I went to CodeCon to enjoy fresh new ideas, minds, and especially to listen to a couple friends' talks at the conference. One of my friends, Simon, also likes veggie fare so we convinced our other friend Daniel to enjoy lunch two days in a row at the nearby Cafe Gratitude in the SOMA area of San Francisco. It is a raw foods restaurant. We were greeted and sat more quickly on the second day than the first, and it was fine. I was assured the first day that we were eating at the 'mother ship' so to speak when the waitress found that Simon & I had each eaten at Berkeley and San Rafael Cafe Gratitude's respectively.
I had a "I Am Present" a mushroom bruschetta. The Sourdough buckwheat flatbread topped with creamy cashew mozzarella, marinated mushroom confit, and fresh herbs was excellent.
Daniel was 'Plenty Great' with live granola and fresh fruit topped with almond milk. It looked beautiful and he said it was good. He just wished it was less expensive.
Simon's Yo Soy Mucho looked pretty nice and he loved the drink "I Am Grace" made with young coconut milk, almond butter, dates & vanilla. The Yo Soy Mucho was made with quinoa, and shredded kale, topped with salsa fresca and sprouts. He enjoyed that as well.
The next day, Daniel enjoyed "I Am Bright Eyed", which had almond milk substituted for the coconut milk in the daily porridge special. It also included nuts, fruit, vanilla and cinnamon.
Simon also had a breakfast dish, the "Yo Soy Bonita" with added black beans. It also included steamed Bhutanese red rice with avocado, salsa, cilantro and pepitas with lime slices on the side. It smelled great! And Simon said it tasted good as well.
I went for a small "I Am Festive" salad. It was really a raw-style taco salad consisting of shredded romaine lettuce with crumbled walnut-seed taco filling, guacamole, salsa and cashew nacho cheese, topped with flax chips. It was very refreshing, and very filling. I really enjoy the unique alternatives that Cafe Gratitude, in all its locations, offer.
I had really great time at CodeCon this year. Of course it's always nice to celebrate the successes of your friends, and watch them give their presentations. Daniel and Simon gave two presentations this year, and another presentation was based on some of their earlier work. CodeCon 2009 was held in CELLSpace, in the SOMA area of San Francisco this year from this last Friday ending yesterday evening. I had some fun twittering updates from the conference as well. Although my 'reporting' was as complete, it was fun to think I was getting my notes in 'live', before Le Monde or the other major rags wrote up a complete story.
CodeCon is very unique in that the focus is all on the actual achievement of a concept/code that works, and that you can demonstrate live on stage. Also this year there was a DIYbio track that was lots of fun -- hack your own genome! It was a great weekend all around!
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