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"content": "\u003cp>There are a \u003cem>lot \u003c/em>of cooks at NPR. Every year when we ask our staff for recommendations for Books We Love — \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2023\">NPR’s annual, year-end books guide\u003c/a> — we get back a veritable smorgasbord of cookbook offerings. Scroll down to find out what our staffers were up to in the kitchen this year, and to explore selections from food writer, author and NPR contributor \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/10593559/t-susan-chang\">T. Susan Chang. \u003c/a>This is just a sampling of our food recommendations in 2023 — to see the full list, head over to \u003ca href=\"http://stage-apps.npr.org/orderly-slander/#tags=cookbooks+%26+food&view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cstrong>Books We Love.\u003c/strong> \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling\u003c/em> by Bricia Lopez with Javier Cabral\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939604 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.26.52-PM-e1702790889803.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"190\">Restaurateur Bricia Lopez says her cookbook \u003cem>Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling\u003c/em> is a love letter to Los Angeles. It’s an expression of both her Oaxacan and American identity. An asada is a smoky barbecue filled with family, friends, music and drinks. And backyard asada culture reigns supreme in the streets of LA. Lopez’s cookbook covers everything you need to know to throw an asada, from making marinades to refreshing agua frescas. — \u003cem>Milton Guevara, associate producer, ‘Morning Edition’ and ‘Up First’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The Cookie That Changed My Life\u003c/em> by Nancy Silverton with Carolynn Carreño\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939605 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.28.45-PM-e1702790959367.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"283\">If you’re like me, every cookie is the “cookie that changed my life.” But in the case of veteran baker Nancy Silverton, it was a giant peanut butter cookie from an LA bakery. “Perfection!” Silverton thought — before setting out to make it even more perfect. Every recipe in this book similarly gilds the lily: Walnut oil and ground walnuts intensify the dough for Walnut Sandies. Black cocoa powder, cacao nibs, bittersweet chocolate and flaky salt marry in the Ultimate Chocolate Cookie — which takes hours. But you will want to change your life to make time for it. — \u003cem>T. Susan Chang, food writer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque\u003c/em> by Ed Mitchell and Ryan Mitchell with Zella Palmer\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939606 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.30.51-PM-e1702791086869.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"314\">This book is a tribute to the “unspoken cuisine of America” and to the authors’ enslaved ancestors, the first pitmasters of eastern North Carolina. The recipes are delectable. The star is whole hog BBQ, pit-roasted over hot embers with a vinegar-based sauce, and traditional sides, like Tobacco Barn Brunswick Stew, Church Ladies’ Candied Yams, and Ed’s Shindig Slaw. But we also get some fresh takes, like Smoked Collard Green Dip, Bougie Barbequed Whole Turkey, and Smoked Tofu Burnt Ends. This is one of those special regional cookbooks that reads as a rich cultural and historical memoir told through the lens of foodways. — \u003cem>Debbie Elliott, correspondent, National Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The Global Pantry Cookbook\u003c/em> by Scott Mowbray and Ann Taylor Pittman\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939608 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.32.02-PM-e1702791167289.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"311\">I collect cookbooks. I especially love ones with stories about how recipes reflect local culture and history. This new collection goes around the world to “taste the umami of human history.” The authors are test kitchen superstars, and the book is an encyclopedia of flavors with an introduction that explains how they were first introduced to American cooks. It includes a glossary of interesting ingredients to try, like anyuls vinegar, kecap manis and ras el hanout (try it in chicken salad!). Ann Taylor Pittman showcases her Korean and Mississippi roots in her Smokey Pimento Kim Cheese recipe. It’s fun to make — you fashion a stovetop smoker with a foil pan to smoke the pimento and add chopped kimchi for punch. Delicious! — \u003cem>Debbie Elliott, correspondent, National Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food\u003c/em> by Fuchsia Dunlop\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939609 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.33.18-PM-e1702791231842.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"395\">Fuchsia Dunlop finds it a pity that Chinese food is among the world’s favorites, yet one of the least understood. This is partly because, in her view, there are few Chinese gastronomy critics who can both cook dishes and write prose. In \u003cem>Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food\u003c/em>, Dunlop — who in the 1990s became the first foreigner to study at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine in Chengdu — tries to take on that role. It’s a personal journey filled with history of some of the best-known and occasionally exotic dishes, told in lip-smacking detail. It’s an invitation hard to resist. — \u003cem>Vincent Ni, Asia editor, International Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen\u003c/em> by Bee Wilson\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939610 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.34.22-PM-e1702791293728.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"355\">More than a cookbook, this is an empathetic guide to how to make cooking work for you — and even become a joy (or a joy again). Sure, Bee Wilson says, cooking is easy if you have all afternoon, no kids pulling on you and someone prepping your ingredients. But what if you have picky eaters, a full-time job and a kitchen with only half the ingredients the recipe calls for? This book has the answers, explaining everything from how to figure out what flavors go together, to how to build a repertoire of favorites, to how to cut yourself some slack when everything goes wrong. The book’s simple, delicious recipes are treated more like blueprints — if something in a recipe doesn’t work for you, Wilson is happy for you to try putting in something that will. — \u003cem>Jennifer Vanasco, editor and reporter, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia\u003c/em> by Lara Lee\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939611 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.35.30-PM-e1702791365367.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"325\">If your personal gastronomic paradise is centered somewhere off the South China Sea, this one’s for you. Australian food writer Lara Lee draws inspiration from foodways spanning the Eastern Hemisphere; she’ll lead you on a lemongrass-scented, tamarind-flecked, coconut-infused frolic through the aisles of your local Asian grocery. We tore our way through Sambal Shrimp with Coconut and Cashews, Tom Yum Roast Chicken, Pickled Ginger Soba Noodle Salad, Tofu and Cabbage Okonomiyaki, Lemongrass Pork Burgers and much more. By the end, way more than a splash of soy adorned my copy — and I bet it’ll be the same for yours. — T. Susan Chang, food writer\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook\u003c/em> by Sohla El-Waylly\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939612 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.36.49-PM-e1702791443432.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"328\">I really can’t think of a better kitchen mentor than Sohla El-Waylly. She’s created some of my most favorite recipes, and Start Here will teach you any technique you need — whether it’s new to you, or you’re just a bit rusty or unsure — to make your food taste incredible. My family inhaled her Baked White Beans with Dates, and I got over my fear of cooking with dried legumes, thanks to her gentle but authoritative guidance. Next up? Maybe Turmeric Potatoes with a Whole Lotta Lemon. Yum. — \u003cem>Sarah Handel, senior editor, ‘All Things Considered’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds\u003c/em> by Hetty Lui McKinnon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939613 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.38.00-PM-e1702791508854.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"367\">Prolific cookbook author and daughter of a produce wholesaler Hetty Lui McKinnon knows her way around her greens. While many vegetable cookbooks worship at the altar of the unadorned plant, Tenderheart advocates an exuberant, over-the-top vegetarianism, enhanced with innovative homemade chili crisps, pickles, aiolis, harissas. King Oyster Mushrooms with Whipped Almonds, Roasted Broccoli and Crispy Chickpeas with Sichuan Dukkah, and Sticky Gochujang Brussels Sprouts are like nothing you ever encountered in the Moosewood generation. With mouthwatering, high-def photography and a pristine layout, this one’s eminently giftable, too. — \u003cem>T. Susan Chang, food writer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The World Central Kitchen Cookbook\u003c/em> by José Andrés and World Central Kitchen with Sam Chapple-Sokol\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939614 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.39.08-PM-e1702791581100.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"307\">This is much more than a cookbook: It’s a chronicle of World Central Kitchen’s profound work nourishing millions of people worldwide in the wake of natural disasters and other crises. WCK founder and chef José Andrés has organized the recipes into WCK’s core principles, like “empathy,” “adaptation,” “resilience” and the like. The inspiring text and photos highlight WCK’s work all over the globe, including in Haiti, Lebanon and Indonesia, as well as across the United States. Several of the dishes here have already become weeknight family favorites in my own home, including the tangy Chicken Chili Verde, the flavorful one-pot Turkey Bolognese and the mouthwatering Venezuelan Banana Bread. — \u003cem>Anastasia Tsioulcas, correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>This is just a sampling of the titles in the \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#tags=cookbooks+%26+food&view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Cookbooks & Food section\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cstrong> of \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Books We Love\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>. Check out \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#tags=cookbooks+%26+food&view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cem>\u003cstrong>all of this year’s selections,\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cstrong> and stick around to browse picks from the last 11 years.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 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=A+buffet+of+2023+cookbooks+for+the+food+lovers+on+your+list&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There are a \u003cem>lot \u003c/em>of cooks at NPR. Every year when we ask our staff for recommendations for Books We Love — \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2023\">NPR’s annual, year-end books guide\u003c/a> — we get back a veritable smorgasbord of cookbook offerings. Scroll down to find out what our staffers were up to in the kitchen this year, and to explore selections from food writer, author and NPR contributor \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/10593559/t-susan-chang\">T. Susan Chang. \u003c/a>This is just a sampling of our food recommendations in 2023 — to see the full list, head over to \u003ca href=\"http://stage-apps.npr.org/orderly-slander/#tags=cookbooks+%26+food&view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cstrong>Books We Love.\u003c/strong> \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling\u003c/em> by Bricia Lopez with Javier Cabral\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939604 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.26.52-PM-e1702790889803.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"190\">Restaurateur Bricia Lopez says her cookbook \u003cem>Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling\u003c/em> is a love letter to Los Angeles. It’s an expression of both her Oaxacan and American identity. An asada is a smoky barbecue filled with family, friends, music and drinks. And backyard asada culture reigns supreme in the streets of LA. Lopez’s cookbook covers everything you need to know to throw an asada, from making marinades to refreshing agua frescas. — \u003cem>Milton Guevara, associate producer, ‘Morning Edition’ and ‘Up First’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The Cookie That Changed My Life\u003c/em> by Nancy Silverton with Carolynn Carreño\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939605 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.28.45-PM-e1702790959367.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"283\">If you’re like me, every cookie is the “cookie that changed my life.” But in the case of veteran baker Nancy Silverton, it was a giant peanut butter cookie from an LA bakery. “Perfection!” Silverton thought — before setting out to make it even more perfect. Every recipe in this book similarly gilds the lily: Walnut oil and ground walnuts intensify the dough for Walnut Sandies. Black cocoa powder, cacao nibs, bittersweet chocolate and flaky salt marry in the Ultimate Chocolate Cookie — which takes hours. But you will want to change your life to make time for it. — \u003cem>T. Susan Chang, food writer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque\u003c/em> by Ed Mitchell and Ryan Mitchell with Zella Palmer\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939606 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.30.51-PM-e1702791086869.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"314\">This book is a tribute to the “unspoken cuisine of America” and to the authors’ enslaved ancestors, the first pitmasters of eastern North Carolina. The recipes are delectable. The star is whole hog BBQ, pit-roasted over hot embers with a vinegar-based sauce, and traditional sides, like Tobacco Barn Brunswick Stew, Church Ladies’ Candied Yams, and Ed’s Shindig Slaw. But we also get some fresh takes, like Smoked Collard Green Dip, Bougie Barbequed Whole Turkey, and Smoked Tofu Burnt Ends. This is one of those special regional cookbooks that reads as a rich cultural and historical memoir told through the lens of foodways. — \u003cem>Debbie Elliott, correspondent, National Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The Global Pantry Cookbook\u003c/em> by Scott Mowbray and Ann Taylor Pittman\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939608 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.32.02-PM-e1702791167289.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"311\">I collect cookbooks. I especially love ones with stories about how recipes reflect local culture and history. This new collection goes around the world to “taste the umami of human history.” The authors are test kitchen superstars, and the book is an encyclopedia of flavors with an introduction that explains how they were first introduced to American cooks. It includes a glossary of interesting ingredients to try, like anyuls vinegar, kecap manis and ras el hanout (try it in chicken salad!). Ann Taylor Pittman showcases her Korean and Mississippi roots in her Smokey Pimento Kim Cheese recipe. It’s fun to make — you fashion a stovetop smoker with a foil pan to smoke the pimento and add chopped kimchi for punch. Delicious! — \u003cem>Debbie Elliott, correspondent, National Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food\u003c/em> by Fuchsia Dunlop\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939609 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.33.18-PM-e1702791231842.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"395\">Fuchsia Dunlop finds it a pity that Chinese food is among the world’s favorites, yet one of the least understood. This is partly because, in her view, there are few Chinese gastronomy critics who can both cook dishes and write prose. In \u003cem>Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food\u003c/em>, Dunlop — who in the 1990s became the first foreigner to study at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine in Chengdu — tries to take on that role. It’s a personal journey filled with history of some of the best-known and occasionally exotic dishes, told in lip-smacking detail. It’s an invitation hard to resist. — \u003cem>Vincent Ni, Asia editor, International Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen\u003c/em> by Bee Wilson\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939610 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.34.22-PM-e1702791293728.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"355\">More than a cookbook, this is an empathetic guide to how to make cooking work for you — and even become a joy (or a joy again). Sure, Bee Wilson says, cooking is easy if you have all afternoon, no kids pulling on you and someone prepping your ingredients. But what if you have picky eaters, a full-time job and a kitchen with only half the ingredients the recipe calls for? This book has the answers, explaining everything from how to figure out what flavors go together, to how to build a repertoire of favorites, to how to cut yourself some slack when everything goes wrong. The book’s simple, delicious recipes are treated more like blueprints — if something in a recipe doesn’t work for you, Wilson is happy for you to try putting in something that will. — \u003cem>Jennifer Vanasco, editor and reporter, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia\u003c/em> by Lara Lee\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939611 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.35.30-PM-e1702791365367.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"325\">If your personal gastronomic paradise is centered somewhere off the South China Sea, this one’s for you. Australian food writer Lara Lee draws inspiration from foodways spanning the Eastern Hemisphere; she’ll lead you on a lemongrass-scented, tamarind-flecked, coconut-infused frolic through the aisles of your local Asian grocery. We tore our way through Sambal Shrimp with Coconut and Cashews, Tom Yum Roast Chicken, Pickled Ginger Soba Noodle Salad, Tofu and Cabbage Okonomiyaki, Lemongrass Pork Burgers and much more. By the end, way more than a splash of soy adorned my copy — and I bet it’ll be the same for yours. — T. Susan Chang, food writer\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook\u003c/em> by Sohla El-Waylly\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939612 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.36.49-PM-e1702791443432.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"328\">I really can’t think of a better kitchen mentor than Sohla El-Waylly. She’s created some of my most favorite recipes, and Start Here will teach you any technique you need — whether it’s new to you, or you’re just a bit rusty or unsure — to make your food taste incredible. My family inhaled her Baked White Beans with Dates, and I got over my fear of cooking with dried legumes, thanks to her gentle but authoritative guidance. Next up? Maybe Turmeric Potatoes with a Whole Lotta Lemon. Yum. — \u003cem>Sarah Handel, senior editor, ‘All Things Considered’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds\u003c/em> by Hetty Lui McKinnon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939613 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.38.00-PM-e1702791508854.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"367\">Prolific cookbook author and daughter of a produce wholesaler Hetty Lui McKinnon knows her way around her greens. While many vegetable cookbooks worship at the altar of the unadorned plant, Tenderheart advocates an exuberant, over-the-top vegetarianism, enhanced with innovative homemade chili crisps, pickles, aiolis, harissas. King Oyster Mushrooms with Whipped Almonds, Roasted Broccoli and Crispy Chickpeas with Sichuan Dukkah, and Sticky Gochujang Brussels Sprouts are like nothing you ever encountered in the Moosewood generation. With mouthwatering, high-def photography and a pristine layout, this one’s eminently giftable, too. — \u003cem>T. Susan Chang, food writer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cem>The World Central Kitchen Cookbook\u003c/em> by José Andrés and World Central Kitchen with Sam Chapple-Sokol\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939614 alignleft\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-16-at-9.39.08-PM-e1702791581100.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"307\">This is much more than a cookbook: It’s a chronicle of World Central Kitchen’s profound work nourishing millions of people worldwide in the wake of natural disasters and other crises. WCK founder and chef José Andrés has organized the recipes into WCK’s core principles, like “empathy,” “adaptation,” “resilience” and the like. The inspiring text and photos highlight WCK’s work all over the globe, including in Haiti, Lebanon and Indonesia, as well as across the United States. Several of the dishes here have already become weeknight family favorites in my own home, including the tangy Chicken Chili Verde, the flavorful one-pot Turkey Bolognese and the mouthwatering Venezuelan Banana Bread. — \u003cem>Anastasia Tsioulcas, correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>This is just a sampling of the titles in the \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#tags=cookbooks+%26+food&view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Cookbooks & Food section\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cstrong> of \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Books We Love\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>. Check out \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#tags=cookbooks+%26+food&view=covers&year=2023\">\u003cem>\u003cstrong>all of this year’s selections,\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cstrong> and stick around to browse picks from the last 11 years.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 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=A+buffet+of+2023+cookbooks+for+the+food+lovers+on+your+list&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sorry, Tamales: Venezuelans Say Hallacas Are the Ultimate Christmas Dish",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a column about Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary cultures through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the son of Mexican immigrants — with one parent currently living in México and the other obsessively watching the Mexican soccer league’s playoffs as I write this — I’m about to get lambasted for saying the following: Forget about Mexican tamales on Nochebuena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, I’m going for Venezuelan hallacas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, hallacas are tamale-esque — masa-thick, meat-stuffed and delicately wrapped in banana leaves that are boiled and dispersed like little edible gifts around a table of hungry-mouthed, happy-eyed recipients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the words of San Francisco-based foodmaker and Venezuelan immigrant Victor Aguilera, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/13/21562592/arepas-en-bici-bike-delivery-venezuelan-hallacas-pan-de-jamon-christmas-thanksgiving\">hallacas are much more than “Venezuelan tamales.”\u003c/a> For starters, they’re heftier. That’s because they’re filled with guiso (a flavorful stew), veggies and a panoply of proteins (including a trifecta of chicken, beef and pork).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aguilera — who opened his food operation, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/arepasenbici/?hl=en\">Arepas en Bici\u003c/a>, during the COVID peak of shelter in place by \u003ca href=\"https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-chef-who-makes-and-delivers-his-own-food/61dda8ae3522aa50d007101c\">delivering homemade arepas\u003c/a> on his bicycle, up and down San Francisco’s steeply angled avenues — learned how to make hallacas and other Venezuelan holiday favorites, like pan de jamón, from his grandmother in Venezuela.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939532\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939532\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez.jpg\" alt='A drag performer in a bright orange dress, a chef wearing glasses, and a journalist in white sneakers sit on stage. The words \"Arepas en Bici\" are projected onto the screen behind them.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drag performer Dulce de Leche and KQED Arts staff writer Alan Chazaro interviewed Aguilera (center) on stage during a tamal-themed KQED event. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, KQED hosted Aguilera — along with the chefs behind \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/omsabor/?hl=en\">Om Sabor\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/popoca.oakland/?hl=en\">Popoca\u003c/a> — for a live event focused on holiday culinary traditions and the joy of hosting a good old-fashioned \u003ca href=\"https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2022/12/tamales-and-tamaladas/\">tamalada\u003c/a>. I spoke with Aguilera to learn more about his memories of home, music, rum and — Venezuela’s Nochebuena centerpiece — hallacas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: What exactly are hallacas? They were served at KQED’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/event/3597?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7OqrBhD9ARIsAK3UXh1BwWOgtjp0_B0D-I3oiHUf1cdU0O0obKLIm-8Ihut-TVzWK5ChRTEaAmY1EALw_wcB\">Celebrating the Holidays with Tamales\u003c/a>” live event. But they’re not tamales.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Victor Aguilera:\u003c/b> Hallacas are a Venezuelan holiday food, traditionally served every Christmas, like tamales. Now that there are more Venezuelans in the U.S., they’re also being made for Thanksgiving as well. Sometimes they’re eaten at other times of the year, but it’s really mostly for the holidays with your family. The inside is very different from tamales. A tamal might have one protein and maybe cheese with salsa in the dough. Sometimes it can get dry, or if you’re lucky, it’s moist and has that juicy fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hallacas, the filling is chicken, beef and pork — all three. It’s slow-cooked in a guiso, which is like a stew, using African- and French-influenced spices. You get this nice, beautiful guiso and then you put that in the hallaca. You add some raw onions, peppers, olives and raisins, then you stuff that in the plantain leaf and wrap it all in butcher’s twine and you boil it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I love that. What does using a plantain leaf add to the flavor profile, as opposed to using a corn husk, which is more commonly seen throughout Northern Mexico and here in California?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I believe it’s moister. It gives a fresher, more dense flavor to the masa. If you think about it, there are more cuisines that use plantain leaves for their dishes as well. Steamed fish in Vietnam and rice cakes around different Asian countries. They like wrap food and other items in plantain leaves. It gives a nice, woody flavor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Arepas en Bici is a clever name. You started out by actually selling arepas on your bicicleta, or bici, around San Francisco. Tell us about how that happened. And are you still pedaling around?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, I got laid off like everybody, and during a month of uncertainty — and, really, just survival mode kicking in —with the help of my fiancée, we started Arepas en Bici. We had $63 and started the business just by selling arepas on Instagram. I made a menu and had maybe two clients per day at first. Two weeks later I had an \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/4/22/21230298/arepas-en-bici-venezuelan-bicycle-delivery-san-francisco\">interview\u003c/a> [with now KQED Food editor, Luke Tsai] at Eater SF and that gave like 2,000 followers added in less than a month. We had orders back to back to back. The laws were not fully in effect about what we could or couldn’t do, but we did our best trying to keep it all safe by making food at home and delivering it by bicycle. I was on \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/food/story/make-chef-victor-aguileras-delicious-home-chicken-avocado-71755150\">\u003ci>Good Morning America\u003c/i>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.telemundoareadelabahia.com/noticias/local/arepas-en-bicicleta-en-san-francisco/2077519/\">Telemundo\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now we’re three years in, and as restaurants have opened again, business slowed down for us and we had to readjust. We’re not really operating from home anymore. I do some prep work, but usually we are [popping up] at different event spaces. We haven’t found our own location yet, unfortunately. But that’s the goal. We do private dinners and services. Catering. We’re about to work at a concert with about 200 people, serving holiday food and arepas as a seasonal menu, with pernil and asado negro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What sort of Northern California influences have you introduced to your Venezuelan recipes?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We do lots of Venezuelan cuisine in a California farm-to-table setting; I also work with cannabis in food, too, using oils. Everything right now is farm to table. Two months ago, we switched to fully organic. I usually go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/heartofthecityfm/\">Heart of the City Farmers Market\u003c/a> for my ingredients. If not, we’re using \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/biritesf/\">Bi Rite\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/gussmarket/\">Gus’s\u003c/a>, which is purchased from local sources and farmers. That makes it easier for me. For my hallacas, I offer another version, it’s not the regular one — it’s vegan. That’s not common in Venezuela. We love our meat (laughs). But here in the Bay Area, there are many varieties of clientele, and I want everyone to try Venezuelan traditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Prior to Arepas en Bici, how long had you been living in the Bay? What are the challenges of being a small business owner here?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was born in Venezuela and raised there, then moved to the U.S. when I was 12. I was in Florida for a while, and have now been in San Francisco for seven years. I would love to make it out in the Bay Area, even though it seems to be getting harder, but we’re trying to push to stay here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939534\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939534\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez.jpg\" alt=\"A chef in a brown apron shows off two banana leaf-wrapped hallacas on a wooden cutting board.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aguilera shows off the finished dish: two banana leaf–wrapped hallacas. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I’d never heard of hallacas prior to this. Are there other Venezuelan places serving them around here?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as I know, I was one of the first to bring them to this area, as mentioned in the \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/13/21562592/arepas-en-bici-bike-delivery-venezuelan-hallacas-pan-de-jamon-christmas-thanksgiving\">Eater SF\u003c/a> article, but now there are more independent sellers doing it, too. There is an amazing chef who is doing Chinese Venezuelan food at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cantoosf/\">Cantoo\u003c/a>. That’s actually very common in Venezuela. I miss eating Venezuelan Chinese food. As a kid I was not very into it, but now I eat it way more, and it reminds me of home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What other memories remind you of Venezuela, particularly during the holidays?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So there’s three dishes together: hallacas, pan de jamón, and our version of coquito, which is called ponche de crema and is made with Venezuelan rum. It’s like our eggnog. For the pan de jamón, it’s freshly baked rolls with homemade dough, filled with ham, bacon, olives and raisins with a panela glaze I make that is brushed on the inside and outside. It’s crispy. It’s sweet. It’s savory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13938479,arts_13930138,arts_13913355']\u003c/span>At the table, the family comes together for all of this. Everyone helps in preparing the meal, and you go up the ranks as you get older. You get different responsibilities in making the hallacas. First, it’s cleaning the leaves. After that, you put the masa on the leaves. The next person puts the guiso inside. Next, the little ingredients are added. Finally, the wrapping and tying the hallaca. That’s where you spill your family gossip and have some ponche or Venezuelan rum while listening to Venezuelan Christmas music. Our holiday music isn’t always promoted very much, but we listen to \u003ca href=\"https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2021/12/01/gaita-the-ultimate-venezuelan-holiday-music/\">gaita\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nice part is you can freeze and store the hallacas after, and they last for months and months. Usually, at the end of December, you have an extra 20 and eat them throughout the next year. I actually had a client the other day, and he sent me a picture of one he bought the year before. And he ate it. I was scared for him, but he said it still tasted good. I was like, I wouldn’t eat that, but it’s cool to know they last that long.\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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.arepasenbici.com/\">\u003ci>Arepas en Bici\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is currently taking orders from its \u003c/i>\u003ci>annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.arepasenbici.com/holidaymenu\">holiday menu\u003c/a> until Dec. 20\u003c/i>\u003ci>. Check its \u003ca href=\"https://www.arepasenbici.com/popups\">calendar\u003c/a> or reach out directly to learn about future events, catering and private dinners.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylrLD0hBR8U\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A Venezuelan chef shares his evolving holiday traditions.\r\n",
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"title": "Forget Tamales: Venezuelan Hallacas Are the Best Christmas Dish | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a column about Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary cultures through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the son of Mexican immigrants — with one parent currently living in México and the other obsessively watching the Mexican soccer league’s playoffs as I write this — I’m about to get lambasted for saying the following: Forget about Mexican tamales on Nochebuena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, I’m going for Venezuelan hallacas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, hallacas are tamale-esque — masa-thick, meat-stuffed and delicately wrapped in banana leaves that are boiled and dispersed like little edible gifts around a table of hungry-mouthed, happy-eyed recipients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the words of San Francisco-based foodmaker and Venezuelan immigrant Victor Aguilera, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/13/21562592/arepas-en-bici-bike-delivery-venezuelan-hallacas-pan-de-jamon-christmas-thanksgiving\">hallacas are much more than “Venezuelan tamales.”\u003c/a> For starters, they’re heftier. That’s because they’re filled with guiso (a flavorful stew), veggies and a panoply of proteins (including a trifecta of chicken, beef and pork).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aguilera — who opened his food operation, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/arepasenbici/?hl=en\">Arepas en Bici\u003c/a>, during the COVID peak of shelter in place by \u003ca href=\"https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-chef-who-makes-and-delivers-his-own-food/61dda8ae3522aa50d007101c\">delivering homemade arepas\u003c/a> on his bicycle, up and down San Francisco’s steeply angled avenues — learned how to make hallacas and other Venezuelan holiday favorites, like pan de jamón, from his grandmother in Venezuela.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939532\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939532\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez.jpg\" alt='A drag performer in a bright orange dress, a chef wearing glasses, and a journalist in white sneakers sit on stage. The words \"Arepas en Bici\" are projected onto the screen behind them.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas3_estefany-gonzalez-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drag performer Dulce de Leche and KQED Arts staff writer Alan Chazaro interviewed Aguilera (center) on stage during a tamal-themed KQED event. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, KQED hosted Aguilera — along with the chefs behind \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/omsabor/?hl=en\">Om Sabor\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/popoca.oakland/?hl=en\">Popoca\u003c/a> — for a live event focused on holiday culinary traditions and the joy of hosting a good old-fashioned \u003ca href=\"https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2022/12/tamales-and-tamaladas/\">tamalada\u003c/a>. I spoke with Aguilera to learn more about his memories of home, music, rum and — Venezuela’s Nochebuena centerpiece — hallacas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: What exactly are hallacas? They were served at KQED’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/event/3597?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7OqrBhD9ARIsAK3UXh1BwWOgtjp0_B0D-I3oiHUf1cdU0O0obKLIm-8Ihut-TVzWK5ChRTEaAmY1EALw_wcB\">Celebrating the Holidays with Tamales\u003c/a>” live event. But they’re not tamales.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Victor Aguilera:\u003c/b> Hallacas are a Venezuelan holiday food, traditionally served every Christmas, like tamales. Now that there are more Venezuelans in the U.S., they’re also being made for Thanksgiving as well. Sometimes they’re eaten at other times of the year, but it’s really mostly for the holidays with your family. The inside is very different from tamales. A tamal might have one protein and maybe cheese with salsa in the dough. Sometimes it can get dry, or if you’re lucky, it’s moist and has that juicy fat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hallacas, the filling is chicken, beef and pork — all three. It’s slow-cooked in a guiso, which is like a stew, using African- and French-influenced spices. You get this nice, beautiful guiso and then you put that in the hallaca. You add some raw onions, peppers, olives and raisins, then you stuff that in the plantain leaf and wrap it all in butcher’s twine and you boil it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I love that. What does using a plantain leaf add to the flavor profile, as opposed to using a corn husk, which is more commonly seen throughout Northern Mexico and here in California?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I believe it’s moister. It gives a fresher, more dense flavor to the masa. If you think about it, there are more cuisines that use plantain leaves for their dishes as well. Steamed fish in Vietnam and rice cakes around different Asian countries. They like wrap food and other items in plantain leaves. It gives a nice, woody flavor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Arepas en Bici is a clever name. You started out by actually selling arepas on your bicicleta, or bici, around San Francisco. Tell us about how that happened. And are you still pedaling around?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, I got laid off like everybody, and during a month of uncertainty — and, really, just survival mode kicking in —with the help of my fiancée, we started Arepas en Bici. We had $63 and started the business just by selling arepas on Instagram. I made a menu and had maybe two clients per day at first. Two weeks later I had an \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/4/22/21230298/arepas-en-bici-venezuelan-bicycle-delivery-san-francisco\">interview\u003c/a> [with now KQED Food editor, Luke Tsai] at Eater SF and that gave like 2,000 followers added in less than a month. We had orders back to back to back. The laws were not fully in effect about what we could or couldn’t do, but we did our best trying to keep it all safe by making food at home and delivering it by bicycle. I was on \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/food/story/make-chef-victor-aguileras-delicious-home-chicken-avocado-71755150\">\u003ci>Good Morning America\u003c/i>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.telemundoareadelabahia.com/noticias/local/arepas-en-bicicleta-en-san-francisco/2077519/\">Telemundo\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now we’re three years in, and as restaurants have opened again, business slowed down for us and we had to readjust. We’re not really operating from home anymore. I do some prep work, but usually we are [popping up] at different event spaces. We haven’t found our own location yet, unfortunately. But that’s the goal. We do private dinners and services. Catering. We’re about to work at a concert with about 200 people, serving holiday food and arepas as a seasonal menu, with pernil and asado negro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What sort of Northern California influences have you introduced to your Venezuelan recipes?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We do lots of Venezuelan cuisine in a California farm-to-table setting; I also work with cannabis in food, too, using oils. Everything right now is farm to table. Two months ago, we switched to fully organic. I usually go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/heartofthecityfm/\">Heart of the City Farmers Market\u003c/a> for my ingredients. If not, we’re using \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/biritesf/\">Bi Rite\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/gussmarket/\">Gus’s\u003c/a>, which is purchased from local sources and farmers. That makes it easier for me. For my hallacas, I offer another version, it’s not the regular one — it’s vegan. That’s not common in Venezuela. We love our meat (laughs). But here in the Bay Area, there are many varieties of clientele, and I want everyone to try Venezuelan traditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Prior to Arepas en Bici, how long had you been living in the Bay? What are the challenges of being a small business owner here?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was born in Venezuela and raised there, then moved to the U.S. when I was 12. I was in Florida for a while, and have now been in San Francisco for seven years. I would love to make it out in the Bay Area, even though it seems to be getting harder, but we’re trying to push to stay here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939534\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939534\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez.jpg\" alt=\"A chef in a brown apron shows off two banana leaf-wrapped hallacas on a wooden cutting board.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/hallacas1_estefany-gonzalez-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aguilera shows off the finished dish: two banana leaf–wrapped hallacas. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I’d never heard of hallacas prior to this. Are there other Venezuelan places serving them around here?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as I know, I was one of the first to bring them to this area, as mentioned in the \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/13/21562592/arepas-en-bici-bike-delivery-venezuelan-hallacas-pan-de-jamon-christmas-thanksgiving\">Eater SF\u003c/a> article, but now there are more independent sellers doing it, too. There is an amazing chef who is doing Chinese Venezuelan food at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cantoosf/\">Cantoo\u003c/a>. That’s actually very common in Venezuela. I miss eating Venezuelan Chinese food. As a kid I was not very into it, but now I eat it way more, and it reminds me of home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What other memories remind you of Venezuela, particularly during the holidays?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So there’s three dishes together: hallacas, pan de jamón, and our version of coquito, which is called ponche de crema and is made with Venezuelan rum. It’s like our eggnog. For the pan de jamón, it’s freshly baked rolls with homemade dough, filled with ham, bacon, olives and raisins with a panela glaze I make that is brushed on the inside and outside. It’s crispy. It’s sweet. It’s savory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>At the table, the family comes together for all of this. Everyone helps in preparing the meal, and you go up the ranks as you get older. You get different responsibilities in making the hallacas. First, it’s cleaning the leaves. After that, you put the masa on the leaves. The next person puts the guiso inside. Next, the little ingredients are added. Finally, the wrapping and tying the hallaca. That’s where you spill your family gossip and have some ponche or Venezuelan rum while listening to Venezuelan Christmas music. Our holiday music isn’t always promoted very much, but we listen to \u003ca href=\"https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2021/12/01/gaita-the-ultimate-venezuelan-holiday-music/\">gaita\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nice part is you can freeze and store the hallacas after, and they last for months and months. Usually, at the end of December, you have an extra 20 and eat them throughout the next year. I actually had a client the other day, and he sent me a picture of one he bought the year before. And he ate it. I was scared for him, but he said it still tasted good. I was like, I wouldn’t eat that, but it’s cool to know they last that long.\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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.arepasenbici.com/\">\u003ci>Arepas en Bici\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is currently taking orders from its \u003c/i>\u003ci>annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.arepasenbici.com/holidaymenu\">holiday menu\u003c/a> until Dec. 20\u003c/i>\u003ci>. Check its \u003ca href=\"https://www.arepasenbici.com/popups\">calendar\u003c/a> or reach out directly to learn about future events, catering and private dinners.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Downtown San Francisco I Loved Was a Holiday Wonderland",
"headTitle": "The Downtown San Francisco I Loved Was a Holiday Wonderland | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Frisco Foodies is a recurring column in which a San Francisco local shares food memories of growing up in a now rapidly changing city.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his holiday season, my teenage son asked for his first pair of classic wheat Timberland boots. Favored by construction workers and rap legends, Timberlands are prized for their lifelong durability and rugged aesthetic. I should know — I’ve had my own pair of wheats on ice for over twenty years. The style of shoe is canon in hip-hop history; when I interviewed the Wu-Tang Clan for \u003ci>The Source\u003c/i> in 2007, they mentioned that their performance fee back then, split between the nine original members, was sometimes only enough for a pair of Timbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 2000s, when I worked as a retail associate at Timberland’s downtown San Francisco store, I learned that only the classics were resoleable for life, and that they were water-resistant enough to withstand a quick downpour but not a heavy deluge. They were a good investment, I told my son, but please let Mom pick them out. I wanted him to have a lasting pair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I loved that downtown Timberland job and have fond memories of taking the J-Church train from Mission Terrace over Dolores Park and through the Castro, before it finally dropped me off at Market & Powell. I was convinced it was the most beautiful Muni line in the city, and the holiday season, with the Embarcadero skyline lit up, made the trip even more festive. It was just close enough to Union Square to feel the holiday cheer in the crisp winter air and hear a melancholy Coltrane song from a street performer’s saxophone. The store itself was small enough for me to form lasting relationships there. And the employee discount was good enough to allow me to play Santa during the holidays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939440\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939440\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR.jpg\" alt='Over a box a Timberland boots, a hand holds up an engraved leather name tag that reads \"Krishtine\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1983\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-800x793.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-1020x1011.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-768x761.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-1536x1523.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-1920x1904.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A relic of the downtown San Francisco of the early 2000s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rocky Rivera)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fast forward to 2023 and I haven’t stepped foot in downtown for years — not since the pandemic accelerated the neighborhood’s retail apocalypse. What used to be the prime destination for Christmas shopping now has to contend with two-day Amazon Prime shipping and a barrage of Fox News reports about the whole area being an open-air drug market. Cop cars park on the corner next to Louis Vuitton, hoping to deter roving gangs of juvenile shoplifters known for their \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/video-shows-san-franciscos-union-square-louis-vuitton-store-after-it-was-emptied-out-by-thieves\">chaotic smash-and-grabs\u003c/a>. Even a high-end supermarket couldn’t save its customers from \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/san-francisco-whole-foods-crime-economy.html\">“machete-wielding” assailants and drug users overdosing in the bathroom\u003c/a> — though locals might wonder who Whole Foods was trying to cater to downtown in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood’s food scene isn’t doing much better. Chefs lament about how the lack of foot traffic and downtown office workers has shut down both trendy power-lunch spots (\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/barbacco-italian-san-francisco-18376833.php\">Barbacco\u003c/a>) and beloved family-run staples (\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/turtle-tower-vietnamese-closed-18519642.php\">Turtle Tower\u003c/a>). The nearby San Francisco Shopping Centre Mall is a shell of itself — about \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/business/westfield-mall-sf.html\">45 percent empty\u003c/a> after the Nordstrom closed over the summer. Even during the lunch rush, the food court often feels deserted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13929836,arts_13923127,arts_13921079']\u003c/span>The downtown I remember had shoplifters, drug users, scammers and weirdos, too — that part hasn’t changed as much as today’s news headlines might lead you to believe. But back when I worked downtown, I could spend my half-hour lunch breaks on a $2.50 slice combo at Blondie’s Pizza or splurge on a $15 roast chicken with mashed potatoes at Wolfgang Puck’s bistro in the Macy’s Cellar. Sometimes I’d have clam chowder in a sourdough bowl at Boudin; other days, I would save my pennies and meet my family for a celebratory dinner at Tad’s Steakhouse. When I was really broke, there was always the McDonald’s on Powell, where the old Filipino manongs used to hang out and watch the tourists on cable cars go past — not to mention the countless corner stores that sold bagels, coffee and sandwiches next to the Swisher Sweet cigars I used to wrap my blunts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of these places are gone or relocated from where they originally stood. Even the McDonald’s are \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2023/10/31/downtown-san-francisco-mcdonalds-closes/\">shutting down\u003c/a>. And the Timberland store I loved so much? That’s gone as well. My engraved leather name tag and pristine-condition wheats are all that remain of that era of downtown San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Make the City Better’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“No one remembers, right before the pandemic, how many restaurants were closing, how many chefs burned out, how bad business was, how bad the rent was,” says Christian Ciscle, a chef and longtime San Francisco resident who owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sfchickenbox/?hl=en\">SF Chickenbox \u003c/a>— a restaurant known for its perfectly golden-fried chicken, homemade hot sauces and chewy-pillowy mochi muffins. I’ve followed Ciscle’s seasoned breadcrumb trail from Little Skillet, where he served chicken and waffles to clubgoers at 330 Ritch, to Wing Wings in Lower Haight and now his new location in North Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937770\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937770\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a baseball cap stands in the doorway of a city building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Ciscle stands outside of the 332 Pine St. location of his latest project, Sucka Flea, a pop-up flea and swap market. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ciscle believes the mental health crisis and crime that have always existed in San Francisco are now compounded by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/cocaine-buffets-and-meth-poop-meet-twitter-s-rising-anti-san-francisco-influencers/article_723ddc00-24b0-11ed-bfc5-732c1fb7fc07.html\">constant barrage of videos\u003c/a> that serve as fuel for conservative media outlets looking to blame progressive politicians. Experiencing even one incident first-hand is enough to make a liberal store owner switch ideologies to welcome increased police presence — an approach Ciscle believes doesn’t actually deter property crime but instead targets the most vulnerable. “There’s truth to how bad it is, but unhoused people didn’t make [downtown] bad,” he says. “What made them unhoused did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downtown San Francisco has never been an ideal place for a food business, in Ciscle’s opinion: “It was always dead after 5 p.m. on weekdays and weekends. It was never a place to do business, unless you’re Tyler Florence.” And when the pandemic hit and business came to a screeching halt, he saw how vulnerable everyone was to closing down. “Nobody was bulletproof,” he says. “Everyone had to reassess their business model, their values.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937771\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937771\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people stand stand outside of a city building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vendors take a break outside of 332 Pine St. from the Sucka Flea market in San Francisco, Calif. on Nov. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luckily, a newly created nonprofit called \u003ca href=\"https://sfnewdeal.org/\">SF New Deal\u003c/a> supported food businesses by paying them to provide meals for various community orgs. It paid SF Chickenbox for 200 meals a day — a source of money Ciscle could rely on in unsteady times, enabling him to keep his business open. Earlier this year, the program evolved into \u003ca href=\"https://www.vibrantsf.org/how-we-work\">Vacant to Vibrant\u003c/a> (V2V), a new initiative that tries to activate empty office spaces to accommodate small business pop-ups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Christian Ciscle\"]‘Unhoused people didn’t make downtown bad. What made them unhoused did.’[/pullquote]Ciscle didn’t want to expand SF Chickenbox into downtown. But his experience throwing community festivals in years past made him perk up at the prospect of doing more than just food. The V2V program would allow him to utilize his long-standing relationships with vendors, artists, DJs and local artisans. So Ciscle created Sucka Flea, a pop-up flea market (and homage to San Francisco’s “Sucka Free” alias) that would also include local food vendors like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928804/hyphy-iceez-icee-slushy-filipino-hip-hop-mission-district-sf\">Hyphy Iceez\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926749/tasty-tings-jamaican-beef-patties-sf-oakland\">Tasty Tings\u003c/a>. The flea market’s last event of the year — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0f3tPKLJZt/\">holiday-themed market\u003c/a> — will take place at Hub Embarcadero (Howard St. and Embarcadero) on Saturday, Dec. 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For jewelry designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932647/rightnowish-presents-adorned-the-art-of-self-expression-affirmation\">Chelsea Macalino-Calalay\u003c/a>, Sucka Flea has provided a consistent space to sell her wares. At the Pine Street pop-up, her colorful baubles catch the eye of my five-year-old daughter, who otherwise would have no business in the Financial District on a Sunday afternoon. Macalino-Calalay is one of the thousands of Filipino Americans who were displaced from SoMa’s Manilatown enclave that once spanned ten city blocks to the International Hotel on Kearny Street. Macalino-Calalay’s family emigrated in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Her grandfather’s siblings were first employed as sign-painters at the Thomas Swan Sign Company when it was on Howard Street, then as food and service industry workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939443\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939443\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling vendor greets a customer at an indoor flea market.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author chats with vendors Chelsea Macalino-Calalay (center) and Dante Kaleo during the November edition of Sucka Flea’s downtown pop-up. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I used to be a crepe chef and a cake decorator and a hostess and a waitress. So I worked in food, too. It showed me a lot about work ethic as well as perseverance,” she recalls with pride. “But it also showed me what I don’t want in a work environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13933833']\u003c/span>Macalino-Calalay remembers downtown San Francisco as the place her family squeezed into on weekends, patronizing the fresh Filipino food at Aling Mary’s Unimart, relishing her lola’s home cooking, and enjoying meals from the McDonald’s on Bryant, where her father worked as a manager with an all-Filipino staff. Community orgs like West Bay, Soma Pilipinas and United Playaz helped her as a young girl, and Macalino-Calalay is seeing a resurgence of these kinds of resources that she hopes will continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if things are better or worse today, she pauses. “From someone who didn’t grow up in SF, ‘worse’ is very subjective. Things being worse just looks like us not being there,” she says about her family of SF locals, who are now scattered throughout the East Bay and Outer Mission. Some are still in the SoMa, where her jewelry is now being shown in a special exhibit at SFMOMA with artist Pacita Abad. It’s a full-circle moment for a Frisco girl, who used to see parts of the museum being painted below the front steps of her family home on Langton Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937768\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937768\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person poses for a photo holding up a bowl of food in an indoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanya Herrera (left) and Catherine Pham enjoy taking photos with some vintage collectibles. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/whackdonuts/?hl=en\">Whack Donuts\u003c/a> owner Vandor Hill, a born-and-raised San Franciscan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/downtown-sf-pop-ups-18392057.php\">opened his own temporary pop-up shop\u003c/a> through the V2V program. who sells delectable-looking peach cobbler doughnuts and Donkey Kong bread doughnuts, alongside trendy flavors like Thai tea and horchata. While he has appreciated the opportunity, He believes first-time business owners in San Francisco need even more support from City Hall — and actual follow-through from local politicians. “Like the Bobby Byrd song, ‘Saying It and Doing It Are Two Different Things.’ The mayor along with the Board of Supervisors have been saying a lot in terms of enforcing law and the homeless situation, but have yet to really make any lasting moves for improving these topics,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ciscle, for his part, believes pandemic-era programs like SF New Deal and Vacant to Vibrant are proof that money is out there for local food business owners: “There’s billionaires blocks away from us right now that could literally fund some shit and make it better — not that they should be running the city,” he says. “There’s money to fund programs out there, not just locking people up. To feed people, put people in houses. Make the city better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are more concerned with seeing [the unhoused] on the street,” Ciscle says. “They’re gonna put a planter on the sidewalk there so they can’t sleep and then be mad it gets knocked over or graffiti-ed up. And now we have two problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair laughs while sitting at a table talking to someone else.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nina Parks gives the author a tarot card reading. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, Sucka Flea is occupying some of these empty spaces and providing small business owners with shared foot traffic and community. It can’t fix all of the problems facing downtown San Francisco, but it’s a start. After all, creating a family-friendly space that attracts folks from all over the Bay Area to shop downtown is no small feat — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/C05JjsuvGK0/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D\">spending holiday shopping dollars with local vendors\u003c/a> seems more sustainable than throwing it away on chain restaurants and national department stores that never felt connected to community residents anyway. In a small way, the flea market has brought back some of that old holiday spirit I remember from my own time working in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the last flea market we attended, my son found a vintage button-down Ben Davis — another Frisco workwear staple — to go with the Timbs that he has yet to receive. Though I don’t consider my own pair vintage, I guess you can say those boots have walked many hills and seen a lot of change. Hopefully they’ll last long enough to live through a revitalization of downtown SF that is truly for the people who built it.\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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.suckaflea.com/\">\u003ci>Sucka Flea\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>’s pop-up holiday market will take place on Saturday, Dec. 16, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., at Howard Street and Embarcadero in San Francisco. The downtown pop-up is normally held at 332 Pine St. Its Mission District outpost will have its next event at CityStation SF (701 Valencia St.) on Jan. 14.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921079/mom-tribute-dia-de-los-muertos-filipino-food-altar-frisco-foodies\">Rocky Rivera\u003c/a> is a journalist, emcee, author and activist from San Francisco. She has four musical projects out, three of those with her label Beatrock Music. She released her first book last year, entitled \u003c/em>Snakeskin: Essays by Rocky Rivera\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Frisco Foodies is a recurring column in which a San Francisco local shares food memories of growing up in a now rapidly changing city.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>his holiday season, my teenage son asked for his first pair of classic wheat Timberland boots. Favored by construction workers and rap legends, Timberlands are prized for their lifelong durability and rugged aesthetic. I should know — I’ve had my own pair of wheats on ice for over twenty years. The style of shoe is canon in hip-hop history; when I interviewed the Wu-Tang Clan for \u003ci>The Source\u003c/i> in 2007, they mentioned that their performance fee back then, split between the nine original members, was sometimes only enough for a pair of Timbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 2000s, when I worked as a retail associate at Timberland’s downtown San Francisco store, I learned that only the classics were resoleable for life, and that they were water-resistant enough to withstand a quick downpour but not a heavy deluge. They were a good investment, I told my son, but please let Mom pick them out. I wanted him to have a lasting pair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I loved that downtown Timberland job and have fond memories of taking the J-Church train from Mission Terrace over Dolores Park and through the Castro, before it finally dropped me off at Market & Powell. I was convinced it was the most beautiful Muni line in the city, and the holiday season, with the Embarcadero skyline lit up, made the trip even more festive. It was just close enough to Union Square to feel the holiday cheer in the crisp winter air and hear a melancholy Coltrane song from a street performer’s saxophone. The store itself was small enough for me to form lasting relationships there. And the employee discount was good enough to allow me to play Santa during the holidays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939440\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939440\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR.jpg\" alt='Over a box a Timberland boots, a hand holds up an engraved leather name tag that reads \"Krishtine\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1983\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-800x793.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-1020x1011.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-768x761.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-1536x1523.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/timberland-tag_RR-1920x1904.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A relic of the downtown San Francisco of the early 2000s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rocky Rivera)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fast forward to 2023 and I haven’t stepped foot in downtown for years — not since the pandemic accelerated the neighborhood’s retail apocalypse. What used to be the prime destination for Christmas shopping now has to contend with two-day Amazon Prime shipping and a barrage of Fox News reports about the whole area being an open-air drug market. Cop cars park on the corner next to Louis Vuitton, hoping to deter roving gangs of juvenile shoplifters known for their \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/video-shows-san-franciscos-union-square-louis-vuitton-store-after-it-was-emptied-out-by-thieves\">chaotic smash-and-grabs\u003c/a>. Even a high-end supermarket couldn’t save its customers from \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/san-francisco-whole-foods-crime-economy.html\">“machete-wielding” assailants and drug users overdosing in the bathroom\u003c/a> — though locals might wonder who Whole Foods was trying to cater to downtown in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhood’s food scene isn’t doing much better. Chefs lament about how the lack of foot traffic and downtown office workers has shut down both trendy power-lunch spots (\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/barbacco-italian-san-francisco-18376833.php\">Barbacco\u003c/a>) and beloved family-run staples (\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/turtle-tower-vietnamese-closed-18519642.php\">Turtle Tower\u003c/a>). The nearby San Francisco Shopping Centre Mall is a shell of itself — about \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/business/westfield-mall-sf.html\">45 percent empty\u003c/a> after the Nordstrom closed over the summer. Even during the lunch rush, the food court often feels deserted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>The downtown I remember had shoplifters, drug users, scammers and weirdos, too — that part hasn’t changed as much as today’s news headlines might lead you to believe. But back when I worked downtown, I could spend my half-hour lunch breaks on a $2.50 slice combo at Blondie’s Pizza or splurge on a $15 roast chicken with mashed potatoes at Wolfgang Puck’s bistro in the Macy’s Cellar. Sometimes I’d have clam chowder in a sourdough bowl at Boudin; other days, I would save my pennies and meet my family for a celebratory dinner at Tad’s Steakhouse. When I was really broke, there was always the McDonald’s on Powell, where the old Filipino manongs used to hang out and watch the tourists on cable cars go past — not to mention the countless corner stores that sold bagels, coffee and sandwiches next to the Swisher Sweet cigars I used to wrap my blunts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of these places are gone or relocated from where they originally stood. Even the McDonald’s are \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2023/10/31/downtown-san-francisco-mcdonalds-closes/\">shutting down\u003c/a>. And the Timberland store I loved so much? That’s gone as well. My engraved leather name tag and pristine-condition wheats are all that remain of that era of downtown San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Make the City Better’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“No one remembers, right before the pandemic, how many restaurants were closing, how many chefs burned out, how bad business was, how bad the rent was,” says Christian Ciscle, a chef and longtime San Francisco resident who owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sfchickenbox/?hl=en\">SF Chickenbox \u003c/a>— a restaurant known for its perfectly golden-fried chicken, homemade hot sauces and chewy-pillowy mochi muffins. I’ve followed Ciscle’s seasoned breadcrumb trail from Little Skillet, where he served chicken and waffles to clubgoers at 330 Ritch, to Wing Wings in Lower Haight and now his new location in North Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937770\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937770\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a baseball cap stands in the doorway of a city building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Ciscle stands outside of the 332 Pine St. location of his latest project, Sucka Flea, a pop-up flea and swap market. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ciscle believes the mental health crisis and crime that have always existed in San Francisco are now compounded by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/cocaine-buffets-and-meth-poop-meet-twitter-s-rising-anti-san-francisco-influencers/article_723ddc00-24b0-11ed-bfc5-732c1fb7fc07.html\">constant barrage of videos\u003c/a> that serve as fuel for conservative media outlets looking to blame progressive politicians. Experiencing even one incident first-hand is enough to make a liberal store owner switch ideologies to welcome increased police presence — an approach Ciscle believes doesn’t actually deter property crime but instead targets the most vulnerable. “There’s truth to how bad it is, but unhoused people didn’t make [downtown] bad,” he says. “What made them unhoused did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downtown San Francisco has never been an ideal place for a food business, in Ciscle’s opinion: “It was always dead after 5 p.m. on weekdays and weekends. It was never a place to do business, unless you’re Tyler Florence.” And when the pandemic hit and business came to a screeching halt, he saw how vulnerable everyone was to closing down. “Nobody was bulletproof,” he says. “Everyone had to reassess their business model, their values.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937771\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937771\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people stand stand outside of a city building.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vendors take a break outside of 332 Pine St. from the Sucka Flea market in San Francisco, Calif. on Nov. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luckily, a newly created nonprofit called \u003ca href=\"https://sfnewdeal.org/\">SF New Deal\u003c/a> supported food businesses by paying them to provide meals for various community orgs. It paid SF Chickenbox for 200 meals a day — a source of money Ciscle could rely on in unsteady times, enabling him to keep his business open. Earlier this year, the program evolved into \u003ca href=\"https://www.vibrantsf.org/how-we-work\">Vacant to Vibrant\u003c/a> (V2V), a new initiative that tries to activate empty office spaces to accommodate small business pop-ups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Ciscle didn’t want to expand SF Chickenbox into downtown. But his experience throwing community festivals in years past made him perk up at the prospect of doing more than just food. The V2V program would allow him to utilize his long-standing relationships with vendors, artists, DJs and local artisans. So Ciscle created Sucka Flea, a pop-up flea market (and homage to San Francisco’s “Sucka Free” alias) that would also include local food vendors like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928804/hyphy-iceez-icee-slushy-filipino-hip-hop-mission-district-sf\">Hyphy Iceez\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926749/tasty-tings-jamaican-beef-patties-sf-oakland\">Tasty Tings\u003c/a>. The flea market’s last event of the year — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0f3tPKLJZt/\">holiday-themed market\u003c/a> — will take place at Hub Embarcadero (Howard St. and Embarcadero) on Saturday, Dec. 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For jewelry designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932647/rightnowish-presents-adorned-the-art-of-self-expression-affirmation\">Chelsea Macalino-Calalay\u003c/a>, Sucka Flea has provided a consistent space to sell her wares. At the Pine Street pop-up, her colorful baubles catch the eye of my five-year-old daughter, who otherwise would have no business in the Financial District on a Sunday afternoon. Macalino-Calalay is one of the thousands of Filipino Americans who were displaced from SoMa’s Manilatown enclave that once spanned ten city blocks to the International Hotel on Kearny Street. Macalino-Calalay’s family emigrated in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Her grandfather’s siblings were first employed as sign-painters at the Thomas Swan Sign Company when it was on Howard Street, then as food and service industry workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939443\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939443\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling vendor greets a customer at an indoor flea market.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/L1002703-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author chats with vendors Chelsea Macalino-Calalay (center) and Dante Kaleo during the November edition of Sucka Flea’s downtown pop-up. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I used to be a crepe chef and a cake decorator and a hostess and a waitress. So I worked in food, too. It showed me a lot about work ethic as well as perseverance,” she recalls with pride. “But it also showed me what I don’t want in a work environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>Macalino-Calalay remembers downtown San Francisco as the place her family squeezed into on weekends, patronizing the fresh Filipino food at Aling Mary’s Unimart, relishing her lola’s home cooking, and enjoying meals from the McDonald’s on Bryant, where her father worked as a manager with an all-Filipino staff. Community orgs like West Bay, Soma Pilipinas and United Playaz helped her as a young girl, and Macalino-Calalay is seeing a resurgence of these kinds of resources that she hopes will continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if things are better or worse today, she pauses. “From someone who didn’t grow up in SF, ‘worse’ is very subjective. Things being worse just looks like us not being there,” she says about her family of SF locals, who are now scattered throughout the East Bay and Outer Mission. Some are still in the SoMa, where her jewelry is now being shown in a special exhibit at SFMOMA with artist Pacita Abad. It’s a full-circle moment for a Frisco girl, who used to see parts of the museum being painted below the front steps of her family home on Langton Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937768\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937768\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person poses for a photo holding up a bowl of food in an indoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanya Herrera (left) and Catherine Pham enjoy taking photos with some vintage collectibles. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/whackdonuts/?hl=en\">Whack Donuts\u003c/a> owner Vandor Hill, a born-and-raised San Franciscan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/downtown-sf-pop-ups-18392057.php\">opened his own temporary pop-up shop\u003c/a> through the V2V program. who sells delectable-looking peach cobbler doughnuts and Donkey Kong bread doughnuts, alongside trendy flavors like Thai tea and horchata. While he has appreciated the opportunity, He believes first-time business owners in San Francisco need even more support from City Hall — and actual follow-through from local politicians. “Like the Bobby Byrd song, ‘Saying It and Doing It Are Two Different Things.’ The mayor along with the Board of Supervisors have been saying a lot in terms of enforcing law and the homeless situation, but have yet to really make any lasting moves for improving these topics,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ciscle, for his part, believes pandemic-era programs like SF New Deal and Vacant to Vibrant are proof that money is out there for local food business owners: “There’s billionaires blocks away from us right now that could literally fund some shit and make it better — not that they should be running the city,” he says. “There’s money to fund programs out there, not just locking people up. To feed people, put people in houses. Make the city better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are more concerned with seeing [the unhoused] on the street,” Ciscle says. “They’re gonna put a planter on the sidewalk there so they can’t sleep and then be mad it gets knocked over or graffiti-ed up. And now we have two problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair laughs while sitting at a table talking to someone else.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231108-SUCK-FLEA-MARKET-AC-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nina Parks gives the author a tarot card reading. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, Sucka Flea is occupying some of these empty spaces and providing small business owners with shared foot traffic and community. It can’t fix all of the problems facing downtown San Francisco, but it’s a start. After all, creating a family-friendly space that attracts folks from all over the Bay Area to shop downtown is no small feat — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/C05JjsuvGK0/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D\">spending holiday shopping dollars with local vendors\u003c/a> seems more sustainable than throwing it away on chain restaurants and national department stores that never felt connected to community residents anyway. In a small way, the flea market has brought back some of that old holiday spirit I remember from my own time working in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the last flea market we attended, my son found a vintage button-down Ben Davis — another Frisco workwear staple — to go with the Timbs that he has yet to receive. Though I don’t consider my own pair vintage, I guess you can say those boots have walked many hills and seen a lot of change. Hopefully they’ll last long enough to live through a revitalization of downtown SF that is truly for the people who built it.\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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.suckaflea.com/\">\u003ci>Sucka Flea\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>’s pop-up holiday market will take place on Saturday, Dec. 16, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., at Howard Street and Embarcadero in San Francisco. The downtown pop-up is normally held at 332 Pine St. Its Mission District outpost will have its next event at CityStation SF (701 Valencia St.) on Jan. 14.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921079/mom-tribute-dia-de-los-muertos-filipino-food-altar-frisco-foodies\">Rocky Rivera\u003c/a> is a journalist, emcee, author and activist from San Francisco. She has four musical projects out, three of those with her label Beatrock Music. She released her first book last year, entitled \u003c/em>Snakeskin: Essays by Rocky Rivera\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "christmas-cookie-decorating-holiday-sprinkles-daly-city",
"title": "For the Finest Sprinkles and Cookie Decorating Supplies, Drive to Daly City",
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"headTitle": "For the Finest Sprinkles and Cookie Decorating Supplies, Drive to Daly City | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>For all those baking cookies this holiday season, the time has come to rummage for cookie cutters, food coloring and sprinkles. Friends often ask, where’s the best place to get decorating supplies? Well, allow me to share what sprinkles queen Gillian Shaw Lundgren of \u003ca href=\"https://blackjetbakery.com/\">Black Jet Baking Co.\u003c/a> once told me: The best resource isn’t in San Francisco. It’s just south in Daly City. Sugar ’n Spice might be the largest and oldest baking supply store in the Bay Area, open at this location for 29 years, with a history dating back 50 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a strip mall just off 280, pull up to a faded storefront with a gingerbread man over the door. Step inside for an explosion of more than a hundred different varieties of sprinkles. “It’s kind of an experience,” Shaw Lundgren confides. “You’re sort of stepping back in time to a different way that people used to do pastry. Everybody that’s in there is excited to be in there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the heart of the business, there’s a mother-daughter duo. The mother is Jeanné Lutz, who’s “kind of old school and Italian,” according to her family, and worked the register well into her 80s. She went to UCSF, became a nurse and got into baking as a hobby in the ’60s. Lutz opened the original Sugar ’n Spice in 1973, as a tiny shop at 33rd Avenue and Balboa Street in the Richmond District. At one point she had three locations across San Francisco, San Mateo and Petaluma. She closed the original following a fire in 1994 and initially planned to retire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939066\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939066\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a red chef's jacket pours sprinkles over a tray of peppermint bark.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rogers pours sprinkles on a tray of peppermint bark. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The daughter is Joey Rogers, who often rings up purchases with a fabulous manicure. She graduated early from high school at 14 years old and completed the baking and pastry program California Culinary Academy before attending UC Berkeley and becoming an accountant. “I hated it,” Rogers says. So, she quit and returned to baking and teaching instead, even traveling to cake competitions in Las Vegas in the ’80s. Her pastry students would ask for supplies, and she knew all the vendors. But it wasn’t until her mother closed her stores and came down with cancer that Rogers finally felt inspired to carry on the family business. She opened her own shop — also called Sugar ‘n Spice — at the current Daly City location in 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13939138,arts_13938798']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>Lutz, for her part, has survived three rounds of treatments, celebrated her 90th birthday in August and only recently hung up her apron. Even if it was only sitting in the shop for half an hour, “it’s kind of been her therapy over the years,” Rogers says. “With every bout of cancer she’s really sick, then she would come in after treatments, and it was giving her the will to live.” Rogers also has seven sons who “were raised cutting their teeth on these counters.” Her youngest, Chance, now 15 years old, isn’t too cool to hang out at cake shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Sugar ’n Spice prides itself on being a one-stop shop to cover all your baking needs. You can find essential ingredients, including flour, sugar and chocolate. Decorations to take creations over the top, such as sprinkles, food coloring and more. Trusty tools from every size of round pan to every shape of cookie cutter. Plus packaging, with cake boxes, cookie bags and ribbons to tie it all up in a bow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939239\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939239\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A display of holiday-themed cookie cutters hanging from hooks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cookie cutters in every size and shape you can imagine. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A shelf displaying a variety of colorful sprinkles in small jars and large plastic bags.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just a small sample of Sugar ‘n Spice’s vast sprinkle selection, which includes 102 different varieties in all. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In particular, shoppers drop jaws in the sprinkles aisle. Rogers stocks 102 different varieties of sprinkles, swapping them seasonally, so there’s always a new thrill. They range from tiny nonpareils the size of seeds to cupcake toppers shaped like Easter bunnies or Santa’s face. The mixes tend to be the most popular — like the Thanksgiving mix, which tosses together autumnal brown, orange and gold sprinkles, punctuated with mini pumpkins and maple leaves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black Jet’s Shaw Lundgren has been a fan of the shop for over a decade, especially before she opened her own storefront. At that time, Amazon Prime didn’t exist, Michaels didn’t offer much and her business was too small to order wholesale. Sugar ’n Spice offered a few cake boards or boxes, without having to order a hundred. Even now, Shaw Lundgren swings through for small quantities of sprinkles, especially seasonal shapes like footballs. “It’s really reasonably priced,” she says. “They’ve figured out how to sell to home bakers, where you don’t need to buy a ridiculous amount.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939070\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939070\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='Display case in a cookie decorating and baking supply shop. A sticker on the glass reads, \"Happy Holidays.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The holiday-themed front display case. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Across the Bay Area, there are a few other baking supply stores, including the Cake Works in San Jose, open since 1975. Nancy’s Fancy’s in Santa Rosa carries baking supplies, folded into a wider selection of party supplies. Several others have closed over the years, including Spun Sugar in Berkeley, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/07/01/inspire-sailing-berkeley-marina-alternative-technologies-worker-co-op#bittersweet-end-for-longtime-candymaking-and-cake-business\">shuttered\u003c/a> in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sugar ’n Spice still bustles through the holidays, doing ten times its usual business in November and December. It welcomes home bakers and pastry chefs alike — including a few from fancy hotels, though Rogers declined to drop names. Certain regulars have been coming for decades or generations. They still remember taking classes with Rogers’ mother and now send their kids to \u003ca href=\"https://sprinkleme.com/shop/ols/categories/classes\">her camps\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939242\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"The sign outside a baking supply shop reads "Sugar 'n Spice" with a picture of a gingerbread man underneath.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Holiday cookie enthusiasts flock to the Daly City strip mall shop during its busy winter season. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>More beginners walk in at this time of year. “Everybody who never goes into their kitchen during the rest of the year, they’re in their kitchen now,” Rogers sighs. Many flash an Instagram photo of a cake or cookie and ask, “How do I make this?” Rogers does her best to guide them in the right direction. She says one really buys cookbooks anymore. They go straight to YouTube and make a dozen mistakes before signing up for one of her classes. “I don’t say that you can’t learn something on the internet! But everybody’s not a visual learner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her vantage point across the counter, Rogers likes to ask what you’re making. She loves to see photos of customer creations. “No matter what you’re trying to do, whether it’s the first time, this is the place to come to get your stuff,” Rogers says. “There are so many more possibilities here than you would find at the grocery store.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939069\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939069\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a red chef's jacket poses next to the counter of a baking supply shop.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘This is the place to come get your stuff,’ says Rogers, who loves helping customers with their baking projects. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/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>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sugar ’n Spice is located at \u003c/i>\u003ci>2965 Junipero Serra Blvd. in Daly City.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Sugar ’n Spice is one of the Bay Area’s oldest baking supply stores, and ‘it’s kind of an experience.’ ",
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"title": "The Bay Area's Best Christmas Cookie Decorating Supplies Are in Daly City | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For all those baking cookies this holiday season, the time has come to rummage for cookie cutters, food coloring and sprinkles. Friends often ask, where’s the best place to get decorating supplies? Well, allow me to share what sprinkles queen Gillian Shaw Lundgren of \u003ca href=\"https://blackjetbakery.com/\">Black Jet Baking Co.\u003c/a> once told me: The best resource isn’t in San Francisco. It’s just south in Daly City. Sugar ’n Spice might be the largest and oldest baking supply store in the Bay Area, open at this location for 29 years, with a history dating back 50 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a strip mall just off 280, pull up to a faded storefront with a gingerbread man over the door. Step inside for an explosion of more than a hundred different varieties of sprinkles. “It’s kind of an experience,” Shaw Lundgren confides. “You’re sort of stepping back in time to a different way that people used to do pastry. Everybody that’s in there is excited to be in there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the heart of the business, there’s a mother-daughter duo. The mother is Jeanné Lutz, who’s “kind of old school and Italian,” according to her family, and worked the register well into her 80s. She went to UCSF, became a nurse and got into baking as a hobby in the ’60s. Lutz opened the original Sugar ’n Spice in 1973, as a tiny shop at 33rd Avenue and Balboa Street in the Richmond District. At one point she had three locations across San Francisco, San Mateo and Petaluma. She closed the original following a fire in 1994 and initially planned to retire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939066\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939066\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a red chef's jacket pours sprinkles over a tray of peppermint bark.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-050-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rogers pours sprinkles on a tray of peppermint bark. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The daughter is Joey Rogers, who often rings up purchases with a fabulous manicure. She graduated early from high school at 14 years old and completed the baking and pastry program California Culinary Academy before attending UC Berkeley and becoming an accountant. “I hated it,” Rogers says. So, she quit and returned to baking and teaching instead, even traveling to cake competitions in Las Vegas in the ’80s. Her pastry students would ask for supplies, and she knew all the vendors. But it wasn’t until her mother closed her stores and came down with cancer that Rogers finally felt inspired to carry on the family business. She opened her own shop — also called Sugar ‘n Spice — at the current Daly City location in 1994.\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>Lutz, for her part, has survived three rounds of treatments, celebrated her 90th birthday in August and only recently hung up her apron. Even if it was only sitting in the shop for half an hour, “it’s kind of been her therapy over the years,” Rogers says. “With every bout of cancer she’s really sick, then she would come in after treatments, and it was giving her the will to live.” Rogers also has seven sons who “were raised cutting their teeth on these counters.” Her youngest, Chance, now 15 years old, isn’t too cool to hang out at cake shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Sugar ’n Spice prides itself on being a one-stop shop to cover all your baking needs. You can find essential ingredients, including flour, sugar and chocolate. Decorations to take creations over the top, such as sprinkles, food coloring and more. Trusty tools from every size of round pan to every shape of cookie cutter. Plus packaging, with cake boxes, cookie bags and ribbons to tie it all up in a bow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939239\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939239\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A display of holiday-themed cookie cutters hanging from hooks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-071-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cookie cutters in every size and shape you can imagine. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A shelf displaying a variety of colorful sprinkles in small jars and large plastic bags.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-076-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just a small sample of Sugar ‘n Spice’s vast sprinkle selection, which includes 102 different varieties in all. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In particular, shoppers drop jaws in the sprinkles aisle. Rogers stocks 102 different varieties of sprinkles, swapping them seasonally, so there’s always a new thrill. They range from tiny nonpareils the size of seeds to cupcake toppers shaped like Easter bunnies or Santa’s face. The mixes tend to be the most popular — like the Thanksgiving mix, which tosses together autumnal brown, orange and gold sprinkles, punctuated with mini pumpkins and maple leaves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black Jet’s Shaw Lundgren has been a fan of the shop for over a decade, especially before she opened her own storefront. At that time, Amazon Prime didn’t exist, Michaels didn’t offer much and her business was too small to order wholesale. Sugar ’n Spice offered a few cake boards or boxes, without having to order a hundred. Even now, Shaw Lundgren swings through for small quantities of sprinkles, especially seasonal shapes like footballs. “It’s really reasonably priced,” she says. “They’ve figured out how to sell to home bakers, where you don’t need to buy a ridiculous amount.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939070\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939070\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt='Display case in a cookie decorating and baking supply shop. A sticker on the glass reads, \"Happy Holidays.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-081-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The holiday-themed front display case. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Across the Bay Area, there are a few other baking supply stores, including the Cake Works in San Jose, open since 1975. Nancy’s Fancy’s in Santa Rosa carries baking supplies, folded into a wider selection of party supplies. Several others have closed over the years, including Spun Sugar in Berkeley, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/07/01/inspire-sailing-berkeley-marina-alternative-technologies-worker-co-op#bittersweet-end-for-longtime-candymaking-and-cake-business\">shuttered\u003c/a> in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sugar ’n Spice still bustles through the holidays, doing ten times its usual business in November and December. It welcomes home bakers and pastry chefs alike — including a few from fancy hotels, though Rogers declined to drop names. Certain regulars have been coming for decades or generations. They still remember taking classes with Rogers’ mother and now send their kids to \u003ca href=\"https://sprinkleme.com/shop/ols/categories/classes\">her camps\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939242\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"The sign outside a baking supply shop reads "Sugar 'n Spice" with a picture of a gingerbread man underneath.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-078-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Holiday cookie enthusiasts flock to the Daly City strip mall shop during its busy winter season. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>More beginners walk in at this time of year. “Everybody who never goes into their kitchen during the rest of the year, they’re in their kitchen now,” Rogers sighs. Many flash an Instagram photo of a cake or cookie and ask, “How do I make this?” Rogers does her best to guide them in the right direction. She says one really buys cookbooks anymore. They go straight to YouTube and make a dozen mistakes before signing up for one of her classes. “I don’t say that you can’t learn something on the internet! But everybody’s not a visual learner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her vantage point across the counter, Rogers likes to ask what you’re making. She loves to see photos of customer creations. “No matter what you’re trying to do, whether it’s the first time, this is the place to come to get your stuff,” Rogers says. “There are so many more possibilities here than you would find at the grocery store.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939069\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939069\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a red chef's jacket poses next to the counter of a baking supply shop.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/20231206-Sugar-n-Spice-064-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘This is the place to come get your stuff,’ says Rogers, who loves helping customers with their baking projects. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/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>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sugar ’n Spice is located at \u003c/i>\u003ci>2965 Junipero Serra Blvd. in Daly City.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Best Dishes I Ate in 2023",
"headTitle": "The Best Dishes I Ate in 2023 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Whenever tragic things are happening around the world, food writers like to bring out that old saw about food bringing everyone together. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/dining/israel-hamas-war-divides-american-chefs.html\">I don’t think it always does, really\u003c/a> — not when the problems and differences we face are so profound. But a good meal \u003ci>can\u003c/i> provide us with comfort, nourishment and a sense of community that helps us get through hard times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the headline, this list doesn’t \u003ci>necessarily\u003c/i> purport to identify the “best” version of any particular cuisine or dish. Instead, when I look back on 2023, these were the meals that brought me the most happiness. Some were from brand new restaurants; others were simply dishes I tried for the first time this year. In many cases, I returned to them again and again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here they are, then, presented in roughly the chronological order in which I ate them:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13923360\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13923360\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a Guatemalan churrasco chapin plate: steak, rice, potato salad, fried plantains, cheese, and little tubs of salsa and refried beans.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The churrasco chapin is one of the very typical traditional Guatemalan plates that diners can find at Antojitos Guatemaltecos, a new restaurant in El Cerrito. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>1. Churrasco chapin at Antojitos Guatemaltecos\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>11252 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve been an Antojitos Guatemaltecos evangelist for going on four years now, from back when it was just a little \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913355/guatemalan-rice-tamales-antojitos-guatemaltecos-richmond\">tamal cart\u003c/a> I’d sometimes stumble upon, when the stars aligned, just a block away from my house. Now that the Aguilar family has opened a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923359/antojitos-guatemaltecos-guatemalan-restaurant-el-cerrito-tamales-pollo-campero\">full-blown restaurant\u003c/a> in El Cerrito, their tender, jiggly tamales still rank among the most delicious in the Bay, but I’ve been especially enamored with their expanded selection of homestyle Guatemalan entrees. The dish I keep coming back to is the churrasco chapin mixed grill plate, with its well-charred steak and sausage, fried plantains, queso fresco, seasoned rice and piping-hot tortillas — the perfect bit-of-this-and-that lunch or dinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13926240\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13926240\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead.jpg\" alt=\"Bowl of ramen with an exorbitant amount of toppings: bean sprouts, chopped raw garlic, pork belly, pork fat and marinated egg.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-1020x701.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-1536x1056.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inspired by Tokyo’s legendary Ramen Jiro, the Buta MAX at Ramen Champ in San Jose comes overloaded with decadent toppings. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>2. Buta MAX ramen at Ramen Champ\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>6229 Santa Teresa Blvd., San Jose\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I embark on my annual ritualistic fattening for the winter months, the dish I find myself thinking about all the time is Ramen Champ’s Buta MAX ramen — a bowl of noodles that is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926203/ramen-champ-jiro-style-ramen-cult-san-jose-tokyo\">as audacious and extreme as its name\u003c/a>. Modeled after Tokyo’s famous “Jiro-style” ramen, each super-sized bowl comes topped with extra-thick chunks of braised pork belly, an alarming amount of deliciously softened pork fat, and, most arresting of all, a preposterously large mound of bean sprouts, cabbage and raw garlic. It’s the most unique bowl of ramen I’ve ever eaten in the U.S. — and, on chilly nights when I can’t make it down to San Jose, the one that haunts my dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931336\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931336\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An abundant spread of Palestinian mezzes served on a circular wooden board.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The mezze brunch board at Lulu in West Berkeley is a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>3. Mezze brunch board at Lulu\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1106 Solano Ave., Albany\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This glammed-up Palestinian brunch spot was one of my favorite discoveries of the 2023 — though I was clearly late to the party, as they were already booked up two or three weeks out by the time I managed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931303/lulu-berkeley-hottest-brunch-palestinian-mezzes\">snag a reservation\u003c/a>. Everyone orders the mezze brunch board, which is chef Mona Leena Michael’s ingenious, gorgeously herb-bedecked spin on the kind of three-tier cake stand you might enjoy for afternoon tea. The spread of Palestinian-inspired breads, dips and assorted bite-size snacks is as fun to share as it is perfect for the ‘gram. It’s also shockingly delicious: I couldn’t stop double-dipping into the hummus crowned with pine nuts and shimeji mushrooms, and I could have eaten a whole tray of the falafel topped with a smear of black garlic tahini. (Note that the restaurant is in the process of moving to a new, larger location on Solano Avenue, with plans to kick off the new year with an expanded dinner menu.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13933769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT.jpg\" alt=\"An abundant platter of fillings for make-your-own Vietnamese spring rolls, with shrimp, beef, fried egg rolls and more.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tigon’s make-your-own-spring-roll spread makes for a fun and refreshing communal dining experience. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>4. Bánh hỏi dặc biệt at Tigon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Tsai household, there probably isn’t any greater-in-demand restaurant than this sweet, family-owned Vietnamese spot, where we order the same thing every time: the bánh hỏi dặc biệt, a build-your-own spring roll platter that generously feeds my entire family of four. The plate comes loaded with all of the major animal groups (beef, pork, chicken and fried shrimp), crispy egg rolls and bean curd skin, little rice noodle nests (the bánh hỏi) and a whole boatload of fresh herbs and lettuces. Kids (and grown-ups!) love the process of dipping rounds of rice paper into warm water to soften them, piling on their chosen ingredients and then rolling the whole thing into a tight, tasty, refreshing bundle. I listed Tigon on my list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933745/cold-food-hot-weather-sf-bay-area-fall-2023\">favorite places to eat during hot weather\u003c/a>, but the truth is, its bánh hỏi spread is the ultimate crowd-pleaser: I crave it all year long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939147\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939147\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti.jpg\" alt=\"Crispy, flaky roti (Malaysian flatbread) served alongside a bowl of curried chicken and root vegetables on a paper-lined metal tray.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Often relegated to appetizer status, the buttery, flaky roti at Aman Cafe is the star of the show. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>5. Roti at Aman Cafe\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>4021 Broadway, Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll order roti for the table anytime I see it on a menu, then monopolize far more than my fair share and wonder forlornly, as I pick at the last crispy shards, where it all went. What a pleasure, then, to eat at a restaurant where these buttery, flaky flatbreads are the centerpiece of the meal — equally delicious swaddled around a curried stew of chicken and root vegetables like golden beet (a revelation!) as it is when dipped, more simply, in the restaurant’s signature creamy coconut sauce. And of course, for good measure, you’ve got to save room for a sweet, sugar-dusted roti for dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939146\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939146\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of gravy-drenched Hawaiian loco moco with two burger patties, a runny egg, a big mound of white rice and a scoop of potato salad.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-1020x701.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-1536x1056.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pure comfort food. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>6. Loco moco at Masa Ramen\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1923 University Ave., Berkeley\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve written before about how this Hawaiian-inspired shop serves some of the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13925701/masa-ramen-bistro-hawaiian-ramen-shop-berkeley-broke-da-mouf\">tastiest ramen\u003c/a>. Would it surprise you to know that the last three or four times I’ve eaten here, I didn’t order ramen at all? That’s because Masa’s Hawaiian dishes (the garlic shrimp, oxtail soup and island-style beef stew) are just as lovingly prepared — and if anything, good Hawaiian is even more of a rarity here in the Bay. The one I keep coming back to is the heroically portioned loco moco: two beef patties cooked so that they’re crispy around the edges, served in a pool of rich gravy with a runny egg, a scoop of potato salad and a big mound of rice. This is pure comfort food, the kind of thing I could eat every week without ever getting tired of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939148\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939148\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop.jpg\" alt=\"A slice of toasted sourdough bread on a white plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A slice of toasted ‘K-Pop’ sourdough from Rize Up Bakery is a breakfast worth getting excited about. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>7. K-Pop bread at Rize Up Bakery\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1160 Howard St., San Francisco (and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://rizeupsourdough.com/pages/where-you-can-find-our-bread\">\u003ci>various farmers market and retail locations\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>)\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most bourgeois food habit I’ve picked up in the past year is that almost every Sunday morning, I’ll go to the Marin Farmers Market to pick up a $16 loaf of sourdough. But not just any sourdough! In my house, we hold in highest regard Rize Up Bakery’s Korean-inspired “K-Pop” loaf — sourdough that has been infused with gochujang, flecked with toasted black sesame seeds and, most crucially, studded with whole cloves of sweet roasted garlic. Is it blasé to get excited about fancy toast from San Francisco in the year of our lord 2023? Let me tell you, dear reader: A slice of K-Pop, simply toasted and slathered with good butter, is a breakfast worth getting excited for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939149\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful spread of Ethiopian stews and sautes, served on an injera-lined round metal platter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Messob’s spectacular Ethiopian veggie combo — plus the lamb tibs, which is also excellent. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>8. Veggie combo at Messob Ethiopian Restaurant\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>4301 Piedmont Ave. B, Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13921917,arts_13907197,arts_13933745']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>The convention of lists like this is to highlight trendy new restaurants, and Messob certainly isn’t that: It’s been a quiet neighborhood staple on Piedmont Avenue going back more than 15 years. But somehow I’d never eaten Messob’s veggie combo until I went on a bit of an Ethiopian food kick this past summer. Just a few bites in, I’d already declared it my favorite version that I’ve had in the Bay. Each of the stews and sautés that make up this injera-lined rainbow wheel have such a distinct spice profile — the intense, berbere-inflected heat of the mushroom wot; the natural sweetness of the slow-cooked carrots and cabbage; the mild, luxuriously silky shiro that less generous Ethiopian spots force you to order as a separate entree; and, my favorite, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933745/cold-food-hot-weather-sf-bay-area-fall-2023\">cool and garlicky chickpea flour dip known as buticha\u003c/a>. The flavors are so punched-up and brilliant, it’s made me realize that somehow I’ve been eating an awful lot of bland Ethiopian food over the years. Now that you know, you don’t have to make the same mistake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933776\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13933776\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT.jpg\" alt=\"The cross section of a tuna salad sandwich made with thick slices of milkbread.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The conbini-style tuna salad sandwich features Kewpie-style mayonnaise and thick, bouncy milkbread. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>9. Konbini tuna salad sandwich at Ok’s Deli\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>3932 Telegraph Ave., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Probably my favorite among the Bay Area’s new crop of “fancy” delicatessens, Ok’s serves a rotating lineup of classed-up classics with obvious cheffy touches: roast beef with caramelized onion Dijonnaise, Sichuan hot chicken and bánh mì loaded up with a thick stack of house-made Spam. It’s all good. But my favorite sandwich is the most minimalist one — a tuna salad sandwich modeled after the kind you might find in any convenience store in Japan. Everything about it is perfect: the lavishly bouncy milkbread; the eggy, Kewpie-adjacent mayonnaise; and the cool, clean simplicity of line-caught tuna mixed with just enough finely chopped onion, celery and pickles to give it a bit of a bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936342\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936342\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of Haitian-style braised oxtails, served with a mound of rice and peas, tostones and pikliz.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">T’chaka’s take on Caribbean braised oxtails is as good as it gets. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>10. Oxtails at T’chaka\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>901 Washington St., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In my life as a professional eater, it’s a relatively rare occasion that, three bites into a meal, I’m already sending out a bold-faced, all-caps text to every food-loving friend in my contact list. In 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936332/tchaka-haitian-restaurant-oakland\">T’Chaka was that place\u003c/a>. The Haitian restaurant’s griots, a dish I’d never had before, are the platonic ideal of crispy pork: juicy, tender and full-flavored, with a satisfying crunch. Even better, the braised oxtails are about as good as I can imagine oxtails being — so succulent and luscious that I think about them constantly, months after I first sucked the whole plate of bones clean. To paraphrase what I said when I first reported on the restaurant: Plainly stated, T’Chaka is a knockout. Go eat there now.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Whenever tragic things are happening around the world, food writers like to bring out that old saw about food bringing everyone together. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/dining/israel-hamas-war-divides-american-chefs.html\">I don’t think it always does, really\u003c/a> — not when the problems and differences we face are so profound. But a good meal \u003ci>can\u003c/i> provide us with comfort, nourishment and a sense of community that helps us get through hard times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the headline, this list doesn’t \u003ci>necessarily\u003c/i> purport to identify the “best” version of any particular cuisine or dish. Instead, when I look back on 2023, these were the meals that brought me the most happiness. Some were from brand new restaurants; others were simply dishes I tried for the first time this year. In many cases, I returned to them again and again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here they are, then, presented in roughly the chronological order in which I ate them:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13923360\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13923360\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a Guatemalan churrasco chapin plate: steak, rice, potato salad, fried plantains, cheese, and little tubs of salsa and refried beans.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/antojitos-guatemaltecos_churrasco_lead-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The churrasco chapin is one of the very typical traditional Guatemalan plates that diners can find at Antojitos Guatemaltecos, a new restaurant in El Cerrito. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>1. Churrasco chapin at Antojitos Guatemaltecos\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>11252 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve been an Antojitos Guatemaltecos evangelist for going on four years now, from back when it was just a little \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913355/guatemalan-rice-tamales-antojitos-guatemaltecos-richmond\">tamal cart\u003c/a> I’d sometimes stumble upon, when the stars aligned, just a block away from my house. Now that the Aguilar family has opened a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923359/antojitos-guatemaltecos-guatemalan-restaurant-el-cerrito-tamales-pollo-campero\">full-blown restaurant\u003c/a> in El Cerrito, their tender, jiggly tamales still rank among the most delicious in the Bay, but I’ve been especially enamored with their expanded selection of homestyle Guatemalan entrees. The dish I keep coming back to is the churrasco chapin mixed grill plate, with its well-charred steak and sausage, fried plantains, queso fresco, seasoned rice and piping-hot tortillas — the perfect bit-of-this-and-that lunch or dinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13926240\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13926240\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead.jpg\" alt=\"Bowl of ramen with an exorbitant amount of toppings: bean sprouts, chopped raw garlic, pork belly, pork fat and marinated egg.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-1020x701.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/ramen-champ_lead-1536x1056.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inspired by Tokyo’s legendary Ramen Jiro, the Buta MAX at Ramen Champ in San Jose comes overloaded with decadent toppings. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>2. Buta MAX ramen at Ramen Champ\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>6229 Santa Teresa Blvd., San Jose\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I embark on my annual ritualistic fattening for the winter months, the dish I find myself thinking about all the time is Ramen Champ’s Buta MAX ramen — a bowl of noodles that is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926203/ramen-champ-jiro-style-ramen-cult-san-jose-tokyo\">as audacious and extreme as its name\u003c/a>. Modeled after Tokyo’s famous “Jiro-style” ramen, each super-sized bowl comes topped with extra-thick chunks of braised pork belly, an alarming amount of deliciously softened pork fat, and, most arresting of all, a preposterously large mound of bean sprouts, cabbage and raw garlic. It’s the most unique bowl of ramen I’ve ever eaten in the U.S. — and, on chilly nights when I can’t make it down to San Jose, the one that haunts my dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931336\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931336\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An abundant spread of Palestinian mezzes served on a circular wooden board.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_mezze_lead-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The mezze brunch board at Lulu in West Berkeley is a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>3. Mezze brunch board at Lulu\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1106 Solano Ave., Albany\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This glammed-up Palestinian brunch spot was one of my favorite discoveries of the 2023 — though I was clearly late to the party, as they were already booked up two or three weeks out by the time I managed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931303/lulu-berkeley-hottest-brunch-palestinian-mezzes\">snag a reservation\u003c/a>. Everyone orders the mezze brunch board, which is chef Mona Leena Michael’s ingenious, gorgeously herb-bedecked spin on the kind of three-tier cake stand you might enjoy for afternoon tea. The spread of Palestinian-inspired breads, dips and assorted bite-size snacks is as fun to share as it is perfect for the ‘gram. It’s also shockingly delicious: I couldn’t stop double-dipping into the hummus crowned with pine nuts and shimeji mushrooms, and I could have eaten a whole tray of the falafel topped with a smear of black garlic tahini. (Note that the restaurant is in the process of moving to a new, larger location on Solano Avenue, with plans to kick off the new year with an expanded dinner menu.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13933769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT.jpg\" alt=\"An abundant platter of fillings for make-your-own Vietnamese spring rolls, with shrimp, beef, fried egg rolls and more.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/tigon-banh-hoi-crop_LT-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tigon’s make-your-own-spring-roll spread makes for a fun and refreshing communal dining experience. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>4. Bánh hỏi dặc biệt at Tigon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Tsai household, there probably isn’t any greater-in-demand restaurant than this sweet, family-owned Vietnamese spot, where we order the same thing every time: the bánh hỏi dặc biệt, a build-your-own spring roll platter that generously feeds my entire family of four. The plate comes loaded with all of the major animal groups (beef, pork, chicken and fried shrimp), crispy egg rolls and bean curd skin, little rice noodle nests (the bánh hỏi) and a whole boatload of fresh herbs and lettuces. Kids (and grown-ups!) love the process of dipping rounds of rice paper into warm water to soften them, piling on their chosen ingredients and then rolling the whole thing into a tight, tasty, refreshing bundle. I listed Tigon on my list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933745/cold-food-hot-weather-sf-bay-area-fall-2023\">favorite places to eat during hot weather\u003c/a>, but the truth is, its bánh hỏi spread is the ultimate crowd-pleaser: I crave it all year long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939147\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939147\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti.jpg\" alt=\"Crispy, flaky roti (Malaysian flatbread) served alongside a bowl of curried chicken and root vegetables on a paper-lined metal tray.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/aman-cafe-roti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Often relegated to appetizer status, the buttery, flaky roti at Aman Cafe is the star of the show. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>5. Roti at Aman Cafe\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>4021 Broadway, Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll order roti for the table anytime I see it on a menu, then monopolize far more than my fair share and wonder forlornly, as I pick at the last crispy shards, where it all went. What a pleasure, then, to eat at a restaurant where these buttery, flaky flatbreads are the centerpiece of the meal — equally delicious swaddled around a curried stew of chicken and root vegetables like golden beet (a revelation!) as it is when dipped, more simply, in the restaurant’s signature creamy coconut sauce. And of course, for good measure, you’ve got to save room for a sweet, sugar-dusted roti for dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939146\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939146\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of gravy-drenched Hawaiian loco moco with two burger patties, a runny egg, a big mound of white rice and a scoop of potato salad.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-1020x701.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/masa-ramen-loco-moco-1536x1056.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pure comfort food. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>6. Loco moco at Masa Ramen\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1923 University Ave., Berkeley\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve written before about how this Hawaiian-inspired shop serves some of the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13925701/masa-ramen-bistro-hawaiian-ramen-shop-berkeley-broke-da-mouf\">tastiest ramen\u003c/a>. Would it surprise you to know that the last three or four times I’ve eaten here, I didn’t order ramen at all? That’s because Masa’s Hawaiian dishes (the garlic shrimp, oxtail soup and island-style beef stew) are just as lovingly prepared — and if anything, good Hawaiian is even more of a rarity here in the Bay. The one I keep coming back to is the heroically portioned loco moco: two beef patties cooked so that they’re crispy around the edges, served in a pool of rich gravy with a runny egg, a scoop of potato salad and a big mound of rice. This is pure comfort food, the kind of thing I could eat every week without ever getting tired of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939148\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939148\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop.jpg\" alt=\"A slice of toasted sourdough bread on a white plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/rize-up-k-pop-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A slice of toasted ‘K-Pop’ sourdough from Rize Up Bakery is a breakfast worth getting excited about. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>7. K-Pop bread at Rize Up Bakery\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1160 Howard St., San Francisco (and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://rizeupsourdough.com/pages/where-you-can-find-our-bread\">\u003ci>various farmers market and retail locations\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>)\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most bourgeois food habit I’ve picked up in the past year is that almost every Sunday morning, I’ll go to the Marin Farmers Market to pick up a $16 loaf of sourdough. But not just any sourdough! In my house, we hold in highest regard Rize Up Bakery’s Korean-inspired “K-Pop” loaf — sourdough that has been infused with gochujang, flecked with toasted black sesame seeds and, most crucially, studded with whole cloves of sweet roasted garlic. Is it blasé to get excited about fancy toast from San Francisco in the year of our lord 2023? Let me tell you, dear reader: A slice of K-Pop, simply toasted and slathered with good butter, is a breakfast worth getting excited for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13939149\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13939149\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful spread of Ethiopian stews and sautes, served on an injera-lined round metal platter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/messob-combo-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Messob’s spectacular Ethiopian veggie combo — plus the lamb tibs, which is also excellent. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>8. Veggie combo at Messob Ethiopian Restaurant\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>4301 Piedmont Ave. B, Oakland\u003c/i>\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>The convention of lists like this is to highlight trendy new restaurants, and Messob certainly isn’t that: It’s been a quiet neighborhood staple on Piedmont Avenue going back more than 15 years. But somehow I’d never eaten Messob’s veggie combo until I went on a bit of an Ethiopian food kick this past summer. Just a few bites in, I’d already declared it my favorite version that I’ve had in the Bay. Each of the stews and sautés that make up this injera-lined rainbow wheel have such a distinct spice profile — the intense, berbere-inflected heat of the mushroom wot; the natural sweetness of the slow-cooked carrots and cabbage; the mild, luxuriously silky shiro that less generous Ethiopian spots force you to order as a separate entree; and, my favorite, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933745/cold-food-hot-weather-sf-bay-area-fall-2023\">cool and garlicky chickpea flour dip known as buticha\u003c/a>. The flavors are so punched-up and brilliant, it’s made me realize that somehow I’ve been eating an awful lot of bland Ethiopian food over the years. Now that you know, you don’t have to make the same mistake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933776\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13933776\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT.jpg\" alt=\"The cross section of a tuna salad sandwich made with thick slices of milkbread.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/oks-deli-tuna-salad_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The conbini-style tuna salad sandwich features Kewpie-style mayonnaise and thick, bouncy milkbread. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>9. Konbini tuna salad sandwich at Ok’s Deli\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>3932 Telegraph Ave., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Probably my favorite among the Bay Area’s new crop of “fancy” delicatessens, Ok’s serves a rotating lineup of classed-up classics with obvious cheffy touches: roast beef with caramelized onion Dijonnaise, Sichuan hot chicken and bánh mì loaded up with a thick stack of house-made Spam. It’s all good. But my favorite sandwich is the most minimalist one — a tuna salad sandwich modeled after the kind you might find in any convenience store in Japan. Everything about it is perfect: the lavishly bouncy milkbread; the eggy, Kewpie-adjacent mayonnaise; and the cool, clean simplicity of line-caught tuna mixed with just enough finely chopped onion, celery and pickles to give it a bit of a bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936342\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936342\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of Haitian-style braised oxtails, served with a mound of rice and peas, tostones and pikliz.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/tchaka_oxtails-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">T’chaka’s take on Caribbean braised oxtails is as good as it gets. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>10. Oxtails at T’chaka\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>901 Washington St., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In my life as a professional eater, it’s a relatively rare occasion that, three bites into a meal, I’m already sending out a bold-faced, all-caps text to every food-loving friend in my contact list. In 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13936332/tchaka-haitian-restaurant-oakland\">T’Chaka was that place\u003c/a>. The Haitian restaurant’s griots, a dish I’d never had before, are the platonic ideal of crispy pork: juicy, tender and full-flavored, with a satisfying crunch. Even better, the braised oxtails are about as good as I can imagine oxtails being — so succulent and luscious that I think about them constantly, months after I first sucked the whole plate of bones clean. To paraphrase what I said when I first reported on the restaurant: Plainly stated, T’Chaka is a knockout. Go eat there now.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Bay Area’s Famous ‘Pinay Pie Lady’ Gears Up for One Last Christmas Bake Sale",
"headTitle": "The Bay Area’s Famous ‘Pinay Pie Lady’ Gears Up for One Last Christmas Bake Sale | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>For hundreds of Bay Area Filipinos, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without holiday pie — and not just any pie, but one of \u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/\">Sweet Condesa’s\u003c/a> Filipino-inspired pies, which come in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13906834/sweet-condesa-filipino-holiday-pie-bibingka\">nostalgic seasonal flavors\u003c/a> like bibingka and queso de bola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owner Melody Lorenzo, the Bay Area’s self-styled “\u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/our-story\">Pinay Pie Lady\u003c/a>,” says the end-of-year holidays have always been Sweet Condesa’s busiest time. But this Christmas season will also be bittersweet: It’ll be the Filipino dessert shop’s last-ever holiday pie sale before it transitions from being a bakery business into more of a consulting agency next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, this might be the last year you’ll be able to secure an ube pie for your holiday table, short of having to bake one yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sweet Condesa’s graham-cracker-crust custard pies have enjoyed cult favorite status in the Bay ever since the pandemic \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/9/21557156/sweet-condesa-filipino-bakery-ube-calamansi-turon-pie-thanksgiving-oakland\">turned Lorenzo’s baking side hustle into a full-time business\u003c/a>. But the past year has been particularly difficult, Lorenzo explains. She’d moved Sweet Condesa from Oakland to the old Tselogs location in San Francisco’s Mission District with the idea of setting up an in-person storefront — but then city inspectors wound up nixing that plan. To make up for that loss, Lorenzo redoubled her efforts on the events and wedding catering side of her business. But it has been slow going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938806\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938806\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-scaled.jpg\" alt='A Filipina woman seated on a staircase poses for a portrait. The text on the front of her pink sweatshirt reads, \"100% Pinay\".' width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melody Lorenzo has been running Sweet Condesa as a full-time business since the start of the pandemic. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hillary Jeanne Photography)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if it’s because of inflation, but [business] is not the same compared to the past,” she says. “Sales are down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so, after having spent the last three years of the pandemic grinding away to keep the bakery afloat, Lorenzo says she’s going to reboot the business when her lease runs out at the end of July. Instead of selling baked goods herself, she wants to step outside the kitchen and turn Sweet Condesa into a resource for other aspiring small business owners, especially folks of color. Part of that will take the form of consulting and mentorship. She’d like to help other bakers who are new to the industry draft their business plans and navigate the permitting process. She’ll assist with recipe development and conduct baking and dessert decorating workshops. Eventually, she’d like to write a cookbook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sweet Condesa isn’t going anywhere,” Lorenzo says. “It’s just sad that there’s not going to be holiday pies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938807\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938807\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A graham cracker crust pie topped with black glutinous rice, shredded coconut and sesame seeds.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The puto bumbong pie comes topped with shredded coconut, sesame seeds and muscovado sugar. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rezel Kealoha)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13923127,arts_13938479,arts_13936639']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>For her final big “Pasko,” or Christmas, dessert drop, Lorenzo has brought back all of her \u003ca href=\"https://www.hotplate.com/sweetcondesapastries/504dbbae-0bf2-4dab-8527-f3ea805e088c\">signature holiday pies\u003c/a>, which draw inspiration from the items you would find at any traditional Filipino Christmas feast. There’s the bibingka pie, inspired by the steaming-hot coconut rice cakes that vendors in the Philippines sell after Christmas mass. There’s a savory-sweet pie that features queso de bola, a cheese that Filipinos traditionally eat for Christmas, and another one that incorporates the flavors of the purple steamed rice cakes known as puto bumbong. Sweet Condesa’s year-round classics will also be available — the tangy-sweet calamansi pie (the highlight of my family’s socially distanced Thanksgiving 2020) and, of course, the neon-purple ube pie. All of the pies have a cold custard base and a graham cracker crust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Lorenzo is also selling of mixed baker’s dozen of Pasko cookies, including a gingerbread-adjacent cookie that includes pieces of dried Philippine mango, a cookie inspired by Filipino hot chocolate and an “ube pie” cookie — a happy accident that Lorenzo created when she had to repurpose a less-than-aesthetic batch of pies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938808\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938808\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of Christmas cookies surround by presents and other holiday-related decorative paraphernalia.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1933\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-800x773.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-1020x986.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-160x155.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-768x742.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-1536x1485.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-1920x1856.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lorenzo’s Christmas cookies incorporate Filipino ingredients such as dried mango and ube. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Sweet Condesa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Sweet Condesa’s post-bakery life nears, longtime customers will have to take solace in the fact that they’ll still have access to Lorenzo’s desserts for about eight more months. Even after the holiday pie sale ends, customers will still be able to order pies and other sweet treats \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploreneon.com/store/restaurant/486/?utm_source=sweetcondesa&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=fbb\">online\u003c/a>, for pickup and home delivery, twice a month. The desserts are also available three days a week at \u003ca href=\"https://www.abanicocoffee.com/\">Abanico Coffee Roasters\u003c/a> in the Mission. And Lorenzo will continue to do events catering and occasional afternoon tea pop-ups over that same time period, before she closes the books on this chapter of her business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still want to do a lot of weddings,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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://sweetcondesapastries.com/\">Sweet Condesa\u003c/a>’s \u003c/i>\u003ci>Christmas pre-sale\u003c/i>\u003ci> is open for \u003ca href=\"https://www.hotplate.com/sweetcondesapastries/504dbbae-0bf2-4dab-8527-f3ea805e088c\">online ordering\u003c/a> from now through Dec. 19. Pickup at the bakery’s Mission District headquarters (518 S. Van Ness, San Francisco) will take place on Friday, Dec. 22 and Saturday, Dec. 23. Limited home delivery is available for Dec. 21–22.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For hundreds of Bay Area Filipinos, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without holiday pie — and not just any pie, but one of \u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/\">Sweet Condesa’s\u003c/a> Filipino-inspired pies, which come in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13906834/sweet-condesa-filipino-holiday-pie-bibingka\">nostalgic seasonal flavors\u003c/a> like bibingka and queso de bola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owner Melody Lorenzo, the Bay Area’s self-styled “\u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/our-story\">Pinay Pie Lady\u003c/a>,” says the end-of-year holidays have always been Sweet Condesa’s busiest time. But this Christmas season will also be bittersweet: It’ll be the Filipino dessert shop’s last-ever holiday pie sale before it transitions from being a bakery business into more of a consulting agency next summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, this might be the last year you’ll be able to secure an ube pie for your holiday table, short of having to bake one yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sweet Condesa’s graham-cracker-crust custard pies have enjoyed cult favorite status in the Bay ever since the pandemic \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/9/21557156/sweet-condesa-filipino-bakery-ube-calamansi-turon-pie-thanksgiving-oakland\">turned Lorenzo’s baking side hustle into a full-time business\u003c/a>. But the past year has been particularly difficult, Lorenzo explains. She’d moved Sweet Condesa from Oakland to the old Tselogs location in San Francisco’s Mission District with the idea of setting up an in-person storefront — but then city inspectors wound up nixing that plan. To make up for that loss, Lorenzo redoubled her efforts on the events and wedding catering side of her business. But it has been slow going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938806\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938806\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-scaled.jpg\" alt='A Filipina woman seated on a staircase poses for a portrait. The text on the front of her pink sweatshirt reads, \"100% Pinay\".' width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Headshot-2-PC_-Hillary-Jeanne-Photography-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melody Lorenzo has been running Sweet Condesa as a full-time business since the start of the pandemic. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hillary Jeanne Photography)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if it’s because of inflation, but [business] is not the same compared to the past,” she says. “Sales are down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so, after having spent the last three years of the pandemic grinding away to keep the bakery afloat, Lorenzo says she’s going to reboot the business when her lease runs out at the end of July. Instead of selling baked goods herself, she wants to step outside the kitchen and turn Sweet Condesa into a resource for other aspiring small business owners, especially folks of color. Part of that will take the form of consulting and mentorship. She’d like to help other bakers who are new to the industry draft their business plans and navigate the permitting process. She’ll assist with recipe development and conduct baking and dessert decorating workshops. Eventually, she’d like to write a cookbook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sweet Condesa isn’t going anywhere,” Lorenzo says. “It’s just sad that there’s not going to be holiday pies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938807\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938807\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A graham cracker crust pie topped with black glutinous rice, shredded coconut and sesame seeds.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Puto-Bumbong-PC_-Rezel-Kealoha-vertical-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The puto bumbong pie comes topped with shredded coconut, sesame seeds and muscovado sugar. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rezel Kealoha)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\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>For her final big “Pasko,” or Christmas, dessert drop, Lorenzo has brought back all of her \u003ca href=\"https://www.hotplate.com/sweetcondesapastries/504dbbae-0bf2-4dab-8527-f3ea805e088c\">signature holiday pies\u003c/a>, which draw inspiration from the items you would find at any traditional Filipino Christmas feast. There’s the bibingka pie, inspired by the steaming-hot coconut rice cakes that vendors in the Philippines sell after Christmas mass. There’s a savory-sweet pie that features queso de bola, a cheese that Filipinos traditionally eat for Christmas, and another one that incorporates the flavors of the purple steamed rice cakes known as puto bumbong. Sweet Condesa’s year-round classics will also be available — the tangy-sweet calamansi pie (the highlight of my family’s socially distanced Thanksgiving 2020) and, of course, the neon-purple ube pie. All of the pies have a cold custard base and a graham cracker crust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Lorenzo is also selling of mixed baker’s dozen of Pasko cookies, including a gingerbread-adjacent cookie that includes pieces of dried Philippine mango, a cookie inspired by Filipino hot chocolate and an “ube pie” cookie — a happy accident that Lorenzo created when she had to repurpose a less-than-aesthetic batch of pies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938808\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938808\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of Christmas cookies surround by presents and other holiday-related decorative paraphernalia.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1933\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-800x773.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-1020x986.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-160x155.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-768x742.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-1536x1485.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/Pasko-Cookies-1920x1856.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lorenzo’s Christmas cookies incorporate Filipino ingredients such as dried mango and ube. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Sweet Condesa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Sweet Condesa’s post-bakery life nears, longtime customers will have to take solace in the fact that they’ll still have access to Lorenzo’s desserts for about eight more months. Even after the holiday pie sale ends, customers will still be able to order pies and other sweet treats \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploreneon.com/store/restaurant/486/?utm_source=sweetcondesa&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=fbb\">online\u003c/a>, for pickup and home delivery, twice a month. The desserts are also available three days a week at \u003ca href=\"https://www.abanicocoffee.com/\">Abanico Coffee Roasters\u003c/a> in the Mission. And Lorenzo will continue to do events catering and occasional afternoon tea pop-ups over that same time period, before she closes the books on this chapter of her business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still want to do a lot of weddings,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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://sweetcondesapastries.com/\">Sweet Condesa\u003c/a>’s \u003c/i>\u003ci>Christmas pre-sale\u003c/i>\u003ci> is open for \u003ca href=\"https://www.hotplate.com/sweetcondesapastries/504dbbae-0bf2-4dab-8527-f3ea805e088c\">online ordering\u003c/a> from now through Dec. 19. Pickup at the bakery’s Mission District headquarters (518 S. Van Ness, San Francisco) will take place on Friday, Dec. 22 and Saturday, Dec. 23. Limited home delivery is available for Dec. 21–22.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Home Cook's Porch Parties Are Helping Fuel the East Bay's Artistic Community",
"headTitle": "A Home Cook’s Porch Parties Are Helping Fuel the East Bay’s Artistic Community | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ri Louie throws porch parties. The schedule varies, but usually on Sundays, they’ll post a handwritten menu on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/_porchparty_/\">Instagram\u003c/a>. And then on Tuesday, people from all over the East Bay flock to their porch in West Oakland to share a home-cooked meal, finding community in helpings of hot food and scratch-made buttermilk biscuits. For Louie, the informal “Porch Party” pop-ups are yet another step in their long journey of feeding people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In layman’s terms, they say, “I am just your neighbor cooking for you in my kitchen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After tasting the fruits of the chef’s labor at several art events in Oakland, I began to recognize Louie as an East Bay staple. Our first chance meeting was at a celebration of queer art at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/helvella.art/?hl=en\">Helvella Art\u003c/a>, where Louie plated up crispy pork belly with the perfect level of chewy crunch, and jasmine oat lattes that sang with floral notes and grounded nuttiness. The second was a West Oakland Farmers Market art sale, where they sold “chips ‘n’ fixin’s,” a hearty plate of tortilla chips topped with slow-stewed beans, fresh cotija cheese and a tangy-sweet yogurt slaw to tickle the tastebuds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For each of these events, Louie’s three-dimensional flavor pairings paid homage to the many different food traditions that allow the Bay Area’s diasporic landscape to thrive. And their presence at art-focused events piqued my interest in how necessary the culinary arts are to feeding our inner artists — and how even mundane tasks can be a vehicle for creative expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At home in their kitchen on a recent Tuesday evening, Louie carefully moved pre-prepped ingredients into stir-fries, mixing in oyster sauces, vinegars and salts while a pot of jook simmered nearby. They worked quickly, cutting with precision and trimming scallions into perfect diagonals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938627\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of jook (rice porridge) topped with scallions and stir-fried vegetables.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-1020x1529.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-1366x2048.jpg 1366w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bowl of Louie’s homemade jook — a labor of love. The chopsticks are from Louie’s grandmother’s Chinese restaurant. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Celadon Loo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Louie has been cooking for as long as they can remember. Their grandmother owned a classic 1950s Chinese restaurant in the Southern California suburbs. Through that lineage, Louie immersed themselves in a world of restaurant tools, kitchen efficiency and the age-old habit of tasting as you go. Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, Louie learned that community was something that thrived in the comfort of a home kitchen — and with the guidance of their father, who was also a talented home cook, they soon became the resident chef for the family’s big parties and annual gatherings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Louie, these early years weren’t particularly conventional. They left high school and graduated late, choosing to work as a campaigner for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016. In the days following election night, they and their coworkers found themselves bereft. To break out of their funk, Louie leaned into their Jewish upbringing and cooked weekly Shabbat meals for campaigners in the Los Angeles Area. The process of breaking bread became a way for the group to bond, and together, they began to use those Friday night meals as a time to gather for community actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Louie left L.A. to attend UC Berkeley and began working as a head cook at the Berkeley Student Co-ops. There, Louie and a team of five assistant cooks would serve 140 people (and any guests they brought) a four-course meal every week. The food — like beans hydrated in an overnight marinade or elaborate bowls of fresh noodles — quickly developed a reputation for its flavor and execution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the pandemic struck and massive protests over police violence erupted all around the country, Louie moved back home to L.A. and decided to raise money for Black Lives Matter by hosting a neighborhood bake sale — unbeknownst to their family. Louie’s mother, father and brothers came home to find flour on the floor, baking pans stacked in the sink, and a frantic baker. Thus, Louie’s subsequent attempts at activism came with a single caveat: They had to allow their family to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began an entire operation. Louie’s father helped source ingredients. Their brother developed software to manage ordering. And Louie and their mother baked. Over the course of Louie’s year at home, they raised $34,000 for the movement.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]‘Here, neighbors can have meaningful dialogue about community actions, their personal well-being \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the food at hand.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through that experience, Louie found their passion. Food was a way that communities could gather and celebrate. And Louie had witnessed firsthand the joy of creating both the space and opportunity for their neighbors to engage in community action. Initially, Louie’s idea was to enter the restaurant business to create physical spaces where people could share meals and conversation. But after several stints at high-end restaurants in Los Angeles and the Bay, Louie realized that they found their greatest joy in cooking meals for neighbors — at home. Thus, Porch Party was born. Louie hosted the first iteration in August of 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porch Party, in Louie’s words, is “here to serve and support and bring joy to artists, activists, creatives, and community-builders as we all do our part to destroy the racist capitalist imperialist heteropatriarchy.” Each week’s iteration has a new menu. Sometimes the pop-up takes the form of home deliveries or pickups. And, most importantly, sometimes there are actual, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0M37b3OnIX/?img_index=1\">in-person porch parties\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During these pop-ups, Louie’s house serves as a place where “things can get pretty intense,” meaning community members from all around the East Bay wind up engaging in large-group conversations that go beyond a simple “how are you.” While knowing your neighbor feels rarer than ever, Louie strives to create a space where guests can feed their body, their social calendar and their mind. Here, neighbors can have meaningful dialogue about community actions, their personal well-being \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the food at hand — all while fueling good causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938628\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938628\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stirs a large pot of jook with a soup spoon.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Louie checks on the jook, which had a wonderful, pillowy texture. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Celadon Loo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Recently, Louie’s Porch Party menus went viral because they were donating proceeds to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, raising $1,600 in one week alone — and a total of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0M37b3OnIX/\">about $6,600\u003c/a> over the course of a few pop-ups. The most recent pop-up split its proceeds between the Palestinian humanitarian aid nonprofit and the \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/\">Sogorea Te’ Land Trust\u003c/a>, an indigenous land rematriation project whose work breathes life into more home kitchens in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13929177,arts_13938506,arts_13928345']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>When Louie offered me a sneak peek at that last Porch Party menu, I jumped at the chance. Louie had made a homemade chicken broth with ginger and chicken bones, and then used that stock to make a heavenly jook. The rice had softened to a pillowy texture, perfectly emulsifying within the salty broth and treasures of egg ribbons. They also served a heaping pile of stir-fried mushrooms, broccoli, shallots and purple cabbage, all tossed in chili oil and a slightly sweet, umami-filled sauce — a combination so delicious that I drizzled it onto my jook as well. Every bite was grounded in a surprising new dimension of flavor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Louie’s community work boasts the same characteristics as their culinary practices, letting the flavors of diverse lives mix and mingle to create a masterpiece. The chef’s big-picture dreams have evolved over the years — from becoming a rhetoric professor to a TV show host showcasing home cooks. Now, their biggest dream is to create art about what food means to our society. While serving piping hot meals, they want to gather folks around their literal and metaphoric table to engage in oral history, movement building and elevating stories of marginalized communities whose foods we eat every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, the story of food, to Louie, is a story about the people who make it happen. And, as the mind behind Porch Party, Louie wants to do both — the making and the telling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The next Porch Party pop-up will be an \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0M37b3OnIX/?img_index=1\">in-person brunch event\u003c/a> in West Oakland on Sunday, Dec. 3, from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. RSVP by \u003ca href=\"https://www.luckyporchparty.com/\">preordering online\u003c/a> by 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1 (or whenever all of the food sells out). \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Art, activism and home-cooked jook come together at this beloved West Oakland pop-up.",
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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>ri Louie throws porch parties. The schedule varies, but usually on Sundays, they’ll post a handwritten menu on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/_porchparty_/\">Instagram\u003c/a>. And then on Tuesday, people from all over the East Bay flock to their porch in West Oakland to share a home-cooked meal, finding community in helpings of hot food and scratch-made buttermilk biscuits. For Louie, the informal “Porch Party” pop-ups are yet another step in their long journey of feeding people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In layman’s terms, they say, “I am just your neighbor cooking for you in my kitchen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After tasting the fruits of the chef’s labor at several art events in Oakland, I began to recognize Louie as an East Bay staple. Our first chance meeting was at a celebration of queer art at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/helvella.art/?hl=en\">Helvella Art\u003c/a>, where Louie plated up crispy pork belly with the perfect level of chewy crunch, and jasmine oat lattes that sang with floral notes and grounded nuttiness. The second was a West Oakland Farmers Market art sale, where they sold “chips ‘n’ fixin’s,” a hearty plate of tortilla chips topped with slow-stewed beans, fresh cotija cheese and a tangy-sweet yogurt slaw to tickle the tastebuds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For each of these events, Louie’s three-dimensional flavor pairings paid homage to the many different food traditions that allow the Bay Area’s diasporic landscape to thrive. And their presence at art-focused events piqued my interest in how necessary the culinary arts are to feeding our inner artists — and how even mundane tasks can be a vehicle for creative expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At home in their kitchen on a recent Tuesday evening, Louie carefully moved pre-prepped ingredients into stir-fries, mixing in oyster sauces, vinegars and salts while a pot of jook simmered nearby. They worked quickly, cutting with precision and trimming scallions into perfect diagonals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938627\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of jook (rice porridge) topped with scallions and stir-fried vegetables.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-1020x1529.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-jook_celadon-loo-1366x2048.jpg 1366w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bowl of Louie’s homemade jook — a labor of love. The chopsticks are from Louie’s grandmother’s Chinese restaurant. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Celadon Loo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Louie has been cooking for as long as they can remember. Their grandmother owned a classic 1950s Chinese restaurant in the Southern California suburbs. Through that lineage, Louie immersed themselves in a world of restaurant tools, kitchen efficiency and the age-old habit of tasting as you go. Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, Louie learned that community was something that thrived in the comfort of a home kitchen — and with the guidance of their father, who was also a talented home cook, they soon became the resident chef for the family’s big parties and annual gatherings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Louie, these early years weren’t particularly conventional. They left high school and graduated late, choosing to work as a campaigner for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016. In the days following election night, they and their coworkers found themselves bereft. To break out of their funk, Louie leaned into their Jewish upbringing and cooked weekly Shabbat meals for campaigners in the Los Angeles Area. The process of breaking bread became a way for the group to bond, and together, they began to use those Friday night meals as a time to gather for community actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Louie left L.A. to attend UC Berkeley and began working as a head cook at the Berkeley Student Co-ops. There, Louie and a team of five assistant cooks would serve 140 people (and any guests they brought) a four-course meal every week. The food — like beans hydrated in an overnight marinade or elaborate bowls of fresh noodles — quickly developed a reputation for its flavor and execution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the pandemic struck and massive protests over police violence erupted all around the country, Louie moved back home to L.A. and decided to raise money for Black Lives Matter by hosting a neighborhood bake sale — unbeknownst to their family. Louie’s mother, father and brothers came home to find flour on the floor, baking pans stacked in the sink, and a frantic baker. Thus, Louie’s subsequent attempts at activism came with a single caveat: They had to allow their family to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began an entire operation. Louie’s father helped source ingredients. Their brother developed software to manage ordering. And Louie and their mother baked. Over the course of Louie’s year at home, they raised $34,000 for the movement.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Here, neighbors can have meaningful dialogue about community actions, their personal well-being \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the food at hand.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through that experience, Louie found their passion. Food was a way that communities could gather and celebrate. And Louie had witnessed firsthand the joy of creating both the space and opportunity for their neighbors to engage in community action. Initially, Louie’s idea was to enter the restaurant business to create physical spaces where people could share meals and conversation. But after several stints at high-end restaurants in Los Angeles and the Bay, Louie realized that they found their greatest joy in cooking meals for neighbors — at home. Thus, Porch Party was born. Louie hosted the first iteration in August of 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porch Party, in Louie’s words, is “here to serve and support and bring joy to artists, activists, creatives, and community-builders as we all do our part to destroy the racist capitalist imperialist heteropatriarchy.” Each week’s iteration has a new menu. Sometimes the pop-up takes the form of home deliveries or pickups. And, most importantly, sometimes there are actual, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0M37b3OnIX/?img_index=1\">in-person porch parties\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During these pop-ups, Louie’s house serves as a place where “things can get pretty intense,” meaning community members from all around the East Bay wind up engaging in large-group conversations that go beyond a simple “how are you.” While knowing your neighbor feels rarer than ever, Louie strives to create a space where guests can feed their body, their social calendar and their mind. Here, neighbors can have meaningful dialogue about community actions, their personal well-being \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the food at hand — all while fueling good causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938628\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938628\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stirs a large pot of jook with a soup spoon.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/porch-party-ari-in-profile_celadon-loo-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Louie checks on the jook, which had a wonderful, pillowy texture. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Celadon Loo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Recently, Louie’s Porch Party menus went viral because they were donating proceeds to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, raising $1,600 in one week alone — and a total of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0M37b3OnIX/\">about $6,600\u003c/a> over the course of a few pop-ups. The most recent pop-up split its proceeds between the Palestinian humanitarian aid nonprofit and the \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/\">Sogorea Te’ Land Trust\u003c/a>, an indigenous land rematriation project whose work breathes life into more home kitchens in the Bay.\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>When Louie offered me a sneak peek at that last Porch Party menu, I jumped at the chance. Louie had made a homemade chicken broth with ginger and chicken bones, and then used that stock to make a heavenly jook. The rice had softened to a pillowy texture, perfectly emulsifying within the salty broth and treasures of egg ribbons. They also served a heaping pile of stir-fried mushrooms, broccoli, shallots and purple cabbage, all tossed in chili oil and a slightly sweet, umami-filled sauce — a combination so delicious that I drizzled it onto my jook as well. Every bite was grounded in a surprising new dimension of flavor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Louie’s community work boasts the same characteristics as their culinary practices, letting the flavors of diverse lives mix and mingle to create a masterpiece. The chef’s big-picture dreams have evolved over the years — from becoming a rhetoric professor to a TV show host showcasing home cooks. Now, their biggest dream is to create art about what food means to our society. While serving piping hot meals, they want to gather folks around their literal and metaphoric table to engage in oral history, movement building and elevating stories of marginalized communities whose foods we eat every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, the story of food, to Louie, is a story about the people who make it happen. And, as the mind behind Porch Party, Louie wants to do both — the making and the telling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The next Porch Party pop-up will be an \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0M37b3OnIX/?img_index=1\">in-person brunch event\u003c/a> in West Oakland on Sunday, Dec. 3, from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. RSVP by \u003ca href=\"https://www.luckyporchparty.com/\">preordering online\u003c/a> by 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1 (or whenever all of the food sells out). \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this season, the team formerly known as the Oakland Raiders won a pivotal Sunday Night Football game in Las Vegas. Afterwards, the players celebrated in their locker room while blasting Bay Area rap anthems and puffing cigars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The song of choice for the adrenalized group? \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/p-lo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">P-Lo\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s “Light This Bitch Up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, P-Lo has become one of the Bay Area’s avatars for winning, having ascended to stardom as a multi-platinum producer and lyricist after starting out as a founding member of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">HBK Gang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. His resume includes producing hits for all of your favorite rappers and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">collaborating with the Golden State Warriors for events like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HQr2HSrZU0\">Filipino Heritage Night\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Chase Center, where he often receives energetic daps from the 3-point god, Steph Curry, himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The versatile Filipino from Pinole isn’t just popular among sports celebrities, though; he’s also beloved in the Bay’s expansive food world. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In recent years, P-Lo has steadily furthered his place in the culinary ecosystem by partnering with notable food brands. He’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">twice collaborated with San Francisco’s iconic Señor Sisig\u003c/a> to create his own signature burrito and chicken wings\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He also organized a star-studded, transnational “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/p_lo/status/1709035954156290326\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Very Good Food Tour\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” to celebrate Filipino American History Month this summer. Did I mention \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his music is featured in a nationwide \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j62YJP6yWQ\">Wingstop commercial\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936934\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An indoor space filled with people with murals on the wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd fills Señor Sisig during P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It only felt right that I caught up with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/6GsGCToyCrO0PokU9RQSjM\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">STUNNA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. After sitting down with the artist in San Francisco to watch a Friday night Warriors game on TV, I slid by his sold-out food event in Oakland the following afternoon to grub on wings. He spoke to me about sustaining intergenerational love, cooking up independent success and staying well-fed in the Bay.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: I recently spoke with \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931355/michael-sneed-is-more-than-a-vibe-hes-a-symbol-for-oakland\">\u003cb>Oakland rapper Michael Sneed\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>, and he credited you and your older brother, Kuya Beats, as being mentors to his generation. It’s something I hear often when speaking to younger artists around our region.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>P-Lo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s something my brother instilled in me because he’s always been a teacher. Also, I think that’s like, you know, that we’re from here. I want to be able to usher in the new. You know what I’m saying? ‘Cause I’m not going to be doing it forever. I want to be able to make sure that the next generation don’t have to go through all the bruises and bumps that generations before them did. I just wanna be able to pass down the game.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tell me about your Very Good Food Tour. You hit eight cities around North America during Filipino American History Month to promote small Filipino-owned businesses.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It really started out just doing a bunch of stuff with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Señor Sisig\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I love food. I love culture. I love learning about not just my culture but other people’s cultures — which is something in the Bay that we grew up on. Our friends are from hella places. All my friends come from different backgrounds. They knew so much about Filipino culture just from being around me, and I know about their cultures from being around them. It’s an exchange, and I wanted to continue that exchange on a larger scale. As humans, that’s how we move forward. The world needs that right now. There’s so much division — narratives in the media, financial. Know what I’m saying? Any way I can bring people together, whether music, food, culture, I’m gonna try my best to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>So how did you select the restaurants in each city?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I tapped in with folks in each community. I like to know what the cool restaurants are, and when we’re going to these places, I like to know where my friends and the people living there go. I like to learn from those communities so we can, you know, do things correctly. How can we get ourselves involved there? That’s important to me, connecting with the people and sharing each other’s platforms. Restaurants have their own platforms, I have mine, so it’s beneficial to both parties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936933\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936933\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A dish of fried chicken next to a purple drink in a tall glass.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo’s signature special during his food tour stop at Señor Sisig: crispy wings tossed in sinagang seasoning. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re also creating an original dish for each venue.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. We’re doing that collaboration to make it even more saucy. It’s cool because music brings people together and so does food, so it’s a perfect meshing. Food is an art form. Just like you can taste when something is made with love, you can hear when something is made with love. It has a certain soul to it. That’s just energy being transferred in both cases. People never forget how you made them feel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As far as feeding the people, you’ve been cooking up Bay Area hits for years now. Is there a certain dish or restaurant in the Bay that you think gives people a similar feeling of regional pride and identity as your music does?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me, whenever I come back home from being away, it’s usually going to the Mission for a burrito. I actually got into an argument with some dudes on L.A. radio telling them that [the best] burritos come from San Francisco, and they were like “hell no, this and that,” and I’m like bro, look it up. You know, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961178/what-is-a-mission-style-burrito-maybe-a-myth\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">what many people think of burritos nowadays, that style, that came from San Francisco\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You can never go wrong with a burrito. In the past, you’ve actually teamed up with the chefs at Señor Sisig to make your own signature burrito. This time around, you’re doing spicy sinigang chicken wings with them. What draws you to working with Señor Sisig?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, it’s just a fusion that represents who I am. My Filipino background is rooted in family, and on top of that I have my Bay Area background rooted in music. So that’s what this collab is about, in a dish. I love spicy food. I got that from my dad; he hella likes spicy food. I recently learned that spicy food releases endorphins and shit like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is there a strong culture of spicy foods in the Philippines? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bro, me and my homie literally just got back from the Philippines, and we were talking about this. There’s not really spice like that, to be honest. At Sisig, you can add jalapeños and peppers, but in general Filipino food is not very spicy. But I still love hella spices, spicy sauces, things like that on my food.[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"P-Lo\"]‘Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What restaurant, besides Señor Sisig, were you most looking forward to on your food tour?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BBs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Toronto. I’ve been visiting Toronto pretty frequently and I like eating there. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/ontario/toronto/restaurant/bb-s\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were just added to the Michelin guide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (one of 11 Filipino restaurants to do so). Toronto kinda reminds me of here. How the Filipino culture is ingrained. Everyone in Toronto has a Filipino friend. That feels like home to me. One of the gifts of doing this is being able to connect with more people and experience different cultures. It’s not the same everywhere, so growing up in the Bay you think the world is like this. But it’s not. The more I grow older and understand how special it is to be in a place like this, it’s been amazing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you noticed a rise in the popularity of Filipino food trends everywhere in recent years? And how do you feel about that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Definitely. Filipinos really only been here for like 50, 60 years. We started coming over in the 60s, 70s. I think over time it’s just grown, and now is the moment for this. We have roots here now. We got critical mass. Now it’s time for the take over [laughs]. Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much. I’m for it, man. That’s one of the reasons why we even started doing this tour and these collaborations. I want people to feel pride in who they are. Most of the time people have to suppress how they grew up or their backgrounds in order to fit in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But man, from the reactions so far of people who have come to our events, it’s been dope. Our team definitely likes to think outside of the box and create experiences in other ways, and not just always buying a ticket to one of my concerts. How do we create an experience that’s unique to us? This felt like the perfect thing. This encompasses what I’m fully about.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936935\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A vinyl album with the photo of a person in a baseball cap on it beside a trucker hat with the words "Very Good Food Tour 23'" written on it.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merch from P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What defines Filipino food for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hominess of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sorry, do you mean that as in “homely” or “homie”?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean like that feeling of being at home.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Got you. I thought you meant it as sharing it with your homies, because that works too. But being centered on the home is definitely on point as well, especially for immigrant diasporas.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, totally [laughs]. They both work. My parents are immigrants, so that experience of eating Filipino food at the house, or at a homie’s house, it’s gotta be that for me. I do like the elevated versions of Filipino food though. I appreciate that. Taking it to the next level. But nothing beats when your mom or auntie cooks it. And that’s something I don’t want to leave out. It should feel homely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I’ve been thinking a lot about the random intersection of Bay Area slang in rap songs and food. Obviously, E-40 is responsible for most of it. Does anything come to mind for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Laughs]. Yeah, E-40 is responsible for probably 90% of that. Um, let me think. I know \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">food definitely doesn’t slap\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. That’s where I draw the line. Someone said that on TikTok and completely butchered it. That’s not how it’s used. That’s just not it. But yeah, I also talk about chicken in my songs. Referencing money. That’s just something I’ve heard in conversation that I started using in my music.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s inspiring you musically right now?\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been listening to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jordanward/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jordan Ward\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/4karri/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Karri\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — he has a song out called “3am in Oakland.” He’s a Filipino kid, too. He’s super tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sneedlovesu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michael Sneed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s very unique. He’s been out in L.A. working in our studio, going back and forth to the Bay. Watching him create and get it has been super cool. He’s one of the purest people I know. That’s inspiring to be around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOmeRPuYhQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re considered one of the Bay Area’s biggest voices right now. You’re vocal about different issues like positive community representation, the Warriors and supporting one another. How does it feel to be in that position now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m just grateful, man. I want to keep growing, no matter how big or small, on every level. That’s a credit to the people around me. They allow me to think in progressive ways and bring new ideas to life. It’s truly that, to be honest. Having the right people. And always being open to learning. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/gucci1017/status/1017765522555981829\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gucci Mane said something like, “If you not growing, you dead.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If something’s not growing, it’s finished. So I like to be a permanent student, to embrace the youth, the next generation. Anybody that came out the Bay, I’ve tried to bring them on tour with me. ALLBLACK, [22nd] Jim, Rexx Life Raj, Caleborate, Sneed. Just embracing that growth no matter what.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who played that role for you when you were coming up?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13934248,arts_13936325,arts_13932574']For me, Kool John and IAMSU!, it really starts there as a member of Heartbreak Gang. Iamsu! and Kool John really gave me all the confidence to do what I’m doing, and they showed me the way. Sage, too. G-Eazy played a huge part and taught me some game. Shit, 40. Uncle Earl. Just having phone conversations with him, or him calling me to get my opinion on things. That’s surreal. I grew up on him. Being around all of them. They gave me that push like, “Bruh, you can really do this.” Being a producer at first, people thought I could only do that. SU! and Kool John pushed me to actually be on songs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cb>HBK Gang has played a tremendous role in the Bay Area’s artistic renaissance\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> over the past decade. Looking back on it, what influence do you think you all had?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That era set the table for pretty much the future of Bay Area music. There wasn’t really anything for the soundscape in the Bay at the time, in terms of production, what it all sounded like, and fashion at the time as well. We did collabs with Pink Dolphin, stuff like that. People weren’t doing collabs with clothing brands. Like any Bay Area story, we’re always ahead of the times.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you think that inventiveness comes from in Bay Area people?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re all like hippies, for real. We’re eccentric. And eclectic. It may be the drugs, maybe something in the water. Our water, our air, it’s really good. That’s important. I really think it makes us function in a way that’s different from the rest of the world. We also get exposed to a lot here, and we find beauty in the imperfections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I agree. We’re blessed and bipped at the same time.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. I got homies in the tech world, and I got homies in jail right now. Growing up with that spectrum is wide. That makes us worldly people. You can drop a Bay Area person anywhere and they’ll be alright. And you can always spot us out by just playing Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936937\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand together talking as one holds a young child.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED reporter Alan Chazaro holds his son Maceo while posing with P-Lo at Señor Sisig. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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\n",
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"excerpt": "The local star talks about the importance of intergenerational support — and reminds us that food doesn’t slap.",
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"title": "P-Lo Is Feeding the Bay Area With Filipino Food Collaborations | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this season, the team formerly known as the Oakland Raiders won a pivotal Sunday Night Football game in Las Vegas. Afterwards, the players celebrated in their locker room while blasting Bay Area rap anthems and puffing cigars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The song of choice for the adrenalized group? \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/p-lo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">P-Lo\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s “Light This Bitch Up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, P-Lo has become one of the Bay Area’s avatars for winning, having ascended to stardom as a multi-platinum producer and lyricist after starting out as a founding member of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">HBK Gang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. His resume includes producing hits for all of your favorite rappers and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">collaborating with the Golden State Warriors for events like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HQr2HSrZU0\">Filipino Heritage Night\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Chase Center, where he often receives energetic daps from the 3-point god, Steph Curry, himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The versatile Filipino from Pinole isn’t just popular among sports celebrities, though; he’s also beloved in the Bay’s expansive food world. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In recent years, P-Lo has steadily furthered his place in the culinary ecosystem by partnering with notable food brands. He’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">twice collaborated with San Francisco’s iconic Señor Sisig\u003c/a> to create his own signature burrito and chicken wings\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He also organized a star-studded, transnational “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/p_lo/status/1709035954156290326\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Very Good Food Tour\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” to celebrate Filipino American History Month this summer. Did I mention \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his music is featured in a nationwide \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j62YJP6yWQ\">Wingstop commercial\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936934\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An indoor space filled with people with murals on the wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-029-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd fills Señor Sisig during P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It only felt right that I caught up with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/6GsGCToyCrO0PokU9RQSjM\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">STUNNA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. After sitting down with the artist in San Francisco to watch a Friday night Warriors game on TV, I slid by his sold-out food event in Oakland the following afternoon to grub on wings. He spoke to me about sustaining intergenerational love, cooking up independent success and staying well-fed in the Bay.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: I recently spoke with \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13931355/michael-sneed-is-more-than-a-vibe-hes-a-symbol-for-oakland\">\u003cb>Oakland rapper Michael Sneed\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>, and he credited you and your older brother, Kuya Beats, as being mentors to his generation. It’s something I hear often when speaking to younger artists around our region.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>P-Lo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s something my brother instilled in me because he’s always been a teacher. Also, I think that’s like, you know, that we’re from here. I want to be able to usher in the new. You know what I’m saying? ‘Cause I’m not going to be doing it forever. I want to be able to make sure that the next generation don’t have to go through all the bruises and bumps that generations before them did. I just wanna be able to pass down the game.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tell me about your Very Good Food Tour. You hit eight cities around North America during Filipino American History Month to promote small Filipino-owned businesses.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It really started out just doing a bunch of stuff with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Señor Sisig\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I love food. I love culture. I love learning about not just my culture but other people’s cultures — which is something in the Bay that we grew up on. Our friends are from hella places. All my friends come from different backgrounds. They knew so much about Filipino culture just from being around me, and I know about their cultures from being around them. It’s an exchange, and I wanted to continue that exchange on a larger scale. As humans, that’s how we move forward. The world needs that right now. There’s so much division — narratives in the media, financial. Know what I’m saying? Any way I can bring people together, whether music, food, culture, I’m gonna try my best to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>So how did you select the restaurants in each city?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I tapped in with folks in each community. I like to know what the cool restaurants are, and when we’re going to these places, I like to know where my friends and the people living there go. I like to learn from those communities so we can, you know, do things correctly. How can we get ourselves involved there? That’s important to me, connecting with the people and sharing each other’s platforms. Restaurants have their own platforms, I have mine, so it’s beneficial to both parties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936933\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936933\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A dish of fried chicken next to a purple drink in a tall glass.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-025-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo’s signature special during his food tour stop at Señor Sisig: crispy wings tossed in sinagang seasoning. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re also creating an original dish for each venue.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. We’re doing that collaboration to make it even more saucy. It’s cool because music brings people together and so does food, so it’s a perfect meshing. Food is an art form. Just like you can taste when something is made with love, you can hear when something is made with love. It has a certain soul to it. That’s just energy being transferred in both cases. People never forget how you made them feel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As far as feeding the people, you’ve been cooking up Bay Area hits for years now. Is there a certain dish or restaurant in the Bay that you think gives people a similar feeling of regional pride and identity as your music does?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me, whenever I come back home from being away, it’s usually going to the Mission for a burrito. I actually got into an argument with some dudes on L.A. radio telling them that [the best] burritos come from San Francisco, and they were like “hell no, this and that,” and I’m like bro, look it up. You know, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961178/what-is-a-mission-style-burrito-maybe-a-myth\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">what many people think of burritos nowadays, that style, that came from San Francisco\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You can never go wrong with a burrito. In the past, you’ve actually teamed up with the chefs at Señor Sisig to make your own signature burrito. This time around, you’re doing spicy sinigang chicken wings with them. What draws you to working with Señor Sisig?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, it’s just a fusion that represents who I am. My Filipino background is rooted in family, and on top of that I have my Bay Area background rooted in music. So that’s what this collab is about, in a dish. I love spicy food. I got that from my dad; he hella likes spicy food. I recently learned that spicy food releases endorphins and shit like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is there a strong culture of spicy foods in the Philippines? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bro, me and my homie literally just got back from the Philippines, and we were talking about this. There’s not really spice like that, to be honest. At Sisig, you can add jalapeños and peppers, but in general Filipino food is not very spicy. But I still love hella spices, spicy sauces, things like that on my food.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What restaurant, besides Señor Sisig, were you most looking forward to on your food tour?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs.bbs/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BBs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Toronto. I’ve been visiting Toronto pretty frequently and I like eating there. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/ontario/toronto/restaurant/bb-s\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were just added to the Michelin guide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (one of 11 Filipino restaurants to do so). Toronto kinda reminds me of here. How the Filipino culture is ingrained. Everyone in Toronto has a Filipino friend. That feels like home to me. One of the gifts of doing this is being able to connect with more people and experience different cultures. It’s not the same everywhere, so growing up in the Bay you think the world is like this. But it’s not. The more I grow older and understand how special it is to be in a place like this, it’s been amazing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you noticed a rise in the popularity of Filipino food trends everywhere in recent years? And how do you feel about that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Definitely. Filipinos really only been here for like 50, 60 years. We started coming over in the 60s, 70s. I think over time it’s just grown, and now is the moment for this. We have roots here now. We got critical mass. Now it’s time for the take over [laughs]. Now you’re seeing ube at Trader Joe’s and Starbucks and things like that. That’s amazing, that’s cool. Growing up, you didn’t really see that as much. I’m for it, man. That’s one of the reasons why we even started doing this tour and these collaborations. I want people to feel pride in who they are. Most of the time people have to suppress how they grew up or their backgrounds in order to fit in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But man, from the reactions so far of people who have come to our events, it’s been dope. Our team definitely likes to think outside of the box and create experiences in other ways, and not just always buying a ticket to one of my concerts. How do we create an experience that’s unique to us? This felt like the perfect thing. This encompasses what I’m fully about.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936935\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A vinyl album with the photo of a person in a baseball cap on it beside a trucker hat with the words "Very Good Food Tour 23'" written on it.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-030-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merch from P-Lo’s Very Good Food Tour. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What defines Filipino food for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hominess of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sorry, do you mean that as in “homely” or “homie”?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean like that feeling of being at home.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Got you. I thought you meant it as sharing it with your homies, because that works too. But being centered on the home is definitely on point as well, especially for immigrant diasporas.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, totally [laughs]. They both work. My parents are immigrants, so that experience of eating Filipino food at the house, or at a homie’s house, it’s gotta be that for me. I do like the elevated versions of Filipino food though. I appreciate that. Taking it to the next level. But nothing beats when your mom or auntie cooks it. And that’s something I don’t want to leave out. It should feel homely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I’ve been thinking a lot about the random intersection of Bay Area slang in rap songs and food. Obviously, E-40 is responsible for most of it. Does anything come to mind for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Laughs]. Yeah, E-40 is responsible for probably 90% of that. Um, let me think. I know \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">food definitely doesn’t slap\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. That’s where I draw the line. Someone said that on TikTok and completely butchered it. That’s not how it’s used. That’s just not it. But yeah, I also talk about chicken in my songs. Referencing money. That’s just something I’ve heard in conversation that I started using in my music.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s inspiring you musically right now?\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been listening to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jordanward/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jordan Ward\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/4karri/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Karri\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — he has a song out called “3am in Oakland.” He’s a Filipino kid, too. He’s super tight. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sneedlovesu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michael Sneed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He’s very unique. He’s been out in L.A. working in our studio, going back and forth to the Bay. Watching him create and get it has been super cool. He’s one of the purest people I know. That’s inspiring to be around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RGOmeRPuYhQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RGOmeRPuYhQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re considered one of the Bay Area’s biggest voices right now. You’re vocal about different issues like positive community representation, the Warriors and supporting one another. How does it feel to be in that position now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m just grateful, man. I want to keep growing, no matter how big or small, on every level. That’s a credit to the people around me. They allow me to think in progressive ways and bring new ideas to life. It’s truly that, to be honest. Having the right people. And always being open to learning. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/gucci1017/status/1017765522555981829\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gucci Mane said something like, “If you not growing, you dead.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If something’s not growing, it’s finished. So I like to be a permanent student, to embrace the youth, the next generation. Anybody that came out the Bay, I’ve tried to bring them on tour with me. ALLBLACK, [22nd] Jim, Rexx Life Raj, Caleborate, Sneed. Just embracing that growth no matter what.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who played that role for you when you were coming up?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For me, Kool John and IAMSU!, it really starts there as a member of Heartbreak Gang. Iamsu! and Kool John really gave me all the confidence to do what I’m doing, and they showed me the way. Sage, too. G-Eazy played a huge part and taught me some game. Shit, 40. Uncle Earl. Just having phone conversations with him, or him calling me to get my opinion on things. That’s surreal. I grew up on him. Being around all of them. They gave me that push like, “Bruh, you can really do this.” Being a producer at first, people thought I could only do that. SU! and Kool John pushed me to actually be on songs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13938026/hbk-gang-iamsu-jay-anthony-p-lo-sage-gemini\">\u003cb>HBK Gang has played a tremendous role in the Bay Area’s artistic renaissance\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> over the past decade. Looking back on it, what influence do you think you all had?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That era set the table for pretty much the future of Bay Area music. There wasn’t really anything for the soundscape in the Bay at the time, in terms of production, what it all sounded like, and fashion at the time as well. We did collabs with Pink Dolphin, stuff like that. People weren’t doing collabs with clothing brands. Like any Bay Area story, we’re always ahead of the times.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you think that inventiveness comes from in Bay Area people?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re all like hippies, for real. We’re eccentric. And eclectic. It may be the drugs, maybe something in the water. Our water, our air, it’s really good. That’s important. I really think it makes us function in a way that’s different from the rest of the world. We also get exposed to a lot here, and we find beauty in the imperfections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I agree. We’re blessed and bipped at the same time.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly. I got homies in the tech world, and I got homies in jail right now. Growing up with that spectrum is wide. That makes us worldly people. You can drop a Bay Area person anywhere and they’ll be alright. And you can always spot us out by just playing Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936937\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand together talking as one holds a young child.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/231021-PLoFoodInterview-008-BL-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED reporter Alan Chazaro holds his son Maceo while posing with P-Lo at Señor Sisig. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A New Oakland Pop-Up Fuses Ethiopian and Ghanaian Cuisines",
"headTitle": "A New Oakland Pop-Up Fuses Ethiopian and Ghanaian Cuisines | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It has been a tumultuous year for Selasie Dotse. As one of just a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13914092/ghana-pop-up-elade-test-kitchen-selasie-dotse-sf\">handful of prominent Black fine dining chefs in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, they’d been stoked to start a job at Hi Felicia, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2022/4/5/23011862/hi-felicia-new-restaurant-oakland-open-imana-fine-dining\">the new darling of Oakland’s upscale restaurant scene\u003c/a>. It was the first time Dotse had worked under a Black chef-owner, and the first time they were part of a team whose explicit goal was to shake up the exceedingly white, exclusionary world of longform tasting menus. And for a while, at least, the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/08/30/underground-oakland-supper-club-hi-felicia-isnt-afraid-of-the-spotlight/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6vaqBhCbARIsACF9M6nWBHzKZtD6bmd4EMvPpdbRRnE_E2hcUZPU-eYb_j1FXiSRcFER3GsaAlJMEALw_wcB\">plaudits\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/story/instagram-supper-club\">came\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/wildly-popular-fine-dining-pop-up-hi-felicia-has-16528202.php\">pouring\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/article/dining-out/california-new-additions-michelin-2022\">in\u003c/a> — until the restaurant imploded amid charges of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/hi-felicia-oakland-18129975.php\">sexual harassment\u003c/a>, a toxic work environment and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/hi-felicia-service-charge-18450080.php\">wage theft\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I once again realized that I was working for someone who didn’t share the same values and ideas about wanting to \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21372187/bay-area-fine-dining-restaurants-racism-as-a-black-chef\">change the industry\u003c/a>,” Dotse says. “On top of that, I wasn’t being paid properly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The whole experience left such a bad taste in Dotse’s mouth that they’ve sworn off full-time restaurant gigs for the time being. Instead, they’re taking time to focus on their own pop-up business, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elade_tk/?hl=en\">e le aɖe Test Kitchen,\u003c/a> through which they collaborate with like-minded chefs who share an interest in using “elevated,” Michelin-level techniques to showcase Black and African foods, flavors and stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dotse’s next event is a reprise of one of their most successful pop-ups so far: a collaboration with \u003ca href=\"https://cafecolucci.com/\">Cafe Colucci\u003c/a>, which was a stalwart of Telegraph Avenue’s bustling stretch of Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants before it moved to its \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/The-secret-behind-one-of-the-Bay-Area-s-best-17596172.php\">new North Oakland location\u003c/a> last year. Dotse, who is of Ghanaian heritage, says they never really ate Ethiopian food before moving to the Bay Area, but that they’d been tinkering with dishes that incorporated berbere from Colucci’s affiliated spice business, \u003ca href=\"https://www.brundo.com/\">Brundo Spice Company\u003c/a>. So, when the restaurant offered the chef free use of their kitchen and back patio, with the only caveat being that the pop-up had to showcase Brundo’s spices, it was a no-brainer. “It’s hard finding a space that isn’t going to take most of my profit,” Dotse says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938513\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938513\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-a%C9%96e-x-Brundo-dinner-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Diners seated at a long outdoor table enjoy a meal while sitting under festive string lights.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dotse’s September event at Cafe Colucci was one of the chef’s most successful pop-ups. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of e le aɖe Test Kitchen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Dotse, the first edition of the Cafe Colucci pop-up, in September, was such a rousing success that they hope to continue them on a regular basis. Because the dinners are small and intimate — everyone seated around one long table — they expect the \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/e-le-ade-test-kitchen/event/442849/e-le-ae-test-kitchen-x-brundo-ethiopian-spice-co\">next one\u003c/a>, on Dec. 17, to sell out in the next few days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Bay Area eaters who are used to restaurants that tend to flatten “African food” into a single, monolithic cuisine, the pop-up will provide an exciting exploration of diasporic flavors. For instance, at the first pop-up, Dotse served a take on Ethiopian kitfo–style beef tartare that was seasoned with the suya spices typically used for West African grilled meats instead of the traditional berbere. As a play on asa tibs, the Ethiopian fried fish dish, Dotse created a kind of fish taco, which they topped with a Ghanaian dried-shrimp chili condiment called shito — or “XO meets chili crunch,” as they describe it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some dishes that you can tell are Ethiopian, some Ghanaian and some that are a combination of the two,” Dotse says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>December’s Ghanaian-Ethiopian pop-up will feature mostly new dishes, including sambusas filled with berbere-spiced short ribs, and a variation on doro wat, the classic Ethiopian stewed chicken, made with roasted quail and soft-cooked quail eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938514\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2.jpg\" alt='A fried fish \"taco\" served on injera lined with a shiso leaf.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The asa tibs fish “taco” consisted of fried fish served on injera lined with shiso. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of e le aɖe Test Kitchen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Cafe Colucci will provide an optional wine pairing for the meal, as well as an a la carte beverage selection that focuses on local Black winemakers such as \u003ca href=\"https://wachirawines.com/pages/our-story\">Chris Wachira\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcbridesisters.com/\">McBride sisters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13914092,arts_13905230,arts_13917165']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>Dotse, for their part, says they do want to open a restaurant of their own eventually, but of course the road toward that goal is not an easy one — especially in a region as expensive and challenging for small business owners as the Bay Area. And Dotse acknowledges that the restaurant model that they want to create — a cooperative space that treats the employees’ well-being, not the customers’, as its top priority — may not be the most popular with investors. For now, the pop-ups are a way for them to put some of these ideas into practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bay Area restaurants, a lot of them say they want to change, but I haven’t really seen it,” Dotse says. “I decided to try to create this change that I’ve been trying to see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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/elade_tk/?hl=en\">\u003ci>E le aɖe Test Kitchen\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>’s next pop-up at Cafe Colucci (5849 San Pablo Ave., Oakland) takes place on Sunday, Dec. 17, from 6–9 p.m. A limited number of tickets ($150) for the eight-course dinner are available on \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/e-le-ade-test-kitchen/event/442849/e-le-ae-test-kitchen-x-brundo-ethiopian-spice-co\">\u003ci>Tock\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Selasie Dotse teams up with Cafe Colucci to give East African spices a fine dining flourish.",
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"title": "A New Oakland Pop-Up Fuses Ethiopian and Ghanaian Cuisines | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It has been a tumultuous year for Selasie Dotse. As one of just a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13914092/ghana-pop-up-elade-test-kitchen-selasie-dotse-sf\">handful of prominent Black fine dining chefs in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, they’d been stoked to start a job at Hi Felicia, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2022/4/5/23011862/hi-felicia-new-restaurant-oakland-open-imana-fine-dining\">the new darling of Oakland’s upscale restaurant scene\u003c/a>. It was the first time Dotse had worked under a Black chef-owner, and the first time they were part of a team whose explicit goal was to shake up the exceedingly white, exclusionary world of longform tasting menus. And for a while, at least, the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/08/30/underground-oakland-supper-club-hi-felicia-isnt-afraid-of-the-spotlight/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6vaqBhCbARIsACF9M6nWBHzKZtD6bmd4EMvPpdbRRnE_E2hcUZPU-eYb_j1FXiSRcFER3GsaAlJMEALw_wcB\">plaudits\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/story/instagram-supper-club\">came\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/wildly-popular-fine-dining-pop-up-hi-felicia-has-16528202.php\">pouring\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/article/dining-out/california-new-additions-michelin-2022\">in\u003c/a> — until the restaurant imploded amid charges of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/hi-felicia-oakland-18129975.php\">sexual harassment\u003c/a>, a toxic work environment and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/hi-felicia-service-charge-18450080.php\">wage theft\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I once again realized that I was working for someone who didn’t share the same values and ideas about wanting to \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21372187/bay-area-fine-dining-restaurants-racism-as-a-black-chef\">change the industry\u003c/a>,” Dotse says. “On top of that, I wasn’t being paid properly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The whole experience left such a bad taste in Dotse’s mouth that they’ve sworn off full-time restaurant gigs for the time being. Instead, they’re taking time to focus on their own pop-up business, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elade_tk/?hl=en\">e le aɖe Test Kitchen,\u003c/a> through which they collaborate with like-minded chefs who share an interest in using “elevated,” Michelin-level techniques to showcase Black and African foods, flavors and stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dotse’s next event is a reprise of one of their most successful pop-ups so far: a collaboration with \u003ca href=\"https://cafecolucci.com/\">Cafe Colucci\u003c/a>, which was a stalwart of Telegraph Avenue’s bustling stretch of Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants before it moved to its \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/The-secret-behind-one-of-the-Bay-Area-s-best-17596172.php\">new North Oakland location\u003c/a> last year. Dotse, who is of Ghanaian heritage, says they never really ate Ethiopian food before moving to the Bay Area, but that they’d been tinkering with dishes that incorporated berbere from Colucci’s affiliated spice business, \u003ca href=\"https://www.brundo.com/\">Brundo Spice Company\u003c/a>. So, when the restaurant offered the chef free use of their kitchen and back patio, with the only caveat being that the pop-up had to showcase Brundo’s spices, it was a no-brainer. “It’s hard finding a space that isn’t going to take most of my profit,” Dotse says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938513\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938513\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-a%C9%96e-x-Brundo-dinner-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Diners seated at a long outdoor table enjoy a meal while sitting under festive string lights.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/e-le-aɖe-x-Brundo-dinner-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dotse’s September event at Cafe Colucci was one of the chef’s most successful pop-ups. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of e le aɖe Test Kitchen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Dotse, the first edition of the Cafe Colucci pop-up, in September, was such a rousing success that they hope to continue them on a regular basis. Because the dinners are small and intimate — everyone seated around one long table — they expect the \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/e-le-ade-test-kitchen/event/442849/e-le-ae-test-kitchen-x-brundo-ethiopian-spice-co\">next one\u003c/a>, on Dec. 17, to sell out in the next few days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Bay Area eaters who are used to restaurants that tend to flatten “African food” into a single, monolithic cuisine, the pop-up will provide an exciting exploration of diasporic flavors. For instance, at the first pop-up, Dotse served a take on Ethiopian kitfo–style beef tartare that was seasoned with the suya spices typically used for West African grilled meats instead of the traditional berbere. As a play on asa tibs, the Ethiopian fried fish dish, Dotse created a kind of fish taco, which they topped with a Ghanaian dried-shrimp chili condiment called shito — or “XO meets chili crunch,” as they describe it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some dishes that you can tell are Ethiopian, some Ghanaian and some that are a combination of the two,” Dotse says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>December’s Ghanaian-Ethiopian pop-up will feature mostly new dishes, including sambusas filled with berbere-spiced short ribs, and a variation on doro wat, the classic Ethiopian stewed chicken, made with roasted quail and soft-cooked quail eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938514\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2.jpg\" alt='A fried fish \"taco\" served on injera lined with a shiso leaf.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Asa-Tibs-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The asa tibs fish “taco” consisted of fried fish served on injera lined with shiso. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of e le aɖe Test Kitchen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Cafe Colucci will provide an optional wine pairing for the meal, as well as an a la carte beverage selection that focuses on local Black winemakers such as \u003ca href=\"https://wachirawines.com/pages/our-story\">Chris Wachira\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcbridesisters.com/\">McBride sisters\u003c/a>.\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>Dotse, for their part, says they do want to open a restaurant of their own eventually, but of course the road toward that goal is not an easy one — especially in a region as expensive and challenging for small business owners as the Bay Area. And Dotse acknowledges that the restaurant model that they want to create — a cooperative space that treats the employees’ well-being, not the customers’, as its top priority — may not be the most popular with investors. For now, the pop-ups are a way for them to put some of these ideas into practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bay Area restaurants, a lot of them say they want to change, but I haven’t really seen it,” Dotse says. “I decided to try to create this change that I’ve been trying to see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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/elade_tk/?hl=en\">\u003ci>E le aɖe Test Kitchen\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>’s next pop-up at Cafe Colucci (5849 San Pablo Ave., Oakland) takes place on Sunday, Dec. 17, from 6–9 p.m. A limited number of tickets ($150) for the eight-course dinner are available on \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/e-le-ade-test-kitchen/event/442849/e-le-ae-test-kitchen-x-brundo-ethiopian-spice-co\">\u003ci>Tock\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How Social Media Is Fueling a New Era of 'Latinextravagant' Restaurants",
"headTitle": "How Social Media Is Fueling a New Era of ‘Latinextravagant’ Restaurants | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]C[/dropcap]apturing the enormity of Latinidad is impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our diasporas are simply too sprawling and unwieldy. We are too bass-thumping. Too slippery. Too regionally layered and linguistically varied. Too contradictory, too bombastic, too fragmented, too migratory. Sometimes too nepotistic. Perhaps too open-hearted? We definitely resist simple definitions. (We can’t even internally agree on whether we call ourselves Latino, Latina, Latinx, Latine or, my personal favorite, Latin@).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I love us for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It makes sense, then, that our foods, which are equally hyphenated, uncategorizable and epic, push against the borders of tradition. Indeed, our culinary offerings are as sprawling and bold as our own communities are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picture a restaurant in Hayward that serves pupusas with the circumference of a pizza. Or, at a Dublin taqueria, a ridiculously gigantic bowl of phở birria next to a cake-sized pan dulce French toast that’ll feed an entire family. Down in San Jose, you can grub on generously-loaded baked potatoes topped with sour cream, jalapeños and al pastor. And in Richmond, when all else fails, there’s always the amalgam of Hot Cheetos on this and Doritos on that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936289\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936289\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large pupusa cooking on a griddle is flipped using a pizza peel.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flipping one of Las Cabañas’ oversized pupusas on the griddle. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the words of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/el_tragon_de_LA?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">L.A. Taco’s Memo Torres\u003c/a>, a journalist who often goes viral for showcasing imaginative Latinx meals, including both the \u003ca href=\"https://lataco.com/tiny-tamales-street-vendor\">tiniest\u003c/a> \u003cem>and\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://lataco.com/biggest-tamales-torrance-los-angeles\">largest\u003c/a> tamales in L.A.: “Latinos can be extra flamboyant.” It’s true. When it comes to cooking and eating, we tend to possess a Super Saiyan level of confidence. It’s a state of being that I’ve taken to calling “Latinextravagant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lifestyle doesn’t come without its flaws: cycles of dietary miseducation, questionable spending habits and social media vulturing. Certainly, the widespread influence of platforms like Instagram and TikTok has warped the foodscape, with businesses adjusting their models to meet the algorithm’s demands. But combining intergenerational family knowledge with internet trends is a major part of how today’s food businesses are able to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And no one seems to be doing it with as much out-of-pocket razzle dazzle as Latinx food entrepreneurs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Pupusas the Size of a Pizza\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Perhaps no other eatery in the East Bay delivers a more Latinextravagant experience than Hayward’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pupuseria_las_cabanas/\">Pupuseria Las Cabañas\u003c/a>. A Salvadoran sit-down with a full bar, Las Cabañas is best known for its pizza-sized pupusas and dizzying selection of margaritas. When I went on a weekend after 10 p.m., lines snaked out the door. It felt like I was stepping into a family celebration, with abuelos cracking jokes beside sleeping infants while college-aged friends buzzed around.[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]‘Our foods, which are equally hyphenated, uncategorizable and epic, push against the borders of tradition.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las Cabañas encapsulates the ways in which family legacy, comfort food, social media clout and intergenerational evolution intersect to create something uniquely appealing to modern eaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does that look like? A plate of gargantuan pupusas locas. The dish hails from El Salvador, where larger-than-average pupusas have been cooked up for eons. But for owner Frankie Martinez, it’s about taking it over the top.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936288\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936288\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with a goatee looks at the camera and leans against a wall inside a restaurant.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pupuseria Las Cabańas owner Frankie Martinez poses for a portrait at his Hayward restaurant. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To make the pupusa loca, a giant lump of masa — which weighs several pounds and resembles a small medicine ball — gets flattened into something like pizza dough, then kneaded and knuckled into a girthy disc that gets filled with cheese and refried beans. The process to make a single pupusa loca takes roughly 10 minutes inside a narrow, scorching-hot kitchen. It’s finally plated with an optional birria topping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the somewhat gimmicky nature of the dish, there is an emphasis on made-from-scratch ingredients, giving the final product a fire-kissed freshness that can hold its own against pupusas of any diameter. Social media has played a role, too, in helping to increase the local pupuseria’s mojo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never knew how much [social media] would impact our sales,” Martinez says. “I had to hire a lot more people, put more systems in place. It’s not just our regular customers anymore, we get people who don’t even know what a pupusa is, so we’ve had to train our workers on how to even explain it. People are coming and just showing us something they saw on their phones and telling us that’s what they want. They’re not even looking at our menus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936294\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936294\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The interior of a restaurant with several tables full of customers.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant is known for its festive, party-like atmosphere. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Martinez, the pupusa loca is so large that he only knows of one patron who has single-mouthedly finished it. The rest? They order it, take a selfie, attempt a few bites, then box it up to go — in an actual pizza box. (I shamefully admit my wife and I only ate about half, but we tried, damn it.) Martinez is aware that the spectacle and presentation of his food is just as important as the quality. It’s all part of his strategy. And it’s working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody is on TikTok and Instagram,” says Cesar Arroyo, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ieatcalifornia/\">a Bay Area food influencer\u003c/a> and Gen-Z immigrant from Mexico who went from working construction to consulting for restaurant owners like Martinez to promote brand growth. “Simple videos can go viral and save a whole business. It can sometimes be too much, to be honest with you. But you want to bring in a crowd. You want people to take a picture with something big. It’s exposure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While at Las Cabañas, you’ll also want to also check out their pupusa bombs — deep fried bolitas of masa stuffed with cheese, frijoles and, if you so desire, birria (what else?). They’re equally photogenic, with fun cheese pulls and gooey insides dripping out of the spherical pupusa shell. And if you’re feeling especially Latinextravagant, you can add an order of “Angelita’s Margarita.” Named after Martinez’s mother, the drink is an endearing tribute to the original “hustler” who first opened Las Cabañas in 2004. After she passed from an illness in 2015, Martinez has carried on his mother’s recipes but with a modernized, Instagram-friendly twist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936292\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936292\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A fork and knife cut into a filled fried-looking ball.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cutting into the oozy, cheesy interior of a pupusa bomb. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exposure has undoubtedly been good for Martinez’s family-owned business. He confirms a boost in clientele since he introduced the mammoth birria pupusas in 2018 that has been unlike anything previously seen in the restaurant’s multi-decade existence. This summer, numerous Bay Area food influencers — including Arroyo, whose IEatCalifornia account on Instagram has over 41,000 followers — have posted about the giant pupusa, which has led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/bay-area-pupuseria-las-cabanas-giant-pupusa-18362742.php\">mainstream news outlets\u003c/a> catching on. I personally found out about the pupuseria when a friend DMed me a viral video of the pupusa loca earlier this year. Despite living in Hayward for years, I hadn’t known about Las Cabañas prior to seeing it on social media. [pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Cesar Arroyo\"]‘You want to bring in a crowd. You want people to take a picture with something big.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We started doing more social media, especially in 2020 when the pandemic happened,” Martinez says. “When my mom was around, she was skeptical of it. She wanted us to do TV commercials. But I told her people don’t watch those as much anymore. I know she would be proud of where the restaurant is today and she would understand and support it. She’d be like ‘What are you doing now, aye mijo? Que no son bayuncadas.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>L.A. Taco’s Torres has noticed similar social media trends in Southern California, where many of the nation’s Latinx food trends — including \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria\u003c/a> — originally took off. “[Social media] is a way for people to empower their business in their own style. Any chef who wants to be out of pocket can [do so].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@thesnacksensei/video/7284136103475481902\" data-video-id=\"7284136103475481902\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@thesnacksensei\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@thesnacksensei?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@thesnacksensei\u003c/a> The Biggest Pupusas In The Bay Area! 📍 Pupuseria Las Cabanas In Hayward CA 🔥 \u003ca title=\"pupusas\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/pupusas?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#pupusas\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"pupuseria\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/pupuseria?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#pupuseria\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"bayarea\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayarea?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#bayarea\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ Wild Thing (Re-Recorded) - Tone-Loc\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/Wild-Thing-Re-Recorded-6717747275818387458?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">♬ Wild Thing (Re-Recorded) – Tone-Loc\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[tiktok]\u003cbr>\nHowever, it’s a flawed system — one that fosters a certain kind of gatekeeping, fetishization and even exploitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vultures of IG and TikTok, like anything, have a downside,” Torres continues. “With millions of followers, [some food influencers] charge $800 to $1,000 for an hour. That’s capitalism right there. I know a lot of influencers who invite me to eat with them, and their rates with vendors are fucking outrageous. But yeah, it’s catchy, to get on the map, to get attention. Especially for small vendors. Social media is where they can get their publicity for cheaper, even if influencers are charging an arm and an ass for content.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez hasn’t shied away from that approach, though, leveraging the Instagram-driven birria craze through popular food personalities like San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thesnacksensei/?hl=en\">Snack Sensei\u003c/a> to further blow up. The dynamic is complicated, as the social media buzz that comes with a made-for-glam dish like the pupusa loca is one of the easiest ways hard-working restaurateurs like Martinez can make their business stand out in a culinary landscape saturated with over-hyped content. It highlights this current generation of foodmakers’ larger struggles to present their cultural foods to a wider audience — foods that, in many cases, were simply overlooked in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938219\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938219\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A female line cook uses a spatula to lift a giant pupusa onto a plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Irma Morales, a cook at Las Cabañas, places a finished pupusa onto a plate. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A Cultural Marriage of Birria and Phở\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In one of Dublin’s sleepiest, least glamorous strip malls, you’ll find what may be the most underappreciated fusion eatery in our region: \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/taqueriaaztecadublinca/\">Taqueria Azteca\u003c/a>. Acquired in 1998 by Luong “Lu” Dang, a Vietnamese war refugee who arrived in the East Bay in the ‘70s, the shop has maintained its down-to-earth, homely Mexican vibes from previous ownership, while loudly introducing some of Dang’s zanier combinations, like Bochata (boba + horchata) and birria-filled bao.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azteca is the proud home of quesabirria grilled cheese sandwiches and — my wife’s favorite — pan dulce French toast. Served on a massive, custom-made concha from \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/JuanitaMarketTracy/\">Juanita Market #4 in Tracy\u003c/a>, the dense, pink beauty is buttered up and prepared like any other French toast, with an optional tray of ham and eggs on the side. To be mega-clear, this pan dulce has the acreage of a cake, with a heft that can only be described as intimidating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937819\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937819\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549.jpg\" alt=\"a tray of pink pan dulce french toast is topped with strawberries and served with a hefty side of eggs and ham\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taqueria Azteca’s pan dulce French toast is topped with strawberries and served with a hefty side of eggs and ham on a cafeteria-sized tray. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the restaurant’s flagship item is its bone-in birria phở — an eye-popping amount of noodles swimming around in consommé broth, with a “dinosaur bone” of meat casually laid on top. For the average eater, it more than suffices as lunch and dinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Years ago, I didn’t have the nuts to do this,” Dang says. “But the Bay Area has a huge Vietnamese and Latino community, so everyone loves to see it. At first we were all clumsy with it, but we found our rhythm and are learning how to do it properly. Ask the [Latino] cooks here what they eat. They’re the ones making stuff that’s personal to them, and we each add our own touches. We eat our own food every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Dang’s case, it’s not so much about pushing forward a family tradition as it is about fusing immigrant experiences. Married to Estefany Garcia, an immigrant from Michoacán, Dang has extensively toured various pueblos around Mexico, listing off dishes that even I — the son of Mexicans whose own mother lives in Veracruz — didn’t recognize, including corundas, uchepos and morisquetas. Together, Dang and Garcia are organically uniting their cultures through a genuine, love-bound exploration of their own brand of Latinextravagant cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937818\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937818\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541.jpg\" alt=\"a bone-in slab of Mexican birria is served in a giant bowl of Vietnamese pho\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Dublin, a bone-in slab of Mexican birria is served in a giant bowl of Vietnamese phở. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It allows us to open up our kitchen in ways that are both traditional and non-traditional,” he says. “We’re always blending. At home, she might cook phở, and then she’ll make tinga and we’ll mix it. I added birria to bao, as well. The bao bun is a very different texture [from tortillas]. It’s soft and chewy and crispy, inside and out. It’s fun and easy to share. And it’s so damn good to eat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The internet has played a major role for Lu and Garcia’s concoctions, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Social media] is a communication channel unlike before,” says Lu. “I used to do TV and radio in the 2000s, and it was completely hit or miss. For small businesses like us, we can’t afford that. With Instagram, it levels the playing field. We eat with our eyes first. Something that we can do to grab your attention is to make it over-the-top.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@bayareafoodz/video/7293918581539048734\" data-video-id=\"7293918581539048734\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@bayareafoodz\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@bayareafoodz?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@bayareafoodz\u003c/a> Check out this Big ass taco i got from @taqueriaaztecadublin its get no better than this \u003ca title=\"bayarea\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayarea?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#bayarea\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"tacos\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tacos?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#tacos\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"tacostuesday\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tacostuesday?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#tacostuesday\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"bayareafoodz\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayareafoodz?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#bayareafoodz\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - Bayareafoodz\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7293918667434773279?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">♬ original sound – Bayareafoodz\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[tiktok]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a small, otherwise modest eatery where Latino construction workers, white suburban moms and Asian elders mingle, Azteca is among the most unexpectedly “epic” dining experiences I’ve found in the Bay. Lu is extremely passionate about keeping Azteca’s foods playful and inviting — a major element of Mexican food that attracted him when he first came to it as an outsider. It’s something that Latinextravagant foods tend to do: They compel others to join in and share.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Beyond the Big Dishes\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s not always about dishing out the largest super-sized taco on the block. It’s also about paying homage in smaller, but equally creative, ways. After all, there’s a reason antojitos locos (or “crazy snacks”) have also gone viral throughout Mexico and Central America, and have now reached the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent favorite of mine is the Tostielote, an open-faced bag of Tostitos buried under esquites, parmesan cheese, sour cream, butter and mayonnaise. I recommend the version at \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_ptbtSSyQ\">Junior’s Roaster\u003c/a>, a food truck located in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957907/this-is-our-city-san-joses-berryessa-flea-market-vendors-fight-to-stay\">the San José Flea Market\u003c/a>. There, you’ll encounter an old-school roasting machine that is used to prepare elotes, esquites and papas horneadas (baked potatoes). You can add any mix of meats (carne asada, al pastor, pollo asado), junk food (Flamin’ Hots, Ruffles, Takis) and hot sauces for a customized perfection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914234\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914234\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A foil-wrapped burrito and a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos on red and white checkered butcher paper.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Flamin’ Hot Cheeto burrito is by far the most popular item at Taqueria El Mezcal, which has locations in San Pablo, Hayward and San Lorenzo. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elmezcalsanpablo/\">Taqueria El Mezcal\u003c/a>, a humble local chain with three locations scattered throughout the East Bay, is known for its fiery, snack-inspired dishes. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913985/hot-cheeto-burrito-taqueria-el-mezcal-richard-montanez-san-pablo\">Officially recognized by Chester Cheetah for its Hot Cheetos burrito\u003c/a>, the restaurant unveiled a new botana-inspired masterpiece this summer: the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/alan_chazaro/status/1696339131289203181\">Doritos chilaquiles burrito\u003c/a>. It includes a bag’s worth of spicy nacho Doritos, refried beans, three fried eggs, crema, guacamole and your choice of meat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13931115,arts_13920483,arts_13913985']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>None of these Latinextravagant foods are exactly calorie-conscious. And for the most part, that’s okay: The restaurants themselves wouldn’t suggest that customers eat this stuff every day, and they aren’t necessarily challenging anyone to take down a giant burrito or pupusa on their own, either. The super-sized dishes are meant to be novelty foods — a memorable experience rather than your daily source of sustenance. And in many cases, immigrant foodmakers are simply tailoring their menus in response to their TikTok and Instagram numbers, even bantering and discussing ideas with commenters in the reply sections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a recipe that has, at least so far, proven itself successful for the times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s mostly a marketing thing, but [Latinx businesses] do really think out of the box,” Arroyo, the influencer, says. “Some people don’t like it, but I believe in food bringing people together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When done well, the Latinextravagant approach to food attracts more people to the table than ever. At our core, Latinx diasporas are simply too big to be boxed in, and our foods could never fit inside any one nation’s stomach. But still, we try our best to share it with everyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938220\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938220\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Rubber gloved hand sprinkles chopped cilantro onto an oversized pupusa topped the meat.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The finishing touch: sprinkling chopped onions and cilantro onto a giant — and truly Latinextravagant — pupusa. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pupuseria_las_cabanas/\">Pupuseria Las Cabañas\u003c/a> is located at 30030 Mission Blvd. in Hayward. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/taqueriaaztecadublinca/\">Taqueria Azteca\u003c/a> is located at 7155 Amador Plaza Rd. in Dublin.\u003c/em>\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\">C\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>apturing the enormity of Latinidad is impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our diasporas are simply too sprawling and unwieldy. We are too bass-thumping. Too slippery. Too regionally layered and linguistically varied. Too contradictory, too bombastic, too fragmented, too migratory. Sometimes too nepotistic. Perhaps too open-hearted? We definitely resist simple definitions. (We can’t even internally agree on whether we call ourselves Latino, Latina, Latinx, Latine or, my personal favorite, Latin@).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I love us for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It makes sense, then, that our foods, which are equally hyphenated, uncategorizable and epic, push against the borders of tradition. Indeed, our culinary offerings are as sprawling and bold as our own communities are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picture a restaurant in Hayward that serves pupusas with the circumference of a pizza. Or, at a Dublin taqueria, a ridiculously gigantic bowl of phở birria next to a cake-sized pan dulce French toast that’ll feed an entire family. Down in San Jose, you can grub on generously-loaded baked potatoes topped with sour cream, jalapeños and al pastor. And in Richmond, when all else fails, there’s always the amalgam of Hot Cheetos on this and Doritos on that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936289\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936289\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large pupusa cooking on a griddle is flipped using a pizza peel.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-013-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flipping one of Las Cabañas’ oversized pupusas on the griddle. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the words of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/el_tragon_de_LA?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">L.A. Taco’s Memo Torres\u003c/a>, a journalist who often goes viral for showcasing imaginative Latinx meals, including both the \u003ca href=\"https://lataco.com/tiny-tamales-street-vendor\">tiniest\u003c/a> \u003cem>and\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://lataco.com/biggest-tamales-torrance-los-angeles\">largest\u003c/a> tamales in L.A.: “Latinos can be extra flamboyant.” It’s true. When it comes to cooking and eating, we tend to possess a Super Saiyan level of confidence. It’s a state of being that I’ve taken to calling “Latinextravagant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lifestyle doesn’t come without its flaws: cycles of dietary miseducation, questionable spending habits and social media vulturing. Certainly, the widespread influence of platforms like Instagram and TikTok has warped the foodscape, with businesses adjusting their models to meet the algorithm’s demands. But combining intergenerational family knowledge with internet trends is a major part of how today’s food businesses are able to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And no one seems to be doing it with as much out-of-pocket razzle dazzle as Latinx food entrepreneurs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Pupusas the Size of a Pizza\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Perhaps no other eatery in the East Bay delivers a more Latinextravagant experience than Hayward’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pupuseria_las_cabanas/\">Pupuseria Las Cabañas\u003c/a>. A Salvadoran sit-down with a full bar, Las Cabañas is best known for its pizza-sized pupusas and dizzying selection of margaritas. When I went on a weekend after 10 p.m., lines snaked out the door. It felt like I was stepping into a family celebration, with abuelos cracking jokes beside sleeping infants while college-aged friends buzzed around.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las Cabañas encapsulates the ways in which family legacy, comfort food, social media clout and intergenerational evolution intersect to create something uniquely appealing to modern eaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does that look like? A plate of gargantuan pupusas locas. The dish hails from El Salvador, where larger-than-average pupusas have been cooked up for eons. But for owner Frankie Martinez, it’s about taking it over the top.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936288\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936288\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with a goatee looks at the camera and leans against a wall inside a restaurant.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-004-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pupuseria Las Cabańas owner Frankie Martinez poses for a portrait at his Hayward restaurant. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To make the pupusa loca, a giant lump of masa — which weighs several pounds and resembles a small medicine ball — gets flattened into something like pizza dough, then kneaded and knuckled into a girthy disc that gets filled with cheese and refried beans. The process to make a single pupusa loca takes roughly 10 minutes inside a narrow, scorching-hot kitchen. It’s finally plated with an optional birria topping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the somewhat gimmicky nature of the dish, there is an emphasis on made-from-scratch ingredients, giving the final product a fire-kissed freshness that can hold its own against pupusas of any diameter. Social media has played a role, too, in helping to increase the local pupuseria’s mojo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never knew how much [social media] would impact our sales,” Martinez says. “I had to hire a lot more people, put more systems in place. It’s not just our regular customers anymore, we get people who don’t even know what a pupusa is, so we’ve had to train our workers on how to even explain it. People are coming and just showing us something they saw on their phones and telling us that’s what they want. They’re not even looking at our menus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936294\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936294\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The interior of a restaurant with several tables full of customers.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-033-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant is known for its festive, party-like atmosphere. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Martinez, the pupusa loca is so large that he only knows of one patron who has single-mouthedly finished it. The rest? They order it, take a selfie, attempt a few bites, then box it up to go — in an actual pizza box. (I shamefully admit my wife and I only ate about half, but we tried, damn it.) Martinez is aware that the spectacle and presentation of his food is just as important as the quality. It’s all part of his strategy. And it’s working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody is on TikTok and Instagram,” says Cesar Arroyo, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ieatcalifornia/\">a Bay Area food influencer\u003c/a> and Gen-Z immigrant from Mexico who went from working construction to consulting for restaurant owners like Martinez to promote brand growth. “Simple videos can go viral and save a whole business. It can sometimes be too much, to be honest with you. But you want to bring in a crowd. You want people to take a picture with something big. It’s exposure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While at Las Cabañas, you’ll also want to also check out their pupusa bombs — deep fried bolitas of masa stuffed with cheese, frijoles and, if you so desire, birria (what else?). They’re equally photogenic, with fun cheese pulls and gooey insides dripping out of the spherical pupusa shell. And if you’re feeling especially Latinextravagant, you can add an order of “Angelita’s Margarita.” Named after Martinez’s mother, the drink is an endearing tribute to the original “hustler” who first opened Las Cabañas in 2004. After she passed from an illness in 2015, Martinez has carried on his mother’s recipes but with a modernized, Instagram-friendly twist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936292\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936292\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A fork and knife cut into a filled fried-looking ball.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-029-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cutting into the oozy, cheesy interior of a pupusa bomb. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exposure has undoubtedly been good for Martinez’s family-owned business. He confirms a boost in clientele since he introduced the mammoth birria pupusas in 2018 that has been unlike anything previously seen in the restaurant’s multi-decade existence. This summer, numerous Bay Area food influencers — including Arroyo, whose IEatCalifornia account on Instagram has over 41,000 followers — have posted about the giant pupusa, which has led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/bay-area-pupuseria-las-cabanas-giant-pupusa-18362742.php\">mainstream news outlets\u003c/a> catching on. I personally found out about the pupuseria when a friend DMed me a viral video of the pupusa loca earlier this year. Despite living in Hayward for years, I hadn’t known about Las Cabañas prior to seeing it on social media. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We started doing more social media, especially in 2020 when the pandemic happened,” Martinez says. “When my mom was around, she was skeptical of it. She wanted us to do TV commercials. But I told her people don’t watch those as much anymore. I know she would be proud of where the restaurant is today and she would understand and support it. She’d be like ‘What are you doing now, aye mijo? Que no son bayuncadas.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>L.A. Taco’s Torres has noticed similar social media trends in Southern California, where many of the nation’s Latinx food trends — including \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria\u003c/a> — originally took off. “[Social media] is a way for people to empower their business in their own style. Any chef who wants to be out of pocket can [do so].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@thesnacksensei/video/7284136103475481902\" data-video-id=\"7284136103475481902\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@thesnacksensei\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@thesnacksensei?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@thesnacksensei\u003c/a> The Biggest Pupusas In The Bay Area! 📍 Pupuseria Las Cabanas In Hayward CA 🔥 \u003ca title=\"pupusas\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/pupusas?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#pupusas\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"pupuseria\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/pupuseria?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#pupuseria\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"bayarea\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayarea?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#bayarea\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ Wild Thing (Re-Recorded) - Tone-Loc\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/Wild-Thing-Re-Recorded-6717747275818387458?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">♬ Wild Thing (Re-Recorded) – Tone-Loc\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nHowever, it’s a flawed system — one that fosters a certain kind of gatekeeping, fetishization and even exploitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vultures of IG and TikTok, like anything, have a downside,” Torres continues. “With millions of followers, [some food influencers] charge $800 to $1,000 for an hour. That’s capitalism right there. I know a lot of influencers who invite me to eat with them, and their rates with vendors are fucking outrageous. But yeah, it’s catchy, to get on the map, to get attention. Especially for small vendors. Social media is where they can get their publicity for cheaper, even if influencers are charging an arm and an ass for content.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez hasn’t shied away from that approach, though, leveraging the Instagram-driven birria craze through popular food personalities like San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thesnacksensei/?hl=en\">Snack Sensei\u003c/a> to further blow up. The dynamic is complicated, as the social media buzz that comes with a made-for-glam dish like the pupusa loca is one of the easiest ways hard-working restaurateurs like Martinez can make their business stand out in a culinary landscape saturated with over-hyped content. It highlights this current generation of foodmakers’ larger struggles to present their cultural foods to a wider audience — foods that, in many cases, were simply overlooked in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938219\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938219\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A female line cook uses a spatula to lift a giant pupusa onto a plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-018-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Irma Morales, a cook at Las Cabañas, places a finished pupusa onto a plate. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A Cultural Marriage of Birria and Phở\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In one of Dublin’s sleepiest, least glamorous strip malls, you’ll find what may be the most underappreciated fusion eatery in our region: \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/taqueriaaztecadublinca/\">Taqueria Azteca\u003c/a>. Acquired in 1998 by Luong “Lu” Dang, a Vietnamese war refugee who arrived in the East Bay in the ‘70s, the shop has maintained its down-to-earth, homely Mexican vibes from previous ownership, while loudly introducing some of Dang’s zanier combinations, like Bochata (boba + horchata) and birria-filled bao.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azteca is the proud home of quesabirria grilled cheese sandwiches and — my wife’s favorite — pan dulce French toast. Served on a massive, custom-made concha from \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/JuanitaMarketTracy/\">Juanita Market #4 in Tracy\u003c/a>, the dense, pink beauty is buttered up and prepared like any other French toast, with an optional tray of ham and eggs on the side. To be mega-clear, this pan dulce has the acreage of a cake, with a heft that can only be described as intimidating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937819\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937819\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549.jpg\" alt=\"a tray of pink pan dulce french toast is topped with strawberries and served with a hefty side of eggs and ham\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5549-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taqueria Azteca’s pan dulce French toast is topped with strawberries and served with a hefty side of eggs and ham on a cafeteria-sized tray. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the restaurant’s flagship item is its bone-in birria phở — an eye-popping amount of noodles swimming around in consommé broth, with a “dinosaur bone” of meat casually laid on top. For the average eater, it more than suffices as lunch and dinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Years ago, I didn’t have the nuts to do this,” Dang says. “But the Bay Area has a huge Vietnamese and Latino community, so everyone loves to see it. At first we were all clumsy with it, but we found our rhythm and are learning how to do it properly. Ask the [Latino] cooks here what they eat. They’re the ones making stuff that’s personal to them, and we each add our own touches. We eat our own food every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Dang’s case, it’s not so much about pushing forward a family tradition as it is about fusing immigrant experiences. Married to Estefany Garcia, an immigrant from Michoacán, Dang has extensively toured various pueblos around Mexico, listing off dishes that even I — the son of Mexicans whose own mother lives in Veracruz — didn’t recognize, including corundas, uchepos and morisquetas. Together, Dang and Garcia are organically uniting their cultures through a genuine, love-bound exploration of their own brand of Latinextravagant cuisine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937818\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937818\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541.jpg\" alt=\"a bone-in slab of Mexican birria is served in a giant bowl of Vietnamese pho\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/IMG_5541-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Dublin, a bone-in slab of Mexican birria is served in a giant bowl of Vietnamese phở. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It allows us to open up our kitchen in ways that are both traditional and non-traditional,” he says. “We’re always blending. At home, she might cook phở, and then she’ll make tinga and we’ll mix it. I added birria to bao, as well. The bao bun is a very different texture [from tortillas]. It’s soft and chewy and crispy, inside and out. It’s fun and easy to share. And it’s so damn good to eat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The internet has played a major role for Lu and Garcia’s concoctions, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Social media] is a communication channel unlike before,” says Lu. “I used to do TV and radio in the 2000s, and it was completely hit or miss. For small businesses like us, we can’t afford that. With Instagram, it levels the playing field. We eat with our eyes first. Something that we can do to grab your attention is to make it over-the-top.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@bayareafoodz/video/7293918581539048734\" data-video-id=\"7293918581539048734\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@bayareafoodz\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@bayareafoodz?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@bayareafoodz\u003c/a> Check out this Big ass taco i got from @taqueriaaztecadublin its get no better than this \u003ca title=\"bayarea\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayarea?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#bayarea\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"tacos\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tacos?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#tacos\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"tacostuesday\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tacostuesday?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#tacostuesday\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"bayareafoodz\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bayareafoodz?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#bayareafoodz\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - Bayareafoodz\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7293918667434773279?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">♬ original sound – Bayareafoodz\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a small, otherwise modest eatery where Latino construction workers, white suburban moms and Asian elders mingle, Azteca is among the most unexpectedly “epic” dining experiences I’ve found in the Bay. Lu is extremely passionate about keeping Azteca’s foods playful and inviting — a major element of Mexican food that attracted him when he first came to it as an outsider. It’s something that Latinextravagant foods tend to do: They compel others to join in and share.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Beyond the Big Dishes\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s not always about dishing out the largest super-sized taco on the block. It’s also about paying homage in smaller, but equally creative, ways. After all, there’s a reason antojitos locos (or “crazy snacks”) have also gone viral throughout Mexico and Central America, and have now reached the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent favorite of mine is the Tostielote, an open-faced bag of Tostitos buried under esquites, parmesan cheese, sour cream, butter and mayonnaise. I recommend the version at \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_ptbtSSyQ\">Junior’s Roaster\u003c/a>, a food truck located in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957907/this-is-our-city-san-joses-berryessa-flea-market-vendors-fight-to-stay\">the San José Flea Market\u003c/a>. There, you’ll encounter an old-school roasting machine that is used to prepare elotes, esquites and papas horneadas (baked potatoes). You can add any mix of meats (carne asada, al pastor, pollo asado), junk food (Flamin’ Hots, Ruffles, Takis) and hot sauces for a customized perfection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914234\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914234\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A foil-wrapped burrito and a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos on red and white checkered butcher paper.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/hotcheetoburrito_lead-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Flamin’ Hot Cheeto burrito is by far the most popular item at Taqueria El Mezcal, which has locations in San Pablo, Hayward and San Lorenzo. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elmezcalsanpablo/\">Taqueria El Mezcal\u003c/a>, a humble local chain with three locations scattered throughout the East Bay, is known for its fiery, snack-inspired dishes. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13913985/hot-cheeto-burrito-taqueria-el-mezcal-richard-montanez-san-pablo\">Officially recognized by Chester Cheetah for its Hot Cheetos burrito\u003c/a>, the restaurant unveiled a new botana-inspired masterpiece this summer: the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/alan_chazaro/status/1696339131289203181\">Doritos chilaquiles burrito\u003c/a>. It includes a bag’s worth of spicy nacho Doritos, refried beans, three fried eggs, crema, guacamole and your choice of meat.\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>None of these Latinextravagant foods are exactly calorie-conscious. And for the most part, that’s okay: The restaurants themselves wouldn’t suggest that customers eat this stuff every day, and they aren’t necessarily challenging anyone to take down a giant burrito or pupusa on their own, either. The super-sized dishes are meant to be novelty foods — a memorable experience rather than your daily source of sustenance. And in many cases, immigrant foodmakers are simply tailoring their menus in response to their TikTok and Instagram numbers, even bantering and discussing ideas with commenters in the reply sections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a recipe that has, at least so far, proven itself successful for the times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s mostly a marketing thing, but [Latinx businesses] do really think out of the box,” Arroyo, the influencer, says. “Some people don’t like it, but I believe in food bringing people together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When done well, the Latinextravagant approach to food attracts more people to the table than ever. At our core, Latinx diasporas are simply too big to be boxed in, and our foods could never fit inside any one nation’s stomach. But still, we try our best to share it with everyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938220\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938220\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Rubber gloved hand sprinkles chopped cilantro onto an oversized pupusa topped the meat.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/20230927-Biggest-Pupusa-020-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The finishing touch: sprinkling chopped onions and cilantro onto a giant — and truly Latinextravagant — pupusa. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pupuseria_las_cabanas/\">Pupuseria Las Cabañas\u003c/a> is located at 30030 Mission Blvd. in Hayward. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/taqueriaaztecadublinca/\">Taqueria Azteca\u003c/a> is located at 7155 Amador Plaza Rd. in Dublin.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A New Cookbook Shows That Going Vegan Doesn't Have to Break Your Budget",
"headTitle": "A New Cookbook Shows That Going Vegan Doesn’t Have to Break Your Budget | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Toni Okamoto spent most of her childhood in Sacramento with her Mexican grandmother and Japanese grandfather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her grandmother, she learned to cook calabasitas, sopa de fideo and tacos of all kinds. From her grandfather, she learned the value of cultivating your own ingredients — he returned to work on the family farm after surviving World War II internment camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those influences now show up fondly in Okamato’s work as a vegan cook, a path she started in 2007, when she was 20 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, she released her fourth cookbook, \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/718948/plant-based-on-a-budget-quick-and-easy-by-toni-okamoto-foreword-by-michael-greger/\">\u003ci>Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, which offers vegan recipes that are inexpensive and culturally relevant. She’s on a mission to re-educate people on how to cook better for their health, well-being and bank accounts while staying true to their identities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that way, Okamoto’s work echoes that of other Northern California cookbook authors including\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900311/bryant-terry-four-color-books-imprint-food-media-diversity\"> Bryant Terry\u003c/a>, Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel, whose \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/bay-area-professors-write-decolonial-mexican-cookbook-to-reclaim-the-traditional-foods-of-their-ancestors-2-1/\">decolonial approach\u003c/a> to cooking challenges the widely accepted narrative that cultural or “ethnic” foods are inherently unhealthy — and that they must showcase meat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13938179\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2469\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-800x1029.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-1020x1312.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-160x206.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-768x988.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-1194x1536.jpg 1194w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-1593x2048.jpg 1593w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okamoto’s new cookbook has a recipe for udon noodles with peanut sauce, sheet pan nachos, cauliflower fried rice and vanilla buttercream frosting. There is an entire section on grains and legumes, ranging from amaranth to Mexican-style rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, her sopa de fideo — a tomato broth–based pasta dish — is a version of a meal I make for my kids about once a week based on a recipe I learned from my mother. Okamoto spruces hers up by adding diced zucchini and fresh tomatoes for texture and using vegetable broth instead of chicken bouillon. It takes less than 15 minutes to prepare and tastes like a bowl of grandma hugs. It’s also the kind of dish that can be reduced to a few steps or dressed up with a bit of extra effort, which reflects another one of the book’s themes: Make your food as easy and simple as you want, and level up as you see fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release of \u003ci>Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy\u003c/i> also coincides with a time of steep inflation. In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/\">food prices shot up by 10 percent\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/?topicId=2b168260-a717-4708-a264-cb354e815c67#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20the%20share%20of,on%20food%20away%20from%20home.\">consumers spent 11.3 percent of their disposable income on food\u003c/a> — the sharpest leap ever recorded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And so the book also teaches readers how to master the basics with an eye toward frugality — properly stocking your pantry, cooking enough for multiple meals and planning ingredient lists ahead of time to avoid over-buying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I talked to Okamoto about her journey as a vegan cook, her tips for eating more plants and how she fights the perception that veganism is mostly just for wealthy white people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">***\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Blanca Torres: There is a perception that healthy eating is expensive. What are your thoughts on that? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Toni Okamoto:\u003c/b> There has been this narrative that’s been created that processed food and fast food are the more inexpensive route to go. But when I teach people how to eat healthy and on a budget and to think beyond one meal, a light bulb will go off in their head. It will become clear that this is the cheapest way to be eating. I buy things like rice and beans, some frozen vegetables, some fruit like bananas and some sunflower seeds that can really stretch me the entire week, and I’ve shown countless people how to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling woman in a white blouse holds up a grocery store receipt.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Okamoto shows off her budget-friendly meal planning skills. \u003ccite>(Michelle Cehn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you have basic tips that you start out with?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would start out by creating a meal plan and taking note of what you have in your pantry and your refrigerator already. Then I take a shopping list to the grocery store. It’s so stressful to go in there and see all the things that I want to buy. But if I stay the course, I will save a lot of money, which will ultimately make me happy. You can buy a whole large container of oats for about $2.50. I’ll do overnight oats with sliced banana and some raw sunflower seeds for breakfast. For my entrees throughout the work week, I’ll do something like a big pasta dish with some fruits and veggies, maybe a can of beans and marinara sauce. Very simple and also economical. Another idea would be chili using pantry staples like canned beans, canned corn, canned tomatoes. Those will all be inexpensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I was on a very, very, extremely tight financial budget, living in a lot of debt, I chose to cook dried beans, and I would have to soak them the night before and then watch them on the stove for a few hours as they cooked. Now I don’t have that time and have a little bit more money, so I’m choosing cans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You were vegetarian, and then you became vegan. How do you define being a vegan?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[In college] I joined a vegetarian club on campus, solely so that I could receive extra credit. I found incredibly inspiring people who taught me that it was possible to be on a budget, to be tied culturally to food that you grew up eating and still be vegan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Veganism often comes off as elitist or that it’s a “white people thing.” What are your thoughts on breaking those perceptions? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being vegan for the past 16 years, I see it is becoming far more diverse than ever. The Black community is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13916044/sucka-free-soul-the-vegan-hood-chefs-honor-southern-heritage-with-a-frisco-twist\">leading\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13906738/malibus-burgers-vegan-diner-breakfast-oakland\">the way\u003c/a> for people becoming more interested in vegan living. And I think it’s now not only about the ethics of the environment or animals, but so many people are looking at their families and the suffering that they’ve experienced health-wise. I am so inspired by the vegans of color out there using their platforms to educate people on the benefits of plant-based eating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938181\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938181\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of sesame ginger noodles topped with tofu and sliced red pepper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-1536x1229.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Okamoto believes vegan dishes — like this bowl of sesame-ginger noodles — can and should reflect people’s cultural identities. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BenBella Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Why do you use the term “plant-based”? What do you think that means? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13928345,arts_13916044,arts_13910234']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>I wanted to create a resource that was as inclusive as possible. I originally started \u003ci>Plant-Based on a Budget\u003c/i> to solve some of the issues that my own family was experiencing. There was type 2 diabetes and heart disease that were causing so much suffering and sadness. We lost some family members to those things, and they experienced hardships before that, like heart attacks and amputations. I wanted to relieve some of the pain points like cost when it came to eating healthier and combating those diet-related health issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a lot of struggles that people are facing in their lives. And it’s so easy to think that someone doesn’t care about their nutrition or what their children are eating. But the fact is that people really do care. They just don’t have the skill set and the knowledge to change their habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did your upbringing influence your cooking? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When my dad came back from the Navy after being deployed, I went to live with him. And we lived sort of the bachelor life together. I started eating foods that were more processed and more convenient. My dad worked a lot trying to give us the best life possible, so we relied on convenient foods like a can of chili and hot dogs or Hamburger Helper, things like that. It wasn’t until I ran track in high school that I started feeling ill all the time, and my concerned coach suggested that I cut back on red meats and fast food so that I could perform better, feel healthier. It was the first time I thought about the food I ate and how it impacted my health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938182\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo.jpg\" alt=\"A woman seated outdoors next to a garden bed holds up a stalk of kale.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1177\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-800x490.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-1020x625.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-768x471.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-1536x942.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Okamoto believes most people can add more plant-based foods into their diet, even if it’s just one or two meals a week. \u003ccite>(Michelle Cehn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>At first, your family disagreed with your decision to stop eating meat. Now that your parents have come around, what is that like for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, I think there’s a mutual love and respect that we’ve shared for each other that wants us to continue being close. And they want to see me happy. They want to see me thriving, They want to see me healthy. And they know that this is the path I believe is going to make those things possible. So they support it. I appreciate how they’ve opened their minds and hearts. My parents no longer buy meat-based chorizo, they buy Soyrizo. If you knew my parents beforehand, you would also really appreciate that change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you have any general guidance for people interested in expanding their diet to include more vegan foods?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can start with Meatless Monday or “Vegan Before 6:00” or one or two vegan or vegetarian meals per week. Eating more plants is going to help your gut. It’s going to bring you more energy, provide your body with more nutrients, and those are all positive things. It’s about giving yourself space to make those changes and also grace when you’re not meeting your goals.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Toni Okamoto spent most of her childhood in Sacramento with her Mexican grandmother and Japanese grandfather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her grandmother, she learned to cook calabasitas, sopa de fideo and tacos of all kinds. From her grandfather, she learned the value of cultivating your own ingredients — he returned to work on the family farm after surviving World War II internment camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those influences now show up fondly in Okamato’s work as a vegan cook, a path she started in 2007, when she was 20 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, she released her fourth cookbook, \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/718948/plant-based-on-a-budget-quick-and-easy-by-toni-okamoto-foreword-by-michael-greger/\">\u003ci>Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, which offers vegan recipes that are inexpensive and culturally relevant. She’s on a mission to re-educate people on how to cook better for their health, well-being and bank accounts while staying true to their identities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that way, Okamoto’s work echoes that of other Northern California cookbook authors including\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900311/bryant-terry-four-color-books-imprint-food-media-diversity\"> Bryant Terry\u003c/a>, Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel, whose \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/bay-area-professors-write-decolonial-mexican-cookbook-to-reclaim-the-traditional-foods-of-their-ancestors-2-1/\">decolonial approach\u003c/a> to cooking challenges the widely accepted narrative that cultural or “ethnic” foods are inherently unhealthy — and that they must showcase meat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13938179\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2469\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-800x1029.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-1020x1312.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-160x206.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-768x988.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-1194x1536.jpg 1194w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Plant-BasedonaBudget-QuickandEasy_FrontCover-1593x2048.jpg 1593w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okamoto’s new cookbook has a recipe for udon noodles with peanut sauce, sheet pan nachos, cauliflower fried rice and vanilla buttercream frosting. There is an entire section on grains and legumes, ranging from amaranth to Mexican-style rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, her sopa de fideo — a tomato broth–based pasta dish — is a version of a meal I make for my kids about once a week based on a recipe I learned from my mother. Okamoto spruces hers up by adding diced zucchini and fresh tomatoes for texture and using vegetable broth instead of chicken bouillon. It takes less than 15 minutes to prepare and tastes like a bowl of grandma hugs. It’s also the kind of dish that can be reduced to a few steps or dressed up with a bit of extra effort, which reflects another one of the book’s themes: Make your food as easy and simple as you want, and level up as you see fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release of \u003ci>Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy\u003c/i> also coincides with a time of steep inflation. In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings/\">food prices shot up by 10 percent\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/?topicId=2b168260-a717-4708-a264-cb354e815c67#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20the%20share%20of,on%20food%20away%20from%20home.\">consumers spent 11.3 percent of their disposable income on food\u003c/a> — the sharpest leap ever recorded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And so the book also teaches readers how to master the basics with an eye toward frugality — properly stocking your pantry, cooking enough for multiple meals and planning ingredient lists ahead of time to avoid over-buying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I talked to Okamoto about her journey as a vegan cook, her tips for eating more plants and how she fights the perception that veganism is mostly just for wealthy white people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">***\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Blanca Torres: There is a perception that healthy eating is expensive. What are your thoughts on that? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Toni Okamoto:\u003c/b> There has been this narrative that’s been created that processed food and fast food are the more inexpensive route to go. But when I teach people how to eat healthy and on a budget and to think beyond one meal, a light bulb will go off in their head. It will become clear that this is the cheapest way to be eating. I buy things like rice and beans, some frozen vegetables, some fruit like bananas and some sunflower seeds that can really stretch me the entire week, and I’ve shown countless people how to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938180\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling woman in a white blouse holds up a grocery store receipt.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Michelle-Meal-Plans-Last-Day-94-1-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Okamoto shows off her budget-friendly meal planning skills. \u003ccite>(Michelle Cehn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you have basic tips that you start out with?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would start out by creating a meal plan and taking note of what you have in your pantry and your refrigerator already. Then I take a shopping list to the grocery store. It’s so stressful to go in there and see all the things that I want to buy. But if I stay the course, I will save a lot of money, which will ultimately make me happy. You can buy a whole large container of oats for about $2.50. I’ll do overnight oats with sliced banana and some raw sunflower seeds for breakfast. For my entrees throughout the work week, I’ll do something like a big pasta dish with some fruits and veggies, maybe a can of beans and marinara sauce. Very simple and also economical. Another idea would be chili using pantry staples like canned beans, canned corn, canned tomatoes. Those will all be inexpensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I was on a very, very, extremely tight financial budget, living in a lot of debt, I chose to cook dried beans, and I would have to soak them the night before and then watch them on the stove for a few hours as they cooked. Now I don’t have that time and have a little bit more money, so I’m choosing cans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You were vegetarian, and then you became vegan. How do you define being a vegan?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[In college] I joined a vegetarian club on campus, solely so that I could receive extra credit. I found incredibly inspiring people who taught me that it was possible to be on a budget, to be tied culturally to food that you grew up eating and still be vegan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Veganism often comes off as elitist or that it’s a “white people thing.” What are your thoughts on breaking those perceptions? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being vegan for the past 16 years, I see it is becoming far more diverse than ever. The Black community is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13916044/sucka-free-soul-the-vegan-hood-chefs-honor-southern-heritage-with-a-frisco-twist\">leading\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13906738/malibus-burgers-vegan-diner-breakfast-oakland\">the way\u003c/a> for people becoming more interested in vegan living. And I think it’s now not only about the ethics of the environment or animals, but so many people are looking at their families and the suffering that they’ve experienced health-wise. I am so inspired by the vegans of color out there using their platforms to educate people on the benefits of plant-based eating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938181\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938181\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of sesame ginger noodles topped with tofu and sliced red pepper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Sesame-Ginger-Noodles-1536x1229.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Okamoto believes vegan dishes — like this bowl of sesame-ginger noodles — can and should reflect people’s cultural identities. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BenBella Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Why do you use the term “plant-based”? What do you think that means? \u003c/b>\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>I wanted to create a resource that was as inclusive as possible. I originally started \u003ci>Plant-Based on a Budget\u003c/i> to solve some of the issues that my own family was experiencing. There was type 2 diabetes and heart disease that were causing so much suffering and sadness. We lost some family members to those things, and they experienced hardships before that, like heart attacks and amputations. I wanted to relieve some of the pain points like cost when it came to eating healthier and combating those diet-related health issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a lot of struggles that people are facing in their lives. And it’s so easy to think that someone doesn’t care about their nutrition or what their children are eating. But the fact is that people really do care. They just don’t have the skill set and the knowledge to change their habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did your upbringing influence your cooking? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When my dad came back from the Navy after being deployed, I went to live with him. And we lived sort of the bachelor life together. I started eating foods that were more processed and more convenient. My dad worked a lot trying to give us the best life possible, so we relied on convenient foods like a can of chili and hot dogs or Hamburger Helper, things like that. It wasn’t until I ran track in high school that I started feeling ill all the time, and my concerned coach suggested that I cut back on red meats and fast food so that I could perform better, feel healthier. It was the first time I thought about the food I ate and how it impacted my health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13938182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13938182\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo.jpg\" alt=\"A woman seated outdoors next to a garden bed holds up a stalk of kale.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1177\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-800x490.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-1020x625.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-768x471.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Toni-Author-Photo-1536x942.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Okamoto believes most people can add more plant-based foods into their diet, even if it’s just one or two meals a week. \u003ccite>(Michelle Cehn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>At first, your family disagreed with your decision to stop eating meat. Now that your parents have come around, what is that like for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, I think there’s a mutual love and respect that we’ve shared for each other that wants us to continue being close. And they want to see me happy. They want to see me thriving, They want to see me healthy. And they know that this is the path I believe is going to make those things possible. So they support it. I appreciate how they’ve opened their minds and hearts. My parents no longer buy meat-based chorizo, they buy Soyrizo. If you knew my parents beforehand, you would also really appreciate that change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you have any general guidance for people interested in expanding their diet to include more vegan foods?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can start with Meatless Monday or “Vegan Before 6:00” or one or two vegan or vegetarian meals per week. Eating more plants is going to help your gut. It’s going to bring you more energy, provide your body with more nutrients, and those are all positive things. It’s about giving yourself space to make those changes and also grace when you’re not meeting your goals.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933138/bolita-masa-berkeley-pop-up-farmers-market-tetelas-tamales\">Emmanuel Galvan\u003c/a>, the Mexican American chef and founder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bolitamasa/\">Berkeley’s Bolita Masa\u003c/a>, doesn’t know how to define home. It’s an elusive concept for the San Francisco resident who grew up in Napa Valley raised by Mexican immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the son of Jalisco, I don’t feel like I’m from there. I don’t feel Mexican enough,” Galvan says. “But I also don’t feel white enough to fit into [the United States]. As Mexican Americans, we’re battling that tension. [Food] is a way to address that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily for the tortilla-loving gastronome, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933138/bolita-masa-berkeley-pop-up-farmers-market-tetelas-tamales\">his recipes are a way to explore his origin\u003c/a>: What is it? What does it taste like? And who gets invited to the table to experience it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 18, Galvan will explore the various textures and ingredients of being Mexican American by hosting “Ofrendas: Neither Here Nor There.” Co-organized with Jacob Croom of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/my.friend.fernando/\">My Friend Fernando\u003c/a> (a Chicano supper club that migrates around the East Bay), the event will showcase five chefs from around the U.S. and Mexico in a “multisensory hour” of small bites, drinks, cumbia music and art at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/institute-for-contemporary-art\">Institute of Contemporary Art\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Dogpatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to Galvan and Croom, “Ofrendas” will feature Luna Vela of the James Beard Award-winning \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nixtataqueria/\">Nixta Taqueria\u003c/a> in Austin; \u003ca href=\"https://atlanta.eater.com/2022/5/12/23067797/atlanta-chef-maricela-vega-launching-masa-tortilla-business-chico\">Maricela Vega\u003c/a>, who cut her teeth as the executive chef at Atlanta’s 8ARM; and Tony Ortiz, who originally hails from Zacatecas and recently launched \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chileconmiel/?hl=en\">Chile Con Miel\u003c/a> in New York City. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bsidebrujas/?hl=en\">B-Side Brujas\u003c/a> will also be in the house, spinning Spanish music vinyls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937892\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937892\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl.jpg\" alt=\"filled with Mexican soup presented against a bright pink backdrop\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2353\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-800x980.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-1020x1250.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-160x196.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-768x941.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-1253x1536.jpg 1253w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-1671x2048.jpg 1671w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luna Vela’s tortilla bowls are an ode to childhood soups presented in an elevated form. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Emmanuel Galvin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The meal itself won’t be a sit-down dinner. In fact, there won’t be any seating at all. Instead, guests are encouraged to mingle and explore — and to check out the artwork being displayed in the museum itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Through these projects we learn more about who we are and get to express that a little bit more,” says Galvan. “We don’t always explore the actual tensions and the disparity that exists in Mexico. We’re trying to present history through the romance of its ingredients. Some of us will address it more directly in our dishes. Some of it will happen through conversations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The New York City–based Ortiz, for example, is preparing nicuatole, an indigenous Oaxacan corn gelatin dessert with fig leaf oil and quince. The red puree of his dish is intended to symbolize the loss of lives in \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67227493\">a tragic post-hurricane flood that recently devastated western Mexico\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13933138,arts_13931115,arts_13920076']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>For Galvan’s part, his approach to tamal making is inherently representative of what he feels it’s like to be Mexican American: “Tamales are covered, and [eating one] is an unraveling to see what’s inside. There is a level of complexity about what’s hidden inside for people who want to engage with that. But if you don’t want to, it’s also just a tasty bite to enjoy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other dishes will include grilled oysters, star-shaped tortilla bowls filled with sopa de estrellitas, and enchiladas bathed in a squash and sikil’pak (Mayan pumpkin seed) sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Growing up, [indigenous Mexican cuisine] was seen as icky or not sexy,” says Galvan. “But now it’s food that every chef wants to eat or make. This is our offering. An ofrenda.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galvan and Croom are paying the up-front costs of the event themselves, and they hope to continue offering it as a regular series throughout the Bay Area — which, for now, is home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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.icasf.org/calendar/157-ofrendas-neither-here-nor-there\">“Ofrendas: Neither Here Nor There”\u003c/a> will take place at the ICA SF (901 Minnesota St., San Francisco) on Sat., Nov. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.icasf.org/calendar/157-ofrendas-neither-here-nor-there\">Tickets are $75\u003c/a> per person and will include five small dishes, two beverages and access to \u003ca href=\"https://www.icasf.org/exhibitions\">the museum’s galleries\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933138/bolita-masa-berkeley-pop-up-farmers-market-tetelas-tamales\">Emmanuel Galvan\u003c/a>, the Mexican American chef and founder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bolitamasa/\">Berkeley’s Bolita Masa\u003c/a>, doesn’t know how to define home. It’s an elusive concept for the San Francisco resident who grew up in Napa Valley raised by Mexican immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the son of Jalisco, I don’t feel like I’m from there. I don’t feel Mexican enough,” Galvan says. “But I also don’t feel white enough to fit into [the United States]. As Mexican Americans, we’re battling that tension. [Food] is a way to address that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily for the tortilla-loving gastronome, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933138/bolita-masa-berkeley-pop-up-farmers-market-tetelas-tamales\">his recipes are a way to explore his origin\u003c/a>: What is it? What does it taste like? And who gets invited to the table to experience it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 18, Galvan will explore the various textures and ingredients of being Mexican American by hosting “Ofrendas: Neither Here Nor There.” Co-organized with Jacob Croom of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/my.friend.fernando/\">My Friend Fernando\u003c/a> (a Chicano supper club that migrates around the East Bay), the event will showcase five chefs from around the U.S. and Mexico in a “multisensory hour” of small bites, drinks, cumbia music and art at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/institute-for-contemporary-art\">Institute of Contemporary Art\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Dogpatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to Galvan and Croom, “Ofrendas” will feature Luna Vela of the James Beard Award-winning \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nixtataqueria/\">Nixta Taqueria\u003c/a> in Austin; \u003ca href=\"https://atlanta.eater.com/2022/5/12/23067797/atlanta-chef-maricela-vega-launching-masa-tortilla-business-chico\">Maricela Vega\u003c/a>, who cut her teeth as the executive chef at Atlanta’s 8ARM; and Tony Ortiz, who originally hails from Zacatecas and recently launched \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chileconmiel/?hl=en\">Chile Con Miel\u003c/a> in New York City. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bsidebrujas/?hl=en\">B-Side Brujas\u003c/a> will also be in the house, spinning Spanish music vinyls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937892\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937892\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl.jpg\" alt=\"filled with Mexican soup presented against a bright pink backdrop\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2353\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-800x980.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-1020x1250.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-160x196.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-768x941.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-1253x1536.jpg 1253w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/ofrendas-bowl-1671x2048.jpg 1671w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luna Vela’s tortilla bowls are an ode to childhood soups presented in an elevated form. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Emmanuel Galvin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The meal itself won’t be a sit-down dinner. In fact, there won’t be any seating at all. Instead, guests are encouraged to mingle and explore — and to check out the artwork being displayed in the museum itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Through these projects we learn more about who we are and get to express that a little bit more,” says Galvan. “We don’t always explore the actual tensions and the disparity that exists in Mexico. We’re trying to present history through the romance of its ingredients. Some of us will address it more directly in our dishes. Some of it will happen through conversations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The New York City–based Ortiz, for example, is preparing nicuatole, an indigenous Oaxacan corn gelatin dessert with fig leaf oil and quince. The red puree of his dish is intended to symbolize the loss of lives in \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67227493\">a tragic post-hurricane flood that recently devastated western Mexico\u003c/a>.\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>For Galvan’s part, his approach to tamal making is inherently representative of what he feels it’s like to be Mexican American: “Tamales are covered, and [eating one] is an unraveling to see what’s inside. There is a level of complexity about what’s hidden inside for people who want to engage with that. But if you don’t want to, it’s also just a tasty bite to enjoy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other dishes will include grilled oysters, star-shaped tortilla bowls filled with sopa de estrellitas, and enchiladas bathed in a squash and sikil’pak (Mayan pumpkin seed) sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Growing up, [indigenous Mexican cuisine] was seen as icky or not sexy,” says Galvan. “But now it’s food that every chef wants to eat or make. This is our offering. An ofrenda.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galvan and Croom are paying the up-front costs of the event themselves, and they hope to continue offering it as a regular series throughout the Bay Area — which, for now, is home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/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.icasf.org/calendar/157-ofrendas-neither-here-nor-there\">“Ofrendas: Neither Here Nor There”\u003c/a> will take place at the ICA SF (901 Minnesota St., San Francisco) on Sat., Nov. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.icasf.org/calendar/157-ofrendas-neither-here-nor-there\">Tickets are $75\u003c/a> per person and will include five small dishes, two beverages and access to \u003ca href=\"https://www.icasf.org/exhibitions\">the museum’s galleries\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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