Foodbuzz Blogger Festival, 2012, Recap....

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be visiting one of my favorite places, San Francisco. There's many reasons it became a favorite for me, the old architecture which reminds me of Scotland, the cold but not really freezing weather and of course the food. I was there for the fourth annual Foodbuzz food bloggers conference but this was my first time. I landed at SFO leaving my nerves at the gate and headed into the city.  Being an early bird for almost everything and catching the first flight that morning gave me a little hours of extra time to explore before checking in to my hotel and then picking up my event tag. My first stop was the Ferry building, full of artisanal stores and just bleeding freshness everywhere you turn. I made my way to The Blue Bottle Coffee Company and joined one of the snaking lines of people waiting for possibly the best coffee in San Francisco. I paired the coffee up with a ham n' tam sandwich, smoked ham with a smooth triple cream brie from Cowgirl Creamery and sat watching the crowds pass by.

Friday night was spent at a cocktail reception in Harry Denton's Starlight Room which sits atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.....swank is all I can add to that but I can swank up pretty good if I try. Afterwards we all hit the town for dinner at a place of our choice, paid for by Open Table. I ended up at Another Monkey Thai Restaurant with Krista from Budget Gourmet Mom, Shawn from I wash...You Dry and Chung Ah from Damn Delicious, the food was bang on as was the company and we talked each others ears off about Pintrest and comment counts, blogger geeks we are. Saturday morning had me back at the Ferry Building for a scavenger hunt through the market where It could really take a full day of your life just to waddle around every booth and be able to appreciate it (and taste everything) Next up was a short trip to Fisherman's Wharf to grab some sourdough and chowder at Boudin and hopefully a glimpse at the bridge but the fog wasn't kind to us and all we could see were the golden supports stuck in the water, such a tease Mr Golden Gate..

 We headed back to the Metreon for an afternoon of tasting with a room full of generous vendors- can you see a pattern on this trip, food- but with a gala dinner only hours away I tried to keep my appetite somewhat still alive. That doesn't mean I didn't try some fantastic local eats like the amazing whoopie pies from After Suppa or cinnamon and sakay chocolate from Madecasse, but the wild halibut with a Malaysian cream sauce cooked fresh from The Alaskan Seafood gang had me almost licking the plate! Finally the time had come for me to roll out of the Metreon and try and make my disco-night pants fit me after all the chowing I had done.

The gala dinner was held in The California Academy of Sciences and only being open to us made it really quite cool. We snacked on hors d' oeuvres while wandering around the aquarium before heading back upstairs to...yup, eat again. I wish I had kept the menu but the choice was just nuts, like crazy nuts! Two buffet stations were set up serving food which I'd expect to see at someones wedding, eventually giving way to an orgy of mini desserts and chocolates. Stick a fork in me...I was done. It was a great weekend and as fantastic as it was to hang out with people I already knew and admired, I also got to meet new people and talk about all of the things normal folks don't touch upon like light and photography and WordPress and pans and Twitter and chicken and, well you get the idea.

Thanks Foodbuzz