Sweet relief

Trendy Asian dessert bars offer respite from the club scene. By Giselle Velazquez

HO-HUM . What to do on another Friday night in the big city? Feeling reluctant to join the throngs of glassy-eyed club kids cluttering the hottest dance floor?

Late-night revelers weary of clubbing can indulge their hedonism at the nearest Asian-influenced dessert cafe. Catering to those looking for a late-night fix of inexpensive eats in a cool atmosphere, these hot spots regularly featured in the streets of Hong Kong and Taiwan are starting to crop up in the Bay Area. Here's a chance to flirt over a tall glass of almond-milk tea or gather friends around a plate of pot stickers without expecting to nurse a hangover the next day.

For those trying to smooth the transition from a hard-partying lifestyle, you'll feel like you never left the club at the trendy-to-the-extreme café Bubble Zone (1115 Clement, SF. 415-752-0618). With a jumble of curved walls, space-station light fixtures, and flat-screen TVs blaring the latest Japan-pop videos, it's just like any chic downtown nightspot. But instead of a surly bartender slinging watered-down cosmos, the bar staff sets you up on a dream-date with your favorite snack. Open until 1 a.m. on weekends, the expansive menu features dozens of ordinary-to-exotic Taiwanese specialties, most in the $2 to $5 dollar range.

"You can get food at Burger King for the same money, but this place is much better," said Brenda Hsu, one of many visitors on a packed Friday night.

It may be as cheap as the BK Lounge, but Bubble Zone's grub is miles away from limp burgers and gray milkshakes. Tables overflow with plates of salt-and-pepper chicken, honeydew snow ice, sweet almond tofu, and tall, colorful bubble drinks.

Too hip for the outré "ingesting food and liquids" scene? An oxygen bar awaits in the corner. Owner Will Chow decided to install one after a recent trip to Las Vegas, where he saw machines vending the life-sustaining substance everywhere. Chow conceived of the lounge idea while attending the University of San Francisco, and he specifically designed it as a hangout for young people, many of whom like to hit up the tanks for a high au naturel.

Trendoids can potentially catch a buzz at the Internet cafe Eggettes.com (639 El Camino Real, South San Francisco, 650-266-9919, www.eggettes.com), if only from the whirling disco lights in their sticker-card booth.

A marvel of Asian engineering, the booth features flashing lights, a purple turntable, and, inexplicably, a steering wheel/mirror console with no discernible function. Despite the fact that the instructions are almost entirely in Japanese characters, the machine prints out sticker-card snaps of a steady stream of customers in front of psychedelic backgrounds.

But the booth, the omnipresent Cantonese and Mandarin pop that blares from the sound system, and the stacks of glossy Hong Kong magazines are just a sideshow to the food served at the establishment Garrick and Mandy Kwok started four years ago. Their menu is crammed with esoteric goodies, ranging from $2 to $4, like steamed rice rolls and sweet sago soup, plus at least two dozen kinds of tapioca drinks.

Their specialty namesake snack is the egg waffle, which the café has dubbed the "eggette." Made up of egg-shaped chambers that are crispy-flaky outside and moist and custardlike inside, egg waffles have been served in the streets of Hong Kong for over 50 years. Until the Kwoks opened Eggettes, the Bay Area was barren of the popular snack, and, according to Garrick, fans actually traveled to Vancouver and Los Angeles just to get a taste.

Across the Bay Bridge, Oakland's Fruit Oasis Café (288 11th St., Oakl. 510-832-2100) is another rarity: It's a one-stop shop for that late-evening anime rental – and a huge serving of Mango Queendom dessert.

Posters for Asian films like Kung Fu Mah-Jong and Seoul Raiders hang from the walls and ceiling of the airy space, joined by only one Hollywood film poster – for Along Came Polly. While confused patrons ponder the Asian hipness-quotient of Ben Stiller, until 2 a.m. on weekends the kitchen serves up a number of snacks and desserts for $2 to $8. By midnight Saturday, the café is full of twentysomethings noshing on coconut toast, jellygrass ice, and fried chicken sandwiches as animated conversation competes with the latest weepy samurai serial emanating from the television.

"The atmosphere is really cool and chilled out," patron Cathy Hegdahl commented as she stirred the tapioca pearls in her taro bubble drink. "It's for people who are adventurous and don't mind trying new things."

If you're like-minded, you might just have the peach snow ice of your life this weekend – without damaging your wallet or your liver.

Freelance writer Giselle Velazquez lives under the shadow of Sign Hill, in South San Francisco, the Industrial City. She can be reached at v.giselle@gmail.com.