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"bio": "Alan Chazaro is the author of \u003cem>This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album\u003c/em> (Black Lawrence Press, 2019), \u003cem>Piñata Theory\u003c/em> (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), and \u003cem>Notes from the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge\u003c/em> (Ghost City Press, 2021). He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and a former Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellow at the University of San Francisco. He writes about sports, food, art, music, education, and culture while repping the Bay on \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/alan_chazaro\">Twitter\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alan_chazaro/?hl=en\">Instagram\u003c/a> at @alan_chazaro.",
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"title": "The Bay Area’s Taiwanese Food Scene Comes Into Its Own",
"headTitle": "The Bay Area’s Taiwanese Food Scene Comes Into Its Own | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897273\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg\" alt=\"A crowded night market in Keelung, Taiwan, lined with brightly lit food stalls\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by stockinasia/iStock; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, I’ve spent more time searching for Taiwanese food than I have actually eating it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve driven 90 minutes in traffic to snag a so-so plate of stinky tofu. I’ve stood in line for four hours for takeout Taiwanese breakfast. And who knows how long I’ve spent scouring online discussion forums and Yelp listings for even the briefest mention of lu rou fan or beef noodle soup?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many of the 30,000-plus Taiwanese Americans who live in the Bay Area, Taiwanese food is largely a cuisine of nostalgia. It’s a cuisine of memories from 10 or 20 years ago and 6,000 miles away. It’s the 24-hour shao bing and you tiao joint around the corner from my grandma’s apartment in Taipei, or the night market stall where my uncle first goaded me into trying stinky tofu, or the mango shaved ice that damn near saved my life on a sweltering mid-summer afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">isn’t\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a cuisine I get to experience much of in my day-to-day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Notwithstanding a handful of suburban enclaves in places like Fremont and Cupertino, the Bay Area has never really been known as a stronghold for Taiwanese food. In wide swaths of the region, you’d be lucky to find even \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese restaurant—and even then, the food might be a pale approximation of the real deal. As Christopher Lam, a San Francisco native who co-runs the beef noodle soup pop-up \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yilanfoods/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yilan Foods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, puts it, “When was the last time you could walk around the corner and find Taiwanese food?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are signs, however, that things are changing. One of the pleasant surprises of the pandemic has been the many new Taiwanese-inspired pop-ups and Instagram-based food businesses cropping up all over the Bay, many of them to much acclaim. Yilan Foods got a full write-up in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/New-Bay-Area-pop-up-is-delivering-on-a-Taiwanese-15883184.php\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; during the (now-paused) weekly pop-up’s tenure on Piedmont Avenue, it routinely sold out of its beef noodle soup, aka niu rou mian, just hours—sometimes even minutes—after opening online pre-orders for the week. An East Bay pop-up called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/home_flavory_eats/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Home Flavory Eats\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offering Taiwanese pineapple cake, or feng li su, became \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/9/22273464/home-flavory-eats-taiwanese-pineapple-cakes-lunar-new-year-washington-bakery\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">so popular\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that it had a weeks’ long waiting list at various points this past winter. And last month, when Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.taiwanbento.us/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Bento\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> served up boxes of dan bing and fan tuan at the restaurant’s first ever \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/19/22290174/taiwan-bento-dan-bing-scallion-egg-pancake-taiwanese-breakfast\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese breakfast\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> pop-up, the line of customers wound all the way around the block, all morning long.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897347\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1981px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897347\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg\" alt=\"Stacy Tang holds a steamed bun in the kitchen at her restaurant, Taiwan Bento.\" width=\"1981\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg 1981w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1981px) 100vw, 1981px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stacy Tang (left) prepares some steamed bao at her Oakland restaurant, Taiwan Bento. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, the demand is clearly there. There are signs, in fact, that the Bay Area is on the cusp of a Taiwanese food “moment,” as a new generation of Taiwanese American cooks joins the established South Bay mom-and-pop scene. These restaurants and pop-ups have brought the cuisine of their homeland into the spotlight—and given a flicker of hope to the stinky tofu lovers and niu rou mian connoisseurs among us, who walk around in a state of perpetual longing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>One of the World’s Greatest Food Destinations\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the problem is that in much of the United States, there still isn’t a tremendous amount of awareness about Taiwanese cuisine—or, for that matter, Taiwan itself—outside of the Taiwanese American community. The small island nation, located some 100 miles off the eastern coast of China, isn’t a member of the United Nations—and doesn’t, in fact, have official diplomatic relations with the vast majority of the countries in the world, including the United States. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, is perpetually \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/14/is-there-really-a-risk-that-china-will-go-to-war-with-taiwan\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">threatening to invade the island\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite those thorny geopolitics, Taiwan has garnered a reputation as one the world’s greatest food destinations. But that doesn’t mean its most famous dishes have really entered the mainstream food vernacular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stacy Tang, who runs Taiwan Bento along with her husband Willy Wang, says that when she first opened her restaurant in Oakland in 2014, many customers hadn’t even heard of Taiwan; they were just as likely to ask if the restaurant was serving Thai food. “A couple of people every week would ask, ‘What is Taiwan?’ or ‘Does Taiwan have anything to do with Japan?’” Tang says. On the menu, they listed their gua bao as a “Taiwanese sandwich” for fear that people wouldn’t understand what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As recently as three years ago, when Angie Lin and Tony Tung opened \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good to Eat Dumplings\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as a permanent pop-up inside Original Pattern Brewing in Oakland’s Jack London district, the wife-and-wife duo didn’t think the cuisine had enough name recognition for them to even use the word “Taiwanese” in their branding—even though the potstickers and other dumplings they sell are distinctly Taiwanese in style. “If it’s Thai style or Vietnamese style, there’s some sort of stereotype or general public perception,” Lin says. “For us, if we mention ‘Taiwanese,’ there’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">no\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> general perception.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even restaurants that do explicitly self-identify as Taiwanese are often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://projects.sfchronicle.com/guides/bay-area-chinese-cuisine/cuisines/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">miscategorized, in local food coverage, as “regional Chinese”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a politically fraught assertion that could be grounds for a fistfight if you make it in the wrong company. Though calling it a miscategorization might also be a bit too simplistic: As Lin explains, Taiwanese cuisine is a hodgepodge of influences that include the food of Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples, 50 years of Japanese occupation, dishes from many different regions of China (a result of the influx of transplants after the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949), hybridized dishes like beef noodle soup that were created by the defeated Nationalist soldiers who had fled to Taiwan, and the island’s ever-evolving street food culture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, it’s all of those influences, combined with the island’s incredible wealth of fresh produce, that give Taiwanese cuisine its own uniquely delicious character—with flavors that lean heavily on sesame oil, black bean paste and Taiwanese soy sauce, Lin explains. These are the tastes that so many Taiwanese Americans in the Bay Area have been missing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fueled by Nostalgia\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you do, then, if you’re a second-generation Taiwanese American kid in Oakland or San Francisco who has acquired a taste for beef noodle soup, but can’t find a bowl here that measures up to the ones you slurped down on Yongkang Street in Taipei? Maybe you try to reverse-engineer your own version.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That impulse, as much as anything, has driven the Bay Area’s new wave of Taiwanese food entrepreneurs. Fueled by nostalgia (and perhaps a little bit of desperation), these young Taiwanese American cooks are determined to replicate—and then elaborate on—the tastes and textures of whatever elusive dish first captured their imagination.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You have this memory set in your head,” says Eric Sim, who founded Yilan Foods along with Christopher Lam, Alex Tong and Itthisak “TT” Rampaiyakul. Searching for Taiwanese food in the Bay Area, Sim says, “it always felt like it was lacking something.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sim still thinks about the beef noodle soup stall outside his aunt’s apartment from a trip he took to visit his mother’s native Yilan, just southeast of Taipei, more than a decade ago. “I vividly remember which stall number it is on the street, and I can tell you that there’s a stinky tofu shop a block and a half away that serves potstickers that are amazing,” he says. “My fondest memories of Taiwan are food-related.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897357\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, garnished with cilantro and yellow daikon pickles.\" width=\"1125\" height=\"1115\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-800x793.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-1020x1011.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-768x761.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Yilan Foods pop-up’s signature lu rou fan. \u003ccite>(Yilan Foods)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the only person of Taiwanese descent on the Yilan Foods team, Sim says the business was inspired by his family’s recipes: a beef noodle soup that’s meant to make customers think, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This brings me back to Taiwan\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and a version of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, that’s made with hand-cut pork belly, just as all the best spots in Taiwan do. By all accounts, the pop-up has been wildly successful—enough so that its founders are in the process of securing a location for a full-fledged restaurant, most likely in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other efforts have been more localized in scale. Ashley Yan, who started an informal lu rou fan delivery service called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ashyan’s Lu Rou Fan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Francisco’s Richmond district this past winter, says her frustration with the local Taiwanese food scene, especially in SF proper, was the biggest motivation to perfect her own recipe—though getting laid off from her day job due to the pandemic also played a part: “I think it was a perfect storm,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Initially, Yan just gave away portions of her lu rou fan for free via her neighborhood’s “Buy Nothing” Facebook group. But the response was so overwhelmingly positive, Yan says, that she started taking orders and running deliveries all over the western part of the city. Each time, she’d sell out within a couple of hours. Yan has since stopped the pop-up for the time being, but her experience convinced her that the demand for Taiwanese food is as high as it has ever been: “I definitely think the Bay Area is ready for it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Daniel and Jeffrey Hsu say their ambitions aren’t limited to the Bay Area. In August, the brothers founded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mumumeals.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a San Francisco-based frozen beef noodle soup delivery service that currently ships all over the West Coast. But the company’s long-term goal is to ship to anywhere in the U.S. As Jeffrey puts it, “I want to bring Taiwanese food to the national scene.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the appeal of Mumu’s heat-and-eat niu rou mian is that it provides convenient access to a dish that so many Taiwanese Americans are homesick for. In parts of the country without a sizable Taiwanese population, it has the potential to be the best option available. But a broader sign of the company’s success is that it’s now reaching an audience that isn’t just Taiwanese—or even necessarily Asian, Jeffrey notes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That shift, perhaps as much as anything, shows the change in how Taiwanese food is now perceived—from something of a niche product, sold by immigrant chefs within their own communities, to a cuisine with recognizable mainstream appeal. In places like Los Angeles and New York, the nascent movement has already reached an even more advanced stage—to the point that many of the cities’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pineandcrane.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">trendiest\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/22412142/eric-sze-video-new-guard\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">name chef\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> restaurants are Taiwanese. Los Angeles now even has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.katorestaurant.com/menu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese-inspired fine dining\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Taiwanese Food Moment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taiwanese food having a bit of a moment here in the Bay Area? To an extent, the question itself feels slightly disrespectful, as though the cuisine were in need of outside validation—to say nothing of the many, many mom-and-pop Taiwanese restaurants that have been holding it down for years in the South Bay. But, for both the old standbys and the newcomers to the scene, there is a sense that more people are getting excited about Taiwanese food than ever before.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of those mainstays is the South Bay food truck \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mama Liu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which George Fan has run since 2014 along with his mother, Mimi Liu. During the pandemic, the truck has sold its menu of traditional Taiwanese street food dishes, including what many consider to be one of the best versions of stinky tofu available in the Bay, just once a week, almost exclusively to Taiwanese customers. Its pre-order form, accessible via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the truck’s Facebook page\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, isn’t even available in English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For businesses like Mama Liu, there’s no question that Taiwanese immigrants are the primary customer base. But these days, Fan says that he, too, is hopeful that customers of all different ethnicities might start to embrace his food. Lately, he says, he’s been asking himself, “How come Taiwanese beef noodle is not as popular as pho?” Maybe 2021 will be the year that becomes a legitimate debate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897361\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a bowl of beef noodle soup, garnished with bok choy and chopped scallions, on a wood table.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mumu’s frozen beef noodle soup may soon be available to ship anywhere in the U.S. \u003ccite>(Grace Lee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What I know is this: All of my earliest and most consequential food memories are from the trips my family took to Taipei when I was a kid. I remember the giddy feeling of walking around the Shilin night market for the first time with a fried chicken cutlet the size of a child’s baseball mitt. I remember the specific brand of instant noodle we used to buy at the convenience store. And I remember sitting at the table with my grandmother, long after everyone else had finished eating, bonding with her over our shared dedication to picking every last morsel of meat off a steamed fish head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since the start of the pandemic—or, really, since the last time I visited—I’ve been thinking about when I’d be able to board a plane to get back to Taiwan. But now, for maybe the first time, I’m also thinking about where I might eat Taiwanese food this weekend, here in the Bay Area—and wondering which dish will make me feel like I’ve gone home again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Fueled by nostalgia, a new generation of Taiwanese restaurants and pop-ups are shining a spotlight on the once-overlooked cuisine.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897273\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg\" alt=\"A crowded night market in Keelung, Taiwan, lined with brightly lit food stalls\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by stockinasia/iStock; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">F\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>or as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, I’ve spent more time searching for Taiwanese food than I have actually eating it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve driven 90 minutes in traffic to snag a so-so plate of stinky tofu. I’ve stood in line for four hours for takeout Taiwanese breakfast. And who knows how long I’ve spent scouring online discussion forums and Yelp listings for even the briefest mention of lu rou fan or beef noodle soup?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many of the 30,000-plus Taiwanese Americans who live in the Bay Area, Taiwanese food is largely a cuisine of nostalgia. It’s a cuisine of memories from 10 or 20 years ago and 6,000 miles away. It’s the 24-hour shao bing and you tiao joint around the corner from my grandma’s apartment in Taipei, or the night market stall where my uncle first goaded me into trying stinky tofu, or the mango shaved ice that damn near saved my life on a sweltering mid-summer afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">isn’t\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a cuisine I get to experience much of in my day-to-day. \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\">Notwithstanding a handful of suburban enclaves in places like Fremont and Cupertino, the Bay Area has never really been known as a stronghold for Taiwanese food. In wide swaths of the region, you’d be lucky to find even \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese restaurant—and even then, the food might be a pale approximation of the real deal. As Christopher Lam, a San Francisco native who co-runs the beef noodle soup pop-up \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yilanfoods/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yilan Foods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, puts it, “When was the last time you could walk around the corner and find Taiwanese food?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are signs, however, that things are changing. One of the pleasant surprises of the pandemic has been the many new Taiwanese-inspired pop-ups and Instagram-based food businesses cropping up all over the Bay, many of them to much acclaim. Yilan Foods got a full write-up in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/New-Bay-Area-pop-up-is-delivering-on-a-Taiwanese-15883184.php\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; during the (now-paused) weekly pop-up’s tenure on Piedmont Avenue, it routinely sold out of its beef noodle soup, aka niu rou mian, just hours—sometimes even minutes—after opening online pre-orders for the week. An East Bay pop-up called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/home_flavory_eats/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Home Flavory Eats\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offering Taiwanese pineapple cake, or feng li su, became \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/9/22273464/home-flavory-eats-taiwanese-pineapple-cakes-lunar-new-year-washington-bakery\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">so popular\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that it had a weeks’ long waiting list at various points this past winter. And last month, when Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.taiwanbento.us/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Bento\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> served up boxes of dan bing and fan tuan at the restaurant’s first ever \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/19/22290174/taiwan-bento-dan-bing-scallion-egg-pancake-taiwanese-breakfast\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese breakfast\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> pop-up, the line of customers wound all the way around the block, all morning long.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897347\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1981px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897347\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg\" alt=\"Stacy Tang holds a steamed bun in the kitchen at her restaurant, Taiwan Bento.\" width=\"1981\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg 1981w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1981px) 100vw, 1981px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stacy Tang (left) prepares some steamed bao at her Oakland restaurant, Taiwan Bento. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, the demand is clearly there. There are signs, in fact, that the Bay Area is on the cusp of a Taiwanese food “moment,” as a new generation of Taiwanese American cooks joins the established South Bay mom-and-pop scene. These restaurants and pop-ups have brought the cuisine of their homeland into the spotlight—and given a flicker of hope to the stinky tofu lovers and niu rou mian connoisseurs among us, who walk around in a state of perpetual longing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>One of the World’s Greatest Food Destinations\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the problem is that in much of the United States, there still isn’t a tremendous amount of awareness about Taiwanese cuisine—or, for that matter, Taiwan itself—outside of the Taiwanese American community. The small island nation, located some 100 miles off the eastern coast of China, isn’t a member of the United Nations—and doesn’t, in fact, have official diplomatic relations with the vast majority of the countries in the world, including the United States. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, is perpetually \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/14/is-there-really-a-risk-that-china-will-go-to-war-with-taiwan\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">threatening to invade the island\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite those thorny geopolitics, Taiwan has garnered a reputation as one the world’s greatest food destinations. But that doesn’t mean its most famous dishes have really entered the mainstream food vernacular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stacy Tang, who runs Taiwan Bento along with her husband Willy Wang, says that when she first opened her restaurant in Oakland in 2014, many customers hadn’t even heard of Taiwan; they were just as likely to ask if the restaurant was serving Thai food. “A couple of people every week would ask, ‘What is Taiwan?’ or ‘Does Taiwan have anything to do with Japan?’” Tang says. On the menu, they listed their gua bao as a “Taiwanese sandwich” for fear that people wouldn’t understand what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As recently as three years ago, when Angie Lin and Tony Tung opened \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good to Eat Dumplings\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as a permanent pop-up inside Original Pattern Brewing in Oakland’s Jack London district, the wife-and-wife duo didn’t think the cuisine had enough name recognition for them to even use the word “Taiwanese” in their branding—even though the potstickers and other dumplings they sell are distinctly Taiwanese in style. “If it’s Thai style or Vietnamese style, there’s some sort of stereotype or general public perception,” Lin says. “For us, if we mention ‘Taiwanese,’ there’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">no\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> general perception.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even restaurants that do explicitly self-identify as Taiwanese are often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://projects.sfchronicle.com/guides/bay-area-chinese-cuisine/cuisines/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">miscategorized, in local food coverage, as “regional Chinese”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a politically fraught assertion that could be grounds for a fistfight if you make it in the wrong company. Though calling it a miscategorization might also be a bit too simplistic: As Lin explains, Taiwanese cuisine is a hodgepodge of influences that include the food of Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples, 50 years of Japanese occupation, dishes from many different regions of China (a result of the influx of transplants after the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949), hybridized dishes like beef noodle soup that were created by the defeated Nationalist soldiers who had fled to Taiwan, and the island’s ever-evolving street food culture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, it’s all of those influences, combined with the island’s incredible wealth of fresh produce, that give Taiwanese cuisine its own uniquely delicious character—with flavors that lean heavily on sesame oil, black bean paste and Taiwanese soy sauce, Lin explains. These are the tastes that so many Taiwanese Americans in the Bay Area have been missing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fueled by Nostalgia\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you do, then, if you’re a second-generation Taiwanese American kid in Oakland or San Francisco who has acquired a taste for beef noodle soup, but can’t find a bowl here that measures up to the ones you slurped down on Yongkang Street in Taipei? Maybe you try to reverse-engineer your own version.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That impulse, as much as anything, has driven the Bay Area’s new wave of Taiwanese food entrepreneurs. Fueled by nostalgia (and perhaps a little bit of desperation), these young Taiwanese American cooks are determined to replicate—and then elaborate on—the tastes and textures of whatever elusive dish first captured their imagination.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You have this memory set in your head,” says Eric Sim, who founded Yilan Foods along with Christopher Lam, Alex Tong and Itthisak “TT” Rampaiyakul. Searching for Taiwanese food in the Bay Area, Sim says, “it always felt like it was lacking something.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sim still thinks about the beef noodle soup stall outside his aunt’s apartment from a trip he took to visit his mother’s native Yilan, just southeast of Taipei, more than a decade ago. “I vividly remember which stall number it is on the street, and I can tell you that there’s a stinky tofu shop a block and a half away that serves potstickers that are amazing,” he says. “My fondest memories of Taiwan are food-related.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897357\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, garnished with cilantro and yellow daikon pickles.\" width=\"1125\" height=\"1115\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-800x793.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-1020x1011.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-768x761.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Yilan Foods pop-up’s signature lu rou fan. \u003ccite>(Yilan Foods)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the only person of Taiwanese descent on the Yilan Foods team, Sim says the business was inspired by his family’s recipes: a beef noodle soup that’s meant to make customers think, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This brings me back to Taiwan\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and a version of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, that’s made with hand-cut pork belly, just as all the best spots in Taiwan do. By all accounts, the pop-up has been wildly successful—enough so that its founders are in the process of securing a location for a full-fledged restaurant, most likely in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other efforts have been more localized in scale. Ashley Yan, who started an informal lu rou fan delivery service called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ashyan’s Lu Rou Fan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Francisco’s Richmond district this past winter, says her frustration with the local Taiwanese food scene, especially in SF proper, was the biggest motivation to perfect her own recipe—though getting laid off from her day job due to the pandemic also played a part: “I think it was a perfect storm,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Initially, Yan just gave away portions of her lu rou fan for free via her neighborhood’s “Buy Nothing” Facebook group. But the response was so overwhelmingly positive, Yan says, that she started taking orders and running deliveries all over the western part of the city. Each time, she’d sell out within a couple of hours. Yan has since stopped the pop-up for the time being, but her experience convinced her that the demand for Taiwanese food is as high as it has ever been: “I definitely think the Bay Area is ready for it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Daniel and Jeffrey Hsu say their ambitions aren’t limited to the Bay Area. In August, the brothers founded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mumumeals.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a San Francisco-based frozen beef noodle soup delivery service that currently ships all over the West Coast. But the company’s long-term goal is to ship to anywhere in the U.S. As Jeffrey puts it, “I want to bring Taiwanese food to the national scene.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the appeal of Mumu’s heat-and-eat niu rou mian is that it provides convenient access to a dish that so many Taiwanese Americans are homesick for. In parts of the country without a sizable Taiwanese population, it has the potential to be the best option available. But a broader sign of the company’s success is that it’s now reaching an audience that isn’t just Taiwanese—or even necessarily Asian, Jeffrey notes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That shift, perhaps as much as anything, shows the change in how Taiwanese food is now perceived—from something of a niche product, sold by immigrant chefs within their own communities, to a cuisine with recognizable mainstream appeal. In places like Los Angeles and New York, the nascent movement has already reached an even more advanced stage—to the point that many of the cities’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pineandcrane.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">trendiest\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/22412142/eric-sze-video-new-guard\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">name chef\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> restaurants are Taiwanese. Los Angeles now even has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.katorestaurant.com/menu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese-inspired fine dining\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Taiwanese Food Moment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taiwanese food having a bit of a moment here in the Bay Area? To an extent, the question itself feels slightly disrespectful, as though the cuisine were in need of outside validation—to say nothing of the many, many mom-and-pop Taiwanese restaurants that have been holding it down for years in the South Bay. But, for both the old standbys and the newcomers to the scene, there is a sense that more people are getting excited about Taiwanese food than ever before.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of those mainstays is the South Bay food truck \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mama Liu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which George Fan has run since 2014 along with his mother, Mimi Liu. During the pandemic, the truck has sold its menu of traditional Taiwanese street food dishes, including what many consider to be one of the best versions of stinky tofu available in the Bay, just once a week, almost exclusively to Taiwanese customers. Its pre-order form, accessible via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the truck’s Facebook page\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, isn’t even available in English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For businesses like Mama Liu, there’s no question that Taiwanese immigrants are the primary customer base. But these days, Fan says that he, too, is hopeful that customers of all different ethnicities might start to embrace his food. Lately, he says, he’s been asking himself, “How come Taiwanese beef noodle is not as popular as pho?” Maybe 2021 will be the year that becomes a legitimate debate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897361\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a bowl of beef noodle soup, garnished with bok choy and chopped scallions, on a wood table.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mumu’s frozen beef noodle soup may soon be available to ship anywhere in the U.S. \u003ccite>(Grace Lee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What I know is this: All of my earliest and most consequential food memories are from the trips my family took to Taipei when I was a kid. I remember the giddy feeling of walking around the Shilin night market for the first time with a fried chicken cutlet the size of a child’s baseball mitt. I remember the specific brand of instant noodle we used to buy at the convenience store. And I remember sitting at the table with my grandmother, long after everyone else had finished eating, bonding with her over our shared dedication to picking every last morsel of meat off a steamed fish head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since the start of the pandemic—or, really, since the last time I visited—I’ve been thinking about when I’d be able to board a plane to get back to Taiwan. But now, for maybe the first time, I’m also thinking about where I might eat Taiwanese food this weekend, here in the Bay Area—and wondering which dish will make me feel like I’ve gone home again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "At Japantown Legacy Businesses Benkyodo and On the Bridge, Resilience is on the Menu",
"headTitle": "At Japantown Legacy Businesses Benkyodo and On the Bridge, Resilience is on the Menu | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]A[/dropcap] sea of little bottles in aqua, pink and seafoam green line the long bar of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://onthebridgesf.com/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Bridge\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Francisco\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfjapantown.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Japantown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Chef Mitsuhiro Nakamura is proud of his ability to choose the perfect sake from his collection to match the taste of any diner. But when the shelter in place started last spring, the restaurant Nakamura and his wife Yolanda had run for 30 years immediately lost 90 percent of its business due to its location on the narrow, enclosed bridgeway connecting the Japan Center’s West Mall and Kinokuniya building. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Without direct street access, On the Bridge was literally marooned.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco’s Japantown, as a whole, has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. Several businesses have \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/29/22254711/takara-sf-japantown-permanent-closure-japan-center-kiss-seafood\">permanently closed\u003c/a>, and those located in the malls have been in the toughest spots, in part due to a rent dispute with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11837511/whats-lost-in-bay-area-asian-culture-when-sf-eviction-moratorium-ends\">Japan Center landlords\u003c/a>. Still, legacy businesses like On the Bridge and the 115-year-old mochi shop Benkyodo have \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">managed to keep their doors open in spite of the challenges of the pandemic—even as their owners head into their 70s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=news_11846796,news_11837511 label='More on Japantown']For On the Bridge, the restaurant’s 85 different sakes and 27 Japanese beers (plus people’s pandemic thirst for alcohol) provided a lifeline to allow the Nakamuras to hold on and slowly inch their way back.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Besides describing the restaurant’s physical location in the mall, the name “On the Bridge” also represents the link that its yoshoku style dishes make between Japanese and European cuisines. Chef Nakamura says he was the first Bay Area chef to specialize in this style of fusion cooking, which traces its roots back to 1868, when Emperor Meiji first welcomed Western ideas as helpful for Japan’s progress. Some non-Japanese diners may be unfamiliar with yoshoku’s comforting standbys, but these are the dishes that Japanese mothers often make for their children: curries, cutlets, Japanese-style hamburgers, omu-rice (omelet stuffed with fried rice) and fish roe–studded spaghettis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896755\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-800x559.jpg\" alt=\"Omu-rice with squiggles of ketchup and mayonnaise on top. \" width=\"800\" height=\"559\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-800x559.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-1020x712.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-768x536.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-1536x1073.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-2048x1430.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-1920x1341.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Omu-rice is one of On the Bridge’s Japanese-style Western dishes. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At On the Bridge, Yolanda Nakamura says, many first-time customers don’t know what to make of the menu: “They sit down at the long wooden counter and ask ‘Where’s the sushi?’ When I tell them we have none, they say, ‘I thought in Japan everyone eats sushi, tempura and teriyaki—not spaghetti!’ Often, they walk out.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nevertheless, the restaurant’s comforting food has many devoted fans, not all of whom are Japanese. The punk rock icon \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/1/23/18193157/patti-smith-sf-japantown-restaurant-on-the-bridge\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Patti Smith, for instance, has often waxed rhapsodic\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about its 23 kinds of pasta and Lenny’s brand wasabi beer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Curries, in particular, are chef Nakamura’s specialty. “Curry is very hard to make,” Yolanda says. “Chef makes it from scratch, and it takes three to four days of slow cooking. Sometimes younger customers say, ‘I could make that much quicker with a mix.’ If the chef heard that, he would get upset, so I just push my husband away.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896756\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-800x465.jpg\" alt=\"Owners Yolanda (left) and Mitsuhiro Nakamura stand behind the bar at their restaurant On the Bridge. \" width=\"800\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-800x465.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-1020x593.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-160x93.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-768x446.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-1536x893.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-2048x1191.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-1920x1116.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yolanda (left) and Mitsuhiro Nakamura have run their yoshoku restaurant, On the Bridge, for more than 30 years. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the pandemic closed the mall, the restaurant’s new reliance on delivery apps and social media presented a big challenge for the Nakamuras. Luckily, their daughter Emi, 29, was able to help hook them up. But a more difficult problem was that since both entrances to the mall were closed, when a delivery app driver arrived, either the chef or Yolanda had to run downstairs—sometimes both of them, one to each entrance. The couple couldn’t leave the restaurant unattended, so eventually they hired back one of their employees to help.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each of the three times On the Bridge was allowed to reopen for indoor dining, alcohol was one of the bestsellers. Customers would sit down for a drink while waiting for a table at another restaurant. After dinner, they’d return for another round. The Nakamuras are cautiously hopeful now, as business seems to be picking up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even in the early weeks of the pandemic, when days went by with no sales, Yolanda says, “My husband was determined not to quit. He does it for the pleasure of cooking, not for the money. He’s 70, but not ready to retire.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’ll be here until my body doesn’t move anymore,” chef Nakamura says. “My job is to spread the love of sake.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896752\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896752\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-800x584.jpg\" alt=\"A man holds a tray of green mochi in paper sleeves.\" width=\"800\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-1020x745.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-768x561.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-1536x1121.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-2048x1495.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-1920x1402.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A tray of Benkyodo’s famous mochi. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]S[/dropcap]tuff, roll, pinch. That’s the mantra for handmade mochi. Ricky and Bobby Okamura, the owners of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.benkyodocompany.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benkyodo\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, repeat that process over 1,000 times a day, wrapping smooth rice flour skin around dollops of sweet bean paste five days a week for over 30 years now. Benkyodo itself has an even longer history: Open since 1906, the 115-year-old mochi shop is Japantown’s oldest business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the COVID-19 crisis couldn’t completely halt the mochi production line. Like a vintage engine, with fits and starts, it stopped, but eventually started up again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The pandemic was hard for us,” Bobby Okamura says. “We had to close for two and a half months.” Pre-COVID, the brothers made about 1,500 pieces of mochi and manju a day in 15 different flavors. Now, that figure is down to around 1,000 pieces in 7 to 10 flavors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The narrow space on Buchanan Street is about the size of a BART car. Across from the mochi display cases, there’s a low, diner-style lunch counter with red stools that has not changed for 50 years, where regulars would gather daily for coffee and catching up. But no more: With COVID guidelines, only two customers are allowed in the shop at a time—cash only, as has always been the case. Business is way down on weekdays, the Okamuras say, but Fridays and Saturdays often see a line of customers waiting in the plaza.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We could make [the mochi] by machine,” concedes Bobby, shaking his head. He’s now 66 and works from 7am to 4pm. “But all the pieces would look exactly the same, without the texture from being handmade. Ours have a unique taste, texture and look.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ricky, who is 70 and works from 5am to noon, puts it simply: “This is not easy work.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Mochi is very important to the community,” explains Alice Kawahatsu, a third-generation Japanese American who has brought visitors to Benkyodo on her Japantown Tasting Tour with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edibleexcursions.net/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Edible Excursions\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the past 10 years.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “It plays an essential role in several holidays, especially New Year’s. And it’s the perfect gift when visiting someone’s home.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The sweets are traditionally filled with red or white bean paste, but the Okamuras have added a few innovations, incorporating seasonal fruit such as strawberries, blueberries or mango.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Suyeichi Okamura, Ricky and Bobby’s grandfather, opened the original Benkyodo storefront in 1906, a few blocks away on Geary. Suyeichi is the one who coined the name Benkyodo, Bobby explains. He chose a word that means “affordable” to reassure community members that they could shop there comfortably. Suyeichi also penned the store’s motto: “Confections that win affections.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1942, Bobby and Ricky’s grandparents and father were sent to an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://amache.org/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">internment camp in Amache\u003c/span>\u003c/a>,\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Colorado. Suyeichi asked his Chinese neighbor to watch over his store while he was gone—which he did. His son, Hirofumi—Bobby and Ricky’s father—who was a teenager at the time, met his future wife, Sue, in the camp. They lived in that harsh and desolate place for three years, not knowing if their home and business would be there when they returned. Luckily, they were.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That history resonates with Kawahatsu, the Japantown tour guide, whose own mother and grandparents were incarcerated in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tulelake.org/history\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tule Lake\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The first and second generation sacrificed so much so that we could be here today to continue to share our rich history, stories and food with our families and others who visit and want to learn more about Japanese arts and food. There is a sense of obligation, but also a pride in our rich heritage.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The start of the pandemic in 2020 marked only the second time in its 115-year history that Benkyodo has had to close. Internment wasn’t able to kill the business. So far, it doesn’t look like COVID will be able to either.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896751\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896751\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-800x512.jpg\" alt=\"Benkyodo owners Ricky and Bobby Nakamura stuff pink mochi with white bean paste \" width=\"800\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-800x512.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-1020x653.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-768x492.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-1536x984.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-2048x1312.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-1920x1230.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After rolling mochi for more than 30 years, Ricky (left) and Bobby Okamura are finally getting ready to retire. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the Okamura brothers, the store has always been part of their lives, as they lived with their family in an apartment upstairs. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But their father didn’t force them to take over the store, they point out. (“It \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was an option,” Bobby says.) Now, after years of speculation swirling around the community about whether Benkyodo will be sold or closed, Bobby and Ricky have finally decided to retire at the end of the year. They are actively negotiating with possible buyers. “Our strong preference would be for a family member,” says Bobby. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the Okamuras aren’t able to find a buyer, it would be a huge loss to the Bay Area’s Japanese American community, Kawahatsu says. “No other place compares to its delicious confections or its rich history and legacy.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite the long hours and physical demands of their work, Bobby says, “We have been happy to serve our community and glad that people enjoy what we make.” \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\">On the Bridge is open at \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1581 Webster Street #206 in San Francisco, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Monday–Wednesday noon–7 pm and Friday and Saturday noon–9pm (closed Thursday). 415-922-7765.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benkyodo is open at \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1747 Buchanan Street in\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tuesday–Saturday 9am–4:00pm. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">415-922-1244,\u003c/span>\u003c/i> c\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ash only.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A beloved mochi shop closed for only the second time in 115 years. Now it's back open again.",
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"title": "At Japantown Legacy Businesses Benkyodo and On the Bridge, Resilience is on the Menu | KQED",
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"headline": "At Japantown Legacy Businesses Benkyodo and On the Bridge, Resilience is on the Menu",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp> sea of little bottles in aqua, pink and seafoam green line the long bar of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://onthebridgesf.com/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Bridge\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Francisco\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfjapantown.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Japantown\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Chef Mitsuhiro Nakamura is proud of his ability to choose the perfect sake from his collection to match the taste of any diner. But when the shelter in place started last spring, the restaurant Nakamura and his wife Yolanda had run for 30 years immediately lost 90 percent of its business due to its location on the narrow, enclosed bridgeway connecting the Japan Center’s West Mall and Kinokuniya building. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Without direct street access, On the Bridge was literally marooned.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco’s Japantown, as a whole, has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. Several businesses have \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/29/22254711/takara-sf-japantown-permanent-closure-japan-center-kiss-seafood\">permanently closed\u003c/a>, and those located in the malls have been in the toughest spots, in part due to a rent dispute with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11837511/whats-lost-in-bay-area-asian-culture-when-sf-eviction-moratorium-ends\">Japan Center landlords\u003c/a>. Still, legacy businesses like On the Bridge and the 115-year-old mochi shop Benkyodo have \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">managed to keep their doors open in spite of the challenges of the pandemic—even as their owners head into their 70s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For On the Bridge, the restaurant’s 85 different sakes and 27 Japanese beers (plus people’s pandemic thirst for alcohol) provided a lifeline to allow the Nakamuras to hold on and slowly inch their way back.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Besides describing the restaurant’s physical location in the mall, the name “On the Bridge” also represents the link that its yoshoku style dishes make between Japanese and European cuisines. Chef Nakamura says he was the first Bay Area chef to specialize in this style of fusion cooking, which traces its roots back to 1868, when Emperor Meiji first welcomed Western ideas as helpful for Japan’s progress. Some non-Japanese diners may be unfamiliar with yoshoku’s comforting standbys, but these are the dishes that Japanese mothers often make for their children: curries, cutlets, Japanese-style hamburgers, omu-rice (omelet stuffed with fried rice) and fish roe–studded spaghettis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896755\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-800x559.jpg\" alt=\"Omu-rice with squiggles of ketchup and mayonnaise on top. \" width=\"800\" height=\"559\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-800x559.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-1020x712.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-768x536.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-1536x1073.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-2048x1430.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_omurice-1920x1341.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Omu-rice is one of On the Bridge’s Japanese-style Western dishes. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At On the Bridge, Yolanda Nakamura says, many first-time customers don’t know what to make of the menu: “They sit down at the long wooden counter and ask ‘Where’s the sushi?’ When I tell them we have none, they say, ‘I thought in Japan everyone eats sushi, tempura and teriyaki—not spaghetti!’ Often, they walk out.” \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\">Nevertheless, the restaurant’s comforting food has many devoted fans, not all of whom are Japanese. The punk rock icon \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/1/23/18193157/patti-smith-sf-japantown-restaurant-on-the-bridge\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Patti Smith, for instance, has often waxed rhapsodic\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about its 23 kinds of pasta and Lenny’s brand wasabi beer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Curries, in particular, are chef Nakamura’s specialty. “Curry is very hard to make,” Yolanda says. “Chef makes it from scratch, and it takes three to four days of slow cooking. Sometimes younger customers say, ‘I could make that much quicker with a mix.’ If the chef heard that, he would get upset, so I just push my husband away.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896756\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-800x465.jpg\" alt=\"Owners Yolanda (left) and Mitsuhiro Nakamura stand behind the bar at their restaurant On the Bridge. \" width=\"800\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-800x465.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-1020x593.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-160x93.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-768x446.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-1536x893.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-2048x1191.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/On-the-Bridge_owners-1920x1116.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yolanda (left) and Mitsuhiro Nakamura have run their yoshoku restaurant, On the Bridge, for more than 30 years. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the pandemic closed the mall, the restaurant’s new reliance on delivery apps and social media presented a big challenge for the Nakamuras. Luckily, their daughter Emi, 29, was able to help hook them up. But a more difficult problem was that since both entrances to the mall were closed, when a delivery app driver arrived, either the chef or Yolanda had to run downstairs—sometimes both of them, one to each entrance. The couple couldn’t leave the restaurant unattended, so eventually they hired back one of their employees to help.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each of the three times On the Bridge was allowed to reopen for indoor dining, alcohol was one of the bestsellers. Customers would sit down for a drink while waiting for a table at another restaurant. After dinner, they’d return for another round. The Nakamuras are cautiously hopeful now, as business seems to be picking up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even in the early weeks of the pandemic, when days went by with no sales, Yolanda says, “My husband was determined not to quit. He does it for the pleasure of cooking, not for the money. He’s 70, but not ready to retire.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’ll be here until my body doesn’t move anymore,” chef Nakamura says. “My job is to spread the love of sake.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896752\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896752\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-800x584.jpg\" alt=\"A man holds a tray of green mochi in paper sleeves.\" width=\"800\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-1020x745.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-768x561.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-1536x1121.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-2048x1495.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_mochi-1920x1402.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A tray of Benkyodo’s famous mochi. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>tuff, roll, pinch. That’s the mantra for handmade mochi. Ricky and Bobby Okamura, the owners of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.benkyodocompany.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benkyodo\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, repeat that process over 1,000 times a day, wrapping smooth rice flour skin around dollops of sweet bean paste five days a week for over 30 years now. Benkyodo itself has an even longer history: Open since 1906, the 115-year-old mochi shop is Japantown’s oldest business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the COVID-19 crisis couldn’t completely halt the mochi production line. Like a vintage engine, with fits and starts, it stopped, but eventually started up again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The pandemic was hard for us,” Bobby Okamura says. “We had to close for two and a half months.” Pre-COVID, the brothers made about 1,500 pieces of mochi and manju a day in 15 different flavors. Now, that figure is down to around 1,000 pieces in 7 to 10 flavors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The narrow space on Buchanan Street is about the size of a BART car. Across from the mochi display cases, there’s a low, diner-style lunch counter with red stools that has not changed for 50 years, where regulars would gather daily for coffee and catching up. But no more: With COVID guidelines, only two customers are allowed in the shop at a time—cash only, as has always been the case. Business is way down on weekdays, the Okamuras say, but Fridays and Saturdays often see a line of customers waiting in the plaza.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We could make [the mochi] by machine,” concedes Bobby, shaking his head. He’s now 66 and works from 7am to 4pm. “But all the pieces would look exactly the same, without the texture from being handmade. Ours have a unique taste, texture and look.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ricky, who is 70 and works from 5am to noon, puts it simply: “This is not easy work.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Mochi is very important to the community,” explains Alice Kawahatsu, a third-generation Japanese American who has brought visitors to Benkyodo on her Japantown Tasting Tour with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edibleexcursions.net/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Edible Excursions\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the past 10 years.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “It plays an essential role in several holidays, especially New Year’s. And it’s the perfect gift when visiting someone’s home.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The sweets are traditionally filled with red or white bean paste, but the Okamuras have added a few innovations, incorporating seasonal fruit such as strawberries, blueberries or mango.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Suyeichi Okamura, Ricky and Bobby’s grandfather, opened the original Benkyodo storefront in 1906, a few blocks away on Geary. Suyeichi is the one who coined the name Benkyodo, Bobby explains. He chose a word that means “affordable” to reassure community members that they could shop there comfortably. Suyeichi also penned the store’s motto: “Confections that win affections.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1942, Bobby and Ricky’s grandparents and father were sent to an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://amache.org/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">internment camp in Amache\u003c/span>\u003c/a>,\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Colorado. Suyeichi asked his Chinese neighbor to watch over his store while he was gone—which he did. His son, Hirofumi—Bobby and Ricky’s father—who was a teenager at the time, met his future wife, Sue, in the camp. They lived in that harsh and desolate place for three years, not knowing if their home and business would be there when they returned. Luckily, they were.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That history resonates with Kawahatsu, the Japantown tour guide, whose own mother and grandparents were incarcerated in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tulelake.org/history\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tule Lake\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The first and second generation sacrificed so much so that we could be here today to continue to share our rich history, stories and food with our families and others who visit and want to learn more about Japanese arts and food. There is a sense of obligation, but also a pride in our rich heritage.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The start of the pandemic in 2020 marked only the second time in its 115-year history that Benkyodo has had to close. Internment wasn’t able to kill the business. So far, it doesn’t look like COVID will be able to either.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896751\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896751\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-800x512.jpg\" alt=\"Benkyodo owners Ricky and Bobby Nakamura stuff pink mochi with white bean paste \" width=\"800\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-800x512.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-1020x653.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-768x492.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-1536x984.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-2048x1312.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Benkyodo_owners-1920x1230.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After rolling mochi for more than 30 years, Ricky (left) and Bobby Okamura are finally getting ready to retire. \u003ccite>(Anna Mindess)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the Okamura brothers, the store has always been part of their lives, as they lived with their family in an apartment upstairs. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But their father didn’t force them to take over the store, they point out. (“It \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was an option,” Bobby says.) Now, after years of speculation swirling around the community about whether Benkyodo will be sold or closed, Bobby and Ricky have finally decided to retire at the end of the year. They are actively negotiating with possible buyers. “Our strong preference would be for a family member,” says Bobby. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the Okamuras aren’t able to find a buyer, it would be a huge loss to the Bay Area’s Japanese American community, Kawahatsu says. “No other place compares to its delicious confections or its rich history and legacy.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite the long hours and physical demands of their work, Bobby says, “We have been happy to serve our community and glad that people enjoy what we make.” \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\">On the Bridge is open at \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1581 Webster Street #206 in San Francisco, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Monday–Wednesday noon–7 pm and Friday and Saturday noon–9pm (closed Thursday). 415-922-7765.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Benkyodo is open at \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1747 Buchanan Street in\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tuesday–Saturday 9am–4:00pm. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">415-922-1244,\u003c/span>\u003c/i> c\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ash only.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Fruitvale's Ruby Q Smoke Fusion Slings Barbecue Inspired by Mexico and Louisiana",
"headTitle": "Fruitvale’s Ruby Q Smoke Fusion Slings Barbecue Inspired by Mexico and Louisiana | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f I’m being honest, the East Bay doesn’t have enough barbecue. There’s only a handful of small, family-owned joints around here—and I support them when I can. So, when a local friend told me about \u003ca href=\"https://rubyqsmokefusion.com/\">Ruby Q Smoke Fusion\u003c/a>, a new barbecue spot in East Oakland, I made sure to check it out. I was extra hyped when I found out that it was run by a young married couple from the area, Reuben Mcelligott and Edlyn Rodriguez.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s called fusion for a reason. I mean, look at the neighborhood we’re at and who we serve,” Rodriguez says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s talking about Fruitvale, where you’ll find some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/135813/5-food-trucks-that-put-regional-mexican-plates-on-the-map\">best taco trucks anywhere on the entire West Coast\u003c/a>. The daughter of Mexican immigrants from Jalisco, Rodriguez knows the inside of a kitchen, having learned from her mother. But Ruby Q doesn’t serve traditional Mexican fare. Instead, it’s a fusion of Rodriguez’s culinary heritage combined with her husband’s family trade: Southern-style smoked and grilled meats. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896416\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13896416 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Takeout containers of barbecue and mac and cheese on a picnic table.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ribs, brisket, and mac and cheese. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The restaurant opened in June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, but with Rodriguez and Mcelligott’s dedication to serving great food while representing their cultures, it has flourished in a much-needed way. Though he jokes that his name sounds “white” because of his Irish grandfather, Mcelligott is a millennial Black dude who was raised around the corner. He was a 90s kid who never fully fit into any box and enjoyed skating, sports and hip hop—all elements that are on display on the restaurant’s walls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More importantly, the space is a homage to Mcelligott’s mother’s family, who first started their barbecue business in Louisiana in the early 1900s, and whose influence can still be felt and tasted over a century later. “We use the family recipe from back then for our barbecue sauce. It’s something my family has been doing for as long as I know,” he explains. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Both Mcelligott and Rodriguez are proud of their family’s legacies, and together, they’ve launched a dynamic and affordable culinary outlet that reflects where each of them come from—in a city known for its eclectic spirit of diversity and newness. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o what exactly do American barbecue and Mexican food look like when they’re combined together? Try Ruby Q’s barbecue brisket quesadilla—a soft, warm and decadently cheesy mixture of avocado, queso Mexicano, pico de gallo and, of course, a mound of lightly crisped, not-too-tangy brisket inside the gooey middle. You get a taste of both cultures in each mouthful. As a Mexican American from the Bay, I can honestly say it’s the most flavorful (and filling) quesadilla I’ve ever eaten. Sorry, abuelita. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896418\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A fried quesadilla topped with sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The barbecue brisket quesadilla is one of the highlights. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A single quesadilla could easily be your entire meal. But this is barbecue, so you’ll have to toss in a side of pulled pork nachos to go with that. Though I’ve eaten nacho remixes like this before, this version was on another level: the perfect combination of fresh tortilla chips, homemade guacamole, cheese, and juicy, fall-apart-on-your-fork pork that has been slow-cooked for hours. If that’s not your style, try the Louisiana gumbo with sausage that is “smoked while you sleep”—a nod to Mcelligott’s Cajun roots—which isn’t commonly offered in traditional barbecue settings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside tag='barbecue' label='More Barbecue']However, the Ruby Q experience goes beyond its culinary heritage. The entire time I was there, the spot was hella active with locals. It’s a homey environment where the entire neighborhood converges, literally, to get a taste. Located at the chaotic intersection of Fruitvale Avenue and San Leandro Street, the restaurant is tucked in between an industrial railroad crossing, a busy highway overpass, a bustling BART station, and two Mexican restaurants. It’s surprisingly easy to miss. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But if you close your eyes and inhale, you’ll only smell one thing: racks of meat being smoked daily. Follow that scent, and you’ll see why everyone is lining up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During my recent weeknight visit, I noticed an Asian family, a group of middle-aged Black women, a Mexican couple, teenage Pacific Islanders, and a squad of white city cowboys wearing their hats, boots and belt buckles. Everyone was enjoying the warm backdoor patio and the Mexican music from the bar next door, all while grubbing on group-sized portions of barbecued goodness. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was so busy that I felt guilty for interrupting the husband-and-wife team to ask questions, since they were the sole employees running the show. They even had two of their kids with them that day, who were reading and had built a fort in the corner. But like true Bay Area hustlers, the family made it look as effortless as a Steph Curry three-pointer in the 4th quarter. That’s because for Mcelligott, struggle and sacrifice are nothing new.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I put everything into this. Did you see the billboard on 880 in front of the Coliseum? I put that up because I wanted everyone in my family to see what I was doing for us,” he says, referencing the massive advertisement he purchased when Ruby Q first opened. “Everybody can see that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896428\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896428\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-800x533.jpg\" alt='Writing in the restaurant window reads, \"Seafood Gumbo,\" \"Loaded Nachos,\" \"Smoked While You Sleep,\" \"BBQ,\" and \"Open Patio.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant’s window advertises barbecue “smoked while you sleep.” \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]M[/dropcap]celligott’s vision began when he was a teenager growing up in East Oakland. His parents would send him to stay with his relatives in South Lake Tahoe every summer because he would “get into too much trouble” in his neighborhood. It was during those summer months away from the Bay that Mcelligott learned first-hand about his family’s barbecue business. Each year, he’d spend time working for his uncle, who ran Womack’s BBQ for over 40 years. But it was Mcelligott’s grandpa who opened the place in 1979 after helping to launch one of San Francisco’s most iconic barbecue restaurants, \u003ca href=\"http://newfillmore.com/fillmore-classics/leon-was-the-king-of-barbecue/\">Leon’s, in the Fillmore District\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Between learning how to prepare chicken from expert grill masters, picking out the right types of wood to burn to get that variety of layered, smoky flavors, marinating ribs all day, and also regularly interacting with customers, Mcelligott began to steep himself in the saucy world of barbecue—then eventually added his own flair to the fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working in restaurants was a switch for Mcelligott, who had spent most of his youth playing baseball and other sports. He held onto hopes of going professional until he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2012, forcing him to give up sports at age 23. After six months of chemotherapy, Mcelligott overcame his illness. Rather than being discouraged, he shifted toward a career in his other life’s passion: barbecue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mcelligott knew he wanted to do something positive for himself—and for his family and community—and after enrolling in Le Cordón Bleu at San Francisco, his hope of bringing a family restaurant to Oakland became a reality.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At this point in our meal, I’d eaten through a delectable portion of mac and cheese, candied beans, a rack of soft ribs, more pulled pork, and everyone’s favorite, a quarter-pound of tender brisket. Between me and a small group of hungry friends, we couldn’t finish it all—which is impressive, considering the relatively low price we paid.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896424\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Decorations reflect Mcelligott’s love of sports, skating and hip hop. Rodriguez, his wife, was too busy to be photographed. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mcelligott was energetic and upbeat after an entire day’s shift, and throughout our conversation, he was all smiles and laughs. His spirit is radiant and genuinely soulful, like the playfully-decorated walls of his restaurant and the creative family recipes he uses. “This is everything I love,” Mcelligott says. His kids interrupt us with jokes, and he picks up the smallest one. I feel like a longtime friend visiting his home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though it wasn’t easy to launch a restaurant amidst a pandemic, Mcelligott tells me, business has been going well, and he and Rodriguez don’t foresee any slow-down. With its mixture of original barbecue recipes, Mexican fusion, Southern hospitality and a vibrant Bay Area energy that reflects the spirit of the neighborhood, Ruby Q Smoke Fusion is more than a place to get your favorite half-rack of ribs and homemade peach cobbler. It’s a place where you will find East Oakland still sustaining itself, and where you know you’ll be welcomed no matter what time it is, even when there is no food left to serve that day because it’s already been eaten.\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>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://rubyqsmokefusion.com/\">Ruby Q Smoke Fusion\u003c/a> is open at 954 Fruitvale Blvd. in Oakland Wednesday through Saturday, noon–8pm, and Sunday, 1–8pm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>f I’m being honest, the East Bay doesn’t have enough barbecue. There’s only a handful of small, family-owned joints around here—and I support them when I can. So, when a local friend told me about \u003ca href=\"https://rubyqsmokefusion.com/\">Ruby Q Smoke Fusion\u003c/a>, a new barbecue spot in East Oakland, I made sure to check it out. I was extra hyped when I found out that it was run by a young married couple from the area, Reuben Mcelligott and Edlyn Rodriguez.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s called fusion for a reason. I mean, look at the neighborhood we’re at and who we serve,” Rodriguez says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s talking about Fruitvale, where you’ll find some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/135813/5-food-trucks-that-put-regional-mexican-plates-on-the-map\">best taco trucks anywhere on the entire West Coast\u003c/a>. The daughter of Mexican immigrants from Jalisco, Rodriguez knows the inside of a kitchen, having learned from her mother. But Ruby Q doesn’t serve traditional Mexican fare. Instead, it’s a fusion of Rodriguez’s culinary heritage combined with her husband’s family trade: Southern-style smoked and grilled meats. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896416\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13896416 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Takeout containers of barbecue and mac and cheese on a picnic table.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_barbecue-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ribs, brisket, and mac and cheese. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The restaurant opened in June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, but with Rodriguez and Mcelligott’s dedication to serving great food while representing their cultures, it has flourished in a much-needed way. Though he jokes that his name sounds “white” because of his Irish grandfather, Mcelligott is a millennial Black dude who was raised around the corner. He was a 90s kid who never fully fit into any box and enjoyed skating, sports and hip hop—all elements that are on display on the restaurant’s walls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More importantly, the space is a homage to Mcelligott’s mother’s family, who first started their barbecue business in Louisiana in the early 1900s, and whose influence can still be felt and tasted over a century later. “We use the family recipe from back then for our barbecue sauce. It’s something my family has been doing for as long as I know,” he explains. \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\">Both Mcelligott and Rodriguez are proud of their family’s legacies, and together, they’ve launched a dynamic and affordable culinary outlet that reflects where each of them come from—in a city known for its eclectic spirit of diversity and newness. \u003c/span>\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>o what exactly do American barbecue and Mexican food look like when they’re combined together? Try Ruby Q’s barbecue brisket quesadilla—a soft, warm and decadently cheesy mixture of avocado, queso Mexicano, pico de gallo and, of course, a mound of lightly crisped, not-too-tangy brisket inside the gooey middle. You get a taste of both cultures in each mouthful. As a Mexican American from the Bay, I can honestly say it’s the most flavorful (and filling) quesadilla I’ve ever eaten. Sorry, abuelita. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896418\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A fried quesadilla topped with sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_quesadilla-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The barbecue brisket quesadilla is one of the highlights. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A single quesadilla could easily be your entire meal. But this is barbecue, so you’ll have to toss in a side of pulled pork nachos to go with that. Though I’ve eaten nacho remixes like this before, this version was on another level: the perfect combination of fresh tortilla chips, homemade guacamole, cheese, and juicy, fall-apart-on-your-fork pork that has been slow-cooked for hours. If that’s not your style, try the Louisiana gumbo with sausage that is “smoked while you sleep”—a nod to Mcelligott’s Cajun roots—which isn’t commonly offered in traditional barbecue settings. \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>However, the Ruby Q experience goes beyond its culinary heritage. The entire time I was there, the spot was hella active with locals. It’s a homey environment where the entire neighborhood converges, literally, to get a taste. Located at the chaotic intersection of Fruitvale Avenue and San Leandro Street, the restaurant is tucked in between an industrial railroad crossing, a busy highway overpass, a bustling BART station, and two Mexican restaurants. It’s surprisingly easy to miss. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But if you close your eyes and inhale, you’ll only smell one thing: racks of meat being smoked daily. Follow that scent, and you’ll see why everyone is lining up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During my recent weeknight visit, I noticed an Asian family, a group of middle-aged Black women, a Mexican couple, teenage Pacific Islanders, and a squad of white city cowboys wearing their hats, boots and belt buckles. Everyone was enjoying the warm backdoor patio and the Mexican music from the bar next door, all while grubbing on group-sized portions of barbecued goodness. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was so busy that I felt guilty for interrupting the husband-and-wife team to ask questions, since they were the sole employees running the show. They even had two of their kids with them that day, who were reading and had built a fort in the corner. But like true Bay Area hustlers, the family made it look as effortless as a Steph Curry three-pointer in the 4th quarter. That’s because for Mcelligott, struggle and sacrifice are nothing new.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I put everything into this. Did you see the billboard on 880 in front of the Coliseum? I put that up because I wanted everyone in my family to see what I was doing for us,” he says, referencing the massive advertisement he purchased when Ruby Q first opened. “Everybody can see that.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896428\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896428\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-800x533.jpg\" alt='Writing in the restaurant window reads, \"Seafood Gumbo,\" \"Loaded Nachos,\" \"Smoked While You Sleep,\" \"BBQ,\" and \"Open Patio.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_window-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant’s window advertises barbecue “smoked while you sleep.” \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\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>celligott’s vision began when he was a teenager growing up in East Oakland. His parents would send him to stay with his relatives in South Lake Tahoe every summer because he would “get into too much trouble” in his neighborhood. It was during those summer months away from the Bay that Mcelligott learned first-hand about his family’s barbecue business. Each year, he’d spend time working for his uncle, who ran Womack’s BBQ for over 40 years. But it was Mcelligott’s grandpa who opened the place in 1979 after helping to launch one of San Francisco’s most iconic barbecue restaurants, \u003ca href=\"http://newfillmore.com/fillmore-classics/leon-was-the-king-of-barbecue/\">Leon’s, in the Fillmore District\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Between learning how to prepare chicken from expert grill masters, picking out the right types of wood to burn to get that variety of layered, smoky flavors, marinating ribs all day, and also regularly interacting with customers, Mcelligott began to steep himself in the saucy world of barbecue—then eventually added his own flair to the fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working in restaurants was a switch for Mcelligott, who had spent most of his youth playing baseball and other sports. He held onto hopes of going professional until he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2012, forcing him to give up sports at age 23. After six months of chemotherapy, Mcelligott overcame his illness. Rather than being discouraged, he shifted toward a career in his other life’s passion: barbecue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mcelligott knew he wanted to do something positive for himself—and for his family and community—and after enrolling in Le Cordón Bleu at San Francisco, his hope of bringing a family restaurant to Oakland became a reality.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At this point in our meal, I’d eaten through a delectable portion of mac and cheese, candied beans, a rack of soft ribs, more pulled pork, and everyone’s favorite, a quarter-pound of tender brisket. Between me and a small group of hungry friends, we couldn’t finish it all—which is impressive, considering the relatively low price we paid.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896424\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/RubyQ_Reuben-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Decorations reflect Mcelligott’s love of sports, skating and hip hop. Rodriguez, his wife, was too busy to be photographed. \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mcelligott was energetic and upbeat after an entire day’s shift, and throughout our conversation, he was all smiles and laughs. His spirit is radiant and genuinely soulful, like the playfully-decorated walls of his restaurant and the creative family recipes he uses. “This is everything I love,” Mcelligott says. His kids interrupt us with jokes, and he picks up the smallest one. I feel like a longtime friend visiting his home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though it wasn’t easy to launch a restaurant amidst a pandemic, Mcelligott tells me, business has been going well, and he and Rodriguez don’t foresee any slow-down. With its mixture of original barbecue recipes, Mexican fusion, Southern hospitality and a vibrant Bay Area energy that reflects the spirit of the neighborhood, Ruby Q Smoke Fusion is more than a place to get your favorite half-rack of ribs and homemade peach cobbler. It’s a place where you will find East Oakland still sustaining itself, and where you know you’ll be welcomed no matter what time it is, even when there is no food left to serve that day because it’s already been eaten.\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>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://rubyqsmokefusion.com/\">Ruby Q Smoke Fusion\u003c/a> is open at 954 Fruitvale Blvd. in Oakland Wednesday through Saturday, noon–8pm, and Sunday, 1–8pm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Low Bar, Oakland’s New Chicano Bar, Takes Off After a Yearlong Delay",
"headTitle": "Low Bar, Oakland’s New Chicano Bar, Takes Off After a Yearlong Delay | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>When Matthew Meyer and Daniel Paez first announced their plans for \u003ca href=\"https://www.lowbaroakland.com/\">Low Bar\u003c/a> early last year, the Chicano-owned bar was hailed as part of \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21311059/oakland-black-latinx-bipoc-bars-sobre-mesa-low-bar-oeste-pican\">a new wave of craft cocktail bars\u003c/a> in Oakland that centered the experiences of people of color. Then, of course, the pandemic hit, and everything ground to a halt. Low Bar was one of countless local watering holes that either shut down entirely or had their openings placed in protracted limbo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy news, then, for those who have been waiting: About a month ago, Low Bar quietly opened at 2300 Webster Street (the former Hawker Fare space) with both food and cocktail menus that proudly reflect the owners’ Mexican American backgrounds: quesabirria tacos, plenty of creative agave cocktails, and an ingenious Mexican twist on a Scotch egg. For now, the bar is open Thursday through Sunday for both indoor and outdoor service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like COVID obviously put a huge damper and was a momentum buster for everyone,” says Meyer. “But if you’re asking if bars owned by people of color are going to slow down: Absolutely not. As a Chicano, I’ve never been more proud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13896245\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-800x416.jpg\" alt='Three cocktails glow red in front of a neon sign that reads \"Low Bar.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-800x416.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-160x83.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-768x400.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon.jpg 890w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there was a time when Oakland’s booming bar scene was regarded as \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/oaklands-dive-bar-aficionados-adapt-to-the-citys-changing-bar-scene-2-1/\">the purview of white hipsters\u003c/a>, by early last year that characterization had increasingly started to feel like it no longer applied. As \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21311059/oakland-black-latinx-bipoc-bars-sobre-mesa-low-bar-oeste-pican\">Eater SF\u003c/a> first noted, within a span of a few months, several prominent, upscale-ish, POC-owned spots opened with diverse staffing and serious cocktail programs that reflected their owners’ cultural backgrounds—and all within a few city blocks. Before COVID hit, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/2/3/21119819/viridian-uptown-oakland-bar-cocktails-desserts-asian-photos\">Viridian was trumpeting its uniquely Asian American identity\u003c/a> as a cocktail bar, slinging Portuguese egg tarts and sublime drinks inspired by Chinese-American dishes like a tomato beef stir-fry. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/136410/sobre-mesa-brings-afro-caribbean-cocktails-and-light-bites-to-oakland\">Sobre Mesa had a whole Afro-Latino lounge vibe going\u003c/a>, with a deep rum lineup and a small plates menu that drew inspiration from across the African diaspora.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='bayareabites_136410' label='Also on the Bar Front']Both of those bars are back up and running now that COVID-related restrictions have started to loosen. For Low Bar, the past year has mostly been a matter of survival, Meyer explains. Investors pulled out, and, unable to finish the build-out of the bar, Meyer and Paez had to pivot to doing a burrito and tamale pop-up called \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chanchos_oakland/?hl=en\">Chancho’s\u003c/a> just to keep some revenue coming in. In fact, Meyer says, it was Chancho’s partnership with \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/\">World Central Kitchen\u003c/a>, celebrity chef José Andrés’ disaster relief organization, that ultimately saved them, paying Chancho’s to provide meals for people in need during the pandemic. “We haven’t missed a single week since July,” Meyer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As POC-owned, POC-focused craft cocktail bars have become more normalized in Oakland, it’s allowed folks like Meyer and Paez to be a little bit more expansive in the way they define what it means to be, say, a “Chicano bar.” For Meyer, who is Low Bar’s chef, that means he’s put together a \u003ca href=\"https://www.lowbaroakland.com/menus\">food menu\u003c/a> that’s a little less traditional than the old-school burritos and tamales he was serving through Chancho’s. He describes it as “Mexican-ish American bar food,” heavily influenced by his own upbringing near the border of San Diego and Tijuana. Yes, he makes a version of quesabirria, the cheesy birria tacos that are easily \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">Tijuana’s most famous culinary export of the moment\u003c/a>. But he also serves a number of dishes that are reflective of the border city’s vibrant fusion food scene: a cheeseburger with salsa verde and, perhaps most notably, a play on a Scotch egg that consists of chorizo coated in ground-up tortilla chips before it gets deep-fried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/COA5hbDhQQp/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Paez puts it, “The concept of Mexican food is no longer defined by just a taqueria.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the cocktail front, Paez describes his approach as “low pressure, low stakes, high reward,” with a strong emphasis on all the classics—your negronis and old fashioneds and daiquiris—but also plenty of creative agave and tequila drinks, as befits a Chicano bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Meyer and Paez, if anything has changed in the past five or 10 years, it’s that bar and restaurant patrons in the Bay Area are now actively seeking out different kinds of cultural experiences. “People are more excited about trying new flavors and traditional dishes from people’s backgrounds,” Meyer says. “I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”\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>Low Bar is open for both indoor and outdoor dining and drinking at 2300 Webster Street, Thursday through Sunday from 3–10pm.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Matthew Meyer and Daniel Paez first announced their plans for \u003ca href=\"https://www.lowbaroakland.com/\">Low Bar\u003c/a> early last year, the Chicano-owned bar was hailed as part of \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21311059/oakland-black-latinx-bipoc-bars-sobre-mesa-low-bar-oeste-pican\">a new wave of craft cocktail bars\u003c/a> in Oakland that centered the experiences of people of color. Then, of course, the pandemic hit, and everything ground to a halt. Low Bar was one of countless local watering holes that either shut down entirely or had their openings placed in protracted limbo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy news, then, for those who have been waiting: About a month ago, Low Bar quietly opened at 2300 Webster Street (the former Hawker Fare space) with both food and cocktail menus that proudly reflect the owners’ Mexican American backgrounds: quesabirria tacos, plenty of creative agave cocktails, and an ingenious Mexican twist on a Scotch egg. For now, the bar is open Thursday through Sunday for both indoor and outdoor service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like COVID obviously put a huge damper and was a momentum buster for everyone,” says Meyer. “But if you’re asking if bars owned by people of color are going to slow down: Absolutely not. As a Chicano, I’ve never been more proud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13896245\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-800x416.jpg\" alt='Three cocktails glow red in front of a neon sign that reads \"Low Bar.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-800x416.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-160x83.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon-768x400.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/lowbar_neon.jpg 890w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there was a time when Oakland’s booming bar scene was regarded as \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/oaklands-dive-bar-aficionados-adapt-to-the-citys-changing-bar-scene-2-1/\">the purview of white hipsters\u003c/a>, by early last year that characterization had increasingly started to feel like it no longer applied. As \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21311059/oakland-black-latinx-bipoc-bars-sobre-mesa-low-bar-oeste-pican\">Eater SF\u003c/a> first noted, within a span of a few months, several prominent, upscale-ish, POC-owned spots opened with diverse staffing and serious cocktail programs that reflected their owners’ cultural backgrounds—and all within a few city blocks. Before COVID hit, \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/2/3/21119819/viridian-uptown-oakland-bar-cocktails-desserts-asian-photos\">Viridian was trumpeting its uniquely Asian American identity\u003c/a> as a cocktail bar, slinging Portuguese egg tarts and sublime drinks inspired by Chinese-American dishes like a tomato beef stir-fry. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/136410/sobre-mesa-brings-afro-caribbean-cocktails-and-light-bites-to-oakland\">Sobre Mesa had a whole Afro-Latino lounge vibe going\u003c/a>, with a deep rum lineup and a small plates menu that drew inspiration from across the African diaspora.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Both of those bars are back up and running now that COVID-related restrictions have started to loosen. For Low Bar, the past year has mostly been a matter of survival, Meyer explains. Investors pulled out, and, unable to finish the build-out of the bar, Meyer and Paez had to pivot to doing a burrito and tamale pop-up called \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chanchos_oakland/?hl=en\">Chancho’s\u003c/a> just to keep some revenue coming in. In fact, Meyer says, it was Chancho’s partnership with \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/\">World Central Kitchen\u003c/a>, celebrity chef José Andrés’ disaster relief organization, that ultimately saved them, paying Chancho’s to provide meals for people in need during the pandemic. “We haven’t missed a single week since July,” Meyer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As POC-owned, POC-focused craft cocktail bars have become more normalized in Oakland, it’s allowed folks like Meyer and Paez to be a little bit more expansive in the way they define what it means to be, say, a “Chicano bar.” For Meyer, who is Low Bar’s chef, that means he’s put together a \u003ca href=\"https://www.lowbaroakland.com/menus\">food menu\u003c/a> that’s a little less traditional than the old-school burritos and tamales he was serving through Chancho’s. He describes it as “Mexican-ish American bar food,” heavily influenced by his own upbringing near the border of San Diego and Tijuana. Yes, he makes a version of quesabirria, the cheesy birria tacos that are easily \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">Tijuana’s most famous culinary export of the moment\u003c/a>. But he also serves a number of dishes that are reflective of the border city’s vibrant fusion food scene: a cheeseburger with salsa verde and, perhaps most notably, a play on a Scotch egg that consists of chorizo coated in ground-up tortilla chips before it gets deep-fried.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As Paez puts it, “The concept of Mexican food is no longer defined by just a taqueria.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the cocktail front, Paez describes his approach as “low pressure, low stakes, high reward,” with a strong emphasis on all the classics—your negronis and old fashioneds and daiquiris—but also plenty of creative agave and tequila drinks, as befits a Chicano bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Meyer and Paez, if anything has changed in the past five or 10 years, it’s that bar and restaurant patrons in the Bay Area are now actively seeking out different kinds of cultural experiences. “People are more excited about trying new flavors and traditional dishes from people’s backgrounds,” Meyer says. “I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”\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>Low Bar is open for both indoor and outdoor dining and drinking at 2300 Webster Street, Thursday through Sunday from 3–10pm.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Everybody’s Favorite 24-Hour Filipino Bakery Has Finally Reopened",
"headTitle": "Everybody’s Favorite 24-Hour Filipino Bakery Has Finally Reopened | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>There isn’t any place quite like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lingnamstarbread/\">Ling Nam Starbread\u003c/a>. For the three decades that the Filipino restaurant-bakery held court at its strip mall location near the border of South San Francisco and Daly City, it was everybody’s favorite late-night pit stop—a place where night owls and early risers could stop in for a bowl of noodles or hot rice porridge or, especially, a box of the pillowy, piping hot deliciousness known as señorita bread. On Fridays and Saturdays, the bakery was open 24 hours, making it a popular first stop for hungry travelers stumbling off a late-arriving flight at SFO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/B_IzSODpXga/\">Until last April\u003c/a>, that is, when the restaurant-bakery closed its doors with promises to reopen soon at a new location just a mile up the hill. Naturally, COVID put a wrench on those plans, and so the business stayed closed until just last Friday, when the new Ling Nam Starbread storefront at 980 King Drive in Daly City finally opened—a cause for celebration within the area’s vibrant Filipino American community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13896069,arts_13895488' label='More From KQED Food']\u003c/span>“We had an overwhelming turnout,” says Alexson Lim, who runs the restaurant along with his father Tony Lim and his brother Brandon Lim, noting the long lines they had through much of the weekend. Late-night customers will need to wait a little longer: For the time being, the bakery is keeping reduced hours, closing up shop at 9pm each night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure, Starbread is best known for its señorita bread, a kind of sweet, yeasty roll that’s layered with sugar and melted margarine and—this is key—is always boxed up hot right out of the oven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896140\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896140\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding up a piece of bread in front of a sign with the Starbread logo. of se\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sweet, buttery insides of the señorita bread. \u003ccite>(Ling Nam Starbread)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://sanfran.com/senorita-bread-carb-addiction-waiting-happen\">bread has made Starbread a local icon\u003c/a>. For Filipino families in particular, boxes of hot señorita bread are a staple at almost any big family gathering or celebration, and the chain has a strong cult following among non-Filipinos as well. The bakery has at least a dozen locations spread across Northern California, almost all of which boast long lines from morning to night. But none of the other Starbread locations were late-night destinations the way the Ling Nam combo shop was. And none of them were located in Daly City, which boasts the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=DALY_CITY:_THE_NEW_FILIPINOTOWN#:~:text=At%2027%20percent%20of%20the,of%20Metro%20Manila's%20Quezon%20City.\">highest concentration of Filipinos in the U.S.\u003c/a> (The closest other Starbread shop is in Pacifica.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='bayareabites_133626' label='More Filipino Eats']\u003c/span>The fact that the restaurant and bakery closed last April, just weeks after the initial shelter-in-place order, was mostly a matter of coincidence, Lim explains. The restaurant’s 30-year lease had just expired, and the entire lot was sold. (It’s now being turned into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/mercedes-benz-rolls-into-south-san-francisco/article_d167b2b6-c001-11ea-9328-1bd1e3bff343.html\">Mercedes-Benz dealership\u003c/a>.) Even though the Lims were able to secure a new location right away, it was a former dentist’s office that required a full build-out—a process that dragged out for almost a full year due to pandemic-related construction and permitting delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before it added the Starbread kiosk to the front of the restaurant in 2009, Ling Nam Noodle Shop was a local institution going on two decades. The restaurant specialized in Chinese-Filipino cuisine, which is to say Chinese dishes like wonton noodles, steamed buns, and rice porridge that were made to cater to Filipino tastes. For families like the Lims—ethnic Chinese who had settled in the Philippines—these were deeply nostalgic dishes. As Lim explains, they were dishes that made first-generation Filipino immigrants who frequented the restaurant say, “That’s home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896143\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The Starbread menu, with señorita bread priced at 10 pieces for $5, 20 pieces for $10, etc.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The menu. \u003ccite>(Ling Nam Starbread)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the time being, however, only the bakery is open. The Ling Nam part of the business, now located in a separate storefront next door, is still under construction and will likely open in the early summer, Lim says. (There’s also a second Ling Nam Starbread location, in Tracy, that’s owned by the Lims—but there, too, the bakery is the only part of the business that’s stayed open.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, of course, the Starbread is probably the biggest draw anyway—especially since it was the only place in the Bay Area where the bleary-eyed could score a batch of hot señorita bread at, say, 3am on a Saturday night. Eventually, once nightlife and air travel (including late-night travel) go back to pre-pandemic levels, Lim expects to once again resume that 24-hour weekend schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why not?” he says. “It’s what we’re known for.”\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>Ling Nam Starbread is open at its new location at 980 King Drive in Daly City from 5:30am–9pm daily. For now, only the bakery storefront is open.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There isn’t any place quite like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lingnamstarbread/\">Ling Nam Starbread\u003c/a>. For the three decades that the Filipino restaurant-bakery held court at its strip mall location near the border of South San Francisco and Daly City, it was everybody’s favorite late-night pit stop—a place where night owls and early risers could stop in for a bowl of noodles or hot rice porridge or, especially, a box of the pillowy, piping hot deliciousness known as señorita bread. On Fridays and Saturdays, the bakery was open 24 hours, making it a popular first stop for hungry travelers stumbling off a late-arriving flight at SFO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/B_IzSODpXga/\">Until last April\u003c/a>, that is, when the restaurant-bakery closed its doors with promises to reopen soon at a new location just a mile up the hill. Naturally, COVID put a wrench on those plans, and so the business stayed closed until just last Friday, when the new Ling Nam Starbread storefront at 980 King Drive in Daly City finally opened—a cause for celebration within the area’s vibrant Filipino American community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>“We had an overwhelming turnout,” says Alexson Lim, who runs the restaurant along with his father Tony Lim and his brother Brandon Lim, noting the long lines they had through much of the weekend. Late-night customers will need to wait a little longer: For the time being, the bakery is keeping reduced hours, closing up shop at 9pm each night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure, Starbread is best known for its señorita bread, a kind of sweet, yeasty roll that’s layered with sugar and melted margarine and—this is key—is always boxed up hot right out of the oven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896140\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896140\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding up a piece of bread in front of a sign with the Starbread logo. of se\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_senorita-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The sweet, buttery insides of the señorita bread. \u003ccite>(Ling Nam Starbread)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://sanfran.com/senorita-bread-carb-addiction-waiting-happen\">bread has made Starbread a local icon\u003c/a>. For Filipino families in particular, boxes of hot señorita bread are a staple at almost any big family gathering or celebration, and the chain has a strong cult following among non-Filipinos as well. The bakery has at least a dozen locations spread across Northern California, almost all of which boast long lines from morning to night. But none of the other Starbread locations were late-night destinations the way the Ling Nam combo shop was. And none of them were located in Daly City, which boasts the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=DALY_CITY:_THE_NEW_FILIPINOTOWN#:~:text=At%2027%20percent%20of%20the,of%20Metro%20Manila's%20Quezon%20City.\">highest concentration of Filipinos in the U.S.\u003c/a> (The closest other Starbread shop is in Pacifica.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>The fact that the restaurant and bakery closed last April, just weeks after the initial shelter-in-place order, was mostly a matter of coincidence, Lim explains. The restaurant’s 30-year lease had just expired, and the entire lot was sold. (It’s now being turned into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/mercedes-benz-rolls-into-south-san-francisco/article_d167b2b6-c001-11ea-9328-1bd1e3bff343.html\">Mercedes-Benz dealership\u003c/a>.) Even though the Lims were able to secure a new location right away, it was a former dentist’s office that required a full build-out—a process that dragged out for almost a full year due to pandemic-related construction and permitting delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before it added the Starbread kiosk to the front of the restaurant in 2009, Ling Nam Noodle Shop was a local institution going on two decades. The restaurant specialized in Chinese-Filipino cuisine, which is to say Chinese dishes like wonton noodles, steamed buns, and rice porridge that were made to cater to Filipino tastes. For families like the Lims—ethnic Chinese who had settled in the Philippines—these were deeply nostalgic dishes. As Lim explains, they were dishes that made first-generation Filipino immigrants who frequented the restaurant say, “That’s home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896143\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The Starbread menu, with señorita bread priced at 10 pieces for $5, 20 pieces for $10, etc.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Starbread_menu-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The menu. \u003ccite>(Ling Nam Starbread)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the time being, however, only the bakery is open. The Ling Nam part of the business, now located in a separate storefront next door, is still under construction and will likely open in the early summer, Lim says. (There’s also a second Ling Nam Starbread location, in Tracy, that’s owned by the Lims—but there, too, the bakery is the only part of the business that’s stayed open.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, of course, the Starbread is probably the biggest draw anyway—especially since it was the only place in the Bay Area where the bleary-eyed could score a batch of hot señorita bread at, say, 3am on a Saturday night. Eventually, once nightlife and air travel (including late-night travel) go back to pre-pandemic levels, Lim expects to once again resume that 24-hour weekend schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why not?” he says. “It’s what we’re known for.”\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>Ling Nam Starbread is open at its new location at 980 King Drive in Daly City from 5:30am–9pm daily. For now, only the bakery storefront is open.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Missing Travel? This 'Irreverent Guide' Visits Anthony Bourdain's Favorite Places",
"headTitle": "Missing Travel? This ‘Irreverent Guide’ Visits Anthony Bourdain’s Favorite Places | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The new book \u003cem>World Travel: An Irreverent Guide\u003c/em> is credited to Anthony Bourdain. But it was not really written by the bestselling author, chef and TV personality who \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/06/08/618185381/anthony-bourdain-chef-and-television-host-has-died-at-61\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">died in 2018.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>World Travel: An Irreverent Guide\u003c/em> was assembled by one of Bourdain’s associates, Laurie Woolever, based entirely on his previous writings and an hourlong interview conducted shortly before his death. Bourdain had collaborated with Woolever on 2016’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/10/27/499308031/in-appetites-bourdain-pleases-the-toughest-food-critic-his-9-year-old\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Appetites: A Cookbook\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, and this project was conceived of shortly thereafter, she says, with the intent to spotlight some of Bourdain’s favorite places around the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the dearth of original writing by Bourdain himself, \u003cem>World Travel\u003c/em> contains a handful of tributary essays, by the likes of Bourdain’s brother Christopher, music producer Steve Albini, and Nari Kye, who worked as a production manager on Bourdain’s TV show, \u003cem>No Reservations\u003c/em>. She describes, in her essay, how her former boss profoundly changed her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896117\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-800x1208.jpg\" alt=\"The cover of 'World Travel: An Irreverent Guide' by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-800x1208.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-1020x1541.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-160x242.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-768x1160.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-1017x1536.jpg 1017w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-1356x2048.jpg 1356w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-scaled.jpg 1695w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘World Travel: An Irreverent Guide’ by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever. \u003ccite>(Ecco)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The South Korea episode of \u003cem>No Reservations\u003c/em> started as a joke,” she writes. “At the end of Season 1, I said, ‘We’re all going to eat Korean barbecue, and drink lots of \u003cem>soju\u003c/em>.’ I got us a huge table in Manhattan’s K-town, and Tony came. We went outside to smoke, and in my drunken \u003cem>soju\u003c/em> haze, I said, ‘Tony, you have to swear you’re going to Korea.’ And he said, ‘Of course. And you have to come with me.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happened after that drunken conversation was not a joke, Kye says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard not to get emotional when I talk about Tony,” she says, wiping away tears during a Zoom call from her Brooklyn home. Kye explains she was surprised not just to come along for the South Korea episode, which aired in 2006, but also to be its focus, along with her family there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show follows Kye and Bourdain as they explore Seoul’s famous Noryangjin fish market, visit a village famous for its kimchee, peer at soldiers guarding the DMZ and drink copiously at a karaoke bar. (Off-camera, Kye says, Bourdain performed a Billy Idol number.) The two sat down with Kye’s grandfather over a bowl of spicy fish stew as part of the episode. He described the trauma of escaping from his home in what’s now North Korea in 1951.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='news_11673893']“If I could go back there once before I die,” her grandfather explains in Korean, “I would have no other wish, if I could just see my parents’ graves and just cry my heart out. There’s nothing that can be done, though. That’s just the way it is. That’s my fate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kye and Bourdain listen, rapt. “I might not have learned these things had it not been [for] Tony and the show,” Kye mused to NPR. “I was one person before I made the show. I was a different person afterwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she recounts in her essay, Kye did not grow up feeling proud of her family’s history or culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I moved to the States when I was 5, from Korea, and after that, I lived in a predominantly white, Anglo-American community,” she writes. “As a kid who already looked different from everyone else, I was trying to fit in as an American and was mortified by my Korean heritage. My mom cooked only Korean food. My parents spoke only Korean to me … We basically lived in Korea in our house in a very American town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Kye’s friends would come over—”white, blond-haired girls named Jenny and Erin who would wear shoes inside their houses”—she would hide everything in her house that looked Korean. She was a recent college graduate, still in her early 20s, when she traveled to South Korea with Bourdain. His full-throated enthusiasm for Korea’s spectacular history, culture and food transformed her perspective about something she had dismissed and taken for granted—and ignited her own sense of creative potential. Now Kye works on a children’s television show for Korean American families, and she’s writing an autobiographical screenplay, including her travels with Bourdain, filtered through learning about food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896118\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896118\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, N.Y. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3.jpg 1547w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, N.Y. \u003ccite>(CNN/Ecco)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t know this had been so important to Nari until after [Bourdain] died, and we were talking about his impact on us,” Laurie Woolever told NPR. “Had Tony lived and written his own essay for the book—which was the original plan—I never would’ve gotten to hear from Nari. And I think it’s important, and I want people to understand how deep [Bourdain’s] legacy is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of that legacy, says Nari Kye, comes from how Bourdain reflexively stood up for underdogs, his embrace of those who get marginalized. “He always made people feel like they belonged,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And wherever he traveled, she says, Anthony Bourdain managed to belong as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Missing+Travel%3F+This+%27Irreverent+Guide%27+Visits+Anthony+Bourdain%27s+Favorite+Places&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The new book \u003cem>World Travel: An Irreverent Guide\u003c/em> is credited to Anthony Bourdain. But it was not really written by the bestselling author, chef and TV personality who \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/06/08/618185381/anthony-bourdain-chef-and-television-host-has-died-at-61\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">died in 2018.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>World Travel: An Irreverent Guide\u003c/em> was assembled by one of Bourdain’s associates, Laurie Woolever, based entirely on his previous writings and an hourlong interview conducted shortly before his death. Bourdain had collaborated with Woolever on 2016’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/10/27/499308031/in-appetites-bourdain-pleases-the-toughest-food-critic-his-9-year-old\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Appetites: A Cookbook\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, and this project was conceived of shortly thereafter, she says, with the intent to spotlight some of Bourdain’s favorite places around the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the dearth of original writing by Bourdain himself, \u003cem>World Travel\u003c/em> contains a handful of tributary essays, by the likes of Bourdain’s brother Christopher, music producer Steve Albini, and Nari Kye, who worked as a production manager on Bourdain’s TV show, \u003cem>No Reservations\u003c/em>. She describes, in her essay, how her former boss profoundly changed her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896117\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-800x1208.jpg\" alt=\"The cover of 'World Travel: An Irreverent Guide' by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-800x1208.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-1020x1541.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-160x242.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-768x1160.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-1017x1536.jpg 1017w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-1356x2048.jpg 1356w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/worldtravel-hc-c_custom-f40d26228021e9447e177289b70023282a4da1da-scaled.jpg 1695w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘World Travel: An Irreverent Guide’ by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever. \u003ccite>(Ecco)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The South Korea episode of \u003cem>No Reservations\u003c/em> started as a joke,” she writes. “At the end of Season 1, I said, ‘We’re all going to eat Korean barbecue, and drink lots of \u003cem>soju\u003c/em>.’ I got us a huge table in Manhattan’s K-town, and Tony came. We went outside to smoke, and in my drunken \u003cem>soju\u003c/em> haze, I said, ‘Tony, you have to swear you’re going to Korea.’ And he said, ‘Of course. And you have to come with me.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happened after that drunken conversation was not a joke, Kye says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard not to get emotional when I talk about Tony,” she says, wiping away tears during a Zoom call from her Brooklyn home. Kye explains she was surprised not just to come along for the South Korea episode, which aired in 2006, but also to be its focus, along with her family there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show follows Kye and Bourdain as they explore Seoul’s famous Noryangjin fish market, visit a village famous for its kimchee, peer at soldiers guarding the DMZ and drink copiously at a karaoke bar. (Off-camera, Kye says, Bourdain performed a Billy Idol number.) The two sat down with Kye’s grandfather over a bowl of spicy fish stew as part of the episode. He described the trauma of escaping from his home in what’s now North Korea in 1951.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“If I could go back there once before I die,” her grandfather explains in Korean, “I would have no other wish, if I could just see my parents’ graves and just cry my heart out. There’s nothing that can be done, though. That’s just the way it is. That’s my fate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kye and Bourdain listen, rapt. “I might not have learned these things had it not been [for] Tony and the show,” Kye mused to NPR. “I was one person before I made the show. I was a different person afterwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she recounts in her essay, Kye did not grow up feeling proud of her family’s history or culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I moved to the States when I was 5, from Korea, and after that, I lived in a predominantly white, Anglo-American community,” she writes. “As a kid who already looked different from everyone else, I was trying to fit in as an American and was mortified by my Korean heritage. My mom cooked only Korean food. My parents spoke only Korean to me … We basically lived in Korea in our house in a very American town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Kye’s friends would come over—”white, blond-haired girls named Jenny and Erin who would wear shoes inside their houses”—she would hide everything in her house that looked Korean. She was a recent college graduate, still in her early 20s, when she traveled to South Korea with Bourdain. His full-throated enthusiasm for Korea’s spectacular history, culture and food transformed her perspective about something she had dismissed and taken for granted—and ignited her own sense of creative potential. Now Kye works on a children’s television show for Korean American families, and she’s writing an autobiographical screenplay, including her travels with Bourdain, filtered through learning about food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896118\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896118\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, N.Y. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/hireswooleverandbourdain.credit-cnn-2c276a8ec17dbd88f34dc28e5eaea98bec9019f3.jpg 1547w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, N.Y. \u003ccite>(CNN/Ecco)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t know this had been so important to Nari until after [Bourdain] died, and we were talking about his impact on us,” Laurie Woolever told NPR. “Had Tony lived and written his own essay for the book—which was the original plan—I never would’ve gotten to hear from Nari. And I think it’s important, and I want people to understand how deep [Bourdain’s] legacy is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of that legacy, says Nari Kye, comes from how Bourdain reflexively stood up for underdogs, his embrace of those who get marginalized. “He always made people feel like they belonged,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And wherever he traveled, she says, Anthony Bourdain managed to belong as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Missing+Travel%3F+This+%27Irreverent+Guide%27+Visits+Anthony+Bourdain%27s+Favorite+Places&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "West Oakland’s New Nigerian Spot and the Power of Jollof Rice",
"headTitle": "West Oakland’s New Nigerian Spot and the Power of Jollof Rice | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jollof rice might be West Africa’s most famous dish—the smoky, spicy, tomato-tinged pride and joy of countless households across Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. In the Bay Area, however, the dish is still a relative rarity. So when a new Nigerian takeout spot called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jollyjollyllc.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jolly-Jolly Coffee & Kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> opened in West Oakland last month, it was happy news for jollof rice lovers across the Bay—and, really, for anyone who appreciates well-spiced food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Located in a former pupusa shop across the street from the West Oakland BART station, Jolly-Jolly specializes in what chef-owner Jahswill Ukagumaoha describes as street foods. These were the kinds of inexpensive dishes that Ukagumaoha survived on when he was a university student in Nigeria. He serves a fiery suya chicken skewer that he bakes in the oven. A breakfast plate features Indomie, Nigeria’s most popular brand of instant noodle. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of jollof Indomie: Indomie instant noodles tossed with vegetables and topped with plantains and scrambled egg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"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: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\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\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the star of the menu is that orange-tinted jollof rice, which is available in several different configurations, topped with oxtails or stewed goat meat or even kale. It’s a family recipe, passed down from the chef’s mother. (As Ukagumaoha quips, “Who would teach a male child how to cook if not your mother?”) In fact, the chef had been making jollof for years, but he says it never tasted quite right until recently, when his mother divulged her secret ingredient. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='bayareabites_135791' label='More Jollof Rice']Of course, Ukagumaoha won’t say what that ingredient is. But the results speak for themselves: His jollof is packed with umami and fiery enough to make you break a sweat. It’s nearly impossible to stop eating. Of particular note is an extra-savory version that’s topped with kale and shrimp, both tossed in a potent shrimp-based sauce—an original creation, Ukagumaoha says, that adds a little bit of California flair to the traditional party dish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ukagumaoha helped run a small restaurant during his university days in Nsukka, Nigeria. After moving to the Bay Area in 2014, he worked mostly in the nonprofit sector for various housing programs. During the pandemic, however, after other job contracts had run their course, Ukagumaoha started thinking seriously about starting a food business, and started doing volunteer food prep at large corporate catering companies like Bon Appétit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896074\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-800x574.jpg\" alt=\"Takeout container with an akara burger: bean fritters between sliced Ghanaian bread.\" width=\"800\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-800x574.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-1020x732.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-768x551.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-1536x1102.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-2048x1469.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-1920x1377.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The akara burger. \u003ccite>(Jolly-Jolly)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While jollof is the headliner, Jolly-Jolly serves a number of other dishes that are even harder to find in the Bay. There’s an akara burger, made up of fried bean fritters that Ukagumaoha sandwiches between slices of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNdhw_WBeOS/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sweet agege bread made by a local Ghanaian baker\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And in the mornings, he cranks out orders of Indomie jollof, a staple for thrifty Nigerian university students. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My mother used to buy [Indomie instant noodles] because we were five of us all in the university at the same time,” Ukagumaoha recalls. T\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">o make his version, he tosses the noodles with diced vegetables and spices, and serves them with fried plantains and a juicy egg scramble. All of those humble constituent parts combine to make up a hearty breakfast that’s almost unreasonable in its sheer deliciousness. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the long term, Ukagumaoha says his passion lies in researching spices and their various health benefits. Eventually, he hopes, that line of inquiry will give his menu a more pan-African flavor, adding recipes from Ghana, Egypt and Cameroon. Already, he’s begun incorporating the flavors of the diaspora in dishes like his baked chicken drumsticks, whose spice rub includes Jamaican curry and Ethiopian berbere. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I want to blend all the spices together to create my own signature,” he says.\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\">Jolly-Jolly is open at 1498 7th Street in West Oakland, Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m.–7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Call in orders at 415-941-8817 (preferred) or \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jollyjollyllc.com/order\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">order 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\">Jollof rice might be West Africa’s most famous dish—the smoky, spicy, tomato-tinged pride and joy of countless households across Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. In the Bay Area, however, the dish is still a relative rarity. So when a new Nigerian takeout spot called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jollyjollyllc.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jolly-Jolly Coffee & Kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> opened in West Oakland last month, it was happy news for jollof rice lovers across the Bay—and, really, for anyone who appreciates well-spiced food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Located in a former pupusa shop across the street from the West Oakland BART station, Jolly-Jolly specializes in what chef-owner Jahswill Ukagumaoha describes as street foods. These were the kinds of inexpensive dishes that Ukagumaoha survived on when he was a university student in Nigeria. He serves a fiery suya chicken skewer that he bakes in the oven. A breakfast plate features Indomie, Nigeria’s most popular brand of instant noodle. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_noodle-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of jollof Indomie: Indomie instant noodles tossed with vegetables and topped with plantains and scrambled egg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"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: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\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\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the star of the menu is that orange-tinted jollof rice, which is available in several different configurations, topped with oxtails or stewed goat meat or even kale. It’s a family recipe, passed down from the chef’s mother. (As Ukagumaoha quips, “Who would teach a male child how to cook if not your mother?”) In fact, the chef had been making jollof for years, but he says it never tasted quite right until recently, when his mother divulged her secret ingredient. \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>Of course, Ukagumaoha won’t say what that ingredient is. But the results speak for themselves: His jollof is packed with umami and fiery enough to make you break a sweat. It’s nearly impossible to stop eating. Of particular note is an extra-savory version that’s topped with kale and shrimp, both tossed in a potent shrimp-based sauce—an original creation, Ukagumaoha says, that adds a little bit of California flair to the traditional party dish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ukagumaoha helped run a small restaurant during his university days in Nsukka, Nigeria. After moving to the Bay Area in 2014, he worked mostly in the nonprofit sector for various housing programs. During the pandemic, however, after other job contracts had run their course, Ukagumaoha started thinking seriously about starting a food business, and started doing volunteer food prep at large corporate catering companies like Bon Appétit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13896074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13896074\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-800x574.jpg\" alt=\"Takeout container with an akara burger: bean fritters between sliced Ghanaian bread.\" width=\"800\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-800x574.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-1020x732.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-768x551.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-1536x1102.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-2048x1469.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/Jolly-Jolly_burger-1920x1377.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The akara burger. \u003ccite>(Jolly-Jolly)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While jollof is the headliner, Jolly-Jolly serves a number of other dishes that are even harder to find in the Bay. There’s an akara burger, made up of fried bean fritters that Ukagumaoha sandwiches between slices of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNdhw_WBeOS/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sweet agege bread made by a local Ghanaian baker\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And in the mornings, he cranks out orders of Indomie jollof, a staple for thrifty Nigerian university students. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My mother used to buy [Indomie instant noodles] because we were five of us all in the university at the same time,” Ukagumaoha recalls. T\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">o make his version, he tosses the noodles with diced vegetables and spices, and serves them with fried plantains and a juicy egg scramble. All of those humble constituent parts combine to make up a hearty breakfast that’s almost unreasonable in its sheer deliciousness. \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 the long term, Ukagumaoha says his passion lies in researching spices and their various health benefits. Eventually, he hopes, that line of inquiry will give his menu a more pan-African flavor, adding recipes from Ghana, Egypt and Cameroon. Already, he’s begun incorporating the flavors of the diaspora in dishes like his baked chicken drumsticks, whose spice rub includes Jamaican curry and Ethiopian berbere. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I want to blend all the spices together to create my own signature,” he says.\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\">Jolly-Jolly is open at 1498 7th Street in West Oakland, Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m.–7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Call in orders at 415-941-8817 (preferred) or \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jollyjollyllc.com/order\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">order 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": "A Berkeley Pop-Up Writes Its Own Rulebook on Dumplings",
"headTitle": "A Berkeley Pop-Up Writes Its Own Rulebook on Dumplings | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alex Chin and Will \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul insist they didn’t set out to make a better version of any traditional dumpling. That would have been a little bit hubristic—an insult, perhaps, to generations of Asian grandmas who spent decades honing their craft. Instead, the Berkeley-based chefs imagined their new pop-up, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/parcelsproject/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parcels Project\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as a platform for Asian-American dumplings that were a little bit more modern and out of the box. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The results are very, very delicious. They make a soup dumpling that bursts with broth reminiscent of Taiwanese beef noodle soup. Another delicately braided steamed dumpling is infused with the flavors of Hainan chicken rice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“There are plenty of places that do really, really great dumplings,” Chin says. “We wanted to find something that navigated our story, our timeline of where \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grew up and what we know very well.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895877\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13895877\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"Will Thanapisitikul (left) and Alex Chin in the kitchen\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Thanapisitikul (left) and Alex Chin started Parcels Project as a pandemic side hustle. \u003ccite>(Parcels Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far it’s been a success: A little over a month after launching Parcels Project, with only a modest \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/parcelsproject/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">social media presence\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and without any real marketing, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chin and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul have already sold more than 3,000 frozen dumplings, often selling out entirely a day or two after their weekly \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parcelsproject.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">online ordering queue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> opens up on Sundays. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like so many other food businesses launched in the past year, Parcels Project is something of a pandemic pivot, though both chefs were fortunate enough to land full-time gigs during lockdown: Chin at the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/135793/delivery-only-the-rise-of-restaurants-with-no-diners-as-apps-take-orders\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ghost kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> startup Virtual Kitchen and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul at Town Kitchen, an Oakland-based catering company with a focus on employing and training low-income youth. Both are stressful day jobs, and so the two chefs were looking for a passion project—“something of our own,” as Thanapisitikul puts it—that they could pour their creative energies into.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul moved from Thailand to the Bay Area for college; Chin’s parents were immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively. When the two started talking about a business together, dumplings wound up being the common denominator and the ideal vehicle for the chefs to get creative with the flavors from their childhood. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895876\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895876\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of an uncooked five-spice soup dumpling, which is shaped like a wonton.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The five-spice beef dumpling looks like a wonton and tastes like Taiwanese beef noodle soup. \u003ccite>(Parcels Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take the five-spice beef soup “parcel”: The dumpling looks like a wonton, but is made using\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> techniques typically associated with xiao long bao, or Shanghainese soup dumplings. The chefs incorporate a spice-infused aspic, or meat jelly, into the filling that melts into a soupy broth—similar to what you’d find in a bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup—when the dumplings are steamed. The first bite, when the hot soup bursts into your mouth, is pure nostalgic comfort for anyone who grew up with those flavors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another of their steamed dumplings takes its flavor cues from Hainan chicken rice (or khao mun gai, as the Thai version of the poached chicken street food dish is called). For her dumpling-ified version, Thanapisitikul recreates the traditional flavors by sautéing ginger and scallions in chicken fat, then whipping that fat into the ground chicken filling.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yet another dumpling—maybe the most delicious of all—takes the savory flavors and crunchy water chestnuts you’d find in a classic \u003ca href=\"https://thewoksoflife.com/lions-head-meatballs/\">Lion’s Head meatball\u003c/a> and repackages them as an incredibly juicy potsticker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many ways, the business is tailor-made for these pandemic times. With so many people cooped up at home—and, vaccinated or not, perhaps not quite ready to set foot in a physical restaurant dining room—Instagram-based pop-ups like Parcels Project have been a boon to food enthusiasts looking to liven up their usual takeout rotation. As the name suggests, the dumplings come bundled into tidy, paper-wrapped parcels, like a little care package—and would, in fact, make for a delightful pick-me-up kind of gift. At $10 for a pack of 15 dumplings, they also make for a relatively affordable treat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CMr5ic8hWd1/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looking ahead, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chin and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul say opening a full-fledged, standalone dumpling restaurant isn’t out of the question. But for now the chefs are just trying to ramp up production so that they can add a few other pickup locations around the Bay Area. Meanwhile, they’re working on a line of custom dipping sauces to complement each dumpling flavor—maybe a ginger-and-scallion soy sauce for the Hainan chicken, or something with chile crisps to add some kick to the beef soup dumplings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chefs haven’t stopped tinkering with new flavors, either. They’re working on a mala fish dumpling spiked with Sichuan peppercorns that they might add to the menu, and a hoisin sauce–based one that’s inspired by Peking duck. Once you’ve opened your mind to the possibilities, it seems, there aren’t many dishes that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can’t \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be reimagined as a dumpling. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\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\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parcels Project currently delivers to San Francisco, San Jose, and the East Bay on Saturdays; scheduled pickups are available in Berkeley, Wednesday through Friday, 5–9 p.m. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parcelsproject.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Online ordering\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for each week opens at noon on Sundays.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alex Chin and Will \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul insist they didn’t set out to make a better version of any traditional dumpling. That would have been a little bit hubristic—an insult, perhaps, to generations of Asian grandmas who spent decades honing their craft. Instead, the Berkeley-based chefs imagined their new pop-up, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/parcelsproject/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parcels Project\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as a platform for Asian-American dumplings that were a little bit more modern and out of the box. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The results are very, very delicious. They make a soup dumpling that bursts with broth reminiscent of Taiwanese beef noodle soup. Another delicately braided steamed dumpling is infused with the flavors of Hainan chicken rice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“There are plenty of places that do really, really great dumplings,” Chin says. “We wanted to find something that navigated our story, our timeline of where \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grew up and what we know very well.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895877\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13895877\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"Will Thanapisitikul (left) and Alex Chin in the kitchen\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_chefs-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Thanapisitikul (left) and Alex Chin started Parcels Project as a pandemic side hustle. \u003ccite>(Parcels Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far it’s been a success: A little over a month after launching Parcels Project, with only a modest \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/parcelsproject/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">social media presence\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and without any real marketing, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chin and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul have already sold more than 3,000 frozen dumplings, often selling out entirely a day or two after their weekly \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parcelsproject.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">online ordering queue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> opens up on Sundays. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like so many other food businesses launched in the past year, Parcels Project is something of a pandemic pivot, though both chefs were fortunate enough to land full-time gigs during lockdown: Chin at the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/135793/delivery-only-the-rise-of-restaurants-with-no-diners-as-apps-take-orders\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ghost kitchen\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> startup Virtual Kitchen and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul at Town Kitchen, an Oakland-based catering company with a focus on employing and training low-income youth. Both are stressful day jobs, and so the two chefs were looking for a passion project—“something of our own,” as Thanapisitikul puts it—that they could pour their creative energies into.\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;\">Thanapisitikul moved from Thailand to the Bay Area for college; Chin’s parents were immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively. When the two started talking about a business together, dumplings wound up being the common denominator and the ideal vehicle for the chefs to get creative with the flavors from their childhood. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895876\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895876\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Close-up of an uncooked five-spice soup dumpling, which is shaped like a wonton.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-2048x1280.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/ParcelsProject_Soup-Dumpling-1920x1200.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The five-spice beef dumpling looks like a wonton and tastes like Taiwanese beef noodle soup. \u003ccite>(Parcels Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take the five-spice beef soup “parcel”: The dumpling looks like a wonton, but is made using\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> techniques typically associated with xiao long bao, or Shanghainese soup dumplings. The chefs incorporate a spice-infused aspic, or meat jelly, into the filling that melts into a soupy broth—similar to what you’d find in a bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup—when the dumplings are steamed. The first bite, when the hot soup bursts into your mouth, is pure nostalgic comfort for anyone who grew up with those flavors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another of their steamed dumplings takes its flavor cues from Hainan chicken rice (or khao mun gai, as the Thai version of the poached chicken street food dish is called). For her dumpling-ified version, Thanapisitikul recreates the traditional flavors by sautéing ginger and scallions in chicken fat, then whipping that fat into the ground chicken filling.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yet another dumpling—maybe the most delicious of all—takes the savory flavors and crunchy water chestnuts you’d find in a classic \u003ca href=\"https://thewoksoflife.com/lions-head-meatballs/\">Lion’s Head meatball\u003c/a> and repackages them as an incredibly juicy potsticker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many ways, the business is tailor-made for these pandemic times. With so many people cooped up at home—and, vaccinated or not, perhaps not quite ready to set foot in a physical restaurant dining room—Instagram-based pop-ups like Parcels Project have been a boon to food enthusiasts looking to liven up their usual takeout rotation. As the name suggests, the dumplings come bundled into tidy, paper-wrapped parcels, like a little care package—and would, in fact, make for a delightful pick-me-up kind of gift. At $10 for a pack of 15 dumplings, they also make for a relatively affordable treat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looking ahead, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chin and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanapisitikul say opening a full-fledged, standalone dumpling restaurant isn’t out of the question. But for now the chefs are just trying to ramp up production so that they can add a few other pickup locations around the Bay Area. Meanwhile, they’re working on a line of custom dipping sauces to complement each dumpling flavor—maybe a ginger-and-scallion soy sauce for the Hainan chicken, or something with chile crisps to add some kick to the beef soup dumplings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chefs haven’t stopped tinkering with new flavors, either. They’re working on a mala fish dumpling spiked with Sichuan peppercorns that they might add to the menu, and a hoisin sauce–based one that’s inspired by Peking duck. Once you’ve opened your mind to the possibilities, it seems, there aren’t many dishes that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can’t \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be reimagined as a dumpling. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\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\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parcels Project currently delivers to San Francisco, San Jose, and the East Bay on Saturdays; scheduled pickups are available in Berkeley, Wednesday through Friday, 5–9 p.m. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parcelsproject.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Online ordering\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for each week opens at noon on Sundays.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Lion Dance Cafe’s Cumin-Spiced Shawarma Is a Vegan Delight",
"headTitle": "Lion Dance Cafe’s Cumin-Spiced Shawarma Is a Vegan Delight | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since it opened late last year, downtown Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theshawarmaji.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shawarmaji\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has built up a faithful following with its crisp-edged, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13894684/toum-shawarmaji-jordanian-restaurant-oakland-garlic-sauce\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">potently garlicky\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> chicken and lamb—all cooked slowly on a traditional vertical shawarma spit. Now, chef-owner Mohammed Abutaha wants to share the love. Specifically, he wants to give other talented chefs the opportunity to tinker with his shawarma spit—a relative rarity in Bay Area kitchens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, starting today, Shawarmaji will launch a series of guest chef collaborations. First on the docket: CY Chia and Shane Stanbridge of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.liondancecafe.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lion Dance Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Oakland’s vegan Singaporean hot spot. For today’s debut, they’ve collaborated with Abutaha to create a true rarity here in the Bay Area: a seitan-based vegan shawarma that’s loaded onto, and sliced off of, the vertical spit—the same technique you’d normally only see used with a shawarma shop’s traditional meat cone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Pre-vegan, I used to love shawarma. It’s so fatty and well-spiced, juicy and delicious,” Chia says. “So we wanted something that could eat that way—the same fatty, juicy, super-savory taste.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895725\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895725\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"The seitan shawarma drips with an orange-yellow soy milk and mala spice emulsion when it's mounted on the spit. \" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-1020x725.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-768x546.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-1536x1091.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-2048x1455.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-1920x1364.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The seitan shawarma is layered with a soy milk and mala spice emulsion when it’s mounted on the spit. \u003ccite>(Mohammed Abutaha)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Creating a seitan-based shawarma that could be mounted onto a shawarma spit was largely a technical challenge, Stanbridge explains. Because seitan cooks at a much higher temperature than meat—and dries out when cooked for too long in a dry environment—Stanbridge and Chia decided to fully cook the seitan before finishing it on the spit. It’s a laborious process: The seitan gets sliced, fried, smoked and braised before it even arrives at Shawarmaji, and then it’s layered with a soy milk and mala spice emulsion to help keep things moist while the shawarma finishes cooking on the vertical spit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13894684' label='More on Shawarmaji']The result is a distinctly Chinese-Singaporean take on vegan shawarma that eats a little bit like the cumin lamb skewers that you might find in Xinjiang, China—lots of cumin, Sichuan peppercorn, doubanjiang and fermented black bean. Abutaha and his crew slice the shawarma off the spit and wrap it inside of flatbread along with tahini, pickles, and Lion Dance Cafe’s own signature spicy-smoky sambal belacan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s definitely not lacking in flavor,” Stanbridge says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895726\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 756px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13895726\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceChefs_DanaMChang.jpg\" alt=\"Shane Stanbridge (left) and CY Chia pose in front of the chalkboard menu at an earlier pop-up incarnation of their restaurant.\" width=\"756\" height=\"522\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceChefs_DanaMChang.jpg 756w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceChefs_DanaMChang-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shane Stanbridge (left) and CY Chia at an earlier pop-up incarnation of Lion Dance Cafe. \u003ccite>(Dana M. Chang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since it opened last fall, mid-pandemic, Lion Dance Cafe has been one of the toughest tickets in Oakland, requiring prospective \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/The-best-sandwich-in-the-Bay-Area-is-vegan-14497120.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">shaobing sandwich eaters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.liondancecafe.com/faq\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">incredibly quick on the draw\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when trying to snag an online preorder. The Shawarmaji pop-up represents a rare opportunity, then, to try Chia and Stanbridge’s food without having to plan for it several days in advance. The vegan shawarma ($10) will be available at Shawarmaji on Wednesday—and, potentially, on future Wednesdays—on a first-come, first-served basis during both lunch and dinner, but in limited quantities. The one seitan “meat cone” that Chia and Stanbridge will prepare for each pop-up is probably good for about 60 to 80 sandwiches, the chefs say. \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\">Lion Dance Cafe’s vegan shawarma will be available as a special at Shawarmaji, at 2123 Franklin Street in Oakland, on Wednesday, April 14, during the restaurant’s regular hours 11 a.m.–10 p.m.—or whenever it sells out. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since it opened late last year, downtown Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theshawarmaji.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shawarmaji\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has built up a faithful following with its crisp-edged, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13894684/toum-shawarmaji-jordanian-restaurant-oakland-garlic-sauce\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">potently garlicky\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> chicken and lamb—all cooked slowly on a traditional vertical shawarma spit. Now, chef-owner Mohammed Abutaha wants to share the love. Specifically, he wants to give other talented chefs the opportunity to tinker with his shawarma spit—a relative rarity in Bay Area kitchens. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, starting today, Shawarmaji will launch a series of guest chef collaborations. First on the docket: CY Chia and Shane Stanbridge of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.liondancecafe.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lion Dance Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Oakland’s vegan Singaporean hot spot. For today’s debut, they’ve collaborated with Abutaha to create a true rarity here in the Bay Area: a seitan-based vegan shawarma that’s loaded onto, and sliced off of, the vertical spit—the same technique you’d normally only see used with a shawarma shop’s traditional meat cone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Pre-vegan, I used to love shawarma. It’s so fatty and well-spiced, juicy and delicious,” Chia says. “So we wanted something that could eat that way—the same fatty, juicy, super-savory taste.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895725\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895725\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"The seitan shawarma drips with an orange-yellow soy milk and mala spice emulsion when it's mounted on the spit. \" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-1020x725.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-768x546.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-1536x1091.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-2048x1455.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceShawarma_spitcropped-1920x1364.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The seitan shawarma is layered with a soy milk and mala spice emulsion when it’s mounted on the spit. \u003ccite>(Mohammed Abutaha)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Creating a seitan-based shawarma that could be mounted onto a shawarma spit was largely a technical challenge, Stanbridge explains. Because seitan cooks at a much higher temperature than meat—and dries out when cooked for too long in a dry environment—Stanbridge and Chia decided to fully cook the seitan before finishing it on the spit. It’s a laborious process: The seitan gets sliced, fried, smoked and braised before it even arrives at Shawarmaji, and then it’s layered with a soy milk and mala spice emulsion to help keep things moist while the shawarma finishes cooking on the vertical spit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The result is a distinctly Chinese-Singaporean take on vegan shawarma that eats a little bit like the cumin lamb skewers that you might find in Xinjiang, China—lots of cumin, Sichuan peppercorn, doubanjiang and fermented black bean. Abutaha and his crew slice the shawarma off the spit and wrap it inside of flatbread along with tahini, pickles, and Lion Dance Cafe’s own signature spicy-smoky sambal belacan.\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 definitely not lacking in flavor,” Stanbridge says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895726\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 756px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13895726\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceChefs_DanaMChang.jpg\" alt=\"Shane Stanbridge (left) and CY Chia pose in front of the chalkboard menu at an earlier pop-up incarnation of their restaurant.\" width=\"756\" height=\"522\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceChefs_DanaMChang.jpg 756w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/LionDanceChefs_DanaMChang-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shane Stanbridge (left) and CY Chia at an earlier pop-up incarnation of Lion Dance Cafe. \u003ccite>(Dana M. Chang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since it opened last fall, mid-pandemic, Lion Dance Cafe has been one of the toughest tickets in Oakland, requiring prospective \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/The-best-sandwich-in-the-Bay-Area-is-vegan-14497120.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">shaobing sandwich eaters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.liondancecafe.com/faq\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">incredibly quick on the draw\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when trying to snag an online preorder. The Shawarmaji pop-up represents a rare opportunity, then, to try Chia and Stanbridge’s food without having to plan for it several days in advance. The vegan shawarma ($10) will be available at Shawarmaji on Wednesday—and, potentially, on future Wednesdays—on a first-come, first-served basis during both lunch and dinner, but in limited quantities. The one seitan “meat cone” that Chia and Stanbridge will prepare for each pop-up is probably good for about 60 to 80 sandwiches, the chefs say. \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\">Lion Dance Cafe’s vegan shawarma will be available as a special at Shawarmaji, at 2123 Franklin Street in Oakland, on Wednesday, April 14, during the restaurant’s regular hours 11 a.m.–10 p.m.—or whenever it sells out. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Preeti Mistry on the Enduring Whiteness of Food Podcasts",
"headTitle": "Preeti Mistry on the Enduring Whiteness of Food Podcasts | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No one would ever accuse Preeti Mistry of being shy about \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/133876/celebrity-chefs-recipes-preeti-mistrys-chumpchis-channa-with-eggs-sausage\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">offering a hot take\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The outspoken chef is best known for their California-Indian Oakland street food restaurant, Juhu Beach Club, whose vada pavs and doswaffles (a waffle-and-dosa hybrid) were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/juhu-beach-clubs-street-food-is-worth-sitting-down-for-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the toast of The Town\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> until it closed in 2018. But Mistry has gained just as many fans over the years (and enemies, probably) for the ways they’ve spoken out about the experience of being a queer, brown, immigrant chef—and the fearlessness with which they’ve called out \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://time.com/5520560/chef-preeti-mistry-activism/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the ways in which chefs of color and non-Eurocentric cuisines \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tend to get marginalized in\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the broader restaurant world\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, tangling with establishment figures like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/dining/thomas-keller-chef-profile.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thomas Keller\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/chefpmistry/status/1066147696984170498\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Andrew Zimmern\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> along the way. In a 2017 profile, the food writer Mayukh Sen \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywb3kb/preeti-mistry-is-shutting-down-her-restaurant-but-shes-not-going-away\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">called Mistry\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “the avatar of a more outspoken, young, rebellious class of chefs who threaten the restaurant industry’s historically white, straight, male-dominant guard.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, Mistry says they’re taking on the establishment again via a new platform: a new podcast called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://loading-dock-talks.simplecast.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Loading Dock Talks\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, launched last week, in which Mistry interviews other chefs and assorted food people about their lives, food and social justice — and, as Mistry puts it in the show’s introduction each week, “we do a little shit-talking too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895664\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Preeti Mistry in the kitchen with her channa, eggs and sausage.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preeti Mistry in the kitchen with their channa, eggs and sausage. \u003ccite>(Vic Chin/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mistry says they created the podcast to stand in contrast to \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the largely white backdrop of the overall food podcasting world—a world in which very few of the prominent hosts and interviewers are people of color.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Last week’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://loading-dock-talks.simplecast.com/episodes/asha-gomez-on-immigrating-to-the-us-and-finding-her-voice\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">premiere episode\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> featured \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/dining/chef-asha-gomez-india.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asha Gomez, the Atlanta-based superstar chef\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who talked with Mistry about her childhood in Kerala, India, and the frustrations of being pigeonholed as an Indian chef. This week Mistry chats with San Francisco’s own Nick Cho, aka Your Korean Dad, the coffee guru turned \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://yourkoreandad.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">global Tik Tok celebrity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, about everything from Cho’s love of Taco Bell to the importance of calling out racism, sexism, and homophobia on social media.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mistry spoke to KQED about the podcast from their newly adopted home in Guerneville, where they’ve been cloistered away since the start of the pandemic, first snipping basil leaves as an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/7/24/21337715/preeti-mistry-farmer-radical-family-farms-juhu-beach-club-blue-hill-stone-barns\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">intern on a small family farm in Sebastopol\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, then making a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/the-pantry/chef-preeti-interview-waffles-mochi\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">memorable appearance on \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Waffles and Mochi\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Michelle Obama- and puppet-led food show for kids. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cem>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: Why did you decide to start a podcast? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Preeti Mistry: I’ve always been good with talking. Whether we’re talking about \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Waffles and Mochi\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or the podcast, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to me the way it might for other folks, where that’s not in their wheelhouse. And I have been interviewed on \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">so many\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> podcasts—I’ve been very lucky that people want to hear what I have to say. But I just give that away. When you’re a guest on a podcast, you don’t get paid. So the idea is taking something I already enjoy doing and actually trying to monetize it, in a world where everything I was planning to do to make money last year fell apart in March.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did you come up with the name \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Loading Dock Talks?\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The only time I see other chefs is at events. It’s always, like, you work your ass off, and it’s always that moment when it’s all over and everyone’s having a beer that we can actually hang out with each other. I think so many of us chefs cherish that moment and the spirit of that moment. I have spent many hours on a loading dock after dark, just hanging out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=bayareabites_133876,bayareabites_133874 label='More from Preeti Mistry']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s a lot of people for whom that is not at all part of their world. The [podcast] listener is like that gap: They’re leaving the restaurant, they look over and they see these chefs all hanging out talking to each other, and they’re like, “Oh, I wonder what they’re talking about?” But then they need to get in their Uber. [laughs]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Why do you feel like it’s important to have this platform as a queer, brown, and immigrant chef?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think it’s great that in this last year, a lot of the successful food podcasters out there—who are mostly white—have prioritized interviewing more BIPOC folks. But they’re still the ones in positions of power. Aside from a few that are willing to take risks, the white hosts generally pick people of color that are “safe,” that are not going to threaten them or make them feel uncomfortable. Now they’re like, “We’re going to talk about cultural appropriation, but we’re going to bring on guests that don’t have a strong opinion about the issue.” And then they get patted on the back for talking about a controversial issue and for adding so much diversity to their programming. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To me, that just feels like so little so late. It’s still never going to be the same conversation. The conversation is still being managed by the white gaze. We’re taking the position of power and ownership and saying, “This is how I want to tell the story. This is what we’re going to focus on.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13895635\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PreetiMistry_vertical.jpg\" alt=\"Preeti Mistry eats a radish while at the farmers market.\" width=\"698\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PreetiMistry_vertical.jpg 698w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PreetiMistry_vertical-160x220.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you give any specific example of how your identity and background change the dynamic between you and guests? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m sure Asha [Gomez] has been interviewed a gazillion times, but I don’t know how often she’s been interviewed by another Indian woman who’s also a chef. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[During that interview], we’re talking music and she says it might seem strange that she grew up listening to Led Zeppelin [as an Indian person raised in Kerala, India]. And I was like, what’s so strange about that? I was right there with her. And I was able to relate it to people telling me we should play more Bollywood music at Juhu, and being like, “Nah, dude.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With [this week’s guest, Nick Cho], we talked about how our fathers are both physicians and we were both immigrants to this country. I think we both went very different paths than our parents had expectations of us going, so we were able to bond about that and find common ground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My entire roster for the first season is all BIPOC folks, and most of them are immigrants. So, it’s just like any other thing: If it were tennis players talking to tennis players, the conversation is going to be different if it’s Serena talking to Sharapova versus Serena and Naomi Osaka. You know what I mean? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I reached a point a while back in my career where I would be like, “Hey, this thing should exist”—and if no one else is going to do it, maybe I just have to be the one to do it, whether that’s making California-Indian street food or doing this podcast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>During your interview with Asha Gomez, she talks about how unsustainable the traditional restaurant model was for her—and how she hated every moment of running her first restaurant even though it was receiving a lot of praise. Did those sentiments resonate with you as a former restaurant chef? D\u003c/b>\u003cb>o you think you’ll ever open a brick-and-mortar restaurant again? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I didn’t hate every moment of it [laughs]. I’m a restaurant person. I went to culinary school and worked in a whole lot of restaurants, and I bought into the whole thing. Throw me on a line right now and make me expedite, and I’d be like, “This is fucking great!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of what we’ve experienced in the past year during COVID is seeing how unsustainable the restaurant industry is in its current state. When I first closed [Juhu Beach Club in January of 2018], I was really focused on opening a new Juhu that’s just a little fancier, with a little more space so we can do more with the menu—like, I wanted a proper dessert program. The problem, ultimately, was I was not going to do it in a way that was not going to be sustainable for me and anyone on staff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t know that I need to keep scratching that itch, or that I have anything to prove anymore. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do anything again, restaurant wise. I suppose I just don’t necessarily feel as much like I have anything to prove. I think if I do something, it’s going to be something that’s somehow more collectively owned. It’s going to be focused on having other social missions beyond just, “Look at me and this delicious food.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I love cooking for people. But I don’t need to do it in the sense of, like, “This is my fancy restaurant. Come spend money here so that I can make money.” I need more than that.\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>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New episodes of \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://loading-dock-talks.simplecast.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Loading Dock Talks\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">go live every Tuesday morning. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Preeti Mistry on the Enduring Whiteness of Food Podcasts | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No one would ever accuse Preeti Mistry of being shy about \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/133876/celebrity-chefs-recipes-preeti-mistrys-chumpchis-channa-with-eggs-sausage\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">offering a hot take\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The outspoken chef is best known for their California-Indian Oakland street food restaurant, Juhu Beach Club, whose vada pavs and doswaffles (a waffle-and-dosa hybrid) were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/juhu-beach-clubs-street-food-is-worth-sitting-down-for-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the toast of The Town\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> until it closed in 2018. But Mistry has gained just as many fans over the years (and enemies, probably) for the ways they’ve spoken out about the experience of being a queer, brown, immigrant chef—and the fearlessness with which they’ve called out \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://time.com/5520560/chef-preeti-mistry-activism/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the ways in which chefs of color and non-Eurocentric cuisines \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tend to get marginalized in\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the broader restaurant world\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, tangling with establishment figures like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/dining/thomas-keller-chef-profile.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thomas Keller\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/chefpmistry/status/1066147696984170498\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Andrew Zimmern\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> along the way. In a 2017 profile, the food writer Mayukh Sen \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywb3kb/preeti-mistry-is-shutting-down-her-restaurant-but-shes-not-going-away\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">called Mistry\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “the avatar of a more outspoken, young, rebellious class of chefs who threaten the restaurant industry’s historically white, straight, male-dominant guard.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, Mistry says they’re taking on the establishment again via a new platform: a new podcast called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://loading-dock-talks.simplecast.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Loading Dock Talks\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, launched last week, in which Mistry interviews other chefs and assorted food people about their lives, food and social justice — and, as Mistry puts it in the show’s introduction each week, “we do a little shit-talking too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895664\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Preeti Mistry in the kitchen with her channa, eggs and sausage.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/DSCF5862.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preeti Mistry in the kitchen with their channa, eggs and sausage. \u003ccite>(Vic Chin/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mistry says they created the podcast to stand in contrast to \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the largely white backdrop of the overall food podcasting world—a world in which very few of the prominent hosts and interviewers are people of color.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Last week’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://loading-dock-talks.simplecast.com/episodes/asha-gomez-on-immigrating-to-the-us-and-finding-her-voice\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">premiere episode\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> featured \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/dining/chef-asha-gomez-india.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asha Gomez, the Atlanta-based superstar chef\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who talked with Mistry about her childhood in Kerala, India, and the frustrations of being pigeonholed as an Indian chef. This week Mistry chats with San Francisco’s own Nick Cho, aka Your Korean Dad, the coffee guru turned \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://yourkoreandad.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">global Tik Tok celebrity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, about everything from Cho’s love of Taco Bell to the importance of calling out racism, sexism, and homophobia on social media.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mistry spoke to KQED about the podcast from their newly adopted home in Guerneville, where they’ve been cloistered away since the start of the pandemic, first snipping basil leaves as an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/7/24/21337715/preeti-mistry-farmer-radical-family-farms-juhu-beach-club-blue-hill-stone-barns\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">intern on a small family farm in Sebastopol\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, then making a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/the-pantry/chef-preeti-interview-waffles-mochi\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">memorable appearance on \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Waffles and Mochi\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Michelle Obama- and puppet-led food show for kids. \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\">\u003cem>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: Why did you decide to start a podcast? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Preeti Mistry: I’ve always been good with talking. Whether we’re talking about \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Waffles and Mochi\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or the podcast, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to me the way it might for other folks, where that’s not in their wheelhouse. And I have been interviewed on \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">so many\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> podcasts—I’ve been very lucky that people want to hear what I have to say. But I just give that away. When you’re a guest on a podcast, you don’t get paid. So the idea is taking something I already enjoy doing and actually trying to monetize it, in a world where everything I was planning to do to make money last year fell apart in March.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did you come up with the name \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Loading Dock Talks?\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The only time I see other chefs is at events. It’s always, like, you work your ass off, and it’s always that moment when it’s all over and everyone’s having a beer that we can actually hang out with each other. I think so many of us chefs cherish that moment and the spirit of that moment. I have spent many hours on a loading dock after dark, just hanging out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s a lot of people for whom that is not at all part of their world. The [podcast] listener is like that gap: They’re leaving the restaurant, they look over and they see these chefs all hanging out talking to each other, and they’re like, “Oh, I wonder what they’re talking about?” But then they need to get in their Uber. [laughs]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Why do you feel like it’s important to have this platform as a queer, brown, and immigrant chef?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think it’s great that in this last year, a lot of the successful food podcasters out there—who are mostly white—have prioritized interviewing more BIPOC folks. But they’re still the ones in positions of power. Aside from a few that are willing to take risks, the white hosts generally pick people of color that are “safe,” that are not going to threaten them or make them feel uncomfortable. Now they’re like, “We’re going to talk about cultural appropriation, but we’re going to bring on guests that don’t have a strong opinion about the issue.” And then they get patted on the back for talking about a controversial issue and for adding so much diversity to their programming. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To me, that just feels like so little so late. It’s still never going to be the same conversation. The conversation is still being managed by the white gaze. We’re taking the position of power and ownership and saying, “This is how I want to tell the story. This is what we’re going to focus on.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13895635\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PreetiMistry_vertical.jpg\" alt=\"Preeti Mistry eats a radish while at the farmers market.\" width=\"698\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PreetiMistry_vertical.jpg 698w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PreetiMistry_vertical-160x220.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you give any specific example of how your identity and background change the dynamic between you and guests? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m sure Asha [Gomez] has been interviewed a gazillion times, but I don’t know how often she’s been interviewed by another Indian woman who’s also a chef. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[During that interview], we’re talking music and she says it might seem strange that she grew up listening to Led Zeppelin [as an Indian person raised in Kerala, India]. And I was like, what’s so strange about that? I was right there with her. And I was able to relate it to people telling me we should play more Bollywood music at Juhu, and being like, “Nah, dude.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With [this week’s guest, Nick Cho], we talked about how our fathers are both physicians and we were both immigrants to this country. I think we both went very different paths than our parents had expectations of us going, so we were able to bond about that and find common ground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My entire roster for the first season is all BIPOC folks, and most of them are immigrants. So, it’s just like any other thing: If it were tennis players talking to tennis players, the conversation is going to be different if it’s Serena talking to Sharapova versus Serena and Naomi Osaka. You know what I mean? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I reached a point a while back in my career where I would be like, “Hey, this thing should exist”—and if no one else is going to do it, maybe I just have to be the one to do it, whether that’s making California-Indian street food or doing this podcast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>During your interview with Asha Gomez, she talks about how unsustainable the traditional restaurant model was for her—and how she hated every moment of running her first restaurant even though it was receiving a lot of praise. Did those sentiments resonate with you as a former restaurant chef? D\u003c/b>\u003cb>o you think you’ll ever open a brick-and-mortar restaurant again? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I didn’t hate every moment of it [laughs]. I’m a restaurant person. I went to culinary school and worked in a whole lot of restaurants, and I bought into the whole thing. Throw me on a line right now and make me expedite, and I’d be like, “This is fucking great!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of what we’ve experienced in the past year during COVID is seeing how unsustainable the restaurant industry is in its current state. When I first closed [Juhu Beach Club in January of 2018], I was really focused on opening a new Juhu that’s just a little fancier, with a little more space so we can do more with the menu—like, I wanted a proper dessert program. The problem, ultimately, was I was not going to do it in a way that was not going to be sustainable for me and anyone on staff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t know that I need to keep scratching that itch, or that I have anything to prove anymore. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do anything again, restaurant wise. I suppose I just don’t necessarily feel as much like I have anything to prove. I think if I do something, it’s going to be something that’s somehow more collectively owned. It’s going to be focused on having other social missions beyond just, “Look at me and this delicious food.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I love cooking for people. But I don’t need to do it in the sense of, like, “This is my fancy restaurant. Come spend money here so that I can make money.” I need more than that.\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>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New episodes of \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://loading-dock-talks.simplecast.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Loading Dock Talks\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">go live every Tuesday morning. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Some of the Tastiest Quesabirria-Inspired Tacos Can Be Found at This Oakland Pho Shop",
"headTitle": "Some of the Tastiest Quesabirria-Inspired Tacos Can Be Found at This Oakland Pho Shop | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are living in the golden age of quesabirria. It’s been more than two years since the crispy, cheesy, red-tinged beef birria tacos \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">first exploded onto the Bay Area food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> courtesy of a handful of OG taqueros in Richmond, Oakland and Antioch. Since then, the Tijuana-style tacos have spawned too many imitators to count, including a number of cross-cultural riffs—say, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CMw6MX2BmtW/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">beef rendang quesabirria\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or “Mexipino” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/9/9/21427997/al-pastor-papi-quesadobo-taco-filipino-quesabirria-mexipino\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">chicken adobo quesabirria\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perhaps the most delicious of these hybridized versions are the bo kho, or Vietnamese beef stew, tacos that East Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://phovyoakland.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pho Vy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has been selling for the past few months—the blessed union of that basic quesabirria formula (tender stewed meat + crispy tortillas + melted cheese) with a family recipe passed down through four generations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since it opened in 2016, Pho Vy has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/maps/best-pho-restaurants-san-francisco-oakland-east-bay/ph-vy-vietnamese-cuisine\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">garnered a reputation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for serving what might be the richest and most delicious bowl of pho in the East Bay. But Tuan Nguyen, who runs the business with his wife Trang Truong, says the restaurant’s real signature dish is its bo kho—a recipe that was passed down to Nguyen by his mother and his maternal grandfather. It’s a lighter, brothier version of the stew than the dark gravy base you’ll find at a lot of other Vietnamese restaurants; the recipe is specific to his family’s hometown of My Tho, in southern Vietnam, Nguyen says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> [aside tag='tacos' label='More Taco Stories'] \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like so many other small, family-run restaurants, the pandemic has been tough on Pho Vy, which shut down entirely for several months until finally reopening in July with a skeleton crew—family members only—for takeout and, eventually, limited-capacity outdoor dining. As Nguyen explains it, the shift to takeout was especially tough for a pho restaurant: “Pho in general is something you have to eat on the spot to experience it the way it’s meant to be eaten,” he says, noting how the texture, temperature, and flavor all have to be just so. “It never tastes right when you take it to go.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nguyen’s tacos started as a kind of Hail Mary born out of the challenges of the pandemic. An Oakland native, Nguyen grew up eating tacos and always had a deep love for Latino foods. He’d always toyed with the idea of creating some kind of hybrid Vietnamese-Mexican dish—to, as he puts it, “mix different kinds of culinary fields into one type.” With the restaurant struggling just to keep its head above water, Nguyen decided to give it a shot. Traditionally, he says, you’d eat the restaurant’s tender, slow-cooked bo kho over rice noodles or with a French baguette. But Nguyen had been watching the burgeoning quesabirria trend, and he thought his stew would make a great base for that style of taco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-800x480.jpg\" alt=\"Closeup of a Vietnamese taco, with stewed beef and pickled carrot and daikon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-1536x922.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-2048x1229.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-1920x1152.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A close-up view of the bo kho taco. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The process isn’t very different from what you’d see at a birria shop, though the flavors are distinctly Vietnamese: To make his bo kho, Nguyen simmers brisket for four or five hours until it reaches maximal tenderness, then shreds the meat. He scoops out some of the rendered fat that collects at the top of the pot and uses it as a dip for the corn tortillas, which get crisped up on the griddle. He melts some Colby Jack on top of the stew to add a little bit of chile heat. And then, in addition to the standard taco toppings of cilantro and onion, Nguyen also tops his bo kho tacos with Thai basil and slices of raw jalapeño, like you’d get with a bowl of pho, and sweet carrot and daikon pickles like the kind served on banh mi.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taken all together, it makes for an absurdly delicious bite: crispy, soupy, meaty, and a little bit sweet. For taco eaters who like to dip their quesabirria, Pho Vy will serve a little cup of the concentrated bo kho broth on the side by request, though Nguyen says it isn’t really necessary: The tacos are juicy enough as it is.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1gVtH_48Do\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For now, the tacos are an off-menu item, sold at $12.95 for a plate of three—roughly in line with the going rate for quesabirria. Nguyen says he hasn’t yet listed them on the menu officially, as “Vietnamese quesabirria” or some such, because he didn’t want to “overstep Latino restaurants.” But so far, he says, everyone seems to love the tacos—including a number of Mexican-American customers. On a good day, Pho Vy now sometimes sells 200 or 300 tacos. It’s a boost in business that, ultimately, may have helped save the restaurant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It made a big difference,” Nguyen says.\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\">Pho Vy is currently open for takeout and outdoor seating at 401 International Blvd. in Oakland, from 10 a.m.–8 p.m. every day except Thursdays. For now, the bo kho tacos aren’t listed on the menu, but they’re always available. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are living in the golden age of quesabirria. It’s been more than two years since the crispy, cheesy, red-tinged beef birria tacos \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2019/11/21/20937687/el-garage-quesabirria-birria-taco-richmond-instagram\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">first exploded onto the Bay Area food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> courtesy of a handful of OG taqueros in Richmond, Oakland and Antioch. Since then, the Tijuana-style tacos have spawned too many imitators to count, including a number of cross-cultural riffs—say, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CMw6MX2BmtW/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">beef rendang quesabirria\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or “Mexipino” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/9/9/21427997/al-pastor-papi-quesadobo-taco-filipino-quesabirria-mexipino\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">chicken adobo quesabirria\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perhaps the most delicious of these hybridized versions are the bo kho, or Vietnamese beef stew, tacos that East Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://phovyoakland.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pho Vy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has been selling for the past few months—the blessed union of that basic quesabirria formula (tender stewed meat + crispy tortillas + melted cheese) with a family recipe passed down through four generations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since it opened in 2016, Pho Vy has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/maps/best-pho-restaurants-san-francisco-oakland-east-bay/ph-vy-vietnamese-cuisine\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">garnered a reputation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for serving what might be the richest and most delicious bowl of pho in the East Bay. But Tuan Nguyen, who runs the business with his wife Trang Truong, says the restaurant’s real signature dish is its bo kho—a recipe that was passed down to Nguyen by his mother and his maternal grandfather. It’s a lighter, brothier version of the stew than the dark gravy base you’ll find at a lot of other Vietnamese restaurants; the recipe is specific to his family’s hometown of My Tho, in southern Vietnam, Nguyen says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like so many other small, family-run restaurants, the pandemic has been tough on Pho Vy, which shut down entirely for several months until finally reopening in July with a skeleton crew—family members only—for takeout and, eventually, limited-capacity outdoor dining. As Nguyen explains it, the shift to takeout was especially tough for a pho restaurant: “Pho in general is something you have to eat on the spot to experience it the way it’s meant to be eaten,” he says, noting how the texture, temperature, and flavor all have to be just so. “It never tastes right when you take it to go.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nguyen’s tacos started as a kind of Hail Mary born out of the challenges of the pandemic. An Oakland native, Nguyen grew up eating tacos and always had a deep love for Latino foods. He’d always toyed with the idea of creating some kind of hybrid Vietnamese-Mexican dish—to, as he puts it, “mix different kinds of culinary fields into one type.” With the restaurant struggling just to keep its head above water, Nguyen decided to give it a shot. Traditionally, he says, you’d eat the restaurant’s tender, slow-cooked bo kho over rice noodles or with a French baguette. But Nguyen had been watching the burgeoning quesabirria trend, and he thought his stew would make a great base for that style of taco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-800x480.jpg\" alt=\"Closeup of a Vietnamese taco, with stewed beef and pickled carrot and daikon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-1536x922.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-2048x1229.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/PhyVyTaco_closeup-1920x1152.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A close-up view of the bo kho taco. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The process isn’t very different from what you’d see at a birria shop, though the flavors are distinctly Vietnamese: To make his bo kho, Nguyen simmers brisket for four or five hours until it reaches maximal tenderness, then shreds the meat. He scoops out some of the rendered fat that collects at the top of the pot and uses it as a dip for the corn tortillas, which get crisped up on the griddle. He melts some Colby Jack on top of the stew to add a little bit of chile heat. And then, in addition to the standard taco toppings of cilantro and onion, Nguyen also tops his bo kho tacos with Thai basil and slices of raw jalapeño, like you’d get with a bowl of pho, and sweet carrot and daikon pickles like the kind served on banh mi.\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\">Taken all together, it makes for an absurdly delicious bite: crispy, soupy, meaty, and a little bit sweet. For taco eaters who like to dip their quesabirria, Pho Vy will serve a little cup of the concentrated bo kho broth on the side by request, though Nguyen says it isn’t really necessary: The tacos are juicy enough as it is.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/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>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For now, the tacos are an off-menu item, sold at $12.95 for a plate of three—roughly in line with the going rate for quesabirria. Nguyen says he hasn’t yet listed them on the menu officially, as “Vietnamese quesabirria” or some such, because he didn’t want to “overstep Latino restaurants.” But so far, he says, everyone seems to love the tacos—including a number of Mexican-American customers. On a good day, Pho Vy now sometimes sells 200 or 300 tacos. It’s a boost in business that, ultimately, may have helped save the restaurant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It made a big difference,” Nguyen says.\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\">Pho Vy is currently open for takeout and outdoor seating at 401 International Blvd. in Oakland, from 10 a.m.–8 p.m. every day except Thursdays. For now, the bo kho tacos aren’t listed on the menu, but they’re always available. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "One of West Oakland’s Only Grocery Stores Is In Danger of Closing",
"headTitle": "One of West Oakland’s Only Grocery Stores Is In Danger of Closing | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even as the COVID-19 crisis has touched every conceivable corner of society this past year, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/03/17/817166724/one-type-of-business-that-s-thriving-during-coronavirus-locally-owned-grocery-stores\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">at least the grocery stores have done okay\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway: Every in-store shopper has experienced the long lines, has seen the shelves depleted of all-purpose flour and every last scrap of toilet paper. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">West Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.communityfoodsmarket.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Community Foods Market\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> saw the same boom in sales as every other supermarket in the early days of the first shelter-in-place order, as customers rushed to stock up on essential goods. But that initial boost proved to be short-lived, says Brahm Ahmadi, the store’s founder and CEO. By summertime, as low-income West Oakland residents were hit especially hard by the COVID-spurred economic downturn, both sales and customer traffic had plummeted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, Community Foods Market is in danger of closing altogether, Ahmadi says. To help prevent that, the company launched a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mailchi.mp/communityfoodsmarket/save-our-store\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Save Our Store” campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> today, asking customers and supporters to sign up to become “boosters” who commit to shopping at the store, or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://shop.communityfoodsmarket.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ordering online\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, at least once a month—and to recruit at least five other people to do the same.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Otherwise, Ahmadi says, without that significant infusion of cash, the store may be forced to close its doors altogether. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If that were to happen, it would be a big loss for West Oakland. The neighborhood has long been one of the Bay Area’s most notorious fresh food deserts— a community of 25,000 people that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11740134/full-service-grocery-store-set-to-open-in-west-oakland-food-desert\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">endured decades without a full-service grocery store\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The Community Foods Market project was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/a-grocery-store-for-west-oakland-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">more than 15 years in the making\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: When the market finally opened in June of 2019, it became only the second grocery store in West Oakland—by far the largest, and the only one in its immediate vicinity. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/129251/an-oakland-community-grocery-store-feeds-its-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mandela Grocery\u003c/a>, a smaller grocery cooperative, is located two miles away near the West Oakland BART station.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11740134']Despite people’s perception that grocery stores have thrived through the COVID era, that hasn’t really been the case for a lot of the smaller independent grocers, Ahmadi says: “The boon of the pandemic in the grocery industry has not been evenly distributed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Community Foods, sales basically flat-lined a few months into the pandemic. And since November, the number of customers visiting the store dropped another 28 percent, prompting the store to lay off seven full-time employees—more than a third of its staff—and reduce hours for several of the ones who remained. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem, Ahmadi says, is that even the initial spike in sales didn’t necessarily wind up being a net positive. Community Foods had only been open for about nine months when the pandemic hit, and, as a small, relatively new independent grocer, it didn’t have cash reserves that it could use to increase its inventory to account for the sudden demand for certain essential items. “That’s what a lot of the larger corporate retailers were able to do,” Ahmadi explains. “For example, toilet paper was one of the big ones: They could order extra pallets of toilet paper, shove them in the warehouse, wait until the shelves cleared, refill and maintain stock.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Community Foods, once the store’s shelves were depleted during those early weeks of the pandemic, they simply never got replenished—for months on end, in some cases. And so, “customers came in, saw we didn’t have the goods, and left,” Ahmad says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895390\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Community Foods CEO Brahm Ahmadi poses in the produce section\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi.jpg 1156w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Community Foods Market CEO Brahm Ahmadi poses in the produce section. \u003ccite>(Community Foods Market)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exacerbating the situation were what Ahmadi describes as the “anti-competitive” practices of the large corporate grocery chains, which strike deals with suppliers to lock down exclusive access to certain products, locking out smaller markets like Community Foods. It’s a practice that has been so pervasive during the pandemic that the National Grocers Association \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgrocers.org/news/pandemic-worsens-dominant-food-retailers-anti-competitive-tactics-against-local-independent-grocers/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recently came out with a paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> condemning what \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgrocers.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NGA-Antitrust-White-Paper25618.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it contends are antitrust violations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ahmadi says mid-pandemic pivots like adding online ordering, with free delivery for seniors within a three-mile radius, helped a little bit, but not nearly enough. Meanwhile, given the devastating impact that the COVID crisis has had on low-income communities of color, Ahmadi recognizes that many of the store’s regular customers in West Oakland just don’t have much money to spend. Even though Ahmadi says his store’s prices are fairly competitive with the larger grocery chains, he’s had many regulars tell him that they now take the bus to shop at Walmart or Costco. Ahmadi says they’ll tell him, “I really want to just shop with you; this is our neighborhood market” — but also, “I’m on fixed income; I really need to make it stretch.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The goal of the \u003ca href=\"https://mailchi.mp/communityfoodsmarket/save-our-store\">“booster” campaign\u003c/a> is to increase customer traffic by 100 people a day over the next 30 days. Ahmadi says the company decided to go that route instead of doing a more standard crowdfunding campaign because his hope is that private investors, who have deeper pockets, will be the ones to give Community Foods Market the large cash infusion that it needs. (There is an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-west-oakland-food-access-during-covid19?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">active GoFundMe campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, however, for supporters who live too far away from the store to shop there regularly.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Ahmadi says it’s hard to convince big investors to provide funding during a time when the store is struggling to bring customers in the door. The hope is that the campaign will help turn that tide. In that sense, Ahmadi says, it’s helpful for boosters to shop at the store even if they can only spend $5 or $10 at a time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That helps me go back to these potential funders and tell that story,” Ahmadi says. “The community has responded to our call. It’s rallying behind us. It’s choosing us again.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Community Foods Market was open for less than a year when the pandemic hit. Despite an initial surge in sales last March, the grocery store is now fighting for its survival.",
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"description": "Community Foods Market was open for less than a year when the pandemic hit. Despite an initial surge in sales last March, the grocery store is now fighting for its survival.",
"title": "One of West Oakland’s Only Grocery Stores Is In Danger of Closing | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even as the COVID-19 crisis has touched every conceivable corner of society this past year, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/local/305/2020/03/17/817166724/one-type-of-business-that-s-thriving-during-coronavirus-locally-owned-grocery-stores\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">at least the grocery stores have done okay\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway: Every in-store shopper has experienced the long lines, has seen the shelves depleted of all-purpose flour and every last scrap of toilet paper. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">West Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.communityfoodsmarket.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Community Foods Market\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> saw the same boom in sales as every other supermarket in the early days of the first shelter-in-place order, as customers rushed to stock up on essential goods. But that initial boost proved to be short-lived, says Brahm Ahmadi, the store’s founder and CEO. By summertime, as low-income West Oakland residents were hit especially hard by the COVID-spurred economic downturn, both sales and customer traffic had plummeted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, Community Foods Market is in danger of closing altogether, Ahmadi says. To help prevent that, the company launched a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mailchi.mp/communityfoodsmarket/save-our-store\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Save Our Store” campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> today, asking customers and supporters to sign up to become “boosters” who commit to shopping at the store, or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://shop.communityfoodsmarket.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ordering online\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, at least once a month—and to recruit at least five other people to do the same.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Otherwise, Ahmadi says, without that significant infusion of cash, the store may be forced to close its doors altogether. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If that were to happen, it would be a big loss for West Oakland. The neighborhood has long been one of the Bay Area’s most notorious fresh food deserts— a community of 25,000 people that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11740134/full-service-grocery-store-set-to-open-in-west-oakland-food-desert\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">endured decades without a full-service grocery store\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The Community Foods Market project was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/a-grocery-store-for-west-oakland-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">more than 15 years in the making\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: When the market finally opened in June of 2019, it became only the second grocery store in West Oakland—by far the largest, and the only one in its immediate vicinity. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/129251/an-oakland-community-grocery-store-feeds-its-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mandela Grocery\u003c/a>, a smaller grocery cooperative, is located two miles away near the West Oakland BART station.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Despite people’s perception that grocery stores have thrived through the COVID era, that hasn’t really been the case for a lot of the smaller independent grocers, Ahmadi says: “The boon of the pandemic in the grocery industry has not been evenly distributed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Community Foods, sales basically flat-lined a few months into the pandemic. And since November, the number of customers visiting the store dropped another 28 percent, prompting the store to lay off seven full-time employees—more than a third of its staff—and reduce hours for several of the ones who remained. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem, Ahmadi says, is that even the initial spike in sales didn’t necessarily wind up being a net positive. Community Foods had only been open for about nine months when the pandemic hit, and, as a small, relatively new independent grocer, it didn’t have cash reserves that it could use to increase its inventory to account for the sudden demand for certain essential items. “That’s what a lot of the larger corporate retailers were able to do,” Ahmadi explains. “For example, toilet paper was one of the big ones: They could order extra pallets of toilet paper, shove them in the warehouse, wait until the shelves cleared, refill and maintain stock.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Community Foods, once the store’s shelves were depleted during those early weeks of the pandemic, they simply never got replenished—for months on end, in some cases. And so, “customers came in, saw we didn’t have the goods, and left,” Ahmad says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13895390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13895390\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Community Foods CEO Brahm Ahmadi poses in the produce section\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/04/BrahmAhmadi.jpg 1156w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Community Foods Market CEO Brahm Ahmadi poses in the produce section. \u003ccite>(Community Foods Market)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exacerbating the situation were what Ahmadi describes as the “anti-competitive” practices of the large corporate grocery chains, which strike deals with suppliers to lock down exclusive access to certain products, locking out smaller markets like Community Foods. It’s a practice that has been so pervasive during the pandemic that the National Grocers Association \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgrocers.org/news/pandemic-worsens-dominant-food-retailers-anti-competitive-tactics-against-local-independent-grocers/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recently came out with a paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> condemning what \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgrocers.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NGA-Antitrust-White-Paper25618.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it contends are antitrust violations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ahmadi says mid-pandemic pivots like adding online ordering, with free delivery for seniors within a three-mile radius, helped a little bit, but not nearly enough. Meanwhile, given the devastating impact that the COVID crisis has had on low-income communities of color, Ahmadi recognizes that many of the store’s regular customers in West Oakland just don’t have much money to spend. Even though Ahmadi says his store’s prices are fairly competitive with the larger grocery chains, he’s had many regulars tell him that they now take the bus to shop at Walmart or Costco. Ahmadi says they’ll tell him, “I really want to just shop with you; this is our neighborhood market” — but also, “I’m on fixed income; I really need to make it stretch.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The goal of the \u003ca href=\"https://mailchi.mp/communityfoodsmarket/save-our-store\">“booster” campaign\u003c/a> is to increase customer traffic by 100 people a day over the next 30 days. Ahmadi says the company decided to go that route instead of doing a more standard crowdfunding campaign because his hope is that private investors, who have deeper pockets, will be the ones to give Community Foods Market the large cash infusion that it needs. (There is an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-west-oakland-food-access-during-covid19?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">active GoFundMe campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, however, for supporters who live too far away from the store to shop there regularly.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Ahmadi says it’s hard to convince big investors to provide funding during a time when the store is struggling to bring customers in the door. The hope is that the campaign will help turn that tide. In that sense, Ahmadi says, it’s helpful for boosters to shop at the store even if they can only spend $5 or $10 at a time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That helps me go back to these potential funders and tell that story,” Ahmadi says. “The community has responded to our call. It’s rallying behind us. It’s choosing us again.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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}
},
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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",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
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"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",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
},
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"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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"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.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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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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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"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": {
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"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "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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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"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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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"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": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"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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},
"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",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"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",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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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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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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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": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"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)",
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"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",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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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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"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"
},
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