What I Ate Wednesday #111: 24 Hours in San Francisco

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If you had 24 hours [or maybe just a little more] in a city, how would you explore? Or on the other side, how would you show someone around? I mentioned the other day that my friend, Jordan, was visiting over the weekend for work. We had Friday evening as well as all day Saturday to take him out and show him the city. He’d never been to San Francisco before so Nathan and I had our work cut out for us! No problem though; we let our taste buds lead the way.

[Friday Night]

First stop was for beer at Thirsty Bear. Nathan and I had been before but it had also been a few years since. Let’s just say next time, we’ll pass.

We more than made up for that with our Moscow Mule pitcher from B Restaurant. Jordan said it might have been the best cocktail he’s ever had!

After some strong drinks, Fresh Roll was the perfect dinner. It’s like a Chipotle-style Vietnamese restaurant and it was delish!

[Saturday]
We started our day at 10 a.m. for a dim sum brunch at Yank Sing in the Financial District.

Steamed Pork Buns

Seafood Basil Siu Mai.. my fave!

Shanghai Pork Dumplings

Shanghai Pork Dumpling

Taro Cake

From there, we stopped at Tout Sweet in Union Square. That was one of Jordan’s only requests, and it just so happens the owner and winner of Top Chef Just Desserts was doing a demo and book signing that day! We made a second stop back there in the afternoon to say hi 😉

Raspberry Peanut Butter Macaron

Jordan & Yigit

They’re famous for their macarons and having been disappointed when we bought the real deal in Paris on our honeymoon, Nathan and I had our doubts. These macarons, however, were fabulous! I may have to get more if we go back again.

After sweets, we trekked over to the Mission for a beer..

.. a few relaxing minutes at Dolores Park..

.. and our final stop in the Mission, El Farolito for some amazing Mexican!

The biggest plate of al pastor and beans I’ve ever seen! And demolished 😉

We waddled out of there and hopped onto a train and then a bus and into the Fisherman’s Wharf area all to see the beautiful bridge.

We finished our night in North Beach with a proscuitto and parmesan pizza from our favorite place, Il Casaro.

Best Italian-style pizza since Italy!

It was a long, fun, and very filling day and I’m glad we were able to show Jordan so many areas of the city and our favorite spots to eat in such a short period of time. So…… who’s visiting next?! 😉

Food for Thought

What are your favorite restaurants to take visitors?

Familiar Faces and Sunset Views

Good morning, friends! Have you entered my WIN giveaway yet? It ends Thursday at 11:59 pm PST so make sure to get your entries in!

We had a really fun and totally exhausting weekend over here. My friend, Jordan, came to San Francisco for work but since he was here for a couple of extra days, we got to spend some time together. It was so great to see a familiar face [even though we will be seeing him again in just 2 short weeks!]

Nathan and I both had some work to do on Friday, but we definitely made up for that Friday night. Moscow mule anyone?

Aside from the drinks, Friday was pretty tame.. especially in comparison to Saturday! We went all over the city in an attempt to show Jordan as much as possible in such a short time. Obviously when we show people around, it’s all about the food. There was dim sum.

There was beer.

There were fabulous sunset views.

And that’s just the start! Between this past weekend and Thanksgiving next week, I will absolutely be watching my extra snacks this week haha! Yesterday, Nathan and I started the day early, went for a nice walk, hit the gym, and got our lives back together. In just 1 week, we’ll be packing our bags and heading back to Baltimore for 2 weeks and I’m psyched! But for now, gotta focus on getting through the week.

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Asian quinoa meatballs with roasted broccoli and baby bok choy
Monday – Thai chicken satay salad
Tuesday – Leftovers
Wednesday – BBQ chicken with roasted brussels and caramelized shallots
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

What’s your favorite way to show someone around your city?
Did you do anything fun over the weekend?

What I Ate Wednesday #2 – San Francisco Eats

All of our vacations always revolve around food. We get ideas of what we want to do and immediately scour the surrounding areas for different food to try.

This week’s WIAW is from the 4th day of my California trip.. starting in Yosemite, we hit up the breakfast buffet. Oatmeal with banana and peanut butter, 1/2 grapefruit, turkey sausage, and coffee. All cold. No pictures, because trust me, you don’t want to see that food! To say that Yosemite isn’t the ideal place to get a good meal is an extreme understatement, but I guess you give up good food for a few days in exchange for absolutely breathtaking views!

Glacier Point

After breakfast in Yosemite, I snagged an apple and some peanut butter for snack on our 4.5 hour drive over to San Francisco. Neither of us had ever had dim sum, so we dropped our luggage at the hotel and ventured out to Yank Sing, featured on Food Network’s BBQ Episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate for theirincredibly tasty BBQ Pork Buns.

And we feasted! We were immediately bombarded by women with carts and carts of food. It was a bit overwhelming, but such a fun experience! We ended up with all of our dishes within about 5 minutes of sitting down.

Pork Potstickers

Honey Walnut Cabbage Salad

Chicken Mushroom Steamed Dumplings

Shanghai Dumplings

The Shanghai Dumplings are on their specialty menu. They were practically like bundled up bites of soup!

Minced Kurobuta Pork, scallion and ginger wrapped and steamed in its own aromatic broth.

BBQ Pork Buns

After lunch, we wandered the streets of Chinatown and stopped off in Red Blossom Tea Company. Last time Nathan was in San Francisco he got me tons of loose teas, blossoming teas, and an infuser cup, so this time I loaded up on a delicious oolong and super fragrant chai. And on vacation, everything you do is followed up by a good beer! We found ourselves a happy hour and did the local thing!

And speaking of doing the local thing, for dinner we headed over to Fort Mason for Off the Grid, a food truck gathering of 30+ food trucks from around the area.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

This was so much fun! Not only did they have tons of different kinds of cuisine to choose from, but they also had some awesome live music. We had a blast!

Off the Grid Food Truck Gathering

I had the Korean Chili Shrimp taco and Nathan had the Kalua Pork Taco from The Taco Guys. He totally won that one.

Korean Chili Shrimp & Kalua Pork Tacos

Then we shared Sexy Fries from Curry Up Now. Sweet potato waffle fries topped with homemade chicken tikka masala and onion. This is definitely a dish I’m going to recreate at home!

Sexy Fries

And with that ends our first day in San Francisco. These were definitely some of our favorite meals and experiences that we had on the trip!

Speak Up!

These meals consisted of a bunch of little bites. Do you prefer to have one big dish or a meal of a bunch of little tastes?