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I confess, I'm somewhat of a food snob. Some people love football, while I'll spend hours researching the best places I can when I travel. And by best, I don't mean most expensive. Simply, the best, from a taco truck in Cancun City, or a hole-in-the-wall Thai joint to a four-star multi-course James Beard Award winner.

Recently, I travelled to San Francisco for a conference with a group of other people from my work. And I learned a pretty valuable lesson: don't expect a large group of people to follow your lead; I should've seen it coming.

My initial list looked something like this:

Seafood:
Tadich $$
Pesce $$
Swan Oyster Depot $$
Hog Island Oyster Co. $

Chinese Dim Sum:
Ton Kiang $
Mayflower $$
Yank Sing $$

Breakfast:
Dottie's $
Canteen $$
Mama's $
Pork Store Cafe $

Italian:
Delfina $$
Incanto $$$
A16 $$
Capannina

Burger:
Zuni's  $$
Burger Meister
Barney's $
Pearl's  $$$
In N Out! $

Spendy:
Michael Mina $$$$
Jardiniere $$$$
Gary Danko $$$$
Ame (Asian) $$$$

Mexican:
Taqueria Cancun (Burritos)
Taqueria San Jose (Tacos) $$
Pancho Villa Taqueria (Burritos)
El Metate (Tacos)
La Taqueria (Burritos) $
Mamacita (Haute Mexican)
Mission Taco Trucks (Cheap!!!)

Coffee:
PEET'S!!!
Ritual
Farley's
Blue Bottle

Pizza:
Tommaso's $
Little Star $$

Moroccan:
Aziza $$
Tajine

Notwithstanding of the group situation, I did end up making it to a few of the spots on my list. The best day, of course, was the one I spent on my own, exploring the city and eating where I wanted to.

Got in around 6 or so on Tuesday evening and connected with some of the others in the group for dinner. They turned to me and I recommended Tadich Grill, which ended up being a great choice. The group didn't mind waiting 30 minutes, so that was a plus. We got our table and dug into the wonderful house bread. Some in the group ordered wine, which was acceptably good. 2 of us ordered the Cioppino, which was the best I've ever had. It was full of rich, tomato-spicy goodness on top of a grand heap of fresh seafood consisting of crab, scallops, oysters and clams. Someone else ordered the scallops and she seemed to be pretty happy with her order, so a good choice.

Wednesday for lunch my boss' boss was with our group and we all agreed to go to Mamacita's, which was unfortunately closed. My grandboss had lived in the Marina before, so he suggested a place called Bechelli's, which looked a little uninspiring. I spotted A16 across the street, which was a hot-spot on my list, so I immediately tried to sway everyone over. They hemmed and hawed, but ultimately gave in. We went in, sat down and looked over the limited lunch menu. There were collective disapproval groans at the esoteric menu. It was suggested we leave. I withheld comment and we got up and went to Bechelli's. Not much to say here other than it was edible and perfectly ordinary. I previously had far better breakfasts in town at spots like Spaghetti Western and Squat and Gobble. And I could have eaten at A16. Squid ink pasta and the best pizza in town! I missed it! Oh well, what can you do?

Wednesday night we were at the Google party knocking back a few (unleaded for me) after a long day at the conference. It started getting pretty late and some of us were getting hungry, so we made off for dinner. At this point I was too fed up to make suggestions, so when someone said North Beach, I said fine. I had been to Rose Pistola and thought it decent, but I knew where we were going. I had been there a few times already. Calzones. Need I say more? It was pedestrian, but that was to be expected. I had some luke-warm chicken and asparagus ribbon pasta disaster. I should have put up more of a fight. But again, oh well.

Thursday lunch was a decent meal at a local sandwichy spot. Had a steak sand and an Arnold Palmer (ice tea and lemonade). Was fairly tasty and satisfying. No real complaints. Got late again for dinner and met up with a member of the group I had sparked a friendship with. While waiting for him in the lobby, my grandboss showed up out of the blue. I asked him if he wanted to come along. We were going to walk to Taqueria Cancun (unbeknownst to me at the time -- it was the wrong one). I had no idea what to expect. The area we were walking through was getting a little dicey, but we were having a good time. When we got in front of T.C., it was super divey and I was like "oops." My grandboss and I were balancing each other's choices out, now. It would have been OK for some midnight grub, but it was a little too seedy for our intended purposes. Once again, the G.B. took charge and suggested we go over to the Union Square area to a Thai place he knew of from the dot com era. We ended up at B & O Trading Company. The meal was perfectly fine, albeit a bit chain-like. I was feeling unadventurous and ordered the Shrimp Pad Thai, which was fresh and invigorating. A nice suprise. I now had a little more faith now in my grandboss' tastebuds.

Friday, my last day, I only had time for breakfast and lunch and had to space them out somewhat. I got up fairly early and headed over to Canteen. I expected long lines, but there were none. I sat down immediately. Ordered some coffee and the infamous peach pancakes. Very good, if a little bland. The pancake itself was the best part -- eggy and fluffy with an almost crepe-like texture, supported by the sour-creamy topping and fresh peaches that had a nice snap. An above-par meal.

Later walked down to the Ferry Building, where my senses went into overdrive. All the sights and smells! A real epicurean's delight! Settled down with a fine cup of Peet's brew to pass the time before lunch. Got up and walked around. Couldn't find Hog Island, which was my destination, but spotted The Slanted Door, which I hadn't realized was at the Ferry Building. I looked over the menu and decided I'd be better suited at Hog Island and to go find it. I did and was rewarded with the best meal of my trip. Started off with their great house bread and Ceylon ice tea. My Kumamoto oysters showed up, looking small, but awe-inspiring. The creamy taste and texture of these morsels were sinfully divine. I dunked one or two in the vinegar dressing, but backed off on those succeeding, so I could get the rich, full flavor of the ocean. All in all, the best oysters I've ever had. Period. And I've lived near the sea all of my life. Next up was the clam chowder, which was also the best I've ever had. Tangy and sharp with fresh clams-in-shell, a boquet of aromatic herbs and a rich, buttery base, it woke me up and put a big, satisfied smile on my face. A beautiful, beautiful meal and a nice way to close my trip.

Trip bests: Oysters at Hog Island Oyster Company and Cioppino at Tadich Grill .

My commercial portfolio.

My personal design site.

This past week I attended the Future of Web Apps summit in San Francisco, California with a group of people from several AOL offices. Got a chance to meet a few new faces and reconnect with some familiar ones.

Though there wasn't much emphasis on the "future", there were some good take-aways regarding the current state of web development, innovation and business strategy. The most prominent of those seemed to be that the "Web Now" (as opposed to much-reviled "2.0") landscape is healthy and alive, buoyed by the sense that the consensus strategy this time around has supplanted ego and greed with the more progressive caution and logic.

There was an underlying current that this mini-bubble could, in fact, burst, but it didn't appear to concern attendees. Stakes are considerably lower this time around and the web has effectively proven it's worthiness. My only overarching though here is that instead of a bubble bursting, it will be more like sifting for gold. The tailings (unsuccessful ideas) will wash down stream while the solid gold nuggets remain in the shaker screen for further examination.

Highlight speakers were perennial circuit speaker and design-guru Jeff Veen, Dropsend/Amigo stakeholder and summit organizer Ryan Carson, Dogster's passion-centric leader Ted Rheingold, Yahoo's engaging social-software rep Tom Coates and Digg's visionary and founder Kevin Rose.

Some key points:

Kevin Rose (Digg):

• You can build a business improving on and converging existing ideas
• Build an application cheaply through Open Source, Bidded Talent, Low-Cost Hosting
• Word of mouth alone can make you
• Give developers and designers free reign to explore

Tom Coates (Yahoo):

Motives for Social interaction:

Individual:
• Individual motive=individual gets derived value
• Social value=contributions provide value to users
• Business value=aggregate value

Community Motives:
• Anticipated reciprocity
• Reputation
• 'Sense of Efficacy' - having an effect on the world
• ID within a group

Ted Rheingold (Dogster/Catster):

Passion-centric communities:
• Amplifying passion through an enriched community experience
• Define your experience akin to your high school locker
• Location-based communities will meet wherever they are (online/offline)
• Core components: Entertainment, Sociality, Services, Information

links:
http://www.deviantart.com
http://www.fabsugar.com
http://www.modelmayhem.com
http://www.famster.com
http://www.cuteoverload.com

Ryan Carson (DropSend/Amigo):

14 Things I'd Wish I'd Known Before Building a Web App:
1. Work with people in the same timezone (or you'll be up all hours)
2. One user database (or you will be doing double the work)
3. One ecommerce system (see above)
4. Don't have your coder do the xhtml/css (three people: back-end / front-end / designer)
5. Obsess about your website copy (get it right to eliminate redundancy)
6. Work with a top notch hardware partner
7. Don't cut corners
8. Measure and measure more
9. You aren't done when you launch
10. Teaspoons  (the little things that add up, i.e. FAQ, Help, spellchecking, etc.)
11. He cheats here (4 tips in 1):  make a press kit (logos, release letters, etc), use a monthly csv for invoices, add an About Us page, make contact easy
12. Add tons of stuff to your faq and support pages
13. Be nice to your nasty customers
14. Tips from the pros - here Ryan provided some quotes from other speakers at the conference

links:
http://www.dropsend.com
http://www.heyamigo.net
http://www.mutado.com

Jeff Veen (Google/Adaptive Path):

• Use visual design to build trust with users, empowering them to control their data
• Use good design to improve and enhance the data

4 Principles of Interaction Design:
• Discoverability - making finding stuff easy
• Recoverability  action should be without cost
• Context - a sense of time place and meaning (amazon checkout)
• Feedback  - system response

links:
program doc:
http://www.veen.com/nextgen.pdf

http://del.icio.us/veen
http://www.flyspy.com
http://www.farecast.com

Flickr photos from me, Tom Osbourne and other conference attendees:
Link