A girl's guys meal of a night: Giordano Bros. and The Saloon

I had my first full day of work today after taking 3 weeks off. It went well and it was great to see friends and coworkers at the office. Needless to say though, I was pretty tired coming home as I haven't looked at dual monitors for 8-9 hours a day for a while now.

I fell asleep on the shuttle coming back to SF, but was awoken by a text from my old roommate and dear friend, Dave Stychno, who is visiting SF from Boston. I haven't seen him recently so decided to meet up with him and some friends first at the Old Ship Saloon on Battery and Pacific. Cute little place with brick walls. They serve normal food- bar food and basic drinks. Got a wheat beer there and then we all decided we were starving so we headed over to North Beach where we ate at Giordano Bros (pictured).

Now, I don't know if any of you have ever been here before but this place is a total guy's place and while I am no guy, I can say that this place is delicious and their sandwiches are awesome. It doesn't take a guy to be able to taste the crunchy, chewiness of their meat sandwiches. They call themselves the "All in one sandwich". I like to call it the "Everything sandwich." Why? Because it's literally everything you'd get in one sandwich order in a single sandwich. You can choose from a variety of meats: steak, pastrami, turkey, salame, etc. I chose pastrami because it has that unique and strong meat taste, which is what I was craving. Then after you choose your meat, they put provolone, french fries, and olive oil and pepper cole slaw inside it. They use a soft white french bread, which is perfect because while the sandwich is tall, the soft bread makes it easy to eat in bites so you don't lose pieces of meat or fries as you consume yumminess. We got a bucket of beer to go along with it, while monday night football played in the background, and of course the meal was accompanied with some great laughs and good conversation.

I was getting pretty tired, but we stopped by The Saloon, which is one of the gold rush bars original to SF (I'm such a sucker for peer pressure). We got some anchor steams there and listened to a local band play. There was a guy on the bass, a guy on drums, and a third on the guitar. They were really good- very folksy/jazz music to go along with the beer and old wood feel of the place.

Now, I am finally home. I'm listening to Michael Jackson and watching the nightly news. I am also about to pass out, but had to document the amazing sandwich I got to eat. Quite an eventful Monday night that I wasn't expecting to have- but glad I decided to go as it was great to see my old roommate and hang with friends. It's nights like these that I really love SF, the diversity it offers, the variety of amazing cuisine around, and the great people that make life meaningful, memorable, and enjoyable.

Cheers! Until next time...

For food: Across the globe and back

I just returned from my 2.5 week vacation to Sydney, Auckland, and the Whitsunday islands. All I can say in one word is: amazing. It was an amazing break from work and I have come back feeling renewed, re-energized, and happy to be alive and living in the great city of San Francisco.

The picture below was taken by my friend, Hazel, who just moved to Sydney. If you don't know me, I always always take pictures of my food. I usually take it on my blackberry and upload it immediately to Facebook. If you're my friend, you'll know how big of a foodie I am. Anyway, back to the picture. It was my first meat pie: beef and mushroom at Janet's Pies in Newtown. It basically tasted like a really good pot pie on steroids. The other food while I was traveling was just as good and I'll write more about it later, but I'd like to intro my true foodie personality first.

The plane ride back had a showing of Julie and Julia, which inspired me to create this blog and start writing about my true passion in life which has always been food. My senior year quote in high school was Look for the dream that keeps coming back. For me, it's always been simple: food. Ever since I can remember, food has always been on my mind no matter what. If there was a family party, wedding, a get together, church event, etc. I always asked the one question: will there be food there? I asked it in my head and out loud. If the answer was yes I was excited to go. If the answer was no, I tried  not to go. This isn't the case anymore as I'll still attend a party even if there is no food there, but seriously, if there is no food at a party, what kind of party is that? And if there is no food, there need to be drinks- something to entertain the mouth.

Alas, here I am, 26 years old, and still asking the same question: will there be food there? Luckily I work for a company where food is ever-present and delectable. So as I sit on my bed and listen to Christmas music, what better time for me to start writing about my passion? Here is my attempt to document my love for food. I hope that you'll join me and find my little stories and tid-bits interesting and entertaining. If not, I apologize.