#102 | Is Plastic Waste the Cost of Eating?
A Sake Primer
Hello summer!
At least for those of us here in San Francisco, where summer doesn’t start until the heat waves hit in September and October. Here’s a track to get you started; First Aid Kit’s cover of Don Henley’s The Boys of Summer.
Meanwhile, everywhere else…
And Now It’s September
and the garden diminishes: cucumber leaves rumpled and rusty, zucchini felled by borers, tomatoes sparse on the vines. But out in the perennial beds, there’s one last blast of color: ignitions of goldenrod, flamboyant asters, spiraling mums, all those flashy spikes waving in the wind, conducting summer’s final notes. The ornamental grasses have gone to seed, haloed in the last light. Nights grow chilly, but the days are still warm; I wear the sun like a shawl on my neck and arms. Hundreds of blackbirds ribbon in, settle in the trees, so many black leaves, then, just as suddenly, they’re gone. This is autumn’s great Departure Gate, and everyone, boarding passes in hand, waits patiently in a long, long line.
—Barbara Crooker, from Spillway
By the way, I'm Bruce Cole, Publisher of Edible San Francisco. If you’re new here, welcome to EAT.DRINK.THINK., a newsletter spotlighting seasonal recipes, the latest SF Bay Area food news, poetry, and more!
👉 ICYMI: The most-clicked link from last week’s newsletter was the Food & Wine’s list of the one thing you should eat in every state.
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What We’re Drinking
A Sake Primer: Sequoia Sake is brewed in San Francisco by husband-and-wife team Jake Myrick, Noriko Kamei, and their daughter Olivia. This Genshu is the perfect sake for beginners. Elegant, yet easy drinking. If you're a first-time sake drinker, you'll want to discard any notion that the beverage you are about to drink is akin to wine. Although sake is called rice wine, the similarity stops there in the name. It's a singular beverage with a fascinating range of flavor profiles, but what distinguishes sake from wine is umami, the fifth taste after salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Umami gives sake its distinctive richer and rounder mouthfeel, which throws a lot of wine drinkers for a loop since acidity usually helps to define a glass of wine. During fermentation, the proteins in rice are broken down and converted into nitrogen compounds containing amino acids, which add umami and richness to sake. More tasting notes for this bottle of Sequoia Genshu Nama (unpasteurized) Sake. Edible SF
Related: Reboot in a Bottle - High tech meets low tech at Sequoia Sake. Edible SF
Related: Japanese sake is becoming the ‘it’ drink at the Bay Area’s trendiest restaurants. SF Chronicle
Moosewood Lives? The beloved vegetarian restaurant prepares for its second act. New York Times
🔥 No, Your Mouth is Not Actually On Fire: “But how can we properly describe an experience that is essentially a trick of the mind, a false cry of fire? It’s only an illusion of heat, and still we weep.” Why we love hot chiles. New York Times
Edible Radio Podcast: Is Plastic Waste the Cost of Eating? In this episode, Amy O’Neill Houck, publisher of Edible Alaska, talks with Emily Payne of Food Tank about the challenges of dealing with plastic waste in food packaging. How much do we, as consumers, know about the materials—often single-use plastics—that wrap and contain almost all the food we eat? And what happens to all that waste created by food packaging? 🎧 Listen now.
Deadly Data: As diet-related deaths outrank deaths from smoking, the Biden administration announces a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health aimed at developing solutions to the nationwide nutrition crisis. Meanwhile, here are seven ideas to get Americans to eat healthier. NPR
Where’s the Beets? The plant-based movement has hit the mainstream, but it has left something important behind, plants! You know, actual fruits, vegetables, whole grains, herbs, spices, plant oils, and more. None of which you’ll find on the ingredients list of trendy “plant-based” burgers. The Washington Post
Give Us All the Beef! The raw meat diet. Seriously? Bon Appetit
Related: “Hello RawMeat, I want to try raw meat for the first time of my life so I'm looking for recommendations.” The #RawMeat reddit thread.
Stained Page News Fall Cookbook Preview: yep, that’s 126 cookbooks ☝️ (and counting) coming out this fall! If we had to choose just a few from this list:
Mezcla, Recipes to Excite (Sept. 13), by Ixtra Belfrage; longtime assistant and collaborator of Yotam Ottolenghi, who says: “One-in-a-million creativity, Ixta's food is simply outstanding!”
Budmo! Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen (Sept. 6) by Anna Voloshyna; San Francisco-based chef, blogger, culinary instructor, and Edible SF contributor. Have you made Anna’s Summery Vegetarian Green Borsch yet? Download it here:
Masa, Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple (Sept. 13) by Jorge Gaviria of Masienda. We buy fresh masa from Tierra Vegetables every Saturday at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. While we make tortillas every morning for breakfast, we’re looking forward to some new inspiration.
Related: Taste podcast interview with Paula Forbes, publisher of Stained Page News
What’s a Ghost Kitchen? Kristen Hawley of Expedite penned a glossary for the restaurant-tech jargon that baffles most of us.
Not In Your Front Yard: “From Michigan to Massachusetts, people have been thwarted—or even outright banned—from growing food on their own property.” Civil Eats
Back in the Good Old Days:
The California Artisan Cheese Guild (CACG): announces the return of SF Cheese Fest; after a brief hiatus for the last two years, the popular event is back in person. Taking place at Riggers Loft in Point Richmond, just across the bay. Bay Area cheese lovers can purchase tickets here. All proceeds benefit the California Artisan Cheese Guild, a statewide nonprofit organization of cheesemakers, cheese trade, and enthusiast members who work together to support locally made cheese.
EAT. DRINK. THINK. SEPTEMBER 2022: From Edible SF, the playlist we listen to while cooking dinner every night. New tracks from First Aid Kit (that cover of Boys of Summer!), The Smile, Pinky Perzelle, Kevin Morby, Big Thief, Sudan Archives, Swish Jaguar, Sylvan Esso, Caroline Polachek, and goes out with, what else, that September classic from Earth, Wind and Fire.
That’s all for this week.
We’re outta here. Be well and take care,
–Bruce
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We had so much to say; We had no faith in words. —Kenneth Patchen