Food Inspiration at the Ferry Building: Part 1
On Wednesday, I was reminded of just how lucky I am to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am so fortunate to live a short drive and ferry ride away from the food heaven that is the Ferry Building Marketplace.
I've been to the ferry building many times before, but this time I was part of a class sponsored by The Book Passage in Corte Madera. The class was Food Writing and Inspiration, taught by Joanne Weir, cookbook author, cooking teacher, and host of the PBS show "Joanne Weir's Cooking Class". So this time, I got to see it through Joanne's eyes. I have also never spent an entire day in the building, something one can easily do, with all there is to see and taste.
Our group of nine started our day riding the ferry from Larkspur to San Francisco. On the ferry, we huddled around a big table on the lower floor. Joanne told us her story of how she got started in cooking, and how her food career blossomed. It was an inspiring and exciting story. We all then introduced ourselves. We were all Bay Area locals. Mostly food writers or aspiring food writers, and a food photographer. Mostly cooks, and one food writer and enthusiast who explained, "I don't cook. I make reservations." One foodie so dedicated to cooking she owns something like 200 cookbooks. There was no shortage of lively conversation in this happily small group.
Our first stop at th
e Ferry Building was Boulette's Larder, a bustling little shop with jars of haricots verts, small bags of rice from all over the world, cute containers of spices and blends with names like "special effect," and, most importantly for us, hot chocolate to melt your heart and ignite your mind. We were each served a sample glass, beautifully layered with foamy milk on top. The chocolate was rich but not sweet. It has the slightest hint of sweetness - just enough. The milk was certainly whole milk, and the shot was plenty to warm up and wake up.
Towards the end of our chat around a tiny table outside Boulette's in one of the corridors, Joanne described a chocolate tasting experience she'd had in Navarra, Spain. About chocolates that had olive oil and salt inside. And how olive oil is good after eating chocolate. We got up and moved on to McEvoy Ranch for some olive oil.
McEvoy wa
s easily my favorite of the tasting spots we visited. This is not counting Mijita, where we had lunch. At McEvoy we learned about how the olives are grown and processed into olive oil. We each held a tiny cup of the olive oil in our palm and smelled it, then downed it like a shot. It felt and tasted surprisingly light. It tasted warm and grassy, with an almost spicy hotness on the back of the tongue. Our host told us of the history of the ranch and the high standards of quality and purity. We tasted their olive blend, which in my sample cup included one larger and two tiny olives, bathing in olive oil and herbs. The larger olive was mostly pit with little flesh, and tasted slightly like kalamata. The two tiny ones were fleshier and had a pleasant, candy-like sweetness. I'm not sure of the names of the olives, and they weren't either. It's a blend of various olives they grow. Then we tasted their limited edition olive oil drizzled on bread with fromage blanc (from Cowgirl Creamery) and flowering oregano (see photo). This was amazing and the flower buds of the fruiting oregano reminded me of capers, only fresher and lighter. This was a truly blissful tasting experience.
We also got to try McEvoy's hand lotion. The crushed olives leftover after the olive oil processing are used in their many body care products. They also carry honeys, jams, and things like lemon curd and cinnamon apple butter. On Wednesdays, they have an organic produce market at lunchtime. I bought a bunch of rainbow baby carrots and a bubble gum apple (pink on the inside) for my kids, and a jar of cinnamon apple butter for my parents. I will be making many repeat visits to this little shop. The ranch itself is in Petaluma, very close to where I live. I will make a visit there as well, hopefully for one of their tours.
I think that is enough for today! Next, I'll move on to Cowgirl Creamery and the other places we visited.
Photography by Brooke Gray. Thank you, Brooke, for sharing your beautiful photos!
I've been to the ferry building many times before, but this time I was part of a class sponsored by The Book Passage in Corte Madera. The class was Food Writing and Inspiration, taught by Joanne Weir, cookbook author, cooking teacher, and host of the PBS show "Joanne Weir's Cooking Class". So this time, I got to see it through Joanne's eyes. I have also never spent an entire day in the building, something one can easily do, with all there is to see and taste.
Our group of nine started our day riding the ferry from Larkspur to San Francisco. On the ferry, we huddled around a big table on the lower floor. Joanne told us her story of how she got started in cooking, and how her food career blossomed. It was an inspiring and exciting story. We all then introduced ourselves. We were all Bay Area locals. Mostly food writers or aspiring food writers, and a food photographer. Mostly cooks, and one food writer and enthusiast who explained, "I don't cook. I make reservations." One foodie so dedicated to cooking she owns something like 200 cookbooks. There was no shortage of lively conversation in this happily small group.
Our first stop at th
e Ferry Building was Boulette's Larder, a bustling little shop with jars of haricots verts, small bags of rice from all over the world, cute containers of spices and blends with names like "special effect," and, most importantly for us, hot chocolate to melt your heart and ignite your mind. We were each served a sample glass, beautifully layered with foamy milk on top. The chocolate was rich but not sweet. It has the slightest hint of sweetness - just enough. The milk was certainly whole milk, and the shot was plenty to warm up and wake up.Towards the end of our chat around a tiny table outside Boulette's in one of the corridors, Joanne described a chocolate tasting experience she'd had in Navarra, Spain. About chocolates that had olive oil and salt inside. And how olive oil is good after eating chocolate. We got up and moved on to McEvoy Ranch for some olive oil.
McEvoy wa
s easily my favorite of the tasting spots we visited. This is not counting Mijita, where we had lunch. At McEvoy we learned about how the olives are grown and processed into olive oil. We each held a tiny cup of the olive oil in our palm and smelled it, then downed it like a shot. It felt and tasted surprisingly light. It tasted warm and grassy, with an almost spicy hotness on the back of the tongue. Our host told us of the history of the ranch and the high standards of quality and purity. We tasted their olive blend, which in my sample cup included one larger and two tiny olives, bathing in olive oil and herbs. The larger olive was mostly pit with little flesh, and tasted slightly like kalamata. The two tiny ones were fleshier and had a pleasant, candy-like sweetness. I'm not sure of the names of the olives, and they weren't either. It's a blend of various olives they grow. Then we tasted their limited edition olive oil drizzled on bread with fromage blanc (from Cowgirl Creamery) and flowering oregano (see photo). This was amazing and the flower buds of the fruiting oregano reminded me of capers, only fresher and lighter. This was a truly blissful tasting experience.
We also got to try McEvoy's hand lotion. The crushed olives leftover after the olive oil processing are used in their many body care products. They also carry honeys, jams, and things like lemon curd and cinnamon apple butter. On Wednesdays, they have an organic produce market at lunchtime. I bought a bunch of rainbow baby carrots and a bubble gum apple (pink on the inside) for my kids, and a jar of cinnamon apple butter for my parents. I will be making many repeat visits to this little shop. The ranch itself is in Petaluma, very close to where I live. I will make a visit there as well, hopefully for one of their tours.
I think that is enough for today! Next, I'll move on to Cowgirl Creamery and the other places we visited.
Photography by Brooke Gray. Thank you, Brooke, for sharing your beautiful photos!
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