Tummy Love part 1

A La Turca is on Geary and Larkin.




This is one of my favorite places to come when it’s rainy and cold. It’s always good to start with the hummus or lentil soup, or both. Their house specials always satisfy and this time it was ground lamb with potatoes and eggplant. I also ordered the spinach and cheese pide. Pides are house bread with your choice of filling. Sometimes I get cheese and potato, this time it was spinach with feta and mozzarella cheeses. It was warm and fluffy and delicious. I’m usually too full to order dessert, but it was rainy and cold, and it was about time I tried one, so I ordered the Kunefe, which was described as baked kadayif (didn’t know what that was) with sweet cheese. What arrived was warm, slightly gooey and seemed to be soaked in sugar water. It sort of reminded me of shredded wheat cereal. It was a little too sweet, but not bad. I had ordered a black tea and the dessert tasted better between sips. The total amounted to 30 with tax, pretty sweet deal!


Little Bird Café



Is on Geary between Larkin and Hyde. There’s already been a few café’s in this location that have come and gone. It’s difficult to be an upstart, even more so with many choices in close proximity. I have mixed emotions about this place. The loose-leaf tea and ritual coffee they serve are good. I tried the nightingale sandwich, fresh mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto with potato chips, which was really good. The service is nice enough, and the chairs by the window are comfy. However, this is a family run café. The few times I’ve stopped in, the owner was there with her two children, both under the age of five. There’s a little play set for them in the corner. The kids seemed to be fairly well behaved, but were running all over the place, as well as in and out the door, which was distracting me from the conversation I was having with a friend. If you’re the kind of person that wants to sit in the quiet abyss of all that is a café and drink your coffee in peace and quiet while whittling your day away, I mean, “working,” on your computer, this may not be the place for you.


Saigon Sandwich



Located on Larkin and Eddy, the best of the ubiquitous bahn mi sandwich shops. Yeah they’re good. But even better is the people watching while waiting in line. Everybody loves these things, which means you’ll have to wait for one. But while you wait, watch how the people grow antsy, waiting for a cheap sandwich on their lunch break. Watch how the fatties order more than one. Or watch the person, a.k.a bum, parked outside ask for change from everyone who walks by. I’ve seen a bum fight right out front too. As the fight erupted a customer demanded the sandwich ladies call the cops, and admirably they ignored her pleas and worked on. Who does she think she is, asking these ladies to stop making sandwiches and get involved; she must be deluded. I’m sure these ladies have seen this many a time over, and if they were to get involved, there most definitely would be a backlog of sandwiches for a very, very long time.