#133 / Here are some things to pray to in San Francisco
Strawberry Shaved Ice
Hello!
IX The insides of peaches are the color of sunrise The outsides of plums are the color of dusk X Here are some things to pray to in San Francisco: the bay, the mountain, the goddess of the city; remembering, forgetting, sudden pleasure, loss; sunrise and sunset; salt; the tutelary gods of Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Basque, French, Italian, and Mexican cooking; the solitude of coffeehouses and museums; the virgin, mother, and widow moons; hilliness, vistas; John McLaren; Saint Francis; the Mother of Sorrows; the rhythm of any life still whole through three generations; wine, especially zinfandel because from that Hungarian vine-slip came first a native wine not resinous and sugar-heavy; the sourdough mother, yeast and beginning; all fish and fisherman at the turning of the tide; the turning of the tide; eelgrass, oldest inhabitant; fog; seagulls; Joseph Worcester; plum blossoms; warm days in January . . . XI She thought it was a good idea. He had his doubts. XII ripe blackberries
—Robert Hass, from The Beginning of September
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 Open Funk’s circular blender for your stash of glass jars. Blend and go!
Thanks to everyone who participated in our poll - besides the 20% of you who were natural wine aficiandos, 42% of you admitted that when you reach for a bottle of wine on the shelf at the store, your purchase is influenced by the label!
I Mean: Definitely trying this as soon as we score some 🍓. Strawberry shaved ice from Frankie Gaw. This one too, Potato chip/rice cakes.
🍕 Not So Fast: Is running a pizza restaurant easier than any other type of joint? “Whether it’s making pizza or baking bread or making great ice cream. . . once you commit to be into it and start to do that deep dive, you realize everything is the same. It’s all a nightmare.” —Anthony Mangieri of Una Pizza Napoletana (NYC) in the Washington Post (gift article)
Speaking of Nightmares: A nationwide outage of Square's payment system on Thursday forced many Bay Area restaurants to close, resulting in losses of hundreds/thousands of dollars in sales. “Do we have to close tonight? Who carries cash anymore?” —C-Y Chia, co-owner of Lion Dance Cafe in Oakland. SF Chronicle (gift article)
⭐️ All Roads Lead to Nowhere: “Well, the thing that occurs to me every day is, what am I doing in Mérida, when I could be in Puglia. What am I doing here when I should be staying with somebody with a fabulous cellar in London and drinking 1963 vintage port?” —Jeremiah Tower Roads and Kingdoms
🥥 Somebody’s Gotta Do It: Why Coconut Farmers Risk Their Lives To Feed The World's Superfood Obsession. Insider Business
🍺 Tastes Like Beer: Athletic Brewing Company built a modern $60 million brand in a few short years by running the numbers (and by cracking the code that makes non-alcoholic beers taste like the real thing). “It turns out over 30% of people [in America] don't drink at all, and almost 60 percent of people barely drink. That’s a ton of money left on the table, so the economic opportunity was obvious to me.” —Bill Shufelt, co-founder in GQ
Editor’s Note: We cracked open an Athletic Brewing Company Run Wild IPA while watching the Chiefs vs. Lions on Thursday night. It was so good we had second one too.
The Vanilla Vigilante: Attorney Spencer Sheehan’s firm has filed over five hundred consumer-protection class-action suits against food companies for false advertising. He uses a marketing company to place ads seeking class members—people who’d assumed they’d been buying what the label promised. In one case, Country Crock claimed that “Made with Olive Oil” on the label was merely meant to convey “a flavor note.” The New Yorker
🇮🇹 Italy by Ingredient: SF chef instructor and food writer Viola Buitoni's first book has just been published by Rizzoli. Italy By Ingredient: Artisanal Foods, Modern Recipes tells a story of modern Italy, globalization, and food ethics through flavorful and easy recipes. These aren’t recipes passed down through grandmothers; they are contemporary time capsules of changes to Italian society and adaptations in food culture. Recipes are organized according to a single ingredient; learn how to make a traditional ragù sauce with conserved tomatoes, layer a plate of prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella, or bake a polenta custard tart. Edible SF
On Repeat This Week: Olivia Rodrigo channels Joan Didion
All American Bitch plays around with dynamics and stylistic contrasts to convey the impossible tension of being a young American girl. She stumbled across the title phrase while reading Joan Didion’s essay collection “The White Album” — a young American girl rite of passage. NY Times
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“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