SAN FRAN TURKEY DAY RECAP.

San Francisco for Thanksgiving was an amazing time, as expected. I'm going to try to keep this brief and painless as my SF posts always tend to get quite lengthy!!

I arrived late on Wednesday evening and headed straight to Mamacita's in the Marina district for some much-needed fueling before Thanksgiving-meal grocery shopping!! Mamacita's has been named the "Best Mexican" in SF for a few years running now, and I cannot disagree!!


I ordered the Crudo de Atun - a beautiful cylinder of ahi tuna tartar topped with pumpkin seeds, mango, and avocado. Dressed in sweet and spicy chipotle-agave nectar emulsion and served with a pile of yucca chips. Delicious and textural.


I also ordered the Mayakoba - a seared ahi tuna "taco" salad with persimmon-tangerine pico de gallo and cucumber slaw in jicama wraps. A lighter, crisp taco in preparation for the impending Thanksgiving meal ahead of me the next day.


On Thanksgiving day, I put on my chef's hat and went to work. A meal for 11 people is quite daunting!! The chicken was marinated the night before so Thanksgiving day was focused on executing the vegetarian portion of the menu!!


In honor of my love for cheese, bread, and Brazil - we baked PAO DE QUEIJO bread in place of your typical cornbread starter. The chewy, glutinous consistency of the bread actually comes from TAPIOCA flour. This yummy, cheesy bread was gobbled up within 5 minutes of coming out of the oven!!


We reinvented our mashed potatoes by adding a butternut squash puree to the mix.


Some of my favorite vegetables made an appearance at the Thanksgiving table - broccoli and brussel sprouts roasted with Parmesan cheese.


And roasted cauliflower with capers, raisins, and almonds.


The pumpkin lasagna was fantastic - layers of creamy pumpkin puree and swiss chard and smothered in cheese. DELISH!


Our macaroni and cheese was a bit disappointing, but I'm still glad we tried it. I think we expected it to have a more clumpy-goat-cheese consistency. The "roux" or cheese base was made with goat cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, and Parmesan cheese and of course we topped off the mixture with breadcrumbs and tomatoes. I think the downfall was our choice of cavatelli-shaped pasta...we would have been better off with a smaller-surface-area-pasta-shape.


The cornbread stuffing was quite the process!! It was filled with a ton of vegetables and we also added a special ingredient - SOY SAUSAGE!!! Which actually turned out quite well.


The meal ended with a lovely pumpkin pie and homemade whipped cream - which added just the loveliest touch. I couldn't even stand still long enough to take this photo because I simply could not wait. I could easily live in a bowl of homemade whipped cream.


Our beautiful spread!!!


So much to be thankful for.


Saturday was filled with sightseeing. Every time I come to this city, there is STILL more to see!!! The Palace of Fine Arts...


...hugging trees at the Palace of Fine Arts...


The Lyon Street Steps...


The Sutra Bathhouse Ruins...


...playing in the ruins of the Sutra Bath Houses...this frolicking did quite the number on my quilted Chanel flats...


And the view of San Francisco from the Twin Peaks...gorgeous!! I absolutely love this city!!

That evening was an elaborate 11-course dinner at COI- locally-sourced Northern California cuisine.


Frozen Mandarin Sour - angostura bitters, kumquat, and satsuma ice. A nice, refreshing, salty, and citrus-y way to cleanse the palette and whet the appetite!!


Oysters Under Glass - marin miyagi oysters, yuzu, and rau ram (an herb with lemon and coriander-cilantro aroma). Quite an interesting dish - the gelee was unexpected and rather beautiful.


Pasture - beets roasted in hay, fresh cheese, wild sprouts, and flowers. This flattened roadkill slab of beet mash was tasty!! Love the greenery arrangement.


Crab Melt, California Style - steffan's lardo and wheat grass. While this crab on toast was absolutely heavenly...the experience was also rather TRAGIC. Despite my warnings of being a vegetarian, the lardo was left in the dish (yea, that thing that looks like cheese). What's done is done. I ate cured pork fat. The COI staff was extremely apologetic and accommodating after they realized the error that was made and took $75 off my meal. I'll take it.


Farm Egg - cauliflower and nettle-dandelion salsa verde. You know how I feel about eggs. I thought this dish was fantastic - the egg coated the elements just beautifully.


Earth and Sea - steamed tofu mousseline, mushroom dashi, yuba, and fresh seaweed. This soup felt nourishing and rejuvenating to my soul.


Savory Chanterelle Porridge - crispy root vegetables, cress, and sherry. This was a favorite at our table. Everyone really loved this foamy, mushy, crunchy, savory mixture.


The Prather Ranch Beef dish was recreated for me in a vegetarian fashion - black garlic, carrots, sudachi, spinach, and cilantro were served on a bed of grains. I enjoyed the tangy/vinegar flavors of the vegetables.


Grilled Cheese - beaufort, rye, onion, and pickled daikon. If every grilled cheese sandwich could be so lovely. The rye bread really pumped up the integrity of the dish.


Cheescake - goat cheese, graham cracker, niabell grape, sorrel, and nasturtium. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the grape sorbet in this dish - so light yet rich when paired with the goat cheese.


Cinnamon Smoked Apples - iced buttermilk and hazelnut.


And a final little nibble before we paid the check. This was an excellent meal and experience - I highly recommend COI to anyone that looking for a thoughtful, well-executed dinner with a heavy emphasis on unique, specialty ingredients. There was not one dish that failed to satisfy - which is hard to come by.


Lunch the next day was at the Ferry Building Marketplace - a large shopping and dining center filled with specialty stores (for cheese, coffee, mushrooms, herbs, etc), a farmers market, and outdoor food stands.


We shared a bunch of dishes - including this plate of Chilaquiles Veracruz from Primavera. Ancho chile chilaquiles (fried corn tortilla chips all sauced up) topped with avocado, sour cream, onion, cilantro, and served with scrambled free-range local eggs and refried beans.


Their tamale plate was also the bomb!! Two tamales served with beans.


We ordered one Butternut Squash tamale and one Pork tamale. DELICIOUS - do you see all that soft, mushy, cornmeal-y goodness??


Namu, a Korean restaurant in SF, also has a Korean street food stand at the Ferry Building - serving up Loco Moco, Korean tacos, egg toasts, and more!! We got a few orders of okonomiyaki - which is a crispy and gooey flour pancake with kimchee and market vegetables, topped with bonito flakes, okonomiyaki sauce, and kewpie mayo. We also added on a free range egg for good measure. OMG this Asian pancake takes the CAKE!!!! I loved the consistency, the sweet flavor of the mayo, the richness of the egg yolk, and the added texture of the flakes and veggies!! Could not stop eating this.


Dinner that night was a continuation of Thanksgiving - ASIAN STYLE!!! Which means...HOT POT!!!!


And SOJU + CALPICO!!!


I had to work really hard at my own little personal vegetarian pot rumbling on the stovetop. Please notice the bib. I take hot pot very. seriously.


And that, my dear readers, was essentially my trip to San Francisco!!!! An extra special shout-out to my SF family for making it such a wonderful weekend.


And now it's BLAST-OFF to the holidays!! CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ALREADY DECEMBER!!!!