Friday, May 13, 2011

Foodie Anticipation: San Francisco Edition

My husband and I are going on vacation to San Francisco and Napa Valley very soon.  I am so excited about all of the food and wine that I can barely contain myself.  What this also means is that I won't be cooking or posting much for a bit.  Which is too bad, because I have two recipes ready for posting, but just haven't had the time.  Perhaps when I am refreshed from vacation?


But in the meanwhile, some thoughts on what we'll be eating.  It's my understanding that San Francisco is one of the best foodie cities in the U.S., and we are looking to take full advantage of that fact.  We have some dinner reservations in both SF and Napa thus far, though we're hoping to be a little flexible to try some different things when we get there.

We'll be dining at Fleur de Lys, Hubert Keller's place, our last night in San Francisco.  We've eaten at the sister restaurant in Las Vegas, and it was perhaps one of the best meals of my life. We expect we won't be disappointed.

In Napa, we were unable to secure reservations at Thomas Keller's famed French Laundry, unfortunately.  (Though our American Express card is relieved.  That's some heavy lefting.) So we're going to try out one of his newer ventures: Ad Hoc. Ad Hoc is a very different type of restaurant; the menu changes every night, but everyone gets the same 4 courses every night.  The food seems to err toward comfort food (lots of red meat and homey-sounding desserts), but I know it'll be more interesting than that!

We also have reservations at Tra Vigne, which was Michael Chiarello's brain child.  Several friends have recommended we eat here, and I'm already daydreaming about the freshmade mozzarella.

I'd also love to have some traditional dim sum while in SF, because where else can you be sure you're getting the real thing (other than NYC)?  If anyone has any recommendations, we'd be appreciative.

Sears Fine Food is right near our hotel, so it's likely we'll stop in for their famous Swedish pancakes, as well.

We do plan on doing some things other than eating while we're there, but not much.  Just kidding!

Any tips or recommendations before we head out?

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Restaurant Experience: Willow

This past Monday was my husband's and my second wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe it's been two years already, but at the same time, sometimes it seems we've been together forever.


As my oven is currently broken, thus limiting my cooking abilities, and because it was a Monday night after a very busy weekend, we decided to go out for a special dinner.  I made a reservation at Willow via OpenTable.com, and entered into the comments that it was our second anniversary, and we hoped for a quiet table.  Apparently the folks at Willow actually read those comments, as we learned!

Pictures and details below the cut. (Forgive the quality of the photos; they were taken with my flash-less iPhone and I was dependent on the lighting available to me.)