Tag: San Francisco

i was fortunate enough to attend Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation NO KID HUNGRY event last week held at AT&T park Club Level. {yes it is good to know people in high places}. let me tell you, there was a lot of food and drink to be had. some of it outstanding, some of it not great, and i actually spit one dish out. yes, i pulled a Padma and gracefully discarded of the mushroom, green garlic and ricotta crostini from  A16 in a napkin while walking away. it was mostly because i was just godamn sick of eating crostinis, (ok yea, getting drilled and still having sensitive teeth also had a bit to do with it), but one must be extremely selective at events like this and not unnecessarily fill up on just ‘meh’ tasting stuff! yeah, it was intense.

the logistics of the event itself were  a bit insane and gives me flashbacks of the infamous Unwrapped! Yelp Holiday Party of ’09 which goes down as ONE OF THE WORST-PLANNED EVENTS IN SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY. i LOVE you yelp, but that was just mean. Anyways, this time instead of being surrounded by hungry out-of-town first-time yelp-party-goers i was being stressed out,  irritated & stomped on by all of the hungry neurotic snobs {i dont go to many charity events, sigh, so this level of snobbery was new to me}. i was in this swarm of mass confusion for too long, and hey turns out the lines were just in Alphabetical order by last name BUT there was ZERO signage and/or anyone helpful around for miles!!! then i realized that since i was on the Comped List i did not have to be in ANY line at all!! =D  like i said, good to know people in high places, but i am also a HUGE believer of ASK and you shall receive…most of the time. Anyways, following this anxiety-inducing experience was, well more of the same. the venue bottlenecked so it was  a mad clusterfuck trying to take it all in, grab the champagne upon entering and get your first noms on. BUT once we did, it was a whirlwind of excitement!! just so much to see and try and savor and analyze and ask questions about. There seemed to be some major trends going on: raw fish (crudos, ceviches and the likes), plenty of desserts (i was actually really disappointed that Chef Falkner served, albeit beautiful and fun, crazy-flavor and colored macaroons. shmeh), TONS, ACTUALLY TOO MANY crostinis {one of which i spit out remember?), and too many custard-y/panna cotta/flan things going on. something else strange was all of the chefs and sous chefs, or whoever they were, were reeeeallly not interested in mingling with the crowds and would barely chat. if  Top Chef has taught me anything, its that you need to have passion every step of the way and connect with the people eating your food (!)

so yeah, for the most part the entire crowd were all kind of socially-awkward…

anyways. my all-time favorite dishes of the night were ___________drumroll please!!!!!!!:

Semolina gnocchi and mushroom bolognese from SPQR  , the Chocolate pots with pistachio macaroons from Mayfield Bakery in Palo Alto AND the cocktail from CANTINA (aka my new favorite bar in SF). very delicious!!

aaanyways, it was awkward busting out my iPhone and snapping pics, but i did as much as i could. ill let them speak for themselves. =)