Sunday, July 20, 2008

Fresh Food on our San Francisco Tours

A few of us took a day off from our San Francisco Tours and went up to Sonoma enjoy a hike and dinner at a local winery. As we talk about on our San Francisco Food Tours, I think tastings wine comes very much down to what do you like.  What does help is learning about the food. I like California wines, however they have different characteristics than wines from other regions. For example, we just opened a Merlot that is about eight years old. I'm not usually a Merlot fan, however, after eight years the tannins in the wines have smoothed and it is like drinking silk.   The winemaker had a great description of the wine, when he talked about how if you drink a California Merlot that is only three or four years, it's drinkable, however if you lay it down six to eight years, it is something really special.

On our San Francisco Tours, we try to do the same thing. For example, one of my favorite coffee drinks is known as a macchiato. When it is good, it is wonderful, when is not, it like drinking nails.  When we try coffee drinks on our San Francisco Food Tours, we learn how is roasted, that way you know how find good coffee back home. As that winemaker told me today, learning a few things about the food can be the difference between okay food and really delicious food.

Talking to the winemaker reminded me about the importance about knowing where you food is from. The wine we tasted not only tasted good, it was grown organically. Which meant that it was not good for the environment, it was good for me. As we talk about on our San Francisco Tours, when something is not grown locally, you can only hope the growing methods were good.

Many people on our San Francisco Food Tours comment how those of us in San Francisco are lucky to live in an area with the amazing variety of food we have here and how we can easily meet the people who grow our food. The good news is that you can do that, as well. It is your local farmers market. That is where you meet the food producers and learn how the food is produced. We try to give all of guests on San Francisco Tours guests a resource list with websites that list farmers markets all over the US and around the world.  

Just like the winemaker at the winery today, a farmers market is where you learn the best to enjoy the food. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we meet the people who know their food best, the local coffee rosters, chocolate makers, bakers, and more. They know how to best enjoy their food. Think of your local farmers market as your local winemaker,  guiding you to how enjoy your food in the best way.

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