San Francisco: Zachary's Pizza

Location:

5801 College Ave., Oakland, CA

www.zacharys.com



Zachary's pizza is the BEST!!!



Or, so I've heard from everyone who lives or has ever lived in SF, but alas, it was closed due to the Easter holiday.

Boo urns....I will have to wait until next time I'm in SF to try the famous deep-dish pizza!

Bijan Bakery and Cafe, San Jose, CA

Location:

170 S. Market St. Suite 110,
San Jose, CA

Cost: ranges from $1.50 +

www.bijanbakery.com

After a much needed breakfast at Il Fornaio, we remembered (from having passed by it the night before), that Bijan Bakery had a magnificent array of desserts and pastries and both agreed we had only enough room to share a small treat.



I don't think I have ever seen so many pastries in my life! We got there when there was hardly a line-up but we took so long to decide what we wanted (read: overwhelmed with choices) that by the time we were ready to order a line had grown.



There were chocolate chip, almond, raisin, and various other cookies, baklava, marzipan, cinnamon buns, twists, strudels, biscotti, cookies with fruit centres, mousse pastries in a variety of flavours, cream puffs, fruits tarts, cheesecakes, eclairs, chocolate covered strawberries, napoleans, tiramisu, black forest...and....so much more!



We decided upon an apple tart (boring, I know, given all the selection! But anything else would have gone to waste since we were short on time and had already over-eaten at breakfast!)



Warmed, the apple tart wasn't bad, but it didn't blow my socks off. I should have tried their specialty Princess Cake (alas, if I had been plugged to trusty ol' Chowhound I would have known to do so!) They also serve soups, salads and sandwiches!



Bijan Bakery and Cafe certainly leaves MUCH to be desired....

Il Fornaio, San Jose, CA

Location:

302 South Market St.
San Jose, CA

Cost: less than $30 for two

www.ilfornaio.com

Redemption, baby!

Il Fornaio was easily the best breakfast we had on our trip. After barely eating the day before we were ecstatic over the prospect of breakfast!

The Hotel Montgomery's desk clerk suggested we breakfast at Il Fornaio which was literally down the street, so we decided to give it a try.

We found it situated inside The Saint Claire, a gorgeous 1920s boutique hotel.




The enormity of the restaurant is not fully conveyed through these two measly photographs. With high ceilings, buttery walls and toast-coloured seating (okay, that may just be my stomach talking) Il Fornaio had a superb ambiance for breakfast and all things edible.







FILONE CON RIPIENO PICCANTE $8.95

Filone bread stuffed with eggs, sausage, bell peppers, onion, tomatoes and Tabasco topped with cheese (in my case, cheese on the side). With a glass of Arancia (Orange juice) $3.50

The Babelfish translation for this dish is: "TRADITION WITH FILLING PICCANTE" (anyone?)...whatever, it was delicious and it's something I plan on creating myself one of these days!



UOVA PIACERE $5.95

Two eggs (we chose egg whites only) , any style, grilled potatoes and onions; toasted filone bread.

Yes, "EGGS APPEAL TO" appealed to me very much, thank you Babelfish.



Beautiful china like this was filled with coffee and my usual, Earl Grey tea.

Overall Il Foranio gets huge props for its lovely ambiance, friendly service, great prices and tasty dishes! In fact, we would have gotten some pastries from there too but we'd heard that Bijan Bakery & Cafe boasted an enormous array of delectable treats, so we decided to head over there instead.

Blue Front Cafe, San Francisco, CA

Location:

1430 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA

Cost: avg $8



www.bluefrontcafe.com

I've declared this the worst food day during our whole San Francisco journey.

Our breakfast consisted of toasted bagels with (albeit pretty good) Trader Joe's strawberry jam and tea made from the last remaining tea bag in our relative's cupboard. Our Japanese Tea Garden venture was all of one bowl of shared snacks and again, tea, this time, Oolong. You can figure that even before lunch we were dying to try something incredible in the city's famous Haight-Ashbury (or "Hashbury") district.

A very colourful, 'hip' place to be. We only had a limited amount of time to spend there but wanted to eat something memorable, so we asked the lady behind the counter of the Tabacco store where we could find some good fare. Her props were for the Blue Front Cafe where, according to her, we would get great Meditteranean food. Perfect!



And there it was!



Huge-ass menus AND lineup! This place must be amazing! The beefy men behind the counter were needless to say, busy and had a real no-nonsense attitude to them. We were almost afraid to order.

As we waited for our chicken gyros we noticed the accolades decorating the wall....it seemed like this was the place to visit in Hashbury! Awesome. Unfortunately, our gyros took, what seemed like decades, and we had to run to catch the bus back so that we could then catch another bus to Japantown to meet our friend who was giving us a ride to San Jose for the premiere of his film at the festival. Gah!

So, we took the wrap to go, resisting the urge to devour it in the bus in anticipation of sitting down properly with it when we got back to the house.

Finally (and I really do mean, finally) we sat down and unwrapped the gyro. It came with this cream sauce on the side which I greedily doused onto the wrap and took a bite. Then another bite, just to give it another chance.

But no.

The sauce had no kick. And the chicken was GREY!! Or GRAY...whichever you prefer. Or maybe BLUE for Blue Front Cafe. Diiiissguuuuusting. I was heartbroken knowing that we had another long trek ahead of us and all I saw was a half-eaten mess on the plate in front of me.



If you'd like to know what we ate for dinner...let me just say, we didn't have time to eat before the film started and I never knew a Cliff bar could taste so good. That was all we ate before we headed to the film's reception at the San Jose Museum of Art where the line up for whatever it was they were serving snaked into the other room!



So we took in some of the jazz...



And decided to check out Goya and Picasso and then the rest of the Museum upstairs where...



....we settled our teeth into the lovely cupcakes, cake-on-sticks, eclairs and donuts. Yes!



When the pass-arounds came...er...around, I "gorged" on a lettuce leaf, a little cup of asparagus cream soup and later, some veggie mexican mish-mash served in the VIP area. You'd be right in guessing that the reason there are no photographs of these so-called meals is because I was eating with both hands!

Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, SF

Location:

Tea Garden Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
San Francisco, CA

Hours:

Garden: Daily 8:30-6:30
Gift shop/tea house: Daily 10:30-4:30

Cost:

Entry free: $4 pp
Tea: less than $10 for two.

Golden Gate park is HUGE. You can tell when you look at those terribly off-scale tourist maps and find that a significant part of it is "Golden Gate Park"....then you realize it's really that big and the map is totally to scale.

I knew I wanted to see the Japanese Tea Garden, imagining it would be like going to a real tea garden, in Japan. I'd like to think those aren't so very touristy.



However, it was beautiful....



with the cherry blossoms and...



lush foliage and vibrant colours but...



...it was crowded. The pathways exploded with noisy children running around freely and the tea house was crammed with people (luckily we got a corner seat overlooking the pond) .

The kimono-clad waitress who served us wore a digital watch on her wrist and walked with the gait of someone who had to catch a bus at 5, instead of the graceful tiny steps my imagination willed. Instead, she brushed me off and hurried away when I asked to take a photograph of her. Okay, so I am a tourist. Possibly the worst kind...grasping my hefty Nikon and clicking noisily at my surroundings while we waited for our tea.





The Oolong (one of the only three on the menu along with Green and Jasmine) was plain but a welcoming thirst-quencher. The 'snacks' were a combination of salty and sweet, some fishy tasting, others eggy and sweet.

Overall, the Tea Garden was not what I imagined it to be, but in retrospect, we were still able to catch a quiet moment in the sun where I put away my camera for a while.

Caffe Greco

Address:
423 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, CA
www.caffegreco.com

Cost: Items range from $1.85 (water) to $7.95 (panini)

Caffe Greco was another place we had walked past on the way to Union Square with the intention of coming back.  

So, on Day 2 when we were looking for a place to have coffee, I was determined to find "the place with the posters" and we turned our noses on many other cafes in search of it, all the while ignoring our tired calves and thirsty throats.   When we finally found Caffe Greco, and squeezed into the last corner window spot, and rested our aching feet on the worn wooden floors, with this view...all our effort was without a doubt, worth it.



With high ceiling fans and art nouveau playing fancifully on the cream-coloured walls to jumbo glass canisters filled with delectable treats and an open 'book' menu behind the counter, this place embodies everything that is caffe Italia.



Around since '88, Caffe Greco serves homemade (and award-winning, according to their website) tiramisu (I'm happy to say we tried it, and it's simply the best tiramisu I've ever had!), cannoli and gelato.

 

We also had a chai caffe latte ($4.25/5.75) which is a tea AND coffee latte.....and it was absolutely heavenly...a definite MUST-HAVE if you're ever in North Beach.  My usual Earl Grey ($2.50), was divine and fared well with the large square of moist, creamy succulent tiramisu ($4.75)...it was so good, I wish the inside of my mouth were made of it!

Wooden chairs that creak with good use, illy coffee tins, leather benches and familiar wall hangings all gather together to make Caffe Greco a really warm and popular home for locals (I know it looks empty, but everyone happened to be either, out of shot, sitting outside or in the other room when I captured this photo).





Caffe Greco, I miss you. We'll be back again, someday.  If you live in SF, and haven't been....what on earth are you waiting for?  I'm so jealous.

Walking.

Location: Fisherman's Wharf



The sea-lions were an eye-ful (and an ear-ful) at Pier 39.



Apparently there's a "bush man" who hides behind these bushes and jumps out at tourists. He wasn't there when we walked by..but his beer was chillin'.



There's another Boudin Sourdough bakery! This time with a baker in the window and a bready croc on display....quite fitting when you think about how tough skinned sourdough is.



"Hot clam chowder" - now, that's what I should have had!



Or these bloated crab sandwiches. Wait, is that sourdough bread?