Favorite Cheese Foods!

Pupusa- This is a wonderful El Salvadorean food, best described as a fried dough-y pocket (made of corn dough- with the texture/taste of a thick tortilla) of cheese and other fillings (commonly, chicken, pork, or lorroco). My favorite place for pupusas in the city is El Zocalo, a lively little restaurant on 3230 Mission Street, near 29th.

Fondue- Cheese melted in a pot over a flame. Simple as it sounds, this is one of the most delicious gourmet dishes there is. Bread, apples, and any other fruit or vegetables (or any small food item, in fact) of one’s choice are then dipped into the cheeses, using small, three-pronged forks. Food dripping with warm, rich, melted cheese is one of the most sublime things there is to experience. The Matterhorn, a Swiss and German restaurant located downtown in San Francisco, on 2323 Van Ness Ave.

Grilled Cheese sandwich- This is a wonderful comfort food. It can be made gourmet-style with fancy cheeses and focaccia bread or it can be made with white bread and orange cheddar cheese. A San Francisco Restaurant, Citizen Cake, located near Civic Center, offers quite a satisfying gourmet grilled cheese sandwich, described on their menu as, “grilled cheese ultima: cabot sharp cheddar, gruyère on acme italian bread” for $10.50. Expensive and very frilly, with deserts like “dried persimmon mochi cake”, “chocolate noodles”, “peanut paper”, and “chiffon croutons” (all paired with ice creams like “chili-ginger strawberry sorbet”, “tonka bean ice cream”, and “violet sorbet”), this restaurant does little else do attract me.

Salad- Feta cheese, blue cheese, gorgonzola, and goat cheese are a few common varieties of cheese that taste great crumbled plentifully into a fresh salad.

French Onion Soup- It is not common for a soup to have cheese in it and yet this rich, onion-flavored soup is easily my favorite soup of all. Served with rich melted cheese and soft, soggy bread pieces in it, this usually beef-broth soup is flavoured with caramelized onions. This is what I crave on a cold day (and occasionally even on stifling days). Ti Couz, a great restaurant on 3108 16th St. at Valencia specializing in crepes, offers a beautiful, warm French Onion Soup.