San Francisco Part 1

Monday morning found me up at stupid o'clock (really, it was like 3.45am) after a broken night of sleep (because you never can sleep well when you know you have to get up at stupid o'clock).


I finished off the last of my donuts for breakfast. This was chocolate with a chocolate glaze and whatever that red stuff on it was. Then it was a taxi out to the airport for the plane. My plane was delayed about half an hour, which the airline kept mentioning was the fault of SFO, which I found amusing. This plane was teeny and tiny, much too small for my usual comfort levels. But one of the cabin crew looked like Mary McDonnell in her role as Laura Roslin from BSG, so I found that comforted me because Laura Roslin would never let my plane go down.

On my arrival at SFO, I took a shuttle to my hotel, Hotel Vertigo, which had been suggested to me by a vegan friend who had also recently been in San Francisco. This hotel has a great location! It was just two blocks away from my first food destination!


On the same block as my hotel was this advertisement, which I thought was pretty awesome.


Little Bird Coffee House was my destination, and it was about a three minute walk from the hotel. Score!


I had heard much about Little Bird on the PPK. They are a vegetarian/vegan coffee house, with some yummy vegan options.


I got the Vegan Breakfast Sandwich, which I had heard described like a McMuffin only vegan and way better. I added fakin, avocado and tomato to mine. They were out of slow roasted tomatoes, so I had fresh. Oh. Em. Gee. This is seriously good and delicious. Plus it is filling enough to satisfy but not so filling that you can't look at food for several hours. This is important when one is on a food eating tour.

After this tasty treat, I hopped on the BART and headed into The Mission to find the Precita Eyes Mural Tour. K and Toby had told me that the best thing they did in San Francisco was a tour of the murals in the mission. Unfortunately, there weren't any tours when I was there. But I was able to buy a map of the murals and hear some stories before I went. There are so many murals there, and I took so many photos, but below are two of my favourites.


This called the Swoon Piece, and is amazing. It is paper stuck on the wall, set up as a temporary art work in 2008. It is still mostly in place, having survived three years worth of weather. It is a memorial piece to young women homicide victims in Mexico. To read more about it click here.


This is part of a mural that was about water rights.

As well as lots of murals, the Mission district also has lots and lots of latin grocery stores! Behold the bounty.


Tomatillos!


Catcus!


Yuca!


Fresh chickpeas!


All sorts of potatoes!


Plantains!

More murals, this time from Balmy Alley, a whole street covered in murals.






Lunch was planned for Cafe Gratitude. They have a quirkily named menu, as you shall see. I was sad that no one there asked me what I was grateful for today. I had prepared my answer in advance! (The answer was for my feet, because I was doing so much walking and they were giving me no troubles at all) (Also for cats, just because). The seating there is all at communal tables, or you can sit at the bar. At first I was going to sit at the bar, then I decided to brave a table as it looked more comfortable. It was fine. No one intruded on my little bubble as I ate and read my Kindle.


The menu required serious thought. I was pretty tempted by their version of the BLT, but ultimately decided to be a bit adventurous with I Am Comforted. A live macaroni and cheese - zucchini noodles and sun-dried tomatoes in a cashew-cheese sauce with Brazil nut parmesan. And I am glad I did! It was an interesting take on mac and cheese, and I really enjoyed it.


I also got a side of coconut bacon, because I really wanted to try it. For some reason, I thought that the flakes of the bacon would be much bigger, but now that I see what they actually are, I know I can get this size flakes to make my own coconut bacon at home - bonus! I mixed this into my mac and cheese and it was good!


To drink I had I Am Cool, which I had read about on someone's blog a while ago and it just sounded really nice. It was nice! It is a mint chocolate chip milkshake with Vitamineral Green (I have no idea what this is) and raw cocoa.


At least the bottom of my bowl cared.


For dessert I chose I am Awakened, which was a raw key lime avocado pie. It was really good, but it was so rich I found the slice was a bit too much in the end. I still ate it all, of course, but then I felt a bit overcome.

But thankfully I had some more adventures to come to perk me up! Stay tuned.