The Café Chronicles

WHY is it so HARD to post on my BLOG? I do so many cool things! In this wonderful city! Things I want to share! Yeesh. 


As you read this post, I think you should listen to this boppy song. Magdalena, by Brandon "I had no idea the lead singer of the Killers was so hot" Flowers. Please ignore the Mormonization & focus instead on the nice things he says about San Francisco.

Anyway. Back to stuff I do.


Today we're going to talk about Coffee shops.

Don't be too impressed by the classic literature. Somebody left the Sunday paper on the seat next to me so I just sat there reading the comics. Plus...I'm not feeling that book so far. It's not as risqué as "Lady Chatterly's Lover." I just read this scene where a man tries to sexily describe pollination to a lady, and it just kind of fell flat, you know?

The coffee shop thing happens quite often. It's one of my favorite activities. The more astute among you may recognize That Sandwich! Interestingly enough (actually I'm fairly certain that this is interesting to NO ONE BUT ME), the steak florentine sandwich at the Grove on Chestnut St. is far superior to the steak florentine sandwich at the Grove on Fillmore St. The meat is better. The sandwich you see above is from the Grove on Fillmore. In certain light, the steak had an oddly greenish cast. I made the executive decision not to pay attention to the color of the meat and instead focus on cartoons & eat it anyway. I'm proud to be an American. Next!

This completely charming quiche & tomato basil soup combo is from an Italian café on Sacramento St., somewhere in Laurel Heights. I was just wandering around and happened upon this place -- it was legit. The owner was SPEAKING ITALIAN. Flashbacks to the Summer of 2006 (during which, come to think about it, I sat in quite a few a coffee shops in Florence reading "A Room with a View," fulfilling many a study abroad cliché)  Anyway here's the sign:

There are so many great coffee shops and cafés in this city. And now that we're going there, the coffee itself is just beyond belief. Being here has made me realize that Starbucks coffee tastes like the bottom of a trash can. People get reeeeal fancy with their coffee here. At Four Barrel they toast the beans right in the shop.

Mole People

The coffee at Four Barrel is SO GOOD - no sugar necessary at all. It's so smooth! So complex! The after-notes are simply divine. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but believe me it's delicious. Just ask this line of customers:

You can't see it but there are a bunch of taxidermied boar heads on the wall on the left.

All right, I've had just about enough of Monday and I have to go to sleep. Guten nacht! (Or as my iPhone likes to say, "Gutenberg Nacho!")

Ritual Coffee on Valencia St. loves you!

Season of Sin

It happened.

Was that all? Oh no. That wasn't all.

And you know what else happened?

Many animals were harmed in the making of this post. Cows, pigs. Probably a chicken. 

Simple Summer Salad

Hello Fun People.


Google sure has changed a lot in the past few days. Everything looks different! Discuss.


After you've worked up an appetite from discussing Google, you can make this salad.

Simple Summer Salad

or: the Lazy Lady's Dinner Solution

OR: I don't feel like cooking so I'll just throw this in a bowl

1 can of italian white beans 

      (or, if you're like me, "fagioooli biaaanchi!" said in a ludicrous Italian accent)

2 delicious ripe tomatoes, diced & seeds removed 

      (or 3! or none. It depends how much you like tomatoes.)

1 can of tuna packed in oil

      The oil part is important here. It adds a lot of flavor, and you
      won't need to add oil later for dressing!

1 red pepper, diced

      This added a very important, fresh little zing to the salad. I 
      highly recommend. If you don't like peppers, you could try
      diced red onion. 

Arugula

      I didn’t have any of this in my salad, but I wish I did! It would
      have taken it to another level.

some chopped cilantro

some basil

salt-n-pepa

Put everything in a bowl, mix. Ideally you’ll use the fork you plan to eat with.

City of Sandwiches

I completely tired myself out this weekend with my second expedition to the Ikea in Emeryville (via bus, bus, then another bus......it's a long trip. Especially when you consider the fact that I had the theme song from those old Just for Men commercials stuck in my head the entire time. "You'll look so natural, no one can tell with Just for Men gel! No one can tell with Just for Men gel!" There. Consider that a gift from me to you for the next four hours.)

Consequently, today was a day of assembling furniture, organizing my room, taking a break to stroll through the Marina district, and eating a sandwich of epic deliciousness at The Grove.

Flank steak. Arugula. Avocado. Tomatoes roasted for six hours. Salsa verde. And O, such bread!

This sandwich, in case you can't tell from my fuzzy iPhone picture, was INCREDIBLE. The steak was tender, the tomatoes were caramelized and juicy, and the bread was absolutely perfect. One day I will bake such bread. When that day comes, you are all invited to bask in its glory.


The deliciousness of this sandwich got me to thinking about other delicious sandwiches I've had in the past week. Just the other day I got a roast beef sandwich from this totally unassuming little corner deli on Chestnut street. It's not even really a deli - it's more of a beverage depot with a sandwich counter tucked away in one corner. But let me tell you -- that was a sandwich. I was totally blown away by the quality of the ingredients and the amount of roast beef they gave me. I learned an important life lesson that day: sometimes the best sandwiches come from unexpected places. (Why yes, I do plan to trademark that.)

I continued to follow this marvelous sandwich fantasy train back a few weeks, to my very first trip to the ferry building when I visited SF:

Feast your eyes on the Bacon Maple Breakfast sandwich from 4505 meats. Arugula, aged gruyere, and a farm fresh egg on a brioche bun. 

Look at that beautiful thing!! Oh it was so fantastic...very gooey and eggy and breakfasty. The arugula really took it to another level -- it was a very soft and savory sandwich, and it really needed the crisp, peppery sharpness of the arugula for balance. Also -- putting it all on a brioche bun? A fantastic idea. I simply cannot say enough about saturating egg-bread with eggs. It's an excellent combo. It's like Sam & Diane. Beatrice & Benedick. Buffy & Angel. (WHERE MY NERDZ AT!?...except not like Buffy & Angel because eggs don't turn egg bread evil and ultimately force it to leave town.)

I hope you all had a beautiful Sunday. I wish you joy. I wish you sandwiches. If you don't have a sandwich with you now, feel free to ease the ache of longing in your breast with some pretty pictures of the Palace of Fine Arts:

There was a wedding under this dome today. It was very strange. You can't tell from my photos but there were hundreds of people milling around taking pictures. They had a 19 year old kid in an oversized dress shirt acting as "security" by one of the more heavily trafficked archways. He had an inflated sense of power and really enjoyed telling me I couldn't go through that archway.