San Francisco Food Blog

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The Marin Headlands from the lodge's porch

The address is Sausalito, but tucked away into the Marin Headlands a mile from town, Cavallo Point Lodge isn't the tourist strip you know. Honeymooners and other celebratory types have discovered this place, a renovated Fort Baker outpost just north of the Golden Gate (601 Murray Circle at Kober, Sausalito). But it's managed to retain a secret-hideaway feel, at least for now. The lodge has a knack of feeling farther away than it is, no small point in a climate that values both escape and accessibility (see staycation). The good news? You don't have to stay at the lodge to breathe its rarified air.

Bike over the bridge and stop in for lunch -- the dining room, Murray Circle, is open to the public. Or stop in for a drink at Farley Bar (yep, named for the beloved comic strip by local Phil Frank) and sit out traffic on your way back from Wine Country or some other jaunt up Highway 101. Public spaces are front and center, situated in gorgeously restored former military buildings (think tin ceilings, wood-slat floors, and big porches with rocking chairs) with views of the city and the bay.

Brown: Worth the schlep?

Many of the events taking place this Friday and Saturday for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's eighth-annual Cooking for Solutions are already sold out, including Friday's members-only VIP opening reception with TV chef/food scientist Alton Brown. If money ain't a thang, a few of Saturday's pricier events are still available, including six different Food and Adventure Tours with culinary superheroes like Thomas Keller and Joyce Goldstein, the cost of which range from $90 (if you're an aquarium member) up to a whopping $825 for the deluxe tour.

If your pockets are slightly lighter but you're due a visit to the glorious aquarium anyway -- who isn't, really? -- Saturday's Sustainable Foods Fair takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free with a regular admission ($29.95). You'll get to see Brown signing books, leading a cooking demo (along with other chefs), as well as narrating a feeding in the Outer Bay. That alone just may be worth the drive.

If you want to squeeze in a quick meal on your way to SFO, or need a decent place near the airport for a lunch or dinner meeting, a good choice is Hung To Seafood (221 South Spruce Ave., South San Francisco). The food's good, prices are reasonable (see the online menus for details), there's ample free parking, the detour adds only a couple of miles to the trip from SF to SFO, and it's only four miles to airport.

Dim sum is served from rolling carts from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The taro dumplings are as standout, as good as I've had anywhere, including Yank Sing. Dinner is served daily from 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (10:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday), and the menu focuses on Hong Kong seafood. (Thanks to Chowhound user scarmoza for the tip.)

In fair weather, a day or weekend on the coast makes a nice getaway. If your wanderings take you south through Half Moon Bay, a great place to stop for lunch or dinner is Barbara's Fish Trap (281 Capistrano Rd, Half Moon Bay, about four miles north of the intersection of Hwy 1 and Hwy 92).

The place has a reputation for great clam chowder and fish and chips. The chowder was good, if somewhat eccentric, lacking both the cream of New England-style and the tomato of Manhattan-style. Instead, it was like a chunky vichyssoise with flavorful clams, celery, and spices reminiscent of Thanksgiving. (The odd color in the photos comes from the dining room's blue-tinted windows.)

Fellow SFoodie blogger Tamara Palmer and I were headed up to the Culinary Institute of America's Napa Valley campus in St. Helena, aka Greystone, to attend a seminar on Japanese food.

It's quite a schlep from S.F., but doughnut fanatics may judge the trip worthwhile for the unique artistic creations at Psycho Donuts (2006 S Winchester Blvd, Campbell, two miles south of the Winchester Mystery House). The creative inventions at this new shop, which doubles as an art gallery, include the Psycho, topped with pretzels, lemon glaze, chocolate, and cayenne; and the FungShui, with green tea and chocolate. If you can't make it down there, check out psycho-donuts.com for more fun pictures.

Point Reyes National Seashore is one of our area's great natural treasures. The park offers a diverse range of coastal terrains, including beaches, dunes, wetlands, streams, and forests, providing great opportunities for picnicking, hiking, bicycling, and horseback riding. It's also home to a wide variety of wildlife, from birds to elk to elephant seals to passing whales.

This being the Bay Area, there's also good food to be found. A fine place to pick up a picnic is Cowgirl Creamery / Tomales Bay Foods (80 4th St, Point Reyes Station, open Wednesday through Sunday). This little food court houses a cheese shop and an upscale deli with seasonal salads, sandwiches, and local charcuterie.

A sleepy stretch of Folsom Boulevard in East Sacramento might seem like an unlikely location for a world-famous gourmet emporium like Corti Brothers, but it makes sense when you know its history. Owner Darrell Corti grew up in the grocery store the eponymous brothers, his father Frank and uncle Gino, opened in 1947.

In that hospitable environment, Corti developed a discerning palate for food and wine. He also had an extraordinary gift for languages. That combination led to his traveling the world to buy exceptional goodies for the store, thus becoming a godfather to the Bay Area's 1970s culinary revolution. As Chez Panisse's Alice Waters told the LA Times, "Darrell opened my eyes to products from around the world. He is an amazing person who knows everything about everything."

Corti continues to seek out the obscure and delicious to this day, making a stop at the store a must for many Bay Area gourmets on the way to or from points east on I-80 or north on I-5. The liquor department (pictured in part above), for example, includes by far the best selection of Italian imports in Northern California. This is the only place I know where you might find a choice of four Barolo Chinatos, or Nardini's full line of liqueurs.

If you're ever in the vicinity of San Jose, Mitsuwa Marketplace (675 Saratoga, just a block south of I-280), is well worth a detour. Stepping inside this big supermarket is like being teleported to Japan. (Click any image for a larger version.)

The selection is incredible. Above, 40-odd shochus, the Japanese version of soju (distilled rice spirits). Around the corner is an even larger selection of sakes.

The good news: Penzeys, the Wiconsin-based mail-order supplier of some of the highest-quality spices in the country, has opened a retail shop in the Bay Area. The bad news: it's in Menlo Park, so quite a schlep for most SF residents. The store's at 771 Santa Cruz (the main drag), about 10 minutes from 101 and just a few blocks from the Caltrain station.

I buy most of my spices locally, but a few of Penzeys' are so superior that I find them worth the trouble. On my visit to the new shop, I purchased a half-ounce bag of Turkish bay leaves and four-ounce bags of Tellicherry peppercorns, ground Vietnamese cassia, and powdered ginger. The total bill came to $17.94, the same as it would on the Web site, but I saved the $5.95 shipping. I'd also have bought a bag of whole cumin, but they were out, so that's a minus for the bricks-and-mortar approach.

In the 1990s, Reed Hearon was among the highest-profile San Francisco chefs. He opened LuLu, Rose Pistola, Rose's Cafe, and the since-closed Corona Bar & Grill, Cafe Marimba, and Black Cat; won major awards, including a 1997 James Beard for best new restaurant in the country; published several cookbooks; and appeared on Julia Child: Lessons with Master Chefs.

Then, after some post-dot-com-bust business setbacks in 2002, he dropped from public view. In the intervening years, the question, "whatever happened to Reed Hearon?" has come up regularly on foodie Web sites, but always goes unanswered. Well, I finally tracked him down: he's been working as the executive chef of the Mammoth Mountain ski resort. The Inyo Register recently reported on his participation in an event promoting the use of locally-produced beef.

Vacaville might not be a place you'd visit unless you had business or relatives there, but its location straddling I-80 makes it a convenient stop for for a quick bite on the way to or from points east. A great alternative to the corporate chains that dominate the area is Fleming's Chicago-Style Deli, just a couple of blocks off the freeway, a friendly spot run by the eponymous family of Chicago natives.

Their Chicago dog ($4.50) is satisfyingly classic: Vienna Beef frank with the canonical "snap," Kryptonite-green pickle relish, mustard, onions, tomatoes, pickled sport peppers, and celery salt overflowing a poppyseed bun. I'm not a big fan of Chicago Italian beef and similar sandwiches, but the superior fresh-tasting and very spicy giardiniera on the Flemings' version ($6.95) makes it delicious.

Ahlgren Vineyard, one of the best wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains, is a classic small family operation. Its cellar is simply the cellar of the Ahlgrens' house, and the tasting room is (as you can see on the left side of the photo) just a table in the corner.

Ahlgren is probably best known for one of America's best Semillons, made from old-vines Livermore Valley fruit. In a blind tasting of the 2005 vintage, you could easily mistake the aromatic, concentrated, balanced wine for French. Ahlgren also makes excelent Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah.

The winery's tasting room is open only on Saturdays from noon to 4pm. The winery is about 60 miles from SF, in a sparsely populated area a few miles north of Boulder Creek. As long as you're schlepping all the way down there, you should also visit the area's major tourist attraction, Castle Rock State Park.