Foodie Central

I found it.
It is in San Francisco!
I went there the other day and did the sightseeing tour (the downtown loop and the loop that goes through the Golden Gate bridge and to Sausalito). It was quite cool. I was underdressed though. Nobody told me that San Francisco temperature in September is the equivalent of temperature in the Hudson Valley around thanksgiving. A thin cardigan from Zara did NOT cut it. Especially on the Golden Gate bridge. I became an icicle with all the wind on that open-air bus. Every other tourist, however, had the sense to wear some fleece for that. I was the only stupid person without warm clothes, so I can't even attribute it to being a tourist. But after defrosting a bit across the bay in Sausalito the way back wasn't so bad. Anyways, I decided that to thoroughly complete the defrosting process and follow my tour guide's suggestion and duck into the fish market at fisherman's wharf for a good bit of clam chowder served in a San Francisco sourdough bread bowl.
Un-freaking-believably good.
Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the coziness of the place, maybe a lot of it had to do with the fact that the sourdough from San Francisco is absolutely fantastic anyways but that's probably the best clam chowder I've ever had. It is probably even better than the stuff I had in Boston when I was visiting colleges (back in the day when I thought I'd hopefully end up at MIT rather than the place I did end up at which is a gazillion times better). Anyways, highly recommendable in my book! I of course took that meal with a nice glass of Californian white wine, straight from the Napa valley vineyards.
So after that delicious meals I wandered through the streets of Fisherman's Wharf and bought what seems to be a truckload of saltwater taffy for my brother L in about 30 different flavors and then hopped back on the bus with plans to explore the farmer's market and gourmet food market inside Ferry Building. The tour guide had spoken about the wonders of the market in that area so I decided to give it a visit. Wow. It turned out to be foodie Mecca!
First of all, there's a spectacular kitchen supply store in there which helped me populate my imaginary apartment with the most fantastic kitchen gadgets I could ever want. Including a bright green KitchenAid food processor, a number of quality pots and pans and utensils, and classy wine glasses. Of course, this is all still only in my imaginary apartment but a girl can dream, eh?
After extricating myself from the wonders of the kitchen supply store, I wondered down through the market to see what else was around and browsed through a vegan doughnut shop (I'm not vegan, but it's really cool to see everything that's available for people who have dietary restrictions - I have a number of food allergies and eat mostly vegetarian so I always appreciate it when places find ways to make their vegetarian selections of food interesting), a Californian wine shop (if only my luggage weren't already dangerously near the airline weight limit...), and a traditional Chinese tea shop! I hadn't seen one of those since I was in Qingdao and I remember really enjoying them. A well-brewed pot of tea is really something else, and so I was happy to discover that they do serve tea on the premises (as opposed to only selling the leaves). The Pu'er tea I had there allowed me to sit and enjoy the beverage while writing in my journal for a good hour. One gloriously blissful hour. At the end, I bought some loose-leaf pu'er and walked out of there refreshed and ready to keep going. And that's when I found the cheese store. As M will attest to, cheese stores are particularly dangerous for me because I will not leave without buying something. I love love love cheese. In this store I found the creamiest, freshest chevre goat cheese I've ever had. I bought about $3 worth and decided that would be my dinner.
After that, I hopped back onto the downtown loop and went back to the fisherman's wharf. I wandered into a Gap and then caught the night tour and got off at Union Square. To kill some time, I went into Macy's and found my way to the Esteé Lauder counter. Esteé Lauder is the only kind of cosmetics I will use and like. And I'm a third-generation customer (my mother and grandmother use it). I really wanted another color of eyeshadow because I only own two colors (cinnamon and ginger drop) and while they are very good, I've been thinking about mixing my look up a bit, especially now that I have to do business meetings and everything. I asked for some advice at the counter and as usual, they were absolutely fantastic. It is one of the things I really love about them: the salespeople are always super friendly and helpful. I left the counter with a new eyeshadow color (I think it is called emerald green), some concealer, and a refill of the eye cream my mom wears for her. I know I sound like an ad for them, but I'm not much of a girly person but I like that I was able to get some good advice on how to use make-up in a way that is comfortable for me with a brand that brings three generations of my family together. Haha. Ok, I'll stop talking about it.
At night, I rode the CalTrain back to Sunnyvale where my very gracious hosts picked me up. Ajit and Geeta and their sons Anish and Arjun are some of the sweetest, nicest people I've met. And they cook such fabulous Indian food. I ate so so so much good authentic Indian food while I stayed with them. I also bonded with their young sons - especially with Anish who at the end of my visit proclaimed me as being really cool (I played a lot of soccer and flight simulator with him) and hoped that I would come back and visit them again soon. I also promised them that I would someday make a film suitable for kids so that they could watch it. So cute! :D
Anyhoo, I have to get back to business.
Until next post!

Categories: cheese, foodie, sourdough, tea