Everyone goes to Mensho for the ramen, but I don’t think people talk enough about the restaurant’s tempura-coated enoki mushroom chips. They arrive like a haystack, a pile of almost-weightless, quill-thin mushrooms with a brittle crunch. It’s hard to avoid grabbing a handful because, once fried, the fungi forms a lattice-like structure; eating the dish feels a bit like playing Barrel of Monkeys. To be honest, I like the enoki chips even more than the ramen.
Mensho. 4258 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. menshopiedmont.com
I took my colleague MacKenzie Chung Fegan’s suggestion and tried the excellent fried olives at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco. Each olive was stuffed with anchovy paste then fried until crisp. It’s accompanied by a lemon wedge, which is crucial for cutting through the aggressive saltiness. I kept popping them in my mouth like they were M&Ms until the bowl was empty.
Foreign Cinema. 2534 Mission St., San Francisco. foreigncinema.com
I’ve been on a mango kick recently, and I continued my streak with a mango sticky rice matcha from For the Love of Matcha, a farmers market popup that’s opening a café soon in Emeryville. The drink consisted of four layers: fresh mango at the bottom, milk, matcha and a cream top flavored with more mango and pandan. The result: balanced sweetness with vanilla-esque notes, though the flavor of the matcha was a little muddled. It’s only available while mangos are in season, so get it while you can…