
It was my first time attending the
Foodbuzz Festival.
What a weekend! The
itinerary was filled with extravagant meals, workshops, trade shows, and scavenger hunts, but the best part was having people who share my foodie interests come together to indulge in some foodie fun. The weekend kicked off with a street food dinner at Fort Mason, which included
4505 meats (aka Ryan Farr),
Tacolicious,
Pizza Politana,
Spencer-on-the Go,
Roli Roti and
Namu, and some
Off-the-Grid vendors like
Curry Up Now. Luckily, I have the privilege of considering these guys “the usual SF suspects”, so I didn’t feel as pressured to go around and have 9 dinner portions that could only result in a food coma and/or tummy ache. I still managed to eat my fair share, though. And then some. Somehow, I didn't take many pictures of the food like
these smart people. But I
did eat two of these paneer kati rolls from Curry Up Now.

When feeling a little nervous and intimidated by a large crowd of new people, a little gift exchange can quickly put foodies all on common ground.
Kath gave me some of her husband’s homemade “
Matt’s Crack’s”. And I got to give
Mama Pea some
100% Maui Coffee, which she said her hubby would greatly appreciate.
Saturday started bright and early with a little
workshop on photography.
Laura of The Cooking Photographer and
Marc of NoRecipes shared some photography tips and talked a lot about various types of lighting set-ups that you can use at home for food photography.

For lunch, we shuffled over to the Metreon for a trade show of gourmet food purveyors. Imagine 350 food bloggers and their family and friends
surveying the scene,
snapping photos, eating, collecting cards and eating. I also met
Sabrina of Rhodey Girl Tests, who confided that she loves to
test out recipes and agreed to work on the ever troublesome
recipe for chickpea fries to find one in which the fries actually hold up in shape and texture. Now that’s a foodie friend I am grateful to have! There is one highlight I must mention. We were head over heels for
Annie The Bakers cookies that are suspended in the cookie dough state before actually becoming a cookie. She actually designed a recipe and technique to capture the shape, texture and taste of cookie dough despite being thoroughly baked. If you love cookie dough,
order these now!
Dinner was served in the historic SF Ferry Building, with food catered by
Paula LeDuc and wine pairings by
Bonny Doon.

I sat at a table with some
lovely new friends who candidly shared their stories about food blogging and made me feel welcome.
DINNER:
Golden beet tart with crimson beets, feta, currants, argula and basil puree:

Seared scallops with braised fennel and champagne beurre blanc sauce:

For the vegetarians, a fancy tofu option:

Pan-seared black cod over a butternut squash puree with wild mushrooms:

After dinner, several
enthusiastic bloggers set out for a
scavenger hunt, but I was so sleepy from the busy day that I headed straight home. On Sunday, we had a nice brunch and said Farewell to our new-found foodie friends.
The food throughout the weekend was nice and all, but I have to say that it is meeting all of you that truly inspired me. It made me so happy to know there are
people crazy foodies out there just like me who love to talk about food, who scan their fridge in the morning already thinking about what they will make for dinner, who like to go home and cook to relax after a long day. I even found other lawyers with
food blogs! I was reminded why I love cooking and sharing my experiences with all of you. I hope I can stay in touch with those that live across the country and maybe even put together some meet-ups for us
local SF bloggers!
It was a really wonderful experience for me too; I'd never been to a food blogger conference before.
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