Menuplease: Racha Noodle is a Taste of Thai in Redding

Whoever said, “Location, location, location” is the key to success obviously never set foot inside Racha Noodle. Housed in a forgettable mini strip mall where California Street careens into South Market, this first restaurant opening by five Thai sisters (who also operate 5 Thais on Dana Drive) defies modern business models and has been turning out their delightful dishes to a hungry budget-conscious and appreciative crowd for four years.

Racha’s interior is painted an odd but pleasing lilac color; simple décor includes Thai tourism posters and pictures of Thai food. There are about a dozen tables so it can fill up fast, especially during prime lunch and dinner hours. Go during off-peak hours if you want to avoid feeling crowded.



Amico del Signore adding bean sprouts to beef pho with shrimp, tripe, meatballs, and tendons. $7.50.

Racha is a great place to get your fix of pho, that warming meat-and-noodle dish that until the last few years was well-nigh impossible to find locally. Generous bowls of hot soup come with a small plate of bean sprouts and lime wedges to add to the soup as you prefer. There’s also a tray of typical Thai condiments available, such as pickled hot peppers, ground dried chilis, Sriracha, sugar, etc. See http://www.madammam.com/articles/tabletop.html for a clearer explanation of how to use them. Note: when adding hot condiments to a dish, be aware of the accumulative effect. More than once M. de Joie has gleefully piled on Jalapenos, Sriracha, and so on, only to find the resulting broth explosively hot.

Having eaten pho at several restaurants in Redding, it’s Femme de Joie’s opinion that the rich broth makes Racha’s version the best local version she’s tasted so far. In addition to beef and shrimp, versions with seafood only, beef only and chicken are available. When you’re coming down with a cold, feeling wet and chilled, or just need some comfort food, pho will get you set on the right track again.



The duck fried rice ($7.95) was a much less salty and more flavorful version than is found in Chinese restaurants. Packed with duck, bits of pineapple, fresh herbs and vegetables, this makes a great accompaniment to curry or a simple lunch by itself.



Green papaya salad with spicy lime dressing, $6.65.

Green papayas are quite a different animal from the soft musky-scented ripe sweet papaya. Here at Racha, it makes a tart and spicy slaw-like salad that cuts the richness of dishes like pumpkin curries and salmon dishes - or a light lunch.

Warning: papaya (along with several other fruits/vegetables) can trigger allergic reactions in people who are allergic to latex; see http://allergies.about.com/od/medicationallergies/a/latexfood.htm for more information.



5 spice chicken leg soup, $5.95 as daily special.

This unusual dish is a lighter kissing cousin to pho. Two tender and flavorful chicken legs poach in a 5-spice broth, along with large wedges of fried tofu, rice noodles, scallions, cilantro and mushrooms. Eating chicken legs in soup posed an interesting etiquette dilemma since no knife and fork were provided. M. de Joie finally decided to pick the legs up and eat them out of hand - a messy but satisfactory solution.

Though not pictured, M. de Joie strongly recommends the garlic chicken, which will tempt you to pick your plate up and lick it, and the mango with sticky rice dessert, which will cause you to squabble with your dining partner. It’s that good.

About that business model: in addition to its off-the-beaten-path location, Racha Noodle only accepts cash. No checks, no debit cards, no credit cards. But Racha Noodle is worth making a stop at the ATM for, and you won’t have to withdraw very much money. This is a great local place.

Racha Noodle, 2630 South Market Street at California Street, Redding, CA 96001. 530-246-8730. Open Monday-Saturday 11 AM-3 PM and 5 PM-8PM. Closed Sunday. On-site parking. Vegetarian and vegan options. No alcohol. Cash only. No cards, no checks.

Menuplease: Out of Town for New King Tin

Last June while wandering through San Francisco’s Chinatown, Femme de Joie and Amico del Signore stopped in at Vital Tea Shop (see here for details). We bought some tea and on our way out, asked Jason, the proprietor, for a recommendation on a good place to eat. When he asked us, “What do you feel like having? Malaysian, Vietnamese, Szechuan, Hunan, Korean, Cantonese, seafood?” we knew we had asked the right man. We said we wanted simple Cantonese food, and he directed us around the corner and up Washington half a block - “Look for the ducks in the window.”

We eagerly hiked up half a steep block and walked into New King Tin. There were Peking ducks hanging in the window; to the right of the cash register a man worked patiently turning out won tons, chopping ducks, making fish balls. Before us was a large nondescript dining room with worn linoleum and unadorned Formica-topped tables; fish tanks bubbled in the back with live lobsters, crab, catfish and cod; and tables full of Chinese families were noisily and eagerly tucking into dishes with aromas that made us weak in the knees.



Though we couldn’t read them, the presence of hand-lettered signs in Chinese told us we were in the right place.

Since that first visit a year ago, we’ve made three more stops at New King Tin. Yeah, it’s that good. We’ve sampled a variety of dishes from the menu and we might have to visit about fifty more times to try everything, but that is a challenge we’re willing to take on.



Won ton soup - the won ton filling is made fresh on the premises, unlike many restaurants that order bulk filling (along with pre-chopped egg roll filling). The mixed pork and chicken broth makes this an especially rich version.



Those ducks in the window aren’t just for display. A generous order of star-anise scented roast duck set us back just $7.95 - tender, juicy, and meaty, this was enough for two people as part of a Chinese dinner.



Hot and spicy braised eggplant ($6.95) and sweet and sour pork ($8.95). Asian eggplants sliced and braised with hot dried chilis and pork were filling and meaty in texture. The sweet and sour pork was luscious: cubes of deep-fried pork had a crunchy exterior and flavorful, tender interior with a tangy, light sauce, not sugary sweet but piquant.



Double meatball soup ($5.50 for enough for two people) had tofu, pork meatballs, and fish balls in a lovely gingery chicken broth with spinach; though it might sound like an odd combination, it worked well. The fish balls did not overwhelm the rest of the flavors but were instead delicately flavored and light.



New King Tin’s version of tomato-beef chow mein was light and crispy with deep-fried rice noodles, small bites of steak, and a scattering of fresh vegetables. Not at all salty with soy sauce or oily as so often happens, this was one of our favorite dishes.



Oysters with black bean sauce ($12.95) were the surprise hit for both Amico del Signore and Femme de Joie. Six oysters in the shell are topped with fermented black beans, garlic, and scallions, and steamed. Briny fresh oysters took on an exotic dimension neither of us dreamed existed - salty, spicy, amazingly plump and juicy. We loved this so much we ordered it two days in a row.

If you’re in Chinatown and looking for an authentic restaurant, we can’t recommend New King Tin enough. It’s not a place many tourists go. It isn’t pretty and the restrooms are frankly a little scary. But service was polite, helpful, and prompt, servings are generous, the menu is extensive and inexpensive, the fish could not be fresher, and you’ll roll out of there wondering when you can come back.

Edit: New King Tin has closed. The Washington Cafe has opened in its place.

New King Tin, 826 Washington Street (between Ross Alley and Grant Avenue), San Francisco, CA 94108. 415-368-8088/8188. Credit and debit cards; cash. Open daily 8 AM-12 AM. Beer and wine. Street parking only; good luck. Better to park elsewhere and hoof it, or take Muni; lines 41 Union, 30-Stockton, 45 Union-Stockton, 8 Express, 10 Townsend, 12 Folsom, 27 Bryant, 1 California, and the Powell Street cable car all come nearby. Sample menu at http://sanfrancisco.menupages.com/restaurants/new-king-tin-restaurant/menu

Menuplease: Buz’s Crab Stands, But Doesn’t Deliver

It was 1968 that Buz’s Crab Stand opened for business in a slightly grotty location between a dry cleaner’s and Safeway. Back then, after placing an order, customers had to keep one ear peeled for staff yelling through the noisy restaurant that their order was ready. The menu was short and sweet: fish and chips, a few broiled fish dishes, clam chowder. Though they claim to be a “funky fish joint,” nowadays Buz’s is more genteel and calculatedly funky than in their early days. The amount of available seating has expanded and servers now bring food to your table. You still order at the counter -- usually standing for a few minutes reading the enormous menu board behind the cashier -- and get your own non-alcoholic drinks, but now diners are given a table marker saying Swordfish or Halibut to ensure food is delivered to the right table. Service has been friendly and prompt.

Buz’s menu has expanded wildly since those early days, which may appeal to a broader demographic with more adventurous palates than was had forty-some years ago, but very often the execution is uneven and disappointing. There doesn’t seem to be one chef overseeing operations and ensuring consistency. Pastas, wraps, fish burgers, Southwestern, Cajun, cioppino, Mexican, fish kebabs, grilled/fried/broiled -- Femme de Joie feels that while trying to please every taste, the kitchen has spread itself too thin.



The signature dish at Buz’s, fish and chips, $7.75. The batter was crisp but bland; the fish was fine the first few bites while still warm from the fryers. After that it became apparent the fish inside was dry and overcooked. Chips -- which appear to have been pre-cooked en masse and kept warm; they certainly are not freshly fried -- are under the fish so any crispness they might once have had is steamed out by lying under the hot filets.



Crab chowder,$5.49. This rich and creamy soup was filled with new potatoes and loads of crab. Unfortunately, the delicate, sweet crab taste was lost due to a heavy hand with dried herbs.



Salmon bisque was much more successful than the crab bisque; the stronger flavor of meaty salmon chunks stood up nicely in a not-too-creamy base.



Two fish tacos supreme. Nuggets of deep-fried fish were crunchy but tasteless and covered with guacamole from a jar, cheese, olives, salsa from a jar, scallions, and a very runny creamy sauce that saturated the flour tortillas and eventually made the entire taco a soggy mess.



Open-faced crab sandwich on sourdough was one of the better offerings: lots of hot crab under a not-too-heavy coat of melted cheese on a thick slice of sourdough. The sweet crab -- mixed with bits of celery -- came through nicely and the sandwich was kept hot on a metal platter. There were plenty of those soft, pasty chips on the side.



The best thing Femme de Joie had at Buz’s: a fresh green salad.

Generally, M. de Joie doesn’t care much about presentation as long as the food is good. But when she pays a fairly hefty price for lunch and then finds the food isn’t all that wonderful, she starts to notice things. For instance: a $5.50 cup of soup served in a plastic bowl, runny and drippy tacos served in a plastic basket with a sheet or two of paper to keep the flood from spilling onto the table, cheap plastic forks. It wouldn’t be so noticeable if other restaurants did the same thing, but if you’re paying sit-down prices and getting takeaway plastic and paper, you start thinking about whether you’re getting the best value for money.

EDIT: Buz's has closed as of September 2012. R&R Meats has purchased the building and will turn it into a seafood market.

Buz’s Crab Seafood Restaurant and Market, 2159 East Street, Redding, CA 96001. 530-243-2120, fax 530-243-4310. Open Sunday-Wednesday, 11 AM - 8 PM, Thursday-Saturday 11 AM - 9 PM. Seafood market open Sunday-Wednesday 9 AM - 8 PM, Thursday-Sunday 9 AM - 9 PM. Beer and wine. On-site parking. Cash, local checks, cards. Overnight delivery of fish via FedEx; see website for details. Website at http://www.buzscrab.com/index.php