We got great tips before we left- I relied on the two folks in my life who are San Francisco experts, Mica and Sandy. Mica sent me a list of her suggestions, Sandy lent me what wound up being an invaluable resource, the Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and we made our dining choices with these as our guides. As a result, we consistently had delicious food, saw lovely places, and experienced San Francisco's culinary offerings quite well for a 5 day trip.
Our first lunch was at Sliding Door, a great Vietnamese restaurant in the Ferry Building that Sandy took me to on my last trip here where we dined on Vietnamese spring rolls and crepes.
That night we ate at an absolutely lovely Basque restaurant recommended by Mica and her Mom called Piperade. We ate the most delicious salmon ever- it came with a tomato and onion sauce (a little reminiscent of the Iraqi style of preparing whitefish) and on the side was a fried chick pea and tofu patty- the combinations together are permanently impressed upon my tongues memory.
We had a great lunch from a Japanese Deli inside the Ferry Building called DELICA rf1 - this is spinach with tofu, green beans with carrots and sesame, and a tofu hijiki patty.
Another of my favorites from the Ferry Building were the macarons from Miette, a delightful bakery. Mom loved the chocolate ones but I couldn't get enough of the Rose Geranium ones. They were delicate, flaky and gently sweet. We went back twice for more.
In the middle of our day trip through the vineyards, we stopped in Sonoma for lunch and enjoyed this Tuna Tartine with yellow tomatoes at Girl & the Fig restaurant.
My favorite meal was dinner at Brindisi Cucina di Mare. It started with the best Manhattan I've ever had - made with sweet instead of dry vermouth. It followed with seared tuna and avocado bruschetta:
Our entrees were Gnocchi with Braised Duck Ragout and Pecorino Sardo and Risotto with salmon and green peas, saffron broth, mushroom sauce. Both absolutely melted in our mouths. We ate as Sandy would say, like piglets.
During our walk in the Mission, we stopped to try one of the purported "best veggie burritos in San Francisco" at Taqueria Cancun, a bright and festive stop on our journey. We found out about this place in this great article from the New York Times about the Mission. The burritos are huge and delicious- we should have ordered just one and split it.
Our final night was spent at Mela Tandoori Kitchen, another spot that Sandy and I found during my last trip to San Francisco. I can't recommend this restaurant more- its top notch Indian food and is inexpensive to boot. We gorged on Chicken Tikka Masala, Daal Gosh and Matter Paneer. I should have skipped the filling but fabulous mango lassi at the beginning of the meal.
As you can see, we ate some damn good foods, y'all! At least we walked pretty much everywhere so were constantly working off all that we ate. That's the story I'm sticking with anyway.
4 comments:
Beautiful! Delicious Food would be proud...
DF was all I could think about the whole time!
Well, I'm hungry.
MmmMMmm Slanted Door, I really miss that place.
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