More Food Adventures – Food Blogger Festival

Foodbuzz hosts a fabulous annual food blogger festival right here in San Francisco. I decided to attend for the first time this year. I had so much fun meeting fellow food bloggers and eating great food. I’m still full from eating so much! Here are some highlights and pictures.

Saturday Tasting Pavillion – A ton, well more like 40 or so, food/wine/beer vendors set up at the top of the Metreon to let us sample their goods. There was a great selection of hot food, beverages, sweets, and packaged goods. I filled up my farmer’s market bag with all sorts of goodies. I’m still snacking on granolas and chocolate bars this week!

Crab Cake

Halibut in a coconut milk sauce

Cupcake Tower – Chocolate, Red Velvet, Pumpkin

Saturday Dinner – A fancy dinner was hosted at the Academy of Sciences where guests got to experience the museum’s nightlife while dining on great food.

Tables set up outside the Tropical Rainforest exhibit

Philippine reef tank

Open Bar

Delectable Local Cheeses

Artichoke Ravioli with Shaved Asiago & Carrot Soup

Pheasant Sausage with Carrot, Ryeberries, Cabbage, and Riesling Jus

This was such a great event! Can’t wait to see everyone next year!

Food Travels – Oahu

One of the best things about traveling is trying all the different local foods. I just got back from vacation on Oahu. My little brother recently moved to the island to train dolphins (coolest job ever right?). I enjoyed venturing away from the Waikiki craziness to get some quiet beach time in and to hit up some of the local shrimp trucks and plate lunch spots. Best of all, each place was so reasonable. Move over $15 mai tai’s and make way for tasty cheap food …. like freshly made udon noodles with soft boiled egg!

We rented mopeds one day and hit up the KCC Farmer’s Market in the morning. We snacked on some chicken and waffles. There were also some pork slides on beautiful purple taro buns that I didn’t get a picture of … darn it!

Fresh Papaya, you don’t see this at the farmer’s market in San Francisco! These were pretty cheap. On the room service menu at our hotel a half of a papaya was $8.00 … yikes! Farmer’s markets are a good way to go if you want cheap and local eats.

The North Shore has an abundance of shrimp trucks. The shrimp were dripping with garlic butter and cooked perfectly. The garlicky butter was also drizzled on top of the rice, so good!

There were a couple spots in Waikiki that I really enjoyed. My brother took us to a Japanese Udon place a little off the central strip. You can see the noodles being made from scratch through the front window, and they are really tasty. They have that bite and chew that you want from Udon and they don’t get any fresher than this.

Fresh Udon Noodles

Udon with Beef

I also liked a Japanese restaurant called Sansei. Two days a week the menu is 50% off during happy hour. I was a little skeptical about the quality of food when I heard about the discount, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was very innovative, creative, and delicious.

Shrimp Cake

Fried Ahi Roll with Spinach

The trip was amazing! Happy travels and eating!

Mom’s Apple Crisp

Sorry for my negligence this past month or so! My best friend just got married and the weekends have been filled with all sorts of wedding related events. Since the wedding was near my parent’s house, I had a chance to stop by over the weekend. My mom and dad have several apple trees that are laden with fruit this time of year. My mom has been cranking out apple sauce, apple pies, and other apple treats. I lucked out because a fresh  apple crisp was sitting on the counter when I got home.

My mom and I use the same crisp recipe, so you can find the recipe under my strawberry/rhubarb crisp post. Just replace the strawberries/rhubarb with apples and a sprinkling of cinnamon. My mom also added some shredded coconut to her topping to give it an extra crunch when it browned in the oven. This crisp was sooooo good!!!!

Recipe (replace the strawberry/rhubarb with apples)! If you want to use a 9×13″ pan like my mom did, just double the recipe

https://chicknhen.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/strawberry-rhubarb-crisp/