Photo by Andria Lo. Pickled vegetables by RicePaperScissors

Maybe you’ve had your fill of friends posting pics of their latest meal on social media. If you are hungry for something more satisfying than pin-ups of perfectly plated pancakes, sundaes dripping rivulets of caramel or lurid lasagna, feast your eyes on the images in Sip. Savor. Share!, a photographic love letter to San Francisco’s food and drink, markets and mixologists, sponsored by the urban art collective Femme Cartel. The show opens May 9 and runs through May 26 at the Mission’s Roll Up Gallery.

The show features the work of local artists:
• Molly DeCoudreaux (head photographer at SF.Eater.com, frequent contributor to Refinery29, The Bold Italic)
• Aleksey Bochkovsky (contemporary art photographer)
• Andria Lo (documentary and editorial photographer, including at 7×7)
• Anna Vignet (SF Chronicle contributing photographer and cookbook artist)
• Sarah Deragon (owner/head photographer of Portraits to the People)
• Flee Kieselhorst (portrait and fine art photographer)
• Gennesis Gastilo (photoblogger at Mother Cerveza)

Femme Cartel food photography show

Femme Cartel is known for showcasing cutting-edge, urban art, from tough to girly. Its founder, Emily Howe, calls herself  “a community organizer at heart.”  ”We started with shows that focused on women artists because they seemed to have second-class citizenship in art world. Now we often include a male artist (who supports feminist ideals),” says Howe. Bay Area Bites interviewed the co-curators of this food photography show and two of the featured artists.

Bay Area Bites: You’ve done graffiti inspired art and a hip take on fashion illustrations.  Why food now? 

Emily Howe: We love San Francisco and Oakland and the food world encompasses social justice, community gardens and feminist foodies. For many years, women were relegated to the kitchen, then they joined the workforce but were  STILL expected in the kitchen as supermoms. Now, there is a return to the domestic arts, but we are reclaiming those domestic arts in new ways: it’s a choice to bottle your own beer or pickle your own vegetables.

BAB: Why a focus on female photographers?

EH: In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to think about gender, but if you look at who gets in art shows, who wins grants, who are the curators, jurors, art professors, deans of art schools — across the board it’s proportionately more men. The breakdown should be 50/50, but the big names are dudes. One of our goals is to showcase emerging artists and help people get their first show with an exciting launch. Christina Bohn, my co-curator and I  picked images that we loved and would buy ourselves. We also wanted to represent certain themes: coffee culture, cocktail culture, food trucks, Asian food, Mexican food, nightlife.

Christina Bohn: It’s timely now since the Bay Area is so into food and hand-crafted cocktails. And we include a range of images from instagram photos to fine art.

BAB: How did you find the artists for this show?

CB: We have a roster of artists who we’ve worked with in the past, but they represent more fine art, mixed media and collage. Not so much photography. We like to tap into the well of emerging artists. So we hit the Internet hard, Google, Craig’s list. San Francisco is such a beautiful melting pot of people from all walks of life. We wanted to include different threads that make up the whole scene. We pride ourselves on being a launching platform, finding artists who have never had shows and giving them opportunity to get their work out there. We love to connect people. Sometimes we know of a hair salon or pizza place that needs art on their walls and we can match them up with someone from the community.

photo by Molly DeCoudreaux – Bar Tartine

Professional photographer Molly DeCoudreaux grew up in Oakland. “What got me into loving food was the ten years I worked at Baywolf, moving from busser to waitress.” DeCoudreaux enjoys showing food communities, cheese-makers and chefs at work in the kitchen as well as bringing focus to small upstart companies.  ”I can relate to them because I’m scrappy too, I work hard, in a physically strenuous business.”

As for being part of Femme Cartel’s female-focused art show, she says, “Most photographers are men, it’s a gendered profession. There’s a lot of gear and electronics. Sometimes I go into a restaurant with all my bags of gear and some guy still says, ‘Oh, are you here for the waitress position?’ (And I’m 33!)”

DeCoudreaux shoots striking, non-traditional portraits of drag queens, porn people as well as weddings. “Weddings have a certain stress because they only do the ceremony once,” she says. “Food sits still – unless it’s a hollandaise sauce that breaks after 15 seconds.”

She admits the hardest food to photograph is BBQ. “It’s just meat covered in sauce, it can look like a brown mush. You have to light it and garnish it so it isn’t just a plate of brown.” She doesn’t usually work with a food stylist, relying instead on chefs who plate their food artistically. “I like collaborating, being in the kitchen, trying to stay unobtrusive. I like to show real people doing their work.” Instead of a perfect peach tart, for example, DeCoudreaux would prefer something a little lopsided. “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” she says.

photo by Andria Lo – condiments at Chinese restaurant

Andria Lo, documentary and editorial photographer and photo director for Hyphen Magazine, grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, where, she says,  ”There weren’t a lot of Chinese people. We ate Mom’s Chinese cooking at home and didn’t go out to eat at Anchorage’s Chinese restaurants.” When Lo and her family moved to Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley, she experienced culture shock at the plethora of Chinese restaurants.

Lo caught the photography bug as an art student at UC Berkeley. “It was the magic and camaraderie of the darkroom,” she says, “where people are working individually and collectively at same time.”

Although professionally, she photographs products, portraits, weddings and other subjects, Lo says, ”food photography is one of my passions. You get a finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the city. I especially like shooting the great energy at food events — like ForageSF dinners — it’s a challenge to capture the excitement in the air.”

One of the hardest places to shoot, Lo explains, is in professional kitchens. “While the dining room may be gorgeous, the fluorescent lighting, stainless steel counters and dirty dish racks present a challenge. I have so much respect for chefs. I’m visually stunned by the plating they come up with. My favorite perk is getting to eat their dishes. It’s an impetus to work fast, so that the food is still hot.”

photo by Anna Vignet

Anna Vignet: “There’s a huge variety of world flavors in only a handful of miles in the city. I love trying food from different countries with friends and learning about a country’s food and culture.”

photo by Gennesis Gastilo

Gennesis Gastilo: “Mother Cerveza is a love for the art of mixology and as in imbibing, a love for the people with whom you share your drinks. In the spirit of an intensely diverse and welcoming community, Femme Cartel’s show in San Francisco has at the heart of it: Love is indeed a miscible thing. (Peace begins with a beer).”

photo by Aleksey Bochkovsky

Aleksey Bochkovsky: “I’ve always fed off the energy from streets in big cultural cities. I need to be around people to steal moments of interaction and real feelings, however subtle. Food is a social experience and street food, in particular, interests me for its bouquet of demographic gatherings.”

photo by Sarah Deragon

Sarah Deragon: “One of the reasons I adore San Francisco is because of the dynamic foodie/bar culture. Femme Cartel continues to make history with their unique curatorial projects. I’m elated to be part of this show.”

photo by Flee Kieselhorst

Flee Kieselhorst: “I am a professional freelance portrait and event photographer and the key to my heart is food. When Femme Cartel (my favorite lady positive art organization) announced the call for entries for “Sip.Savor.Share!” I thought “Yes! An excuse to EAT!” My work in this show represents a few consecutive Fridays walking around San Francisco, meeting and shooting new folks, and of course…eating too much!”

Information:
Foodie Photography Show runs May 9-26
Opening reception May 9, 6-9 pm, food provided by Pachamama Cookery
Address:
Roll-Up Gallery
161 Erie Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Twitter: @FemmeCartel
Facebook: Femme Cartel

Chef Edward Lee moved to Louisville, Ky., 10 years ago to take over a restaurant called 610 Magnolia. There, he mixes the sweet of Southern food with the salt and umami of Asian cuisine. Photo: Dan Dry/Artisan Books.

Listen to the Story on Morning Edition

Post by Lydia Zuraw, The Salt at NPR Food (05/03/13)

Korean and Southern food may not seem like a natural pair. But now it’s one more example of traditions emulsifying in the great American melting pot. Korean-American chef Edward Lee makes that case with his new cookbook Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories From a New Southern Kitchen.

Fusion cooking comes naturally to Lee: He grew up in an immigrant neighborhood of Brooklyn surrounded by Jamaicans, Indians, Iranians and Jews.

“When they immigrated to America, my parents deliberately decided they weren’t going to live in the big Korean enclaves,” Lee tells Morning Edition host David Greene. “They wanted to spread out and be amongst other people. That education in cuisine, ranging from so many different immigrant groups probably left more of a lasting impression on me in cuisine than anything else.

“Their whole thing was ‘You’re an American. Be an American,’ ” Lee says.

But Korean food was a way Lee connected with his grandmother. She rarely spoke of Korea because she didn’t have very happy memories, he says, but “food was the one thing that was kind of sacred and pure and hadn’t been torn apart.”

Photo: Artisan Books” width=”250″ class=”size-full wp-image-61229″ /> Edward Lee’s first cookbook, Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories From a New Southern Kitchen, features Korean-southern comfort food.
Photo: Artisan Books.

As a kid, Lee says he would hang out with her in the kitchen, and at first, she ignored him. “I would, little by little, start helping her with things,” he says. “She got very annoyed by that at first. She’s like, ‘You’re a man. You’re not supposed to be here learning how to make kimchi — that’s women’s work.’ ”

Over the years, he says, they developed a strong bond that relied on few words.

Korean food was also how Lee established himself as a chef. In 1998 he opened a restaurant in Manhattan called Clay, which attracted a clientele that included plenty of celebrities. But the excitement wore off quickly.

“Everything seemed right on paper: Korean kid opens Korean restaurant,” he says. “But it just didn’t feel right to me, and I wasn’t incredibly proud of the food. I felt like it was just an extension of what I thought people wanted me to cook.”

He started to re-evaluate things and decided to travel around the country. The farthest his family had traveled in his childhood was New Jersey. “That was huge for us,” he says. “Although I grew up in America and I was influenced by all of the things that other Americans are, I had no idea what America was. It was this vast unknown beyond New Jersey.”

So in 2001 Lee went to places like Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., for the first time. And it was in Louisville at the Kentucky Derby that he fell in love with the South.

Within a year he had moved there to take over a restaurant called 610 Magnolia and the fusion instinct kicked in. He started mixing Korean spice with Southern comfort food.

“Southern food tends to be a little bit on the sweeter side. Asian food tends to be a little bit on the saltier, kind of umami side,” Lee says. “When they work and you put them together, they are actually are a wonderful marriage.”

Grits, for example, reminded Lee of congee, a rice porridge Koreans usually eat with soy sauce and seafood. So Lee came up with a recipe for lamb braised in soy sauce and served over grits, transforming the sweet taste of the corn into something new.

Or take fried chicken. Koreans actually have a long tradition of frying chicken, Lee says. They just have a slightly different method of preparing the chicken for frying. “The results are almost similar, but it’s just different pathways to the same place,” he says. “And I find that a lot in Asian cuisine and Southern cuisine.”

Related Stories
• Recipes from Smoke & Pickles

Copyright 2013 NPR.

The Cat. Photo: Courtesy of Kazuki Yamamoto

Post by Maria Godoy, The Salt at NPR Food (4/25/13)

Clovers? Hearts? That’s small fries, guys. It’s time you met The Cat:

That 3-D creation is the work of Japanese latte artist Kazuki Yamamoto. The 26-year-old resident of Osaka creates ephemeral works of art in espresso and foam.

Anime Character. Photo: Courtesy of Kazuki Yamamoto

From whimsical monsters crafted from milk froth …

Foam monster. Photo: Courtesy of Kazuki Yamamoto

… to adorable homages to favorite childhood cartoon characters …

The Peanuts cast. Photo: Courtesy of Kazuki Yamamoto

Yamamoto’s art makes you regret the need to consume the canvas.

Yamamoto has made a name for himself on Twitter, where more than 82,000 followers receive daily tweets with images of his latest creations. But he’s hardly the only latte artist to emerge from Japan.

Einstein. Photo: Courtesy of Kohei Matsuno

That caffeinated Einstein, for instance, is the work of Yamamoto’s friend Kohei Matsuno, a 23-year-old originally from Osaka who now works at a café in Tokyo. (He’s on Twitter, too.) Matsuno’s subject matter varies widely — from anime characters to Lady Gaga. He also takes customer requests.

I like to surprise people, Matsuno, who also goes by the name Mattsun, tells The Salt. (NPR’s Yuki Noguchi kindly translated for us.) He says he’s always looking for new images.

Monkey. Photo: Courtesy of Kohei Matsuno

Lately, Matsuno has started recreating famous works of art — like this take on Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” Photo: Courtesy of Kohei Matsuno

A toothpick and spoon are Matsuno’s primary tools in creating such fine details. The milk and foam parts go on first, then he uses toothpicks to add “shading” with espresso. The whole process, he says, takes about three to five minutes. Yes, that means the beverage isn’t always piping hot when it reaches drinkers’ lips, but hey, they say you’ve got to suffer for your art.

Sure, we have latte artists in the U.S., too, but from what Matsuno tells us, it seems to be more common in Japan. So why bother to craft a masterpiece in a mug when it’s just going to disappear down someone’s gullet?

I put the question to noted design philosopher Leonard Koren, who has written about Japanese aesthetics. He pointed me to two Japanese concepts — wabi-sabi and mono-no-aware — both of which hold, in part, that “many things are beautiful precisely because they are short-lived and fragile,” Koren told me via email.

“For example, the Japanese love the cherry blossom metaphor,” he writes. “Because cherry trees blossom for only a week or two every year, when they do blossom, there is the emotional poignancy of knowing that it is only a temporary state of affairs.”

“If you can memorialize cherry blossoms in poetry—which the Japanese do,” says Koren, “why not do the same for latte foam?”

Harry Potter. Photo: Courtesy of Kazuki Yamamoto

It’s not a bad approach to life when you think about it — always seeing the potential for magic in the mundane.

Big hat tip to Rebecca Subbiah, who blogs at Chow and Chatter, for introducing us to these two artists.

Copyright 2013 NPR.

We wish this one was televised, too: Alice Waters, Martin Yan, Joanne Weir, Virginia Willis, Nell Newman, Rick Bayless, Thomas Keller, Charles Phan, Joel Riddell and Irvin Lin were among the folks who took the stage for Tuesday night’s 2013 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) awards ceremony in San Francisco. Oakland Food Connection and food incubator La Cocina were also honored. IACP’s professional awards are widely viewed in the food world as something of a gold standard for cookbooks, food writing, digital media and culinary tours. The awards marked the closing night of the organization’s 35th annual conference, which went with a “Dirt to Digital” theme this year.

Check out the full list of award finalists and the grand list of winners. While the awards ceremony stretched out over a few hours and was oddly lacking any form of culinary nourishment (there were definite rumblings after the ceremony about that), it offered quirks, songs and even a few dick jokes courtesy of Libbie Summers, whose Salted and Styled blog won for Best Culinary Blog. On the other end of the spectrum, the evening kicked off with all guests looking up and saying “thank you” as a dedication to publisher Peter Workman, who passed away just this week. It was also emotional for Lifetime Achievement Award winner Alice Waters, who gratefully accepted her prize and joked in her speech that while she cannot farm, “I am a picker,” which got the audience laughing–wise words from the founder of Chez Panisse and the Edible Schoolyard. Waters also professed her admiration for cooking teachers because: “I cannot teach.” She immediately went on to acknowledge IACP attendee and stalwart Darina Allen, whose Ballymaloe cooking school she visits every year (for her birthday).

When Charles Phan won in the Chefs and Restaurants cookbook category for his “Vietnamese Home Cooking” (co-authored with Tasting Table Senior Editor Jessica Battilana), he confessed that he did not have a speech but had enjoyed some bourbon to presumably get warmed up. Phan thanked Battilana, his agent and wife, Angkana. “My wife made sure I turned the book manuscript in, so I wouldn’t have to return the book advance money to Ten Speed Press.”

“Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, received the award for Cookbook of the Year, and Marion Nestle garnered a prize in the Food Matters category for her weighty tome, “Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics.” The deeply satisfying sugar-rush images in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook garnered an award for Food Photography and Styling, and the Dining Around with Joel Riddell radio show won in the Long Format Audio category. The team at Chronicle Books may still be celebrating given their author Diane Morgan won for her book, “Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes.”

Culinary Tour Operator of the Year went to Copita chef Joanne Weir, who shared that as a child, she told her father that she wanted to be a bus driver, so that she could drive a bus on every road in the world. Her confession seemed to scare him a little. Weir dedicated her prize to him because he passed away last year. Food blogger Irvin Lin won the Best in Show prize for his photography, and he asked the IACP crowd to “hire me, I’m available,” a sentiment which was echoed by the next winner.

The conference itself is that rare chance to possibly figure out how to eke out a living doing things in the culinary field–it can be exciting but also daunting in the number of possibilities it presents. There were various declarations for members to support each other and that each one “stands on the shoulders” of those who have come before and after them. That may sound hokey and like general conference speak yet three people we spoke with found these pronouncements to be inspiring.

Many attendees shared with Bay Area Bites that the chance of learning from so many different people doing interesting things is one of the main draws of shelling out $750 to $950 to register for the full conference—that’s on top of the $280 it costs to initially join IACP. Off the record, we were told that IACP is in the midst of something of a revamp and that costs and programming issues have been noted if not yet changed. These folks said that they attend as much for the learning sessions on, say, the meaning of restaurant reviews in the era of Yelp to getting a lowdown on sourdough or video content strategy. The coffee breaks are also highly valued and networking even happens in the bathrooms. Yes, really.

Kale salad and eating local may remain a big trend, but IACP attendees see much, much more at play in the food world. We asked some notable thought leaders to answer a few questions in person:

• What is this conference about for you?
• The theme of the conference is Dirt to Digital; what does it mean to you?
• How does the theme translate to the food industry?
• What did you learn about in the workshops and what are the clear trends that emerged from the conference?

Here are insights from Corby Kummer, Danielle Gould, Sandor Katz, Joanne Weir and Sarah Copeland. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Corby Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine. Known as “the dean of food writing,” Kummer’s 1990 Atlantic series about coffee is a benchmark for excellence in long-form food writing. He is the author of “The Joy of Coffee,” based on his Atlantic series, and the recently published “The Pleasures of Slow Food.” Kummer is the recipient of three James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.

Kummer: This conference is about seeing people who are following food issues on the level of the home cook. It’s about how the things that we in the media are interested in and write about play out in real life and the home of a consumer.

IACP has always been the most connected to the real world of any group because it’s people making their living as culinary professionals. They are in touch with sustainability, farming and local issues. I thought the conference was brilliantly named “Dirt to Digital” because online is where all of the IACP members need to be marketing themselves and their products.

With social media, no one yet knows how to master it but everyone’s trying to learn. IACP has always been at the forefront of practical and real world applications. That’s a unique role because being so smartly focused attracts the most interesting, lively and active people in the food world. And I’ll take any opportunity to connect with them.

Danielle Gould is the Founder and CEO of Food+Tech Connect, a media company and network for innovators transforming the business of food. Through news and analysis, events, and custom research, Gould helps companies of all sizes drive innovation and understand how information and technology are changing the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed. She is also a founding member of the Culinary Institute of America’s Sustainable Business Leadership Council and is a regular contributor to Forbes.

Gould: This is my first time at IACP and they invited me to talk about food and tech trends and hackathons as a model for food innovation. Our panel touched on the opportunity and the medium, as well as how to demystify technology. It is also about helping people understand the knowledge and the challenges that are out there. We’re trying to empower people to put that knowledge out there where they’re collaborating with designers and developers to solve that problem. I travel the whole country and spread the gospel and learn about how people are thinking. It’s about using technology to help solve problems, spread messages and improve business models and just accelerate innovation that’s happening on a small scale.

In the past, a book would take you two years and a product would take 18 months. For a food producer or chef, that means that it takes awhile to market things. Technology offers opportunities: now you can self-publish that cookbook in close to real time, and get feedback on your product.

“Dirt to Digital” is at the heart of what food technology is. You’re looking across the supply chain, and food is interconnected. It is a system, and that goes to the consumer. A lot of times when people think of digital, they think of consumers. Emerging trends and what role technology is for each trend is a part of that. Technology is very broad and means so much to so many different people.

I just love learning how people respond to technology and food and how they use it. The other major takeaway was a lot of the panels weren’t very popular or not as sexy but were about funding. Everyone’s having trouble making money in the food space.

Sandor Ellix Katz, “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene” according to The New York Times, is a self-taught fermentation experimentalist. His books “The Art of Fermentation” and “Wild Fermentation,” and the fermentation workshops he has taught across North America and beyond, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts.

Katz: I’ve never been to IACP before. I don’t think of myself as a culinary professional. The work that I do is demystifying and sharing skills with people who aren’t necessarily culinary professionals. The highlight for me has been to meet people whose books are influential. [Katz was sitting with Bruce Aidells when we caught up with him and Aidells shared the table with us while we caught up.]

Aidells: What’s good sauerkraut without good sausages?

Katz: A kraut — quesadilla is my fast food, and I make it with Pepper Jack. That’s one of my standard meals.

The theme of the conference is significant. What does “Dirt to Digital” mean? I was just on this panel that was high tech versus low tech yet I don’t necessarily see things that way. I’m interested in understanding these processes in their simplicity. So that doesn’t mean you can’t use technology to have more control over the processes. It’s very empowering to see how the underlying principles don’t need equipment. If you get involved in sausage making, you can use a funnel for the casing. You can also just be there with you hands, pushing the meat through to the casing.

For cheese, you can buy nice molds, perhaps. There are elegant crocks to make things but you can also do it with a jar that’s already in your pantry. I appreciate the conference and there’s much information spreading by digital means but it may be telling people how to use their hands.

Joanne Weir is a James Beard award-winning cookbook author, cooking teacher, host and executive producer for the award-winning television series Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence. She is the chef-owner of Copita, a tequileria and restaurant in Sausalito. The author of 17 cookbooks, including the newly released “Cooking Confidence,” Joanne is the Culinary Editor at Large at Fine Cooking! magazine. She travels and teaches extensively around the world as well as in her studio kitchen.

Weir: This conference was so interesting because I’ve approached it differently as a restaurateur this year. I usually approach it as “I write for magazines” or my cookbooks or how to fill your cooking classes. This time I’m taking in things that are really different. I want to sit in on the reviewing and Yelping session.

I still love to see all the people I know when I come to IACP. And I love that it’s in SF and I get to share Copita–they’re going over by ferry. I did a tour on Saturday and people loved it. I’ve shared in a different way and am still excited about my restaurant.

For me with “Dirt to Digital,” I don’t know if I put the two together. Yet every single thing I do is fresh. I have an organic farm — and my next series is called “Fresh” for TV. I am always interested in digital media. The market has changed and the whole landscape is changing. My hope is it that it goes back to dirt and less digital. Is that so ‘Chez Panisse’ of me? (laughs) I do digital but food is still my passion. Perhaps next year the IACP theme should be “Back to Passion.”

IACP is pretty current on things. What they’ve done this year is now bloggers have been integrated. I left feeling in past years that I had to do so much on my own blog. I’ve always done food that is following my passion and on what brings about major possibilities for me. I attended a book session that talked about book advance spending and how book tours are back and rely on the digital medium.

My trend is always Mexican, and that comes with owning Copita. I saw the trendologist Kara Nielsen here and she said, “You couldn’t be in a more trendy thing, with Mexican food and tequila.”

I do modern Mexican food.

We used to think of Italian red tablecloths and Chianti — yet now Italian food has come a long way. One of the trends here is taking cuisines and elevating and educating around the cuisine. Thomas Keller was talking about that and I have seen that in this conference.

Sarah Copeland is the Food Director at Real Simple and author of “The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and For Each Other.” Her book, “Feast” will be published in December this year and she has authored numerous articles and recipes for Real Simple, Saveur, Food & Wine, Health, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens and Food Network Magazine. She has appeared as a guest on The Martha Stewart Show, Good Morning America and ABC News Now.

Copeland: A lot of the conference is about relationships. I see faces from every different facet of my career and have been reconnecting and catching up on what people are doing that is new and exciting. There’s a chance to celebrate successes while hopefully helping a few people too.

On “Dirt to Digital,” one of the most challenging things of this industry from my perspective is that I started in print. That part has changed so dramatically in ten years or even five years. For most food people who are in love with food, it is very tactile how we communicate yet that is changing so much. The dirt part communicates place, smell, and touch, which are all the good things. It includes the agriculture, and the farmer. There are so many layers and it is complex with dirt. That’s how food is to me: we touch humanity and civilization, nutrition and wellness. In the digital sphere, how do you capture that? I think we are all figuring that out.

I did a panel on recipes and copyright for the conference. There were folks from Pillsbury there who were trying to figure out their contest. We also had teachers, bakery owners and bloggers. As Food Director at Real Simple, I have to be savvy and think about those aspects.

On almost every panel I ask, ‘What’s the best panel?’ This year, everyone is focusing on video. I worked at the Food Network — and yet this industry has been print for so long. With Hungry and YouTube and different avenues, it’s just so video-focused. The trailer for my first book is a minute and a half but my next one will probably be half that, to seventy-five seconds. My new book ‘Feast’ from Chronicle Books is coming out in December and I’ve learned a few things that I’ll do differently. I am coming away from the conference with the feeling that there is room for every voice and every talent. If you are generous, they will help you, too.

Guests and host Leslie Sbrocco taping the 100th episode of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED.
Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Check, Please! Bay Area’s 100th episode kicks off Season 8 on Thursday April 11 at 7:30pm on KQED 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website provides restaurant information not specified on the show and you are free to share your opinions on the restaurants featured. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will continue to share wine tips with each episode.

The first episode of Season 8 features these San Francisco restaurants: Angkor Borei, Indigo Restaurant and Farallon.

Watch Leslie Sbrocco share her Wine Tips about California Wine Regions:

View more Wine Tips at Check, Please! Bay Area.

Lisa Murphy just started her own business making a spicy sriracha ketchup

Last Saturday, 150 Asian food fans attended KQED’s kick-off party and brainstorming session for the co-production of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and KQED. After enjoying the crowd-pleasing array of Chinese, Vietnamese, Balinese and Filipino dishes prepared by panelist Tim Lyum of Attic Restaurant, the gathering heard brief remarks from Grace Lee about her new project which has not yet begun filming and is scheduled to air on PBS Prime Time in June 2014.

Chef Lyum’s Five Spice Chicken Bun and Balinese Lemongrass Satay

In an interview before Saturday’s event, Lee told Bay Area Bites that her films often use an unconventional storytelling approach.

“Exploring Asian America through the conduit of food will allow us to examine bigger themes.” Lee hopes to dig deep into communities across the country to find unexpected stories, characters and juxtapositions. She is actively soliciting ideas for people and subjects to include. “We want this to be interactive, because we are trying to do something new. There’s no recipe for this. It’s kind of like Asian America. How do you define that anyway? Part of excitement of the project is using the process to really explore the topic itself.”

Tim Lyum, Loiuse Lo, Mark Matsumoto, Grace Lee

After remarks from Lee, KQED producer Louise Lo, PBS food blogger Mark Matsumoto and Chef Lyum, moderator Leslie Sbrocco (of KQED’s Check, Please! Bay Area), invited members of the audience to come to the microphone and share their stories. Some people honored departed members of the Asian American community who had given generously of their time, food and wisdom. Many younger speakers typified a new energy and dedication.

Lisa Murphy, 27, owner of Sosu Sauces and the person wearing the ketchup/sriracha T-shirt, has started her own business making spicy sauces. She told the crowd how she immigrated from Shanghai to the U.S. when she was nine, speaking only Mandarin.

“Learning English in fifth grade was the hardest thing, but everyday after school, when my aunt cooked traditional Chinese food for dinner, I watched and learned. It was a way for me to build confidence. Food was also a way to communicate with my Irish-American step-father who only spoke English.”

Murphy says she did “typical Asian American things,” like attend UC Berkeley and work in banking and finance, but realized that she usually spent her days talking about food with friends. When she told her “very traditional mother” she planned to quit her well-paying high-tech job and do something she loved, her mother was shocked, “A food business?” her mother demanded, “Why are you are going backward?” Murphy explains that as Asians immigrate to the U.S., their first jobs are commonly cooking or doing deliveries for a restaurant. Now that her expanded line of spicy sauces is carried in stores like Bi-Rite Market and Rainbow Grocery, however, she reports that her mother is more accepting.

Murphy’s story of re-invention might be the perfect narrative for Lee’s film. One thing Lee is quick to admit is not perfect, however, is the film’s working title, “Asian Chops.” She hopes someone will suggest a better one. “PBS held a focus group and ‘Asian Chops’ was the best they came up with. It beat out other titles like ‘Wok Across America’ and ‘Chop Suey Nation.’”

Eric Ehler of Seoul Patch and Gung Ho Restaurant rediscovered his cultural roots in Korea

Grace Lee definitely wants her film to explore boundaries beyond the big cities of the East and West Coasts. Lee was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri, where she was afraid people thought her Korean American family was “weird and exotic.” “We had two refrigerators (one was for kimchi) and always worried about offending our neighbors.” She plans to include film shoots in the South and Midwest. “I’m excited to embark on this journey,” says Lee, “but I realize the topic is almost limitless. It’s not specifically about cooking, travel or famous chefs, but more about people we’ve never heard of: farmers, suppliers, the guy who introduced sushi to Texas.”
Producer Louise Lo told the crowd, “This unique point of view will hopefully come from people like you, who want to submit ideas. This is the first event to find out what you think should be included in the film. For the ideas that don’t make it into the film, we’ll also have web videos, blogs, recipes, photo essays on PBS.org/Food.”

Indigo Som has strong opinions about Asian-American food

“One of my pet peeves is the perception that Asian food should be cheap. And it’s supposed to be grungy and dive-y. Then I think, ‘Oh, is that because Chinese people are cheap and dirty?’ And as a foodie,” Som said, “it’s very frustrating to me because I want really good ingredients in my Chinese food and it’s hard to find a restaurant that does that because I guess most people won’t support it. For example, at the Ramen Shop in Oakland, most people are like ‘Oh my God, $14 for a bowl of ramen! It’s a crime.’ No it’s not, it’s because the ingredients are so much better.”

Hyunjoo Albrecht makes and sells kimchi from her Grandmother’s recipes

With one story easily leading to the next, time was for the launch was soon over.  “I know this is a huge project for one-hour documentary,” said Grace Lee, “But maybe it can be a jumping off point for more. It’s important to go to places that we haven’t been before, even if it’s just down the street.”

You can listen to the audio of Saturday’s brain-storming launch party below and participate directly in shaping this exciting project by answering the following questions, which were on a survey distributed at Saturday’s event. Or share YOUR story; you might end up in Grace Lee’s new  film.

1. What’s a great title for this project?
2. What topics or stories or communities are you interested in seeing in this film?
3. If you could only eat one Asian dish for the rest of your life, what would it be?
4. Suggestions for the best/worst named Asian Restaurant. Where is it?

You can leave comments below or share your own story by sending an email to: asianchops@gmail.com

A lamb chop crusted with pistachio, mint and spices, served with assorted vegetables. Photo: Whitney Pipkin for NPR

Post by Whitney Pipkin, Kitchen Window at NPR Food (3/27/13)

Get recipes for Pistachio, Mint And Spice Crusted Lamb Chops, Pakistani Lamb Biryani, Pastitsio and Roasted Leg Of Lamb.

It’s 9 a.m. on a Sunday, and my bathrobe and hair already reek of garam masala — burnt garam masala, to be exact. Who’d have known that the key to this Indian-Pakistani recipe for lamb biryani would be the French cooking mantra of mise-en-place? Or that the minute it takes for the pile of spices to get “aromatic” in hot oil is not nearly long enough to both measure and photograph them before they turn to ashes?

More important, why am I taking my first stab at this recipe on a Sunday morning, with my coffee growing cold while I scurry around my spice-infused kitchen?

Blame it on the lamb.

One of the members of our weekly “home group,” about a dozen people from our church gathering for a meal and Bible study, announced that his Pennsylvania parents raise lamb. Our food-minded group couldn’t resist. His parents have the lamb butchered once a year and freeze the meat for sale year-round, nearly giving it away at about $5 a pound.

We put in an order and, a couple of weeks later, my freezer was teeming with the goods. Chops, legs, ribs and the ground variety — it was more than enough inspiration for a month’s worth of Sunday meals.

Our group divvies up the cooking labor and is full of adventurous gastronomes. (When one of our members snagged a deer with his new crossbow — we are in Virginia — we gladly worked venison chili onto the menu.)

I hoped the lamb would incorporate each family’s culinary background, especially the Kumars’. But despite her husband’s Indian descent and her experience with Indian cuisine, Marsha Kumar wanted to make the pastitsio (a Greek noodle casserole layered with bechamel sauce and ground lamb). This left me with the biryani, a complex rice- and spice-based dish that reminded me yet again not to cut hot peppers before I put in my contact lenses.

Christi, who grinds grain to make her own bread each week, raised her hand for the first meal: spice-crusted lamb chops with a tangy yogurt sauce, accompanied by the roast vegetables the rest of us would bring. And I planned to make a simple roast leg of lamb and ribs as the piece de resistance and final meal.

After discovering my love of lamb via Greek and Indian restaurants, I was surprised to find out later that some people don’t have a taste for it, although everyone in our group does.

The protein that is ubiquitous in Middle Eastern dishes is less common in American cuisine. That is, until Easter, when lamb and ham battle it out for which will be the centerpiece of the holiday meal. There is a seasonal price dip about this time of year, so it’s a good time to experiment.

Some people confuse lamb with its less-tender relative, mutton (older sheep), which is even more of an acquired taste. Others don’t like the somewhat gamey aroma lamb gives off under fire.

But layer in the right mix of flavors — and a bechamel sauce never hurts — and lamb has a way of absorbing, altering and making a meal out of the spices that go into a dish.

To me, it’s the epitome of comfort food as the weather begins to thaw into spring.

Perhaps the best part about our group’s lamb-centric meals, besides having a connection to the people who raised the meat, was the way they fostered community as only a true sit-down sort of feast can (even if it’s followed by a communal food coma). We collaborated on recipes, complimented one another’s handiwork and ate — a lot.

It was a splendid precursor to the spring season, when lamb will get the recognition it deserves on more than a few Easter Sunday tables.

Recipe: Pistachio, Mint And Spice Crusted Lamb Chops

We adapted this recipe from The Sophisticated Gourmet blog and replaced some traditional Middle Eastern spices, like sumac, with easy-to-find ingredients. We used the small lamb chops we were provided and suggest adjusting cooking times to the size of your chops. Assemble and measure all the ingredients, and the rest is simple.

Pistachio, Mint And Spice Crusted Lamb Chops. Photo: Whitney Pipkin for NPR

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

6 lamb chops (about 3/4-inch thick)
Fine grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

Spice Rub

2 teaspoons lemon zest
Seeds from 3 green cardamom pods, pulverized into a fine powder
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
Juice of 1/2 lime (1 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Pistachio And Mint Topping

2/3 cup unshelled pistachios
2/3 cup mint
1/3 cup cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Yogurt-Mint Sauce

Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup Greek yogurt
1/3 cup mint, finely chopped
3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Instructions:

Generously season each lamb chop (both sides) with salt and pepper.

In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients for the spice rub. Set aside.

In a food processor, chop all of the ingredients for the pistachio and mint topping. Process the mixture until it is coarsely ground, not pureed. Set the mixture aside.

Put all of the yogurt-mint sauce ingredients into a bowl and stir. Keep refrigerated.

Place the chops in a glass baking dish or on a baking sheet (with a lip), and gently massage the lamb chops with the spice rub.

Generously douse with olive oil. Allow the lamb chops to sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes, while you preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet or large saute pan on medium-high heat.

Once the pan has heated, carefully plop the lamb chops into the hot pan and cook for about 2 minutes on each side to brown. Once the chops are the color of roasted chestnuts, remove the pan from the heat and put back on the baking sheet. Layer each lamb chop with the pistachio and mint topping.

Put the pan of lamb chops in the oven for about 5 minutes, until medium-rare or your preferred doneness. If the lamb is medium-rare, it will give when you press the meat with your finger. If it doesn’t give, it’s well-done. Or you can use an instant-read meat thermometer to check for doneness. If the lamb is medium-rare, it will register 140-150 degrees. If the lamb is medium, it will register 160 degrees. And if it is well-done, the lamb should register 165 degrees and up.

When cooked to your likeness, place the lamb chops in aluminum foil, and allow the meat to rest for 5 to 6 minutes before serving. Serve with yogurt-mint sauce.

Recipe: Pakistani Lamb Biryani

This recipe is adapted from one in a 2010 Saveur magazine. I chose it because I was eager to use my newly acquired green cardamom pods. The key is having the ingredients measured and ready beforehand. If you can get lamb meat already cut off the bone, that also saves time. We served this with a healthful version of Indian halwa, the dessertlike mixture of coconut milk-boiled carrots, raisins, spices and honey.

Pakistani Lamb Biryani. Photo: Whitney Pipkin for NPR

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup canola oil
3 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
18 black peppercorns
9 pods green cardamom
3 pods black cardamom
2 2-inch cinnamon sticks
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 tomatoes, cored and minced
5 serrano chilies, stemmed and minced
1 piece of ginger, 1 1/2 inches long, peeled and minced
2 pounds trimmed lamb shoulder, cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces
Kosher salt, to taste
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup roughly chopped mint leaves
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
40 threads saffron, crushed (heaping 1/2 teaspoon)
2 1/2 cups white basmati rice, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes, drained
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
4 whole cloves
2 dried bay leaves
Rose water or kewra essence (optional)

Instructions:

Heat 1/4 cup oil in a 5-quart skillet or pot over high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until dark brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in a 5-quart pot over high heat. Add garam masala, chili flakes, turmeric, 10 peppercorns, 5 green cardamom pods, 2 black cardamom pods and 1 cinnamon stick. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add garlic, tomatoes, chilies and ginger, and cook, stirring, 2 to 3 minutes. Add lamb, season with salt, and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook until lamb is tender, about 1 hour.

Add fried onions, yogurt, 1/2 cup mint and 2 tablespoons cilantro. Cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. Set aside.

Put saffron into a bowl, cover with 1/2 cup hot water and set aside.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a 5-quart saucepan. Add remaining peppercorns, green and black cardamom and cinnamon stick, along with the rice, cumin, cloves and bay leaves. Season with salt. Cook rice until al dente, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain rice and set aside.

Transfer half the lamb curry to a 5-quart pot. Top lamb with half the rice. Pour half the saffron mixture onto rice along with a few drops of rose water, and mix into rice with your fingers. Top with remaining lamb curry and remaining rice, drizzle with remaining saffron and mix. Cook, covered, on low heat until rice is tender, about 10 minutes. Garnish with remaining mint and cilantro.

Recipe: Pastitsio

The recipe for this Greek noodle casserole is adapted from a 2009 episode of Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa cooking show. We substituted a good ground turkey for the ground beef, since the lamb lends more than enough fatty flavor to the dish.

Pastitsio. Photo: Whitney Pipkin for NPR

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce

3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (1 large)
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound lean ground lamb
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 large cloves)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes in puree
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Bechamel

1 1/2 cups whole milk (or lower fat)
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated black pepper
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan or Kasseri cheese
2 extra-large eggs, beaten
2/3 cup Greek-style yogurt
3/4 pound small pasta shells

Instructions:

For the sauce, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes. Add the beef and lamb and saute over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until no longer pink, crumbling the meat with the back of a wooden spoon.

Drain off any excess liquid, add the wine and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the garlic, cinnamon, oregano, thyme and cayenne, and continue cooking over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 40 to 45 minutes. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the bechamel, heat the milk and cream together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until simmering.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly for 2 minutes. Pour the warm milk and cream mixture into the butter and flour mixture, whisking constantly. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until smooth and thick. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir in 3/4 cup of cheese and 1/2 cup of the tomato and meat sauce, and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Stir in the eggs and yogurt and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. Don’t overcook because the pasta will later be baked. Drain and set aside.

Add the pasta to the meat and tomato sauce, and pour the mixture into a baking dish. Spread the bechamel evenly to cover the pasta and sprinkle with the remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake for 1 hour, until golden brown and bubbly. Set aside for 10 minutes and serve hot.

Recipe: Roasted Leg Of Lamb

We adapted our recipe for our piece de resistance from Max and Eli Sussman’s This Is a Cookbook: Recipes for Real Life (Olive Press, 2012). Eli Sussman cooks at NYC’s Mile End Deli, and his brother Max is chef de cuisine at Roberta’s. This recipe was simple and easily executed, though probably not ideal to be cooked at one home and transported to another. Our freezer had only a 2-pound leg of lamb, so I also marinated the lamb ribs (both overnight) with the same mixture and roasted them for a snack.

Roast Leg Of Lamb. Photo: Whitney Pipkin for NPR

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 bone-in leg of lamb, about 5 pounds

Marinade

4 large garlic cloves, crushed but left whole
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
Zest of 2 lemons
Zest of 1 orange
Red pepper flakes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

Place the lamb in a large roasting pan. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix well. Rub the marinade evenly all over the lamb. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Remove the lamb from the refrigerator and let come to room temperature while the oven is heating. Discard the garlic.

Roast until the surface of the meat is beginning to caramelize, about 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees and continue roasting until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the lamb, but away from the bone, registers 135 degrees for medium-rare (30 to 45 minutes longer).

Transfer the lamb to a cutting board, cover with foil and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside the pan with the drippings (I suggest dipping bread in the drippings).

Carve the lamb, first slicing it from the bone in large pieces, as few as possible. Cut the meat on the diagonal against the grain into slices about 1/2-inch thick. Place a few slices on each plate, drizzle the pan juices over the top. Serve immediately.

About The Author
Whitney Pipkin is a freelance writer and editor covering food, farms and the environment from Alexandria, Va. Her work has appeared in publications including The Washington Post, Grist.org and Foodshed Magazine. She blogs about recipes, food and farms at thinkabouteat.com. See her recent work at whitneypipkin.com.

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Japanese women drink green tea during an outdoor tea ceremony in Kobe, Japan. Making the brew a daily habit may be protective against stroke. Photo: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

Listen to the Story on Morning Edition

Post by Allison Aubrey, The Salt at NPR Food (3/15/13)

Whether it’s green tea that warms you up, or coffee that gives you that morning lift, a new study finds both can help cut the risk of suffering a stroke.

The study, published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke, included 82,369 men and women in Japan.

Researchers found that the more green tea a person drank, the more it reduced the risk of suffering a stroke.

“It’s almost a 20 percent lower risk of stroke in the green tea drinkers” who drank four cups a day, compared with those who rarely drank green tea, explains Dr. Ralph Sacco of the University of Miami. (He’s the past president of the American Heart Association, and we asked him to review the study for us.)

And with coffee, researchers found just one cup per day was also associated with about a 20 percent decreased risk of stroke during a 13-year follow-up period.

“I was still feeling rather surprised” about the findings, Dr. Yoshihiro Kokubo, the study’s lead author, tells The Salt in an email. Kokubo is a researcher at the Department of Preventive Cardiology, National Cerebra and Cardiovascular Center in Osaka, Japan.

Kokubo says that green tea contains compounds known as catechins, which help regulate blood pressure and help improve blood flow. The compounds also seem to promote an anti-inflammatory effect. Kokubo says coffee, which contains caffeine and compounds known as quinides, likely influences our health through different mechanisms.

It’s not just the Japanese who seem to benefit from drinking coffee and green tea. Over the past few years, researchers in the U.S. have documented similar reductions in heart disease risk among Americans.

“The accumulating evidence from a variety of studies is suggesting that green tea and coffee may be protective,” says Sacco.

And, in addition, recent studies have linked a regular coffee habit to a range of benefits — from a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes to a protective effect against Parkinson’s disease.

It’s interesting to note how much the thinking about caffeine and coffee has changed.

In the 1980s, surveys found that many Americans were trying to avoid it; caffeine was thought to be harmful, even at moderate doses.

One reason? Meir Stampfer of the Harvard School of Public Health says back then, coffee drinkers also tended to be heavy smokers. And in early studies, it was very tough to disentangle the two habits.

“So it made coffee look bad in terms of health outcomes,” says Stampfer.

But as newer studies began to separate out the effects of coffee and tea, a new picture emerged suggesting benefits, not risks.

Researchers say there’s still a lot to learn here — they haven’t nailed down all the mechanisms by which coffee and tea influence our health. Nor have they ruled out that it may be other lifestyle habits among coffee and tea drinkers that’s leading to the reduced risk of disease.

And experts say when it comes to preventing strokes and heart attacks, no food or drink is a magic bullet. It’s our overall patterns of eating and exercise that are important.

“It’s a whole lifestyle approach, and we need to remember that,” says Sacco.

So if you are already in the habit of drinking coffee or green tea, this study is one more bit of evidence that you can go ahead and enjoy it.

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Fish eyeball served at the Sushi Taro restaurant in D.C. Photo: angela n./Flickr

Post by Nancy Shute, The Salt at NPR Food (3/6/13)

It wasn’t the fish heads poking out of the Stargazy Pie that stopped more than a few of our readers cold. It was the eyeballs.

“Not a lot of food nowadays has eyes; what’s up with that?” one reader asked in commenting on a recent Salt post that featured a photo of the historic dish, which involves whole fish (eyes and all) poking out of a pie.

Turns out, quite a lot of cuisine features eyeballs. But there’s no question that in many cultures, eating eyes is a food taboo.

I first ran afoul of this when I cooked up ukha, a famous Russian fish soup, for a group of friends. The fish heads make for a beautiful clear broth, and my husband, who grew up in Kamchatka, wanted to make sure those big old heads swam in his bowl.

Alas, when the bowls were laid out, the one with fish eyes staring balefully upward landed in front of the most fastidious eater in the room. He has never dined at my house again.

So I called James Serpell, director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania, and asked why eyes creep people out.

“Eyes represent faces,” he said, “and it’s through the face that we learn to recognize and empathize with others. So it’s not entirely surprising that we find eyeballs disconcerting.”

Boiled sheep’s head is traditional in Iceland and Norway. Photo: Ole Amundsen/Flickr

Everything, including the eyeball. “The consistency is quite offensive,” he reports.

But even traditional Icelanders have their food taboos — the sheep head was served without the brain. “When I said, ‘Where’s the brain?’ they looked at me with horror.”

When it comes to Americans, “people in our culture are disgusted by eating any non-muscle part of edible animals, says Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania who studies human food choice and disgust. “Eyes may be special because it is so clear that they are an animal part, and they have some special significance for many people.”

Maybe the eyes of other mammals are just a bit too close to home for most people. Fish eyes seem the most acceptable form of ocular cuisine, my fastidious soup-eating friend excluded. As our well-traveled readers pointed out, small fish are eaten whole in many cultures, from British whitebait to the dried fish snacks ubiquitous at Asian groceries. Elvers, tiny eels that resemble spaghetti, are popular not just in Europe but also in Asia.

Fish heads and octopus, cooked in winter melon soup with dried scallops. Photo: mdelamerced/Flickr

Shanghai-born food blogger Chichi Wang relishes fish eyes: “The trick to eating a fish eyeball is to keep it in your mouth for as long as possible,” she writes. “A rush of fatty fish flavor is accompanied by a gelatinous, spongy texture. Swallow too quickly and you’ll miss the nuances.”

When she was little, Wang’s mom always saved the fish eyes just for her. So when relatives recently gathered at a Cantonese restaurant, Wang offered her mom the fish eyes as a special treat.

“Take that away,” her mom said. “Fish eyeballs are really gross.”

Wang then realized that what had seemed to be the selfless act of motherhood had been instead an act of self-protection.

In the past few years, more adventurous Americans seem to be discovering fish eyes (and we’re not talking the slang for tapioca pudding). Look on chat boards devoted to the protein-rich paleo diet, and you’ll find debates on the nutritional benefits of caribou eyes.

And in Chicago, chef Cary Taylor took on the challenge of making a fish eye dish. After his fishmonger refused to provide pre-gouged eyeballs (“he said there was no way he was going to have his guys in the back cutting out fish eyeballs or they would riot,” Taylor told the Chicago Reader), the chef cooked up grouper-head soup. He then squeezed out the eyeball gel (best use gloves, he says) as a flavoring and thickener.

“It didn’t seem to be a super distinctive taste to me,” Taylor reported, though he did like the soup’s nice, fresh seafood taste. He’s now contemplating offering a free shot of whiskey to customers willing to suck the eyeballs out of a whole roasted fish.

Would you eat those eyeballs? Have you? Or is that a food that’s best left as a taboo? Tell us what you think.

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Preeti Mistry at Juhu Beach Club with spice jars. Photo courtesy of Preeti Mistry

Chef Preeti Mistry is gearing up to open her Indian street food-inspired, previously a pop-up, Juhu Beach Club in Temescal, Oakland on March 1. Having her restaurant business set up in the old SR24 space in the East Bay instead of the originally planned Mission District is a marked change from when I interviewed her last summer, for the Bay Area Bites’ annual LGBT Pride stories. Breaking off (amicably) with a business partner and wanting to live closer to her work were the main factors behind this decision. She shared that she is now working with family to run the business but has also been buoyed by offers of general help from fellow Oakland business owners. Getting a Top Chef to set up shop in Oakland is a bonus for Temescal, a district that has arrived as a food and dining destination–complete with its own new culinary tour from Edible Excursions and a thriving Sunday farmers’ market.

I was able to experience Juhu Beach Club via a stop on the Oakland Taste Temescal media tour from Edible Excursions. It’s obvious Chef Preeti and her crew have worked hard to transform the once grey and dark hues of SR24 into something that is definitely more Mumbai-beachy and fun: pink and orange swirl together with golden notes in a wonderful monkey wall pattern, which match the adorable tiffins that will be used to serve kids meals (a smart menu move, considering the local population). Her partner Ann Nadeau was on hand to help serve sassy lassis but mainly stayed in the background while the Chef talked to our group. Guests will be able to see the kitchen action, where Preeti will cook with her sous chef and line cooks.

Juhu Beach Club interior. Photo: Naomi Fiss

There are 50 seats and 6 stools and the open space definitely grants guests an up-close-and-personal view of the making of every slider-like pav (with custom rolls from Starter Bakery), Gujarti-style samosa, mung bean “Guju chili” soup, curry, salad and sassy lassi. The menu is approachable: vegetarians, carnivores and kids should all find something here. The color blocked kiddie-friendly tiffins are designed by a nearby artist and will be for sale; I am making space in my pantry after seeing how cute and functional they are. Juhu Beach Club just received their beer and wine license and will be opening for dinner March 1. Cheers!

I interviewed Chef Mistry to find out more about how the process is going from operating her pop-up restaurant to getting an actual restaurant finalized. Her comments have been edited for clarity and length.

Pav (slider-sized sandwich) menu items: Sloppy Lil’P (left+right) Holy Cow (middle). Photo courtesy of Preeti Mistry

Bay Area Bites: Congrats on the new restaurant. When we last talked to you, you were planning to open a spot in the Mission. That situation changed for you in October 2012. Why do Indian Street Food in Temesal?

Mistry: It was a matter of circumstances. Even when I was in San Francisco, I was saying ‘I want to open in Oakland.’ The Mission space and the partner connected to that didn’t work out, which was actually a blessing. If we were having a hard time then, running a business wouldn’t have been easy. We were able to realize that and walk away from each other and there were no hard feelings ultimately. I moved to Oakland a year and a half ago. Once we walked away from a financial partner, I started looking at things financially but also looked at how it would affect my lifestyle. We’ve gotten to know the scene and it’s so happening here. Temescal is really fun, and there has been a great community in terms of chefs and restaurateurs.

India’s Bizarre Love Triangle Samosas. Photo: Mary Ladd

Bay Area Bites: Do you have a new business partner? How did you come up with the funding after the relationship with your former business partner ended?

Mistry: No. (Laughs). It’s a family business now. So. You know. That was one of the reasons why we picked the space. It was really set up. I talked to a few contractors and architects and they were urging me to find a spot that was already set up. I looked at cheaper places but it was a Pandora’s box — they had been dumped for a reason. Once you start with the building department…. With our new Temescal location, it’s been all elbow grease and a little cosmetic work. There have been a few expenses that have come up but that’s par for the course.

We did a lot of cleaning and changed the space pretty dramatically. It was really dark in here, very Gothic with big chandeliers. The baseboard and entire ceiling were dark grey and then there was deep magenta red. We just brightened it so there is a lot of bright pink and orange on the walls. It gets an advantage of the sun that comes through in the day. We got funky wallpaper with monkeys to give the space a fun and casual feel, because we want to see people wanting to hang out here.

Monkey wallpaper at Juhu Beach Club. Photo courtesy of Preeti Mistry

Bay Area Bites: Have you met any of your restaurant neighbors?

Mistry: The person that owned this restaurant owns the taqueria next door. We share bathrooms and storage space and one of the more qualitative parts of purchasing was that he wanted to make sure it would be someone who’s cooperative. Not ‘I bought your restaurant. See ya later.’ I interact with his manager Kevin and family all day and they’ve been super. I’ve also talked with Jen Louise Dunning at Pizzaiolo. Tanya Holland was super helpful with advice as was Sarah Kirnon with Miss Ollie’s. I just ran into Paul Arenstam at the restaurant supply store and he said, ‘Give me a call if you need anything.’

Bay Area Bites: What are your favorite menu items?

Mistry: The Bombay sandwich, which we just tried out. The way it’s made in India is with a sandwich maker in a campfire. We’ll use a steak press and do it on the flat top. Everyone was like ‘I don’t know what this is but it’s awesome’ when we did the taste tests. I’ll press it with Jack cheese, cilantro chutney, sliced beets, potatoes, pickled onions and our house-made chaat masala. There’s also a healthy amount of butter and it’s like a veggie grilled cheese. I’ll change it seasonally. It’s kind of funny how the chutney and masala make it distinctly Indian. It’ll probably be priced at $7.

Bay Area Bites: How about drinks and desserts? … anything unusual?

Mistry: All of our wine will be on tap. I want to focus on beer more because it just pairs better in my opinion with the Indian food and spices. We’ll have 1-3 white wines. People want to pair Indian food with really sweet Rieslings and I can’t stand that. The wines will definitely be on the crisper side. For every tasting we’ve had, the big question is, ‘What will the red be?’ We’re looking for something nice and lean, and nothing really fruity and jammy or high alcohol.

I make the sassy lassi in-house, and it’s sweet and salty. We’ll have cilantro lemonade and also the Darjeeling Limited, which is half cilantro lemonade and half tea. Gotta have a hot chai and we will be serving imported Thums Up plus Limca sodas, which are owned by Coke now. They have a distinctive Indian flavor.

Sassy Lassis. Photo: Naomi Fiss

We’re going to have Straus soft-serve for dessert, but will do it differently than other places. I may use infused oils as toppings: things like pistachio and pumpkin seed oils. There will be tropical fruit drizzles of passion fruit, guava or rosewater. I’m sure we’ll make some seasonal local macerated fruit. Then there will be add-ons like salty curried peanuts, Chai spiced pecans and those little fennel candies.

Bay Area Bites: Any advice for folks looking to open a restaurant?

Mistry: Laughs. That’s so funny. Cholita Linda was talking on the Edible Excursions tour about how they’re opening on Telegraph and that it had been in 3 months of waiting. I couldn’t wait like that!

I guess for me as a first time restaurateur I would say finding an existing business is a way to factor your time and money. Juhu Beach Club will not have that high a price point. The average check will not be $70 per person. The ability to make that money back and profit is crazy. For me, it was always start small and see if people liked it. Even with that funny liquor store in the Mission, we spent $1,500. My advice? Start small.

Vada Pav. Photo courtesy of Preeti Mistry

Bay Area Bites: Do you think there is a Top Chef celeb halo that helps or hinders your work? What is that like?

Mistry: I think for a long time I was really angry about Top Chef. But you know it’s the thing that has helped me get the word out. I suppose if I hadn’t been on the show it would take longer for people and media to show up. The fact that people already know who I am is helpful.

As for hindering, I can’t say that there is anything negative at this point four years later. People are excited. I’ve talked to people in Oakland and they’re excited to have someone from Top Chef. I was at the farmers’ market and a lady told me ‘I’m really excited you’re opening here.’

I was talking to the cashier at the planning department and she said she is a huge Top Chef fan and she recognized my name. It’s nice that people recognize me. If my food didn’t stand up or the service wasn’t helpful then people wouldn’t continue to show up. Especially in the Bay Area, where there are so many good chefs who haven’t been on TV.

Preeti Mistry at Juhu Beach Club. Photo: Naomi Fiss

Related Information:
Juhu Beach Club
Opening March 1 for Dinner
Address: Map
5179 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland CA 94609
(510) 652-7350
Hours: Tue – Sat: 5:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Twitter: @juhubeachclub
Twitter: @chefpmistry
Facebook: Juhu Beach Club