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Hand-painted paper boxes in shapes to charm food lovers

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Whenever I’m in San Francisco, I try to stop in for lunch at Zuni Café on Market Street. I’ve been going there ever since chef and co-owner Judy Rodgers started cooking there in 1987. At lunch, have a bowl of polenta swirled with mascarpone, house-cured anchovies with celery, or pipérade with a fried quail egg and rosemary toast — and if you have the time, the chicken for two roasted in the wood-burning brick oven and served with a Tuscan-style bread salad.

After an espresso -- and maybe a couple of biscotti (the recipe in ‘The Zuni Café Cookbook’ is the best I’ve found) -- head over to Bell’occhio an enchanting shop tucked in an alley on the other side of Market.

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Filled with beautiful ribbons, paper goods and romantic little treasures, Bell’occhio is perfect for whiling away a rainy afternoon. I just discovered the shop has a website too, which could be dangerous.

I have a thing for brushes and Bell’occhio has a wonderful collection of brushes for dusting, cleaning bottles, cleaning bicycle and motorcyle wheels, whatever. Poking around the website, I also found these charming hand-painted paper boxes in the shapes of a truffle, a morel, a strawberry, a raspberry (this one is flocked!), a lemon, an apricot (flocked too), an apple, a walnut, a flageolet, a cacao bean, a coffee bean — and a fuzzy green almond.

Bell’occhio, 10 Brady St., San Francisco, (415) 864-4048; www.bellocchio.com. Paper boxes, $16 to $28.

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-- S. Irene Virbila

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