With August around the corner, fall is not far behind

On our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, we always look forward with excitement with the coming of fall. Fall bring new foods and tastes into the market and with that new dishes at our stops. Take some fresh zucchini and butternut squash and roast them, scoop out the insides and make them into a soup and you have the kind of satisfying meal that just calls you to the dinner table. Add in a glass of good chardonnay and it is just perfect. A slice of sourdough bread is all you need to top off the meal. On our San Francisco Food Tours, that is just the way that we like to cook. Take whatever is fresh and go from there. Fresh food does not need much to do with it. Admittedly, I really like what a little nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice do to the flavor squash, however, the trick is to use enough to flavor the soup, but so much that it overwhelms the flavor. For me, anything with butternut squash is almost the definition of perfection. An on those chilly days, soup is the perfect way to enjoy it. You might be able to se why we enjoy fall so much. The fall flavors make for great dinners. And the glass of wine does not hurt much either.