2022 Northern and Central California Food News and Journalism [SF Bay Area, Northern California, Central California, Northern Nevada]

Regional Dining Discussions SF Bay Area, NorCal, Tahoe
141

Babette moves out of the Berkeley Art Museum to the former Berkeley Lanesplitter Pizza spot at 2033 San Pablo Ave near University Ave. In a soft opening, the Roasted Chicken Thighs with Georgian Plum Sauce (saffron rice, eggplant, sour cherry, scallion, Broccoli di Ciccio), $28, look interesting.

“My heritage is Ukrainian, Polish and Russian, and I love those sweet and sour flavors,” chef Joan Ellis said in the East Bay Express.

Jeff Edalatpour in the East Bay Express -

https://www.babettecafe.com/

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photo from East Bay Express

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142

Can you list off each condiment and topping you offer? How many varieties of hot dogs can you prepare?

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 [ takes a long pause, mumbles calculations ] 8,192 ways to serve a hot dog. Right?

143

The coverage of the East Bay food scene has been top-notch in the NOSH column in the Berkeleyside/Oaklandside.

excerpt:
…
Dinkelspiel, along with Tracey Taylor and Lance Knobel, founded Berkeleyside in 2009 when they grew concerned about the decline of local news. From a scrappy start-up conceived and launched around Taylor and Knobel’s dining room table, Berkeleyside has grown into a nationally recognized news provider with three editors and six reporters, 519,000 monthly readers, 70,000 Twitter followers, and newsletters read by tens of thousands of people. Berkeleyside has built a loyal and engaged community of readers by providing thorough, high-quality coverage of the city council, school board, police, courts, UC Berkeley, the East Bay food scene and neighborhood stories.
…

Eve Batey is their NOSH editor and has worked at the SF Chronicle and Eater SF.

The online site is a a qualified nonprofit and accepts donations.

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144

Yeah Eve Batey does solid food reporting.

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145


ChrisPfish

13.5K subscribers

SUBSCRIBED

Its Saturday May 28th, the king salmon bite is hot off the coast of Half Moon Bay, CA. With the season taking a short closure from June 1-23 all the salmon fisherman are headed to the grounds. We arrived to the docks before the sun rose to try and beat some of the crowd. Matts (Fisherman’s Life) gave me some coordinates and my friend Kevin followed us out. It was primed to be an epic day of salmon fishing!

146

Yuet Lee, on Stockton at Broadway in SF Chinatown, has reopened after a 9-month retrofit.

Brandon Jew, Soleil Ho, Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and Kristina Cho win James Beard writing awards:

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147

Tanya Holland’s book, "California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West,” comes out in October, 2022.

excerpt from SFGate:
…

While it is technically a cookbook, with over 80 recipes, it will focus on the key ingredients, cooking techniques and traditions that Black Americans brought with them from the South to California. Much has been written about the food traditions that migrated from the South to Chicago, but Holland’s book will be the first of its kind to highlight how those traditions and recipes evolved once they settled in the Golden State.
…

Among the recipes featured are collard green tabbouleh, fried chicken paillards with arugula and sea shoots salad, rhubarb upside-down cake and honey lavender chess pie, which will fuse Southern traditions with California flair.

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148

Luke Tsai in KQEDarts-

Oliver Saria knows about the glory of a lechon—the crunch and crackle when you cut into the pig’s fat-rendered skin, the juicy succulence of its slow-roasted flesh. The San Francisco-based playwright grew up eating enormous portions of whole pig lechon at big Filipino family gatherings, and he says the dish came to symbolize all of the joy and abundance of Filipino food culture.

The Montclair Beer, Wine, & Music Festival runs from noon to 6:00 p.m. Saturday. Attendees get unlimited samples of beer and wine from over forty different vendors.

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Reem Assil talks about bread on KQED FM Forum in SF for 53 minutes. Originally recorded on April 22, 2022, it was rebroadcast today, June 17.

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150

Iris Kwok writes in KQEDArts:
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Wang, a deeply nostalgic person, drew the flavor profile for her “Feed Me Ube” collaboration drink from her childhood. Her voice picks up as she describes the decadent drink, which features ube-flavored crème brûlée pudding, taro chunks, coconut milk and a choice of either rice milk or whole milk: “The rice milk is much lighter and it really lets the flavor of the ube shine through. But you could really taste that coconut-y sweetness with the whole milk.”

…

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151

Melanie Wong displays banchan from joodooboo in Oakland

Joodooboo

Deli

Fresh Tofu & Nice Banchan
4201 Market St
Oakland
Tues Lunchboxes 11am-2pm
Wed-Sat 11am-6pm

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152

ChrisPfish catches a 34" halibut in SF Bay using live anchovies as bait (at the 5:22 to 7:34 marks in the clip) on Father’s Day with his kids.

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153

Ken Mathis Lohatepanont writes about pad kaprao, Thailand’s real national dish, served at Holy Basil in Berkeley:
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I wholeheartedly endorse the restaurant’s name. Holy basil — known in Thai as kaprao — is after all the cornerstone of Thailand’s most frequently eaten staple dish, the pad kaprao . To have this name telegraphed on what may be Berkeley’s most frequented Thai eatery is a hint at authentic roots. A reminder that they, at the very least, do get it.
…

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Thai Basil Cuisine
2519 Durant Ave. Ste F
Berkeley , CA

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154

Jeffrey Edalatpour in the East Bay Express on Julia’s Restaurant in the Berkeley City Club:

…
When the school year is in session, Julia’s Restaurant must also be an ideal spot to accommodate Berkeley students when their families come to town. They serve an unambitious, more affordable menu than, say, Chez Panisse, with a similar culinary agenda. One that aims to find fresh, local ingredients that could only disappoint the fussiest member of any given family. Though I can’t imagine anyone having an overheated discussion or suffering from hurt feelings while they’re eating within the building’s soothing, cloistered walls.
…

*Julia’s Restaurant, open for lunch Wed to Sat 12pm-2pm, dinner Tue to Sat 5pm-7:30pm, 2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley. 510.848.7800.

berkeleycityclub.com/julias-restaurant*

Elena Kadvany in the SF Chronicle -

excerpt:

Ox 9 appears to be the first restaurant on the Peninsula and one of only a handful in the Bay Area dedicated to this style of fresh, hand-pulled noodles from northwestern China. The same owners operate the Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles restaurants further south, in Milpitas and Cupertino.
…
In the most classic preparation, the slightly yellow noodles arrive in a clear broth with paper-thin slices of beef, a bright red chile oil, green herbs and translucent daikon slices. The various components’ colors — clear, white, red, green and yellow — are essential standard-bearers of a traditional Lanzhou noodle soup. The broth, aromatic and flavorful, is built over 20 hours from nearly 30 ingredients.

Ox 9. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Wednesday-Monday. 11 S. B St., San Mateo. Indoor dining and takeout. 39miles.com/z/09688759

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

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155

Re Julia’s @City Club - wow, I’m really sorry Marcon left for another gig. An excellent chef. We’ve enjoyed Julia’s on a number of occasions altho the pandemic put a crimp in everything, LOL.

I love Gothic architecture so I really admire Julia Morgan’s odd but unique blend of Spanish Colonial and Gothic stone arched windows. The DR is what spouse and I look for - quiet, calm, excellent service; allowing focus on the food rather than excessive noise and people having to scream at one another over tables crowded too close together.

Very civilized dining and yes, the writer is absolutely correct one would not hesitate to dine alone there, with the expectation that service would still be A+.

Yeah, I guess we fall into the “old fogeys” category nowadays, LOL!

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156

Meimei and her boyfriend try all the boba drinks at Boba Bliss which has locations in Mountain View and Dublin. They work well together.

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157

Luke Tsai in KQEDArts on SF BBQ:

KQED’s BBQ in the Bay is a series of stories exploring the Bay Area’s multicultural barbecue scene. New installments will post every day from June 28–July 1.

from Janelle Bitlker in the SF Chronicle:
…

The San Francisco Chronicle has a new Assistant Food & Wine Editor: Caleb Pershan, a reporter and editor who started covering the San Francisco food scene in 2013.

Pershan is best known as the former senior editor for Eater San Francisco…

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Luke Tsai and guests discuss SF Bay Area BBQ on KQED FM Forum at 9 am today and rebroadcast at 8 pm, 88.5 KQED Radio.

In some parts of the country, barbecue is a fighting word. It launches hot debates on vinegar versus tomato-based sauce and the right ways to rub, spice and smoke. KQED Food editor Luke Tsai has a different take. His new series, BBQ in the Bay, highlights the region’s unique barbecue cultures from various traditions of cooking food outdoors over an open flame and how it brings communities together. As part of Forum’s regular segment on food cultures of the Bay Area, called All You Can Eat, we’ll dish on Mongolian barbecue, lechon, barbacoa, barbecue oysters, brisket and much more.

Guests:

Luke Tsai, food editor, KQED

Pendarvis “Pen” Harshaw, columnist, KQED Arts; host, KQED’s “Rightnowish” podcast

Ray Castro, dentist in East Bay; amateur barbecue competitor

Rocky Rivera, emcee; writer; part of KQED’s BBQ in the Bay series

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160

Cesar Hernandez in the SF Chronicle:

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Mujiri

6501 San Pablo Ave., #B, Oakland. 510-879-6597 or www.mujiri-oakland.com

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5:30-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday.

Accessibility : All floors are ground level.

Noise level : Moderate to loud.

Meal for two, without drinks : $50-$60.

What to order : Sashimi combo ($35), nigiri combo ($25), uni nigiri (+$18 combo or $28 a la carte), ikura nigiri (+$2 combo or $12 a la carte), ebodai nigiri (+$5 combo or $16 a la carte).

Meat-free options : inari nigiri ($6 a la carte), ume-shiso hosomaki ($7), sushi rice ($5)

Drinks : Beer and sake.

Transportation : Right in front of 72 and 802 bus lines. Street parking.

Best practices : Back table seating area or bar for a view of the pyrotechnics.

The nigiri combo ($25) comes with seven pieces along with a maki (roll). Nigiri choices might include tender bigeye tuna; vibrant orange cuts of salmon, arctic char and ocean trout; pale pink hamachi and kanpachi; fat Hokkaido scallops; and rich, melty toro. Diners don’t have a say with the maki. One week you might encounter sour pickled ume with shiso, then salmon or spicy tuna on another visit. If you’re craving the more premium nigiri, you can request them (or order a la carte) for an extra fee: slippery cured ikura ($5), creamy uni ($18), ebodai (butterfish, $5) that’s slightly charred and topped with chopped ginger and scallions.

Tamara Sherman in Berkeleyside/The Oaklandside:

Vegetarian and vegan options include roasted eggplant, cauliflower, falafel and an Impossible burger kabob. Items are accompanied by a scoop of the orange blossom flavored rainbow slaw or fassoulia (green and garbanzo beans in a tomato base). Health is also a priority for each dish, Chang said. “Whether through meat, veggies, or lentils, garbanzo [or] green beans, everything has a lot of nutritional value.”

Belladi Kitchen
378 Embarcadero West Unit #101 (in the Modera building), Oakland
Monday-Friday 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Closed Saturday-Sunday

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