The Midnight Diners is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.

At a little past 10 o’clock on a recent Friday night, we were seated beneath a deer head in a crowded dive bar in San Mateo while a Polynesian woman with flowers in her hair swayed in front of the karaoke machine, belting out the sweetest version of the Eagles’ “Love Will Keep Us Alive” you could imagine. Behind us, the faint smell of piss and weed emanated from the vicinity of the bathroom. In front of us, a steaming-hot plate of fish and chips so impeccably fried, we devoured the whole plate in minutes.

All of that about

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