15 November 2009

Foodbuzz.... Take 1



I wouldn't normally consider myself a superstitious person but the events of this past Friday...yes Friday the 13th...had me singing another tune. Not singing in the literal sense (that would clear a room very quickly) but feeling differently about life's direction and taking the bull by the horns.

One event in the past week that was certainly an adventure, if not life changing, was the few days spent in San Francisco at the Foodbuzz Festival. You have heard about this event countless times over the past week, but after car accidents, book releases, and loosing fillings I am a little behind the times. It has been months in the planning for not only the talented staff over at Foodbuzz but for Giz and I to meet up in the big city. I met Giz and her daughter through their blog Equal Opportunity Kitchen and what transpired from there was nothing short of a miracle. In the past year we started a social network BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine, published a cookbook to raise money for the School Meals Programme and finally met in San Francisco at Foodbuzz. You probably thought all along that since we both live in Canada and both have similar ideologies that our paths would have crossed long ago. We are on opposite ends of this huge country we call Canada but are not very far apart in our long term goals. It was like meeting a long lost friend after all this time and even if we were both tired we sprung into action and set out to explore San Francisco.

After flights from opposite ends of the country we met for the first time at our home for the next 4 days The Galleria Park Hotel which is a stylish boutique hotel in Union Square in downtown San Francisco and part of a group of hotels in the Joie de Vivre chain. I give a shout out to the attentive staff at the hotel as well as their social awareness. Joie de Vivre Hotels is a grass roots organization that strives to have a positive impact on their community. Each of their hotels is dedicated to donating to organizations in their communities.

As an extension of Joie de Vivre Gives, each hotel participates in the You Can Make a Difference program launched in April of 2008. The primary objective is to engage their hotel guests by giving them the option to add an additional $1 of their total bill for each night they stay with them.

Galleria Park Hotel’s philanthropic partner in the You Can Make a Difference program is The Gum Moon Asian Women's Resource Center where they address the needs of women and children in geographic and social transition. They provide services and programs that help develop life skills that help people integrate into society in order to support themselves and their families. Kudos to the Joie de Vivre!!!

First stop for Giz and I.....Chinatown. I was in San Francisco last month so read all about Chinatown in my last post. Where else can you find beautiful scarves for $1.50 and fun and fanciful cosies for your wine bottles. Mix this with the local flavours, sights and sounds and it is an idyllic way to spend an afternoon... and let's face it we were starving!!!!!

Day 2 lead us to North Beach, with deep roots in the Italian community, where we sought out macaroons the size of our heads that had inspired me on my last trip. As Canadians we visited our very first Trader Joe's which we have read about countless times on your blogs and also visited Fisherman's Wharf; which I missed during my last visit. I was fascinated by the shapely sourdough and the sea lions at Pier 39 with their engaging personalities.



In the evening we met up with our fellow Foodbuzz attendees for a Welcome reception at the Hotele Vitale, also a part of the Joie de Vivre chain for the beginning of the 1st-Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival!!!! To kick off the weekend we met for happy hour on the 8th floor with spectacular views of the city all round. Brian our bartender and 250 food bloggers became best friends:D We had a ridiculously delicious schedule of events planned for the entire weekend. There were attendees from 27 States and 4 countries who we already had so much in common with... a passion for food and our blogs....and we obsessively photograph each and every bite we eat!!!!! Can you imagine the mass sigh of relief when everyone in the room could whip out their cameras in the middle of an intriguing conversation and no one would blink an eye!!!

From there we moved on to the Ferry Building and an outdoor extravaganza to titillate our taste buds and "rev" us up for more to come. What a line up of tasty treats from the Mission District to the Ferry Building and everything in between!!!! From authentic wood-fire oven pizza, to rotisserie roasted porchetta on a bun, to antojito style tacos, to organic oysters... all culminating with organic ice cream and cupcake nibbles.

This weekend went down as one for the memory books. Kudos to the staff at Foodbuzz for pulling it all together to make it one of the best foodie weekends imaginable!!!!! I hope you all get to attend next year!!!!!!More to follow tomorrow........................................ Foodbuzz Take 2......

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19 comments:

  1. Lucky you! I would have loved to be there and all those foodbloggers!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. Great post! I also would have loved to me there!

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  3. Ah yes! It certainly was a great time...I enjoyed sitting next to you at the dinner Val!

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  4. What fun! I am so glad you got to see Trader Joe's, I keep reading about it.
    The shaped breads are amazing. Did you bring me back a sea lion?

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  5. Great coverage of an even greater event!! Sorry I missed it!!!

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  6. Thanks for sharing this with us!! I feel like I'm there!!

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  7. It was fun wasn't it!!! So much to consider after meeting so many fun bloggers.

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  8. I am quite envious ... it sounds like you had a wonderful time and I can imagine how great it must have felt to be there among so many people you have come to "know" via the blogging community. Can't wait to see more on your trip!

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  9. Oh my word I can just imagine you and Giz together for 4 days, I'm sure you had the time of your life's!!

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  10. Now I want to go back to San Francisco after reading this post!
    Thank you!

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  11. I missed both North Beach and Chinatown on this trip. But, the interesting thing about SF is you can visit and trip after trip discover new places. I so enjoyed our time together at the Festival.

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  12. *Envious* What a graet time. I've never been to SF and I'm just wishing I could have been there to see the city and meet other bloggers.

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  13. Next year I will try to go. I would love to meet so many people from around the World.

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  14. Sounds like you had a blast. I will have to check out your hotel when I go there Xmas day as it sounds amazing! Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving your kind comment. I appreciate it so much.

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  15. Sounds like a lot of fun. Glad you had a great time and shared it with us!

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  16. Wow Val...not only a culinary genius; a first class photographer; but all this wrapped up in a very eloquent style of story telling as well...I see a novel in the horizon!!!!

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  17. Sounds like so much fun! How nice to have finally met Giz face to face!!

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  18. Oh, can you imagine - if I'd been there the three of us (you, me Giz) could finally have had that tequila we've been talking abotu for months now ;-) Sounds fantastic. I only visited my first Trader Joes' on a trip to the US in 2005 - I was so excited I was practically hyperventilating and the checkout girl was looking at me very strangely indeed...!

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  19. Sorry I'm really slow on the commenting -- just coming out of the boxes.

    Sounds like an amazing trip. Glad you guys had a good time there.

    Hope everyone is ok after the car accident!

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Welcome to my home. Thank you for choosing to stay a while and for sharing our lives through food. I appreciate all your support, comments, suggestions, and daily encouragement.

Val

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