Captivated. Utterly, unapologetically captivated by hearty noodle soups are we. You tempt me with a savory broth that speaks volumes about the tender love and care that has gone into its birth, and I will find myself a reason to fall into its depth with aplomb. It was that temptation that drew us into waiting for an hour in line at Mensho Tokyo's San Francisco spot, the first U.S. outpost of the acclaimed Japanese ramen-ya that focuses purely on a beautiful dining experience. Opened just this year, the restaurant features ramen, tsukement, and mazesoba but really, we were there for the first on that list, and we were absolutely not disappointed.

"Ramen is always bubbling with the love of all." - Owner Tomoharu Shono

Though the wait is long outside, it is for good reason. The restaurant only seats a handful of guests (under 30, it seemed), and its menu begs diners to stay a while and enjoy the dishes. There were just a few options to choose from, and it looked like many there opted for the same things. On occasion, there are specials that are done in unusual ways but we were on a mission: to try paitan. Once we had entered, it was comforting to see the walls decorated in such a way that explained the owner's philosophy and outlook on his food as well as the science behind making the perfect bowls. The arrangement inside encouraged community tables so if you aren't one who enjoys rubbing elbows occasionally with your neighbor, you might want to ask to sit on an end.


Though that evening there were three of us enjoying the restaurant, we all ordered the same thing because of all of the accolades - the Tori Paitan Ramen (Double Chashu) ($18 - 鶏白湯チャーシューめん - rich and creamy chicken soup, pork chashu, duck chashu, menma, kale, burdock, and Katsuobushi sauce). Compared to other ramen places we regularly visit, this was certainly at a higher price point but for good reason; it became apparent quickly that the cost was worth the broth alone. Despite the variations of ingredients that may have deviated from our notion of a traditional ramen dish, the bowl here was fantastic. It wasn't the wait that made it feel worth it; the ramen was just worth it. The rich and creamy broth was not a component to belittle as it touched on every sense in all the right ways. This was easily one of the best bowls of ramen I have ever had. The pork chashu melted in your mouth, and the duck chashu had a taste not too unlike duck prosciutto. I actually wish I had toured more of the menu in that moment but we were all getting so full from the ramen itself. If you have the time, certainly make your way to 676 Geary Street, San Francisco 94102 to experience Mensho Tokyo.

Photography by Duc Duong. More photos available on Facebook here.

We missed going to Mama's on our first trip to San Francisco not because we forgot about it; no, we took one look at the line wrapping around the building and up the street and decided we'd try our luck elsewhere. It constantly pops up in searches for favorite breakfast spots in the iconic city so eventually, we decided we'd need to give it a try. Also, if the lines are long, there must be a reason right? Our recent SF trip found time for us to snag spots before the opening hour and even then, there were quite the number of guests ahead of us. When we started moving and were the first people to have the door shut on us due to capacity, we wondered if it would take much longer; luckily, it was preemptive and we made it into the first round of people!


Surprisingly, for an established place with such acclaim, Mama's is a cash-only business so keep that in mind before you enter its quaint doors. The decor is darling, and the entire design makes you feel like you certainly stepped into a home and kitchen by someone you would call Mama even if she wasn't your own. Artwork and photographs lined the walls, giving you curious sights to browse as you waited to put your order in. Oh yeah, of note is that you just place your order and they bring the food to your table later...without giving you a buzzer or table number. They just know - pretty neat. Anyhow, the restaurant seemed to fill up quickly with two types of parties: the lone, contemplative native (I assume) and the cheerful group of visitors who had also heard much of the place.


The line outside was merely to get into the line inside where you could contemplate the menu while watching the open kitchen (well, barred by some glass) work on slinging multiple breakfasts in efficient time. We saw the portion sizes and opted to just have single entrees each rather than stock up on juices, mocktails, additional sides, or starters. Duc chose from the M'Omelette's menu which is served with Mama's grilled potatoes and choice of toast - he went for the S.O.B. (South of the Border) which came with Spanish chorizo, black beans, homemade salsa, and Pepper Jack. The omelette was generously full of its gooey chorizo and black bean goodness but lacked a certain panache to make it stand apart from other breakfast staples; the eggs did come out beautifully though.

I, on the other hand, had to get my mouth onto one of Mama's Benedicts because benedicts entice me anywhere they are available. Orders from this menu section are built from two poached Petaluma Farms eggs served on a toasted English muffin with hollandaise sauce and Mama's grilled potatoes. I chose the Norwegian Smoked Salmon bit and was greeted by two healthily wobbling eggs quickly. They themselves were a treat but the hollandaise erred on the too-lemony side (ah, my mouth is salivating now thinking about the tang!) and the smoked salmon too thick instead of being delicate. I did enjoy the accompaniments though, and the muffin possessed a great texture to meet the other, softer substances.

If you personally want to give Mama's a try, find the restaurant at 1701 Stockton Street, San Francisco, CA 94133 and come to your own verdict. After all, there's a reason they are frequently visited - perhaps our particular orders couldn't enlighten us just quite but yours will.

Photography by Duc Duong. More photos available on Facebook here.

This post is part of a series Much Ado About Fooding is doing on farmers' markets - Duc and I plan to visit as many as we can, starting in southern California, to get a sense of what sets each apart, what drives communities to them, and what gems people should look out for. To keep track, bookmark the "Farmers' Market" category.

The moment I looked up the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market in San Francisco a handful of years ago, I fell in love with the well-known event. The building itself is home to a culinary adventure on a daily basis but once the farmers' market is in full swing, a whole day could be spent there indulging in the treasures and pleasures for one's palate. Not only are modern-day treats available but there is also much history in the Ferry Building which was built upon the 1875 wooden Ferry House. Originally a hub for train travelers and ferryboat passengers, the building experienced the hubbub of masses of people and with its turnover in present-day to a gourmand's playpen, still faces it today. I had visited on my first trip with Duc to San Francisco but came back again on my next visit to The City by the Bay with much, much excitement.

399 Grove St, San Francisco, CA 94102 (Neighborhood - Hayes Valley)
Pricing - $$/$$$ | Dining - Casual, Dressy Casual | Cuisine - Cajun/Creole
www.boxingroom.com

I don't believe that I'll be one who ends up living in a big city but I certainly do like visiting them. Aside from the history and the community culture that fascinates with museums, art, and local flavor, there is also an abundance of food to choose from and usually within walking distance. When my friend and I headed to San Francisco recently, we decided that we would let chance decide our meal plans for us. We wandered around the Hayes Valley neighborhood a Friday night looking for someplace that didn't have a long wait and was appealing. The classic Louisiana menu idea caught our eye via wooden sandwich board propped on the street. It was for Boxing Room and it was just around the corner. They had space so we sat down to experience the menu headed by Executive Chef Justin Simoneaux that night.

203 C Pier 39, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Fisherman's Wharf)
Pricing - $$/$$$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Seafood
www.crabhouse39.com

San Francisco, San Francisco - I dream of you and your dungeness crab often. When I had my first taste of that sweet sea-meat, I fell in love with the crustacean and could not find another crab to compare. Therefore, when I knew I was returning to San Francisco this summer, I actively sought someplace that would have great crab. My other mission was to expose myself to cioppino again, a San Francisco-born dish that I had had once before by FIsherman's Wharf but wanted a different opinion. Searching online resulted in this gem on the tourist-filled Pier 39, and my friend and I were quite pleased with the visit.

520 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: North Beach)
Pricing - $ | Dining - Casual, To-Go | Cuisine - Gelato
www.gelaterianaia.com

I happened upon this place by accident really. Duc and I had been talking about gelato since we were in the Italian area of SF but weren't actively looking to get any. However, on our last night there, we had finished dinner and were walking back when we saw a bunch of people walk into a store. I gave a cursory glance before pulling him to a stop and pointing out that it was a gelateria (and we hadn't had gelato that weekend yet!).


We stepped inside the modest place - nothing dolled up in there. It just had its two lighted displays with its unique flavors. I've worked at a gelato place before where there were traditional flavors & I've been to Rome to see many others but this had some neat ones I hadn't seen before. We decided we'd get two separate ones with two flavors apiece - he got pineapple (so fresh and very pineapple-y) and papaya lime (talk about tart!) while I got the cassia cinnamon (quite strong, just like the raw sticks or hard candies rather than the ground sweeter type) with nocciolo (hazelnut...just magnificent). We also tried some of their other flavors and man, when she tells you that the green tea is strong, she's not kidding. Good stuff though. I'd want to come back for more since there were so many interesting flavors! If you go, keep in mind that it's cash only!

565 Green St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: North Beach)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Dressy Casual | Cuisine - Wine Bar, Small Plates
www.delluvasf.com

The last night we had in San Francisco, we wanted to make sure we weren't overstuffing ourselves. After searching around on Yelp for nearby places that would have small dinners/plates, we came across Dell'Uva. It was a wine bar but there was food on the menu so hey, why not? Just a few streets down from where we were staying!


We sat outside when we got there since everyone inside was pretty much there for the wine. It gave us a street view - we unfortunately didn't think ahead though because there were some smokers who hung around or walked past. Anyhow, we ordered the Pesto Pizza and the Mac & Cheese (per Yelp suggestions), mushroom and truffle oil variety. Our waitress was very curt with somewhat of an attitude with people around; it wasn't rude but I immediately thought New York in my head. So yeah, staff was nothing to rave about. The food we got was exactly what we wanted in terms of sizing (didn't stuff ourselves!) but it wasn't anything particularly amazing. The pizza had fresh ingredients and was what I preferred of the two since I thought the pasta in the mac & cheese was overdone. The dish was cheesy, yes, but could've done with better preparation. Overall, a fair meal but not a place to rush to again.

1029 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Chinatown)
Pricing - $ | Dining - To-Go | Cuisine - Bakery

After dim sum with my friend, she suggested dropping by here for the "best dan ta" around. They're apparently famous for their egg tarts (and Yelp confirmed so!). She said that there's normally a line wrapping around but we came at a good time when it wasn't too busy. We only ended up waiting a long time because they ran out of egg tarts right before us so guess what? Egg tarts FRESH out of the oven! It's a cash only place so keep that in mind when (not if) you visit. The dan ta were so amazing when hot and later on in the day too when they settled/cooled down. The flaky crust was spot on and not too buttery. The egg part was silky smooth and just the right hint of sweetness that wasn't overpowering. Easily the best dan ta. I'm salivating in my mouth thinking about them again...

649 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Chinatown)
Pricing - $$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Chinese, Dim Sum

Since I was vacationing in San Francisco for a weekend, I knew I had to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen in years who had moved to the area. We agreed on dim sum and this was her suggestion for sit-down dim sum in Chinatown (there are mostly to-go dim sum places there). It wasn't hard to find at all but there was definitely a line when we went in on a Sunday morning around 10:30. Lines usually mean everything's great right? My friend told me while we were waiting that instead of traditional dim sum carts being pushed around, we would get a menu and order (sushi bar style almost). That was pretty interesting - it was a good thing there was also a picture page so we weren't lost by the translations.


We actually ordered a ton of food but managed to eat it all; hoorah for having a guy eat with us eh? I really liked everything except for the shrimp rice noodle which is my favorite of the typical dim sum dishes. It was probably BECAUSE it's my favorite that I was so critical. The fried crab balls were very juicy and delicious. I introduced the two to the taro and meat crisps, and we all tried fried shrimp paste. Great stuff. As for more traditional/steamed foods, the shu mai and har gow were great. There was also a shrimp & cilantro dumpling that I tremendously enjoyed for the bursts of flavor it gave me. Overall, a somewhat crowded place (hence the lack of carts being pushed around) but delicious food and quick service. My only real beef is that it was much more expensive than I'm accustomed to dim sum being!

2824 Jones St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Fisherman's Wharf)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Casual, To-Go | Cuisine - British, Seafood

Since my friends at NomNomCat had recently been to San Francisco, a quick Tweet sent Duc and me in the direction of Codmother Fish and Chips per their suggestion. So glad we took them up on the thought - it was a great find! It looks like a food truck that decided to stay put in the area and why not? The food's worth it. Suzanne, the owner, was so sweet about everything and made the experience even better than we had expected. Love her British accent too!


So of course we had to get the Fish and Chips. It had been so long since I had had any, so I was glad to be going somewhere where that was the signature dish (and which had good ratings on Yelp!). I didn't care too much for the chips part because I was really hankering for the fish. So good! The batter had ground black pepper mixed in before it was fried so it gave a nice, dare I say, peppering of flavor throughout each bite. The fish was so fresh and tender - I liked seeing its juicy whiteness just peel away in chunks in my fork. This was probably the best fish and chips I've ever had; most places have too much batter, oil, and/or salt.


Seeing as we were eating for two, we also had ordered the crazy chips/fries. I know I said I didn't care much for the chips with the fish & chips order but these...these were crazy fries! Smothered in what was called the Baja sauce and freshly minced garlic (and cilantro methinks), they were absolutely addictive. The sauce was a cool, tangy but sweet topping that was nicely complemented by the fresh spice of the garlic; healthy-feeling heaven in my mouth considering they were fries after all.


To combat that healthy sentiment, we had checked in on Yelp so we got free dessert. What's the dessert? Uh, the glorious, probably heart-attack inducing wonder that is fried Oreos. My goodness, look at the cross-section picture. It was like a sweet, sweet donut. I'm not a fan of Oreos but if I had to have them, please have them be deep-fried in this way.

Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA 94111 (Neighborhood: Embarcadero)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - To-Go | Cuisine - American

We had wanted to go to Mama's for breakfast considering the high ratings on Yelp but when we got there and saw that the line wrapped around, we figured we'd get our breakfast at the Farmers Market that we were heading towards anyhow. Luckily Yelp helped us find breakfast in the area which happened to be one of the booths at the Farmers Market itself. There was a long-ish line there already (usually a good sign!). Apparently Rose Pistola is a brick-and-mortar restaurant located in North Beach which decided to set up a booth at the Farmers Market on Saturdays.


I decided to go with the breakfast & eggs part of the menu; my choice was the plate of wild mushroom scramble with Stracchino cheese and basil. Nicely enough, the egg breakfasts also came with toast and roasted potatoes/peppers/onions. I quite liked mine because there was quite an abundance of wild mushrooms in my eggs. The cheese wasn't nearly as detectable as I would have liked nor the basil but the potatoes were delectable and many. Duc got the grilled flank steak sandwich with carmelized onions & Bleu cheese. We both agreed that the cheese was quite overwhelming and took away from the other flavors of the sandwich. However, the steak was done well and deliciously (once we had scraped off the cheese). Delicious breakfast that had us both quite full but man, wish we could've had a bigger stomach for the other things at the Farmers Market!

Following delicious pictures taken by Duc:

400 Jefferson St, San Francisco, CA 94109 (Neighborhood: Fisherman's Wharf)
Pricing - $$/$$$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Italian, Seafood
http://www.letseat.at/cioppinos

One of my life goals (and interestingly enough, one of Duc's goals) is to travel to where particular dishes were created and have the "best" one available there. For San Francisco, the dish created there that is most known is cioppino, which is a rich, seafood stew. I looked on Yelp for places that had the highest ratings for cioppino; since we were going to be in Fisherman's Wharf already, we opted to go to Cioppino's, named after its signature dish. It's a good sign, no?


We got seated promptly (came earlier than our reservation), and started off our dinner with some complimentary sourdough bread and an appetizer of dungenness crab cakes. Fantastic! They had a pesto aioli, roasted red peppers, and a tad bit of greens which cut the aioli well. My particular crab cake probably had too much of the aioli but that was just a plating issue. The crab cake itself was quite fine in terms of shredded meat; I'm used to lump crab cakes that fall apart. This was a fairly unified morsel of greatness. Loved it, particularly because it became more nuanced in flavor as I ate more.


We shared a bowl of the small cioppino which made us ridiculously full! I'm guessing we wouldn't have finished the regular size. I think it had to do with how hearty they made it. It had dungenness crab, mussels, clams, snapper, calamari, shrimp, and tomatoes in a stew. Talk about loading up on the EVERYTHING! I admit that I have no other dish of cioppino to compare this to but it was alright for what it was. I thought the fennel was quite heavily used in this dish's preparation but hey, maybe that's how it's supposed to go. I'm also unfortunately not a big fan of seafood but for what it was, pretty good. We were bursting at the end too - a fun, diverse dinner to end our day with.