Category Archives: Health/Nutrition

The Only Sustainable Sushi Bar in North America

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At Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar, it\s not business as usual.

That is just what Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar in San Francisco is believed to be.

The tiny, seven-month-old restaurant serves only seafood that isn’t overfished, farmed without proper management, or contains high levels of mercury and other contaminants.

Find out more about why business partners, Chef Kin Lui, Chef Raymond Ho, and Casson Trenor (a sustainable fisheries expert) decided to open such a restaurant by reading my story today in the San Francisco Chronicle Food section.

Tataki, the site of a former Subway sandwich shop, grabs your attention right when you walk in. A Monterey Bay Aquarium “Seafood Watch” pocket guide, which lists best and worst sustainable seafood species, is front and center on every table. A copy is also tucked into every take-out menu.

Co-chefs Raymond Ho (left) and Kin Lui (right).

Oct. 22, Tataki will be the site of the official launch of three new, ground-breaking sustainable sushi guides created in partnership with the aquarium, Blue Ocean Institute, and Environmental Defense Fund. Each will include information on as many as 60 different seafood species commonly found on sushi menus.

Sustainable artic char, similar to farmed salmon in taste and texture, but without environmental and health concerns.

Want to do the right thing? Then, you’ll stop eating unagi, bluefin toro, hamachi, octopus (tako), monkfish liver (ankimo), farmed salmon (sake), imported King crab (kani), imported albacore tuna (shiro maguro), and sea urchin (uni) from Maine — all of which are unsustainable, according to the aquarium’s new guide.

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Scenes From Slow Food Nation

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The artsy display at the olive oils tasting pavilion.

Like a culinary Woodstock, crowds of foodies continue to congregate at this weekend’s Slow Food Nation celebration in San Francisco to support all that’s sustainable, organic, family-raised, handcrafted, traditionally made, and downright delicious.

An expected 50,000 are expected to attend lectures, films, concerts, and tastings that illuminate and showcase why access to good food made without chemicals, antibiotics, genetic engineering, and harm to the environment is a right we all should have.

Slow Food is a global organization founded about 20 years ago in Rome, when citizens rose up in ire against the planned opening of a McDonald’s by the landmark Spanish Steps.

Endive grown by Solano's California Vegetable Specialties

This is Slow Food’s first mega event in the United States. Most of the events already are sold out, including the super-popular Tasting Pavilions, where visitors can sample everything from charcuterie to pickles to spirits to cheese, in focused, educational tastings.

Swiss chard and other veggies growing in the Victory Garden

But one of the best free events is still open to all comers. Through Aug. 31, the market in Civic Center Plaza will showcase the best of the best from California farmers and producers.

Elephant Heart plums from Blossom Bluff Orchards in Fresno

Here’s your chance to sample and buy Frog Hollow Farm peaches, Marian Farms biodynamic raisins from Fresno, Stinson Beach-based Ancient Organics’ ghee, Lagier Farms’ Bronx grapes from Escalon, and plenty more.  Additionally, nosh on gourmet prepared foods, including novel ice cream flavors from Ici Ice Creams in Berkeley, 100 percent grass-fed hot dogs from San Francisco’s Let’s Be Frank, and Vietnamese street food from San Francisco’s Out the Door.

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Marveling At Miracle Fruit

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Hallelujah, I’ve experienced a miracle — albeit a modest one.

It didn’t involve seeing Jesus on a tortilla or the Virgin Mary in a rust stain on the side of a building. No, my miracle involved a teeny-tiny red berry known as “miracle fruit.”

Haven’t heard the buzz on this fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, that’s native to West Africa? Well, brothers and sisters, let me fill you in. I’ve been intrigued by the fruit ever since reading a New York Times story about it in May.

This small fruit purports to have an amazing effect when eaten: It changes the taste of anything you stick in your mouth afterwards, particularly things that are sour or bitter, leaving them seemingly sugary sweet.

Admittedly, I was more a curious skeptic than any kind of true believer. So when my friend, Elaine Villamin, winemaker at her family’s Eden Canyon Vineyards in Creston, Calif. (believed to be the only Filipino-American estate winery in the country) asked me to come to a miracle fruit event she was hosting last weekend, I jumped at the chance. Elaine planned to have attendees test the reaction of the fruit on her wines, as well as a variety of other foods, including Tabasco, white vinegar, pickles, Spam, and her homemade pot roast. Talk about a rather curious last supper.

The event was held at Periscope Cellars in Emeryville. Trivia fans will note that its warehouse area was the set for the first season of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef.” The Kenmore appliances are still there as proof.

About three dozen folks forked over $12 in hopes of having a miracle last Saturday afternoon. The seeds ($3 each and just a tad larger than pomegranate ones) were picked just a couple days ago in South Florida, where they are grown by Curtis Mozie who sells them through his Web site.

We were instructed to pop the seed into our mouth, to suck on the smidgen of pulp that’s pretty tasteless, then spit out the bitter seed. We also were told the effect of the protein, miraculin, would last about an hour. Then we made our way around the tables set up with condiments and foods, trying each with eager anticipation.

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Eat Well — Without Going Broke

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With the price of everything on the rise, we’re all tempted to cut back on buying organics and wild seafood, which can put a big dent in the pocketbook.

But there’s a way to still enjoy all of that — and eat it, too.

The key is to choose wisely. That’s the message in my latest posting on the Slow Food Nation blog, which gives tips and advice on eating right in these economically challenging times.

Nursing Home Food That’s Fit For Foodies

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Would you choose chicken Marsala #1?

During more than a decade of food writing, I’ve had the pleasure of judging a number of notable food contests, including the Gilroy Garlic Cook-Off, the Castroville Artichoke Festival Cook-Off, the short-lived “Food Fight” TV show competition, and of course, the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

So when I told my friends that I had been asked recently to judge a cook-off at a San Jose nursing home, I got more than a few odd looks.

But I have a soft spot for the work nursing homes do, as my late Mom spent her last weeks in one. I’m familiar with the challenges these facilities face, given the dietary and budgetary constraints they must work with.

Or would you choose chicken Marsala #2?

So I was intrigued when Cindy Dahl, a registered dietitian with Plum Healthcare Group and a former San Diego restaurateur, asked me to be on the judging panel for the “Top Plum Chef” competition. Cooks from Plum Healthcare Group’s 16 California facilities would battle by cooking a specific dish. The winners advance to the next round, where they cook another specific dish. The two finalists then will square off in a cook-off in San Diego for a chance to win $500, a set of knives, a plaque, and bragging rights.

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