![]() ![]() He is a social media influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok. Tim Cheung of Bay Area Foodies pours some gochujang on a dish of bibimbap at Daeho Kalbijjim & Beef Soup in San Francisco on May 9, 2023. Instead, it offers comfort food priced under $10. What Cheung likes best about the mom-and-pop business is that it isn’t trying to be stylish. He’s a huge fan of the Chinese-style barbecue pork dish served with rice. When he’s in the mood for Chinese barbecue, he’ll head to Kam Po Kitchen in San Francisco’s Chinatown. “People usually associate San Francisco with expensive food, but if you look hard enough, you can find these hidden gems that are very affordable and delicious, too. “I think they serve one of the cheapest meals in all of San Francisco,” Cheung said. The post also piqued the interest of locals, who ventured out to the Excelsior District to try it themselves. ![]() Cheung’s video of him taking a big bite out of the juicy pork chop garnered more than 93,000 likes on Instagram, and nearly a million views on TikTok. Last year, Cheung had a viral post that featured the Hong Kong-style pork chop plate, which is priced at $6.50, at Super Star Restaurant in San Francisco. Along the way, he’s discovered some amazing hidden gems. He’s featured mochi at the decades-old Shuei-Do Manju Shop in San Jose and tamales at the Walmart parking lot in Mountain View. How to eat like a gourmandīay Area Foodies has taken Cheung to all corners of the Bay Area, with pit stops throughout San Jose and San Francisco. “I haven’t looked back ever since,” Cheung said. He launched his TikTok in 2019, and it has grown to nearly 400,000 followers. He just couldn’t resist the pull of creating food videos before his hobby became a full-time gig. I literally shed a tear.”Ĭheung eventually enrolled in a post-bachelor program in 2017 for computer science but dropped out when Bay Area Foodies picked up momentum. “I didn’t know so much delicious food existed. ![]() “The specialty at Araujo’s is that they charcoal grill the asada … and this was my first time having an authentic Mexican burrito,” he said. (Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE) Tim Cheung eats at Daeho. The group was starving by the end of the class, so they decided to visit the taqueria. ![]() Cheung and a group of classmates were doing a 5K run around San Jose when they ran past Araujo’s Mexican Grill. Things really clicked for Cheung at age 14 while on a fateful run during P.E. He orders the beef short rib pho, which comes with a full pound of meat. The Vietnamese restaurant is known for drawing lines and is still one of Cheung’s favorite spots. Among them was Pho Ha Noi, a popular pho restaurant in San Jose with a location in Cupertino and an upcoming site in Palo Alto. Growing up in San Jose, Cheung began to cultivate an interest in food when he and his family would visit the abundant Vietnamese restaurants in the area. He decided to open an Instagram account devoted to his tasty discoveries around the bay.įood had been a passion of his since childhood. “It’s such a great time eating this kind of dish.” From computer science to food bloggingĬheung, who is from the South Bay, launched Bay Area Foodies in 2015 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from UC Santa Cruz. “The food itself is a show,” Cheung tells me as white smoke billows from the hot stone bowl. Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos. When the waiter places the giant bowl on the table, he whips out a blowtorch and begins to melt the cheese tableside until it transforms into a gooey splendor. “Imagine a mountain of the most tender beef short ribs just bubbling in a Jacuzzi of concentrated spicy umami,” Cheung enthusiastically shared in an Instagram post last March.Ī waiter appears not long after we order and presents us with a massive bowl of kalbijjim - prepared with thick rice cake noodles, assorted vegetables, and the optional cheese topping for $5 extra. Daeho has been featured many times on Cheung’s social media pages, chiefly for the kalbijjim, a braised beef rib entree, which is his favorite Korean dish. The staff recognizes him immediately as we take a seat by the window. Cheung greets me wearing a bright blue puffer jacket and appears more mellow in person than his typical animated self on social media. I meet the food blogger on a cloudy San Francisco morning to have lunch at Daeho in Japantown. When he’s not eating internet-famous sandwiches, Cheung, who is best known by his 321,000 Instagram followers for slurping massive bowls of noodles in his car or biting into gigantic strawberry-stuffed mochi, is on the hunt for his next delicious meal around the bay. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |