I had a little time before the conference started, and thought I would check out the San Francisco scene.  I was here once in the 1990s, but it was only for a few hours and it was before anything opened, so I really didn’t get any kind of sense of what the city was about.

I have this habit of waking up at ridiculous hours of the morning and starting my day.  Today, I worked for a while before setting out to see the sites of the city.  The main attractions on my list of things to do in San Francisco were Fisherman’s Wharf, China town, and of course the cable cars.

One of the things I like to proclaim about myself is that I am a food tourist, and it is true.  Whenever I am traveling, I make a point of figuring out what the signature foods that people eat when they live or visit a place.  I love food, and when I have a chance to try something new, I go for it.

I have had the sourdough and chowder before, on my last trip, for that very same reason.  But my goal was to spend some time in China Town and find something interesting.  The first thing I settled on was a plain old cucumber.  I walked in and out of dozens of markets of all types and honestly didn’t know what I was even looking at.  I did learn that there are a lot of different kinds of ginseng, and that some of that ginseng is really really expensive.  I don’t know what makes good ginseng, but someday I want to find out.  The problem was that there was no defined food to get in Chinatown so I was assaulted with options.

I really wanted a mango, but it doesn’t look like mangoes are in season.  Really, I thought way too much about what I wanted to eat this morning, but I just couldn’t make up my mind.  Next I tried a coconut tart kind of thing, and it delivered.  It was a unique taste and a really nice texture.  They looked like they were pretty common in many of the bakeries.

Then I walked into a bakery as I was nearing the end of China town over toward North Beach.  I felt awkward not knowing the proper way to even select my food, so I walked around and looked at everything they had, watching for a chance to see another customer go through the process of making a selection and buying it.  That panned out and I figured out how to select the food.  There are trays I had overlooked near the door and the process was to also grab tongs when you picked up a tray.  So I grabbed a tray and a set of tongs, and settled on a roll that looked like it had bits of ham, and some kind of vegetables baked into the bread itself.  If I had known what I was doing, I would have taken a picture.  I think it was called a ham sun roll, but I am not sure.

I made my purchase and took the roll out of the store and headed toward North Beach.  When a half block later I took the roll out and had my first bite, I realized that I had accidentally found a jewel.

The texture of the roll was closer to cake than roll, and the pastry was rolled up like a bedroll with layers of deliciousness in between each layer.  But on the outside, on the ends of the roll, there was some kind of substance that was a cross between slightly sweet and slightly savory.  And when I took that first bite, I experienced an explosion of flavor in my mouth like I had never experienced before. The effect was of biting into something that is both crusty and creamy.   It was not an overwhelming flavor, but rather it was like a tapestry of textures and flavors, delicately blended to complement each other and delight the mouth.  It was fabulous!  It had only cost me $1.50.   If I get a chance, I will return and see if a second round is as good as the first.

Thank you San Francisco, you have delivered!

PEACE!

KT
Day 9