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"title": "This Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice Is All About the Fat",
"headTitle": "This Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice Is All About the Fat | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The most important thing is to not skimp out on the fat. That was the main lesson that Ashley Yan took away from annual trips to Taiwan, where she fell in love with lu rou fan, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">classic Taiwanese dish of braised pork belly over rice\u003c/a>. Here in the Bay Area? If she found the dish at all, it was almost always made with ground pork instead of pork belly. It never had the fatty richness that she remembered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So after she was laid off from her day job with the pandemic still in full swing, Yan decided to start up a lu rou fan delivery service of her own. She launched \u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\">Ashyan’s Lu Ruo Fan\u003c/a> early last year out of a small kitchen in San Francisco’s Richmond District, delivering meals to customers in the northwestern part of the city. By the time she decided to take an extended break last February, she’d garnered a couple months’ worth of \u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/ashyans-lu-ruo-fan-san-francisco?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stellar Yelp reviews\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Ashyan’s is back, and this time Yan is determined to share her lu rou fan with even more people in San Francisco and beyond. Her business is part of a growing wave of next-generation pop-ups and informal food entrepreneurs that have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">reinvigorated the Bay Area’s Taiwanese food scene\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always loved the little random shops on the street,” Yan says of the lu rou fan stalls in Taiwan. “That’s what I envisioned and what I wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910674\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1139px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910674\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819.jpg\" alt=\"Pieces of hand-cut pork belly simmering in the pan.\" width=\"1139\" height=\"854\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819.jpg 1139w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1139px) 100vw, 1139px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To give her lu rou fan the luxurious richness that she wanted, Yan uses hand-cut pork belly that’s 70% fat. \u003ccite>(Ashyan's Lu Rou Fan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In order to capture that elusive taste, Yan adheres to what she calls the “golden ratio”: pork belly that is roughly 70% fat and 30% meat. Searing off the slabs of pork belly and cutting them up by hand is by far the most labor-intensive part of the cooking process, so Yan says she understands why local restaurants would choose to substitute ground pork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no comparing the taste and texture. Yan’s lu rou fan isn’t as salty as other local versions, nor does it have the tinge of sweetness that you get with recipes that are heavier on the rock sugar. What it does have, however, is a rich depth of flavor that comes from all of the rendered pork fat that soaks into the rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s comfort food at its core, and that’s what I want to keep it as,” Yan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the lu rou fan is the only featured menu item. For $16, it’s a complete meal that comes with a hard-boiled egg and a few slices of pickled daikon to cut into the heaviness of the meat. Recently she also included a tangy salad studded with colorful bell peppers and kalamata olives—a bit of a fresh, light California touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13897272,arts_13897498,arts_13901982']Up until this point, Yan has only had the capacity to do about 30 or 35 orders at a time, so she hasn’t had to do much marketing. Her email list, mostly collected from her initial posts on Next Door and her neighborhood “Buy Nothing” page on Facebook, has been robust enough to allow her to sell out just hours after she opens her online pre-ordering form each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Yan, who worked in the Bay Area restaurant industry for 14 years, mostly as a server and event planner, is thinking about how to best take Ashyan’s to the next level. For the next few months, at least, she’ll continue to operate on a small scale, selling her lu rou fan about three days a month—two days for delivery in the Richmond, Lone Mountain and Laurel Heights neighborhoods, and one day for pickup at her kitchen in the Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Yan is also looking to extend her reach. She’s exploring the possibility of working out of kitchens in Oakland and Redwood City, and she’s also accepting inquiries for catering orders from customers down the Peninsula and beyond. If all goes well, eventually she’d like to turn Ashyan’s Lu Ruo Fan into a food truck or a small brick-and-mortar restaurant.\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 next lu rou fan sale dates for \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ashyanfoods/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ashyan’s Lu Ruo Fan\u003c/a>\u003ci> will be on March 30 and 31 (for delivery) and April 1 (for pickup). Customers can place orders via the \u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">online order form\u003c/a>. For the latest updates, sign up for the business’ \u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">email list\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The most important thing is to not skimp out on the fat. That was the main lesson that Ashley Yan took away from annual trips to Taiwan, where she fell in love with lu rou fan, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">classic Taiwanese dish of braised pork belly over rice\u003c/a>. Here in the Bay Area? If she found the dish at all, it was almost always made with ground pork instead of pork belly. It never had the fatty richness that she remembered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So after she was laid off from her day job with the pandemic still in full swing, Yan decided to start up a lu rou fan delivery service of her own. She launched \u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\">Ashyan’s Lu Ruo Fan\u003c/a> early last year out of a small kitchen in San Francisco’s Richmond District, delivering meals to customers in the northwestern part of the city. By the time she decided to take an extended break last February, she’d garnered a couple months’ worth of \u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/ashyans-lu-ruo-fan-san-francisco?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stellar Yelp reviews\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Ashyan’s is back, and this time Yan is determined to share her lu rou fan with even more people in San Francisco and beyond. Her business is part of a growing wave of next-generation pop-ups and informal food entrepreneurs that have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">reinvigorated the Bay Area’s Taiwanese food scene\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always loved the little random shops on the street,” Yan says of the lu rou fan stalls in Taiwan. “That’s what I envisioned and what I wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910674\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1139px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910674\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819.jpg\" alt=\"Pieces of hand-cut pork belly simmering in the pan.\" width=\"1139\" height=\"854\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819.jpg 1139w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/IMG_1819-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1139px) 100vw, 1139px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To give her lu rou fan the luxurious richness that she wanted, Yan uses hand-cut pork belly that’s 70% fat. \u003ccite>(Ashyan's Lu Rou Fan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In order to capture that elusive taste, Yan adheres to what she calls the “golden ratio”: pork belly that is roughly 70% fat and 30% meat. Searing off the slabs of pork belly and cutting them up by hand is by far the most labor-intensive part of the cooking process, so Yan says she understands why local restaurants would choose to substitute ground pork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no comparing the taste and texture. Yan’s lu rou fan isn’t as salty as other local versions, nor does it have the tinge of sweetness that you get with recipes that are heavier on the rock sugar. What it does have, however, is a rich depth of flavor that comes from all of the rendered pork fat that soaks into the rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s comfort food at its core, and that’s what I want to keep it as,” Yan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the lu rou fan is the only featured menu item. For $16, it’s a complete meal that comes with a hard-boiled egg and a few slices of pickled daikon to cut into the heaviness of the meat. Recently she also included a tangy salad studded with colorful bell peppers and kalamata olives—a bit of a fresh, light California touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Up until this point, Yan has only had the capacity to do about 30 or 35 orders at a time, so she hasn’t had to do much marketing. Her email list, mostly collected from her initial posts on Next Door and her neighborhood “Buy Nothing” page on Facebook, has been robust enough to allow her to sell out just hours after she opens her online pre-ordering form each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Yan, who worked in the Bay Area restaurant industry for 14 years, mostly as a server and event planner, is thinking about how to best take Ashyan’s to the next level. For the next few months, at least, she’ll continue to operate on a small scale, selling her lu rou fan about three days a month—two days for delivery in the Richmond, Lone Mountain and Laurel Heights neighborhoods, and one day for pickup at her kitchen in the Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Yan is also looking to extend her reach. She’s exploring the possibility of working out of kitchens in Oakland and Redwood City, and she’s also accepting inquiries for catering orders from customers down the Peninsula and beyond. If all goes well, eventually she’d like to turn Ashyan’s Lu Ruo Fan into a food truck or a small brick-and-mortar restaurant.\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 next lu rou fan sale dates for \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ashyanfoods/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ashyan’s Lu Ruo Fan\u003c/a>\u003ci> will be on March 30 and 31 (for delivery) and April 1 (for pickup). Customers can place orders via the \u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">online order form\u003c/a>. For the latest updates, sign up for the business’ \u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">email list\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Miss Ollie's Closes: The End of an Era for Oakland's Black and Brown Communities",
"headTitle": "Miss Ollie’s Closes: The End of an Era for Oakland’s Black and Brown Communities | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the past 10 years, Miss Ollie’s has been a fixture in Oakland’s celebrated restaurant scene—a delicious beacon of fiery pepper sauce, pholourie and the best damn skillet-fried chicken in all the land. Even more than that, the restaurant has been a vital gathering place for Oakland’s Black, brown and queer communities. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, much to the sadness of longtime customers, the beloved Afro-Caribbean spot will close, serving its last rum cocktail and its final plate of fried chicken out of 901 Washington St. at the end of this month.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The news shouldn’t come as a complete shock: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/22179428/oakland-restaurant-miss-ollies-turning-into-nonprofit-sanctuary\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A little over a year ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, chef and owner Sarah Kirnon announced her intention to close the restaurant with an eye toward transforming it into a nonprofit called Sanctuary, which would host sprawling outdoor events centered on Oakland’s Black and brown communities—a kind of cross between a food festival, an art gallery and the longstanding Caribbean tradition of Carnival. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kirnon wound up working out an arrangement with her landlord that enabled the restaurant to stay open for another year. In the end, Kirnon says, the economics of trying to keep a restaurant alive during the pandemic took too much of a toll—and that, really, even pre-COVID, the numbers had not been adding up for quite some time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Bars are doing well because people like to drink and forget. Restaurants are for joy and celebration. We’ve not had much of that lately.” Kirnon says. “We don’t see it as a sadness. For us, it’s a smart move to make.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With that in mind, Kirnon stresses that Miss Ollie’s will, in fact, live on in some form, likely as a small takeout window and catering operation based out of a to-be-determined new location in Oakland. And the nonprofit project is still very much in the works. But the physical restaurant that customers have come to know and love over the past 10 years will cease to exist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910460\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910460\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Wearing a face mask, chef Sarah Kirnon holds a plate of fried chicken at Miss Ollie's, her Old Oakland restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Sarah Kirnon’s most famous dish is her skillet-fried chicken, a staple at her restaurant Miss Ollie’s, in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision marks the end of a chapter for a restaurant that was, very quietly, one of the most exciting places to eat in the entire Bay Area. Along with neighbors such as Cosecha, Miss Ollie’s helped revitalize Swan’s Market, turning Old Oakland into one of the Bay Area’s most dynamic, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904416/old-oakland-block-party-international-food-swans-market\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most international\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, dining districts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>End of a Golden Age\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, Miss Ollie’s departure also marks the end of a very specific golden age for restaurants in Oakland. The late 2000s and early 2010s were when Oakland first came to national prominence as a notable food city—when publications like the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">started parachuting writers into Temescal and Piedmont Avenue to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/travel/03hours.html\">document the burgeoning scene\u003c/a>. What struck me at the time was that the buzziest restaurants all seemed to be helmed by folks of color—women of color, in particular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910459\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910459\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Customers look at the menu at the bar counter; the sign for "Miss Ollie's" is visible in the mirror's reflection..\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In its prime, the dining room at Miss Ollie’s was packed every night—in particular with the Bay Area’s Black, brown and queer communities. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/sarah-kirnons-revolutionary-new-restaurant-in-old-oakland-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Born at the start of this era\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Miss Ollie’s was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/ten-quintessential-oakland-restaurants-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">quintessential Oakland restaurant\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—the kind of place I would bring out-of-town visitors to when I wanted to show off the city. As I wrote in 2015, restaurants like Miss Ollie’s “crackled with electricity even on a random weeknight,” had food that was delicious enough to stop you in your tracks, and were reasonably affordable to boot. They were run by charismatic chefs who were cooking food that was deeply personal, reflecting the cultures that shaped their identities—Afro-Caribbean, Mexican, Korean, Lao. And, perhaps most striking, their dining rooms were some of the most diverse I’ve ever encountered.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was Oakland at its finest,” Kirnon says. “Black and brown, people of color, queer folks, elders—we were cross-generational. And I’ve seen kids go off to college. We’ve done funerals. We were a neighborhood restaurant.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One by one, however, the restaurants I associate with that era have mostly all closed, many of them even before the pandemic hit. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2022/01/11/brown-sugar-kitchen-tanya-holland-closed/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brown Sugar Kitchen is gone\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. So is Juhu Beach Club, FuseBOX (\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/fusebox-serves-food-for-the-people-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">remember FuseBOX\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?) and the original Hawker Fare. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910458\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910458\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"A shrine with black-and-white photos of chef Sarah Kirnon's grandmother, Miss Ollie, sits on a shelf.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A shrine with photos of chef Sarah Kirnon’s grandmother, Miss Ollie, is one of the restaurant’s many personal touches. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Among their many virtues, all of those restaurants were known for serving delicious, ambitious food made with high-quality ingredients, but at a lower, still-accessible price point. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“How do you survive in that mid-range place in this economy?” says Preeti Mistry, the chef and founder of Juhu Beach Club. “Those types of restaurants are becoming an endangered species.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mistry still remembers how blown away they were by Kirnon’s fried chicken the first time they ate at Miss Ollie’s—and Kirnon’s matter-of-fact response when asked what she had put in that chicken to make it taste so good: “seasoning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Mistry, what really set the restaurant apart was how personal everything felt, from the shrine set up for Kirnon’s grandmother—the original Miss Ollie—to the brightly colored vintage enamel plateware to the food itself. A hopeful energy marked so many of the restaurants run by women of color during that era, Mistry says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910461\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910461\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"A piece of fried chicken on blue-and-white checkered paper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The secret to the fried chicken at Miss Ollie’s is “seasoning.” \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The earlier generation it was mostly cis white men and some women [who were running restaurants]. This was a whole new generation,” Mistry says. “Everyone was not staying in the lines; there was a lot of experimentation. It was a way of not giving a fuck.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Deep Soul Connection\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ellen Sebastian Chang, the co-owner and general manager of FuseBOX, a Korean fusion restaurant that opened in West Oakland a few months earlier than Miss Ollie’s, says the thing that always struck her about Kirnon’s food was the “deep soul connection” that you felt when you were eating it. You could tell, Sebastian Chang says, that the food had been cooked with soul—that someone had put their “life force” into it, that sense of\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“if I don’t do it right, the ancestors in my family are going to haunt me in my dreams.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sebastian Chang struck up a friendship with Kirnon, and she remembers that when FuseBOX closed, Kirnon bought up all of the remaining house-made pickles that the restaurant had in stock and featured them in a special menu that she put together for Miss Ollie’s. “To me, that really speaks to respectful relationships,” Sebastian Chang says. “I see you. You see me. We’re not competing. We’re actually a long-distance collaboration.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Somehow, despite how much of a community fixture the restaurant became, Miss Ollie’s always felt a little bit underrated, even in its prime. Kirnon wasn’t feted with national awards the way that some of her peers in Oakland were. And local food media rarely credited the place for being what it was: one of the very best restaurants in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910462\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910462\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Sarah Kirnon holds a plate of Caribbean patties.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caribbean beef patties were one of the many Afro-Caribbean dishes served at Miss Ollie’s that were hard to find elsewhere in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vinny Eng recalls that he met Kirnon when he was the wine director for Bar Tartine and she was the chef at Front Porch, on the other side of the Mission. According to Eng, what Kirnon doesn’t get enough credit for is how much of a mentor she has been to the chefs who worked in her kitchen and then went on further successes—what he calls a “quiet lineage of cooks” that she has trained. Miss Ollie’s was one of a relatively small number of kitchens that felt like they were safe havens for young, queer Black and brown chefs, in particular. And that sense of safety and community extended to the rest of the restaurant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13904416,arts_13895067']“Community activists and community organizers were always in that space,” Eng says. “More than just functioning as a place where people ate, this was a place where people \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">convened\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Filling the Void\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As time went on, however, Kirnon says demographic changes within Oakland wound up taking the restaurant’s core communities away even as the city became oversaturated with restaurants. “We lost lots of Black and brown people who moved out of the Bay Area,” she says, noting how a number of her longtime customers might only visit once every couple of months now because they had to move to Stockton or Sacramento. “We were really responding to a particular crowd of folks. And it feels like that doesn’t exist anymore.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Kirnon fears is that the departure of Miss Ollie’s brick-and-mortar space will leave even more of a gap in the community of places where Black and brown folks can congregate. What, then, can she do, other than try to create something new to fill the void?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910463\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910463\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers sit at a wooden table outside of Miss Ollie's in Old Oakland.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wesley and Antoinettemarie Williams made sure to eat at Miss Ollie’s while visiting from out of state. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the idea behind the nonprofit Sanctuary, which Kirnon says she’s hoping to move into a temporary location in Oakland. Initially, she hopes to run it as a kind of food hub, not entirely dissimilar to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895067/la-cocina-municipal-marketplace-food-hall-opening-tenderloin\">La Cocina’s Marketplace\u003c/a> in the Tenderloin, where multiple vendors will be able to host pop-ups and build new food businesses. It will function as a sort of “think tank,” Kirnon says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And for those who will specifically miss the food at Miss Ollie’s, there’s some good news as well. Kirnon says she’s in the process of finding a new location in Oakland to house Miss Ollie’s, not as a proper restaurant, but at least as a takeout window where people can pick up food, order delivery via apps and get food catered for their companies or events.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the original Miss Ollie’s, the restaurant will host a number of farewell events in the coming weeks—keep an eye on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/missolliesoakland/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their Instagram\u003c/a>. While the current plan is to stay open until the end of the month, Kirnon says longtime customers should come by in the next week or two the ensure a chance to say their final goodbyes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Opening in the early 2010s, Miss Ollie's quickly became a landmark for a golden age of restaurants in Oakland.",
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"description": "Opening in the early 2010s, Miss Ollie's quickly became a landmark for a golden age of restaurants in Oakland.",
"title": "Miss Ollie's Closes: The End of an Era for Oakland's Black and Brown Communities | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the past 10 years, Miss Ollie’s has been a fixture in Oakland’s celebrated restaurant scene—a delicious beacon of fiery pepper sauce, pholourie and the best damn skillet-fried chicken in all the land. Even more than that, the restaurant has been a vital gathering place for Oakland’s Black, brown and queer communities. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, much to the sadness of longtime customers, the beloved Afro-Caribbean spot will close, serving its last rum cocktail and its final plate of fried chicken out of 901 Washington St. at the end of this month.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The news shouldn’t come as a complete shock: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/22179428/oakland-restaurant-miss-ollies-turning-into-nonprofit-sanctuary\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A little over a year ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, chef and owner Sarah Kirnon announced her intention to close the restaurant with an eye toward transforming it into a nonprofit called Sanctuary, which would host sprawling outdoor events centered on Oakland’s Black and brown communities—a kind of cross between a food festival, an art gallery and the longstanding Caribbean tradition of Carnival. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kirnon wound up working out an arrangement with her landlord that enabled the restaurant to stay open for another year. In the end, Kirnon says, the economics of trying to keep a restaurant alive during the pandemic took too much of a toll—and that, really, even pre-COVID, the numbers had not been adding up for quite some time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Bars are doing well because people like to drink and forget. Restaurants are for joy and celebration. We’ve not had much of that lately.” Kirnon says. “We don’t see it as a sadness. For us, it’s a smart move to make.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With that in mind, Kirnon stresses that Miss Ollie’s will, in fact, live on in some form, likely as a small takeout window and catering operation based out of a to-be-determined new location in Oakland. And the nonprofit project is still very much in the works. But the physical restaurant that customers have come to know and love over the past 10 years will cease to exist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910460\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910460\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Wearing a face mask, chef Sarah Kirnon holds a plate of fried chicken at Miss Ollie's, her Old Oakland restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/015_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Sarah Kirnon’s most famous dish is her skillet-fried chicken, a staple at her restaurant Miss Ollie’s, in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision marks the end of a chapter for a restaurant that was, very quietly, one of the most exciting places to eat in the entire Bay Area. Along with neighbors such as Cosecha, Miss Ollie’s helped revitalize Swan’s Market, turning Old Oakland into one of the Bay Area’s most dynamic, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904416/old-oakland-block-party-international-food-swans-market\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most international\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, dining districts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>End of a Golden Age\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, Miss Ollie’s departure also marks the end of a very specific golden age for restaurants in Oakland. The late 2000s and early 2010s were when Oakland first came to national prominence as a notable food city—when publications like the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">started parachuting writers into Temescal and Piedmont Avenue to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/travel/03hours.html\">document the burgeoning scene\u003c/a>. What struck me at the time was that the buzziest restaurants all seemed to be helmed by folks of color—women of color, in particular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910459\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910459\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Customers look at the menu at the bar counter; the sign for "Miss Ollie's" is visible in the mirror's reflection..\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/005_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In its prime, the dining room at Miss Ollie’s was packed every night—in particular with the Bay Area’s Black, brown and queer communities. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/sarah-kirnons-revolutionary-new-restaurant-in-old-oakland-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Born at the start of this era\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Miss Ollie’s was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/ten-quintessential-oakland-restaurants-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">quintessential Oakland restaurant\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—the kind of place I would bring out-of-town visitors to when I wanted to show off the city. As I wrote in 2015, restaurants like Miss Ollie’s “crackled with electricity even on a random weeknight,” had food that was delicious enough to stop you in your tracks, and were reasonably affordable to boot. They were run by charismatic chefs who were cooking food that was deeply personal, reflecting the cultures that shaped their identities—Afro-Caribbean, Mexican, Korean, Lao. And, perhaps most striking, their dining rooms were some of the most diverse I’ve ever encountered.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was Oakland at its finest,” Kirnon says. “Black and brown, people of color, queer folks, elders—we were cross-generational. And I’ve seen kids go off to college. We’ve done funerals. We were a neighborhood restaurant.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One by one, however, the restaurants I associate with that era have mostly all closed, many of them even before the pandemic hit. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2022/01/11/brown-sugar-kitchen-tanya-holland-closed/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brown Sugar Kitchen is gone\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. So is Juhu Beach Club, FuseBOX (\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/fusebox-serves-food-for-the-people-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">remember FuseBOX\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?) and the original Hawker Fare. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910458\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910458\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"A shrine with black-and-white photos of chef Sarah Kirnon's grandmother, Miss Ollie, sits on a shelf.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/001_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A shrine with photos of chef Sarah Kirnon’s grandmother, Miss Ollie, is one of the restaurant’s many personal touches. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Among their many virtues, all of those restaurants were known for serving delicious, ambitious food made with high-quality ingredients, but at a lower, still-accessible price point. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“How do you survive in that mid-range place in this economy?” says Preeti Mistry, the chef and founder of Juhu Beach Club. “Those types of restaurants are becoming an endangered species.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mistry still remembers how blown away they were by Kirnon’s fried chicken the first time they ate at Miss Ollie’s—and Kirnon’s matter-of-fact response when asked what she had put in that chicken to make it taste so good: “seasoning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Mistry, what really set the restaurant apart was how personal everything felt, from the shrine set up for Kirnon’s grandmother—the original Miss Ollie—to the brightly colored vintage enamel plateware to the food itself. A hopeful energy marked so many of the restaurants run by women of color during that era, Mistry says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910461\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910461\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"A piece of fried chicken on blue-and-white checkered paper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/016_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The secret to the fried chicken at Miss Ollie’s is “seasoning.” \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The earlier generation it was mostly cis white men and some women [who were running restaurants]. This was a whole new generation,” Mistry says. “Everyone was not staying in the lines; there was a lot of experimentation. It was a way of not giving a fuck.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Deep Soul Connection\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ellen Sebastian Chang, the co-owner and general manager of FuseBOX, a Korean fusion restaurant that opened in West Oakland a few months earlier than Miss Ollie’s, says the thing that always struck her about Kirnon’s food was the “deep soul connection” that you felt when you were eating it. You could tell, Sebastian Chang says, that the food had been cooked with soul—that someone had put their “life force” into it, that sense of\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“if I don’t do it right, the ancestors in my family are going to haunt me in my dreams.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sebastian Chang struck up a friendship with Kirnon, and she remembers that when FuseBOX closed, Kirnon bought up all of the remaining house-made pickles that the restaurant had in stock and featured them in a special menu that she put together for Miss Ollie’s. “To me, that really speaks to respectful relationships,” Sebastian Chang says. “I see you. You see me. We’re not competing. We’re actually a long-distance collaboration.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Somehow, despite how much of a community fixture the restaurant became, Miss Ollie’s always felt a little bit underrated, even in its prime. Kirnon wasn’t feted with national awards the way that some of her peers in Oakland were. And local food media rarely credited the place for being what it was: one of the very best restaurants in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910462\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910462\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Sarah Kirnon holds a plate of Caribbean patties.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/002_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caribbean beef patties were one of the many Afro-Caribbean dishes served at Miss Ollie’s that were hard to find elsewhere in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vinny Eng recalls that he met Kirnon when he was the wine director for Bar Tartine and she was the chef at Front Porch, on the other side of the Mission. According to Eng, what Kirnon doesn’t get enough credit for is how much of a mentor she has been to the chefs who worked in her kitchen and then went on further successes—what he calls a “quiet lineage of cooks” that she has trained. Miss Ollie’s was one of a relatively small number of kitchens that felt like they were safe havens for young, queer Black and brown chefs, in particular. And that sense of safety and community extended to the rest of the restaurant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Community activists and community organizers were always in that space,” Eng says. “More than just functioning as a place where people ate, this was a place where people \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">convened\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Filling the Void\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As time went on, however, Kirnon says demographic changes within Oakland wound up taking the restaurant’s core communities away even as the city became oversaturated with restaurants. “We lost lots of Black and brown people who moved out of the Bay Area,” she says, noting how a number of her longtime customers might only visit once every couple of months now because they had to move to Stockton or Sacramento. “We were really responding to a particular crowd of folks. And it feels like that doesn’t exist anymore.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Kirnon fears is that the departure of Miss Ollie’s brick-and-mortar space will leave even more of a gap in the community of places where Black and brown folks can congregate. What, then, can she do, other than try to create something new to fill the void?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910463\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910463\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers sit at a wooden table outside of Miss Ollie's in Old Oakland.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/013_KQEDArts_MissOllies_03042022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wesley and Antoinettemarie Williams made sure to eat at Miss Ollie’s while visiting from out of state. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the idea behind the nonprofit Sanctuary, which Kirnon says she’s hoping to move into a temporary location in Oakland. Initially, she hopes to run it as a kind of food hub, not entirely dissimilar to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895067/la-cocina-municipal-marketplace-food-hall-opening-tenderloin\">La Cocina’s Marketplace\u003c/a> in the Tenderloin, where multiple vendors will be able to host pop-ups and build new food businesses. It will function as a sort of “think tank,” Kirnon says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And for those who will specifically miss the food at Miss Ollie’s, there’s some good news as well. Kirnon says she’s in the process of finding a new location in Oakland to house Miss Ollie’s, not as a proper restaurant, but at least as a takeout window where people can pick up food, order delivery via apps and get food catered for their companies or events.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the original Miss Ollie’s, the restaurant will host a number of farewell events in the coming weeks—keep an eye on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/missolliesoakland/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their Instagram\u003c/a>. While the current plan is to stay open until the end of the month, Kirnon says longtime customers should come by in the next week or two the ensure a chance to say their final goodbyes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This Vegan Carnicería Wants to Be the Latinx Answer to Impossible Foods",
"headTitle": "This Vegan Carnicería Wants to Be the Latinx Answer to Impossible Foods | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the future that Raul Medina imagines, not only will America have a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/09/02/492390405/-memeoftheweek-taco-trucks-on-every-corner\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">taco truck on every corner\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but all of those trucks will also offer a full slate of vegan meats. Carnitas, carne asada, chicharrón—each taco a delicious miracle crafted out of tofu skins and dehydrated soy chips. And the supplier of these stellar faux meats? Naturally that would be Medina himself, whose vegan carnicería, Taqueria La Venganza, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Cult-favorite-vegan-Mexican-pop-up-is-opening-a-16530555.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">opened in Oakland earlier this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I want to be the Impossible Foods—the Beyond Meat—of the Mexican meat world,” Medina says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s a bold ambition for a chef whose entire operation, at the moment, is based inside a small downtown Oakland bodega. Just a couple of months in, La Venganza has already garnered a reputation for serving the best vegan tacos in town. But Medina has his sights set much higher: He doesn’t want to be known as just a taquero. He wants to be the guy up the supply chain who makes your favorite taquero \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">want\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to offer a vegan option—who makes meats that are delicious enough, and profitable enough, that every taqueria in the country will want to use them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, Medina wants \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> vegan carne asada—not Impossible’s or Beyond’s—to be the one that goes national. And in the process, he hopes to strike a blow for smaller, less corporatized and more Latinx-centric businesses. “I don’t want them to do ‘Beyond Asada’ or ‘Impossible Asada,’ and then suddenly we’re eating some other corporate shit.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910278\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910278\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Raul Medina presses a tortilla by hand.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After launching his pop-up in Berkeley six years ago, Medina made a name for himself when La Venganza won the title for best taco in all of Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ten or 20 years ago, vegans like Medina could scarcely have imagined a time when “plant-based meat” would be seen as the trendiest, most lucrative sector in food—the subject of dozens of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/trends-news/article/impossible-burger-fake-meat\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">breathless reviews\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opinion/climate-change-meatless-meat.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">earnest thinkpieces\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. These days, you can buy an Impossible Burger at Burger King. You can find the patties in the freezer aisle of your local Walmart or Target.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For me, veganism was always punk rock,” Raul Medina says of his early days of meat abstention. “You were looked upon as a weirdo. Like, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">what the fuck are you doing\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, he says, companies like Beyond and Impossible have helped take veganism to the masses. But their proliferation has also led to a certain homogeneity in the vegan food scene. The national fast food chains sell the same faux meat patties that customers might shell out $20 for at their favorite boutique pop-up. For the most part, vegan chefs aren’t even bothering to experiment with their own personalized take on an old-school black bean burger anymore. “I don’t care how much you say, ‘Oh, I make it taste different. I season it differently,’” Medina says. “It tastes the same to me everywhere I go.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“At the end of the day, that’s the vision—to have a vegan carnicería in every major city and have it supply the meats to every taco truck on every corner.”[/pullquote]Medina doesn’t deny that the Impossible Burger tastes good, and he acknowledges that any reduction in meat consumption that comes as these companies become more mainstream is a net positive. But for him, veganism was always about more than just protecting animals. It was also about all of the other systemic abuses that were endemic to the industrial meat complex—the way the workers in the slaughterhouses were treated, for instance. In his past career, Medina worked at an immigration law firm, and he says he saw firsthand how the big poultry plants would bus in workers from Mexico and “literally deport them after the season’s done.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Medina questions whether the big plant-based meat companies are set up so differently, even if they’re applying a “green bandage” to the food system. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Is that the same situation that’s going to go on with soy and wheat and coconut oil? I’m not blind to consumerism and capitalism,” he says. “I know what happens when something becomes popular. There are ways that they’re going to try to cut down costs. Who are we getting to work the fields? Are we paying them more, or are just paying them what the fuck we need to pay them?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910280\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910280\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A styrofoam container with three tacos, rice, and beans.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A plate from La Venganza’s collaboration with L.A.’s Taco Vega. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Indeed, part of what motivated Medina to really push the Taqueria La Venganza brand and extend its reach was hearing the news that Beyond Meat was working on a (\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/22827004/taco-bell-beyond-meat-carne-asada-test-canceled-plant-based-fast-food\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">thus far unsuccessful\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">) vegan carne asada for Taco Bell. La Venganza’s attempts at global expansion have seen more modest success thus far: In addition to his own taqueria, Medina also supplies vegan meats for Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/taqueria-el-cruzero-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taqueria El Cruzero\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and he recently ran a collaboration with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CakmlXcP5u0/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taco Vega\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a vegan taqueria in Los Angeles, with an eye toward opening his second location down in L.A. Toward that end, he’s actively looking for \u003ca href=\"https://wefunder.com/venganzafoods/\">investors\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In comparison to the food tech giants, Medina says his supply chain is relatively straightforward and analog. For his carne asada, for instance, he imports dehydrated soy chips from Taiwan and seasons them with various spices (including Vietnamese rice powder) to emulate the smoky, slightly burnt effect you get when a nice piece of skirt steak hits the grill.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Who’s getting rich off of that? Me, a Taiwanese company and whatever Mexican just sold you the taco,” Medina says. “I want Mexican people making money off of my products. At the end of the day, that’s the vision—to have a vegan carnicería in every major city and have it supply the meats to every taco truck on every corner.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“It opened people’s eyes to be like, ‘This guy is making Mexican food vegan, but it tastes like my mom made it.’ … You didn’t have to ask for something with a stupid name. What you were used to is what you got.”[/pullquote]Of course, none of these plans would have much hope for success if the tacos themselves didn’t taste good. For Medina, basing his first carnicería in the East Bay marks something of a homecoming: La Venganza first burst onto the vegan food scene six years ago as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/faux-meat-keeps-it-real-at-the-butchers-son-and-taqueria-la-venganza-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">popular Berkeley pop-up\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The chef went on to make a name for himself in Los Angeles, where in short order La Venganza was tapped to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://chooseveg.com/blog/6-vegan-food-vendors-at-coachella-that-will/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sell tacos at Coachella\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and then—its biggest break—won L.A. Taco’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lataco.com/taco-madness-2018/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Taco Madness” competition\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the coveted title of best taco in all of Los Angeles in 2018.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s L.A. It’s Mexicans,” Medina says of the street cred that the victory gave his business. In many ways, it also set off a whole new wave of vegan taquerias in Los Angeles and beyond. What set La Venganza apart from much of the previous generation of vegan tacos was that, apart from whatever textural magic Medina was able to work out of yuba and other soy and wheat gluten products, the chef’s approach was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/faux-meat-keeps-it-real-at-the-butchers-son-and-taqueria-la-venganza-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fundamentally nostalgic\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, meant to capture everything that people loved about getting tacos at an old-school taqueria—just without the meat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910279\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910279\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Vegan carne asada with all the fixings on a flour tortilla, ready to get rolled into a burrito.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burritos at Taqueria La Venganza weigh two pounds. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It opened people’s eyes to be like, ‘This guy is making Mexican food vegan, but it tastes like my mom made it.’ Before that it was, ‘This person is putting kale and roasted potato in my taco, what the fuck is this?’” Medina says. “Finally you saw something that was asada. You didn’t have to ask for something with a stupid name. What you were used to is what you got.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13908103,arts_13906738,arts_13895209']At La Venganza’s downtown Oakland storefront, Medina makes the tortillas by hand. The taqueria offers a streamlined menu of greatest hits: carnitas, chicharrón, carne asada fries and cauliflower al pastor. It sometimes offers, as a special, vegan versions of less mainstream cuts, like beef cheek or lengua, but it also sells giant burritos that weigh two pounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And though Medina is dubious of the prospect of companies like Impossible and Beyond bringing vegan food to the masses, that is what he aspires to do, too, at the end of the day—to be, as he puts it, a “regular-ass taqueria,” and to bring his vegan meats to other regular-ass taquerias. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not like I’m using Calabrian chilies, or adding amaranth or ancestral ingredients,” Medina says. “Fuck all that shit. I’m putting in what your mom used to put in. There isn’t meat in it, but it tastes just like you remember.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thevegantaqueria/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taqueria La Venganza\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open Thursday through Saturday, 1–7pm at 597 15th St. in Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Oakland's Taqueria La Venganza is hoping to bring its vegan carne asada to the national stage.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n the future that Raul Medina imagines, not only will America have a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/09/02/492390405/-memeoftheweek-taco-trucks-on-every-corner\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">taco truck on every corner\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but all of those trucks will also offer a full slate of vegan meats. Carnitas, carne asada, chicharrón—each taco a delicious miracle crafted out of tofu skins and dehydrated soy chips. And the supplier of these stellar faux meats? Naturally that would be Medina himself, whose vegan carnicería, Taqueria La Venganza, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Cult-favorite-vegan-Mexican-pop-up-is-opening-a-16530555.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">opened in Oakland earlier this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I want to be the Impossible Foods—the Beyond Meat—of the Mexican meat world,” Medina says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s a bold ambition for a chef whose entire operation, at the moment, is based inside a small downtown Oakland bodega. Just a couple of months in, La Venganza has already garnered a reputation for serving the best vegan tacos in town. But Medina has his sights set much higher: He doesn’t want to be known as just a taquero. He wants to be the guy up the supply chain who makes your favorite taquero \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">want\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to offer a vegan option—who makes meats that are delicious enough, and profitable enough, that every taqueria in the country will want to use them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, Medina wants \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> vegan carne asada—not Impossible’s or Beyond’s—to be the one that goes national. And in the process, he hopes to strike a blow for smaller, less corporatized and more Latinx-centric businesses. “I don’t want them to do ‘Beyond Asada’ or ‘Impossible Asada,’ and then suddenly we’re eating some other corporate shit.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910278\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910278\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Chef Raul Medina presses a tortilla by hand.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_raul-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After launching his pop-up in Berkeley six years ago, Medina made a name for himself when La Venganza won the title for best taco in all of Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ten or 20 years ago, vegans like Medina could scarcely have imagined a time when “plant-based meat” would be seen as the trendiest, most lucrative sector in food—the subject of dozens of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/trends-news/article/impossible-burger-fake-meat\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">breathless reviews\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opinion/climate-change-meatless-meat.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">earnest thinkpieces\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. These days, you can buy an Impossible Burger at Burger King. You can find the patties in the freezer aisle of your local Walmart or Target.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For me, veganism was always punk rock,” Raul Medina says of his early days of meat abstention. “You were looked upon as a weirdo. Like, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">what the fuck are you doing\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, he says, companies like Beyond and Impossible have helped take veganism to the masses. But their proliferation has also led to a certain homogeneity in the vegan food scene. The national fast food chains sell the same faux meat patties that customers might shell out $20 for at their favorite boutique pop-up. For the most part, vegan chefs aren’t even bothering to experiment with their own personalized take on an old-school black bean burger anymore. “I don’t care how much you say, ‘Oh, I make it taste different. I season it differently,’” Medina says. “It tastes the same to me everywhere I go.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“At the end of the day, that’s the vision—to have a vegan carnicería in every major city and have it supply the meats to every taco truck on every corner.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Medina doesn’t deny that the Impossible Burger tastes good, and he acknowledges that any reduction in meat consumption that comes as these companies become more mainstream is a net positive. But for him, veganism was always about more than just protecting animals. It was also about all of the other systemic abuses that were endemic to the industrial meat complex—the way the workers in the slaughterhouses were treated, for instance. In his past career, Medina worked at an immigration law firm, and he says he saw firsthand how the big poultry plants would bus in workers from Mexico and “literally deport them after the season’s done.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Medina questions whether the big plant-based meat companies are set up so differently, even if they’re applying a “green bandage” to the food system. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Is that the same situation that’s going to go on with soy and wheat and coconut oil? I’m not blind to consumerism and capitalism,” he says. “I know what happens when something becomes popular. There are ways that they’re going to try to cut down costs. Who are we getting to work the fields? Are we paying them more, or are just paying them what the fuck we need to pay them?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910280\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910280\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A styrofoam container with three tacos, rice, and beans.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_tacovega-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A plate from La Venganza’s collaboration with L.A.’s Taco Vega. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Indeed, part of what motivated Medina to really push the Taqueria La Venganza brand and extend its reach was hearing the news that Beyond Meat was working on a (\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/22827004/taco-bell-beyond-meat-carne-asada-test-canceled-plant-based-fast-food\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">thus far unsuccessful\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">) vegan carne asada for Taco Bell. La Venganza’s attempts at global expansion have seen more modest success thus far: In addition to his own taqueria, Medina also supplies vegan meats for Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/taqueria-el-cruzero-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taqueria El Cruzero\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and he recently ran a collaboration with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CakmlXcP5u0/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taco Vega\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a vegan taqueria in Los Angeles, with an eye toward opening his second location down in L.A. Toward that end, he’s actively looking for \u003ca href=\"https://wefunder.com/venganzafoods/\">investors\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In comparison to the food tech giants, Medina says his supply chain is relatively straightforward and analog. For his carne asada, for instance, he imports dehydrated soy chips from Taiwan and seasons them with various spices (including Vietnamese rice powder) to emulate the smoky, slightly burnt effect you get when a nice piece of skirt steak hits the grill.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Who’s getting rich off of that? Me, a Taiwanese company and whatever Mexican just sold you the taco,” Medina says. “I want Mexican people making money off of my products. At the end of the day, that’s the vision—to have a vegan carnicería in every major city and have it supply the meats to every taco truck on every corner.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“It opened people’s eyes to be like, ‘This guy is making Mexican food vegan, but it tastes like my mom made it.’ … You didn’t have to ask for something with a stupid name. What you were used to is what you got.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Of course, none of these plans would have much hope for success if the tacos themselves didn’t taste good. For Medina, basing his first carnicería in the East Bay marks something of a homecoming: La Venganza first burst onto the vegan food scene six years ago as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/faux-meat-keeps-it-real-at-the-butchers-son-and-taqueria-la-venganza-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">popular Berkeley pop-up\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The chef went on to make a name for himself in Los Angeles, where in short order La Venganza was tapped to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://chooseveg.com/blog/6-vegan-food-vendors-at-coachella-that-will/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sell tacos at Coachella\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and then—its biggest break—won L.A. Taco’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lataco.com/taco-madness-2018/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Taco Madness” competition\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the coveted title of best taco in all of Los Angeles in 2018.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s L.A. It’s Mexicans,” Medina says of the street cred that the victory gave his business. In many ways, it also set off a whole new wave of vegan taquerias in Los Angeles and beyond. What set La Venganza apart from much of the previous generation of vegan tacos was that, apart from whatever textural magic Medina was able to work out of yuba and other soy and wheat gluten products, the chef’s approach was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/faux-meat-keeps-it-real-at-the-butchers-son-and-taqueria-la-venganza-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fundamentally nostalgic\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, meant to capture everything that people loved about getting tacos at an old-school taqueria—just without the meat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13910279\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13910279\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Vegan carne asada with all the fixings on a flour tortilla, ready to get rolled into a burrito.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/venganza_burrito-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The burritos at Taqueria La Venganza weigh two pounds. \u003ccite>(Raul Medina)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It opened people’s eyes to be like, ‘This guy is making Mexican food vegan, but it tastes like my mom made it.’ Before that it was, ‘This person is putting kale and roasted potato in my taco, what the fuck is this?’” Medina says. “Finally you saw something that was asada. You didn’t have to ask for something with a stupid name. What you were used to is what you got.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At La Venganza’s downtown Oakland storefront, Medina makes the tortillas by hand. The taqueria offers a streamlined menu of greatest hits: carnitas, chicharrón, carne asada fries and cauliflower al pastor. It sometimes offers, as a special, vegan versions of less mainstream cuts, like beef cheek or lengua, but it also sells giant burritos that weigh two pounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And though Medina is dubious of the prospect of companies like Impossible and Beyond bringing vegan food to the masses, that is what he aspires to do, too, at the end of the day—to be, as he puts it, a “regular-ass taqueria,” and to bring his vegan meats to other regular-ass taquerias. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not like I’m using Calabrian chilies, or adding amaranth or ancestral ingredients,” Medina says. “Fuck all that shit. I’m putting in what your mom used to put in. There isn’t meat in it, but it tastes just like you remember.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\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/thevegantaqueria/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taqueria La Venganza\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open Thursday through Saturday, 1–7pm at 597 15th St. in Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "rocky-island-oyster-bar-richmond-waterfront-view-lobster-roll",
"title": "A Slice of New England Oyster Culture Comes to the Richmond Waterfront",
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"headTitle": "A Slice of New England Oyster Culture Comes to the Richmond Waterfront | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The only kind of restaurant Danny Pirello ever wanted to open was some kind of oyster shack or crab shack—the kind of laid-back spot his childhood in Scituate, Massachusetts, had imprinted onto his DNA. So that was Pirello’s first thought, years ago, when he saw the Craneway Pavilion, the sprawling, 45,000-square-foot, former Ford assembly plant on the Richmond waterfront: \u003ci>Wouldn’t this be the perfect site for an oyster bar?\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pirello finally brought that dream to fruition this past October when he quietly opened \u003ca href=\"https://www.rockyislandoysterco.com/\">Rocky Island Oyster Co.\u003c/a> at that very location, at the site of the old auto plant’s boiler room. He’s fashioned the place to be exactly the kind of oyster bar he missed from his days back East: a casual, family-friendly spot where a group of seafood enthusiasts might take down a few dozen oysters on the half shell, a couple of lobster rolls and a big, gorgeous, caper-studded plate of crudo. It doesn’t hurt that the outdoor tables overlook one of the most spectacular views of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909658\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909658\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Several people enjoy the waterfront view at Richmond's Craneway Pavilion.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of Rocky Island’s chief virtues is its million dollar view of the bay. \u003ccite>(Rocky Island Oyster Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re not trying to do anything too fancy,” Pirello says. “It’s casual and it’s for the community. It’s for the Bay Area people to come and kick their feet up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocky Island Oyster Co. sits inside the space previously occupied by Assemble, a restaurant that shut down near the start of the pandemic when the entire Craneway Pavilion was set to be \u003ca href=\"https://richmondpulse.org/2020/12/18/craneway-medical-facilities-in-richmond-on-standby/\">converted into an overflow hospital\u003c/a>. That plan never came to fruition, and when the facility came under new management last year, Pirello and his business partners, Michael Petrilli and Calvin Young, decided to reconceptualize the restaurant space as a Ferry Building–style food hall—a fitting plan given the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11765409/after-a-successful-weekday-launch-richmond-ferry-begins-weekend-service\">recent launch of the Richmond Ferry Terminal\u003c/a> right outside the Craneway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly conceived \u003ca href=\"https://www.assemblemarketplace.com/\">Assemble Marketplace\u003c/a> is now home to three mini-restaurants and a full-fledged cocktail bar. In addition Rocky Island, there’s a barbecue spot called Tommy’s and a new iteration of Assemble run by the folks behind Brezo, which, before its original Point Richmond location closed during the pandemic, served one of the region’s best California-Mexican brunches. The restaurants share a handful of indoor tables and a little outdoor patio that faces the water. In the evenings, when that outdoor area is lit up with twinkling string lights—and everyone’s digging into a tray of plump oysters with a cold beer in hand—it’s about as quaint a scene as you can find in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Pirello, the particular vibe that Rocky Island is shooting for is drawn straight from his own New England childhood. In one of Pirello’s earliest memories, he’s sitting on the beach outside his grandparents’ house in Scituate eating a giant stuffed clam. He’d spend weekends digging up clams on that same beach. His family would drive down the coast to Duxbury for fresh oysters just plucked from the water, or up to Cape Cod for lobster rolls at some little clam shack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909659\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A lobster roll and a side of potato chips, served on top of red checkered paper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lobster roll is served in the East Coast style, with a top-cut bun. \u003ccite>(Rocky Island Oyster Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When you sit down at that clam shack, it just feels like vacation, you know?” Pirello says. “And I noticed that that didn’t really exist in the same way in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pirello worked for years as a bartender in Berkeley, and he’d always felt that the East Bay, in particular, was in desperate need of a destination oyster bar—its own answer to North Bay staples like \u003ca href=\"https://hogislandoysters.com/\">Hog Island Oyster Co.\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://themarshallstore.com/\">Marshall Store\u003c/a>, or to \u003ca href=\"https://swanoysterdepot.us/\">Swan Oyster Depot\u003c/a> in San Francisco. But he also wanted to put a particular New England spin on the menu, right down to the types of oysters that he offers, which are almost exclusively New England oysters that he ships in overnight from \u003ca href=\"https://islandcreekoysters.com/\">Island Creek Oysters\u003c/a> in Duxbury, Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counterintuitively, Pirello says, these East Coast oysters come in much fresher—literally just a day out of the water—than anything he’s able to source on the West Coast. More importantly, he believes the New England oysters are a special treat for Bay Area oyster lovers who haven’t had them before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I love a Kusshi. I love a Kumamoto or a Miyagi,” Pirello says of the popular West Coast oyster varieties. “But eating them is a whole different experience. It’s not that super-crisp, briny oyster that I’m used to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another gesture toward New England, Rocky Island also always has a lobster roll on the menu and, often, a Dungeness crab roll served in the same style: cold, dressed in mayo and served on a proper top-cut bun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the restaurant also highlights the things Pirello loves most about the West Coast’s own unique oyster culture. It serves an Italian fish crudo, topped with capers and pickled red onions, that’s a direct homage to the version made famous by San Francisco’s Swan Oyster Depot. In a nod to a popular menu item at the Marshall Store, it pairs garlicky grilled oysters with garlic bread. Eventually, Pirello hopes to offer a full slate of East Coast \u003ci>and\u003c/i> West Coast oysters so that customers can conduct their own side-by-side taste test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while Rocky Island is the kind of place where it’s easy to drop a couple hundred dollars on a big, celebratory seafood spread, Pirello says it was important to him for the place to still retain a community-oriented vibe, which he sees as one of the hallmarks of the West Coast’s multicultural oyster scene—a scene where, for instance, big groups of Filipinos and Mexican Americans routinely spend the day picnicking out on Tomales Bay with their families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909660\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The inside of the Craneway Pavilion's massive, warehouse-y space lined with long oak tables for a special dinner.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For Valentine’s Day, the restaurant spread out over the entire length of the Craneway Pavilion. \u003ccite>(Rocky Island Oyster Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So far, Pirello says, Rocky Island has a lot of that same kind of feel. “Everybody comes to the oyster bar,” he says. “It’s frequently not the Silicon Valley crowd that I’m used to at restaurants in San Francisco. It’s everyone else.” It’s people in Richmond who tell Pirello they’re so moved that he’s put an oyster bar right in their hometown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13908798,arts_13908432,arts_13907197']\u003c/span>That laid-back community spirit doesn’t mean the restaurant isn’t intent on providing a special experience, however. Pirello says his long-term goal is to open an adjacent diner that’s going to offer an “elevated,” sit-down extension of the Rocky Island experience. (By that point, he also hopes to convert the business into a co-op or collectively owned restaurant of some sort.) And already, Pirello is trying to think of ways to creatively utilize Rocky Island’s prime piece of waterfront real estate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, last week on Valentine’s Day, the restaurant set up long oak tables throughout the length of the Craneway Pavilion—a makeshift dining room the size of two football fields. Pirello himself spent the night skateboarding up and down the Craneway, pouring champagne for diners who were there to enjoy their oyster dinner and the sparkling view of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oysters are such a deeply nostalgic food for people,” Pirello says. And he hopes Rocky Island will be a place where people can tap into those childhood memories. “Come with your family, come with your friends,” he says. “Take up as much space as you want. Stay all day.”\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=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rockyislandoysterco/\">Rocky Island Oyster Co.\u003c/a> is open at \u003ca href=\"https://www.assemblemarketplace.com/\">Assemble Marketplace\u003c/a> (1414 Harbour Way S, Richmond) Fridays 3–7pm, Saturdays 4–8pm, Sundays 12–5pm and Mondays 4–8pm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Rocky Island Oyster Co. Brings New England Oyster Culture to the Richmond Waterfront | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The only kind of restaurant Danny Pirello ever wanted to open was some kind of oyster shack or crab shack—the kind of laid-back spot his childhood in Scituate, Massachusetts, had imprinted onto his DNA. So that was Pirello’s first thought, years ago, when he saw the Craneway Pavilion, the sprawling, 45,000-square-foot, former Ford assembly plant on the Richmond waterfront: \u003ci>Wouldn’t this be the perfect site for an oyster bar?\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pirello finally brought that dream to fruition this past October when he quietly opened \u003ca href=\"https://www.rockyislandoysterco.com/\">Rocky Island Oyster Co.\u003c/a> at that very location, at the site of the old auto plant’s boiler room. He’s fashioned the place to be exactly the kind of oyster bar he missed from his days back East: a casual, family-friendly spot where a group of seafood enthusiasts might take down a few dozen oysters on the half shell, a couple of lobster rolls and a big, gorgeous, caper-studded plate of crudo. It doesn’t hurt that the outdoor tables overlook one of the most spectacular views of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909658\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909658\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Several people enjoy the waterfront view at Richmond's Craneway Pavilion.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_view-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of Rocky Island’s chief virtues is its million dollar view of the bay. \u003ccite>(Rocky Island Oyster Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re not trying to do anything too fancy,” Pirello says. “It’s casual and it’s for the community. It’s for the Bay Area people to come and kick their feet up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocky Island Oyster Co. sits inside the space previously occupied by Assemble, a restaurant that shut down near the start of the pandemic when the entire Craneway Pavilion was set to be \u003ca href=\"https://richmondpulse.org/2020/12/18/craneway-medical-facilities-in-richmond-on-standby/\">converted into an overflow hospital\u003c/a>. That plan never came to fruition, and when the facility came under new management last year, Pirello and his business partners, Michael Petrilli and Calvin Young, decided to reconceptualize the restaurant space as a Ferry Building–style food hall—a fitting plan given the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11765409/after-a-successful-weekday-launch-richmond-ferry-begins-weekend-service\">recent launch of the Richmond Ferry Terminal\u003c/a> right outside the Craneway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly conceived \u003ca href=\"https://www.assemblemarketplace.com/\">Assemble Marketplace\u003c/a> is now home to three mini-restaurants and a full-fledged cocktail bar. In addition Rocky Island, there’s a barbecue spot called Tommy’s and a new iteration of Assemble run by the folks behind Brezo, which, before its original Point Richmond location closed during the pandemic, served one of the region’s best California-Mexican brunches. The restaurants share a handful of indoor tables and a little outdoor patio that faces the water. In the evenings, when that outdoor area is lit up with twinkling string lights—and everyone’s digging into a tray of plump oysters with a cold beer in hand—it’s about as quaint a scene as you can find in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Pirello, the particular vibe that Rocky Island is shooting for is drawn straight from his own New England childhood. In one of Pirello’s earliest memories, he’s sitting on the beach outside his grandparents’ house in Scituate eating a giant stuffed clam. He’d spend weekends digging up clams on that same beach. His family would drive down the coast to Duxbury for fresh oysters just plucked from the water, or up to Cape Cod for lobster rolls at some little clam shack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909659\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909659\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A lobster roll and a side of potato chips, served on top of red checkered paper.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_lobsterroll-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lobster roll is served in the East Coast style, with a top-cut bun. \u003ccite>(Rocky Island Oyster Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When you sit down at that clam shack, it just feels like vacation, you know?” Pirello says. “And I noticed that that didn’t really exist in the same way in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pirello worked for years as a bartender in Berkeley, and he’d always felt that the East Bay, in particular, was in desperate need of a destination oyster bar—its own answer to North Bay staples like \u003ca href=\"https://hogislandoysters.com/\">Hog Island Oyster Co.\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://themarshallstore.com/\">Marshall Store\u003c/a>, or to \u003ca href=\"https://swanoysterdepot.us/\">Swan Oyster Depot\u003c/a> in San Francisco. But he also wanted to put a particular New England spin on the menu, right down to the types of oysters that he offers, which are almost exclusively New England oysters that he ships in overnight from \u003ca href=\"https://islandcreekoysters.com/\">Island Creek Oysters\u003c/a> in Duxbury, Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counterintuitively, Pirello says, these East Coast oysters come in much fresher—literally just a day out of the water—than anything he’s able to source on the West Coast. More importantly, he believes the New England oysters are a special treat for Bay Area oyster lovers who haven’t had them before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I love a Kusshi. I love a Kumamoto or a Miyagi,” Pirello says of the popular West Coast oyster varieties. “But eating them is a whole different experience. It’s not that super-crisp, briny oyster that I’m used to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another gesture toward New England, Rocky Island also always has a lobster roll on the menu and, often, a Dungeness crab roll served in the same style: cold, dressed in mayo and served on a proper top-cut bun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the restaurant also highlights the things Pirello loves most about the West Coast’s own unique oyster culture. It serves an Italian fish crudo, topped with capers and pickled red onions, that’s a direct homage to the version made famous by San Francisco’s Swan Oyster Depot. In a nod to a popular menu item at the Marshall Store, it pairs garlicky grilled oysters with garlic bread. Eventually, Pirello hopes to offer a full slate of East Coast \u003ci>and\u003c/i> West Coast oysters so that customers can conduct their own side-by-side taste test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while Rocky Island is the kind of place where it’s easy to drop a couple hundred dollars on a big, celebratory seafood spread, Pirello says it was important to him for the place to still retain a community-oriented vibe, which he sees as one of the hallmarks of the West Coast’s multicultural oyster scene—a scene where, for instance, big groups of Filipinos and Mexican Americans routinely spend the day picnicking out on Tomales Bay with their families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909660\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The inside of the Craneway Pavilion's massive, warehouse-y space lined with long oak tables for a special dinner.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/rockyisland_vday-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For Valentine’s Day, the restaurant spread out over the entire length of the Craneway Pavilion. \u003ccite>(Rocky Island Oyster Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So far, Pirello says, Rocky Island has a lot of that same kind of feel. “Everybody comes to the oyster bar,” he says. “It’s frequently not the Silicon Valley crowd that I’m used to at restaurants in San Francisco. It’s everyone else.” It’s people in Richmond who tell Pirello they’re so moved that he’s put an oyster bar right in their hometown.\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 laid-back community spirit doesn’t mean the restaurant isn’t intent on providing a special experience, however. Pirello says his long-term goal is to open an adjacent diner that’s going to offer an “elevated,” sit-down extension of the Rocky Island experience. (By that point, he also hopes to convert the business into a co-op or collectively owned restaurant of some sort.) And already, Pirello is trying to think of ways to creatively utilize Rocky Island’s prime piece of waterfront real estate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, last week on Valentine’s Day, the restaurant set up long oak tables throughout the length of the Craneway Pavilion—a makeshift dining room the size of two football fields. Pirello himself spent the night skateboarding up and down the Craneway, pouring champagne for diners who were there to enjoy their oyster dinner and the sparkling view of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oysters are such a deeply nostalgic food for people,” Pirello says. And he hopes Rocky Island will be a place where people can tap into those childhood memories. “Come with your family, come with your friends,” he says. “Take up as much space as you want. Stay all day.”\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=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rockyislandoysterco/\">Rocky Island Oyster Co.\u003c/a> is open at \u003ca href=\"https://www.assemblemarketplace.com/\">Assemble Marketplace\u003c/a> (1414 Harbour Way S, Richmond) Fridays 3–7pm, Saturdays 4–8pm, Sundays 12–5pm and Mondays 4–8pm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Baking a Cake for the Afrofuturism Potluck",
"headTitle": "Baking a Cake for the Afrofuturism Potluck | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A crash course on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901009/omca-afrofuturism-mothership-review\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Afrofuturism\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> might include \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Panther’s \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">portrayal of a utopian, techno-centric Wakanda, the science fiction novels of Octavia Butler and a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13864915/the-liberated-pop-future-missy-elliott-envisioned-is-now\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Missy Elliott music video\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—all visions of a liberated future seen through a Black lens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what will Black people be eating in this thriving, revolutionary future? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the question that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eattheculture.com/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eat the Culture\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a collective of Black food bloggers, explores this month through a series of Afrofuturism-themed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/eattheculture/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">social media posts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and online gatherings, including a Feb. 24 collaboration with the magazine \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cuisine Noir\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Framed as a “Virtual Potluck,” the series celebrates Black History Month by remixing traditional dishes of the African diaspora to create new recipes that are artful and, at times, deeply political: A plate of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://senseandedibility.com/salmorejo-jueyes-coconut-grits-cakes/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stewed crab and grits\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fuses together African and Puerto Rican traditions. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-brulee-black-history-month-virtual-potluck/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">coconut rice pudding\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> doubles as a commentary on gentrification. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s this intersection of technology, culture, innovation and politics,” co-organizer Stefani Renée, of the Bay Area–based blog \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://savorandsage.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Savor and Sage\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, says of Afrofuturism. “How do we explore that through food?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The event stems from a similar virtual potluck that a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> handful of prominent Black food bloggers—including Aaron Hutcherson (of the blog \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thehungryhutch.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hungry Hutch\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">) and Meiko Temple (of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mieko and the Dish\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">)—put together each year for Black History Month \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tastingtable.com/693332/black-history-month-african-american-food-blog-2017/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">starting in 2017\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Renée, a relative newcomer to food blogging, joined in the past two years and started talking to other participants about expanding the group’s efforts beyond just one or two virtual events each year. In particular, the group wanted to create a support system for Black food bloggers, given the unique set of challenges that they face.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909336\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909336\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a plate of tempura-fried okra served over a bright orange pool of confit tomatoes\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Food blogger Kenneth Temple’s riff on stewed okra includes fine dining touches like confit tomatoes and smoked sausage “dust.” \u003ccite>(Kenneth Temple)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Folks don’t know that we’re here,” Renée says. “When we start looking at who gets the most exposure, it’s usually white female food bloggers—and they’re getting attention for foods that aren’t necessarily authentic or native to them.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Stefani Renée\"]“Black food isn’t a monolith. There are so many different aspects to Black food that people don’t know.”[/pullquote]Meanwhile, Renée says, Black and other BIPOC food bloggers struggle to get that same level of recognition and, just as importantly, to land the kind of lucrative sponsorship deals that make food blogging a viable full-time career. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eattheculture.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eat the Culture\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was created as a platform for Black food bloggers to share that kind of information with one another—a place where they could access tutorials on shooting food videos and get tips about search engine optimization. As Renée puts it, “How do we break these barriers and create our own space?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year’s Afrofuturism-themed potluck is one of the collective’s first signature events. Renée sees it as an extension of the work of \u003ca href=\"https://savorandsage.com/\">her own blog\u003c/a>, which focuses on updating and expanding people’s definition of “soul food” to include things other than just fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black food isn’t a monolith,” she says. “There are so many different aspects to Black food that people don’t know.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In presenting a vision for the future of Black food, several of the dishes that Eat the Culture members created for the virtual potluck explicitly challenge the idea that food with African origins isn’t “refined.” There’s a modern take on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://thefooddisciple.com/yam-gnocchi-served-w-oxtail-pepper-soup/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">West African oxtail pepper soup\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> made with yam gnocchi, for instance, and a version of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://kennethtemple.com/smothered-okra-and-tomatoes-recipe/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">smothered okra\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that features fine dining elements like confit tomatoes and smoked sausage “dust.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909337\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L.jpg\" alt=\"Three portions of rice pudding served inside coconut shells, arranged on a wooden cutting board.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meiko and the Dish’s modern take on sombi, the Senegalese coconut rice pudding, is a commentary on gentrification. \u003ccite>(Meiko and the Dish)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several of the recipes veganize dishes traditionally made with meat—a rebuttal, Renée says, to the notion that “Black people don’t really eat vegetables.” Others offer pointed political commentary: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-brulee-black-history-month-virtual-potluck/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meiko and the Dish’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> aforementioned coconut rice pudding adds a crème brûlée–style burnt sugar topping to a traditional Senegalese dish, thereby mirroring “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-brulee-black-history-month-virtual-potluck/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the concept of gentrification, the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in and typically displacing current inhabitants in the process.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13901009,arts_13900311,arts_13900855']For her own contribution to the Afrofuturism potluck, Renée did a riff on cornbread soaked in buttermilk, a very traditional, “old-school” snack that she remembers eating in her Southern grandmother’s kitchen when she was a kid. Renée’s version reimagines the treat as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://savorandsage.com/coconut-lime-cornmeal-tres-leches-cake/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tres leches cake\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, soaking the cornmeal cake in buttermilk, coconut milk and sweet condensed milk, then topping the whole thing with toasted coconut. The dessert is meant to feel new and modern, but it’s also a nod to the often forgotten history of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/afro-mexicans-census-history-identity\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mexicans of African descent\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who have long fought for recognition in their home country.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a combination of different cultures,” Renée says of the cake. “That’s what Afrofuturism means to me.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout the month of February, Eat the Culture will highlight Afrofuturism-themed recipes on its \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/eattheculture/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram page\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The page will also offer details about other virtual events once they’ve been finalized, including the Cuisine Noir collaboration.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A crash course on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901009/omca-afrofuturism-mothership-review\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Afrofuturism\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> might include \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Panther’s \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">portrayal of a utopian, techno-centric Wakanda, the science fiction novels of Octavia Butler and a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13864915/the-liberated-pop-future-missy-elliott-envisioned-is-now\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Missy Elliott music video\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—all visions of a liberated future seen through a Black lens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what will Black people be eating in this thriving, revolutionary future? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the question that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eattheculture.com/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eat the Culture\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a collective of Black food bloggers, explores this month through a series of Afrofuturism-themed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/eattheculture/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">social media posts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and online gatherings, including a Feb. 24 collaboration with the magazine \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cuisine Noir\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Framed as a “Virtual Potluck,” the series celebrates Black History Month by remixing traditional dishes of the African diaspora to create new recipes that are artful and, at times, deeply political: A plate of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://senseandedibility.com/salmorejo-jueyes-coconut-grits-cakes/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stewed crab and grits\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fuses together African and Puerto Rican traditions. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-brulee-black-history-month-virtual-potluck/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">coconut rice pudding\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> doubles as a commentary on gentrification. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s this intersection of technology, culture, innovation and politics,” co-organizer Stefani Renée, of the Bay Area–based blog \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://savorandsage.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Savor and Sage\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, says of Afrofuturism. “How do we explore that through food?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The event stems from a similar virtual potluck that a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> handful of prominent Black food bloggers—including Aaron Hutcherson (of the blog \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thehungryhutch.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hungry Hutch\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">) and Meiko Temple (of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mieko and the Dish\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">)—put together each year for Black History Month \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tastingtable.com/693332/black-history-month-african-american-food-blog-2017/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">starting in 2017\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Renée, a relative newcomer to food blogging, joined in the past two years and started talking to other participants about expanding the group’s efforts beyond just one or two virtual events each year. In particular, the group wanted to create a support system for Black food bloggers, given the unique set of challenges that they face.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909336\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909336\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a plate of tempura-fried okra served over a bright orange pool of confit tomatoes\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/Kenneth-Temple_Smothered-Okra-and-Tomatoes-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Food blogger Kenneth Temple’s riff on stewed okra includes fine dining touches like confit tomatoes and smoked sausage “dust.” \u003ccite>(Kenneth Temple)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Folks don’t know that we’re here,” Renée says. “When we start looking at who gets the most exposure, it’s usually white female food bloggers—and they’re getting attention for foods that aren’t necessarily authentic or native to them.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, Renée says, Black and other BIPOC food bloggers struggle to get that same level of recognition and, just as importantly, to land the kind of lucrative sponsorship deals that make food blogging a viable full-time career. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eattheculture.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eat the Culture\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was created as a platform for Black food bloggers to share that kind of information with one another—a place where they could access tutorials on shooting food videos and get tips about search engine optimization. As Renée puts it, “How do we break these barriers and create our own space?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year’s Afrofuturism-themed potluck is one of the collective’s first signature events. Renée sees it as an extension of the work of \u003ca href=\"https://savorandsage.com/\">her own blog\u003c/a>, which focuses on updating and expanding people’s definition of “soul food” to include things other than just fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black food isn’t a monolith,” she says. “There are so many different aspects to Black food that people don’t know.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In presenting a vision for the future of Black food, several of the dishes that Eat the Culture members created for the virtual potluck explicitly challenge the idea that food with African origins isn’t “refined.” There’s a modern take on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://thefooddisciple.com/yam-gnocchi-served-w-oxtail-pepper-soup/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">West African oxtail pepper soup\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> made with yam gnocchi, for instance, and a version of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://kennethtemple.com/smothered-okra-and-tomatoes-recipe/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">smothered okra\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that features fine dining elements like confit tomatoes and smoked sausage “dust.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13909337\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13909337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L.jpg\" alt=\"Three portions of rice pudding served inside coconut shells, arranged on a wooden cutting board.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/meikoandthedish-sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-L-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meiko and the Dish’s modern take on sombi, the Senegalese coconut rice pudding, is a commentary on gentrification. \u003ccite>(Meiko and the Dish)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several of the recipes veganize dishes traditionally made with meat—a rebuttal, Renée says, to the notion that “Black people don’t really eat vegetables.” Others offer pointed political commentary: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-brulee-black-history-month-virtual-potluck/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meiko and the Dish’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> aforementioned coconut rice pudding adds a crème brûlée–style burnt sugar topping to a traditional Senegalese dish, thereby mirroring “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://meikoandthedish.com/sombi-brown-butter-rice-pudding-brulee-black-history-month-virtual-potluck/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the concept of gentrification, the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in and typically displacing current inhabitants in the process.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For her own contribution to the Afrofuturism potluck, Renée did a riff on cornbread soaked in buttermilk, a very traditional, “old-school” snack that she remembers eating in her Southern grandmother’s kitchen when she was a kid. Renée’s version reimagines the treat as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://savorandsage.com/coconut-lime-cornmeal-tres-leches-cake/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tres leches cake\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, soaking the cornmeal cake in buttermilk, coconut milk and sweet condensed milk, then topping the whole thing with toasted coconut. The dessert is meant to feel new and modern, but it’s also a nod to the often forgotten history of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/afro-mexicans-census-history-identity\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mexicans of African descent\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who have long fought for recognition in their home country.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a combination of different cultures,” Renée says of the cake. “That’s what Afrofuturism means to me.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout the month of February, Eat the Culture will highlight Afrofuturism-themed recipes on its \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/eattheculture/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram page\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The page will also offer details about other virtual events once they’ve been finalized, including the Cuisine Noir collaboration.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Next-Gen Tea Company Blends Vietnamese American Memories to Create New Flavors",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]V[/dropcap]iolet Diana Nguyen has a vivid memory of dismounting from a moped onto the dirt road that led to her auntie’s house in Vietnam, where she sat down to a sumptuous spread of dragon fruit, longan and lychee while her relatives badgered her about her romantic life. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you translate a memory like that into a flavor or an aroma? \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the type of question Nguyen attempts to answer when she creates tea blends for her new business, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://kinleaftea.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kin Leaf Tea\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Frequently sold out since it launched in November 2021,\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the South Bay company offers blended loose leaf teas rooted in Nguyen’s Vietnamese American upbringing—her memories of pandan waffles and sugarcane juice from San Jose’s food courts and meals shared with family during childhood visits to Vietnam.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company’s story begins at a place that has become\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2019/11/5/20942192/bubble-tea-boba-asian-american-diaspora\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a crucial marker of identity for many of the Bay Area’s Asian Americans\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a boba shop. While working as a boba barista on the Peninsula in her early 20s, Nguyen found that the food service industry’s rapid pace, combined with an unlimited access to caffeine, caused her to develop an unhealthy relationship with tea. She would leave work with jitters. At home, Nguyen started to treat the process of brewing hot tea as a ritual, carefully watching the water turn golden. She found that slowly sipping a cup of tea with friends and family inspired thoughtful conversations too. “It really forced me to slow down, make smaller batches and brew them for one or two people,” Nguyen says. “In that moment of brewing, you have to be present.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nguyen remains an avid boba drinker, but she sees her new company as a retort to a fast-paced Silicon Valley fueled by caramelized tapioca pearls and 32-ounce cups of syrup-laden beverages. With Kin Leaf Tea, she wanted to combine the creative flavors found at boba shops with a more mindful approach, so she started exploring tea blends—mixtures of teas that may include flavorings like flowers, herbs and fruits. Typically, Nguyen says, these blends tend to use cheap filler ingredients and low-quality tea leaves that produce watery drinks. For example, lychee-flavored teas are often paired with overpowering amounts of rose: “It drove me nuts because I don’t want to drink potpourri on a daily basis.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908970\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908970\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3.jpg\" alt='Hot water poured from a kettle into a white ceramic mug next to a canister of \"Milky Pandan\" tea leaves.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Milky Pandan” blend is an ode to pandan waffles, a classic Vietnamese treat. \u003ccite>(Violet Diana Nguyen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, Nguyen set about the task of creating new tea blends using high-quality ingredients. For inspiration, she turned to her Vietnamese American childhood. After all, her aromatic school lunches and the family pictures she took amongst durian trees all served as a marker of difference for her when she was growing up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her process begins with matching each category of tea—black, white, oolong and so forth—to a specific memory. She asks herself, “What memories do I have, what sweets have I eaten, or what other foods are common in Asian culture or Vietnam?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“Kin Leaf is a part of a movement that is changing the way both first-generation immigrants \u003cem>and\u003c/em> people unfamiliar with Vietnam understand Vietnamese culture.”[/pullquote]For example, the pool of coffee that sits at the bottom of Vietnamese bánh flan cà phê inspired Nguyen’s choice of similarly dark black tea leaves for Kin Leaf’s Black Amber blend. Then, in order to select the specific varieties of black tea in the blend, Nguyen attempted to recreate the flan’s sweetness, roasted flavor and soothing iced-coffee base. She eventually arrived at a mixture that minimized astringency and bitterness while embracing the dessert’s honey and caramel flavor profiles. Slivered almonds complement the tea leaves and add nuttiness. The blend evokes flan, Vietnamese coffee and sweetened condensed milk despite having no added sugar. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kin Leaf Tea currently offers three other blends: Abundance, a celebration of the dried fruit and candies shared during the Lunar New Year; Lychee’s Pearls, which evokes fruit platters laid out during family visits; and Milky Pandan, an ode to one of Nguyen’s favorite childhood treats—the aromatic, bright green pandan waffle.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each new blend requires weeks of experimentation. Sometimes, Nguyen explains, an ingredient’s effects can be unpredictable. Dried dragon fruit produced teas with a vibrant pink color but lacked flavor. Pandan added a pleasant, grassy aroma to oolong tea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Drawing inspiration from other second-generation Asian American businesses in the Bay Area like\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.socolachocolates.com/products/the-little-saigon-box\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Socola Chocolatier\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cabakehouse.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CA Bakehouse\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://christinescookie.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christine’s Cookie Co.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Nguyen believes Kin Leaf is a part of a movement that is changing the way both first-generation immigrants \u003cem>and\u003c/em> people unfamiliar with Vietnam understand Vietnamese culture. For instance, Nguyen is a fan of Socola’s “Little Saigon Box,” which uses unexpected flavors like ph\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ở and sriracha in its truffles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the other hand, when Nguyen told her relatives in Vietnam about the origins of Kin Leaf’s Milky Pandan blend, one of them was surprised that she would draw inspiration from such a common, everyday food. Why turn a waffle into a tea blend? Her response: “It takes a lot of experience with being proud of your heritage.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“[Kin Leaf Tea] is me saying [to my parents], ‘This is what I learned from you and your work ethic.'”[/pullquote]Nguyen, who holds a master’s degree in sustainable international development, explains that academics often reduce developing countries like Vietnam to their agricultural and economic outputs. But second-generation businesses like Kin Leaf Tea believe there’s value in telling stories about their cultures’ everyday flavors. Nguyen struggles to find the right word to explain Kin Leaf’s relationship to Vietnamese culture—elevate, change, reshape? She knows that rich cultural traditions have long existed in Vietnam, but she also believes her worldview can inspire new ways to celebrate those traditions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13908681,arts_13904913,arts_13902507']For Nguyen, Kin Leaf Tea is all about “changing perspectives, getting people excited about something that has already been there, but showing them how it’s exciting to me because I see it differently.” Her tea blends are a way of publicly embracing dishes that she was mocked for throughout school, even in college. They honor and remix longstanding Vietnamese food traditions from the perspective of a second-generation Vietnamese American who has had to learn to love them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lifelong hustler, Nguyen credits her immigrant parents for inspiring her to turn this interest in tea into a business. Wanting to chip in while her mother worked tiring jobs in the fast-food industry, a younger Nguyen would fill up hundreds of water balloons and sell them for quarters. Now, Nguyen hopes that her parents can see Kin Leaf Tea as an expression of gratitude, even if\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/proud-of-you-children-of-immigrant-parents_b_11397946\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cultural barriers make this a difficult conversation to have\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I feel that in Asian cultures, it’s very common to not express your feelings or your thoughts,” Nguyen explains. “[Kin Leaf Tea] is me saying [to my parents], ‘This is what I learned from you and your work ethic.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">V\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>iolet Diana Nguyen has a vivid memory of dismounting from a moped onto the dirt road that led to her auntie’s house in Vietnam, where she sat down to a sumptuous spread of dragon fruit, longan and lychee while her relatives badgered her about her romantic life. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you translate a memory like that into a flavor or an aroma? \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the type of question Nguyen attempts to answer when she creates tea blends for her new business, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://kinleaftea.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kin Leaf Tea\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Frequently sold out since it launched in November 2021,\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the South Bay company offers blended loose leaf teas rooted in Nguyen’s Vietnamese American upbringing—her memories of pandan waffles and sugarcane juice from San Jose’s food courts and meals shared with family during childhood visits to Vietnam.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company’s story begins at a place that has become\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2019/11/5/20942192/bubble-tea-boba-asian-american-diaspora\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a crucial marker of identity for many of the Bay Area’s Asian Americans\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a boba shop. While working as a boba barista on the Peninsula in her early 20s, Nguyen found that the food service industry’s rapid pace, combined with an unlimited access to caffeine, caused her to develop an unhealthy relationship with tea. She would leave work with jitters. At home, Nguyen started to treat the process of brewing hot tea as a ritual, carefully watching the water turn golden. She found that slowly sipping a cup of tea with friends and family inspired thoughtful conversations too. “It really forced me to slow down, make smaller batches and brew them for one or two people,” Nguyen says. “In that moment of brewing, you have to be present.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nguyen remains an avid boba drinker, but she sees her new company as a retort to a fast-paced Silicon Valley fueled by caramelized tapioca pearls and 32-ounce cups of syrup-laden beverages. With Kin Leaf Tea, she wanted to combine the creative flavors found at boba shops with a more mindful approach, so she started exploring tea blends—mixtures of teas that may include flavorings like flowers, herbs and fruits. Typically, Nguyen says, these blends tend to use cheap filler ingredients and low-quality tea leaves that produce watery drinks. For example, lychee-flavored teas are often paired with overpowering amounts of rose: “It drove me nuts because I don’t want to drink potpourri on a daily basis.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908970\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908970\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3.jpg\" alt='Hot water poured from a kettle into a white ceramic mug next to a canister of \"Milky Pandan\" tea leaves.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/image_6483441-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Milky Pandan” blend is an ode to pandan waffles, a classic Vietnamese treat. \u003ccite>(Violet Diana Nguyen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, Nguyen set about the task of creating new tea blends using high-quality ingredients. For inspiration, she turned to her Vietnamese American childhood. After all, her aromatic school lunches and the family pictures she took amongst durian trees all served as a marker of difference for her when she was growing up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her process begins with matching each category of tea—black, white, oolong and so forth—to a specific memory. She asks herself, “What memories do I have, what sweets have I eaten, or what other foods are common in Asian culture or Vietnam?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“Kin Leaf is a part of a movement that is changing the way both first-generation immigrants \u003cem>and\u003c/em> people unfamiliar with Vietnam understand Vietnamese culture.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For example, the pool of coffee that sits at the bottom of Vietnamese bánh flan cà phê inspired Nguyen’s choice of similarly dark black tea leaves for Kin Leaf’s Black Amber blend. Then, in order to select the specific varieties of black tea in the blend, Nguyen attempted to recreate the flan’s sweetness, roasted flavor and soothing iced-coffee base. She eventually arrived at a mixture that minimized astringency and bitterness while embracing the dessert’s honey and caramel flavor profiles. Slivered almonds complement the tea leaves and add nuttiness. The blend evokes flan, Vietnamese coffee and sweetened condensed milk despite having no added sugar. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kin Leaf Tea currently offers three other blends: Abundance, a celebration of the dried fruit and candies shared during the Lunar New Year; Lychee’s Pearls, which evokes fruit platters laid out during family visits; and Milky Pandan, an ode to one of Nguyen’s favorite childhood treats—the aromatic, bright green pandan waffle.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each new blend requires weeks of experimentation. Sometimes, Nguyen explains, an ingredient’s effects can be unpredictable. Dried dragon fruit produced teas with a vibrant pink color but lacked flavor. Pandan added a pleasant, grassy aroma to oolong tea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Drawing inspiration from other second-generation Asian American businesses in the Bay Area like\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.socolachocolates.com/products/the-little-saigon-box\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Socola Chocolatier\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cabakehouse.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CA Bakehouse\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://christinescookie.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christine’s Cookie Co.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Nguyen believes Kin Leaf is a part of a movement that is changing the way both first-generation immigrants \u003cem>and\u003c/em> people unfamiliar with Vietnam understand Vietnamese culture. For instance, Nguyen is a fan of Socola’s “Little Saigon Box,” which uses unexpected flavors like ph\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ở and sriracha in its truffles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the other hand, when Nguyen told her relatives in Vietnam about the origins of Kin Leaf’s Milky Pandan blend, one of them was surprised that she would draw inspiration from such a common, everyday food. Why turn a waffle into a tea blend? Her response: “It takes a lot of experience with being proud of your heritage.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“[Kin Leaf Tea] is me saying [to my parents], ‘This is what I learned from you and your work ethic.'”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nguyen, who holds a master’s degree in sustainable international development, explains that academics often reduce developing countries like Vietnam to their agricultural and economic outputs. But second-generation businesses like Kin Leaf Tea believe there’s value in telling stories about their cultures’ everyday flavors. Nguyen struggles to find the right word to explain Kin Leaf’s relationship to Vietnamese culture—elevate, change, reshape? She knows that rich cultural traditions have long existed in Vietnam, but she also believes her worldview can inspire new ways to celebrate those traditions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For Nguyen, Kin Leaf Tea is all about “changing perspectives, getting people excited about something that has already been there, but showing them how it’s exciting to me because I see it differently.” Her tea blends are a way of publicly embracing dishes that she was mocked for throughout school, even in college. They honor and remix longstanding Vietnamese food traditions from the perspective of a second-generation Vietnamese American who has had to learn to love them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lifelong hustler, Nguyen credits her immigrant parents for inspiring her to turn this interest in tea into a business. Wanting to chip in while her mother worked tiring jobs in the fast-food industry, a younger Nguyen would fill up hundreds of water balloons and sell them for quarters. Now, Nguyen hopes that her parents can see Kin Leaf Tea as an expression of gratitude, even if\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/proud-of-you-children-of-immigrant-parents_b_11397946\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cultural barriers make this a difficult conversation to have\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I feel that in Asian cultures, it’s very common to not express your feelings or your thoughts,” Nguyen explains. “[Kin Leaf Tea] is me saying [to my parents], ‘This is what I learned from you and your work ethic.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "bakso-indonesian-street-food-noodle-soup-dgrobak-richmond",
"title": "This Indonesian Pop-up Wants to Make Bakso a Household Name in the Bay",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like so many of the Bay Area’s singular food experiences, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dgrobak.bayarea/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">D’Grobak\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> started with a craving. Back in Indonesia, Christna Lim and Yohanes Ng would buy the meatball noodle soup known as bakso from street vendors multiple times a week. But they couldn’t find the dish here in the Bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We said, ‘Let’s create some bakso because we miss bakso,’” Lim explains.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ng, whose day job is at a sushi catering company, already had a reputation as a skilled cook within the couple’s circle of Indonesian friends. One year of experimentation later, he’d nailed down the recipe for a version of the soup that’s popular in the city of Surakarta, made by simmering marrow bones for 12 hours until the broth turns as cloudy-white as a rich tonkotsu ramen. When he served his bakso to friends, they couldn’t stop talking about how much it reminded them of home. “Why don’t you sell it?” they said. When the pandemic hit, Lim and Ng decided to give it a shot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now a weekly pop-up restaurant, D’Grobak (pronounced “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dgrobak.bayarea/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Growbuck\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”) holds in-person events every other Saturday at various locations. (The next one will be on Saturday, Feb. 12, 11am–4pm, at \u003ca href=\"https://lilikoiboba.com/\">Lilikoi Boba\u003c/a> in San Francisco.) On the Saturdays in between, Lim and Ng sell bakso to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thethirdplace.is/dgrobak/order/one-off\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">pre-order customers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> out of their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.artisankitchenandcafe.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">commissary kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Richmond, where they live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">D’Grobak has a growing fan base thanks in part to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/Bay-Area-s-underground-Indonesian-food-scene-is-16263823.php#photo-21152036\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">shoutout in the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">last summer and strong word of mouth within the Bay Area’s tight-knit Indonesian community—and, most of all, because the bakso is delicious. The basic version features two different kinds of noodles (vermicelli and egg noodles); jiggly, soft-cooked tendon; and the “bakso” itself—bouncy, hand-rolled beef meatballs, some of which are stuffed in tofu or wrapped around a boiled quail egg. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like all of the great Asian noodle soups, each bowl of bakso comes with an assortment of toppings and condiments to hit every part of the palate: crunchy fried shallots, fried wonton skin, sweet soy sauce, a squeeze of lime and a shot of fiery housemade sambal, the pride of every Indonesian kitchen. The smell of the broth alone—all beef fat and white pepper—is enough to get you salivating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pop-up also sells a vegetarian version of the dish made with Impossible plant-based meat and a version crowned with a well-charred beef short rib. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908802\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908802\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two chefs in orange and brown aprons pose in their kitchen in front of many empty soup containers.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2028\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-800x634.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-1020x808.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-160x127.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-768x608.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-1536x1217.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-2048x1622.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-1920x1521.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christna Lim (left) and Yohanes Ng started making bakso because they couldn’t find it at any restaurants in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(D'Grobak)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ng and Lim say they never intended to turn the little bakso experiments in their home kitchen into a business. Now, they hope to turn D’Grobak into a proper restaurant, and they’ve made it their personal mission to spread the gospel of Indonesian street food. In her hometown of Jayakarta, Lim explains, there’s a bakso stall on every street corner. In the Bay Area, however, it’s nearly impossible to find: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/the-school-of-sambal-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Padi\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a short-lived Sumatran-style Indonesian spot in Berkeley, had a bakso soup on its menu during the restaurant’s early 2010s run. But the Bay Area’s two longtime Indonesian staples—Berkeley’s Jayakarta and San Francisco’s Borobudur, both closed in 2019—didn’t serve the dish. Neither does Redwood City newcomer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.warungsiska.com/menus/#main-menu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Warung Siska\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, currently the region’s buzziest Indonesian restaurant. Apart from D’Grobak, the only place where you can find bakso is at a handful of informal, Instagram-based pop-ups run out of people’s homes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13907197,arts_13898743,arts_13897410']Part of the reason for this omission is because the Bay Area really doesn’t have the kind of street food culture found in Asian cities such as Jayakarta. Lim and Ng named their business D’Grobak after the wheeled push carts known as grobak (or “gerobak”), the basic building block of Indonesia’s bustling street food scene and still one of the primary ways that bakso is sold. Ng’s own father sold pickled fruit from a push cart. And Ng has memories of seeing bakso vendors who were even more old-school in their setup: They’d walk through the streets carrying a bucket of broth on one side and a bucket of meatballs on the other, balancing the two on their shoulders with a wooden pole. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ng and Lim don’t have any plans to convert their business into an actual push cart or bucket-based operation. (“I would collapse before I get to the distance,” Ng says, laughing.) But they hope to do their part to bring Indonesian street food culture to the Bay Area. At their in-person pop-ups, they’ll sometimes bring in an Indonesian musician to perform, to recreate the feeling of eating at a bakso stand in Jayakarta, where a siter player or ukulele player might wander from stall to stall playing for tips. And they do hope that the word “bakso” will enter into the everyday vocabulary of all Bay Area food enthusiasts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We’re aware that Indonesian food is really underground here,” Ng says. “So why don’t we try to promote this? So that bakso will be known like pho in Vietnam, like ramen in Japan.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908804\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908804\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of bakso (Indonesian meatball noodle soup) topped with a whole beef short rib.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1867\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-1020x744.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-768x560.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-1536x1120.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-2048x1494.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-1920x1400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">D’Grobak sells a vegetarian version of their signature bakso and another version, pictured, that comes crowned with a well-charred beef short rib. \u003ccite>(D'Grobak)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">D’Grobak takes \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thethirdplace.is/dgrobak/order/one-off\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">pre-orders for delivery and pickup\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Artisan Kitchen (865 Marina Bay Pkwy #33, Richmond) every first and third Saturday of the month. (The online pre-ordering window opens on the preceding Monday at noon.) One the second and fourth Saturdays, D’Grobak holds in-person pop-ups at various locations in San Francisco and the East Bay. For details, follow the company on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dgrobak.bayarea/?hl=en\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Indonesian Pop-up D'Grobak Wants to Make Bakso a Household Name in the Bay | KQED",
"description": "D’Grobak sells Indonesian street food noodles out of a Richmond commissary kitchen.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like so many of the Bay Area’s singular food experiences, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dgrobak.bayarea/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">D’Grobak\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> started with a craving. Back in Indonesia, Christna Lim and Yohanes Ng would buy the meatball noodle soup known as bakso from street vendors multiple times a week. But they couldn’t find the dish here in the Bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We said, ‘Let’s create some bakso because we miss bakso,’” Lim explains.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ng, whose day job is at a sushi catering company, already had a reputation as a skilled cook within the couple’s circle of Indonesian friends. One year of experimentation later, he’d nailed down the recipe for a version of the soup that’s popular in the city of Surakarta, made by simmering marrow bones for 12 hours until the broth turns as cloudy-white as a rich tonkotsu ramen. When he served his bakso to friends, they couldn’t stop talking about how much it reminded them of home. “Why don’t you sell it?” they said. When the pandemic hit, Lim and Ng decided to give it a shot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now a weekly pop-up restaurant, D’Grobak (pronounced “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dgrobak.bayarea/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Growbuck\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”) holds in-person events every other Saturday at various locations. (The next one will be on Saturday, Feb. 12, 11am–4pm, at \u003ca href=\"https://lilikoiboba.com/\">Lilikoi Boba\u003c/a> in San Francisco.) On the Saturdays in between, Lim and Ng sell bakso to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thethirdplace.is/dgrobak/order/one-off\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">pre-order customers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> out of their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.artisankitchenandcafe.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">commissary kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Richmond, where they live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">D’Grobak has a growing fan base thanks in part to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/Bay-Area-s-underground-Indonesian-food-scene-is-16263823.php#photo-21152036\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">shoutout in the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">last summer and strong word of mouth within the Bay Area’s tight-knit Indonesian community—and, most of all, because the bakso is delicious. The basic version features two different kinds of noodles (vermicelli and egg noodles); jiggly, soft-cooked tendon; and the “bakso” itself—bouncy, hand-rolled beef meatballs, some of which are stuffed in tofu or wrapped around a boiled quail egg. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like all of the great Asian noodle soups, each bowl of bakso comes with an assortment of toppings and condiments to hit every part of the palate: crunchy fried shallots, fried wonton skin, sweet soy sauce, a squeeze of lime and a shot of fiery housemade sambal, the pride of every Indonesian kitchen. The smell of the broth alone—all beef fat and white pepper—is enough to get you salivating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pop-up also sells a vegetarian version of the dish made with Impossible plant-based meat and a version crowned with a well-charred beef short rib. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908802\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908802\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two chefs in orange and brown aprons pose in their kitchen in front of many empty soup containers.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2028\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-800x634.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-1020x808.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-160x127.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-768x608.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-1536x1217.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-2048x1622.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_chefs-1920x1521.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christna Lim (left) and Yohanes Ng started making bakso because they couldn’t find it at any restaurants in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(D'Grobak)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ng and Lim say they never intended to turn the little bakso experiments in their home kitchen into a business. Now, they hope to turn D’Grobak into a proper restaurant, and they’ve made it their personal mission to spread the gospel of Indonesian street food. In her hometown of Jayakarta, Lim explains, there’s a bakso stall on every street corner. In the Bay Area, however, it’s nearly impossible to find: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/the-school-of-sambal-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Padi\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a short-lived Sumatran-style Indonesian spot in Berkeley, had a bakso soup on its menu during the restaurant’s early 2010s run. But the Bay Area’s two longtime Indonesian staples—Berkeley’s Jayakarta and San Francisco’s Borobudur, both closed in 2019—didn’t serve the dish. Neither does Redwood City newcomer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.warungsiska.com/menus/#main-menu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Warung Siska\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, currently the region’s buzziest Indonesian restaurant. Apart from D’Grobak, the only place where you can find bakso is at a handful of informal, Instagram-based pop-ups run out of people’s homes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Part of the reason for this omission is because the Bay Area really doesn’t have the kind of street food culture found in Asian cities such as Jayakarta. Lim and Ng named their business D’Grobak after the wheeled push carts known as grobak (or “gerobak”), the basic building block of Indonesia’s bustling street food scene and still one of the primary ways that bakso is sold. Ng’s own father sold pickled fruit from a push cart. And Ng has memories of seeing bakso vendors who were even more old-school in their setup: They’d walk through the streets carrying a bucket of broth on one side and a bucket of meatballs on the other, balancing the two on their shoulders with a wooden pole. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ng and Lim don’t have any plans to convert their business into an actual push cart or bucket-based operation. (“I would collapse before I get to the distance,” Ng says, laughing.) But they hope to do their part to bring Indonesian street food culture to the Bay Area. At their in-person pop-ups, they’ll sometimes bring in an Indonesian musician to perform, to recreate the feeling of eating at a bakso stand in Jayakarta, where a siter player or ukulele player might wander from stall to stall playing for tips. And they do hope that the word “bakso” will enter into the everyday vocabulary of all Bay Area food enthusiasts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We’re aware that Indonesian food is really underground here,” Ng says. “So why don’t we try to promote this? So that bakso will be known like pho in Vietnam, like ramen in Japan.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908804\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908804\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of bakso (Indonesian meatball noodle soup) topped with a whole beef short rib.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1867\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-1020x744.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-768x560.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-1536x1120.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-2048x1494.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/02/dgrobak_shortrib-1920x1400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">D’Grobak sells a vegetarian version of their signature bakso and another version, pictured, that comes crowned with a well-charred beef short rib. \u003ccite>(D'Grobak)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">D’Grobak takes \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thethirdplace.is/dgrobak/order/one-off\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">pre-orders for delivery and pickup\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Artisan Kitchen (865 Marina Bay Pkwy #33, Richmond) every first and third Saturday of the month. (The online pre-ordering window opens on the preceding Monday at noon.) One the second and fourth Saturdays, D’Grobak holds in-person pop-ups at various locations in San Francisco and the East Bay. For details, follow the company on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/dgrobak.bayarea/?hl=en\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Three New Ways to Celebrate Tết in the Bay Area",
"headTitle": "Three New Ways to Celebrate Tết in the Bay Area | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]D[/dropcap]eep clean your home, settle your debts, and get your haircut. Lunar New Year is just around the corner. In Vietnamese culture, the holiday is known as Tết, and this year it falls on Feb. 1. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here in the Bay Area, Tết provides no shortage of opportunities to participate in tradition and culture, but the holiday and its seasonal eats aren’t prescribed or stagnant. Diasporic Vietnamese communities have always been proficient at recreating nostalgic homeland flavors with local ingredients—incorporating, for instance, Mexican jalapeno as garnish for what we know as American-style phở. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, nearly 50 years after the first wave of refugees arrived in the United States, Vietnamese Americans are still finding ways to augment the foods associated with Tết. In San Francisco, San Jose and beyond, young, 1.5- and second-generation Vietnamese chefs are using banana leaves instead of arrow leaves for rice cakes or lucky sticky rice dyed with red coloring in place of baby jackfruits. In doing so, pop-ups like Het Say Cali, Claws of Mantis and Bánh Chưng Collective pay homage to tradition while also helping to evolve Vietnamese American cuisine—and creating more inclusive, new communities along the way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hết Sẩy Cali\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hetsay.cali/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hết Sẩy Cali\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a colorful pop-up at the Rose Garden Farmers Market in San Jose, approaches Lunar New Year as just one part of its founders’ continued practice in honoring the craftsmanship of regional Vietnamese cuisine—always with plenty of verve and style. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every Saturday, you’ll find the booth decorated in vibrant Vietnamese opera paraphernalia. Owners DuyAn and Hieu Le, who dress just as colorfully, became engaged after only three days of knowing one another. Their Tết offering is a continuation of their decade-long love story—one that includes a passion for DuyAn’s Miền Tây heritage, the Northern California landscape of Hieu’s upbringing and the couple’s desire to carry on the culinary legacy of Eastside San Jose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For a brief while the couple traveled across the Bay Area, until they noticed an aging generation of Vietnamese cooks retiring in their old neighborhood. The slow but steady decline of legacy restaurants inspired the couple to hunker down in San Jose and focus on making their own contribution to the “ESSJ Vietnamese” food scene. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908704\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908704\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of banh tet, a kind of savory rice cake served on top of a banana leaf.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hết Sẩy Cali’s main Tết offering this year is bánh tét thịt chiên, a kind of savory pan-fried rice cake. \u003ccite>(Hết Sẩy Cali)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At their Saturday, Jan. 29 farmers market pop-up, the duo will celebrate Tết by passing out lucky red envelopes to children and encouraging customers to dress in áo dài and áo bà ba. This holiday, they’re serving bánh tét thịt chiên, a pan-fried version of the southern Vietnamese steamed glutinous rice cake that’s most commonly filled with pork belly and mung beans. Even as Hết Sẩy references these familiar flavors, Hieu clarifies that he’s “not romanticizing the past either,” unlike older-generation cooks who tend to prefer the 1970s Saigon-centric style of Vietnamese food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908709\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An oatmeal cooking on a plate, on top of a stack of books.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An oatmeal cookie with hoshigaki and creme fraiche is one of Hết Sẩy’s not-so-traditional Lunar New Year items. \u003ccite>(Hết Sẩy Cali)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the Les follow tradition—cooking glutinous rice for over 10 hours with banana leaves, coconut cream, black beans, mung bean puree and pork belly—they also incorporate a very Californian emphasis on artisan ingredients and processes. They source Koda farm glutinous rice for the cylindrical rice cake, and top the dish with pickled dried shrimp, muskmelons, Asian pear and housemade fermented shrimp-and-krill sa tế.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the weekend before the holiday, you’ll also be able to order a serving of thịt kho, Hết Sẩy’s homey version of the classic caramelized pork belly stew.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to their entrees, a special selection of pantry items inspired by trips to Vietnam’s Miền Tây region are available for purchase. Bring home your own full-sized bánh tét or its vegan counterpart, bánh tét chuối sứ, which replaces the pork belly filling with a sweet Southeast Asian banana. To commemorate DuyAn’s hometown specialty, Hết Sẩy offers two types of Chinese sausage: Mekong lạp xưởng, which is air-dried using all-natural ingredients, and lạp xưởng hot vit, a version with salted duck egg. While their homemade tôm ớt sa tế—a funk-filled, umami-packed fermented chili oil made with wild shrimp brine—holds true to form, the real star is the vegan ớt sa tế chay, made with preserved lemons from a maker in DuyAn’s hometown. It brings a one-of-a-kind, pungent zest that can be served with rice and noodles, as a soup base or however you enjoy chili oils.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Busy that weekend and can’t make it to San Jose? Order a Lunar New Year meal kit for pick-up in the East Bay, Peninsula, SF and North Bay exclusive to the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/discoverpastel/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Pastel delivery service\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The meal kit contains a flakey patê sô starter; thịt kho served atop bánh tét with pickles; and a fudgy style oatmeal cookie with hoshigaki, creme fraiche and other fixins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Claws of Mantis\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When asked to describe \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/clawsofmantis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Claws of Mantis’\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> cooking style, chef Kevin Trang echoes the founders of Hết Sẩy Cali: “Eastside San Jose Vietnamese food.” The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://clawsofmantis.com/about\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michelin-experienced chefs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> behind the buzzy pop-up restaurant started out selling takeout dinner sets during the first summer of the pandemic, with a menu that interprets memories from Trang’s childhood in the Vietnamese enclave. The pop-up’s approach to Tết is similarly nostalgic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For 2021’s Year of the Ox, which arrived just before vaccines were widely distributed in the U.S., the Claws crew wanted to provide a way for people to enjoy festivities at home in lieu of being able to host large gatherings. So, they created the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1v1PjBuEm/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Tết Power Pack,”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a 10-item takeaway New Year’s spread for four. Trang made sure to include all of the important symbolic dishes—banh tét for gratitude to the ancestors, thịt kho for wealth and prosperity, xôi gấc for fortune and joy, mì xào for long life and chives for everlasting eternity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CLcatNxBkkU/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was for Vietnamese people either missing their families for Tết,” Trang explains, “or people not necessarily knowing why we do the things we do.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The set also included bầu cua tôm cá, a gambling game popular during the holiday (putting our red envelope money to work!), and variations on the game’s rules. Trang realized that each member of his crew grew up with their own way of playing the game: “Everyone had different rules. Sharing different traditions. Making it our way.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year’s Tết set ($125 for two people) is available for \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CZcZBAqP7vy/?utm_medium=copy_link\">pickup on Sunday, Feb. 6\u003c/a>. It features bánh tét, crab garlic noodles and half a fish sauce–glazed chicken\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bánh Chưng Collective\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether you’ve stayed up late making pots of bánh chưng or this is the first time you’ve heard of it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.banhchungcollective.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bánh Chưng Collective\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> welcomes you to their 10th annual workshop on Saturday, Jan. 29 via Zoom. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshops began as a way for Diep Tran, the community organizer-turned-restauranter and now R&D chef at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://redboatfishsauce.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red Boat Fish Sauce\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, to create her own New Year’s traditions. After coming out to her family, she didn’t feel as welcome at Tết gatherings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I really missed [making bánh chưng],” Tran explains, referring to bánh tét’s northern cousin, the only difference being the cakes’ square shape. “I couldn’t remember how to do it. So maybe, I thought, I could just make it for myself.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fortunately, she was far from alone. Many of her queer friends had similar experiences with their families—they, too, were “people that also feel like they had to mute themselves when they go to these functions.” Tran’s informal bánh chưng parties helped them build a new sense of community. Together, they formed the Bánh Chưng Collective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908707\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 805px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of ingredients for making banh chung, a northern Vietnamese steamed rice cake.\" width=\"805\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung.jpg 805w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung-800x570.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung-768x548.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 805px) 100vw, 805px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bánh Chưng Collective’s virtual workshop will teach participants to prepare bánh chưng—a kind of savory rice cake popular in northern Vietnamese—in the comfort of their own home. \u003ccite>(Bánh Chưng Collective)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After hosting a second private bánh chưng party in Los Angeles, where she’s based, Tran decided to open the third year’s edition to the public, attracting attendees across generations. When the pandemic forced the workshop online, Tran worried that the collective’s momentum would come to halt. Instead she found that the online format brought in more attendees than ever. This year, over 450 people, from the West Coast to the East, registered for the class. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tran notes that it’s not merely a queer-friendly space, but instead a queer-centered one. She reflects on her own ostracization as a queer woman, and the ways that this collective has allowed her to reclaim her heritage, which she would like to extend to both LGBT and diasporic youth: “If you’re young [and] you don’t have a connection to culture, you’re not making a good bánh chưng. Somehow you think you’re not ‘Vietnamese enough.’ I always start the class telling people to let go of those expectations. We’re not here to perform ‘enough.’” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year, Bay Area attendees who were lucky enough to order a bánh chưng kit before they sold out can pick them up from the San Francisco-based Vietnamese catering business \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.noodlegirlrestaurant.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Noodle Girl\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Chef Hang Truong will include a Đà Lạt style papaya salad, the snack she spent all of her lucky money on as a child. Class begins with Tran demonstrating the overall process over Zoom, and then transitions to small breakout groups where attendees will learn more intimately with an instructor. Small groups will learn how to create banana leaf boxes, assemble the bánh chưng, and cook them on the stovetop or with a pressure cooker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Diep Tran of the Bánh Chưng Collective\"]“You don’t have to worry about what other generations have done. Culture belongs to you. It belongs to every generation.”[/pullquote]Though the class features bánh chưng at its simplest, Tran encourages curiosity and creativity. In the last decade, the collective has experimented with sous vide bánh chưng, resulting in the “most béo (rich and fatty) bánh chưng ever” and even an Elvis bánh chưng, adding banana, bacon and maple syrup. She encourages students to make bánh chưng with butter, shallots, mushrooms, crab—whatever your heart desires: “We don’t care; we’re a bunch of queers!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13904913,arts_13908103,arts_13905293']At the end of the class, participants will have four delightful handmade cakes to eat and share with loved ones. Although kits are sold out, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/banh-chung-collective-2022-kit-with-zoom-class-tickets-235348923967\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tickets are still available for the Zoom class\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for those who are willing to make a grocery store run for ingredients and supplies. A recording of the session will also be available for those who want to make bánh chưng at their leisure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the heart of these three next-generation Tết offerings is a focus on education and community-building. The chefs behind pop-ups like Hết Sẩy Cali and Claws of Mantis scoff at the notion that “tradition” is rigid and uncompromising. Instead, they celebrate the new year on their own terms by educating customers who haven’t had a chance to learn about their heritage with empathetic welcomes, starting with what’s on the plate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They get to engage in culture on their terms,” Bánh Chưng Collective’s Tran says of the Vietnamese Americans who attend her workshops. “You don’t have to worry about what other generations have done. Culture belongs to you. It belongs to every generation.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Update: This article has been updated to include details about Claws of Mantis’ \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tết set—a late addition on the part of the pop-up.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hetsay.cali/?hl=en\">Hết Sẩy Cali’s\u003c/a> Jan. 29 Lunar New Year event will take place at the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hotplate.com/hetsay\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Rose Garden Farmers Market (577 Dana Ave., San Jose)\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or order the pop-up’s New Year’s take-home kit for 1/28 and 1/29 pick-up on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.discoverpastel.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pastel\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/clawsofmantis/?hl=en\">Claws of Mantis’\u003c/a> take-home Tết kit is available for pickup on Sunday, Feb. 6 at Joint Venture Kitchen (167 11th St, San Francisco). Limited quantities are for pre-order on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/clawsofmantissanfrancisco\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tock\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thebanhchungcollective/?hl=en\">Bánh Chưng Collective’s\u003c/a> virtual bánh chưng workshop will take place on Jan. 29, from 10 to 11:30am PT. The prepared kits are sold out, but tickets are still available via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/banh-chung-collective-2022-kit-with-zoom-class-tickets-235348923967\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eventbrite\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">D\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>eep clean your home, settle your debts, and get your haircut. Lunar New Year is just around the corner. In Vietnamese culture, the holiday is known as Tết, and this year it falls on Feb. 1. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here in the Bay Area, Tết provides no shortage of opportunities to participate in tradition and culture, but the holiday and its seasonal eats aren’t prescribed or stagnant. Diasporic Vietnamese communities have always been proficient at recreating nostalgic homeland flavors with local ingredients—incorporating, for instance, Mexican jalapeno as garnish for what we know as American-style phở. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, nearly 50 years after the first wave of refugees arrived in the United States, Vietnamese Americans are still finding ways to augment the foods associated with Tết. In San Francisco, San Jose and beyond, young, 1.5- and second-generation Vietnamese chefs are using banana leaves instead of arrow leaves for rice cakes or lucky sticky rice dyed with red coloring in place of baby jackfruits. In doing so, pop-ups like Het Say Cali, Claws of Mantis and Bánh Chưng Collective pay homage to tradition while also helping to evolve Vietnamese American cuisine—and creating more inclusive, new communities along the way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hết Sẩy Cali\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hetsay.cali/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hết Sẩy Cali\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a colorful pop-up at the Rose Garden Farmers Market in San Jose, approaches Lunar New Year as just one part of its founders’ continued practice in honoring the craftsmanship of regional Vietnamese cuisine—always with plenty of verve and style. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every Saturday, you’ll find the booth decorated in vibrant Vietnamese opera paraphernalia. Owners DuyAn and Hieu Le, who dress just as colorfully, became engaged after only three days of knowing one another. Their Tết offering is a continuation of their decade-long love story—one that includes a passion for DuyAn’s Miền Tây heritage, the Northern California landscape of Hieu’s upbringing and the couple’s desire to carry on the culinary legacy of Eastside San Jose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For a brief while the couple traveled across the Bay Area, until they noticed an aging generation of Vietnamese cooks retiring in their old neighborhood. The slow but steady decline of legacy restaurants inspired the couple to hunker down in San Jose and focus on making their own contribution to the “ESSJ Vietnamese” food scene. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908704\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908704\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of banh tet, a kind of savory rice cake served on top of a banana leaf.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_banh-tet-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hết Sẩy Cali’s main Tết offering this year is bánh tét thịt chiên, a kind of savory pan-fried rice cake. \u003ccite>(Hết Sẩy Cali)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At their Saturday, Jan. 29 farmers market pop-up, the duo will celebrate Tết by passing out lucky red envelopes to children and encouraging customers to dress in áo dài and áo bà ba. This holiday, they’re serving bánh tét thịt chiên, a pan-fried version of the southern Vietnamese steamed glutinous rice cake that’s most commonly filled with pork belly and mung beans. Even as Hết Sẩy references these familiar flavors, Hieu clarifies that he’s “not romanticizing the past either,” unlike older-generation cooks who tend to prefer the 1970s Saigon-centric style of Vietnamese food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908709\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An oatmeal cooking on a plate, on top of a stack of books.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/het-say_cookie-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An oatmeal cookie with hoshigaki and creme fraiche is one of Hết Sẩy’s not-so-traditional Lunar New Year items. \u003ccite>(Hết Sẩy Cali)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the Les follow tradition—cooking glutinous rice for over 10 hours with banana leaves, coconut cream, black beans, mung bean puree and pork belly—they also incorporate a very Californian emphasis on artisan ingredients and processes. They source Koda farm glutinous rice for the cylindrical rice cake, and top the dish with pickled dried shrimp, muskmelons, Asian pear and housemade fermented shrimp-and-krill sa tế.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the weekend before the holiday, you’ll also be able to order a serving of thịt kho, Hết Sẩy’s homey version of the classic caramelized pork belly stew.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to their entrees, a special selection of pantry items inspired by trips to Vietnam’s Miền Tây region are available for purchase. Bring home your own full-sized bánh tét or its vegan counterpart, bánh tét chuối sứ, which replaces the pork belly filling with a sweet Southeast Asian banana. To commemorate DuyAn’s hometown specialty, Hết Sẩy offers two types of Chinese sausage: Mekong lạp xưởng, which is air-dried using all-natural ingredients, and lạp xưởng hot vit, a version with salted duck egg. While their homemade tôm ớt sa tế—a funk-filled, umami-packed fermented chili oil made with wild shrimp brine—holds true to form, the real star is the vegan ớt sa tế chay, made with preserved lemons from a maker in DuyAn’s hometown. It brings a one-of-a-kind, pungent zest that can be served with rice and noodles, as a soup base or however you enjoy chili oils.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Busy that weekend and can’t make it to San Jose? Order a Lunar New Year meal kit for pick-up in the East Bay, Peninsula, SF and North Bay exclusive to the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/discoverpastel/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Pastel delivery service\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The meal kit contains a flakey patê sô starter; thịt kho served atop bánh tét with pickles; and a fudgy style oatmeal cookie with hoshigaki, creme fraiche and other fixins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Claws of Mantis\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When asked to describe \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/clawsofmantis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Claws of Mantis’\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> cooking style, chef Kevin Trang echoes the founders of Hết Sẩy Cali: “Eastside San Jose Vietnamese food.” The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://clawsofmantis.com/about\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michelin-experienced chefs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> behind the buzzy pop-up restaurant started out selling takeout dinner sets during the first summer of the pandemic, with a menu that interprets memories from Trang’s childhood in the Vietnamese enclave. The pop-up’s approach to Tết is similarly nostalgic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For 2021’s Year of the Ox, which arrived just before vaccines were widely distributed in the U.S., the Claws crew wanted to provide a way for people to enjoy festivities at home in lieu of being able to host large gatherings. So, they created the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1v1PjBuEm/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Tết Power Pack,”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a 10-item takeaway New Year’s spread for four. Trang made sure to include all of the important symbolic dishes—banh tét for gratitude to the ancestors, thịt kho for wealth and prosperity, xôi gấc for fortune and joy, mì xào for long life and chives for everlasting eternity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was for Vietnamese people either missing their families for Tết,” Trang explains, “or people not necessarily knowing why we do the things we do.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The set also included bầu cua tôm cá, a gambling game popular during the holiday (putting our red envelope money to work!), and variations on the game’s rules. Trang realized that each member of his crew grew up with their own way of playing the game: “Everyone had different rules. Sharing different traditions. Making it our way.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year’s Tết set ($125 for two people) is available for \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CZcZBAqP7vy/?utm_medium=copy_link\">pickup on Sunday, Feb. 6\u003c/a>. It features bánh tét, crab garlic noodles and half a fish sauce–glazed chicken\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bánh Chưng Collective\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether you’ve stayed up late making pots of bánh chưng or this is the first time you’ve heard of it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.banhchungcollective.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bánh Chưng Collective\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> welcomes you to their 10th annual workshop on Saturday, Jan. 29 via Zoom. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The workshops began as a way for Diep Tran, the community organizer-turned-restauranter and now R&D chef at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://redboatfishsauce.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red Boat Fish Sauce\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, to create her own New Year’s traditions. After coming out to her family, she didn’t feel as welcome at Tết gatherings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I really missed [making bánh chưng],” Tran explains, referring to bánh tét’s northern cousin, the only difference being the cakes’ square shape. “I couldn’t remember how to do it. So maybe, I thought, I could just make it for myself.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fortunately, she was far from alone. Many of her queer friends had similar experiences with their families—they, too, were “people that also feel like they had to mute themselves when they go to these functions.” Tran’s informal bánh chưng parties helped them build a new sense of community. Together, they formed the Bánh Chưng Collective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908707\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 805px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of ingredients for making banh chung, a northern Vietnamese steamed rice cake.\" width=\"805\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung.jpg 805w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung-800x570.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/BanhChung-768x548.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 805px) 100vw, 805px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bánh Chưng Collective’s virtual workshop will teach participants to prepare bánh chưng—a kind of savory rice cake popular in northern Vietnamese—in the comfort of their own home. \u003ccite>(Bánh Chưng Collective)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After hosting a second private bánh chưng party in Los Angeles, where she’s based, Tran decided to open the third year’s edition to the public, attracting attendees across generations. When the pandemic forced the workshop online, Tran worried that the collective’s momentum would come to halt. Instead she found that the online format brought in more attendees than ever. This year, over 450 people, from the West Coast to the East, registered for the class. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tran notes that it’s not merely a queer-friendly space, but instead a queer-centered one. She reflects on her own ostracization as a queer woman, and the ways that this collective has allowed her to reclaim her heritage, which she would like to extend to both LGBT and diasporic youth: “If you’re young [and] you don’t have a connection to culture, you’re not making a good bánh chưng. Somehow you think you’re not ‘Vietnamese enough.’ I always start the class telling people to let go of those expectations. We’re not here to perform ‘enough.’” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year, Bay Area attendees who were lucky enough to order a bánh chưng kit before they sold out can pick them up from the San Francisco-based Vietnamese catering business \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.noodlegirlrestaurant.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Noodle Girl\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Chef Hang Truong will include a Đà Lạt style papaya salad, the snack she spent all of her lucky money on as a child. Class begins with Tran demonstrating the overall process over Zoom, and then transitions to small breakout groups where attendees will learn more intimately with an instructor. Small groups will learn how to create banana leaf boxes, assemble the bánh chưng, and cook them on the stovetop or with a pressure cooker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“You don’t have to worry about what other generations have done. Culture belongs to you. It belongs to every generation.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Though the class features bánh chưng at its simplest, Tran encourages curiosity and creativity. In the last decade, the collective has experimented with sous vide bánh chưng, resulting in the “most béo (rich and fatty) bánh chưng ever” and even an Elvis bánh chưng, adding banana, bacon and maple syrup. She encourages students to make bánh chưng with butter, shallots, mushrooms, crab—whatever your heart desires: “We don’t care; we’re a bunch of queers!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the end of the class, participants will have four delightful handmade cakes to eat and share with loved ones. Although kits are sold out, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/banh-chung-collective-2022-kit-with-zoom-class-tickets-235348923967\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tickets are still available for the Zoom class\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for those who are willing to make a grocery store run for ingredients and supplies. A recording of the session will also be available for those who want to make bánh chưng at their leisure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the heart of these three next-generation Tết offerings is a focus on education and community-building. The chefs behind pop-ups like Hết Sẩy Cali and Claws of Mantis scoff at the notion that “tradition” is rigid and uncompromising. Instead, they celebrate the new year on their own terms by educating customers who haven’t had a chance to learn about their heritage with empathetic welcomes, starting with what’s on the plate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They get to engage in culture on their terms,” Bánh Chưng Collective’s Tran says of the Vietnamese Americans who attend her workshops. “You don’t have to worry about what other generations have done. Culture belongs to you. It belongs to every generation.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Update: This article has been updated to include details about Claws of Mantis’ \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tết set—a late addition on the part of the pop-up.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hetsay.cali/?hl=en\">Hết Sẩy Cali’s\u003c/a> Jan. 29 Lunar New Year event will take place at the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hotplate.com/hetsay\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Rose Garden Farmers Market (577 Dana Ave., San Jose)\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or order the pop-up’s New Year’s take-home kit for 1/28 and 1/29 pick-up on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.discoverpastel.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pastel\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/clawsofmantis/?hl=en\">Claws of Mantis’\u003c/a> take-home Tết kit is available for pickup on Sunday, Feb. 6 at Joint Venture Kitchen (167 11th St, San Francisco). Limited quantities are for pre-order on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/clawsofmantissanfrancisco\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tock\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thebanhchungcollective/?hl=en\">Bánh Chưng Collective’s\u003c/a> virtual bánh chưng workshop will take place on Jan. 29, from 10 to 11:30am PT. The prepared kits are sold out, but tickets are still available via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/banh-chung-collective-2022-kit-with-zoom-class-tickets-235348923967\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eventbrite\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Korner Kitchen & Bar Wants to Be the Anti-Ghost Kitchen",
"headTitle": "Korner Kitchen & Bar Wants to Be the Anti-Ghost Kitchen | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the string light–bedecked back patio of Fruitvale’s newest food hub, customers can sit down to a meal of chimichangas, garlic noodles or Vietnamese fried chicken. They might throw back a Kingfisher—Bangalore’s finest—and, if they have a sweet tooth, they’ll almost certainly order a pint of the Bay Area’s buzziest lactose-free ice cream for the road. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/korneroakland/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Korner Kitchen & Bar\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a kitchen incubator and outdoor cocktail bar where multiculturalism is baked into the business’s identity. Located adjacent to the Fruitvale BART station, the space quietly opened in May as a production facility for 10 up-and-coming Bay Area food and beverage brands: There’s garlic noodle specialist Noodle Belly, a restaurant centered on one of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Area’s most iconic dishes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. There’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fishandbonez/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fish N Bonez\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which sells charcuterie and serves a hip, stylish Latinx-American brunch. There’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/badwalters/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bad Walter’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the aforementioned ice cream company that’s already built up a legion of fans, both lactose tolerant and intolerant. There’s a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sfiziopasta/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">pasta pop-up\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a company that specializes in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sugarmama_sugarcane/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fresh-pressed sugarcane juice\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now nine months in, Korner Bar is holding its grand opening this week, Jan. 20–23, with DJs, live music and giveaways each day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908449\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1670px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908449\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar.jpg\" alt=\"An outdoor bar lit up by blue neon lights with the Fruitvale BART station in the background.\" width=\"1670\" height=\"2504\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar.jpg 1670w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-1020x1529.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-1366x2048.jpg 1366w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1670px) 100vw, 1670px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The outdoor bar area is located adjacent to the Fruitvale BART station. \u003ccite>(Korner Kitchen & Bar)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At its core, the business operates as a commissary kitchen, explains co-owner Alex Tejeda. In many ways, it’s the spiritual cousin of West Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Magnolia-Mini-Mart-pandemic-trendy-pastries-Bay-15610154.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Magnolia Mini Mart\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Tejeda’s brainchild and a breakaway hit during the early stages of the pandemic. Currently closed for construction, the mini mart was created to provide an outlet for chefs who’d been laid off during the pandemic, and it wound up becoming a kind of food-enthusiast hotspot—the place you would go to discover the latest cool local pastry or snack brand before it blew up. Korner Bar plays a similar role of curator and tastemaker and hopes to serve as a “one-stop shop,” Tejeda says, for folks who want to grab a meal and a drink and also support small businesses that are just starting to get off the ground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to events manager Jessica Seggman, Korner Bar can support as many as 18 different food and beverage entrepreneurs at once. What the vendors like, she says, are the flexible contracts and the relatively low hourly rates that the kitchen offers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As co-owner Eugene Lee (who also runs Noodle Belly with his partner Kevyn Miyata) puts it, “I like to think of our space as a turnkey solution for people like myself, who always wanted to dabble in the food world but don’t want to invest in a three-year, $6,000-a-month lease on a space to do it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Korner Bar bears some resemblance to another big trend that has proliferated during the pandemic: the ghost kitchen—an umbrella term for restaurants that don’t have any brick-and-mortar storefront and only exist in the virtual world of DoorDash and UberEats. Like a ghost kitchen, Korner Bar also houses multiple brands within a single large kitchen facility. Many of them do a brisk business via the delivery apps. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Lee says he believes Korner Bar is the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">opposite \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">of a ghost kitchen, which he sees as being these “huge, money-making cash-grabbing facilities.” The ghost kitchen approach, he says, is to cram as many vendors as you can into a gigantic, anonymous, warehouse-like building in order to generate as much rent as possible. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Our facility shouldn’t be about that,” Lee says. “We want to highlight our community.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908450\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908450\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bartender shows off an array of international beers, including Beerlao, Kingfisher and San Miguel.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bar director Fred Acebo shows off an array of international beers. \u003ccite>(Korner Kitchen & Bar)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By “our community,” Lee is referring, in part, to the diversity of Korner Bar’s vendor lineup, which largely pulls from the Bay Area’s communities of color. That didn’t necessarily come as a result of any kind of explicit outreach or requirement, Lee says. If anything, it was just the natural result of the diversity at the top of the company—for instance, Lee is Korean American; Tejeda is Filipino; Seggman is half Mexican. “Every single person here looks like me and my friends,” Lee says. “We might not be directly saying we want this type of customer. But if we say, ‘Let’s go out for lunch,’ people are going to say, ‘Let’s go for kalbi, let’s go for pho or banh mi.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13900855,arts_13904913,arts_13903531']He and Tejeda both cite Korner’s bar program as a prime example: Lee’s one request was that the bar carry not just your typical craft microbrews but also the beers that are beloved by the Bay Area’s various immigrant communities. So, it’s one of the few places in the Bay Area where you can find Beerlao, the Laotian cult favorite. It carries Kingfisher and San Miguel. Meanwhile, bar director \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fred Acebo, who is Filipino, has put together a cocktail list that includes a drink inspired by halo-halo and a version of Tejeda’s favorite drink—a Hennessy and horchata, made with Red Bay coffee and horchata from Obelisco around the corner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, Korner Bar also offers something that ghost kitchens, by their very definition, do not: a lovely, expansive patio and outdoor bar where customers can order food and drink from whichever in-house food vendors are on rotation, and enjoy a nice sit-down meal. In person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Korner Kitchen & Bar is open Thurs.–Fri. 3–10pm, Sat. 11am–10pm and Sunday 11am–9pm at 1014 Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Laotian beer, lactose-free ice cream and a whole lot of community spirit. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the string light–bedecked back patio of Fruitvale’s newest food hub, customers can sit down to a meal of chimichangas, garlic noodles or Vietnamese fried chicken. They might throw back a Kingfisher—Bangalore’s finest—and, if they have a sweet tooth, they’ll almost certainly order a pint of the Bay Area’s buzziest lactose-free ice cream for the road. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/korneroakland/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Korner Kitchen & Bar\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a kitchen incubator and outdoor cocktail bar where multiculturalism is baked into the business’s identity. Located adjacent to the Fruitvale BART station, the space quietly opened in May as a production facility for 10 up-and-coming Bay Area food and beverage brands: There’s garlic noodle specialist Noodle Belly, a restaurant centered on one of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Area’s most iconic dishes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. There’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fishandbonez/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fish N Bonez\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which sells charcuterie and serves a hip, stylish Latinx-American brunch. There’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/badwalters/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bad Walter’s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the aforementioned ice cream company that’s already built up a legion of fans, both lactose tolerant and intolerant. There’s a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sfiziopasta/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">pasta pop-up\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a company that specializes in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/sugarmama_sugarcane/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fresh-pressed sugarcane juice\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now nine months in, Korner Bar is holding its grand opening this week, Jan. 20–23, with DJs, live music and giveaways each day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908449\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1670px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908449\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar.jpg\" alt=\"An outdoor bar lit up by blue neon lights with the Fruitvale BART station in the background.\" width=\"1670\" height=\"2504\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar.jpg 1670w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-1020x1529.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_bar-1366x2048.jpg 1366w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1670px) 100vw, 1670px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The outdoor bar area is located adjacent to the Fruitvale BART station. \u003ccite>(Korner Kitchen & Bar)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At its core, the business operates as a commissary kitchen, explains co-owner Alex Tejeda. In many ways, it’s the spiritual cousin of West Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Magnolia-Mini-Mart-pandemic-trendy-pastries-Bay-15610154.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Magnolia Mini Mart\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Tejeda’s brainchild and a breakaway hit during the early stages of the pandemic. Currently closed for construction, the mini mart was created to provide an outlet for chefs who’d been laid off during the pandemic, and it wound up becoming a kind of food-enthusiast hotspot—the place you would go to discover the latest cool local pastry or snack brand before it blew up. Korner Bar plays a similar role of curator and tastemaker and hopes to serve as a “one-stop shop,” Tejeda says, for folks who want to grab a meal and a drink and also support small businesses that are just starting to get off the ground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to events manager Jessica Seggman, Korner Bar can support as many as 18 different food and beverage entrepreneurs at once. What the vendors like, she says, are the flexible contracts and the relatively low hourly rates that the kitchen offers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As co-owner Eugene Lee (who also runs Noodle Belly with his partner Kevyn Miyata) puts it, “I like to think of our space as a turnkey solution for people like myself, who always wanted to dabble in the food world but don’t want to invest in a three-year, $6,000-a-month lease on a space to do it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Korner Bar bears some resemblance to another big trend that has proliferated during the pandemic: the ghost kitchen—an umbrella term for restaurants that don’t have any brick-and-mortar storefront and only exist in the virtual world of DoorDash and UberEats. Like a ghost kitchen, Korner Bar also houses multiple brands within a single large kitchen facility. Many of them do a brisk business via the delivery apps. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Lee says he believes Korner Bar is the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">opposite \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">of a ghost kitchen, which he sees as being these “huge, money-making cash-grabbing facilities.” The ghost kitchen approach, he says, is to cram as many vendors as you can into a gigantic, anonymous, warehouse-like building in order to generate as much rent as possible. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Our facility shouldn’t be about that,” Lee says. “We want to highlight our community.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908450\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908450\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bartender shows off an array of international beers, including Beerlao, Kingfisher and San Miguel.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/kornerbar_beer-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bar director Fred Acebo shows off an array of international beers. \u003ccite>(Korner Kitchen & Bar)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By “our community,” Lee is referring, in part, to the diversity of Korner Bar’s vendor lineup, which largely pulls from the Bay Area’s communities of color. That didn’t necessarily come as a result of any kind of explicit outreach or requirement, Lee says. If anything, it was just the natural result of the diversity at the top of the company—for instance, Lee is Korean American; Tejeda is Filipino; Seggman is half Mexican. “Every single person here looks like me and my friends,” Lee says. “We might not be directly saying we want this type of customer. But if we say, ‘Let’s go out for lunch,’ people are going to say, ‘Let’s go for kalbi, let’s go for pho or banh mi.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He and Tejeda both cite Korner’s bar program as a prime example: Lee’s one request was that the bar carry not just your typical craft microbrews but also the beers that are beloved by the Bay Area’s various immigrant communities. So, it’s one of the few places in the Bay Area where you can find Beerlao, the Laotian cult favorite. It carries Kingfisher and San Miguel. Meanwhile, bar director \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fred Acebo, who is Filipino, has put together a cocktail list that includes a drink inspired by halo-halo and a version of Tejeda’s favorite drink—a Hennessy and horchata, made with Red Bay coffee and horchata from Obelisco around the corner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, Korner Bar also offers something that ghost kitchens, by their very definition, do not: a lovely, expansive patio and outdoor bar where customers can order food and drink from whichever in-house food vendors are on rotation, and enjoy a nice sit-down meal. In person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Korner Kitchen & Bar is open Thurs.–Fri. 3–10pm, Sat. 11am–10pm and Sunday 11am–9pm at 1014 Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "These Vegan Mooncake Biscuits Are a Rare Lunar Year Treat",
"headTitle": "These Vegan Mooncake Biscuits Are a Rare Lunar Year Treat | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It started out as a way to reduce food waste. “I was looking into what to do with leftover mooncake skins,” explains Annie Wang, who runs the vegan home bakery \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Annie’s T Cakes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> out of her Uptown Oakland apartment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The answer, Wang discovered, was mooncake biscuits. According to Chinese custom, bakers would put a small portion of mooncake dough in the oven to test its temperature. Eventually, they started forming these test batches \u003ca href=\"https://www.therakyatpost.com/taste/2021/09/20/little-piggy-biscuits-rediscovering-a-fast-disappearing-mid-autumn-festival-tradition/\">into the shape of little pigs\u003c/a> and selling them as a standalone item—an inexpensive alternative to the mooncakes proper, minus their luxurious lotus seed and salted egg yolk fillings. Kids, in particular, love the biscuits, which Wang describes as being akin to a flaky, not-too-sweet cookie. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Hong Kong, Malaysia and elsewhere in the Chinese diaspora, mooncake biscuits are a common sighting during the Mid-Autumn Festival (which typically falls in September or October). But this year Wang decided to feature them in her Lunar New Year snack box—\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/products/lunar-new-year-snack-box\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just released for preorder\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—in part because the biscuits are such a rarity in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Lunar New Year boxes ($30), which also include almond cookies and the more typical filled varieties of mooncake, will be available for pickup in Oakland from Jan. 27–Feb. 1. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of the baked treats are 100 percent vegan, in keeping with the bakery’s overall mission to veganize traditional East Asian sweets. Armed with a cottage food license and an arsenal of plant-based egg and dairy substitutes, Wang says she hopes efforts like hers will help create a better, more sustainable food system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908107\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908107\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A variety of Chinese baked goods—including a mooncake and an almond cookie—arranged on a plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Lunar New Year’s treat box also features almond cookies and regular mooncakes. \u003ccite>(Annie's T Cakes)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As it did for so many other Americans, the pandemic brought Wang face to face with the hard realization that “a full-time job is not necessarily as stable as we thought.” When she was laid off from her marketing job in May of 2020, she dove headfirst into her passion for food tech and vegan baking, spending the better part of the year on recipe development. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her first breakthrough wound up becoming the item that Annie’s is best known for: a plant-based version of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/products/taiwanese-pineapple-cake-original\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese pineapple cakes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or fengli su, probably Taiwan’s most iconic snack cake. Wang, who is Chinese American, grew up eating the cakes, and she says it only took her three tries to come up with an eggless recipe that hit all the right notes, with a buttery (but butter-free) shortbread crust and jammy pineapple filling. Conveniently, the cakes are also gluten-free.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, for Lunar New Year, Wang is excited to introduce her vegan mooncake biscuits to customers who aren’t familiar with them. “They’re really satisfying to eat, and you can eat a lot of them,” she says. “It’s not a heavy snack.” In Hong Kong or Singapore, the little pig-shaped biscuits are typically sold in baskets that are meant to look like cages—which, Wang says, “as a vegan is less fun for me to think about.” So, Wang’s version isn’t modeled after a pig at all. Instead, she stuck with a more traditional-looking engraved mooncake design, though she’s playing around with other shapes for the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13906738,arts_13905832,arts_13897868']\u003c/span>The bakery is also selling kits for preparing \u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/products/tang-yuan-soup-kit\">tang yuan soup\u003c/a>, a rice flour–based dessert that\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’\u003c/span>s also commonly eaten during Lunar New Year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Growing up, Wang remembers that Lunar New Year was all about family time: making dumplings, playing mahjong, watching Chinese comedy skits on TV that she couldn’t understand. Wang’s Lunar New Year box is well suited for that kind of small, intimate gathering—the kind most people will be having to ring in the Year of the Tiger this coming month. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not a great time for the world,” Wang says. “But one of the small side benefits of the pandemic is a lot of people really got closer to their smaller circle.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/\">Annie’s T Cakes\u003c/a> Lunar New Year Box ($30) is available for preorder through Jan. 18, with pickup at Little Giant Ice Cream (1951 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) Jan. 27–Feb. 1. Shipping is also available in California only. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It started out as a way to reduce food waste. “I was looking into what to do with leftover mooncake skins,” explains Annie Wang, who runs the vegan home bakery \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Annie’s T Cakes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> out of her Uptown Oakland apartment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The answer, Wang discovered, was mooncake biscuits. According to Chinese custom, bakers would put a small portion of mooncake dough in the oven to test its temperature. Eventually, they started forming these test batches \u003ca href=\"https://www.therakyatpost.com/taste/2021/09/20/little-piggy-biscuits-rediscovering-a-fast-disappearing-mid-autumn-festival-tradition/\">into the shape of little pigs\u003c/a> and selling them as a standalone item—an inexpensive alternative to the mooncakes proper, minus their luxurious lotus seed and salted egg yolk fillings. Kids, in particular, love the biscuits, which Wang describes as being akin to a flaky, not-too-sweet cookie. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Hong Kong, Malaysia and elsewhere in the Chinese diaspora, mooncake biscuits are a common sighting during the Mid-Autumn Festival (which typically falls in September or October). But this year Wang decided to feature them in her Lunar New Year snack box—\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/products/lunar-new-year-snack-box\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just released for preorder\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—in part because the biscuits are such a rarity in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Lunar New Year boxes ($30), which also include almond cookies and the more typical filled varieties of mooncake, will be available for pickup in Oakland from Jan. 27–Feb. 1. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of the baked treats are 100 percent vegan, in keeping with the bakery’s overall mission to veganize traditional East Asian sweets. Armed with a cottage food license and an arsenal of plant-based egg and dairy substitutes, Wang says she hopes efforts like hers will help create a better, more sustainable food system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13908107\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13908107\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A variety of Chinese baked goods—including a mooncake and an almond cookie—arranged on a plate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/annies-t-cakes_LunarNewYear-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Lunar New Year’s treat box also features almond cookies and regular mooncakes. \u003ccite>(Annie's T Cakes)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As it did for so many other Americans, the pandemic brought Wang face to face with the hard realization that “a full-time job is not necessarily as stable as we thought.” When she was laid off from her marketing job in May of 2020, she dove headfirst into her passion for food tech and vegan baking, spending the better part of the year on recipe development. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her first breakthrough wound up becoming the item that Annie’s is best known for: a plant-based version of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/products/taiwanese-pineapple-cake-original\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese pineapple cakes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or fengli su, probably Taiwan’s most iconic snack cake. Wang, who is Chinese American, grew up eating the cakes, and she says it only took her three tries to come up with an eggless recipe that hit all the right notes, with a buttery (but butter-free) shortbread crust and jammy pineapple filling. Conveniently, the cakes are also gluten-free.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, for Lunar New Year, Wang is excited to introduce her vegan mooncake biscuits to customers who aren’t familiar with them. “They’re really satisfying to eat, and you can eat a lot of them,” she says. “It’s not a heavy snack.” In Hong Kong or Singapore, the little pig-shaped biscuits are typically sold in baskets that are meant to look like cages—which, Wang says, “as a vegan is less fun for me to think about.” So, Wang’s version isn’t modeled after a pig at all. Instead, she stuck with a more traditional-looking engraved mooncake design, though she’s playing around with other shapes for the future.\u003c/span>\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 bakery is also selling kits for preparing \u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/products/tang-yuan-soup-kit\">tang yuan soup\u003c/a>, a rice flour–based dessert that\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’\u003c/span>s also commonly eaten during Lunar New Year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Growing up, Wang remembers that Lunar New Year was all about family time: making dumplings, playing mahjong, watching Chinese comedy skits on TV that she couldn’t understand. Wang’s Lunar New Year box is well suited for that kind of small, intimate gathering—the kind most people will be having to ring in the Year of the Tiger this coming month. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not a great time for the world,” Wang says. “But one of the small side benefits of the pandemic is a lot of people really got closer to their smaller circle.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.anniestcakes.com/\">Annie’s T Cakes\u003c/a> Lunar New Year Box ($30) is available for preorder through Jan. 18, with pickup at Little Giant Ice Cream (1951 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) Jan. 27–Feb. 1. Shipping is also available in California only. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle",
"title": "No One Hustles Harder Than the Bay Area’s Hip-Hop Food Entrepreneurs",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here’s no other rapper in the history of hustling who can serve you more flavors than E-40. If you don’t believe me, ask another certified Bay Area tycoon: San Francisco rapper Larry June.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.complex.com/music/jay-z-rozay-ye-larry-june-crowns-the-ultimate-hustler-or-complex-brackets\">interview with Complex Brackets\u003c/a>, June—who co-owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.honeybearbobaco.com/\">Honeybear Boba\u003c/a> and “does numbers” with his music—credited E-40 as “the ultimate hustler.” In a genre of music that has produced figures like Jay-Z, Bun B, Sean Combs, Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, Nipsey Hussle, Nicki Minaj and countless other business savants, E-40 being crowned “the ultimate” speaks volumes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When I think of an ultimate hustler, I think of a person who’s been able to leverage their music to outside ventures,” B. Dot, the show’s host, told June.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By this standard, how could anyone not crown E-40 as the preeminent entrepreneur in the Hall of Game?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From purveying his own brand of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://earlstevensselections.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wines\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ecuarenta.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tequilas\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTe4FMYX5uU\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cervezas\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/susannahbreslin/2015/09/27/e-40-sluricane/?sh=6a401ad56ab9\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cocktails\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://40ozmaltliquor.com/brands/e40.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">malt liquor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/9/9/20857515/e-40-lumpia-company-co-owner-sf-oracle-park-filipino-food\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dishing out lumpia\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; to running \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://rockthebells.com/articles/20-greatest-e-40-songs-sick-wid-it/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his own record label,\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sick Wid’ It, and releasing so many slappers in a lifetime that we have all lost count (\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.xxlmag.com/e40-talks-releasing-three-albums-on-same-day-upcoming-too-hort-collaboration/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">he once put out three albums in one day\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">), no one better represents the art of calculated effort and long-term investment than Charlie Hustle himself. As he says on “Function,” this Ballatician could “sell the White House black paint.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, add to 40’s resume his latest and perhaps most intriguing venture: a food company.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://thegoonwiththespoon.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Goon With The Spoon\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is something the 54-year-old says fulfilled a “lifelong dream,” according to his \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CVc9LUgA2Ja/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=2cd17ab2-eabe-4051-9bcf-9a554cad0937\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram announcement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The company’s pre-packaged sausages and burritos—offered in partnership with local barbecue chain Kinder’s Meats—playfully mirror the rapper’s inventive hip-hop vernacular (see: “Turf Burritos” and a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRChz-OYi9o\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Choices (Yum)\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” variety pack).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CNq2sdlMBrz/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The brand’s name references track six on \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Revenue Retrievin’: Day Shift\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, when rapper B-Legit says, “I’m a beast with the mouthpiece, goon with the spoon,” boasting about both his wordplay in the booth and illicit skills in the kitchen. Like the lyrics, 40’s newest endeavor seeks to bend the norm and feed the streets—literally. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“No one better represents the art of calculated effort and long-term investment than Charlie Hustle himself.”[/pullquote]“[E-40] always takes the best of what he likes, then adds something unique to the table,” says Droop-E, E-40’s son, who is a rapper himself and consults on his dad’s business operations. “It’s pushing the envelope, just like how he brings a different style to the rap game. He’s just doing the same thing but in the food market.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the case of Goon With The Spoon, that fresh remix includes removing the pork casing from his sausages and introducing untraditional sausage flavors, such as Philly cheesesteak and teriyaki pineapple chicken.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907801\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907801\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-scaled.jpg\" alt='Two \"turf burritos\" inside a refrigerated display case.' width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two of Goon With The Spoon’s prepackaged burritos, spotted at a liquor store in Vallejo. \u003ccite>(Darius Riley | HOUR VOYSES)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But 40 and his team aren’t the only cooks in the kitchen. They’re part of a long legacy of entrepreneurialism in the Northern California rap scene.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is arguably no place that demands more hustle than the Bay Area. It’s a soil that has cultivated a deep community of “ultimate hustlers”—rappers, activists, educators, poets, BART dancers, tech developers, revolutionaries, journalists, immigrants and other expressionists—who, going back to the Gold Rush of 1849, have had to embody a level of risk taking, multifaceted commerce and grit in order to thrive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In today’s globally competitive and hyper-inflated Bay Area market, you need to be able to maneuver multiple services in order to get ahead—especially in light of reports that saddle the region with the notorious title of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/sf-metro-area-most-expensive-to-live-cost-of-living-bay-home-prices-silicon-valley/11343904/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“most expensive place to live in the U.S.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For the true hustler, though, that high cost of living has simply inspired alternative forms of income.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Hustling is a huge part of the Bay Area rap aesthetic,” says hip-hop journalist Eric Arnold. “Going back to Too $hort and Freddy B in 1983 selling tapes on the bus line with no record label. It all started there.” In Arnold’s view, Too $hort may have been rap’s earliest player to showcase his entrepreneurial autonomy. The East Oakland rapper famously self-ignited his career by selling his music from the trunk of his vehicle, pioneering popular phrases like “born to mack” and “out the trunk”—terms that are still used in hip-hop to indicate one’s DIY ambitions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As time went on, rappers and performers looked at things other than just the music as a form of economic sustainability,” Arnold says. “It could be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/16/berner/?sh=22e201a9541d\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Berner being a partner in [the cannabis company] Cookies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It could be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.daveyd.com/FullArticles/articleN149.asp\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pam the Funkstress formerly owning her restaurant\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and catering business, Piccadilly’s. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/oaklands-mistah-f-a-b-dealing-clothing-and-life-lessons-in-his-dope-era-shop/2455765/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Look at F.A.B with Dope Era\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, some of the hottest gear in the streets right now.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The same can be said for a young Master P, who before making his name in New Orleans with No Limit Records—one of the most successful labels of the ’90s and ’00s—spent his formative years in Richmond operating his first business: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://theurbandaily.com/1336195/black-music-moment-55-master-ps-no-limit-records-founded/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No Limit Record Shop\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The idea that rap is the only thing people can do as rappers and DJs is false,” Arnold says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Eric Arnold\"]“Rappers and performers looked at things other than just the music as a form of economic sustainability.”[/pullquote]From the Hieroglyphics running their own record label in 1995 and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13865645/hieroglyphics-hip-hop-holy-day-celebrated-the-bay-areas-independent-spirit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">curating a yearly, community showcase\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for other artists, to the Coup’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-mov-boots-riley-0713-story.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boots Riley becoming a renowned screenwriter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and director in recent years, there is no shortage of local rappers, DJs, and producers who have made an indelible impact on the region’s culture with their outside ventures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s with food and drinks that Bay Area hip-hop has delivered its best work.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who else but Larry June is rapping about fresh smoothies while actually owning a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/honeybearboba_/?hl=en\">popular boba shop\u003c/a>? From the Team’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/column/article/Bay-Area-Hyphy-Juice-Soda-Clyde-Carson-grapple-16480549.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clyde Carson co-owning Hyphy Juice\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, to the vaunted hustles of Nump, who owns a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1263174667045544\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doughnut shop\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (in addition to running \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/its-easy-filipino-rapper-nump-enters-cannabis-delivery-service/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a cannabis delivery service that offers “Lumpia” blunts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">), to \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/hip-hop-has-become-an-influencer-in-the-bay-area-restaurant-industry\">Don Toriano\u003c/a>, who created the popular restaurant and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895209/vegan-mob-oakland-mission-sf-expansion-food-truck-toriano-gordon-senor-sisig-vegano\">food truck Vegan Mob\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a diversified food and beverage portfolio is perhaps the most defining contribution to the Bay Area rapper’s playbook, which is designed to be versatile and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxXsBTMuZgU\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Quarterbackin’.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, we have 40 Fonzarelli to thank for that. More than anyone else it’s 40, carrying as many aliases as he does enterprises, who showcases the food game hustle that is interconnected with Bay Area rap culture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“40 owned a Fatburger back in the day,” Arnold says. “He told you he was a hustler from day one, back in 1992. He was telling you that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that he’s still pushing weight and launching new ventures in 2021 shouldn’t shock anyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My pops is just super focused because he really enjoys what he does,” says Droop-E. “He’s always cooking for the family, asking us for our honest opinions. It tastes better when someone makes something they care about.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CYPlG9-Dwhu/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/17076/eye-of-the-sluricane-a-dispatch-from-an-e-40-bottle-signing\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not all of 40’s pursuits have been received glowingly\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, no one can knock his hustle. Earl Stevens’ relentlessness to trailblaze multiple paths at once has provided a roadmap for generations of listeners, who in turn have embraced his freelancing spirit. His efforts have earned him recognition from media outlets that don’t typically seek out rappers for their food expertise, including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreabossi/2021/03/24/legendary-rapper-e-40-talks-building-his-spirits-empire-owning-100/?sh=1c64ad2118cb\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forbes\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/e-40-interview-spirits-clubhouse-verzuz-2021-4\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Business Insider\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2018/2/1/16960322/e-40-tequila-line-e-cuarenta\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eater\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Through it all, he’s remained loyal to his soil—and helped to define it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think the Bay, if I was to put a finger on it, knows we’re not New York, LA, Chicago,” Arnold says. “You get used to being an underdog. You get used to taking an extra step because of the lack of media or industry infrastructure.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Having that “extra step” is what elevates those who are driven to find and create their own lane, even when it may not seem possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13895209,arts_13890437']Although it has become more commonplace (and sometimes necessary) for people to have multiple sources of income here in the Bay, the region’s rappers have been laying the groundwork for this blueprint decades before it was normalized. However you cut the math, these hip-hop legends have been “revenue retrieving” and “currency collecting” the hard way since the early ’80s—back when most mainstream rappers were dependent on major brands and record labels to fuel their image, rather than creating their own. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For 40, the past few decades have been so flavorful that Droop-E told me he and his pops are planning to launch a line of ice cream soon, with up to seven different varieties. Fittingly, the Vallejo rapper’s newest hustle will be as the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAqUP4Dt5co\">Ice Cream Man\u003c/a>,” a phrase coined back in ’93 by Bay Area counterparts Dru Down and Luniz, who later collaborated with 40 on the “I Got 5 On It” remix. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though his ice cream’s release dates have yet to be announced, Droop-E assures me it’s officially on the way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like I said, no one serves more flavors than E-40.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "E-40's Sausage Brand Joins a Long Legacy of Bay Area Hip-Hop Food Entrepreneurs | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>here’s no other rapper in the history of hustling who can serve you more flavors than E-40. If you don’t believe me, ask another certified Bay Area tycoon: San Francisco rapper Larry June.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.complex.com/music/jay-z-rozay-ye-larry-june-crowns-the-ultimate-hustler-or-complex-brackets\">interview with Complex Brackets\u003c/a>, June—who co-owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.honeybearbobaco.com/\">Honeybear Boba\u003c/a> and “does numbers” with his music—credited E-40 as “the ultimate hustler.” In a genre of music that has produced figures like Jay-Z, Bun B, Sean Combs, Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, Nipsey Hussle, Nicki Minaj and countless other business savants, E-40 being crowned “the ultimate” speaks volumes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When I think of an ultimate hustler, I think of a person who’s been able to leverage their music to outside ventures,” B. Dot, the show’s host, told June.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By this standard, how could anyone not crown E-40 as the preeminent entrepreneur in the Hall of Game?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From purveying his own brand of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://earlstevensselections.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wines\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ecuarenta.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tequilas\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTe4FMYX5uU\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cervezas\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/susannahbreslin/2015/09/27/e-40-sluricane/?sh=6a401ad56ab9\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">cocktails\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://40ozmaltliquor.com/brands/e40.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">malt liquor\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/9/9/20857515/e-40-lumpia-company-co-owner-sf-oracle-park-filipino-food\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dishing out lumpia\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; to running \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://rockthebells.com/articles/20-greatest-e-40-songs-sick-wid-it/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">his own record label,\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sick Wid’ It, and releasing so many slappers in a lifetime that we have all lost count (\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.xxlmag.com/e40-talks-releasing-three-albums-on-same-day-upcoming-too-hort-collaboration/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">he once put out three albums in one day\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">), no one better represents the art of calculated effort and long-term investment than Charlie Hustle himself. As he says on “Function,” this Ballatician could “sell the White House black paint.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, add to 40’s resume his latest and perhaps most intriguing venture: a food company.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://thegoonwiththespoon.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Goon With The Spoon\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is something the 54-year-old says fulfilled a “lifelong dream,” according to his \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CVc9LUgA2Ja/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=2cd17ab2-eabe-4051-9bcf-9a554cad0937\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram announcement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The company’s pre-packaged sausages and burritos—offered in partnership with local barbecue chain Kinder’s Meats—playfully mirror the rapper’s inventive hip-hop vernacular (see: “Turf Burritos” and a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRChz-OYi9o\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Choices (Yum)\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” variety pack).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The brand’s name references track six on \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Revenue Retrievin’: Day Shift\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, when rapper B-Legit says, “I’m a beast with the mouthpiece, goon with the spoon,” boasting about both his wordplay in the booth and illicit skills in the kitchen. Like the lyrics, 40’s newest endeavor seeks to bend the norm and feed the streets—literally. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“[E-40] always takes the best of what he likes, then adds something unique to the table,” says Droop-E, E-40’s son, who is a rapper himself and consults on his dad’s business operations. “It’s pushing the envelope, just like how he brings a different style to the rap game. He’s just doing the same thing but in the food market.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the case of Goon With The Spoon, that fresh remix includes removing the pork casing from his sausages and introducing untraditional sausage flavors, such as Philly cheesesteak and teriyaki pineapple chicken.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907801\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907801\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-scaled.jpg\" alt='Two \"turf burritos\" inside a refrigerated display case.' width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/A7R08481-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two of Goon With The Spoon’s prepackaged burritos, spotted at a liquor store in Vallejo. \u003ccite>(Darius Riley | HOUR VOYSES)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But 40 and his team aren’t the only cooks in the kitchen. They’re part of a long legacy of entrepreneurialism in the Northern California rap scene.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is arguably no place that demands more hustle than the Bay Area. It’s a soil that has cultivated a deep community of “ultimate hustlers”—rappers, activists, educators, poets, BART dancers, tech developers, revolutionaries, journalists, immigrants and other expressionists—who, going back to the Gold Rush of 1849, have had to embody a level of risk taking, multifaceted commerce and grit in order to thrive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In today’s globally competitive and hyper-inflated Bay Area market, you need to be able to maneuver multiple services in order to get ahead—especially in light of reports that saddle the region with the notorious title of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/sf-metro-area-most-expensive-to-live-cost-of-living-bay-home-prices-silicon-valley/11343904/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“most expensive place to live in the U.S.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For the true hustler, though, that high cost of living has simply inspired alternative forms of income.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Hustling is a huge part of the Bay Area rap aesthetic,” says hip-hop journalist Eric Arnold. “Going back to Too $hort and Freddy B in 1983 selling tapes on the bus line with no record label. It all started there.” In Arnold’s view, Too $hort may have been rap’s earliest player to showcase his entrepreneurial autonomy. The East Oakland rapper famously self-ignited his career by selling his music from the trunk of his vehicle, pioneering popular phrases like “born to mack” and “out the trunk”—terms that are still used in hip-hop to indicate one’s DIY ambitions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As time went on, rappers and performers looked at things other than just the music as a form of economic sustainability,” Arnold says. “It could be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/16/berner/?sh=22e201a9541d\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Berner being a partner in [the cannabis company] Cookies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It could be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.daveyd.com/FullArticles/articleN149.asp\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pam the Funkstress formerly owning her restaurant\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and catering business, Piccadilly’s. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/oaklands-mistah-f-a-b-dealing-clothing-and-life-lessons-in-his-dope-era-shop/2455765/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Look at F.A.B with Dope Era\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, some of the hottest gear in the streets right now.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The same can be said for a young Master P, who before making his name in New Orleans with No Limit Records—one of the most successful labels of the ’90s and ’00s—spent his formative years in Richmond operating his first business: \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://theurbandaily.com/1336195/black-music-moment-55-master-ps-no-limit-records-founded/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No Limit Record Shop\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The idea that rap is the only thing people can do as rappers and DJs is false,” Arnold says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>From the Hieroglyphics running their own record label in 1995 and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13865645/hieroglyphics-hip-hop-holy-day-celebrated-the-bay-areas-independent-spirit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">curating a yearly, community showcase\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for other artists, to the Coup’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-mov-boots-riley-0713-story.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boots Riley becoming a renowned screenwriter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and director in recent years, there is no shortage of local rappers, DJs, and producers who have made an indelible impact on the region’s culture with their outside ventures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s with food and drinks that Bay Area hip-hop has delivered its best work.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who else but Larry June is rapping about fresh smoothies while actually owning a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/honeybearboba_/?hl=en\">popular boba shop\u003c/a>? From the Team’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/column/article/Bay-Area-Hyphy-Juice-Soda-Clyde-Carson-grapple-16480549.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clyde Carson co-owning Hyphy Juice\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, to the vaunted hustles of Nump, who owns a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1263174667045544\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doughnut shop\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (in addition to running \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/its-easy-filipino-rapper-nump-enters-cannabis-delivery-service/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a cannabis delivery service that offers “Lumpia” blunts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">), to \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/hip-hop-has-become-an-influencer-in-the-bay-area-restaurant-industry\">Don Toriano\u003c/a>, who created the popular restaurant and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895209/vegan-mob-oakland-mission-sf-expansion-food-truck-toriano-gordon-senor-sisig-vegano\">food truck Vegan Mob\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a diversified food and beverage portfolio is perhaps the most defining contribution to the Bay Area rapper’s playbook, which is designed to be versatile and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxXsBTMuZgU\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Quarterbackin’.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, we have 40 Fonzarelli to thank for that. More than anyone else it’s 40, carrying as many aliases as he does enterprises, who showcases the food game hustle that is interconnected with Bay Area rap culture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“40 owned a Fatburger back in the day,” Arnold says. “He told you he was a hustler from day one, back in 1992. He was telling you that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that he’s still pushing weight and launching new ventures in 2021 shouldn’t shock anyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My pops is just super focused because he really enjoys what he does,” says Droop-E. “He’s always cooking for the family, asking us for our honest opinions. It tastes better when someone makes something they care about.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/17076/eye-of-the-sluricane-a-dispatch-from-an-e-40-bottle-signing\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not all of 40’s pursuits have been received glowingly\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, no one can knock his hustle. Earl Stevens’ relentlessness to trailblaze multiple paths at once has provided a roadmap for generations of listeners, who in turn have embraced his freelancing spirit. His efforts have earned him recognition from media outlets that don’t typically seek out rappers for their food expertise, including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreabossi/2021/03/24/legendary-rapper-e-40-talks-building-his-spirits-empire-owning-100/?sh=1c64ad2118cb\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forbes\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/e-40-interview-spirits-clubhouse-verzuz-2021-4\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Business Insider\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2018/2/1/16960322/e-40-tequila-line-e-cuarenta\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eater\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Through it all, he’s remained loyal to his soil—and helped to define it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think the Bay, if I was to put a finger on it, knows we’re not New York, LA, Chicago,” Arnold says. “You get used to being an underdog. You get used to taking an extra step because of the lack of media or industry infrastructure.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Having that “extra step” is what elevates those who are driven to find and create their own lane, even when it may not seem possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Although it has become more commonplace (and sometimes necessary) for people to have multiple sources of income here in the Bay, the region’s rappers have been laying the groundwork for this blueprint decades before it was normalized. However you cut the math, these hip-hop legends have been “revenue retrieving” and “currency collecting” the hard way since the early ’80s—back when most mainstream rappers were dependent on major brands and record labels to fuel their image, rather than creating their own. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For 40, the past few decades have been so flavorful that Droop-E told me he and his pops are planning to launch a line of ice cream soon, with up to seven different varieties. Fittingly, the Vallejo rapper’s newest hustle will be as the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAqUP4Dt5co\">Ice Cream Man\u003c/a>,” a phrase coined back in ’93 by Bay Area counterparts Dru Down and Luniz, who later collaborated with 40 on the “I Got 5 On It” remix. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though his ice cream’s release dates have yet to be announced, Droop-E assures me it’s officially on the way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like I said, no one serves more flavors than E-40.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Maybe Food Deserts Aren’t the Problem After All",
"headTitle": "Maybe Food Deserts Aren’t the Problem After All | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen people read the title of sociologist Priya Fielding-Singh’s new book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/priya-fielding-singh-phd/how-the-other-half-eats/9780316427272/#:~:text=Packed%20with%20lyrical%20storytelling%20and,starts%20on%20the%20dinner%20plate.\">\u003ci>How the Other Half Eats\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, they might assume that it’s about how poor people eat. And it is that, in part. But in fact, Fielding-Singh tells me, the book is an attempt to assess how \u003ci>all\u003c/i> Americans eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s ‘other half’ is somewhat different,” the Utah-based sociologist says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out since November, \u003ci>How the Other Half Eats\u003c/i> is the product of years of ethnographic research, most of which Fielding-Singh conducted when she was a doctoral student at Stanford. Which is to say that the book is, among other things, very much a document of the Bay Area in specific. It’s a portrait of how food inequality plays out in a place that has a nearly unimaginable wealth disparity—a gap that’s widening year by year. To understand how that inequality plays out on the dinner table, Fielding-Singh interviewed 160 families across the demographic spectrum, closely shadowing four of those families—four mothers, in particular, who share their food-related hopes and frustrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The book is wide-ranging: It delves into how trying to force your kid to be a less picky eater is mostly a luxury afforded to the relatively affluent. (Low-income families can’t afford the wasted food.) It explores the use of food as a signifier of social status. It devotes multiple chapters toward assessing the disproportionate balance of time and emotional labor that mothers, across all demographics, have to spend feeding their families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps above all, the book is a referendum on American policymakers’ recent focus on food deserts—the idea that the main reason why low-income folks don’t eat as well is because they don’t have access to a supermarket in their neighborhood. Eliminating food deserts was, for instance, one of the core tenets of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “\u003ca href=\"https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/achievements\">Let’s Move\u003c/a>” initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>How the Other Half Eats\u003c/i> calls that very premise into question. It also asks readers to be more empathetic—to stop judging parents for the way they feed their kids. Instead, Fielding-Singh writes, the more important question is to ask, “How can we, as a society, ensure that parents—all parents—have the means necessary to nourish their children?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The book’s subtitle is “The Untold Story of Food Inequality in America,” which I think is a bold statement to make—that no one has properly told this story yet. Can you describe how your book is different from the other literature that’s out there about food inequality in America?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My motivation in writing the book was this wealth of epidemiological research showing that there are really important disparities in diet across class and race in the United States—what’s called the “nutritional gap.” And it’s a gap that is longstanding. It’s durable. It’s not closing. And it matters profoundly because of just how much our diets influence our health, well-being and other broader outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For about the past decade, there has been this prevailing narrative about why we have food inequality in this country—that there are key differences in geographic access to healthy food. I want to be really clear: Food deserts are real. They exist. There are important disparities in access to healthy food. And there are certainly areas where it is hard to get a hold of fresh and ripe and tasty fruits and vegetables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what we know from mounting research over the past four to six years is that geographic access inequalities are actually a pretty poor explanation of dietary inequalities. The best research we have suggests that they account for about 10% of the nutritional gap between rich and poor. In a car-centric nation like America, the vast majority of people actually drive to get groceries. In my research, it was especially the lower-income families that were willing to drive further to get groceries, in order to get the best deals. And while supermarket openings increase residents’ perception that they have access to healthy food, it doesn’t actually change anything about what kinds of food they purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so my book comes in and says, “Well, okay. If it’s not just—or primarily—food access, then what else is going on? What other forces are at play?” That’s the part that we haven’t talked about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>One of those forces that you talk about in the book is the way that wealth and social class influence people’s decisions around food in somewhat surprising ways—in the way that parents deal with children who are picky eaters, for instance, or the extent to which they allow their kids to eat junk food. Can you elaborate on that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing that I found with all the moms that I interviewed was that they all wanted their kids to eat a healthy diet, and they shared pretty broadly similar ideas about what that meant. I noticed that higher-income moms were always talking about the ways that they were trying to rebuff their kids’ junk food requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“\u003c/span>Wealthier moms…parented in this world of endless yeses. And so in this world of yes, saying no to junk food just wasn’t very emotionally distressing\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.”[/pullquote]\u003c/span>But for moms who were raising their kids in poverty, making ends meet was completely dependent on saying no to their children. You could not make the rent or put gas in the car or pay the utilities if you said yes to what your kids asked for. I watched Nyah—the lowest income mom in the book whom I spent time with—say no to her kids continuously. And it was heartbreaking for her. And in this world of no, that Snickers bar, or the ice cream cone from the neighborhood ice cream truck, that was something that Nyah could almost always say yes to her kids about. It was one of the few things she had that she could afford that her kids liked, and that could bring that smile to their face every single day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wealthier moms like Julie, the highest-income mom I observed, parented in this world of endless yeses, just by the neighborhood and the house she was able to raise her kid in. And so in this world of yes, saying no to junk food just wasn’t very emotionally distressing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think that these emotions related to parenting have really been missing from the conversation about inequalities in families’ diets and in the ways that kids eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Most of your research was conducted in the Bay Area, which, as you note in the book, has as wide of a wealth gap as anywhere in the country. How did that specific setting influence your findings?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes when I talk to audiences, they ask that question too: “Well, the Bay Area is so extreme. How much of the story can be generalized?” And the way that I frame it in the book is that the Bay Area is a trendsetter in the American story of inequality. It’s not an outlier. A lot of trends that we’ve seen happening in the Bay Area, like the skyrocketing incomes at the top, the hollowing of the middle class, increasing residential segregation, financial hardship among the poor—all of these things are happening in cities across America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so I think that the story I’m trying to tell is a Bay Area story, but it’s also an American story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s the solution, then, if it isn’t just a matter of eliminating food deserts?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, if people take away from the book that we need to move the conversation beyond a myopic focus on food deserts, I will be very happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“The Bay Area is a trendsetter in the American story of inequality. It’s not an outlier.”[/pullquote]\u003c/span>This is a massive and extremely complex problem that we cannot easily walk ourselves back out of, but the way that I think about solutions is to approach it from two angles. First, on the social safety net side, I think we need to decide as a country what the minimum standard of living is that we’re okay with a family having. And so many of the mothers that I met were raising their children under conditions of such intense and unconscionable scarcity, that it feels completely unrealistic and offensive to ask them to also be able to feed their children healthily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13895386,arts_13906189']\u003c/span>So things like instituting a living wage and expanding access to affordable housing and affordable, high-quality childcare—policies that would actually lift families out of poverty. Because my work shows that living in poverty shapes the meaning of food, and the meaning of food is what drives food choices. And so we need solutions that actually shift the meaning of food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the food systems side, we live in a country where there are billions of dollars being made off of children acting on unhealthy preferences for junk food, soda and fast food. And the food and beverage industries spend billions of dollars every year cultivating in children those desires and tastes. They’re literally profiting off of poisoning children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so I would advocate for really strong regulations of marketing. And I think schools are a place where we have a lot of power, actually, to help shape kids’ preferences—to take some of the weight off of families and make parents’ lives easier.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In an increasingly unequal SF Bay Area, sociologist Priya Fielding-Singh examines ‘How the Other Half Eats.’",
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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 people read the title of sociologist Priya Fielding-Singh’s new book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/priya-fielding-singh-phd/how-the-other-half-eats/9780316427272/#:~:text=Packed%20with%20lyrical%20storytelling%20and,starts%20on%20the%20dinner%20plate.\">\u003ci>How the Other Half Eats\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, they might assume that it’s about how poor people eat. And it is that, in part. But in fact, Fielding-Singh tells me, the book is an attempt to assess how \u003ci>all\u003c/i> Americans eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s ‘other half’ is somewhat different,” the Utah-based sociologist says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out since November, \u003ci>How the Other Half Eats\u003c/i> is the product of years of ethnographic research, most of which Fielding-Singh conducted when she was a doctoral student at Stanford. Which is to say that the book is, among other things, very much a document of the Bay Area in specific. It’s a portrait of how food inequality plays out in a place that has a nearly unimaginable wealth disparity—a gap that’s widening year by year. To understand how that inequality plays out on the dinner table, Fielding-Singh interviewed 160 families across the demographic spectrum, closely shadowing four of those families—four mothers, in particular, who share their food-related hopes and frustrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The book is wide-ranging: It delves into how trying to force your kid to be a less picky eater is mostly a luxury afforded to the relatively affluent. (Low-income families can’t afford the wasted food.) It explores the use of food as a signifier of social status. It devotes multiple chapters toward assessing the disproportionate balance of time and emotional labor that mothers, across all demographics, have to spend feeding their families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps above all, the book is a referendum on American policymakers’ recent focus on food deserts—the idea that the main reason why low-income folks don’t eat as well is because they don’t have access to a supermarket in their neighborhood. Eliminating food deserts was, for instance, one of the core tenets of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “\u003ca href=\"https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/achievements\">Let’s Move\u003c/a>” initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>How the Other Half Eats\u003c/i> calls that very premise into question. It also asks readers to be more empathetic—to stop judging parents for the way they feed their kids. Instead, Fielding-Singh writes, the more important question is to ask, “How can we, as a society, ensure that parents—all parents—have the means necessary to nourish their children?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The book’s subtitle is “The Untold Story of Food Inequality in America,” which I think is a bold statement to make—that no one has properly told this story yet. Can you describe how your book is different from the other literature that’s out there about food inequality in America?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My motivation in writing the book was this wealth of epidemiological research showing that there are really important disparities in diet across class and race in the United States—what’s called the “nutritional gap.” And it’s a gap that is longstanding. It’s durable. It’s not closing. And it matters profoundly because of just how much our diets influence our health, well-being and other broader outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For about the past decade, there has been this prevailing narrative about why we have food inequality in this country—that there are key differences in geographic access to healthy food. I want to be really clear: Food deserts are real. They exist. There are important disparities in access to healthy food. And there are certainly areas where it is hard to get a hold of fresh and ripe and tasty fruits and vegetables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what we know from mounting research over the past four to six years is that geographic access inequalities are actually a pretty poor explanation of dietary inequalities. The best research we have suggests that they account for about 10% of the nutritional gap between rich and poor. In a car-centric nation like America, the vast majority of people actually drive to get groceries. In my research, it was especially the lower-income families that were willing to drive further to get groceries, in order to get the best deals. And while supermarket openings increase residents’ perception that they have access to healthy food, it doesn’t actually change anything about what kinds of food they purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so my book comes in and says, “Well, okay. If it’s not just—or primarily—food access, then what else is going on? What other forces are at play?” That’s the part that we haven’t talked about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>One of those forces that you talk about in the book is the way that wealth and social class influence people’s decisions around food in somewhat surprising ways—in the way that parents deal with children who are picky eaters, for instance, or the extent to which they allow their kids to eat junk food. Can you elaborate on that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing that I found with all the moms that I interviewed was that they all wanted their kids to eat a healthy diet, and they shared pretty broadly similar ideas about what that meant. I noticed that higher-income moms were always talking about the ways that they were trying to rebuff their kids’ junk food requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“\u003c/span>Wealthier moms…parented in this world of endless yeses. And so in this world of yes, saying no to junk food just wasn’t very emotionally distressing\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>But for moms who were raising their kids in poverty, making ends meet was completely dependent on saying no to their children. You could not make the rent or put gas in the car or pay the utilities if you said yes to what your kids asked for. I watched Nyah—the lowest income mom in the book whom I spent time with—say no to her kids continuously. And it was heartbreaking for her. And in this world of no, that Snickers bar, or the ice cream cone from the neighborhood ice cream truck, that was something that Nyah could almost always say yes to her kids about. It was one of the few things she had that she could afford that her kids liked, and that could bring that smile to their face every single day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wealthier moms like Julie, the highest-income mom I observed, parented in this world of endless yeses, just by the neighborhood and the house she was able to raise her kid in. And so in this world of yes, saying no to junk food just wasn’t very emotionally distressing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think that these emotions related to parenting have really been missing from the conversation about inequalities in families’ diets and in the ways that kids eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Most of your research was conducted in the Bay Area, which, as you note in the book, has as wide of a wealth gap as anywhere in the country. How did that specific setting influence your findings?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes when I talk to audiences, they ask that question too: “Well, the Bay Area is so extreme. How much of the story can be generalized?” And the way that I frame it in the book is that the Bay Area is a trendsetter in the American story of inequality. It’s not an outlier. A lot of trends that we’ve seen happening in the Bay Area, like the skyrocketing incomes at the top, the hollowing of the middle class, increasing residential segregation, financial hardship among the poor—all of these things are happening in cities across America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so I think that the story I’m trying to tell is a Bay Area story, but it’s also an American story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s the solution, then, if it isn’t just a matter of eliminating food deserts?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, if people take away from the book that we need to move the conversation beyond a myopic focus on food deserts, I will be very happy.\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>This is a massive and extremely complex problem that we cannot easily walk ourselves back out of, but the way that I think about solutions is to approach it from two angles. First, on the social safety net side, I think we need to decide as a country what the minimum standard of living is that we’re okay with a family having. And so many of the mothers that I met were raising their children under conditions of such intense and unconscionable scarcity, that it feels completely unrealistic and offensive to ask them to also be able to feed their children healthily.\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>So things like instituting a living wage and expanding access to affordable housing and affordable, high-quality childcare—policies that would actually lift families out of poverty. Because my work shows that living in poverty shapes the meaning of food, and the meaning of food is what drives food choices. And so we need solutions that actually shift the meaning of food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the food systems side, we live in a country where there are billions of dollars being made off of children acting on unhealthy preferences for junk food, soda and fast food. And the food and beverage industries spend billions of dollars every year cultivating in children those desires and tastes. They’re literally profiting off of poisoning children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so I would advocate for really strong regulations of marketing. And I think schools are a place where we have a lot of power, actually, to help shape kids’ preferences—to take some of the weight off of families and make parents’ lives easier.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"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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"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.",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"mindshift": {
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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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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"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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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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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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"order": 5
},
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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",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"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.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
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