#95 | Do You Believe in Borscht?
Hello!
Akhmatova in the Borscht
“What can you tell me about Anna Akhmatova?” I asked my mother as she peeled beets in the kitchen, the red bits falling from her fingers like petals. “She was popular when I was young,” she told me, hands fumbling with the knife. “I couldn’t read much of her before I left Russia because they called her anti-Stalin, but I heard of her often.” “Was she censored?” I asked, and she nodded, scraping the beets into a big metal pan full of water and placing it on the stove. “They banned anything they didn’t like, and they really didn’t like her. Prohibited her writing for years, and killed her husband, another poet.” She turned to me as the stove heated up. “It’s a shame. I only found out afterwards how beautiful her poetry was. She had this one, ‘Requiem’, that the government hated most.” A hissing rose from the pot atop the stove, a wild shrieking and foaming, like some rabid tongue was trapped beneath that lid, rioting against it. But she turned a knob and the sound slowed, dimmed to silence. She dipped a ladle in and filled a bowl with soup. “It ended with her asking to have her memorial built not by the ocean or in nature, but instead in the prison where she spent so many days. And she describes the thawing ice streaming from her bronze eyelids, and birds singing as ships pass down the river. It’s utterly beautiful.” She walked to the table and set my bowl down. As she walked from it, I saw her hands were red, her palms dark and flushed with beetstains; and for a second, it looked like her fingers were bleeding, splattered with the stains of that horrid, dangerous act called creation.
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 Tamar Haspel’s column in The Washington Post: Diet soda is fine, and 3 other food truths it’s time you believed.
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Borscht! The culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking has been inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding due to the Russian invasion (but does not imply exclusivity, nor ownership, of the heritage concerned).
“The armed conflict has threatened the viability of the element. The displacement of people and bearers threatens the element, as people are unable not only to cook or grow local vegetables for borscht, but also to come together to practice the element, which undermines the social and cultural well-being of communities. The culture of borscht cooking has long been practiced and celebrated in all regions of Ukraine, with communities, families and restaurants developing their own versions of this traditional and popular dish, which is based on beetroot.” UNESCO
Related: We’re thrilled to announce Anna Voloshyna, SF resident, noted Ukrainain cook, and author of the upcoming Ukrainian cookbook, Budmo! Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen (Rizzoli, Sept. 2022) will be contributing a column with recipes to Edible SF beginning with the upcoming issue. Be sure to subscribe (use this link for $5 off the regular price), so you don’t miss Anna’s first recipe, a unique and original green borscht! Meanwhile, since it’s salmon season, try her Buckwheat Crusted Salmon with Fennel-Radish Slaw.
Something’s Fishy With Your Vinaigrette: Adding a dash of fish sauce is quicker and easier than pounding anchovies into your salad dressing (something we do religiously). Christian Reynoso’s Fish Sauce Vinaigrette. Taste
#Protip:
Fancy Like That:
Almonds By The Numbers: A billion pounds of California almonds are stranded at ports amid drought, and trade woes. LA Times
Almonds were the #1 California agricultural export in 2021 at $4.7 billion.
2.8 billion pounds is the potential almond harvest in California for 2022.
1.3 billion pounds of unsold almonds are stuck at processing and packing facilities due in part to a bottleneck at the Port of Oakland.
Because container ships make twice as many round trips with higher profit margins by sending empty containers back to Asia to pick up more goods for export instead of waiting in port here to be loaded with almonds.
On the other hand: “Call me optimistic, but things actually seem to be getting a little better.” David Phippen, California almond producer.
How Deep Is Your Dirt? Manpukuji carrots can grow up to three feet in length:
Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain: Eater’s three-part feature investigates chef Dan Barber and the bucolic Blue Hill at Stone Barns,’ a legendary farm-to-table restaurant located on the grounds of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in New York’s Hudson Valley. Allegations include that Barber fostered a toxic work environment in the kitchen (not exactly news in high-profile kitchens) while allegedly serving misrepresented food to dinner guests (where have we heard that before?), including animal products to vegetarian and vegan diners, all the while waxing poetic about the essential connections between soil health, flavor, and nutrition (blah, blah, blah).
“Telling guests stories about salvaged radishes and compost oven eggs does present a vision of a better world; those stories are also the foundation of Blue Hill’s worldwide fame, and bottom line. But Teall and numerous other former employees say they felt a deep disconnect between the image that brought them to work at Blue Hill and the daily realities of it — the challenging working conditions and the practices that they felt uncomfortable perpetuating in the dining room. They came to Blue Hill out of ambition, yes, but also to serve their values. The crushing pressure and emphasis on dazzling guests with inspiring stories, they say, caused them to compromise those values, in ways they now regret.” Eater
Cold Lobster Salad Hell: Joel Robuchon’s kitchens were well known as pressure cookers, “diners adored him for the deliciousness of his recipes, but what made Robuchon famous among chefs was the gobsmacking complexity of his cooking.” Preparation of his cold lobster salad required twenty steps, the last of which was squeezing 90 concentric circles of precisely spaced, evenly-sized dots of sauce out of a pastry bag. Bord (Launched by three Copenhagen-based journalists, Bord is a biweekly-ish newsletter about the Danish capital’s food and drink scene.)
What Gives You Joy? That’s one of the interview questions asked to potential employees at The Good Good Culture Club, the latest SF restaurant trying to transform the industry by eliminating tips, offering shorter hours at better pay, and breaking down the barriers between the front and back of the house. SF Chronicle
The Bear: Have you seen it on Hulu? Word on the internets is that it is one of the most authentic portrayals of what it’s like to work in restaurant kitchens (we’re halfway through and wholeheartedly agree). The New York Times weighs in.
Facts:
Dirty Drinking: If it’s a martini, making it dirty is a trend that won’t die, so it’s inevitable that with the popularity of tequila, the Dirty Tequila Martini is now a thing. Taste
Related: Mezcal Mojo. Tequila and Mezcal sales will pass whiskey as one of the most popular spirits in the U.S., and by 2023 the agave-based spirits will pass vodka as well. Bloomberg
Something’s Fishy With Fishing: Private equity firms and foreign investors have taken over much of New England’s fishing industry, leaving fishermen to make pennies on the dollar. “Tell me how I can catch 50,000 pounds of fish yet I don’t know what my kids are going to have for dinner.” Fisherman Jerry Leeman in Politico’s feature story, How Foreign Private Equity Hooked New England’s Fishing Industry.
Listen: On repeat this week is Hard Out Here, the new release from Raye. “Taking aim at her old label, the broader music industry, the patriarchy, and toxic masculinity, "Hard Out Here" revels in its unfettered honesty.” Broadway World
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