Our vegan co-editor and labor-activist editor-at-large are going to kill us, and snide food snobs are already saying, "It's ," but our parents call it Ranch 99 (like our relatives call it King Burger) and we love it.

Ranch 99/99 Ranch is the Chinese grocery superstore, busy putting smaller local shops out of business by (presumably) not paying minimum wage and exploiting immigrant labor. They also contribute to environmental pollution by insisting on putting everything in like fifteen different plastic bags and then tying them all together in an intricate stays-put fake square knot. We do like how they've made concessions to the earth -- not by using fewer bags but rather, by now using fifteen bags emblazoned with the message "Don't trash California." Plus, the last time we went to the 9-9, we had a good time reading their health code citations form; we've never seen one that went on for five pages before!

So why do we keep going to Ranch 99? Four words: Fry Your Own Fish. That's right! You can buy a fresh fish and at no extra charge, they'll fry it for you to take home. It smells so good (and we presume the frying action kills off any bacteria that might have been introduced from the health code citations). Sprinkle a little soy sauce and scallions and ginger on top when you get home, and you've got yourself a meal.

Daly City 99 pictured above. Other 99s in the area are in Richmond and all over the South Bay.

99 Ranch