I’ve known a few people who have attended the University of California at San Diego, a large public university condemned to the city of La Jolla, and each of these friends has harbored certain resentment toward this fate. La Jolla is a beautiful city, the kind of beautiful that has come to represent the city [...]
I moved from Los Angeles to San Diego, then to Los Angeles, then to San Francisco, and I drove into this city with a promise to myself: when it came to Mexican comida, I would keep an open mind. I would allow for the possibility that Mexican food in the Mission style is every bit [...]
Don’t be so modest, Tara. You can take that question mark off the sign. Yak is the enlightened meat. It’s lean like buffalo but juicy like beef. It’s raised at high elevation in the Himalayas and in Colorado, this mystical creature that exists, in my experience, in exotic children’s books and adventure tales, up among [...]
This story is fourth in a series on Burmese food in San Francisco. What is Burmese cuisine? The question is problematic. I’ve been asking it for over a year, and I know as little about the topic now as I did when I first moved to San Francisco. Something as straight forward as “beef curry” [...]
Somewhere in the world is a person microwaving Kraft singles on a Mission tortilla and covering it with Pace salsa. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve done it. It’s delicious, even if it is a high-density, high-sodium brick of cheese flour covered in a sauce that is way too many parts sugar. I’m not judging, [...]
I love diners with a love that transcends the quality of food, to the point where personality and convenience can be enough to make or break a meal before the food ever hits the table. I’m a big fan of Norm’s in L.A. at two in the morning. I’m a big fan of Denny’s when [...]
Floridians can get surly when it comes to Key Lime Pie. I don’t blame them when bakeries across California serve too-sweet lime pies colored green and label them “Key” on menus. I’ve never tried the real thing, but breakfasts at Lois the Pie Queen have got me thinking: Maybe the best key lime pie in [...]
Fact: Delis and butchers serve good cold cut sandwiches. Fact: Produce markets serve good vegetarian sandwiches. Probably. They should. Fact: Smoothie shops that are next door to produce markets serve good sandwiches. Confirmed. Senor Mango’s may not look like much, but success in the smoothie game is a simple recipe, simply stated: Keep it simple [...]
This story is third in a series on Burmese food in San Francisco. When tourists come to San Francisco, they eat Chinese food in Chinatown. There’s nothing wrong with that. Chinatown is a cool place, and there’s good food there. However, it isn’t too bold to claim that the best Chinese food in the Bay [...]
This story is second in a series on Burmese food in San Francisco. When the number 38 bus reaches Geary and Third late on a Saturday night, I don’t have to look up to know I’m almost home. Every girl in a skirt and every guy in plaid disembarks on cue in a litany of [...]
