Eat Like a Local in San Francisco

San Francisco cuisine is all about the interesection of cultures.  Whether that means traditional Burmese food or fusing together Japanese and Latin traditions -- it's all good.

Burma Superstar:

Unlike it's South East Asian sisters, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, Burmese food is not well-represented in this country.  Burmese cuisine makes extensive use of fish products like fish sauce and ngapi (fermented seafood). Located near Myanmar, Burmese cuisine has been influenced by Chinese cuisine, Indian cuisine and Thai cuisine.

At Burma Superstar you will find Burmese specialties like tea leaf salad.   In tea leaf salad pickled tea is dressed with sesame oil and surrounded by other ingredients such as crisp fried garlic, peas and peanuts, toasted sesame, crushed dried shrimp, preserved shredded ginger and fried shredded coconut.  Other specialties include chicken and shrimp rice casserole, egg curry with fresh okra, with rich and creamy coconut rice,  lychee mint smoothie, mango chicken and mint chicken, fish curry (pictured above), and pea leaf greens

Bi-Rite Creamery:

At Bi-Rite Creamery they make ice cream by hand in small batches, creating delicious flavors with local, handmade and organic ingredients.  They were the first ice cream shop in San Francisco to use Straus Family Creamery organic dairy, the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi.  In the bakery next to their ice cream kitchen, they make everything that goes into their ice cream, whether it's brownies, peanut brittle, or the snickerdoodles for Ricanelas.

They also support local farms and respect the seasons. Balsamic Strawberry is one of their most popular flavors, but they only make it in spring and summer, when local strawberries from Swanton Berry Farm and others are at their juicy, fragrant peak. Come winter, they switch over to Earl Grey, Eggnog, Peppermint Stick with Seely organic mint oil, and organic Orange Cardamom ice creams to take advantage of the California citrus harvests. They look forward to using Mead and Mead's Maple Syrup in their seasonal Maple Walnut ice cream.

So stop in and try some of the staff's favorite combos: the seasonal trio (a scoop of earl grey, one of meyer lemon with gingersnap, and one of orange cardamom), triflecta (a scoop of salted caramel, one of brown sugar with ginger caramel swirl, and one of malted vanilla with peanut brittle and chocolate), or a scoop of each: honey lavender and chocolate, or ricanelas ice cream with homemade caramel sauce.

La Taqueria:

San Francisco is known as the home of the mission burrito and La Taqueria is said to have the best mission burritos in San Francisco.  It is a type of burrito that first became popular during the 1960s in the Mission District.

It tends to be larger than other burritos and includes extra rice and other ingredients such as  Spanish rice, beans, sliced fresh avocado or guacamole, cheese, sour cream, stewed or grilled chicken, grilled beef steak, barbecued pork, braised shredded pork, chile verde, chile colorado, chorizo, beef tongue, stewed and shredded beef, stewed beef head, beef brain, beef eyeball, shrimp, goat meat, shredded beef with red chile sauce, carne molida, chicharrónes, barbaaco, fish, picadillo, mole, prickly pear cactus, and tripas.  In other words, there is something for everyone.

These burritos are so huge that you leave them in the foil and fold it down as you eat, or else there is a good chance that it will explode all over you.

Miguel Jara opened La Taqueria in 1973 and he ran out of food by 2 o'clock.  The traffic has remained consistent ever since.  Why? Because everything is made by scratch every day.

Sushirrito:

Now that you've been introduced to San Francisco's mission burrito we are ready to unveil the sushirrito--a made-to-order, hand held sushi burrito with Asian and Latin flavor combinations.

"Feeling constrained by pricey, time-consuming sit-down sushi restaurants and pre-made options lacking quality and originality, Founder Peter Yen was determined to find a better way to serve sushi and saw the opportunity to combine 2 of the Bay Area's favorite foods: sushi and burritos. Peter created the Sushirrito brand name and trademarked it in 2008."

I'm trying to decide between the Satori with Kampachi Yellowtail, Cucumber, Pickled Red Onion, Sweet Corn, Red Tobiko, Avocado, Wasabi Mayo and the Salmon Samba with Oven-Baked Agave-Soy Salmon, Tempura Asparagus, Namasu Cucumber, Butter Lettuce, Avocado, Pepitas, Wasabi Dust, Teri-Mayonesa.  This could take awhile

Ike's Place:

Ike's Place was first opened on Halloween of 2007 by Ike Shehadeh.  The bread is baked fresh to order, and their soon to be patented "Ike's Dirty Secret Sauce" is spread on every sandwich and baked right in the bread, with another layer  spread on afterwards to give it that extra flavor.

Ike's place has become so popular it faces eviction.  He's become such a huge success selling thousands of sandwiches each week, that neighbors have complained about the large crowds.

So show your support by heading in and enjoying  a Fat Bastard (American, Bacon, Extra Dirty, Ham) or a Hot Momma Huda (Buffalo Wing Sauce, Halal Chicken, Provolone, Ranch) and picking up your "Free Ike" T-shirt.

You may also like:

Fried Ice Cream Taco

Turkey, Turkey Bacon California Club Sandwich

Cheesy Beef Burritos

And don't forget to check out these other West Coast destinations:

San Diego Cuisine

Los Angeles-Fusion Favorites

Pike Place Market-Home of Northwest Cuisine