San Francisco: Tartine Bakery

Around Dolores Park, there are a lot of famous spots, such as Bi-Rite Creamery that I wrote about yesterday. Another is the Tartine Bakery and its popularity is off the charts. It's also one of those spots where there's a constant line, no matter what time during the day.

Tartine is known for pretty much... EVERYTHING. They do everything well, from croissants, pies, artisan bread, to sandwiches. I've only heard that their macaroons could be better. Of course, I marked Tartine down as one of the "must" for my trip this past Labor Day.

Tartine Bakery

600 Guerrero St. (between 18th St & 19th St)

Mission, San Francisco, CA 94110

tartinebakery.com

Beautiful day in SF means a hella long line at Tartine.

Some of the pies, tarts, and cakes... omgaaah.

Quiche, pound cakes, and bananabread. Many of their items were also sold out by the time I got there... sigh.

Really wanted to try their croissants but the Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake caught my eye. If you like poppyseed muffins, then this is a must get. Great soft and moist pound cake with a hint of lemon. Makes you forget you are eating a pound cake. The crust on the outside is probably the best part.

Giant Chocolate Chip Walnut Oatmeal Cookie. Yes, it's a huge chocolate chip cookie with walnut and oatmeal throughout the cookie. Walnut with any cookie instantly make the cookie better, but when it's added with oatmeal... it's complete.

Of course had to get a cup of latte to wash it all down. Beautiful latte art.

Also got to try their open face hot-pressed sandwich. Ham, cheese, tomatoes completes the sandwich on a great slice of artisan bread.

A great spot by Dolores Park. I can definitely see why so many people rave about Tartine and that its popularity has not diminished at all. If I lived in SF, I would totally come here on a sunny day to grab a few things to have a picnic at Dolores.

San Francisco: Bi-Rite Creamery & Bakeshop

Bi-Rite is one of those crazy spots in SF that demands lines all the time. Known for their handmade ice cream with exotic flavors, it's an extremely popular spot with both the locals and tourists. Of course, organic!

You can get ice cream, frozen yogurt, ice cream sandwiches, pastries, cookies, brownies, and even ordering a wild sundae with all their exotic flavors. They are known for their Salted Caramel ice cream so of course I opted for the ice cream.

Bi-Rite Creamery & Bakeshop

3692 18th St. (between Dolores St & Oakwood St)

Mission, San Francisco, CA 94110

biritecreamery.com/

Store front.

Logo.

The line for frozen yogurt and other baked goods. Waaaay shorter than the ice cream line.

All sorts of sauce on sale to pour on your ice cream at home.

Inside of the store is really small so the line goes out the door. Average wait is about 30-40minutes.

Flavors of the day! They even have vegan ice cream haha.

Free samples! :]]

After trying about 5 flavors, I picked the Salted Caramel and the Strawberry Balsamic. The Salted Caramel is just.. at the top of one of the best I've had. Creamy, sweet, and just a little bit of salt. As for the Strawberry Balsamic, can't really taste the balsamic, but it enhances the strawberry flavor, which is a good thing. I love Haagen Daz's strawberry ice cream the best and now Bi-Rite has topped them!

Melon Sorbet. Love melon? Love those Korean melon gum? Get this!

Snickerdoodle, which is essentially peanut butter ice cream, and is a must with peanut butter lovers, with Honey Lavender. Was very interesting. Not a big fan of lavender but most girls love it..

After finishing mine, I could've probably just bought a quart, sat on the sidewalk and have the time of my life haha. But really, if you're in the area and haven't tried it yet, do it. Who cares if it is raining or if it's hella cold in SF, it's worth it.

San Francisco: Mission Beach Cafe

Seriously... San Francisco is crazy about brunch. Almost all the restaurants serve brunch and almost all are packed beyond belief. Origanlly planned to go to a place called Lime, we had to change our plans cause the wait was gonna be 2 freaking hours long. After a bit of research, we decided on Mission Beach Cafe in Mission, and man... one of the most delicious brunch I've had.

Oh and had to wait over 45minutes here too. Craziness.

Mission Beach Cafe

198 Guerrero St. (between Brosnan St & 14th St)

Mission, San Francisco, CA 94103

missionbeachcafesf.com

Didn't opt for the HUGE glass of mimosa and got a cup of the single drip Blue Bottle Coffee instead.

Lavender Infused French Toast with fresh strawberries, banana, honey marscapone, and bourbon syrup. Generally not a big fan of lavender but wow did it transform the french toast. French toast by itself was good but the thick slices of bread, most likely brioche, and the honey marscapone totally sends this over the top.

Caramelized Peppered Bacon. Yes, must get bacon for breakfast. And yes, it is bacon coasted with sugar then caramelized. Too good.

Meat quiche with mixed baby greens. It's also available in a vegetarian option... but c'mon.. meat all the way :]

Dungeness Crab Benedict with avocado, hollandaise, with an orange reduction, and potatoes. Everything tasted fresh and light, especially the crab. Great hollandaise sauce and the orange reduction is unsung hero here!

Do you like truffle? Yes? Then get this: Wild Mushroom Benedict with spinach, caramelized onions, truffle mornay sauce, and potatoes. It's a little heavy but damn the truffle sauce is good beyond words. As for the caramelized onions, I could probably each a plate of that by itself.

Mission Beach Cafe is now officially one of my favorite restaurants. It's small and quaint but everything is done well. Service was also great here which definitely made it a pleasant experience. Now... time to find an excuse to go back up to SF and try their dinner menu.

San Francisco: Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market & Marketplace

I've always heard a lot of good things about the farmer's market at the Ferry Building in SF, near the Embarcadero, and it is actually one of the more famous ones on the West Coast, so of course, I had to check it out, since I was already (thanks to the Southwest 6:30am flight). There's also the Ferry Building Marketplace, which is a spot known for its food vendors, so it's like killing two birds with one stone!

Ferry Building Farmer's Market

1 Ferry Building

Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94111

www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

The famous Ferry Bulding :] The farmer's market is set up around the building itself, in the front, back, and the sides.

On the right side, it has the majority of the food vendors. Each one demanded a line. Crazy stuff.

Mexican breakfast. Chef's cooking some potatoes.

Sold all sorts of products having to do with dried cured meats.

Of course, I had to try the famous Blue Bottle Coffee in SF. They are known for how particular they treat their coffee and the way it is brewed, via the single drip method.

Crazy line just to get coffee. I had to wait about 20 minutes.

Some of the coffee beans they were selling. I tried to read the description and the uses for each bean. I'm way too much of a coffee n00b to understand :P

Finally decided on a New Orleans Iced Coffee, since I already had about 3 cups of espresso/coffee that morning. It had such a nice distinctive coffee aroma and none of that sour aftertaste. After I finished, my hands were actually shaking haha. Too much caffeine = no bueno for me.

Got a little bit cold so decided to head inside the building. Saw this crazy shop selling all sorts of fresh and dried mushrooms.

Where's the truffle at??

Crazy... I would get so lost shopping here.

Saw an empanadas stand so decided to grab something small.

El Porteno Argentinian Empanadas.

Asked for recommendation and got the beef empanadas. They brush it with a chimichurri sauce on the top.

It's actually stuffed with seasoned ground beef, cheese, olive, and raisins! Very delicious. The sweetness of the raisins balances out the salty olives really well! I didn't know you could get it hot so I actually ate mine cold... next time!

Shop selling vinegar and all sorts of flavored olive oil. Free sample time!

Boccalone, a meat shop inside the building, owned by Food Network chef, Chris Cosentino.

Lots of awesome looking salami.

Decided to get a salami sandwich, with tomato spread, cheese, and lettuce.

Lots of fat on the salami, but it wasn't fatty to the taste at all! It's also not overly salty. Great hand-crafted salami. One of the best salami I've had. Should've got the muffuleta sandwich to taste a wide range of their dried cured meats.

Saw this Sprinkles-esque patisserie called Miette. Didn't buy anything but their macaroons looked gorgeous.

We didn't really get to stay there that long because of parking. We didn't want to pay $15 for a parking garage and opted for street parking instead but that also meant kept on going back to put more coins in. Eventually we can out of coins and I was too full to try anything else and too tired from waking up so early. Next time hopefully I can really take the time to check out all the shops and all the vendors at the market.

Awesome farmer's market for people living in the city though, even though prices are a bit high!

San Francisco: Dynamo Donuts & Coffee

Decided to head over to SF over Labor Day weekend and we took a hella early flight (6am) so by the time we got there, I was pretty damn hungry. Decided to check out this place called Dynamo since it is sort of on the way into the city from SFO.

I never thought there could be a place that rivals Top Pot Doughtnuts in Seattle. That place is pretty much my donut mecca but man, Dynamo Donuts in SF comes close. It's located in the historic part of Mission, among all the taqueria and panaderia. The neighborhood's not the nicest looking place, but it does have a good amount of history. As for the shop itself, it's small and it looks like a coffee stand, but there's an open kitchen and some limited seating inside the shop.

What's Dynamo known for? Their Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donut. Sounds wild? All their donuts are "gourmet," hand-crafted, and has all sorts of combination. They don't have anything but traditional round donuts so, tough, if you like old fashion, fritters, or bars!

Dynamo Donuts & Coffee

2760 24th St (between Hampshire St & York St)

Mission, San Francisco, CA 94110

www.dynamodonut.com

Very casual looking on the outside!

Cool logo hahah.

Flavors of the day :] I was SOOOO excited when I saw it. Not cheap though, ranging from $2.50-$3 per donut.

We ended up getting three. I love how all the donuts do not look the same. You can tell it's hand-formed and hand-dipped.

First up, my favorite, Passion Fruit Milk Chocolate. I love the tartness of the passion fruit glaze and it just gives it a nice acidic punch to go along with the sprinkles of milk chocolate. Pure awesomeness.

Strawberry Earl Grey. Yup tea-infused donut! Amazing as well. You can really taste the flavors of earl grey throughout the donut and the little nuggets of candied strawberries are a nice touch.

One of their most famous donuts, the Maple Glazed Bacon Apple. You can't really taste the apple (I'm guessing it should taste like an apple fritter) but the glaze and the bacon works really well together. At first when you bring it up to eat, the donut smells kinda funky since it is bacon, which is salty, with something sweet, but the flavors work really well together. Good crispy bits of bacon.

The open kitchen!

Dammit I want all those donuts on that baking sheet!

Prepping the dough! Looks like buttery goodness :]

Ordered a few to go for a few friends.

Got to try a little bit of the Lemon Pistachio and Chocolate Rosemary Almond. Both were good but I wished Lemon Pistachio had the same punch as the passion fruit!

Honestly, this place is a must if you like donuts and it really did live up to its "gourmet" donut name. It's also quite expensive for donuts, but meh, I'll accept it for the quality since they utilize organic, sustainable, and local ingredients!