Did someone say Food ?

Welcome back. Let’s do something different today. Let’s take a quick break from driving, running, and hiking between neighborhoods (which we will do again in the next blog post). We’re going to take you through San Francisco’s food kingdom.

I’m hungry

We don’t even know where to start – hey that’s great news though because it means we have abundance of food here in SF. The city is super diverse. We have people coming from all over the world, bringing all kinds of cuisines to the area. That’s why it is best to describe American cuisine/food as a combination of all other cuisines.

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll keep our food discussion to the following types of cuisines: Chinese, Mexican, and Vietnamese.The reason for this is that we’re most familiar with them since each of these types of cuisine can be found within walking distance from where we live. We’ll cover other types of cuisines and recommendations in future posts. We got you covered !

FYI – In addition, we’ll also cover some payment etiquettes and point out several common practices when eating at restaurants here in the US.

Hello ? I am hungry ? Are you listening ?

Ok let’s get started. David lives in the Sunset District, particularly Sunset Parkside, which is an area where you’ll mostly find Asian food, particularly Chinese and Vietnamese. A couple of recommendation he has are Kevin’s Noodle House on Irving and 19th Ave. and Lam Hoa Thuan on Irving and 25th Ave. These are the two that he goes to on a regular basis because they have a wide variety of dishes at very reasonable prices. You’ll still be able to find meat/veggie/rice dishes for under $10, which is non-existent in most restaurants and cafes in San Francisco.

At Kevin’s Noodle House, you can get yourself a bowl of hot Vietnamese Pho with your meat of choice for $8. They’ll get you veggies, lemons, condiments, as well as tea on the side at no extra charge. Overall, I find them satisfying. At Lam Hoa Thuan, you’ll find yourself in front of a Peking duck window (exactly the same style you’d see in China). Doesn’t look clean from the outside since in front of your eyes is drizzling fat. Once you get seated and food is presented, you’ll quickly forget what you saw.

What else ?

Next up is Mexican cuisine. None of us is of Mexican descent, but 3 out of 4 of us have Mexican food as our favorite. As you wander of the streets of San Francisco and see restaurant names starting with Taqueria. It’s a word denoting a Mexican restaurant specializing in Tacos. Not really – they have all kinds of Mexican food. Most common Mexican food include tacos (choice of meat, bean, rice, salsa, and cheese inside a hard or soft shell), burritos (the same ingredients inside a flower/veggie wrap), or enchiladas (corn tortillas rolled around a filling and covered in house-made chilli pepper sauce), and a lot more.

I avoid Carbs

If you don’t feel like filling yourself up with carbohydrates, you can opt for a burrito bowl, which is a burrito w/o the wrap. They’ll just put your meat/veggie choice, rice, beans, cheese, and salsa inside a bow. OK, have it wet your appetite? Without further due, let’s figure out where to go for best Mexican food.

My all-time favorite since 2010, the year I came to SF, has been Taqueria El Farolito on Mission and 24th (right next to the BART station). This is a family-owned chain restaurant that has 3 locations in SF and many throughout California. Location variations certainly exist in food and in my experience Mission and 24th by far, has the best consistency and biggest portion – Awesomeee.

You can get yourself a meat or veggie super burrito for less than $8 (isn’t that too affordable for SF ?) and that will replace two meals for you – it is very filling. In Taquerias, don’t forget to get yourself some guacamole on the side. This is an avocado + salsa mix that’s super creamy and tasty on potato chips. Of course, these are the ones I am familiar with and have been going to on a regular basis. If you don’t happen to be in these areas, just do a quick Yelp search and find restaurants that have good reviews.

Some ‘tips’, Lol !

Before closing, let’s talk about etiquettes and common practices when eating at a restaurant. The reason I am emphasizing this point is because when I first came here in 2010, I went to a stake restaurant, finished a tasty meal, paid and got a “unhappy” stair from my waiter. I said: “I am sorry, I must have done something bad.” He asked: “Where are you from?” We chatted a bit and I learned that tipping is customary in the US, when eating at a restaurant or when you’re receiving services like massage, getting a haircut, etc (I still don’t know all places where you should/need to tip).

Typically it is 10% for lunch or 15% of the total bill for dinner. If you’re a group of 6 or more, the restaurant will automatically apply an 18% gratuity to the bill. Generally you’d only tip in a sit-down setup restaurant where your food need to be cooked and the waiter brings it to you as well as coming back and forth to refill your water. You don’t tip at fast food restaurants. A pleasant surprise for me was water. Water is always free, unless you buy bottled water or soft drinks or alcohol. Plain water is 100% free of charge – refills are also free.

It’s different than the East

In the Czech Republic, where I am from and in most countries in Europe, a big fraction of the bill, up to one third of it goes to water as they only serve bottled water. In many Asian and European countries I’ve lived in, saying something like “Bon Appetite” or something along the lines of “Have a good meal” is tradition. Here in the US, you just eat when your food is ready – no need to say anything, how cool? If you want to be super polite, just say: “Enjoy your meal.”

Okay more food advice/tips coming in future episodes. Hope you guys have learned a thing or two. Please feel free to reach out with any questions and check us out on social media. Also, check out our blog post on the best Mexican Korean fusion restaurant in San Francisco if you haven’t.