LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO

I’m always asked what my favorite recipe is in Mad Hungry which is a little like asking which is my favorite son: IMPOSSIBLE. And, been musing on all these cities we’ve been visiting too–so far which is my favorite? UNFAIR CAUSE ALL HAVE SOMETHING. But, truth be told, I’d move to San Francisco in a heartbeat. Everything about this place is cool, chill, enticing and seductive. Arriving mid morning, I headed straight to The View From the Bay (web clip elsewhere on this blog) and had fun all around there making Cold Sesame Noodles. The signing at Draeger’s in St. Mateo rocked too cause folks who saw the show came out to the signing (which is how its supposed to work) and that store is so beautiful anyway. Thanks Kathleen and Angela for making a beautiful display and welcome mat for MH. Afterwards we squeezed in a late dinner at zunicafe.com eating Judy Roger’s legendary Chicken (a U.S. pioneer of early salting technique) but more on that later. And the Ricotta Gnocchi is the stuff that dreams are made of. Check out the recipe in the eponymous cookbook. Being that we had only one more day to cram everything in you will not believe what we discovered.

A 12:00 demo at the Ferry Market was such a pleasure to do. Impeccable ingredients, natch–a very engaged crowd and insanely beautiful weather, natch. Another warm and welcome family moment from the other side of our family happened when the awesome Julie Quinn (my niece by marriage) and her mom Darlene came to visit from Sacremento. It was a touching surprise and they gave us a whirlwind tour over the Golden Gate bridge to Marin County, back though Golden gate park to The Haight, and Fisherman’s wharf too where we started with another lunch time food duel between son and I.

So here is the craziest thing. While waiting through me demo, son noticed a huge line forming at a food truck called RoliRoti. He said he had to have it regardless of the ridiculous line (which he’d ordinarily never stand in) BUT I wanted Dungeness Crab at Fisherman’s wharf. SO, he waited and when he finally got to the front of the line and I noticed what was happening, I freaked. See the video —porchetta (a pork loin wrapped in pork belly) and chicken rotisserie over potatoes which are sauteing in the dropping fat OMG.

And the sandwich he had is that pork sliced with minced pork crackling, onion marmalade and baby arugula on Acme bread rolls. I’m glad he waited. So we we took his sandwich to my crab place and had a freakishly delicious lunch. (I know–take a breath). Basically, all in all we extracted every free minute out of this amazing city by the Bay which I can’t wait to return to and son claims he is now moving to (boo hoo if he leaves our neighb). Made it to the airport in time for our evening flight to Seattle and more seafood, oysters, cool cityness, and MH signing (with snacks) at the University bookstore. Please come say hi Seattle.