A San Francisco Picnic!

Perfect Lunch.

It’s too early for watermarks. I’ll fix the photos later.

I know, I know. You think I’m being a lazybones, but it’s 8:30am here, and I drank a LOT of free wine last night. Don’t hate.

More on how Awesome (with a capital A) FoodBuzz 2011 is later; right now I want to talk to you about a spiffy little solo picnic I had yesterday, and how amazing San Francisco is.

So yes, I’m easy to please, and yes, every city I go to I love a little, but I love San Francisco, I really do. Farmers markets, people jogging everywhere, little squished houses and really freakin’ great wine. Every checkbox I have ever had just got ticked. (Although I will admit, climbing streets straight up into the sky hurts my calves a little. But that’s good for me).

My picnic spot in Ghiradelli Square

SO! Yesterday, I decided to head to the farmers market area down on the Ferry Pier and pack myself a picnic:

Cowgirl Creamery:

Beautiful, wonderful cheese.

Ok, ok: On Saturdays, this little gem of a cheeseshop does Raclette right in the centre of the concourse. I couldn’t go today, and that made me sad. So, my story isn’t as exciting, but I will tell you that as I stood there for 20 minutes, sampling cheeses, there was not a single one that didn’t blow my little mind. I bought a slice of gruyere that was so full of flavour. I ate half the block.

Drool.

Boccalone:

Their slogan is “Tasty Salted Pig Parts”. Nuff said.

But seriously, they have a “Charcuterie Cone” that you can get and have portable meat. Portable Meat!

I had spicy salami and porchetta in my little cone, but I could have holed up in this shop for the rest of my days. So. Much. Meat.

3 lbs of awesome.

Acme Bakery:

I don’t know if you knew this, but apparently San Fran is famous for sourdough. Also: I’m famous for loving sourdough, so it’s a match made in heaven (ok, not “famous” per se. Fine.)

I’ve never seen a line like this for bread before, but after Cupcakes and Cashmere said that the bread at Acme is the best in the city, I knew I had to go.

I decided to do a little comparison between Acme and Boudin (the “original sourdough”) so I bought more bread on my way to my picnic. More carbs! Yeah!

Acme – better sourdough taste, crispier crust, more squishy-doughy (technical term).

Boudin – cute turtle shape! Still delicious, but definitely not as good.

Turtle!

My picnic was wonderful, although I think that people thought I was a little weird. Never stopped me before.

When I do my full writeup on San Fran, I’ll show you how far I walked. I deserved that meat.

More soon!

-BBC                                

Heaven.