On one Saturday morning, after venturing to the Alemany Farmer’s Market in San Francisco, my husband was on a quest to get his knives sharpened. The usual knife sharpening vendor he frequented at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market was on vacation. So he yelped a new knife sharpening vendor – Bernal Cutlery.

Upon arriving at 331 Cortland Ave., we made the pleasant discovery of a whole new hot spot and mini-marketplace of artisan food vendors! This space of 5 kiosks, houses Dezy’s Drinks & Wholesome Bakery, Bernal Cutlery, El Porteño Empanadas, ICHI Lucky Cat Sushi, and Paulie’s Pickling. What a find!

While my husband was busy talking to Josh of Bernal Cutlery, I somehow wandered to the end of the space, at Dezy’s Drinks and Wholesome Bakery, which both share a kiosk. Right away, I noticed thermoses of chai sitting on a metal shelf. Not one or two but 4 choices of handmade chai! OMG, chai heaven!!!

I was able to sample all of them – Original Indian Chai, Almond Chai, Almond Vanilla Chai, and Rose Chai. The Rose Chai was and still is my favorite. I love that you can sample the flavors before buying.

The chais are available hot or iced. I’m starting to develop a liking for iced chai. You can buy a small cup ($3.75) or a 32 oz. jar of chai ($9.50). Return the empty jar and get 50 cents back towards your next purchase. These unique delicious chais are handmade by Desiree Saloman aka “Dezy”, pictured in the first photo above.

Here’s the breakdown Chai flavors:

Almond Vanilla Chai - Cardomom, Ginger, Vanilla, Black Tea, and Almond Milk

Almond Chai - Cardomom, Ginger, Black Tea, and Almond Milk

Original Indian Chai – Cardomom, Ginger, Black Tea, and Milk

Rose Chai – Rose Petal, Honey, and Milk

The almond milk chais are perfect for vegans. Dezy keeps coming up with new flavors.

Dezy also makes a whole line of lemonade refreshers which I have yet to try. And she carries Four Barrel coffee. But if I am making a trip to Dezy’s Drinks in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights, I am there for chai. Drop by 331 Cortland Ave., grab a chai, and say hi to Dezy for me.

Dezy’s Drinks
331 Cortland Ave.
San Francisco, CA

Hours:

Tuesday – Friday 7:30am-8pm
Saturday – Sunday 8am-8pm

* If you enjoy YummySF, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to our email newsletter or rss feed. Thanks for reading!

On Thursdays during lunch time, you can find the Namu stand featuring piping hot, Korean tacos at the Ferry Building while enjoying the beautiful view of San Francisco. What are Korean tacos you ask? Marinated, tender beef short ribs with diced tomatoes, rice,  and green onions wrapped in 2 pieces of Nori seaweed. Very unique.

It’s actually pretty messy to eat as the seaweed falls apart by the time I get to it. I’ve never had the chance to eat this Korean taco right after I got it so I don’t know if the seaweed holds up better when it’s just made. Namu’s Korean taco is pretty tasty. But I feel subconscious about pigging out in public since you literally have to pick it up with your hands and stuff it into your mouth right away. And I always tend to drop pieces of short ribs all over myself!

FYI: It’s not really good date food, if you’re looking to impress somebody.

This is the second time I’ve had a Korean taco so I decided to try the Kimchee fried rice as well. You can choose to add a fried egg on top, which I did. I’m not a big fan of spicy food so I didn’t like the Kimchee fried rice as much. It’s super spicy and I gave the rest to my husband.

The Kimchee fried rice was $10 for a tiny plate, like in the above photo. I don’t know if it’s worth it next time. It was fun to try though.

I have been so addicted to Blue Bottle Coffee lately. Every time I go to the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building, I have to get a cup of their chocolately smooth drip coffee. Blue Bottle Coffee tastes like no other coffee because the beans are freshly roasted in small batches. The beans are dark roasted, yet the coffee doesn’t have a burnt taste like other dark roasted coffees.

If you get drip coffee, the coffee is manually dripped (above) through a porcelain coffee filter. Freshly ground coffee is placed in a paper filter within the porcelain coffee filter. Hot water is poured on the coffee grounds, letting the coffee drip through.

I have also tried their rich and smooth mocha. I’m guessing they use Scharffen Berger Cocoa Powder because the cocoa has a soft, subtle taste. And Scharffen Berger is located inside the Ferry Building.

The drip coffee is amazing. If you go to the Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building, be prepared to wait for at least 10 minutes for your Blue Bottle Coffee. If you go on a weekday, the wait is much shorter.

They have 2 Blue Bottle Coffee carts located outside of the Ferry Building on Saturdays. Blue Bottle recently opened a storefront inside the Ferry Building as well.

At $4.50 for the cafe mocha, I decided to buy my own bag of Blue Bottle espresso beans which are only $7 – $7.50 for half a pound. I like to brew my own mocha at home. The person at Blue Bottle Coffee recommended their sinfully rich, Hayes Valley espresso for brewing on my stovetop moka pot. I have been using the Forever Espresso Maker and love it! It’s really easy to brew your own espresso without a complicated espresso machine.

I also use the Nespresso Aeroccino to perfectly and easily froth my milk. For mocha, I add Green and Black’s organic cocoa powder. I spent last month perfecting my Blue Bottle mocha… so delicious and rewarding! I will share the recipe in a future post.

Blue Bottle Coffee
Ferry Building Marketplace
One Ferry Building
San Francisco, California 94111

Yum! Santa Ramen in San Mateo, CA is my favorite ramen noodle restaurant. I just crave their ramen all the time. To be honest, I have gone to Santa Ramen 6 times in the past month.

Their ramen is 10 times better than Iroha in San Francisco’s Japantown. What’s special about the ramen at Santa Ramen is the hearty, flavorful broth. Made of stewed fatty pork, tiny bits of garlic, and a lot of love, the broth calls my name. And I gladly answer. Ramen is total comfort food for the winter.

Miso Ramen

What I also like about Santa Ramen is that they specialize in ramen. There are only 3 ramen noodle soups on their menu – Miso Ramen (my favorite), Soy Sauce Ramen, and Pork Flavor Ramen. The ramen comes with a piece of nori seaweed, green onions, bamboo shoots, and 2 slices of fatty pork that will melt in your mouth. Sorry, their ramen is not for vegetarians. I have seen vegetarians abruptly leave the restaurant after looking at the menu.

You can customize your ramen noodle soup by adding additional items,  such as napa cabbage and shiitake mushroom, a boiled egg, seaweed, and more slices of pork.

Tip: If you plan to go, get there early, as there will be a line formed outside the door before Santa Ramen even opens. The line usually starts about 15 – 20 minutes before they open for lunch 11:30am or dinner 5:30pm.

My husband and I have gone early to be the first in line and it’s totally worth it! About 5 minutes before Santa Ramen opens, they come out and take your order. They don’t take everyone’s orders, just the first couple of groups in line. So if you are first in line, you will get your ramen before anyone else.

Whether you arrive early to get in line or arrive when they are open, plan to wait for at least 15 minutes. Santa Ramen is closed on Tuesdays.

Hours:

Mon., Wed-Sat. 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; 5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Sun. 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

It was a crisp winter afternoon at the Embarcadero. The sun was shining through the blue skies and people were happily enjoying the Farmer’s Market. As I approached the Tacolicious stand, situated right outside of the Ferry Building, who stands in front of me in line? None other than David Chiu, President of the San Francisco Board of  Supervisors. He’s the first Chinese American supervisor for Chinatown/North Beach! And he beat out veteran supervisors to become the first AsianAmerican President of the Board of Supervisors.

We had a nice conversation and I told him about Roli Roti’s porchetta sandwich, which I refer to as a “manwich”. Their rotisserie truck is near the Tacolicious stand. He admitted that he has never tried it but he will. He’s a really nice guy and I know him through my husband. And being a true San Franciscan, he bikes around the city in a business suit!

Anyway, back to the tacos. There were 4 choices for tacos available: guajillo braised beef short rib; shot and a beer braised chicken; house-made chorizo sausage and potatoes; and mushrooms, farmer’s market peppers, nopales. I ordered 2 of each so I could bring some home for my husband.

Tacos are $3.50 each or 3 for $9, a deal! Each taco is made to order so it’s as fresh as it gets and piping hot. You can eat it right away as there are tables nearby or you can take it to go. Tacolicious provides convenient takeout boxes.

The tacos were amazing! Tacolicious tacos are even better than Kung Fu tacos. Sorry, Kung Fu Tacos. Tacolicious tacos have a lot of flavor. They have spicy sauces like habenero, that you can drizzle over your tacos, but I ate them plain. The tacos are still good. I loved the chorizo and potato, the shot and beer braised chicken, and the guajillo braised beef short rib tacos. The meat is so tender and perfectly seasoned on two soft tacos. The mushroom taco was a bit too spicy for my taste, but my husband liked it.

The Tacolicious stand is available on Thursdays at the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco or at Laiola Restaurant. It will become your favorite taco too.