Snack Time!

Every chance we get, we take a trip to the city for a food bonanza. We love to go to all our favorite restaurants and order a couple items at each one. We all share the couple items, which allows us to go to three or four different places in one trip. We love it because it gives us the chance to eat several different things in one go. We decided this time to try a new place each time we go.

You can see our previous SnackaPaloozas HERE. This time we started in my favorite San Francisco neighborhood, The Mission, which is where I used to live. It was originally the Latino area of the city, but has recently become more of a mish mosh of cultures. 

The first stop was Balompie, where we ordered three types of pupusas. 

A pupusa is like a really thick tortilla with filling inside.

My favorite: bean and cheese! Yum.

If you have never had a pupusa, I suggest you get one immediately. They are great. 

Next, we took a walk down Sycamore Street, where they allow street artists to do their thing, which results in some really fun stuff.

Then we went to Frjtz, a Belgian place with many beers, crepes, waffles and fries. 

I was disappointed because they changed their fries from skinny ones to steak fries. 

But the crepes are delicious! 

And the bathroom mirror was amusing. 

We try to get a little exercise between restaurants; this way we can eat more.
So we walked to the Bi-Rite Creamery.
There is usually a really long line, so we said that if the line was short, we would check it out. 
The line was short, so we got an ice cream.
Toasted Coconut.

 

No trip to the Mission would be complete without a walk to Dolores Park, where you have an excellent view of downtown and the Mission Dolores. 

 

Last but not least, A La Turca, one of our favorites, which has some of the best hummus ever, as well as super great Pides, which is a cheese, meat and bread pocket.

We totally stuffed ourselves with great food! Afterward, we could barely move. So it was a success! 

Have you ever had a pupusa? Do you prefer skinny or fat fries? What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Winter Break

I've kind of been absent this week. Not only have I been busy, but I have also been in "no internet land". This makes for good stories, but nowhere to put them! So next week you will hear everything! Until then however, Grab a Beer (inspired by Kim) and check out a quick version of WIDLW!

Last weekend was spent with my friends from the East Bay. We stayed in, made dinner and celebrated the New Year by watching the ball drop in New York. At 9 o'clock. Just kidding! We actually made it to midnight this time! But I did go to bed at 12:01.

 

The next day we went to The City and had a snackapalooza! One of the items on the menu: Dungeness Crab! Yummy!

Then it was Road Trip time! First stop: Yosemite!

Next up: Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur!

Monterey, CA

Monterey, CA

17 Mile Drive

Carmel, CA

Hwy 1

After that, we drove north on Highway 1 and went to Santa Cruz, where the waves were HUGE! 

 

Then we took a nice hike in the Marin Headlands at Point Reyes. 

Last but not least, but with no photo, we had our extended family "Christmas" last night, where we ate, drank and were merry until late into the night! It was so good to see family and eat turkey again (I can never get enough! Hello turkey pie!) 

Were you busy this week? Are you back to work yet? To school? Did you take any time to relax after the hectic holidays!?

Zippity Do Dah

My oh my, what a wonderful day. As I mentioned, I went to the city of San Francisco this weekend for another round of my favorite thing, SnackaPalooza! Now, you may wonder, what is SnackaPalooza? Well, let me tell you. Basically, it is a pub crawl for food. A food fiasco. An eat yourself silly-a-thon. We generally choose 4 or 5 places to go, and we usually only make it to three. And by the third we are stuffed. At each restaurant, we choose a few "snacks" and everyone shares. This way everyone can try everything, and lots of it.

Here are a few previous SnackaPalooza places.

#1: Berkeley, CA
- Imperial Tea Court (Chinese)
- Cheese Board Cheese & Bakery
- Cheese Board Pizza Shop
- Bay View Cafe (brunch)
- Love at First Bite Bakery (cupcakes)

#2: San Francisco, CA (you can read more about this one HERE)
- A La Turca (Turkish)
- Marni Thai

And now, onto number THREE! Like I said, we chose 5 restaurants, but only made it to three. All of them were in the Mission, so we could walk to each one and pretend we were getting exercise. So here they are:

- Andalu 
- Pakwan
- Limon

The first stop was at Andalu, a Spanish tapas place with more than just tapas. However, we absolutely LOVE the cambozola cheese fondue. It comes with apples, pears and toasties and I could eat about a gallon of it. With or without the dippers. We also had the polenta fries, which come with a spicy creamy tomato sauce. Yum. To top it off, we had a mimosa.

Mimosa!

Next up, and just down the road on 16th St was a taste of India, Pakwan. For cheap good eats, this place is great. We got a paneer tikki masala (cheese with spicy tomato sauce) and a palak paneer (spinach and cheese). And of course, a nan, except this time we tried the potato nan, which is pretty good, although I think I will stick to the plain or garlic next time.

Pakwan -- forgot to take the photo until food was almost gone

Last but definitely not least was Limon, a Peruvian place that I used to go to when it was just 8 tables crammed into a tiny space. They have since moved into a bigger space and gotten really popular, which I have to say, I don't like. The food is still great, but they got rid of my favorite dish, the calamari. It was so great, with just a little bit of breading for crunch, but not to overpower. However, they did have a similar thing, the jalea, which was a mixed seafood fried in the same manner. It too was delicious, but I miss the straight up calamari. We also ordered tuna tartar and truffle mac 'n' cheese, which were both also good.

Jalea

So, after "only" three places, we called it a day and dragged ourselves home.


If I was to go to YOUR city for a SnackaPalooza, where would you recommend I eat?

Snack-a-Palooza & The City

Macy's shiny balls

I used to live in San Francisco. Every year  around Christmas time my family would come down to visit and we would walk around looking at the lights and store windows. It became a family tradition. Although I have not lived in the city for a while, my family still continues the tradition.

K, A & I at A La Turca

This year, we combined traditions. My friends and I like to wander around, eating one dish each from several restaurants until we are stuffed. This year, we only made it to two places (our eyes were pretty big at the first one) but we also went to the Tom and Jerry house on 21st St to see their wonderful decorations.

Mimie & Aila at Tom and Jerrys

The first place we went to eat is one of my favorites, A La Turca, where they have the best hummus in the city! It is a little hard to get to, as it is right on Geary and there is usually no parking, but we got a front row seat. That never happens!! Aila must be our good luck charm!

The next place we went was Mimies pick - Marnie Thai. It is down off of 9th and Irving. I had never been there before so it was a nice addition to my city restaurant tour. We had the sweet cakes, which are like coconut corn fritter things and are cooked one of those pans with multiple sections; these were round and delicious.

After that we went to Tom and Jerrys. These guys have been decorating the huge tree in front of their house as well as placing huge fake presents under it, for as long as I can remember. They have to get a building permit and no parking is allowed near it, it is that serious!

Next I met up with the Fam at Macy's where we looked at all the decorations and then wandered around the city before meeting up with my brother for some ramen in Japan Town.

All in all it was a wonderful time and an awesome Snackapalooza!