#LA2BAY: Food Crawl at the Ferry Building

As part of my #LA2BAY trip, a stay in San Francisco would not be a stay without visiting the Ferry Building and even the pouring rain didn't stop us from experiencing all of its delicious offerings. Eating our way through was definitely on the agenda.

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Before satisfying our palate though at the first stop of our crawl, we definitely took in some of the sights.

Once outside, we headed straight to 4505 Meats where we heard that their Pork Croquette Breakfast Sandwich was out of this world.  While we were waiting for that to be prepared, we had a sample of their Chicarrones. OMG! I'm not really an OMG kind of girl, but OMG, those chicarrones were amazing.  They were both crispy yet still  literally melted in your mouth plus there was this awesome combo of sweet-salty flavors with a little bit of heat that put it over the top. I brought home 3 bags. 2 survived the trip, but were quickly eaten within a few hours.  If only I could order them online.

It wasn't long until our Pork Sandwich arrived and this is one sandwich I would have waited hours for and deemed it worth it.  Simply, it's one of the best sandwiches I've ever had.  Along with the pork patty, other ingredients included a fried egg, peppercress and coriander aioli.  The pork was tender and had lots of flavor while the peppercress added both peppery and sweet notes and the yolky egg made this sandwich even more perfect.  As for the bread, it was a wonderful vehicle for all this porky goodness.

Also on the to-eat list was the Bacon Studded Hot Dog made Zilla Style with 4505 Chicarrones, Namu Kimchi and Scallions. We actually ended up picking at the Chicarraones first before sharing the hot dog between the four of us.

From 4505 Meats, we strolled over to Roli Roti, but not before someone in our group picked up a Fried Chicken Ramen from Hapa Ramen.  That soup looked pretty tasty, too, but I didn't want to get filled up on that when a Porcetta sandwich was soon coming our way.

Roli Roti is basically Rolling Rotisserie truck where the menu primarily revolves around their Rotisserie chicken.  However, what they're also known for is their Porcetta sandwich, which is basically a pork loin wrapped around pork belly, stuffed with herbs and also cooked rotisserie-style.

Once you order the Porcetta sandwich, there's quite an efficient assembly line that gets your sandwich to you,  from the one who slices the meat to the one who gets the meat on the bread to the one who finishes your sandwich off with the addition of the toppings and condiments.

They were even kind enough to cut the sandwich in fourths for us.  Along with the pork itself, there were also pork skin bits, onion jam and arugula and all on a ciabatta bread.  Do you remember how I mentioned earlier that the Pork Croquette Sandwich I had at 4504 Meats was one of the best sandwiches I ever had?  Well, this Porcetta Sandwich is up there, too.  I don't even know what to say about it, except that it's just so, so good.

From someone who isn't that much into sandwiches, this was definitely a sandwich day because our next stop was at Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke stand.  Known for their smoked salmon, tuna and sturgeon lox, they also have an adjoining stand that serves sandwiches made from their smoked fish.

We opted for the Cold Smoked Sturgeon Sandwich with a housemade cream cheese, pickled red onions, capers, thinly sliced lemons, sprinkled with Eat Well Farms Lavender Salt and all on Acme sourdough bread. By that time, it was pouring pretty hard and my hands were chilled.  A cold sandwich may not have been an optimal choice, but it was worth it. A little salty, a little vinegary, a little tart and surprisingly, even a little bit floral with the smoked fish worked when it came to this sandwich.

Needing to take a break from the cold, we went back into the Ferry Building and took a breather at the Imperial Tea Court where we warmed up with flowering teas.

Amazingly enough, we still had room for a Tea Snack Sampler which included homemade cookies, green tea pumpkin seeds, ginger roasted almonds and spicy raisins as well as a Dim Sum Sampler with sui mai, hargow, steamed pork buns and baked vegetable rolls.  The Tea Snack Sampler was okay, but I wouldn't go out of my way for their Dim Sum Sampler, especially when Chinatown isn't that far away.

After this respite, off we went to Boccalone, where it's all about the "Tasty Salted Pig Parts."  Boccalone is a maker of sausages and all types of salumi, that you can purchase online as well as at their Ferry Building storefront.

Also at their storefront, customers can choose from a variety of sandwiches or simply get a Meat Cone, which is just what it sounds like.  It's a cone filled with slices of various types of salumi. We went for the cone and if I wasn't already getting full, I would have gotten a cone just for myself.  After all, who can resist "Tasty Salted Pig Parts"?

While there, we even ran into San Francisco Celebrity Chef Chris Constantino and he was kind enough to pose for photos.

The last stop of our Ferry Building Food Crawl was the Cowgirl Creamery's food stand called Sidekick. There we first shared a Cheese Puff filled with Herb Fromage Blanc.

However, the real star was the Cowgirl Cottage Cheese Dumplings in Grana Padana Cheese Broth with Green Beans and Toasted Acme Bread. The dumplings were light and fluffy and the broth was rich and flavorful.  The bread started off as crouton-like, but then I loved how it softened as it absorbed the soup.  This is definitely a soup I'd have as often as I could if I lived in the Bay Area.

On our way out, we stopped at the Miette Patisserie where the cakes and cupcakes looked really tempting, but I decided to pick up some chocolate and lavender shortbreads to go instead.

Just before we walked out the door, I took a picture of this sign in front of a Gelato Shop, but for me, the sign should have said "The Weather Might Be Dreary, But Eating at the Ferry Building Makes You Cheery".  Even with the rain and cold weather, visiting and eating our way through the Ferry Building definitely warmed me from the inside out and I would definitely go back.

Ferry Building
Website

4505 Meats
Website

Roli Roti
Website

Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke
Website

Imperial Tea Court
Website

Boccalone
Website

Cowgirl Creamery Sidekick
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#LA2BAY: Food Truck and Food Cart Eats at Off The Grid

If you are a food truck and food cart lover in the Bay Area, then more than likely, you've been to Off The Grid.  Off The Grid consists of 50 food truck and food stands/carts vendors.  What's their calling? Why, to feed the hungry masses in Northern California of course. From Monday through Saturday, from Berkley to San Mateo to San Francisco, 15 to 20 food trucks and stands at a time will come together. So instead of chasing them, you can experience their delicious eats all in one location.

More ... I got to check out Off the Grid at Fort Mason, a few hours after our road trip from LA to SF, which you can read about by clicking here. As my friends and I were talking towards the trucks, what I found interesting was the formation.  I've been to my share of food truck festivals/gatherings, but this is the first time I've ever seen both trucks and carts positioned in a circle where attendees were basically coralled in the middle.

 

I actually liked how that was done. It allows you to make a circuit of all the trucks so that you can first see what's available or you can just go ahead and make your rounds and not have to worry about missing or skipping over one. The one concern I did have was that it might be too crowded in the middle, but there were enough places to sit and eat outside of that corral that the crowd control was quite manageable.

Once inside, the first truck we saw happened to be Senor Sisig and that became our first stop. Our first bite at Off the Grid was the "Senor" Sisig Burrito with with pork, adobo rice, pinto beans, lettuce, salsa and cilantro cream sauce.  It was definitely a hefty burrito and thankfully, 3 of us shared it. It was pretty tasty, but I did feel that there was just too much rice and would have liked more meat to balance it out more.

From Senor Sisig, we made our way to the Namu Food Cart. Namu is actually a brick and mortar restaurant, but they do have a food stand presence both at Off the Grid and also at the Ferry Building during the weekend.

At Namu, we tried three different things with the first being the Gamju French Fries, which are hand cut potatoes with kimchee relish, gochujang, kewpie mayo, teriyaki, chopped short ribs and green onions. The French fries had a nice crispiness to them considering that they were thicker cut and I really enjoyed the Korean flavors of both this dish and the tacos mentioned below.

Their Korean Tacos consisted of seasoned rice, daikon and kimchee salsa, kimchee remoulade, housemade teriyaki folded into japanese and korean toasted seaweeds with your choice of meat. Our meats of choice were chicken and short ribs. I loved the use of the seaweed as an alternative to tortillas; however, these tacos need to be eaten right away or else the nori will get too chewy.

Our little food journey went from Korea to Vietnam in the form of the Vietnamese food truck, Little Green Cyclo.

At the Little Green Cyclo, while the Lemon Grass Grilled Pork over Spicy Garlic Noodles really wasn't spicy, their was enough garlicky goodness to satisfy and the pork had a nice caramelization to it.

The second dish we tried was the Shaking Beef with Garlic Rice Cooked in Organic Chicken Broth, Tomatoes, Lettuce and Onions. The Shaking Beef was solid, if not very memorable.

I also got to try an arepa for the first time via the Pica Pica Kitchen food stand. For this arepa, we actually added the pulled pork to their Caribe arepa which usually is a vegetarian option with just black beans and cheese. Unfortunately, I wasn't that impressed.  The bread tasted a little undercooked and fell apart and the pulled pork didn't really have much flavor to it.

After some savory dishes, it was time for dessert, so we checked out the Banana Fritters with Coconut Jam and Powdered Sugar from a Malaysian food stand called Azalina's.  I was really looking forward to this dish because at first glance, it looked yummy; however, the banana fritters were too doughy.  Also, the coconut jam along with the powdered sugar made this dessert way too sweet.

Luckily, we also made a stop at the Creme Brulee Cart and their Strawberry Nutella Creme Brulee was phenomenal.  The caramelized crunch on the surface and a lovely creaminess below it made it a pleasure to eat.

By this time, we were full and ready to hit the road, but on the way out, we shared a Watermelon, Basil and Ginger Mint Lemonade from the 3-Sums Eats Food Truck.  What a nice refreshing way to end our food truck crawl.

Overall, our first night in San Francisco was definitely a hit and the next morning, we hit the Ferry Building for another food crawl.  Isn't life good?

Off The Grid SF
Website
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