565 Green St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: North Beach)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Dressy Casual | Cuisine - Wine Bar, Small Plates
www.delluvasf.com

The last night we had in San Francisco, we wanted to make sure we weren't overstuffing ourselves. After searching around on Yelp for nearby places that would have small dinners/plates, we came across Dell'Uva. It was a wine bar but there was food on the menu so hey, why not? Just a few streets down from where we were staying!


We sat outside when we got there since everyone inside was pretty much there for the wine. It gave us a street view - we unfortunately didn't think ahead though because there were some smokers who hung around or walked past. Anyhow, we ordered the Pesto Pizza and the Mac & Cheese (per Yelp suggestions), mushroom and truffle oil variety. Our waitress was very curt with somewhat of an attitude with people around; it wasn't rude but I immediately thought New York in my head. So yeah, staff was nothing to rave about. The food we got was exactly what we wanted in terms of sizing (didn't stuff ourselves!) but it wasn't anything particularly amazing. The pizza had fresh ingredients and was what I preferred of the two since I thought the pasta in the mac & cheese was overdone. The dish was cheesy, yes, but could've done with better preparation. Overall, a fair meal but not a place to rush to again.

1029 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Chinatown)
Pricing - $ | Dining - To-Go | Cuisine - Bakery

After dim sum with my friend, she suggested dropping by here for the "best dan ta" around. They're apparently famous for their egg tarts (and Yelp confirmed so!). She said that there's normally a line wrapping around but we came at a good time when it wasn't too busy. We only ended up waiting a long time because they ran out of egg tarts right before us so guess what? Egg tarts FRESH out of the oven! It's a cash only place so keep that in mind when (not if) you visit. The dan ta were so amazing when hot and later on in the day too when they settled/cooled down. The flaky crust was spot on and not too buttery. The egg part was silky smooth and just the right hint of sweetness that wasn't overpowering. Easily the best dan ta. I'm salivating in my mouth thinking about them again...

649 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Chinatown)
Pricing - $$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Chinese, Dim Sum

Since I was vacationing in San Francisco for a weekend, I knew I had to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen in years who had moved to the area. We agreed on dim sum and this was her suggestion for sit-down dim sum in Chinatown (there are mostly to-go dim sum places there). It wasn't hard to find at all but there was definitely a line when we went in on a Sunday morning around 10:30. Lines usually mean everything's great right? My friend told me while we were waiting that instead of traditional dim sum carts being pushed around, we would get a menu and order (sushi bar style almost). That was pretty interesting - it was a good thing there was also a picture page so we weren't lost by the translations.


We actually ordered a ton of food but managed to eat it all; hoorah for having a guy eat with us eh? I really liked everything except for the shrimp rice noodle which is my favorite of the typical dim sum dishes. It was probably BECAUSE it's my favorite that I was so critical. The fried crab balls were very juicy and delicious. I introduced the two to the taro and meat crisps, and we all tried fried shrimp paste. Great stuff. As for more traditional/steamed foods, the shu mai and har gow were great. There was also a shrimp & cilantro dumpling that I tremendously enjoyed for the bursts of flavor it gave me. Overall, a somewhat crowded place (hence the lack of carts being pushed around) but delicious food and quick service. My only real beef is that it was much more expensive than I'm accustomed to dim sum being!

2824 Jones St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (Neighborhood: Fisherman's Wharf)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Casual, To-Go | Cuisine - British, Seafood

Since my friends at NomNomCat had recently been to San Francisco, a quick Tweet sent Duc and me in the direction of Codmother Fish and Chips per their suggestion. So glad we took them up on the thought - it was a great find! It looks like a food truck that decided to stay put in the area and why not? The food's worth it. Suzanne, the owner, was so sweet about everything and made the experience even better than we had expected. Love her British accent too!


So of course we had to get the Fish and Chips. It had been so long since I had had any, so I was glad to be going somewhere where that was the signature dish (and which had good ratings on Yelp!). I didn't care too much for the chips part because I was really hankering for the fish. So good! The batter had ground black pepper mixed in before it was fried so it gave a nice, dare I say, peppering of flavor throughout each bite. The fish was so fresh and tender - I liked seeing its juicy whiteness just peel away in chunks in my fork. This was probably the best fish and chips I've ever had; most places have too much batter, oil, and/or salt.


Seeing as we were eating for two, we also had ordered the crazy chips/fries. I know I said I didn't care much for the chips with the fish & chips order but these...these were crazy fries! Smothered in what was called the Baja sauce and freshly minced garlic (and cilantro methinks), they were absolutely addictive. The sauce was a cool, tangy but sweet topping that was nicely complemented by the fresh spice of the garlic; healthy-feeling heaven in my mouth considering they were fries after all.


To combat that healthy sentiment, we had checked in on Yelp so we got free dessert. What's the dessert? Uh, the glorious, probably heart-attack inducing wonder that is fried Oreos. My goodness, look at the cross-section picture. It was like a sweet, sweet donut. I'm not a fan of Oreos but if I had to have them, please have them be deep-fried in this way.

Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA 94111 (Neighborhood: Embarcadero)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - To-Go | Cuisine - American

We had wanted to go to Mama's for breakfast considering the high ratings on Yelp but when we got there and saw that the line wrapped around, we figured we'd get our breakfast at the Farmers Market that we were heading towards anyhow. Luckily Yelp helped us find breakfast in the area which happened to be one of the booths at the Farmers Market itself. There was a long-ish line there already (usually a good sign!). Apparently Rose Pistola is a brick-and-mortar restaurant located in North Beach which decided to set up a booth at the Farmers Market on Saturdays.


I decided to go with the breakfast & eggs part of the menu; my choice was the plate of wild mushroom scramble with Stracchino cheese and basil. Nicely enough, the egg breakfasts also came with toast and roasted potatoes/peppers/onions. I quite liked mine because there was quite an abundance of wild mushrooms in my eggs. The cheese wasn't nearly as detectable as I would have liked nor the basil but the potatoes were delectable and many. Duc got the grilled flank steak sandwich with carmelized onions & Bleu cheese. We both agreed that the cheese was quite overwhelming and took away from the other flavors of the sandwich. However, the steak was done well and deliciously (once we had scraped off the cheese). Delicious breakfast that had us both quite full but man, wish we could've had a bigger stomach for the other things at the Farmers Market!

Following delicious pictures taken by Duc:

I expected a big farmers' market when we decided to visit the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market for our San Francisco trip but I did not even imagine how amazing it would actually be. The Farmers' Market itself was huge from what we could already see as we walked towards the Ferry Building but we didn't know that it wrapped around the back as well as had the brick-and-mortar stores inside. I was in gastronome heaven.


There were so many specialty stores inside. A tea shop, a creamery shop (cheeses), a mushroom shop, several different chocolate shops, an olive oil place, several meat stores, and so forth.


We decided to get some things from Boccalone which sold salumi. We first bought the salame cone which had three different meats. That prompted us to want to get 4 oz. of their brown sugar & fennel salame for later that night. Despite the condescending conversation we had with the cashier while buying it, the experience was good because of the great salame we got.


Outside were a variety of stalls including some with quirky signs! We snagged some honey sticks from one of the many honey stalls as well as brunch at the Rose Pistola booth.


Though we had eaten already, we finally got to have our first freshly shucked oysters. We had the XS Sweetwater and the Kumamoto. I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of seafood; I didn't really like the Kumamoto which I had undressed. The Sweetwater was manageable though. I guess I'll have to keep trying oysters to see if I'll get the hang of them.


They got washed down by these interesting sodas we bought (lavender and rose geranium flavors) which were naturally probiotic and effervescent. Neat bottles. Overall, I was in love with the Ferry Building Marketplace. I wish we had something like this near where we live so I could visit every weekend.

Like I said for my 2012 resolution, I'd celebrate the "food months" and Bread Making is part of January. I don't have a bread machine, so I wanted to figure out some kind of bread I could make that didn't take very long and used ingredients I already had at home. I came across a recipe for Italian Bread Wedges and decided to work with that. I've tweaked the recipe so here's the edited version.

Step 1: Ingredients (serving size: 12 pieces)

Dough

• 1 cup warm water (110°F-115°F)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsps active dry yeast

Topping

• black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup zesty Italian salad dressing
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning (dried oregano, thyme, basil, etc)
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
  

Step 2: Making the dough
Dissolve the yeast into just 1/4 cup of the warm water. Add sugar and let sit for 5 minutes before adding the oil, salt, and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until it is smooth and add in the remaining flour until you've created the dough. Knead until smooth & elastic (approximately 6-8 minutes) on a floured surface before putting into a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover top and place somewhere warm to rise (about double the size).


Step 3: Prepping the dough
Once the dough has risen to a good size (should take about 45 minutes), punch it down and put onto floured surface. Lay it flat for 5 minutes to rest before placing it onto a greased baking sheet. I managed with one that was 13" x 9" or a little smaller - can't remember. Pre-heat the oven to 450°F.

Step 4: Finishing
Top with the salad dressing, herbs, garlic powder, and black pepper. Spread it evenly across the whole dough. Then scatter on your Parmesan cheese and Mozzarella. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. You can top with other ingredients too but then it might go resembling a pizza! This bread is great fresh but loses out on its impact the next day - try making it as a starter or even stuff some salame in between for a "sandwich" bite.

400 Jefferson St, San Francisco, CA 94109 (Neighborhood: Fisherman's Wharf)
Pricing - $$/$$$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Italian, Seafood
http://www.letseat.at/cioppinos

One of my life goals (and interestingly enough, one of Duc's goals) is to travel to where particular dishes were created and have the "best" one available there. For San Francisco, the dish created there that is most known is cioppino, which is a rich, seafood stew. I looked on Yelp for places that had the highest ratings for cioppino; since we were going to be in Fisherman's Wharf already, we opted to go to Cioppino's, named after its signature dish. It's a good sign, no?


We got seated promptly (came earlier than our reservation), and started off our dinner with some complimentary sourdough bread and an appetizer of dungenness crab cakes. Fantastic! They had a pesto aioli, roasted red peppers, and a tad bit of greens which cut the aioli well. My particular crab cake probably had too much of the aioli but that was just a plating issue. The crab cake itself was quite fine in terms of shredded meat; I'm used to lump crab cakes that fall apart. This was a fairly unified morsel of greatness. Loved it, particularly because it became more nuanced in flavor as I ate more.


We shared a bowl of the small cioppino which made us ridiculously full! I'm guessing we wouldn't have finished the regular size. I think it had to do with how hearty they made it. It had dungenness crab, mussels, clams, snapper, calamari, shrimp, and tomatoes in a stew. Talk about loading up on the EVERYTHING! I admit that I have no other dish of cioppino to compare this to but it was alright for what it was. I thought the fennel was quite heavily used in this dish's preparation but hey, maybe that's how it's supposed to go. I'm also unfortunately not a big fan of seafood but for what it was, pretty good. We were bursting at the end too - a fun, diverse dinner to end our day with.

900 N Point St, San Francisco, CA 94109 (Neighborhood: Fisherman's Wharf)
Pricing - $/$$ | Dining - Casual, To-Go | Cuisine - Ice Cream, Chocolatier
http://www.ghirardellisq.com/ghirardellisq/index.htm

Because of Yelp reviews, I knew to head over here through the retail side so that I could get a free sample. When I walked in, yep - I got a milk chocolate truffle sample and was nearly overwhelmed by all the chocolate all around. I didn't actually buy anything though.


It was neat to see the displays in the amazing various colors they had. I actually didn't know that Ghirardelli was based in San Francisco until I came into town. Guess I had never looked hard enough at the logo! Anyhow, they have a brief machine set-up in the soda fountain area that showed how chocolate is made Ghirardelli's way. It was pretty neat to check out.


Duc and I wanted to make sure we got something good here so we ended up choosing the Gold Rush Sundae. I knew he loved peanut butter, so it was the choice. Vanilla ice cream with melted peanut butter, hot fudge, caramel, whipped cream, and a Maraschino cherry on top - how do you not feel guilty about that? However, the melted peanut butter was just a brilliant idea because it really mellowed out the entire dessert. Usually peanut butter and chocolate desserts have one overpowering the other but this was just perfect. I'm pretty sure I lost his heart over this dessert - I even caught him at some point during the rest of our day daydreaming about the dessert and not me. Too good - worth the ~$9.