Saturday 6 September 2014

MoFo '14 Day 6 - Cheesin' it up in San Francisco, CA


I was in the Bay Area a little under a year ago but I still have stuff to blog about so here goes. This blog post could also be re-titled "some dishes that were too spicy for me but that I feel compelled to write about anyway because anyone with a normal tolerance to spice would love them". Shall we start at Source? Lets! This bright and airy spot in SoMa claims to be a multi-dimentional dining experience, I have no idea what that means but I know I liked it there. On our first visit I ordered the Mac & Cheese vegan style and Nick ordered the vegan Da Bronx Pizza.



The mac had the most spot-on perfect texture of any mac I've ever eaten in a restaurant. It was thick and creamy and bubbly and had the right sized macaroni noodles and everything. If it wasn't for the fire raging in my mouth I'd have adored it. As it stood Nick got to eat most of it whilst I chugged water and nibbled on his delicious pizza. The mozzarella style cheese on his pizza was perfect and I loved the richness of the marinara base and the fresh basil scattered on top. This was an excellent choice and something I ordered again after discovering that they definitely couldn't make me a mac with just the mozzarella cheese.

We also tried a delicious chocolate dessert that I think was a variation on a twinkie. I dunno, I've never eaten a twinkie, whatever it was I liked it!


We also went just before closing after a gig one night for hot dogs and fries.


This was a pretty decent dog but I probably wouldn't consider it to be a must order at Source. Get the mac and cheese, or maybe a dosa, I saw them being delivered to other tables a couple of times and they looked amazing.

Another must eat spot when visiting San Francisco is Gracias Madre, I fell in love with the place as soon as I set eyes upon it from across the street. There's a gorgeous mural and they have some wonderful outdoor space. We started with homemade lemonade and agua fresca which were both wonderful.


I'd actually never tried agua fresca before this trip but now I know I'll be ordering it whenever I see it. We obviously wanted to order everything having left it way too late in our trip for a return visit to be possible so we settled in for a feast and ordered four things to share, the potatoes with nacho cheese, the Gorditas, one Tamal and the Taco plate.





Everything was amazing but the two plates that had the right level of spice for me were the Tamal which was steamed and filled with zucchini, onions and garlic and the triple taco plate. The taco's were my favourite, I loved the cooling cashew cheese, the perfectly cooked and spiced beans and the fillings we had chosen were spot on. The plantain filled taco was both of our favourite, we'd thankfully pre-empted that and ordered two, and I really enjoyed the seasonal greens too.

Obviously we couldn't skip dessert and we went with one chocolate cake that was lightly flavoured with cinnamon and came paired with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce and one Flan.



Flan is not something I ever thought I'd enjoy, the idea of it brought back flashbacks of the horrible cream caramels my brother loved when we were kids but I'd heard so much about how amazing this dessert was that I insisted that we order it. Every beautiful mouthful was a revelation and I will happily eat good flan like this as often as people want to make it for me. The chocolate cake was amazing too and neither of us could pick a favourite, sharing spoonfuls back and forth until the desserts disappeared.

It was such an amazing meal and one that I still think of regularly. I would encourage everyone to visit, just don't order the Gorditas if you're sensitive to chilli!

20 comments:

  1. Sweet, I've got a Oakland/Sanfran trip brewing, thanks for the recommendations.

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  2. O my that mac & cheese looks craaaaazy delicious.

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    1. The bits without the crazy burning allergy inducing heat were for sure!!

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  3. That all looks absolutely amazing. I went to the Gracias Madre location in Los Angeles and I was in heaven. My friend and I shared everything so we ordered the calabaza quesadillas, the gorditas, the sweet potato flautas and the pumpkin cake. Plus, we each had a pomelo margarita. Probably one of the most perfect dinners ever. Now I'm wishing I had tried the agua fresca and lemonade because both sound awesome!

    P.S That mac and cheese and that pizza look amazing.

    -Rachel

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  4. i went to the source a few times when they first opened. i ordered things on the safe side and think when i try the new east bay location i will get other things. i heard the sweets are super good!

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  5. I also had no interest in flan but theirs is good!

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  6. That first mac looks amazing! And Gracias Madre is my absolute fave.

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  7. Oh Gracias Madre, I love that spot so much. How are you faring with the spicy foods in Austin?

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    1. I fared okay, as long as you leave the salsa off of things it's usually okay. I'm getting better at asking a million questions before ordering these days!

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  8. Mmm, I love flan and you know I'm with you on the chilli thing, ordering is like Russian Roulette sometimes!

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    1. I know!! As I said to Amey above I'm getting better at asking a tonne of questions these days. I've actually given up asking if things are spicy / hot because people don't get it at all! Now basically if something has peppers I ask for them to be removed or order something else!

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  9. I went to both those places a few years back in San Francisco, though I was so full when I visited Source that I just had a hot dog. I would love to go back again one day and explore more of the menu.
    Gracias Madre was great, but unfortunately I chose something that was way too spicy for me and my mouth was on fire for a lot of it! Ouch. LOL
    I had the flan there, I loved it.

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    1. Yeah, I was glad I ordered a lot of things at GM because after one bite of the gorditas I had to give it to Nick to finish! Also you totally need to go back to source, the hot dog is not the best thing on their menu by a long shot.

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  10. Gosh darn it! I ate two meals at Source (actually back to back as I had two dinner dates in a row, but we won't get into that...) and I didn't get the mac and cheese. What a terrible mistake. Not one I'll repeat next time I'm in SF, that's for sure!

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    1. Oooh, I kinda want to get into that! Haha! Next time get the mac & cheese!

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