Like many modern friendships that are born in our era of social networking, I first "met" Ezra Caldwell online in 2006. I discovered his Flickr account through mutual contacts and was drawn to his extraordinary images of dancers, his beautiful wife Hillary and photogenic pooch Putney. We also happen share a deep devotion to bicycles and food, and he regularly chronicled his endeavors in frame building and cooking.

Ezra shared his thoughts with me about cooking via email: "I think it's important that people eat at home a certain amount of the time. For us it's pretty much every night. We eat out about once every three weeks. There's something about the time spent in the kitchen in the evening that is a real relaxer for me. A meditation. I often drag out food preparation just because I enjoy that time of day."

While I had lived in Ezra's hometown of New York City for 13 years, it wasn't until I moved all the way across the country to San Francisco that I finally met Ezra in real life. In the spring of 2007, he and another Flickr friend, Yohei Morita, embarked on a trip throughout the U.S. to share bicycle adventures and meet other Flickr comrades. They met me and a mutual Flickr friend, Judah, during their visit to the Bay Area.

And like many modern time-pressed friendships, we stayed in touch in the virtual realm. And so it was through Flickr that I learned in August of 2008, Ezra was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. In true Ezra fashion, who has never shied away from baring it all, he started a blog, "Teaching Cancer to Cry," as a "a way to keep people up-to-date as treatment progresses, and a way for me to look back when all this is over and reminisce."

Six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments began. Ezra wrote about the tough days, yet still managed to make us laugh, too. He even got married along the way.

When he went into remission, he started posting recipes for spinach salad, sudado de pescado, and stewed chicken with olives. His lush images of his elaborate meals mirrored his renewed energy.

Then in September of 2010, the cancer returned. He resumed his documentation of the grim realities of his second round with the disease.

Through all of this, Ezra still found time and the desire to cook.

"Over the last bunch of months, I was really laid low. I was in a lot of pain, a lot of the time. Having to take pain killers. Spending a lot of time in bed. Happily, though, this time around we found an anti-emetic (anti-nausea) drug that worked! So for most of the winter I would just save up my energy during the day to be able to get out of bed and cook some evening. It meant a lot to me to be able to continue to contribute to the household. I've always done nearly all the cooking, and didn't want treatment to interrupt that. Just about everything else went on the back burner."

Cooking also ignited yet another creative project.

"I started making videos, partly because I was getting back into making video and needed a subject, and here was this thing that I was doing every day anyway! I like to encourage people to cook. I think it's a little strange when people don't know how, or believe they can't. Cooking is easy! It's not hard to make yourself really good food.

So I started putting instructions for cooking on the blog, and later the videos with the instructions. I think it's sort of a great way to learn. See something done REALLY fast, and then read some instructions for it. You've still got an image in your head of what it looked like, and the instructions can be pretty bare bones.

I don't like the word "recipe." I feel as though there's an implication with "recipes" that makes people believe that there's a RIGHT way to cook a certain dish. That sort of takes the fun out of it. Instead I try to write instructions for dishes that maybe include some useful technique, like braising, or using an ice bath, that people will be able to include in their arsenal of approaches in the future. I love it when people write to me and say, "I tried that dish, but I changed it in this way and that, and it came out great!" Aha...you've been bitten."

Here's his artful visual rendition of "Braised Lamb Shanks" that will make your mouth water.

Braised Lamb Shanks from Fast Boy.

You can find his complete archive of instructions and food videos on his blog. He's since finished up his latest round of treatment and recently prepared a sumptuous lobster dinner with a friend who's battling breast cancer. May the cooking and celebrations continue for a long, long time.

Oh, the joys of a summer picnic in San Francisco! The five o'clock winds whirling away the paper napkins, leather-jacketed guests huddled around the grill for warmth, tippy paper plates piled with rapidly cooling veggie dogs...need I go on?

If you've lived in San Francisco through more than one ostensible summer—those months between Memorial Day and Labor Day when Walnut Creek swelters while we shiver—you've been to a picnic like this, in Golden Gate Park or in an Inner Richmond backyard, where the hosts have high hopes that end with everyone back inside, squeezed into the kitchen drinking Trumer Pils by the stove.

Still, it's not always like that. There are always a few blissful 80+ degree days, where Dolores Park becomes a shirtless, sundressed parking lot and even Baker Beach is warm enough to lure full-body sunseekers to its clothing-optional end. Or there's a speedy BART ride to that place across the bridge called the East Bay, with its sunny skies, warmer temps, and many, many parks, where most of your home-buying friends live now, anyway. And away from the ocean, the inner reaches of Marin, along with Napa and Sonoma, offer reliably toasty summer weather.

So, no excuse not to pack up the picnic basket this weekend. Picnics and barbecues, by their nature, are expandable, pot-lucky affairs. Some hosts do their duty by laying out chips, guacamole, baby carrots and beer, leaving it up to the guests to bring their own sausages, steaks, or salmon for the grill—a recession-wise move when local wild salmon runs $20/lb or more. Jealously guarding your own little slab of protein from the grazing hordes can feel a little greedy, but hopefully, some generous soul will have had the foresight to throw down a few extra sausages, skewers, or veggie burgers for their six-pack-toting friends who forgot to hit Bi-Rite on the way.

Tables are inevitably cluttered with salads and dips, plastic tubs or bowls of thrown-together, easily-transportable stuff that no one really loves but everyone eats: potato salads, pasta salads, hummus, salsa, quinoa-and-bean things. Personally, I've received modest but heartfelt acclaim over the years for my potato salad, which is neither truffled or lobstered, but simply made from scratch rather than being bought by the pound at Safeway.

The trick to good potato salad is a two-step dressing process, and most importantly, making it the day before. Potatoes are stolid things, and they need some time to jazz themselves up. Sitting on BART for 30 minutes nestled up against a cold pack won't do it. Give your potatoes a full 24 hours in the fridge to soak up their dressing, and you'll have something worth eating. Otherwise, you'll have OK salad followed by really spectacular leftovers.

The method is more important than the exact measurements, which will vary depending on your taste and how many potatoes you have lying around. Waxy potatoes, like the commonly found round, red-skinned ones, will give you a neater salad, since they tend to keep their shape better when boiled. Once your potatoes are boiled tender (but before they start collapsing and exploding), drain them and let them cool just to the point where you can handle them without burning your fingers. Peel and cut into just-a-little-bigger-than-bite-size chunks. Toss with some minced shallot, a bit of freshly minced garlic, a generous dose of white-wine or rice vinegar, and plenty of salt and pepper. Turn them around in this; they should be well moistened but not sitting in a puddle. Cover and put this away at room temperature for an hour or two, or in the fridge if you need to leave it longer than that.

Once your potatoes have soaked up a little tang, you can decide which way you want the dressing to go: a mustardy, olive oil-based vinaigrette, with the crunch of whole-grain mustard and perhaps a little diced red onion for color, or the all-American mayonnaise-y way, with lots of good mayonnaise whisked with a little milk or sour cream to lighten it, plus a dab of mustard and a good squirt of fresh lemon juice, tossed with the potatoes to coat with some finely chopped celery and scallion. Whichever you choose, toss it well and put it back into the fridge to mellow. Taste for seasoning before serving; potatoes can usually stand a lot of salt and pepper, and the French-style salad always benefits from a generous handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley thrown in at the very end.

Then there are deviled eggs, which everyone loves but not enough people make. The reason? Most likely, the unhappy memory of trying to transport a plateful of the slippery little devils on the N-Judah, arriving with all the tasty yellow filling smooshed into the plastic wrap. For the classic cut-in-half eggs filled with a swirl in the shape of fancy cake icing, you really need one of those made-for-the-purpose plates dimpled with little egg-shaped indentations. Which you'll use maybe 3 times a year, which is why so few of us have them.

Not to worry, though. There's another way to make deviled eggs that neatly sidesteps the need for specialty plateware. So, boil your eggs the way you do, keeping in mind, my chicken-keeping friends, that backyard-fresh eggs will be much harder to peel, leaving you with something like a pock-marked chunk of moon rock. It will be much easier to separate white from shell if you use a stash that's been waiting in the fridge for a week.

Anyway, peel your eggs. Now, standing the egg upright on its narrower end, slice a little bit off its round bottom, so it has a nice flat surface to sit on. Now slice off the top, about a third of the way down. Scoop or pop out the yolk, and drop it into a bowl. (Generally, as an egg ages, its yolk sinks closer to the wider end.)

Once your whites de-yolked, consider your flavorings. Everyone loves a plain deviled egg, the yolks mixed up with mayo, a pinch of dry mustard, a wee bit of paprika, perhaps a drop or two of lemon juice. Which means, of course, that you probably can't wait to mix it up and put in curry or wasabi or smoked paprika. All of which are fine, as long as you don't go nuts and overwhelm the nice rich egginess of the basic product.

Lately, I've become particularly enamored of deviled eggs sassed up with the salty, umami-laden punch of anchovy. Spanish boquerones, marinated white anchovies, are expensive and gorgeous, but whole salt-packed regular ones work quite well, too. (Fancy Italian delis often have a large open can of the salt-packed ones around, and will scoop out as many as you need. Rinse off the extra salt before using; some soaking may necessary if they still seem excessively salty.) There's also the funkier, fishier canned versions, as well as anchovy paste in a tube.

Anyway, as in Caesar salad, the anchovy is just there to enhance the final product and give it that more-ish edge, not to scream ANCHOVY ANCHOVY ANCHOVY!!! So, mash your little fishy in, just a bit more than you think you should use, forking it together with your cooked egg yolks into a crumbly paste. Moisten with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a glug of olive oil, and enough mayonnaise to bind it. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

If you have a pastry bag, pop in the tip of your choice (use one with a wide opening), and scoop your egg filling into the bag. (You can also use a small resealable plastic bag, scooping in the filling, pushing it into one corner, then snipping off the point of that corner with a pair of scissors. Voila! Instant pastry bag.) Twist the top shut and start shooting the rows of hard-boiled whites full of your deviled-egg mixture. (You'll get the most impressive results if you do this on site, rather than trying to travel with them once they're finished.) Keep chilled until ready to serve.

Arnold Eric Wong is the Executive Chef of E&O Trading Company and is that rare born and bred San Francisco native. His style of modern "East-meets-West" Asian cuisine has evolved over nearly twenty years or professional cooking experience. The California Culinary Academy alum has worked the stoves at Bacar, EOS Restaurant and Wine Bar (Wong’s first restaurant), Cafe Kati, Masa's, and as an opening pastry chef position at Silk's in the Mandarin Hotel, where he started his career. E&O's seasonal contemporary Asian menu has garnered the chef media accolades from the San Francisco Chronicle, and View from the Bay (with dumpling recipe). Wong was a "Rising Star Chef's of the Year under 30" by the San Francisco Chronicle, and said he lives with his wife Amy and son Aidan "in Cole Valley, adjacent to the Haight-Ashbury and Ashbury heights. But when I was born and raised here, it was all just the Haight." Wong shared his food and restaurant favorites with Bay Area Bites, with an assist from Amy.

Food Shopping Favorites
Well, can't wait until the weather warms up as I always go to the farmers markets, whether at the Ferry Building or the local neighborhood ones, either in the Castro or Haight. I try to take my family along. We have a 3-year-old that simply loves it every time and if there’s music, well then he’s got fruit in his hands dancing to the music. We also like to go to Berkeley Bowl. On one of my first dates with my wife, we spent three hours there just browsing the aisles and shopping for dinner.

Our daily go-to places are Whole Foods, Rainbow Grocery and Real Foods on Stanyan Street for their hand-selected produce.

If it's ethnic foods, I bounce between Sunset Super Market in the Sunset District and New May Wah Market in the Richmond. At either of those places you can find any Asian ingredient you'll ever need. For produce, I'll only buy it if it's something that only grows in Asia and there are no substitutes, everything else tends never to be organic or pesticide free. I'm always on the look out for fresh live spot prawns, Dungeness crabs and lobsters.

But, I do have to confess as a chef... I have the privilege of being able to shop directly from some of the purveyors that I have used in my restaurants over the years. So for meats, I go to Golden Gate Meats and Costarella Seafood. They also have a retail store in the Ferry Building.

Hidden Gems
I like to shop for food on Clement Street in the Richmond district, Wing Lee or Clement BBQ for their roasted duck. Luckily fast food chains haven’t figured out to put duck onto their menus yet and duck farming hasn’t gone the way of the scary chicken industry. I’ll get a 1/2 or whole duck, take it home, debone the meat and make a simple soup stock from the bones and add everything from fresh noodles to veggies.

Off-night Food & Drink Spots
Range is great, belly up to the bar for a great last minute late night (9, 10, 11 depending on what night) cocktail and either an appetizer or dessert.

Magnolia in my hood has a great selection of beers made on premise. They have great “gastro” pub food too including fried pig ears and beer. It’s a perfect spot because we can stumble home, too ;)

Guiltiest food pleasure?
• Late-night 4 chorizo soft tacos at El Farolito on Mission & 24th
• Another late night snack... Fork in the Road Hot Dog, Kim Chee and American cheese rolled up in a corn tortilla
• Root & Crème Fraiche Ice Cream

How did you two meet?
I have a very simple "manswer" (man answer). We met in 2004 at Bacar in the midst of my running it. But, if you would indulge me, I’ll let her give the proper answer. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Amy ….
I worked in Silicon Valley tech and so worked from home (Lake Merritt) almost everyday and so Friday happy hour started at 3pm -- at Bacar -- literally a 10 min drive from my home. It was my absolute favorite place, not only for the incredible wine list and phenomenal menu, but because I was treated like royalty. I thought it was because everyone just liked me but, no ... Little did I know (and for many months) ‘Mr. big boss man’ had a HUGE crush on me and so that tickled the entire staff to know that the incredibly serious and focused owner got giddy when I showed up. Long story short, he got one of the managers to invite me (and yes! bring my friends) to his big bacar/eos staff labor day party at his house. I showed up with the guy I was dating. My date proceeded to get drunk and tell everyone he was going to marry me and the staff now confesses that that they simply chuckled, thinking, “Yeah right buddy, you’re in the lion’s den now.” One of his employees, Cheryl, and I sat in the kitchen over a bottle of wine and became new best friends. She convinced me to let her take me out for my birthday which was the next month and of course, being in cahoots with Arnold, she had arranged it at EOS. Meanwhile, I’m COMPLETELY clueless, I show up at EOS on the designated date -- champagne is waiting on the table for us, appetizers, you name it. I seriously thought that this crowd I was getting to know couldn’t be nicer. Um, naive?? So Arnold joined us after our dinner and the three of us stayed there until 3 in the morning! It wasn’t until near the end of the night when he left the table (probably to get another bottle of wine) that Cheryl said, “You DO know he likes you, right?” And then everything came together in a flash and, “ahhhhhh, ohhhhh, now I get it!!” And then “ohhhh, huh, he is really good looking!” And that’s how it started. He swears that he ended up asking me out on our first date (for that Friday) but that’s not true, I was the one who initiated it. That birthday dinner at EOS was on a Monday, our first date was that Friday -- four restaurants in one evening. We had met our matches. Four months later we were engaged. His take: he KNEW that I was his wife the moment he laid eyes on me at Bacar. My take: he saw the bill I would rack up every time I was in Bacar. :)

Any other news?

I am thinking about expanding my restaurant consulting business, possibly starting a food-lifestyle blog and threatening a new restaurant (in the perfect storm).
Wong said he’s "Ready for my 15 minutes of fame."

Jaan J. tie, Stella McCartney belt, Cri de Coeur boots, Vaute Couture coat, and olsenHaus shoes

One of my earliest memories is of my dad showing me an ant on the ground and explaining to me that we do not step on them because, however small in size, the ant's life is just as valuable as ours. That sense of compassion has stuck with me always and my love for all animals became the foundation for becoming a vegan years later. It was such a perfect move that when I made the transition it felt like coming home.

It is that feeling of compassion for all creatures that leads ethical vegans (my guess: the majority of vegans), to extend a cruelty-free lifestyle beyond food. Our compassion for animals and the planet affects what we buy when it comes to everything from body products to furniture to cleaning products to bedding to car interiors. And of course, it affects the clothing we wear. It would be hypocritical for us to avoid meat and then buy a leather belt. Vegans don’t just avoid fur—we also avoid leather, silk, wool, cashmere, down, alpaca, angora, and, well, anything that comes from an animal—including, when possible, animal-derived glue used in shoe manufacturing.

I haven’t always been a vegan, but I have always felt deeply empathic and connected with non-human animals—especially because they cannot speak for themselves. This connection, combined with my inclination towards creative endeavors and my love of fashion, led me to focus on researching not only the best vegan foods, but the best vegan clothing as well. Out of this inquiry emerged the creation of my own vegan fashion curation blog, plantmade.

There is something exciting happening in the vegan world right now where young designers are creating incredibly innovative ways to produce shoes, handbags, belts, coats, ties—you name it—with materials that are animal and planet-friendly. And vegan fashion-conscious individuals are also hitting the blogging world, as evidence by sites like Animal Friendly.Me, The Ethical Man, and The Discerning Brute, covering everything from the their top ethical picks from this season's collections to the recent Farm Sanctuary 25th Anniversary Gala in New York. They are mending the disconnect mainstream society harbors with regard to what they consume—whether it be a hamburger or a silk blouse.

While what’s best for our planet is to stop consuming at the rate we are, we can’t avoid the fact that people still want to buy a new pair of shoes once in a while.The key is to invest in quality pieces that you truly love and plan to keep for a long time made from materials that cause the least amount of harm to animals and the environment. If you do some research (through places like Global Action Network, PETA, Veg for Life, Farm Sanctuary, or vegan designers like olsenHaus) it can make all the difference. It is through this research that you will learn that sheep go through a cruel practice called mulesing and later get sent to slaughter (if they haven’t died from infection or heat stroke by then). Cashmere goats get castrated, notched, and dehorned without anesthesia and killed by age two if their coats are not perfect (50-80%), then sold for slaughter after shearing. Silk worms are boiled alive. Down "production," where birds are plucked alive or scalded in boiling water while still conscious, supports the foie gras industry. And of course, the leather industry is directly linked to the meat industry, whether it be represented in that calf-skin (veal) handbag, shearling (lamb skin and fur) boots, or in those kidskin (baby goat) gloves. And this is all just scratching the surface. The lesson here is that everything is connected and vegans don't like to turn a blind eye to that fact.

Luckily, more and more attention is being paid to conscious fashion and more and more small companies are popping up everywhere and growing. Footwear companies like olsenHaus (now sold at Nordstrom!), Cri de Coeur, Neuaura, and Melissa focus on vegan footwear. Stella McCartney avoids leather in her designs, so all of her shoes, belts, and handbags are vegan (but she does use silk, wool, and cashmere in her clothing). Melie Bianco, Matt & Nat, and Gunas are vegan “leather” accessory companies. Vegan coats can be found at Vaute Couture. Jann J. makes great silk-free ties. And of course, many designers who are not vegan, happen to create “accidentally vegan” pieces (like Marc Jacobs’s fabric bags or Givenchy’s jelly sandal). In that case a vegan needs to make the decision of whether they want to support a company that produces non-vegan pieces despite the availability of vegan ones. If the preference is to stick with only eco-conscious labels, check out any of the designers featured at Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week. Fashion is becoming such a focus in the vegan community that the first annual Vida Vegan Con international blogging conference in Portland this August features a vegan fashion workshop.

It can, however, be pretty challenging to find quality sweaters, scarves, and hats that are not cashmere or wool, and it can be even harder to find blouses and dresses (especially wedding dresses!) that are not silk. But they are out there. (Check out The Cotton Bride and Lindee Daniel.)

With yarn being made out of bamboo, soy, hemp, lyocell, and ramie, cotton and linen (made from flax) are no longer the only plant-based options for knits. Bamboo is incredibly soft, durable, and even antibacterial. Soy is smooth like silk and drapey, with a similar feel as cashmere. Hemp functions much like linen. Lyocell, made from cellulose fibers, is better known as Tencel or modal. Ramie, made from a flowering plant in the nettle family, adds luster to any fabric with which it's blended. Of course, it is advisable to look for organic when possible to avoid the chemicals used in the production of the textiles, both for environmental and health reasons. For more info, TreeWool is a great vegan blog that posts information on the world of vegan knitwear.

polylactic acid dress, DyeCat-dyed fibers, kombucha-bacteria-grown cellulose "leather" jacket

And then there are truly experimental materials out there that show how turning to plants that we normally associate with food can lead us to innovation in the apparel design world.

Suzanne Lee at Central Saint Martins in London is developing cellulose “leather.” Her “Bio-Couture” project uses bacterial cultures in kombucha tea to grow what resembles transluscent leather. Check out a video on her work on The Discerning Brute.

Compostable “Ingeo,” a plastic called polylactic acid (PLA) that’s similar to polyester is manufactured from plants such as corn, wheat, sugar beet, mollases, sugar cane, or rice. Not only does Ingeo not use oil or take centuries to degrade, it can also use up waste from our landfills. And, of course, it makes a fabulous wedding gown as well.

DyeCat is a company that created a way to “dye” polyester or PLA as the fibers are produced, eliminating the need for dyeing in water afterwards, a practice that has lead to dumping of chemicals into bodies of water, causing massive environmental damage and health hazards for workers.

If some of these options seem too expensive and/or out-of-reach, fear not and keep in mind that doing the best you can is better than doing nothing and you can always aspire to do more. The key is to buy products made from plants whenever possible (organic being ideal) and to stop adding to the consumerism cycle. Shop vintage. Buy kapok instead of down. Avoid PVC. If not made of plants, buy recyclable materials, then actually recycle them. Compost fabric. Donate clothing. Support small-scale designers. Educate yourself.

The whole point of being a vegan is to do as little harm as possible. And I’m sure that, no matter what we each ate for dinner last night, we can all agree that that’s not a bad idea.

With Memorial Day just around the corner, it's time to talk about burgers (again). Yes, I know I just wrote about all-beef patties, but you don't need meat to make a tasty burger. Veggie burgers can be just as delicious as their beef counterparts, and healthier too.

Now when I say veggie burgers, I do not mean garden burgers. Just like any mass-produced food, frozen garden burgers are a quick commercially-made alternative to a true veggie burger. Making homemade vegetarian burgers is not much more difficult than preparing beef burgers (especially if you have a food processor) and you can modify the recipe for your own tastes and preferences. Plus they aren't full of sodium (unlike the frozen varieties).

There are numerous ways to make veggie burgers. Whether using mushrooms, vegetables, tofu or beans as a base, each recipe has something different to offer. I like making my burgers with beans because the texture, when pulsed in a food processor, is really perfect for shaping into patties. I also just like the flavor of beans. Other ingredients I tend to use are walnuts (which provide both substance and flavor), spinach (which helps bind the burger), carrots and onions. You'll also need to mix in a dry ingredient or the burger will disintegrate into the pan when you try to fry it (trust me on this as I've had it happen). The good news is that you can really use whatever you'd like, from bread crumbs to oatmeal, rice, bulgur or couscous (which is what I used when preparing the recipe below this week as I had some leftover from dinner the night before).

Seasonings are really whatever you want. If using black beans, try a tsp of cumin and 1/2 cup cilantro. If you want something with an Italian flavor, use cannellini beans and then add in some sun dried tomatoes and basil. Other flavorings could be chili powder, turmeric, curry powder, ginger, soy sauce or a variety of herbs. It's your burger, so mix in whatever sounds good.

Keep in mind that veggie burgers need to be cooked and prepared a little differently than meat burgers. Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind:
• Don't over process the ingredients or else the burger will fall apart
• Cook in a nonstick pan (I use my cast-iron pans)
• Fry your burgers in a little bit of oil
• Handle your burgers carefully as veggie burgers are more fragile than meat burgers and tend to fall apart
• Chill your burgers before cooking (if time allows) as they will maintain their shape better
• Start off cooking in a hot skillet and then reduce the heat
• If you accidentally over process the beans, just add more dry ingredients
• Taste the bean mixture before adding the egg so you can determine if you have seasoned everything to your liking

Following is my bean burger recipe along with some links to other types of veggie burgers that you may find interesting. Some are vegan, some vegetarian and all worth considering.

Recipe: Vegetarian Bean Burgers

Summary: You can use whatever type of bean you'd like in this recipe. I often prepare it with lentils or kidney beans, but black beans, pintos, garbanzos or cannellinis would also be fine. And although I use canned beans in the recipe, you can use home cooked if you have them around.

Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 burgers

This recipe also uses an egg to help bind the mixture into patties. I've never made it without the egg, but I hear you can substitute a 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes if you want to keep it vegan. You can also leave out the nuts if you're not a fan or are allergic. They are optional.

Ingredients

• 1 14 oz can beans (kidney, lentil, garbanzo, cannellini, black or pinto)
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 carrot diced
• 1/4 onion diced
• 1 handful spinach
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce*
• 1 tsp Dijon or brown mustard

1 egg

• 1 cup dry ingredients (fresh bread crumbs, bulgur, brown rice, oatmeal or couscous)
• Salt and pepper to taste (taste before you put in the egg)
• Olive or vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

1. Dump the beans, onions, walnuts, carrots, spinach, Worcestershire sauce and mustard into your food processor and pulse 6 times.



2. Taste mixture and add salt and pepper (and any other seasonings you want) to taste.
3. Add in the egg and pulse another one or two times, making sure not to over puree, and then place everything in a big bowl.



4. Mix in your dry ingredients and then carefully shape into patties using wet hands (so the mixture doesn't stick to your fingers). Refrigerate for 10 minutes if you have time.
5. Heat your pan (I prefer my cast iron for this job) to medium high and then add in enough oil to coat the bottom of the entire pan. Set your burgers into the pan and cook uncovered until the bottom is nicely browned. Lower the heat to medium and then gently flip your burgers. Cover the pan and cook for about five minutes.
6. Check your burgers to see if they're done. Flip again (gently or else they'll fall apart) if they need to cook further. If you're adding cheese, this is the time to do it.
7. Remove burgers, set on a bun, add whatever toppings you like and dig in.

*Apparently Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies (who knew?) so if you'd like to keep this vegetarian or vegan, you can substitute soy sauce.

Other Veggie Burgers That Look Good

Here's a list of recipes for veggie burgers that I haven't yet tried, but plan on preparing in the future.

• Moosewood's Mushroom Pecan Burgers from the venerable and reliable Moosewood Restaurant
• Summer Veggie Burger Made to Order by Mark Bittman
• The Simplest Bean Burgers from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything
• Tofu Burgers by 101 Cookbooks
• Cracked Wheat Burgers with Pickled Onions and Lime Slather from Better Homes and Gardens
• Greek Spinach Veggie Burgers from Better Homes and Gardens
• Bean Burgers from Alison Holst from Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Life
• Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger from Meatless Monday
• Mushroom Burgers With Almonds and Spinach from the New York Times Recipes for Health
• White Bean Burgers from the New York Times Recipes for Health

Street food fans in the East Bay have looked longingly across the bridge (and sometimes even crossed it) at the thriving food truck scene now serving six San Francisco locations, thanks to Off the Grid, the weekly mobile food meet ups conceived by Matt Cohen. (See this previous BAB story on the evolution of Off the Grid.)

Now comes news that starting in June, Berkeley and Oakland residents hungry for their own pavement cuisine parties will have similar events tailored to the flavor of their respective communities.

In Berkeley, Off the Grid is partnering with the North Shattuck Association, a merchants group, to launch its first franchise outside SF. The event is slated to start June 1, permit approval pending, in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, which has a long history as the epicenter of a delicious revolution but could use some fresh culinary blood to draw a younger crowd. Eight mobile food folks will sell their street eats at the intersection of Shattuck and Rose; core vendors dishing up chow each week include Liba (falafel with a twist), Hapa SF (mod Filipino grub), The Taco Guys (self explanatory), and Cupkates (ditto). In the mix the first night as part of a regularly rotating trio: Skylight Snowballs (sweet, slushy treats), 510 Burger, and Fins on the Hoof (surf and turf).

When word first got out on the local site Berkeleyside revealing which street vendors were planning to set up shop in this town, more than a thousand (presumably) local residents responded with a thumbs up on Facebook and the news generated the most cohesive comment thread in, perhaps, that site's short life. (Berkeley residents are known for their strong, frequently differing, opinions. This writer knows because -- full disclosure -- she pens a Friday food post on Berkeleyside.)

No prize for guessing that Berkeley's Off the Grid will feature local, sustainable, and, as much as possible, organic food, in keeping with this city's prevailing food philosophy. No high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified corn, or factory-farmed meat from these roaming restaurants, which use recyclable and compostable materials to deliver their dishes. In addition, one truck (courtesy of Cohen) will serve as a venue to showcase the culinary creations of chefs from the immediate area. First up: Peter Levitt, co-owner of Saul's deli.

The event, slated to be held on Wednesdays in a space already reserved for farmers' market vendors on Thursdays, marks something of a turnaround in this town, which in the past has not been particularly food truck-friendly. Heather Hensley, executive director of the North Shattuck Association, who submitted a proposal to the city in conjunction with Off the Grid, emphasized the controlled event environment (and local merchant approval) as key to getting the city on board, a sentiment echoed by Dave Fogerty from Berkeley's Office of Economic Development.

Hensley sees cross-promotional opportunities for local venues -- including music at nearby Cheese Board Pizzeria and Mint Leaf and drink specials (no alcohol is allowed at Berkeley's Off the Grid event) at participating restaurants. Cohen, who says he's exploring expanding into other East Bay locations, stresses that Off the Grid strives to preserve and build community, while offering affordable, creative, and ethnically-diverse street eats.

Most brick-and-mortar businesses are on board. "Why wouldn't I want a thousand or so people walking past Saul's?" asks co-owner Levitt, whose restrooms will be available for public use during the event, as they are during farmers' market hours (the restaurant is paid for providing such services). "Some of those people may stop in for a beer or come in for some food, either that night or in the future. It's a win-win for me. Unless, of course, Off the Grid starts selling matzo balls." Levitt knows that's not going to happen, since he's involved in helping shape the event so it complements food options already on offer in the area.

Even Pat Powell, who runs the cupcake shop Love at First Bite, doesn't see the weekly presence of CupKates as competition, although her business is open until 6p.m., an hour after Off the Grid starts. "Any event that brings people into the neighborhood is a positive thing in my mind," she says.

But Gregoire Jacquet, who runs Gregoire, named one of the top takeout spots in the Bay Area by San Francisco magazine, is more wary of the new event. "It will bring people into the neighborhood, but they're coming to eat the street food," Jacquet says. Still, he thinks it's worth giving it a go, though he would have preferred a monthly, not weekly, model. "If it works out well for everyone then it should keep going but if it negatively impacts existing food businesses then we should shut it down," adds Jacquet, who notes that it goes against the Buy Local Berkeley campaign, since most of the trucks hail from outside the area.

For their part, street truck purveyors such as Gail Lillian of Liba are delighted to have another venue (in her case close to home and her commercial kitchen) to provide the public gourmet meals on wheels.

Over in Oakland, Bites on Broadway kicks off on Friday, June 10 on the plaza in front of Oakland Technical High School. The food pod party is the brainchild of longtime East Bay events organizer Karen Hester (Temescal and Rockridge street fairs) and food truck owner and advocate Elizabeth August of Guerrilla Grub, which cooks up healthy comfort food. August is a member of Oakland Food Policy Council's mobile food vendors task force and recently formed the Oakland Food Truck Collective.

Most of the vendors at this new location, held on private property, thus bypassing city rules that prohibit mobile food carts from gathering in public places other than the Fruitvale, (though the city is currently reviewing its mobile food codes), are Oakland based. The menu includes a rotating band of pavement cuisine peddlers, including Fist of Flour (wood-fired pizza), Vesta Flatbread (Mediterranean-inspired sandwiches), Boffo Cart (panini, calzones, and such), Guerrilla Grub, Go Streatery (urban peasant food like crispy fava bean crepe) and the peddle-powered El Taco Bike. August, who organizes a mobile food contingent for Oakland's monthly Art Murmur, sees the event as an opportunity to showcase homegrown street food talent.

The family-friendly night, which includes live music and lawn games, has been embraced by the school's PTA, which hopes that down the road food trucks might offer students at Oakland Tech, an open campus, an affordable, healthy alternative to the nearby fast food joints currently frequented by students, says Hester. "We purposefully picked this stretch of Broadway, which is pretty bleak and doesn't have any brick-and-mortar restaurants in the vicinity," she adds. "It's a blighted neighborhood and we'd like to help revitalize this boulevard, which is the gateway to downtown Oakland."

Off The Grid's Cohen is considering sites in other Berkeley and Oakland locations where local stakeholders want to partner with his organization. While Hester thinks there's room for more food hub happenings, she'd prefer to see them powered by people from the immediate community.

"Bites on Broadway grew organically, out of something that is already happening in Oakland, so it's authentic. There's a lot of Oakland pride here. I'd like to see similar community-driven pods pop up in other neighborhoods."

Time will tell if there's a big enough appetite in the East Bay to sustain these recurring street food events. But if the number of new mobile food trucks buzzing around the Bay Area is any indication, residents are ravenous for mobile food fare.

Details:

Off The Grid
Address: Map
Corner Shattuck and Rose in North Berkeley
Wednesdays, 5 p.m-9 p.m.
Starts June 1

Bites on Broadway
Address: Map
Oakland Tech
45th and Broadway
Fridays, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Runs June 10-October 21

As I'm a big fan of the burgeoning Mexican food empire of Thomas Schnetz and Donna Savitsky (Flora, Tacubaya and Doña Tomás), when news that another restaurant had been added to their East Bay family last month--Xolo Taqueria--I was drooling with anticipation just like their canine logo.

I invited a group of fellow foodie friends to join me after work one day to check out their latest venture located in Oakland's Uptown District. Xolo offers a simpler and more budget-conscious menu than its sister restaurants (all items are under $10) and includes burritos, tacos, salads and sides, with a special goat stew, or birria, served up on weekends.

Seating our large group of seven was a bit of a challenge, but we put together two tables in the small outdoor courtyard located in the back of the restaurant. There's plenty of room for smaller parties in the bright blue interior space that has two floors of seating.

We ordered an array of dishes to sample: camarones tacos with battered-fried shrimp, arbol aioli, cilantro, cabbage and lime; hongos tacos with crimini mushrooms, cheese, tomatillo-arbol salsa, pico de gallo, avocado, epazote; and a vampiro al pastor pork taco with salsa ranchera, red onions, serranos, cilantro served up on a fried cheese tortilla for an extra decadent touch. There's also tacos made with grilled achiote-marinated chicken thighs, chile verde pork, and shredded beef to choose from.

I decided to go big and opted for the "big ranch" burrito which was stuffed with al pastor pork, pintos, cheese, tomatillo arbol chile salsa, pico de gallo, and avocado. The tender pork was cooked to perfection and the ingredients melded together perfectly for a rich, savory dish that, true to its name, was big on flavor.

After wolfing down our first round of food, we were ready for round two: the "danger dog," a nod to the bacon-wrapped hot dogs sold by street vendors in the Mission. Their bacon-wrapped version was dressed with mayonnaise, mustard, pinto beans, cheese, pickled jalapenos, avocado on a fluffy bolillo roll. As Xolo is open until 11pm on weeknights and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, I can imagine this being a favorite with late-night crowds.

We certainly didn't leave any room in our bellies for dessert. The mini-doughnuts, or churritos, were definitely a temptation, as well as the Mexican chocolate brownies. And there's a number of other alluring items we didn't get to try, such as the posole, or hominy soup, chile rellenos, or the machaca burrito made with slow-cooked shredded beef. I suspect round three is not too far off in my future.

Xolo Taqueria
Address: Map
1916 Telegraph Ave
(between 19th & William Streets)
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 986-0151
Hours: Mon-Thu: 11am-11pm, Fri & Sat: 11am-midnight, closed Sun

Molly de Vries has a very special Bay Area company, Ambatalia. The name is actually born from a Trinidad song about empowering women and nurturing the earth and Molly couldn't be a better living and breathing representation of the namesake of her company or her mission for the work she does. I first met Molly at the Marin Country Mart Farmers Market. She has a booth right next to my Marge booth and we spend many a Saturday chit-chatting and catching up with each others' lives. But the first time I really began to understand what Molly was aiming to do with Ambatalia was the day she turned down a slice of pie I offered her because it was in a clamshell container. Oh no, I assured her, it's corn-based -- not plastic. That helped. But Molly routinely and deliberately eschews any containers or packaging for a simpler way of carrying and transporting goods -- whether that be a cinnamon roll in the morning or how she brings her goods to the farmers market each morning. She's the real deal. I decided to take some time away from the market to talk to Molly about how she began and what her intentions are for her burgeoning business. I couldn't have been more inspired.

Tell me a little about your business and how/why you decided to start it.
I had closed my downtown Mill Valley fabric shop in 2004 and Tyler Florence approached me to do a kitchen line for his store. I had always created goods in and around the kitchen and the act of shopping but this really pushed me to focus on my passion for useful, sustainable textiles. After being a hairdresser for twenty years, I wanted to do something meaningful and after a year of focusing on what that would look like, when I turned forty, I started to put together clues from my life and Ambatalia was born.

I wanted to do handmade goods with integrity and beauty have a real sense of honor in my work -- the opposite of all the mass-produced plastic stuff floating around. When I walked into Joanne fabrics or other large chains, I'd just see yards and yards of plastic fleece but no wool. This seemed crazy to me. So my goal really became buying fabrics with the most integrity. the closest in distance, and as sustainable as possible.

Your business is decidedly centered around food: the serving of it, the presentation of it, the transportation of it. How did you come around to food?
Well, food and textiles have so much in common, at least in my mind. There's an obvious link in the way in which we honor our food with beautiful cloth on our table and in our kitchen, but more importantly, the people making the cloth have a direct impact on us as individuals and families. The people that are making our clothes across the globe have faces and families. So often these days, we don't take a moment to think about them, we just want a good price. And I walk down the aisles of stores and restaurants and see all of the plastic packaging, especially in the food industry, and puzzle over how so many people don't think about where all of that plastic ends up. So now, as a society, we're finally starting to understand the benefits of buying local, organic food and the importance of knowing our farmers. I believe that it's just as important to buy our textiles in the same way.

Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish? If so, how so?
I think so and largely because we’re so cosmopolitan and the whole local food movement is thriving here. People are more receptive to paying a little more to benefit the environment or local producers and artisans. The question always remains though: how do I produce as much as I can using materials that originate as close to home as possible? So it costs more. It does. But there's a trade-off.

What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
Well, the highlights are really that I grew up here; I’m native. I’ve always been a small business owner, attracting a community that I love so there has really never been anything else for me. The area itself is a source of creativity and I get the chance to be supported in doing what I love. I love bringing lightness and awareness to something I think is really important. I truly believe in doing the right thing even before making the money. I feel small business can create change where it counts.

What challenges are you facing right now in terms of growth or vision?
My vision is very clear. Honestly, the biggest challenge is about doing everything myself and figuring out a way to grow and balance within that. It's just about learning and asking for help. And right now one of my bigger challenges is the marketing side of the business-- there's only so many hours in the day!

What inspires you, day to day?
Nature, the colors of nature around me. My kids. Also, really humble and simple objects whether it be a tool or just a simple object.
I get really inspired by watching older people and how they do things. There’s something that we’re lacking in our society today. Something that unites us in a deep way...slowing down and creating something, making something useful. That’s inspiring.

What are your goals for the future of Ambatalia?
Immediate goals would be expansion in scope. Right now I do housewares including aprons, furoshiki dish towels, table coverings, and shopping textiles as an alternative to plastic, paper and packaging. I'm looking to broaden my horizons and do linen bath towels, mats, shower curtains. I'm really excited about being a part of our own fibershed project even though it's an ancient way of producing, it is a totally new concept these days. In short, it's where goods are grown and sewn close to home. I will be incorporating plant dying into my products done by Rebecca Burgess and locally produced fiber which would include organic cotton grown here in California by Sally Fox and possibly incorporate some local wool because it is in such abundance here in Marin. In the near future I plan to do a whole collection around the principles of the project. Getting the fibershed stamp of approval would mean the highest level of sustainability to me. That'll really finally bring it completely full-circle.

As a certified green business since 2005, I have sewn all of my products myself and I've just begun training men and woman to sew my products rather then going to a factory in the city. I also want to find weavers here where there is a rich community of weavers. I really believe in connection and relationships. Giving power and support rather than getting what you need or want for the very cheapest price.

We may be a nation of individualists, every man and woman a maverick in his or her own heart, but you'd never know it to read our recipes, so rigidly do we adhere to a generic, codified blandness in laying our how-tos.

By contrast, those stiff-upper-lip Brits kick over the traces when they start to mix and fry. Nigella Lawson, Sybil Kapoor, Tamsin Day-Lewis, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Dan Lepard, even éminences grises like Elizabeth David and Patience Gray: not for these writers the strict nothing-but-the-facts-ma'am method of American cookbooks. Across the pond, lively verbs and their adverbial companions shimmy freely in recipe methods. Even adjectives get their due. My favorite? Moreish, because whatever it is, you must have one more bite. Where Americans are folksy, British writers are droll.

Granted, I tend to read those written by authors with literary or journalistic backgrounds, who sift and measure their prose with as much diligence as they do their self-rising flour and diced courgettes. (Ah, those courgettes! Those aubergines! That black treacle! All almost the same as zucchini, eggplant, and molasses, but linguistically shifted just enough to nudge the reader into a right-hand driver's seat.)

And one of the best is Nigel Slater, whose latest work Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch was just released in an American edition by Berkeley's Ten Speed Press. This beautifully designed, chocolate-brown clothbound volume (complete with silvery place-keeping ribbon) is a celebration of the production of the slim but plant-packed garden of Slater's London townhouse. As dedicated an organic gardener as he may be, Slater makes no pretensions to urban self-sufficiency in his smallish backyard. As he writes,

"I have sown somewhat more than I have reaped. But as somewhere to watch things grow, a place to tend and nurture, to sit and eat, to drink and think, to taste and smell, and most importantly to understand the unity of growing, cooking, and eating, it is a monumental success. At least it is to me."

Slater, a longtime columnist for The Observer and the author of 10 cookbooks, is known in this country (if he's known at all) for his two most personal books, The Kitchen Diaries, a week-by-week seasonal calendar of what he was cooking and eating at home, and the childhood memoir Toast--The Story of a Boy's Hunger. His writing style is vivid and individual without being exactly personal. Reading this book is like wandering though an idiosyncratically decorated house: this lamp, this shell, this book reveals taste and history more succinctly than any long-winded curriculum vitae.

Slater can wax rhapsodic as Alice Waters about the dewy-fresh beauties of homegrown veg. But like his countryman Fergus Henderson, author of the excellent (and drily humorous) The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, Slater has a well-honed wit and an unshakeable set of opinions about just about everything in and out of the kitchen, and he's not shy about telling us what he really thinks.

On spinach:

"When spinach is truly fresh, it squeaks as you rummage around in the pile, like the sound of wet Wellingtons on a rubber floor."

On carrots:

"Not for me the pile of buttered carrots on the plate. Too sweet, too orange, (too bloody cheerful more like it)."

On cauliflower:

"Sometimes I think it wouldn't bother me if I never saw one again."

On the box hedges surrounding his vegetable plots:

"Hedges, however neatly they frame your peas, beans, and swaying sunflowers, are also snail hotels, providing a home for hundreds of gastropods who come out at night, drink from your beer traps, then go on a drunken rampage."

Insults may be a cheap form of wit, but Slater also takes the time to point out the virtues of even his less-favorite things.

Despite the too-many snails who "have partied on [his] carefully nurtured seedlings," he's still a sucker for aesthetics. "I sometimes think the hedges would have gone long ago if it wasn't for the achingly beautiful sight of them covered in snow," he writes, and an accompanying photograph of their tidy snow-piled geometry proves his point.

Winter can also make even cauliflower worth eating. Just after slagging off this unloved brassica, he admits,"Yet I occasionally long for a simple white bowl of cauliflower cheese on a frosty day, especially when it has been made with love, and the sauce has been improved with bay and clove and the cheese is of the robust sort that makes veins on the roof of your mouth stand out." (And thank you, Nigel, for providing a new yardstick for judging cheese. "Ah, this Montgomery cheddar. Piquant, yes, but the veins on the roof of my mouth are unmoved.")

The book is part gardener's handbook, with growing tips and lists of his favorite, often heirloom, varieties to grow. There are useful lists of seasonings, accompaniments, and companions for each vegetable (cauliflower loves cream, caraway, juniper, anchovies, and gin), tips on harvesting, choosing, and storing, and lastly, delicious recipes for lovely-sounding things, like A Soup the Color of Marigolds (made from carrots and yellow tomatoes); An Extremely Moist Chocolate-Beet Cake with Creme Fraiche and Poppy Seeds; and Spinach, Melted Cheese, and Lightly Burned Toast. This is a vegetable cookbook, but not a vegetarian one; while many of the recipes are purely plant-based, there are plenty of dishes made to feature or accompany a whole steamed fish or a hunk of grilled lamb. The recipes are bold-flavored and straightforward, with a Middle Eastern touch there, a hit of Thai or Indian here, and some unmistakablly British comfort food (like that aforementioned cauliflower in cheese sauce, an English school-lunch dish if every there was one). It's a lot of how we eat now: lots of plants, geared towards the seasons, not too fussy, globally inspired. Moreish, I'd say.

The Science & Art of Cheese
Cheese. It comes in more than 2,000 varieties -- hard, soft, fresh and aged -- and it’s been with us for thousands of years. Take a journey to Cowgirl Creamery in West Marin to learn how artisan cheese is made and how scientists are putting cheese under the microscope to gain new insights about this incredible, edible food.

The Terroir of Cheese
"Terroir" is a French word that has historically been used to describe the geographical features such as climate, soil and topography that lend unique flavor characteristics to a wine. Now this term is being applied to artisan cheese, underscoring the importance of location in the production of award-winning, handmade cheese. Watch this QUEST web extra to learn more about the role of terroir in artisan cheese.

Related Links:

QUEST Producer's Notes: The Science & Art of Cheese by Sheraz Sadiq