Our last day in San Francisco

For our last day we took a nice little rainy tour of the ton Berkley and the University of Cal Berkley. While in Berkley we had the chance to eat at a very famous restaurant called Chez Panisse. Chez Panisse was a nother restaurant that was big on local produce and organic produces. They made their own ice cream and own fruit soda. The set up of the restaurant was crazy. It used to be an old house and the way that Alice Waters set the place up to fit a restaurant was awesome. The kitchen was the best part of the entire restaurant but enough about the

restaurant and on to the food. For lunch I ordered a spicy carrot soup with cumin and mint to start off with, Grilled Soul Food Farm chicken breast with curly endive salad, roasted parsnips, and sage and for dessert a coconut ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce. To begin with we received a complementary sausage pizza that was to die for. It was one of the best pizzas I have ever had the chance to partake in eating. It blew every other slice of pizza I had in California out of the water. After having two tiny slices of the world’s best pizza my spicy carrot soup came. The carrot soup had the same texture as the artichoke soup but this time the soup had a taste. I enjoyed the soup but nowhere as much as I enjoyed the chicken. The chicken was amazing it looked almost like duck. The fat and skin was left on the beautifully prepared and well-cooked chicken and the endives and parsnips were a great add on. The little side salad was funky for lack of a better word, it was the weirdest tasting salad I have ever had to endure. After the main course came the highlight of the day, coconut ice cream. The home made ice cream was to die for and addition of a coconut cone was without a doubt the best part of the entire trip. The coconut cone was so sweet and sugary and crunchy that it topped any meal that I had in the bay area.

After consuming the the flavorful and delicious ice cream our next meal wasn’t for several more hours and several more inches of rainfall. We were on an adventure for dim sum, which I had been looking forward to for the whole trip. After failing twice to find a restaurant that served dim sum, we settled for a little Chinese restaurant in China Town.

The food was less than average to me. I ordered a nice big serving of wanton soup, fried rice and the chef’s special chei mein. The chei mein is better at PF Changs than it was at this little restaurant but I guess it’s the experience we paid for right? What experience that is I’m not quite sure but the food definitely wasn’t the best. The Wanton soup had too many vegetables cut up into it, so much that I could barely get a wanton onto my spoon, the steak, chicken and shrimp in my noodles didn’t taste like the majority of meats that I have had in my time and the friend rice was pretty good. I was more than disappointed by my last meal in San Francisco but I left with a full belly and that’s all I really wanted at that point.

Union Square's Food Court and Burger Meister, Day #5

Union Square is without a doubt one of the best places to shop in the city of San Francisco. After walking around for a few minutes in the streets looking for a restaurant to eat at, my group decided to just eat at the food court. I bought a Chicago style hot dog at a place called Sausage Sandwiches. The hot dog was larger than your average hot dog vendor. It surpassed the hot dog bun. The hot dog was topped with peppers, onions, celery salt, relish, sliced cucumber and tomato, and ketchup. The meal also came with a side of seasoned fries and an orange soda. When I took my first bite Jalapeno juice from the pepper squirted everywhere and a little got in my eye. Once I got over my irritated eye I continued to chow down on my lunch. The hot dog was superb, sure there are better Chicago style hot dogs out there but or a food court it was pretty well made. There were too many slices of cucumber or celery, I’m not sure what it was but it made the dog lose its fire. The fries were delicious. I usually don’t enjoy seasoned fries but there was something about these that were just pure tasty. There were nice and crunchy and out did Burger King’s.

To finish the day off I had a nice thick and juice cheeseburger from Burger Meister. At Burger Meister I ordered a ½ pound cheeseburger with grilled onions, tomato, lettuce and ketchup with a side of chili cheese fries and a cool and cold vanilla shake to wash it all down. Biting into my medium cooked burger, grease slowly ran down the bottom of the burger. It was almost as

if I had squeezed it out but it gave the burger an extra kick. The burger was cooked exactly to my preference and met my standards of a good burger which is, I have the ability to finish it. It was similar to a Five Guys burger in the way that it was prepared and the way it tasted. The

chili cheese fries were amazing and could have easily been split between me and another person but seeing how I was selfish I at every ingle one. This meal was the better of the two and the highlight of my day. I had been craving a burger the entire trip and when I found out that Kevin Conover was lucky enough to get a burger I had to get one. The meal was great, the cheeseburger was excellent, the chili cheese fries drove me crazy, and the vanilla milk shake was better than Steak N’ Shake’s.

Day #4

For our fourth day in the less than sunny city of San Francisco we visited the Monterrey Aquarium. First of all I began my ay with the gratuitous continental breakfast once again and then we hit the road. After visiting the aquarium we were given around 45 minutes to fins a restaurant to eat so let me remind you that’s not a long time to find a restaurant to sit down at and consume something completely healthy. So for a second time on the trip I had pizza. I devoured a jumbo slice of pepperoni pizza. From the looks of the restaurant there didn’t seem to be a large amount of business. However the pizza was way better than that of Saturday night. Each pepperoni had a nice little puddle of grease in the middle of the slightly folded up edges. The cheese slid off of the pizza as I bit into it. The roof of my mouth had a firry sensation once the slimy and greasy piece of cheese entered my mouth. My entire mouth burned just from that first bite. I took a swig of root bear to calm my taste buds and continued to eat. Within a few seconds the scrumptious pizza slice vanished and Marcus and I were off to buy Dip N’ Dots. Dip N’ Dots are microscopic balls of several flavors of ice cream. They are special because they have to remain at a severely low temperature in order for the to keep their form and shape.

After our lovely stroll at Point lobos (that isn’t suppose to be sarcastic) we dined at Duarte’s tavern. From a first glance Duarte’s didn’t seem to be the place that served all locally grown and organic produce, it seemed like more of a tavern and bar than it did a restaurant. To begin my dinning experience I ordered a Cream of Artichoke soup and oh boy was it bland. It almost had no taste and it was a little chunky. It’s lack of flavor caused me to drench it with salt and pepper and eat most of it with bread. For my entrée I had Harley Farms Goat Cheese Ravioli, which was

made up of only eight relatively large sized raviolis. The goat cheese was the highlight of the day. It was so rich and creamy that it made up for the soup. After wolfing down my eight raviolis I was still hungry and ready for dessert. Dessert was an Olallieberry pie, which I have never heard of, seen or eaten. The waitress informed us that the olallieberry was a hybrid of a blackberry and a poisonberry. The pie was extremely tart, sour, and sweet all at the same time. It was a great combination and if I were given my own slice I would have scarfed it down but with only having a few bites I was still pretty full.

Day Three's food

Today started off with a continental breakfast at the hotel which consisted of a cinnamon roll and an English muffin that was topped with butter and blackberry jam. The English muffin was crispier and warmer this time because I figured out how to work the toaster and the cinnamon roll was way better than I imagined. Although breakfast is seen as a crucial meal, today I wasn’t really feeling the breakfast I ate.

For lunch we ate at a little quaint café called the Warming Hut. I acquired a sandwich called the ‘Park Club”. The sandwich contained turkey, ham, lettuce, mayonnaise, avocado, a small slice of Swiss cheese, and bacon, and all organic and fresh produce. The amount of lettuce that the sandwich maker placed in the sandwich almost made me feel like I was eating a salad with bread. Once I removed a majority of the side of salad placed on top of my sandwich, it was actually pretty decent. Although I found the sandwich somewhat appetizing, it was over priced and nowhere near as good as dinner.

dinner my group ate at La Cumbre a taqueria in the mission. I bought a Burrito supreme with a side of tortilla chips and an Orangina to drink. The making of the burrito was almost treated like an art but done really fast. The tortilla was thick and fluffy and within it there was rice, refried beans, spicy salsa, carne asado, cheese, avocado, and lettuce. As I took a bite into my big and compact dinner, my taste buds automatically knew this was the best burrito that I have ever stuffed into my mouth. The steak used in the burrito was marinated in some foreign sauce but it tasted so good. The salsa wasn’t as spicy as I had imagined it to be while waiting in line but it was something new because usually I have diced tomatoes. The melted queso that covered the majority of the items in the carefully put together was exquisite and topped the burrito off. This meal without a doubt was the best Mexican cuisine I have ever had the chance to experience.

Day Two's nourishment

Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and what better way to begin the day by eating the Holiday Inn Express continental breakfast. My breakfast consisted of two banana strawberry Trix yogurts, scrambled eggs, two English muffins, and a milk box. The lumpy serving of scrambled eggs contained minimal taste and were a little chilled. The English muffins tasted the way they should and the blackberry jelly and butter gave them the extra kick needed. The processed and overly sugared yogurt was far from healthy. It’s artificial flavor must be what attracts kids because I don’t remember yogurt ever being that sweet but I must say I found it quite scrumptious.

Next came the Marin Farmer’s Market where we purchased our lunch for our long and pain enduring hike. At the farmers market I purchased an authentic Belgian waffle and it was amazing. It had to be the food highlight of the day. I should have just bought a handful of those for my lunch. The lightly powdered sugar waffle melted in my mouth as soon as I bit into it. Eggo waffles can’t compare to this delicious treat, its on it’s own level. There is definitely no substitute for that type of waffle. For my lunch, Marcus and I fused our money together and invested in some Italian sourdough bread, handmade cow cheese, a few oranges, smoked sausage and pork salami. The combination of the meats, the cheese and the bread was fantastic. It was probably better than anyone else’s lunch besides Marcus. The meat was rough, chewy and flavorful. Each animal is grass fed causing the meat to maintain such nice marbling and such flavor. The cheese was ever so creamy and sticky that it felt as though peanut butter were stuck to the roof of my mouth. The cheese came was obtained from Bellwether Farms and is handmade from New Jersey cow milk. The bread wasn’t arm at the time but it was crunchy, soft in the middle and delish. Combined, all three items were flat out spectacular. The orange was full of juice so much that there was a mist of juice while I peeled the delicate item.

Once our long hike came to an end we went back to our hotel to shower and clean up. Our final meal of the day was consumed at a restaurant called Park Chow. For a starter we had a family style salad that included some mushrooms, tomatoes, other vegetables, and organic greens. All topped with a lemon-shallot vinaigrette. The main course consisted of a cheeseburger on a French baguette complemented with some crispy golden French fries. In addition to the cheese the burger also contained onion, tomato, lettuce, and ketchup. To sum dinner all up, we were served ginger cake with some pumpkin ice cream. The dessert was amazing. The cake was lip-smacking and adding the ice cream to a bite of the cake made it even more superb. The meals of the day were outstanding and the Marin Farmer’s market was the best aspect of the day.

The Food of January 16th

Our day of traveling did not include the most exciting meals but nonetheless our stomachs were filled. For breakfast I ate a sort of breakfast burrito but it still followed the food rule of the trip, which is

“No fast food”. In the breakfast burrito or wrap was egg, cheese, sausage. My meal was consumed around 8 30 am Indianapolis time and didn’t eat another full meal until 1 30 pm San Francisco time. If you do the math that is a long time for a growing boy to go

without food but my lunch was without at doubt the best meal of the first day. In my given hour at the Fishermen’s Warf I ate fresh clam chowder in a bread bowl with a little addition of salt and pepper. The hardest part of the day was trying to eat this not so carefully planned out meal of mine. The clam that was in the soup was so fresh that it could have had a name. The bread bowl was almost stale but that didn’t affect me from enjoying my meal.

After enjoying a warm bowl of soup our touring began and didn’t end until around 6 pm. My last meal of the day

consisted of cheese and pepperoni pizza. California pizza is never considered the but the reason why I liked the pizza was because it was food. I was so hungry I could have probably ate anything that was placed in front of me. The pizza was so hot that once the pizza boy removed the white cardboard boxes from the black sack that steam slowly rose up out of it. As soon as I bit into my slice of cheesy greasy pepperoni pizza the roof of my mouth burnt incredibly fast. The cheese gently slipped off as I finished my first bite and feel gently onto my plate. After finishing off my seventh piece I called it a night and stopped eating for the first day. The pizza as a whole, was far form the best but then again far from the worst.