Fair Weather Vegan

Embarcadero!

I knew I'd forgotten a neighborhood in that Food Tour 2011 post. Of course we stopped at the Ferry Building, where the San Francisco Fish Company made an unusual misstep with its fish tacos.  Or at least I found them difficult to eat because of the overlapping taco presentation and somewhat dry in the fish department. Those who have puzzle-solving skills involving spacial manipulation would probably find these tacos a fun challenge to eat.  Then there was another dilemma at Ciao Bella, where my usual habit of getting two flavors so I can try as many as possible was thrown into disarray by the most appetizing flavor of the day being cookie dough.  Nothing goes with cookie dough!  In the end I had it by itself.  It was delicious, but I still had the feeling I was missing out. 

The main piece of advice I can give you from that day, other than you can't go wrong with the SFFC's fried offerings, is not to be in SOMA during rush hour.  Especially when there's been an accident on one of the approaches to 280. I spent a long time convincing my folks that we don't have a traditional rush hour in the city, but this happens to be one of the two neighborhoods where that spectre does exist.  It's no joke. 

You Win, Goat's Milk Ice Cream

I know I said sorbet is a comparable, much lower-cost option if you're looking for a non-dairy frozen dessert.  But having had a lot of sorbet since then, I have to say that the goat's milk ice cream approximates the texture and taste of 'regular' ice cream much more closely.  It's still not suitable for vegans and it still costs a fortune, but it's in a different class from even really good sorbet. 

LaLoo's Goat's Milk Frozen Yogurt

This is one of those products I'd been thinking of trying for awhile, but was put off by the price tag: about twice as much as a pint of Ben & Jerry's or a few bucks more than super-premium ice cream/gelato, which is already too expensive.  It appears to be manufactured by one eponymous woman on her Petaluma goat farm, and is pitched as the healthier alternative to cow's milk ice cream.  You can imagine how thrilled I am at the many versions of the 'guilt-free' designation that are the major selling point.  At any rate, I accidentally chose one of the probiotic goat's milk frozen yogurts, as opposed to the ice cream, because I liked the flavor combination of cajeta (a goat's milk caramel) and toffee.  These are indeed the sweet highlight.  The goat's milk base is slightly softer and more sticky than cow's milk, and with a definite aftertaste of, there's nothing else for it, chevre.  This isn't bad, just unusual (plus probably the probiotics contribute).  I would think a flavor other than vanilla might help mask that a bit, like the dark chocolate and or cappucino ice creams.  There is also a balsamic strawberry, one of my favorites when served by BiRite but I am leery of its combo with goat milk.  The frozen yogurt is hekshered ORC but I presume still considered dairy since it is milk from an animal, as opposed to a soy bean or some such.  I would recommend this particular flavor with a bit of chocolate sauce for the lactose-intolerant consumer with deep pockets, but a sorbet or a coconut ice cream can provide a similar kick for less bread. 

Oh My Sweet God

A dear friend had a birthday yesterday, and co-workers brought her treats from this place.  Why did no one tell me this place existed?  As it is, I will have to add it to my mythical New York fall trip that includes tickets to the Cherry Jones revival of Mrs. Warren's Profession, and the new production of Arcadia, and....

7x7's 50 SF Sweets To Eat Before You Die

The trendy insider magazine names its dessert favorites.  I'm a little sceptical, given that the few things on the list I have tried generally didn't blow me away.  Recchiuti truffles are fairly hit or miss. Claire's Squares aren't sweet enough for my taste.  I have not had good experiences with Dynamo's chocolate doughnut base.  And calling anything made by Tcho 'plain and simple' is hilarious.  Someone at 7x7 also likes coconut more than the average person (I mean, I really like coconut too, but is it the best cupcake at Kara's?).  There's  far too much lemon, a dearth of sweet fruit, and way not enough chocolate on this list.  That said, I fully intend to get to a bunch of these things, especially the ones that contain toffee. 

My Feet Hate Me: SF Street Food Festival

Even on a cloudy, cold day it pays to show up right at the beginning of any food-related event in the Bay Area.  Because people around here are insane about food.  Insane, I tell you.  So the prospect of a few blocks full of booths from some of the Bay's most beloved food carts but also some of its hottest restaurants drew everyone, plus of course her dog, because that's the other thing we're insane about.  Never mind that with people hip to jowl in a three block radius, plus eighteen billion varieties of meat being cooked in the open air, plus a number of small, fur-pulling children, it was not actually a good environment for dogs.  The hell with that.  Attending the festival with the one person in the world who is less able to pass a dog on the street than I am might have been a mistake, as we were constantly being stopped while she paused to admire or commiserate or read tail semaphore, or whatever.  There was a dude with a bulldog who had the right idea: he simply sat on one of the crates provided to patrons on the sidewalk while women flocked to coo over his dog.*

But the food, right, the food.

Hurrah For Milkshakes

Yesterday was finally the day of eating I had anticipated since starting my trip, and the piece de resistance was a black and white milkshake at the Ronnybrook Farms Creamery in Chelsea Market.  Ronnybrook is something like the East Coast answer to Straus Dairy, selling its milk in glass bottles, but it also runs this little soda fountain-esque shop.  I've never had a milkshake that tasted so much like it was made of milk before, and the blend of chocolate and vanilla made it tantalizingly sweet.  Mama Louie prefers the ultra-thick versions in which the straw stands up without aid, but I thought it added a real air of authenticity to the whole 'milk-shake' concept to be so close to its roots.  Highly recommended. 

Don't worry vegans, there are some vegan treats to be discussed shortly!

Blast

My goals for this trip were simple, and could be encapsulated in one sentence: finally make it to Shopsins.  Everything else is gravy.  At this point, however, that goal seems compromised, as does my ability to sample the fare at the new Mets park.  The last meal I had at Shea consisted of a pretty bad kosher hotdog, a decent knish, and some soft serve.  I recognize soft serve as a force of evil in the universe, but it was 90 degrees out.  My karma was instant anyway, since I missed a David Wright homer while waiting in line.  And yes, I do keep Dutch halakhah when it comes to the interval between meat and dairy meals ;)  However, my plans to sample Shake Shack and see if the kosher options have improved may not come to fruition.  Wish me luck. 

The Scientific Case For Slushies

Poorly designed and executed on a tiny sample size this study may be, but anything that tells me slushies have health benefits is fine by me. 

Pumpkin Ice Cream, Etc

I have been attempting to read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, an exercise in frustration that I will report on another day, but it has made me more aware of seasonal food changes.  Not that I do anything about them, per se, but there was pumpkin ice cream on the shelf and I picked it right up. 

Because I generally eat non-dairy ice creams Double Rainbow Perfectly Pumpkin was the first of the San Francisco company's flavors I've tried.  It's super-premium, which means a minimum of air whipped in, and also hekshered OU, and gluten free.  Oh, and did I mention it's really good?  Extremely impressive (although at this moment I'm considering what BiRite would do with pumpkin ice cream and nothing could compare to that), natural tasting, fairly subtle pumpkin flavoring and a light, creamy texture.  Following it with Mudslinger's Chocococo does not reflect well on that brand.  If you click on the link, you'll see a charming flash opening in which a contemptuous little girl insists "I hate wussy ice cream."  And in truth, Mudslingers has tried too damn hard to pretend it's not making a dairy-free product.  They're supposed to taste different, as Coconut Bliss has brilliantly demonstrated, but Maggie Mudd's has tried to make regular ice cream out of coconut and what emerges is a heavy, gooey article that doesn't have the refreshing quality of either milk or coconut milk (they create something called coconut cream as a base by gumming it up).  The chocolate flavor is deep and intense, but the experience of eating it is just not that fabulous.  They do make a variety with whiskey and fudge, however, so I'm not giving up hope for them yet. 

What do you eat with ice cream?  Why cookies of course (and a big glass of ice water because the Mudslingers is going to make you hella thirsty)!  But not these cookies, specifically the wheat-free, dairy-free versions.  I don't know that I've ever had a bad Newman's Own product, but these come close.  I blame the wheat-free aspect.  They're not even gluten-free with all that, so why waste the time?  Anyhow, they've still got the quality Newman chocolate, but they're also dry and have a seriously bitter aftertaste.  At least they're hekshered (OU dairy, presumably because of the equipment being used to make dairy products).  But there are a lot of alternatives to try before you end up here.