Almond and goji berry chocolates – Benchic Chocolate

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Almond goji berry chocolates Benchic Chocolate

Cacao (raw chocolate), Bay Area wild honey, lucuma, vanilla, Himalayan salt, goji berries, and almonds.
Benchic Chocolate, Bay Area

I recently discovered a new, local chocolatier!  Benchic Chocolate makes delicious, minimally processed treats using only certified organic or pesticide free ingredients.  They are absolutely delicious and you can purchased them online!

Almond goji berry chocolates Benchic Chocolate

These chocolates are quite wholesome with only 7 high quality ingredients, and nothing is heated over 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the process.  These addicting morsels are dark, dense, and not overly sweet – just the way I like it!

Almond goji berry chocolates Benchic Chocolate

These particular chocolates have chopped raw almonds and goji berries inside. I love the bright red color of the berries, and you can still see their seeds.  The only sweetner used is local wild honey, so you don’t have to worry about any refined sugar.  You can really taste and apprecieate all the individual ingredients.

Benchic Chocolate box

My chocolates arrived in this chic (hehe) robin egg blue box reminiscent of those from Tiffany & Co.  Quite appropriate since both contain exciting treats inside.  Personally, I’d prefer chocolates any day – lol!

Benchic Chocolate packaging

Ben Tseitlin, founder of Benchic Chocolate, also teaches chocolate making classes for the general public.  You’ll not only learn about the history and health benefits of chocolate, but you’ll experience a tasting tour of ingredients and make your own scrumptious treats.

Simple, and simply delicious!

Lemon cream tart – Tartine Bakery

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Lemon cream tart Tartine Bakery

Sweet pastry shell filled with rich lemon cream, topped with unsweetened whipped cream and garnished with a dahlia petal.  $6.25
Tartine Bakery, San Francisco

Wow, this tart was absolute perfection!  I’ve heard people rave about this lemon cream tart, and now I know why!  The lemon cream is so silky smooth, sweet and with just the right amount of tartness.  The pastry shell is also amazing and the large dollop of unsweetened cream puts it over the top.  I ate this during the weekend so the calories don’t count, lol!

Lemon cream tart Tartine Bakery

And did I mention how beautiful it is!? I almost didn’t want to cut into it because as SO perfect looking. That hesitation didn’t last long though, and I couldn’t stop myself after I tasted the first bite. SO GOOD – NOMS!

Lemon cream tart Tartine Bakery

Italian sausage pizza – Firewood Cafe

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Italian sausage pizza Firewood Cafe

Mild Italian sausage, red and green bell peppers, Bermuda onions and homemade tomato sauce.  $10.75
Firewood Cafe, San Francisco

If you like THIN crust pizza, Firewood Cafe in the Castro is the place to go.  They have one of the thinnest crust around which is great for their mostly carb-conscious patrons, hehe!  I personally love thin crust so I often order pizza from here.  They have 5 different pizzas on their regualr menu and usually one daily special, and they’re all pretty good.  The pizzas aren’t the most creative, but they are tasty, decently sized, and very affordable.  Win, win if you ask me.  This Italian sausage pizza was delicious.  I like how the thin crust stayed crispy, and the vegetables did too.  Their homemade sauce isn’t particularly noteworthy, but it’s yummy enough and doesn’t detract from the toppings.  For $10.75, I’m sold!

Marinated olives Firewood Cafe

These marinated olives are complimentary with your order. The small dishes are lined up at the counter. I always want to take more than one! I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for olives…

BBQ pork spareribs – Ton Kiang

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BBQ pork spareribs Ton Kiang

You can’t really mess up Chinese bbq pork spareribs, right?  I mean all you have to do is marinate it, cook it, and voila – deliciousness!  Not so.  You certainly can make them really boring and forgettable.  And Ton Kiang succeeds in doing this, sorry.  There was very little flavor in these ribs, and even the fat was somehow bland if that’s possible.  This is also one of their larger dishes you it’s gonna cost you more $$.  Take my advice, don’t pull this one off the roving trays.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Chocolate budino – Reform Club

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Chocolate budino Reform Club

Served with a savory biscotti-like cookie, caramel sauce, and ice cream(?).  $40 for 4-course dinner.
Reform Club @ Specchio, San Francisco

This dessert didn’t do much for me.  In fact, I hardly remember eating it as evidenced by me not knowing if that was ice cream or not, lol!  I do remember that the caramelly sauce underneath was good and that the budino had a sparkly reflection to it.  They must have dusted it with something.  This budino was definitely more on the cake side rather than in the pudding/souffle realm.  A bit disappointing…

Tofu skin rolls – Ton Kiang

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Tofu skin rolls Ton Kiang

Steamed bean curd skins stuffed with what tasted like a meat and shrimp mixture, in a brown sauce and topped with chopped green onions.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

This was one of the few successes during my visit to ton Kiang.  It was very tasty and the 3 pieces were decently sized.  I’m not sure what the oily brown sauce was, but it had a nice mild flavor.  I loved the texture of the soft, filmy tofu skin surrounding the dense meat filling.  I don’t know if these skins were store bought, but I would love to see how they are made by hand.  It looks pretty cool from what I’ve seen online!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Chicharron y queso pupusas – Balompie Cafe

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Chicharron y queso pupusas Balompie Cafe

Thick corn tortillas filled with minced ground pork and cheese filling.  $5 for two.
Balompie Cafe, San Francisco

$5 for two large pupusas – SCORE!  Even less if you order them to go.  I’ve only recently discovered this delicious and addictive, traditional Salvadoran dish.  Where have I been, right!?  These things are so warm and comforting and they can be filled with so many things.  I always seem to order a meat and cheese combination.  These pupusas (shown above) were very good and quite large for the price.  I also tried their fish and shrimp pupusa, but didn’t enjoy it as much.  It had a strong, artificial seafood flavor and aftertaste.  Regardless, I would definitely recommend Balompie Cafe for yummy pupusas!

Curtido Balompie Cafe

The pupusas are served with pickled vegetables and a traditional curtido.  The pickled vegetables were scrumptious!  The curtido consists of a lightly fermented cabbage slaw with chilis and vinegar, and a watery tomato salsa.  I couldn’t help but drown my pupusas with the curtido, lol!  No sense in wasting food!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Squash pizza – Beretta

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Squash pizza Beretta

Delicious pizza with squash, provolone, prosciutto, onion and goat cheese.  $15
Beretta, San Francisco

I usually don’t go for vegetable pizzas, but this one was spectacular!  Granted it also had prosciutto (that was my compromise, hehe).  You can see that it had SO much squash on it – I kind of felt healthy eating this pizza.  The thin crust was very good and it was sturdy enough to support all the toppings.  It had a nice bite, good char and a great flavor.  Beretta is up there with Delfina Pizzeria as one of the places where I feel confident on consistently getting a delicious pizza!

Siu lung bao – Ton Kiang

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Siu lung bao Ton Kiang

Steamed Shanghai meat (pork) and soup dumplings.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

Are you kidding me?!  This has got to be one of the worst Shanghai soup dumplings I’ve ever tried.  I remember someone once saying that they didn’t like it when xiao long bao are steamed in foil cups, and now I know why!  This dumplings were so dry and barely had any soup inside.  The wrappers were thick and gummy, and the metallic reflection of the foil seemed sad compare to the beautiful, transulent green of a napa cabbage leaf or even a parchment round.  If you want to try Shanghai soup dumplings for the first time, do not go to Ton Kiang!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Duck confit – Reform Club

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Duck confit Reform Club

Large leg and thigh served with succotash, corn, tomato, shelling beans and basil. $40 for 4-course dinner.
Reform Club @ Specchio, San Francisco

This dish was one of the highlights of this pop-up dinner, partly because it was a full sized portion.  The other courses were tiny!  OK, the duck was also delicious and it was beautifully plated.  I also loved the succotash.  The bright vegetables were a great counterpoint to the rich duck.  The skin on that duck was SO good  and crispy, noms!  One guy at our table contemplated ordering another portion.  He was a big fellow and he was starving, poor thing…

Yeung qi dze – Ton Kiang

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Yeung qi dze Ton Kiang

Deep fried eggplant slices filled with a shrimp mixture.
Ton Kiang, San Francisco

Yet another disappointing dish from Ton Kiang.  These stuffed eggplants are one of my favorite dim sum dishes, and they managed to completely ruin it for me!  You can see from the photo that the color is a bit off and that’s because this was one of the greasiest things I’ve ever eaten!  The greasy was literally dripping off this thing once you picked it up with chopsticks, EW!  It had absolutely NO flavor except from the excessive oil that end up coating your entire mouth.  Good thing this was the last plate we had, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to taste the others from the oily film coating our taste buds.  Sadness…

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

Carnitas tacos – La Taqueria

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Carnitas tacos La Taqueria
 

Roasted pulled pork with pinto beans, salsa and wrapped in flour tortillas. $3.50 each
La Taqueria, San Francisco

My apologies, but this place is SO over rated and over priced!  The tacos may be large, but they were bland and the juice from the salsa (seemed to be used as filler) kept dripping down my arm.  It baffles me how these tacos made it on the 7×7 Big Eat 2011 list but then again, so did dim sum at Ton Kiang!  Both are disappointing and not worth a special trek to try them.  I honestly think that any taco truck in the Mission has better carnitas tacos and they’ll be cheaper too.  You’ve been warned, lol!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2011, 2012, 2013