Eating Vegan in San Francisco – Part 3 – VeganMoFo 16

Today wrapped up my vegan eating in San Francisco, because tomorrow I’ll be on the plan at the butt crack of dawn.  So, this is my final report on the trip.

I started the day off by taking a pass on breakfast.  I still felt a little full from last night when I got up at 5:00, so coffee was fine.  Around 7:15, I headed off for an Anusara yoga class (after a nice walk to get there).  The class was interesting, though I think I still need to process it somewhat.  It did make me feel like this back curve issue has got to be addressed if I’m going to be a good example for my yoga students.

When class was over, I walked a little more and headed to Herbivore restaurant.  Oh dear!  What another HUGE win (in fact, it might have been the vegan food win for the trip).  The menu was amazing and vegan and amazing, with breakfast/brunch/lunch choices and deserts.  After a long period of waffling, I settled on the vegan Thai iced tea and the bbq faux chicken sandwich with fingerling potatoes and a salad.  Wow!  Delicious and perfectly dressed with a creamy faux mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, a little onion, on a kickin’ sour dough roll.  Awesome.  And then desert accidentally happened, to the tune of vegan carrot cake.  Mmmmmmm!  I couldn’t finish, but I gave it what I had, you betcha!  My dining partner also loved the food and finished her meal with a vegan oatmeal cookie.

After lunch, she headed back to the conference and I went for another walk to Haight Ashbury.  Interesting.  It reminded me a lot of South Street in Philly, but with a few more head shops and a few more thrift stores.  I pawed my way through the items at several thrift stores, even though I’m not a shopping fan, just to see if some amazing find jumped out.  I did see a few things that I liked, but the prices were more “vintage” prices than “thrift” prices, so I passed on the purchases.

I started to walk back to the hotel, but realizing that it was 1,000,000 degrees out, I caught a bus half way there (and missed my stop, but hey, stuff happens).  After a shower (wow, did I need that), and a few minutes of air conditioning, we set off for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where we saw a special exhibit on voyeurism and desire in photographic media.  It was startling and intriguing and appalling and wonderful and awful and I may have more to say about it in a non-food post later.

When dinner time arrived, I wasn’t sure I had really recovered from lunch, but was game to try out The Golden Era, an all vegan Asian restaurant in a “gritty” part of SF (it wasn’t really that gritty – people just kept describing it that way).  The choices were fairly standard for vegan Asian, but solidly prepared and the atmosphere was quite interesting.

So, that wrapped up my food adventure in San Francisco.  It was a slow start, but more than made up for with the later meals.  In conclusion, if you ever are in SF looking for a vegan meal, I highly recommend The Plant Cafe and Herbivore.  The Golden Era is also a fine choice if you are in the mood for that cuisine.

Thanks for reading!

L