Dinner at Alan Wong

A few of my friends took a very special friend out to dinner at Alan Wong's last night. He's from L.A. taking some vacation time in Hawaii. As for the restaurant food, it was simply fabulous, and the company was even better.

Yummy desserts!

Chocolate sampler plate:















This one is 'mysteriously' called "The Coconut" - haupia sorbet in a chocolate shell served with tropical fruits and lilikoi sauce - doesn't it look like a real coconut?:
















This is the Banana Split with house made ice creams, sliced bananas, fresh fruits, whipped cream and macadamia nuts:
















This is called the Five Spoonfuls of Brulee:
















Me and the guest of honor:

San Francisco: Day Five, August 6

My last day in San Francisco. Overcast and brrrrrr cold. I'm going to really miss this city. I can see why so many people just love it here.















A few pics of my hotel room at The Chancellor Hotel. Overall, I though the hotel was great. Centrally located, the eateries were extremely closeby. Union Square was 1/2 block downhill. Transportation was just a few blocks down. Very convenient place.

Looking at my door from the hall - I'm standing with the elevator to my right.
















The bathroom:















The room standing next to the closet:















The roomy closet:



















Another one of the closet, long mirror on the inside of the closet door:




















The room, this time with the camera flash on:


















Another view of the room:


















Standing by the window facing the hotel room door:


















A view out the left window:


















A view out the right window:


















And one facing the hotel room door again:


















I checked out but left my luggage at the hotel since I had time before I had to catch my flight. I caught the Powell-Hyde cable car to Lombard Street and got off at the top of the crooked part of the street:


















One of the bay:


















Coit Tower in the distance:


















Same view of Coit Tower but zoomed in a little:


















Cars going down the street:


















This bougainvilla crawling up the side of a house caught my attention:


















Another house with bougainvilla. I'm seriously thinking about having this done to my house:















Finally at the bottom of the street looking up:
















I then caught the bus back to Market Street and thought about catching the bus to Haight Street but decided to go the other direction instead. So I hopped on the 'F' going to the Wharf and walked around Fisherman's Wharf for about a half hour before I returned back to the hotel to catch my shuttle to the airport.

I spent the other half of my vacation in Raleigh, North Carolina, with some friends. On the way back home I intentionally made a six hour layover in San Francisco. I stored my luggage at SFO, caught the BART to Market Street, then the bus to Haight Street to eat at El Balazo. I already felt like I knew the bus system enough to easily get around the second time there. I walked around a bit before catching the BART back to the airport. How simple was that!

San Francisco: Day Four, August 5

Sunday morning I got up and walked on Sutter Street toward Taylor Street looking for that washerette I mapped out earlier so I could know where to wash my clothes later on. Instead I walked past Taylor and turned down Jones Street, thinking that the washerette was somewhere on Post Street. Crossing Post Street I kept going down Jones because I suddenly remembered about Dottie's. Dottie's True Blue Cafe to be exact. I saw a line coming out of a restaurant some ways down and walked past the people and stood at the end of it. About 25, almost 30 people were in line but I had patience to wait because I had heard alot about this place.

Twenty-five minutes later I was halfway up the line when a waitress came out and asked. 'Is there just one person eating?' Oh, you betcha. So she grabbed me and we walked past everyone. I almost missed the single seat at the front end of the bar, everybody seemed so squished in there. The place was smaller than my hotel room! I looked at the menu on the wall and ordered some kind of egg frittata (I think).

To amuse myself I watched the sole cook do his thing. I realized that it wasn't because of him that it took so long to get in. Although it was only him doing all the cooking he had everything totally under control. It was this tiny place with four tables and a counter for five that kept that line long.
















My breakfast took no longer than ten minutes. See the delicious dish I had? Tomatoes, feta cheese, avocado and a little bit portuguese sausage. Side of hash potatoes and a few slices of this awesome bread. It was like a scone textured loaf that was cut into slices. The cook buttered the grill and threw the slices on and it came out wonderfully toasty. Awesome, awesome stuff! I am absolutely coming back here every single time I'm in San Francisco.
















Later in the day I hopped on this really cool vintage 'F' and headed to the Castro.























Talk about gay. The Castro just screams, 'I'M GAY, FU##KEN DEAL WITH IT!' I love this place. Next to the Castro Theatre was the Castro Nail Salon so I stopped in and made an appointment. Never had my nails done so I figured I may as well go for it. Losing my virginity in new places is so much fun. My hair in Rome a few years. My nails here in the Castro. Being away from home makes you adventurous enough to do fun things. May be boring to you but this is how I have fun.

An hour and half of free time before my appointment so I cruised down Castro and went into a few of the shops. Across the street was an Italian market called A. G. Ferrari. I had seen this store online and drooled at all the products they had to offer. Olive oil heaven!! Ever since I traveled to Italy a few years back I have switched to olive oil and have never turned back. But right now I was standing in an A. G. Ferrari store, stocked with wonderful aromatic olive oil. A solidly handsome gay man sashayed his way over to me and flustered over nearly every product in the store. Soon I was hungry and decided to eat at the deli there. This so reminded me of Italy. I fell in love all over again.

I order one of each of these tasty balls, and I mean damn tasty. Soft, warm, aromatic......heaven! This is what I ate, as noted on the little signs further below:

Fritelle di carciofi, artichoke heart fritters stuffed with parmesan, fresh ricotta and garlic

Arancini do riso, breaded tomato-risotto balls stuffed with pork-and-beef ragu and peas

Fritelle di melanzane, grilled eggplant courgettes stuffed with roasted red peppers and Sicilian risotto salata

Pure heaven!


















This so reminds me of Italy:
















This is the plate where those yummy delectible balls came from. See those other gorgeous dishes next to it?

















I took a picture of this beautiful dish (manzo brasato, Piemontese style tender beef brainsed with vegetables, mushrooms and red wine) because I want to make it!
















Here's a fuller dish of those balls. The owner insisted I take a picture of this.

San Francisco: Day Three, August 4

I took the City Tour on Tower Tours Saturday afternoon. These are few pics I took while on and off the bus. Many of the pictures I took caught window reflections of other riders on the tour so they are not included here but will be at the bottom if you're curious to how crappy a photographer I am.

The tour started at Fisherman's Wharf and headed toward the Golden Gate Bridge. We went along Jefferson Street toward the Presidio.































I have no idea why I took this photo below. The tour guide mentioned something about this being the only house like this in this neighborhood or the last original something house or maybe some type of architecture. It is pretty neat though to see it stuck between the modern buildings. Maybe that was it.
















Here's the San Francisco National Cemetery where many soldiers from each the wars that the U.S. fought in are buried.




















And here we have the Presidio Pet Cemetery.


















Getting closer to the Golden Gate Bridge.















We were able to get some time off the bus to visit Fort Point that's located directly under the Golden Gate Bridge. Temperature was in the low 60's that day but with the wind whipping at the top of the fort it was brrrrrrr!






















Today was the day where the Civil War was re-enacted. This only happens once a year and we were lucky to catch this event.