In California, Asian American restaurateurs don’t just make chaat and sashimi: For generations, they’ve made livings as experts on burgers, doughnuts and pizza. From Brothers Pizza in the Sunset District to Eddie’s Cafe on Divisadero, the format of their cooking has added fascinating wrinkles to the diverse swatch of flavors and techniques that constitute Asian American cuisine.

As former diner kid Dakota Kim told me, "(My parents) can tell you more about hamburger buns than they can tell you about making kimchi at a restaurant. They haven’t made hundreds of pajeon but hundreds of burgers!"

And in a testament to the power of suggestion, reader JiaJing L. tipped me off about Marina Submarine and asked me to look into this particular subset of restaurants. Thanks JiaJing! The sandwichs I had there were true absolute units.

I could have packed so much more into the piece, which covers Delegates in Oakland and Beep’s Burgers, Marina Submarine, Eddie’s and Bob’s Donuts in San Francisco. So here are some other spots that are just as noteworthy.

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Art’s Cafe

Move over, cioppino: The hashbrown sandwich at Art’s is one of the most genius inventions in this city and deserves way more acknowledgment than it has historically received. It’s crisp, shredded potato hash done up like a crepe, with a steamy inner lining of cheese enrobing fillings like teriyaki beef and mushrooms. It has a lot of fans. And in the 30 years the diner has been in business, owners Hae Ryong and Sarah Youn have garnered a loyal following who adore both their by-the-book American breakfasts and their inventive takes on the genre.

747 Irving St, San Francisco 415-665-7440

San Francisco Wine & Cheese

I happened to drop into this shop while wandering around Hayes Valley, and I fell in love with its broad selection of gourmet foods, cheeses and wines. I don’t think Gourmet & More could ask for better successors than Shirley Ng and her husband Phithak Resakual, who also own Country Cheese Coffee Market in the East Bay. Ng will gladly turn your cheese and charcuterie selections into a gorgeous plate, which you can enjoy in the hidden-away, curio-laden back patio of the shop. Or grab a bottle of wine to drink (no corkage fee!) while waiting to be called into Rich Table, just next door.

141 Gough St, San Francisco 415-874-9133

Best Song I Heard in a Restaurant

Al’s Place is loud—and even louder when you sit at the table in the window nook, and the reverberations of all that noise bounce off the glass and crash into your skull. It helps that their music selection is damn good and, right now, packed with bedroom jams. Bomba Estereo’s "Somos Dos" was a new one for me; the song evokes the sensation of watching condensation form on the outside of a bucket full of beer bottles.

Photo of the week

Last week, I went to Portland and visited the newest outpost of Montesacro, the pinseria that The Chronicle’s staff are quite fond of. The knick knacks are there, and so is the huge selection of cured meats and cheeses. The big difference? It was a balmy 85 degrees out, so I got to eat outside for once!

What I’m reading

• My colleague Janelle Bitker has been following the ongoing trial between the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group and Vanessa Scott-Allen, a former employee of Per Se (TKRG’s older NYC outpost) who is suing the former for pregnancy discrimination. Per Scott-Allen’s lawyer: “She thought they were family and they betrayed her.” TKRG’s response: Pleasantries were misconstrued as a formal job offer. Oof.

• Tara Duggan’s piece on world-saving chicken is fascinating, like all stories about climate change’s silver bullets. This time, it’s a startup—founded by a Blue Apron co-founder—that purports to sell chickens raised via regenerative agriculture. “Supporters say regenerative agriculture, which is really just based on traditional ways of farming, may be our last best hope for saving the planet — even better than trying to convince everyone to go vegetarian.”

• Definitely read this Washington Post piece on the persistence of child labor and exploitation among the biggest chocolate companies in the world. “These farms form the world’s most important source of cocoa and are the setting for an epidemic of child labor that the world’s largest chocolate companies promised to eradicate nearly 20 years ago.” None of the companies the reporters contacted could definitively say that they have made good on that promise.

Bite Curious is a weekly newsletter from The Chronicle’s restaurant critic, Soleil Ho, delivered to inboxes on Monday mornings. Follow along on Twitter: @Hooleil