This is the menu I stole after a lunch in 1980, at Cecilia Chiang's elegant Mandarin Restaurant in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square.
And speaking of The Mandarin, if you have not seen Wayne Wang's beautiful movie about owner Cecilia Chiang (still going strong at 97), don't miss Soul of a Banquet.
Meanwhile, across the Bay in Marin, I was reviewing Maurice et Charles Bistrot. It was less fun than it had been when the irrepressible Robert Charles was on hand, but by then he'd decamped to Truckee to open La Vieille Maison. I got to know him while writing a story about the garlic cult: I accompanied filmmaker Les Blank to Truckee where he was shooting a scene ( Bruce Aidells leaning into a garlic massage at the restaurant), for Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers.
