With Slow Food Nation all around, a Civic Center marketplace of local, sustainable foods, and every retailer in the city jumping on the bandwagon, it could be easy to make all kinds of grand lifestyle decisions this weekend—“Who says it’s hard to be a locavore? Look at all this stuff”—but what about in January, long after the fruit stands are packed up, when school or work or whatever it is you do is in full swing, where will your new-found values get you then, in the face of Egg McMuffins and Pop Tarts?

I chatted on the phone with food politics whiz and general cage-rattler Michael Pollan yesterday about how to incorporate some slow-food values into one’s day-to-day life. How does one stay a responsible eater when one is busy as all hell? Can you still go to restaurants without ruining the planet? And what’s this all about, anyway?

“There’s been a lot of effort to complicate [the issues],” Pollan said, but in fact, the global effect of your food is simple. “In general, the closer your food is grown to where you eat it, and the less it is processed, the lighter its carbon footprint.”

“Sometimes the drive to complicate things is done in the interest to frustrate people’s desires to do the right thing,” Pollan told me.

Wait, that sounds awfully nefarious. Who would complicate important issues like this on purpose?

“The food industry is always trying to confuse the issue… If you have a sugary cereal and you slap a health claim on it, what are you doing but confusing the issue?”

Pollan pointed out that the highest-impact foods at the store, from an environmental and health point of view, are the highly processed ones, as well as meat, eggs, and dairy. In his most recent book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, he advocates shopping around the edge of the grocery store, where you find dairy, meat, produce, and bread, and avoiding the middle, where you find Hot Pockets, Pop Tarts, and Fruit Roll-Ups.

Pollan laid out three simple metrics by which to determine how damaging your food is to the planet, and yourself:

• Find out the animal’s feed. Grass-fed beef makes less of an impact than grain-fed. Most grass-fed or otherwise sustainably produced meats are labeled as such in gigantic letters.

• How processed is your food? The more that happens to it between the field and the table, the more resources it absorbs and the more nutrients are sapped. “In general, processed food like that [Pop Tart] takes 10 calories of fossil fuel energy for every one calorie of food energy," Pollan said.

• How far does it travel? The closer to you that your food is produced, the better.

Okay, that’s great and all, and most city-dwellers have access to some Berkeley Bowl equivalent, but dude, who shops for groceries? Many of us eat at restaurants almost all the time. And traveling? Hell, how are you supposed to stay responsible in an airport?

“When I’m on the road I tend to avoid meat unless I’m a place where I know where they get their meat,” Pollan said. “There’s one restaurant in every city these days that’s conceived in the spirit of Slow Foods and Chez Panisse, so I try to find out where that is, and, you know, just keep it simple.” God, he’s unflappable.

“If a restaurant offers grass-fed meat, I’ll order that. I want to support that industry and I really like it,” Pollan said. “I don’t order conventional meat that hasn’t been grown sustainably. I’d be much more likely to order fish, avoiding big, predator fish… those are the ones that are in most danger. Things like tuna and swordfish.”

But Pollan pointed out that there are sustainable fisheries, such as salmon in Alaska. “If it’s wild salmon from Alaska, they’ll usually tell you… More and more, restaurants will tell you where their food comes from and how they source it because it’s a selling point… that’s a very positive development.” You can print out a guide of sustainable seafood from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Neat. So where do you eat out, Michael Pollan?

“I really like restaurants where the chefs are serious about sourcing their food and elevate quality of ingredients over technique. To me, that’s what I really like. And I like pretty simple food. I don’t like fussy food.”

Pollan mentioned Chez Pannisse Café right off the bat, of course. “I love Picante, Oliveto. In the city I like Zuni Cafe, Quince.” He also mentioned Kirala, Cesar, and Saul’s deli, in Berkeley, and the new Camino, Pizzaiolo, in Oakland.

Pollan naturally wouldn’t single out an event this weekend as the most important, but he made an interesting point about the planning: “The architects they recruited for this—people in the restaurant business should pay attention to the design.” So there you go, restaurateurs. Get those business cards.

As for the rest of you, hey, good luck getting in to hear Pollan speak this weekend. Most of his events are sold out. But you can check through the Slow Food Nation schedule just in case, and also keep up with the man via his own website. He speaks publicly all the time. Come next busy January, catching a lecture might help you stay off the Pop Tarts a little longer.

Slow Food Nation [Official Site]
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto [Amazon]
Chez Panisse [Official Site]
Seafood Watch [Monterey Bay Aquarium]
Michael Pollan [Official Site]

[Photo: via ">Ken Light/Michaelpollan.com]

Remember when Alexis took a look at San Francisco tiki bars of the past and present? That was great, but it made us kind of sad the genre has ebbed since it's heyday (an aside: Check out the photos of the The Crepe House front pillar on Tiki Central Forum. Turns out the place used to be a joint called Tiki Bob's).

But today a Daily Candy bulletin announced the opening of Miss Pearl's Jam House in Oakland, and while reading the description of the interior, we had something very close to an epiphany:

Jack London Square’s newest address emulates a Caribbean manse with vintage cruise liner nuances. Decked out with porthole windows, coral mosaic walls, and shell-encrusted menus, the island-inspired resto serves up tropical Southern flare: Florida conch and sweet corn fritters, jerk chicken, sugar cane barbecue shrimp, baked clams, and twice-fried plantains.

Pony up to the resin bar encasing pseudo-sea floor treasures for a stellar offering of light and dark rums, Key lime martinis, and the house specialty: Cuba Libra Jell-O shots.

Nautical and tropical-themed food and drink? A warm, party atmosphere? Authentic (or even better, faux-thentic) decorations? These things hark back to the tiki craze in a big way. Substitute the Caribbean for Polynesia and you have a new, island-themed bar and restaurant trend.

Only in this case, it seems the emphasis is heavy on the food, which is great. During a meal at the Southern/Caribbean-themed Front Porch back in spring, the waiter told us that many of the kitchen staff had just returned from a visit to the Caribbean, where they picked up creole cooking tips. That place has all sorts of wacky accoutrements, too, like wicker chairs out front and chicken served in paper baskets. If this is the new version of tiki, we say Tik-on!

And by the way, a great way to die would be drowning in a vat of the Front Porch's crab-meat grits. Honestly one of the best thing's to enter this mouth all year. Time to "Jam" over to Pearl's to see how they stack up.

Tiki Bob's, San Francisco, CA [Tiki Central]
Miss Pearl's Jam House [Official Site]
The Crepe House [Official Site]
The Front Porch [Official Site]

[Photo: via Tiki Central Forum]

From Rubicon to 12 Galaxies to the taco truck at 19th and Harrison , it seems that San Francisco bars and restaurants are closing left and right.

With that in mind, we wonder if years from now people will be digging up napkins and menus to rediscover San Francisco’s fine dining or hipster bar scene of yore. We say this after being sucked into an hour-long session of web trolling while looking for information about the tiki craze that started in the late 40’s after the war and amazingly kept its stream through the late 60s.

There are arguments about who started what, some stand firm on the belief that Hollywood’s Don the Beachcomber invented the Mai Tai and created the first tiki bar in 1933, but the original Trader Vic’s in Oakland also claimed to be the Mai Tai creator, opening in 1944. These two well-know Polynesian-themed bars were forever rivals during the height of the tiki renaissance, but there’s a lesser known tiki bar and restaurant that some say came before them both: Skipper Kent’s.

According to an old menu from the 1950’s:

“Skipper Kent, traveler, lecturer, explorer, yachtsman and cinematographer, on his many travels and in far away corners of this world, gathered together the intriguing drinks listed...”

And while no Mai Tais formally grace the menu he did have the Scorpion, the Hurricae, the Tabu—“Limit one to a customer," and barbecued spareribs for $1.25.

Now Kennedy’s, an Irish pub and Indian restaurant in North Beach across from Bimbos, you won’t find much beyond on the mere suggestion of tiki framework if you visit the location today.

Skipper Kent’s is closed and so is the San Francisco Trader Vic’s so if you want to feed your need for kitsch you’ll have to go the Tonga Room, the Bamboo Hut or for the real deal, head out to the Outer Richmond and visit Trader Sam’s —a tiki bar that actually pre-dates tiki, opening in 1939.

After we knock back a few Mai Tai we think we’ll see about selling an old Rubicon receipt on eBay.

Trader Vic’s [Official Site]
Tonga Room [MenuPages]
Tonga Room [Official Site]
Bamboo Hut [Official Site]
Trader Sam’s [Official Site]

[Skipper Kent's Menu via Arkiva Tropika]

One of our very favorite cafés, Velo Rouge, is undergoing a few changes now that Megan Lynch is no longer the owner. The good news is we haven't come across any dealbreakers—it’s still super bicycle friendly, they still serve good food and gigantic mimosas, they still have free wireless and they’re still certified as a Green Café by the Green Café Network (a newish project started locally in 2007).

But there is one big change: Radio Kitchen Café, the popular bi-weekly floating restaurant has been replaced with Melissa Claire’s Kitchen every Thursday with two sittings, one at 6:15 p.m. and one at 8 p.m. The vibe seems similar to Radio Kitchen; local, organic, sustainable fare (is there any other kind in San Francisco?) with 2-3 communal dining tables (another very popular trend in the SF food scene). We haven’t checked it out yet so we can’t compare the two, but it’s definitely on our radar and we’ll be making a reservation soon.

We have to admit we had no idea who Melissa Claire was, but checking out her site it seems she’s worked the kitchens at Fringael and Delifina and now when she’s not doing the whole prix fixe thing at Velo Rouge ($45 – cash only), she’s also a personal chef. Not bad.

The menu is seasonal and therefore changes, but right now she’s featuring a trendy watermelon, pancetta and feta salad (appropriately enough we had a similar dish at Pizzeria Delifina this weekend), housemade gnocchi and pan roasted flat iron steak.

With Velo Rouge being so charmingly small we’d suggest making a reservations, but they do take walk-ins.

Velo Rouge Café [Menupages]
Velo Rouge Café [Official Site]
Fringael [Menupages]
Fringale [Official Site]
Pizzeria Delifina [Menupages]
Delifina [Menupages]
Delfina [Official Site]
Melissa Claire’s Kitchen [Official Site]

[Photo via notphilatal/Flickr]

Flying can be challenging for so many reasons—missed connections, turbulence, lost luggage, overnight airline bankruptcy—so we can’t help but be annoyed to have to add food allergens to the already seemingly exhaustive list.

We have a food allergy. One of the dramatic, stop-breathing-rush-to-the-emergency-room kind. Nuts. All types, tree and otherwise, if eaten will cause us to go into anaphylactic shock and more recently, cause extreme stomach cramps that can and have burst intestinal blood vessels (really). That said, sometimes even the smell of nuts can instigate unpleasantness, which is why those little bags of peanuts handed out on flights can be so problematic. Over 100 people in a small space simultaneously opening individual bags of peanuts and sending nut dust circulating through recycled airplane air does not bode well for people with severe nut allergies. This is why most airlines stopped serving them all together and started passing out things like cookies, chips and fruit snacks. Isn’t a box of animal crackers better then a tiny bag of peanuts anyway? We thought so, but we were amazed by the outcry of disapproval that came after the announcement that our short flight from New Mexico to Las Vegas would not come with peanuts and that cheese nips would be offered instead. There were heavy sighs and one very loud, “What?!” from the back of the plane. This prompted the stewardess to announce that she was very sorry, but there was someone on the plane allergic to nuts and that person was preventing them from being distributed on the flight. We didn’t mean to spoil the fun, but what can you do when you have a food allergy in situations like these?

It seems from airplanes to potlucks, people are going to have to get used to these types of situations because food allergies aren’t going anywhere. In fact, food allergies are on the rise and while nutritionists can’t seem to figure out why, more caution will have to be taken to accommodate them. Dairy, gluten, chocolate, wheat—some the most basic and beloved foods are becoming impossible to eat for more and more people. On the one hand it’s making it easier for long-time food allergy sufferers like us to identify deadly ingredients because food allergens are more commonly broadcasted, but on the other hand it makes for a somber and frustrating food experience for those without the allergies.

Our solution? Alternate sources of energy for humans. If we could replace food with, say, air then we could stop eating food and just use air as our sole source of sustenance. This would mean making sure we actually continue to have air to breath, but that’s a whole other post. In the meantime, we hope all of you lucky allergy-less food lovers will have a little a patience and sympathy for those who aren’t so lucky and vent your frustrations on your middle seat or delayed flight instead of that missing bag of peanuts.

Photo: By ftartinomiel

Okay, these weird things have been getting a lot of attention recently, so let's get into them. The warm weather is just a few short weeks away and we know you'll be looking for a cold, refreshing, um, briny treat. Enter: The Picklesickle.

Can a food become a viral phenomenon? We wouldn't have thought so either, but it seems just about every foodie, blogger and collector of weird things has something to say about these, whether it's "eww," or "tempting," and the proof's in the sales.

Chow's Grinder blog highlighted the weird snacks &mdash invented by a Texas roller-rink owner &mdash in a post today, and the Picklesickle website proudly links an article and video from last week's Washington Post. They've been getting little shout-outs for months, which we're sure has to do with the 20,000-per-month sales figure in the Post's article. At that rate, they must be cultivating some real fans, right? Not just novelty collectors? But who would want to eat such a thing? Better order a box and find out.

Closet Pickle Juice Fans Rejoice [The Grinder]
The Texas Treat With a Juicy Tale [Washington Post]
Bob's Pickle Pops [Official Site]
Image courtesy of Picklesickle.com

This piece on the death of local reporters' bars nationwide got our attention, as in a past life we reported city news and were no stranger to the tap-room. But while it's true that the shoe-leather, metro reporter and his or her bar might be looking at, if not extinction, a severe reduction in population, some of what's going on is a simple re-shuffling that Marketwatch seems to have missed. First, the clip:

Now, here's what's missing: We can only speak to our own market of San Francisco, but we're betting that something like the following is happening nationwide: The Washington Square Bar and Grill was, while famously a favorite of types like Herb Caen, a bit out of the price range of your average young reporter making less than $50,000 a year in the second-most expensive real estate market in the country. But that doesn't mean your reporter abstains.

Our after-work hangout, while at the Examiner, was never the Washbag. It was the House of Shields, which was closer to the office, cheaper, and attracted a younger crowd. Though At 100 years old, rumor has it the Shields was also a reporters' bar long before Caen immortalized the Washbag. While it's sad to see those old places disappear, we feel hard-pressed to tear up over a bar where we couldn't afford more than two drinks. We're betting the steady decline in the workforce at print publications had a lot less to do with the Washbag's closure than the romantics would like to believe.

It's entirely possible that the new breed of reporter--who generally writes same-day web copy in a high-pressure newsroom as well as stories for the morning edition, and who is often lean, underpaid and hungry--needs a different kind of bar: One with lower prices, no food (we eat at our desks), popular with the legislative aides and maybe a loose smoking policy (wishful thinking: the Shields was strict).

The Washbag and many bars like it simply didn't evolve as fast as the media. This is sad but, just as the practice of reporting will not disappear simply because news-consumption habits are changing, bars that serve reporters will not disappear simply because the job is changing. They'll just have to change along with their customers.

Whither The Journalist Bar? [Eater]
The Watering Hole: Innocent Victim in Print Publishing's Death March? [SFist]
Journalism Watering Holes Disappearing [MarketWatch]
The House of Shields [Official Site]

[Above: wild local salmon at Farallon in San Francisco]

Another depressing bit of seafood news: Following on the heels of our general freakout over the likely shut-down of the West Coast salmon season, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a follow-up article today insinuating that the entire California and Oregon salmon fishing industry is on the verge of collapse. From the Chronicle:

Barbara Emley, 64, who has run a commercial fishing boat with her husband out of Fisherman's Wharf since 1985, said salmon makes up about 70 percent of her annual income.

"We'll probably try crabbing longer, but if everyone shifts from salmon to crab, there will be more competition," she said. "I think we can survive the year, but I'm afraid it will go on."

If the crisis continues, she said, it could spell the end of a unique, nomadic culture of people who love the sea.

But the Chronicle also quoted a chef who simply wouldn't use farm-raised.

"We'll stay away from salmon for a while," said Ryan Simas, the head chef atFarallon restaurant on Union Square. "I will definitely not use farmed salmon."

Paul Johnson, the president of Monterey Fish Market, a high-end seafood wholesaler at Pier 33 in San Francisco, with a retail market in Berkeley, said things won't be the same without local salmon.

"Oh man, I'm telling you the king (chinook) salmon is the icon in the Bay Area; this is going to be devastating to the economy," he said. "It's put everyone on edge. A lot of small-boat fishermen are going to go out of business."

Threat of closing jolts fishing industry [SF Chronicle]
So Long and Thanks for all the Fishing [The Grinder]
The King Of Sushi [CBS]
Farm-Raised Fish Given Tainted Food [Washington Post]
Farallon [MenuPages]
Farallon [Official Site]

Photo credit: Passionate Eater

Following our earlier post on the possible future reduction in meats, cheeses and flour on restaurant menus, a colleague pointed out that the food facing real trouble these days lives in the ocean.

In addition to the over-fished tuna featured on 60 Minutes earlier this year, the San Francisco Chronicle and a host of other West-Coast newspapers reported today that, due to abysmal salmon returns, this year's salmon fishing season may be canceled altogether. That means nobody fishes legally for salmon off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington.

The canceled season comes on the heels of an oil spill that shortened the Bay Area crab season, and follows a string of bad salmon years. It also joins news of high mercury levels in New York City-area tuna.

The upshot? Welcome the eve of destruction, seafood-wise. You may not have a hard time getting used to more vegetables and less meat on your restaurant menus, especially as livestock doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but will you be able to face a future with no wild-caught seafood? We will have a hard time of it. Better start paying attention to those sustainable seafood charts.

Feds warn entire salmon season could be halted [SF Chronicle]
Habitats: Overfishing Our Oceans [Nat'l Geographic]
The King Of Sushi [60 Mins]
High Mercury Levels Are Found in Tuna Sushi [NY Times]
Seafood Watch Pocket Guide [Monterey Acquarium]

Photo credit: Wilderness Classroom

Above: On the way out? A meaty meal at the Slanted Door

It's no secret that restaurants are tightening their belts economically. Rising food and fuel costs have led to smaller portions, less rich food and generally weaker value across the board for customers.

But we're wondering if that same economic frugality could lead to a literal belt-tightening among increasingly girthy consumers. From the Florida Times Union:

Beef, flour and cheese are among the commodities with rapidly inflating prices that are integral to running a restaurant. Flour prices alone shot up 67 percent between January 2007 and this January, according to Ephraim Leibtag, an economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. Cheese prices climbed 29 percent during that period, while beef costs increased a more modest 3.1 percent.

But rising prices have prompted a furious new round of behind-the-scenes shuffling. San Francisco's The Slanted Door is known for its rack of lamb. On many days, chef and owner Charles Phan offers a more-profitable lamb sirloin stir-fry instead, shaving his food costs by a third. It is a temporary fix that draws some complaints. "Everyone wants that rack," he says.

Localvorism already calls for more vegetables transported shorter distances, and the economic necessity might help integrate that into all our diets. As chefs play with spices and vegetable cooking techniques, we may not miss that big slab of meat as much, which will be good, because we may not be able to get it.

Restaurants on a diet in tight economy [Florida Times Union]
Cutback Cuisine [Wall Street Journal]
The Slanted Door [MenuPages]
The Slanted Door [Official Site]

After reading Cindy Lee's Chronicle visit to Mum's, we got very curious about the Japanese bar food shabu shabu. Kind of like a cross between clay pot cooking and fondu, the casual yet highly participatory dish involves diners cooking pieces of meat, vegetables and noodles themselves in a pre-heated pot of broth on the table. The food is washed down with crisp Japanese beer, sake or cocktails

But where to enjoy this boozy, brothy treat, aside from Mum's, which was already crowded and will now be unpleasantly "NTB" this weekend, thanks to the Chron?

Well, MPSF consulted our ginormous database and found the stuff at two places downtown, one in the Sunset and, not surprisingly, seven in Marina/Heights, clustered around Japantown.

So yes, do go for shabu shabu in J-town this weekend, but know you have options. It's not the kind of food that goes well with jostling.

Bar Bites: Mum's [SF Chronicle]
Mum's [MenuPages]
Mum's [Official Site]

Language like this from the Daily Candy, promoting a new vegan donut maker in Oakland, simultaneously makes our eyes roll and our mouth water:

When breakfast food becomes destructive, it is the right of Peoples Donuts to develop new recipes for a fluffy and moist cake donut, laying its foundation on such principles as colorful organic sprinkles and freedom from animal products.

And, dear Krsispy Kreme, watch your back because these look pretty damned good.

People's Donuts [Main Site]

We like Thin Mints. You hear that SFist Brock? We love 'em. Others may like Samoas or Tagalongs or even boring old Trefoils, but our favorite has always been Thin Mints. And chances are, whatever your favorite Girl Scout cookie is, you get all huffy defending it against detractors and, more importantly, you want to stock up when the scouts start selling, which they did on Friday.

Well then, it's a good thing you planned ahead and pre-ordered a bunch of boxes, then isn't it? You did do that, right? Cause it's not likely that parents are going to send their 5-17-year-old daughters out selling door-to-door in the city. But of course you didn't pre-order. What are we thinking?

Well, there's a solution: Thanks to the interweb and the creeping dominance of our well-fed neighbors to the south, the scouts' website now features a handy Google map with >locations of all their cookie stands. But you'd better get there quick or all the Thin Mints will be gone and stashed safely in our freezer.

Cookie Booth Finder [GSA]
You Guys Want Some Cookies? [SFist]

Caviar is one of those foods that has been around for a long time because the people that like it really, really love it. Chances are, however, that it's not a staple in your diet. There's even a chance you've never tasted it. That has to stop. It's true that many caviar services cost as much as an entire meal and give you, oh, say, one ounce or so of food. But there are some bargains in this city for those who want to see what all the fuss is about.

To get a taste of the straight stuff or to try a dish that features caviar heavily, your best bet is to head to Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Cafe in the Ferry Building. There, you can get a large assortment of dishes that feature fish eggs or just buy some in a jar at a pretty wide range of prices.

Probably the single cheapest serving of caviar in the city is the Russian tea egg with caviar for $6 at the Samovar Tea Lounge

Shanghai 1930 has a seafood custard appetizer that comes with a "dollop" of Ostera caviar. That's probably not nearly as much as you'd get at, say, Myth, but then the whole dish only costs $12. And if you don't like the caviar, then you can scrape it off and enjoy your eggshell full of "seafood essence" a la carte.

The Grand Cafe features a "Caviar et Salmon Tartine," which would likely do as lunch and goes for $14.

Soluna doesn't have a caviar service, per se, but there are two options in its $31.95 prix fixe menu that include it: "Mini caviar shooters" and, for $3 extra, a dish of caviar and scallops. The shooters are available a la carte for $15.

So there you go, a quintet of options to ease you into the habit. And if you like it, it may just happen that the next time you see a caviar service for $70, that won't seem like such a bad deal.

This is interesting: SFist picked up an item from Minnesota about bars working around the smoking ban by holding "theater nights," where customers can smoke because they are considered "actors." According to the original story, Minnesota law allows actors to smoke on stage. California's code is apparently similar.

But you don't have to wait for theater night. There are a handful of bars in the city at which you can smoke legally, whether they have ventilated-to-code smoking rooms, are owner operated or just don't care. The following Gridskipper post from last year will get you started on those.

Bars and Cigarettes: Together Again? [SFist]
Best Bars For Smoking In San Francisco [Gridskipper]

Fennel has recently leaped to the front of the spice cabinet at the MPSF test kitchen, after we finally got around to making this chicken recipe the Amateur Gourmet ran some months ago. It is, by the way, amazing.

Now here comes local fave Amy Sherman with a recipe for fennel shrimp. Interestingly (very interestingly) it uses Pernod as well as fresh fennel. Sounds good enough to try this weekend, plus you get a digestif after dinner in the leftover Pernod.

Also, the SF Weekly asserts that fennel grows wild all over the city: "waist-high, pale-green fronds under the freeway overpass, anyone?" We had no idea.

Fennel Shrimp:Recipe [Cooking With Amy]
AGTV: How To Roast A Chicken [Amateur Gourmet]

Uh oh, looks like Michael Bauer's got a hot scoop: People totally love eggs! Actually, we kid, but it's noteworthy that eggs aren't just for breakfast anymore, at least for the general public. We've been frying them up for spaghetti and dropping them into soups for years.

As Bauer points out, the recent trend of featuring eggs in a starring role on higher-end menus has led to the development of egg pedigrees. Can't wait to break a couple Niman jumbos into that mixing bowl.

With any luck, this trend will continue long enough for us to get a franchise of Hong Kong's Australia Dairy Company. That egg sandwich looks good enough to take home and make friends with, let alone eat. We'd all have to fall pretty madly in love with eggs, though, and see it through the long haul. As far as we can tell here, ADC is not even a chain. [Via Serious Eats]

Which came first: the idea or the egg? [Between Meals]
australia dairy company [tasty treats!]

What a great post from Gridskipper on secret dining. Sort of in the tradition of Food Not Bombs or the Anarchist Cafe, only way, way better, the trend of gourmet chefs making and selling dinners in secret or unofficial locations has really taken hold in recent years. It's not good to give these things too much press, but GS does a pretty good job of shrouding the identities of those involved. Intrigue!

Secret Dining in San Francisco [Gridskipper]
Subculture Dining [Dissidentchef]

Some of the best Yelp and Chowhound threads come from out-of-towners looking for local places to get their favorite foods. Often these foods are totally localized, like the burrito is in San Francisco. So it is with this discussion of Pastrami sandwiches in the Bay Area.

The original poster is from L.A., but New York transplants will likely be interested in this discussion, too. Unfortunately, the consensus of this thread and another linked within it is that most of the pastrami sandwiches in the Bay Area suck. But here's where you can find the best of a reputedly bad lot.

Best Pastrami Sandwich Joint in SF? [Chowhound]

For when shakers aren't enough.

How many times have you gone to salt, pepper or hot-sauce your food only to get a cramp in your elbow from all that shaking? Spices just don't come out fast enough. Ever. That's why a designer named Zhu Fei came up with this little doozy:

It's a gun that, well, to quote Geekologie:

The Spice Gun is different from the other casters, it has more fun! When you pull the trigger it compresses the air in the air bag. The handspike will push the bottom of the seasoning bottle to make the nozzle in the turntable retract and spray the seasoning.

Of course the folks at the Hot Sauce Blog are all over this. Still unclear whether the thing is in production, but lord knows that as soon as spice-craving loonies get their hands on this, waiver wings will seem like child's play. Obviously, this will lead to shooting-cayenne-in-the-face competitions, and that will lead to a YouTube revolution. Stay tuned.

Say Hello To My Little Friend: The Spice Gun [Geekologie]
Spice Gun Gives Cooking Added Bang [Gizmodo]

Some recent posts on Serious Eats and SFoodie pointed us in the direction of theWarehouse blog, on which Carl Huber shows off a creation he calls the pork-pork-porken, a food sculpture entailing a hot dog wrapped in ground pork, wrapped in bacon. Kind of like a pork turducken, hence the name, only cuter.

Makes you jealous, no? Makes you want to get a turducken at your next big do? Well, it's a couple of months past the holidays and you probably won't have any reason to make a big, festive baked bird for at least nine more months, so we thought it would be a good time to show you the following video on the making of a turducken. Sorry, couldn't find any videos of the boning process. Not that we looked.

Baconpig [theWarehouse]

Remember the news a few weeks ago that those weird, Frankenstein egg sandwiches that Starbucks sells were all cooked in two centralized locations then distributed throughout the country? Well, the little devils won't be making those flights anymore, as Starbucks has booted them from the menu once and for all.

From the New York Times:

“In short, the scent of the warm sandwiches interferes with the coffee aroma in our stores,” said Howard D. Schultz, the company’s chairman and chief executive.

But we have to wonder- Starbucks made a big deal about its "flash freezing" technology in that previous article from Jan. 9. what happens to that stuff? Could they flash freeze a latte and sell it in the grocery store? Guess we'll find out...

Starbucks to Close Stores and End Sandwich Sales [NY Times]

Starbucks Discontinues Breakfast Sandwiches [Serious Eats]

(above: gross)

This article in the New York Times is making its way around the blogosphere, and with good reason. For anybody who's ever attended a party, the spectre of double-dipping looms in the background of the hors-d'eovres table. The article covers a study that found, (surprise, surprise!) that double-dipping a chip is a good way to spread germs. Well, duh.

It's a problem because most chips, crackers, vegetable slices and other dip-able things are too big for a one-dip, one-bite policy. Often you need that second load of dip to comfortably get through the vehicle. Now, science has proved that if you ram that cracker back into the cheese sauce, you're a jerk who's intent on getting everyone else sick. What's a dip glutton to do.

It's so simple, people, that if you're not already in this habit, maybe you really are a jerk. You just turn the chip, vegetable, cracker or whatever around and dip the other, un-bitten-from end. Yes, it requires a bit more dexterity, but we think you can handle it. This way, you keep the dip relatively sanitary while also getting your fill. Win-win, right?

Oh, and of course, wash those hands before you even get near a shared appetizer platter. During Superbowl/flu season, we can't stress that enough.

Dip Once or Dip Twice? [NY Times]

In a city where chain retail is about as popular as republican politicians and republican politicians are about as popular as heat rash, one has to wonder about the non-stop attempts to open chain stores here. From the Bayshore Home Depot to the recent flap over a proposed Red Mango frozen yogurt stand in North Beach to the Richmond Starbucks, San Franciscans seem to resist big-time retail establishments at every turn.

In the 2006 November election, voters even ratified their general opposition to chain stores by passing proposition G, the Small Business Protection Act.

That's why we were surprised to read in the San Francisco Business Times that a restaurant chain without a single California location is looking to enter the state's market with three Bay Area stores, including one in San Francisco. Made In Japan Teriyaki Experience, a Canadian-based "fast casual" restaurant chain, plans to open three Bay Area locations in the near future, including one in San Francisco. If that goes well, the chain intends to open 37 more Bay Area stores, with a goal of 102 across Northern California.

While the proposed Financial District location is zoned "downtown office," as opposed to "neighborhood commercial," like the proposed North Beach Red Mango, it still seems like a bold first move for the chain owners. The restaurant will have to go before the San Francisco Planning Commission, and you can bet, in an election year, somebody will make a stink over it.

The other two Bay Area stores will open in Hayward and Union City, according to the company's website.

Teriyaki chain plans 40 Bay Area outlets [San Francisco Business Times]
Made In Japan Teriyaki Experience [Homepage]
San Francisco Zoning Map

A link to these Time photo essays came through the MPSF inbox over the weekend. Fascinating: The weekly bills range from $1.53 for the Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp, Chad, to $500.07 for the Melander family of Bargteheide, Germany.

The photos come from the 2005 book, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, by the husband-and-wife team of photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio. An NPR story from 2005 describes the project like so:

Imagine inviting yourself to dinner with 30 different families... in 24 countries. Imagine shopping, farming, cooking and eating with those families... taking note of every vegetable peeled, every beverage poured, every package opened...
Each chapter of their book features a portrait of a family, photographed alongside a week's worth of groceries. There's also a detailed list of all the food and the total cost.

The resulting book spawned the two essays that strikingly demonstrate the difference in food consumption habits between the industrialized and developing worlds. Check it:

What the World Eats, Part I [Time]
What the World Eats, Part II [Time]
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats [NPR]

Who has these ideas? Does a Mountain View return address just guarantee your start-up all the funding it wants? That seems to be the case when you look at Lunch 2.0, a "company" whose business it is to hit up other companies for free lunch. The organizers started setting up these noontime events for tech types to have some actual human interaction, as well as free food.

The really messed up thing is that this "venture" is actually working. Other companies can't wait to host Lunch 2.0 events, and the original, Bay Area site is expanding to San Diego and Hawaii. But what grabbed us, after watching the following interview with the founders, is that the whole thing started with them sneaking into the illustrious Google cafeteria after getting fired. Works for us. Anybody got a ride to MV?

Lunch 2.0 [Main Site]
Lunch 2.0: free food, a side of tech talk Cafeteria crashers now invited guests [SF Chronicle]

Alcademics' Camper English is rarely behind on a trend, but he seems to have picked up the ball a little late on the pairing of Bud Light and Clamato. We first noticed this pre-mixed michelada cocktail over last summer, though it didn't show up everywhere. Apparently Anheuser Busch was test-marketing it and recently decided the mix was a go.

Now, before you get all grossed out by what is, admittedly, a canned drink at the same level of weirdness as Club cocktails, think about the inception of this monster. From Alcademics:

There are two schools of Micheladas. One is with beer, lime juice, and Tabasco/Worcestershire sauce with a salted rim. That's the one I've most often read about and had in several bars in California and even in Mexico.

The other type is this one, a beer Bloody Mary. I've only read about it but obviously it's popular enough that they produced a pre-mixed product and already test-marketed it before launch.

So there you go- this is a canned "beer Bloody Mary," made with Bud Light. Still grossed out? Yeah, us too. But not by the concept. We have had an actual Clamato Michelada before, and it was superb. In fact, that's what we drank on New Year's morning. They sell them at Tacos Zamorano in Oakland. You just order a beer from the cooler and ask it to be served "michelada." It comes in the bottle with a salt-and-chili-rimmed glass of Clamato for you to pour it into.

What you want to do is order the 32 oz. Tecate, so that as you refill the glass, the Clamato gets thinner and thinner in the mix. That way, your drink lightens as you go and you don't have to get a full dose of clam and tomato with every sip.

The sick thing about the awkwardly named "Bud Light & Clamato Chelada" isn't the savory drink that inspired it, but just the fact that it comes pre-mixed with nasty old Bud Light. If only Pacifico had gotten there first.

Bud and Clam [Alcademics]
Budweiser & Clamato Chelada and Bud Light & Clamato Chelada Arrive Nationwide [AB press release]

(Pictured above: A typical Google lunch. Bastards.)

It pains us to join the crowd so blatantly like this, but everybody's talking about it, so we'll chime in, too: OMG, did you hear Google employees not only get free food, but there's a staffer who reviews the food, and the in-house chefs vie for his approval?

According to an article that ran in the LA Times yesterday " the strapping, gregarious computer programmer is becoming as influential to the company's hundreds of chefs and culinary staffers as the Michelin and Zagat reviewers are to restaurateurs."

No offense, Menupages Corporate Headquarters, but until you start delivering free meals of quail and brined, slow-cooked beef daube, We will be as jealous as we can get of those damned Googlies. Especially Thunder Parley.

Speaking of nerds on the binge, wonder what those poor folks are choking down over at Macworld? We love Macs and everything, but let's face it: Moscone Center isn't exactly in the heart of a culinary Mecca. Meh. Enough sympathy. It's no doubt catered.

Techie dishes on Google's grub [LA Times]
Google Food Photo Blog [Flickr]

A "humorous" article by Barry Foy that ran in The Ethicurean synchs up nicely with a Time magazine article by Joel Stein last week, in which Stein, apparently just to be contrary, prepares a meal made solely of foods that traveled more than 3,000 miles to the table. This, in the wake of 2007's fascination with locally grown food craze, is the locavorean backlash.

Foy's satirical description of a Washington State couple that plans to go no further than their own refrigerator for food this year would be funny if it contained things like jokes, wit or comic timing--you know, elements of humor. As it is, the piece simply illustrates the fact that some people seem to resent those who undertake these local-centric diets. Same with stein's piece.

What are these guys trying to say? What is wrong with trying to reduce one's environmental footprint by cutting down on the impacts one makes with one's food habits? Now, of course we understand the need to be reactionary--Big, self-righteous movements need to be taken down a peg in general--but we don't understand a couple of things:

First, what is so wrong with the local food movement? As self-righteous do-gooding goes, it seems about as innocuous as recycling. Second, what's with the direct attacks on the movement and its participants? Seems to us that the target is the pompous attitude of its proponents. We'd like to see more riffs on Alice Waters' and Michael Pollan's loose grip on reality outside Berkeley, their insistence that we dedicate every waking moment outside work to finding the closest-grown lettuce possible. Just making fun of well-intentioned diners seems like a cheap shot. Can we please ding the luxury cars of their patron saints instead?

Extreme Eating [Time]
Extreme “Locavore” Household Vows Not to Forage Further Than Own Refrigerator [The Ethicurean]

In the hubub of Stormwatch 2008 and whatever else it is we've been doing lately, we nearly missed this little zinger: Did you know that the eggs for those Starbucks Egg McMuffin knockoffs are cooked in only two locations, then shipped around the country? That's right. According to this NY Times article, the sandwiches are shipped nationwide within two days (Two Days!) of their creation. A concerned Bunrab reader tipped us off as we were reading Gutenberg's ongoing coverage of the scene inside Starbucks during the Big Storm. Yuck!

Here's a choice quote from the Times article, in which McDonalds USA prez Don Thompson poo-poos Starbucks freeze-and-heat method:

In fact, the eggs for all the Starbucks breakfast sandwiches served in the United States are cooked at just two locations, stuffed into sandwiches, and kept frozen for up to two days before being reheated in the speed oven. “It’s a fine technology,” admitted Mr. Thompson of McDonald’s. “We won’t use it, but it’s surprisingly good.”

Again, Yuck.

(photo lifted from Bunrabs)

The Breakfast Wars [NY Times]
Gutenberg [the Daily Feed]

Okay, enough with the downers. Let's get back to the funny. This video from the BBC's "Look Around You" nearly made us have an accident in the office. Casserole? Hell yes. That underrated and unexpectedly delicious slop promises to be the next cupcakes. Below the movie, click on your part of town to find a restaurant slinging brown bowls of heaven near you!
(Warning: This movie contains the S- word, as well as a shot of something that looks very like what that word signifies)

SoMa/Mission Downtown/Waterfront Haight/Castro/Noe Valley Marina/Heights Sunset Richmond

After the jump, Look Around You on water! (This episode might be even more hilarious. God, we feel better already.)

Continue reading "On A (Casse)Role!" »

Wow, more rain. We're never going to dry out. Bunrab's Gutenberg is going to freak.

However, by this time you either have your power back or you've jury-rigged something adequate. You've probably made at least one trip to the store. You've had a day to regroup and re-think. What to do now? Well, stop fiddling with that delivery menu drawer and do like they do at KQED. Make soup.

There are some awesome liquid lunch ideas over on Bay Area Bites. If you're not the soup-making type, you can at least heat something up out of a can. We're partial to New England Clam Chowder, which the Chronicle's Taster's Choice panel conveniently reviewed back in November.

If you just hate using the stove, or your dark, cold apartment is simply uninhabitable, you could eat some soup in a restaurant. For that, we like to slurp pho, locations for which this old Chowhound thread examines.

So stay warm, San Francisco, and try to keep dry. We'll brainstorm more actual storm topics as this heavy weather progresses.

Soup Love [Bay Area Bites]
Wading through clam chowder [San Francisco Chronicle]
Best Pho in SF? [Chowhound]

When Pete Seeger penned those immortal words some 45 years ago, he likely had no idea the question would ever get answered in this level of detail:

Shuna (Fish) Lydon, Sens dessert chef and Eggbeater blogger bought them all to make a new dessert, and she has no intention of letting Berkeley Bowl sit around re-stocked before she goes and buys them out again.

Pretty succint, eh? From Eggbeater:

I needed all those 'quats. I would stop at nothing less than all of them. let them try and restock: I'll be back.

So where's the fire, aside from on Lydon's rather striking Flickr page? Apparently those 'quats, candied, are the secret ingredient in Lydon's new dessert offering at Sens. The new creation sounds pretty tempting, but there's something else about Lydon's enthusiasm for citrus that both infectious and funny:

Can I tempt you with any of these orbs of sunshine? For those of you who love the hit of acid, appreciate the hide-and-go-seek of sugar-acid-sweet-sour, I have a feeling I have someone for you to meet.

Dude, in San Francisco, on the heels of the 40-year Summer of Love anniversary, you can always tempt us with that hit of acid.

o mandarinquat, where art thou? [Eggbeater]
A New Dessert Is Born [Eggbeater]

No. Way.
No. Freaking Way.

If it didn't come from our roommate, we'd have never believed it, but a reliable source sent along this website, so we guess it must be real and not a hallucination. Are you ready?

www.hatsofmeat.com

This website, dedicated to hats made of meat, seems to be based on the East Coast. At least, that's where their events have taken place, but they also appear eager to expand, so please, dear readers, don't be shy. Take up your filleting knives and butcher's twine and fashion yourselves a hat, a line, or organize a whole show. We're sure you can get the endorsement of this gang:

After reading a story about a Chicago restaurant that makes its customers sign a waiver before ordering its hot wings, we got to thinking about some of San Francisco's hottest tickets.

The first thing that jumped to mind was the orange Habanero salsa at Taqueria Guadalajara on 24th St. The stuff is so hot that one chipful stayed with us for hours, refusing to be tamed by a whole super-nachos' worth of crema.

A Chowhound thread from back in May gets into this topic a little, and Jalapeno Girl also touches on the subject.

Also, the folks at the Hot Sauce Blog dilligently review hot sauces, as you might imagine, and provide recipes, tips and information on raw peppers. Apparently Habaneros aren't the hottest in the world, but somehow Guadalajara managed to make them so. We may never drink hot liquids again.

Snacking on a wing and a prayer [Yahoo News]
Utra Spicey? [Chowhound]

[Editor's Note: Because of a tight holiday schedule and belated site update, we'll be posting the Weeklies over coffee and the Blender tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience.]

The Ethicurian ran a very nice Christmas Day article on eating locally during the winter. While it might be more