A little too much Slow Food...

Yes, I'm still trying to lose a few extra pounds from the trip to Thailand but decided to give myself a free pass today and head up to SF to check out some of the Slow Food Nation events. We tried to buy tickets to the Taste Pavilions at Fort Mason, but they were sold out (and I was still debating whether it was worth $65 per person to go).

So we went to the Marketplace at Civic Center instead - which was free in terms of entry. Of course we probably spent over $100 on food for our little group anyway.

There was a farmers' market set of stalls selling produce, veggies, cheeses and gourmet items like jams, pickles and oils. Alas, it was nothing special if you're a frequent visitor to local farmers' markets or the Ferry Building. There was also a nice set of prepared food stalls called Slow Food To Go. This is where we spent the majority of our time - probably most of it standing in line, it turns out.

We ended up with lemongrass pork and vermicelli from Out The Door, Chicken Biryani from Vic's Chaat House, Hand-Pulled Noodles from Imperial Tea House, Ham & Biscuits from Benton Country Ham (served with strawberry jam which was an odd but surprisingly good combo) and a Red-Eye Ham Sandwich from Wallace & Sons.

The lemongrass pork was good but exactly what you could buy at Out The Door itself - this was however the shortest line, which made it totally worth it since we were starving. And I got to meet Charles Phan himself! The Chicken Biryani was good but the puri that we got with it was not. The winner was the hand-pulled noodles with beef stew - yes, they were actually hand-pulling the darn noodles on the spot. And YES - that made for a VERY LONG LINE indeed. We overcompensated by ordering 4 orders...

For dessert, we picked up some organic strawberries and also an Apple Dandy Pluot popsicle (surprisingly not good) and some balsamic strawberry ice cream from Bi-Rite. Alas, they did not have our favorite Bi-Rite flavors so we vowed to hit the main Creamery later in the afternoon.

We strolled through the Victory Gardens (organic veggies planted in the middle of the Civic Center) and checked everything out while the kids played in the playground.

After that, we walked back to Hayes Valley and visited the new Christopher Elbow chocolate shop. They had an extensive hot chocolate bar - the dark chocolate hazelnut tasted just like melted Nutella. I was feeling a little sick at this point (did I forget to mention we stopped at Citizen Cake for some cookies on the way?!).

Of course, we couldn't resist the requisite stop at Miette along with some time on the play structure at Octavia and Fell. Plus some fleur de sel caramels...

After lying around for a few hours in a food coma, I roused myself enough to pick up a couple of yummy pizzas and the daily roast from Gialina - I was proud that we walked down the hill to pick it up.

And in an uncharacteristic act of self-control, we were so full that we did pass up the second trip to Bi-Rite Creamery. Plus it's the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival next weekend! Must fast this week in preparation for that upcoming food frenzy...