What is street food? Street food is good food that's not fancy. It's a great meal you can order quickly, yet without feeling like you're supposed to leave fast. It's food the locals usually know about--food that you don't feel strange eating by yourself, but are always glad to reveal to a special friend. Street food costs less than $10 per person. You order it at the counter, or at least pay for it there.
The Convenience Cuts of Rosenberg's Delicatessen
by Eric MillerSan Francisco, November, 2002--Before I head out on a morning for a hike through the stretches of Golden Gate Park, a favorite place to stop for supplies is Rosenberg's Delicatessen on Noe Street near Market Street. The five dollars or so I spend on sandwiches and sodas there will keep me from having to leave the park to find a bite to eat half-way through my trek.
Piled high with meat and fresh vegetables, a sandwich from Rosenberg's will more than replenish the calories lost wandering through the urban wilderness.
With a variety of bread and rolls available, I usually choose the wheat. There's no need to think very hard about what you want in your sandwich, either: a list of favorites (which includes vegetarian varieties) adorns the wall. Needing the energy I do, I choose number nine, "The Works." I couldn't list everything that's in it, but I do remember turkey, ham, salami, and my cheese of choice, provolone.
If the sandwich isn't enough, Rosenberg's stacks an array of tempting desserts, chips, and sodas, including the one I choose, ginger beer.
Rosenberg's is one of the many corner stores (though this one's not actually on a corner) that help make a pedestrian-oriented city work. Corner stores like Rosenberg's offer an amazingly broad line of produce and groceries in a small space, as well as freshly prepared food. If I need a tomato, olive oil, half-and-half, or maybe raisins, living in San Francisco, I know they are a few steps away and offered at a price not too different from that at a supermarket.
Many things at these stores are often offered at even lower prices than the big grocers charge. One such item is six-packs of beer. Not only is the beer often less expensive at small corner stores like Rosenberg's, the selection is greater despite the limited shelving space. In fact, I have never found bock beer such as Beck's Dark at Safeway or other supermarkets, despite their blocks of shelving reserved for hundreds of cases of Budweiser and Heineken. Yet at Rosenberg's I can often find more than one selection of dark beer, as well as most beers offered by the big stores.
If you live in San Francisco there's probably a store something like Rosenberg's near your abode. If you're visiting, make a beehive to Market and Noe, try one of the best deli sandwiches west of New York, and savor the convenience of the corner store that once was a staple of every city.
