A Lunch Date at Google's World Famous, Free, All-You-Can-Eat Cafeteria

How many times have you heard people say, "it must be soooo cool to work for Google..." Did you ever think about how cool it would be just to eat at Google?

Well that's what we did on a recent trip to San Francisco and it was pretty awesome. Call it one perk of being a food blogger since the Googleplex cafeterias are closed to the public.

Two reps at Google were nice enough to host us for lunch and a whirlwind hour full of interesting facts and figures about Google's food program, not to mention excellent food by any standard, let alone a corporate cafeteria.

Here are 11 cool things we learned.

1. It was Larry Page and Sergey Brin's founding philosophy to treat employees like you'd treat your family, so food has been a focus at Google since it's start-up days. An executive chef was hired as employee #51. Today a 20-person internal team manages Google's food program, from operations to communications to supplier relations. Philly can count one of the two PR reps we ate with as it's own, a UArts grad and NJ native.

2. Not once was a person working for Google referred to as an employee. They are all "Googlers," so that's what we'll call them from here. Subgroups that act almost like internal clubs include Nooglers (new employees), Greyglers (elder employees), Gayglers (gay employees) and so on.

Our delicious lamb biryani lunch at Baadal 

3. About 17,000 people work at the Mountain View Googleplex and 44,000 worldwide. With many Googlers eating more than one meal per day on campus, the company estimates serving 60,000 meals per day across the globe.

4. We got to try Baadal, one of the newer hip on-campus restaurants and the first to book by reservation. Baadal gives Googlers what internal surveys say they want more of - Indian food. Adding to the cool factor, you can also get the same grub at the Baadal food truck outside. No less than 50 people were in line that day. We're told the other most popular restaurant on campus serves Japanese.

Trip to San Francisco to Count Down the 7 Tastiest Feasts in North America

Just before Thanksgiving we traveled to San Francisco with Chowzter, a cool new website/startup that helps you figure out what to eat as you travel across the globe. The mobile app is coming soon, so stay tuned...

Foodies from around the continent, chowing
down (and taking photos, of course) at
Mission Chinese

Chowzter simplifies your dining options down to the 7 "tastiest fast feasts" in each city, as recommended by a local foodie. Not necessarily the top rated restaurants or fanciest fois gras dishes, but a quick, trustworthy list of affordable eats that anyone should check out while in town.

We are the Philadelphia contributors so on the Philly page you'll find several of our current favorites, which will evolve over time as we try new things. 

There are recommendations listed for more than 100 cities on the website: http://www.chowzter.com. 

In San Francisco, we joined an awesome group of food bloggers from around the U.S. and Canada to celebrate the 50 tastiest fast feasts in North America and help build excitement for the app launch. (Last spring we went to London for the worldwide awards.) Three Philly items were part of the top 50 countdown: the Lasagna Bolognese at Paesano's, the Millers Twist Cheesesteak Soft Pretzel at Reading Terminal, and the Signature Pie at Tacconelli's.


The #19 Pastrami Sandwich at Langer's Deli in Los Angeles was named #1 - who knew?? Guess we have to try it. The others in the top 7 were:

• Poutine at Poutini's House of Poutine in Toronto, Canada
• Oyster Sliders at The Ordinary in Charleston, SC
• Buffalo Wings at Nine Eleven Tavern in Buffalo, NY
• The Tipsy Texan at Franklin Barbecue in Austin, TX
• The California Burrito at Super Sergio's in San Diego, CA
• Wontons with Hot Chili Oil at White Bear in Flushing, NY

Check out Chowzter's quick videos on each of these 7 dishes. They will absolutely make your stomach growl.

... and to see where we actually ate in San Francisco, check out all our photos on Facebook! Below are four of the best things we ate. Stay tuned for a post all about the lunch date we squeezed in with Google while on the west coast. 

Dungeoness crab at Crustacean - just a week after SF's crab season opened!

one of seven delicious burritos we tried at Farolito, supposedly the best in San Francisco. 

MeMeli food truck's greek honey balls, drizzled with Nutella and peanut butter. WHAT.
As seen at StreatFood Park, a very cool roundup for food trucks.

La Taqueria. This is how many tacos our group ate AFTER lunch at Mission Chinese AND all those burritos.

8 Tips for Visiting Napa and Sonoma

Earlier this month we gave you a throwdown between San Francisco and Philadelphia in terms of food and fun things to do. Also a memorable part of that trip was our two day visit to wine country. One day in Napa Valley and one day in Sonoma worked out perfectly. They're really only 30-40 minutes away from each other, so it's easy to do both. Here are a few tips for each based on what we ate/did, with lots more photos to check out on Facebook and Google+. 

NAPA VALLEY:

Drive past the main little towns. As first timers, we were surprised that so many big wineries were literally right in a row and close to the main road (Rt. 29). There are dozens and dozens of great places to stop along there, but we encourage you to also drive past those towns and off onto smaller roads like the Silverado Trail to find other great wineries in more quaint, rustic settings. Duckhorn and Chateau Montelena are two of many great options. On Rt. 29, Peju is a very pretty winery with a fun, crazy guy behind the tasting counter (hat tip to PhillyFoodDude for sending us there).

Beautiful Chateau Montelena with a famous Chardonnay

Duckhorn Winery with tastings on the wrap-around porch.

Throwdown: Can Philadelphia Stand Up to San Francisco?

Let’s get ready to rumble! Ok, San Francisco. No doubt you’re a top destination for foodies and world travelers. But you know what? Philadelphia is just as awesome.

We just spent a week in the shadows of the Golden Gate and couldn’t help but compare San Francisco’s hotspots to Philly at every turn. Who won? Here’s the 22nd & Philly take between some of the sites/restaurants we visited in SF and their Philly counterparts.

For the full photo recap, see our Facebook or Google+ albums, and check back for future posts with more advice on visiting San Francisco and Napa/Sonoma.

Ding Ding. Here we go.

Round One: Reading Terminal Market vs Ferry Building Marketplace