5 Star Foodie on the road: Ethnic eats in SF

Whenever I travel somewhere, I like to try ethnic foods that I can't easily find in Chicago. This has led to meals such as Cambodian food in Cleveland (of all places).

San Francisco is a treasure trove of ethnic cuisine. The various Asian and Latin influences gave an exploring foodie many options.

Contras? Sandinistas? I don't know...I just want some food!

First, I headed down to the Mission District to try some Nicaraguan food. There are several Nicaraguan restaurants there, but I went to El Trebol Restauraut, which got nice reviews on Yelp.

The place is VERY no frills and half the menu is Mexican food, with half Nicarguan. I ordered the fried pork dish, which came on a heaping plate with plantains, beans, salad, and rice.

Other than being colorful and plentiful, the food was extremely tasty. I expected it to taste like a variation of Mexican food, but that was not really the case. There was really not much spice used and the flavors were much more subtle than I anticipated. In this case "subtle" is a good thing, as with such a mix of options, everything goes together well. A bit of pork and a plantain with some rice blended together perfectly.

No Coke for me. For $1 each, I got a cup of a cocoa drink and a tamarind drink. The former tasted like Yoo-Hoo, while the latter was a very sweet juice drink. It was interesting that with the flavors of the food being so subtle, neither of the drinks really was.

The cost for my large meal and 2 drinks, including tax and tip, ended up being barely over $10. If this place was in Chicago, I'd go often. (Am open to suggestions of similar Mexican or other Latin places though.)

Bombs over Baghdad

A few days later, I found an Iraqi place in the Lower Haight district. I've had Persian food and Turkish food at various times, so expected similar. As you can see from the menu, there are some similarities, but also differences. They have the hummus, babaghanoush, and kebabs of other Middle Eastern places, but also many dishes made with yogurt that are more similar to Indian entrees.

I went off the radar some and ordered the Quzi ("boneless lamb shank cooked in an aged yogurt sauce, served with rice and served with toasted almonds").

This was NOT what I was expecting. The lamb and spices (and mushrooms apparently) are the top and outside, covering the hockey puck of white rice, an island in a sea of yogurt.

I wanted to like it much more than I did. There weren't many almonds, too many mushrooms, and the yogurt sauce just didn't go so well with the lamb I thought. It tasted different than any Indian yogurt sauce I've had in the past, as it was a bit tangier. I wish I had ordered something else.

The place has only been open a few months and is nicely decorated with Iraqi artifacts and drawings. To my annoyance, they adjusted the lights 4-5 times throughout my meal, making it progressively darker. I'm not really sure why.

Had a dessert dish, which was even less notable. It was a warm cooked cheese dish on some sort of "nest" type thing with various spices and other stuff. Just didn't work for me. Part of the nest was slightly burnt.

The cost ended up being around $25, and I didn't order any drinks.

So one hit and one miss. I'm looking forward to going back to the City by the Bay and exploring some more. There are several notable Burmese restaurants in the area, along with cuisines from other Latin countries.