After the amazing welcome reception and street food fare from the night before, I was really excited to head back up to SF for Day 2 of the festival 🙂 As I was driving up I just felt so lucky that I live so close to one of the best foodie cities ever – San Francisco. I mean – without traffic it’s only about a 35-40 min drive (which is what it was since I left early on Saturday morning to get to the first sessions of the day!) And what a perfect location for hanging out with fellow foodies and bloggers!
After the morning sessions at the Sir Francis Drake, we headed to the Metreon for the Tasting Pavilion! I tried really hard to capture the essence of the tasting pavilion – which was AMAZING – but quite honestly, I couldn’t balance my bag of swag, my camera, my wine glass and the awesome food I was eating. So I opted to eat first and take pics later – which left me with only three pics from the Pavilion! (Sad!) But here they are 🙂
Above – the first thing I ate when I got inside the Pavilion – spicy sweet potato fries from Alexia! Then I stopped by the Jarlsberg booth which had amazing cheeses, nuts, dried fruit, etc. I could have completely filled up just from that one booth!
Somewhere along the way, I found INNA jam’s station – their spicy jalapeno jam on a crispy toast with cream cheese was to die for!
And alas, my Tasting Pavilion pictures end here. It was such a blur of food and eating – next time I’ll really have to stay focused so I can share more pics! Anyway – one of the best things about the Pavilion was some of the cool people I met – like Julie, Azmina, Chef Dennis (who I have to commend for bringing healthy food to the school he cooks at!), and Mara who takes amazing food pics! So between this event and the Gala Dinner, we had a 3 hour break – so of course I went to H&M 🙂
This has to be one of my favorite places to buy clothes – I found the cutest coat but the line to pay was ENORMOUS… so being a bit too logical I decided to go have coffee with a friend. Now I kind of wish I had that coat 🙂 Oh well – I’ll just have to go back this weekend and get it! Anyway – so before the dinner I met up with my new friends Julie and Diana to get ready, and then we walked down Market St to the Ferry Building for the dinner! But – when we got there, the place was EMPTY
Apparently we had missed the memo for cocktail hour outside the Ferry Building 🙂 But one of the hosts directed us to the right place and soon we were on our way to eating amazing appetizers! Like these Cheese Gougeres with Gruyere Fondue…
Absolutely amazing! The cheese melted in my mouth and oozed all over my tongue as soon as I bit into it! It took a lot of self control to not eat the whole tray 🙂 Next up – Herb polenta cups with Cypress Grove chevre and provencal vegetables!
The warm polenta was so buttery and creamy (thanks to the chevre!) and the veggies on top tickled my palate 🙂 When we finally made it inside, the hall looked as amazing as ever…
I love the Ferry Building! And our table was set to the nines – every course had a separate wine pairing courtesy of Bonny Doon Vineyards.
Julie, Diana and I were at the same table where we met a few other Foodie Friends. Here’s a pic of Julie and Diana that I took right before we sat down to eat!
Now – on to the food! The first course… a Roasted Golden Beet Tart with Crimson Beet, Feta and Currants, Wild Arugula and Basil Puree…
While the tart was perfectly cooked and very flavorful, I think I actually enjoyed the beet salad with feta & currants even more! The tart feta provided a perfect complement to the sweetness of the beets and the spiciness of the arugula just topped it all off. Next up – Tofu Scallops with Braised Fennel, Candied Orange Peel and garnished with Fried Fennel Fonds
While this was the vegetarian option, what surprised me most was 1) how flavorful it was and 2) how much it looked like the Meat option – the seared scallops!
They could have been twins! Soon after, course three appeared – which was some sort of Portabello Mushroom cake served with sauteed local wild mushrooms, basil oil, and butternut squash puree…
Oh and did I mention the wine? 🙂
As if all that wasn’t enough, dessert was just as spectacular as the rest of the food! A Buttery Almond Cake with Oranges and Spanish Sherry Sabayon – just melted in your mouth – and the figs were so juicy and delicious – they went with the cake beautifully!
I told you there was a lot of eating on Saturday! 🙂 At the end of the night I couldn’t believe how quickly it had all gone by. I was so grateful to have been able to attend the Festival – it was really one of the coolest experiences ever and it was so great meeting so many fellow food bloggers! At the end of the night, after I got home, I realized that I didn’t take any pictures of my FoodBuzz badge! So here is a very tired but content me – proudly holding up my badge as my husband takes my picture 🙂
The Picky Eater: A Healthy Food Blog 