Labor Day marked my first excursion into my new neighborhood, San Francisco's Outer Richmond district.. Unfortunately, I was largely disappointed. To be fair, I can't I can't really blame the neighborhood for the regrettable rooftop party, or the ill-advised decision to play some drinking game called "rage cage" with the college students living above me. It wasn't the neighborhood that made me drunk and sunburned, it wasn't the neighborhood that made me drink the "bitch cup", and it certainly wasn't the neighborhood that asked me how old I was in front of everyone. Labor Day was not a total loss, though, thanks to my discovery of the Asian fusion restaurant Red Lantern. It's hard to miss, sitting on the corner of Geary and 22nd, decorated with paper lanterns and its emanating Asian pan-flute music from within. An enthusiastic server was constantly by our side, cracking jokes, pretending to laugh at ours. He politely ignored our obvious symptoms inebriation and sun exposure and repeatedly assured us "no, no, don't apologize, I don't think you're being annoying at all". We might have been lost without his recommendations. The menu is built from over a hundred items and reads like a culinary map of Eastern Asia. Indonesian beef and Singapore noodles, Vietnamese Grilled Pork Chops and Pad Thai, Shanghai Prawns and Chongqinq Chicken; the menu ends with a list of several dozen sushi rolls. My girlfriend's brother generously offered to finance the meal and, because he has an ongoing mission to eat at every sushi joint in the greater Bay Area, our meal mostly consisted of sushi -- the only exception being a fairly standard Vietnamese Spring Roll appetizer, strongly flavored with fresh mint.
We started with the Sake (salmon) Nigiri and Walu (escolar) Nigiri. Both were fresh and tender. The escolar in particular had a soft, creamy feel; a reminder of why escolar is often passed off as butterfish by deceitful restaurants. (If you're confused as to why a restaurant would do this, look up "keriorrhea" on Wikipedia. Do yourself a favor and wait until you're not reading about food). The Red Lantern Roll arrived with great fanfare: burning mounds of Sterno were lit on the corners of the plate, surrounding the sushi in flames. We ooh'ed and aww'ed -- I'm a sucker for pomp -- and waited for the fire to die before reaching in. The roll's interior was piping hot, which I suspect was more from the deep fried cucumber than the decorative flames. A cool seaweed salad slung over the top made for a unique temperature contrast. There were also great vegetarian options such as the filling Golden State Roll, stuffed with deep fried taters, carrots, and sweet potatoes. They substituted avocado for mango, being out of the latter. The avocado's texture seemed odd against the crunchy, fried veggies. Didn't affect its great taste, though. The biggest surprise of the meal was their rendition of fresh half-shell oysters. Normally a pretty simple dish, right? Shuck n' serve, just how I like it. (Full disclosure: I'm a strict oyster purist; I hold to the belief that God never intended man to eat oysters cooked or seasoned. My tenets were imparted to me by my father, a man so zealous in his oyster consumption that he regularly subjects entire dinner parties to a spectacle in which he slurps up an oyster audibly and then throws his body into a state of rigor mortis for several minutes, his eyelids fluttering rapidly the entire time as if receiving visions from the beyond. The observant spectator, one knows just what to look for, will notice towards the end of the display that he begins to chew the oyster with nearly imperceptible delicacy, like a baby gumming mush. Only upon swallowing the oyster does he relax his body, allowing guests to breathe a sigh of relief). Coming from this upbringing, you can imagine my silent perturbation when my oysters came smothered in a thick brown sauce. "What is this, on top of the oysters?" I questioned our server. "Tabasco, spice, and something else...." "You mean a secret? Or do you mean you don't know?" "Oh, I know," he grinned, "Sometimes I make it." I slurped down the oyster in front of him, and knew instantly that years of ingrained oyster dogma were being challenged. The oyster's fresh saltiness wasn't overrun by the heat and sourness of the Tabasco, as I'd expected, but enhanced. Towards the end I tasted a tangy flavor. Might Hoisin sauce be the hidden ingredient? I'd certainly recommend Red Lantern's sushi and oysters. Obviously I tried only a fraction of their menu so I can't really speak for the rest. At least not yet. But I'm just getting started in my new neighborhood, and I suspect I'll be returning to Red Lantern many times in the future. Red Lantern Address: 5801 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94121 Phone:(415) 385-6686 http://www.redlanternca.com/
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