San Francisco – Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy – 1936

I went to “the city by the bay” for the first time on a paid, earned trip a few years ago and I fell in LOVE! I could spend all day in China Town alone, eating my way up and down the streets between moon cake bakeries and dim sum houses. The tea vendors make me swoon with the lovely smells, artistic pots and blooming teas.

If you have never been to San Francisco, let me just fill you in on the fact that it is an amazing dining city and you can get great food for very reasonable prices. Of course there are the tourist traps that you HAVE to go to (like Boudin Bakery and Fisherman’s Wharf), but there are also some really great places that tourists rarely venture into.

Thursday evening I was treated to first class service and spectacular food at Chef Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys in Nob Hill. Hubby John was speaking for a med event and I ate, solo, in the bar area. Not lonely at all. Because I didn’t have to pretend to be charming, and I didn’t have to make conversation with anyone, the food was nearly a spiritual experience for me. I never thought that dining alone (with my husband in the next room) would be such an epiphany for me. I was able to focus SOLEY on the food and truly smell, feel and taste it without the distraction of another soul. I did have prosecco with dinner and I shouldn’t have. My head screams whenever I drink any kind of wine. I know better, but it was so delicious! Here is the amuse bouche of desserts they brought me after the OTHER food I had consumed

This trip we skipped my favorite dim sum “palace” – the erroneously named City View has no view at all. What it does have is amazing dim sum and I had to search to find it and we were the only Caucasians in the joint. (Moment of truth: I secretly LOVE when I go into any ethnic restaurant and I am the only, or one of a few, Caucasians in the building. To me that means I found something close to authentic.).

Everything we ate was great, and I FINALLY got to visit a place I heard about on NPR’s The Splendid table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper. It was mentioned on the Road Food segment of the show and it’s called Sam’s Grill. It’s apparently an institution. I suppose that’s why they can get away with their prices for just average food. Or maybe it was what I ordered. I had built this place up so much in my head (and of course ate there AFTER Chef Hubert’s place) that I think maybe anything would have not lived up to the hype. Another go around? Probably.

Also good to try – Nihon sushi and whiskey bar. I never thought whiskey would be a good pairing with sushi, but once again I was wrong. I have seldom seen in one place so much variety in a whiskey collection and the sushi was pretty damn good too.

The icing on this trip was dining with Sisters in Law Bonnie & Gretchen, Nephew Colin, Friend Debbie and Cousin Christine at Bonnie & Gretchen’s. DYNAMITE! FOUR dozen Hog Island oysters, fresh from the farm, plump juicy shrimp with assorted dipping sauces, rare, sliced rib-eye and a gorgeously colored tossed salad. I hadn’t shucked oysters since culinary classes, but once I got in the groove it was a breeze! And let’s not forget the wine. I rarely drink wine because I get screaming headaches from it (see prosecco mention above). I think I found a cure: beer and cider with lunch, Cakebread Rose and Pinot Noir with dinner, eat Zyrtec like candy and finish off the night with Bulleit Rye Whiskey. No hangover or wine headache!

My Food Memories from this week are amply described above and this week’s pics are from the San Francisco weekend.

Until next week, go out and make your OWN Food Memories!