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What a Month

February 20, 2007

North, South, what's next? I returned exhausted and a little hazy from a whirlwind trip to San Francisco last night. It is hands down my favorite city in the states, and if I have to power through 24 hours on the road for one day of excitement, so be it.

The trip was Rick's idea, the focal point of which was seeing Lifetime on Sunday night. Needless to say, much fun was had. Armed with our trusty sidekick Joel, we walked for miles through the streets of San Fancisco. Japantown (where we stayed), Chinatown, Haight Ashbury, Lower Haight, North Beach, Mission District, and possibly other neighborhoods were all thoroughly investigated. At certain points, we didn't even know where we were at; this is how you know you're having a good time exploring a city.

Since 2/3 of the group is vegetarian, and since the other 1/3 is open minded and supportive, we hit as many veg-friendly places to eat as possible. One of the best was Weird Fish, where we ate Saturday night. It hadn't occurred to me that since I stopped eating dead things, I'd miss fish n chips. Problem solved. This place serves up your choice of beer battered tofu or tempeh, served up on a mound of potato and yam fries with slaw on the side. One of the highlights was the sesame-ginger dipping sauce; a welcome departure from the typical tartar. Throw in a pitcher of Anchor Steam—one of my favorite beers EVAR—and you have one hell of a tasty meal.

Sunday we had brunch at Herbivore over on Divisadero. I had the southwestern scrambled tofu with salsa, house potatoes, black beans, guacamole, vegan sour cream, and corn bread. I really enjoyed this place, and thought the food was great. My only complaint was that the guac wasn't fresh, but hey, I'm an avo-snob. For dinner that night, we ventured out to the Mission District to hunt down some mission style burritos. I had no idea that these burritos originated in San Francisco, but Rick and Wikipedia set me straight. We walked until we saw a sign in the window of Taqueria Cancun claiming "Voted Best Vegetarian Burrito" and decided this was the place. Once again, good Mexican food boils down to fresh ingredients; the burritos were fantastic. Miles away from the slop served up at Taco del Mar.

Afterwards we headed on over to Slim's to catch the show. The Shook Ones and Lifetime played great sets, the club had great sound, and more Anchor Steam was consumed. The only downer was a band from the East Bay called Set Your Goals, which was so bad it was almost fun to watch. Kind of like a car accident where no one gets hurt. When the show was over, Joel and I decided to make sure a few of the neighborhood bars were open as late as they claimed. Yup, they are.

On the drive home, we stopped in Portland to check out Food Fight Grocery and get some much needed food in our bellies. The store was tiny; about the same size and selection as Sidecar in the U-district, and unfortunately didn't have anything that wasn't either frozen or dried to eat. We headed around the corner to a vegetarian grocery store / deli, whose name escapes me, and that did the trick.

This is what three day weekends are made for.

Posted by Aaron on February 20, 2007 02:46 PM| Permalink