Archive for September, 2010

Discoveries from Food Travels in Ann Arbor, Chicago & Madison

By Susie, 27 September, 2010,

Recently I took a tri-state tour around the midwest – to Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin – to see first hand all the neat towns and interesting agricultural efforts I’d heard about in the last few years. I loved it all and can’t wait to go back for more!

Here are a few discoveries I hope will inspire travels and/or efforts in your local area:

1) Underground Breakfasts That Directly Benefit Farmers @ Selma Cafe

Homemade spam anyone?

Jeff McCabe and Lisa Gottlieb run Selma Cafe in Ann Arbor out of their own home. Throngs of hungry locals flock to FridayMornings@Selma – “a local-foods breakfast salon, offering a gathering place for friends and community to imagine and create a new vital and sustainable regional food economy.”

Volunteers build hoop-houses from Selma Cafe breakfast proceeds for area farmers.

2) New Michigan Home Food Processor Law

In July of this year, Michigan passed a new law to allow “cottage food processors” to make food in their cottages (nowadays houses) for direct sale to consumers. The new rules include plenty of precautions to ensure consumer protection and that only very small food makers – who may have trouble finding or affording commercial kitchens – are able to benefit.

I learned about this law from Julie Rabinovitz, whose Tasty Bakery makes gluten-free desserts. She is typical of other home processors I’ve spoken with who say their kitchen is even cleaner than most commercial kitchens, largely because they take the responsibility and privilege of working from their home kitchens so seriously.

3) Middle Eastern Food in Dearborn, MI

This is not a new surprise. In fact most of the restaurants and bakeries in Dearborn are decades old. Yet to a Californian who grew up with just a smattering of restaurants and bakeries in Los Angeles and who enjoys visiting Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn for Sahadi’s and other middle eastern treats – Dearborn delights both in food and interestingness.

Years ago friends from Ann Arbor had shared a box of baklava, cashew fingers, and other sweets from Shatila, whose website I love for its dancing pastry animations. Completely fresh, crunchy, buttery, chock full of nuts, and very very well priced. In fact I’ve known restaurants in California to order pastries from Shatila.

cashew fingers

The entire Warren Rd street is lined with shops and restaurants with signs in Arabic as well as English. A recommendation to visit El Ameer for lunch, both from people who’d worked in the area at Ford as well as other customers at Shatila – all I can say is “yum.” It was hard to choose where to eat (some options on a Yelp list and Chow) Even if you are flying through Detroit, if you love this type of food it could very well be worth taking a taxi over for a meal and some pastries to go.

4) Capitol Vegetable Garden in Madison

To demonstrate how easy it is to grow vegetables at home, smack dab in front of the elaborate state capitol sits a vibrant, large vegetable plot, run by Community GroundWorks.

The Dane County Farmer’s Market wraps around this block, exposing thousands of people to the garden.
public vegetable garden in Madison

5) Cheap All Day Transit Pass in Chicago

OK I cheated: This is not exactly food related except that I discovered lots of food by accident thanks to this pass after visiting Chocolate Gourmet – such as a sub from Bari, where I was told all the fire fighters eat. (Some were also seen getting sugared up across the street at Terry’s Toffee.)

For around $6 the Unlimited-Ride Pass let me explore to my heart’s content on buses and trains. As I hopped on and off (being especially thrilled to ride the elevated trains I’d only seen in movies), I realized how great this pass is for tourism. And it’s easy to buy, at any drug store.

In the bay area, I’ve seen 1-day passes on San Francisco’s MUNI for $13 as well as a cable car pass, but the fact that a casual traveler without a pass needs to pay every time you leave a BART station adds up quickly.

A BART Plus ticket is the next best option, with unlimited bus rides and the actual BART ride price being subtracted from the ticket price.

A cross-transportation system (MUNI, Ferries, A/C Transit, BART, CalTrain) one day pass could be huge for bay area tourism and use of public transportation. Pipe dream? Probably.

Learn, Eat, Imbibe – Late Sept. Bay Area Events

By Susie, 23 September, 2010,

A few hand picked “I’d go to that!” ideas from all the great food events going on the last week of September.

TODAY: Sept 23 – Farmer Series at the California Culinary Academy

Lunch: 11 am – 1:00 om

Thanks to a recent collaboration with CUESA, the California Culinary Academy (CCA) is hosting a series of farmer lunches and dinners in the student restaurant, Carême 350. The prix fixe meals mark the culmination of each class’ culinary education and will feature produce grown by La Tercera Farm and Star RouteFarm. The next event includes lunch from 11:30 am to 1 pm or dinner from 6 to 8 pm. Tickets available through Open Table.

Sept 25. Saturday – Volunteer & Dig In with Slow Food

A few nice long listings of events in Slow Food East Bay‘s newsletter – including Slow Food National “Dig In” day, with volunteer events taking place at farms and urban locations all over the bay this Saturday, September 25th.

San Francisco Cocktail Week through Sept 26th

It’s not just for gettin’ smashed. With interesting events around the city to learn and see the art of spirits and cocktail making. If you’re visiting San Francisco as a tourist I can’t recommend this itinerary highly enough!

Primal Napa – The Art of the Butcher

Sustainable meat ranchers, butchers and chefs will be wielding cleavers against major protein at Hayne Vineyard. A beautiful weekend for a big time barbecue. More on SF Weekly.

Cocktail Cookout on the Island (Ferry to Hangar One)

Sunday Sept 26

BBQ: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Guided Tours: 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
The East Bay’s best bartenders are teaming up with Fatted Calf for a meaty, boozy outdoor festival, pairing barbecue with ice-cold cocktails and a cocktail competition under the sun at the renowned Hangar One distillery in Alameda. Ticket includes a round-trip ferryboat ride featuring Hangar One cocktails (designed and served by Master Mixologist Scott Beattie of HMS Cocktails) from San Francisco’s Ferry Building and shuttle transportation to BART to and from the Hangar One Distillery.
$50 per person (Ticket includes barbeque, cocktails and round-trip transportation from SF Ferry Building and BART – see schedule below. On-site parking is free.)
PURCHASE TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT
Address: St. George Spirits Distillery (AKA Hangar One), 2601 Monarch Street (on the former Naval Base), Alameda

Reading: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders
Sunday Sept 26, 3-4 p.m.

Free at Omnivore Books in San Francisco

Rachel Saunders’s The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is the definitive jam and marmalade cookbook of the 21st century. In addition to offering more than 100 original jam, jelly, and marmalade recipes, master jam artisan Rachel Saunders shares all of her technical preserving knowledge, as well as her unique jam maker’s perspective on fruit.

Slow Food San Francisco
Convivial Table: Tour of 331 Cortland Market
When: September 26th, 4pm – 6pm

Where:
331 Cortland Market
331 Cortland Street
(Bernal Heights)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Cost: Free, RSVP

In our series of tours featuring local businesses, Slow Food San Francisco’s Convivial Table is heading to the new market at 331 Cortland Street in Bernal Heights to meet with the owner and vendors.

With a focus on local, seasonal, and sustainable, this collaboration of San Franciscans offering artisanal food and food-related services will talk to us about how they got started in their unique business model, and what it’s like to run 6 different shops under one roof.

This is a free event with opportunity (but no obligation) to make purchases from vendors after the tour.

For more information about this site, Click here

Butcher, Baker Candle Stick Maker + Dinner at Pie Ranch

When: Sunday, September 26, 1:00 PM – ???

Where: Pie Ranch
San Mateo County Coast

Cost: $100 per person for workshop and dinner; $75 for dinner only (not more than a dinner out on the town!)

Join Pie Ranch for a day of Workshops and Fine Farm Dining on Sunday, September 26. Workshops will be held on Sustainable Ranching and Proper Butchery, Sustainable Farming and Nutritious Baking and the Craft of Harvesting Beeswax and Creating Candles. A fine meal will be prepared by chefs Phil West of Range and Brent Johnson of Spruce.

1:00 Workshops Begin
4:00 Wine & Hors d’Oeuvres
5:00 To The Tables
7:00 Pie and Dancing

2009 Flavors @ the Temescal Farmer’s Market

More Food Event Listings: Yelp |

Owen’s Creek Olive Oil at Zingerman’s

By Susie, 22 September, 2010,

Oh the circle of life. It took a trip to Ann Arbor and a read of Zingerman’s summer newsletter (PDF) to clue me in to a new olive oil from a small California farm: Owen’s Creek, produced by the kin of HP’s Bill Hewlett.

However this was the perfect place to hear of this oil: The Hewletts had moved to Ann Arbor after the 1906 earthquake, where A. Walter Hewlett taught medicine. Coming full circle, a portion of Owen’s Creek olive oil purchases from Zingerman’s will fund research at the U of M Cardiovascular Center.

The only flaw in this anecdote is that I was so excited about the story — I forgot to taste the oil! Luckily the oil’s multiple awards tells me it’s good and I’ll surely experience it soon.

: Ari Weinzweig with the oil, bread in hand

Making Change & Chocolate

By Susie, 8 September, 2010,

What did you do this summer? I ate a lot of chocolate.

Shawn Askinosie, maker of Askinosie Chocolate, just returned from Africa where his Chocolate Univerity “raised the money to bring 13 high school students to Tanzania and enough money to drill a deep water well – clean water for the whole village – 2,000.”

He writes about how he roasted some cacao beans in a pan, mentioning “Unlike South and Central America there is no tradition or culture of drinking cocoa or using it as a food in any way.”

Askinoie’s already-impressive credo is to ensure cacao growers have “A Stake in the Outcome” of the use of their cacao. Better yet is having a stake in the outcome of the growers’ lives. Doubly impressive.

Great Ideas from the Street Food Conference

By Susie, 6 September, 2010,

In this month’s Edible East Bay, Derrick Schneider shares his experience Eating Street Food in Emeryville.

The 3 vendors he interviewed – LIBA Falafel, Seoul on Wheels (both who were at the Eat Real fest), and Jon’s Street Eats – share their inspiration to start their businesses and challenges to keep them going – an interesting juxtoposition to The First Annual Street Food Conference in San Francisco, which brought together vendors, policy makers, and mobile food business advocates to share the “state of street food” in cities across the US as well as Toronto.

Seoul on Wheels noodles

I’d never attended such a information-packed set of panels. I tried to summarize some high points to help both vendors and cities. If I got anything wrong just let me know and I will correct it! See and hear the full presentations.

Benefits of Mobile Food Businesses to Cities

Provides city revenue
Creates new business owners
Brings food, and variety, to customers seeking more choices
Creates a new tourist attraction
Makes food accessible in new part of town

Policy Ideas from Cities

San Francisco California:

San Francisco is revamping its policies due to the popularity of street food by potential businesses and residents. The new regulations will likely make it quicker and easier to get permits, in more locations. Sounds like a vast improvment over current guidelines.

Oakland California:

Limits the number of mobile businesses
No restaurant owned pushcarts are allowed, to allow more lower income people to become micro-businesses.

Madison Wisconsin:

All food vendors need to be selling unique types of food (e.g. didn’t want all hotdog vendors).
Structures need to be light enough that one person can move the cart.
They’re working on creating a new street cart ordinance that’s just for food to make it more manageable.

Portland Oregon:

Adapt based on demand; they increased limit of vendors in a park from 1 to 4.
Private property owners of lots advertise to attract businesses and provide amenities like electrocity.
Vendors locate near businesses like corporate offices where there’s no other food service nearby, for a built-in clientele.

Atalanta, Georgia:

Nonprofit festivals allow for food trucks. (This presentation left the most people stunned at the difficulty of running a mobile food business currently, when from the photos we saw, there are many underserved areas where workers would likely enjoy having food nearby vs. having to drive.)

Of course New York wrote the book on street food. Their vendor guidelines, in many languages, is a sight to behold for fans of great infographics.

If you Google news about mobile food businesses and street food, you’ll see lots of articles about many more cities testing out their street food programs.

Advice & Ideas for a Successful Mobile Food Business

From Matt Cohen, SF Cart Project / Off the Grid

Be flexible with your vision. what you love isn’t necessarily what people will love about your business.
Operating illegally is not a valid plan.
Have a hook to get people in
Important that you do one thing really well
Be stubborn. As a group mobile vendors are the most stubborn people he’s met.
It’s the love of the interaction wtih customers that will keep you there. If you don’t love that, it may not be right.

From Larry Bain, Let’s Be Frank

Figure out where your niche is.
Can you survive by doing one thing?
Pick a food people will crave. He chose hotdogs because they’re iconic. “Fat, cheap and out of control mystery meat.
Consider extra income and distribution. They made a variety of branded condiments and sells packaged franks at retail. If they depended only on operating out of carts, it wouldn’t work economically.