By Tamara Palmer
Look, it was just going to be another story, a fun exploration of a food trend on the rise in San Francisco, but it turned into a legit problem. And so I caution you, before reading any further, that acai bowls may be habit-forming.
My acai bowl habit started almost instantaneously a few weeks ago when checking out the first of five places for this story and noticing a ridiculous energy boost right away. I’m talking about a normally sluggish writer straight moonwalking across her office floor during blogging breaks and taking evening walks.
Popular in Hawaii and Brazil, acai bowls vary widely in textures and toppings, but all benefit from a mega blast of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It’s still a young phenomenon in San Francisco, but people are quickly making it their own. If you want to follow me down the path of incredibly healthy destruction, here’s where to go:
Basik Cafe
New Nob Hill acai specialist Basik Cafe, which opened about a month ago, hails from Kona in Hawaii, where it’s well regarded. I’m still dreaming of the textures achieved in Basik’s Banyan bowl, which is a pretty decadent blend of acai, peanut butter, and cashew milk that’s topped with almonds, granola, honey, hemp seeds, and bee pollen. Acai has its own supreme energy force, but when you throw the crunchy pollen granules on top, it’s positively combustible; they’re one of the most complete foods on Earth. BRB, gonna go snort some lines of pollen.
BeBeBar
Celinha Moreira, who hails from Brazil, has run a juice and acai bowl focused cafe called BeBeBar near Dolores Park for almost a year with some key help from her niece. She notes that while most places that do acai bowls in San Francisco favor the sorbet-like consistency that is popular in Hawaii, she puts in the work to break down the pulp and not dilute it for a concentrated, almost smoothie-like texture. This means her bowls seemingly pack in more energy; I know I felt skyrocketing stamina thanks to a handful of kale blended into the acai and a generous amount of bee pollen thrown on top. And if you get a bowl with the faintly sweet guarana syrup, which is a popular inclusion in Brazil, you may never come down. That’s one of the ingredients that makes energy drinks so potent.
Bowl’d Acai
A food truck called Bowl’d Acai typically hangs out mornings in Mint Plaza and some afternoons at SoMa StrEat Food Park. With produce from Berkeley Bowl and custom-made granola that was the best I tried over my five stops, they’re making a standout offering that might be the healthiest food truck item in town. Applying peanut butter in ribbons via a squeeze bottle is a simple touch that makes a huge difference in taste if you’re wanting the dense protein shot in there (see photos above). As a street food obsessive, this is undoubtedly my favorite mobile discovery of the year.
Blue Hawaii
Located in Embarcadero Center 2, Honolulu export Blue Hawaii was SF’s first acai cafe. While other spots offer bowls with different liquids blended in, here you can choose what you’d like in any bowl, whether that’s soy, almond, or hemp milk, or apple juice. They also have an option to blend your acai with dragon fruit in what’s called a Pitaya bowl. Not only does it turn everything an awesome hue, it doubles down on your antioxidant action. I like the price points here; unlike anywhere else I tried, you can get a small bowl for $6.95 if you don’t feel like spending $10 or more. They’ve also got Hawaiian style raw tuna poke on the menu.
Judahlicious
Meanwhile, in the Outer Sunset, raw food specialist Judahlicious offers a “jungle style” bowl ($10.75) with blueberry, raw acai, banana, raw housemade granola, and orange juice, and a traditional bowl ($8.50) with blueberry, acai, banana, pumpkin-flax granola with oats, and orange juice. They’re pretty similar but the texture of the raw granola is light and lovely and slightly edges out the original as a favorite. If you check this spot out on a sunny weekend, though, you might be waiting up to a half hour for the privilege of trying it. Still, you can order your bowl in a to go cup and stroll on over to Ocean Beach and pretend you’re in Hawaii. Yes, suspension of disbelief will be required.
Home Version
With the average price of an acai bowl hovering around $10, this ain’t a cheap addiction, so you might want to try making your own if you get hooked. Sambazon’s frozen packs of acai pulp run about $8 for a pack of four, so that’s not exactly a bargain either, but they often go on sale at Rainbow Grocery and are even available at Costco now.
You can blend the pulp with any liquid you choose basically. Keep in mind that the pulp is unsweetened, so if you want it to have a little sweetness, choose something other than water. I’m a fancy bitch so I picked up a bottle of raw coconut almond milk from Milkman SF. For a soft and almost smoothie-like consistency, I mix two broken up packets of pulp with about a quarter cup of liquid in a Vitamix or other powerful blender; add a fresh or frozen banana and a handful of spinach, kale, or spirulina if you like. Add less liquid for a more sorbet-like texture. If you happen to have an ice cream maker, you can go ahead and make up some acai sorbet and keep it in the freezer for quick-fix bowls. For toppings, I added a sliced banana, blackberries, some Little Apple Granola from Sebastopol, a teaspoon of bee pollen, and a dusting of chia seeds.
My next step will be freebasing acai bowls, but you might not be ready for that. Go at your own pace.
Photos courtesy the author.
