Review from San Francisco Chronicle!
The morning before Valentine's day on Monday, I got a call from Khanh from the restaurant, telling me a woman, Carol Ness; called about a write up from SF Chronicle. "Oh my God!" When did she come and how did I do? I wondered...
I couldn't quite called her back yet. I needed some food in my system first before I fainted in the middle of the conversation. Tony and I were actually just about to go to Cafe Fanny for breakfast. So we decided we would have breakfast first, or at least some coffee before calling her back.
I called her right after breakfast. She asked me lots of questions. I guessed she liked my food? She sounded very nice and very "real", just like a friend one could have! After an about 15 minutes conversations where I mostly answered to questions that she had, before we heng up, I asked her should I be worried? "Oh no, not at all." she old me. However how could you not!?
I called all my friends right away and told them about the news! We were all very exciting and antipating for Friday to come. It's going to be a loooooong week!
Friday finally came. And God loves to play jokes! While I was driving Tony to bart super early that morning, we stopped on our way as we saw one of those newspaper box. We picked up couple papers, waited the whole time as I was driving, so that we could read together. We parked and opened the paper... What!? It's Thursday's paper! Tony ran into the station and picked up another one, ran back to the car(thank goodness he's a runner), and we read silently...
I guess I just didn't know what to react!? I remembered I was very quiet. Was it real? That I was on the paper? My restaurant was on the paper? Me of all people? Someone who barely knows what she's doing? Who's nobody in this industry? Who only has a restaurant that's merely 7 months old? And it was a pretty good review too!
I must say credits go to all my friends and my staff! Thank you for making this happen for me!
THANK YOU!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/DDGT9H94S71.DTL&type=printable
REVIEW
Inventiveness fills menu at Asian-inspired Furenzu
- Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, February 17, 2006
Furenzu is the rare rosy gleam in the gray, commercial heart of
Emeryville.
Around this little Asian tapas place, the landmarks are Home Depot and a
sooty Interstate 580 overpass. Cookie-cutter condos -- the kind that let you
drive in and out without ever setting foot in your neighborhood -- are
proliferating. The area seems cold.
But inside Furenzu, copper sheets wrap the walls and cast a warm, reddish
glow. The metal serves as the backrest for the dark wood bench that hugs two
sides of the tiny dining room.
Hanging on the dusky pinkish-red walls are old advertising posters from
Hong Kong, with pretty, smiling Asian women. Star-shaped lights twinkle in the
corner windows. A tall, black-lacquered birdcage provides a visual centerpiece.The feel is cozy and creative, without straying to precious or fancy.
And it perfectly suits chef-owner Cynthia Fung's menu: Asian-inspired small
plates of sauteed pork tenderloin with plum-chili sauce, wok-fried edamame
with chiles and black bean sauce or an oyster omelet with garlic chives.
Except for a few dishes, the menu changes monthly. Fung brings the same
inventiveness to her dishes that she and an artist friend did to the decor.
At its best, this is Asian fusion the way it started out, before
unimaginative cooks drove the genre into the ground with too much overpriced
wasabi this and sesame oil that. Not everything at Furenzu succeeds, but there
are more hits than misses.This is Fung's first restaurant after eight years as a programmer in San
Francisco. The idea evolved as she noticed that every weekend her Richmond home
filled up with friends and family waiting for her to cook.
"I found myself using Chinese ingredients and French techniques," or vice
versa, Fung says.
She looked for a place for five years before moving in where a Chinese
takeout place used to be, on Adeline Street near 40th Street. The name, she
says, comes from a Japanese word for friends and is also a play on her Chinese
name, Fung Yan Shuen.
The space -- 26 to 35 seats, depending on how many tables Fung puts out
-- seemed small enough to be manageable while still testing the waters, she
says.
On each of my three visits, a couple of dishes flat-out delighted me,
starting with salty snacks that proved irresistible: Lourdes' chips ($3.50),
crisp-fried slices of fresh lotus named for Lourdes Guzman, the Albany artist
who helped with the decor, and the salty, spicy and garlicky edamame ($4.50).
Also well done are shrimp in a nest ($8), a menu mainstay. Six shrimp are
wrapped in superthin noodles then fried until the noodles are brown and crunchy
and the shrimp are just done.
The other permanent dish, honey ribs with Thai basil ($8), brings
inch-long bites of tender, fun-to-gnaw meat and bone. The coating is sweet and
needs a savory or spicy edge. The same goes for the honey-glazed squid ($7),
although the tubes and legs were perfectly grilled and tender.
Some dishes that sounded less than exciting on the menu turned out to be
the best.
One was the eggplant and smoked tofu flatbread ($8.50). It sounds like a
bland pizza but turns out to be a crepe, the kind served with mu shu pork,
topped with thin slices of lightly smoked tofu that played well with the
hoisin-flavored eggplant.
Likewise, the oyster omelet with garlic chives ($7.50) turned out to be a
subtle umami dream, the egg tender and fresh oysters just cooked. I only wish
I'd known the tiny ramekin of a clear brown liquid was almost undiluted fish
sauce before I poured it on; a few drops add just the salty oomph needed.
Another surprise hit is the homemade chicken longanisa with a fried egg
and garlic rice ($10). The plump, pink sausage gets a splash of white balsamic
vinegar, which cuts the rich egg yolk and garlicky rice. I'd eat this any day.
The misses didn't lack for invention, but the flavors veered too far in
one direction, as with the oversweet squid and ribs. Another dish, stir-fried
unagi with yellow chives and bean sprouts ($12), needed more ginger or another
strong seasoning to balance the muddy taste of the eel.
And the pig's feet salad ($8), a chop with celery and red and green bell
peppers, needed more bigger chunks of the pork to offset the garlic vinegar
dressing.
A better menu description would have changed my expectations for the flank
steak with spicy garlic sauce ($12).
I pictured rare slices of chewy steak, but the meat came in small pieces
coated in cornstarch and deep-fried, then sauced with hoisin and chile. The
dish works, but it was more like Chinese barbecued beef jerky.
Fung's beverage list goes well with the food. Along with soju and sake
cocktails, Furenzu offers 13 sakes and 17 wines, many by the glass.
It would be a mistake to skip dessert, especially the flaky, gingery pear
tart ($5), with a cooling daub of creme fraiche. The ginger milk custard ($5)
is light, warm and barely set. It contains no eggs, just sweetened milk and
enough fresh ginger juice to make it gel. Fung's father loved to make it for
the family.The Tinarone semifreddo ($5), with a sesame-honey filling and
pistachio-toffee topping is very sweet, and best to share. Its name is a play
on torrone, the Italian honey nougat, and Fung's friend Tina, whose family gave
her the recipe.
"The whole family is asking to be on the menu," Fung says.
Maybe the neighbors in those new condos will be asking, too. Furenzu is
inviting enough to make that happen.
E-mail Carol Ness at cness@sfchronicle.com.
Furenzu
3986 Adeline St. (near 40th Street), Emeryville; (510) 601-1882. Lunch 11:30
a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5:30-10 p.m. daily. Beer, wine and sake.
Reservations for parties of six or more. Credit cards accepted. Easy street
parking.
.
Overall: TWO STARS
Food: TWO STARS
Service: TWO STARS
Atmosphere: TWO AND A HALF STARS
Prices: $$
Noise Rating: TWO BELLS
.Pluses: Creative space and inventive Asian fusion small plates. Lots of
sake choices.
Minuses: Some dishes miss the mark.
RATINGS KEYFOUR STARS: Extraordinary
THREE STARS: Excellent
TWO STARS: Good
ONE STAR: Fair
(box): Poor
.$ Inexpensive: entrees $10 and under
$$ Moderate:
$11-$17
$$$ Expensive: $18-$24
$$$$ Very Expensive: more than $25
Prices based on main courses. When entrees fall between these categories,
the prices of appetizers help determine the dollar ratings.
.ONE BELL: Pleasantly quiet (under 65 decibels)
TWO BELLS:
Can talk easily (65-70)
THREE BELLS: Talking normally gets difficult (70-75)
FOUR BELLS: Can only talk in raised voices (75-80)
BOMB: Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
.Chronicle critics make every attempt to remain anonymous.
All meals
are paid for by the Chronicle.
Star ratings are based on a minimum of three visits.
Ratings are updated continually based on a least one revisit.
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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/DDGT9H94S71.DTL
©2006 San Francisco Chronicle
