24th Street, Mission.

To close up my coverage of San Francisco, I'd like to share a few spots around my favorite neighborhood: the Mission. While there seemed to be great restaurants, cafes, and shops all over the neighborhood, 24th Street in particular stood out as a great all-around destination.

What makes the Mission's 24th Street so exciting is its curious mix of inhabitants; a Thai-Chinese grocery might sit next to a taqueria, and across the street from a hipster coffee shop. This mix is unfortunately endangered, as rising rents are forcing out the traditionally latino community, but for now the vibe persists, in freshly painted murals (1) and corner groceries (2) specializing in latin american ingredients. Mexican restaurants (3) still outnumber the hispter joints. Right at the head of the street Taquerias el Farolito (2779 Mission, at the corner of 24th) offers raved about tacos filled with a diverse selection of meats (chorizo, lengua, beef brain...). Also worth keeping an eye out for at the intersection are the 'tamale ladies', who peddle their delicacies just up the steps from the Bart Station.

Further down the street, Local Mission Eatery (3111 24th) offers a changing menu based on what's being grown seasonally in the SF area. On our visit, I ate an unbelievable sandwich (4) of asparagus and poached eggs on freshly baked brioche. Yum. The relaxed, dimly lit interior offers a calm break from the pace of the street outside.

After lunch, you'll be spoiled for options for dessert. My pick is to head down the street to Dynamo Donuts (6) (2760 24th), for a donut in maple bacon or lemon thyme. Also worth the wait in line is the ice cream at Humphry Slocombe (just off 24th, on 2790 Harrison), where scoops comes in a staggeringly diverse selection of ever-rotating flavors, like Thai Chili Lime, Peanut Butter Curry, or Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee. Or, cross the street from Local and pop into La Reyna (5) (3114 24th) for a tasty Mexican sweet bread.

If you're like me, and think that something sugary is best followed by a cup of coffee, then follow the sounds of typing to Haus (7) (3086 24th), where you'll be welcomed into the starkly minimalist coffee shop by the glowing lights of a dozen hipsters all on Macbooks. The menu is small, but the coffees are beautifully made. If it's a nice day, you can even sit out back in their bare-bones patio.

Editor's note: Want to know one of the weirdest things about this neighborhood? It reminded me a lot of Los Angeles. I could almost have been in Silverlake or Echo Park, though admittedly there were a lot more people walking around here. Which makes me think that as great as San Francisco was, if this was my favorite SF neighborhood, then I might actually still just be an LA kind of guy...

Cape Town CBD.

Every now and then, I like to go out and act like a tourist. I find that as a local, I have a tendency to grow so accustomed to my surroundings, that I don't really look around anymore. I stop noticing new things about my city, stop actively engaging with the world around me. And when I do see something interesting, I generally express the sentiment 'I should go check that out, but I'll go another time', which often results in never going at all. Exploring like a tourist is my way of correcting this; it means seeing everything as if it were new, exploring everything that grabs my interest right in the spur of the moment, and being open to experiencing the city in ways I usually don't.

Last week, on a particularly sunny day, we headed down to Cape Town's Central Business District (1) for a morning of sight-seeing. Actually raising my eyes to look around reminded me of all the unusual details in the architecture of the CBD, like this incredible carving of early Cape history on the Old Mutual building (2). We stopped and admired proteas in the Trafalgar Flower Market (3), which I've seen from a distance for almost five years, been curious about, but never been into. And in general we just wandered around, admiring the eclectic mix of architectural styles that make up Cape Town's CBD (4).

Our only real activity of the day was a visit to the Castle (5), a fort built by the Dutch East India Company in the late 17th century. We ended the morning out with a lunch on St George's mall (6), a leafy pedestrian street right in the centre of town. It's not somewhere I often think of going-- the cafes are mostly chains, and I'm not too into the stands selling paintings of townships or the big five. But it is an attractively green urban space, and I like the hum of constant daytime energy as people stroll through, meet for lunch, or stop for coffee. The crowd is always an interesting mix of locals and tourists, so as we ate our lunch we enjoyed some people watching, listened in on conversations in foreign tongues, and felt very much like tourists in our own city.

Fairfax.

Living at the northern border of K.town has opened me up to the wonders of Midtown Los Angeles. One of the areas that I've become most fond of is the Fairfax district. The stretch of Fairfax north of Beverly holds an odd fascination, though not much real attraction. The aging kosher bakeries are reflective of the street's history as the former center of the city's Jewish community, while the faded murals and deco storefronts are suggestive of a Hollywood glory that long ago wore away on this street.

But south of Beverly, Fairfax gets interesting. While not in any way a hidden spot, I'm particularly fond of visiting the Farmer's Market. It's a good place for picking up cheap produce, and for finding meals of inconsistent quality. I've had Cajun gumbo, sugary donuts, and many cups of coffee from reluctant servers at the creperie, all prepared in a vaguely carnivalesque atmosphere of foodstands and giant plaster desserts. The Farmer's Market is of course a great spot for people viewing; the crowd is always an odd mix of B-list celebrities, shopper spillover from the Grove, and disinterested employees from the CBS lot breaking for lunch.

Bordeaux and I stopped for coffee at Mani's Bakery on Fairfax last week, down in the quiet residential stretch near Miracle Mile. I'd been to Mani's in Santa Monica, and though the food was good, the cafe itself was somewhat bland, with a cavernous interior reminiscent of an empty garage. Mani's on Fairfax is the opposite extreme, a charming little coffeeshop with barely enough room for a queue to form between the bakery counter and the tables. The menu is brilliant, with six different brewed organic coffees on offer, and a wide range of sparkling, sugar-free pastries. I ordered a cup of black coffee, and Bordeaux and I selected a cranberry walnut scone to split. We grabbed a table outside, on the much less crowded sidewalk patio. We enjoyed our coffee slowly, as we read under the shade of the leafy trees. I was unsure of how the sugar-free pastries would be, but the scone's cranberries added a naturally sweet flavor that balanced perfectly with the mellow Italian roast coffee.


Just beyond LACMA, tucked between the blocks of pale yellow Colonial revival apartments, is Little Ethiopia, my favorite stretch of Fairfax. I used to catch glimpses of it on the way to LACMA on field trips with my art classes, and would always wonder what was hidden in the unassuming Afro-storefronts. I didn't actually effort to explore the neighborhood until after college, when I parked on the street, and blindly walked into the Ethiopian restaurant closest to my parking meter. The decor was quirky, a composite of African exoticism and Ethiopian nationalism in a generic restaurant setting. The food was amazing- varied in textures, flavors and spices. The meal was to be eaten by hand with injera, the strangely delicious sour-spongy bread. I've gone back to Little Ethiopia twice recently, both times to eat at Nyala. Bordeaux, my sister Genevieve and I took my sister Olivia their for dinner when she was in town, in effort to satisfy her desire for interesting ethnic cuisine. We ordered three dishes to share: the vegetarian combo, the doro wat, and the asa tibs. Bordeaux and I each had an Ethiopian beer, selected from a drink menu that included beers from Eritrea to Namibia. The standout dish was doro wat- a peppery, mildly spicy chicken, served with a hard boiled egg (delicious, but hard to eat without utensils). We ordered three dishes, which was more than enough for the three of us, and at around $10 a person for food plus drinks, translated to what must be one of the cheapest, most delicious meals in LA.

Bordeaux and I recently went back to Nyala for lunch with a friend to try out the vegetarian buffet. While no dish was as good as the doro wot, the meal was still delicious- in particular, I liked the slightly bitter greens, and the spicy red lentils of the yemiser wot. After lunch, we had citrusy Ethiopian coffee, which was served through the smoke of a small ember of incense. The mock ceremony of the coffee was fitting of the restaurant, which reminded me a little of restaurants at tourist sites in Southern Africa- the decor caught between an effort for elegance and the desire to evoke a romanticized traditional African past.

Past LACMA, Fairfax quiets down and tapers out, running through the well-kept streets of the Carthay district. Overgrown fig-trees crack the pavement of the sidewalk, and lollipop-shaped topiaries edge manicured lawns, all set out before a glorious array of mid-twentieth century apartments. It's a quiet, subdued ending for one of the strangest, most engaging streets in Los Angeles.