Ferry Market Building, San Francisco

Whenever I mentioned I was headed up to San Francisco, I'd receive a tweet or an email entreating me to please visit the Ferry Building. A spot of Googling revealed it to be SF's food mecca, a restored mercantile marine building which, until the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were completed in the 30s, was the second busiest transit terminal in the world.



In 2004 it was restored & reopened with a new ferry terminal and an indoor arena for some extraordinary food stores. There's a bi-weekly Farmer's market too and SF's famous Vietnamese restaurant The Slanted Door. Probably most famous is the wonderful Cowgirl Creamery who, whilst they sell artisan & organic European cheeses, have made it their raison d'etre to stock local cheese, including their own stellar organic cheese made just up the coast at Point Reyes Station. There are also organic grocery stores selling everything from oranges,



to ravishing organic flowers.



Tales Near the Runway begged via Twitter for a Fedex care package from:



Whose bread had me drooling as I photographed it.



I was also beguiled by:



who use California olives to make their delicious oil blends.



Given that I would happily eat mushrooms for every meal, my absolute favourite store by a country mile was Far West Funghi.



I've never seen mushrooms that look like this:



And I couldn't resist buying a small box of samphire (UK) or sea beans as it is apparently called in America.





But I suspect that both my father and my friends at We Are Dinosaurs would hotfoot it straight to:


For their justly famous hams, salami & charcuterie:



The Ferry Building Marketplace info can be found here