Tickets Now On Sale For Slow Food Nation

Labor Day weekend (Aug. 29 to Sept. 1) in San Francisco is sure to bring out even more foodies than usual this year.

That’s when Slow Food Nation takes place. bringing together farmers, food artisans, political leaders, environmental advocates, health-care experts, and artists at a mega-event to celebrate the connection between plate and planet.

There will be a 50,000-square-foot food pavilion, a marketplace where farmers and producers will show off their wares, a music festival, workshops, films, dinners, and hikes.

The “Food for Thought Speaker Series” ($5 to $25 per ticket) will feature author Wendell Berry, author Marion Nestle, Slow Food organization founder Carlo Petrini, author Michael Pollan, author Eric Schlosser, author Vandana Shiva and Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse.

The huge Taste pavilion will showcase such artisan products as beer, bread, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, fish, honey & preserves, ice cream, native foods, olive oil, pickles & chutney, spirits, tea and wine. In the “green kitchen” there, chefs will demonstrate techniques for making simple, everyday dishes sustainable. Tickets to the Taste pavilion are $45 to $65.

For more information, click here.

To get into the spirit, sit back and take in a thought-provoking flick, 6:30 p.m. July 25 at the Delancey Street Theater, 600 Embarcadero in San Francisco.  That’s when “Strawberry Fields,” will show. The film depicts a day in the life of Palestinian farmers in Gaza.

Ticket are $15, and includes Fra’Mani salami, Harley Farms cheese, dessert, and beverages. For tickets, click here, or send checks made out to Slow Food San Francisco to Slow Food San Francisco, 210 Littlefield Ave., South San Francisco, CA 94080.

And if you notice the lawn in front of San Francisco City Hall looking a little different, that’s because it is being transformed into an edible garden.

July 12, Mayor Gavin Newsom, Slow Food Nation founder Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse restaurant, and more than 100 volunteers will begin planting seeds for herbs and produce.

The project, dubbed the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden, takes its name from 20th Century wartime efforts to tackle food shortages. Back in the early 1940s, San Francisco residents were encouraged to plant gardens on private and public lands to add to the supply of domestic food during wartime. Back then, San Francisco’s program was one of the top ones in the nation. Golden Gate Park alone boasted 250 garden plots.



Savoring the Fifth Taste

You know sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. But do you know umami, the fifth taste?

Attend the “Umami Symposium: New Frontiers of Taste,” 11:30 a.m. July 21 at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, and you’ll know it even better. The event, hosted by the Umami Information Center, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of umami in Tokyo, Japan.

Umami is the savory flavor we can’t get enough of in so many foods. Think Parmesan cheese, mushrooms, cured ham, soy sauce, chicken soup, meat, and fish.

The event leads off with a panel discussion featuring smell and taste scientists; food writer and food scientist Harold McGee; Kunio Tokuoka, executive chef of Kyoto Kitcho in Japan; and Master of Wine Tim Hanni. Following that, a multi-course lunch will be served, with each dish demonstrating the irresistible nature of umami. Tokuoka will prepare the dishes, along with chefs Hiro Sone of Ame in San Francisco and Terra in St. Helena; and Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Yountville.

Tickets are $100. But hurry — registration ends July 7.

If you miss that event, you can still enjoy a feast of umami at Ame, which will be offering a special tasting menu focusing on the fifth flavor,  July 14 to Aug. 3. The five-course dinner is $85, plus an additional $65 for wine pairings. Dishes include broiled sake-marinated black cod in shiso broth, grilled Berkshire pork on Carolina gold rice with tomato “risotto,” and caramel ice cream with shoyu powder.




The Guys From Incanto Present Boccalone Salumeria

Boccalone orange and wild fennel salame (foreground); and brown sugar and fennel salame (background).

Mmmm, pork, pork, and more pork.

You’ll find all that and more at the new Boccalone Salumeria in the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace.

It’s the artisan charcuterie mecca founded by the two guys from Incanto restaurant in San Francisco, Proprieter Mark Pastore, and Executive Chef Chris Cosentino.

With more than 20 varieties of handmade cured meats, you’ll be hard pressed to pick just one. Choose from  pancetta, lonza (cured pork loin), hard-to-find lardo (cured pork fat), and out-of-this-world orange & wild fennel salame, among others. Salumi is sliced to order. And hungry customers can order up paninis and salumi platters.

If the Ferry Building is out of your way, you also can order products online to satisfy your cravings.

A Taste of Summer

Edamame shiso salad with yuzu vinaigrette

Bright, fresh, and a snap to make, this salad is the perfect starter or side for the lazy days of summer.

If you keep a bag of frozen edamame in your freezer and grow your own shiso plant in your garden as I do, you can put this dish together anytime the mood strikes. I love this floral , tangy, crisp vinaigrette also on chilled green beans, fava beans, peas, asparagus, or salad greens. I think you’ll find it’s definitely a keeper to add to your culinary repertoire.

This wonderful recipe is from The Breakaway Cook by San Franciscan Eric Gower, who has a knack for using Japanese ingredients in clever, yet simple ways.

Edamame shiso salad with yuzu vinaigrette

Read more

A New Kind of Drinkable Chocolate

Cabaret Brewed Chocolate

It’s not like hot cocoa. It’s not like hot chocolate. And it’s definitely not at all like chocolate milk.

Cabaret Brewed Chocolate is all together different. Rob Polevoi’s Oakland company brews whole cacao beans in water to extract every last bit of flavor. It’s similar to the way coffee is brewed from coffee beans, only this takes much longer.

The resulting liquid is mixed with just a bit of organic sugar, then reduced down to a concentrated syrup. Stir a teaspoon into a small cup of hot water and — voila! — you have brewed chocolate to enjoy. Each teaspoon weighs in at only 24 calories, too.

Mixed with hot water, it creates a relaxing beverage.The beverage is light in body, akin to coffee. The taste isn’t heavy and super rich like that of hot chocolate. Instead, it is delicate, refreshing, and a little like chocolate-covered toffee in liquid form. It’s a very soothing drink to sip.

A 6-ounce jar is $14.95 and available online at the link above.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »