Photos – Eating San Francisco

Phamily Phun Time Pho Kit! © (some assembly required. Action Phun Pho Meatballs sold separately)

My girlfriend and I went to San Francisco this past spring (see last week’s Escape to Alcatraz series for more photos from the trip). While there, I partook in some NOM-tastic food. These photos aren’t in any kind of chronological order.

That’s pho above. Read all about it and see some more yummy food photos after the break.

We stayed with friends who lived in the Mission District, and they were near some great places to eat. One day, we decided to have pho delivered from the neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant.  This was my first time having pho, which is a meat-noodle-soup-stew dish.  It was great!  However, we had to assemble it ourselves, which was fun.  I did some cross processing on the photo above, to make the reds and greens stick out a bit more.

Hungry yet? This was at Burma Superstar.

This was a noodle dish at Burma Superstar— I think this was the Garlic Noodles with duck. This photo was probably taken with an Auto setting (Macro), as I had only received my DSLR a day or so before–regardless, that is not a bad shot.

I love eating, cooking and food in general.  Going to restaurants is a vice of mine, which I put to use for writing gigs when I can. The food in San Francisco was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Not only was I on vacation, I was also on a ‘diet vacation’ while visiting.  I was in the middle of a ‘no meat’ diet (decided to try it out), but said the heck with it while in California.

Mafe! At a Senegalese place called Bissap Baobab.

This dish is called mafe (couscous and tofu in a peanut sauce) and was enjoyed at Bissap Baobab, a Senegalese restaurant. This was my first time having Senegalese food, and I loved it.

One of my rules for the trip was to only at at local places, which was very easy–there was no shortage of local eateries in and near the Mission District. What surprised me most about the area was the near-lack of chain restaurants (I think I saw one McDonalds in the Mission District).

This photo was taken with my little Sony point-and-shoot, as we had just arrived in San Francisco and my DSLR battery was not charged yet.  Why? Funny story!

I ordered my Canon T2i a few weeks before the trip, but because it was on “pre-order,” the shipping date was a question mark. I actually received my 55-250 zoom lens and memory card a week before the camera.  I was a ball of nerves the day before leaving, as my camera had shipped, but it looked like I’d leave before UPS came.

The morning of the trip, I wrote out a note for the office at my apartment complex asking them to lock my camera in my place, as they would have to sign for the package in my absence. I was not looking forward to my fancy, expensive camera sitting in my apartment while I was on the West Coast.

Then–the bark of a diesel engine.  The groan of wheels crossing speed bumps.  I ran to my window–and ho! The UPS truck! I was mere minutes from leaving for the air port in Grand Rapids (“the Jerry”).  Could it be? Had Lady Luck done me a solid?

I dashed outside, meeting the UPS guy on the sidewalk.  Between heavy, panting breaths I asked if he had a package for me.

“Are you Daniel?”

::pant pant:: “Yes!”

I signed for my camera: “Great timing, I was about to leave for the air port in ten minutes!”

He scratched his head and pondered our exchange.  “Y’know, it is a funny thing–I wasn’t going to drop this off until later this afternoon, but, well–here I am.”

You can’t make stuff like that up.

Tomorrow: more food photos!