San Francisco (Part 3)

Day 6: NAPA!!  Last post in the SF series.  Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip! (I know we enjoyed living it).  This was a great day trip.  A special thanks goes out to Sandy, who was our DD and chauffeur for the day.
We got to Napa at around noon and decided to start our day at the Robert Mondavi Winery.  This was perfect for our first stop, since it was a more commercialized winery and gave tours.  We decided to try out the the "Discovery Tour" which is a 30 minute walking tour of the vineyard, cellar, and barrel room.  It comes with a 2 glass wine tasting (fumé blanc and cabernet sauvignon) and is $15/person.  They also have a "Signature Tour" which is 75 min and 3 glass wine tasting for $25. I thought the shorter tour was sufficient enough (since I've done wine tours in the past), but if you've never done one the signature tour might be cooler and more educational.  Louie and I also split a wine tasting, which came out to $20 total for 4 glasses.  We tried the pinot noir, memento, moscato, and chardonnay.  All were delicious!

 
VERDICT: Try out the tour and get 2-3 glasses!  Since this is a popular winery, split a tasting.  The smaller vineyards are often cheaper.

Next stop was the Milat Winery.  This is a very small winery and standing room only.  The cost of a tasting is only $5 for 5 glasses + chocolate port sauce!  Best deal ever.  They also refund your tasting fee if you purchase a bottle.  Apparently the guy who owns this place is super Republican and maybe has a lesbian daughter traveling in Amsterdam?  I was pretty buzzed at this point, so I was not paying attention to what he said.  But I did hear "daughter...amsterdam...girlfriend...disapprove".  Needless to say, he's pretty entertaining.  The 5 glasses include a chenin blanc, pine station red, zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, and a zivio-port style (wine infused with brandy!) which goes really well with the chocolate port sauce sample.

VERDICT: Everyone gets their own tasting here!  The chocolate port sauce is heaven.

We then decided to head over to Castillo di Amorosa, an Italian winery...in a castle.  Nice setting.  The tasting here is $18, which includes 5 wines.  I said I forgot my ID so I would only have to pay $8.  BUT I later found out Sandy and her friend Padmini just didn't pay at all!  If you pretend to go buy a ticket and then walk past the ticket lady, they never actually check.  I also ended up getting to taste the wine anyway.  They have several wines for you to choose from, and you just pick 5.   Also unlimited free Italian style breadstick/crackers.  I think I ate 20 to try and decrease my redness at this point.

 

VERDICT: Split a tasting or just don't pay!  The sommelier will probably give you a tasting if you talk to him/her long enough or if you want to buy a bottle.

Last winery stop was Beringer Winery. SO PRETTY HERE.  We decided to drink our tasting outside and enjoy the scenery.  We did the reserve tasting, which is $30 for 4 glasses.  Since this is the most expensive place, we split 1 tasting 5 ways.  We also met this kooky Asian guy who called himself a farmer and kept saying "I'm a peasant", but pronouncing it "peee-zin".  Hilarious.

VERDICT: Beautiful vineyard.

After our wine tour we were famished.  Our sommelier at Castillo recommended this Italian restaurant in downtown Napa.  We got the gnocchi and the cioppino.  So delectable! 

San Francisco (Part 2)

San Francisco, California -- Continuation of post below.

Day 3: Off the Grid, Alcatraz, and oysters!
We started our day with a light breakfast from Chinatown, then we walked around Union Square for a bit.  For lunch we decided to try out Off the Grid, which is a collection of gourmet food trucks that park in a specific area for lunch and dinner.  After looking them over, we ordered from the korean bbq truck Koja Kitchen.  This ended up being the most popular truck by far.  We got a bbq short rib (kalbi) sandwich and the bbq chicken sandwich along with a side of kamikaze fries.  Both sandwiches were on buns made of sticky rice, which really complimented the spicy, flavored meat.  The kamikaze fries were waffle fries covered in kim chi sauce, japanese mayo, bbq ground beef, and scallions.  SO GOOD.  Louie has said this was his fave meal in SF.  Not only was this super-inventive, it was also tasty and very affordable.  They also had tiramisu dessert cups using mochi...but we didn't try it out :(

Of course Louie was still hungry after this, so we went over to this place called Turtle Tower for some pho.  We really liked the flat noodles and the homemade taste of the broth, but the steak was not as thinly sliced as versions we've had in Philly.

After two lunches, we took the ferry over to Alcatraz.  The prison and island are pretty cool and worth a visit.  There's an audio tour included in the price of admission, which was probably the best audio tour I've ever done.  It's narrated by former guards and former inmates.

Dinner was at the Hog Island Oyster Company in the Ferry Building.  We went over at 4:30pm to take advantage of the happy hour deals, and the place was packed with a line already forming.  It's really popular, so I would recommend getting there on the earlier side.  We waited about 25 min for a table and that was pre-happy hour rush.  The oysters were really fresh and the clam chowder was chock full of fresh clams.  Yum!

Can't forget about our delish gelato cone for dessert!

VERDICT: Go to Off the Grid!  If you love pho, try it out but be aware the meat is different. Hog Island is pretty standard seafood.


Day 4-5: Yosemite
Just a collection of the beautiful pictures we took.  Also we stayed in a tent here.  I would recommend getting a hotel room unless you really like roughing it.

Day 7: Muir Woods and Marin Headlands

Giant redwoods!

Suspension bridge!

Cuban sandwich for lunch.  Meh, expected better.

San Tung for dinner.  We actually tried to go here for lunch earlier in the week, but the restaurant is randomly closed on Wednesdays (wtf?).  We had a recommendation to try out the wings here, so we came back for our last meal.  We ordered the homemade shrimp and leek dumplings, the original dry fried chicken wings, handmade noodles in black bean sauce, and 5 spice beef and noodle soup.  The dumplings were really good and reminiscent of the kind Louie's fam makes (legit since they're from Beijing--dumpling capital of China).  The wings were sweet and tangy, though they were cooked with whole chilis and garlic.  Both noodle dishes were made with handmade noodles which were SO GOOD.  We both loved the soup, which was really beefy (sounds weird, but delish) and the black bean noodles were pretty good too.  This place is actually really popular, especially, for some odd reason, with SF hipsters.  We walked in at 5pm and the place was already getting packed.  I've heard lines form outside just to get a table during lunch or dinner.

VERDICT: Get the dumplings and 5 spice beef soup for sure.  The wings are really good too, but just know they are not spicy.  Black bean noodles are aite.

San Francisco (Part 1)

San Francisco, California -- Recently we took a trip to SF, and I just wanted to write it all down while it's still fresh in my mind. This was such an amazing vacation-- great food, amazing sights, really nice people. I'm already depressed to not be on the west coast anymore. So, with that being said, let me break it down for you:

Day 1: Chinatown and Union Square

We had lunch in this hole-in-the-wall dim sum restaurant. Felt like we were back in China. No one spoke English and no one, apart from us, was under the age of 65. Good thing Louie can communicate fairly well in Chinese and good thing I know my Chinese food terms. Dim sum here is 3 for $1.60 and each piece was very big (like a tennis ball). We ended up spending about $11 on a lunch for two (box of dim sum and platter of chicken, veggies, and rice).

We were really jet-lagged, so we didn't do much sightseeing that day. Went to the marina then went to the Exploratorium (kind of like a hybrid of the Franklin Institute and the Please Touch Museum). The museum was okay, but there were too many screaming children running around to really enjoy all of the exhibits. Next time, we'll spend the money and go to the California Academy of Sciences, which is supposedly WAAAAY better.

Dinner was at this Union Square restaurant called Fish & Farm. Very fancy-schmantzy and romantic. We had a $20 Open Table voucher, so we thought we'd use it on this meal and splurge. We ended up getting the famous bacon cheeseburger ($14!), gnocchi, and the market veggies. The portions here are large, which I guess justifies the more expensive price-tag. The burger was really really good.



Day 2: Golden Gate Park, Sutro Baths, Lands End
This was a jam-packed day of food...and walking. We started out with breakfast at Brenda's French Soul Food. Had the flight of beignets (plain, chocolate, apple, and crawfish), eggs, and the watermelon sweet tea. Everything was really good and super filling. The crawfish beignet was savory and had a cheese and crawfish filling and was covered in cajun spices. Very unique. I'd start with this one first and work towards the sweeter beignets next.

After breakfast we walked around GG park and saw the Japanese Tea Garden. Went at the one hour everyday that they don't charge admission...score!

Next, we made our way over to the Sutro Bath ruins. Very eerie but pretty cool. We thought we'd take a walk from here to get a better view of the bridge. Little did we know this would turn into a 5 mile hike uphill. By the time we got to the bridge we were famished and ate at this little cafe (Crissy Field Warming Hut) which was surprisingly pretty good.

After our day of activity, we went over to Thanh Long to try out some dungeness crab. We ordered the roasted garlic crab and the garlic noodles. The crab was really really flavorful, and I suppose a decent price ($39.95), although I don't really know my market crab prices well. The garlic noodles tasted exactly like garlic bread in noodle form. In hindsight, we probably didn't need the garlic overload and should've ordered a different noodle dish.