Happy St. Patty's Day..A few days late

St. Patty's Day is my second favorite holiday of the year, after my birthday of course. Yes, that's right I enjoy St. Pat's more than Christmas. And yes one of the reasons is the green beer that you see in the picture to the left. But the main reason I love St. Patrick's Day is because I celebrate it on two days and have been for most of my life.

Like most major cities San Francisco has a parade the weekend before St. Patrick's day or on the actual day and it is a day of festivities and celebrations. I remember going a few times as a kid but ever since high school I've gone every single year. (With the exception of last year, when I was in Sweden but I made sure to celebrate hard.) In the years since high school it has become a sort of reunion where all us San Francisco kids take a break from college life and return to remember how we all became friends in the first place. Yet this year St. Patty's day meant more to me than wearing green, getting drunk and celebrating with old friends. This time it brought me back to that crazy weekend in Dublin with my newest friends.

I still remember when Adam called me and asked if I wanted to go to Dublin for the weekend. I was working on my first paper of the semester, suffering from writer's block when this opportunity started ringing. Ireland was on my list of places to go so I jumped at the chance and bought my plane ticket. We wanted to find some more people to go with and as luck would have it my two crazy Aussies, Sunil and Michael, were already going that weekend. I instantly knew this would be an AMAZING time.

On my first day in Ireland I went to Powerscourt House outside of Dublin. It's a centuries-old estate with beautiful gardens that range of Asian influence to English roses. After spending an afternoon wondering around Adam and I decided to grab lunch at the terrace cafe that lets you overlook the huge lake on the grounds. Everything in the cafe looks wonderful but I couldn't resist the scones. I definitely enjoyed my decision. I don't know about you guys but I have a hard time finding really enjoyable scones in the U.S. Most of the time I don't think they are flaky enough, or they're too sweet. Like the starbuck's scones definitely not flaky, more like crispy and since when do scones come with a glaze? After that first scone in Ireland, I decided to utilize my time in the land of scones to find other delicious scones. Fortunately, I was not disappointed. But I began to think about when the next time I would be treated to flaky, buttery, fruity scones and realized either next time I came to Ireland or as soon as I returned home.

Home? you may be thinking..Yes home because I know of a wonderful Irish bakery about 10 blocks from my house. John Campbells's has about 5 different types of scones, irish soda bread, mince meat pies and just about any other type of Irish food you could want. O and if your thirsty it's right next to a bar called the Blarney Stone. Every so often I'll take a stroll down to John Campbell's and get an egg custard tart or scone but on the day of the parade I rushed down there. I wanted to make sure I started out my celebration of St. Patrick with the proper Irish food and a little something in my tummy to absorb that alcohol. I meant to take a picture of my blueberry scone to share with you all but I inhaled my scone in my excitement. :) Guess you'll just have to wait until I go home again or next time your in SF venture to the SAVenues and treat yourself to a taste of Ireland.

Swedish Cravings

This week I was experiencing two things...Swedish cravings and a lack of money. Well actually I'm saving my money for the upcoming St. Patty's day festivities but it through a kink in my blog this week. Anyways so I had to think of a cheap way to get over my swedish craving and realized Ikea could solve this problem. Ikea sells some of the few key staples in any Swedish diet and is the perfect place to go when your Swedish meatball craving becomes worse than appendicitis. The best part is that Ikea's meatballs are amazing so you never leave feeling unsatisfied or you can buy a bag of frozen meatballs so your craving can be satisfied anytime.

When you order meatballs, it is served with boiled potatoes and ligonberry jam. If you've ever ordered swedish pancakes anywhere in the US then you may have been introduced to ligonberry jam or butter and i'm sure your hooked. If you haven't then RUN to ikea so that you can be introduced to the joy that is ligonberry jam. It can be eaten with meat, potatoes, pancakes, bread whatever it is just really delicious. When I lived in Sweden I would go through a jar a month because I would eat it constantly and I'm devastated that it's not widely available here. Sometimes I think to myself that I should harass my local Safeway into carrying it but I'm a little too shy for that.

After enjoying my ligonberry jam, I snacked on some pepparkakor. Translated pepparkakor means ginger cookie and they are gingersnaps. These cookies are sold all year round in the stores but they are most popular during the Christmas season. I used to eat them every thursday after I finished my pea soup and pancakes. Every thursday I would go to Stockhoms nation and eat pea soup and pancakes and for dessert have coffee and pepparkakor. The swedes eat pepparkakor with everything from butter to bleu cheese (yes bleu cheese) but it's delicious all on its own. I bought a massive tin of pepparkakor at Christmas time from cost plus and my roommates and I have been enjoying it ever since. Now the amount of pepparkakor is dwindling but never fear there are plenty of stores that sell gingersnaps such as Cost Plus, Ikea, and some Safeways.

I wouldn't say my Swedish craving is completely satisfied, my stomach is begging for pankakor so I think tomorrow morning I'll whip up swedish pancakes with ligonberry jam and maybe this week you'll get a two-for-one on the blog posts!

Gelato

If you can't tell from the picture or the title of the blogpost this weeks goal was to find gelato that took me back to the million times I had gelato in Italy. Gelato is the ice cream of Italy. It has a few differences from regular ice cream that I don't care to get into on the blog but to sum it up, it is a lot creamier than regular ice cream. I also think that you can taste the flavors more than most types of ice cream except for Swedish ice cream which is the best in the world. Anyone that's been to Italy will tell you that YOU NEED to try gelato in Italy, but be warned you will become addicted and possibly substitute real food for gelato or just go Eat, Pray, Love style and gain 10 pounds.

When I was in Italy for 2 1/2 weeks I definitely had the best gelato in Florence. I can't remember the name of the place but it was near the Duomo and off the main street. Hopefully with those vague descriptions you'll find it and be in heaven. If not, chances are the store 2 blocks down is just as delicious! I wish I could say the same for America, but there aren't gelato stores every few blocks and even worse it's not as delicious.

This week I went to a gelato store in Rohnert Park called Del Secco's on the recommendation of a friend. She's been to Italy and said that this gelato was just as delicious but I'm sorry she lied. I went there with one of my roommates, another italian gelato lover and she was also disappointed. While the flavor of the gelato is amazing the texture is the turn-off. Rather than creamy, it tasted grainy which may or may not have been added sugar. I'm debating whether or not to give this place another shot or just try Powell's in Petaluma. Who knows? I may even try it this weekend so look out for an update!