Saturday Morning at the Farmers' Market

We had an awesome morning at the Farmers Market at the Ferry Plaza today. The sky is gorgeous, making our pics perfect! Yeah! :)

We went around the market touching & trying out stuff! ;)

We bought some low sugar preserves from Glashoff Farms for Beanie. It's time he reduces his sugar intake! ;) We tried the samples & they're good! Thumbs up! :)

The stall sells walnuts & persimmons too! Aren't persimmons supposed to be round? :)

For coffee lovers, do check out Blue Bottle Coffee Co. The queue says it all! Ha! :D

We proceeded to the side of the Ferry Terminal to get lunch. :)

See the crowd?

Everyone raves about Roli Roti and the queue's long. Hence we queued (well, Crystal & Lin did while I went around checking out stuff).

We ordered a porchetta sandwich & half chicken to share. :)

Cooked & prepared on the spot! :)

The porchetta sandwich has crispy skins in them! It's too salty for my liking though.

The half chicken was juicy & tender. :) Crystal gave me the dark meat. See how she dotes on me? Nice! :)

So here's us savouring our lunch with the company of the dog & the birds. :)

The place is enlivened by live music! :)

After lunch we went into the Market Place for more shopping. :) We were greeted by lovely Christmas caroling!

We stopped by at Far West Fungi to take a look at their huge variety of mushrooms & truffles.
 

You can try growing your own shrooms too. We read the instruction manual. It's complicated and we figured we will probably eat more shrooms and finish them faster than we can grow them! :)))

Despite saying "I'm stuffed, I'm full", I always keep a seperate compartment for dessert or sweets. I couldn't resist when I saw scones at Biscuit Bender! The British call them scones, the Americans call them biscuits. I call them scones. Scones or biscuits, I love them. ^.*

Take your pick!

The unadventurous moi chose classic buttermilk! :)

There's so much stuff at Market Place.




















Lin couldn't resist picking up the pink felt bear and

Crystal couldn't resist sitting on the chair. It's made of recycled parts.

At Miette, Crystal had a rose macaron, Lin had a chocolate orange macaron (the last piece) & I had a coffee macaron. Sweet!

I heart these chubby glassy macaron jars. :)















More window shopping...

There's Kaya here in San Francisco. They called it Srikaya by Hey Boo! We tried. The difference? There's no pandan and richer in coconut flavour in the San Francisco's version. :)

Time to go. But before that, I needed to go get my sorbet craving fixed. We tried some before lunch at Scream Sorbet and we're so gonna get it now.

Scream Sorbet offers exotic flavours. See the following board!

Our preferred choice? Pear Rose please. *.* Refreshing!

Happy & satisfied, it's time to head home! :)

Details of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market:
W: http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/farmers_market.php

Best Breakfast of the Week

Thanks to a friend, Gordon's recommendation, we had the best breakfast of our week in SF. :) It's a Saturday, we were supposed to sleep in, but we couldn't. Our stomaches were rumbling! *.* So we headed to Dottie's for some exquisitely prepared breakfast. How exquiste? We shall see, but first let us get a table. As you can see, it's long...

Lin & I shared the Open Road and it consisted of:
1) Two cornmeal pancake or toast
2) Two eggs any way you like it
3) Potato
4) Bacon, ham or Italian sausage
5) Orange juice

Lin (on her 1st bite into the pancake): Wow!
Me: Wow! This's very good! There's a tinge of cinamon right?
Lin: Ya! So good... (repeats after every bite)

The scrambled egg was done to perfection; the potatos were delish; the Italian sausages were juicy & flavourful!

In addition to the orange juice which came with the set, we ordered lemon tea too.

This breakfast is definitely worth the wait! Awesome! :D

Details of Dottie's True Blue Cafe:
522 Jones Street
San Francisco
CA 94102
T: +415 885 2767

How Tall She Has Grown :)

We caught up with our cousin, Kimberly before she heads back to Hong Kong tomorrow. The last we saw her was when she was still a kid. She's all grown up now! :D Amazing! The meal at New Korea House was average but the company was fabulous! :) We talked about our families, work, school, vacations etc etc.

Who doesn't like soup? Lin & I absolutely love them! New Korea House's dumpling soups & soondubu were comforting in this chilly weather. Slurrrrrrrrrrp.... :)

We couldn't finish the savoury pancake as it was too huge! :O It could have feed 4-6 pax nicely. I also wish they use less oil.

The most disappointing items were the BBQ pork & beef. The cuts were way too chunky for our liking! :( If they had been able to slice them more thinly, it would have been perfect! I miss those we have in Singapore & Seoul where every piece of meat is thinly sliced & melts in your mouth. Simply heavenly. *.*

But we kind of fixed Lin's cravings for steamed rice. ^.*

Our next meet up with Kim should be in Hong Kong next summer! Can't wait to savour the flavour of Asia together. :)

Details of Korea House:

1620 Post Street

San Francisco

CA 94115

T: +415 931 7834

Un Voyage à Paris

We miss Parieeeeee & its fine French cuisine. :) So a trip to Paris is a must; right here in SF! ;)

Le Charm French Bistro is a quaint little outfit in Soma. Besides quality food, we gave thumbs up for the cozy ambience & warm service. :)

The butter which came with the bread was rich & creamy (according to Crystal & Lin) - raising our expectation on what's coming up next. :) We were delighted.

The three of us shared a prix fixe which consisted of an appetizer, a main & a dessert (all at USD 32 -superb deal) and a main from the a la carte menu.

So here's our prix fixe selection:

People raved about Le Charm's onion soup. We gotta try! It's hot, hot, hot! Lots of onion in there. I kind of like it though Lin found it a little salty.  

The main was bistro steak frites served with shallot sauce. Crystal and Lin felt the beef was a little tough but I found it tender. We realized the way we cut our steak affects its tenderness. I cut my steak according to the lines on it while Crystal & Lin were cross cutting it. They tried my cutting method and their last few bites were yum too. :) Well it's never to late. :)

Crystal was amused the Profiteroles (crème puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and served with chocolate sauce and almonds) came in three. Just nice. One for each of us. I love it! :D These babies are gorgeous!

Now for the mains from the a la carte menu, we have pan seared wild scallops, sautéed prawns, risotto with lobster veloutée. Forget the December chill! We're swiming in the ocean! Nice!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ah...another lovely dinner in SF. ^.^
 
Details of Le Charm French Bistro:
315 5th Street
San Francisco
CA 94107
T: +415 546 6128
W: http://www.lecharm.com/index.htm
 

A Truly Enjoyable Dinner at 54 Mint

I love this small & quaint Italian restaurant. 54 Mint makes an excellent chill out place to hang out with gfs and savour Italian cuisine. The food's amazing. :D

The basket of bread was warm & nice. The herby ones were flavourful. But we needed to save our stomach for what's going to be served later. :)

54 Mint serves one of the most delicious meatballs in tomato sauce (POLPETTINE al SUGO) . Crystal & I cleaned the tomato sauce on the plate with bread! :D I know we did say we're not touching the bread. But it's this good! :)

The fresh ribbon pasta with sauteed mushroom (FETTUCCINE ai FUNGHI) was fantastic too. Lin loves them! :)

We fell in love with the fresh ribbon pasta with meyer lemon & pine nuts. The citrus tang just makes you wanna have more of it! :D

The classic tart with pastry cream and pine nuts was such a teaser. It's a tart with a difference.

We took the tart without the cream initially (being weight conscious), but caved into tart & cream combi. The tart & cream fused beautifully and the pine nuts gave the tart an extra texture. :) Oh wow!

54 Mint, I'm loving it. :)

Details of 54 Mint:
16 Mint Plaza
San Francisco
CA
T: +415 543 5100
W: http://www.54mint.com/

Hola! It's Mexican Fare at Tropisueno

Hola, hola hola! We had Mexican fare at Tropisueno this evening. We waited 40 mins for a table! : O

Starving...we zoomed into the nachos & the dip while we waited patiently for the real food to be prepared. :)))

My fav dish was the entree, Camarones al Mojo de Ajo. The wild white shrimp sautéed with butter and lots of garlic, finished with a squeeze of lime was simple but awesome. :D

For the mains, we had Chile Verde (tender pieces of pork simmered in tangy tomatillos, pepper, chiles and herbs) and Chicken with Mole Poblano (leg and thigh braised in a traditional sauce made with dry chiles, spices, nuts, herbs and chocolate).

Our 2nd fav was the pork. It was flavourful & tender. :) The chicken leg & thigh paled in comparison.

The servings are huge; so if you're going there, either you starve yourself for the day or simply share. :)

Details of Tropisueno:
75 Yerba Buena Lane
San Francisco
CA 94103
T: +415 243 0299
W: http://www.tropisueno.com/index.html

Tuesday Lunch with Crystal

The weather was gorgeous today! :D I headed out for lunch with Crystal at IL Cane Rosso at the Ferry Building. IL Cane Rosso is by no means a simple sandwich shop. It takes pride in creating delicious food using the best local ingredients.

Needless to say, the place was packed with office crowd. Despite it, we didn't wait long to get our food and a table. :)

The Prather Ranched Slow-Cooked Pork sandwich is one mean fella! :D In addition to the juicy & tender pork, the sandwich is packed with devoto orchard apple butter, mustard and braised cabbage. Close your eyes to the oil! ;) It's ok to indulge once in a while. :D Crystal & I shared the sandwich and

Mariquita Farm parsnip & parsley root soup. It's drizzled with pickled pepper relish. This soup is thick but light on the palatte. :) It complimented the richly flavoured pork sandwich well. ;)

A short but flavourful lunch with a great companion. That's my Tuesday noon. :)

Details of IL Cane Rosso:
One Ferry Building  # 41
San Francisco
CA 94111
T: +415 391 7599
W: http://canerossosf.com/