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"title": "The Best Dishes I Ate in 2021",
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"content": "\u003cp>When I worked for a glossy magazine, I was sometimes taken to task for my predilection toward only ever writing about food that consisted of different shades of brown—monochrome food that couldn’t be photographed beautifully enough, I was told, to carry a big, splashy feature story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is it surprising, then, that this year—all of us still in the thick of a stressful, world-altering pandemic—all I wanted to eat was brown food? Which is to say, the comfort foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truth is, 2021 also marked my return to a handful of posh, trendy restaurants—both for takeout and in person—but very few of them made any lasting impression. Instead, all I could think about were big pots of meaty stew, redolent with spice. Japanese curry ladled over rice. Pork chop bento boxes. Noodle soups in which a large number of bones simmer for hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was that kind of year. For me, that also meant that it was an especially delicious year. Here, then, are my 10 favorite things I ate in 2021, presented in roughly chronological order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907206\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907206\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A fried chicken sandwich in a plastic takeout container.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hina’s Yogenbori fried chicken sandwich is a Tokyo-Nashville hybrid. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>1. Yogenbori hot chicken sandwich at Hina Yakitori\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>808 Divisadero St., San Francisco\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember the stage of the pandemic when every fancy Bay Area restaurant converted into a fried chicken sandwich shack? That’s what it felt like, anyway. I must have eaten a dozen different versions, but the one that sparked the most joy, by far, was the immaculately crunchy \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/21/22241119/hina-yakitori-yagenbori-nashville-hot-chicken-japanese-shichimi-togarashi\">Nashville-Tokyo hybrid\u003c/a> that \u003ca href=\"https://www.hinasf.com/\">Hina Yakitori\u003c/a> chef Tommy Cleary cooked up, tossing boneless thighs in hot oil and a shichimi togarashi spice mix after they’ve been fried. Sitting in my parked car on a cloudy spring afternoon, I must have eaten the whole sandwich in about two minutes flat. Named after the shop that invented shichimi togarashi back in the 1600s, the Yogenbori hot chicken has been off the menu since Hina resumed in-person dining, but Cleary promises the sandwich will be back sometime in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1gVtH_48Do\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>2. Bo kho tacos at Pho Vy\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>401 International Blvd., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If quesabirria was the Bay Area dish of 2020, then 2021 was the year when it seemed like \u003ci>every\u003c/i> meaty, stew-y dish got quesabirria-ized, regardless of culture of origin. In the case of \u003ca href=\"http://phovyoakland.com/\">Pho Vy’s\u003c/a> extraordinary \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895488/pho-vy-oakland-vietnamese-tacos-quesabirria-bo-kho\">bo kho tacos\u003c/a>, it just made sense: The restaurant’s Vietnamese-style beef stew was already one of my favorite cold-weather dishes in the East Bay. Piling the tender, star anise–tinged beef onto a griddle-crisped tortilla and topping it with melted cheese and sweet carrot and daikon pickles simply multiplies the comfort quotient. The cup of bo kho broth (the “consomé”) on the side—for dunking—is optional but highly recommended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907199\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of rice topped with braised pork belly, egg and pickled greens.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lu rou fan at Mama Liu hit the right notes of Taiwanese American nostalgia. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>3. Lu rou fan at Mama Liu\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Various locations in the South Bay and Peninsula\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the year I \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">reconsidered my long-held skepticism about the Bay Area’s Taiwanese food scene\u003c/a>, mainly by venturing outside the Oakland-San Francisco bubble to find delicious pork chop rice, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897868/taiwanese-breakfast-bay-area\">fan tuan and Taiwanese breakfast burgers\u003c/a> in places like Fremont, Milpitas and Cupertino. What struck the biggest chord of nostalgia, though, was the tub of braised pork belly—or lu rou fan—that I bought from a food truck called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">Mama Liu\u003c/a>. Ladled over white rice, the tender hand-cut belly brought me straight back to happier, pre-pandemic times, when I’d \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">scour the streets of Taipei\u003c/a> in search of that classic, quintessentially Taiwanese taste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896073\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13896073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of jollof Indomie: Indomie instant noodles tossed with vegetables and topped with plantains and scrambled egg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Indomie jollof: a classic breakfast for thrifty Nigerian university students. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>4. Jollof Indomie at Jolly-Jolly Coffee & Kitchen\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1498 7th St. Ste. B, Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have been eating instant noodles my entire life, and it never once occurred to me to have them for breakfast. So it was that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13896069/jolly-jolly-nigerian-restaurant-west-oakland-jollof-rice-indomie\">jollof Indomie\u003c/a> at West Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.jollyjollyllc.com/\">Jolly-Jolly\u003c/a> expanded my mind to a whole new world of delicious possibilities. In Nigeria, the simple stir-fry of Indomie brand instant noodles, diced vegetables and spices is a breakfast staple for thrifty college students. Jolly-Jolly’s version comes with a little egg scramble and fried plantains, which made for such a tasty combination that I still think about the dish on almost a weekly basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907207\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907207\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a takeout container of garlic noodles, roasted mushrooms and crispy pork belly.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entire menu at Noodle Belly is built around garlic noodles. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>5. Garlic noodles at Noodle Belly\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1014 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a plate of garlic noodles I didn’t like, but the version at \u003ca href=\"https://www.noodlebelly.com/\">Noodle Belly\u003c/a>—whose entire menu is built around the butter-soaked carb—reminded me of just how great the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\">iconic Bay Area dish\u003c/a> can be: chewy, crisp at the edges and slicked with a garlicky secret sauce so singularly delicious, the restaurant’s employees all have to sign NDAs. It didn’t hurt either that all of the adornments were just as stellar—the cubes of luxuriously fatty fried pork belly; the thick, meaty slices of roasted king trumpet mushroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907200\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907200\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An earthenware bowl of beef barbacoa, with tortillas wrapped in a dish towel on the side.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The barbacoa at Mi Zacatecas marked the return of an old favorite. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>6. Barbacoa at Mi Zacatecas\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>6633 Bancroft Ave., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/4/19/18410748/mi-zacatecas-cecilia-chairez-gorditas-macarthur-oakland\">The Bay Area’s only Zacatecan restaurant\u003c/a> had the misfortune of scheduling its move to a new location right around the time the pandemic hit, effectively shutting the operation down for an entire year. But I’m happy to report that \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mizacatecas_mexicanfood/?hl=en\">Mi Zacatecas\u003c/a> is very much back in business, still serving the finest gorditas in the Bay. The first time I sat down inside the restaurant’s new, more spacious East Oakland digs, it was on a weekend, which meant there were glistening bowls of beef barbacoa, unspeakably tender and rich, served with handmade tortillas still hot off the griddle—a luxury I’d nearly forgotten about after a year of takeout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13907215\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a flannel and hat tends to chicken on a grill on an overcast day\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">What a Chicken’s outdoor grill, seen here at the Santa Rosa Flea Market. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>7. Char-grilled chicken at What a Chicken\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>706 E. Washington St., Petaluma\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick pit stop on the way home from a little weekend Sonoma County getaway wound up being the best meal of the whole trip: \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/whatachicken_petaluma/?hl=en\">What a Chicken’s\u003c/a> spatchcocked, char-grilled birds were devastatingly juicy and full-flavored, and the pork ribs were just as good—a triumph of slow, careful cooking. Add rice, salsa and excellent, piping-hot tortillas, and you have yourself the ideal family-style meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907201\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13907201 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Sliced gyro meat next to a pool of yogurt in an aluminum takeout container.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond Kebab’s iskender kebab is a textural delight. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>8. Iskender kebab at Richmond Kebab & Gyros\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>15501 San Pablo Ave. Ste. J, Richmond\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Somehow I’ve lived in Richmond for four years and never knew the city was home to some of the tastiest kebabs this side of Fremont. This unobtrusive strip mall kebab shop features a habit-forming red pepper sauce and the most exquisitely tender, flavorful chicken. But the star of the menu is the Turkish-style iskender kebab: gyro meat sliced thin, slathered with tomato sauce and re-crisped, then served on a bed of crispy diced potatoes—a textural delight—with a pool of yogurt on the side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13904851\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13904851\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Meat and vegetables sizzling on a hot flat-top grill.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the signature dishes at Jubba, in San Jose, is the beef suqaar, a kind of Somali stir-fry. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>9. Roasted Goat Cutlet Plate at Jubba Restaurant\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>5330 Terner Way, San Jose\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If I lived in San Jose, I would order the goat plate at Jubba, the Bay Area’s only Somali Restaurant, at least once a week. Like so many of the restaurant’s dishes, it’s presented as a stir-fry, essentially: tender, well-charred chunks of goat meat tossed in a tangy, tamarind-based sauce, with caramelized onions, bell peppers and—to my surprise and delight—water chestnuts and baby corn, which I’d previously only encountered in Asian food. Get it with the immaculately seasoned herbed rice and save a little bit of everything for leftovers. Somehow everything tastes even better the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907202\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907202\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of raw meat and seafood next to a Japanese-style tabletop charcoal grill. \" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The outdoor yakiniku setup at Fish & Bird. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>10. Yakiniku at Fish & Bird\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>2451 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My most spur-of-the-moment splurge meal of the year came on a recent chilly evening in Berkeley, when a group of us decided to spring for \u003ca href=\"https://fishbirdizakaya.com/\">Fish & Bird’s\u003c/a> yakiniku set, which costs $75 a person and is best ordered with at least a half hour advance notice so the staff has time to adequately heat up the binchotan charcoal for their traditional Japanese tabletop grills. Out on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, we grilled spot prawns, perfectly plump scallops, beef tongue and—the peak of luxury—richly marbled slices of A5 wagyu rib cap, which only needed the slightest kiss of the flame before we dipped them in salt and sesame oil. We slathered onigiri in yakiniku sauce and slowly turned them on the grill until their outsides were charred and crispy. If there’s a more festive, thoroughly enjoyable outdoor meal to be had during these pandemic times, I haven’t found it yet.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When I worked for a glossy magazine, I was sometimes taken to task for my predilection toward only ever writing about food that consisted of different shades of brown—monochrome food that couldn’t be photographed beautifully enough, I was told, to carry a big, splashy feature story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is it surprising, then, that this year—all of us still in the thick of a stressful, world-altering pandemic—all I wanted to eat was brown food? Which is to say, the comfort foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truth is, 2021 also marked my return to a handful of posh, trendy restaurants—both for takeout and in person—but very few of them made any lasting impression. Instead, all I could think about were big pots of meaty stew, redolent with spice. Japanese curry ladled over rice. Pork chop bento boxes. Noodle soups in which a large number of bones simmer for hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was that kind of year. For me, that also meant that it was an especially delicious year. Here, then, are my 10 favorite things I ate in 2021, presented in roughly chronological order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907206\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907206\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A fried chicken sandwich in a plastic takeout container.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/hina_sandwich_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hina’s Yogenbori fried chicken sandwich is a Tokyo-Nashville hybrid. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>1. Yogenbori hot chicken sandwich at Hina Yakitori\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>808 Divisadero St., San Francisco\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember the stage of the pandemic when every fancy Bay Area restaurant converted into a fried chicken sandwich shack? That’s what it felt like, anyway. I must have eaten a dozen different versions, but the one that sparked the most joy, by far, was the immaculately crunchy \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/21/22241119/hina-yakitori-yagenbori-nashville-hot-chicken-japanese-shichimi-togarashi\">Nashville-Tokyo hybrid\u003c/a> that \u003ca href=\"https://www.hinasf.com/\">Hina Yakitori\u003c/a> chef Tommy Cleary cooked up, tossing boneless thighs in hot oil and a shichimi togarashi spice mix after they’ve been fried. Sitting in my parked car on a cloudy spring afternoon, I must have eaten the whole sandwich in about two minutes flat. Named after the shop that invented shichimi togarashi back in the 1600s, the Yogenbori hot chicken has been off the menu since Hina resumed in-person dining, but Cleary promises the sandwich will be back sometime in 2022.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/F1gVtH_48Do'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/F1gVtH_48Do'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch4>\u003cb>2. Bo kho tacos at Pho Vy\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>401 International Blvd., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If quesabirria was the Bay Area dish of 2020, then 2021 was the year when it seemed like \u003ci>every\u003c/i> meaty, stew-y dish got quesabirria-ized, regardless of culture of origin. In the case of \u003ca href=\"http://phovyoakland.com/\">Pho Vy’s\u003c/a> extraordinary \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895488/pho-vy-oakland-vietnamese-tacos-quesabirria-bo-kho\">bo kho tacos\u003c/a>, it just made sense: The restaurant’s Vietnamese-style beef stew was already one of my favorite cold-weather dishes in the East Bay. Piling the tender, star anise–tinged beef onto a griddle-crisped tortilla and topping it with melted cheese and sweet carrot and daikon pickles simply multiplies the comfort quotient. The cup of bo kho broth (the “consomé”) on the side—for dunking—is optional but highly recommended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907199\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of rice topped with braised pork belly, egg and pickled greens.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mamaliu_luroufan_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lu rou fan at Mama Liu hit the right notes of Taiwanese American nostalgia. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>3. Lu rou fan at Mama Liu\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Various locations in the South Bay and Peninsula\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the year I \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">reconsidered my long-held skepticism about the Bay Area’s Taiwanese food scene\u003c/a>, mainly by venturing outside the Oakland-San Francisco bubble to find delicious pork chop rice, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897868/taiwanese-breakfast-bay-area\">fan tuan and Taiwanese breakfast burgers\u003c/a> in places like Fremont, Milpitas and Cupertino. What struck the biggest chord of nostalgia, though, was the tub of braised pork belly—or lu rou fan—that I bought from a food truck called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">Mama Liu\u003c/a>. Ladled over white rice, the tender hand-cut belly brought me straight back to happier, pre-pandemic times, when I’d \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">scour the streets of Taipei\u003c/a> in search of that classic, quintessentially Taiwanese taste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896073\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13896073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of jollof Indomie: Indomie instant noodles tossed with vegetables and topped with plantains and scrambled egg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Indomie jollof: a classic breakfast for thrifty Nigerian university students. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>4. Jollof Indomie at Jolly-Jolly Coffee & Kitchen\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1498 7th St. Ste. B, Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have been eating instant noodles my entire life, and it never once occurred to me to have them for breakfast. So it was that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13896069/jolly-jolly-nigerian-restaurant-west-oakland-jollof-rice-indomie\">jollof Indomie\u003c/a> at West Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.jollyjollyllc.com/\">Jolly-Jolly\u003c/a> expanded my mind to a whole new world of delicious possibilities. In Nigeria, the simple stir-fry of Indomie brand instant noodles, diced vegetables and spices is a breakfast staple for thrifty college students. Jolly-Jolly’s version comes with a little egg scramble and fried plantains, which made for such a tasty combination that I still think about the dish on almost a weekly basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907207\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907207\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a takeout container of garlic noodles, roasted mushrooms and crispy pork belly.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/noodle-belly_garlic-noodles_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entire menu at Noodle Belly is built around garlic noodles. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>5. Garlic noodles at Noodle Belly\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>1014 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a plate of garlic noodles I didn’t like, but the version at \u003ca href=\"https://www.noodlebelly.com/\">Noodle Belly\u003c/a>—whose entire menu is built around the butter-soaked carb—reminded me of just how great the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900855/garlic-noodles-sf-bay-area-iconic-foods-thanh-long-smellys\">iconic Bay Area dish\u003c/a> can be: chewy, crisp at the edges and slicked with a garlicky secret sauce so singularly delicious, the restaurant’s employees all have to sign NDAs. It didn’t hurt either that all of the adornments were just as stellar—the cubes of luxuriously fatty fried pork belly; the thick, meaty slices of roasted king trumpet mushroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907200\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907200\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An earthenware bowl of beef barbacoa, with tortillas wrapped in a dish towel on the side.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/mi-zacatecas_barbacoa_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The barbacoa at Mi Zacatecas marked the return of an old favorite. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>6. Barbacoa at Mi Zacatecas\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>6633 Bancroft Ave., Oakland\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/4/19/18410748/mi-zacatecas-cecilia-chairez-gorditas-macarthur-oakland\">The Bay Area’s only Zacatecan restaurant\u003c/a> had the misfortune of scheduling its move to a new location right around the time the pandemic hit, effectively shutting the operation down for an entire year. But I’m happy to report that \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mizacatecas_mexicanfood/?hl=en\">Mi Zacatecas\u003c/a> is very much back in business, still serving the finest gorditas in the Bay. The first time I sat down inside the restaurant’s new, more spacious East Oakland digs, it was on a weekend, which meant there were glistening bowls of beef barbacoa, unspeakably tender and rich, served with handmade tortillas still hot off the griddle—a luxury I’d nearly forgotten about after a year of takeout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13907215\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a flannel and hat tends to chicken on a grill on an overcast day\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/WhataChicken.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">What a Chicken’s outdoor grill, seen here at the Santa Rosa Flea Market. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>7. Char-grilled chicken at What a Chicken\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>706 E. Washington St., Petaluma\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick pit stop on the way home from a little weekend Sonoma County getaway wound up being the best meal of the whole trip: \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/whatachicken_petaluma/?hl=en\">What a Chicken’s\u003c/a> spatchcocked, char-grilled birds were devastatingly juicy and full-flavored, and the pork ribs were just as good—a triumph of slow, careful cooking. Add rice, salsa and excellent, piping-hot tortillas, and you have yourself the ideal family-style meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907201\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13907201 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Sliced gyro meat next to a pool of yogurt in an aluminum takeout container.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/richmond-kebab_iskender_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond Kebab’s iskender kebab is a textural delight. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>8. Iskender kebab at Richmond Kebab & Gyros\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>15501 San Pablo Ave. Ste. J, Richmond\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Somehow I’ve lived in Richmond for four years and never knew the city was home to some of the tastiest kebabs this side of Fremont. This unobtrusive strip mall kebab shop features a habit-forming red pepper sauce and the most exquisitely tender, flavorful chicken. But the star of the menu is the Turkish-style iskender kebab: gyro meat sliced thin, slathered with tomato sauce and re-crisped, then served on a bed of crispy diced potatoes—a textural delight—with a pool of yogurt on the side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13904851\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13904851\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Meat and vegetables sizzling on a hot flat-top grill.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_JubbaSomaliRestaurant_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the signature dishes at Jubba, in San Jose, is the beef suqaar, a kind of Somali stir-fry. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>9. Roasted Goat Cutlet Plate at Jubba Restaurant\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>5330 Terner Way, San Jose\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If I lived in San Jose, I would order the goat plate at Jubba, the Bay Area’s only Somali Restaurant, at least once a week. Like so many of the restaurant’s dishes, it’s presented as a stir-fry, essentially: tender, well-charred chunks of goat meat tossed in a tangy, tamarind-based sauce, with caramelized onions, bell peppers and—to my surprise and delight—water chestnuts and baby corn, which I’d previously only encountered in Asian food. Get it with the immaculately seasoned herbed rice and save a little bit of everything for leftovers. Somehow everything tastes even better the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13907202\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13907202\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of raw meat and seafood next to a Japanese-style tabletop charcoal grill. \" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/fish-and-bird_yakiniku_LT-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The outdoor yakiniku setup at Fish & Bird. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>10. Yakiniku at Fish & Bird\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>2451 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My most spur-of-the-moment splurge meal of the year came on a recent chilly evening in Berkeley, when a group of us decided to spring for \u003ca href=\"https://fishbirdizakaya.com/\">Fish & Bird’s\u003c/a> yakiniku set, which costs $75 a person and is best ordered with at least a half hour advance notice so the staff has time to adequately heat up the binchotan charcoal for their traditional Japanese tabletop grills. Out on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, we grilled spot prawns, perfectly plump scallops, beef tongue and—the peak of luxury—richly marbled slices of A5 wagyu rib cap, which only needed the slightest kiss of the flame before we dipped them in salt and sesame oil. We slathered onigiri in yakiniku sauce and slowly turned them on the grill until their outsides were charred and crispy. If there’s a more festive, thoroughly enjoyable outdoor meal to be had during these pandemic times, I haven’t found it yet.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melody Lorenzo remembers that after Christmas mass every year when she was growing up in the Philippines, vendors would gather outside the church to sell steaming hot bibingka—coconut rice cakes baked over charcoal, in terra cotta pots lined with banana leaves. The vendors would top the cakes with butter, salted egg and freshly shaved coconut. “You’d eat it hot and fresh,” Lorenzo recalls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now the proprietor of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sweet Condesa\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an Oakland-based pastry and dessert business, Lorenzo wanted to bring that childhood Christmas memory to life for her customers—especially Filipino customers who haven’t been able to travel back to their homeland during the pandemic. But instead of serving the traditional rice cakes, Lorenzo will work in her chosen medium this holiday season: She’s making graham cracker–crusted custard pies inspired by the flavors of bibingka and other classic Filipino holiday treats like queso de bola.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pies are available for pre-order starting on Dec. 3, with holiday pickup dates in San Francisco and Oakland on Dec. 23 and 24, respectively.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906837\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906837\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3.jpg\" alt=\"Slice of purple pie topped with shaved coconut on wooden plate.\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-1024x1536.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The puto bumbong pie incorporates black glutinous rice into its custard base. \u003ccite>(Rezel Kealoha)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sweet Condesa first came to prominence last year, at the peak of the pandemic, when Lorenzo released her first lineup of Filipino-inspired pies just in time for the holidays—unique creations like a halo-halo pie, a key lime-like calamansi pie and an ube pie that’ll give any Thanksgiving pumpkin pie a run for its money. (That one remains Sweet Condesa’s best-seller.) “You cannot find pies like this anywhere else,” Lorenzo says—though she says she’s subsequently seen other Filipino bakeries jump on the trend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Christmas pies are deconstructed versions of the original desserts with a custard base. The bibingka pie, which she introduced last year, features a coconut custard that Lorenzo tops with cheese and salted egg—“just to kind of mimic that original flavor,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year, Lorenzo is also introducing two new flavors. The queso de bola pie features the iconic red wax–wrapped semi-hard cheese—Edam cheese from the Netherlands—that serves as the centerpiece of a traditional Filipino Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve feast. Traditionally, you’d just cut slices of the cheese and eat them inside a warm pan de sal bread roll, maybe with a slice of good ham. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Queso de bola is the star of Christmas,” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as Lorenzo puts it. For her queso de bola pie, she simply grates the cheese into and on top of the custard base, creating a pleasant salty-sweet effect.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13901303,arts_13902814']Another holiday pie draws its inspiration from puto bumbong, a kind of purple rice cake that’s steamed inside bamboo tubes. Lorenzo’s pie interpretation incorporates grains of black glutinous rice in the custard, and the whole thing gets topped with the traditional puto bumbong garnishes: shredded coconut, muscovado sugar and sesame seeds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sweet Condesa’s ube pie—the bright-purple perennial favorite—will also be available.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Given that many non-Filipinos may have never heard of puto bumbong or queso de bola, Sweet Condesa’s customer base tends to be predominantly Filipino. But Lorenzo says she’s taking the holidays as an opportunity to reach out to a more diverse market. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Maybe you teach customers about the history or origins of the dish,” Lorenzo says. “The more you educate them about these ingredients, then they say, ‘Oh, okay, that’s interesting.’ Then they’ll be more eager to try it.”\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\">Sweet Condesa’s holiday pies are available for pre-order, in limited quantities, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/pasko-pie-collection\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">via the bakery’s website\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. They’re priced at $48–$52 each for a 9-inch pie. Holiday pie pickup will be on Dec. 23, 3–5pm, at Victory Hall (360 Ritch St.) in San Francisco, or Dec. 24, 1–4pm, at Sweet Condesa’s West Oakland commercial kitchen at 3015 Adeline St.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Melody Lorenzo remembers that after Christmas mass every year when she was growing up in the Philippines, vendors would gather outside the church to sell steaming hot bibingka—coconut rice cakes baked over charcoal, in terra cotta pots lined with banana leaves. The vendors would top the cakes with butter, salted egg and freshly shaved coconut. “You’d eat it hot and fresh,” Lorenzo recalls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now the proprietor of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sweet Condesa\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an Oakland-based pastry and dessert business, Lorenzo wanted to bring that childhood Christmas memory to life for her customers—especially Filipino customers who haven’t been able to travel back to their homeland during the pandemic. But instead of serving the traditional rice cakes, Lorenzo will work in her chosen medium this holiday season: She’s making graham cracker–crusted custard pies inspired by the flavors of bibingka and other classic Filipino holiday treats like queso de bola.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pies are available for pre-order starting on Dec. 3, with holiday pickup dates in San Francisco and Oakland on Dec. 23 and 24, respectively.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906837\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906837\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3.jpg\" alt=\"Slice of purple pie topped with shaved coconut on wooden plate.\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/sweet-condesa_puto-bumbong-hr-3-1024x1536.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The puto bumbong pie incorporates black glutinous rice into its custard base. \u003ccite>(Rezel Kealoha)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sweet Condesa first came to prominence last year, at the peak of the pandemic, when Lorenzo released her first lineup of Filipino-inspired pies just in time for the holidays—unique creations like a halo-halo pie, a key lime-like calamansi pie and an ube pie that’ll give any Thanksgiving pumpkin pie a run for its money. (That one remains Sweet Condesa’s best-seller.) “You cannot find pies like this anywhere else,” Lorenzo says—though she says she’s subsequently seen other Filipino bakeries jump on the trend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Christmas pies are deconstructed versions of the original desserts with a custard base. The bibingka pie, which she introduced last year, features a coconut custard that Lorenzo tops with cheese and salted egg—“just to kind of mimic that original flavor,” she says.\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\">This year, Lorenzo is also introducing two new flavors. The queso de bola pie features the iconic red wax–wrapped semi-hard cheese—Edam cheese from the Netherlands—that serves as the centerpiece of a traditional Filipino Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve feast. Traditionally, you’d just cut slices of the cheese and eat them inside a warm pan de sal bread roll, maybe with a slice of good ham. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Queso de bola is the star of Christmas,” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as Lorenzo puts it. For her queso de bola pie, she simply grates the cheese into and on top of the custard base, creating a pleasant salty-sweet effect.\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>Another holiday pie draws its inspiration from puto bumbong, a kind of purple rice cake that’s steamed inside bamboo tubes. Lorenzo’s pie interpretation incorporates grains of black glutinous rice in the custard, and the whole thing gets topped with the traditional puto bumbong garnishes: shredded coconut, muscovado sugar and sesame seeds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sweet Condesa’s ube pie—the bright-purple perennial favorite—will also be available.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Given that many non-Filipinos may have never heard of puto bumbong or queso de bola, Sweet Condesa’s customer base tends to be predominantly Filipino. But Lorenzo says she’s taking the holidays as an opportunity to reach out to a more diverse market. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Maybe you teach customers about the history or origins of the dish,” Lorenzo says. “The more you educate them about these ingredients, then they say, ‘Oh, okay, that’s interesting.’ Then they’ll be more eager to try it.”\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\">Sweet Condesa’s holiday pies are available for pre-order, in limited quantities, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://sweetcondesapastries.com/pasko-pie-collection\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">via the bakery’s website\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. They’re priced at $48–$52 each for a 9-inch pie. Holiday pie pickup will be on Dec. 23, 3–5pm, at Victory Hall (360 Ritch St.) in San Francisco, or Dec. 24, 1–4pm, at Sweet Condesa’s West Oakland commercial kitchen at 3015 Adeline St.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Malibu’s Thinks Vegans Deserve a Classic Diner Breakfast Too",
"headTitle": "Malibu’s Thinks Vegans Deserve a Classic Diner Breakfast Too | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s no shortage of veggie burgers in the Bay Area, but few, if any, come as tricked out as the overstacked, gloriously grease-laden specimens at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.malibusburgers.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Malibu’s Burgers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Oakland, where one-time food truck entrepreneur Darren Preston plies his plant-based trade. Along with partners Natasha Fernández-Pérez and Wahid Brown, Preston has made a name for himself by flipping the old vegan-food-as-health-food paradigm on its head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, the Piedmont Avenue spot is ready to turn its attention toward another vegan food genre that’s in need of a revamp: breakfast. Specifically, Preston wants to serve the kind of classic diner breakfast that you might find at your prototypical East Coast greasy spoon—a relative rarity in the Bay Area in any form, much less at a restaurant that’s 100-percent vegan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We deserve hash browns, omelettes, pancakes and all that good stuff,” Preston wrote in an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CW8scMWPGYG/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram post\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> announcing the new breakfast menu. In the coming weeks, the restaurant will roll out its “Malibu’s Diner” breakfast menu a few new dishes at a time, with the first omelettes coming off the flat top as early as Sunday, Dec. 5. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Darren Preston of Malibu’s Burgers\"]“We’re bringing our seasoning and culture with it.”[/pullquote]Preston’s affinity for East Coast diner fare comes honestly: He was born in Brooklyn and moved to Jamaica, Queens as a kid. “There’s diners everywhere there,” he says. “There was a diner on the corner of my block. I still remember the excitement of, ‘\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, we’re gonna go to the diner\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.’ To me, that’s nostalgia.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Bay Area, on the other hand, doesn’t really have that kind of diner culture, Preston explains. You can’t find an unfussy, New York–style short-order breakfast spot on every other street corner. And after Preston went vegan in 2011, he says the options became even more limited. It’s not that the Bay Area doesn’t have an abundance of vegan restaurants that’ll serve you pancakes and an egg substitute for breakfast. But many of them still lean toward that health food model. The dishes tend to be more wholesome; they might have more of a California twist. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’ve eaten so much scrambled tofu,” Preston says. “So much tofu bacon.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906790\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906790\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“We deserve hash browns, omelettes, pancakes and all that good stuff,” Malibu’s co-founder Darren Preston says. \u003ccite>(Malibu's Burgers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Preston craved, instead, were the decadently oozy, cheesy omelettes of his pre-vegan New York life. And thanks to the emergence of the new, eerily accurate faux-meat technology of companies like Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and Just Egg—the same products Malibu’s uses for its burgers—making that vision a reality now seemed well within his reach. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I have fond memories of going to the diner and getting a blueberry pancake and dipping my sausage in the maple syrup,” Preston says. “It’s that greasy breakfast that makes you feel good after. You might want to take a nap!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Malibu kicks off its new breakfast menu, it’ll start with a handful of classic diner plates: omelettes, pancakes, sausage, bacon, hash browns and toast, all of it vegan. Eventually, though, Preston will add even more nostalgic favorites, like the iconic New York bodega bacon, egg and cheese. He’ll do a breakfast burrito. He’s working on croissant and chocolate chip, blueberry and even ube versions of the pancakes. “Back in the day,” Preston says, “I would tear up a pastrami, egg and cheese on a bagel”—so, of course, he’s working on a vegan version of that as well. And because the emphasis will be on providing diners with a fun experience, there will be mimosas too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13895209,arts_13905832']The overall approach is similar to the one Preston and his partners have taken with the burgers at Malibu’s, whose over-the-top, fast-food aesthetic \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Two-growing-Bay-Area-restaurants-Malibu-s-and-15870540.php\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SF Chronicle \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">restaurant critic Soleil Ho called “Fieriesque”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—in the most complimentary sense, of course. The restaurant is also one of the prominent members of a new wave of hip, social media–savvy vegan food businesses helmed by people of color, along with other Oakland spots like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895209/vegan-mob-oakland-mission-sf-expansion-food-truck-toriano-gordon-senor-sisig-vegano\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vegan Mob\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895713/lion-dance-cafe-shawarmaji-vegan-shawarma-seitan-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lion Dance Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re bringing our seasoning and culture with it,” Preston says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, the goal is for vegan customers to feel like they’ve been treated to something special—to not, for instance, put a $15 salad on the menu as the lone vegan option and call it a day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Because we live this lifestyle of being plant-based, a lot of times places give us the minimum,” Preston says. “They don’t go above and beyond for us.” \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>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Malibu’s Burgers (3905 Piedmont Ave., Oakland) will serve breakfast on weekend mornings, 9:30am–noon, starting as early as Dec. 5. For updates, follow the restaurant \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/malibusburgers/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">on Instagram\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update: \u003c/strong>Malibu’s Diner will launch on Saturday, December 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CXIOlTQLkm_/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s no shortage of veggie burgers in the Bay Area, but few, if any, come as tricked out as the overstacked, gloriously grease-laden specimens at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.malibusburgers.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Malibu’s Burgers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Oakland, where one-time food truck entrepreneur Darren Preston plies his plant-based trade. Along with partners Natasha Fernández-Pérez and Wahid Brown, Preston has made a name for himself by flipping the old vegan-food-as-health-food paradigm on its head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, the Piedmont Avenue spot is ready to turn its attention toward another vegan food genre that’s in need of a revamp: breakfast. Specifically, Preston wants to serve the kind of classic diner breakfast that you might find at your prototypical East Coast greasy spoon—a relative rarity in the Bay Area in any form, much less at a restaurant that’s 100-percent vegan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We deserve hash browns, omelettes, pancakes and all that good stuff,” Preston wrote in an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CW8scMWPGYG/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram post\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> announcing the new breakfast menu. In the coming weeks, the restaurant will roll out its “Malibu’s Diner” breakfast menu a few new dishes at a time, with the first omelettes coming off the flat top as early as Sunday, Dec. 5. \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>Preston’s affinity for East Coast diner fare comes honestly: He was born in Brooklyn and moved to Jamaica, Queens as a kid. “There’s diners everywhere there,” he says. “There was a diner on the corner of my block. I still remember the excitement of, ‘\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, we’re gonna go to the diner\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.’ To me, that’s nostalgia.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Bay Area, on the other hand, doesn’t really have that kind of diner culture, Preston explains. You can’t find an unfussy, New York–style short-order breakfast spot on every other street corner. And after Preston went vegan in 2011, he says the options became even more limited. It’s not that the Bay Area doesn’t have an abundance of vegan restaurants that’ll serve you pancakes and an egg substitute for breakfast. But many of them still lean toward that health food model. The dishes tend to be more wholesome; they might have more of a California twist. \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’ve eaten so much scrambled tofu,” Preston says. “So much tofu bacon.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906790\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906790\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/malibus_breakfast_vertical-hi-res-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“We deserve hash browns, omelettes, pancakes and all that good stuff,” Malibu’s co-founder Darren Preston says. \u003ccite>(Malibu's Burgers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Preston craved, instead, were the decadently oozy, cheesy omelettes of his pre-vegan New York life. And thanks to the emergence of the new, eerily accurate faux-meat technology of companies like Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and Just Egg—the same products Malibu’s uses for its burgers—making that vision a reality now seemed well within his reach. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I have fond memories of going to the diner and getting a blueberry pancake and dipping my sausage in the maple syrup,” Preston says. “It’s that greasy breakfast that makes you feel good after. You might want to take a nap!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Malibu kicks off its new breakfast menu, it’ll start with a handful of classic diner plates: omelettes, pancakes, sausage, bacon, hash browns and toast, all of it vegan. Eventually, though, Preston will add even more nostalgic favorites, like the iconic New York bodega bacon, egg and cheese. He’ll do a breakfast burrito. He’s working on croissant and chocolate chip, blueberry and even ube versions of the pancakes. “Back in the day,” Preston says, “I would tear up a pastrami, egg and cheese on a bagel”—so, of course, he’s working on a vegan version of that as well. And because the emphasis will be on providing diners with a fun experience, there will be mimosas too.\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>The overall approach is similar to the one Preston and his partners have taken with the burgers at Malibu’s, whose over-the-top, fast-food aesthetic \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Two-growing-Bay-Area-restaurants-Malibu-s-and-15870540.php\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SF Chronicle \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">restaurant critic Soleil Ho called “Fieriesque”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—in the most complimentary sense, of course. The restaurant is also one of the prominent members of a new wave of hip, social media–savvy vegan food businesses helmed by people of color, along with other Oakland spots like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895209/vegan-mob-oakland-mission-sf-expansion-food-truck-toriano-gordon-senor-sisig-vegano\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vegan Mob\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13895713/lion-dance-cafe-shawarmaji-vegan-shawarma-seitan-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lion Dance Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re bringing our seasoning and culture with it,” Preston says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, the goal is for vegan customers to feel like they’ve been treated to something special—to not, for instance, put a $15 salad on the menu as the lone vegan option and call it a day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Because we live this lifestyle of being plant-based, a lot of times places give us the minimum,” Preston says. “They don’t go above and beyond for us.” \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>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Malibu’s Burgers (3905 Piedmont Ave., Oakland) will serve breakfast on weekend mornings, 9:30am–noon, starting as early as Dec. 5. For updates, follow the restaurant \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/malibusburgers/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">on Instagram\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update: \u003c/strong>Malibu’s Diner will launch on Saturday, December 11.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "This 91-Year-Old Japantown Legend Has One More Restaurant Up Her Sleeve",
"headTitle": "This 91-Year-Old Japantown Legend Has One More Restaurant Up Her Sleeve | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>When Lena Turner \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/29/22254711/takara-sf-japantown-permanent-closure-japan-center-kiss-seafood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closed Takara, her 20-year-old Japantown restaurant, earlier this year\u003c/a> after a months-long rent dispute, it marked the end of an era. The restaurant was a favorite among locals who’d gotten hooked on its generous bento boxes, impeccably fried tempura and other unfussy, homestyle Japanese dishes. And Turner herself was, in many ways, the face of San Francisco’s Japantown. In 1976, she opened the Japan Center mall’s very first restaurant, Sapporo-ya Ramen. All of the local merchants knew her and had stories about how she’d regale them with tales of the time she served Yoko Ono, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even at 91 years old, she didn’t even feel close to being ready to retire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone loves a good comeback story, though, and this one is sweeter than most: On Nov. 26, Turner will open a new omakase-style sushi restaurant called Sushi Aoba helmed by acclaimed sushi chef Sachio Kojima. Located on the edge of Japantown, in the former location of Kiss Seafood, it will be the seventh restaurant that Turner has opened in the neighborhood over the past four decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had jewelry shops before that,” she says. “I’ve done so much in my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906472\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906472\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Artfully arranged sashimi on a dark gray serving tray.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artfully arranged sashimi will be part of the omakase experience at Sushi Aoba. \u003ccite>(Alex Zhu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some ways, the new restaurant feels like a form of vindication, especially since the circumstances surrounding Takara’s closure were so grim. Like so many other businesses in the three Japan Center malls, Takara was forced to close entirely for several months at the start of the pandemic because the malls themselves weren’t open to the public. Still, 3D Investments, the Beverly Hills-based real estate developer that owns the Japan Center East and West buildings, insisted on charging the full rent and maintenance fees even for the time the malls were closed. In Takara’s case, that \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/29/22254711/takara-sf-japantown-permanent-closure-japan-center-kiss-seafood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">came out to nearly $20,000 a month\u003c/a> during a time when the restaurant had no income whatsoever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Turner’s view, the rent disputes—which have affected nearly all of the 50 or so small businesses in the Japan Center malls—pose a threat to the entire neighborhood’s survival. “I think Japantown is no more,” she \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21524071/japantown-japan-center-restaurants-sf-rent-negotiations-takara-kui-shin-bo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told Eater SF at the time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Turner was able to negotiate a deal with the landlord that allowed her to exit her lease with a discounted back rent payment. “I just don’t like to owe anybody in my life,” Turner says. Meanwhile, she says, her peers in the Japan Center are still struggling to negotiate terms that will allow them to keep their businesses alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906470\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A sushi chef holds a pair of long chopsticks behind the sushi counter.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sachio Kojima was considered San Francisco’s top sushi chef for much of the ’80s and ’90s. \u003ccite>(Alex Zhu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906597\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Bright orange uni nigiri served in a bowl with toasted seaweed and salmon roe.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uni nigiri at Aoba. \u003ccite>(Alex Zhu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When it opens this Friday, Turner’s new restaurant, Sushi Aoba, will have a very different vibe from Takara. The tiny dining room seats just 10 to 12 people at a time, and the only menu option will be a high-end omakase experience—$165 per person for a long sequence of sashimi, nigiri and elegant appetizers like chawanmushi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13896729,news_11837511']And Sachio Kojima, the chef Turner has hired to preside over the sushi counter, is something of a local legend in his own right: For much of the 1980s and ’90s, Kamio was “the acknowledged master of sushi in San Francisco,” as \u003ci>SF Weekly\u003c/i> put it in a \u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/hecho-sushi-and-tequila-make-strange-bedfellows/Content?oid=2184436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2012 review\u003c/a>, and his restaurant, \u003ca href=\"http://kabutosf.com/\">Kabuto\u003c/a>, was often touted as the best sushi restaurant in the city. After a six-year sojourn in Shasta County, Kojima could most recently be found working the sushi counter at well-respected spots like Sausalito’s Sushi Ran and Michelin-starred Omakase in the Design District. At Aoba, he’ll once again run the whole show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was just looking for the best chef,” Turner says. “Japanese people, everybody knows about Sachio.”\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>\u003ci>Aoba will be open at 700 Laguna St. in San Francisco, Tuesday–Saturday, 5–9pm, starting Nov. 26. Call 415-517-1339 to make a reservation. See the opening menu below:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13906473\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The menu for Sushi Aoba.\" width=\"1978\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-scaled.jpg 1978w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-800x1035.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1020x1320.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-160x207.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-768x994.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1187x1536.jpg 1187w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1583x2048.jpg 1583w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1920x2485.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1978px) 100vw, 1978px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Lena Turner \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/29/22254711/takara-sf-japantown-permanent-closure-japan-center-kiss-seafood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closed Takara, her 20-year-old Japantown restaurant, earlier this year\u003c/a> after a months-long rent dispute, it marked the end of an era. The restaurant was a favorite among locals who’d gotten hooked on its generous bento boxes, impeccably fried tempura and other unfussy, homestyle Japanese dishes. And Turner herself was, in many ways, the face of San Francisco’s Japantown. In 1976, she opened the Japan Center mall’s very first restaurant, Sapporo-ya Ramen. All of the local merchants knew her and had stories about how she’d regale them with tales of the time she served Yoko Ono, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even at 91 years old, she didn’t even feel close to being ready to retire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone loves a good comeback story, though, and this one is sweeter than most: On Nov. 26, Turner will open a new omakase-style sushi restaurant called Sushi Aoba helmed by acclaimed sushi chef Sachio Kojima. Located on the edge of Japantown, in the former location of Kiss Seafood, it will be the seventh restaurant that Turner has opened in the neighborhood over the past four decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had jewelry shops before that,” she says. “I’ve done so much in my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906472\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906472\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Artfully arranged sashimi on a dark gray serving tray.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_sashimi_alex-zhu-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artfully arranged sashimi will be part of the omakase experience at Sushi Aoba. \u003ccite>(Alex Zhu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some ways, the new restaurant feels like a form of vindication, especially since the circumstances surrounding Takara’s closure were so grim. Like so many other businesses in the three Japan Center malls, Takara was forced to close entirely for several months at the start of the pandemic because the malls themselves weren’t open to the public. Still, 3D Investments, the Beverly Hills-based real estate developer that owns the Japan Center East and West buildings, insisted on charging the full rent and maintenance fees even for the time the malls were closed. In Takara’s case, that \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/29/22254711/takara-sf-japantown-permanent-closure-japan-center-kiss-seafood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">came out to nearly $20,000 a month\u003c/a> during a time when the restaurant had no income whatsoever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Turner’s view, the rent disputes—which have affected nearly all of the 50 or so small businesses in the Japan Center malls—pose a threat to the entire neighborhood’s survival. “I think Japantown is no more,” she \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21524071/japantown-japan-center-restaurants-sf-rent-negotiations-takara-kui-shin-bo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told Eater SF at the time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Turner was able to negotiate a deal with the landlord that allowed her to exit her lease with a discounted back rent payment. “I just don’t like to owe anybody in my life,” Turner says. Meanwhile, she says, her peers in the Japan Center are still struggling to negotiate terms that will allow them to keep their businesses alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906470\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906470\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A sushi chef holds a pair of long chopsticks behind the sushi counter.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_chef-sachio_alex-zhu-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sachio Kojima was considered San Francisco’s top sushi chef for much of the ’80s and ’90s. \u003ccite>(Alex Zhu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906597\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Bright orange uni nigiri served in a bowl with toasted seaweed and salmon roe.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Aoba_uni_alex-zhu-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uni nigiri at Aoba. \u003ccite>(Alex Zhu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When it opens this Friday, Turner’s new restaurant, Sushi Aoba, will have a very different vibe from Takara. The tiny dining room seats just 10 to 12 people at a time, and the only menu option will be a high-end omakase experience—$165 per person for a long sequence of sashimi, nigiri and elegant appetizers like chawanmushi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And Sachio Kojima, the chef Turner has hired to preside over the sushi counter, is something of a local legend in his own right: For much of the 1980s and ’90s, Kamio was “the acknowledged master of sushi in San Francisco,” as \u003ci>SF Weekly\u003c/i> put it in a \u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/hecho-sushi-and-tequila-make-strange-bedfellows/Content?oid=2184436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2012 review\u003c/a>, and his restaurant, \u003ca href=\"http://kabutosf.com/\">Kabuto\u003c/a>, was often touted as the best sushi restaurant in the city. After a six-year sojourn in Shasta County, Kojima could most recently be found working the sushi counter at well-respected spots like Sausalito’s Sushi Ran and Michelin-starred Omakase in the Design District. At Aoba, he’ll once again run the whole show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was just looking for the best chef,” Turner says. “Japanese people, everybody knows about Sachio.”\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>\u003ci>Aoba will be open at 700 Laguna St. in San Francisco, Tuesday–Saturday, 5–9pm, starting Nov. 26. Call 415-517-1339 to make a reservation. See the opening menu below:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13906473\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The menu for Sushi Aoba.\" width=\"1978\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-scaled.jpg 1978w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-800x1035.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1020x1320.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-160x207.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-768x994.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1187x1536.jpg 1187w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1583x2048.jpg 1583w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/aoba-menu-1920x2485.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1978px) 100vw, 1978px\">\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "What Is Diaspora Cooking? Soleil Ho and Diep Tran Might Know the Answer.",
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"content": "\u003cp>“I can’t speak Vietnamese. I can’t fit into any off-the-rack ao dai. But at the very least I can taste for good flavor balance in any pho broth, or assemble a bite of banh xeo, lettuce and herbs without explanation,” \u003cem>SF Chronicle\u003c/em> food critic Soleil Ho writes in \u003ca href=\"https://tastecooking.com/vietnamese-food-america-frozen-1970s/\">an essay for \u003cem>Taste\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, doing the kind of identity triangulating familiar to any hyphenated American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her larger point, both in that essay and in her broader work, is that the cooking of American immigrant communities is more fraught with meaning than most people realize. They’re not just expressions of “grandma’s kitchen,” to put it in well-worn terms, but also expressions of in-group politics and allegiances, perhaps most dramatically represented by Vietnamese American cuisine’s fealty to the styles of the 1970s Saigon they fled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re only just beginning to complicate what it means to be an immigrant and what it means to engage in diaspora,” Ho says over the phone, choosing her words carefully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On November 18, Ho will host a talk and cooking demonstration centered on just that issue, along with Diep Tran, the owner of LA’s Good Girl Dinette and co-author of the upcoming \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://redboatfishsauce.com/pages/red-boat-cookbook\">Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>The talk is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://asianart.org/\">Asian Art Museum’s\u003c/a> “At The Table“ event series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stakes of the discussion are personal to Ho. As a queer Vietnamese American, she feels like her relationship to diasporic cooking is complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13905293,arts_13906189']\u003c/span>“If you are different in some way, like in gender identity or your sexuality, and you’re also from a community of color that doesn’t really know how to handle that, it’s easy to distance yourself from that and find community elsewhere,“ she says. “So I wanted to make space to explore the idea that maybe you can be both [queer and Vietnamese]. Maybe there are people out there who understand. Let’s talk about what that community could look like and what we would eat together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subject of the event was chosen by Ho, but Tran—who also identifies as queer—surprised Ho with her choice of chả trứng chiên, or pork and egg meatloaf, as the dish for the talk’s accompanying cooking demonstration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We in the food world are still kind of working through our idea of what queer food is and what constitutes queer food and queer cooking,” says Ho. “Often it is associated with splendor, spectacle, hedonism. So it’s a really interesting choice to do an egg meatloaf, which is a very home cooking dish … I think from a political standpoint it emphasizes the banality that is so often a part of queer life.”\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>\u003cem>Soleil Ho and Diep Tran’s “At the Table” cooking demonstration and talk happens at the Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St., San Francisco) on November 18. \u003ca href=\"https://calendar.asianart.org/event/at-the-table-with-sf-chronicles-soleil-ho-and-diep-tran/\">Details and ticket reservation information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“I can’t speak Vietnamese. I can’t fit into any off-the-rack ao dai. But at the very least I can taste for good flavor balance in any pho broth, or assemble a bite of banh xeo, lettuce and herbs without explanation,” \u003cem>SF Chronicle\u003c/em> food critic Soleil Ho writes in \u003ca href=\"https://tastecooking.com/vietnamese-food-america-frozen-1970s/\">an essay for \u003cem>Taste\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, doing the kind of identity triangulating familiar to any hyphenated American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her larger point, both in that essay and in her broader work, is that the cooking of American immigrant communities is more fraught with meaning than most people realize. They’re not just expressions of “grandma’s kitchen,” to put it in well-worn terms, but also expressions of in-group politics and allegiances, perhaps most dramatically represented by Vietnamese American cuisine’s fealty to the styles of the 1970s Saigon they fled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re only just beginning to complicate what it means to be an immigrant and what it means to engage in diaspora,” Ho says over the phone, choosing her words carefully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On November 18, Ho will host a talk and cooking demonstration centered on just that issue, along with Diep Tran, the owner of LA’s Good Girl Dinette and co-author of the upcoming \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://redboatfishsauce.com/pages/red-boat-cookbook\">Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>The talk is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://asianart.org/\">Asian Art Museum’s\u003c/a> “At The Table“ event series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stakes of the discussion are personal to Ho. As a queer Vietnamese American, she feels like her relationship to diasporic cooking is complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>“If you are different in some way, like in gender identity or your sexuality, and you’re also from a community of color that doesn’t really know how to handle that, it’s easy to distance yourself from that and find community elsewhere,“ she says. “So I wanted to make space to explore the idea that maybe you can be both [queer and Vietnamese]. Maybe there are people out there who understand. Let’s talk about what that community could look like and what we would eat together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subject of the event was chosen by Ho, but Tran—who also identifies as queer—surprised Ho with her choice of chả trứng chiên, or pork and egg meatloaf, as the dish for the talk’s accompanying cooking demonstration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We in the food world are still kind of working through our idea of what queer food is and what constitutes queer food and queer cooking,” says Ho. “Often it is associated with splendor, spectacle, hedonism. So it’s a really interesting choice to do an egg meatloaf, which is a very home cooking dish … I think from a political standpoint it emphasizes the banality that is so often a part of queer life.”\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>\u003cem>Soleil Ho and Diep Tran’s “At the Table” cooking demonstration and talk happens at the Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St., San Francisco) on November 18. \u003ca href=\"https://calendar.asianart.org/event/at-the-table-with-sf-chronicles-soleil-ho-and-diep-tran/\">Details and ticket reservation information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "These Immigrant Women Changed American Food Forever, Even If You Haven’t Heard Their Names",
"headTitle": "These Immigrant Women Changed American Food Forever, Even If You Haven’t Heard Their Names | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1945, an immigrant woman named Chao Yang Buwei published \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Cook and Eat in Chinese\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, one of the first books to make Chinese food decipherable to American home cooks, coining terms like “stir-fry” in the process. The cookbook was championed by literary figures of her day such as Pearl S. Buck, who asserted that Chao deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the effort. In her time, she did as much as anyone to help push the cuisine into the American mainstream. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet how many Americans know Chao’s name today? \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Cook and Eat in Chinese \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has long been out of print, and the author herself has largely been forgotten, even among people who write about Chinese food for a living. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why is it, then, that the record of history is so quick to discard the stories of immigrant women who helped shape the way that America eats? And what can we learn by examining the amazing, sometimes troubling, lives that these women lived? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906190\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2050px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906190\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-scaled.jpg\" alt='Orange book cover with white text: \"Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Wo Revolutionized Food in America\"s' width=\"2050\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-scaled.jpg 2050w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-800x999.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1020x1274.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-768x959.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1230x1536.jpg 1230w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1640x2048.jpg 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1920x2398.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2050px) 100vw, 2050px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the subject of James Beard Award–winning food writer Mayukh Sen’s new book, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324004523\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. So, the book tells the story of Najmieh Khalili, who garnered a reputation as America’s foremost expert on Iranian food despite the fact that no publisher was willing to pick up her books. It profiles France’s Madeleine Kamman, who spent much of her cooking and teaching career in America fighting from under the shadow of the American, Julia Child. And it puts the spotlight on Chao, who experienced erasure even in the pages of her own book: One its striking features is the back-and-forth argument that she has in the footnotes with her linguist husband, who tinkered with the translation of the text—originally written by Chao in Chinese—in ways she hated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The book also has unexpected Bay Area roots. Two of the seven women that Sen profiles were based in the Bay for a significant part of their lives: Chao lived in Berkeley for the last few decades of her life, and Elena Zelataya—a Mexican immigrant who became one of America’s early celebrity chefs—spent her entire career in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This book is partially a recovery project, capturing these women’s legacies in all their fullness,” Sen writes in the introduction. “But as you read, I also urge you to question which immigrant stories our American culture values versus those it tosses aside—and why.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sen spoke to KQED about the book’s Bay Area connections, this uneasy moment of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900311/bryant-terry-four-color-books-imprint-food-media-diversity\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">diverse representation in the food world\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the lessons that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taste Makers \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has to offer today’s food media—and those who consume it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: Even after reading the names of the seven women you profiled in \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Taste Makers\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, I didn’t expect the book to have as many Bay Area connections as it did—which I guess speaks to the theme: Some of these women have been so forgotten that even locals don’t recognize their names! Can you talk about what kind of impact that the Bay Area’s food culture had on the legacies of Chao Yang Buwei and Elena Zelataya?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chao Yang Buwei spent a lot of her professional career in America in the Northeast [in Cambridge, Massachusetts], but then in 1947, two years after publication of her groundbreaking cookbook \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Cook and Eat in Chinese\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, she moved to Berkeley because her husband, the famed linguist, Chao Yuenren, got a job at UC Berkeley. So she spent the last few decades of her life in Berkeley. It is fascinating to think about what that did in terms of her public visibility because she was working at a time before the locus of the American food media had really shifted to New York City, which is why her first cookbook was able to garner a lot of press attention and get endorsements from very powerful, influential people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet, once she moved to California, her public visibility kind of waned. I think that may have hindered her ability to really stay alive in cultural memory, which might explain why very few American home cooks today really know her name and understand the extent of her impact.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Mayukh Sen\"]“I urge you to question which immigrant stories our American culture values versus those it tosses aside—and why.”[/pullquote]Elena Zelayeta, the subject of my second chapter, was born in Mexico but spent most of her life, both professionally and personally, in San Francisco. In addition to the difficulties that many immigrants to a new city in America might have faced in the early 20th century, she also lost her sight when she was an adult, and she had to essentially teach herself how to navigate the world again, and how to cook again. Yet she was really able to make her a name for herself as a very prominent and prolific cookbook author in America. Starting in the 1940s, she was very much what we might recognize today as a celebrity chef, with her own television show that was broadcast in California in the 1950s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that a Mexican-born chef who also happens to be blind could have her own cooking show in the 1950s strikes me as so radical—and yet she was doing it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Given how proud people in San Francisco are of the city’s Mexican food traditions, in some ways it’s surprising that someone who was as famous as Zelayeta was during her heyday is not still spoken of today, even here in the Bay Area. Why do you think she isn’t more well known?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elena’s later books really reflected just how much California had impacted the way she cooked. She was no longer just cooking Mexican recipes. Instead, she essentially honored the fact that California is home to so many immigrant populations. So her last cookbook, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elena’s Favorite Foods, California Style\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, had recipes for burritos and enchiladas, but it also had recipes for things like teriyaki lamb chops and arancini. She no longer just wed herself to the cuisine of her home country, Mexico. She was willing to accept and absorb so many influences of her adoptive country and her adoptive home. And that may have made it harder for people to look back at her legacy and her career and say, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, she is the go-to resource on Mexican cooking\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And so in some ways Elena’s style of cooking and writing about food may have fallen out of fashion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906196\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906196\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a black T-shirt poses for a portrait with a city skyline behind him.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-scaled.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1920x2400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayukh Sen is an award-winning food journalist. \u003ccite>(Christopher Gregory-Rivera)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>One of the things I’ve always admired about your work is how, even before \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Taste Makers\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, you often wrote about these amazing \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://food52.com/blog/18949-she-was-a-soul-food-sensation-then-19-years-ago-she-disappeared\">\u003cb>women chefs\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> from \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/6/26/21303822/elka-gilmore-queer-female-chef-legacy-sf\">\u003cb>marginalized communities\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> who had somehow become lost to history. Perhaps the most inspiring thing about \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Taste Makers\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb> is that the book even exists at all, given the relative obscurity of many of its subjects. Magazines and publishing houses aren’t exactly known for embracing these kinds of topics, so I’m curious how you’ve navigated that challenge over the course of your career.\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s something that I thought about constantly in every stage in this book. I did get a few responses from publishers along the lines of, well, too many of these figures are too obscure to really register with readers. And because I was anticipating that response, I was quite intentional, even in the proposal stage, about putting in a “popular” name like [Italian cookbook author] \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/71298/remembering-marcella-hazan-who-brought-a-taste-of-italy-to-america\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marcella Hazan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which many home cooks in America might know. That’s just an unfortunate reality of the way that the American consumer’s mind works, so I had to swallow that truth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my five years in food media, to convince editors that certain stories of figures from marginalized communities are worth telling, I often get the same productive but also semi-cynical question from editors: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why does this story matter now?\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And no matter how compelling a case I try to make, sometimes I’ll get crickets or an editor who passes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Mayukh Sen\"]“I do tire of ‘representation matters’ as a talking point, because it is so often a way to justify very superficial engagement with telling the stories of people from marginalized communities.”[/pullquote]When I got the opportunity to write this book, I asked myself what it is about this person’s story that is going to grab a reader who is not necessarily a consumer of food media. My ultimate intention was to change a general reader’s understanding of the story of food in America and the role that immigrants—and immigrant women, specifically—have played in shaping it. I think each of these women have at least one aspect of their stories that will intrigue a lot of readers—like how Buwei coined the term “stir-fry” for Americans. And so that really informed my approach. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s always a challenge. I do think there might be a bigger appetite these days for stories of figures from marginalized communities who have not been sufficiently honored for their contributions to the culinary world, but I hope that will really last and that this is not just a passing fad.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It does feel like we’re at this moment now where every single food publication is at least paying lip service to this idea of “representation.” Is that something that you consciously think about when you’re choosing what to write about?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I definitely do think about representation. I will say that I do tire of “representation matters” as a talking point, because it is so often a way to justify very superficial engagement with telling the stories of people from marginalized communities. I’ve seen this happen at so many food publications that previously committed many, many offenses that I found truly egregious and insensitive. Now I see well-intentioned editors essentially checking off boxes to appear as though they’re doing the work. And so I wanted to make sure that I was not coming off that way at all in writing this book. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One approach that I took was to make sure that I was decentering a white reader as much as possible. During my time as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://food52.com/users/1027569-mayukh-sen/articles\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">staff writer at a publication called Food 52\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, I often found myself writing for a specific kind of reader who is white, middle- to upper-middle-class, and basically someone who does not belong to the same communities that I belong to as a queer, brown child of immigrants. So in writing this book, I wanted to make sure that I was not privileging the same reader that the American food media has privileged for so long. In each of these stories, I tried to ask myself, am I writing this in a way that might offend or rankle someone within the community that this woman belongs to? And if so, how can I change this to make sure that I’m not causing offense or simply reinforcing the many problems of this genre? And so that was how I tried to deal with this notion of representation: I really wanted to make sure that readers from these communities felt as though I was doing these women’s stories justice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What do you think the primary lesson of this book is, whether it be for general readers or those of us who document food culture? I think about how certain types of stories are privileged even today—and how few writers have the luxury of having a platform to write a long feature on someone who might be today’s equivalent of a Chao Yang Buwei. What’s the answer to that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, how could you make sure that the brilliant minds who are working today are not the subjects of a book like this 30 years from now?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Exactly.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13900311,arts_13895601']I hope that food journalists like myself will really be looking for subjects who come from communities who have not historically been covered sufficiently in a sensitive way in the American food media. And to really try to tell their story in the most careful way possible. And if [journalists] are not doing that, then I hope that the American food media can give these figures the capital and access and opportunity to tell these stories themselves in the form of memoirs or cookbooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In general, I do hope that the concentration of capital starts to shift in years to come. Because in spite of the incremental changes that we’ve seen over the past year and a half, I don’t have a ton of faith that much will fundamentally change about where money comes from and who gets it. One way to maybe remedy that is to make sure that independent food media—like Stephen Satterfield’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.whetstonemagazine.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whetstone\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—are getting enough money to survive and thrive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t want readers to come away from this book thinking that the burden is on them, because ultimately it’s a system-wide issue that requires a system-wide solution. But the consumer is not completely powerless. They can look at their bank accounts and ask themselves where they’re routing their money, and if they’re really supporting these independent outlets that are trying to do path-breaking work.\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://wwnorton.com/books/9781324004523\">Taste Makers\u003c/a>\u003cem> is out on November 16, from W.W. Norton & Company.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1945, an immigrant woman named Chao Yang Buwei published \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Cook and Eat in Chinese\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, one of the first books to make Chinese food decipherable to American home cooks, coining terms like “stir-fry” in the process. The cookbook was championed by literary figures of her day such as Pearl S. Buck, who asserted that Chao deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the effort. In her time, she did as much as anyone to help push the cuisine into the American mainstream. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet how many Americans know Chao’s name today? \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Cook and Eat in Chinese \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has long been out of print, and the author herself has largely been forgotten, even among people who write about Chinese food for a living. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why is it, then, that the record of history is so quick to discard the stories of immigrant women who helped shape the way that America eats? And what can we learn by examining the amazing, sometimes troubling, lives that these women lived? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906190\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2050px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906190\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-scaled.jpg\" alt='Orange book cover with white text: \"Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Wo Revolutionized Food in America\"s' width=\"2050\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-scaled.jpg 2050w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-800x999.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1020x1274.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-768x959.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1230x1536.jpg 1230w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1640x2048.jpg 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh-Sen-Book-Cover-Amit-Malhotra-Sarahmay-Wilkinson-1920x2398.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2050px) 100vw, 2050px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s the subject of James Beard Award–winning food writer Mayukh Sen’s new book, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324004523\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. So, the book tells the story of Najmieh Khalili, who garnered a reputation as America’s foremost expert on Iranian food despite the fact that no publisher was willing to pick up her books. It profiles France’s Madeleine Kamman, who spent much of her cooking and teaching career in America fighting from under the shadow of the American, Julia Child. And it puts the spotlight on Chao, who experienced erasure even in the pages of her own book: One its striking features is the back-and-forth argument that she has in the footnotes with her linguist husband, who tinkered with the translation of the text—originally written by Chao in Chinese—in ways she hated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The book also has unexpected Bay Area roots. Two of the seven women that Sen profiles were based in the Bay for a significant part of their lives: Chao lived in Berkeley for the last few decades of her life, and Elena Zelataya—a Mexican immigrant who became one of America’s early celebrity chefs—spent her entire career in San Francisco. \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\">“This book is partially a recovery project, capturing these women’s legacies in all their fullness,” Sen writes in the introduction. “But as you read, I also urge you to question which immigrant stories our American culture values versus those it tosses aside—and why.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sen spoke to KQED about the book’s Bay Area connections, this uneasy moment of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900311/bryant-terry-four-color-books-imprint-food-media-diversity\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">diverse representation in the food world\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the lessons that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taste Makers \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has to offer today’s food media—and those who consume it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: Even after reading the names of the seven women you profiled in \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Taste Makers\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, I didn’t expect the book to have as many Bay Area connections as it did—which I guess speaks to the theme: Some of these women have been so forgotten that even locals don’t recognize their names! Can you talk about what kind of impact that the Bay Area’s food culture had on the legacies of Chao Yang Buwei and Elena Zelataya?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chao Yang Buwei spent a lot of her professional career in America in the Northeast [in Cambridge, Massachusetts], but then in 1947, two years after publication of her groundbreaking cookbook \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Cook and Eat in Chinese\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, she moved to Berkeley because her husband, the famed linguist, Chao Yuenren, got a job at UC Berkeley. So she spent the last few decades of her life in Berkeley. It is fascinating to think about what that did in terms of her public visibility because she was working at a time before the locus of the American food media had really shifted to New York City, which is why her first cookbook was able to garner a lot of press attention and get endorsements from very powerful, influential people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet, once she moved to California, her public visibility kind of waned. I think that may have hindered her ability to really stay alive in cultural memory, which might explain why very few American home cooks today really know her name and understand the extent of her impact.\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>Elena Zelayeta, the subject of my second chapter, was born in Mexico but spent most of her life, both professionally and personally, in San Francisco. In addition to the difficulties that many immigrants to a new city in America might have faced in the early 20th century, she also lost her sight when she was an adult, and she had to essentially teach herself how to navigate the world again, and how to cook again. Yet she was really able to make her a name for herself as a very prominent and prolific cookbook author in America. Starting in the 1940s, she was very much what we might recognize today as a celebrity chef, with her own television show that was broadcast in California in the 1950s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that a Mexican-born chef who also happens to be blind could have her own cooking show in the 1950s strikes me as so radical—and yet she was doing it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Given how proud people in San Francisco are of the city’s Mexican food traditions, in some ways it’s surprising that someone who was as famous as Zelayeta was during her heyday is not still spoken of today, even here in the Bay Area. Why do you think she isn’t more well known?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elena’s later books really reflected just how much California had impacted the way she cooked. She was no longer just cooking Mexican recipes. Instead, she essentially honored the fact that California is home to so many immigrant populations. So her last cookbook, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elena’s Favorite Foods, California Style\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, had recipes for burritos and enchiladas, but it also had recipes for things like teriyaki lamb chops and arancini. She no longer just wed herself to the cuisine of her home country, Mexico. She was willing to accept and absorb so many influences of her adoptive country and her adoptive home. And that may have made it harder for people to look back at her legacy and her career and say, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, she is the go-to resource on Mexican cooking\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And so in some ways Elena’s style of cooking and writing about food may have fallen out of fashion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13906196\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13906196\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a black T-shirt poses for a portrait with a city skyline behind him.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-scaled.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Mayukh_110-1920x2400.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayukh Sen is an award-winning food journalist. \u003ccite>(Christopher Gregory-Rivera)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>One of the things I’ve always admired about your work is how, even before \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Taste Makers\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>, you often wrote about these amazing \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://food52.com/blog/18949-she-was-a-soul-food-sensation-then-19-years-ago-she-disappeared\">\u003cb>women chefs\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> from \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/6/26/21303822/elka-gilmore-queer-female-chef-legacy-sf\">\u003cb>marginalized communities\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> who had somehow become lost to history. Perhaps the most inspiring thing about \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Taste Makers\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb> is that the book even exists at all, given the relative obscurity of many of its subjects. Magazines and publishing houses aren’t exactly known for embracing these kinds of topics, so I’m curious how you’ve navigated that challenge over the course of your career.\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s something that I thought about constantly in every stage in this book. I did get a few responses from publishers along the lines of, well, too many of these figures are too obscure to really register with readers. And because I was anticipating that response, I was quite intentional, even in the proposal stage, about putting in a “popular” name like [Italian cookbook author] \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/71298/remembering-marcella-hazan-who-brought-a-taste-of-italy-to-america\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marcella Hazan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which many home cooks in America might know. That’s just an unfortunate reality of the way that the American consumer’s mind works, so I had to swallow that truth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my five years in food media, to convince editors that certain stories of figures from marginalized communities are worth telling, I often get the same productive but also semi-cynical question from editors: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why does this story matter now?\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And no matter how compelling a case I try to make, sometimes I’ll get crickets or an editor who passes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“I do tire of ‘representation matters’ as a talking point, because it is so often a way to justify very superficial engagement with telling the stories of people from marginalized communities.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When I got the opportunity to write this book, I asked myself what it is about this person’s story that is going to grab a reader who is not necessarily a consumer of food media. My ultimate intention was to change a general reader’s understanding of the story of food in America and the role that immigrants—and immigrant women, specifically—have played in shaping it. I think each of these women have at least one aspect of their stories that will intrigue a lot of readers—like how Buwei coined the term “stir-fry” for Americans. And so that really informed my approach. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s always a challenge. I do think there might be a bigger appetite these days for stories of figures from marginalized communities who have not been sufficiently honored for their contributions to the culinary world, but I hope that will really last and that this is not just a passing fad.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It does feel like we’re at this moment now where every single food publication is at least paying lip service to this idea of “representation.” Is that something that you consciously think about when you’re choosing what to write about?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I definitely do think about representation. I will say that I do tire of “representation matters” as a talking point, because it is so often a way to justify very superficial engagement with telling the stories of people from marginalized communities. I’ve seen this happen at so many food publications that previously committed many, many offenses that I found truly egregious and insensitive. Now I see well-intentioned editors essentially checking off boxes to appear as though they’re doing the work. And so I wanted to make sure that I was not coming off that way at all in writing this book. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One approach that I took was to make sure that I was decentering a white reader as much as possible. During my time as a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://food52.com/users/1027569-mayukh-sen/articles\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">staff writer at a publication called Food 52\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, I often found myself writing for a specific kind of reader who is white, middle- to upper-middle-class, and basically someone who does not belong to the same communities that I belong to as a queer, brown child of immigrants. So in writing this book, I wanted to make sure that I was not privileging the same reader that the American food media has privileged for so long. In each of these stories, I tried to ask myself, am I writing this in a way that might offend or rankle someone within the community that this woman belongs to? And if so, how can I change this to make sure that I’m not causing offense or simply reinforcing the many problems of this genre? And so that was how I tried to deal with this notion of representation: I really wanted to make sure that readers from these communities felt as though I was doing these women’s stories justice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What do you think the primary lesson of this book is, whether it be for general readers or those of us who document food culture? I think about how certain types of stories are privileged even today—and how few writers have the luxury of having a platform to write a long feature on someone who might be today’s equivalent of a Chao Yang Buwei. What’s the answer to that?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, how could you make sure that the brilliant minds who are working today are not the subjects of a book like this 30 years from now?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Exactly.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I hope that food journalists like myself will really be looking for subjects who come from communities who have not historically been covered sufficiently in a sensitive way in the American food media. And to really try to tell their story in the most careful way possible. And if [journalists] are not doing that, then I hope that the American food media can give these figures the capital and access and opportunity to tell these stories themselves in the form of memoirs or cookbooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In general, I do hope that the concentration of capital starts to shift in years to come. Because in spite of the incremental changes that we’ve seen over the past year and a half, I don’t have a ton of faith that much will fundamentally change about where money comes from and who gets it. One way to maybe remedy that is to make sure that independent food media—like Stephen Satterfield’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.whetstonemagazine.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whetstone\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—are getting enough money to survive and thrive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t want readers to come away from this book thinking that the burden is on them, because ultimately it’s a system-wide issue that requires a system-wide solution. But the consumer is not completely powerless. They can look at their bank accounts and ask themselves where they’re routing their money, and if they’re really supporting these independent outlets that are trying to do path-breaking work.\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://wwnorton.com/books/9781324004523\">Taste Makers\u003c/a>\u003cem> is out on November 16, from W.W. Norton & Company.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Martin Yan Was Cooking With Vegetables Long Before ‘Plant-Based’ Diets Became a Trend",
"headTitle": "Martin Yan Was Cooking With Vegetables Long Before ‘Plant-Based’ Diets Became a Trend | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Long before “plant-based” became the latest buzzword in food, Chinese chefs like Martin Yan were cooking mostly with vegetables, without fanfare. “Plant-based ingredients have been used in Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years,” the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yan Can Cook \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">star says, rattling off a list of staples he always keeps on hand at his home on the Peninsula—six or seven items in the tofu category alone. There’s pressed tofu, fermented tofu, sheets of dried bean curd, dried bean curd sticks and so on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“All these are plant-based products,” Yan says. “It’s nothing new at all. It’s just a new term.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also an underlying theme of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hopin.com/events/holiday-refresh-2021\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the “Holiday reFresh” virtual cooking demonstrations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that the Palo Alto–based environmental education nonprofit \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.acterra.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Acterra\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is hosting on Sunday, Nov. 7. Yan and Crystal Wahpepah of Oakland’s soon-to-open Indigenous restaurant, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13903531/wahpepahs-kitchen-fruitvale-indigenous-restaurant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wahpepah’s Kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, headline a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hopin.com/events/holiday-refresh-2021\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">roster of chefs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tasked with reimagining the traditional American holiday feast—say, the turkey dinner with all the fixins—with today’s dire climate crisis in mind. That means no meat or animal products, and everything \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1015460605/gas-stove-emissions-climate-change-health-effects\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has to be cooked on an induction stove\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13903531']But even if the idea of having a big holiday meal without meat might be a new thing for many Americans, Yan and Wahpepah mostly talk about how this vegetable-centric approach is rooted in cultural traditions that are in fact quite old. Wahpepah, for instance, is a member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, and grew up eating all different kinds of Native foods in East Oakland’s multi-tribal Indigenous community. “Mostly all of our ingredients are plant-based,” she says. “The only things that aren’t are the bison and the salmon.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905834\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905834\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Pumpkin and corn soup in a round flat bowl.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crystal Wahpepah’s dried corn and pumpkin soup is a celebration of the fall harvest. \u003ccite>(Wahpepah's Kitchen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wahpepah remembers that when she was growing up, her friends and family in the Bay Area’s Indigenous communities would celebrate Native American Heritage Month—and the fall harvest—out on Alcatraz each November. The dish she’ll demonstrate on Sunday is similar to what they would have eaten during those harvest celebrations: a sweet, thick vegetable soup made with hominy-like dried corn and fresh pumpkin.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a soup you could easily slide onto your holiday table as a light side dish, even if you aren’t doing a full vegan dinner, Wahpepah says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905835\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905835\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop.jpeg\" alt=\"Martin Yan poses for a portrait.\" width=\"960\" height=\"1264\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop-800x1053.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop-160x211.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop-768x1011.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martin Yan attributes his good health to his vegetable-centric diet. \u003ccite>(Martin Yan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yan, meanwhile, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sanfran.com/crazy-rich-asian-chefs\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">invites neighbors and relatives to his home\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for a Chinese-style Thanksgiving feast every year. He’ll roast a turkey, but he stuffs it with a sesame oil–laced stir-fry of bamboo shoots, Chinese celery, pressed bean curd and all different kinds of mushrooms, brushing the bird with soy sauce until the skin develops the lacquered, amber sheen normally associated with Peking duck. He’ll make sweet potatoes seasoned with ginger and five-spice powder. “I make it very Asian,” he says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mostly, though, what he cooks are vegetables, which he says have long been the foundation of his diet, even if he’s never been fully vegan or vegetarian. His fridge is crammed full of Asian produce—mustard greens, daikon, Chinese broccoli, winter melon and more. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the “reFresh” demonstration, Yan plans to make a variation on mu shu pork, a very standard dish that you might order at a Chinese restaurant. Of course, he’ll make a version without meat—just heaps of thinly julienned fresh vegetables stir-fried to still-crunchy perfection, then served on top of pancakes made out of crispy noodles. According to Yan, Chinese tradition dictates that you have to eat noodles during special celebrations, since they symbolize longevity and long-lasting happiness.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now in his early 70s, Yan still spends more than two-thirds of the year traveling around the world for various speaking engagements. And he attributes his good health to his mostly plant-based diet, even if he only recently started using the term. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After all, Yan says with his trademark deadpan delivery, “That’s why for 36 years I have not gained one pound.”\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 “Holiday reFresh” virtual event takes place Sunday, Nov. 7, from 4–5:40pm. There’s an optional suggested donation of $35, but anyone who would like to attend can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hopin.com/events/holiday-refresh-2021\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reserve a free ticket\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Long before “plant-based” became the latest buzzword in food, Chinese chefs like Martin Yan were cooking mostly with vegetables, without fanfare. “Plant-based ingredients have been used in Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years,” the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yan Can Cook \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">star says, rattling off a list of staples he always keeps on hand at his home on the Peninsula—six or seven items in the tofu category alone. There’s pressed tofu, fermented tofu, sheets of dried bean curd, dried bean curd sticks and so on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“All these are plant-based products,” Yan says. “It’s nothing new at all. It’s just a new term.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also an underlying theme of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hopin.com/events/holiday-refresh-2021\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the “Holiday reFresh” virtual cooking demonstrations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that the Palo Alto–based environmental education nonprofit \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.acterra.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Acterra\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is hosting on Sunday, Nov. 7. Yan and Crystal Wahpepah of Oakland’s soon-to-open Indigenous restaurant, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13903531/wahpepahs-kitchen-fruitvale-indigenous-restaurant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wahpepah’s Kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, headline a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hopin.com/events/holiday-refresh-2021\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">roster of chefs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tasked with reimagining the traditional American holiday feast—say, the turkey dinner with all the fixins—with today’s dire climate crisis in mind. That means no meat or animal products, and everything \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1015460605/gas-stove-emissions-climate-change-health-effects\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">has to be cooked on an induction stove\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>But even if the idea of having a big holiday meal without meat might be a new thing for many Americans, Yan and Wahpepah mostly talk about how this vegetable-centric approach is rooted in cultural traditions that are in fact quite old. Wahpepah, for instance, is a member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, and grew up eating all different kinds of Native foods in East Oakland’s multi-tribal Indigenous community. “Mostly all of our ingredients are plant-based,” she says. “The only things that aren’t are the bison and the salmon.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905834\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905834\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Pumpkin and corn soup in a round flat bowl.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Traditional-soup-with-squash-blossoms-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crystal Wahpepah’s dried corn and pumpkin soup is a celebration of the fall harvest. \u003ccite>(Wahpepah's Kitchen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wahpepah remembers that when she was growing up, her friends and family in the Bay Area’s Indigenous communities would celebrate Native American Heritage Month—and the fall harvest—out on Alcatraz each November. The dish she’ll demonstrate on Sunday is similar to what they would have eaten during those harvest celebrations: a sweet, thick vegetable soup made with hominy-like dried corn and fresh pumpkin.\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\">It’s a soup you could easily slide onto your holiday table as a light side dish, even if you aren’t doing a full vegan dinner, Wahpepah says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905835\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905835\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop.jpeg\" alt=\"Martin Yan poses for a portrait.\" width=\"960\" height=\"1264\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop-800x1053.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop-160x211.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Martin-Yan-MT-background-crop-768x1011.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martin Yan attributes his good health to his vegetable-centric diet. \u003ccite>(Martin Yan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yan, meanwhile, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sanfran.com/crazy-rich-asian-chefs\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">invites neighbors and relatives to his home\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for a Chinese-style Thanksgiving feast every year. He’ll roast a turkey, but he stuffs it with a sesame oil–laced stir-fry of bamboo shoots, Chinese celery, pressed bean curd and all different kinds of mushrooms, brushing the bird with soy sauce until the skin develops the lacquered, amber sheen normally associated with Peking duck. He’ll make sweet potatoes seasoned with ginger and five-spice powder. “I make it very Asian,” he says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mostly, though, what he cooks are vegetables, which he says have long been the foundation of his diet, even if he’s never been fully vegan or vegetarian. His fridge is crammed full of Asian produce—mustard greens, daikon, Chinese broccoli, winter melon and more. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the “reFresh” demonstration, Yan plans to make a variation on mu shu pork, a very standard dish that you might order at a Chinese restaurant. Of course, he’ll make a version without meat—just heaps of thinly julienned fresh vegetables stir-fried to still-crunchy perfection, then served on top of pancakes made out of crispy noodles. According to Yan, Chinese tradition dictates that you have to eat noodles during special celebrations, since they symbolize longevity and long-lasting happiness.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now in his early 70s, Yan still spends more than two-thirds of the year traveling around the world for various speaking engagements. And he attributes his good health to his mostly plant-based diet, even if he only recently started using the term. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After all, Yan says with his trademark deadpan delivery, “That’s why for 36 years I have not gained one pound.”\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 “Holiday reFresh” virtual event takes place Sunday, Nov. 7, from 4–5:40pm. There’s an optional suggested donation of $35, but anyone who would like to attend can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hopin.com/events/holiday-refresh-2021\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reserve a free ticket\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": "For Indian Chefs in the Diaspora, Diwali Is a Deliciously Nostalgic Holiday",
"headTitle": "For Indian Chefs in the Diaspora, Diwali Is a Deliciously Nostalgic Holiday | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When she was a young girl growing up in Gujarat, India, Diwali was one of Heena Patel’s favorite times of year. She relished the ritual of getting the house sparkling clean a month ahead of the holiday, and loved the music, the folk dancing and the diyas (oil lamps) lit up spectacularly to celebrate this so-called “Festival of Lights.” It was like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s all wrapped into one, Patel recalls. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And of course there was food. Now the chef and owner of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://besharamrestaurant.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Besharam\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a Gujarati-inspired restaurant in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district, Patel remembers that her mother would arrange an extravagant meal for each night of the five-day festival. “For me, I have \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> day,” she says, laughing. “I want to serve so many things.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, the chef will pack as much holiday nostalgia as she can into that one day—an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/besharamrestaurant/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">elaborate $95, all-vegetarian four-course Diwali prix fixe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that she’ll host at Besharam on Thursday, Nov. 4. With its intricately spiced stews and sweet and savory lentil cakes, it’s a meal that’s steeped in Patel’s own memories of the holiday. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905784\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905784\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a spread of Indian dishes on a wood table.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1583\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-1020x631.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-768x475.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-1536x950.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-2048x1266.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-1920x1187.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A spread of dishes from Besharam’s all-vegetarian menu. The maska paneer, or homemade cheese in spiced spinach sauce (top center), will be included on the Diwali menu. \u003ccite>(Eric Wolfinger)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Patel remembers most was the abundance of snacks and sweets that her mother filled the house with each year. She’d prepare ghughara, a kind of fried, semolina-filled pastry sweetened with sugar and dried fruits. In order to make mathiyas—an especially delicious, papadam-like cracker eaten during Diwali—she would use a silk thread from her sari, stretched tight in between her teeth, to cut the raw dough, which is notoriously sticky and difficult to work with. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Those memories are stuck in my vision,” Patel says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Besharam won’t serve \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of these treats during its Diwali dinner. After all, Patel says, there are certain things she just can’t make as well as her mother. But if anything, Diwali has become even more meaningful to her in the 30-plus years since she moved to the United States at the age of 22. Now, Patel says, she has to work harder to keep those holiday memories alive—and to pass the traditions on to her own children. “I feel like the diaspora community celebrates with even more vigorousness,” she says. “Maybe I celebrate more than my mom and dad back home, to stay connected with what we said goodbye to many years ago.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Highlights from Besharam’s four-course Diwali prix fixe include Patel’s khaman—a spongy, savory Gujarati lentil cake that’s traditionally eaten during the holiday—and, for dessert, a kind of sweet apple lentil cake called meetho handvo. But Patel says the showstopper will be her undhiyu, a stew of root vegetables that have been stuffed with spices, then layered together with pigeon peas and crisp-edged fried dumplings that soak up all of that rich sauce. “That dish, it takes a long time to make, but it shouts something special I’m doing for my guests.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905785\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A chef in black works in her dimly lit kitchen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heena Patel at work in the kitchen at her Dogpatch restaurant, Besharam. \u003ccite>(Eric Wolfinger)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The meal is part of Besharam’s shift toward becoming an all-vegetarian restaurant since its mid-pandemic reopening. “I wanted to cook without fear,” Patel says of the decision. More than anything, she says, the pandemic \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scared\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> her—made her scared for her health, scared she wouldn’t be able to pay the bills. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13895209,arts_13895067']“Coming out of this, I wanted to do everything without worrying about failing,” Patel says. “So I decided I wanted to do vegetarian food. I wanted to touch back to my roots and not worry about whether the business is enough to keep me afloat.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Patel says the true heart of Diwali doesn’t lie in the festival’s outward trappings, but in its charitable spirit. It is, after all, a holiday that celebrates the triumph of good over evil, which makes it a good time to “reflect on our obligations to help other human beings who are less fortunate.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I grew up in a household where the wealth was never there,” Patel says. “But to share has always been taught by my parents.”\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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/besharamrestaurant/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Besharam’s Diwali dinner\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will take place at 1275 Minnesota St. in San Francisco on Thursday, Nov. 4, with seatings from 5–8:45pm. Currently, all indoor tables have already been booked, but there are still some outdoor reservations \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/besharamrestaurant/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">available online\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When she was a young girl growing up in Gujarat, India, Diwali was one of Heena Patel’s favorite times of year. She relished the ritual of getting the house sparkling clean a month ahead of the holiday, and loved the music, the folk dancing and the diyas (oil lamps) lit up spectacularly to celebrate this so-called “Festival of Lights.” It was like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s all wrapped into one, Patel recalls. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And of course there was food. Now the chef and owner of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://besharamrestaurant.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Besharam\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a Gujarati-inspired restaurant in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district, Patel remembers that her mother would arrange an extravagant meal for each night of the five-day festival. “For me, I have \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> day,” she says, laughing. “I want to serve so many things.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, the chef will pack as much holiday nostalgia as she can into that one day—an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/besharamrestaurant/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">elaborate $95, all-vegetarian four-course Diwali prix fixe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that she’ll host at Besharam on Thursday, Nov. 4. With its intricately spiced stews and sweet and savory lentil cakes, it’s a meal that’s steeped in Patel’s own memories of the holiday. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905784\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905784\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a spread of Indian dishes on a wood table.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1583\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-1020x631.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-768x475.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-1536x950.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-2048x1266.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EricWolffinger_P2021_Besharam-0971-1920x1187.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A spread of dishes from Besharam’s all-vegetarian menu. The maska paneer, or homemade cheese in spiced spinach sauce (top center), will be included on the Diwali menu. \u003ccite>(Eric Wolfinger)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Patel remembers most was the abundance of snacks and sweets that her mother filled the house with each year. She’d prepare ghughara, a kind of fried, semolina-filled pastry sweetened with sugar and dried fruits. In order to make mathiyas—an especially delicious, papadam-like cracker eaten during Diwali—she would use a silk thread from her sari, stretched tight in between her teeth, to cut the raw dough, which is notoriously sticky and difficult to work with. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Those memories are stuck in my vision,” Patel says.\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\">Besharam won’t serve \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of these treats during its Diwali dinner. After all, Patel says, there are certain things she just can’t make as well as her mother. But if anything, Diwali has become even more meaningful to her in the 30-plus years since she moved to the United States at the age of 22. Now, Patel says, she has to work harder to keep those holiday memories alive—and to pass the traditions on to her own children. “I feel like the diaspora community celebrates with even more vigorousness,” she says. “Maybe I celebrate more than my mom and dad back home, to stay connected with what we said goodbye to many years ago.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Highlights from Besharam’s four-course Diwali prix fixe include Patel’s khaman—a spongy, savory Gujarati lentil cake that’s traditionally eaten during the holiday—and, for dessert, a kind of sweet apple lentil cake called meetho handvo. But Patel says the showstopper will be her undhiyu, a stew of root vegetables that have been stuffed with spices, then layered together with pigeon peas and crisp-edged fried dumplings that soak up all of that rich sauce. “That dish, it takes a long time to make, but it shouts something special I’m doing for my guests.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905785\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A chef in black works in her dimly lit kitchen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/EWP2021_Besharam-0374-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heena Patel at work in the kitchen at her Dogpatch restaurant, Besharam. \u003ccite>(Eric Wolfinger)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The meal is part of Besharam’s shift toward becoming an all-vegetarian restaurant since its mid-pandemic reopening. “I wanted to cook without fear,” Patel says of the decision. More than anything, she says, the pandemic \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scared\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> her—made her scared for her health, scared she wouldn’t be able to pay the bills. \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>“Coming out of this, I wanted to do everything without worrying about failing,” Patel says. “So I decided I wanted to do vegetarian food. I wanted to touch back to my roots and not worry about whether the business is enough to keep me afloat.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Patel says the true heart of Diwali doesn’t lie in the festival’s outward trappings, but in its charitable spirit. It is, after all, a holiday that celebrates the triumph of good over evil, which makes it a good time to “reflect on our obligations to help other human beings who are less fortunate.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I grew up in a household where the wealth was never there,” Patel says. “But to share has always been taught by my parents.”\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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/besharamrestaurant/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Besharam’s Diwali dinner\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will take place at 1275 Minnesota St. in San Francisco on Thursday, Nov. 4, with seatings from 5–8:45pm. Currently, all indoor tables have already been booked, but there are still some outdoor reservations \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.exploretock.com/besharamrestaurant/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">available online\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": "Long Live La Pulga, the San Jose Flea Market No ‘Urban Village’ Can Ever Replace",
"headTitle": "Long Live La Pulga, the San Jose Flea Market No ‘Urban Village’ Can Ever Replace | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905402\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905402\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A taco truck employee hands a plate of food to a customer through the window.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An employee at Virrueta’s Tacos, one of some 400 vendors who show up at the San Jose Flea Market (aka “La Pulga”) every week. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ial Cruz deftly maneuvers his way through the crowded aisle in front of the FruJuice So So Fresh stand at the San Jose Flea Market. Behind the counter, his coworkers chop fruit of all different colors and sizes, blending them together to make fresh juices and aguas frescas. \u003c/span> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Pásenle, pásenle,” Cruz calls out to the people walking by. “You have to try this fruit, there’s nothing fresher.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a hot September afternoon, FruiJuice stands as an oasis under the unrelenting South Bay sun. A sip of the cucumber-lime agua fresca provides immediate relief from the heat—a mix of tangy sweetness and coolness that washes over you, reaching all the way up to the top-of-the-scalp spot where the sun almost seems to sit.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The juice stand is located in the produce corridor of the flea market—also known as La Pulga—where dozens of stalls sell spices, nuts and vegetables from California, Latin America and the rest of the world. Elsewhere in the market’s 60 acres of winding passageways, merchants buy and sell almost anything you can imagine: plants, rugs, craftwork, toys, clothes, furniture and the list goes on. It’s one of the biggest outdoor swap meets in California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">La Pulga’s sprawling nature evokes a bygone era, when Silicon Valley was an agricultural hub and empty tracts of land were plentiful—something the first owners of the market took advantage of when they opened up in 1960. The founder of the market, George Bumb Sr., worked in the solid waste and landfill management business and wanted to resell items that would otherwise be discarded.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Originally called the Berryessa Flea Market, the market was built off of land that used to house an old meat processing plant. Produce stands opened up, selling fresh fruits and vegetables. The farmers who brought that produce were predominantly Latino, and soon enough they brought their foods and other cultural products into the market. Thus, La Pulga was born.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905407\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A row of open-air produce stands.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A corridor of produce stands during a quiet day at La Pulga, San Jose’s sprawling, 60-acre outdoor market. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fast forward 60 years, and San Jose has become the largest city in the Bay Area and one of the global capitals of the tech industry. The orchards that used to surround the flea market have been replaced by modern, brand-name shopping complexes and sleek, modular high-rise apartments. This transformation has put the city between two possible futures: continue embracing the tradition of large, loud, sprawling spaces like La Pulga or move towards a more urbanized and sleeker version of itself that’s more in line with the needs and wants of Silicon Valley.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In June of this year, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878548/san-jose-flea-market-leaders-end-hunger-strike-but-future-of-la-pulga-still-hangs-in-the-balance\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Jose city officials approved a plan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to rezone the north San Jose flea market site to make way for a major mixed-use development called the Berryessa BART Urban Village, which includes more than 3 million square feet of office and retail space and 3,400 housing units, a quarter of which the City promises will be affordable to “very low, low and moderate-income households”—though it’s not clear what that breakdown will be. Plans to redesign the flea market’s layout had been in the works for almost two decades when the city council voted in 2007 to rezone the market as a “mixed-use transit village” surrounding the new BART station, which opened last year. When San Jose’s current city council unanimously approved the Urban Village plan this year, council members said the project \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11879717/san-jose-approves-plan-to-radically-transform-flea-market-site\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">would bring more housing, jobs and business to the city\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"left\"]“[San Jose’s] transformation has put the city between two possible futures: continue embracing the tradition of large, loud, sprawling spaces like La Pulga or move towards a more urbanized and sleeker version of itself.”[/pullquote]But the project, expected to begin construction in three years, sets aside only five acres—down from 60—for a so-called “urban market” in the middle of the development. It’s a space advocates say is not nearly large enough to fit the more than 400 vendors who show up to La Pulga every week to make a living.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there’s no question: The design shake-up is likely to have dire consequences for the long-running family businesses that have established a base at the flea market—that rely on the place for steady income. Many of the merchants—like Cruz, the juice vendor—are close to retirement and troubled by the uncertainty of where their stall will land. At this point, however, they have little choice but to carry on with their business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On this particular Saturday in September, Cruz lists off the juices and aguas frescas the stall offers: nanche, guanábana, tamarindo, tunita (or prickly fruit), strawberry horchata, maracuyá, lemon cucumber and more. “We believe in freshness,” he says. “What doesn’t sell, sadly enough, we throw away.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905425\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905425\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two agua frescas, one green and one white, arranged on a table in front of a juice stand.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds of customers flock to the FruJuice So So Fresh stand to beat the South Bay heat. The cucumber-lime (left) and coconut milk drinks are especially refreshing. \u003ccite>(Adhiti Bandlamudi/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Cruz, this is more than a marketing statement; it’s a point of pride. He’s worked at the market for more than 50 years, and in that time he has come to understand the needs of the thousands of people who walk through the corridors of La Pulga each week. The need for accessible fresh fruit, for instance, is especially acute \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/go-to-the-atlas/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in some parts of the South Bay\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We didn’t have half of all of [these juices] when we started,” Cruz says. Since the stall opened its doors roughly eight years ago, more families from Latin America, specifically Central America, have made their home in San Jose and have come looking for fruits that remind them a bit of home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“People want guanábana? Go fly it from Guatemala. They want passion fruit? Then, Honduras.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cruz wonders where his customers will be able to find flavors like his if his stall isn’t included in the new Urban Village plan. Although FruJuice So So Fresh operates several other stands in San Jose, the flea market’s outdoor atmosphere is what allows this particular location to really thrive. Without it, his entire business’s future is uncertain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A Family Tradition\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While La Pulga’s transformation—and dramatic down-sizing—is still a few years away, María Piñeda is nervous about what these changes could mean for her family’s future. Along with her husband, she owns Virrueta’s Tacos, a Mexican food truck that’s parked a few corridors down from FruJuice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is so sad,” she says in Spanish. “I first started coming here with my grandmother when I was a little girl.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905428\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905428\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man and woman stand in front of a green taco truck.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">María Piñeda (left) opened the Viruetta’s Tacos truck at the flea market this year. The food truck specializes in cuisine from Mexico’s southwestern state of Michoacán. \u003ccite>(Adhiti Bandlamudi/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The flea market tradition runs deep in her blood. So many of her relatives worked at La Pulga at some point in their lives, and currently, her family also owns a pistachio business that operates there. All through Piñeda’s childhood, she would come with her family every Sunday to help out and shop. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Virrueta’s Tacos started as a dream that Piñeda and her husband had for many years. This year, they finally secured the food truck and began cooking recipes handed down by Piñeda’s mother—dishes specific to the town of Apatzingán, in the southwest state of Michoacán.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The flavors of Michoacán are very special,” she says, pointing out her chavindecas, a variation of quesadillas that usually includes a stuffing of carne asada, and her morisquetas, a dish that combines rice, refried beans, tomato sauce, queso fresco and flautas (crisp-fried tacos).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905431\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905431\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Three crispy, red-tinged birria tacos lined up on a piece of red-checked butcher paper.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Viruetta’s serves an excellent version of quesabirria, the recent internet taco sensation. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what customers love the most is the birria, a slowly-cooked stew that brings together goat meat, garlic, thyme and a unique combination of chiles and spices—the exact combination varies by family recipe and region.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even on a hot day, a cup of birria and consomé (the broth the birria is cooked in), go down quite easily. Even better are the quesabirrias, or quesadillas stuffed with birria, with the consomé on the side for dipping to avoid a mess.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These trendy tacos have become commonplace in the South Bay’s Mexican food scene, and Piñeda’s spicy, tangy version is especially great. The slightly crunchy tortilla envelops the melted cheese and tender, shredded goat meat, with thinly sliced radish and cucumber to serve as cool relief.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Piñeda smiles when asked about the secret to her family’s recipe. “It’s a lot of affection, a lot of love,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Already, she is mentally preparing for a future outside of La Pulga, but she says it won’t be easy. Her taco truck is relatively easy to move, but finding a new home for her family’s pistachio stand will be much harder. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not just anywhere they’ll let you sell pistachios,” Piñeda says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905433\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A styrofoam cup of consomé (birria cooking broth) on an orange tabletop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cup of well-spiced consomé is perfect for dipping or sipping. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The Fight to Save La Pulga\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many vendors feel the same way about their stalls—that La Pulga provides a place for them to display their products and reel in customers in ways no other market could. And so, they’re still holding out hope that they might all fit into the redesigned market’s space, or at least negotiate terms that will make leaving the market less painful. Toward that end, they formed the Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association (BFVA), a nonprofit organization that has been on the forefront of the fight to protect vendors in the flea market’s redevelopment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before the City Council’s big vote in June to approve the BART Urban Village Plan, some BFVA members \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878548/san-jose-flea-market-leaders-end-hunger-strike-but-future-of-la-pulga-still-hangs-in-the-balance\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">led a hunger strike\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, demanding flea market space in the new design and monetary support during the transition. After all, the developers’ initial proposal didn’t guarantee \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">any \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">space for La Pulga’s vendors. The City Council and the Bumb family—which still owns the market—eventually agreed to include 5 acres of designated flea market space in the Urban Village’s design plan and $5 million for a vendor transition fund. Still, the redevelopment plans have strained the relationship between the landlord and the tenants. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Roberto Gonzalez, president of the Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association\"]“More than anything, it’s [the owners] posturing and puffing out their chests to say, ‘Hey, we’re the ones who rule this land.’”[/pullquote]The most recent battle was over license agreement rates. Vendors currently hold license agreements for a space in the market on a month-to-month basis, and for the past year, they’ve been asking the Bumb family to make those agreements longer. In mid-September, the flea market owners did offer six-month license agreements, but with a catch: The rent for those six months had to be paid fully up front. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BFVA President Roberto Gonzalez, who runs a piñata stand at La Pulga, says the terms of the new license agreement felt like a “spit in the face” to vendors who just wanted more stability for their small business’s space in the flea market. “It’s really unfortunate that these terms are laid out that way, and the way we see it is that they’re not working in good faith with us,” he says. “More than anything, it’s them posturing and puffing out their chests to say, ‘Hey, we’re the ones who rule this land.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking on behalf of the Bumbs, Rich Alvari, the flea market’s director of marketing, said in a press release that the license agreement is similar to buying season tickets for a football game—that to “reserve the same seat for future football games, a season pass is required” and is usually paid for up front. The market owners are also asking the vendors to pay a $300 damage deposit—another fee that hadn’t been required in the past. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The net effect is that Gonzalez and the other vendors feel they’re being taken advantage of. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is at least one other option: La Pulga’s vendors could simply leave and try to form their own market. Gonzales has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/FleaVendors/status/1442604193160708102\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">expressed interest\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in finding another space for the displaced vendors, but that won’t exactly be an easy task given how expensive real estate is in San Jose, especially as more and more of the city gets developed into office spaces, shopping centers and apartment complexes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Reimagining the Panadería\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the afternoon rolls in and the lunchtime crowd dissipates across the flea market, one stall stays busy. From a distance, all that is visible are several shiny glass cabinets with a large sign above that reads “Ricarmi Bakery.” But start moving closer and the smell hits you first: the familiar smell of a panadería, that sensation that somehow combines sweetness, comfort and memory.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don’t worry about keeping your eyes open as you make your way there. Your feet know the way with just the smell.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Opened by couple Armida Rodriguez and Ricardo Lopez, Ricarmi operates a small stall in La Pulga in addition to its main bakery in Watsonville. Fernanda Urbina, the couple’s daughter, works at the flea market bakery stand along with her brothers. It features traditional Mexican sweet breads and cakes with a twist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905435\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Colorful conchas, or Mexican sweet breads, arranged on a tray by color: red, pink, yellow, green.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ricarmi Bakery’s colorful conchas each have a distinct flavor, including pistachio, pina colada, watermelon and strawberry. \u003ccite>(Adhiti Bandlamudi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We like to elevate them with new colors, different flavors,” Urbina says. “We specialize in vanilla fillings, arroz con leche fillings.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ricarmi Bakery’s conchas, sweet rolls decorated with a sugary shell, are different from those sold at other bakeries because each color represents a different flavor: turquoise for pistachio, white for horchata, yellow for piña colada and so on. Some of the conchas are filled with a vanilla bean custard while others have soft, subtly sweet rice pudding inside.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Urbina’s dad, Ricardo, is a third-generation Mexican baker. But Urbina says it’s her mom, Armida, who is the one who invented all of the creative new flavors. And that’s ultimately the reason for the business’s success at La Pulga—the reason there’s always a long line of customers peering into the bakery’s glass cases.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In the beginning, it wasn’t this popular, but I don’t know, COVID-19 brought everyone,” Urbina says. “Most businesses were starting to go down, but ours actually went up. It’s because more people started coming to the flea market because that’s all that was open.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"left\"]“That’s the role that the flea market has played in the community for decades now, giving working class immigrants the opportunity to work alongside their families and earn a modest, dignified living in the heart of ever-expensive Silicon Valley.”[/pullquote]Indeed, La Pulga has provided a lifeline to the community during the past year and a half. Unlike most shopping centers which had to close for several months at the start of the pandemic, the outdoor flea market reopened in mid-May, providing an outlet for visitors to walk around after being cooped up at home. Even more importantly, it helped allow the vendors, many of whom have no other source of income, to keep their head above water. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, that’s the role that the flea market has played in the community for decades now, giving working class immigrants the opportunity to work alongside their families and earn a modest, dignified living in the heart of ever-expensive Silicon Valley. It has allowed low-income families to pass on legacy businesses, like spicy nut stands and Mexican candy stalls, that couldn’t exist anywhere else in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905439\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905439\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Bags of flavored pistachios of all different colors, displayed at an outdoor market stand.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assorted flavors of spiced pistachios on display at one of La Pulga’s outdoor market stands. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Ricarmi Bakery’s case, the entire business isn’t dependent on its spot in La Pulga, but Urbina says it’ll be a real loss if they can’t find a spot in the Urban Village’s reimagined configuration. There are still so many new creations they want to share with the city that has seen their business grow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Rial Cruz of FruJuice is determined to stay at the flea market, no matter what the future holds. “This is a well requested service,” Cruz says. “I mean, just imagine right now, as you stand here, imagine you don’t have this in a flea market? This is the attraction right here.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13904861,arts_13904788,arts_13904835' label='More San Jose Food']He believes La Pulga can’t exist without a juice stand any more than San Jose would be in any way the same without its flea market. Unlike the sleek high-rises that have been sprouting up around the Bay, La Pulga is loud and colorful and doesn’t fit as neatly within organized lines. And while it offers a glimpse into San Jose’s past and present, the future remains an open question. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One thing is clear, however: This is almost certainly the end of La Pulga as we know it. Even if the flea market does reopen at the new Berryessa BART Urban Village three years from now, it won’t exist the way it does today—not after it’s gotten packed into an indoor space that’s less than 10 percent of its current, wonderfully sprawling form. Whatever promises its owners might make about the modern “indoor marketplace,” it can’t possibly recreate the outdoor heat; the pedestrians’ passing glances; and the mingling of sights, smells and sounds that you can only get from walking around an open-air market. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if this is the end, what a run it has been. What a spectacular gift to the San Jose community to have provided a place to belong and so many memories—and, of course, so much delicious food—for all these years. And what a gift it will continue to be for at least the next three years, until this chapter finally comes to a close. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no wonder, then, that so many of the vendors themselves are reluctant to give up their belief that La Pulga might still be saved. Vendors like Rial Cruz have spent literal decades at the market. They’ve greeted the same familiar faces week after week, seen their kids grow up into enterprising adults running their own stalls at the market. Whatever form the new iteration of the flea market might take, he’s determined to be a part of it—to help turn it into something good. “It’s like I was here when it began and I’ll be here,” Cruz says with a grin. “I’ll be here till the end.”\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>\u003cem>Adhiti Bandlamudi is a reporter on KQED’s Silicon Valley Desk, where she covers anything related to the South Bay. Follow her on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/oddity_adhiti\">@oddity_adhiti\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí is a reporter and producer with KQED News and KQED en Español. He grew up in San Francisco but spent weekends in the South Bay. Every time he visits San Jose, he learns—and tastes—something completely new. Follow him on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/LomeliCabrera\">@LomeliCabrera\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Berryessa Flea Market has long been a staple for the city's Latino community. Soon, it may no longer exist.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905402\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905402\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A taco truck employee hands a plate of food to a customer through the window.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An employee at Virrueta’s Tacos, one of some 400 vendors who show up at the San Jose Flea Market (aka “La Pulga”) every week. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">R\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ial Cruz deftly maneuvers his way through the crowded aisle in front of the FruJuice So So Fresh stand at the San Jose Flea Market. Behind the counter, his coworkers chop fruit of all different colors and sizes, blending them together to make fresh juices and aguas frescas. \u003c/span> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Pásenle, pásenle,” Cruz calls out to the people walking by. “You have to try this fruit, there’s nothing fresher.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a hot September afternoon, FruiJuice stands as an oasis under the unrelenting South Bay sun. A sip of the cucumber-lime agua fresca provides immediate relief from the heat—a mix of tangy sweetness and coolness that washes over you, reaching all the way up to the top-of-the-scalp spot where the sun almost seems to sit.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The juice stand is located in the produce corridor of the flea market—also known as La Pulga—where dozens of stalls sell spices, nuts and vegetables from California, Latin America and the rest of the world. Elsewhere in the market’s 60 acres of winding passageways, merchants buy and sell almost anything you can imagine: plants, rugs, craftwork, toys, clothes, furniture and the list goes on. It’s one of the biggest outdoor swap meets in California.\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\">La Pulga’s sprawling nature evokes a bygone era, when Silicon Valley was an agricultural hub and empty tracts of land were plentiful—something the first owners of the market took advantage of when they opened up in 1960. The founder of the market, George Bumb Sr., worked in the solid waste and landfill management business and wanted to resell items that would otherwise be discarded.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Originally called the Berryessa Flea Market, the market was built off of land that used to house an old meat processing plant. Produce stands opened up, selling fresh fruits and vegetables. The farmers who brought that produce were predominantly Latino, and soon enough they brought their foods and other cultural products into the market. Thus, La Pulga was born.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905407\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A row of open-air produce stands.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/024_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A corridor of produce stands during a quiet day at La Pulga, San Jose’s sprawling, 60-acre outdoor market. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fast forward 60 years, and San Jose has become the largest city in the Bay Area and one of the global capitals of the tech industry. The orchards that used to surround the flea market have been replaced by modern, brand-name shopping complexes and sleek, modular high-rise apartments. This transformation has put the city between two possible futures: continue embracing the tradition of large, loud, sprawling spaces like La Pulga or move towards a more urbanized and sleeker version of itself that’s more in line with the needs and wants of Silicon Valley.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In June of this year, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878548/san-jose-flea-market-leaders-end-hunger-strike-but-future-of-la-pulga-still-hangs-in-the-balance\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Jose city officials approved a plan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to rezone the north San Jose flea market site to make way for a major mixed-use development called the Berryessa BART Urban Village, which includes more than 3 million square feet of office and retail space and 3,400 housing units, a quarter of which the City promises will be affordable to “very low, low and moderate-income households”—though it’s not clear what that breakdown will be. Plans to redesign the flea market’s layout had been in the works for almost two decades when the city council voted in 2007 to rezone the market as a “mixed-use transit village” surrounding the new BART station, which opened last year. When San Jose’s current city council unanimously approved the Urban Village plan this year, council members said the project \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11879717/san-jose-approves-plan-to-radically-transform-flea-market-site\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">would bring more housing, jobs and business to the city\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>But the project, expected to begin construction in three years, sets aside only five acres—down from 60—for a so-called “urban market” in the middle of the development. It’s a space advocates say is not nearly large enough to fit the more than 400 vendors who show up to La Pulga every week to make a living.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there’s no question: The design shake-up is likely to have dire consequences for the long-running family businesses that have established a base at the flea market—that rely on the place for steady income. Many of the merchants—like Cruz, the juice vendor—are close to retirement and troubled by the uncertainty of where their stall will land. At this point, however, they have little choice but to carry on with their business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On this particular Saturday in September, Cruz lists off the juices and aguas frescas the stall offers: nanche, guanábana, tamarindo, tunita (or prickly fruit), strawberry horchata, maracuyá, lemon cucumber and more. “We believe in freshness,” he says. “What doesn’t sell, sadly enough, we throw away.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905425\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905425\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two agua frescas, one green and one white, arranged on a table in front of a juice stand.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_juice_adhiti-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds of customers flock to the FruJuice So So Fresh stand to beat the South Bay heat. The cucumber-lime (left) and coconut milk drinks are especially refreshing. \u003ccite>(Adhiti Bandlamudi/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Cruz, this is more than a marketing statement; it’s a point of pride. He’s worked at the market for more than 50 years, and in that time he has come to understand the needs of the thousands of people who walk through the corridors of La Pulga each week. The need for accessible fresh fruit, for instance, is especially acute \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/go-to-the-atlas/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in some parts of the South Bay\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We didn’t have half of all of [these juices] when we started,” Cruz says. Since the stall opened its doors roughly eight years ago, more families from Latin America, specifically Central America, have made their home in San Jose and have come looking for fruits that remind them a bit of home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“People want guanábana? Go fly it from Guatemala. They want passion fruit? Then, Honduras.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cruz wonders where his customers will be able to find flavors like his if his stall isn’t included in the new Urban Village plan. Although FruJuice So So Fresh operates several other stands in San Jose, the flea market’s outdoor atmosphere is what allows this particular location to really thrive. Without it, his entire business’s future is uncertain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A Family Tradition\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While La Pulga’s transformation—and dramatic down-sizing—is still a few years away, María Piñeda is nervous about what these changes could mean for her family’s future. Along with her husband, she owns Virrueta’s Tacos, a Mexican food truck that’s parked a few corridors down from FruJuice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is so sad,” she says in Spanish. “I first started coming here with my grandmother when I was a little girl.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905428\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905428\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man and woman stand in front of a green taco truck.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_taco-truck_adhiti-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">María Piñeda (left) opened the Viruetta’s Tacos truck at the flea market this year. The food truck specializes in cuisine from Mexico’s southwestern state of Michoacán. \u003ccite>(Adhiti Bandlamudi/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The flea market tradition runs deep in her blood. So many of her relatives worked at La Pulga at some point in their lives, and currently, her family also owns a pistachio business that operates there. All through Piñeda’s childhood, she would come with her family every Sunday to help out and shop. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Virrueta’s Tacos started as a dream that Piñeda and her husband had for many years. This year, they finally secured the food truck and began cooking recipes handed down by Piñeda’s mother—dishes specific to the town of Apatzingán, in the southwest state of Michoacán.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The flavors of Michoacán are very special,” she says, pointing out her chavindecas, a variation of quesadillas that usually includes a stuffing of carne asada, and her morisquetas, a dish that combines rice, refried beans, tomato sauce, queso fresco and flautas (crisp-fried tacos).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905431\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905431\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Three crispy, red-tinged birria tacos lined up on a piece of red-checked butcher paper.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/010_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Viruetta’s serves an excellent version of quesabirria, the recent internet taco sensation. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what customers love the most is the birria, a slowly-cooked stew that brings together goat meat, garlic, thyme and a unique combination of chiles and spices—the exact combination varies by family recipe and region.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even on a hot day, a cup of birria and consomé (the broth the birria is cooked in), go down quite easily. Even better are the quesabirrias, or quesadillas stuffed with birria, with the consomé on the side for dipping to avoid a mess.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These trendy tacos have become commonplace in the South Bay’s Mexican food scene, and Piñeda’s spicy, tangy version is especially great. The slightly crunchy tortilla envelops the melted cheese and tender, shredded goat meat, with thinly sliced radish and cucumber to serve as cool relief.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Piñeda smiles when asked about the secret to her family’s recipe. “It’s a lot of affection, a lot of love,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Already, she is mentally preparing for a future outside of La Pulga, but she says it won’t be easy. Her taco truck is relatively easy to move, but finding a new home for her family’s pistachio stand will be much harder. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not just anywhere they’ll let you sell pistachios,” Piñeda says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905433\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A styrofoam cup of consomé (birria cooking broth) on an orange tabletop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/012_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cup of well-spiced consomé is perfect for dipping or sipping. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The Fight to Save La Pulga\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many vendors feel the same way about their stalls—that La Pulga provides a place for them to display their products and reel in customers in ways no other market could. And so, they’re still holding out hope that they might all fit into the redesigned market’s space, or at least negotiate terms that will make leaving the market less painful. Toward that end, they formed the Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association (BFVA), a nonprofit organization that has been on the forefront of the fight to protect vendors in the flea market’s redevelopment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before the City Council’s big vote in June to approve the BART Urban Village Plan, some BFVA members \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878548/san-jose-flea-market-leaders-end-hunger-strike-but-future-of-la-pulga-still-hangs-in-the-balance\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">led a hunger strike\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, demanding flea market space in the new design and monetary support during the transition. After all, the developers’ initial proposal didn’t guarantee \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">any \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">space for La Pulga’s vendors. The City Council and the Bumb family—which still owns the market—eventually agreed to include 5 acres of designated flea market space in the Urban Village’s design plan and $5 million for a vendor transition fund. Still, the redevelopment plans have strained the relationship between the landlord and the tenants. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“More than anything, it’s [the owners] posturing and puffing out their chests to say, ‘Hey, we’re the ones who rule this land.’”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The most recent battle was over license agreement rates. Vendors currently hold license agreements for a space in the market on a month-to-month basis, and for the past year, they’ve been asking the Bumb family to make those agreements longer. In mid-September, the flea market owners did offer six-month license agreements, but with a catch: The rent for those six months had to be paid fully up front. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BFVA President Roberto Gonzalez, who runs a piñata stand at La Pulga, says the terms of the new license agreement felt like a “spit in the face” to vendors who just wanted more stability for their small business’s space in the flea market. “It’s really unfortunate that these terms are laid out that way, and the way we see it is that they’re not working in good faith with us,” he says. “More than anything, it’s them posturing and puffing out their chests to say, ‘Hey, we’re the ones who rule this land.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking on behalf of the Bumbs, Rich Alvari, the flea market’s director of marketing, said in a press release that the license agreement is similar to buying season tickets for a football game—that to “reserve the same seat for future football games, a season pass is required” and is usually paid for up front. The market owners are also asking the vendors to pay a $300 damage deposit—another fee that hadn’t been required in the past. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The net effect is that Gonzalez and the other vendors feel they’re being taken advantage of. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is at least one other option: La Pulga’s vendors could simply leave and try to form their own market. Gonzales has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/FleaVendors/status/1442604193160708102\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">expressed interest\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in finding another space for the displaced vendors, but that won’t exactly be an easy task given how expensive real estate is in San Jose, especially as more and more of the city gets developed into office spaces, shopping centers and apartment complexes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Reimagining the Panadería\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the afternoon rolls in and the lunchtime crowd dissipates across the flea market, one stall stays busy. From a distance, all that is visible are several shiny glass cabinets with a large sign above that reads “Ricarmi Bakery.” But start moving closer and the smell hits you first: the familiar smell of a panadería, that sensation that somehow combines sweetness, comfort and memory.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don’t worry about keeping your eyes open as you make your way there. Your feet know the way with just the smell.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Opened by couple Armida Rodriguez and Ricardo Lopez, Ricarmi operates a small stall in La Pulga in addition to its main bakery in Watsonville. Fernanda Urbina, the couple’s daughter, works at the flea market bakery stand along with her brothers. It features traditional Mexican sweet breads and cakes with a twist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905435\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Colorful conchas, or Mexican sweet breads, arranged on a tray by color: red, pink, yellow, green.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/lapulga_conchas_adhiti-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ricarmi Bakery’s colorful conchas each have a distinct flavor, including pistachio, pina colada, watermelon and strawberry. \u003ccite>(Adhiti Bandlamudi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We like to elevate them with new colors, different flavors,” Urbina says. “We specialize in vanilla fillings, arroz con leche fillings.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ricarmi Bakery’s conchas, sweet rolls decorated with a sugary shell, are different from those sold at other bakeries because each color represents a different flavor: turquoise for pistachio, white for horchata, yellow for piña colada and so on. Some of the conchas are filled with a vanilla bean custard while others have soft, subtly sweet rice pudding inside.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Urbina’s dad, Ricardo, is a third-generation Mexican baker. But Urbina says it’s her mom, Armida, who is the one who invented all of the creative new flavors. And that’s ultimately the reason for the business’s success at La Pulga—the reason there’s always a long line of customers peering into the bakery’s glass cases.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In the beginning, it wasn’t this popular, but I don’t know, COVID-19 brought everyone,” Urbina says. “Most businesses were starting to go down, but ours actually went up. It’s because more people started coming to the flea market because that’s all that was open.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“That’s the role that the flea market has played in the community for decades now, giving working class immigrants the opportunity to work alongside their families and earn a modest, dignified living in the heart of ever-expensive Silicon Valley.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Indeed, La Pulga has provided a lifeline to the community during the past year and a half. Unlike most shopping centers which had to close for several months at the start of the pandemic, the outdoor flea market reopened in mid-May, providing an outlet for visitors to walk around after being cooped up at home. Even more importantly, it helped allow the vendors, many of whom have no other source of income, to keep their head above water. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, that’s the role that the flea market has played in the community for decades now, giving working class immigrants the opportunity to work alongside their families and earn a modest, dignified living in the heart of ever-expensive Silicon Valley. It has allowed low-income families to pass on legacy businesses, like spicy nut stands and Mexican candy stalls, that couldn’t exist anywhere else in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905439\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905439\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Bags of flavored pistachios of all different colors, displayed at an outdoor market stand.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/019_SanJose_BerryessaFleaMarket_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assorted flavors of spiced pistachios on display at one of La Pulga’s outdoor market stands. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Ricarmi Bakery’s case, the entire business isn’t dependent on its spot in La Pulga, but Urbina says it’ll be a real loss if they can’t find a spot in the Urban Village’s reimagined configuration. There are still so many new creations they want to share with the city that has seen their business grow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Rial Cruz of FruJuice is determined to stay at the flea market, no matter what the future holds. “This is a well requested service,” Cruz says. “I mean, just imagine right now, as you stand here, imagine you don’t have this in a flea market? This is the attraction right here.”\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 believes La Pulga can’t exist without a juice stand any more than San Jose would be in any way the same without its flea market. Unlike the sleek high-rises that have been sprouting up around the Bay, La Pulga is loud and colorful and doesn’t fit as neatly within organized lines. And while it offers a glimpse into San Jose’s past and present, the future remains an open question. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One thing is clear, however: This is almost certainly the end of La Pulga as we know it. Even if the flea market does reopen at the new Berryessa BART Urban Village three years from now, it won’t exist the way it does today—not after it’s gotten packed into an indoor space that’s less than 10 percent of its current, wonderfully sprawling form. Whatever promises its owners might make about the modern “indoor marketplace,” it can’t possibly recreate the outdoor heat; the pedestrians’ passing glances; and the mingling of sights, smells and sounds that you can only get from walking around an open-air market. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if this is the end, what a run it has been. What a spectacular gift to the San Jose community to have provided a place to belong and so many memories—and, of course, so much delicious food—for all these years. And what a gift it will continue to be for at least the next three years, until this chapter finally comes to a close. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no wonder, then, that so many of the vendors themselves are reluctant to give up their belief that La Pulga might still be saved. Vendors like Rial Cruz have spent literal decades at the market. They’ve greeted the same familiar faces week after week, seen their kids grow up into enterprising adults running their own stalls at the market. Whatever form the new iteration of the flea market might take, he’s determined to be a part of it—to help turn it into something good. “It’s like I was here when it began and I’ll be here,” Cruz says with a grin. “I’ll be here till the end.”\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>\u003cem>Adhiti Bandlamudi is a reporter on KQED’s Silicon Valley Desk, where she covers anything related to the South Bay. Follow her on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/oddity_adhiti\">@oddity_adhiti\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\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>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí is a reporter and producer with KQED News and KQED en Español. He grew up in San Francisco but spent weekends in the South Bay. Every time he visits San Jose, he learns—and tastes—something completely new. Follow him on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/LomeliCabrera\">@LomeliCabrera\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How Vietnamese Americans Made San Jose America’s Tofu Capital",
"headTitle": "How Vietnamese Americans Made San Jose America’s Tofu Capital | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905357\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A steamer tray full of freshly fried tofu, as part of a buffet-style display.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Freshly fried tofu is one of the star attractions at Dong Phuong—one of San Jose’s many Vietnamese tofu delis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]S[/dropcap]an Jose is America’s tofu capital, and nowhere else comes close. Soy milk curds have been strained and pressed in the South Bay since the early 20th century, but it’s not San Jose’s long history with tofu that earns it the title: It’s the diversity, freshness and convenience of the tofu on offer throughout the area in restaurants, supermarkets and an uncommonly large number of dedicated tofu storefronts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To put San Jose’s embarrassment of bean curd riches in perspective, San Francisco has only one dedicated tofu storefront to its name—Chinatown’s reliably inexpensive Wo Chong. Megacities like Los Angeles or New York might eke out a technical numerical victory, but San Jose comes out on top when calculating tofu wealth on a per capita basis: With its population of a little over one million, the city still manages to sustain a diverse and lucrative soybean scene that can go toe to toe with any place in America. By my count, San Jose is home to at least 10 outlets specializing in fresh tofu, catering to a dedicated clientele of workers looking for a hot snack, home cooks picking up tonight’s dinner and local restaurateurs stocking up on their supply. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The tofu in the Bay’s U-bend covers a wide swath of traditions and cultures: At US SoyPresso, Japanese-style tofu pudding is topped with soy milk and sweet beans. At Taiwanese Sogo Tofu, it is deep fried in “biandang” lunchbox-sized pieces. And at Vietnamese Thanh Son Tofu, it can be ordered tucked inside a banh mi. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, the dominant style of tofu in San Jose is Vietnamese, with a half-dozen strip-mall tofu delicatessens like Thanh Son clustered in a small stretch of San Jose’s heavily Vietnamese East Side, with additional outposts spread out across the city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905358\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An employee helps a customer with their tofu order at Thanh Son Tofu.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This wasn’t always the case, though. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As documented in William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi’s exhaustive \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.soyinfocenter.com/books/163\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">history of tofu making, \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the first tofu shops in San Jose came with the earliest Japanese American immigrants, who settled in the Santa Clara Valley to work as farm laborers. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okumura Tofu-ya, founded in 1906, was the first recorded tofu business in the city. It was located on 6th Street, smack dab in the middle of Japantown, and the neighborhood would have at least one tofu maker or another for more than a hundred years until the last one \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/30/san-jose-tofu-japantowns-gem-closes-its-doors-after-71-years/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed in 2017\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Tofu shops like Okumura spread wherever there were Japanese immigrants in the U.S.; by 1950, at least 425 Japanese tofu businesses had been established throughout the country.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“Megacities like Los Angeles or New York might eke out a technical numerical victory, but San Jose comes out on top when calculating tofu wealth on a per capita basis.”[/pullquote]The Japanese American community’s grip on tofu started loosening in the late 20th century as the population aged and shrunk relative to other Asian American groups. By then, the growth of tofu shops had slowed if not regressed; they had become redundant after the invention of packaged tofu in Los Angeles in the ‘50s, which enabled the ingredient to be sold in supermarkets instead of specialty stores. In some cities, these developments spelled the end of the tofu shop—but in San Jose, they would live on in the hands of a new population that arrived in the city after 1975 in large numbers: Vietnamese immigrants. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the subsequent decades, Vietnamese Americans would create their own kind of tofu shop, one that sells bean curd alongside a wide variety of snacks and drinks in a deli-like format, and usher in a new tofu renaissance in the South Bay. Vietnamese tofu delis now make up the majority of tofu businesses in San Jose. But despite the delis’ omnipresence—it feels like no Vietnamese grocery store in San Jose is complete without a fresh tofu maker nearby—they rarely get the same level of mainstream recognition as other neighborhood institutions like pho restaurants and banh mi takeout joints. Nevertheless, they play just as essential a role in the community and are just as valuable a part of San Jose’s culinary landscape.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905360\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905360\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An employee refills a metal display case with freshly fried tofu.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An employee at Thanh Son refills the display case with freshly fried tofu. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the loyal customers these delis serve, the prepackaged stuff sold in grocery stores is no substitute for what their local tofu store can offer. Andrea Nguyen, an authority on Vietnamese cooking and the author of \u003ca href=\"https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781607740254\">an entire book on tofu\u003c/a>, is a longtime customer of tofu delis. “Americans want tofu to be sturdy,” she says about Safeway refrigerator aisle tofu, “whereas the tofu that you buy at an Asian tofu shop, whether that’s Japanese, Chinese or Vietnamese, tends to be more tender because we love that tenderness. That tenderness means that the curds are not as compressed and they suck up flavor.“\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a difference that customers can feel—literally. Nguyen claims it is a Vietnamese American habit to poke at the Saran-wrapped tofu on display to check for quality, “like you’re poking the belly of the Pillsbury Doughboy.” Good Vietnamese tofu should, like a soft cheese, threaten to fall apart into airy curls with the slightest pressure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The texture is one that many Americans might not be familiar with, as Japanese and Chinese–style firm tofu dominates the grocery aisle. Aside from the creamy kind that’s only used for pudding, Vietnamese bean curd comes in one, ricotta-esque consistency. Vietnamese tofu makers play up this textural quality by using a different process than Japanese and Chinese artisans. Instead of using nigari or gypsum, they use the leftover “whey” from straining the last batch to thicken the soy milk into curds. While it cools, they leave it to set loosely in a bread pan-sized trough instead of, say, subjecting it to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://issuu.com/hyphenmagazine/docs/issue21/28\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wooden press\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of Japanese tofu making. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Andrea Nguyen\"]“Americans want tofu to be sturdy, whereas the tofu that you buy at an Asian tofu shop … tends to be more tender because we love that tenderness.”[/pullquote]This process produces a softer, wispier tofu than rival methods, highlighting the supple mouthfeel that makes the ingredient a desirable addition to Vietnamese soups, stir-fries and noodles. It also doesn’t turn tofu into anything resembling ersatz meat—intentionally so, because Vietnamese cuisine, like most Asian food cultures, doesn’t only treat tofu as a meat substitute. Sometimes tofu can be a velvety complement to the savoriness of meat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s not just the culinary superiority of the fresh stuff that draws Vietnamese Americans to their tofu delis, says Nguyen. “People like fresh tofu because it’s part of the food traditions. We’re a relatively new immigrant refugee community to America, and there has been so much foodcraft, transported and translated to American soil from Vietnam. We value freshness. We also value the community that forms around that freshness—you feel in touch with your people and your soul when you go to these delis.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905359\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905359\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Customers browse a Vietnamese deli's colorful display of snacks and tofu products.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thanh Son’s tables and counters are piled high with colorful packaged snacks. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hanh Son Tofu, a prominent Vietnamese tofu deli located near Lee’s Supermarket on Senter Road, is a good example of how these stores can be an anchor for the community. The shop has been around for three decades now, according to Anh Nguyen, a member of the family who owns the store. The Thanh Son Nguyens were a traditional tofu making family in Vietnam until the Fall of Saigon, after which they fled their country. Reaching America without anything to their name, they resumed making and selling tofu to their new neighbors in Southern California’s Orange County through the ‘70s and ‘80s. Eventually, they saved enough capital to open their first storefront in Westminster’s Little Saigon in the ‘90s—and that operation was successful enough that a cousin who lived in San Jose wanted to open a Northern California location with the same name.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, Thanh Son is one of the busiest tofu delis in the neighborhood. The storefront, spacious and buzzing with commotion, sports stainless steel counters and see-through refrigerators packed with green-tinted pandan soy milk, golden fried tofu, yuba sheets rolled up in an imitation of chả lụa ham and soy pudding with bright noodles of fruit jelly. A long line of customers wraps around the counters. They point at their preferred soybean product behind the glass, the staff bags it up, and then they head to the register to pay and receive their gelatinous treats. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no accident that Thanh Son does brisk business. Tofu this fresh doesn’t last more than a few days in a refrigerator, so customers need to come back regularly for their fix. That also means the store needs to refresh its stock regularly, so the staff makes most of its inventory from scratch every morning—all of which will be gone by the afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The store also sells a wide variety of packaged snacks and goodies like bánh bèo (shrimp-dusted rice cakes), nem chua (tangy rolls of raw fermented pork) and bánh bò nướng (pandan-flavored “honeycomb” cakes)—some made by Thanh Son staff, some sourced from smaller local producers, but all very addictive. These snacks are piled up on every available inch of counter and shelf space, giving the deli a lively, market hall feel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905361\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Packages of green and white sponge cake lined up on a tabletop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A display of bánh bò—a sweet, chewy Vietnamese sponge cake—at Thanh Son. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s the kind of store that can be found all over Vietnamese American enclaves, from Houston to Los Angeles, but, crucially, not in Vietnam. These delis are uniquely a diaspora phenomenon. “When I have seen tofu vendors in Vietnam, they’re just selling tofu, sometimes soy milk, too. But the whole thing about these delis serving other dishes and having a menu, that’s the next level of Vietnamese American-ness,” says Andrea Nguyen, the cookbook author. The fusion of the Vietnamese tofu market stall with the German-Jewish-American delicatessen is an adaptation of one shopping culture to another, a synthesis encouraged along by the generous real estate of the California strip mall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanh Son isn’t the only kind of Vietnamese tofu deli that’s out there. Some, like Binh Minh (1180 Tully Road) or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904913/vietnamese-drinks-boba-che-guide-san-jose\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hung Vuong\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1741 Berryessa Road), serve only vegetarian food, in accordance with a Buddhist monk’s diet. Not all Vietnamese Buddhists are vegetarian, but many do observe a vegetarian diet on occasion as an act of religious piety. These Buddhist delis have a slightly different format than their non-vegetarian peers, with a greater focus on hot prepared meals and, of course, the presence of lots of Buddhist tchotchkes on sale. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905362\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905362\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A Buddha statue is displayed prominently inside a Vietnamese deli.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Buddha statue is displayed prominently inside Dong Phuong’s McKee Road shopping center location. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dong Phuong Tofu is a longstanding example of this alternative format; it has stood across from Lion Market in the heart of San Jose’s Little Saigon for almost two decades. There are meditation CDs and Buddhist scripture posters for sale at the doorway, and a small selection of specialty groceries like vegetarian fish sauce and pork floss displayed on a wooden island in the middle of the store. At the front, hungry patrons dawdle trying to decide between the two dozen dishes in the hot food counter tubs as well as everything else on the large menu of made-to-order food tacked up on the wall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The star attractions are the meatless stir-fries, rice noodles and other mealtime staples at the hot food counter. The staff at Dong Phuong make the tofu for these dishes on site, which gives its lemongrass tofu, for example, a springy chew that other restaurants can’t pull off. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“In a lopsided American food system that gives artisanal food to the rich and the processed scraps to the poor, fresh tofu is the rare luxury that remains stubbornly affordable.”[/pullquote]While some vegetarian diets, like those of brahminical Hindus or white American hippies, shy away from the close imitation of meat, East Asian vegetarianism doesn’t have such scruples. Some of the double-take-inducing dishes on display at the hot counter include seitan “fish” battered, deep fried and coated in a brown sauce, as well as a pork belly clay pot where the “belly” has convincing stripes of konjac jelly “fat.” Some of the seitan is made in the kitchen, but the most convincing meat substitutes are sourced from specialized Asian fake-meat producers, who have been operating on the continent long before the Impossible Burger was an idea in a Stanford biochemist’s head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The quick service counter at delis such as Dong Phuong plug an important hole in the market, providing convenient and tasty meals at a price better than sit-down vegetarian places like Green Lotus, which is just across the street. Plus the quality of the food doesn’t suffer despite sitting out for most of the day: Tofu and seitan dishes only suck up more flavor during a long marination time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905363\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905363\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers browse the display of goods inside a Vietnamese deil.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Customers browse a small display of grocery items at Dong Phuong. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n a recent Saturday, I visited both Thanh Son and Dong Phuong to assemble a three-course, under $20, all-tofu lunch, with the former providing an appetizer (fried tofu) and dessert (ginger tofu pudding), and the latter providing the entree (lemongrass tofu with rice noodles). Afterwards, I sat on the lip of the Grand Century mall fountain, set out my assorted tofu, and thought about how lucky the neighborhood is to have this abundance. In a lopsided American food system that gives artisanal food to the rich and the processed scraps to the poor, fresh tofu is the rare luxury that remains stubbornly affordable, able to be enjoyed by all. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I ate, I couldn’t stop thinking of the melancholy note on which my conversation with Nguyen ended: “I think that we take for granted what is available in these enclaves,” she mused. “Because I think, my God, how lucky are we to be in America and be standing here, waiting in line to buy this tofu that’s been freshly made. It’s not the same as going to buy it on a wet market in Vietnam, but gosh darn it, it’s a very similar experience. I think about the many depths of these experiences. And I said to myself: How fucking lucky am I? How long is that going to last?“\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13905153,arts_13904913,arts_13905230' label='More San Jose Food']Nguyen points out that young Vietnamese Americans usually aren’t the ones behind the register at these tofu shops, but an older generation of first wave immigrants. She’s worried that the graying of the community might spell an end for the tofu. There’s some precedent for this in San Jose: The last tofu maker in Japantown, San Jose Tofu Company, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/30/san-jose-tofu-japantowns-gem-closes-its-doors-after-71-years/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> three years ago after the retirement of its owners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But perhaps tofu will survive in San Jose like it always has. Hodo Soy, the buzzy, high-end tofu factory now based in Oakland, got its start in the South Bay. The company is owned by Minh Tsai, whose parents would bring him to traditional tofu stands in Vietnam when he was a child. Tsai started making the product for his new brand at Sogo Tofu, San Jose’s only Taiwanese tofu makers, and his dense style of tofu still betrays a strong Chinese influence. And when it came time to introduce his line to a wider audience, he opted for Japanese terminology, like “yuba” for tofu skins. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maybe the next generation of South Bay tofu entrepreneurs will be more like Tsai: multicultural in emphasis, reflecting the diverse history of tofu making in San Jose itself. Still, what’s lost \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-23/the-california-startup-selling-america-on-tofu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in the hype\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is that companies like Hodo stand on the shoulders of the humble strip mall tofu shops, which have been making fresh bean curd with care and sophistication, and with little fanfare, long before mainstream America deemed the product worthy of fine-dining menus. Let’s keep their memory alive, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: This article originally stated that Minh Tsai’s father was a tofu maker. He was not.\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>Adesh Thapliyal is KQED Arts’ Editorial Intern. Previously, he wrote for the experimental newsletter \u003c/em>Tone Glow\u003cem> and the pop music blog \u003c/em>The Singles Jukebox\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mai Ly and Truc Tran provided interpretation for this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905357\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A steamer tray full of freshly fried tofu, as part of a buffet-style display.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Freshly fried tofu is one of the star attractions at Dong Phuong—one of San Jose’s many Vietnamese tofu delis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>an Jose is America’s tofu capital, and nowhere else comes close. Soy milk curds have been strained and pressed in the South Bay since the early 20th century, but it’s not San Jose’s long history with tofu that earns it the title: It’s the diversity, freshness and convenience of the tofu on offer throughout the area in restaurants, supermarkets and an uncommonly large number of dedicated tofu storefronts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To put San Jose’s embarrassment of bean curd riches in perspective, San Francisco has only one dedicated tofu storefront to its name—Chinatown’s reliably inexpensive Wo Chong. Megacities like Los Angeles or New York might eke out a technical numerical victory, but San Jose comes out on top when calculating tofu wealth on a per capita basis: With its population of a little over one million, the city still manages to sustain a diverse and lucrative soybean scene that can go toe to toe with any place in America. By my count, San Jose is home to at least 10 outlets specializing in fresh tofu, catering to a dedicated clientele of workers looking for a hot snack, home cooks picking up tonight’s dinner and local restaurateurs stocking up on their supply. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The tofu in the Bay’s U-bend covers a wide swath of traditions and cultures: At US SoyPresso, Japanese-style tofu pudding is topped with soy milk and sweet beans. At Taiwanese Sogo Tofu, it is deep fried in “biandang” lunchbox-sized pieces. And at Vietnamese Thanh Son Tofu, it can be ordered tucked inside a banh mi. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, the dominant style of tofu in San Jose is Vietnamese, with a half-dozen strip-mall tofu delicatessens like Thanh Son clustered in a small stretch of San Jose’s heavily Vietnamese East Side, with additional outposts spread out across the city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905358\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An employee helps a customer with their tofu order at Thanh Son Tofu.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/011_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This wasn’t always the case, though. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As documented in William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi’s exhaustive \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.soyinfocenter.com/books/163\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">history of tofu making, \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the first tofu shops in San Jose came with the earliest Japanese American immigrants, who settled in the Santa Clara Valley to work as farm laborers. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okumura Tofu-ya, founded in 1906, was the first recorded tofu business in the city. It was located on 6th Street, smack dab in the middle of Japantown, and the neighborhood would have at least one tofu maker or another for more than a hundred years until the last one \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/30/san-jose-tofu-japantowns-gem-closes-its-doors-after-71-years/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed in 2017\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Tofu shops like Okumura spread wherever there were Japanese immigrants in the U.S.; by 1950, at least 425 Japanese tofu businesses had been established throughout the country.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“Megacities like Los Angeles or New York might eke out a technical numerical victory, but San Jose comes out on top when calculating tofu wealth on a per capita basis.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Japanese American community’s grip on tofu started loosening in the late 20th century as the population aged and shrunk relative to other Asian American groups. By then, the growth of tofu shops had slowed if not regressed; they had become redundant after the invention of packaged tofu in Los Angeles in the ‘50s, which enabled the ingredient to be sold in supermarkets instead of specialty stores. In some cities, these developments spelled the end of the tofu shop—but in San Jose, they would live on in the hands of a new population that arrived in the city after 1975 in large numbers: Vietnamese immigrants. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the subsequent decades, Vietnamese Americans would create their own kind of tofu shop, one that sells bean curd alongside a wide variety of snacks and drinks in a deli-like format, and usher in a new tofu renaissance in the South Bay. Vietnamese tofu delis now make up the majority of tofu businesses in San Jose. But despite the delis’ omnipresence—it feels like no Vietnamese grocery store in San Jose is complete without a fresh tofu maker nearby—they rarely get the same level of mainstream recognition as other neighborhood institutions like pho restaurants and banh mi takeout joints. Nevertheless, they play just as essential a role in the community and are just as valuable a part of San Jose’s culinary landscape.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905360\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905360\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An employee refills a metal display case with freshly fried tofu.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/009_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An employee at Thanh Son refills the display case with freshly fried tofu. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the loyal customers these delis serve, the prepackaged stuff sold in grocery stores is no substitute for what their local tofu store can offer. Andrea Nguyen, an authority on Vietnamese cooking and the author of \u003ca href=\"https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781607740254\">an entire book on tofu\u003c/a>, is a longtime customer of tofu delis. “Americans want tofu to be sturdy,” she says about Safeway refrigerator aisle tofu, “whereas the tofu that you buy at an Asian tofu shop, whether that’s Japanese, Chinese or Vietnamese, tends to be more tender because we love that tenderness. That tenderness means that the curds are not as compressed and they suck up flavor.“\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a difference that customers can feel—literally. Nguyen claims it is a Vietnamese American habit to poke at the Saran-wrapped tofu on display to check for quality, “like you’re poking the belly of the Pillsbury Doughboy.” Good Vietnamese tofu should, like a soft cheese, threaten to fall apart into airy curls with the slightest pressure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The texture is one that many Americans might not be familiar with, as Japanese and Chinese–style firm tofu dominates the grocery aisle. Aside from the creamy kind that’s only used for pudding, Vietnamese bean curd comes in one, ricotta-esque consistency. Vietnamese tofu makers play up this textural quality by using a different process than Japanese and Chinese artisans. Instead of using nigari or gypsum, they use the leftover “whey” from straining the last batch to thicken the soy milk into curds. While it cools, they leave it to set loosely in a bread pan-sized trough instead of, say, subjecting it to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://issuu.com/hyphenmagazine/docs/issue21/28\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wooden press\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of Japanese tofu making. \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>This process produces a softer, wispier tofu than rival methods, highlighting the supple mouthfeel that makes the ingredient a desirable addition to Vietnamese soups, stir-fries and noodles. It also doesn’t turn tofu into anything resembling ersatz meat—intentionally so, because Vietnamese cuisine, like most Asian food cultures, doesn’t only treat tofu as a meat substitute. Sometimes tofu can be a velvety complement to the savoriness of meat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s not just the culinary superiority of the fresh stuff that draws Vietnamese Americans to their tofu delis, says Nguyen. “People like fresh tofu because it’s part of the food traditions. We’re a relatively new immigrant refugee community to America, and there has been so much foodcraft, transported and translated to American soil from Vietnam. We value freshness. We also value the community that forms around that freshness—you feel in touch with your people and your soul when you go to these delis.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905359\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905359\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Customers browse a Vietnamese deli's colorful display of snacks and tofu products.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thanh Son’s tables and counters are piled high with colorful packaged snacks. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hanh Son Tofu, a prominent Vietnamese tofu deli located near Lee’s Supermarket on Senter Road, is a good example of how these stores can be an anchor for the community. The shop has been around for three decades now, according to Anh Nguyen, a member of the family who owns the store. The Thanh Son Nguyens were a traditional tofu making family in Vietnam until the Fall of Saigon, after which they fled their country. Reaching America without anything to their name, they resumed making and selling tofu to their new neighbors in Southern California’s Orange County through the ‘70s and ‘80s. Eventually, they saved enough capital to open their first storefront in Westminster’s Little Saigon in the ‘90s—and that operation was successful enough that a cousin who lived in San Jose wanted to open a Northern California location with the same name.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, Thanh Son is one of the busiest tofu delis in the neighborhood. The storefront, spacious and buzzing with commotion, sports stainless steel counters and see-through refrigerators packed with green-tinted pandan soy milk, golden fried tofu, yuba sheets rolled up in an imitation of chả lụa ham and soy pudding with bright noodles of fruit jelly. A long line of customers wraps around the counters. They point at their preferred soybean product behind the glass, the staff bags it up, and then they head to the register to pay and receive their gelatinous treats. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no accident that Thanh Son does brisk business. Tofu this fresh doesn’t last more than a few days in a refrigerator, so customers need to come back regularly for their fix. That also means the store needs to refresh its stock regularly, so the staff makes most of its inventory from scratch every morning—all of which will be gone by the afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The store also sells a wide variety of packaged snacks and goodies like bánh bèo (shrimp-dusted rice cakes), nem chua (tangy rolls of raw fermented pork) and bánh bò nướng (pandan-flavored “honeycomb” cakes)—some made by Thanh Son staff, some sourced from smaller local producers, but all very addictive. These snacks are piled up on every available inch of counter and shelf space, giving the deli a lively, market hall feel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905361\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Packages of green and white sponge cake lined up on a tabletop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ThanhSonTofu_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A display of bánh bò—a sweet, chewy Vietnamese sponge cake—at Thanh Son. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s the kind of store that can be found all over Vietnamese American enclaves, from Houston to Los Angeles, but, crucially, not in Vietnam. These delis are uniquely a diaspora phenomenon. “When I have seen tofu vendors in Vietnam, they’re just selling tofu, sometimes soy milk, too. But the whole thing about these delis serving other dishes and having a menu, that’s the next level of Vietnamese American-ness,” says Andrea Nguyen, the cookbook author. The fusion of the Vietnamese tofu market stall with the German-Jewish-American delicatessen is an adaptation of one shopping culture to another, a synthesis encouraged along by the generous real estate of the California strip mall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanh Son isn’t the only kind of Vietnamese tofu deli that’s out there. Some, like Binh Minh (1180 Tully Road) or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904913/vietnamese-drinks-boba-che-guide-san-jose\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hung Vuong\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1741 Berryessa Road), serve only vegetarian food, in accordance with a Buddhist monk’s diet. Not all Vietnamese Buddhists are vegetarian, but many do observe a vegetarian diet on occasion as an act of religious piety. These Buddhist delis have a slightly different format than their non-vegetarian peers, with a greater focus on hot prepared meals and, of course, the presence of lots of Buddhist tchotchkes on sale. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905362\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905362\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A Buddha statue is displayed prominently inside a Vietnamese deli.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/007_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Buddha statue is displayed prominently inside Dong Phuong’s McKee Road shopping center location. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dong Phuong Tofu is a longstanding example of this alternative format; it has stood across from Lion Market in the heart of San Jose’s Little Saigon for almost two decades. There are meditation CDs and Buddhist scripture posters for sale at the doorway, and a small selection of specialty groceries like vegetarian fish sauce and pork floss displayed on a wooden island in the middle of the store. At the front, hungry patrons dawdle trying to decide between the two dozen dishes in the hot food counter tubs as well as everything else on the large menu of made-to-order food tacked up on the wall. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The star attractions are the meatless stir-fries, rice noodles and other mealtime staples at the hot food counter. The staff at Dong Phuong make the tofu for these dishes on site, which gives its lemongrass tofu, for example, a springy chew that other restaurants can’t pull off. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“In a lopsided American food system that gives artisanal food to the rich and the processed scraps to the poor, fresh tofu is the rare luxury that remains stubbornly affordable.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While some vegetarian diets, like those of brahminical Hindus or white American hippies, shy away from the close imitation of meat, East Asian vegetarianism doesn’t have such scruples. Some of the double-take-inducing dishes on display at the hot counter include seitan “fish” battered, deep fried and coated in a brown sauce, as well as a pork belly clay pot where the “belly” has convincing stripes of konjac jelly “fat.” Some of the seitan is made in the kitchen, but the most convincing meat substitutes are sourced from specialized Asian fake-meat producers, who have been operating on the continent long before the Impossible Burger was an idea in a Stanford biochemist’s head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The quick service counter at delis such as Dong Phuong plug an important hole in the market, providing convenient and tasty meals at a price better than sit-down vegetarian places like Green Lotus, which is just across the street. Plus the quality of the food doesn’t suffer despite sitting out for most of the day: Tofu and seitan dishes only suck up more flavor during a long marination time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905363\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905363\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two customers browse the display of goods inside a Vietnamese deil.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/013_SanJose_DongPhuong_10072021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Customers browse a small display of grocery items at Dong Phuong. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">O\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n a recent Saturday, I visited both Thanh Son and Dong Phuong to assemble a three-course, under $20, all-tofu lunch, with the former providing an appetizer (fried tofu) and dessert (ginger tofu pudding), and the latter providing the entree (lemongrass tofu with rice noodles). Afterwards, I sat on the lip of the Grand Century mall fountain, set out my assorted tofu, and thought about how lucky the neighborhood is to have this abundance. In a lopsided American food system that gives artisanal food to the rich and the processed scraps to the poor, fresh tofu is the rare luxury that remains stubbornly affordable, able to be enjoyed by all. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I ate, I couldn’t stop thinking of the melancholy note on which my conversation with Nguyen ended: “I think that we take for granted what is available in these enclaves,” she mused. “Because I think, my God, how lucky are we to be in America and be standing here, waiting in line to buy this tofu that’s been freshly made. It’s not the same as going to buy it on a wet market in Vietnam, but gosh darn it, it’s a very similar experience. I think about the many depths of these experiences. And I said to myself: How fucking lucky am I? How long is that going to last?“\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>Nguyen points out that young Vietnamese Americans usually aren’t the ones behind the register at these tofu shops, but an older generation of first wave immigrants. She’s worried that the graying of the community might spell an end for the tofu. There’s some precedent for this in San Jose: The last tofu maker in Japantown, San Jose Tofu Company, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/30/san-jose-tofu-japantowns-gem-closes-its-doors-after-71-years/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> three years ago after the retirement of its owners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But perhaps tofu will survive in San Jose like it always has. Hodo Soy, the buzzy, high-end tofu factory now based in Oakland, got its start in the South Bay. The company is owned by Minh Tsai, whose parents would bring him to traditional tofu stands in Vietnam when he was a child. Tsai started making the product for his new brand at Sogo Tofu, San Jose’s only Taiwanese tofu makers, and his dense style of tofu still betrays a strong Chinese influence. And when it came time to introduce his line to a wider audience, he opted for Japanese terminology, like “yuba” for tofu skins. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maybe the next generation of South Bay tofu entrepreneurs will be more like Tsai: multicultural in emphasis, reflecting the diverse history of tofu making in San Jose itself. Still, what’s lost \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-23/the-california-startup-selling-america-on-tofu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in the hype\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is that companies like Hodo stand on the shoulders of the humble strip mall tofu shops, which have been making fresh bean curd with care and sophistication, and with little fanfare, long before mainstream America deemed the product worthy of fine-dining menus. Let’s keep their memory alive, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: This article originally stated that Minh Tsai’s father was a tofu maker. He was not.\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>Adesh Thapliyal is KQED Arts’ Editorial Intern. Previously, he wrote for the experimental newsletter \u003c/em>Tone Glow\u003cem> and the pop music blog \u003c/em>The Singles Jukebox\u003cem>.\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>Mai Ly and Truc Tran provided interpretation for this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Bay Area’s Most Famous Ethiopian Restaurant Started With a Love Story",
"headTitle": "The Bay Area’s Most Famous Ethiopian Restaurant Started With a Love Story | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905234\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905234\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a bright yellow dress poses for a portrait inside her restaurant.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zeni Gebremariam opened her namesake restaurant in San Jose almost 20 years ago. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]K[/dropcap]eeping a restaurant afloat through a pandemic might not be easy. But for Zeni Gebremariam, owner of \u003ca href=\"https://zeniethiopianrestaurant.com/\">Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant\u003c/a>, it doesn’t come close to being the biggest challenge she’s faced: Long before she even thought about opening a restaurant, Gebremariam had to help the love of her life escape from a prison camp in Ethiopia just to have the chance to leave the country. It has been a long road to success.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, visitors know they’ve arrived at Gebremariam’s restaurant well before they enter its doors. There’s an aromatic warmth that trails off from the kitchen’s bubbling clay pots and sizzling cast iron pans and into the surrounds of the neighborhood—the scent of cardamom pods, paprika, caramelizing onions and freshly cut hot peppers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nestled in an unassuming row of small businesses in the westside of San Jose, Zeni has built an outsized reputation in the Bay Area: Many in the community confidently say it’s the most exceptional Ethiopian restaurant in Northern California. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You know you’ve arrived when your Ethiopian wedding or event has Zeni as your caterer,” says Yemi Getachew, a San Jose-based immigration lawyer. “People won’t miss it because they don’t want to miss out on the food.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, it makes sense that the Bay Area’s finest Ethiopian restaurants would be located in San Jose. The first wave of Ethiopian immigrants and refugees arrived in the United States in the ’80s and ’90s, fleeing the long civil war back home. These newcomers built up particularly strong bases in places like Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Minneapolis and the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"left\"]“Long before she even thought about opening a restaurant, Gebremariam had to help the love of her life escape from a prison camp in Ethiopia.”[/pullquote]In the case of the San Jose area, specifically, the first dot-com bubble in the mid ’90s created a demand for an incredible amount of labor to build the electronic components for personal computers, which were quickly becoming a domestic necessity in American homes. Companies like IBM and Cisco went on a hiring spree to keep up with the demand, coinciding with the surge of new immigrants. Ethiopians came to Silicon Valley to take these jobs, and many ended up staying in the area. According to some estimates, the Ethiopian population has swelled to roughly 25,000 in Santa Clara County alone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what makes Zeni so uniquely special isn’t just a matter of demographics. Instead, there’s a love story at the heart of the restaurant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Gebremariam and her late husband Abebaw “Muna” Feki opened their restaurant almost 20 years ago, they first had to risk their lives to be together. As a member of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) when he was just a teenager, Feki fought against the Derg, the oppressive military regime that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. When Feki wound up getting captured, Gebremariam—who was already married to him at the time—immediately started working with Feki’s family on a scheme to free him.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905252\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905252\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Colorful, long-necked painted bottles arranged on a countertop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Painted long-necked bottles for serving tej, or traditional Ethiopian honey wine. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“His family found a guard to bribe, so when he escaped, the camp never knew he was missing,” Gebremariam recalls. These days, she’s an unflappable veteran of the restaurant industry, but at the time she was just a scared kid. Even then, however, Gebremariam was incredibly clever and resourceful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in Addis Ababa, the teenage lovers decided that the only way to ensure their safety was to flee the country altogether. But it wasn’t until the Derg’s crushing rule was nearly over that they were able to make it to Kenya. Gebremariam went ahead to Nairobi first and found a house while Feki finished school. Eventually, he was able to join her, having secured a temporary stay as an agricultural specialist. Once they both got out of Ethiopia they applied for resettlement in the U.S., which was granted to them in 1991.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the young couple arrived in San Jose, Feki took one of those tech jobs building semiconductors for IBM. After long shifts, he would come home and shuttle orders of homemade Ethiopian food that Gebremariam had made—she’d started a small, informal business catering to other Ethiopians hungry for a taste of home. Eventually, Feki was so inspired by his wife’s passion for cooking that he quit his job and mortgaged the house. He spent the remaining years of his life helping Gebremariam realize her vision of opening and running a successful restaurant. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“[Feki] absolutely loved and adored his wife and wanted to give her whatever it was she wanted,” Getachew, the immigration lawyer, says. “He became the backbone to her dream, and out of that, Zeni Restaurant was born.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905254\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905254\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman cooks a large pot of stew in a restaurant kitchen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gebremariam says she learned to cook by watching her mother. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ake no mistake about it, though: Zeni is \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gebremariam’s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> success story through and through. These days, everyone in the Ethiopian community knows about the restaurant, often traveling from distant corners of the Bay just to enjoy a meal. For many years it was one of the only Ethiopian restaurants recommended by the Bay Area edition of the Michelin Guide. Zeni is known for its stunning interior, too: Inside, natural light floods into the space during the day, illuminating the dense, colorful textures of traditional textiles, cultural artifacts and the handmade thatched hut that is the centerpiece of the dining room. The all-female staff works with a level of such collective grace that they almost seem choreographed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then, of course, there’s the food, which is spectacular. The base of every order should be the restaurant’s vegetarian combo, a special assortment of five vegetable dishes, each with its own distinct character. For her atakelt wot, for instance, Gebremariam slightly caramelizes cabbage, potatoes and carrots, then enrobes the trio in a delicate turmeric broth. The beg tibs—Getachew’s favorite—is made with cubes of fresh lamb that have been lightly fried in spiced clarified butter called niter kibbeh and tossed with sweet white onions and green peppers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Yemi Getachew\"]“You know you’ve arrived when your Ethiopian wedding or event has Zeni as your caterer.”[/pullquote]You can amplify any of the meat dishes with a fiery spice blend called mitmita, which is made with a base of piri piri peppers and acts as the perfect dip for any of the kitfo options on the menu. Gebremariam is originally from the lush Gurage region, an area in central Ethiopia that’s famous for kitfo, making Zeni a destination for the specialty dish. It’s made with succulent cuts of beef or chicken that are minced and then hand-mixed with aromatic niter kibbeh. Every dish has a comforting quality that’s more like home cooking than restaurant food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I didn’t go to culinary school, and I learned everything by watching my mother cook,” Gebremariam says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905250\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905250\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of colorful Ethiopian dishes arranged on top of a layer of injera.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to the restaurant’s many fans, Zeni serves some of the very best Ethiopian food in Northern California. \u003ccite>(Tana Yonas)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The restaurant itself is a pillar of the Santa Clara County Ethiopian community. Gebremariam is known for helping new immigrants get settled in the area, helping them find affordable housing and work. According to Getachew, “Whenever someone in the community faces an adversity, like a death or a sickness in the family, Zeni has always gone to their home with food.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One sign of how beloved the restaurant is among Ethiopians in San Jose: There are almost always one or two yellow cabs parked right outside while the owners enjoy a quick meal—taxi driving being one of the most common professions for Ethiopians when they first immigrate to the U.S.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it isn’t just Ethiopians who love Zeni. According to Gebremariam, people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds have flocked to the restaurant since the day it opened its doors. “When you look around the restaurant, especially on the weekend, it’s like the United Nations. You see people from all walks of life. It’s so diverse that it’s almost unbelievable,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a way, this isn’t surprising: Part of Ethiopia’s history is its connection to ancient maritime spice routes that linked the East with the West. This is why the cuisine features ingredients—cumin, turmeric, cloves and fenugreek—that have a botanical origin as far away as Southeast Asia. It’s food with true international appeal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905253\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905253\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Restaurant owner in a face mask speaks to a smiling customer.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gebremariam greets friends at her restaurant, which has become a fixture in the South Bay Ethiopian community. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many customers, though, this is their first exposure to Ethiopian food. And Zeni is a hospitable place for novices to the cuisine too. The waitstaff is well practiced with their patient charade of the correct techniques for eating the injera—the crepe-like bread made with fermented teff grain—that’s used to scoop up different dishes. They explain how it’s used in place of utensils, adding a special nuance to the dining experience. (According to Gebremariam, using your hands makes whatever you’re eating taste more delicious.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zeni is also one of just a handful of places in the Bay Area where you can experience a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Ethiopia is famously the birthplace of both the coffee plant and coffee culture—it’s the world’s only coffee-growing country that consumes more of the crop than it exports. At Zeni, a whole portion of the restaurant is dedicated to the ritual. During each brew, clouds of frankincense and myrrh billow from a piece of charcoal, commingling with the smell of the roasting coffee that’s prepared in the same space. Guests are served one by one, just like how someone in Addis Ababa would do if a close friend or family member stops by for a chat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“To me, cooking and feeding people is an art, and I love what I do because of that,” Gebremariam says. “Cooking and representing my country is my passion.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905251\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905251\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Ten ceramic coffee cups arranged on a small table.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Traditional Ethiopian coffee service is a relative rarity in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Tana Yonas)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s is the case for so many restaurants, the pandemic has been a blow to the business. Zeni closed for two months when the statewide stay-at-home orders first went into effect, and even after it reopened, people seemed to want to order takeout instead of dining in. Before the pandemic, Gebremariam recalls, “There was an hour-and-a-half wait, and now it’s not too busy.” She misses the days when some guests would fly to San Jose just to try her food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13904861,arts_13905153,arts_13904835' label='More San Jose Food']Still, Gebremariam remains optimistic. Her son Zeru Feki says she could simply step away from the restaurant now without major repercussions. But she doesn’t want to. “What really stands out is her resiliency throughout this whole thing,” Zeru proudly says of his mother.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This isn’t the only time Zeni has faced a monumental transition. The first was when Feki passed away in 2010 after an intense five-year battle with cancer. In many ways, though, the love that he and Gebremariam shared continues to be the foundation of what makes the restaurant a special place.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One way you see that love express itself at the restaurant is through “gorsha,” an Ethiopian tradition of feeding one another mouthfuls of food by hand. At Zeni, you might see this loving gesture for yourself if you let your eyes follow the laughter. Often the person offering the gorsha makes the bite almost impossible to eat in one go—a challenge that the eater might accept with a coy smile. It’s just one of many acts of care that you might experience during a meal at Zeni—moments when you’ll feel an intimate warmth at the dinner table. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\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\">\u003cbr>\n\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tana Yonas is a Berkeley and Los Angeles–based artist and writer who explores the culture and stories of under-represented communities through the lens of food and music. She’s a regular contributor for the popular vinyl cultural outfit In Sheep’s Clothing HiFi and a resident of Radio Alhara in Palestine. Follow her on Instagram \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/passionfruit.wav/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">@passionfruit.wav\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905234\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905234\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a bright yellow dress poses for a portrait inside her restaurant.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/003_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zeni Gebremariam opened her namesake restaurant in San Jose almost 20 years ago. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">K\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>eeping a restaurant afloat through a pandemic might not be easy. But for Zeni Gebremariam, owner of \u003ca href=\"https://zeniethiopianrestaurant.com/\">Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant\u003c/a>, it doesn’t come close to being the biggest challenge she’s faced: Long before she even thought about opening a restaurant, Gebremariam had to help the love of her life escape from a prison camp in Ethiopia just to have the chance to leave the country. It has been a long road to success.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, visitors know they’ve arrived at Gebremariam’s restaurant well before they enter its doors. There’s an aromatic warmth that trails off from the kitchen’s bubbling clay pots and sizzling cast iron pans and into the surrounds of the neighborhood—the scent of cardamom pods, paprika, caramelizing onions and freshly cut hot peppers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nestled in an unassuming row of small businesses in the westside of San Jose, Zeni has built an outsized reputation in the Bay Area: Many in the community confidently say it’s the most exceptional Ethiopian restaurant in Northern California. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You know you’ve arrived when your Ethiopian wedding or event has Zeni as your caterer,” says Yemi Getachew, a San Jose-based immigration lawyer. “People won’t miss it because they don’t want to miss out on the food.”\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\">In many ways, it makes sense that the Bay Area’s finest Ethiopian restaurants would be located in San Jose. The first wave of Ethiopian immigrants and refugees arrived in the United States in the ’80s and ’90s, fleeing the long civil war back home. These newcomers built up particularly strong bases in places like Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Minneapolis and the Bay Area. \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>In the case of the San Jose area, specifically, the first dot-com bubble in the mid ’90s created a demand for an incredible amount of labor to build the electronic components for personal computers, which were quickly becoming a domestic necessity in American homes. Companies like IBM and Cisco went on a hiring spree to keep up with the demand, coinciding with the surge of new immigrants. Ethiopians came to Silicon Valley to take these jobs, and many ended up staying in the area. According to some estimates, the Ethiopian population has swelled to roughly 25,000 in Santa Clara County alone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what makes Zeni so uniquely special isn’t just a matter of demographics. Instead, there’s a love story at the heart of the restaurant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Gebremariam and her late husband Abebaw “Muna” Feki opened their restaurant almost 20 years ago, they first had to risk their lives to be together. As a member of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) when he was just a teenager, Feki fought against the Derg, the oppressive military regime that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. When Feki wound up getting captured, Gebremariam—who was already married to him at the time—immediately started working with Feki’s family on a scheme to free him.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905252\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905252\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Colorful, long-necked painted bottles arranged on a countertop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/005_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Painted long-necked bottles for serving tej, or traditional Ethiopian honey wine. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“His family found a guard to bribe, so when he escaped, the camp never knew he was missing,” Gebremariam recalls. These days, she’s an unflappable veteran of the restaurant industry, but at the time she was just a scared kid. Even then, however, Gebremariam was incredibly clever and resourceful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in Addis Ababa, the teenage lovers decided that the only way to ensure their safety was to flee the country altogether. But it wasn’t until the Derg’s crushing rule was nearly over that they were able to make it to Kenya. Gebremariam went ahead to Nairobi first and found a house while Feki finished school. Eventually, he was able to join her, having secured a temporary stay as an agricultural specialist. Once they both got out of Ethiopia they applied for resettlement in the U.S., which was granted to them in 1991.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the young couple arrived in San Jose, Feki took one of those tech jobs building semiconductors for IBM. After long shifts, he would come home and shuttle orders of homemade Ethiopian food that Gebremariam had made—she’d started a small, informal business catering to other Ethiopians hungry for a taste of home. Eventually, Feki was so inspired by his wife’s passion for cooking that he quit his job and mortgaged the house. He spent the remaining years of his life helping Gebremariam realize her vision of opening and running a successful restaurant. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“[Feki] absolutely loved and adored his wife and wanted to give her whatever it was she wanted,” Getachew, the immigration lawyer, says. “He became the backbone to her dream, and out of that, Zeni Restaurant was born.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905254\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905254\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman cooks a large pot of stew in a restaurant kitchen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/006_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gebremariam says she learned to cook by watching her mother. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">M\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ake no mistake about it, though: Zeni is \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gebremariam’s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> success story through and through. These days, everyone in the Ethiopian community knows about the restaurant, often traveling from distant corners of the Bay just to enjoy a meal. For many years it was one of the only Ethiopian restaurants recommended by the Bay Area edition of the Michelin Guide. Zeni is known for its stunning interior, too: Inside, natural light floods into the space during the day, illuminating the dense, colorful textures of traditional textiles, cultural artifacts and the handmade thatched hut that is the centerpiece of the dining room. The all-female staff works with a level of such collective grace that they almost seem choreographed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then, of course, there’s the food, which is spectacular. The base of every order should be the restaurant’s vegetarian combo, a special assortment of five vegetable dishes, each with its own distinct character. For her atakelt wot, for instance, Gebremariam slightly caramelizes cabbage, potatoes and carrots, then enrobes the trio in a delicate turmeric broth. The beg tibs—Getachew’s favorite—is made with cubes of fresh lamb that have been lightly fried in spiced clarified butter called niter kibbeh and tossed with sweet white onions and green peppers. \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>You can amplify any of the meat dishes with a fiery spice blend called mitmita, which is made with a base of piri piri peppers and acts as the perfect dip for any of the kitfo options on the menu. Gebremariam is originally from the lush Gurage region, an area in central Ethiopia that’s famous for kitfo, making Zeni a destination for the specialty dish. It’s made with succulent cuts of beef or chicken that are minced and then hand-mixed with aromatic niter kibbeh. Every dish has a comforting quality that’s more like home cooking than restaurant food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I didn’t go to culinary school, and I learned everything by watching my mother cook,” Gebremariam says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905250\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905250\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of colorful Ethiopian dishes arranged on top of a layer of injera.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_food_tanayonas-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to the restaurant’s many fans, Zeni serves some of the very best Ethiopian food in Northern California. \u003ccite>(Tana Yonas)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The restaurant itself is a pillar of the Santa Clara County Ethiopian community. Gebremariam is known for helping new immigrants get settled in the area, helping them find affordable housing and work. According to Getachew, “Whenever someone in the community faces an adversity, like a death or a sickness in the family, Zeni has always gone to their home with food.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One sign of how beloved the restaurant is among Ethiopians in San Jose: There are almost always one or two yellow cabs parked right outside while the owners enjoy a quick meal—taxi driving being one of the most common professions for Ethiopians when they first immigrate to the U.S.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it isn’t just Ethiopians who love Zeni. According to Gebremariam, people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds have flocked to the restaurant since the day it opened its doors. “When you look around the restaurant, especially on the weekend, it’s like the United Nations. You see people from all walks of life. It’s so diverse that it’s almost unbelievable,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a way, this isn’t surprising: Part of Ethiopia’s history is its connection to ancient maritime spice routes that linked the East with the West. This is why the cuisine features ingredients—cumin, turmeric, cloves and fenugreek—that have a botanical origin as far away as Southeast Asia. It’s food with true international appeal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905253\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905253\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Restaurant owner in a face mask speaks to a smiling customer.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/001_SanJose_ZeniEthiopianRestaurant_10222021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gebremariam greets friends at her restaurant, which has become a fixture in the South Bay Ethiopian community. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many customers, though, this is their first exposure to Ethiopian food. And Zeni is a hospitable place for novices to the cuisine too. The waitstaff is well practiced with their patient charade of the correct techniques for eating the injera—the crepe-like bread made with fermented teff grain—that’s used to scoop up different dishes. They explain how it’s used in place of utensils, adding a special nuance to the dining experience. (According to Gebremariam, using your hands makes whatever you’re eating taste more delicious.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zeni is also one of just a handful of places in the Bay Area where you can experience a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Ethiopia is famously the birthplace of both the coffee plant and coffee culture—it’s the world’s only coffee-growing country that consumes more of the crop than it exports. At Zeni, a whole portion of the restaurant is dedicated to the ritual. During each brew, clouds of frankincense and myrrh billow from a piece of charcoal, commingling with the smell of the roasting coffee that’s prepared in the same space. Guests are served one by one, just like how someone in Addis Ababa would do if a close friend or family member stops by for a chat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“To me, cooking and feeding people is an art, and I love what I do because of that,” Gebremariam says. “Cooking and representing my country is my passion.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13905251\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13905251\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Ten ceramic coffee cups arranged on a small table.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Zeni_coffeecups_TanaYonas-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Traditional Ethiopian coffee service is a relative rarity in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Tana Yonas)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>s is the case for so many restaurants, the pandemic has been a blow to the business. Zeni closed for two months when the statewide stay-at-home orders first went into effect, and even after it reopened, people seemed to want to order takeout instead of dining in. Before the pandemic, Gebremariam recalls, “There was an hour-and-a-half wait, and now it’s not too busy.” She misses the days when some guests would fly to San Jose just to try her food. \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>Still, Gebremariam remains optimistic. Her son Zeru Feki says she could simply step away from the restaurant now without major repercussions. But she doesn’t want to. “What really stands out is her resiliency throughout this whole thing,” Zeru proudly says of his mother.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This isn’t the only time Zeni has faced a monumental transition. The first was when Feki passed away in 2010 after an intense five-year battle with cancer. In many ways, though, the love that he and Gebremariam shared continues to be the foundation of what makes the restaurant a special place.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One way you see that love express itself at the restaurant is through “gorsha,” an Ethiopian tradition of feeding one another mouthfuls of food by hand. At Zeni, you might see this loving gesture for yourself if you let your eyes follow the laughter. Often the person offering the gorsha makes the bite almost impossible to eat in one go—a challenge that the eater might accept with a coy smile. It’s just one of many acts of care that you might experience during a meal at Zeni—moments when you’ll feel an intimate warmth at the dinner table. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"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\">\u003cbr>\n\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tana Yonas is a Berkeley and Los Angeles–based artist and writer who explores the culture and stories of under-represented communities through the lens of food and music. She’s a regular contributor for the popular vinyl cultural outfit In Sheep’s Clothing HiFi and a resident of Radio Alhara in Palestine. Follow her on Instagram \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/passionfruit.wav/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">@passionfruit.wav\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": "Social Media Kitchen Confidential",
"headTitle": "Social Media Kitchen Confidential | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01.jpg\" alt=\"The title, "Social Media Kitchen Confidential," is written as though it's part of a Facebook post, with an illustration of a bowl of soup noodles above.\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905157\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02.jpg\" alt=\"A takeout container with Vietnamese clam rice, with fresh herbs, peanuts, clams and pickled vegetables all divided into different compartments. The speech bubble reads, "This is the best com hen I've ever had!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905158\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03.jpg\" alt=\"Two men lean over takeout cartons, shoveling food into their mouths with spoons. The speech bubbles read, "I know! Right?" "Where did you get this?" "I have no idea."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905159\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Two men converse at the table, spoons held aloft in mid-bite. The speech bubbles read, "What do you mean you have no idea? This is amazing!" "You've got to write about this place."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Balding man with glasses holds up his finger to his mouth and says "Shhh!" Speech bubbles read: "Dude, be cool. Keep your voice down!" "Don't you think I already thought of writing about this place?" "I can't!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905161\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man in glasses covers up his friend's mouth. Speech bubbles read, "What? What do you mean you can't y...mmmm mmmm mm mm" "Dude!" "Okay! If you'll shut up I'll tell you how I got this."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905181\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is describing a conversation with his mother; that scene appears above as a flashback. Speech bubbles: "So the other day I was going to a potluck and I really wanted to impress, so I asked my mom: 'Mom, can you order me the best spring rolls in San Jose?' Alright! I got you, son.'"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905163\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is driving his car. Speech bubbles read, "So then, the next day I go to pick up the spring rolls. 'Mom, where's this restaurant that I'm supposed to pick them up at?' 'Just drive to the address that I texted you.'"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-13905164\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is sitting in his parked car, tapping on his cellphone. Speech bubble: "Ok, now park by the biggest tree on the left and have exactly 22 dollars in cash in your hand. Text this number..."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905165\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man continues to wait inside his parked car. Speech bubble: "Now just wait a few minutes."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905166\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man sitting in his car is surprised by a woman who shows up at the passenger's side window. Speech bubble: "Here's your order!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905167\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Back in the present day, the man is again talking to his friend. Speech bubbles: "That day I learned..." "...two things."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905168\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The main character is enjoying a spring roll along with a female friend. Speech bubbles: "Number one: These really were the best spring rolls." "So light, so crunchy, so flavorful." "Wow, these are so good. Thanks for bringing them!" "Where did you get them?"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905169\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is pointing to an imaginary digital cube that represents the social media network. Speech bubble: "And number two: There is a huge underground social media network of Vietnamese kitchens in San Jose."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905170\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man's mother is showing him something on her smartphone. Speech bubbles: "So in an unprecedented role reversal, I had to ask my mom for help with social media." "See, all you have to do is tap this little house, then tap this circle that looks like 3 people. Then you find the group that you want, click this button that says join. The group is private, so you'll have to wait until they approve you."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man lifts up his glasses so that he can see his mother's phone more clearly. Speech bubble: "So if they approve you, you can see all the different kitchens post what food they are offering, how much it costs, and how to order. They even post pictures of all the delicious dishes..."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is talking on the phone. Speech bubbles: So even though I didn't get approved, I got the phone number from my mom and called them to see if I could write about them." "Hi! I want to write a story about your amazing spring rolls! I think it might give you some good exposu..." "Click!" "Hello?"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905173\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Man looks down at his phone, confused. Speech bubbles: "That's weird, I must not have been clear, I better call them again." "The number dialed does not exist, and may have never existed..."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is being poked by his angry mother. Speech bubbles: "Then, like 10 minutes later my mom called me." "What did you do? You just got me banned! Now I have to reapply! Keep your mouth shut. Don't tell anyone you're my son."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905175\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The two friends look down at their food, slightly stunned. Speech bubbles: "Whoa." "Yep. Now I have to beg my mom to order food for me. She'll only do it sometimes." "So when she does, I order a lot!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905176\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Man looks up, smiling, as he shows off another takeout contain full of rice, fried eggs, a pork chop, and more. Speech bubble: "So, are you ready for the most amazing com tam ever?"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\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>Thien Pham moved to San Jose when he was five years old, arriving straight from a refugee camp in Vietnam. His food-based memoir about his family’s immigration story will be out in Spring/Summer 2023 from First Second Books. Follow him on Instagram \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/\">@thiendog\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Exploring San Jose's underground network of Vietnamese kitchens—via social media.",
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"description": "Exploring San Jose's underground network of Vietnamese kitchens—via social media.",
"title": "Comic: San Jose's Underground Network of Vietnamese Kitchens | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>San Jose: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring San Jose’s wonderfully diverse immigrant food scene. A new installment will post each weekday from Oct. 20–29. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01.jpg\" alt=\"The title, "Social Media Kitchen Confidential," is written as though it's part of a Facebook post, with an illustration of a bowl of soup noodles above.\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-01-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905157\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02.jpg\" alt=\"A takeout container with Vietnamese clam rice, with fresh herbs, peanuts, clams and pickled vegetables all divided into different compartments. The speech bubble reads, "This is the best com hen I've ever had!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-02-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905158\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03.jpg\" alt=\"Two men lean over takeout cartons, shoveling food into their mouths with spoons. The speech bubbles read, "I know! Right?" "Where did you get this?" "I have no idea."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-03-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905159\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Two men converse at the table, spoons held aloft in mid-bite. The speech bubbles read, "What do you mean you have no idea? This is amazing!" "You've got to write about this place."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-04-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905160\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Balding man with glasses holds up his finger to his mouth and says "Shhh!" Speech bubbles read: "Dude, be cool. Keep your voice down!" "Don't you think I already thought of writing about this place?" "I can't!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-05-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905161\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man in glasses covers up his friend's mouth. Speech bubbles read, "What? What do you mean you can't y...mmmm mmmm mm mm" "Dude!" "Okay! If you'll shut up I'll tell you how I got this."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-06-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905181\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is describing a conversation with his mother; that scene appears above as a flashback. Speech bubbles: "So the other day I was going to a potluck and I really wanted to impress, so I asked my mom: 'Mom, can you order me the best spring rolls in San Jose?' Alright! I got you, son.'"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-07-1-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905163\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is driving his car. Speech bubbles read, "So then, the next day I go to pick up the spring rolls. 'Mom, where's this restaurant that I'm supposed to pick them up at?' 'Just drive to the address that I texted you.'"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-08-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-13905164\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is sitting in his parked car, tapping on his cellphone. Speech bubble: "Ok, now park by the biggest tree on the left and have exactly 22 dollars in cash in your hand. Text this number..."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-09-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905165\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man continues to wait inside his parked car. Speech bubble: "Now just wait a few minutes."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-10-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905166\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man sitting in his car is surprised by a woman who shows up at the passenger's side window. Speech bubble: "Here's your order!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-11-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905167\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Back in the present day, the man is again talking to his friend. Speech bubbles: "That day I learned..." "...two things."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-12-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905168\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The main character is enjoying a spring roll along with a female friend. Speech bubbles: "Number one: These really were the best spring rolls." "So light, so crunchy, so flavorful." "Wow, these are so good. Thanks for bringing them!" "Where did you get them?"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-13-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905169\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is pointing to an imaginary digital cube that represents the social media network. Speech bubble: "And number two: There is a huge underground social media network of Vietnamese kitchens in San Jose."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-14-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905170\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man's mother is showing him something on her smartphone. Speech bubbles: "So in an unprecedented role reversal, I had to ask my mom for help with social media." "See, all you have to do is tap this little house, then tap this circle that looks like 3 people. Then you find the group that you want, click this button that says join. The group is private, so you'll have to wait until they approve you."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-15-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man lifts up his glasses so that he can see his mother's phone more clearly. Speech bubble: "So if they approve you, you can see all the different kitchens post what food they are offering, how much it costs, and how to order. They even post pictures of all the delicious dishes..."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-16-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is talking on the phone. Speech bubbles: So even though I didn't get approved, I got the phone number from my mom and called them to see if I could write about them." "Hi! I want to write a story about your amazing spring rolls! I think it might give you some good exposu..." "Click!" "Hello?"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-17-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905173\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Man looks down at his phone, confused. Speech bubbles: "That's weird, I must not have been clear, I better call them again." "The number dialed does not exist, and may have never existed..."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-18-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The man is being poked by his angry mother. Speech bubbles: "Then, like 10 minutes later my mom called me." "What did you do? You just got me banned! Now I have to reapply! Keep your mouth shut. Don't tell anyone you're my son."\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-19-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905175\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: The two friends look down at their food, slightly stunned. Speech bubbles: "Whoa." "Yep. Now I have to beg my mom to order food for me. She'll only do it sometimes." "So when she does, I order a lot!"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-20-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13905176\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21.jpg\" alt=\"Comics panel: Man looks up, smiling, as he shows off another takeout contain full of rice, fried eggs, a pork chop, and more. Speech bubble: "So, are you ready for the most amazing com tam ever?"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-800x667.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-1020x850.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-768x640.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/10/Social_Media_Kitchen_PANEL-21-1536x1280.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" />\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>Thien Pham moved to San Jose when he was five years old, arriving straight from a refugee camp in Vietnam. His food-based memoir about his family’s immigration story will be out in Spring/Summer 2023 from First Second Books. Follow him on Instagram \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/\">@thiendog\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"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>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"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?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"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",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
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"imageURL": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nav-News-Nov2026ElectionCoverage@2x-7bd4aad4.png",
"description": "Get informed in minutes with our Voter Guide for California’s November 3 election."
},
"podcasts-radio": {},
"video-tv": {},
"events": {},
"support": {}
}
}
}