California Style

You know how it is when you go on vacation and bring back a piece of clothing that at the time made perfect sense.  Then after the vacation glow wears off you look at your purchase and say what was I thinking... it just doesn't translate to your home environment!
This one does... While running through some great shops in the Haight Ashbury I walked into a beautifully designed RVCA, a LA clothing line where art meets fashion... I bought a t-shirt and sweatshirt for my husband and they have an online store, unfortunately, not as good, but they told us that they will be opening a store in NYC (not sure when)...

The sweatshirt we bought has this geometric design on the front

Balance of Opposites NYC, $27

SF Restaurant Mania

I was a little crazy about where we were going to dine in SF...  with only four nights and memories (11 years worth) of great meals in this foodie, forward thinking town there was a lot of pressure... Our first meal was at La Mar, a Peruvian hotspot that was good ('cebiche') but not great, with the exception of the servers... they were terrific, and not just from our experience but afterward we heard a buzz about them too.

Prospect, Nancy Oakes' new restaurant (1st hit... Boulevard) with chef Ravi Kapur was outstanding in it's contemporary American cuisine including cocktails.  The dining room is warm and relaxed, but a bit nondescript... 

Wagyu Zabuton

Chicken Roulade

Wagyu Zabuton is a Japanese steak with marbling that makes it melt in your mouth!

I don't usually order steak at a restaurant, but this came highly recommended and it was worth every bite.

My husband had the chicken which they transformed into a most delicate and tasty dish beyond our expectations too.

Our last and final dining spot was a hit and a great way to end our stay in SF... it was Campania, Italy (southern part near Naples) by way of San Francisco.  It was casual, warm, boisterous, and chic... serving fabulous pizzas (and much more) paired with unusual wines... oh, and we let our server choose the wine... good decision.

A16

We had a guest dining with us so I was distracted and we ate all the delicious food before I had a chance to get photos... sorry, but this is a must on your visit and you'll be on Chestnut street where there is great shopping so you can kill two... 

Bon Appetit... and Happy Halloween!

I love candy corn and the way it melts in my mouth... what's your favorite candy?

From San Fran

It was great to go back and see old friends and old places in San Francisco.  When we first arrived so did the first winter storm with colder temps and lots of wind and rain...

Last Sunday

So we spent a good part of the afternoon at the Ferry Building Marketplace which is filled with gourmet food shops and restaurants... 

...from coffee to fungi... from cheese to crab we managed to eat our way through...

By Monday morning the weather had cleared and it was sunny in the low 60's, perfect for walking the city and we did... somehow after all these years, I never forgot my way around and the memories of a distant life came rushing back...

Tomorrow I'll tell you about great restaurants we dined in... North Beach, my old school and more...

My San Fran

This is where I'll be tomorrow... my old stomping ground for over a decade!

The kids (12 and 14) are staying home... we'll be flying NY to SF... and what it took to make arrangements for them for 5 days... well, I hope it was worth it.

Thanks to my sister-in-law and great friends the arrangements are set, with the kids all over the place on the weekend (homecoming weekend) and to all their scheduled activities during the week I consider it quite a feat... so will it be out-of-sight out-of-mind or will I be worrying and calling the whole time! 

Or worse, will they be calling me while I'm taking in every moment of only the second time my husband and I have ever left the kids (last year in New Orleans was the first)...  just the two of us!

This time it's harder they're older, with one in high school, it's way more complicated this time.  The homework, the activities... OMG my head is spinning and I'm stressed out, but I'm hoping that 6 hours on the plane I'll decompress and the excitement will build... there's not much I can do 3,000 miles away and 3 hours time difference... just have to enjoy every minute of this beautiful city by the bay.

I'll be taking tons of photos... not touristy stuff, but what San Francisco has meant to me and of the SF that's new after 8 years since my last visit.

I hope to eat my way through this great culinary city starting at the Ferry Building Marketplace to the Mission District... and we'll be walking off all that food by walking everywhere we possibly can including all my old neighborhoods... Russian Hill and Protrero Hill... seeing my old school, The San Francisco Art Institute, where I hear they have a cafe at the school with spectacular views of the bay and beyond and where I once used to hang out with artist friends.  

One of four murals in the Bay Area painted by Diego Rivera

Have a great weekend and I'll be back blogging next Thursday the 28th.

A Powerful 11 Minutes

We're leaving on a trip to San Francisco soon, a beautiful city I lived in for 11 years before moving back to New York... "Why did you move back?", people often ask... well, that's another story for another time.

So last night when I thought I was tuning into Amazing Race, which was pushed back due to football running late, I caught the end of a story on 60 Minutes (an old favorite) about a man who recently found an old film, shot in San Francisco on Market Street only days before the 1906 Earthquake destroyed most of the city... 

60 Minutes, "A Trip Down Market Street"

A week later this happened...

...eerie, really eerie and sad, and a little scary since I wasn't thinking about earthquakes, only thinking about visiting my favorite spots, seeing old friends and of course eating my way through what I believe is the best city to enjoy a myriad of fantastically creative ethnic and fresh American cooking and not break the bank, like in NY.  

I experienced 3 earthquakes in California while living there... two in SF and one in LA. I'll be taking lots of photos and will write about the trip when I return.

Many new ideas come from California, a place where experimentation is the norm.