Here’s the menu and place setting… you can see they serve a small bowl of fried spiced chickpeas which are very crunchy and tasty.

We started with an appetizer of the Totopos con Chile (tortilla chips, salsa de arbol, cotija cheese, onions, cilantro, crema and lime). The chips are coated in the salsa (which is extremely spicy) – it’s the closest equivalent to nachos meets chilaquiles.  I enjoyed the totopos very much, and couldn’t stop eating them despite being so spicy my eyes were watering and my face was red and hot and my mouth was on fire.

Here are the carnitas! I ordered this dish because it got amazing reviews and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.  As you can see it’s quite a large piece of meat, served with coleslaw and hot sauce.  This is the menu description: Braised pork, orange, bay leaf, milk, cinnamon, beer Cabbage salad, pickled jalapeño and salsa de tomatillo.  The dish is also served with a few hot tortillas.

Here’s a closeup!

The meat is tender and juicy with some charred bits that are super tasty.  I ended up making mini tacos with the meat, tortillas and slaw (“cabbage salad”)… I had to order a second order of tortillas and ate a total of about 5. Yummers!

When the check came they brought little mexican cookies – kind of nutty with powdered sugar on top.

That’s it!  Have you been to Nopalito? What did you think?

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Some background… one night Hav and I were watching tv and we saw a feature on KoJa Kitchen on the Food Network (I think?) about this place… I remember them talking about the rice buns and how they had the molds custom made… and the special hot sauce had a ton of ingredients. The buns were what initially peaked my interest. So we decided to go to the Off the Grid at UN Plaza in SF to check it out. I was so excited… !!

We got there right before lunch time so we just missed the long lines (whew), and as we were looking at their very high tech food truck (they have tv displays with the menu, whoaaa), I saw it….

KAMIKAZE FRIES. OMFG. So I ordered the KoJa combo with the beef koja and the kamikaze fries.

Here it is!! The presentation was amazing (that’s the vegetarian koja on the right… holy crap I couldn’t find a place fast enough to sit down and dig in!!

The Koja sandwich was AWESOME!!! The garlic rice bun was toasty and kind of crispy on the outside but still sticky rice-like on the inside. It was really good and a super unique alternative to traditional buns. The beef was very tender and flavorful! It was so good I ate every last bit.

Now for a truly life changing moment… THE KAMIKAZE FRIES. Let me just say that it has been almost 2 months now since I’ve had these fries and they are still a) on my mind almost daily, and b) have saved me from awkward situations as the topic of many conversation starters. When I’m bored and thinking about what I’d like to be eating at any moment, the kamikaze fries are either 1st or 2nd on my mind.. I’m not kidding.

If you didn’t know, I freaking love french fries. They are my favorite food EVER and it’s been a real challenge out here on the west coast to find a) good fries and b) disco fries of any kind. So hail to the fry gods, lord fry is here!

Take a good look at the fry pic. I know it’s not that good. That’s because I was so eager to eat that I just took a few really fast pics after I received the food from the window (because a long line was forming around me)… When we finally sat down I was too impatient and started eating right away so I messed up my opportunity to take amazing photos… but that’s ok because I know I’ll be back.

Anyway, back to the fries. They are WAFFLE fries and are topped with – or should I say drenched in korean bbq beef (ground up), sour cream, hot sauce, green onion, and probably some other stuff that I can’t remember – but it doesn’t matter because it’s A-MAZING and you’ll be snarfing this little paper tray of fries faster than you can breathe. The waffle fries are perfectly fried and crispy. I don’t know what kind of oil they fry them in but whatever it is, don’t change it!

Basically KoJa Kitchen is the freaking BOMB… you need to go there asap. Holy shiitake! Since experiencing KoJa Kitchen for the first time in Oct, I’ve definitely found myself first in line at 10:50am waiting for fries… need I say more?

KoJa Kitchen travels around the Bay Area – they’re always somewhere different everyday… so follow them on Facebook and Twitter to find out where they will be next!

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I went to Humphry Slocombe again last night, my 2nd time in the past week. Talked some friends into going there who had only a “so-so” first experience. I had to help change their minds!

long story short…

for the love of freaking freakshow, go there NOW and get the red hot banana ice cream!! It is seriously one of the best flavors i have ever had in my entire life.

I’m not normally a banana person. Sometimes I eat bananas, but I’m not bananas for bananas if you know what I mean… but I thought to myself, “hey, since I’m here again I should try something different.”

Well let me tell you, because the photo below does not even begin to tell you how amazing it is… if you like banana, the ice cream is banana flavored. It’s not yellow, it’s kind of an off white color so it doesn’t really look like banana, but it is sweet and creamy and super banana-y! And the red and pink specks… well, those are RED HOTS smashed up and stirred around in the ice cream. So you take a sweet lick of banana, then get a nice little cinnamon kick of red hots, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a crunchy glob of hot cinnamon bits!

Holy crapola, I need to get back to Humphry Slocombe again this week before they run out of this flavor…

I really wasn’t expecting to have my mind completely blown into a billion red hot pieces… I’m still thinking about this ice cream and plotting another trip back there ASAP!

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110
website

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I haven’t had pupusas in about 4 years (WTF is wrong with me) yet it is a food that I do crave and wish I could get easily in the east bay but I haven’t found a good spot yet (any suggestions?).

El Zocalo has a very special place in my foodie heart, because this was the first restaurant I ever ate at when I moved to San Francisco. I flew from JFK to SFO with my friend and my 2 cats in the airplane, and this was the first place we went to after we got to my new apartment and dropped everyone off.  It actually her favorite restaurant from when she used to live here years ago, so it was cool to go back there with her.

Anyway, here it is. It’s on the border of the mission and bernal heights. Most places classify it as bernal but I always think of it as just far out there in the mission.

I ordered my old regular… 2 pupusas with beans and crema and an order of platanos con crema (plantains and sour cream). I get the “revueltas con frijoles” pupusas, pork with cheese and beans.

Here’s the food, ain’t it lovely? Couldn’t wait to dive face first right into that plate… it comes with a side of slaw that you put on top it’s a tangy vinegary slaw…

I never had pupusas before I moved to San Francisco. Boy am I glad I tried them, they are up there on my list of most perfect foods (and in good company with other stuffed/pocket favorites, lol). Basically it’s a corn tortilla stuffed with meat, cheese, beans, etc and patted flat into a disc and cooked on a griddle!

OMG NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM. Cut a row into little squares. Put it on your fork with the slaw and dip it in the beans and sour cream = SO FREAKING GOOD!!

Here’s the platanos con crema. They are so good too!! It’s hard to go to this place without ordering both things… of course the chips and salsa are free, and the chips are house-made, so they’re super crunchy and sometimes come out warm.

This place is very popular, especially on the weekends after parties end down the street at at El Rio – the BEST time to go is in the afternoon after the lunch rush… between 2-4 pm is perfect! When it’s busy it takes a long time to get your food… just an FYI, don’t go there if you’re in a hurry. It’s really worth the wait.

El Zocalo has made me into a pupusa snob. The only other place I’ve had them is Balompie in the mission which is also very good (but kind of sports bar like)… but I prefer the nostalgia of “the ZOC”!

El Zocalo
3230 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110

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I usually only get over to Humphry Slocombe every few months or when my sister is visiting… haven’t been there in a while. It was awesome because I arrived around 2:30pm and there was NO ONE there. Ahhh the lucky off-hour… nothing better than having the whole freakin place to myself!

I peeped into the ice cream fridge scanning around for the watermelon sorbet… IT WASN’T THERE, ugh! So I tasted and then ordered a delicious cup of Bluebottle Vietnamese Coffee.

Since the place was empty and I was there to fryhole, I started taking some photos… and before I sat down to eat my ice cream I asked the guy when they would have the watermelon sorbet again – and he said they were out of it… ugh! Super disappointed… I came to late and it sold out!

THEN… a guy appeared in the back holding a white tub and said “you want watermelon?” OMG! He had a secret extra tub of it! Holy crapola, it was my lucky day!! So I bought a cup of that too, hehe.

It took me about a half hour to eat both cups of ice cream. The Vietnamese coffee was AMAZING. I would definitely get that again – super smooth, sweet, and just a hint of coffee flavor, not overpowering like some other coffee ice creams out there. Definitely had that condensed milk sweetness that Vietnamese coffee has… super creamy and freaking awesome.

The salted watermelon sorbet was definitely worth it!! It tasted exactly like the watermelon from the salad I make every summer with watermelon, feta, mint and sea salt. OMG. It was crumbling everywhere because it was extra frozen so I kind of made a big mess all over the counter… but I ate the whole cup and boy did I have a huge brain freeze when I was finished with both cups.

If you haven’t gone yet, GO. And if you want to avoid lines, go between 2-3pm.

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110
website

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We arrived right before it started to get really dark… it was only open for an hour and already the place was packed.

There weren’t as many food trucks there as I thought there would be… in fact there were about 6 or 7 and a drink tent.  The lines for all of the trucks were super long except this adorable truck on the end, El Sur empanadas artisenales. I was standing pretty close to it and the buttery smell wafting out of the window was making me kray… I HAD TO GET ONE.

I got a “champignones” (mushroom) for $4 and it came warm and piping hot!

OMFG. This thing was freaking AMAZING. For the love of freaking bejeezus if you like mushrooms and cheese, you need to find this truck asap and get your paws on one! It am kicking myself now for not trying more flavors.

When I bit into it, mushrooms and cheese oozed out from a flakey buttery awesome crust. There’s really nothing like cheesy goodness stuffed inside a flakey pocket… the mushrooms were sliced very thin so it was nice to not have to really chew too much and I really did appreciate that it was warm because then it felt more “meal-like”, if you know what I mean.

This $4 empanada really made my night. I also had an “artisenal” mini burrito (hot slop in an eggroll wrapper) from the truck next door which was NOT GOOD, but we won’t go there.

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Find out where El Sur will be on Twitter and here’s their website.

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