Fun Friday

The Bay Area has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to food and restaurants. Friday we had fun partaking of these riches, one of them was "Samovar." We had lunch/tea here before we went to the De Young museum to see the "Balenciaga" exhibit. The show was ending this weekend, and I just had to see it. GORGEOUS, is all I can say!!!!!!! If you want to learn a little more about Balenciaga, go to this link, there is a segment that our local news did that is quite well done.

They also were just starting the Picasso show as well, and that was fun too.

This is my kind of day, with wonderful San Francisco weather, good food, and museum wanderings. Now on to the food!!!
Samovar tea lounge is very zen like, and more geared for an asian tea experience, but they did have an English tea service. Caitlin and I got that lunch, and opted for.......
some amazing iced tea, instead of hot. It was wonderful, and not like generic iced tea you would get normally. This tea had almost a smoky flavor that reminded me of a Russian caravan tea.
We each got these adorable little tea pitchers.
David ordered the Moorish tea service. There were yummy spreads and lots of other goodies on his plate.
Looking back on this sizable scone, Caitlin and I could have just split this whole English service. The portions were big. We shared them with David And Cyrous.
Not clotted cream unfortunately, only double cream. It was pretty tasty though. Nothing beats cream teas in England , that is for sure!!

The main part of the English service was the salmon quiche and salad. Loved the quiche, it was not as heavy as most I have had.
More shots of Davids lunch. The kabob has figs, and Halloumi cheese, which is a popular Middle Eastern cheese that is half sheep's milk and half goats' milk. Cyrous, had a dish that was called "Jook." I believe it is a type of rice porridge, with smoked duck. I didn't get a shot of that dish, but it looked tasty.
Some peeks of the the inside...................
Loved all the tea pots, but I have way too many at home, so I walked away quickly.
After spending most of the afternoon and early evening in SF, we headed home. Tiered, and wondering what to have for dinner, we decided to get off the freeway to Oakland, and see if we could get a seat at "Pizzaiolo."(read the link, it is pretty neat) I have blogged about them before, when we came here for Caitlin's birthday a while back. I think this restaurant shines in the summer months, mainly because you can eat out in the back of the restaurant, and it feels like your back yard.
They make their own bread. I thought they got it from Acme, but as you will see farther down, I snapped a shot of the bread cooling off in a room towards the back.
We had some of their famous gin and tonics. The bartender makes her own tonic water, infused with herbs etc. Very yummy!!
This was my starter of sea bass, cucumbers, tomatoes, with aioli sauce. So good my friends, so good!!!
David had an avocado, beet, and kumquat salad. Cyrous had an amazing clam dish. I don't think I have ever had that tender of clams. I didn't want to bug him and photo them, so you will have to trust me when I say they were sublime.
See, there is the bread! We also peeked in and saw desserts cooling and a super, super clean prep area. Stuff like that makes me happy, don't ask. :)
We shared a couple of their yummy pizzas, and like a hungry fool, I forgot to actually take a photo of these gorgeous beauties. One of them was chanterelle and gremolata(parsley+garlic+lemon peel), and the other one was summer squash. Both were amazing.
On the way to the back of the restaurant they have one of their pantry shelves out, for all to see. I loved looking at all the cool ingredients like..........................
this really good jam for instants.
Some shots of their backyard.
I guess since the owners of the restaurant live above it, this is their back yard, complete with a beautiful garden.

This is heading back into the restaurant from the back yard.
They even have a bocce ball area!
All the wood, for their wood fired pizza.
Tucked away in the corner of their garden, were two cute little hens, and .........
I'm assuming the guard dog :) He never once got up and looked so sleepy. I know how you feel pup!

Nice Friday in the Bay! I hope everyone had fun plans for the holiday weekend. We are going to a wedding tomorrow. I love weddings, so I'm sure it is going to be a great time!