EATER SAN FRANCISCO

If you’re searching for a reason to get excited about what’s to come, look no further than the menu chef James Parry served at his most recent Happy Crane pop-up at Rich Table. Parry hopes to find a permanent home for Happy Crane in the coming year, and wise diners should wish him luck because when it opens, the restaurant looks to be one of the most exciting destinations for Cantonese food in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

This new normal looks like less dim sum and more precise steaming, stir-frying and roasting — the tenets from China’s Guangdong province. For some chefs, this could mean more homestyle dishes, like wobbly steamed egg; for others, it’s spotlighting prized ingredients endemic to the region, like sea cucumber. Though he won’t admit it, James Yeun Long Parry, who started modern Cantonese pop-up the Happy Crane last year, is one of these stewards. Parry cooked under notable chefs in Hong Kong before moving to the Bay Area six years ago to work at three-Michelin-starred Benu. He expects to open the Happy Crane as a brick-and-mortar restaurant next year.

EATER SAN FRANCISCO

Cantonese cuisine gets a modern update with chef James Parry’s pop-up, the Happy Crane. With stops this year at San Francisco’s Rich Table and Oakland’s Pomet, Parry’s touring his food around the Bay Area as he readies to open an upcoming restaurant in 2024. Hailing from Hong Kong, Parry moved to San Francisco to work at three-Michelin-starred Benu, and a recent collaboration with Rich Table chef de cuisine Gizela Ho featured bites such as crab har gow with caviar, a delicate “fragrant fish” dish made with black cod and black bean clam sauce, and dry-aged “Peking-style” duck.