Am I the only one who will admit they like Rice-A-Roni?

Boudin's is really good. Their sourdough bread is to-die-for and they have great pizza and sandwiches and soup in a sourdough roll.

I like Rice a Roni, too, and I ate it regularly in college. I don't eat it now because it's so high in sodium, but I do think it tastes good! :)

I don't think anyone mentioned House of Nan King on Kearny St for Chinese...I remember it as being great.

i'm from sacramento so not a SF native but i make a salad with rice a roni that everyone LOVES!

Guys, I did not mean to sound snotty or dis Rice-a-Roni - it's just that we never understood why it was called a "San Francisco treat" when S.F. was so well-known for the foods mentioned in this thread and no one we knew ate it. Toncasmo, I want to try your salad - it sounds great!

Betsy and Suzie: I have tried the mass-marketed It's-Its but they are not the same as the made-to-order ones at Playland with the warm oatmeal cookies and dripping chocolate covering - Remember? Still good, though.

Dovima - Larraburu Bakery was a childhood hangout where I went with my grandmother five days (not Weds. or Sun.) a week to get fresh sourdough. God, it was the best!

Fish tacos (or anything else on their menu) at Taylor's Refresher in the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero! If you make it to Berkeley, Fat Apple's on Grove (a.k.a. Martin Luther King) and Rose for breakfast or lunch and be sure to have delicious cookies or pie from their bakery! Also my favorite Chinese restaurant is on Kittredge between Shattuck and Oxford/Fulton called Great China. Cesar's on Shattuck between Cedar and Vine has great tapas and the original Peet's Coffee is around the corner and pizza at The Cheeseboard is right across the street! One of the owners is affiliated with Chez Panisse 2 doors down. Yeah, I'm a former Berkeley gal :-)

Ohmygosh, Lisa. I never had a made-to-order It's Its. Never even went to Playland! Just remember discovering It's Its in the grocery store when I moved to CA in the 70s. Had no idea until now that I missed the real thing.
:-(

I'm making chocolate chip cookies tomorrow for DS, who'll be visiting from Santa Rosa. Maybe I'll sandwich them with ice cream and pretend....
:-)

Fresh Dungeness crab, sourdough bread, dim sum, and See's chocolates!

oh no, sourdough. forgo fisherman's wharf and anything for sale there (food or not) and take yourself over to the ferry building instead, which was mentioned in this thread. you can easily take a cab from your hotel and there is a great bay view. my favorite places there are Hog Island Oysters (they have a few non-oyster items on the menu, including an AWESOME clam chowder with a pile of clams in it). i suppose ghiradelli is fine but while you're at the ferry building, check out Recchiuti Confections. The peanut butter pucks and salted caramels are great. the building is full of places like that: businesses that use fresh ingredients, mostly organic, in-season...as a local, that's what i think of when i think of san francisco food. never does sourdough bread come into my mind. if you are looking for specific places, you should look up the food & dining secion on www.sfgate.com. click around and you will find reviews and tips, and get a better sense of what makes the area's food so outstanding. have fun!

Rice-a-roni originated in Oakland.

But like many San Franciscan foods, such as cioppino, it's an offshoot of Italian cooking, in this case a kind of risotto mixed with a pasta (originally orzo? pastina?)

My favorite San Francisco food is fresh pork buns.

I just hope that the guy who wrote the jingle was compensated appropriately :-)

A couple of tidbits from www.ricearoni.com

A love story - In the tradition of family arrangements, Charlie's closest friend gave him a portrait of Maria Ferrigno from Salerno, Italy. Charlie sent for Maria, and after a brief courtship, they married and later produced six children. Maria's family sold their pasta factory in Italy to join the family in California. In 1912, Maria persuaded Charlie to set up a pasta factory, Gragnano Products, Inc., in the Mission district in San Francisco. The successful business sold 25 and 50-pound boxes of pasta to Italian stores and restaurants in the area. Four of Charlie's sons, Paskey, Vince, Tom and Anthony, worked with him to build the pasta business

How it got started -A neighbor's Armenian style rice pilaf recipe inspired the original idea for RICE-A-RONI®, a mixture of rice and macaroni. Tom's wife Lois served the dish at a family dinner, and it became a favorite of the DeDomenico families. In 1958, Vince mixed a dry chicken soup mix, made at the plant, with rice and vermicelli to create the San Francisco treat which he named RICE-A-RONI. The unique preparation of the dish, and its wonderful flavor and convenience, made the dish one of America's favorite products. The RICE-A-RONI jingle, The San Francisco Treat® slogan, "Saute and Simmer" and scenic San Francisco became familiar to every household in America in the 60's as the product was introduced through television advertising.

And what's going on today -
The Quaker Oats Company purchased the Golden Grain Company from the DeDomenico family in 1986. Vince de Domenico continues to promote beautiful Northern California through his venture, the Napa Valley Wine Train.

I recently spent two weeks in San Francisco and not once did I see my old favorite from there on a breakfast menu -- a Hangtown Fry -- a mixture of oysters, bacon, and eggs all scrambled together in a skillet. What happened to that -- I loved them and hadn't thought about it until reading this post?
I would have thought a great place like Mama's at Washington Square would have them, but didn't.

BART station at Embarcadero just a few steps from Ferry Bldg, BART station at Berkeley (after Ashby, before North Berkeley)

Wow, I haven't been around for a couple of days and this thread has so many replies!

Thanks so much everyone for the great tips! I'm really looking forward to my visit!

For me, it would be Chinese food, especially dim sum restaurants such as the venerable Hang Ah Tearoom and the huge Gold Mountain. For old-Chinatown atmosphere, head to the Far East Café, on Grant Avenue.

I'm awaiting the Rice A Roni salad recipe. Yum.

This thread really makes me want to go to the wonderful city. Just to eat would be great. And enjoy a glass of red from one of the nearby wineries. Bliss.

I have been trying to remember the name of my favorite scrambled egg dish which I just knew originated in SF. Eggs, spinach, onions, garlic, hamburger all scrambled together! Joe's Scramble! :-!

Here is the link I found:

http://tinyurl.com/zv9jq

Joe's Special, a scramble of eggs, spinach, onions and chuck ground at the restaurant, tastes the same today as it did in World War II. Just the price has changed, jumping from 75 cents to $8.95.

The inner mission district around 16th and Valencia for everything from peruvian, to Yucatan style to Sushi to Italian.