A Hill-Walking Adventure In San Francisco

I've never understood when people complain about the hills in San Francisco anymore than when they complain about the fog. These are two of the features that make the place so special. Once you stop focusing on how you need to replace your clutch every three years from the steep grades if you live here, you can wrap yourself in the pleasure of good long hill-walks. I've never joined a gym all my years of living here, just allowing the aerobic workout of climbing up and down countless hills to do the work for free. So join me on one my most frequent routes.

We'll take off from the Ferry Building at the base of Market Street, partly because that's where I usually have come from, off the ferry from nearby Alameda. Cross the Embarcadero and begin heading up one of the streets towards Chinatown. I usually go up Jackson Street, to look in the windows of the many Asian art shops, and begin the climb through the financial district, up seven blocks to the beginning of Chinatown on Grant Street.

Once at Grant, take a right and you'll see our first stop, Vital Tea Leaf, between Jackson and Pacific. This is my favorite little "free-tea-tasting" shop. A lot of the people who work there are endearing characters, even if their tea prices are thru the roof. It's fun on a cold, foggy day to be served little tasting cups of their wide variety of teas. They even have a dish of complimentary fortune cookies. I'm always sure to buy at least a small bag of tea before I go. Their lychee black or ginseng oolong are two of my favorites.

Quick Tips:

Go out the door and continue to your right until you reach Broadway. Take a left up the hill. About a block up, near the corner of Broadway and Stockton, on the right, you'll see my favorite spot for a Chinese breakfast, Hing Lung. Perfect congee (rice porridge) served with housemade crullers, if you wish them. The local residents dip the doughnuts in the porridge for a divine meal. I usually get the abalone and chive variety of congee (though they sell about 20 kinds!) as well as a pot of chrysanthemum tea.


Now that you're fortified, you can begin the hill-walk in earnest. Leaving Hing Lung, go to your right, continuing up Broadway until you reach Powell Street. Take a right on Powell and go one block over to Vallejo. Take a left on Vallejo and you will see a towering climb in front of you. Don't be dismayed; it will be worth the trouble. After the first steep block up Vallejo, you'll see at Mason Street the gorgeous Vallejo Stairs begin. Even though they are quite a climb, they're one of most beautiful spots in the city. Built as a series of gardened terraces, you can either climb straight up for three blocks for a great workout, or stop every few steps to keep gazing at the magnificent vista behind you. The higher you go, the gleaming red majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin headlands reveals itself more and more, sometimes peaking seductively through the fog. The climb crests at Jones street into a sweet little urban park with what feels like a view of the whole universe. Then you can continue climbing down all the way to Polk Street, a commercial drag. This is a good stop if you need water or a bathroom.

I usually take a left on Polk, and then a right on Pacific to begin climbing again. After what you've been doing, the next 12 blocks or so will feel relatively moderate! Go until Fillmore and then take a left. The climbing part is done.

Best Way To Get Around:

Fillmore is a fun street to give some time to. Little boutiques and cafes are everywhere. If it's a cold day, I'll sometimes finish up my walk by walking about a mile down Fillmore to the corner of Geary. There, on your left as part of the huge white Japantown complex, you'll see "Kabuki Hot Springs," a terrific japanese bathhouse. The communal tubs are open Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for women, the other days for guys. Entry is about , free tea, lemon water and salt for scrubbing, and a locker included. There is a hot tub, cold plunge, strong steam room and a large dry sauna. If it's not "your" day, you can often get a private room for a massage and hot tub anyway if they're not all booked.

After your bath, if you're hungry, pop into the Japantown center for dinner. While there are countless good spots, Mifune, a charming, well-priced noodle spot on the second floor, is my favorite. I go back again and again for their mountain veggie noodles which come with a little bit of pickled radish for about , including tea. The combined plates are delicious, too. Sometimes I get the cooked unagi (eel) over rice with seawood soba noodle soup and pickled veggies on the side. A real deal for .

After dinner, it's easy to catch one of the many buses heading back down Geary to either return towards the Ferry Building or to wherever the rest of your night takes you. If you're walking all the way back, I recommend returning on Fillmore, where you came from, to California Street and taking a right. Geary is not a particularly safe or scenic route, but good for frequent buses).

Enjoy!

Sunflower Café is one of the best unsung Vietnamese restaurants in San Francisco. There are actually two Sunflowers (around the corner from each other in the Mission District), one on 16th and one on Valencia. They share the same kitchen, but the Valencia Street one has a much nicer ambience. However, sometimes service is faster at 16th street since it's smaller.

The food is amazing. San Francisco has a much celebrated Vietnamese spot called Slanted Door yet I find the food and service at Sunflower consistently better. And the tab about 1/2 the price!

So many incredible dishes. If you want just a light snack, get the Fresh Spring Rolls, available in vegetarian or shrimp versions. These are so much better than the standard rolls at most Vietnamese places. Filled with delicately shredded and saute cabbage and tofu, and served with a spicy, fragrant dipping sauce, these are one of my favorite dishes around. I'm always picking up an order to go here (also better than the fried rolls which can be a bit greasy).

The Vietnamese catfish soup is spectacular. It's not on the menu so you have to ask for it specially. It has a sweet and sour base and pineapple chunks, sprouts, and basil. May sound strange, but it's memorable. That soup and the spring rolls may be my favorite meal in all of San Francisco.

But if you're really famished and it's mid-day, there's Sunflower's lunch special, probably the best lunch for the money in the whole city (and San Francisco is a veritable gastronomic paradise). It comes in meat or veggie version, but I always get the veggie. For $8 you receive a small bowl of hot and sour soup, a spring roll and a huge, and I mean huge, plate of spicy saute tofu and green beans over rice, as well as a side of tangy cabbage salad.

They also have delicious lemonade or Vietnamese iced tea.

If you are lucky you will get the waiter named Michael who is one of the kindest, most expert servers you'll ever meet. But all the people who work at this place are exceptionally pleasant.

I always feel so well-fed and taken care of here, I tend to leave massive tips. You may feel inspired to do the same!

A real find.

I don't know why I adore this place so much but I do. It's not that they have the most inspired sushi in the world, or the best, most gracious service. But there's zany decor and a great music playlist that makes me keep coming back. Every inch of the wall space is filled with crazy Japanese fans, hello kitties, and pictures of geisha and samurai. The music is wildly eclectic: one recent night they were playing old Roches one minute and Japanese girl groups the next.

A good way to eat here is to show up between 5 and 6pm for dinner special. For $10 you will first receive tea, carrot sticks, a small seaweed or spinach appetizer, and miso soup with a bowl of rice. Then you get a 6 piece spicy tuna roll with 5 pieces of whatever sushi you wish (you pick from a good-sized list). I also often get the gobo (burdock root) appetizer as an addition. It's a crunchy delicacy that's also a tonic for your body, especially your kidneys (for those of you with an interest in Asian medicine).

I just find that the place consistently lifts my spirits. There are many sushi spots in San Francisco with higher grade fish but they often feel sterile to me. They don't have the personality or zest of this spot.

By the way, the specials are actually served from 5-7 pm but if you don't go on the early end you may have to wait quite awhile to get in, especially on the weekends. It's an extremely popular spot. Also, cash only.

There are two other WeBe locations, one farther down on Valencia near 16th street and one out on Geary. But the only one I really love is this one near 22nd street.

I have just three words for you: Chicken Soy Shwarma. That's it. Chicken Soy Shwarma.

When you go to this healthy vegetarian place you have to ignore the abysmal service and the sterile, steely, "modernistic", utter lack of decor and the astronomical decibel level of every hipster in the Mission District packed into every seat of every table. Just focus on these three words and you'll do great.

This is one of the most spectacular dishes I've ever had anywhere on the planet. I usually get it on top of their organic green salad instead of within the usual wheat wrap (which is a bit heavy and tasteless).

The shwarma is lightly spicy and crisp, as if it was delicately sautéed in the most perfect melange of herbs. Served over the salad with a good tahini dressing it is like receiving a personal garden of ecstasy. Tiny fried potato fingerlings dusted in dill are mixed in the salad along with a few pickles and tomatoes. A hot sauce is served on the side along with some killer hummus.

The food makes it easy to ignore that you may have to get up to get your own water and silverware and ask for your check 6 times because the overwhelmed waiter will probably forget. (One day a waitress there confided that the owners will only pay for one server on the floor at a time to conserve money. Wow. You can imagine the chaos during lunch hour.)

But if you're there for the shwarma, you won't even need a menu. If you look around half the people are having it anyway.

I first heard about this dish at one of my favorite yoga classes right up the street. The teacher kept saying, "Yoga is about focusing the mind. My biggest challenge is not thinking about "chicken soy shwarma at Herbivore" while I do the poses!" He said it so many times I had to go find out.

Now I know.
Pure culinary bliss.

They do also have a decent hot and sour soup filled with rice noodles and veggies. But their regular salads and other sandwiches are pretty lackluster. Their veggie padthai was sticky and tasteless. So I usually go with one intention.

Consider getting your order to-go to avoid the noise and service unless you're arriving at 3pm during a momentary lull. Just call ahead and when they say "come in 10 minutes" show up in 45. Now you've got it covered.)

This is a very, very weird place. Sometimes my friends call it Cafe Attitude. Despite the fact that the food is often fantastic, I just can't get myself to go there much. It's too weird, and I don't mean good, twisted, interesting weird and unusual like I'm often drawn to. Just weird weird.

It's a raw food vegan spot which draws heated mixed reactions. You'll either love it or hate it. The catch for me is that all the servers must take Landmark trainings (an off-shoot of EST) before they can work there. It sometimes gives a really creepy, cult-like atmosphere. The service, in any case, even when the waitperson is friendly and "normal" is still usually slow and scattered. You just can't go here unless you have an hour or more to spend.

But the real hitch is I just can't get beyond the names of the food. They all have fake "affirmations" so when you get something like their very good large salad you have to say, "I'd like the I AM ABUNDANT", and then you often have to have a zombie waitron say, "Yes, you are Abundant! And would you like a cup of I AM GOOD along with that?" It would be funny if it was all tongue-in-cheek but it's usually not. Strange to say this as someone who believes in affirmations and positive thought, but I don't think forcing them down people's throats along with their food is the point.

If you want to brave the "affirming" experience, do be sure to have their vegetable-packed miso soup for $6. It's very good. Their desserts are probably worth the trip as well if you have an hour to spend while they figure out how to cut a piece of vegan coconut creme pie and put it on a plate. As I say, the service is mind-boggling.

It might be slow because they have to ask you between courses in a sing-song Mr. Rogers voice things like "And what are YOU grateful for today?" You HAVE to answer, depending on the rigidity of the server, before you can get your food. I said I was grateful no one would ask me that question again today.

She didn't smile.
Oh well.
The pie was good.

Even though this is just a great little healthy corner store, I have to put it in the "restaurant" section because they have the most amazing, kick-ass salad bar in town. Don't confuse this place with "whole foods market", this is just a little independent store run by a great family.

And their salad bar is to die for. They only got it in the last month but they have the most delicious Mediterranean dips and toppings all for a per pound reasonable price. Hummus, tahini, baba ganoush, falafel, dolmas, garlicky mushrooms, pickled red peppers, fresh creamy feta. Also, the standard salad greens, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and so on. Freshly made wonderful dressings. Everything is so spectacular it makes your usual salad bar seem so sad by comparison. Check this place out!

This is one of the most magical places to shop in San Francisco. Although it was relocated last year from a space a few blocks away, the energy is still divine.

Imagine an Asian arts shop packed to the brim with the most beautiful, well-priced statues from Thailand and India, gorgeous fabrics, jewelry, clothing, wall-hangings, everything you could imagine. The wonderful owner goes a few times a year to Thailand and comes back with an abundance of treasures, usually better priced than most similar shops in the bay area.

But the good prices aren't all that make this store amazing. The Thai women who run it are some of the kindest, most generous people you will ever meet. A big portion of the store's profits gets sent back to Thailand to help women and families there reach self-determination. This is a wonderful, important place to support.

But there's even more. When you arrive you are treated like a welcome guest. You are offered tea, fruit, and often cookies. There is a tranquil, lovely meditation room in the back with a huge statue of Lord Ganesh (the remover of obstacles) where you can stay as long as you wish.

What a temple this spot is! I can never travel to the Haight without stopping in to buy a few things to support the store and savor the incredible energy.

This wonderful women-only bathhouse has been my personal bastion for sanity for the 25 years that I've lived in the Bay Area. It's a simple, adorable little spot, a haven of peace and serenity in the midst of the cool, hip urban energy of the Valencia Street corridor.

For an entrance fee (sliding scale $12-$20 based on what you can afford to pay) you can spend the day, including in and out privileges. There is a lovely large Japanese-style hot tub (big enough for 8 women) usually kept at 106 to 108 degrees. Also, there is ample resting areas inside.

The outside courtyard is my favorite. Wet and dry saunas and a cold plunge are out back as well as a wonderful upper deck for nude sunbathing.

Massages are available and most the bodyworkers are quite talented. My idea of a perfect day when I need to chill is to arrive when they first open at noon and it's the quietest, hang out for a couple hours, go up the street to eat lunch at Herbivore (two doors down) and then return for more hours of bliss. By the end, you're thinking "what problems?".

This is also an amazing spot during the rainy season. Just going from the hot tub to the rain outside into the steaming saunas and cold plunge (and back again) is heaven. I've spent countless storms meditating in the cozy toasty sauna as the rain plinked on the wooden roof.

If you go, be sure to say hello to Yvonne, the manager. She's really wonderful (as is the owner Summer has kept the place going as an urban retreat for women for almost 30 years).

This is one of the secret, sacred retreat spots of San Francisco.

PS. I listed this under "family fun" because I couldn't see any other category for it, although children are actually not allowed. So this is not exactly accurate (unless you think of yourself as part of the extended family of women!)