A day out in San Francisco
All right, here comes another day of me pretending I'm a fancy food blogger. Today was Kelsey's last day in San Francisco, so we went on an outing! We spent the day in North Beach and then dipped into Chinatown for a bit, had Chipotle for dinner and then came back and did henna tattoos. I had so much fun :) I bought some candied ginger in a little gourmet grocery store in North Beach for this orange and ginger cake I'm planning on making. The recipe seems promising because it looks really fancy and complicated, but the ingredients are all inexpensive, straightforward stuff (ok, almond meal is a little weird, but it's cheap at Trader Joe's). I don't have an occasion for it really, but I don't care; I owe Ryan's roommates some desserts in exchange for all the food I eat over there so I think I'll make it for them this week.
Anyway, here are mini-reviews of two of the places we hit during the course of the day...
I think every single friend who has visited me in the city has been dragged to Naia, but I still feel like talking about it, so nyah. This picture is of the North Beach location, but I go to the Castro one way more often and there's also one in Berkeley. It's basically the best gelato place in the world, with every flavor you can imagine: every kind of chocolate (milk, dark, white, Ferrero Rocher candies, chocolate orange, Mexican Xocolatl with chili peppers), every kind of fruit (kiwi, canteloupe, Valencia orange, blood orange, lemon, watermelon), every alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink (green tea, Thai tea, chai, champagne, Guinness, and a bunch of hard liquors that I have never heard of and can't spell), and miscellaneous-yet-awesome flavors (rose, Nutella, tiramisu, cannoli). As you can see, they decorate the ice cream tubs quite charmingly, with real fruits and bits of whatever is in the ice cream (chocolate bars, a beer can, a rose). The chocolate flavors are to die for, but you also have to taste the fruit flavors because they are amazing- order the orange and it's like biting into a real Valencia orange. This has not worked out to my advantage with flavors like kiwi and watermelon (I was expecting the sugared-up artificial versions of those flavors, but they tasted like a real kiwi- SOUR!- and a real watermelon, watery and mild), but the various citrus flavors are really amazing. Today I got Masala chai and dark chocolate (I was so excited when I saw that they had chai- it was delicious!), and Kelsey got cannoli and white chocolate (which was also yummy). A+!
This place was a total surprise to us! I wandered in because of the view in the first picture (JARS? of TEA? Oooh....), and when we realized that the long bar full of chatty patrons was not a place to pay for lunch, but a free tea tasting party... well, long story short, we sat down and had some tea :) Apparently they have free tea tasting every day. The servers were really personable and fun to talk to, which makes perfect sense because they are salespeople, but at the same time I didn't feel pressured to buy anything. We sat there and were served cup after cup of tea- I think some of the kinds we tried were pu-erh, green bamboo, golden throat, and honestly I can't remember the rest, but most of them were delicious! Some tasted very green and vegetable-like and fresh, and some were slightly bitter at first but went down delicious. The server told us about the medicinal properties of each tea, most of which I can't remember now, but it was really interesting. I ended up buying $10 worth of ginseng oolong tea (for alertness- he threw in a couple of extra scoops because I said I was a poor college student). Highly recommended. I think I'm taking my mom here next time she comes to the city, in fact- she would love it :)
The first picture is the henna powder, the second is with water added.. I forgot to take a picture before we actually did the tattoos, but that's what we didn't use.
Anyway, I did this on Kelsey's foot...
And I originally wanted to do this on my arm, but I couldn't really draw the design at that angle so I did it on my tummy instead.
We scraped the henna paste off a couple hours ago and the designs are really light, which is disappointing, but we put some veggie oil on and it got darker. Hopefully they'll darken overnight... I will post an update later :)
Anyway, here are mini-reviews of two of the places we hit during the course of the day...
I think every single friend who has visited me in the city has been dragged to Naia, but I still feel like talking about it, so nyah. This picture is of the North Beach location, but I go to the Castro one way more often and there's also one in Berkeley. It's basically the best gelato place in the world, with every flavor you can imagine: every kind of chocolate (milk, dark, white, Ferrero Rocher candies, chocolate orange, Mexican Xocolatl with chili peppers), every kind of fruit (kiwi, canteloupe, Valencia orange, blood orange, lemon, watermelon), every alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink (green tea, Thai tea, chai, champagne, Guinness, and a bunch of hard liquors that I have never heard of and can't spell), and miscellaneous-yet-awesome flavors (rose, Nutella, tiramisu, cannoli). As you can see, they decorate the ice cream tubs quite charmingly, with real fruits and bits of whatever is in the ice cream (chocolate bars, a beer can, a rose). The chocolate flavors are to die for, but you also have to taste the fruit flavors because they are amazing- order the orange and it's like biting into a real Valencia orange. This has not worked out to my advantage with flavors like kiwi and watermelon (I was expecting the sugared-up artificial versions of those flavors, but they tasted like a real kiwi- SOUR!- and a real watermelon, watery and mild), but the various citrus flavors are really amazing. Today I got Masala chai and dark chocolate (I was so excited when I saw that they had chai- it was delicious!), and Kelsey got cannoli and white chocolate (which was also yummy). A+!
This place was a total surprise to us! I wandered in because of the view in the first picture (JARS? of TEA? Oooh....), and when we realized that the long bar full of chatty patrons was not a place to pay for lunch, but a free tea tasting party... well, long story short, we sat down and had some tea :) Apparently they have free tea tasting every day. The servers were really personable and fun to talk to, which makes perfect sense because they are salespeople, but at the same time I didn't feel pressured to buy anything. We sat there and were served cup after cup of tea- I think some of the kinds we tried were pu-erh, green bamboo, golden throat, and honestly I can't remember the rest, but most of them were delicious! Some tasted very green and vegetable-like and fresh, and some were slightly bitter at first but went down delicious. The server told us about the medicinal properties of each tea, most of which I can't remember now, but it was really interesting. I ended up buying $10 worth of ginseng oolong tea (for alertness- he threw in a couple of extra scoops because I said I was a poor college student). Highly recommended. I think I'm taking my mom here next time she comes to the city, in fact- she would love it :)
The first picture is the henna powder, the second is with water added.. I forgot to take a picture before we actually did the tattoos, but that's what we didn't use.
Anyway, I did this on Kelsey's foot...
And I originally wanted to do this on my arm, but I couldn't really draw the design at that angle so I did it on my tummy instead.
We scraped the henna paste off a couple hours ago and the designs are really light, which is disappointing, but we put some veggie oil on and it got darker. Hopefully they'll darken overnight... I will post an update later :)