Fraîche

The continuation of my San Fran journey… frozen yogurt, friends, and chocolate.

While I was in San Francisco another one of my friends, Jason, came to visit me on his way to UC Davis. He wanted to show me his favorite place to visit in the city, fraîche. I had never been there before so I was super excited to try their frozen yogurt. His favorite is the Vegan Nutella with freshly shaved chocolate and brownie bits and almonds. So I got Vegan Nutella with freshly shaved chocolate and strawberries. It was so amazing!

After that we walked around Pacific Heights, which was fun because it was a part of the city that I had never been to before. Alas, it was only a short visit because he had a certain time he needed to get back by. So, it was a sort and sweet visit.

      

Pat’s Cafe

The continuation of my San Fran journey… breakfast burritos, chai tea lattes, and Pat’s.

On last day in the city we went out for breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. The thing I love most for a special breakfast treat is a good breakfast burrito. Thats exactly what I got at Pat’s Cafe. It took a while to come to me, but when it did I determined it was well worth the wait! Inside was chorizo, eggs, cheese, salsa, and guacamole. For a drink, I got a delicious freshly brewed chai tea latte.

Over breakfast, me and my mom discussed what we wanted to do that day and decided on the fairy building. We had been there two years before on our first trip to the city and loved seeing all the different restaurants and specialty shops.

  

Our map of the city, deciding in the best way to get down to the wharf.

  

Delicious chi tea latte.

Seriously, so yummy!

Hollywood Cafe

The continuation of my San Fran journey… movie stars, breakfast burritos, and Audrey Hepburn.

My mom and I went walking around all day and started to get hungry for some food. We had asked the concierge at the front desk of our hotel that morning what his favorite place to get good quality, authentic San Frans food was close to the hotel. He recommended the Hollywood cafe.

When we walked in, we were greeted by five friendly faces who rushed us into a table and handed us a menu. The inside is charming with pictures of old movie stars and a-listers. The menu had a bunch of yummy options but, I settled on a salad (so healthy).

        

Yummy bacon, chicken, arugula, tomato salad.

But like fudge, right?

The continuation of my San Fran journey… fudge, caramel corn, salt water taffy and gelato.

During my time in San Fran, one of my oldest friends also was in town! You may remember Casey from this post celebrating her sweet 16 only a few weeks ago.  She drove through on her way to Yosemite, and stopped for a night in town. She texted me asking where I was staying and it turned out that our hotels were literally three blocks away from each other! So we arranged a time and place to meet, and explore the town together. We walked around North Beach, and into  China Town for two hours. I finally told her I knew a place with free fudge and she practically sprinted there. We ended up getting  gelato and some free caramel corn, which was delicious! It was so fun to be able to talk and hang out together in a new town. We laughed so hard together, that one time I had to just stop walking and laugh! So go somewhere with your bestie, you will have the best time!

          

Almond cake

So just to warn everyone, my blog for the next couple of weeks is going to turn into a food blog. I recently went to San Francisco, CA over spring break and me and my mom’s objective was one thing, eat. Thats exactly what we did. We ate our way through the Mission District, Pacific Heights, North Beach, and Fisherman’s Wharf. This is our journey I dubbed, The Almond Cake.

While me and my mom were walking around North Beach, reminiscing and tying to become familiar with the city again, we came across Victoria Pastry Co, for the first time. We went into the bakery originally, because my mom was on a search for the best bran muffin for her morning coffee. We had already been to five bakeries, which either didn’t have bran muffins or they didn’t meet my mom’s standards of prime bran muffin quality. Therefore,  I went in with low expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised by the amazing spread of pastries and breads that the bakery had, including bran muffins (yay search over!).

Then something caught my eye- a powder sugar dusted almond cake with a thin raspberry jelly layer. Almond cake is one of my top three favorite desserts, along with lemon tart and cheesecake. I bought it, my mom bought her bran muffin and I was impatient to get back to the hotel to start eating my cake. Needless to say it was amazing and I wanted you to experience the majesty of The Almond Cake even if only through photos.

  

The hotel spread of leftover breakfast burrito, ginger beer, plastic utensils, and a map of San Francisco. Then beautiful almond cake in the corner of the chaos.

Enjoy me, documenting myself, reacting to the delicious almond cake. (Yes I know how idiotic that sounds)

      

Selfie with cake time!

Mission district

So just to warn everyone, my blog for the next couple of weeks is going to turn into a food blog. I recently went to San Francisco, CA over spring break and me and my mom’s objective was one thing, eat. Thats exactly what we did. We ate our way through the Mission District, Pacific Heights, North Beach, and Fisherman’s Wharf. This is our journey through the Mission District.

Apart of our San Fran food adventure me and my mom did a foodie walking tour of the Mission District. We had never been there before so we were super excited to explore that new area. With the foodie walking tour, our tour guide also gave us a bunch of history and facts about the district. We learned that there was two very distinct sides of the Mission District, The east and the west side. The west side is considered the “yuppy” side, with a bunch of rich young kids who want to live in a “up and coming” part of the city. It is not where the authentic Mexican or Latin American restaurants are, rather the new hipster restaurants. Not authentic to the spot at all.

Then there is the East side of the Mission District, which has all the authentic Mexican and Latin American restaurants, some of which have been there for over fifty years. That’s the side we explored with the foodie tour.  We tried many new Mexican dishes that I’ve never had before, which was surprising for me, a so cal girl. Needless to say we loved it.

Some yummy tacos and authentic Mexican soda.

        

Balmy Ally, which is famous for its murals, often depicting the artist’s struggle to American from Latin America or Mexico.

  

Me and my mom with Sal the butcher. He is a 80 year old butcher who coined the term “flap meat” in the 70’s, which is the term still used today for that particular cut of meat.   

Pacifica

So just to warn everyone, my blog for the next couple of weeks is going to turn into a food blog. I recently went to San Francisco, CA over spring break and me and my mom’s objective was one thing, eat. Thats exactly what we did. We ate our way through the Mission District, Pacific Heights, North Beach, and Fisherman’s Wharf.

But before we did any of that we stopped about 20 miles before San Fran and stayed with a family friend in the beautiful beach town of Pacifica. This is our journey through Pacifica.

We arrived in Pacific at about 5 in the afternoon cold and tired. It was maybe 65 degrees outside, but being the so cal girl I am, I was freezing. We had just arrived at the top of a windy hill to see my mom’s old friend Carol and her new house. Carol lived in the heart of San Fran for 16 years, and when her apartment’s landlord offered to sell her the apartment or move out, she decided it was time to leave the city and buy a house of her own. While she was looking for a new house,  she came across the small, quite town of Pacifica and fell in love. When I asked her why she loved her house she answered, “I love how quiet it is. In the city its hard to find some down time for yourself in a quiet space, but here its so tranquil, I always have quiet. Which is a well received change.” That is defiantly true. She is settled at the top of a hill on a dead-end street with only the wilderness as her neighbor. It was a perfect way to start our hectic trip into the city: with a hot cup of morning coffee and a brisk chill in the air.