Rainy day breakfast

On a rainy winter morning in San Francisco, nothing beats a steaming hot bowl of jook, Asian-style rice porridge (also known as congee), at Hing Lung in Chinatown. On week days, if you arrive between 8 and 11 in the morning, this bowl of comfort costs just $2.50. There are a couple dozen choices of flavorings, such as chicken-and-corn, duck, meatballs, sliced fish, pork, pork liver, and giblets. I opted for a combination of pork liver and meatballs today.

Make sure to order a side of the "deep-fried devils," yao ja guai, which I like to think of as a fried baguette. The cooks at Hing Lung make and fry them fresh in house every day. I love to dip pieces of the savory bread into the molten porridge while I wait for it to cool off.

The cooks here are also masters in the art of making cheong fun, steamed rice noodles, which come in many fillings, including shrimp, barbecue pork and mushrooms with Chinese greens (pictured above).

Due to its location in the crowded Chinatown area, I don't make to Hing Lung as often as I'd like. Nobody else in the city seems to be able to make the deceptively simple dish of jook quite as well. For that alone, Hing Lung makes it onto my Bay Area Short List.

Hing Lung
645 Broadway (between Stockton and  Grant)
(415) 398-8838
Open daily 8am-1am

Food|and Drink|Restaurants|Reviews|San Francisco

Comments

[Kalyn]

I ate this in Beijing and it was quite delicious. I was suspicious because I don't like hot cereal except for oatmeal, but this was savory and subtly flavored.

[Greg]

Use to work down the street and eat there a lot. God I miss that. Great photos. Thanks

[Mona]

Um, what the heck are those things? Never in my life have I seen anything quite like those.
Brett and friends, if you read this, Mona is desperate for a classic ITalian joint in SF for tomorrow night dinner. I take the redeye out from SFO and my family is in seach of a great place to eat. Would like nothing better than to go somewhere recommended by my blogging pals, rather than use the big ol' restaurant sites like Zagats, Chowhound, etc....

[Brett]

Kalyn, wow, that must have been amazing, eating congee in Beijing! I like all hot cereals now, but steal cut oats are one of my favorites along with congee.

Greg, how lucky to have worked down the street from Hing Lung. I wish it were closer to my house. Good news for us is we got some to take home, so we're having it for breakfast tomorrow.

Mona, I emailed you my recommendations, but in case you check my blog more than your own email, my recs are: Delfina, Incanto, A16, and Quince. Of all of them, the only place you'll probably be able to get into is Incanto. Truthfully, though, Incanto is probably my favorite of the four any way.

Anyone else have any recommendations?

[David]

I LOVE jook. I used to make it all the time. Some Chinese co-workers showed me how to make it and it's one of the best things ever. And it's really, really easy to make. You need just stock and rice. You can really add whatever you want....scallions, crispy bacon pieces, chicken, cilantro, sesame oil, and peas. (Be sure to add a bit of fish sauce too...it doesn't taste the same without it.)
Happy Holidays Brett!

[J.]

oh gosh. that looks absolutely delicious! a perfect breakfast for a cold foggy winter moring. :)

[Kathy]

Wow - the bread looks delicious!

[Rose]

Brett,

What are you transliterating in the food names?

Cantonese, mandarin, fujianese? My mom fed me many a Chinese breakfasts as a kid (and I ate a lot of it every time I lived in asia), but the names you've written here are not familiar to my mandarin ear.

[Christine]

I agree with you, Hing Lung is my favorite place for the Chinese jook breakfast. I love to get the chicken jook and sometimes the pork and duck egg jook and mix them together for the ultimate hot breakfast treat!

Unfortunately, moving out of the Bay Area has deprived me of the glories of Hing Lung- thanks for the memories.

[Brett]

Rose, I tried to send this to you through your email, but it got sent back. So, in case you ever read this, here's my response.

The terms I used were Cantonese, which I also am not familiar with, but I got them off of a website. Jook, or porridge, is "zhou" or "xifan" in Mandarin (using the pinyin transliteration system of the Mainland). The doughnuts are "you-tiao," literally "oil sticks." Since I've only seen "cheong fun" in Cantonese restaurants, I'm not sure how to say it in Mandarin, but you can find the Chinese characters at this link, about halfway down the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_Sum

[jay]

changfen 长粉