more sf lovin' - part two

as promised from my previous entry. day two of my two day weekend getaway in san francisco.

the day i spent at ferry building left me wanting more so i think you can guess where we end up spending the rest of the morning. that and also i read that there is this very great brunch place in the ferry building itself that i wanted to try.

first thing we wanted to do was brunch at boulette's larder which deserves another entry of its own. so watch out for it :)

after breakfast, i wanted to check out each of those specialty stores more carefully and perhaps get ryan's mom a gift from san francisco since her birthday was coming up too. one of the things we saw the day before but didn't try were olive oil. there were quite a variety of olive oil from extra virgin olive oil to some infused with herbs and mixed with balsamic vinegar which can be used as a vinaigrette. they offer some bread cubes so you could sample to see which one you might be interested in getting.

then we came across boccalone, the home of tasty salted pig parts. chris cosentino is the co-founder, co-owner and chef of this very popular spot.

i went into the store, just to see what kind of cured meats they had to offer and then i was utterly curious to know how tasty they were. i think ryan was excited from the sheer variety of these handmade artisan meats that they freshly slice everyday.

i gave into temptation and since i was not hungry enough for a sandwich, i decided to go for their mix salumi cone to try some of their offerings. three slices of three different cured meats. on top of that they were giving out bite size samples of their spreadable salumi on bread and it was right on the money!

i can't quite remember what they were but i think one of them was mortadella, another was prosciutto and the third was one of their varieties of salumi. they were indeed tasty, salty goodness in a bite. they all had their own distinct flavors, good amount of fat and good amount of flavor. and i can imagine how delicious it would be piled in a sandwich. after i was done with the cone, i wanted more but i had to restrain myself since we've already had lunch plans.

boccalone, you definitely live up to your slogan: tasty salted pig parts!

after all that good stuff, i wanted to look for hog island oyster co. since tyler florence recommended this place to have the best raw oysters in town - the best thing he ever ate - obsession edition. we looked at the menu, i was tempted (it's seafood!) but we decided to save this for my next trip here to san francisco.

we decided on our lunch destination like weeks ago.. actually, it might be months ago since ryan has been craving for malaysian food for the longest time. i wasn't too thrilled with the malaysian restaurant reviews in san francisco that i read in yelp so we've decided to drive about an hour away to cupertino for some good malaysian food that we've tried earlier last year at layang-layang restaurant.

our lunch included: chow kueh teow, kangkung belacan, fish head curry in claypot and a young coconut drink to share.

overall, the food was really awesome. i am a bit iffy on the noodles cos it's nowhere close to the good ones i can get in malaysia (d'oh). to be fair though, no malaysian restaurant in the US has been able to mimic the flavors of chow kueh teow in malaysia and it probably has a lot to do with the availability of ingredients. the flavors kangkung belacan and the fish head curry were both on point that i wanted to continue eating even though i was completely stuffed. oh, how i miss thee, malaysian food.

it's quite funny cos in response to all my twits on my food adventure over that weekend, one of my friends twitted:

looking back, it does seem like it, doesn't it...