Today is my last day here in beautiful, wonderful San Francisco. I take a red-eye back home to Mark, Tigger, and Brachtune. My friend and I are hitting up the Haight today but although I think I am going to lug my camera with me, I won’t have a chance to post again until I’m home.

Last night we ate at an Indonesian restaurant. I had a “tempe” and tofu dish that looked like this:

Not a very good picture, I’m afraid, but I had to use the flash and I didn’t want to disturb our neighbors, who were pretty close to us, by taking more than one picture. As it is, they asked me twice if I am a food critic. They also suggested that posing as a food critic would be a way to get good service in restaurants. Anyway, after the meal I asked the waiter if they made the tempeh on the premises and he answered affirmatively. I could tell that it was homemade, though, without even asking. It just has a more lovely texture than store-bought. Theirs was even better than my homemade tempeh, but the somewhat unfortunate thing is that after eating their tempeh, and after making my own, and finding it so much better than store-bought, I’m not sure if I can buy it any more. The unfortunate part is I’m not that great at making it and sometimes fail. I am getting better though and I ordered more starter before I left, so hopefully soon I’ll be a tempeh master.

Yesterday I took a Victorian house walking tour because I love Victorian houses. That obviously has nothing to do with food, but I’ll share a couple of photos anyway since my posts have been so wordy lately.

This is a block in Lower Pacific Heights:

These are a couple of Queen Annes:

This is an Italianate house I thought was pretty:

Too bad the houses I saw on the tour ranged in price from 3 million to 30 million. Apartments in Victorians are 1 million. Oof.

Well, time to pack up and check out. I will surely be leaving my heart in San Francisco.

I ordered in from Golden Era again tonight, because hunger came on suddenly and I was waiting for my friend to call me upon her arrival from the airport. Above is a not-very-good-but-the-best-I-could do shot of the Spicy Beef Stew, which is really pretty good, although as there is no A/C in my room, a bit too warming! The “beef” has an amazing texture and the broth is a Vietnamese-flavored, spicy, warm yumminess. It also has potatoes, carrots, tofu, and basil. I was a little conferenced-out by the end of the day and wanted something comforting: this certainly filled the bill.

My friend called the very second I focused my camera for the shot above, and I’m off to her apartment in a few minutes. She lives near City Lights, and I’m about to finish The Secret Scripture, so I think I’ll be dragging her over there. City Lights is a must-stop destination every time I’m here; I think it’s my favorite bookstore in the world after The Strand (although Normals holds a special place in my heart as well). I stopped by the hotel cafe to get a beer to enjoy with my meal and noticed the bartender was reading The Trial, so I a bit uncharacteristically (being immensely shy) struck up a conversation about it with him and we consequently engaged in a little Kafka-love fest. Have I mentioned I love this city?!

OK, this is NOT turning into a book blog, I swear. Soon we’ll be back to all food, food, food! Ok: food, Tigger, food, Mark, food. I can’t believe I’ve been making all of these non-recipe posts. And in fact you wouldn’t believe how much I miss cooking. Don’t get me wrong, the food here is amazing and there are almost too many choices, but I really prefer it when I rent a flat when traveling so I can have a kitchen. Not only is it cheaper, but I have a perverse love of grocery shopping in other cities. I did go to Whole Foods today to pick up a lunch since I wasn’t going to have time to go out between conference sessions, but Whole Foods doesn’t really count. It’s not THAT different than my Whole Foods.

Good news everyone! I was reading The Secret Scripture between conference sessions today and happened to look at the author photo on the inside jacket cover and thought to myself, “hm, that doesn’t look anything at all like the vain man I saw on the website last night”. Turns out I had spelled “Barry” incorrectly as “Berry”! The real Sebastian Barry doesn’t seem to have one of those newfangled web sites I’ve been hearing so much about (here’s a page about him, however), and I can go back to enjoying this book very much, thank you.

Just got back from seeing Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, which I quite liked.

Sorry for the non-food post (and distinct lack of photos…forgot to get on that USB cord today; not that I’ve actually yet photographed anything other than some tofu yesterday); just didn’t want to look stupid for any longer.