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"title": "Feast on ‘Sofreh’ — a Book That Celebrates Persian Cooking, Past and Future",
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"content": "\u003cp>The new cookbook \u003cem>Sofreh\u003c/em> doesn’t open with tempting menus for future dinner parties or ingredient lists, but with a poetic conversation between an unnamed narrator and a grapevine. When asked why it continues to grow despite bearing so much fruit, the vine answers: “Why stop now, when there is such immense joy in my reaching for the sun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Roots are very important to me,” says chef and author Nasim Alikhani. “I literally brought a little stem from my father’s grape garden in Iran, which originally he brought to our home from his own village.” She planted that vine in the back garden of her small Persian restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://www.sofrehnyc.com/\">Sofreh\u003c/a>. “That’s my roots, but whether the leaves grow, that’s up to the sky,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932692\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932692\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-800x770.jpg\" alt=\"A woman of color wearing a white top sits in front of a white wall at a table. She's smiling.\" width=\"800\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-800x770.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-1020x982.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-160x154.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-768x740.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-1536x1479.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-1920x1849.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f.jpg 1998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Once you practice who you are, no matter where you are, you’re home,’ says Nasim Alikhani. \u003ccite>(Quentin Bacon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the five years since Sofreh opened its doors in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, Alikhani has earned a James Beard nomination, cooked at the White House and for the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Met Gala. She says she’d always envisioned writing a cookbook but she also wanted her first book to be more than just a collection of recipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Farsi word \u003cem>Sofreh \u003c/em>refers to both the ornate table covering laid before a meal and to the many familial, religious and seasonal celebrations centered on food. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sofrehnyc.com/cookbook\">\u003cem>Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine\u003c/em>\u003c/a> was published earlier this summer, and blends recipes with Alikhani’s personal story of leaving Iran, migration and reinvention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932697\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932697\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-800x1019.png\" alt=\"A white plate with chopped vegetables on it sits next to a bowl of stew on a white table.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1019\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-800x1019.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-1020x1299.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-160x204.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-768x978.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM.png 1044w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a chapter dedicated to accompaniments known as Torshi and Moraba, Alikhani describes techniques for pickling and preserving vegetables and fruits as condiments for stews and rice dishes on the Sofreh. \u003ccite>(Quentin Bacon/ Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alikhani was 59 when she opened the restaurant in 2018, and she says what may have been insurmountable disadvantages in a cutthroat industry — her immigrant identity, gender and age — have also become the roots of her success. “I think once you practice who you are, no matter where you are, you’re home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like her restaurant’s interiors, the book is a celebration of her cultural inheritance and is interspersed with poetry, culinary history and a chapter of full-page documentary photographs of Iran entitled “Sarzamine Man” or my homeland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932694\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932694\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/sofreh-cover_custom-2ea7de8d1b60b5a852d88f3959066c7f4f0f590f.jpg\" alt=\"A book cover depicting Persian food on a white plate.\" width=\"200\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/sofreh-cover_custom-2ea7de8d1b60b5a852d88f3959066c7f4f0f590f.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/sofreh-cover_custom-2ea7de8d1b60b5a852d88f3959066c7f4f0f590f-160x222.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine.’ \u003ccite>(Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The recipes in \u003cem>Sofreh\u003c/em> reflect the expansive range and imperial heritage of Persian cuisine, which has always been distinct from its neighboring Mediterranean, Arab and South Asian traditions. Fresh herbs, barberries and slivered pistachios are infused into rice dishes known as \u003cem>polos\u003c/em> that form the accompaniment for slow-cooked meat stews like \u003cem>Fesenjan. \u003c/em>Although Alikhani includes recipes for grilled meats like \u003cem>Kabab Koobideh\u003c/em> — albeit adapted for Western kitchens — she also adds Mezcal cocktail versions of Iran’s lemon-infused summer cordials known as\u003cem> Sharbat-e Sekenjabin\u003c/em> and modern vegetarian entrees for lighter eating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To celebrate the book’s publication, Alikhani recently spent a week in Los Angeles hosting a series of pop-up Sofreh dinners and book signings in a city sometimes lovingly referred to as “Tehrangeles.” As home to one of the largest Persian communities outside Iran, LA has no shortage of Persian restaurants but very few present the kind of sleekly plated modern interpretations Alikhani has perfected at Sofreh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the Persian restaurants essentially are the same — your kababs and your stews — whereas if you go to Iran, there’s a long, rich culinary history,” says LA resident Payman Bahmani-Bailey who was preparing cocktails for the pop-up. “So not only do you not see that aspect of the tradition reflected, you also don’t see much creativity. Everything is remnants of past glory. And if you didn’t know any better, you’d think our people didn’t accomplish anything in the last 5,000 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932698\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-800x977.png\" alt=\"A white oval plate with symmetrical lines of rice, grains and beans arranged on it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"977\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-800x977.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-1020x1246.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-160x195.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-768x938.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM.png 1092w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With candied barberries, raisins and slivered pistachios and almonds, Sofreh includes a recipe for Morasa Polo or Jeweled Rice, which Alikhani recommends serving for ‘momentous occasion, or a holiday table, as it was originally intended.’ \u003ccite>(Quentin Bacon/ Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I admire her, and she’s an inspiration for how to break glass ceilings, and make a name for ourselves while keeping our traditions alive,” says pastry chef Fariba Nafissi who attended one of Alikhani’s Los Angeles book events after years of following her through social media. “I’m speaking from my own challenges — introducing Americans or any nationality to a pastry they’ve never tasted. Nasim was an inspiration with what she has done with Iranian food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13930727']Alikhani says she is grateful for the way non-Iranians have embraced her cooking, but she says the support from her own Persian community has given her a profound sense of satisfaction and purpose: “You reach another level when your own people come and pat your back and say well done.” She says despite her enduring ties to Iran, she avoids the term “authentic” because it can become a metaphor for becoming culturally and creatively static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we as immigrants become stuck in the past, we deprive ourselves of the opportunities our new space has provided. If we don’t know how to adapt, then we become extinct. That’s the dinosaur situation. We’re human. I don’t want to become another Iranian dinosaur stuck in a glorious past. I make my glory now.”\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=Feast+on+%27Sofreh%27+%E2%80%94+a+book+that+celebrates+Persian+cooking%2C+past+and+future&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The new cookbook \u003cem>Sofreh\u003c/em> doesn’t open with tempting menus for future dinner parties or ingredient lists, but with a poetic conversation between an unnamed narrator and a grapevine. When asked why it continues to grow despite bearing so much fruit, the vine answers: “Why stop now, when there is such immense joy in my reaching for the sun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Roots are very important to me,” says chef and author Nasim Alikhani. “I literally brought a little stem from my father’s grape garden in Iran, which originally he brought to our home from his own village.” She planted that vine in the back garden of her small Persian restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://www.sofrehnyc.com/\">Sofreh\u003c/a>. “That’s my roots, but whether the leaves grow, that’s up to the sky,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932692\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932692\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-800x770.jpg\" alt=\"A woman of color wearing a white top sits in front of a white wall at a table. She's smiling.\" width=\"800\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-800x770.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-1020x982.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-160x154.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-768x740.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-1536x1479.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f-1920x1849.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/quentin-bacon_custom-a8a0b4988d0f47115ed059bc7aa04f4ada4f920f.jpg 1998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Once you practice who you are, no matter where you are, you’re home,’ says Nasim Alikhani. \u003ccite>(Quentin Bacon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the five years since Sofreh opened its doors in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, Alikhani has earned a James Beard nomination, cooked at the White House and for the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Met Gala. She says she’d always envisioned writing a cookbook but she also wanted her first book to be more than just a collection of recipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Farsi word \u003cem>Sofreh \u003c/em>refers to both the ornate table covering laid before a meal and to the many familial, religious and seasonal celebrations centered on food. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sofrehnyc.com/cookbook\">\u003cem>Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine\u003c/em>\u003c/a> was published earlier this summer, and blends recipes with Alikhani’s personal story of leaving Iran, migration and reinvention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932697\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932697\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-800x1019.png\" alt=\"A white plate with chopped vegetables on it sits next to a bowl of stew on a white table.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1019\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-800x1019.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-1020x1299.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-160x204.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM-768x978.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.20.47-PM.png 1044w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a chapter dedicated to accompaniments known as Torshi and Moraba, Alikhani describes techniques for pickling and preserving vegetables and fruits as condiments for stews and rice dishes on the Sofreh. \u003ccite>(Quentin Bacon/ Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alikhani was 59 when she opened the restaurant in 2018, and she says what may have been insurmountable disadvantages in a cutthroat industry — her immigrant identity, gender and age — have also become the roots of her success. “I think once you practice who you are, no matter where you are, you’re home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like her restaurant’s interiors, the book is a celebration of her cultural inheritance and is interspersed with poetry, culinary history and a chapter of full-page documentary photographs of Iran entitled “Sarzamine Man” or my homeland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932694\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932694\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/sofreh-cover_custom-2ea7de8d1b60b5a852d88f3959066c7f4f0f590f.jpg\" alt=\"A book cover depicting Persian food on a white plate.\" width=\"200\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/sofreh-cover_custom-2ea7de8d1b60b5a852d88f3959066c7f4f0f590f.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/sofreh-cover_custom-2ea7de8d1b60b5a852d88f3959066c7f4f0f590f-160x222.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine.’ \u003ccite>(Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The recipes in \u003cem>Sofreh\u003c/em> reflect the expansive range and imperial heritage of Persian cuisine, which has always been distinct from its neighboring Mediterranean, Arab and South Asian traditions. Fresh herbs, barberries and slivered pistachios are infused into rice dishes known as \u003cem>polos\u003c/em> that form the accompaniment for slow-cooked meat stews like \u003cem>Fesenjan. \u003c/em>Although Alikhani includes recipes for grilled meats like \u003cem>Kabab Koobideh\u003c/em> — albeit adapted for Western kitchens — she also adds Mezcal cocktail versions of Iran’s lemon-infused summer cordials known as\u003cem> Sharbat-e Sekenjabin\u003c/em> and modern vegetarian entrees for lighter eating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To celebrate the book’s publication, Alikhani recently spent a week in Los Angeles hosting a series of pop-up Sofreh dinners and book signings in a city sometimes lovingly referred to as “Tehrangeles.” As home to one of the largest Persian communities outside Iran, LA has no shortage of Persian restaurants but very few present the kind of sleekly plated modern interpretations Alikhani has perfected at Sofreh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the Persian restaurants essentially are the same — your kababs and your stews — whereas if you go to Iran, there’s a long, rich culinary history,” says LA resident Payman Bahmani-Bailey who was preparing cocktails for the pop-up. “So not only do you not see that aspect of the tradition reflected, you also don’t see much creativity. Everything is remnants of past glory. And if you didn’t know any better, you’d think our people didn’t accomplish anything in the last 5,000 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932698\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-800x977.png\" alt=\"A white oval plate with symmetrical lines of rice, grains and beans arranged on it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"977\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-800x977.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-1020x1246.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-160x195.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM-768x938.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/Screen-Shot-2023-08-03-at-10.45.58-PM.png 1092w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With candied barberries, raisins and slivered pistachios and almonds, Sofreh includes a recipe for Morasa Polo or Jeweled Rice, which Alikhani recommends serving for ‘momentous occasion, or a holiday table, as it was originally intended.’ \u003ccite>(Quentin Bacon/ Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I admire her, and she’s an inspiration for how to break glass ceilings, and make a name for ourselves while keeping our traditions alive,” says pastry chef Fariba Nafissi who attended one of Alikhani’s Los Angeles book events after years of following her through social media. “I’m speaking from my own challenges — introducing Americans or any nationality to a pastry they’ve never tasted. Nasim was an inspiration with what she has done with Iranian food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Alikhani says she is grateful for the way non-Iranians have embraced her cooking, but she says the support from her own Persian community has given her a profound sense of satisfaction and purpose: “You reach another level when your own people come and pat your back and say well done.” She says despite her enduring ties to Iran, she avoids the term “authentic” because it can become a metaphor for becoming culturally and creatively static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we as immigrants become stuck in the past, we deprive ourselves of the opportunities our new space has provided. If we don’t know how to adapt, then we become extinct. That’s the dinosaur situation. We’re human. I don’t want to become another Iranian dinosaur stuck in a glorious past. I make my glory now.”\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=Feast+on+%27Sofreh%27+%E2%80%94+a+book+that+celebrates+Persian+cooking%2C+past+and+future&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Third-Generation Indian Coffee Roaster Carves Her Own Path in Berkeley",
"headTitle": "A Third-Generation Indian Coffee Roaster Carves Her Own Path in Berkeley | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen many Americans think of Indian food, they probably conjure up the buttery scent of tikka masala — those grilled chunks of yogurt-marinated chicken drowned in red sauce. Or they might recall the earthy, kaleidoscopic aromas of cumin, coriander and turmeric from inside an Indian spice aisle. Maybe they imagine the sugary perfume of a hot cup of masala chai.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I’d bet they don’t think of is\u003ca href=\"https://www.worldcoffeeportal.com/5THWAVE/Podcast/2023/A-conversation-with-tata-starbucks\"> coffee\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Tanya Rao, owner of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kavericoffee/?hl=en\">Kaveri Coffee Works\u003c/a> — a small-scale, independent roasting business in Berkeley — coffee has been a family tradition for more than half a century. The Raos’ connection to coffee dates back to 1941, when Tanya’s grandfather, M.V. Rao, opened India Coffee Kiosk in Bangalore, India, in the Karnataka region — known for being the country’s largest coffee producer. When M.V. could no longer run the family trade, he passed it on to Tanya’s father, Mohan Rao. Ever since then, coffee has defined a sense of home and purpose for the men in Rao’s family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one, however, expected or groomed Tanya, the youngest daughter, to take up the mantle. Yet here she is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was next in line to get married,” Rao says. “But instead I broke barriers and challenged the status quo by leaving my [former] career to travel and own my business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Rao is leading a new wave of Bay Area coffee makers with a focus on empowering women of color in the coffee industry, which can often feel male-centric and white-dominant. Even at Berkeley’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.corocoffee.com/\">CoRo, the beautifully collaborative space where Rao roasts her coffee\u003c/a>, there was a visible lack of women during the busy morning I visited. That’s not to say women roasters don’t exist, but to see an Indian woman in a room full of male coffee roasters was scorchingly noticeable to me. Data reveals a gender gap in the coffee industry, with men accumulating a far greater share of the profits. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ico.org/documents/cy2017-18/icc-122-11e-gender-equality.pdf\">a report from the International Coffee Organization\u003c/a>, 70% of coffee labor worldwide is provided by women, while only 20% of coffee farms are women-owned. Similarly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.zippia.com/coffee-roaster-jobs/demographics/\">the American coffee roasting industry is heavily male-dominated\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-800x533.jpg\" alt='two bags of \"specialty coffee of India\" sit inside a coffee roasting warehouse in Berkeley' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaveri Coffee Works owner Tanya Rao gets her coffee beans imported directly from growers in her native India. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Rao, however, those disparities are all a part of what fuels her mission to stand out as a radical coffee entrepreneur — one who is introducing Bay Areans to the delectable, relatively little-known world of Indian coffee beans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Americans are more likely to associate India with its tea rather than its coffee, South India — particularly the southwestern state of Karnataka — \u003ci>is \u003c/i>known for having a rich coffee culture. Karnataka is where Rao’s grandfather founded his coffee business, and it’s also where a Sufi saint named Baba Budan is believed to have planted India’s first coffee seeds over 300 years ago. The region maintains a year-round high-altitude climate that is lush for coffee cultivation. In fact, it’s helped make India \u003ca href=\"https://www.nescafe.com/gb/understanding-coffee/coffee-producing-countries/#:~:text=Brazil,producer%20for%20over%20150%20years.\">the eighth largest coffee producer in the world\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet in much of the Western world, Indian coffee is still largely unappreciated. British colonizers controlled India’s coffee industry for nearly 200 years until the Indian Independence Act was signed in 1947. As a result, most Indian coffee never made it to the Americas. Instead, it wound up being shipped to Europe, Australia and other parts of Asia, while a colonized Latin America developed its own coffee belt along the equator to supply the Western Hemisphere. Rao estimates that only 3% of coffee in the U.S. comes from India, while the majority of India’s coffee gets shipped to Italy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back in Karnataka? “Coffee is a part of our lives, a real luxury,” Rao says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Indian Coffee Revolution in the Bay\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A woman from Bangalore who grew up in a patriarchal capitalist society leaves her native country and defies traditional gender expectations to create her own coffee business in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having emigrated from India at age 17, Rao began her winding path with a degree in computer science from the University of Virginia in 2001. It’s what her parents wanted her to do. And for years, she did it. She worked as a finance engineer, trying to “build the perfect American dream.” But everything changed when Rao visited San Francisco for the first time and, after falling in love with the culture here, quit her job to relocate to the Bay Area in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932435\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"a woman scoops a handful of Indian coffee beans with her hands inside a roasting warehouse\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanya Rao holds up a handful of “monsooned” coffee beans, which originated along the southern coast of India. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here, she hiked toward self-discovery, leaving the financial sector behind to study outdoor recreation and tourism at San Francisco State, with an emphasis on social justice and cultural representation. Afterward, she became a women’s backpacking guide, which is about as far as she could’ve veered away from her life as someone with a prestigious career meant to appease her Indian family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is where people who are curious and want to try something new are,” Rao says. “I wanted something different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Rao’s father, who had moved to New Jersey, fell ill, she left everything to take care of him, reconnecting with her childhood memories of coffee. Before his passing, he offered his stake in the family coffee business, which had grown from a humble roadside stand pouring cups of joe during World War II to one of the nation’s first private coffee businesses, rebranding itself as New India Coffee Works in the early ’80s. Rao declined. As a result, the family business wound up shuttering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Rao decided to carry on her family’s legacy by launching Kaveri Coffee Works — named after a major river in Karnataka — in 2019. With her firsthand knowledge of both India’s coffee riches and the gaps in the Bay Area market for Indian coffee, she wanted to create a business that would bring attention to her home country’s scandalously overlooked brewing culture. She flew out to India to develop partnerships with women-owned farms around the Chikmagalur expanse of South India that now export their beans directly to Rao’s facility in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I attribute the Bay’s entrepreneurial environment to me being able to turn my idea into a business,” Rao says. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this on the East Coast, and it would’ve looked very differently for me in India.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932439\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932439\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"a mural of an Indian woman making filter coffee in India\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural of a woman making Indian filter coffee in Karnataka. Painted by \u003ca href=\"https://geechugalu.wordpress.com/2021/10/31/enoch-dheeraj-ebenezer/\">Enoch Dheeraj Ebenezer\u003c/a>. \u003ccite>(Supriya Yelimeli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With virtually no other Indian specialty coffee makers in the Bay Area, Kaveri is filling a tall order. Surprisingly, for a region where Indian immigrants comprise \u003ca href=\"https://localnewsmatters.org/2022/08/26/ten-maps-that-show-where-asian-american-communities-reside-in-the-bay-area/\">the second largest Asian American community\u003c/a> (making the Bay Area the \u003ca href=\"https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-us-metropolitan-areas-with-the-highest-population-of-indians.html\">fifth largest Indian diaspora in the nation\u003c/a>), it’s quite rare to find a coffee maker who is strictly dedicated to roasting Indian coffee beans. In fact, Rao might be the only one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not aware of any Indian coffee makers like her in the Bay Area,” says Supriya Yelimeli, a first-generation Indian American who grew up in Fremont and is now a journalist at \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/author/supriya-yelimeli\">Berkeleyside\u003c/a>. “My experience with Indian coffee is attached to the home. My parents would get an egregious amount of Colombian coffee from Costco and use a drip coffee machine to try to replicate Indian filter coffee here. When I was growing up, they complained that they couldn’t get the kind of Indian coffee they wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yelimeli, who also has family roots in Karnataka, draws a distinction between “Indian-grown” coffee and “Indian-style” coffee, which doesn’t necessarily need to be made with Indian-grown coffee beans. Often, it involves some combination of chicory and milk, with a ritualistic preparation that relies on “bisi bisi” (or “piping hot”) temperatures. Brewed using a steel filter, the coffee comes out milky and frothy, and is wildly popular among Indian coffee drinkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PubmeU451L8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rao, for her part, mostly focuses on roasting Indian-grown coffee beans. But she also wants to use Kaveri as a platform to introduce customers to all different aspects of Indian coffee culture. In India, Rao explains, “pure coffee” is a drink largely reserved for the bourgeoisie. It’s expensive. But watered-down variations, like the chicory coffee, are still commonly consumed by the working classes of India. To make it, the coffee beans get diluted with ground chicory — a spice made from the root of a dandelion plant that was popular among French soldiers, and later adopted and brought to India by the British military. [pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Supriya Yelimeli\"]“When I was growing up, [my parents] complained that they couldn’t get the kind of Indian coffee they wanted.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some households, mixing hot water with just the chicory by itself is considered coffee, despite lacking any actual coffee grounds. Along with tea, chicory coffee is the most common (and affordable) drink you’ll find in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Selling a version of Indian chicory coffee is just one of the ways that Kaveri Coffee Works pays homage to Rao’s roots in India, \u003ca href=\"https://perfectdailygrind.com/2017/10/indias-specialty-coffee-journey-from-chicory-to-the-chemex/#:~:text=Over%20time%2C%20chicory%20root%20also,%2C%20New%20Orleans%2C%20and%20more.\">where the chicory blend is still extremely common\u003c/a>. Rao offers an 80/20 pre-ground mix that customers can brew at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a part of my cultural identity,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Monsooned Coffee and Espresso Liqueur\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The chicory coffee is only one of the distinctive aspects of Indian coffee that Rao wants to bring to the Bay Area. She explains that in many countries, mass-produced coffee is grown as a “monocrop,” in fields dedicated only to growing coffee. Indian coffee, on the other hand, has maintained its organic essence through “intercropping.” In southern India, coffee is grown in a natural rainforest next to pepper vines, cardamon, citrus, jackfruit, mangoes and other companion crops that enrich the soil. This lends the coffee hints of earthy chocolate and nutty spices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932436\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"a woman scoops up chicory mix that she blends with her Indian coffee\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanya Rao adds chicory to her ground coffee to make a special “chicory blend,” which is popular in India. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because of Indian coffee’s high tolerance to extreme weather conditions, some farmers even expose their beans to monsoon storm conditions for weeks on end, allowing them to engorge and lose their natural acidity. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodfoodrevolution.com/monsooned-malabar-how-beards-clippers-and-monsoon-winds-gave-rise-to-a-new-type-of-coffee/\">monsooned malabar is a centuries-old method\u003c/a> that is uniquely specific to the coast of Karnataka — and one that’s become increasingly trendy in recent years. The result is a milder, mellower flavor than regular coffee, allowing for a laidback afternoon of sipping for pleasure rather than urgent morning functionality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Kaveri doesn’t sell monsooned beans at the moment, Rao already has a supplier and is currently experimenting with a recipe for roasting these rare single-origin beans in a way that might translate successfully for Bay Area drinkers. Rao notes that since monsoon beans are typically used for espresso drinks, they don’t taste as good when served as a simple drip coffee. If all goes to plan, she’ll start offering batches of her monsoon beans later this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to these traditional styles of Indian coffee, Rao embraces “the art as much as the science” of it all. She recently collaborated with Dissident Spirits Co., a new distillery in Richmond, to create an \u003ca href=\"https://shop.sipalkalirye.com/products/kaveri-espresso-liqueur\">espresso liqueur made by infusing vodka with Kaveri’s espresso beans\u003c/a>, then aging the boozy concoction in rum barrels. The liqueur might not be the sort of thing her family’s coffee company would have ever sold, but it’s yet another sign that Rao has developed her own personal relationship with coffee outside of what it would look and taste like back in India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She credits Bay Area businesses like Dissident and CoRo for providing a pathway for her to creatively explore her ancestry through experimental coffee roasting. The Bay Area also has a strong ecosystem for start-ups and entrepreneurs, which Rao has utilized by attending master classes at CoRo and participating in coffee cupping classes at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thecrownoak/?hl=en\">the Crown Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room\u003c/a> in Oakland — “like wine tasting, but for coffee,” she explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13912706,arts_13930727,arts_13916794']\u003c/span>“I’m allowed to put on a different cultural persona here than I would in India,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In spite of Rao’s efforts, for the time being, Indian coffee remains relatively obscure in the Bay Area. Berkeleyside writer Yelimeli believes the reason it hasn’t yet filtered its way into the Bay Area has to do with the geography of where Indian coffee is produced — and the cultural implications of that geography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As far as Indian influence in the West goes, it usually comes from North India: Bollywood, Hindi language and other known cultural exports including chai. That’s all from the North,” she says. “Northern Indians don’t grow coffee so they don’t drink it as much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932441\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932441\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a commercial coffee shop named Gayathri Coffee in India\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Commercial coffee chains like Gayathri Coffee are becoming increasingly popular in Karnataka. \u003ccite>(Supriya Yelimeli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With the emergence of Kaveri Coffee, Yelimeli hopes people’s awareness will start to change. Rao certainly thinks so. \u003ca href=\"https://kavericoffee.com/\">She currently only sells her coffee online\u003c/a> and at a fistful of Bay Area \u003ca href=\"https://kavericoffee.com/pages/locations\">markets and coffee shops\u003c/a>, including Albany’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kitchenette625/\">Kitchenette\u003c/a> and CoRo’s own \u003ca href=\"https://www.corocoffeeroom.com/\">onsite cafe\u003c/a>. But she hopes to continue expanding her business without losing the hands-on intimacy of small-batch coffee roasting. Perhaps a brick-and-mortar is next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s my birthright and duty to serve Indian coffee in the Bay Area,” Rao says. “I’m thinking of ways to do it authentically. I don’t want anything to be lost in translation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12127869 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kavericoffee/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Kaveri Coffee\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> can be found online and at select Bay Area locations, including CoRo (2322 Fifth St., Berkeley) and Rainbow Grocery Cooperative (1745 Folsom St., San Francisco). Rao will appear at this year’s \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcoffeefestival.com/\">\u003ci>San Francisco Coffee Festival \u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>(Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture Festival Pavilion, 2 Marina Blvd., SF) on Nov. 11 and 12 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcoffeefestival.com/tickets\">\u003ci>Tickets\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are currently available at a discounted price.\u003c/i>\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\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen many Americans think of Indian food, they probably conjure up the buttery scent of tikka masala — those grilled chunks of yogurt-marinated chicken drowned in red sauce. Or they might recall the earthy, kaleidoscopic aromas of cumin, coriander and turmeric from inside an Indian spice aisle. Maybe they imagine the sugary perfume of a hot cup of masala chai.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I’d bet they don’t think of is\u003ca href=\"https://www.worldcoffeeportal.com/5THWAVE/Podcast/2023/A-conversation-with-tata-starbucks\"> coffee\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Tanya Rao, owner of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kavericoffee/?hl=en\">Kaveri Coffee Works\u003c/a> — a small-scale, independent roasting business in Berkeley — coffee has been a family tradition for more than half a century. The Raos’ connection to coffee dates back to 1941, when Tanya’s grandfather, M.V. Rao, opened India Coffee Kiosk in Bangalore, India, in the Karnataka region — known for being the country’s largest coffee producer. When M.V. could no longer run the family trade, he passed it on to Tanya’s father, Mohan Rao. Ever since then, coffee has defined a sense of home and purpose for the men in Rao’s family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one, however, expected or groomed Tanya, the youngest daughter, to take up the mantle. Yet here she is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was next in line to get married,” Rao says. “But instead I broke barriers and challenged the status quo by leaving my [former] career to travel and own my business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Rao is leading a new wave of Bay Area coffee makers with a focus on empowering women of color in the coffee industry, which can often feel male-centric and white-dominant. Even at Berkeley’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.corocoffee.com/\">CoRo, the beautifully collaborative space where Rao roasts her coffee\u003c/a>, there was a visible lack of women during the busy morning I visited. That’s not to say women roasters don’t exist, but to see an Indian woman in a room full of male coffee roasters was scorchingly noticeable to me. Data reveals a gender gap in the coffee industry, with men accumulating a far greater share of the profits. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ico.org/documents/cy2017-18/icc-122-11e-gender-equality.pdf\">a report from the International Coffee Organization\u003c/a>, 70% of coffee labor worldwide is provided by women, while only 20% of coffee farms are women-owned. Similarly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.zippia.com/coffee-roaster-jobs/demographics/\">the American coffee roasting industry is heavily male-dominated\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-800x533.jpg\" alt='two bags of \"specialty coffee of India\" sit inside a coffee roasting warehouse in Berkeley' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_bags.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaveri Coffee Works owner Tanya Rao gets her coffee beans imported directly from growers in her native India. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Rao, however, those disparities are all a part of what fuels her mission to stand out as a radical coffee entrepreneur — one who is introducing Bay Areans to the delectable, relatively little-known world of Indian coffee beans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Americans are more likely to associate India with its tea rather than its coffee, South India — particularly the southwestern state of Karnataka — \u003ci>is \u003c/i>known for having a rich coffee culture. Karnataka is where Rao’s grandfather founded his coffee business, and it’s also where a Sufi saint named Baba Budan is believed to have planted India’s first coffee seeds over 300 years ago. The region maintains a year-round high-altitude climate that is lush for coffee cultivation. In fact, it’s helped make India \u003ca href=\"https://www.nescafe.com/gb/understanding-coffee/coffee-producing-countries/#:~:text=Brazil,producer%20for%20over%20150%20years.\">the eighth largest coffee producer in the world\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet in much of the Western world, Indian coffee is still largely unappreciated. British colonizers controlled India’s coffee industry for nearly 200 years until the Indian Independence Act was signed in 1947. As a result, most Indian coffee never made it to the Americas. Instead, it wound up being shipped to Europe, Australia and other parts of Asia, while a colonized Latin America developed its own coffee belt along the equator to supply the Western Hemisphere. Rao estimates that only 3% of coffee in the U.S. comes from India, while the majority of India’s coffee gets shipped to Italy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back in Karnataka? “Coffee is a part of our lives, a real luxury,” Rao says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Indian Coffee Revolution in the Bay\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A woman from Bangalore who grew up in a patriarchal capitalist society leaves her native country and defies traditional gender expectations to create her own coffee business in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having emigrated from India at age 17, Rao began her winding path with a degree in computer science from the University of Virginia in 2001. It’s what her parents wanted her to do. And for years, she did it. She worked as a finance engineer, trying to “build the perfect American dream.” But everything changed when Rao visited San Francisco for the first time and, after falling in love with the culture here, quit her job to relocate to the Bay Area in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932435\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"a woman scoops a handful of Indian coffee beans with her hands inside a roasting warehouse\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_beans-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanya Rao holds up a handful of “monsooned” coffee beans, which originated along the southern coast of India. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Here, she hiked toward self-discovery, leaving the financial sector behind to study outdoor recreation and tourism at San Francisco State, with an emphasis on social justice and cultural representation. Afterward, she became a women’s backpacking guide, which is about as far as she could’ve veered away from her life as someone with a prestigious career meant to appease her Indian family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is where people who are curious and want to try something new are,” Rao says. “I wanted something different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Rao’s father, who had moved to New Jersey, fell ill, she left everything to take care of him, reconnecting with her childhood memories of coffee. Before his passing, he offered his stake in the family coffee business, which had grown from a humble roadside stand pouring cups of joe during World War II to one of the nation’s first private coffee businesses, rebranding itself as New India Coffee Works in the early ’80s. Rao declined. As a result, the family business wound up shuttering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Rao decided to carry on her family’s legacy by launching Kaveri Coffee Works — named after a major river in Karnataka — in 2019. With her firsthand knowledge of both India’s coffee riches and the gaps in the Bay Area market for Indian coffee, she wanted to create a business that would bring attention to her home country’s scandalously overlooked brewing culture. She flew out to India to develop partnerships with women-owned farms around the Chikmagalur expanse of South India that now export their beans directly to Rao’s facility in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I attribute the Bay’s entrepreneurial environment to me being able to turn my idea into a business,” Rao says. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this on the East Coast, and it would’ve looked very differently for me in India.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932439\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932439\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"a mural of an Indian woman making filter coffee in India\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli1_mural.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural of a woman making Indian filter coffee in Karnataka. Painted by \u003ca href=\"https://geechugalu.wordpress.com/2021/10/31/enoch-dheeraj-ebenezer/\">Enoch Dheeraj Ebenezer\u003c/a>. \u003ccite>(Supriya Yelimeli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With virtually no other Indian specialty coffee makers in the Bay Area, Kaveri is filling a tall order. Surprisingly, for a region where Indian immigrants comprise \u003ca href=\"https://localnewsmatters.org/2022/08/26/ten-maps-that-show-where-asian-american-communities-reside-in-the-bay-area/\">the second largest Asian American community\u003c/a> (making the Bay Area the \u003ca href=\"https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-us-metropolitan-areas-with-the-highest-population-of-indians.html\">fifth largest Indian diaspora in the nation\u003c/a>), it’s quite rare to find a coffee maker who is strictly dedicated to roasting Indian coffee beans. In fact, Rao might be the only one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not aware of any Indian coffee makers like her in the Bay Area,” says Supriya Yelimeli, a first-generation Indian American who grew up in Fremont and is now a journalist at \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/author/supriya-yelimeli\">Berkeleyside\u003c/a>. “My experience with Indian coffee is attached to the home. My parents would get an egregious amount of Colombian coffee from Costco and use a drip coffee machine to try to replicate Indian filter coffee here. When I was growing up, they complained that they couldn’t get the kind of Indian coffee they wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yelimeli, who also has family roots in Karnataka, draws a distinction between “Indian-grown” coffee and “Indian-style” coffee, which doesn’t necessarily need to be made with Indian-grown coffee beans. Often, it involves some combination of chicory and milk, with a ritualistic preparation that relies on “bisi bisi” (or “piping hot”) temperatures. Brewed using a steel filter, the coffee comes out milky and frothy, and is wildly popular among Indian coffee drinkers.\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/PubmeU451L8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/PubmeU451L8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rao, for her part, mostly focuses on roasting Indian-grown coffee beans. But she also wants to use Kaveri as a platform to introduce customers to all different aspects of Indian coffee culture. In India, Rao explains, “pure coffee” is a drink largely reserved for the bourgeoisie. It’s expensive. But watered-down variations, like the chicory coffee, are still commonly consumed by the working classes of India. To make it, the coffee beans get diluted with ground chicory — a spice made from the root of a dandelion plant that was popular among French soldiers, and later adopted and brought to India by the British military. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some households, mixing hot water with just the chicory by itself is considered coffee, despite lacking any actual coffee grounds. Along with tea, chicory coffee is the most common (and affordable) drink you’ll find in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Selling a version of Indian chicory coffee is just one of the ways that Kaveri Coffee Works pays homage to Rao’s roots in India, \u003ca href=\"https://perfectdailygrind.com/2017/10/indias-specialty-coffee-journey-from-chicory-to-the-chemex/#:~:text=Over%20time%2C%20chicory%20root%20also,%2C%20New%20Orleans%2C%20and%20more.\">where the chicory blend is still extremely common\u003c/a>. Rao offers an 80/20 pre-ground mix that customers can brew at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a part of my cultural identity,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Monsooned Coffee and Espresso Liqueur\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The chicory coffee is only one of the distinctive aspects of Indian coffee that Rao wants to bring to the Bay Area. She explains that in many countries, mass-produced coffee is grown as a “monocrop,” in fields dedicated only to growing coffee. Indian coffee, on the other hand, has maintained its organic essence through “intercropping.” In southern India, coffee is grown in a natural rainforest next to pepper vines, cardamon, citrus, jackfruit, mangoes and other companion crops that enrich the soil. This lends the coffee hints of earthy chocolate and nutty spices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932436\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"a woman scoops up chicory mix that she blends with her Indian coffee\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/kaveri_ground-coffee-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tanya Rao adds chicory to her ground coffee to make a special “chicory blend,” which is popular in India. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because of Indian coffee’s high tolerance to extreme weather conditions, some farmers even expose their beans to monsoon storm conditions for weeks on end, allowing them to engorge and lose their natural acidity. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodfoodrevolution.com/monsooned-malabar-how-beards-clippers-and-monsoon-winds-gave-rise-to-a-new-type-of-coffee/\">monsooned malabar is a centuries-old method\u003c/a> that is uniquely specific to the coast of Karnataka — and one that’s become increasingly trendy in recent years. The result is a milder, mellower flavor than regular coffee, allowing for a laidback afternoon of sipping for pleasure rather than urgent morning functionality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Kaveri doesn’t sell monsooned beans at the moment, Rao already has a supplier and is currently experimenting with a recipe for roasting these rare single-origin beans in a way that might translate successfully for Bay Area drinkers. Rao notes that since monsoon beans are typically used for espresso drinks, they don’t taste as good when served as a simple drip coffee. If all goes to plan, she’ll start offering batches of her monsoon beans later this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to these traditional styles of Indian coffee, Rao embraces “the art as much as the science” of it all. She recently collaborated with Dissident Spirits Co., a new distillery in Richmond, to create an \u003ca href=\"https://shop.sipalkalirye.com/products/kaveri-espresso-liqueur\">espresso liqueur made by infusing vodka with Kaveri’s espresso beans\u003c/a>, then aging the boozy concoction in rum barrels. The liqueur might not be the sort of thing her family’s coffee company would have ever sold, but it’s yet another sign that Rao has developed her own personal relationship with coffee outside of what it would look and taste like back in India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She credits Bay Area businesses like Dissident and CoRo for providing a pathway for her to creatively explore her ancestry through experimental coffee roasting. The Bay Area also has a strong ecosystem for start-ups and entrepreneurs, which Rao has utilized by attending master classes at CoRo and participating in coffee cupping classes at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thecrownoak/?hl=en\">the Crown Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room\u003c/a> in Oakland — “like wine tasting, but for coffee,” she explains.\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>“I’m allowed to put on a different cultural persona here than I would in India,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In spite of Rao’s efforts, for the time being, Indian coffee remains relatively obscure in the Bay Area. Berkeleyside writer Yelimeli believes the reason it hasn’t yet filtered its way into the Bay Area has to do with the geography of where Indian coffee is produced — and the cultural implications of that geography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As far as Indian influence in the West goes, it usually comes from North India: Bollywood, Hindi language and other known cultural exports including chai. That’s all from the North,” she says. “Northern Indians don’t grow coffee so they don’t drink it as much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932441\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13932441\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a commercial coffee shop named Gayathri Coffee in India\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/SupriyaYelimeli3_coffeeshop.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Commercial coffee chains like Gayathri Coffee are becoming increasingly popular in Karnataka. \u003ccite>(Supriya Yelimeli)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With the emergence of Kaveri Coffee, Yelimeli hopes people’s awareness will start to change. Rao certainly thinks so. \u003ca href=\"https://kavericoffee.com/\">She currently only sells her coffee online\u003c/a> and at a fistful of Bay Area \u003ca href=\"https://kavericoffee.com/pages/locations\">markets and coffee shops\u003c/a>, including Albany’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kitchenette625/\">Kitchenette\u003c/a> and CoRo’s own \u003ca href=\"https://www.corocoffeeroom.com/\">onsite cafe\u003c/a>. But she hopes to continue expanding her business without losing the hands-on intimacy of small-batch coffee roasting. Perhaps a brick-and-mortar is next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s my birthright and duty to serve Indian coffee in the Bay Area,” Rao says. “I’m thinking of ways to do it authentically. I don’t want anything to be lost in translation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12127869 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kavericoffee/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Kaveri Coffee\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> can be found online and at select Bay Area locations, including CoRo (2322 Fifth St., Berkeley) and Rainbow Grocery Cooperative (1745 Folsom St., San Francisco). Rao will appear at this year’s \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcoffeefestival.com/\">\u003ci>San Francisco Coffee Festival \u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>(Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture Festival Pavilion, 2 Marina Blvd., SF) on Nov. 11 and 12 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcoffeefestival.com/tickets\">\u003ci>Tickets\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are currently available at a discounted price.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Taiwanese People Love Outdoor Grilling",
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"content": "\u003cp>It was one of the most Taiwanese things I’d ever seen in the Bay: a crowd of hungry people lined up in front of a long, makeshift charcoal grill on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901982/good-to-eat-dumplings-new-taiwanese-restaurant-emeryville\">Good to Eat Dumplings\u003c/a>’ string light–bedecked side patio, everyone gawking at the huge-ass chicken cutlets and Taiwanese sausages charring and sizzling over the flames. More than anything, what hit me was the distinctive smell of \u003ca href=\"https://tastecooking.com/there-is-no-substitute-for-shacha-sauce/\">shacha\u003c/a>, aka Taiwanese barbecue sauce, wafting through the air, smoky and a little bit spicy, undergirded with the pungency of dried fish — a smell intimately familiar to anyone who’s ever strolled through a Taiwanese night market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We missed that shacha-filled aroma,” says Angie Lin, who runs Good to Eat Dumplings along with her wife Tony Tung, the restaurant’s chef. “It made all of us so excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last September’s Taiwanese-style barbecue event at Good to Eat was probably \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921917/best-dishes-bay-area-2022\">my favorite food event of the year\u003c/a>. This weekend, the Emeryville restaurant is running it back, this time for two nights — \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CvAqlQeyzLd/?img_index=1\">July 29 and 30\u003c/a> — instead of one, in hopes of satisfying what wound up being a huge demand. As it turns out, Lin and Tung weren’t the only ones nostalgic for Taiwanese barbecue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932058\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line.jpg\" alt=\"A line of customers waiting in front of a charcoal grill, where various Taiwanese barbecue items are cooking.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ambiance at Good to Eat’s inaugural Taiwanese BBQ event evoked a typical Taiwanese street food scene. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The inaugural edition of the event took place during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which for Taiwanese people is probably even more closely associated with outdoor grilling than the Fourth of July is for Americans. As Lin explains it, people in Taiwan have always loved grilling outdoors, but it became codified as a national pastime of sorts in the early ’80s, when a barbecue sauce company launched a big advertising campaign during the lead-up to Mid-Autumn Festival. Lin remembers TV commercials that emphasized how nice it was to sit and chat in the park while skewers of marinated meat sizzled on the grill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For Taiwanese people, you need to get together [for Mid-Autumn Festival] anyway,” she says. “You want to stay outside to enjoy mooncake and watch the full moon. And during that whole season, the temperature in Taiwan is just right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, almost everyone grills for Mid-Autumn Festival — and, really, all throughout the relatively cool and comfortable fall months. But Taiwanese grilling culture is a different beast from how most Americans think of grilling. The grills are small and portable, and the cuts of meat tend to be smaller too — no one is grilling thick steaks. One of my fondest memories from living in Taiwan was when my co-workers slapped a metal grate on top of the rim of a car tire for an impromptu grilling session. Squatting on the sidewalk while you devour a fistful of shacha-slathered meat skewers: That’s the quintessential Taiwanese experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932059\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932059\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn.jpg\" alt=\"Four ears of sauce-slathered corn cook on a grill.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grilled corn slathered in shacha sauce is a Taiwanese street food classic. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Good to Eat Dumplings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, there’s the unique Taiwanese taste. For many Americans, “barbecue sauce” tends to connote a sweet and tangy tomato- or vinegar-based condiment. Taiwanese shacha, on the other hand, is soy sauce–based, seasoned with an assortment of intensely flavored spices, aromatics and, usually, dried brill fish and dried shrimp. It’s a cousin of Southeast Asian satay, Lin explains — very savory and loaded with umami.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13897936,arts_13901982,arts_13915306']\u003c/span>Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Sept. 29 this year, but Lin and Tung figured they’d kick off their grilling season a little bit early. So, this weekend’s event will feature several staples of Taiwanese barbecue and night market culture. There will be grilled chicken cutlets or pork chops (they’re still deciding), corn on the cob, fish balls, fish cakes, pork blood cakes and foil packets filled with vegetables and mushrooms. Most of the items will get a liberal brush of shacha before they’re thrown onto the grill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each $55 ticket will buy you six tokens that you can use at various stations at the event — two tokens for a larger main course and one token for almost everything else. The idea, Lin says, is for each ticket to provide for a full, and very filling, meal for one person: say, a big, juicy grilled chicken cutlet, a couple of side dishes, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">bowl of lu rou fan\u003c/a> and a cold beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the items will be new to diners whose only exposure to Taiwanese food is boba or popcorn chicken or beef noodle soup — the handful of dishes that have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">gotten mainstream exposure\u003c/a>. And, really, what sets Good to Eat apart from the bulk of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897936/best-taiwanese-restaurants-sf-oakland-cupertino-bay-area\">Bay Area’s Taiwanese restaurants\u003c/a> is Lin and Tung’s commitment to sharing their love of the culture with their customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932060\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932060\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage.jpg\" alt=\"Skewers of zucchini and Taiwanese sausage in a metal tray.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not only will guests be able to eat these sausages, they’ll be able to gamble for them too. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Good to Eat Dumplings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Toward that end, they’ve added another fun wrinkle to this barbecue event: a Taiwanese sausage station where they’ll not only introduce diners to plump, sweet Taiwanese sausages but also to the very Taiwanese game of sausage \u003ci>gambling\u003c/i>. At every traditional sausage stand in Taiwan, Lin explains, they’ll always have a bowl with four dice and the option to bet against the sausage stand owner. If you get a lucky roll? “You can win a lot of sausages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, it’s not for gambling; it’s more for fun,” Lin says. Guests at this weekend’s event are sure to walk away with full stomachs — and, if they’re lucky, they might even get three sausages for the price of one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>Good to Eat Dumplings (1298 65th St., Emeryville) will host its Taiwanese barbecue event on Sat., July 29 and Sunday, July 30, from 4:30–9:30 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/events\">\u003ci>Tickets for specific time slots are available online\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (and are expected to sell out early).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It was one of the most Taiwanese things I’d ever seen in the Bay: a crowd of hungry people lined up in front of a long, makeshift charcoal grill on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901982/good-to-eat-dumplings-new-taiwanese-restaurant-emeryville\">Good to Eat Dumplings\u003c/a>’ string light–bedecked side patio, everyone gawking at the huge-ass chicken cutlets and Taiwanese sausages charring and sizzling over the flames. More than anything, what hit me was the distinctive smell of \u003ca href=\"https://tastecooking.com/there-is-no-substitute-for-shacha-sauce/\">shacha\u003c/a>, aka Taiwanese barbecue sauce, wafting through the air, smoky and a little bit spicy, undergirded with the pungency of dried fish — a smell intimately familiar to anyone who’s ever strolled through a Taiwanese night market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We missed that shacha-filled aroma,” says Angie Lin, who runs Good to Eat Dumplings along with her wife Tony Tung, the restaurant’s chef. “It made all of us so excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last September’s Taiwanese-style barbecue event at Good to Eat was probably \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921917/best-dishes-bay-area-2022\">my favorite food event of the year\u003c/a>. This weekend, the Emeryville restaurant is running it back, this time for two nights — \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CvAqlQeyzLd/?img_index=1\">July 29 and 30\u003c/a> — instead of one, in hopes of satisfying what wound up being a huge demand. As it turns out, Lin and Tung weren’t the only ones nostalgic for Taiwanese barbecue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932058\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line.jpg\" alt=\"A line of customers waiting in front of a charcoal grill, where various Taiwanese barbecue items are cooking.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_line-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ambiance at Good to Eat’s inaugural Taiwanese BBQ event evoked a typical Taiwanese street food scene. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The inaugural edition of the event took place during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which for Taiwanese people is probably even more closely associated with outdoor grilling than the Fourth of July is for Americans. As Lin explains it, people in Taiwan have always loved grilling outdoors, but it became codified as a national pastime of sorts in the early ’80s, when a barbecue sauce company launched a big advertising campaign during the lead-up to Mid-Autumn Festival. Lin remembers TV commercials that emphasized how nice it was to sit and chat in the park while skewers of marinated meat sizzled on the grill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For Taiwanese people, you need to get together [for Mid-Autumn Festival] anyway,” she says. “You want to stay outside to enjoy mooncake and watch the full moon. And during that whole season, the temperature in Taiwan is just right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, almost everyone grills for Mid-Autumn Festival — and, really, all throughout the relatively cool and comfortable fall months. But Taiwanese grilling culture is a different beast from how most Americans think of grilling. The grills are small and portable, and the cuts of meat tend to be smaller too — no one is grilling thick steaks. One of my fondest memories from living in Taiwan was when my co-workers slapped a metal grate on top of the rim of a car tire for an impromptu grilling session. Squatting on the sidewalk while you devour a fistful of shacha-slathered meat skewers: That’s the quintessential Taiwanese experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932059\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932059\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn.jpg\" alt=\"Four ears of sauce-slathered corn cook on a grill.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_corn-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grilled corn slathered in shacha sauce is a Taiwanese street food classic. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Good to Eat Dumplings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, there’s the unique Taiwanese taste. For many Americans, “barbecue sauce” tends to connote a sweet and tangy tomato- or vinegar-based condiment. Taiwanese shacha, on the other hand, is soy sauce–based, seasoned with an assortment of intensely flavored spices, aromatics and, usually, dried brill fish and dried shrimp. It’s a cousin of Southeast Asian satay, Lin explains — very savory and loaded with umami.\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>Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Sept. 29 this year, but Lin and Tung figured they’d kick off their grilling season a little bit early. So, this weekend’s event will feature several staples of Taiwanese barbecue and night market culture. There will be grilled chicken cutlets or pork chops (they’re still deciding), corn on the cob, fish balls, fish cakes, pork blood cakes and foil packets filled with vegetables and mushrooms. Most of the items will get a liberal brush of shacha before they’re thrown onto the grill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each $55 ticket will buy you six tokens that you can use at various stations at the event — two tokens for a larger main course and one token for almost everything else. The idea, Lin says, is for each ticket to provide for a full, and very filling, meal for one person: say, a big, juicy grilled chicken cutlet, a couple of side dishes, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">bowl of lu rou fan\u003c/a> and a cold beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the items will be new to diners whose only exposure to Taiwanese food is boba or popcorn chicken or beef noodle soup — the handful of dishes that have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">gotten mainstream exposure\u003c/a>. And, really, what sets Good to Eat apart from the bulk of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897936/best-taiwanese-restaurants-sf-oakland-cupertino-bay-area\">Bay Area’s Taiwanese restaurants\u003c/a> is Lin and Tung’s commitment to sharing their love of the culture with their customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13932060\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13932060\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage.jpg\" alt=\"Skewers of zucchini and Taiwanese sausage in a metal tray.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/good-to-eat_sausage-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not only will guests be able to eat these sausages, they’ll be able to gamble for them too. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Good to Eat Dumplings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Toward that end, they’ve added another fun wrinkle to this barbecue event: a Taiwanese sausage station where they’ll not only introduce diners to plump, sweet Taiwanese sausages but also to the very Taiwanese game of sausage \u003ci>gambling\u003c/i>. At every traditional sausage stand in Taiwan, Lin explains, they’ll always have a bowl with four dice and the option to bet against the sausage stand owner. If you get a lucky roll? “You can win a lot of sausages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, it’s not for gambling; it’s more for fun,” Lin says. Guests at this weekend’s event are sure to walk away with full stomachs — and, if they’re lucky, they might even get three sausages for the price of one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>Good to Eat Dumplings (1298 65th St., Emeryville) will host its Taiwanese barbecue event on Sat., July 29 and Sunday, July 30, from 4:30–9:30 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/events\">\u003ci>Tickets for specific time slots are available online\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (and are expected to sell out early).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "urelio-s-pizza-west-berkeley-pickup-truck-pop-up-hella-hungry",
"title": "This Pizza-On-Wheels Pop-Up Roams the East Bay’s Streets",
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"content": "\u003cp>In my former life as a UC Berkeley student, the industrial blocks around Gilman Street in West Berkeley never seemed to offer much outside of Pyramid Brewing — which was one of the first microbreweries in the region but, sadly, \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/pyramid-alehouses-berkeley-location-shuts-down-2-1/\">no longer exists\u003c/a>. Admittedly, I don’t remember visiting Gilman very often in those days, unless I needed to reach the freeway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, however, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/04/14/berkeley-natural-wine-guide\">a sparkling concentration of wineries and breweries\u003c/a> have emerged to revitalize this particular stretch of the neighborhood, turning sparse lots into an inviting space to imbibe natural wines and explore a constant rotation of the Bay Area’s latest food pop-ups. And I’m here for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area — anchored around the intersection of Gilman and Fifth — offers a combination of outdoor seating, chill warehouse vibes and a mingling of young families and hipster adults in an easily overlooked sliver of the East Bay. It’s an ideal location for something like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ureliospizza/?hl=en\">Urelio’s\u003c/a>, a pop-up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/pizza\">pizzeria\u003c/a> on wheels run from the back of a 1989 Ford F-250. Owners Samuel Ciccarelli and Rosie Dooley toss their pizzas all over the East Bay, but they most frequently appear at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/broccellars/?hl=en\">Broc Cellars\u003c/a>, one of West Berkeley’s most popular upstart wineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a pizza traditionalist infatuated with the classically thin Neapolitan crust, then Urelio’s is definitely your kind of slice. Envision an oven-fresh, fire-kissed chewiness with simple, quality toppings. Without question, Ciccarelli, the main pizza chef, has perfected the balance of old-world favorites like the classic margherita and marinara. He also obsesses over seasonal showcases, including a corn, mushroom and lemon pie this summer, and an experimental rendition of vitello tonnato (an elegant Italian dish of veal with tuna sauce).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While slammed with orders on a hot July afternoon, Ciccarelli and his team turned naturally leavened sourdough into wood-flamed perfection with nothing more than a bundle of fresh ingredients, patience and a love for excellent pie-making. Here’s what Ciccarelli had to say about his journey from working as a cook in high-end kitchens around the country to shoveling pizzas from the back of his truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931322\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931322\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-800x541.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt takes a pizza out of an oven that is attached to a pick up truck at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"800\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-1020x690.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-768x519.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-1536x1039.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam.jpg 1893w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Ciccarelli patiently stokes the fire and handles pizza making from a self-built oven at Urelio’s. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALAN CHAZARO: I get the sense that Urelio’s is a tribute to someone important in your life. What’s your connection to that name?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931313\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13931313 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_dough_720.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt stretches pizza dough at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"480\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_dough_720.jpg 480w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_dough_720-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naturally leavened dough is prepared for the oven. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SAM CICCARELLI:\u003c/b> That’s my great-grandfather’s name. He used to live in Modesto on our family ranch and we’d go to his house for big family gatherings. Full tables of pasta, salad, tri-tip. My earliest food memories were always at his house as a central gathering place. It felt proper to pay respect to him and the atmosphere he curated for the family. His parents immigrated here from Italy, first to San Jose, then Modesto. Back then, they had a family farm that grew almonds and walnuts. Urelio lived on that farm throughout his life, and now my grandfather lives on the ranch. They sold the orchards but still live on the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Did you grow up in Modesto as well?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I grew up in Modesto, but a lot of our family lives in the Bay Area. I spent summers in San Francisco at my aunt and uncle’s apartment, right near Ghirardelli Square. I would skate around there and eat food. It left a big impression on me. I’ve been fortunate to travel to other places, but every time I visit a new city it makes me reflect on how much I love the Bay and want to invest in this community. My partner, Rosie, feels the same. We’ve both always wanted to have a restaurant in San Francisco, and that’s still our goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You began by working at restaurants in New York City, and later at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. What was your role there, and what drew you towards pizza making?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My role changed quite a bit at Chez over my four years there. I was an intern at first, then I worked the line — the pizza oven, the grill, the salad station. I always loved pizza. My first job ever was at a place in Modesto that served tapas and pizza. We always ordered pizza there, and it was owned by family friends. I had never really thought too much about making it, though, until I had exposure at Chez. My partner Rosie and I met while working there. When we went on dates, she’d always take us out to pizza places. I realized later on that she was listening to me more than I was listening to myself, since I always talked about pizza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Chez-Panisse-Berkeley-takeout-sandwiches-Waters-15446533.php\">Chez began doing a marketplace\u003c/a> because of shelter in place, there came a time when we were going to do pizzas, and the chefs asked me to help get that off the ground. To go from not working with food for months and then being in front of the oven again, starting fires, making pizzas every day, it was a major outlet that I wanted to focus on. Pizza is such a common ground for people. It’s approachable for anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931309\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931309\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt places toppings on pizzas at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Urelio’s uses naturally leavened dough with seasonal California ingredients. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you ever been to Italy?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I still have family there along the Adriatic in a tiny fishing village. They visited us about 10 years ago. I’ve been to Europe and interned at Noma in Copenhagen, but I actually haven’t been to Italy yet. We’re due to visit it soon and plan to go on our honeymoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You operate Urelio’s from a mobile oven attached to a modified Ford F-250 truck. Tell me about the oven — and about the truck — and how it all came together for you.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I knew I really wanted to make pizza and was thinking of a way to get our product out. In a world with a lot of pizza makers doing similar things, I was thinking of doing something different. I’ve always liked classic stuff — old cars, things like that. At first I was thinking of making a pizza trailer, but I’d seen that, and I didn’t even have a trailer. But my family used to have a Ford truck on the family ranch. It’s a simple, clean look. I wondered about building an oven on a truck like that. It’s one of the only vehicles that can actually hold the weight. So I bought [a Ford F-250] from a dairy farmer in Petaluma. That was the first piece for us, and then we conceptualized the oven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931324\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931324\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a vintage Ford pick up with a Urelio's Pizza logo on the passenger door\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Urelio’s 1989 Ford F-250 reminds Ciccareli of his great grandfather’s life as a Modesto farmer. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How does one build and install a pizza oven on a truck?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13928196,arts_13917120,arts_13930138']\u003c/span>It’s a lot of work. I bought the core of the oven precast, and we mounted it onto the truck bed and built from there. What goes into building it, you can use a steel core or refractory cement. There’s a specific one I love from Italy. The floor is one piece so there’s no cracks, and it’s better for heat retention and not allowing cold spots. I have no masonry experience, so I couldn’t cast it myself. So you can buy the core and the internal dome. You get about 1,200 pounds of oven. Then you do the rest: a plate on the bottom, vibration isolators under that. You weld a mold around it to hold it all in place. We used aircraft cables over that. It’s fully on the plate. It’ll only come off with a forklift if I unbolt it first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have another job, so it was a lot to do whenever we could. My friend who helped would come over after his job, and then we’d work on the oven at night with headlamps. It took about two months to build it and make it usable. It was a great workout for the tendons in my wrist and arms that I never even knew I had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It seems laborious, but clearly the results are delicious. What draws you to the grind of making wood-fired pizzas without taking any shortcuts?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love the romance of it. It feels primal to take a fire in an oven and tend it through the day and then try to control it and make a product that already can be wild, especially when it’s naturally leavened. There’s levels to the details you have to pay attention to. Like making art. If you throw too many logs, the temperature spikes and it won’t come out right. There’s a delicate balance, and I feel connected to that craft. Using fire was one of the first ways pizza was made in Naples. I think it’s cool to be connected to those roots. There’s always tweaks to be made, but if it’s just right — the proofing, the fire, the balanced toppings, a crispy oven bake, the timing — it feels perfect. It’s too nice of an end product to be okay with anything less than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931310\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931310\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt slices a baloney and cheese pizza at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A whole pie is freshly sliced at Urelio’s. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>On weeknights my family usually just orders Little Caesars, but I appreciate the artistry and delicacy of the craft.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a place for everything. I love all pizza. I’ll eat it all. That’s the fun thing. There are so many pizza genres. They’re all different kinds of expressions. I personally just love the wood fire. Starting the fire every morning is so peaceful. You continually stoke it for the entire day. It’s a careful balance. You might notice the oven dipping, so you have to choose a certain size of log. Or it might be too intense and you have to scale back. I have to split logs ahead of time and sort them by size at home, and then I stack them in a certain way by the truck so I know which ones to use depending on what the fire needs when I’m on the line. If there are lots of customers that day and I have to pump out more pizzas, I’ll toss in the biggest log. Those kinds of things. It’s a fun challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What are your thoughts on the Bay Area’s pizza scene overall, and who — besides yourself — makes your favorite pies?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is having a pizza moment right now. There’s lots of attention on it. Rosie and I love going to \u003ca href=\"https://www.rosepizzeria.com/\">Rose Pizzeria\u003c/a> in Berkeley. It’s a cozy family spot with tasty stuff and great wine. I also enjoy \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thatsouttasight/?hl=en\">Outta Sight Pizza\u003c/a> in the Tenderloin. It’s a slice shop. Super cool. It’s run by some skaters, and I used to skateboard, so I like that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928196/pizza-supreme-being-sourdough-punk-rock-skateboard-merch-sacramento\">connection between pizza makers and people into skating\u003c/a>, punk, surfing. I feel that connection and admire seeing it from afar. I also love Pollara, although \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2023/6/12/23758287/berkeley-pollara-pizzeria-closing\">I heard they’re moving back to New Jersey\u003c/a>. Oh, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pizzeriadelfina/?hl=en\">Delfina\u003c/a>. That’s a classic San Franciscan spot I ate at growing up. One of the people who trained me at Chez worked there for a long time. It’s sentimental.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ureliospizza/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Urelio’s Pizza\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> operates on a limited pop-up schedule with rotating locations around the East Bay. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ureliospizza.com/\">\u003ci>Check their page for details\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> about upcoming events.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Urelio's serves old-world Italian pizza with seasonal California toppings — from the back of a pickup truck.",
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"title": "Urelio's Slings Pizza From the Back of Pickup Truck in Berkeley | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In my former life as a UC Berkeley student, the industrial blocks around Gilman Street in West Berkeley never seemed to offer much outside of Pyramid Brewing — which was one of the first microbreweries in the region but, sadly, \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/pyramid-alehouses-berkeley-location-shuts-down-2-1/\">no longer exists\u003c/a>. Admittedly, I don’t remember visiting Gilman very often in those days, unless I needed to reach the freeway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, however, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/04/14/berkeley-natural-wine-guide\">a sparkling concentration of wineries and breweries\u003c/a> have emerged to revitalize this particular stretch of the neighborhood, turning sparse lots into an inviting space to imbibe natural wines and explore a constant rotation of the Bay Area’s latest food pop-ups. And I’m here for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area — anchored around the intersection of Gilman and Fifth — offers a combination of outdoor seating, chill warehouse vibes and a mingling of young families and hipster adults in an easily overlooked sliver of the East Bay. It’s an ideal location for something like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ureliospizza/?hl=en\">Urelio’s\u003c/a>, a pop-up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/pizza\">pizzeria\u003c/a> on wheels run from the back of a 1989 Ford F-250. Owners Samuel Ciccarelli and Rosie Dooley toss their pizzas all over the East Bay, but they most frequently appear at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/broccellars/?hl=en\">Broc Cellars\u003c/a>, one of West Berkeley’s most popular upstart wineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a pizza traditionalist infatuated with the classically thin Neapolitan crust, then Urelio’s is definitely your kind of slice. Envision an oven-fresh, fire-kissed chewiness with simple, quality toppings. Without question, Ciccarelli, the main pizza chef, has perfected the balance of old-world favorites like the classic margherita and marinara. He also obsesses over seasonal showcases, including a corn, mushroom and lemon pie this summer, and an experimental rendition of vitello tonnato (an elegant Italian dish of veal with tuna sauce).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While slammed with orders on a hot July afternoon, Ciccarelli and his team turned naturally leavened sourdough into wood-flamed perfection with nothing more than a bundle of fresh ingredients, patience and a love for excellent pie-making. Here’s what Ciccarelli had to say about his journey from working as a cook in high-end kitchens around the country to shoveling pizzas from the back of his truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931322\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931322\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-800x541.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt takes a pizza out of an oven that is attached to a pick up truck at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"800\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-1020x690.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-768x519.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam-1536x1039.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/Sam.jpg 1893w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Ciccarelli patiently stokes the fire and handles pizza making from a self-built oven at Urelio’s. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALAN CHAZARO: I get the sense that Urelio’s is a tribute to someone important in your life. What’s your connection to that name?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931313\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13931313 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_dough_720.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt stretches pizza dough at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"480\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_dough_720.jpg 480w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_dough_720-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naturally leavened dough is prepared for the oven. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SAM CICCARELLI:\u003c/b> That’s my great-grandfather’s name. He used to live in Modesto on our family ranch and we’d go to his house for big family gatherings. Full tables of pasta, salad, tri-tip. My earliest food memories were always at his house as a central gathering place. It felt proper to pay respect to him and the atmosphere he curated for the family. His parents immigrated here from Italy, first to San Jose, then Modesto. Back then, they had a family farm that grew almonds and walnuts. Urelio lived on that farm throughout his life, and now my grandfather lives on the ranch. They sold the orchards but still live on the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Did you grow up in Modesto as well?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I grew up in Modesto, but a lot of our family lives in the Bay Area. I spent summers in San Francisco at my aunt and uncle’s apartment, right near Ghirardelli Square. I would skate around there and eat food. It left a big impression on me. I’ve been fortunate to travel to other places, but every time I visit a new city it makes me reflect on how much I love the Bay and want to invest in this community. My partner, Rosie, feels the same. We’ve both always wanted to have a restaurant in San Francisco, and that’s still our goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You began by working at restaurants in New York City, and later at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. What was your role there, and what drew you towards pizza making?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My role changed quite a bit at Chez over my four years there. I was an intern at first, then I worked the line — the pizza oven, the grill, the salad station. I always loved pizza. My first job ever was at a place in Modesto that served tapas and pizza. We always ordered pizza there, and it was owned by family friends. I had never really thought too much about making it, though, until I had exposure at Chez. My partner Rosie and I met while working there. When we went on dates, she’d always take us out to pizza places. I realized later on that she was listening to me more than I was listening to myself, since I always talked about pizza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Chez-Panisse-Berkeley-takeout-sandwiches-Waters-15446533.php\">Chez began doing a marketplace\u003c/a> because of shelter in place, there came a time when we were going to do pizzas, and the chefs asked me to help get that off the ground. To go from not working with food for months and then being in front of the oven again, starting fires, making pizzas every day, it was a major outlet that I wanted to focus on. Pizza is such a common ground for people. It’s approachable for anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931309\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931309\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt places toppings on pizzas at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_making.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Urelio’s uses naturally leavened dough with seasonal California ingredients. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you ever been to Italy?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I still have family there along the Adriatic in a tiny fishing village. They visited us about 10 years ago. I’ve been to Europe and interned at Noma in Copenhagen, but I actually haven’t been to Italy yet. We’re due to visit it soon and plan to go on our honeymoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You operate Urelio’s from a mobile oven attached to a modified Ford F-250 truck. Tell me about the oven — and about the truck — and how it all came together for you.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I knew I really wanted to make pizza and was thinking of a way to get our product out. In a world with a lot of pizza makers doing similar things, I was thinking of doing something different. I’ve always liked classic stuff — old cars, things like that. At first I was thinking of making a pizza trailer, but I’d seen that, and I didn’t even have a trailer. But my family used to have a Ford truck on the family ranch. It’s a simple, clean look. I wondered about building an oven on a truck like that. It’s one of the only vehicles that can actually hold the weight. So I bought [a Ford F-250] from a dairy farmer in Petaluma. That was the first piece for us, and then we conceptualized the oven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931324\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931324\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a vintage Ford pick up with a Urelio's Pizza logo on the passenger door\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_truck.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Urelio’s 1989 Ford F-250 reminds Ciccareli of his great grandfather’s life as a Modesto farmer. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How does one build and install a pizza oven on a truck?\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>\u003c/span>It’s a lot of work. I bought the core of the oven precast, and we mounted it onto the truck bed and built from there. What goes into building it, you can use a steel core or refractory cement. There’s a specific one I love from Italy. The floor is one piece so there’s no cracks, and it’s better for heat retention and not allowing cold spots. I have no masonry experience, so I couldn’t cast it myself. So you can buy the core and the internal dome. You get about 1,200 pounds of oven. Then you do the rest: a plate on the bottom, vibration isolators under that. You weld a mold around it to hold it all in place. We used aircraft cables over that. It’s fully on the plate. It’ll only come off with a forklift if I unbolt it first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have another job, so it was a lot to do whenever we could. My friend who helped would come over after his job, and then we’d work on the oven at night with headlamps. It took about two months to build it and make it usable. It was a great workout for the tendons in my wrist and arms that I never even knew I had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It seems laborious, but clearly the results are delicious. What draws you to the grind of making wood-fired pizzas without taking any shortcuts?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love the romance of it. It feels primal to take a fire in an oven and tend it through the day and then try to control it and make a product that already can be wild, especially when it’s naturally leavened. There’s levels to the details you have to pay attention to. Like making art. If you throw too many logs, the temperature spikes and it won’t come out right. There’s a delicate balance, and I feel connected to that craft. Using fire was one of the first ways pizza was made in Naples. I think it’s cool to be connected to those roots. There’s always tweaks to be made, but if it’s just right — the proofing, the fire, the balanced toppings, a crispy oven bake, the timing — it feels perfect. It’s too nice of an end product to be okay with anything less than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931310\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13931310\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a Urelio's Pizza shirt slices a baloney and cheese pizza at an outdoor food pop-up in Berkeley\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/urelios_mortadella_pie-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A whole pie is freshly sliced at Urelio’s. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>On weeknights my family usually just orders Little Caesars, but I appreciate the artistry and delicacy of the craft.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a place for everything. I love all pizza. I’ll eat it all. That’s the fun thing. There are so many pizza genres. They’re all different kinds of expressions. I personally just love the wood fire. Starting the fire every morning is so peaceful. You continually stoke it for the entire day. It’s a careful balance. You might notice the oven dipping, so you have to choose a certain size of log. Or it might be too intense and you have to scale back. I have to split logs ahead of time and sort them by size at home, and then I stack them in a certain way by the truck so I know which ones to use depending on what the fire needs when I’m on the line. If there are lots of customers that day and I have to pump out more pizzas, I’ll toss in the biggest log. Those kinds of things. It’s a fun challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What are your thoughts on the Bay Area’s pizza scene overall, and who — besides yourself — makes your favorite pies?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is having a pizza moment right now. There’s lots of attention on it. Rosie and I love going to \u003ca href=\"https://www.rosepizzeria.com/\">Rose Pizzeria\u003c/a> in Berkeley. It’s a cozy family spot with tasty stuff and great wine. I also enjoy \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thatsouttasight/?hl=en\">Outta Sight Pizza\u003c/a> in the Tenderloin. It’s a slice shop. Super cool. It’s run by some skaters, and I used to skateboard, so I like that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928196/pizza-supreme-being-sourdough-punk-rock-skateboard-merch-sacramento\">connection between pizza makers and people into skating\u003c/a>, punk, surfing. I feel that connection and admire seeing it from afar. I also love Pollara, although \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2023/6/12/23758287/berkeley-pollara-pizzeria-closing\">I heard they’re moving back to New Jersey\u003c/a>. Oh, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pizzeriadelfina/?hl=en\">Delfina\u003c/a>. That’s a classic San Franciscan spot I ate at growing up. One of the people who trained me at Chez worked there for a long time. It’s sentimental.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ureliospizza/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Urelio’s Pizza\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> operates on a limited pop-up schedule with rotating locations around the East Bay. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ureliospizza.com/\">\u003ci>Check their page for details\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> about upcoming events.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The East Bay’s Hottest Brunch Is a Dip Lover’s Paradise",
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"content": "\u003cp>The first time I tried to eat at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CRW2FMbLsRd/\">Lulu\u003c/a>, I had no idea it was one of the hardest-to-snag brunch reservations in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick Google Maps search had clued me in to the availability of Palestinian mezzes in this sleepy stretch of West Berkeley. But the sign outside said that weekend brunch service was by reservation only — and, as a sweetly apologetic server informed us, they were already fully booked for the day. This proved to be a running refrain: The following weekend, I called first thing in the morning. Fully booked. I planned ahead and tried calling on a Wednesday. Booked all weekend long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time I secured a table — more than a week in advance — it felt like a minor miracle. (“Usually you have to call two or three weeks ahead,” a Lulu employee later told me.) But when my family finally sat down for our long-awaited mezze brunch, it didn’t take long to understand why reservations are such a hot ticket. One bite of chef Mona Leena Michael’s silky, umami-forward chili hummus, loaded with pine nuts and shimeiji mushrooms, and I was already making plans for my next visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This restaurant is a dip lover’s paradise\u003c/i>, I thought to myself, scooping up more hummus with a hunk of rich sumac focaccia. And that was before I’d even tasted the creamy muhammara or the spicy, tangy fava bean dip known as ful. The spreads come as part of Lulu’s abundant and extremely \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lulu.berkeley/tagged/\">Instagram-friendly\u003c/a> $30-a-person prix-fixe brunch spread, which takes the time-tested Palestinian tradition of feasting on assorted dips, and things to dip, and turns it into a special occasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931334\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles.jpg\" alt=\"A woman's hands holding a bowl of pita chips topped with shakshouka sauce and soft-scrambled eggs.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Early Girl ‘shouka-quiles’ are a cross between shakshouka and chilaquiles. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Lulu/StarChefs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Michael tells it, the restaurant is a particular creature of the pandemic. As soon as lockdown hit, she was laid off from her job as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/B01UTw6h-5g/?hl=en\">chef at Dyafa\u003c/a>, an upscale Arab restaurant on the Jack London waterfront that never wound up reopening. She hustled flatbreads out of her apartment for a while — as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/themanaeeshlady/\">the Mana’eesh Lady\u003c/a>” — until someone \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/A-Palestinian-food-pop-up-was-shut-down-for-15558018.php\">ratted her out\u003c/a> to the Alameda County health department. It was at this point that Michael came across the tiny, out-of-the-way space on Camelia Street that used to be a British tea room. She opened Lulu there in August of 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The setting helped shape the concept. Inspired by the charmingly bedecked three-tiered cake stands she’d always loved at classic tea rooms like Lovejoy’s in San Francisco, Michael came up with the idea of doing a big brunch board topped with elegant versions of Palestinian mezzes and dips — a kind of “Arabic high tea,” she explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13928345,arts_13894684,arts_13899700']\u003c/span>“The goal was to create something that wasn’t just a basic dining experience,” Michael says. “With the pandemic, people really needed a reason to go out — something special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What that means, in part, is that aesthetics are a big part of the restaurant’s appeal. A big mezze board is going to be a thing of beauty at almost any Turkish or Palestinian restaurant, but at Lulu, I watched a member of the staff spend several minutes arranging individual sprigs of mint on the board like a master florist. It’s the kind of eye-catching, slightly over-the-top presentation that elicits oohs and ahhs when it hits the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the exact makeup of the brunch prix fixe changes from week to week, it generally consists of three dips, three types of bread (mana’eesh, sesame seed–topped Jerusalem bagels and sumac focaccia), crudités, falafel, a seasonal vegetable and one additional item — “something fun,” Michael says, like fried za’atar polenta topped with whipped feta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931337\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy.jpg\" alt=\"Portrait of a chef in a pink shirt and floral apron, standing in front of her restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Mona Leena Michael’s concept for Lulu was a kind of “Arabic high tea.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Lulu/StarChefs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Really, though, all of the food is meant to be fun and not strictly traditional. “I like to say that Lulu is a California restaurant with Palestinian influence,” Michael says, explaining that she developed an appreciation for all of the Bay Area’s diverse food cultures while growing up in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Palestinians don’t flavor their hummus with chilis,” she says. “I didn’t want to open up another Arabic restaurant that just serves the same BS. I didn’t want to just do shawarma and hummus and pita bread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every item on Lulu’s bread board takes Michael’s Palestinian family recipes — as well as the Egyptian food traditions of Lulu’s other chef, Peter Girgis — and riffs off of them in playful ways. The falafel comes crowned with a smear of chili-flecked black garlic tahini. The ful — listed on the menu as “refried beans,” in an artful bit of cultural translation — is topped with labneh and chimichurri. “We jazzed it up,” Michael says. She drew the line, though, when Girgis wanted to add a whole bunch of cumin to the ful, in the Egyptian style. (“Abso-fucking-lutely not, bro!” she says, laughing.) The \u003ca href=\"https://www.luluberkeley.com/weekend-brunch\">a la carte menu\u003c/a> includes things like a shakshuka-chilaquiles hybrid and a fried chicken sandwich with “banh mi vibes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931341\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931341\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of hand holding a falafel ball topped with black garlic tahini and a purple flower.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Lulu, the falafel isn’t exactly traditional: This version is fennel-scented and topped with black garlic tahini and an edible flower. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In about a month, the restaurant will add dinner service on Wednesdays and Thursdays. While the menu is a work in progress, Michael says customers can expect tapas-style small plates like Girgis’s pickled eggplants (inspired by his mother’s recipe) served with burrata. A signature dish will be a take on shish barak, an Arabic lamb dumpling, reimagined as a soup dumpling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Michael says she feels bad about how many people she’s had to turn away due to the restaurant’s small size. Fortunately, change is on the way: Sometime in November, she hopes, the restaurant will move to a bigger space a few blocks away, where she’ll have room to seat walk-ups and large groups, as well as a private dining room for special events in the back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of our terrible reviews are people who drove from San Bruno with eight people and say, ‘What do you mean you can’t seat us?’” Michael says. “I’m just happy that I’ll be able to accommodate people in a more welcoming manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.luluberkeley.com/\">\u003ci>Lulu\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is located at 1019 Camelia St. in Berkeley. It’s open for breakfast (9–11 a.m.) and lunch (11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.) on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Friday through Sunday, it serves brunch 9:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., by reservation only. Soon, it will also start dinner service on Wednesdays and Thursdays.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The first time I tried to eat at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CRW2FMbLsRd/\">Lulu\u003c/a>, I had no idea it was one of the hardest-to-snag brunch reservations in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick Google Maps search had clued me in to the availability of Palestinian mezzes in this sleepy stretch of West Berkeley. But the sign outside said that weekend brunch service was by reservation only — and, as a sweetly apologetic server informed us, they were already fully booked for the day. This proved to be a running refrain: The following weekend, I called first thing in the morning. Fully booked. I planned ahead and tried calling on a Wednesday. Booked all weekend long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time I secured a table — more than a week in advance — it felt like a minor miracle. (“Usually you have to call two or three weeks ahead,” a Lulu employee later told me.) But when my family finally sat down for our long-awaited mezze brunch, it didn’t take long to understand why reservations are such a hot ticket. One bite of chef Mona Leena Michael’s silky, umami-forward chili hummus, loaded with pine nuts and shimeiji mushrooms, and I was already making plans for my next visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This restaurant is a dip lover’s paradise\u003c/i>, I thought to myself, scooping up more hummus with a hunk of rich sumac focaccia. And that was before I’d even tasted the creamy muhammara or the spicy, tangy fava bean dip known as ful. The spreads come as part of Lulu’s abundant and extremely \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lulu.berkeley/tagged/\">Instagram-friendly\u003c/a> $30-a-person prix-fixe brunch spread, which takes the time-tested Palestinian tradition of feasting on assorted dips, and things to dip, and turns it into a special occasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931334\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles.jpg\" alt=\"A woman's hands holding a bowl of pita chips topped with shakshouka sauce and soft-scrambled eggs.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_shouka-quiles-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Early Girl ‘shouka-quiles’ are a cross between shakshouka and chilaquiles. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Lulu/StarChefs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Michael tells it, the restaurant is a particular creature of the pandemic. As soon as lockdown hit, she was laid off from her job as \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/B01UTw6h-5g/?hl=en\">chef at Dyafa\u003c/a>, an upscale Arab restaurant on the Jack London waterfront that never wound up reopening. She hustled flatbreads out of her apartment for a while — as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/themanaeeshlady/\">the Mana’eesh Lady\u003c/a>” — until someone \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/A-Palestinian-food-pop-up-was-shut-down-for-15558018.php\">ratted her out\u003c/a> to the Alameda County health department. It was at this point that Michael came across the tiny, out-of-the-way space on Camelia Street that used to be a British tea room. She opened Lulu there in August of 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The setting helped shape the concept. Inspired by the charmingly bedecked three-tiered cake stands she’d always loved at classic tea rooms like Lovejoy’s in San Francisco, Michael came up with the idea of doing a big brunch board topped with elegant versions of Palestinian mezzes and dips — a kind of “Arabic high tea,” she explains.\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 goal was to create something that wasn’t just a basic dining experience,” Michael says. “With the pandemic, people really needed a reason to go out — something special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What that means, in part, is that aesthetics are a big part of the restaurant’s appeal. A big mezze board is going to be a thing of beauty at almost any Turkish or Palestinian restaurant, but at Lulu, I watched a member of the staff spend several minutes arranging individual sprigs of mint on the board like a master florist. It’s the kind of eye-catching, slightly over-the-top presentation that elicits oohs and ahhs when it hits the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the exact makeup of the brunch prix fixe changes from week to week, it generally consists of three dips, three types of bread (mana’eesh, sesame seed–topped Jerusalem bagels and sumac focaccia), crudités, falafel, a seasonal vegetable and one additional item — “something fun,” Michael says, like fried za’atar polenta topped with whipped feta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931337\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy.jpg\" alt=\"Portrait of a chef in a pink shirt and floral apron, standing in front of her restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu_chef-leena_courtesy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Mona Leena Michael’s concept for Lulu was a kind of “Arabic high tea.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Lulu/StarChefs)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Really, though, all of the food is meant to be fun and not strictly traditional. “I like to say that Lulu is a California restaurant with Palestinian influence,” Michael says, explaining that she developed an appreciation for all of the Bay Area’s diverse food cultures while growing up in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Palestinians don’t flavor their hummus with chilis,” she says. “I didn’t want to open up another Arabic restaurant that just serves the same BS. I didn’t want to just do shawarma and hummus and pita bread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every item on Lulu’s bread board takes Michael’s Palestinian family recipes — as well as the Egyptian food traditions of Lulu’s other chef, Peter Girgis — and riffs off of them in playful ways. The falafel comes crowned with a smear of chili-flecked black garlic tahini. The ful — listed on the menu as “refried beans,” in an artful bit of cultural translation — is topped with labneh and chimichurri. “We jazzed it up,” Michael says. She drew the line, though, when Girgis wanted to add a whole bunch of cumin to the ful, in the Egyptian style. (“Abso-fucking-lutely not, bro!” she says, laughing.) The \u003ca href=\"https://www.luluberkeley.com/weekend-brunch\">a la carte menu\u003c/a> includes things like a shakshuka-chilaquiles hybrid and a fried chicken sandwich with “banh mi vibes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931341\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931341\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of hand holding a falafel ball topped with black garlic tahini and a purple flower.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lulu-falafel-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Lulu, the falafel isn’t exactly traditional: This version is fennel-scented and topped with black garlic tahini and an edible flower. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In about a month, the restaurant will add dinner service on Wednesdays and Thursdays. While the menu is a work in progress, Michael says customers can expect tapas-style small plates like Girgis’s pickled eggplants (inspired by his mother’s recipe) served with burrata. A signature dish will be a take on shish barak, an Arabic lamb dumpling, reimagined as a soup dumpling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Michael says she feels bad about how many people she’s had to turn away due to the restaurant’s small size. Fortunately, change is on the way: Sometime in November, she hopes, the restaurant will move to a bigger space a few blocks away, where she’ll have room to seat walk-ups and large groups, as well as a private dining room for special events in the back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of our terrible reviews are people who drove from San Bruno with eight people and say, ‘What do you mean you can’t seat us?’” Michael says. “I’m just happy that I’ll be able to accommodate people in a more welcoming manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.luluberkeley.com/\">\u003ci>Lulu\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is located at 1019 Camelia St. in Berkeley. It’s open for breakfast (9–11 a.m.) and lunch (11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.) on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Friday through Sunday, it serves brunch 9:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., by reservation only. Soon, it will also start dinner service on Wednesdays and Thursdays.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This New Richmond Taco Truck Is a Cheesy, Meaty Social Media Sensation",
"headTitle": "This New Richmond Taco Truck Is a Cheesy, Meaty Social Media Sensation | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>As a crowd lines up in front of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tacoselrulas/?hl=en\">Tacos El Rulas #2\u003c/a> food truck on a recent Friday night, the real show is happening a few feet away in a long, tented section of the parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bookended by a big charcoal grill on one side and a spinning, sizzling al pastor trompo on the other, the taqueros work their magic on the flat-tops. They hand-press fresh tortillas, griddle onions and bell peppers in bacon fat, and layer heaps of well-charred meat and melted cheese to assemble the over-the-top creations that have become the truck’s calling card: the “papá loca” (a Mexican American analogue to the fully loaded baked potato) and the alambre — a cheesy, street food–style mixed grill that’s popular in Mexico City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I love about El Rulas is the backyard party vibe — something about the tight cluster of picnic tables and cheerful banda music and the smell of smoky grilled meats seeping deep into your clothes. All in all, it’s about as fun a place as there is right now to grab tacos in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931128\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931128\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot.jpg\" alt=\"The Tacos El Rulas #2 taco truck displays the red, green and white of the Mexican flag. To its left, the truck's taqueros prepare food on flat-top grills. To the right is a tented dining area with picnic tables.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The taco truck’s parking lot setup feels as festive as a backyard party. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When a lot of people are here, it just feels like a small get-together,” says Angeles Lopez, a high school senior who helps her father, Raul Ramirez Rodriguez, operate the business. “It doesn’t really feel like I’m working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tacos El Rulas isn’t exactly a newcomer to the East Bay taco scene. Early in the pandemic, one of its trucks — known for its \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/11/22275500/tacos-el-rulas-truck-berkeley-quesabirria-torta-cubana-handmade-tortillas\">outlandishly overstuffed tortas\u003c/a> — debuted in the parking lot of a Berkeley auto shop. Its second truck used to be stationed at a smaller, more out-of-the-way location in Richmond, on Rumrill Road, before moving to its current spot on \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/a-richmond-taco-crawl-2-1/\">23rd Street\u003c/a> in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13915646,arts_13923359']\u003c/span>The new location’s popularity is, at least in part, a social media success story. I had driven past a few dozen times since it opened but, even as a fan of the Berkeley truck, never got around to stopping by. Then, a few weeks ago, three or four different \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Csmwe4OpYEd/?hl=en\">food influencer\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CsuHiSGtc7I/?hl=en\">videos\u003c/a> featuring Tacos El Rulas popped up on my Instagram feed in the span of a couple of days — this despite the fact that the truck has almost no presence on \u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-el-rulas-richmond\">Yelp\u003c/a> or in traditional food media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lopez explains that the viral Instagram and TikTok videos are a deliberate part of their marketing strategy. When business lagged in the taco truck’s first couple of months, her father reached out directly to several prominent Bay Area food influencers to see if they’d be willing to help him promote his food (for a fee, of course). It seems \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs6kFO_rIuI/?hl=en\">nearly all of them\u003c/a> said yes. According to Lopez, early boosters like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Csbu6DarI8D/?hl=en\">@booziebrunch\u003c/a> were instrumental in helping to introduce Tacos El Rulas to the Black community, which now forms a large part of the truck’s fanbase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931130\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931130\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre.jpg\" alt=\"A cheesy mix of meat, bell pappers, and onions served in an aluminum tray with a stack of corn tortillas on top.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The alambre in all its glory. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931129\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931129\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding a taco stuffed with cheesy meat, onions, and peppers.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemble your own tacos. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course, El Rulas’ massively portioned alambres and papás locas are uniquely suited for social media. (Everyone loves a good cheese pull, after all.) And it doesn’t hurt that those specific items — only available at the Richmond location — are legitimately delicious. The alambre is a gut-busting mix of chorizo, bacon, onions, peppers, pineapple, melted cheese and your choice of meat. As a crowning touch, a squirt of Worcestershire and Maggi seasoning adds a unique, almost stir fry–like savoriness, and the whole thing comes topped with a stack of handmade tortillas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The papá loca is just as much of a crowd-pleaser: a couple of big-ass potatoes topped with an unconscionable amount of butter, bacon, cheese, onions, guacamole and, again, your choice of meat. A day’s worth of calories, probably, though it’s still hard to stop myself from eating the whole thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931127\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931127\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill.jpg\" alt=\"A man in black uses tongs to flip a rack of ribs cooking on the grill. A long chorizo sausage is coiled overhead on the frame of the grill.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The grill station features whole racks of pork ribs, ribeye steaks and a long coil of chorizo cooking overhead. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If anything, the Tacos El Rulas menu has so many options that it can be intimidating for a first-timer. Their signature meat is Mexico City–style al pastor sliced off a pineapple-topped vertical spit, but every time I’ve visited, something new has caught my eye: garlic-butter shrimp, racks of pork ribs, flame-grilled ribeye steaks. They do the trendy \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria tacos\u003c/a> here, as well as extra-crunchy vampiro tacos and quesadillas made with their fresh, hand-pressed tortillas. And while the mammoth torta Cubana has always been a star at the Berkeley truck, the Richmond location has a stand-alone torta menu with a whopping 18 varieties — more than you’ll find just about anywhere other than a dedicated torta shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Something for everyone” might not be your typical taco truck credo, but so far, Tacos El Rulas’ maximalist, social media–driven approach seems to be working. Lopez says that customers regularly drive from as far away as Vallejo or San Francisco, often because they saw the alambre or the papá loca on TikTok or Instagram.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time someone tells me that, I get amazed and surprised,” Lopez says. “But they always end up liking our food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931126\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931126\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles.jpg\" alt=\"A teenage girl in a black long-sleeved Nirvana T-shirt stands in front of a green taco truck.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1439\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angeles Lopez (left), a rising high school senior, helps her father run both of the Tacos El Rulas food trucks. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tacoselrulas/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Tacos El Rulas #2\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is located at 232 23rd St. in Richmond, in a parking lot shared by a beauty salon and an astrology shop. It’s open Sundays–Thursdays from 4 p.m. to midnight, and Fridays–Saurdays from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Tacos El Rulas is winning hearts and minds — and Instagram feeds — with its decadent alambres and papás locas.",
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"headline": "This New Richmond Taco Truck Is a Cheesy, Meaty Social Media Sensation",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As a crowd lines up in front of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tacoselrulas/?hl=en\">Tacos El Rulas #2\u003c/a> food truck on a recent Friday night, the real show is happening a few feet away in a long, tented section of the parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bookended by a big charcoal grill on one side and a spinning, sizzling al pastor trompo on the other, the taqueros work their magic on the flat-tops. They hand-press fresh tortillas, griddle onions and bell peppers in bacon fat, and layer heaps of well-charred meat and melted cheese to assemble the over-the-top creations that have become the truck’s calling card: the “papá loca” (a Mexican American analogue to the fully loaded baked potato) and the alambre — a cheesy, street food–style mixed grill that’s popular in Mexico City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I love about El Rulas is the backyard party vibe — something about the tight cluster of picnic tables and cheerful banda music and the smell of smoky grilled meats seeping deep into your clothes. All in all, it’s about as fun a place as there is right now to grab tacos in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931128\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931128\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot.jpg\" alt=\"The Tacos El Rulas #2 taco truck displays the red, green and white of the Mexican flag. To its left, the truck's taqueros prepare food on flat-top grills. To the right is a tented dining area with picnic tables.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_lot-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The taco truck’s parking lot setup feels as festive as a backyard party. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When a lot of people are here, it just feels like a small get-together,” says Angeles Lopez, a high school senior who helps her father, Raul Ramirez Rodriguez, operate the business. “It doesn’t really feel like I’m working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tacos El Rulas isn’t exactly a newcomer to the East Bay taco scene. Early in the pandemic, one of its trucks — known for its \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/11/22275500/tacos-el-rulas-truck-berkeley-quesabirria-torta-cubana-handmade-tortillas\">outlandishly overstuffed tortas\u003c/a> — debuted in the parking lot of a Berkeley auto shop. Its second truck used to be stationed at a smaller, more out-of-the-way location in Richmond, on Rumrill Road, before moving to its current spot on \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/a-richmond-taco-crawl-2-1/\">23rd Street\u003c/a> in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>The new location’s popularity is, at least in part, a social media success story. I had driven past a few dozen times since it opened but, even as a fan of the Berkeley truck, never got around to stopping by. Then, a few weeks ago, three or four different \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Csmwe4OpYEd/?hl=en\">food influencer\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CsuHiSGtc7I/?hl=en\">videos\u003c/a> featuring Tacos El Rulas popped up on my Instagram feed in the span of a couple of days — this despite the fact that the truck has almost no presence on \u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-el-rulas-richmond\">Yelp\u003c/a> or in traditional food media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lopez explains that the viral Instagram and TikTok videos are a deliberate part of their marketing strategy. When business lagged in the taco truck’s first couple of months, her father reached out directly to several prominent Bay Area food influencers to see if they’d be willing to help him promote his food (for a fee, of course). It seems \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs6kFO_rIuI/?hl=en\">nearly all of them\u003c/a> said yes. According to Lopez, early boosters like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Csbu6DarI8D/?hl=en\">@booziebrunch\u003c/a> were instrumental in helping to introduce Tacos El Rulas to the Black community, which now forms a large part of the truck’s fanbase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931130\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931130\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre.jpg\" alt=\"A cheesy mix of meat, bell pappers, and onions served in an aluminum tray with a stack of corn tortillas on top.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The alambre in all its glory. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931129\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931129\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding a taco stuffed with cheesy meat, onions, and peppers.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_alambre-closeup-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemble your own tacos. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course, El Rulas’ massively portioned alambres and papás locas are uniquely suited for social media. (Everyone loves a good cheese pull, after all.) And it doesn’t hurt that those specific items — only available at the Richmond location — are legitimately delicious. The alambre is a gut-busting mix of chorizo, bacon, onions, peppers, pineapple, melted cheese and your choice of meat. As a crowning touch, a squirt of Worcestershire and Maggi seasoning adds a unique, almost stir fry–like savoriness, and the whole thing comes topped with a stack of handmade tortillas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The papá loca is just as much of a crowd-pleaser: a couple of big-ass potatoes topped with an unconscionable amount of butter, bacon, cheese, onions, guacamole and, again, your choice of meat. A day’s worth of calories, probably, though it’s still hard to stop myself from eating the whole thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931127\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931127\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill.jpg\" alt=\"A man in black uses tongs to flip a rack of ribs cooking on the grill. A long chorizo sausage is coiled overhead on the frame of the grill.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_grill-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The grill station features whole racks of pork ribs, ribeye steaks and a long coil of chorizo cooking overhead. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If anything, the Tacos El Rulas menu has so many options that it can be intimidating for a first-timer. Their signature meat is Mexico City–style al pastor sliced off a pineapple-topped vertical spit, but every time I’ve visited, something new has caught my eye: garlic-butter shrimp, racks of pork ribs, flame-grilled ribeye steaks. They do the trendy \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">quesabirria tacos\u003c/a> here, as well as extra-crunchy vampiro tacos and quesadillas made with their fresh, hand-pressed tortillas. And while the mammoth torta Cubana has always been a star at the Berkeley truck, the Richmond location has a stand-alone torta menu with a whopping 18 varieties — more than you’ll find just about anywhere other than a dedicated torta shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Something for everyone” might not be your typical taco truck credo, but so far, Tacos El Rulas’ maximalist, social media–driven approach seems to be working. Lopez says that customers regularly drive from as far away as Vallejo or San Francisco, often because they saw the alambre or the papá loca on TikTok or Instagram.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time someone tells me that, I get amazed and surprised,” Lopez says. “But they always end up liking our food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13931126\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13931126\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles.jpg\" alt=\"A teenage girl in a black long-sleeved Nirvana T-shirt stands in front of a green taco truck.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1439\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/tacos-el-rulas_angeles-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angeles Lopez (left), a rising high school senior, helps her father run both of the Tacos El Rulas food trucks. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tacoselrulas/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Tacos El Rulas #2\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is located at 232 23rd St. in Richmond, in a parking lot shared by a beauty salon and an astrology shop. It’s open Sundays–Thursdays from 4 p.m. to midnight, and Fridays–Saurdays from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "comic-lost-cafes-coffee-shops-the-med-au-coquelet-gaylords-oakland-berkeley",
"title": "Please, Don’t Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost",
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"headTitle": "Please, Don’t Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>I was born and grew up in the East Bay. We have seen a lot of change in the last ten years. A lot of great new places have opened, but we have also lost so many beloved establishments. What I covet most are the big, spacious cafes where you could sit for hours and work or do nothing — or a little of both. This piece is a love letter to the places that raised me. They haunt me in the best way possible, and I miss them like crazy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930738\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: A man and his young daughter stroll outside of a cafe whose green and white striped facade reads, "Caffe Mediterraneum." This is the lead panel for a comic titled "Please, Don't Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost," by Briana Loewinsohn\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930736\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2.jpg\" alt=\"This panel is dated "1987." Balding father and young daughter order at the cafe counter where colorful flavored syrups are displayed in the back. The store employee is wearing a black t-shirt that says, "The Cure." "A cappuccino please," says the dad. "And a lime Italian soda, please," says the girl.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930735\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3.jpg\" alt=\"The father, wearing a green A's shirt, sits at a table in the cafe with his daughter, who looks down at her glass of soda.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930734\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4.jpg\" alt=\"The dad is now daydreaming. In a sepia-toned thought bubble he pictures the cafe as it was during the 1960s.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930733\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5.jpg\" alt=\"The daydream bubble now takes over the entire panel. Beatnik-looking types lounge in the cafe, smoking and drinking coffee. The dad in his younger days sports a big, poofy hairstyle and wears a vest over his green, 60s-style button-down.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930732\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6.jpg\" alt=\"Still in his daydream, the dad walks over to two African American men seated at another table. He daps up the one with a beard wearing a turtleneck. The other, in glasses, holds a cigarette over an ashtray.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930731\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7.jpg\" alt=\"Still in the daydream, the dad now sits next to an attractive, smiling young woman holding a cigarette between her fingers. The two appear to be flirting.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930730\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8.jpg\" alt=\"Back in the present day, the dad stares off into space. Both his coffee cup and the soda glass are now empty. Just outside the panel, the daughter says, "Dad?" "Dad, our drinks are empty."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930780\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit.jpg\" alt=\"Roused from his daydream, the dad says, "Oh. Well, let's hit the road, girl." The two are still seated in the cafe. Above them, a plaque reads, "Caffe Mediteraneum, 1956–2022"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930728\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten note reads, "The Med was a place for poets and revolutionaries. Later it was a place for college students and ex-revolutionaries. My dad loved it no matter what. He loved it in the '60s, talking about People's Park with Bobby Seale. He loved it when he dragged us to see how Telegraph Avenue fared after the Rodney King riots. He loved it because it's what he knew. Berkeley native and divorcee, why would he go anywhere else? He took us because where else could we go and just BE for a minute. Where else can you take a kid if you have them all day one Saturday a month? The Ashby Flea Market and the Med. The single dad special. I thought those murals would never ever crumble. We all did."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930798\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title.jpg\" alt=\"Title panel for a comic shows a glass of foam-topped hot chocolate and a camcorder on a table against a brick wall. The text reads, "Please, Don't Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost" and underneath that, "Au Coquelet".\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930761\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1.jpg\" alt=\"In this illustrated comic panel (labeled "1997"), we seen two teenage girls — a brunette and a blonde — through the viewfinder of a camcorder. The two girls are drawing in their sketchbooks. "Are you recording?" asks the brown-haired girl. "Yes. Tell us who the real Briana is," says the person holding the camcorder.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930760\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2.jpg\" alt=\"Still framed in the viewfinder, Briana says, "Okay. Well, Jacob — oh dang, it's...Ponytail Guy!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930759\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3.jpg\" alt=\"A young man with a blonde ponytail and a keychain attached to his gray pants walks past the three friends' table holding a tray. Briana (in a red shirt) covers her mouth and nudges her friend.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930758\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4.jpg\" alt=\"The two girls turn their attention back to their sketchpads. The camcorder guy — wearing glasses and a brown plaid shirt — says, "Hot chocolate time?" Briana says, "And avocado cheese sandwich?" Blonde-haired girl says, "I got five on it."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930757\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5.jpg\" alt=\"Briana peers at the cafe's counter display of baked goods: biscotti in a glass jar, a linzer torte with a wedge cut out of it, the last two remaining slices of a cheesecake.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930756\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6.jpg\" alt=\"Ponytail guy and a curly red-haired employee look on from behind the counter as Briana walks away with her sandwich and hot chocolate. "Thanks!" she says. On the counter are a few scattered coins and crumpled bills. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930755\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7.jpg\" alt=\"Seen through the camcorder viewfinder again, Briana walks back to her table. Off screen, Jacob says, "Watch Briana drop all this stuff!" "I hate you," Briana says in response.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930754\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8.jpg\" alt=\"A panned out view from outside the window shows the three friends laughing and chattering away. The awning above reads, "SOUP SALADS OMEL". Underneath, a plaque reads, "Au Coquelet, 1976–2020"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930753\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten note reads, "We ended up at Au Coquelet pretty regularly because it was only a couple blocks from: Mod Lang, Comic Relief, 2am Chinese (I never learned the real name of that place), Paper Heaven, and the UC Theater. It had a lot of tables filled with people who seemed like adults. Being adults. Having adult conversations. Au Coquelet had items that felt fancy like Linzer Torte and steamed almond milk. We drifted in, settled down. Drew, made fun of each other. Made fun of other patrons. Made fun of people playing Dungeons and Dragons. Played Dungeons and Dragons. We escaped our homes, planned for life after high school. We made each other laugh. I'll miss those nights without end."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930797\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title.jpg\" alt=\"Title panel for a comic shows a green sketchpad, a pencil and a white disposable coffee cup on a round table. The text reads, "Please, Don't Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost" and underneath that, "Gaylord's Caffe and Espresso".\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930776\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1.jpg\" alt=\"In a comics panel labeled "2004," a woman wearing a similar red shirt — but older now, with shorter hair — walks into a coffee shop with a worried expression, holding a sketchpad. An older Black gentleman with a white beard sits on a bench near the entrance reading a newspaper. The lettering on the window, seen in reverse, is cut off but the visible portion reads, "GAYL...CAFFE...BREWING"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930775\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2.jpg\" alt=\"The woman — Briana as an adult — sits at a table and starts sketching. The older Black gentleman gets up to return his empty coffee cup.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930774\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3.jpg\" alt=\"2005: Now wearing a striped tank top, Briana sits in the same coffee shop but is now joined by a friend — an Asian guy wearing a "Math Olympiad" t-shirt. The two are laughing and talking as they draw. The same older Black gentleman from the previous panel sits on his bench reading the paper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930773\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4.jpg\" alt=\"2006: The two friends are still drawing in the same coffee shop. The friend, now in a black T-shirt, waves at a man in an A's cap and orange jacket who is waving back from outside the window. Briana, now in a green shirt, says, "Bro. That's him. Don't say anything!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930772\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5.jpg\" alt=\"2014: The two friends are drawing in the same coffee shop, now joined by a toddler who climbs onto a chair to reach a Ms. Pac-Man arcade console. "Careful, Janie Bear," says the friend, now wearing glasses, jeans, flip flops, and a different black t-shirt. The toddler, who has short pigtails, says, "Uncle Thien! It's exciiiting." Briana, busy drawing, doesn't look up as she says, "She's fine, bro." \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930771\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6.jpg\" alt=\"2016: Briana stands on a stool to hang up a poster that reads, "Shirts + Prints by Thien and Briana" on the wall, probably of the same coffee shop. Holding a roll of masking tape, Thien (the friend) helps from below. A t-shirt pinned to a clothesline above depicts a man holding a bowling ball and reads, "Picture Me Bowling."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930770\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7.jpg\" alt=\"2017: Two kids — the younger one with red hair and freckles — sit in front of what appear to be cups of hot chocolate topped with giant mounds of whipped cream and sprinkles. The older sister says, "Sonny! It might be hot." Briana, older now with glasses and her hair in a bun, sits at the same table across from Thien, still drawing. "He's fine, Janie," she says.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930769\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8.jpg\" alt=\"Briana in glasses and overall shorts stands outside of the coffee shop with a sad look on her face. The sign on the door says, "CLOSED," and the window lettering now clearly reads, "Gaylord's Caffe Espresso, brewing since 1976!" A plaque overhead reads, "Gaylord's Caffe Espresso, 1976–2020."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930768\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten note reads, "I probably went to Gaylord's when I was little, but I don't remember it. When I moved back to the Bay in 2004 I had no one to draw with and nowhere to draw. Gaylord's was the spot. It had good hours and nice people. At first I drew alone, then I drew with my new bestie. We made comics and art. We lived our 20s and 30s at that cafe. I had kids, we drew, we hung our art and took it down, we were pals with the baristas and the regulars, we drew some more. And then in the early pandemic, it was closed. Without warning. We tried to buy the Ms. Pac-Man machine, but that never panned out."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/brianabreaks/\">Briana Loewinsohn\u003c/a> is an American cartoonist. These days she teaches high school art and draws comic books. She is the author of the acclaimed graphic memoir \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926136/poignant-graphic-novel-ephemera-explores-an-oakland-artists-lonely-childhood\">EPHEMERA\u003c/a>\u003cem>. She lives in Oakland with her husband, daughter and son. If she doesn’t text you back, she is probably gardening.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "A love letter to the East Bay coffee shops that raised me.",
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"title": "Lost Coffee Shops of the East Bay: The Med, Gaylord's, Au Coquelet | KQED",
"description": "A love letter to the East Bay coffee shops that raised me.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I was born and grew up in the East Bay. We have seen a lot of change in the last ten years. A lot of great new places have opened, but we have also lost so many beloved establishments. What I covet most are the big, spacious cafes where you could sit for hours and work or do nothing — or a little of both. This piece is a love letter to the places that raised me. They haunt me in the best way possible, and I miss them like crazy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930738\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: A man and his young daughter stroll outside of a cafe whose green and white striped facade reads, "Caffe Mediterraneum." This is the lead panel for a comic titled "Please, Don't Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost," by Briana Loewinsohn\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930736\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2.jpg\" alt=\"This panel is dated "1987." Balding father and young daughter order at the cafe counter where colorful flavored syrups are displayed in the back. The store employee is wearing a black t-shirt that says, "The Cure." "A cappuccino please," says the dad. "And a lime Italian soda, please," says the girl.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930735\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3.jpg\" alt=\"The father, wearing a green A's shirt, sits at a table in the cafe with his daughter, who looks down at her glass of soda.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_3-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930734\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4.jpg\" alt=\"The dad is now daydreaming. In a sepia-toned thought bubble he pictures the cafe as it was during the 1960s.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930733\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5.jpg\" alt=\"The daydream bubble now takes over the entire panel. Beatnik-looking types lounge in the cafe, smoking and drinking coffee. The dad in his younger days sports a big, poofy hairstyle and wears a vest over his green, 60s-style button-down.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_5-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930732\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6.jpg\" alt=\"Still in his daydream, the dad walks over to two African American men seated at another table. He daps up the one with a beard wearing a turtleneck. The other, in glasses, holds a cigarette over an ashtray.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_6-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930731\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7.jpg\" alt=\"Still in the daydream, the dad now sits next to an attractive, smiling young woman holding a cigarette between her fingers. The two appear to be flirting.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930730\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8.jpg\" alt=\"Back in the present day, the dad stares off into space. Both his coffee cup and the soda glass are now empty. Just outside the panel, the daughter says, "Dad?" "Dad, our drinks are empty."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_8-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930780\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit.jpg\" alt=\"Roused from his daydream, the dad says, "Oh. Well, let's hit the road, girl." The two are still seated in the cafe. Above them, a plaque reads, "Caffe Mediteraneum, 1956–2022"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_9-edit-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930728\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten note reads, "The Med was a place for poets and revolutionaries. Later it was a place for college students and ex-revolutionaries. My dad loved it no matter what. He loved it in the '60s, talking about People's Park with Bobby Seale. He loved it when he dragged us to see how Telegraph Avenue fared after the Rodney King riots. He loved it because it's what he knew. Berkeley native and divorcee, why would he go anywhere else? He took us because where else could we go and just BE for a minute. Where else can you take a kid if you have them all day one Saturday a month? The Ashby Flea Market and the Med. The single dad special. I thought those murals would never ever crumble. We all did."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Med_10_Note-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930798\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title.jpg\" alt=\"Title panel for a comic shows a glass of foam-topped hot chocolate and a camcorder on a table against a brick wall. The text reads, "Please, Don't Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost" and underneath that, "Au Coquelet".\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_Title-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930761\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1.jpg\" alt=\"In this illustrated comic panel (labeled "1997"), we seen two teenage girls — a brunette and a blonde — through the viewfinder of a camcorder. The two girls are drawing in their sketchbooks. "Are you recording?" asks the brown-haired girl. "Yes. Tell us who the real Briana is," says the person holding the camcorder.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930760\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2.jpg\" alt=\"Still framed in the viewfinder, Briana says, "Okay. Well, Jacob — oh dang, it's...Ponytail Guy!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930759\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3.jpg\" alt=\"A young man with a blonde ponytail and a keychain attached to his gray pants walks past the three friends' table holding a tray. Briana (in a red shirt) covers her mouth and nudges her friend.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_3-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930758\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4.jpg\" alt=\"The two girls turn their attention back to their sketchpads. The camcorder guy — wearing glasses and a brown plaid shirt — says, "Hot chocolate time?" Briana says, "And avocado cheese sandwich?" Blonde-haired girl says, "I got five on it."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930757\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5.jpg\" alt=\"Briana peers at the cafe's counter display of baked goods: biscotti in a glass jar, a linzer torte with a wedge cut out of it, the last two remaining slices of a cheesecake.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_5-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930756\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6.jpg\" alt=\"Ponytail guy and a curly red-haired employee look on from behind the counter as Briana walks away with her sandwich and hot chocolate. "Thanks!" she says. On the counter are a few scattered coins and crumpled bills. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_6-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930755\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7.jpg\" alt=\"Seen through the camcorder viewfinder again, Briana walks back to her table. Off screen, Jacob says, "Watch Briana drop all this stuff!" "I hate you," Briana says in response.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930754\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8.jpg\" alt=\"A panned out view from outside the window shows the three friends laughing and chattering away. The awning above reads, "SOUP SALADS OMEL". Underneath, a plaque reads, "Au Coquelet, 1976–2020"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_8-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930753\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten note reads, "We ended up at Au Coquelet pretty regularly because it was only a couple blocks from: Mod Lang, Comic Relief, 2am Chinese (I never learned the real name of that place), Paper Heaven, and the UC Theater. It had a lot of tables filled with people who seemed like adults. Being adults. Having adult conversations. Au Coquelet had items that felt fancy like Linzer Torte and steamed almond milk. We drifted in, settled down. Drew, made fun of each other. Made fun of other patrons. Made fun of people playing Dungeons and Dragons. Played Dungeons and Dragons. We escaped our homes, planned for life after high school. We made each other laugh. I'll miss those nights without end."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Au_Coquelet_9_Note-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930797\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title.jpg\" alt=\"Title panel for a comic shows a green sketchpad, a pencil and a white disposable coffee cup on a round table. The text reads, "Please, Don't Forget Me: Cafes We Have Lost" and underneath that, "Gaylord's Caffe and Espresso".\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_Title-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930776\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1.jpg\" alt=\"In a comics panel labeled "2004," a woman wearing a similar red shirt — but older now, with shorter hair — walks into a coffee shop with a worried expression, holding a sketchpad. An older Black gentleman with a white beard sits on a bench near the entrance reading a newspaper. The lettering on the window, seen in reverse, is cut off but the visible portion reads, "GAYL...CAFFE...BREWING"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930775\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2.jpg\" alt=\"The woman — Briana as an adult — sits at a table and starts sketching. The older Black gentleman gets up to return his empty coffee cup.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930774\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3.jpg\" alt=\"2005: Now wearing a striped tank top, Briana sits in the same coffee shop but is now joined by a friend — an Asian guy wearing a "Math Olympiad" t-shirt. The two are laughing and talking as they draw. The same older Black gentleman from the previous panel sits on his bench reading the paper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_3-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930773\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4.jpg\" alt=\"2006: The two friends are still drawing in the same coffee shop. The friend, now in a black T-shirt, waves at a man in an A's cap and orange jacket who is waving back from outside the window. Briana, now in a green shirt, says, "Bro. That's him. Don't say anything!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_4-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930772\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5.jpg\" alt=\"2014: The two friends are drawing in the same coffee shop, now joined by a toddler who climbs onto a chair to reach a Ms. Pac-Man arcade console. "Careful, Janie Bear," says the friend, now wearing glasses, jeans, flip flops, and a different black t-shirt. The toddler, who has short pigtails, says, "Uncle Thien! It's exciiiting." Briana, busy drawing, doesn't look up as she says, "She's fine, bro." \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_5-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930771\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6.jpg\" alt=\"2016: Briana stands on a stool to hang up a poster that reads, "Shirts + Prints by Thien and Briana" on the wall, probably of the same coffee shop. Holding a roll of masking tape, Thien (the friend) helps from below. A t-shirt pinned to a clothesline above depicts a man holding a bowling ball and reads, "Picture Me Bowling."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_6-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930770\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7.jpg\" alt=\"2017: Two kids — the younger one with red hair and freckles — sit in front of what appear to be cups of hot chocolate topped with giant mounds of whipped cream and sprinkles. The older sister says, "Sonny! It might be hot." Briana, older now with glasses and her hair in a bun, sits at the same table across from Thien, still drawing. "He's fine, Janie," she says.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_7-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930769\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8.jpg\" alt=\"Briana in glasses and overall shorts stands outside of the coffee shop with a sad look on her face. The sign on the door says, "CLOSED," and the window lettering now clearly reads, "Gaylord's Caffe Espresso, brewing since 1976!" A plaque overhead reads, "Gaylord's Caffe Espresso, 1976–2020."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_8-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930768\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note.jpg\" alt=\"A handwritten note reads, "I probably went to Gaylord's when I was little, but I don't remember it. When I moved back to the Bay in 2004 I had no one to draw with and nowhere to draw. Gaylord's was the spot. It had good hours and nice people. At first I drew alone, then I drew with my new bestie. We made comics and art. We lived our 20s and 30s at that cafe. I had kids, we drew, we hung our art and took it down, we were pals with the baristas and the regulars, we drew some more. And then in the early pandemic, it was closed. Without warning. We tried to buy the Ms. Pac-Man machine, but that never panned out."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CafesWeHaveLost_BL_Gaylord_s_9_Note-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/brianabreaks/\">Briana Loewinsohn\u003c/a> is an American cartoonist. These days she teaches high school art and draws comic books. She is the author of the acclaimed graphic memoir \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926136/poignant-graphic-novel-ephemera-explores-an-oakland-artists-lonely-childhood\">EPHEMERA\u003c/a>\u003cem>. She lives in Oakland with her husband, daughter and son. If she doesn’t text you back, she is probably gardening.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "thien-pham-family-style-graphic-novel-food-memoir-vietnamese-refugee-san-jose-hella-hungry",
"title": "Thien Pham's Graphic Novel Is an Immigration Story Told Through Food",
"publishDate": 1687295942,
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"headTitle": "Thien Pham’s Graphic Novel Is an Immigration Story Told Through Food | KQED",
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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>Nothing sustains a community more than food. It’s where all memories of home begin, and it’s how anyone who has ever been separated from their roots finds a way back — eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">Thien Pham\u003c/a>, an Oakland-based graphic novelist, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">comics\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13905153/underground-vietnamese-restaurants-social-media-san-jose\">artist\u003c/a> and high school educator, it took more than 40 years after fleeing his home country, Vietnam, to gather the right ingredients needed for his life’s work: \u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i>. Packed with life lessons about family, friendship, assimilation and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">life in San Jose\u003c/a> as a refugee, the graphic novel also serves as a love letter to his most memorable meals, from Southeast Asia to Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each chapter of the story presents a thematic dish that encapsulates Pham’s experience at the time, from the “Rice and Fish” he ate as a child refugee living on a boat to the luxurious “Steak and Potatoes” he enjoyed after first arriving to the United States — and many unexpected food combinations in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the book grapples with traumatic topics of forced migration and diasporic displacement, it’s largely centered on the joy of communal gathering, shared culinary knowledge and family-sustained recipes for dishes like his mother’s bánh cuốn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpted panels from a graphic novel: 1) Image of a thin rice crepe on a plate. Text reads, "Put the pork filling in the middle, then roll, fold the rice paper with the bamboo stick. 2) A woman reaches into a bowl, assembling the banch cuon. Text reads, "Top with the fried onions, garlic, and veggies." 3) She holds out a plate with the finished banh cuon. "Add fish sauce at the end. And that's it. Here, try it." 4) Another woman in a red blouse picks up a piece with chopsticks. 5) She eats it with her eyes closed in pleasure. "It tastes like home," she says. 6) The panel zooms out to show the two of them sitting in front of a small stall made up of various cooking implements. "So do you think you're ready to do this?" the woman who prepared the banh cuon asks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2326\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-800x969.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-1020x1236.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-160x194.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-768x930.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-1268x1536.jpg 1268w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-1691x2048.jpg 1691w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s one poignant scene when Pham eats his first bag of potato chips with his family after they’ve worked as migrant field laborers picking strawberries. Later as an adult, he memorizes important dates in U.S. history in order to pass his citizenship test while eating lunch in the teacher’s lounge. Often, food is at the center of it all, helping to nourish Pham’s identity and feed his family’s aspirational immigrant dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the eve of his national book launch, I spoke with Pham about his memories of growing up in the Bay Area, his favorite San Jose restaurant and the beauty of being an immigrant.\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: \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Family Style \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>is a graphic novel about food, family, diaspora, teenage angst, American assimilation and more. As a visual storyteller, where did you begin, and how long did it take to complete?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Thien Pham: \u003c/b>I’ve wanted to tell this family story for a long time, but there were things preventing me from it in the past. I never had a tight enough connection with my parents to get the full story, my art style wasn’t where I wanted it to be and I didn’t have a fresh enough perspective. Coming to America as a Vietnamese immigrant has been told before. It’s a universal immigration story, and I didn’t know how to tell it at the level I thought it could be. I needed time to figure it all out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, it just intersected for me in a weird way. I finally spent time with my parents and talked to them about it all, and we were all old enough to talk about the truth. I also felt at that point my art was at a level that could do the story justice. When I talked to my mom, I realized that what I told her was mostly food related. As soon as I got that last piece, I knew that was the angle for me to approach it: immigration told through food. It was the missing piece; it was already inside me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, I just did it page by page. It was fast, in terms of drawing comics; it wasn’t agonizing or dragged out. It’s not often I get that. Maybe two or three times in my life I’ve had that feeling. That’s one of the reasons this book is so special to me. Who knows if I’ll ever have all that coming together so perfectly again? At the end of the book, there are strips of me talking to my parents and explaining how the book was created. I wanted to capture that in the book. It was magical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1.jpg\" alt='Panels excerpted from a graphic novel: 1) A boat pulls up to a larger freighter ship. 2) A man on the boat says, \"They said they can take us as far as they can, and give us food and water for some money...\" 3) The Vietnamese refugees on the boat look stunned to receive this news. 4) They line up to receive food from a man in a baseball cap. 5) When she reaches the front of the line, one woman says, \"We have five people. Can we get some more?\" as he hands her a plate of squid and a slice of watermelon. 6) The woman and her two small children look overwhelmed as someone approaches offering two additional plates of squid and rice.' width=\"1920\" height=\"2315\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-800x965.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-1020x1230.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-160x193.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-768x926.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-1274x1536.jpg 1274w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-1699x2048.jpg 1699w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your first graphic novel, \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Sumo\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, was published over a decade ago. When did you realize you were ready to illustrate and write \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everybody has stories in them, but it’s about recognizing when it’s time to share it. That’s crucial. I didn’t have any idea about my next big graphic novel. I would start and stop with things and nothing really stuck. I can only create when I feel a major emotional pull to do it. But between those graphic novels I’ve been drawing. I did short stories, \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/comic-strip-i-like-eating-2-1/\">food magazines\u003c/a>. I was always honing my craft. Through these smaller projects I really found how to tell stories in my own voice. By the time the inspiration finally hit me, I was ready in terms of art and storytelling. I was at the point I could tell the story in the style I wanted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The book includes references to recipes related to your family’s experiences. What have you realized about the connection between food and family?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I always wanted to cook my mom’s food. I missed it. During the pandemic, you couldn’t just go to Vietnamese restaurants, so I started learning how to do it. Every day I tried to make something my mom made me when I was a kid. This is a very metaphoric thing in the book. I thought these simple meals she used to make were easy and took no time, and they were delicious. She made meals in 15 minutes for the family in between her work shifts. But when she described to me how they were made, I realized simple meals are very, very nuanced, and there are so many more things to it I never thought about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, something I thought was just fish sauce also had sugar and coconut soda and star anise. When I ate it I never picked up on those things. I realized how it mirrored our trip to America. My mom just says, “Yeah, we were on a boat and got here, and it was this and that.” But when you sit with the details, it’s like the nuance of a recipe with so much more happening. That made me realize that my parents were constantly trying to protect us when we were kids by making it look easy. Whether it’s not telling us about their hardships or making light of the work they did to provide dinner, they were trying to shield us. [pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Thien Pham\"]“Immigration and refugees are always portrayed as sad and struggling. But there is also joy, opportunity and having each other.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, at 48 years old, I realize what an amazing cook and person my mom was. I think I always took that for granted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What were the challenges of writing and illustrating \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, which invariably deals with intense immigrant hardships?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My dad surprised me when I asked him about how he maintained his hope through hardships: He said it wasn’t hard. Looking back, he’ll now admit it was tough, but in the moment he said it was so much joy and fun, even in the refugee camps while living in shacks with nothing. Because at least you have friends and family, and everyone is there and making the best of it. He recalls the refugee camps as some of his best times. When he told me that, it made me realize how immigration and refugees are always portrayed as sad and struggling. But there is also joy, opportunity and having each other. I wanted to write a story full of that hope and joy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there was a challenge, it was to convey some of the challenges while keeping a tone of joy. I didn’t want it to be about only the hardships, but seeing the fortunate side of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpted panels from a graphic novel: 1) Kids eating lunch at a table in the cafeteria. A smiling, gap-toothed boy says, "Hey Thien! How's your first day of school going?" 2) Thien, with a perplexed expression, responds, "Okay, but for some reason everyone's calling me 'Tin.' The gap-toothed boy responds, "Ha! That's your new name! At least it sorta sounds like your name. They call me 'Tony'!" 3) Thien examines a plastic-wrapped carton of food. "What's this?" 4) While chewing, gap-toothed boy responds, "It's called sals-buree steak. Try it. I think you'll like it!" 5) Thien warily peels back the plastic wrap. 6) As prepares to put a spork-ful in his mouth, he says, "You sure? It smells funny..." "Okay, here goes..."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2307\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-800x961.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-1020x1226.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-160x192.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-768x923.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-1278x1536.jpg 1278w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-1704x2048.jpg 1704w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Community is a major part of immigrant survival for any group. In your family’s case, you met Chu Nhan, a neighbor and social advocate, who helped you move into an apartment complex with other Viet families. I’m curious, what’s the Vietnamese community in the Bay Area currently like, and do these networks still exist for newcomers? So much has changed since your family’s arrival in 1980.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For research, I went back to that exact apartment complex where we started. It’s still very much filled with immigrants. The immigrants aren’t only Vietnamese but Hispanic and Indian as well. So it’s more diverse, but it’s still there. It’s really great.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13905153,arts_13904835,arts_13926136']\u003c/span>That was one of the most defining moments of my childhood — to find a community of kids. When we first came here, we were latchkey kids in kindergarten and were home all the time. Our neighbors checked in on us, and our friends were all from around the street, and we just hung around until 9 at night when our parents finally came home from work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, I would say the South Bay is where most Vietnamese people live. But as I was writing this book and traveling around to promote it, I’m seeing Vietnamese immigrant populations all over the United States. I know of San Jose and Orange County, of course. But I recently discovered Houston has a huge population, and their food scene is amazing. Same with New Orleans. They brought Viet Cajun, which is one of my favorite things — those boils. There are pockets everywhere. I think that’s great. They all have their own flair and personality. California Vietnamese. Louisiana Vietnamese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>If you had to add a new chapter and dish to the book to reflect your current living situation, what would it be and why?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would definitely do a sushi chapter. I’m a huge sushi fan. Or tacos. I love tacos, too. The Jalisco Marisco truck in LA is one of my favorite things to eat. Or pasta. Spaghetti can be an amazing artisan experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As an immigrant living in the U.S., how have your experiences with food changed over time?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I used to think Chili’s was high-end (laughs). I used to think that was making it in life. Then, when I first started dating my ex-wife, she took me to a Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco. It blew my mind, and for so long I was looking for those beautifully refined restaurants. But I’ve journeyed back to my roots and discovered the nuance of phở or a birria taco. Those kinds of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You regularly contribute food-related comics to publications like \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tpham\">\u003cb>KQED\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> and the \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/author/thien-pham/\">\u003cb>\u003ci>East Bay Express\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. You also grew up in \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">\u003cb>San Jose’s diverse immigrant food communities\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. You’re a true OG foodie. Where do you go to eat when you’re in the mood for a soul-satisfying meal?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I go to San Jose every Saturday. I have two nephews who have a single mother, and since the oldest has been in fourth grade, I come to see them for phở. We’ve gone to the same place for 20 years now: \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dacphucsanjose/\">Dac Phuc\u003c/a>. One of the nephews just got married and the other just graduated from San Jose State and got a job. And the restaurant has always been there. I think it’s the best hands down. Yelp doesn’t always agree; it’s not the most fancy place (laughs). But for me and my family, there’s no better phở. It’s nostalgia. [pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Thien Pham\"]“It’s hard to be an immigrant in America, but it’s also the best. We walk through two cultures at once. We’re raised to eat everything. Other people are missing out.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just went on a trip to Detroit, and when I got home, all I wanted was Dac Phuc. I feel the most at home there. Whenever I miss those Saturdays, it knocks me off kilter. We still do it every weekend. I love San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It’s a marathon to finish any sustained creative process, so I’m sure you’re recharging your battery. But when the time arrives, what other projects or potential book ideas do you have?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I finished \u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i> I was thinking of how to follow it up. A really cool way felt like the opposite of what I did. This book is about me as a child immigrating from Vietnam to America, but I’ve been here for 40 years now and have never been back to Vietnam. People tell me I need to eat Vietnamese food in Vietnam. I’m told I haven’t had the real thing yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, I had a life changing event when my grandma passed away. She took care of me the most in Vietnam. My relatives told me that her house, the same house where I grew up, is still there and owned by my family. I want to go back and discover the history that I don’t know about in Vietnam. I want to try the food I love at the source. It’s hard to be an immigrant in America, but it’s also the best. We walk through two cultures at once. We’re raised to eat everything. Other people are missing out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Thien Pham\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will be reading excerpts from \u003c/i>Family Style\u003ci> at \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thien-pham-in-store-launch-for-his-new-ya-graphic-novel-family-style-tickets-546643624797\">Mrs. Dalloway’s\u003c/a> (2904 College Ave., Berkeley) on Tues., June 20 at 7 p.m. He will also appear at the \u003ca href=\"https://portal.cca.edu/events-calendar/thien-pham/\">California College of Arts\u003c/a> (1111 8th St., San Francisco) on Fri., July 14 and Hicklebee’s Bookstore (1378 Lincoln Ave., San Jose) on Sun., July 16. \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pham is currently also doing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cartoonists836m-exhibition-opening-tickets-612684324307\">four-month artist’s residency\u003c/a> and exhibition at 836M Gallery (836 Montgomery St., San Francisco), with a focus on the history of San Francisco’s neighborhoods.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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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>Nothing sustains a community more than food. It’s where all memories of home begin, and it’s how anyone who has ever been separated from their roots finds a way back — eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">Thien Pham\u003c/a>, an Oakland-based graphic novelist, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">comics\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13905153/underground-vietnamese-restaurants-social-media-san-jose\">artist\u003c/a> and high school educator, it took more than 40 years after fleeing his home country, Vietnam, to gather the right ingredients needed for his life’s work: \u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i>. Packed with life lessons about family, friendship, assimilation and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">life in San Jose\u003c/a> as a refugee, the graphic novel also serves as a love letter to his most memorable meals, from Southeast Asia to Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each chapter of the story presents a thematic dish that encapsulates Pham’s experience at the time, from the “Rice and Fish” he ate as a child refugee living on a boat to the luxurious “Steak and Potatoes” he enjoyed after first arriving to the United States — and many unexpected food combinations in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the book grapples with traumatic topics of forced migration and diasporic displacement, it’s largely centered on the joy of communal gathering, shared culinary knowledge and family-sustained recipes for dishes like his mother’s bánh cuốn.\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-13930698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpted panels from a graphic novel: 1) Image of a thin rice crepe on a plate. Text reads, "Put the pork filling in the middle, then roll, fold the rice paper with the bamboo stick. 2) A woman reaches into a bowl, assembling the banch cuon. Text reads, "Top with the fried onions, garlic, and veggies." 3) She holds out a plate with the finished banh cuon. "Add fish sauce at the end. And that's it. Here, try it." 4) Another woman in a red blouse picks up a piece with chopsticks. 5) She eats it with her eyes closed in pleasure. "It tastes like home," she says. 6) The panel zooms out to show the two of them sitting in front of a small stall made up of various cooking implements. "So do you think you're ready to do this?" the woman who prepared the banh cuon asks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2326\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-800x969.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-1020x1236.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-160x194.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-768x930.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-1268x1536.jpg 1268w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg058-1691x2048.jpg 1691w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s one poignant scene when Pham eats his first bag of potato chips with his family after they’ve worked as migrant field laborers picking strawberries. Later as an adult, he memorizes important dates in U.S. history in order to pass his citizenship test while eating lunch in the teacher’s lounge. Often, food is at the center of it all, helping to nourish Pham’s identity and feed his family’s aspirational immigrant dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the eve of his national book launch, I spoke with Pham about his memories of growing up in the Bay Area, his favorite San Jose restaurant and the beauty of being an immigrant.\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: \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Family Style \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>is a graphic novel about food, family, diaspora, teenage angst, American assimilation and more. As a visual storyteller, where did you begin, and how long did it take to complete?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Thien Pham: \u003c/b>I’ve wanted to tell this family story for a long time, but there were things preventing me from it in the past. I never had a tight enough connection with my parents to get the full story, my art style wasn’t where I wanted it to be and I didn’t have a fresh enough perspective. Coming to America as a Vietnamese immigrant has been told before. It’s a universal immigration story, and I didn’t know how to tell it at the level I thought it could be. I needed time to figure it all out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, it just intersected for me in a weird way. I finally spent time with my parents and talked to them about it all, and we were all old enough to talk about the truth. I also felt at that point my art was at a level that could do the story justice. When I talked to my mom, I realized that what I told her was mostly food related. As soon as I got that last piece, I knew that was the angle for me to approach it: immigration told through food. It was the missing piece; it was already inside me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, I just did it page by page. It was fast, in terms of drawing comics; it wasn’t agonizing or dragged out. It’s not often I get that. Maybe two or three times in my life I’ve had that feeling. That’s one of the reasons this book is so special to me. Who knows if I’ll ever have all that coming together so perfectly again? At the end of the book, there are strips of me talking to my parents and explaining how the book was created. I wanted to capture that in the book. It was magical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1.jpg\" alt='Panels excerpted from a graphic novel: 1) A boat pulls up to a larger freighter ship. 2) A man on the boat says, \"They said they can take us as far as they can, and give us food and water for some money...\" 3) The Vietnamese refugees on the boat look stunned to receive this news. 4) They line up to receive food from a man in a baseball cap. 5) When she reaches the front of the line, one woman says, \"We have five people. Can we get some more?\" as he hands her a plate of squid and a slice of watermelon. 6) The woman and her two small children look overwhelmed as someone approaches offering two additional plates of squid and rice.' width=\"1920\" height=\"2315\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-800x965.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-1020x1230.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-160x193.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-768x926.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-1274x1536.jpg 1274w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg006-1-1699x2048.jpg 1699w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your first graphic novel, \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Sumo\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, was published over a decade ago. When did you realize you were ready to illustrate and write \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everybody has stories in them, but it’s about recognizing when it’s time to share it. That’s crucial. I didn’t have any idea about my next big graphic novel. I would start and stop with things and nothing really stuck. I can only create when I feel a major emotional pull to do it. But between those graphic novels I’ve been drawing. I did short stories, \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/comic-strip-i-like-eating-2-1/\">food magazines\u003c/a>. I was always honing my craft. Through these smaller projects I really found how to tell stories in my own voice. By the time the inspiration finally hit me, I was ready in terms of art and storytelling. I was at the point I could tell the story in the style I wanted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The book includes references to recipes related to your family’s experiences. What have you realized about the connection between food and family?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I always wanted to cook my mom’s food. I missed it. During the pandemic, you couldn’t just go to Vietnamese restaurants, so I started learning how to do it. Every day I tried to make something my mom made me when I was a kid. This is a very metaphoric thing in the book. I thought these simple meals she used to make were easy and took no time, and they were delicious. She made meals in 15 minutes for the family in between her work shifts. But when she described to me how they were made, I realized simple meals are very, very nuanced, and there are so many more things to it I never thought about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, something I thought was just fish sauce also had sugar and coconut soda and star anise. When I ate it I never picked up on those things. I realized how it mirrored our trip to America. My mom just says, “Yeah, we were on a boat and got here, and it was this and that.” But when you sit with the details, it’s like the nuance of a recipe with so much more happening. That made me realize that my parents were constantly trying to protect us when we were kids by making it look easy. Whether it’s not telling us about their hardships or making light of the work they did to provide dinner, they were trying to shield us. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“Immigration and refugees are always portrayed as sad and struggling. But there is also joy, opportunity and having each other.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, at 48 years old, I realize what an amazing cook and person my mom was. I think I always took that for granted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What were the challenges of writing and illustrating \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, which invariably deals with intense immigrant hardships?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My dad surprised me when I asked him about how he maintained his hope through hardships: He said it wasn’t hard. Looking back, he’ll now admit it was tough, but in the moment he said it was so much joy and fun, even in the refugee camps while living in shacks with nothing. Because at least you have friends and family, and everyone is there and making the best of it. He recalls the refugee camps as some of his best times. When he told me that, it made me realize how immigration and refugees are always portrayed as sad and struggling. But there is also joy, opportunity and having each other. I wanted to write a story full of that hope and joy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there was a challenge, it was to convey some of the challenges while keeping a tone of joy. I didn’t want it to be about only the hardships, but seeing the fortunate side of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13930702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpted panels from a graphic novel: 1) Kids eating lunch at a table in the cafeteria. A smiling, gap-toothed boy says, "Hey Thien! How's your first day of school going?" 2) Thien, with a perplexed expression, responds, "Okay, but for some reason everyone's calling me 'Tin.' The gap-toothed boy responds, "Ha! That's your new name! At least it sorta sounds like your name. They call me 'Tony'!" 3) Thien examines a plastic-wrapped carton of food. "What's this?" 4) While chewing, gap-toothed boy responds, "It's called sals-buree steak. Try it. I think you'll like it!" 5) Thien warily peels back the plastic wrap. 6) As prepares to put a spork-ful in his mouth, he says, "You sure? It smells funny..." "Okay, here goes..."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2307\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-800x961.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-1020x1226.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-160x192.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-768x923.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-1278x1536.jpg 1278w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/family-style-thien-pham-pg121-1704x2048.jpg 1704w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Community is a major part of immigrant survival for any group. In your family’s case, you met Chu Nhan, a neighbor and social advocate, who helped you move into an apartment complex with other Viet families. I’m curious, what’s the Vietnamese community in the Bay Area currently like, and do these networks still exist for newcomers? So much has changed since your family’s arrival in 1980.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For research, I went back to that exact apartment complex where we started. It’s still very much filled with immigrants. The immigrants aren’t only Vietnamese but Hispanic and Indian as well. So it’s more diverse, but it’s still there. It’s really great.\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>That was one of the most defining moments of my childhood — to find a community of kids. When we first came here, we were latchkey kids in kindergarten and were home all the time. Our neighbors checked in on us, and our friends were all from around the street, and we just hung around until 9 at night when our parents finally came home from work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, I would say the South Bay is where most Vietnamese people live. But as I was writing this book and traveling around to promote it, I’m seeing Vietnamese immigrant populations all over the United States. I know of San Jose and Orange County, of course. But I recently discovered Houston has a huge population, and their food scene is amazing. Same with New Orleans. They brought Viet Cajun, which is one of my favorite things — those boils. There are pockets everywhere. I think that’s great. They all have their own flair and personality. California Vietnamese. Louisiana Vietnamese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>If you had to add a new chapter and dish to the book to reflect your current living situation, what would it be and why?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would definitely do a sushi chapter. I’m a huge sushi fan. Or tacos. I love tacos, too. The Jalisco Marisco truck in LA is one of my favorite things to eat. Or pasta. Spaghetti can be an amazing artisan experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As an immigrant living in the U.S., how have your experiences with food changed over time?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I used to think Chili’s was high-end (laughs). I used to think that was making it in life. Then, when I first started dating my ex-wife, she took me to a Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco. It blew my mind, and for so long I was looking for those beautifully refined restaurants. But I’ve journeyed back to my roots and discovered the nuance of phở or a birria taco. Those kinds of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You regularly contribute food-related comics to publications like \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tpham\">\u003cb>KQED\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> and the \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/author/thien-pham/\">\u003cb>\u003ci>East Bay Express\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. You also grew up in \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904835/san-jose-immigrant-food\">\u003cb>San Jose’s diverse immigrant food communities\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. You’re a true OG foodie. Where do you go to eat when you’re in the mood for a soul-satisfying meal?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I go to San Jose every Saturday. I have two nephews who have a single mother, and since the oldest has been in fourth grade, I come to see them for phở. We’ve gone to the same place for 20 years now: \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dacphucsanjose/\">Dac Phuc\u003c/a>. One of the nephews just got married and the other just graduated from San Jose State and got a job. And the restaurant has always been there. I think it’s the best hands down. Yelp doesn’t always agree; it’s not the most fancy place (laughs). But for me and my family, there’s no better phở. It’s nostalgia. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“It’s hard to be an immigrant in America, but it’s also the best. We walk through two cultures at once. We’re raised to eat everything. Other people are missing out.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just went on a trip to Detroit, and when I got home, all I wanted was Dac Phuc. I feel the most at home there. Whenever I miss those Saturdays, it knocks me off kilter. We still do it every weekend. I love San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It’s a marathon to finish any sustained creative process, so I’m sure you’re recharging your battery. But when the time arrives, what other projects or potential book ideas do you have?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I finished \u003ci>Family Style\u003c/i> I was thinking of how to follow it up. A really cool way felt like the opposite of what I did. This book is about me as a child immigrating from Vietnam to America, but I’ve been here for 40 years now and have never been back to Vietnam. People tell me I need to eat Vietnamese food in Vietnam. I’m told I haven’t had the real thing yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, I had a life changing event when my grandma passed away. She took care of me the most in Vietnam. My relatives told me that her house, the same house where I grew up, is still there and owned by my family. I want to go back and discover the history that I don’t know about in Vietnam. I want to try the food I love at the source. It’s hard to be an immigrant in America, but it’s also the best. We walk through two cultures at once. We’re raised to eat everything. Other people are missing out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Thien Pham\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will be reading excerpts from \u003c/i>Family Style\u003ci> at \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thien-pham-in-store-launch-for-his-new-ya-graphic-novel-family-style-tickets-546643624797\">Mrs. Dalloway’s\u003c/a> (2904 College Ave., Berkeley) on Tues., June 20 at 7 p.m. He will also appear at the \u003ca href=\"https://portal.cca.edu/events-calendar/thien-pham/\">California College of Arts\u003c/a> (1111 8th St., San Francisco) on Fri., July 14 and Hicklebee’s Bookstore (1378 Lincoln Ave., San Jose) on Sun., July 16. \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pham is currently also doing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cartoonists836m-exhibition-opening-tickets-612684324307\">four-month artist’s residency\u003c/a> and exhibition at 836M Gallery (836 Montgomery St., San Francisco), with a focus on the history of San Francisco’s neighborhoods.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Acorns Aren’t the Only Thing Korean and Ohlone Elders Have in Common",
"headTitle": "Acorns Aren’t the Only Thing Korean and Ohlone Elders Have in Common | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n a crisp Friday afternoon in November, an intimate group of community elders gathered at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/cafe-ohlone\">Cafe Ohlone\u003c/a> for a multi-course outdoor feast made with ingredients native to Northern California: acorn flour and fernbrake, pickleweed and sweet huckleberries. Founders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino greeted the group in the Ohlone Chochenyo language, and as the dappled Berkeley sunlight gave way to evening, they spoke of how important it was for colonized peoples to keep their cultures alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways, it was a typical dinner service at the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13912976/cafe-ohlone-hearst-museum-opening-singing-trees\">only dedicated Ohlone restaurant\u003c/a>, except for one notable difference: Nearly all of the diners in attendance were Korean elders, many of them monolingual. They had come to Cafe Ohlone to break bread with Ohlone neighbors they had met for the first time that day — to savor both the Korean \u003ci>and\u003c/i> Ohlone ways of preparing shared cultural ingredients such as acorn, and to hear and share stories that showed the many points of commonality between their two communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We both value respect for our elders, making sure that they’re taken care of and loved, and that their wisdom is carried on into the future,” Medina said in his introductory remarks. “Our peoples have also survived hard times, and so we always keep our cultures close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930528\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930528\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088.jpg\" alt=\"Two indigenous Ohlone men address a group of elderly Koreans while a female Korean translator looks on from the side. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Medina (right) spoke of the many points of connection between the Korean and Ohlone cultures, including a respect for elders and resilience in the face of hardship. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “story sharing supper” was a collaboration between Cafe Ohlone and a Korean American community organization called \u003ca href=\"https://www.ssiyagi.com/\">Ssi Ya Gi\u003c/a> (pronounced “shee-ya-ghee,” meaning “Seed Story” in Korean), whose members are based in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. It was the second in-person event of its kind — and the first in the Bay Area — for a group born out of the heightened sense of isolation that many homebound, elderly Korean immigrants experienced during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hannah Pae, a Los Angeles-based landscape designer who co-founded Ssi Ya Gi in 2021, recalls how her own grandmother was living at a nursing home when the first wave of COVID hit the United States. “During lockdown, when my family could not visit her, her health deteriorated. She wasn’t eating Korean food; people in the nursing home couldn’t speak Korean,” Pae says. “It was just heartbreaking to feel so helpless and see her health decline so rapidly because of the isolation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930531\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930531\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115.jpg\" alt=\"On a dining table, a boat-shaped paper tray of Korean acorn jellies molded into the shape of actual acorns. Decorative lemons and walnuts in their shell form a centerpiece for the table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Acorn was served two ways: traditional Ohlone chilled acorn soup and, pictured here, Korean acorn jellies topped with soy sauce and scallions. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pae’s grandmother wound up passing away not long after the start of the pandemic. Driven by that painful experience, Pae started talking to Hyunch Sung, a landscape design colleague based in the East Bay, about putting together a project that would allow young Korean Americans to forge a “human-to-human connection” with seniors in their community to help alleviate some of that isolation. Eventually, the two of them teamed up a handful of other like-minded folks: plant designer Ginny Hwang, Yoon Ju Ellie Lee of the diasporic Korean arts collective \u003ca href=\"https://gyopo.us/\">GYOPO\u003c/a>, and community nonprofit consultant Grace Jiyun Lee, who’d spent those early months of the pandemic organizing hot meal deliveries for Korean elders through San Francisco’s Korean American Community Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew we wanted to connect over food and plants,” Lee says. “We wanted to do this for our seniors but also for ourselves — as a learning for us and also [to share] information that would otherwise be lost with other interested community members.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930530\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031.jpg\" alt=\"A group of Korean elders seated at an outdoor wooden table toast each other with cups of makgeolli, a type of Korean rice alcohol.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Korean seniors toasted each other with cups of makgeolli, a milky-white rice liquor that’s traditional to Korea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Power of a Zine\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What they came up with was a sort of cultural memory program that checked all of those boxes. First, Ssi Ya Gi volunteers would conduct extensive interviews with Korean elders about their food memories, as well as their lives at large. The interviews themselves — the act of \u003ci>really \u003c/i>listening to an elder’s story — helped provide some of the human connection that so many homebound seniors were missing during the pandemic. And because food is such an integral part of Korean culture, Ssi Yagi’s founders all agreed that it would make the perfect interview topic, providing a way to bridge language barriers and intergenerational barriers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13899524,arts_13911528']\u003c/span>“We were thinking a lot about plants and food sustenance and the fact that historically, before the Industrial Revolution, Korea was a very agrarian country,” Lee explains. “So our seniors would have interesting stories about foods that they had in their childhood that couldn’t be found here — plants they would forage or grow in their home gardens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the interviews, Ssi Ya Gi would collaborate with artists to create gorgeously illustrated zines based on each of the seniors’ food stories, both in English and translated back into Korean. The zines served a dual purpose: They made for lovely, personalized gifts to give back to those elders who had shared their stories. They also document a kind of oral history that’s too often lost to time and make those stories accessible to a whole new generation — starting with the zine-collecting folks in their 20s and 30s who make up the majority of Ssi Ya Gi’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ssiyagi/?hl=en\">social media followers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930540\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930540\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012.jpg\" alt=\"A young Korean American woman looks on while an elderly Korean man in a face mask reads a zine.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Myung Kwang Shik reads a zine about his own food memories — about jjajangmyeon and his family’s rice farm. Hannah Pae (left), the zine’s author and illustrator, looks on. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Pae, who wrote and illustrated four of the zines herself, the interview process was at times quite challenging, requiring a lot of “gentle digging” to get these older immigrants to open up about their past lives. “Some of our seniors, we found it to be a little bit difficult to ask them about their favorite food memory because there was so little food at that time,” she explains. For Korean immigrants who came of age during Japanese occupation, the Korean War and the war’s aftermath, the hardships were what dominated their memories of those times. In some cases, the stories they eventually shared with Ssi Ya Gi’s interviewers were things they’d never even discussed with their own family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One senior in Los Angeles’ Koreatown talked about how, as a single mother of five, she had supported her family by working as a dairy farmer. Another recalled the shop in her coastal hometown that specialized in all different cuts of boiled whale meat. (“It tasted similar to pork belly.”) Yet another reveled in the memory of eating freshly harvested rice from his family’s rice farm. “Shiny and greasy,” as the elder described it, Korea’s original rice was, in his memory, so much more delicious than the high-yield, modern-day rice strain that was introduced in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, Ssi Ya Gi has published 10 zines to date — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ssiyagi.com/portfolio-2\">all available for purchase\u003c/a> as a way to support the organization’s ongoing community work with Korean elders in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930547\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930547\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits in front of a spread of Korean and Ohlone dishes, including a colorful salad flecked with berries and nuts, and a bowl of bright red Korean spicy beef soup.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ssi Ya Gi’s Yoon Ju Ellie Lee enjoys a spread of Ohlone and Korean dishes, including a bountiful Ohlone salad and a bowl of soul-warming Korean fernbrake soup. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>An Acorn Story\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The zines featured prominently at Ssi Ya Gi’s Cafe Ohlone dinner. Several elders whose stories had been memorialized in a zine were in attendance, and at one point, Myung Kwang Shik, the Los Angeles-based senior who’d shared the story of his family’s rice farm, stood up and proudly read a short excerpt from his zine. Mostly, Lee says, the dinner was one more way for the Ssi Ya Gi team to show their appreciation to these Korean elders who had entrusted them with their food memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was also a part of the group’s plan to expand its work with elders to beyond just the Korean immigrant community. Ssi Ya Gi had hosted an earlier event at a community garden run by \u003ca href=\"https://www.cultivala.org/\">CultivaLA\u003c/a>, an urban agriculture nonprofit focused on providing healthy food access for the local Latinx community. The idea was to provide a forum for intercultural connection — to allow Latino and Korean elders to listen to each other’s stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930535\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930535\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170.jpg\" alt=\"A elderly Korean woman in glasses looks on with a wistful expression on her face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Korean elders listened with rapt attention as Cafe Ohlone’s founders spoke of the connections between their two cultures. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The dinner at Cafe Ohlone was a strong point of evidence for the Ssi Ya Gi story-sharing model’s power for cross-cultural communication. The collaboration came about because Terremoto, the landscape design firm where Pae and fellow Ssi Ya Gi co-founder Hyunch Sung first met, had helped design \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13912976/cafe-ohlone-hearst-museum-opening-singing-trees\">Cafe Ohlone’s new space\u003c/a> at UC Berkeley’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having established a relationship with Medina and Trevino, Pae and Sung were struck by how many similarities there were between the Korean and Ohlone cultures. In addition to their mutual respect for elders and having both experienced the long-lasting effects of being colonized, Koreans and Ohlones also had a surprising number of food staples in common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are so few cultures around the world who eat acorn,” Pae says. “We share acorn; we share fernbrake; we share buckwheat and mugwort. And we thought that this could be an incredible way to bridge our cultures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930536\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930536\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181.jpg\" alt=\"Chia porridge topped with a scattering of berries and roasted hazelnuts. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For dessert, there was Ohlone-style chia porridge topped with sweet huckleberries. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To showcase those similarities, Cafe Ohlone and Ssi Ya Gi put together a feast cooked by local Korean chefs and the Cafe Ohlone team. The meal began with two different preparations of acorn: There was cold, velvety Ohlone black oak acorn soup, mild and refreshing. And then there were savory Korean acorn jellies, molded into the shape of actual acorns and topped with soy sauce, green onions and sesame seeds. [pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Hannah Pae\"]“There are so few cultures around the world who eat acorn. … And we thought that this could be an incredible way to bridge our cultures.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A procession of similarly abundant dishes followed. A spread of variously pickled and fermented Korean banchan to be eaten with steamed rice. A colorful Ohlone salad of watercress, pickleweed, roasted hazelnuts and at least three different kinds of berries, luxuriously dressed in walnut oil and blackberry-bay laurel coulis. And, courtesy of Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://seoulgomtang.co/\">Seoul Gom Tang\u003c/a>, bowls of hot, soul-warming yukgaejang, a Korean spicy beef soup made with fernbrake — also a typical Ohlone ingredient — cooked until impossibly tender and delicious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, Cafe Ohlone’s Trevino demonstrated the traditional Ohlone method for removing the skin from acorns using a 100-year-old wooden basket, gently rocking it back and forth in order to toss the peeled acorns up into the air and catch them again. Though most of the Korean elders couldn’t understand what Trevino was saying until after the translator spoke, they watched with rapt attention, completely engrossed in what he was doing. Several of the older Korean ladies imitated his sifting motion, chattering excitedly among themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930533\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120.jpg\" alt=\"Man in glasses tosses acorns into the air using a small wooden basket.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cafe Ohlone’s Louis Trevino demonstrates the traditional method for winnowing acorns. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930532\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930532\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118.jpg\" alt=\"Man in glasses tosses acorns into the air using a small wooden basket.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As it turns out, the technique is nearly identical to the one used in Korea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finally, one of them stood up and said, “We have that.” As it turns out, the traditional Korean method for winnowing acorns is almost entirely the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How many people could say they’ve shared in common an experience as specific as that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ssi Ya Gi’s founders say that’s precisely the kind of intercultural connection that they hope to foster. As Lee puts it, “Even though all of us in the collective are Korean American and our focus has been on interviewing Korean seniors, the themes are universal — and the desire to create community and retain cultural memories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930537\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930537\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192.jpg\" alt=\"An elderly Korean woman in tinted glasses smiles as she shakes hands with an Ohlone man.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joanne Selby Kim, the subject of a zine about her memories of her father’s castella cakes, shakes hands with Medina at the end of the evening. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930538\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930538\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200.jpg\" alt=\"A Korean elder whimsically wears a colorful Ohlone blanket.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As the evening cooled, the Cafe Ohlone team passed out colorful Ohlone blankets to keep their Korean guests warm. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In September, Ssi Ya Gi will continue that work by hosting a similar “listening supper” to celebrate Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, in collaboration with the AAPI grassroots nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.cutfruitcollective.org/\">Cut Fruit Collective\u003c/a>. Held in Oakland Chinatown, the event will bring together two different communities of elders — Korean and Chinese. Later this winter, the group will also host another event in Los Angeles to showcase oral histories that they’re collecting from both Korean and Latinx elders centered on the gochu, or chili pepper. The focus, once again, will be on cross-cultural exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in Berkeley, the landmark Korean-Ohlone dinner wound down with laughter and embraces, as the Korean seniors thanked their Ohlone hosts for the delicious, one-of-a-kind meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Come visit us again,” Cafe Ohlone’s Medina said as he leaned over to give one elderly Korean woman a hug. “We share so much in common.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930539\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930539\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238.jpg\" alt=\"A group photo features Ssi Ya Gi's staff of Korean American volunteers as well as the Ohlone co-owners of Cafe Ohlone.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team Ssi Ya Gi + team Cafe Ohlone. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>For updates on Ssi Ya Gi’s upcoming events in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area (specific dates TBD), following them on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ssiyagi/\">Instagram\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Ssi Ya Gi used food memories to connect with elderly Korean immigrants isolated by the pandemic.",
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"twTitle": "Acorns Aren’t the Only Thing Korean and Ohlone Elders Have in Common",
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"description": "Ssi Ya Gi used food memories to connect with elderly Korean immigrants isolated by the pandemic.",
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"headline": "Acorns Aren’t the Only Thing Korean and Ohlone Elders Have in Common",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">O\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n a crisp Friday afternoon in November, an intimate group of community elders gathered at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/cafe-ohlone\">Cafe Ohlone\u003c/a> for a multi-course outdoor feast made with ingredients native to Northern California: acorn flour and fernbrake, pickleweed and sweet huckleberries. Founders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino greeted the group in the Ohlone Chochenyo language, and as the dappled Berkeley sunlight gave way to evening, they spoke of how important it was for colonized peoples to keep their cultures alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways, it was a typical dinner service at the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13912976/cafe-ohlone-hearst-museum-opening-singing-trees\">only dedicated Ohlone restaurant\u003c/a>, except for one notable difference: Nearly all of the diners in attendance were Korean elders, many of them monolingual. They had come to Cafe Ohlone to break bread with Ohlone neighbors they had met for the first time that day — to savor both the Korean \u003ci>and\u003c/i> Ohlone ways of preparing shared cultural ingredients such as acorn, and to hear and share stories that showed the many points of commonality between their two communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We both value respect for our elders, making sure that they’re taken care of and loved, and that their wisdom is carried on into the future,” Medina said in his introductory remarks. “Our peoples have also survived hard times, and so we always keep our cultures close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930528\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930528\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088.jpg\" alt=\"Two indigenous Ohlone men address a group of elderly Koreans while a female Korean translator looks on from the side. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_088-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Medina (right) spoke of the many points of connection between the Korean and Ohlone cultures, including a respect for elders and resilience in the face of hardship. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “story sharing supper” was a collaboration between Cafe Ohlone and a Korean American community organization called \u003ca href=\"https://www.ssiyagi.com/\">Ssi Ya Gi\u003c/a> (pronounced “shee-ya-ghee,” meaning “Seed Story” in Korean), whose members are based in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. It was the second in-person event of its kind — and the first in the Bay Area — for a group born out of the heightened sense of isolation that many homebound, elderly Korean immigrants experienced during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hannah Pae, a Los Angeles-based landscape designer who co-founded Ssi Ya Gi in 2021, recalls how her own grandmother was living at a nursing home when the first wave of COVID hit the United States. “During lockdown, when my family could not visit her, her health deteriorated. She wasn’t eating Korean food; people in the nursing home couldn’t speak Korean,” Pae says. “It was just heartbreaking to feel so helpless and see her health decline so rapidly because of the isolation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930531\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930531\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115.jpg\" alt=\"On a dining table, a boat-shaped paper tray of Korean acorn jellies molded into the shape of actual acorns. Decorative lemons and walnuts in their shell form a centerpiece for the table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_115-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Acorn was served two ways: traditional Ohlone chilled acorn soup and, pictured here, Korean acorn jellies topped with soy sauce and scallions. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pae’s grandmother wound up passing away not long after the start of the pandemic. Driven by that painful experience, Pae started talking to Hyunch Sung, a landscape design colleague based in the East Bay, about putting together a project that would allow young Korean Americans to forge a “human-to-human connection” with seniors in their community to help alleviate some of that isolation. Eventually, the two of them teamed up a handful of other like-minded folks: plant designer Ginny Hwang, Yoon Ju Ellie Lee of the diasporic Korean arts collective \u003ca href=\"https://gyopo.us/\">GYOPO\u003c/a>, and community nonprofit consultant Grace Jiyun Lee, who’d spent those early months of the pandemic organizing hot meal deliveries for Korean elders through San Francisco’s Korean American Community Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew we wanted to connect over food and plants,” Lee says. “We wanted to do this for our seniors but also for ourselves — as a learning for us and also [to share] information that would otherwise be lost with other interested community members.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930530\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031.jpg\" alt=\"A group of Korean elders seated at an outdoor wooden table toast each other with cups of makgeolli, a type of Korean rice alcohol.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_031-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Korean seniors toasted each other with cups of makgeolli, a milky-white rice liquor that’s traditional to Korea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Power of a Zine\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What they came up with was a sort of cultural memory program that checked all of those boxes. First, Ssi Ya Gi volunteers would conduct extensive interviews with Korean elders about their food memories, as well as their lives at large. The interviews themselves — the act of \u003ci>really \u003c/i>listening to an elder’s story — helped provide some of the human connection that so many homebound seniors were missing during the pandemic. And because food is such an integral part of Korean culture, Ssi Yagi’s founders all agreed that it would make the perfect interview topic, providing a way to bridge language barriers and intergenerational barriers.\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>“We were thinking a lot about plants and food sustenance and the fact that historically, before the Industrial Revolution, Korea was a very agrarian country,” Lee explains. “So our seniors would have interesting stories about foods that they had in their childhood that couldn’t be found here — plants they would forage or grow in their home gardens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the interviews, Ssi Ya Gi would collaborate with artists to create gorgeously illustrated zines based on each of the seniors’ food stories, both in English and translated back into Korean. The zines served a dual purpose: They made for lovely, personalized gifts to give back to those elders who had shared their stories. They also document a kind of oral history that’s too often lost to time and make those stories accessible to a whole new generation — starting with the zine-collecting folks in their 20s and 30s who make up the majority of Ssi Ya Gi’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ssiyagi/?hl=en\">social media followers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930540\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930540\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012.jpg\" alt=\"A young Korean American woman looks on while an elderly Korean man in a face mask reads a zine.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_012-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Myung Kwang Shik reads a zine about his own food memories — about jjajangmyeon and his family’s rice farm. Hannah Pae (left), the zine’s author and illustrator, looks on. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Pae, who wrote and illustrated four of the zines herself, the interview process was at times quite challenging, requiring a lot of “gentle digging” to get these older immigrants to open up about their past lives. “Some of our seniors, we found it to be a little bit difficult to ask them about their favorite food memory because there was so little food at that time,” she explains. For Korean immigrants who came of age during Japanese occupation, the Korean War and the war’s aftermath, the hardships were what dominated their memories of those times. In some cases, the stories they eventually shared with Ssi Ya Gi’s interviewers were things they’d never even discussed with their own family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One senior in Los Angeles’ Koreatown talked about how, as a single mother of five, she had supported her family by working as a dairy farmer. Another recalled the shop in her coastal hometown that specialized in all different cuts of boiled whale meat. (“It tasted similar to pork belly.”) Yet another reveled in the memory of eating freshly harvested rice from his family’s rice farm. “Shiny and greasy,” as the elder described it, Korea’s original rice was, in his memory, so much more delicious than the high-yield, modern-day rice strain that was introduced in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, Ssi Ya Gi has published 10 zines to date — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ssiyagi.com/portfolio-2\">all available for purchase\u003c/a> as a way to support the organization’s ongoing community work with Korean elders in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930547\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930547\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits in front of a spread of Korean and Ohlone dishes, including a colorful salad flecked with berries and nuts, and a bowl of bright red Korean spicy beef soup.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_151-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ssi Ya Gi’s Yoon Ju Ellie Lee enjoys a spread of Ohlone and Korean dishes, including a bountiful Ohlone salad and a bowl of soul-warming Korean fernbrake soup. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>An Acorn Story\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The zines featured prominently at Ssi Ya Gi’s Cafe Ohlone dinner. Several elders whose stories had been memorialized in a zine were in attendance, and at one point, Myung Kwang Shik, the Los Angeles-based senior who’d shared the story of his family’s rice farm, stood up and proudly read a short excerpt from his zine. Mostly, Lee says, the dinner was one more way for the Ssi Ya Gi team to show their appreciation to these Korean elders who had entrusted them with their food memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was also a part of the group’s plan to expand its work with elders to beyond just the Korean immigrant community. Ssi Ya Gi had hosted an earlier event at a community garden run by \u003ca href=\"https://www.cultivala.org/\">CultivaLA\u003c/a>, an urban agriculture nonprofit focused on providing healthy food access for the local Latinx community. The idea was to provide a forum for intercultural connection — to allow Latino and Korean elders to listen to each other’s stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930535\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930535\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170.jpg\" alt=\"A elderly Korean woman in glasses looks on with a wistful expression on her face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_170-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Korean elders listened with rapt attention as Cafe Ohlone’s founders spoke of the connections between their two cultures. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The dinner at Cafe Ohlone was a strong point of evidence for the Ssi Ya Gi story-sharing model’s power for cross-cultural communication. The collaboration came about because Terremoto, the landscape design firm where Pae and fellow Ssi Ya Gi co-founder Hyunch Sung first met, had helped design \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13912976/cafe-ohlone-hearst-museum-opening-singing-trees\">Cafe Ohlone’s new space\u003c/a> at UC Berkeley’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having established a relationship with Medina and Trevino, Pae and Sung were struck by how many similarities there were between the Korean and Ohlone cultures. In addition to their mutual respect for elders and having both experienced the long-lasting effects of being colonized, Koreans and Ohlones also had a surprising number of food staples in common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are so few cultures around the world who eat acorn,” Pae says. “We share acorn; we share fernbrake; we share buckwheat and mugwort. And we thought that this could be an incredible way to bridge our cultures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930536\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930536\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181.jpg\" alt=\"Chia porridge topped with a scattering of berries and roasted hazelnuts. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_181-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For dessert, there was Ohlone-style chia porridge topped with sweet huckleberries. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To showcase those similarities, Cafe Ohlone and Ssi Ya Gi put together a feast cooked by local Korean chefs and the Cafe Ohlone team. The meal began with two different preparations of acorn: There was cold, velvety Ohlone black oak acorn soup, mild and refreshing. And then there were savory Korean acorn jellies, molded into the shape of actual acorns and topped with soy sauce, green onions and sesame seeds. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A procession of similarly abundant dishes followed. A spread of variously pickled and fermented Korean banchan to be eaten with steamed rice. A colorful Ohlone salad of watercress, pickleweed, roasted hazelnuts and at least three different kinds of berries, luxuriously dressed in walnut oil and blackberry-bay laurel coulis. And, courtesy of Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://seoulgomtang.co/\">Seoul Gom Tang\u003c/a>, bowls of hot, soul-warming yukgaejang, a Korean spicy beef soup made with fernbrake — also a typical Ohlone ingredient — cooked until impossibly tender and delicious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, Cafe Ohlone’s Trevino demonstrated the traditional Ohlone method for removing the skin from acorns using a 100-year-old wooden basket, gently rocking it back and forth in order to toss the peeled acorns up into the air and catch them again. Though most of the Korean elders couldn’t understand what Trevino was saying until after the translator spoke, they watched with rapt attention, completely engrossed in what he was doing. Several of the older Korean ladies imitated his sifting motion, chattering excitedly among themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930533\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120.jpg\" alt=\"Man in glasses tosses acorns into the air using a small wooden basket.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_120-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cafe Ohlone’s Louis Trevino demonstrates the traditional method for winnowing acorns. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930532\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930532\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118.jpg\" alt=\"Man in glasses tosses acorns into the air using a small wooden basket.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_118-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As it turns out, the technique is nearly identical to the one used in Korea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finally, one of them stood up and said, “We have that.” As it turns out, the traditional Korean method for winnowing acorns is almost entirely the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How many people could say they’ve shared in common an experience as specific as that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ssi Ya Gi’s founders say that’s precisely the kind of intercultural connection that they hope to foster. As Lee puts it, “Even though all of us in the collective are Korean American and our focus has been on interviewing Korean seniors, the themes are universal — and the desire to create community and retain cultural memories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930537\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930537\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192.jpg\" alt=\"An elderly Korean woman in tinted glasses smiles as she shakes hands with an Ohlone man.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_192-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joanne Selby Kim, the subject of a zine about her memories of her father’s castella cakes, shakes hands with Medina at the end of the evening. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930538\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930538\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200.jpg\" alt=\"A Korean elder whimsically wears a colorful Ohlone blanket.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_200-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As the evening cooled, the Cafe Ohlone team passed out colorful Ohlone blankets to keep their Korean guests warm. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In September, Ssi Ya Gi will continue that work by hosting a similar “listening supper” to celebrate Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, in collaboration with the AAPI grassroots nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.cutfruitcollective.org/\">Cut Fruit Collective\u003c/a>. Held in Oakland Chinatown, the event will bring together two different communities of elders — Korean and Chinese. Later this winter, the group will also host another event in Los Angeles to showcase oral histories that they’re collecting from both Korean and Latinx elders centered on the gochu, or chili pepper. The focus, once again, will be on cross-cultural exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in Berkeley, the landmark Korean-Ohlone dinner wound down with laughter and embraces, as the Korean seniors thanked their Ohlone hosts for the delicious, one-of-a-kind meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Come visit us again,” Cafe Ohlone’s Medina said as he leaned over to give one elderly Korean woman a hug. “We share so much in common.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930539\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930539\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238.jpg\" alt=\"A group photo features Ssi Ya Gi's staff of Korean American volunteers as well as the Ohlone co-owners of Cafe Ohlone.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/OhloneKorean_HW_238-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team Ssi Ya Gi + team Cafe Ohlone. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hardy Wilson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>For updates on Ssi Ya Gi’s upcoming events in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area (specific dates TBD), following them on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ssiyagi/\">Instagram\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "chile-lindo-chilean-empanadas-mission-district-san-francisco-hella-hungry",
"title": "Chilean Empanadas Have Been a Mission District Staple for 50 Years",
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"headTitle": "Chilean Empanadas Have Been a Mission District Staple for 50 Years | KQED",
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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>There are certain restaurants in the Bay Area that, for a variety of reasons, are easy to miss — often old-school eateries without the buzz or viral TikTok and Instagram accounts to lure you in from afar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these modest establishments are just as capable of delivering culinary euphoria. In many cases, they also have decades’ worth of history waiting to be consumed. That’s exactly what the Mission’s \u003ca href=\"https://chilelindo.com/\">Chile Lindo\u003c/a> represents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since it opened in 1973, the small, independently-owned empanaderia has been a hideout for Chilean nationals. Many had come to California after being exiled from their native land under the harsh military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who rose to power after a United States-backed military coup. Like many diasporas carrying trauma, they’ve found refuge in places like Chile Lindo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just one block east of the bustling 16th Street BART station, the shop blooms inside the Redstone Building, with a hand-painted advertisement for Chilean empanadas glossing the window. Since taking ownership in 1995, Paula Tejeda has seen her fair share of adversity, though. The restaurant’s original location is largely non-operational at the moment after a series of eviction notices, kitchen accidents and near closures throughout the pandemic. Yet somehow, Tejeda has found a way forward, as so many immigrants and children of immigrants do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, with the support of the Mission Housing Development Agency, she opened a sister location, Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture, directly across the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930164\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13930164 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Chilean food maker stands in front of her colorful shop on 16th Street in San Francisco\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tejeda stands in front of the original Chile Lindo on 16th Street. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Although the preservation of Chile’s culture isn’t always noticeable in the Bay Area — particularly when compared to other, more visible immigrant groups — Chileans maintain a deep reverence for their homeland, rallying around national treasures like soccer, empanadas and Chilean-style hotdogs, known as “completos.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few San Franciscans can speak to the unique history of Chile’s influence in the Mission like Tejeda can. There’s a reason her neighbors know her as “\u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2014/11/sometimes-its-not-all-about-the-empanadas/\">the Girl from Empanada\u003c/a>.” I stopped by Tejeda’s new shop to speak with her about gentrification, Chilean representation and the modern struggles of small business owners in San Francisco, all while she baked empanadas and prepared Chilenitos — cookie-sized Chilean pastries layered with wafers, dulce de leche and meringue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003ci>********\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: What’s the history of Chile Lindo and how did you get involved in the Bay Area’s food scene?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paula Tejeda:\u003c/b> Chile Lindo has been here since 1973. It was owned by a Chilean woman for over a decade. She sold it to another Chilean. [In 1995] I had just moved from New York City and didn’t have work. Before that, I went to Laney College and studied television production and had an internship at KTVU and KPIX. I was admitted to San Francisco State but dropped out and moved to Chile and then to NYC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Back in San Francisco,] I was running around the neighborhood selling sandwiches. The Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment was around, and they had a Latin branch called ALAS. People in the community told me to get a loan from the program, and one day I got a call that Chile Lindo was for sale. It was going to go to a Cuban, they told us, and they wanted a Chilean owner. It was rundown at the time. I didn’t have a penny to buy this. So I went to the program to get a loan, and [the owner] gave me the keys right away. Overnight, I was a business owner. I was running around the neighborhood with a basket [selling empanadas].\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930161\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930161\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"a large baking tray of empanadas before entering the oven\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fresh batch of Chilean empanadas. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How have you maintained your love for Chilean food and managed to run your business for nearly three decades?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2009 I joined the street food movement. I was known as “the Girl from Empanada.” I joined programs to learn about business loans and how to keep the business afloat. I had a vision to bridge the cultures of Chile and the United States. It’s always been my motivation in more ways than one. With Chile Lindo, with food, you can create a network and represent your culture. I wanted to sell food, but also to produce artists and to provide intercultural consultations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 28 years, I’ve become a reference [point] for the link between Chile, California, the Bay Area, local artists, the Mission and North Beach. That’s very much been my motivation to keep going. To persevere as entrepreneurs, we have so many projects all the time because it’s one of the only ways to endure the hardships and losses of each day. We’re motivated by something bigger, a vision to make a difference. That has always been my drive. I know I can be an ambassador for all things Chilean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What distinguishes Chilean empanadas from neighboring varieties, including those from Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico or \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926749/tasty-tings-jamaican-beef-patties-sf-oakland\">\u003cb>Jamaica\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea of anything breaded is an international concept. Chilean empanadas are kind of renowned in South America because the Chileans made it their national food. You hear a lot about the asado in Argentina. Peru has a very unique and sophisticated cuisine. Mexico as well. But for Chileans, empanadas and wine are what they have to celebrate their independence. They celebrate for a month as if it happened yesterday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Paula Tejeda\"]“I had a vision to bridge the cultures of Chile and the United States.”[/pullquote]The original difference is that [a Chilean empanada is] larger and baked. The Argentinian [style] is often deep-fried and smaller. Ours uses onions, cumin, paprika, beef, raisins, olive and a slice of hard-boiled egg. That’s called a pino, or a picadillo in some other countries. It’s labor-intensive for each product. We have always taken pride in Chilean empanadas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What other dishes do you serve that are also popular in Chile? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We serve Chilean pastries, empanadas, coffee. I just added the Chilean hot dog to the menu. It’s called “el completo” and has mayo, chopped tomatoes and avocado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when I started at Chile Lindo, I used to prepare many traditional dishes. Sandwiches with pork, steak, avocado. A typical Chilean lunch is a nice filet of fish with potato salad and parsley. That’s universal. A Chilean salad is tomatoes with finely sliced onions and cilantro. Or celery with cubed avocado and lemon, olive oil, salt. They’re simple recipes with ingredients you can recognize anywhere but are slightly different from what you see here [in California]. Anything with avocado is Chilean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930162\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930162\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"A Chilean hotdog, which includes avocado, mayo, and chopped tomatoes, is held out by the foodmaker\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “completo” is a beloved Chilean hot dog. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I imagine it’s more difficult than ever to operate a small food business in San Francisco. How do today’s neighborhood challenges compare to your previous decades here? What struggles are today’s business owners and food makers dealing with?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The struggles have been one after the other, especially since COVID. Prices for rent and for payroll are going through the roof. When you sell a $3 coffee and have to pay $21 an hour, that’s hard. No one really works for less than $20 an hour [in SF]. Rents and city prices are outrageous, and it’s creating a cycle where everything is becoming unsustainable. We’ve lost customers, community, foot traffic. Buses to Silicon Valley, BART commuters, that’s all gone. That was a good part of my business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many factors that have been building over the years, including mental health, not just homelessness. We blame the administrations, but this has been building for decades now. It’s the corporate takeovers and lack of human relationships. The new guard doesn’t even know who I am. When I call my new distributors, they don’t call back. I’m probably an account they don’t even want to bother with. Before, my rep knew me. They cared about me. We were a community. My landlord, I used to be able to call them. Now it’s run by a management company. If you’re one day late, you get a late fee. They don’t have the 25-year relationship I had with my former landlord. Phone calls, emails, all of this means you go back and forth trying, and what do you get? Not a person, but a phone and an automated prompt. We need a permit for our awning now. I’ve been here 28 years, and now I need a permit for my awning?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had my parklet, a huge investment, during the pandemic. That was destroyed. It became a drug den with graffiti — I couldn’t keep up with it, the stress from the city that puts it on me if the vandalism isn’t cleaned up. We can’t keep repainting it. If we want to have a piano player? We need a permit. Outdoor tables? Health department. Some of these are legitimate, but for a sole proprietor, you’re one person doing operations, shopping, managing new staff, training, serving and financing. It’s not sustainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930163\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A small diorama replica of the restaurant Chile Lindo is displayed on the counter inside Chile Lindo\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A small diorama replica of the original Chile Lindo is displayed inside Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture. Art by Cindy De Losa. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>That’s sad to hear. I often read about small businesses that can’t survive anymore in the Bay Area.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It needs to be simplified for small business owners. Philz Coffee became what it became because he built it [in 2003]. If he tried to start today, would he be able to [do it] in our present situation? I don’t think so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In terms of how much [small businesses] contribute, it’s a list of things: We create payroll. We train a new workforce, often students or immigrants. We buy locally from other small businesses. We provide a venue for arts that generates income for local bands and performers. We make the city interesting for tourists. We provide spaces for community members to come and go, to make friends. We pay taxes and licenses to the city. We give free food and coffee to the homeless community — we all do it, I’ve seen it with my own eyes and I do it myself. We clean sidewalks and pick up garbage. Those food delivery models? They depend on us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all such a fragile community. If we continue being eliminated, you are really hurting everyone; it’s a domino effect. People really need to become aware of how vulnerable we are and the reasons why so many small businesses are falling through the cracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Food is definitely a place for gathering safely. How is that embodied for you at Chile Lindo?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the pandemic hit, I had to reinvent myself completely. As we are recovering from the pandemic still, I’ve now opened my new kitchen and event space. I’ve decorated Kitchen Culture with paintings, posters, artesanias. It’s all traditional. Chile is a long country, a lot of what’s representative of the north is different from the central and southern parts. I tried to include it all. I also have memorabilia from the Mission. This is a space for music, meetings, poetry, jazz and some private parties. It’s a place where community groups can cater lunch. I’m organizing my own special events as well. I’m still figuring it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930160\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Chilean pastries are displayed on a marble counter top\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Chilenitos” are a national dessert in Chile. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s the Chilean community in the Bay Area like? Is there a particular restaurant or venue besides your own where Chileans can gather?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13926749,arts_13919032,arts_13929494']\u003c/span>There aren’t many Chilean restaurants in San Francisco. Some open and then they close. There used to be one in Berkeley called Cafe Valparaiso that was opened in support of those exiled during the dictatorship. They moved now. There used to be Sabores del Sur in Walnut Creek. They closed. Chileans don’t have such a strong presence, and they aren’t very knowledgeable of the strength of working as an immigrant group. It makes me crazy. There are some Chileans in Berkeley. There used to be a group in Stockton that got together. There’s a Chilean cultural group from the 1960s called \u003ca href=\"https://centrochilenolautaro.org/\">Chilean Centro Lautaro\u003c/a>. There are Chileans in Davis. There are Facebook groups. But we’re a little individualistic in nature, which makes us resilient and strong but [is] counterproductive in helping those in the community. The only thing that gets all the Chileans together is soccer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is also an older Chilean community here of intellectuals that goes back to the gold rush. The town of Marysville was the third largest city during the gold rush, and it was co-founded by \u003ca href=\"https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=55758\">Jose Manuel Ramirez\u003c/a>, who was Chilean. He was already wealthy and was a part of the gold rush in Europe, then went back to Chile and hired miners, since Chile has always been a mining country. They found a lot of gold here. There’s a plaque on the sidewalk next to Francis Ford Copolla’s Cafe Zoetrope and film studios, for an area called \u003ca href=\"https://sf.curbed.com/2012/10/15/10317694/chilecito-or-san-franciscos-little-chile\">Chilecito (“Little Chile”)\u003c/a>, where the Chilean miners camped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I never knew that. Thanks for sharing this unique Bay Area history. What’s next for you at Chile Lindo?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to have a podcast or YouTube channel to share this kind of history. If I can outreach to the enormously diverse group of dreamers and entrepreneurs here, motivated by arts, I would like to interview people about food and the connections between Chile and California. Chile and California are actually parallel, with literally the same geography and Mediterranean weather, mountain ranges, the Pacific Ocean and the same distance from the equator. They’re a mirror image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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>The original \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chilelindosf/\">\u003ci>Chile Lindo\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (2944 16th St., San Francisco\u003c/i>) \u003ci>is currently closed for renovation. Its newly opened sister location, Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture (2935 16th St.), is located across the street and is open from Thurs. to Sat. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Kitchen Culture plans to host music, poetry, performances, and community conversations. It’s available for catering and private parties.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Chilean Empanadas at Chile Lindo Are a Mission District Staple | 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>There are certain restaurants in the Bay Area that, for a variety of reasons, are easy to miss — often old-school eateries without the buzz or viral TikTok and Instagram accounts to lure you in from afar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these modest establishments are just as capable of delivering culinary euphoria. In many cases, they also have decades’ worth of history waiting to be consumed. That’s exactly what the Mission’s \u003ca href=\"https://chilelindo.com/\">Chile Lindo\u003c/a> represents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since it opened in 1973, the small, independently-owned empanaderia has been a hideout for Chilean nationals. Many had come to California after being exiled from their native land under the harsh military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who rose to power after a United States-backed military coup. Like many diasporas carrying trauma, they’ve found refuge in places like Chile Lindo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just one block east of the bustling 16th Street BART station, the shop blooms inside the Redstone Building, with a hand-painted advertisement for Chilean empanadas glossing the window. Since taking ownership in 1995, Paula Tejeda has seen her fair share of adversity, though. The restaurant’s original location is largely non-operational at the moment after a series of eviction notices, kitchen accidents and near closures throughout the pandemic. Yet somehow, Tejeda has found a way forward, as so many immigrants and children of immigrants do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, with the support of the Mission Housing Development Agency, she opened a sister location, Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture, directly across the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930164\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13930164 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Chilean food maker stands in front of her colorful shop on 16th Street in San Francisco\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_storefront.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tejeda stands in front of the original Chile Lindo on 16th Street. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Although the preservation of Chile’s culture isn’t always noticeable in the Bay Area — particularly when compared to other, more visible immigrant groups — Chileans maintain a deep reverence for their homeland, rallying around national treasures like soccer, empanadas and Chilean-style hotdogs, known as “completos.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few San Franciscans can speak to the unique history of Chile’s influence in the Mission like Tejeda can. There’s a reason her neighbors know her as “\u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2014/11/sometimes-its-not-all-about-the-empanadas/\">the Girl from Empanada\u003c/a>.” I stopped by Tejeda’s new shop to speak with her about gentrification, Chilean representation and the modern struggles of small business owners in San Francisco, all while she baked empanadas and prepared Chilenitos — cookie-sized Chilean pastries layered with wafers, dulce de leche and meringue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003ci>********\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: What’s the history of Chile Lindo and how did you get involved in the Bay Area’s food scene?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paula Tejeda:\u003c/b> Chile Lindo has been here since 1973. It was owned by a Chilean woman for over a decade. She sold it to another Chilean. [In 1995] I had just moved from New York City and didn’t have work. Before that, I went to Laney College and studied television production and had an internship at KTVU and KPIX. I was admitted to San Francisco State but dropped out and moved to Chile and then to NYC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Back in San Francisco,] I was running around the neighborhood selling sandwiches. The Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment was around, and they had a Latin branch called ALAS. People in the community told me to get a loan from the program, and one day I got a call that Chile Lindo was for sale. It was going to go to a Cuban, they told us, and they wanted a Chilean owner. It was rundown at the time. I didn’t have a penny to buy this. So I went to the program to get a loan, and [the owner] gave me the keys right away. Overnight, I was a business owner. I was running around the neighborhood with a basket [selling empanadas].\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930161\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930161\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"a large baking tray of empanadas before entering the oven\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_empanadas-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fresh batch of Chilean empanadas. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How have you maintained your love for Chilean food and managed to run your business for nearly three decades?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2009 I joined the street food movement. I was known as “the Girl from Empanada.” I joined programs to learn about business loans and how to keep the business afloat. I had a vision to bridge the cultures of Chile and the United States. It’s always been my motivation in more ways than one. With Chile Lindo, with food, you can create a network and represent your culture. I wanted to sell food, but also to produce artists and to provide intercultural consultations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 28 years, I’ve become a reference [point] for the link between Chile, California, the Bay Area, local artists, the Mission and North Beach. That’s very much been my motivation to keep going. To persevere as entrepreneurs, we have so many projects all the time because it’s one of the only ways to endure the hardships and losses of each day. We’re motivated by something bigger, a vision to make a difference. That has always been my drive. I know I can be an ambassador for all things Chilean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What distinguishes Chilean empanadas from neighboring varieties, including those from Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico or \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13926749/tasty-tings-jamaican-beef-patties-sf-oakland\">\u003cb>Jamaica\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea of anything breaded is an international concept. Chilean empanadas are kind of renowned in South America because the Chileans made it their national food. You hear a lot about the asado in Argentina. Peru has a very unique and sophisticated cuisine. Mexico as well. But for Chileans, empanadas and wine are what they have to celebrate their independence. They celebrate for a month as if it happened yesterday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The original difference is that [a Chilean empanada is] larger and baked. The Argentinian [style] is often deep-fried and smaller. Ours uses onions, cumin, paprika, beef, raisins, olive and a slice of hard-boiled egg. That’s called a pino, or a picadillo in some other countries. It’s labor-intensive for each product. We have always taken pride in Chilean empanadas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What other dishes do you serve that are also popular in Chile? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We serve Chilean pastries, empanadas, coffee. I just added the Chilean hot dog to the menu. It’s called “el completo” and has mayo, chopped tomatoes and avocado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when I started at Chile Lindo, I used to prepare many traditional dishes. Sandwiches with pork, steak, avocado. A typical Chilean lunch is a nice filet of fish with potato salad and parsley. That’s universal. A Chilean salad is tomatoes with finely sliced onions and cilantro. Or celery with cubed avocado and lemon, olive oil, salt. They’re simple recipes with ingredients you can recognize anywhere but are slightly different from what you see here [in California]. Anything with avocado is Chilean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930162\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930162\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"A Chilean hotdog, which includes avocado, mayo, and chopped tomatoes, is held out by the foodmaker\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_hot_dog-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “completo” is a beloved Chilean hot dog. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I imagine it’s more difficult than ever to operate a small food business in San Francisco. How do today’s neighborhood challenges compare to your previous decades here? What struggles are today’s business owners and food makers dealing with?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The struggles have been one after the other, especially since COVID. Prices for rent and for payroll are going through the roof. When you sell a $3 coffee and have to pay $21 an hour, that’s hard. No one really works for less than $20 an hour [in SF]. Rents and city prices are outrageous, and it’s creating a cycle where everything is becoming unsustainable. We’ve lost customers, community, foot traffic. Buses to Silicon Valley, BART commuters, that’s all gone. That was a good part of my business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many factors that have been building over the years, including mental health, not just homelessness. We blame the administrations, but this has been building for decades now. It’s the corporate takeovers and lack of human relationships. The new guard doesn’t even know who I am. When I call my new distributors, they don’t call back. I’m probably an account they don’t even want to bother with. Before, my rep knew me. They cared about me. We were a community. My landlord, I used to be able to call them. Now it’s run by a management company. If you’re one day late, you get a late fee. They don’t have the 25-year relationship I had with my former landlord. Phone calls, emails, all of this means you go back and forth trying, and what do you get? Not a person, but a phone and an automated prompt. We need a permit for our awning now. I’ve been here 28 years, and now I need a permit for my awning?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had my parklet, a huge investment, during the pandemic. That was destroyed. It became a drug den with graffiti — I couldn’t keep up with it, the stress from the city that puts it on me if the vandalism isn’t cleaned up. We can’t keep repainting it. If we want to have a piano player? We need a permit. Outdoor tables? Health department. Some of these are legitimate, but for a sole proprietor, you’re one person doing operations, shopping, managing new staff, training, serving and financing. It’s not sustainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930163\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930163\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A small diorama replica of the restaurant Chile Lindo is displayed on the counter inside Chile Lindo\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_model.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A small diorama replica of the original Chile Lindo is displayed inside Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture. Art by Cindy De Losa. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>That’s sad to hear. I often read about small businesses that can’t survive anymore in the Bay Area.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It needs to be simplified for small business owners. Philz Coffee became what it became because he built it [in 2003]. If he tried to start today, would he be able to [do it] in our present situation? I don’t think so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In terms of how much [small businesses] contribute, it’s a list of things: We create payroll. We train a new workforce, often students or immigrants. We buy locally from other small businesses. We provide a venue for arts that generates income for local bands and performers. We make the city interesting for tourists. We provide spaces for community members to come and go, to make friends. We pay taxes and licenses to the city. We give free food and coffee to the homeless community — we all do it, I’ve seen it with my own eyes and I do it myself. We clean sidewalks and pick up garbage. Those food delivery models? They depend on us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all such a fragile community. If we continue being eliminated, you are really hurting everyone; it’s a domino effect. People really need to become aware of how vulnerable we are and the reasons why so many small businesses are falling through the cracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Food is definitely a place for gathering safely. How is that embodied for you at Chile Lindo?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the pandemic hit, I had to reinvent myself completely. As we are recovering from the pandemic still, I’ve now opened my new kitchen and event space. I’ve decorated Kitchen Culture with paintings, posters, artesanias. It’s all traditional. Chile is a long country, a lot of what’s representative of the north is different from the central and southern parts. I tried to include it all. I also have memorabilia from the Mission. This is a space for music, meetings, poetry, jazz and some private parties. It’s a place where community groups can cater lunch. I’m organizing my own special events as well. I’m still figuring it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930160\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13930160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Chilean pastries are displayed on a marble counter top\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/chile_lindo_chilenitos.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Chilenitos” are a national dessert in Chile. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s the Chilean community in the Bay Area like? Is there a particular restaurant or venue besides your own where Chileans can gather?\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>\u003c/span>There aren’t many Chilean restaurants in San Francisco. Some open and then they close. There used to be one in Berkeley called Cafe Valparaiso that was opened in support of those exiled during the dictatorship. They moved now. There used to be Sabores del Sur in Walnut Creek. They closed. Chileans don’t have such a strong presence, and they aren’t very knowledgeable of the strength of working as an immigrant group. It makes me crazy. There are some Chileans in Berkeley. There used to be a group in Stockton that got together. There’s a Chilean cultural group from the 1960s called \u003ca href=\"https://centrochilenolautaro.org/\">Chilean Centro Lautaro\u003c/a>. There are Chileans in Davis. There are Facebook groups. But we’re a little individualistic in nature, which makes us resilient and strong but [is] counterproductive in helping those in the community. The only thing that gets all the Chileans together is soccer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is also an older Chilean community here of intellectuals that goes back to the gold rush. The town of Marysville was the third largest city during the gold rush, and it was co-founded by \u003ca href=\"https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=55758\">Jose Manuel Ramirez\u003c/a>, who was Chilean. He was already wealthy and was a part of the gold rush in Europe, then went back to Chile and hired miners, since Chile has always been a mining country. They found a lot of gold here. There’s a plaque on the sidewalk next to Francis Ford Copolla’s Cafe Zoetrope and film studios, for an area called \u003ca href=\"https://sf.curbed.com/2012/10/15/10317694/chilecito-or-san-franciscos-little-chile\">Chilecito (“Little Chile”)\u003c/a>, where the Chilean miners camped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I never knew that. Thanks for sharing this unique Bay Area history. What’s next for you at Chile Lindo?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to have a podcast or YouTube channel to share this kind of history. If I can outreach to the enormously diverse group of dreamers and entrepreneurs here, motivated by arts, I would like to interview people about food and the connections between Chile and California. Chile and California are actually parallel, with literally the same geography and Mediterranean weather, mountain ranges, the Pacific Ocean and the same distance from the equator. They’re a mirror image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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>The original \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chilelindosf/\">\u003ci>Chile Lindo\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (2944 16th St., San Francisco\u003c/i>) \u003ci>is currently closed for renovation. Its newly opened sister location, Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture (2935 16th St.), is located across the street and is open from Thurs. to Sat. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Kitchen Culture plans to host music, poetry, performances, and community conversations. It’s available for catering and private parties.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Bay Area’s Black Women Chefs Are All About Intergenerational Uplift",
"headTitle": "The Bay Area’s Black Women Chefs Are All About Intergenerational Uplift | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The food industry isn’t always known for being the most collegial or supportive place — not in this era of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Oakland-chef-Charlie-Hallowell-steps-away-from-12458550.php\">#MeToo\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.grubstreet.com/article/horses-restaurant-la-will-aghajanian-elizabeth-johnson-chef.html\">toxic\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/story/the-bear-hulu-toxic-restaurant-culture\">cutthroat\u003c/a> kitchen cultures that undergird some of our most \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/dining/blaine-wetzel-willows-inn-lummi-island-abuse.html\">highly regarded restaurants\u003c/a>. With a double whammy of misogyny and institutional racism, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21372187/bay-area-fine-dining-restaurants-racism-as-a-black-chef\">Black women chefs\u003c/a> often find themselves in an especially vulnerable position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a handful of the Bay Area’s most prominent Black women chefs are trying to flip the script on that narrative. Toward that end, they’ll come together in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood on Wednesday, June 7, for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/\">Museum of the African Diaspora’s\u003c/a> annual “\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/event/moad-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-presents-diaspora-dinner\">Diaspora Dinner\u003c/a>” — a blowout meal that celebrates Black women, foods from across the African diaspora and, especially, a spirit of intergenerational mentorship and collaboration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curated by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923936/moad-new-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-peoples-kitchen-collective\">MoAD chef-in-residence Jocelyn Jackson\u003c/a>, the dinner will showcase that spirit through about as star-studded a lineup of culinary heavy hitters as you’re likely to find at any Bay Area food event. Representing Gen Z is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rahanna.bisseret.martinez/?hl=en\">Rahanna Bisseret Martinez\u003c/a>, the young Oakland chef whose recently released debut cookbook, \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688139/flavorus-by-rahanna-bisseret-martinez/\">\u003ci>Flavor + Us\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, is the main occasion for the gathering. At just 19 years old, Bisseret Martinez, who came to prominence as a finalist on the first season of \u003ci>Top Chef Junior\u003c/i>, has interned at some of the world’s most celebrated restaurants, including Bay Area spots like Chez Panisse, Reem’s and Mister Jiu’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the event lineup consists of veteran chefs that Bisseret Martinez herself has looked up to as mentors in the food industry. She’ll be joined on the stage by \u003ca href=\"https://carlahall.com/\">Carla Hall\u003c/a>, one of \u003ci>Top Chef’s\u003c/i> most beloved contestants, for a conversation that will include reflections on their shared experiences in the world of televised cooking competitions — a genre that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928792/no-immigrants-no-spice-barbecue-yakitori-kebab-lechon-oakland\">hasn’t always treated its non-white contestants very kindly\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930017\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4.jpg\" alt=\"Hand pies displayed on a wooden board.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Savory hand pies from Bisseret Martinez’s new cookbook, ‘Flavor + Us.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the meal itself will be prepared by Sarah Kirnon, who, as chef of the now-shuttered Afro-Caribbean restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13910410/miss-ollies-oakland-closing\">Miss Ollie’s\u003c/a>, is a legendary figure in the Oakland food scene — an “icon,” as Bisseret Martinez puts it. Kirnon will cook a multi-course meal of Black diasporic dishes inspired by recipes from \u003ci>Flavor + Us\u003c/i>. Think roast lemon pepper chicken, jerk eggplant, sweet plantains, hibiscus punch and strawberry tres leches cake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson, the evening’s host, has herself been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923936/moad-new-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-peoples-kitchen-collective\">deeply involved in the Bay Area food scene\u003c/a> — and food activism — for many, many years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really does feel like a foundational part of the Black community is a support across generations. There’s a real awareness that none of us do anything alone,” Jackson says. “We learn from the generation ahead of us — not only things about the world and how to navigate it, but also about how to flavor our foods. There are standards!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13923936,arts_13910410,arts_13900311']\u003c/span>That kind of intergenerational support is one of the central themes of Bisseret Martinez’s cookbook, which documents the recipes and flavors that the young chef learned from the folks who came before her, whether it be her grandmother’s favorite way to prepare rice or a steaming technique that she picked up at Mister Jiu’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, she says, she owes much of her career to events like the Diaspora Dinner. Years ago, she first met Bryant Terry, MoAD’s first chef-in-residence, at an earlier iteration of the event. He wound up becoming her mentor and published \u003ci>Flavor + Us \u003c/i>under his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900311/bryant-terry-four-color-books-imprint-food-media-diversity\">BIPOC-focused imprint\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s something I can never repay,” Bisseret Martinez says. “If those events hadn’t happened, I’d be in a very different situation right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>The Diaspora Dinner will be held at the Bayview neighborhood’s new \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/learning/come-visit/southeast-community-center\">\u003ci>Southeast Community Center\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> on Wednesday, June 7, from 6–9 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/event/moad-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-presents-diaspora-dinner\">Tickets\u003c/a> are $325 for MoAD members (for the general public, a $400 ticket price includes MoAD membership). COVID safety protocols will be in place: Guests will be asked to wear masks when not eating or drinking.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The food industry isn’t always known for being the most collegial or supportive place — not in this era of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Oakland-chef-Charlie-Hallowell-steps-away-from-12458550.php\">#MeToo\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.grubstreet.com/article/horses-restaurant-la-will-aghajanian-elizabeth-johnson-chef.html\">toxic\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/story/the-bear-hulu-toxic-restaurant-culture\">cutthroat\u003c/a> kitchen cultures that undergird some of our most \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/dining/blaine-wetzel-willows-inn-lummi-island-abuse.html\">highly regarded restaurants\u003c/a>. With a double whammy of misogyny and institutional racism, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21372187/bay-area-fine-dining-restaurants-racism-as-a-black-chef\">Black women chefs\u003c/a> often find themselves in an especially vulnerable position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a handful of the Bay Area’s most prominent Black women chefs are trying to flip the script on that narrative. Toward that end, they’ll come together in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood on Wednesday, June 7, for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/\">Museum of the African Diaspora’s\u003c/a> annual “\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/event/moad-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-presents-diaspora-dinner\">Diaspora Dinner\u003c/a>” — a blowout meal that celebrates Black women, foods from across the African diaspora and, especially, a spirit of intergenerational mentorship and collaboration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curated by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923936/moad-new-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-peoples-kitchen-collective\">MoAD chef-in-residence Jocelyn Jackson\u003c/a>, the dinner will showcase that spirit through about as star-studded a lineup of culinary heavy hitters as you’re likely to find at any Bay Area food event. Representing Gen Z is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rahanna.bisseret.martinez/?hl=en\">Rahanna Bisseret Martinez\u003c/a>, the young Oakland chef whose recently released debut cookbook, \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688139/flavorus-by-rahanna-bisseret-martinez/\">\u003ci>Flavor + Us\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, is the main occasion for the gathering. At just 19 years old, Bisseret Martinez, who came to prominence as a finalist on the first season of \u003ci>Top Chef Junior\u003c/i>, has interned at some of the world’s most celebrated restaurants, including Bay Area spots like Chez Panisse, Reem’s and Mister Jiu’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the event lineup consists of veteran chefs that Bisseret Martinez herself has looked up to as mentors in the food industry. She’ll be joined on the stage by \u003ca href=\"https://carlahall.com/\">Carla Hall\u003c/a>, one of \u003ci>Top Chef’s\u003c/i> most beloved contestants, for a conversation that will include reflections on their shared experiences in the world of televised cooking competitions — a genre that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13928792/no-immigrants-no-spice-barbecue-yakitori-kebab-lechon-oakland\">hasn’t always treated its non-white contestants very kindly\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13930017\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13930017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4.jpg\" alt=\"Hand pies displayed on a wooden board.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/FlavorUs-food4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Savory hand pies from Bisseret Martinez’s new cookbook, ‘Flavor + Us.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the meal itself will be prepared by Sarah Kirnon, who, as chef of the now-shuttered Afro-Caribbean restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13910410/miss-ollies-oakland-closing\">Miss Ollie’s\u003c/a>, is a legendary figure in the Oakland food scene — an “icon,” as Bisseret Martinez puts it. Kirnon will cook a multi-course meal of Black diasporic dishes inspired by recipes from \u003ci>Flavor + Us\u003c/i>. Think roast lemon pepper chicken, jerk eggplant, sweet plantains, hibiscus punch and strawberry tres leches cake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson, the evening’s host, has herself been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923936/moad-new-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-peoples-kitchen-collective\">deeply involved in the Bay Area food scene\u003c/a> — and food activism — for many, many years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really does feel like a foundational part of the Black community is a support across generations. There’s a real awareness that none of us do anything alone,” Jackson says. “We learn from the generation ahead of us — not only things about the world and how to navigate it, but also about how to flavor our foods. There are standards!”\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>That kind of intergenerational support is one of the central themes of Bisseret Martinez’s cookbook, which documents the recipes and flavors that the young chef learned from the folks who came before her, whether it be her grandmother’s favorite way to prepare rice or a steaming technique that she picked up at Mister Jiu’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, she says, she owes much of her career to events like the Diaspora Dinner. Years ago, she first met Bryant Terry, MoAD’s first chef-in-residence, at an earlier iteration of the event. He wound up becoming her mentor and published \u003ci>Flavor + Us \u003c/i>under his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900311/bryant-terry-four-color-books-imprint-food-media-diversity\">BIPOC-focused imprint\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s something I can never repay,” Bisseret Martinez says. “If those events hadn’t happened, I’d be in a very different situation right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter 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>The Diaspora Dinner will be held at the Bayview neighborhood’s new \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/learning/come-visit/southeast-community-center\">\u003ci>Southeast Community Center\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> on Wednesday, June 7, from 6–9 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/event/moad-chef-in-residence-jocelyn-jackson-presents-diaspora-dinner\">Tickets\u003c/a> are $325 for MoAD members (for the general public, a $400 ticket price includes MoAD membership). COVID safety protocols will be in place: Guests will be asked to wear masks when not eating or drinking.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This Self-Taught Bay Area Pitmaster Is Slanging Saucy, Hawaiian-Inspired Barbecue",
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"content": "\u003cp>No one has ever gone to Old Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rusticales_oaklandarbor/?hl=en\">Sante Adairius\u003c/a> to grub on an island-style carnitas quesadilla. The narrow, wood-laden bar, whose quaint interior somehow reminds me of a scene from \u003ci>The\u003c/i> \u003ci>Lord of the Rings\u003c/i>, is better known for rustic ales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But thanks to Olivier Grandvoinet and his pop-up, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/islandbaycocina/\">Island Bay Cocina\u003c/a>, it’ll be possible to combine a German Maibock-style Günther with a bite of wood-smoked, guava-and-habanero-drenched pork this Saturday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pairing may sound uncommon. That’s because Grandvoinet — a mixed-race Black man who was born in Oregon, raised in Hawaii and came of age in San Francisco’s North Beach, where he mostly befriended immigrant and first-generation Latinos while attending high school in Potrero Hill — isn’t your average mainland American. His unique upbringing shows in his hard-to-categorize recipes. One thing is consistent, though: The man loves \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bbq\">barbecuing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I bring that Hawaiian spirit and a love for slow cooking,” says Grandvoinet. “I treat pork like it’s royalty, with the care it needs to be transformed into something special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After leaving his career in tech to pursue full-time food making during the pandemic, Grandvoinet has committed himself to the pursuit of soulful relaxation and liberated joy through serving his community — literally. And what food provides a more hands-off, share-your-plate, kick-back-and-enjoy-life’s-leisurely-pleasures vibe than wood-smoked barbecue?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929958\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929958\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"a rack of carnitas in the smoker\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rack of “carnitas” (which are smoked for 10 hours) being prepared for quesadillas. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Olivier G.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Growing up, I felt a huge lack of barbecue from the Bay. Da’ Pitt on Divisadero was the best back in the day, but then it got replaced by some wack gentrified barbecue. I was bummed. I knew I needed to make some good barbecue,” Grandvoinet says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As someone who grew up in a single-parent home “eating food off EBT in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood,” Grandvoinet became a tech worker to help his mom keep up with the rising costs of living. But after four years, Grandvoinet felt unfulfilled and tokenized in the industry. After a layoff during the pandemic, he never looked back and dove into life as an aspiring pitmaster. Like many late-twentysomethings, he used YouTube and the internet to learn his new craft. Now, Grandvoinet embraces his non-traditional approach to the pit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13911062,arts_13915646,arts_13929494']\u003c/span>What does that taste like? Besides his flagship “Fat Daddy Quesadilla” (which includes the aforementioned fat-slicked carnitas, crispy jack cheese, cilantro, onions and homemade guava habanero barbecue sauce), the “Big Kahuna” is Grandvoinet’s signature plate: a grilled all-beef hot dog topped with an intimidating amount of pulled pork, island slaw and barbecue sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On other occasions, the chef might cook up Spam musubi (always under $5, he proudly emphasizes) or empanadas filled with chopped 14-hour brisket and diced jalapeños. Or he might serve a kalua pork sando with a side of five-cheese macaroni. And of course, he slangs hella racks of ribs, most notably at the popular San Francisco day party, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rnbandribs/?hl=en\">R&B and Ribs\u003c/a>,” where he has been one of the rotating chefs since 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he’s not working as a self-taught chef, Grandvoinet tours the Bay Area to amplify other small food businesses through his social media channel, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oli_be_eatin/\">Oli Be Eatin\u003c/a>. His Mexican American sous chef and business partner, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/drea.eats_/\">Drea Eats\u003c/a>, also contributes to the brand with her Latinx perspective and flavors. Together, they’re eating and cooking as a way to exchange cultural flavors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929959\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929959\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-800x600.jpg\" alt='a photo of \"the Big Kahuna\" which consists of a beef hot dog topped with pulled pork and island-style coleslaw' width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Big Kahuna” consists of a beef hot dog topped with pulled pork and island-style slaw. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Olivier G. )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When I moved here [from Hawaii], I didn’t have a community to fall into. Most of my friends were Mexican American, Peruvian, Salvadoran. As a non-Latino, I never try to pose as something I’m not. But the cocina is where I learned so much about cooking — in the kitchen of my best friend’s home,” he says. \u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From starting out in an immigrant’s cocina to supplying his own food concoctions for the Bay Area’s diverse masses at various locations around the region, Grandvoinet is simply on a quest to answer his own question: “Where’s the good barbecue at?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12127869 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/islandbaycocina/\">\u003ci>Island Bay Cocina\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will be at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rusticales_oaklandarbor/\">\u003ci>Sante Adairius Oakland Arbor\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (460 8th St., Oakland) on Sat., June 3 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. or until sold out. Follow on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/islandbaycocina/\">Instagram\u003c/a> for more information on future locations and events. For catering services, contact IslandBayCocina@gmail.com.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>No one has ever gone to Old Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rusticales_oaklandarbor/?hl=en\">Sante Adairius\u003c/a> to grub on an island-style carnitas quesadilla. The narrow, wood-laden bar, whose quaint interior somehow reminds me of a scene from \u003ci>The\u003c/i> \u003ci>Lord of the Rings\u003c/i>, is better known for rustic ales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But thanks to Olivier Grandvoinet and his pop-up, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/islandbaycocina/\">Island Bay Cocina\u003c/a>, it’ll be possible to combine a German Maibock-style Günther with a bite of wood-smoked, guava-and-habanero-drenched pork this Saturday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pairing may sound uncommon. That’s because Grandvoinet — a mixed-race Black man who was born in Oregon, raised in Hawaii and came of age in San Francisco’s North Beach, where he mostly befriended immigrant and first-generation Latinos while attending high school in Potrero Hill — isn’t your average mainland American. His unique upbringing shows in his hard-to-categorize recipes. One thing is consistent, though: The man loves \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bbq\">barbecuing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I bring that Hawaiian spirit and a love for slow cooking,” says Grandvoinet. “I treat pork like it’s royalty, with the care it needs to be transformed into something special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After leaving his career in tech to pursue full-time food making during the pandemic, Grandvoinet has committed himself to the pursuit of soulful relaxation and liberated joy through serving his community — literally. And what food provides a more hands-off, share-your-plate, kick-back-and-enjoy-life’s-leisurely-pleasures vibe than wood-smoked barbecue?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929958\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929958\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"a rack of carnitas in the smoker\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-carnitas.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rack of “carnitas” (which are smoked for 10 hours) being prepared for quesadillas. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Olivier G.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Growing up, I felt a huge lack of barbecue from the Bay. Da’ Pitt on Divisadero was the best back in the day, but then it got replaced by some wack gentrified barbecue. I was bummed. I knew I needed to make some good barbecue,” Grandvoinet says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As someone who grew up in a single-parent home “eating food off EBT in a wealthy San Francisco neighborhood,” Grandvoinet became a tech worker to help his mom keep up with the rising costs of living. But after four years, Grandvoinet felt unfulfilled and tokenized in the industry. After a layoff during the pandemic, he never looked back and dove into life as an aspiring pitmaster. Like many late-twentysomethings, he used YouTube and the internet to learn his new craft. Now, Grandvoinet embraces his non-traditional approach to the pit.\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>What does that taste like? Besides his flagship “Fat Daddy Quesadilla” (which includes the aforementioned fat-slicked carnitas, crispy jack cheese, cilantro, onions and homemade guava habanero barbecue sauce), the “Big Kahuna” is Grandvoinet’s signature plate: a grilled all-beef hot dog topped with an intimidating amount of pulled pork, island slaw and barbecue sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On other occasions, the chef might cook up Spam musubi (always under $5, he proudly emphasizes) or empanadas filled with chopped 14-hour brisket and diced jalapeños. Or he might serve a kalua pork sando with a side of five-cheese macaroni. And of course, he slangs hella racks of ribs, most notably at the popular San Francisco day party, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rnbandribs/?hl=en\">R&B and Ribs\u003c/a>,” where he has been one of the rotating chefs since 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he’s not working as a self-taught chef, Grandvoinet tours the Bay Area to amplify other small food businesses through his social media channel, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oli_be_eatin/\">Oli Be Eatin\u003c/a>. His Mexican American sous chef and business partner, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/drea.eats_/\">Drea Eats\u003c/a>, also contributes to the brand with her Latinx perspective and flavors. Together, they’re eating and cooking as a way to exchange cultural flavors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929959\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929959\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-800x600.jpg\" alt='a photo of \"the Big Kahuna\" which consists of a beef hot dog topped with pulled pork and island-style coleslaw' width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/island-bay-cocina-hot-dog.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Big Kahuna” consists of a beef hot dog topped with pulled pork and island-style slaw. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Olivier G. )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When I moved here [from Hawaii], I didn’t have a community to fall into. Most of my friends were Mexican American, Peruvian, Salvadoran. As a non-Latino, I never try to pose as something I’m not. But the cocina is where I learned so much about cooking — in the kitchen of my best friend’s home,” he says. \u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From starting out in an immigrant’s cocina to supplying his own food concoctions for the Bay Area’s diverse masses at various locations around the region, Grandvoinet is simply on a quest to answer his own question: “Where’s the good barbecue at?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12127869 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.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/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/islandbaycocina/\">\u003ci>Island Bay Cocina\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will be at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rusticales_oaklandarbor/\">\u003ci>Sante Adairius Oakland Arbor\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (460 8th St., Oakland) on Sat., June 3 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. or until sold out. Follow on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/islandbaycocina/\">Instagram\u003c/a> for more information on future locations and events. For catering services, contact IslandBayCocina@gmail.com.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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},
"science-friday": {
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
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