Trip Review: San Francisco Part 2

This is really going to be about food.  Because that's what we did in San Francisco.  Well, that and run races.  But the race part I already covered. So here's the "we ate a ton of stuff" post.

After the race we took the express shuttle back to the hotel where I took a quick shower and then we headed out to lunch.  Back across the street to the Ferry Market Building for some burgers and fries at Gott's.

I also had a nice red ale, since beer is my favorite post-race refreshment.  Thatbaby got a grilled cheese, while both Thatboy and I got big juicy burgers.  Mine had Point Reyes blue cheese.  His had bacon and American cheese.  We all shared the sweet potato fries. 

I should also point out that at some point we grabbed some cheese from Cowgirl Creamery (Mt. Tam - my fave) and some bread from Acme Bread.  They became our late night snacks in the room. Seriously, you can get anything from the Ferry Market Building.

Later that night we headed to La Mar Cebicheria.  This is one of those restaurants we could never get the inlaws to eat at.  Just not adventurous enough.  Thatboy and I, however, love Peruvian food.  Our first night in town, Thatboy suggested we grab a cocktail before heading to dinner, which we did at the hotel bar.  Thatbaby thought the idea of a cocktail was a good one, especially when we let him have his first shirley temple.  So as soon as we sat down at La Mar he asked for a cocktail.  Luckily they had some great non-alcoholic specialties our little guy could enjoy.

Dinner was amazing.  One of the highlights of the trip.  I had a classic Peruvian dish - lomo saltado.  The meat was so tender and flavorful, and as Thatboy and I both agreed, the sauces made our dishes.  Savory, perfectly spiced, and complementary.

Thatbaby had a handheld version of my dish.  Lomo saltado empanadas.  He actually was a bigger fan of the rice - that happens.  But once he had a bite of the empanadas he thought they were pretty good too. 

Thatboy had the arroz norteno which had mussels, clams, scallops, squid, and octopus is a spicy picante sauce.  Even thinking about it now, over a week later, makes his mouth water.  Thatbaby proved once again that he's a fan of squid and octopus.  

After dinner we hopped on a trolley over to Ghiradelli Square.  We have Ghiradelli here in San Diego, but there's something about visiting the San Francisco location we thought Thatbaby would enjoy.

We were right.  He enjoyed every last bit of that ice cream.  We all shared a Sunday, because between his new found love of cocktails and ice cream on a daily basis, we had to draw the line somewhere.  But pretty far out there, because it is a vacation after all.

Monday morning we headed to Dottie's True Blue Cafe.  We never get to eat breakfast in San Francisco, so this was a real treat.  We decided to go on Monday because I heard the lines are outrageous, and I thought we'd have a shorter wait on a weekday.  We did. We were seated almost immediately.  But by the time we left, the line was wrapped around the block.

Thatbaby overheard us talking about one of the specials of the day - chocolate coconut muffins.  The mere word "muffins" had his little ears perk up.  They're one of his favorite breakfast treats.  He knew exactly what he wanted.  The muffin was huge.  The kid didn't even finish half of it.  But the chocolate coconut balance was perfect.  Not too much of either.

As you can see, Thatboy ordered a small breakfast.  The Open Road comes with 2 eggs, bacon, potatoes, and 2 pancakes.  Thatbaby helped with the bacon. 

Personally, I think I got the winner of the meal.  It was a daily special - a fresh baked biscuit with a fried egg, provolone, prosciutto, and avocado.  Yeah, there were potatoes and fruit that came with it, but I didn't even get to them. The flakey, buttery, biscuit, the salty meat, the creamy avocado, and CHEESE! Thatbaby helped me with my prosciutto too.

So the moral of this story?  If you want to eat your way through a city, San Francisco is a pretty good one to do it in.

Trip Review: San Francisco Part 1

The best part about running Bay to Breakers, other than the race itself, was getting to experience San Francisco, the city.  Which means doing things we never get to do and eating places we never get to eat.  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which is my current favorite San Francisco hotel.

The hotel itself is beautiful, with lights hanging from the various floors down to the lobby, and glassed elevators which made the ride extra fun for Thatbaby.

But we also had a pretty great view of the bay.  This is the Bay Bridge, which puts on a light show at night.

The location though is what won me over.  The hotel is right beside a huge transit stop, which meant we could jump on whatever trolley, cable car, light rail, bus, or subway we needed to get where we had to go.  It was also across the street from the Ferry Market building, which is where we spent a lot of our time.  Eating.

Thatbaby liked the live musicians.  He wanted to stop and watch all of them.  The first one we saw played saxophone and when he asked to play, I told him we had saxophone at home he could play.  So then he asked that about every instrument we saw.  "We have cello at home?"  "We have trumpet at home?"

But really, staying across from the Ferry Market Building meant we did not have to journey far for good food.  Since our first day there was Saturday, we got to take part in the Farmer's Market.  While Thatboy had a smoked salmon sandwich, I ended up with this porcetta beauty, slathered with onion marmalade.  Thatbaby went back and forth between our two choices.

And after we went inside for some Humphrey Slocombe ice cream.  Thatboy had a coke bourbon float with their secret breakfast ice cream.  Thatbaby had a chocolate carmel with sea salt scoop, and I had a Harvey Milk and Honey scoop.

The other great thing about the Hyatt's location - it's right beside a playground!  We spent a little bit of time here every day. 

Since it was the day before the race, that's pretty much all we did on Saturday.  Other than go out for dinner.  In an effort to "carb load" we hit up some Italian: Perbacco.

Thatbaby loved his "white pasta" - noodles in butter sauce.  Thatboy had papperdelle with lamb shoulder ragu.  I had gnocchi with beef sugo and mushrooms.  And we got a side of brussels sprouts.  We voted and I had the winner meal of the evening.  The thing I liked about the meal was that even though it was pasta, it wasn't heavy.  I didn't go to bed feeling weighed down.   And after dinner, we headed right back to bed - some of us had a race the next morning!

Cold City: Minestrone Soup

While we were visiting the inlaws, TMIL was adamant about "visiting the city."  This is something we do every time we visit.  Except the term "visiting the city" actually means "go to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art."  I didn't think bringing a crazy 1 year old to the MOMA would lead to an especially pleasant day for any of us.  Which I expressed to the inlaws.  TFIL agreed with me, since he doesn't like art or babies and the two combined?  Not his cup of tea.

Instead, we found an appropriately themed children's museum - The Randall Museum. TFIL still complained the entire time we were there, but at least no one else minded the fact that our child was running around and yelling, because every one else had kids running around and yelling too! 

There was a train room, a lego room, a room where kids were building castles from boxes, and loads of fun animal education.  Like a puppet room filled with animal puppets and surrounded by life-sized depictions of local wildlife. 

The animals made realistic noises, but Thatbaby was more interested in sitting on them.  This would become a recurring theme for our holidays.  I blame it on the rocking horse.  I think he is now convinced that if he sits on something it will rock.

There is a room filled with rescued local animals which Thatbaby loved.  Especially since most of them were birds and he knows what they say.

There was also a room filled with toddler toys.  Which is a brilliant idea for any museum.  Thatbaby had loads of fun playing with toys, just like at home, just like at daycare.

The rest of the day was cold, rainy, and gloomy. We walked around San Francisco in the rain, until TFIL had just about enough and made us head home.  Which was after we had finally got Thatbaby to settle in for a nap in his stroller.  Let's just say, there was lots of screaming during the car-drive home.

Cold, rainy, miserable days make me long to be curled up in my own pajamas in my own home.  With my own bowl of soup.  We've been having some real winter weather here in California, as my 43degree morning runs will attest to.  Growing up, my mom always made minestrone soup with pasta and sausage.  It was a sure-fire way to warm up the winter.  My version uses ground beef, but is still very popular in Thathouse.  Especially with Thatbaby who put away three bowls at dinner, and then another bowl for lunch the next day.

Minestrone Soup

1/2 cup medium uncooked pasta 

1 pound ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

5 cups beef broth

2 cups chopped vegetables

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

4 oz tomato paste

3 teaspoons Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta is cooking, cook beef and onion in a large pot until the meat is browned and onions are translucent.
3. Add the beef broth, vegetables, beans, tomato paste, and Italian seasoning and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Add pasta and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Salt and pepper to taste and serve.