Category: travel

clam chowder in a sourdough bowl for dinner from Boudin when we had too much lunch.

woke up about 10 today.  This is NOT normal but was a need today because our flight was delayed about 4 1/2 hours.  What was supposed to be a 12:30 AM Eastern arrival turned into a 5 AM arrival from San Francisco.  We went primarily to attend a WordPress conference called WordCamp.  Hopefully the fruits of that make me:  1.  a better blogger 2. a better marketer 3. a more strategic thinker.  It was half interesting.  By that I mean that it was in reality geared to software developers more than users and while I hear that tech-speak at home and work a lot-I don’t claim it.  I can write some and look at other peoples online stuff (ie code or design) and copy it a little but I am definitely a ‘user’ by the definition of WordCamp.  There was a developer track and a user/entrepreneur track.  I felt overall it wasn’t geared to new users but rather definitely people who already have enough knowledge to get the jargon.  A few things I noticed about WordCamp-developers love:  jargon (silos were referenced a lot), Lego, fuzzy animals and He Who Shall Not Be Named.  Also noted, great forward thinking about social media and the democratizaton of the web (see the jargon?!)  I will be watching some of the speakers talks again on wordpress.tv and am hoping to reinforce and further what I got from the conference.

Anyway, we flew out on Thursday morning and arrived pretty early in the day thanks to the 3 hour time difference.  We dropped our bags at our hotel and set out walking.  And we walked, and walked and walked for 5 days.  I guess we logged about 25 miles on foot plus some healthy cab rides but we were able to make a great deal out of a small amount of time.  We headed for the San Francisco Ferry Terminal for a lunch with a huge crowd of both office workers and tourists.  After lunch we kept going boosted by a check-in on Foursquare that noted there was a Banksy piece that was somewhat preserved.  So, we struck out on foot to find that the art was on a wall in Chinatown.  Someone had tried to preserve it but a huge piece above it seems to have played some havoc on it which is a little sad because the piece was pretty cool.  It now sits under plexi and under some Chinese dragons and a smear of paint drippings.  I suppose graffiti style art is ethereal at best.   We got to walk through Chinatown too which we hadn’t thought of prior to getting there.  It was another world – kind of like Little Havana in Miami.  We don’t often get out of our all-American box but it stretches the mind to see things that are really right next door.

part of our Miami jaunt also included dinner from my bucket list.  The bucket list mostly contains restaurants that appeal to me either for their chef, their menu or sometimes a recommendation from a friend.  It mostly doesn’t include chains although sometimes small or regionals do make the cut.  The Federal was one of two actual dinner spots on my Miami list and we were able to get a last minute (24 hour advance) reservation. We struck out from our hotel back to the design district to find the restaurant which was in a very unassuming strip mall next to a Dunkin’ Donuts. A little on the down side was that they had blocked off all the spots for valet parking, which, as far as I’m concerned was unnecessary. I don’t know what it would be like on a Friday night or outside of a holiday, where most people head to the beach, weekend but we got our keys back at the end of the night and walked to our car…so, you decide about that.

We walked in through outdoor seating and a small chef’s garden of herbs (someone was weeding and picking herbs through most of our dinner) and were fairly quickly seated. It is a small place and full-on eclectic with lots of found and folky objets and furnishings. The menu is really centered around the idea of sharing, holding both small shares (the more the merrier it says) and ‘big’uns’ and sides listed as complement’uns. We settles on a couple of small shares to start that includes Smoked Floribbean Fish Dip which was listed as ‘smoked daily catch, chives, lemon zest, potato chips. It was indeed a cool smoked fish salad that was topped with micro herbs and caviar ~so not quite as described but still tasty. I like the idea of smoked fish on salty chips. I don’t think it had the lemon zest and maybe would have benefitted for me with that bitter flavor although the micro herbs did give some of that. We also ordered Jar o’ Duck. This was a slow cooked (so melted) duck in a little glass ramekin-sad it wasn’t in a small jar actually. The accompaniments to this were interesting-toasted (read flamed!) marshmallow fluff, cold glazed cooked sweet potato and crisp (but cool) buttered toasts. I really enjoyed this dish. It was complex and interesting. The duck was rich and buttery and that was cut well by the sweet flavors of the marshmallow and sweet potatoes. For our mains we shared a BBQ’d Pork Shank that was served on some corn chow-chow and had fresh mint on top. The sauce was really good, not too spicy but really great when paired with that mint. The meat was falling apart and so savory. I usually say I don’t like mint, but really I think I do. This was a fresh unsweet mint and was great with that pork. On the side we had the most delicious brussels sprouts with molasses vinaigrette, sweet and sour apples and onions. My. Word. How did they achieve that? They were crispy and earthy and the vinegar of the vinaigrette just makes your mouth water. Which is so weird and yet so good. We finished with a flaming dessert. It wasn’t flamed in that throwback way but was a key lime pie covered in marshmallow and 151 rum that they set on fire at the table. I just love lime and that creamy bitterness of this was totally counterpointed by the burn on the rum and the sweetness of the marshmallow. It was just that good. I was overall pretty impressed by the food. One off point (besides that ridiculous parking) was the lack of a cocktail program. I’m don’t exactly live or die by it but I do enjoy a creative and complex cocktail hour and this was the type of dinner I would have thought could benefit from that. This meal was definitely worth the trip.

I had a little bit of crabbyness on about the fourth of July.  Crabby about things I can’t control and wanting them to either just go away or be dealt with but like I said, they aren’t mine to deal with, today.  So, the result was that Z took me up on my weekly …I want to go on a road trip whine…and took me to Miami for a couple of days.  We realized that it is only three or so hours away and that we could leave after breakfast and get there in time to go to El Rey De Las Fritas.  A Cuban greasy spoon serving up fritas.  Fritas are Cuba’s burger, a frita is  a seasoned ground beef patty (sometimes mixed with chorizo) on a Cuban roll topped with shoestring potatoes…and ours had cheese.  We ordered in faulty spanglish and watched the people come in and sit down-mostly at the counter.  I added on fries and a jugo de melon, the most sugary watermelon juice ever and Z had a batido de mango (mango shake for the uninitiated.)   The frita itself was crunchy and salty.  I liked it ok.  I kind of thought it needed ketchup or hot sauce and I don’t know why I didn’t just put it on there.  I managed to get it on the fries though which were kinda middle of the road.  We tried to order churros but they didn’t have them that day and in the end, we lucked out because we headed over to Versailles which is a famousy mcfamous Cuban restaurant/coffee window/pastry shop that made me think of Spain every minute.  Loads of people enjoying each others company while indulging in croquetas, pastry and coffees.  I ordered a cortado which is a shot of milky espresso with sugar alongside an alfajore which is a creamy delicate light cookie sanwich filled with dulce de leche (milk caramel.)  A.w.e.s.o.m.e.  Seriously, I want one right now.  After lunch we tried to go to find Z a guayabera because they are also awesome but sad for us, the shop we wanted to go to was closed on Saturday.  Maybe next time.