Restaurants

Pica Pica Maize Kitchen on Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District has been bringing authentic Venezuelan cooking to the Bay Area since it opened, building a menu around arepas — the Venezuelan cornmeal cakes split and stuffed with meats, cheese, and the fillings of the Venezuelan table — that earns a Mission District restaurant

Nopalito on Broderick Street in San Francisco has been one of the Bay Area’s most celebrated authentic Mexican restaurants since it opened as a spinoff of Nopa, building a menu around the regional Mexican cooking traditions — house-made masa, slow-braised meats, and the complex sauces of interior Mexico — that most San Francisco Mexican restaurants