#6 | Decolonize Your Diet
PB & J gets a radical makeover
Hello!
I'm Bruce Cole, Publisher of Edible San Francisco. You're getting this email because you subscribed. If you'd like to hop off at anytime, simply unsubscribe. I appreciate you reading this newsletter.
If you're new here, this newsletter might not be quite what you were expecting, but bear with us. While we're working on the next Edible SF issue, we've curated a long, but definitely worthy list, of what we've been eating, drinking and thinking about.
First up, PB & J gets a radical makeover. Here goes.
EAT
Peanut Butter and Greens Sandwich (vegan): "It requires leaving the comfort zone of sweet, jumping over to savory, but if you’ve ever made a peanut stew or, say, peanut noodles, you know that the savory side of peanut butter is much more vast and interesting than its sweet side." From Lukas Volger's new book: Start Simple: Eleven Everyday Ingredients for Countless Weeknight Meals (h/t Alicia Kennedy).
Photo: Cara Howe.
Fig and Blue Cheese Tart with Honey, Balsamic, and Rosemary (vegetarian) by Phyllis Grant. Fig season is in full swing through the fall and alas, we've yet to get around to making this tart, but it is definitely at the top of our to-do list. It's quick and easy if you use frozen puff pastry dough. Don't forget to grab Phyllis's new book: Everything is Under Control: A Memoir with Recipes.
Photo: Bruce Cole
Cauliflower Ceviche (vegan): a recipe redefining what is meant by "traditional" Mexican food by Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel. {More on "decolonizing your diet" below in THINK 👇}.
Roasted winged termites (not vegan) are my favourite monsoon snack, says Jahnavi Uppuleti (from the town of Dornakal in the state of Telangana, India). "According to my dad, sitting around the kattela poyyi together with his family, waiting for his mother to roast the termites in the earthen pot and serve them, was the hardest part as they could all hardly contain their excitement of eating this seasonal delicacy. The smell of Usillu (winged termites) being roasted from all the houses in the ghetto is one of the most significant memories of monsoon for him."
Some like it 🔥Saniya Kamal on how the "metamorphosis of the thing cooked and its eater has been at the root of cooking since we first put food to fire. They are right to fear hari mirchain. They were never meant to be eaten."
DRINK
The impact of the stories linked below will change the world of wine for the years to come as vintners, vignerons, winemakers, and wine importers/distributors recognize they can no longer separate the story of the juice in the bottle from the reality of how agricultural workers in the vineyards are treated.
This story starts in Italy, where natural winemaker Valentina Passalacqua's father was arrested for "caporalato," the abuse and exploitation of migrant farm workers, and as Jennifer Green of Glou Glou magazine reported, has led to American wine importers to cut all ties with her company.
"This is about pulling back the curtain on these ugly truths: pretty labels in proximity to slavery, agricultural products sourced through servitude, an endless ocean of ‘biodynamic’ ‘natural’ wine. There is a name for this thing, and it is ‘caporalato' (via the GlouGlou Instagram feed)."
"Hello, the last week has been a polarizing one in our corner of the wine industry," says Zev Rorvine. "We have decided to drop the Valentina Passalacqua winery from our portfolio. The tangential lines to large scale labor abuse raise too many questions. One of most important words of our time is accountability. As a wine importer, it should be my responsibility to know where the labor rights abuses in agriculture are most prevalent."
"Wine joins the 2020 debate over privilege and justice." Eric Asimov of the New York Times weighs in: "An accusation involving migrant labor in Puglia leads to self-examination and, perhaps, new awareness of the treatment of agricultural workers. It’s an issue of human dignity that the entire wine world must confront, particularly in the United States, where stringent immigration policies and the Covid-19 pandemic have compounded risks for agricultural workers."
Related: According to data collected by Leah Douglas of FERN, as of August 7 at 12pm ET, 5788 farm workers have tested positive for Covid-19.
THINK
"For one week, I 'decolonized' my diet. Here’s what that means, and how it went." Alex Zaragosa tries eating like her ancestors: "Since it has nothing to do with counting calories, weight loss, or body judgment, there’s something revolutionary about this diet: It’s about using food as a way to tap into identity, feeling good, and being as cognizant of food justice as you are flavors."
CUESA interview with Bay Area professors Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel, authors of Decolonize Your Diet: Plant-Based Mexican-American Recipes for Health and Healing. "One thing we always think about in terms of decolonization is the importance of having gratitude, offering blessings, and recognizing the labor that went into the food. Grounding ourselves in gratitude and appreciation as a daily practice can be vital toward food decolonization."
RELATED:
From the book Oats in the North, Wheat From the South: The History of British Baking, Savoury and Sweet by Regula Ysewijn.
Define sustainability. From James Hanson's always excellent In Digestion Newsletter: "A restaurant that forages and doesn't waste ingredients but makes 60 hour weeks on minimum wage the norm is not actually sustainable. A wine producer who gives workers healthcare and a living wage but relies on synthetic fungicides that slowly poison them is not actually sustainable. A publication that says it will pay equitably but just tries to lowball people of colour is not sustainable. Doing one to facilitate the other is proof of that; if sustainability does not include people, it is simply not sustainability."
Just sayin': "localized food sovereignty should be the north star guiding all of us who care about justice," from the desk of Alicia Kennedy.
Mythbusters 🌎Charlie Mitchell's first piece for the New Republic on how carbon storage in soil is not a small step forward, it's a trojan horse for a scary new tech-agribusiness. "U.S. senators, McDonald's, Microsoft, and the agribusiness lobby are pushing the dangerous myth that carbon storage in American farmland will stave off climate catastrophe. While farmland carbon capture’s primary problem may be that it overpromises results, the other tragedy of this policy fixation is the way it distracts from American agriculture’s dire need for broader reforms.
EAT LOCAL
That Outer Sunset Vibe: How cool is this painting by Emily Fromm of one of our fav places on Noriega, The Pizza Place. Home of the Spicoli pizza: Who ordered the double cheese and sausage? BTW, The Pizza Place is open for pick-up, take out and delivery.
Epic Ventures Test Kitchen is Oakland’s newest takeout spot that doubles as a food hub for Black-owned pop-ups. Janelle Bitker of the SF Chronicle reports: "The effort is helmed by chef Rashad Armstead, a Black chef and Food Network “Chopped” champion who closed two restaurants — Grammie’s Down-Home Chicken & Seafood in Oakland and Crave BBQ in Richmond — last year due to funding issues. Opening week will feature Mi Granny’s Kitchen, which serves Afro-Caribbean meals; Vaco’s Tacos, which touts vegan tacos with fillings like chipotle jackfruit; and Briya Be Cookin’, whose Instagram feed is full of soul food and Cajun classics. They’re all owned by Black women."
ONE MORE THING
That’s all for this week. Before next week's newsletter, why not subscribe to James Hansen's Indigestion (see sustainability ☝️).
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–Bruce
p.s.
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