Mission District, San Francisco

The mission district, unlike the general hilly images of San Francisco, is relatively flat. Come hungry and in comfortable shoes to walk the streets to take in the artistic vibe of the area, its colourful murals and just keep repeating the process of walk, eat, walk, eat.
Stop 1: Four Barrel Coffee




Coffee was priority numero uno and so we kick started at Four Barrel Coffee.

Four Barrel Coffee is a cool joint. Cool tables, artwork on the walls, inked baristas and their own roasting operation at the back of the shop.

After our cup of coffee here, we had concluded that unlike the coffee that is generally roasted, brewed and served to us in Hong Kong, the blends in San Francisco tend to be more acidic and sour. In foods I love acid, I love sour but in coffee, not so much even though it is probably a superior product. With coffee, I’m not too much of a purist either, I sometimes put varied amounts of milk in my cuppa, so with too much acid or sourness, once hit with some milk – the thought of sour milk doesn’t sound too delicious to me. But that’s just me.
 


Stop 2: La Taqueria

You can’t go to the mission district and not have a taco or a burrito. That’s just silly.



La Taqueria is self proclaimed "Best Taqueria in the World". I don’t have too many points of comparison but I had good tacos here.  It isn’t fancy but it is busy and churning out scrumptious fresh fast food.

We ordered a bunch of tacos – chicken, tongue, chorizo, pork – and they recommended that we get them with guacamole and lined with crispy tacos. The tacos were good but not equally good. The chicken was probably the least interesting but the pork and tongue tacos were yummy. Tasty meats topped with fresh bright salsa and guacamole and lined with a soft and crispy taco, together the taste and textures all work.

Stop 3: Humphry Slocombe





The sun was shining down on us and so it was a perfect day for ice cream. I actually love ice cream in all weather, so in fact even if it was raining I would have still tracked down this ice cream shop with their interesting sweet savoury, savoury but sweet flavours.

Ok, I know this sounds weird but the ice creams taste as they sound. The exception is probably secret breakfast, since it is relatively hard to decipher what it is simply from its name. But for the straightforward names like peanut butter curry (my favourite of the lot!) it tasted like peanut butter with curry flavour in an ice cream form. That’s a good thing! It tasted natural and non-synthetic, just favours as they are and as they should be.



Stop 4: Mission Chinese

This was an unplanned stop and I had my reservations about eating here – amped up Americanised Sichuan influenced food in a dive environment as opposed to a local mom and pop Sichuan food joint in Hong Kong where deco is dismal, food is excellent and rude service is complimentary. Can it be better in a different way? But much have been said about this restaurant, Bon Appétit named it one of the 20 Most Important Restaurants in America and even James Beard has weighed in, so since we were in the neighbourhood and were still a little peckish, we decided to drop in to share a few plates.

We placed our name on the waitlist but then decided to takeout instead since there were about 15 people before us. But as luck would have it, just as we had finished placing our orders, a steady stream of people started to pour out of the restaurant, so we decided to stay to eat at the restaurant from our takeout tubs and to order one more plate.


Ma Po Tofu


Kung Pao Pastrami


Salt Cod Fried Rice

Erm. I don’t get hype about this place. Let’s just say I have yet to fall in love with Americanised Chinese food and we’ll leave it at that.

Stop 5: Tartine Bakery

 

If you have heard about Tartine, you have probably heard about the line that would snake out of the shop and maybe around the block. The original plan was to get here early to pick up breakfast pastries (and to get our hand on those morning buns) but that got scrapped and so here we were. Since we got here in the late afternoon, it is probably no surprise that we still had to stand in line for a bit and by the time we got to the counter … a few items that we wanted were already sold out. Oh well.



For the croissants that we did get our hands on, they were rich and airy and very flaky crispy. What was even better was the pain au chocolate (I love pain au chocolate, so I am biased) also rich, airy, not as crispy (which I prefer) but a good dark chocolate rolled into it.

And that’s all we really had time for.

Mission District Eats...

Four Barrel Coffee
375 Valencia Street

La Taqueria
2889 Mission Street

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison Street

Mission Chinese Food
2234 Mission Street

Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero Street

Coffee & Kopi in Penang

ČStarbucks is in Penang but there are other options and here are three places that we stopped by for a cuppa.

Toh Soon Café


Toh Soon is a back lane café where everything is still done the old and slow way. The bread is still steamed or toasted over charcoal, runny eggs are served in punch cups and my delicious iced kopi was served in a beat up plastic ice cream soda cup. We had not intended to come here but a local secondhand store dealer pointed us in this direction for a good local coffee and I’m glad we followed his lead. Popular with the locals, this place was a hive of activity when we got there on a late Saturday morning. We had to stake out our own seats and fortuitously sat down with an extremely friendly local Penang couple whom we chatted with about the local culture and history and shared with us their favourite eating haunts. Together, we shared a little bit of everything with our new found friends – steamed bread with peanut butter, steam bread with kaya and nasi lemak but amongst everything the winner in spite the waiting for our orders to be taken was the iced kopi which was a good reprieve from the heat, iced, strong and not too sweet, that and the local company made it a good combination.

SiTigun



This was a lazy Sunday afternoon pit stop for us. The locals swing by for a coffee and cake. We stopped by for a coffee and shade. The beans are roasted in house and the standard drinks are double shot strong. Strong, aromatic with a long after taste, this was a good reprieve from the heat as we sat under the rapidly spinning fans and a cold coffee in hand.

Mugshot


I don’t know what the history of this place but my guess is this was set up by three friends (two guys and a girl) - a barista, a cook and a host - who spent time abroad and returned to Penang and decided to set up something that reminded them of their time overseas. Boasting to serve good bagels and even better coffee – it delivers in doing a decent job of both but it is the service that will makes me choose to never return. Don’t count on any hospitality from lady who takes your orders and mans the cash machine unless you are a personal friend. Don’t even expect a plastic smile or pleasantries – just surrender your orders and hand over your cash, and expect to wait a while because service is slow.

Toh Soon Café
Lebuh Campbell, off Jalan Penang
Georgetown
Penang, Malaysia

SiTigun
30 Jalan Nagore
Georgetown
Penang, Malaysia

Mugshot
302 Lebuh chulia
Georgetown
Penang, Malaysia

Corner Cool: Po's & Deadend

Bready artisan morsels can be found in a corner at Po’s, a corner bakery along Po Hing Fong. At my last visit, instead of the chocolate Danish which I usually have that has a dark rich chocolate and crisp pastry, I had the “Today’s Special” Pain au Chocolate which was a hit and a miss as a whole. The pastry was airy and crisp but I didn’t enjoy the chocolate that was in the croissant pastry – it was too sweet and I couldn’t quite make out what type of chocolate or was it a caramel mix? Moving away from chocolates, one other item that I love and recommend is the Yunnan ham fougasse, that will (unfortunately) cost a large amount of your daily lunch pocket allowance at HKD 50 a pop, is a seriously delicious crusty breadstick with a good chewy texture that is flavoured with cubes of Yunnan ham.

 

If you want a cuppa just walk a few more steps to the neighbouring Café Deadend. In terms of coffee, my favourite thing to drink here is a dirty. Actually, no make that a dirty double – hot double espresso in a chilled cup and served with cold milk. It is a tricky one. It isn’t neither a piping hot drink that some are very finicky about and the milk isn’t foamed so the milk isn’t aerated to be creamier nor is it cold enough to be an iced coffee. The temperature that you have it is warmer than lukewarm and the idea behind it is that at that temperature, you get to taste more of the coffee, which you really do. This is me having a little whinge - since it’s opening late last year the café has gained a sizable following, which means more people and limited seats. A few months ago, Café Deadend didn’t even have a food menu and only served coffee and it had a more zen vibe about it. That’s all changed; now if you sit indoors (with the roof over your head) you get service and coffee in proper cups and food from their menu. If you sit outdoors, your coffee comes in a plastic cup, you can take out from Po’s and there is no service charge on your bill. In my ideal world, I would like a proper cup, no crowds and no restrictions on takeout from Po’s regardless of where I sit. The choice is yours.



Po’s Atelier
G/F 62 Po Hing Fong
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
 
Café Deadend
G/F 72 Po Hing Fong
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong