Famine to Feast

My sad dining habits the last couple of weeks can be summed up in haiku form:
Egg salad, corn dogs,
The new Whole Foods is real big.
Thank God for takeout.

Poet laureate I am not. But the food nerd was out in full force last weekend with D's sister and her new beau in town, and we committed some serious gluttonous crimes.
It started at The Slanted Door on Friday night, where the food was good, better than average maybe, but still a bit much of a scene for my taste. Which lately has not been very sophisticated (see haiku), so what do I know.

We had ono from the raw bar (favorite of the night), a lobster salad (short on lobster, heavy on cucumber), lamb rack (slightly overcooked but I still gnawed at the bone like Fred Flinstone), beef bavette (meat was good, potatoes were undercooked), halibut (what's my name?) and a side of broccolini. My ginger limeade cocktail was excellent. The traditional Vietnamese rice porridge dessert was a little less excellent.

A tour of my second home-the Farmers' Market-on Saturday morning, and subsequent picnic in the Botanical Gardens, was a perfect warmup for our dinner at Foreign Cinema that night.
I am still confused by the cocoa nibs on my heirloom tomato salad, but the Kumamoto and Miyagi oysters were excellent. We also had mussels, quail, steak, risotto, strawberry crepes and chocolate cake with Amarena cherries, which I want to eat a lot more of before I die.
After all this hobnobbing and high rolling, we couldn't just spend Sunday night in our jammies watching the Rock of Love season finale on Vh1...(thank goodness for reruns!)
D surprised me with tix to the Sunday Supper fundraiser for CUESA (the fine folks who organize and orchestrate the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market). This event was like a porn convention for foodies. Jenna Jameson wasn't there, but Chris Cosentino was. The Iron Chef guy served me up a mini lamb sandwich! I'm just sayin.
Local chefs (about 30 of 'em), artisanal appetizers, wine, giveaways, special Hangar One cocktails, and that was just the reception! For the dinner part, we sat at communal tables, chatted with strangers and celebrated the farmers, chefs and Bay Area dining in general. Our dinner was a surprise, and fortunately it didn't involve egg salad or corn dogs! We got an olive oil and citrus poached tuna and black rice salad; then came a Tuscan pork roast with shelling beans; a cheese course (all local); and dessert was a ginger apple tartlet with warm caramel.




No matter how full I got, I refused to stop eating. Three cheers for stylish baggy dresses!
It was a perfect weekend with my two true loves.