​Super Bowl Sunday also doubles as National Corn Chip Day, National Cheap Beer Day, and National Sloppy Joe Day. But if you, or your partner, aren't an expert in Super Bowl Day cooking, head to a bar instead. These bars will give you guaranteed viewing of Super Bowl 2012, and perhaps food slightly better than the average:
 
Tres, 130 Townsend: San Francisco's biggest tequila bar still has a private room available for tequila tasting and screening of the Super Bowl. If you are a Patriots fan, book this room so you can hide your after-party from the rest of us.

Ace's is a sanctuary for New York Giants fans.

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Ace's, 998 Sutter: A Giants fan's haven, the "only Giants bar in San Francisco," is offering free BBQ and five flat-screen TVs with surround sound.

Jasper's Corner Tap & Kitchen, 401 Taylor: The first 20 guests get automatic entrance to win "big" prizes. Serving $2 fries, $2 sliders, and $2 High Lifes, plus pulled pork slider, hummus, chicken wings, and mini corn dogs foir $3 to $6.

Public House, 24 Willie Mays: From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., this TV-laden AT&T Park bar will be selling $5 Bloody Marys and Mimosas. A post-game happy hour goes from 4 to 6 p.m., serving half-price bar bites and $3 cask ales, as well as well cocktails and select draft beers and wines for $5.

Giordano Brothers, 303 Columbus and 3108 16th St.: Pittsburgh-style meat-bomb sandwiches for $7 and six TVs. Opens at 11:30 a.m.More >>

Om nom nom

​ I understand that the very existence of breakfast sandwiches is evidence that something is deeply wrong with our society: They're scarfables not meant to be tasted, cheesebombs we gulp down as we dash through a world that affords us not just no time to cook, but not even time for last-century niceties like utensils or eating while sitting down.

That's how I ate my first Golden Gate Meat Company breakfast sandwich. It's not how I've eaten the 10 or so that have followed, once a week. These are a treat, not some on-the-go staple, and savoring one in the shadow of a Bay Bridge jumping with traffic is a serious morning pleasure.

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Luis Chong

Mirtille's limited tables and seating.

​After Passion Cafe announced it was closing (it has now rescinded that statement), SFoodie was hoping newcomer Mirtille could be a substitute, though the concept is different and it's not open late hours. It's a soup, salad, and sandwich shop, with a few pastries, desserts, and coffee drinks. It follows the latest trend of using fresh and sustainable natural ingredients. The premade small signature sandwiches ($3.80) feature a dozen fillings using pretzel, baguette, or ciabatta minibreads.

The "bite-size" description is no joke. We'd need four to six minis to equal a regular sandwich. Not a good value for the lunch crowd, since Saigon and Taco's Sandwiches are just a short walk away. On the other hand, we loved the tasty soups ($3.80), the fresh and healthy salads that can be made to order ($7.90, choose any six ingredients), or purchased prepackaged (petite $3.90, large $5.90), and the handmade pastries/desserts ($1-$2.90). The purplish themed interior is stylish and spacious, but it lacks enough seating. We hear that outdoor seats will be added soon, so there's room for improvement.

Mirtille 87 McAllister (at Seventh St.), 975-1715.

Lou Bustamante

The Cherry Bounce ($10) alone makes it worth a visit.

​We reported last week that Comstock Saloon's offering a meal on the house with the purchase of two full-price drinks Monday through Friday (11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.). SFoodie has a hard time resisting the allure of a free lunch, especially one that provides an adequate excuse to enjoy a few cocktails at lunch on a Friday.

First off, we were surprised by the enormous plate. Our large-and-in-charge lunch came with a chopped lettuce salad, roasted potatoes, and a nicely sized hamburger. There was only one condiment -- a hot tomato-soup-like sauce -- and we drenched our whole meal in it. The whole thing was filling, tasty, and of the same high quality chef Carlo Espinas always serves. It wasn't a dumbed-down version of something from the menu -- it was something from the menu. Yesterday's lunch was a pork belly sandwich and today's special is the Hamburg steak, for those who missed it on Friday.

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Lou Bustamante

The Cherry Bounce ($10) alone makes it worth a visit.

​We reported last week that Comstock Saloon's offering a meal on the house with the purchase of two full-price drinks Monday through Friday (11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.). SFoodie has a hard time resisting the allure of a free lunch, especially one that provides an adequate excuse to enjoy a few cocktails at lunch on a Friday.

First off, we were surprised by the enormous plate. Our large-and-in-charge lunch came with a chopped lettuce salad, roasted potatoes, and a nicely sized hamburger. There was only one condiment -- a hot tomato-soup-like sauce -- and we drenched our whole meal in it. The whole thing was filling, tasty, and of the same high quality chef Carlo Espinas always serves. It wasn't a dumbed-down version of something from the menu -- it was something from the menu. Yesterday's lunch was a pork belly sandwich and today's special is the Hamburg steak, for those who missed it on Friday.

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Luis Chong

Green Tea Ice at 37 Degrees Dessert Cafe.

​The sunny weather inspired a visit to 37 Degrees Dessert Cafe, a two-year-old Asian dessert and snack shop in the Outer Sunset. The cafe offers a unique version of shaved ice, previously only found at San Jose's now-defunct Snow Miracle. It's called snow ice.

Late last year, owner Diane Cheung installed a new shaved ice machine that creates paper-thin ribbons, a style common in Vancouver and Taiwan (L.A., too, but we don't really care what happens down there). Unlike Hawaiian- or Japanese-style shaved ice, which is crunchy and covered with sugary syrup, this ice is preflavored, with a delicate texture that melts as soon as it hits your tongue ― the main reason why it's earned the nickname "frozen cotton candy."

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​We've eaten some strange things before -- see: Rocky Mountain Oysters -- but it takes a certain type of gustatory gusto to chomp down on something you've found lying by the side of the road. Witness: three videos of those who really, really believe the maxim of "waste not, want not."

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Mona C./Yelp

Chabaa: Quiet, good, cheap.

​Today's query comes from J.S.:

So, the girlfriend's parents and my parents are both flying out to San Francisco to meet each other for the first time. We'd like to take them all out to dinner, but here's the thing: My father is deaf in one ear, and her dad doesn't hear so well either, so we need someplace reasonably quiet. Plus, we'd like to pick up the check at the end of the meal, so something that doesn't break the bank would be appreciated. Both our parents are NPR-listening, would-be foodies, so adventurous and spicy is fine. Any ideas? Also, we live in Hayes Valley and are both bicyclists. Imagine we'd be taking public transit or cabs, so something in Marin headlands might not be so great.

A quiet restaurant is generally harder to find than an affordable one. Well, to be more specific, quiet + affordable + good enough to draw a devoted clientele = not common at all. Operating under the assumption that you hope to spend $20 a person maximum, I have a few suggestions:

If your parents want spicy but you don't want them to think you're being cheap for cheap's sake, I'd suggest one of two Thai restaurants: Lers Ros, in the Tenderloin, does a brisk business, but rarely grows deafening. I've only worked my way through a tiny portion of the giant menu so far, but have enjoyed the salads, pork belly, and anything pad ped. Bonus: The soups are served in a hotpot that spits flame out the center, which makes everyone feel like they're living on the edge. And the N will get you out to Chabaa, the quietest and most attractive of the restaurants I'm recommending. If you order off this translated Thai-language menu in addition to the more Americanized Thai menu, you'll find the roasted pork neck, salads, and Lao sausages are standouts, and the servers couldn't be friendlier.

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Alex Hochman

Next time, more chicken, less Baco.

​It's salvation for college students stuck in cafeteria purgatory. Jessie's Hot House sits smack in the middle of the S.F. State campus, a bare-bones outdoor counter serving up Southern food with an accent on the fried. SFoodie recently ordered a two-piece chicken combo ($6 with a drink and a side) and grabbed a table next door in the student center. The leg-and-thigh combo had a faint taste of cayenne and black pepper, skillfully fried, the exterior crunchy, not shattering: We wiped nary a crumb from our lap, though face-wiping was essential. Juices from the dark meat spurted erratically.

Alex Hochman

​The mac and cheese is the creamy kind, with a solid cheddar tang, though it suffered from showing up flat-out cold. Ever a sucker for college gimmick food, SFoodie couldn't resist the fried fish Baco ($2), Jessie's take on a taco, with a cold square of flat bread replacing the tortilla. Too bad it tasted mostly like its hefty portion of mayo-based "dirty sauce" (Ike's influence knows no bounds), which tasted ― we swear ― like dirt. Next time we'll order the three-piece chicken combo and walk away happy.

Jessie's Hot House at San Francisco State: Cesar Chavez Student Center, 1650 Holloway (at Cardenas), 338-7188.

Alex Hochman

Cumin lamb hand-pulled noodles at Xi'an Famous Foods in New York's Chinatown, a favorite of Mission Chinese Food's Danny Bowien.

​After a few bites of the savory cumin lamb hand-pulled noodles ($6) at Xi'an Famous Foods in New York's Chinatown, it became clear why Danny Bowien had sent us here.

Jesse Friedman/Beer and Nosh

Danny Bowien.

​Our chile oil-soaked lips had reddened and plumped like they were fresh from a collagen session, and our tongue had that prickly sensation we recalled from many meals at Bowien's Mission Chinese Food. This was a Bowien-style dish through and through: in your face, put up or shut up. We put up and were rewarded with one of the best things we put in our mouths all year.

We also loved the stewed pork burger ($2.50), moist shreds of pork bathed in a sweet, vinegary sauce and scooped into a halved, bao-style soft bun ― we could have been at some roadside barbecue stand in North Carolina.

Xi'an Famous was the first stop on what we started calling "the Bowien Chinatown tour." Over lunch at Mission Chinese Food last month, Bowien overheard our intense New York planning discussion and began offering up his favorites (the chef once worked in New York). Needless to say, we scribbled diligently (well, took notes on an iPhone), then set aside a chunk of time in New York over Christmas to explore.

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