Touristing in San Francisco

Who: VN Editorial Assistant Gabrielle Pope

What: Touristin'

Where: San Francisco, Calif.

When: August 14, 2010

Why: Because Saturdays should always be spent shopping, wining, and dining.

The Scoop: Brand new to both San Francisco and to the concept that summers are not actually warm in this city, I braved the chilly morning fog on my second weekend here and set off downtown to be a shameless tourist. Tempted by promises of doughnuts and Vietnamese food, I decided to head down to the Ferry Building where an old friend—the sun—had showed up to greet me. San Francisco’s Ferry Building is more than just some random building you pass through to catch the ferry to the East Bay. It’s a veritable food-lovers paradise with a produce market, chocolate shop, restaurants, bookstores, a boutique wine store, and more.

Photo via ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

Prioritizing doughnuts like any other self-respecting Canadian, I quickly found the Pepples Organic Donuts display. Made in Oakland, these cake doughnuts are beautiful to look at and even better to devour. I grabbed both Lemon Poppy Seed and Salted Caramel flavors for later. The Lemon Poppy Seed was to die for!

Photo via pepplesdonuts.com

After getting the requisite photo of the Bay Bridge and enjoying the sun, I headed back into the building to hunt down the Vietnamese fusion restaurant. Slickly designed, The Slanted Door drew me in with its promises of vegan options and requisite Vietnamese Spring Rolls. I tend to judge a Vietnamese restaurant by the quality of its rice paper rolls, and the Slanted Door’s refreshing rolls filled with tofu, shiitakes, cabbage, and mint, and served with a zesty peanut dipping sauce, exceeded my expectations. For my main, I wisely selected the lemongrass tofu. Made with local tofu from Oakland’s Hodo Soy Beanery (seriously, what’s up with Oakland and when can I move there?), this dish was expertly spiced with garlic and lemongrass, and complemented by onions, shiitakes, and roasted chilies. I should have trusted my gut and polished it up there, but in an effort to save room for wine tasting I got it packed to-go, later resulting in a lemongrass disaster at the bottom of my bag. When in doubt, kids, finish your plate.

Hailing from beautiful British Columbia with its abundant vineyards and charming wineries, you could say I’ve become a bit—enthusiastic, shall we say—about exciting wine varietals. In preparation for my trip out to Sonoma next weekend, I found a table at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants tasting bar and tried a trio of Northern California reds, which my knowledgeable server confirmed to be vegan.

Seriously now, I’m sitting in a wine bar with a full belly and excited palate…could this get any better? Yes, it could, as I also took that opportunity to break into the brand spanking new VegNews September+October issue, now on its way to eager subscribers. The issue includes an article about my homeland, the great white north (and birthplace of Daiya cheese), which may have made me homesick had I not been sipping reds and living the good life on a sunny Saturday in California.

Three beautiful reds and a peek at the new VegNews

Third Time's a Charm

Who: VN Editorial Assistant Stacy Blondin + VN Senior Editor Elizabeth Castoria

What: Dinner and a Book
When: January 12, 2009

Where: Book Passage, Ike's Place, + Sunflower Restaurant, San Francisco

Why: To satisfy our intellectual and gastronomical curiosity

The Scoop: The plan was simple: depart the VNHQ at 5pm, arrive at Book Passage Bookstore at 6pm, engage in Mark Bittman's discussion of his latest book, and grab some grub at Ike's Place on our way home. What a perfect plot for a weeknight out in my new home town! Excited to embark on my first official VegNews outing, I boarded the MUNI along with my very own tour guide and co-staffer Elizabeth Castoria. We took the L line (a name which, btw, is in no way related to the shape of its route) to Embarcadero Station and walked to the Ferry Building Market Place, looking forward to the introduction of Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating.

We arrived just a smidge late and a smudge directionally challenged. Like any ingenious investigators, we consulted our most readily available resource—a map, cleverly placed at the building's entrance. We were close. Very close. In fact, we were so close we could see our destination—along with just about every San Franciscan foodie free on a Monday night. The attendees were packed like, well, factory-farmed animals, to be precise, into the tiny book store with appendages bulging out of both passages. Apparently the trend of arriving fashionably late was sooooo last year.

Since we swapped life stories in lieu of brushing up on our lip reading skills on the way over, we did what any hard-pressed reporters would do: held our ears up to a small crack in the open door. Using this technique, we managed to catch a few unmuffled sound waves and make out the following key terms: battery cages, chickens, torture, vegetables, less meat, local, sustainable and environmentally friendly. These soundbites drifted our way, rousing our literary (and actual) appetites. Although I am sure we could probably find the same words correctly spelled and eloquently arranged on the back of Mr. Bittman's book, hearing them straight from the cow's mouth granted them definition beyond Webster's. The fervor in Mark's voice and expressions paired with the crowd's seemingly canned responses clued us in to good times going on inside—a place we most certainly were not.

In case you are just about as unfamiliar with Mark's new read as we (still) are, perhaps you are less of a stranger to his previous titles, How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. If these predecessors are any indication of the quality of his current work, which makes the case against meat from an environmental and health front, our expectations are high. For more frequent doses of Bittman wisdom, check out his weekly column in the New York Times, The Minimalist. Or, for a daily fix, keep up with his discussion, recipes and tips via his food-inspired blog, Bitten.

Slightly disappointed, but excited to extend our reading lists, we headed down to The Castro, intent on harnessing our hunger with a big, juicy, mouth-watering vegan sandwich. I ruminated all afternoon over VN staffers' rave reviews of Ike's creations, introduced during lunch at VegNews Café. Elizabeth and I approached the sandwich shindig only to discover dimmed lights and somnolent staff. Note to self and fellow San Franciscan sandwich seekers: IKE'S PLACE CLOSES PROMPTLY AT 4:30PM ON BOTH SUNDAY AND MONDAY. OK, well, I guess that gives us ample excuse to plan an upcoming VN staff outing …. and to opt for an alternative cuisine.

Not exactly a sandwich, I know

Slightly more disappointed, but anxious to consume anything edible, preferably nearby, veg-friendly, inexpensive and delicious, we ventured onward, deciding to try our luck down the road at Sunflower Restaurant, another of Elizabeth's Frisco favorites. And what luck we found! A packed (and more importantly, open) dining room on a Monday night can only mean one thing: good food. The large selection of V (Vietnamese, vegetarian, and vegan) options made it oh so difficult to make a decision. Our jovial waiter—apparently the only one on staff—remembered our orders along with those of every other table in place. Impressive! Elizabeth requested the veg noodle soup and I opted for the veg vermicelli; we were both pleased with our choices and the enormous white bowls in which they were delivered. A rainbow of fresh, locally purchased, steamed veggies piled high upon a bed of made-to-order pasta was as tasty as it was beautiful. We left the place having confirmed one profound theory: Food Matters.

Stacy smiles over her hard-earned noodles

Although the evening didn't go precisely, or for that matter, remotely, as predicted, I did come away from the evening boasting first sightings of two noteworthy food icons: Mark and Ike. Reading and tasting will just have to wait for a future date.