Blood Work

Pho is a popular soup made of thin rice noodles in steaming hot beef broth with thinly sliced beef served raw (meant to be dipped into the broth until rare), and also one of my favorite things to eat. This classic dish can be found in just about any Vietnamese restaurant in this city from Charles Phan’s elegant and modern, Slanted Door to Broadway Street's My Canh, which is a bit more sketch and a little less fine dining. My Canh runs circles around Slanted Door, as they have countless variations of this noodle soup dish, including a version made with pig blood. The pig blood version is served in piping hot beef broth with thicker egg noodles. Some cultures have codes against eating blood products, I now understand why. Gelatinous and dark brown in color, the blood comes in the form of a sliced cube. Biting into the cube is like eating some meat-flavored Jello. The savory cubes just fall apart into wiggly little crumbles as you chew them. The ending taste has a slight tinge of that organ meat taste that makes the corners of my mouth turn down into a DISGUSTING frown. Not terrible, but there is no desire to prepare this at home. Fun fact; approximately eight percent of your body weight is blood. 626 Broadway, (415) 397-8888

Protestin' Intestine

Talking me into eating anything deep fried is usually not very difficult. The tops of my thighs would be evidence of my penchant for deep-fried foods if it weren’t for those fabulous Pilates classes at Crunch. Sitting in the yellow interior of Yuet Lee with its green-rimmed windows, I am a bit apprehensive at the mention of deep-fried pig intestine. These kinds of meats, also known as chitlins, scare me a bit., These are the tubes through which chit passes; to put it nicely. I’m not sure the cooks at Yuet Lee can, or should be trusted to thoroughly clean those pipes. Allow me to paint a picture for you. A weary cook slaving away in a hot kitchen at 3am (when they close), the dining room full of obnoxious drunks pouring into the restaurant from various Broadway clubs. Tickets are stacking up on the ticket rail, and one cook cleans the intestine just good enough in order to get food out faster and in turn go home sooner. Boom, just like that, a table of diners just got E. Coli. Though, for this blog’s sake, now is no time to become fearful. What our server brings to the table is a platter full of intestine that has been sliced into snack-sized pieces and deep fried to a crisp, not unlike chicarrones. The intestine is remarkably bright red. I can’t tell you why because our server knows approximately four English phrases outside of what is on the menu, which makes conversing with her somewhat difficult. At first bite the intestines are crunchy, like cracklins, then you get into the middle and there is a layer of chewy fat just beneath their crispy exterior. Delightfully oily, pig guts taste just like the bagged pork skins that are available at your local corner store, except twenty million times better. DELICIOUS, deep-fried pig intestine is served atop a bed of shredded lettuce with a side of jalapeno-infused soy sauce that is divine. In this one instance, it’s okay to have the chits. 1300 Stockton St, (415) 982-6020

Lend Me Your Ear

The famed Pizzeria Delfina has added to the daily changing menu of both locations Pigs Ears. For $7 dollars not including tax or tip those tattooed servers in their yelp tee shirts will bring out a platter of, that's right ears. Cut into thin strips, battered and deep fried, they are served with a slice of lime and Calabrian chili oil in a Sanbitter bottle that has been repurposed into an oil shaker. As if the food weren't reason enough you've got to love SF restaurants for all of their "green" efforts.

Delfina falls right in line with their recycled wine bottle water carafes, repurposed chili oil bottles and waste not want not attitude- please believe they are not letting any parts of a pig go to waste. Just ask about the ciccioli on the affettati plate.

White people all over the city are now open to consuming a food usually reserved for dogs thanks to the research and culinary vision of chefs Craig Stoll and Anthony Strong. I'm guessing the close proximity of the restaurant to a dozen mission carnicerias probably was not a hinderance in their creative process, either. Crisp and chewy at the same time, the ears are DELICIOUS spritzed with lime and doused in chili oil. Reminds me a bit of calamari; bacon flavored calamari. But that's just my opinion. 2406 California St, (415) 440-1189