This Saturday, many food bloggers who I consider friends, even if I haven’t met all of them, are meeting in San Francisco for BlogHer Food 2009. BlogHer Food 2009 was announced after I’d made all my travel arrangements for BlogHer 2009 in Chicago (darn you all!) but I don’t regret going to Chicago in any way. I just regret not being able to participate in this weekend, too!

I still have yet to meet in person Helen, Anita, Nicole or Matt, and see David in the US, or re-live my spooning moment with Ree, Elise and Jaden this summer (I am missing your party Saturday, too!), and I would love to see all the food bloggers I got to finally meet this summer again!

So I’m sad I can’t be there. But for those of you that will be, I hope you carve out a little slice of your Saturday morning to stop by the Ferry Building Marketplace and Farmers’ Market, even for 30 minutes! Taxi it there and back!

The Ferry Building and the Farmers’ Market are actually two separate things – the first is a permanent structure with restaurants and stores inside, and the farmers’ market is an additional, large presence of booths and stands that happens a few times a week (Tuesday: 10am–2pm,  Thursday: 10 am – 2pm, Saturday: 8am-2pm).

In case you can’t go to the Ferry Building, here are some photos to let you see what you’re missing. Note that one of my favorite things I don’t have a photo of: chilaquiles from Primavera - I was too busy eating them!

I love seeing different species of vegetables and fruit that I don’t often see in Italy: how could you resist something so colorful?

Eggplants I think are one of my favorite things to photograph. I love the gradients on these

Lobster mushrooms cost almost as much as regular lobsters! There are so many varieties I never see in Italy.

I like to do what I call “flower spotting” – herbs and bouquets of flowers that catch your eye as people brush by you. It seems like everyone grants themselves a present on Saturday.

There are lots of flower sellers in the farmers’ market

Roast chickens and pork that really remind me of Italy.

Look at the line – it’s not for Sur La Table, but the chickens!

I love heirloom tomatoes and the different look they can give to any plate.

Okra never looked so good!

If you need something sweet, there are plenty of options, like pastries from Miette. Though I have to be honest, I’m not impressed with their macarons, I think mine are better! If you have a suggestion where to get good macarons in San Francisco, leave it in the comments!

Even the bell peppers are multicolored

Often things are pre-bundled together so you can get just the amount you need and run out quickly.

If you’re lucky, you’ll run into some locals, as evidenced by my good friend here and his T-shirt: I got my Burrito in San Francisco! Isn’t that the truth! Get a burrito, or a dozen, while you’re in SF.

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There have only been a few times when I’ve been to Ocean Beach when there’s been sun or temperatures worthy of stripping down to your skivvies and getting some sun. My best memories of Ocean Beach in SF relate to the end of the fabulous and fun race Bay to Breakers, with Ocean Beach being the breakers part.

Take this lovely July evening, for example. Temperatures in Milan were hitting near 100 degrees. Here in San Francisco? A classic SF summer day with fog covering the Golden Gate Bridge and seaside. There’s the Cliff House and Seal Rock visible in the background with the 5 other brave souls on the beach this evening.

But these summer days make them perfect to have a bonfire! Luckily Ocean Beach has some designated bonfire pits which get claimed pretty quickly, so if you want to have a bonfire there, best stake your claim early!

Once the guys have had enough fun playing with the lighter fluid and making “big fire” you can start getting serious about utilizing the fire for more than heat.

There, that’s better.

A bonfire wouldn’t be a bonfire without marshmallows.

Careful not to catch the marshmallows on fire! Unless you are one of those that likes to char the outside, pull the blackened part an eat the gooey inside! I am not – I prefer slightly browned myself.

Not everyone likes marshmallows, though, so if you’re one of that crowd, you may think about trying to have some pizza from your very own wood fire oven…yes, warm that pizza up!

And if you’re a true San Franciscan, you throw your burrito on the bonfire, too. If you don’t have charred or smoked peppers inside, you soon will.

Just remember to bring as many blankets as you can because it’s going to be a COLD one, lots of fun music and your dancing shoes* (*flip flops are best – too much sand!)

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I haven’t shared many pictures of my trip back to the U.S. this summer, but for today, I’m going to share “5 Things I Love About San Francisco” – maybe they’re not the Top 5, ever, but they are definitely things I’m loving and thinking about today.

If you feel like playing along, you’re welcome to do “5 Things I Love About ______” on your own blog (with pictures!), and either comment here, or send me an email and I’ll add it to the bottom of the post!

5 Things I Love About San Francisco

(in no particular order)

5. Always having to look twice:

A split second later and I would have missed these two pirates that rode by on their makeshift bicycle/schooner with saber in hand.

This dog was waiting patiently for his owner to return, but he looked right at home in the driver’s seat of this British-paraphernalia Mini Cooper!

This is perhaps my favorite photo of my entire trip. A sign in Noah’s Bagels that politely states to their customers there is “No Need to Tip” – absolutely refreshing and definitely unique. I am definitely spoiled living in Italy – I can’t remember the last time I tipped anyone for anything. In San Francisco I was often at odds with my friends because they were giving 20% tips to taxi drivers whose “performance” narrowly killed us each time.

4. Dungeness Crab and Food Bloggers.

Maybe those two things can’t get grouped together in your mind, but in mine, they can. These fried Dungeness crabs were one of my favorites dishes the night I had the honor to dine with 11 wonderful food bloggers during the BlogHer conference in July, many of whom live in the area. If you want to discover some great Bay Area food bloggers, Sam from Becks ‘n Posh Nosh consistently presents some Bay Area blogs.

Finally I can say it was great to meet all of you! (Thanks to Elise for picking that great place!): Claire from Cookthink, Lydia from the The Perfect Pantry, Kalyn from Kalyn’s Kitchen, Kathy from Panini Happy, Sean from Hedonia, Shuna from Eggbeater, Susan from Food Blogga, Genie from the Inadvertent Gardener, Elise from Simply Recipes, Amy from Cooking With Amy, and Jennifer Jeffrey. Kalyn did a great job of rounding up posts from other food bloggers at BlogHer.

I’m not sure if we’ll be able to swing a visit this December, since I haven’t been back during crab season in 5 years, but if we do, I’ll be having a crab a day until I go home.

Of course, the Peking Duck wasn’t too shabby, either.

3. (Good) Street Performers.

They’ve got rhythm, they’ve got unique style, and they’re always entertaining. I love turning a corner and getting a free concert or breakdance show.

2. The Culture.

At a local bookstore display for “San Francisco Culture,” I thought the selection of books was appropriate, except for the cover of BUTT; the model is curled up into the fetal position. They may want to re-shoot that one.

1. Walking Down Market Street in Early Morning.

Since the streets are empty, it’s a delicious silence and the arriving light draws my eyes up to it as it filters through the high-rise buildings and makes the leaves of the trees appear a glowing green.

What do you love about San Franciso, or another city? Play along! I’m sure I’ll have more to love and share with you about San Francisco in the future.

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These notebooks were filled with numerous ideas, lists and (bad) sketches (remember my drawing skills from when I went to the gynecologist?). One of these ideas was about opening a restaurant since I had wanted to get closer to the restaurant scene for some time, other than just as a consumer. Since then, I have come to realize a restaurant is one of the most difficult businesses to actually leave for a few days, and the concept of a weekend or days off disappears.

Soon, my dream to open a restaurant became a dream just to take more cooking classes. I knew that my trip to the States would finally be a good opportunity to do so with my mother. I checked out the California Culinary Academy and was pleased to find they have classes every Saturday in the middle of the city! I was planning on being there that day anyway, so it was perfect. And so was that day – a perfect blue sky and crisp morning air as we walked around the city that was still sleeping at 9am.

The CCA’s Weekend Gourmet at the Academy classes are actually not currently listed on the website, but you can email them and ask for a catalog. There was even an Italian cuisine class, but I couldn’t ignore the irony in coming back to San Francisco to learn how to cook Italian food and decided to skip that one.

We chose an “Indian Comfort Foods” class – I love Indian food and I thought it might be something I could re-create in Italy since many Indian spices are available in international food stores. Our chef spent the first part of the class speaking about Pakistani-Indian cuisine and familiarizing us with the ingredients (and spices) we were going to get our hands into. Then she walked us through a few of the recipes she had prepared, and set us loose!

Several small groups formed based on the recipes they wanted to prepare that day – the Chef circulated amongst us, answering questions as we needed or giving tips.

The beef Ghost Suleman was one of the dishes we prepared. There was also a lamb version that was so tender and spicy that it actually didn’t make it out to the buffet as people (and other classes’ chefs) were tasting it quite a bit! But our beef version was pretty good, too. The meat provided was quite a bit more than the recipe called for, so we should have compensated more.

A dish the Chef really wanted to change our minds about was the Bhindi Bhaji, Spicy Fried Okra – while they were more crunchy than slimy (a common okra complaint), they didn’t make our minds spin like some of the other dishes. I blame myself as I think we were a little light on the spices.

Churros y Chocolate – one of the dishes from the Tapas class at the buffet that looked so cute.

The Chef took plain Dhal (lentils) and really made it pop with fried onions and spices, or Tharka, on top, which is something I plan on never forgetting in the future. It looked and tasted so good!

Pros:
My biggest fear with cooking Indian was all those darn spices! Each of the recipes we made in class called for an average of 7 spices which can be intimidating. There was a lack of measuring equipment for every person which in hindsight was a blessing because it made us eyeball spice measurements and it reminded us that cooking is not about practicing an exact science, but tasting and adjusting when necessary. Also, getting my hands “dirty” and in the spices was definitely a way to familiarize myself with them. I had bright yellow turmeric under my nails for a few days.

Recipes! We got to take a packet home prepared for us by the Chef so we could re-create some of the things we made. Unfortunately I don’t feel I can post any of them as these are her personal recipes, but I’m planning to adapt a few of them and I’ll post the results of my experiments.

One of the big “pro’s” was the excellent buffet at the end of the course. All 5 courses from that day brought out their wares and shared with everyone else for a big, multi-ethnic buffet. It also gave us a chance to talk with other students about their class and see what they had produced. The Tapas class had produced quite a few dishes, the Vietnamese class had things I’ve never even heard of (and my favorite Summer rolls), and the two pastry classes (Cake decorating and Laminated Dough) produced huge plates of croissants, cakes and pastry wheels. Our 5 Indian dishes added to the feast even if most of the chapatis didn’t survive until the buffet (we had to have some perks!)

Cons:
I can’t really say there were any “cons” but I had to immediately adjust my expectations which I think were probably way too high for the time we had available. I had expected more “teaching” and everyone making every dish planned for that day, but there just wasn’t enough time to do it all. And our class was a specialty class that focused on that cuisine, though the Chef was very available for tips and tricks when we asked.

Next time, I’d love to take a basic skills course (they have several), especially with knife techniques as I think that would be a lot of fun and I think I need some basic instructions. All of the croissants from the laminated dough course came out looking so beautifully I bet they learned some great techniques! One thing several people said about their previous courses (there were several serial course-takers) is “…you find out ways to save any dish…” in that the chefs would help you adjust a recipe to improve it or “save” it. The “sauces” course was mentioned several times.

The “ideal” course for me would be one that spent a few hours in the morning concentrating on basic skills and then the afternoon for going into specific cuisine and/or recipes, but I know you have only so much time. I plan on taking another course the next time I’m in the States.

Anyone else taken a course with the CCA or another culinary school they wish to recommend? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Technorati tags: [California Culinary Academy - Cooking course - Cooking Indian ]

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