, that paste is delicious.
13:38Hi.
13:39Kake Udon.
13:41Kake Udon.
13:42Kake Udon.
13:43So beautiful.
13:43So that's the most basic Udon.
13:45There's noodles and the broth with red anchovies.
13:50People ask me what my favorite one is and this is it.
13:52This is your favorite one.
13:53Because it's like so much work to make something simple that's good.
13:56Yes.
13:57Thank you so much.
13:58My pleasure.
13:58I just garnished it with this is called shichimi togarashi which is just a Japanese seven spice
14:09but it's truly like about as simple as Udon guess.
14:15These noodles you've never had Udon like this.
14:18They're both fluffy and chewy.
14:21They're so tender but they have the perfect bite to them.
14:24This is just so exquisite.
14:26It's like pure perfection.
14:43All right.
14:43I have your gyoza.
14:44Oh my god.
14:45Thank you so much.
14:47It's gyoza with wings is the translation and the wings are sort of this very thin starchy slurry that
14:54they cook in the pan to turn it all into a pancake and stick it all together like it's flying away.
15:00These are chrysanthemum greens.
15:02It's just this like diaphanous, crispy, magical little crepe with these beautiful handmade pork
15:11gyoza in there.
15:12So you're probably supposed to use chopsticks but I'm going to use my hands.
15:15It's so juicy.
15:21It's so good.
15:27I just love the contrast of this crispy feathery pancake that's brown and has all of that caramelization in it
15:34and then these steamed gyoza with the handmade wrappers that are still a little bit thick and
15:40chewy and then with this like clump juicy pork inside that's flavored with ginger and soy sauce
15:46and a little bit of chili.
15:47And it's just also so beautiful and dramatic the way it comes to the table.
15:51It makes me so happy.
15:53It's so good.
15:57I've been eating all day and I can still eat this whole plate.
16:07So today we've been to La Taqueria, Lunette, and Rintaro and when I think about these three
16:11restaurants they symbolize so perfectly what is so wonderful and special about San Francisco's
16:17culture, our food culture here.
16:19They're rooted in their own culinary traditions from around the world and also they emphasize
16:24all of the things that California cuisine cares about.
16:27Local ingredients, cherishing our farmers, just freshness in the way everything tastes.
16:32So I hope you love them.
16:34I hope you taste them and please let me know what you think.
16:37I, I'm going to go back into Rintaro and eat some more gyoza.
16:40See you later.
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