The rest of San Francisco

I have already reached the last city of my trip (Portland, Oregon), but I wanted to put up a few more pictures from my San Francisco visit. I was pretty lucky in that the week was mostly unseasonably warm, so it was comfortable to be outside.

I forgot if I put this picture up already. It's the pier where dozens and
dozens of sea lions have taken up residence. They sun themselves
and frolic on these docks all day long.

One of the many many colorful murals in the Mission District

I had to try some Mission District Mexican food!

Passing through Japantown

The Academy of Science was a really fun place to visit. It's a
planetarium, aquarium, and natural science museum all in one! This is
the rainforest dome, where you can see many types of vegetation, birds,
and butterflies that would live in this habitat.

The aquarium portion of the Academy had a huge coral reef tank that you
can also look at from above. The multiple views made it very interesting.

My favorite little critter from the Academy! It's a tiny cuttlefish. Adorable!

Piece of art from deYoung Museum. Called "The Spine
and Tooth of Santo Guerro", it is constructed out of
gun parts, bullets, and pellets as a statement about
religion and violence.

The San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge on a clear day.

There is magic in this world!

I took a quick trip out of town today to see the Muir Woods, a magnificent California redwood forest. I paid people to take me to see TREES??? Why yes, I did. These aren't just any old trees; they are massive (towering over 250 ft tall), and old (some over 800 years old). A thin 500 mile strip up the California and Oregon coastline is the only place left the in U.S. to see these redwoods (these differ from the giant sequoias, which are located further inland in California), so this was definitely worth visiting.

A quick (but treacherously windy!) 30 minute ride brought us to the Muir Woods valley. Upon entering the woods (which were clearly marked with trail paths), I felt as if I had stepped into a world where my fantasy books are set. The air was cool and damp, sunlight softly filtered through the leaves... and the giant trees. They were like old guardians of the forest... solid, handsome, and wise.

Now entering the magical forest

California redwoods. They stand tall and proud.

A picture with random people, to give context to
how big these trees are.

I feel like a tiny sprite standing underneath this tree!

It was delightful to walk through this forest. Indeed, if there were magic in this world, I could easily imagine it welling up from here.

How pretty is that beam of sunlight?! No CGI involved!

After a while, it was all too easy to imagine that the gnarled, bumpy trunks of the trees held hidden faces (for those familiar with LoTR... Ents!), or that they opened up to reveal hiding places for changeling babies.

Can you see the facial features of this tree?

There's enough space for me to crawl in for a nap!

A small creek ran in the middle of this forest, and in addition to providing yet more pretty picture opportunities, the light babbling sounds was the perfect background song to this journey.

Redwood Creek. It looks tiny now, but winter rains
turn it into a substantial river where salmon and trout
return to lay eggs.

I admit, my imagination got quite the workout today! But it was so much fun to walk around and pretend that I was a character within the books I read. After days of seeing San Francisco as a city, I'm glad I got the chance to experience the area's 'wilder' side.

San Francisco Eats: Commonwealth

Today's main star attraction didn't happen until dinnertime. I had booked a reservation for Commonwealth, an interesting-looking restaurant in the Mission District of San Francisco. They were offering a chef's tasting menu of 6 courses, but the a la carte menu looked more intriguing to me, and so I compiled a little multi-course dinner for myself.

As soon as I sat down at the table, a bowl of homemade chips were brought to the table instead of bread. They were dusted with seaweed powder, and a malt vinegar foam accompanied it as a dip.

Chips were crispy and not too greasy. They were much better eaten alone;
the malt vinegar foam was just odd; it didn't taste very good, and the foam
texture was actually unpleasant next to the crunchy chip.

Next, they brought out two small amuse bouches. The first was a tiny cube of panna cotta topped with some caviar, and served with an equally tiny sphere of cucumber. All this is pooled around a small spoonful of apple-flavored water. The second was a cold zucchini soup.

Panna cotta had a slight cheesy flavor. The cucumber and apple water
made the whole thing very refreshing and light.

Zucchini soup was surprisingly thick. This was topped
with mint oil, which quickly became the dominant
aroma as I sipped from the cup.

The first course was a sea urchin dish. The official menu item description: sea urchin, trout roe, potato, gem lettuce, lime cream, corn chip, pickled wasabi leaf. Quite a mouthful, no? This actually ended up being the most successful dish of the night. Most of the components came together quite nicely in harmony, with the lone outlier being the potato mash. A bite containing sea urchin, trout roe, lime cream, and lettuce was amazingly fresh and creamy, with a burst of citrus that complemented rather than overwhelmed. The trout roe and lettuce provided two completely different but interesting textural contrasts

Closeup of the dish

The next course: corn pudding, snap peas, crispy okra, basil seeds, brown butter, yuzu kosho aioli. Lots of components to these dishes! Unfortunately, this one didn't work out nearly as well as the first one had. Here's a picture of it.

The two white circles on either end is the yuzu aioli. The powdery
substance is actually the brown butter, and the long yellow streak in
the middle is the actual corn pudding.

See, the corn pudding part of the dish is quite small. It was deliciously and intensely corn-flavored... but was also really delicate. Added to anything else on the plate, it got lost and I couldn't taste it at all. So for all the folks who have watched 'Iron Chef', you'll know that when the star of the dish isn't the secret ingredient, then points get deducted!! I also didn't think that all the ingredients in the dish worked well together. Everything tasted good; but I never thought of this as one cohesive dish, but rather a plate of separate ingredients.

For my last savory course, I chose to have more seafood. The long description: smoked mackerel, avocado ice cream, fennel, seaweed brioche, sesame, berry kimchee.

Mackerel is on the left and right sides. The sesame ball has the avocado
ice cream inside, and the round flat is the brioche. The small red dots
is the berry kimchee sauce.

Once again, each component of this dish tasted good, but I didn't feel as if it all particularly blended well together. The avocado ice cream actually tasted more like lime, but added an interesting burst of cold and freshness to the fish. I liked the kimchee sauce a lot, but the brioche did nothing for me.

Overall, I thought all three of my savory dishes were on the light side. There were no heavy sauces or flavors, mostly everything was light and subtle. So when dessert came by, I passed on the more seasonal fig dessert to have something chocolately instead.

Peanut semifreddo covered with chocolate ganache. Caramel, and
frozen popcorn puree.

A classic flavor combination. I thought it was well balanced, and not too rich. I surprisingly did not like the popcorn component, which tasted like butter.

I had an interesting experience at Commonwealth; even if I didn't think a dish came together very well, each component was prepared well and tasted very fresh. I'm glad I got the chance to visit a local restaurant featuring rather experimental cuisine.

SF MoMA

Time for a little cultural refreshment today! I visited the Museum of Modern Art, and came away with a few pieces that I liked (which sometimes doesn't happen with modern art!).

Reminds me of a comics panel

Can someone with an art degree explain to me why
Mondrian is so pervasive? I see this everywhere!

By an Italian artist. Called "The Vexations of The
Thinker".

I always wonder how much skill is involved with
paintings like these. They appeal to me in some weird
way though; I like the symmetry and simplicity. This
one was huge; over 9x9 feet. Sitting in front of it, the
colors seemed to pulsate and glow... kinda cool.

Untitled piece by American Barry McGee. I liked the boldness and size
of the collective piece (random standing man photographed to give
size context). Individually, each picture was quirky and offbeat and fun.

The ceiling and floor are by two separate artists.
The lights overhead would spin according to the
visitor's movement, so the whole effect was very
dizzying and disorienting. I like immersive
installation pieces!

They had a Takashi Murakami piece up! I love his stuff; it's so overly
saccharine, but with an implied irony. It's cheerful and colorful but just
slightly menacing as well. Um. At least that's my take on it.

Close-up of one section. I would hang his pieces on my
walls at home... if I could afford it! But even prints
usually cost waaay more than I can afford.

Taking advantage of jetlag

The first few days I'm in a new time zone, I tend to not sleep well. The great upside to this is that I am much more willing than usual to get up early and see the sights. I took advantage of that this morning, and headed out for an early start.

San Francisco is well known for its love of fresh local produce. I headed over to one of the larger weekend Farmer's Markets for a quick look, and was greeted by beautiful displays of late summer fruits and vegetables. For the first time since arriving in San Francisco, I felt its charm as I strolled through the market. Lucky for me too, the vendors were really generous with samples; I thoroughly ate my way through the market, sampling tomatoes and plums and grapes and cheese (to name just a few).

Late season tomatoes

These were so sweet, I ended up getting a pound. Each one had a
distinctive flavor and texture; I couldn't decide which one I liked the best!

Did you know peppers came in this many colors?

Multiple varieties of figs were available

Beautiful wildflower blooms for sale

Huge plump eggplants and squashes

So many kinds of cheese!

There was an indoors section as well to the market. I love the sign for
this store! 'Tasty salted pig parts'... could anything be better than that?

There's a kit where you can grow your own mushrooms!

Three tiny perfect tomatoes

I tried this cute little California-based oyster. It was called Sweetwater,
and was really reminiscent of a briny, clean East Coast oyster. It was
extremely delicate, and had a slightly sweet finish.

After I had my fill of the market, I realized that it was still so early I should head over to the Wharf to visit the aquarium. It was a very small one, but I enjoyed seeing some of the exhibits featuring local marine life. There was also the requisite shark tunnel and jellyfish display, and I spent a pleasant hour and a half there. While I walked around, I realized why I liked aquariums so much. When you first look into a tank, it's tempting to just glance at it and walk on. But if you stop for a minute and stay still, you begin to notice more and more things in the display. A hidden fish will suddenly reveal itself, or a shell would move and you'd realize that a crab lived inside of it. This is a good parallel for life; in other words, stop and smell the roses!

I never get tired of looking at jellyfish!

I just had you for dinner three nights ago!!!! 

Is it bad that I keep thinking of sushi when I look at this guy?

Amazingly, it was still early when I left the aquarium. So I decided to take a short boat tour around the bay to get a closer look at some famous landmarks.

Famous sunning spot for harbor seals. They drew quite a crowd as they
frolicked and called out to one another.

Gettin' on a boat!

The fog really settled in as we passed by the Golden Gate Bridge. This
was the clearest picture I could get!

See? Completely foggy (but so artistic-looking, no?)

Alcatraz, the island where NO ONE escapes from!

The fog disappears closer to shore. Pretty skyline of the city.

At this point, I am tired! I feel like I've had a big dent in my 'to-do' list for the city, and am going to get a good rest tonight!