Asian street food at Betelnut in San Francisco

The venerable Betelnut in San Francisco, a short drive from the Fairmont Heritage Place at Ghirardelli Square, has been turning out Asian street food for 14 years, well before it the cuisine turned into a mega trend. Sure, you’ll find the likes of everyone’s favorite minced chicken lettuce cups, Shanghai soup dumplings, fried cauliflower with curry leaves, and green papaya-shrimp salad. But Malaysian-born Chef Ong and his chef de cuisine, Michael Siegel, like to push the envelope, too. One of Siegel’s favorite dishes of late is his grilled venison with maitake mushrooms and butternut squash.

Each night, the restaurant also makes the classic Beggar’s Chicken, which few restaurants dare to offer because of all the work involved. A soy-marinated whole chicken is stuffed with mushrooms, pork belly, and Chinese sausages, then the whole thing is first wrapped in lotus leaves, then inside a mass of soft, gray clay. It cooks in the oven for one and a half hours, then rests for an equal amount of time.

(Note that you also can reserve a Beggar’s Chicken ahead of time by requesting one when you book a reservation.)

Of course, Ong and Siegel’s more daring takes on street food are not always an easy sell to their upper-crust Union Street clientele. If you go, though, you should definitely seek them out. And whatever you do, end your meal with the restaurant’s housemade mochi balls (about $8 for three balls: Kahlua dark chocolate, milk chocolate Grand Marnier, and white chocolate Amaretto).

– Carolyn Jung of FoodGal