Food of San Francisco

Here's a compilation of some of the great food Steve and I got to eat during our 3 month stay in San Francisco...

The Cheesecake Factory @ Macy's, Union Square:

LUNCH: Chocolate Oreo Mudslide Cheesecake and Dutch Apple Caramel Cheesecake, washed down with iced cafe mochas. Trust me, this is more than enough just for lunch!

 

DINNER: Grilled Skirt Steak, which came with the most delicious Mashed Potatoes and Sweetcorn Succotash (I have blogged my interpretation).

 

Chevys on Van Ness Avenue:

This is Steve’s Steak Fajita Burrito which I called Fajito Burrita by mistake, as I'd had more than a sip of alcohol so I was on the verge of being tipsy and then I got the major giggles! Not very authentic food but it sheltered us on a rainy day and was good for beer and free warm corn chips.

Dreyers Ice Cream @ Pier 39 Fisherman’s Wharf:

A chocolate waffle cone with a scoop of Dulce De Leche ice cream and a scoop of Double Fudge Brownie ice cream. Luckily we only got one cone to share as it was massive!

Crab House @ Pier 39 Fisherman’s Wharf:

Anti-vampire food: 3 lbs of Killer Dungeness Crabs in garlic sauce and garlic fries. One of our most expensive meals out, but really worth it as the food was really delicious and because these crabs are huge you get huge chunks of meat, even inside the legs.

Frjtz on Hayes Street:

Frjtz is a good place for a cheap and filling meal as it serves Belgian fries, crepes and sandwiches. We ordered 2 large fries ($10 each) and with that you get to choose 2 dips each, so Steve picked the Thai Chili Ketchup and the Red Pepper Mayo and I picked the Chipotle Remoulade (Chipotle is dried Jalepenos and remoulade is like mayo) and Ponzu Ketchup (I had no idea what Ponzu is but it sounded good!).

Mel’s Drive-In on Van Ness Avenue:

Cheesy place that does excellent milkshakes and pies. The milkshakes were really thick and they give you the can they make it in, which has the remainder that they can't fit into the glass so you really get your money's worth.

Popcorn @ City Hall Farmers Market:

The market is on every Wed and Sun and basically you can buy all sorts of fruit and vegetables, seafood, nuts and dried fruit, honey and eggs for extremely cheap prices. But definitely go there for the freshly made popcorn, it’s the best we’ve ever eaten!

Belly Dogs in Golden Gate Park:

I’d never really been a huge fan of hotdogs, but that is until we discovered Belly Dogs! I played safe and opted for an All Beef and Steve took a gamble on the Louisiana Hot Link, which was damn hot! Golden Gate Park was one of my favourite places in San Francisco and these hot dogs are part of the reason why!

Pizza from ‘Milan Pizza’ on Geary Street:

This place was just around the corner from our hotel and we wished we’d discovered it sooner. We ordered the $23.99 Super Deal from here twice as the food is so good at an amazing price. For that price you get a large 16" pizza, 10 buffalo wings and a 2-liter soda. This pizza was so amazing that we made a special effort to order it from a payphone when we moved from our hotel to an apartment further away from the pizza place.

Noodles @ ‘On The Bridge’ restaurant in Japantown

On The Bridge is a teeny L-shaped restaurant and appropriately named because it is on a bridge walkway between two Japantown shopping centres. This was a cool place with 3 TV's on with different Miyazaki films playing: Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away. We ordered Yaki Udon which was delicious, even though the seaweed on top looks like a huge spider!

Heinz Baked Beans:

After a few weeks living in San Francisco we were craving a taste from home so I decided to cook Bangers and Mash, as we bought some amazing Italian sausages from Safeway, but we knew it wouldn’t be the same without Heinz Baked Beans. So we found a shop that sells imported British food you say tomato and bought some beans and a bottle of Heinz Salad Cream. They also sell chocolate bars, Ribena, Aunt Bessies Yorkshire puddings and custard but it's pretty expensive in there. The beans were nearly $2 for a can but they were really worth it!

Rachel Allen’s Sweet Pastry

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

This pastry is really easy to make, especially if you use a food processor, but you can also make it by hand.


Ingredients for the pastry (these quantities makes enough for two 8-inch tarts, so you can freeze one portion raw for another time):

• 250g (9oz) plain flour
• 125 (4.5oz) butter, diced and softened*
• 75g (3oz) caster sugar
• ½ – 1 egg, beaten

Directions for the pastry:

1. In the food processor place the flour, butter and sugar and whizz up for a few seconds.
2. Add half the beaten egg and continue whizzing. You might need to add a little more egg, but don’t add too much – it should just come together (I used a whole egg).
3. Tip the mixture onto a board* and with your hands flatten out the ball of dough till it is about 3 cm thick.
4. Wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Putting it on a metal baking tray will speed up the chilling process (it will keep well for a couple of days in the fridge, or it will freeze).

* My butter wasn’t very soft as I made this tart on the day that it heavily snowed so it was really cold in the house! I’m sure this is why the mixture didn’t come together into a ball in the processor (it stayed like breadcrumbs) so I had to bring it together on the board which took a few minutes.
 
To roll the pastry:

1. Take the pastry out of the fridge (and split into two portions if doing two tarts).
2. Place one portion of the pastry and place it between 2 sheets of cling film bigger than your tart tin.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll out a circle no thicker than ¼ cm.
4. Removing just the top layer of cling film, place the pastry upside down (cling film side facing up) in the clean tart tin.
5. Press the pastry into the edges, cling film still attached and, using your thumb, ‘cut’ the pastry on the edge of the tin.
6. Remove the cling film and pop the pastry in the freezer for at least 10 minutes before baking blind.

To bake blind:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C*
2. Line the pastry with greaseproof/parchment paper, leaving plenty to come up the sides.
3. Fill with baking beans, or dried pulses (I used a mixture of red lentils and rice).
4. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until the pastry feels dry to the touch (you can prepare the filling whilst you’re waiting).
5. Remove the paper and beans. At this stage you can brush the base with a little left-over beaten egg (I didn’t do this as I didn’t have any left-over egg).
6. Return the pastry base to the oven for another 5 minutes.

COOK'S NOTES:

• I accidentally cooked the pastry at Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C as that is what I’d set the oven temperature to for my Blueberry Pear Crumble Topped Tart and it worked out fine.
• Pastry freezes perfectly when it's raw, so it's handy to have some in the freezer. If the pastry is completely frozen going into the oven, and is not in any way too wet, you can actually cook it without the paper and beans. But if the pastry is not frozen, or is too wet (i.e. with too much egg), it will fall down the sides of the tin while it is cooking.
• The reason for baking the pastry blind is to prevent the tart from getting a soggy base - so when making a tart with a 'custard' filling (as in eggs and milk or cream), it's essential. But for other tarts such as a Chocolate and Pear Tart, baking blind doesn't seem to be necessary.

Blueberry Pear Crumble Topped Tart

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

This is a hybrid of three different recipes as I didn’t have enough ground almonds to make the original recipe I wanted to make. So I had to be creative and I’m pleased to say it was a great success!

I made the sweet pastry from scratch using Rachel Allen’s recipe (click here for a link) and for my first time making pastry I’m really pleased that it came out lovely and crisp. It was really easy to make in the food processor.

• Oven temperature: Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C
• Oven shelf: middle
• You will need: an 8-inch tart tin

Ingredients:
FOR THE PASTRY

• You will need 1 portion of Rachel Allen’s sweet pastry, or roughly 250 g of shop bought sweet pastry, baked blind.

FOR THE FILLING

• 225 g (8 oz) blueberries, washed
• 50 g (1.75 oz) caster sugar
• 1 large ripe pear, cut into thin slices (I used Comice)

FOR THE CRUMBLE TOPPING

• 25 g (1 oz) ground almonds
• 50 g (1.75 oz) self-raising flour
• 25 g (1 oz) caster sugar
• 50 g (1.75 oz) butter
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5/375°F/190°C.
2. Mix the blueberries with the sugar and set to one side.
3. Place all the crumble ingredients into a food processor and whizz up until you have a soft crumble.
4. Spread the blueberries out onto the cooked pastry base, then arrange the slices of pear on top.
5. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the fruit.
6. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the crumble is golden brown.