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A Mission Tour with Negra Modelo and Rick Bayless

Nov 26 by Anita 30 Comments

tres restaurant menu
 

I know, the week before Thanksgiving and I’m in a posting frenzy! I just posted about pie, now I’m hoping to whet your appetite further with a glimpse into the Mission District of San Francisco, courtesy of Negra Modelo.

I and several other food bloggers were invited on a tour of some classic food establishments that represent the Mission’s Mexican culinary tradition. You can’t really make a claim to being a true San Francisco gourmet if you haven’t had an authentic burrito or taco in the Mission. Negra Modelo planned stops at three fixtures of the Mission food scene, and for added excitement they brought along chef Rick Bayless, famous for his love of Mexican cuisine, to provide his own expert insights!

Negra Modelo tortilla
photo courtesy of Negra Modelo – can you spot Rick Bayless?

Our first stop was a Mexicatessen, the Mexican version of a delicatessen, selling grocery staples and freshly made hot food. This place is famous for its tortillas, which are continuously being made throughout the day from freshly prepared masa. The difference between a fresh, handmade tortilla and a store-bought packaged one…there’s no comparison.

tortilla making
 

These admirable ladies are tortilla making machines! They also prepared some huaraches – fried oblong shaped tortillas made from corn masa – for us.

tortilla huaraches
 

After the Mexicatessen, the next stop was another staple for Mexican neighborhoods – the meat market. The one we visited has been owned and operated by the same family for 40 years. Salvador Ramirez, the patriarch, spoke to us of how his trade has changed over the years. Back when he first opened his shop, there were very few other butchers offering the cuts of meat used in Mexican cooking. In particular, this cut, called flap meat, is used in carne asada, which was also a relatively unknown dish in the US back then. Now most butchers here know about flap meat, thanks in no small part to Salvador. What a great piece of history!

salvador meat market
 
Negra Modelo reyna
photo courtesty of Negra Modelo 

Onto my favorite part – dessert! La Reyna Bakery is another family-owned business that has been providing traditional Mexican pastries to the community for years. I’m not super familiar with Mexican baked goods, so it was great to have someone explain all the different types of goodies to us. Our host, a third generation baker, said his favorite items were the bread pudding, custard empanadas, and vanilla cake with powdered sugar on top. We also got to sample some of the pan dulce (sweet breads), cookies, and cheesecake. Definitely I could have stayed to gorge myself all night!

la reyna bakery

Although they’ll never stop making customer favorites, La Reyna is always looking to introduce new items – next year they’ll start making their own jams and jellies, as well as paletas – the Mexican version of ice pops. This is a place you’ll need several visits to fully appreciate.

 
tres restaurant
 

After the tour, Negra Modelo had a fun after party planned for us so it was off to Tres, a modern Mexican restaurant. We had a whole back room reserved for some fun festivities, including a vending machine dispensing themed prizes, and Chef Bayless giving some demos and tips for working with several ingredients used in Mexican cooking. I learned that although most of us think of the Hass variety of avocado, creamy and perfect for guacamole, there are some varieties in the West Indies and Bahamas that are very low in oil and thus better for eating than for mashing up. Also, Rick Bayless’ best tip for making guacamole: it should never be made in a food processor or any other machine. It’s best made by hand!

Negra Modelo tres
photo courtesy of Negra Modelo 

I also got a chance to speak briefly with Chef Bayless about how he used beer in his cooking. He said that he liked Negra Modelo because of its medium body and mild flavor, which made it easy to drink and to pair with a variety of dishes. One of his favorite dishes using it, in fact, is a chocolate ice cream made with Negra Modelo. I will have to try and recreate that some time!

Negra Modelo rick bayless
photo courtesy of Negra Modelo

Thanks to Negra Modelo for including me on this Mission food tour, and to Rick Bayless for taking the time to educate us about his favorite cuisine. Visit Negra Modelo on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and follow their hashtag #ThePerfectComplement for their pairing suggestions. I was compensated for this post but my opinions are my own.

Negra Modelo bloggers
photo courtesy of Negra Modelo

If you’d like to check out the other bloggers who came along on the tour, here they are! Some are good friends and some I’m glad to have met  - we joked it was like an impromptu Bay Area blogger holiday party!

Amy of Amy’s Healthy Baking

Amy of Cooking with Amy

Amy of Very Culinary

Beth of OMGYummy

Cassie of Ever in Transit

Gabi of BrokeAss Gourmet

Jane of This Week for Dinner

Jasmine of Simply Real Moms

Irvin of Eat the Love

Jasmine of Bake Love Give

Sara at Saradeseran.com

Sean of Hedonia

Steph of Lick My Spoon

TerriAnn of Cookies and Clogs

Trish of Mom on Timeout

Filed Under: San Francisco, SF Events, Sweet Spots Tagged With: bakery, food tour, mexicatessen, mission, negra modelo, rick bayless, san francisco, tres restaurant

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Comments

  1. 1

    Kirsten says

    Nov 26 at 9:14 am

    I love Rick Bayless!!! How cool that you got to meet him. Seems like a fun event!!

    Reply
  2. 2

    Marnely Rodriguez-Murray says

    Nov 29 at 5:17 pm

    What a fantastic post – we just visited SF and walked around Mission for some good eats! Loved it!

    Reply
  3. 3

    Lindsay says

    Nov 30 at 8:39 am

    I’m drooling! Those tortillas look amazing!

    Reply
  4. 4

    Kimberly Killebrew says

    Nov 30 at 4:28 pm

    Such a fun opportunity to have participated in this tour, thanks for sharing your experience! Love all the action shots!

    Reply
  5. 5

    Nancy says

    Dec 1 at 4:29 pm

    Oh man, looked like an awesome event. I decided to not go, because I’m such a wuss with driving to the city lol.

    Reply
  6. 6

    Claire says

    Dec 1 at 4:52 pm

    Oh this is awesome! So cool!

    Reply
  7. 7

    Andi says

    Dec 1 at 5:36 pm

    I totally didn’t want to read this, but then I couldn’t help myself. I was invited on this trip too but had a super important work event I could not miss. And it looked amazing – a great experience and a great chef! So happy you were able to go and have a good time!

    Reply
  8. 8

    Missy says

    Dec 1 at 5:42 pm

    the jellies look great!
    missy
    popofstyle.com

    Reply
  9. 9

    Angela says

    Dec 1 at 6:18 pm

    I go to San Francisco often and am always looking for new places to try. Of course I was hooked with the freshly made tortillas!

    Reply
  10. 10

    Candace says

    Dec 1 at 7:23 pm

    All for the guy holding intestines it looks yummy!

    Reply
  11. 11

    Ruthy T. says

    Dec 1 at 8:23 pm

    this pretty much sounds like the food tour of my dreams!

    Reply
  12. 12

    karissa says

    Dec 1 at 8:48 pm

    What a great looking place. Homemade tortillas are the best.

    Reply
  13. 13

    Becky says

    Dec 1 at 10:06 pm

    What a cool tour!! I am not a foodie but am always hungry!

    Reply
  14. 14

    Angie Scheie says

    Dec 1 at 10:23 pm

    How wonderful that you got so behind-the-scenes. I love it!!

    Reply
  15. 15

    Heather says

    Dec 1 at 11:08 pm

    YUM! I definitely need to find a Mexicatessen!

    Reply
  16. 16

    Katie Matthews says

    Dec 2 at 5:30 am

    OMG the bakery – I totally agree. I could have stayed there all night and then some! Looks like an incredible day. Love traditional foods and markets that have been going for years!

    Katie <3

    Reply
  17. 17

    Brenda says

    Dec 2 at 8:15 am

    Wow! What a cool tour!

    Reply
  18. 18

    kristine foley says

    Dec 2 at 9:49 am

    Sounds like an amazing tour!

    Reply
  19. 19

    Rebekah says

    Dec 2 at 9:53 am

    Looks like a pretty fun event, minus the intestines!

    Reply
  20. 20

    Maryann says

    Dec 2 at 11:27 am

    I get to meet Rick on Saturday! Can’t wait!!

    Reply
  21. 21

    Bianca says

    Dec 2 at 11:41 am

    Oh yum!!! I can live off of Mexican food, and italian! SO yummy

    Reply
  22. 22

    Myrabev says

    Dec 2 at 12:50 pm

    Sounds and looks like it was a wonderful event, @I love food and ready to try it all

    Reply
  23. 23

    Lauren says

    Dec 2 at 1:07 pm

    I am so glad to hear you went on this trip!! I wanted to read about it, thank you 🙂

    Reply
  24. 24

    Caitlin Cheevers says

    Dec 2 at 1:25 pm

    This sounds like so much fun! I love being able to hear the story behind foods and restaurants. What a great opportunity!

    Reply
  25. 25

    Lindsay says

    Dec 2 at 8:04 pm

    Very cool! I should go on some tours like these!

    Reply
  26. 26

    Iris says

    Dec 3 at 9:04 am

    How neat you got to experience the behind the scenes and then eat yummy food?! I may be changing my blog to a foodie blog pretty soon! Haha jk

    Reply
  27. 27

    Yaitza says

    Dec 3 at 11:24 am

    So cool1 I love mexican food, I would be all over that ;o)

    Reply
  28. 28

    Jenn @ hellorigby! says

    Dec 3 at 1:40 pm

    Yum! Fresh tortillas are the best, and the baked goods look delicious too!

    Reply
  29. 29

    Amanda says

    Dec 15 at 11:15 am

    What a great place. The food looks amazing!

    Reply
  30. 30

    Jess says

    Dec 15 at 8:09 pm

    Awesome! Looks so tasty hehe

    Reply

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about pastrygirl

Anita Chu, also known as pastrygirl, is a baker, writer, and photographer with a passion for pastry. She trained at Tante Marie's Cooking School and is the author of Field Guide to Cookies, Field Guide to Candy, and Lollipop Love. Anita lives in San Francisco with her husband, baby girl, and rescue cockapoo Snickerdoodle. More about pastrygirl

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