Whither Goest Thy Cliche?

Ah, yes...there it is. Trip complete!

What a Day

Suzie and I took advantage of the absolutely capital weather to do a little walking around San Francisco. We wound our way from the Mission up to Pac Heights and down through the Marina.

After working up an appetite we headed out to Richmond to an out-of-the-way, tiny italian spot tucked away in a quiet residential neighborhood, called Pizzetta. Barely able to fit four small wooden tables, this little pizza restaurant serves food that is worth the wait (even on a quiet afternoon, there was a short wait). We had the cheese and salad plate, as well as two pizzas: one with anchovies and one with fresh heirloom tomatoes, squash and ricotta.

Brunch at Tartine with an Old Friend

We met up with one of Suzie's old friends from San Francisco, D.R., who works for Mozilla, in a senior role developing Firefox (my browser of choice). D.R. met us at an amazing French bakery in the Mission District called Tartine. Again, hate to get all epicurious on you, but the baked goods were astounding. We had a Gougere with gruyere cheese and fresh herbs, fresh leek quiche and various other french pastry. True to Suzie's predictions and a testament to the quality of the place, the line was out the door and around the corner. Luckily it moved quickly.

Really, it *is* all about the food...

Saturday night, we went to one of Suzie's favorite restaurants in town. Despite having no reservation, Suzie was batting 3-3 when she approached the maître d' at Nopa. We snagged the last walk-in table before the crowds descended upon this justly popular restaurant. But enough talk...the night was all about the food.

The amuse bouche (charentais melon with mint, basil and sea salt), along with Suzie's cocktail (sherry with house-made sour cherry syrup):

My heirloom tomato salad with Shaft blue cheese:

Suzie's chilled Early Girl tomato soup with yogurt and cucumber:

My Moroccan tagine with home-made lemon yogurt:

Suzie's outstanding burger (with more of that Shaft blue cheese and pickled onions)...sorry for the blurry photo, but I was hungry:

Dessert was also grand: Suzie had a trio of sorbets: pluot, nectarine and Gravenstein apple; I had a stone-fruit cobbler with smoky whiskey ice cream. No photos...they didn't last long enough.

More Ferry Plaza Market

A few more photos from our visit to the market at the Ferry Terminal. Suzie bought an enormous woven shopping basket, perfect for trips to the Park Slope Co-op (or for Lucy's naps). Above you can see her with the basket, checking out the cake stands for sale at a great little patisserie. Below is one of the pastries available--a Princess Torte, which is a favorite in my family.
Also, Suzie had her eye on this luscious panna cotta, but we were both still stuffed from grazing at the farmers' market:

Frida Kahlo

After perusing the Ferry Plaza Market, we headed over to SFMOMA for a retrospective of Frida Kahlo's work, assembled in honor of the 100th year since her birth. The exhibit was quite impressive--I'll admit, I haven't really seen much of her work, but it was enjoyable. The crowds, however, were not. The gallery space was clearly much too small to accomodate the throngs of people eager to view the exhibit. Despite using timed-entry tickets, we felt it was much too crowded. The part of the exhibit I found most interesting was a collection of hundreds of snapshots and photographs that Kahlo collected over her lifetime--many showing candid moments from her life, including her marriage to Diego Rivera, perhaps the best-known Mexican artist of the period.

Ferry Plaza Market

After our long day of travel, we turned in early on Friday in order to be well-rested for Saturday. We arose to a fog-bound city, and after I puttered around the room for a bit, we headed out to the first destination of the day--the Ferry Plaza Market. Every Saturday, there is a colossal farmers' market. As you may imagine, given San Francisco's ideal location with respect to California's central valley and other agricultural regions, as well as the city's well-known reputation for being a foodie mecca, the selection of produce, meats, cheeses and other comestibles at the market was second to none.

Once we got to the Ferry Terminal, we made a bee-line for the back of the market, closest to the water, where Suzie knew of a great Mexican food stall. There we were treated to farm-fresh scrambled eggs, refried black beans and tortillas tossed in a red mole and topped with sour cream, fresh cilantro and beautiful avocado. We washed our breakfast down with blackberry mint ade, and headed to the stall for Blue Bottle Coffee, Suzie's favorite coffee place in San Francisco (and the place where Jamie, the barista/owner of our favorite coffee place in New York, Abraço, got his start). The line was long, the coffee great.

After the caffeine fix, we wandered through the market. We stopped by the stall for Frog Hollow Farm, a well-regarded fruit orchard. The farmers ain't no dummies--they know the fruit practically sells itself, so all they had to do was offer free samples and sit back and collect the dough.

We loved the peaches and nectarines, but what really sealed the deal were the three different varieties of pluots: Flavor King, Flavor Heart, and the best of them all, Dapple Dandy. This wasn't fruit, it was candy.

There was produce of every variety, but what really stood out, because of color, variety and season, were the tomatoes and peppers. But mostly it was the tomatoes.

I brought my appetite to San Francisco

We were so exhausted and hungry by the time we arrived in San Francisco, that I completely forgot to take a photo of the bay and the city as we approached for our landing. A shame, too, because the weather was spectacular, and the sky was a crystalline blue. We rode into town on the BART and walked a short block or so to the St. Francis hotel on Union Square. After a quick run up to the room to drop our bags and freshen up, we headed out for lunch (dinner to our internal clocks, since we missed lunch somewhere over Nebraska). Suzie had a lovely place in mind--an eclectic mediterranean-influenced restaurant on Market Street, out towards the Castro.

We sat down at a corner table nestled by the window, and perused the menu. Famished, I immediately ordered six pacific oysters. Suzie raved about the restaurant's signature dish, a whole roasted chicken served over a panzanella-style salad, with rocket, pine nuts, currants, shallots and torn sourdough croutons. The dish, pictured above, is made-to-order, and takes an hour. (It was worth the wait.) But in the meantime, we staved off hunger by ordering a caesar salad and a gem lettuce salad with olives, feta and heirloom tomatoes. Despite the salads, it was still a long wait for our entree. When it finally arrived, not a moment too soon, the chicken was succulent and crisp on the outside, and the panzanella salad was a perfect accompaniment--we devoured both...in fact, Suzie only reminded me to photograph it after we had already tucked into it.

Somewhere over the west

On our way to San Francisco...

Suzie and I are heading to San Francisco for Labor Day weekend. She is over the moon about the trip...she has been aching to take me and show me the town. I'm really looking forward to it--I haven't been in some time. Hopefully we'll have enough time to cover all the places she wants to visit--she's already made a list of more "must eat" restaurants than we'll have time (or meals) for!

We left this morning at o'dark-thirty. La Guardia was practically deserted at 5:45am, but we got to watch the sun rise over our plane.