for the love of food

Cool SF

what a relief !  from a month of 95+ degree weather here in austin texas to a cool 75+ in san francisco !  we started our trip with a few days in the lovely town of san luis obispo ( a family birthday celebration ) then drove up  A1 along the coast  ( highly recommended) for a few days in san fran. 

one of the country’s great drives with views of the rugged pacific on one side and los padres “hills” on the other - landscaped with golden grasses - flowering cacti - wild fennel - nasturtium and eucalyptus.

enough about the scenery - let’s talk food. 

sf is a great food city with a long list of must-eats. we went casual and hit a few new and a few old favorites - nothing fancy.  here are a few highlights !

we were a 5 minute walk from ferry plaza - so this was our first pit stop each morning.

morning joe at blue bottle coffee.  micro-roasters of organic coffee. started locally in oakland. they will only serve coffee brewed from beans roasted and delivered within 48 hours. that + local organic whole milk = best ever cappuccino.

thursday farmers market includes food vendors - offering warm bowls of ramen noodles - pizza from a traveling brick oven - tacos and more.  we easily opted for rotisserie porchetta sandwhiches from roliroti. this is the real deal ! this guy hails from a swiss butcher background - moves to berkeley to study organic farming = rolirosti.  please come to austin !

boccalone = salumi. this place allows me to truly enjoy cured meats as it is dedicated to the pig. heritage breeds - pasture fed - no antibiotics or hormones. meat is hand butchered and production is small batched.  you can taste it.  they serve up paper cones of assorted just-sliced salumi. what a treat.  we brought home cotecchino - cured lard and ndjua -an unusual spicy salmai “paste” .  boccalone is co-owned by chris costenino - chef of incanto restaurant. we couldn’t squeeze it into our schedule. next time.

any chocolate lover knows recchiuti. i am savoring one as i write this…mmm honeycomb malt.

lunch at an old favorite - delfina pizzeria ( not to be confused with their restaurant delfina). while the pizza was delicious ( hen-of-the-wood mushroom & panna ) - my favorite was this roasted corn smothered in whipped lardo ! and sprinkled with smoked hot paprika.

lunch at a new place RN 74 ( rue nationale 74 -runs thru burgundy france) - a michael mina restaurant. this salad was a favorite - it highlights the abundance of produce here - and features the honey sweet apricot that changed my mind about what one can (and should ) taste like. i bought a bag of them at the farmers market and ate them every morning.

lunch at an old favorite - dim sum at yank sing. this place is one organized monster of  a business. 280 seats and a wait out the door at 1 pm.  worth the wait !

dinner at namu - a small neighborhood joint serving contemporary korean food. it is owned by three brothers - all in their stations at bar- kitchen and front of house. i started with a (naturally) sparkling ! sake ! a new treat.  an appetizer favorite was the monterey calamari. fresh and tender - it spoiled me for any other. served here with kim chee aioli. other favorites were beef ‘tacos’ with sticky rice and nori seaweed wrappers - housemade ramen noodle soup and a great sake list that we worked our way thru.

favorite cocktails were at coco500. we started with the hot lips (tequila - lime - cilantro & fresno chile) and the tamarindo (haitan white rum - lime & tamarind syrup). talk about a well made drink !

a trip over the bridge to oakland to visit our friend at his spanish tapas place barlata ( sister to B44 in san fran). he treated us well with too many dishes - gracias daniel ! hard to choose a favorite. we enjoyed a sampler of 3 gazpacho soups and just-sliced-off-the-bone iberico ham. also fideua ( pasta paella) with squid ink-lemon aioli and shell-on shrimp. more wine please !

humphry slocombe.  i heard they make a prosciutto flavored icecream  here so i had to check it out. they offer unusual flavors but limited selection- no prosciutto that night. but we did taste olive oil & sea salt - caramel & balsamic vinegar - “breakfast of champions” with cornflakes & bourbon and a browned butter. (flavors were right on but i must say the texture of all four icecreams was a bit grainy ). oh well.

cool finds in a cool city - but it’s always good to be home- heat and all !