Hello!
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 our last newsletter was the video for Why You Can't Overcook Mushrooms and The Science Behind Them from America’s Test Kitchen.
Start the new year by subscribing to our favorite food-focused newsletters:
Food Fix, by Washington DC-based Helena Bottemiller Evich, is an in-depth newsletter covering food policy in Washington and beyond. Latest post: Coke’s unexpected social media dumpster fire this week.
The California Table, by Bay Area-based food writer Georgia Freedman, is published bi-monthly and includes an interview with a California home cook and a recipe for one of their favorite dishes. Latest post: An interview with Food52 founding editor Kristen Miglore of Sunnyvale.
A Salad A Day, by Bay Area-based food writer Molly Watson, features seven salad recipes delivered in a weekly newsletter, inspired by New Calendar of Salad: 365 Answers to the Question "What Shall We Have for Salad?" a hanging calendar published in 1915. Latest post: Happy 2023! Let's eat some black-eyed peas!
Anna Jones, by the UK-based author of the bestselling A Modern Way to Eat, A Modern Way to Cook, The Modern Cook’s Year, and most recently, One. Latest post: Six Flavourful Soups - All the goodness of every ingredient is released into the savoury liquor of a soup, and something about this feels properly nourishing.
Expedite by Bay Area-based Kristin Hawley, a journalist covering restaurant technology and the future of hospitality. Latest post: How tech & big business co-opted "local” - Maybe a local restaurant is just the restaurant nearest you.
Pass the Fish Sauce by Bay Area-based Andrea Nyugen, a professional home cook, recipe developer, and author of 7 acclaimed Asian cookbooks, plus the upcoming book, Ever-Green Vietnamese (April 2023). Latest post: Crispy Smelts and Cava (with video).
Technically Food: a biweekly newsletter by Bay Area-based Larissa Zimberoff, about the intersection of food and technology, and what that means for people who love and make food, and want to know what they’re eating. Latest post: On donuts and writing - What I talk about when I talk about mental strength, what makes us fat and upcycled cocoa honey.
From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, the weekly newsletter from the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based writer, on food culture, politics, and media. Kennedy is also the author of the upcoming book, No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating (summer 2023). Latest post: On 2022 - My last missive of the year, in which I take a look back.
🦀 Dungeness Crab Alert!
It doesn’t get any fresher than this! Matt Juanes, captain of the FV Plumeria, and his crew will be selling live Dungeness crab (last price was $10/lb) today, Saturday 1/7, starting at 7 am until they sell out, from Pier 47 on Al Scoma’s way (left side of the bridge). Follow them on Instagram for the latest info.
Edit: the FV Plumeria sold out by 9 a.m. but you can still find live crab at the FV KVINS located at Fisherman’s Wharf, right behind Tarantino’s Restaurant. Follow them on Instagram here: Chenzo’s Way of Life.
Now that you’ve secured your 🦀 here’s how to prepare it:
Dungeness 101: If you’re not up for Selengut’s method of dispatching live crabs, here are some tips on how to clean and cook crab (by boiling), via Sunset.
A Few Of Our Fav Recipes:
Mae’s San Francisco Dungeness Crab Cioppino by John Birdsall
Dungeness Crab Buns by Nichole Accettola of Kantine
Dungeness Crab Cakes by Kathleen Korb
Related: As a Filipino American, Dungeness Crab Was Part of My OG San Francisco Childhood. “Every Filipino American knows that the first order of duty after placing the crabs in the sink is to cook the rice, which was the only other dish we’d prepare to make it a full meal.” KQED
Pot Roast Taste Off:
And The Winner Is: Company Pot Roast by…
You Guys!
Do you know about these frozen udon noodles? They are pre-cooked, so all you have to do is blanch them in boiling water and they’re ready to go, which pretty much means instant lunch or dinner any time you want. We scored these from Sunset Super but they should be available at most Asian grocery stores. Used them last night in this Stir-Fried Udon With Bacon, Parmesan & Gochujang recipe from Hana Asbrink on Food52, although we subbed portobellos for the bacon. Here’s a video with Amanda Hesser making the dish:
Here’s ours 👇 OMG! So f-ing good! Just the right amount of savory sweet heat from the gochujang to get your mouth watering, with the umami bomb from the egg and parmesan to bring it all together. Definitely going into our dinner rotation.
🎧 You Are How You Eat: "If you want to understand how people eat, you have to understand everything about society. You have to see the big picture because it's so much more complicated than 'I go to a grocery store and buy it because I like it.'" —Marion Nestle in the Food with Mark Bittman podcast:
🎧 Cooking Is Hard: Ina Garten, she of 14 million cookbooks in print, talks to David Remnick about her job. Despite the fact that she makes it looks so easy and effortless, Garten says: “Cooking’s hard for me. I mean, I do it a lot, but it’s really hard and I just love having the space to concentrate on what I’m doing, so I make sure it comes out well.”
On repeat this week: The Staple Singers perform their hit version of Talking Heads' "Slippery People" on Soul Train.
That’s all for this week.
We’re outta here.
P.S. In case you somehow missed that subscribe button:
The only people for me are the mad ones: the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who... burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles.
―Jack Kerouac