Whole30 Part 3: Results

I had this post totally written a few months ago, it just took me so long to post it! See parts 1 and 2 of my Whole30 experience here: intro, recipes.

Whole30 has come and gone. It’s good it didn’t last much longer than 30 days because I was beginning to crack. The real stressor is that you think you are done after the thirty days but the reintroduction period can be about two weeks that you mostly still have to eat Whole30. It’s like you cross the finish line of the marathon, but have to run 4 more miles just to get back to your car. I kept fantasizing about the foods we were going to eat and it got harder and harder to resist. For example, the night before “dairy reintroduction” day, we had a little ice cream, since we were about to have dairy the next day anyways. 

I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to do the reintroduction, but it seems like you can isolate affects of the various food groups best if you add only one restricted food in on one day then go back to whole 30 for two days, then add in the next restricted food group. We did it as follows:

Day 1 – legumes: I added garbanzo beans to our lunch salad and we ate chicken chili with beans in it for dinner.

Result: at the risk of sharing too much information, legumes caused major gas, at least for me.

Day 2-3: whole 30

Day 4: Non-gluten grains: rice with lunch and dinner

Result: About 30 minutes after eating, I was so sluggish. It was like I had just taken a Benadryl, I was ready to take a nap. The funny thing is, while I definitely noticed the energy decrease after eating the rice, I don’t feel like I noticed an energy increase that everyone talked experiencing while on Whole30, but maybe it was just more of an absence the post-lunch food coma that often drives me to reach for coffee too often during the work day.

Day 5-6: whole 30

Day 7: Dairy: yogurt for breakfast, then Greek chicken salad, the chicken was marinated in yogurt, the salad had feta and tzatziki.

Results: We both got stomach aches. I had actually experienced these sharp stomach aches before, part of what prompted me to go on whole 30.

Day 8-9:whole 30

Day 10: Gluten – toast for breakfast, spaghetti and meatballs for dinner

Result: it could have been because this was a weekend, I didn’t feel the tired effects as strongly as I did with the nongluten grains. I definitely felt more bloated the next day though.

Day 11-12: whole 30


Afterwards –

A friend asked what I missed the most. I think it was different things at different times. I always say I crave butter more than sugar – hard candy I can go without, but I always baked goods like cupcakes or cookies. I also missed yogurt a lot. I had gotten into the habit of having a yogurt smoothie in the mornings (yogurt & milk or kefir with lime, a dash of cardamom and teaspoon of maple syrup – so satisfying!) so I missed that. Jason missed pasta at different times, though cravings came and went for him too. 

There wasn’t a “reintroduction day” for sugar, but I guess we did it on day 13. Adding sugars back in was really a shock to my system, and amazingly, it wasn’t as satisfying as I kept day-dreaming about. I ate a mini key lime tart one night and felt like my teeth were disintegrating from all the sugar. I then got a headache afterwards. This happened for probably the first couple weeks any time I had something with sugar. Don’t worry, I pushed through and can now consume copious amounts sugar without the headache! Really, I do try to tone the sugar way down in recipes, or have a smaller quantity, as I don’t need as much to satisfy my sweet craving anymore.

Alcohol also had a much stronger effect. (At least for the first few weeks) I truly felt satisfied with just one glass of wine, or splitting a beer with Jason, plus, my tolerance had taken quite the dip, so smaller quantities of alcohol were best.

Over the course of the 6 weeks, Jason, despite his best efforts lost 7 pounds, and I lost about 5. After we ended the diet, Jason used the word “lighter” to describe how he felt while on it, and I guess he literally was. Another difference that I’ve noticed now that I’m back to “regular” food is that my skin was great while on Whole30 – I don’t think I had one pimple (in real life my skin hasn’t gotten the memo that I’m past adolescence).

We’re glad we did it, though we’re mostly back to our regular diets with a few tweaks. One of the most rewarding parts of it was that I feel like I was really able to recognize my bad habits, especially dependence on sugar and caffeine. It was a huge struggle at times to try to content myself with dried fruit when I really wanted a brownie or cupcake, but it really revealed my somewhat emotional relationship with food, such as the feeling that I needed a food reward after a hard day. It also has helped me to pause before eating “junk” food to consider whether I really want it, or if I’m eating something just because it is there or out of habit. I try to cut back on carbs for lunch since we both feel better that way and am much less dependent on my afternoon sugar fix.

One of the biggest changes is that I no longer drink my coffee with cream. I cut it out since dairy isn’t allowed and at the same time Jason started roasting his own coffee. So I kind of got used to having good coffee and was really disappointed to find that milk just deadened the coffee flavor so much that I really preferred going without it. Plus, because we both had slight dairy reactions, it has been a good way to limit dairy. By the way, the no cream in my coffee is a huge deal for me as my preferred cream to coffee ratio was about 1:3, and when I really wanted to be high maintenance I’d put in a blend of milk & cream. So now I’m just high maintenance about the kind of coffee I drink and try to convince myself that I am not a yuppie even though Jason and I converse about coffee as if it were wine – “Hmm.. I’m getting hints of blueberry and a smoky aftertaste.”

So, that is the end of our Whole 30 experience. I think it’s worth trying, especially if you want to try to improve how you feel, and potentially improve your overall health. And if you are going to try it, I raise the glass of red wine I have been drinking to you!

Whole30 Part 2: Recipes

This is just a really long list of most of the things we ate while on Whole 30. You’ll notice I usually take recipes as suggestions, and just use what I have or what I think will taste better, so feel free to do the same. Some of the recipes weren’t exactly Whole 30 compliant, so I modified them by omitting sugar, using coconut milk instead of real milk, or clarified butter instead of normal butter. I find pictures are most helpful when deciding what I want to make, so I’ve tried to pin most of the recipes here, including ones I didn’t make but looked good. Some recipes are so simple, I've forgotten the source, so tried to write out directions. Most of them are linked though, and those websites are probably great resources too!  Hope this helps, if you are on Whole 30 and good luck!

Special ingredients:
Coconut aminos (whole foods or Wegman’s)

Dinners:
Taco Salad: Brown ground beef in a pan. Add whatever spices you want (I did cumin, paprika, cinnamon, and smoked chipotle powder) once mostly brown add diced onions (1/2-1 cup). Once onions are translucent, add diced red pepper. Cook for a 3-5 minutes depending how done you like your peppers. Serve over lettuce, spinach and sliced avocado.

Pork Loin with Cilantro Date Relish

Paleo Orange Chicken – I just used the coconut aminos.

Lemon Chicken – This sounds boring, but was delicious and easy (best if you remember to let it marinade ahead of time though).

Brisket – This was best for the weekend with guests. I didn’t actually use the linked recipe, but I wasn’t that happy with mine, so I’m hoping this is better.

Asian Meatballs – a lot of chopping so it these took a while

Seared scallops – use ghee instead of butter

Grilled tuna steaks with mango salsa – used this blackened seasoning then 2 minutes on each side, the salsa recipe is for salmon but was so amazing with this tuna

Grilled mahi mahi – I think we did six minutes on each side and then with leftover mango salsa from the tuna.

Roasted chicken – whole chicken with a little olive oil drizzled on, salt and pepper then roast at 400 degrees for 1.5 hours. This was easy, so we did it a lot.

Chicken tikka masala (crock pot) – I used already cooked chicken (from the roasted chicken the night before) and just simmered on the stove for about 20-30 minutes instead of doing the crock pot. I didn’t make cauliflower rice with this, but wish I had.

Carnitas – one of our favorites. This turned out better putting all the ingredients in the crock pot and setting on low for 8 hours (or high for 4) instead of slow cooking in the oven.

Roasted leg of lamb – was on super sale at the grocery store. I added some rosemary springs and a bunch of root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, sweet potato, parsnips, whatever you have works) when there were about 45 minutes left.

Shephard’s pie – for the mashed potato topping, I used a mix of clarified butter and coconut cream (instead of milk and butter) and no Parmesan cheese. I also don’t do the egg yolk for the topping because I can’t tell a difference, so why go through the extra step? To be Whole 30 compliant I didn’t use Worcester sauce (used coconut aminos instead) and didn’t use the red wine. I like it really with a lot of gravy, so used more like 1.5 cups of chicken stock. I usually make it with ground beef instead of lamb. I also like too add peas and shredded cabbage to the meat mixture. Ok, I guess that’s a lot of modifications, but I started realizing I could use a lot of my normal recipes with a few tweaks.

Chicken Mole – I think we had too much time on our hands, and decided to make this really complicated dish during the snow storm. We definitely didn’t have all the ingredients and so subbed chipotle peppers for ancho chilies (only used ½ the chilis called for), some non-peanut nuts for hazelnuts, dates for raisins, coco powder for chocolate. We also didn’t use tortilla chunks or sugar. Even with all those changes, this was really delicious, though definitely use pre-ground spices, otherwise you’ll end up with big chunks of cinnamon stick in it.

Jerk Chicken and shrimp with cauliflower rice – the recipe was really just for shrimp, but I doubled it and added some chicken (just baked the chicken breast). PS- cauliflower rice wasn’t that hard to do, but they sell it at Trader Joe’s which would have been a helpful shortcut to know.

Steak - we got the cut that was on sale. The butcher gave me a tip on how to make it more tender: coat it in salt for an hour then rinse before cooking. I didn’t use any rub, but I did use the Pioneer woman’s timing on how to cook it, and used clarified butter.


Salmon - I did use my hand blender to make the mayo and used dried herbs



Vegetables
For most dinners I did two vegetables (except the Shepard’s pie and the jerk chicken). Sometimes (when it was easy like roast chicken), I did some soups or veggies that used the following recipes:


Carrot Coconut Ginger soup

Roasted Red Pepper Cauliflower Soup- just without all the non-whole 30 toppings

Squash soup – roast acorn or butternut squash, scrape out of skin, cook onion, garlic, then add peeled apple and squash, about 1 tbsp curry, blend.

Crispy Kale – I just did the kale part in this recipe without the coconut (though you could find coconut without sugar added for Whole30). I used the rice vinegar version she suggested.

Za’atar Roasted Carrots – if you have inflammation issues, you should stay away from too much tahini, but these were good even though I used a mix of cumin, cinnamon, and paprika since I didn’t have za’atar and never have parsley.

Otherwise, we roast vegetables a lot, which was so easy to just coat in oil and sprinkle with salt, then roast at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, did a bunch of salads.

Grilled zucchini – cut in long strips (maybe 1 cm thick) or whatever shape works, drizzle with olive oils and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with salt, then cook on grill for 20 minutes or until ends get charred

Mashed potatoes – I found by using clarified butter and coconut milk instead or regular butter and milk, these turned out just fine and I couldn’t tell a difference.


Dressing/Sauces
For salad dressings, it’s easy to do olive oil and either balsamic vinegar, a squeeze of lime or lemon. Otherwise I liked the following dressings:

Our go-to dressing: orange or lemon juice from 1 fruit (usually ¼ cup), ¼ cup olive oil, minced garlic, a squirt of Dijon

Southwest Dressing – I just omitted the yogurt (or used the mayo below if I had it), and threw in come cilantro if I had it

BBQ Sauce – I think I might start using this after whole 30. I like that it wasn’t so sweet and had a good amount of tang to it

Mayo – I used it for a few things including salad dressing, or mixed with horseradish for a yummy sweet potato dip

Dijon – I didn’t make it, but I thought it was worth noting that the Giant and Safeway organic brands were whole 30 compliant, but the ones at more “heath food” stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s weren’t. Crazy how added sugar seems to show up in everything!

Clarified butter/ghee – you can google a recipe, but basically just put butter on low/medium heat until the top part is clear and the milky liquid falls to the bottom (5-10 minutes). Save the clear oils on top to use and discard the “milk solids” at the bottom of the pan. Cook a bit longer until the butter browns to have ghee for a more nutty flavor.



Breakfast
Usually on weekdays this was a mix of hard boiled eggs, nuts, avocado, carrots, fruit, or miscellaneous leftovers. I just didn’t want to devote more time to it than that. Weekends, however, were another story. I got tired of egg dishes all the time, so we’d usually do some kind of hash. Dice up a cup worth of potatoes and mix in whatever kind of meat and veggies you got and top with a fried egg. The possibilities are endless, but I used steps similar to this recipe, Asparagus Pancetta Hash, with other ingredients. Most sausage has added sugar, but I found kielbasa, chorizo, and bratwurst ones that didn’t at Whole Foods, Wegman’s and H-Mart. I never could find bacon without sugar added. Some of our favorite hash combos were:

-sweet potato, leek, apple, chorizo, hash

-regular potato, red pepper, sausage, onion, hash


Snacks & Desserts So the book really discourages you from keeping up your same bad habits, just with compliant foods, but I think the only way we could make it sometimes was by finding something that filled the worst of our cravings.

Snacks: olives, pickles, prosciutto, dried fruit, nuts

Chocolate coconut cream – whip a can of coconut cream on high with a tablespoon of cocoa powder, refrigerate for as long as you have the patience for, then top with fruit like bananas or blueberries. We found this to be almost like an ice cream stand in, although it has to be the coconut cream, not milk. (I usually found at Trader Joe’s though they seem to have some supply issues lately.)

Dried or fresh fruit – a couple dried dates or figs was enough sugar to get me through a few afternoons at work.

We did try poached pears one night too.



So that is about it... I think we're going to keep trying to incorporate more of the "whole30" meals even though we are off the diet, so let me know if there's something you've found that you love!

Whole30 Part 1

After my last post about the books I read, this should be no surprise. After hearing for years about friends’ success with this diet, learning more about nutrition, and reading It Starts With Food, we decided to give the Whole 30 diet a try. If you’ve read any other post on this blog, you know how much I love food. So I hope you’ll rejoice with me that today marks the 30th day of our Whole 30 diet! I know we’re not quite over, but at least the end is in sight. No more quickly scrolling past pretty desserts on Instagram. No more quick walks past food trucks. No more avoiding the pantry. No more planning what treats I want to eat a month out! If I learned anything during this diet, it’s that I love talking about my “misery” despite the fact I can easily find this trait annoying in other people! But really, I found it really helpful to have friends who could share their experience, so I wanted to share our experience for the first 30 days.

The basic premise if Whole30 is this: you take 30 days to get all the potentially negative things out of your system so you can evaluate how you feel when you are eating “clean” food; it then gives you a baseline to tell how different foods affect you. This mean no sugar, alcohol, dairy, grains, gluten or legumes. Sugar and alcohol get cut out because they can throw off hormone balance plus are never actually “good” for anyone. All of the other foods have properties that cause adverse reactions in some people. The detox part can take up to two weeks, but then the second two weeks you are supposed to experience your body functioning optimally. After the 30 days you reintroduce the foods you want every couple days so you can evaluate their impact in a way that pinpoints exactly what food is causing your symptom. If you are at all interested, you really really should read up on the website and the book written by the inventors of the diet, Dallas and Melissa Harwig. 

I’m glad we did it in January because everyone usually hunkers down a bit after the holidays. It would have been a lot harder during a month with a lot of social functions not to take part in the food, and the one party we planned to go to (before I remembered about the diet) got postponed due to snow. So we literally were in the house for a week straight. This probably says more about our lack of friends than the time of year, but at least we weren’t traveling in January, and since it’s a good time for new resolutions, we had a few friends doing Whole 30 with us, which helped. We definitely wouldn’t have wanted to schedule it over a month we were traveling (mostly because food is such a big part of the experience for us, not because it’s impossible to eat good on the road). 

I do feel a little ridiculous talking about a diet. For most people, dieting is associated with losing weight, and that wasn’t our goal. True, Jason has gained over 15 pounds since we got married, but that’s because he ate bachelor meals like “chips” for dinner and looked like he was auditioning as a castaway. Actually, Jason needed those 15 pounds and had to be really mindful to eat enough so he didn’t lost weight. Really, we did it to understand the relationship our body has with food – how does each food make us feel. 

Why we did it:

1. It’s not about losing weight – it’s about being healthy. While you may lose weight if you haven’t been eating great before, the point is to figure out what makes your body function best.

2. By eliminating snacking and sugars, you are learning about (and hopefully breaking) your emotional connections to food.

3. Cure symptoms – neither of us deal with anything major, but the book makes it sound like Whole30 is a magic bullet that will solve all your ailments. We deal with minor things like muscle pain, allergies, occasional stomach pains, etc. that I was hoping would go away. I have perpetually dry lips, and went to an acupuncturist who said that it was because I make my stomach work too hard (I think it was a nice way to tell me I eat too much). That’s a whole other story but I do think many of the systems in the body are connected, so thought it was worth a try.

4. Increased energy – this was one big result I had heard people like about this diet. They could pinpoint what foods zapped their energy and then know to avoid them.

5. The book convinced me – the first few chapters were about how for a typical person, even one who eats healthy sounding food, too many carbs and sugars create insulin resistance, which, builds leptin resistance, meaning your brain sends you body messages you are hungry when you are not, which leads to overeating, and, at the end of this spiral of doom, diabetes. Or something like that… I had to skip some of it because reading about when thing go wrong in the body makes me physically uncomfortable.

I really a lot of things about Whole30. Here are the main ones:

1. It’s scientific – the book had all sorts of background on why they authors came up with this. I loved that they addressed a lot of the misconceptions about food and nutrition in their book. Plus, the best part is, it’s like a controlled experiment with your body. It’s no longer wondering which of the 50 ingredients you ate that cause your stomach pain, because you are reintroducing each group one at a time so you know exactly what the culprit is.

2. You cannot cheat – because you are trying to cleanse your body of any potential irritants, it’s not like a diet where you can easily justify breaking the rules (ie: “I’ll just go over on calories today and make up for it tomorrow”). Nope, on Whole30, if you cheat, you ruin all the work you’ve done and if you are on day 2 or 20 you have to start over or the experiment doesn’t work.

3. You aren’t ever hungry – true, you basically an only eat meats and veggies and some fruit, but you can have as much of it as you want, and most of what we made was really good.

4. The authors don’t intend for you to eat that way forever. Diets that have you cut out certain foods forever don’t seem realistic at all.


Things I didn’t like:

1. Cost – while you technically can eat out with this diet, we found that it wasn’t relay worth it to us since a) we didn’t want to have to ask about every ingredient on the menu, and 2) we felt like we’d rather spend the money to eat out when we could experience all of what the restaurant had to offer. So by cutting out restaurants and alcohol, I was excited to save money in our budget.

What I did not factor in was the cost of eating so much meat. We’re not vegetarians, but meat is usually not the main course for us. We often have no-meat meals or meals with meat more as a side. I usually only plan half of our meals with meat. Without beans, rice, pasta, bread, it takes a lot more meat and veggies to get full. Plus, I usually buy cheap meats: chicken, ground beef and maybe some pork loin. But I get tired of the same foods pretty quickly, and because I thought we were going to be saving so much money by not eating out, bought more pricey meats: some seafood, brisket once, steak once, and even lamb (which actually was on sale for the same price as beef).

2. Time – I spent probably 2-3 hours the first week coming up with menus. You could really easily just pick one book or website that already has a 30 day meal plan and stick with it. I didn’t do that because I overcomplicated things. By the second week, I was back to the normal amount of time I spend meal-planning. I rotated back in our favorite Whole 30 meals, got the hang of making some of our normal meals whole 30 compliant, and the most helpful thing is that once I started pinning a few whole 30 recipes on Pinterest, other great recipes started showing up in my feed.

In terms of time for meal prep, it depends what you are used to. For some people the meals will take a lot more time to prep and cook because let’s be honest, cooking vegetables in a tasty way often takes time. (Sidenote: I once read that vegetables are one of the most frequent dishes ordered at restaurants for that very reason.) We don’t eat many pre-processed foods anyways, so I don’t think it took that much more time. It maybe took a little more time than normal since I tried to do two vegetables with every meal, but it wasn’t a significant amount. 

What actually took the most extra time besides meal planning was adding in meals for breakfast. I basically never cook breakfasts on weekdays (poor Jason - he used to eat breakfast until he married me), so the first few weeks of this diet I tried to make hash, frittatas, etc. ahead of time, but by the second two weeks we simplified our breakfasts to some nuts, hardboiled eggs, and a carrot.

3. Breakfast - That kind of brings me to the third thing I never really liked or got used to on this diet: eating breakfast before 10am. I am not a morning person, so forcing food in when I’m not hungry, much less awake, never is enjoyable. I did break their rule and usually had coffee first, as I always do, so that could be why my body was never that hungry on waking.

So… how did our 30 days go?

I still got tired and craved snacks around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. The third week a blizzard hit, and we teleworked all week, so it was hard to tell if I felt better because of the diet or just because I was at home. During week 4, I got headaches every afternoon, so I think it means I am allergic to work outside of the house.

Cravings never really went away, but I feel like I did learn how much I eat out of habit or emotion. I got a flat tire. Spent two hours waiting at Costco. All I wanted when I got home was some kind of chocolatey treat. I wasn’t hungry for it but I realized how much I eat because I think I “deserve a treat” or just out of boredom. I’m hoping I can cut some of that out in the future.

The first two weeks I was so tired much earlier in the evening than I used to be, but then when I went to bed, I had a hard time falling asleep. I think I was more tired because without sugary food to snack on, or trying to stay awake to finish a glass of wine, my body was able to get its message across. However, my insomnia, I think, was because I started drinking kombucha in the evenings as a beer replacement, forgetting that black tea has caffeine. Once I limited the kombucha to day-time, I was fine.

I guess the good news and bad news is that I don’t feel any different. No aches went away, I haven’t notice an increase in energy, and everything seemed pretty much the same. I’m hoping this is because how we were eating before wasn’t all that bad, and I can just go back to cream in my coffee, and cookies before bed. I guess we’ll see since the next two weeks is the reintroduction period, when we’ll add one food group back in at a time – the final step in our experiment!

Why is North Carolina so Cheap?

Have you seen this map that came out a while back? It's the Business Insider graphic of the United States with the first word that comes up after typing "Why is [state] so" written in every state.  (It doesn't have DC, but the Google autocomplete for DC was, "Why is DC so expensive". Shocker.)  It's amusing and reveals some of the stereotypes (and truths behind them!) across the country.  And I must admit, I've been holding onto some assumptions myself about other parts of the country, especially the South. 

I grew up in Maryland, nicknamed "The Old Line State" for being on the Northern part of the dividing line during the Civil War ("War of Northern Aggression" for you Southerners).  And though we're really in the middle, I identified with Northeastern characteristics more than Southern ones.  (Temperamental and uninhibited according to the Huffington Post - while not flattering, they do probably describe me more than the other regional characteristics.)  I certainly never wanted to live in the south.  My requirements for where I'd move to up until now have been: 1) within an hour of a major airport 2) within 15 minutes of a Target, 3) within four hours of the coast, and 4) nothing farther south than Northern Virginia (Austin and anywhere in California excluded).

Limited experiences in Texas and North Carolina left me with the impression that the slower pace of life "down south" would be way too boring for me, and all there is down there is shopping and eating.  (Maybe some cow tipping?  Is that more Midwest?  Ok, maybe some rodeos?  Also, I am not sure why up until now, I felt like shopping and eating was something I didn't want since those are both pretty big "hobbies" of mine.)  So in that sense, I'd say our trip to Raleigh a few months ago was perfectly southern.  We took it easy, shopped and ate.  And it was awesome, and ok, yes, this city-girl did kind of assume it would be too "country hick" for me.  But there were all sorts of other fun things in Raleigh to do like local breweries, all sorts of green spaces for outdoorsy stuff, local theaters and music venues.  Getting around did require lots of driving, but it was so easy to navigate, find parking, and get most places within fifteen minutes.  I'm not saying I want to move there, but it did make me understand why people do.  As the title and Business Insider graphic implies, I was pleasantly surprised at how relatively cheap things were, making it an affordable yet interesting place to be.

All of that preamble (pre-ramble?) is to say, that we went to North Carolina and I want to talk about what we ate did!  Earlier this year, part of the out-of-town work Jason did was in North Carolina, which meant a good reason to spend a couple weekends in Raleigh. 

The drive wasn't bad and gave me a chance to catch up on phone calls, books on tape, and indulge in chick-fil-a.  I've gotta say, highway driving in southern Virginia and North Carolina is awesome.  Once 95 goes from four lanes to two, most people know to use the left lane as the passing lane and will move to let you pass.  People who hang in the left lane are a major pet peeve of mine, and I appreciate the good people of 95 letting me pass.  The only awful part of the drive was trying to use iphone maps anywhere that wasn't on the highway.  MULTIPLE times I was lead to the middle of a neighborhood instead of a fast-food joint.

We used Hyatt points transferred over from our Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card to stay at the Hyatt House in the North Hills area.  The hotel was brand new and in the middle of a huge new town center with all sorts of shopping, eating, even a bowling alley and movie theater.  The downtown hotels were at least 50% more expensive and charged for parking, so it didn't seem worth it to us to pay more when the Hyatt was only a fifteen minutes drive and downtown parking was plentiful and free on weekends (a true treasure to anyone from DC!)  With so many amenities in walking distance, and rooms equipped with standard kitchen equipment, we were a little bit sad to leave.

With so many good spots within walking distance, we ended up eating in the North Hills town center for a lot of meals.  Call me an "Open-table" addict, but I was astounded at how long waits were all over the place.  The few times we waited until 7pm to begin our dinner search, we were faced with multi-hour waits at all the recommended spots.  I know better than to try hot spots in DC without reservations, but just didn't expect what actually seemed like a worse wait-list situations there.  I think this is further proof of my theory that going out to eat is the only thing to do.  It also is evidence of the economic High Cost of Free Parking, despite how much I love it (you may not pay cash to park, but overcrowding when everyone can park free means you pay in wait-time).  But I digress.  

 

I've gotten behind on blogging about this, so the details of what we did are slightly fuzzy.  We did a lot of shopping, because there were a few things Jason actually needed, and there was nothing else to do.  Kidding - a friend of our really enjoyed a performance at the Performing Arts Center, and we saw play at the intimate, but hard to find, Theater in the Park.

It should be no surprised that the main thing we did was eat. I've got the full restaurant list at the bottom.  Other than that and the shopping, we walked around downtown a lot.  We went to a couple wineries about half hour outside the city: Gregory Vineyards and Adams Vineyard.  It was something fun to do, and Gregory Vineyards had a nice scenic porch to sit at, but the local grape, the muscadine, really isn't one I enjoyed drinking more than a few sips of - very very sweet and fruity, with a musky undertone (which is where the name "muscadine" comes from).  If we ever go back, there were a lot of breweries that would have been fun to check out and tour.  Plus, after spending a few days in Raleigh, I think spending more time down South sounds just dandy.

Now the list of where we ate along with my comments in no particular order:

Quality Grocery, Oakwood
Details: Deli

Best for: Easy outdoor meal with friends, especially with kids.

This place was quite charming.  Like stepping into some kind of portal to Mayberry, local goods lining the shelves and the white-board menu made promises of honest-to-goodness food as it was meant to be eaten - throwing the notion of calories and food trends to the wind.  Not everything on the menu was as stellar as I hoped (ie: the burger), but I think if you stick to the deli-type items, you're golden.

We were told someone would take your order if you got a seat, but after waiting a while outside, we found that ordering at the counter is much faster. They had a local hot dog that was a frightening shade of bright pink and tasted like red hots candy to me. Cheer wine, another local food, was available in glass bottles. It isn't actually a wine, but the glass bottles fit the Norman Rockwell feel, and I thought the cherry flavored soda went well with my chicken salad sandwich, which was definitely good enough to want to go back.

Bida Manda, Downtown

Details: Laotian

Best for: Special evening with a hot date, both of which I had!

Oh man, I loved the food here. I think you would too, even if Asian food isn't your cup of tea - or maybe cup of green tea (groan!). The flavors were so fresh and vibrantly mixed.  Be sure to make reservations and save room in the budget, as trendy places like this tend towards smaller serving sizes. Our waiter told us Billy Joel ate there and ordered the pork belly soup (he also made a joke about pork "Billy" soup - groan again!). We didn't try that, but we did try the green mango salad and it was amazing! The chicken wings were a little bit of a let down after Pok Pok, but the daily special that day was grilled shrimp, which more than made up for it! Southeast Asian foods tend to have a good bit of French influence, as evidenced by the macrons we had for dessert. 

The Pit, Downtown
Details: BBQ 

Best for: Huge servings, groups, families
 

For a place with a name like, "the pit" this restaurant was really nice. The portions were also huge for the price. I kind I'd wish we hadn't gotten the cornbread skillet, not because it wasn't good, but because it kept me from finishing everything else. As with all other places in this town, make reservations. We went for brunch and had fun touring the chocolate factory across the street after. 

Q Shack, North Hills
Details: fast casual BBQ 

Best for: Good food for this BBQ novice without any fuss; also iphone maps brought us into a neighborhood across the street from where this place really was.

This was more of a fast casual place, but I'm still thinking about how good the collard greens here were. The brisket was so tender you could break it up with a fork. The dryness was a good excuse to douse on BBQ sauce, though I haven't  quite acquired a taste for the vinegar-based Carolina style sauce. Jason's pulled pork was nice and flavorful and fresh hush puppies were served with everything. I think it was a local chain and wish it would make it's way up here.

Vivace, North Hills
Details: Italian
Best for: a group celebration with your family or friends who like good food, and are either willing to get there early or be loud enough to talk over the noise.

It's my fault - I can't remember how this place was because I didn't take good notes and this happened a few months ago by now.  This was close to where we stayed, but we still had a really hard time getting in, and it was dark, and somewhat cramped, so I think I have unfavorable memories even though the food was really good.  The fun thing here was that they had half portions of their pasta dishes, so we got the gnocchi, spaghetti and meatballs, and the pappardelle.  I'm pretty sure the pappardelle was our favorite, though my memory is failing me.  So I don't have anything helpful to say about it besides reserve early.
 

Croquette, North Hills
Details: French
Best for: great food, no wait, truffle fries, nice casual date night

Right across from our hotel, we ended up here because it was the only spot without an hour wait at 7pm Friday night. I'm really not sure why it didn't because I thought it was far more memorable than the Italian place nearby. Hungry impatience prompted an order of truffle frites as an appetizer - and wow. The perfect mix of crunchy, salty and savory, these shoestring fries haunt me like the ghost of Christmas past (cause clearly food-ghosts are the friendly ones). As boring as it sounds, I had a burger and it was also wonderfully salty and peppery, though now I'm starting to wonder if my extreme hunger that night is actually what made it so good.  The prices were average for DC, so expensive for Raleigh.

Beasley's Chicken and Honey, Downtown
Details: American/Southern contemporary
Best for: hipsters, hipsters with kids, people with low-risk tolerance who want safe and popular choices (ie: non-ethnic foods)

Call me a food snob/jaded/bored, but I was kind of let down by this place.  I don't know.  Half the things were really good and half were mediocre, making it just not that memorable.  Biscuits were good but didn't come with enough gravy; the chicken was nice and crispy but the poached egg yolks weren't runny.  Plus, it's the same as every other joint that's popping up with their hand-crafted cocktails, reclaimed wood décor, flannelled staff, and food that claims to be a "twist on traditional," but isn't all that unique.  The unique thing to me was that we each got an entrée with coffee and paid less than $25!  Don't get me wrong, it was fine, and the other restaurants by the same chef, a James Beard Award winner(!), seemed highly rated, though I'd bet the quality was higher the first few months of opening.  I'm still curious about how her other restaurants are.

CowFish, North Hills
Details: sushi burger bar
Best for: indecisive people, families like ours since I always want Asian and Jason always wants burgers, young people or those who appreciate a unique and somewhat funky atmosphere, to the point of being like a theme park restaurant

So if my complaint with the last place was that it was too boring, this place was quite on the opposite end of the spectrum! As the name somewhat implies, this place specialized in sushi and burgers.  There were even creations that combined the two foods so it took us a long time to figure out the menu  (burger ingredients in sushi form and vice versa - we weren't brave enough to try those ones).  This place was packed all weekend, and it definitely is fun.  Bright colors, fish tanks, and Asian cartoons made me feel like I would have liked this place a lot more if I was in college still and wanted to go somewhere fun with a group of friends.  However, my adult taste buds still loved all the food we had.  I am in the camp that believes the more foods a restaurant specializes in is inversely related to the quality of those foods (options increase = quality decrease), but this place really did have two very different foods that were still really delicious.  Man of the burgers or "in-between" foods had some kind of Asian flare, and the sushi was fresh and creative.  I'm not totally sure if I'd go back, but it was fun to do once and really did have some of the best food in the area we stayed.


 

Should Have Been a Cowboy

"... Should have learned to rope and ride/ Wearing my six-shooter/ Riding my pony on a cattle drive"

That Toby Keith song was going through my head a lot on our recent trip to Arizona because it is so scenic out there that it made me wish I was a cowboy (cowgirl, I guess)! Plus, we rode horses for the first time, so it only fueled my cowboy dreams, while also making it clear that it is only in my dreams that I have the proper horse riding skills.

After our recent city-centric trips, we were itching for something a little more natural and scenic.  A few months ago, we took a night to look at our budget, vacation schedule, and how to use points for free travel, we settled on a trip to see the Grand Canyon.  (PS - most of it we did for free thanks to points.  More on that to come.)  The timing worked out nicely that we could count it as a bit of an anniversary trip, since that was later in the month, and, like most milestones in our family, turned into excuses to celebrate all month.

We flew into Phoenix and stayed that first night in Scottsdale, before driving out to Sedona.  Our plan was to stay in Sedona two nights and drive out to the Grand Canyon during the full day we had there, and then stay in downtown Phoenix before heading home.  The US Government shutdown started the day we left though, which meant that the Grand Canyon was closed.  (They reopened the Grand Canyon during the second week of the shutdown, which meant we basically went at the worst time possible.)  Of course, we didn't know how long the shutdown would last, and with plans and hotel deposits already made, we figured we would still go and make the most of it.

We didn't have a whole lot of time in Scottsdale and Phoenix, but I had borrowed the perfect travel book on Phoenix, Scottsdale & Sedona from the library and poured through it on the 5 hour plane ride down there.  The guide book, plus recommendations on where to eat from the hotel, gave us more options than we even had time for.

After checking into our hotel in Scottsdale, the Kimpton Firesky, we went down the street for some amazing gourmet tacos at The Mission.  The meat was so flavorful and the perfect place for a romantic date night, though the prices made me glad we had only stopped in for lunch.  Their salsa was also delicious, and this is coming from a person who doesn't eat raw tomatoes (me, that's me).  I also have to mention that I've been on a really awful streak of forgetfulness and while we were in AZ I left my credit card at the restaurant three times.  I had also lost it right before the trip so four times in one week.  One time was at The Mission, and when I called about it later, the person I spoke to, Sam, went above and beyond the call of duty to get it back to me.

Another good meal we had while in Scottsdale was breakfast at Breakfast Club, where the portions were enough for more than one meal.  That's my huevos rancheros with hot sauce in the picture below.  The curious thing about the Breakfast Club was that the wait staff, who happened to be all female, wore yoga/workout type clothing as their uniforms.  I think it made you feel like their breakfast was healthy for you, as if you too had just come from your sunrise yoga class? 

Delicious but small tacos at The Mission and delicious but huge breakfast at the Breakfast Club.

We only had time for a short hike through Papago Park where there is a good view of the city after a short 835 foot climb to Hole-in-the-Rock.  Another top attraction, the Botanical Gardens are also in that park.  If we'd had more time, hikes on Camelback Mountain and walking through Old Town Scottsdale would have been fun.  I also wish we'd had time to take advantage of the hotel bikes for a ride along the Arizona Canal.

The view through hole-in-the-rock - trying to be high tech with my iphone panorama app.

Besides the bikes I mentioned, the Firesky hotel provided excellent transportation options with a free shuttle to anything within 3 miles and free parking.  After acclimating to $40/night DC hotel parking prices and impossible street parking, this was a bit of a wonderful shock.  (Although as an economist, I cringed inwardly thinking of the inefficient results described in the "The High Cost of Free Parking" by Donald Shoup.)

Our time in Sedona deserves its own post, but we hung out there for a few days ten came back to the Phoenix before flying back home.  Back, in Phoenix, there was still more to do than we could fit in.  One of the highlights was riding on horseback for the first time for both of us.  It was just an hour long ride in South Mountain Park, but long enough for me to wish I had brought my faux cowboy boots and hat.  My horse kept wandering off the main trail, lagging behind, and stopping for snacks.  The more experienced riders in the group kept telling me to give her a nudge with my heels to keep her moving, but with tendencies to do the same, I couldn't blame the horse too much.  It also didn't help that the guide kept trying to give me directions in Spanish, so I could only guess as to whether or not I was doing what he said.  I think I'm either supposed to hold the reigns the way he is motioning or he could be saying never to do this as it will get me thrown off the horse.  Jason's first ride fared a little more smoothly though because his horse kept up with the rest of the group, we weren't really close enough to chat during the ride.  Afterwards, since we were in the park, we drove along San Juan Road where we got some more nice views of the city at the end.



Our hotel, the Palomar Phoenix, was about a mile and a half from the arts district downtown, so we were able to easily sample Arizonan culture as well.  We happened to be there for the monthly free admission night at the Phoenix Art Museum, which was my thing, and we also got to see a behind-the-scenes preview at the Arizona Opera, that was Jason's thing.  And yes, we were the only people there under the age of 65.  (Because of the time difference, we also tended to wake up at 6:30 NATURALLY and get tired by 8.  We also hate it when technology changes because it's hard to keep up.  So yeah, it was basically a real-life glimpse of how we will still be doing the exact same thing in 30 years.  Maybe with more prune juice.)

The hotel was also were close enough to walk through Heritage Square, where really, unless you have kids and are going to the museums there, or want to tour the old Victorian-era house that's there, the only reason to go would be Pizzeria Bianco.  The small restaurant (read: go early or prepare to wait) housed a wood burning oven and simple, quality ingredients made it clear why it was recommended.

While in Phoenix, we also ate at Matt's Big Breakfast, where the line is long, and the food was simple and delicious.  We were impressed enough with Pizzeria Bianco, that we got sandwiches for the flight home from sister restaurant, Pane Bianco.  We had a dining credit at the hotel restaurant, The Blue Hound Kitchen, which had some of the best chicken and waffles I think I've ever had.

Of course, we did our best to get in as many tacos as possible.  I basically make tacos every week because I crave cilantro all the time, so being in the southwest was like a food dream come true, because so many good, real (ie: with cilantro and corn tortillas), and cheap tacos were all over the place.  America's Taco Shop had surprisingly good tacos for a local fast food franchise.  A waiter at The Mission told us about the street taco shops he stops at in Scottsdale.  One was Jaylisco Tacos on Thomas, and the other, American Market Place (AMP) was on the corner of 68th and Thomas.  We went to AMP, which totally looked like a cheap convenience store on the corner, but with totally legit tacos at $1.50, it was definitely a highlight of our trip.  We went here the morning we flew home, so the day went something like this: breakfast, pick up sandwiches for flight home, eat tacos, go to airport.  So if it seems like all we did on this trip was eat, that's pretty accurate.

If we had been there longer, I would have loved to check out Taliesin West, which was another Frank Lloyd Wright studio, or the Japanese Friendship Gardens.  Hiking Piestewa Peak in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve also was on the list of things to do, and is supposed to have good views.  But since the government was still shut down by the end of our trip, Jason and I had to go back to DC and save it.  (Not really, we just sat at home another week and tried to cash in on some shutdown freebies.) 

Farewell, land of beautiful mountains, cowboys, and tacos.  I hope we meet again.  I hope remember my boots.

In the Kitchen: Mushroom Veloute

You know that line in "You've Got Mail" about the fall?  "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."  That is exactly how I feel about fall with the cool spell we got last week.  I want to smell that newly sharpened pencil bouquet, eat pumpkin flavored food, and wear sweaters around a bonfire.  Except it's not quite cold out.

Chicago Pt 3: What We Ate

The belated third and final installment of our trip to Chicago this past May.  Here's what we did and where we stayed.  I put so much planning into eating that it deserved it's own post.  Feel free to move on to something more interesting (ie: watching paint dry, peeling carrots, etc.).

Confession: sometimes when traveling, I am way more concerned about what we will eat than what we will do.  The Chicago trip we did earlier this year was so so long ago, but I figured since most of my planning was dedicated to meals, I'd share our experience, as well as my list of restaurant recommendations.   (I am a nerd.  This is a spreadsheet compiling recommendations from a few of my favorite sources, to which I added my own ranking based on how many lists the restaurant was on.)

So yes, I was that person at restaurants taking pictures of food when it came.  Jason is amazing that he patiently waited for me to get the right focus/lighting/iphone shot while his food got cold.  When did this become normal?  How did our country become so concerned with food?  And does anyone really want to know what we ate?  Here it is!

Local Eats: Blue Duck Tavern

One of my favorite lines in the Ocean's 11 series (the George Clooney ones) is in Ocean's 12 when George Clooney is at a jewelry store and tells the clerk he is looking for something for his "second third anniversary" because they got married a second time after being divorced.  In that vein, a few weeks ago was the second anniversary of our second first date.  Back in the day, we started dating, stopped for a while, so when we started dating the second time, we had a second first date. 

The funny thing is, during the time we were dating, we were totally not sentimental at all.  We didn't celebrate "month-iversarries" or really even dating anniversaries.  I think it's mostly because we forgot.  But now that Jason has entered some of the more special dates into our shared google calendar, we have annual reminders that give us excuses to celebrate.  Sadly the restaurant that we had our second first date at closed within a year of opening, so that wasn't really an option.  For our first wedding anniversary we somewhat randomly chose the Blue Duck Tavern.  We're both suckers for tradition, and the food was good, so we decided to make it our "anniversary restaurant."  (Side note: After we decided to go there, I saw a headline that the Obamas had chosen to go there for their anniversary a few years ago.  So that somehow makes us best friends.. trend setters.. ok, it means nothing.)

I'm not sure if they simply don't take reservations at certain times, but it seems like our only options when we've been were 5 and 9.  Our plan was to make the 9pm reservations and show up early "just in case."  They were able to accommodate us a little earlier than the reservation time, but we still had to wait about an hour which meant we had some extra time to wait in their lovey lounge and snack on some wine and cheese. 

We've never really been into charcuterie, mostly because I just don't think we'd actually had very good cheese and meats or possibly because neither of us knew the proper way to pronounce it.  But we tried some since we were so early and are hooked!  Lisa, who ran the cheese table, was so friendly and able to give us great suggestions.  Our favorites were the Beecher's cheddar and the Midnight Moon goat's Gouda.

Once our table was ready, we moved to the main dining area.  It was considerably louder and the chairs harder, but also had an entertaining view of the kitchen.  I must say, I really impressed with our dinner.  I got the scallops with peas, sea beans and pea puree' and charred baby lettuce with duck crackling and anchovy emulsion.  Both were so flavorful and cooked to perfection.  My mouth is watering just thinking of those nicely seared, melt-in-your mouth scallops.  Jason liked his duck, though the orange flavored sauce wasn't especially unique.  I'm not sure if it's just that we really really like vegetables or the kitchen just isn't as good at meats, but the first time we went we were also more impressed by the Brussels sprouts than the slow roasted pork shoulder.

In my mind, a good waiter is one who isn't noticed.  You're never looking for him in need, but he's also not interrupting conversation like a third wheel the whole time.  The staff at the Blue Duck Tavern fit into that category of good waiters.  We even got a little extra treat for our anniversary.  Jason has since told me I can't tell them it's our anniversary multiple times per year, even though it truly was an anniversary of sorts for us.  Jason and his principles...

Anyways, it's not the most trendy place, but for a classic special occasion, we've enjoyed it.  Plus, you can get points by making reservations through Opentable and Hyatt Gold Passport since it is part of the Park Hyatt Hotel.  Just give them your passport number when it comes time to pay the bill or contact Hyatt customer service about adding it retroactively.

And now I will leave you with a final Ocean's 12 quote:

"Look, it's not in my nature to be mysterious. But I can't talk about it and I can't talk about why."

Restaurant: Blue Duck Tavern
Neighborhood: West End
Highlights: Scallops and vegetables
Average entree price: $20-$30
Rating: 4/5

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I like chicken. I like pizza.  But I never really liked the idea of mixing the two.  I think it was based on a bad frozen pizza I had as a child.  But one day when Jason lived in Baltimore, we ended up eating at a place called Joe Squared.  Maybe it's owned by two people named Joe? I'm not sure, but we were there with a friend and the guys decided they wanted this BBQ chicken pizza.  I didn't want to be a naysayer, so went against my instincts and ordered it and I ended up finding my favorite pizza.  I'm not a pizza connoisseur per se, but their pizza is so good that whenever we go to Baltimore, I never want to get anything new and just want this pizza at Joe Squared.  Their thin crust with just a little bit of charred bits is something I have not figured out how to replicate, but I did my best to imitate the pizza toppings themselves.  Honestly, I just let Trader Joe's pre-made crust rise for a few hours then roll it out as thin as I can, because making things with yeast intimidate me. 

 

This is one of my few recipes not originally from a cooking blog (ie: the Smitten Kitchen), so I figured I'd share mine and at the very least you now know where you can go in Baltimore for the original, better version.  I think the real secret is the white sauce.  I actually didn't have parmigiano cheese that original white sauce recipe calls for, but it turned out fine. Plus, I thought it would have been a bit too cheesy to have the sauce cheesy and cheese on top.  The quantities for everything else are rough estimates, and the nice thing about pizza is you can kind of put your own spin on it really easily.

Please forgive the quality of the "after" picture.  It was so good that I forgot to take a shot the night we baked the pizza, so this is lunch at work the next day.  The avocados and spinach were really much more green when it was fresher.  At least the light is better than it would have been.

White Sauce (loosely based on: http://www.food.com/recipe/white-pizza-sauce-279060):

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons fresh basil, minced

Heat butter in a small saucepan. Add flour and stir until thoroughly mixed.
Slowly whisk in milk, adding gradually. Stir in remaining ingredients. Will thicken upon standing.

BBQ Chicken Pizza (adapted from Joe Squared):

Pizza dough

1 cup shredded chicken

BBQ sauce

1/2 cup corn

1 avocado

1 small onion, or half large onion

A handful or two of spinach

1 cup mozzarella cheese

white sauce (above)

Make or prep pizza dough according to your own methods or package instructions.

With the chicken in an oven-proof dish, mix in enough BBQ sauce to cover it and put it in the oven while you are working on everything else (chopping avocado, making white sauce and caramelizing the onions, about 15-20 minutes). 

Slice the onions, then caramelize them by adding them to a pan over medium heat with a little oil, stirring occasionally until they get nice and browned.

Everything else you can just add after putting the white sauce on the pizza dough.  I like to put the spinach on before the cheese, otherwise it falls off/apart more easily.  If you are using frozen corn or spinach, it works better to cook them first, or the pizza gets a little watery as the vegetables thaw.

Cook according to directions on crust (usually 450 degrees for about 20-30 minutes). Yum.

San Fransisco

So my husband and I just got back from an extended weekend to San Fransisco (though as I was packing, I realized it was closer to a week).  While waiting at an airport at some point within the last year we decided to make a list of places we wanted to go and also prioritize the ones we needed to do before kids.  San Fran was on the top of my hubby's list.  I had been there on a family road trip and thought it was fun enough to go back and also to experience as a couple.

We spent the first day walking around Chinatown, heading up Coit tower and walking up Lombard Street.  You know, typical tourist stuff.  We had a delicious Turkish dinner at Machka, whose decor I liked equally as well as the food.

Day two was also pretty touristy.  We rented bikes and biked across the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Golden Gate Park.  Two lessons learned: biking really close to cars going 60mph is not fun. It is terrifying.  It took about the entire length of the bridge for me to start breathing normally, unclench my jaw and get blood circulating in my hands again after gripping the handle bars so tightly.  I just couldn't help but imagine the whole time that a bump I didn't see was going to send me flying into the cars, or something that was not securely zippered was going to fly out of my pocket to the bay below, never to be seen again.  That is actually what happened to my transit pass, but thankfully not my phone.  (Side note: this is why I am also getting over my fear of walking over sewer grates.  It's really a legitimate fear that you will drop something in them or that they will break and you will plummet to a tragic doom.  I know people that have had those experiences.  Biking along this bridge was like that to me just way way worse.)  And the second lesson was that dang, those hills are really hard to walk and bike up.  You know that I just ran a marathon, but that did not at all prepare my hill climbing muscles.  After about 5 hours, the magic of biking had worn off slightly, but the day was still amazing due to one of the best biscuits and gravy dishes I've ever had at the Pork Store Cafe in the Haight district for brunch and Aziza in far away Richmond.  I think we capped off the night with drinks at the Top of the Mark, which while it did have great views of the city, was a little touristy/gimmicky to me.

Day three was full of more tourist activities and eating.  We rented a car and spent some time hiking in the Muir Woods.  All that activity made me feel really good about eating what was literally the best pasta I've ever had at Flour + Water.  (I know, I've used a lot of superlatives, but I really like pasta, and it was really that good.)  Because the weather was surprisingly warm, we took an evening walk around Union Square and rode the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf.  I was a little sad that because it was dark, there really wasn't a good way for me to get a picture hanging off of the side of the cable car kind of how I picture it would happen in some sort of movie montage. Probably for the best as I'd have lost my grip while cresting a hill and then would have had a long a fall.

Our last full day was kind of the "catch-up" day.  Plus after all that activity, we were kind of pooped.  We basically shopped for some of the things that had caught our eye and spent the rest of the day eating our way through the ethnic areas of town.  We started the morning with pastries from a bakery in little Russia, coffee, and a snack from Tout Sweet, the bakery from Top Chef Just Desserts winner (the chocolate chunk sea salt cookie was one of the best cookies I think I've ever had).  We did some shopping in Hayes Valley where we split a burger at Flipper's, whose toppings were better than the burger itself.  Dinner was at a hole-in-the-wall type Vietnamese restaurant, Pagolac.  The waitress was so nice and the best Vietnamese dinner I think I've ever had was under $10 each.  If you go to San Fransisco, please go there because I think it was my favorite meal of the trip.  Not to miss out on the remaining cultural areas, we got sushi for a snack in Japantown (hey, dinner was early), and cannoli in Little Italy at Mara's Italian Pastry.  I think all we missed out on was Mexican in the Mission District.  The perfect way to end the last night was drinks at Bourbon and Branch, a "speakeasy" type place with a secret entrance and bar tenders who know more about their craft than I will know about anything.

If I ever go back again, I'd really like to do the California Academy of Sciences, some of the gardens (Japanese Tea Garden, Yerba Buena Gardens, or the Conservatory of flowers), as well as some of the art museums (deYoung or the MoMA).  As far as eating recommendations, I basically went off anything on the eater.com list as well as recommendations from other blogs and friends.  Because I'm crazy and did this for myself anyways, I've actually compiled a list of neighborhoods and restaurants and addresses based off these sources that you can also access in case anyone cares as much as I do about these things.

As far as where to stay, our location downtown was central enough to get to most places we went within a 10-15 minute walk or public transit to anywhere farther (Haight, Golden Gate, Mission).  If we were to come back again, I think I'd stay farther away from tourist stuff and closer to eating (Tenderloin or Mission).  Of course, 5 days doesn't make me an expert.  Although it is long enough for me to say with some authority that, you guessed it, this city has some of the best food ever.