"San Francisco has only one drawback. ''Tis hard to leave" - Rudyard Kipling

B and I just got back from a week long vacation to the west coast.  First stop - San Francisco.

After a horrible 12 hours traveling we got a good night's sleep and woke up Wednesday morning refreshed and ready to get re-acquainted with the city (we visited San Fran a few years back and loved it).  Our first stop, breakfast at Mama's on the Square.

Mama's, located on Washington Square Park in North Beach, specializes in eggs benedict and fresh-baked pastries.  You can count on a line around the corner no matter what day of the week, but I guarantee you won't regret the wait.  We started with a piece of the blueberry sour cream cake (to die for) and followed with the prosciutto and roasted tomato benedict and the Santa Fe omelet.

While the omelet was good, the benedict was probably the best breakfast either of us have ever had.

The eggs were perfectly cooked, the hollandaise fluffy with just a hint of lemon, and the saltiness of the prosciutto paired perfectly with the acidity of the roasted tomato.  If you are in the area, Mamas is a must.

Unfortunately it was pouring after breakfast so we headed to City Lights bookstore to look around and wait out the weather.  Fortunately B picked up a few good finds and by the time we were finished the clouds parted and it was a beautiful day outside.

[a shot of B before it cleared up - cable car and all]

After a little shopping in Union Square we headed up to the Mission area to pay a visit to Aquarius Records and grab some coffee at Philz.  Philz prides itself in being the "anecdote" to the Starbucks-inspired fleet of latte toting coffee houses, offering only made to order filter dripped coffees.  Although I'm typically a latte-loving girl, this coffee was seriously good. 

After coffee we headed to the Haight-Ashbury area for some thrift shopping, people watching, and drinks with B's high school friend BC at one of our favorite bars, Alembic.  Above all else, Alembic is a whiskey bar.  B especially loves their Old Fashioned, sans muddled fruit the "old fashioned" way.  I'm not a whisky drinker but I do love that they serve Kolsch on draft in 9 ounce pilsner glasses.  We coupled our drinks with some homemade sumac potato chips with garlic lemon yogurt and zaatar and had a great afternoon.

For dinner we headed to Mamacita in the marina area.  With a organic, trendy vibe and upscale twists on traditional dishes, Mamacita was a great cap to our first night in San Fran.  We started with the "crudo de atun."

The tuna was fresh and deliciously accented by the spicy/sweet combination of the mango and the chipotle-agava nectar emulsion.

Next we had the gorditas.

These crispy blue corn pockets were perfectly stuffed with beef, chipotle slaw and chile-arbol salsa.  B could not get enough.

For our final course we shared the the "enchiladas suizas" (cheese enchiladas) and the "pollo tacqueria" (chicken tacos).

Although they don't look it from the photo, the enchiladas were heavy, bland, and a definite flop.  The chicken tacos on the other hand were incredible - tender and dressed with a zippy "cascabel" mole sauce.

[a pic of us leaving Mamacita]

Thursday we headed down to the marina for a quick bite before renting bikes and biking over the Golden Gate into the Marin County Headlands. 

[me before the ride began]
Although I ended up having to walk, rather than ride, my bike most of the way to the top, it was well worth the trip as the views were breathtaking. 

 [yes that's me walking my bike up the hill]

 [the top!]

After reaching the top of the headlands, we rode back down and over to Sausalito where we had lunch and took the ferry back to the marina to get freshened up for our night out.  Before dinner, we went for a drink at Top of the Mark Lounge at the Intercontinental.  Top of the Mark has great views of the city, and we were lucky enough to catch a 40's style swingers band that apparently draws a pretty large following.

[a couple of the band's loyal followers in action - they were dressed to the nines!]

 [us at Top of the Mark before sunset]

After a few cocktails we headed to dinner at Restaurant Gary Danko.  Gary Danko previously received a James Beard award in 1995 for Best Chef - California and in 2000 for Best New Restaurant for Restaurant Gary Danko, and is a 2011 James Beard nominee for Outstanding Chef.  We weren't thrilled with the atmosphere (they've blacked out the windows of the extremely small dining rooms and lined the back walls with mirrors, giving it an almost 80's vibe), and there were some missteps in service (including providing us two mis-matched wine glasses), but the made to order feel of the menu is extremely user-friendly.

[a shot of the blacked out windows by the hostess stand at the front door]

They offer a 3, 4, or 5 course "tasting" menu which essentially allows you to choose any 3, 4, or 5 courses from the menu at a set price - whether it be 3 appetizers, 3 fish dishes, 3 meat dishes, or some combination thereof.  We each chose a 3 course tasting and while we perused the menu to select our 3, the servers brought out a yummy amuse bouche of herb encrusted beef over hummus and a red pepper stew.

 

[the place settings do look great]

We also had a visit from the sommelier and she helped us pick a great medium-bodied red-berry forward pinot noir.

I decided to start with the fried farm egg with white polenta, royal trumpet mushrooms, frisee, and panchetta, and B chose the horseradish crusted salmon medallion.

Both were delicious, but, I had hoped the egg would have had a runny yolk.  For the second course, I had the softshell crab with bacon, grits, fava beans, and roasted chili, and B had the quail stuffed with fois gras, mushroom and quinoa,

Both topped our first courses, especially the bacon grits and the softshell crab, but both were also extremely rich.  If we had it to do over again I think we would have paired these selections with lighter fare on the first course such as the beet salad.  Neither of us were able to finish our plates but we somehow found room for the dessert course :)  B ordered the cheese plate, and I had the warm Louisiana butter cake with apples, huckleberry compote and vanilla bean ice cream.

While the cheeses were nice - not too creamy, not to pungent - and simply accompanied by grapes and raisin bread, the warm butter cake was the show stopper.  It was moist and just sweet enough without going overboard.  Then, as if the warm butter cake hadn't already put us over the edge, Gary Danko provided a breakfast banana bread "muffin cake" to-go.  It was a great little treat when we woke up on Friday before heading out down the pacific coast highway to our next destination.

Stay tuned for our second stop....

"I like to cook good meals, especially when I have a lot of time." - Ekaterina Gordeeva

With my work schedule of late, it is pretty much a given that I will not be home in time to cook dinner during the week.  Most of the time, B is in the same boat because even though he works from home, he is going to school at night to get his MBA so every free minute in the evenings is spent studying.  As a result, our meals were largely revolving around takeout until a couple weeks ago when B's semester finally ended.  Lucky for me he really enjoys cooking.  One night this meant enjoying delicious leftovers of roasted chicken and succotash:

It was simple and delicious.  Apparently all he did was rub a whole 3 pound chicken with some store-bought spices and then, while it was baking an hour and a half on 350 degrees, he sauteed onions and garlic in a pot before adding frozen corn and lima beans and a chopped up tomato.

Another night B's availability to test his culinary prowess meant coming home to pork tacos in the slow cooker:

B got the recipe from Epicurious and personalized it by adding cumin and a few cloves of garlic to the slow cooker with the pork.  The result was tender and flavorful, and the leftover made for made fantastic pork nachos a few days later.

Finally, on the weekend I woke up to enjoy a home-cooked bacon, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel:

Yum.

Needless to say, I'm really going to miss this type of 5-star treatment when B's school kicks back up for the summer semester in early June.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food." - George Bernard Shaw

Last Sunday B and I took a walk down to the Head House Square Farmer's Market.  Our plan was to have brunch at a nearby restaurant before hitting the market for some fresh produce and other goodies, but when we got there and saw the taco truck and sausage truck we couldn't resist.

We started with the Los Taquitos de Puebla truck.

I had the chicken tacos.

The chicken was tender, and the sauce had a nice spice without being overwhelming, but they weren't anything extraordinary.  B's tacos al pastor, on the other hand, were absolutely fantastic.

Tacos al pastor is a traditional Mexican dish which includes shaved pork, pineapple, cilantro, and chopped onion.  I found this recipe in case you want to give them a try at home, but I would highly recommend checking out the tacos al pastor from Los Taquitos.  The pork was delicious, and to our surprise the pineapple was a perfect complement without adding too much sweetness.

We washed down the tacos with a ginger-infused lemonade from the Made in the Shade lemonade stand.

Cool, clean, and refreshing.

Next we tried the Asian chicken sausage sandwich from the sausage truck.

The sausage had a great flavor and the bread was fresh with a nice crunch to soak up the juices from the asian slaw.  If we had had the sausage first it might have knocked our socks off, but it was no competition for the tacos al pastor.

After we finished eating we took a stroll through the market.  It was sort of picked-over due to the late hour, but we will definitely be back -- if for no other reason than those tacos al pastor!

"All I want to do when I have time off is to have a laugh with my school friends and go down the pub." - Samantha Mumba

Last Night B and AJB and I went to the Pub on Passyunk East, aka the P.O.P.E.  The P.O.P.E. is reminiscent of a 1980's bar with a laid-back vibe, a great juke box, and a nice draft list (we particularly loved that they're draft board tells you up front whether the beer is served in a 16 ounce pint glass, 12 ounce pint glass, or 10 ounce chalis). 

For starters we split the nachos.

They were wonderfully cheesy, with a hefty serving of varied toppings: refried beans, jalapenos, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.

For dinner I had the grilled cheese and B had the cubano.

The grilled cheese was a mixture of cheddar, provolone, swiss, and American served on fresh multigrain bread.  Like the nachos, it was simple, cheesy and perfectly executed. 

The cubano was equally good - especially the crunch to the bread and the zippy mustard complementing the meats.  Both sandwiches came with a side of fries served with a mayo-based dipping sauce that was heart attack-inducing good.

The food at the P.O.P.E. may not feature many bells and whistles, but in a city bustling with options for "upscale bar food" it was nice to find a place that is able to impress while keeping it simple.

“If you would one day renovate yourself, do so from day to day” - Confucius

I just had to share the mini-facelift we gave our main room:

Before:

After:

The lighting in the photos doesn't do it justice but the new curtains really give the room some depth.  I'm also loving the new pillows we had made to go with the curtains.  We got the fabric at Calico Corners and then used Sandi Milideo of Window Concepts - wincon21563@aol.com - to have the curtains and pillows done.  If you're located in the South Jersey or Philadelphia area and you're looking to have curtains or pillows made, I would highly recommend setting up a consultation with Sandi.

"There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of Champagne" - Bette Davis

After yet another horrid work week, I couldn't have been happier to unwind with B over some cocktails and nibbles at Southwark on Friday night.  The bar at Southwark has the sort of old school vibe indicative of a Sinatra movie - only slightly undermined by the South Street element looming right outside Southwark's doors.  In addition to champagne for me and a Manhattan for B, we selected the oysters, the farmhouse platter, and the gratin.

The oysters, served with a Raspberry mignonette, were fresh and delightful.

Southwark's farmhouse platter is always fantastic.  In addition to four different cheeses - a brie-type, a blue, a cheddar, and a parmesan-type - it comes with apple and pear slices, nuts, house-cured meats, and a house-made terrine on fresh rye bread.  Love.

The "gratin," a mixture of a bitter green (our guess is kale), cheese, and mutton, was more of a dip than as it lacked the browned crust indicative of a true gratin.  That being said, it was delicious and surprisingly light.

After a great meal and some good drinks, I was feeling much rejuvenated after a good night's rest come Saturday morning.  Thanks for another great night Southwark.