02.28.10 | Steve Rich Slow Food SF Convivial Table, Slow Food SF Dinner Club | No Comments » |
It’s difficult to even imagine topping the slow feast offered up at Slow Club on Thursday evening February 25th, but I honestly felt our hosts did just that with their genuine conviviality. Together, Owner Erin Rooney and Chef Matthew Paul provided Convivial Table with an experience that will be remembered and re-savored by all our diners for a long time to come. It was truly that special.
I won’t even attempt to describe the food beyond saying that it was abundant, inspired, varied, and delicious. There was soup, appetizers, antipasto platters, two separate salads preceding a choice of entrees and desserts. Without saying as much (he didn’t need to) the message emanating from Chef Matt was clear: “I love what I do, and I’m eager to share as much of it as I can with you.”
Before the meal even began, both Erin and Matt circled the table and personally introduced themselves to every guest. Each conveyed a commitment to making the evening special for us. As the different platters of food arrived, Matt was there to explain each element to our attentive group of diners. He discussed his sources, reasons for pairing specific ingredients, and complete explanations of individual preparations. “I roast the sunchokes in a hot oven for about fifteen minutes to bring out their natural sugars and begin caramelization,” he explained, to an appreciative guest, “and then switch them to a lower over for another fifteen to twenty five minutes. But less firm vegetables only get the high heat. They’re in and out quickly or they’ll turn mushy.”
These sort of exchanges went on throughout the evening. But it wasn’t just Matt’s depth of knowledge that was so impressive, it was his easy smile and willingness to share anything he could to accommodate. Before the night was through, he was promising “I’m here five nights a week, often six. Come back again. Say hello. Ask more questions. I’ll do my best.” That same sense of hospitality was echoed by Erin.
I read a poll recently that asked diners why they return to a particular restaurant. Cuisine, price, quality, ambiance, and location were all mentioned, but by far the number one answer was personal attention: “they make me feel welcome,” “they know me,” or “they treat me like family.”
I was acutely aware the following day that I’m already looking forward to a return visit to Slow Club. The food is delicious and reasonably priced. The room is stylish and inviting, plus, we really must appreciate any hip San Francisco restaurant where it’s easy to park nearby. I love that they are committed to fighting the good fight; sourcing locally and sustainably whenever possible. And I appreciate their continual support of Slow FOod San Francisco, so there are ample reasons to go back. But it occured to me that the number one reason I’m looking forward to returning is, guess what, they made me feel welcome. There is much to be said for superior customer service.
I heartily recommend a visit to Slow Club. You might even mention that Slow Food sent you. They’ll feed you well and treat you right. (But no, we’re not related.)
http://www.slowclub.com/ for more.
02.26.10 | Leah Binkovitz The City | No Comments » |
The night ended with a song. And how fitting that it was not a farewell song but a welcome. Poet Ramona “Mona” Webb sang a bittersweet tribute to New Orleans. “Welcome to the Big Easy, baby.” She was closing out a night of spoken word put on by sfnoir as part of their ninth annual Black History Month Celebration. This year’s celebrations center on the contributions of African Americans to the culinary arts. But sfnoir executive director Herve Ernest was sure to point out that the exploration of the production of Black culture does not just involve Black participants. Jewish poet Josh Healey prefaced his set with a humorous reminder of the complicated ways culture and identity evolve through exchange saying that, though he happily accepted the invitation to be there last night, he first had to check that it was indeed an event put on by sfnoir for Black History Month. It was a light joke about a seriously interesting process.
I wish I could let the poets speak for themselves here, but it would be impossible to recreate the impact of last night. The poets each spoke about food in incredibly different ways, reminding us of what food can-and can’t-do. The poets included host Poetri, Lynne Alicia Elman, Joshua Merchant, and Kirya Traber as well as Josh Healey and Ramona “Mona” Webb. They might have mentioned foods we thought we were familiar with, eggplant or a lamb chop, but each artist presented the experience anew and used the medium of spoken word to do that in different ways. And so the second floor of the Museum of the African Diaspora became the site of that complicated process of cultural production, consumption, appropriation, modification, narration, and exchange. It happened between each poet, between each member of the audience. It sounds too simplistic right? That we could come to a nuanced appreciation of ourselves and others across cultural and personal lines over the course of a single night? But I have this suspicion that this is how it happens, measured in one night increments, in stanzas and lines. It happens when we listen to each other.
And this listening happens in a variety of ways. Josh Healey read a poem about seven years of vegetarianism and a single lamb chop at a friend’s barbecue. He built up the defense, the explanation of vegetariansim and then he slowly let it fall apart. Holes in the fortress came in the form of a stubborn bowl of grandma’s matzo ball soup. She insisted on using chicken broth because that was how she had always done it. And suddenly the bowl was transformed. She was not offering chicken broth with matzo balls and perhaps a few carrots, she was offering herself, her past, her present, and asking that her future be honored. So to say food is complicated is as useful as saying culture is complicated, but there is no other way to spin it. It’s up to us to work through these things, to articulate and narrate our own identities and to listen to and honor the narratives of others.
I’m not an aspiring spoken word artist but I am going to try to start recording my food memories, save them in a cookbook, and hand them down to my children with the family recipes. I encourage all of you to do the same. And if you need inspiration, be sure to check out the rest of sfnoir’s events including a Meet and Greet with vegan soul food chef Bryant Terry tonight 6pm-8pm at Marcus Books in the Fillmore and a Wine and Food Gala Saturday night 7pm-11pm at 101 Second St. to sample Caribbean, Soul, Cajun, Vegan, Southern, Creole, and African food.
02.20.10 | Gina Leibrecht The Bay | 2 Comments » |
Mangalitsa, Ossabaw . . . .sounds like some exotic bird species. Really they’re pig varieties that were recently raised in a breed-feed trial done by Live Culture Company. Started by the former Executive Director of Slow Food Nation, Anya Fernald, in 2008, Live Culture Company is a consulting company that supports the development of viable, thriving food businesses that produce artisan, sustainable and quality food.
In this latest project a total of 65 Mangalitsa, Ossabaw, Berkshire, and Mangalitsa/Berkshire crosses were fattened up at Shasta Valley Farms in Gazelle, California on varying combinations of apples, tritcale, almonds, and acorns. The goal was to see which breed-feed combination would make the best-tasting meat raised on that piece of land. The idea of infusing flavor into live meat takes me back Les Blank’s 1979 film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, where Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse restaurant, is shown feeding heads of garlic to a sow, only so she could pass her garlic milk onto her suckling piglets — a testament to the old adage, “You are what you eat.”
Forty of the pigs were slaughtered and those in the know were given the opportunity to purchase shares, each of which included smoked bacon, loin chops, and a heap of sausages. Shares were picked up at a day-long event held at Blue Bottle Coffee Company’s roastery in Oakland, where additional pig parts were sold to the public – heads, back fat, lard, trotters, not to mention the better-than-butter lardo (salt-cured lard). Frozen lardo can be sliced thin and eaten on slices of baguette —a sublime melt-in-your-mouth experience that leaves you wanting more. Fresh grilled sausage sandwiches and samples of the lardo made this a tasty event in a piggy sort of way.
So who won the breed-feed trial? “Our general conclusions were that the age of the animals and the size of the animals had as much to do with their value as the breed,” says project coordinator, David Gumbiner.“ We also found that the Crosses (Berk/Manga) were the best, because they retained a lot of the positive characteristics of the heritage fat, but grew faster and more reliably, like the Berkshires. Also, they were deemed excellent for charcuterie.”
Pork fans from all over came to get a share of the best pig that money can’t buy. “The response to this event was overwhelming,” says Gumbiner. “There’s a huge interest in farm-direct pork. People want to know where their meat is coming from.” Avid home cooks and hobbyist sausage makers alike could not pass up this opportunity and walked away with pounds of fat back slung over their shoulders, as visions of salami danced in their heads.
02.18.10 | Leah Binkovitz Farms, Policy | No Comments » |
For those who fight for access to organic goods, it is a relief that at last the USDA Organic label on our milk will mean that the cows had more than just ‘access’ to pastures. The requirement that organic livestock be provided access to pasture had often been abused by large dairies as a poorly written loophole. But the passage has been updated to specify the terms of access. As The New York Times reported February 12,
“The new regulations, which go into effect in June, are much more specific. They say that animals must graze on pasture for the full length of the local grazing season. The season will be determined by local conditions and agriculture authorities, like organic certifiers or county conservation officials, not by the dairy alone. While the grazing season must last at least 120 days, in many areas it will be much longer. The rules also say that animals must get at least 30 percent of their food from pasture during the grazing season.”
All in all, it is a victory for organic. Large dairies will now have to do what small dairies were often already doing and consumers can have a bit more confidence in the organic label. But one thing left unmentioned by both the Times and Marion Nestle’s victorious entry for The Atlantic is the role these local “agriculture authorities” will actually play. Of course the nature of these bodies will vary depending on location but just to offer an example of what agriculture authorities may entail and the incredible extent of poorly written legal documents, I would like to draw your attention to Ohio. The voters of Ohio recently approved a constitutional amendment creating the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. This board was presented as a humanely-minded regulatory body that would improve conditions for farm animals. And who wouldn’t vote for that, even if it is in the rather extreme form of a constitutional amendment? Fortunately, the more sinister details of the issue have begun to enter the public debate. To start, the body is not an elected one. It is comprised of the state department head of agriculture as well as ten individuals appointed by the governor meant to represent family farms (left undefined), consumers, veterinarians, and “someone who is knowledgeable about food safety.” These individuals are then given the authority to set the standards of care. The constitutional article tries to include details that would deflect criticism aimed at the reach of the Board with notes like, “The state department that regulates agriculture shall have the authority to administer and enforce the standards established by the Board.” I’m not sure how comforting that should be when the head of that same department sits on the Board. Fortunately, there is a move to put this amendment back on the ballot because, even if the Board does not become a reflection of big agriculture business, there is no accountability or opportunity for citizen participation.
This is not to say the new USDA requirements are not a victory. They are/ It is just to point out that phrases like “the season will be determined by local conditions and agriculture authorities, like organic certifiers or county conservation officials, not by the dairy alone” should be considered carefully. County conservation officials sounds good. As do livestock care standards. But the mechanisms are intentionally obscure to deter individual resistance. Inform yourself about your local management bodies.
Read Up: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/res.cfm?ID=128_SJR_6 http://food.theatlantic.com/nutrition/organic-milk-loophole-closed.php http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/business/13organic.html?scp=1&sq=pasture%20rules&st=cse
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