S34N

Author: Sean B

  • SF Pizza Guide + My Personal Recipe and Tips!

    In honor of Pizza Week, I’m going to share my recipe as well as my favorite pizza spots in SF and what to order! The air quality San Francisco allows you to get a very unique flavor from it through Sourdough Starters to cultivate yeast. Let’s start!

    The List

    I have to start with Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in North Beach by Tony Gemgiani. If you don’t know who that is, he’s won the international pizza competitions 12 times so you know he’s got it down. It’s a bit of a wait, but there are lots of options for different pizza styles. He also has a to-go slice spot right next door and one in Haight-Ashbury.

    Outta Sight has some awesome and unique slices such as the Jerk Chicken and Butter Chicken slices. There can sometimes be a line but they have a location by Civic Center which has some other flavors too.

    Golden Boy Pizza is a good photo spot with a constant line that increases in the nighttime. They are known for their distinct square styles and a clam & garlic topping slice. It’s worth checking out if you’re in the area.

    Escape From NY Pizza is a good home away from home option for those visiting from New York. They have a triple pepperoni pizza (cupped, salami, chopped) that is amazing. They have several locations across SF.

    Joyride Pizza is a local favorite serving Detroit style pizza. They have a variety of six sliced options from BBQ chicken to pesto options.

    The Recipe

    This is a recipe I’ve used for a while to make a stable 3-4 balls of pizza dough.

    • 800 grams of flour (Topo 00 for best content)
    • 500 grams of warm/hot water
    • 2 tsp of fine salt
    • 2 tsp of sugar
    • 1 tsp of yeast

    Basically you combine the water with the sugar and yeast and wait for 10 minutes for it to proof. While you wait, mix together the salt and flour to dilute the salt ratio.

    Once the yeast starts proofing, mix both together until well combined with a bread hook or just kneading on a hard surface until fully combined.

    This will make 3-4 pizza doughs that you can use immediately: I recommend anywhere between two to five days in the fridge to increase fermentation.

    The Cook

    I recommend coating the pizza dough with cornflour in order to help with stretching.

    To make the pizza in a standard oven, literally just crank it as high as it will go which is usually 500 or 550 degrees. I like to prebake it for 8-10 minutes to give a better structure to the toppings.

    You can also use a grill to preheat for a char and flip to add toppings.

    As far as what you wanna put on top it’s really up to you. I think a thin layer of tomato sauce with mozzarella cheese is the basic but basil, copped pepperoni, and a different shredded cheese adds some good contrast.

    If you want to make the leap to getting a pizza oven, Ooni is the one to use. Many options and you can get a decent package for around $400 that will last you many a pizza.

    Have any pizza recommendations? Know of any cool spots I missed? Drop a comment below and let’s chat!

  • I made a matrix-style typing plugin

    Now, we’re gonna talk about how I did it so you can learn from my mistakes. But first watch this clip from the matrix so you can understand the vibes better.

    Snap back to reality.

    This was my first wordpress plugin so I followed this tutorial to figure out how to handle the editor and front-end. The tutorial is great if you want to build something that doesn’t use javascript at all. But a typing wordpress element requires javascript to update the text on a timed basis. So I had to dig deeper. I did find a useful structure of a wordpress plugin which I structured mine around.

    The Editor

    To use javascript in the react-based editor, it’s recommended to read up on useEffects and useRefs. Anytime the user updates the settings through the InspectorControls component, the useEffect gets run and the matrix typing element runs from the start.

    One important thing I want to stress for those building your first plugin is to have a parent element. I added a span tag inside the paragraph tag which fixed an issue where you couldn’t edit past blocks.

    <p>
   <span ref={myRef}></span>
</p>

    If you’re working with useEffects I recommend looking into useRef as it can save you a little bit of work on the javascript side of finding an element and wondering when it renders.

    The View

    WordPress allows two options for you to view the final product through PHP or react, and either one works just fine. I tried both, and here’s my takeaway if you’re working with javascript:

    Learn how to utilize wp_register_script and wp_enqueue_script to add any scripts you want accessible on the frontend. Make sure you include the current directory using __DIR__ in PHP.

    An interesting feature I’ve added is one using InteractionObserver which allows you to activate a typing block only when it’s in view. It just listens for when the object comes in view and when it does it will start the animation. I’ve added it twice on this page for you to see. Pretty neat huh?

    Along with creating a matrix effect, you could use this to display facts about your product in a cool way or even create a fun retro video-game feel! There are lots of possibilities.

    I hope you’ve enjoyed this comprehensive guide. Check out the plugin source code and .zip via the link below.

    Download plugin

    Please feel free to ask questions in the comments or email me at me@s34n.net

  • Third Places in San Francisco

    Sometimes you just need a place to unwind between work and home, and that’s essentially what a third place is. If you’re looking for hustle and bustle, check out Pier 39 or the Ferry Building. This is for places where you can relax for a few hours undisturbed.

    Places to Vibe

    Golden Gate Park is 1,017 acres of awesome parks (slightly bigger than Central Park in NYC). You can check out a lot of cool things for free like the Bison, Strawberry Hill, and the Windmills. There’s also many sports that go on inside, like tennis, horseback riding, golfing, pickleball, shuffleboard, flyfishing, and rollerblading! Only some of these are free. My recommendation is to start at Strawberry Hill area and you’ll have a good distance either way to explore. And when you find a nice grassy area or a bench you can just chill there for a few hours.

    Places to Get Work Done

    Starting out here with San Francisco Public Library. The main library on market street has four floors of awesome study spaces with a few private areas. Not to mention the books! Many locations around san francisco where you can get some work done, and even do small printing if you have an account.

    Up next I recommend Saluhall by Ikea. Lots of seating (sometimes with street views) and you can eat unlike the library. Also a good place to meetup with friends if you’re hanging out by the Market. You can even do a small board game as well.

    There are a lot of makerspaces in the area like Studio 45 & 55, Noisebridge, and Humanmade. Each one has super cool and passionate people who are working on something they believe in. The Frontier Building is worth a visit as each floor is a different focus with the first few being for the community.

    There are honestly so many interesting spots it’s hard to list them all. I recommend checking out the Atlas Obscura app /website to find the coolest ones catered to you. Drop a comment if you have other recommendations where you can just…vibe.

    Happy vibing,

    S34N

  • Things to do in SF: October Edition

    What? October is almost over? This spooky season won’t be complete without some amazing activites that you can still do!

    Some fun events I’ve done so far:

    I checked out

    • Checked out Terror Vault which was an INCREDIBLE haunted house. Hour long, filled with real actors, and a show before/after if you go at the right time! Plus fun drinks.
    • Went to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass which is basically Outside Lands but free and more lax. So much good music there and good vibes.
    • I competed in the Bay Area First Annual Cookie Competition! And won! I submitted Alvin Zhou’s 48 hour chocolate chop cookie recipe. And left a bunch when I left to ensure good votes.
    • I went to the Cake Picnic 2.0 Year 2! Basically an overflow event if you didn’t get accepted into the original Cake Picnic and more lax about what you can take home.
    • Went to a cool projection show at Grey Area where people showcased their projection-based projects.

    Looking for some fun things coming up?

    • Dr.Rick’s Goth-O-Ween party! I went to Dr.Rick’s Guac-Off last month (I didn’t win) and had a great time! Tickets go up in price every hour and there are countless incredible costumes that appear at this hidden gem of a party. This happens October 25th starting at 5 pm until probably 10 pm.
    • Dance-O-Ween is an incredible roving Halloween party in the mission! I went last year and I saw an led dinosaur, many guy fieris, and just a lot of cool people. This happens on actual halloween.
    • Halloween Fashion Show seems like a fun event. It is about $10 and you’ll get to see spooky threads. That is October 23rd.
    • Sandcastle Competition (43rd annual) happens at Ocean Beach the same day. Video Game character themed so get ready for all the classics!

    Sean, how the heck do you find these events?! WHAT SPELLS DO YOU CAST?

    – Cool people

    Okay, okay! I’ll tell you.

    • I like looking at https://sf.funcheap.com/, which has events for a lot of major communities. It also supports self publishing, and is a little more curated than something like Eventbrite or Luma
    • https://brokeassstuart.com/ is a pretty good curator too. He just hosted an amazing event last week that I didn’t go to personally but have heard some good things about.
    • https://sfartguide.com/ is a great guide if you’re looking for fun art events in San Francisco. They usually post day of or a day before on Instagram and I’ll see the stories and occasionally head to an event.

    Did I miss any? Let me know below!