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Where good food goes to die

Nearly every Saturday all summer, and winter, and pretty much for the four years before that, too, I got up early and spent most of the day riding my bike. Since racing in Ironman Wisconsin in September, I haven't spent a single Saturday on the bike. Which affords me the luxury of attending the Saturday Farmer's Market at the Ferry Plaza.

San Francisco is a food lover's paradise. And the Ferry Building marketplace, the indoor food market that operates seven days a week, is a great place to drop a bundle on local produce, cheese, chocolate, ice cream, and bread in 30 minutes flat. Or to pick up a $40 bottle of olive oil or some American-farmed sturgeon roe caviar or an $8,000 antique butcher block.

So when it's actually time for the farmer's market, hordes of people descend on this place and the hundred or so vendors that set up outside. Thrifty shoppers go to the Alemany market or the Civic Center or one of the many suburban markets. Those of us who don't mind spending $10 on chips and salsa come to the Ferry Plaza. (It was homemade tortilla chips and organic heirloom-tomato salsa. Delicious!)

On a recent trip I also picked up some Arkansas Black apples and sugar pie pumpkins, the latter which I turned into pumpkin butter. And some freshly made tamales, which are expensive ($9 for 4) but cheaper than getting them in a restaurant. Also something called "salmon candy," which is not too much unlike pig candy.

I bet you didn't know someone named a mushroom farm after me.

November 4, 2006 9:59 AM