An Ode to SF: the Longest Post--Ever!

Get out your keyboard slobber guards, readers! This is going to be possibly the longest post I've ever written. J and I took a last minute long weekend trip up to SF, and boy was a lot of food eaten.

Day 1: I had myself a $4 breakfast while sitting behind the Ferry Building, looking out over the bay and Bay Bridge on a sunny morning. An unusually large apricot and unusually small peach were both perfectly ripe and sweet; the ACME baguette was flawless as usual, and a Calvin Trillin anecdotal book about eating was the perfect easy read. People complain about how expensive the Ferry Building is, but for $4 I had a very filling breakfast that was cheaper and healthier than any fast food breakfast.

An afternoon snack of formage blanc and a free pamphlet about Bay Area agriculture.

Met my friend Nancy for lunch at the OSHA Thai in the Embarcadero center. I'm happy to see OSHA Thai doing so well; their newer branhes are very swanky business lunch type places. The eggplant and beef was spicy and tender.

The green papaya salad had some big shrimp and plenty of fish sauce. Always a favorite.

I met up with J later and he hadn't eaten yet, so we went to Spices I and he had pork chop over rice. I think theirs is the best rendition of Taiwanese pork chop over rice in SF.

I helped J polish off a plate of stinky deep fried tofu

We met Lisa for drinks at The Four Seasons. I had a passionfruit drink that I enjoyed but L and J both found too sour. L had what is still my favorite: The Frost Bite with Inniskillin ice wine and a bowl of grapes. Always classy, Four Seasons' drinks came complete with a dish of wasabi peanuts and black olive and embroidered cloth napkins and coasters.

Dinner with N at Pearl's Burgers followed. Mmmm...buffalo. I don't care that a meal for three cost less than two drinks at The Four Seasons--they were each worth it in their own way.

SHOUT OUT TO THE HIDDEN VINE! Angela and Dave's little business seems to be thriving, and the two of them are as lovely and helpful as always. I've said it before and I'll say it again--Angela has a gift for describing wine in laymen's terms, and for recommending the perfect wine based on what you tell her you're in the mood for. A bunch of us met for wine tasting and had a blast. I don't think there's any wine bar in the city with such reasonable prices.

The next morning, we had a little dim sum to go for breakfast, just for old time's sake.

I wandered over to Delessio for breakfast. Look at those adorable mini cupcakes! I love that they make really unique flavor combinations. It reminds me how much more worth it Delsssio is than Sprinkles, which has giant dry cupcakes with tons of gritty overly sugary frosting. I call that too much of a bad thing. Delessio's cupcakes are small and expensive, but every bite is delicious. I was especially impressed by the sight of frosting with real mint bits in it. I'm going to try that some time.

I had a latte and an eclair. The eclair was good but not the best thing I've had at Delessio. Bread pudding, tarts, and any of their cakes are easily better than the eclair. The latte is still pretty darned good.

I couldn't resist a shot of this table of tower cakes being prepared for the day. I can't believe they sell this many in one day. The chocolate tower cake is one of my favorites in SF--incredibly dense chocolate cake filled and topped with ganache, and decorated with bendy shards of dark chocolate. It's a masterpiece, but so moise and intensely flavored I'd love it even if it weren't beautiful. They come in triangles, squares, and rectangles depending on how big you want it.

I wandered around and found myself having not eaten lunch at 2:00, and I had wandered surprisingly close to Jeanty at Jack's so I stopped in there for some steak tartare and frites. I love that Jeanty is open all day (no break for lunch) so it's always an option if I'm near the financial district or Chinatown. My server was nice enough to bring me a taste of wine even though I declined a full glass because I can't drink more than half a glass of wine at lunch without getting sloshed. This little bit was just enough to make my lunch special.

I ordered a creme caramel for dessert but didn't like it at all. There was a thick skin over the top which made me suspect it was less than fresh. When my server asked me how I liked it I mentioned it to him and he whisked it away and took it off the bill. Along with the wine, this type of service is what I love about SF. I didn't have to complain, I didn't have to make a big deal, I was asked how I liked something and my response was immediately respected and I was taken care of as a customer. Naturally, his tip was larger than usual, but I still came out more ahead than if he had charged me for something I truly didn't enjoy.

J wanted to go to Spices I--AGAIN. We just got some steamed stinky tofu to snack on in the car. I also picked up some princess cake from Schubert's to take to our friend's house. Delicious, as always! They were mangled in the car, so no photos.

Dinner was at Lucky River: It was a hectic dinner with non f00dies and frankly a little disappointing, so I didn't whip out the camera. A bunch of Chowhounds went to this restaurant and gave it glowing reviews, but a few things went wrong for us. Service was terrible; normally I don't care but my dinner guests make a big deal of such things so it sort of created tension all around. We didn't have enough people to order a set menu for 10, so we didn't get to try the same menu as posted on CH. And people had their own ideas of what they wanted to eat, so by the time everyone had input there really wasn't a way for me to add the five or so dishes I really wanted without way over ordering. So final consensus was that there was some good and some bad, but not great.

Car snacks. I picked up a bag of lychees in the Richmond and ate them during long rides in the car. I'm like a child--I need to be entertained so I don't ask "are we there yet?"

Lunch at Zuni. We started out with littleneck and Manila clams. The littlenecks are better raw.

Possibly the best bloody mary in town. The bartender disclosed that the base is a blend of Knudsen's tomato juice and boiled down tomatoes for texture.

Roast chicken, of course. The bread salad wasn't as moist this time, but the chicken was outstanding as usual.

We had this funny pasta. It's like a rolled up square. The duck sugo was nice, but totally overpowered by our other dishes. We should have had it come out first.

The pork chop was also a crowd pleaser. A nice thick cut, cooked just right.

In the interest of hitting more places in one day, we skipped dessert at Zuni and headed to Citizen Cake. Some might say that was a bad idea, but oh well. The latte was pretty uninspired. No foam or crema to speak of.

Root beer was fine but their vanilla gelato is a little too sweet for me.

Our cakes, waiting to be served. T got the Love Letter which tasted like a strawberry shortcake. I got something "Provence," which had lavendar chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, and a layer of citrus marmalade. Interesting flavor combination, but not strong enough for me. The only time I've been wowed by a Citizen Cake was at a birthday party. They had this really fluffy, lightly lemony cake with fresh strawberry filling. Maybe Citizen Cake's a one trick pony.

T, Diet Coke Queen, made a snack of the new Diet Coke Plus. I'd never heard of it before. It's vitamin fortified, of all gimmicks. I had a coconut green tea at TeazMe.

Dinner for 10 at Pesce somehow ballooned out to 12. I forgot to add someone's fiance, and D said "What do you mean I didn't RSVP? When you send me an invitation, I would never dream of declining." Nice save, buddy. Food was good, as usual. Arugula and fennel salae, a surprisingly good Dungeness risotto rice cake, the famous octopus salad, and some smoked salmon.

A round of Hama Hama and Miyagi oysters.

A round of oyster shooters. How could these not be alcoholic? Grrr...

A surprise favorite. Polenta with gorgonzola, and bits of potatoes and crispy pancetta. The polenta varied in texture from soupy to firm, which was actually wonderful.

Shrimp and vegetables. Good, but nothing unique.

Lamb shanks. I do enjoy my lamb shanks completely falling off the bone, but I appreciated that they were able to retain some of the lamb shank's texture while achieving fork tenderness. We had a bunch of other dishes, but with 12 people all gunning for food it was dangerous for me to force them to wait while I clicked. Olive gnocchi had an intense black olive flavor but was a little too gummy for me, the salmon over arugula was a huge hit (see, people, wild IS better), and the whole snapper disappeared in no time flat.

Disappointingly, there was no tiramisu for dessert. Most of us got the millefoglie, which was puff pastry filled with strawberries, whipped cream, and zabaglione. Light, not too sweet, and refreshing.

The coppa valentino was the second most popular dessert. A standard, makes-you-yearn-for-your-childhood sundae, topped with almonds and wafers.

The surprise dessert winner for the night was the budino and caramel. It was a delicious bread puding covered in vanilla gelato. Yum.

Service was phenomenal at Pesce. Our servers juggled our double orders (two of everything, please!) and later additions (we want lamb shank too!). Additionally, one of our party made the terrible mistake of ordering what was called a Hemingway Daiquiri--does Hemingway seem to you the type of a man who would ever have publicly ordered something called a daiquiri? It tasted like vodka watered down with cough syrup. Our waitress took it away and brought back something else, all smiles. My friend, a New Yorker, looked at me with awe. "I would never have thought of doing that" she said. I actually wouldn't normally do it either, but she really did look miserable and a few others took sips and agreed it was vile. When you drop $60 a head in San Francisco, you are allowed at least one drink substitute for your table of 12. Like I said, it's classy town.

We stopped in Van Nuys on the way home for some groceries and had dinner at Pho So1. Not a bad combination pho at all, and a delicious frozen durian shake. I had the preserved lemon soda.