ESF's Final Feast. Best Meal of the Year!

Assignment:

Your delicious dish must be made from local, seasonal ingredients.

Document the process.

Your project must rest upon a platform that: a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.
When finished, thick tweet your project.

After days of flipping through a plethora of cooking magazines and more websites than I have fingers and toes, I finally decided to prepare two delicious sandwiches, with my partner-in-crime Austin.

The recipes:

Double-Decker Strawberry Chicken Club Sandwiches
Serves: 4 Prep: 20 Min Cook: 15 Min

12 ounces thick-cut bacon
1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halvesSalt and pepper
1 avocado2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup mayonnaise
12 slices whole-wheat toast
2 cups romaine lettuce1 ½ cups hulled and sliced strawberries (10 ounces)

Open-Face Chimichurri Skirt Steak Sandwiches
Serves: 4 Prep: 25 Min Grill: 15 Min

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled1 Serrano chile, seeded if desired
1 packed cup parsley sprigs1 packed cup cilantro sprigs
Grated peel of 1 lemon and juice of ½ lemon
Salt and pepper
One 16-ounce loaf ciabatta bread, sliced on an angle in 12 pieces
2 pounds skirt steak¼ cup mayonnaise
3 tomatoes, thinly sliced

As I explained in my previous post, on Tuesday, Austin and I ventured to the Ferry Building, where we hit up a few of the amazing specialty shops for local and seasonal bread and meat. We also took advantage of the weekly outdoor Farmer’s Market for all of our fruit and vegetable needs. The recipes called for three types of meat and an array of produce. The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is a California certified farmers market operated by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), and is open two days a week—Tuesdays and Saturdays. The market’s produce and flowers are from small regional farms and ranches, many of which are certified organic, and also pass the criteria for my assignment.

“Started as a one-time event in 1992, the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market's popularity led to the opening of a year-round market in May 1993. On Saturdays, 10 - 15,000 faithful shoppers attend the market because it reconnects them with their food sources. Shopping at a farmers market provides a forum for learning how food is grown, who grew it, and why it tastes so good. “ Ferry Building

The Prather Ranch Meat Company, where we purchased the skirt steak, bacon, and chicken, offers a wide selection of organic, sustainable, humane and pasture-raised meats. The company regularly carries beef, buffalo, pork, lamb and vitellone, a meat that is tender like veal and often found on menus in Tuscany. Raised on the 11,000 acre Prather Ranch, just north of Mt. Shasta, the beef is certified humane and organic. The Prather Ranch Meat Co. also raises pigs on pasture in Capay Valley, California. The pigs diet includes only organic fruits and vegetables from many nearby farms, which is comforting, especially after reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, and thinking much more critically about the idea—you are what you eat. These humanely and organically raised cattle and pigs, whose meat became the star of the sandwiches, rivaled some of the best I’ve ever had. There is just something about knowing that the food you’re eating wasn’t fed petroleum, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals during its short-lived miserable life.

Purchasing the ingredients is only half the battle when making a delicious meal; however, I thought that colorful and descriptive photographs were better suited to showcase the delicious sandwiches and ESF’s Final Feast.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Goodbye ESF, I will honestly miss spending Wednesday nights with 17 incredibly creative and inspiring people. But this is not the end of my food blogging, so stay tuned. 

Mmm mmm delicious!

On Tuesday, I spent  $36.96 on two pounds of organic grass-fed skirt steak. I purchased this top-notch beef to be the star for the dish I am going to prepare for ESF’s Final Celebration. Austin and I ventured down Market St. toward our destination dodging buses, Benz’s, and bicyclists, and luckily we snagged a metered parking spot just around the corner.

As the assignment required that all ingredients be local and seasonal, the Ferry Building’s Farmer’s Market and specialty shops provided the perfect spot to grab everything I needed. The Golden Gate Meat Company at the Ferry Building in San Francisco proudly boasts: our cattle are pasture-graze with plenty of room to roam, fresh air, and sunshine. Their feed is 100% organic, with no animal byproducts.

I included this little story to point out just how expensive organic groceries can cost. While I wish I could shop at the Ferry Building everyday, my minimal student funds don’t always allow it. Cooking and documenting the meal will follow in my next post.

Eating San Francisco’s final excursion to Zazie in Cole Valley for dinner and McDonald’s on Haight Street for dessert most definitely brought the course full circle. The original plan was to pig out at McDonald’s; an outing inspired by the Bay Area’s very own Michael Pollan and his book Omnivore’s Dilemma, which was required class reading. Pollan’s manifesto provides readers with a complete natural history of four meals, requiring them to think about the moral and ethical ramifications of America’s eating habits. More simply, Pollan followed food from its inception all the way to his plate or lap, as was the case for his first meal, Industrial Corn, in the form of an American staple—namely, McDonald’s.    

Realizing the class bank account could afford to fund a classier (and healthier) outing we decided to enjoy our last meal together at a quaint French Bistro in the heart of Cole Valley.  Zazie is everything that McDonald’s isn’t.

The 17-year-old establishment sits on a tiny lot on Cole Street, which is typical for the neighborhood; however, the cozy garden patio and carefully arranged tables for two, makes dinners feel like they are dining in an artsy Parisian café. 

Open for breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner Zazie proudly serves only organic milk and free range, antibiotic and hormone-free eggs from local farms. In addition to using organic dairy products the menu at the bistro features seasonal and regional fare, dishes depend on what produce is available from local farmers. I feasted on a 21 dollar grilled hanger steak, served with portobello mushrooms, a brandy cream sauce, and grilled asparagus.  The perfect medium-rare steak I devoured came from “Happy drug-free animals with an ocean view!”—according to a blub on the menu. In complete contrast, the Big Mac I might have eaten at Mickey D’s that night, would have sported “beef” patty that Michael Pollan explained came from a corn-fed cow raised in a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), Three glasses of wine later our delightful waitress, thankfully, began bringing out each of the 17 main courses.  The salmon, shrimp ravioli, and steak dishes looked almost to pretty to eat, as each element was placed meticulously on the plate and chopped parsley adorned the stark white rim. The fresh ingredients including, pea pods, tomatoes, and asparagus were brightly colored and smelled delicious; this meal was not only satisfying to eat, but was also a feast for the eyes and nose.

 After two hours of witty conversation and culinary excellence we headed to McDonald’s for a sweet treat. Runaways and transients are the typical clientele at the Haight Street McDonald’s; however, the McDonald’s employees were graced with the presence of seventeen college students and their professor. Most of my classmates decided to top their nights off with ice cream treats including McFlurries, ice cream cones, and classic sundaes complete with chocolate syrup and peanuts. I ordered medium French fries, which were as greasy and salty as I expected them to be, but satisfying nonetheless. 

To be honest, I would have been just as satisfied eating a #10 (McNuggets, fries, and a pop) as I was with my steak dinner from Zazie. So that’s just what I did. A few days after our outing and an in-depth discussion of Omnivore’s Dilemma, my boyfriend and I decided to take a trip to Marin and eat at the very McDonald’s where Pollan and his family ate. We got it to go, and just like Pollan ate it in a moving car driving 65 on the freeway. I thoroughly enjoyed it!  

ESF Does Dim Sum!

On any given day, Chinatown is the last place I want to be at 10 o’clock in the morning. It tends to be busy, crowded, and to be honest it’s just a bit overwhelming for my taste. I was never a huge fan of Chinese food growing up. White rice and soy sauce—yep, that pretty much sums up what I ate before moving to San Francisco. It wasn’t the large population of Asian people or restaurants that finally persuaded me to indulge it was just healthy curiosity.

Anyway, on this particular Saturday morning in April, my ESF class was traveling to Chinatown to immerse ourselves into this incredible culture. After the 1906 earthquake Chinatown, like most neighborhoods in San Francisco, was rebuilt and became what Anthony Lee, author of Another View of Chinatown, called “a glittering ghetto.” The newly asphalted streets and shiny streetlamps were meant to attract tourists, which it certainly did. The class met up at the corner of Bush and Grant, where there is an enormous gate into Chinatown. As we moseyed toward our first stop the Tin How Temple, I couldn’t help but notice the insanely cluttered and overcrowded shops along Grant Street. Oriental merchandise was spilling out onto the sidewalks, which I’m convinced is just another marketing scheme to temp the tourists. (Walking inside would just be too much to ask!) The Tin How Temple was incredible, and we learned that it is the oldest Chinese temple in the United States. The tiny temple is located on the third floor of a typical San Francisco building and the seventeen of us barely fit inside, not to mention the place had enough incense to make you faint (or high).

By 10:45 a.m. we had finally made it to New Asia, where we would enjoy Dim Sum (literally “touching heart), and everything that entails. The restaurant was a mad house, and it seemed like every seat in the place was taken, not to mention another 30 people waiting. The hostess was shouting inaudibly into a microphone, I think she was letting waiting patrons know their tables were ready. The staff was running around, pushing carts filled with tons of different Dim Sum dishes. After waiting about 25 minutes our class was sat at two large round tables, where jasmine tea, which is said to aid digestion, was waiting to be consumed. It wasn’t long before food started appearing on the spinning circle in the middle of the table. Most of the dishes were made with shrimp, pork, rice, and noodles. Prepared in various ways, just a simple sauce switch or different noodle choice, dramatically changes the taste and texture of the dishes. The Northern Chinese inspired pork pot stickers, filled with meat and cabbage, were my absolute favorite, even though they aren’t considered traditional dim sum. Because of a pretty serious allergy to shellfish, I couldn’t chow down on any of the shrimp options, including classic steamed shrimp dumpling. Dumplings, known as Gow, are made by wrapping ingredients in a rice flour or wheat starch skin; the beautifully translucent skin showcases the delicious ingredients inside.

The Dim Sum or Yum Cha experience is like no other. While dining at New Asia I noticed many of the things typically found in a restaurant were missing, for example, menus were nowhere in sight. Instead as the cart pushers delivered us our Dim Sum treats, served on small white plates and in small steamer baskets, they also stamped the purchase onto a ticket, using various symbols. The white ticket, adorned with many stamps from our feast would ultimately become the receipt, which compared to other foreign fares dim sum is a steal.

After brunch the class splintered, as many had made previous engagements, and a handful of us headed to Ross Alley, to find an itsy bitsy fortune cookie “factory” that opened its doors in 1962. Upon entering I could barely navigate myself around the barrels and barrels of fortune cookies of all different shapes and sizes and flavors. Within ten feet of the entrance sits the first of a handful of women pulling circular cookies off a hot press. The women repeatedly fold the circular cookies into their famous “fortune” shape and inserting the wonderful fortunes. I asked the woman sitting in the front how she avoided being burnt pulling the steamy little cookies from the press, since the safety precautions didn’t exactly seem up to snuff. She simply responded by handing me one of the cookies straight off the press, which I learned was a bit toasty but not scolding hot by any means. I could go on and on about this wonderful experience on a beautiful Saturday morning in San Francisco’s famed Chinatown, but I wont. Check out more pictures from the trip on flick'r!

ESF: I ate and drank the following today...

Between school, work, and an internship, I find it pretty difficult to find the time for food. Even though I love to eat and spend the majority of my “free time” watching the Food Network, my daily routine tends to stray far from the nutritious side of things, and I rely on caffeine and nicotine to get me through the day. The assignment this week in my ESF class, was to document what I ate and drank for one day. Being the procrastinating college student that I am, I waited until the last day to complete the assignment. However, I thought today would fit the bill of “being real and honest” about what I typically consume, given that on Wednesday’s I have class, a weekly doctor appointment, and work (I coach 5th grade girls basketball). If I had chosen to document the weekend or a day off, my eating habits would definitely stray from the usual, as I would have more time and energy to find something scrumptious.

Today, March 18th, is shaping up to be no different, from what I expected. I began my day with a French Vanilla coffee from USF’s Caf and a cigarette. I hate to admit that I enjoy this morning ritual, and as I sat in the morning sun reading my extremely dense Environmental Science textbook, it provided me with just the 'buzz' I needed to get me through.


After class, I headed straight for Starbucks to get my daily Grande Chai Tea Latte, which I skipped this morning because I was running late, thanks to the ridiculous bike-riders on Market St, who think the entire road is theirs. News flash—it’s not! Before heading out to conquer the rest of my day, I grabbed a banana, for some much needed potassium and electrolytes, since the rest of my diet isn’t exactly nutritious. So anyway, just in case you’re keeping track, that’s 1 banana, 2 caffeinated drinks, and 2 cigarettes.


A third of a bag of Planter’s Trail Mix and a few Snyder’s pretzel sticks were lunch for the day. I love trail mix so much, it’s easy to snack on while I’m running frantically around the city trying not to be late for whatever’s next on my crazy schedule. Why these carb-filled salty snacks you might wonder? Well, I absolutely love salt, thanks in part to my father, who salts everything, literally!

Dinner tonight will be simple, because after a twelve-hour day, the last thing I want is to come home and cook a feast. Thankfully supermarkets in the states are filled with an overwhelming amount of quick fix ingredients, including the shredded Mexican cheese, tortillas, and salsa I will use to make a few stovetop quesadillas. No Wednesday night would be complete without a glass (or bottle, depending on how the day went) of wine. Tonight’s selection is Cambria, a 2006 Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley. Mmmm mmm yummy!


Well I hope you enjoyed hearing about my ridiculous, yet delicious, culinary lifestyle. As I am planning to attend culinary school in the fall, and ultimately go into food writing, my eating habits are about to change dramatically, so stay tuned. I promise, the food discussed here will only get better.

Mission District Phase 3: Final Edition

The Mission District of San Francisco, is just one of many cultural neighborhoods. It is economically and ethnically diverse; however, nearly half of the population is Latino. Complete with shops, cafés, restaurants, murals, culture, and nightlife—this ever-changing neighborhood is one not to be missed. In the 1950’s Central American and Mexican families began moving to the Mission, and there presence can be seen all over.

My most recent “Mission” experience began at 24th and Mission, or the heart of the Mission, where I parked my car and began the trek to Balmy Alley. Along the seven-block stroll there are hundreds of taquerias, check-cash centers, and produce markets with their signs written in Spanish. An elderly Latino man can often be seen pushing his portable cart offering Mexican ice cream treats and even tacos.

Balmy alley is tucked away just off 24th street. When I arrived the alley was bustling with my classmates, fervently taking photographs and taking in every ounce of the incredible murals possible. The community murals movement began in the mid 1960’s, Balmy Alley is a product of this movement, and one of the few projects that was finished and preserved. The murals were meant to “educate the masses”, and portrayed images of influential Spanish people and messages. Balmy Alley was particularly effective because the murals were painted in one location. Moreover, murals are scattered through the entire Mission district, however, because they are spaced out, the message isn’t as strong. In 1972, the Mujeres muralists painted their first mural, which was followed up by three-dozen mural activists in 1984, who worked together to paint a mural on every fence, garage, and building in the alley.

After taking what seemed like 1000 pictures, we headed to Taqueria Vallarta for the food part of our field trip. The menu boasted many Mexican favorites like Chimichangas and tacos, and a few Americanized choices including the classic Super Burrito. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling great, so I opted for quesadillas and Mexican rice. Much to my surprise and satisfaction Taqueria Vallarta uses Chihuahua cheese, as opposed to the imposter Jack or Cheddar cheese, that tend to creep into Mexican dishes when they are made in the states. Literally meaning “little cheesy thing”, the cheese is the star in this simple dish.

The traditional Mexican quesadilla is a circle of uncooked corn masa folded in half and filled with cheese, and then warmed up until the cheese has melted. This process varies in different parts of Mexico, for example El Salvador has its own version of the quesadilla that unlike the Mexican version is served with coffee. The Salvadoran quesadilla, also popular in Guatemala and southern Mexico, is a dense bread dessert made with flour, milk, eggs, butter, sour cream, sugar, and Parmesan cheese; these ingredients are mixed together and baked for 30 minutes. I’ve never had a dessert style quesadilla like the one I described; however, I am stoked to try it as soon as I get my hands on one, because it sounds delicious.

After finishing up at Taqueria Vallarta, we began the walk back to Mission St. and our final stop—Mission Pie. This café and pie shop serves a plethora of freshly made organic pies, including the most popular option, banana cream, as well as pumpkin, vegan apple with brandied raisins, and pear raspberry. Many of the ingredients in Mission Pie’s pies are grown at their very own Pie Ranch; the remainder of the ingredients are bought from local farmers and at local markets. The pumpkin pie was pretty amazing; however, after tasting a classmate’s banana cream, that is the clear choice here!

Every excursion to the Mission is bound to be different, from the taquerias to the trendy new restaurants, there is always something new to eat and new to see in this cultural haven.

Mission District Phase 2

Hey ESF check out my Balmy Alley collage, phase 2 of the Mission Project. Using a new program, Picasa, this is my test-run. Enjoy!

Mission District Phase I

Make a Smilebox photobook

Just the first taste of my Mission Project.

Team: ESF
Destination: Balmy Alley

Enjoy!

North Beach Extravaganza!

Last Wednesday my ESF class embarked on our first of six planned field trips, destination—North Beach. Our group, 18 in all, met at City Lights Bookstore, a haven for tourists and city dwellers alike. City Lights is not only one of the most famous bookstores and publishers in the country, but it is also home to the poets of the Beat generation.


Drawn by the bohemian atmosphere, the beat generation began around 1950 with Jack Karouac, Alan Ginsberg, Neil Cassady, and Willian S. Burroughs in New York but the beat movement really took root in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood which provided inexpensive housing and beat hangouts like Vesuvio Café. The literary epicenter of the Beat movement was City Lights Booksellers and Publications who published Alan Ginsberg’s famous poem “Howl.” The beat author reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, along with an article, written by Karouac’s friend John Clellon Homes for the New York Times Magazine, dubbed “This is the Beat Generation” and by the late 1950s beats were flocking to San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood.


We strolled down Broadway Street, the main drag in North Beach, toward the chosen restaurant, Bocce Café. Cameras and notebooks in hand, I don’t doubt we looked like a bunch of tourists, which we most definitely are not. As we approached the restaurant hundreds of tiny flashes illuminated the storefront from the cameras of excited media students searching for the best angle.
An Italian flag door and enchanting walkway, lined with beautifully groomed trees and tiny white lights, led up to what we hoped would be the authentic North Beach destination we were looking for. The wooden sign, decorated with grapes and vines, should have served as an early warning to the inauthenticity of the meal, as there is a shocking resemblance to the sign at Olive Garden.


Our gaping table lined the far wall of a nearly empty restaurant. The ambiance of Bocce far outweighed the taste of the penne I ordered, but maybe I’m being unfair. Beautiful mirrors, old bottles of wine, dried garlic and peppers, and wood beams created a wonderful atmosphere. The table was buzzing with conversation as we ordered, ate delicious Italian bread, drank some cheap white wine, and waited in anticipation for the meal we were about to dissect.


When my penne with fresh tomatoes and roasted garlic arrived, I was thrilled, as I had fasted all day in preparation for my Italian feast. Maybe it’s an American thing (which the movie our class watched, Big Night, suggested cheese is), but as soon as my plate was set in front of me, I began searching for the fresh Parmesan cheese. Much to my dismay, the cheese was not fresh my any means, but was crumbled processed cheese, most likely from a nearby supermarket.


Although my meal wasn't as satisfying as I had anticipated, the wonderful service and conversation more than made up for it. North Beach is full of restaurants trying to be Italian, while also trying to please American customers. American customers who tend to like their food fast and familiar. Maybe it's time for us to slow down and really look at what we're eating, whether it's at a hokey Italian restaurant or at home. Stay tuned.

seven months of silence

okay, let's just get past it, i haven't blogged in nine months. there i said it, and i'm not trying to ignore it. a lot has happened you'll learn if you stay posted. stories along the way will explain why i've been on a blogging hiatus. but anyway, i'm back and ready to get down to business via ESF assignments and adventures. i am beyond stoked, as in case you were wondering what ESF is, it means eating san francisco. in my final semester at the university of san francisco, in order to satisfy my cultural diversity requirement i am enrolled in a course where i paid fifty extra bucks for tuition to spend a semester with 16 other students eating our way through san francisco. with eight-hundred and fifty dollars the next sixteen weeks are going to be a frenzy of bus rides and hustling for coupons and deals for some of the most eager classmates i've ever had. we are headed to areas like north beach, the mission, haight ashbury, and china town. everyone totally brings a different  quality or angle to our ideas. whether they were raised on a farm, worked in a restaurant, love to garden,  are obsessed with food network, or aspire to be a food writer...each characteristic just adds to the possibilities this class has to do a kick ass job eating our way across san francisco. one of the most diverse and coveted cities in the country, quite possibly in the world. i hope you stay tuned and follow what 17 students and one engaging professor find out, also check in for twitter.com class updates. 

oh yeah i also coach nine months a year, summers off,  at katherine delmar burkes school (kdbs). i coach two seasons of basketball and one season of volleyball for 5-8th grade girls. it's a blast but a lot of hard work. i have also been interning at the st. anthony foundation in san francisco for seven months in the communications and media department.  

rmc. can of coke. cabo san lucas. picture perfect sunset. love is a funny thing.