Please, I Should Be 'The Mayor'

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I just joined foursquare last week. I'm not quite sure why I hadn't joined before, since it basically is advanced instagram that comes with tips. Since I've been obsessed with making sure I post my location on all my instagrams and my instagram is almost entirely food, foursquare makes perfect sense for me. 

Since I'm such a late and recent addition, this week I've been trying to check in as much as possible. (However, I only check into restaurants and always forget that locations, neighborhoods, and stores are also something you can check into at foursquare). So far, it's been pretty fun but there's been one thing that I've found annoying about being a 'Newbie' foursquare. Every time I check-in to a new restaurant (or really anyplace), it tells me CONGRATS! This is your first time at this restaurant or CONGRATS! This is your first ___ type of restaurant. 

This has been particularly annoying this week, since I've mainly been going to all of my favorite restaurants that I'm pretty much a regular at. This was particularly true at Sushi Raw in the Lower Haight. I first went to Sushi Raw with my family because my grandma lives around the corner, but I kept going because my friend Camille lives right next to it too. They also have pretty reasonable prices, so everyone time I come home, I go there for some sushi or soup. 

Despite going to school on the East Coast, I manage to go to Sushi Raw so often that they greet me with a friendly welcome (even more than their normal welcome) and I frequent it more than my parents do.

In my opinion, there should be some sort of test or way to get the 'Local' badge or 'Mayor' position on foursquare even if you just joined. Honestly, them knowing where I go to college, where my grandma lives, general knowledge about  my parents and friends should mean more than how many times I remembered to press the little 'check-in' button. Right?

Udon after a long day is always such a great choice. It's nice and warm, which is always perfect in foggy San francisco. But it's also the cheapest thing you can get at a sushi restaurant at about $8 while being extremely filling (way more filling than sushi). Not to mention, that it is really healthy. Look at all those yummy veggies! (But don't worry, if you want a less healthy option, tempura udon is always a great choice!)

Pakwan

When I'm away at school, the main thing I miss is ethnic food. Growing up in San Francisco, I was used to have authentic and absolutely amazing anything-you-can-imagine food. When I was little, my favorite restaurants were thai, chinese, and mexican. As I got older, I ventured into puerto rican, burmese and nepalese food as well. So when I come home for breaks, there are a couple stops I just have to take. One of these is Indian food.
I met up with my friends Camille and Mattie one night after they both got off of work and headed over to the Mission to get dinner. While the Mission District is best known for mexican food (big surprise there), I had already had mexican food three times at that point so we opted for Indian at Pakwan instead. Pakwan was the perfect choice since it was pretty fast and cheap (like Mexican), but wasn't yet another burrito. Here's some pics!

Mattie is certainly happy with the food!

Also, I just joined foursquare. Add me!

Higher Grounds

I spent my first night and day in my old neighborhood of Glen Park, where I grew up in San Francisco. After awakening at 5am and just lounging in bed for the next five hours, the crew (my brother, my niece and me) all headed down the hill to the 'village' to get breakfast. We went to my favorite breakfast spot when I was little, Higher Ground. Back in the day, I would just get a basic cheese omelette with a Mexican hot chocolate (you just add cinnamon), but these days I'm older and have a much more mature palette. So this time, I decided to actually try what Higher Grounds is known for: their savory crepes. I think the crepe I got was Alla Toscana? It has a large variety of cheeses, egg, and spinach. I rather enjoyed it. I also got a large fresh-squeezed orange juice that was only like $3, which I'm pretty sure is a good deal (or I'm still confused by Geneva prices)

I completely recommend Higher Grounds. Recently, Glen Park has been on the rise and the 'village' has gotten a bunch of snooty new restaurants and markets. But Higher Grounds has been around since I was little and Glen Park was still an area of the city people didn't know how to get to (no seriously, the amount of friends' parents that got lost dropping me off). So this isn't like those yuppie brunch spots that are littered around San Francisco (although don't get me wrong, I do love those). Instead, Higher Grounds is an authentic unpretentious family owned breakfast spot that will probably be around longer than all the new computer geeks who just moved into the neighborhood. What I should mention though is that because it's so authentic and unpretentious, They don't take credit cards and there's no wifi. So bring your cash and bring a book if you're planning on sticking around to enjoy the rustic ambiance.

After breakfast, we headed down a couple doors to pop into Chenery Park and say hi to the owner Joe. My brother automatically went to the bar and made us all some mimosas and we all chatted as they prepared for the graduation party that they were having that afternoon. Back in the day, Chenery Park used to be the fancy restaurant in the neighborhood. These days, it's pretty much at the same fancy level as every other restaurant in town besides the old chinese restaurant, mexican taqueria, and the diner. If I go back before I head back to the east coast, I'll snap some pics and tell you allll about it.

Cookies Rule Everything Around Me

Sometimes I feel like I just waste my summer. I just sit there on my bed watching yet another episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians or Law & Order while aimlessly and pointlessly surfing the internet. Now, it's even sadder for me to spend my free days this way because I only get 2 days off a week and then I'm back to talking older women into buying that soft soft, 100% cotton cardigan at Banana Republic. But this weekend, I was slightly more social. Hooray! I'll tell you what I did today and safe my yesterday activities for another post, so I can pretend like I am super social all the time. 
Today, I went to Telegraph in Berkeley with my friend Camille. She was planning on going with some of her friends from high school and I just tagged along. Having grown up in San Francisco proper, I never really venture out to the suburbs or surrounding cities. I mean I live in the the city, and all these other places just surround it. But it was nice venturing out of my normal places and going to what we called the Haight street of Berkeley. I bought this really pretty mint green dress that I hopefully will do a post on very very soon. We went to a lot of different stores, but after my large $40 purchase, I tried very hard to not buy anything more. But we did get a bite to eat. 

Yummy in my tummy!

There's this place called CREAM (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me). The idea is you get to choose two freshly baked cookies, an ice cream flavor and they make you a made-to-order chipwich! It was soooo yummy, and there were so many options that I just want to go back for more! And it was only $2, which is nowhere near the most I've paid for a dessert in the Bay Area. If for some reason I find myself on that side of the Bay Bridge again, I might have to get another.

After our chipwiches, we headed back to the city and hung out in Duboce Park. By this point in the day, my outfit had changed dramatically. But what we ended up with was a mostly borrowed outfit from my friend Camille (I had slept over the night before). The outfit is slightly mismatched, but I think it turned out alright? This is my first time wearing this necklace that I bought from Forever21. I was looking for a colorful, preferably somewhat green statement piece for my job. I ended up buying this necklace, which I liked but isn't exactly the best to create a professional look. Nonetheless, it's a nice piece to add some color to my drab outfits and for my days off. I'm also wearing my handy dandy army jacket from Wasteland that my friend Catherine has been trying to steal for ages. My skirt and tank top are both my friend Camille's.

Had to add my normal dumb looking picture

Tank: Unknown

Skirt: American Apparel

Jacket: Thrifted from Wasteland

Shoes: Sam Edelman

Necklace: Forever21

Sunglasses: Wishbone

Let's Be Frank about Let's Be Frank

Outfit--Tank: American Apparel, Jacket: Crossroads, Shorts: Zara

Last week was a beautiful week in San Francisco. Unfortunately for me, I was writing that paper for the extended program I was on in NYC. I was convinced that that week was going to be the one gorgeous week of real summer San Francisco. (In case you didn't know San Francisco's summers are not the warmest things in the world. Remember the Mark Twain quote: the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco). Thankfully, this wasn't the case. Because the wonderful weather continued all the way until...yesterday.
BUT before the fog rolled back in, I managed to get in a trip to Crissy Field with my friend Rebecca. We walked from the marina to the warming hut, passing by all the amazingly cute little doggies on the way! When we reached the warming hut, we got a bite from Let's Be Frank, a fancy hot dog cart. The hot dog was $6 on some acme bread (one of the favorite bakeries in the city). Although I really wanted to be in love with this hot dog, it essentially tasted just like a $1.99 hot dog from Costco. Only that one comes with a drink and Let's Be Frank's sodas cost $3.

Me eating a $6 hot dog from Let's Be Frank

This experience made me question the foodie culture of San Francisco. I'll admit, I'm absolutely in love with the food in SF and miss it so much during the school year when I'm trapped in the cuisine of college cafeterias and upstate new york. However, sometimes the snobby level in San Francisco restaurants is a little too high. Like come on, essentially $10 for a soda and hot dog? That's ridiculous! 
Despite the fact that Let's Be Frank raped my wallet, I still really enjoyed my trip to Crissy Field. It was a beautiful sunny day and the view from the beach was beautiful. I also got to take some pictures of people's outfits for my internship with College Fashionista. I'll link them to my page when they go live! But I'm sure you were also wondering what I was wearing.

Me and my friend Rebecca! Look at how gorgeous the day is!

I was wearing a new chiffon orange shirt from American Apparel that I bought from the Warehouse store in NYC for $11! I paired that with a tribal jacket/cover thing that I bought from Crossroads during winter break. I was uncertain about whether I should buy this item at the time. The print was a little adventurous for me at the time. However, I've grown to love this jacket-cover up-thing. I've also grown to love tribal print. In fact, I even wrote an article about it for my last post with College Fashionista #shamelessplug So if you have anytime, you should check out my posts on College Fashionista. Thanks for visiting my blog and remember to follow!!

Keep Calm and Carry On

I have this poster above my bed in my dorm room. Keep Calm and Carry On. I think it was a message during WWI to the English people. You know, trying to tell those poor Englishmen that, yes, although that might be a bomb and, yes, those very well could be fighter planes flying up above, above their homes, although they were in the middle of war, they should Keep Calm and Carry On. I mean, honestly, what were they freaking out about? So when I walk into my dorm room, no matter how much homework I have or how much drama will brew in my year ahead, if the English could do it in WWI, I too can Keep Calm and Carry On.

This poster also reminds me of one of my favorite tea spots in San Francisco (ok, it's actually my fouth favorite high-tea spot in SF) Crown and Crumpet. They have a bunch of these signs and it's honestly an ADORABLE spot. It's really bright and cutesy and they have some AMAZING tea. It's a little steep for me which is why I still prefer Lovejoys (where I get more bang for my buck), but nonetheless it's still an amazing place to go. Sooo if you still happen to be in the city and love yourself some tea (or hot cocoa) go check this place out. I'm quite envious, I haven't had any tea since I got to college, let alone high tea with scones and crumpets!

Outfit: Dress: Stolen and Shortened from Mom's closet, Belt: Coach, Oxford Heels: F21, Sweater: Bloomies

Hot Cookies Like to Party

So this semester, I've been hanging a little bit more. You know, going out. Enjoying the city. So one thing I've been doing a lot recently is getting brunch. I've kind of gotten brunch EVERYWHERE EVERY WEEKEND! The Mission, Hayes Valley, Downtown, Marin, Cliff house, Fillmore, the Haight, Cole Valley and THE CASTRO. Wow, that's a lot of brunchin' no wonder I'm getting a little chubster this semester! Yoga here I come!

One of my favorite places in the Castro is Hot Cookie. Their cookies are just AMAZING! They're perfectly moist. If you especially like the moistness try the chocolate chip and toffee cookie its SCRUMPTIOUS! YUM I WANT ONE KNOW (chubster) and a Quicklys (double chubster)

In my humble opinion, best picture ever. Yea I wanna Party! HAHA

Outfit-- Sweater: bloomingdales, Denim Shirt: Thrifted, Skirt: London Topshop, Purse: Vintage Gucci, Shoes: UO, Necklace: Thrifted Paris

Photo cred: Mattie