What better way to spend an afternoon than to take a walking food tour in San Francisco!
Once again Craig and I were traveling to San Francisco for business (him) and for(me – more news later). Now that I am a full fledged blogger, I need to use my time more effectively when I travel. I knew we had plans to travel to San Francisco and I wanted to include a walking food tour of some kind. I did some investigative googling and I came upon a unique tour of the Mission District that intrigued me immediately.
Introducing… Chris Milano, the engaging and delightful founder and guide of Foodie Adventures. You would think he named the company for me! No one loves a foodie adventure more than I do!
With his exuberant personality and great big heart, Chris took us on a journey through the east side (the less trendy part) of the Mission District in San Francisco for just about 4 hours. He shared the interesting history and rich culture of the area as well as introducing us to the delicious hispanic food.
The best way to show you the incredible food we sampled and the beautiful sights we enjoyed, is to share my colorful photos with you.
First Stop of the walking food tour adventure – La Panaderia
The Spanish Panaderia or in English, a bakery, is owned by Sam King and it is the most popular panaderia in the Mission District. Ironically, Sam is not hispanic, but Chinese. He learned to bake the most delicious bread, rolls, cakes and confections, but he is famous for the coconut rolls. They are a soft, golden, buttery pillow with a surprising bite of sugary, coconut, goodness in the middle. Divine.
Our stop at the meat market~
We made a stop at Sal’s butcher shop, La Gallinita. I am not a meat eater, but as a cook and student of the industry, I always want to learn everything that I can. Sal shared with us his stories of the meat industry and how to break down (cut up) an animal. Yikes… This is not for our vegan readers! Nevertheless, Sal was charming and so generous with his smile and his time with all of us. He patiently answered all of our questions and offered the group two kinds of delicious beef tacos in hand made tortillas. Customers come from everywhere to just purchase the aromatic tortillas and they sell out of them every day!
Yes, I am already full, but we have a few more stops to go…
We stopped at the very popular La Palma Mexica-tessen, that is family owned and operated by the gentleman in the cowboy hat. His name is Paco, aka”El Jefe!”
We were introduced to the “huarache”. A flat, bean filled, tortilla, shaped like the huarache sandal. They are topped with queso fresco (fresh cheese) and tomatillo sauce. In addition to the delicious hand prepared food, La Palma is famous for their masa. Masa is the dough made from corn used to make tamales. Tamales are a traditional Christmas holiday dish and it is not uncommon to see families carry off one hundred pounds of masa at a time! No, I am not kidding! I loved the family atmosphere, generosity of spirit and outrageously delicious huaraches. I brought home a pound of them in my suitcase!
The visually stunning – Balmy Alley
In between our food stops, we were treated to a walking tour of the beautiful, historic and inspirational Balmy Alley. Balmy Alley is home to the most concentrated collection of murals in the city of San Francisco. It is located in the south central portion of the Inner Mission District between 24th Street and Garfield Square. The murals began in the mid-eighties as an expression of artists’ outrage over human rights and political abuses in Central America. The colorful murals depict a myriad of styles and the subjects vary from human rights and local community struggles, to Michael Jackson. I could devote a post just to Balmy Alley and this incredible art which is located on just one block of the city!
Here are just a few of my favorites…
This young man was part of our group and was talked into grabbing his crotch like Michael Jackson did. It was pretty funny. (He had just finished when I took the photo)
One more stop for tacos at the awesome El Farolito!
And last but not least…Guava Bomba (bomb)
After a day with Chris Milano from Foodie Adventures, I can’t wait to sign up for his other two tours: Chinatown and North Beach & Chinatown.
Additionally, I asked a few of my talented travel blogger friends to send me their posts about travel to San Francisco. Take a few minutes to visit these sites and enjoy these posts: “Ride the Ducks San Francisco Style” and 4th Annual Weekly Dish Event – San Francisco from thismamacancook.net and “San Francisco: A Union Square Cocktail Tour” and “Eight Great Breakfast Spots Around Union Square” from Berkeley and Beyond.com
There are usually walking tours in every major city and you can likely find them in other tourist spots as well. I loved strolling through an area of San Francisco that I do not frequent, while learning about the culture, and eating the delicious food that I would never have found on my own. I highly recommend Foodie Adventures in San Francisco for your next trip there. Make sure you book in advance, these tours are popular and rightly so!
Our group!
Have you been on any walking food tours recently?
Suzanne
Yumm I am starving now! Those huaraches look delicious. Thanks for the great idea, I will look that up in my travels.
Thank you Cheryl, let me know if you have questions!
Oh, I’ve been waiting all weekend for you to post this. Will try to visit every one of these places! Well, maybe not the butcher…but this is fabulous!!
Thank you Kim! Every time I read the post, I get hungry!
I do love foodie walking tours, bit mine usually focus on Chocolate! Looks like you had a great time, Suzanne. San Fran is certainly a delight for any lover of gastronomy.
Yes I did enjoy it! As you know San Francisco is a culinary dream destination! Thank you for reading and commenting Doreen!
Wow, what fun! Everything looks delicious, but my biggest hankering is for the guava bomba.
Love foodie tours! I sent you an email with our foodie tour of SF but you may not have received it. http://www.wanderlustwonder.com/2011/09/09/local-tastes-of-the-city-san-francisco/
Jan: I am so sorry to have somehow missed your email. I will be doing several more San Francisco posts in the next couple of weeks. I will be including your posts then! Thank you for sharing!
Okay, I’m drooling already! I love walking food tours and have done them in a number of cities. Will definitely have to do San Francisco next time I’m there because I am so craving those coconut rolls! OMG!
Yes, the coconut rolls were amazing! I wanted to eat everything in the bakery!
Looks like you visited some of my own favorite spots in the Mission district. Thanks for the shout out about my blog postings about San Francisco tours and eating. Am curious how you packed those huaraches and how well they traveled!?
You are welcome Carole! I purchased the huaraches about three hours before flying and carried them on a one hour flight. No problem. Do you live far?
This looks like a fun thing to do with friends. It’s now on my list!
So glad to add to your list! Thank you for reading and commenting.
I enjoyed the food tour and it looks like you had a lot of fun! I would have to skip the meat market being a strict vegetarian, but Panaderia would be heaven to me.
As a strict vegetarian, this would not be the food tour for you…however the bakery goods were incredible, as well as the murals.
This was definitely different than the Mission street food tour I took but no less fun and delicious to explore – love Balmy street which is one of my favorite street art locations in the city
I remember your photos of Balmy, amazing! – I had so many stories to tell about the food, I will need to write a separate post for the murals! Hope you are doing well!
This looks like so much fun~ I may have to look into this for our family trip to SF in December. And I love the “Mexicatessan,” so cute.
It was such a fun way to spend an afternoon. The entire time I was thinking…I wish my family was with me. They would have loved the tour.
Next month we will be visiting our son and family in the San Francisco area. We will definitely have to eat our way through a walking tour like this. It’s apparent that you had a lot of fun doing this trip through a colorful area.
Neva: I hope you have a wonderful time in SF. It is one of my favorite cities and the food is out of this world. If you need any suggestions, let me know!
Looks like a great tour for foodies. Hope I get to San Francisco soon to follow in your footsteps!
It was so fun and delicious! I hope you do travel to SF – its such a wonderful city!
I might have just stayed at La Panaderia as baked goods are my downfall! I’d love to try a food tour and San Francisco seems like the perfect place to start.
I loved that bakery too! I was afraid to try too many things (we tried 3) because I still had so many more things to eat!
It sounds like you ate a lot, learned a lot and made a lot of friends along the way!! Great post; great photos!!
Yes, thank you Marilyn! It was a delicious and unique experience.
Looks like a great food tour. I would have enjoyed the food and the murals. I love walking tours. I took my first walking food tour this summer in my home city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. I loved it and will look for food tours when I travel.
I remember reading about your food tour! You do get to know a city from a much more intimate level while walking through the streets and sampling.
What I really liked about this posting is that San Francisco is usually known for it’s plethora of Italian or high-end restaurants. Thanks for showing me SF in a different food light. I really like reading articles that teach me something and you did.
Thank you Heather! I felt the same way. I am fortunate to eat at many fancier restaurants and don’t eat much neighborhood cuisine. Many of the buildings were rather dilapidated and had bars on the window. I never would have ventured in without knowing more! Thank you for reading and for your comments!
I went on a walking tour in San Francisco the last time I was there, but it was not a foodie walking tour. One of my sisters lives outside SF, so I’m bookmarking this post for the next time I’m there. Having lived in Mexico, I must say that based on your photos, this food seems like the real deal.
There’s nothing like a food tour to learn about the local culture and history. Looked like a fun tour!