Spring 2023
Good Food and Frank Exchanges at the Saturday Berkeley Farmers’ Market
By Nora Becker Photo by Carole Topalian On most any Saturday, throngs of people gather by 10am at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market: families with young children pushing carts, elderly folks in masks and light down jackets, groups of friends standing in circles huddled over warm crêpes and espresso drinks. Weekenders move casually, taking many laps…
Read MoreTasting Notes from the Biofuel Oasis Honey Contest
By Novella Carpenter | Illustrations by Olivia Heller The first entry for the 8th semiannual Biofuel Oasis Honey Contest came in a squat jar and smelled like caramel. The next entry was the color of straw. Then they streamed in, held aloft by smiling beekeepers: Here’s my entry for the honey contest! Our store…
Read MoreStrawberry Cream Wafers
Engineered to Eat
From molecular booze to lab-grown honey, East Bay makers are ushering in a new generation of bio-designed food and drink. Story and Illustrations by Bri James Ikenga Wines Oakland, California One evening in 2017, as Onye Ahanotu sat down at Kith/Kin—the now-shuttered high-end Afro-Caribbean Washington, DC, restaurant helmed by Top Chef wunderkind Kwame…
Read MoreAmigo Bob Cantisano: a Remembrance and Book Review
By David Kupfer “Essentially, all life depends upon the soil…. There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.” —Dr. Charles E. Kellogg, soil scientist and chief of the USDA Bureau for Chemistry and Soils Without a doubt, the most outstanding takeaway lesson from my 40-year friendship…
Read MoreReem Assil’s Arab Hospitality
The Oakland baker, restaurateur, and author grows her Bay Area community By Kristina Sepetys Reem Assil’s delicious food honors her Palestinian-Syrian heritage as well as her Bay Area present. Fiercely passionate about promoting Arab hospitality, Assil brings equal focus to her pursuits in community building, social justice, and sustainability. With a background…
Read MoreLAZY SUSAN SUNDAYS: Favorite East Bay Dim Sum Spots
By Meredith Pakier and Bridge Ho | Photos by Meredith Pakier This season, to celebrate the Lunar New Year, I teamed up with my friend Bridge Ho, who grew up in San Francisco and went out for dim sum nearly every weekend with their family. It wasn’t just for the food. These outings…
Read MoreAt the Sign of the Slug
Story and photos by Natalya Suttmiller I generally journey to San Francisco for live DJs and intriguing food and drinks under one roof, but last summer, I found my dream space right near home. The experience starts on an impossibly pointy corner in Oakland’s Civic Center at the slim Lionel Wilson Building, a handsome…
Read MoreLemon Cornmeal Cake with Strawberries and Cream
From Good Food and Frank Exchanges
Read MoreThe Last Bite
Begin with Bread You have to start somewhere and I was perfectly content with white bread and butter. I adopted rituals early. After buttering my toast, I used the cinnamon and sugar dispenser to draw a giant Z for Zorro. I considered a challah as beautiful as a bouquet of flowers. I had reverence for…
Read MoreWHAT’S IN SEASON? Spring Alliums!
By Barbara Kobsar | Illustration by Charmaine Koehler-Lodge The Allium genus is diverse and versatile, and in springtime, it gives us many gifts at the market from leeks, chives, and green garlic to spring onions and ramps (an Allium that grows wild on the East Coast). Leeks are the largest and mildest of the…
Read MoreGuide to Good Eats: Spring 2023
From the sketchbook of urban sketcher Cathy Raingarden. Find more @cathyraingarden and cathyraingarden.com. Alameda Alameda Marketplace 1650 Park St | alamedamarketplace.com Sit down for a meal of wood-oven chicken or pizza, local oysters, house-made bread and pasta, inventive small dishes, and more substantial fare at East End. Relax with coffee, pastries, or gelato at the…
Read MoreHow to Make a Metheglin
The exquisitely fermented nectar of billions of flowers Story, recipe, and photo by Alexandra Hudson Together we wander through our backyard gardens and out to the hills where the soft young leaves of springtime are emerging. Young shoots of many edible plants offer refreshingly bright and sour flavors that can be beneficial to…
Read MoreEditor’s Mixing Bowl
It’s always a bit unfortunate that the Edible East Bay publishing calendar strands Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day between issues. When our Winter Holidays edition comes out in mid-November, it’s too early to present those themes, and our Spring issue release date of February 21 makes it a near miss for those holidays.…
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