Ferry Building Goodies

A few little treats from the Ferry Building:

Why yes, that is a cone of meat. From Boccalone.

Finally tried the ramen from Hapa Ramen. This was the fried chicken bowl with a sous vide egg. Yum.  A little different than the top ramen of my college years. We also got the to go kit - basically they give you cold broth in one container and the noodles, meat and other fun stuff in a separate container with some instructions on how to put it all together.  Excited to try that later. 

And lastly, we picked up some chocolate, pear and red wine preserves (I know, it doesn't seem to make sense to me either, but I'm sure it's delicious) from the Tell Tale Preserve Company.

Happy eating.

Il Cane Rosso, Ferry Building

Last week I had a vacation day so we headed over to the Ferry Building to have lunch at Il Cane Rosso - Daniel Patterson's rotisserie/sandwich shop. 

I really love the Ferry Building, even if it is a huge tourist destination with really expensive food. But the thing is, the food is really good. And you can't beat it on a warm, bright, sunny day when you can sit outside and watch your favorite 1 year old show off her brand new walking skills. 

We were lucky to score a table outside - and even luckier that we didn't need a jacket. I love October in San Francisco. It really is my favorite time of year here.

All of the food here is straight from the farm - this is the Marin Sun Farms roast pork sandwich (with jalapeno pepper relish and cracklins’).  Don't be fooled by the look of this sandwich - it might look very basic, but the meat is juicy and tender and super flavorful. 

This is the beef tagliata sandwich (meat also from Marin Sun Farms), with aged cheddar, roasted onions, rosemary, lemon aoli.  I liked this one - but preferred the simpler pork sandwich in the end.

And what does a one-year-old from San Francisco eat for lunch? Iacopi Farm baked beans and polenta with sage brown butter and parmesan, of course.  Luckily this one-year-old is a good sharer, and she didn't mind me reaching in and helping myself. I'm normally not a huge fan of polenta, but this one was super creamy and lovely.

And, to make this meal even better, it was 50% off. Have you seen Scoutmob? It's awesome. Just download the (free) app and you can present your iPhone to the cashier and voila - 50% off at Il Cane Rosso through December.  And no, they aren't paying me to say that.

Il Cane Rosso
1 Ferry Building # 41
San Francisco, CA 94111-4231
(415) 391-7599

Boulette's Larder, Ferry Building

I've been wanting to try Boulette's Larder for approximately one million years but they don't do breakfast on the weekends. I finally made it there during the week and had breakfast for one.

I'm convinced the Blue Bottle coffee they served tasted better than getting it at the Blue Bottle store, which is just down the hall from Boulette's. I had a hard time deciding what to eat,  and was torn between poached eggs and the scramble with nettles, burrata and olive oil.   I picked the scramble, mostly because I will order anything that is served with burrata.  It was good, and I liked the combination of flavors and textures, but for the price I wanted them to be the best eggs of my life, and they weren't (those would be from either Mama's or La Note, in case you're wondering).  But if I happen to be at the Ferry Building between 8 and 10:30 Monday to Friday, I'd definitely go back.

San Francisco Food Crawl Part 1: Ferry Building

Last year, a co-worker told me she had gone on a food crawl with some friends. This was the first time I had heard of a food crawl, which is basically like a pub crawl but with food - so obviously way better. I had been wanting to do my own version ever since I heard about it, and so after about a hundred emails trying to figure out what date works best for 4 people, we decided on this past Sunday.  We picked a bunch of places (mostly based off the 7x7 100 Things To Eat List) where we could go as a group of 4 and order one item and share it between us, which would allow us to try lots of different things before we got full. 

We started out at the Ferry Building, at Mijita. They are on the list for their Albondigas soup, which I learned when I ordered it is actually meatball soup. This was a slight problem because two of our four are vegetarian. They ordered something else, and Brittany and I shared the soup.

It turns out that Mexican meatball soup tastes a lot like tortilla soup - the flavors to me were really similar, plus meatballs. It was good - but I don't know that it would be on my top 100 things to eat list. The two of us made a small dent in the giant bowl before we called it quits and got ready to move on to the next stop, Miette.

Remember when I said I'm a font snob?  Miette's branding has the opposite effect on me that Philz Coffee does. Everything about this place - the logo, the packaging, the displays - makes me want to buy something. How could it not be good when it looks like this?

We managed to only buy the one thing on the list: gingerbread snaps.  They had a good crunch to them, but again, I'm not sure that of all the amazing things at Miette that this one would be at the top of my list.

Our last stop at the Ferry Building was supposed to be Out The Door (for their spring rolls). We showed up and found this sign: 

And.... that was it for the food crawl. We hadn't accounted for the fact that it would be pouring on Sunday, the kind of rain that would not be fun to roam around the city in, looking for food. Instead, we headed to my apartment, ordered pizza and watched the Devil Wears Prada.   It worked out though, because pizza + movie + your girl friends is high on my list of 100 things to do (many, many times) before you die.

The Plant Cafe, Embarcadero

The Plant Cafe is becoming one of my go-to spots for a good, inexpensive dinner. I'll have to go back soon just so I can write a post on their amazing veggie burger, which is like no other veggie burger I've ever seen (or tasted).  This past weekend I brought my parents there for breakfast. We sat "outside" (in quotes because it was tented since it wasn't THAT warm) and had a good view of the water and the Bay Bridge.  

We got some coffee (Blue Bottle, served in the french press at the table) and I had the egg scramble (wild mushrooms, chives and pecorino) with country potatoes. It was good - but not as good as their lunch/dinner menu. My mom had the brioche french toast, which also was good, but not great. My dad - well I didn't get my love of food from my dad. His idea of a great breakfast is a completely charred bagel and potatoes. So he was pretty happy with his meal - though they could have burnt his bagel even more for greater satisfaction.

One thing to keep in mind if you're eating here: Go to the bathroom before you arrive, because there is no bathroom inside! If you need the toilet, you'll need to "walk down the Embarcadero, and you'll find it by the ATM machine".

SF Hot Chocolate: Farmers' Market, Ferry Building

You have to know where to look to spot this hot chocolate at the Ferry Building Farmers' Market.  There is a table tucked away against the wall, right by the Sur La Table entrance. And there you will find the most intense hot chocolate of your life - one small cup is more than Kev and I can drink together.

 

Get a group of your ten closest friends and go try it out.