Last week was my spring break and I took the opportunity to visit my friend, and fellow foodie, Melissa in San Francisco. We had many delicious adventures in food (and fava beans), and I'm here to share them!
She cooked for me the first night (unfortunately I didn't think about my camera at the time, was too hungry!). The next day found us at
Mama's, a delicious breakfast joint. I had the "Nelson's Rancheros," 2 eggs poached in salsa, sour cream, black beans, homesfries, and tortillas.
She had the egg white scramble with mushrooms & green onions, goat cheese, a toasted english muffin & sliced tomatoes and spinach.
That night we went to
Delfina, one of her favorite restaurants and highly recommended in most San Francicso magazines. Delfina is a seasonal restaurant whose menu changes daily. Very exciting!
All good meals begin with wine - ours was a Pinot Nero.
Delfina also gets its bread from Tartin, a famous bakery next door. So our meal started with much of the Tartin bread.
We started with the grilled fresh calamari with warm white bean salad.
For the next course we split a pasta with fava beans, pancetta, and pecorino.
It had a slight spiciness that was accentuated by our wine. As a main, I had the whole local petrale sole in acqua pazza with oven-dried tomatoes, olives and capers.
Melissa had the rabbit wrapped in pancetta with carrots and fava beans.
It came with polenta.
I'd never tried rabbit before. It was nice and tender, delicate and less gamey than I'd expected. Neither of us were able to finish our mains (which were good, but not the highlight of our meal. The highlight belonged to dessert - buttermilk panna cotta with caramel and kumquats.
Heaven on a plate.
The restaurant itself was a lot of fun. and the food was delicious. It was relaxed, despite the crowd, and the chef came out to mingle with the crowd, that seemed to have a lot of "regulars."
Despite our full bellies, Melissa took me to
Bi-Rite creamery, an incredible ice cream shop with fresh and unusual flavors.
I had the malted vanilla with peanut brittle and milk chocolate and the salted caramel.
She had the orange cardamom and mint chocolate chip.
Even after all that food, we still had room for beer! So we went to
Monk's Kettle, a great beer bar. The bartender even hooked us up with tons of beer samples in mini beer mugs.
On day two, we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito. There we ate at a wonderful little place called
Fish. As you can imagine, Fish has delicious seafood. After that long hike, I started with a beer.
Then Melissa and I split fish tacos (I was unable to get a good shot, due to sun), and the fish and chips.
Now, let me tell you, I've had fish and chips in Ireland, England, and Australia. This was the best fish and chips I've had in my life. It was light, flaky, low-grease, and fantastic.
That night, we met up with Melissa's boyfriend, Cody, and went to
Nopa. Nopa is located in this huge, airy, well-lit space that used to be a bank. Pretty awesome. And all the waiters sported crazy facial hair. Hmm.
Melissa and I ordered champagne to start, and they brought us some fresh peas with fleur de sel (fleur de sel is HUGE out there!).
We all split three appetizers. First was a salad - romaine with a creamy dressing and parmeasan.
Next, mussels cooked in white wine and garlic with grilled bread and aioli.
And then a flatbread with artichokes, leeks, gruyere, and olive tapenade.
Yum, yum, yum!
At this point, we decided to order a bottle of wine to accompany our mains. Though I'm usually a red drinker, Melissa was adamant about a white, and we ended up with a surprisingly perfect, slightly sweet Loire Valley white.
Cody ordered the grilled porkchop, medium-rare. It came with salsa verde, salad, and mashed potatoes.
Melissa had one of her favorite Nopa dishes, the rotisserie herb chicken, served with a salad and roasted potatoes.
And I had the seared duck breast and leg, which came with assorted roasted vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, turnips) and farro.
(I thought my dish was the winner!)
A side of whole fava beans in a spicy lemony oil.
Then, of course, came dessert.
First there was the highly recommended Blue Bottle (a great SF coffee shop) espresso martini.
Followed shortly by sopaipillas with a honey butter sauce.
Sopaipillas are like little doughnut pillows, and you bite off a corner and pour the honey butter sauce inside. Incredible. I could pour that sauce on anything. But just one dessert for three people? No, no. Despite the fact that Cody did more dessert watching than eating, we had another - orange cadamom (popular combo) rice pudding with steeped Barhi dates.
We actually ended up pouring some of the leftover honey butter sauce on this too. Why waste? The owner of this spot (well, one of the owners) stopped by to chat for a bit, and we found out that she's opening two more restaurants. Can't wait to try them!
Dinner was followed by beautifully crafted cocktails at
Bourbon and Branch, which unfortunately does not allow pictures. Let me just highly recommend it. So we waddled off with our full bellies and prepared for the next day, in Napa. Write-up and pictures to follow soon.
Grilled calamari were lightly spiced and fresh. Delicious! Although I wished they'd included some of the squidier parts of the calamari (you know, tentacles n such).
The crab burger was delicious if unremarkable. I ate most of my half without the bun because it was just too much. The online menu liste it as being served in a pita, which might have been better. But it was flavored well and came with a nice sauce. And the oregano fries were wonderful. Perfect crispy fries!
The moussaka is like Greek lasagna. Layers of beef ragout, eggplant, potatoes, and bechamel, it was authentic and well prepared. The side of feta was a welcome addition!
Staying traditional, we got a baklava. This came with peach sorbet and had honey drizzled on the plate. It was good, if a little large. Not the best baklava I've had but not the worst.
And then there was also rice pudding! I enjoyed this, topped with a cherry. but still, so full, couldn't finish.
