We’re still in lockdown. Travel into and out of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Sonoma counties is allowed only for essential activities. The orders for the others are pretty much identical to Sonoma’s as regards travel:
Napa’s slacked off a bit, travel’s just not recommended. Santa Cruz and Monterey are pretty much open.
If you do end up going to Sonoma Oxbow Market is great. Have a nice Fieldworks beer and some oysters from Hog Island before settling in for great tacos at C Casa. They also have a Gott’s Roadside if you prefer.
Oxbow’s in Napa, not Sonoma. It’s semi-open. There’s some good food there but personally I hate the place, glad I don’t have to go inside to shop at Fatted Calf.
https://oxbowpublicmarket.com/
Gotts schmotts. Fuck those guys.
On the way up? Although last time we were all over the place so I guess it depends what route. Fatted calf makes great stuff and Hog Island is always great.
NVM. I remember going to the original Taylor’s Refresher in Napa before they expanded to Ferry Building and other locations. I never knew the back story to the name change. I’ve been a handful of times and food had been pretty good. I love their soft serve but maybe we won’t support them anymore after reading the article.
Every time @beefnoguy posts a pic from Ming Kee, I wish I had gone. Not sure if that might wander into the overly salty foods, though.
We loved Parker Lusseau bakery in Monterey, if that’s on the way. We went to the one in the downtown area (I think there’s also one that’s part of a resort?).
Thankfully no, Ming Kee doesn’t. You know me as well, I don’t like overly salty foods, and I loved Ming Kee. 
Thanks again for @TheCookie for this post and all those who replied. I also stalked @beefnoguy’s post on the L.A. board to get a hit list…
The trip was successful, our carefully guarded family items have finally arrived to their grateful and rightful homes. However, our circumstanced were completely unique and the trip was EXHAUSTING. I would not recommend it. It required quite a ton of research and planning. What places are open are open in very specific and limited capacity. Trains and other public transport is running at very limited capacity and only the ferry has areas marked for social distancing. Buses and trains rely on passengers to following the rules… and well… Most of the people are clueless. The city of San Francisco is empty. A lot of boarded up. There was more people getting on the ferry to lave to leave the city than those coming to… We never felt out of place, but we did feel an urgency to get our business done and leave.
Nevertheless, this was mostly a road trip… heavy on the road and so we spent the several days we had waiting for handoff times to work with family… just hopping from place to place… we also took the long way up to see some rail construction…
So we made a rest stop at Bravo Farms a bit outside of Fresno. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of the ‘cheese factory’. But honestly, I was impressed. They had several really unique varieties and packaged them well ‘to go’ like little tubs of cubes you could just munch on along the way… I ended up getting a Cheddar with Fenugreek seeds which was wonderfully creamy and went well with some fruit and nut crisps.
!The Central Valley is also home to Rosa Bros. and Bravo had all the flavors including Horchata flavored milk! It was great! Very milk forward and super rich. But I’ve never seen this flavor around L.A, but hope to find it because it would be excellent in coffee…
We stayed in the Hotel Petaluma, which was great and nearly completely contactless. So much has changed with staying in a hotel now. No bell /room/ housekeeping services. Coffee machines and even cups for water are all on demand. But it was near the really nice Petaluma Market and the room had a Fridge and Microwave. So most of our meals we cobbled together. But luckily there was Acre Coffee nearby but they were only doing order online. Still, the hotel had these tables set up in the courtyard for us eat outdoors which we did often.
On our short must try list was of course Ming Kee. We had an afternoon free and drove straight there and luckily found parking. We decided to take our food to a nearby park where we isolated in a little corner and scarfed down in happiness.
The pork was as delectable as promised. Tender and sweet.
The duck was the stand out. Really amazing and tender duck. Not greasy or gamey. I’m not a huge duck fan, but this completely won me over. These plates a steal and you get a ton of rice!! We saved the rice and had it for another meal with Sukhi’s Chickpeas that we got at the market (Another thing I have to find here… SO GOOD.)
Right next to Ming Kee is a bakery. The Pork Buns were meh… but we really enjoyed the egg tarts. Especially since Golden Gate bakery is closed and Eastern Bakery is only doing phone orders (Something we discovered by walking past) it was nice to grab one these with such tender and flakey pastry.
We had our second drop off in Marin the next day and after a lot of walking, we wanted something quick and easy. We ended up at Gotts since neither of us had ever been to either iteration. We loved our food. The Hot Dog was well cooked and the bun super soft. I loved the Ahi Tacos… the shells were so crisp and tasty! We had the vietnamese salad with crispy chicken… they were okay. But we really loved their onion rings. The batter was crisp and so tasty. Some of the better onion rings I’ve had in a while!
With all items safely delivered… we could finally undertake the riskiest part of our trip, a ride into the city via SMART. There was like four trains the ENTIRE day. So we had to get up super early and pick it up. No one was on our platform. The train was virtually empty. It was very clean and there were sanitizers at each door. It remained empty for the rest of the trip and on the Ferry ride in, we couldn’t even sit next to each other (which was fine. On our way back there was an incident with a newly wed couple and a SF Blonde who was screaming at them for sitting together in her row despite they were FAR away from her.) Our trip was short as a lot of the place we usually would visit were still shut down or not open that day. But we had a couple of shops we needed to stop by and inbetween we made two stops for eat and go items…
First was Pushkin for legit Pirojki. We got the mushroom Pirojki and it was amazing. The bun was soft and inside it was absolutely stuffed with mushrooms!
We also got the potato and mushroom Pareniki, which they hand make at the shop. There was a dude making them as we waited. This place is located in a run down food court but they could not have been the sweetest. A real gem for sure!
On our way out after our errands, we stopped by Liholiho Yacht Club. This type of place would have never been on our radar. Fancy Hawaiian… NOPE. But they were open. accepting walk up orders and their pandemic menu includes a fancy FILET O FISH. omg. We were all over that… And it lived up to the hype. Even the cheese was on point…
We also love fried green tomatoes so we ordered their BLT with them and sadly it was just too much of a good thing. The super soft bread that worked so well in the mock Filet o Fish was a soggy mess in short order since not only did they use fried green tomatoes, but also slices of ripe heirloom tomatoes AND Avocado. It was a mess to eat standing up and eventually gave up and ate it with a fork (Thank Goodness I traveled with wet wipes!). It was delicious… just not stand up friendly…
We left in the late afternoon and although some of the shops in the Ferry Building are opening up… the crowd milling around there is much different…
We were back on the road the following day, but not before a few more stops into our favorite part of the Bay Area, the East Bay. With egg tarts still on the mind… we stopped by Ruby King. The crust was even more flakey and delicious… but we found the custard to be overly sweet. Such a shame…
We went to go pick up some Soba and stumbled upon Magnolia Mini Mart which also was selling Hawaiian food… but more about homestyle favorites. The special of the day was Loco Moco and I was seriously tempted! But instead I got the Katsusubi, which honestly was the best Spam Musubi I’ve ever had. The Spam was perfectly fried and not greasy at all. The slice was thin so it was just enough spam flavor and salt to compliment the rice. The Nori was SUPER crisp. just so tasty… I got two for $5! So it was as crazy steal!
We continued on our way down had to stop by Hung Vuong Tofu. They are right off the freeway and the Governor had closed up indoor dining in the county…so we were so glad to pick up quite a few of their amazing seasoned tofu nuggets to snack on and then later have for dinner when we finally at the family’s place in Oxnard!
FINALLY. Last night we had our final meal that we sourced from our trip. Soba from Soba Ichi. They are only selling make at home kits. We ordered that plus their smoked duck breast and their house made tofu. Perhaps our best meal of the trip. The soba was CHONKY. Thick and full of buckwheat flavor. The instructions for it was very good. It cooked in a minute and then worth the extra rinse. The duck was unbelieveable. We heated up the dipping sauce with the housemade tofu, Then we poured the over the duck to warm it a bit from the top. It was so tender… almost like the finest filet mignon you have every had… but with flavor since the skin was wonderfully smoked. We also had some spring rolls from a sugar cane place a few doors down from Hung Vuong Tofu which were delicious… even a day later…
Whew!!! I haven’t written a post like this in a good long while…but felt like this page deserves a report back. Looking forward to our next trip… in a year or so when life is back to what it once was… already have the California Cheese Festival in Santa Rosa (Hopefully 2021!!) on my radar.
Nice trip! Very glad you enjoyed your time up here and also made it to Ming Kee. You got a nice duck, sometimes they are less meaty but at least the marinade is complex and flavorful at the very least. I’m more of a fan of their soy sauce chicken (please try that next time). Those roasties rice boxes are the perfect to go meals, even if you sit in the car. I almost attempted a soy sauce and empress chicken (double bird) rice box this weekend but decided on eating other things.
Soba Ichi is great, a few Japanese friends even dare say it was better than what they had back home (perhaps with the exception of some of the top soba restaurants). It’s a fantastic effort for what they are doing. Their soba tsuyu (dip sauce) is very complex and has intense bonito flavor as well. If you return next time and indoor dining is completely safe with no issues, please try them for dinner too…their side dishes and desserts are rather excellent as well. It’s our only soba izakaya in town.
For the best Hong Kong style egg tart closer to Ming Kee area, try Mr Bread on Taraval (the family that owns them are from Macau) that’s super popular with our Chinese speaking community up here. They also have the Macau Portugese version, but I felt they were too sweet for me and not enough caramelization, so it’s quite lacking in comparison. Their savory buns are also quite decent. A few doors away is Smile House Cafe in case you want a chilled Hong Kong style milk tea that’s pretty solid. And further down the street on the left is Marco Polo (gelato) where their Asian flavors shine (black sesame, Chinese Dragonwell green tea, jackfruit, durian, red bean, lychee).
I still haven’t made it to Liholiho Yacht Club 
That FoF looks great, great scoring!!
Wow @Dommy! Road Trip! SF and parts surrounding sound bonkers, right now. But you survived and like a true chowhound found GREAT spots to eat. Thanks for reporting. 
Our Carmel trip wasn’t quite as taxing or as interesting but it had its own challenges, which I’ve been too distracted to report on. But if you can do it so can I! 
Looking forward to it @TheCookie! Glad you guys had a good trip! We are planners by nature, so were well suited for our task… This was our one day in New York plan just around the same time when everything was running normal 
Thank you @beefnoguy for the additional recs! I KNEW there was a legit Macau Egg Tart place in the city… I just could not recall its name or anything. I have quite the history with the Bay Area and I was actually in SF for a day last year for a business meeting (It’s one of my markets, but most of Nor Cal Business takes me to Sacramento) and honestly… I showed up for lunch (Could not even tell you what fancy place it was… it was okay) and then left immediately after the meeting. Even the guy in LAX parking guy as I came in the morning and left that late afternoon was like… “where did you go?!?” Now that i got reacquainted with things, for sure we are going to spend more time and explore more. I’m also really excited about the Cheese Festival (I had a blast at the Vermont one. :))
Oh wow! I’m a planner but you have me beat… maps and everything! I might have to implement that in my future planning, but for a longer trip. 
@Dommy not sure if you are a big phone user but there is a really neat function in Google called my maps. You can drop pins on all the places you want to go and use Google maps to help with directions, address, phone number, hours of operation, etc… You can customize these pins by icon and color as well. I save all my maps then share with friends when they ask for recommendations.
YEP! That map I printed above is based on my google map for New York! I do one for every city we visit. But when we are actually in the city we are traveling, we take public transport a lot and want to be cognizant of our surroundings. So we prefer not to fiddle with our phones too much… that is where a print out with notes works best. At least for us. 
For the record, you violated several of the country health orders banning travel in or out except for essential purposes. That’s one reason transit schedules have been cut back and buses / trains / ferries are empty.
Just curious, how so?
All travel, except Essential Travel, as defined below in Section15.i, is prohibited. … Any travel into or out of the County not expressly permitted by this Order is prohibited.
http://www.acphd.org/media/587163/alameda-county-health-officer-order-20-14-a-english.pdf
Thinking of doing Santa Barbara and want to visit a winery or two. Any favorite spots in Santa Ynez / Los Olivos?
Apparently, my last couple of posts were inappropriate for a thread about a Northern Road Trip, because we didn’t drive to San Francisco after stopping off in one town. So unless, you’re doing that don’t post here.
It’s been fun.
