Friday, August 31, 2007 – OK boys and girls, you get a reprieve from the tidbits of information and pleathora of factoids that I’ve subjected you to for the last few days, because that wasn’t the big excitement today.
Today started off a bit slower. First, we realized that being in the center of the “nightlife” isn’t always what it is cracked up to be, because, well, it goes on so darned late! Last night we were both tuckered out; the “touring” had gotten to be over the top, so we decided to exercise the maturity factor and stay in, regardless of the incentives that tried to lure us out into that nightlife.
Eddie dropped right off to sleep. I watched television for a bit and then tried to go to sleep, only to be kept awake for a while by the noise from a nearby bar. Remember, no AC and the windows are open. I’d just about drop off and then someone would laugh or talk loud out there (about a block away, as best I can tell), and then I’d be woke up again. Fortunately, about 2:00 this morning (local time) I realized that I had earplugs in my shaving kit and suddenly the rest of the night was much quieter.
This morning we had breakfast in our B&B for the first time. It was pretty good, nothing to write home about – certainly not the caliber of food we had at Aerie House in P-Town. Still it was enough to send us on our way.
We walked up the street and met Paul again, who belongs to Carshare here in San Francisco. This is a pretty incredible system – once you join, you can use a car for $5.00 an hour plus $.44 a mile. That includes gas, insurance, etc. – if only the rest of us could operate our vehicles so cheaply!! We had one of those square boxy import things, but it was great to get around the city. He navigated while Eddie drove and it worked out well. Like I said earlier, he’s a wealth of information and really ought to be doing tours for a living instead of just doing them for free. Add to that the fact that he’s a nice guy, and we had a great time.
Of course, the big news was that when we stopped for lunch in a restaurant at the end of Golden Gate Park, we saw Niecey Nash, of “Clean Sweep” and “Reno911” fame. We absolutely love her television show, where she convinces people to throw out the stuff they have in their house in exchange for a makeover. She was there having lunch and just getting ready to leave when she saw us looking at her. She walked by, and when we made eye contact I told her that we were big fans of hers from North Carolina. She was very gracious and consented to pictures. The quote we got from her we liked the best? “Wait, let me get my boobs worked around right for the picture.” She is just as much a delight in person as she is on her television show. It absolutely made the day for us.
We got back to the hotel about 6ish, checked e-mail (the web still isn’t working here, but I’ve finally learned all the hoops to jump through to get it going for me again. It’s OK if you can tolerate 20 minutes to log on and frequent disconnects), clean up and go to dinner.
Dinner tonight was at a French restaurant called “Cote Sur”. Again, not far from us and had good reviews in some of the magazines. It was a little surprising that the guys here hadn’t recommended it, although after we ate there we recognized why.
First, it’s hot in there. We recognize that there’s no air conditioning in many of the buildings. Like Europe, that’s part of the charm. There are ceiling fans, however, although nobody seems to know where the switch is to turn them on. We had a less than desireable table right in the lane of traffic, directly under a non-operating ceiling fan.
They, too, offered a prix fix menu, so we decided to take advantage of that. We should have been a little suspicious about the fact that it was entirely in French without subtitles. The second clue was when the waiter told us that the fish of the day was a red snapper flown in from Texas.
Now, we’re in what many would consider the seafood capital of the world. “Fisherman’s Wharf” is a destination for thousands of people each year – I am not going there to eat ANY kind of fish from Texas!
As an appetizer, I had some little pastry thing that had salmon, caviar, sour cream and something else about it. It was actually pretty good. If I’d realized it was going to be the highlight of the meal, I would have savored it a bit more. Eddie had what turned out to be little tomato quiches about the size of a silver dollar sitting on a salad of lawn clippings.
As a main course, I had pork medallions. It’s kind of hard to go wrong with that, right? The walnut sauce sounded kind of intriguing as well. Reality, however, was another story. It was about the consistency of cardboard, with similar taste. It resided on a bed of some unidentifiable vegetable, which I think was something cabbage. In any event, I quickly lost my appetite after a few bites.
Eddie’s hunk o’ duck seemed a little better. We had a brief discussion about some sidepiece and whether it was edible or merely ornamentation. The discussion continued after he took a bite of it and wasn’t resolved at that point, other than the fact that while it might be edible for some people, it wasn’t for him. His hunk o’ duck resided on a whomp biscuit that he maintained was the best part of the meal.
Now, for those who aren’t good southern boys, a “whomp biscuit” is one that comes in a tube at the grocery store. To open the tube, you ignore the directions that say “press here with spoon” and “whomp” ‘em on the edge of the counter, causing the cardboard tube to break open.
You can roll ‘em out, sprinkle cornmeal on ‘em, or do about anything else, but when you’ve been raised on whomp biscuits, you recognize them immediately. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.
Desert had to be better, though, right? After all, this was a French restaurant – they’re known for their pastries and deserts. The desert menus were presented with no small amount of excitement on our part.
There were several choices. We saw some of them go by as we were deciding – terrine de Crepes – while this sounds fancy, in reality it’s pancakes with fruit. We got that at iHop in Hickory, don’t need to be eating it in San Francisco.
There was some concern when we saw there was a $3.00 “cakage” fee per person. Have no idea what that was, but it gave the impression that we were gonna get screwed on the price of desert.
We both finally settled on the Molleaux du Chocolate, which the waiter advised us was a chocolate cake with a molten center. If we’d not been so hot already, we probably would have realized what this was gonna be – a “Little Debbie” that’s been nuked in the microwave and put on a fancy plate.
Just like the whomp biscuits, we been there before and know what it is. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but by the same token, each having lost 25 pounds recently it’s also nothing to waste calories on.
During our meal, where I was sitting there was a big poster on the wall (in French) about “Sud”, which seems to be a sparkling water or something. All I could think of was dishwashing soap, and it made me glad that I didn’t order the soup. Now we know why the hotel doesn’t plug that particular restaurant, despite the numerous awards that it’s gotten in the past.
Oh, well, tomorrow is another day and there are LOTS more restaurants around. We have a tour of the Castro booked in the morning for a couple of hours, then lunch with a friend of Eddies and a free afternoon.
