I knew I was back in Paris this morning when I got on the metro.

That’s where I am- home. Sipping a cup of tea and gathering up my notes from San Francisco. I’m going to jump right in and tell you about the very best foodie find ever: Bi-Rite Creamery and Bakeshop. I’d been hearing about this spot for a couple years and, finally, got to go. Located near Dolores Park in the Mission District, Bi-Rite has (I’m being very truthful here) some of THE BEST ICE CREAM I HAVE EVER HAD. The unique flavors will reel you in: orange cardamom, brown sugar with ginger caramel swirls, salted caramel (I get this wherever I go), roasted banana, cinnamon with snicker doodles (I learned these where little sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon), earl grey, Meyer lemon… Oh yes, I tried every one of these! To top it off, I’m giving Bi-Rite some of my “sustainability kudos”: compostable cups and tiny wooden spoons.

In addition to ice cream, this was the second time I went back to Kara’s Cupcakes in Ghirardelli Square. Started as a small catering business, Kara’s now has five stores in the Bay area (the first of which was in San Francisco). Some people seem to think the whole cupcake craze is coming to an end, but I don’t think so. It seems to just be starting here in France- though I haven’t found any as good as these. Kara’s has good old-fashioned ones (vanilla chocolate, gluten free vanilla, carrot…) as well as “filled” ones. I recommend the Meyer lemony lemon, with a tangy filling inside and buttery frosting on top.

I also strolled through China Town where I visited some traditional grocery stores (live frogs and turtles for sale) and the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. Here, you can watch women folding fortune after fortune into cookie after cookie. It’s a tiny little place, hidden away on Ross Alley. The streets in China Town are so colorful, especially at Chinese New Year. My favorite buildings are on Waverly Place – thanks in part to my early introduction to Amy Tan (we’d listen to The Joy Luck Club and stories about Waverly Jong  as a family in the car) and part to a family visit to the Tin How Temple (#125 Waverly Place) on my first trip to San Francisco in 1996. I always enjoy wondering around the streets, smelling the herbs seeping into the air from the pharmacies and looking into the all-knowing eyes of the old women coming up the sidewalks.

A few more places I should mention are the coffee shops (slash bakeries). It’s not easy to find a satisfying cup of coffee in the US, not when you’ve been spoiled with strong European espressos. I didn’t actually discover Blue Bottle Coffee until the morning I was leaving, but it was by far the best coffee I tried (and I tried every day for two weeks). Since it was the last shebang, I opted for a moka. Not too sweet and nice rich coffee flavor. The reason it took me so long to find this place is because the address I’d been told about looked pretty much like a little shack on Linden Street (more or less an alley way). Blue Bottle calls this location a “coffee kiosk”. During open-hours there is quite a line for such a hidden place. I’d also recommend Frogs Hollow Farm in the Ferry Plaza Building and La Boulange in Hayes Valley for breakfast. The coffee’s decent and the pastries are quite nice. At Frogs Hollow I’d go for the granola, yogurt and seasonal fruit (the scones, unfortunately, seemed small compared to what I remembered from last year). At La Boulange, try to raspberry financié.

Since I’m on a bit of a French run (talking about bakeries and all), I’ll mention Bistro Central Parc for a special dinner. Located near the Panhandle, this is a “neighborhood” restaurant that offers traditional French cuisine. I didn’t know this “bistro” beforehand, but was lucky to be introduced to it by friends. The atmosphere was relaxed and modern, yet reminiscent of Europe. The food was excellent. For vegetarians, they propose a “Chef’s vegetarian special”, but I chose the special fish of the day: trout with slivered almonds. I was happy to see this dish on the menu because that’s exactly how the fishmonger here in Paris told me to prepare my trout (grill it with almonds). That was a hint that even in San Francisco, French tradition abounds.

While in San Francisco, I made it a point to check off a handful of the restaurants and other food spots on my “To Try While in SFO List.”

The day after arriving at SFO International, a dear college friend and I made it girls’ night out and treated ourselves to Chez Panisse’s innovative, yet refined cuisine. This set the stage for the rest of my trip and San Francisco’s fascination with French-inspired fare.

We dined at the upstairs “Café,” which isn’t a café at all, but a fine-dining restaurant where the menu changes daily, according to seasonal products. There is also the downstairs “Restaurant,” which is where it all began in 1971 (here, they propose set menus). As a side note, “Panisse” was the last name of a character in Marcel Pagnol’s 1930s film trilogy set in Marseille (Marius, Fanny and César). The two-storey restaurant is located in a one-of-a-kind wooden house in a part of town that immediately made me feel like I was back in college again. Shattuck Avenue was bustling on a Saturday night, mostly with students squatting on the median eating pizza from a local, and obviously popular, spot (never mind the “Keep off Median” sign clearly planted in the middle).

Once inside Chez Panisse, the atmosphere changed completely and we were transported to a dimly lit room that timelessly hovered somewhere between a refined French restaurant and a Zen Japanese tea garden. In other words, I felt like I was in the Bay area- where many restaurants have taken Alice Water’s lead and succeeded in bringing out an idyllic combination of the past (French culinary tradition) and the present (fresh new attitude and natural, organic ingredients). I was especially interested in discovering Chez Panisse since it has been an important leader in supporting local, sustainable products.

The whole experience was pretty near perfect. The menu, inspired by Rose Gray* (see end), didn’t help our indecisive natures though! We must have spent a good twenty-minutes mesmerized by the array of tempting choices. Looking back, deciding between the local halibut tartar and the goat cheese salad, must have been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made in a restaurant.  In the end, we were content with what we ended up choosing:

Entrées:

- Local halibut tartar with Belgian endive and steelhead roe

- Orange salad with red onions, cilantro and pistachios

Mains:

- Ravioli di cima di rapa e ricotta with wild mushrooms

- Wood-oven roasted squid and artichoke with rosemary salsa and aioli

Dessert:

- Bittersweet chocolate truffle tartlet with candied bergamot and crème chantilly

- Vin Santo ice cream with almond brittle and biscotti

- 2 Cappuccinos

Wine:

- 2009 Navarro Pinot Gris, Anderson Valley

The starters were a toss-up, both excellent. The squid (calamari) was my very favorite dish- a perfect combination of flavors. I also enjoyed the ice cream, made of Italian dessert wine. The pinot gris, from California grapes, was fresh and reminiscent of citrus fruit.

Like I said, Chez Panisse was a special treat. I was glad to finally dine in the restaurant that is so well known for marrying traditional French cuisine with local products. This experience is up there with the one I had last year at Greens. If I were to compare two similar dishes though, (the raviolis), Greens gets the gold medal. I remember them simply melting in my mouth like butter. The ones at Chez Panisse were nice, but weren’t as memorable. Since Greens is purely vegetarian, I guess we’ll never know how they’d do roasted calamari. I’m happy leaving that to Chez Panisse.

*Rose Gray was a British chef, cookbook writer and co-founder of the River Café in London. Here’s a neat article about how she helped revolutionize British cuisine.

I’m sipping a steaming cup of Jade Chai Green Tea- one of my special finds in San Francisco’s China Town.

Thanks to a friend, I spent the better part of an hour sticking my nose into tin after tin of rich, fragrant tea leaves- from Silver Peony (a white tea) to Organic Golden Monkey (a black tea), and then from peppermint rose and chrysanthemum (herbal teas) to oolong, after oolong…after oolong.

It was the green tea chai that ended up in my bag (and now in my teacup). For years I’ve been hearing about the health benefits of green tea (naturally caffeine-free, full of anti-oxidants, helps build the immune system…). Despite the ready availability of it in both my mother’s and sister’s cupboards, I just haven’t gotten myself to join the green tea club- until now. I always found it was too bitter- and I tend to prefer my tea like the English, with milk. The chai I found at the Red Blossom Tea Company (where you may taste and learn how to correctly prepare tea, by the way) combines green tea leaves with a plethora of appealing spices, such as cardamon, orange peel and cloves. The jazzy, peppery taste is unique to the other chai teas I’m a fan of.

It’s recommended to rinse the tea leaves before infusion (steeping time: about 1 minute, though I usually leave it a little longer to help bring out the spices). The Red Blossom website has a helpful page about brewing temperatures and times. This tea can, of course, be prepared with hot water only, but for a special treat I add milk and a touch of honey.

On the Red Blossom website you can also learn more about different teas, including green tea. I liked reading that green tea is only one step away from “a living tea leaf” because, unlike black tea, it is kept from undergoing the oxidation process (known as “fermentation” in the tea industry). In this case, a tea-maker will heat a newly harvested leaf in order to keep its natural enzymes from oxidizing it. Thus, the high concentration of anti-oxidants, I assume?

In this post, I’ll be talking about Greens, an upscale vegetarian restaurant, Pauline’s Pizza and Dragon Well, a hip Chinese spot.

Greens

My new favorite restaurant (in the world, I think) is Greens at Fort Mason. It’s located in an old warehouse overlooking San Francisco Bay. According to their website, they were one of the pioneers in establishing vegetarian gastronomy in the United States. Today, this is a fine-dining restaurant that serves only the highest quality vegetarian cuisine.

On Saturday nights Greens proposes a four-course set menu ($49, not including drinks). It may be a splurge, but is well worth it. Vegetarian or not, I’m convinced the pickiest of diners will leave feeling quite satisfied. You may choose from a variety of appealing (and wholesome) appetizers, main courses and desserts. You may also opt for a selection of wines, most of which are organic and are paired with your meal choice ($28 for 2 glasses of wine, plus an aperitif).

I was at Greens celebrating a group birthday party (that’s how you do it when you, your family, and friends are scattered all over the world). Our toast to turning 30 (we were 3 college friends in the lot) started off with Alsatian crément rosé (Lucien Albrecht)- essentially rose-colored champagne. We enjoyed this with goat cheese, olives and a fennel-Satsuma salad.

Next on the list was the appetizer (and the beginning of my new-found love for Italian butter beans). I chose: grilled asparagus, artichokes and radicchio, over the aforementioned beans and topped with shavings of Andante Dairy’s Etude goat cheese. (Andante, by the way, is a California-based, single-woman-run dairy farm, that produces numerous specialty cheeses. You can find them, for example, at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market that I mentioned in my last post).

My main dish: wild mushroom ravioli- so decadent it made me wish I was actually one of the mushrooms I was eating. Really. The homemade ravioli and mushrooms melted in my mouth just as much as the herbed butter that accompanied them.

And for dessert: a cheerful almond, honey tart.

No matter how much I rave about the quality of Greens’ cuisine, it won’t do it justice.

What I remember most: every single bite, the wine pairings and the view overlooking the bay.

Pauline’s Pizza

Pauline’s isn’t just any pizza restaurant: partly because they have their own organic vegetable gardens- which provide for many of the toppings on their pizzas. They also have their own vineyards. The house red, a 2006 Mourvedre, (an earthy, kind of leathery wine), accompanied the special house pizza (pesto) and the special house salad (a flirtatious combination of organic produce), quite well.

What I remember most: the noisy bustle, the crayon jar on the table, and the friendly wait staff.

Dragon Well

You can never forget a restaurant that introduces you to something new. At Dragon Well, a rather refined Chinese restaurant on Chestnut Street, it was stir-fried peas shoots. I had eyed them earlier in the week at the farmer’s market, but had never actually eaten them. I let the fact that I’m actually writing about them speak for itself. In addition to the pea shoots (a side dish), I’d recommend the Steamed Black Bean Salmon (cooked in rice wine and garnished with spinach) and the Stir-fried Curry Mi Fun (with five-spiced tofu and vermicelli noodles). At the end of your meal, you get to choose from either a traditional, or chocolate, fortune cookie.

What I remember most: the inviting smell of spices coming from the kitchen.

Addresses (all in San Francisco):

Greens

Fort Mason, Building A / Tel: (415) 771-6222 (Accept online reservations.)

Pauline’s Pizza

260 Valencia / Tel: (415) 552-2050

Dragon Well

2142 Chestnut Street / Tel: (415) 474-6888

Back from San Francisco- with lots of foodie stories to share!

When I travel, it’s all about food- well, at least 85%. It’s about trying new fare and seeing what’s in, what’s local. It’s about color and spice and just plain satisfying the palate.

Food-wise, San Francisco is a beautiful fusion of culture. I felt like I traveled the world in only a couple weeks. Sometimes I almost felt like I was back in France (French-inspired cafés and bakeries run rampant, as do fine red wines and decadent cheeses). Other times I was transported to far-off places like China, Italy, and Thailand. San Francisco is definitely the place if you like variety- high quality, healthy variety that is. What struck me most about the city is its abundance of fresh, organic produce and gourmet-style vegetarian cuisine.

You can’t write just one post on an entire trip, so I’ll be spreading my San Francisco food adventures over several days. I’ll talk about a few excellent restaurants, including my new all-time favorite, Green’s. I’ll also fill you in on tea, coffee, fortune cookies and cupcakes. Let’s start with farmers’ markets, though- essential when visiting this vibrant , farmer-friendly city.

I made it to two a couple open-air markets, but the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market was my favorite: a definite must if you’re in San Francisco on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Overtaking the Ferry Building Market Place in the Embarcadero neighborhood, this market has a great community vibe. It’s happy. It’s bustling. It’s full of mouth-watering samples.

My mom and I started our morning out at Frog Hollow Farm’s café just inside the Ferry Building back doors. Actually, we ended up spending more than just one morning here- thanks to the cherry almond scones and well-made coffee drinks.

Revved up and ready to go, we headed to the clock tower to meet up with a good college friend of mine and take in the humming sights, sounds and tastes of the market.

Meyer lemons were everywhere, from Frog Hollow Farm’s zest-filled lemon marmalade to lemon-flavored quark cheese. These sweet, fragrant lemons are originally from China, but are the craze in California today.

Quark cheese, originally made in Eastern Europe, proved to be a special, and addictive, find. It’s a soft cheese, kind of a cross between ricotta and cream cheese. While the garlic, lemon and vanilla flavors were all fun, we all ended up favoring the latter. The cheese naturally has a slight tang which gives a subtle kick to the vanilla. Such quark is great at breakfast, spread over warm toast or homemade scones.

We eagerly wandered from stand to stand in awe at all the edible originality for sale. Tangled kiwi vines- well, those aren’t actually edible, just a sight for the eyes. Stinging nettles- yes, those are edible, when cooked. Cap’n Mike’s Indian Smoked Salmon, (basted in honey). Herbal sugars- such as lemon (there it is again!) verbena and rose petal- and dried Thai basil at the Allstar Organics booth. Crispy, juicy Asian pears (which had a slight lemon flavor by the way).

I could go on and on, but I’ll just mention a few more finds…

On more of a French note, we encountered huge bundles of fragrant, organic lavender; some not-so-ordinary mushrooms; rich, creamy cheeses; fine red wines; and excellent renditions of real French bread. Just inside the Ferry Building doors, for example, lies Far West Fungi, a small shop that offers all sorts of intriguing mushrooms I’d never heard of before (like Nameko and Pioppini). Also inside the building is the Cowgirl Creamery, the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant and the Acme Bread Company. The best way to combine it all (and feel a little French) is to sit down for wine, cheese, marinated mushrooms and baguette at the wine bar.

We ended up going back to the Ferry Building several times. On one such occasion, we enjoyed two 2007 Californian reds: a Scribe Pinot Noir, Carnezos-Sonoma and a Nalle Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley. The cheese: a ½ round of Mt. Tam. The bread: an entire, fresh épi baguette.

Whether you start the day or finish it at the Ferry Plaza Market and Ferry Building merchants, you can’t go wrong. The market itself gets my “kudos for sustainability” for it’s support of local farmers and various other environmentally-friendly initiatives. The vendors, for example, only dispense bags that are compostable or recyclable- important since, as I learned, the City program doesn’t recycle just any old plastic bag!

All the market excitement almost made me wish we didn’t have dinner reservations that evening. I wanted to shop and cook, shop and cook- especially some of the stranger looking mushrooms. Fortunately, Green’s restaurant, and their mushrooms, was well worth the sacrifice.

Next post: favorite San Francisco restaurants…