That night we opted to go for the 8 Course Chef’s Tasting menu. The menu was very intriguing. Several keywords highlighted each course, along with the main components of the dish. It left you with a sense of surprise and wonder at what you were going to receive. Below is a look at our meal:

“Amuse-bouche”
A bite of foie gras with passion fruit ice and sweet potato.

“Dawn”
Kumamoto oysters dressed in a beet emulsion and passion fruit.

“Soil”
A mix of root and baby vegetables with sprinkled with pumpernickel crumbs.

“Herbs Garden”
A refreshingly sweet celery sorbet with toasted quinoa and apple.

“Wilderness”
Tender Venison served with a crostini and pear purée.

“Trou Normand”
A sweet drink with the essence of guava, to cleanse your palate.

“Sea”
Succulent lobster tail with sea urchin foam and buttery foie gras, on a bed of couscous.

“Farm”
A piece of beef cheek, with a incredibly soft, fall apart texture.

“Spring Sky”
“Pearls and Snow” – lychee, frozen goat cheese, and meringue, served on a pillow of pineapple tapioca.

“Fromage”
Epoisse, Sable Breton and Vanilla-Kumquat Compote

“Cacao”
A decadent chocolate cake served with a chocolate ganache.

“Dusk”
A “Surprise”, which consisted of in house made chocolates to end the meal.

What amazed us was the presentation of each course. Every dish was visually appealing and appetizing. Whether it was seeing the small intricate details of the garnishes or the arrangement of the dishes’ components, I simply thought to myself, “Wow.” It was an very enjoyable evening to be able to see and experience Crenn’s tasting menu. Just sitting here and reminiscing about the “Sea” course is enough for me to want to go back.

Luce
InterContinental Hotel
888 Howard St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 616-6566
www.lucewinerestaurant.com

Lunch at Redd There’s one thing about the Napa Valley that keeps me...

SF’s Dine About Town 2010 With 2010 nearing, San Francisco is preparing for Dine About...

This was the first thought that entered my mind. I don’t consider myself a science or nature buff, but I have to say that a day spent at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences is well worth it. Why? It’s an aquarium-planetarium-rainforest all in one.

Walking around and gawking at all of the exhibits can work up your appetite. I know firsthand. That lunch time hunger strike hit me right before my 3:00 planetarium show. Fortunately, there were two good dining choices, the Academy Café, a casual, quick service dining option, and the Moss Room, a more modern fine dining restaurant.

What I needed, was something quick.

I saw a line forming behind an Academy Café food stand in the piazza. A quick look at their menu and I saw that they had quick bites like Prather Ranch Beef Hotdogs available. Certified organic too. Perfect. It was just what I needed.

A hearty Chili Hotdog was just the thing to satisfy that hunger strike. I’ll admit, I didn’t expect that this place would have such a solid lineup of dining options. After going home, I tried to find out more about the restaurants here. I was surprised to find out that the Academy Café is backed by Charles Phan of The Slanted Door and The Moss Room was ran by Loretta Keller of COCO500.

I’m used to going to places where food stands would just serve ordinary selections. It was refreshing to discover that The California Academy of Sciences does things a little bit different by having some of San Francisco’s notable chefs behind their food.

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I was excited to see that Luce was participating this year again. Earlier this year, we had Lunch at Luce during Dine About Town 2009 and was very satisfied. Several other favorite restaurants of mine are participating, which is going to make it hard for me to chose where to go.

For a list of restaurants and sample menus, visit the Dine About Town website.

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A special thank you goes out to Foodbuzz, Outstanding in the Field, Green Leaf Produce, and the team at Namu.

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Rose and I started off with a little breakfast from Rose Pistola & Café at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, followed by a California olive oil tasting session, and then finally we ended up at the Metreon for the Afternoon Taste Pavilion event. Here, there were plenty of goods available from Foodzie vendors to sample, wine seminars, food demos by several Foodbuzz Featured Publishers, and plenty of eating going on. Here’s a look at some of Saturday afternoon’s events.

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Below is just a sample of how the night went during the Taste of SF Street Food “Fare” event at the Ferry Building. Lots of…

… great food. It awesome to see food bloggers all come together to celebrate our passion and dedication to writing about food. What’s the best way to reward our hard work? By eating and drinking, no doubt. By the looks on everyone’s faces, everyone looked like they were having a good time just being a part of the event. I have to hand it to Foodbuzz for starting the festival this way. It gives other food bloggers who aren’t from the Bay Area just a sample of how San Francisco does street food. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the weekend will unfold. Cheers to more good food and drink…

Below was taken from my attempt to do a live blog coverage for the event:

The first annual Foodbuzz Blogger festival is about to kick off in just a few hours. First on the agenda is a meet and greet at Hotel Vitale at 5:00 P.M.

We’re going to try to do a live blog coverage of today’s festivities as the night carries on. See you all there.

Check back later for more updates.

We just arrived at the Hotel and checked in. The give away bags they are handing out are stuffed with some good things.

Going to the Ferry Building next!

Chowing on so much food. The Hog Island Oysters are delicious.

Tacolicious!

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I’ll have the Cubana, and That’s It. Last Saturday while driving around Mission Street looking for parking...

The more time that I spent in the Bay Area, the more I found myself finding reasons just to go to the Ferry Building. I slowly began to discover my personal favorite finds, always returning back to them. There’s so much to take in. It’ll take awhile for me, or anyone to discover it all in one visit.

One spot that I catch myself going back to, time and time again, is the Hog Island Oyster Bar.

Why? Just so I can share the experience of having some of the freshest oysters available, some right out of Tomales Bay, with others. You can have them shucked and enjoyed fresh or baked. The Casino oyster, shown above, is just one example of baked oysters that they offer on the Hog Island Oyster Bar menu. Layers of flavor from paprika, shallots, thyme, and butter, just soak into the sweet oyster. Add just a touch of lemon juice to finish it off, eat, nod your head in delight, and repeat.

Backing up Hog Island Oyster Bar’s oysters are some solid soups that are not to be missed. One in particular that pleases us every time we visit is the clam chowder. Floating around the creamy broth you’ll find the standard potatoes and bacon, but what stands out here are the Manila clams. Still in the shell, you’ll have to work at picking them out. We don’t mind. It just adds to the aura of knowing you’re getting fresh clams and not any of that canned stuff. With my friends and family, we all agree that for the most part, the texture of chowder is pleasantly on the light side, not thick and heavy. I’ve had chowders in the past that were always thick, leaving me with a full feeling in my gut after one bowl. I can tell you that it’s refreshing to get something on the lighter side of things. You focus less on the richness of the texture and begin to see the clams as the highlight.

They say that everything should be enjoyed in moderation. It’s hard for us to follow that when we’re here. You just want to keep ordering oyster after oyster, savoring each sweet bit from their shells.

Hog Island Oyster Bar
1 Ferry Building #11A
San Francisco, CA 94111
www.hogislandoysters.com

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Vaguely remembering the green signs and the art on the side of the building, I quickly said to Lando and Rose, “I think that’s where Bourdain got that giant sandwich.” Half an hour later, we found parking up the street from the liquor store.

After grabbing our passports, we decided that we’d come back to the festival in a few hours. While walking back to our car, we decided that to grab a torta. By now we were feeling the effects of hunger.

Once we stepped inside, we knew we were at the right place when we saw the “Cubana” Totra listed on the menu. A torta is a Mexican sandwich and this was my first time having one.

Without hesitation, we immediately ordered the Cubana with everything on it. We stood there watching as they tossed the components of the Cubana onto the flat top grill. The grill consisted of hot dogs, eggs, chorizo, breaded beef, bacon, ham. The torta bread is placed on the grill to be lightly toasted in a pool of melted butter.

After the bread was done toasting, they assembled the behemoth with mayonnaise, avocado, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and jalapeños. While we stood there intimidated by its sheer size, they transferred the Cubana onto a scale for weighing. We had it cut into quarters and then we were on our way to the Ferry Building for Saturday’s Farmers’ Market.

Once we arrived at Ferry Building, we were filled with eager anticipation. We found a seat and quickly unwrapped the torta.

A quarter of this sandwich was roughly half the size of a normal sandwich. With so many ingredients, we were surprised that nothing really over powered one another. The chorizo was definitely the standout ingredient in the torta.

For $10.00, the torta was more than worth it. If you’re in or around the Mission District for whatever reason, and you’re close to the That’s It Market, do yourself a favor and grab a Cubana. You won’t regret it.

That’s It Market
2699 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

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The time to hit all of the vendors was impossible, so you were left to carefully chose what you wanted to eat. Knowing you could be in line for more than 30 minutes added to how important that decision would be. Although their offerings sounded good, we ended up skipping booths like Delfina and Aziza because we had already had a taste of their food at their restaurants. All of us wanted something new to try.

Looking back, we knew the lines would be long, but with enough patience you were rewarded with good grub.

To start things off, a couple of sandwiches from Kasa. On the left is the Kati “Bun”, which was supposed to be charbroiled chicken, wrapped in roti, but Kasa ran out of roti and served it on a bun instead. On the right is a Pav Bhaji – a serving of spiced potatoes on a bun, which reminded me of a samosa. Both stayed true in being classic street food dishes from India.

We were in line sipping on Black Milk Tea from Slanted Door, while waiting for…

Slanted Door’s Lemongrass Pork Vermicelli Bowl. Tender barbecued pork was served on top a bed of vermicelli mixed with their sweet fish sauce. I haven’t ate at any of Charles Phan’s restaurants yet, but this small sample is making me want to.

We had a quick dessert before we left – A smore from Kika’s Treats. One fluffy marshmallow between dark chocolate and Kika’s famous caramelized graham crackers.

You could say that La Cocina accomplished what they set out to do – getting San Francisco together for the love of enjoying food. I would call it a crème brulee-baconwrappedhotdog-chickensandwich-slowroastedpork-vermicellibowl-oyster-smores-n-tacos feasting extravaganza. If you haven’t found out by now, this city loves to eat.

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Right from the moment you enter the venue, you are surrounded by all of the food, wine, and cocktail booths. To put it simply, “Where do I go? What do I eat first? Cocktail? Sure!” is the first thing to spring up in your head. With so much to choose from, several tours around the venue was the best approach. A little bite here. Stop. A little cocktail there. Stop. With of course, the occasional water break in between.

Throughout the night people rocked out to a Bay Area chefs band, The Back Burner Blues Band, for the Gumbo Jam. Not your ordinary jam session, but a food inspired session, where each member of the band contributing ingredients to a batch of gumbo being cooked. You also had several Bay Area artists busily working on pieces of art on their canvases as the night drew on.

Music and art may be one slice of this party, but you can’t have a barbecue without…

You can imagine seeing everyone bouncing booth to booth, eager to try what was available.

Cocktails from some of the city’s bars were also available to sample. The sound of cocktails being shaken can get you thirsty.

Just before the night came to a close, Chef and DJ Hubert Keller took the stage. Not only can you see him slicing it up on Top Chef Masters, but you can catch him on the turntables and hyping up the crowd, bringing on good vibes until the night came to an end. By looking at the expressions on the faces of those who attended, you could see that everyone was having a good time.

If this is what to expect if you invited some of these chefs to your own backyard, then by all means come on by place and I’ll provide the grill. I could only imagine if my own barbecues were as exciting as this one.

Just when you thought the evening was over, the Chocolate Enchantment after party was getting started atop the Westin St. Francis Hotel which gave a breathtaking view of city.

A decadent selection of Recchiuti and Ghirardelli chocolates were available. And any dessert lover would’ve been astounded by the beautiful display of chocolate confections by Pastry Chef Jean-Francois Houdre.

This was only one part of San Francisco’s, SF Chef. Food. Wine. event, that took place August 6th to the 9th. A special thanks to Foodbuzz for allowing us to provide coverage of last night’s event.

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