We’re just back from a delightful mom and daughter trip to San Francisco. We visited with dear friends and even got to see Rose’s aunt and cousin who happened to be over from Ireland.
Most of our time was spent with my friend Rachel, who I’ve known since first grade, her husband Rob and their son Frankie, and my friend Elana of the dairy and nut-free food blog Unbelieveable And Yet, her husband & son.
The best part of the trip was the company, we had some pretty good meals too.
Among the highlights are: Gaspare’s Pizza, pretty good pie and great classic Italian-American decor. Elana’s baked eggplant, perfectly tender and brown. Shredded and massaged kale salad, which we had more than once (recipe soon). Rachel’s amazing garlic bread (so buttery), I’m not even a garlic bread person but I was sold. Dungeness crab (cakes and sandwiches) & oysters (raw and po-boy) and amazing old-school ambiance, at Nick’s Rockaway Beach.
(click on the photos for slide show view, and description)
Looking forward to that shredded kale recipe :)
Since Nina can’t comment about the steak in some of those pictures, i feel compelled to tell all you visitors about it, cause it was exceuted f*&^ing perfectly! Elana pan seared top sirloin (not a cut i would normally think of for steaks) and they came out in various doneness from almost-medium-rare to medium-almost-well. I have pan seared many steaks, and i have to say, it takes some skill to do it well, and these were done right AND made even more phenomenal by the sauce she accompanied it with! It was some sort of black olive anchovie tapenade that was ridiculoulsy amazing and led me to eating 4 peices! The sum was defintiely greater than the parts, and the sauce from the steak also went really well with the plain buttered pasta with pecorino. ka yum. That dinner was by far my favorite. I helped myself to everything twice! (before i almost died from the dessert, wee-wah) Thanks ladies!
Thanks Rachel!
You can read more about those steaks (and what to do if you have any leftovers) here: http://unbelievableandyet.blogspot.com/2013/03/cheese-steaks.html