Fast times on the Champs-Elysees: People walk past a McDonald’s on one of Paris’ most storied avenues. But it’s not just McD’s that has caught French interest: Fast food now accounts for the majority of restaurant spending in the country.
Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

Post by Amy Guttman, The Salt at NPR Food (04/30/13)

When it comes to culinary matters, France, in many minds, is synonymous with fine dining. So it might surprise you that, for the first time, sales at fast food chains have overtaken those at traditional restaurants in the country that gave us the word gastronomie.

That’s according to an annual survey of consumer spending, traffic and other restaurant data conducted by Gira Conseil, a food consultancy firm. The latest survey, to be released in May, found that fast food chains now account for 54 percent of all restaurant sales in France.

“In previous years, we could see fast food was gaining ground, but this is the first time it has overtaken restaurants where you are served at the table,” Julien Janneau of Gira Conseil told French newspaper Nouvel Observateur.

Consumption at casual eateries serving burgers, sandwiches, pizza and other fast food has increased 14 percent in the past year alone, according to the survey.

While McDonald’s has been in France since the 1970s, many industry observers say it wasn’t until the turn of this century that outlets for both American and European fast food chains really began proliferating. The fast food market is now so ripe that Subway says it has opened some 400 stores in the past decade, and Burger King, which shut its 39 French restaurants 16 years ago, recently re-entered the market with great success.

“We are the second-biggest consumer of fast food, after the U.S.,” Camille Labro, a food writer and regular contributor to Le Monde magazine, tells The Salt.

The rise of fast food has come as the French have grown lax about their notoriously rigid food culture rules. Frédéric Maquair, who co-founded Cojean, a Parisian chain of healthy fast food outlets, in 2001, notes that meals never used to be a solitary activity. “Before, people didn’t dare go by themselves to a restaurant, eating alone, reading a magazine,” he tells The Salt.

Nowadays, he and others say, the French have come to see fast food as freedom from the rigid gastronomical rules that used to bind them to sitting at a table, with other people, at specific times, for multiple courses.

But there’s another, more practical concern encouraging the fast food trend: a shrinking lunch break.

The French lunch hour has collapsed from 80 minutes back in 1975 to just 22 minutes, according to a 2011 study by insurer Malakoff Mederic. That, in turn, has hurt business at traditional cafes, where offerings — like the typical 13 euro ($15) multicourse lunch — are still geared toward leisurely eating habits that are, increasingly, a relic of the past.

The number of cafes in France has dropped from more than 200,000 after World War II to just 32,000 today, according to estimates from Gira Conseil.

“The offer has not changed,” says Gira Conseil’s Devanne Julien, “but the consumer is different.” Cafes, he says, “have not been able to adapt and compete with fast food.”

Indeed, adaptation has been a key to fast food’s success in France — where offerings tend to be healthier than in other parts of the world. There’s less emphasis on fried and more focus on fresh ingredients and local tastes.

At British chain Pret A Manger, known for its sandwiches, a third of the menu is dedicated to French classics like apple tart and the beloved jambon-beurre, or ham and butter — which might be called the French national sandwich.

And as we’ve previously reported, McDonald’s has risen to the top of the fast food pack in France, with more than 1,200 outlets, precisely by fine-tuning its menu to fit the local culture (think grass-fed beef burgers). In 2011, the company even opened a salad-only cafe, called McSalad, which managed to win a begrudging bit of praise from food writer Labro.

“The dressing was made with hazelnut and balsamic vinegar,” she admits reluctantly, “just like I make at home.”

But American chains like McDonald’s and Subway also attract French fans for the ways in which they depart from local customs — at least when it comes to wait staff, says Labro.

French waiters, she says, tend to be “so mean and unserviceable that the American way of doing things in fast food places is almost pleasant.”

Labro remains a steadfast opponent of fast food, but she can also see why its American-style service appeals to consumers. They’d “rather have an automated experience than a waiter ready to throw food in my face. It’s more relaxing.”

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Demonstrators from the Fast Food Forward rally protest Thursday outside a Wendy’s restaurant in New York City.
Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP

Listen to the Story on All Things Considered

Post by Joel Rose, The Salt at NPR Food (4/4/13)

Fast-food restaurants were a little bit slower Thursday in New York City. Hundreds of workers staged a one-day strike in what organizers are calling the biggest job action ever in that industry. It’s a growing segment of the economy, but workers complain that fast-food jobs don’t pay enough to survive in New York City.

The current minimum wage in New York is $7.25. That’s what many fast-food workers in the city earn, including Joseph Barrera, who works at a KFC restaurant in Brooklyn. He thinks fast-food companies can afford to treat their employees better.

“We help them earn those billions of dollars that give them the lifestyle that the CEOs get. They earn million-dollar paychecks, so why can’t they give us something that we can live on?” says Barrera.

This is the second time workers at fast-food restaurants around the city have walked off the job in the past six months.

Jonathan Westin is a campaign manager for Fast Food Forward, the group that organized both strikes. It’s calling for fast food restaurants to pay a so-called living wage of $15 an hour.

“It’s not teenagers working after-school jobs,” says Westin. “It’s adults with families that are trying to take care of their kids and can’t put food on the table. They can work here for 10, 15 years and still be making the same wages as when they started.”

Shenise Hendricks and Lourdy Eferance have both worked at a Wendy’s restaurant in Brooklyn for four years. Hendricks is paid $8 an hour and Eferance is paid $7.50 an hour. They say that it’s a struggle to live in New York on this salary.

And Wendy’s isn’t an easy place to work, says Hendricks. For example, if she tries to call in sick to work, she gets written up.

Wendy’s declined to comment for this story. In fact, none of the fast-food companies we called wanted to be interviewed.

In a statement, a spokesman for Burger King says the company has provided “an entry point into the work-force for millions of Americans,” including many who went on to be franchise owners.

The National Restaurant Association says the industry provides more than 13 million jobs — jobs that could be jeopardized if the minimum wage goes up. In a statement, the association says the industry is “one of the best paths to achieving the American Dream.”

But that dream remains out of reach for people like Gregory Renoso, who makes minimum wage as a deliveryman for Domino’s Pizza. “People like me, we don’t have education to get a better job,” says Renoso. “We have to do the fast-food industry. But the fast-food industry [doesn't] pay.”

According to strike organizer Westin, the fast-food industry is one of the few sectors of the economy that are growing quickly. Tens of thousands of fast-food workers are employed in New York alone.

“Folks can’t just move on to other jobs,” says Westin. “If they could, they probably would have, because the conditions are so bad. The problem is, these are the jobs that are out there. There’s really nowhere to go.” And while corporations are recovering, the working class is not, he adds.

New York’s minimum wage is already set to rise to $9 an hour over the next three years. But according to Westin, that change will be too little, too late for many of those who are striking today.

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Post by Nell Boeschenstein, The Salt at NPR Food
(2/26/13)

Dealing Coke to customers called “heavy users.” Selling to teens in an attempt to hook them for life. Scientifically tweaking ratios of salt, sugar and fat to optimize consumer bliss.

In his new book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss goes inside the world of processed and packaged foods.

Moss begins his tale back in 1999, when a vice president at Kraft addressed a meeting of top executives of America’s biggest food companies. His topic: the growing public health concerns over the obesity epidemic and the role packaged and processed foods were playing in it. Michael Mudd stated his case, pleading with his colleagues to pay attention to the health crisis and consider what companies could do to hold themselves accountable.

According to Moss, the first response came from the CEO of General Mills.

“[He] got up and made some very forceful points from his perspective,” Moss tells Fresh Air’s Dave Davies, “and his points included this: We at General Mills have been responsible not only to consumers but to shareholders. We offer products that are low-fat, low-sugar, have whole grains in them, to people who are concerned about eating those products.

“Bottom line being, though, that we need to ensure that our products taste good, because our accountability is also to our shareholders. And there’s no way we could start down-formulating the usage of salt, sugar, fat if the end result is going to be something that people do not want to eat.”

Michael Moss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. Photo: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Employing scientists to dissect elements of the palate and tweak ratios of salt, sugar and fat to optimize taste, the processed food industry, Moss says, has hooked consumers on their products the same way the cigarette industry hooked smokers on nicotine.

Since that meeting in 1999, when executives declined to craft an industrywide standard for more healthful products, some companies, like Kraft, have tackled the issue unilaterally, altering recipes to cut down on salt, sugar and fat. Moss’ research, however, indicates that government regulation may be necessary to implement industrywide standards in the interest of public health.

“I was surprised to hear from the former CEO of Philip Morris, who is no friend of government, no friend of government regulation,” says Moss, “to tell me that, ‘Look, Michael, in the case of the processed food industry, what you’re looking at is a total inability on their part to collectively decide to do the right thing by consumers on the health profile of their products. In this case, I can see how you might need government regulation if [for] nothing else [than] to give the companies cover from the pressure of Wall Street.’ ”

Interview Highlights

On the marketing campaign for Frosted Mini-Wheats that called the cereal “brain food”

“What they came up with was some science that they had generated that they said showed that kids who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast would be as much as or almost 20 percent more alert in the classroom, which the company translated into better grades for kids. … You could almost see parents trying to do the math: ‘Well, you know, Johnny got a C+ on that test, and if we bumped it up by 20 percent, hey, he’s in an A-minus category.’ That campaign went on for a while until the FTC jumped in and said, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we’re looking at your study and it doesn’t really show anything near that kind of gain,’ and not only that, but they weren’t even looking at other breakfasts to compare to the Frosted Mini-Wheats.”

On Coke’s marketing strategy

“Within Coke they referred to their best customers not as you might think — ‘consumers’ or ‘loyal fans’ or something like that. They became known as ‘heavy users.’ And Coke had a formula … that basically said, ’20 percent of the people will use 80 percent of the product.’ And, as Coke saw it, it was worth their while more to focus on those 20 percent using 80 percent of the product than to try to generate more consumption by the other 80 percent. So the heavy users of soda became those people who were drinking as many as 1,000 cans of soda a year, sometimes even more.”

On hooking teens on brand loyalty

“The clientele were kids — teenagers — who were going out on their own for the first time with a little bit of change into an environment where they could make the decision about what to buy and, for $1 or $2, they could go in there and choose a soda or a snack and decide between brands. And this was critical to Coke, as it is to other companies, because those decisions early on, especially in the teen years, will develop brand loyalties. So a child that chooses Pepsi at age 13 or 14 is likely to maintain that brand loyalty through the rest of their life.”

On Kraft owner Philip Morris’ foresight with regards to processed foods

“As Philip Morris came under pressure for nicotine and cigarettes, it eventually started looking at the food divisions in light of the emerging obesity crisis. And there were moments in these internal documents where Philip Morris officials were saying to the food division, ‘You guys are going to face a problem with salt, sugar, fat in terms of obesity of the same magnitude, if not more than [what] we’re facing with nicotine right now. And you’ve got to start thinking about this issue and how you’re going to deal with that.’ “

On visiting Kellogg

“They made for me special versions of some of their most iconic products … without any salt in it to show me why they were having trouble cutting back. And, I have to say, it was a god-awful experience. … starting with Cheez-Its, which normally I could eat all day long. The Cheez-Its without salt stuck to the roof of my mouth and I could barely swallow. Then we moved onto frozen waffles, which tasted like straw. The real moment came in tasting a cereal — I think it was Corn Flakes — which tasted hugely, awfully metallic. It was almost like a filling had come out of my mouth and it was sloshing around.”

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

Ordering the small fries? You’re part of a trend. Photo: iStockphoto.com

We’re still ordering the burger and fries, mind you. But we’re going for smaller portions and shunning sugary drinks. French fry sales dropped about 2 percent from 2006 to 2011, while sales of lower-calorie beverages rose 10 percent, the study found.

That should make for happy restaurant chains, which have argued that Americans really don’t want salads and other healthy offerings pushed by public health officials.

The report, from the Hudson Institute, analyzed sales at 21 restaurant chains, including McDonald’s, Applebee’s, Burger King, Cracker Barrel, IHOP, Panera Bread and KFC.

Restaurants that offered more lower-calorie services saw a 9 percent increase in food and beverage sales from 2006 to 2011, while restaurants that didn’t saw sales drop by 16 percent.

The researchers defined lower calorie as a main item with fewer than 500 calories, a side dish with fewer than 150 calories, and a beverage below 50 calories for an eight-ounce serving.

“You go to McDonald’s and get a plain old burger, and you don’t get many calories,” says Hank Cardello, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of the report. It was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A former food industry executive at companies like Coca-Cola and General Mills, Cardello is of the belief that badgering people about eating healthy isn’t necessarily the only way — or the best way — to solve the nation’s obesity crisis.

“We found some good performance in restaurants that were selling smaller-portion chicken sandwiches,” Cardello says. Even if that’s a fried chicken sandwich, he notes, smaller means fewer calories. And for the restaurants, “You don’t give up profits by doing that.”

New federal regulations requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts will take effect next year, but some, including McDonald’s, already provide that information. Earlier studies have found that posted calorie counts don’t drive people to make better choices, and that they can actually be so confusing as to be useless. But this study suggests that people are starting to pay attention.

Cardello hopes the dollar figures will get restaurateurs to pay attention, too.

“The restaurant industry as a whole is a very show-me industry; show me why I should change.” He knows he’s not going to convert the chains to being public-health advocates. but now, the chains will know that they should “get with the program, or you leave money on the table.”

Editor’s Note: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also funds coverage of health care on NPR.

Copyright 2013 NPR.

Victor, the oyster man

It’s early morning and I’m perched on a plastic stool near Mazatlán’s stunning seashore, squeezing lime juice on a plate of oysters that were awakened–rather rudely, I suppose–from their oyster beds only moments ago. Victor, the proprietor of this makeshift beachside oyster bar, squats on a rock, shucks the freshly caught oysters and serves them on paper plates with cut limes and bottles of hot sauce. He has worked these waters for the past 33 years with his brothers, uncles, nephews and cousins, as his father did for 52 years. I learn this through the interpreting skills of my friend Dianne, an American who has called Mazatlán home for the past five years. As we slurp our oysters, Victor tells us that since the emptied shells have larva on them, they return them to the ocean to regenerate a new harvest.

oyster diver

The divers, some of whom wear wet suits, take floating inner tubes fitted with nets out into the sea and armed with sharp tools, dive down to the oyster reefs to harvest the shellfish, while holding their breath. When their nets are full, they trudge back onto shore with 50 kilos of scratchy shells on their backs and fill large mesh bags with shellfish that will be sold wholesale to restaurants. Also benefiting from their catch are lucky customers like us who walk up to enjoy the freshest oysters in the world for less than 50 cents each.

ceviche with lime

Later, during brunch at the restaurant of my hotel, the gorgeous El Pueblo Bonito, we begin with mimosas and shot glasses of fresh shrimp ceviche. As soon as I place my purse on the floor, however, a pleasant server rushes over with what looks like a very short coat rack and indicates that this is the place my purse should go. Dianne, an intercultural consultant who has lived all over the world and is the founder of a training program called Cultural Detective, knows there’s a cultural reason behind this action. “It’s bad luck, isn’t it?” she gently prompts the server, who confides, “Yes, if you put your purse on the floor, all the money will run out.” From then on, I am on the lookout for more percheros and find most restaurants provide them in styles to match their décor (simple white wood, gleaming aluminum, wrought iron or bright turquoise curlicues).

pelicans wait for lunch

Fortified, we’re off to visit some fish markets. Dianne and her husband Greg take me to the simply named Mercado de Mariscos, a basic strip of concrete stands near the docks that the fishermen share with about a hundred pelicans. While the freshly caught fish are gutted and cleaned, pelicans clamor for the scraps they know are coming. The fish laid out here are mostly bought by local residents (not a tourist in sight).

Mercado de Mariscos

Then we head downtown to the large indoor market called Pino Suárez. On the way, I can’t resist some neon-hued coconut candy from a street vendor’s cart, which we all munch on while perusing the market’s many stands.

coconut candy

Underneath gaily dancing piñatas, shops sell all manner of spices, seeds, nuts, fresh cheeses, kitchen goods and dishes, more coconut candies and cones of piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar). We get tastes of the huge orange slabs of smoked marlin.

smoked marlin

The next day, we take a non-fish related excursion to Las Labradas, a UNESCO world heritage site and clamber over boulders to see the ancient petroglyphs carved on volcanic rocks that line the shore 30 miles north of Maztalan. No one has yet deciphered the meanings of the 600 water-worn, thousand-year old carvings, but like the petroglyph fields I visited in Hawaii, they exude a special energy. Dianne tells me that the spring equinox is celebrated here by traditional dances from a group of Indians who wear deer headdresses (Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word for “place of the deer”).

petroglyphs

A group of us have lunch at Los Arcos — a cheery seafood restaurant where shrimp is queen. The meal starts with appetizer platters heaped with fresh shrimp, octopus, chunky scallops, and ceviche with lime. (I notice that lemons are nowhere to be found in Mazatlán but tiny, tangy limes are a tasty substitute.) We all order variations on the shrimp theme: deep fried “seahorses” stuffed with cream cheese and breaded with coconut, shrimp in mango sauce, tamarind sauce, spicy red or green sauces.

shrimp and more shrimp

After touring some artists’ galleries and a nice siesta, we meet for dinner at La Costa Marinera, a festive spot where Dianne and Greg held their wedding rehearsal dinner many years ago. Their specialty is a mariscada seafood platter served atop a large, pig-shaped clay pot that keeps the food warm. We enjoy grilled shrimp, oysters diabla, lobster, dorado filets, frogs legs, accompanied by a singing waiter and large pink margaritas.

shrimp ladies of Mazatlan

On my last morning in Mazatlán, Dianne and Greg take me to the visit the “Shrimp Ladies” — Changueras — whose colorful umbrellas line a street called Aquiles Serdán. Tubs and tubs of brown shrimp, blue shrimp, white shrimp, fresh water, deep-ocean and farmed shrimp are kept cool with large chunks of floating ice. Maria del la Paz has been working on this street for 30 years and arrives daily at 3am to buy her shrimp from the fishermen; then sells her wares to housewives and restaurant owners until 7 or 8pm. As her experienced fingers peel shrimp at lightning speed, she tells us that her father also sold shrimp and she hopes her daughters will soon get a coveted spot at this shrimp shopping center.

Dianne mentions that ordering a “shrimp tamale” will get you a masa-encased shrimp with head, legs and shell, which you are expected to eat. She has learned to order a tamale “gringa style” to have it peeled first. Greg points out the establishment across the street where you take your freshly purchased shrimp and have them prepared to order, so we pick out a few dozen shrimp and enter the diner that is still empty this early in the morning. (Greg says at night it’s a guy-hangout filled with boisterous men with beer). After ordering one plate of garlic shrimp and another a la diabla, the welcoming aroma of garlic quickly fills the dining room as we see flames leap around the pan on the range. I toast my friends and thank them for showing me a little of their Mazatlán–a seafood-lover’s paradise, thanks to more than 20 miles of beaches, the ocean’s generous bounty and the labors of all the unsung oystermen and shrimp ladies.

(Full disclosure: The writer was a guest in Mazatlán courtesy of the Sinaloa Tourism Office)

Delicious, or disgusting? The top food stories and trends of this year offered plenty of both. While the rest of the country worried about pink slime and contaminated peanuts, and dealt with the fallout of a devastating drought and a stalled farm bill, San Francisco debated its upcoming bans of foie gras and plastic shopping bags.

This was the year that big money and the usually New York-centric food media finally started to notice that our local food scene is no longer just figs on a plate or (humanely-raised) tripe in a bowl if, really, it ever was, for those of us who live and eat here every day. A few of our local stars decamped for the Big Apple. Big music festivals found that concert-goers now come as much for the food and drink as for the headliners, while other food-centric street festivals proved that standing in line for Korean tacos, Himalayan dumplings, or Mexican huaraches could be the main event.

Coconut water and kale chips went from trendy to kiddie, and doughnuts (and bagels) became the new cupcakes, at least in the East Bay, where everyone, it seemed, opened a bakery this year. So here, looking back on a year’s worth of columns from NPR, Bay Area Bites, and the rest of the media from the Bay Area and beyond, some reflections on what went right (and wrong) in food in 2012.

Don’t They Have Chinese Food in New York City?
What do New Yorkers really, really want? To wait in line for hours and hours, drinking free keg beer, for the chance to numb their tastebuds and sear their gullets with the likes of kung pao pastrami and pork-laden mapo tofu at what even Pete “Guy Fieri, You’re Dead to Me” Wells called the city’s most exciting new restaurant. Sorry, Gotham, but your hot ticket is our Tuesday night take-out. Mission Chinese Food got its start as a quirky pop-up sharing kitchen and table space with a Mission Street Cantonese joint, and we know that GQ darling chef Danny Bowien will always love us best. Even better than those black-vinegar peanuts? That in two years, the restaurant, which donates 75 cents for every entree, has raised almost $170,000 for the SF Food Bank.

Take Our Plastic Bags, Take Our Foie Gras, But Hands Off Our Sodas
While New Yorkers kvelled about “Nanny Bloomberg’s” attempt to limit their Big Gulp consumption, San Francisco took October’s ordinance against plastic shopping bags in stride. A 10 cent nuisance fee for paper bags encouraged city dwellers to make reusable bags as much a part of daily baggage as cellphones and keys. And where San Fran goes, Oakland will follow: On January 1, Alameda County joins the plastic bag ban.

In July, the gavage (force-feeding) method of fattening geese and ducks became illegal in California, wiping foie gras off menus, shutting down foie gras production statewide, and inspiring a disproportionally large amount of media coverage, like this soul-searching piece by L.A. Times writer Ed Lebowitz in The Atlantic. Hot on the heels of Humphry Slocombe’s last-chance foie-gras ice cream sandwiches was the well-publicized attempt by the Presidio Social Club to circumvent the ban. (Their argument–that the restaurant, located in the Presidio, was on federal land and thus not subject to state regulations–didn’t fly, and the restaurant took foie gras off its menu shortly thereafter.) Meanwhile, Richmond residents defeated Measure N, a proposed penny-per-ounce tax on sodas and other high-sugar drinks, after the American Beverage Association poured over $2.5 million into a “No on N” campaign.

Backyard Chickens Jumped the Shark
OK, not really. We like waking up to the clucking of our blond, bosomy Buff Orpingtons just as much as the next soft-hearted urban homesteader. But when Williams-Sonoma’s new Agrarian catalog category started offering a Reclaimed Rustic Chicken Coop, “built by hand using reclaimed redwood and decorated with a hand-painted rooster” for $759.95, we did wonder if there wasn’t some truth to this Deadspin writer’s hilariously bitter rant about the San Francisco-based retailer. And just as you shouldn’t plant veggies in untested urban soil, so you might want to consider where your cute, free-range city birds are scratching. A recent New York City study found high lead levels in eggs from community-garden chickens.

Big Money Found Our Local Favorites
Starbucks spent $100 million to buy Bay Area-based bakery-cafe chain La Boulange, while venture capitalists True Ventures and Index Ventures poured $20 million in funding into Oakland’s Blue Bottle Coffee. A German conglomerate, Joh. A. Benckiser, bought Peet’s for nearly $1 billion. South Park’s American Grilled Cheese Kitchen won a $250K grant from Chase as a winner of their Mission: Small Business competition. And tech money did more than just fuel impossible rents, $18 pizzas, and another round of $13 Corpse Revivers: business partners Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring poured their big software-company payoff into Dandelion Chocolate, a small-batch bean-to-bar operation. After starting the business in Dogpatch, they turned a former auto-repair place on Valencia Street into a full-service chocolate factory and shop just in time for holiday shopping, offering cool stuff like this chapbook and chocolate combination, produced with neighboring writing center 826 Valencia.

And Small-Money Operations Got the Nod from Jerry Brown
In September, Gov. Brown approved AB 1616, the “cottage food law” that allows for home production and less stringent health-department regulation for typically non-hazardous foods such as bread, pastries, dry pasta, granola, jam, honey, candy, coffee beans, spice blends and more. “Cottage food” industries for such items now don’t require a commercial kitchen, as long as the businesses don’t do more than $35K/year in gross sales this year. You still can’t make hot or ready-to-eat foods or highly perishable items without full regulation and a commercial kitchen, which meant that Forage SF’s very popular but renegade Underground Market ended its 3-year run with a final food blitz on December 22.

Put a Hole in It
The East Bay, in particular, had a doughnut-and-bagel renaissance this year, with the opening of Beauty’s Bagels and Authentic Bagel Company, plus Baron Baking, Doughnut Dolly, and Doughnut Savant. Meanwhile, the newly opened Sweet Bar Bakery drew crowds for its I-can’t-believe-they’re-vegan “faux-nuts,” a baked doughnut-like pastry that owner Mani Niall invented while working in Hollywood. It was just one of many small food businesses that opened this year thanks to crowd-sourced fundraising campaigns. Later this year, look for a revival of Charles Chocolates, which used Kickstarter to raise both money and public awareness that the much-missed chocolatier was planning a comeback.

Who’s Playing? Who Cares? We’re Here for the Lamb Poutine
2012 was the year Outside Lands and other big-draw music and entertainment festivals around the Bay became as much about the food as the entertainment, as anyone who spent time at John Fink’s mini-empire Outside Lambs can attest. Oakland’s Eat Real Festival was better than ever and La Cocina’s Street Food Festival was bigger, with a fun, if chilly Night Market added on.

You Like Us, You Really Like Us
Danny Bowien was definitely a cool cat in the San Francisco chef scene, but it wasn’t until he and his long locks showed up on the Lower East Side to open an outpost of Mission Chinese Food in New York that his celebrity-chefdom flamed hotter than one of his own plates of cumin-spiced lamb. And this year, after moving, then closing, her restaurant and bakery Citizen Cake, California native and longtime San Franciscan Elizabeth Falkner resurfaced in Brooklyn, opening Krescendo, a pizza place. Still, the Bay Area felt some more love than usual from the national media this year, as Travel and Leisure’s Adam Sachs sang the praises of a a new crop of (mostly Mission-centric) San Francisco restaurants, including Bar Tartine, Craftsman+Wolves, St Vincent, Outerlands, Park Tavern, Benu, Rich Table, and others, and Bon Appetit dubbed Pacific Heights’ State Bird Provisions as its 2012 Restaurant of the Year.

Smart Choices for Brain Food
With dispiriting reminders that seafood mislabeling and ocean depredation continues around the world, KQED and other local publications helped raise the profile of sustainable fishing and seafood consumption, with pieces like Nothing Fishy About Sustainable Seafood, The Whole Fish: Snout to Tail Movement Meets Gill to Adipose Fin, and What’s Cooking with Sustainable Seafood?

Tamales at La Cocina's Tamalada

Forty hungry people with sticky hands and tamales on their minds rotated through four tables at La Cocina’s Tamalada event last Wednesday evening, learning how to make beef, veggie, chicken, cheese and sweet mango tamales. No wonder this annual December event always sells out in November. Tamales can be intimidating for the novice, and even for a pro are time-consuming and labor intensive. That’s the reason behind tamaladas (tamale making parties): share the toil and end up with enough to eat plus a pile to take home for later.

Besides demystifying tamale making (this is the first time I dared to try my hand at filling and rolling the corn meal bundles) the event at La Cocina introduced students to three chefs from different regions of Latin America, each demonstrating their own traditional recipes and techniques that produced a variety of stuffed, steamy bundles.

Tamales, a beloved comfort food served for festivals, birthdays and everyday meals, are a staple at Christmastime. They date back thousands of years, even before the Mayans and Aztecs. The portable, filled buns have fed generations of families (and armies) from Mexico to Argentina. Corn meal wrapped in corn husks, plantain or banana leaves can be filled with almost anything, most commonly with shredded pork, beef or chicken, while sweet tamales feature fruit or raisins and coconut.

Alicia's beef and mango tamales

Alicia Villanueva of Tamales Los Mayas grew up in Mazatlan and her masa had the consistency of a light play-doh. She demonstrated how to roll it into a ball between two palms and then flatten it by pressing into a roundish shape onto the corn husk and plopping some of her fall-apart-tender cooked beef roast, studded with vegetables on top. Squeeze together the edges of the filled masa in its corn husk wrapper and simply fold the ends or tie up the tamale with a thin strip of corn husk.

Dilsa's cheese tamales

Dilsa Lugo of Los Cilantros is from Cuernavaca, Mexico. She told us her secret for achieving fluffy tamales is using fresh lard and explained that each corn husk has a smooth and a scratchy side; you should spread the masa on the smooth side for easier removal after steaming.

The consistency of Dilsa’s masa was totally different than Alicia’s. We used a spoon to smear the sticky masa very thinly on the corn husk, then added two kinds of cheese and topped with tomato, onion and jalapeno. Dilsa, who is sous chef at Copita in Sausalito also does catering. Here is an interview with her by Sarah Henry.

Maria's vegetable tamales

Maria del Carmen Flores, owner of Estrellita’s Snacks is from El Salvador. Her variation on the tamale theme employed cooked–not raw–masa with the vegetables already mixed in. We scooped a big dollop of the masa veggie mixture onto cut rectangles of banana leaves, backed with paper, instead of corn husks, and folded and rolled them up into tight little bundles. She also demonstrated another recipe with chicken and a dozen vegetables, including green beans, zucchini, peas, mushrooms, spinach and green olives.

At the fourth table, demonstrating Alicia’s recipe for sweet mango-filled tamales was Alejandra, another program participant at La Cocina. Alicia adapted her mother’s traditional pineapple and strawberry tamale recipe, which uses a sweet masa made with butter and sugar. Her fluffy mango marvel won Alicia 1st prize at the Alameda County Fair. She shares her recipe with Bay Area Bites readers at the end of this post.

Although enjoyed throughout the year, tamales are an integral part of Mexican Christmas celebrations, most notably the nine day ritual called Las Posadas (meaning “lodgings”), which runs December 16-25, in which a candlelit, costumed procession with musicians, that is said to represent Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn, knocks on the doors of several houses before being welcomed into one home. Songs, piñatas, moles, pozole, hot punch and tamales typically enliven the festivities.

A few days before the Tamalada, BAB spoke with Alicia Villanueava and Maria del Carmen Flores at La Cocina. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Alicia, one of 4 children who grew up in Sinaloa, Mexico, is the only one in her family to move to the US. She came here with her 8-year old son (who is now 20 years old and studying alternative energy at SFSU). Her husband joined them later.

I see your business is centered on tamales. What is your connection to tamales?

Alicia: Tamales bring back beautiful memories from my mom and grandma. Every year, the whole family would get together and cook them. It’s really hard work and takes many hours and dedication because there are so many details. First, you have to prepare the masa and then the fillings. My Grandma would start with the corncobs and a mill to make the masa.

I started cooking and selling tamales just by myself in 2000 but it was more stressful without any permits or anything and I just depended on friends to tell me who was planning a party or else I walked the streets knocking on doors, offering tastes of my tamales.

Then I realized I needed more help so I went to The Women’s Initiative. And my teacher referred me to La Cocina in 2010 and this was the most heavenly place. I am so happy. La Cocina made my dream come true. Now I have five women working for me. They make about 400 tamales a day in La Cocina’s kitchen. The Hobart mixer and the professional steamer are my angels. I can steam 400 tamales in 30 minutes compared to 5 hours it would take on a small stove.

Tell me about the Tamalada tradition in your family. Is it just women who make the tamales?

Alicia: Not just women, men make them too. When you’re making tamales everyone wants to participate. Our Tamaladas would take a whole day. There were 10 of us family and friends, and my grandmother would dole out the tasks. When I was little, I enjoyed all the smells of cooking. It’s not just about cooking, but talking and solving problems together as a family. And everyone goes home with lots of tamales that last for days.

Where can we find your tamales now?

Alicia: I used to sell at Justin Herman Plaza but I found a new place at SOMA Streat Food — every day. And I do catering and festivals. My big goal is to have a restaurant. I’m working on my second business plan with La Cocina. Maybe in the Financial District, but I’m open; God will find the right place.

Ingredients for Maria's chicken tamales

For the interview with Maria del Carmen Flores, La Cocina’s Azalea Perez Olivares kindly acted as interpreter
Maria is from El Salvador and started making tamales with her father when she was six years old. She described some differences:

Maria: In Mexico, they use raw masa, while we use cooked. And our fillings are different, like one with chicken, potato, green olives and chickpeas. The vegetarian I made up because there are so many vegetarians here. Since tamale making is so labor intensive, it’s great for parties. We talk, teach and learn in a group from each other. I started making them here in my kitchen in 2003 and sold them on street corners in San Francisco. It was hard because I had to hide from the police. Then I found La Cocina and now I sell at Alemany Farmers Market, Civic Center Farmers Market and do catering.

I know your business name Estrellita means little stars and I see you have gold inlay stars on your teeth too. Can I ask why all the stars?

Maria: Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a superstar on TV. Thank God I could accomplish that through my food.

(Then with a little prompting from Azalea, Maria tells me how her other dream came true too. She has a part in the new Woody Allen film that was recently shot in San Francisco. She was “discovered” on the corner of south Van Ness and 14th wearing a typical dress from El Salvador, when apparently she was noticed by film people scouting for extras. They asked her to be in Allen’s movie and she filmed a scene in which Cate Blanchett asks her for a key to an apartment.)

Don’t miss another Tamalada at La Cocina. They have already scheduled next year’s class. Put it on your calendar: December 11, 2013.

Recipe: ALICIA’S MANGO TAMALES

Makes 30-40 tamales, depending on the size you make

INGREDIENTS:

• 40 – 60 dried corn husks* (this includes extra, in case some tear)
• 10 pounds maseca* (corn flour)
• 10 sticks unsalted butter, let soften at room temperature 2-3 hours
• 6 cups white sugar
• 6 pounds frozen mango (Whole Foods brand is best) let thaw at room temperature about 2hrs
• 4 14-oz.cans condensed milk

*Can find in Mexican markets or Mexican food aisle of most large markets

PREPARATION:

For Masa:

1. In a large pan, cover corn husks with water and boil for 30 min.
2. Combine 3 pounds of thawed mango and 2 cans of condensed milk in blender. Blend until smooth.
3. In a large bowl, put the 10 pounds of maseca, 8 sticks softened butter, 4 cups sugar and the blended mango/milk cream from Step 2.
4. For traditional “grandmother method,” mix well with your hands 40-60 minutes until it becomes a smooth paste. OR you can mix it using an electric mixer with a big enough bowl for 15-20 minutes.

For Filling:

1. On the stove in a medium pot, put in remaining 2 sticks of softened butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 pounds of thawed mango and 2 cans condensed milk. Heat on high for 5 minutes, uncovered, then cook slowly at medium-low for another 30 minutes, stirring constantly so filling does not stick to pan.

To Assemble the Tamales:

1. To assemble tamales, take about a 1/4 cup of masa and roll it in a smooth ball between your palms. Then press it onto the softened corn husk leaving about 1/2 inch border along the sides and 2-inch border on top and bottom for folding.
2. Top center of masa with about 2 Tablespoons of mango filling.
3.  Gently fold one long side of the corn husk to the other, making make a tight bundle, then fold up the pointed end of the corn husk,leaving other end open. If you wish, use a thin strip of corn husk to tie it up and look pretty. Lay each tamale folded-side down while you  finish the rest.
4. Once the tamales are folded, fill a large steamer with water just below the fill line and place the steam tray on the rack.
5.  Carefully place each tamale standing up on the steamer, open ends up and cook covered for 90 min. (If you don’t have a steamer, you can use a large pot with a steamer basket, just make sure water is below tamales, so that they don’t get wet and check every 15 minutes so that water does not boil away). Turn the gas to high until water boils then turn it down to medium-low. (After 90 minutes, masa should be firm and pull away easily from corn husk, if it is sticky, carefully re-wrap and steam some more.)
6. Remove each tamale with tongs and let rest for a few minutes before serving as a delicious dessert for lunch or dinner or even breakfast.

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