San Francisco Visit - Ferry Building Marketplace Eats

At the beginning of May, I went out to San Francisco for an extended weekend- thankfully this time around I actually made it there!  I was originally supposed to go out there last fall, but a plane mechanical error resulted in a cancelled trip.  It was probably for the best though, considering that the fall weekend turned out to be rainy and gross the whole time, and I had great weather on this trip! 

There will be a few food posts from my trip (obvi), but I wanted to break it down into a few posts: this one will focus mainly on the Ferry Building Marketplace, where I spent a good portion of one of my days since it was close to where my friend K works.   

First stop: Boccalone, which is a haven for pork lovers like myself.  K and I were going to Incanto for dinner while I was visiting as well, so I thought of this as a nice little preview. 

 

I went for the famous Salumi Cone with the day's selection of three meats all neatly placed into a paper cone.  Yum! 

Then, I walked around the rest of the market to check out the other shops.  The market wasn't as big as I remembered it (to be fair I was probably around 10 or so when I was last here, haha), so I wound up taking a few laps around, checking out each shop and taking in what they each had to offer.

While we have a Cowgirl Creamery in DC, it was still fun to see them in California, a little closer to home for them :o)  They had a great sandwich and snack menu, including a milk bar!

I also looked around the Scharffen Berger shop- I wanted to take everything with me!!  But I stuck with just getting one salted caramel chocolate- v. rich and smooth.

I kept coming back to the Miette shop because the cakes and everything looked lovely, and they had really cute decorations that I loved- think pastel cake stands, charming packaging, v. girly overall.

K and I split a strawberry cupcake, which looked v. pretty but didn't really "wow" me per se.  I enjoyed the fluffy frosting that had a great taste to it, but the cake tasted like a dry, heavy poundcake, which I didn't really like.  Maybe I should've tried one of their many other cute desserts instead.  

The Ferry Building Marketplace has a lot to look at and tons of options if you are hungry- they also have a farmers market just outside of the building, which I caught the tail end of when I was there.  It's a great place for good eats and food gifts!

Ferry Building Marketplace
One Ferry Building
San Francisco, California 94111
415.983.8030 

Lunchtime Links for June 3rd, 2011

• Kirbie's Cravings: Momofuku compost cookies.
• DC Cupcakes: Georgetown Cupcake's low-fat chocolate ganache cupcakes.
• Mob Wives: Recap from TVGasm.
• Serious Eats: Sprinkles' banana cupcake.
• The Budget Babe: Dr. Scholl's cushions.

Bakerella's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My contribution to the dessert meetup swap was Bakerella's chocolate chip cookies.  I was in the mood for something classic and relatively easy to bring, and this recipe seemed to fit the bill.

I used half of a bag of the Scharffen Berger baking chunks that I had recently won, and if I had stuck with just those, these cookies would've been great.  However, two issues made these cookies a bit of a hot mess:

1- What the heck was I thinking when I spooned out the cookie dough?  I definitely should've made them a little bit smaller and I still would've had the size I was looking for.  These were just awkwardly huge haha. 

2- Unfortunately the 2nd half of the chocolate chips came in the form of Trader Joe's baking discs/callets.  Which would've been great if they had not been the UNSWEETENED kind.  Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  V. different from the lovely Scharffen Berger chocolate chunks, to say the least. 

Both of these disasters aside, the cookie dough was really delicious and I would absolutely use the dough recipe again for any cookie recipe.  Hopefully the next time I make these, I will be far far away from any unsweetened chocolate!  My apologies to the ladies at the last dessert meetup for having to take home my weird-tasting cookies!

Lunchtime Links for June 2nd, 2011

• The Kitchn: DIY bubble tea.
• Life Is Great: Red velvet cake.
• Real Housewives of NJ: Recap from TVGasm.
• The Pioneer Woman: Big fat bacon sliders.
• Brown Eyed Baker: Peanut butter brownies.

Medium Rare Restaurant, DC

M and I were pretty pumped to try out Medium Rare, a new restaurant in Cleveland Park.  What makes this place stand out from other restaurants is the lack of menu items - their main dinner option is steak frites, with bread and salad.  The steak frites are offered in two separate portions, so it feels like you're getting a ton of food for the price.  They do offer a vegetarian option but for the most part, people are here for the meat, haha.

Ordering your meal is much quicker than at regular restaurants- since we already knew we were here for the steak haha.  We started things off with some nice warm crusty bread and soft butter.

Then, the salad course- this was cold and crispy, dressed lightly with what seemed to be a mustard-based vinegarette.  Nothing fancy but it was a tasty plate of greens.

And here we have my first plate of steak, with their steak sauce ladled on top.  I had asked for medium rare but these were more of a medium well cut - no matter, the steak was great, especially with the sauce.  The bread was also excellent for mopping up the extra sauce. 

Where are the frites? You may be asking.  Well, one thing I've cut out of my diet this year is fries (sometimes I literally won't stop eating them for days on end, it was getting dangerous, haha).  I requested no frites with my steak, and our server kindly offered me another serving of salad, or fruit salad (which they serve during brunch on the weekends) in place of the frites.

I went with the fruit salad, and it was the usual mix of canteloupe, honeydew melon, red grapes, and pineapple.  It was a large goblet filled with fruit, a nice option to have - although it may not be available every day (we were here on a Sunday). 

And here we have my second plate of steak, yum.  As you can see this one is much more on the rare end than my first plate - I liked this plate even more than the first as a result, haha.  I do have to mention that people shouldn't go here expecting two full-sized steaks for $20.  Instead, it's more like one large-ish serving of steak that is split into two servings for you.  It's not like I wanted more steak or anything, but I think people need to have their expectations in line before coming here thinking it's going to be an all-you-can-eat steak feast or something, haha.   

Overall M and I enjoyed our dinner very much and thought everything was delicious.  We didn't have any room for dessert- but I have heard that their dessert portions are enormous and great for sharing.  I think it's an interesting concept for a restaurant and a low-key neighborhood spot.  This place would be especially good for indecisive eaters that happen to love steak, haha.

Medium Rare

3500 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008

202.237.1432

Reservations are available on Open Table for 5:00pm and 10:00pm

Lunchtime Links for June 1st, 2011

• Real Housewives of Orange County: Recap from TVGasm.
• The Kitchn: BBQs in Japan.
• fANNEtastic Food: Barefoot running shoes.
• Serious Eats: Duck lunch at Momofuku Ssam Bar.
• The Budget Babe: Floral dresses from Target.

Shake Shack's June Custard Calendar

Happy June, everyone!  As some of you may know, I have been eagerly awaiting Shake Shack's June custard calendar, with hopes that there'd be some big winners in the lineup.

They did not disappoint!!

Monday-  Boston Cream Pie

Tuesday- Raspberry Granola Crunch

Wednesday- Strawberry Cheesecake

Thursday- Black Raspberry

Friday- Honey Roasted Peanut

Saturday- Coffee & Donuts

Sunday- Banana Bread

I am especially looking forward to the Boston Cream Pie and Coffee & Donuts flavors, but I would probably gladly try them all, let's be honest.  What flavor(s) would you all like to try first?