San Francisco Treats!

My sister and I took a long weekend trip to San Francisco to visit a college friend and attend an ASU football game at Cal.  We had a great time hanging out, shopping, doing some touristy stuff and eating! While we didn't have any Rice-A-Roni, the supposed San Francisco Treat, we did enjoy lots of good eating during our visit to the Bay Area!  Our friend Sarah that we visited, loves to follow my blog, so everywhere we went, she would remind me to take a picture, take a picture!  So here is a rundown of our San Francisco Treats!

The first night we went to my friend Sarah's In-Laws Mexican Restaurant in San Carlos.  It is called La Hacienda and is celebrating their 30 year anniversary this year!  I have always been so jealous that she married into a family that owned a Mexican restaurant, so I was excited to try it out, and it did not disappoint!  The food was all fresh and delicious!

The appetizer speciality on the menu is jalapenos stuffed with chorizo and jack cheese and then deep fried!  They are then drizzled with the "family secret" sauce!  These were good, and this batch was pretty spicy.

All of the dinners are served with Albondigas Soup, which is basically a vegetable soup with little meatballs.  I have seen this on many menus, but have never ordered it, so this was a great opportunity to give it a try, and yummy, it was delicious!  It was very mild and the meatballs had a wonderful flavor, I will definitely have to try this at some other places now.

My sister got the two taco dinner, with one chicken taco and one shredded beef taco, which was served with rice and beans.  She loved the filling in both of the tacos, both were nicely seasoned and the meat was really tender.  She also scraped her plate clean of the beans and rice, so I a guessing she liked those too ;)!

I just didn't know what I wanted to order, there were so many delicious sounding choices, but I finally settled on the Flauta dinner with shredded beef.  The flautas were bursting with the tasty beef and covered in sour cream and guacamole, they were delicious!  The beans were good as well, and they don't use any lard in them, so getting tasty beans with no lard is a major accomplishment!

Cris, whose family's restaurant it is, ordered a steak burrito, which I am not sure is really listed on the menu, but since he has an in with the owner's he can get what he wants!  He dumped some really hot salsa all over the top of it and chowed down, I didn't get a chance to get a good look at the inside, but I do think that it too was bursting with beef!

Sarah was having a hard time deciding what she wanted too, she said that she usually goes for the Nachos or a Chimichanga, but that night she decided to get a Chicken Tostada.  It was topped with shredded lettuce, salsa and sour cream.  She cleaned her plate, so I am thinking she like it too!

So if you ever are in the San Carlos area, check out La Hacienda, it isn't big on the inside, but it is big on flavor!

La Hacienda
1377 Laurel St.
San Carlos, CA 94070

The next day Laura and I went into downtown San Francisco to shop while Sarah and Cris went to work. Our first stop was my favorite place on earth....Macy*s at Union Square! We were hungry when we got there so we headed down to the basement where they have a food court....but it is no ordinary food court, it has Boudin Bakery, Wolfgang Puck Express and Fresco by Rick Bayless to name a few...this was a high class food court!

Of course being in San Francisco we had to eat some sourdough bread, and there is just no better way to eat it than with some creamy clam chowder!  Boudin is famous for their sourdough, and they do a great job on the chowder too, so it is the perfect way to enjoy this....especially on a cold, drizzly day like many of them are in San Francisco!

http://www.boudinbakery.com/

 We also decided to try something from Fresco, which is a new fast casual concept by famous Chef Rick Bayless.  He is the master of Mexican cooking (but not the kind we are used to down in the Arizona desert) and has numerous restaurants in Chicago that are very pricey, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out his food!  We got a Huarache, which is like a Mexican flatbread on a masa crust.  It was topped with chicken chorizo, black beans, roasted peppers and cheese, and then topped with fresh lettuce.  It was really tasty, and the crust was quite dense, so we had to eat it with a fork.  We also got some chips and guacamole on the side, and it may sound weird, but these chips were amazing!  They were thick, but light and crisp and salted perfectly, paired with the guacamole, they made for some excellent eating!

http://www.fronterafresco.com/

After our day in the city, we met back up with Sarah and Cris and two of their friends.  They took us to dinner at this little place in Pacifica called La Playa Taqueria.  They have a big menu of Mexican standards, but they are also surprisingly known for their cheeseburgers...go figure?  Usually, when you go to a Mexican restaurant you are supposed to avoid the Gringo menu, or you stick out like a sore thumb, but not here!  The place was packed as it was a Friday night, but you order your food a counter then get a number.  The only thing that I found to be a bit odd was that you couldn't order drinks at the counter too, you had to go to the bar, but at least they have a full bar!

My sister wasn't feeling anymore Mexican food for the day, so she went with the burger, and since we were with some regulars, they told her she had to order it on the sourdough instead of the bun, because they bake the bread there daily.  How weird is this, a Mexican restaurant known for burgers and fresh baked sourdough???  I realized we weren't in Arizona anymore!  My sister told me the burger was awesome and that the bread rivaled that from Boudin....so it must have been some good bread!

Being the Arizona girl and Mexican food lover that I am, I was more than happy to eat more Mexican food!  I ordered the Bean Dip and a Super Fish Taco.  The bean dip was HUGE!!!  I was grinning from ear to ear when they set it in front of me....mmmm beans!  Even though the group that I was with are regulars, no one had ever ordered the bean dip, and after one bite, they were mad at themselves for wasting so many trips to La Playa with no bean dip!  The beans were creamy, salty and had just enough cheese mixed in to really amp it up; this was some of the best bean dip I had ever had!  I was happy to share with the table, and even then, our group of 6 couldn't finish it!  My fish taco was also really delicious, the fish had been battered and fried, but there was something so light about it, and it retained its crispness even after being covered in guacamole, sour cream and cheese!  They didn't skip on the toppings with it, and cheese is a close second to my love for beans, so I was one happy girl!

La Playa Taqueria

1560 Coast Highway

Pacifica, CA 94044

You know how when you are on vacation you eat a little bit too much???  Well, we definitely did, but at least we got in a lot of walking and burned off some calories!  Our other indulgences included a bowl of Lobster Bisque that we bought after walking around Fisherman's Wharf; we were a bit disappointed with this one, it didn't have great flavor, and I don't think we got a single chunk of lobster!

My sister always wants hot chocolate when it gets cold and rainy, but she hates the hot chocolate at Starbucks, so Sarah took us to her favorite coffee shack, Caffino!  It is a little kiosk in a parking lot that you drive-up to, but Laura said the hot chocolate was excellent and my caramel latte hit the spot....so good things do come in small packages!  (See how dark and dreary it was in the background?  Perfect hot beverage weather!)

 



Crepes A Go Go
2334 Telegraph Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94704



Before the football game up in Berkeley we needed to grab something to eat, Sarah and Cris were not really familiar with the area, so we didn't have a plan.  I saw a crepe place and told them that is where I was going, Sarah joined me, but Cris and Laura opted to go to the bagel shop next door.  Well, Cris and Laura were very jealous when Sarah and I came back with crepes filled with turkey, jack cheese, avocado and tomato....these were AMAZING!  The crepe had a touch of crisp to it and a touch of sweet, which went really well with the savory fillings.  Sarah and I were nice enough to share, and Laura and Cris were very thankful....I really need to find a place here where I can get a crepe....they are soooo gooood!







Teacake Bake Shop

1309 Burlingame Ave.

Burlingame, CA 94010

http://www.teacakebakeshop.com/



After ASU's embarrassing loss, we needed something to cheer us up, and stumbled upon this new bakery that had just opened called Teacake Bake Shop in Burlingame.  They had all kinds of cupcakes with fun flavors, but we were drawn to the cookies and brownie cups....and for good reason....BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE EVER!!!  We all couldn't believe how delicious these were, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  We had taken them home to eat, and Cris was very tempted to go back and get another one after he finished his....yes, they were that good!  The brownie cups were also decadent as well....it is good that I don't live near here....or I would be in trouble!





We ate a few other things too, but these were the highlights, but the real highlight was just spending time with friends, enjoying the scenery and getting a break from the real world. Until next time San Francisco....



We found these really cute lion hats, but figured we wouldn't really need them in the desert!