I had the wonderful fortune to attend the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco this past weekend.  It was the most well-organized event I have attended in recent memory; watch out online world of food, Foodbuzz is THE force to be reckoned with and after the festival I know why.  Can you imagine hosting an event for 250 discerning, top-shelf food and drink bloggers from across the world? I would be quaking in my boots knowing that each and every one of them was calculating, composing, photographing and judging everything you put before them in order to head back home and shout about it from the (virtual) rooftops to all their readers.  If you think of the viral networking aspect of that, 250 people could conceivably reach half the population of the world pretty quickly considering the 6 degrees of separation.  Every event I attended- from a street food dinner composed of a dozen stalls of local cult eating establishments distilled down to their very best item or two to a dinner put on by Outstanding in the Field conisting of a single table set for 250 people- was beyond spectacular in its own right.  The oyster in the shot above is from the street food extravaganza, and was the single best oyster I have ever eaten.  It was from the Hog Island Oyster Company- an establishment that deserves high praise.  The other standout from the street food faire was the steak and gruyere mini pie from The Pie Truck. 

The most informative portion of the festival was a Farm to Table discussion led by Chef Paul Arenstam and the amazing spreadsheet cowboy Brian Kenny of Hearst Ranch.  Kenny is a picture-perfect cowboy upon first glance, but the second he opens his mouth you can tell he mixes in a bit of street and book smarts with his affected Western drawl.  He has been helping the Hearst family (of publishing fame) convert their gargantuan cattle ranch to free-range, grass-fed and finished beef, and boy does the man know his stuff.  He’s the kind of public speaker college commencement commitees lust after- presence, humor and the ability to command the room in an unassuming way all contribute to his trademark charm.  More importantly, he’s on a proselytizing mission to create a truly sustainable model of agriculture that other ranchers can mimic in order to improve the health of the overall industry.  The Hearst Ranch sells their products online, and for a limited time they are offering my readers 30% off their beef.  Just type in the coupon code “foodbuzz” upon checkout and enjoy the taste of superior-to-Whole Foods beef at less than Safeway prices!

The title is erroneous right off the bat, but Clippertrip just doesn’t have the same ring to it as roadtrip.  The Clipper is the nautical vessel one takes from Seattle to Victoria. It is essentially a high-speed shrunken version of a ferry, though it feels eerily like an airplane inside.  In any case, the whole fam hopped the Clipper for the two hour jaunt up to Victoria for the weekend as I had a half marathon to run on Sunday.  We spent Saturday tooling around Victoria- this is a city I could really get into.  I pictured it as a quaint little burg lost in time. It actually was very cosmopolitan and wore the inevitable rustic charm that comes with being a seaside tourist town known for High Tea with understated cool.  Off the main drag, the shops were edgy and on-trend and the locals could not have been nicer. 

There were no dearth of dining options; however it being marathon weekend I knew I wanted to steer clear of the herds clamoring for plates of linguine in all the Italian joints, so I chose French.  This may not have been the wisest meal to consume the night before running 13.1 miles, but I was very happy with my time so I’ll leave carbo-loading to those who wish to indulge in bland potatoes and limp noodles.  We selected Matisse based on its reputation as one of the finer French restaurants in town, and we came away quite pleased. 

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