San Francisco less then 24 hrs.

July 16, 2018

San Francisco less then 24 hrs.

7:40 am: touched down SFO International Airport, grabbed my bag, headed towards to the Bart.

8:00 am: The city seemed awfully chilly, chilly, resembling the unique characteristic of a bay city. My love for San Francisco stopped right after our car got broken into. The lively, delightful city quickly changed into a city full of Homeless that aren't even civilized as the ones in Seattle in me.

8:25 am: Arrived at the center, walked 25' to the Mr. Holmes bakehouse, I missed the chance to try their famous cronuts the last time I was there, you know ( hmm, the break-in), and I somehow didn't bother to try them in any of my trips to Socal. This time, I set myself ahead to try their cronuts.

8:50 am: No sign of cronuts in those delicious glass display yet, where were they?

" Sorry, you can hang out around, we only start selling our cronuts at 9:00". Fine, I would wait then

9:00 am: people started pouring in. I was number 3 in line. Today their cronut's flavor was lemon curd. I wondered to myself if God knew that I would be buying cronuts today.

9:15 am: after being busy occupied myself with all those typical check-in trendy places Instagram photos, I took a large bite into the filling crispy croissant-donuts whatever they call, I was biased before coming here, another trendy place huh. The moment those creamy lemon curds teased my tongue, dancing together with the flaky buttery layer texture of a croissant and the crunchiness duster sugary of a donut. I was sent to... Heaven, those cronuts lived up to and exceeded my expectations, I immediately came back to the line, then reality hit me, 2 cronuts limit/person, I wanted 4 of them. Why 2, why???.. I love croissants, I love lemon curd, I love donuts... urgh cronuts lemon curd ( my lame Pineapple pen mimic)

9:25 am: Based on my deep research on Google Maps last night, with my power walk, I should have arrived at the meeting in 20'. Wish me luck!

10am: See you in 4 hours

Now, it was a real time for me to... eat more. Lmao. Been to SF enough to skip most of the " already know" tourist places. My stomach needed to discover more of SF food scene then satisfying my eyes, I do, however, hopefully, walked as much as possible through SF neighborhoods though.

List of today:

Mr. Holmes bakehouse

Vive la tarte: Another croissant place

Grace Cathedral

Baker Beach

Andy coffee Roaster

Michelin star Ramen - Mensho

Places aren't on the list, that I either walked by or randomly walked in.

The ferry building

China town

Finance district

14:30: Walked toward to Grace Cathedral, only 20' walking, pzhh, fairly close to the meeting. I was so wrong, those enormous mountains undercover hills aren't a f*kin joke, blessed my foot, blessed my calf, blessed my soul, screwed the hills of San Francisco, I didn't need a butt work out today. But the views near the Grace Cathedral, looking far away to an Island that I'm pretty sure I will never bother to know the name of, are worth my swollen calves.

15:10 : Passed by China town, I'm so tempted to stop by the fortune cookies factory, decided to skip it , walked down to the Pier, It was far, 25'?, went into the Ferry building market, saw Hog Island oyster, too bad, Ramen is for tonight, I see you someday my dear clam chowder. Go around, where is my Vive La Tarte, oh hey, it's here, sold out all the pastries. Great! Now, what am I gonna do? Next plan!

15:25: Took Bart to Andy roaster and Baker beach, thinking my stupid experience can outsmart the confusing train system. No, I didn't. I got lost. Should have to take Uber, dam* my stupid minds of expecting taking trains like a local

16:20: Decided to go to another location of Vive la Tarte that is located nearby Mensho for a rest and to go their delicious croissants, which I prayed they still had some left. Goodbye Andy roaster coffee, goodbye Baker Beach, someday I'll walk around you on those smoothing sand, looking over to the majestic famous 100% successful suicide rate Golden Gate bridge and enjoyed my Coffee soda with homemade creamy whipping cream from Andy. Someday I will.

16:40: Got my strawberry filling croissant, time for Mensho. Suddenly, a random Spanish guy started a conversation to me on the way their, cool. Let's chit-chat. He asked where I am from, quite surprised to know I'm from the country with a yellow star in a middle of the red flag, said I looked like Japanese, cool, Am I? He is from Spain, been here for a while, used to be a ballet dancer, unfortunately, got injured and became some sort of a physical therapist, the conversation stopped when we reached to the ramen, he complimented me on having a long hair cut, his girlfriend had the same length hair but decided to shaved half her head because it required too much maintenance. Great conversation, a little of panic when I checked on my bag if, by some chance, he was just a pickpocket trying to distract me LMAO 😆.

16:55: The Portuguese Lady in the waiting line told me I look like a Japanese girl, hmm, really?

17:15: woo, I got a seat, ordered the Matcha Paitan Ramen ( chicken broth) with egg, not many days I went out of my comfort zone to be adventurous, today is that day, Matcha Ramen in a first ramen Michelin star restaurant, ordered things that are not their signature dish, but, indeed, their famous look dish. I will be alright, just like a guy stood in front of me in the line said, when I asked him which one I should have ordered, the matcha Paitan Ramen was the first he tried here, it was good, he enjoyed it, BUT very nutty ( Ok, I like nutty flavor), bitter ( okay I'm fine w bitter), not as good as the original one ( hmmm), maybe I shouldn't try it and go with the original because it's super good ( oh, wait, huh), or maybe I can still try it because (exact quote from him) " You know, I still enjoyed the matcha one at the time"( well, my ground had been shaken when you said the original was too good to pass on)

A Melbourne/ Chinese guy next sit started talking to me, cool, many people wanted to have conversations with me today, is it because I am alone, looking like a traveler ( but is actually a loner who is desperately waiting for a late night flight), or simply just a girl? =)), that's kinda strange for Californians, more importantly, ME, I'm 100% awkward when it comes to a stranger. Sometimes you would find the best version of being friendly, sometimes I would shut down and really just want to have my own space. This time, I was the second one, I didn't have a good feeling towards SF, which made me vigilant to most of the trip, Ironically, was also the time when people start talking to me the most.

He asked: are you Japanese? A moment of silence...

Yes sir, I am, I swam from Viet Nam to Japan, managed to dodge all the sharks, floated myself on the vast surface filled with salt water of the Pacific ocean, to finally climbed on the land of the Rising Sun, and luckily, got a power to sync their face feature onto mine, successfully obtaining their recognition as their people.

He is a photographer, been in SF for 1 month for a photography exhibit to meet up with all the worldwide known photographers. He saw me carrying the camera, asking how was it, from there our topic elaborated from photography topic to travel to coffee connoisseur, he introduced me a good coffee place in SF, for god off shake, my belly was unbearable full of those high calories/carbs dinner from the ramen, I excused him for the friendly recommendation that I fully regret later on due to my bad memories can't recall what its name.

Now back to the Ramen, it tasted just like a pork broth, so creamy, rich, hearty, comforting, what word they use to describe these flavors together? Ah, Umami is what you utter after slurping the last broth drop. I honestly didn't like the Pork chasu and their handmade noodles, but the duck Chasu is lit, ender, flavourful, adding a depth to the ramen bowl. Quite reminiscing of the grilled pork ribs my dad's side of the family that they usually made on the memorial days of the dead. Overall, a good bowl of ramen, full of salt and delicious magic that can make your face swollen the next morning ( hello, it's me), oh wait, the matcha powder, well, It actually tasted very interesting as the guy said, very interesting, it kinda offset the creaminess of the broth so might taste lighter and refreshing to some people, still good, though I have to agree, as a ramen lover, I would just order their signature original one next time 😂. Poor the Melbourne/Chinese fellow though, he ordered the same thing, and his bowl didn't look as good as mine since all the matcha powder that were supposedly sprinkled around the side of the bowl, now was all in his bowl, made his ramen super bitter LOL😂

around 7 pm: Idk even know where to go, I don't want to take uber to the Baker Beach anymore, just wander around the Union Square, did some window shopping, SOMEHOW, I ended up in a food court basement, where they sell the famous Hokkaido cheese tart that is viral on the internet, it's their first and only location in NorCal, LOL. I'm too lucky with food. I asked the " holy moly handsome gentlemen" behind me if it's good, and ended up with a cute conversation of him being happy for me to take such good photos of those cheese tarts ( lmao this is weird but so true). Goodbye my handsome cheesy tart Gentleman, you will be missed!😂. As for the tarts, They are good when it's hot, the next morning when I opened them, they were all ruined inside the box, not as good as the " just out of oven" ones, at this point, tasted just like a cheesecake in a form of tarts.

So what I got from the trip: The meeting ended up alright, SF isn't as bad as I thought in the beginning, still isn't that much better, though definitely, the like for it has grown a little bit in me. 😶

But the biggest conclusion of the trip is: being a loner, a girl, people have a tendency of picking conversations with you and even more friendly than you'd expect despite whether they are creepy or not =)). Not only the people I told you above, there are some like a man entered his house while I stood in front of his house, eating the cheese tarts LMAO, who introduced his name and wished me a good night enjoying the tarts, the girl on the Bart that stayed with me during the time that I mistakenly took the wrong train to Airport ( same train route, but not the exact one Lol), hey, don't say I'm dumb, even the girl had to admit the SF train system is confusing as F* =)).

I took the earliest flight to SF and the latest flight back to Seattle, both times the full body scanners broke down on me, both times the views of the cities are breathtaking.

There is no photo of me, of course =)))