San Francisco VIII: Tartine Bakery

One slice of a Summer Cake ($5.50) on a Monday afternoon. Monsieur P and Shannon flew back to NYC earlier that morning, and I was left with a full day of nothing to do but stuff myself silly with sweets, cheese, and cured meats. Thank goodness I knew how to navigate the MUNI, made it so much easier to get around the city.

Tartine had lines out the door, even on a particularly hot day. I stopped by the bakery twice during my trip but was dissuaded on both occasions with lines that literally wrapped around the corner. I was enamored with Tartine on my very first visit many years ago. This time, not so much. There were flies hovering over the croissants, and stale air in the sweltering bakery. A turn-off before even eating! How people managed to cramp in those seats with hot paninis is beyond me. Perhaps I'm not a summer person ;)

The Summer Cake pictured at top coupled layers of a leaden, tired cake. Whipped heavy cream and the most sorry soft raspberries I've encountered in...forever? Can you imagine this potential this cake had?! A tender vanilla génoise, the cream sweetened just a tad, and a whole parade of summer berries! Now that would have been killer.

Should have taken my money over to Bi-Rite Creamery up the block!

On the upside/funside, I couldn't help but notice all the single men, there on lunch break perhaps, checking out the bakery girls - tall, slim, and outfitted in loose tanks and the shortest of skirts ;)

Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 487-2600

NYC: Snapshots from New York Brewfest 2010

[Taking a short stop from the Hawai'i and San Francisco posts for catching up with life in NYC :)]

On Saturday Monsieur P and I spent much of the afternoon at New York Brewfest 2010. Thank you very much to Ben for the media passes! Beer of course, was the main draw, but I was equally excited about the Chocolate and Beer Pairing Seminar with Jean-Francois Bonnet of Tumbador Chocolates, whom I connected to the event.

First things first. We filled our bellies with buttery, grilled sandwiches from Murray's Cheese before heading down to Pier 11 for the Brewfest ferry. Pictured above is the The Greenwich Village Sandwich. A base of seven-grain bread with pesto, (TONS OF) roasted garlic, prosciutto di parma, and fontina faznal. Insanely delicious. We cooled off with iced water and gelato ^_^

We planned to walk from the West Village to the ferry, but the summer heat was too much to bear, so we took the subway downtown (which wasn't that much cooler ;). Brief security check, shiny blue hand stamps, and...

...just a breezy ten-minute ride to Governors Island.

There were over 100 breweries present at the event, and over 300 different craft beers in total. Absolutely nuts, huh?

CHEERS!!!

After sampling our way through quite a number of beers, we headed over to the Beer and Chocolate seminar. Jean-Francois had prepared four types of confections specifically for the event, each one meant to pair with a certain beer. The four breweries represented were Brooklyn Brewery, Southampton Brewing Company, Ithaca Brewing Company, and Captain Lawrence Brewing Company.

My favourite of the quartet was this chocolate stout cake...

...innards! For those of you familiar with Tumbador, this is just like their Ring Ding (which I've Sugar Rush'ed here), only plus the stout and minus the cream.

There were also crunchy square of Beer Brittle with Cacao Nibs...

...as well as Ithaca White Ale Bonbons...

...and Ithaca Apricot Ale Bonbons.

Lines were INSANE when we left the event around 5:30pm. A short wait for the ferry back to Manhattan, and then...back to real life :)

Hope you all had a great weekend! Monsieur P and I did a lot of fun eating the last few days: Le Gigot and Little Branch on Friday, Relish and Hotel Delmano in Williamsburg on Saturday night, and early Sunday supper with friends at Boqueria. Now, maybe a "light" lunch today? ;)