I loved all of the bits of San Francisco and Marin County I saw; Marin County is located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the State of California.
I loved the buses in San Francisco – very stylish.
I loved the houses in San Francisco.
And once again as in NYC and Michigan, I was very impressed by the large range of fresh, seasonal and local produce in food shops, supermarkets, Farmers’ Markets, eateries and in restaurants.
This demonstrates that many of the residents are highly conscious and supportive of quality, fresh organic produce and health. But I am also aware that although I travelled to many different neighbourhoods in San Francisco that appeared to be representative across a variety of cultures and economic demographics, I may not have seen the total picture.
It was such a pleasure to see artisan goods in Downtown SF and the neighbourhoods beyond. The packets of beans in the photo above are heirloom varieties and many of them are very ancient types.
There were large barn-like supermarkets that concentrated solely on organic food and some of the little shops, (equivalent to some of the Health shops found in Australia) were very well stocked with organic produce.
In Marin County and not just in specialist food stores there are large sections of organic produce in supermarkets; in the very large Whole Food supermarkets there were also displays of brought home ready-to-eat foods.
And salads.
The cheeses looked freshly cut, packaged and clearly labelled; it came from all over the world.
Fresh and dried fungi and mushrooms of all sorts were in The Ferry Building .
And there were some exotic varieties.
In restaurant menus, I particularly enjoyed seeing combinations of cuisines (fusion food) and dishes with unexpected ingredients (for example there was a a salad of kale, strawberries, croutons and goat gouda and the oysters were combined with finger limes, pickled mustard seeds and Madras curry).
I valued observing that in some restaurant menus the producers were also mentioned (for example California Olive Ranch olive oil or Mariquita Farms heirloom tomatoes etc.)
Below, some Vietnamese Fusion Food.
Japanese fusion food.
This bean curd dish (Asian) was accompanied with broccoli rabe (an Italian vegetable) sautéed with caramelized shallots and lemon grass.
Braised green leafy vegetables with red peppers and black garlic.
Ready to eat or take home oysters with prepared sauces.
Or to eat there.
And even at the San Francisco airport the range of organic and fresh and local food was impressive. I could have bought good quality bread and a lump of local cheese and I would be given a plate, cutlery, order a glass of Californian wine and sat down to enjoy it. On this occasion, I selected one of several types of coconut waters.
What do I think about the range of food available in Australian airports? Not much, and we could do so much better.
And one last thing. I enjoyed seeing deer roaming freely in home gardens in Novato in Marin County where my friends live.
