California Love: Part 2

There are sketchy areas in any city. However, when that is your first experience of a new place, it may not give you the best first impression.

View from our room in the hostel

We booked a room in a hostel in the city center of San Francisco, and were exhausted and ready to settle in when we finally arrived there after our big detour earlier in the day. We were both tired, hungry, and a little grumpy as we checked in. When I googled our directions to the hostel, and told Matt it was in an area called the Tenderloin, he wasn't very excited. He said that it was in a sketchy neighborhood, but it would be fine as long as we had somewhere to sleep. And he was right. The hostel itself was nice. It was quirky and charming, the old school elevator was pretty neat, and it had a cozy feel about it. And the bed-- OMG it was the most comfortable bed I had ever laid on. Fucking tempurpedic doesn't mess around. And after sleeping directly on the ground for the last two nights, our aching bodies wanted nothing more than to pass out. But we decided to go find food.

Matt had stayed in the city for a month with some friends--6 years ago. A lot had changed, but he wanted to take me to his favorite taqueria where he used to go. It was in the Mission, not far from the ghetto we were staying in. The walk there had plenty of homeless crackheads, and we even got to see a dude with his dick out in the stoop of a building. Wow.

So far I was not impressed. But we finally arrived at Taqueria Cancun and yes, the tacos were dynamite. Well worth the walk through the Mission. But all I wanted was to return to that cloud of a bed and take a nap.

Which we did.

We agreed to wake up and go watch the sunset on the bay, a lovely idea...And then we woke up at 10:00 and it was dark out. We tried to decide what to do, but getting out of bed seemed so hard. We finally ventured out to eat at a Thai restaurant that we had read about and wanted to check out, that was conveniently less than a block from where we were staying. Lers Ros Thai was probably the best Thai food I've ever had. Not only was it inventive and featured a ton of meats that aren't featured in most American Thai restaurants, but it was also presented beautifully. I had a coconut milk red curry with duck and pineapple, and it was a gorgeous plate. It was full of flavor and umami, and had just enough fish sauce to add that depth of flavor without overpowering the senses. Matt's rabbit dish off the specials menu was better than mine. The rabbit was succulent and delicious. Awesome Thai and terrific tacos=not a bad night in the Bay City.

We had to leave the next day for our long drive back home, so we spent the morning sightseeing and going to all the touristy spots. Seeing the charming, colorful, flower covered houses lining the incredibly steep streets. We drove to the top of a hill overlooking the bay, and it was so beautiful! This is why I like to not plan things too much when I travel. It's always the unexpected moments that are the best, just like with the spontaneous camping on the beach. Nice things happen.

Of course we had to go to Fisherman's Wharf and walk around all the Alcatraz tourists and trinket stands. I got some postcards and a sweatshirt. I know...I'm so lame. It was a beautiful day, pretty hot actually. We drove out to look at Golden Gate Bridge again, because the photographer nerd in me wanted to snap some pictures. There was nowhere to park, so I had to hop out while Matt drove around, which sucked but it's alright. We headed back to the Mission for our last spot- Mission Chinese. We had both heard about the spot, read about it, and it was on the list of recommended places that my chef-who used to be a chef in San Francisco- recommended to me.

It is everything a Chinese restaurant should be, at least to me. The fun decor, big paper dragons hung across the ceiling, the lack of lighting, and punk rock music in the background that really reminded me of the stuff that one of my roommates(the one who is in a semi-punk band) regularly put on the record player in the living room.. It was fun, and the tattooed waitress was cool and singing along with the music. We ordered local beer, mine was a watermelon ale that the waiter described to me as 'summer in a can' and it didn't dissapoint. We were both enchanted by the menu. This isn't your normal sweet and sour chicken, pork fried rice place. The flavors, dishes, and everything were so out of the normal and...inventive. They all made my mouth water.

Tiki Pork Belly

 We ordered a couple appetizers, and one was the Tiki Pork Belly. I saw the word 'soy caramel' and I was instantly sold. But they kept teasing me. Pickled Pineapple. coconut and macadamia nuts were all in the mix. And fuuuuck was it delicious. The sauce that the belly was braised in was so sweet, salty, almost cherry like. And tender. I love pickled things. Especially things that aren't usually pickled. The pineapple was so explosive, and it's the perfect thing to pickle, really. It's so sweet that having that acid is a beyond perfect balance.

My squid ink pasta with lamb and harissa yogurt sauce was insanely tasty. I've always wanted to try squid ink pasta, so that was also an easy sell. It was a unique Chinese-meets-Middle-East plate that I hadn't expected. But I loved. I was so full, but I wanted to keep eating. And then the General Tso's Veal Rib that Matt ordered...OMG. So tender and juicy and delicious. Veal. It's amazing. We lucked out and arrived about half an hour before they closed for lunch, without realizing it, and were so glad we made it. It was the best thing we ate during the whole trip, and we left with 3 to go boxes!

Squid Ink Pasta-yes, it's black.

We began our drive home at the worst possible time of day. Oh My God the steps toward insanity that we made while we crawled along were frightening. We tried listening to the radio, but nothing came on that we were into. Matt is a serious NPR listener, and his favorite segment is This American Life. I always make fun of him, because every time I get in the car he is listening to NPR. He knows all the different hosts and jingles that open each segment. So we put on his This American Life app- THAT'S RIGHT, THERE'S AN APP FOR IT- and listened to stories about people. At first I was hardly paying attention, but I realized 2 hours in and 3 miles later, that I was interested and actually enjoying it. I laughed at something the host said, and Matt got a huge grin on his face. We listened to This American Life for a couple hours, even when we finally left Oakland and got moving over 5 MPH well after 6PM. We had planned on leaving at 2 because we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us, and Matt had to work at 10 the next morning. So this was a setback. We switched over to some of my slacker stations, but were back on NPR a few hours later. I started looking through and picking the episodes to listen to, and really loved it.

"I Was So High" was one that Matt picked out for me to listen to, and it was hilarious. It was nice to have something to laugh about and keep us awake during the drive that ended up taking us 14 hours. It was nice though, watching the sunset over the mountains in the valley, finally seeing a million bright stars in the sky, and stopping at In-N-Out Burger. I had never been, so that was our final goal on our trip. It was a burger...nothing too special. Although, thinking about it right now is making my mouth water a little bit.

Sunset cruising

I refused to sleep, and stayed awake with Matt, talking, listening to This American Life, and thugging out to some Kanye. When we stopped at a rest area to pee, I made Matt dance around the parking lot with me and jump up and down and sing, so wake ourselves up. This was at probably 3 AM. It was tough, and I closed my eyes a couple times, but powered through and kept Matt company. As we approached Portland at about 5, the sun was starting to come up. It was a little depressing to watch the sun set and then rise in the car, but also beautiful because it was the second sunrise I watched on our trip, and two that I'll always see with my brain camera.

Tea smoked Eel Roll