Day 8: Bodega Bay to Fort Bragg

We awoke on Day 8 ready for more Yves "Bacon".  Here you see it grilled with Daiya cheeze.  Another trip favourite.

We went for a walk along the coastline at Bodega Bay.  It was freaking gorgeous:

We saw a DEER!  It ran away too quickly for us to take a photo.  Still, very rad.

Then we headed inland a little and visited Armstrong Grove.  Large trees.  There may have been actual hugging of trees.

We found an all vegan resort in Mendocino (just outside Fort Bragg). Unfortunately it's hella expensive (but we have plans to go back when Cam's a Consultant ;).  Luckily it has a restaurant attached called Ravens' Restaurant.  Wow.  This place blows Millenium out of the water.  We started with cocktails.  I had Sangria and Cam had a Bloody Mary (which began the great Bloody Mary obsession of 2012 that is ongoing):

Amy, in an extremely attractive pose.  Like the t-shirt I got from Old Navy?

The view from our table.  You could see Ravens circling outside.  Freaking gorgeous.

 We started with an amuse bouche.  Tempted to describe it as "amusing".  It was goodly.

Then bread and hummous.  Mmmmm hummous.  Surprisingly, we didn't actually eat much hummous while we were in the USA.  Bread was good too.  Nice and fresh.  If you hadn't noticed, they like serving everything with flowers.  Odd, but interesting.

Then we had a pizetta - that day's one had rocket and pesto.  Goodly.  The base was lovely and crunchy.  Pesto was nice too.

Cam had the Maple Barbeque Tofu.  The glaze-y bit was quite tasty as I recall.

I had the Tamales.  Tamales are just not available in Australia.  I did try making them a few years ago, but as dried corn husks are impossible to find, they didn't turn out well.  Also, dirty rice isn't really that popular in Oz either.
I LOVE Mexican food, and this was probably one of the most amazing Mexican dishes I've ever had (though the one I had at Real Food Daily on day 1 was pretty freaking fantastic too).

Dessert.  OMG, the dessert.  As far as I'm concerned, this was the best dessert of the whole damn trip.

Cam had the pecan torte:

I had the vanilla bean creme brulee.  Wow.  I still dream about this dessert over a month later.  It was creamy (I'm guessing it was a cashew base) and the vanilla bean wasn't overpowering.
The topping was brown sugar (I think).  It was definitely toasted, but the clash of the toasted sugar and creamy custard was outstanding.

They liked serving everything with a flower on the plate.  It was a nice touch, but a little, um, odd?  It certainly makes the photos look good.

If you're heading up the California coast, please stop in at Ravens' Restaurant.  And stay at the Stanford Inn if you can.  They allow pets (which is awesome) and it's a seriously beautiful place.

Day 7: San Francisco to Bodega Bay

We started the day with breakfast at Herbivore - The Earthly Grill in Berkeley.

I had the savoury crepes with marinara sauce.  OMG so good.....

Cam had a combo plate with scrambled tofu, french toast with banana and home fries (which Cam enjoyed, but looked gross to me because of the damn banana):

We got takeaway food for the road.  A brownie:

And a raspberry-vanilla cupcake:

We stocked up at Whole Foods for dinner for the next few nights.  I miss Whole Foods.  So much vegan food.  So cheap (compared to Australia it's cheap, anyway).

Then we headed out over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Took a million photos of the bridge:

 We then drove to Bodega Bay.  I nicknamed it Dawson's Creek.

We checked into a cute little B&B.  Which was insanely expensive, compared to everywhere else we stayed.  For dinner we had frozen meals!

 There's no really attractive photos of dinner, so here's an unattractive one of me mid chew:

Dessert was Justin's Organic Peanut Butter Cups!  NOM!

The frozen meals were okay.  Not fantastic.  I have to say that the mac and cheeze was just frozen pasta with a block of daiya in it that melted.

The best part of dinner was the Yves "Bacon". OMG, that Yves "Bacon".  I can safely say that it was our pick for 'mock meat of the trip'.

Day 6 Dinner: Millenium!

Wow.  This was soooooo long ago now.

So we spent the day shopping around central San Francisco.  We'd booked into Millennium the day before.

It is probably the swankiest vegan restaurant we've ever been to.  Actually, it reminded me of the restaurants in New York you see in Woody Allen movies.  Of course, we felt weird about taking photos of the interior, so there's just the foods....

We decided on the tasting menu.  We started with a pate and bread thingy:

I found the description of the menu from the Facebook page, but it didn't include the pate...
Fall Harvest Menu
October 11-13, 2012

1st Course

Roasted Beet Salad
Belgian Endive, grapes, Meyer lemon-macadamia nut cheese, Zinfandel grape & sage mostarda 

2nd Course
Charred Scallion & Tofu Dumplings mushroom-ginger broth, shiitake & blue chanterelle mushrooms, Ma La oil, spicy pickled chilies

3rd Course
choice of:
Lobster & King Trumpet Mushroom Étouffée
seared Sonoma fresh tempeh with blackening spices, white creamy roasted corn grits,
black eyed peas & collard greens with caramelized smoked onion
Which Cam had:

Bastilla
brik pastry dough, Kuri squash, grilled seitan & dried apricot filling, beluga lentil & tomato tagine, sauteéd fall greens, Fresno chile harissa, cucumber-mint raita, cinnamon-almond dust
Which I had:

We added fries ('cause we were pigs and on holiday damnit):

Dessert
Chocolate Layer Cake
coffee bean cream, chocolate ganache, Lucky Hand Black Lager caramel, peanut brittle, malt chip ice cream

I have to say that my favourite of the meal was the dessert.  It was so good that I didn't notice the coffee in it (Cam loves coffee, I can't stand the smell of the stuff).  We'd definitely recommend going to Millenium if you're in San Francisco!