2.29 Spices 3
Posted on August 18, 2008
Filed Under Best of the Best, Chinese, Extra Hard Core, Taiwanese | 1 Comment
If you remember meal #25 from last year, you’d know that I’m a huge fan of Spices up in San Francisco. Spices is hard core deviant food at its best, most of it is spicy, a lot of it is dramatic, and all of it is just plain good. It’s like Disneyland to me, but you know, with open flames and large boiling pots of ridiculously spicy soup.
So, today we’re visiting Spice 3, the newest Spices to open in the bay area. (They’re planning a San Jose location and I hear there’s a hot pot place opening soon as well) If you’re a Spices nut and have visited often, you’d know that the menu at Spices 1 and 2 in San Francisco are a little different. Spices 1 has smaller dishes (and stinky tofu) and Spices 2 has grander, bigger dishes meant for larger parties. From speaking with the owner, different Spices locations are meant for different occasions. Spices 1, our meal #25 last year, is meant for smaller parties while Spices 2 a couple blocks away is meant for larger groups. Spices 3 sits across the bay in Oakland and from what I’ve seen, it combines the best of both Spices 1 and 2.
We start off with our usual. Garlic Bacon in spicy oil and Fried Stinky Tofu. I don’t think we need to talk a whole lot about Garlic + Bacon. But the spicy oils and cilantro does wonders and really seals the deal for me. This thing screams for a bowl of rice to go with.
By this point I am a total Stinky Tofu snob, and I can say Spices 3’s stinky tofu is solid. Crispy outside, steaming hot and soft inside, perfect with some soy paste and garlic. The interesting thing here is that it’s not airborne stinky, i.e. passersby will not smell it, but when you get close or put it in your mouth, the odor comes right now and attacks you. Very interesting. By the way, the best stinky tofu in the US is at Indian in San Gabriel.
We then dive straight into the hard core. This is Stinky tofu sauteed with intestine in spicy casserole. They’re quite generous with the intestines. (That’s not something you’d see frequently on anybody’s food blog, now, is it?) One thing of note is that there’s also some pig blood in here along with the half ton of chilies and spices.
Numbing and spicy lamb “bandit” style hot pot. Delicious slices of lamb in this fierce stew of numbing peppers and God knows what else. I really can’t tell you much more, I just remember sweating a lot and drinking a lot of water as I ate this.
One veggie to keep things in check. Just a regular sauteed on-choy with garlic.
This is the spicy fried chicken wings — or, as the menu says: Chicken Wing with Explosive Chili Pepper. Explosive is almost right, this stuff is tasty but SPICY. Spicy chili is not just here to make you sweat or drink lots of water, though, there’s very distinct flavors to be had if you manage not to lose the sense of taste entirely.
I couldn’t find the name of this fish on the menu, it came recommended from the chef and was quite good. Diced chilis over a steamed whole fish.
One last dish to put us over the top, and I wanted it to be mellow. This is the pork julienne beijing style. Strips of pork stir fried with a sweet and tangy sauce, topped with shredded cucumbers and then wrapped up in cool slices of tofu skin. The texture is interesting and the warm pork plays well with the cool cucumber and tofu skin. A little tough to handle, since the tofu skin does tend to fall apart, but it’s quite tasty.
I’ve found that Spices’ service has been getting better recently, and it’s a good thing the food is still top notch. I still wish for a Spices down here in Los Angeles, so I wouldn’t have to drive 3 hundred miles for hard core deviant food of this caliber.
Spices 3
369 12th St
Oakland, CA, 94620
(510) 625-8889