The Ferry Building - San Francisco

If I had all the money in the world, I'd probably go here to shop every day. 

The Ferry Building, an indoor market celebrating fresh farmers produce and specialist local artisan producers, resulting in what can only be described as the ultimate foodie dream. 

The Cowgirl Creamery is heaven for a cheese lover like me. Since 1997, The Cowgirl Creamery have built quite a circle of awarding winning cheese making pals, bringing the very best in cheesesto people like me.

Every other shop is as specialist as the last, this is a perfect place to buy those hard to find ingredients, like dried black trumpets.

Well worth a visit.

San Francisco's most well known farmers' market is also held there on Saturdays from 8 am to 2 pm, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am - 2pm 

Tartine Bakery - Guerrero Street, San Francisco

Tartine take bread seriously, but in a laid back kind of way, of course. I was recommended the Tartine Bakery for breakfast, in fact I was told there was no point eating breakfast anywhere else in San Fran. You can't ignore a recommendation like that now can you?

Now cue the queue. Any great eatery worth their weight in twitter followers has an equally sizeable queue to match, that's just how it rolls these days. Not one to let a queue get in the way of my breakfast I stood 45 minutes and thought long and hard about what to order.


Tartine , famous for their bread making methods which result in a brilliant loaf that lasts for the best part of a week. All the bread sells out almost instantly as the bakery opens each morning. The closest I got to trying the infamous bread was the base of my turkey croque monsieur. Even then I could see what all the fuss was about, a light and airy bread with a crispy crust.
 
A morning bun, brioche bread and butter pudding with seasonal fruits, a turkey croque monsieur, fresh orange juice and a bowl of coffee later I was ready to take on a day in San Fran. 

I wouldn't recommend going to San Francisco without trying this place at least once, even for a quick slice of lunchtime quiche or their newly opened restaurant, Bar Tartine, in The Mission district. 

600 Guerrero Street San Francisco, CA 94110 

Taqueria el Buen Sabor – Valencia, Mission – San Francisco

Despite the rise in Mexican restaurants and take outs in London of late, I left it until recently to try a burrito for this first time. Wandering around the Mission in San Fran working up an appetite is real easy. There is so much to browse through, a crazy amount of vintage shops and a heap of furniture shops and then a load more vintage furniture shops. They all kind of blended into one shop by the end of the day.  The best vintage shop find has to be Buffalo Exchange. Aswell as the abundance of vintage, I also stumbled upon what is now my new favorite book shop, Dog Eared Books, and my new favorite shop full stop, Paxton Gate.

Not short of recommendations for dinner whilst in San Fran. Everyone and their mother were recommending Bar Tartine, a girl on the bus suggested we try Range, the Mission's Michelin star hot spot, and then their was always Mexican..

Being in the spot for Mexican food got me thinking it was about time to try my first burrito (i'm not going to count the Taco Bell stop on the freeway as my first Taco, doesn't seem right). I can't remember what it was that made Taqueria El Buen Sabor stand out in an area full of taquerias, but i'm sure glad it did. El Buen Sabor seems to be the place where the locals come for real cheap, real tasty, burritos. Service was real quick and friendly, the server didn't even get irritated with us when we were being slow and British.

Living up to it's name is the Super Burrito with chicken, rice, refried beans, cheese, guacamole, lettuce and tomato did not disappoint. The chicken was crispy and full of flavour and it was packed pretty full, almost too full to get your mouth around.

A sucker for anything with the word 'super' in the title, the Super Nachos with BBQ pork then arrived. The ratio of toppings to nachos was the most generous i've ever seen anywhere. These made my home nachos look puny.  Secondly, I was impressed by the big chunks of perfectly ripe avocado, a real rarity in London. 

Time to up the nacho game.