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"title": "The Activist Behind Berkeley’s Only Vegan Food Festival",
"headTitle": "The Activist Behind Berkeley’s Only Vegan Food Festival | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the 1960s, as Berkeley became a hotbed of anti-war and “hippie” countercultural thinking, Oakland was cooking up something with a slightly different flavor: the Black Panther Party, most famous for its revolutionary politics, which also offered a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2016/2/16/11002842/free-breakfast-schools-black-panthers\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">free breakfast program for local youth\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erika Hazel, a Berkeley-born and Vallejo-raised vegan advocate, is inspired by these traditions when she thinks about food and health awareness in 2022. As a K-12 school therapist in Oakland, adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and vegan food blogger, Hazel—better known as “The Bizerkeley Vegan”—has set out to ensure food and health education remain accessible for those who have systemically been excluded from the conversation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Demystifying veganism is key to our future,” says Hazel, noting that she wasn’t exposed to the vegan lifestyle at all growing up in Vallejo. She initially became interested in veganism for her personal health, noting a history of cancer in her family that she hoped to reduce with a plant-based diet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Big meat factory farming is bad for our environment. We’re a meat-dependent society and it’s not good for us, especially for folks of color. My school is predominantly Black and Latinx, and seeing what they eat, it’s adding to the bigger equation of unhealthy habits.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hazel’s work is in line with a long legacy of food justice in the Bay Area. Aside from the Black Panther Party’s efforts, the Edible Schoolyard project brought gardening and food justice concepts to Berkeley middle-schoolers in a program that has since been replicated in New York and elsewhere. Nowadays, this lineage has continued with the recent efforts of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://vegnews.com/2021/7/berkeley-first-city-vegan-meals\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">local orgs fighting for Berkeley to become the first city in the country to commit to vegan options\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915892\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915892\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0167.jpg\" alt=\"Erika Hazel, who is the founder of the Bizerkeley Food Festival, stands in front of her festival's banner while smiling\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0167.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0167-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erika Hazel shines at the first annual Bizerkeley Food Festival she organized in 2021 \u003ccite>(Jeffrey Litman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this light, you can’t dismiss the ongoing journey of a homegrown proponent like Hazel, who shares her love for being vegan beyond her family’s dinner table. For her, the revolution doesn’t begin with what happens in Washington D.C.; it begins with what happens in our bodies, and the foods we choose to eat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since fully committing to veganism in 2016, The Bizerkeley Vegan has been getting to the plant of the matter by sharing her knowledge about vegan lifestyles with the public. Her biggest feat? Organizing the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.visitberkeley.com/events/the-bizerkeley-food-festival-2021/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bizerkeley Food Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 2021—Berkeley’s first and only vegan food festival.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Originally slated to debut in May 2020, Hazel was forced to pause her plans until the following year, when she received sponsorship from Berkeley to launch the city’s first-ever vegan fest to a crowd of over 1,000 attendees in the parking lot of Sports Basement. The event featured local vegan vendors, family activities, and educational resources for community members of all ages. Now in its second year, Hazel looks forward to expanding its radius to include more vendors in order to benefit more folks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the success she’s now seeing wasn’t cooked up overnight—and it wasn’t a solo effort, either, thanks to her family and community members who have “wrapped around (her dietary choices) instead of rejecting (them).”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My dad used to eat Burger King and McDonalds, and now he’s super mindful of meat consumption,” Hazel tells me. “I tell him, do you want to meet your grandchildren? You have to eat right. Illnesses like diabetes often run in families because of certain eating habits. You gotta have something green on your plate. Eat your steak, but eat more plants, too.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the past eight years, she has been volunteering, observing and connecting with vegan restaurants, festivals, and organizations around the country to to create a vegan food festival full of “culinary wizardry.” She owes a lot, she says, to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.visitvallejo.com/events/upcoming-events/vallejo-healthy-food-fest-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vallejo Healthy Food Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, as well as to organizations like the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://@foodempowermentproject\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Food Empowerment Project\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Jose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’ve been inspired by the hustlers out here,” she says. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I first met the Vegan Hood Chefs in their early days when they just had a table at Bay Area pop-ups. Now they have their own food truck, catering business, and are featured on VICE. Seeing them grow, and coming from our communities, that made me appreciate the spirit of hustling that makes our vegan scene so dope.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Watching other Black women like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/theveganhoodchefs/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vegan Hood Chefs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> gain national recognition through their Southern-style cooking and independent grit and appreciating \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fellow Vallejo entrepreneurs like E-40\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for his contributions to food culture, her passion now is sharing how the Bay is a world-class destination for any vegan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915891\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915891 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"a food vendor serves a vegan dish to a customer at the Bizerkeley Food Festival\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporting local vegan businesses like Vegan Heat is a priority for Hazel \u003ccite>(Jeffrey Litman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At holiday events and cook outs, she tests recipes like buffalo cauliflower instead of chicken wings, or adapts Filipino dishes from her neighbors to make vegan sisig. In meat-dependent and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/food-desert-bay-area-deserts-pantry-near-me-alameda-bank/11254529/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fast food-saturated environments that impact many low-income, East Bay communities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Hazel is cooking up ways to rethink how everyone can benefit from vegan practices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are so many ways to be vegan and healthy,” Hazel says. “It’s not an unattainable, white hippie thing. I want to take the whiteness out of veganism, because it’s really for everyone.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working with organizations like the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://@foodempowermentproject\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Food Empowerment Project\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Petaluma and coordinating the Vallejo Healthy Food Festival from 2019 to 2021, Hazel has been joyfully marinating in the Bay Area’s diverse vegan community and sharing what she has learned with others. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She might be a self-proclaimed “tree hugger,” but Hazel isn’t overly idealistic about her approach to changing eating habits for those living in her neighborhood. Currently, she is working on a cookbook with her mom that provides alternatives for dishes that are commonly enjoyed in her household, such as black-eyed peas. She is also collaborating with small businesses in the region, including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.drhops.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doctor Hop’s Real Hard Kombucha\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/liquifiedjuicery/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liquified Juicery\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eclipsefoods.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eclipse Ice Cream\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nixtafoods/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nixta Pupusas\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to “put on for the underdogs.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For anyone skeptical of veganism’s practicality, The Bizerkeley Vegan has a simple reminder: “Anything you can eat, I can eat vegan.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Catch Erika serving more news about Bay Area vegan culture on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thebizerkeleyvegan.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">her website\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or watch as she \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CYYbER1JBs\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recommends her favorite vegan pizza joint in San Francisco on an episode of KQED’s “Check, Please!”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.visitberkeley.com/events/the-bizerkeley-food-festival-2022/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2022 Bizerkeley Food Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, originally scheduled for July, has been rescheduled until Sunday, Sep. 4. Tickets $15-20, children under age 12 free. 11am–5pm. Sports Basement, 2727 Milvia Street, Berkeley.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the 1960s, as Berkeley became a hotbed of anti-war and “hippie” countercultural thinking, Oakland was cooking up something with a slightly different flavor: the Black Panther Party, most famous for its revolutionary politics, which also offered a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2016/2/16/11002842/free-breakfast-schools-black-panthers\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">free breakfast program for local youth\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erika Hazel, a Berkeley-born and Vallejo-raised vegan advocate, is inspired by these traditions when she thinks about food and health awareness in 2022. As a K-12 school therapist in Oakland, adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and vegan food blogger, Hazel—better known as “The Bizerkeley Vegan”—has set out to ensure food and health education remain accessible for those who have systemically been excluded from the conversation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Demystifying veganism is key to our future,” says Hazel, noting that she wasn’t exposed to the vegan lifestyle at all growing up in Vallejo. She initially became interested in veganism for her personal health, noting a history of cancer in her family that she hoped to reduce with a plant-based diet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Big meat factory farming is bad for our environment. We’re a meat-dependent society and it’s not good for us, especially for folks of color. My school is predominantly Black and Latinx, and seeing what they eat, it’s adding to the bigger equation of unhealthy habits.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hazel’s work is in line with a long legacy of food justice in the Bay Area. Aside from the Black Panther Party’s efforts, the Edible Schoolyard project brought gardening and food justice concepts to Berkeley middle-schoolers in a program that has since been replicated in New York and elsewhere. Nowadays, this lineage has continued with the recent efforts of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://vegnews.com/2021/7/berkeley-first-city-vegan-meals\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">local orgs fighting for Berkeley to become the first city in the country to commit to vegan options\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915892\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915892\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0167.jpg\" alt=\"Erika Hazel, who is the founder of the Bizerkeley Food Festival, stands in front of her festival's banner while smiling\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0167.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0167-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erika Hazel shines at the first annual Bizerkeley Food Festival she organized in 2021 \u003ccite>(Jeffrey Litman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this light, you can’t dismiss the ongoing journey of a homegrown proponent like Hazel, who shares her love for being vegan beyond her family’s dinner table. For her, the revolution doesn’t begin with what happens in Washington D.C.; it begins with what happens in our bodies, and the foods we choose to eat. \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\">Since fully committing to veganism in 2016, The Bizerkeley Vegan has been getting to the plant of the matter by sharing her knowledge about vegan lifestyles with the public. Her biggest feat? Organizing the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.visitberkeley.com/events/the-bizerkeley-food-festival-2021/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bizerkeley Food Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 2021—Berkeley’s first and only vegan food festival.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Originally slated to debut in May 2020, Hazel was forced to pause her plans until the following year, when she received sponsorship from Berkeley to launch the city’s first-ever vegan fest to a crowd of over 1,000 attendees in the parking lot of Sports Basement. The event featured local vegan vendors, family activities, and educational resources for community members of all ages. Now in its second year, Hazel looks forward to expanding its radius to include more vendors in order to benefit more folks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the success she’s now seeing wasn’t cooked up overnight—and it wasn’t a solo effort, either, thanks to her family and community members who have “wrapped around (her dietary choices) instead of rejecting (them).”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“My dad used to eat Burger King and McDonalds, and now he’s super mindful of meat consumption,” Hazel tells me. “I tell him, do you want to meet your grandchildren? You have to eat right. Illnesses like diabetes often run in families because of certain eating habits. You gotta have something green on your plate. Eat your steak, but eat more plants, too.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the past eight years, she has been volunteering, observing and connecting with vegan restaurants, festivals, and organizations around the country to to create a vegan food festival full of “culinary wizardry.” She owes a lot, she says, to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.visitvallejo.com/events/upcoming-events/vallejo-healthy-food-fest-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vallejo Healthy Food Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, as well as to organizations like the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://@foodempowermentproject\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Food Empowerment Project\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Jose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I’ve been inspired by the hustlers out here,” she says. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I first met the Vegan Hood Chefs in their early days when they just had a table at Bay Area pop-ups. Now they have their own food truck, catering business, and are featured on VICE. Seeing them grow, and coming from our communities, that made me appreciate the spirit of hustling that makes our vegan scene so dope.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Watching other Black women like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/theveganhoodchefs/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vegan Hood Chefs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> gain national recognition through their Southern-style cooking and independent grit and appreciating \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fellow Vallejo entrepreneurs like E-40\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for his contributions to food culture, her passion now is sharing how the Bay is a world-class destination for any vegan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915891\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915891 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"a food vendor serves a vegan dish to a customer at the Bizerkeley Food Festival\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/IMG_0168.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporting local vegan businesses like Vegan Heat is a priority for Hazel \u003ccite>(Jeffrey Litman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At holiday events and cook outs, she tests recipes like buffalo cauliflower instead of chicken wings, or adapts Filipino dishes from her neighbors to make vegan sisig. In meat-dependent and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/food-desert-bay-area-deserts-pantry-near-me-alameda-bank/11254529/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fast food-saturated environments that impact many low-income, East Bay communities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Hazel is cooking up ways to rethink how everyone can benefit from vegan practices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are so many ways to be vegan and healthy,” Hazel says. “It’s not an unattainable, white hippie thing. I want to take the whiteness out of veganism, because it’s really for everyone.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working with organizations like the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://@foodempowermentproject\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Food Empowerment Project\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Petaluma and coordinating the Vallejo Healthy Food Festival from 2019 to 2021, Hazel has been joyfully marinating in the Bay Area’s diverse vegan community and sharing what she has learned with others. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She might be a self-proclaimed “tree hugger,” but Hazel isn’t overly idealistic about her approach to changing eating habits for those living in her neighborhood. Currently, she is working on a cookbook with her mom that provides alternatives for dishes that are commonly enjoyed in her household, such as black-eyed peas. She is also collaborating with small businesses in the region, including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.drhops.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doctor Hop’s Real Hard Kombucha\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/liquifiedjuicery/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liquified Juicery\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eclipsefoods.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eclipse Ice Cream\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nixtafoods/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nixta Pupusas\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to “put on for the underdogs.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For anyone skeptical of veganism’s practicality, The Bizerkeley Vegan has a simple reminder: “Anything you can eat, I can eat vegan.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Catch Erika serving more news about Bay Area vegan culture on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thebizerkeleyvegan.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">her website\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or watch as she \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CYYbER1JBs\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recommends her favorite vegan pizza joint in San Francisco on an episode of KQED’s “Check, Please!”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.visitberkeley.com/events/the-bizerkeley-food-festival-2022/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2022 Bizerkeley Food Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, originally scheduled for July, has been rescheduled until Sunday, Sep. 4. Tickets $15-20, children under age 12 free. 11am–5pm. Sports Basement, 2727 Milvia Street, Berkeley.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "For Filipino Americans, Lechon Is at the Heart of Every Party",
"headTitle": "For Filipino Americans, Lechon Is at the Heart of Every Party | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>BBQ in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bbq\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring the Bay Area’s multicultural barbecue scene. New installments will post every day from June 28–July 1. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here’s a fiesta happening at the Winslow Center in Concord to celebrate a young bio science major’s graduation from UC Irvine. Upstairs, in the decorated banquet hall, Marilu Pho welcomes guests to her daughter Taylor’s graduation party while Polynesian dancers hurriedly get dressed before their performance begins. “Sorry, the boba people aren’t here yet,” Pho apologizes, detailing all the food she ordered. In addition to the boba station, there’s also a taco bar and a company on hand to make Filipino-style paella. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the star of the spread—and of any Filipino party—is the crackly, golden-skinned roast pig known as lechon. Spanish colonizers in the 1600s chose that name to describe the suckling pigs they saw native Filipinos slowly roasting whole over coals. But people in the Philippines have been serving some version of lechon to mark special occasions since well before that, starting when their Austronesian ancestors settled in the islands and brought domesticated pigs and other animals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For their daughter’s graduation party, the Pho family has ordered their lechon from Concord’s Oriental Food Market, a Filipino grocer and catering company, whose owners cooked the 60-pound pig in an industrial-sized roaster just a few hours before the party. It makes for a beautiful centerpiece: perfectly golden-brown skin on all sides, steaming in places where the meat is falling away from the bone, from its snout and perma-grin to the end of its piggy tail.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With large gatherings suspended for more than two years because of COVID-19, this particular pig seems even more celebratory than usual. I ask Marilu, “Why the lechon?” After all, the rest of the party’s multicultural spread is as modern as it is diverse. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She says simply, “Because it’s tradition, you know?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Filipino Americans like me, lechon isn’t only a tradition passed down by our parents and grandparents; it’s also a point of pride. I come from a region in the Philippines called Pampanga, which the late chef Anthony Bourdain praised for having the best food in the entire country. “Pampanga first, Philippines second?” he asked his host the first time his show \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No Reservations\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> filmed an episode in Manila. In other words, we Kampampangans know our food. But for Filipinos, our love of lechon transcends even regional loyalties. Like it did with our ancestors, this allegiance traveled with us to America to remind us of home, no matter how far we actually were from our loved ones. There is no fiesta worth having without our lechon—it’s our national dish, alongside adobo and lumpia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915594\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915594\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The head of roast pig, still attached, next to a tray that holds the pig's crispy skin.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lechon is ready to be served. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In that same episode of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No Reservations\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Bourdain travels to Cebu—the birthplace of lechon—and declares it “the best pig ever,” thus cementing his legacy as the Philippines’ favorite American chef. It meant something for him to say that: Bourdain had traveled the world 10 times over; he’d eaten the most delicious things in the most iconic food cities. But he’d decided that lechon was the best. And of course, he was right.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Taste of Childhood\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back to the party: It’s Ed Pho’s first time breaking down the lechon, but he’s done his research. Everyone stands around to watch him pull one whole side of the crunchy skin away from the succulent meat, which is still hot from being taken off the spit less than an hour before. For early-arriving guests, it’s a rare opportunity to see this process; usually, the pig seems to just arrive already divided and ready to eat. While he works at the pig with a pair of big kitchen shears, Ed regales us with his knowledge of lechon. His ethnic background is Vietnamese, but he married into Marilu’s big Filipino family. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In Cebu, they stuff it with lots of herbs and lemongrass,” he says, “but this one is done Manila-style.” The Manila style relies less on stuffing the pig with tamarind and lemongrass and more on classic preparation: garlic salt, bay leaves, fresh-cracked pepper. But it’s all about the lechon sauce. As he nears the bottom of the pig, he pulls off a tender morsel for me to taste. “This is the best part,” he says excitedly, gesturing toward the plates for me to do the honors of the first official bite. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915593\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915593\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Man cuts a piece of meat from a whole roast pig while a woman wearing a face mask watches.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ed Pho, right, serves lechon to the author. Pho ordered the lechon from Oriental Food Market for his daughter’s college graduation celebration. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I take the piece in reverence and spoon over some homemade lechon sauce—a sweet, liver-based gravy that Oriental Food Market chef Alex Gaerlan had sent along with the pig. I sandwich the meat between two pieces of crackling and take a loud, obnoxiously crispy bite.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It tastes like childhood to me. When I was a kid, a whole lechon was reserved only for weddings and golden anniversaries. I remember being eye-level to many of these lechons at family parties, macabrely willing myself into a staring contest while I wondered whose family dog would get to enjoy an ear, maybe even a leftover hind quarter. And as a Philippine-born, American-raised citizen, as I got older, I started to realize that the tradition of serving lechon at family parties seemed to be happening less and less often. Maybe it’s the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13914750/inay-dalisay-world-famous-lechon-vegan-filipino-play-bindlestiff\">health-consciousness of Filipino Americans\u003c/a> who are adopting more plant-based diets, or the fact that we no longer live barangay-style, in clans of large extended families. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“We are Filipinos. We roast and eat pig. This Is What We Do.”[/pullquote]The last lechon I remember eating was one I chose myself in the backyard of my grandparents’ home in Concepcion, Tarlac, when I was 15 years old. I chose the fattest of two pigs in the sty and sprayed it off with the hose. The next morning, I was awakened by the squealing pig being taken to the slaughter. When it returned a few hours later in the bottom of my cousin’s tricycle, it was already flayed and ready to be roasted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When that lechon was presented at the fiesta for my Lolo and Lola’s 50th anniversary, the guilt of swine assassination made way to furtive acceptance: We are Filipinos. We roast and eat pig. This Is What We Do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sari-Sari Store\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where, then, do Bay Area Filipino Americans go when they need a whole pig for a party? In the Concord area, the answer is clear: Oriental Food Market. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few hours before the Pho family’s graduation fiesta, co-owner Sherrie Gaerlan welcomes patrons to the shop while keeping an eye on her husband Alex as he roasts the lechon in the back. The front of the store is Sherrie’s domain. It’s where she sells small tubs of garlic peanuts, rents out Filipino DVDs and even helps customers purchase the “cheapest air fares to Philippines,” according to the yellow sign emblazoned over the front window. There are two clocks on the wall showing the time difference between the Philippines and California and a stack of business cards with both her and her husband’s names on the front. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915595\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915595\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Woman stands behind the counter of a small Filipino grocery store.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From behind the front counter of Concord’s Oriental Food Market, co-owner Sherrie Gaerlan rents out Filipino DVDs, arranges air travel and occasionally even plays matchmaker for customers. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was my idea to buy this business,” Gaerlan says, recalling her decision to take over the grocery store that had served Concord’s Fil-Am community since 1983. She remembers eying the gem of a location on her way to work as a subrogation specialist at the car insurance company AAA down the street. Eventually, Alex also left his job as a contractor for FedEx and began cooking in the back to help out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Sherrie, the persistence required for her position as a subrogation specialist—to go after at-fault drivers’ insurance companies to recoup costs for accident victims—gave her the resolve to eventually take over Oriental Food Market. “If I put this same amount of work in my own business,” she remembers thinking back then, “I may be able to go somewhere, so that’s what encouraged me to look for a business to run.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When we took the business over, Oriental Food Market, they kept the name. I was never really a fan of that name,” the Gaerlans’ eldest child, Graham, says, laughing. “It’s been around, it was a staple in the community for a long time. It was really all over the place. But they figured it out.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the family immigrated from the Philippines in 1991, Graham remembers being home after school with his younger sister and waiting all day for his parents to come home. Still, he grappled with why his mom would purchase such a fixer-upper of a business during his senior year of high school. “I didn’t really understand the passion for starting a business that had so many different avenues. You’re talking about a sari-sari store,” he says, using the Tagalog term for a neighborhood convenience store. “It can also be catering and cooked food.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915592\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915592\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior facade of Oriental Food Market, with signs in the window advertising lumpia and cheap airfare to the Philippines.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oriental Food Market has been a touchpoint for Filipino Americans in the Concord area since 1983. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judging from the wide array of services Sherrie offers at the front of the store, OFM still provides a touchpoint for many Filipinos longing for home. Graham, who credits his own work ethic to watching his parents grind, likens their boldness and “entrepreneur spirit” to the sacrificial decisions many immigrants make leaving their motherland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When we were in the Philippines, my mom would often tell me that when she was pregnant with me, she would go around and sell pre-packed sandwiches at the bank she worked at. This is her, 21 years old, hustling. My mom has always been that way.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Competing With Giants\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, the roast pigs are what saved the business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alex lifts the finished lechon out of the industrial roaster he bought over a decade ago. He rests the pig inside of three coconut milk boxes lined with banana leaves. This particular specimen is 10 pounds heavier than most of the pigs he roasts, and he likes it that way. When Alex taught himself how to cook Filipino food and, later, lechon, he looked for a high-quality supplier that took care of the animals from feed to slaughter. He found it in Oakland-based company \u003ca href=\"http://pacagri.com/\">PacAgri Foods\u003c/a>. He wanted to rid the Filipino catering world of skinny tableside lechons. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915588\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915588\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A whole roast pig, its skin golden-brown, still mounted on a spit-roaster.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A few hours before the start of the Pho family’s party, the lechon had just finished roasting at Oriental Food Market. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was this passion for quality that allowed OFM to survive in the catering world, where Alex took the basics he learned growing up in the Philippines and applied it to their new venture. “My mom is from Pampanga but she grew up in Manila already. Usually Kapampangans, they love to cook, right? You know, my mom doesn’t know how to cook.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, Alex’s self-taught repertoire was good enough to compete with the “giants” who moved into Concord in 2009: Seafood City and Ranch 99. These large-chain Asian mega-supermarkets swallowed up nearly every Filipino and small Asian grocer in the area. Back then, Sherrie \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2009/09/11/small-asian-groceries-face-new-competition-in-chains/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">hadn’t yet figured out what might save her business\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, with the “giants” not just competing with their vast inventory and cheaper prices, but also poaching customers who wanted the other services that OFM provided, like passport renewal and sending remittances home. Sherrie and Alex didn’t know it then, but the lechon catering services that they introduced around that time were what would keep their little store going for another decade plus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s that same adaptability and ingenuity that has sustained the market through a tragic two years of COVID-related business closures in the restaurant industry. “The catering stopped, because no one wants to do any other parties because of COVID,” Sherrie explains. “But what made us survive was all these apps: DoorDash, UberEats and Postmates. We never closed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915591\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915591\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Man cuts a piece of pork belly lechon from behind the counter of the grocer's steam table display.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lechon is also one of the turo turo steam table offerings at Oriental Food Market. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even as many of their neighbors were forced to close their doors, she recalls, the steady stream of online orders kept Oriental Food Market afloat: “So I told my husband, ‘See how the Good Lord helped us? When one door closes, three doors open.’ I’m almost crying now, to remember those times, ‘cause it’s not easy, you know?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13915312,arts_13915387,arts_13915489' label='More BBQ']For now, even as the Filipino parties have started up again, Alex can only handle two orders of lechon a weekend. He’s having trouble finding help, like every restaurant has after the pandemic. But his lechon business is still known for being the best in the area. For now, it’s also one of the only fully operational sites that’s still roasting whole pigs. While Sherrie used to do all of the cooking at home, now she won’t even step into the back kitchen—Alex’s domain—because knowing their roles well is what helped this mom-and-pop survive two decades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Even when he cooks sinigang\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">he puts good gulay,” Sherrie says of her husband’s kitchen skills. “It’s not like nalanta, or already old. He doesn’t want to compromise on the ingredients because he said, ‘I can be a good cook, but it may not turn out good if I put not-so-good ingredients.’” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915586\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915586\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Husband and wife stand behind the front counter of their small Filipino grocer and takeout shop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Owners Alex and Sherrie Gaerlan stand at the front counter of Oriental Food Market. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can still find Sherrie in her domain—the front of the shop—as she focuses on her clientele that she’s remained close with. She knows that with Seafood City and Ranch 99, the employees just work there. They don’t really care about each and every customer that walks in the door. “I used to be a matchmaker here, I used to be ‘Sister Sherrie’ ’cause people would come and just pour their hearts out. Where can you get that? That a person would trust their innermost problems, and then tell you and then get their worries [out], and you provide them your advice. But that’s just me,” she laughs. “That’s how I do business, the personal touch. There’s a story behind each bite.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All the Gusto\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back at the graduation party, the lechon tasting gives way to more offerings of food and drink—more ways for the host to show they care about their guests like a true Filipino. Though the food is a bridge back home for many of us balikbayans, it’s the sincere hospitality and warmth for everyone at the party that makes us family, even if we are not. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Have you eaten yet?” the elders ask, and you must always pretend you have not. No matter how full you are, how stuffed to the brim with party food you become, you must not turn down a piece of the prized lechon because you never know when a party like this will come again—if we are even allowed to gather like this again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So you take a plate, you take a bite, and you savor it the way it’s meant to be appreciated—with panache and all the gusto of your ancestors’ spirit. Just don’t forget the sauce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915597\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A Filipino lechon with the meat and skin removed; the head is still attached and intact.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lechon is all carved and ready to eat. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rockyrivera.com/\">Rocky Rivera\u003c/a> is a journalist, emcee, author and activist from San Francisco. She has four musical projects out, three of those with her label Beatrock Music. She released her first book last year, entitled \u003c/em>Snakeskin: Essays by Rocky Rivera\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "For Concord's Oriental Food Market, the whole roast pigs are a matter of tradition. They also may have saved the business.",
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"description": "For Concord's Oriental Food Market, the whole roast pigs are a matter of tradition. They also may have saved the business.",
"title": "For Filipino Americans, Lechon Is at the Heart of Every Party | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>BBQ in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bbq\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring the Bay Area’s multicultural barbecue scene. New installments will post every day from June 28–July 1. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>here’s a fiesta happening at the Winslow Center in Concord to celebrate a young bio science major’s graduation from UC Irvine. Upstairs, in the decorated banquet hall, Marilu Pho welcomes guests to her daughter Taylor’s graduation party while Polynesian dancers hurriedly get dressed before their performance begins. “Sorry, the boba people aren’t here yet,” Pho apologizes, detailing all the food she ordered. In addition to the boba station, there’s also a taco bar and a company on hand to make Filipino-style paella. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the star of the spread—and of any Filipino party—is the crackly, golden-skinned roast pig known as lechon. Spanish colonizers in the 1600s chose that name to describe the suckling pigs they saw native Filipinos slowly roasting whole over coals. But people in the Philippines have been serving some version of lechon to mark special occasions since well before that, starting when their Austronesian ancestors settled in the islands and brought domesticated pigs and other animals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For their daughter’s graduation party, the Pho family has ordered their lechon from Concord’s Oriental Food Market, a Filipino grocer and catering company, whose owners cooked the 60-pound pig in an industrial-sized roaster just a few hours before the party. It makes for a beautiful centerpiece: perfectly golden-brown skin on all sides, steaming in places where the meat is falling away from the bone, from its snout and perma-grin to the end of its piggy tail.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With large gatherings suspended for more than two years because of COVID-19, this particular pig seems even more celebratory than usual. I ask Marilu, “Why the lechon?” After all, the rest of the party’s multicultural spread is as modern as it is diverse. \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\">She says simply, “Because it’s tradition, you know?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Filipino Americans like me, lechon isn’t only a tradition passed down by our parents and grandparents; it’s also a point of pride. I come from a region in the Philippines called Pampanga, which the late chef Anthony Bourdain praised for having the best food in the entire country. “Pampanga first, Philippines second?” he asked his host the first time his show \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No Reservations\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> filmed an episode in Manila. In other words, we Kampampangans know our food. But for Filipinos, our love of lechon transcends even regional loyalties. Like it did with our ancestors, this allegiance traveled with us to America to remind us of home, no matter how far we actually were from our loved ones. There is no fiesta worth having without our lechon—it’s our national dish, alongside adobo and lumpia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915594\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915594\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The head of roast pig, still attached, next to a tray that holds the pig's crispy skin.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-24-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lechon is ready to be served. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In that same episode of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No Reservations\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Bourdain travels to Cebu—the birthplace of lechon—and declares it “the best pig ever,” thus cementing his legacy as the Philippines’ favorite American chef. It meant something for him to say that: Bourdain had traveled the world 10 times over; he’d eaten the most delicious things in the most iconic food cities. But he’d decided that lechon was the best. And of course, he was right.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Taste of Childhood\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back to the party: It’s Ed Pho’s first time breaking down the lechon, but he’s done his research. Everyone stands around to watch him pull one whole side of the crunchy skin away from the succulent meat, which is still hot from being taken off the spit less than an hour before. For early-arriving guests, it’s a rare opportunity to see this process; usually, the pig seems to just arrive already divided and ready to eat. While he works at the pig with a pair of big kitchen shears, Ed regales us with his knowledge of lechon. His ethnic background is Vietnamese, but he married into Marilu’s big Filipino family. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In Cebu, they stuff it with lots of herbs and lemongrass,” he says, “but this one is done Manila-style.” The Manila style relies less on stuffing the pig with tamarind and lemongrass and more on classic preparation: garlic salt, bay leaves, fresh-cracked pepper. But it’s all about the lechon sauce. As he nears the bottom of the pig, he pulls off a tender morsel for me to taste. “This is the best part,” he says excitedly, gesturing toward the plates for me to do the honors of the first official bite. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915593\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915593\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Man cuts a piece of meat from a whole roast pig while a woman wearing a face mask watches.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-22-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ed Pho, right, serves lechon to the author. Pho ordered the lechon from Oriental Food Market for his daughter’s college graduation celebration. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I take the piece in reverence and spoon over some homemade lechon sauce—a sweet, liver-based gravy that Oriental Food Market chef Alex Gaerlan had sent along with the pig. I sandwich the meat between two pieces of crackling and take a loud, obnoxiously crispy bite.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It tastes like childhood to me. When I was a kid, a whole lechon was reserved only for weddings and golden anniversaries. I remember being eye-level to many of these lechons at family parties, macabrely willing myself into a staring contest while I wondered whose family dog would get to enjoy an ear, maybe even a leftover hind quarter. And as a Philippine-born, American-raised citizen, as I got older, I started to realize that the tradition of serving lechon at family parties seemed to be happening less and less often. Maybe it’s the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13914750/inay-dalisay-world-famous-lechon-vegan-filipino-play-bindlestiff\">health-consciousness of Filipino Americans\u003c/a> who are adopting more plant-based diets, or the fact that we no longer live barangay-style, in clans of large extended families. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“We are Filipinos. We roast and eat pig. This Is What We Do.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The last lechon I remember eating was one I chose myself in the backyard of my grandparents’ home in Concepcion, Tarlac, when I was 15 years old. I chose the fattest of two pigs in the sty and sprayed it off with the hose. The next morning, I was awakened by the squealing pig being taken to the slaughter. When it returned a few hours later in the bottom of my cousin’s tricycle, it was already flayed and ready to be roasted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When that lechon was presented at the fiesta for my Lolo and Lola’s 50th anniversary, the guilt of swine assassination made way to furtive acceptance: We are Filipinos. We roast and eat pig. This Is What We Do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sari-Sari Store\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where, then, do Bay Area Filipino Americans go when they need a whole pig for a party? In the Concord area, the answer is clear: Oriental Food Market. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few hours before the Pho family’s graduation fiesta, co-owner Sherrie Gaerlan welcomes patrons to the shop while keeping an eye on her husband Alex as he roasts the lechon in the back. The front of the store is Sherrie’s domain. It’s where she sells small tubs of garlic peanuts, rents out Filipino DVDs and even helps customers purchase the “cheapest air fares to Philippines,” according to the yellow sign emblazoned over the front window. There are two clocks on the wall showing the time difference between the Philippines and California and a stack of business cards with both her and her husband’s names on the front. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915595\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915595\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Woman stands behind the counter of a small Filipino grocery store.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-27-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From behind the front counter of Concord’s Oriental Food Market, co-owner Sherrie Gaerlan rents out Filipino DVDs, arranges air travel and occasionally even plays matchmaker for customers. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was my idea to buy this business,” Gaerlan says, recalling her decision to take over the grocery store that had served Concord’s Fil-Am community since 1983. She remembers eying the gem of a location on her way to work as a subrogation specialist at the car insurance company AAA down the street. Eventually, Alex also left his job as a contractor for FedEx and began cooking in the back to help out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Sherrie, the persistence required for her position as a subrogation specialist—to go after at-fault drivers’ insurance companies to recoup costs for accident victims—gave her the resolve to eventually take over Oriental Food Market. “If I put this same amount of work in my own business,” she remembers thinking back then, “I may be able to go somewhere, so that’s what encouraged me to look for a business to run.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When we took the business over, Oriental Food Market, they kept the name. I was never really a fan of that name,” the Gaerlans’ eldest child, Graham, says, laughing. “It’s been around, it was a staple in the community for a long time. It was really all over the place. But they figured it out.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the family immigrated from the Philippines in 1991, Graham remembers being home after school with his younger sister and waiting all day for his parents to come home. Still, he grappled with why his mom would purchase such a fixer-upper of a business during his senior year of high school. “I didn’t really understand the passion for starting a business that had so many different avenues. You’re talking about a sari-sari store,” he says, using the Tagalog term for a neighborhood convenience store. “It can also be catering and cooked food.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915592\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915592\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior facade of Oriental Food Market, with signs in the window advertising lumpia and cheap airfare to the Philippines.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-19-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oriental Food Market has been a touchpoint for Filipino Americans in the Concord area since 1983. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judging from the wide array of services Sherrie offers at the front of the store, OFM still provides a touchpoint for many Filipinos longing for home. Graham, who credits his own work ethic to watching his parents grind, likens their boldness and “entrepreneur spirit” to the sacrificial decisions many immigrants make leaving their motherland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When we were in the Philippines, my mom would often tell me that when she was pregnant with me, she would go around and sell pre-packed sandwiches at the bank she worked at. This is her, 21 years old, hustling. My mom has always been that way.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Competing With Giants\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, the roast pigs are what saved the business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alex lifts the finished lechon out of the industrial roaster he bought over a decade ago. He rests the pig inside of three coconut milk boxes lined with banana leaves. This particular specimen is 10 pounds heavier than most of the pigs he roasts, and he likes it that way. When Alex taught himself how to cook Filipino food and, later, lechon, he looked for a high-quality supplier that took care of the animals from feed to slaughter. He found it in Oakland-based company \u003ca href=\"http://pacagri.com/\">PacAgri Foods\u003c/a>. He wanted to rid the Filipino catering world of skinny tableside lechons. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915588\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915588\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A whole roast pig, its skin golden-brown, still mounted on a spit-roaster.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-7-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A few hours before the start of the Pho family’s party, the lechon had just finished roasting at Oriental Food Market. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was this passion for quality that allowed OFM to survive in the catering world, where Alex took the basics he learned growing up in the Philippines and applied it to their new venture. “My mom is from Pampanga but she grew up in Manila already. Usually Kapampangans, they love to cook, right? You know, my mom doesn’t know how to cook.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, Alex’s self-taught repertoire was good enough to compete with the “giants” who moved into Concord in 2009: Seafood City and Ranch 99. These large-chain Asian mega-supermarkets swallowed up nearly every Filipino and small Asian grocer in the area. Back then, Sherrie \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2009/09/11/small-asian-groceries-face-new-competition-in-chains/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">hadn’t yet figured out what might save her business\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, with the “giants” not just competing with their vast inventory and cheaper prices, but also poaching customers who wanted the other services that OFM provided, like passport renewal and sending remittances home. Sherrie and Alex didn’t know it then, but the lechon catering services that they introduced around that time were what would keep their little store going for another decade plus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s that same adaptability and ingenuity that has sustained the market through a tragic two years of COVID-related business closures in the restaurant industry. “The catering stopped, because no one wants to do any other parties because of COVID,” Sherrie explains. “But what made us survive was all these apps: DoorDash, UberEats and Postmates. We never closed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915591\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915591\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Man cuts a piece of pork belly lechon from behind the counter of the grocer's steam table display.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-16-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lechon is also one of the turo turo steam table offerings at Oriental Food Market. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even as many of their neighbors were forced to close their doors, she recalls, the steady stream of online orders kept Oriental Food Market afloat: “So I told my husband, ‘See how the Good Lord helped us? When one door closes, three doors open.’ I’m almost crying now, to remember those times, ‘cause it’s not easy, you know?” \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 now, even as the Filipino parties have started up again, Alex can only handle two orders of lechon a weekend. He’s having trouble finding help, like every restaurant has after the pandemic. But his lechon business is still known for being the best in the area. For now, it’s also one of the only fully operational sites that’s still roasting whole pigs. While Sherrie used to do all of the cooking at home, now she won’t even step into the back kitchen—Alex’s domain—because knowing their roles well is what helped this mom-and-pop survive two decades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Even when he cooks sinigang\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">he puts good gulay,” Sherrie says of her husband’s kitchen skills. “It’s not like nalanta, or already old. He doesn’t want to compromise on the ingredients because he said, ‘I can be a good cook, but it may not turn out good if I put not-so-good ingredients.’” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915586\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915586\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Husband and wife stand behind the front counter of their small Filipino grocer and takeout shop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Owners Alex and Sherrie Gaerlan stand at the front counter of Oriental Food Market. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can still find Sherrie in her domain—the front of the shop—as she focuses on her clientele that she’s remained close with. She knows that with Seafood City and Ranch 99, the employees just work there. They don’t really care about each and every customer that walks in the door. “I used to be a matchmaker here, I used to be ‘Sister Sherrie’ ’cause people would come and just pour their hearts out. Where can you get that? That a person would trust their innermost problems, and then tell you and then get their worries [out], and you provide them your advice. But that’s just me,” she laughs. “That’s how I do business, the personal touch. There’s a story behind each bite.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All the Gusto\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back at the graduation party, the lechon tasting gives way to more offerings of food and drink—more ways for the host to show they care about their guests like a true Filipino. Though the food is a bridge back home for many of us balikbayans, it’s the sincere hospitality and warmth for everyone at the party that makes us family, even if we are not. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Have you eaten yet?” the elders ask, and you must always pretend you have not. No matter how full you are, how stuffed to the brim with party food you become, you must not turn down a piece of the prized lechon because you never know when a party like this will come again—if we are even allowed to gather like this again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So you take a plate, you take a bite, and you savor it the way it’s meant to be appreciated—with panache and all the gusto of your ancestors’ spirit. Just don’t forget the sauce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915597\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A Filipino lechon with the meat and skin removed; the head is still attached and intact.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/KQED-Lechon-06182022-Murakoshi-26-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lechon is all carved and ready to eat. \u003ccite>(Kristen Murakoshi)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rockyrivera.com/\">Rocky Rivera\u003c/a> is a journalist, emcee, author and activist from San Francisco. She has four musical projects out, three of those with her label Beatrock Music. She released her first book last year, entitled \u003c/em>Snakeskin: Essays by Rocky Rivera\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "As Inflation Gets Worse, the 99¢ Iced Tea Persists",
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"content": "\u003cp>Earlier this month, an image went viral suggesting the unthinkable had finally happened: AriZona Iced Tea had fallen victim to soaring inflation, and raised their long-held price for a 23oz can of tea from 99 cents to $1.29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not true—that’s just the price in Canadian dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, while the AriZona alarm bells may be disarmed this time around, inflation in the U.S. continues to put many people in an unprecedented budget crunch. And with supply chain issues stemming from the war in Ukraine, expensive labor and fuel, and material shortages, the questions remain: Why are some companies sticking with fixed-price items, and how much longer can they hold out?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Why do the $1 deals stick around?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One key indicator to the sustainability of these deals is how steadily companies can maintain the volume and consistency of their customers walking through doors, ready to spend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take Costco’s famous hotdog meal, so emblematic of the business that founder Jim Sinegal once threatened the company CEO, saying, “If you raise the [price of the] effing hot dog, I will kill you.” Since 1985, the wholesale membership club has offered a beef hotdog with a refillable 20oz soda for just $1.50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13915545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/gettyimages-1241318012-1-fe63e9f8423b43701aef8b3777234ce22bf5f92a-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Customers wait in line to order below signage for the Costco Kirkland Signature $1.50 hot dog and soda combo.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Costco hot dog and soda combo is $1.50, and has stayed that way since 1985. \u003ccite>(PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to David Ortega, a food economist and associate professor at Michigan State University, this price is nowhere in line with inflation, and should actually cost around $4. But the store is still able to extract value from the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are loss leaders, meaning that they are priced below cost because these are the products that bring people into the store,” Ortega said. “They bring that family in to eat that hotdog meal, which is a bargain at $1.50. But they’re likely to pick up other products when they go into the store.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loss leaders are a popular strategy for companies that can afford them. Costco is well known for this, also offering a 3 pound rotisserie chicken for only $5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13914585']It’s a common move for fast food giants as well. McDonalds, Taco Bell and Wendy’s have all offered their own versions of dollar menus, selling items like burritos, burgers and sundaes for just a buck, with the aim to bring people in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortega said that AriZona was able to operate with a similar approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see a lot of the retailers that sell that iced tea, and like having that product in their store, because it brings people in, it brings in the volume,” he said. “And they’re people that are going to pick up that bag of chips or another snack when they’re purchasing those products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AriZona has other, less obvious factors they play with to keep their prices down. One example is using the price itself as a form of marketing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The 99 cents is part of the brand’s iconography,” explained Rabobank beverage analyst Bourcard Nesin. “It’s now core to the advertising of AriZona to the point that [they get] all the free press in this environment simply because they haven’t raised their price.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nesin also added that innovation can be a great tool for keeping costs low. If packaging, manufacturing, or transportation can be streamlined to be more affordable, that leaves more profit for the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13913985']In this sense, AriZona has struck a rare balance. Nesin said that advertising typically represented a large portion of the operational costs for any beverage company, and AriZona’s reputation allowed it a significant amount of wiggle room when faced with increased production costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While other brands are spending lots of money and spending lots of their margin to promote their products, Arizona just sits in the cooler of every convenience store in America, advertising 99 cents,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The future of fixed-price deals\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>So, is this a business model that will be able to sustain itself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortega said it mostly depended on the business. Factors like scale, diversity among products, and a financial cushion to fall back all have to be taken into consideration. Ultimately, for companies like AriZona or Costco that have the upper hand on these elements, Ortega doesn’t think there will be a price reckoning anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nesin adds that when it comes to inflation, it is typically the small business owners and low-income consumers who have to make adjustments when faced with a higher cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915553\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13915553\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/GettyImages-119601971-800x725.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white image shows a restaurant named Hav-A-Pizza with customers standing outside next to a busy news stand. A neon sign in the restaurant window advertises 20¢ slices.\" width=\"800\" height=\"725\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">20¢ New York pizza, circa 1955. \u003ccite>(John Spencer Fay/FPG/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One example of this contrast is the death of The New York City dollar slice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, people could enjoy a large slice of cheese pizza for $1 flat. Despite their popularity, many of these businesses had to raise their price by as much as 50 cents in November due to the increased cost of ingredients and labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not likely that we’ll see a resurgence of the dollar slice, either. As Nesin explains: “If your favorite product’s price is higher than you’re used to, chances are it’s never going to go back to where it was before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortega said that before this round of rising inflation, smaller businesses were able to stay afloat because of volume and semi-normal economic times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13913592']“But we’ve seen food prices at record levels that we haven’t seen in 40 years,” he said. “And it’s not just food prices, but everything that goes into the production of these products. So transportation is up, wages are up, the price of gas is also up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nesin said these price changes hit hardest for those who had less to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Traditionally when consumer income is constrained, if people have less money to spend, it’s actually the lower income people that are forced to change their behavior,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explained the link to a brand like AriZona, saying: “Lower-cost products are most affected. So a brand like AriZona, if they raise prices a little bit, it will have an outsized impact on demand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AriZona chairman and founder Don Vultaggio has remained adamant that he has no intention of changing the price anytime soon. But Nesin thinks that eventually, they too will have to conform to the eternal trend of upward inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But for now,” he said, “we get to enjoy a 99 cent, 23 ounce behemoth of a refreshment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Inflation+killed+the+%241+pizza+slice.+Long+live+the+99c+iced+tea&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Earlier this month, an image went viral suggesting the unthinkable had finally happened: AriZona Iced Tea had fallen victim to soaring inflation, and raised their long-held price for a 23oz can of tea from 99 cents to $1.29.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not true—that’s just the price in Canadian dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, while the AriZona alarm bells may be disarmed this time around, inflation in the U.S. continues to put many people in an unprecedented budget crunch. And with supply chain issues stemming from the war in Ukraine, expensive labor and fuel, and material shortages, the questions remain: Why are some companies sticking with fixed-price items, and how much longer can they hold out?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Why do the $1 deals stick around?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One key indicator to the sustainability of these deals is how steadily companies can maintain the volume and consistency of their customers walking through doors, ready to spend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take Costco’s famous hotdog meal, so emblematic of the business that founder Jim Sinegal once threatened the company CEO, saying, “If you raise the [price of the] effing hot dog, I will kill you.” Since 1985, the wholesale membership club has offered a beef hotdog with a refillable 20oz soda for just $1.50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13915545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/gettyimages-1241318012-1-fe63e9f8423b43701aef8b3777234ce22bf5f92a-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Customers wait in line to order below signage for the Costco Kirkland Signature $1.50 hot dog and soda combo.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Costco hot dog and soda combo is $1.50, and has stayed that way since 1985. \u003ccite>(PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to David Ortega, a food economist and associate professor at Michigan State University, this price is nowhere in line with inflation, and should actually cost around $4. But the store is still able to extract value from the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are loss leaders, meaning that they are priced below cost because these are the products that bring people into the store,” Ortega said. “They bring that family in to eat that hotdog meal, which is a bargain at $1.50. But they’re likely to pick up other products when they go into the store.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loss leaders are a popular strategy for companies that can afford them. Costco is well known for this, also offering a 3 pound rotisserie chicken for only $5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s a common move for fast food giants as well. McDonalds, Taco Bell and Wendy’s have all offered their own versions of dollar menus, selling items like burritos, burgers and sundaes for just a buck, with the aim to bring people in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortega said that AriZona was able to operate with a similar approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see a lot of the retailers that sell that iced tea, and like having that product in their store, because it brings people in, it brings in the volume,” he said. “And they’re people that are going to pick up that bag of chips or another snack when they’re purchasing those products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AriZona has other, less obvious factors they play with to keep their prices down. One example is using the price itself as a form of marketing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The 99 cents is part of the brand’s iconography,” explained Rabobank beverage analyst Bourcard Nesin. “It’s now core to the advertising of AriZona to the point that [they get] all the free press in this environment simply because they haven’t raised their price.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nesin also added that innovation can be a great tool for keeping costs low. If packaging, manufacturing, or transportation can be streamlined to be more affordable, that leaves more profit for the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In this sense, AriZona has struck a rare balance. Nesin said that advertising typically represented a large portion of the operational costs for any beverage company, and AriZona’s reputation allowed it a significant amount of wiggle room when faced with increased production costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While other brands are spending lots of money and spending lots of their margin to promote their products, Arizona just sits in the cooler of every convenience store in America, advertising 99 cents,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The future of fixed-price deals\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>So, is this a business model that will be able to sustain itself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortega said it mostly depended on the business. Factors like scale, diversity among products, and a financial cushion to fall back all have to be taken into consideration. Ultimately, for companies like AriZona or Costco that have the upper hand on these elements, Ortega doesn’t think there will be a price reckoning anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nesin adds that when it comes to inflation, it is typically the small business owners and low-income consumers who have to make adjustments when faced with a higher cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915553\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13915553\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/GettyImages-119601971-800x725.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white image shows a restaurant named Hav-A-Pizza with customers standing outside next to a busy news stand. A neon sign in the restaurant window advertises 20¢ slices.\" width=\"800\" height=\"725\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">20¢ New York pizza, circa 1955. \u003ccite>(John Spencer Fay/FPG/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One example of this contrast is the death of The New York City dollar slice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, people could enjoy a large slice of cheese pizza for $1 flat. Despite their popularity, many of these businesses had to raise their price by as much as 50 cents in November due to the increased cost of ingredients and labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not likely that we’ll see a resurgence of the dollar slice, either. As Nesin explains: “If your favorite product’s price is higher than you’re used to, chances are it’s never going to go back to where it was before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortega said that before this round of rising inflation, smaller businesses were able to stay afloat because of volume and semi-normal economic times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“But we’ve seen food prices at record levels that we haven’t seen in 40 years,” he said. “And it’s not just food prices, but everything that goes into the production of these products. So transportation is up, wages are up, the price of gas is also up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nesin said these price changes hit hardest for those who had less to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Traditionally when consumer income is constrained, if people have less money to spend, it’s actually the lower income people that are forced to change their behavior,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explained the link to a brand like AriZona, saying: “Lower-cost products are most affected. So a brand like AriZona, if they raise prices a little bit, it will have an outsized impact on demand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AriZona chairman and founder Don Vultaggio has remained adamant that he has no intention of changing the price anytime soon. But Nesin thinks that eventually, they too will have to conform to the eternal trend of upward inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But for now,” he said, “we get to enjoy a 99 cent, 23 ounce behemoth of a refreshment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Inflation+killed+the+%241+pizza+slice.+Long+live+the+99c+iced+tea&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Real Mongolian Barbecue",
"headTitle": "The Real Mongolian Barbecue | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915325\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1911px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915325 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"A metal pot filled with chunks of raw meat sits on an outdoor grill area with wisps of smoke rising up.\" width=\"1911\" height=\"1274\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1911w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1911px) 100vw, 1911px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To cook khorkhog outdoors at Richmond’s Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, Battulga Ochirpurev filled a pressure cooker with lamb meat, vegetables and blazing hot stones. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>BBQ in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bbq\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring the Bay Area’s multicultural barbecue scene. New installments will post every day from June 28–July 1. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ooking back, it’s a bit embarrassing that I ever believed Mongolian barbecue had anything to do with Mongolia, the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was probably 10 or 11 years old when some distant Canadian cousins introduced me to the pleasures of all-you-can-eat griddle-cooked meats, treating my family to what they’d offered up as a fun and novel lunch option in the Toronto suburbs. There was the buffet line where you could customize your sauce and pile as many thinly sliced meats and vegetables onto your tray as you liked. There were the chefs in paper hats, who’d dump everything onto the sizzling flat-top. There was the giant gong that they would bang, unironically, anytime someone’s order was ready.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Years later, while working as the food critic for the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">East Bay Express\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, I sheepishly recounted this memory to Togi Sukhbaatar, who ran \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/togis-serves-real-mongolian-food-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a Mongolian restaurant in downtown Oakland\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at the time. “That isn’t really Mongolian at all, is it?” I asked him. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, it is not. As the story goes, Mongolian barbecue was actually invented in the 1950s by a Taiwanese comedian with no connection to Mongolia. Mong gu kao rou, or “Mongolian barbecue,” wasn’t even his first name choice: He would have advertised his restaurant as serving “Beijing barbecue” if it weren’t politically risky in Taiwan to invoke China so directly at that time. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/14/garden/at-the-nation-s-table-appleton-wis.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the ’80s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, kitschy and vaguely Orientalist versions of the restaurant genre had \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://la.eater.com/2018/1/12/16885612/los-angeles-founder-mongolian-bbq-dies\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">become popular\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in much of the United States.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, Sukhbaatar said, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a well-loved Mongolian food that better fit the term “Mongolian barbecue”—a slow-cooked lamb or mutton dish known as khorkhog, which Mongolians eat at every birthday, every wedding, every big family gathering. Even here in the Bay Area, almost any time more than 10 or 20 Mongolian Americans get together—say, in a park or in someone’s backyard—they’ll build a fire to prepare a big pot of khorkhog: a sealed vessel, usually a pressure cooker, filled to the brim with the meat from a whole sheep or lamb, potatoes, carrots, onions and blazing hot rocks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, Sukhbaatar told me, was the real Mongolian barbecue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After I learned about khorkhog, I became mildly obsessed with the dish. But it wasn’t easy to track down. There are only a handful of Mongolian restaurants in the Bay Area to begin with, and only the most ambitious of these even list khorkhog on the menu because the process of cooking it is so time-consuming and unwieldy in the context of a restaurant kitchen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915331\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915331 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"An old pressure cooking sitting on a grill grate, with trees in the background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most Mongolian American families own at least one old-school pressure cooker like this one, which they use for making the slow-cooked lamb dish known as khorkhog. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After years of searching, I finally stumbled across \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Dumpling-House-Mongolian-cuisine-111983887822655/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dumpling House Mongolian Cuisine\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a Mongolian restaurant in Richmond that serves khorkhog all the time, as long as you call ahead to give them a couple of hours of advance notice. Finally, then, I’d have a chance to taste khorkhog for myself. Owners Erika Terbish Erdenechimeg and Battulga Ochirpurev even agreed to cook it for me in the traditional way—outdoors, over a blazing fire. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was also a chance to dig deeper into the questions that had bothered me ever since I first learned about khorkhog. Why was it that, while most everyone in the U.S. is familiar with so-called “Mongolian barbecue,” traditional Mongolian foodways seem to have been completely erased? And why had I heard so little about the Bay Area’s Mongolian community to begin with? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marketing copy for the American chain restaurant version of Mongolian barbecue often cites an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.changsmongoliangrill.com/history/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">origin story\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the dish in which Genghis Khan’s band of fierce nomadic warriors would hunt animals between battles, then grill the meat over fire, using the tops of their shields as a cooking surface. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, too, is a total fiction. It turns out the story of real Mongolian barbecue—and what it represents for Mongolian Americans looking to connect with their community in the Bay Area today—is far more interesting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cooking \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘American’ Style\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ochirpurev and Sukhbaatar (who now works in construction) meet me near the entrance of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, a woodsy stretch of the Richmond hills, on a Monday morning armed with a sack of root vegetables and a cooler full of meat. Because of childcare duties, Terbish Erdenechimeg isn’t able to make it, even though Ochirpurev says she’s the real chef of the family. Meanwhile, Ochirpurev’s elderly parents, visiting from Mongolia, join us for the early afternoon khorkhog feast. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915335\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915335\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"An older woman and a man smile, looking down toward the ground in a wooded area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Altangerel Deleg (left) and her son Battulga Ochirpurev take a break from preparing the khorkhog. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ochirpurev is a rangy, jovial fellow with close-cropped hair, puffy foam slippers and big, good-natured Asian dad energy. “I drank beer for 30 years. I quit for two years,” he tells me, ripping open a variety pack of Jarritos fruit soda to hand me a bottle. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He and his wife got married in Mongolia in 2000, when she was a 19-year-old volleyball champion. The couple moved to the United States a few years later with their three-year-old son, and worked whatever odd jobs they could get—Ochirpurev’s first gig was sweeping floors at a Kmart in Missouri. (Now, he tells me, reaching for a fist bump, that same son attends UC Davis.) Terbish Erdenechimeg, for her part, cooked at a few different restaurants before the couple \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondconfidential.org/2019/11/19/a-taste-of-mongolia-for-richmond-residents/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">opened their own place in Richmond in 2012.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While it’s hard to get an accurate count, most estimates peg the Mongolian population in Northern California at around \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/our_sections/forum/mongolians-in-the-bay-area-are-optimistic-about-the-future/article_34cfc134-4488-55ce-ab59-25000109856e.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">8,000 to 10,000\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a tight-knit community, but one that’s too small and dispersed to easily support a business like Dumpling House on its own. Indeed, Ochirpurev estimates that about 70% of his customers are actually Tibetan; the two cuisines share a similar array of dumplings and noodle dishes. But it’s usually only Mongolians who will order khorkhog, Ochirpurev says. No one else knows what it is.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He shows me the weathered, ancient pressure cooker that he’s brought along for the occasion, one of several that he and his wife have collected from flea markets over the years. This particular model was originally used by the American military—“heavy duty,” he tells me, rapping on the lid.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915328\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1853px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915328\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a pot filled with chunks of raw meat and rocks with wisps of smoke rising up.\" width=\"1853\" height=\"1236\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1853w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1853px) 100vw, 1853px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To assemble the khorkhog, add alternating layers of meat and hot rocks. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ochirpurev describes his method of cooking khorkhog as “American style,” explaining that most people in Mongolia don’t have access to pressure cookers. Back home, the most common way to prepare khorkhog is to cook the meat inside the metallic 40-liter Russian water jugs scattered throughout the countryside—remnants of the Soviet military presence in Mongolia. Crafty home cooks turn these water jugs into makeshift pressure cookers by standing on top of the lid while the meat is cooking, using the full weight of their body to hold it down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Isn’t that dangerous?” I ask when Ochirpurev shows me a Facebook photo of his cousin doing exactly that, teetering precariously like he’s about to fall off. “It is dangerous!” he says, cackling. “Sometimes they go flying!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The “American” style of making khorkhog has a kind of improvised, off-the-cuff quality to it, at least as practiced by Ochirpurev and his family on this Monday afternoon. Ochirpurev pours a bag of self-lighting charcoal and piles it at the base of the outdoor grill, then lights up the coals with a flick of his cigarette lighter. (People don’t have much access to charcoal in Mongolia, he explains, so they just use some combination of wood chips and fallen tree branches, which he also applies liberally to feed the flames.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Traditionally, one of the keys to making proper khorkhog is to gather stones from a nearby river—smooth river stones being the ideal vessel to withstand high heat without cracking or splintering. For his Americanized version, Ochirpurev has brought a large bag of decorative “creek stones,” the kind you can buy at Home Depot or any garden store. After they’ve been buried inside the burning charcoal for about half an hour, the stones are blazing hot. To assemble the khorkhog, Ochirpurev layers the hot rocks with big pieces of freshly butchered lamb from a local halal ranch, alternating layers of lamb and rocks until the pressure cooker is filled to the top. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"A woman tosses carrots and potatoes into a pot.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Altangerel Deleg adds fresh vegetables to the pot. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Ochirpurev’s mother adds fresh vegetables to the pot: potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage and rutabaga. (Rutabaga is the secret ingredient that makes khorkhog and many other Mongolian dishes taste delicious, Ochirpurev says.) Then come big handfuls of spice, pre-measured by Terbish Erdenechimeg back at the restaurant—a mixture that smells strongly of garlic and onion powder, though it’s mostly just salt, black pepper and bay leaves. Sukhbaatar, the former Oakland restaurant owner, explains that the seasoning is meant to be very simple, in order to bring out the natural flavor of the meat. A little bit of water goes in the pot too, to form the base of a soup.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Really, though, the hot stones inside the pot are what set khorkhog apart from any other slow-cooked stew. Once the pressure cooker is sealed up, Ochirpurev sets it over the fire. About an hour later, we’re ready to open up the pot and dig in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Father of Khorkhog\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even within Mongolia, khorkhog is very much an evolving tradition. The proliferation of those big Soviet-era water jugs throughout Mongolia is part of the dish’s origin story, according to Shirchin Baatar, a local Mongolian community leader who founded the Bay Area Mongolian Community Association (BAMCA) in 2003. In that sense, the modern form of the dish is a byproduct of Mongolia’s complicated politics in the 20th century—its history as a landlocked buffer zone during various conflicts between China and the USSR and its many decades of Soviet occupation. “Khorkhog was invented during Soviet times,” Baatar says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nevertheless, the dish traces its roots to a much older Mongolian food tradition known as boodog, a dish that Mongolian hunters have prepared for centuries, removing all the bones from a deer, antelope or other wild game in order to form a “bag” out of its skin. Then they’d cut up the meat, put it back inside the skin bag along with hot rocks, and tie it up tight. The whole thing would be cooked over fire, with the skin bag essentially serving as a natural form of “pressure cooker.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Baatar puts it, “Boodog is the father of khorkhog.” The basic principle is the same: The meat gets steamed inside the bag, but it also gets burned by the hot rocks, so you end up with a final product that’s “half steamed, half burned.” That’s the essence of what makes khorkhog taste so good. In that way, it follows the same principle as all great barbecue dishes that combine some form of slow cooking with a scorching flame. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915339\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915339\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"An old-fashioned pressure cooker heated over a fire outdoors.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The hot rocks inside scorch the meat while the fire builds up the steam pressure inside the pot. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the tastiest part of the boodog, according to Baatar? When you put the skin bag over the fire, all the hair burns off and the skin gets nice and crispy. It’s a cooking vessel you can eat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baatar says his uncles and grand-uncles in Mongolia still prepare boodog the old-fashioned way when they go hunting in the summer. Even in the United States, if you’re friends with the right Mongolian folks, you might have a chance to experience it. He’s had friends who have cooked wild boars and marmots that way after hunting trips in Colorado or in the Sacramento area. “Marmots are very delicious,” he says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘We Have to Have That Kind of Place’\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As extraordinary as an excursion like that sounds, these foodways are largely invisible to the majority of Northern Californians. It’s fairly easy to speculate why Mongolians in the Bay Area don’t have the same kind of visibility as more well-known Asian immigrant groups like the region’s Chinese American and Korean American communities. The population is just much, much smaller, and it isn’t necessarily concentrated in any single ethnic enclave. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also a relatively new immigrant community, explains Baatar. Mongolians didn’t really start arriving in the Bay Area until the mid-’90s, when a number of them received student visas to study English at a language school in San Francisco. Many of those early arrivals either overstayed their visas or were able to find jobs here, but when Baatar himself arrived in 1998, there were still only about 70 Mongolians in the Bay Area. It wasn’t until the mid-2000s that there were at least a couple thousand Mongolian immigrants living in the region.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sukhbaatar, who only ran his restaurant—Togi’s Mongolian Cuisine—for a couple of years, says the cuisine has had even less visibility because there have never been very many real Mongolian restaurants. Many of that early wave of immigrants worked in restaurants or even opened restaurants of their own—but often they would be Japanese sushi restaurants, or restaurants specializing in other Asian cuisines that seemed more viable from a business perspective. Only in the last few years have there been a greater number of restaurants that put traditional Mongolian food front and center.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915352\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915352\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Ochirpurev Sambuudorj and Altangerel Deleg sit at a picnic table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ochirpurev Sambuudorj and Altangerel Deleg sit at an outdoor picnic table at Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, listening to Mongolian music while they wait for the khorkhog to cook. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baatar and Sukhbaatar say these restaurants are some of the few remaining places where Mongolians can socialize together outside their homes. The pandemic, in particular, has had a pronounced alienating effect on the community. In Oakland, a Mongolian language school for kids, which also taught Mongolian music and dancing, closed down during the pandemic. Each summer, the community usually gathers together to celebrate Naadaam, a traditional festival with wrestling, archery and horse racing. It was canceled the past two years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13915306,arts_13915387,arts_13904835']Most significant, says Sukhbaatar, was the closure of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/mongol-bar-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mongol Bar\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a community club and informal bar in downtown Oakland, down the street from his former restaurant, where he used to go after work almost every night. Located above a Thai restaurant on Webster Street, without any sign to mark its existence, the bar was completely invisible to those outside of the local Mongolian community. But inside, it was a lively scene night after night—the one place where Sukhbaatar knew he could always go to hang out with other Mongolians. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beke (who preferred not to give his last name), Mongol Bar’s last owner, says on busy nights there were as many as 100 people packed inside the space, which featured a karaoke room, pool tables and a small dance floor. Some nights would be loud and high-energy, “like we’re in the club,” Beke recalls. Other nights, it would be more low-key—just groups of friends drinking Heinekens, shooting pool and having quiet conversation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915353\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915353\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Togi Sukhbaatar and Battulga Ochirpurev stand over an outdoor spread of roast meats and vegetables.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Togi Sukhbaatar and Battulga Ochirpurev get ready to dig into their khorkhog feast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beke closed the bar late in 2019, even before COVID hit, in part because the finances weren’t sustainable, but more so because he was burned out running the place by himself. Many nights he’d keep the place open until 4 or 5am, and he just couldn’t do it anymore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Area Mongolian Americans like Sukhbaatar and Ochirpurev still mourn the loss of the bar. “I was living there for 10 years,” Ochirpurev says. Sukhbaatar says he feels its absence most intensely when he thinks about young people in the Mongolian American community who no longer have many places where they can connect with others who share their culture. “We have to have that kind of place,” he says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In that context, informal khorkhog gatherings like the ones that Sukhbaatar and Ochirpurev organize take on even greater significance. Where else, after all, are Bay Area Mongolians going to gather? And what better way to do it than over some giant hunks of slow-cooked lamb?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtqxNcqA1SU\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Eating the Traditional Way\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first thing that hits when you open up the pot of khorkhog is the smell of the lightly charred meat and the sweet soft-cooked cabbage, which is enough to get you salivating straight away. Sukhbaatar and Ochirpurev pile everything onto big plastic platters, the hunks of lamb comically oversized and dripping with juices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With tongs, they remove the smooth stones, still hot and now fully black, and pass them around for us to hold in our hands, tossing them back and forth like a hot potato. (Just holding the stones is supposed to have health benefits.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Ochirpurev has forgotten to bring forks and knives, so we eat our khorkhog in the “really traditional” way: ripping the meat apart with our hands, the juices dripping down our chins. It’s a clean and simple taste, so purely lamb-y and elemental. The vegetables have taken on all the savory flavor of the meat. Sukhbaatar warns me that the soup is a little bit oily, but I love how salty and rich and fortifying it is—the perfect thing to warm us up on a cold, drizzly day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915349 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Man in white T-shirt and blue rubber gloves cuts a piece of lamb with a box cutter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In lieu of standard utensils, Togi Sukhbaatar uses a box cutter to cut off a slice of lamb. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every occasion of note in the Bay Area’s Mongolian community has been marked in just this way. Ochirpurev says he still remembers celebrating his youngest son’s traditional first-haircut party, when he turned three years old, in this very same park in the Richmond hills. There were 100 or 200 Mongolians who turned up to offer their congratulations—and, of course, there was plenty of khorkhog for everyone to share.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, it’s true that the Mongolian community has faced a lot of challenges in the past few years, but it’s hard to feel anything but optimistic with a stomach full of khorkhog. And anyway, 2022 is looking up: The Naadam festival is back in person this year, on July 9 at Alameda Point, with well over 1,000 people expected to attend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baatar, who’s helping to organize the event, tells me there won’t be khorkhog at the festival; it isn’t easy to make enough to feed thousands. But they’ll serve the fried dumplings known as khuushuur. There will be wrestling and archery demonstrations and Mongolian music. Times are changing, Baatar says. Just like the world at large, some Mongolians are getting together virtually on Zoom more often than they do in person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“America is a melting pot,” Baatar says. “But we’re trying to keep Mongolian culture the same way as in Mongolia.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of khorkhog, or Mongolian-style pressure-cooked lamb.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A single portion of khorkhog, ready to eat. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Luke Tsai is KQED’s food editor.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A search for the true history of the dish—and a lesson in how hot rocks and pressure-cooked lamb bring the Bay Area’s Mongolian community together.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915325\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1911px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915325 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"A metal pot filled with chunks of raw meat sits on an outdoor grill area with wisps of smoke rising up.\" width=\"1911\" height=\"1274\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1911w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/020_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1911px) 100vw, 1911px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To cook khorkhog outdoors at Richmond’s Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, Battulga Ochirpurev filled a pressure cooker with lamb meat, vegetables and blazing hot stones. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>BBQ in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bbq\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring the Bay Area’s multicultural barbecue scene. New installments will post every day from June 28–July 1. \u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">L\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ooking back, it’s a bit embarrassing that I ever believed Mongolian barbecue had anything to do with Mongolia, the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was probably 10 or 11 years old when some distant Canadian cousins introduced me to the pleasures of all-you-can-eat griddle-cooked meats, treating my family to what they’d offered up as a fun and novel lunch option in the Toronto suburbs. There was the buffet line where you could customize your sauce and pile as many thinly sliced meats and vegetables onto your tray as you liked. There were the chefs in paper hats, who’d dump everything onto the sizzling flat-top. There was the giant gong that they would bang, unironically, anytime someone’s order was ready.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Years later, while working as the food critic for the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">East Bay Express\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, I sheepishly recounted this memory to Togi Sukhbaatar, who ran \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/togis-serves-real-mongolian-food-2-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a Mongolian restaurant in downtown Oakland\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at the time. “That isn’t really Mongolian at all, is it?” I asked him. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, it is not. As the story goes, Mongolian barbecue was actually invented in the 1950s by a Taiwanese comedian with no connection to Mongolia. Mong gu kao rou, or “Mongolian barbecue,” wasn’t even his first name choice: He would have advertised his restaurant as serving “Beijing barbecue” if it weren’t politically risky in Taiwan to invoke China so directly at that time. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/14/garden/at-the-nation-s-table-appleton-wis.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the ’80s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, kitschy and vaguely Orientalist versions of the restaurant genre had \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://la.eater.com/2018/1/12/16885612/los-angeles-founder-mongolian-bbq-dies\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">become popular\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in much of the United States.\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\">Still, Sukhbaatar said, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a well-loved Mongolian food that better fit the term “Mongolian barbecue”—a slow-cooked lamb or mutton dish known as khorkhog, which Mongolians eat at every birthday, every wedding, every big family gathering. Even here in the Bay Area, almost any time more than 10 or 20 Mongolian Americans get together—say, in a park or in someone’s backyard—they’ll build a fire to prepare a big pot of khorkhog: a sealed vessel, usually a pressure cooker, filled to the brim with the meat from a whole sheep or lamb, potatoes, carrots, onions and blazing hot rocks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, Sukhbaatar told me, was the real Mongolian barbecue.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After I learned about khorkhog, I became mildly obsessed with the dish. But it wasn’t easy to track down. There are only a handful of Mongolian restaurants in the Bay Area to begin with, and only the most ambitious of these even list khorkhog on the menu because the process of cooking it is so time-consuming and unwieldy in the context of a restaurant kitchen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915331\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915331 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"An old pressure cooking sitting on a grill grate, with trees in the background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/005_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most Mongolian American families own at least one old-school pressure cooker like this one, which they use for making the slow-cooked lamb dish known as khorkhog. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After years of searching, I finally stumbled across \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Dumpling-House-Mongolian-cuisine-111983887822655/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dumpling House Mongolian Cuisine\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a Mongolian restaurant in Richmond that serves khorkhog all the time, as long as you call ahead to give them a couple of hours of advance notice. Finally, then, I’d have a chance to taste khorkhog for myself. Owners Erika Terbish Erdenechimeg and Battulga Ochirpurev even agreed to cook it for me in the traditional way—outdoors, over a blazing fire. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was also a chance to dig deeper into the questions that had bothered me ever since I first learned about khorkhog. Why was it that, while most everyone in the U.S. is familiar with so-called “Mongolian barbecue,” traditional Mongolian foodways seem to have been completely erased? And why had I heard so little about the Bay Area’s Mongolian community to begin with? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marketing copy for the American chain restaurant version of Mongolian barbecue often cites an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.changsmongoliangrill.com/history/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">origin story\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the dish in which Genghis Khan’s band of fierce nomadic warriors would hunt animals between battles, then grill the meat over fire, using the tops of their shields as a cooking surface. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, too, is a total fiction. It turns out the story of real Mongolian barbecue—and what it represents for Mongolian Americans looking to connect with their community in the Bay Area today—is far more interesting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cooking \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘American’ Style\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ochirpurev and Sukhbaatar (who now works in construction) meet me near the entrance of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, a woodsy stretch of the Richmond hills, on a Monday morning armed with a sack of root vegetables and a cooler full of meat. Because of childcare duties, Terbish Erdenechimeg isn’t able to make it, even though Ochirpurev says she’s the real chef of the family. Meanwhile, Ochirpurev’s elderly parents, visiting from Mongolia, join us for the early afternoon khorkhog feast. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915335\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915335\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"An older woman and a man smile, looking down toward the ground in a wooded area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/031_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Altangerel Deleg (left) and her son Battulga Ochirpurev take a break from preparing the khorkhog. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ochirpurev is a rangy, jovial fellow with close-cropped hair, puffy foam slippers and big, good-natured Asian dad energy. “I drank beer for 30 years. I quit for two years,” he tells me, ripping open a variety pack of Jarritos fruit soda to hand me a bottle. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He and his wife got married in Mongolia in 2000, when she was a 19-year-old volleyball champion. The couple moved to the United States a few years later with their three-year-old son, and worked whatever odd jobs they could get—Ochirpurev’s first gig was sweeping floors at a Kmart in Missouri. (Now, he tells me, reaching for a fist bump, that same son attends UC Davis.) Terbish Erdenechimeg, for her part, cooked at a few different restaurants before the couple \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondconfidential.org/2019/11/19/a-taste-of-mongolia-for-richmond-residents/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">opened their own place in Richmond in 2012.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While it’s hard to get an accurate count, most estimates peg the Mongolian population in Northern California at around \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/our_sections/forum/mongolians-in-the-bay-area-are-optimistic-about-the-future/article_34cfc134-4488-55ce-ab59-25000109856e.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">8,000 to 10,000\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a tight-knit community, but one that’s too small and dispersed to easily support a business like Dumpling House on its own. Indeed, Ochirpurev estimates that about 70% of his customers are actually Tibetan; the two cuisines share a similar array of dumplings and noodle dishes. But it’s usually only Mongolians who will order khorkhog, Ochirpurev says. No one else knows what it is.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He shows me the weathered, ancient pressure cooker that he’s brought along for the occasion, one of several that he and his wife have collected from flea markets over the years. This particular model was originally used by the American military—“heavy duty,” he tells me, rapping on the lid.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915328\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1853px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915328\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a pot filled with chunks of raw meat and rocks with wisps of smoke rising up.\" width=\"1853\" height=\"1236\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1853w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/014_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1853px) 100vw, 1853px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To assemble the khorkhog, add alternating layers of meat and hot rocks. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ochirpurev describes his method of cooking khorkhog as “American style,” explaining that most people in Mongolia don’t have access to pressure cookers. Back home, the most common way to prepare khorkhog is to cook the meat inside the metallic 40-liter Russian water jugs scattered throughout the countryside—remnants of the Soviet military presence in Mongolia. Crafty home cooks turn these water jugs into makeshift pressure cookers by standing on top of the lid while the meat is cooking, using the full weight of their body to hold it down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Isn’t that dangerous?” I ask when Ochirpurev shows me a Facebook photo of his cousin doing exactly that, teetering precariously like he’s about to fall off. “It is dangerous!” he says, cackling. “Sometimes they go flying!”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The “American” style of making khorkhog has a kind of improvised, off-the-cuff quality to it, at least as practiced by Ochirpurev and his family on this Monday afternoon. Ochirpurev pours a bag of self-lighting charcoal and piles it at the base of the outdoor grill, then lights up the coals with a flick of his cigarette lighter. (People don’t have much access to charcoal in Mongolia, he explains, so they just use some combination of wood chips and fallen tree branches, which he also applies liberally to feed the flames.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Traditionally, one of the keys to making proper khorkhog is to gather stones from a nearby river—smooth river stones being the ideal vessel to withstand high heat without cracking or splintering. For his Americanized version, Ochirpurev has brought a large bag of decorative “creek stones,” the kind you can buy at Home Depot or any garden store. After they’ve been buried inside the burning charcoal for about half an hour, the stones are blazing hot. To assemble the khorkhog, Ochirpurev layers the hot rocks with big pieces of freshly butchered lamb from a local halal ranch, alternating layers of lamb and rocks until the pressure cooker is filled to the top. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"A woman tosses carrots and potatoes into a pot.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/016_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Altangerel Deleg adds fresh vegetables to the pot. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Ochirpurev’s mother adds fresh vegetables to the pot: potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage and rutabaga. (Rutabaga is the secret ingredient that makes khorkhog and many other Mongolian dishes taste delicious, Ochirpurev says.) Then come big handfuls of spice, pre-measured by Terbish Erdenechimeg back at the restaurant—a mixture that smells strongly of garlic and onion powder, though it’s mostly just salt, black pepper and bay leaves. Sukhbaatar, the former Oakland restaurant owner, explains that the seasoning is meant to be very simple, in order to bring out the natural flavor of the meat. A little bit of water goes in the pot too, to form the base of a soup.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Really, though, the hot stones inside the pot are what set khorkhog apart from any other slow-cooked stew. Once the pressure cooker is sealed up, Ochirpurev sets it over the fire. About an hour later, we’re ready to open up the pot and dig in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Father of Khorkhog\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even within Mongolia, khorkhog is very much an evolving tradition. The proliferation of those big Soviet-era water jugs throughout Mongolia is part of the dish’s origin story, according to Shirchin Baatar, a local Mongolian community leader who founded the Bay Area Mongolian Community Association (BAMCA) in 2003. In that sense, the modern form of the dish is a byproduct of Mongolia’s complicated politics in the 20th century—its history as a landlocked buffer zone during various conflicts between China and the USSR and its many decades of Soviet occupation. “Khorkhog was invented during Soviet times,” Baatar says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nevertheless, the dish traces its roots to a much older Mongolian food tradition known as boodog, a dish that Mongolian hunters have prepared for centuries, removing all the bones from a deer, antelope or other wild game in order to form a “bag” out of its skin. Then they’d cut up the meat, put it back inside the skin bag along with hot rocks, and tie it up tight. The whole thing would be cooked over fire, with the skin bag essentially serving as a natural form of “pressure cooker.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Baatar puts it, “Boodog is the father of khorkhog.” The basic principle is the same: The meat gets steamed inside the bag, but it also gets burned by the hot rocks, so you end up with a final product that’s “half steamed, half burned.” That’s the essence of what makes khorkhog taste so good. In that way, it follows the same principle as all great barbecue dishes that combine some form of slow cooking with a scorching flame. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915339\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915339\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"An old-fashioned pressure cooker heated over a fire outdoors.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/026_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The hot rocks inside scorch the meat while the fire builds up the steam pressure inside the pot. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the tastiest part of the boodog, according to Baatar? When you put the skin bag over the fire, all the hair burns off and the skin gets nice and crispy. It’s a cooking vessel you can eat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baatar says his uncles and grand-uncles in Mongolia still prepare boodog the old-fashioned way when they go hunting in the summer. Even in the United States, if you’re friends with the right Mongolian folks, you might have a chance to experience it. He’s had friends who have cooked wild boars and marmots that way after hunting trips in Colorado or in the Sacramento area. “Marmots are very delicious,” he says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘We Have to Have That Kind of Place’\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As extraordinary as an excursion like that sounds, these foodways are largely invisible to the majority of Northern Californians. It’s fairly easy to speculate why Mongolians in the Bay Area don’t have the same kind of visibility as more well-known Asian immigrant groups like the region’s Chinese American and Korean American communities. The population is just much, much smaller, and it isn’t necessarily concentrated in any single ethnic enclave. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also a relatively new immigrant community, explains Baatar. Mongolians didn’t really start arriving in the Bay Area until the mid-’90s, when a number of them received student visas to study English at a language school in San Francisco. Many of those early arrivals either overstayed their visas or were able to find jobs here, but when Baatar himself arrived in 1998, there were still only about 70 Mongolians in the Bay Area. It wasn’t until the mid-2000s that there were at least a couple thousand Mongolian immigrants living in the region.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sukhbaatar, who only ran his restaurant—Togi’s Mongolian Cuisine—for a couple of years, says the cuisine has had even less visibility because there have never been very many real Mongolian restaurants. Many of that early wave of immigrants worked in restaurants or even opened restaurants of their own—but often they would be Japanese sushi restaurants, or restaurants specializing in other Asian cuisines that seemed more viable from a business perspective. Only in the last few years have there been a greater number of restaurants that put traditional Mongolian food front and center.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915352\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915352\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Ochirpurev Sambuudorj and Altangerel Deleg sit at a picnic table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/037_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ochirpurev Sambuudorj and Altangerel Deleg sit at an outdoor picnic table at Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, listening to Mongolian music while they wait for the khorkhog to cook. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baatar and Sukhbaatar say these restaurants are some of the few remaining places where Mongolians can socialize together outside their homes. The pandemic, in particular, has had a pronounced alienating effect on the community. In Oakland, a Mongolian language school for kids, which also taught Mongolian music and dancing, closed down during the pandemic. Each summer, the community usually gathers together to celebrate Naadaam, a traditional festival with wrestling, archery and horse racing. It was canceled the past two years.\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>Most significant, says Sukhbaatar, was the closure of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/mongol-bar-oakland\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mongol Bar\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a community club and informal bar in downtown Oakland, down the street from his former restaurant, where he used to go after work almost every night. Located above a Thai restaurant on Webster Street, without any sign to mark its existence, the bar was completely invisible to those outside of the local Mongolian community. But inside, it was a lively scene night after night—the one place where Sukhbaatar knew he could always go to hang out with other Mongolians. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beke (who preferred not to give his last name), Mongol Bar’s last owner, says on busy nights there were as many as 100 people packed inside the space, which featured a karaoke room, pool tables and a small dance floor. Some nights would be loud and high-energy, “like we’re in the club,” Beke recalls. Other nights, it would be more low-key—just groups of friends drinking Heinekens, shooting pool and having quiet conversation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915353\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915353\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Togi Sukhbaatar and Battulga Ochirpurev stand over an outdoor spread of roast meats and vegetables.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/053_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Togi Sukhbaatar and Battulga Ochirpurev get ready to dig into their khorkhog feast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beke closed the bar late in 2019, even before COVID hit, in part because the finances weren’t sustainable, but more so because he was burned out running the place by himself. Many nights he’d keep the place open until 4 or 5am, and he just couldn’t do it anymore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Area Mongolian Americans like Sukhbaatar and Ochirpurev still mourn the loss of the bar. “I was living there for 10 years,” Ochirpurev says. Sukhbaatar says he feels its absence most intensely when he thinks about young people in the Mongolian American community who no longer have many places where they can connect with others who share their culture. “We have to have that kind of place,” he says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In that context, informal khorkhog gatherings like the ones that Sukhbaatar and Ochirpurev organize take on even greater significance. Where else, after all, are Bay Area Mongolians going to gather? And what better way to do it than over some giant hunks of slow-cooked lamb?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\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/FtqxNcqA1SU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/FtqxNcqA1SU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>Eating the Traditional Way\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first thing that hits when you open up the pot of khorkhog is the smell of the lightly charred meat and the sweet soft-cooked cabbage, which is enough to get you salivating straight away. Sukhbaatar and Ochirpurev pile everything onto big plastic platters, the hunks of lamb comically oversized and dripping with juices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With tongs, they remove the smooth stones, still hot and now fully black, and pass them around for us to hold in our hands, tossing them back and forth like a hot potato. (Just holding the stones is supposed to have health benefits.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Ochirpurev has forgotten to bring forks and knives, so we eat our khorkhog in the “really traditional” way: ripping the meat apart with our hands, the juices dripping down our chins. It’s a clean and simple taste, so purely lamb-y and elemental. The vegetables have taken on all the savory flavor of the meat. Sukhbaatar warns me that the soup is a little bit oily, but I love how salty and rich and fortifying it is—the perfect thing to warm us up on a cold, drizzly day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13915349 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"Man in white T-shirt and blue rubber gloves cuts a piece of lamb with a box cutter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/044_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In lieu of standard utensils, Togi Sukhbaatar uses a box cutter to cut off a slice of lamb. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every occasion of note in the Bay Area’s Mongolian community has been marked in just this way. Ochirpurev says he still remembers celebrating his youngest son’s traditional first-haircut party, when he turned three years old, in this very same park in the Richmond hills. There were 100 or 200 Mongolians who turned up to offer their congratulations—and, of course, there was plenty of khorkhog for everyone to share.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, it’s true that the Mongolian community has faced a lot of challenges in the past few years, but it’s hard to feel anything but optimistic with a stomach full of khorkhog. And anyway, 2022 is looking up: The Naadam festival is back in person this year, on July 9 at Alameda Point, with well over 1,000 people expected to attend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baatar, who’s helping to organize the event, tells me there won’t be khorkhog at the festival; it isn’t easy to make enough to feed thousands. But they’ll serve the fried dumplings known as khuushuur. There will be wrestling and archery demonstrations and Mongolian music. Times are changing, Baatar says. Just like the world at large, some Mongolians are getting together virtually on Zoom more often than they do in person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“America is a melting pot,” Baatar says. “But we’re trying to keep Mongolian culture the same way as in Mongolia.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13915350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13915350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg\" alt=\"A plate of khorkhog, or Mongolian-style pressure-cooked lamb.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/061_KQEDArts_MongolianKhorkhog_05092022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A single portion of khorkhog, ready to eat. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Luke Tsai is KQED’s food editor.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "hal-the-hot-dog-guy-oakland-coliseum-hella-hungry",
"title": "Why This Hot Dog Vendor Is the Oakland Coliseum’s Biggest Hit",
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"headTitle": "Why This Hot Dog Vendor Is the Oakland Coliseum’s Biggest Hit | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a weekly conversation with Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary culture through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the Oakland Athletics’ losing record and a ruthless cycle of bashing the team’s paltry stadium this season in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/sports/baseball/oakland-athletics-attendance.html\">national\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2022/06/01/cat-feces-cobwebs-moths-oakland-as-complain-about-coliseum-conditions/\">local media outlets \u003c/a>(sorry, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, but you’ve been out-bashed), there’s at least one statistic where the A’s remain undefeated: hot dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the A’s, who can’t seem to win back their fans, are currently being sustained by Hal Gordon, an all-star hot dog vendor with an entire lineup of nicknames. He’s Hal the Pal, Hal the Hot Dog Guy and Hal the Hot Dog Economist—\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsHotDog/status/1519352157308293121\">he even has a set of trading cards\u003c/a> and sponsored pins he signs and gives out to fans. It’s no stretch to say this red-and-white-stripe uniformed food purveyor is more popular than the current players on the field. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsHotDog/status/1529963148492476416\">Hal even brings his own extra condiments\u003c/a> like jalapeño mustard and capers to serve fans, since they aren’t provided otherwise, making him a beloved fixture with A’s diehards and first-timers alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101889374/for-oakland-as-fans-its-not-been-a-field-of-dreams\">Hal recently appeared with me as a guest on \u003ci>Forum\u003c/i>, hosted by KQED’s Alexis Madrigal\u003c/a>, to speak with baseball experts and fans about the team’s dire situation. (He is a PhD student at UC Berkeley studying economics, after all). But besides the drama surrounding this team, there’s a playfulness to Hal and what he delivers—and it’s served from a 53-pound steamer he lugs around for approximately 8,340 steps each game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I caught up with him while the Boston Red Sox were in town to discuss his favorite style of dogs and his love for Bay Area food. Here’s what baseball’s celebrity food slinger had to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: What are your early memories of hot dogs at baseball games?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m from Chicago, so I remember being a kid at Wrigley Field. There are weird rules around hot dogs [in Chicago]. Kids are allowed to have ketchup on the hot dog. But once you turn 13, you’re supposed to get rid of the ketchup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914588\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13914588 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"woman holds a hot dog with jalapenos, onions, and ketchup at a baseball game\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Oakland A’s fan shows off her hot dog with speciality toppings like capers, mayonnaise and more \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What differentiates your hot dogs from the concession stands?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hot dog itself starts the same. But when it’s delivered in the steamer, the hot dogs are plumper than when you cook them. Steaming allows water to get into the hot dog and puffs it up as opposed to grilling it. When most people vend hot dogs, they are already pre-rolled. The hot dog is in a bun and rolled up in foil. Those lose their temperature, and the buns also get soggy. Besides that, the differences are mostly the condiments I offer. And bringing the service right to your seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hear Hal the Hot Dog Guy in action:\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003caudio controls=\"controls\">\u003c/audio>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Can you list off each condiment and topping you offer? How many varieties of hot dogs can you prepare? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve got ketchup, mustard, relish, mayo, Sriracha, onions, sauerkraut, jalapeños [and] capers. Of the mustards, I have four right now. Regular yellow, golden brown, and on the super secret menu I have two more—one is a hot jalapeño mustard, and the other is called Coney Island mustard, which is honey mustard with chunks of onions and tomatoes. That last one is shipped from Oregon. Oh, and I have sweet relish and dill relish. That’s 13 different condiments. That’s about [\u003cem>takes a long pause, mumbles calculations\u003c/em>] 8,192 ways to serve a hot dog. Right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You bring your own condiments to the games. How did that start?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I started out, I used whatever the Coliseum had. We had yellow and brown mustard, ketchup, sweet relish, sauerkraut, jalapeño and onions. I added some mustards for variety, and one day someone asked for mayo, so I brought that. It grew from there. Last year when COVID hit, the Coliseum wasn’t able to provide any condiments, so I wanted to make sure the fans got what they need. The vending company reimburses me, so it’s not exactly on my dime. But I go to the restaurant supply stores myself and bring big cases of condiments myself. At the beginning of the last homestand I ran out of some ingredients, so I grabbed my backpacking backpack and filled it with the giant gallon bottles of sauerkraut and took BART.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What are some of the less popular hot dog styles you’ve dished out?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rarest thing is when someone only orders toppings and no sauce. Someone once asked me to pile on onions only, all my onions. Another guy only orders the spicy items: Sriracha, jalapeños, jalapeño mustard, with extra of each. One fan brings her own gluten-free buns because she’s gluten intolerant. She’ll pull out a sandwich baggie with a bun and hand it to me. Some of the hot dog pros will ask me to put the condiments first and the dog on top. There’s less spillage. I know when someone knows their way around a hot dog when they ask for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/AsHotDog/status/1529963148492476416\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re famously vegetarian. Why don’t you serve veggie dogs?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m hoping to get veggie dogs soon. The problem is the steamer; it’s a pan with a small flame beneath it and about an inch of water. The steam water gets meaty, full of dissolved hot dog fat. If you put a veggie dog in the same steamer, it would get covered in animal fat. Recently, I’ve been working with a welder to try and design a pan that has a water tight divider. Normally, I can fit 40 hot dogs in my steamer. In this pan we’re designing, I could fit maybe 35 regulars and 5 veggies, with a separate compartment. I’m hoping that I’ll have that pan sometime in the next month. In the Bay Area, I bet I could sell a couple a game. I’d like to offer that because I myself am vegetarian, but also, the whole idea of my existence as the hot dog guy is that this is a fan service. It’s a fan-centered experience. When they ask for something, it becomes my goal to provide it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you go to get the best veggie dogs in the Bay Area?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://topdoghotdogs.com/\">Top Dog\u003c/a> in Berkeley. Instead of a bun, it’s served on a French loaf. That’s such a great touch. They also have at least 10 other types of sausages and dogs and a huge condiment bar. As someone who grew up in Chicago with the dogs there and all the condiments on a Chicago dog, it really taught me that hot dogs aren’t just good, but what’s most fun about the food is that it becomes a canvas for whatever flavors you want. I also want to say: I don’t eat bacon-wrapped Mission dogs because of the meat, but whether you get them near the BART or in San Francisco, it’s great to see. Shout out to all those vendors who work with those flat tops making fresh bacon dogs. It’s a good hustle. It just ticks me off when I see stories about the cops harassing those guys. That’s part of the Bay Area culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Besides hot dogs, what do you most appreciate from the Bay Area’s food spectrum?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13914042,arts_13913985']The burrito is the best food here. Growing up in Chicago, getting a burrito for me meant going to Taco Bell. And I can still remember the first time they opened a Chipotle in my suburb. I haven’t been to a Chipotle since moving here. Fifty years ago, if you were to say what’s the iconic American food, you’d probably say the hot dog or maybe the cheeseburger. But now, honestly, I think there’s an argument to be made that a burrito from the Mission is a more iconic American food. Vallarta in the Mission has a killer eggplant or nopal veggie burrito.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What do you enjoy about serving hot dogs at baseball games?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going to sporting events is so evocative of all our childhoods. It’s about remembering what we remembered as kids and getting excited about it. A while back there were only two vendors: hot dogs and beer. The steamer I use, it’s definitely older than me. I actually tried looking it up before, and it’s made somewhere in New Jersey; I can’t find any evidence of that company even existing anymore. That makes it fun. It used to be how hot dogs were sold decades ago in this Coliseum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I almost forgot to ask: ketchup or mustard only?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Listen, like any self-respecting Chicagoan, I don’t put ketchup on my hot dog. But like any good server, there’s no judgment from me. Like I said, what’s nice about ordering a hot dog is that you’re always in the driver’s seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/AsHotDog/status/1525329866698027008\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Find Hal yelling and chanting his way around Ring Central Coliseum on 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. Check \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlb.com/athletics/schedule/2022-06\">the A’s schedule\u003c/a> for home games.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Why Hal the Hot Dog Guy Is the Oakland Coliseum's Biggest Hit | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a weekly conversation with Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary culture through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the Oakland Athletics’ losing record and a ruthless cycle of bashing the team’s paltry stadium this season in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/sports/baseball/oakland-athletics-attendance.html\">national\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2022/06/01/cat-feces-cobwebs-moths-oakland-as-complain-about-coliseum-conditions/\">local media outlets \u003c/a>(sorry, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, but you’ve been out-bashed), there’s at least one statistic where the A’s remain undefeated: hot dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the A’s, who can’t seem to win back their fans, are currently being sustained by Hal Gordon, an all-star hot dog vendor with an entire lineup of nicknames. He’s Hal the Pal, Hal the Hot Dog Guy and Hal the Hot Dog Economist—\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsHotDog/status/1519352157308293121\">he even has a set of trading cards\u003c/a> and sponsored pins he signs and gives out to fans. It’s no stretch to say this red-and-white-stripe uniformed food purveyor is more popular than the current players on the field. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsHotDog/status/1529963148492476416\">Hal even brings his own extra condiments\u003c/a> like jalapeño mustard and capers to serve fans, since they aren’t provided otherwise, making him a beloved fixture with A’s diehards and first-timers alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101889374/for-oakland-as-fans-its-not-been-a-field-of-dreams\">Hal recently appeared with me as a guest on \u003ci>Forum\u003c/i>, hosted by KQED’s Alexis Madrigal\u003c/a>, to speak with baseball experts and fans about the team’s dire situation. (He is a PhD student at UC Berkeley studying economics, after all). But besides the drama surrounding this team, there’s a playfulness to Hal and what he delivers—and it’s served from a 53-pound steamer he lugs around for approximately 8,340 steps each game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I caught up with him while the Boston Red Sox were in town to discuss his favorite style of dogs and his love for Bay Area food. Here’s what baseball’s celebrity food slinger had to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: What are your early memories of hot dogs at baseball games?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m from Chicago, so I remember being a kid at Wrigley Field. There are weird rules around hot dogs [in Chicago]. Kids are allowed to have ketchup on the hot dog. But once you turn 13, you’re supposed to get rid of the ketchup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914588\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13914588 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"woman holds a hot dog with jalapenos, onions, and ketchup at a baseball game\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/hotdoghal_dog-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Oakland A’s fan shows off her hot dog with speciality toppings like capers, mayonnaise and more \u003ccite>(Briana Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What differentiates your hot dogs from the concession stands?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hot dog itself starts the same. But when it’s delivered in the steamer, the hot dogs are plumper than when you cook them. Steaming allows water to get into the hot dog and puffs it up as opposed to grilling it. When most people vend hot dogs, they are already pre-rolled. The hot dog is in a bun and rolled up in foil. Those lose their temperature, and the buns also get soggy. Besides that, the differences are mostly the condiments I offer. And bringing the service right to your seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hear Hal the Hot Dog Guy in action:\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003caudio controls=\"controls\">\u003c/audio>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Can you list off each condiment and topping you offer? How many varieties of hot dogs can you prepare? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve got ketchup, mustard, relish, mayo, Sriracha, onions, sauerkraut, jalapeños [and] capers. Of the mustards, I have four right now. Regular yellow, golden brown, and on the super secret menu I have two more—one is a hot jalapeño mustard, and the other is called Coney Island mustard, which is honey mustard with chunks of onions and tomatoes. That last one is shipped from Oregon. Oh, and I have sweet relish and dill relish. That’s 13 different condiments. That’s about [\u003cem>takes a long pause, mumbles calculations\u003c/em>] 8,192 ways to serve a hot dog. Right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You bring your own condiments to the games. How did that start?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I started out, I used whatever the Coliseum had. We had yellow and brown mustard, ketchup, sweet relish, sauerkraut, jalapeño and onions. I added some mustards for variety, and one day someone asked for mayo, so I brought that. It grew from there. Last year when COVID hit, the Coliseum wasn’t able to provide any condiments, so I wanted to make sure the fans got what they need. The vending company reimburses me, so it’s not exactly on my dime. But I go to the restaurant supply stores myself and bring big cases of condiments myself. At the beginning of the last homestand I ran out of some ingredients, so I grabbed my backpacking backpack and filled it with the giant gallon bottles of sauerkraut and took BART.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What are some of the less popular hot dog styles you’ve dished out?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rarest thing is when someone only orders toppings and no sauce. Someone once asked me to pile on onions only, all my onions. Another guy only orders the spicy items: Sriracha, jalapeños, jalapeño mustard, with extra of each. One fan brings her own gluten-free buns because she’s gluten intolerant. She’ll pull out a sandwich baggie with a bun and hand it to me. Some of the hot dog pros will ask me to put the condiments first and the dog on top. There’s less spillage. I know when someone knows their way around a hot dog when they ask for that.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re famously vegetarian. Why don’t you serve veggie dogs?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m hoping to get veggie dogs soon. The problem is the steamer; it’s a pan with a small flame beneath it and about an inch of water. The steam water gets meaty, full of dissolved hot dog fat. If you put a veggie dog in the same steamer, it would get covered in animal fat. Recently, I’ve been working with a welder to try and design a pan that has a water tight divider. Normally, I can fit 40 hot dogs in my steamer. In this pan we’re designing, I could fit maybe 35 regulars and 5 veggies, with a separate compartment. I’m hoping that I’ll have that pan sometime in the next month. In the Bay Area, I bet I could sell a couple a game. I’d like to offer that because I myself am vegetarian, but also, the whole idea of my existence as the hot dog guy is that this is a fan service. It’s a fan-centered experience. When they ask for something, it becomes my goal to provide it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you go to get the best veggie dogs in the Bay Area?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://topdoghotdogs.com/\">Top Dog\u003c/a> in Berkeley. Instead of a bun, it’s served on a French loaf. That’s such a great touch. They also have at least 10 other types of sausages and dogs and a huge condiment bar. As someone who grew up in Chicago with the dogs there and all the condiments on a Chicago dog, it really taught me that hot dogs aren’t just good, but what’s most fun about the food is that it becomes a canvas for whatever flavors you want. I also want to say: I don’t eat bacon-wrapped Mission dogs because of the meat, but whether you get them near the BART or in San Francisco, it’s great to see. Shout out to all those vendors who work with those flat tops making fresh bacon dogs. It’s a good hustle. It just ticks me off when I see stories about the cops harassing those guys. That’s part of the Bay Area culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Besides hot dogs, what do you most appreciate from the Bay Area’s food spectrum?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The burrito is the best food here. Growing up in Chicago, getting a burrito for me meant going to Taco Bell. And I can still remember the first time they opened a Chipotle in my suburb. I haven’t been to a Chipotle since moving here. Fifty years ago, if you were to say what’s the iconic American food, you’d probably say the hot dog or maybe the cheeseburger. But now, honestly, I think there’s an argument to be made that a burrito from the Mission is a more iconic American food. Vallarta in the Mission has a killer eggplant or nopal veggie burrito.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What do you enjoy about serving hot dogs at baseball games?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going to sporting events is so evocative of all our childhoods. It’s about remembering what we remembered as kids and getting excited about it. A while back there were only two vendors: hot dogs and beer. The steamer I use, it’s definitely older than me. I actually tried looking it up before, and it’s made somewhere in New Jersey; I can’t find any evidence of that company even existing anymore. That makes it fun. It used to be how hot dogs were sold decades ago in this Coliseum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I almost forgot to ask: ketchup or mustard only?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Listen, like any self-respecting Chicagoan, I don’t put ketchup on my hot dog. But like any good server, there’s no judgment from me. Like I said, what’s nice about ordering a hot dog is that you’re always in the driver’s seat.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Find Hal yelling and chanting his way around Ring Central Coliseum on 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. Check \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlb.com/athletics/schedule/2022-06\">the A’s schedule\u003c/a> for home games.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Taqueria El Mezcal's Hot Cheetos Burrito Is Endorsed by Chester Cheetah",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen it comes to Mexican American junk foods—those hybridized flavors that aren’t fully Mexican or American, but exist somewhere in a middling borderland—nothing is more representative than an iconic bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With its artificial red 40 food coloring, monosodium glutamate and other ingredients I can’t confidently pronounce, the enriched cornmeal munchie has become the embodiment of a fuego emoji—not only for Latinx teenagers and food vloggers, but for American pop culture at large. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mountaindew.com/products/mtn-dew-flamin-hot/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flamin’ Hot Mountain Dew\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/katy-perry-is-a-hot-745481/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Katy Perry donning an adult-sized Flamin’ Hot Cheetos outfit\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the years-long craze has totally consumed the mainstream.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nowadays, you can find Hot Cheetos just about anywhere. In fact, they’re so prevalent that I can even get them by rolling past the drive-through window at my neighborhood taqueria, where the workers serve them in a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, with said Cheetos stuffed inside a carne asada burrito.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd5zZR0AK5_/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most recently, the product appears in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ChesterCheetah/status/1526334576951447553\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a new ad campaign with Bad Bunny\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, where the Puerto Rican reggaeton sensation coolly struts down city streets while transforming any surface he touches into a bursting combustion of red. (Bad Bunny’s co-star, Chester Cheetah, uses the cameo as an opportunity to change his social media name to Bad Cheetah. Nicely played, animal kingdom).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The commercial is a tantalizing promise that Frito-Lay has been enticing customers with since first launching their brand in the summer of 1990: that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are more than a red-fingered trend; they’re a lifestyle.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet when the rest of us not named Bad Bunny touch anything with our red hands, we don’t change the world; instead, we just leave hard-to-remove splotches. Over my lifetime, I’ve accidentally stained countless white tees and fitted caps with red powder—or worse, I’ve mistakenly rubbed my eyes with the spicy residue that lingers uncomfortably long, like too much chile on an unprepared tongue. But even then, I always go back for the sting. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So how did this junk food with dubious origins reach the top of our cultural food pyramid? You can thank Richard Montañez. He’s the man who famously claims to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A former janitor whose parents worked in a migrant labor camp, Montañez has authored two books, including his latest memoir, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He documents how he went on to become the Vice President of Multicultural Sales and Community Promotions for PepsiCo, with a net worth of $10 million.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\"]“The enriched cornmeal munchie has become the embodiment of a fuego emoji—not only for Latinx teenagers and food vloggers, but for American pop culture at large.”[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-16/flamin-hot-cheetos-richard-montanez\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In what has since become a publicly disputed firestorm\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—creating a rift \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883550/la-times-flamin-hot-cheetos-expose-hits-a-nerve-with-latinos\">in the Latinx community\u003c/a>—Montañez states that he first pitched Frito-Lay’s executives on the idea of “Hispanic branding” as part of their “method-improvement program” decades ago. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkFGUimJfzM\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Montañez tells the story\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, he came up with his legendary creation one day when he took home a bunch of regularly-flavored Cheetos bags from his workplace after a vending machine broke, then seasoned them with spices reminiscent of Mexican street corn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a lovable narrative that Frito-Lay never denied… until 2021, when the company declared it had \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-16/flamin-hot-cheetos-richard-montanez\">no record of Montañez’s involvement with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos\u003c/a>. This set off a chain of events in which internet sleuths, \u003ca href=\"https://knock-la.com/hot-cheetos-los-angeles-richard-montanez/\">community advocates and foodies defended Montañez\u003c/a>, declaring that his erasure was an act of racism—pressure that \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/20/origin-flamin-hot-cheetos-might-be-hot-lie-millions-will-still-gobble-it-up-anyway/\">led Frito-Lay to backtrack \u003c/a>while still not crediting Montañez as the snack’s sole inventor. It’s a hot topic that has yet to be fully resolved.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m not here to defend, deny or corroborate any of Montañez’s spicy revelations. All I know is that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are devoutly beloved and have been a legitimate source of sustenance at any house party or after-school hangout, especially for Mexican Americans like me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914283\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914283\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior.jpg\" alt=\"A view of Taqueria El Mezcal's facade from the parking lot.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taqueria El Mezcal’s San Pablo location is especially popular among high schoolers. The small East Bay chain also has locations in Hayward and San Lorenzo. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maybe that’s why Jesús Sepulvera, the owner of Taqueria El Mezcal, recited Montañez’s story to me when we met. As I sat inside the San Pablo location of the taco chain—which Sepulvera originally opened in San Lorenzo in 2008—I ate a Hot Cheetos burrito and listened to him tell me about the inspiration for his own creation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Similar to Montañez, Sepulvera is of Mexican heritage, with roots in Jalisco, and has worked his way into a successful position after an entry-level start. In Sepulvera’s case, he needed a menu item to attract more customers to his business during the pandemic slowdown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s when Sepulvera decided to access the bursting mine of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Sepulvera started pouring bags of the neon snacks inside burritos, along with carne asada, gooey nacho cheese and french fries. As I munched on one of these burritos, the trademark taste of the Hot Cheetos was overpowered by the meat and nacho cheese, but I was left with a satisfyingly soft crunch in between each bite. The teenager in me could’ve eaten a few—they’re smaller than you might expect—but my adult stomach reached capacity after one order with a side of tortilla chips and a Jarritos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/B4yOLGuBavc/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The flavorful burrito’s creativity has attracted praise from \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cheetos/\">Chester Cheetah’s official Instagram account\u003c/a>—and, according to Sepulvera, even got the nod of approval from Montañez himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sepulvera is not the original Da Vinci of this masterpiece, though. He credits a trip to San Diego as his muse and is happy that the Hot Cheetos burrito has brought in new waves of customers—most of them between the ages of 12 to 35, he says—to consume what is now the most popular dish on the menu.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the help of Instagram and TikTok, the Hot Cheetos burrito has helped the neighborhood taqueria stay afloat amid a series of nearby closures. It’s especially popular with youth from schools in the surrounding area, whom Sepulvera acknowledges as being largely responsible for his business’s success.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914284\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914284\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes.jpg\" alt=\"Two youngsters show off milkshakes loaded with sweet toppings.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In addition to its selection of Flamin’ Hot entrees, El Mezcal is also known for milkshakes with Mexican-inspired flavors. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During my visit, high schoolers were lined up at the register, jostling with excitement over a Hot Cheetos calorie bomb with a side of extra sugar—such as one of the taqueria’s attention-grabbing flan, churro, or mazapan (Mexican peanut candy) milkshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13913201,arts_13895488']“You can find regular burritos and tacos anywhere, but this is something different,” Sepulvera tells me in Spanish. “The young people love sweets, food that is a little more greasy. [This burrito] has more calories, but they seem to love it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos loyalist and burrito lover myself, I’m forever thankful I found El Mezcal’s Monday burrito specials, when you can get this divine item for just $7. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those who like variety can also order a “Hot Cheetos Crunchwrap” off the taqueria’s secret menu or a classic Mexican food item like a shrimp cocktail from its mariscos (seafood) selection.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever you do, make sure to indulge while there, since indulgence is the truest indicator of any taqueria worth its spice—no matter how red or artificial it may seem.\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://www.instagram.com/elmezcalsanpablo/?hl=en\">Taqueria El Mezcal\u003c/a> is open 10 am–9 pm daily at 14260 San Pablo Ave. in San Pablo. The East Bay chain also has locations in \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/taqueriaelmezcal/?hl=en\">Hayward\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elmezcalhesperian/?hl=en\">San Lorenzo\u003c/a>.\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\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen it comes to Mexican American junk foods—those hybridized flavors that aren’t fully Mexican or American, but exist somewhere in a middling borderland—nothing is more representative than an iconic bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With its artificial red 40 food coloring, monosodium glutamate and other ingredients I can’t confidently pronounce, the enriched cornmeal munchie has become the embodiment of a fuego emoji—not only for Latinx teenagers and food vloggers, but for American pop culture at large. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mountaindew.com/products/mtn-dew-flamin-hot/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flamin’ Hot Mountain Dew\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/katy-perry-is-a-hot-745481/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Katy Perry donning an adult-sized Flamin’ Hot Cheetos outfit\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the years-long craze has totally consumed the mainstream.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nowadays, you can find Hot Cheetos just about anywhere. In fact, they’re so prevalent that I can even get them by rolling past the drive-through window at my neighborhood taqueria, where the workers serve them in a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, with said Cheetos stuffed inside a carne asada burrito.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most recently, the product appears in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ChesterCheetah/status/1526334576951447553\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a new ad campaign with Bad Bunny\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, where the Puerto Rican reggaeton sensation coolly struts down city streets while transforming any surface he touches into a bursting combustion of red. (Bad Bunny’s co-star, Chester Cheetah, uses the cameo as an opportunity to change his social media name to Bad Cheetah. Nicely played, animal kingdom).\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\">The commercial is a tantalizing promise that Frito-Lay has been enticing customers with since first launching their brand in the summer of 1990: that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are more than a red-fingered trend; they’re a lifestyle.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet when the rest of us not named Bad Bunny touch anything with our red hands, we don’t change the world; instead, we just leave hard-to-remove splotches. Over my lifetime, I’ve accidentally stained countless white tees and fitted caps with red powder—or worse, I’ve mistakenly rubbed my eyes with the spicy residue that lingers uncomfortably long, like too much chile on an unprepared tongue. But even then, I always go back for the sting. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So how did this junk food with dubious origins reach the top of our cultural food pyramid? You can thank Richard Montañez. He’s the man who famously claims to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A former janitor whose parents worked in a migrant labor camp, Montañez has authored two books, including his latest memoir, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. He documents how he went on to become the Vice President of Multicultural Sales and Community Promotions for PepsiCo, with a net worth of $10 million.\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>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-16/flamin-hot-cheetos-richard-montanez\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In what has since become a publicly disputed firestorm\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—creating a rift \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883550/la-times-flamin-hot-cheetos-expose-hits-a-nerve-with-latinos\">in the Latinx community\u003c/a>—Montañez states that he first pitched Frito-Lay’s executives on the idea of “Hispanic branding” as part of their “method-improvement program” decades ago. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkFGUimJfzM\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Montañez tells the story\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, he came up with his legendary creation one day when he took home a bunch of regularly-flavored Cheetos bags from his workplace after a vending machine broke, then seasoned them with spices reminiscent of Mexican street corn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a lovable narrative that Frito-Lay never denied… until 2021, when the company declared it had \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-16/flamin-hot-cheetos-richard-montanez\">no record of Montañez’s involvement with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos\u003c/a>. This set off a chain of events in which internet sleuths, \u003ca href=\"https://knock-la.com/hot-cheetos-los-angeles-richard-montanez/\">community advocates and foodies defended Montañez\u003c/a>, declaring that his erasure was an act of racism—pressure that \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/20/origin-flamin-hot-cheetos-might-be-hot-lie-millions-will-still-gobble-it-up-anyway/\">led Frito-Lay to backtrack \u003c/a>while still not crediting Montañez as the snack’s sole inventor. It’s a hot topic that has yet to be fully resolved.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m not here to defend, deny or corroborate any of Montañez’s spicy revelations. All I know is that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are devoutly beloved and have been a legitimate source of sustenance at any house party or after-school hangout, especially for Mexican Americans like me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914283\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914283\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior.jpg\" alt=\"A view of Taqueria El Mezcal's facade from the parking lot.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_exterior-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taqueria El Mezcal’s San Pablo location is especially popular among high schoolers. The small East Bay chain also has locations in Hayward and San Lorenzo. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maybe that’s why Jesús Sepulvera, the owner of Taqueria El Mezcal, recited Montañez’s story to me when we met. As I sat inside the San Pablo location of the taco chain—which Sepulvera originally opened in San Lorenzo in 2008—I ate a Hot Cheetos burrito and listened to him tell me about the inspiration for his own creation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Similar to Montañez, Sepulvera is of Mexican heritage, with roots in Jalisco, and has worked his way into a successful position after an entry-level start. In Sepulvera’s case, he needed a menu item to attract more customers to his business during the pandemic slowdown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s when Sepulvera decided to access the bursting mine of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Sepulvera started pouring bags of the neon snacks inside burritos, along with carne asada, gooey nacho cheese and french fries. As I munched on one of these burritos, the trademark taste of the Hot Cheetos was overpowered by the meat and nacho cheese, but I was left with a satisfyingly soft crunch in between each bite. The teenager in me could’ve eaten a few—they’re smaller than you might expect—but my adult stomach reached capacity after one order with a side of tortilla chips and a Jarritos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The flavorful burrito’s creativity has attracted praise from \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cheetos/\">Chester Cheetah’s official Instagram account\u003c/a>—and, according to Sepulvera, even got the nod of approval from Montañez himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sepulvera is not the original Da Vinci of this masterpiece, though. He credits a trip to San Diego as his muse and is happy that the Hot Cheetos burrito has brought in new waves of customers—most of them between the ages of 12 to 35, he says—to consume what is now the most popular dish on the menu.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the help of Instagram and TikTok, the Hot Cheetos burrito has helped the neighborhood taqueria stay afloat amid a series of nearby closures. It’s especially popular with youth from schools in the surrounding area, whom Sepulvera acknowledges as being largely responsible for his business’s success.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914284\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914284\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes.jpg\" alt=\"Two youngsters show off milkshakes loaded with sweet toppings.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elmezcal_shakes-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In addition to its selection of Flamin’ Hot entrees, El Mezcal is also known for milkshakes with Mexican-inspired flavors. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During my visit, high schoolers were lined up at the register, jostling with excitement over a Hot Cheetos calorie bomb with a side of extra sugar—such as one of the taqueria’s attention-grabbing flan, churro, or mazapan (Mexican peanut candy) milkshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“You can find regular burritos and tacos anywhere, but this is something different,” Sepulvera tells me in Spanish. “The young people love sweets, food that is a little more greasy. [This burrito] has more calories, but they seem to love it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos loyalist and burrito lover myself, I’m forever thankful I found El Mezcal’s Monday burrito specials, when you can get this divine item for just $7. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those who like variety can also order a “Hot Cheetos Crunchwrap” off the taqueria’s secret menu or a classic Mexican food item like a shrimp cocktail from its mariscos (seafood) selection.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever you do, make sure to indulge while there, since indulgence is the truest indicator of any taqueria worth its spice—no matter how red or artificial it may seem.\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://www.instagram.com/elmezcalsanpablo/?hl=en\">Taqueria El Mezcal\u003c/a> is open 10 am–9 pm daily at 14260 San Pablo Ave. in San Pablo. The East Bay chain also has locations in \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/taqueriaelmezcal/?hl=en\">Hayward\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elmezcalhesperian/?hl=en\">San Lorenzo\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Ghanaian Fine Dining Pop-Up Makes Space for Black Chefs in SF",
"headTitle": "A Ghanaian Fine Dining Pop-Up Makes Space for Black Chefs in SF | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>For the past several years, Selasie Dotse has worked at acclaimed fine dining restaurants like Lazy Bear, Avery, SPQR—a parade of Bay Area Michelin star contenders. \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21372187/bay-area-fine-dining-restaurants-racism-as-a-black-chef\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Most of the time, she’s been the only Black chef in the kitchen\u003c/a>. The only Black woman. The only African.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so it has been both a challenge—and a personal mission—for Dotse to carve out a space for herself and for other Black folks who aspire to make a name for themselves in this most rarefied sector of the dining scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914101\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1179px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914101\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling chef wearing a baseball cap and apron sits at a wood table inside a restaurant.\" width=\"1179\" height=\"1766\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot.jpg 1179w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-800x1198.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-1020x1528.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-768x1150.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-1025x1536.jpg 1025w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1179px) 100vw, 1179px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At all of the Bay Area fine dining restaurants where Dotse has worked, she has been one of the only Black chefs in the kitchen. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Copas)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The goal is just to be like, ‘We’re here,’ Dotse says. “I want to find ways to let the Bay Area know that there are Black chefs, that there are African chefs. It’s not all white chefs doing Asian techniques.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of how she’s done that? Through pop-ups. This Sunday, May 29, she’ll launch her latest, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elade_tk/\">Elade Test Kitchen\u003c/a>, a culinary exploration of Dotse’s own Ghanaian heritage, but done through the lens of modern fine dining techniques and presentation. As such, it’ll almost certainly be a meal unlike any that most diners will have ever experienced. The dinner is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CdyiH56psoS/\">Sunday Supper series\u003c/a> at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/copasonmarket/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Copas\u003c/a>, the Northern California-inflected Spanish-Mexican restaurant on Market Street in San Francisco, where Dotse is the sous chef and pastry chef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For this weekend’s pop-up, Dotse plans to take the handful of West African dishes that diners may have experienced—suya, jollof rice and plantains—and remix them in new and exciting ways. So, she’ll do a version of jollof rice, that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13896069/jolly-jolly-nigerian-restaurant-west-oakland-jollof-rice-indomie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">savory, tomato-tinged staple\u003c/a>. But she’s going to make it with rice grits (cooked pieces of broken rice) and then serve it stuffed inside a fried chicken wing glazed with shitor, an umami-packed Ghanaian chile sauce that she makes from scratch. (“It’s one of the best hot sauces, in my opinion,” Dotse says.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’ll serve seared scallops in a creamy palm nut soup. She’ll do a take on suya, the famously beloved well-spiced meat skewers, but she’ll do it as a single cut of grilled steak served with roasted plantains and a plantain barbecue sauce—a modern spin on a classic combination. All told, Dotse says, there will be about nine courses, including a dessert of bruléed crepes and Milo ice cream (a nod to a favorite childhood \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIzy31ES0Fo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ghanaian breakfast\u003c/a>), and an optional wine pairing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Dotse, Elade Test Kitchen presents an opportunity to go even deeper in exploring her heritage. She’d done an earlier version of the pop-up under the name “Sankofa,” a Ghanaian word for the idea of using your past experiences to help you grow in the future. It was a term she felt resonated with her cooking philosophy. But as Dotse researched her family history, she learned that “sankofa” is actually a term used by Ghana’s Akan ethnic group, whereas her family is a part of the Ewe ethnic group based in Ghana’s Volta River region. She has spent the past year really trying to reconnect with those roots, taking drumming lessons with a local Ewe musician and adopting a new Ewe name for her pop-up: “Elade” means “tasty” or “appealing to the tongue” in the Ewe language, Dotse explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914108\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Shrimp and okra in a pool of thick red-orange sauce, served on a crystal platter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An early test version of a Ghanaian-style okra soup that Dotse would like to serve at her pop-up. \u003ccite>(Selasie Dotse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In future editions of the pop-up, she’ll dig into the nuances of those cultural distinctions, serving more dishes that are specific to the Ewe people. For instance, she’d like to make a viscous okra soup known as fetri detsi, which Dotse’s family always loaded with fresh seafood like crab and shrimp, serving it with a fermented corn dough called akple for dipping and scooping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13896069,arts_13910410']\u003c/span>Dotse’s hope is that other Black chefs who are frustrated by the lack of opportunities in the Bay Area fine dining scene will be able to look to her pop-ups as a model and a source of hope. She says chefs like her are tired of waiting for their white colleagues to drastically change the culture inside fine dining kitchens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s part of the reason Dotse is actually leaving her current job to take on a new role: Starting in July, she’ll be a sous chef at \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2022/4/5/23011862/hi-felicia-new-restaurant-oakland-open-imana-fine-dining\">Hi Felicia\u003c/a>, a Black-owned fine dining restaurant in Oakland with a Black head chef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these spaces aren’t going to make space for us, and try and make us feel welcome, we’re just going to have to create our own spaces,” Dotse says. “The only people who are going to look out for us are us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elade_tk/\">Elade Test Kitchen\u003c/a> pop-up will take place on Sunday, May 29, from 5–8pm, at Copas at 2223 Market St. in San Francisco. The cost of the tasting menu is $84 a person, not including the optional wine pairing. To reserve a seat during that block of time, visit \u003ca href=\"https://resy.com/cities/sf/copas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Resy\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the past several years, Selasie Dotse has worked at acclaimed fine dining restaurants like Lazy Bear, Avery, SPQR—a parade of Bay Area Michelin star contenders. \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/21372187/bay-area-fine-dining-restaurants-racism-as-a-black-chef\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Most of the time, she’s been the only Black chef in the kitchen\u003c/a>. The only Black woman. The only African.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so it has been both a challenge—and a personal mission—for Dotse to carve out a space for herself and for other Black folks who aspire to make a name for themselves in this most rarefied sector of the dining scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914101\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1179px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914101\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling chef wearing a baseball cap and apron sits at a wood table inside a restaurant.\" width=\"1179\" height=\"1766\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot.jpg 1179w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-800x1198.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-1020x1528.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-768x1150.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/selasie-headshot-1025x1536.jpg 1025w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1179px) 100vw, 1179px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At all of the Bay Area fine dining restaurants where Dotse has worked, she has been one of the only Black chefs in the kitchen. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Copas)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The goal is just to be like, ‘We’re here,’ Dotse says. “I want to find ways to let the Bay Area know that there are Black chefs, that there are African chefs. It’s not all white chefs doing Asian techniques.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of how she’s done that? Through pop-ups. This Sunday, May 29, she’ll launch her latest, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elade_tk/\">Elade Test Kitchen\u003c/a>, a culinary exploration of Dotse’s own Ghanaian heritage, but done through the lens of modern fine dining techniques and presentation. As such, it’ll almost certainly be a meal unlike any that most diners will have ever experienced. The dinner is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CdyiH56psoS/\">Sunday Supper series\u003c/a> at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/copasonmarket/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Copas\u003c/a>, the Northern California-inflected Spanish-Mexican restaurant on Market Street in San Francisco, where Dotse is the sous chef and pastry chef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For this weekend’s pop-up, Dotse plans to take the handful of West African dishes that diners may have experienced—suya, jollof rice and plantains—and remix them in new and exciting ways. So, she’ll do a version of jollof rice, that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13896069/jolly-jolly-nigerian-restaurant-west-oakland-jollof-rice-indomie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">savory, tomato-tinged staple\u003c/a>. But she’s going to make it with rice grits (cooked pieces of broken rice) and then serve it stuffed inside a fried chicken wing glazed with shitor, an umami-packed Ghanaian chile sauce that she makes from scratch. (“It’s one of the best hot sauces, in my opinion,” Dotse says.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’ll serve seared scallops in a creamy palm nut soup. She’ll do a take on suya, the famously beloved well-spiced meat skewers, but she’ll do it as a single cut of grilled steak served with roasted plantains and a plantain barbecue sauce—a modern spin on a classic combination. All told, Dotse says, there will be about nine courses, including a dessert of bruléed crepes and Milo ice cream (a nod to a favorite childhood \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIzy31ES0Fo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ghanaian breakfast\u003c/a>), and an optional wine pairing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Dotse, Elade Test Kitchen presents an opportunity to go even deeper in exploring her heritage. She’d done an earlier version of the pop-up under the name “Sankofa,” a Ghanaian word for the idea of using your past experiences to help you grow in the future. It was a term she felt resonated with her cooking philosophy. But as Dotse researched her family history, she learned that “sankofa” is actually a term used by Ghana’s Akan ethnic group, whereas her family is a part of the Ewe ethnic group based in Ghana’s Volta River region. She has spent the past year really trying to reconnect with those roots, taking drumming lessons with a local Ewe musician and adopting a new Ewe name for her pop-up: “Elade” means “tasty” or “appealing to the tongue” in the Ewe language, Dotse explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13914108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13914108\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Shrimp and okra in a pool of thick red-orange sauce, served on a crystal platter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/elade_okra-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An early test version of a Ghanaian-style okra soup that Dotse would like to serve at her pop-up. \u003ccite>(Selasie Dotse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In future editions of the pop-up, she’ll dig into the nuances of those cultural distinctions, serving more dishes that are specific to the Ewe people. For instance, she’d like to make a viscous okra soup known as fetri detsi, which Dotse’s family always loaded with fresh seafood like crab and shrimp, serving it with a fermented corn dough called akple for dipping and scooping.\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>Dotse’s hope is that other Black chefs who are frustrated by the lack of opportunities in the Bay Area fine dining scene will be able to look to her pop-ups as a model and a source of hope. She says chefs like her are tired of waiting for their white colleagues to drastically change the culture inside fine dining kitchens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s part of the reason Dotse is actually leaving her current job to take on a new role: Starting in July, she’ll be a sous chef at \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2022/4/5/23011862/hi-felicia-new-restaurant-oakland-open-imana-fine-dining\">Hi Felicia\u003c/a>, a Black-owned fine dining restaurant in Oakland with a Black head chef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these spaces aren’t going to make space for us, and try and make us feel welcome, we’re just going to have to create our own spaces,” Dotse says. “The only people who are going to look out for us are us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/elade_tk/\">Elade Test Kitchen\u003c/a> pop-up will take place on Sunday, May 29, from 5–8pm, at Copas at 2223 Market St. in San Francisco. The cost of the tasting menu is $84 a person, not including the optional wine pairing. To reserve a seat during that block of time, visit \u003ca href=\"https://resy.com/cities/sf/copas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Resy\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Remembering Lucky Three Seven’s Jun Anabo, a ‘Pare’ for All of Oakland",
"headTitle": "Remembering Lucky Three Seven’s Jun Anabo, a ‘Pare’ for All of Oakland | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Artgel Fernando “Jun” Anabo Jr., the co-owner of one of Oakland’s most popular Filipino restaurants, was shot and killed last Wednesday night. He had been standing in front of the restaurant, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/luckythreeseven/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lucky Three Seven\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, with his 11-year-old son Kiah \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Co-owner-of-beloved-Oakland-Filipino-restaurant-17184101.php#photo-22498128\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">when gunfire erupted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Anabo died at Highland Hospital shortly thereafter. He was 39 years old.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Born and raised in Oakland, Anabo was a sound engineer by trade before getting into the restaurant business. He loved to blast hip-hop and throw big, rollicking block parties in the stretch of East Oakland where the restaurant’s bright-red facade is located, at the corner of Fruitvale and Brookdale avenues. Friends and family members describe him as an incredible father and a neighborhood fixture—the type of person who was always willing to lend a hand, who always put his Oakland community and Filipino community first. You’d rarely ever see him without a big smile on his face.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/feeling-lucky-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reviewed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lucky Three Seven a few months after it opened in 2013, I wrote that Anabo had “an easy swagger and a street-hawker’s gift of gab.” Over the years, every time I called to ask about some news about the restaurant, Anabo would say at least two or three things that made me laugh out loud. “What are you, a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">saint\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?” he blurted one time, when I told him he shouldn’t try to give me free food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For several months, Anabo was mildly obsessed with the fact that he didn’t know what I looked like, since I’d only eaten at the restaurant as an anonymous critic. “Was that you? Were you just here?” he would text me out of the blue. “Did you just pick up an order of lumpia?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mark Legaspi, Anabo’s cousin and fellow Lucky Three Seven co-owner, says that was just the kind of energy that he always had. Anabo was the youngest in their group of cousins who grew up together, inseparable, in Oakland and Alameda. As a kid, he was a “jokester,” Legaspi says. A child of the ’80s, he loved \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Karate Kid\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> more than anything—he would dress up in a gi and imitate the karate moves from the movie.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Later, when they became partners at Lucky Three Seven, Legaspi was more involved with the cooking and recipe development, while Anabo handled the finances and business operations. The two would sometimes butt heads, as cousins do, but never argued for long. What Legaspi admired most was his cousin’s “crazy mind” and how well he worked with his hands—the way Anabo was able to MacGyver homemade designs for the restaurant, like its custom sound system, which he built using a car stereo. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913841\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial.jpg\" alt=\"A memorial to Jun Anaba, with flowers, candles and photos, set up outside Lucky Three Seven restaurant.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1152\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial to Anabo set up in front of Lucky Three Seven. The restaurant was closed over the weekend as Anabo’s family grieved his death. \u003ccite>(Brian Watt)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Edward Wooley, a.k.a. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chefsmelly/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chef Smelly\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, says he met Anabo about six years ago. After seeing each other on Instagram for years, as part of the broader Oakland food community, Wooley finally stopped by Lucky Three Seven to introduce himself. “They accepted me as a brother,” Wooley says of Anabo and his crew. Every time he came by to pick up food, Anabo and Legaspi would sit him down inside the restaurant’s cramped interior and offer him a shot of Hennessy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would have been the same for me, if I’d ever had the chance to introduce myself to Anabo properly, Wooley tells me. He would have treated me like family too: “He’d say, ‘Come on in! Come have a shot! Do you want to smoke a blunt?’” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“He was just a nice, genuine dude,” Wooley says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anabo and Legaspi were also pioneers in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/filipino-food-restaurants-hayward-union-city-16969628.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">East Bay’s now-thriving Filipino food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The restaurant predated the current wave of trendy Filipino restaurants that have crossed over into mainstream popularity, bringing old-school “turo-turo” (or “point-point”) style steam table fare to a new audience. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Lucky Three Seven became an introduction for Oakland to real Filipino food,” says Filipino American rapper \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/its-easy-filipino-rapper-nump-enters-cannabis-delivery-service/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dustin “Nump” Perfetto\u003c/a>, a close friend of Anabo’s. “It’s a big staple in The Town, and it really helped other Filipino brands get exposure.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To this day, the restaurant is a place where purists can find a homey, genuinely pungent version of oxtail kare-kare, but it’s also where newcomers to the cuisine can enjoy crowd pleasers like the spicy G-Fire wings or the jumbo-size lumpia. It has always been a true neighborhood joint, beloved by folks of all different cultural backgrounds. (“I think Black people went there the most,” Wooley says.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913850\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 621px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913850\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/jun_son2.jpg\" alt=\"A boy holds a wad of cash underneath his chin while his father looks on to the side.\" width=\"621\" height=\"771\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/jun_son2.jpg 621w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/jun_son2-160x199.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anabo and his son Kiah were like best friends. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of Mark Legaspi and family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Much of the reason why the restaurant has been embraced by so many different communities had to do with Anabo—gregarious, charismatic, a man of the people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“He was my ‘pare,’ my partner, a day-one supporter of anything I did,” says Perfetto, using the Tagalog term for a close male friend. “His love was so big; this boy had the biggest heart. I’ve never seen him not help another person.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s why Anabo came up with the idea of having an entire day every year, right before Christmas, when Lucky Three Seven would give away free food to the community. It’s why the restaurant routinely collected donations of school supplies to give away to Oakland youth. And, Perfetto says, it’s also why Anabo would talk all the time about how much he wanted Filipinos and Filipino Americans to come together—“uniting so the culture could blow the fuck up.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“He was for the hood, for the homies,” Perfetto says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“’What does this business do for the people?’” says Evan Kidera, co-owner of the Filipino American fusion burrito spot \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.senorsisig.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Señor Sisig\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who was close with both Anabo and Legaspi. “That’s how he lived his life.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dustin 'Nump' Perfetto\"]“[Jun’s] love was so big … I’ve never seen him not help another person.”[/pullquote]Co Pollard, who runs a barbecue and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/east-oaklands-grilled-links-kings-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">grilled links business\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hotdogco/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hotdogco\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, first met Anabo as a Lucky Three Seven customer. Soon, the two began meeting up at the local Restaurant Depot to do their shopping, talk about how business was going and “swap education,” Pollard says. As it turns out, his son and Anabo’s son Kiah are good friends who have been in the same class since kindergarten—the running joke among the teachers was that if you had Lucky Three Seven and Hotdogco in the same class, you could expect to get the hook-up with delicious food every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Pollard, that’s the deepest tragedy of Anabo’s death. “I’m just torn up for his son,” Pollard says. “The bond they had, everybody could see it. He was his best friend.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Everyone who knew Anabo talked about how great of a dad he was, and how close the father and son were. “His son was with him, always. You knew his son was his world,” Señor Sisig’s Kidera says. “That’s the next level of heartbreak.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anabo’s family has set up a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-brothers-wish-for-kiah?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">GoFundMe fundraiser\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to provide for Kiah’s future, setting a target goal of $20,000. As of this posting, it has received more than $95,000 in donations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13901303,arts_13900855,arts_13898436']For now, Lucky Three Seven has closed its doors as Anabo’s family members recover from the shock of his death. “We have entered a time of uncertainty,” the restaurant wrote in an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdu4mo2urNE/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram post\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “And although Jun would want us to keep it moving and keep it pushing … we find ourselves lost without him.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The restaurant remained closed over the weekend, with a small memorial for Anabo covered with flowers and candles set up in front. Meanwhile, the investigation into Anabo’s shooting is ongoing, and the Oakland Police Department has yet to make any arrests.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legaspi, for his part, vows to honor his cousin’s memory by making Lucky Three Seven even bigger and better. “I’m going to make [Jun] proud,” Legaspi says. “I’m going to keep these doors open. And everything I make, it’s going to be with me and his son. So his son’s going to be taken care of.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alan Chazaro contributed reporting for this story.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\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://www.instagram.com/luckythreeseven/\">Lucky Three Seven\u003c/a> is located at 2868 Fruitvale Ave. in Oakland.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Artgel Fernando “Jun” Anabo Jr., the co-owner of one of Oakland’s most popular Filipino restaurants, was shot and killed last Wednesday night. He had been standing in front of the restaurant, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/luckythreeseven/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lucky Three Seven\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, with his 11-year-old son Kiah \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Co-owner-of-beloved-Oakland-Filipino-restaurant-17184101.php#photo-22498128\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">when gunfire erupted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Anabo died at Highland Hospital shortly thereafter. He was 39 years old.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Born and raised in Oakland, Anabo was a sound engineer by trade before getting into the restaurant business. He loved to blast hip-hop and throw big, rollicking block parties in the stretch of East Oakland where the restaurant’s bright-red facade is located, at the corner of Fruitvale and Brookdale avenues. Friends and family members describe him as an incredible father and a neighborhood fixture—the type of person who was always willing to lend a hand, who always put his Oakland community and Filipino community first. You’d rarely ever see him without a big smile on his face.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/feeling-lucky-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reviewed\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lucky Three Seven a few months after it opened in 2013, I wrote that Anabo had “an easy swagger and a street-hawker’s gift of gab.” Over the years, every time I called to ask about some news about the restaurant, Anabo would say at least two or three things that made me laugh out loud. “What are you, a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">saint\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">?” he blurted one time, when I told him he shouldn’t try to give me free food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For several months, Anabo was mildly obsessed with the fact that he didn’t know what I looked like, since I’d only eaten at the restaurant as an anonymous critic. “Was that you? Were you just here?” he would text me out of the blue. “Did you just pick up an order of lumpia?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mark Legaspi, Anabo’s cousin and fellow Lucky Three Seven co-owner, says that was just the kind of energy that he always had. Anabo was the youngest in their group of cousins who grew up together, inseparable, in Oakland and Alameda. As a kid, he was a “jokester,” Legaspi says. A child of the ’80s, he loved \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Karate Kid\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> more than anything—he would dress up in a gi and imitate the karate moves from the movie.\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\">Later, when they became partners at Lucky Three Seven, Legaspi was more involved with the cooking and recipe development, while Anabo handled the finances and business operations. The two would sometimes butt heads, as cousins do, but never argued for long. What Legaspi admired most was his cousin’s “crazy mind” and how well he worked with his hands—the way Anabo was able to MacGyver homemade designs for the restaurant, like its custom sound system, which he built using a car stereo. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913841\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial.jpg\" alt=\"A memorial to Jun Anaba, with flowers, candles and photos, set up outside Lucky Three Seven restaurant.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1152\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/luckythreeseven_memorial-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial to Anabo set up in front of Lucky Three Seven. The restaurant was closed over the weekend as Anabo’s family grieved his death. \u003ccite>(Brian Watt)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Edward Wooley, a.k.a. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chefsmelly/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chef Smelly\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, says he met Anabo about six years ago. After seeing each other on Instagram for years, as part of the broader Oakland food community, Wooley finally stopped by Lucky Three Seven to introduce himself. “They accepted me as a brother,” Wooley says of Anabo and his crew. Every time he came by to pick up food, Anabo and Legaspi would sit him down inside the restaurant’s cramped interior and offer him a shot of Hennessy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would have been the same for me, if I’d ever had the chance to introduce myself to Anabo properly, Wooley tells me. He would have treated me like family too: “He’d say, ‘Come on in! Come have a shot! Do you want to smoke a blunt?’” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“He was just a nice, genuine dude,” Wooley says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anabo and Legaspi were also pioneers in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/filipino-food-restaurants-hayward-union-city-16969628.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">East Bay’s now-thriving Filipino food scene\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The restaurant predated the current wave of trendy Filipino restaurants that have crossed over into mainstream popularity, bringing old-school “turo-turo” (or “point-point”) style steam table fare to a new audience. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Lucky Three Seven became an introduction for Oakland to real Filipino food,” says Filipino American rapper \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/its-easy-filipino-rapper-nump-enters-cannabis-delivery-service/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dustin “Nump” Perfetto\u003c/a>, a close friend of Anabo’s. “It’s a big staple in The Town, and it really helped other Filipino brands get exposure.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To this day, the restaurant is a place where purists can find a homey, genuinely pungent version of oxtail kare-kare, but it’s also where newcomers to the cuisine can enjoy crowd pleasers like the spicy G-Fire wings or the jumbo-size lumpia. It has always been a true neighborhood joint, beloved by folks of all different cultural backgrounds. (“I think Black people went there the most,” Wooley says.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913850\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 621px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913850\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/jun_son2.jpg\" alt=\"A boy holds a wad of cash underneath his chin while his father looks on to the side.\" width=\"621\" height=\"771\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/jun_son2.jpg 621w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/jun_son2-160x199.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anabo and his son Kiah were like best friends. \u003ccite>(Photo courtesy of Mark Legaspi and family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Much of the reason why the restaurant has been embraced by so many different communities had to do with Anabo—gregarious, charismatic, a man of the people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“He was my ‘pare,’ my partner, a day-one supporter of anything I did,” says Perfetto, using the Tagalog term for a close male friend. “His love was so big; this boy had the biggest heart. I’ve never seen him not help another person.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s why Anabo came up with the idea of having an entire day every year, right before Christmas, when Lucky Three Seven would give away free food to the community. It’s why the restaurant routinely collected donations of school supplies to give away to Oakland youth. And, Perfetto says, it’s also why Anabo would talk all the time about how much he wanted Filipinos and Filipino Americans to come together—“uniting so the culture could blow the fuck up.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“He was for the hood, for the homies,” Perfetto says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“’What does this business do for the people?’” says Evan Kidera, co-owner of the Filipino American fusion burrito spot \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.senorsisig.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Señor Sisig\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, who was close with both Anabo and Legaspi. “That’s how he lived his life.”\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>Co Pollard, who runs a barbecue and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/east-oaklands-grilled-links-kings-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">grilled links business\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/hotdogco/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hotdogco\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, first met Anabo as a Lucky Three Seven customer. Soon, the two began meeting up at the local Restaurant Depot to do their shopping, talk about how business was going and “swap education,” Pollard says. As it turns out, his son and Anabo’s son Kiah are good friends who have been in the same class since kindergarten—the running joke among the teachers was that if you had Lucky Three Seven and Hotdogco in the same class, you could expect to get the hook-up with delicious food every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Pollard, that’s the deepest tragedy of Anabo’s death. “I’m just torn up for his son,” Pollard says. “The bond they had, everybody could see it. He was his best friend.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Everyone who knew Anabo talked about how great of a dad he was, and how close the father and son were. “His son was with him, always. You knew his son was his world,” Señor Sisig’s Kidera says. “That’s the next level of heartbreak.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anabo’s family has set up a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-brothers-wish-for-kiah?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">GoFundMe fundraiser\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to provide for Kiah’s future, setting a target goal of $20,000. As of this posting, it has received more than $95,000 in donations.\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 now, Lucky Three Seven has closed its doors as Anabo’s family members recover from the shock of his death. “We have entered a time of uncertainty,” the restaurant wrote in an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdu4mo2urNE/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram post\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “And although Jun would want us to keep it moving and keep it pushing … we find ourselves lost without him.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The restaurant remained closed over the weekend, with a small memorial for Anabo covered with flowers and candles set up in front. Meanwhile, the investigation into Anabo’s shooting is ongoing, and the Oakland Police Department has yet to make any arrests.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legaspi, for his part, vows to honor his cousin’s memory by making Lucky Three Seven even bigger and better. “I’m going to make [Jun] proud,” Legaspi says. “I’m going to keep these doors open. And everything I make, it’s going to be with me and his son. So his son’s going to be taken care of.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alan Chazaro contributed reporting for this story.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\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://www.instagram.com/luckythreeseven/\">Lucky Three Seven\u003c/a> is located at 2868 Fruitvale Ave. in Oakland.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "gumbo-tacos-and-oxtail-birria-feed-the-people-at-this-word-of-mouth-pop-up",
"title": "Gumbo Tacos and Oxtail Birria Feed the People at This Word-of-Mouth Pop-Up in Oakland",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a weekly conversation with Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary culture through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You won’t find any tasteless gimmicks at YumBobYum’s Taco Tuesday pop-up inside \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smokinwoodsbbq.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smokin Woods BBQ\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on Telegraph Ave. in Oakland. Instead, you’ll find a neighborhood of folks converging over daps, playful shit talking and life-giving doses of habanero shrimp.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each week, the Black-owned barbecue joint becomes a makeshift taqueria operated by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yumbobyum/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chef Bob\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (real name Gibran Garcia) and his staff of helpers who feed Oaklanders plates of his Southern Creole, Jamaican and Mexican remixes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ll feel jubilant while filling up on jerk chicken tacos—made with harmonizing notes of smoked spices, sweet tang and Red Stripe-marinated pollo piled over two chewy tortillas. With a full bar available, you might order a round of dark Mexican lagers and a shot of tequila to go with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the real showstopper is the gumbo taco, which Garcia prepares using his family’s Creole roux recipe and includes shrimp, crab, chicken, rice and a variety of slow-simmered veggies. It’s the only spot in the Bay where the magic of a gumbo pot gets strained then poured into an edible corn vessel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s not this chef’s only claim to fame, though. The dude offers an array of other out-the-trunk specials, including his original oxtail birria tacos with consomé (made with whole oxtails that he chops and stews for 5 hours), elote popper fritters and fried cheese quesadillas that come with your choice of protein—I recommend the vegan soyrizo to balance out the carne you’ll be sure to consume your body weight in during your stay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/Cah_RhsPjz2/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you’re unaccustomed to the combination of a grilled flour tortilla with an outer layer of crunchy double-fried cheese, the gooey warmth of additional melted cheeses inside and a dash of red salsa on top, it’s a peak nirvana I’d argue no traditional quesadilla can achieve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With enough clout to attract regular customers from as far away as Sacramento, this really is that spot—a word-of-mouth function with a lively sports bar atmosphere, where homies gather to hold space and joy despite all of life’s stressors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And Chef Bob is just getting started. Eventually, he plans on selling his own gumbo seasoning, as well as a homestyle carne asada rub and an all-purpose spice. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s what he has to say as an underground king of the Bay Area’s gumbo game.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: How did you become interested in culinary arts?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I started off cooking at home with my mom. Food is big in my family, so my mom taught me her grandmother’s recipes from Louisiana—Creole style cooking. Later, my first actual job was at Cheeseboard Pizza Collective in North Berkeley. I got fired because I was a high school kid who didn’t take it seriously; a few no shows and no calls and they kicked me out. Then, about 8 years ago, I started cooking my family’s gumbo—a two-pot gumbo—during Christmas. That was a big step for me. I was in college studying film at the time, and food was in my life but not really a serious passion yet. I worked at Raleigh’s on Telegraph [for a few years] and learned a lot. Then, I worked at Smokin Woods BBQ. During the pandemic, I wanted to make more money so that’s when I started selling plates from my house and it kicked off. I still work [at Smokin Woods] as a line cook on Wednesdays through Fridays.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913599\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13913599\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"The chef, Gibran Garcia, holds a food tray of freshly made gumbo tacos while standing in the kitchen, with two cooks behind him\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Bob holding his gumbo taco creation, with a side of roux. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where does your name Bob (or YumBobYum) come from?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s just a nickname I came up with out of nowhere in high school and it stuck. People just know me as that. When I got into cooking more seriously, I added the “chef” part because I felt like I deserved it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What inspired you to combine elements of Southern cuisine and Caribbean flavors with Mexican food here in the Bay?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was born in Berkeley. My dad lived in Oakland. My mom’s side is Black Creole from Louisiana, where I learned how to cook. My dad’s side is Black and Filipino. My dad was actually born in the Philippines and moved here as a young kid. A lot of what I cook is what I like about the Bay’s food scene. It’s a giant melting pot. There are so many different mixtures of people from different backgrounds. You can Yelp any random country’s type of food and cuisine and find a place within a short drive of where you live. I like to do that. I always eat all types of food. Brazilian, Peruvian, Sengalese. That’s the Bay. I grew up going to taco trucks and taquerias. My dad used to live in the 40s in East Oakland, and my friend’s mom used to always make us Mexican food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13913201,arts_13896380']People assume [my food is] just gonna be the same Creole or Cajun twist, but it’s not just that. It’s my personal twist. I just like to make things that I enjoy eating myself. Like the oxtail, that’s Jamaican. I’ve never been to Jamaica, but I just love the food. I make things up. Anytime I debut a new menu item, it’s a great experience for me. I have a new menu item for this week, which is a chicken flauta. I usually get inspiration from elsewhere, but the flauta idea was just like, I haven’t had a flauta in hella long and we just fixed the deep fryer so I wanted to test that out. I had the ingredients and just made one from scratch on the spot. Usually what I end up doing if I have down time on my break is I’ll just make things for my coworkers or bartenders to try. I said fuck it, why not. I’ve never made a flauta.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you go to find good gumbo, oxtail and birria around here?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t really eat gumbo unless it’s made at home with my family. There are so many things that can go wrong, and I’m accustomed to the way we make it. Oxtail in the Bay is one of the hardest things to find, too. It’s just hard to find a place where the consistency is solid. There’s a truck by Lake Merritt that serves oxtails. I forget the name, but it’s the best I’ve had out here over the years. As far as birria, my favorite place started as a pop-up called La Santa Torta in Jack London. It’s one of the few birrias where I don’t need the consomé. I could just straight-up eat the birria by itself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What are the struggles and challenges you’ve experienced in the Bay Area’s food industry as an independent foodmaker?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of places don’t have soul anymore in the Bay. With gentrification, it’s hard to keep authentic places going. Some pop-ups will lose their space because rent went up, or because people in the area didn’t catch on quick enough and their finances didn’t last. We lose out on some good food for that reason. That sucks to see.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CW6kcvqBkWe/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yumbobyum/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">YumBobYum’s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> pop-up is every Tuesday, 5 to 10 pm at 4307 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "YumBobYum pops up at Temescal's Smokin Woods BBQ every Tuesday night.",
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"title": "Gumbo Tacos and Oxtail Birria Shine at YumBobYum's Oakland Pop-Up | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a weekly conversation with Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary culture through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You won’t find any tasteless gimmicks at YumBobYum’s Taco Tuesday pop-up inside \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smokinwoodsbbq.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smokin Woods BBQ\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on Telegraph Ave. in Oakland. Instead, you’ll find a neighborhood of folks converging over daps, playful shit talking and life-giving doses of habanero shrimp.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each week, the Black-owned barbecue joint becomes a makeshift taqueria operated by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yumbobyum/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chef Bob\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (real name Gibran Garcia) and his staff of helpers who feed Oaklanders plates of his Southern Creole, Jamaican and Mexican remixes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ll feel jubilant while filling up on jerk chicken tacos—made with harmonizing notes of smoked spices, sweet tang and Red Stripe-marinated pollo piled over two chewy tortillas. With a full bar available, you might order a round of dark Mexican lagers and a shot of tequila to go with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the real showstopper is the gumbo taco, which Garcia prepares using his family’s Creole roux recipe and includes shrimp, crab, chicken, rice and a variety of slow-simmered veggies. It’s the only spot in the Bay where the magic of a gumbo pot gets strained then poured into an edible corn vessel.\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\">That’s not this chef’s only claim to fame, though. The dude offers an array of other out-the-trunk specials, including his original oxtail birria tacos with consomé (made with whole oxtails that he chops and stews for 5 hours), elote popper fritters and fried cheese quesadillas that come with your choice of protein—I recommend the vegan soyrizo to balance out the carne you’ll be sure to consume your body weight in during your stay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you’re unaccustomed to the combination of a grilled flour tortilla with an outer layer of crunchy double-fried cheese, the gooey warmth of additional melted cheeses inside and a dash of red salsa on top, it’s a peak nirvana I’d argue no traditional quesadilla can achieve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With enough clout to attract regular customers from as far away as Sacramento, this really is that spot—a word-of-mouth function with a lively sports bar atmosphere, where homies gather to hold space and joy despite all of life’s stressors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And Chef Bob is just getting started. Eventually, he plans on selling his own gumbo seasoning, as well as a homestyle carne asada rub and an all-purpose spice. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s what he has to say as an underground king of the Bay Area’s gumbo game.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">********\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KQED: How did you become interested in culinary arts?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I started off cooking at home with my mom. Food is big in my family, so my mom taught me her grandmother’s recipes from Louisiana—Creole style cooking. Later, my first actual job was at Cheeseboard Pizza Collective in North Berkeley. I got fired because I was a high school kid who didn’t take it seriously; a few no shows and no calls and they kicked me out. Then, about 8 years ago, I started cooking my family’s gumbo—a two-pot gumbo—during Christmas. That was a big step for me. I was in college studying film at the time, and food was in my life but not really a serious passion yet. I worked at Raleigh’s on Telegraph [for a few years] and learned a lot. Then, I worked at Smokin Woods BBQ. During the pandemic, I wanted to make more money so that’s when I started selling plates from my house and it kicked off. I still work [at Smokin Woods] as a line cook on Wednesdays through Fridays.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913599\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13913599\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"The chef, Gibran Garcia, holds a food tray of freshly made gumbo tacos while standing in the kitchen, with two cooks behind him\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/chefbob_bob-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Bob holding his gumbo taco creation, with a side of roux. \u003ccite>(Alan Chazaro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where does your name Bob (or YumBobYum) come from?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s just a nickname I came up with out of nowhere in high school and it stuck. People just know me as that. When I got into cooking more seriously, I added the “chef” part because I felt like I deserved it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What inspired you to combine elements of Southern cuisine and Caribbean flavors with Mexican food here in the Bay?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was born in Berkeley. My dad lived in Oakland. My mom’s side is Black Creole from Louisiana, where I learned how to cook. My dad’s side is Black and Filipino. My dad was actually born in the Philippines and moved here as a young kid. A lot of what I cook is what I like about the Bay’s food scene. It’s a giant melting pot. There are so many different mixtures of people from different backgrounds. You can Yelp any random country’s type of food and cuisine and find a place within a short drive of where you live. I like to do that. I always eat all types of food. Brazilian, Peruvian, Sengalese. That’s the Bay. I grew up going to taco trucks and taquerias. My dad used to live in the 40s in East Oakland, and my friend’s mom used to always make us Mexican food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>People assume [my food is] just gonna be the same Creole or Cajun twist, but it’s not just that. It’s my personal twist. I just like to make things that I enjoy eating myself. Like the oxtail, that’s Jamaican. I’ve never been to Jamaica, but I just love the food. I make things up. Anytime I debut a new menu item, it’s a great experience for me. I have a new menu item for this week, which is a chicken flauta. I usually get inspiration from elsewhere, but the flauta idea was just like, I haven’t had a flauta in hella long and we just fixed the deep fryer so I wanted to test that out. I had the ingredients and just made one from scratch on the spot. Usually what I end up doing if I have down time on my break is I’ll just make things for my coworkers or bartenders to try. I said fuck it, why not. I’ve never made a flauta.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you go to find good gumbo, oxtail and birria around here?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t really eat gumbo unless it’s made at home with my family. There are so many things that can go wrong, and I’m accustomed to the way we make it. Oxtail in the Bay is one of the hardest things to find, too. It’s just hard to find a place where the consistency is solid. There’s a truck by Lake Merritt that serves oxtails. I forget the name, but it’s the best I’ve had out here over the years. As far as birria, my favorite place started as a pop-up called La Santa Torta in Jack London. It’s one of the few birrias where I don’t need the consomé. I could just straight-up eat the birria by itself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What are the struggles and challenges you’ve experienced in the Bay Area’s food industry as an independent foodmaker?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of places don’t have soul anymore in the Bay. With gentrification, it’s hard to keep authentic places going. Some pop-ups will lose their space because rent went up, or because people in the area didn’t catch on quick enough and their finances didn’t last. We lose out on some good food for that reason. That sucks to see.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You could spend a week eating your way through the Bay Area tamale-verse and never encounter the same style twice. I love them all—the jiggly Salvadoran tamales \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/hidden-in-plain-sight-norma-meat-amp-deli-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sold in the back of a liquor store\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the sweet dessert tamales flecked with pineapple bits, the mole-drenched \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/of-masa-and-mole-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oaxacan ones\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> wrapped in banana leaves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But until I stumbled on Richmond’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/antojitosguatemaltecoss/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Antojitos Guatemaltecos\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, I’d never once eaten a Guatemalan rice\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tamal. I’d never even heard of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As it turns out, rice tamales are \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">delicious\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, in addition to being a well-loved regional specialty. And they’re just one of a slew of tasty, hard-to-find dishes customers can score at this little Guatemalan food cart, which posts up outside a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/panaderia-guatemalteca-richmond\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">23rd Street panadería\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> five nights a week. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13896069,arts_13912706,arts_13910664']Yury Aguilar, who runs the business along with her husband Carlos Pool and sisters Marleny Aguilar and Yasmin Edelma, says tamales are by far the cart’s most popular items— and not just the ones made with rice. The rice tamales are a highly regionalized specialty even within Guatemala. But in Aguilar’s hometown of San Marcos, in the western part of the country, people eat more rice tamales than the more typical versions made with corn masa, she explains.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For those, the “masa” is made by adding water to ground-up rice to form a dough, which gets wrapped inside banana leaves and steamed with other ingredients typical of Central American–style tamales—red peppers and exceptionally tender chicken, in this case. For me, the rice tamale reminded me of nothing more than zongzi, the leaf-wrapped rice bundles of the Chinese food world—a little bit soupier and less sticky, but with the same nostalgic and deeply comforting savoriness. Drizzled with a little bit of the cart’s housemade hot sauce, it was exceptional. (Of course I’m hardly the first person to draw the connection between tamales and zongzi, or “joong” in Cantonese. Oakland Chinatown shopkeepers, for instance, have long marketed zongzi as “Chinese tamales.”)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aguilar says not all of her customers know about the rice tamales, but they’ve garnered their own fanbase. She has one Filipino customer who even calls ahead to order a sweet version that Antojitos Guatemaltecos can make by request. She’ll add some sugar to the rice dough and fill it with a sweet chocolate-based mole and a hard-boiled egg.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913370\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913370\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The menu signboard in front a food cart: Items include chuchitos, atol de elote, tamales tradicionales and tamales de arroz.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Antojitos Guatemaltecos food cart offers at least five different kinds of tamales at any given time. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, the cart offers a whole education in Guatemalan tamales, even apart from the ones made with rice. Its traditional corn-based tamales are done in the Central American style, in which the masa gets steamed twice so that the texture is extra jiggly and almost pudding-like in its consistency. It sells chuchitos, miniature corn husk–wrapped tamales that are denser and more similar to the Mexican style, served topped with cheese and salsa. And it also sells pachas, or potato tamales—that is, tamales whose masa base is made with mashed potatoes—which Aguilar says are very common throughout Guatemala.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The cart’s other most popular item is atol de elote, a hot corn beverage that Guatemalans like to drink when they’re eating tamales, Aguilar explains. But really, everything on the menu is exceptional—especially the eggy and wonderfully savory chiles relleños, and the tender chicken leg stewed in light, mole-like sauce. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aguilar says when she and her husband started the business in 2015, they just sold tamales from the back of their car. They’ve operated Antojitos Guatemaltecos as a licensed street cart since 2019, though of course COVID put a damper on business for a while. But the tamales have cultivated a big local following over the years, not just among Guatemalan customers but also Mexicans, Salvadorans and Hondurans. So, Aguilar says, they feel ready to take the next step toward their ultimate dream: opening a brick-and-mortar Guatemalan restaurant somewhere in Richmond or San Pablo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Maybe Guatemalan people are shy to open a place, but our food is also good,” Aguilar says. “We had a couple chances before. This time we’re ready.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/antojitosguatemaltecoss/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Antojitos Guatemaltecos\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open 3–10 pm every day except Tuesdays and Sundays. On Saturdays, they open early, at 10 or 11 am. The cart is located outside Panadería Guatemalteca at 653 23rd St. in Richmond. Cash only.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You could spend a week eating your way through the Bay Area tamale-verse and never encounter the same style twice. I love them all—the jiggly Salvadoran tamales \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/hidden-in-plain-sight-norma-meat-amp-deli-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sold in the back of a liquor store\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the sweet dessert tamales flecked with pineapple bits, the mole-drenched \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/of-masa-and-mole-1/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oaxacan ones\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> wrapped in banana leaves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But until I stumbled on Richmond’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/antojitosguatemaltecoss/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Antojitos Guatemaltecos\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, I’d never once eaten a Guatemalan rice\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tamal. I’d never even heard of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As it turns out, rice tamales are \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">delicious\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, in addition to being a well-loved regional specialty. And they’re just one of a slew of tasty, hard-to-find dishes customers can score at this little Guatemalan food cart, which posts up outside a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.yelp.com/biz/panaderia-guatemalteca-richmond\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">23rd Street panadería\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> five nights a week. \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>Yury Aguilar, who runs the business along with her husband Carlos Pool and sisters Marleny Aguilar and Yasmin Edelma, says tamales are by far the cart’s most popular items— and not just the ones made with rice. The rice tamales are a highly regionalized specialty even within Guatemala. But in Aguilar’s hometown of San Marcos, in the western part of the country, people eat more rice tamales than the more typical versions made with corn masa, she explains.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For those, the “masa” is made by adding water to ground-up rice to form a dough, which gets wrapped inside banana leaves and steamed with other ingredients typical of Central American–style tamales—red peppers and exceptionally tender chicken, in this case. For me, the rice tamale reminded me of nothing more than zongzi, the leaf-wrapped rice bundles of the Chinese food world—a little bit soupier and less sticky, but with the same nostalgic and deeply comforting savoriness. Drizzled with a little bit of the cart’s housemade hot sauce, it was exceptional. (Of course I’m hardly the first person to draw the connection between tamales and zongzi, or “joong” in Cantonese. Oakland Chinatown shopkeepers, for instance, have long marketed zongzi as “Chinese tamales.”)\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\">Aguilar says not all of her customers know about the rice tamales, but they’ve garnered their own fanbase. She has one Filipino customer who even calls ahead to order a sweet version that Antojitos Guatemaltecos can make by request. She’ll add some sugar to the rice dough and fill it with a sweet chocolate-based mole and a hard-boiled egg.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913370\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913370\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The menu signboard in front a food cart: Items include chuchitos, atol de elote, tamales tradicionales and tamales de arroz.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/guatemaltecos_sign-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Antojitos Guatemaltecos food cart offers at least five different kinds of tamales at any given time. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, the cart offers a whole education in Guatemalan tamales, even apart from the ones made with rice. Its traditional corn-based tamales are done in the Central American style, in which the masa gets steamed twice so that the texture is extra jiggly and almost pudding-like in its consistency. It sells chuchitos, miniature corn husk–wrapped tamales that are denser and more similar to the Mexican style, served topped with cheese and salsa. And it also sells pachas, or potato tamales—that is, tamales whose masa base is made with mashed potatoes—which Aguilar says are very common throughout Guatemala.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The cart’s other most popular item is atol de elote, a hot corn beverage that Guatemalans like to drink when they’re eating tamales, Aguilar explains. But really, everything on the menu is exceptional—especially the eggy and wonderfully savory chiles relleños, and the tender chicken leg stewed in light, mole-like sauce. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aguilar says when she and her husband started the business in 2015, they just sold tamales from the back of their car. They’ve operated Antojitos Guatemaltecos as a licensed street cart since 2019, though of course COVID put a damper on business for a while. But the tamales have cultivated a big local following over the years, not just among Guatemalan customers but also Mexicans, Salvadorans and Hondurans. So, Aguilar says, they feel ready to take the next step toward their ultimate dream: opening a brick-and-mortar Guatemalan restaurant somewhere in Richmond or San Pablo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Maybe Guatemalan people are shy to open a place, but our food is also good,” Aguilar says. “We had a couple chances before. This time we’re ready.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/antojitosguatemaltecoss/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Antojitos Guatemaltecos\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is open 3–10 pm every day except Tuesdays and Sundays. On Saturdays, they open early, at 10 or 11 am. The cart is located outside Panadería Guatemalteca at 653 23rd St. in Richmond. Cash only.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "At the World’s Only Ohlone Restaurant, Even the Trees Will Sing in Chochenyo",
"headTitle": "At the World’s Only Ohlone Restaurant, Even the Trees Will Sing in Chochenyo | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the better part of the pandemic, Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino didn’t even think about reopening \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.makamham.com/cafeohlone\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cafe Ohlone\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The world’s only Ohlone restaurant never did outdoor dining. It only started offering a tiny number of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/7/1/21309438/cafe-ohlone-closed-berkeley-takeout-new-location\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">take-home meal kits\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> many months after takeout had become the new normal—and just for one Sunday a month.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, Medina and Trevino found an even higher calling: While the restaurant hibernated, they huddled close within their own community and dedicated themselves to hosting weekly language classes over Zoom, teaching young children and 90-year-old elders how to speak Chochenyo and Rumsen Ohlone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, all that cultural work is paying dividends for the restaurant, too. When Cafe Ohlone opens next month at its new location at UC Berkeley’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hearst Museum of Anthropology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, even the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">trees \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">will speak and sing in Chochenyo—trees hooked up to a state-of-the-art sound system playing recordings of those same Chochenyo students, to be specific. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The singing trees are just one of the showpieces in Cafe Ohlone’s new outdoor dining room, which is finally gearing up to open after the restaurant \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/7/1/21309438/cafe-ohlone-closed-berkeley-takeout-new-location\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lost its original, back-of-a-bookstore Berkeley location\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fairly early on during shelter in place. According to Medina, every aspect of the new restaurant is meant to evoke “a beautiful reality that looks like an Ohlone village when you walk in.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913051\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913051\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A sampler plate of Ohlone food includes a small dish of acorn soup, fried sea lettuce and a skewer of venison backstrap.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sampling of Cafe Ohlone’s food given out at an April 23 preview event. Small bites included fried sea lettuce, roasted fiddlehead ferns, venison backstrap and cold black oak acorn soup for dipping. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We’re calling it a love song to Ohlone culture,” Medina told guests at an April preview event held at the restaurant, “because every element of the space has been designed to be specific to our beautiful Ohlone culture—to our language, to our plants, to our foods, to our values, to our aesthetics.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=arts_13899524,arts_13913184]Even after Cafe Ohlone lost its home during the early months of the pandemic, Medina and Trevino were always insistent that the restaurant would return bigger and better than ever. But the two felt conflicted at first when the Hearst Museum offered them the opportunity to reopen. After all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13899524/cafe-ohlone-restaurant-hearst-museum-berkeley-opening\">the museum’s relationship with the Ohlones had been deeply fraught\u003c/a>: Alfred Kroeber, the museum’s longtime director, was the one who was largely responsible for the Ohlones losing their federal recognition when his \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Handbook of the Indians of California\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> declared them to be “culturally extinct” in 1925. Subsequently, the museum itself looted the Ohlone shellmounds and took possession of many of their sacred objects and ancestral remains. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, Medina and Trevino decided to take the museum’s offer to host Cafe Ohlone as a first step toward righting some of those past wrongs. “In the past, the university has not been on our side,” Medina says. “But no one wants to stay stuck in a place of frustration. This is something that can go in a really beautiful direction, especially when it’s paired with Ohlone people having a permanent presence here.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913047\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913047\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Vincent Medina holds a wooden post with the name of an Ohlone community member inscribed on it.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meyer Sound speakers will be attached to wooden posts next to each singing tree in the main dining area at cafe Ohlone. Each post will have the name of the Ohlone community whose voice recording is attached to that tree. \u003ccite>(Hearst Museum of Anthrolopogy)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The design of the space itself is meant to make Cafe Ohlone feel like a portal to a “whole world reimagined,” as Medina puts it—a place that reflects an Ohlone worldview down to the last detail. When guests first enter the open-air restaurant, they’ll cross through a redwood-framed “shadow box” of sorts, with plants native to the Ohlone lands illuminated onto a screen. Walking down a winding path, they’ll see two 5,000-pound granite boulders that will serve as the seats for one dining area. At the center of the restaurant, handmade tables and chairs made of reclaimed redwood will form several socially distanced “dining pods.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the wall along one side of the dining room, there will be a building-sized mural by the native artist Jean LaMarr that will depict the great-grandparents of today’s Ohlones looking down on the restaurant, with chipped glass on top made to look like stars illuminating the night sky. At the very back of the restaurant, next to a newly built shellmound, there will be one final, elevated dining area overlooking the entire restaurant—“one communal table for our elders to sit and take it all in,” Medina explains. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, the central area of the restaurant is where the singing trees will live. The idea came about through a collaboration with Meyer Sound, a Berkeley-based company known for its \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/91355/two-east-bay-restaurants-take-unique-approach-to-noise\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">groundbreaking restaurant sound systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. At the new Cafe Ohlone, the Meyer Sound–donated sound system will be set up so that the trees scattered throughout the outdoor dining room—valley oak, hazel, manzanita and sycamore—will have speakers attached that will fill the space with the living Chochenyo language. Each speaker will feature the recorded voice of a member of the Ohlone community—a student in Medina and Trevino’s ongoing Chochenyo classes, in fact. So, as guests sit down to enjoy their meal, the trees will also converse and share gossip with one another in Chochenyo. “One tree will tell a joke, and another will start laughing,” Medina says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913049\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913049\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A Hearst Museum staff member passes out cups of rosehip tea.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Hearst Museum staff member passes out cups of lightly sweetened rosehip tea. \u003ccite>(Hearst Museum of Anthropology)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And yes, the trees will even sing. Medina explains that he and Trevino have translated some of the 1960s pop songs that their grandparents played at home. For instance, they’ve recorded a Chochenyo version of the old love song “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu2dAQ3xb8s\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Angel Baby\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” but they’ve changed it so that the song is now addressed to “holše noono,” which means “beautiful language”—a love song to Chochenyo itself. The song starts with a single tree—a single elder from the community—singing by itself until the others join in one by one. It ends with a ten-year-old girl named Amaya Ruano—a star pupil of those Chochenyo language classes—singing a solo to represent the passing of the torch to the next generation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the food itself, one important change is that Medina and Trevino will train members of the Cal Dining staff to prepare most of the food that will be served at the original restaurant. Another is that the menu will have a little bit more of a modern feel. In addition to the most traditional, precolonial Ohlone food preparations, the new Cafe Ohlone will also serve rancheria dishes that became popular within the community during the late 1800s—things like rabbit mole, venison chile colorado and California’s native Olympia oysters, served both raw and smoked. Medina says he also plans to introduce some Ohlone-ized pasta dishes like the ones his great-great-great-grandfather—a Sicilian who took asylum at Mission San Jose and fell in love with an Ohlone woman—would have introduced to the community. So, Medina is playing around with handmade pasta dishes that incorporate native edible flowers like violet and nasturtium or a dandelion green pesto. “All these things are part of the Ohlone tradition,” he says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Medina estimates that the construction and design work on the restaurant is currently about 60% complete, though major components like the mural and the sound system still need to be installed. If all goes well, Cafe Ohlone will start serving a series of meals for members of the Ohlone community later this month. By June, Medina says, the restaurant should be ready for its grand opening. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cafe Ohlone is slated to open in June at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, at 102 Anthropology and Art Practice Building on Bancroft Way at College Ave. in Berkeley.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the better part of the pandemic, Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino didn’t even think about reopening \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.makamham.com/cafeohlone\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cafe Ohlone\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The world’s only Ohlone restaurant never did outdoor dining. It only started offering a tiny number of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/7/1/21309438/cafe-ohlone-closed-berkeley-takeout-new-location\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">take-home meal kits\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> many months after takeout had become the new normal—and just for one Sunday a month.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, Medina and Trevino found an even higher calling: While the restaurant hibernated, they huddled close within their own community and dedicated themselves to hosting weekly language classes over Zoom, teaching young children and 90-year-old elders how to speak Chochenyo and Rumsen Ohlone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, all that cultural work is paying dividends for the restaurant, too. When Cafe Ohlone opens next month at its new location at UC Berkeley’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hearst Museum of Anthropology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, even the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">trees \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">will speak and sing in Chochenyo—trees hooked up to a state-of-the-art sound system playing recordings of those same Chochenyo students, to be specific. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The singing trees are just one of the showpieces in Cafe Ohlone’s new outdoor dining room, which is finally gearing up to open after the restaurant \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/7/1/21309438/cafe-ohlone-closed-berkeley-takeout-new-location\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lost its original, back-of-a-bookstore Berkeley location\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fairly early on during shelter in place. According to Medina, every aspect of the new restaurant is meant to evoke “a beautiful reality that looks like an Ohlone village when you walk in.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913051\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913051\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A sampler plate of Ohlone food includes a small dish of acorn soup, fried sea lettuce and a skewer of venison backstrap.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_sampler-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sampling of Cafe Ohlone’s food given out at an April 23 preview event. Small bites included fried sea lettuce, roasted fiddlehead ferns, venison backstrap and cold black oak acorn soup for dipping. \u003ccite>(Luke Tsai)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We’re calling it a love song to Ohlone culture,” Medina told guests at an April preview event held at the restaurant, “because every element of the space has been designed to be specific to our beautiful Ohlone culture—to our language, to our plants, to our foods, to our values, to our aesthetics.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even after Cafe Ohlone lost its home during the early months of the pandemic, Medina and Trevino were always insistent that the restaurant would return bigger and better than ever. But the two felt conflicted at first when the Hearst Museum offered them the opportunity to reopen. After all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13899524/cafe-ohlone-restaurant-hearst-museum-berkeley-opening\">the museum’s relationship with the Ohlones had been deeply fraught\u003c/a>: Alfred Kroeber, the museum’s longtime director, was the one who was largely responsible for the Ohlones losing their federal recognition when his \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Handbook of the Indians of California\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> declared them to be “culturally extinct” in 1925. Subsequently, the museum itself looted the Ohlone shellmounds and took possession of many of their sacred objects and ancestral remains. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, Medina and Trevino decided to take the museum’s offer to host Cafe Ohlone as a first step toward righting some of those past wrongs. “In the past, the university has not been on our side,” Medina says. “But no one wants to stay stuck in a place of frustration. This is something that can go in a really beautiful direction, especially when it’s paired with Ohlone people having a permanent presence here.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913047\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913047\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Vincent Medina holds a wooden post with the name of an Ohlone community member inscribed on it.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_pillar-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meyer Sound speakers will be attached to wooden posts next to each singing tree in the main dining area at cafe Ohlone. Each post will have the name of the Ohlone community whose voice recording is attached to that tree. \u003ccite>(Hearst Museum of Anthrolopogy)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The design of the space itself is meant to make Cafe Ohlone feel like a portal to a “whole world reimagined,” as Medina puts it—a place that reflects an Ohlone worldview down to the last detail. When guests first enter the open-air restaurant, they’ll cross through a redwood-framed “shadow box” of sorts, with plants native to the Ohlone lands illuminated onto a screen. Walking down a winding path, they’ll see two 5,000-pound granite boulders that will serve as the seats for one dining area. At the center of the restaurant, handmade tables and chairs made of reclaimed redwood will form several socially distanced “dining pods.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the wall along one side of the dining room, there will be a building-sized mural by the native artist Jean LaMarr that will depict the great-grandparents of today’s Ohlones looking down on the restaurant, with chipped glass on top made to look like stars illuminating the night sky. At the very back of the restaurant, next to a newly built shellmound, there will be one final, elevated dining area overlooking the entire restaurant—“one communal table for our elders to sit and take it all in,” Medina explains. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, the central area of the restaurant is where the singing trees will live. The idea came about through a collaboration with Meyer Sound, a Berkeley-based company known for its \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/91355/two-east-bay-restaurants-take-unique-approach-to-noise\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">groundbreaking restaurant sound systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. At the new Cafe Ohlone, the Meyer Sound–donated sound system will be set up so that the trees scattered throughout the outdoor dining room—valley oak, hazel, manzanita and sycamore—will have speakers attached that will fill the space with the living Chochenyo language. Each speaker will feature the recorded voice of a member of the Ohlone community—a student in Medina and Trevino’s ongoing Chochenyo classes, in fact. So, as guests sit down to enjoy their meal, the trees will also converse and share gossip with one another in Chochenyo. “One tree will tell a joke, and another will start laughing,” Medina says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13913049\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1707px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13913049\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A Hearst Museum staff member passes out cups of rosehip tea.\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-scaled.jpg 1707w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/cafeohlone_tea-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Hearst Museum staff member passes out cups of lightly sweetened rosehip tea. \u003ccite>(Hearst Museum of Anthropology)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And yes, the trees will even sing. Medina explains that he and Trevino have translated some of the 1960s pop songs that their grandparents played at home. For instance, they’ve recorded a Chochenyo version of the old love song “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu2dAQ3xb8s\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Angel Baby\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” but they’ve changed it so that the song is now addressed to “holše noono,” which means “beautiful language”—a love song to Chochenyo itself. The song starts with a single tree—a single elder from the community—singing by itself until the others join in one by one. It ends with a ten-year-old girl named Amaya Ruano—a star pupil of those Chochenyo language classes—singing a solo to represent the passing of the torch to the next generation.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the food itself, one important change is that Medina and Trevino will train members of the Cal Dining staff to prepare most of the food that will be served at the original restaurant. Another is that the menu will have a little bit more of a modern feel. In addition to the most traditional, precolonial Ohlone food preparations, the new Cafe Ohlone will also serve rancheria dishes that became popular within the community during the late 1800s—things like rabbit mole, venison chile colorado and California’s native Olympia oysters, served both raw and smoked. Medina says he also plans to introduce some Ohlone-ized pasta dishes like the ones his great-great-great-grandfather—a Sicilian who took asylum at Mission San Jose and fell in love with an Ohlone woman—would have introduced to the community. So, Medina is playing around with handmade pasta dishes that incorporate native edible flowers like violet and nasturtium or a dandelion green pesto. “All these things are part of the Ohlone tradition,” he says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Medina estimates that the construction and design work on the restaurant is currently about 60% complete, though major components like the mural and the sound system still need to be installed. If all goes well, Cafe Ohlone will start serving a series of meals for members of the Ohlone community later this month. By June, Medina says, the restaurant should be ready for its grand opening. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cafe Ohlone is slated to open in June at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, at 102 Anthropology and Art Practice Building on Bancroft Way at College Ave. in Berkeley.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Hayward’s Hawaiian May Day Festival Is a Delicious Celebration of Polynesian Diaspora",
"headTitle": "Hayward’s Hawaiian May Day Festival Is a Delicious Celebration of Polynesian Diaspora | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This weekend, the streets of downtown Hayward will be lined with every imaginable variety of Hawaiian and Polynesian fare to fill up an empty plate—everything from shave ice and loco moco to tuna burritos. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Food will be one of the main highlights of the 49th annual \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kumuhulaassociation.com/mayday\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hawaiian May Day Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the largest event of its kind in the Bay Area. And since Hayward has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bay-Area-has-big-Pacific-Islander-population-2839970.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one of the largest Hawaiian populations in the nation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it’s no surprise that the roving festival will return to the city on Saturday, May 7, after a two-year hiatus. Organized by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kumuhulaassociation.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Kumu Hula Association of Northern California\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a non-profit that promotes Hawaiian culture in the Bay Area—the free festival celebrates Hawaiian traditions through music, dance, arts and, of course, food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Food is what brings us together,” says Deanie Villiados, president of the Kuma Hula Association. “Sharing dinner is Hawaiian style. We invite everyone, no matter how much we have.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To be sure, there will be plenty to share. Highlights will include sweets like haupia pie—made from thick coconut milk and chocolate, then stacked on a freshly baked pie crust and topped off with whipped cream. Savory dishes will run the gamut from Spam and eggs and garlic shrimp to my eternal favorite, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13911062/hawaiian-barbecue-bay-area-multicultural-oakland-ilava\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hawaiian barbecue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a form of love. It’s a sense of family. It’s about being together and enjoying each other’s company like brothers and sisters. That’s true ohana,” Villiados says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13911062,arts_13897894']In true Bay Area spirit, this Hawaiian festival will also serve Filipino, Samoan, Fijian, Guamanian and even Mexican foods, showcasing the many Polynesian amd multiethnic diasporas who have migrated here over the decades to form pockets of community and solidarity through cuisine. The twelve featured vendors will include traditional Hawaiian food businesses, but also spots like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alpastorpapi415/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Al Pastor Papi\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Mexican street tacos), Chef T’s Kitchen (tuna burritos and miso salmon) and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/moshut/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mo’s Hut\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Samoan-style corned beef chop suey).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To enhance the island flavors, musical performances from Polynesian vocalist \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tenellemusic.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tenelle\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and R&B singer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSeHLr9de1Q\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reno Anoa’i\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, along with appearances from reggae bands \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thrivingmusic\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">THRIVE!\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nativeelements/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Native Elements\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, will accompany halau-style hulu dance lessons and bamboo carving.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, whether you’re a longtime poke eater or a first-timer, pull up to get a taste of what the Pacific’s best has to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kumuhulaassociation.com/mayday\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hawaiian May Day Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will take place on Saturday, May 7, 10 am–6 pm, at B St. and Main St. in Hayward. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This weekend, the streets of downtown Hayward will be lined with every imaginable variety of Hawaiian and Polynesian fare to fill up an empty plate—everything from shave ice and loco moco to tuna burritos. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Food will be one of the main highlights of the 49th annual \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kumuhulaassociation.com/mayday\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hawaiian May Day Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the largest event of its kind in the Bay Area. And since Hayward has \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bay-Area-has-big-Pacific-Islander-population-2839970.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one of the largest Hawaiian populations in the nation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it’s no surprise that the roving festival will return to the city on Saturday, May 7, after a two-year hiatus. Organized by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kumuhulaassociation.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Kumu Hula Association of Northern California\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a non-profit that promotes Hawaiian culture in the Bay Area—the free festival celebrates Hawaiian traditions through music, dance, arts and, of course, food. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Food is what brings us together,” says Deanie Villiados, president of the Kuma Hula Association. “Sharing dinner is Hawaiian style. We invite everyone, no matter how much we have.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To be sure, there will be plenty to share. Highlights will include sweets like haupia pie—made from thick coconut milk and chocolate, then stacked on a freshly baked pie crust and topped off with whipped cream. Savory dishes will run the gamut from Spam and eggs and garlic shrimp to my eternal favorite, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13911062/hawaiian-barbecue-bay-area-multicultural-oakland-ilava\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hawaiian barbecue\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a form of love. It’s a sense of family. It’s about being together and enjoying each other’s company like brothers and sisters. That’s true ohana,” Villiados says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In true Bay Area spirit, this Hawaiian festival will also serve Filipino, Samoan, Fijian, Guamanian and even Mexican foods, showcasing the many Polynesian amd multiethnic diasporas who have migrated here over the decades to form pockets of community and solidarity through cuisine. The twelve featured vendors will include traditional Hawaiian food businesses, but also spots like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alpastorpapi415/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Al Pastor Papi\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Mexican street tacos), Chef T’s Kitchen (tuna burritos and miso salmon) and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/moshut/?hl=en\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mo’s Hut\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Samoan-style corned beef chop suey).\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To enhance the island flavors, musical performances from Polynesian vocalist \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tenellemusic.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tenelle\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and R&B singer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSeHLr9de1Q\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reno Anoa’i\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, along with appearances from reggae bands \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thrivingmusic\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">THRIVE!\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nativeelements/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Native Elements\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, will accompany halau-style hulu dance lessons and bamboo carving.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, whether you’re a longtime poke eater or a first-timer, pull up to get a taste of what the Pacific’s best has to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kumuhulaassociation.com/mayday\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hawaiian May Day Festival\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will take place on Saturday, May 7, 10 am–6 pm, at B St. and Main St. in Hayward. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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