Before breakfast on my first day in San Francisco, I already found myself chasing a fugitive hit-and-run victim in a red Mercedes. And that was not because I was too jet-lagged to realise I was still asleep. No: They do hit-and-run accidents a bit differently here, in that a pedestrian threw himself at the windshield of a car turning a corner on Mission Street, breaking it in the process, and then running off at full speed.The girl in the passenger seat had glass all over her, the driver was confused, but the driver of the car that I was in started to put his powerful German engine to good use and whooshed after him. (Not that the chase was very far - he ran into a Mexican bar 50 meters down the street.)
We stopped him successfully, and found the driver, as well as another pedestrian who had tried to help - who, by the way, let us know that he had never seen the car jumper do this before - "usually he just throws stuff, but not himself." Ah. I start to believe in the theory that San Francisco is unusually full of pure madness.
What else was there?Excellent brunch at Foreign Cinema, even though I must say that I don't believe in roasted lettuce.
Then, wandering around Mission, we found ourselves in a a lecture of the Free University of San Francisco (by following sounds from the basement of a funky shop with altered antiques) by the Godfather of Street Art, Blek le Rat.
It was interesting, but the highlight of the day may well have been the Salted Caramel/Honey Lavender ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery.
The queue of about 50 people that they seem to have at all times, all of them waiting patiently for 20 minutes to get served in that tiny hole-in-the-wall bar, indicated already that there was some real culinary goodness ahead. But... wow. WOW, I say. This topped the apple crumble with rosemary ice cream I had in Dublin a month ago in Coppinger Row, and that is saying something. It was The Best Ice Cream Ever (if capitalisation impresses you, dear reader), and made other consumers of their products exclaim ecstatic things about it being the culinary equivalent of seeing rainbows and unicorns dance about. And it was totally true.
