Il Cane Rosso

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Its hard to say exactly what Il Cane Rosso.  Its a mix of Italian, American, sandwiches, and basically, carnage.  Although, I think one word best describes this place:  hearty.  All the dishes here let you walk away pretty satisfied and fulfilled.  The menu changes daily as well as for breakfast and lunch.  This place is one of the more popular spots in the SF Ferry Building (even though its hidden in the corner), so the lines do get quite long and the dishes sell out quickly throughout the day.  

Beef Stew - #4 on SF Foodie 92 list

Beef stew.  First of all, this does not come with bread.  You have to order it separately, which I recommend.  What's a beef stew without bread?  Also, its Acme bread (my favorite).  When this dish came out, I was expecting more of a chunky meat version versus their grounded beef take on beef stew.  Nevertheless, the stew is quite delicious.  Very comforting and homey.

Warm egg salad sandwich - #14 on 2012 7x7 Top 100 Things to Eat SF

The warm egg salad sandwich is another popular dish at Il Cane Rosso.  Its a simple dish of basic egg salad served on an open faced toasted bread.  Its put in the oven after prepping for a couple minutes to heat up the egg salad.

Address:                        Il Cane Rosso
                                              1 Ferry Bldg
                                              Ste 41
                                              San Francisco, CA

Type:                                 American/sandwiches/Italian

Popular chomps:   warm egg salad sandwich
                                                braised pork sandwich
                                                beef stew
                                               roast beef sandwich

Chomp worthy:       warm egg salad sandwich
                                               beef stew     

Miette Patisserie

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Miette Patisserie is a french bakery located inside the SF Ferry building and in Hayes Valley.  They sell macaroons, cakes, and cookies.

#48 on 2012 SF Tops 100 Eats - Gingersnap cookies

I'm not a huge fan of gingersnaps, but these slightly crunchy cookies had a bearable taste of ginger with a sprinkling of sugar on top.

     

Address:                         Miette

                                               1 Ferry Building #10
                                               San Francisco, CA
                             
Type:                                  bakery/french

Popular Chomps:   gingersnap cookies
                                                macaroons

Chomp worthy:         gingersnap cookies

El Hurache Loco

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Hurache with cactus salad (nopales) - #60 on 2011 7x7 SF's top 100 Things to eat

Its always nice to try something different than the usual tacos, and burritos.  Huraches are a flat oval tortilla stuffed with refried beans.  This is my first time having hurache so I don't have much to compare it with.  I made a special trip to the Alemany Farmers Market (Saturday AM) just to taste one.  I chose the cactus (nopales).  The texture of the tortilla is kinda doughy and slightly chewy.  Its topped with jalapenos, diced bits of cactus, cheese, and cilantro.  Tasty, spicy, tangy, and full of flavor!

Address:                          El Hurache Loco
                                                various famers' markets
                                                AND
                                                1803 Larkspur Landing Circle
                                                Larkspur, CA 

Type:                                 Mexican/casual

Popular chomps:    Hurache nopales (cactus)

                                     tlacoyito
                                                 Alambres

Chomp worthy:          Hurache nopales

Shanghai Dumpling King

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Waiting outside for our table I heard someone say to her friend, "I heard the Shanghai Dumplings are good here."  Jeez, what gave that away...

The restaurant is really small so the wait can get quite lengthy.  Right before you sit down you preorder with a server so your food will arrive by the time you sit, so make sure you look over the menu while you wait.

I wasn't really keen on ordering a vegetable dish, but the server urged and upsold us on the daily vegetable of the day.  Today, it happened to be pea sprouts with ham.  I'm glad we ended up ordering.  The vegetables were really well cooked and so fresh.

"Lion Head" Meatballs (dry). (#37)  This dish actually shows on the menu as a soup, but, again, the server said dry is better.  These meatballs were so tender and juicy.  The meatballs just fell apart when you cut them.

Hung zhou crab & pork steamed dumplings.  The wrappers on these dumplings were really thin and delicate, which challenged my chopstick skills (it needs work apparently).  Each bundle contained a lot of soup, but somehow weren't steaming hot when pierced. 

Xiu Long bao - #13 on 2011 7x7 SF's 100 Things to Eat

Finally, the xiu long bao (aka xlb) arrived.  What a disappointment!  The skins were a lot thicker than the crab dumplings and hardly any soup. 

Tianjin Steamed Dumpling.  Honestly, when they brought this steamer to the table I didn't have any interest to really eat this since I was here to eat the soup type dumplings.  These dumplings turned out to be even better than the other two trays of dumplings.  The bun is really soft and fluffy with a hint of sweetness that makes it pretty addicting.  Inside is minced meat with glass noodles.  Delicious!

Address:                         Shanghai Dumpling King
                                               3319 Balbao St.
                                               San Francisco, CA  

Type:                                 Chinese/casual

Popular chomps:    Xiu Long Bao (XLB) (#4)
                                               Green onion pancake (#21)
                                               Sugar egg puff (#141)
                                         

Chomp worthy:      Tianjin steamed dumplings (#6)
                                Lion Head Meatballs (#37)

Lucca Delicatessen

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Lucca is in the heart of the Marina district.  Its a small Italian deli where you can pick up sandwiches or Italian goodies.

This place is always crowded.  Make sure you walk to the middle of the counter and pick up a number to place your order.  Plan to wait at least 15 minutes from walking in to sandwich in hand. 

The potato salad is served by the pound and one of the more popular side dishes here.  The potatoes in this salad are sliced versus the usual cubed or chunk potatoes.  It gives it a nice smooth, creamy texture, but still makes you feel like you are eating potatoes.  A very light tasting potato salad with a hint of tangy, vinegary taste. 

The homemade ravioli are filled with beef and spinach.  So good!

Super Sandwich #1 - #57 on 2011 7x7 SF 100 Things to Eat

You can customize your sandwich, but the #1 is the most popular sandwich here.  Its an Italian sub with lots of meat between two slices of bread.  Everything includes ham, salami, mortadella, provolone, tomato, lettuce, Italian peppers, mayo and mustard.  I had it on dutch crunch, but the dutch crunch was as crunchy on top as I'm used to.

Address:                        Lucca Delicatessen 
                                              2120 Chestnut St.
                                              San Francisco, CA  

Type:                               Italian/sandwiches/deli/casual

Popular chomps:  super sandwich #1
                                              potato salad
                                              homemade ravioli
                                              meatballs

Chomp worthy:      homemade ravioli

Namu @ the SF farmer's market

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Namu's Korean taco - #89 on 2011 7x7 SF's 100 Things to Eat

  

Address:                          Namu @ SF Farmer's Market (Saturdays)
                                                Ferry Building
                                                San Francisco, CA

Type:                                  Korean fusion/casual

Popular chomps:    Korean taco

Chompworthy:          nothing

Random facts:         Korean taco is #89 on 2011 7x7 SF's 100 Things to Eat

Sai Jai Thai

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Pad thai.  Not particularly tasty, but its one of my main staples I order when trying out a new Thai place.  The search continues for a good pad thai in SF...

Pad Kee Mao with pork.  A stir fried flat rice noodles with cabbage, broccoli, carrots, onions, basil, and bell peppers served in a spicy sauce.  I ordered this "Thai Spicy" and this came out pretty mild.  Maybe a 5/10 spiciness. Extremely oily and bland.

Kad pad kor moo yang (pork shoulder over fried rice)  - #58 on 2011 7x7 100 Things to eat in SF

Kao pad kor moo yang.  Probably Sai Jai's best known dish - pork shoulder with spicy sauce over fried rice.  The fried rice was pretty good, but the pork shoulder was even better.  Each piece was marbled with fat so you get a nice taste and texture in each bite.  The spicy sauce isn't spicy at all - more tangy than spicy.  You can get the pork shoulder over a salad or just order it as a meat ala carte dish, which I think I will get next time I eat here.

   

Address:                     Sai Jai Thai
                                    771 O'Farrell St.
                                    San Francisco, CA 
 

Type:                          Thai

Popular chomps:         Kao pad kor moo yang (Pork shoulder fried rice)

Chomp worthy:           Pork shoulder

Random facts:             Pork shoulder over fried rice is #58 on 2011 7x7 Things to eat in SF

Bob's Donuts

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Open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, Bob's Donuts is a well loved San Francisco favorite.  The key to this place is that looks are deceiving.  Walking in it seems like its desolate and the donut might be stale from the lack of turnover, but don't let that fool you.  Bob's has some of the freshest, fluffiest donuts in town. 

#78 on 2011 SF's 7x7 top 100 things to eat

Again, looking at this simple apple fritter, it seems like it would be hard and dry. 

Peering inside, this apple fritter is supper fluffy and delicious.  Seriously, one of the best apple fritters I've had in my life ( and I've had a lot). 

Address:                       Bob's Donuts
                                             1621 Polk St.
                                              San Francisco, CA  

Type:                               American/snacks/casual

Popular chomps:   apple fritter

Chomp worthy:       apple fritter

Random facts:       open 24 hrs
                                Apple Fritter is #78 on 2011 7x7 Top 100 things to eat

Muracci's Japanese Curry

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The original location of Muracci's Japanese Curry and probably one of the most popular Japanese curry spots in San Francisco.  This has been on my must eats list for a while, but unfortunately for me its only open Monday through Friday during work hours.  This tiny curry spot does have a couple spots to eat at, but most people seem to do the to go option.

Curry Pan with three flavors to choose from:  Beef, Chicken, and Veggie with two heat levels - mild and hot.

Of course, having waiting a couple years to finally be able to eat here, I picked up all three curry pans.  These curry pans are house made.  A nice light crust with fluffy bread envelope a slightly spicy curry sauce filling.  A little more bread to filling ratio that I would have liked.

#16 Katsu curry on 2011 7x7 Top 100 things to eat

I ordered the katsu (pork) curry (HOT).  I didn't really care for the pickled cabbage (not pickley enough) and wished there was more fukujinzuke pickle (red pickles).  As for the actual katsu curry, the curry is well made and tasty. The katsu has a thicker crust so it stays crispy in the curry and the pork is really tender. Yum!

Address:                             Murarcci's Japanese Curry
                                                   307 Kearny St.
                                                   San Francisco, CA 
 

Type:                                    Japanese/casual

Popular chomps:      katsu curry
                                                  curry pan

Chomp worthy:        katsu curry

Random facts:         They have a Los Altos location which IS open on Saturdays and offers croquette on                               their menu
                                  katsu curry is #16 on 2011 7x7 Top 100 Things to Eat

Arinell's Pizzeria

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Amongst Berkeley's massive choices of pizza lies Arinell's.  No fuss, just a thin

Cheese slice - #84 on the 2011 7x7's Top 100 Things to Eat

Arinell's Pizzeria is one of those slices that can satisfy your craving for a thin, greasy, cheesy slice.  Thin and wide enough that you can fold in half just like in New York.

 

Address:                       Arinell's Pizzeria
                                             2119 Shattuck Ave.
                                             Berkeley, CA
 

Type:                              American/pizza/casual

Popular chomps:  cheese slice

Random facts:      Another location is San Francisco
                               The cheese slice is #84 on the 2011 7x7 Top 100 Things to Eat

La Taqueria

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La Taqueria

A simple menu that offers tacos, burritos, and quesadillas. 

From Top clockwise: chorizo, carne asada, carnitas tacos

7x7 The Big Eat 2011 - #4 

This taqueria doesn't skimp on meat.  A basic taco is filled with a large amount of meat and their pico de gallo, anything extra (guacamole, sour cream, etc) costs extra.  Two tacos will definitely fill you up.  I ordered 3 tacos: chorizo, carne asada, and carnitas.  The chorizo was a little bland and not spicy at all.  It lacked some flavor and heat.  Carne asada is usually my go to meat here - juicy, well cooked, and flavorful.  The lack of filler allows for the beefy flavor of the carne asada to shine.  The carnitas is a popular option at this taqueria.  Its a little blander than most carnitas, I prefer the carne asada here of all the options.

Verdict:            A solid taqueria in Northern California that is reminscent of Mexican style food found in San Diego.  If you miss Southern California style taqueria that offer quality meat without rice this place is probably your best bet. 

Address:          La Taqueria
                         2889 Mission St.

                         San Francisco, CA 94110

Type:               Mexican
                          casual

Chomp worthy:  carne asada tacos

Pass:               nothing

Random facts:

• one of the few taquerias in the Mission that does NOT offer rice (Mission style)

Benu (December 2010)

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Peeking through the windows into the kitchen of Benu.  Corey Lee sighting?

15 course tasting menu

thousand-year-old-quail egg, cabbage, ginger

7x7 The Big Eat - #19 

oyster, apple, horseradish

sea urchin tofu with marinated salmon roe

abalone grenobloise

eel (right), fueille de brick, creme fraiche caramelized anchovy, peanut, lily bulb (middle) , salt and pepper squid (left)

oxtail dumpling, sea cucumber, fermented pepper

monkfish liver torchon, cucumber, turnip, salted plum, brioche

Crispy cod milt, pickles, mustard

"shark's fin"soup, dungeness crab, Jinhua ham, black truffle custard

#92 on SF Foodie's 92 eats

Risotto with white truffle from alba

Pumpkin porridge, lobster, black truffle

Chicken Cecilia

Beef rib cap, abalone mushroom, pine needle honey, pear, mitsuba

White chocolate, olive, yuzu, cilantro

Persimmon pudding, burnt acorn ice cream, mace

Assortment of chocolates

Address:          Benu
                         22 Hawthorne St.

                         San Francisco, CA 94105

Type:               American- Asian fusion
                          fine dining

Chomp worthy:  tasting menu

Pass:               nothing

Random facts:

• Chef and owner Corey Lee is a James Beard award winner
• Benu is an Egyptian word for phoenix
• Chef Corey Lee is a former French Laundry chef