Saaan Fran-cicso! This town. So great. Jeez.

I still can’t believe how well everything here has worked out.

Things I like about SF:
My local Mexican bakery where the guy who works in the morning calls everyone ‘el hefe’ and the abuela who works at night and speaks to me in Spanish.
Joe at Nervous Dog who always is smiling and notices when I’m having a shitty day aaaand makes the best of the black stuff.
The Fruit/Veg shop on Church.
Lazy Sundays in Dolores Park.
Lazy Sundays in Golden Gate Park.
The Homeless Folks.
Surfing in front of the Windmill.
Naked guys on the beach, not the usual nudists either!
Tenderloin – fun to say – fun to experience!
The MUNI – especially the trains. They sound so awesome when they roll by.
The hills, except on a crowded bus. Slanted riding does not make for good mass transit.
The hills, watching a moped rider have to pedal just to make it up is great.
Bikes.
The crazy amount of local government/public access/pbs-esque stations.
Zines.
Farmer’s Markets. All the time.
Best. Omelet. Ever.
Bars with patios – zeitgeist, the eagle, wild side west

Things I don’t like about SF.
The newspapers, even the indie weeklies. I think the Chronicle tries too hard to be ‘’local’ when it really needs to step up and be the international paper that a city like San Francisco deserves. Sure, there is a place for local interest and whatnot, but the newspaper for this city should be a world-class paper. Also, the Sunday paper is tiny and relatively boring. I’m tempted to start buying the New York Times, but the $5.00 price tag is pretty scary. Not to mention the hatred for the NY Times lack of comics. No comics! Uppity fucking paper!

The SF Weekly is annoying and too hip for its own good. Kinda similar to the OC Weekly after the recent ownership change. I only read Savage Love. They haven’t even syndicated Ask a Mexican! Just doesn’t quite seem on the ‘pulse’ of the city.

The SF Guardian is more on the mark, but there is something about that I don’t quite connect with. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but I’m just not feeling the writing over there either.

Each neighborhood has a local paper or newsletter too. These are pretty awesome, especially because of the hyper-local niche that they fill. The writing tends to be decidedly mediocre. Not unreadable or anything, but certainly not at the level. Also, these are the most likely to use 12-point ariel and have highly-obnoxious layout.

I should just subscribe to the Economist and shut my mouth.

(Used) Needles on the street. C’mon kids! We’ve got a needle exchanges all over town for a reason.

The banh mi shops. Little Saigon in SF runs right through the Tenderloin (Larkin Street), perfect for lunchtime munch. I’ve tried 4 sandwich places so far and none of them are amazing. There’s a Lee’s which is, as we all know, okay. The apparently ‘best’ banh mi in the city, is directly across form Lee’s and, I’ll admit, their bread is fresh and their pickled veg is crunchy and strongly flavored. All the makings of a good sandwich, right? Whatever they put in the vegetarian sandwich is dry, and after a few bites you wish for some flavor other than that of cotton mouth. I’m sure the meat-based sandwiches are better (meat day experiment perhaps?) than the boringness that was their banh mi chay.

Saigon Sandwich is just down the street from there and is pretty good. Lots of fun Vietnamese snacky snacks and a banh mi chay with delicious lightly cooked seasoned tofu. Thick pieces too – like you’re really biting into something substantial. Sure the pickled veg isn’t quite as good, but the bread is definitely on par. No iced coffee, but we’re not reviewing that today (frightenly that award just might go to Lee’s). Lastly is this Chinese/Vietnamese combo shop. SO BAD. Should have recognized the lack of Vietnamese inside as a lack of quality Vietnamese food. The carrots were just shredded, possibly pickled, but I think they were just splashed with some vinegar. Bleagh.

I’ll find the names of these places to remind y’all where not to go.

I really don’t to write what I’m about to write, but the Mexican food has been relatively mediocre. I mean, we’re in California, right? It seems that most places all source from the same suppliers causing little variety between veggie burritos. I’ve got plenty of other places to try, but there really hasn’t been anything that stands out. Sure, one can make the argument that the major flavor in a burrito (akin to a banh mi) is the meat. I claim, though, that the basis of a good burrito is infact the beans, rice and found in all burritos. Nothing really bad, but again, nothing that stands out. I can’t decide how I feel about the usage of tin foil to wrap the burritos. I think that it actually encourages the act of overusing mediocre ingredients to make up for the mediocrity of said ingredients.

I’ll admit though, I do like the ubiquitous serving of chips and salsa with everything.