San Fran - Sept 2012

Farm Dinner

After our Napa weekend for Keith's dad's 70th birthday, we decided to work out of Rakesh and Simran's house for the week so we could join then for another farm dinner the following weekend. 

Accommodation:
Chez Mehta-Singh - great accommodation, excellent service, and worth it even at 10 times the price!

Activities:
The plan to work out of their house for a week did not quite work out: Keith had to do a trip to San Diego and Shawna had to head to Hartford for a meeting.  So we left Chez Mehta-Singh early on Tuesday morning.  Keith dropped Shawna at the airport and headed down to San Jose, flew to San Diego, and returned on the Wednesday night, with Shawna arriving late on Thursday.  Keith worked from the house on Thurs, taking conference calls and getting caught up - until 2pm.  It was at that time that he was on a call, walked on to the front porch, and closed the door behind him - and was locked out!  He was in shorts and a fleece, with no shoes, and his cell phone died as he was on the call.  So...he was barefoot and homeless for 3 hours - lying on the grass and causing two of Rak and Simran's neighbors to text them saying there was some stranger outside their house!  At one point, Rak sent an email saying that a neighbor had contacted him to say that there was a man sitting on their front porch rubbing his feet.  Simran got a text from another neighbor saying that there was a man on their lawn who didn't look dangerous but was odd!  Later that evening, Keith met up with his parents for dinner as they had stayed in Sebastapol and San Fran a couple of days after the Napa weekend before returning home.

Shawna, Ria and Keith with Donuts

Dancing with the Stars??

On Friday, we worked from the house until 1pm, with Sim working in the basement.  The rest of the day was jammed as we ate our way around the city: we went out for lunch, picked up Ria from school, had donuts and ice cream, then met Rak, Dave and his wife, and another Rakesh for beer and then had dinner.  After dinner, we all adjourned to the house to put Ria to bed and then drank more wine and partied to DJ Mehta's dance mix.  The dancing was hilarious with attempts at 'break dancing' and lots of butt wiggling!  Somewhere in there, a pizza was ordered - totally unnecessary but still fantastic. 

Shawna, Keith, Dave and Rakesh (which one is Rakesh?)

We had planned a light breakfast on Saturday so as not to be full for the farm dinner, but Rak thought that was a terrible idea so we headed out for breakfast, dropped Ria at basketball, and then came back to the house for an hour run around the Presidio.  Later that afternoon, seven of us piled in the car and headed out to the Della Fattoria farm dinner at Weber Ranch, which was at the same place as last year.  There was a group of 10 of us: in addition to Rak/Sim and us, there was New Rakesh, Jill, Anne-Caroline, Rachel, Alison, and Kara.  The setting was beautiful with tables outside decorated with colorful flowers.  The dinner lasted from 3-7pm, so we adjourned back to the house for another evening of dancing, indoor "rock climbing", and other goofiness.  And of course, it would not be a farm dinner without us drinking lots of wine (9 bottles in all) and stealing a gourd or two for the road!

Jill, Simran, Keith, New Rakesh and Rakesh

Before Picture...

...After Picture

On Sunday, we got up a bit late and headed to lunch and then had a slice of pie.  We then went over to see a house for sale which was really nice.  The afternoon saw us with a cheese tray and wine on the porch courtesy of Ria before we had to head to the airport to fly home. 

Restaurants:
Amber India - Per Sim's recommendation Keith went here with his parents.  This is an upscale Indian place (meaning no Christmas lights!) and the lamb vindaloo was announced by Keith's dad as the best he had ever had. 

Namu Gagi - A Korean place where we had lunch - yummo fries (so good we ordered two).

Dynamo Donut - Ria was insistent that she would take us for donuts - as Sim said, it was really a pretext for Ria to get a donut herself!  By the time we got to the stand there were only 4 flavors left - we tried the Cornmeal Rosemary Cherry and the Coconut. 

Smitten Ice Cream - As if donuts were not enough, we went here immediately after donuts and before beers.  This place is really interesting because every scoop is made to order - using liquid nitrogen to freeze the ingredients.  We shared a single scoop with Ria.  Very creamy!

Hayes Valley Biergarten - Great beer garden - all outdoors with a heap of picnic tables and a walk-up bar. 

Arlequin - Had dinner here - a fantastic Lamb Burger and wine purchased from the adjacent shop. 

Out the Door - We had brunch at this Vietnamese restaurant.  We shared several dishes: steamed chicken bun, daikon rice cakes, and fried chicken banh mi.   The perfect cure for a hangover!

Webber Ranch Farm Dinner - The food was similar to last year - heaps of appetizers (cheese, roasted peppers and figs, homemade bread, corn cakes), bruschetta, salad, mixed grill (steak and chicken), rosemary potato gratin and a galette for dessert.

La Taqueria - A total dive but great tacos - on Zagat the place gets a 25 for food and a 9 for decor.  We had chicken and pork tacos with some chips. 

Mission Pie - Shared slices of Walnut Pie and Banana Creme Pie.  Fresh and tasty!

Menu for Farm Dinner

For more photos of this trip: