Eating Out in San Francisco

My favourite trips are ones where we have access to kitchen facilities.  That's a big part of the reason why we often opt to stay in hostels.  

There's part of me that feels that, as a food blogger (and someone that enjoys food, in general), I should be exploring as many restaurants as possible while travelling.  But, the truth is that I generally prefer cooking my own food.  Without fail, my most memorable meals are ones that use simple, fresh ingredients.

Case in point.  Let me start with my favourite meal while travelling in San Francisco.

This meal was actually from a small cafe in Sausalito.  We took a day trip to Muir Woods, to see some massive Redwoods.  On the way back, we had about an hour in Sausalito to explore.  We didn't know where to go to eat, but took our chances on the Sausalito Bakery & Cafe.

Fresh fruit, fresh Greek salad and a blueberry bread pudding that is to die for!  I think I need to add bread pudding to my list of recipes to try.   

This is the stuff that long-lasting cravings are made of.

I also really enjoyed San Francisco Fish Company's fish and chips at the Ferry Building.  Maybe I'm easily impressed, but I've never been served take out fish and chips with both tartar and fish sauce.  Not to mention that the fish was really fresh.  I'll vote this meal as my 2nd favourite.     

Continuing on, my third favourite meal came from The Grove on Mission Street.  We went for an early breakfast and both liked our food and the energy in the tree-filled space.

I enjoyed my meal at the Sears Fine Food, a San Francisco institution.  It was about as enjoyable as the meal at the Grove.  But, a bill for breakfast that was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $45.00 somehow affects the taste left my mouth.

I don't think they're hurting for customers, though.  This is the lineup out the door as we were leaving the restaurant:

I had the french toast, which was pretty standard.  I wish it included more strawberries on the side.  I think I had 2-3 little bits of strawberry/slice.  

I thought it was pretty funny that when I asked about the extra cost for syrup, the waitress explained that that's just for maple syrup.  She explained that syrup comes with the french toast and that it tastes totally fine and that it's not necessary to get the maple syrup, unless your from Canada.  I didn't know we were so particular about our syrup.     

R got Sears' World Famous 18 Swedish pancakes.    

I was a bit worried that these pancakes might, each, end up being the size of the plate.  But, the proportions turned out to be reasonable, given the number. 

Boudin is a prominent fixture in Fisherman's Wharf.  They have quite the operation going there.  Between a takeaway counter, specialty food shop area, bakery and full service restaurant, it's the kind of place you have to visit at least once.

They're known for their sourdough bread.  I thought it was quite cool to watch the baskets of bread travel around the store.

You can also spend some time watching the bakers making various shaped bread creations.

We also went for dinner at Bistro Boudin, a full service restaurant.  The service was very good, but the meal was mixed.  I order Angel Hair Pasta with Grilled Shrimp.  The menu indicated that it included vine-ripened tomato arrabiatta and garlic.  I liked the tomato sauce.  But it lacked the spiciness you would expect of an arrabiatta sauce.  I also wasn't keen on the spice on the shrimp.  It tasted like a cajun seasoning, which didn't really work with a simple tomato sauce.  After donating my shrimp to R and adding chilli peppers to the tomato sauce, I was content.

R ordered the Sourdough Gnocchi Al Pesto with Lobster.  I didn't really see the appeal in what appears to be a fried chive topping.  R enjoyed his meal, but was quite happy to be given half of my meal because he was still hungry after finishing his.

Near the end of our trip, we were getting tired.  It was raining for two days straight and I really didn't want to figure out three meals a day anymore.  We decided to just go out and find a place to eat, which was a mistake because we ended up getting soaked while walking to the Ferry Building.  We ended up going to Gott's Roadside

I got a grilled cheese sandwich, which is something I've never ordered at a restaurant before.  R is an expert grilled-cheese sandwich maker, so I haven't felt the need to order it elsewhere.  In general, the food was okay.  But, combined with being tired and wet, I just wanted to get back to the hotel, take a warm shower and go to bed.

I had the highest hopes for what turned out to be my least favourite restaurant experience.  Our friends raved about Fang Restaurant before we left for San Francisco.  So, we were eager to the try the place.  We made a reservation for 7:15 and showed up at that time.  We waited for 40 minutes for a table to become available.  I felt like I was in combination of Seinfeld episodes.  What is the point of taking reservations if you can't keep the reservation?

We also knew to expect the owner to come by and inquire about whether we had been at the restaurant before.  Since we hadn't, we knew there was a good chance that the owner would just say "ok, I'll take care of you."  I was pretty leery about this because I had a couple of dishes in mind, but Mr. Fang was gone before I could say anything.

The first dish, which was a pork sandwich, was decent.  But, not something I would have ordered.

The other dishes, a crunchy rice, creamy lobster soup and white fish were dishes that I would never order and didn't enjoy.  But, I guess what annoyed me more than anything is that I had to ask for a glass of water 5 times before someone actually brought one.  The last request was more of a minor freak out where I basically said, "what does a person need to do to get water in here?"  I know, not the best version of me...but I was hungry, disappointed with the food, still adjusting to a time difference (and hence eating at what seemed like 11:30pm) and very thirsty.

I would not go back to this restaurant.

Aside from eating out, we generally picked up food at grocery stores.  We quickly learned that having store membership cards can make a big difference in the price of the products.  This led to kind of an awkward, "we are the worst liars ever" situation.

Basically, we overheard a customer telling other tourists was his Safeway card number was.  When we went to check out, we said we have a membership, but didn't have our card.  So, the cashier said, "just enter your phone number into the typepad."

WHAT?  A phone number?  This was not part of our deception plan.  We explained that we just want to give our Safeway number.  She repeated that we should just enter our phone number.  I'm thinking "LOOK --- I don't know this guy's phone number, I just know his Safeway number."  She could tell we were utterly confused, so she explained that our phone number IS our Safeway number.

Oh...yes...of course.  What was I thinking.

The best part is when the cashier starting calling R this other guy's name: Thor.

Stay tuned for another San Francisco post sharing some of the sites we visited.

Penne in a Spicy Tuna Sauce & Contest Alert

My pasta-making repertoire has become a bit predictable as of late.  So, I was really excited when Aurora contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating in their Recipideo Roundup.  Aurora is a Canadian-based company that sells quality Italian products in Canada, the United States and other countries.

Recipideos are short videos, developed by Aurora, showing how to make easy Italian recipes.  Keep an eye out (or follow the youtube channel) for future recipideos.  January's recipideo was Pasta with Spicy Tuna Sauce.  You can watch the video here:



Aurora kindly sent me a few of the products used in the recipe, so I could try them out myself.

I was particularly impressed with the diced tomatoes.  They have 10 mg of sodium per 1/2 cup, this is far lower than the diced tomatoes in my cupboard (even the ones that claim that no salt is added).

The La Bomba, an antipasto spread, is something that I would likely never have noticed on my own (I'm generally a creature of habit who sticks to my staples when shopping).  But I was pleasantly surprised by the nice spice it added to the dish and plan to incorporate it in future dishes.

I included about two tablespoons of the La Bomba in the recipe.  But, since we like our food spicy, I'll probably add even more next time.  I think R also has plans to add some to his special sandwich.

The dish has an unexpected depth to it.  Maybe this came from adding strained tomato.  It was similar  to the depth of flavour that comes from adding a wine reduction to your tomato sauce.

Definitely a winning dish!

But here's the exciting part...

Aurora has offered to send one of our readers the six ingredients you see, below:

+

Here's how to participate:

Go check out the Aurora catalogue and then leave a comment here, before Sunday, January 29th at midnight (EST).  In the comment, let me know which product most interests you.  After doing this, I will put your name in a draw to win the prize.

You can also have your name added to the draw a second time by tweeting the following information:

Enter to win specialty Italian food at http://tinyurl.com/7p26zrv @AuroraImporting @EqualOppKitchen

(you can personalize the tweet, if you'd like)

One more detail:

This contest is open to those living in Canada and the United States.  However, please be aware that if you are located in the US, you will be responsible for covering the cost of border tariffs.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Remember when Giz lost her mind and bought way too many pumpkins?   I know that's vague seeing as losing her mind and buying too much food is a bit of a regular occurrence.  Well, one of the side effects of this was me having frozen pumpkin puree in my freezer for about a year.  Maybe that makes me an enabler.

I figured, it would probably be 'pushing it' to keep the puree in the freezer for more than a year.  Around the same time, I saw this really great post and video about making pumpkin gnocchi.  The inspiration began...  Then, Proud Italian Cook featured a gnocchi-making day on her blog.  I would love to be able to take part in one of her mass pasta-making days.  I e-mailed Marie, asking for her recipe.  Turns out she got about 200 other similar e-mail requests.


Butternut Squash Gnocchi 


Ingredients

• 2 cups of  pureed butternut squash (I used pumpkin)
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. salt
• Pepper to taste
• 2 eggs
• 2+ cups flour

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the squash in half. Remove the seeds, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay cut side down on parchment lined baking sheet. Roast the squash until soft—30 minutes or so.

Scoop the flesh of the squash out and place it in the food processor. Puree until completely smooth.

**I started at this point in the recipe, since I already had the pureed pumpkin.  However, I figured I should remove the water from the puree.   I put the puree in cheese cloth and let the water drain for about an hour (and then squeezed it impatiently).  

What originally started out at about 4 cups, turned into about 2 cups, after the water was removed.

Mix the pureed squash with parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and eggs. 

Then add the flour into the mixture and work together by hand (I started with a spoon and then switched to using my hands).

 

It will be very sticky.  I ended up needing well over 2 cups (probably closer to 2 and 3/4 or 3 cups) by the time I was done.

Once smooth, flour work surface, Divide dough into 6 pieces.

Roll each piece into a long strip, about ½ inch wide. Cut the strip into ¼ to ½ inch pieces.

Using a gnocchi board, a fork, the back of a grater (or just as is) to create ridges. 

Place each piece on the floured wax paper and repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Boil until all the gnocchi floats—about 5 minutes.

While gnocchi is cooking have your sauce ready so you can toss right in.  

If not you can freeze them.

The recipe made enough for 3 sheets worth of gnocchi.  I actually froze them all, but defrosted one sheet the next day for dinner.

The rest went into a freezer bag for leftovers.

Verdict: A very good first effort, if I do say so myself.  My gnocchi may not be as pretty as Marie's, but I really liked the taste. I didn't really taste the pumpkin flavour, but that's probably my fault for pairing it with a tomato sauce.  I would definitely make this (or one of Marie's other gnocchi recipes) again -- probably a double or triple recipe. 

It has been a really long time since I've made a pasta dish worth blogging about. So, I've got to share this with Presto Pasta Night.  This week's (week #243) roundup is being hosted by Jamie at Cooking with Moxie.