A precociously independent toddler packs a healthy homemade lunch and heads off to snack in Bernal Height’s Holly Park in San Francisco.

This seriously cute video is the promo for author and BAB blogger Kim Laidlaw‘s new book Baby & Toddler On The Go: fresh, homemade foods for a busy life.

The book will be available April 30 and offers up 75 simple-to-prepare and easy-to-transport recipes made with fresh ingredients for the busy 4-month to 3-year-old child.

Kim Laidlaw took some time out to share information about her new book.

The toddler in the video is your daughter. How have you introduced her to your world of cooking and food?
Laidlaw: She has been watching me cook and bake since she was born, and now that she’s a bit older she is starting to “help” me cook and bake, which is a lot of fun. I also take her to the farmers’ market every Saturday morning and we talk about all the seasonal fruits and veggies and we try lots of samples. Oh, and we set up a little play kitchen in the kitchen so we can cook together.

What motivated you to write this book?
Laidlaw: I had just started to feed her solid food when I started writing the book, so I “learned” how to feed her by doing all the research and writing all the recipes for the book. Plus lots and lots of input from my mom and friends.

The book is designed to feed 4-month to 3-year-old children. How did you tailor your recipes nutritionally and tastewise to this age group?
Laidlaw: I did quite a lot of research, and also used the sister book Baby & Toddler Cookbook as my starting point. Then I just tried to get as many age-appropriate veggies, fruits, meats and dairy into the recipes to keep them healthy but friendly.

Author Kim Laidlaw and her daughter

Economically speaking, how do costs compare preparing fresh foods for kids versus buying healthy store bought alternatives?
Laidlaw: Well, I think if you can buy seasonal fruits and veggies you will save a lot of money, and many of the purees and minis can be made in bulk and frozen. Making your own food is definitely cheaper than buying individually-sized pre-packaged foods.

Sometimes kids are picky about eating diverse types of healthy food. What are 3 tips you can share with parents about teaching kids to be food-curious.

Laidlaw:
• Take your kids to the farmers’ market or the grocery store and let them help you pick things out that look good to them.
• Then, let them help you cook so they can see you making the things you picked out together.
• Finally, eat together at the table as much as you can (my daughter always wants to eat what I’m eating).

Take a Sneak Peek and Get Recipes

Disclosure: In addition to Kim Laidlaw being a BAB blogger she and her daughter are personal friends.

Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert.
Photo courtesy of Good vs. Evil

The two rather famous best friends wore similar dark suits and their set looked like the boxing matches from the 1940s and 1950s, with one ominous lamp shining over an uncomfortable chair against a dark backdrop. It was a night that was billed as Good vs. Evil, and started out with Bourdain interrogating Ripert. One of the nicest surprises was how well Ripert was able to dish back to his pal Tony with that rather sexy French accent of his.

Orpheum Theatre. Photo: Mary Ladd

Bourdain and Ripert were in town for a short amount of time before heading to San Jose for a Saturday night show. Later tweets showed that Tony planned on hitting up a 7-11 store to find food to feed Ripert in San Jose. As for where to eat in the City, Bourdain said that he loves having a “crab with the crab fat“ at Swan Oyster Depot and Ripert responded that he wanted to go there with Tony for breakfast [which they apparently did do]. Bourdain also pointed out that the Bay Area has produce that is the envy of the East Coast.

When the talk turned to Alice Waters, Bourdain showed restraint, a gentlemanly move given the recent fire at Chez Panisse. Audience, he’s sure they would get along swimmingly if they met at a party… but do remember, he warned, that Waters chose shark fin soup as her last meal on a panel he did with her and Duff Goldman–a fact that had the audience guffawing. He appeared to have publicly forgiven Waters, as well as other famous food celebs ranging from Rachael Ray to Emeril. Ray sent him a fruit basket, and “how can I not love” someone who made a joke that Mario Batali will loan you a scrunchie if you give him a blow job—-a jab Ray made at a roast for the ponytailed chef.

Ripert got flack from Tony for letting Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, The Situation, and Snooki take their respective spots at the table at his award winning Le Bernardin restaurant. “You gave The Situation and Snooki a kitchen tour, too?” he asked, and Ripert said, “Yes.”

When pushed, Ripert said that tennis star John McEnroe is the one star he would not let dine at his restaurant. “He hurt your feelings!” Bourdain said, as Ripert sheepishly nodded under the bright interrogation lamp. Ripert later said that hipsters are allowed at his restaurant and that guests can take photos of the food at Le Bernardin as long as they don’t use a flash. Bourdain posited that hipsters are “people who are younger than us” and that Ripert felt that the founders of Le Bernardin, Gilbert and Maguy le Coze were hipsters of an earlier era.

Ripert said that he is anti-corkage fee yet also anti-bring-your own wine. He pointed out that Le Bernardin is after all a business (a fair point for any restaurant), and Bourdain said that he thought Le Bernardin had the best sommelier. Ripert waffled a bit on the bring-your-own-wine bit when he conceded that he would be open to guests bringing a great bottle of wine in, but only if they please share a glass with him.

Paula Deen is the one culinary star Bourdain will not forgive, because he is “genuinely appalled by her acts on the planet” which include hyping Southern cooking “into something it’s not.”

Bourdain gave major props to Mission Chinese Food and said that it is rare to see a San Francisco restaurant find such big and immediate success in New York. “I am sure they will take over the world,” he said. Bourdain was aware that Mission Chinese Food plans to next open in Paris, and giggled over the fact that Ripert had to run to the bathroom during his first visit to Mission Chinese, because “he couldn’t handle” how spicy the food was. Clearly Bourdain, given his far flung travels and history of eating dishes like calves brain and pig anus on air makes him the more adventurous eater. Yet Ripert aptly pointed out that Bourdain has not been a kitchen chef in fifteen years. Touché, Monsieur.

One exclusive that Bourdain and Ripert shared with us at the La Cocina meet and greet: they filmed in the mountains of Peru together for Bourdain’s Parts Unknown show on CNN. The series debuted Sunday and viewers can see the friendly pair doing a variety of activities that sound potentially interesting. “We were looking for cacao beans and cooked chicken together, which is a departure for the show,” said Bourdain. “Eric kept telling me, ‘one more mountain’ while I was stumbling around” on their way to find cacao. Bourdain rolled his eyes and laughed as he continued with, “He’s from the Pyrenees, where there’s yodeling and he’s pretty used to all those hills.” Ripert laughed and nodded at this.

They showed a comfort and ease with each other that continued through the meet and greet, where they signed everything from books to body parts while digging into a big plate of La Cocina treats. La Cocina Executive Director Caleb Zigas said that the after party event came about when Bourdain’s production company, Zero Point Zero contacted him. Proceeds from the meet and greet went to La Cocina and Zigas said the party provided an avenue for the La Cocina businesses who have brick and mortar locations. The two hundred or so guests in the green room gawked and took photos of Bourdain and Ripert, and a line snaked around the room for the chance to get autographs.

Inticing Creations baker Kelly Zubal crafted a stunning cake in the shape of a duck press for Bourdain and Ripert. She said that it took her three hours to make and she even brought an edible pen with the hopes of getting a signature on her sweet treat. Zubal confirmed with Bay Area Bites over email that, “Bourdain couldn’t believe I made a duck press and wrote ‘best cake ever’ on it. It now has a place on my cake display area at my cake studio.” Sounds like Bourdain was acting more good than evil to us.

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.

Nico Vera demonstrating how to make ceviche. Photo courtesy: Cathedral Creative Studios

What do quinoa, potatoes, tomatoes and hot peppers have in common? They were all indigenous crops cultivated by the Incas in Peru hundreds of years ago, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in 1535. Peruvian cuisine, according to Peruvian-born, personal chef, Nico Vera, is unique in its incorporation of food traditions from the five vibrant cultures that have shaped Peru: the Inca, Spanish, African, Chinese and Japanese. Vera, who blogs at Pisco Trail will be one of the featured chefs at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show (along with Annie Somerville of Greens, Thy Tran and KQED’s own Leslie Sbrocco). The Garden show runs March 20-24. Vera’s cooking demo will be March 21, at 3:00 pm, on the Sequoia Stage.

In an interview with Bay Area Bites, Vera shared that he has been cooking since he became his mother’s “sous chef” at the age of 10. Since Vera moved to San Francisco in 2000, his mission has been to promote appreciation of Peruvian food and drink through pop-ups, dinners, classes and recipes on his blog. He’s been a regular at 18 Reasons, plus guest blogger on Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s blog with a five-part series that examined Peruvian cooking through “Five Courses, Five Cultures, and 500 Years of Fusion.”

INTERVIEW (edited for length and clarity)

How have the several cultures you mentioned impacted the culinary history of Peru?

The Spaniards introduced onions, limes, grapes and spices like cumin and oregano. They also brought over African slaves who worked on sugar plantations or for wealthy families in Lima. And the Africans brought their own cooking styles. For example, the dish anticucho, (a kind of shish kebab) is a popular street food of barbequed beef hearts marinated with vinegar, hot pepper and lime and cooked on a wooden skewers. Long ago, when the upper classes discarded the tough cuts of beef, the poorer people, (the African slaves) would cook them because nothing should go to waste. Now people line up for anticuchos every night at street carts and food stalls.

What dish will you be preparing for the San Francisco Garden Show?

Aji de Gallina, a famous creamy, Peruvian chicken stew with hot peppers, that is always prepared for special events, even though it’s slow cooked and pretty laborious. It’s a distant relative of blancmange, a nourishing European dish dating from the Middle Ages made with chicken, sugar, rice and milk. When that dish made its way to Peru, hot peppers were added which changed its color and flavor completely. This chicken stew brings up a very special memory for me.

Aji de gallina – Peruvian chicken stew. Photo courtesy: Nico Vera

Can you share that special memory?

When I was about 10 years old, on my Dad’s birthday, my Mom made her chicken stew for dinner. And as often happened in the small third world town where we lived, during the meal, the electricity went out, so we ate the chicken stew in the dark. Eating that chicken without seeing it heightened the senses. The flavors were so intense and beautiful that I fell in love with Peruvian food in that moment and decided I had to learn to cook it.

Pisco Punch, photo courtesy Nico Vera

As a Peruvian mixologist, you are always creating variations on pisco cocktails. Can you explain its history?

Pisco is a grape brandy popular since the late 1500’s. Grapes were not native to Peru. They were brought by the Spaniards who established some of the first vineyards in the Americas. The wine they produced there was so good that the King of Spain banned its production – he was worried that it would compete with Spanish wine. So instead, the grapes were made into the first distilled spirit in the Americas.

When this new spirit was created, it became very popular all over Peru. It was considered medicinal, like brandy. In 1920, the National Drink of Peru, the Pisco Sour, was created in Lima (by an American bartender who lived there) mixing two parts Pisco, one part simple syrup, one part lime juice, and egg whites, shaken with ice, and served strained with drops of Angostura bitters

How do you play with creating new pisco cocktails?

I try to tweak it using different herbs like thyme. Or I infuse the sugar syrup with hot peppers, habanero or chicory or infuse the pisco with coffee beans. It’s alchemy. At the Garden Show, I’ll demonstrate Pisco Punch, (which has a long historical connection to San Francisco).

Peruvian flan with quinoa. Photo courtesy: Nico Vera

We’ve discussed a main dish and cocktail, can you describe a special Peruvian dessert?

There are so many, but one of my favorites is flan with quinoa. It has a different texture. Historically, when the Spaniards brought over sugar cane in the eighteenth century, everything changed . In Lima at that time, there were lots of convents and it was the nuns who specialized in making extravagant desserts for holidays and celebrations. And what’s great is that they were good record keepers and wrote everything down. But they used some odd measurements. Like a recipe might say: take 2 soles (the Peruvian currency) worth of eggs. So we have to do some detective work to figure out how many eggs 2 soles would have bought back then.

We often don’t hear about what people eat for the first meal of the day. I’m curious about a typical Peruvian breakfast.

My favorite breakfast is pan con chicharron, a fried pork sandwich with sweet potatoes, and cafe con leche.

Are you planning to open a restaurant some day?

Right now, I’m not sure, because I’d miss interacting with diners, which means a lot to me. When I do pop-ups at 18 Reasons I’m not just back in the kitchen. I’m up front with the guests, plating, serving. I tell them the stories behind what they’re eating.

Can you recommend any Peruvian restaurants for people who want to sample this cuisine?

San Francisco has many Peruvian restaurants. Two of my favorites are very different from each other:

Mi Lindo Peru is a hole-in-the-wall on Mission, where you feel like you are eating in someone’s home.

And for a more high-end experience, La Mar Cebicheria in the Embarcadero.

What’s your latest project?

I’m writing a book now. I’ve been passionately collecting stories and recipes from my Mom; finding out what Peru was like back when she was a child; it’s a memoir that takes a girl’s perspective.

You picked a recipe for Loma Saltado to share with Bay Area Bites readers, because of its Chinese influence?

Chifa is what they call Chinese food in Peru. It’s been around for 150 years. After the Afro-Peruvians won their freedom, immigrants from China came to work on the farms and plantations, bringing ingredients such as ginger and soy sauce and woks. When my family would go out to eat we would always go to eat Chifa and sit at big round tables. In Peru, there are thousands of Chinese restaurants. Now when I travel to cities like New York and Vancouver, I make a point to visit their Chinatowns, because they make me feel at home.

Chinese-Peruvian Beef Stir Fry. Photo courtesy: Nico Vera

RECIPE
Nico Vera’s Lomo Saltado – Chinese-Peruvian Beef Stir Fry

Lomo Saltado is one of the most important dishes in the history of Peruvian cuisine — it’s the first time that ingredients from China like ginger and soy sauce were mixed with Peruvian aji amarillo hot peppers, and the fusion is a truly savory and spicy Chifa dish.

Though there are many variations of Lomo Saltado, the main ingredients are beef, red onions, tomatoes, and French fries. The real key to this dish, however, is the seasoning — in addition to salt, garlic, and ginger, I prepare a sauce with soy sauce, white wine vinegar, oyster sauce, and aji amarillo. The recipe here is from my mom, but the addition of the oyster sauce was inspired by Gaston Acurio’s version of Lomo Saltado at La Mar.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE STIR-FRY
• 1/2 lb. beef (see notes below)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 red onion
• 1 tomato
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 small piece of ginger
• 1 bag of frozen French fries
• salt to taste
• green onion and cilantro for garnish
• 1 lime

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon aji amarillo paste
• 4 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons oyster sauce

PREPARATION
In addition to the ingredients above, you’ll need a skillet for stir-frying and a bowl to mix the sauce.
1. Preheat the oven and follow the instruction to bake the French fries, usually at 450°F for 30 minutes or so. You can continue with the preparation that follows while the fries are baking, but wait until they are done before stir-frying the beef.
2. Mince the garlic and ginger. Chop the cilantro and cut the green onion into rings. Slice the tomato into six wedges. Peel the red onion, cut in half, and cut each half in quarters and separate onion layers into leaf-like slices. Cut the lime in half.
3. In a small bowl, prepare the sauce by mixing together the soy sauce, vinegar, aji amarillo, and oyster sauce.
4. Cut the beef into medium size strips.
5. When the fries are done, remove from oven.
6. Heat canola oil in skillet over medium to high heat.
7. Season the beef strips with salt and stir-fry the beef in skillet, about 30 seconds.
8. Add the garlic and ginger, stir-fry about 30 seconds.
9. Add the onions and tomatoes, stir-fry about 30 seconds.
10. Add the fries and prepared sauce, stir-fry about 30 seconds.
11. Turn off heat and mix in the green onion and cilantro, stir-fry about 30 seconds.
12. Serve immediately and squeeze juice of half a lime over dish.

SERVINGS
2 servings.

NOTES
Lomo means tenderloin en español, but other cuts of beef will work well as long as you don’t overcook them. For example, I like using a New York strip and sometimes a top sirloin. The beef strips should be of even thickness and not too long, that way they will cook uniformly. Once the sauce is prepared, the fries are baked, and all the ingredients are chopped or sliced, the cooking happens very fast. The timing in the steps above is only an estimate, what is most important is not to overcook the beef or tomatoes. Also, you should only add the amount of sauce and fries to balance all the ingredients. The end result should be tender beef, crispy onions, moist tomatoes, and warm fries — nothing should be too soft or soggy.

Related Information
Blog: Pisco Trail
Facebook: Pisco Trail
Twitter: @piscotrail
Pinterest: Piscotrail.com

Post by Michaeleen Doucleff, The Salt at NPR Food (2/13/13)

Four years ago, my husband revealed one of his more peculiar qualities: He’s freaked out by the sight of sliced cantaloupe.

The melon seeds, all clustered together, make his skin itch and his stomach churn. Then he gets obsessed and can’t stop talking about it.

A bit concerned by his behavior, I started researching it on the Web. Boy, was I in for a treat. My husband was not alone.

Trypophobia, as the Urban Dictionary defines it, is an irrational fear of holes, pods or cracks — specifically, clusters of them.

It’s not recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or any clinical psychologist we could find, but a whole trypophobia community is rising up on the Web.

On Instagram and Reddit, people share photographs of clusters that make them anxious, obsessed and even nauseated. Many images show holey foods or clusters of seeds, like aerated chocolates, the innards of a red bell pepper, and bubbles rising up in pancakes while they cook.

“I don’t like the holes in crumpets or sponges or Swiss cheese,” @CourtneySGray said on Twitter. “They all make me shudder and panic.”

The trypophobia Facebook page touts nearly 7,000 followers, who commiserate on their “condition” and triggers. “When macaroni noodles stand up straight when I’m boiling them, I wanna cry,” Kelcey Piper remarked on Facebook. “Anyone else experienced this?”

The standard litmus test for trypophobia seems to be a photograph of lotus seeds. And I have to admit, these pictures can give me the heebie-jeebies if I think about them long enough.

But in Southeast Asia, people eat these like peanuts. They just peel the pods and pop the seeds in their mouth. And down in New Orleans, people harvest lotus from the bayous and then fry up the seeds.

So I’m not convinced about this trypophobia. From the comments on Facebook, it’s clear that many people didn’t even realize these photographs bothered them until they stumbled upon them on Google.

Beautiful or creepy? A recent survey found that an image of a lotus seed head makes about 15 percent of people uncomfortable or even repulsed. Photo: tanakawho/Flickr.com

Is there really a common phobia to lotus and melon lurking in our society, or could this just be some modern-day phenomenon fueled by social media and the power of suggestion?

Psychiatrist Carol Mathews of the University of California, San Francisco, who specializes in anxiety disorders, thinks it’s mostly the latter.

She’s never heard of trypophobia, and from looking at the comments on the Web, she doesn’t think most people have a real phobia — or an intense fear — to these objects. Instead, they simply find the images disgusting or yucky.

Mathews thinks this response is probably due to a psychological concept known as priming: You’re asked if the lotus photo makes you feel itchy, so it’s more likely to stir up an itch or two.

“We all have random skin sensations, but we normally filter them out,” she tells The Salt. It’s “like background noise — our brains have taught us not to listen to it. But if we’re asked to pay attention to our skin, then we start to feel all these little itches.”

Research psychologist Arnold Wilkins at the U.K.’s University of Essex has been investigating the phenomenon, and he thinks he might know what’s going on. In images that set off this repulsion, the pattern of contrast is similar to that found in photographs of extremely poisonous animals — like box jellyfish, king cobras and Brazilian wandering spiders. Wilkins speculates that we humans are especially good at picking out these patterns because they help us spot dangerous animals that might otherwise blend with the background.

It’s a tidy, evolution-based theory, but Mathews isn’t buying it.

Intermixing truly yucky pictures of parasites and skin conditions with innocuous images of cantaloupes and crumpets, she says, could also make you feel grossed out by your breakfast. This is a type of conditioning, in which one emotion — disgust, uncomfortableness — gets associated with something that normally doesn’t evoke that emotion.

“There might really be people out there with phobias to holes, because people can really have a phobia to anything,” she says. “But just reading what’s on the Internet, that doesn’t seem to be what people actually have.”

“Now that I think about cantaloupes, I feel a little disgusted, too,” Mathews says. “And I really like cantaloupes.”

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Catherine McCord. Photo by Jonathan Gordon

New mom Catherine McCord didn’t set out to become a food blogger. But after her son was born she had a hard time finding healthy homemade baby food recipes. So she started doing research and recipe testing and began posting her own creations on the web. Fast forward five years and McCord is the voice behind the popular site weelicious, which focuses on family-friendly dishes that are quick and easy to prepare, nutritious, and packed with flavor too.

“Even though I’d been to culinary school, worked in restaurants in New York, and cooked for myself and friends from a young age, when I had my son I wasn’t sure where to start,” says the Institute of Culinary Education graduate who has a crew of in-home taste testers: son Kenya, 5, daughter Chloe, 3, and husband Jon. McCord, who recently taught a “picky eater” cooking class for Sur La Table in Palo Alto, plans on returning to the Bay Area in early 2013.

McCord’s food philosophy is simple: She favors recipes that use just a few wholesome, fresh ingredients and can appeal to a range of ages — from toddlers to teenagers — and adults as well. “As a parent you don’t have to be a short-order cook preparing four different meals for four different family members,” says McCord, 39, who lives in Los Angeles and is the author of the new cookbook Weelicious: One Family. One Meal.

McCord, a contributing editor at Parenting magazine, advises that one of the best ways to raise an adventurous eater is to involve children in all aspects of the meal-making process. Go food shopping with your kids. Farmers’ markets are a great place to take young ones to learn about smart food choices, she says, and there are plenty of healthy, free samples to savor.

Talk with your children, McCord says, about what food you’re buying: “What should we do with this sweet potato? Could we mash it?” And invite them into the kitchen to help. “My son loves peeling bananas and pouring frozen fruit and rice milk into the blender to make his own smoothies,” she says.

The former model, actress, and athlete credits her own family background for her healthy attitude towards cooking and eating. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where her mom taught her the importance of eating nourishing food for well being. “I also learned from my grandparents about gardening, composting, and canning, and these are traditions I’m passing along to my own children,” says McCord who also contributes to Babble, which named her one of the top 100 food mom blogs of 2011.

And there’s one more: Eat together as a family. “I know it’s tough with everyone’s hectic schedules but if your kids see you eating and enjoying broccoli, then there’s a good chance they’ll learn to like it too,” she says.

Case in point: McCord recounts a story from a frustrated mother whose daughter wouldn’t eat much besides plain noodles with butter — except for something she calls “Nana juice” — a breakfast drink she makes with her grandmother that includes kale, fruit, and flax. A little girl who hates almost everything drinks raw green smoothies? “The fact that that drink is her favorite breakfast tells me that kids take their cues about food from their family.”

Catherine McCord shares her Quinoa Pudding recipe families can make together, below. Oh, and just a heads up: This is the sort of dish a toddler may enjoy but, in this writer’s experience, it’s also a hit with teens and makes a nice change from porridge for breakfast for any age.

Banana Quinoa Pudding. Photo: Catherine McCord

Recipe: Banana Quinoa Pudding

This light, creamy concoction is a play on a rice pudding, with quinoa — a grain-like seed rich in protein — taking the place of rice. Makes a flavorful and filling after-school snack, dessert, or special breakfast treat. Can be served warm or cold.

• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hours, 20 minutes *(One hour for chilling pudding)
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 14 oz can light coconut milk
• 1 cup milk (2 percent fat or higher)
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation
1. Place the quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse with water.
2. Put quinoa, coconut milk and milk in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
3. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Stir in the remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes stirring continuously until thickened.
5. Pour into individual ramekins and chill for at least one hour.*
   * The pudding can also be served warm.

Kids Turn: There’s lots of opportunity in this recipe for a child to lend a hand, says McCord. Young children can rinse quinoa in a strainer under running water, shake the coconut milk can (the fat and milk content sometimes separate on the shelf), and peel and mash bananas. Small children can also measure ingredients and pour them into the pot — and can stir the saucepan while cooking, with adult supervision. Older elementary age children may be comfortable making the whole dish — with some encouragement and under the watchful eye of a grown up. “Cooking in the kitchen with your child is an opportunity to talk about where food comes from, what’s in it, why it’s good for you, and what happens when you add heat, spice, fat, or liquid,” says McCord. “It’s also a chance to work in concepts like math, science, and geography. And it’s fun to taste test together, admire the fruits of your combined labor, and eat them too.”

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It was the pungent French insult, shut your smelly Camembert mouth! (ferme ta boîte à Camembert!) that hooked me on my latest obsession: gathering food idioms from different languages. Fellow intercultural explorer Joe Lurie, posted a bumper crop of descriptive FRENCH food phrases, such as these tasty ways to call someone a jerk:

espèce d’andouille!– piece of sausage!
une vraie courge! – an utter squash!
quelle nouille! – such a noodle!

Joe also included these edible idioms:

ramener ta fraise =  to bring your strawberry = to butt in on a conversation
occupe-toi de tes oignons!! = mind your own onions! = mind your own business!
va te faire cuire un œuf! = cook yourself an egg! = go to hell!

As a food writer, interpreter and collector — this is totally my cup of tea!

Sofa spud or American “Couch potato”

English has plenty of food-isms too. We refer to others as: the big cheese, a couch potato, or an apple polisher. Or hotly declare, “You’re toast!”

We can also butter someone up with praise such as: “you’re the apple of my eye,” “you’re a peach” or use terms of endearment like honey, sweetie-pie, and sugar.

Just as I became consumed by searching for edible expressions, our summer houseguests from Germany and Argentina arrived. So I peppered them with questions about food phrases in their native languages.

“Have to fry you a special sausage” – German

GERMAN  (thanks to Orna Gutmacher)

Extrawurst braten = I have to fry you a special sausage = you always need something extra
Kleine Bröchten backen = bake little rolls = take small steps to start something
Schokoladenseite zeigen = to show your chocolate side = to only see good things
Tomaten auf den Augen haben = to have tomatoes on the eyes = to be blind to something
Ich habe mit dir ein Hühnchen zu rupfen = I have to pluck a chicken with you = we need to talk
Das Haar in der Suppe finden = to look for the hair in the soup = never be satisfied

SPANISH (thanks to Susana Pendzik)

Me importa un pepino = I care a cucumber = I don’t give a fig
Agarrar a alguien con las manos en la masa = to catch someone with their hands in the dough = to catch someone doing something they shouldn’t
Pedirle peras al olmo = to ask for pears from an elm tree = try to do something that’s impossible

Next, I asked two local friends, who enlisted help from their Facebook friends back in Denmark and Turkey and collectively came up with dozens of phrases.

“Porridge Head!” – Danish

DANISH (thanks to Kim Aronson)

Nye boller på suppen = we need new (meat)balls in the soup = we need new energy, input, ideas
Pølsearme = sausage arms = you are weak
Grødhovede = porridge head = you are confused, have no brain
En tynd kop te = it’s a weak cup of tea = your case is not very strong

TURKISH (thanks to Suzi Amado)

Incir cekirdegini doldurmayacak sebepler = Reasons that would not fill a fig seed = There aren’t good enough reasons to be upset.
Agzinda bakla islanmamak = A fava bean doesn’t get wet in somebody’s mouth = If you tell this person a secret, they will tell it to others
Her seye maydanoz olmak = Being parsley to everything = Having an opinion and being nosy about everything
Sutten agzi yanan yogurdu ufleyerek yer = If your mouth is burnt by milk, you blow before you eat yogurt = If something bad happens to you, you get anxious about things that are somewhat related, although it doesn’t make sense. This phrase is often used for dating or friendships when someone gets hurt and then becomes very self-protective.
Benim basima gelen cig tavugun basina gelmez = What happened to me would not happen to a raw chicken. This could be used when what happened to me is so weird that it is funny.

Thrilled at the response and variety of food images in different languages, I approached some of the people I’ve written about previously. (It’s helpful that my favorite subject is the intersection of food and culture).

Tomoko Yoshihara, who was such a generous guide on my recent trip to Kyoto, shared these pithy sayings from JAPANESE:

Sansho ha kotsubu de piririto karai, Sansho [a Japanese pepper] is small, but hot enough = Even though a person is very small, if they are cheerful and have talent, you can’t ignore them.
Mochi ha mochi ya, Rice cake, rice cake maker = Each field has an expert.

Lali Ghlonti, (whose Georgian and Russian dishes at the SF Street Food Festival, I recently described) contributed this RUSSIAN saying:

to hang noodles on someone’s ears = to tell them a lie.

Simone Fung, one half of S+S Gastro Grub, the masters of molecular gastronomy I profiled in April, suggested a few CANTONESE phrases:

Chicken feather, garlic skin = irrelevant or worthless things
A jealous person is said be sipping vinegar
Are you made out of tofu? – typically asked of kids who cry all the time

Last March, I interviewed Monier Attar about her Persian New Year celebration. She recently offered this good advice from FARSI:

Whoever eats melon should be ready for shivering = if you do something, you have to be ready to deal with the consequences.

Mostafa Raiss El Fenni, who taught me how to eat with my hands, shared this wise counsel from MOROCCAN ARABIC,

Eda kan hbibak aassel, mat’lehsushi kamel = If your dear friend is honey, don’t lick him all up = “if your friend is very generous, don’t just keep taking from him or her”

And this bit of ironic wit: Rabi aata l’hammus li ma aandu snan God gives fava beans to people with false teeth. He explains, “You need real teeth to chew fava beans. Sometimes people get things they don’t need; while others who can really use it, don’t get it. It’s like a billionaire winning the lottery.”

Then, I turned to my fellow Bay Area Food Bloggers.
Renate contributed this description from GERMAN: Er hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank = He doesn’t have all of his coffee/tea cups in his cabinet = ”he’s a few cards shy of a full deck”

Orly wrote, “In Israel we use a phrase in a mix of HEBREW and ARABIC: Yom Asal Yom Basal = which literally means a day of honey, a day of onions and translates to “a good day, a bad day”.

Another friend, Yardena, shared this from HEBREW: Shikor velo meyayin: Drunk, but not from wine, (meaning, in love).

And Judy Kunofsky from Klez California kindly answered my last minute request with this gem from YIDDISH:

Vi a kalteh kugl af purim – like a cold kugel on Purim (“meaning: when pigs fly or never, because Purim is a Jewish holiday on which you can cook, so no one would ever serve a cold kugel [noodle pudding]“).

Other food bloggers referred me to more than 50 FRENCH sayings complied by Clotilde Dusoulier on her popular blog Chocolate and Zucchini. One example she cites is “Long comme un jour sans pain.”, “as long as a day without bread,” to express that something is very long, especially the duration of an event.”

I was also directed to a terrific collection of ITALIAN food phrases collected by local Vanessa DellaPasqua in her blog, Italy in SF – Intriguingly, I noticed her list includes many phrases about bread:

E’ buono come un pezzo di pane = He’s as good as a piece of bread. = He’s a good person, a really nice guy.

Rendere pan per focaccia = 
To give back bread for focaccia 
= Similar to “an eye for an eye,” it is used metaphorically to illustrate a payback for a suffered wrong.

L’ho comprato per un tozzo di pane
 = I bought it for a piece of bread. 
= It was a real deal, very underpriced compared to its value.

Plus one of my favorites:

C’entra come i cavoli a merenda
 = It fits like cabbage for the afternoon snack 
= It doesn’t fit, it’s inappropriate

“Like cabbage for the afternoon snack” – Italian

Not surprisingly, several of the CHINESE food sayings, also compiled by Joe Lurie, refer to rice.

In business, “being handed a rice bowl” is to be hired, while “having your rice bowl broken,” is to be fired.
I love this Chinese bit of wisdom: “if you pick up a sesame seed, you may drop a watermelon,” meaning, if you focus on trivial matters, you may lose sight of important issues.

Then just last week, I met two young Iraqi men who are interning in a local high-tech company for a few months. Wael and Ibraheem were glad to contribute these sayings in IRAQI ARABIC:

He or she is like a tomato =  a compliment for being socially flexible and able to get along in any situation (“because we put tomatoes on everything”)
You’re making a kubba [a fist-sized fried dumpling made of meat covered in rice] out of a bean = you exaggerate too much, or you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.

ASL, American Sign Language, can also take its place at the food idiom table with
BRING BREAD BUTTER = earn the money for the family or “bring home the bacon” and
FISH SWALLOW = gullible, as in “Gotcha! You fell for it!” which points up ASL’s historical link to French Sign Language (LSF). In France, April 1 is called “Poisson d’avril” (April fish) and those who are fooled by a prank have “swallowed the fish”.
(Thank you Dan Langholtz, Priscilla Moyers and Nikki Horrell)

The deliciously descriptive food phrases above, representing 17 languages, just whet my appetite. I’m sure there are many more juicy ones from around the world. So, here’s open invitation: Please share your own favorite food phrases and send this on to anyone who might know some from a language not yet listed. Let’s invite everyone to the feast!

My deep appreciation to all the generous friends who got into the spirit of my quest and a special thanks to Lila Volkas, for creating the delightful illustrations above. Lila is an artist and photographer. We last collaborated on a story about Parisian Tea salons.

Nion McEvoy, 60, has steadily built a media empire that currently includes Chronicle Books, 7×7, and California Home and Design Magazine, all of which are stylishly housed in one building near the Giant’s ballpark. At Chronicle Books, McEvoy is the chairman, CEO and owner. He is a descendant of M.H. de Young, who founded the San Francisco Chronicle and was the co-founder of San Francisco’s cotillion ball for debutantes. Chronicle Books is a separate entity from the media outlet and McEvoy bought and took over Chronicle Books in 1999. McEvoy is trained as an attorney and also has a hand in McEvoy Olive Oil, which was started by his mother Nan McEvoy and is known as much for its peppery olive oils as it is for its annual harvest celebration for 500 luminaries and friends.

Having Chronicle Books based in San Francisco is interesting on many fronts: the publishing industry has historically set up shop and celebrated itself on the east coast. The company’s catalog is rich with books on cooking and food, but there’s also music (Beatles fans take note), art and photography, kids books, gardening and fiction titles as well as the world’s cutest dog with over three million Facebook fans, Boo. Boo potentially manages to charm even those who normally find small dogs to be sort of lame and annoying (guilty!). Chronicle Books reflects local excellence with successful titles that include Miette, Tartine, Tartine Bread, Bottega by Michael Chiarello, Simply Organic by Jesse Ziff Cool, and the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market Cookbook, according to Sarah Billingsley, who is Associate Editor at Chronicle Books. Food titles with national reach include the bestselling Cake Pops as well as Weber’s Big Book of Grilling and the vegetable-focused book Plenty. Bay Area Bites interviewed McEvoy, Billingsley and Peter Perez, who is Associate Marketing Director, Food & Drink/Art Publishing at Chronicle Books. Their comments have been condensed for clarity.

Bay Area Bites: What’s new with Chronicle Books?
McEvoy: We were really blown away by Cake Pops by Bakerella. The sales numbers are pretty insane and it’s been a huge success.

The sun was out more often than not last year and we had a good year. Over the last decade, the world of publishing has been troubled, anxious and confused yet we’ve always been profitable.

Perez: It’s really exciting that we’re putting out the Yigit Pura cookbook. He’s opening Tout Sweet at Macy’s any day now and he’s such a lovely chef.

Bay Area Bites: How did that come about?
Perez: Here’s a good piece of local gossip: Yigit knows Frankie Frankeny and Frankie’s wife Chloé Harris Frankeny through the Marriage Equality movement. The book idea was from them organically talking in a way that’s more closely knit rather than just an agent’s proposal arriving on our desk.

Bay Area Bites: What role does social media play at Chronicle Books?
McEvoy: The biggest food app that people rely on is Instagram. Everyone relies on what they saw and ate and everyone here is in love with it. We have a huge Pinterest culture and find authors there. So much of social media is relational and about discovering.

Perez: We were early adapters to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest and find neat ways to get people’s response. We’re really conscientious of being tastemakers and trend watchers; we’ve been publishing for over 25 years.

The most primal thing that’s been going on now close to five years is that we have a regular food based blog post weekly. I’ll write it or I often get our authors to guest blog. One of our best selling authors is Bakerella — and we’re approaching a million copies with her book. When she’s a guest blogger for us, it’s mutually beneficial. It’s not paid placement and it’s really through the social experience online.

For the blog, usually there’s a recipe embedded to give people a connection to the book. We share recipes, and it’s a PDF that you absolutely have permission to keep that content. Or we do Q&As and quizzes that get a huge response. We’ll do a crowd source kind of thing, where we use Instagram for hashtags and say, “Tell us your favorite ice cream flavor.” We published Humphry Slocombe and they have over 300K Twitter followers. We let the author be a judge, and select who we pick.

There’s more behind the scenes and context on why we published the book. When we do giveaways, it’s to get people to comment and instigate a response. We have a lot more readers than commentators. We’re trying to engage and not be hard hitting with, “Buy our books.” We know people love our books for a reason and we publish things we really believe in. It’s not just a crass commercial operation.

Bay Area Bites: Why keep Chronicle Books in San Francisco?
McEvoy: I’ve always thought that one of the advantages is there isn’t that much publishing in San Francisco so you don’t go out and have drinks on the town and run into folks. It’s an interesting world we live in out here. My kids are so into Facebook and I just see a world where we get increasingly digital and fast-paced and non-material. At the same time we have Slow Food and caring about where the chicken went to high school. We are increasingly interested in the physical and sensuous real world as a counterbalance to how much time we spend in our little screens and boxes. We are in fact all mammals and it’s under reported how much we like things.

Bay Area Bites: Nion, what’s your involvement with McEvoy olive oil & what’s the story there?
McEvoy: My mom used to say, “Sometimes I think in my last incarnation I was a medieval farmer because I love olive oil and bread so much.”

Mom got the property in Marin and thought it’d be a nice place for my kids. Marin wouldn’t let her do anything unless it was with an agricultural purpose and she thought olives. I introduced her to Maggie Klein’s book The Feast of the Olive and then to Italian olive expert Maurizio Caselli. Maurizio looked at it and said “Oh yes, perfect.” Then my mom imported seedlings from different Tuscan varietals and planted her first crop with olive trees. She’s 93 now and does not make all the executive decisions so I get pulled in to help out. Our little marketing dept Christina Cavallaro and Jane Steele–who both worked at Chronicle Books at one time– thought it’d be good to go into lotions and skin care products for our 80 Acres line. We had to learn that from scratch. Then a few years ago we released our 1st scent/flavor called verde. Then after that, we did lavender and blood orange. Those have been dramatically successful and now sell in Harrod’s. The relation between olive oil and Chronicle Books is that both companies share a love for high quality and the beautiful and sensuously pleasing.

Bay Area Bites: Nion, what are your favorite Bay Area spots for food & drink?
McEvoy: Fish in Sausalito for the Vietnamese salmon banh mi and Out the Door for chicken pho.

Bay Area Bites: Nion, what is your guiltiest food pleasure?
McEvoy: Caramel and sea salt ice cream from Whole Foods. I’m not that susceptible to junk food but I am susceptible to food.

Chronicle Books is having a Back To School Warehouse Sale, where you can save 65% on select titles. Peter Perez recommends arriving early for the best deals and selection.

WHERE: Chronicle Books Corporate Headquarters ONLY
680 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94107

WHEN: Wednesday, August 22, 9:00 am-7:00 pm
Thursday, August 23, 9:00 am-7:00 pm
Friday, August 24, 9:00 am-7:00 pm

I’m very excited to announce the best job that I will probably ever have. The Perennial Plate, the online weekly documentary series about sustainable and adventurous eating is going around the world! We are partnering with Intrepid Travel, the responsible, experiential travel company for a series of international episodes that will explore the wonders, complexities and stories behind an ever more connected global food system. We’re announcing the series in a slightly different fashion, with a two-minute cartoon, capturing the history and future of our web series.

The international episodes will begin in October 2012, with Japan and China followed by travel through India, Sri Lanka, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Ethiopia. The series will stretch over a period of a year-and-a-half, showcasing the people, practices and communities that support, and are inspiring, sustainable eating around the world. Please watch the video, and join us on the adventure, we’ll be posting travel updates and pictures from the world on The Perennial Plate website.