Last week we went to a preview of the San Francisco Street Food Festival. We tasted more than three dozen dishes, and our single favorite was a new one being rolled out on Aug. 20: the Penang Curry Bomb from Azalina's Malaysian.
It's a fair name because the sandwich explodes with piquant flavor, yet the coconut chicken curry inside is not particularly chile-hot. The green onion bun has a buttery surface that reminded us of the Malaysian flatbread roti, one-half of one of the world's most underappreciated breakfasts (roti canai, mmm).
We tracked down Azalina Eusope and she was delighted that we recognized the concept; she had modeled the bun on roti. But she has given a classic Malaysian street food a very California twist with the fresh pickled cucumbers and blueberries on top.
We whisked her into a back room at the preview and asked her to speak on video about how she made the bomb. Online video veterans will laugh as we learned a valuable lesson: Don't shoot your video vertically! We had hoped to edit out some of her hems and haws, but frankly we spent so long figuring out how to rotate it 90 degrees that we're going to leave it as is. So this is Azalina raw, behind the scenes, talking about the delicious Penang Curry Bomb, which you can have on Aug. 20. You might want to get in line now.
San Francisco Street Food Festival
Aug. 20, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Mission District, mostly Folsom between 22nd and 26th sts.
