Out of Towner: San Francisco

When it comes to other cities' foods, New Yorkers can get a little snobby. We're always saying obnoxious things like, "Oh, it's not as good as New York," and finishing the meal in distaste and contempt.

And yes, I tend to compare everything to New York and am guilty of this food bias as well. But cities like San Francisco definitely give New York a run for its money for tasty, fresh food (after all, the greenmarket movement is HUGE in SF and probably originated here), so this blog is dedicated to some of the memorable meals I've had there.

Papalote on 24th Street
3409 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 970 8815

Papalote is located in the Mission, which is basically San Francisco's equivalent of the Lower East Side. You'll see hipsters with facial hair and hats hanging out instead of working in the middle of the day (must be nice!). The place is colorful and kitschy, there are random dragons hanging from the ceiling. I had a great, inexpensive fish taco there, which was served with crunchy nachos--wish it were nearby so that I can try the other menu items!



Out the Door
1 Ferry Plaza
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 861 8032

I had heard great things about Slanted Door, a Vietnamese/Asian Fusion restaurant located in the Ferry Plaza in SF. The Ferry Plaza is great; it's this gigantic, clean and sparkling indoor marketplace with lots of great restaurants and food/gourmet shops. I read that it's hard to get a table and it's usually occupied with high-powered business types during the day, so I opted for the cheaper, take-out version Out the Door. I ordered this crispy, juicy duck with an amazing side of salad and fresh fruit. New York's Vietnamese food is pretty bad, so maybe there was a low bar to clear, but Out the Door's fare was a home run. There's nothing like it in New York, you just have the oily (but yummy and very frequented) Saigon Grill and some bland pho/bun places randomly dotting Chinatown and Seamless Web. I'd welcome Out the Door to my front door any day!

Colibri
438 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 440 2737

Everyone raves that California's Mexican food is so much better than anywhere else. I grew up in Southern California, but I never went for the authentic taco trucks, I was a big fan of those chicken mayonnaise tacos from Del Taco and of course, that awesome Grade Z meat nonsense from Taco Bell. My family always ate out at chains like El Torito and Mazatlan but never those hole-in-the-wall treasures that you're supposed to go to. Since I got my taco fix at Papalote, I needed to end the Mexican food day with some guac. I am obsessed with guacamole, I'm a big fan of Dos Caminos, so I had really high expectations for Colibri's, supposedly a restaurant that serves the best guacamole in SF (according to yelp and chowhound). Eh, it was ok. I definitely like the guac at Dos Caminos better, maybe it's the lemon juice and salt ratio that they use that gives it that memorable flavor, or maybe I'm not used to the fresh, unadulterated avocados of California and my taste buds are messed up? But Colibri was just ok. I ordered a random fish dish because I felt bad about just ordering guac. But really, the fish was an afterthought, I came for the guac and it sorta let me down. But that was the only disappointing food experience in San Francisco, everything else was so fresh and so clean clean.