#90 | Burger & Muffin Boycotts
Wok Envy
Hello!
SUMMER
You are the ice cream sandwich connoisseur of your generation. Blessed are your floral shorteralls, your deeply pink fanny pack with travel-size lint roller just in case. Level of splendiferous in your outfit: 200. Types of invisible pain stemming from adolescent disasters in classrooms, locker rooms, & quite often Toyota Camrys: at least 10,000. You are not a jigglypuff, not yet a wigglytuff. Reporters & fathers call your generation “the worst.” Which really means “queer kids who could go online & learn that queer doesn’t have to mean disaster.” Or dead. Instead, queer means, splendiferously, you. & you means someone who knows that common flavors for ice cream sandwiches in Singapore include red bean, yam, & honeydew. Your powers are great, are growing. One day you will create an online personality quiz that also freshens the breath. The next day you will tell your father, You were wrong to say that I had to change. To make me promise I would. To make me promise. & promise.
—Chen Chen, Poetry, March 2021
Happy pride!
By the way, 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 last week’s newsletter was WBUR’s Cooked, a New Englander's 3-week search for sustainable eats.
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Just Pickle It: Farmers markets are flooded with summer squash these days, so we might as well pickle some, right? Sadly, we can’t grow them in our backyard because they mold and rot before ripening because we live in the arctic, aka fog. We scored these small heirloom varieties at the Balakian Farms stand at the Ferry Building farmers market; they should make for some fine little pickles. Recipe: Simple Overnight Courgette Pickles from Halen Môn
Wok Envy: If only we had this set up in our kitchen. "Savoury Stir-Fried River Shrimps," a classic of Shanghai cuisine. Chef Wang YouTube
Give Me Tempeh Or Give Me Death: Wei Tchou likes to ferment her way out of existential terror. Recipe: Homemade (Fermented) Tempeh. Prism
👀 Behind-The-Scenes: All the equipment World Central Kitchen relies on to produce hundreds of thousands of meals a day for Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion:
Yawn! SF is finally getting an NFT restaurant. Slated for a rooftop spot atop the Salesforce Transit Center and funded by the SHŌ Group, the project offers potential members a number of exclusive options depending on their investment tier. Choices include private car services, dinners with “celebrity guests,” once-in-a-lifetime trips to Japan, and more. Eater SF
BOYCOTT WEEK
The Muffin Wars: On Wednesday, the SF Chronicle published a story on Third Culture Bakery’s litigious strategy of sending cease-and-desist letters to bakers and food bloggers using the term “mochi muffin,” which they trademarked in 2018. Sure enough, Third Culture Bakery’s Yelp page was flooded with negative reviews, social media exploded in outrage and ignited calls to boycott the bakery’s muffins. SF Chronicle
ShakeShack Boycott? As reported by BillyPenn, the founders behind Martin’s Potato Rolls (number #1 branded potato roll in the U.S.) are backing Doug Mastriano, a republican candidate for governor in PA. Mastriano, who was at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally in D.C. and promotes QAnon beliefs and other conspiracy theories, recently proposed making everyone in the state of Pennsylvania re-register to vote again. Kenji Lopez Alt posted the story to Instagram, and a who’s who of food cognoscenti including Tom Colicchio (Top Chef), Kerry Diamond (Cherry Bombe), and more, dittoed his comments:
I will not be buying any more Martin’s products, nor will I support any establishment that uses their buns until they change suppliers, and I’d urge you to do the same if you don’t want your dollars supporting this stuff (this includes all @shakeshack and @federaldonuts locations).
Makes You Wonder 🤔: Seems counterintuitive that the folks at Amy’s Kitchen would unsubscribe from EAT.DRINK.THINK. after we posted the news about a boycott on their products back in March. Wouldn’t you want to know how the food media is covering you? The latest:
The Fast Food Grift: New report from Fight For $15 (fast food workers demanding $15/hr and a union) notes that 85% of fast-food workers in California report experiencing wage theft:
Over the course of the pandemic, fast-food workers emerged as an essential workforce, helping to feed communities and fuel local economies across the state. As our new survey finds, however, these same workers – employed by some of the world’s largest, most profitable brands – face rampant wage theft by their employers. Fast Food Justice Ahora
Bet You Didn’t Know: Scientists have determined that there are microplastic particles in about 40 percent of the human diet—which means you eat a credit card’s worth of plastic every week. Nautilus
Gut Punch: What do you make/bake when life crushes you like a bug? Bee Wilson made meatballs and eggy bread. Emily Nunn of the Department of Salad made salad, which she says is like “fairy food or a magic potion.” The Guardian
Peach Season Is Here:
LISTEN: EAT.DRINK.THINK. JUNE 2022 The Tidal playlist we listen to while cooking dinner every night. New tracks from Cola, M.I.A, Drop Saint Jude, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Kendrick Lamar, and X frontman, John Doe.
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