Humphry Slocombe (San Francisco)

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 550-6971

I'd like to thank the New York Times for publishing their provocatively titled article I’ll Take a Scoop of Prosciutto, Please, right before our trip to California. I told Warren that we absolutely, 100% had to go to Humphry Slocombe to taste the prosciutto ice cream. To help get the monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6) up the mountain on our backpacking trip prior to our San Francisco visit, I had told them tales of crazy ice cream flavors and promised them the most awesome ice cream adventure ever. "I'm getting cheddar cheese," Jiro happily announced. (Government Cheese is the actual flavor.)

Since we went to San Francisco with my brother-in-law and his family, I felt that I needed to prepare them. "They don't make normal flavors," I said. They had bypassed their normal trip to the Girardelli factory for me, so I felt a little pressure to deliver.

The ice cream shop is located in the Mission District and was fairly easy to locate despite it's subdued exterior. A blue awning whispers "ice cream" in small letters and a window decal shows the name. The inside is a tad spartan, but cool and funky all the same, with a definite sense of humor. We were lucky to arrive when there wasn't much of a line.


Humphry Slocombe features 10-12 flavors a day, and they are listed in a chalkboard and scrawled across the display case in dry erase marker. There are taster spoons so you don't have to blindly commit to one of their bold flavors. On the day we visited they had prosciutto, peanut butter curry, blue bottle Vietnamese breakfast, strawberry, tahitian vanilla, double malt chocolate, breakfast secret (bourbon and cornflakes!), salt & pepper, balsamic caramel, McEvoy Olive Oil, and a few more.


I really wanted to taste every flavor, but I could tell that the young, tank-topped servers could only stand so much despite their friendly smiles. Besides, it wasn't long before a line started to form behind us. I tried the prosciutto first and it didn't taste meaty like I had imagined or contain chunks of the salted ham like Warren thought. Instead it boasted a very bold and salty flavor. I liked it, but didn't think I could go for a whole scoop. So I ordered the peanut butter curry which was awesome. Jiro and Satchel each tasted a flavor before deciding on strawberry and chocolate. Warren got the blue bottle Vietnamese coffee. Our in-laws all went for chocolate or vanilla.


At some point we all passed our cones around so that everyone could have a taste. Everything is made with organic and/or farm fresh ingredients (not withstanding the corn flakes and booze) and it really shows. If I lived in San Francisco, I would most definitely be a regular. Other flavors I hope to try someday include: Thai chili lime, "red hot" banana, chevre strawberry jam, and sour cream.

Scoops were a very reasonable $2.75 each and the store is open from noon to 9pm seven days a week.

Mifune (San Francisco)

Mifune
Japan Center Kintetsu Building
1737 Post Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 922-0337

We spent the day in San Francisco with Warren's brother and his family and our first stop was Japan Town. It was the monkeys' (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6) and my first visit and we were really excited. There were tons of restaurants to choose from, but we easily decided on Mifune since it was one of the places that Warren's mom (who is Japanese) liked. It's been open for ninety years (!!) and is known for its homemade noodles.

As you can see, it is common for the restaurants to display plastic versions of their most popular dishes in the window. Warren says there is a whole industry devoted to creating plastic food!


The restaurant was very busy and many Japanese people were dining there--two very good signs. We were seated near the restrooms which we agreed Oba (Warren's mom) would never stand for, but since she wasn't with us and we were starved, we didn't complain.

The only complaining going on was Satchel complaining that Jiro was annoying. He was very much interested in spending every moment with his cousin, Nini, and didn't want anyone, especially his little brother, interfering. I was finally able to convince Jiro to sit by me and then offered him my notebook to color in and stay busy. He did not like not having his big brother's full attention.


Our waitress brought us all (the adults and teen anyway) a cup of green tea free of charge. (Oba always said this is the sign of a REAL Japanese restaurant.)


We had pretty much figured out what we wanted to eat by looking at the plastic food, but we did some price comparisons between the lunch specials and the kids' meals.

Satchel wanted soba and unagi donburi (eel on rice) from the lunch special. It was a huge serving.


Mmmm...unagi.


Jiro got the bullet train kids' meal which came in a plastic bullet train car. I thought it was also a really good portion size. It included soba and shrimp and vegetable tempura (including seaweed tempura).


The soba was extra good. You could tell it was made fresh.


Warren had a really hard time deciding what to get. "There's so much I want to eat!" he said. He eventually decided on the Nabeyaki udon: A sort of udon hot-pot, with seafood and vegetables cooked in a nabe, or metal pot. It had tempura shrimp with mushrooms and an egg cracked on top.


I knew right away what I wanted--the tuna and avocado don. It's similar to the Tekka Ju I like to sometimes get at Tsunami, but it was about three times as big and included avocado and seaweed. It was dressed with sriracha and kewpie, two of my favorite Japanese condiments. The rice was sushi rice--nice and sweet. And there was definitely some wasabi mixed in. It was awesome! My dish also came with a side salad and some miso soup. The miso soup was also very fresh and homemade, definitely not from a mix. It contained a lot of veggies and it was so rich it reminded me of a seafood bisque.


All of the entrees came with tsukemono, which is commonly pickled cabbage. Another sign of authenticity.

Our only snafu at the meal was the omission of Neal and Edith's lunches. They both ordered tempura as did their oldest daughter, Ali, but instead of hearing "three" tempuras, our (Japanese speaking) waitress only heard "one." Now I've never been a waitress, but I think I would notice if I had eight people at the table and only six items written on my list. Once we alerted her to the problem she corrected it pretty quickly. However there was no apology or discount or anything special done.

Once we all had food and started eating, we didn't stop until it was gone. It was exceptional. Go there! (Jiro and I made a bathroom visit and it was one of the tiniest I've ever seen, so don't plan on changing a diaper!)