Sorry, I forgot to post pics of how the Zinfandel tasting went! I know you saw it on Twitter and Facebook, but here's a quick recap of how it went.

Chef Elmer Guzman from the Poke Stop was there and met Neenz Faleafine for the first time. I don't have any good pictures of his food, but let's just say it was ono! I don't usually drink reds with seafood--especially if raw and/or spicy--but the rep from Ravenswood recommended their Big River zin. And you know what? It was the first red I've ever had that matched seafood!

One ounce pours go a long way when you see how many bottles we had to try!

They also had food. This lamb was perfect for the big, robust zins.

Boneless shortribs are always a winnah!

Neenz got to know the Leonhardt reps.

A plate from Don Ho's. I miss these guys!

Dessert from JJ's Bistro.

I ended up buying two bottles of Leonhardt wine. At the end of the night, these guys left, and had to drive all the way back to the Hale Koa to give me the bottles! Kudos to them for their nice service and nice wine.

After a grand trip to San Francisco and wine tasting in Sonoma, I'm jazzed and ready to go to yet another big wine event with my neighbor, Amber (shown here with me in Sonoma).

The Zinfandel Grand Tasting is happening Sunday, May 23 (tomorrow) at the Hale Koa Hotel. See, the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP) is doing its spring tour, and stopping on Oahu. A group of premier ZAP member wineries who specialize in Zinfandel will have tastings so that people can mingle with top winemakers and principals, learn about the remarkable richness and versatility of Zinfandel and discover why Zinfandel is “America’s Heritage Grape.”

I don't know about you, but I like Zinfandel. Reader Turk Fontaine commented that "he BIG Z is meaty, beaty, big and bouncy." I think it has a flavor that evokes different "flavor memories" in my mouth. I often will taste a zin and suddenly know what's for dinner--be it spaghetti with meat sauce, pizza, or lamb.

I guess this is true of most people with Zin, so ZAP is going to feature small bites from local chefs, as well:

I can't wait! I hope you'll be able to join me. Tickets for the public tasting are $59 per person for non-members and can be purchased on line at www.zinfandel.org. Some tickets may be available at the door for $69 per person.

Zinfandel Grand Tasting
Sunday, May 23 (Public Tasting)
4-7 p.m.
Hale Koa Hotel ~ 2055 Kalia Road
Order Public Tickets online until noon (PST) Sunday, May 23. After this time, tickets are available at the door - cost of $69 per person.

Wow, I can't believe I'm back already! That was a fun trip...but I didn't get to post everything, due to time. Here's what else we did:

Tweet Up

Thanks to my classmate Deb Aoki's help, we got a tweetup together at Heart Wine on Valencia Street.

Deb and I haven't seen each other for about 20 years, I think. It's hard to say, because the internet makes it seem like it's been much less. She's still the same!....and working at eBay.

We devoured the cheese plate, so I didn't get to take a picture of it, but trust me, it was good!! The salumi plate was also very good.

The scallops, if you eat that, were amazing! They were sprinkled with herbs, oil, and the right amount of salt to get your taste buds going.

Amber ordered some fish, which was full of flavor. OK so in the interest of time & space, all the photos will be in an album on facebook.

Heart
1270 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 285-1200

R & G Lounge

Yes, thanks to your suggestions (and the fact that Chinese restaurants are open every day), we went to R&G Lounge. We had planned to go to Thanh Long, but plans got shifted. It's OK, we've all been there before. Anyway, the salt & pepper crab at R&G is interesting! It's coated in a salty, crusty tempura batter that is finger-lickin' good.

Peking duck, always a good choice.

Some special, off-the-menu veggies that were really good. I detected a slight bitterness bite, like bok choy, but it wasn't bad. I didn't take pictures of the rest of the food because my hands were just to greasy from attacking the crab!

R&G Lounge
631 Kearny Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 982-7877

Dosa

Dosa is the name of an Indian crepe, like above. Sometimes it's served like a profiterole, sometimes it's a big triangle, sometimes it's a huge roll--like a map. It's served all of these ways at Dosa. This was really good!

Instead of chips, they start you with some caraway pappadums. I couldn't stop eating these.

Goat cheese and mango salad with hazelnuts. So refreshing! The goat cheese isn't gamey. I had to fight Ed for the rest of this.

Uttapams are like pancakes--similar to the Korean pancakes or Russian blinis. We ordered the variety plate of five, which was a great idea. I think the carrot one was our favorite.

Duck curry with spinach. I dunno, I thought it was like chicken. The sauce reminded us a lot of squid or chicken luau, which isn't a bad thing. They recommended lemon rice, which was good but a little too strong; I think next time I'll do the coconut rice.

Lamb meatball curry. The meatballs were good--what we could taste. The sauce was a little too spicy, which overpowered the taste of everything else. Again, the recommended lemon rice was too strong. Our initial verdict is that Dosa is good at dosas and uttapams, but we're not sold on the curries.

You can counter the spicy curries with a lassi--like a smoothie. Dosa's mango lassi was kind of thick for me, but that helped make it last longer.

Dosa (2 locations, we went to the one on Fillmore)
1700 Fillmore (@ Post)
San Francisco, CA
415-441-3672

Papalote Mexican Grill

On our last night, former expat Hawaii Twitterati Susie Lin suggested we try Papalote Mexican Grill, a place that is constantly packed. We were lucky that the line didn't go out the door that night!

My shrimp burrito with guacamole. They give you hot sauce on the side, which will punch you in the face if you're not careful! It's powerful!

Susie and Ed with their burritos. Susie ate hers with a fork and knife, but for some reason mine was wrapped enough to eat with my hands. At that point, though, my hands were full, so I couldn't take more photos. By the way, they have Horchata here--if you don't know what it is, you need to read my Metromix review on Tacos Ricos. Just sayin.

Papalote Mexican Grill
3409 24th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 970-8815

Bi-Rite Creamery

No trip to San Francisco is complete without some ice cream from Bi-Rite. They also have a bakery on the side, if you prefer cupcakes to ice cream. The line is always down the street.

They're known for their unique, intense flavors, like roasted banana, brown sugar with ginger caramel swirl, or honey lavender.

I had one of their most popular flavors, salted caramel. This was really good, but in all honesty, was so strong that I don't know if I could eat a whole scoop again. I wish there were a tasting spoon option, so I could buy a spoonful of 10 flavors. I also had the balsamic strawberry and vanilla, which was very creamy but a lot like Baskin-Robbins. I don't mean that as a bad thing! But it wasn't unique.

When you go, tell me what flavor you try!

Bi-Rite Creamery
3692 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 626-5600

Toast Eatery

On our last day, Ed and I drove over to Noe Valley (one of my favorite neighborhoods) and ate breakfast at Toast. For you Toast fanatics, this is not related to any others in the country.

Ed's chicken apple sausage omelette.

Croissant French toast. Who was the genius who created this?! It's so rich, you don't need to put butter on it.

This was a good breakfast to get us through shopping in Noe Valley. It's on a hill, so if you go there, plan to walk up one side and then down the other.

Toast Eatery
1748 Church St
San Francisco, CA 94131
(415) 282-4328

For the ride home
We went back to Tartine Bakery to get some food for the plane ride home. They put your stuff in boxes, so it will last.

I got their famous pecorino & almond sandwich: Sheep milk cheese & almonds crushed with olive oil, lemon, and sage. This is a mouth-watering sandwich, full of every flavor in the rainbow, but it was a bit rich. I think if I have it again, I need to split it with someone and have a side salad.

Ed got the Humboldt Fog cheese sandwich and mentioned that his was also a little too rich for one sitting.

And that was it! I'm going to post some photos of Hotel Tomo in a separate entry so you can see how charming it is. Thanks for coming along with me on this trip. I had a great time.

The Bi-Rite Creamery ice cream sauces.

I normally travel alone, so it's been an exceptional treat to have done my last three trips in the company of others. There's a certain freedom in going solo that I love, but if you are with the right travelers, the trip can become a true adventure.

Cherries at the Ferry Building farmer's market.

Yesterday was our last full day in San Francisco. We started out picking up my classmate David Kansaku's daughter, Kara, and heading to the Ferry Building to check out the farmer's market and get breakfast.

Coffee with Kara

Shelled English peas

Asparagus

Different kinds of tomatoes

Pineapple tomatoes?!

Peaches

Beautiful tree mushrooms

My crab breakfast burrito from San Francisco Fish Co.

Brad's very expensive mixed plate.

Ed's mixed meat sandwich from Boccalone Salumeria.

Truffle macroons from Far West Fungi that I forgot to buy.

After breakfast, Kara left to go to school.....which is good, because I think the rest of the day with Uncle Ed & Uncle Brad would have traumatized her!

First, though, we visited the new Blue Hawaii Lifestyle store/cafe that opened last week in Embarcadero 2. This is the staff that was on duty that day, and they were so full of enthusiasm! It was great to see such excited employees.

In addition to their signature acai bowls and smoothies, we found a small retail section with products from Hawaii. Ed found his favorite white honey.

Two of the five Chinee bruthas in Chinatown.

I didn't take a lot of pictures in Chinatown, but Brad did...and took a LOT of video! I can't get into all that we did there, but let's just say I confirmed that guys mentally mature at age 12, and just get bigger from there. I had an outrageously good time, but man!

Getting a quick, cheap snack at Louie's Dim Sum.

Live prawns at the fish market, where Brad got busted for taking video.

We finished off the excursion with a stop at Jackson Market. They had just finished a batch of jerky, so they gave us a taste....and it was still warm! Heaven in a pan!! This was Ed and Brad's first taste of Jackson Market beef jerky, and they were hooked.

OK I'm out of time! The airport shuttle is here. I have to post the rest of my trip tonight when I get home!

Up next: Mexican dinner with Susie Lin, Bi-Rite Creamery, R&G Lounge, and anything else I missed.

Last summer, I blogged from the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival, and on one of those days, I talked about a cooking demo with Google Chef Scott Giambastiani. His food was amazing!

So yesterday, we drove down to Mountain View to the Google headquarters to visit Scott. Cat Toth & her boyfriend arrived earlier that morning and came with us (so check out her blog)!

Scott took us to Big Table, one of Google's newest cafes of 18 on this campus. We were blown away to learn that they've designed the cafes so that every employee is within 150 feet of food (so if you can't get to a big cafe, you can access one of over 100 microkitchens). Since this is in the engineering building, there's an engineering theme. But wait, there's more! You see, the employees get to eat free at any of their cafes. And these aren't just any cafes.

Cat has pics, I have a longish video: Google's food is comprised of products that are organic, locally grown when possible, and made fresh daily. They try to give employees creative, healthy options in the food that they provide, so you won't find fat-laden sodium fests here. Aside from the salad bar, you can find a sushi station, an Indian food station, and other tasty offerings.

Employees can send in suggestions for foods and can then vote on new menu items. Some people write a script so they can track down their favorite foods every day.

Google's healthy living philosophy must work. The employees all seem happy, healthy, and excited to work there. These are, after all, the top 2 percent of the brain power in the country...maybe the world.

I took a variety of items to get a taste of Google. Everything had pops of flavor--bright, fresh, savory, tart, sweet--and various kinds of textures. You would easily pay at least $35-40 per person for this kind of buffet at home!

I tried ceviche from the salad bar. I'm shamelessly salivating as I write this.

What do you put in a cafe themed for engineers? Lego sets on every table. They can talk shop while they eat, and instead of doodling, they can build on their thoughts.

Clean plate, happy smiles.

Afterward, we went outside to take goofy pictures with the sign. I don't know what the heck I'm doing in this picture!!

Anyway, it was a short but amazing experience just to see and learn about one aspect of Google's operations. Mahalo to Chef Scott Giambastiani for the tour!