Heart of the City Farmers' Market, U.N. Plaza (near the corner of Fulton and Hyde)
There's a surprising abundance of soul food in San Francisco, a testament to a culinary resistance to the rising clout of the organic food movement, which hasn't entirely captured the breakfast crowd that drizzles melted butter over a plate of grits. Fortunately, Southern foodies don't have to choose between their taste buds and their arteries. On Wednesdays, they can visit John Akins underneath his tent at the Heart of the City Farmers' Market in U.N. Plaza. On Saturdays, they can find him at the Alemany Farmers' Market among a row of tents set behind the painted concrete produce stalls. Anyone who longs for a taste of Southern home cooking will savor each bite of Akins' cinnamon buns and his peach cobbler tart. But the real treat here is the sweet potato tart. The potatoes come thinly sliced in this diamond-shaped pastry, like apples in a galette, elevating a regional delicacy to a taste-treasure.

Web Extra ? Bonus Best Of