First Taste: At Handroll Hawker a portable Australian staple makes its delicious Bay Area debut.

There’s no shortage of handrolls in the Bay Area. Most sushi-centric Japanese spots prepare them in temaki form, cones of crisp nori overstuffed with fish, seafood, vegetables, and seasoned rice. Some, like Cow Hollow’s new Kaiyo Handroll Bar or chef Kyle Itani’s Yonsei Handrolls in Oakland have a more taco-like presentation, with ingredients layered on sheets of pliable nori that lift out of their serving cradles like tortillas. Shrimp tempura roll at Handroll Hawker(Kristen Loken)But up until a few weeks ago, nowhere in San Francisco—nowhere in the entire Bay Area—served them Aussie-style: as highly portable cylinders tightly swaddled in soft nori.It was one of the things Romi Trower, owner of Polk Street’s new Handroll Hawker, missed most about home when she and her husband moved to SF in 2018. In Melbourne, handroll shops aren’t just in every shopping village and mall, they’re on every single level of every shopping village and mall. “They’ve