Sentinel serves corned beef at its finest with cabbage, Russian dressing and Swiss on tasty focacia.  Their lunch menu consists of hot and cold sandwiches, salads and soups with specials that change everyday.  Sentinel is lunch-to-go in the Financial District at New Montgomery Street and Stevenson Alley, a block away Market Street.  On a lovely sunny day, there’s plenty of spots around to enjoy your corned beef sandwich alfresco and if it’s raining a great place to go take cover is at the Crocker Galleria a few blocks away.  They have tables and chairs and heaters, too.

And by the way, don’t forget to treat yourself to their chocolate chip cookie. It’s huge and it’s yummy.

To learn how to make your own corned beef brisket and corned beef sandwich at home follow the links here to get the recipes.

A pink box full of Kara’s cupcakes makes me happy.

A pink box full of Kara’s pumpkin spice cupcake, moist carrot cupcake, and banana cupcake with caramel filling, all topped with Kara’s silky smooth cream cheese frosting, makes me extremely crazy, stupid happy.

It just does.

Savory or sweet?

Breakfast is always a tough decision, more so at Dottie’s, one of my favorite breakfast joints in the city.  Last weekend it was a tossup between a prosciutto, basil, roasted tomato, red pepper flake scramble with toast and potatoes and pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes with real maple syrup.

I guess my sweet tooth kicked in.

The neighborhood may be dicey and the wait may be long but breakfast at Dottie’s is always a treat. The food is simply scrumptious. I particularly love their homemade bread and muffins and their yummy homemade jelly. And of course, their pancakes are wonderful! The tiny dining room is charming, too. I find the the tables laminated with old movie star photos and the chandeliers made from cups and saucers delightful.

Breakfast starts bright and early at 730 AM and they’re open everyday except Tuesdays. Dottie’s is at Jones and O’Farrell in the Tenderloin. The wait during the weekends, obviously, can be extra long so it’s best to show up around 7 AM to get a guaranteed seat during the first wave. Otherwise, the wait may be over an hour. Grab a cup of coffee somewhere else, read the paper, or make friends while in queue, Dottie’s definitely is worth the wait.

Dennis and I are not the only ones enjoying the Dogpatch.  Stanford is loving it, too.

The Dogpatch is actually a great neighborhood for dogs and dog lovers.  There’s Esprit Park at Minnesota between 19th and 20th where Stanford loves to run and chase balls.  The park isn’t fenced-in but is large enough and surrounded by quiet streets that it’s practically safe for dogs to be off-leash.  And best of all it’s only two blocks away from home!

Then there’s Pawtrero Hill Bathhouse and Feed Company with a large and clean self-serve bathing facility.  They have the tastiest treats and the coolest toys and accessories.

And not far from the Dogpatch, in the Bayview District there’s Pet Camp, Stanford’s home away from home. What we love most about Pet Camp is that they have outdoor playgroups. They have this huge outdoor play space where dogs can run around or just hang out and enjoy the sun.  All play sessions are monitored by camp counselors who are the friendliest people around.  Check out Camper Cameos, a blog where they post photos of their adorable campers.

Well, I’m certain Stanford doesn’t mind all these cool places, but at the end of the day there is something that trumps everything else: dinner!

A walk in the city to take photos is always fun.

But a walk in the city with fellow photography enthusiasts on Halloween night is way more fun. Organized by CaliberSF, the group meandered its way from downtown to the Castro snapping photos of fire exits, graffitis and the city’s craziest costumes. Kudos to CaliberSF for organizing the photowalk.

Stanford met a very pretty young lady over the weekend.  She was wearing a lovely red Flamenco dress with matching lovely red earrings and red shoes. And what was Stanford wearing? A charming Peter Pan outfit with a matching dagger!

They met while waiting to have their photographs taken at Farley’s 19th Annual Pet Fest.

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday in Potrero Hill.  The line was long for Christopher Irion’s famous Photo Booth but it was full of cheerful faces of dogs and kids alike dressed up for the occasion.  There was King Arthur.  There were ballerinas and cowboys.  There was a lot of bumblebees and ladybugs wagging their tails. There was even a green iguana with pink and white bunny ears, not a pooch dressed as an iguana but a real live iguana! It’s Farley’s Annual Pet Fest after all.

On top of Potrero Hill, at 20th and San Bruno, near McKinley Square Park, sits a lovely community garden.  It overlooks the western side of the city, from Twin Peaks to downtown San Francisco.  On a clear day, you can see Sutro Tower and if you’re lucky, even the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.

All 50 plots in the garden are maintained by local residents using only organic methods.  The sunny Potrero weather is great for growing a variety of fruits and vegetables like grapes, rhubarb, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, pumpkin, corn and lots more.

It also has the prettiest dahlias and sunflowers. And it has a beehive, too!

Our trek up the hill to check out the Potrero garden actually reminded me of my mom’s own garden back home in Manila.  She has a guava tree, a papaya tree, peppers and herbs in her backyard.  She would make nilaga, a Filipino beef stew, and garnish it with fresh green papayas picked right out of her garden.  Lately, she started growing pineapples and when I phoned her the last time she was so excited to tell me that her pineapples turned out sweet and that my 5-year old niece loved them.

I’ve always wanted my own vegetable garden.  I think growing your own vegetables at home like tomatoes for a caprese salad or basil for pesto is such a cool thing to do.  But I’ve always lived in tiny living spaces, which really makes it almost impossible to maintain one.  This makes community gardens perfect for those who are space-challenged like me.  The very popular Potrero garden, however, has a very long waiting list.  The current count is 74 people waiting to get in, which may take about a few years!    So while waiting for a spot to open (or while saving for a country home) I’m going to start a small garden in our loft in the Dogpatch.  I’m actually very excited that the new apartment has a pretty big-size patio that gets a good enough share of sun and shade.  I think it’ll be perfect for a small herb garden. And maybe some tomatoes, too.

To know more about community gardens in the city and to find a garden in your neighborhood, follow this link.

I am so glad to be back in the city!

Last weekend was our first weekend back and it reminded me very clearly of how much I missed and how much I love San Francisco.  It was a wonderful weekend spent walking around our new neighborhood in the Dogpatch, enjoying breakfast at a café, playing ball with Stanford in the park and then running down the Embarcadero later that day.  I really missed the city a lot, I realized.  And I am so excited to be back!

I first moved to the city four years ago and was instantly smitten by its charm.  I have always wanted to live in San Francisco and even though my job was in Silicon Valley I chose to live in the city and brave the long commute.  Last year, however, I joined a start-up company further down south, which meant an even longer commute. We decided to leave and move down to San Jose. We left with a heavy heart but it did not take long for us to realize that San Francisco is our real home. After ten utterly uninspiring months, we have returned.

I love San Francisco.

I love that the city is where Dennis and I met, where we fell in love and where we adopted our adorable red corgi, Stanford.  We rescued him from a shelter in Utah and drove him through the Sierras back to San Francisco.

I love that the city is where I ran my first marathon.  I can still remember that early Sunday morning when I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge blanketed in fog.  It was truly amazing!  I never thought of myself as being athletic but I have been hooked on running ever since.

I love that the city is wonderfully walkable.  I love walking up and down the hills around Union Square and Dolores Park.  Those hills are never too daunting.  I love walking to the train station, to the grocery store, to the bookstore, to the coffee shop and to almost everywhere.  I love walking Stanford in the early morning when it is cool and quiet outside, my corgi in one hand and my cup of coffee in the other.

I love that the city is a gracious host to film and theater.  I love seeing old films at the Castro Theater, from old musicals like Kiss Me Kate and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas to classic Alfred Hitchcock thrillers.  I love that my all-time favorite Wicked first played in the city before captivating Broadway.

I love that the city is foodie-friendly.  I love scrumptious Sunday brunches at Dottie’s, Brenda’s and Town’s End.  Fried chicken at Town Hall and Hard Knox Cafe.  French at Chapeau and Fringale.  And tasty treats at Bi-Rite Ice Cream, Hot Cookie and Happy Donut, where it’s never too late for a quick sugar fix.

I love that the city is a photographer’s paradise.  I love its cool and interesting neighborhoods, each with its own character and charm.   I love its cool and good-looking people, too.

I am so glad to be back in the city. There is so much to explore and so much to discover. There is definitely no place like home.