The Sandwich You Can Only Get on Fridays, Creative Babka Rolls, Fillmore Street Eating Map + More
California Eating is Hungry Like the Wolf!
Challah bagnat by Braid Bakery in San Francisco
Braid Bakery is a babka-focused home bakery near Ocean Beach in San Francisco’s Sunset District that offers pickup three days a week and also stocks a case of babka rolls at nearby Other Avenues co-op market three days a week. Private catering was just added as a new service.
One day a week — today, Friday — Braid Bakery offers two sandwiches on freshly baked olive oil sesame challah bread. After lusting after this on many a Friday, I finally ordered one yesterday to try today: the challah bagnat, with albacore tuna, boiled eggs, pickled onions, Kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, radish, lettuce, preserved lemon aioli sauce and herbs. I already wish I had ordered a few of them, but that’s just gluttony calling.
Braid does savory as well as sweet babka rolls (and larger babka pies and cakes), and recently added vegan and gluten-free options. Today, we tried an artichoke pesto roll, a new Dubai chocolate roll, and a discovery box of minis, with chocolate hazelnut, cinnamon walnut, cardamom and turbinado sugar, black sesame and lemon zest, chocolate chip and pink praline almond.
The latter was my favorite of the minis, but they’re all special. The Dubai chocolate has a light touch with these heavy ingredients, making it one for repeat visits (unlike a lot of Dubai chocolate-branded items from other places, which are hit and miss). But the savory artichoke pesto was probably the best of the bunch.
Artichoke pesto babka roll
Mini babka discovery box
Cross-section of Dubai chocolate babka roll
Operating hours are Thursday-Saturday 11am-1pm; order one day ahead of pickup.
Map: Fillmore Street Favorites
A pastry case at KC Paris Desserts in San Francisco
This week’s map is of my Favorite Places to Eat on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. I’m particularly excited about the recent addition of KC Paris Desserts, a recommendation from Tablehopper (do you subscribe?). Chef-owner Khadidiatou Camara (aka Didi) used to own bakeries in Paris and moved here when her son decided to go to school in the Bay Area. The steak and cheese croissant and apple tartlette that I tried last week live rent free in my head right now. I’ll share more about this wonderful place after I’ve been able to go back and try more things. And yes, that is an excuse to go back and try more things.
Good Taste: Saluhall’s One-Year Anniversary and Beacon Grand’s Afternoon Tea
Popo’s Noodle and raindrop dessert at MOMO Noodle at Saluhall in San Francisco
Last week’s GOOD TASTE column at 48 Hills takes stock of the IKEA-adjacent Saluhall in San Francisco on its one-year anniversary. The stretch of Market Street that the two-level food hall is on has gotten more desolate with the further emptying out of the mall formerly known as the Westfield Center, but there’s new, delicious life inside Saluhall thanks to local businesses. People just need to give it a chance!
Big sandwiches at the Saturday afternoon tea service at Beacon Grand in San Francisco
This week’s GOOD TASTE column features the Saturday afternoon tea service at the Beacon Grand in San Francisco, which has a lot of special touches, including an imaginative tea selection that you can see and sniff before deciding. As a teetotaling connoisseur, this is my new recommendation for a special occasion (though it includes a glass bubbles, if you want them!).
I’ll share more coverage from the Bay Area, Southern California and Napa County in the coming weeks. Until then, find more thought for food in the California Eating blog!
