Weekly Obsessions

Now that ephedrine-based products are a thing of the past (boo!), and we're always semiflushed over that semi-dark roast smell our urine emits throughout the office bathroom after drinking our morning espresso, we've finally found a suitable replacement: Diet Rockstar. Not only does this sugar-free, far superior cousin of Red Bull contain large amounts of caffeine, B vitamins, ginkgo, and milk thistle, but also its beer-can shape draws some of the most interesting stares as we walk to work in the morning. Even the fuzz did a double take. B.K.

We didn't notice on the way to 1377 Fell St., since the approach to that spot is always accompanied by mounting dread, but when we stepped out of the DMV's hellish prison (the screaming brats! the sweaty counter ladies! the horror!) and eyed JeJe's Hot Dog Standgleaming like a shiny dime in the afternoon sun, it promptly soothed our suffering. With one toothsome $2 hot dog after the next, we recovered from post-driver's test trauma, savoring every delightfully mysterious morsel of those brackish weenies. Take heart, pull-ticket person #G-082, JeJe is right outside waiting, like a beacon of light through the darkness. N.C.

We're not sure whether to blame bad spelling, good humor, or brusque honesty, but the marqueethat spent last week advertising the new Angus Steak Burger at the Burger King at 245 Bayshore might sound a little more appealing if someone added the "g." N.C.

Unexpected luck: A meeting in the Financial District turns into lunch, during an incomparably beautiful San Francisco midday, on the Belden Place patio of the inimitable, casual French wonder known as Plouf. The restaurant's known for mussels, but we order fish and chipson a whim, and a waiter of perfect Gallic professionalism brings lightly battered chunks of several different kinds of fresh fish and a pile of nearly addictive frites that put to shame any English or Irish F&C we've encountered. J.M.