Last summer I went to San Francisco with my two gorgeous friends Mary and Jacque where we had so much fun we vowed we’d go every year. So this past weekend Mary and I returned to San Francisco to visit Jacque again. It was a great weekend of eating, drinking, shopping, meeting food bloggers, eating, drinking, shopping, watching parades, eating, drinking, shopping, and seeing the city. You get the idea: there was a lot of eating, drinking, and shopping!

I wish I had a lot more pictures, but on the second day of the trip I was looking at photos on my camera when my brain went on autopilot and I accidentally erased two days worth of pictures. At home I visited my local camera store, and would have gladly paid the $39 for image recovery, but when I found out it would take 2-3 weeks, I decided to give up on the lost photos and just tell you about the trip. I realize a picture is worth a thousand words, but I’ll try to be brief.

San Francisco is such a unique city, and what a wonderful place for food lovers. I was really looking forward to meeting a few other bloggers while I was there. We arrived on Friday and we made a mad dash from the airport, managing to meet David for a few minutes before lots of people arrived at Fog City News wanting his autograph. That night we had a good dinner at Blowfish, where I took lots of photos of artfully arranged sushi, but you’ll have to use your imagination for that.

The next morning we headed down to the Ferry Building, where the plan was to hang out for a while with some food bloggers, and then head to lunch at Yank Sing with anyone who could make it. Before I met the others, I ran into David again, and enjoyed meeting his sisters who live in the city.

The appointed meeting spot was in front of Cowgirl Creamery at 10:30, and pretty soon there was Amy, Sam, CookieCrumb and Cranky, Sean, Christine, Anita and Cameron, and even SF Mike who I never really did properly meet, plus myself of course, all standing there gabbing away about food, mutual blogger friends and San Francisco restaurants, while Mary and Jacque stood there with their mouths open that so many people had shown up to meet me.

We wandered around the Farmer’s Market, and it was fun watching Sam do her shopping for the week, with a cool insulated container on wheels, as Christine, Amy, CookieCrumb, Cranky, and I explored the various food offerings. I got some of the famous beans and even got introduced to the bean man himself, as well as David Kinch from Manresa. (Oh yes, I was taking photos of all of this, including the bloggers, all of which vanished in a moment of brain on autopilot. Sigh again.)

Then it was off to Yank Sing, where Christine, CookieCrumb, Cranky, and I somehow missed hooking up with Ed and Faith, (partly due to my stupidity in giving the restaurant my home number so when they tried to call it went straight to voicemail. Duh.) I was so upset when I got the message and realized we’d missed them.

If you’ve never had the chance to meet other someone in person after you’ve liked them online, I can tell you from this weekend and past experiences that it’s just the most fun you can imagine. Everyone I met in San Francisco was great, and I hope I can have dinner with all of them when I go there again.

Now, here are a few pictures I took after the photo-deleting mishap, so you can see at least some of what we ate. After all, this is a food blog.

Appetizer of edamame with sesame oil and sesame seeds from Butterfly, a lovely restaurant where the chef is a friend of Jacque’s. We had a great dinner there.

Perfectly-cooked filet mignon with chanterelles and port-thyme reduction from Butterfly.

Another perfect dish of sauteed Scallops, English pea and lemon risotto and crispy leeks, also from Butterfly.

Crescenza cheese stuffed foccacia with Chanterelles from Rose Pistola, where we had a lovely lunch on our last day in town.

Antipasti of grilled octopus with white beans, arugula, shaved fennel and lemon from Rose Pistola. Truly outstanding.

Last, but not least was this heirloom tomato and buffalo mozarella caprese salad, also from Rose Pistola, and just as delicious as the other choices we had here.

Despite a few camera mishaps and the bad luck in missing Ed and Faith, it was a wonderful weekend in San Francisco again this year. We’ll definitely be back again for more eating, drinking, and shopping in the city by the bay.

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