Entries tagged with 'San Francisco'
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Note: This week in Meet Your Farmers, we get to know Greg Massa, a fourth-generation California rice farmer. Each week he brings delicious brown rice to nine Bay Area farmers' markets and is working toward building a sustainable farm model. [Photographs: Massa Organics] Name: Greg Massa Farm: Massa Organics What do you grow? Organic brown rice, wheat, almonds and now ducks. Ducks? We are selling our first 100 ducks at farmers' markets this weekend. The ducks live in the rice field and can help us with weed management. Ideally, the ducks should be able to feed themselves on the weeds and the bugs in the field. Weed management is no small feat when it comes to rice—it's our biggest production...
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Just announced: The star rankings of the Michelin 2010 Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area & Wine Country. The highlights? Three Stars: The French Laundry is still alone at the top Two Stars: Coi, Cyrus, Manresa, and The Restaurant at Meadowood take the two-stars Newbies: Aziza, Commis, La Toque, Luce, Sante, Terra and Ubuntu all get their first star The full list, after the jump....
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"Sometimes people see chocolate and think alcoholic milkshakes." [Flickr: loremipsum] For the most part, those seeking to indulge both chocolate and cocktails have been restricted to the realm of heavy, sugary after-dinner drinks. But as chefs take chocolate more seriously—working with the savory, bitter flavors that cacao can bring to a dish—so have mixologists. As I wrote for last weekend's San Francisco Chronicle, a number of bartenders are getting into the chocolate game, making their own bitters, tinctures, and liqueurs that capture the rich character of chocolate without weighing down the drink's flavor with a palate-thumping load of sugar. Some classic cocktails and 18th century punches utilize the power of chocolate to good effect, playing the flavor against that of...
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Note: Meet Your Farmers is a weekly series where we profile the farmers that mean so much to serious eaters everywhere. This week we catch up with Nancy Prebilich, a California farmer who's also earned her MFA in International Theater and Performance Studies. [Photographs: Gleason Ranch] Name: Nancy Prebilich Farm: Gleason Ranch in Sonoma County, California. How many acres? 98 acres Your crew: Mother, father, sister, eleven year-old nephews, and five year-old niece. Hours: 24/7. I wish this was an overstatement, but it truly isn't. Every day we live and breath the ranch. We sleep in the barns at night if a sow is having trouble birthing, we leave a holiday dinner early to make sure everyone is watered and...
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Note: Since this street food trend is blowing up, we're going to spend every week spotlighting a different vendor. This week in Street Food Profiles, we scoot to the West Coast. [Photographs: Let's Be Frank] Name: Let's Be Frank hot dog cart Vendor: Larry Bain Location and hours? San Francisco: Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays at the Crissy Field Warming Hut (near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Los Angeles: Wednesdays through Sundays at Helms in Culver City. What do you sell? Frank Dog, Brat Dog, Bird Dog, "Hot" Dog, and "Not" Dog, along with beverages and chips For how many years? Four years in San Francisco and two years in Los Angeles....
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Note: On Mondays, one of our various Market Scene correspondents checks in with what's fresh at farmstands, what's coming up, and what you better get while the gettin's good. Take us to market, Jen! [Okra soldiers from Short Night Farm; Jen Maiser] I am addicted to attending farmers' markets. The most recent proof was over the weekend: I had no intention of shopping for food yet I found myself wandering through the Divisadero Farmers' Market in San Francisco after breakfast. Though I am going out of town and didn't need anything in my fridge, I found myself buying just a bit of okra, just one nectarine, and just a couple tomatoes like an addict who needs a fix. I mentioned...
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In looking for a real estate broker, I'd want to know his experience, his commission, his accreditation. But his vegetarian tendencies? As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, broker Daniel Berman, working from Palo Alto, California, sells himself as a "vegetarian reeltor." (And no, that's not a typo; due to trademark concerns with the National Association of Realtors, he's using the term "reeltor" in lieu of the normal spelling.) Believing that a customer and a broker should share fundamental values, he actively seeks out a veggie clientele. "Why should the real estate profession be the exclusive domain of meat-eating right-wing conservatives?" he asks. (Is it really?) He also offers to take a lower commission, if some portion of the savings are...
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It's the time of year when it's fun to take visitors to the market. Friends who don't typically shop at farmers' markets will be overwhelmed by the amount of produce that we have available locally and in season, and will be sure to go home with a bag full of summertime delights. The market is bursting at the seams with color and flavor and scents, and it's an exercise in restraint to decide where to spend my budget. My strategy during this time of abundance is typically to find out what products are going to be around for a little while, and then to prioritize from there. Okra have just begun to show up in the market and as...
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It was 8:15 a.m. and the market had been open for fifteen minutes. I had arrived early for a specific reason: to purchase the prized sour cherry. I realize that sour cherries are prevalent around Michigan and the Midwest, but for Californians, it's a treat to get fresh sour cherries. They are about the size of the tip of my pinky and perfect for pickling and brandying. I was still waking up, and was not prepared for the aggression of the other customers who had arrived early for the same reason as I had. One woman brought an empty cardboard box that was carefully lined with paper towels to carry home her cargo. I had to physically make a...
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Photograph by Lance Iversen for The San Francisco Chronicle At the Blue Bottle Coffee Bar, in the Rooftop Garden at the San Francisco MOMA, pastry chef Caitlin Williams Freeman sculpts desserts that model the paintings within the museum—like the Piet Mondrian-style cake pictured above. Food is often called a form of art, but this cake is pretty incredible. What's the prettiest dessert that you've ever seen?...
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