When we looked at the idea of starting a San Francisco Food Tour, it came us to that food is how we connect to each other here. The food and the coffee is what we use to connect at the cafes and in our homes. We had a goal, get people in local food artisans on one of our San Francisco Food Tours, and they would want to come and support those local artisans. We got the idea from working in the environmental movement. If someone saw parkland, they would understand why it was important to preserve it. At the time we started our San Francisco Food Tours, it was a pretty new idea. Nowadays, there are a lot of national and multinational companies who have started them. For better or worse, they tend to be in it only as a way to make money. We??re a little different, we??re from San Francisco and we want to leave a legacy to the City. In other words, unless they improve medical science incredibly, it??s very likely that will not be alive in 100 years. We??d like to do things that help preserve our neighborhood. It??s the reason that we started our San Francisco Food Tours and it??s the reason and it??s still our goal.

We??re able to highlight what is really special about Chinatown and North Beach\Little Italy. The food is great, however what makes the neighborhoods special on our San Francisco Food Tour are the neighborhoods that we visit. These are the artisans that have been made these areas special for generations. Most of these artisans find themselves under a lot of pressure these days. Just like in most places nowadays, they find themselves under pressure from national and multinational companies. This phenomenon is occurring all across the country, as well as other countries across the planet. We find ourselves under the same pressures. One our San Francisco Food Tours, we try to highlight these artisans, in the hope that our guests will go back home, whether that is in San Francisco or around the world, and make it a point to patronize the local artisans in their own hometown. In the blog, we??ll try offer resources for supporting local artisans similar to our San Francisco Food Tours.

On our San Francisco Tours, we emphasize eating locally and seasonally. For many of us, the question is why, why not shop at a national or multinational company and not get whatever the ???lowest?? price. On our San Francisco Food Tours, when we ask ourselves what is the real cost. First is the actual cost of the product, the cost to produce the product, the cost to the environment, and then also the social cost. When a product is sold by a national or multinational companies, very little is returned or stays in the local communities, On our San Francisco Food Tour, we are one the only food tours companies that is from San Francisco. As this is where we are from, we care about preserving our local community and neighborhood. For example, on our San Francisco Food Tours of North Beach\Little Italy, we make sure that each of our stops benefits from being part of the tour. By ensuring products are local, the cost the environment is minimized. Also, we get the piece of mind on our San Francisco Food Tours that we are making a positive difference in our neighborhood and our community.

Everything is new and bright, new flowers, new foods. Spring is also the perfect self-reflection. Are we serving our community, are we benefiting our neighborhood? On each of our San Francisco Food Tours, whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, we??re always asking ourselves that question. It goes to the very reason that we started our San Francisco Tours in the first place. We started as a way to help preserve our neighborhoods. So what does that mean? It means that we make sure that each of our stops, whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, benefits from our coming there. It means that as a local company we stay committed to always looking at how we can do better. In each of our hometowns, whether it is San Francisco or wherever we live, we can make an incredible difference in our hometowns, by first asking ourselves how are benefiting our community. It is something we try always ask ourselves on our San Francisco Food Tours.

Being from San Francisco, we may have a different viewpoint of our national politics. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see how everything in our communities is interconnected. That perspective means that we see how everything is the world is interconnected. When pollution levels are unhealthy in one area of the world, it affects everyone on the planet. Air and water currents spread unhealthy air and water across the planet. Climate change affects the entire planet. On our San Francisco Foods, we see the same phenomenon. When one part of our local community or neighborhood is being taking advantage of, whether it is local, national, or multinational, it negatively the entire community or neighborhood. The concept of thinking globally, acting locally is something that we fervently believe in. We are always asking ourselves, whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown not only whether what we are doing benefits our local community, but also how does it impact communities around our country, as well as around the world. Just as air or water pollution affects the entire planet, how we interact with our local community, as well communities across the planet affects us all, no matter where we live. Taking advantage of another communities, no matter where it is located, negatively affects us all. Looking out for other communities around the world positively impacts everyone across the world. We never forget that on our San Francisco Food Tours.

Summer is a time that we welcome a lot of visitors to San Francisco. We always try to ask ourselves what we want to leave our guests with. For example, do we want to leave them feeling like they had a great San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, or do we want them to leave with something more than that? Given that we started our San Francisco Food Tours as a way to help local artisans, we want to leave them with something more than that. We want them to have a great time, however we also want them to support local artisans in their hometowns, whether that is San Francisco or somewhere else. We think an important element of that is to lead by example. We do that by making sure that everyone of our stops benefits by our coming there. We also do that working with movements that share our philosophy. On our San Francisco Food Tours, being from San Francisco, we have personal concerns for our communities. We see many national and multi-national companies who have come in our City and do not share our values. By keeping to our core values, we think our San Francisco can continue to make a difference in our community, as well help make change in other communities.

One main focus of our San Francisco Food Tours has always been how to sustain our local neighborhoods and communities.?? ??Many people ask what that means.?? Sustainability looks at how we can keep our neighborhoods both short term and long term. For us, it means that we are constantly asking ourselves what is the impact of our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown and our San Francisco Food of North Beach\Little Italy on our neighborhoods.?? It also means that we look at where everything in our professional and personal lives is sources from.?????? It means looking at whether the food is local on our San Francisco Food Tours.?? For example, on our San Francisco Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, all of food is made in the neighborhood, just as it is on our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown.   It also means that we think what we use in our personal life. For example, is our clothing made in sustainable methods, are we working to reduce our carbon footprint, are we helping to preserve out local and worldwide environment.?????? All of these are things that we constantly consider on our San Francisco Food Tours.

It really is a time of renewal.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, we got reminded of that when we the shear number of tour buses going through the neighborhood.?? Each one was a different national or multinational company, bringing visitors around San Francisco.?? Each company sees the city as a way to make money.???????? We see the same thing on our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown.?? For walking tours, we see the same thing. For us, we see this as a time to renew our commitment to helping preserves our neighborhoods.?? In that commitment, we saw the result, as someone was able to reopen a local bookstore.?? That may not seem like much, however we think it is vey significant.?? It means a local business has come back.?? On our San Francisco Food Tours, that is what we are all about, helping our local business survive.?? So whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, we always need to be reminded of that.

When people look at our San Francisco Food Tours, they sometimes ask us how being from San Francisco affects us. Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, it gives a deep commitment to our neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are where we grew up, where we have lived more of our lives. It means that we know San Francisco Values are. They are the values that we have stewardship of our environment and our neighborhoods, that it our responsibility to think about how what we do will affect our city and our neighborhoods not just for the next year, but also for the 50 to 1000 years. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we consider about how the food we consume affects our environment. Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, the farther food has to travel, the more the impact on global warming. It??s one of the reasons all of the food on our tours is from San Francisco, Every time we travel in a method that minimizing our carbon footprint, the more we can address global warming. As our San Francisco Food Tours are walking tours, we??re not putting more carbon into the air. We try to also walk or take public transportation in our personal lives. Whether we like it or not, global warming is a reality that either is will affect us all. While we are not able solve the problem our San Francisco Food Tours, we can set an example of what all us of need to do to help. It??s the reason that whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, all of the food and all of guides are from San Francisco.

When things happen that shake our senses, we look at a way to make sense of it all. When something happens, such as what happened in Orlando, we look around to make sense of it all. We ask whether we need to change our values. We ask ourselves how to protect ourselves. We ask ourselves how to survive. The answer comes from a movie, ???Judgment at Nuremberg??. As Spencer Tracy states, ???Survival as What? A Country Isn??t a Place, It??s Not An Extension of One??s Self. It??s What it Stands for. It??s what is stands for is the Hardest Thing to Do. Here and now, here is what we stand for, Truth, Justice, and the Value of a Single Human Life.?? It is our values that are our strongest shield against hate. What makes us stronger, and what will defeat the voices of hatred, is that in times of stress, we come together. The voices of hate can only succeed if we allow them to separate us. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, we see neighborhoods that have come together. Our greatest strength is to let the people of Orlando or the LBGT community know that they are not alone. It is to let the voices of hate know that we know that our values love and tolerance is our greatest strength. From everyone on our San Francisco Food Tours to the people of Orlando and the LGBT community, know that you are not alone. History has shown us that love and tolerance will always triumph over hate. It is the connections that we see on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown that makes us stronger than hate and in the end, will defeat hate.

Summer is a time for renewal. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, it??s the time to renew our commitment to our neighborhoods. Renewal also requires that we ask ourselves if ever accidentally compromise our values. Those values include ensuring that we are a benefit to neighborhoods that we include on our San Francisco Food Tours. Whether it is it our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food of Chinatown, we constantly ask ourselves whether we are holding to our values. San Francisco has always had it??s own values. Those values include caring about the environment and putting people first. We always ask ourselves whether we supporting those values on our San Francisco Food Tours. By constantly looking at whether we are supporting San Francisco Values on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour, we are able to support the values that drive us.

We??ve been watching what has been happening in our country from our San Francisco Food Tours. Sometimes, we ask ourselves about the effect of our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. It might be wishful thinking, but hope we can provide some level of inspiration. The inspiration that we can encourage others to live in a fashion that benefits others. Sometimes, we look at things that happen and sometimes we wonder if that is just wishful thinking. We can see in other parts of the country, from our San Francisco Food Tours, examples of behavior that are sometimes not inspirational, so what can hope to do our part from our San Francisco Food of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. We can hope that the example that set of always being a benefit on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown for our neighborhoods. It may not everything, but we can hope that our San Francisco Food Tours are one brick in a wall of a better society

It the Fourth of July, a time that Americans celebrate the founding of our country.?? On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s a time to reflect what being an American means. In one way, our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown illustrate it. Americans may be different than most countries.?? You can??t look at someone and tell by his or her appearance that they are American.?? We don??t look the same, we don??t all practice the same religion, and very few of us don??t trace of family history back to a different country.?? So on today, we have been reflecting on our San Francisco Food Tours what being an American means.?? Whether we are on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. We think that being an American means striving to live up a set of ideals.?? We don??t always achieve them, however it is our pursuit of those ideals that make us an American.?? It is the belief that every time another group is achieving civil rights, all of us are freer.?? Whether it is by sex, age, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or religion or other personal characteristics, every time that another group obtains civil rights, we as Americans are freer. It is the realization that anyone who suggests otherwise, they are suggesting something that it is the opposite of what being an American is all about.?? Being an American means standing up for the people who are least able to stand up themselves.???? In short, it is our ideals that make us Americans. We don??t achieve always it, and it still a work in progress, however on our San Francisco Food Tours, we realize that being an American means standing up for the civil and human rights of everyone else. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, it is the diversify of neighborhoods that illustrates what being an American is all about, we may not all come from the same backgrounds, however we all share the same ideals.

Summer is here and we??re getting ready on our San Francisco Food Tours.?? ??On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, that means looking at how impact our neighbourhoods.?? Our goal has always been to be sure that we are having a positive impact and are benefiting our neighbourhoods. From the point of view of our San Francisco Food Tours, we need to ask ourselves about what we are doing short and long term.?? For example, on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, we try to catch ourselves and see if we living up to our goals of benefiting neighbourhoods. We realize that we our San Francisco Food Tours are different for that very reason.???? It is what makes our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown so different.?? It is our commitment to our neighborhoods.

August is the time on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown when we add on special foods for the fall. The weather is perfect for our San Francisco Food Tours.?? Not too hot, not cold, just perfect for our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. Come join us on our San Francisco Food Tours.?? Whether it our San Francisco Food of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, it is a great time to join us.

Late summer is always an interesting time on our San Francisco Food Tours.?? We start looking at how we can incorporate new foods in our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. Whenever we start looking at new foods on our stops on our San Francisco Food Tours, we always want to make sure that they in line with then neighborhood.?? In other words, whether the new food stops reflect the neighborhood on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. Stay turned for the new stops and foods on our San Francisco Food Tours.?? It will make our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown even better.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, we??re seeing a reemergence of local artisans on our neighborhoods. Supporting our local neighborhoods has always been a major focus of our San Francisco Food Tours. We??ve always been focused on how we help our local artisans on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. We always are looking at how we support our local artisans on our San Francisco Food Tours. Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, our main focus will always be how we support our local artisans

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always interesting to notice what is occurring in the rest of our country.?? Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, we look at what is happening through our unique perspective of our San Francisco Food Tours.

Being San Francisco, we see what is happening through the perspective of a San Franciscan, as well of through our San Francisco Food Tours.?? From the perspective of our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, our perspective comes through the neighborhoods of our San Francisco Food Tours.

Being from San Francisco, many people might assume that then perspective of San Francisco Food Tours, in other words, that the perspective of San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or our San Francisco is progressive.?? Others may interpret it that way, we see as if we think that the more inclusive that we are the better our neighborhoods and our community.?? That is the perspective of our San Francisco Food Tours.

With everything going in the rest of the country, it??s an interesting time on our San Francisco Food Tours. Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, we try to keep our unique perspective on our San Francisco Food Tours. Most of the country is affected by the coming election. Most people know what California will do, so we really don??t hear that much about it. The one perspective that we notice from our San Francisco Food Tours is use of divisive rhetoric. From the perspective of our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, that is something we don??t care for. Our San Francisco Food Tours reflect our community, which is fortunately is very diverse Divisive rhetoric is easy to do and many people shrug off the long-term effects. From our perspective of San Francisco Food Tours, devise rhetoric by ???political leaders??, always have long term negative effects. On our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown and our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, we see how inclusive rhetoric only makes a community stronger. It is our ???political leaders?? who set the tone. That is the perspective that we have from our San Francisco Food Tours.

Every year, we all through the struggle to find the right gift for people in our lives. You can give a gift that will be put into a closet.?? Or, you can them an experience that they??ll remember long after the holiday season is over.?? Consider give the gift of one of our San Francisco Gift Certificates.?? Exploring and eating their way through North Beach\Little Italy and\or Chinatown will be something they wiill really enjoy. Our San Francisco Food Tours are the perfect way to celebrate the holidays. For someone in the San Francisco Bay area, they will explore a neighborhood that they??ll want to come back to later.?? If they are planning to visit San Francisco, they will visit the neighborhoods that make San Francisco special.

Our gift certificates are good for any tour and they never expire.?? It makes it a really easy choice.?? They can decide what their favorite neighborhood are and then join whenever it best for them.?? The perfect choice for the holidays.???? Give them the gift of food and fun in the most iconic city in the world. And it is a really choice for you.?? Call us or go online and get yours today.

Holiday time in San Francisco is coming. For most of us, the big question is how to give people in our lives something they will not only like, something they will use. Most of the time, when I give someone a gift, it goes in the closet and never gets seen again. The closet at our house filled with gifts from previous years, things that are stuck in the back of the closet, never to be seen again. This year, consider giving someone an experience they will remember. Our San Francisco Food Tours are the solution. Your friends and family will get to explore a great San Francisco neighborhood, such as North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. Added with lots of local foods, and they will have a great time. Whether they live in the San Francisco Bay area or they are visiting the area, it??s the perfect gift for everyone. And unlike like other gifts, it will not get put in the back of a closet and will actually be used. A San Francisco Gift Certificate is the best way to give a gift. They can use them for any our tours and they never expire. They will enjoy the experience and have a great time. So this holiday season, give your friends and family a great experience.

While there are many people concerned about the national elections. Here in San Francisco, we??ve got not only national elections, but state and local, as well. From the perspective of our San Francisco Food Tours, we ask ourselves does this bring us together our pull us apart. There have numerous times in our country??s history when we had to make a choice about whether to move forward or backward. When judging candidates, we look at whether their comments appeal to the best or the worst of us. For example, when we give some a San Francisco Gift Certificate, we hope to left their spirits and give them a special experience. For someone running for public office, we think the same criteria should apply. Do they experience joy when they lift someone??s spirits? Do they se an accomplishment when someone??s life is better. The reality is that when one group in our society is hurting, we all are hurting. When we all feel happy and fulfilled, we are lifted together. When looking at people running for pubic office, we all should look at the history and their comments and thoughts. If they hope to lift us all up, they will lift us all us. And that is how we move forward together.

There??s something about pizza when you try it and say wow. When we tried the pizza at Il Casaro, we knew that we wanted to add it onto our San Francisco Food Tours. First, when they start with their freshly made dough, then they add on their fresh tomato sauce. When they use the mozzarella that make right there, it really makes it. On top of that is extra virgin olive oil. Then when they cook it in their wood-burning oven, it cooks in 90 seconds. When you have pizza like, and you get to see them make it, what else can you ask for? The pizza is simple delicious. This time year, the best way to give your friends and family this experience, is with a San Francisco Gift Certificate. Added to all of the other great foods on our North Beach\Little Italy Tour and it??s a great way to experience some great foods, as well as a real San Francisco neighborhood. Fall is the best time to do that. The weather is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. And there??s something about the air in the fall. It just seems to relax oneself. I??m not quite sure what it is; however it is definitely there. Come join us for a great time and some great pizza.

This time of year, we all turn our attention to fall.?? On our San Francisco Food Tours, fall reminds us of the holiday season.?? The holiday season is when we celebrate the precious year and look forward to the coming year.?? If you??ve watched any media in the last year, you may be the rest of us, more than ready to have this election season be over.

Before you totally withdraw from everything, consider how important your vote it.?? It??s your way of saying to the world that you matter. Consider that not voting means you have taken yourself out of the picture for how your government operates.?? Consider that the first thing a totalitarian government does is to take away the right to vote.?? Also, consider that not voting means that you are allowing a small amount of people to control your government.

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After you vote, not keeping whoever you voted for informed about your opinion means that once they get into office, they can do what ever they way and you will never care or know.?? We have the Best San Francisco Food Tours, however to keep it that way, we have to constantly ask ourselves how we can get better.?? For someone you vote for, you vote tells that you matter and continuing to voice your onion means that you expect them to continually ask themselves how they can do better.?? They key is to stay involved.?? That is how democracies work.?? It is the hardest type of government to get or keep. People being involved are the only thing that does that.

For most of us, the stress level goes through the roof, trying to figure out what to give to give everyone. If you are like most of us, everyone around us has more gifts stored in closets, garages, and basements that we can image. I spent several weeks trying to figure out what to give my spouse for their birthday. After searching through more gift shops than I can imagine, it decided to give my spouse an experience. It ended up being one of the best birthday gifts that I have ever done. Our San Francisco Gift Certificates are a great experience to people in your life. Unlike other gifts, it will not get put in a garage, basement, or closet. They will get to enjoy one our San Francisco Food Tours, such as Chinatown and North Beach\Little Italy, where they will enjoy some great food and explore a San Francisco they will want to come back to again and again. Not only will you give a gift they will enjoy, it will save all the stress and time of trying to find the gift they will not put away some place, never to be seen again. Imagine for once, as stress free holiday season. You just relax and enjoy the season and later on, they will thank you as they enjoy Chinatown and North Beach\Little Italy.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the previous year and give thanks for all that is good in our lives. This year, many of us look at what is happening and wonder what those things. We see a rock and tumble political campaign and try to make sense of it. I often think that you can tell a lot about a person, based on how they view others. One way to tell how someone views others is how they react to someone else who has been abused or hurt. Do they feel the pain of others or do they add to the pain of others? In other words, when they need to make hard decisions, will they be able to empathize with others. Anyone can read a speech or make pronouncements. That??s easy. It??s the decisions that are made behind the scenes, when the public does not see them that can have most impact of all of us. When those decisions are made, their ability to empathize with the pain that others are feeling than can have a serious impact of their decision-making. When I see someone attacks victims tells me a great deal about their ability to emphasize with others. When someone responds by hugging a bullying victim, it tells us a great deal about what they think. That tells us a great deal about whom they are. As the Best San Francisco Food Tours, that is what we consider, when we go to vote this time of year.

If you??re like everyone else, you??re probably more than a little nervous with the election coming up. We??re feeling the same way ourselves. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we try to do things that help to lift our community up. In other words, try to preserve what is best about our community. In the current election campaign, the negative messages seem to drown out anything positive. Unfortunately, most of the time, the negative words seem be louder than the positive words. The problem with negative messages toward others, it becomes like a cancer toward oneself and others, eating up people from the inside. It??s up to the rest of us to do what we can to spread positive messages in our community. If enough of us do that, it emerges louder than the negative ones. We work hard to have the Best San Francisco Food Tours. At the same time, we work equally as hard to ensure that we are supporting our community. We work hard to put out positive messages. Not just for ourselves, but for the legacy that we leave our community and our world. It??s not always easy to drown out the negative messages, however if enough of us come together we can do that. If enough people come together truth and positive messages are always louder than the negative messages. It just takes the rest not becoming discouraged. And, it takes the rest of us putting our positive messages every time the negative ones come out.

Winter means different things to different areas. In California, the weather does not change much, so the main difference is the time change. With the change in daylight saving time, it gets darker a little early. The good news is that San Francisco looks so romantic at twilight that it gives our San Francisco Food Tours a beautiful backdrop. Between the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge and the sunset, everything takes on a golden glow. There is something about sipping a cappuccino at twilight that makes for a perfect moment. Added to that a little chocolate and it seems just right. And when some gets one our San Francisco Gift Certificates, it is a moment that they never forget. And, the good news is that they will remember you as the person who gave them that moment, so you become the hero. Winter can be a time of great romance in San Francisco, so we do everything to get into the romantic mood. From adding extra foods to just taking in the twilight. And being from San Francisco, we have to do the romance thing up big. After all there is the saying that is impossible to be bored or unromantic in San Francisco. As a result, we feel it is our responsibility to encourage that. It??s a San Francisco thing.

It is a couple days before Thanksgiving and we??re getting ready on our San Francisco Food Tours. From special foods to special surprises, it is a really fun time on our tours. In North Beach\Little Italy, the additions for this time of year are a great addition. In North Beach\Little Italy, seeing the gingerbread houses are really incredible. Each of the gingerbread houses is handmade. Each of the gingerbread houses is unique. We only find them this time of year, so it really is a once a year event. It is also great time to give someone one of a San Francisco Gift Certificate. Chinatown has some special additions for Thanksgiving. Being Dungeness crab season, we??re seeing it all throughout the markets in Chinatown. For San Franciscans, Dungeness crab is a holiday tradition. While most of the country has turkey, Dungeness crab is a San Francisco tradition. Dungeness Crab is only found in the Pacific Northwest. It is a very sweet crab. We tend to eat by steaming it and eating without anything else on it. The good news is that in the 1890??s California passed a law that made it illegal to catch female or small crabs. The result has been the Dungeness crab has become very sustainable seafood. The great thing is being to enjoy a delicious type of seafood that is also sustainable. The result is that we can enjoy Dungeness crab and feel very good about it at the same time. Given that many areas of the world are losing their fisheries, sustainability is a very important idea. Either one does that or at some time in the future, there are no fisheries.

The holidays are always a great time of year on our San Francisco Food Tours.?? Between the new stops and the food, it is a great time to join us.?? This year was particularly fun, seeing the Gingerbread houses at Stella Pastry really makes for a great holiday.?? Each one is individually handmade and completely edible. It??s really the perfect way to spend the holidays.

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Fairly soon, we??ll start to see Yule logs and more.?? That will really remind us about the holidays.?? Giving someone one of our San Francisco Gift Certificates makes for a great gift.?? It gives them an experience, instead of just something that they put in the back of a closet somewhere.?? If you??re anything like me, I have way too many of those gifts.?? I got them and thanked the person who gave it to me, but then I realized that I would probably never use it.?? Or, I planned to use it later and forgot about.?? An experience is something that someone always remembers.?? It creates a lasting impact on them.?? It is the reason that a gift certificate for an experience becomes the kind of gift that they never forget about.?? And since there is no expiration date and they can use them anytime, it works into their schedule.

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So make the holidays special this year, give an experience, instead of gift that goes in the back of some closet, never to bee seen or heard about again. Give an experience this year.

This time of year, the holiday season, is when we look at what is really important on our San Francisco Food Tours. In reality, it??s not the food, it??s not the stops, it??s the people in our lives. We all get busy with work and other things and sometimes we lose track of the people in our lives, whether it is friends or family. Facebook and Twitter are nice, but nothing can substitute for being with others in person. Facebook can do a lot of things, but you can??t physically touch or hug someone else over the Internet. That probably sounds like something that everyone says, however it??s very true. We all get caught doing our thing and we forget about the people in our lives. Perhaps the solution is to set aside times for that. Without that we turn and wonder how we lost touch. Days become months, months become years and years become decades. And then it becomes so long that we don??t know how to reconnect. For example, if you give someone one of our San Francisco Gift Certificates, make part of the gift to either join them or to meet them after and go do something together. Even it is nothing more than to get a cup of coffee. And then set another time to see them. And then keep doing that.

From Chinatown to North Beach\Little Italy, we??ve got some new surprises and stops. It??s also the time of year to see whether we are staying true to our beliefs. We started as a way to help preserve our local artisans and that is still the guiding force behind us today. Being from San Francisco, we tend to look forward, and ask what can we do to make our community and our world better. For example, global warming is going to happen whether we agree with or not. Nature has that habit, we don??t have to like certain things about nature, and they are going happen whether we like them or not. That being said, we can have an impact. If we put out less carbon we can slow the progress of global warming. The same thing is true in our communities. Losing local artisans is not inevitable. If we chose to spend our money with local artisans, they cannot only survive, they can thrive. If we choose to look at our local communities as a resource for everyone, we do things to help them be around for decades to come. However, that choice occurs on a daily basis. While we strive to the Best San Francisco Food Tours, we strive to do that by supporting our local communities. We hope is that they will be around for decades.

Spring is a time for renewal and that what we always try to do. Some years, that seems harder than others. To say that we??re nervous about what is happening at a national level is a mild understatement. Our response has to be to redouble our efforts in our communities. It??s also to look at whether we get sidetracked by what is happening elsewhere. That is actually easy to do; it??s easy to get so upset about what happening elsewhere that one just feels frozen. However, that is exactly what we cannot do. We have to look at whether what we are doing is helping our local communities. We have to look at what we are doing will help or hurt future generations. In order to have the Best San Francisco Food tours, we have to revaluate ourselves on a daily basis. What is relationship with our neighborhoods, what is our relationship with our communities? Are we following or are we leading? Are we thinking about 50 years from now, not just about tomorrow? They are not easy questions, yet if we do not do that, we are being frozen in place. The results are that we do not make changes that benefit our communities. It is a constant question, something that we must ask ourselves every day.

The question comes down to whether we will be taken along to the future or whether we will fashion the future.?? The future will either be one that we become more and more separated or will we come together.?? We think that the actions that we take can have a real impact on that.?? Whether we will let other tap into our fears or whether we will stand up to these people and let them know that is not who we are.?? When we stand up for the rights of others, we are, in fact, defending our own rights.?? If we don??t stand up for them, there will be no one left to stand up for us.

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If we the future as dark and scary, it will match our expectations.?? If we view the future as hopeful, it will grow in that vision.?? If we believe that a bright future involves lifting everyone else up, it will match that vision.?? If we think that only some of can come along to a bright future, we will likely find that none of us find that future.???? We may have the Best San Francisco Food Tours, but that comes because we believe that everyone else needs to benefit from our tours.?? That is how we have bright future; we look to see how everyone else can benefit and how we can lift everyone else up.

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Spring is coming we??re hoping that this is a time for renewal on our San Francisco Food Tours. Sometime renewal seems difficult, sometimes it seems like one is swimming upstream. While California has its point of view, the question is how does jive with the view from the coast of the country. While California seems to be looking to the future, it seems to us sometimes like other areas of the country are looking to the past. Yet true renewal requires looking to the future. When someone is looking to the past, the only reflection seems what he or she is telling himself or herself already. When someone willing to embrace the future, it only works if one is willing to see what he or she either do not expect to see or is willing to reconsider their point of view based on what they see. The advantage of looking to the future is one is willing to see the future in realistic views is the one gets to be part of the future. If one is looking to the past, one remains there. In that case, there is no opportunity for renewal. If one looks at what is happening in other parts of the country it seems like many of the ???solutions?? seems to parts of the past that never worked. In order to have the Best San Francisco, we need to constantly look to the future. It requires that we embrace renewal. The question for all of us is always whether we want to be part of the future or be part of the past.

Our San Francisco Food Tours have been around long enough to see how our community, city, and country have changed. For many of us in San Francisco, we are wondering what that means. Our community has also become stronger when we embrace and celebrate our differences and when operate out of hope, not fear. And yet, for many of us here fear is what we hear from highest levels of our government. We live on a state that has twice the economic growth of any other state in our country. It??s a state that would be one of the largest economies in the world, if it were it??s own country. A big question is why is California doing so well economically. Californians think our differences make us stronger. We don??t fear the future; we embrace and look at how we can make it better. It??s the reason that California thinks that it has to lead on issues like climate change. We can recognize what is going to happen and change our behavior to minimize climate change or we can ignore it and make the very planet where we all live uninhabitable. Denying climate change does not get us anywhere. We can recognize that our differences allow building on the strengths of everyone and creating a future that uses those strengths to make us better or we can fear someone else and be stuck in place and see the future pass us by. In order to have the Best San Francisco Food Tours, we look at the strengths of our communities and use those strengths to build a better community. In sort, there are no easy answers as to how address the future. Fear holds us back. Hope moves us forward. It??s up to all us as to what we embrace.

Last week, we celebrated the Chinese New Years parade on our San Francisco Food Tours.?? That time of year, we get to enjoy some special foods for the celebration, such as Chinese New Years Cake.?? This year is the Year of the Rooster. Roosters are energetic and trustworthy.?? Energetic and trustworthy has a lot to do with our being the Best San Francisco Food Tours.?? It requires us to continually evaluate how we can get better.?? It requires us to honest about what works and what does not work.??

Honestly requires looking at oneself first, rather than blaming others. ??It??s easy to find someone else to blame. We see that on a national level when people look to blame someone else for their problems, rather than look at themselves.???? For example, if you know that you need to exercise, than no one else can make than change other yourself.?? The same goes for other things.?? More often, if one is honest with oneself, one can find things within oneself to make your self better.?? Blaming some group is usually just a way to not look at oneself.??

Perhaps we can hope that other people in our country will see the Year of the Rooster as an opportunity to look at them selves.?? If someone blames some else for a problem of their own making, it does not make the problem go away, it just allows it fester and gets worse.???? It is like have a cancerous disease, ignoring does not make it go away.?? If it is detected early, it can usually be treated.?? Ignoring it just has it grow to a point that it becomes harder and harder to cure.?? Perhaps that is what we can learn from the Year of the Rooster.

A time for a new start. On our San Francisco Food tours, we do that as well. We look at what we can start new. We look at what we can start fresh. Sometimes that does not always come easy. Sometimes, it looks like up against headwinds that are best difficult to push against. We??re seeing that coming from other parts of our country; people who want to move on and leave other behind. The reality is that one thinks that way; there really is not such thing. We hear that a lot on issues like climate changes. In other words, if we only are concerned about ourselves, somehow what very happens in the rest of the world won??t affect us. Somehow we can control climate in our small part of the world. It does not work that way. If we don??t do things to deal with climate change, there is not way to wall oneself off from the rest of the world. We may have the Best San Francisco Food Tours, however if we do not deal with climate change in the rest of the world, it will affect us. Renewal to us means how do we renew our commitment to our principles. The things that make us proud. First and foremost is how we try to lift up everyone, not just ourselves. Anything else assumes that we can wall ourselves from the rest of the world.

Everything comes into season, from seasonal vegetables to seafood and more. Our meals start changing to incorporate all of the summer foods and the foods on out the stops on our tours starts to take on a real summer feeing to them. And, of course, it??s hard to beat a summer in San Francisco, from beautiful sites to lots of things to do. For the rest of the country, summer can be a time of vacation. A time to sit back and enjoy what is around. The challenge is to look beyond our own community and see what is happening beyond our own backyard. For example, in South Sudan, there is major famine. While we in California are over our drought, many parts of the world are anything but that. A major part of the world does not have clean water or enough food to eat. Even when we are having the Best San Francisco Food Tours, we try to constantly remind ourselves about the lack of water and food that faces major parts of our world. The question comes to what we can do about it. We can become the voice of others who either cannot speak or whom no one is listening to. When we hear our elected officials talk about something makes us better, we can ask how does affect others on our community, our state, our country, and our world. It??s easy to shut ourselves from others, but if we do, then if we do, what does that say about us as people. How can feel good about ourselves if we ignore the plight of others. We do not think we can ignore others and feel good about ourselves. And, it is up all of to be voice for others.

Every time we add a new stop, we always ask ourselves, is whether this supports our community. That is always a question that unfortunately many people do not ask themselves. We see that on many levels. When people recommend budgets that take away help to people who need it most. Programs like Wheels on Meals help the very people who need it most. These are people who would otherwise starve without the help. The obvious question is how someone can propose such a thing and then claim to have a strange kind of moral superiority. Our best guess is that some people are so separated from others that when someone else gets hurt that are either unable or unwilling to empathize with others. For some reason, in the earlier part of their life, they did not have contact with others who did not have as much as they did financially others in earlier in their life. Or, they have some have gotten so caught in the paperwork on their jobs that they have forgotten that people are affected by their actions. When we are running the Best San Francisco Food Tours we always ask ourselves how what we are doing affects others. As we see our communities on a daily basis, that keeps us from being disconnected from seeing effect of what we do. Perhaps that is the solution. Take actions in one??s life that keep one connected with their community.

We always look this of year on our San Francisco Food Tours, as the time to look and access how we are doing. We look at how we are doing in terms of supporting our community. In other words, are we helping to support our local neighborhoods? It is not just a matter of having the Best San Francisco Food Tours. It is a matter of feeling good about what we do, how we do things, and the way that we think about things. We had a reminder of that this week. Someone who visiting San Francisco asked me a question, which looking back at it, was a strange and yet revealing question. They met someone at one our tour who had a first name that they were not familiar with. The person had a California accent, so it was clear that they were from San Franciscan. They asked me the question about what his background was. My reaction was so say that he was a San Franciscan. They came back and said, where is he from? I said again, he is from San Francisco. The question revealed what may be what makes us different here. We take people for who they are as people. We would never judge or think someone is different, due to his or her ethnic or religious background. I realized that when my reaction was one of almost confusion; the question about his background never came up for me. I realized that perhaps that is why we are so different here. It is not that we do not judge people based on their ethnic or religious, it is more that we really do not think about it. I realized that when one thinks that way, it is very difficult to understand people who do. It results in living in a community where people not only get along; they enjoy each other??s company. It made me think, how do we get others to think that way. In other words, not even think about someone ethnic or religious background in the way that they view others. I??m not sure that I have the answer to that, however it still gives me pause to think about it.

For many people that probably seems sort of wild eye and na??ve. Maybe it is, however when try to have the Best San Francisco Food tours, we look around and we see people that we have known for years. When we go into a vendor, it feels like something different. We know their families, their friends. We know the neighborhood, because we??ve lived here for longer than we can sometimes remember. The result of this we seen the importance about caring about the long-term health of not just the neighborhood, but of everyone in it. We see what happens when people are neglected, however we also see what happens when people are taken of. When people are taken care of, everyone thrives. It is as if the good feeling that others feel spreads to everyone else. When people live their lives outside of a neighborhood, they either lose or never gain the ability to empathize with others. We can see that at national level, when people who have spent their entire lives, which were being pampered and sheltered, can no longer empathize with others. These people tend to take a very sour view of the world. You see it on their faces. They look how they think. When they think of others first, the faces reflect an optimistic about the word. When they have sour view of the world, their faces reflect a sour view of the world. We??re always looking at ways that we can pass along a view of the world that cares about others. Perhaps it is for the rest of us who care about to remind the sour people what they are missing.

Summer tends to be a busier time for us, even though we have people join us throughout the year. Summer is also a great time for new seasonal foods. Eating seasonal is very important to people from San Francisco. Not only is it healthy and tastes better, it is far better for the planet. Transporting food takes time and usually adds to the many of the factors causing climate change, such as additional fossil fuels and more carbons in our atmosphere. It has always been almost bewildering to us about people who want to deny climate change. Denying reality does not change reality. Denying scientific facts does alter them from being facts. I??ve often thought that for those people who want to deny science that the next time that have a need to go see a doctor or go to a hospital, they should just skip going. Hospitals and doctors are based on science. We know that without proper treatment that cuts will get infected by bacteria and germs. We may not be able to see them, however we have scientific proof that they are there. For climate change, we unfortunately do not even need to guess. We can see it extremes in weather, rising oceans, the melting of the polar ice caps, droughts and more. Denying it does not make that go away. It only stops from taking actions that might slow down climate change. We may constantly strive to have the Best San Francisco, however we cannot do that by denying reality. The same is true for climate change for science. Denying it does change reality. Reality is reality, whether we like it or not.

To have the Best San Francisco Food Tours it is something that we have to constantly work on. Renewing also means being willing to look at something from a different point of view. It also requires being willing to hear a different answer than you might like. We see on a national level people who into their office with their agenda. They know that they are right and they are also convinced that there is no other point of view. The result is that if the information that comes back that is different than like, they either ignore it or they to come up with a reason why it is not true. This current argument over climate change seems to fall into that category. Even though there unfortunately lots of proof of climate changes, there are those who simply ignore the information. The result is that at the very time that we need to taking actions to mitigate climate change, we are doing the opposite. We find people trying to ignore the information or in the face of overwhelming evidence, trying to claim that it is not true. Putting one??s head in the ground does not change reality. Reality is going to happen whether one likes it or not. If we see some of the most climatic changes ever occurring, we have one of two choices, realize that it is happening and start taking actions to mitigate negative changes or reality will hit us smack dab in the face and it will be at a point where is impossible to deny and almost impossible to change. The question is when we will get that point. Hopefully, we??ll wake up to reality before that.

With the start of spring, the weather is perfect for our San Francisco Food Tours. This time of year is usually the warmest time on the year on the Best San Francisco Food Tours. I t??s a great warm feeling inside to know when you belong somewhere. Living in a place like San Francisco, we don??t often feel like we don??t belong based on background. Unfortunately, that??s not always true for everywhere. We still have many places where people are looked down on based on their background or some personal characteristic. The question comes up as to how we can change that. Television and social media helps, however nothing breaks down barriers than one on one contact. We see that on our tours when someone meets some from a different background than one self and finds out that they actually like the other person. Social media can something in terms of connecting with other people, however nothing replacing meeting some in person. Nothing replaces seeing someone in person, seeing how someone can have a positive effect on another person. When one is online, it can be hard to see the effect that one can have on another, god or bad. However in person, it is easy to see the effect that we have on others. Perhaps one thing that we can take from that it to imagine when we are online, what would be the person??s reaction if they were in front of us? Would we be proud of the effect of the effect that we had on others. We can a great effect on others; it??s up to you to choose what effect that will be

We??re always working to have the Best San Francisco Food Tours, so always we??re asking ourselves how we can get better. Looking at oneself is essential as to how to get better. That means looking at things to find out what is not working. If you have taken one of our tours, you may get a follow up phone call from us. Usually, I??m the one who makes those calls. I make them because I want to get feedback on the tours. I want to find out not only what is going well, but also, what is not working. That is one the best ways to get better. It is also a great way to find our about small problems before they become large problems. When we look at our national government, what is really missing is the desire to find our what is really happening, not just get validated for one??s opinion. Getting validated for one??s opinion may make you feel temporarily good. However it does not do much for solving a problem. And it does not make the problem go away. Actually it allows the problem to fester and later it will come back, only when it comes back it will far worse and much harder to fix. It is a lesson that we are constantly reminded about coming out of national government. Unfortunately, it does seem to being heard. For example, only caring about the most well off may feel good in the short run, however in the long run, it will hurt everyone.

When we think of civil wars on our San Francisco Food Tours, it makes us think of what causes conflict between various people and countries. As we look around the world today, we can see that over and over again. Coming from San Francisco, which is such a diverse place, it can sometimes be hard for to understand those conflicts. I always thought it was fun to live in a place with so many different cultures and backgrounds. I still do. One of the things that helps us to have the Best San Francisco Food Tours is how much fun that diversity is to us. One the question that I??ve always had is how do you get people who see differences as something to be afraid of to actually enjoying the differences. It is definitely not an easy question. I think one of things that may help is to wean ourselves from the online media where our only interaction with someone is online. Being online does not afford the ability to really get to know people. It may just be that travel is the best way to get to know other people. Seeing other people up close and personal gives one the ability to really get to know someone else. That travel can be as far as requiring an airplane to as little as walking across the street. Either way, if you get to know that other person, you have stared to break down the barriers. Maybe that is the way to break those barriers that eventually lead to conflicts.

Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tours or something else, what happens in the rest of the world does affect us. It would be hard to look at what is happening in the rest of the world and not be affected. Thankfully, we not have been directly affected by some of the things that have been happening. On the other hand, that is not really accurate, as it is hard to see other people suffering and not feel personally affected. The challenge is that when we see others suffering, is not have it scare us into getting into a cocoon or becoming numbed to the suffering of others. Either way is not good. Perhaps, the hardest thing is trying to make sense of it, trying to find some sense of everything. For many of us, we try to avoid hurting others, so it is hard to imagine others doing things to hurt others. At the same time, the online world has created a world where it is easy today to express hurtful things toward others and not see directly the direct effect on them. Online it is easy to lose compassion and empathy toward others. And yet, when we lose that compassion and empathy toward others online, perhaps it can carry over to our time offline, when we are dealing with others in our lives. Perhaps the only solution is to look whether we have incorporated compassion for others in our daily lives. When we are on a San Francisco Tour, it is something that we try to remind ourselves of. It may not make sense of everything that happens in the world, but at least we know we are helping to make the world better.

With the coming of summer it seems like we are seeing more people joining us on San Francisco Food Tours. We??re people from all over, so it is always great to get perspectives from people from all over the world. One big question we get it how do we feel about what is coming out of Washington, especially on issues of climate change. The honest answer is that it seems bizarre to us. Most scientists are talking about the possibility of having the type of changes that could make many parts of our planets inhabitable and the rest of the plant barely habitable. The signs of climate change are all around us. We??ve had the some of the hottest summers on record and some of the coldest winters on record. Our polar ice caps are melting and the rise in sea levels could flood parts of major cities. So the obvious question is why deny the obvious? We are already seeing the effects of climate change. If there is an economic reason, it is at best short term. Long term companies, utilities and whole countries are going to renewable energy. In additional to being very polluting, no one is going to buying coal in the future. And by the future, we are talking about a matter of years. So, to put it mildly, it makes no sense. We are working to have the Best San Francisco Food Tours, and you can only do that facing reality on a daily basis. There is more than enough ample proof of climate change and we have one of two choices, face up to it and try to mitigate the effects of it or ignore it and deal with the consequences. Those are the only real choices.

It is a great feeling, with the sun on one??s face and seeing the beautiful views. Later on, the fog will roll in, giving us the perfect backdrop for the Best San Francisco Food Tours. The thing that has always made San Francisco as beautiful as it is has been the environment, the mountains, the sky, the ocean, and more. Maybe that is the reason that we are so protective of the environment here. We see it everyday and while we admire it and enjoy it, we also realize how fragile it is. When we see people in other parts of the country and the world pass off things like the environment, it seems almost like something that we are not able to comprehend. We do not understand how anyone can dismiss the very thing that we have to live in. If the air is polluted, then what does someone think they will breath? If the water is polluted, what does someone think they will drink? For better or worse, there is no spaceship to take someone to another planet to live. If this planet is destroyed, there really is nowhere else to live. The challenge for all of us is to get others to understand that this is the only planet that we have. If we destroy this planet, there really is no replacement. With things like global warming and climate change, we are starting to see the effects already. Our children and grandchildren will see the effects even more. The big question is whether they will have a planet to live on when they do.

Music seems to be the international language, which seems to break down barriers between people. Nowadays, that seems to be a major challenge. Many people want to put up barriers. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we try to break down barriers. When we look at barriers around the world, they usually get formed out of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of things that we do not understand. That fear tends to put us in a box, where nothing new can get in. One the question that confronts us all is how we stay mentally sharp for the rest of one??s life. More and more information confirms that people who stay mentally sharp do a couple things, they do some kind of problem solving everyday, whether it is gardening, Sudoku, or doing something. They also tend to welcome exposure to new people and new ideas. When they meet someone of a different ethnic background, religion, sexual orientation, they not only accept it, they welcome it. In other words, they not only do they not fear different ideas or cultures, they welcome them. To them, it keeps their mind active and makes them feel alive. Fear has us operating in survival mode. In other words, we not living, we??re just surviving. And the box that we are in keeps getting smaller. The challenge is that the box is box of our own making. The only things that opens the box up is to welcome new ideas and different ideas.

With the start of the summer season, it??s the perfect time on our San Francisco Food Tours to experience the summer. On each one, we explore a different part of what makes San Francisco special. As we see one of these neighborhoods on a San Francisco Food tour, we get to see the magic of the City. That magic is our diversity. It is also our strength. The thing about it in a strange way is that we do not really notice that diversity. We think it is normal to live in a place with a mixture of cultures and backgrounds. Perhaps it is the reason that we do not tend have a many conflicts between each of us. When one see different people all day, one starts to realize that are just people, just like the rest of us. In one way, it is that barriers are not put up in the first place. Barriers have to be built between people. If one sees someone else and only sees what is different, one gets shut off from the rest of the world. The world becomes a scary place, as one sees everyone else as the enemy. If one sees others on a daily basis, other people just become other people. When ones sees others just other people, we come together and are able to solve problems. Otherwise we become more and more separated.

With all of the bad news coming from the other parts of the world, sometimes it causes us to reflect on the state of things on our San Francisco Food Tours. For us, we get reminded on a daily basis that most people are basically good. Like all of us, sometimes we get taken slightly astray, however most of us are basically good. The challenge is that when we see others who do things that hurt others is to not color everyone with that brush. Sometimes, we do things that accidentally hurt others. No one is perfect. What makes good people different than others is that they recognize that none of us are perfect and when a mistake happens, they correct it. The good news is what we see on every time that we have a San Francisco Food Tour. People having a great time and enjoying the company of others. We see them enjoying being around other people. People of different backgrounds, different ethnic groups, different religions, and yet still, all of the same people. Being around others, they probably do not think about it, they have a good time with others. Underneath it all, they realize that most people are basically good. The challenge again is to not let the few people who are not doing good things cloud our vision about everyone else. In short, we are the same underneath it all. For most of us, that means that we just have to let our better selves out. For those who are not that way, we just have to realize that they are not like the rest of us.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, we try to step back and have perspective. When we look at our local communities, we see examples of the best of people. We see people on an daily basis who are taking actions to improve our communities. When others try to pretend that climate change does not exist, we taking actions on a state and local basis trying to address climate change. California has always seen itself as leader on the environment. In California, we see this as a moral imperative. The question is what are we going to leave the next generation, a livable planet or a dead planet. Even if one does not care about the generation, we see evidence of climate change in our lives. We now have some hottest years ever, we have evidence of the polar ice caps melting. When we are on a San Francisco Food Tour, we always look at the impact that we have having. Are we having a positive impact or a negative impact? It is not just things like recycling. Granted, we come from a city that was named on the top cities for recycling in the world. It is also things that we do everyday. When we purchase something, what is it??s carbon footprint. Where does our energy come from, a fossil fuel or a renewable one? Can we walk or take public transportation? All of these are choices that we make on a daily basis. It can set an example for others by the actions that we take. They may seem like small choices, however they can make a major impact.

Autumn is a time of year when most of start to get ready for the coming holidays. We are thinking about that on our San Francisco Food Tours, as well. The holidays are when we see friends and family. Is it definitely easy to lose touch with people, however when we see them it seems that we remember all of the great times, however we also remember all of the times that we missed by not seeing them. Every time that we are on a San Francisco Food Tour, we see friends that we have known for years. It reminds of how important those relationships are. It is though relationships that each of our lives special. For all of us, it is easy to take those relationships for granted. We always think in the back of our minds that they will be there no matter what. It is not until we look back that we sometimes have to realize how we were so busy in other parts of our lives that we lost touch with the people in our lives that make our lives special. It is important to take times to keep up with those people. The internet make be great, social media may be great, but nothing can take place of seeing someone in person. We try to take in time our day to reconnect with everyone we know. All of the money and power that one has will never be able to substitute for that. Material things will never be able replace other people. It is something that we need remind ourselves of every day.

From the perspective of our San Francisco Food Tours, sometimes we sit back and are astounded.?????? As many people are aware, we recently had a tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia.?? We would have expected from every level of our government, from local to state to federal, to express utter disgust at the hate groups and white supremacist groups.?? We would have expected that the very thought of every attempting to justify them, would have been something that no one at any level of government would have ever thought of, much less attempted to do in any way, verbally, on paper, or on online.?? We expect our government to reflect and express the best of us, and to stand up to those who would express hate.

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Much to our dismay, we actually had someone who is President say things are directly contrary to what we believe. He actually tried to justify hate groups. ????The question for the rest of us is what do we do now.?? What do we do when the very person that we would expect would denounce these hate groups does the exact opposite. I think the answer comes down to what we do in our daily lives.?? If we make it clear through our actions that hate has no place in our communities then these hate groups will be relegated to where they belong, the garbage.

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On every San Francisco Food Tour, we strive to live up to the best ideals and to exhibit the best actions and to demonstrate our commitment to our communities on a daily basis.?? If each of us does that on a daily basis, then the hate groups cannot survive.

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With the start of fall, it is a good time to reflect on the world around on our San Francisco Food Tours. Recently, it looks like every time that we look around another us, we see another piece of bad news. From international incidents to hurricanes to earthquakes, sometimes turning the news on can be depressing. And it seems like one things come after another. The question for most of us is how do we handle the onslaught. The short answer is to sometimes take a breath, so to speak, and to put things into perspective. While we can and will do everything that we can to help others and send everyone our best wishes, the challenge is not to get overwhelmed by it all. Every time that we are on a San Francisco Food Tour, we see the best of things. On the news, we see do not always see that. The other thing is look around our own communities and see what is the best of our own communities, but also to see what we can do to make our communities better. It could be as simple as picking up trash, helping out at a local school, or raising money for the Red Cross to help them help others. When we do that we start to feel better about ourselves and the world around us. It is amazing how helping out others helps us to feel better. It does not have to major things, everything helps others and that in turn helps us to feel better.

With the start of fall, it is the time of year when we see the change of seasons on our San Francisco Food Tours. In San Francisco, given how different our weather has always been different here, it is the time of year when we get warmer. As we are affected by the Gulf of Alaska, as opposed to Southern California, when the rest of the country get warmer, we get colder, as it pulls the fog or marine layer in from the ocean and cools the city down. It is the reason that the coldest time of the year is always the summer. In the winter, when the rest of the country gets colder, the marine does not gets pulled in and we in San Francisco get warmer. The result is perfect weather here. The result of these weather patterns is that winter is the perfect weather for a San Francisco Food Tour. Whether is North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, the weather is perfect here. It is also the reason that if one walks around San Francisco this time of year, a lot have t-shirts on. If you are the rest of the country or the world for that matter, it means that this is really the perfect time to visit us here. We??ve got the perfect weather, the perfect beautiful skyline, it is just perfect. Come join us soon.

A San Francisco Food Tour is a great idea, however with the fires in the North Bay, we also think about how do we react to all of this.?? The good news is that it seems like they are getting the fires under control.?? So now, the question is, how to we react to people who have been through a serious crisis. Probably the most important thing that we can to reach out to them and to let them know that we are there for them.?? We do not need to have to have a solution. Sometimes attempting to have a solution may be not be what they need.?? What they really need to know is the knowledge that no matters what happens, we will be there for them.?? We can let them know that we will help them monetarily, however sometimes what they really need to know is that they have someone who can talk to.?? Not necessary someone who can have all of the solutions, but someone who will listen to them as they tell their stories, as many times as they need to.?? People who have been a crisis sometimes justly need to vent.?? And not one time, but multiple times.?? It is part of the healing process.?? Just listening, that simple act, can sometimes be exactly what someone needs.

While I??m sitting here drinking my green tea from one our stops on our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, I??m reminded of makes us a little different. Being from San Francisco, when we go into a stop on one of our tours, they are not only stops on a tour, they are also friends that we have known for years. So, when our tour guests learn about the benefits of tea, it is something that we are already doing ourselves. It also means that when we go to come place on our San Francisco Food Tours, we are not just going to a stop, we are also seeing friends of ours. As such, we treat them like friends, in other words, we want to make that they benefit from our stopping in the place on our tours. Frequently, if we are not careful, we think we are seeing only people who are just looking out for themselves. However, if we look at the people who are around us on our daily lives, we realize that is simply not the case. Most people do really care about others. There are those who do not, and unfortunately, they are frequently the loudest and most frequently on regular and social media. The question for the rest of us is what do we do about it. If we start to point out on all levels, that self-centered, mean, or inappropriate behavior is not acceptable to the rest of us and is also out of the norm, perhaps we will start to see the good behavior that most of us express to our friends and neighbors become the only acceptable behavior that any of us will accept.

Being from San Francisco, we all tend to think that we can change the world. We tend to think that we can lead from here and affect positive change around the world. Our San Francisco Food Tours are built on that premise. That what we do can have an effect on the rest of our community. It is the reason that when we go into a stop, we always try to make sure that we are having a positive effect on that stop. In other words, that stop is better off because we came there. That is how movements start. A few people decide that positive change can occur around them and they start to take actions that improve the lives of everyone around them. It does not take a lot people, just a few people. If people are doing something for the right reasons, that is, to improve the lives of everyone in the community, that is when others join in and that is how a movement starts. Everywhere we have San Francisco Food Tour, we ask ourselves whether we are doing things that improve our community. It is difficult sometimes to not feel frustrated, feel like nothing positive can happen. History has shown us that things can change, and for the better, it just a few of us to get out of our despair or desperation and decide that we can try to change things.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it can sometime be difficult to see the change of seasons. Our weather here in San Francisco does not change very much, usually between 50 and 70 degrees. Anything outside of that is usually considered to very cold or very hot. So, we feel like it??s fall when we start to see a change in the foods. In North Beach\Little Italy, we start to see Gingerbread Houses. In Chinatown, we??ll start to see fall produce. So, a large part of how we tell when it is a different season is when we start to see fall foods on a San Francisco Food Tour. Even though the weather does not change, people here start to get ready. We will start thinking about what gifts to give for the holidays. We will start thinking about where we are going to spend Thanksgiving. For these of us with family and friends, that is usually a pretty easy decision. For those who are single, it can be a depressing time of year. Everyone else around is having a great time with family and friends, and they are by themselves. A major gift that you can give to them and actually to yourself is to include those single people in your holiday gatherings. Not only will they feel better, but you will feel better yourself. It sounds like a minor thing; however, it is the kind of gift that can make a major difference in someone else??s life. At the same time, it can add a new dimension to your holiday gatherings. Knowing that you are helping someone else can make your gathering feel even more special.

Every year, we all go through the question of what to give people in our lives for the holidays.?? We search the stores, search online, trying to find something that they will keep and actually use.?? In the end, it usually ends that whatever we give someone ends in the back of closet somewhere, never to be see again.?? If we look at ourselves, the things that we really end up valuing are not the things that we have in our closet, it is the experiences that we??ve had.??

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That could the reason that many people give people in their lives a gift certificate to one of our tours.?? When one experiences things, especially with someone close to us, that is what we remember.?? And that??s not just for people who have only been together for a short time.?? As many of us can attest, one of the biggest challenges for couples is finding things that one can do with their spouse or partner.?? Many of us search for things every day that will somehow get our spouses or partners out doing something with us.

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Our San Francisco Food Tours are a great way to do just that.?? Eating great foods while exploring a San Francisco neighborhood is a great way to come together.?? And giving someone a San Francisco Food Tour gives them that kind of experience.?? This year, think of the experiences that you can give to people in your lives.?? That will be the things they will remember.??

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We all try to think about the perfect gift. A San Francisco Food Tour is perfect. Most gifts that we give someone go into a closet somewhere and are never seen again. With our San Francisco Food Tours, you??ll give someone an experience. An experience being something that all of us remember. If one thinks about all of the gifts that we get, most of them go back into a closet somewhere and are never seen again. How many of us have a garage full of holidays gifts that we have forgotten that they even exist? It is the experience that we all remember. Those times with friends and family that we experienced something together. Additionally, by experiencing something together, we end up with shared memories that bring us all together as friends, families, or couples. Food is one of those things that seem to really bring us all together. Perhaps it is the shared flavors and textures or perhaps it is something else, some intangible. Experiencing a neighborhood is an additional experience that we all remember. Finding that special place that we did not know existed. Rediscovering a place that we thought we knew, however we found something new about it. Combining food and exploring a neighborhood makes for the kind of experience that we always remember. With a gift certificate your friends and family can choose the experience that is best for them. They can choose when and where they want to enjoy a food and neighborhood filled tour. It is the best way to enjoy the holidays.

Change is sometimes good and sometimes can be not so good. The question is what we hope to accomplish. Whether we want people around us to their lives to be improved or as we are looking out for just ourselves. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we always ask ourselves about whether we are improving the neighborhoods that we live in. Sometimes we look at something that happens and we think that something happens where we personally benefit is a good thing. The challenge for the rest of us is whether everyone around us benefits. In the short term, when one groups will benefit at the expense of everyone else. Long term, eventually, unless everyone benefits, it will eventually hurt all of us. Either the people who we need to purchase goods and services will not be able to afford to anything. Or, the neighborhoods that we all live starts to get worse. Maybe streets, business, and homes start to crumble. Maybe the parks that we all enjoy start to fall apart. Maybe the crime in our community goes up. Or maybe the schools have to close or the class sizes go way up. On each San Francisco Food Tour, we are always asking ourselves about this. The challenge for the rest to continually asking ourselves about the same thing, whether something benefits all of us or just some of us. And then to demand that that our elected representatives do the same. Unless we do that all of our lives will get worse, not better.

From losing weight to fixing up things around the house, we all end up making resolutions, we all have things that we claim that we are going to change or improve every year. As most of us find, we rarely do. We??ve heard that if one gets into a habit it is the best way to keep a resolution. Every time we have find have a San Francisco Food Tour, we find that is most likely true. This year, wouldn??t is great if we all made a resolution to find ways to improve the lives of others. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we find that it does not take much to improve the lives of others. Sometimes, it is as simple as looking for something to compliment about someone else. It is easy to find fault with others. Finding out what good in others improves our lives, as well as their life. When we find the good in others, frequently the person who we found the good in, finds good in others, as well. And that starts a chain reaction, where we start having a community of people who genuinely happy. They feel better about themselves and others. And as many of us have experienced, that makes for a much more enjoyable place to live. It does not take much to do this, just a simple and different way of thinking. And one does it every day, it becomes a habit. It also starts to transform the world around us.

This time of year, even with our great weather in San Francisco, seems the perfect time for comfort foods. Comfort food can change to which San Francisco Food Tour that we are enjoying. In Chinatown, It??s a great time for soups. In North Beach\Little Italy, it??s the perfect time for minestrone. For many of us, we??re tempted to make them at home when the days get shorter and evening comes earlier in the day. Food seems to the way that a lot of us use to comfort ourselves when we don??t see as much sunlight. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we find a great cappuccino or some angel green tea is a way to relax and enjoy the shorter days. On the home front, our slow-cookers get a lot of use right now. Slow Cookers are ideal for those winter soups. You can start them in the morning and let the cook all day. When you get home, not only is the soup ready, but also the slow cooking gives the soup some great base and body. You can sit back with a big bowl of soup, curl up with your best blanket and your dog and actually enjoy the winter months. For some reason soups seem to help to make winter a time to enjoy rather than to endure and get through. If you??re a cat person, your family works as well as the family dog. The soup works either way.

Whether it is a San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, we always run into some really fun events. Perhaps because we??re used to it or simply because it makes it a lot fun to live in San Francisco, we all enjoy having a very diverse place to live. On each one of our San Francisco Food Tours, the combination of the diverse neighborhoods and diversity of the food makes San Francisco a great place to be. Maybe that is the reason that we are sometimes a little confused about other areas the fear diversity. The other things we realize is that no matter who you, in some ways, you are a minority. Perhaps it is your ethic background, your religion. Perhaps it is where you are from, or something that you like to do. We are all some kind of minority. So, when some talks about going after someone due to their minority status, we should all realize that eventually they could go after each one of us. So, when we are protecting someone else, we are actually protecting ourselves. People who are able to go other people get emboldened when they are able to be successful. They figure that were able to go after one group, so then they figure that they can go other groups. And at some point, each one of us will eventually be part of the group that they are going after. So, the reality is that by protecting others, we are actually protecting ourselves.

It is also time for a San Francisco Food Time, the perfect setting for romance, the combination of food and a great tour. We have incredible clean water and air, which makes for the perfect combination. And yet, as we have our San Francisco Food Tours, we are reminded that clean air and clean water is something that most of the world can only dream about. Things that most of us take for granted. We take having food and water easily accessible as a given. For most of the world that is not true. As we shop in our supermarkets or enjoy dinner at a restaurant, we take all of this for granted. We also assume that it either can??t or won??t go away. As we start to see the effects of climate change all of this could change. Hotter summers mean that many of the crops that we are used simply burn up in the heat, animals can??t get enough water or food. Winters last longer and are more severe, so that growing seasons are shorter. In the end, we have less food and water. So, all of the problems that happened somewhere else are happening to us. All of the things that we fooled ourselves to not caring about are happening to us. All of the things that we thought we would not have to worry about are happening right now. So, in the end, climate change does affect us all. And maybe, we do not have the luxury of ignoring it. If we ignore climate change, those other people who do not have water, food, or air, are us.

Spring is the time for renewal, the time to look at ourselves and see we were we can do better. On each San Francisco Food Tour, we try to always do the same. This year, we??re adding some new stops that should be really fun. From fresh focaccia to fresh pasta, we??ve got some great additions to our San Francisco Food Tours. We also have some great additions in Chinatown. Making changes is how we improve as people. Trying to stay the same frequently means trying to figure reasons not to change. Change is how we grow. Sometimes it can fun, sometimes it can be painful. It is like a good marriage, if you are lucky it ends being with people who grow together throughout their marriage. At every stage of our lives, we tend to see things different things as being important. When both people are growing at the same time, their priorities tend to be the same at the same time. They are then able to address the challenges together. In a way, our tours are a marriage with neighborhood with our communities, in some ways they stay the same, in other ways they grow. Sometimes it is growth that we like, some not so much. And just like a marriage, sometimes it is fun, sometimes it is painful. If we are lucky we grow at same times as our neighborhoods. Just like people.

It is also a great time for festivals in San Francisco, celebrating everything from flowers to neighborhoods to special times in the City. While we are celebrating special times in general, March is also a good time to celebrate the special times in our lives and the people in our lives. We all get so used to the people around us that it is easy to forget how blessed we are to have them in our lives. They are what makes our lives special. When someone is on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, one the best things that we get to do is to be a small part of someone celebrating a special time in their life, whether it is a birthday or an anniversary or something else significant in their lives. It is easy to take the people in our lives for granted. So, make March the month to find some way to celebrate the people in our lives. It could be a special dinner, going to a movie, going hiking, giving them a hug, or making sure that you acknowledge them when you see them. March can be great month for renewal and celebration. So, take some time to celebrate the people in your life. It is what makes each of our lives special. It is easy to take them for granted, which is why it is so important that we are careful that we never take them for granted.

This time of year, so many things are coming into season in the San Francisco Bay Area. From artichokes to asparagus and more, this time of year is a great time in our area. If you like to cook, like I do, you are in heaven right now. I??m one of those people who likes to shop on a daily basis. I like to go to the market and see what is fresh and then I figure out what I am going to make. I dislike cooking from a recipe, as it assumes that ingredients in the recipe are fresh. If something is not fresh, about the only thing you can do is cover up the food. If something is fresh, you do not need to do much to it, it already tastes great on its own. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we love to add in the foods of the season. The good news is so do our stops, so as the season progresses, we keep seeing the foods on our tours change to match what is in season. The best way to describe our cooking style is to take advantage of all of the local goods in our area, then try to do as little as we can to them. Given that almost anything you can imagine can and does grow in Northern California, the result is that we can always eat what is seasonal and local. It makes for some great foods at our homes and our tours.

Easter is almost here, and we always enjoy the activities in North Beach\Little Italy surrounding the holiday. The handmade Easter Eggs at Victoria Pastry are really amazing. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy it is a really fun thing to see. Each Easter Egg is individually handmade and painted. Inside are toys and surprises. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, they have Gingerbread Houses, each one individually handmade and completely edible. They are pretty large, so that is a lot of gingerbread and candy for anyone to eat. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we love seeing the local food artisans bring out the things that make the neighborhood special. In Chinatown, we see those kinds of special things around the Chinese New Year??s and the Autumn Moon Festival in October. It is so much fun when we find these one our tours of each neighborhoods. At the same time, we always get surprised by local artisans in North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown who are doing this year-round to make the neighborhoods special. The why we got started in the first place and it is still the driving force between us today, helping to support the local artisans in our neighborhoods that make our neighborhoods and San Francisco a special place. It is also our hope that people will join us on our tours and be inspired to support the local artisans in their own hometown that make where they live special. It is those place that make where you live a great place to live. The places that recognize you, the places that make you feel welcome, the places make your hometown a hometown. It is up all of us to help support and preserve them.

The rain is gone, and the weather is cleared on our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown and our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy. What??s left is the time of year where each of us starts to enjoy spring and the new foods and experiences that await us. With all of the fresh berries that are coming into season, it??s the perfect time for homemade ice cream. The stuff in the stores is good, but it can??t compare that we can make at home. At the same time, with hazelnuts, almonds, and walnut coming into season, fresh pasta with hazelnut, almonds, and walnuts almost demands to be made. There is something about fresh pasta. The dry pasta is okay, but it doesn??t compare to fresh pasta. The good news for our San Francisco Food Tours is that someone is making fresh pasta again in North Beach\Little Italy. So, given what fans we are of fresh pasta, we definitely needed to add it to the tour. I love to take fresh pasta and toss it we some fresh vegetables, such as asparagus, red peppers, orange bell peppers, mushroom, along with fresh basil, oregano and lemon. It??s simple, but it??s just right for spring. And what it even better is some roasted garlic. Toss it with olive oil and it??s all ready to be eaten. And if you finish it off with homemade ice cream, it??s the perfect dinner for spring. And, of course, with a nice glass of white wine. It??s the perfect dinner and just the way to welcome in springtime.

??Starting anew means looking at everything with fresh eyes.?? It means looking at each San Francisco Food Tour and seeing how we can improve.?? On each one of tours we are always looking at how we can improve our tours, whether it is new stops, new foods or just the way that we approach each one of our stops.?? In other words, we look at not only our stops, but ourselves also. ????We look at each other and ask a couple questions, how can we make the stops better for our guests, but also, are we contributing to the stop and the neighborhood.?? In other words, are we contributing to the neighborhood, as well as the stop.

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Whether we contributing to the neighborhood is extremely important thing to us.?? At the end of the day, the question for most of us it what makes a good quality of life.?? At some point on our lives, we realize that money is not the major factor.?? One our each of San Francisco Food Tours, we see that as well, it the relationships in our lives and whether they are enhancing us as people and whether we are enhancing their lives.?? Ae all want to have enough money to be comfortable, but past a certain point the money does not matter much.???? It is can we know that we are making the world better, are the personal relationships in our lives enriching ourselves and others.?? It??s what we ask ourselves every day.

Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, it is some fun to enjoy all of the new foods. Every stop is getting excited about the new foods, and we??re getting excited about using them at home. While we love eating out a new restaurant, there is something about eating at home with friends and family that always makes it special. There is also something meeting new people on our San Francisco Food Tours that makes is seem like we are meeting new members of our family. This weekend, squash blossoms are showing up in the markets. We love to stuff them with ricotta cheese, goat cheese, chives, some white vanilla (it??s clear and made from the flower of the vanilla plant, so it adds a wonderful aftertaste, almost like lavender), coat them in eggs and breadcrumbs, and then fry them in olive oil. We love to serve them with a fresh pesto sauce. We always make own pesto sauce, just throw some fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil in a blender. They are so good, they can be the main dish at dinner. And nothing says spring like squash blossoms. Some come join us as we celebrate all of the spring foods in San Francisco.

Bay to Breakers is one of the largest foot races in the world, many people in costume and many people with no costume.???? After or before running the race, many people find that a San Francisco Food Tour is a great way to enjoy the city.

If you are one of the people like me, who likes running, it is a lot of fun running the hills of San Francisco, surrounded by people dressed in all kinds of costumes.?? It is really just a city-wide block party.?? One of the great things about San Francisco is that we never take ourselves too seriously.??

??That has always been the nature of the city.?? That has also been the nature of our San Francisco Food Tours, we enjoy the food and culture of our neighborhoods, but we never get overly serious about it.?? It is sort of like enjoying food, sometimes the most thing that you want to do is to relax and just enjoy the food, not overly analyze the food.

??This weekend is a reflection the attitude of this place that we call home.?? We enjoy the food, the neighborhoods, and the environment around us.?? Sometimes, we analyze some of it, however mostly, we just enjoy it.?? There is something about a good cappuccino that should not analyzed, just enjoyed.?? Same thing with Bay to Breakers, it should not be analyzed too much. Just enjoyed.?? Besides, trying to analyze Bay to Breakers is probably an impossible task.

Summer is just around the corner and with that, some of the best foods on our San Francisco Food of North Beach\Little Italy and our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. Food is how we come together, and we relate to each other. Not just in San Francisco, but almost anywhere that one travels to anywhere in the world. Nowadays in our country relating to each other is not something that we do that well. There are many guesses as to why, however people at a national level do not set an example as to how to behave and how to relate to each other. And yet, it may be that the most impact that we can have is how we relate to each other in our daily lives. Do we see others as people first, or we define them by how they look, what they are wearing or something else that tells us very little as to who they are? Do we think before we say something that can be hurtful, or do we spurt out something hurtful and pass it off as an uncontrollable outburst? When we see someone exhibiting bad behavior, do we respond by demonstrating an example of what good behavior is? On our San Francisco Food Tours, we hold ourselves to the highest standards. Not just for our guests, which is important, but also so we can feel good about ourselves. Exhibiting good behavior makes all of feel better as people and proud of what we do. Perhaps, just perhaps, if we do this on a personal level, it can filter up to the national level.

It is marked not only by lots of festivals, but more importantly, we celebrate the diversity of our San Francisco.?? Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, we see that diversity every day.?? Celebration is much different than tolerating.?? Tolerance is putting up with something.?? Celebrating something is enjoying it.

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From the perspective of our San Francisco Food Tours, we see many cases across the country and around the world where neither tolerance or celebration of others seems to be growing.?? And yet, when we look around our own community, the opposite seems to be happening.?? The question as to why comes to mind.?? Is it because we see each other every day??? Is it because that it makes for an environment that seems more fun and alive??? Is it because that if you look at someone that you cannot tell who is a San Franciscan by the way they look???

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It could be some of that or it could be all of that or it could it be something else.?? Either way, it makes for a really enjoyable place to live. As we experience this on a daily basis, we are so used to this that we can??t imagine living any other way.?? The way that it reflects our food and our lifestyle, it something that none would want to change, even it if we could.?? It is the difference between experiencing life and enjoying it and just surviving.?? When someone is not celebrating diversity, they are just surviving. Celebrating diversity is celebrating life.

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With the start of summer, it is a great time festival of all kinds in San Francisco. From food festivals, music festivals, to street festivals, it??s easy to find something to do all throughout the summer. Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, we find that the best way to celebrate the summer is to enjoy all of the foods that come in for the season. Right now, we??re seeing a lot of stone fruit, everything from peaches to nectarines to apricots. When they are in season, you don??t need to do anything to them, just bite into one and flavor is incredible. Summer vegetables are also coming in, so we??re seeing lot of tomatoes, squash, and leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and broccoli. They make great sauces, just add a little olive oil and lemon and that is about all that you need. When we enjoy them on our San Francisco Food Tours, it is a real treat. That seems the way that we cook in San Francisco year-round, we see what is fresh, then we try to as little as possible to the food. After all, if it is fresh, the taste is so good that doing too much just covers the flavor up. For many areas outside San Francisco, summer brings lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well. The local farmers market is the best place to find these. The fresher the fruits and vegetables, the better that it tastes. Some come join us in San Francisco or enjoy the fresh food in your own backyard. It??s a delicious way to enjoy summer.

The start of summer always bring always brings new foods into the farmers market. When we see things like squash blossoms, corn and rice at the farmers, it just calls us to make risotto. And when we saw fresh goat cheese, it was a done deal. Add some fresh mission figs to that and you??ve got a dinner that almost makes itself. In a way, that way of cooking reflects who we are here, we see which foods are fresh, then we figure out what to make. On our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, we see each of those neighborhoods have the same philosophy. They start with which ingredients are fresh, then they figure out what to make. Add to that, the diversity of the food here, from all kinds of fresh food, to a wide variety of people from over the world, and it becomes a cook??s dream here. Whatever one wants to make, we usually find that the ingredients are locally grown and incredibly fresh. The result is that we end up combining foods from different cultures without really thinking about it. Northern California food tends to be a combination of foods, from all different cultures, however the one thing that it all has to be fresh. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see that every day, people and neighborhoods who enjoy cooking local fresh foods and then enjoying with their friends, family and neighbors. It makes for a great place to love. A place where we enjoy life and realize that it is our diversity that makes it so enjoyable.

Sitting back with some fresh melon and a cappuccino, reminds us about what summers in San Francisco are all about. Taking in the perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold and enjoying the fresh foods of the season. On either our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, we get the same experience, as well. It also reminds about why we like living here. Due to the unique climate that we have here, the hotter the inside of the state of California gets, the colder we get. It just pulls the fog or marine layer right off the ocean. What that means is that right along the coast is perfect for growing artichokes, the majority of the artichokes in the US are grown in this area. Yet, if one goes 30 miles away, it can easily get 20-30 degrees hotter. What that means is that everything that we eat here has been grown within about an hour of San Francisco. And our food is incredibly seasonal. If something is out of season, we just don??t?? eat it. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we love how are neighborhoods reflect that. As the seasons change, the foods change. The result is that every time that we explore our neighborhoods, we find something new and fresh for the season. Some new dish that they are making because they found the ingredients just came into the market. It makes for delicious melons that are incredibly sweet. Accompanied by the prefect cappuccino, it makes for a great way to start the day.

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.

Whether it is Northern California or in another country, what happens in other places affects all of us. Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, we are affected in one way or another. As we all know, global warming is no longer a theory, it is no longer something that might happen in the future, it is a reality that affects all of us on a daily basis. For many people, we ask if anything can be done. The first thing is to admit the obvious, it is here, and it is real. The next thing is to look what we can do on a daily basis to reduce it in the future. Maybe it is taking public transportation rather than driving, so we do not put more carbon emissions in the air. Walking is always a great option, not only is it healthy, there is not much carbon footprint. The next thing is making sure that our government leaders admit the obvious, global warming is here. On our San Francisco Food Tours, sometimes the most obvious thing is what is front of us. Same thing with global warming, it is right in front of us. We need to insist that we start to switch to less polluting industries and methods of transportation. We need to start planning for what is going to be really happening in the future. We don??t have to like reality, but we have to deal with it and plan accordingly.

From music festivals to street festivals, this is the weekend of the year that everyone in San Francisco celebrates. Whether is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, we celebrate our neighborhoods every day. We also celebrate what makes our neighborhoods so great. It is the diversity of them. The diversity is not only the stops, it is also the people in them. It is walking down a street and being uplifted by everyone that we come across. It is being surprised by something new and exciting around every corner. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we think that may be one of the most fun parts of the tour. The people that we know from the neighborhood and the different shops that we go into. It is running into the people that we have known from decades, but also the people who have just moved there and are discovering what a fun place it is to be at. Diversity is something to celebrated. Like most people in San Francisco, we all come from mixed backgrounds. And, we think that is great. It is not really possible to look at someone and tell if they are from here. What makes someone a San Franciscan is that we enjoy that reality. We think that it keeps us alive, both as individuals and a city. And for those whose think differently, we would suggest that they are missing out of life, both their own and well as their community. Life is so much more fun when one enjoys it.

With the start of fall, we??re having a great time on our San Francisco of Chinatown and North Beach\Little Italy with all of the seasonal foods.?? ??The corn coming into the markets right now makes the most incredible corn chowder.?? It??s the best way to warm those cold fall days.?? As the days get shorter, it??s just a reason to relax with a nice fall dinner of corn chowder, a nice salad, skillet roasted chicken with lemon and steamed broccoli.?? Finished with a glass of wine and a nice desert and you have the perfect way to enjoy those fall evenings.

??On our San Francisco Food Tours, we love to relax and enjoy the seasonal foods.?? The perfect cappuccino works regardless of the season.?? It has to have the right amount of foam and the perfect temperature.?? At this point, you can relax and sip back and enjoy it.?? And the perfect cannoli to go with does not hurt at al.??

??We look at food as food as a way to connect with others. It is something to savored, not rushed.?? It is something to enjoyed with others.?? It is always great to be surprised by a new flavor that you did not expect before.?? Something that just hits your tongue in exactly the right way.?? We love it when newcomers bring us something new and expected.?? It just seems to wake you up and relaxes you as you savor the new flavor.?? And it is still the best way to start or end a day.

With summer starting to wrap up, we start to think on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown about the changes that we want to make. We start looking at what areas that we can do better and what new things that we need to change. Change is something that is inevitable, but also necessary. For example, with the effects of climate change occurring, we have a basic choice, make changes to mitigate future changes and make changes to respond to the current effects of climate change or act if nothing is happening and have the effects of extreme weather affect us anyway. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we are keenly aware of how everything that we do is connected. For years, we kept acting as if the earth was some kind of magic disposal. We could take whatever trash that we had, whether it was carbon emissions, pollution, or everyday trash and toss it in the ocean, land, or air and it would somehow magically go away. We are now seeing that was just a fantasy. We now have a huge island of trash floating in the ocean, our air is getting dirtier, we have extremes in weather, and proof that all of the trash that we were throwing into and onto the earth did go somewhere. The question is n what we do for the future. Do we stop trashing the earth and try to clean up the mess that we made, or do we try to deny reality. Denying reality will not change reality, we just see the effects later on in an even worse form.

Labor Day weekend is coming up and for many people, it is just a three-day weekend. An extra day to relax. Whether we are on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, we enjoy relaxing and enjoying ourselves, as well. At the same time, we also like to reflect on what the Labor Day weekend is all about. For many of us, a job is not only a way to make an income, it also a way that we like to think that we are contributing to the world around us. Whether it on a local, state, or national level, or just in our own community or neighborhood, we all like to think that we are doing makes a difference in the world. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we hope that we are doing does that as well. We hope that what we are doing is making a positive difference in other people??s lives. Sometimes that can be easy to see, sometimes it not so easy. We all like to think that we will do something that will visibly make the world better. More often it is small things, treating someone else with kindness, finding something good to say about someone else, or just conducting in a manner that makes the world with something as simple as good manners. Something as simple as good manners or a kind word can make huge difference in the world around us and the people around us. It may not seem like a huge thing, but it really can be. It makes our community a better place to live, a more enjoyable place to live. So, with a small gesture, we can all make the world better.

September is here and with that is when we start to think on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown about what to do with the new foods coming into the markets.?? One of things coming into the market are brussels sprouts.?? It is one of those vegetables that lends itself to some many different ways prepare and enjoy.?? Whether you roast them in the oven with some prosciutto, shave them into as salad, roast them along with chicken into the oven, they add just the right flavor to food.??

Fortunately, corn is here, and there is an easy to make corn in the microwave.?? An easy way to make it in the microwave is to just keep that stalk on, then microwave it for three minutes, turn it about a half turn, microwave for three minutes, then turn it one last time about half turn, then microwave for another three minutes.?? It comes perfectly done.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, we really like trying what is in season.?? The challenge is to do a little as we can to the food. When something is in season, you do?? not need to do much to it. When it is not, there really is not much that you can do with it.

Whether it is here in San Francisco or elsewhere, eating what is seasonally ??is not fun, and easy, it is also delicious.?? The natural flavors of the food are enough.?? They don??t need to be covered up.?? It makes for only a fast meal, it makes for delicious meal.?? And, it is an incredibly easy way to eat.

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The chocolate festival may be this weekend, however on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, it is a chocolate festival every day. This weekend, the chocolatier on our tour just came up with a new flavor, lemon and lime. It is really the perfect combination. Refreshing, yet really good. On our San Francisco Food Tours, this is the time of year when we start to have some surprises for the fall. On our Chinatown tour, we have been able to add some excellent Peking Duck, the flavor is so good, and they make it right there. Peking Duck is one those foods that has to be made just right, enough flavor to be smooth, but never greasy. It is great by itself or with a fresh duck sauce and rice bun. The great part is that they make their own buns and sauce, as well as the duck. The stuff out of packets has very little flavor or is way too salty. This time of year, everyone heads off to the markets to see what is coming in, so every time that we are on a tour, whether it is North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, we??re always finding a delicious surprise. Whether it is someone just adding some fresh fruit to a dish, making a sauce from a fall vegetable, or just serving it fresh, we??re always finding something delicious on our tours. And, of course, we end up picking up some of the fresh produce and taking it home to cook ourselves. All is all, it is really a delicious time of the year to be in San Francisco. From the fresh fall foods on our San Francisco Food Tours to the food that we??re cooking at home, we??re having some great meals.

We??ve been having an interesting discussion on our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown and our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy lately. It comes down to the question of whether someone can taste the difference between meats that are free-range and organic and conventionally made meats. It??s an interesting discussion, but at best it still comes down to an individual judgement. It is not very likely that we are going to set up an independent scientific study, so it really does come does to taste and personal preference. For our stops on our San Francisco Food Tours, they seem to think that free range and organic meats do make a difference. From my point of view, I think that I can taste the difference. Perhaps, that is just something that I??m imaging, however free range and organic meats have a much more robust flavor. It seems that when I am cooking with them, I don??t have to add as much flavor to them. Again, that is something that I am just guessing about, since that is just a personal observation, not a scientific study. At the same time, I feel better knowing that the food that I am eating has been produced humanly. Perhaps it is the same thing as clothing that is made sweat shop free. I feel better know that am wearing was made by someone who was treated fairly. It is just a personal thing, I just feel better knowing that I can feel good about what I am eating and wearing.

Fall is almost here and on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, that means soup season. Each neighborhood uses different foods, but soup still reigns surprise. In Chinatown, the sizzling rice soup is a great way to enjoy the season. Rice with shrimp and chicken, along with some sizzling rice is a great way to warm your insides. In North Beach\Little Italy, squash signals all kinds of soups. My favorite is always butternut squash soup. That is one of those soups that is so good, I could eat it at every meal. It is a really easy soup to make. I like to just cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, then roast it in the oven for about 30-45 minutes about 350 degrees. You can then mix the squash with whatever liquids you want to use to turn it into soup. Personally, I like chicken stock, but you can use whatever kind that you like. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we really like taking whatever is fresh and enjoying them. Fresh food has so much flavor that you really don??t need to do much to it. And being a soup lover, there is not much that you cannot turn into soup. From asparagus to squash to corn, there is not much that you cannot turn it into soup. With a fresh salad or bread, you have dinner all ready to go. And, it is just warming enough for a fall meal.

Even though that it is more New Orleans than San Francisco, real gumbo is really delicious. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, one of stops made some for us to try. And although I am hardly a gumbo expert, it was really good. For a long time, I tried making gumbo, however the hardest part is getting the roux right. From what I understand traditional gumbo uses a roux made with oil and flour, as opposed to butter and flour. It??s also cooked a lot longer than the typical roux. The roux in the gumbo is used more flavoring than just as a thickener in a white or traditional roux. The challenge is that is getting it dark and brown without having it go to black and being burnt. The best way to do that is to keep a really close eye on the roux, to get that nice brown color, without going to black and being burnt. If the roux is burnt, about the only thing that you can do is throw it out and try again. As the roux is used for flavoring, if you use a burnt roux, the gumbo is going to taste burnt. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s really fun to try new foods. Sometimes, the person making the new food is someone from here who is trying out a new idea or sometimes it is someone who just moved here and has brought some new ideas with them. Especially when someone has moved here from another part of the world, they usually have a take on food that is particularly delicious and exciting. They usually have ideas that we would never have thought of, however the flavor is fantastic. All in all, it makes for some great meals.

When many people think of our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, they assume that there will be lots of food with tomatoes. Being the Italian section of San Francisco, that is a natural guess. Admittedly, I am one of those people who thinks that there is not much better than fresh tomatoes. I??m also the same way about butternut squash. The result is that I make way too many dishes at home with tomatoes and butternut squash. So, when we found a place was making a tomato tart, I was, of course, thrilled. Roast a tomato in the oven and it tastes wonderful. The same thing happens to butternut squash. Open it up, scoop out the seeds, roast it in the oven until it??s soft, and it??s perfect for everything, soups, tarts, salads, it??s perfect. I like mine with a little cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. And it??s definitely worth using fresh nutmeg, the stuff in the jars has no flavor. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we like to take fresh vegetables, not do much to them and then enjoy them. And while we really like tomatoes and butternut squash, any fresh fruits of vegetables will do. It really is the perfect indulgence. It just keeps us cooking and eating all of the time.

Green beans came just into the market.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, each neighborhood looks for the best way to use them?? North Beach likes to blanch them and put them into salads and Chinatown likes to make great soups using them.?? Either way, the result ends up being delicious.?? It??s like that with all of the foods as they come into the market.?? Each neighborhood finds some great way to use them.?? On our San Francisco Food Tours, it makes it so much fun to try everyone??s variation, whether it is an old recipe or new variation that someone just up with. The great thing about our climate here is that we always have something year-round that we can enjoy.?? The great thing about this area is that the warmer the inside of the state gets, the colder that we get.?? It just pulls the fog or marine layer right off the ocean.?? Then result is that right along the coast is the perfect climate for growing artichokes, for example, most of the artichokes grown in the country are grown about half hour south in Half Moon Bay and Castroville. If you go thirty miles to the east , it can easily be thirty degrees hotter.???? So, about everything we eat here has been grown in about an hour from the city.?? Fruit is local, vegetables are local, wine is local, olive oil is local.?? Added to that?? is we have a year-round growing season.?? The result is we always have something in season.

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Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, October is the month of festivals all throughout San Francisco. For most of us, Halloween is the time that we get ready for lots of parties and fun. The good news, especially on our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s also the time that pumpkins come front and center. For many people, pumpkins mean pumpkin pie. For me, it does mean pumpkin pie, however it also means pumpkin soup and roasted pumpkin. Pumpkin soup is just perfect at dinner, with a little nutmeg, and cinnamon, it??s even better. And once you roast a pumpkin, it is perfect for risotto. The only different, is that I like goat cheese with pumpkin in risotto. I also really like using pumpkin for ravioli. Portobello mushrooms are the perfect mushroom for pumpkin in risotto, along with some roasted walnuts. I like to use a fresh pesto sauce with them. The good news is that the stops on our tours think the same way. Whether it is North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, everyone likes to find a new way to use pumpkin. Pumpkin pasta, pumpkin tarts, everyone has great way finding a new way to enjoy pumpkin. And we have not begun to get to the fun that we??ll have on Halloween.

??From adding lemon juice to a sauce or soup to brighten it up to adding lemon slices to chicken or fish, it seems to be one of those perfect foods.?? On our San Francisco Food Tours of Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, it seems like a lot of places agree with us.?? From salads to soups, to main dishes, lemons seem to all of the place.?? At the same time, it seems like they exemplify the idea of eating locally and seasonally.?? Granted, we are in an area where lemons are grown year-round, so we are a little spoiled here.?? When they are fresh, ??lemon juice is the perfect way to add some great flavor to food.?? When it is not, it??s hard to get much lemon juice out of a lemon.

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On our San Francisco Food Tours, we have a great time enjoying foods that have that distinctive flavor that comes from bringing out the actual flavor of the food, rather than covering it up. Heavy sauces are really not a California way of cooking or eating.???? We would rather find what it is in season and then bring out the natural flavor of that food, instead of trying to take something that is out of season and then covering it up with some heavy sauce.?? As that point, about the only thing that anyone can taste is that sauce.?? So, we will stick with fresh foods and having a great time enjoying them.

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Thanks to our climate, it??s almost always warm in somewhere in Northern California. The only time that we can??t really find fresh tomatoes is around December to early February. It explains why the tomato sauce on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy tastes so good. Admittedly, when I was sitting down at dinner to fresh pasta and tomato sauce in North Beach, I was probably more focused on how good the food was than anything else. Also, since I am one those people who cannot imagine every having too many tomatoes, I am probably more than a little biased. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??re always trying new things, but there are certain standbys, such as fresh pasta with fresh tomato sauce that seem to never go out of style. Add some fresh bread and a nice glass of wine and we??re all set. And, a side of butternut risotto doesn??t hurt at all. The good news is that we have a great time with food. The bad news is that we rarely want to leave the dinner table. I guess that it??s hard for us to complain about it, we would not get a lot of sympathy from anyone else.

Whether it is on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, it is always fun to enjoy them during our tours.?? This weekend was a great time for that.?? Between the Blue Angels to the Italian Heritage Day, we were having a great time in San Francisco.?? Added to those was the Bluegrass Festival. It was the perfect time for our San Francisco Food Tours.

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One great thing about this area, is that there are always some festivals in our neighborhoods here.?? ????From street fairs, to neighborhood fairs, to music festivals, it??s easy to have a great time most of the year.?? Added to the foods that come in year-round and we??re able to find something new to do most of the year.

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We have a great time incorporating all of that into our tours.?? Being from here, it??s the stuff that most of us are used to. The sheer diversity of cultures food, and people make it fascinating place year-round.

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With fall come in up, the Harvest Festival will be soon, followed by Thanksgiving and the holiday season.?? Just like anyplace else, we have special foods to celebrate all the change.?? In November one of my favorite things, Dungeness Crab, comes into season.?? From me, there are few things that are better than that.?? Soon after that we??ll have more holiday foods along the way.?? All in all, it??s going to be really fun.

In Chinatown, it??s rice noodles. In North Beach\Little Italy it??s risotto. Admittedly, I??m a huge fan of risotto. Once you get the basic technique down, there is not much that you cannot make into risotto. For me, I just saut? some onions and garlic until they are translucent, add the rice, saut? it for about a minute or two, add some wine, cook that until it evaporates. I like adding whatever meats or vegetables at the point. The only thing is that they don??t cook much beyond that point, so I like cooking them before I put them in. I then just slow adding liquid, such as stock until it??s absorbed. I like adding some herbs and cheese at the end. I think that for me, the challenge is to add enough cheese to flavor the risotto, but not so much that it covers it everything else. In Chinatown, the rice noodles are what makes everything really good. Unlike risotto, I??ve never been successful making rice noodles. I wish I could, I??ve watched people make them, however I??ve never been able to get the technique down. The result is that I am incredibly impressed when I enjoy them. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we get to try so many different foods every day. Being that I like cooking, I frequently go home and try to make them myself. Sometimes it works, other times I??m glad other make them better than I do.

Whatever the name for it is, this is really best time of the year in San Francisco, as far as the weather is concerned. For us, it??s the warmest time of year, which in our case, which means being in the 70??s. Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, it??s the perfect weather to walk around the City. We tend to eat outside more this of year. On our San Francisco Food Tours, everyone wants to sit outside on the tours. At the same time, given the food that it is in season, inside or outside, it??s just right. With all the squash that is coming in, it??s a great time for risotto. Squash is perfect for risotto. I like to cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and then roast it in the oven. At that point, it becomes the perfect ingredient for risotto. Add some saut?ed fennel and it seems like the perfect flavor combination. I like to use the frods (the leaves at top of the fennel), after the risotto is done to add some additional flavor to it. A little cheese, and it??s just right. So, we??ll be outside this time enjoying some great foods, except when we??re inside enjoying cooking. Either way, it??s a great time of year

Whether it is our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, having the right ingredients can make all the difference. Even in something as simple as a cappuccino. You need the right coffee, the right expresso machine, the right milk, but mostly you need to right person making it. The person has to know when it is just right. And it has to matter to them that it comes out right. And, also, you needs to be the right environment. It needs a to be a real caf? where you can sit back and enjoy it. Even the best cappuccino in the wrong place just feels like a cup of coffee with milk. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s really great to see people who really care about they are making. It means that for them, the tomato sauce has to be just right. The cannoli have to be filled in a way that the ricotta cheese not just takes good but looks the right way. The arancini has to be served a certain way, with the right sauce, because their family made it and it??s something that they are proud of. And, it has to savored. One has to savor the various herbs and spices that give it the great flavor. And, you need to and be able to taste the pride that someone had in making it.

In most places, the weather gets colder this time of year. In San Francisco, it??s the exact opposite. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, it??s the perfect weather. Usually somewhere in the 70??s. No rain, very little humidity, the perfect weather to walk around San Francisco. It??s also the perfect temperature to eat outside. Sitting outside, with a glass of wine with dinner, it??s the ultimate luxury. One of friends gave us some fresh sea bass yesterday. We just stuffed it with olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, lemon juice, lemon zest, some rosemary and oregano. We them poured some olive oil on the outside, poured some white wine over it, covered it, then baked it into the oven for about 35 minutes or some at about 325 degrees. Some people tell that you can tell when it??s done by looking at it. I find that a meat thermometer works best for me. When it??s about 145 degrees, it??s there for me. We just made a lemon and lime vinaigrette to pour over it, (lemon juice and zest, lime juice and zest, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper, oregano and rosemary and it the perfect fall dinner On our San Francisco Food Tours, we really enjoy having those kinds of simple dinners, something fresh and them trying to cook it in a way that does not cover up the flavor. With a glass of wine and a salad, it??s the perfect dinner.

Halloween in always a fun time in San Francisco. Walking around on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we see all of the pumpkins all around the City. The great to look at for carving, however I think they are always more fun to eat. Pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin risotto, they are all great ways to enjoy pumpkin. Just like other squash, all that needs are done is to peel them, scoop out the seeds, and they ready to be prepared for enjoying them. I like to start off by roasting pumpkin in the oven. I just cut it up into smaller pieces, putting them on a roasting pan in the oven. I like using a moderate heat, around 400 degrees. For 25-30 minutes, just until they get soft. At the point, if I??m making soup, I just puree it in the blender, then put it into a saucepan and add some spices, such as cinnamon, sage, nutmeg, and allspice. I like using some stock to thin it out to a soup, then finishing it off with a little cr?me. For roasted pumpkin, it ready to eat after some spices, such as cinnamon, sage, nutmeg, and allspice. If I??m making pumpkin risotto, I just puree the pumpkin, and make it as part of the risotto. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we are enjoying eating the foods that are in season. For every part of the year, we have a great time with the vegetables and foods of our season.

The costumes were great this year and almost everyone made their own. Now that we are in November, it??s just a few more days until Dungeness Crab comes into season. I realize that they have crab in other parts of the country and the world, but we think ours is one of the best. It??s got a clean and sweet taste that goes perfect with a glass of chardonnay and some sourdough bread. Some people like their crab with melted butter, some like it with garlic, and some just like it plain. For myself, any of those ways is good, however when it first starts to show up, I like it just as it is, later on I like it in different preparations. Maybe it??s anticipation of waiting for it to come into season, it??s anyone??s guess. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always interesting to see how everyone makes Dungeness Crab. In North Beach\Little Italy, it shows up with garlic and herbs, such oregano and pepper. In Chinatown, we see garlic also, however someone served it with a black bean sauce and it was remarkedly good. It??s going to fun to see the new ideas for preparing Dungeness Crab this year. I??m not sure what they will be, however if it is anything like last year, it will be delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, each neighborhood has its own traditional foods to celebrate the holiday. Thanksgiving is one of those few American holidays. Unlike other holidays, which have some religious tone, it??s one of those few holidays that seems to be celebrated by just about everyone in the country. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see that as well. Regardless of whether it is turkey or duck or something else, everyone sees it as a time to come together with family or friends. It always hopefully reminds that we have more in common that we have different from each other. On each one of our tours, we see people come together and remind each other of what we have in common. In our area, it??s the diversity of the foods and the cultures that makes for an incredible time of year. So, as we are exploring our neighborhoods, enjoying everything from duck to butternut squash to dim sum, we??re also enjoying each other. It??s what make our tours and neighborhoods such a great place to visit. It??s what makes San Francisco such a great place to be, at Thanksgiving or at any time of the year. However, especially now, when we come together to celebrate each other.

Cars may be a great way to get from place to place, however if you really want to get behind the scenes and see what is really going on, walking is the only way to do it. One our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, we get remined of that every day. For many people, they prefer driving a car, however for me, I always prefer walking. In addition to being able see more, it??s a lot less stressful. When I??m walking, I can take my time, if I want to stop and look at something, I can do that. When I??m driving, I??ve got to be alert the whole time, deal with traffic, other drivers, road problems, and anything else that might come up. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we always get surprised by some great places to stop. Just yesterday, we found a group in Chinatown having an impromptu concert. We just stopped and enjoyed the concert. It became even better when one of the musicians handed someone in our group one of the musical instruments and invited us to join them. We had a great time and it was lot of fun. I just can??t imagine having that kind of experience if we were driving. Just one time, where walking was a lot more fun than driving.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown, it??s usually not really noticeable when winter is in the area. It does not snow here, and we get a little cooler, however that is only on the 50??s. So, the real to tell is all of the soups that start to show up on our tours. There is not much that you can??t make soup from. For myself, tomato soup or butternut squash are my absolute favorites. In both cases, I like to roast the tomatoes or butter squash before I make them into soups. Add a fresh salad to that and it??s the perfect meal. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we have a great time seeing what everyone makes into soup. In North Beach\Little Italy, they seem to like hearty meals. Chinatown seems to make a little lighter soup. The great thing about the soups in Chinatown are the rice noodles. Fresh rice noodles are really great. I like the places that make their own rice noodles. For me, I can taste a difference. The same seems to be valid about soups in North Beach\Little Italy that have pasta. Fresh pasta makes a big difference. The pasta seems to be much more infused with flavor of the soup. For rice noodles, they seem to do the same, but have their own distinctive flavor. Either way, it??s a great way to have soup.

Pumpkin, butternut, acorn, or yellow, this time of year is the perfect time of year for squash on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. And each neighborhood has their favorite ways to prepare squash. North Beach\Little Italy like to roast squash while Chinatown likes squash in all kinds of stir fries and soups. For me, I really like squash in soups. Fortunately, a lot of our stops on our San Francisco Food Tours agree with me. Of all of the kinds of squash, butternut squash is my favorite. Roasted is great, with some walnuts saut?ed in butter and lemon and the topped with fresh sage leaves. Many people will just roast one half by itself. I like to peel the skin off (down to the orange, cut it in half, scoop off the seeds, then cut it into about one-inch moons. I then toss those in butter and roast them in the oven at about 425 degrees until they start to brown, about 20 minutes, then turn them over and brown them on the other side, about 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them, as they can go from browned to burnt very quickly. You can either enjoy them then or if you puree them, you can throw into a saucepan with just enough stock to thin it to a soup consistency, add some spices, and then at the very end add some cream and it is my favorite soup. Either way, it??s a great way to enjoy butternut squash.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we always have a great time celebrating the holidays. Every neighborhood starts to get all fixed up and starts to make some special foods for this of year. It does not get very cold here, so don??t have the snow and cold weather that other places do. On the other hand, it does not very hot either, so it??s some of best weather of the year. Even with that we make the excuse that it??s cold enough for hot apple cider and Irish coffee. It??s really not that cold, however it??s a good excuse. Around the city, everyone has holiday decorations up, this year, around City Hall, they??re having a winter carnival. We do ours without snow, since it??s never cold enough for that. They even managed to open up three ice skating rinks around the city. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??re still enjoying pumpkin and other fall squash, along with some great soups, such as butternut squash or pumpkin soup. Added to the saut?ed squash in dishes, it??s really good. Between the special events in San Francisco and the special foods here, we have a great time enjoying the holiday season, even if we don??t have snow.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we??re thinking about that also. For many people, that means searching the stores or the internet for just the right gift to give someone. For me, I also like giving something that they can remember. A couple of days ago, we went to see a light show a short distance south of here. Along the way, we made a wrong turn and go really lost. The result was really tense drive along one lane mountain roads with no lights. The good news is that we finally found our way out of there. We even made it to the light show. On one hand, our trip was not the experience that we planned. The other good news is that it will be one of those things that we laugh about years from now. And given that my spouse and I experienced it together, it??s something that only the two of us know about. It??s also the kind of shared experience that probably makes us into a couple. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see a similar bonding experience. It the shared experience of enjoying something together, some thig that people can talk about years from now. This year consider giving your friends and family an experience, something that they can remember years from now.

The holiday season is here and we??re getting ready for it on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. For many people, they think of the gifts that might give or receive. For us, we think of the foods that we??ll see during the holiday season. Pumpkin is the obvious one that comes to mind. For others, hot apple cider and hot chocolate come to mind. Granted, it does not get cold enough here to really need a hot drink, however, they still taste good, regardless of what the weather is like. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??re having a great time enjoying the holiday season, in North Brach\Little Italy and Chinatown, each neighborhood has special foods for this time of time of years. One place in North Beach\Little Italy had a pasta with walnuts and cream that just delicious. A place in Chinatown had a soup with duck and ginger that fantastic. And, it is so much fun enjoying that as a special treat on our tour. Added that to the foods that we have already and it??s the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season. The result is that it ends up being a delicious time of year. And the hot toddies make it even better.

With the start of the holiday season, we??re starting to see a lot of traditional holiday foods showing up on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. From turkey and ham, to pork and duck, from butternut squash to pumpkin, every neighborhood is getting into the holiday season. In North Beach\Little Italy, things tend to get roasted. In Chinatown, things tend to get saut?ed or show up in soups. The San Francisco thing is that both neighborhoods end with Dungeness crab. Dungeness Crab is one of our local favorites. It usually shows up around November 15 and stays arounds until March and April. For whatever reason, it seems like it is sweeter this time of year, right after it shows up. It could be because it is sweeter. It could be because we miss having the rest of year and we??re craving it. On our San Francisco Food Tours, eating seasonally is a passion of ours. Not having something available year-round seems to make it better when it comes into season. It becomes more of a treat. I think that if we could have it year-round that it would not be as special. Maybe that is why that it tastes so good, either because it does or just because we can??t have at other times of the year. Either way, those seasonal foods taste great. And, it??s even more fun when we enjoy them on our tours.

New Year??s Eve is almost here and we??re getting ready on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. We always like to do a combination of the old and the new, the fun and still a little sophisticated. For many of us, that means a trip to the Nutcracker and then spending New Year??s Eve with the symphony. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we like to celebrate New Year with a wine in North Beach\Little Italy and a special tea in Chinatown. In North Beach, being the Italian part of the city, we always like to add some Panettone. While it??s easy to find in the boxes from Italy, nothing compares to the fresh panettone made in the bakeries in North Beach. I can eat it just as it is, however in the morning, there is nothing better for French Toast. There is something making your own breakfast foods, it takes a little more time, however, the flavor is definitely worth it. For example, you can buy frozen waffles, however they don??t compare to the ones that you make on your own. Same thing with French toast, the flavor of when you make your own beats anything that I can get from a store. We??ll be looking at how we bring more of those treats onto our tours for New Year, some old, some new foods, and some fun and a little sophisticated. As long as they are delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we??re out enjoying the great foods of the holidays. The great part is that each neighborhood has some great foods. In Chinatown, the duck is simply fantastic. It??s got that deep flavor, along with some great sauces. Added to the soups or by itself, it??s perfect. I really enjoy it with some fresh rice noodles. The flavor of the duck just infuses the rice noodles, so it has that great combination of fresh rice noodles with duck in every bite. In North Beach\Little Italy, all the species of the season show up, from ginger to sage, accompanied by great baked goods. Along with the great breads of the season. The fresh panettone is really good. The stuff in boxes is okay, however it does not compare the fresh bread. Just like the fresh marzipan cookies are perfect with a cappuccino. Enjoying that combination on our San Francisco Food Tours is a real treat. I like when they are just a little while out of the oven. Cooled a little, but not too much, so they are still soft and savory. In either neighborhood, enjoying the foods of the season are our favorite ways to enjoy the holiday season. And it keeps that holiday season right in our taste buds.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we??re enjoying the holidays along with everyone else. We??re having a great time exploring San Francisco. Each block brings another surprise. On our San Francisco Food Tour, it??s the time of year when we go home and start cooking for the holidays. Some people like turkey. Some people like ham, some people vegan or vegetarian, personally, I like Dungeness Crab. Being from San Francisco, it??s a local treat that we all look forward to. Eating locally and seasonally is something that we really enjoy in San Francisco and our tour. Fortunately, there is something in season year-round here. Thanks to our climate, the hotter the inside of the state gets, the colder that we get. It just pulls the fog or marine layer right off the ocean. What that means is that right along the coast is perfect for things like artichokes. For example, most of the artichokes in the US are just south of here in Castroville and Half Moon Bay. And yet, if we thirty miles to the east, it can easily be thirty degrees hotter. What that means is that just about everything that we eat here has been grown within about an hour of San Francisco. So, we end up eating what is in season here. It??s a great way to celebrate holidays. And a yummy way also.

Whether everyone has on their party hats or enjoying their favorite foods, it??s a really fun time of year on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. I like combining parties on our San Francisco Food Tours with the great foods of the season. In North Beach]\Little Italy, the Prosecco will be flowing everywhere. If it was the French area, maybe it would be Champagne, however given that it is the Italian section, it??s going to be Italian wines. In the rest of San Francisco, there will be lots of sparkling wines flowing. After all, we are in the middle of wine country, so we it is a given that we??ll be having wines. At the same times, we??re also in the middle of cheese country, so we??ll be having lots of cheese, as well. I realize that there is a lot of dispute as to where cheese country is located, whether it is Northern California or somewhere else or as to who makes the best cheese, however comparing the cheeses made here compared to other places in the world is a really delicious task to do. So, we??ll spend the holidays comparing different sparkling wines and cheeses. The great news in that we have really good public transportation, so we??ll let someone else drive. In the end, we??ll have a really delicious New Years, and a really new year to follow that.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s a time to great started on of the new things for our San Francisco Food Tours. From new stops to great new foods, we??re always excited this time of year. In the city, we just reopened the convention center. It is twice the size of the previous convention center. At City Hall, we??ve got a winter carnival out front on Civic Center Plaza, complete with an ice-skating rink, foods, and other great surprises. For the rest of the city, we??re all looking at time where we explore all around then city. We tend to be a fairly active area here, so we really enjoy walking. Additionally, we??re surrounded by a lot of parkland, so going off the Mount Tamalpias or the Marin Headlands make for a great afternoon hike. In San Francisco, the best to explore it, by walking. When we??re walking through Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy we??re able to experience the neighborhood in a way that driving through it could never do. We get to feel the vibe of the neighborhood and meet the people in it. And given that we??re from here, we always end up meeting old friends and meeting new ones. The result is that every exploration into our neighborhoods bring a new and unquie experience.

January is a great time on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown to explore our city. For me, I??ve always enjoyed exploring anyplace by walking. Recently, we were vacationing in Amsterdam and we walked into a booth by a street vendor. By complete coincidence, she had lived in San Francisco a number of years ago. She still had fond memories of the people and the views and how different San Francisco is from anywhere else. Personally, I really enjoyed Amsterdam and thought it was wonderful, between the museums, the chesses, the people and the neighborhoods, it was a great place to visit. This person, on the other hand, started telling us all of the ways that she thought Amsterdam had changed for the worse. It also highlighted something that many people, including myself, fall into. When you are from some place, it??s easy to focus on everything that is wrong with that place. Generally, we hear about all of the problems that visitors never hear about and if you??re from a place like San Francisco, you almost expect everything to perfect and are upset when it is not. At the same time, it??s easy to miss all of the great things about that place, as we see them every day. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we get to see what makes this place so special and it reminds everyday what a great place that it is. So, whether you??re from San Francisco or Amsterdam, or somewhere else, take the time to focus on what makes your hometown special. It??s reminds us, what great places we all live in.

In San Francisco, we are in our version of winter, in our case, anything in the fifties, temperature wise. Compared to most places, that probably does not qualify as winter. It does not very cold here, so we don??t really have a lot of tolerance for cold weather. We??re just not used to it. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we use this as a good excuse for soups. It doesn??t take much for us to do this. Chances are, given some of the soups we??re seeing right now, we would come up with an excuse one way or another. So, when I saw some making soup in North Beach\Little Italy, it was a sure thing that I was going to stop by and get some. And given that one of the soups was tomato soup, it a definitely sure thing. Added to that, they were making butternut squash soup, so I was definitely hooked. Tomato soup and butternut squash soup are my two favorite soups. On our San Francisco Food Tours, I have a great time stopping by and seeing what some in the neighborhood just made. And, of course, we have to add that to the tours. Whether it??s soup, gelato, or a special sauce, it??s a yummy way to explore the neighborhoods.

I was reading the food section of our local paper and I got reminded about why the food on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown tastes so good. It was a chicken recipe and part of the recipe included garam masala, an Indian spice mixture. My first reaction was that it sounded really good and I told my spouse that I was definitely going to make this dish. As I rethought about it, it reminded me about what we encounter on our San Francisco Food Tours. We see this great mixture of cultures and food that results in some amazing dishes. I got reminded that makes our food and city so much fun is that it is this incredible mixture of cultures. We??re such a mixture that we really don??t notice it. It??s like our cooking, we add ingredients and spices here or add something different in a different place and we really don??t give a lot of thought of where it comes from. The result is a mixture of food and cultures that is fun to experience and declivous to savor. The great thing, as well, is that due to our climate here in Northern California, we grow almost of that locally. The result is a delicious mixture of food and cultures, coupled with great local food. It makes for a delicious place to live.

The weather here only changes about 20-30 degrees year round.?? It rarely gets above 70-75 degrees and rarely gets below 45-50 degrees.?? As a result, the weather is usually very nice for our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.?? At the same time, if you go about an hour??s drive outside San Francisco, the weather can change from very hot to cold.?? The result is that on our San Francisco Food Tours, the food changes year round.?? Thanks to our climate, we have a year round growing season.

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Our cooking tends to reflect that. On other words, it??s hard to define San Francisco or California by a specific type of food.?? It is more a way of cooking.?? We tend to look for whatever is fresh and then try to prepare it in a way that does as little as we can and does not cover up the flavor of the food. We are not into heavy sauces, just enough to enhance the food, but not cover up the food.

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The result is whether we on a tour, eating out a restaurant or cooking at home our foods change according to what are season.?? It also affects the way that we shop.?? We really do not shop with a recipe.?? Instead we tend to see what is in season and what is fresh and then go from there.???? It makes for a yummy way to eat.

With February right around the corner, we start thinking of Valentine??s Day on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy. Being the Italian section, Valentine??s Day falls pretty natural to it. And on our San Francisco Food Tours, we have a great time celebrating Valentine??s Day. We like a combination of news foods and special surprises for Valentine??s Day. Some people look at Valentine?? Days as a minor holiday and something not to pay much attention to. However, for those of us who been in a relationship or for those people who hope to be, it may be more important than one first considers. Many of us have busy lives. It??s easy to take the other people in our lives for granted. The idea of taking a day to recognize how important other in our lives are can be a very powerful thing. It can be a time to recognize that it??s the other people in our lives that enrich our lives. For those who feel left out by Valentine??s Day, it can be a great time to time to let them that they are not forgotten. For many of us who have been with someone for any period of time, it??s easy to forget the times in our lives when we wondered whether we would ever meet the special person. At the same time, those people have to watch everyone else celebrating. So, while we??re in the middle of celebrating the others in our lives, let??s not forget the people who are feeling left out. If we do both, it can be a great Valentine??s Day this year.

I went traveling to two different places recently and I was reminded about how much we??re used to nice weather on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. In most areas, the temperature can range 50-60, from very hot to very cold. In San Francisco, our temperature usually stays within a very short range, between about 50 to 70 degrees, only about a 20-degree range. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we used to nice weather year-round. The result is the we??re out doing tours years round. The other good news is that we have different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables year-round. We also tend to eat very seasonally here, so if something is out of season, we just don??t eat it. I??ve always liked that we have different foods year-round. For example, asparagus seems to taste better when it is not available at certain times of the year. It??s not only that the food tastes better, it makes that food more special. If we could have something year-round, it would not be as special. In our neighborhoods, the food tends to reflect the way we eat, year-round the foods change from season to season. As we walk around with nice weather year-round, we get to couple that with great food all of the times. It??s a yummy place to be.

February is going to a really great time of on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. In Chinatown, it??s going to be Chinese New Year. And, in North Beach\Little Italy, it??s going to be Valentine??s Day. Chinese New Year in San Francisco is really something to experience. Even though it??s technically one day, it??s actually an entire month of activities. We??ll have the Chinese New Year Street Fair. It??s one of those great fairs with a combination of booth, dancing, music and surprises that takes up all of Chinatown. They always have a large number of stages around Chinatown, each with a different group of performers. The Flower Market Fair is a great time if you??re into flowers. In the middle of Chinatown, they always large variety of flowers and plants for sale and display. It??s always a really beautiful event. The Chinese New Year??s Parade will take up all of downtown San Francisco. For hours, there will be all kinds of floats, marching bands, groups throughout the downtown. The entire city participates, it??s one those things that I never get tired of seeing. In North Beach\Little Italy, they will be celebrating Valentine??s Day in a way that is sure to bring out the lover in all of us. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??ll be having a great time taking it all in.

I can??t recall which month brings spring flowers, according to the old saying, however we??re starting to see them on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. We got more rain than usual, and abundance of flowers has been really spectacular. Along with flowers, we??re starting to see some of my favorite mushrooms, Golden Chanterelles. Hopefully, we??ll see a large crop of mushroom this year. There are some kinds like button and cremini mushrooms that farmers can grow. Others, you need to go out and search for. Not being a mushroom expert, I??ll leave the mushroom picking to the experts. While the right mushrooms are delicious, the wrong ones can look very similar to the right ones and can make one sick or can even be fatal. For most of us, mushroom picking should be left to the experts. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??re starting to see a lot of dishes with the right mushrooms. For example, porcini mushrooms are turning all of the place. While many people like the dried porcini mushrooms, I??m a huge fan of the fresh ones when I can get them. The dried ones tend to end up in sauces. The fresh ones are great in sauces, however the fresh are great in soups and stews, as well as sauces. When I see my favorite mushrooms, Chanterelles, I make them into everything from sauces, salads, quiches, and more. They are great in a frittata. So, whatever your favorite mushroom, just sit back on enjoy them. Just leave the picking to the experts.

Between Valentine??s Day and the Chinese New Year, February is the month for festival on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. Pigs have a beautiful personality and are blessed with good fortune, so in celebrating the year of the Pig, we are wishing that all of us have the same, a beautiful personality and have good fortune throughout the year. For the first part of the month, we??ll celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, followed by the Chinese Flower Mart, the community fair, various family association festivals, the finishing with the Chinese New Year??s parade. If you??ve never seen the Chinese New Parade in San Francisco, it??s definitely something pretty spectacular. It goes on for a couple of hours, along with floats , lion and dragon dances and marchers from not only the Chinese community, but also from all of San Francisco, It really makes for a great backdrop for our San Francisco Food Tours. In North Beach\Little Italy, celebrating Valentine??s Days takes a great level of love as everyone comes out to celebrate their love for their spouses, the neighbors, and of, course San Francisco. From great foods, to special gifts, love is definitely in the air around San Francisco. Between Valentine??s Day and the Chinese New Years, February will be a great month to be in San Francisco. It??s a great time to visit and to join us.

It usually stays within a range of between 55 to 70 degrees. It??s only when it is a little hotter or colder that is any kind of subject. The coldest time is always the summer, when the inside of the state acts as a vacuum and pulls the fog or the marine layer off the ocean. The result is that we can get a little spoiled out here. We expect the weather to be perfect year-round and then we get upset when it is not perfect. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, the result of this is that have a great time touring the city year-round. It also means that we realize that for most people when they see the way that we??re dressed, it can be a surprise. On our San Francisco Food Tours, if it gets cold for us, which is anything in the 50??s, we??re usually dressed in counts, scarves, winter coats and more. And they hear lots of complaints from locals about how bad the weather is and how cold it is. At the same time, the rest of the country frequently has sub-freezing weather. It??s probably no surprise that the people smirk when they hear us complain about the weather.

I??m one of those people likes to eat out, however at the same time, I really enjoy going in the kitchen and making a great meal for myself. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, I get lots of new recipe ideas. For example, on our San Francisco Food Tours, someone gave me the idea of a parmesan sauce that I had not tried of or thought of before. You start off by flambeeing some Cognac and the mixing some freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano. After it smooths into a cream , you just add some fresh herbs, such as Basil and Oregano. At first, I little skeptical, I??m so used to adding some kind of liquid, such as cream, stock, or wine, however it was actually pretty good. It took me a few times to get this right. First you need to get the proportion of Cognac to Parmesan cheese correct and then then the trick it to saut? it enough to great cream sauce, but not so long that it becomes too thick. It is definitely not a sauce that you can walk away and forgot about. When I finally got this right, it was worth the effort. I just tossed it with fresh pasta and finished it with Basil and it was a great meal. It only two or three times to get it right.

With a three-day weekend coming up, there are a lot of choices for things to do on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. Between the Chinese New Year celebrations and Valentine??s Day, there are a lot of great choices of things to do in San Francisco. The good news is that we??ll have a great time celebrating both on our San Francisco Food Tours. In Chinatown, it??s always fun taking in the street fairs and celebrations. There are usually lots of lion dances and other celebrations all along the streets of Chinatown. Everyone seems to celebrate the Year of the Pig, so it will be a great time to be on Chinatown. In North Beach\Little Italy, love is in the air, especially for Valentine??s Day. Between chocolate and flowers and more surprises, it??s always a yummy time to be in North Beach\Little Italy. Since we??re actually from San Francisco, for us, the weekend is like a weekend when we see all of our friends. For everyone on our tours, it??s great that they get to feel like they are seeing the neighborhoods from the point of view of local. The result is that everyone gets to feel like they are part of the celebrations. All in all, it??s a great time to be in San Francisco.

Next Saturday is the Chinese New Year??s Parade in San Francisco and it??s a great time to be in San Francisco. On our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown and North Beach\Little Italy it??s a really fun time. With all the festivities in Chinatown leading up to the parade, we??ll get to see all of the lion and dragon dancing troupes getting ready. It takes quite a bit of acrobatic skills and coordination for each one of them, so walking around Chinatown, we always run into the various troupes practicing for the parade. Up on Stockton, there are lots special things being sold for Chinese New Year??s, from special foods to figurines to honor the Year of the Pig, which is this year. As, of course, everyone is a festive mood for the Chinese New Year??s. The parade itself usually starts on Kearny, near Portsmouth Square, goes down Kearny to Post, turns around Powell, then Geary and then to Market Street to about Montgomery. It starts about 5:15. If you??re planning to go, go early, as it tends to have a very large crowds watching the parade. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we have a great time taking it all in. The Chinese New Year??s Parade is one of those events that the entire city takes in and enjoys. It??s a great and fun to be in San Francisco.

It??s got to have all of the right elements. The perfect shot of expresso, with the foam exactly right. I like it when the foam almost stands up itself. And the temperature should be warm, but not hot. All of that can be lost if it??s not in the right cup. The cup needs to wide enough that you can experience the foam, but not so wide that you lose the bouquet of the cappuccino. If all of that sounds overly particular about something like a cappuccino, it??s that on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we get see how a food artisan takes that much care into the ingredients and to how it is prepared. It also shows how foods needs to be balanced. Where each ingredient affects the other ingredients. Similar to the expresso in cappuccino, it needs to strong enough to hold up to the foam but not overwhelm the food. Just like spices should enhance the food not overwhelm them. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see how local food artisans take that kind of care with the foods that they make. Making sure that each ingredient is fresh and compliments the other ingredients. It??s what make for great food and a great cappuccino.

This year, not only do we have wildflowers, the ones in San Francisco are pretty spectacular. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we??re getting to see all kinds of flowers all over our neighborhoods. That seasonal focus is what makes our tours so much fun. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we get see and enjoy all of the seasonal flowers and foods throughout our tour. All year round, we can tell the change of seasons on our tours. The foods change, the recipes change, and every season bring new surprises on our tours. We love to cook that same way, so this time of year, we??ll be cooking a lot with asparagus as the season starts. Asparagus is one those vegetables that is great in salads, slighted grilled, or in asparagus soup. Personally, I like soup. Making asparagus soup is so easy and it turns our really well. All I do is cook the asparagus stalks in stock, you can use chicken or vegetable stock. After the asparagus is tender, puree the mixture in a food processor, add it back to pot, then add some spices and herbs. If you want to add cream, I would add it after you turn the heat off, so the cream does not curdle. Eating seasonally is so much fun. And this time of year, it is great time to do just that. It??s always really yummy.

Spring brings new flavors into the markets and with that our imagination gets a kick start on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. When I walked into the market and saw peas and butternut squash, it seemed like a natural combination. When I saw some fresh sage leaves and that the new walnut crop was in the market, I knew that I wanted to make something out of them. I was not exactly sure what I was going to end up with, however I have a great time experimenting. Fortunately, I have an understanding spouse, who understands that sometimes it turns out really good and somethings not so good. In this case, I saut?ed onions and walnuts, then added the peas and butternut squash. I added some cinnamon, fresh nutmeg and allspice, then finished it off with fresh sage. The good news is that is actually turned out pretty good. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s fun to experiment and try new foods as they come into the market and then into the neighborhoods. The other goods news is that cooks or chefs at our stops are probably much better cooks than me, so it always turns out delicious. When that happens, it inspires me to go home into my kitchen and try out some new idea. For my spouse that can either be really tasty or a time when they try to be diplomatic. Either way, I have a great time trying something new

One of things that I really like to encounter is when one cuisine influences another cuisine, similar to what we encountered of our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. In Chinatown, one of our stops made a special soup. It was not any kind of special occasion, it was just that they managed to get some Thai Basil. It has a similar flavor to the basil that we get, however it is not as sweet and has a really nice anise, almost licorice, flavor. They put it in at very end after they made a rice noodle and chicken soup. The result was delicious. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it is always interesting how people mix cultures and cuisines without really thinking about it very much. They just happened to find a really nice ingredient and they thought it would taste good with something that they were making. And the result is almost always something really tasty. It always inspires me to go home and try to make something similar at home. Most of time it works, sometimes not so much. I think that??s the nature of a home cook. We try cooking something and then see what happens. More often than not, when we try something new at home, we find that it really was not as hard to make as we originally though that it might be. The other great thing is we can do those little things that we personally like. For example, I like to add white vanilla to omelets. It??s made from the flower of the vanilla plant instead of the pod. It has this really nice perfume like flavor, almost like lavender. That??s the fun part of cooking at home and mixing cuisines and food. I end with something that is really good, just the way that I like it.

Whether it is a street musician, an improv group or a music festival, it??s a great addition on our tours. Living in the diverse area that we do, it??s always amazing what a wide variety of music that we hear. It??s not just Italian or Chinese music, it??s music from all over the words. And the great thing, there??s an always a new musical instrument that we haven??t seen before. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s interesting to listen to how that combination of instruments ends up with some very interesting music. That mixture of music reflects our food here. On one hand, it??s very seasonal and very local. And yet, because this area has been populated by groups from all over the world, they ended growing foods that originated from all around the world. The result is a combination of foods that is really delicious. For example, someone in the neighborhood made a delicious paella and added some Thai Basil, it was really good. As we were enjoying this at an outdoor caf?, music from Spain, Mexico and China filled the air. The combination of the food made for a wonderful experience. Just the way to enjoy the day.

The same is true on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. When I??m out shopping for seafood, a good rule is that if you can smell anything, don??t buy it. For shellfish, the rule is that it should be closed and unbroken. Whether a particular vegetable is fresh or not can sometimes be a little harder to define. It??s one of the reasons that I like to buy my vegetables from a farmer??s market or vegetable stand. If I can??t figure out if a vegetable is ripe, I can always ask someone to help me figure that out. They specialize in that vegetable and they know all about it. On our San Francisco Food Tours, our stops tend to be places where the owner is there and only does one kind of food. The result is that they know how it should be made. For example, knowing what the temperature of the foam should be on a cappuccino can be difference between a good or a great cappuccino. In things like pizza, knowing how to make a great dough can be all the difference in a pizza. For example, letting a pizza dough rise several times can be the difference between a pizza dough with texture or one that is hard to eat. Just like other doughs, letting the dough rise allows texture into the dough. When someone specializes in pizza, they know how important that is. Whether is figuring out whether food is fresh or if it is made in a way to produce the best food, finding someone who specializes in that food can make all of the difference. On our tours, seeing those specialists makes all of the difference in the taste of the food. A delicious difference.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s interesting how changing an ingredient that we find can make an incredible difference in a dish. For example, we found some really nice red and orange bell peppers at the market. They just came into season and they looked really good. We were going to make stuffed bell peppers, which is usually made with green peppers, and just on a whim, we decided to use the orange and red peppers. The result was the sweetness of the red and orange peppers was perfect with the stuffing that we used for the bell peppers. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always interesting how our stops will find an ingredient that in season and substitute it in an otherwise traditional dish. For example, over in North Beach, someone found some pomegranates that were on season and a whim, made a pasta sauce out of it. The result was incredibly delicious. Admittedly, I??m a fan or pomegranates, so I may be a little biased. Probably a major part is that they are fresh and that makes a big difference. When food is fresh, one can taste the freshness of the food. Adding that ingredient to a dish can change from an okay dish to something really delicious. The great thing is that our stops feel the same way, so it always ends up with something delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always interesting how much the character of a place can add to how enjoyable the food is. The food or drink can be the best thing, however if the place does not have any character to it, it??s just not the same. Character is one of those that seems to be more of a feeling then something definable, however one can definitely feel it as one walks into a place. Maybe it??s that it feels like part of the neighborhood, maybe it feels like it??s a definite local??s place or maybe it??s a combination of all that plus elements that are hard to define. Whatever it is, one can definitely feel it when one walks in to somewhere. On our San Francisco Food Tours. We like going to places that have that character, that feeling that makes the food an experience, instead of just something that one eats. Fortunately, being from San Francisco, we know those places. Mostly because those are the places that we tend to hang out at ourselves. It??s probably the reason that each of the stops on our tours feels like we are to go visit friends of ours. Perhaps that??s the definition of character, a place that feels like you are going to see good friends and a place that feels like you would want to hang with those friends and just enjoy the food. Either way, it still feels good.

It seems like most cities have their version of a local dish, such as New Orleans and Gumbo, San Francisco and Cioppino, Philadelphia and Cheesesteaks, and so on. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s interesting how our local dish Cioppino, reflects both neighborhoods. Cioppino is a seafood dish that varies every day, based on what fresh seafood came in that day. If it??s done right, it changes daily, as the seafood that is fresh changes every day. And of, course, the seafood needs to local. On our San Francisco Food Tours, the foods seem to be the same way, they change according to what is fresh and it needs to be local. It reflects the way that we eat here, local and very seasonal. And when it is not is season, we just don??t eat it. In our neighborhoods, the foods of those neighborhoods are the same way. They tend to be very fresh and very local. The good news is that we have a wide variety of people who moved to this area, so almost everything that we want to eat is very local. The other good news is that our climate supports growing just about anything. The hotter the inside of the state gets, the colder that we get. It just pulls the fog or marine layer off the ocean. And at the same thirty miles away can be thirty degrees hotter. The result whatever we want to eat, it is available in the area. And at the same time, we only eat it when it is season and local Just like our local dish Cioppino.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s amazing how a few simple ingredients can create an amazing dish. At one of our stops, they started making a dish where they take a Parmesan wheel, then flamb? some alcohol inside the parmesan wheel and cook the alcohol until all of the flames are gone. They then scrape out the melted parmesan and mix in fresh pasta and stir the pasta with the parmesan until it forms a smooth consistency. Next, they take saut?ed mushrooms or pancetta or a number of different additions and mix it in with parmesan and the pasta. They finish it off with some fresh rosemary. The result is an amazing dish. The parmesan with the pasta is incredibly delicious. On our San Francisco Food Tours, some of the best foods are the simplest. They start with the best ingredients and then try to do things that bring out the flavor of the food, not cover up the flavor of the food. It is the same way when I am cooking at home. I find that the best dishes are the ones where I go for fresh foods and then try to do as little as I can and try avoid covering them up. If the pasta is fresh, it does not need much. If the herbs are fresh, the flavor of the herbs is the only thing that I want to bring out. The good news is the stops of our tour think the same thing.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s interesting how we can see evidence of Californian??s attachment to our open space. Whether it??s the fresh fruits and vegetables, the fresh flowers, photographs of our open space, or paintings by local artists, they all refer to and highlight our attachment to our open space. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see open space in a variety of ways, it can be a local park, it can be looking across the bay and see Angel Island, a state park, or it just be seeing the sky over the bay or the ocean., Whatever it is, it reminds us of how close that we are to our open space here. Our parks here define who we are. While other places may talk about some work project for the weekend, we talk about the great hike or walk that we??re planning or that we??ve done. It may be reason that we enjoy walking so much. We get to reconnect with the environment that is around us, something that you just can??t do inside a bus or a car. When you??re walking, you get feel and experience everything around you. You??re actually part of it, rather than just viewing it. And that could be a great definition of a Californian, someone who wants to part of the environment that is around them.

On the home front, I end up cooking just about everything with asparagus. From grilled asparagus to asparagus soup, it ends up being a real celebration. Thanks to the wind that we have here, grilling something outdoors is not all the easiest thing to do, so frequently I end up roasting the asparagus in the oven. I start by breaking off the woody ends. You can usually tell what they are if you just hold the asparagus and bend it until the woody end breaks off. I turn the oven to about 425 degrees, toss the asparagus with some olive oil and roast it until it turns just green enough that it??s done. The good news is that if I??m cooking something else in the oven, this works at whatever temperature that I??m using, 325, 350, 450, whatever. For asparagus soup, I just cut up the asparagus into about a half inches lengths, then saut? some leeks until they are translucent, throw in the asparagus, cook that for about five minutes, add about four cups of chicken broth, bring it to a boil, cook it for 15 minutes until they are tender, the puree it. The other good news is that lots of people are find their way to enjoy asparagus, and we getting to enjoy it. It??s a great way to start the season.

Fennel is a good example, if you braise it (saut? it quickly at a high heat until it browns a little), toss it some juice and the rinds from a Meyer lemon, then in the fronds from the fennel (the leaves), you end with up with a simple, but incredibly satisfying and delicious dish. I see that a lot on our San Francisco Food Tours of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. People take a simple ingredient, tweet it a little and end up with a great result. Coffee is another example of that. If one really thinks abut it??s just ground roasted beans with water. And yet, if it??s done at the right temperature and the beans are roasted just right, it ends up being something pretty good. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we get to that simple ingredient, coffee, every day. In our case, we usually have it in a cappuccino or a latte. We also to relax and slowly enjoy it. Made the right way, taking that simple ingredient, it??s a great thing to have. Cover it up with things like syrups, too many additions, and you can??t taste the coffee and that simple ingredient just get covered up. So, we??ll stick to tweeting simple ingredients in great dishes and drinks. And then of course, we??ll enjoy them.

What really makes a good cappuccino, is it the foam, the milk, the coffee, the cup or something else? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, it??s a question that we have a great time exploring. While the cappuccino itself is a big part of it, I think a bigger part is where it??s savored, the cafe where it??s enjoyed. A real cafe is a place that has character, that feels like a special place, that feels like part of the neighborhood. National chains just don??t feel that way. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s the neighborhood cafes that have been around the neighborhood long enough to become not just a caf?, but also a neighborhood hangout. The same seems to be true for a great restaurant. It??s not just the food, it is the feel of the place. Does it feel like a place with character, does it feel like part of neighborhood? Whether it??s a caf? or a restaurant, it??s a place that feels like it is part of the neighborhood, so that you feel like you are part of the neighborhood. Otherwise, it??s like you??re just consuming the food. Regardless of how it tastes, it??s just food. It??s the reason that we like going to places that have that great neighborhood feeling. They make us feel like part of the neighborhood. Just like our tours, part of the neighborhood.

With two major holidays coming up, Passover and Easter, we like to look at this time of year through what we see on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. For many of us in San Francisco, we??ll be celebrating the holidays, either as part of an organized celebration, with family or friends, by ourselves, or looking at our friends and family celebrating. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see how the diversity of our city creates a mixture of food and cultures that makes this such a great place to live. We enjoy the diversity of our food and cultures and how it enhances all of us. When we see friends or family celebrating something, we think it??s great, whether or not it involves us. When I was cooking last night, I started making a chicken dish. Being one of those cooks who doesn??t like following a recipe, I frequently make dinners that turn our really well, however at after making the dish, I have little idea of what I put in them and I can rarely recreate it. I started making a sauce with pesto, then a little soy sauce and on a whim added a little curry. It turned out really good. When I thought about, the sauce reflected us. A mixture of food, cultures, religions, and more. And the result is really delicious.

That means things like asparagus and berries, but also things like great seafood coming into the markets. This year is supposed to be an exceptional year for salmon. We catch salmon right off of the coast. When it??s fresh like that, I like to saut? it quickly. I liked starting off with a little olive oil. Next, I??ll quickly saut? some pine nuts. Since, I??ll saut? the salmon right afterward, the trick is to saut? the pine nuts until they just start to turn brown. Don??t wait until they are actually brown. Since, you??ll be saut?ing the salmon later, if you saut? the pine nuts until they are brown right now, by the time that you are done with the salmon, they will be black. After the pine nuts start to brown, I??ll saut? the salmon for about a minute skin side down, flip it and saut? it the rest of the way until it??s done. That way, the skin comes off really easy when it??s served. You can tell when the salmon is done, when it flakes apart with a fork. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we can tell if something is fresh or not. Fish is one those easy things to tell if it fresh. In simple terms, if you can smell it, don??t buy it. Shellfish should always be closed and unbroken. For seafood, if it not fresh, there really is no way to fix that. If it??s already been filleted, I ask to smell it, if you're not able to do that look at the eyes, they should be clear, and the fish should be bright. Fresh food is the core of how we eat here. Once it??s fresh, the challenge is not to cover it up. That is what makes a great meal.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, it??s always interesting how a minor ingredient can make a major difference in the outcome of a dish. For example, take something like Chicken Marsala, being one of my favorite dinners, I make very frequently. For years, I used a ???regular?? marsala and didn??t give it much thought. One of our friends in North Beach, Coit Liquors, has a really good wine selection and had a dry marsala that I decided to use. It made an incredible difference in the dish. The Chicken Marsala was a little less sweet and more of the marsala flavor actually came through. Adding some fresh oregano and fresh parsley really made for a great dinner. On our San Francisco Food Tours, attention to those details seems to make a big difference. For example, using fresh ricotta that someone just made can make the difference between a good cannoli and a great cannoli. Or, using fresh herbs rather than dried herbs in a dish can really bring out the flavor. The main difference in using the two is when one adds them. In general, it??s better to add fresh herbs at the end of making the dish, otherwise the flavor of the herbs can get washed away as the dish is cooked. Those simple small ingredients can all the difference. And fortunately for us, people in North Beach know that. It makes for delicious experience.

I??m a big fan of independent films.?? Many of them start off with one person??s idea for a great movie and then, they make a good script and the result is pretty good.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we see the same thing.?? Someone gets a great idea for a new recipe and then tries it out.?? And the result is pretty good.?? One big difference between professional chefs and me is that when I start experimenting in the kitchen, more often than not, I come up with a new recipe and then I can??t remember everything that I put in it, much less then amounts.?? The result is that I can rarely recreate what I did.

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On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always fun to see that creative process.?? One of the places that go to, Z. Cioccolato, loves to experiment and comes with new combinations for chocolate or fudge.?? It??s usually one person??s idea and then it ends up being pretty food.?? On the other hand, from my point of view, there is not much that one can add chocolate to and not have it turn out pretty good.

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Many of the places that use any kind of sauce tend to be same way.?? Someone experiments with some new ingredient and then results are pretty good.?? One only downside is that the chef will rarely tell all of the details of what they did.?? The upside is that just like a good independent film, all we have to is sit back and enjoy it.

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Maybe because it??s California, may because it??s San Francisco or maybe for some other reason, it??s interesting how many dishes we cook with wine here. It??s also interesting how the right wine can make a huge difference. One my favorite dishes when I want to treat myself is chicken marsala. If you haven??t had it before, it saut?ed and browned chicken served with a marsala sauce, some people use cream, I like using unflavored gelation with the marsala wine sauce. If I go to a grocery store, I can usually find ???regular?? marsala, which is on the sweet side. The result is okay; however, the chicken masala comes out on the sweet side. On the other hand, a friend of ours, Coit Liquors, which is near our San Francisco Food Tours of North Beach\Little Italy carries a dry marsala. The result is so much better. The sauce is more balanced, it??s not sour or sweet, just right in between. For me, it??s much better dish. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s interesting how that attention to the right ingredients, even the small ones can have a major effort on the outcome of the dish. Wine is definitely one of those things. Whatever the flavor of the wine is, that is the flavor that will be your food. In other words, I always cook with wines that I like to drink. And the right one can make all of the difference.

?? The weather gets colder or hotter, it starts to snow or rain or something that definitely lets know you that it is a different season.?? In San Francisco, we don??t get that kind of change.?? Usually, the weather here does not get much below 55 degrees or much above 75 degrees. As a result, on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, the way that we can tell is by the ???seasonal?? foods coming in the markets.?? That has always been a major part of the fun of enjoying seasonal foods.?? We know that we don??t have them year round, so it ends being real treats.

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On our San Francisco Food Tours, we have a great time seeing how people use all of those seasonal foods.?? For example, right now asparagus is in season. Asparagus is on those vegetables that tastes so good on it??s own that you don??t need too much to it.?? Just grill or roast it, add a little Parmesan and it??s perfect.?? Just like another that just came into season, Artichokes, Just steam them in some water and it??s perfect.?? You can tell when it??s done, when a knife goes easily into the stem.

??We??ll be having a great time enjoying those seasonal foods. And since they are only here for a short time, it will be a great treat.??

Something that is made up with as simple ingredients as pasta can end up being an incredible dish. Pasta is basically flour, water, and eggs. You can additional ingredients, such as spices and different flours and other things to flavor, however at its essence it is really a very simple dish. And yet, that simple dish can end up being pretty spectacular based on how it??s made. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s interesting how different neighborhoods approach this dish. North Beach\Little Italy mostly uses wheat flour, while Chinatown usually uses rice flour. It??s interesting that different type of flour can make a difference in the taste. Wheat pasta stands up to sauces, while the rice flour seems to show more in soups. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s also interesting to see what pasta gets paired with. Many people used to sauces, however, when asparagus is in season, as it is now, tossing it with just olive oil, some blanched or grilled asparagus and few spices, and finishing it with some fresh basil makes for a great dish. Or having rice flour pasta tossed with a stir fry dish. Each neighborhood takes this simple dish pasta and turns it into a great dish. It is an interesting thing to explore, how pasta is used, it??s also really delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it will be a time for us to take in all of the fun activities. In North Beach\Little Italy, we??ll see things like the North Beach Festival, a music and arts fair to pop up art sales and flea markets. In Chinatown, we??ll start to see pop up musicians and craft sales all around the neighborhood. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always fun to take them while we??re touring the neighborhood. Since many of them are things that are unplanned, they end up being a fun surprise to everyone on the tour. The crafts are really nice; however, the music is great as well, especially when we get to join us. And, of course, the food. Frequently, at these street fairs, people make their favorite dish, the ones that they make at home and have made enough times that they really have it down pat. More often than not, it??s their go to dish. The one that all of us have when we come home, have to make dinner and can??t think of what to make. Even with walking into the markers, the time that one can??t figure what to make. It??s going to be a fun spring enjoying the crafts, arts, music, and foods in the neighborhoods. A really fun time.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s means getting ready for a time for all kinds of festivals. From music festivals to arts fairs, to street festivals, it??s a really fun time to be in San Francisco. There is something really fun about being on a tour with jazz music in the background, such as when the North Beach Jazz Festival is going on. At the same, running into an impromptu music festival in North Beach\Little Italy or Chinatown makes for a great surprise. On our San Francisco Food Tours, being part of the neighborhood means that we get to take part in the neighborhood festivities, and also our tour guests get to enjoy them, as well. Frequently, they are able to join is. It makes for a really fun time. It??s always great to see what new artwork is cropping up as well at some of the art sales in the neighborhood. It gives us a great insight on how people see the neighborhood, and at the same, a lot of the art is really good. And, as the artists are right there, it makes for an even better time when we get to interact with them and get to know what their inspiration was.

For example, on our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown, one of our stops makes Ginger Duck Soup. We don??t usually have on the tour, unless someone requests s it. To say that is hot and spicy is a major understatement. And yet, for the people at the restaurant who eat it every day, they are totally okay with it. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see people from all over the world, many come from places with spicy food and they are used to that kind of food. Many are from areas like California, where our food is not that spicy. The one that share in common is our enjoyment of fresh food. We??re kind of unique here, in that thanks to our climate, we can and do grow just about everything here. For example, the hotter the inside of the state gets, the colder that we get. It just pulls the fog or marine layer right off the ocean. And yet, thirty miles away can be easily be thirty degrees hotter. The result is that right along the coast is perfect for things like artichokes and the inland area will be thirty degrees hotter, so can grow all kinds of fresh food there. It makes for a tasty place to be

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we??re not really sure what the means sometimes. For us, our weather doesn??t change very much, it always stays somewhere between 55 to 75 degrees. We don??t get snow here, so that is not a good indicator either. Probably the best indicator is that summer fruits and vegetables start to come in the markets. Being a big fan of stone fruits, it??s great for me. First, we??re seeing cherries into the markets, first will be Bing and later Rainer. The Bing cherries are very sweet, and the Rainer are a little sourer, but still very good. Next, we??ll see apricots, nectarines and my favorites, pluots. Pluots are a cross between apricot and a plum. Between apricots, nectarines and pluots, the combinations are really good. On our San Francisco Food Tours, the fun parts are getting to enjoy all of these combinations in all of deserts. As far as vegetables, everything from fresh peas to spinach and more is here, the result is that we end up with these great dishes that highlight all of those flavors. One of my favorites is swiss chard. Someone made that in a risotto yesterday and it was nothing short of fantastic. So, I guess there is a way to tell that is summer. And, it??s a delicious way.

Every time that I go on one, I feel like I??m almost be at home watching television. If I want to go and experience and area, walking is the only thing that works for me. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we find the same is valid. Walking is how you get to experience an area. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we find that the food is the other reflection of the area. While we enjoy trying different foods on our tours, we??re not really into quick bits, we like to sit back and savor most foods. I find that most good foods have complex flavors. If one eats it too quickly, you miss a lot of the complex flavors of the food. That seems to true whether it a recipe or a single ingredient. Taking time to savor gives you a chance to enjoy all of it, to take it all in. The same thing seems to be valid for walking versus being on a bus. Being on a bus doesn??t give you a chance to savor the area. It??s doesn??t feel like you have actually experienced the area. All in all, walking and food seem to have one thing in common. It??s a way to savor an area, just a delicious type of food.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always great to see how people connect with each other, as well as with the guide and the neighborhood. There is way to connecting to someone else in person that cannot be done over the internet or social media. It??s a way to actually feel that you are important part of their life and you are an important part of their life. On our San Francisco Food Tours, you can see that connection when one person smiles at someone else, when one person talks to someone else, or when one person hugs someone else. We frequently get the hugs on our tours from people at the stops. These are people that we have known for a long time, so it really is like seeing old friends. That the kind of connection that you can get in person. That is always the best part of our tours, when someone makes a connection with someone else. The kind of connection that can only be done in person, one on one. Tryi to share some one on one time this weekend with someone that you know. You??ll get the kind of connection that will make a lasting impression. On you, and on the other person.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we always have a great time enjoying it all.?? On our San Francisco Food Tours, we still always get surprised by something new that we have not seen before.?? The happened last week, as we enjoyed Z. Cioccolato??s new fudge flavor.?? It??s a multi-layer fudge with peanut butter, chocolate and more.?? The great thing was they came up with it on a whim.?? Just playing around in the kitchen.

??Admittedly, that is how I like cooking in the kitchen.?? Starting with a dish that I??m used to making, then adding my twist to it.?? It??s kinds like making risotto, regardless of what the recipe is, I always end up adding a few twists to it.?? Like the other days when I decided to add some goat cheese and lemon to a risotto with tomato, chicken and basil.?? I was not sure how it would turn out, however it ended tasting really good.?? The only challenge I have is that I never measure out the ingredients, so I rarely can recreate it.???? The good news is that Z. Cioccolato measures out everything, so they can make it over and over again.?? So, the good news is we can go there and enjoy their new fudge creation again.?? The bad news is that I probably will not be able to create my risotto again.

Perfect for our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. For us anything above 70 degrees is considered to be warm. Our weather does not change much year-round here, usually between 50 and 70 degrees. The result is that we usually have great weather for our San Francisco Food Tours year-round. Outside the city, it can go up as much as thirty degrees, so something is always growing in the area. Along with that we??ve got lots of great festivals all around the city. Next weekend will be the North Beach festival. It??s really fun exploring North Beach with live music in the background. And, a lot of places make special dishes, so we to really enjoy them. Just like walking is great in North Beach, it??s also fun across the entire city. The City just opened a new series of hiking trails all across the city, so before or after our tours, it??s a great way to get and enjoy the weather and the festivals. Nothing is better than hiking a beautiful wooded area and come out to a great street festival. It??s makes for the perfect day. So, this weekend, come and have a great time in San Francisco.

We catch salmon off of the coast here, so when it is season, it??s a real treat. On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s great when we it along the way. At least for me, I can taste a real difference when salmon is wild. When I find it, I try to do as little as possible to it. The first thing to do is pull out any remaining bones. You can do that by bending the salmon and then feeling with your fingers for any bones. If you find any, you can pull them out with a tweezer or better than that a needle nose pair of plyers. I keep a pair of them in my kitchen just for that purpose only. After that I like to saut? some it in butter and olive oil. I??ll saut? the skin side for just about a minute and then turn it and saut? other side until it??s done. That only takes a few minutes. You can tell that it??s done when it flakes easily. I just serve it with some fresh basil and lemon slices. That??s really all that it needs. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always great to enjoy whatever just came in. More often than not, just like salmon, you don??t need to do much to it. Or, cover it up with a sauce. The food has a great fresh taste and it really does not need to have much done to it.

Walking through Chinatown on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown always brings out the diversity of the area.?? It??s that diversity of cultures, food, religions and people that always make our San Francisco Food Tours so interesting.?? Yesterday was no different as we explored several temples in the area.?? Each temple was a combination of multiple religions, such as Buddhism, Taoism, and more?????? Each had different rituals that for their own temple.?? One of the great things about living in San Francisco is how we are just used to that diversity.?? In fact, we??re so used that we really don??t think about it much.

??The same thing is true for our food.?? We combine foods from all over the world together and we end with these great dishes.?? We don??t think much about it, we just think that is the norm, to mix foods from all over the world together.

??Just like the mixture of religions and foods, we??re so used to the diversify of people here that we don??t think about that either.?? There is always a partial surprise to us when people visiting the area point it out to us. We so used to that we think that is the norm.?? At the same time, we also think it makes the area so much more fun to live in.?? And it also, keeps our foods and cultures fun and exciting.?? It??s a great way to live.

Between the booths, the street performers, the circus acts, and more, it really brought out the best of the area. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s so much fun when we get to do that. And of course, when we get to enjoy the foods of the festival, it??s even better. North Beach is one of those areas that seems to bring together a great eclectic group of people. From beatniks to poets, from street musicians to organized bands, all kinds of people just seem drawn to the area. One thing that is always fun about San Francisco, is how the neighborhoods like to come out and enjoy their festivals. June seems to be a time for that. And it??s always fun to explore each neighborhood and get a sense of it. In Chinatown and North Beach\Little Italy, being from the area, it??s also a time for us to reconnect and see both old and new friends. It??s easy to do that when everyone comes out for the festivals or sitting down enjoying a cappuccino. Between the music, poetry, booths and everything else, it??s really fun time to be in San Francisco.

Another way is exploring the farmers markets.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we think exploring the neighborhoods and enjoying the foods is the perfect way to enjoy the season.

??In our area, summer is the time for stone fruit, such as peaches, plums, nectarines and pluots.?? Pluots are a cross between a plum and an apricot and they are really good.?? The great thing is with all kinds of stone fruit, whether it is plumes, nectarines, peaches, apricots or pluots, there are multiple types of each.?? By multiple, I mean dozens.?? It is so much fun and delicious to try samples of each and see what kind that you like.?? On our San Francisco Food Tours, we get to see what the favorites of everyone are in each one of the neighborhoods that we explore. Some people make them into salads and desserts, however, for me they taste so good that I don??t think that anyone needs to do much to them.?? In other words, just each them as they are.?? The great thing is when they are season, I like to sit out in the park and just munch on them.?? Along with a glass of white wine, it??s the perfect way to enjoy the summer.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always to contrast how different people and neighborhoods treat a particular ingredient. Take for example, artichokes, many recipes for artichokes call for cutting off the leaves and then using the artichoke heart. For myself, that involves losing a great part of the artichoke; the leaves. I like to get the inside of the leaves. I just pull the underside of the leaf between my teeth. It is not only tasting good, it??s kind of fun at the same time. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we often find that a lot of the way that we use ingredients has to do with how fresh they are here. Take for example again, artichokes. They are grown just about an hour south of here, so when get them they are incredibly fresh, while some other places get them a couple of days old, we frequently get artichokes that have been picked that same day. The result is that they don??t need much. They don??t need much sauce. They don??t need much covering up in any way. We can enjoy every part of them. That may have a lot to do with the way that we eat them. When an ingredient is old, it loses a lot of its flavor. The result is that our neighborhood will approach that ingredient from their own cultural point of view, but also from how fresh that it is. The result is interesting, as well being delicious.

We??re having a great time enjoying them on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.????It??s always great when we one part of the city celebrates, the entire city celebrates.????On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see that on every one of our tours.????In a way, it??s a reflection of the city.????We??re a city that enjoys its diversity and it gets celebrated in each of neighborhoods, both through our celebrations, as well as our foods.

While we have particular neighborhoods, such as North Beach, which is primarily Italian or Chinatown, which is primarily Chinese, each neighborhood enjoys a variety of foods and cultures. We see in the way that we cook foods.????For example, this weekend I roasted some cauliflower along with fresh leeks, tomatoes, taro root and mango.????While many people might consider that to be a mixture of foods and cultures, we tend to think that as a mixture of foods that tastes good.???? At the same time, we all learned about these foods from our neighbors and friends, many of whom come from different cultures and backgrounds, however for us, they are simply friends.????????So, when we see our neighborhoods celebrate our city celebrations in each our neighborhoods, it is really a celebration of our friends.????It makes for a wonderful place to live.

In Chinatown, we're used to things like dumplings and rice noodles. In North Beach\Little Italy, we're used to things pasta in a parmesan wheel. The curious thing is that we're used to both traditional foods as well as food that we started to see from recent immigrants. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it's fun to see how that combination shows up in our neighborhoods. For example, in Chinatown, we 'll have soups that have combination of dumplings and rice noodles. The hand pulled rice noodles really make for a great soup. Or in North Beach, we'll see a combination of pasta made in a parmesan wheel. While it's something that has been for a while in Italy, it's something that we only saw recently here. At the same time, just like other areas, we had some foods that may people have never heard of. While some people may be used to things like pluots, many people have never heard of them. They are a cross between an apricot and a plum. I don't know how many types there are, however, they are really delicious. The results of all of this are combinations of foods that can only be found here. Just like most places, which have combinations of foods that are only found in that area. The results are always interesting and delicious.

There is something about a great dessert that makes for a great finish on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. For me, the perfect desert is either tiramisu or a cannoli. Admitally, I??ve been known to enjoy a cannoli with my cappuccino, so I probably look for any excuse to have a cannoli. On our San Francisco Food Tour, it??s great to linger at end with something, whether it a desert, a coffee drink or a glass of wine. For reason, lingering over it just seems to make it taste better. I??m not sure if it really is or if it just seems that way. Or is could just be that the right restaurant or caf? just makes it taste better. For me, the right restaurant has to be a nice quite place, part of the neighborhood, where it just seems a little bit slower. It also needs to have the right character, a little older and yet still current. The kind of place that you picture artists and musicians hanging out. There is something about that kind of place that just makes the food taste better, whether it does or not. Just as long as it??s a place where you linger and be surrounded by other lingers. That way, we can all linger together.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always interesting see what makes a home. For most neighborhoods, they have certain things in common. One, of course, is dogs. No matter where you go in the city, dogs seem to make a home. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always interesting to see what brings all of us together as a home. A meal is another thing that seems to that. There is something about eating together that brings us together. However, just eating together is not enough. Talking and interacting with other people is part of it. On our tours, it??s always great see people bond while talking together and enjoying the food. At that moment, the tour stops become a home. In this case, a home that they take with them to next stop. It??s great see people who start off the tour as strangers and then bond throughout the tour through the food and the conversations into friends. It??s one of the best parts of the tour. Neighborhoods seem the same way, there are those places where everyone comes together and then bonds through the food and the drinks, as well as the conversation. Each neighborhood has their special places. It??s those places, as well as the food and the drinks that turn the neighborhood into a home.

Walking around the city on our San Francisco Food Tours we get to take in the great weather and the great festivals in the city, especially the music festivals. One of my favorites is Stern Grove. Every Sunday during the festival, they have a series of music from San Francisco and around the world. And, we just had the Fillmore Jazz Festival. One really fun thing to do is when they show movies outside in our parks in the evening. It makes for a great evening to sit back, watch a movie and enjoy a picnic dinner outside. It??s probably one of the reasons that it so much fun to run across a street musician on our tours. It just adds to the fun of the tour. It??s actually a big part of the ambiance of each neighborhood, the people who live there and who we celebrate. Combined with the food, the people, it makes for a great experience. Added to that, the weather this of year is perfect, it??s not too warm and not too cold. Perfect for sitting inside of our outside. Either way, it makes for a perfect time of year.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we often find that the seasonality of foods does not only applies to fruits and vegetables, it applies to other foods, as well. For example, In San Francisco, we??re in the middle of Salmon season. There is a flavor of salmon, when it??s fresh and wild that is so good. Salmon season comes in the summer here. Dungeness Crab season come in the winter, it usually starts about mid-November, just in time for Thanksgiving.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, we can tell when salmon comes into season, it starts showing up in things like Panini sandwiches, salads with salmon, and of course, just broiled or baked. I like to serve it with either some lemon wedges, or a fresh citrus or fruit salsa, such Mango salsa. It just adds a great fresh flavor to it without covering it up. The basic rule for buying seafood is that if you can smell anything, don??t buy it. I awls ask when it came in. If the answer is anything other than today, don??t buy it. If it is a whole fish, the gills should be bright. I frequently ask to smell the fish. Most markets usually won??t let you get very close, however even from a short distance, you should not smell anything. If fish is not fresh, there is very little that you can do about that. Once you get it home, the trick is to cook it just enough that is done, not so much that it dries out. As soon as it starts to easily flake, it??s done.

For me, fall represents squash season. Whether it??s zucchini, yellows, butternut, acorn or another types, it??s opens up some of my favorite meals. From things like cooking acorn squash with miso and carrots, zucchini sandwiches or roasted butternut squash, they are all delicious. Br far, my favorite is butternut squash and the good news is that we??ll start to see it on our San Francisco Food Tours. To me, butternut squash soup is the ultimate luxury. Accompanied by some sourdough bread it??s the perfect meal. Almost as close is roasted butternut squash. I like to peel it down to the orange, cut it in half, take out the seeds, then slice it into about inch or two size moons. Then, I toss it in cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, pepper and olive oil and roast it in the oven at about 425 degrease until each size urns nice and brown. Then I just toss it on butter, lemon juice, and lemon rind. About 15 to 20 minutes on each side. Just be very careful as it burns really fast. Another great way to enjoy to yellow and zucchini squash is to slice it thin, then saut? it in olive onions and garlic and finish it off with some capers and olives. Along with a salad, it??s the perfect meal. And a glass of Chardonnay doesn??t hurt either. Then just sit back and enjoy those great autumn nights. It??s the perfect way to enjoy the season.

That may be the reason that the cafes on our san Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy are so special. It??s not just the cappuccino or latte, it??s the atmosphere of the place. A couple things are needed. It??s got to have character. It??s got to be part of the neighborhood. And it??s got to be a place that one can feel like it??s a place where you feel like you??re are part of it. On our San Francisco Food Tours, each one of stops feels that way. Whether it??s a caf? or a restaurant, it??s that place where it feels like it's part of the neighborhood. When I go out to eat, what attracts me is not only the food, it??s also the character of the place. I want a couple of things. For example, I want to go to a place where I talk in a normal level or tone and be heard. I want a place where the food has complexity. I also want a place that feels like it??s part of the neighborhood. Otherwise, it??s almost like I don??t care what the food tastes like. I just want to eat quickly and leave. It??s a reason that I like going to a place where I can relax and really enjoy the food and the atmosphere of the place. It??s also the reason that those are the kind of places that we go to our tours. The same kind of places that I would go to myself.

It??s the start of a festival weekend in San Francisco and we??re looking forward to it on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. Festivals are always a fun time for us, whether it??s a in a different part of the City or whether it??s in our neighborhoods. It??s a time when food, music, and people come together, and everyone has a great time. When it??s in our neighborhoods, it??s even more fun. We get to celebrate with all of neighbors. On our San Francisco Food Tours, that means we get to enjoy everything that our neighbors bring to the festival. As many people come from different backgrounds and cultures, it adds so much to the events. It??s that difference in backgrounds and cultures that makes our City and our festivals so much fun. Every person brings theory own perspective, including their customs and foods, so every person that we meet is interesting and the neighborhood and festival stays exciting and vibrant. In its own way, it keeps the City alive. It also constantly refreshes the City with new ideas and perspectives. The great thing is those ideas frequently give everyone a new way to see something and opens us up to new possibilities And, it makes it a great place to live and play.

There is something special about enjoying our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown with the sound of music wafting through the tour. Whether it??s a music festival or a street musician, it only enhances our San Francisco Food Tours. It??s even better when it everyone feels like they are part of neighborhood. In Chinatown, we came across an impromptu concert with Chinese instruments. From the Chinese Harp to the Erhu (similar to Chinse banjo), it made us all feel like we were part of the neighborhood. When they asked everyone to join us and then showed how to use the musical instruments, it made it an incredibly special experience. It??s that authentic experience in a neighborhood that makes our tours special. Being from the neighborhood, we get to participate in things that us feel like we are really part of the neighborhood. Music definitely helps make us feel like we are part of the neighborhood. Places with a neighborhood feel help, as well. So, what makes a neighborhood place? It??s a place where locals hang out and everyone knows everyone else. The food and the music seem to compliment that neighborhood feeling. As soon you walk in the door, you can tell that it??s part of the neighborhood, they don??t need to tell anyone, you know as soon as you walk in the place. It??s the reason that we like to stop into those kids of places on our tour. It??s makes us become part of the neighborhood.

Guests on San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown will often be asked where to find a good dumpling in Chinatown and what to look for in the restaurant. What is interesting about that question is that more often than not, smaller restaurants will have better dumplings than larger ones. For example, when I walk into most of my favorite??s places, I usually see a small restaurant when one of two people are making the dumplings. The good ones will make their wrappers out of rice flour, rather than buying premade wrappers. It does take more work. After all, someone needs to take the flour and make it into a dough, then roll it out, then form it into the wrapper. After that, they need to cook most of the ingredients until they are almost ready, keeping in mind that they are going to be steamed after they are stuffed and sealed. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we notice that it??s not just making one??s wrappers and the fresh fillings that makes for a good dumpling, it??s also serving them right after they first steamed. The best dumplings do not taste as good when it??s either reheated or not warm. I find that the wrapper becomes hard. So, to summarize, the place that makes good dumplings not only makes their own wrappers and filling, but then serves them immediately. And a good dumpling is a treat worth waiting for.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we have great time exploring the places that only locals go to, whether it is local artisans, secret gardens or that great view that only locals know. That is the advantage of being from San Francisco, we??ve explored our city enough to know all of the places that only locals know. For example, many neighborhoods have greenways that connect neighborhoods. A greenway is like a block long garden that connects a block or a series of blocks. More often than not they are maintained by the neighborhood, so they become a place where the neighborhood gathers and celebrates together. On our San Francisco Food Yours, we have great time showing these special places to the guests on our tours. It gives us a chance to show them the special places that make San Francisco such a great place to live and explore. More often than not, these places are only accessible by walking. And walking is the only to really experience them. Being in the middle of garden is something that you just can??t do in the middle of a bus or car, walking is the only way to do it. It??s one of the reasons that we like doing walking tours. It??s the way that we can really experience the city

The good news is that we??ll be in squash season soon. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??ll start to see lots of dishes with squash. In North Beach, we??ll see lots of zucchini, everything from zucchini in dishes, such as pasta with zucchini and lots of soups. For me, I??m a big fan of butternut squash. The two ways that I like butternut squash are butternut squash soup and roasted butternut squash. For butternut squash soup, I like to saut? some shallots and garlic until they are translucent, then add some salt, pepper, oregano and sage and then cook the butternut squash in a mild stock, such as a mild chicken or vegetable stock until it??s soft, sometimes I just use water. After that, I just puree everything in food processor, rewarm it, add some cream and it??s done. For roasted butter squash, I like to peel the skin off (down to the orange), cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, then cut it into half-moons, then roast it in the over for about 15-20 minutes on each side at about 450 degrees until it just starts to brown. I just toss it in some butter, lemon juice and fresh sage and it??s ready.

The weather is just perfect this of year. In San Francisco, fall is when the weather is little warmer than the rest of the year, usually in the 70s. On our San Francisco Food Tours, It??s the perfect time to explore the City. In addition to great weather, this time of year is when we start to see street fairs all around the neighborhoods. What makes the festivals so much fun is the great combination of food, street artisans, crafts and music. The good news is those not only do we see artisans from the neighborhoods, the street festivals bring in artisans from all over Northern California. The result is that get try everything from a selection of honey to local teas and food. It??s interesting how honey can taste so different depending how the type of flower that it??s pollinated from. Just like some like fruit can taste different depending whether it??s from around Sacramento or the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It??s also interesting how local painters see the same thing, such as the Golden Gate Bridge or Coit Tower is a different way. The great thing about a street fairs is the booths where we can compare the food or local crafts produced all of the neighborhoods, as well as the region.

With the three-day weekend coming up, it??s a special time in San Francisco and our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. It??s a time to take in all of special things going on all across the region. Even though we always have a good time on San Francisco Food Tours, when we??re not out in the neighborhoods, we like enjoy the variety of museums and plays that we have going on in the areas. Having a lot of arts groups in the area, really does contribute to the area. Whether it is a great museum, such as the DeYoung or the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, seeing the world through an artist??s eyes helps us to see our own world in a different way. For many people, including myself, I tend to see things in a certain way most days. I hope that way is correct, however without having an outside influence, it??s hard to know if it is. Museums helps to give me the perspective to see things in a different way. Plays do a similar thing. Many times, I??ll be watching a play and a light goes off that tells me I have not bene the whole picture about something or seeing things in an incorrect way. There is something special about seeing things from a different perspective, it gives me a chance to grow and lean.

September is here and with it, the best weather of the year on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. With that great weather it??s a great time to get out and walk around and enjoy the City. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we find that walking is always the best way see San Francisco. A bus always feels disconnected for me, like I??m seeing an area, however, I??m not really connected to it. When I??m walking, I feel like I??m really part of an area. Walking gets me into the nooks and crannies of an area, the little shops and places that are frequently a little off the main areas. I find that is true not just here, but whenever I??m visiting. If I get out and walk, I can really get to know the area. If I??m in a bus, I feel like I haven??t really visited an area. And it??s usually those little out of the way places that I really remember when I go traveling. It??s those places that I remember. It??s one of the reasons that we really like walking in San Francisco. It??s a city of neighborhoods, as city that has surprises around every corner. And walking is the only that I??ve found to experience those area. And besides that, it??s more fun

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little and Chinatown, we find that everyone has a way to start the morning, but not always the same way. In North Beach\Little Italy, its usually a pastry and cappuccino. The pastry is usually something made fresh, just like the cappuccino. More often, it??s something light, rather than a heavy start to the day. Chinatown is similar in that it is usually something light, such as tea and a light breakfast. Frequently, it is something like congee, which is porridge made from rice. It??s actually pretty tasty by itself, however I like it with some kind of fresh fruit. On our San Francisco Food Tours, the food frequently changes based on the time of day. In the morning, it??s fun to add breakfast items. By the afternoon, we like to add afternoon treats, such as bruschetta in North Beach and moon cakes in Chinatown. And at night, a little wine is the best way to finish off the evening. While some things are based on the neighborhood that we??re in, some things are based on where we live. In California, we??re really into local and fresh food, so tend to eat locally and fresh regardless of time of day that it is. Though many people would think of doing because it is healthy, we do that just because it tastes good. The good news is that when it??s local and fresh, we don??t need to add much to it or on it. It??s tastes great just as it is. That??s just a California way of eating.

This weekend, we had a great time celebrating the Moon Festival on our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown. One of our stops, Eastern Bakery, makes moon cakes that are some of the best in the city. Moon cakes help celebrate the Moon Festival, held every year to celebrate the coming of the Autumn Moon. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always a lot of fun for us to join in the celebration. There??s always a street festival where a lot of large number of vendors set up booths along Grant Avenue with special thongs top celebrate the festival. From musicians to dancers to local artisans, it is really fun gathering of the local community. Walking down Grant Avenue, we feel like we get to see the best of the City. From special foods, arts and crafts booths other entrainment, there??s usually over 200 local booths. The festival started off with a parade down Grant Avenue., with lots of lion dancers, marching bands, martials artists, and acrobats. It??s a great way to start off the festival. There??s even a small parade to celebrate the end of the festival. Even though it??s only been around since about 1989 to bring people back to the community after the 1989 earthquake, it has evolved into a great time for everyone. And, it holds us over until the next festival. It makes the city a great place to visit and live.

With fall and all of the related festivals going on, it??s a great time to celebrate on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. In Northern California, the weather doesn??t change enough to be able to tell that it is Fall. Mostly, we start seeing fall foods come into the market. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??ll start to see squash and artichokes. Fall artichokes look a little different than spring artichokes. They look more brownish than spring artichokes. They tend to not get shipped because they don??t look as nice as most people are used to. The interesting thing for me is that the flavor of fall artichokes are much better. They are a much more intense flavor. Regardless of which type of artichokes that they are, I like to just steam them and then eat them without covering up the flavor. That is the way that we like to cook around here. We go for really fresh foods and then do not do much to them. The result is some very tasty food.

For me, tomato soup is great year round, however in the fall I am a big fan of almost any soups made from squash, especially butternut squash. The good news is that on San Francisco Food Tours, we see a lot of butternut squash. There is something comforting and yet luxurious about butternut squash. It has the comforting feel and smooth texture that makes me feel like I am really treating myself. The main two ways that I like butternut squash is roasted and in soup. That being said, I like almost and squash in a soup or roasted. For soup, an easy way to make any squash into any soup to first peel it, and cut it in half, scoop and scrape the seeds out, then it cut in half. Next, cut up the squash into small cubes. Saut? some onions and garlic in a large Dutch oven, then add the spices that you like. Next, saut? the squash until starts to soften. Add about a cup or two of stock and let it simmer about a half a hour. Puree everything, warm the soup, and add a little cream and it??s all set. For roasted squash, peel the outside, and then cut it in half. Scrape and scoop out the seeds. Next cut them into half moons. Toss them with olive oil and roast it in a 425-degree oven for about 20-25 minutes on each side until they are browned. Add some fresh sage and it??s ready. This time of year, any way you slice, puree or roast squash, it??s delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. We always a great time enjoying the warm weather in San Francisco, while enjoying the fall foods from the rest of California. In San Francisco, we think that anything in the 70??s is warm, so probably don??t have the same idea of warm as the rest of the country. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we find that a lot of root vegetables are coming into the market. From beets to potatoes, we??re always finding some special foods coming into the City. Beets are great in salads or stuffed inside chicken. The only trick about stuffing chicken with beets is that you have to cook them halfway before you stuff them in the chicken. I like to add some onions, celery and carrots. As far as potatoes are concerned, roasting potatoes in the way for me. I like to toss in olive oil and herbs. You can save a step by putting the herbs in the olive oil, mixing it well and then tossing the potatoes in the olive oil mixture. The great thing is that herbs are well distributed and have a great flavor when they are roasted. It??s the perfect accompaniment to great seasonal dinner.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we always find that the closer something is made to us, the better that it is.?? Take something like olive oil.?? We had some a guest one of our tours from England who told us that part of England that they are in is starting to produce wine.?? The great thing about, as well as having some local wines, is that usually olive trees like the same climate.?? And, if you have olive trees, you can make olive oil.?? Olive oil is one of those things that does not get better with age. It??s best to consume soon after it??s made.?? As a result, since we are close to wine country here in San Francisco, we have some great local olive oils.?? And the great thing for our guests from England, it sounds like they may have some local olive soon, as well.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, ??it??s always great to learn about foods that are local to our tour guests.?? Each part of the world has great local foods, and with that some great local recipes.?? The result is that are always new recipes for us to try.?? I love to find as much as can and then I have great time trying to make them on my own.?? For me, that is part of the fun of cooking, trying a new recipe that is different from what I know.?? The result is something that is exciting and delicious.??

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What makes a great dumpling? Is it the filling, the wrapper or how it??d made? As we often find on our San Francisco Food of Chinatown, it??s all three. There is something about a place that makes their own wrapper. It takes more time, mixing the rice flour, water and the other ingredients. Rolling it out, the shaping it into a round shape to fit the filling inside. It takes more effort; however, I can definitely taste the difference. It just tastes so much better. The filling is just as important, using fresh ingredients, cutting them up so they cook quickly and cooking them just enough that they are done, however not such much that by the time that they are steamed that they are overcooked. Next, you need to fill the dumplings with enough filling, enough that you get to taste the great filling, not so much that they are overfilled. After sealing the filing in the wrapper, you need to steam it until it??s done, but not so much that it overdone. And the, the most important thing is that you need to serve it quickly. Dumplings turn hard and don??t taste good when they cool down too much. For me, I always like a little soy vinegar and fresh ginger, and then I have my perfect dumplings. On our San Francisco Food Tours, everyone has their favorite, whether it is chicken and corn, vegetable, pork and chives, lamb, and more. The important thing is that are made fresh and by hand. That makes for the perfect dumpling.

It??s one of those weekends in San Francisco where there seems like there is an overwhelming number of things to do in San Francisco. From festivals to celebrations, there is so much going on right now. On our San Francisco Food Tour North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we??re seeing that as well. From new foods coming into the neighborhoods, due to the time of year to new takes on current foods, it??s a really fun time on our tours. Salmon is still in season and the salmon panni sandwiches on our San Francisco Food Tours are really delicious with the local salmon. We catch the salmon right off the coast, so it??s really fresh. Additionally, we??re starting to see fall artichokes come into season, they don??t look as pretty as the spring artichokes, however I like the flavor even better than the spring artichokes. It??s the reason that I like to steam them and eat them with not much on them. We??re also starting to eggplants come into the market. That opens up so much food for us to cook and enjoy. Italian eggplant is perfect for eggplant parmesan and the Japanese eggplant are great to saut? with olive oil , lemon and rosemary. I like to use the lemon juice when they are saut?ing and then serve with the lemon rind. It??s makes a great side dish. With all of the foods that we??re seeing, it??s a great time of year for nice dinners with family and friends. Soon, we??ll be close to Thanksgiving, so we??ll be all set. All and all, it??s a great time of year to be in San Francisco. And a delicious time, as well.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s going to be the start of a really fun weekend.?? From festivals to great food to great weather, it going to be a lot of fun.???? Part of that fun will be from the food.?? This time of year, we??re starting to see a lot of fall vegetables in the market and that leads to some really great dishes. Figs are coming in right now and soon we??ll see pomegranates.

??On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??ll start to see some great combinations of all of those foods.?? For example, I really like to make a sauce from a combination of figs and pomegranates.?? I like to reduce the pomegranate juice to a lot a molasses state.?? All I do is slowly reduce it down in a saucepan until it gets really thick.?? You need to watch it very closely at this point, it does not take much to go from a molasses consistency to brunt.?? ??After it is where I want it to be, I like to let it cool a little bit.?? Next, I like to cut the figs in half and warm them slightly in the oven and the port the pomegranate molasses right on top.?? It??s great just buy itself or over something like duck or even ice cream,?? Either way, it??s really delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always interesting to see how someone can take one ingredient and use them in so many foods. Take something red peppers, they??re sweet and go great in anything that you want that great sweet flavor, such as a salad. Take that same ingredient and pair with something like chicken, and you??ve got a great main dish. Or make it into as soup and its great way also. Or something tomatoes, in everything from salad to sauces to soups, it??s the perfect ingredient. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always fun to taste the result of some new way that someone has to use any ingredients. Take that red pepper, pair with cherry pepper and it makes that chicken ever better, sweet with a spicy finish. Or take some basil , add to the tomato soup and it makes that soup every better. t??s not elaborate the preparation or how exotic the ingredient is, it??s more so how fresh it is. That tomato, for example, when it??s fresh it??s so good, sweet with a wonderful tomato flavor. A few days later, it tastes almost bland. The same thing with those red peppers, they are great when they are fresh, not so good when they are not fresh. The key seems to be how close ingredient is from. If it??s not close, in the time that it takes to get to you, it loses all of its flavor. It??s the reason that we like to eat ingredients that are grown so close to where we are. It makes for a yummy creation.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always interesting to see how someone can take one ingredient and use them in so many foods. Take something red peppers, they??re sweet and go great in anything that you want that great sweet flavor, such as a salad. Take that same ingredient and pair with something like chicken, and you??ve got a great main dish. Or make it into as soup and its great way also. Or something tomatoes, in everything from salad to sauces to soups, it??s the perfect ingredient. On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always fun to taste the result of some new way that someone has to use any ingredients. Take that red pepper, pair with cherry pepper and it makes that chicken ever better, sweet with a spicy finish. Or take some basil , add to the tomato soup and it makes that soup every better. It??s not elaborate the preparation or how exotic the ingredient is, it??s more so how fresh it is. That tomato, for example, when it??s fresh it??s so good, sweet with a wonderful tomato flavor. A few days later, it tastes almost bland. The same thing with those red peppers, they are great when they are fresh, not so good when they are not fresh. The key seems to be how close ingredient is from. If it??s not close, in the time that it takes to get to you, it loses all of its flavor. It??s the reason that we like to eat ingredients that are grown so close to where we are. It makes for a yummy creation.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, garlic is an essential ingredient in so many dishes. And yet, since so much garlic grown close to here, having fresh garlic makes an incredible difference. Fresh garlic has the great flavor that tastes even better when it??s roasted or saut?ed. Pair it with something like fresh such green beans and it??s the perfect combination. On our San Francisco Food Tours, combining fresh ingredients makes for tasty combinations. Whether it??s garlic and green beans, butternut squash and walnuts, or brussels sprouts and tomatoes, it??s the freshest of the ingredients that makes all of the difference. When brussels sprouts are fresh and you roast them , the sugar caramelizes. A couple days later, the natural sugar inside the brussels sprouts turns to starch and they can have a really flat taste. The same thing is true with tomatoes, when they are first picked, they are really sweet and tangy . A couple days later, they lose all of that flavor. Roast the two together and it turns into a delicious combination. The same thing happens with garlic and green beans. The sugar is the garlic caramelizes along with the freshest of the green beans and the two really complement each other. It??s the same thing over and over. Combine fresh ingredients, do very little to them and the result is delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s a great time of year to enjoy the outdoor cafes at night. It??s warm enough to enjoy the evening accompanied by some great food and wine . In the daytime , on our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s definitely short sleeve weather. The good news is that it never gets too hot, if gets hot for very long, it usually pulls the fog in off the ocean and cools the city down. The result is that most of us here dress in layers, you never know when we can go from warm to cool. Not too cool fortunately, we don??t get snow and it does not get much below fifty degrees The good news is that also the perfect time to enjoy ice cream. For me, there??s something about making my own ice cream. I get to pick the flavors, choose the ingredients and then make my favorite. It used to be hard to do. Nowadays, I just use the ice attachment on my mixture and it??s pretty simple to make my own. The good news is that still tastes good. I??m not sure if tastes better than what I can go out for because it does, or just because food that you make on your own for some reason always seem to taste better. Either way, its?? the perfect thing to enjoy on these warm nights.

Whether it??s rice wine, grape wine or sake, lots of our stops on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown really like cooking with wine. It??s always interesting seeing how different wines can be used for different things. Take something like sake, I like taking chicken thighs and marinating them overnight with low sodium soy sauce. I also add some fresh gainer and garlic. The sake tenderizers the chicken and the flavors are really assume. Wine from grapes are great way to add flavor to food. I like to add red wine to meats to add the flavor of the wine to the meat. I usually cook the meat enough to cook out the alcohol, so the only thing left is flavor of the wine. White wines go great with seafood. They add a nice fruit flavor to the seafood. They are especially good with shellfish, such as clams or mussels. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we enjoy wine with food. More often than not, we don??t drink it by itself. That could be reason that we try to find wines that complement the food, not compete with them. In other words, the wine enhances the flavor of the food, not overwhelms it. It??s the reason that red wines are usually not that great with seafood. They can overwhelm and cover up the flavor of the seafood. It??s the reason that white is better with seafood or food that don??t have strong flavors. Too much wine and you can??t taste the food anymore, so there is always that balance. Either it??s the way that we use the wine to enhance the food or in other words, it??s another way to enjoy the food.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, guests often ask me whether the food we eat is based on how healthy it is. I??d like to say that way always the reason, however the reality is that more often than not, it??s because it tastes good. The reality is that fresh food just tastes good. When something is not fresh, it starts to be either bland or even bad. Just like fresh fruit tastes better then old fruit, fresh vegetables taste better than old vegetables. Even things like fresh pasta tastes better than pasta out of box. On our San Francisco Food Tours, when is something is fresh, it doesn??t need lots of salty of sauces. It??s probably the reason that we don??t tend to have very heavy sauces or really salty food. Salty foods or heavy sauces are frequently used as a way to cover up food that is not fresh. Fortunately, salty food and heavy sauces are not usually healthy, so food that tastes fresh is healthy at the same time. So, in the final analysis, we??re probably eating healthy food just because they taste better. With all of the images of healthy Californians, it probably really does come to that when our food is fresh, it tastes better. Whether that??s good or bad, it probably closer to who we are and why we eat the foods that we do.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, our guests frequently ask what we do when we are not on a tour. This weekend, when the weather is as nice as it is, frequently we do things outside. From local parks, to gardens there are always some special to just causally wander in the City. There is something about casually wandering, strolling if you will that makes for a perfect day. Just going into that right local bookstore and not really caring if you find some thing or not. Or going down a path into a garden or a park and not really caring what you find, just enjoying the causal stroll. It??s hard to describe, it just makes for the perfect day sometimes. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we like strolling a little, as well, not really sure what we??re going to find, but enjoying the fun of finding something new. It could be a new food, or dish, or some new artwork. Whatever it is, whatever we find, it??s the fun of finding something new. For that it needs to a someplace unique, someone that is one of a kind, it??s the reason why we like to explore local artisans. Places that are part of the neighborhood. It??s the place to find someplace special, someplace worth strolling into .

For many people, the question is whether you are a dog person or a cat person.   In San Francisco, it seems like most of us are dog people. That could that is accurate, or it seems that way because I??m a dog person.  The result is that we tend either indulge or overindulge our dogs.  On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always interesting to see how many places have a water dish for dogs. Many places, especially that have outdoor cafes, will have dog treats, as well.

 Dogs and cats seem to give the City a civilized nature, at the same time it gives everyone a reason to bond.  Everyone seems to really enjoy talking about their dog and cat??s behavior and whether they are a pure bread or a mixed breed. At the same time, they tend attribute their pet??s behavior based on their breed.  It could be accurate it could our way to try explaining away our pet??s behavior.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, we see lots of people who enjoy hanging out in the cafes with their dogs.  And other dog??s owners like to ask questions about some else??s dog that they see.  It could be real interest, it could be away to start a conversation, it could be a way to bond or it could be something entirely different. 

 Whether it??s a dog person or a cat person, we all look for ways to connect.  And it??s  that connection that connects all of us.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown it??s always a curious question about what makes good cook.  Is it experience, is it the right equipment or it something else?  Being someone who likes to cook, I think it could be something else.  It could the willingness to try new things and accept the possibility that you??ll have lots of mistakes along the way to learning a new dish.  Tonight, for example, I was trying to make chicken with caramel sauce.  To do that, you need to cook the caramel sauce past the point to where it is sweet to the point that it savory.  To say that there is lots room for error is a major understatement.  It doesn??t take much to go from a savory caramel to a burnt caramel.  In my case, that usually involves lots of burnt caramels along the way.  Once I get that right, it ends up being delicious.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, all of the chefs have made their mistakes way before the food gets to the table, however everyone is always trying new things.  They always test their new ideas on friends, before it goes out to customers,. Before it gets to the tables, there are lots of mistakes, however there lots of really delicious dishes in the end.  Very similar to the way that I make caramel chicken. 

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Maybe it??s all of the variety of books, maybe it??s ??the feel of the place or maybe it??s something else.?? For me, it??s the possibility of finding something unexpected. Something that I never even thought of.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s the same possibility that makes it really special for me. ??It could be a new craft?? that someone is making, a new dish that someone came up with, or something a simple as a new take on an old dish, such as new spice or a different way of making it.

 On our San Francesco Food Tour, I always enjoy getting  surprised by something new, sometimes that comes from stops of the tour, sometimes it comes from our tour guests, when they share how they like to cook something similar to what they are trying on the tour. As someone who likes to cook, that is part of the fun of cooking, trying something new and having it turn out, even if it takes a couple of tries to get it right.  The idea of trying a different way of making things can some from an obscure idea or just seeing the ingredient the kitchen when I am trying to make a dish.  Either way, it??s like going through that great bookstore, finding something that I never thought of; however,  it was exactly what I was looking for, I just didn??t know that I was looking for it.

It??s always interesting how everyone seems to celebrate Thanksgiving, however everyone adds their own little spin to it.???? It not only changes according each neighborhood; it also changes according to everyone??s individual gathering.?? At this time of year, everyone wants to get together with others and celebrate the holiday.

 On our San Francisco Tours, we have a great time participating in everyone??s traditions.  It??s interesting how the food is important, however wants even more importantly is having a reason to be around and celebrate together.  For those with friends and family, that??s great, however for many people who are alone, the holiday can be a little depressing.  Hearing and watching everyone getting together can be a little difficult when you??re on your own.  We try to keep our eyes out for people when are alone and bring them to one of our celebrations.  On our tour,  it??s always great to see how they react when they get to celebrate the holiday, no matter how small a part that it feels to experience Thanksgiving.

 This holiday makes it really special and find those people who are alone and get them involved in Thanksgiving, no matter how small or large the celebration.  It will make the holiday, that much more special.

I??m not sure what it is, maybe it is part that it is a form of comfort food, maybe it??s the care and slowness that needed to make it or may be that it starts off very basic and yet can become the basis for any combination of food, from seafood, to vegetables, to meats or whatever.?? It??s a great combination of satisfying comfort and creativity that is similar to our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little and Chinatown.?????? From its modest beginning of ??saut?ed ??onions and garlic, with addition of rice, wine and then broth, it starts with modest beginnings and with the right care can become a great dinner.?? If you add the broth too quickly, the rice does not really get that great the creamy al dente taste, so the only way to really make it is to add the broth a little bit at a time, let it get absorbed and add some more until it??s completely absorbed.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, we find a lot of dishes that are that way, they start with modest beginnings and with the right care, they become something wonderful , such as bread.  It can be a very modest food and yet at the same time, it be incredibility comforting.  The addition of someone's creativity can end with some truly special.  All it takes is the care and time to let it develop. Sort of the same way that I like making risotto.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s been an easy weekend.  Between the storms in the other parts of the country to people being out shopping, there??s been a lot of things impacting us.  For me, that??s a great reason to make soup or stew.  Soup and stew are some of those comfort foods that not only taste good, but warms your insides as well, in more ways than one. The great thing is that you can make soup or stew out of just about anything.  For example, something like carrots makes great carrot soup.  Add a little ginger and it??s perfect.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, many of our stops have the same idea about soups and stews.   The great thing about stews is that you don??t need meat.  Tofu make a great substitute for meat, as long as it??s fresh.  Fortunately, a place in the neighborhood makes their own.  However, many of them are like me, as like I like to do at home, is to give my stews time to cook for a long time. It??s gives everything a chance for everything to meld together.   Then I like to reduce the sauce rather than thickening the sauce with something cornstarch.  Reducing the sauce just gives it a much more intense flavor.  It takes more time, however it??s worth it. The good news that we??ll be trying different combinations of soups and stews at home.  No matter what we come up with.  It will be great comforting feeling as we enjoy them.

The big question is what to do with it all.?? We tend get imaginative at home, with everything from Turkey Vegetable Soup and Tukey Pot Pie to even Turkey enchiladas and fajitas.?? It seems like we make all of this turkey, then spend the next couple weeks trying to figure out what to do it.

 The good news is that on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, I didn??t see any turkey.  I??m at the point that if I don??t see turkey for a long time, it will be too soon.  The problem is that next year, we??ll probably end up with turkey again.

 The alternatives to turkey on our San Francisco Food Tour are way better than turkey.  Fresh prosciutto sandwiches or Peking Duck is way better than turkey.  As is focaccia sandwiches or mapo tofu.  I suspect that our stops are keeping all of their leftover turkey at home. Which is a very good thing.   They are probably like me, just trying to figure how we use it all up.  The good news is that we??ll eventually use it all up or freeze it until we can figure what to do with it.  The bad news is that we??ll end up with more leftover turkey next Thanksgiving.

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On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we often get asked the question about whether organic food tastes any different than conventional food.  It??s an interesting question, one that may be subjective, in other words, it can change according to who one asks.  For myself, I think that I can taste a difference.  Organic food, especially vegetables and fruits seem to have a much cleaner flavor, in other words much sweeter and it tastes more like what the food it.  In other words, the asparagus has more of an asparagus flavor and oranges have much more of an orange taste.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always interesting how many of our stops like to use organic foods. Their reasoning seems bout the same as mine, that the food tastes cleaner and tastes more like the food that it actually is.  It seems like that to attention, the attention to the ingredients that makes for really good food.  In other words, if the ingredients are not the best, it??s hard to end with a dish that is the best.  The result is that all one needs it to bring is out the natural flavor of the food.  It??s not really necessary to cover it up or add much to it.  And maybe, that is the reason at our stops tastes so good, they start with the best ingredients and then just bring out the natural flavor of the food.

When they are handmade from fresh potatoes that have a clean flavor and texture that the premade gnocchi can??t compare to.?? Maybe it??s the time and care that it takes to make them or maybe it??s something about the texture that you only know if you??re making them by hand.?? As I was enjoying them last night, accompanied by fresh cream sauce and chanterelle mushrooms, it made for the perfect dinner.

 On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we find it??s that homemade touch that makes all of the difference.  Whether it??s gnocchi or dumplings, one can always taste and feel difference.  Maybe it those things that one can only tell by how it feels.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always great to learn from our stops how they learned about that touch and feel. Some people learned it from a class, some people learned from practice, most of them learned from their family members as it was passed from generation to generation.  The result is that touch and feel of the food that is richly satisfying.  And while current changes and additions to the food are great, it?? that base of the food that comes through.  It??s the base of the food, whether it is gnocchi, dumping or something else that comes through and makes for that richly satisfying experience.

Even though it??s California, there??s special vibe that happens on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown this time of year.  Maybe it??s the holiday season, maybe it??s the change of season, or maybe it??s something else.  The great thing is that vibe is coming from not just people who are from San Francisco, but also from people visiting the City.

 We??re definitely feeling that vibe on our San Francisco Food Tours.  It??s not easy to describe, it could be that people seem to be enjoying the season and are looking forward to next year.   You can hear it when people describe all the pans that have for the coming year.  It could be a new job, a new hobby, a family addition or some personal improvement.

 Like most of us, I??ll make those same plans and probably not follow through on many of them. I think the thig is not to focus on what one not gets done of the plans, but on the ones that we do.  A big part is to make those plans.  Even if we don??t do them all, at least we??re putting forward an optimistic view of the future.  More often than not, our reality will match our expectations.  So, make some great plans, and chances are likely you??ll have a great year. 

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always interesting to see what each neighborhood considers to be comfort food.?? In North Beach\Little Italy, it tends be things like pasta and Italian stews.?? In Chinatown, it tends to be dumplings and noodle-based dishes.?? In both neighborhoods, soups are a year-round comfort food.?? Even at home, soups tend to rank high on my comfort food list.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always great to see how different neighborhoods and different people enjoy similar things, like comfort foods.   It??s interesting how regardless of the neighborhood, soup is always a great comfort food. Maybe it??s the warmth of the soup, maybe it reminds of an earlier time in our life, or maybe it??s something else.  Whatever it is, it??s a great comfort food.

 Some people like more clear broth soups, like egg flower or won ton soup and some people like more creamy soups, like butternut squash soup or carrot ginger soup.  I??m one of the people who likes a more creamy soup, however I like one thickened by either reducing the soup or on that is more thickened by the type of ingredient used, such as the way that butternut squash, when its?? pureed it becomes creamy on its own.  Either way, it??s one of those things that I just like to relax and feel comfortable with.  The perfect comfort food.

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The season has been delayed this year by about a month. The first crab of the season is always the sweetest.?? It??s so good that many just eat them by themselves.

 On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s that thing that about eating seasonally.  It??s when the food is the sweetest.  I might be able to get Dungeness Crab when it??s out of season, however it??s usually been frozen, and it doesn??t have much flavor.  At that point, all one can do is cover it up with lots of butter or some sauce.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, covering something up is the last that we want to do for fresh food.  More likely, we like the favor of the food to speak for themselves.  For example, a good tomato does not need much done it; when it??s fresh the flavor of the tomato is great as it is.  It??s sort of like a great apple it, it does not need much done it.  It??s the crisp and sweet flavor that make an apple the perfect flavor.  Just like fresh Dungeness Crab, which is sweet when it??s in season and when it??s not in season, it does not have much flavor at all.   

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Some people think it??s a time for celebration, some people thinks it??s a time for changes, and some people think to reflect on the previous year.?? For some people it??s a combination of all of this or something entirely different.?? I think it's a time to take stock of all of the great things around us and acknowledge all that you??ve accomplished.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s easy to take for granted what we have.?? We live in what some people call one of the most beautiful cities in the world.?? We have great friends that we know on our San Francis Food Tours.?? Many of us have good families.?? And yet, it easy to take all of that for granted.??

We??re so used to seeing that every day that we tend to focus of the negative.?? In other words, rather than focusing on all of the great things around, we focus on the reason that it??s not perfect.??

I suspect that it true in most areas. We??re so used to seeing the great things around every day, whether it is a great view, good friends, good family that it??s easy to overlook all of that and focus on the one or two things that aren??t perfect.?? So maybe, New Years is a great time to take stock of all of the great things around you, no matter where you live.

There is something about watching a movie on a large screen that is totally different than watching it in a television screen. I??m not sure if is something that I can describe, however the experience is just not the same.  The same thing is true on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.  Experiencing something is not the same as seeing it on a screen somewhere. It may be the reason that having someone who from San Francisco makes such as major difference on or San Francisco Food Tours. 

Being from San Francisco, we understand what makes us different, what makes our city and our neighborhoods different.  I think that almost every city and place have a different personality, not better or worse, just different. And having from that area allows our gets to really experience the City.   It??s not always something that someone can describe, sometimes it??s just a feeling.

Recently, I went traveling on vacation, I ended taking a couple of tours.  It was interesting how I tell who was really local and was not, in other words, who was really from the area that I was visiting. They did not have to tell me; I could just feel it.  Ans it made all of the difference in the experience. It was just like the difference between watching that movie on a real movie screen or a television screen. It felt totally different.

For example, fresh pumpkin squash jumped out at me to make it onto a soup.?? I like to cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, then roast it at about 400 degrees for about 35 to 45 minutes. Next, I scoop the squash and mix with just enough stock to get a soup texture.?? I like adding saut?ed red pepper and fresh ginger.?? After pureeing it, I??ll add ant more stock if needed, then just warm it through and add some salt, pepper, and some herbs such as sage and oregano.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, part of the fun is seeing and tasting what people use for inspiration. Regardless of whether it is Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, it seems to be based on what is in season.   On our San Francisco Food Tours, that seems fairly common, food changes according to what is in season.  The result is that inspiration seems to a seasonal inspiration, whether it a vegetable, seafood, poultry, or meat, having it fresh makes all of the difference.  That is when the food is at its peak of flavor and not much needs to be done to it.  All that one needs to do is to bring out its natural flavor. Maybe that what inspiration is all about, taking what is fresh and just enjoying its natural flavor.

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For many people, the ultimate sign of luxury is a great steak. In San Francisco, the ultimate sign of luxury is fresh Dungeness Crab.  It seems that for many people, the type of luxury is based on what is luxurious according to where one lives.  On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, a lot of that feeling of luxury seems to be based on the neighborhood that one is in, as well.  One that does seem be valid this time of year is that regardless of the neighborhood that one is in, Dungeness Crab is still ultimate luxury.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s interesting that what food is prized, every neighborhood generally does not do much to that food.  Take, for example, Dungeness Crab, most people like to eat it as it is.  If they like it hot, they might steam it, but??s that about it.

 Other times of the year, the food that is considered to be luxurious has a lot to what is in season, the reality that the food is not available year-round seems to be make it more special, as we can only have it at certain times of year.  Perhaps that has a lot do with something being luxurious, only be able to get certain of year.  Perhaps, another word for luxurious is seasonal.  The idea is that we can only enjoy at certain times of year.  And maybe, that is ultimate luxury, only being able to enjoy for short period, in other words seasonal.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, I??ve noticed that each of us a different routine that we are used to every day.  It??s when we wake up, get a cup a coffee, get something for breakfast and then start the day. For many of us, breakfast is small meal. It??s that way for me, when I wake up I want a small breakfast and some coffee is enough for me.  I just like to have a copy of the newspaper, as well.  For some reason, having a paper copy just feels better than the digital version.  I??m not sure why, but it just does. 

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it seems like many of the people in the neighborhoods are the same way.  It??s the reason that you can find the cafes or bakeries full of people, drinking coffee or tea, along with something else to start the day. It??s interesting that part of that is not just food, it??s someone to talk with to start the day. Many of us are probably that way, we like to have someone across the table to talk to, even if we don??t say anything, we just like the fact that they are there.  And whether it??s a home, caf?, or a bakery, it??s that routine that we like have when we start the day.  

For example, I have a 14-inch skillet that I really like when I??m making dinner.?? Not only can it go from the skillet to the oven, the extra two inches from a 12-inch skillet means that I can fit a lot of foods that would otherwise require two batches into one batch.?? Or, even for one batch, things like chicken have enough room to brown nicely.?? Not only the right equipment important for me, the right ingredients are just as important.?? For example, ground pepper in a jar does not begin to resemble the flavor of freshly ground pepper.?? ????We find the same is valid on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, having the right equipment makes all of the difference.?? For example, having a great wok in Chinatown, that has been seasoned naturally, can make the difference between an okay dish and a great dish.

 It??s always interesting on our San Francisco Food Tours what everyone thinks is essential, something as the right peeler to the right spatula or skillet.  It seems to match the way that someone cooks.  For me, there are so many dishes that I like to start on the stove, that having the right skillet I so important.  For other people, it??s something related to how they like to cook.  The good news is that usually results in some delicious dishes.

It??s interesting how much of our days can get taken up by little things, the little household errands that sometimes consume our entire day.  From fixing up the house to grocery shopping, sometimes we get to end of the day, it can sometimes seem like we can get to of end of the day and it can seem like we did not get much accomplished.  Sometimes, it a little thing that happens can make the day special.  It can as simple as a special song or something special for breakfast or dinner.  It??s always interesting on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s those little things that can make the day special.  Something as little as the right biscotti or fresh basil can turn bring out something special for breakfast or dinner.  It??s a way or treating oneself like one is special.   On our San Francisco Food Tours, we often seem ways that everyone treats special is usually not in big way, it??s those small little things.  Something as special as a great cappuccino or a glass of wine can make one??s day seem special.  It??s treating oneself the same way that we would treat someone else.  It??s realizing that each day we need to treat ourselves, either by a special treat, a great walk to a special place, or even just a great sunrise or sunset.  It??s that special treat that we need every day.  That way to make that day and ourselves special.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we always have a great time whenever there is a festival in San Francisco.  This time of year, Chinese New Year festivities are going on, so it??s a great of year to be in Chinatown.    The weekend after next will be the Chinese New Year??s Parade and, as usual, it will be really fun. It??s a really fun parade to watch, however going Chinatown this month is just full of surprises.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, we have a great tine enjoying all of the surprises this time of year.  Along Stockton Street, each side of the street as has booth after booth of special things for the Chinese New Year??s.  From special treats to special crafts each booth is a different surprise.  Along Grant Avenue, we just enjoyed the Flower Market Fair, where all kinds of flowers are displayed and sold for the holiday.  Next weekend, we??ll have the Community Fair along Grant week, more booths with great foods and gifts.  All around Chinatown, each store will have special surprises for the holiday.  The great thing is during our Chinatown tour, we get to take it all in, from the lion dances to flowers to special crafts.  All in all, it??s a great to be in Chinatown!

When I??m in the kitchen cooking, it??s always interesting how certain spices or herbs can add a special touch in unexpected foods.  Take something like cinnamon, most of the time I us it in deserts like deserts with apples or other fruits, however added to something like tomato sauce, it adds a great addition to other foods, such as chicken or pasta.  It??s those little things that makes a dish go from okay to really great.  On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, many of our stops are the same way.  For example, one of our stops got some fresh pistachios and tried adding them to some ricotta cheese and then into a pastry dough, along with some cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. They just gave it out without charging it, to see what everyone??s reaction.  It remarkedly good.  They many end up selling it, however they haven??t decided yet.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s that kind of experimentation that can make for some really great new dishes.  Someone in the kitchen tries to experiment.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn??t., They will frequently test it out with family or friends.  If you??re part of that group, you can end trying some really tasty things.   The good news is only that the successes ever get sold. The result is that I get to try some great new ideas.  And then I can try using those ideas at home.  It??s what makes cooking such a fun a creative thing.  The chance to experiment, have fun, and enjoy the successes.

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In San Francisco, we just experienced that.?? The 49??s got to the Super Bowl and almost won.?? Unfortunately, Kansas City won.?? So, we get to celebrate that they almost won. As long as we don??t take things too seriously, we can celebrate that.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it will be interesting to see how everyone celebrates that they ???almost?? won. ??So maybe we??ll just celebrate with a glass and wine and some nice cheese.?? Or maybe just a cappuccino.?? It might not be completely correct, however any excuse to celebrate it usually a good enough excuse.

 On our San Francisco Food Yours, we tend to find any excuse to celebrate.  It could be a birthday, an anniversary. Someone who just graduated or someone who found a great new recipe.  Any old excuse that we can use.  After all, celebrating the little things is a pretty good way to live.    And given our penchant to penchant to celebrate things that almost happen, we find an excuse to celebrate when it is almost someone??s birthday, anniversary or something else. And almost being is whatever we say that it is, it fortunately gives us lots of time to celebrate.  Wine and cheese, cappuccinos, or dumplings, whatever excuse that can use to enjoy something.  Whatever works.

I have to admit that I can fall into that category, however there is something uniquely special about making a good meal at home.?? Especially when it not the run of the run mill meal that one makes to get dinner on the table as fast as possible.?? It??s when you spent the time to make something special.?????? It??s knowing all of things that you did when you made the meal to make it special, that makes it taste even better.?? The good news is that everyone ls know about that as well and it comes through in the meal.?? The fact that you did the time to do something special.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, you can tell at each of our stops that the food was not something that was made to get it out the door, it was something that they took the time to  do something special.  And the good news is that is comes through in the food.  It??s what makes the food on our San Francisco Food Tours so special.  It??s that everyone takes pride in the food, as if they made it for their own family or friends.  It??s like sitting around the dinner table when someone has taken the time and effort to make something special. 

Whether it??s chanterelles, hedgehog, morels, portabellas, creminis, button mushrooms or another type, when I get in the kitchen, I have a great time coming up with a new dish.?? On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little and Chinatown, it??s always great to see what ingredients sparks everyone??s creativity.?? Everyone in each neighborhood has their own ingredient, the things that they really enjoy using in the kitchen.?? It??s that ingredient that when one gets in the kitchen that you start thinking that you??re going to make something one way and then it??s ends up being something really good that came up, as a result.?? For example, I got some fresh hedgehog mushrooms. At first, I thought I would make a chicken dish and use the hedgehog mushrooms.?? However, I saw some fresh brioche and I decided to make it into bread pudding.?? Added to that with some bell peppers and spices and it turned out really yummy.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always fun to see how people see the right ingredient and get it in kitchen and then have a great time coming up with a new dish.   It starts with some ingredient and then they see something else and what gets created is usually something really good.  It??s what??s makes cooking so much fun.  The time that one can use their creativity to make something that they really like.     And the great part is we get to enjoy the result of their creativity.  And we do that ourselves, we to enjoy the result of our creativity.  Either way, it seems to really taste good.

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Long weekends in San Francisco are those times that seem like the perfect time for walk around and enjoy the city.  Whether it??s walking around the neighborhoods or across the city, it??s a great time enjoy the nice weather and take in the area.  Nowadays, there is new trail that starts at one end of San Francisco and takes you all the way to the other end. Walking has always been a great way to experience the city.  Walking is when you can really feel the area, rather than just viewing it. It??s the difference between seeing a concert on television or seeing it in person.  There is just no comparison.

 It??s the reason that we like walking on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.  We can really experience the neighborhoods.  We can experience the local artisans, the local cafes, the local restaurants, and more.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, we get to experience what the city what it is every day.  It may be reason we tend to be a big walking city.   Many of us would prefer to walk over being a vehicle almost every time.    Here, we usually have great weather and air and water is fairly clean, so being outside seems very natural here.  And, we get to stop wherever we want to and take in the city.  Whether it??s a local caf?, a restaurant, a park, or a great view.   It??s that experience that makes walking the luxury that it is.

Living in San Francisco, days like Valentine??s Day have a special significance.  For better or worse, San Francisco likes think of itself as a center of romance.  One big question for many people is what is romance?  On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we really enjoy giving our guests a romantic experience, not just on Valentine??s Day, but year-round. For us, that??s helping our guests experience things that they will remember as a couple or as friends.

 On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s having an experience together that becomes a joint memory.  That may be what couples end up sharing, a memory that only they have, whether it a special food that they enjoyed together, a time that someone did something special, or something a little as the time their dog did something memorable.  Maybe it??s those shared memories that keep people together, the ability to talk about something that no one else knows about, because everyone else was not there, or it??s a combination of memories that only that couple can talk about, because only those people shared all of those memories.

On our tours, each new stop is opportunity for a shared memory, a shared taste, as shared time for each person or couple.  In the end, maybe that is what romance is all about, creating shared memories that create a bond that is unique and special and something unique to that couple.  And maybe that is romance.

Take something like salmon.?? I find that the trick about making salmon is not covering up the flavor.?? The other thing is not to cook it above a medium heat in the skillet.?? Anything above that just dries it out.?? I like a few spices and herbs and some olive oil in the skillet, but that really all that it needs. And for more me, it really works if it is wild salmon.?? The flavor is much better. And, of course, it has to be fresh, when fish is not fresh, there is nothing that you do with it.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little and Chinatown, that freshness factor seems to be important to a lot of people.  There is something about fresh food, whether it is fish, vegetables, chicken, or any other food, that is a major factor in how it tastes.  If something is not fresh, about the only thing that one can do it to try to cover it up.  It is probably the reason that some people on our San Francisco Food Tours are so fanatical that the fresh food that is also local.  The longer that is takes from it??s source the less fresh that a food is going to be.  And in the final analysis, it what determines whether you can bring out the favor of the food or you have to cover it up.  It??s like salmon, when it??s fresh, it just not need much.  When it??s not, there just is not much that you can do with it.

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It??s always interesting what many people think as a particular ???ethnic?? food.  Whether is something like Chinese Food or Mexican Food or something else, many people have a particular kind of dish that comes to mind.  In reality, the type of a particular ethnic food really depends on the region that the food is from.  For example, Mexican Food is a lot more than tacos, tamales, enchiladas, etc.  Having been to Baja California, which is part of Mexico, I remember some of freshest seafood that I ever had, served with incredible local fruits, such as oranges, lemon, and mangos.  And, Mexico has some of the most amazing cooks, so it??s constantly changing.  And, just like us, the abundance of fresh ingredients results ends up with some incredible dishes all across the area.

 On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we see how the type of food definitely reflects where one??s family is from, even when someone is second or third generation or more, as many of the recipes get passed down from one generation to the next.  We see that all of the time on San Francisco Food Tours.  For example, the influence of a family from Shanghai can result in some amazing dumplings or being from Sichuan can end with something like Mapo Tofu, a great mixture of tofu, vegetables in a spicy sauce. And yet, when the tofu is locally made, it becomes that more delicious.  The result is that each region has a different type of food.  Or in North Beach\Little Italy, Northern Italy is much different than Southern Italy, which has much more pasta-based dishes.   The result is that exploring Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy is a wonderful treat of different flavors, just like visiting other regions in the world. Each place is a different treat, reflecting each family??s different heritage.

The good news is with all of the walking trails throughout San Francisco, it??s a great time for a walk.?? It??s also a good time for outdoor brunches and dinners, as well as just sipping cappuccinos in an outdoor cafe in North Beach\Little Italy.?? It??s also the time that something light feels perfect to eat.?? Sometimes roasted chicken with some herbs is enough or sometimes a great salad hits the spot.

 On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, the food can change according to the weather, as well.  When it??s cold, soups are great.  When it??s warm, the fresh vegetables come out in both neighborhoods.  There is some pasta around in North Beach\Little, however rather than a tomato sauce, sometimes just some fresh spices and herbs, along with some roasted vegetables is enough.  Year round, we find that the very few places on our San Francisco Food Tours like to put heavy sauces on anything, including pasta.  Being one of those people who likes to make their own fresh pasta, that is great for me, as I like to be able taste the flavor of fresh pasta.

The result of this is my perfect outdoor dinner, some roasted chicken with fresh herbs, a great salad with some freshly marinated vegetables and pasta with some parmesan.  I??m not sure how fancy it is, but with the warm weather and some great views, it seems like the perfect dinner to me.

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If you ask most people, they can tell their favorite and place for pizza.  For many people, it??s a variation on a tomato and cheese pizza.  And yet, for me, it??s a great base for other flavors.  The key is to make sure that it is a great combination of crispy on the outside and chewy inside.  For me, the crust is everything.  Everyone has their own version of pizza crust and everyone thinks that there??s is the best.  That includes me.  I tend to make version a similar to bread, where I make a yeast-based crust, give it a couple of risings, before rolling it out and baking it in a very hot oven.  The good news is that my family is usually the only ones who eat it, so if it does not turn out well,  I only have a few people who will tell me about it.  That is always one advantage that I have about cooking a home, I don??t have to please very many people, only the people around the dinner table.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, the stops have to please a lot more than just their families.  They have to please all of the customers, as well.  The result is they usually try them on their friends and family before the general public.  Being from the neighborhood, I am frequently am one of those people.  Sometimes, not so good.  On the other hand, one of the fun parts of our San Francisco Food Tours for me, is that I get to see friends of mine at our stops on a regular basis and try all of their new stuff.  If it??s good, our guests frequently taste it on a tour.  It??s a yummy thing to do.

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Whether is something that is served with or some ingredients that it is made with, it can open up to a wide variety of possibilities. It??s probably the reason that making my own pasta is so great for me.?? I can use whatever ingredients that I want, from spinach to squash and more to making in whatever shape that I want, whether it is spaghetti, lasagna, linguini, Cappelli or more. Nowadays it is so easy to make you own pasta.?? It used to be you have to mix all of the ingredients, roll it out, cut it and shape in a pasta roller and more.?? Nowadays, it can be as simple as mixing the ingredients in a mixture, then rolling it and shaping it with an attachment that you can put on the stand mixer.?? I??ve even seen pasta machine where all you do is put all of the ingredients in the machine, turn it on and machine mixes and rolls the pasta for you.?? At the same time, it??s just taking a simple ingredient and making it your own.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown and North Beach\Little Italy, it always fun to see how people will take some simple ingredients and make it into their own creation, whether it is something as simple as pasta or dumplings, or something kind of squash or chicken.  The good news is they all like working with fresh ingredients, so everyday there is so new dish to try.  It??s one of things that I enjoy so much about our San Francisco Food Tours, we get to try new dishes every day.  And the great thing is in the end, it is taking some simple ingredients and transforming it into their own dish, very similar to when I make pasta.   

Something like a frittata.?? It??s one those dishes that is basically a clean out the cabinets dish for me.?? I just take whatever vegetables that I have, along with some onions and garlic, add some kind of meat if I have on hand, and then cook or bake them with eggs.?? Or just going through the cabinets and finding some tomatoes and making them into a tomato sauce, then just poaching the eggs in the tomato sauce.?? It??s why if you go into my kitchen, I like to always have the basics like olive oil, parmesan cheese, onion, and garlic. That way, whenever I am making one my clean out the cabinets meal, I??ve got whatever I need to put it together.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, it??s always interesting to see what everyone thinks are the kitchen basics that they need to have.  It??s usually not based on the neighborhood; it??s more so based on each person individual way of cooking. It usually comes from a combination of their family background and what they like to cook or eat.  It??s probably the reason on our San Francisco Food Tours, the food is always so exciting. It??s someone??s dish that they really like to cook or eat themselves.  They don??t usually do a clean out the cabinets meal, however each dish does have their own personal spin. At the same time, they are like me, when I see something fresh at the market, my mind starts racing about a great way to make it.  The good news is that they do the same thing. The result is that the dishes are always something fresh and delicious. It??s a great way to cook and eat.

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In the winter, things like chicken and dumplings meet that need.?? For me, risotto is my version of comfort food.?? Eating it feels really good, however for me, cooking my own risotto and then eating it seems to make it even more of a comfort food.?? Figuring out what I??m going to put in the risotto and the process of making it really helps.

I like to use Carnaroli rice instead of Arborio rice.  It seems to produce a creamier risotto.  First, I like to cook all the ingredients that I am putting most of the ingredients that I am put into the risotto.  Tonight, I found some really nice chicken garlic sausage, red peppers, orange peppers and tomato that I saut?ed by themselves they went into risotto.  I always start with saut?ing some onion and garlic in olive oil until they are translucent on around medium heat, then cooking the rice until starts to get a little almost toasty, right before the end of the rice browns, I usually use about 2 and half cups of rice.  I start to add my liquids, I usually use about 8 and half cups total.  I like to add some white wine and cook the rice until wine is incorporated, then then ingredients.  Next, I add the stock a little at a time, about a ladle or two at a then, cook and stir it until it??s all incorporated, then repeat this until I have used up all of the liquid.  After that, I like to add some butter, fresh herbs and parmesan.  Then it??s ready, and it feels really comfortable.  Having to watch while I am making food, somehow helps me to relax.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, a lot of the people at the stops are like me, the cooking process is something that people seem to like almost as much as eating the food.  Maybe it??s that for many people, like me, cooking helps me focus on something other myself.  Then, relaxing with the food is that much more special.  On our San Francisco Food Tours relaxing and enjoying the food is a great way to taste the food.  It gives me a chance to savor all of the flavors, such as when I am eating risotto.  It??s that way of eating comfort food, taking oneself away from all of the worries and world and savoring that perfect bite.

If you do it with your dog, it seems to be even better. It??s usually the opposite of what you feel like doing.?? Sometimes, the more the stress, the more you feel like pulling the covers over your head and trying to hide out from the world.?? It can as simple as walking down the block, but that movement helps me to feel a little better.?? Maybe it??s the exercise, maybe it??s getting out of the house.?? Whatever it is, it seems to really help.?? I think that while holing up feels like the obvious thing to do, it just makes you feel like there is no way out.

We see that on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.  People feel better when can walk, as opposed to being cooped up in a bus.  It??s like when I??m walking my dog, I??ll notice thing like a view of the sky, some new flower, or something that takes my mind off what is bothering me at the moments.  It??s something that surprises me, similar to when we see something new on our San Francisco Food Tours.  When at home, walking my dog, the surprise may not be as obvious, but if let myself be open to it, it takes mind off my current problems.  Walking a dog may be even more helpful, as dogs have a habit of wanting to have lots of attention.  I find that when I am giving my dog attention, it decreases my attention on other things.

During times when things seems difficult, take the time to take care of yourself.  Find what works for you and then do it, even when you don??t feel like doing it.  Once you start doing it, you??ll start to feel better.

For me, I tend to cook with chicken thighs more than anything else.  I like the bone-in chicken thighs with the skin on.  I seem to get the best results from them.  When I'm saut?ing chicken, I like to get the oil very hot (about medium-high) until it stat to shimmer.  I always start off skin side down and then let it go until it has some nice browning, then do the same on the other side.  If the oil is not hot enough, the chicken will taste oily. Most of the time, I like to start the chicken on the stove, then finish it off in the oven.  If I know that the chicken is going to above the sauce or vegetables that I am using, I'll saut? the skin until it gets nice and crispy. 

One exception to this is when I'm roasting chicken.  In that case, I'll keep the chicken more or less whole.  I say more or less, as I usually like to butterfly the chicken, which is cutting it down the back, so it can lay flat.  That way I can brown both sides of the chicken in a skillet, then finish roasting it in the oven.  The result is the chicken gets some very nice flavor.

All of this is probably the reason that I'm a big fan of skillets that I can use on both the stove and in the oven.  While most large skillets are about 12 inches, I found on that it a 14-inch skillet is a little better.  The extra two inches allows me to cook everything in one batch.  If you're thinking getting a slightly larger skillet, first measure your oven to make sure that the skillet will fit inside.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, there are great little tips that I pick up, such as using chicken thighs or butterflying chicken, so it has better flavor.  At the same time, ovens and ranges in a restaurant are usually larger than one's home, so I always to translate the way that a restaurant cooks compared to my home kitchen.  So, while we are learning some new ideas on our San Francisco Food Tours, we always try to adjust to cooking at home. If you're ever reading a recipe, a good idea is if it is from a restaurant, think about how you need to adjust it to your home kitchen, whether is an ingredient or equipment. Do that before you start cooking and you'll end up with a great dish.

I??m one of these people who has lots of kitchen equipment, usually just about everything that I need. It??s the same way as the stops that we have on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.  Being restaurants, there is usually not much that they don??t have. Right now, if I need something, it??s not a good time to go out and buy some more equipment.  For example, just yesterday, I decide to do some baking.  I??m not much of a baker, so I tend to follow the recipe.  I also don??t have a lot of baking equipment at home either.  The recipe called for sifted flour. I looked around the kitchen and realized that I either didn??t have a sifter or I could not find it.  I ended up taking a colander, putting the flour in a large bowl and then shaking the flour into the bowl.  The good part is that I used a large bowl, so the flour did not go everywhere.  The other part is that I used it in the recipe, and it worked.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, most of our stops are professional restaurants that have professional kitchens and almost every piece of equipment that they could every need.  Unlike most of us, they usually have lots of space to store equipment, way more than most of us have in our kitchens.  Additionally, it can be expensive to buy equipment that you are only going to use once or twice. I frequently look at recipe and if it calls for a piece of equipment that I don??t have, I??ll think about how to use something that I already have, rather than going out and buying it or not make the recipe.  Frequently, I come up with alternative.  More often than not, the recipe comes out okay. 

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, our stops use the best ingredients to make pasta, from semolina flour to fresh eggs, plus fresh water and salt.    For many of us, who are home right now, we don??t always have things like semolina flour.  And given that we really need to stay home right now, it??s not a good idea to go out to get things like semolina flour. The good news is that when I??m making something like pasta, almost any kind of flour will do.  If you can??t find a recipe for the type of flour that you don??t have, start with about three cups of sifted flour.  Sifting making the flour a little lighter, and it help it to combine more evenly.  For example, three and half cups of all-purpose flour usually needs about 4 eggs, a tablespoon of water and about ?_ teaspoon of salt.  If you??re using another kind of flour, start with less flour and eggs and water and salt and start adding flour, eggs, water, and salt, as you knead the dough.  If you have a stand mixer, it??s ideal.  If you don??t have a stand mixture, use a well-floured counter or cutting board until you a crumbly mixture that you can knead it into a ball. Just do a little a time, you can add more flour, eggs, water, and salt.  If it gets too wet, just add more flour,

While the food is great in our San Francisco Food Tours, our stops usually have access to the ideal ingredients.  One way to substitute ingredients is to think about each ingredient are intended to accomplish.  For example, eggs are frequently used to hold things together, if I??m out of them, sometimes I can use butter or even oil.  It??s more important to stay home right now than to go out for an ideal ingredient.  If I look around my kitchen, I can usually find something to substitute.

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While there are places along our San Francisco Food Tour of Chinatown that are great places to get a wok, you may not have one right now.  The good news is that while a wok is great to have for cooking certain dishes, you can great results if you don??t have one.  The first thing is a grab a skillet with as high as sides, as possible. Next, heat the skillet to about to high, or just below it.  Pour in some oil, anything except for olive oil, which will break down under high.  Start with only a tablespoon or two. If the recipe calls for more oil than that, add a little less than you think you need.   After the oil heats, it will spread out and you can tell if you have enough oil, you can always add more oil, if you need to. 

Before you start anything, get the oil very hot.  I can usually tell because the oil starts to shimmer. If you are using a recipe that calls for the oil to be a certain temperature and you don??t have a thermometer, when you think the oil is hot enough, put some a little food in oil and make it cooks quickly.

As you??ll notice on our San Francisco Food Tours, when you start to fry or saut? anything in oil, be very careful when you put the ingredients in. Hot oil can burn you very quickly and be very painful.  I do a couple things to stay safe. Without touching the oil, put the ingredients in the oil, do not drop them in.  Also, put it in, so it is facing away from you.  After it goes into the oil, pull your hand back quickly, in case it unexpectedly splatters.  Don??t assume that it won??t, assume that it will splatter, so you don??t get burnt.

When your food is done, carefully take the food out of the oil. Again, assume that will splatter. Then, either store on a plate or if you need to keep it warm, put it in a warm oven.  When you are done, let the skillet and oil is completely cook before cleaning the skillet.  Again, keep in mind that everything is very hot.

While we??re on a break from our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we??ve probably got more time on our hand than we would like.  Delivery from some of our favorite restaurants is a great way to help support them.  At the same time, we??re doing a lot of cooking, and making some of our favorite foods.  For example, last night seemed like a great time for pizza.  Unfortunately, I didn??t have many of the ingredients that I usually like to have for pizza, such a mozzarella cheese, along with a few other things.  I looked in my refrigerator and found a bag a of shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheese.  Hardly the kind of the cheese that I would usually put on pizza.  Right now, it??s more important that all us look for substitutes than to go out for ingredients.  I used the shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheese and to my surprise, the pizza actually turned pretty good.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, the stops e go to usually don??t have to substitute ingredients under normal circumstances.   For many of us, when we??re cooking a home, we can think that what we make at home should taste the same way as a restaurant that we??ve been to.  Even under the of best circumstances, what we eat at home should taste the way that we like it to taste.  And, as long we experience the enjoyment of making the food and enjoying eating something that we made, it??s a great meal.

Usually when are on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown this time of year, we can look around and see the signs of spring, whether it is flowers or the foods that some into market.  Right now, as we are hanging around the house, it takes some effort to see those signs.  And, for many of us, that is important. Spring is when we come out of winter and we start to see signs that world around starting to open up again.

So many of us, the question is how to start to feel like it??s spring again.  One way is to cook something that has a bright flavor to it, such as lemon.  Another way to do things that help to make yourself feel better.  It??s amazing how much some exercise helps that. If you don??t have any exercise equipment at home, walking is a great exercise.  If it??s outside, just make sure that you practice social distancing. And do simple things for yourself, something as simple as taking a shower helps.  If you??re by yourself, try to connect with others using some online tools.  Most of the religious institutions are having online services and many neighborhood organizations are connecting neighbors online as well.

While we may miss the signs of spring on our San Francisco Food Tours, we can do things for ourselves that help us have more a spring-like attitude.  Taking care of yourself, physically and mentally is the best way to do that.

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While we??re home from our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown like most us, we??re trying to be conscious of doing things to keep our healthy both on a physical and mental basis.  When I??m at home all of time nowadays, it??s easy to lay around and watch television all day.  The challenge in doing that is that it??s easy to get depressed the more than I do that.  For me, I found that it really helps to have a plan of day that I??m going to some kind of exercise.  It can be as simple as walking or using an exercise video on television or on the internet.  It??s also important to me to plan healthy meals and to keep junk food out of the house.  I find that if I have junk food in the house, I??ll eat it.

While physical health is important, mental health is also important.  For me, having a mental routine really helps.  I like to cook, and I also like to write, so I set aside to do both.  I also like to pick a time a day to make a list of three things that I am grateful for.  I find that really helps my mental well-being.

Usually, enjoying our San Francisco Food Tours helps my mental and physical well-being.  Being at home, it??s important to do things to stay healthy, both physically and mentally.  Being conscious of our physical and mental well-being is important for all of us.

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Usually, we??re able to go out and get a variety of foods.?? Right now, it??s more important to stay at home.???? Sometimes, I look in my refrigerator and see the same vegetables that I had the previous day.?? Frequently, I??ll try to take the same vegetable that I had the previous day and I want to make that doesn??t taste the same way as before.?? A great way to do is cook in a different way than I did before. For example, steaming most vegetables bring out a certain flavor.?? If I want to change up things a bit, I??ll saut? in a pan with some oil and herbs and the flavor come out very differently.?? Another way, roasting it in the oven can be really good, as many vegetables, such as cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and broccoli take on almost caramel taste.

While we??ll have a variety of foods on our San Francisco Food Tours, cooking the same foods in slightly different way, brings out a very different flavor.  Cooking with different oils, herbs, and things like soy sauce, sesame oil, or different vinegars is another to bring out different flavors.  Keep experimenting and you??ll come up with some great combination of flavors.

Being at home from our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, we??re enjoying being at home as much as I can. At the same time, as much as I try to avoid it, sometimes cabin fever sets in.  Fortunately, having a dog, I have to walk the dog outside.  The good news is that I can do and still practice social distancing.  It also gives me a chance to notice the little things, things like the sun coming up over the ocean, something different about a tree in the neighborhood or something as simple as a new plant coming out.

It is similar to cooking food at home or some of the foods on our San Francisco Food Tours.  It??s the subtle flavors of foods that can make all of the difference.  It??s like the background flavor in some dish.  For example, yesterday I was making some omelets and I used some white vanilla in the omelet.  White vanilla is different from the typical vanilla that you might find in a store.  It is made from the flower of the vanilla plant, so it has a really nice flavor, almost like a lavender flavor.  It??s adds a really nice background flavor.  It??s easy to miss when you??re eating something, unless you take the time to slow down and enjoy the subtle flavors.  When you notice it, it??s really nice. It??s similar to noticing the small changes around you, that new plant, the way the sun sets, or something else that can really brighten up your day.

Under normal circumstances, we would be celebrating the coming of spring on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.  Right now, we??re doing the important thing by staying home, however we??re looking for those signs of springtime. Usually, we would be seeing all of the springtime vegetables and food coming into the market.  They may be coming, however we??re not at the market to see them.  So, the question, is how to tell that it??s spring? For us, looking at the ocean or at a park helps, however depending where you are at, you might not have a park or an ocean to look at.  So maybe it??s those little things, like the way the sunlight hits something around you or the way the breeze just feels a little different.  It my take some effort, however if you look around, you??ll be able to find those small signs of spring.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s noticing what??s around us and really appreciating how they can affect us that makes things so special.  Maybe it??s the way food tastes, or the music from a street musician.  When we??re home and seeing the same things every day, it takes more effort to see those signs of spring. However, if one looks, you find those signs of spring.

There are sometimes that I want certain comfort foods.  I??m not sure if it??s the flavor, or their comforting nature.  Yesterday, I felt that desire.  For some reason, I had a desire for meatloaf.  And, some reason, I had a desire for turkey meatloaf.  I??m not sure why, I just had the desire.  The bad news was that I didn??t have any ground turkey or ground chicken.  I had some skinless chicken breasts; however, I don??t have a meat grinder.   If I was on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, I could probably find one, however now it is not the time to go out buy things. 

I came up with an okay solution, not great, but okay.  I poached the chicken breasts and then used my food processor to process them into something resembling ground chicken.  After I used that to make meatloaf, the result was passable enough to satisfy my craving for meatloaf.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, most of our stops have all of the equipment that they need.  While I??m at home, I don??t always have everything that they do. Typically, restaurants have a lot equipment that I do at home.  However, with a little ingenuity, I came come up with some creative solutions.

Eggs are one of those ingredients that seems to permeate most cuisines.  Given how versatile that they are, that is probably no surprise.  On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we often see it show up in both neighborhoods.    At home, I end using them very frequently.  It??s a great way to make a quick meal.  In addition to omelets, they are a great way to use up leftovers in things like a frittata.  A frittata is really just an open face omelet.  In simplest terms, I can just saut? what ingredients that I like in a skillet, such as onions, asparagus, squash, broccoli, sausage, or whatever I have left around, then add little cheese, if I like.  I just pour enough beaten egg to cover everything, and then put the skillet in the oven until at about 350 degrees until it??s golden brown on the top.  If you don??t have an oven safe skillet, just pour everything into a casserole dish.  It usually takes about 20-30 minutes, however, keep an eye on everything, so it does not burn.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, a lot of the dishes started on using leftovers.  For example, one of my favorite dishes, chicken with red wine sauce, is basically chicken cooked with leftover like green peppers and mushrooms and then cooked in red wine.  It??s like making a frittata, a great way to use up leftovers and using something to bring out all of the flavors.  It may the reason that when I see leftovers, I see it as my way for a great dinner.

The Perfect IngredientIt seems like there are two ingredients that I use more than anything else, it??s onions and garlic.?? Even when I am making something like a salad, I usually find a way to use those two ingredients.?? ??For me, onions make a great base for some many dishes.?? When I am saut?ing them, the onions and garlic add a base to whatever I??m making, whether it a sauce, chicken, and vegetables.?? When I am making a salad, it adds a great combination of sweet and spicy.?? If I caramelize onions, it??s makes the perfect onion tart.

On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy, everyone seems to have a favorite ingredient, whether it is tomatoes, eggs, or something else.  It??s those things that seem make cooking fun.  It could be an ingredient, a skillet, or something that makes cooking a relaxing experience.   The great thing is that you don??t have a great cook. It; the fun aspect that makes the meal fun. 

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s that fun aspect that makes the food an event.  So, while we??re at home, cooking those dishes that we??ve made before we??re making or for the first time, it does not have to be perfect, you just need to enjoy the experience of cooking and then sharing it with others.  Maybe that aspect is the perfect ingredient.

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While we??re at home from our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, I try to eat heathy, however a nice dessert now and then is good for my mental health.  One of favorite desserts in Panna Cotta. It one of those desserts that I customize on a lot of different ways.   However, I??m even if I??m planning to customize my Panna Cotta, I always start off with about a cup of milk in a saucepan.  After sprinkling some plain gelatin on the milk, I just let it sit for about ten minutes before I heat it up a little bit until warm, but not so much that boils, so the gelation will dissolve well.  I like to stir it constantly at this point.  If you like a lemon flavor, it a good time to add some lemon zest.  Next, slowly stir in about three cups of heavy cream, stirring constantly.  Add about four tablespoons sugar and a pinch of salt and let it all dissolve.  Then just cool down everything in a water bath, while stirring until starts to thicken. You can then add whatever flavor or that you like, lemon, chocolate, pomegranate, etc.  Just make that it is in a liquid form. Then just pour it into serving containers and let it cool down in the refrigerator.

On our San Francisco Food Tours, it??s always great to enjoy how everyone customizes their dishes. They are of sort of like me, they enjoy eating whatever they come up with.  For us, we get to enjoy the fun of eating it.