Food for Thought (but not for belly)

No cooking or eating out today. Too lazy, too many leftovers, too many meals eaten out last week (must. save. money. and. eat. down. pantry!)

But I did do some thinking. I think I've narrowed down my favorites list. Here are the favorites, which include only places where I've been several times (except for one). They're narrowed down to one per category, and listed in rough order from morning to night.

Favorite:

Place to nosh the morning away: Ferry Building, more for the small eateries and food shops, than the big restaurants that anchor the building.

Breakfast: Canteen

Dim sum: Koi Palace (or Gold Mountain in the City)

Lunch, close enough to escape to during work: Little Delhi

Lunch, geography notwithstanding: Canteen

Feel-good Chinese (lunch or dinner): Spices II

Coffee house: Ritual Roasters

Tea house: EURA

Gelato: Tango Gelato

Pastries: Tartine

Cake: Delessio

Chocolate: Fog City News

Cheap dinner: Tajine

Chinese banquet: South Sea Seafood Village

Soul-restoring dinner: Coco500

Impress the pants off your soul mate: The Dining Room at The Ritz Carlton

Wine Bar: The Hidden Vine

Typing this, I'm thinking about all the places where I do like to eat but have decided to leave off the list. I think the reason these stay is this: there's something about these places that exhilarate me. Maybe it's just a vibe, usually it's because the owners are super nice, but it's also because the customers always seem so happy to be there. It helps that I've never felt monetarily cheated at any of these spots. Instead, the net result is that I always leave these places feeling refreshed and happier with life no matter how many times I've been or how recently I was just there. I even sometimes end up tipping more just because they make me so happy. And isn't that what it's all about?

Yes, it helps that the employees at a lot of these places know me by face or name. But it's a two way street: I have to really like the food to keep going back until they recognize me, and they have to be warm places with a small, observant, staff that cares about return customers and quality of service to even ask me my name.

I think what's telling is that I could be very happy just eating at these places for months on end if all the other restaurants in San Francisco disappeared.