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Serving San Francisco

It's an amazing feeling to be able to give back to the community. San Francisco is full of opportunity. So why not do something this Christmas?

San Francisco Food Bank says that "In San Francisco, 197,000 people struggle each day to feed themselves and their families. In Marin, just over 40,000 people - or 16% of the population - face the threat of hunger on a given day.

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237,000 is the number of people who live at or below 185% of the federal poverty line in San Francisco and Marin - $33,873 per year for a family of three. It's at this income level that children are eligible for Free and Reduced Price Meals and families are eligible for WIC. Very often, these families lack the resources to provide enough food to consistently nourish themselves."

With that said, think about what you can do to help out this holiday season.

With plenty of places to choose from, yelp.com gives some great reviews on where some people volunteered their time to help out their community. Anything help for these wonderful people just trying to make the best of their lives, just like you and me.

Donations of food and other necessities are always welcome of you cannot donate your time. Enjoy your holidays this winter. Spread the love.


Happy holidays everyone!

Nothing is Ever Open on Christmas!

                     Are you staying in the city for Christmas? 
                                  It's okay, you're not alone. 

For whatever reason, some people don't always cook their own dishes on Christmas day. Where do people  go eat though? Well, good thing not everyone celebrates Christmas. The website OpenTable says that there will be 65 restaurants open on Christmas day.

So don't you worry, there will be plenty of places to go for a December 25th day dinner. It's quite the selection.

Happy holidays everyone!

Dottie's, Nuff Said

I’m not sure why it took so long to talk about Dottie’s True Blue Cafe, but here it is. This restaurant is by far one of the best places to eat in San Francisco. It’s a small place with maybe only ten tables to sit customers. One cook, and usually two waiters/waitresses. On an average day, Dottie’s will have a line out front. The line can take an anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Hopefully no longer. So it’s recommended that you plan ahead. In my opinion, it’s worth the wait. 

Dottie’s is mainly a breakfast diner. Serving your simplest meals to your most extravagant. The cook is the owner so you can expect your meal to taste delicious every time! Like I said, there’s only one cook. He’s pretty dang good at what he does as well. If you get the chance, sit at the breakfast bar and watch him make all the meals. Its mesmerizing. 

The best part about all this is it’s not all that expensive! It’s about the average cost for breakfast. I’ll usually spend about $14 bucks on a meal and coffee. I honestly don’t mind at all either considering the portions are well over the amount I can eat. (And I can put it back.)  If you get the chance and have the time to dine at Dottie’s, do it! 


Everyone needs to try it. 

Sun-Mon, Wed-Sat 7:30am–3pm Tue Closed


522 Jones Street  San Francisco, CA 94102-2008
(415) 885-2767

Nom, Nom, Nom Gators!

On my way to carve pumpkins with my friend, my stomach growled at me in despair. I asked where we were going to eat for dinner and she replied, “Just wait and see.” When we arrived in Fremont. I had no idea where we were going. This small little Mederternanian restaurant by the name of Gaters is where she decided to take me. 

I thought that I may have eaten there before but I was still unsure of what to order. The gentleman taking my order suggested that I get the combo plate, which had steak, chicken, and lamb. The plate also came with a side of fresh vegetables consisting of, tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers. Along side with the vegies was savory hummus. The main event of the plate was the slow cooked meat that was lying on top of a bed of delicious rice. The spices were a very flavorful blend and complimented each other perfectly. 

One more thing I can not forget, the pita bread! This little piece of pita brings all of these delicious ingredients together in a little snack wrap of creativity. This small restaurant in the city of Fremont has big flavors coming out of it.

Its an Upside Down Pizza

After doing exactly what my last blog post was about. I realized I had been starring into the cupboards for almost 15 minutes huffing and puffing about how we have nothing to eat. My roommate was getting ready to leave for class, and wasn't trying to help me find anything to munch on.

So instead of starting on my homework like a good student would have done, I jumped online for a recipe using supercook.com. I entered in all the stuff I had in my cupboards and fridge. As I was scrolling down the list of recipes to make, I came across an Upside Down Pizza. I'm instantly drawn to this idea simply because its abnormal from the start. How the heck do you make an upside down pizza? Curiously, I read the ingredients and you bet, I had everything needed.

Procrastination is great when you don't even realize that you're doing it. Avoiding homework I get all the ingredients together, brown the hamburger with the onions and garlic mixed in.

Next, I added the Ragu sauce to the meat. I later ended up adding olives and mushrooms, even though the actual recipe didn't call for them. I just thought it would make things a little more tasty.

Remembering to preheat the oven early made things move along quickly. A layer of meat sauce, cheese, and crescent rolls later we have an almost done upside down pizza.

20 minutes later...

Upside Down Pizza

Yum, yum, yum! Smells great. I wish I could send you a whiff of it. The crescent rolls on top browned just perfectly as you can see. I let it sit for about 10 more minutes just to let the meat sauce thicken up a little.

My second helping :)

It was pretty good. A mixture of pizza taste, spaghetti, and lasagna. Not bad at all.


Thank you Supercook.com. You served me well.

Super who?

     After a long day of workouts, and homework, all I wanted to do was chow on some good food. Being a college student in San Francisco I lack the extra money to go out and get some food made for me. As wonderful as it sounds to be able to go to my favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi Rika; I can't.
    After searching through my cupboards a hundred times and finding absolutely nothing that sounded good, I decided I would lean on the internet for some support.

Hungry.
Tired.
& sick of looking at the same old stuff in my cupboards, I found a very helpful website.

Supercook.com 

     Basically, all you do is enter in ingredients in the side bar that you have in your cupboards, refrigerator or freezer. It does all the searching for you, and will tell you exactly what is possible for you to make with what you already have. So simple! It gives you a list of recipes you can put together and exact directions on how to make it. Don't worry about whether its good or not, Supercook provides reviews for most recipes. Sometimes you can read a review and get more of an idea how to make dishes a little better.

This is great for students! Use what you have, and save money!

What's a Girl to do?

It's a Saturday night, and it's my good friend Julie's birthday. About seven girls are hanging out in Julie's apartment when one girl says she's hungry. We're all eating cake, and cookies, and anything else we all could find in her cupboards. But Genna, the hungry one could not eat any of what we are eating. She has Celiac disease.  Yup, she's one of those gluten free kids. Can't have anything yummy like, wheat, rye and barley. Yes, that includes pizza, pasta, bread, cakes, and cookies. Sucks.
     Well like I was saying, she's a hungry gluten free girl, and nothing in Julie's apartment is quick and easy to fix up for her. Lucky enough, I had been saving some gluten free food in my apartment two floors down for this very occasion. Yay! So a very hungry, determined Genna and I ran downstairs to make her some delicious gluten free food.
     In no time at all, I had water boiling and rice pasta in the water cooking. Minutes later we added the cheese, and viola! Gluten free Mac 'n Cheese. Not bad I would say. She inhaled it, and we were back in the party in no time.

I have other things like pancake mix, cookie mix, bread crumbs (not really bread), and some more rice pasta. All gluten free. I would love to bake some cookies, and tell you all how wonderful they are. I'll have to make that happen. Let me know if you're interested.

Rock on gluten free kids! I support you. :)

Check out some other neat gluten free foods out there!

Celiac Disease?

    Whats up with this "gluten free" business? One reason some people have to eat gluten free food is because of celiac disease. One in 133 Americans have it. The symptoms  can vary, but the reason these people have any symptoms is because they consume gluten. Gluten is found in wheat, rye and barley. You can read more information in detail on celiac disease here.  

I want some naan!

Original Naan

     My life is full of flavor. All it took was a simple comment about naan and I was ready for some Chutney; Indian / pakistani gourmet curries. Yum! They have really good naan for cheap.  For anyone who doesn't know what naan is, it's a generic term for flatbread across the world. It originated in Persia. Super delicious bread freshly made. Every time I've had it its been warm and soft, easy to tear apart and dip in your curry.    

     Chutney's address is 511 Jones st. between O'ferrel and Geary st. Even being in the Tenderloin, business is not slow for them.  On a Sunday night at about 8:00 pm the restaurant was packed. Luckily there was a place for us to sit in the back. At Chutney you order before you sit. So the menus never leave the counter and you're food is started almost immediately after you sit. Plain naan is $1.00. They make stuffed naan with spicy ground beef, garlic naan, Paneer naan which is made with homemade cheese and Aloo naan thats stuffed with potatoes. All the fancy naan's are a dollar or two more.

Chutney's entrance

Chicken Tikka Masala

I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala which was recommended by the nice man that took my order. The description says its boneless chicken cooked with special Bombay sauce. Its bright orange yummy sauce. Very filling. I usually dip my naan in it.
Delicious.

If you're really hungry, order some rice with it. All this is about $12 dollars. Cheap and filling. Can't get much better. I've looked this restaurant up on yelp.com and found nothing but great reviews. So I'm not the only one that thinks this place is all that. They also cater to you! That can come in handy when you want to bring this food to your home.

Again, I recommend this place to everyone ready to try a great Indian / Pakistani restaurant. Authentic and flavorful Chutney knows what's up. Go try it.

Thanks for reading.
Happy eating.

Make it extra hot!

     Sushi Rika on the corner of Bush and Taylor st. is one sushi restaurant I've found in San Francisco that I love. If you're looking for a place to eat sushi for an early afternoon lunch, this isn't the place for you. Sushi Rika's hours are for the early dinners or late night eaters. They open every day at 5 pm and stay open until midnight on weekdays. 
     I've been there many times before and have always devoured my plate and sometimes plural, plates. Every time I'm in there, they have the latest tunes playing on a big screen in the back. It's a very casual restaurant and the crowd that I usually see there is younger. 


Enough about that though. The sushi is amazing! I love spicy foods and anything that can be hot; I will make it hot. I always get the Lion King roll, california roll, Kamikaze roll, and spicy tuna roll. All very delicious. I'm sure that all the others are great too, I have just yet to venture out and try them all. The california roll and spicy tuna rolls are fairly cheap. For eight rolls, you pay five bucks. Not too bad compared to some of the other places in the city. The other more fancy rolls run about $10.00 to $12.00 dollars. You got to love it, especially for the students out there. 

They really accommodate to their customers also. I always ask for extra spice to my rolls. Last time they added jalapeños and more Sriracha sauce. I don't like the tobiko very much and they are happy to take that off for me.   


So good people. I recommend this place to everyone that wants a great experience with sushi. They have other dishes besides sushi. So don't cross this off your list of restaurants too quick if you're not a fan of sushi. They have stuff for you too. 


Feel free to comment, ask questions. Anything. 
Thanks for reading.  
Happy eating. 

"This for FULL Asian."

     "This for full Asian." The waiter said. I was sitting across from my roommate staring at the menu with total confusion. I laughed and said, "Oh, well I guess that's not me. So what do you recommend?"
     The Borobudur Indonesian Cuisine; "A Journey of Taste" is their slogan. My roommate and I were standing outside the restaurant excited to taste this journey. We sat down and the waiter brought us our menus. My first glance at the menu I thought to myself, "I have no idea what is good, or what will I even like?" I immediately go to the spicy signs (little chiles next to the name, the more there was, the spicier it was). I saw the Nasi Goreng Terasi Pedas (two chile symbols) and thought it looked good. The description read, "Traditional Spicy shrimp paste fried rice with egg, onion and choice of: Chicken, Shrimp, or Mixed Vegetables" Yum! So I thought.
     My Roommate orders first. Then I say, "I'll have a number 58." There was no way he would understand what I meant if I attempted to pronounce Nasi Goreng Terasi Pedas. 
     This is when he informed me, "This for full Asian." Pointing to what I wanted. He then informed me that a lot of people don't like the dish because they say it is too fishy. Apparently the shrimp paste can get pretty strong smelling. He offered to make it for me and if I didn't like it he could take it back. I just couldn't do that, so I asked for a suggestion. I instead ordered a more mild dish. The Nasi Goreng. Everything the same, just no shrimp paste.
    The waiter was intrigued by my curiosity with the shrimp paste, so he brought some out in a jar for me to try with my food. I smelt it first. Not too fishy... Dipped a cucumber, and took a bite. BAM! Talk about some flavor. It was a flavor that I've never had before. A slight fish taste to it, but not as over powering as the waiter had made it sound. It was very spicy. Instantly my nose was runny. But the sauce was actually good. I liked it.
    When the waiter checked in with us, he asked if I had tried it. I told him I thought it tasted good. His face  lit up with surprised. He just smiled and said good for you.
     The shrimp paste was what made that meal. I can see how not everyone would enjoy it though. It has a distinct flavor, and its quite spicy. I recommend bringing tissues along for your runny nose. That's all I could think about when I was eating. "Should have brought tissues..."

Find out what Shrimp Paste is.

Living in San Francisco

     Living in San Francisco has changed my life completely. I'm originally from Veneta, Oregon, a super tiny town outside of Eugene, Oregon. If anyone knows where Veneta is at, I'm impressed. The town has about 3,500 people living in it, and has only one stop light.
     I moved to San Francisco two years ago for school. I was told I would not need a car. This is very true. I couldn't imagine having one in the city. I've become accustom to walking, or taking public transportation everywhere for things that I need. Living downtown makes things a little easier to access stores, but not always. I live about 25 minutes walking distance from the nearest large grocery store. There are small ones here and there that carry almost everything, but their prices are ridiculous.
     As you know I am a college student and would love to save some money, so those small markets just won't cut it. Some large grocery stores near me are Cala Foods (25 minute walk), and Safeway (15 minute bus ride plus 10 minute walk). Either way I'm spending almost a half hour dodging traffic.
     I'm going to be trucking around the city searching for great foods and awesome people. If  there is something that I've learned, San Francisco has the some of the most interesting people around. There are so many different cultures living in one area, how can one not take advantage of learning something from all the awesome people they could meet. Even if it is just about food. I love it when someone is passionate about what they love, and most people enjoy talking about what kind of good food they like.
     So... With that said, I'm going to challenge myself along with my roommate, to indulge in some of the great food out there from different cultures. We will walk the streets of SF in search of every ingredient needed to make an amazing meal.  We hope to also meet some pretty cool people along the way.

Sincerely,
Savory Endeavors