USA 2011: San Francisco Part 3

Tuesday morning dawned... in a fashion. In a freezing, grey, raining fashion. All the adventure was catching up with me, and I was also feeling a little ookey, so I slept in a bit before heading out and braving the weather with my tiny umbrella. My plans involved staying pretty close to the area.


A late breakfast/brunch found me back at Little Bird Coffee House for a second round.




This time I ordered some amazing Blue Corn Waffles with Fruit and Maple Syrup, along with a side of Fakin.



I lingered a little, enjoying my Kindle and the free wifi, and ordered a gigantic soy hot chocolate, and a cinnamon sugar Pepples donut - the final donut of my journey. How cute is that plate? I love white plates with blue on them.


I then walked a few blocks down to the Civic Centre district, and I went to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Please note this photo was taken on another day. The day I actually went to the museum it was grey and raining. Apparently it never rains all day in San Francisco in summer. Except for this day. Oh well, I'd been having a magical time with the weather so far. The Asian Art Museum is fantastic. If you like Asian Art (and I do), there is so much there to look at. Here are a few photos.








Pretty things! Not surprisingly, I loved the pieces involving animals. I also really like ceramics, they are so pretty! And I loved the mythology behind so many of the pieces. I took two tours while I was there, the first through their Bali special exhibit, and the second was a Goddess tour, which was awesome as there were only two of us and the docent. Afterwards, the docent took us back to the Bali exhibit and gave us an extra special tour with lots of extra information. It was great!

I know what you're thinking... but what about food? OK, please don't be mad at me for letting down the team... but I didn't actually eat lunch this day. Originally I was going to go to an asian vegan restaurant nearby, but they were closed on Tuesdays, so I was just going to go with the flow. But I had such a big, late brunch and was just feeling all a bit blah that I just had a snack from my bag. It's OK though, I shall make up for it with dinner.


Dinner was at Saha. Saha was on the list that Lauren for Portobello in PDX had given me, and was on the same street as my hotel, just a block down! Saha is in the Hotel Carlton. I got there before the restaurant opened, but they let me sit in their lobby and use their free wifi, which was nice. Saha is an omni arabic fusion restaurant, with lots of vegan options.


After being seated, I was presented with this amazing turkish bread and dipping oil, with all sorts of spices in it. Being a lone diner, I didn't have to share and got to eat it all! Mwahaha. I was super hungry by now, so there was no chance of me filling up on bread. The bread was just the beginning.


Because it was cold outside, I also ordered some of their beautiful Arabic tea, which has cardamom, mint, sugar and clove. So warming and yummy.

They had an option where you could choose a soup or salad, a small plate and a main for a certain amount (I don't remember what), so I went with this.


First up was the warm asparagus salad. Oh. My. God. Pan-seared asparagus with papaya, olive oil and za'atar. This was amazing.


My small plate was a no brainer - BBQ Tofu and Mushrooms - Oyster, shiitake, & brown mushrooms marinated with tofu in cumin, soy sauce, sesame seeds, za’atar & coconut milk. This was so yummy, the only problem was I didn't have a spoon to scoop up all the delicious sauce, and I was out of bread. So I just slowly scooped it up with my fork. It was all I could do not to lick the plate in the restaurant!


For my main, I tossed up a few options and asked my server for her suggestions. I went with the Saha Red Curry. It was delicious. Not quite what I was expecting presentation wise. The curry had tofu (but only two pieces), pumpkin and mushrooms in it.

I was loving my meal. The flavours were amazing! However, you may notice that the serving sizes are somewhat... small... particularly given I hadn't had lunch and now my appetite had been reawakened!


So I had to order another dish. This is the Saha Ravioli (vegan version) - Shiitake mushroom ravioli in sauce of fresh mango, red pepper flakes, fresh mint, and touch of coconut milk. These were amazing, and nicely carby and filling as well.


Which brought me to dessert. I had Bisbusa - Yemeni cake with syrup and sorbet. I had raspberry sorbet made by a company called Ciao Bella. This was the perfect end to an amazing meal. I love syrup with cakes.

Overall, Saha is AMAZING. I can't recommend it highly enough. The only downside is that the portions are small if you are have a big appetite like I do - I could have eaten so much more of everything I ordered. This is fine, because you can just order more and experience new tasty dishes (MOAR FUDS IN YOU BELLEH!), though it will not be a cheap meal. But it will be a mind-blowing meal. So save your pennies and get thee to Saha. Oh, my server's name was Jennifer, and she was super sweet and lovely and helpful. Yay! Another thing I liked about Saha is that it is the first four letters of Sahara's name. Yay kittehs!

Next up, more San Francisco!