Friday, August 22, 2008

Fun at the ferry building

I don't make it to the Ferry Building farmer's market in San Francisco that often, but when I do go, it's a real treat. There are hundreds of vendors selling everything you can imagine. Here are a few of the fun things I picked up.

These are actually called bacon avocados. I don't think they actually taste like bacon, but I thought it would be fun to try a different variety than the standard hass avocado.

My local grocery store always has the round heads of radicchio, but rarely has this variety called treviso. I thought it was too beautiful to pass up.

I saw these cute little torpedo and cipollini onions and thought they'd be perfect for a roasted onion recipe in the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook.


And last but not least, Rancho Gordo scarlet runner beans and crimson popcorn. Rancho Gordo beans have been getting a lot of good press recently. I bought some yellow eye beans in Napa a few weeks back that we thoroughly enjoyed, and I have some christmas limas in the pantry waiting to be used.


We also bought some roasted almond toffee, but that was eaten immediately, so no pictures. An added bonus was that chef Chris Cosentino (from the Next Iron Chef) was giving a cooking demonstration and promoting his new meat store located inside the Ferry Building. We didn't have time to see the demonstration, but I did pick up some guanciale from his store.

3 comments:

Randi said...

What did you think of the bacon avocados? I've tried them before and didnt care for them. They arent as buttery as Haas.

I love Rancho Gordo. When I was in SF( 1 year ago), I bought a bunch of his beans. I've also done mail order. I envy you, being so close to the Farmer's market.

Sara said...

The bacon avocados were very creamy, but also quite stringy. Overall I like Hass better.

So far I've tried Rancho Gordo's popcorn, yellow eye beans and christmas limas. I've had good luck with everything except the limas, they just never got that tender.

Randi said...

I believe the Limas are brought in from Peru. Thats why he doesnt sell them at the Ferry Plaza, because they're not a local product. If my beans arent cooking, I just throw in a pinch of baking soda. That usually does the trick.