Day 2: Eating on the Dock of the Bay

In the shadow of the Bay Bridge, steps from downtown SF, sits the San Francisco Ferry Terminal. Ferries to Sausalito and Larkspur come and go, and people gather -- including a lot of people who really like and care about food.

Inside, all the time, is some great stuff: the Cowgirl Creamery, selling their own award winning cheeses, and lots of other great cheeses and accoutrements, for instance. Some bigger names like Scharffen-Berger Chocolates. A citified version of Taylor's Automatic Refresher, which you'll meet later on in this trip. The Slanted Door, Charles Phan's well-known and highly-regarded South East Asian-ish restaurant.

Lucky for us, we made it to the Ferry Terminal on a Thursday. You see, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, all the tasty stuff inside is complemented by lots of vendors outside. Fresh produce, sure, but also meats and prepared food and other great local artisanal treats.

So as interested as we were in keeping our lunch reservation at the Slanted Door, you hopefully understand that once we got there, the though of one meal in one place quickly was replaced by lots of bites from all over the inside and outside of the Ferry Terminal.

Since we hadn't eaten anything yet, how's about for breakfast: local tangy sourdough, topped with fresh cream cheese, smoked sockeye salmon, some red onion, and uber-fresh tomatoes, topped with a pinch of sea salt?


And then, well, we went to an incredible place. Boccalone. Although we didn't make it to Chris Cosentino's Italian ode to offal, Incanto, we did make it to his salumeria. There are all sorts of sausages, and other Tasty Salty Pig Parts (their motto, and a good one at that), and it's awfully hard to choose. We'll be looking for their nduja, a spreadable sausage filled with porcine oopmh, at Murray's. But, for a (small?) bite, we settled on La Cicciolina: testa, lonza, pickled veggies, chillies, and mint.

We washed it down with a couple agua frescas from the Mexican cart outside -- one yellow watermelon, and one plum.


Running low on room, we figured there was space for a "Korean taco" for each of us -- the "tortilla" is seaweed, filled with marinated short rib, some spicy mayo, and other stuff. Ok, but nothing revelatory here.

And to wash it all down: a scoop of pistachio sorbet and one of coconut milk lemongrass sorbet.


We didn't get to, among other things, the truck roasting and selling beautiful porchetta, the (non-Korean) tacos, or the brisket sandwich. We'll have to go back for those on our next visit.

Later in the day, taking a circuitous route to visit some friends in Russian Hill, we made a stop at the Swan Oyster Depot. No pictures, but just imagine: oysters. Crab. Anchor Steam. Sourdough. Clam chowder. Is there a better mid-afternoon snack?

Then some more walking, until we found Ina Coolbrith Park. Learn about Ms. Coolbrith here. Her namesake park is comprised primarily of a series of terraces on a hill, with lots of secluded nooks. A nice place to sit on a bench with the woman you love; maybe not the best place to hacky sack (due to the hills and all), which the other folks in the park learned the hard way.

Then, to finish off a great day, we saw some good friends who moved out west at the beginning of the year. Some Cowgirl Creamery Inverness and Sally Jackson Eclipse cheeses, wild fennel and orange salami from Boccalone, sourdough baguette from Acme, and wine to start. Then off to Range, for tasty cocktails, locally sourced duck and halibut, and good times for all.