If you're going to San Francisco

If you're going to San Francisco (see lyrics) sets the scene for today's post. You'll know how it goes:

If you're going to San Francisco, Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

If you're going to San Francisco, You're gonna meet some gentle people there.

Well I don't think flowers would suit me, but there was a lovely relaxed atmosphere about our day in San Francisco on Thursday.

But first an update on Wednesday night. Having checked into the Hotel Triton and sorted out our cases and the bits and pieces we had collected in the car over the last few weeks, we were ready to go out.

We had decided to go back to a restaurant we had visited the last twice we were in San Francisco, The Stinking Rose. Stinking Rose is an old name for garlic and this is a garlic restaurant and plays that up in all of its food and the merchandise it shares.

A few days ago I warned our vegetarian readers to look away today it is any vampires that need to look away now, this much garlic would not be good for you. We started with the signature dish of the restaurant  Bagna Calda, which is described as Garlic Soaking in a Hot Tub. This is a garlic rich dish which you eat with lots of bread. We had two plates full of bread, and love the flavour of the garlic, olive oil and anchovies.

For mains I had Rabbit roasted with olives and an extra virgin olive oil garlic tomato sauce and garlic mash. The garlic flavour was lovely as were the cloves you can see in the picture, the rabbit was juicy and had a delicious flavour which was complemented by the garlic. Drew opted for the Pork Chop with a sweet garlic relish and caramelized apples also served with garlic mash. He really loved this, the pork was cooked perfectly.

You'd think you couldn't do garlic desserts, but you would be wrong. Drew opted for the Garlic Ice Cream with caramel sauce it was rich and tasty, and there were lots of it.

We walked back the 9 blocks down Grant Avenue via Chinatown to the hotel.

On Thursday we began the day by going to the Muni sales point at Powell and Market to purchase 3 day passes ($22 each). Muni manages bus, cable cars and streetcars in San Francisco, so one ticket allows you to use all the public transport, which makes life easy.

Our first trip was in the F line street car from Powell and Market down to Castro. We had breakfast here in a restaurant called Orphan Andy's. Drew opted for bacon and eggs (over easy) when I went for the Big 2, which is two eggs(over hard), two sausage links, two rashers of bacon, two eggs and two hot cakes; I always say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and this was a very good breakfast, even I was full at the end of it. 

After a stroll through Castro we caught the F line back to 18th and Market to visit the UN Plaza, a part of town I had not visited before. From there we walked up to City Hall. All the photos from San Francisco can be seen here.

Outside City Hall we caught the 19 to Beach Street, where we took some photos of the bay and Golden Gate bridge. We then went to Ghirardelli Square. After going through the chocolate shop we stopped at Lori's for lunch.

At Lori's I had a sandwich called 'The Heart Breaker' which was barbecue chicken breast smothered with sautéed mushrooms & onions with tomato on a wheat bun; tasty. Drew had a BLT.

From here we caught the 19 back up to California and then got our first cable car ride of the trip from California at Polk to California and Grant, so we could walk the two blocks back to the hotel.

After an hour or so in the hotel it was time to go back out. This time we caught the 5 to Fulton and Steiner and walked up through Alamo Square to see the famous Painted Ladies. Lovely houses from the Victorian era. In the past I have always been here in the morning, when the sun shines from behind the houses, whereas at 4.00 in the afternoon the sun is shining on the houses, great for photos, as evidenced by the 100 or so people who were doing just that.

We walked down Steiner Street the three blocks to Haight and caught the 71 up to Haight-Ashbury, the home of the flower power referred to in our title song. It remains a magnet for hippies and the, now elderly, members of the bear generation. Within minutes Drew was offered mushrooms and weed, so some things don't change. Naturally he declined  It is worth coming to this part of town, just to see people still dressed in 60s style and note that the hippy culture hasn't died out at least here.

We walked down to Golden Gate park and then caught the 71 back to Divisadero and the 24 to Castro and 19th Street. While here this morning we had seen a nice Thai restaurant called the Thai House. We started by sharing Larb Gai and Som Dam, then shared Moo Grapow and Ner Pat King. Strange, given that Thai food is the biggest influence on what I cook at home, that this is the first we have had this holiday. It was lovely and fresh, a lovely meal that we enjoyed so much we forgot to photo it. Or as Drew puts it:

<<Co-pilot's note: The reason for the lack of food photos at the Thai House Express is that I was enjoying my dinner so much that I forgot!! I was appropriately chastised/nagged/ranted at/harangued for this failure>>

We walked up to Market and Castro and then caught the F line streetcar back to Market and Geary and walked the two blocks to the hotel.