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Cheap Eats By Dan
Leone And the band played on SATCHEL PAIGE THE Pitcher was visiting from Thailand with his wife, Ann Paige the Pitcher, and their daughter, Nellie Paige the Pitcher. We got to be the band at a big prodigal-son party at his parents' house in Sacramento. I got to sleep on a floor in a room at the foot of a bed with Satch and Ann in it, and listen to Nellie scream all night. I got to eat all-you-can-eat sushi and stuff, just like in the good old days, with Satch and fambly. I got to see his old band Paddlefoot play a prodigal-punk reunion show at the Hotel Utah. What I didn't get to do was play baseball with my favorite pitcher ever. My band had five shows in Oregon that weekend. We rocked, in chronological order: a senior center, a nursing home, a coffee shop, a ski patrol party, and a Unitarian church. I made $20. On Tuesday Satch calls, says, "Where were you?" "Working," I said. And he starts stringing me the game, blow by blow, each detail gonging me like a foul-tipped knuckleball off the mask. Twenty bucks! Satchel Paige the Pitcher, first time out in years, goes nine, gives up three runs, maybe one of them earned, gets the win. Earns his nickname. "Hold on a second," I said. "Let me get a pen." Outside one of my chickens was raising a racket. They have this end-zone dance they do after laying an egg. It sounds a lot like the sound they make when a hawk's on their head, but I've learned to ignore it. I got a pen. "What are you working on?" Satch said. "Box score." He talked me into making a special trip to the city next day for lunch, which was easy to talk me into considering how hard it would be to talk me into a special trip to Thailand for lunch. Although ... he did tell me about a five-zillion-star dive restaurant there that might maybe get me over my fear of flying. I told him about Folk Look, a big banner I'd seen on Market at Franklin: dim sum, sushi, bbq, seafood. All-you-can-eat buffet. Lunch: $8.30 ($11.96 on weekends). Dinner: $16.96. So that was where we met. Ann Paige the Pitcher said I looked beautiful! But first she asked Satchel Paige the Pitcher, in Thai, if it would be OK to say so. Nellie Page the Pitcher must have liked the looks of me too, because she kept smiling and laughing and drooling and googling every time we made eye contact, and then she choked on a piece of cantaloupe and almost died. (Not really, but it was scary to me. And her.) What a kid! Check this out: She's teething, right, so she spends most of the meal happily and quite healthily gnawing on and working over a chicken wing bone, tearing off meat, chewing gristle, sucking down skin, slurping marrow ... no problem. Then they give her a wee little ball of melon for dessert, and the next thing you know, she's wide-eyed and terrified, gasping for breath and just generally choking to death. Now that's my kind of eater! Alls I have to say about Folk Look is ... like the name. Like the all-you-can-eatness. But, like every other buffet, it's hit and miss on the quality front. Hits: a lot of the fried fishes, and chickens, were very good. A couple of the sushis. Salt and pepper pork. Mussels. Shrimp. Misses: dim sum, most of the sushi, pot stickers ... There's so much stuff though, a lot of which I never even got to get to – noodles, soups, desserts, egg rolls – and my thinking is you can always find your money's worth out of a buffet that big. Just go for lunch. Don't mess with dinner, because then you'll have to work twice as hard. Folk Look. 1600 Market (at Franklin), S.F. (415) 626-1133.
Daily, 11:00 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Takeout available. Beer and Wine. American
Express, MasterCard, Visa. Wheelchair accessible.
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