Sampling two Mission District favorites

Because of my job transition, I had a couple of free days during the week last month. There were several popular food spots in San Francisco’s Mission District I had long wanted to try, but the weekend crowds kept deterring me. Finally I could check out these places without the ridiculous wait.

TARTINE BAKERY

I went to Tartine Bakery on a Wednesday afternoon. Many consider Tartine to be the best bakery in San Francisco, and it’s most well-known for its French bread, croissant, and banana cream tart.

I was pleasantly surprised to see no line in the store. The croissants are often sold out before lunch, but there were still many on the counter today. I had checked the menu repeatedly before coming, so I knew what to get right away.

I ordered a croissant and a slice of passion fruit lime bavarian cake to go. The svelte young woman behind the counter carefully placed the pastries into a bag and a box. The kind of service you’d expect at an upscale patisserie. Tartine is not cheap; I spent almost $10 on just two items.

Perfect croissant

Deliciously buttery and flaky layers

Nowhere is better than nearby Mission Dolores Park to enjoy the pastries. Although it was a work day, the park was filled with young hipsters chatting, sunbathing, or playing Frisbee. I sat under a tree and tried the croissant first. The perfectly shaped croissant was rich, buttery, both crispy and chewy as if it had a thousand layers. It’d be even better if served warm. It definitely lived up to the hype.

Cake layered with passion fruit bavarian cream

Too bad the cake was just mediocre. It was moist and had a nice lime flavor, but I could hardly taste the passion fruit in the bavarian cream between the cake layers. While the cake looked great and was topped with coconut flakes – my favorite – I expected more at this price.

FLOUR AND WATER

The other night my friend and I got to the immensely popular Californian-Italian restaurant Flour and Water, before it opened at 5:30 pm. Already there was a line of about 10 people. Because the restaurant doesn’t take reservations for small groups, many people (us included) came early to snag a table.

Warm dining room at Flour and Water

Flour and Water has won the hearts of food critics in the press including the San Francisco Chronicle and SF Eater since its opening last year. It isn’t uncommon for people to wait past 10 pm to get in on a weekend night. Fortunately the maître d’, who seemed unperturbed by the early crowd, promptly seated us in the cozy, earth-toned dining room.

The menu was short so it didn’t take us long to make our choices. As a vegetarian, I often don’t have many options anyway. I ordered a shaved cantaloupe salad with tender greens, pickled peppers, and shaved pecorino as my appetizer, then a thin-crust pizza - the restaurant’s claim to fame – topped with arugula and cherry tomatoes as my main course.

Incredibly fresh cantaloupe salad with greens

The greens in my salad tasted incredibly fresh. The unexpected combination of flavors: sweet from the cantaloupe, tangy from the pecorino, with a little bit of heat from the peppers thrown in, immediately set the restaurant apart from its peers.

My main course: thin-crust pizza topped with arugula and cherry tomatoes

The pizza was excellent too. I liked that the crust was firm while still airy and chewy. The fresh toppings, especially the cheese, were remarkable. I’m usually not crazy about cheese, but this cheese had a unusually clean flavor and smooth texture. I should have written down the name of the cheese.

Warm polenta cake with fresh blueberries and corn ice cream

Unfortunately, like at many top-rated restaurants I’ve been to , the dessert was disappointing. My friend got a warm polenta cake with fresh blueberries and corn ice cream from talk-of-the-town ice cream parlor Humphrey Slocombe. The cake was ordinary, and the ice cream didn’t taste of corn at all.

Still, Flour and Water was outstanding overall, perhaps slightly better than another great Italian restaurant, Barbacco, that I tried several months ago. I felt more comfortable with Flour and Water’s neighborly vibe too. Service was at just the right level: attentive but not overbearing. I thought the experience was well worth the $35 (including tips) that we each paid.

P.S. check out this wonderful insider guide to San Francisco in the revamped Wall Street Journal weekend edition, which featured many lesser-known, interesting spots including Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous, my new favorite ice cream shop. With flavors such as candied violet and burnt sugar, its offerings are at least as good as that of Bi-Rite Creamery, widely regarded as having the best ice cream in town.

Another dreamy farm tour

I love the country, but because I don’t have a car, I jump on any chance to get out there through other means. I had a wonderful time on the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association farm tour along the San Mateo Coast last year, so I signed up for this year’s tour to Watsonville as soon as I learned about it.

Watsonville is close to Santa Cruz and known for its agricultural produce. We visited three farms on this trip: Phil Foster Ranches, Far West Fungi, and Hillview Farm. Like last year, we enjoyed an outdoor farm-to-table lunch prepared on the spot in the middle of the trip.

Each farm operates very differently from one another. Phil Foster Ranches is a large, commercial, all-organic farm that hires tens of workers and uses machinery extensively. It grows a wide range of crops. During our trip in late August, we saw leeks, lettuces, chards, summer squash, strawberries, and the early crop of apples.

So liberating to be on a farm like this

Rows of chards

These are summer squash actually

When Phil encouraged us to go into the fields to taste the strawberries and apples, we were like kids unleashed and scouted for the plumpest fruits. Nothing beats the taste of freshly picked fruits; the strawberries were amazing.

Strawberries still on the plant

The scenery was also picture-perfect. Imagine a boundless clear sky under which long, parallel rows of crops gradually converge into a backdrop of gently sloping mountains. Phil was proud of his farm; even his dog was having fun when showing us around. Obviously it was an idealized picture, but I wondered what it’d be like to live and work on a farm like this.

Apple trees

Phil’s dog taking a break

We then moved on to Far West Fungi. Before we toured the farm, we sat down to have lunch made using produce from Phil Foster Ranches and mushrooms from Far West Fungi. The vegetarian menu included crostini topped with pureed broccoli and grilled mushrooms, cauliflower soup, and a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, and feta.

Farm-to-table alfresco lunch

The most delicious items were those that brought out the freshness of the ingredients, such as the mushrooms and salad. It was a hot day, so the aqua fresca the chefs made from several types of melons served as a great thirst quencher.

Far West Fungi is a small, multi-generation family business. It sells both edible and medicinal mushrooms, and has a store in the San Francisco Ferry Building. The farm has great views of the Pacific Ocean, but it’s far from quaint. This was my first time seeing mushrooms grown on a commercial scale, and I quickly realized that they don’t come from enchanted forests we read about in fairy tales.

Different kinds of mushrooms grown at Far West Fungi

Instead, the mushrooms sprouted from “blocks” of organic matter housed in dark, damp container-like structures. I can’t remember exactly, but the organic matter was something like compost or dead wood. It takes months for the mushrooms to break down the organic matter and grow big enough for human consumption. The blocks were placed on rows of shelves, and it’s a bit eerie walking past blocks of protruding mushrooms in various shapes.

John, the owner, holding one of the “blocks” and explaining how to grow mushrooms

Yellow-headed mushrooms, but I couldn’t remember the name

Intimidating-looking matsutake mushrooms

Before we left the containers, the owner offered some maitake mushrooms for us to taste raw. But the smell of decay inside the containers put me off and I didn’t taste any.

Our final stop of the tour was Hillview Farm, another family-run business that grows 100+ varieties of apples and other fruits. Walking among the apple trees under the sun is like experiencing California in the movies, and I couldn’t help marveling the bounty.

Apples for tasting before the tour at Hillview Farm

California’s bounty – apples everywhere

Since everything seemed so perfect, it was a letdown when the owner told us he sprayed the apples and couldn’t afford to go organic. I understand organic farming is expensive, but as a consumer, I was reluctant to taste any more apples on the farm after the revelation. Perhaps there’s a better way for the owner to convey that piece of information?

As we were heading back to San Jose at the end of the tour, I felt thankful that I could join a tour like this again. Call it a marketing ploy on the part of the farmers if you want, but it makes a huge difference for me to know the person who grows my food, given the problems of our faceless, industrial food system. I’m now more determined to buy from farmers’ markets whenever possible.