Winter Holidays 2018
Top Cap Mushrooms
It all started with a shiitake mushroom fascination. At the time, Morgan Proctor and Greg Olson both had administrative positions in urban offices and were living in a small space in Oakland with no outdoor area for plants. Given their shared interests in nature, nutrition, and gardening, and after being wait-listed at a community garden,…
Read MoreCésar Turns Twenty
Hail César Twenty Years in the Heart of the Gourmet Ghetto By James Mellgren | Photos by Cherie Azzopardi César, the popular Berkeley tapas bar, turned 20 years old this year. In human years, that isn’t old enough for César to order one of its own cocktails, but it’s a significant milestone nevertheless in the…
Read MoreDIY Herbal Gifts
Homespun Herbal Gifts for the Holiday Season Story, Recipes, and Photos By Anna Marie Beauchemin Clinical Herbalist, East Bay Herbals Herbal medicine is an age-old tradition steeped in the belief that the plants and foods around us hold medicinal value. It embodies the concept that the natural world is integral to our wellness, and that…
Read MoreRecipes for an East Bay Lunar New Year
Recipes by Carolyn Phillips Illustrations by Margo Rivera-Weiss Last February, Edible East Bay staff illustrator Margo Rivera-Weiss helped friends Ruth and Michael Chen usher in the Year of the Dog as they made jiao tze (or jiaozi) according to an old recipe they carry around in their heads. Anticipating the approach of the Year of…
Read MoreAnaviv’s Table Opens in Richmond
Arnon Oren at the entrance to his catering kitchen, now moonlighting as Anaviv’s Table. Richmond Flowers at Anaviv’s Table This new dining spot offers elegant food in a surprising setting By Alix Wall | Photos by Stacy Ventura Most guests at this dinner party didn’t previously know each other, yet the conversation flows with the…
Read MoreLocal Delivery by Piikup
MEET PIIKUP the local company that brings our magazines to you It was a very hot day at the O2AA West Oakland Artisans Festival in June 2017, but a stroke of luck landed our Edible East Bay booth next to the Civil Pops cart. Those deliciously healthy, Oakland youth–made, frozen-fruit treats were drawing a steady…
Read MoreSource Guide Winter Holidays 2018
Arts, Education, & Entertainment ECOLOGY CENTER Building a sustainable, healthy, and just future through farmers’ markets, education, curbside recycling, and advocacy. 2530 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley. 510.548.2220. ecologycenter.org FRINGE FLOWER COMPANY Seasonal, locally sourced, farm fresh flowers for daily delivery and special celebrations. 1489 Newell Ave, Walnut Creek. fringeflowers.com KITCHEN ON FIRE Award winning cooking…
Read MoreEditor’s Mixing Bowl
Anticipation is a word I easily associate with the approach of the holiday season. It’s that wistful feeling from childhood, when we scribbled our names in catalogs next to pictures of toys as little voices in our excited dreaming heads called out to our parents to bestow these things upon us. I always drew two…
Read MoreNiles Pie’s Vanilla Buttermilk Custard Pie with Passion Fruit Curd or Cranberry Goo
“Passion fruit curd is outrageous. I want to bathe in it.” —Niles Pie Co. founder Carolyn Berke “We have been lucky recipients of lots of passion fruit this season from a generous neighbor whose vines are having a great year,” says Niles Pie Co. founder Carolyn Berke. “Passion fruit curd is deeeelicious on and in…
Read MoreAn Edible Hedgerow in the City
An Edible Hedgerow in the City By Joshua Burman Thayer “Thrush in a Fig Tree” illustration by Rigel Stuhmiller In our densely packed urban areas, space is at a premium. Courtyards, corridors, driveways, and narrow strips along property lines can seem lost for gardening use, but there are strategies for filling those zones with plants…
Read MoreGailan with Oyster Sauce (haoyou jielan) from All Under Heaven
Illustrations by Margo Rivera-Weiss Recipe by Carolyn Phillips Farmers grow what their land and the market will support, so in diverse California, that means plenty of traditional Asian produce. The Old Oakland Friday market is particularly known for its wide selection of Asian vegetables, which home cooks with a working knowledge of Asian culinary…
Read MoreNew Opportunities for Home Cooks
The Future of Food is … Home Cooked? A new California law legalizes sales of home-cooked food, bringing new food experiences and meaningful economic opportunities By Jaspal S. Sandhu | illustrations by Lila Rubenstein Día de los Muertos signals the start of high season for tamales. On a recent Tuesday morning, I’m driving along East…
Read MoreReady Set Reuse!
Nohemi Perez, co-owner of Ed’s Cheesesteak, packed this BLT in a GO Box for Paul Liotsakis, who launched GO Box in the Bay Area. Ed’s Cheesesteak is a GO Box vendor and also serves as Oakland’s wash site for the boxes. GO Box brings reusable take-out containers to Oakland By Rachel Trachten Photos by Cheryl…
Read MoreCooking with Gratitude
Cherishing What We Have and Wasting Less Around the world, feasts of gratitude for a good harvest are among the oldest traditions, marked by a rest from working the fields and plentiful meals. An abundance of food is at the center of our Thanksgiving celebrations as well, yet few of us have a deep connection…
Read MoreNear Breton
Far Breton Recipe and photo by Debbra Mikaelsen Although there is often a stack of cookbooks on my nightstand for bedtime reading, much of my food curiosity comes from fiction. I first heard of Far Breton when a character in Kate Atkinson’s latest novel fondly recalled the dish. A Google search led to David Lebovitz’s…
Read MoreWitty Tunes for Foodie Families
Songs about liver, ten thousand pancakes, and eating worms? Absolutely! These are just a few of the topics Gunnar Madsen covers in his 2018 Parents’ Choice Awards Gold Medal–winning CD, I Am Your Food. Kids and kids-at-heart will appreciate the singer-songwriter’s charming, catchy tunes and clever, sometimes poetic, lyrics. Chew on this: “Liver, it’s the…
Read MoreSmall Press, Big Pig, Clever Hen
In the world of book publishing, small presses can introduce and take chances on new authors. They can publish smaller runs of books that may not, at least at first, draw a large audience, as well as shorter books that experiment with form and offer content that might be viewed risky by larger publishing houses.…
Read MoreLess Plastic, More Beeswax
Story by Rachel Trachten Lily Rockholt demonstrates melting the beeswax by ironing. The cloth is ready to use after ironing and cooling. “Use less plastic” was the rallying cry for those attending the Ecology Center’s workshop on making a beeswax-cloth food wrap. Lily Rockholt, the Ecology Center’s events coordinator, led a group through…
Read MoreWhat’s in Season?
Produce harvested at its peak is your sure bet for flavor and freshness. By Barbara Kobsar | Illustration by Charmaine Koehler-Lodge November Root vegetables like beets, parsnips, turnips, horseradish, daikon, radishes, and potatoes are the market stars this month. So are sweet potatoes, which come in two main types: The golden-skinned, pale-fleshed varieties tend to…
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