San Francisco day 3 | Marin farmers market | Herbivore | Haight Ashbury | Dosa South Indian

Day three was more blustery and less sunny than what we'd experienced so far, but still a far cry from the winter we left behind, so we weren't complaining as we started the day early and headed over the bridge to the Marin farmers market. We have all-year-round outdoor markets in Seattle, but the produce tends to be more of the stored root and squash variety, unlike at the Marin market, where fresh veggies were in abundance. My son was quick to point out (brag) that during the summer, the market is much larger, but to my eyes it looked pretty amazing.

One thing I noticed right away was the expanded variety of fruits and veggies from what I was used to. For example, there was a man selling (and sampling) dates, and he had at least six different varieties. I'd never even seen most of them before, and I couldn't resist buying some for Alison and Jordan.



The same was true for the citrus, and some of the oranges I saw were completely new to me. I couldn't resist picking up a couple of blood limes to take home, since the only kind of lime I've seen is a ... lime lime. It doesn't taste like a lime — more like a mandarin orange — and in fact is a cross between the red finger lime and the Ellendale Mandarin.

In addition to produce, there were all sorts of tasty offerings, like toasted lentil snacks being sold by one of the the venders. With so many varieties available it was a difficult choice, but we settled on red lentils.

Perhaps the most exciting find was the Scream ice cream booth. Scream is advertised as sorbet, but to me the consistency and taste is really more like gelato. The samples were flying from the vender to our mouths at lightening speed, one flavor more amazing then the next — pistachio, vanilla macadamia, hazelnut peanut butter, coffee almond. To me, the pistachio was irresistible, so I gave in to a small  (very small) cup. So good, but only available in Oakland, at the Marin farmers market and one spot in SF.

We left the market to the lively tunes from a country western band, and did some car touring before heading back to SF.

There was a Packers playoff game that Jordan and Alison wanted to watch so Ken and I planned our own afternoon walking tour, starting with lunch at Herbivore, a vegan restaurant which was conveniently near our airbnb, and on the way to our afternoon destination. I had a cold Indonesian noodle (rice noodle) salad which was tasty, though not memorable.

Ken had lemongrass noodles — char-broiled veggies garnished with fresh cilantro and crushed peanuts in a lemongrass-ginger dressing over rice noodles. He said it was really good. I would probably return to Herbivore next time we're in town.

Our plan after lunch was to explore Upper Haight. Who hasn't heard of Haight-Ashbury, made famous in the 60s? Many of the the large, old Victorian homes along Ashbury have been restored to their former eye-popping glory, and we really enjoyed exploring the area.

I was especially taken with the cool-looking gates in front of each house's entry area.

Once we turned off Ashbury onto Haight, the flavor of the neighborhood took a distinct turn, and I thought maybe I'd entered a time machine and was back in the 60s. It was all head shops and tie dye, and people smoking pot on the street. We walked down Haight to Golden Gate Park, and were exploring the park when we realized it was getting colder, more windy, and late, and if we wanted to get back before dark, we'd have to begin our return walk.

We returned to the airbnb, and after a rest from all the walking, we headed out to dinner at Dosa South Indian restaurant on Fillmore, in Japantown. Dosa is not a vegetarian restaurant but has vegan and gluten-free offerings, and our waitress seemed very knowledgeable about the menu. The food choices were unlike any other Indian restaurant I've dined in, and I couldn't rely on my usual selections, like aloo gobi. Aloo gobi was nowhere to be seen, so I was forced to try something new. I had dosa (savory rice and lentil crepe) with a classic masala (spiced mashed potatoes, onions and cashews) filling. It came with fresh coconut and tomato chutneys, and sambar, a lentil dipping soup made with vegetables and spices. It was fabulous, and I'd love to have it again. Right now. The crispy dosa was delectable and the spicy accompaniments were delicious.

My husband had a seasonal vegetable curry with parsnip, potato, butternut squash, green beans and cauliflower, and he was well-pleased. We would definitely return to Dosa. You must make a reservation early because they get booked up.

Thus ends day three, and only one more to go, if anyone's still reading. :D

Full disclosure: I purchased the ice cream on my own. I received no money for the mention of this product. I am not an affiliate of this company. Any restaurant reviews are totally independent and not at the request of the restaurant. All opinions are my own.

San Francisco highlights: day 2 | Burma Superstar | Gracias Madre

We started our second day in San Francisco with a hike at Lands End in the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. According to the park's Web site, "Lands End is San Francisco’s wildest and rockiest coast. Trails at Lands End offer a cliff-top walk through shadowy cypress, with scenic overlooks, 30-mile views of the coast, and foot access to several shoreline pocket beaches."



I'd say that's a good description. It doesn't mention the hundreds of steps built into the trail, but the description of the scenery is accurate. It was another beautiful day, and a perfect opportunity to enjoy gorgeous surroundings and fresh air.





Above you see my husband and me sitting on a rock near the start of the trail, where we could see the Golden Gate bridge in the distance.



After spending the morning hiking we were hungry and ready for lunch at our chosen restaurant, Burma Superstar. The restaurant was on the shady side of the street where it was a tad chilly, and we had a bit of a wait, so I was impressed to see a big pot of hot tea outside for waiting customers to enjoy.


Samusa soup

Burma Superstar isn't a vegetarian restaurant, which always leaves me a little on edge, but it has vegetarian offerings on the menu. However, although I haven't been mentioning this on my blog, I've been avoiding gluten for the last few months, and the items being ordered by my family to share were not ones I would have chosen. Since they were favorites of my son, and everyone else wanted them, I ordered a broccoli dish rather than sharing the other choices. The first item to arrive at the table was samusa soup, which I passed on.


Tea leaf salad and Rainbow salad (no shrimp)

We also had tea leaf salad and a noodle salad. Everyone loved these dishes though I can't offer personal comments since I didn't eat them.


Wok tossed broccoli

My broccoli was well-cooked and tasty, but surprisingly oily. I was hungry and wanted to eat it but there was only so much I could consume because of the greasiness. Would I go back to Burma Superstar? Probably not, though I might not be the best person to review the restaurant. Everyone else at my table and in the packed restaurant was enthusiastic.

It was pretty late in the afternoon when we finished lunch but we went back to our son's apartment and did a walking tour of the neighborhood where he and Alison live, plus the Mission district. Then, even though I really didn't think I could walk one more step, my husband and I walked back to our apartment to rest a little before dinner at Gracias Madre.


Enchiladas con Mole (I think)

Gracias Madre was a restaurant I really wanted to experience, and I loved it. I had the enchiladas con mole — spicy mole enchiladas topped with mushrooms and cashew cheese, served with sautéed greens and beans, and it was just delicious. It was so dark in the restaurant that photography was impossible without a flash, and difficult with one, so you'll have to use your imagination. The food was impressive.


Quesadillas de Calabaza (maybe)

Alison got what she thought was going to be a smaller dish, but it was large and gorgeous. The menu describes it as butternut squash and caramelized onions folded into tortillas with cashew nacho cheese and pumpkin seed salsa. She was quite pleased with her choice, and I think the rest of us were a little jealous.


Tacos

My husband ordered tacos — three corn tortillas topped with a choice of seasonal vegetables and cashew cheese, served with beans. My son had Chilaquiles — handmade corn tortillas quartered and sauteed in a spicy salsa roja, topped with avocado, cilantro, cashew crema and onions, and served with black beans. I believe everyone was very thrilled with their choices. (Read a great review of Gracias Madre, here.)

It's sad to think that Gracia Madre may be closed the next time we visit SF. I've heard rumors that it's possible not all of the Café Gratitude-connected restaurants will close, though it sure sounds like they are being sold. Anyone know anything about this?


Full disclosure: Any restaurant reviews are totally independent and not at the request of the restaurant. All opinions are my own.

Warning: do not delete

I'm going to digress from my usual blog posts to tell you what happened to my blog on Saturday, and hopefully prevent something similar from happening to you. I don't know if anyone has noticed the message that now appears on the top right sidebar of the blog, but it says that on Saturday, I accidentally deleted every image from my blog — the header, all images from the sidebars, pages and from every one of the 386 posts I've written over the last five years. Gone, gone, gone.

How did I do so much damage, you might be wondering. It has to do with Google+ and Picasa. I was not a Google+ user. Though I've gotten lots of emails telling me that this person and that has added me to Google Circles, I haven't paid much attention to it. I don't have the time or desire to use more social networking sites than I already use. I barely use twitter — mostly it's Facebook and blogging where I spend my Internet time. But I had a bunch of San Francisco photos that I wanted my son and his girlfriend to see, and they use Google+, so I went to the site and posted the photos. While I was there, I noticed that a bunch of my blog photos were there, and I didn't want them to be. I should have stopped to figure out why, but I was annoyed that Google had preempted my choices, and I deleted the photos I didn't want to share. Big mistake.



What I didn't know was that Picasa and Google+ are now connected, and what you delete from Google+ is also deleted from Picasa. Since Picasa hosts all of my blog images, and the images disappeared from my Picasa account, they also disappeared from my blog. I didn't realize at first what had happened, but then, as black squares began to replace the blog images, I knew something had gone horribly wrong. I searched frantically for a remedy, but none could be found. I've read through the help sections and searched the forums, only to find other stories exactly like mine, and a response from Google that nothing could be done. There was a suggestion that deleted files could be found in the trash folder on my computer but this didn't seem to be the case.

I considered deleting the blog and calling it quits, but couldn't bring myself to do it. Fortunately, I still have all the images on my hard drive. Except for the first year, they are organized and findable, but it's still an excruciating process to put them all back again. I've started reassembling the blog from the present, going backwards towards the beginning, though I don't always put every image back. And I don't know if I'll get the whole thing done. Also, for some reason I don't understand, images I've put back keep disappearing.

What would you do if this happened to you? Would you delete your blog? Start over? Any suggestions or words of comfort will be appreciated. And I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

Update: I forgot to mention that if you do find yourself looking at black squares on your blog instead of photos, don't just delete them. If you look at the HTML code, you'll see that the black squares still contain data as if they were actual photos. You'll be able to find out what photos were there, and what size they were. But, I hope you never have to see anything like this on your blog!


I've been nominated for the Top 25 vegan bloggers in the Mom's circle of friends. I don't exactly fit the profile of a young mom raising kids, but hey, I AM a mom and I raised three vegan boys. Now all I need are votes, and I'd be honored to have yours. Please take a minute and vote for me. Thanks! :D