#32 | Edible on Mars
Grilled Page Mandarin Gin & Tonic
Hello!
If you noticed the world coming to a screeching halt this Thursday, it’s because the New York Times published a recipe for pasta carbonara that included bacon in place of guanciale with the addition of tomatoes. I know, we were temporarily stunned as well, but we carry on we must.
Meanwhile on Mars:
This is the thirty-second edition of EAT.DRINK.THINK., a weekly survey of the most interesting food media on the web with a handful of social posts thrown in for good measure.
By the way, I'm Bruce Cole, Publisher of Edible San Francisco. If you’re new, welcome! You're getting this email because you subscribed. If you'd like to hop off anytime, simply unsubscribe. I appreciate you reading this newsletter. Let’s eat!
EAT
What we’re cooking this week:
This no-knead sourdough focaccia (above) from Andrew Janjigian’s newsletter: Wordloaf.
Neijiang craft noodles from chef William Do ordered through his noodle kit popup.
Crispy Brocc and Chickpea Bowls with Peanut Sauce AND Peanut Rice! from Molly Baz’s recipe club, on Patreon (paywall, $5/month).
Persian Rice, the expert way, from Mersedeh Safa of Saffron + Herbs, whom we found via Anna Jones’ newsletter.
We bought fresh masa from Tierra Vegetables at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, intending to make Jessica Battilana’s pinto bean soup with masa dumplings, but we ended up making fresh tortillas every day for breakfast instead. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
Black Supper Club Box. Purchase a delicious, from-scratch Black Supper Club Box featuring local Black-owned chefs and businesses, and a portion of proceeds from each box will go to the MegaBlack SF Black Wellness Fund.
What It Was Like to Eat with Anthony Bourdain:
While in San Francisco to promote our cookbook, Appetites, he sent me on an extremely swanky scavenger hunt for a meal of Dungeness crab, plus caviar, sour cream, red onion, salty potato chips, and chilled Champagne to be served the following night to our small entourage as we departed via private jet to Denver, the final stop of book tour. He explicitly requested perfection. "Ask yourself," he said, "would Jeremiah Tower approve?" Laurie Woolever for Food & Wine
DRINK
Grilled Page Mandarin Gin & Tonic
We adapted this recipe from the Frog Hollow Farm Instagram feed because it looked so thirst-quenching. There are page mandarins on our kitchen counter and lighting a fire on a cold winter’s day and sipping a tonic should warm you right up.
Serves 1
INGREDIENTS
1 Page Mandarin, sliced into 4 wedges
1 oz. Page Mandarin juice
1 oz. gin, we used The Walter Collective Gin (with its hint of citrus)
1 oz. tonic
Kosher Salt
Build a medium-heat charcoal grill fire or heat a gas grill to medium-high. Alternatively, you can also heat a cast-iron pan heated to medium on a stovetop. Put the Page Mandarin wedge down and cook, turning once, until lightly charred. Remove from heat and set aside.
In an ice-filled rocks glass, add gin and Page Mandarin juice. Top with the tonic. Garnish with the grilled Page Mandarin wedge, and sprinkle with Kosher salt.
Cheers!
How About A Wine Pairing Tonight?
Natural wine, for its part, has helped to democratize how sommeliers and customers alike assign value to wine lists and the idea of pairing. In this conception of restaurants, it can feel difficult to understand what the traditional role of wine pairing is, so intertwined with associations of expense accounts and Western fine dining has it become. It’s worth asking today, what is the place of wine pairings in a much more diverse, democratized food landscape? Priya Krishna for Punch
THINK
My name is Christopher Russell, and I’m one of the last remaining Black chefs in San Francisco. The Story of Red’s House, One of San Francisco's Last Black-Owned Restaurants. Resy
How Ghost Kitchens Are Taking Over America. Suddenly, legacy restaurants were chopping themselves up into crude, multi concept SEO-driven commissaries through a diverse and shadowy bumper crop of new digital players. Marker
Habla Inglés? If you are reporting and engaging with a substantive Spanish-speaking population, but your work is published in English, will they be able to read it? Writer Sara Klearam, a wine industry reporter at the Napa Valley Register just received a 2021 Impact Fund grant, which will go toward helping her collaborate with a popular local Spanish-language radio show; and toward translating her articles into print-standard Spanish. Center For Health Journalism
A Racist Policy Keeps Many Restaurant Workers in Poverty. Will Biden End It? Only 7 states have abandoned the “tipped minimum wage,” which assumes workers can make up the balance of their income in tips. Biden has pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, thus eliminating the subminimum wage, which can be traced back to racist hiring initiatives after the end of slavery. Employers recruited recently freed Black people for jobs in service industries, believing they were inherently suited for the roles and should be paid less. Mother Jones
Reminder: Be Nice. Thrown objects, cursing, loud scenes, and more are just part of what restaurant workers are having to deal with from customers. Food & Wine
EDIBLE PURSUIT #3
How to play: read each question to yourself and any foodie friends nearby, then proclaim your choice before tapping the answer to see if you guessed correctly. Alas, bragging rights are the only prize we can offer at this point. 😉
In what year was the first cookbook published in the Bay Area by an African-American?
Which famous bakery used to be housed at the corner of Cole St. and Parnassus Ave., now occupied by La Boulangerie Cole Valley?
What San Francisco movie tough guy uttered the phrase, “Nobody, I mean nobody, puts ketchup on a hot dog?”
If you’re drinking a hot cup of coffee right now, it will ultimately lose heat by the process of conduction. In other words, the rate of cooling of a hot body is proportional to the difference in temperature between the body and its surroundings. Who defined this "Law of Cooling"?
What once-abundant San Francisco Bay oyster was wiped out by over-harvesting and massive silting that flowed downstream from hydraulic mining in the Sierra Nevada during the gold rush?
That’s all for this week.
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We’re outta here. Be well and take care,
–Bruce
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WHOA. That's my focaccia up there! My friend Sarah Blackburn told me you are a fan of my newsletter, Bruce. I'm honored, thanks so much for spreading the word.