My name is Guda. Every year, 7x7 magazine in San Francisco publishes the list of top 100 things to try before dying, "things" being food and drink. Having just moved to the Foggy City from the Ice Age State (aka Vermont) I thought: What better opportunity to try the foods of San Francisco than to follow this list and write about the culinary experience.
So what will I have to say that will be so ground breaking? Probably nothing.
I am just a 23-year-old who is doing this food trek on her own funds. I am not and have never been a paid food critic or food writer who goes to French Laundry and gets a prix fixe meal on the house. No, I am someone who goes to Carnegie Deli, orders a foot-tall pastrami sandwich and is treated like shit by the waiter. In fact, the first time I came to San Francisco, I made the wise choice of completely fore-going the restaurant scene, and instead took up the profession of dumpster diving. Why yes, that means I actually took food out of garbage cans and ate it (Hey, that dried mango in the waste basket at the Rainbow Grocery register was perfectly fine).
Those times have passed. I have been working as a sous chef and line cook in restaurants. I know good food and I consider myself a food critic in training. I piss my friends off every time we eat somewhere by commenting on the lack of acidity in that cod dish. Although I almost left Chez Panisse with tears of happiness and foodie joy, my favorite places to eat are still Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis, and that lady selling that pho on that street corner in the city of Can Tho, Vietnam.
I will also eat pretty much anything. Does that mean I ate dog while studying abroad in Vietnam? Why yes. It does. Would I eat it again? Probably not, but kudos to me for trying. Therefore, I will, without hesitation, try everything that is on this list. And after eating half hatched duck embryo in Vietnam and enjoying it, rest assured that I will speak my open mind about each dish I try.
So with my modest, yet refined, and still adventurous pallet, I will conquer this city with my belly, let the world know what a former dumpster diver has to say about some of the best eateries in San Francisco, and probably go broke while doing all of this. But it will be worth it for the food.
So take a look at my food destination and join me in my culinary adventure.
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