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"title": "This Viet-Cajun Spot in San Jose Serves the Freshest Crawfish Boils Until 4 a.m.",
"headTitle": "This Viet-Cajun Spot in San Jose Serves the Freshest Crawfish Boils Until 4 a.m. | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954986\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7.jpg\" alt=\"Two men in glasses devouring their food ravenously. There's a big bowl of shrimp and crawfish in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">By the end of our meal at Cajun Bistro 7, we’d left a pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses in our wake. The Viet-Cajun spot in San Jose is open until 4 a.m. daily. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first thing you notice upon walking into San Jose’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is how barebones the setup is. Layers of disposable plastic tablecloth are stacked on every table, and there’s little decor to speak of beyond a potted bamboo plant and a few kitschy floral dinner plates mounted on the wall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a vibe I like to call “Asian Mom’s Basement,” and it happens to be the setting where I feel most comfortable — where a group of friends might spend several hours with a deck of cards and a spread of snacks, just shooting the shit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my experience, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/in-praise-of-late-night-ramen-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">restaurants that look like this\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> always serve amazing food, and Cajun Bistro 7 proved to be no exception. We trekked to this relatively low-profile strip mall shop because we heard it serves some of the best Viet-Cajun seafood boils in San Jose until 4 a.m. (!!!) every night. But if anything, that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">undersells \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just how good the restaurant is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a little past 10 o’clock on a Friday night, the place was packed with Vietnamese American twentysomethings, and every table had ordered one of the big seafood boil combinations — three or four pounds of crawfish, clams, mussels and head-on shrimp served in a plastic bag full of bright red sauce. It’s the kind of restaurant where plastic gloves are provided (and highly recommended), and you still wind up with a huge pile of dirty napkins at the end of your meal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954990\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of the Cajun Bistro 7 at night, when the restaurant is lit up as though glowing from within.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don’t be deceived by the restaurant’s understated appearance. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I will be honest: I’ve never been to Louisiana, and I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life telling people that I think crawfish are “OK” but, truthfully, a bit overrated. I realize now that I must have been eating a whole lot of frozen crawfish. The specimens at Cajun Bistro knocked my socks off — plump and meaty with firm, sweet flesh that was tastier than any lobster.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other seafood was also excellent, especially the gigantic shrimp, whose heads we ripped off with our hands, sucking on the sweet, briny juices inside. What sets this seafood boil apart, too, is the sauce. We opted for the “Sweet California,” which the owner recommended. At first, I worried it would be too sweet and too far removed from the traditional Cajun style. But if anything, it grew on me with every bite — super-garlicky and buttery with slight sweetness balanced by a tingle of heat, and a creaminess that I found irresistible. The evidence? The pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses we left in our wake.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This wasn’t just the best seafood boil I’ve had in San Jose. It might be the best one in the whole Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954597,arts_13954112,arts_13951914']\u003c/span>As if that that weren’t enough, Cajun Bistro also serves a full traditional Vietnamese menu, including one of the tastiest bowls of home-style bun rieu — the crab-infused tomato broth noodle soup — I’ve had in the Bay: a balanced, deeply flavorful broth, impeccably fresh herbs and a jolt of funky nuoc mam (fermented shrimp paste) to make you feel alive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right now is a good time to visit Cajun Bistro 7, as we’re nearing the peak of the Louisiana crawfish season (though the restaurant offers crawfish year-round, sourcing the little crustaceans from the Sacramento Delta during the fall and winter months). Maybe the most unbelievable thing about the restaurant, apart from the delicious food and friendly service, is — again — the fact that it’s open until 4 a.m. every single night. That decision, we were told, was born out of sheer practicality rather than some grand plan to dominate the South Bay’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13954112/orale-taco-truck-san-jose-late-night-pancakes-midnight-diners\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after-midnight food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Their live crawfish shipment comes in at 5 a.m. every morning, so they have to stay up that late anyway.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though I must admit: The idea of eating a full-on seafood boil at 4 o’clock in the morning sounds like sheer lunacy, even to me. But if you’ve achieved that particular side quest, I’d love to meet you at Cajun Bistro someday for a pre-dawn meal. If only just to shake your hand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily at 3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 116 in San Jose. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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There's a big bowl of shrimp and crawfish in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">By the end of our meal at Cajun Bistro 7, we’d left a pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses in our wake. The Viet-Cajun spot in San Jose is open until 4 a.m. daily. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first thing you notice upon walking into San Jose’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is how barebones the setup is. Layers of disposable plastic tablecloth are stacked on every table, and there’s little decor to speak of beyond a potted bamboo plant and a few kitschy floral dinner plates mounted on the wall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a vibe I like to call “Asian Mom’s Basement,” and it happens to be the setting where I feel most comfortable — where a group of friends might spend several hours with a deck of cards and a spread of snacks, just shooting the shit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my experience, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/in-praise-of-late-night-ramen-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">restaurants that look like this\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> always serve amazing food, and Cajun Bistro 7 proved to be no exception. We trekked to this relatively low-profile strip mall shop because we heard it serves some of the best Viet-Cajun seafood boils in San Jose until 4 a.m. (!!!) every night. But if anything, that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">undersells \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just how good the restaurant is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a little past 10 o’clock on a Friday night, the place was packed with Vietnamese American twentysomethings, and every table had ordered one of the big seafood boil combinations — three or four pounds of crawfish, clams, mussels and head-on shrimp served in a plastic bag full of bright red sauce. It’s the kind of restaurant where plastic gloves are provided (and highly recommended), and you still wind up with a huge pile of dirty napkins at the end of your meal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954990\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of the Cajun Bistro 7 at night, when the restaurant is lit up as though glowing from within.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Cajun-bistro-7-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don’t be deceived by the restaurant’s understated appearance. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I will be honest: I’ve never been to Louisiana, and I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life telling people that I think crawfish are “OK” but, truthfully, a bit overrated. I realize now that I must have been eating a whole lot of frozen crawfish. The specimens at Cajun Bistro knocked my socks off — plump and meaty with firm, sweet flesh that was tastier than any lobster.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other seafood was also excellent, especially the gigantic shrimp, whose heads we ripped off with our hands, sucking on the sweet, briny juices inside. What sets this seafood boil apart, too, is the sauce. We opted for the “Sweet California,” which the owner recommended. At first, I worried it would be too sweet and too far removed from the traditional Cajun style. But if anything, it grew on me with every bite — super-garlicky and buttery with slight sweetness balanced by a tingle of heat, and a creaminess that I found irresistible. The evidence? The pile of shrimp and crawfish carcasses we left in our wake.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This wasn’t just the best seafood boil I’ve had in San Jose. It might be the best one in the whole Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>As if that that weren’t enough, Cajun Bistro also serves a full traditional Vietnamese menu, including one of the tastiest bowls of home-style bun rieu — the crab-infused tomato broth noodle soup — I’ve had in the Bay: a balanced, deeply flavorful broth, impeccably fresh herbs and a jolt of funky nuoc mam (fermented shrimp paste) to make you feel alive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right now is a good time to visit Cajun Bistro 7, as we’re nearing the peak of the Louisiana crawfish season (though the restaurant offers crawfish year-round, sourcing the little crustaceans from the Sacramento Delta during the fall and winter months). Maybe the most unbelievable thing about the restaurant, apart from the delicious food and friendly service, is — again — the fact that it’s open until 4 a.m. every single night. That decision, we were told, was born out of sheer practicality rather than some grand plan to dominate the South Bay’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13954112/orale-taco-truck-san-jose-late-night-pancakes-midnight-diners\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after-midnight food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Their live crawfish shipment comes in at 5 a.m. every morning, so they have to stay up that late anyway.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though I must admit: The idea of eating a full-on seafood boil at 4 o’clock in the morning sounds like sheer lunacy, even to me. But if you’ve achieved that particular side quest, I’d love to meet you at Cajun Bistro someday for a pre-dawn meal. If only just to shake your hand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cajunbistro/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cajun Bistro 7\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. daily at 3005 Silver Creek Rd. Ste. 116 in San Jose. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 2020 — March 5, to be exact — Joe Sharp and Patty Tang debuted \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sf.rasarasa/?hl=en\">Rasa Rasa\u003c/a>, a shiny new food truck with a mission to initiate San Francisco diners into the bold, spice-forward universe of Indonesian home cooking — a universe populated by rich laksa noodle soups, fiery sambals and tenderly slow-cooked beef rendang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, we all know what happened next: Less than two weeks after the truck served its first bowls of laksa at the Parklab Gardens street food park in Mission Bay, COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns hit the Bay Area, and every food business in the region closed for the better part of three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a sense of poetry, then, to the fact that Sharp and Tang opened their first brick-and-mortar restaurant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.rasarasakitchen.com/\">Rasa Rasa Kitchen\u003c/a>, exactly four years after the truck’s debut. As of March 5, they’ve brought their home-style Indonesian cooking to a sit-down setting in the Mission, with a bigger and even more creative menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking back on those early months of 2020 now, Sharp says, “It was really tough, but we didn’t give up.” Thankfully, business picked up that summer, when everyone was going stir crazy and, for many San Franciscans, takeout from a food truck was the best available option. But in a very real sense, Rasa Rasa fought an uphill battle just to survive its first year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954943\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954943\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant on a street corner, with the sun setting in the background. The sign reads, \"Rasa Rasa.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant offers a larger, more family-style menu compared to Rasa Rasa’s original food truck. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rasa Rasa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For fans of Indonesian cuisine, the restaurant’s arrival is game-changing news. There have, of course, been a handful of Indonesian restaurants in the Bay Area going back as far as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13929177/borobudur-first-indonesian-restaurant-san-francisco-el-cerrito-grandmother-essay\">early 1980s\u003c/a>. But until the pandemic spurred a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/Bay-Area-s-underground-Indonesian-food-scene-is-16263823.php\">new wave\u003c/a> of ambitious food trucks and informal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908798/bakso-indonesian-street-food-noodle-soup-dgrobak-richmond\">pop-ups\u003c/a>, the cuisine has largely languished in obscurity in our region. From the beginning, Sharp and Tang’s motivation has been to introduce Indonesian food to a wider audience — to, as Sharp puts it, prove to people that it’s “actually very tasty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that front, the Rasa Rasa food truck has been a resounding success. Its spicy shrimp laksa, in particular, has built up a dedicated fanbase. When the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/best-food-trucks-san-francisco-bay-area/#:~:text=Rasa%20Rasa%20is%20a%20Southeast,a%20faintly%20sweet%20coconut%20broth.\">\u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/i>\u003c/a> named Rasa Rasa one of the Bay Area’s top food trucks, it praised the noodle soup’s “alluring spice punch tamped with a faintly sweet coconut broth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it was a bold decision for Rasa Rasa to not offer the laksa at the restaurant, except perhaps as an occasional weekend special. Sharp says part of their reasoning was that they didn’t want to cannibalize their own business. The food truck is stationed less than two miles away from the restaurant, after all, and they still want customers to have a reason to go to the truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13908798,arts_13929177,arts_13951914']Beyond that, though, Sharp says the concept behind the restaurant is to serve all of the food in a more traditional family-style format, with large dishes of curry, fried fish and sambal-smothered vegetables placed at the center of the table for everyone to share. Sharp is hoping that old customers who only ever ordered the laksa will come to the restaurant to try Rasa Rasa’s turmeric fried chicken, rica rica (a saucy pork belly stew) and beef rendang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rendang I tried during my visit was super-savory, tender enough to pull apart with a spoon, with an intricately spiced gravy that proved to be a fantastic vehicle for devouring a large quantity of fragrant coconut rice. Best of all was the little dollop of chunky sambal that came on the side — a chunky, shrimp paste–spiked version, hot enough to set my tongue on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without any prompting, Sharp concedes that his food isn’t strictly “authentic,” mostly to accommodate the more limited palate — and spice tolerance — of most American diners. If, for example, he made the rica rica the way he would serve it in Indonesia, it would be way too spicy for the vast majority of his customers to eat. Instead, he serves the spicy sauce on the side. True chileheads can of course ask for more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954944\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954944\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl.jpg\" alt=\"Beef rendang overflowing from the inside of a sourdough bread bowl.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Only in San Francisco? Beef rendang served inside a sourdough bread bowl. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rasa Rasa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apart from the spice adjustment, Sharp and Tang have also embraced the restaurant’s Northern California home. So, for instance, during dinner service, the gado gado (a kind of salad with both raw and cooked vegetables) comes in a baked tortilla bowl — a nod to the Mission’s vibrant Mexican food scene. And while Rasa Rasa does offer its beef rendang the traditional Indonesian way, over rice, you can also order it served inside the most San Francisco of vessels: a Boudin sourdough bread bowl. The most delicious way to eat this rendang bread bowl, Sharp says, is to just pull it apart with your hands after letting the sauce soak in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Sharp, the best thing about opening the restaurant is seeing the way that newcomers to Indonesian food have really embraced the cuisine. He recalls one recent customer’s response to his first rendang: “It’s so good! I feel like I have a parade of spice in my mouth!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sf.rasarasa/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Rasa Rasa Kitchen\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m.–9 p.m. for dinner, at 2200 Bryant St. in San Francisco. The Rasa Rasa food truck is open 11 a.m.–8 p.m. daily inside \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/parklabgardens/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Parklab Gardens\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> at 1379 4th St. in San Francisco.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In 2020 — March 5, to be exact — Joe Sharp and Patty Tang debuted \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sf.rasarasa/?hl=en\">Rasa Rasa\u003c/a>, a shiny new food truck with a mission to initiate San Francisco diners into the bold, spice-forward universe of Indonesian home cooking — a universe populated by rich laksa noodle soups, fiery sambals and tenderly slow-cooked beef rendang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, we all know what happened next: Less than two weeks after the truck served its first bowls of laksa at the Parklab Gardens street food park in Mission Bay, COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns hit the Bay Area, and every food business in the region closed for the better part of three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a sense of poetry, then, to the fact that Sharp and Tang opened their first brick-and-mortar restaurant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.rasarasakitchen.com/\">Rasa Rasa Kitchen\u003c/a>, exactly four years after the truck’s debut. As of March 5, they’ve brought their home-style Indonesian cooking to a sit-down setting in the Mission, with a bigger and even more creative menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking back on those early months of 2020 now, Sharp says, “It was really tough, but we didn’t give up.” Thankfully, business picked up that summer, when everyone was going stir crazy and, for many San Franciscans, takeout from a food truck was the best available option. But in a very real sense, Rasa Rasa fought an uphill battle just to survive its first year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954943\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954943\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant on a street corner, with the sun setting in the background. The sign reads, \"Rasa Rasa.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rasa-rasa-exterior-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant offers a larger, more family-style menu compared to Rasa Rasa’s original food truck. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rasa Rasa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For fans of Indonesian cuisine, the restaurant’s arrival is game-changing news. There have, of course, been a handful of Indonesian restaurants in the Bay Area going back as far as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13929177/borobudur-first-indonesian-restaurant-san-francisco-el-cerrito-grandmother-essay\">early 1980s\u003c/a>. But until the pandemic spurred a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/Bay-Area-s-underground-Indonesian-food-scene-is-16263823.php\">new wave\u003c/a> of ambitious food trucks and informal \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908798/bakso-indonesian-street-food-noodle-soup-dgrobak-richmond\">pop-ups\u003c/a>, the cuisine has largely languished in obscurity in our region. From the beginning, Sharp and Tang’s motivation has been to introduce Indonesian food to a wider audience — to, as Sharp puts it, prove to people that it’s “actually very tasty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that front, the Rasa Rasa food truck has been a resounding success. Its spicy shrimp laksa, in particular, has built up a dedicated fanbase. When the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/best-food-trucks-san-francisco-bay-area/#:~:text=Rasa%20Rasa%20is%20a%20Southeast,a%20faintly%20sweet%20coconut%20broth.\">\u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/i>\u003c/a> named Rasa Rasa one of the Bay Area’s top food trucks, it praised the noodle soup’s “alluring spice punch tamped with a faintly sweet coconut broth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it was a bold decision for Rasa Rasa to not offer the laksa at the restaurant, except perhaps as an occasional weekend special. Sharp says part of their reasoning was that they didn’t want to cannibalize their own business. The food truck is stationed less than two miles away from the restaurant, after all, and they still want customers to have a reason to go to the truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Beyond that, though, Sharp says the concept behind the restaurant is to serve all of the food in a more traditional family-style format, with large dishes of curry, fried fish and sambal-smothered vegetables placed at the center of the table for everyone to share. Sharp is hoping that old customers who only ever ordered the laksa will come to the restaurant to try Rasa Rasa’s turmeric fried chicken, rica rica (a saucy pork belly stew) and beef rendang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rendang I tried during my visit was super-savory, tender enough to pull apart with a spoon, with an intricately spiced gravy that proved to be a fantastic vehicle for devouring a large quantity of fragrant coconut rice. Best of all was the little dollop of chunky sambal that came on the side — a chunky, shrimp paste–spiked version, hot enough to set my tongue on fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without any prompting, Sharp concedes that his food isn’t strictly “authentic,” mostly to accommodate the more limited palate — and spice tolerance — of most American diners. If, for example, he made the rica rica the way he would serve it in Indonesia, it would be way too spicy for the vast majority of his customers to eat. Instead, he serves the spicy sauce on the side. True chileheads can of course ask for more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954944\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954944\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl.jpg\" alt=\"Beef rendang overflowing from the inside of a sourdough bread bowl.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/rendang-bread-bowl-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Only in San Francisco? Beef rendang served inside a sourdough bread bowl. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rasa Rasa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apart from the spice adjustment, Sharp and Tang have also embraced the restaurant’s Northern California home. So, for instance, during dinner service, the gado gado (a kind of salad with both raw and cooked vegetables) comes in a baked tortilla bowl — a nod to the Mission’s vibrant Mexican food scene. And while Rasa Rasa does offer its beef rendang the traditional Indonesian way, over rice, you can also order it served inside the most San Francisco of vessels: a Boudin sourdough bread bowl. The most delicious way to eat this rendang bread bowl, Sharp says, is to just pull it apart with your hands after letting the sauce soak in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Sharp, the best thing about opening the restaurant is seeing the way that newcomers to Indonesian food have really embraced the cuisine. He recalls one recent customer’s response to his first rendang: “It’s so good! I feel like I have a parade of spice in my mouth!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sf.rasarasa/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Rasa Rasa Kitchen\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m.–9 p.m. for dinner, at 2200 Bryant St. in San Francisco. The Rasa Rasa food truck is open 11 a.m.–8 p.m. daily inside \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/parklabgardens/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Parklab Gardens\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> at 1379 4th St. in San Francisco.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Do You Know the Way to the South Bay's Only Lumpia Eating Contest?",
"headTitle": "Do You Know the Way to the South Bay’s Only Lumpia Eating Contest? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>What’s the most lumpia you’ve ever eaten in one sitting? How fast did you consume the savory, starchy rolls of meat and cabbage? Do you think you could eat more than the stranger standing beside you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are questions you can answer at the South Bay’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4yzF0jP5KG/?img_index=1\">2nd Annual Lumpia Eating Contest\u003c/a>, set to take place in Milpitas on Saturday, March 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13932574,arts_13954112,arts_13953330']The food extravaganza was originally conceived by three childhood friends — Keith Canda, Chris Zamora, and Anthony Cruzet — who run a San Jose food truck called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932574/mestizo-san-jose-filipino-food-truck-la-pulga-mexican-hawaiian\">Mestizo\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was talked about throughout the Bay Area, and it’s never happened in [the San Jose area] before. It came together from just us sharing our ideas and getting the community involved,” Zamora says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Largely considered to be \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">the Bay Area’s sprawling mecca for immigrant foods\u003c/a>, San Jose’s culinary scene often gets overshadowed by the trendier, more bustling and outwardly attractive scenes in nearby San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. But as homegrown locals, the Mestizo boys know better. Last year, they aspired to showcase San Jose’s food offerings by throwing their inaugural Lumpia Eating Contest in San Jose’s Japantown . And it was a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954686\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63.jpg\" alt=\"a custom-made award trophy for the winner of the lumpia eating contest in San Jose\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The winner of the competition receives lifelong bragging rights and a custom award, in addition to a gift card, store credits and free merch. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Mestizo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Organized in collaboration with the legendary streetwear brand \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cukui/\">Cukui\u003c/a>, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/krucialprinting/\">Krucial Printing\u003c/a>, the lumpia-inhaling spectacle drew a block’s worth of onlookers and two tables of hungry eaters who were determined to be crowned the Bay Area’s king (or queen) of lumpia. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lifeof3hunnid/\">The winner\u003c/a> devoured 30 rolls in under five minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You do the math and you’re like, ‘Man, eating that much lumpia? We can do that,’” Zamora \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932574/mestizo-san-jose-filipino-food-truck-la-pulga-mexican-hawaiian\">told KQED\u003c/a> last year about that first lumpia-eating contest. “But then you see it, and it’s actually kind of hard to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s event will take place at Krucial Printing’s studio in Milpitas, which will offer more space for family entertainment, spectators and — of course — lumpia lovers. The menu will only consist of pork lumpia, and the rules are simple: Stomach as many of the golden-fried Filipino appetizers as digestively possible within five minutes, or be the fastest to finish the entire platter of 30 before the buzzer sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954687\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954687\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec.jpg\" alt=\"a paper tray of lumpia rolls are served during an eating competition\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Contestants must eat 30 lumpia rolls in under five minutes. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Mestizo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the organizers, Cruzet, admits that the lack of vegetarian options can be “limiting,” and Mestizo hopes to offer more variety for future editions of the contest. They also dream of teaming up with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">Lumpia Company, E-40’s Filipino food enterprise\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until then, Bay Area lumpia enthusiasts can rejoice in seeing a group of adults racing their way through a table’s worth of the crispy spring rolls, or maybe even take a bite out of the competition themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The South Bay’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4yzF0jP5KG/?img_index=1\">\u003ci>2nd Annual Lumpia Eating Contest\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will take place on Saturday, March 30 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Krucial Printing (821 Houret Ct., Milpitas). The event is family friendly and will include local food vendors and merchandise. Contact \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/westaymixin/\">\u003ci>Mestizo\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> for more details or questions about entry.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>What’s the most lumpia you’ve ever eaten in one sitting? How fast did you consume the savory, starchy rolls of meat and cabbage? Do you think you could eat more than the stranger standing beside you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are questions you can answer at the South Bay’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4yzF0jP5KG/?img_index=1\">2nd Annual Lumpia Eating Contest\u003c/a>, set to take place in Milpitas on Saturday, March 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The food extravaganza was originally conceived by three childhood friends — Keith Canda, Chris Zamora, and Anthony Cruzet — who run a San Jose food truck called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932574/mestizo-san-jose-filipino-food-truck-la-pulga-mexican-hawaiian\">Mestizo\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was talked about throughout the Bay Area, and it’s never happened in [the San Jose area] before. It came together from just us sharing our ideas and getting the community involved,” Zamora says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Largely considered to be \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">the Bay Area’s sprawling mecca for immigrant foods\u003c/a>, San Jose’s culinary scene often gets overshadowed by the trendier, more bustling and outwardly attractive scenes in nearby San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. But as homegrown locals, the Mestizo boys know better. Last year, they aspired to showcase San Jose’s food offerings by throwing their inaugural Lumpia Eating Contest in San Jose’s Japantown . And it was a hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954686\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63.jpg\" alt=\"a custom-made award trophy for the winner of the lumpia eating contest in San Jose\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/93289d82-940a-4e01-9507-de24952a4e63-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The winner of the competition receives lifelong bragging rights and a custom award, in addition to a gift card, store credits and free merch. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Mestizo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Organized in collaboration with the legendary streetwear brand \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cukui/\">Cukui\u003c/a>, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/krucialprinting/\">Krucial Printing\u003c/a>, the lumpia-inhaling spectacle drew a block’s worth of onlookers and two tables of hungry eaters who were determined to be crowned the Bay Area’s king (or queen) of lumpia. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lifeof3hunnid/\">The winner\u003c/a> devoured 30 rolls in under five minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You do the math and you’re like, ‘Man, eating that much lumpia? We can do that,’” Zamora \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932574/mestizo-san-jose-filipino-food-truck-la-pulga-mexican-hawaiian\">told KQED\u003c/a> last year about that first lumpia-eating contest. “But then you see it, and it’s actually kind of hard to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s event will take place at Krucial Printing’s studio in Milpitas, which will offer more space for family entertainment, spectators and — of course — lumpia lovers. The menu will only consist of pork lumpia, and the rules are simple: Stomach as many of the golden-fried Filipino appetizers as digestively possible within five minutes, or be the fastest to finish the entire platter of 30 before the buzzer sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954687\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954687\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec.jpg\" alt=\"a paper tray of lumpia rolls are served during an eating competition\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/b7bda3ab-cc68-4529-8f35-9c5be81b89ec-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Contestants must eat 30 lumpia rolls in under five minutes. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Mestizo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the organizers, Cruzet, admits that the lack of vegetarian options can be “limiting,” and Mestizo hopes to offer more variety for future editions of the contest. They also dream of teaming up with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">Lumpia Company, E-40’s Filipino food enterprise\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until then, Bay Area lumpia enthusiasts can rejoice in seeing a group of adults racing their way through a table’s worth of the crispy spring rolls, or maybe even take a bite out of the competition themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The South Bay’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4yzF0jP5KG/?img_index=1\">\u003ci>2nd Annual Lumpia Eating Contest\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will take place on Saturday, March 30 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Krucial Printing (821 Houret Ct., Milpitas). The event is family friendly and will include local food vendors and merchandise. Contact \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/westaymixin/\">\u003ci>Mestizo\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> for more details or questions about entry.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a Bay Area Mexican American, I don’t often feel the need to leave our Pacific shoreline in search of good Mexican food. After all, the Bay is home to the righteous Mission burrito — a game-changing \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWsvwwglD8I\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">culinary gem of generous proportions\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — as well as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936325/social-media-biggest-pupusas-burritos-instagram-tiktok-latinextravagant-bay-area\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a growing “Latinextravagant” food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sure, there’s always the occasional hater comparing us to L.A. and San Diego — which have larger Mexican populations and are closer to the border. But the Bay boasts a delicious array of regional Mexican foods scattered throughout East Oakland’s parking lots, San Jose’s markets and Richmond’s backyards. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And yet it would be foolish to think we’re the singular purveyor of Northern California’s best Mexican-inspired dishes. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As metropolitan as we are, I recently found some of my favorite Chicano-style tacos in Sacramento — and NBA All Star De’Aaron Fox agrees. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954471\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954471\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a carne asada taco with guacamole, cilantro and onions on a paper tray\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2083\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-800x651.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-1020x830.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-160x130.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-768x625.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-1536x1250.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-2048x1667.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-1920x1563.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bistek taco comes with carne asada, orange sauce and sliced avocado on a fried crisp tortilla. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a taco truck called \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/banzitostacos/\">Banzito’s\u003c/a> (formerly Bandito’s), I encountered my first “enchitaco.” It’s an open-faced enchilada that fuses magically with the highly Americanized taco ingredients of ground beef, lettuce, diced tomatoes and sour cream. I haven’t seen anything like it in Bay Area; clearly, there’s something different going on in Sacra.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With other ingredients like bacon bits and pepper jack cheese, Banzito’s Northern Califas tacos are closer to Tex-Mex than the central and northern Mexican classics revered in immigrant enclaves. Instead of striving for sanctimonious purity, chef Adam Saldaña focuses on remixing flavors you’ll likely find in a multi-generational Chicano household’s pantry, not from a taquero’s basket in Guadalajara. And that’s the beauty — and empowering reclamation — of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saldaña’s tacos might even get scoffed at by actual Mexicans, who often \u003ca href=\"https://www.ocweekly.com/why-dont-mexicans-like-mexican-restaurants-in-the-united-states-8457539/\">poke fun at Americanized Mexican food\u003c/a>. But not all tacos have to be praised by those who only know life in la República Mexicana, where context about what it’s like to grow up in the U.S. with Mexican heritage is often lost in translation. Banzito’s \u003cem>is\u003c/em> the translation, and reflects Saldaña’s experiences as a Sacramentan rather than some distant ideal of what a taco \u003ci>should\u003c/i> be. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His approach is clearly working. The tacos are so noticeably appealing to local tastebuds that Sacramento Kings point guard Fox has taken it upon himself to champion Banzito’s in perhaps the most flamboyant way an NBA player can.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954469\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954469\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a group of Sacramento Kings basketball fans wait in line to order tacos from a truck outside of the team's arena\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1882\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-800x588.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-1020x750.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-768x565.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-1536x1129.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-2048x1506.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-1920x1411.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of Sacramento Kings fans await their order from Banzito’s outside of Golden 1 Center. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On March 7, after Fox dropped 33 points in a pivotal win against the San Antonio Spurs, the phenom debuted his Curry-brand player edition sneakers, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NickDePaula/status/1765931757361037569\">dedicated to Banzito’s.\u003c/a> After the game, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/swipathefox/status/1765632799657349178\">he Tweeted Saldaña to save him a plate of food\u003c/a>. He then slid out to the truck, in front of the arena, and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BanzitosTacos/status/1766163989422366935/photo/2\">scarfed down some carne asada\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my lifetime of eating tacos and watching the NBA, I’ve never once seen an NBA player endorse an independent Mexican food business. The way Fox has been giving Saldaña his props, in my eyes, is worthy of the Mexican American Hall of Fame.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NickDePaula/status/1765931757361037569\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A quick lurk through \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/swipathefox\">Fox’s social pages\u003c/a> reveal a longtime affinity for Banzito’s, with raving posts that date back at least a year. Endearingly, the player and the taquero quote tweet and retweet one another about the food, Sacramento and basketball. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this season, when reports of Fox’s injury surfaced, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BanzitosTacos/status/1719037038803222995\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saldaña sent him horchata and tacos\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. When Fox and the Kings recently won, the player shared an Instagram post to his million followers with the caption, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/swipathefox/p/C4RXXSMvFKF/?img_index=1\">“Beams and Banzitos.”\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s safe to say that it’s the most heartwarming friendship that has ever publicly blossomed between a homegrown taquero and an NBA star. [aside postid='arts_13954597']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It doesn’t hurt that \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/swipathefox/status/1761586212022931898\">Saldaña is a diehard Kings fan who previously catered privately for the team\u003c/a>. Banzito’s designs and slogans align perfectly with the Kings’ fanbase, too: “Light The Tacobeam,” \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BanzitosTacos/status/1768129036931445239\">a makeshift logo with a purple bandana-wearing fox.\u003c/a> These are the kinds of brand innovations and menu items that Saldaña is dishing out — and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Cee_Caldwell/status/1761191744602030225\">Sacramentans, including Fox and his wife, Recee, are eating it up\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saldaña just launched his brightly lit teal-and-yellow food truck near downtown’s sparkling Golden 1 Center. And earlier this month, he announced he’ll be expanding with pop-ups at Fowler Ranch Farm Brewery in Lincoln and Sharif & Co. in Roseville.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954459\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954459\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a basketball fan eats a taco in front of a basketball arena\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2491\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-800x778.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-1020x992.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-768x747.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-1536x1495.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-2048x1993.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-1920x1868.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Local author Jose Vadi eats at Banzito’s while flashing his Sacramento gear.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Outside the Golden 1 Center, you may have to wait in line to get your first bite. Without much nearby competition (besides the more upscale Mexican restaurant Polcano), Saldaña is taking his shot. And he hasn’t missed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At its core, Banzito’s represents the way children of immigrants reinvent culture, a subversive kind of nourishment that thrives despite naysayers and doubters. Just like lowriders, another symbol of Chicano style and ingenuity, Banzito’s is re-engineering what we know in a slightly familiar, edible context. [aside postid='arts_13954624']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s precisely that imperfect (or perfect?) hybridity that allows Saldaña’s tortilla-bound inventions to accentuate the tastes of what it’s like to be raised by Mexicans outside of Mexico, this far north from the border. As they say in parts of Mexico, every pueblo has its own kind of salsa. This is Sacramento’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/banzitostacos/\">Banzito’s\u003c/a> taco truck is located in front of Golden 1 Center, on the corner of K and 7th Street, before and after Kings games. They also pop-up near Sharif & Co. (1001 Creekside Ridge Drive Roseville, CA 95678) and at Fowler Ranch Farm Brewery (3111 Lincoln Newcastle Hwy., Lincoln, CA 95648). \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/banzitostacos/\">Check their Instagram page\u003c/a> for more hours and locations.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a Bay Area Mexican American, I don’t often feel the need to leave our Pacific shoreline in search of good Mexican food. After all, the Bay is home to the righteous Mission burrito — a game-changing \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWsvwwglD8I\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">culinary gem of generous proportions\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — as well as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936325/social-media-biggest-pupusas-burritos-instagram-tiktok-latinextravagant-bay-area\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a growing “Latinextravagant” food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sure, there’s always the occasional hater comparing us to L.A. and San Diego — which have larger Mexican populations and are closer to the border. But the Bay boasts a delicious array of regional Mexican foods scattered throughout East Oakland’s parking lots, San Jose’s markets and Richmond’s backyards. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And yet it would be foolish to think we’re the singular purveyor of Northern California’s best Mexican-inspired dishes. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As metropolitan as we are, I recently found some of my favorite Chicano-style tacos in Sacramento — and NBA All Star De’Aaron Fox agrees. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954471\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954471\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a carne asada taco with guacamole, cilantro and onions on a paper tray\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2083\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-800x651.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-1020x830.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-160x130.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-768x625.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-1536x1250.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-2048x1667.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/taco1-1920x1563.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bistek taco comes with carne asada, orange sauce and sliced avocado on a fried crisp tortilla. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a taco truck called \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/banzitostacos/\">Banzito’s\u003c/a> (formerly Bandito’s), I encountered my first “enchitaco.” It’s an open-faced enchilada that fuses magically with the highly Americanized taco ingredients of ground beef, lettuce, diced tomatoes and sour cream. I haven’t seen anything like it in Bay Area; clearly, there’s something different going on in Sacra.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With other ingredients like bacon bits and pepper jack cheese, Banzito’s Northern Califas tacos are closer to Tex-Mex than the central and northern Mexican classics revered in immigrant enclaves. Instead of striving for sanctimonious purity, chef Adam Saldaña focuses on remixing flavors you’ll likely find in a multi-generational Chicano household’s pantry, not from a taquero’s basket in Guadalajara. And that’s the beauty — and empowering reclamation — of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saldaña’s tacos might even get scoffed at by actual Mexicans, who often \u003ca href=\"https://www.ocweekly.com/why-dont-mexicans-like-mexican-restaurants-in-the-united-states-8457539/\">poke fun at Americanized Mexican food\u003c/a>. But not all tacos have to be praised by those who only know life in la República Mexicana, where context about what it’s like to grow up in the U.S. with Mexican heritage is often lost in translation. Banzito’s \u003cem>is\u003c/em> the translation, and reflects Saldaña’s experiences as a Sacramentan rather than some distant ideal of what a taco \u003ci>should\u003c/i> be. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His approach is clearly working. The tacos are so noticeably appealing to local tastebuds that Sacramento Kings point guard Fox has taken it upon himself to champion Banzito’s in perhaps the most flamboyant way an NBA player can.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954469\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954469\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a group of Sacramento Kings basketball fans wait in line to order tacos from a truck outside of the team's arena\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1882\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-800x588.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-1020x750.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-768x565.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-1536x1129.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-2048x1506.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/IMG_0666-1920x1411.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of Sacramento Kings fans await their order from Banzito’s outside of Golden 1 Center. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On March 7, after Fox dropped 33 points in a pivotal win against the San Antonio Spurs, the phenom debuted his Curry-brand player edition sneakers, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NickDePaula/status/1765931757361037569\">dedicated to Banzito’s.\u003c/a> After the game, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/swipathefox/status/1765632799657349178\">he Tweeted Saldaña to save him a plate of food\u003c/a>. He then slid out to the truck, in front of the arena, and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BanzitosTacos/status/1766163989422366935/photo/2\">scarfed down some carne asada\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my lifetime of eating tacos and watching the NBA, I’ve never once seen an NBA player endorse an independent Mexican food business. The way Fox has been giving Saldaña his props, in my eyes, is worthy of the Mexican American Hall of Fame.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A quick lurk through \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/swipathefox\">Fox’s social pages\u003c/a> reveal a longtime affinity for Banzito’s, with raving posts that date back at least a year. Endearingly, the player and the taquero quote tweet and retweet one another about the food, Sacramento and basketball. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this season, when reports of Fox’s injury surfaced, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BanzitosTacos/status/1719037038803222995\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saldaña sent him horchata and tacos\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. When Fox and the Kings recently won, the player shared an Instagram post to his million followers with the caption, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/swipathefox/p/C4RXXSMvFKF/?img_index=1\">“Beams and Banzitos.”\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s safe to say that it’s the most heartwarming friendship that has ever publicly blossomed between a homegrown taquero and an NBA star. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It doesn’t hurt that \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/swipathefox/status/1761586212022931898\">Saldaña is a diehard Kings fan who previously catered privately for the team\u003c/a>. Banzito’s designs and slogans align perfectly with the Kings’ fanbase, too: “Light The Tacobeam,” \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/BanzitosTacos/status/1768129036931445239\">a makeshift logo with a purple bandana-wearing fox.\u003c/a> These are the kinds of brand innovations and menu items that Saldaña is dishing out — and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Cee_Caldwell/status/1761191744602030225\">Sacramentans, including Fox and his wife, Recee, are eating it up\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saldaña just launched his brightly lit teal-and-yellow food truck near downtown’s sparkling Golden 1 Center. And earlier this month, he announced he’ll be expanding with pop-ups at Fowler Ranch Farm Brewery in Lincoln and Sharif & Co. in Roseville.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954459\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954459\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a basketball fan eats a taco in front of a basketball arena\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2491\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-800x778.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-1020x992.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-768x747.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-1536x1495.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-2048x1993.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Banzitos2-1920x1868.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Local author Jose Vadi eats at Banzito’s while flashing his Sacramento gear.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Outside the Golden 1 Center, you may have to wait in line to get your first bite. Without much nearby competition (besides the more upscale Mexican restaurant Polcano), Saldaña is taking his shot. And he hasn’t missed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At its core, Banzito’s represents the way children of immigrants reinvent culture, a subversive kind of nourishment that thrives despite naysayers and doubters. Just like lowriders, another symbol of Chicano style and ingenuity, Banzito’s is re-engineering what we know in a slightly familiar, edible context. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s precisely that imperfect (or perfect?) hybridity that allows Saldaña’s tortilla-bound inventions to accentuate the tastes of what it’s like to be raised by Mexicans outside of Mexico, this far north from the border. As they say in parts of Mexico, every pueblo has its own kind of salsa. This is Sacramento’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/banzitostacos/\">Banzito’s\u003c/a> taco truck is located in front of Golden 1 Center, on the corner of K and 7th Street, before and after Kings games. They also pop-up near Sharif & Co. (1001 Creekside Ridge Drive Roseville, CA 95678) and at Fowler Ranch Farm Brewery (3111 Lincoln Newcastle Hwy., Lincoln, CA 95648). \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/banzitostacos/\">Check their Instagram page\u003c/a> for more hours and locations.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Yes, Fremont Also Has a Restaurant Week. Here’s What to Check Out.",
"headTitle": "Yes, Fremont Also Has a Restaurant Week. Here’s What to Check Out. | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953885/oakland-restaurant-week-2024\">restaurant week\u003c/a> season, apparently, when every \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitberkeley.com/food-drinks/restaurant-week/\">city\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.peninsularestaurantweek.com/\">micro-region\u003c/a> in the Bay rolls out its own lineup of prix-fixe meal deals, as if to say, “Hello! Spring is here! Wouldn’t you like to eat a juicy \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/billy-roys-burger-co.html\">burger\u003c/a>?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont is no exception — though its second annual restaurant week, running March 22–31, might be overshadowed by splashier promotions taking place in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfrestaurantweek.com/\">neighboring cities\u003c/a> with more famous, better-established food scenes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13952384,arts_13901063,arts_13897936']But real ones know that Fremont is one the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">great immigrant food cities\u003c/a>, due in part to its proximity to the tech hubs of Silicon Valley. As a result, Fremont has one of the densest concentrations of high-quality Indian restaurants in the Bay Area, many of which specialize in one specific item. It’s one of the best places to go if you’re looking for hard-to-find \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897936/best-taiwanese-restaurants-sf-oakland-cupertino-bay-area\">Taiwanese\u003c/a> dishes. And the city has also long been home to one of the largest Afghan populations in the U.S. — and, with it, the best Afghan food scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of which makes \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/\">Fremont Restaurant Week\u003c/a> particularly unique. For example, among the suburb’s 45 participating restaurants is my favorite Afghan spot, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/deafghankabobhouse.html\">De Afghanan\u003c/a>, which is offering a deal on a sampler plate of their excellent kebabs during the promotion (pro tip: ask for extra green sauce). \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/cafemei.html\">Cafe Mei\u003c/a>, one of the Bay Area’s most singular Taiwanese spots because of its focus on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901063/cafe-mei-taiwanese-breakfast-sandwich-burger-fremont\">Taiwanese breakfast sandwiches\u003c/a>, is promoting its new deluxe cheeseburger with bacon and egg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954627\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954627\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding a cheeseburger over a tray of French fries.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">YSG Halal specializes in Pakistani-style desi burgers. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most exciting is how extensive the South Asian options are. \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/dosa-express.html\">Dosa Xpress SAB\u003c/a> is one of the most popular new South Indian dosa specialists in the area, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/hyderabad-dum-biryani.html\">Hyderabad Dum Biriyani\u003c/a> serves one of the better versions of its namesake dish. There’s also \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/mumbai-chowk.html\">Mumbai Chowk\u003c/a>, which specializes in Mumbai street foods and seafood dishes. Meanwhile, Pakistani burger spot \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/ysg-halalyeeshaansgrubb.html\">YSG Halal\u003c/a> — recently featured in KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952384/pakistani-desi-burger-fremont-late-night\">late-night dining series\u003c/a> — is offering free milkshakes (I highly recommend the mango) with any burger combo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, other immigrant cuisines and local mom-and-pop shops are well represented too. It’s also worth noting that unlike other restaurant week promotions, which tend to focus mostly on two- or three-course prix-fixe meals, most of the participating Fremont restaurants are offering discounts on a handful of specific items — so it’s worth scoping out \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/specials.html\">the details\u003c/a> before you make the trek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/\">Fremont Restaurant Week\u003c/a> takes place from Friday, March 22 through Sunday, March 31. Check each \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/specials.html\">specific restaurant’s listing\u003c/a> for details about its promotion.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953885/oakland-restaurant-week-2024\">restaurant week\u003c/a> season, apparently, when every \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitberkeley.com/food-drinks/restaurant-week/\">city\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.peninsularestaurantweek.com/\">micro-region\u003c/a> in the Bay rolls out its own lineup of prix-fixe meal deals, as if to say, “Hello! Spring is here! Wouldn’t you like to eat a juicy \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/billy-roys-burger-co.html\">burger\u003c/a>?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont is no exception — though its second annual restaurant week, running March 22–31, might be overshadowed by splashier promotions taking place in \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfrestaurantweek.com/\">neighboring cities\u003c/a> with more famous, better-established food scenes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But real ones know that Fremont is one the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">great immigrant food cities\u003c/a>, due in part to its proximity to the tech hubs of Silicon Valley. As a result, Fremont has one of the densest concentrations of high-quality Indian restaurants in the Bay Area, many of which specialize in one specific item. It’s one of the best places to go if you’re looking for hard-to-find \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897936/best-taiwanese-restaurants-sf-oakland-cupertino-bay-area\">Taiwanese\u003c/a> dishes. And the city has also long been home to one of the largest Afghan populations in the U.S. — and, with it, the best Afghan food scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of which makes \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/\">Fremont Restaurant Week\u003c/a> particularly unique. For example, among the suburb’s 45 participating restaurants is my favorite Afghan spot, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/deafghankabobhouse.html\">De Afghanan\u003c/a>, which is offering a deal on a sampler plate of their excellent kebabs during the promotion (pro tip: ask for extra green sauce). \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/cafemei.html\">Cafe Mei\u003c/a>, one of the Bay Area’s most singular Taiwanese spots because of its focus on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901063/cafe-mei-taiwanese-breakfast-sandwich-burger-fremont\">Taiwanese breakfast sandwiches\u003c/a>, is promoting its new deluxe cheeseburger with bacon and egg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954627\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954627\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger.jpg\" alt=\"Hand holding a cheeseburger over a tray of French fries.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/YSG-halal-burger-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">YSG Halal specializes in Pakistani-style desi burgers. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most exciting is how extensive the South Asian options are. \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/dosa-express.html\">Dosa Xpress SAB\u003c/a> is one of the most popular new South Indian dosa specialists in the area, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/hyderabad-dum-biryani.html\">Hyderabad Dum Biriyani\u003c/a> serves one of the better versions of its namesake dish. There’s also \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/mumbai-chowk.html\">Mumbai Chowk\u003c/a>, which specializes in Mumbai street foods and seafood dishes. Meanwhile, Pakistani burger spot \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/ysg-halalyeeshaansgrubb.html\">YSG Halal\u003c/a> — recently featured in KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952384/pakistani-desi-burger-fremont-late-night\">late-night dining series\u003c/a> — is offering free milkshakes (I highly recommend the mango) with any burger combo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, other immigrant cuisines and local mom-and-pop shops are well represented too. It’s also worth noting that unlike other restaurant week promotions, which tend to focus mostly on two- or three-course prix-fixe meals, most of the participating Fremont restaurants are offering discounts on a handful of specific items — so it’s worth scoping out \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/specials.html\">the details\u003c/a> before you make the trek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/\">Fremont Restaurant Week\u003c/a> takes place from Friday, March 22 through Sunday, March 31. Check each \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremontrestaurantweek.com/specials.html\">specific restaurant’s listing\u003c/a> for details about its promotion.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Top Dog Is Just as Good as You Remember",
"headTitle": "Top Dog Is Just as Good as You Remember | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954605\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954605\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of two men eating hot dogs standing up, inside the hot dog shop. Behind them, a woman adds ketchup to her hot dog.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In its own way, Top Dog is a quintessential Berkeley restaurant — one that feeds hungry college students, and also middle-aged cartoonists and writers, until 3 a.m. on weekends. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene. This week, guest artist \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/brianabreaks/?hl=en\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Briana Loewinsohn\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> joins the excursion.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you attended UC Berkeley, or spent any significant amount of time near campus, then Top Dog requires no introduction. Open since 1966, the original Durant Avenue location is just a slip of a no-frills hot dog joint, with a bar of self-serve condiments and toppings and a small counter where maybe three diners, tops, can stand shoulder-to-shoulder while housing some classic all-beef wieners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For generations of Berkeleyites, however, the place is magic. People always want to start with Chez Panisse when telling the city’s illustrious food history, but in its own way, Top Dog is just as much of a quintessentially Berkeley restaurant, with its jaunty wiener-in-a-top-hat logo, offbeat libertarian propaganda posters (“Discard Statism. Unbend the Knee!”) and gruff grill cooks who brook no bullshit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-Dog-Berkeley-libertarian-aid-coronavirus-15200903.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">endured\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for all these years, through various \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/08/13/berkeleys-top-dog-fires-employee-went-white-nationalist-rally\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">controversies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and nightmarish street parking, for one simple reason: The hot dogs themselves are so damn good. Especially when you walk into the shop at 2 a.m., when every other restaurant in the vicinity is closed, there isn’t a more beautiful sight than the Top Dog flat-top, which is always piled high with dozens of sizzling sausages — more than you would think is advisable to cook at one time. But those grillmasters know what they’re doing. For as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, packages of cold Top Dog franks have been easy enough to buy and cook at home. They just never taste as good as they do at the mothership.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954606\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954606\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a hot dog restaurant. The \"Top Dog\" sign has a logo of a hot dog wearing a top hat.' width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original Berkeley location has been open since 1966. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are 11 different sausages on the menu, each of them with their own brigade of loyalists. The original kosher all-beef dogs are, of course, unimpeachable, with that snappiness to their casing that’s at the heart of the restaurant’s almost-60-year legacy. If you eat pork, though? Allow me to recommend the garlic frankfurter, which boasts a 75/25 mix of beef and pork and fresh garlic in the sausage itself, resulting in the juiciest, most flavorful dog of them all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954112,arts_13930727,arts_13914585']\u003c/span>Really, though, it’s hard to go wrong. The hot links are excellent, more akin to spicy frankfurters than the kind of thing you’d get a barbecue spot. If you’d like something a little softer and squishier, the bockwurst has your name written on it. And, with apologies to anyone from Chicago or New York, I’m convinced that Top Dog’s crusty, well-toasted sesame-seed French rolls might be the greatest hot dog bun of them all. They just have the perfect amount of airiness and chew.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best thing about eating a Top Dog at 1 o’clock in the morning is the simplicity of the meal. The dogs don’t really need anything added, though a tub of the mild, creamy potato salad makes for a nice side. And the standard, serve-yourself condiments station, in its own way, stays true to the restaurant’s libertarian spirit. Want to drench your hot dog with ketchup like you’re a small child? No one will judge you here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You would think that this slice of campus around Durant and Telegraph avenues would be a gold mine for after-hours deliciousness, but the options are surprisingly sparse. There’s Kingpin Donuts (a late-night legend in its own right), a couple of pizzerias, a boba shop — and, honestly, not much else of note. Gourmet sports bars, fancified Taco Bells, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kqedfood/p/Ct4ciTYR5-t/?img_index=1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">late-night coffee shops\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and “Munchie”-themed meal delivery services have come and gone and come again, but at the end of a long, hungry night, Top Dog is still the king. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">May it reign for many years to come.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.topdoghotdogs.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog’s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> original Berkeley location is at 2543 Durant Ave. in Berkeley. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m.–2 a.m., Friday 10 a.m.–3 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.–2 a.m. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954605\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954605\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of two men eating hot dogs standing up, inside the hot dog shop. Behind them, a woman adds ketchup to her hot dog.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_dog_2000px-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In its own way, Top Dog is a quintessential Berkeley restaurant — one that feeds hungry college students, and also middle-aged cartoonists and writers, until 3 a.m. on weekends. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene. This week, guest artist \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/brianabreaks/?hl=en\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Briana Loewinsohn\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> joins the excursion.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you attended UC Berkeley, or spent any significant amount of time near campus, then Top Dog requires no introduction. Open since 1966, the original Durant Avenue location is just a slip of a no-frills hot dog joint, with a bar of self-serve condiments and toppings and a small counter where maybe three diners, tops, can stand shoulder-to-shoulder while housing some classic all-beef wieners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For generations of Berkeleyites, however, the place is magic. People always want to start with Chez Panisse when telling the city’s illustrious food history, but in its own way, Top Dog is just as much of a quintessentially Berkeley restaurant, with its jaunty wiener-in-a-top-hat logo, offbeat libertarian propaganda posters (“Discard Statism. Unbend the Knee!”) and gruff grill cooks who brook no bullshit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-Dog-Berkeley-libertarian-aid-coronavirus-15200903.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">endured\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for all these years, through various \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/08/13/berkeleys-top-dog-fires-employee-went-white-nationalist-rally\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">controversies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and nightmarish street parking, for one simple reason: The hot dogs themselves are so damn good. Especially when you walk into the shop at 2 a.m., when every other restaurant in the vicinity is closed, there isn’t a more beautiful sight than the Top Dog flat-top, which is always piled high with dozens of sizzling sausages — more than you would think is advisable to cook at one time. But those grillmasters know what they’re doing. For as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, packages of cold Top Dog franks have been easy enough to buy and cook at home. They just never taste as good as they do at the mothership.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954606\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954606\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a hot dog restaurant. The \"Top Dog\" sign has a logo of a hot dog wearing a top hat.' width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Top_Dog_2000px-2-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original Berkeley location has been open since 1966. \u003ccite>(Briana Loewinsohn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are 11 different sausages on the menu, each of them with their own brigade of loyalists. The original kosher all-beef dogs are, of course, unimpeachable, with that snappiness to their casing that’s at the heart of the restaurant’s almost-60-year legacy. If you eat pork, though? Allow me to recommend the garlic frankfurter, which boasts a 75/25 mix of beef and pork and fresh garlic in the sausage itself, resulting in the juiciest, most flavorful dog of them all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>Really, though, it’s hard to go wrong. The hot links are excellent, more akin to spicy frankfurters than the kind of thing you’d get a barbecue spot. If you’d like something a little softer and squishier, the bockwurst has your name written on it. And, with apologies to anyone from Chicago or New York, I’m convinced that Top Dog’s crusty, well-toasted sesame-seed French rolls might be the greatest hot dog bun of them all. They just have the perfect amount of airiness and chew.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best thing about eating a Top Dog at 1 o’clock in the morning is the simplicity of the meal. The dogs don’t really need anything added, though a tub of the mild, creamy potato salad makes for a nice side. And the standard, serve-yourself condiments station, in its own way, stays true to the restaurant’s libertarian spirit. Want to drench your hot dog with ketchup like you’re a small child? No one will judge you here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You would think that this slice of campus around Durant and Telegraph avenues would be a gold mine for after-hours deliciousness, but the options are surprisingly sparse. There’s Kingpin Donuts (a late-night legend in its own right), a couple of pizzerias, a boba shop — and, honestly, not much else of note. Gourmet sports bars, fancified Taco Bells, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kqedfood/p/Ct4ciTYR5-t/?img_index=1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">late-night coffee shops\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and “Munchie”-themed meal delivery services have come and gone and come again, but at the end of a long, hungry night, Top Dog is still the king. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">May it reign for many years to come.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.topdoghotdogs.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Dog’s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> original Berkeley location is at 2543 Durant Ave. in Berkeley. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m.–2 a.m., Friday 10 a.m.–3 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.–2 a.m. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "San Jose’s Massive Suhoor Fest Is a Paradise for Halal Food Lovers",
"headTitle": "San Jose’s Massive Suhoor Fest Is a Paradise for Halal Food Lovers | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Picture this scene at midnight: You pull into a San Jose parking lot that’s been converted, for one night only, into what \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elhalalamigos/\">El Halal Amigos’\u003c/a> Hashim Abdelfattah describes as a “giant, man-made city.” In every direction, masses of people gather under the stars to mingle with friends, rummage through clothing stalls, listen to Arabic music, sip on free chai samples and, of course, wait in line at one of the many food stalls serving halal dishes from all across the Islamic diaspora.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welcome to \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4jlfKjxPwm/\">Suhoor Fest\u003c/a>, an annual food-focused, late-night \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979258/ramadan-2024-where-to-join-iftars-and-suhoors-in-the-bay-area\">Ramadan celebration\u003c/a> co-organized by \u003ca href=\"https://www.halalfest.com/\">Halal Fest\u003c/a> and El Halal Amigos. Now in its third year, the festival’s 2024 edition will take place on Saturday, March 23, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.saba-igc.org/\">SABA Center\u003c/a> in North San Jose. It’s by far the largest event of its kind here in the Bay Area. All told, about 25,000 people attended last year’s event, Abdelfattah estimates. This year, he expects the turnout to be that big again — if not bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like the entire Muslim population of California comes out,” Abdelfattah says. “I kid you not: It’s like walking into a 49ers game. It shocks me every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11979258,arts_13952384,arts_13950577']Suhoor, of course, refers to the last meal that observant Muslims eat each night \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101892659/ramadan-a-time-to-fast-but-also-a-time-to-celebrate-food\">during Ramadan\u003c/a>, in the early pre-dawn hours before they begin their fast for the day. In areas with a large Muslim population, it has become quite common for local businesses and community organizations to throw this kind of communal suhoor food festival — though few in the U.S. are on the same scale as San Jose’s Suhoor Fest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abdelfattah, who is, in many ways, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4pohflL4zl/\">public face\u003c/a> of the South Bay’s vibrant halal food community, says there are about 10 food vendors who have signed up to sell at Suhoor Fest so far, serving a diverse range of cuisines that includes \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/psphillys/\">Philly cheesesteaks\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jollofkitchen/\">Nigerian jollof rice\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bombziesbbq/\">Asian-style barbecue\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chaihojaicart/\">chai\u003c/a> and even halal boba. Abdelfattah, for his part, says El Halal Amigos is prepared to serve thousands of tacos that night, offering a stripped-down version of its menu in order to accommodate the long lines and large crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the underlying reason for the gathering is spiritual, Abdelfattah explains. So, another big part of Suhoor Fest happens at the end of the night, when everyone comes together to pray at sunrise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954384\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954384\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito.jpg\" alt=\"Foil-wrapped breakfast burrito cut in half to show its cheesy interior. A tub of orange salsa on the side.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Each year for Ramadan, hungry customers line up around the block for El Halal Amigos’ breakfast burrito — served until 3 a.m. on select Saturdays. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hashim Abdelfattah)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Abdelfattah, Suhoor Fest is just one part of his business’s Ramadan plans. Like many other \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979258/ramadan-2024-where-to-join-iftars-and-suhoors-in-the-bay-area\">Muslim-owned restaurants in the region\u003c/a>, El Halal Amigos is keeping special hours during Ramadan (one hour later than normal) and passing out free dates at sunset for iftar. The popular halal Mexican spot will also host its own suhoor event on Saturday nights, staying open until 3 a.m. to serve special breakfast burritos — with eggs, potatoes, halal beef bacon, scrambled eggs and a choice of meat — in addition to the full regular menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year we have a line around the corner starting at midnight,” Abdelfattah says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4jlfKjxPwm/\">Suhoor Fest\u003c/a> will take place on Saturday, March 23, from 11 p.m.–5 a.m., in the parking lot of the SABA Islamic Center (4415 Fortran Ct., San Jose). \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elhalalamigos/\">El Halal Amigos\u003c/a> is located at 1100 Lincoln Avenue in San Jose. For its Suhoor Nights series during Ramadan, the restaurant will serve breakfast burritos on March 23 and March 30, and crunchy tacos on April 6 — from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. on each of those Saturday nights.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Picture this scene at midnight: You pull into a San Jose parking lot that’s been converted, for one night only, into what \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elhalalamigos/\">El Halal Amigos’\u003c/a> Hashim Abdelfattah describes as a “giant, man-made city.” In every direction, masses of people gather under the stars to mingle with friends, rummage through clothing stalls, listen to Arabic music, sip on free chai samples and, of course, wait in line at one of the many food stalls serving halal dishes from all across the Islamic diaspora.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welcome to \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4jlfKjxPwm/\">Suhoor Fest\u003c/a>, an annual food-focused, late-night \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979258/ramadan-2024-where-to-join-iftars-and-suhoors-in-the-bay-area\">Ramadan celebration\u003c/a> co-organized by \u003ca href=\"https://www.halalfest.com/\">Halal Fest\u003c/a> and El Halal Amigos. Now in its third year, the festival’s 2024 edition will take place on Saturday, March 23, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.saba-igc.org/\">SABA Center\u003c/a> in North San Jose. It’s by far the largest event of its kind here in the Bay Area. All told, about 25,000 people attended last year’s event, Abdelfattah estimates. This year, he expects the turnout to be that big again — if not bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like the entire Muslim population of California comes out,” Abdelfattah says. “I kid you not: It’s like walking into a 49ers game. It shocks me every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Suhoor, of course, refers to the last meal that observant Muslims eat each night \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101892659/ramadan-a-time-to-fast-but-also-a-time-to-celebrate-food\">during Ramadan\u003c/a>, in the early pre-dawn hours before they begin their fast for the day. In areas with a large Muslim population, it has become quite common for local businesses and community organizations to throw this kind of communal suhoor food festival — though few in the U.S. are on the same scale as San Jose’s Suhoor Fest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abdelfattah, who is, in many ways, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4pohflL4zl/\">public face\u003c/a> of the South Bay’s vibrant halal food community, says there are about 10 food vendors who have signed up to sell at Suhoor Fest so far, serving a diverse range of cuisines that includes \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/psphillys/\">Philly cheesesteaks\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jollofkitchen/\">Nigerian jollof rice\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bombziesbbq/\">Asian-style barbecue\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chaihojaicart/\">chai\u003c/a> and even halal boba. Abdelfattah, for his part, says El Halal Amigos is prepared to serve thousands of tacos that night, offering a stripped-down version of its menu in order to accommodate the long lines and large crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the underlying reason for the gathering is spiritual, Abdelfattah explains. So, another big part of Suhoor Fest happens at the end of the night, when everyone comes together to pray at sunrise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954384\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954384\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito.jpg\" alt=\"Foil-wrapped breakfast burrito cut in half to show its cheesy interior. A tub of orange salsa on the side.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/elhalalamigos-breakfastburrito-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Each year for Ramadan, hungry customers line up around the block for El Halal Amigos’ breakfast burrito — served until 3 a.m. on select Saturdays. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hashim Abdelfattah)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Abdelfattah, Suhoor Fest is just one part of his business’s Ramadan plans. Like many other \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979258/ramadan-2024-where-to-join-iftars-and-suhoors-in-the-bay-area\">Muslim-owned restaurants in the region\u003c/a>, El Halal Amigos is keeping special hours during Ramadan (one hour later than normal) and passing out free dates at sunset for iftar. The popular halal Mexican spot will also host its own suhoor event on Saturday nights, staying open until 3 a.m. to serve special breakfast burritos — with eggs, potatoes, halal beef bacon, scrambled eggs and a choice of meat — in addition to the full regular menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year we have a line around the corner starting at midnight,” Abdelfattah says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C4jlfKjxPwm/\">Suhoor Fest\u003c/a> will take place on Saturday, March 23, from 11 p.m.–5 a.m., in the parking lot of the SABA Islamic Center (4415 Fortran Ct., San Jose). \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elhalalamigos/\">El Halal Amigos\u003c/a> is located at 1100 Lincoln Avenue in San Jose. For its Suhoor Nights series during Ramadan, the restaurant will serve breakfast burritos on March 23 and March 30, and crunchy tacos on April 6 — from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. on each of those Saturday nights.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Fond Farewell to Gaumenkitzel, One of Berkeley’s All-Time Greats",
"headTitle": "A Fond Farewell to Gaumenkitzel, One of Berkeley’s All-Time Greats | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>I’ve been going to Gaumenkitzel, the airy, sun-soaked German restaurant in West Berkeley, since my eldest child was an infant — my kids were practically raised on its cheesy, wiener-topped spätzle, which they love more than any mac ’n cheese. For twelve years now, we’ve dined at Gaumenkitzel at least once every couple of months — through good and bad economies and the worst of the pandemic, when the restaurant stayed afloat selling baked goods and big tubs of butternut squash soup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the sort of familiar, comforting place where none of us even need to look at the menu: I know I’m just going to order the pork schnitzel, which always arrives at the table perfectly crispy and golden-brown. It’s never once let me down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a bitter pill to swallow, then, when the beloved restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/02/28/gaumenkitzel-berkeley-closing-heads-tails-bbq/\">announced a couple of weeks ago\u003c/a> that it would be closing on March 24.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chef and co-owner Anja Voth, who opened Gaumenkitzel in 2011 with her husband Kai Flache, says she has had a very difficult time staffing the restaurant ever since the start of the COVID shutdowns, to the point that the business became unsustainable. It’s an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/restaurants-staff-food-workers-17878883.php\">industry-wide problem\u003c/a>, but one that Voth believes hit her European-style kitchen — where every cook needs to master multiple cooking techniques instead of specializing in a single station — especially hard. It became harder and harder to find staff who stayed long enough to be properly trained, she says. She and Flache decided \u003ca href=\"https://www.gaumenkitzel.net/GaumenkitzelNoticeFebruary2024.pdf\">the only solution was to close\u003c/a> and perhaps look to open a smaller place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller.jpg\" alt=\"Pan-fried vegetable cake with greens and carrots on a white plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The veggie cake at Gaumenkitzel, based on a 1914 recipe from Hamburg, Germany. \u003ccite>(Christina Mueller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaumenkitzel was never a particularly trendy restaurant. It sourced local, organic ingredients as diligently as any place in Berkeley but did so without a lot of fanfare. After its first few years of business, it rarely made the various best restaurant lists. Yet it persisted as a staple of the community. Oakland novelist Robin Sloan once called Gaumenkitzel his “favorite restaurant in the world,” marveling at how it managed to feel both fully German and fully Californian. “The place — its continued existence — just makes me happy,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt7VuwNdLk0\">warm and welcoming place\u003c/a> where long-time Berkeleyites, in particular, would return again and again — for the schnitzel and spätzle, the fresh pretzels and obscure German beers, and jaw-dropping occasional specials like the butter-soaked emperor’s pancake. Voth recalls one older Jewish customer in her 80s or 90s — a Holocaust survivor who’d escaped Germany and hadn’t spoken German for 40 years. “It was a huge, huge compliment that she would come here,” Voth says. “You connect to people, and all of a sudden you’re a little bridge-builder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954350\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake.jpg\" alt=\"Poppy seed flecked German pancake on a plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The emperor’s pancake. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When another elderly customer passed away, his family found a whole stackful of Gaumenkitzel receipts in a drawer. They thought, “Oh, that must have been an important place for him,” and asked Gaumenkitzel to cater the memorial luncheon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s that sense of connection and hospitality that Voth looks back on most fondly. “That’s what it’s all about in life,” she says. “It’s not about making all this big money or my ego, like, ‘I’m the super chef. I’m so creative.’ It’s this happiness that food can create.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant doesn’t have any special events planned for its final weekend. In fact, Voth says, the past three weeks have already seen such an outpouring of people visiting to say their final goodbyes, it has been overwhelming. All she asks for is customers’ understanding as the restaurant slowly ramps down its menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954351\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel.jpg\" alt=\"Pork schnitzel over a bed of spätzle, topped with a lemon wedge.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another view of that glorious schnitzel. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13953224,arts_13950832,arts_13931303']Then, after taking a short break, Voth will begin actively looking for a new space to open a smaller version of Gaumenkitzel — one with a shorter menu but the same focus on providing comforting foods and a cozy, relaxed atmosphere. Somewhere in West Berkeley would be ideal, but she’s also open to adjacent cities like Albany and Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of all, Voth says, she doesn’t want anyone to feel like they’re to blame for Gaumenkitzel’s closure. No one should feel guilty and think, “I wish I had gone more often” or spent more money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no blaming at all,” Voth says. “We got so much support from everybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gaumenkitzel.net/\">\u003ci>Gaumenkitzel\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Wednesday to Friday from 4–8:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 8:30 p.m. Its final day of service will be on Sunday, March 24. Reservations strongly suggested.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I’ve been going to Gaumenkitzel, the airy, sun-soaked German restaurant in West Berkeley, since my eldest child was an infant — my kids were practically raised on its cheesy, wiener-topped spätzle, which they love more than any mac ’n cheese. For twelve years now, we’ve dined at Gaumenkitzel at least once every couple of months — through good and bad economies and the worst of the pandemic, when the restaurant stayed afloat selling baked goods and big tubs of butternut squash soup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the sort of familiar, comforting place where none of us even need to look at the menu: I know I’m just going to order the pork schnitzel, which always arrives at the table perfectly crispy and golden-brown. It’s never once let me down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a bitter pill to swallow, then, when the beloved restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2024/02/28/gaumenkitzel-berkeley-closing-heads-tails-bbq/\">announced a couple of weeks ago\u003c/a> that it would be closing on March 24.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chef and co-owner Anja Voth, who opened Gaumenkitzel in 2011 with her husband Kai Flache, says she has had a very difficult time staffing the restaurant ever since the start of the COVID shutdowns, to the point that the business became unsustainable. It’s an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/restaurants-staff-food-workers-17878883.php\">industry-wide problem\u003c/a>, but one that Voth believes hit her European-style kitchen — where every cook needs to master multiple cooking techniques instead of specializing in a single station — especially hard. It became harder and harder to find staff who stayed long enough to be properly trained, she says. She and Flache decided \u003ca href=\"https://www.gaumenkitzel.net/GaumenkitzelNoticeFebruary2024.pdf\">the only solution was to close\u003c/a> and perhaps look to open a smaller place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller.jpg\" alt=\"Pan-fried vegetable cake with greens and carrots on a white plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Gaumenkitzel-veggie-cake-photo-credit-Christina-Mueller-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The veggie cake at Gaumenkitzel, based on a 1914 recipe from Hamburg, Germany. \u003ccite>(Christina Mueller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gaumenkitzel was never a particularly trendy restaurant. It sourced local, organic ingredients as diligently as any place in Berkeley but did so without a lot of fanfare. After its first few years of business, it rarely made the various best restaurant lists. Yet it persisted as a staple of the community. Oakland novelist Robin Sloan once called Gaumenkitzel his “favorite restaurant in the world,” marveling at how it managed to feel both fully German and fully Californian. “The place — its continued existence — just makes me happy,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt7VuwNdLk0\">warm and welcoming place\u003c/a> where long-time Berkeleyites, in particular, would return again and again — for the schnitzel and spätzle, the fresh pretzels and obscure German beers, and jaw-dropping occasional specials like the butter-soaked emperor’s pancake. Voth recalls one older Jewish customer in her 80s or 90s — a Holocaust survivor who’d escaped Germany and hadn’t spoken German for 40 years. “It was a huge, huge compliment that she would come here,” Voth says. “You connect to people, and all of a sudden you’re a little bridge-builder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954350\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake.jpg\" alt=\"Poppy seed flecked German pancake on a plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-emperors-pancake-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The emperor’s pancake. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When another elderly customer passed away, his family found a whole stackful of Gaumenkitzel receipts in a drawer. They thought, “Oh, that must have been an important place for him,” and asked Gaumenkitzel to cater the memorial luncheon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s that sense of connection and hospitality that Voth looks back on most fondly. “That’s what it’s all about in life,” she says. “It’s not about making all this big money or my ego, like, ‘I’m the super chef. I’m so creative.’ It’s this happiness that food can create.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant doesn’t have any special events planned for its final weekend. In fact, Voth says, the past three weeks have already seen such an outpouring of people visiting to say their final goodbyes, it has been overwhelming. All she asks for is customers’ understanding as the restaurant slowly ramps down its menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954351\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel.jpg\" alt=\"Pork schnitzel over a bed of spätzle, topped with a lemon wedge.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/gaumenkitzel-schnitzel-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another view of that glorious schnitzel. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Then, after taking a short break, Voth will begin actively looking for a new space to open a smaller version of Gaumenkitzel — one with a shorter menu but the same focus on providing comforting foods and a cozy, relaxed atmosphere. Somewhere in West Berkeley would be ideal, but she’s also open to adjacent cities like Albany and Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of all, Voth says, she doesn’t want anyone to feel like they’re to blame for Gaumenkitzel’s closure. No one should feel guilty and think, “I wish I had gone more often” or spent more money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no blaming at all,” Voth says. “We got so much support from everybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gaumenkitzel.net/\">\u003ci>Gaumenkitzel\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Wednesday to Friday from 4–8:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 8:30 p.m. Its final day of service will be on Sunday, March 24. Reservations strongly suggested.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Ban Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? Apparently, It’s All in the Food Dyes",
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"headTitle": "Why Ban Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? Apparently, It’s All in the Food Dyes | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>You may have heard that California wants to ban Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. That’s only partially true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a proposal in the state legislature, public schools across California would no longer be allowed to serve foods that contain certain substances, including some artificial dyes commonly found in snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It comes about five months after Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204839281/california-ban-food-additives-red-dye-3-propylparaben-candy\">signed\u003c/a> the California Food Safety Act, which outlawed the sale of food and drinks that contained certain ingredients, including brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13954112']Supporters of the new bill point to a possible link between artificial dyes and child development problems as a reason to outlaw the additives in schools, but some in the food industry have countered that there’s not enough scientific evidence to make that connection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has a responsibility to protect our students from chemicals that harm children and that can interfere with their ability to learn,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=875930801008080&set=pcb.875930854341408\">in a press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the food items that could disappear from school cafeterias include Doritos, M&Ms, sports drinks and sugary breakfast cereals such as Froot Loops and Cap’n Crunch, CapRadio \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2024/03/12/hot-cheetos-and-other-snacks-with-common-food-dyes-would-be-banned-from-california-schools-under-new-legislation/\">reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Do food dyes really harm kids?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2316\">bill\u003c/a> would prohibit schools from serving foods containing six food dyes — blue 1, blue 2, green 3, red 40, yellow 5 and yellow 6 — as well as titanium dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriel points to a \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/risk-assessment/report/healthefftsassess041621.pdf\">2021 report\u003c/a> from the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which found that the consumption of food dyes can cause or worsen hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954288\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/ap23235533899459_custom-f48d4327ffd8f1d05f3782320409a8d82ae26c47-scaled-e1710798912131.jpg\" alt=\"An adult hands out food to children in a canteen.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1279\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">School snacktime in California might look a little different if a new proposal passes. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/ Susan Montoya Bryan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though the Food and Drug Administration approves additives, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/color-additives-information-consumers\">dyes\u003c/a>, used in food and drinks in the U.S., critics have increasingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/17/1206283813/red-dye-food-products-fda-ban#:~:text=Since%20then%2C%20multiple%20studies%20have,American%20consumers%2C%22%20says%20Lurie.\">pushed\u003c/a> on the agency to reevaluate its decisions to permit certain substances that may now be understood to be harmful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some parents worried about the health effects of artificial dyes \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/10/18/236221076/moms-petition-mars-to-remove-artificial-dyes-from-m-ms\">have appealed \u003c/a>to snack makers directly, and companies have taken action. Kraft Foods announced in 2013 that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/11/01/242412024/kraft-dims-that-mac-and-cheese-artificially-orange-glow\">it was removing artificial food dyes\u003c/a> from its mac and cheese and replacing them with spices such as paprika, annatto and turmeric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13953330']The additive titanium dioxide, which is also targeted in the California bill, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2023/08/what-titanium-dioxide\">produces\u003c/a> a “smooth finish” and shine in food and has been in use for more than half a century, according to the Environmental Working Group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022 it was \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/sante/items/732079/en\">banned\u003c/a> by the European Commission, which said it could not rule out that titanium dioxide may pose a health risk and present “genotoxicity” concerns, which means it could cause DNA or chromosomal damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some food producers argue that the decision to pull additives from the shelf should be up to regulators at the FDA — not lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These activists are dismantling our national food safety system state by state in an emotionally-driven campaign that lacks scientific backing,” Christopher Gindlesperger, a spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only institution in America that can stop this sensationalistic agenda that is not based on facts and science is the FDA,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What’s next for this proposal in California?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Gabriel, the legislator, said he expected the bill to be heard in the Assembly Education Committee in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the Association of California School Administrators \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-12/california-schools-could-ban-flamin-hot-cheetos-under-new-bill\">told\u003c/a> the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> that few schools currently sell snacks that would be subject to the ban, and the biggest impact would be on student stores raising money for student funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13953207']As for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, the question of their fate remains — like many a bag of the crunch orange puffs — open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The popular snack does \u003ca href=\"https://www.cheetos.com/products/cheetos-crunchy-flamin-hot-cheese-flavored-snacks#:~:text=Enriched%20Corn%20Meal%20(Corn%20Meal,40%20Lake%2C%20Yellow%206%20Lake%2C\">contain\u003c/a> several of the artificial dyes that would be banned under the proposal, including yellow 5 and yellow 6, but the current bill only applies to the sale of such snacks in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Backers of such bans have suggested that manufacturers can simply tweak their recipes to comply with any new prohibitions — and that consumers will continue to nosh on their snack of choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Here+are+the+concerns+with+artificial+food+dyes%2C+as+California+weighs+a+ban+in+schools&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You may have heard that California wants to ban Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. That’s only partially true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a proposal in the state legislature, public schools across California would no longer be allowed to serve foods that contain certain substances, including some artificial dyes commonly found in snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It comes about five months after Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204839281/california-ban-food-additives-red-dye-3-propylparaben-candy\">signed\u003c/a> the California Food Safety Act, which outlawed the sale of food and drinks that contained certain ingredients, including brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Supporters of the new bill point to a possible link between artificial dyes and child development problems as a reason to outlaw the additives in schools, but some in the food industry have countered that there’s not enough scientific evidence to make that connection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has a responsibility to protect our students from chemicals that harm children and that can interfere with their ability to learn,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=875930801008080&set=pcb.875930854341408\">in a press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the food items that could disappear from school cafeterias include Doritos, M&Ms, sports drinks and sugary breakfast cereals such as Froot Loops and Cap’n Crunch, CapRadio \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2024/03/12/hot-cheetos-and-other-snacks-with-common-food-dyes-would-be-banned-from-california-schools-under-new-legislation/\">reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Do food dyes really harm kids?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2316\">bill\u003c/a> would prohibit schools from serving foods containing six food dyes — blue 1, blue 2, green 3, red 40, yellow 5 and yellow 6 — as well as titanium dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriel points to a \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/risk-assessment/report/healthefftsassess041621.pdf\">2021 report\u003c/a> from the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which found that the consumption of food dyes can cause or worsen hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954288\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/ap23235533899459_custom-f48d4327ffd8f1d05f3782320409a8d82ae26c47-scaled-e1710798912131.jpg\" alt=\"An adult hands out food to children in a canteen.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1279\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">School snacktime in California might look a little different if a new proposal passes. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/ Susan Montoya Bryan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though the Food and Drug Administration approves additives, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/color-additives-information-consumers\">dyes\u003c/a>, used in food and drinks in the U.S., critics have increasingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/17/1206283813/red-dye-food-products-fda-ban#:~:text=Since%20then%2C%20multiple%20studies%20have,American%20consumers%2C%22%20says%20Lurie.\">pushed\u003c/a> on the agency to reevaluate its decisions to permit certain substances that may now be understood to be harmful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some parents worried about the health effects of artificial dyes \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/10/18/236221076/moms-petition-mars-to-remove-artificial-dyes-from-m-ms\">have appealed \u003c/a>to snack makers directly, and companies have taken action. Kraft Foods announced in 2013 that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/11/01/242412024/kraft-dims-that-mac-and-cheese-artificially-orange-glow\">it was removing artificial food dyes\u003c/a> from its mac and cheese and replacing them with spices such as paprika, annatto and turmeric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The additive titanium dioxide, which is also targeted in the California bill, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2023/08/what-titanium-dioxide\">produces\u003c/a> a “smooth finish” and shine in food and has been in use for more than half a century, according to the Environmental Working Group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022 it was \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/sante/items/732079/en\">banned\u003c/a> by the European Commission, which said it could not rule out that titanium dioxide may pose a health risk and present “genotoxicity” concerns, which means it could cause DNA or chromosomal damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some food producers argue that the decision to pull additives from the shelf should be up to regulators at the FDA — not lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These activists are dismantling our national food safety system state by state in an emotionally-driven campaign that lacks scientific backing,” Christopher Gindlesperger, a spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only institution in America that can stop this sensationalistic agenda that is not based on facts and science is the FDA,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What’s next for this proposal in California?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Gabriel, the legislator, said he expected the bill to be heard in the Assembly Education Committee in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the Association of California School Administrators \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-12/california-schools-could-ban-flamin-hot-cheetos-under-new-bill\">told\u003c/a> the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> that few schools currently sell snacks that would be subject to the ban, and the biggest impact would be on student stores raising money for student funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, the question of their fate remains — like many a bag of the crunch orange puffs — open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The popular snack does \u003ca href=\"https://www.cheetos.com/products/cheetos-crunchy-flamin-hot-cheese-flavored-snacks#:~:text=Enriched%20Corn%20Meal%20(Corn%20Meal,40%20Lake%2C%20Yellow%206%20Lake%2C\">contain\u003c/a> several of the artificial dyes that would be banned under the proposal, including yellow 5 and yellow 6, but the current bill only applies to the sale of such snacks in public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Backers of such bans have suggested that manufacturers can simply tweak their recipes to comply with any new prohibitions — and that consumers will continue to nosh on their snack of choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Here+are+the+concerns+with+artificial+food+dyes%2C+as+California+weighs+a+ban+in+schools&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Bay Area’s First Tanzanian Restaurant Takes Root in West Oakland",
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"content": "\u003cp>Ever since Priscilla Mkenda immigrated to the Bay Area in the late ’90s, she wondered why there wasn’t a single restaurant here that served Tanzanian food — the rich curries and flaky chapati flatbreads of her native country. “I think there is big potential,” she’d tell herself over the home-cooked meals that she prepared for her friends and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As was the case for many aspiring food entrepreneurs, 2020’s pandemic shutdown finally prompted Mkenda to do something about it — to start her very own Tanzanian pop-up near Lake Merritt in Oakland, first with friends she met at an African dance class and then by herself. Eventually, she parlayed the business into a food truck. Then, last spring, she took another step and signed the lease on a commercial kitchen and takeout restaurant in West Oakland. She called it \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/swahilispot_bayarea/\">Swahili Spot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was in this small storefront with Swahili food words (“kuku” for chicken, “mzuzu” for plantain) handwritten on the walls, that I got my first taste of homestyle Tanzanian beef curry over coconut rice and the dense, lightly sweetened rice cakes known as vitumbua.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954273\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant with a sign for \"Swahili Spot\" in green lettering overhead. ' width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant opened on Peralta Street in the spring of 2023. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mkenda, who grew up in Tanzania and Uganda and moved to the Bay Area for university in 1999, says all of her food is born out of nostalgia. “My menu is a history, actually,” she says. It’s exactly what I grew up eating back home.” Her signature beef and chicken curry bowls are recreations of what she ate at boarding school as a kid — they’re staples of the cuisine that anyone who’s ever visited Tanzania would have eaten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beef curry I tried was surprisingly light — “it’s not spicy-hot, it’s spicy with flavor,” as Mkenda puts it. Instead of the heavy bass line of cumin and coriander that you might get with an Indian curry or even a Japanese curry, Swahili Spot’s curry has the brighter, more mellow flavor notes that you get from the addition of cinnamon and cloves. The beef itself was tender and flavorful, but it was almost more of a side dish. The most delicious thing in the bowl was a big pile of savory sautéed kale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My intention is healthy eating,” Mkenda says, noting that the curry bowls consist of about two ounces of meat, two ounces of beans and probably three ounces of greens, plus a couple slices of fried plantain on top as a crowning touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954274\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954274\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding a well-browned, oval-shaped rice cake against a blue background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vitumbua rice cakes are a popular breakfast street food in Tanzania. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The rest of the menu covers the whole gamut of traditional Tanzanian dishes. There are vitumbua rice pancakes — a popular breakfast street food — which are like dense, chewy balls of slightly gingery rice pudding. There’s chips mayai, or “zege,” which is essentially a French fry omelet, similar to a Spanish tortilla. And, for heartier eaters, Mkenda fries whole fish and serves it with ugali — the traditional Tanzanian cornmeal dough — on the side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13953866,arts_13938506,arts_13896069']Now is as good a time as any to check Swahili Spot out: As part of this year’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953885/oakland-restaurant-week-2024\">Oakland Restaurant Week\u003c/a> promotion, from March 14–24, the restaurant is selling its entire menu of curry bowls and lunch plates for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitoakland.com/listing/sawahili-spot/7831/\">slightly discounted rate\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not content to run a single takeout restaurant, Mkenda’s hope is to eventually launch additional branches of Swahili Spot all across California. Her long-term goal? To open a fancy sit-down restaurant that’ll really put Tanzanian food on the map here in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cooking is my passion. Cooking is my therapy, actually,” Mkenda says. “Whenever I’m idle or bored, that is my go-to place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954275\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl.jpg\" alt=\"Beef curry bowl loaded with beans and greens.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another view of the beef curry bowl, which is subtly spiced with cinnamon and cloves. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.swahilispot.com/\">\u003ci>Swahili Spot\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Friday to Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. at 1327 Peralta St. in Oakland.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ever since Priscilla Mkenda immigrated to the Bay Area in the late ’90s, she wondered why there wasn’t a single restaurant here that served Tanzanian food — the rich curries and flaky chapati flatbreads of her native country. “I think there is big potential,” she’d tell herself over the home-cooked meals that she prepared for her friends and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As was the case for many aspiring food entrepreneurs, 2020’s pandemic shutdown finally prompted Mkenda to do something about it — to start her very own Tanzanian pop-up near Lake Merritt in Oakland, first with friends she met at an African dance class and then by herself. Eventually, she parlayed the business into a food truck. Then, last spring, she took another step and signed the lease on a commercial kitchen and takeout restaurant in West Oakland. She called it \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/swahilispot_bayarea/\">Swahili Spot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was in this small storefront with Swahili food words (“kuku” for chicken, “mzuzu” for plantain) handwritten on the walls, that I got my first taste of homestyle Tanzanian beef curry over coconut rice and the dense, lightly sweetened rice cakes known as vitumbua.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954273\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant with a sign for \"Swahili Spot\" in green lettering overhead. ' width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-exterior-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant opened on Peralta Street in the spring of 2023. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mkenda, who grew up in Tanzania and Uganda and moved to the Bay Area for university in 1999, says all of her food is born out of nostalgia. “My menu is a history, actually,” she says. It’s exactly what I grew up eating back home.” Her signature beef and chicken curry bowls are recreations of what she ate at boarding school as a kid — they’re staples of the cuisine that anyone who’s ever visited Tanzania would have eaten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beef curry I tried was surprisingly light — “it’s not spicy-hot, it’s spicy with flavor,” as Mkenda puts it. Instead of the heavy bass line of cumin and coriander that you might get with an Indian curry or even a Japanese curry, Swahili Spot’s curry has the brighter, more mellow flavor notes that you get from the addition of cinnamon and cloves. The beef itself was tender and flavorful, but it was almost more of a side dish. The most delicious thing in the bowl was a big pile of savory sautéed kale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My intention is healthy eating,” Mkenda says, noting that the curry bowls consist of about two ounces of meat, two ounces of beans and probably three ounces of greens, plus a couple slices of fried plantain on top as a crowning touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954274\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954274\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding a well-browned, oval-shaped rice cake against a blue background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-vitumbua-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vitumbua rice cakes are a popular breakfast street food in Tanzania. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The rest of the menu covers the whole gamut of traditional Tanzanian dishes. There are vitumbua rice pancakes — a popular breakfast street food — which are like dense, chewy balls of slightly gingery rice pudding. There’s chips mayai, or “zege,” which is essentially a French fry omelet, similar to a Spanish tortilla. And, for heartier eaters, Mkenda fries whole fish and serves it with ugali — the traditional Tanzanian cornmeal dough — on the side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Now is as good a time as any to check Swahili Spot out: As part of this year’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953885/oakland-restaurant-week-2024\">Oakland Restaurant Week\u003c/a> promotion, from March 14–24, the restaurant is selling its entire menu of curry bowls and lunch plates for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.visitoakland.com/listing/sawahili-spot/7831/\">slightly discounted rate\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not content to run a single takeout restaurant, Mkenda’s hope is to eventually launch additional branches of Swahili Spot all across California. Her long-term goal? To open a fancy sit-down restaurant that’ll really put Tanzanian food on the map here in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cooking is my passion. Cooking is my therapy, actually,” Mkenda says. “Whenever I’m idle or bored, that is my go-to place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954275\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl.jpg\" alt=\"Beef curry bowl loaded with beans and greens.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/swahili-spot-beef-bowl-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another view of the beef curry bowl, which is subtly spiced with cinnamon and cloves. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.swahilispot.com/\">\u003ci>Swahili Spot\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is open Friday to Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. at 1327 Peralta St. in Oakland.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This San Jose Food Truck Slings Tiny Pancakes and Big-Ass Tacos Until 3 a.m.",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954115\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: In a tented dining area, a man holds a large shrimp taco while his companion stuffs a huarache into his mouth.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Orale taco truck is open — and stays busy — until 3 a.m. on the weekends. It’s located in the Alum Rock neighborhood in Eastside San Jose. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>The Midnight Diners\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The party is in full swing when we pull up to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/?hl=en\">Orale\u003c/a> taco truck at 11 o’clock on a drizzly Friday night, in a tire shop parking lot in Eastside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/san-jose\">San Jose\u003c/a>. The tented, ad hoc dining area has the festive, easygoing bustle of a backyard barbecue, all lit up with string lights. Off to the side, a taquero grills up a massive batch of carne asada, perfuming the air with the smell of sizzling fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We drove out to this stretch of strip malls on Alum Rock because we’d heard that Orale stays open until 3 a.m. on the weekend — and, in fact, does a brisk business \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy-n3XKuyzk/?hl=en\">all the way until 3\u003c/a>. And so it does: When we arrive, the line runs seven or eight customers deep. It only gets longer the further into the night we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orale belongs to that new-school brand of taquerias and taco trucks we have here in the Bay, with the kind of wide-ranging menu that seems to encompass every Mexican street food trend to hit our region. In the mood for consomé-drenched \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria\u003c/a>? An \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931115/tacos-el-rulas-richmond-taco-truck-alambre-papa-loca-instagram-food-influencer\">alambre\u003c/a>? A \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CwJGFbgpXHG/\">bacon-wrapped hot dog\u003c/a> topped with everything under the sun? Orale has it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the place doesn’t seem to have caught that social media–induced sickness where every burrito needs to be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952597/worlds-largest-burrito-guinness-record-la-costena-mountain-view\">longest of all-time\u003c/a> and every plate gets drowned in an unconscionable amount of salsa — all \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936325/social-media-biggest-pupusas-burritos-instagram-tiktok-latinextravagant-bay-area\">for the sake of the ’gram\u003c/a>. Orale serves some big-ass tacos, but they’re sensibly constructed and just darn tasty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashiest menu item is probably the “mar y tierra” surf-and-turf taco, tailor-made for the kind of indulgent eater who thinks no steak dinner is complete without a broiled lobster tail. In this case, the “surf” consists of plump, well-seasoned grilled shrimp, which come draped, deliciously, over a layer of juicy carne asada, then topped with guacamole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My favorite, however, is Orale’s tripas taco, for which the cow’s small intestines are cooked in their own fat until they reach textural perfection: crispy on the outside but not over-fried, so the inside retains its softness and chew. Topped with a drizzle of spicy orange salsa to cut into the slight gaminess of the meat, it’s one of the best versions I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954117\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954117\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Diners sit at folding tables set up under a white tent on a drizzly night while others line up outside a taco truck to order their food.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Set up in the parking lot of a tire shop, the taco truck features a quintessential Bay Area crowd and vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Orale is also notable for its variety of masa-based specialties, like its huaraches — crunchy, slipper-shaped masa shells topped with lettuce, tomato, sliced avocado, crema, refried beans and your protein of choice. The vegetables are so fresh, you can almost order the dish as a (massive) “salad,” to balance out your meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13953224,arts_13953702,arts_13904835']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Funny as it sounds, one of the main reasons we had driven out to Orale is because we heard that it also serves little pancakes, and late-night dessert (or breakfast??) options are a particular rarity. In this respect, too, Orale didn’t let us down. Next to the truck, they set up a couple of portable molded pancake griddles, where they’ll cook you a batch to order: nine little pancakes or 25 \u003ci>even tinier\u003c/i> pancakes for $10, each one flipped with a toothpick like a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G845YGiLwaw\">Japanese takoyaki maker\u003c/a>. Then they dress them with whatever you pick from the toppings bar — I chose strawberries, condensed milk, cajeta and, why not, some smashed up Fruity Pebbles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My friends, these were a delight. I don’t know if it was the lateness of the hour or the makeshift nature of the setting, but I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed a plate of pancakes so much — when the pancakes were so hot and fluffy and well-browned on the edges. It made me want to start a campaign for more street-side pancake vendors everywhere, or at least for one within walking distance of my home. Since it often takes a while for taco orders at Orale to come out, my advice is to go dessert-first. Have some pancakes while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, by the time we’d finished, the wait time for tacos was easily half an hour, and the line showed no sign of thinning out. But the vibe at Orale is so pleasant — so \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">quintessentially San Jose\u003c/a>, with an almost perfectly diverse crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings (Latino, Black, Asian American) — that no one seems particularly pressed. Everyone is content to chill and make small talk with their neighbors at the long communal folding tables. About how great those tripitas are. And what a perfect time it is to be out here, eating this food, enjoying this night in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/\">Orale\u003c/a> is located at 2240 Alum Rock Ave. in San Jose. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m.–1 a.m., Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m.–1 a.m. Cash only.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954115\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: In a tented dining area, a man holds a large shrimp taco while his companion stuffs a huarache into his mouth.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/Orale1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Orale taco truck is open — and stays busy — until 3 a.m. on the weekends. It’s located in the Alum Rock neighborhood in Eastside San Jose. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>The Midnight Diners\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The party is in full swing when we pull up to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/?hl=en\">Orale\u003c/a> taco truck at 11 o’clock on a drizzly Friday night, in a tire shop parking lot in Eastside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/san-jose\">San Jose\u003c/a>. The tented, ad hoc dining area has the festive, easygoing bustle of a backyard barbecue, all lit up with string lights. Off to the side, a taquero grills up a massive batch of carne asada, perfuming the air with the smell of sizzling fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We drove out to this stretch of strip malls on Alum Rock because we’d heard that Orale stays open until 3 a.m. on the weekend — and, in fact, does a brisk business \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy-n3XKuyzk/?hl=en\">all the way until 3\u003c/a>. And so it does: When we arrive, the line runs seven or eight customers deep. It only gets longer the further into the night we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orale belongs to that new-school brand of taquerias and taco trucks we have here in the Bay, with the kind of wide-ranging menu that seems to encompass every Mexican street food trend to hit our region. In the mood for consomé-drenched \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria\u003c/a>? An \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931115/tacos-el-rulas-richmond-taco-truck-alambre-papa-loca-instagram-food-influencer\">alambre\u003c/a>? A \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CwJGFbgpXHG/\">bacon-wrapped hot dog\u003c/a> topped with everything under the sun? Orale has it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the place doesn’t seem to have caught that social media–induced sickness where every burrito needs to be the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952597/worlds-largest-burrito-guinness-record-la-costena-mountain-view\">longest of all-time\u003c/a> and every plate gets drowned in an unconscionable amount of salsa — all \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936325/social-media-biggest-pupusas-burritos-instagram-tiktok-latinextravagant-bay-area\">for the sake of the ’gram\u003c/a>. Orale serves some big-ass tacos, but they’re sensibly constructed and just darn tasty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashiest menu item is probably the “mar y tierra” surf-and-turf taco, tailor-made for the kind of indulgent eater who thinks no steak dinner is complete without a broiled lobster tail. In this case, the “surf” consists of plump, well-seasoned grilled shrimp, which come draped, deliciously, over a layer of juicy carne asada, then topped with guacamole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My favorite, however, is Orale’s tripas taco, for which the cow’s small intestines are cooked in their own fat until they reach textural perfection: crispy on the outside but not over-fried, so the inside retains its softness and chew. Topped with a drizzle of spicy orange salsa to cut into the slight gaminess of the meat, it’s one of the best versions I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13954117\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13954117\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Diners sit at folding tables set up under a white tent on a drizzly night while others line up outside a taco truck to order their food.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/orale2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Set up in the parking lot of a tire shop, the taco truck features a quintessential Bay Area crowd and vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Orale is also notable for its variety of masa-based specialties, like its huaraches — crunchy, slipper-shaped masa shells topped with lettuce, tomato, sliced avocado, crema, refried beans and your protein of choice. The vegetables are so fresh, you can almost order the dish as a (massive) “salad,” to balance out your meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Funny as it sounds, one of the main reasons we had driven out to Orale is because we heard that it also serves little pancakes, and late-night dessert (or breakfast??) options are a particular rarity. In this respect, too, Orale didn’t let us down. Next to the truck, they set up a couple of portable molded pancake griddles, where they’ll cook you a batch to order: nine little pancakes or 25 \u003ci>even tinier\u003c/i> pancakes for $10, each one flipped with a toothpick like a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G845YGiLwaw\">Japanese takoyaki maker\u003c/a>. Then they dress them with whatever you pick from the toppings bar — I chose strawberries, condensed milk, cajeta and, why not, some smashed up Fruity Pebbles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My friends, these were a delight. I don’t know if it was the lateness of the hour or the makeshift nature of the setting, but I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed a plate of pancakes so much — when the pancakes were so hot and fluffy and well-browned on the edges. It made me want to start a campaign for more street-side pancake vendors everywhere, or at least for one within walking distance of my home. Since it often takes a while for taco orders at Orale to come out, my advice is to go dessert-first. Have some pancakes while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, by the time we’d finished, the wait time for tacos was easily half an hour, and the line showed no sign of thinning out. But the vibe at Orale is so pleasant — so \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">quintessentially San Jose\u003c/a>, with an almost perfectly diverse crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings (Latino, Black, Asian American) — that no one seems particularly pressed. Everyone is content to chill and make small talk with their neighbors at the long communal folding tables. About how great those tripitas are. And what a perfect time it is to be out here, eating this food, enjoying this night in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oraletaqueria2022/\">Orale\u003c/a> is located at 2240 Alum Rock Ave. in San Jose. It’s open Monday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m.–1 a.m., Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m.–3 a.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m.–1 a.m. Cash only.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How the Bay Area Taught Me to Love Vegan Food — and Make It Ghanaian",
"headTitle": "How the Bay Area Taught Me to Love Vegan Food — and Make It Ghanaian | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]bout two years ago, I went to my first vegan restaurant in the Bay. I was so excited to walk around \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/lake-merritt\">Lake Merritt\u003c/a> with my date, Kai, that I commuted one hour from the Mission and responded enthusiastically to her suggestion of lunch at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895209/vegan-mob-oakland-mission-sf-expansion-food-truck-toriano-gordon-senor-sisig-vegano\">Vegan Mob\u003c/a> — even though I don’t like vegan food. Or I didn’t think I did, anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was my first time visiting Oakland, and its village charm and conspicuous Blackness made me feel happily nostalgic for my hometown back in Connecticut. By the time we approached the quaint lime-green building, I practically forgot we were going to a vegan restaurant. It helped, too, that Vegan Mob’s lineup of plant-based burgers and barbecue plates didn’t look like any other vegan food I’d seen. Reading the menu, I fantasized about the brisket and ribs from my favorite soul food restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over plates of Impossible Burgers and candied yams, Kai and I joked around and recounted our childhoods. It was only after the meal, when she asked how I liked the vegan meat, that I began to consider the question. I was delighted but a little disoriented. I knew I had not eaten animal meat, but nothing about the meal \u003ci>felt\u003c/i> vegan either. I appreciated the lightness of the mushroom burger patty, and just how tasty and everyday all of the food was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953909\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953909\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob.jpg\" alt='Man in a black \"Good Hood\" sweatshirt gestures toward the Vegan Mob food truck behind him.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1081\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-1536x865.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef and owner Toriano Gordon poses in front of the food-truck incarnation of his vegan soul food business, Vegan Mob. The original Oakland location near Lake Merritt closed in 2023. \u003ccite>(Vegan Mob/IG)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prior to this, my most salient experiences with vegan food were from the dinner parties my white, effective-altruist friend hosted during college. The tofu in the chickpea curry he cooked was always watery, and I pushed chunks of it around my bowl more than I ate it. Most of our mealtime conversations were about the self-sacrifice needed to create a more environmentally, racially and morally just world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like a good kid forcing himself to swallow his broccoli, I endured those meals because I believed the discipline was healthy and the discussions were thought provoking — not because the food actually tasted good. I saw veganism as a form of liberal asceticism, where taste and pleasure were less important than the morality of one’s diet. That all the vegans I knew were ardently political, and that the few restaurants they brought me to were absent of spice, supported this viewpoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vegan Mob challenged these biases. A few months later, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13910234/taqueria-la-venganza-vegan-tacos-mexican-latinx-impossible-foods\">Taqueria La Venganza\u003c/a>, a vegan Mexican restaurant in North Oakland, upended them. I’d suggested the place when Seiji, an old high school friend who is vegetarian, reached out to grab a meal. What I didn’t tell him was that I still suspected that vegan food was, generally speaking, kind of gross.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But each mouthful of La Venganza’s two-pound soy carne asada burrito — and the fresh lettuce, tomato and guac they packed into it — was delicious. We spent the first half of our reunion in awe of the food, and in awe of ourselves after learning how quickly each of us could eat an entire pound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910279\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910279\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Vegan carne asada with all the fixings on a flour tortilla, ready to get rolled into a burrito.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burritos at Taqueria La Venganza weigh two pounds. Instead of beef, the carne asada is made with soy chips. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, we revisited our time at boarding school, which dug up complicated memories that I usually avoid talking about. But the bond that Seiji and I had formed over those burritos — the way the food made us feel so comfortable and at home — helped lower my inhibitions. For the first time I expressed out loud my sense of betrayal that a math teacher I had admired is currently in prison for sexually assaulting one of my classmates. We grieved and reflected deep into the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935854/miso-aedan-koji-kitchen-community-sf\">This is why I love food so much\u003c/a>. Every meal is a ritual, a recurring pause that allows us to reflect on the beauty, joy and sadness of life — especially when we share those meals with others. Now I realized that vegan food didn’t have to be something I only ate when philosophizing about morality or social justice. It could simply be part of the fabric of my everyday life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]‘Whenever I discussed a vegan future with friends, it felt like I was envisioning a world where Ghanaian food didn’t exist.’[/pullquote]My newfound appreciation of vegan eating has also expanded my understanding of Ghanaian food — the food of my own cultural background. Because I had grown up on plates of crab in okra stew and chicken in jollof rice, I assumed the cuisine needed meat to achieve its savory and dense perfection. So whenever I discussed a vegan or vegetarian future with friends, it felt like I was envisioning a world where Ghanaian food didn’t exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887767/the-bay-areas-new-and-evolving-vegan-scene-with-luke-tsai\">new, ethnically specific vegan restaurants in the Bay\u003c/a> made me realize that my assumption that Ghanaian cuisine had to have meat was unfounded. Recently, I asked my roommate, Russell, to help me make a vegan version of my favorite dish: peanut soup. This was the dish I always requested from my mom during breaks from boarding school, so nowadays, without asking, I always return home to \u003ci>omo tuo\u003c/i>, or rice balls, waiting to be doused in this soup of peanut butter, tomato paste, spices and chicken stock. To make our vegan version, Russell and I used vegetable stock, and we used tempeh in place of the chicken that normally bulks up the soup. To compensate for the lack of meat, we reduced the soup for longer and added more peanut butter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result was the earthiest and sweetest version of the dish I had ever eaten. The velvety soup held on perfectly to the rice, and the mildness of the vegetable stock really allowed the peanuts to shine. As we slurped the last few spoonfuls from our second servings, we began fantasizing about the tweaks and adjustments we’d make on our next batch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953913\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953913\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo.jpg\" alt=\"A man stirs a pot of peanut stew while a young woman looks on, pressing her hands together in anticipation.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For the author (left), veganizing his favorite Ghanaian dish — peanut stew — was a fun and meaningful way to celebrate with friends. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Kofi Ansong)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>My folks back at home marveled over the photos of the soup that I sent to the family group chat. And the next morning, my mom called to share something I hadn’t known: that her grandmother, Akua, had largely avoided eating meat. Instead, she prepared jollof rice, tilapia bean stew and other traditional, “meaty” dishes using only vegetables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13910234,arts_13895209,arts_13935854']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>My own grandmother Lydia — Akua’s daughter — demonstrated her love most vividly through the meals she cooked for me growing up. Her funeral a couple years ago was essentially a village feast, where aunties, cousins and neighbors who had all experienced my grandmother’s love cooked in her memory. Buckets of freshly boiled kenkey, banku and other Ghanaian staples surrounded too many stews and grilled meats for me to try. Hearing that Akua had cooked similarly for my mom back in Ghana, but with little to no meat, was all the proof I needed that vegetarianism and veganism have a home in Ghanaian cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, Russell and I cook both vegan and meat-based versions of dishes at the same time, so we can see how they compare — our most recent experiment was coq au vin. I am also reinterpreting more Ghanaian foods just as my great-grandmother Akua once did. Fufu, a ball of pounded plantains, served in a soup of palm oil and spiced peppers, is next. I no longer dismiss whole cuisines or dietary choices, or limit my thinking on what must be in a dish. All cuisines can be vegan, I’ve learned. And their flavors can deepen my understanding of myself and my world.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>bout two years ago, I went to my first vegan restaurant in the Bay. I was so excited to walk around \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/lake-merritt\">Lake Merritt\u003c/a> with my date, Kai, that I commuted one hour from the Mission and responded enthusiastically to her suggestion of lunch at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895209/vegan-mob-oakland-mission-sf-expansion-food-truck-toriano-gordon-senor-sisig-vegano\">Vegan Mob\u003c/a> — even though I don’t like vegan food. Or I didn’t think I did, anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was my first time visiting Oakland, and its village charm and conspicuous Blackness made me feel happily nostalgic for my hometown back in Connecticut. By the time we approached the quaint lime-green building, I practically forgot we were going to a vegan restaurant. It helped, too, that Vegan Mob’s lineup of plant-based burgers and barbecue plates didn’t look like any other vegan food I’d seen. Reading the menu, I fantasized about the brisket and ribs from my favorite soul food restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over plates of Impossible Burgers and candied yams, Kai and I joked around and recounted our childhoods. It was only after the meal, when she asked how I liked the vegan meat, that I began to consider the question. I was delighted but a little disoriented. I knew I had not eaten animal meat, but nothing about the meal \u003ci>felt\u003c/i> vegan either. I appreciated the lightness of the mushroom burger patty, and just how tasty and everyday all of the food was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953909\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953909\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob.jpg\" alt='Man in a black \"Good Hood\" sweatshirt gestures toward the Vegan Mob food truck behind him.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1081\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/VeganMob-1536x865.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef and owner Toriano Gordon poses in front of the food-truck incarnation of his vegan soul food business, Vegan Mob. The original Oakland location near Lake Merritt closed in 2023. \u003ccite>(Vegan Mob/IG)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prior to this, my most salient experiences with vegan food were from the dinner parties my white, effective-altruist friend hosted during college. The tofu in the chickpea curry he cooked was always watery, and I pushed chunks of it around my bowl more than I ate it. Most of our mealtime conversations were about the self-sacrifice needed to create a more environmentally, racially and morally just world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like a good kid forcing himself to swallow his broccoli, I endured those meals because I believed the discipline was healthy and the discussions were thought provoking — not because the food actually tasted good. I saw veganism as a form of liberal asceticism, where taste and pleasure were less important than the morality of one’s diet. That all the vegans I knew were ardently political, and that the few restaurants they brought me to were absent of spice, supported this viewpoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vegan Mob challenged these biases. A few months later, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13910234/taqueria-la-venganza-vegan-tacos-mexican-latinx-impossible-foods\">Taqueria La Venganza\u003c/a>, a vegan Mexican restaurant in North Oakland, upended them. I’d suggested the place when Seiji, an old high school friend who is vegetarian, reached out to grab a meal. What I didn’t tell him was that I still suspected that vegan food was, generally speaking, kind of gross.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But each mouthful of La Venganza’s two-pound soy carne asada burrito — and the fresh lettuce, tomato and guac they packed into it — was delicious. We spent the first half of our reunion in awe of the food, and in awe of ourselves after learning how quickly each of us could eat an entire pound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910279\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910279\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Vegan carne asada with all the fixings on a flour tortilla, ready to get rolled into a burrito.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burritos at Taqueria La Venganza weigh two pounds. Instead of beef, the carne asada is made with soy chips. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, we revisited our time at boarding school, which dug up complicated memories that I usually avoid talking about. But the bond that Seiji and I had formed over those burritos — the way the food made us feel so comfortable and at home — helped lower my inhibitions. For the first time I expressed out loud my sense of betrayal that a math teacher I had admired is currently in prison for sexually assaulting one of my classmates. We grieved and reflected deep into the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935854/miso-aedan-koji-kitchen-community-sf\">This is why I love food so much\u003c/a>. Every meal is a ritual, a recurring pause that allows us to reflect on the beauty, joy and sadness of life — especially when we share those meals with others. Now I realized that vegan food didn’t have to be something I only ate when philosophizing about morality or social justice. It could simply be part of the fabric of my everyday life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>My newfound appreciation of vegan eating has also expanded my understanding of Ghanaian food — the food of my own cultural background. Because I had grown up on plates of crab in okra stew and chicken in jollof rice, I assumed the cuisine needed meat to achieve its savory and dense perfection. So whenever I discussed a vegan or vegetarian future with friends, it felt like I was envisioning a world where Ghanaian food didn’t exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887767/the-bay-areas-new-and-evolving-vegan-scene-with-luke-tsai\">new, ethnically specific vegan restaurants in the Bay\u003c/a> made me realize that my assumption that Ghanaian cuisine had to have meat was unfounded. Recently, I asked my roommate, Russell, to help me make a vegan version of my favorite dish: peanut soup. This was the dish I always requested from my mom during breaks from boarding school, so nowadays, without asking, I always return home to \u003ci>omo tuo\u003c/i>, or rice balls, waiting to be doused in this soup of peanut butter, tomato paste, spices and chicken stock. To make our vegan version, Russell and I used vegetable stock, and we used tempeh in place of the chicken that normally bulks up the soup. To compensate for the lack of meat, we reduced the soup for longer and added more peanut butter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result was the earthiest and sweetest version of the dish I had ever eaten. The velvety soup held on perfectly to the rice, and the mildness of the vegetable stock really allowed the peanuts to shine. As we slurped the last few spoonfuls from our second servings, we began fantasizing about the tweaks and adjustments we’d make on our next batch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953913\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953913\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo.jpg\" alt=\"A man stirs a pot of peanut stew while a young woman looks on, pressing her hands together in anticipation.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/peanut-stew-group-photo-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For the author (left), veganizing his favorite Ghanaian dish — peanut stew — was a fun and meaningful way to celebrate with friends. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Kofi Ansong)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>My folks back at home marveled over the photos of the soup that I sent to the family group chat. And the next morning, my mom called to share something I hadn’t known: that her grandmother, Akua, had largely avoided eating meat. Instead, she prepared jollof rice, tilapia bean stew and other traditional, “meaty” dishes using only vegetables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>My own grandmother Lydia — Akua’s daughter — demonstrated her love most vividly through the meals she cooked for me growing up. Her funeral a couple years ago was essentially a village feast, where aunties, cousins and neighbors who had all experienced my grandmother’s love cooked in her memory. Buckets of freshly boiled kenkey, banku and other Ghanaian staples surrounded too many stews and grilled meats for me to try. Hearing that Akua had cooked similarly for my mom back in Ghana, but with little to no meat, was all the proof I needed that vegetarianism and veganism have a home in Ghanaian cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, Russell and I cook both vegan and meat-based versions of dishes at the same time, so we can see how they compare — our most recent experiment was coq au vin. I am also reinterpreting more Ghanaian foods just as my great-grandmother Akua once did. Fufu, a ball of pounded plantains, served in a soup of palm oil and spiced peppers, is next. I no longer dismiss whole cuisines or dietary choices, or limit my thinking on what must be in a dish. All cuisines can be vegan, I’ve learned. And their flavors can deepen my understanding of myself and my world.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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