FOOD TRUCK QUICK BITE: 3 SUM EATS...DOESN'T REALLY ADD UP

(UPDATE: Seems they given this up and the owner is strictly concentrating on his catering and brick and mortar location called Market & Rye.)

Me and the SO are cruising down Valencia Street and pass by McCoppin Street plaza where Off the Grid has a Saturday food truck thing that goes on.  I say "hey, I'm hungry let's stop." So we pull over and the parking goddess is on our side as we get a spot right on the corner.  This day there are 5 trucks and after perusing each menu, which I like to do and the SO likes to roll his eyes at me, we decided to give the 3 Sum Eats truck a go.

"THE DANCING PIG" THIS IS HOW A BAD REVIEW GOES DOWN

**MERCIFULLY THIS PLACE CLOSED QUITE QUICKLY. IT WAS PRETTY TERRIBLE**

It's Saturday night and I've talked the SO into venturing up into the Castro to try out a new barbeque joint that opened there near 18th and Castro.  They don't seem to have a website yet but here's a link to their menu.  Since I'm constantly on a quest for good pulled pork I zeroed in on the pulled pork plate and chose collard greens and cornbread as my sides.  While the prices are not listed on the menu link above this dish was $15, which I thought was kind of high in comparison with most other bbq joints in town where this kind of dish hovers around the $9.95 to $12 range, but I took the chance hoping for homestyle portions to match the price.  Sadly this was not the case as you can see from the picture above.  Served on a silver tray there was a small mound of the pulled pork, an even smaller pile of collard greens and two little cubes of cornbread.  Ugh..where do I begin to cover the litany of problems there was with this dish beyond the small overpriced portions. 

CUPCAKE COVE IN FINANCIAL DISTRICT....SOME HITS SOME MISSES ONE REAL WINNER

                                              Red Velvet        Carrot Cake              Pineapple
                                                 Lemon     Strawberry Chocolate  Coffee Chocolate

I belong to this daily discount site called Scoutmob, it's free and all you do is sign up and every day or so you get an email for a discount, usually 30-50% off a local establishment.  Nothing to buy you just print out the coupon and take it to the place.  Recently I got one for a place called Cupcake Cove, a place I'd not heard of before.  Since it was located a few blocks over from my work and of course because it was something with icing I was all over the 50% off deal I got.  The place is only open Monday through Friday 11am-6pm and it's basically a tiny corner with a walk up counter for ordering--strictly a take away only place.  And just for your reference, once they sell out that is it for the day.  Fortunately I got there right as they were opening so I had my pick.  The make regular size and minis but as you can see I went for the big deal.  Here's my rundown of the flavors I got:

"TACOBAR" ANOTHER HIGH PRICED TAQUERIA?

I was hanging out in the Fillmore district the other day when it began to rain leading me to think it was a good time to duck inside somewhere and eat.  I saw this relatively new place called Tacobar and thought why not, it wasn't really crowded and could be a good cheap eat.  When I walked in it wasn't the menu that first caught my attention it was the wall and door of the bathroom.  Interesting.  

BRENDA'S FRENCH SOUL FOOD IN THE TENDERLOIN ..IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BISCUIT

I had that recent and rare day off during the week and when this happens I like to hit up one of those places that is seemingly difficult to get to and get in to.  So I called up a friend and we decided to hit up Brenda's French Soul Food located on Polk Street in the always interesting Tenderloin district of San Francisco.  They don't take reservations and the wait can be notoriously long no matter what day or time of day you go.  We got there around 11:30 am which seemed just right as they had a few open tables and we got seated right away but the place was already jumping, by noon it was packed and there was a line at the door--on a weekday.  I'd heard varying degrees of goodness about this place and since I like down home cooking (done right) it seemed up my alley.  Here they do Southern with a New Orleans flair.  After perusing the menu I went with unsweet iced tea (yes you need to specify), a bowl of gumbo, and the BFC, which stands for Brenda's fried chicken.  It's a full basket that comes with fries, cole slaw and a biscuit.  

MAYBE I NEED TO HOARD SOME TWINKIES?! HOSTESS GOES BANKRUPT UPDATE

****UPDATE: And so it has come to pass and Hostess is officially asking a judge for not only bankruptcy but liquidation. Due to the strike of 5,000 bakers the owners say they just can't make it anymore and will lay off the entire workforce of 18,500 employees. While the company will go under Hostess is planning to auction off the recipes to the highest bidder. So it is possible twinkies, ho hos, etc. will live on in some form so we will just have to wait and see. It's also inevitable that this will lead to a run on their treats at local stores, but keep in mind, with all preservatives in their product you could buy up all the twinkies and hold on to them for a year when store supplies have run out and then re-sell them on Ebay for a profit--if you are into that kind of thing. There are places, like Home Town Favorites, that specialize in this kind of thing and do pretty well. If you are only slightly thinking about getting a box to walk down memory lane I would suggest you not delay otherwise you will be fighting with someone moderately oversized individual in thier motorized scooter roaring down the grocery store aisle and zeroing in that last box on the shelf. Trust me, it won't be pretty if they don't get it, especially for you. Take heed, don't get trampled or run over, but get them now while supplies last.******

Hostess corporation has filed for bankruptcy only two years after emerging from a previous bankruptcy.  We all know Hostess as they have become known as the king of junk food for a generation or more of us.  (This even though they also do some healthy snacks and the whole Wonder Bread thing.)  Of course for most of us we all know them for the twinkie a taste treat for many a kid for nearly 80 years.  I remember fondly as a child when we would stop by the quickie mart for gas and I would run in and grab a twinkie off the shelf and beg the dad to please please please buy it for me (I think back in the late 60's early 70's they were only 25 or 35 cents each).  As with most parents he would just buy it to shut me up but I didn't care.  I would take it in hand and run back to the backseat of the car and and slowly unwrap the plastic, peeling it almost like a banana.  Then I would bite into the sticky, spongy, sweet cake and feel the sugar rush of the creme filling as it exploded in my mouth.  I chew with gusto and before I know it--three big bites and it's gone and I collapse on the seat in a sugar high licking any excess twinkie off the plastic wrapping.

This rite of childhood pretty got repeated anytime we went to a food store and at the grocery store I just badgered them into a full box and I took one with my bagged lunches everyday.  Every now and then the folks would bring home ho ho's--wrapped in their little foil packages for "freshness" I enjoyed them and would actually unroll them before I ate them, but for the most part these were (and still are) my father's favorite of the hostess line.  But I remained a total twinkie lover.  As the years passed and I reached high school and the like many things in our childhood I fell out of favor with the twinkie.  Maybe because they seemed to get smaller and the luscious creme filling also seemed to get less and less or maybe my hands just got bigger and it made it seem the twinkie was smaller but I stand by my belief they put less creme inside over the years and of course the cost went up.  And no I didn't go over to the dark side of the Little Debbie brand either--Little Debbie's were always cheaper and dad tried to slip them in, but to me they were just a white trash substitute for the real thing--we might of been a little redneck but we weren't no white trash that's for sure.

Anyway as I got older my taste buds changed and I got hooked on Pop-tarts and Mountain Dew--sugar highs (with essential vitamins!) and caffeine highs that pretty much propelled me through college and beyond for awhile...but alas that is a whole other story.

It would be a shame if Hostess goes under as they really are an American institution like Hershey's and yes it's junk food but seriously people we know that, it's like you know eating cake is bad but it's personal choice to eat what you like--you just have to be prepared for the consequences or the fatness whichever comes first.  I'm sure they will come through this as some foreign company will buy them up and continuing the goal of enlarging our waistlines and we will happily indulge and relive those fond childhood memories with every bite.  TWINKIE ON!!