Thursday, July 1, 2010

A Ferry Nice Blog Anniversary

Last Saturday was the one year anniversary of this little blog of mine. When I said hello to the blogging world a year ago, I'm pretty sure the number of readers I had didn't exceed the number of fingers and toes I had. I didn't really know what I was doing or what I was getting myself into. I knew I loved eating. I knew I would be spending a month in Paris--a culinary wonderland, and I knew I loved reading all the food blogs I was beginning to discover. It was the perfect time to start my own food blog.

Now, a year later, this food blog has become a large part of my life. It's something that I enjoy doing--as a way of documenting and appreciating some of the amazing food I've had the privilege of eating, as a way of showcasing some of my own creations, and more recently, as a way of meeting great people who love food as much as I do.

So on this monumental anniversary (at least in my perspective) I felt like I should've blogged something significant. Perhaps some amazingly great meal that would induce jealously, or some spectacular cake-like creation out of my own oven. Neither occurred. I was instead, on my way to a weekend trip to San Francisco with the bf.

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First destination in San Francisco? The Ferry Building. To me, it seemed like it would be a gastronomical paradise. Definitely suitable for celebrating a food blogging anniversary. However, we arrived fairly late in the day so I only had about an hour to frantically try to hit all the places I had been dreaming about.

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Our first stop was Boccalone, where they make "Tasty Salty Pig Parts." Tasty indeed. It was very tasty. We got a cone of sliced meats and shared it on my way to Cowgirl Creamery.

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The pungent yet alluring scent of cheese hit us two storefronts away and almost left me speechless. By the time we arrived at Cowgirl Creamery, the sheer amount of cheese piled on the counter rendered me completely speechless. There was such a huge selection of cheese, I didn't know where to start.

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After sampling a few different cheese, I decided on two hard cheeses. One was a cave-aged marisa from Wisconsin (wasn't sure what a marisa was, but it was good!), and I can't remember the other one--just know that they were tasty. If you ever find yourself at Cowgirl Creamery and find yourself just as overwhelmed as I was, fear not. They are more than happy to help you find that perfect, stinky cheese.

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Next door was the Acme Bread Company with some lovely artisan loaves on display. I decided on a raisin walnut bread to go with my cheese.

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Our last stop was Miette. It was extremely cute, though seemed very frouffy (if that's a word.) Everything was pink and adorable, but nothing seemed extraordinary. Still, if I see macarons, I have to get them...for researching purposes of course ;) We chose three flavors: strawberry, chocolate lavender, and rose geranium. The strawberry tasted like strawberry cream cheese, the chocolate lavender tasted merely of chocolate, and the rose was my favorite of the three. Good, but not amazing. However, I did appreciate the fact that the macarons food coloring-less and au naturel.

Armed with goodies from the Ferry Building, we were ready for a picnic by the Palace of Fine Arts the next day. We had been talking about going on a picnic for more than two years now. No exaggeration. How lovely that our first picnic was with such fine food. All we needed was my antique picnic basket from Paris and a nice bottle of wine. Then if I closed my eyes...it would almost be like we were somewhere in Europe..

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The bread--though a little hard from sitting out overnight--was studded with golden and regular raisins. It went pretty well with the two cheese. Luckily, I had thought to buy a cheese knife at Cowgirl Creamery. It sliced easily through the cheeses, the bread, and actually allowed me to make amazingly thin slices of salami.

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The Boccalone salami took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting it to be that good. The fennel flavor was amazing.


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To snack on during our weekend getaway, I had made some caramelized almonds at home. They also went well with the cheese and added a nice sweet addition to our picnic.

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So in the end, there was no extravagent dinner or outrageous feast to commemorate the one year anniversary of food, je t'aime, but the francophile and foodie in me was very satisfied with this little picnic by the lagoon :)

8 comments:

  1. Very cute. Congratulations on the one year anniversary! We went to the Ferry Building as well when we were in SF. Naturally, I almost melted into a puddle of food joy while Stanley got a cheeseburger for lunch. ....Yeah.

    -Denise

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  2. Happy 1st anniversary! Here's to many more =)

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  3. Happy blogiversary! Your picnic looked great!

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  4. the pink cupcakes at miette is pretty good. it's one of the few cupcakes with frosty in the center, albeit a bit sweet. congrats on the anniversary!

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  5. Eating at Boccalone is highly underrated. We usually grab a loaf from Acme, and just our asses down at the bar as soon as someone gets up. They do salumi platters that are relatively affordable, and they don't stare when you're BYOB(read).

    Happy blogiversary!

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  6. As a native of SF, I'm happy you went to the Ferry Building! There's so much good stuff there. Looks like you even managed to get there on a sunny day..

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  7. happy bloggiversary! I love the ferry building and glad you did too! acme bread isn't my favorite and i wish cow girl cheese had a few less stinky options for my taste but miette and blue bottle coffee are some of my loves! looks like you had a lovely picnic :)

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  8. happy bloggiversary!! i was overwhelmed at the ferry building too, but found some yummy japanese deli eats by the mexican place.

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