Green Chile Kitchen

One eating goal in San Francisco was to find some interesting Mexican style food. I discovered the Green Chile Kitchen by way of their really enticing website, and was excited to visit and sample some of their plentiful and intriguing vegetarian options. 

There is the potential for some confusion upon entering the restaurant (which, btw, is lovely, light, and with a rustic modern artsy feel), because one is supposed to first peruse the menu, then order, then seat oneself. This order wasn't immediately clear to me and I caused a little kerfuffle but ultimately all  was well. 

Sat at one of the large communal tables and started with some drinks. I had a sangria, and my dining companion had a beet margarita that stole the show.  The slight hint of earthiness paired exquisitely with the tequila and citrus and the color was spectacular. If you are a guest at my house this summer, you will likely be served a copycat as I attempt to perfect the recipe.

The rest of my meal sounded awesome but was slightly disappointing. I ordered a plate of three soft tacos on homemade blue corn tortillas, one of which was tofu in red chili sauce, two of which were filled with mixed vegetables. My general complaints were that the tortillas were single ply, fell apart immediately, and lacked any of that warm, chewy pliability that a corn tortilla generally has. Also, that the veggie filling consisted of just zucchini/summer squash chunks, the same as the veggie side that came with my tacos. I felt that, for the price, I was served an excessive amount of relatively plain squash.

I think I might chock my slight dissatisfaction up to ordering poorly. My dining companion's meat dish was amazing, and I think the Green Chile Kitchen has more in store for vegetarians than what I sampled.

Dolores Park Cafe

While in San Francisco, I took a massive bike ride that took me to the Mission District at lunch time. My intention was to visit Cha-Ya Vegetarian Japanese Restaurant, and I was incredibly dissapointed to find I had arrived between lunch and dinner and the restaurant was closed. I knew I was in a hotbed of San Francisco's interesting restaurants, and wanderered around trying to find something else to meet my high and excited expectations. What I found was a ton of attractive, hip young people sipping wine and drinking beers from maison jars, eating crepes and charcuterie that exceeded what I had hoped to spend on lunch.

My bike ride had left me deliriously hungry, and after reading a handful of menus that didn't quite fit the bill I stumbled into the Dolores Park Cafe feeling as though I had settled on mundane sustenance and had failed in uncovering a good mission experience.

It turned out the Dolores Park Cafe actually made a darn good sandwich. I ordered a surprisingly satisfying caprese like sandwich with thick slices of fresh mozzarella, hearty ripe tomato slices, and a big helping of greens dressed in a homemade balsamic dressing. It came with some potato chips that I devoured, and unlimited water flavored with orange slices, which I also gulped with heavenly abandon. The environment was modern without pretense, and the clientele included both the hip and the matronly (and that lovely combination of the two).

I would still like to return to the mission with a better plan, but this decently priced and tasty sandwich certainly powered me through the rest of my ride like a champ and I enjoyed sitting at my outside table watching the people come and go.

Ramen Underground

The tofu hunter spent a short and delicious period in San Francisco, a city that never fails to provide interesting vegetarian fare! 

One of my favorite meals from this recent trip was at Ramen Underground, a teeny, tightly packed ramen house on the border of Chinatown and the financial district. I was seated with a bunch of strangers at a postage stamp of a table and ordered by filling out an ordering sheet. My order: vegetarian broth, tofu, veggies, and chili paste.

It was a nearly perfect bowl of ramen. The tofu was fresh and soft. The veggies were abundant and fresh. And the house-made chili paste was slightly spicy, deliciously roasty, and out of this world delicious (I was stoked to see that it wasn't just a blob of sambel olek).

My only complaint was that this amazing bowl eventually came to an end.

Shanghai Garden

This is a small rant against the Shanghai Garden where I recently stopped for lunch. The Shanghai Garden has full-paged lunch menu, which includes a huge variety of entrees with rice and soup for a more "lunch friendly" price than the traditional dinner menu. After scouring this menu I found nothing with tofu. I asked the waitress if there was any dish in which tofu could be substituted for the meat. To this she rudely flipped my menu open to the "bean curd" section and pointed. Apparently these were my options.

I foolishly ordered the Szechuan bean curd (for some reason I had high hopes, even though I've eaten it before and it is excessively sweet and not very szechuan-y at all). It was as before... fantastically textured and fried custardy tofu in a cloyingly sweet cornstarch sauce. The obnoxious part of the story is when my bill came and I saw that I had been charged for a dinner entree (I was, after all, ordering from the Bean Curd section on the dinner menu), and that my humble lunch, with rice, was $15 (with tax and tip).

Let me be a little whiny for a minute: It really didn't feel fair that my lunch was significantly more expensive than the lunches of the people eating meat all around me. Tofu is cheaper than meat. Most of the lunch entrees could have easily subbed tofu for the meat. If I were prone to feeling sorry for myself as a vegetarian, I would have after this meal because there was an injustice done (minor as it is in the scope of the world) where I, as the vegetarian, got the short end of the stick.

Marination Station

I honestly don't know how it took me so long to visit the Marination Station (it is located upstairs in the QFC complex at Broadway and Pike). I had read about and heard about their "sexy tofu" tacos and finally stopped by to give them a try.

The Marination Station is the brick and mortar sister of the Marination truck, which drive around town selling items from an unusual Korean/Mexican fused menu. The truly vegetarian choices are a little scant (they use shrimp paste in their often used kim chee, so if you don't mind shrimp paste the menu expands). I ordered two sexy tofu tacos (at $2.50 a piece, not quite in the realm of super inexpensive taco truck prices, but they really are in a whole different league), and am here to say that the hype was warrented!

The tofu was well marinated, lightly seared (not deep fried, awesome!), and on fresh warm tortillas with vinegary slaw, pickled jalapenos, onions and a creamy, garlicky, gingery sauce. I could have easilly doubled the size of this order and finished my plate.

The meat menu looked amazing too.

Taqueria El Asadero

This is the long-existing taco bus near the Genesee area Safeway on Rainier Ave. This place has its perks. To begin with, they will make vegetarian versions of most of their menu (and even have vegetarian tamales!) I ordered 3 vegetarian tacos and they were packed with rice, refried beans (likely including lard), cheese, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. They tacos were very inexpensive.

Once you get your order, there are a few awesome things in the bus. For starters, Taqueria El Asadero still manages their salsa old-school style: in squeeze bottles scattered around the bus and on the outside tables where you help yourself to all you want. For a salsa lover such as myself, this is a real bonus. Second, the radishes, limes, and pickled jalapenos and carrots also exist in a "serve yourself" style dispensary. I love these additions to the taco, and it is very satisfying to have full access!

Pizza

This post is going to be kind of a tease, and I apologize for that. But this huge delicious pizza, with a thin chewy crust and tasty toppings, came from a secret pizza lair (appartment) where a dedicated pizza chef spends the weekends cranking out pizzas and selling them for a good price (cash only) to people who ring his doorbell. I love the fact that there is a person spending their Friday nights in their tiny steamy kitchen, perfecting their pizza-making passion by cranking out high quality pizza, selling it for a reasonable price, and making a few bucks in the process. 

Of course it makes me wonder what else is out there! No doubt in a city as full of food-oriented, creative, discerning, adventurous eaters as Seattle there must exist many little pseudo businesses where passionate cooks are experimenting and sharing the fruits of their labors.

(I would love to share the details of this delightful little pizza source, but am not going to at this point because I don't want to cause them any trouble.)