Probably most of you try to get advantage of your few free moments and travel whenever it is possible. Choosing the destination, you surely consider prices and length of your stay. What if next time when you have to face the hard decision of where to spend your precious vacation time you will also consider another factor? Consider the culinary experience.
This Thanksgiving we were lucky to visit San Francisco. And when I say lucky, I don't mean just affordable ticket prices, but especially weather: maybe cloudy, but warm and dry for December standards! I will not bother you with description of places you should visit in San Fran, because you can find suggestions everywhere and probably you already have couple of places of interest in your mind. But I want to share our quest to try something new. Even though we surely couldn't possibly try it all.
Let's start with Sourdough bread. It is simply amazing. You can visit the museum and see how it is made (you can catch some steps of process even through the window of the museum). You can try soup in bread bowl, which will be made of sourdough. Another possibility it can be when the waiter of a fancy seafood restaurant will proudly offer you a basket of bread. Just ask if it is sourdough. Believe me, you would not regret.
Soups in bread bowl. It is an interesting experience if you have never tried it before. Even if you tried, San Francisco is sea area. Clam chowder, lobster bisque and any other crab soups (especially in the crab season) are just amazing in that bread bowl. The sensation when you take a spoon of creamy soup together with a part of your bready plate cannot be compared to croutons, which are always either too hard or too soft.
I already mentioned Seafood, especially Seafood Cioppino. You can add pasta if you wish. But if you enjoy pure flavor of seafood sauce, just take it as it is. Don't forget to dip bread in the sauce. it is honestly the best part. Seafood is so fresh, you can figure flavors tasting that super sauce. Just to tell you how great is this sauce, simply imagine that I don't really eat seafood except shrimps and crabs selectively.
Salad Crab Louie or Louie Salad with Crab. You would probably say, what can be special about salad with additional crab? And I would totally agree with you in any other place except San Francisco. If you would see Dungeness Crab in the menu, even better. It is local type of crab in San Francisco area and always super fresh.
Craving some sweet treat? What about the world famous Ghirardelli factory? A park of chocolate, ice cream, and taste with a view on the Golden Gate.
In case you crave for some apertivo, San Francisco is also well known for its alcohol drinks with crafty use of Martini, Pisco Punch and Irish Coffee (with whiskey). You can find them in bars and cafes in all touristic areas. We didn't try Fortune Cookies, which as they say are originally from this area, but we believed we know their taste.
These are our best choices for culinary experience in San Francisco. We were happy to blend our touristic activity with trying something new for lunch and dinner. Do everybody crave for food when they travel or it is just us? Yes or no, we need to eat anyway and I am eager to explore more local dishes in my next travel. Are you still here or are you running to the kitchen? Because I am.
Buon appetitto, everybody!
PS We didn't try Chicken Tetrazzini, a local dish made in honor of the opera singer Ms Tetrazzini at the beginning of last century. We didn't because Yelp gave us wrong instructions.... but you know what? I smell something in the kitchen, I guess my husband decided to give it a try and bring home a bit of San Francisco........
This Thanksgiving we were lucky to visit San Francisco. And when I say lucky, I don't mean just affordable ticket prices, but especially weather: maybe cloudy, but warm and dry for December standards! I will not bother you with description of places you should visit in San Fran, because you can find suggestions everywhere and probably you already have couple of places of interest in your mind. But I want to share our quest to try something new. Even though we surely couldn't possibly try it all.
Let's start with Sourdough bread. It is simply amazing. You can visit the museum and see how it is made (you can catch some steps of process even through the window of the museum). You can try soup in bread bowl, which will be made of sourdough. Another possibility it can be when the waiter of a fancy seafood restaurant will proudly offer you a basket of bread. Just ask if it is sourdough. Believe me, you would not regret.
Soups in bread bowl. It is an interesting experience if you have never tried it before. Even if you tried, San Francisco is sea area. Clam chowder, lobster bisque and any other crab soups (especially in the crab season) are just amazing in that bread bowl. The sensation when you take a spoon of creamy soup together with a part of your bready plate cannot be compared to croutons, which are always either too hard or too soft.
I already mentioned Seafood, especially Seafood Cioppino. You can add pasta if you wish. But if you enjoy pure flavor of seafood sauce, just take it as it is. Don't forget to dip bread in the sauce. it is honestly the best part. Seafood is so fresh, you can figure flavors tasting that super sauce. Just to tell you how great is this sauce, simply imagine that I don't really eat seafood except shrimps and crabs selectively.
Salad Crab Louie or Louie Salad with Crab. You would probably say, what can be special about salad with additional crab? And I would totally agree with you in any other place except San Francisco. If you would see Dungeness Crab in the menu, even better. It is local type of crab in San Francisco area and always super fresh.
Craving some sweet treat? What about the world famous Ghirardelli factory? A park of chocolate, ice cream, and taste with a view on the Golden Gate.
In case you crave for some apertivo, San Francisco is also well known for its alcohol drinks with crafty use of Martini, Pisco Punch and Irish Coffee (with whiskey). You can find them in bars and cafes in all touristic areas. We didn't try Fortune Cookies, which as they say are originally from this area, but we believed we know their taste.
These are our best choices for culinary experience in San Francisco. We were happy to blend our touristic activity with trying something new for lunch and dinner. Do everybody crave for food when they travel or it is just us? Yes or no, we need to eat anyway and I am eager to explore more local dishes in my next travel. Are you still here or are you running to the kitchen? Because I am.
Buon appetitto, everybody!
PS We didn't try Chicken Tetrazzini, a local dish made in honor of the opera singer Ms Tetrazzini at the beginning of last century. We didn't because Yelp gave us wrong instructions.... but you know what? I smell something in the kitchen, I guess my husband decided to give it a try and bring home a bit of San Francisco........