SFist Mary Ladd, contributing. We like what we saw and heard from Fog City News owner Adam Smith and suave Chocolatier Michael Mischer today on our lunch break. Fog City News is a nice, clean space on Market Street offering high quality chocolates and confections with a vast assortment of worldly magazines. Today's event was the first in a series of Friday afternoon visits (12 noon to 2 p.m.) from well known chocolatiers, and happens......

A decorating bug hit us hard and unexpectedly. We aren't usually the decorating type. We know we're not the only ones seeing the Evites and rare fancy paper invites pour in'food accompanied by virgin or adult drinks, yes!-- for upcoming holiday shindigs. Maybe we've drank the Bud's eggnog too much, but we feel it's fun to sometimes do the inviting ourselves. We on whim suddenly motivated last night and decided to decorate a little since we have guests in town this weekend. We're hosting a brunch in their honor on Sunday. Our message: don't freak out over having people over. We are not as calm and collected as we'd like to be, either. But hey, the Human League said it best (tho the topic was decidedly different), we're "only human." Our fool proof tips for getting in the holiday mood by decorating your place: ...

Busses of all sorts have us in a tizzy these days. Got Milk? With our MUNI wait? That seems so 1993 and wrong! When we think of the smells of baked cookies, we feel a combo of anticipation, hunger, happiness, and youthful delight. Of course, that's assuming the doughy, chocolatey smells come from a real kitchen (preferably our own) and are not competing with cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes, urine, barf, or rancid food....

We know the frustration of driving around the block, constantly searching for a parking spot. We're guessing we’re not the only SFister who occasionally has to drive (for work) that may sometimes feel this way. Been there, done that. It’s likely not news to anyone, and we hope we don’t receive angry comments telling us we shouldn't be driving at all in our fair city. ...

We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. These are our favorite tidbits from today's offerings: ...

Oy, gee. We're sick today. We feel like grade-A crapola, and it may color our review of the last episode of Top Chef just a tad. Not to mention that we're about 10 lbs. heavier than when we watched this episode last Wednesday on Bravo, which is making us even more pissy. This episode was a 'very special Thanksgiving' episode. And it was pretty special--Tony Bourdain, the well-known chef and world-traveler, was the guest judge, and yes, we love his bad-boy image, his wry personality, and he writes a hell of a good fictional book along with his spectacular non-fiction. Sorry if we're judging this man on his image, folks, along with his writing and cooking pedigree. Oh, P.S. -- he's had some swell adventures recently with our own Mary Ladd/Jalepeno Girl, which you should check out here and here....

Worst. Holiday. Ever. For. Eritreans Near and Far. We’re not joking about the sadness and confusion this Turkey Day crime has wreaked. The shell-shocked East African Eritrean Bay Area community, numbering 10,000 to 12,000 strong according to many reports, is still reeling from the Thanksgiving Day killings that left 3 members of the same family dead in an Oakland apartment shoot out. "This is the worst ightmare for Eritreans,"Yikaalo Gebreselassie of Alameda told the Chron, who said he was a friend of the victims. "We've never had this kind of experience before, and now we have three people dead." ...

Kick those schlumpy tryptophan and Monday induced sighs and blahs to the curb and check out Bacon Press’s Food Porn. We can’t much bear thoughts and photos of turkey, but the tantalizing pics of vibrant veggies and wholesome soup are pleasing. Barely a trace of heartburn there, family and friends-who-are-like-family (we’re trying to be a bright and happy holiday trooper here). Such healthful dishes may soothe and perhaps allow us to ease into our ill barely fitting Levi’s sooner rather than later. After zipping up, we’d never call the authorities from learning about food related theft in another newish Bacon Press Post so appropriately named: Steal this Brie. ...

SFist Mary Ladd/Jalapeno Girl contributing. We’ve got our things-to-be-thankful-for list ready. Easy peasy! One item shines a bit brighter than others. That would be hanging out with author/chef/TV personality Tony "Cast Iron Stomach" Bourdain after his City Arts & Lectures sold out ($19 a ticket) conversation with Isabel Duffy on Monday night. Some of the meatiest tidbits/quotes Tony offered while chatting with Ms. Duffy? --He couldn’t get over how sweet, nice, and great the US......

SFist interviews our new food writer, Mary Ladd...

On Thursday morning, we bent our self imposed no-drinks-before-noon"guideline" and attended a fun food and wine event. What made this invite stand out was that the wine tasting, Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2006, was tied to an important cause, the San Francisco Food Bank. Had we known we would be able to witness and talk to a good natured young woman dressed in a gigantic Beaujolais Nouveau costume we would've RSVP'd even sooner. Oh, and did we mention we dig romantic French accordion music by Odile Lavault while we sip and nibble? ...

>Attending cheese school is a no-brainer. We sooooo easily ditched our apartment, books, and TV for that! Cheese ranks high on our list of favorite fermented (the word fermented makes us feel a little icky, too) foods of all time. But other food bloggers have good reason to let school change the concept of cheese from "the unthinkable to the delicious." ...

Our frequent fantasies and consumption of pumpkin bread (with or without cream cheese frosting; raisins are also optional) shows we like to explore the myriad ways of preparing and eating this vegetable. We know pumpkin eats are not necessarily for everyone, of course. Yet we are still thrilled when conversions occur. Gluten-Free By the Bay makes pumpkin muffins which edged GFBTB into this territory: "from an unbashed pumpkin hater to an ambivalent, tentative pumpkin eater." Baby steps can be the way to change, GFBTB, baby steps. ...

Lucky Carol Ness! The Chronicle Food section scribe is off in Turin, Italy, to update us on a BIG meeting for the Slow Food Movement. Her detailed reporting has always shined (ring the full disclosure bell: yes, we used to intern there, and yes, we have pals there, including our husband). Of particular note is the fact that many Californians--both famous and not so much - are participating. For the record, Dairy Queen at The Ethicurean is interested and green with envy over the Turin happenings. Mmmmkay. We're not sure we agree with Ms. DQ that the Bay Area scene is “as deserted as New York in August.” We'd rather be here, with all the artisan chocolate with tea notes, pumpkins, squash, beets, and cavolo nero popping up. We mean it, we really, really do. ...

SFist Mary Ladd tells us what it's like on the other side of the buffet line! We need to relax, pronto! A killer gig of taking care of other people -- otherwise known as catering -- leaves us with sore muscles, red eyes, and a smile on our face. Say Wha? Don't let anyone lie to you and say catering is easy. It's not. But we are crazy enough to enjoy doing it. Something about......

As part of its upcoming literary arts festival, Litquake is throwing a big and-- dare we say it-- bad Between the Bridges opening night to-do this Friday October 6 at 8 p.m. The rockin' fun will be at the Regency Center Grand Ballroom, 1290 Sutter Street (Van Ness at Sutter). And we've got two tickets to give away! ...

We are SO all over the upcoming Litquake Opening Night at the Regency Center, Friday, October 6. Written word and music kept us sane in our dork formative years, and continue to sustain us. While we used to hope those dork years were behind us, we have learned to embrace it. We can't think of a better way to celebrate and acknowledge these two cherished forces than Between the Bridges, a homage to literature with a fabbo lineup of Bay Area musicians. It's a known fact that almost all writers listen to music, now it's our turn to find out what writers musicians READ and in some cases, incorporate into their work as inspiration. ...

We already liked Toad’s Food & Drink for its good food, friendly service, $2 draft beer happy hour (5:30 PM - 7:00 PM), and mellow vibe. There’s something about Toad’s fresh tasting buttered bun that makes us smile–when we’re not wiping the Angus burger juices off our lips, that is. We also appreciate having the burger set up (lettuce, pickle, onion, tomato) on the side, for those "no onions tonight, self" times. Toad’s is......

Please excuse us. We need to take issue with an article, "French roast brews, sip for sip" in today's Los Angeles Times....

Join contributing SFist Mary Ladd as she takes on the most daunting of tasks: jury duty! Jury duty makes us hungry. All that acute listening and analyzing, served up with long stretches of waiting causes the most diligent Legal Eagle to experience serious hunger pangs. Thankfully, there are scores of Civic Center eateries to enjoy when the jury breaks for lunch. Below, SFist lists its favorite Jury Eats from cheap to swanky, along with time......

Yes, folks, she writes about more than food! Contributing SFist Mary Ladd is concerned about San Francisco's Olympic dreams, and we can't blame her! We’re considering booking our dream vacation now if the Olympic Games will be in San Francisco instead of Los Angeles or Chicago in 2016. Maybe it's a chance to try apartment or home swapping. The prospect of Olympics in SF gives us pause. We have always loved living in the Bay......

Make no mistake, we are animals here at the food blog! Animals! Grrr. We only recently added chef Chris Cosentino to our list, thanks to his offal dinner for Anthony Bourdain and Mary Ladd a couple weeks ago, and already he's delighting us and making us queasy. A friend told me a story once about his young (4 or 5 years old) daughter who was watching the movie Babe fairly regularly. "Daddy," she said, "I......

In the excellent William Gibson novel Pattern Recognition, the main character has a panic attack every time she is confronted with the image of Bibendum, the Michelin Man. we don't really blame her, the early pics of him were pretty, well, not pretty. In that vein, we can only imagine the plotzing that's going on in some of the Bay Area's finest kitchens following the announcement that the revered Michelin Guide has chosen to focus......