Feb 5th, 2013 at 11:00AM:
San Francisco has a well-deserved reputation for being expensive, but that's not to say you can't enjoy it to the fullest on a budget. The joy of this compact, walkable city is that you don't need your own transportation. Remember, though, that food is the soul of San Francisco. That means loads of pop-up restaurants, street food, food trucks, farmers markets and ethnic bites for cheap. The ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
NorthernCalifornia posts
Budget Guide 2013: San Francisco
Feb 5th, 2013 at 11:00AM:
San Francisco has a well-deserved reputation for being expensive, but that's not to say you can't enjoy it to the fullest on a budget. The joy of this compact, walkable city is that you don't need your own transportation. Remember, though, that food is the soul of San Francisco. That means loads of pop-up restaurants, street food, food trucks, farmers markets and ethnic bites for cheap. The ...Sacramento Serves Up Second Annual Baconfest
Jan 18th, 2013 at 9:00AM: Pork products may have reached their tipping point, but that doesn't mean you can't celebrate their existence. The second annual Sacramento Baconfest, held January 20-27, pays tribute to "pork from pigs who lived healthy, happy lives at farms where farmers value ethical and sustainable food production." I'll scarf some pork belly to that.
All bacon and other charcuterie served at Baconfest are ...Why I Love The 'Loin: San Francisco's Vibrant Tenderloin Neighborhood
Nov 23rd, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Having lived in San Francisco off and on for the better part of half my life, I've seen my share of gentrification. And, like many things, it has its positives and negatives. It's hard to hate on improvements in housing standards, public safety and sanitation. It's great to see economic growth in neighborhoods once plagued by social ills. It utterly sucks to see yet another crappy chain store ...Is Eddie Huang The Next Anthony Bourdain? Watch And Find Out
Oct 25th, 2012 at 12:00PM:
If the name Eddie Huang isn't familiar, it may soon be, if the folks at VICE.tv have their way. The Washington, D.C., native is a chef, former lawyer and, according to his website, a former "hustler and street wear designer" born to Taiwanese immigrants – a background that led him to become the force behind Manhattan's popular Baohaus restaurant.
Huang's new VICE video series, "Fresh ...Roadside America: Samoa Cookhouse, Eureka, California
Oct 11th, 2012 at 9:00AM:
There's something about roadhouses that fascinates me. I don't just mean dodgy watering holes of the kind Patrick Swayze kicked some butt in, but old school diners that cater to working folk. The food is often great, and there's just something honest about them.
For over a decade, I'd longed to visit the famed Samoa Cookhouse just minutes from Eureka, California, after reading about it in a ...Damnation Creek: Hiking Old-Growth To Ocean In Redwood National Park
Aug 22nd, 2012 at 10:00AM: There are few places on earth I love more than Redwoods National Park, located 325 miles north of San Francisco. Growing up, we used to drive up the coast every summer, and a few nights camping in the redwoods was always on the itinerary.
The Redwoods are actually several parks within the national and state system, all of which are managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and ...Restaurant Rooftop Gardens: Five Of America's Best
Jun 15th, 2012 at 12:00PM: From where I stood on the roof of Bastille Cafe & Bar in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, I could see flocks of seagulls circling nearby fishing boats, as I catch whiffs of brine, gasoline and eau de canal water.
Despite the industrial marine supplies and salmon canneries across the way, up here I was surrounded by buzzing honeybees and dozens of varieties of produce, from heirloom French ...Berkeley's Edible Cities Guide Leads Urban Foragers To Free Good Eats
May 29th, 2012 at 12:00PM: Anyone who's ever snagged fruit off of their neighbor's trees or bushes (oh, don't look at me like that) will appreciate the new online Edible Cities guide from Berkeleyite Cristian Ionescu-Zanetti.
Berkeley is ground zero for the localized food movement, and "urban foraging" has been growing in popularity amongst local chefs as well as home cooks.
As a former resident and recent subletter, ...Cheese festival season has sprung: the best in the West
Mar 13th, 2012 at 2:00PM: Spring, as they say, has sprung. In farmstead and artisan cheese parlance, that means pastures are currently abound with calves, lambs, and kids (of the goat variety), and the first milk of the season is in. That's why March is the kickoff month for cheese festivals, especially on the West Coast because of its more mild climate. The following just happen to be some of the nation's best.
8th ...Video: San Francisco sky over a year
Dec 15th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
The San Francisco sky is one that I particularly enjoy. There's something about the ratio of gray clouds to blue skies that works for me in regard to the Bay Area (and that's why, perhaps, I'll be spending more time in that area over the next year). This time-lapse video says what I'm trying to say better, though... because it shows you. Take a look at this video, which was shot over the ...
January is California Restaurant Month
Dec 2nd, 2011 at 12:00PM: As a native Californian and longtime former Bay Area resident, I have to confess there's no place like home when it comes to the American food/dining/wine scene (New Yorkers, feel free to sharpen your knives...).
California's always been progressive when it comes to food and drink, from the early days of the vaqueros and Gold Rush-era San Francisco, right up to today's never-ending parade of ...Summer travel: best U.S. cities for localized food lovers
Jul 14th, 2011 at 3:00PM: What's that you say? Summer's half over? Those of us living here in the Pacific Northwest had no idea, given the lack of sun in these parts. But even if you're getting slapped by the mother of all heat waves, it's still early in the season for the best produce summer has to offer. As for where to get great food featuring locally-sourced ingredients? Allow me.
Some cities are inextricably linked ...Muppet bar opens in San Francisco's Mission District
Jul 9th, 2011 at 12:30PM: Wakka, wakka, wakka (sorry, I couldn't resist). SFist reports that San Francisco's much-anticipated muppet-themed bar, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, has at last opened its doors. Located in the hipsterfied but culturally diverse Mission District, the bar is owned by the same group responsible for several other popular City watering holes.
"Mayhem" will serve infantilized pub-style food ...Ten great food co-ops in the western U.S.
Apr 22nd, 2011 at 1:30PM: If the concept of food cooperatives conjures up images of burning bras and withered, wormy produce, hear me out. The times they have a'changed, and today's co-ops (about 500 nationwide) can be the hometown equivalent of a certain high-end, multi-billion-dollar, national green grocery chain. As with farmers markets, all are not created equal, but when you hit upon a good one, it's easy to see why ...Highway 1 in photos
Feb 25th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
My first drive down Highway 1, properly called State Route 1, was during the summer of 2007. My two best friends and I constructed a loft bed in our van and we took off driving down the coast... from the tip of Oregon and, eventually, down to San Diego. Images from the trip, in my mind and in my photo albums, have regularly sent me into a west ...Video: Albino Redwoods, a biological mystery
Feb 24th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
I recently spent 10 days exploring Northern California, magnetized by every patch of Redwood trees I saw. This wasn't my first trip to the area and it won't prove to be my last, either. There's something especially magnificent about Redwood trees. The limits of their growth are widely still unknown, but at their recorded tallest height (379 feet), the Giant Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) ...
Video of The Day: San Francisco
Feb 9th, 2011 at 1:00PM: In my Video of The Day post last week, I introduced you to Dave Pinke. He's a New Yorker with some travel video pop sensibility. His videos feature a collage of visually stimulating clips alongside upbeat music. To honor an upcoming trip I have to Northern California, here's Dave Pinke's video featuring San Francisco. Enjoy.
San Francisco from Dave Pinke on Vimeo. ...
European cheeses: holiday entertaining with the taste of travel
Nov 30th, 2010 at 1:30PM:
I work part-time in a cheese shop, and I'm also a contributing editor at culture, a consumer cheese magazine. I can't help noticing that, despite a still-sluggish economy, people don't want to do without their cheese. Especially if they've fallen for a specific type during their (usually European) travels.
Not everyone who bellies up to the counter is a globetrotter or a cheese geek, but ...Holiday trip? Consider rail travel
Nov 26th, 2010 at 2:00PM:
Unlike Europe and Japan, the United States isn't known for its high-tech, efficient rail travel. Which is a shame because, as I recently discovered, taking Amtrak is sometimes a better way to travel this big country of ours, and generally speaking, it has a lower carbon footprint per passenger than driving or flying.
You definitely need to have time to spare for long distance trips, ...GadlingTV's Travel Talk 005: Khmer Rouge Tourism, Scottish banknote woes, China on dog meat, and fun in the Californian sun
Mar 17th, 2010 at 4:15PM:
GadlingTV's Travel Talk, episode 5 – Click above to watch video after the jump
Spring is here! The sun is out! GadlingTV's Travel Talk heads to Santa Cruz, California for an action-packed episode.
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This week we discuss Cambodia's ...
