#76 The First Rule of Dumpling Club
🐙 World's First Octopus Farm
Hello!
IF WE MUST DIE
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
—Claude McKay | Published in 1917, under the pseudonym Eli Edwards, this poem defended Black rights and threatened retaliation for prejudice and abuse. It also eerily speaks to what the Ukrainian forces must face as they try to repel a Russian invasion.
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By the way, I'm Bruce Cole, Publisher of Edible San Francisco. Welcome to all the new subscribers, thanks for joining us!
The First Rule Of Dumpling Club: The cover story on our latest issue is part one of a four-part series by Cathay Bi, chef and owner of the Instagram-famous Dumpling Club (@dumplingclubsf ). Bi quit her tech job and joined the ranks of do-it-yourselfers by starting her own weeknight dumpling dinner-kit business; she shares her struggles and ahas along the way. First up, if you want to start your own business, just do it!
We’ve been busily distributing copies of the latest around town. If you’re a small business and want some complimentary copies for your customers, drop us a line (ediblesanfrancisco at gmail dot com) and we’ll drop some off.
Off With Their Heads! “Still, when contemporary food writers (and, I suppose, I am one) stray from celebrating flavors to probe the larger issues surrounding the parade of dishes to our tables — exploitation of labor, abuse of animals, climate change, the homogenizing of cuisines and cultures under globalization, systemic injustices that allow millions of people to go hungry each year — some readers complain. Food should not be political, they insist. Food is universal; food unites us. Let us have our cake in peace.” —Ligaya Mishan in the New York Times (paywall)
Eating Is An Agricultural Act: Michael Pollan and Alice Waters say that he changed their lives with those five words. The New Yorker
Knowing Where Your Food Comes From Is A Powerful Thing: A new survey will ask whether consumers know that meat labeled as “Product of U.S.A.” could—legally—come from cattle and hogs that were raised and slaughtered anywhere. The Counter
🐙 This Is Deeply Disturbing: World's first octopus farm stirs ethical debate.
Pork By Proxy: Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has set his sights on McDonald’s, picking a corporate fight with the fast-food giant over the treatment of pigs sourced for its U.S. pork supply. The Washington Post (paywall)
Frozen Assets: Lawsuits from white farmers have blocked $4 billion of pandemic aid that was allocated to Black farmers in the American Rescue Plan. The New York Times (paywall)
Winery Chefs Take A Backseat To Wine, But: “I was making $13 an hour at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. But now I’m home to feed (my daughter) dinner and give her a bath and put her to bed.” Chef Sarah Heller of Staglin Family Vineyards in the San Francisco Chronicle (paywall)
One Viral Cheeseburger Please; I'm a Chef. My Job Is to Make Food Instagrammable. America’s Test Kitchen
That’s Amaro! Seven bitter sodas to drink. Punch
The Rise Of The Nogroni: Cocktail writer Camper English agrees that the Negroni is one of the most popular nonalcoholic cocktails and that, "as soon as Seedlip took off, we saw imitations of both Campari and Negronis shortly thereafter." Good Drinks
🐍 Free Live Snake With Purchase: Actress Elizabeth Banks and Archer Roose Wines just launched the Archer Roose Snake Rewards Program. If you purchase 100,000 cases of Archer Roose and they will mail you a real, live snake of their choosing. Now if we can only find 99,000 friends to go in on it…
Calling All Gardeners! We ordered a few seeds, went a little overboard as usual: cumin, lovage, chard, more flowers than we have room to plant.
📻 On Repeat: On our Tidal playlist this week, I Been from LA poet, producer, MC, and artist Def Sound. If music was a menu, Def Sound would be the vegan option. 😉
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