Three days in San Francisco

[Oakland Uptown]

As for the homeless problem, you can thank Ronald Regan for much of that. The Chowder thing, I guess it's how New Yorkers, laugh at anything not New York Pizza. Pure Elitism. Even if the chef is from NY or New England, they'll find some excuse as to why it's not like "back home". It's biased BS.

[lrmsd]

Originally Posted by Maineah

My wife, Daughter, her fiance', and I returned home today from San Francisco to Maine. We spent a week in Napa before spending three days in the city. San Francisco is an interesting city. People were VERY friendly and helpful to us! We took in a Giants game (they won). We sampled the local food, (liked the Dungeness crab!) and did the touristy things, Pier 39, Coit tower, China town, the bridge, Lombard Street, minus the Alcatraz trip as it was sold out for the holiday weekend.
We stayed on Nob Hill and found it fairly easy to get around town. We have friends there and had a lovely dinner at their place on Thursday evening.
Two recommendations to San Francisco.... Get rid of the panhandlers and homeless all around the city. They detract greatly from your city. Especially the hoards of them sleeping all over Union square and on the piers. We had grown accustomed to NOT being solicited when walking city streets. It is a real black eye on an otherwise very nice city.
Second point.... stop trying to make New England style clam chowder!!! You don't have a clue how to make it correctly.....NO spices, and NO celery in authentic New England chowders! Call your version San Francisco clam chowder and be proud of it! It's NOT like ours!
Nice time, nice town.

I just returned home from a weekend in sfo/marin, too.
And, I am originally from new england [born and raised in MA, currently living in so cal]. funny, i tried chowdah in fisherman's wharf this past weekend...and yes, i too said 'this is not like new england'. I agree. however, the spices were there, as was the celery, but it was thin, runny and not full of good bits, and kind of chunky in the wrong way. sigh.
why do people try, and why do they advertise it as such? they should simply say 'new england inspired, no guarantees'. lol

and there's so much great food in sfo-but honestly, i dont think either seafood or italian are of them. And i lived in sfo for a couple of years,too. it's got incredible stuff-pity the tourists mainly think of italian or seafood.

Recommended: ferry to sausalito and/or angel island, or tiburon for an afternoon.
Muir woods [yes, the tour busses are an option, but renting a car and driving yourself, esp. on a weekday, will be spectacular].
Fort Baker-just across the bridge. You will experience the beauty of the marin headlands, just below the bridge-a quick trip from the city-and will have views like you cannot imagine.

Sometimes, SFO is best from afar-the skyline is spectacular.
And, a hike in the area will give you a greater understanding of what is so appealing about living in sfo-proximity to recreation and nature. Astounding for a city of it's size/acclaim, really.
Or, stay int eh city and take the Geary Express line out to the Cliff house, and do a hike along the presidio, see sutro bath ruins and great views of the GG bridge.

Get out of the main tourist areas, and get off the Geary line at Geary and 1st-10th [any stop]; walk a block over to clement street, and see the 'locals chinatown'-several blocks with amazing restaurants-great burmese, and some fine dim sum, too, for starters. And visit Green Apple Bookstore-an institution in the neighborhood. Head on to presidio/cliff house from there (it's the last stop on the geary-at the ocean, you can't miss it) from there if you want. And/or, walk another block from Clement to California street, taking the bus from Cal. st. back into town/hyde street,and hop the cable car from hyde, doing the reverse ride and not having to wait in line.

CA cities are unfortunately rife with homelessness. It's a state wide problem-some say tolerance, others say the weather.
SFO has a long history of dealing with this issue, and equally long history of social acceptance of it.
I agree, it's a detraction from the qualify of life/tourism quality. I doubt it will change anytime soon, however. AT least it's not portland, with it's homeless camp. And, in any case, you are made to seem a bit of an inhumane person, if you don't quietly tolerate it at least, verbally support it as 'human rights and compassion', at best. There must be a better way; we all have rights. And not all homeless are happy. Many, many in sfo and so cal, are mentally ill, or veterans. There must be another way to assist people, besides 'letting them' live on the streets and beg.

Anyway, your complaints are legit. Someone needs to teach these people how to make chowdah, dam* it! (:

[lrmsd]

Originally Posted by Oakland Uptown

As for the homeless problem, you can thank Ronald Regan for much of that. The Chowder thing, I guess it's how New Yorkers, laugh at anything not New York Pizza. Pure Elitism. Even if the chef is from NY or New England, they'll find some excuse as to why it's not like "back home". It's biased BS.

IT's not biased. It's direct experience. I'd be ecstatic to have had my 7 dollar cup of chowder be as good as new england, where i no longer live. but, really, it just wasn't. I wanted it to be, and trust me, it wasn't. ):
i know chowder. and pizza, for that matter. and not all are created equal. fact.
the water in NYC has been long documented as the source of the amazing dough-hence great bagels from NYC that are hard to duplicate,as well as the pizza.

anyway, i like boston pizza, too. And that's also hard to find here in sunny CA. I love the food in CA. I just wonder why everyone, everywhere [not just CA]simply MUST sell 'new england chowder', but then make it cra*py? Same with pizza-new york style,etc.

It's not bs, my friend. it's the cold, hard truth. lol
relax, anyway....guy is from freakin' maine. they know chowder and seafood. And cold water seafood is spectacular, for real. i mean, really cold water. of course, super warm water, tropical seafood is, as well. i don't think CA has the best seafood. or italian. not it's forte. sushi, thai, local, nouveau cuisine etc, etc, and CA is on it.

[Oakland Uptown]

Originally Posted by lrmsd

IT's not biased. It's direct experience. I'd be ecstatic to have had my 7 dollar cup of chowder be as good as new england, where i no longer live. but, really, it just wasn't. I wanted it to be, and trust me, it wasn't. ):
i know chowder. and pizza, for that matter. and not all are created equal. fact.
the water in NYC has been long documented as the source of the amazing dough-hence great bagels from NYC that are hard to duplicate,as well as the pizza.

anyway, i like boston pizza, too. And that's also hard to find here in sunny CA. I love the food in CA. I just wonder why everyone, everywhere [not just CA]simply MUST sell 'new england chowder', but then make it cra*py? Same with pizza-new york style,etc.

It's not bs, my friend. it's the cold, hard truth. lol
relax, anyway....guy is from freakin' maine. they know chowder and seafood. And cold water seafood is spectacular, for real. i mean, really cold water. of course, super warm water, tropical seafood is, as well. i don't think CA has the best seafood. or italian. not it's forte. sushi, thai, local, nouveau cuisine etc, etc, and CA is on it.

I guess my point is there are thousands of resteraunts in and around SF that serve Clam chowder and there is no way they all suck. There are Chefs here from New England and Nww York who have resteraunts here. It's not like SF is isolated from having traveling Chefs. As the water making NY pizza better. I have to LOL at that idea, when it comes to food, half the experience is the ambiance, It's psychological. Eating pizza in NY will probably make you think it's better, same with Clam Choweder, "Wow I'm really eating NY Pizza, wow I'm really in Boston eating Chowder". I will say overall Maine does have better seafood.

[Maineah]

It was meant as a light hearted quip in comparing what we in New England call clam chowder and what other places call New England Clam chowder. It was not a slam against San Francisco or California. We had plenty of other great food at a number of restaurants from San Francisco through Napa, Sonoma and up almost as far as Mendicino on the coast. The produce is fantastic out there and we were overwhelmed with the variety and quantity of fresh inexpensive fruits and veggies. Maine sees little really fresh produce and our growing season is so short we can't even grow good celery (Maybe that's why no veggies in traditional Lobster stew and chowders??)
As another poster said there is plenty of good food to enjoy around the city.
As far as the homeless go we don't see many around here as they would freeze to death from September through May. Sure our largest city Portland, Maine has some street people though that city only has 65,000 people in it.
Maybe it's a weather thing though the homeless are less noticeable in New York and Boston.
Great trip hope to return in a year or two.

[Woof]

Most ordinary restaurants anywhere in California would simply buy big restaurant sized cans of factory made chowder, just as they would most "standard" menu items. They spend time on specialty dishes, not ordinary stuff like popular soups or spaghetti sauce that tastes ok out of a can and is soooo much easier. Time is money.