Let the Food Buzz Fest Begin

Ahhh ~ Why did I start my day off working?! I knew I should’ve taken the day off because I think I literally watched the clock go tick tock (yes, the digital clock does that) the whole time until it was time to drive to San Fran for the 1st Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival.

I couldn’t wait to start my day off with one of my new yogurts, Chobani 2% Pineapple Greek Yogurt!  Did you all guess that was the first flavor I’d try?

I topped a mango that I couldn’t chop up for the life of me with Pineapple Cobani Greek Yogurt and Nature’s Path Organic Pumpkin Flax Granola.  Delish!  I LOVED the pineapple flavored GREEK yogurt and that they used natural ingredients.  It’s not as thick as other greeks, but, I still totally LOVED it.

I had breakfast # 2 (ok, well snack) when they announced they were throwing a send off party for 3 of our co-workers who are going with In Good Company for a whole week of restorative work in Louisiana.  They are pairing with a bunch of other companies (Clif Bar, etc) to help rebuild LA after the hurricane Katrina damage. It is the COOLEST project ever and I honestly hope to be able to do it one year.

After the party, I headed home where I packed like a mad woman (seriously, I think I scared The Husband).  I packed more for one weekend that I do for our week long trips.  Oops 🙂

We arrived to San Francisco starving, got lost, then, met of with Janetha and her seriously cute family at Taylor’s Refresher.  It was such a funny experience for me to be with someone else taking pictures.  Oh and the best part was sharing 😀

I ordered the Spicy Ahi Tuna Sandwich with crunchy slaw and ate half.  So AMAZING!

Plus Janetha talked me into the VANILLA BEAN shake.  One mention of it and I was pretty much ordering it.  My new phone tried to pop into the picture too 😀

MMM ~ Check out the vanilla beans.

I think I drank this in about 5 minutes.

This bird was flying around the INSIDE of the restaurant and snagging peoples leftovers.  Funny!

We are staying at the Wyndham Canterbury with a BIG group of fun girls ~ Janetha, Allison, Quinn and Ashley.  Our room is the presidential suite and it’s freakin’ AWESOME!!!

KITCHEN!

Love the light fixtures.

HUGE @$$ BIG SCREEN TV!

Janetha calls this our porno couch 😀  It does sorta look like one….just saying 😉 especially since it folds out into a bed. 

The shower has TWO heads, one on the top that is spa like and one that is normal.

BEDROOM

Our window has a view of a window LOL

Super cool art decko flat screen and dresser.

The Husband made sure to have some PIMP JUICE to get the party started LOL.

Oh and they gave us a bunch of chocolates when we check in.  I think that pretty much made me like the place as soon as I walked in 🙂

I do have to say other than being a bit challenged with the check in process the Wyndham Canterbury is pretty darn awesome.  We’d definitely come back.

Once were we settled, we quickly changed and headed out to the Cocktail hour.  It was set on the terrace at Hotel Vitale.  The views were AWESOME since there was no fog at all surrounding the bridge.

 

We made our way through the crowds, but, there was very little room for walking and talking.  We did meet up with a bunch of other bloggers and it was so awesome to put blogs names with faces.  So fun.

They had a menu of appetizers that we never really saw or had any of.  We did “buy” (they were all free) the Autumn Apple drink – it was pretty tasty other than it was like 80% vodka and 20 % juice.

I snagged a little ramkin of Bacon Macaroni and Cheese when it walked buy ~ so good. I need to seriously consider adding bacon to my mac n cheese 😀

Next, up we all headed over to the Street Food fare. I have to admit we all thought we were going to be walking the streets looking for food LOL.  But, they had it all caged off with a TON of vendors handing out a bunch of AMAZING food.

I hung out with these girls too – Me, Janetha, Quinn and Allison.

 

First stop was to grab something to drink as we worked our way down the line.  I LOVED the Teas’ Tea!  They are 100% Natural and UNSWEETENED.  I snagged a couple other flavors on the way out too.

We decided to start with DESSERT first as soon as we saw these little mini cupcakes from Mission Minis.  I LOVED these cupcakes – they frosting is totally real, creamy, vanilla like, some with cream cheese and not FAKE lardy tasting at all.  I totally want to order these for some special occassion 😀

Kath and I got smart and shared I think almost every flavor taking a bite of each to try them all.   The cinnamon was by far my favorite – picture cinnamon cream cheese fluffy frosting on a spicy, soft cinnamon cake – SO GOOD!

They had the BEST ice cream ever there~ I LOVE Straus for everything they stand for and represent.  Their ice cream is seriously the real deal made with natural ingredients you recognize and it’s organic too!

TACOLICIOUSNESS!

You got to pick your taco then you add your spicy sauce.

I got a braised beef taco.

They had platters of these homemade spicy pork rinds being walked around.  I had one ~ WOW, the homemade version is WAY better than any bag and I am not even a huge rind person.

Next up was these little mini Meat Pies from The Pie Truck.

HOLY YUM!  The pastry bread was soft and crispy and totally loaded with buttery cheese flavor.  The meat filling had such a steak and wine flavor.  I devoured it all and wish I had room for more 😀

 

Oysters that I watched others eat.  I couldn’t convince myself to try them – it’s a texture thing.

I think the BIGGEST hit of the night were these Min Rotisserie Porchett sandwiches on an Acme Roll with Curly Cress and Onion Marmalade.

They actually crisp the pork skin and add rosemary plus balsamic onions.

Served with roasted potatoes.  I had a few bites of the sandwich and potatoes.  They were interesting with different layers of flavor.  I wasn’t a fan of the big fat pork pieces with fat on them but I LOVED the crispy bacon like skin with onions.

The next stop was Alive!  I totally want to visit this restaurant.  It’s a 100% Vegetarian, Raw Food place.

Tomato Bruschetta with avocado and cashew butter on a pita flax cracker ~ need I say more – so good.

Sun Dried Tomato spread with an olive bruschetta.

Pomegranate Lavender cheese cake, I didn’t have these since I am not a fan of lavender in my food.

Funky foods 😀 The mushrooms were tasty though.

 

I had NO ROOM left at all when we made it to the pizza so I took a picture to share 🙂

Phew!  That was day 1.  We finished in style by chatting it up with wine in our room.  It was such a fun day and it was only day 1.  Yeah!

Off to get ready for the awards dinner!  More to come tomorrow 🙂