The San Francisco Treat

Why is rice so…ingrained (Thank you, good night!) with the culinary iconography of San Francisco? In a city where you can find just about every imaginable food and drink, artisan-crafted and locally produced, must we still have to suffer the shame of Rice-A-freakin-Roni? Nothing about salty-buttery rice and pasta conjures up “treat” in my mind. And unless it’s the mystery product all the tourists are eating out of bread bowls at Fisherman’s Wharf, I dare say it’s not very “San Francisco” either.

Rice is also unfortunately a mainstay of that other much vaunted SF treat - the burrito. Why people continue to ruin a perfectly designed meat vehicle with the starchy equivalent of styrofoam peanuts, I’ll never understand. Lord above, what I wouldn’t give for a decent taqueria in this city.

The real San Francisco treat is, gloriously, free of rice and can be found near a fairly non-descript corner of the city at Mitchell’s Ice Cream. Once the rain clears, head out on a walk one night soon. Admire the holiday lights and decorations as you wind your way through neighborhood streets out to San Jose Ave and 29th St. Get the peppermint candy flavor on a cone of your choosing, and for god’s sake, get it chocolate-dipped. This, my friends, is a taste of heaven.