We do have some favorite spots and dishes we crave outside the Northside – here are a few of our favorites:

Squash blossom flatbread at Coco500
500 Brannan St. (at Fourth St.), 415-543-2222, www.coco500.com
When squash blossoms are in season, chef/owner, Loretta Keller, and crew serve them on a crisp flatbread crust with a drizzle of truffle oil and créme fraîche. Despite what our dear Marcia “Tablehopper” Gagliardi calls the “cheap thrills” of truffle oil, she agrees it’s not a cheap thrill here – the combination manages to be both earthy and sublime.

Tu Lan
8 Sixth St. (at Market), 415-626-0927
This Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall looks dingy and worn (and it is), but one bite of the crispy noodles or a sip of the sweet, rich Vietnamese-style coffee (a mere $1.85) and all thoughts of the scruffy linoleum floors will be banished forever.

Roasted crab at Thanh Long
4101 Judah St. (at 46th Ave.), 415-665-1146
At Thanh Long, whole crab roasted with butter, garlic, and spices is their signature dish. It really is made in a secret kitchen and only the family knows the recipe. When paired with the garlic noodles – a must, and also a secret recipe – you can barely decide which bite to take next.

Rosamunde Sausage Grill
545 Haight St. (at Fillmore), 415-437-6851
Scour the glass case for the perfect sausage among 14 delectable varieties (though you really want one of each). The tough question is will you go with a classic like Polish or bratwurst, or step out of the box and order duck with fig or wild boar with apple and spice? If you’re vegan, the choice is made for you because there’s only one vegan sausage, but it’s a nice, spicy version. After a few minutes on the grill, the plump, juicy, crunchy sausage of your choice is swaddled in a sesame seed bun and you’re given a choice of two of four toppings: grilled onions, peppers, spicy beef chili, or sauerkraut. If Rosamunde’s was auctioning off their elusive cheeseburger on eBay, there would be a bidding war in the last 30 seconds and it would sell for $1,500.69. You can only get it on Tuesdays – the line starts forming before they open at 11:30 a.m., and they’re usually sold out by midafternoon.

Foreign Cinema
2534 Mission St. (at 22nd St.), 415-648-7600, www.foreigncinema.com
Besides the incredibly cool surroundings featuring an outdoor patio with European movies playing silently against one wall, and a high-ceilinged dining room with chandeliers that look like the eyes of sea creatures, the food is unfailingly good. Fresh oysters, tender Kobe-style beef, some of The City’s best fried chicken (with a kick of garam masala), and dependable brunches with fruity “pop tart” pastries or eggs any style make this an all-time favorite.

Burma Super Star
309 Clement St. (at Fourth Ave.), 415-387-2147
The Buddhists can have Nirvana – we’ll take a never-ending bowl of flat noodles bathed in curried coconut sauce with chunks of chicken and cabbage instead. We also love the tea leaf salad, mixed tableside, made with dark gray-green tea leaves imported from Myanmar (Burma), shredded Romaine, tomatoes, fried garlic chips, dried shrimp, sesame seeds, jalapenos, and peanuts. The sweet lettuce, tomatoes and the spicy pepper matches the tea’s assertive flavor – earthy and pleasantly bitter. We found ourselves compulsively scooping up bite after bite as the click-click of our chopsticks beat out a rhythm on our plates.

Brunch at Universal Café
2814 19th St. (at Florida), 415-821-4608
Although there are lines of folks waiting outside, it’s only because the brunch really is that good. Fresh-squeezed orange juice, excellent coffee, soft scrambled eggs, root vegetable hash, French toast, fresh side salads of mixed greens … it’s all about the bounty of seasonal and market-fresh ingredients in perfect, clean presentations. Outdoor seating is a plus, but the airy industrial interior is great, too.

Pupusas at Balompié
3349 18th St. (at Capp), 415-648-9199
This is where you’ll find some fine El Salvadorian food, so as you peruse the “platos tipicos” you’ll see an array of pupusas – from corn to rice flour, and from ayote con queso (zucchini and cheese) to chicharrón (pork rind) to loroco, a little bud native to El Salvador and that is a traditional pupusa filling. Talk about a steal – the pupusas are $1.60 each, with a minimum of two (you can handle it). We’ve had a couple El Salvadorian friends say these are the best pupusas in town: they’re not greasy, but perfectly grilled, and lip-smacking good when topped with some oregano-laden curtido (a marinated cabbage salad), or our own personal additions, sour cream and Tapatio hot sauce.

Tacos El Tonayense
Several locations: Harrison St. (at 14th, 19th, and 22nd Sts.); Shotwell St. (at 16th St.)
You’ll find these all over The City nowadays – the folks at El Tonayense are like The Sopranos of San Francisco taco trucks – but you still can’t beat their carnitas taco for under $2.

Steamers at Woodhouse Fish Company
2073 Market St. (at Church St.), 415-437-2722, www.woodhousefish.com
East Coast transplants rejoice! There is finally a place in the Bay Area serving steamers. While we were enjoying some recently, two people next to us scrunched up their noses and said, “Gross!” That’s fine by us – we’ll keep them all to ourselves. Steamers are sweet, tender, full-body clams that only a New Englander (or someone who knows a New Englander) knows how to eat. We’re happy to report that Woodhouse serves them properly – steamed in white wine and garlic, with “washing broth,” lemon wedges, and a side of drawn butter. Pull the clam from the shell, peel the black skin off the neck, dip it in broth to remove the sand, then in the butter, and pop it in your mouth – what they lack in looks they definitely make up for in flavor.

Kobe beef pho at Bong Su
311 Third Street (at Folsom), 415-536-5800, www.bongsu.com
We’ve tried a lot of pho, but this one rocks our world. The clear beef stock infused with cilantro, basil, star anise, cinnamon, and fennel poured over the mound of fresh, crunchy white bean sprouts and thin slices of jewel-red Kobe beef at the table, creates an intoxicating fragrance that is better than any aromatherapy we’ve ever experienced. The hot broth wilts the sprouts slightly and cooks the beef slices to a meltingly tender medium rare, resulting in a soothing and satisfying soup that tastes as incredible as it smells.

Falafel sandwich and spicy sausages at Kan Zaman
1793 Haight St. (at Shrader), 415-751-9656
There’s just something about the falafel sandwich at Kan Zaman – maybe it’s the wonderful overabundance of parsley in the yogurt-garlic sauce, or the supersoft pita pockets that don’t fall apart despite the fact they are razor thin. Whatever it is, we think it’s worth a trip. If you’re not a falafel fan, you can check out the belly dancers and smoke fruit-flavored tobacco from hookahs, traditional Middle Eastern water pipes. You’ll also find one of the strangest things we’ve seen on a menu – they call it “spicy sausage,” but it’s really sliced up hotdogs fried in a pan with spices and herbs. Call it whatever you want, it’s oddly addictive.

Sizzling fish platter at Okazu Ya
Three locations: 2445 Noriega St. (at 32nd Ave.), 415-661-5783; 1735 Taraval St. (at 28th Ave.), 415-759-6850;
914 Clement St. (at 10th Ave.), 415-668-1638
We’ve loved Okazu Ya since we discovered the Taraval location, a diminutive box with only 10 tables, nearly 15 years ago. Since then they’ve added two locations, and they’ve all gone through a remodel to make them chic and sleek, but the prices are still low and the food is still great. Order the “Special,” a steaming, sizzling cast-iron skillet with generous portions of lightly breaded fish filets (the selection changes depending on what’s available) atop a tower of bean sprouts, peas, and carrots on a bed of caramelized onions. The platters come with miso soup and ice cream, and most are $12 to $15. We do wish they would take the Chilean sea bass and orange roughy off the menu (both have been over-fished to near extinction) – we tell them every time we eat there, and so should you. Do try the butterfish – it’s delicious and sustainable.

Ame
St. Regis Hotel, 689 Mission St. (at Third St.), 415-284-4040, www.amerestaurant.com
Noodles and broths with eggs, an abundance of crustaceans, lightly-dressed raw fish – the similarities between Japanese and Italian cuisine are striking. At Ame, one of the best new restaurants in The City, husband-and-wife team Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani of St. Helena favorite, Terra, manage to fuse and play upon the flavors of both. Standouts from the sparkling sashimi menu include delicate sea bream atop rich monkfish liver for a startling contrast. Tuna Five is five variations on tuna; the selection might feature ruby-red maguro and a paper-thin slice of prized bottarga. Chawan mushi (Japanese egg custard) with Maine lobster, sea urchin and mitsuba sauce is destined to become a signature at Ame, as is the matelote of eel and grilled foie gras.