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.