I used to get it at Farmer's Bounty in Davis, but they closed to make way for fro-yo or falafel, I can't remember which. Have you called Christina's? Or maybe that little convenience store in Teele? They used to carry lots of Indian spices, but I haven't stopped in recently. Will be curious to hear where you find it.

Thanks, all! Trip's not for a month, but I'll absolutely report back on what we ate. Appreciate the help!

Thanks, Robert. Believe it or not, returning a car in the city adds about $100 to the reservation. I'll swap Perbacco out for Cotogna; standard Italian is easy enough to come by here in Boston.

Hello! Boston hound here, looking for critiques on my SF itinerary for my husband and me (we are early 30s, he’s a project manager, I’m a career counselor at a culinary school, we are fairly adventurous eaters, though he does not eat pork) We’ve got four and a half days in your fair city at the end of our trip (the first week is spent driving up the coast from LA). We’ve rented an apartment in North Beach, but it seems like most of the restaurants I’ve heard good things about are in other parts of the city. We are returning our car when we get to SF but we are good walkers and public-transit-takers, and will probably eat breakfast at our apartment and then leave it for the day. Mostly our vacations consist of walking around and eating.

This will be my first time in town, so we’d like to hit the things I think of as SF highlights - someplace that will give us a sense of Cal-Ital, some good dumplings and noodles, a tasty taco or two. I would prefer to make dinner reservations (and I will absolutely cancel a day in advance if our plans change), but I figure lunch will be easier as walk-ins. Is there any chance at all of getting seats at the bar or one of the tables for walk-ins at State Bird Provisions if we show up when they open or should we not bother? Will we be massively underdressed at any of these places in jeans? We are far from slovenly, but I know dress codes in Boston are... lax compared with some other cities.

Thank you all so much for your input, I know you get these questions all the time!

Here are our meals as they stand now -

Friday
Arrive in the afternoon, return rental car at SFO airport, public trans to apartment in North Beach
Will wing it for lunch, unless there’s a neighborhood standout we shouldn’t miss
Dinner @ Perbacco (reservation made)
*considered Greens, since it is also close-ish to where we’re staying and we love vegetables/vegetarian food

Saturday
Breakfast @ Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market - specific suggestions welcome
Lunch: snacks purchased at market
Dinner: Zuni Cafe (can’t make reservation yet)

Sunday
Lunch: Mission Chinese
Dinner: Bar Tartine, (reservation made)

Monday
head over to golden gate park for the morning
Lunch: Burma Superstar
Dinner: Try for SBP? Would love recommendations for places in that neighborhood in case the wait is crazy/impossible

Tuesday
Lunch: tacos?
Dinner: Contigo (can’t make reservation yet)

Edited to say WOW I really should have read the dates on this more clearly - sorry!

Doo Wee and Rice in Somerville has fried chicken hearts on the menu - you can also get them served over their french fries if you order the "heart-y fries". They've been known to sell out of the hearts, but the food is so good there (I literally have dreams about the bao bao) it's worth a second trip if there aren't any hearts on your first attempt.

Otto it is! Thanks, hounds. I'm looking forward to the show - the new album is great, isn't it? I particularly like "Death Proof" - and then I heard her on the radio (that Canadian show Q, I think?) last night and apparently it's about surviving heart surgery when she was a teenager. Anyway, delicious pizza and excellent music - should be a great night!

We will be coming from downtown (I work in Cambridge, he works in Southie) - my sister recommended Nud Pob or Otto (the new one that just opened up on BU campus). The walks are longer, but unless it's pouring I'd walk 15 minutes vs 10 for better food. Thoughts? I'd like to avoid Brown Sugar, as it was the site of several mediocre dates when I lived in Allston and I remember it being just ok.

The mister and I are going to see Kate Nash at the Paradise tonight and need to grab a quick dinner before the show. It's been a few years since I lived on the green line and I'm not sure what's good over there now. I found a few threads from 2-3 years ago touting some spots but was hoping for an update. We're not picky about what kind of food it is as long as it's close (5-10 minutes walk) to Packard's Corner, we can get in and eat in 45 minutes or less, and pay in the range of $30-$50 for two of us. Specific dish recommendations welcome, too.

+1 for Addis Red Sea - they default to regular wheat flour injera, but if you ask they'll bring you the kind made with teff flour instead.

Love The Neighborhood and will agree that the cream of wheat is insane awesome.

Johnny D's does a serviceable brunch with a guitarist playing jazzy renditions of Flaming Lips songs, which is fun.

+3 - Patti is the best! She's at Pemberton's on Mass Ave in Cambridge (a short walk from Porter) the first Sunday of the month and I bring my knives to her every couple of months. If you catch her at the beginning of her "shift" she's usually done in an hour or two, but the wait may be longer if a long line of blades forms in front of you. She takes excellent care of my Shun, and I've seen her adjust her equipment to get the angle right. She's also taken my Wusthofs down to 18-19 degrees which is quite a treat.

Plus she often travels with a gorgeous mountain dog and a gray parrot named shish kabob. So you get bonus cute animal time AND sharp knives.

You're looking for someone who wants to cook what you want to eat, so just make sure you're honest about that - if you say "healthy food" but actually want to eat mac and cheese and fried chicken and no vegetables every night (no judgement here, just a for instance) you might not mesh well. Also make sure you ask if their rates are hourly or per serving. Good personal chefs will have a lot of questions for you, too.

And I'll ditto calling culinary schools (full disclosure: I work at one of them). Best of luck!

This may not be a popular answer, but I had my rehearsal dinner at The Living Room and it was a blast. Food was not great but solid (I think - I was a little distracted at the time), and we had about 30 people, but we only had half of the back room, and my old office of 100+ used to buy out the whole place for parties. And the price was pretty reasonable, too. It was recommended to me by a friend who had her wedding reception there.

You might try EVOO in Cambridge; they've got a prix fixe (app, entree, dessert) for $42/pp, and the menu always has some safe options for the pickiest, plus some interesting things for the more adventurous. They have a few different size private rooms, and last time I was there, there was a party of about 20 dressed up teenage girls who seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. Happy birthday!

Yep, same people! They just opened the Arlington location a month or so ago.

Are you thinking of the room in the back near the stairs? They have a second one, too - bigger and more gallery style, upstairs across from the bathroom. My sister threw me the world's most awesome bachelorette party there; we had 25-30 people.

Many, many foods are lactose free (all fruits and vegetables, meats, etc) - are you looking for dairy substitutes or trying to replace a favorite packaged snack?

Lactose intolerance, I've found, is one of the easiest food sensitivities to deal with - the Lactaid pills (buy generic for sure!) work great for me, though I do take two when I'm going to eat like a bowl of ice cream or cream of something soup. Aged cow's milk cheeses and almost all sheep/goat's milk cheeses are also easy for me to digest, but will agree with lergnom that you'll have to let the digestive system heal a bit before you can handle small amounts of lactose with no trouble. Yogurt is also no trouble for me (hooray for active cultures!) and if you can find Cabot's greek yogurt it is a truly spectacularly good product.

Lactaid milk is fine, but I've found that I prefer almond milk, and Blue Diamond brand over Silk or Almond Breeze. Best of luck!

I've purchased Bob's teff flour at Pemberton Farms on Mass Ave in Cambridge; they have a whole aisle of various Bob's products. I think they also have it at Harvest Coop in Central in the bulk bins, but since they switched locations there's a smaller selection so you might want to call and ask.

Agree with the recommendation to check with area culinary schools. Full disclosure: I work at one of them.

You might have better luck searching for a "personal chef" rather than a "private chef", which implies a chef who works for just one family as opposed to someone who cooks one-off events or the like.

I thought of this thread yesterday when I stopped to grab a sandwich at Pemberton Farms in Cambridge - they had latkes in the prepared foods case. I didn't try one, but I wanted to add it to the list!

To my knowledge (and I'm not a lawyer), it's not legal to sell animal's you've hunted, so you won't see it in stores. FDA regulations and all that. You are likely to find a wider variety of meats at specialty shops like Savenor's, but they are all farmed.

Are you looking for a restaurant that can do this or could you use a caterer or personal chef in a non-restaurant space?

Came in here to suggest Lyndell's, so I'll second that vote, and the suggestion to get a half moon if you're in there as a tester. Their chocolate frosting is so good I had a brown wedding cake.

The ramen shop that's set to open in the old Zing Pizza space in Porter Square has signs in the window indicating a September open (forgive me, I can't remember the name). Construction mess in the store (seen through the windows) changes daily so they must be making progress. I walk by it every day, so I'll report back if I see anything more specific.

Probably a bit far north for you, but Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury had unbelievably plentiful PYO blueberries last weekend - they were charging $3.10/lb. I picked 8 lbs in less than an hour. There were loads of unripe berries, too.

GAZPACHO!

This is a great question and I am really enjoying the responses! We mostly eat at home so my list is short, but places we go back to over and over in our neighborhood include

Red Bones
Pescatore
Highland Kitchen

And when we meet downtown (I work in Cambridge, husband works in Southie)

Marliave
Silvertone
Fajitas and Ritas but literally only before/after movies since it's so dang convenient

Noooooo! I just started a thread a few weeks ago about how good their tofu was! This is incredibly depressing.

Lucky's is definitely an after-work-drinks crowd (when I worked on Altantic Ave I used to go there after work for drinks, in fact) and the food is better than average bar food but still bar food. It's been about six months since I was last there, but they tend to have interesting and tasty sliders and solid fries. Certainly not destination dining, but it'll usually do.