I have eaten (or drunk) at over 300 restaurants in San Francisco, and soon the same in New York City.1 While NYC has more people so more variety at more times, SF has the freshness of California, which produces over half of the fruits and vegetables in the US.

The last 2 times I've visited SF, I've procured dry farmed early girl tomatoes to make a beautiful tomato sauce, based on this simple recipe by Marcella Hazan.

Rivaling heirloom tomatoes, the early girl hybrid tomato responds well to dry farming. In dry farming, the plant, un-watered after transplanting, produces more concentrated flavor.

Dry farmed early girl tomatoes have celebrity fans, from Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame to Tony Gemignani of Tony's Pizza Napoletana fame. Therefore, I feel justified and just a little fancy in my dedication to these red gems. So much so that I ordered an Uber to drop off a jar of the sauce I made to my friend before I left SF.

  1. Say you don't cook without saying you don't cook! ↩︎