Day 3 – 5/29
I’ve already seen most of North East San Francisco, I decided to spend this day going further South and West. I started off by heading up hill towards Pacific Heights. This area was how I pictured San Francisco, probably because that is the way it has been commercially presented to us in movies like Mrs. Doubtfire. Pacific Heights is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of the city and the pristine mansions sit atop one of the highest hills in the city, offering amazing views of the rest of the city.
From here I decided to turn South and head towards Haight Ashbury and Golden Gate Park. Fillmore St runs North-South and seemed like it had a pretty decent scene, I walked along the street checking out some of the shops and cafe’s along the way. I ran across a couple of restaurants that seemed worth checking out later on, I made a mental note to stop back later in the day.
One of the main goals of the day was to get down to Haight Ashbury, the center of the hippy movement in the 60’s. I heard that the area was pretty ruin down and crappy, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. Haight St basically is a haven for dirty neo-hippies, basically it’s almost like you need to look cracked out to live in the area. The street is also lined with alternating bong shops and tie-dye T-shirt stores. Every now and then you’d see a “alterna-trendy” store like Kid Robot or Urban Outfitters. I was so taken in at how much of a poser scene it was that i completely missed the Haight/Ashbury intersection, which was the whole point of going thee in the first place. I had to retrace my steps to take the cliche picture of the street signs (I’m a tourist too). then I took a moment to survey the stores that made up the intersection. There was a T-shirt store on one corner and a Ben & Jerrry’s on the opposite corner, the intersection would have been complete had they only had a Hot Topic and Starbucks to round out the rest of the intersection.
I continued down Haight St until I got to Golden Gate park. I wasn’t sure how much time I would have to roam the park, but I did hear that the Japanese Tea Garden was worthwhile checking out. Coming back to Boston, I later found out that this park is considered to also be the place where the first fortune cookies were produced and sold. Apparently fortune cookies were a Japanese item, not a Chinese invention. The cookies did not get identified with Chinese food until the 1950’s, probably due to internment of the Japanese population living int he US. After visiting the Tea garden, I came a across a modern bronze building which was an art museum – i stayed around to snap a couple of quick pictures before turning back home.
On the way back to the hostel I decided to stop back at Filmore St to grab a bite to eat at one of the restaurants I saw. I eneded up back at Fresca, a Peruvian restauurant that specialized in seafood. I never had Peruvian food before, I tried the ceviche (my first time) and the paella. Both were excellent, and the paella stuck around long enough in my head to prompt me to try making one myself when I got back home.
I spent the last few days wondering where, and if, people went out to party on the weekends. Thus far almost everywhere I went was dead by 10:00 PM. This surprised me about San Francisco, the other thing that took me off guard was how many people were amazed that I decided to visit their city for vacation. I’ve always considered San Francisco to be a vacation spot, and assumed that it was ayoung cutting edge city – the kind of place that attracted 20 something’s looking for a fun place to visit. So it was a bit surprising to see people amazed that I spent precious vacation time here, as if I threw a dart at a map and went wherever it landed. In the end, just about everyone I spoke with recommended the Mission district – due South of the area I was staying. The Mission is primarily a Latin neighborhood, and is one of the places to check out on a weekend. There are two many streets, Mission and Valencia and both have alternating rows of cool bars and up and coming restaurants.
I decided the best way to experience the area would be the classic bar hop, going down the street and trying each establishment for a drink or two. Also, I figured I would check out some of the cool restaurants while I was there – the best way to stretch my budget would be to order strictly from the appetizer menu. I ended up eating at two restaurants, Ramblas and Bar Tartine. At both places I asked the waiter/waitress to pick the one appetizer they thought was best and also tip me off to the next place I should visit. the best dining experience out of these two places was Bar Tartine – it was a French bistro which used a lot of molecular gastronomy. This was my first time trying out foams and gel encased foods. looking back, I would say bar Tartine was also one of the best dining experiences I had, and certainly the biggest surprise for me.
After food I started hitting up some of the bars. All in all I ended up hitting 5 bars that night: Cassanova, The Elbo Room, Amnesia and Lazlo. I could go on talking about each one, but I think the pictures tell enough of the story…
Towards the end of the night I got hungry again, I had read on Yelp! that the best late night taco stand was called El Farralito and the burritos their are legendary. as I was walking around I just happened to stumble across it, perfect timing – I went in side immediately. This definitely did hit the spot, and I would have to say it was better than Anna’s Taqueria (blasphemy).
