129 | This Pie: Oh my god!

Lost Cafes of the Bay Area

Hello!

They Sit Together on the Porch

They sit together on the porch, the dark
Almost fallen, the house behind them dark.
Their supper done with, they have washed and dried
The dishes–only two plates now, two glasses,
Two knives, two forks, two spoons–small work for two.
She sits with her hands folded in her lap,
At rest. He smokes his pipe. They do not speak,
And when they speak at last it is to say
What each one knows the other knows. They have
One mind between them, now, that finally
For all its knowing will not exactly know
Which one goes first through the dark doorway, bidding
Goodnight, and which sits on a while alone.

—Wendell Berry, from "A Timbered Choir."🥯

Hey there - 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 Ottolenghi’s Smacked Cucumber Salad with Sumac Onions and Radishes.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the last newsletter poll: How often do you shop at your local/neighborhood farmers market? 69% of those who responded said once a week; 14% once a month; 14% periodically; and 3% never.

🍸This week’s question:

---

This Pie! We love Kristen Miglore’s Genius Recipe series (on YouTube) because they are generally uncomplicated, entirely trustworthy, and completely foolproof. Bill Smith’s Atlantic Beach Pie (never heard of it before this) fits that bill and was shockingly easy, considering we don’t have the muscle memory required for baking a pie (or baking anything for that matter). Featuring a saltine cracker crust held together by butter, a simple lemon custard (we used Meyers), and a whipped cream topping that’s finished with a dusting of coarse salt, this pie hits the trifecta of sweet, sour, and savory; you’ll be tempted to ask for a second slice. It was also the subject of this NPR feature, North Carolina Pie That Elicits An 'Oh My God' Response, which after you’ve read it, we bet you’ll be tapping through to the video above to make it yourself.

---

Siri Says? “Setting the ⏲ for 8 minutes CHEF!”

---

Sponsored

To celebrate summer, Back Pocket Media and the Presidio Theatre are teaming up to present: Taste of Then, A Storytelling Party about Food and Memory (we’re a media sponsor). Featuring unconventional stories by an acclaimed New Yorker contributor, a producer from KQED, a 3x Emmy-nominated actor and more. Full lineup to be announced soon.

Back Pocket’s last 18 SF shows have sold out so please, grab your friends and your tickets early! Reserve Tickets Here

---

When the Moon Hits Your Eye, Like a Big 🍕 Pie: Which three SF pizza restaurants crack the top 50? SF Gate

🥯 Click Bait: Why the Best Bagels in the US Aren't All in New York Anymore. Bon Appetit | On BA’s list: Chicken Dog Bagels in Bernal Heights and Midnight Bagel in the Dogpatch.

🍅 The Great Ketchup Debate: A recent Twitter poll shows 63.2% of 13,000+ voters keep ketchup in the fridge while 36.8% keep theirs in the pantry. What’s the official word from Heinz? CNN

• Related: The Death of Fancy Ketchup. Taste

🍤 I Dream of Benihana: Flipping those shrimp’s not as easy as it looks. Eater

• Related: Why is Cooking so Dreadful? Vittles

🍷 Two Turntables and a Wine Glass: Jermaine Stone aims to bridge cultures with his wine and hip-hop-focused podcast. “As the wine industry flagged in its commitment to Black and brown communities, this consultant forged his own path.” New York Times (gift article)

---

Sponsored

Join us at @Foodwise Summer Bash on Sunday, July 16, 5:30-8pm @ferrybuilding! 🍑☀️🌶️ Celebrate 30 years of farmers markets and community at the freshest party of the season. At Foodwise Summer Bash, you’ll feast on unlimited food and drink from 45 beloved Bay Area restaurants and beverage makers, all made with peak-summer farmers market produce. Join us in supporting local farms, food access, and education, and toasting the sustainable, equitable, and nourishing food future we are growing together. Reserve your tickets now and get $15 off with promo code EDIBLESF foodwisesummerbash2023.eventbrite.com

---

The High Cost of Cultivated 🥩: Alice Driver, a James Beard Award-winning writer, investigative journalist, and author of the forthcoming book “The Life and Death of the American Worker,” about labor rights in the meatpacking industry, penned an opinion piece for CNN on the pipe dream that is cultured meat. She notes:

Lab-grown meat has more in common with meat produced at a slaughterhouse than you might think. Some critics of the meatpacking industry have gotten excited about the idea of lab-grown meat as an alternative to Big Chicken. But among those most likely to profit from these experiments are the major meatpacking companies. And while cultured meat seems visionary, the biology and economics don’t add up.

---

🥬 Insulin Grown With Lettuce? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have succeeded in using a gene gun to blast human insulin genes into lettuce cells. The result is salad greens that produce insulin containing C-Peptide, a missing ingredient in the synthetic version. In the future, diabetics could swallow a pill made from freeze-dried lettuce that is ground up into a pill form instead of enduring painful injections. Freethink

🥓 The California Bacon Law Is Live: On July 1, Proposition 12, approved by California voters in 2018 (details here), which effectively banned widely used gestation crates for commercially raised hogs, went into effect, but it will be six months before consumers can purchase pork that come from hogs not forced to live in steel barred crates their whole lives. KRON4

Getting Paid with 🍇: Stolpman Vineyards, Turley Wine Cellars are putting their money where their mouth (nose?) is. “Well-executed profit-shares are helping wineries solve major crises, including labor shortages, rising costs, critiques of exploitative working conditions, and cost-of-living issues faced by workers earning meager salaries in some of the most expensive places to live in the United States.” Ambrook

🔪 Don’t Cut Yourself: Kelly Kozak and Josh Donald of Bernal Cutlery launched A Box of Old Knives on Substack. You’ll want to subscribe and check out the first post by Josh about his friendly flea market rivalry with local sculptor and culinary knife collector Don Rich.

Illustration by Briana Loewinshohn for KQED

Cafes We Have Lost: Beautifully illustrated lament of long gone Bay Area hangouts by Briana Loewinsohn. Reminded us of hanging for poetry readings at The Med back in the 80s. KQED

---

On Repeat This Week: Actually, we just listened to it once, and that was enough.

Thanks for reading EAT. DRINK. THINK. from Edible San Francisco!

That’s all for this week.

We’re outta here. Be well and take care,
—Bruce

---

“There are those who love to get dirty and fix things. They drink coffee at dawn, beer after work. And those who stay clean, just appreciate things. At breakfast they have milk and juice at night. There are those who do both, they drink tea.”
—Gary Snyder