✨The Dos✨ On life's seasons and my go-to orders in SF
Come for the best breakfast sando, stay for the Outer Richmond gems
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Thanks for spending a little time swimming in the good stuff with me. Let’s get into it!
A decade in San Francisco and I’ve got *thoughts* about what to eat and where to eat it. And can I just say — it’s been incredible and life-giving to be out and about in restaurants again over the last year. I appreciate the natural light, the plants, the pitter-patter of conversation with servers. It’s all just so good.
This list was prompted by several recent friend visits, in which I realized the specificity of my city tours, almost exclusively organized by outdoor activities and eating good things. Welcome to a weekend visit, a date night, a special dinner, or perhaps, a takeout order with me. Hope you’re hungry.
✨A Dose of The Dos✨: Go-tos in San Francisco 🌉🍴
Anchor Oyster Bar: One of my all-time favorite spots in the heart of The Castro, around since 1977. Get the cioppino and garlic bread (full order or we’re not friends). 🦪
Mama Ji’s: Priority 1: Make sure you have Tums at home. Priority 2: Ask for the Chongqing chicken “extra crispy” and get the vegetarian noodles with chili bean paste. 🌶
The Little Chihuahua: Garlic shrimp burrito. Yum. 🌯
Wooden Spoon: The huevos divorciados (with housemade vegan chorizo!). 🍳
Mandalay SF: The best Burmese in SF. The best tea leaf salad in SF. Happy to A/B test with a more hyped spot — you will lose. Don’t skip the Balada (crispy pancake with curry dipping sauce)! 🥗
Le Marais: Pick up an almond chocolate croissant at the counter, walk to Dolores Park and pass out from the sugar rush. 🥐
Nopalito: Totopos. I really need to visit Oaxaca, don’t I?
Mamahuhu: The Snow Jasmine Tea Soda changed my life forever in September 2021. Also worth noting: I’ve got two types of jasmine tea in my cabinet and plan to recreate this thing at home — give me a year. 🥤
Devil’s Teeth: Go for a run. Stand in line for the “Special Breakfast Sandwich.” Have the most fantastic Saturday of your life. 🍳
Anthony’s Cookies: I’m a chocolate chip gal through and through, but the cookies & cream cookie is something special. 🍪
Che Fico: Order the supplì (similar to arancini), thank me later.
Giddy Candy: Sour gummies are part of my personal brand (I once included this tidbit in an online dating profile!). You need to trust me on the details here: Walk in. Do not get distracted by the $9 chocolate bars. Do not look at the peach gummy slices or the cinnamon bears. Keep your eyes off the lemon drops behind the counter. Ask owner Mary Mueller (very sweet, very knowledgeable) to lead you to three sour gummies: Sour Strawberry Apple Wrenches, Sour Pucker Lips, Raspberry Puckers. You are so welcome, and I really hope you don’t get a stomach ache.🍬
Read
“Tell us the hard part”: NYTimes bestselling author Kate Baer is a treasure. Her poetry collection, “What Kind of Woman” makes a wonderful gift and I love her erasure poetry, in which she creates poems from the ugly messages she receives online about her work. I gasped at the accuracy and intimacy of this one. 😭
Loved
The perfect sneaker, truly. Pairs well with pretty much everything. 👟
On life’s seasons: At some point in the last year, I started referring to different periods of my life as “seasons.” This concept feels particularly applicable in my mid-30s, amid a pandemic, war, and the many life challenges and triumphs of my closest friends and family. It’s helpful to remember everything changes, no season stays forever and new leaves are always on their way.
“We are in the habit of imagining our lives to be linear, a long march from birth to death in which we mass our powers, only to surrender them again, all the while slowly losing our youthful beauty. This is a brutal untruth. Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.” — Katherine May 🌱
Thank you for reading! I love writing this thing. Let me know what you eat.
Dos ✌️