Last night, SF Weekly held its third annual DISH event, taking over the entire fourth floor of the Sony Metreon to celebrate the San Francisco food scene and raise money for STREETSMART4KIDS, an organization which provides funding for homeless youth service and outreach programs like La Casa de Las Madres, Larkin Street Youth Services, and Huckleberry Youth Programs.

More than thirty local eateries, such as Farina, Hard Knox Café, and Oola participated in the event, offering guests the opportunity to taste and talk about their wares.

I arrived at the City View Terrace at 6:30 sharp, hoping to beat the crowd of hungry event-goers I was certain would collect and form itself into tediously long lines. Even at that early hour, the queue to enter the event was already longer than one to any summer blockbuster the movie theaters below might offer.

Once inside, I scanned the room. It was already full of people standing about eating, drinking, and chatting in twos and threes. And then there were those who displayed the remarkable ability to eat, walk, and talk on their cell phones all at the same time.

The crowd was ripe for people-watching, with its delightful mix of food-lovers, the tragically hip, the merely tragic (feel free to ask me about a certain alarming combination of silicone, facial reconstructive surgery, and a gigantic purse with a working clock face), lots and lots of gay men (I am very comforted by the fact that it's become fashionable for us to eat again publicly), and a vast number of nice people looking to chow down for a good cause.

And then, of course, there were the roving hordes of foodies, who a twitter friend of mine once described as people who "would stand outside a mediocre sandwich place for two hours because of a Yelp buzz."

And that pretty much sums up the event.

The lines were very long for some of the more popular vendors. In fact, it was nearly impossible to distinguish one queue from another in some cases. I waited in one line for sushi only to find that I'd somehow taken a wrong step and wound up with a tiny cup of tomato bisque (which was lovely, by the way).

I made my way to the less crowded booths which, in hindsight, wasn't the brightest approach. At the Gussie's Chicken and Waffles table, I was informed by a charming and very apologetic woman that she had recently been so swarmed by the ravenous that she'd temporarily run out of food. Disappointed, I walked over to the almost-equally crowd-free Lark Creek Steak table in search of a little protein, which I received in the form of... butterscotch pudding.

As I fought my way through the crowd to get to the relatively peaceful oasis of the VIP lounge, which had been marked off from the rest of the room by curling boxwoods and a wrought iron trellis, I heard the Pama Pomegranate liqueur girls screaming their own name as a prelude to doing shooters, the sound of which reminded me of one of those odd little Japanese videos in which Japanese schoolgirls are encouraged to drink heavily and then made to do stunts.

It also reminded me that I was in desperate need of a drink-- the crowd was growing; it was getting harder and harder to move about the room.

Once inside the VIP area, I found myself at Bi-Rite's table, where I enjoyed a summer berry pudding made with angel food cake (my favorite food intake of the evening); wandered over to Masa's table, whose menu proclaimed that they were celebrating tomatoes, but whose offerings indicated that perhaps they were celebrating said tomatoes elsewhere; and then over to the Herradura tequila table where I chatted with a kind enabler who told me all about the Reposado I was about to drink.

I sipped at it and chatted about the event with a few people for a little while. The VIP room was getting as crowded as the rest of the room. As I was talking, I was trying my best not to imagine someone yelling "Fire!", which is what I typically imagine whenever I find myself in the middle of a crushing crowd-- especially a crowd that has been drinking.

I finished my Reposado, said goodbye, and left.

When I got out into the relatively fresh air of Mission Street, I realized I was still incredibly hungry. I'd been to a food event and hardly eaten a thing. "My fault," I thought. I'm just not the type of person who is willing to wait in line for ten minutes for a paper cup with lord-knows-what in it waiting for me at the other end. I can't stand crowds. I am not, as that Twitter friend classified, a "foodie".

And yet, I was actually really glad to know that SF DISH was as crowded (and successful, one hopes) as it was. It meant that they were going to raise a lot of money for something I consider a very good cause. The irritation I felt had nothing to do with SF Weekly's event, but rather with the choices some of the vendors made themselves. And with the crowds. But who in their right minds is going to limit the number of people they let into an event when there's a good cause at stake. I thought about all this as I made my way home.

And then I decided to go out for pizza.

I don't much feel like being clever today. My thoughts are 3,286 miles away in Port-au-Prince-- a city I have yet to visit.

Perhaps it is the fact that I live in a city that has been devastated by earthquakes in the past and will be, undoubtably, devastated again that the one in Haiti has taken up so much of my attention. The thought of those people I love most in the world killed, or trapped alive by fallen concrete and steel is something I wonder if I would have the strength to bear.

Fortunately for us, we have strict earthquake-driven building codes. We have support and money and infrastructure-- what little of that the people of Port-au-Prince had is destroyed or severely crippled.

Haitians need food, they need shelter, they need clothes, and they need medicine.

And, no matter what Mr. Limbaugh says, they need our sympathy and our money.

If you are interested in donating money to the cause of helping the victims of the Port-au-Prince earthquake I would recommend a quick visit to Charity Navigator. It can answer any questions/concerns you might have about text-driven donations, and assist in your decision as to which charity you might give.

Or check out KQED's own Haiti Aid Resource Guide while you're here.

If you want to donate money specifically toward food aid in Haiti The Atlantic has an article linking to food aid resources.

There is a growing number of local restaurants, musicians, book publishers, and whatnots joining the Haiti donating various percentages of their proceeds (in some cases 100%) to Haitian Relief. If you can stomach the exaggerated, offensive photo borrowed from The New York Post, you might actually find some good activities in which to engage over at Eater SF.

Labouyi Bannann

As I was baking off the bit of fun I had originally planned to share today, everything just felt wrong. As I stood in my kitchen, I realized that I had never given much thought to Haiti. Period. I knew nothing of their music, or culture, or food. All that had ever come to mind prior to yesterday were thoughts of slavery, revolution, poverty, and natural disaster. Never in my life had I had a single, happy thought about the place.

I wondered what the people of Haiti ate? There are few better ways of getting the feel of an unfamiliar place or culture than to eat their food. If I were Haitian, I'd want something nourishing and, above all, comforting.

And that's where Labouyi Banann comes in.

It's porridge, essentially-- one made from ripe banana and unripe plantain. There are myriad ways to spell it, but only one way to eat it-- with a spoon. Make that two ways to eat it-- hot or cold. Either way, it's a good way to start the day. Or end it, for that matter. The following recipe makes six to eight servings, so I will be breakfasting on it every morning and, while I do, I will be reading and watching and praying for things to get better (can these people please get a break once in a while?) in Haiti.

Ingredients

1 unripe (green) plantain

1 large or two small, ripe yellow bananas

2 cups water

1 can (12 oz.) of evaporated milk

1 can (12 oz.) of coconut milk (or 1 cup whole milk)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cinnamon sticks

2 whole star anise

A pinch of grated nutmeg

A heavy pinch of salt

½ light or dark brown sugar (white sugar will work, too)

½ teaspoon grated lime zest

More dark brown sugar and lime zest for garnish

Preparation:

1. In a blender, purée plantain, banana, and water until smooth.

2. Place purée into a medium sized, heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil over low to medium heat.

3. Add evaporated and coconut milks, lime zest, sugar, star anise, nutmeg, salt, and cinnamon sticks. Bring again to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent any burning. The texture should less like oatmeal and more like Cream of Wheat. Turn off heat and stir in vanilla.

4. This can be eaten hot or cold. Garnish with a sprinkle of dark brown sugar and lime zest.

I'm going to try not to sound like a grandma-in-a-rocking-chair here, but indulge me for a moment: I joined the food blog community in its infancy. When I started my blog over five years ago, there were just a handful of us around. I don't think that any of us imagined what this blog community was going to become, or predicted the explosion of food bloggers worldwide.

So, what's bringing on all this nostalgia? It's the announcement of the 5th Annual Menu for Hope -- a worldwide fundraising effort by food bloggers for a designated charity. This is an event that really highlights the magnitude of the food blogger community and its impact around the world.

This year the charity of choice is the United Nations World Food Programme, with the funds specifically going to an important school lunch program in Lesotho.

Menu for Hope is hosted by Pim of Chez Pim, and is the annual major fundraising event for food bloggers. Last year, the event raised over $90,000 for the Lesotho program.

The event is a raffle, with each ticket costing $10. Everyone can participate. There are dozens of prizes this year, broken into areas of the world:

West Coast
Wine
East Coast
Canada
Asia

Each year, the prizes get more exciting and more innovative. There are many ways to strategize your prize choices -- some choose to find the prizes with a low number of bids to increase their chances of winning. At first glance, here is my wish list for prizes I'd love to win:

Dinner for 6 at Contigo, with sommelier service by Alder of Vinography. (In Praise of Sardines, prize code UW14). Brett Emerson of In Praise of Sardines is opening his restaurant in Noe Valley within weeks. This prize will allow you and five friends to have dinner at this Catalan-inspired restaurant.

Knife of your Choice (Steamy Kitchen, prize code UE01). Win a chef's knif of your choice from New West Knifeworks.

Two boxes of Macarons from Petites Bouchees (Veronica's Test Kitchen, prize code UE04). I am a sucker for well-made macarons, and the prize of 48 macarons is too tempting to pass up.

Bo Ssam dinner for 8 at Ssam Bar (Momofuku - UE15). There are a couple of prizes that I would be willing to travel for, and if I won this dinner from Momofuku, I would be on a plane to New York City in a split second.

Lowel Ego Two Light Set (Kalyn's Kitchen - UW10). This is a great prize for all the food photographers out there. I'd love to have this prize for my indoor food photography.

Dinner with Eric Asimov (The Pour / NY Times - WB02). I get sweaty palms even imagining having dinner with Eric Asimov, but what a fun dinner it would be!

A case of small production wines from Raymond. (Raymond Vineyards - WB22). This is a carefully selected case of wine from Raymond Vineyards.

There are dozens more prizes to choose from, so please take a look for yourself and decide what to bid on! You can find out more details about Menu for Hope on Pim's site.

To donate to Menu for Hope:
1) Choose your prizes and note the prize codes.
2) Go the the First Giving site for Menu for Hope
3) Specify which prize you'd like in the "Personal Message" section according to the rules on the First Giving site.
4) If your company matches charity donations, check the appropriate box.
5) Check the box allowing the page owner to see your email address for the purposes of contacting the winners.
6) Check back on Chez Pim on January 12 to see who won!