Food Trucks and Other Necessary Adventures

Kitty will def not be happy about this but it's happening.

The food trucks were more like food stands.

The foods stands were a lot like Crave. WE AS COOL AS SF.

I appreciate this.

We sat at the first table outside.

This is exactly like what I drank. Wow.

 Arepas and Yuca fries from the Pica Pica Website. It tasted as good as it looked

This is what the inside of The Mill looks like. They get credit for being beautiful.

Other necessary food adventures in San Francisco include food trucks. Actually, I think food trucks are always necessary. They are lots of fun. Kitty and I made a trip to the food trucks before our bitter dinner with Ted to see if we could find dessert. We didn’t find much though because it had to be gluten free. But we did get this amazing pumpkin creme brulee at a creme brulee food truck that - get this - had a Kentucky creme brulee. I know. What a coincidence. But I didn’t get it because my appreciation for my home state does not surpass my love for all things pumpkin.

Other good food trucks included a Popsicle one that was manned by a very gruff dude angrily reading philosophy. I guess his sales weren’t that great in the 60 degree weather. There was also a truck that was called the Bacon truck. It was designed to look like a pig and everything it sold included bacon. If I recall correctly, there was a heart warning on the side of their truck. I was in love. One sold Asian tacos which I really wanted to try but was too scared to. Another had a huge line and sold Asian fusion food. Everything was fried or incredibly fatty. It was perfect. There was even a beer food truck, which didn’t really seem legal to me. The whole experience was pretty epic even though we did not buy anything.

Three other amazing culinary adventures we had were small so I am adding them here. First, Kitty and I had a college planning moment where we worked out some of my supplements. And at La Boulange I drank a latte out of a bowl. I have never felt as cool as I did in that moment, and I doubt I ever will again. The second was on my last day we went to Kitty and Louis’s favorite gluten free restaurant in the Mission. It is called Pica Pica and it is all corn based food. We ordered arepas, which I have decided are my new favorite corn based food. Miles ahead of cornbread, even ahead of corn chips and queso. Arepas are “a grilled corn pocket crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside, and stuffed with your choice of slow-cooked meats, beans, plantains, cheese or vegetables”, according to their website, which happens to be correct. We also ordered Yuca fries which were pretty damn good. After we ordered I realized that I had actually had arepas before, with Kitty no less! Kitty took me to the inauguration as a Christmas present last year. It was freezing and we got crowded out of our spot, so we headed towards the parade. (We actually saw Obama so it was totally worth it.) But on our way to claim our spot a street vendor was selling cheese arepas and Kitty smelled it and doubled back to buy two. She used to eat them when she lived in Colombia so it was a throwback for her and plain deliciousness for me. I was not disappointed at Pica Pica. Third there was a bakery in the Mission called The Mill that served homemade bread. Kitty talked to the baker for a long time while I ate toasted white bread with apple cinnamon butter and this dude tried to talk to me but I didn’t realize he was talking to me so I didn’t answer and it was awkward.

Photo Credits:
La Boulange - Shop and Latte
Pica Pica
The Mill 

Flourless Citrus Cake

A.K.A. Louis’ Birthday Cake

I consider this foreign because it is gluten free and I like to keep that kind of cake far from my tastebuds. But not this one. Because it is good.

Ingredients:

• 2 oranges (But I have on good authority - my aunt - that 1 meyer lemon and 1 valencia orange is also delicious (best))
• 4 eggs
• ¾ cup agave syrup (Again my good authority says Lyle’s Golden Syrup* is pretty great)
• 2 cups blanched almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Wash and boil the entire orange and lemon for 1 ½ hours or until they are soft . Even the peel. Just trust me.
3. Put the entire orange/lemon in the food processor and blend until they are smooth.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients (eggs, syrup, almond flour, baking soda) and process until mixed.
5. Pour into a greased 9 inch pan.
6. Put in oven for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Eat. It is good with whipped cream and fresh berries but if you have to you can eat if for breakfast without the berries or cream.

*Just a note about Lyle’s Golden Syrup because its cool. According to the website: From working in the sugar business, Lyle noticed that the sugar cane refining process produces a treacly sort of syrup, which could be further refined. The result was a delicious preserve and sweetener for cooking. He started selling small quantities of “Goldie” from wooden casks to his employees and local customers. I wikipedia'd it and realized that I have eaten it in Germany but there it is called Zuckerrübensirup which means sugar beet syrup. Pretty cool.

Photo Credit: Lyle’s Golden Syrup

Asian Farmer's Market & Bulgarian Birthday Party

Coffee to start of the day. made me smile. I like it.

  The infamous SF hills and a view of the market.

The best berries ever. Ever. magical.

This was perfect because I was with my aunt, my mom's twin. wow. Coincidence? I think not.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of Louis' birthday dinner. But picture it in your mind as greatness.

Another huge reason I went to San Francisco when I did was to be there for Louis’s birthday. He was planning on throwing a Bulgarian birthday party. A Bulgarian birthday party is a party where you cook and all of your friends come over to celebrate you and eat your food. Pretty much every one of my birthday parties but instead of me cooking it’s usually Donatos. Anyways Kitty offered to bake his cake and she wanted to show me the Asian Farmer’s Market anyways so we went to get cake ingredients and experience some farmer’s market lyfe.

The market was beautiful. There were a whole bunch of people and foods that I have never seen before in my life and some that I never want to see again. Our best purchase was a bag of the best berries I have ever eaten. That is saying a lot because in summer I live off of berries but there were so good. I think they were magical.

The greatest moment at the farmer’s market/the most impressed I have ever been with my aunt: She wanted to buy a bunch of parsley but there was around a 20 minute line. Instead of waiting in line, or giving up and not buying it at all, she grabbed my arm and walked up to the counter and laid down her money and walked away. They were confused, I was shocked, she was proud. It was amazing.

After our trip to the market we stopped by The Fizzary where they stock literally every kind of specialty soda on earth. Including Ale-8-One which I was convinced was only sold in Kentucky. Armed with one out of the forty kinds of root beer, we met up with Louis to see an exhibit on Bulgari where I fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor. And emeralds. Being rich would be fun.

The dinner ended up being a community effort. We had farmer’s market cheese (from the goat lady) and crackers for appetizers, delicious lamb, a salad with raw chestnuts, and something that I don’t remember but I’m sure it was delicious. Then we had amazing almond citrus cake (the recipe is on its way) with whipped cream and berries. That was literally the only time I have enjoyed a gluten free cake. Quite a moment.

Overall I think Louis had a pretty good birthday. It was just us and one of their friends but the food was delicious, we had Ben Sollee playing in the background (my present to him) and then roasted chestnuts while I fell asleep on the couch. And then cake as breakfast in the morning. Best part of birthdays.

Fermenation Stop 3: Bar Tartine Sandwich Shop

This is a picture of the counter where you order sandwiches that I shamelessly stole from the internets.

 Kitty will probably not be too happy that I posted these here. I apologize.

My sandwich. aka. heaven.

My sandwich two days later as a snack on the plane. It probably wasn't a good idea but I ate it anyways

Our our last stop on our Fermentation tour just Kitty and I went to Bar Tartine’s sandwich shop in the Mission. They pickle their own sauerkraut and use their own yeast to make absolutely delicious bread that sent my taste buds hurtling back to Germany.

I ordered a reuben with corned beef with farmer’s cheese, charred onions and sauerkraut and it was so freaking good. I mean, so so good. Like I still dream about it, good. I also had Kefir half & half: lemon ginger iced tea which I thought would be like a fancy Arnold Palmer. It wasn't, but it was very good just the same. Kitty had an everything sandwich with smoked sturgeon, quark and fried onion. That could be totally wrong though because I do not really remember. I do remember her loving it but loving her drink more. She fell in love with her drink, the marriage kind of love. It was fig leaf dairy kefir, which sounds nasty but is pretty good.

Bar Tartine was the perfect way to round out the tour. Here is a small part of their explanation from the restaurant's website:

Aged cheeses, spices, koji, and bottarga to name a few, are all processed at the restaurant and form the foundation on which the constantly evolving menu is built. The menu at Bar Tartine is a celebration of diverse traditional flavors presented with a modern, post-regional generosity. A dinner might consist of flavors from Jutland, Hokkaido and Budapest within the same meal- the whole seeming utterly familiar. Varied whole grains and the use of fermentation inform the food, as well as the innovative natural leavened breads baked on premise daily by owner/baker Chad Robertson.

Photo credit for the first picture: Inside Scoop SF

Fermentation Stop 2: Cultured Pickle Shop

Alex Hozven herself

The outside of the shop and the sign. Artsy. My uncle gets photocredz.

I'm going to have to say this is the list of things they sell.

It was a hard decision.

Where they ferment stuff.

Also where they ferment stuff. This stuff is kombucha.

This is bacteria. But good bacteria.

The pickles we bought that tasted "distinct". They looked distinct too.

This is our dinner. It's colorful. Like fall.

This is the face that I make when I try to hide my reaction to the bitterness.

Me and Ted talking. This is probably after his coughing fit. 

The next stop on our fermentation tour was Cultured Pickle Shop a couple blocks from Three Stone Hearth. The shop is owned by Alex Hozven and Kevin Farley. We met Alex Hozven, the artist behind the fermentation, and she took us on a quick tour of her shop. Because her shop is purely about pickling she makes far more than Three Stone Hearth. Everything is made my traditional fermentation methods dating back to ancient China. She knew a lot (which probably makes sense because it is her life). When my aunt asked her about a certain Japanese pickle Hozven told her that it had been created rather recently history-wise in Buddhist Monasteries because of some government introduction of Sake. (That could actually be completely wrong but it would be my memory not her answer.)

We ended up buying a bottle of beet kvass to try (meh. not my thing) and three different types of pickles. Much to my disappointment, they were definitely not my thing, which was upsetting because I was on such a role. In my defence, Kitty’s friend Ted had a coughing fit after having one and then called it “distinct”, I will now call everything that does not agree with my taste buds “distinct”.

This is an excerpt from the Cultured Pickle Shop website about pickles:

Within the American food lexicon, the pickle suffers from rigid and compartmentalized thinking. To many, the pickle is a sour cucumber, period. However, on any given day, one can visit the tasting area of The Cultured Pickle Shop and sample ten varieties of sauerkraut, four varieties of kimchi, fourteen different types of seasonal specialty pickles, eight different flavors of kombucha tea, two sake lees pickles, one rice bran pickle, and, of course, the ubiquitous Classic Dill. In the spirit of enlarging the collective culinary mind, Cultured challenges the narrow confines of America's pickle prejudices. Global pickling traditions of the past interact dynamically with the Northern California foodshed in our Berkeley shop.

If you are interested in the Cultured Pickle Shop their website and their blog are fascinating.

Here is a great video of Alex Hozven giving a tour of her shop, not unlike the one she gave us. Probably a little more detailed though.

Sandor Katz is one of the people that made fermentation popular across the states, he is a food activist who wrote Wild Fermentation about well...fermentation. If you want to know more about him or his book, his website of the same name is chalk full of fermentation facts. He also has a new book called The Art of Fermentation.

That night we had the bitterest meal I have ever eaten. Pickles, radishes, bok choy. It was delicious but whew, some of it was...distinct.

Fermentation Stop 1: Three Stone Hearth

This place is cool.

This is the inside of the cool place.

Action shot with Kitty and Catherine.

Dialogue shot with Kitty and Catherine and someone whose name I have forgotten. I am very sorry about that. She went to Georgetown U. though and I am jealous.

Kombucha shot. Yum.

It's a SCOBY. wow

Fermentation at its best.

 The Fermentation Guy.

So the first stop on our fermentation and foodie tour in Berkeley was the cooperative Three Stone Hearth co-founded by one of Kitty and Louis’s friends, Catherine Spanger. The company is a community-suported kitchen that makes and packages meals in mason jars for customers from around the Bay area to pick up or have delivered. The menu changes from week to week, while I visited they had some kind of chicken soup on the menu. The week of November 20 the menu is:

• Southern Style Chicken Stew
• Vegetable Mushroom with Beef Polpettini
• Irish Beef Stew with Mushrooms and Stout
• Rice-a-Cheesy with Greens
• Pork Rillettes
• Falafel Dough
• Beef Patties with Garlic & Rosemary
• Coconut Tikka Masala Sauce
• Tuscan White Bean Dip
• Tahini Yogurt Sauce with Lemon
• TSH Mayonnaise
• Autumn Harvest Relish
• Fudge Brownies with Crispy Walnuts
• Lemon Orange Tapioca Pudding

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Even though I just had my biweekly fix of Pad Thai, I could totally go for some of that Irish Beef Stew.

Along with soups and stews and other forms of deliciousness, Three Stone Hearth specializes in fermentation. They make kombucha, kavass, sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles. If you’ve never had kombucha, try some. It takes like sunshine, and it's refreshing like a waterfall. That’s probably a lie but it is really good. It is fermented tea, made from a scobi. It is my drink addiction (pad thai is my food addiction). Because it is fermented it can be vinegary if you buy it bottled at the store like GT’s Kombucha. But the kombucha from Three Stone Hearth didn’t have that bite that the shelved kombucha has because it is incredibly fresh. (Both taste good if you ask me, I just felt cooler drinking the kind from Three Stone Hearth.) We tried three different kinds, Kitty’s favorite was the nettle but I liked the ginger-lime, the hibiscus was also delicious. They also let us try something called a Honey Cooler which I’m not 100% sure what it was but the Lavender Honey one was ah-mazing.

This is the amazing Three Stone Hearth website. http://www.threestonehearth.com/ Check it out. They are super cool.

I did some web-research (meaning prbly only 90% reliable) on kombucha but here is what I found:

• The Chinese called it the immortal health elixir. Take that Tuck Everlasting.
• It originated in East Asia but made its way to Germany at the turn of the century.
• People think it prevents cancer. At least the Russians and Germans do. I’m guessing the Chinese would agree.
• It detoxifies, has some chemical that can help prevent arthritis, aids digestion and “gut health” and, it boosts you immunities. Idk bout all of that but it does taste really good.
• Apparently it's “the new yogurt”. Now we know it's made it.
• Cancer.org claims kombucha is promoted to help cure “baldness, insomnia, intestinal disorders, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and cancer” but that it has also been linked with several deaths. I guess some people would die before they go bald. Me, I would just die because I think it's tasty.
• You can brew it at home, apparently you can obtain a SCOBY on craigslist. Sketchy

This is the website that claims kombucha is a cure-all.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-health-benefits/

This is the website that gives a lot of accounts that kombucha might kill you.

http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/dietandnutrition/kombucha-tea

Here is an article written on the NY Times in the Fashion and Style Section about kombucha in San Francisco. None of those things add up to me but the article is interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/fashion/25Tea.html?_r=0

This is the article that called kombucha “the new yogurt”, for that epithet I like it best.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36571884/#.UovaKo3QGfo