DTLA's Grand Central Market - G & B Coffee + Ana Maria's Mexican Food

Our visit to Angels Flight and Angels Knoll earlier this morning was strategic...

Just south of the base of Angels Flight was LA's historic Grand Central Market...

We'd never been and itt was nice to go so early in the morning when it wasn't crazy crowded yet...

Our first stop was for some much needed caffeine...

Catalina Offshore Products & Specialty Produce

Our planned lunch destination wouldn't be open 'til 12 noon. We had lots of time to kill so Cathy drove us to San Diego's premier fishmarket, Catalina Offshore Products...

which is located near the train tracks and in an industrial part of town...

More of Ottawa

After snacking on and off at the ByWard Market, we walked around some of the main streets in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada and the fourth largest city in their nation...

I found the fish on the stone coat of arms interesting. There were several variations found as decorative elements on a building we passed by.

The heat was quite oppressive coupled with high humidity...yet we didn't want to miss out while we were in Canada's capital...

St. Lawrence Market, Part 2

Oh yeah dudes, European Delight was awesome!

If you're ever in the mood for Ukrainian foods, this is the place to go...

Last Day in Canada - St. Lawrence Market, Part 1

Finally, the posts from our last day in Canada. Man, this was nearly ONE YEAR ago! I seriously lag!

Our flight wasn't leaving until earlier this evening so we wanted to make the most of today. Here's the view from our hotel room - we stayed a few blocks away from St. Lawrence Market, which was to be our first destination for that day. As you can see, there was a bit of rain that morning...

More Food at the Ferry Building

I felt so claustrophobic in here...

Ooh, these Michelle Obama totes are so cute! I saw one lady in San Diego with one of these; she told me her daughter bought it in Solana Beach. Guess they're available up here too.

Mmm, Scharffen Berger chocolates! Unfortunately, their factory in Berkeley closed last year. I was so disappointed because I really wanted to visit it based on Darlene's old post from March 2008.

Bert saw that place, the Golden Gate Meat Company had an soup he wanted to try...

He originally wanted a sandwich but his love for chili was far stronger. Plus, it was Wild Boar Chili.

Looks all right...

The verdict? He loved it - the boar meat didn't taste too gamy or anything. The soup was filled with chunky bits of vegetable, which even included baby corn. The chili was smoky and hearty.

And even though I thought Miette's macarons were a bit on the "heavy" side, I still wanted some!

I got 6 different kinds - 2 flavors per pair. I skipped out on the Lavender Vanilla. I really don't like tasting lavender flavored things. Reminds me of TC's old baby lotion, the lavender colored and scented "Calming" lotion. I don't want to be reminded of changing diapers when I'm eating a dessert.

Another vendor...Bert bought some toffee covered pretzel bits here. I think we got that last year as well.

Mmm...froooot!

Despite the gloomy and sprinkly morning, by this time, it was already quite warm by San Francisco standards. The ball game was going on. We had Thane's apartment to ourselves. TC wanted to swim in the complex's lap pool as well. So we headed out, but before we did, we picked up  a little something from this place, Sukhi's (I wonder if they pronounce that as "Suckies"?).

Samosas ($8 for a little more than a dozen). We ate these cold and man, they were delicious. The guy working there wanted to give me sauce too but I thought he meant the tiny little disposable containers of sauce, not the big fkg tubs of sauce that cost $7 or more. No thanks, I'll pass on the tamarind and mint chutney dude.

Too bad San Diego doesn't have a big indoor/outdoor market place like this. It seems most major cities have one, like Seattle's Pike Place, Philadelphia's Readting Terminal Market, Boston's Faneuil Hall and Toronto's St. Lawrence Market (which we visited and I swear I will continue my Canada posts soon!).

I had to look up what "cachaca" was. It's a liquor made from fermented sugar cane and is the most popular distilled beverage in Brazil.

On our way back, we checked out this rocketship along the Embarcadero.

More info here on the Raygun Gothic Rocketship...Very kitschy!



Safe Haven sign at the Embarcadero Police building...

A dive bar long the Embarcadero calle the Hi-Dive. Thane thought this was a cool place...

But he said this place was sucky. It was featured in the San Francisco episode of Bourdain's "No Reservations".

The score on Saturday, October 2.

After the Padres won the game, there was dead silence in the stadium crowd and a few anguished cries among the complex, "Noooooo!!!!" and "Shit!"!!!!

Who else went to the Ferry Building?
San Diego's Captain Jack went to Ferry Plaza Seafood
Menu in Progress went to Boccalone and Acme Bread
The Gastronomer and the Astronomer tried a lot of different samples as well
Clayfu went to the Slanted Door
Alice Q. Foodie went to Il Cane Rossi and Roli Roti
along with Darlene who checked out the Ferry Market and a few other places in SF!

And last but not least, my original post from last year's SF trip:
CC and family try Slanted Door, Miette, and Ciao Bella Gelato and a few days later when we tried the fish tacos at the San Francisco Fish Company and bombolonis from Boriana's Corner.

The Embarcadero and the Ferry Building

So we dumped all our stuff at Thane's took off to the Ferry Building. We saw this owner and his curly black coated dog with matching leash. Nice!

Thane lives close by a Muni and Bart Station...very handy. He's near the Oakland Bay Bridge and the Ferry Building too.

The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront and roadway of the Port of San Francisco which hugs San Francisco Bay. It is constructed atop an engineered seawall on reclaimed land, and it means "to embark" from  the Spanish language verb embarcar.

The Oakland Bay Bridge...

Giant bow and arrow sculpture, titled, "Cupid's Span" by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen; it was built and installed in the park in 2002. More on this interesting roadside oddity here.

The Ferry Building...

Before we went inside the building, we went first to the Craft Fair which was across the street. I wanted to see if I could get a souvenir pair of earrings which is what I normally do whenever we visit a city. I ended up buying several pairs as well as a few more for upcoming gifts.

Turns out they have these all over San Francisco...haven't used one though.

While Thane and I were waiting for Bert and TC (she was getting a custom made beadedbracelet with her name), we got free Falafel samples from this place...Ugh, my skin is so dry and grody!

Signs outside the Ferry Building...


Okay, we saw this place last year and didn't get anything.

Gotta love their slogan...did you know that Humphrey Slocombe (ice cream place that we visited the next day) makes a ham flavored ice cream?

Ah, yeah, we had to get at least one of these! Meat in a cup! $3. There were three or four different types of shaved ham in there. The mortadella with pistachio nuts were ubergood! All were salty! All were fkg good!

It was so damn busy inside so we went outside. Same thing. Crawling with people. But then again, it was a Saturday afternoon too. This outdoor fruit stand was Frog Hollow Farm, which also has a business inside the building. I'd read about how awesome their fruit was...


TC bought a peach with her own $ (Thanks Grandpa!) and declared this the BEST peach she's ever had. It cost $1.35. I had a small bite and I have to agree with her. It's not like the crap you get here. The aroma was very peachy and floral and the taste was so sweet and fresh.

By this time, Thane had left us to fend for ourselves since he had a previous engagement at a friend's BBQ across town. We had his spare key so we were all good anyways. I thought I'd check out Frog Hollow inside...I'd read about their tarts and I had to have one.

Look at that rustic crust! I'd read that they had this killer rhubarb tart but it must not have been in season. When I asked the worker about it, he didn't even know what rhubarb was. WTF!! So...I settled for...

this Pear/Frangipane tart instead and man, that was a really good decision! It felt substantial in my hot little hand.

The pear was so buttery soft and went nicely with the almondy filling. If I wasn't so nice, I would have eaten the whole damn thing myself.

I also bought an Empanada (filled with carnitas). I thought this was overpriced a $4, but hey, we were on vacation and we were just snacking here and there.

Ohhhh, carnitas....(drool/must say this in Homer Simpson's voice)

Produce crates near our bench....

Time to head back inside again!