"I Was Talking to David...REALLY!" (San Fran Mini Meet with Julz, Jillian, Sal, and David)
Wow....where do I begin? After spending a long weekend with Jillian and Julz in Los Angeles last weekend (see LA TravBuddy Meet Up blog), I knew hanging out today would be adventurous! Sal was coming to San Francisco for the weekend and wanted to meet up with co-founder, David since he had just met Eric last weekend at the LA meet. Julz and I scored an invite to brunch with Sal, David, and Jillian and we opted to meet in San Francisco for Dim Sum.
The day starts off on a gloomy note with the fact it's raining in San Francisco and even out here in Sacramento. My attempts at sleeping in are thwarted by an eager Jillian who's texting me by 8am who advises it is raining there. A few texts to work out outfits and we are good to go! :D (Uh, thanks Jillian for not letting me sleep in! "Uuuuh, I waited an hour before I texted you!". LOL) We finally decide that we are probably going to drive into downtown because of the nasty weather so I am now able to leave 1/2 hour later. It wouldn't be me though if I didn't end up running a little late and arrive at Jillian's house at 12:15pm instead of noon. (And thanks Jamie - I was talking with him on the phone on the drive down and told him I was worried about being late since I've been late the last couple times to pick them up.
I arrive shortly after Julz and we decide to take Muni because driving in Downtown is frightening to say the least, especially on a long holiday weekend. **EEEKKK** We get the hugs out of the way when I notice all the cop cars outside Jillian's house. Uuuuuhhh, yeahhhh....she says to ignore it because she has no idea what was going on. Musta been something good to bring out like 4 patrol cars though! We get down the hill to the Muni stop and I am ready for whatever adventures the day will bring.
We jump on the bus and Jillian has our fare set aside when the driver just waves us on the bus.
We get called in and Sal's still MIA. I had talked to him a bit ago and he was running a bit behind schedule but was hurrying. We get situated and boom, food instantly starts coming out. Ok, this is where it gets interesting. Jillian is a vegetarian but does eat seafood. Julz eats meat but hates seafood. And David and I, well we were willing to eat anything.
After lunch, David is brave enough to agree to hang out with us a little longer rather than run for the hills. YEAH! Julz and I met David back in January at the San Francisco meet up so he had some idea of what he was getting into but you add Jillian to the mix...anything could happen. We decide to head down to Ghiradelli Square so we can try the infamous Kara's Cupcakes that Jillian reviewed recently. Of course, Jillian has to text Melanie pics of the cupcakes which is met with pics of food from wherever Melanie and Melissa919 are eating.
At this point, Sal has to run to get ready for his big Techno party and David has some errands to run in the City before he heads back himsef. Jillian, Julz, and I decide to play tourist and go check out Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Figured we should check out the sea lions since we were hanging with the elephant seals on our road trip back Monday!!! After wandering around the wharf area, it's almost dinner time (OMG, how could we seriously be hungry again, right? LOL) We decided to pick a random restaurant along the main street that none of us have been to and continue our great day by sharing a nice dinner! We found one that had a nice patio area and gave us a good opportunity to people watch for a bit!! :D Julz had a nice Filet Mignon, Jillian had the Crab Au Gratin, and I had a half of Dungeness Crab and in Joy's honor, a nice glass of wine!! We had two really nice waiters, who at first, I was concerned we might have another Crispy situation (Monterey dinner experience from our road trip back from LA last week), but I think it was Julz this time who caught the eye of the other waiter! HA HA.
Now, we are done with dinner and guess what we decide to do again?!?! Head to Kara's Cupcakes again for round two of desserts!!! HA HA. Julz and I decided we needed to try another one before writing a thorough review!! :D That second cupcake did me in and wrecked any progress on the diet I had made after my fall off the wagon last week in Los Angeles. Word to the wise as I am quickly figuring out, Jillian is a very bad influence on any diet!! HA HA.
After our second cupcake session, we take a cab back to the Union Square area and wander around, except most of the shops are closing already since it's 9pm.
Now a day with Jillian and Julz would not be complete without some memorable highlights. Some of the best from the day:
- Figuring out only Jillian could figure out a way to dress hot and trendy when it's raining and misting outside! LOL
- Poor David surrounded by us crazies for most of the day, probably wondering what on earth he got himself into
- Learning that Jillian, out of the five of us, is the ONLY one that can't use chopsticks
- Jillian trying to answer the GPS unit in Sal's rental car when the little lady says "Enter destination please" and Jillian leans forward from the backseat and says "We are going to Ghiradelli Square" which is met with lots of giggles and Jillian saying, "Uh, I was talking to David.
- Julz apparently mistaking Jillian's pants for the seatbelt holder and sticking the belt down Jillian's pants
- Ordering at Kara's Cupcakes and Jillian unable to decide which one she wants and as soon as David picks the last Chocolate Velvet one, Jillian getting a pouty lip and saying, "That was the one I was getting!!". HA HA.
- David offering to switch cupcakes with Jillian, having no idea even what she ordered! LOL
- Going back to Kara's the second time so that Jillian can try to get her Chocolate Velvet only to find they didn't bring any more back out the entire day!!! HA HA HA
- Talking David into being silly by agreeing to take foam mustache pictures with us from the Irish coffees, only to find out he cheated and kept the cup up to his lips the entire time! (Pic to follow - on Sal's camera only)
- Julz telling the ladies next to us, "Foam! Where's your Foam? Go borrow some then!"
- Me actually taking notes on Jillian adventures throughout the day
- Me getting stuck in the bathroom at Fisherman's wharf.
- Having a heart to heart girls talk while watching the sea lions and realizing one showed us his pee pee!!! LOL
- Jillian too shy to ask anyone to take our pictures
- Jillian hailing her FIRST San Francisco cab (more like almost walking into it)
- Hearing these German guys behind us talk about how all Americans are ugly. Seeing those same German guys later and they say, "You are ugly. You are all ugly. " WTF?!?!
- Jillian, "You just need to stick it in more"
- Jillian eating her first cupcake and trying to be dainty around David as crumbs all fall to the chair, and she says "Oooopsie". Jillian eating her second cupcake with just us girls and chocolate everywhere, including on her lips (accompanying pic!!) HA HA HA
- Jillian being undressed with some creepy guy's eyes in Union Square
- Watching the SF Fire Dept respond to a fire in Union Square.
- Walking down Fisherman's Wharf and the funny homeless people with their signs. One guys has one that says, "need booze" and as we pass he looks at me and says hi and tells me I get this sign, which he flips over to read, "Need Weed" WTF!!?!?!?
- The next bum has a sign that says "Need a hooker" and proceeds to flirt with the 60+ year old in front of us, hobbling along with her cane!
- Jillian walking up in Kara's cupcakes and starting to sit with a random lady who she thought was Julz ("But she had a red purse too!!!")
- The muni station and none of the lanes working to get through. How do we get home?!?!
- Some poor guy getting yelled at by the mean Muni lady. "Do you see that thing up there?!?! It's like an emergency stop - would you drive through one of those too?!????" I don't think the guy understood one word of what she said.
- Sitting on Muni with the two 18 year old kids so high they couldn't stand up
- The long hill back up to Jillian's house after walking all day
- The obligatory circle photo.....with only us three girls :D
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For a party of 5, the wait ended up only being about 20 minutes which was a pleasant surprise. Once we got seated, food started coming out right away. There were so many carts and things coming out that I am not sure of everything we ate, but here are a few of the ones I remember:
- Potsticker: Northern Chinese style dumplings with pork, napa cabbage, scallions, ginger, and toasted sesame oil filling.
- Lettuce Cup: Minced chicken, chinese lop, cheung sausage, sauteed with diced water chesnuts and bamboo shoots, garnished with pine nuts, spring onions, cilantro, served in a fresh lettuce cup.
- Phoenix Tailed Shrimp: whole shrimp with a shrimp mousee croquette encasing, deep fried
- Seabass Roll: Seabass wrapped in a sliver of taro sweet potato, a basil leaf, dipped in a light batter and deep fried
- Stuffed Crab Claw; Light and fluffy crab and shrimp mousee croquette encasing a whole snow crab claw and deep fried
- Scallion Prawn: prawns skewered on a scallion stalk and tied with a strip of lean bacon
I also remember some type of tofu sticks, mushrooms, spicy chicken, and snow crab dishes but cannot describe what was in all of them! LOL.
There were a LOT of dishes from the carts that we did not order but everything I saw passing by looked delicious. The food was excellent but sometimes it was hard to keep up because they were coming by so quickly!!
Overall everything was good but as compared to other Dim Sum places, probably on the more expensive side. All of us had water to drink and with tip, we each paid $35.
In 1952, the owner (Jack Koeppler) of the Buena Vista, challenged the international travel writer, Stanton Delaplane to help recreate the Irish Coffee that Koeppler had in the Shannon Airport in Ireland. They spent a considerable amount of time perfecting this, including a trip to the Ireland Airport to taste it again! It took some considerable effort and trials to recreate the true Irish Coffee but they finally perfected it.
The Buena Vista has food available too but I've never eaten anything there, only come for the Irish coffees! There is also a smaller location in the San Francisco airport as well located in the United Terminal gates.
Upon entering Kara's, I immediately spotted the Banana Caramel which was had caramel filling. There was also a Raspberry Dazzle that looked yummy as well. I decided to try the Banana Caramel first($3.25) which was YUMMY!!
You may notice that I said I tried the Banana Caramel FIRST. That's because Jillian talked us into going back a second time later that evening in hopes of getting her Chocolate Velvet cupcake which was out when we were there earlier in the day. The second time around, that Raspberry Dazzlev $3.00) was calling my name.
Jillian had warned us of long lines but we lucked out both times and there were only a couple people ahead us. Apparently weekends normally bring quite a wait but the cupcake gods were on our side!
I was reading about Kara's and all their cupcakes are made from scratch at their bakery on Scott Street in SF. One interesting note is almost all their ingredients are organic and local. They are known for supporting local artisan producers and community supported agriculture. Both their website and store list local producers where the ingredients are purchased from which is pretty cool.
I am sure I will be back at Kara's Cupcakes soon. Thanks Jillian for introducing TB to these sinful delights although my diet doesn't thank you very much!! HA HA
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