After a long walk in the botanical gardens, my friend and I walked down Haight and found Magnolia Pub and Brewery. It was a godsend that hydrated our souls (dehydrated our bodies) and lifted our spirits. Delicious homemade cask conditioned ales brewed in the basement of their Pub! Total drinkability.

Blue Bell Bitter

Gallows Hills Porter

Magnolia Pub and Brewery
1398 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117-2909
(415) 864-7468‎

I was able to experience my first Southern Indian food! At Udupi Palace, a restaurant named after the city in South India notorious for the vegetarian cuisine, I ordered the Channa Batura. The channa part is the spicy chick pea curry and the batura (sometimes spelled different, like bhatoora) is a puffy fried yogurt bread. The bread was soft, chewy, sour and paired perfectly with the heat from the curried beans. Win.

Udupi Palace
1007 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110-2405
(415) 970-8000

Bi-Rite Creamery is:

• the ice cream shop to the amazing Bi-Rite Market
• organic and local ingredients
• cups and spoons are biodegradable
• tastes done with silver spoons
• made of Strauss Family Dairy
• rarely more than 5 ingredients (nothing artificial)
• daily changing, creative flavors
• delicious

Clockwise from top left: Vanilla Lavender (honey and lavender freshly gathered from nearby Mint Hill), Salted Caramel, Coffee Toffee (made with local Ritual coffee beans), and Creme Fraiche. All were outstanding, but I fell in love with the Creme Fraiche. Yum.

Bi-Rite Creamery
3692 18th St, San Francisco, CA‎
(415) 626-5600‎

Although completely unplanned, my first morning meal in San Francisco was in China Town at my friend’s favorite Dim Sum restaurant, Dol Ho. Unfortunately, I don’t know Dim Sum well. But, I do know that I did enjoy this Dim Sum.

Having spent a good hour traveling, I was ravenously hungry. So I didn’t really write down the names of everything we had at our table. I know we had a lot of shrimp dishes though. My table did agree that the vegetable dumpling was the best.

Below on this dish is a fried shrimp ball (left) and some sort of eggplant shrimp cheese delightfulness. I love eggplant, period. So to add two other great ingredients: cheese and shrimp. It’s a trifecta of perfect.

Dol Ho
808 Pacific Ave
(at Stockton St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 392-2828

A spice that is used in both savory and sweet dishes results into a warm, inviting, subtly spicy, and nicely sweet ice cream flavor. Yum. Check out their many other unique flavors too! Like Saffron, Rose, Falooda, and Kesar Pista.

Bombay Ice Creamery
552 Valencia St
(between 16th St & 17th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 861-3995

The first restaurant my friend and I ate at was the Salvadorian Mexican restaurant, Panchitas (No. 2). I have only had Salvadorian a few times before in my life, but this little gem reminded me that I should have it more often.

Of course, Salvadorian Suprema Beer. A pale lager. Delicious!

Pupusa De Chicharron Con Queso (Pupusa with pork meat and cheese) AND Pupusa De Queso Y Loroco (Cheese pupusa). Mmm… pupusas. Cheese and just about anything is good in my book.

Platanos Con Crema (Plantain with cream). This was my favorite! I could eat this everyday. Yummy!

Yuca Con Chicharron (Yucca root with pork meat) - Mmmm, yucca root! I prefer them over potatoes.

Panchitas No. 2
3091 16th Street
San Francisco 94110
(415) 431-4232

Matzo Ball Soup - Simple and delicious. It came with oyster crackers.

Chicken Chow Salad - I love this salad. Romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, grilled vegetables, feta cheese, avocado, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I could eat this everyday.

Coconut Ice Cream Ball - Vanilla ice cream rolled in toasted coconut served with chocolate syrup on the side. I never enjoyed coconut until recently, but it is as if a whole new world of delicious combination possibilities has opened up. Usually when I “share” with my boyfriend, he takes a bite and puts his utensil down. This was not the case, but instead turned into a barbaric spoon scooping war. Seriously. Chocolate syrup was shed. On the table, on the plate, on the floor, and on the face. Everywhere.

Blue Plate
1415 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403-1711
(310) 260-8877

My palate is currently evolving to include darker beers, so it was quite the gamble on whether I would like the Californian Telegraph Stock Porter or not. The owner was correct though, it was good. A 750 ml marriage between fresh brewed ale with aged oak ale forming a unique glass of good drinkability. I was able to pick up hints of coffee and chocolate.

If you love bottled beer and know your beer, this is the place for you!

West 4th / Jane
1432 4th St
Santa Monica, CA 90401-2309
(310) 395-6765

With my subjective well being high, I ordered the only glass of red available at the happy hour price of four dollars:  Sangiovese Vignedileo from the Marche region of Italy.

The attentive waitress brought the bottle to the table and filled my glass in front of me. Delicious.

For food, we ordered the House Made Meatballs ($6) and the Margherita Pizza ($8). So yummy. I especially enjoyed the pizza’s thin sourdough crust.

You can find happiness at Riva on weekdays from 5:00-6:30pm. However, I must recommend that it is a great restaurant to eat at any hour.

Riva
312 Wilshire Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310.451.7474 (RIVA)