norjah's Profile
Foodie from Chicago needs to know what SFO Neighborhood to live in.
Remember that all the CalTrain baby bullet trains also stop at 22nd St, right in between DogPatch and Potrero, not just at 4th.
Potrero is a great neighborhood for food, but not a lot of destination places. Better than Bucktown (although I don't really like the mid-range Chicago food scene in general.) Once you get tired of the neighborhood places, you have a cab, long muni, or sketchy bus ride to other parts of town.
Dogpatch just isn't a neighoorhood. Decent restaurants, but I don't like being on the streets after dark outside the few areas Robert outlined.
Cafe Altano (Hayes Valley), SF - any reports?
We tried it a couple weeks ago and were pleased with our meal. It's not high-end. I could see that it would be let down if you are looking for Incanto.
The prices and menu put it mid-way between Cafe Delle Stelle and Stelline. We thought of it as an alternative to Stelline and gave it the upper hand for the setting, wine list, and more interesting ingredients. The price was very reasonable with 2 pastas and glasses of wine for less than $40 before tip.
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Cafe Altano
602 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Where to find Padron Peppers?
The Mariquita ones that I've been getting in my CSA box are great. 1.5 to 2 inches long and perfect slightly roasted with a cocktail.
Cheap rehearsal dinner in San Francisco?
I've done events upstairs at Pauline's Pizza that are right in that price range. $25 without wine, $31 with house wine. Here's the info: http://www.paulinespizza.com/upstairs/
I like Pauline's and take out of towners there quite a bit. It's pizza, so non-threatening, but pizza with interesting, organic toppings, so faintly SF.
late night burger with drink in SF
Zuni serves their burger after 10, are open until midnight, and generally good cocktails.
Fall apples
While Alemany does have good apples for $1 or so a pound, I can recommend a trip up to Apple Hill some weekend if you are a true apple coniseur! We go once a year, pick a couple boxes, and fill the freezer with applesauce and pies. It is a nice day trip to see a bit of fall color as well. There are also apple donuts.
Where to Buy Mariage Freres Tea
Dandelion on Potrero sells a wide selection of Mariage Freres Tea. It is a wonderful little housewares store across from DWR.
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Dandelion
55 Potrero Ave, San Francisco, CA
Visiting San Francisco from Ireland for 4 Days
Bar Jules is on Hayes, has a great Sunday brunch, and good lunches. I live near Zuni Cafe and tend to get my weekday breakfasts at Delessio on Market(accross from Zuni, great pastries and lots of good take-away options) and La Boulange. These are primarily pastry/coffee places, but have some other options.
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Delessio Market & Bakery
1695 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103
La Boulange
500 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Bar Jules
609 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Attention: yogurt makers. Help!
This should be on the home cooking board. Yes, doubling the milk, but not doubling the starter would be the difference. Less starter results in less thick yogurt.
Remember, you don't need to buy yogurt for a starter, just use some from the last batch. I've had the same yogurt line going for about 2 years now!
Visiting San Francisco from Ireland for 4 Days
Your list is great! I'd take Colibri off your back-up list and save any Mexican till you head to LA. Other than Mission-style burritos, Mexican is better in LA.
Get to Burma Superstar right when they open or it can be a long, long wait.
Udupi Palace SF open
I liked the food very much (spinach masala dosa was great), but had similar, ridiculous service as rahir. We were served the wrong food, served our appetizers twice, served food that others had already eaten from(!), and waited about 40 minutes for our dosas. While the dosa was good and inexpensive, it wasn't worth that chaos. I'll give it another month and one more try to see if they can get their act together.
Their dosas aren't particularly spicy, so I'm not sure what rahir ordered. I do like their tomato chutney and their sambar.
After a wedding at SF cityhall...
Arlequin and their nice back garden are my vote. A very quick walk from City Hall (on part of my daily BART trek.) All three "a" places (Arlequin, Absinthe, and Amphora) are owned by the same people. The walk from City Hall to Arlequin is past the opera house and jardinere, an overall pleasant walk. The walk to Delisso is a nasty piece of Market.
Cocktail "flight" at Bourbon & Branch?
Please be careful!! Two drinks at Bourbon and Branch are more than enough. I can't imagine three!
The Black Manhattan is amazing. Other favorites include the Revolver and I tried a new one called a "Parlay" last night that was really good.
In Portrero or near height for dinner/lunch for picky eater?
Based on your various and evolving descriptions of what you are looking for, Eliza's will likely fit the bill. It is good, reasonably priced Chinese with forks and knives available. The food isn't overly oily/saucy so it would meet your light/salads criteria, if that still applies.
Chapeau is fabulous, but in no way light/salads, it is french bistro food. It is a decent trek out to the Richmond and difficult to park.
Question about French Laundry Reservation
Our opentable French Laundry reservation was not at one of the listed lunch times and it was honored with no problems. Cancellations without waiting lists occassionally get put on opentable.
Most palatable diet sodas?
A minority, but certainly not alone! I, too, find splenda vile and concur on the horrid, lingering aftertaste. I accidentially bought the diet coke with splenda once and threw it out.
SF This Weekend - St. Regis
Only Chez Spencer is in SOMA (well, not really SOMA, but no map is going to say "MultiMedia Gluch"). Delfina is in the Mission, Perbacco is in the Financial District (within walking distance of St. Regis), and Quince is in Pacific Heights.
Quince, Delfina, and Perbacco are all good recommendations, but you likely won't be able to get into Quince or Delfina on this short notice and the times at Perbacco will be really early or really late.
I don't like Chez Spencer. The patio is nice, but with the rain, it won't do you much good. My main complaint about Chez Spencer is the slow and indifferent service I've recieved. Some people like it, I don't.
Bar Crudo is a good suggestion. Along the same lines as Zuni Cafe, I like Range in the Mission. You won't be able to get a reservation, but there are bar tables in the front.
Where to buy fresh/compressed yeast?
Rainbow Grocery has it in the refrigerated case next to the olives.
I love Mariquita's Mystery Box
No question that the produce is amazing (this week's strawberries were out of this world), I'm just grumpy that I'm making another batch of cauliflower soup tonight when one-box folks are getting a better assortment.
I've subscribed for 3 years. True, the carrots were great at the beginning of the year, but it's been since June/early July or so. I miss carrots. It's been a month since fresh herbs. I've only received artichokes once. It's always one of the "or" items and we always seem to get the other.
The months of cabbage weren't great, but I understood, the weather was awful that year. I'd gotten used to having one unique thing in the box every week, which isn't happening much anymore, and I feel like the boxes have gotten less interesting in the last few months. Now that I know the more interesting produce is there -- well the grass is always greener.
If they've got lots of extra sorrel, please, please, throw some our way!!
I love Mariquita's Mystery Box
Hmmm. I get their CSA and am a little confused that this selection seems better. We haven't received carrots (July), mustard greens (never?), artichokes (once in August), or spicy peppers (once in August) in quite a while. Good to know that sporadic weekly customers are getting a different, larger selection than long-term CSA members. Works out to a little less than $25 per box in the CSA, but we get usually 8 items, not 12.
Don't get me wrong, I love the produce that I do get, but I'm drowning in cauliflower (3 out of the last 5 weeks) and sweet peppers (4 out 5) here. The squash coming in right now is amazing.
SF corkage fees
They've added two more courses and wine pairings for that increase.
You can still pick your own 5-course meal for $82 and I'm sure that they would be happy to pair wines by the glass, but I will really miss that $100-ish (not sure if it was $110 or $120, I remember when it was $99!) 5 course with wine. My husband and I considered that one of our reasonable indulgences. $162 pushes that to an extraordinary indulgence.
Also, who needs 7 friggin courses?
SF corkage fees
Just a warning Robert that the 5-course menu is gone and replaced with a 7-course menu with wine which is $162! While the cost isn't disproportionate to the meal, I was sad to see this change.
Seabreeze Cafe at 111 Anza Blvd & other lunch spots?
There is a shuttle that runs along Airport Blvd down to the Millbrae Caltrain station if you want to expand your boundaries a bit. (http://www.caltrain.com/pdf/Shuttles/SM_County/Burlingame_Bayside_Shuttle_04-02-07.pdf)
Alternately, if you are flying in around lunchtime, there is very good food at the airport, particularly pre-security in the international terminal.
I work in that area, and while seabreeze is ok for a quick work lunch, I'd never go there on vacation.
Essencia open (Hayes Valley Peruvian)
Interesting statement that a whole genre of food shouldn't be expensive.
How does that work? Peruvian can be a mixture of Spanish, African, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Creole cuisines, among others. Italian (Perbacco, A16), Spanish (Piperade, B44), Chinese (Brandy Ho), Japanese (Kyo-Ya) are all in the same price range (not saying that all these are excellent, but many are), but Peruvian can't?
Thanks again!
What's the name of that new restaurant on 17th street between Valencia and Mission?
If you are off a few blocks, a really new place is Bar Bambino on 16th between Mission and Valencia. Maverick's been around since summer 2005.
So new that it wasn't there when the Google streetview cameras went through. . .
Help me choose a cold cereal!
While we can all pretend that the peanut butter Puffins are better for you - they have pretty much exactly the same nutritional information as peanut butter captain crunch. Captain crunch is actually a little lower in sodium and sugar for the same weight.
Not that it isn't a tasty cereal, but let's not kid ourselves here.
SF customs-friendly food treats
Yes. Wine in a checked suitcase is fine. K&L sells cardboard/styrofoam things that check really well.
Mariquita Farm leaving the FPFM.
We've gotten their CSA for 3 years now. We get vegetables and flowers. I love the flowers (great tulips right now.) We currently pick up at the SOMA location. It's easiest to pick up with a car - easy to double park in that alley and run right up.
I am always thrilled with the selection and quality of the fruits and vegetables. They just started up after the winter break. Every week they tend to have 1 fruit (crazy good oranges this week), 1 cookng green, 1 lettuce, 1 herb, 1 oniony thing (leeks, green garlic, or onions), and 1 or 2 unusual things (sorrel, dandelion greens, squash, etc.). It isn't that exact, but a good rule of thumb.
There are just two of us, so it takes a concerted effort to go through all of it each week.
They include a newsletter with recipes for the stuff in the box each week.
My favorite thing about Two Small Farms is that their produce really is local. They tell you where each item comes from, mothing is shipped from thousands of miles away, and everything is from places within driving distance. Lots of other programs (Farm Fresh to You, for instance) use mostly local stuff, but do include things like bananas and mangos that just aren't local. If I wanted produce shipped in from South America, I can get that at any grocery store.
Which of these wineries would you go to?
I think Maria's refering to the free snacks that they usually have with the tastings. They always offer olives/rosemary almonds/crackers and usually have 2 or 3 things from the kitchen on the back shelf. They do great grougeres and meatballs.
Late Night Dining Ideas (Bay Area)
Cafe Couleur in Potrero is open till 11 every night.
