Cioppino A San Francisco Treat

Cioppino may have it roots in Italy but San Francisco has made taken it as it's own. The football game tonight triggered memories of this dish. A wonderful seafood stew for which there are many recipes but this variation turned out very well. I posted this photo some time ago but never added  a recipe. I have had several requests and have finally gotten around to putting a recipe together as best I could remember.

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 large Head Fennel
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 Large Can of Tomatoes (Crushed)
• 2 cups fish stock
• 2 cups white wine
• 4 cloves chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1  crab (about 2-lbs.), cracked and cleaned, or 1-lb. frozen crabmeat thawed
  
• 2 pounds firm fleshed fish cut into dice (halibut is what I use)
  
• 24 large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
  
• 12 mussels
  
• 1/2 bunch Italian parsley, chopped
• A Crouton made from a baguette

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and sauté the fennel and diced onion and garlic till soft. Add tomatoes, white wine and fish stock and simmer together for around thirty five minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper flakes to your liking. If sauce is too thick thin out with stock or water. Add all remaining ingredients except mussels and allow to cook for five or six minutes finally add mussels ad cook until mussels have all fully opened. Serve in a large bowl with crispy crouton.

I know in Italian cooking adding cheese to a fish dish is just not done put I put some shaved Parmesan on top and garnished with flat leaf parsley.

I realized after posting there are no mussels visible in photo (you can see one peeking from under the crouton).

A San Francisco Must

I kept hearing how I could not leave San Francisco without eating a burrito. Well I did so on the last day and it was really good except I was in a food coma for about an hour afterwards.

Chicken, rice, beans, guacamole, sour cream, mole sauce…… all wrapped in a flour tortilla. Delicious with cold Mexican beer.

Aquarium Of The Bay

Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39 in San Francisco is a cool place for a short visit on a rainy day. It is very difficult to photograph. But the jellyfish are like nature’s own lava lamp.

As far as I know these are anchovies or maybe sardines, something you put tightly in a can. Anyone for pizza?

Chinatown, San Francisco

I took a walking tour of  Chinatown with Linda Lee’s All about Chinatown tours. It was interesting and gave me the opportunity to go into a few stores I may not have gone into alone. Linda give you a good deal iof information on the history of Chinatown.

http://www.allaboutchinatown.com/

All About Chinatown Tour

I took a walking tour with Linda Lee of All About Chinatown Tours. Here is a slideshow of some of the photos I took.

All About Chinatown Tours Link

Fatal Hesitation

When I am in any type of pier or beach area and it is pouring rain I always think of Chris de Burgh’s song “ Fatal Hesitation”

The cafes are all deserted, the streets are wet again,
There's nothing quite like an out of season holiday town,
In the rain,
When the tourists go and the cold winds blow,
And my girl is on a plane, home...

Boudin Bakery, Fisherman’s Wharf

It was pretty cool being able to watch the bakers in action through the windows. A sourdough bread bowl was amazing filled with chowder.

This is such a tourist food item but it was cold and rainy so it hit the spot just right.

City Tour San Francisco

I am not usually one to do organized city tours as I prefer to make my own way. But the weather forecast for the next few days is not good so I figured this would be a good way to cover a lot of ground and get lots of photo opportunities in a short space of time.
After doing  some research on tripadvisor.com I chose Dylan’s Cty Tour.
I have to say this was a cool way of doing things and the guide was a lot of fun and very informative. A tour on a mini bus certainly beats a large coach tour. Also doing this early into the trip let me see places I may want to return to.

We were picked up right beside the Cable Car by Union Square. They have a few pickup points around the city. In no time we were on our way. Dylan got everyone introduced so there was a nice friendly atmosphere on the bus.

We drove through several neighborhoods on our way to Twin Peaks. We drove through The Tenderloin, The Mission District and Castro. We were able to stop and take some pictures in The Mission. This is a snapshot of some of the murals we seen  along the way to Twin Peaks.  Our Driver Dylan told us the history of each neighborhood  as we went.



We then went to Twin Peaks which a great panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately  it was a little overcast but the view is great.

Then we headed to the Haight and Ashbury neighborhood.  The neighborhood was were the hippy movement was founded but is now the home  cool eclectic stores. We seen the homes where Janice Joblin and The Grateful Dead once lived.

Next we had a quick stop on Alamo Square to take some photos of Postcard Row.

Then we took a look at how the other half live on “Billionaires Row” in Pacific Heights.

We drove through The Presidio and had a stop at The Palace of Fine Arts.


Our next photo stop was Crissy Field for another view of The Golden Gate Bridge. And then off to Muir Woods.


Muir Woods is difficult to photograph as it is hard to show just how tall these trees are.

We then had a scenic drive to Sausalito. This shot was taken out the window while moving but you get  the idea how nice it is


.
Sausalito is a cute little art town with lots of galleries and interesting stores. I  was most fascinated by this guy stacking rocks. He just finds where the center of gravity is and creates these. You would think he used glue but it is just balance.
We had the option to travel back to San Francisco on the bus but decided to use the ferry instead,

All in all it was a great day and I would recommend it as a good intro to the city.
Check out Dylan's tour  here.

Another Preview of San Francisco

Only two weeks till I go to San Francisco and I am looking forward to it a lot. These shots are from Seven years ago. I think my photography skills have improved since and I am hoping to take better photos.

Obviously the top three photos are from Alcatraz. Followed by some very typical tourist shots. Alamo Square also called “Postcard Row”, Lombard Street “The Crookedist Street” , Coit Tower and an aerial shot are all in there.

 

 

 

 

San Francisco a preview..

Four weeks from today I will be in the city by the bay so I am just digging through some of my photos from seven years ago. I can only hope the weather is even close to being as good as it was on that trip.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

I am planning a trip to New Orleans in March and the weather here sucks. So I am just digging through my old photo files.