riding up the noisy Powell cable
the air smells oddly of fresh nova lox
with a slight fruity tang - from where?
as, out on the hill, dozens of iPods
walk determinedly past windowfuls
of lingerie and jewelry
living the history, still
of San Francisco

A few quick reviews, extracted from a message I sent to the Cloud Factory social mailing list:

My favorite by far is Henry's Hunan -- spicy, hearty, and for me it brings back fond memories of the fun days of the boom. Get the Harvest Pork, or anything with black bean sauce. Of their three locations, I'd say to avoid the one on 6th.

Garden of Tranqulity in Potrero Hill offers a nice variety of dishes, generally relatively healthy (not greasy or overly sweetened) -- I think they used to be better, though.

Over in the inner Sunset, Nan King Road Bistro is great -- somewhat fusiony, but not at all pretentious. Their Mongolian beef may be the best I've ever had.

And of course, there's the justifiably famous House of Nanking on the edge of Chinatown. Find parking, stand in line for a good long while, sit down at a table, and just ask them to bring you whatever's good.

As I was driving around the Bay Area today, two pickup trucks stood out.

On the first, the license plate said "BEAHERO".

The other, which I passed about an hour later, said "NO HERO".