The Green Spoon

I'm super excited for a green and delicious 4th of July Holiday Feast in the park!!

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Family Dinners

I'm a pretty lucky gal. My mom is a professional chef--check out her blog adventures from her culinary school--so when I go the 'rents house for special dinners, they are truly an incredible dining experience and worth the 1 hr. commute on the smelly CalTrain down the peninsula after a long day in the office.

Monday was my sister Sara's b-day, and the menu was:

Garden Fresh Squash Soup
Ahi Tartare Salad with Fried Won Ton Chips
Grilled Salmon with Brown Rice and Sauteed Veggies
Carrot Cake AND Chocolate Cake (one from each of the grandmas)

It was an amazing feast and wonderful company. 

How awesome is the presentation?
Nice work mamacita!

My iphone died before the soup and grilled salmon came out, but here's "The Kid's Table" Dad manning the grill, on right,  in funny apron in the back of this shot:

Ferry Market Food Fair: Thursdays = Yummy

My first adventure to the new Ferry Plaza Market Thursday Food Fair involved:

1. Waiting in line for a made-to-order wood fired pizza at Pizza Politana
2. Sharing a 4505 Hot Dog (I heart Ryan Farr-great name, btw) with Kikithedinosaur while waiting in line for my pizza
3. Drinking Strawberry Horchata from Tacolicious while waiting for my pizza to cook
4. Enjoying my mozarella, cowgirl creamery Crème fraîche, radicchio and bacon pizza, pictured below.

All in all, an epic lunch break.

Lunch at Jai Yun

In celebration of the upcoming move to our very own Foodbuzz offices, we indulged in a final Lazy Susan meal at Jai Yun, which recently opened their doors for lunch. You walk in, let the server know how much you want to spend per person ($20 it was today), and let the foods begin!

No menu, just dish, after dish of deliciousness…mostly traditional Chinese food dishes you won’t find on an Americanized menu. I don't know what was in anything...but it was home run the entire meal.

Cucumber-light, tangy

Tofu-hoisin glazey

Smoked Fish-smoky spicey


cabbage mixture (w/jellyfish, I think)-squishy/crunchy sweet and soury

lotus root-palette cleansy fresh

Green beans-a little crunchy sweet

Radishes-spicy crisp clean

"vegetables"-very pretty

abalone -salty scrambled eggy

shrimp - delicate creamy

 Tsingtao - le refreshment!

 Fried baby mushrooms-earthy perfect

Fish with peas and carrots and corn- hot/sweet and comforty

Noodles with edamame- green and scrumptious

Carrots, celery and tofu-healthy umami

Pork-falling off the bone amazingness

Epic lunch. Jai Yun is on Clay and Kearny. Go, soon.

Foodbuzz Featured Publisher Friday #5

Technically, it was Featured Publisher Thursday, but I'm posting today. Giff Constable of Constables Larder was here yesterday for a conference. The entire edit team was cooped up inside during a fairly epic spring day for San Francisco, so we jumped at the chance to sit in the sun for a leisurely lunch. We headed to La Mar. The patio is the perfect place to sit on a sunny day when you want to feel like you’re on vacation (why did we pass on the pisco sours again?)

It was awesome meeting Giff. Always such a treat to put faces to names and enjoy the good company of our Featured Publishers offline, too! It was too bright for the photos of the food, but we have some previous pics here. After lunch, we walked Giff over to the Ferry Building with instructions to try Cowgirl Creamery Cheese and the Truffle Salt at the mushroom/truffle shop before he left town…

Pesto at Farina

Last night Kiki and I were in need of a celebratory glass of wine and Farina was right around the corner. I've heard mixed reviews about Farina, and had never eaten there, but always it's the same advice: get the Pesto.

So we sat outside ordered this "snack" to go along with our wine. The pesto sauce is incredibly flavorful, smooth but very dense, and really quite delicious.

We also had the foccacia, which had an alfredo-like sauce drizzled over it.

Three cheers to The Kid's Table (our  new kid's food writing workshop that starts May 21st !

Tuesday Supper Club: St. Patty's Feast

With little exception, every Tuesday for the past two years I've joined my grandparents for dinner at their house, for what we've come to call Tuesday Supper Club. It's invite-only for the generation of grands-- granddaughters, grandnieces--so parents are never there.  We grands are always encouraged to bring friends, roommates, boyfriends, and the like. The only rule my Grandma has is that you cannot bring someone you met the night before. "Two nights prior is fine," however.

My Grandma is an extraordinary cook, my grandfather a true wine lover, and both are incredible storytellers. Each Tuesday feast begins with a strong pour of either Edna Valley Chardonnay or an Italian Sangiovese (my Grandfather's go-to starter favorites). Over an appetizer, we get an introduction to the meal we will be eating and the story behind where it came from. We catch up on our weeks and then head to the dining room to eat. The conversation then shifts to stories from decades we didn't know with words that we don't use anymore: Punch boards, wing-walkers, and murder boards, "Say what?! Grandad?"

On a really special night, we'll get my Granddad to bring out the model drones he designed in the 60's. "Tell us something classified, come on..." and he'll just chuckle and continue on about the training program for pilots and how impossible it was to try and knock one of these bad boys out of the air.  We'll continue to drink wine, and needle for the juicy details of their lives, the parts that our own parents could never really pass on in the same light. Just as we begin to feel the relaxing post-feast/wine lull set in, my Grandma will sneak out and come back with a homemade dessert. Have I mentioned her baking is extraordinary? Over Bananas Foster, chocolate cake, or strawberry tarts, we'll finish off the last of the wine, and wrap up another meeting of the Tuesday Supper Club.

I've never blogged about Tuesday Supper Club before. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's because I treasure the break from anything online when I'm there. It's the three hours of my week that I slip into their world, and walk away completely rejuvenated. I've never really been able to put into words or images quite what it's like to sit around the table with two of the most incredible souls.

Last night,  however,  my Grandma went above and beyond with an Irish Feast that changed my feelings on blogging about this. Exact recipes from her dinner while eating at Ballyhoe in Ireland in the late 80's...we looked, the pictures in the recipe book she brought back were exactly what these look like. Grandad opened some very special bottles of wine, and all four of us grands (myself, Devon, Kiki and Meggie) just about died when we tried Grasshopper Pie for the first time.

"I haven't made this recipe for a good 30 years," my Grandma divulged, "but I needed something green"...It was divine.

Irish Salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, hard boiled egg, beets, and a mustard cream dressing.

Lamb Stew with potatoes, onions, carrots and peas.


Grasshopper Pie. The whipped and frozen marshmallow in this frozen treat was delightfully light and fluffy and I totally ate half of Kiki's.

Week in Review

I was incredibly fortunate to experience some unexpected and very epic treats these past few days:

Chocolate Chip Profiteroles filled with ice cream and drizzled with butterscotch.

Warm Duck confit salad with apples, goat cheese and assorted lettuces.


Grilled Chicken Sandwich: sprouts, melted cheese, roasted pepper aioli.

Escarole salad with a soft boiled egg and bacon.

Miniature  root beer float with an edible straw.

Featured Publisher Friday #4

Above: Best pork carnitas in San Francisco. Do you know where they are from? Read on...

Midtown Lunch was in town last week with the entire Midtown Family and they stopped in the office for a few minutes on Friday to say hello. Since we didn’t get the treat of eating with them, the least we could do was greet them with an office short list of great, cheap S.F. lunch spots.

1. Mission: La Taqueria.
Must order: The carnitas tacos.

2. Chinatown: Latte Express (NE corner of Montgomery & Kearny).
Must Order: The #4 BBQ Pork Bahn Mi.

3. Financial Distric: Sentinel.
What to order: all the daily specials are amazing.

4. SOMA: Snack Depot (303 2nd street).
What to order: any sammy.

They were headed to the Mission, and were debating over a few recommended Mexican spots. Should they go for the burritos at Taqueria Cancun, or the pork carnitas at La Taqueria? After some serious peer pressure, we convinced Zach that he should try La Taqueria.

The next day, I had an email in my inbox from Zach:

“la taqueria... awesome!  shared a carnitas burrito, carnitas taco, and cabeza taco.  tacos were probably the best tacos i've ever had... and the green sauce- so excellent. thanks for the great rec!"

Hooray!! My sentiments exactly.

I think another Foodbuzz field trip is in order…In the meantime, cast your vote: what’s the best burrito in the Mission?