Labor Day Weekend {Foods of Mission and Japantown}

A little appeteaser for all the food porn to follow. 

We went to Japantown and Mission before and after dropping off the rental car. The photo above is some delicious braised pork belly from a ramen house.

Jeff, always a purist, went with the shio ramen. 

 I was craving something more substantial since we passed on Japanese BBQ for ramen, so I went with the curry ramen. Both were made with fresh noodles and tasted light and delicate, even with the curry. It made us both fantasize about our next trip to Japan. 

After dropping off the car, we went to the Mission specifically seeking Bi-Rite ice cream as neither of us have had it. We were tired from the previous two days, so we slowed down for some cherry pie from Delfina Pizzeria. This is one of the best pizzas I've ever had. 

The dough was so light and airy and the ingredients (cherry tomatoes, basil, ricotta, and EVOO) were so fresh that it was intensely flavorful.

I rarely ever eat more than two slices, since pizza is not my favorite food, but I easily ate three and left feeling great. (Opposed to heavy, tired and gross, which is what I normally feel like after eating pizza)

After lunch, we continued down the street to Bi-Rite creamery for some very buzzed about ice cream. 

So buzzed, here is the line. 

And the rest of it. 

Turns out the line was good because it gave us an hour to digest the pizza before our ice cream, but was it worth the wait? Well the salted caramel, the most popular flavor, was too burnt for my liking. I like my caramel sweeter, this had a bit of smokiness to it and tasted too bitter for me. The brown sugar was very tasty, but it was barely discernible from vanilla and the ginger caramel swirls were too subtle to be added to the description, however I really liked this flavor. The roasted banana is, hands down, my favorite. I have tried so many banana ice creams that have failed miserably, some tasting like artificial bubble gum and some only vanilla with chunks of banana in it. This creation from Bi-Rite did right by its main ingredient and made the banana the star. 

Final verdict: pretty good ice cream, but definitely not worth an hour long wait.