San Francisco trip!

Adam and I recently visited our buddies Steve and Devi in San Francisco for a wonderful weekend. It goes without saying that we ate a lot. And given that I haven't posted on anything other than school for a long time here goes...

Adam and Devi in front of some cool murals. Saturday we spent walking around, going to the SF Aquarium, napping, and then we went to Chez Panisse.

I have no pictures of us going to Chez Panisse. I don't like going to fancy restaurants and taking pictures. Sorry. It was an absolutely delicious meal - we had a nicoise salad, followed by a ravioli in a garlic soup, some of the most delicious lamb I've ever had, and then a honey-muscat cake with berries and sabayon. It was all delicious - and drinking a lot of great wine and being there with close friends made it perfect. The restaurant is in this beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-esque buiding, with plenty of greenery around it. The best part, by far, though was seeing the kitchen. A waiter gave us a tour. It was small, calm, and composed. There was a grill and wood-burning oven, copper pots, everything neatly tucked away. A station per course. We talked with some of the cooks, who were calmly and happily chopping vegetables, grilling lamb, and plating. It was one of the most laid back and composed kitchens I've ever seen. There was an actual lady with white hair working. I have never seen a woman over the age of 40 cooking in a restaurant kitchen's line. We finished our meals, and tipsily made our way back to the train for a night of rest, in the process waking our friend Justin who was sleeping on the kitchen floor up to make fun of him being a hippie. We're great people sometimes.

Next day we slept in and then walked to Tartine. I had heard of this bakery, and have flipped through their cookbooks so when Devi mentioned it I was game! We arrived to a line out the door and halfway down the block. It was revenge for making people wait in line to get a Magnolia cupcake. I always feel like such a sucker when I wait in lines. We were really hungry by the time we got in - and between the 4 of us, we got a lemon tart, banana cream tart, frangipane croissant, and 2 ham croque monsieurs. All good decisions! The frangipane tart was absolutely delicious, and after just making croissants in school, I had the utmost appreciation - super flaky, crunchy, but soft and sweet in the middle. Not too sweet though. The lemon tart was beautiful, but the lemon curd was not my favorite - it didn't have the tang I look for. Beautiful texture though, and it was a pate brisee crust, which I prefer. The banana cream tart was good but not mind blowing. They painted the crust with chocolate before putting the banana and creme legere in - which was great. Croque monsieur with accomanying pickled carrots was great. Tasty breakfast. Oh, and I ate more throughout the day...

After that we headed over to the waterfront to the ferry terminal. I took this random picture of meat hanging somewhere. Don't know where that was from, but I just think hanging meat is so damn SEXY!

We then ate oysters from Hog Island Oyster Company, while overlooking views of the bay, while also drinking lemonades.

It was beautiful that day - 60s and sunny. So we headed up some big hill that had a tower on top that looked like the Lord of the Rings tower, and took in the scenery.

Alcatraz! Holler to all my people behind bars! But not any more!

After all that walking, we decided we were hungry again, and went to Chinatown. Cleanest Chinatown I've seen. We decided to go to one of the throwback Americanized Chinese food places. My favorite part: the lazy suzan in the middle of the table and the pork dumplings. Awesome decor.

After meeting up with more friends, we went to a tasty dinner at a vegetarian South Indian restaurant. It was pretty good, but I was still full and didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. Oh well, had that shit before.

But I have a second belly for dessert, so we went to Humphry Slocombe, an ice cream shop with some crazy mothafuckin flavors. I got one scoop of balsamic caramel, and one scoop of malted dulce de leche. Both were good, but the balsamic caramel got old after the 5th bite. Malted dulce de leche, which to me just tasted like browned sweetness stayed good. I think my tongue was just tired at this point and wanted to eat some McDonalds or some shit. Here's Steve enjoying Special Breakfast, which was Bourbon ice cream with cornflakes.