San Francisco: go green or go home

San Francisco is the mecca of recycling, organic, dogs and hairy armpits. Oh, and don't forget the food, all the glorious food!

With the state of California dishing out $1000 fines for littering, I can understand why San Fran is trying to go green. It's working, there's recycling bins everywhere (hotels, buses, streets) and I didn't see one person litter.

There's a lot of dogs in San Fran. It makes sense between the high gay population and the dot com boom where people are more career than family focused.

Organic is big. There's the organic farmers market by the ferry building on Saturdays, one on Market St on Sundays, then the stores Whole Foods and Bi-Rite, plus who knows how many other local ones. These are places where hippies unite, hug trees and feel generally good about the world because they're buying local, sustainable and in season.

I do love how the vegetables are all neatly lined up, presentation is great across all stores and markets. Australia needs to follow suit and up the ante.

I joined in at Bi-Rite by buying "Lucky Peach", the quarterly food publication conceived by David Chang and Peter Meehan and printed right here in San Fran. I left the tree hugging for our road trip down the California coast. And I always feel generally good about the world.

San Francisco: Tartine Bakery

Two of my mates suggested we go to Tartine Bakery, another San Fran institution.

The line up was out the door and down the street. We waited at least thirty minutes until we had ordered and snagged a table inside.

We had coffees and food to share:
- pastrami sandwich
- coconut cream pie
- chocolate and hazelnut tart

The pastrami sandwich was served on sourdough. This puppy was massive, it came sliced into three pieces, perfect for sharing. It was accompanied by baby carrot pickles, which when eaten in the same mouthful as the sandwich, really made it.

The coconut cream pie consisted of a white flaky crust, then working from the bottom up: a layer of hard chocolate, coconut cream custard, plain whipped cream and finally topped with flakes of toasted coconut. It was finger licking great. What I loved the most was that it wasn't too sweet, but instead super light and fluffy.

Chocolate and hazelnut is one of my favorite combinations and it was executed really well in this tart. With any chocolate that I had in San Fran (be it a hot chocolate drink or dessert), there was always a bitterness to the chocolate that dominated, instead of the sickly sweetness we normally get back home in Aus. The chocolate tasted good, it tasted the way it should, as opposed to an overload of sugar on your senses.

Tartine is hard work - you have to be willing to wait. At one point I was ready to throw in the towel but in the end, post tasty baked good consumption, I was glad we stayed. Thumbs up, keep on baking!

San Francisco: 29th Annual Tiburon Wine Festival

Tiburon is a town which covers most of the Tiburon Peninsula. It reaches the San Francisco bay from the south and a nice way to get to it is by ferry from Pier 41.

I never knew this before I stumbled across a website, late one night in the thick of my travel research, which listed a range of wine festivals happening in California. Booyah, it was on in Tiburon the weekend we were staying in San Fran.

$65 per person got us unlimited wine and food for three hours. More importantly the festival was a chance for local growers to showcase their produce and to get up close and personal with their consumers...drunk and fun loving San Franciscans enjoying the sunshine, warm weather, live music, good food and vino.

According to the Californian Wine Institute, "sales of California wine within the U.S. in 2011 grew to a record 211.9 million cases, up 5.6 percent in volume compared to the previous year. The estimated retail value of these shipments was $19.9 billion, according to wine industry consultant Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates in Woodside. Global 2011 California wine sales to all markets in the U.S. and worldwide also increased 5.6 percent to 256.6 million cases.". That's a lot of wine. I'd like to compare that to Australian wine production an export rates...some other time.

I like red, in fact I love red wine. I'm not a fan of white - I attribute it to trashy white girls getting sloshed and tarting themselves off to the nearest innocent bystander. I though I shouldn't give it the cold shoulder this time; maybe I could be surprised. I didn't push myself out of my comfort zone too much, just tried a Sauvignon Blanc which was fruity, fun, light to get the ball rolling (highly enjoyable, reminded me of warm sunny days) before getting seriously stuck into the reds. Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel and Syrah. I hadn't tried Zinfandel before and it was a hit.

The crowd was preppy, yuppy, cheerleaders and jocks. It was an interesting contrast to the constant flood of hobos asking us for any spare change.

The girls loved the excuse to wear their summer dresses and sandals; they braved the chilly ferry conditions there and back, to be able to make the most of the pleasantly mild micro climate in Tiburon.

Talking with various producers, that's something I noticed in what they were telling: the many varied micro climates throughout the California coast, each producing a slightly different tasting wine, even though it might be the same type of grape. They all seemed like artisans in their own right, highly passionate about what they do and the quality and uniqueness they produce.

It was a fun day in the sun doing three of my favourite things: eating, drinking wine and hanging out with great company.

San Francisco: Tony's Pizza Napoletana

I admit it, I judge a book by its cover, I actually enjoy doing it. Tony's Pizza Napoletana was one of these calm, cool and collected judgemental moments.

We were being tourists all day and hadn't had a decent lunch, so by this stage we were starving. We got off the bus at North Beach (Little Italy) and walked up the main strip past Washington Park. My stomach started churning and it wasn't from hunger. It was from sheer fear that we'd walk into a tourist palooza. I hadn't done my research, I wasn't familiar with this area at all, in fact I had completely overlooked it until Chris expressed that moment he really wanted good Italian (what, Incanto at $160 wasn't good enough for him?!). Thinking about it now, that stomach churning was actually pure, raw instinct. My golden rule of sticking OFF the main strip kicked in. I stopped dead in my tracks, turned around and walked down one of the side streets past Washington Park to the other side of it, pulling Chris in tow. In the far distance my eye had caught a colourful awning and some people sitting outside. The scene was set, I had to get to that corner. They seemed to be enjoying themselves (far away from the obvious prowl of tourists) and I wanted to enjoy myself along with them.

The restaurant had a 1.5hr wait. Boom, I knew we stumbled onto a gold mine. It was getting real foggy and cold by this stage around 5pm. They said they might have a table outside, the hostess stepped outside to check and came back with great news, one table left outside. Mama. Dedication to the meal ensued. We got seated and froze our asses off the whole meal. It was worth it. Fantastic pizza - make sure to get the thin base, which is true Napoletana style. Tasty food, super fresh ingredients.

We ordered the Americana pizza and a salad of burrata, tomato and greens with a thick aged balsamic vinegar. Dave that salad was for you - we know how much you enjoy your vinegars!

It was all ass numbingly, frozen fingery delicious and worth the pain of sitting in the freezing cold to eat it. Needless to say we skipped dessert and coffee (boo hoo).

The cab driver on the way back to the hotel asked us how we found out about Tony's. He said its quite new (maybe six months old or so) but fast becoming an institution and probably serves up the best pizza slice in San Fran. And rightfully so, Tony is an 11 time world pizza champion. That is one master and perfectionist at work.

We told him we stumbled across it. This was one of those instances where social wasn't needed to pick a winner.

San Francisco: Brenda's French Soul Food

Kiss my grits.

If you're ever going to walk through The Tenderloin, then make sure it's for Brenda's French Soul Food. I think the address is Civic Centre, but we wandered through the loin on a good day to get to Brenda's and had no trouble.

The menu is best described as Southern comfort food and apart from the well known food items such as omelette and eggs, it seemed quite foreign to me, by name at least.

I ordered a shrimp and goat cheese omelette with a side of grits and a butter cake. I'm totally naive when it comes to southern food and hence why I picked this place - because I really freaking wanted to try it! I'm bummed we don't have time to make it to the deep south of America on this trip, so Brenda's will have to do for now.

Grits, the native American ground corn dish, reminded me of some sort of really fine polenta. But it tasted creamier, milky with a distinct smell and flavour to it. It simultaneously disturbed me and comforted me. Weird sensation.

The butter cake was actually a really buttery scone that crumbled to pieces as soon as it was pierced. So soft, oily/buttery and tasty - straight to my already generous Greek hips!

Chris ordered a turkey Po'Boy which is basically a sandwich. It was salty, filling and tasty.

All the food was actually tasty, fresh and comforting.

I couldn't help but notice though the many overweight people eating at the restaurant...the food portions are very generous and they seemed to polish them off effortlessly. Hmmm I wonder why the obesity epidemic in the US then (and Australia now)?... but that's another topic. In the meantime, kiss my grits America, I'm not eating the giant portions you serve me anymore.

San Francisco: Blue Bottle Coffee Co.

Another institution is Blue Bottle Coffee Co. A "micro roaster of organic coffee".

Have I told you how much I love my mate Mike? He's the one that recommended we check this place out, him and my Wallpaper* guide. Mike reeks of San Francisco cool (he earned it as he lived there for some months) and any general kind of cool; he's a kid of cool.

It was refreshing, after a string of bad coffee experiences in the States last time we were here 1.5yrs ago, to have access to not only decent, but delicious and organic coffee. More importantly it was refreshing to know there's Americans out there that enjoy a good cup of authentic joe. None of that chain mass produced Starbucks toilet water they proudly declare to serve as coffee. I'm talking about the real deal. Real coffee beans roasted with tenderness and love, ground delicately (or not) and the caffeinated goodness extracted in an entertaining manner usually involving industrial machinery in a warehouse style set up and an aroma so alluring, a crowd so trendy, that you're lured into their pleasure den called a coffee house.

Having started out in Oakland using a tiny batch roaster, Blue Bottle Coffee Co. is now a juggernaut with several branches having opened up and operating throughout San Francisco and New York. They still stay true and committed to their manifesto of roasting using only vintage tools, being environmentally conscious by using compostable bags and getting the freshly roasted beans to their customers within 48 hours.

The verdict? It was good, real good for America. So good in fact, that they had two stalls setup at the Ferry Building organic markets on Saturday and they were both pumping with massive line ups. San Franciscans love their Blue Bottle and so will I whenever I'm in San Fran.