#28 & #40 at the ferry building

#28: A Gibraltar at Blue Bottle Cafe

#40: Cheeseburger with sweet potato fries at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher

Better late than never… but late-March brought about the end of Winter Quarter at UCSD and as a result, many friends visited the Bay Area… specifically one of my favorites… S!

We decided to do a little whirlwind tour of the stuff she (& I) had been wanting to try in SF, and unsurprisingly, we started at the SF Ferry Building again, as I mentioned from my last 7×7 adventure.

For breakfast we shared a gingerbread [?] cupcake from Miette patissierie. And yes, we are adults now and eat whatever we want for breakfast. So we had a cupcake that day.

Miette decoration

Although Miette is tiny, it is SO adorable. Definitely worth perusing if you’re ever there (:

The cupcake was tiny for $3.25 compared to Sprinkles, but it was a case of quality over quantity; the cake was very moist and the flavor of the gingerbread was not overwhelming. The cream cheese [or was it vanilla? I don't remember anymore] frosting complemented the gingerbread perfectly. But there is rarely a cupcake I dislike. (:

As avid coffee drinkers, S & I got our coffee fix from Blue Bottle across the way.

My Gibraltar

Blue Bottle is a local roaster and has quite a few followers in the Bay Area. I’d heard about their strong coffee, but never had the guts to try it. However, I went with the Gibraltar, as recommended by the 7×7 list, which is actually named after the glass it’s served in. It’s a shot of espresso with a small amount (“dollop”) of milk and foam. Essentially it’s between a true machiatto (not the caramel kind from Starbucks, mind you) and a latte. A potent cup of coffee… and I loved it! I did have to add a little sugar, but yummm it was so smooth. Plus, espresso art is something I can always appreciate.

S got a mocha with a pretty leaf on top. I can’t vouch for hers, but it was probably strong in terms of espresso and chocolate.

S, cupcake, mocha

We rounded out our breakfast by strolling around the Ferry Building and admiring the view of the Bay Bridge out back. Since I spotted Taylor’s Automatic Refresher outside Blue Bottle, I asked if we could stay for lunch. From their to-go window, we were third in line and split a bacon cheeseburger with sweet potato fries. A bit of a  disappointment here–the wait took awhile (probably because it was prime lunch rush for the Financial District), and the cheeseburger was definitely not warmed up enough so that the cheese wasn’t even melted. ): What was interesting was that they use egg buns (which we didn’t know at the time.. we were wondering why it was yellow). Sweet potato fries naturally are delicious.. can’t really go wrong with that. We also ended up eating it in my car since we ran out of minutes on the meter, and at $3/hr, we (or at least I) didn’t want to spend any more on parking. Since we were parked next to the Embarcadero square, I thought of it as a ghetto picnic. teehee.

creme brulee (cart) run

Lastly, for dessert we went to find the Creme Brulee Man in the Mission district. Since it was a random Thursday, he was working out of a cupcake shop and didn’t have his usual cart, but S got a picture with him in his chef’s outfit anywho. (:

I hadn’t seen him in a while, so I tried a new flavor of his: lemon creme brulee with homemade blueberry topping. Sarah tried Ritual coffee, which is always one of my favorites.

Definitely over-ate, considering the sizes of our stomachs. But looking forward to more adventures when S comes back (:

I’m also starting to reset my expectations for the things on the 7×7 list. These are definitely not “omg, most amazing food EVER,” but they are supposedly the best of what the City has to offer and cover a lot of variety, most of which I would normally not try. I’m considering it more of a guide to new things I should look out for.

#17: porchetta sandwich at roliroti, sf ferry bldg

some may know that i’ve been currently working on 7×7′s big eat list of 2010. it essentially details the so-called “100 things you have eat before you die” in SF. i’ve gotten to about 11 of them so far, and they’re good, but deffo not MUST eat before you die. regardless, i am enjoying the hunt for these foods.

the most recent of these adventures included the san francisco ferry building farmer’s market, which is held on tuesdays, thursdays, and saturdays). the ferry building itself is pretty well-known in the granola, free-range, organic, yuppie group, as it’s filled with high-priced markets and cafes. but on these days, food vendors and local farmers set up shop in front of the building.

particularly i wanted to try item 17 on the list: the porchetta sandwich from the roliroti truck (first mobile rotisserie truck in the US) since it’s only there on thurdays and saturdays. essentially the porchetta is prepared by taking a slab of free-range pork, preparing it with herbs, wrapping/rolling it up tightly, and letting it roast in the rotisserie. the result is juicy, flavorful pork meat with crispy, fatty skin outside (think chinese-style roast pork). pure deliciousness.

so KW and i finally set off for it last week. we had also heard that the line gets super long, but after scoring a lucky parking spot right across the street, we ran into one of our high school friends who let us slip in… cutting our wait time from 30+ min to 10 min.

i need to not be as shy about taking pictures in front of other people.

the truck itself with its ovens inside

tomas, the owner of roliroti. there is the wrapped porchetta ready to be cut up for the sandwiches.

they prepare the sandwiches by a using fresh ciabatta loaf, cutting two slices of pork, chopping up the crispy skin+fat that falls off and placing it on top with caramelized onions and fresh argula, and finally wrapping it up into a brown bag. and i then sealed the deal for $8.50.

the masterpiece

it was definitely as good as i’d hoped. the arugula balanced out the greasiness of the pork and made it seem healthier, though i’m not the biggest fan of the arugula’s bitterness. the pork was well-flavored and cooked well, but it was semi-cold by the time we found a table and started eating. i only ate half of it at the farmer’s market, and saved the other half for my second lunch, when i toasted it.. and it was infinitely better. i think it would be soo much better if they toasted the bread, but i guess it would be kind of difficult for them to do that efficiently. overall, a solid 4.5 (out of yelp’s typical 5 star scale) for me. i would recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of roasted pork.

since KW is a flexitarian (which i didn’t know until we got there), he ordered a chicken sandwich from namu, a korean restaurant with a food tent. i’m not sure what it was called, but the bite i took of it was pretty delicious

i can’t wait to try some more of food that the sf ferry building features. un/fortunately i’m going to try to cut back on spending on eating out since i’m in the midst of looking for a part-time job. can’t wait til the next big eat food adventure though!