7 posts tagged “san francisco”
I spent most of last week in San Francisco for work, and had the opportunity to dine at a few fine establishments. Here's a mini-review.
I booked a 10am massage at Kabuki Springs and Spa to force us to get up early and not waste the day. I booked a Javanese Lulur body treatment which is as exotic and wonderful as it sounds. Kabuki Springs offers pretty good prices, as far as San Francisco spas go.
After getting totally relaxed, the honey and I and are two friends ventured over to Dottie’s in the tenderloin. I guess the food’s worth braving the tenderloin (or maybe people just like bragging that they hang out in the ‘loin) – but the line was more than an hour’s wait, so we decided to head to Chow instead. It was good! Organic food, freshly prepared, good service.
I probably shouldn’t have ordered dessert, considering the day ahead of me, but my friend’s recommendation of the ginger cake with pumpkin ice cream sounded too good to refuse.
Next, on to the Taste Pavillion at Fort Mason. It was a huge place filled with booths offering food tastings from local farms. I was initially disappointed because the event was advertised as an all-inclusive tasting for one ticket price. But they gave us “slow food dough” – 20 “dollars” to spend at booths that cost 1-3 “dollars” each… not enough to taste everything. However, in practice, I had way more “dollars” than I needed. Maybe because all the wine vendors forgot to check off my ticket (surprise, surprise).
I spent the evening enjoying Native American dishes – bison stew, pozole and wild rice cakes, beer, cheese, charcuterie, wine, olive oil, jams and preserves, honey, and more.
The food was extraordinary. As a former event planner, I would have done the event differently. Tickets were $65. I would have either charged $95 and treated people like kings – no tickets, no lines, no limitations… or, I would have charged less. Surprisingly, the event sponsors had less visibility than I anticipated; they could have had booths and handed out coupons; maybe that would have offset the ticket cost. But all in all, the honey and I had a great time.
We had a leisurely morning, and headed over to Civic Center Plaza, where the Slow Food Nation marketplace was being held.
It was a farmers’ market combined with prepared food booths and a demonstration victory garden. Obviously, the honey and I headed straight to the lunch lines. The honey started off with a sausage and peppers. I went to the muffaleta line – a sandwich with pesto, sopresatta, provolone..? and just plain goodness. Apparently, the honey decided the sausage wasn’t enough, so he headed over to the hot dog booth. At Slow Food Nation you don’t just get any ol’ Oscar Meyer. You get an all-beef grass-fed local dog. Yum.
We walked through the victory garden, a cool demonstration of what people can grow in their own yards to supply the most local of local foods. There were veggies of many kinds, showing complimentary plantings like the “three sisters”: beans, corn, and squash. The beans grow up the cornstalks, using them for support. The beans in turn provide nitrogen to the soil, and the squash provides ground cover to stop weeds and evaporation.
At the other end of the garden we spied sweet potato peach pies and all of a sudden, found a renewed hunger for dessert.
We split a mini-pie and walked over to the Bi-Rite booth for ice cream. Oh ye gods, this was the. Best. Ice cream. I’ve. Ever. Had. (And I’ve had a lot). Chocolate ice cream with salted caramel and toasted almonds, exactly as they should be. Sweet, wonderful heaven.
We walked the booths of the farmers’ market, and of course every booth had its own tasting. Olive oil, peaches, honey, the sweetest strawberries you could have the pleasure to taste, melons… needless to say, by the end, we were stuffed.
We had to walk off some of the food, so we took a long walk down to the Embarcadero. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. I went through the Ferry Building to look at all the food stores (I couldn’t possibly eat any more). If I go back and I am hungry, though, this would be a great place. The stores looked pristine. We stopped for a beer and a cola while we waited for some friends to show up. In true San Francisco style, this bar didn’t have Coke. They had Empire cola, a 100% cane sugar cola—which I like better than the artificial stuff in Coke (it lacks the afterburn of Coke).
Afterwards, we made it back to the hotel, as a couple of our friends from L.A. showed up. After some digestion, we went to Colibri, our favorite Mexican restaurant, for some late-night tapas. Despite my love of always trying new restaurants, Colibri is a favorite we return to again and again – and we live close to Mexico! It’s a good find.
End of day 2: stuffed and happy.
For Labor Day weekend, the honey and I went up to San Francisco for Slow Food Nation.
We arrived at Hotel Tomo at around 8:00pm.
Hotel Tomo is a Best Western in Japantown that they remodeled with a Japanese pop-art theme. Each room has an anime-type mural, with a bean bag chair and faux bois carpet. It’s a modest place at a modest price but fun and near some cool restaurants. Here's the lobby:
The honey and I headed out for a late dinner. When in Japantown, eat sushi, right? We went to a place recommended by the front desk staff called Ino Sushi. (The Yelp reviews on this place are pretty entertaining, btw). It was a tiny little place, big enough to hold about 12 people. There was a single sushi chef behind the bar, and probably his wife who was the hostess/waitress. The menu was the real deal – just nigiri sushi, sashimi, and some rolls with just fish and avocado. That’s it. And miso soup (4 different kinds) and lots of sake.
We ordered a sampling of miso soup, nigiri, and rolls. The albacore was fresh and in season – and melt in your mouth. The sushi was incredible; the honey said it was the best he’d ever had. I would probably agree. The whole bar felt really authentic.
After dinner, we headed to Yoshi’s Jazz Bar for a nightcap. There was a big show about to start, so the bar was filled with ultra-hip jazz fans dressed to the nines. We grabbed a drink and walked back home.
Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 2!
I haven't taken a vacation in about a year, and I'm totally stir-crazy. So I am super-excited about my mini-vacay this weekend, to San Francisco, for Slow Food Nation. Woo hoo!
Slow Food Nation is a 4-day festival dedicated to the slow food movement and all that it stands for: dining as a source of pleasure, sitting down at the table to eat, using simple, high-quality ingredients, using food to bring a sense of community back... you get the idea. Now, personally, I am not opposed to fast food (although I try not to eat it) -- but I really love good food. One of the best things about my childhood was that we ate as a family at the dinner table every night. It not only encouraged my brother and I to appreciate fresh, good food, but it also fomented other skills -- we learned how to be comfortable talking with older people, we debated issues, we learned table manners. These are definitely things I want to encourage in my own children some day.
This is the first year Slow Food Nation will be held in the U.S. There's a lot going on. There's a marketplace full of food vendors selling local food. There are seminars given by people like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan. There are food tastings galore, tours going to local farms and wineries, picnics, a rock concert...
For all you foodies, I'm going to try to blog each day I'm there (but if not, after I get back). Here's a sneak peak of my itinerary:
Thursday night: Depart for San Francisco. Check into Hotel Tomo and grab a late dinner.
Friday: Free day. We may head over to the Slow Food marketplace at the civic center, to check out all the food booths and garden exhibits. Maybe we'll do a little shopping and sight-seeing around San Francisco, too. On Friday night, our friends Sean & Mae arrive. Perhaps dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Colibri?
Saturday: Spa treatments for everyone at Kabuki Springs, which is right at or next to our hotel. At 5pm, the honey and I have tickets for the Taste Pavillion. It includes food tastings at all the booths.... beer, cheese, olive oil, ice cream, charcuterie, honey & preserves, oh heaven, the list goes on! You'll have to click the link if you want to see everything, because if I keep typing about it I'll get hungry.
Sunday: "Mendocino County: America's Greenest Wine Region" -- all day tour to Mendocino County wineries. We'll start with a visit to Real Goods Solar Living Institute, then Olivino Olive Mill (more tastings!). Then we go to SIP! Mendocino for tastings and a picnic lunch. We finish off with stops at Golden Vineyards and Bonterra Vineyards. Since I haven't been to any of these places, I'm exicted to try some new things. The honey is really into sustainable energy, so I think he'll really enjoy the solar living institute.
Sunday night: Dinner at Laiola restaurant with friends.
Monday: Free day. We'll check out anything at Slow Food Nation that we missed, and round up our sight seeing. Lunch: last chance to try a new restaurant! Maybe we'll head over to the Ferry building. I know I need to try the Slanted Door, though not sure it's open for lunch.
Ok kids, full report soon to come!
I haven't yet bitten the bullet and purchased a nice digital camera, so I still take photos with real film. One of the advantages of real film is that it forces you to live in the moment. I take a photo, and hope it turned out. There's no reviewing and re-taking. Kind of like a lot of things in life. And, you get a nice surprise once you finally develop your film. Instead of looking at photos and remembering something that happened 5 minutes ago, you look at your freshly developed photos and remember something that happened a week ago. Or, in my case, 6 months ago.
Why so long? Well, it seems that every time I come back from some trip, I've snapped less than a whole roll of film. So I always wait until I snap the rest of the roll before I go to develop them. This year, that ended up being an ongoing process. On every trip, I'd return with at least 10 photos still to take. So I kept waiting. Finally, last week I developed 5 rolls.
The film went as far back as Chinese New Year (Tet) in February. There were photos of my Grandma, who passed away in May. It was really nice to re-visit the last photos I took of her. She looked thinner than years before, when she was well, but she was grinning and standing before the stove, cooking my honey a special dish. I swear, the sky could be falling but my grandma would still be smiling and just wanting everyone to get along.
The next group of photos was from a trip to San Francisco and Santa Cruz. I played around with picnik, a site that lets you do a lot of Photoshop effects, but in a simpler interface. I found that I prefer using Photoshop for touching up people, but I like picnik for creating effects and using filters.
In downtown SF, I spotted a man giving away free hugs, so I got one:
After a few days in SF, the honey and I went to Santa Cruz. On the way there -- uh oh! -- we got a flat tire.
When we arrived in Santa Cruz, I fell in love with it.
The view in Santa Cruz were stunning, and there was a relaxed vibe and vibrant art community there.
On the way back, we stopped in Half Moon Bay for lunch.
The last of my 5 rolls of photos was from a trip to Mexico with 12 of our friends.
It was really nice re-living all those moments when I got my film developed (finally).
Second story from my San Francisco weekend (photos soon to come... I actually have to develop mine). I was at a bar, with the honey and a couple of his friends. We had just come from the Tonga Room, and some other little dive. Anyway, this tall guy with dark hair comes over, and says, "We're putting together a Roshambo tournament! $10 buy-in, winner take all. Who's in?!" At this point, friend of the honey looks up at him and says, "are you the world champion poker player?" I don't watch it myself, but apparently it's Phil Hellmuth. Friend of the honey was in awe... described himself as a little girl looking at her favorite celebrity.
So, I have this strategy for Roshambo. I have my fair share of crack-pot theories, but in practice my strategy works pretty consistently. So I said, "I'm in - and I'm gonna win all your money!!" Then the tournament was on. I played 4 people, best of 5, including the honey (girls - Hapa Love's lesson #1: never let your boyfriend win). And guess who walked away $80 richer? Woo hoo! But really, it was all for the glory.
All night I kept chanting, "I won Phil Hellmuth's money... I won Phil Hellmuth's money!" There was a dance involved as well. Luckily, the honey can put up with my annoying-ness, at least if there's a good story involved. Sometimes he'll even say it's cute. Bless him.
Oh, and Phil Hellmuth is much better looking in person than on his website, imho. He was wearing a shirt with dollar signs running down the sides... classic.
