Foodbuzz Fest and San Francisco: Day 3

I'm sure you're quite tired of seeing Foodbuzz pictures all over the place, but I still wanted to share my perspective with you. I'm sure you've seen the same plated food pics, but after the farewell brunch we explored the city and I want to share that with you. Hope you don't mind :-)

The farewell brunch at The Sir Francis Drake was plentiful. I believe it was sponsored by Nature's Pride bread, so it appeared a few times on the buffet tables. We had mini fritattas with stuffing, mini grilled cheese with pork sausage gravy, french toast with strawberry basil butter, thick cut bacon, fresh fruit, panzanella, frisee salad with pears and almonds and yogurt parfait cups. It was good!

Shortly after brunch, my favorite person in the whole wide world arrived!

Then we went to the flagship Williams-Sonoma store. Talk about 4 levels of kitchen bliss!

It was such a pretty store and I was impressed with their content. They even have a good selection of Williams-Sonoma Home products. Very expensive but nice to look at. Anyone want a $500 lamp? My favorite part was the wall of silicone spoonulas!

Click on the picture below to enlarge the detail.

Our room at the hotel wasn't quite ready yet, so Debby drove us to the wharf for a light lunch and to sight see. Mr. H ordered a lobster tail and shrimp salad and I had shrimp cocktail. It was as good as it looked. The seagulls thought so too.

Then, because it was wet and drizzly outside, we headed to the Ferry Building for an indoor market. ooh, it was foodie heaven.

One of the first places we discovered was Miette- a beautiful bakery. I could have stayed in there and taken pictures all day, all the while sampling as I saw fit.

Debby purchased an old-fashioned cupcake with sticky marshmallowy frosting topped with a candied peanut, which she kindly shared with me. It was quite the tasty treat. The carrot cupcakes were stunning as well.

While there, I purchased my very first French macaron. I got the Chocolate Lavender and the Coffee macaron. The coffee was superb. If you've never had one, they're chewy and light and delightful. get one. eat one.

We browsed a bit more til I ran into a sweet little puppy...

And some even sweeter Beekind Honey. I got a teeny bottle of Lavender honey, while Debby purchased the Tupelo honey. The guy there was really nice and helpful and let me sample several different flavors.

From there, Debby and I said our goodbyes and shared a hug. We had a wonderful time together and I feel like we've known eachother for ages. Until next time...

Mr. H and I returned back to our King corner room on the top floor for a little relaxation. We were tired after walking all over the place and carrying heavy shopping bags and it was nice to return to the hotel and find a note from the hotel staff, as well as a complimentary box of fresh coconut macaroons and a bottle of water. nice touch SFD.

Our room had a bigger brighter bathroom but the room was even smaller than the first. The natural light that came into that room was beautiful though since we had windows on 3 walls. Very nice and bright, though it was a very tad blinding come 6 am :-)

The view of Union Square from our room. Ahhh!

Thanks for joining me on my journey to San Francisco! I hope you've enjoyed it.

Foodbuzz Fest: Day 2

Day 2 of Foodbuzz Blogger Fest in San Francisco was a busy one! We crammed quite a bit into our day. Saturday morning, Debby and I walked across the street for breakfast at Sears' Fine Foods. They're known for their small Swedish pancakes and they're just as tasty as they are cute -served with butter and lingonberries.

Back at the hotel we went to a photography workshop. I was hoping to learn more about the camera and the settings, but it was more about how to make things pretty with placement and dishes. We then got to take pictures of food in different light settings. Not really sure what the purpose was, but the pictures turned out nicely.

The second breakout session I went to was sponsored by Fresh Express. I wasn't too thrilled about taking a class on bagged salad greens, but I was told that that Chef Todd Fisher would be there and that he was funny as well as being Debby's friend. So I was in. He also wears funky red clogs and I like that :-)

The salad that he made was a recipe from Ashley from The Edible Perspective. It was mixed greens, with roasted butternut squash, the creamiest goat cheese I've ever eaten and caramelized onions. It was very pretty and it smelled great.

Breakout session 3 was about writing and trying to avoid cliche words like "yummy", "delicious" and "creamy" to describe foods. I wrote about the luscious strawberry you see here.

Midday, we went to the Tasting Pavilion at the Metreon. It was full of vendors offering tastings, coupons and freebies for the taking. Here is Julie (on the left) from Willow Bird Baking showing off her winning Nature's Pride recipe. How cute is she?

It was a mad house at the Tasting Pavilion! And there was major food paparazzi going on in there. The lines were long and I was getting grumpy, so Debby and I took off to discover the city, but not before we had cupcakes from Mission Minis. The ones I had are Cinnamon Horchata, Pink Lemonade and Aztec Chocolate.

And because I have no self control I had a Ghirardelli S'more!

We needed some fresh air, so we headed to The Palace of Fine Arts. And let me tell you, it is grandiose and detailed beyond belief. I was in awe of this structure. My photos don't do it justice. If you're ever in the area, pack your camera and a picnic lunch and head over there. It's gorgeous.

Another magnificent sight- I'm talking about myself, not The Golden Gate Bridge. ha ha!

This is a view of San Francisco from Vista Point. A lovely place to be standing. Except for the fact that is smelled like urine. ewww!

I could look at this view all day long.

I know it may sound silly, but I had to make a trip to Trader Joe's! We don't have them in Texas so it was on my list of things to do. Gratefully, Debby was happy to fulfill that request. I got a couple things but there was only so much I could take back with me. I LOVED their orange juice though and we enjoyed that back in our room for a few days!

As the night fell, we headed to the gala dinner at The Ferry Building. We had passed hors d' oeuvres and free flowing wine. I had a Coke :-)

It was quite elegant and classy and I showed up in jeans! I know! But at least my shirt matched the table linens. ha!

The dinner was sponsored by The Cooking Channel and featured 4 courses along with wine pairings. The first course was a Golden Beet Tart, second course was seared scallops, third course was lamb chops with butternut squash puree and mushrooms and we wrapped it up with an almond cake.

Dinner was good but it ran way later than expected and we were tired beyond belief. We had to get some rest to start a new day. Day 3 of Foodbuzz fest is coming soon!

Thanks for following my Foodbuzz Fest journey!

If you missed it, here's Foodbuzz Fest: Day 1.

Foodbuzz Fest: Day 1

I had a wonderful time in San Francisco at the Foodbuzz Blogger Fest this past weekend. It is a beautiful city, with lots to experience and photograph and good food everywhere you turn. I feel like all we did all weekend was EAT! I'm pretty sure, Debby (my lovely roommate) from A Feast For The Eyes would agree with me.

Debby picked me up from the airport (thanks Deb!) and we headed straight to the Wharf for a light lunch before the Foodbuzz festivities began.

After seeing these vibrant fellows, we decided on crab cakes and crab cocktail at none other than The Crab Station!

After our snack by the water, we stopped into Boudin Bakery to smell the aroma of freshly baked Sourdough loves. And to admire the unique creatures they morph out of dough. fun stuff!

Debby couldn't be cuter in this crabby hat :-)

A few snapshots of Alcatraz from the pier....

Then down Lombard Street- the crookedest street in America. I think it's fascinating, but don't understand why anyone would want to live there? This is the view at the top of the hill heading down the street. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture looking up at Lombard.

Then we checked into our hotel, The Sir Francis Drake, which was just beautiful and ornate and the staff could not have been more friendly. They were WONDERFUL!

Our room was so nice and bright and cozy. FYI: Cozy is code for small rooms, with even smaller bathrooms :-)

We registered for the weekend's events, then checked out our goodie bags. woot!

We rested a bit in our room before loading the bus to Herbst Pavilion for "Street Food Fare".

We munched on polenta crusted pork sandwiches with melt in your mouth chicharones (the best meal all night!) spit roasted pork sandwiches with roasted potatoes, seaweed tacos (don't know what they were and didn't really like them, but they were pretty), and beef tacos. I also tried a few other things but don't have the pictures to prove it. That may be a good thing :-)

There were a lot of these...

A lot of this...

And plenty of this!

Lots of memories were made this weekend. I'll have more to share with you soon!