#75 | Tastes Like Stem Cells
Get Down To Choptown
Hello!
Don’t know about you, but it’s the middle of February and we could really go for a nice vine-ripened 🍅 right about now.
EARLY CASCADE
I couldn't have waited. By the time you return
it would have rotted on the vine.
So I cut the first tomato into eighths,
salted the pieces in the dusk
and found the flesh not mealy (like last year's)
or bitter,
even when I swallowed the green crown of the stem
that made my throat feel dusty and warm.
Pah. I could have gagged on the sweetness.
The miser accused by her red sums.
Better had I eaten the dirt itself
on this the first night in my life
when I have not been too busy for my loneliness—
at last, it comes.
—Lucia Perillo, from Poetry (October 2006)
Thanks to everyone who ordered our latest linocut print of a Chandler pomelo! This print is an edition of 75, and we still have a few left. Get yours here.
p.s. a subscription to our print series makes a great gift!
By the way, I'm Bruce Cole, Publisher of Edible San Francisco. Welcome to all the new subscribers, thanks for joining us!
Chopped Chicory and Lemon Salad with Crispy Mortadella
Go To Choptown: New recipe by Christian Reynoso from our upcoming issue. This is a chopped salad that feels wintery but works for spring, too. It’s got a real balance of flavor: bitter-sweet-bright from the chicories and Meyer lemon, and a salty-umami kick from the crisped mortadella. Edible SF
Sure: Kimchi–Pimento Cheese Toast. America’s Test Kitchen
Even Better? No-knead Gatorade Bread. Food is Stupid
How Deep Is Our Love: For Deep Dark Chocolate Pudding from Sarah Copeland. Edible Living
Thorny, But Make It Tender: Buttery soft, heirloom baby artichokes are this season’s coveted treat. SF Chronicle (paywall)
Eggplants To Excite: Ixta Belfrage’s vegan recipe for aubergine boats filled with a sweet and savoury mix of sticky rice, mushrooms, chestnuts, ginger, and chives. The Guardian
MEZCLA: Recipes to Excite by Ixta Belfrage is coming this summer!
Pucker Up: Sour has “been so scientifically neglected that Rob Dunn, an ecologist at North Carolina State University, considers it something of a “missing taste,” the gustatory litter’s forgotten runt.” The Atlantic
Miles Garret 2019 Riesling (on skins), Willow Creek, Humboldt County
One of the bottles from our Gemini Bottle Co. wine club for February (full disclosure, Gemini is an Edible SF advertiser). Drinks as beautifully as it looks. It’s got juicy riesling notes, high minerality, and a bit of a round cheesy finish (from the skin contact we’re guessing). We reached out to Miles Garrett about his vineyard practices via direct message:
“We try to make wines that represent the land and the unique microclimate of the Humboldt County and the Willow Creek AVA. We dry farm our CCOF certified grapes (no irrigation), cultivate cover crops in the winter, and allow our farm animals into the vineyards at certain times to graze. Once the grapes are in the winery, we practice natural winemaking, which means minimal intervention. We let fermentation take place with naturally occurring yeasts, we never add sulfites or any other additives through the process. Our wine is aged in French oak barrels or stainless steel, and bottled unfiltered. The Miles Garrett Wines team is made up of family, friends, employees, and volunteers.”
Tastes Like Stem Cells: Dominque Crenn and Dan Barber on the future of fake chicken. New York Times (paywall)
Upside Foods has signed a multiyear consulting contract with Dominique Crenn, whose San Francisco restaurant Atelier Crenn has three Michelin stars. She serves no chicken or red meat on her tasting menu, but has promised to add the company’s chicken and help promote it. Her initial thought was, “No way.” But then she thought, why not? “I love farmers and ranchers. That is not what I am against. I am against factory farming. That is not sustainable.”
🤔 Editor’s note: Is this a regular thing with Michelin 3-star chefs signing a contract to promote a product by serving it on their menu?
The chef Dan Barber, co-owner of the Blue Hill restaurants in New York State, said lab-grown food enriches no one but the investors, and ignores the environmental and phytochemical benefits that come when animals feed on pasture, which translates into both flavor and better nutrition. “As they say, ‘It’s not the cow, it’s the how,’” he said.
Opponents also say the process ignores both culture and nature and could be scientifically risky, creating potential allergens and untested byproducts, along with waste that might be a biohazard. And it ignores the value of time-tested regenerative agricultural practices in favor of unproven claims of environmental gain. —Kim Severson
Just The Facts: The complex interaction of humans, grasslands, and livestock is a fundamental requirement for survival on Earth. Alan Lewis on LinkedIn
You Only Get One Shot: "Now this just wouldn’t be better for chickens and cows and pigs, and the people who have to farm them and slaughter them and process their meat. This could be better for the whole world. It's our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a second chance at agriculture." Isha Datar’s TED talk on how cell-based meats could eliminate the horror of industrial animal farming. YouTube
There’s A Bug In Your Bagel: "The NY Times sets up a ridiculous false choice: Either we pollute the planet and treat animals inhumanely, or we eat crickets. Really?" Civil Eats
Comparing Apples to Burgers: The scrutiny of the plant-based industry is wrongly focused on sales. Instead, we should be looking at the bottom line environmentally, digging into transparency, figuring out the final word on the good-for-you or better-for-you $100-dollar question. Technically Food
Message In A Bottle: Mezcal producers are revolting and declining to join the official denominación de origen (DO) certification program in Mexico because the restrictions have become too onerous. “The only thing clear to us today is that the denomination of origin has hijacked the word mezcal from the people who produce it. We cannot use the word, and we cannot freely express our opinions.” Eater
Apex Predators, We Are: “Humans are amazing predators: whether it’s eating the grey squirrel in Britain or the European green crab in the US, we know eating them can have an impact on populations.” Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont, on invasivorism (eating invasive species). The Guardian
Show Me The Money: We couldn’t watch this video clip promoting The Flyfish Club without cracking up. “Flyfish Club (FFC) is the world's first member's only private dining club where membership is purchased on the blockchain as a Non-Fungible-Token (NFT) and owned by the token-holder to gain access to our restaurant and various culinary, cultural, and social experiences.”
What could possibly go wrong? 🤔 h/t The Family Meal
Apparently, all 1501 FlyFish Club NFT tokens have sold out. That’s approximately $15M in initial funding.
CALLING ALL FOOD WRITERS
👀 SPOTTED
A Payle of Cold Watter: Celia Sack of Omnivore Books posted these screenshots from A Butlers Recipe Book, by Philip James (1719) to Twitter. 18th-century English is wonderful to read.
Eat Me Not. Eat Me.
On Point:
📻 On Repeat: On our Tidal playlist this week, some straight-up Americana from Sierra Ferrell: The Sea
That’s all for this week.
We’re outta here. Be well and take care,
–Bruce
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"Despite its artistic intentions and its many accomplishments, humankind owes its existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains." —Anonymous
Well, Not Spotify is good. So all's good, Bruce.
Hello Bruce, wondering if you could share your playlist somewhere more private than Tidal. I have never been able to avoid cookies and other stalking on Tidal. All said, love very bit of poetry. Every link. Everything! Vishwa